Well That Sucked

A sad and more painful ending to this season as opposed to last season. Last season the ending was quick, clean. This season, it was agonzing. A historical collapse, one for the records books. Seven up with 17 to play.

From the beginning of the season, I didn't have a good feeling about this team. It was because I didn't trust the starting pitching. Didn't have a number one, still don't. The starters pitched well at times, and tired down the stretch. The bullpen just fell apart.
The offense wasn't as electric as it was last year. Only Wright surpassed last season, Delgado had career lows in ave/obp/slug. Reyes disappeared at the end. Alou was a surprise for someone whose 40, but was oft hurt. Please get rid of Green, he plays like at 39 year old, which is bad since he's 34. Let the kids fight it out for LF. Don't trade them. I can send you a whole tape of Beltran leaving the field limping after running into a wall.

Don't change anything. Don't fire Willie. Or Omar. Nothing worked at the end. Everything fell apart. Everyone is to blame. Even the fans.

This ones gonna hurt a bit more. Always felt as we're a blessed club. Miracles, Buckner, even our pathetic teams are celebrated as Casey's lovable losers.

I have a good feeling about next year. Last time a Mets team disappointed me this much was the 85 team that won 98 games and finished 3 back of the Cards. No wild card, would have been wild card by 14 games. We all know how the next season turned out.

So we will wait and see what happens. If there isn't some kind of pitching signed during the off season, Shea might come down a season early. A leader needs to step up.

With only 20 weeks until pitchers and catchers, here are my bold predictions/wishes for 2008:
-Pedro 205 innings
-Reyes 85 steals, 140 runs
-Wright 335/450/600
-Delgado 33hr, 115rbis
-Beltran 30/30
-Maine/Glavine/Perez - 15 wins each

Now, just need to wait 5 weeks for college basketball to start.

Its All About The *

Barry Bonds' 756 homerun ball has been bought. And now the owner is letting the public decide what to do with it.

Go here to vote.

I voted for the asterisk.

What ever Bonds says, I know he cheated. He, along with a goodly portion of Major Leaguers, used performance enhancing substances. So, I believe this record is tainted.

The sad thing is that Bonds was a sure fire first-ballot Hall of Famer (and top 10 All Time player) before his head grew three sizes bigger. Now he'll be the poster boy for the Steroid Era.

Two, No Three Things

1 - What the hell did we do with our lives before the internet? Genius was the person who created the Wikiquotes page.

2 - If Tivo/DVR had existed about 10 years ago would great TV shows like Sports Night, Freaks & Geeks and Firefly, have been cancelled as early as they were? Or, would they have been saved because no matter what the network execs did to the shows' viewing schedule and running order, people would still be able to find and watch them? Discuss. (Also mention other great shows that got screwed.)

3 - Ever wondered who's been changing your Wikipedia entry? Now you can find out. Check out the edits a church did to the Origin of Species entry.

I Told You

It was only a matter of time before someone tried something like this.

This opens the door to children's names like Christo4 and K8. Its gonna happen in our lifetime so get used to it.

Names come and go in style. How many Jennifer's are being born now as compared to 20 years ago? Do you have any grandparents named Sierra or Dawson? When will names like Ethelred or Urban or Socrates come back into style?

Aliens Kill The Beatles

I posed this question to co-workers.

"Say aliens came to earth and told you that they were deleting every song by The Beatles, but you were allowed to save one song from being deleted from the fabric of time. Which one song would you save as a testament to all things Beatle? Which one song most represents the power and genius of the band?"

It doesn't matter why the aliens are deleting the Beatles catalog, or which planet they are from. It only matters that you have to save a single song, a song that contains the most Beatleness.

Of course you could do this with other bands. Hell you could do this with Baldwins.


As for Beatles song, I chose 'Ticket To Ride'
The Stones 'Gimme Shelter'
Styx 'Suite Madam Blue'
Baldwin - Alec

Tour de France

I bet you didn't know that the Tour de France is currently in progress. That's what happens when there is no feel good American story at the Tour.

So here is the only 30 seconds of the race that I've seen. It involves a bike and a dog.

The bike gets the worst of this deal. And apparently the French word for 'smack' is 'smack'.

What Was Once Hated...

... has now become unhated.

You know how there are certain really really good songs that you can't listen to anymore because you've heard it half a billion times. You actively avoid listening to it, skipping it in iTunes, changing the radio station, whatever. You do all that is humanly possible to NOT hear the song, even though you know every word, every odd phrasing, every drum fill.

Let me tell you there is another side. Eventually the song will pass all the way through hatred and come out the other side into some kind of quasi-state of acceptance. Whereby you accept the song as great, that you -in fact- do NOT love OR hate the song, and that this song is a part of your essential being (and probably has been for a long period of time) and therefore inseparable from your immortal soul.

The first (and so far only song) to make this journey for me is "Piano Man" by Billy Joel.

Long Island is the only place in the universe that you would grow up under the delusion that Billy Joel is better than Bruce Springsteen. He's on all the time, on every station. Fits well on the classic rock stations, kills on AOR and its not truly Friday on the island until you hear Piano Man.

I admit that it was the first song I knew all the words to, I played it to death at some point in my life and knew that every bar I would go into there would be a pair of Billy Joel heads in the jukebox declaring that this CD jukebox had both discs of Billy Joel's Greatest Hits.

Then, some time after high school, I started to hate the song (probably because it reminded me of HS and I hated that.) It slowly and slowly became more painful to listen to the song. Even after I moved south and heard the song once a month, rather than once a day, my hatred still grew.

Last week I heard it on the radio I realized that I didn't hate it anymore. Not for the cheesy, predictable lyrics ('sharing a drink they call loneliness, but its better than drinkin alone'); the accordian, nor the la-la-la-didi-da la-la-didi-da-da-da. It had evolved past hatred into that odd acceptance.

That gave me hope. The hope that other really-great-songs-that-I-currently-despise can find their way back into my life.

So, good luck "Where The Streets Have No Name", "Moondance" and the live version of "Freebird". Maybe some day I won't hate you.

Russian Bears (say it fast)

In the past three weeks I went to 2 concerts. My first in 4 years. Tool in Winston Salem, then Rush at the Creek. Both shows outstanding. Best Rush show I've ever seen. They played all the stuff that I love and skipped most of the lame ass 90s stuff. Lots of fun, great weather at the Rush show, nice cool evening but not cold or humid.

Tom somehow turned a simple dog walking into a 2 hours farce. He was supposed to walk Bear when I was at inventory. He tried getting the lead on Bear for 90 minutes, but anytime he got close with it, Bear growled. But if he just wanted to pet or feed the dog, Bear would let him. Tom was able to coax him onto the porch and he peed there.

Bear is a humping machine. I take him to the dog park and all he wants to do is hump everyone there. Its very sad. I wish he'd stop.

Oh My God!

About 5 minutes ago I realized that I had been trained by the dog.

I was sitting at my computer and I called Bear to put his paws on my knees so I could pet him. The instant I started petting him he got down, so I had to follow him to the floor to continue the scratch.

It was then I realized this dog trained me to do that. I hadn't realized until just now that he's ALWAYS done the same move.

I know what he's thinking, too.

**Okay, I'm gonna sorta jump up, wait till the-man-who-feeds-me starts scratching me, then I gonna sit my ass down and get scratched. Fool, food-man doesn't see it coming**

The Great Outdoors

This afternoon I watched a hawk capture, kill, pluck and then eat a small bird. And it happened right outside my back door.

The nameless hawk, lets call him Steve, chased a small bird, lets call him Food, into the bush behind my apartment. Steve caught Food as Food attempted to circle back around. Then Steve sat on a branch holding Food while all of Food's friends chirped like mad.

I guess all of Food's friends were saying, "You're gonna rot in hell for eating our friend!", "Stupid Steve, may your babies become squirrel food" and things of that ilk.

Once Food was dead, or maybe he wasn't quite yet, Steve began plucking the feathers off of Food in order to get to all the squishy bits inside. It was rather cool, the hawk couldn't have been more than 10 feet from me as he was doing this. I had a great view through the bush.

Once I know what kind of Steve it was, I'll let you know.

Dammed If You Do...

Today I had a customer call to complain about our customer service. Apparently she felt that it was too good.

She had not one, but three different people ask her if she needed any help. Then the person at the register had the audacity to talk to her about her purchases. You know, annoying things like, 'ooh, this is a good book' and 'I'm glad this is finally out in paperback.'

In my 16 years of retail, this is the first time I've ever had this complaint. Will our enthusiasm keep her from shopping at our store? Of course not.

I also caught a Mexican trying to steal two latin cd sets from our store, so overall it was a good day.

The Real Enemy

is big pharma. Eventually there will be no more oil. There will never be a time when there isn't something wrong with our body. Unless we all become cyborgs, but with souls.

Here's the little guy (okay, it is a WHOLE country) standing up to the big guys and saying 'suck it.'

They spend more on advertising than r&d. Hell, they are inventing conditions just to sell drugs. "Restless leg syndrome"? What is that?

Wait till we start exploring space. That's a whole other galaxy of diseases to be cured. "Lunaphobia", "Mars Dust Fever" and "Io Rectal Itch".

Would You Do...

Found this site about female sportscasters.

Its rude, but funny.

Ben Folds

recorded a great version of Snoop Dogg's 'B!&#*@s Ain't S*!t'. To turn it into a piano ballad, aka Air Supply, is brilliance. If anyone really wants it, I can put it on a mix cd for you. I cant figure out how to link songs.

A Long Time

Its been a while since the last one, things have changed. I now have Bear. Jamie's dad broke his leg and they couldn't have a dog running all over, so I took him.
He's sleeping now, he follows me every where. Its a bit creepy sometimes, but he's cool. And since he's 9 or so, he's completely house trained and not active like a puppy. Perfect for a lazy bastard. Like me.

Tried to see Blades of Glory tonight for free, but the guy in front of me was the last one in the theater. So that sucked. Maybe next time.

Run out of ideas on making song lists in iTunes, now just making lists of all songs with certain letters in them.

You Tube: Return of the Bride

this gets good after the bride comes in

I've just found out that this video was staged. Darn.

New 7 Wonders

In humanity's quest of the ultimate list they have decided to allow everyone with access to the internet to define the New 7 Wonders of the World. Please vote, because if you don't, the terrorists have already won.

A Question

Say a customer, who used to be an employee 7 years ago, continually calls you by someone else's name, are you allowed to correct him if you don't remember his?

God Save The Playoff!

Two things I love. Chuck Klosterman and College Football.

He's right you know, this is the same reason I love College Football.

Long Time Coming

Its been a while since I posted anything and just wanted to post this. Great video, that its in spanish is even better. Man I loved this show.

Adventures In Dog Sitting

The weekend of Thanksgiving I dog sat for Jamie's dog, Bear, for 5 days. He was just about the perfect dog, he slept alot, he never 'went' in the house and he was generally a cool dog. But I learned alot from the experience.

1. I would have to buy a better vacuum if I get a dog.
2. Some dogs poop more than once during a walk.
3. They like to pee in the same place over and over and over again.
4. It was fun to have company all the time, it felt like I wasn't talking to myself.

I did miss him when he was gone, and suprised myself when I went looking for him the first day he left.

I do wish I could keep him for a longer time, but my plan to get a second job to help pay for Europe, would keep me out of the apartment for 12 hours some days and that wouldn't be fair to me or to him. Then there's the monetary issue. I just can't afford a dog, even a small one, right now.

If I could find a way to keep him I probably would. I could use the daily exercise of walks, I'd never sleep past 9am again and I'd never have to worry about picking up crumbs anymore.

Sigh

This might have been the best Word ever. If he doesn't win the Emmy next year, I will hunt and kill Barry Manilow. Who's with me?

You Tube: Part 2

Another reason why You Tube rocks, and another person with too much time on his hands. LINK.

Etaoin

Only because it came up at work today link.

Fuck Yadier Molina

Well, I can finally write about the Mets now that the season is over. I have a couple of superstitious fears that things I do affect the way my team plays. The main one being writing about them.
I know deep down, if I write/gloat about my team, they will fail, especially once the playoffs begin. This fear began way back in 1988 with the Mets. I knew they would win the World Series that year, they were the best team in baseball and it had been just 2 years from the last one. This one was another sure thing, just like 86, but then they lost to the Dodgers and it was another light-hitting, defensive minded catcher that crushed my dreams. So, Mike Scioscia, fuck you too.
Ever since then I am frightened that if I talk about how good my team is, they will lose. It resurfaced again in 99 with Duke. 37-1 going into the final game, they had rolled everyone all season long. I knew I was watching history, their 38th win would be a record for D1 schools, most of the stars were underclassmen and would be returning the next year. Back-to-back was a sure thing. Wrong, enter fuckin UConn. Fuck Jim Calhoun.

So now I take care in what I do, say and even wear when my teams are on. The more important the game, the more care I take. During ACC games, I've been known to change my shirt, change the chair that I'm sitting in and during one season I made origami cranes constantly while Duke was playing.

After watching the recent Game 7 from my chair, my couch, standing, etc. I've begun to realize that what I do has no effect on how my teams play, but it isn't going to stop me from trying.

Progress Sucks

I like driving. It stems from the fact that I got my licence at 20, then lost it just 3 years later for 12 months. If your friend in the car ever forces you to pull over then throws your keys away, don't go and find them. Just sleep there. Don't try to drive home from places unknown. But enough about that.

I like driving fast on winding roads, where you can lean into the turns and you need to keep both hands on the wheel because the shoulder is non-existant. There aren't many roads like that down here, the main reason being the roads are planned in advance, so are mostly straight, or have very long sweeping curves (like Lynn Road). Boring!

Back in NY roads -in certain places- were an after thought, or needed to be put down in between buildings, neighborhoods, parks, etc. For example, the Belt Parkway on Long Island. It leads from the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and crawls along the southern coast of LI until you get to JFK, and can be a parking lot at certain times of the day. But if you hit it at the right time, its like a white knuckle rollercoaster.

One of the few roads down here that I enjoyed driving on was Leesville Road (between Milbrook and Lynn), barely a mile long, it was enough fun that I would go out of my way to take it. Now that they are widening the road they will destroy it. It will no longer be fun to drive, they will straighten the curves, level the road and suck the soul from my driving experience.

I've been trying to find another road like that around here. If anyone knows any place thats fun to drive, let me know. Ray Road isn't that bad, but its too straight and too wide for it to be real fun.

Listening To - Carole King 'Tapestry'

Weasel Stomping Day

Hooray for Weasel Stomping Day!

A Fantabalous Cinderellabration

Five Best Things About My Recent Vacation To Disney/Orlando

1. Going to Disney after Labor day is a must! Lines were short, 20 minutes was the longest wait for any ride (except for Peter Pan?!? which was 40 minutes). Space Mountain 3 times in 45 minutes, the Aerosmith coaster 5 times in an hour. Sweet.
2. Dueling Dragons coaster at Islands of Adventure. A 'fire' and 'ice' dragon hanging coaster pass within inches of each other a couple of times during the ride. Ice side is better, goes upside down one extra time.
3. ESPN Zone resturant on Disney boardwalk. I watched a football game, 4 baseball games and a documentary on the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and never had to swivel my head more than 15 degrees. Food was good too.
4. Shrek 4D. The best of the 3D stage/video shows. The fourth D was smell. Remember ogres are like onions.
5. Raleigh to the Georgia border in 4 hours. My new car can reach speeds exceeding 100 mph.

Five Most Disappointing Things About My Recent Vacation To Disney/Orlando

1. DisneyQuest. Its a 5 level playground with some interesting interactive/multiplayer games and banks of video games that you play for free. But the majority of the old time video games (Asteriods, Galaga, Donkey Kong) were not functioning properly. I played two seperate games where I could not go up. Not one of the pinball games had every flipper functional, and the air hockey game puck was too dirty and didn't slide properly.
2. The inability of Disney to get a believable live 'Ariel'. None of them looked right, it was the hair. Although the 4 or 5 Belle's that I saw were all smokin', and legal!
3. The Jurassic Park ride at Univeral Islands of Adventure. One of the longest lines we waited in 20, minutes, and the big drop at the end of water ride sucked. Did not get wet at all.
4. Everything at Disney that said 2006 had Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto and Stitch on it. Stitch? What the fuck? Some of the cast members felt my pain. We even asked for a damaged picture frame that Stitch had fallen off of, no luck.
5. Completely fucking up my sleep pattern. Used to be up till 3, awake at 10 or so, later on my days off. During the vacation in bed by midnight, up before 8. Still having trouble getting back to the old schedule.

Listening to - Ella Fitzgerald Sings Sweet Songs For Swingers

You Tube!

sometimes things aren't what they appear.

last second shot


and sometimes they are

The World Needs More People Like This

An artist sabotages paris hilton cds.

Here's another one he did.

Very brilliant, we need people link Banksy in the US.

Did That Really Just Happen?

Saturday night was spent at a bachelor party and I saw things I never expected to see in someone's living room. The two hour show was spectacular and it involved candle wax, lollipops, whipped cream, knee high leather boots and other things I won't even mention as this is a kid-friendly page. Not only was the show great, but the two strippers allowed pictures to be taken. I don't think I ever heard the phrase "Dammit, my memory card is full again" uttered more times than at the party.

Then we made the mistake of going to Pure Gold. I've been there three times and I have yet to enjoy myself. One, because the best looking girl there this time was the cashier; two, the music sucks; and third, I was bored to tears.

My friend put it best when he compared the two experiences (the strippers in the house & Pure Gold)

"We just had a free filet mignon dinner, why the fuck did we overpay for a stale chocolate chip cookie for dessert?"

Probably A Bit Stupid....

but I chased a shoplifter today. I was returning from the post office (returning my Netflix, Ken Burns Jazz Disc 3) when I saw a guy exit our store from the emergency fire exit. Since our store was NOT on fire I took off after him. He rounded the back of the store and flung the Borders mesh bag into the car, which was parked on the road behind the store.
When I reached the car, he was still getting into it, so I kicked his plastic grill. It responded with a nice crack. Then I noticed that his passenger window was open, so I proceded to stick my arms in and started pulling out our merch. I reached in once, twice, three times and got back most of the stuff (6 DVD boxsets at $450) before he peeled out behind Kroger.
I was able to get the licence plate and since I was wearing the headset, I relayed his plate number to those in the store. When I called the cops, I gave them the plate and an approximate model (unless I've owned the car, I can't tell one from another.) About an hour later an officer told me that he was going to the address that the car was registered to.
About 3pm the officer called me and told me the got the guy. When the officer arrived to give me the rest of the stuff back (2 cds and a 1 dvd) he told me, not only was he able to bust the guy for stealing my stuff, but the cop found a 'good amount' of cocaine, crack and pot, along with needles at the house!
So, not only did I chase a guy (technically not a good idea in the eyes of the LP guys), but I chased a guy who was stealing to satisfy a drug habit and who could have been armed. All in all it was a good day.

Snakes On A Plane!

See this mother fucking movie! It has it all, excitement, snakes, dickhead Brits being killed in great ways, snakes, the obligitory nipple shot and Samuel L Jackson saying 'mutha fucker.'

Nobody alive today says 'mutha fucker' like Samuel L Jackson. I am going on record to say that his headstone should read, "Here Lies One Bad Mutha Fucker!" When alien archeologists visit earth thousands of years from now, THEY will know who lies under that headstone.

The movie gets 3 stars, out of 4 stars. Please don't go to this movie if you expect anything from it. Exposition is kept to a minimum, backstory is almost non-existant but it doesn't matter. Snakes start attacking about 15 minutes into the movie. That's what we want. We want snakes, we want snakes on a plane.

The only thing that kept the movie from getting 4 stars was a single line of Samuel L dialog. I won't give it away, but when you hear it, you'll be wondering what the hell he just said and why.

So enjoy this movie, that's what its there for. Pure entertainment. And Samuel L Jackson.

Lies Of Locke Lamora

A fucking fabulous book. Set in a fantastically realized world, one can only hope that the author returns to the city of Camorr in the future. The characters are wonderful and lovable despite the fact that they are thieves.

Its an Original Voices book, so it should be on sale, also our store got a promo copy, so all stores should have got a promo.

The Visit

On Sunday, one of my best friends ended her stay at my place. For two weeks Marina Del Rey and I discovered some interesting things:

-I would rather watch a show about Hitler than a Three's Company rerun
-There is an old guy who macks on the chicks at my pool
-Harvey Birdman is the bomb
-Colbert at the White House Correspondance Dinner is pure genius
-Eurorail now includes Scandanavia
-London to Amsterdam via train is about 7 hours
-There are at least 3 different squirrels who violate my birdfeeder
-I do not have a USB cable
-Scully (of X-Files fame) is still hot
-If you are ever watching Adult Swim on cartoon network and you are not sure what show is on next, guess Futurama, you will probably be right
-Anderson Cooper is Gloria Vanderbilt's son (which explains why he is such a snazzy dresser)

A Happy Day

Today was a happy day. I received a piece of mail that was 10 years in coming. My very last student loan payment book arrived. Ten fuckin years I've been paying those Sallie Mae pricks my money for a degree I haven't even come close to using. I want a refund.

The Best [hic] Salsa [hic] Ever [hic]

Tonight for dinner I had a smoothie and chips and salsa. Not just any salsa, but the best salsa I've ever had.

Desert Pepper Trading Company Salsa Diablo Hot

You can find it at kroger, usually on an endcap in the ethnic aisle. Its a bit expensive $4.59 for 16oz, but I've never had another like it. And it passes my hotness test. From years of experience I know how hot stuff is by my bodies reaction.

If I hiccup, its hot; if I don't, its not. Rather simple, but effective. Also a neat icebreaker.

They also make a very good bean salsa, a black and a white, with the latter being the better of the two. Now that I've been to the website, I am going to look for the Roasted Habanero Salsa - XXXTra Hot that they make.

Desert Pepper

No, I Was Not High

So last night I had a fucked up dream and it would either make a good Harry Turtledove novel, or a bad Jerry Bruckheimer film. Or vice versa.

I'm in Washington DC and its like 1920, but there is a war going on between the north and the south. I'm in the north and we are winning, its near the end of the war and we have the south on the ropes, but then we are attacked by the English. We have to scurry to bomb shelters to hide from their bombers, but the bomb shelters resemble the new North Hills mall and we are hiding between Chick-Fila and 5 Brothers Burgers. Not the best place to be hiding from bombers, but its okay because the planes only have one bomb and its the size of a football. The planes aren't much bigger than my old Geo, but are very maneuverable, like a genie or air elemental. The only damage the planes do is when one of them turns on end, with its propeller straight down and buzzsaws into the crowd of people, liquifying them instantly.

This sickens the population and the north and south put their differences aside and decide to attack England, France and Germany. My family opens a store that sells old style record players, the kind that are the player and speaker all in one. You can also put a cover on it and carry it around with you and it was the size of my G4 tower. We also sell records, but most of them have been damaged by mold. I did find three Rolling Stones records in the bins, Black & Blue, Emotional Rescue and Some Girls.

Then, Nicole Kidman (posing as our mother), my sister and I sneak into England. Nicole is caught in the train station by security, but me and my sister continue on to complete our mission. We enter the house of the Minister of War and tie up the first secretary we see (played by John Cleese), then enter the next room and rip the phone out of the hands of the next secretary (also played by John Cleese) and tie him up with the cord. Finally we enter the residence of the Minister of War and immobilize the entire family and kidnap his newborn baby. Apparently that was our mission. I stuff the baby in a hiking backpack and wait to see if it cries. When it doesn't we turn to leave.

The End.

15 Months To Go

I have made a decision this week. Sometime next summer I plan to be in Europe, hopefully it will be for my birthday.
I know what you're thinking. *How the fuck is he going to survive Europe when he hates going to downtown Raleigh.* Well, I have a guide, one of my best friends has been to Europe on multiple occasions for months at a time and has promised to go.

Next step, money and lots of it. Europass about $1000 for the month, plane tickets $800+, then there's the money i would need to eat and shower and shop.
So if anyone needs some kneecaps broken, let me know. We'll talk.

Since I will have only 3 1/2 weeks I need to narrow down what I want to see. It is a WHOLE continent. Sort of.

Stonehenge, Paris, Greece, Neuschwanstein, Rome, Amsterdam, more castles, bars 300 years older than our country, London, Spain, churches 1000 years older than our country.

Gonna have to work on that list.

Imagine There's No Heaven

It's hard to imagine a time before the internet. What did people like this do before they could express themselves through iMovie and a couple MBs of hard drive space?

Ask A Ninja

Utterly Addicted

I started playing this game, back when I knew it as Moria in 1988 when some guys at the computer lab at the University of Hartford clued me into it. Way back when my first major was computer science, so I got a job that gave me access to the computer room. I would sit at the desk in the front of the room and make sure no one caught the computers on fire. It was rather boring, but I got paid. The only excitment I had all semester was when we got a virus. It caused a ball to bounce around the screen and knocked letters out of word documents. Then I got kicked out of the dorms, quit the job and decided that computer science sucked as a major.

But back to the game. Moria was utterly addicting, I never made it past 11th level at Hartford, although my playtime was limited. You couldnt play the game if there were more than 20 people on the network of computers across the 7 or 8 computing rooms on campus, and that was all the time, except early in the morning, or during the overnights.

About 8 years ago, I was able to download it for my mac. Moria, it was glorious in all its black & white & crappy graphics glory. I played until my hand cramped up. The same game I remembered from Hartford. But it was on OS 9 and I hate loading 9 over OSX, so I stopped playing it.

Three days ago, I found it again, this time for OSX and already I can't feel the fingers in my right hand. Now called Angband, its in color (sort of) and better than I remember. My first real character died at level 25, which pissed me off because he had an awesome weapon.

Heres the link to download it for whatever system you have, even if all you have is your old Amiga. If you think it looks stupid, just try it. Start with something simple like a half-troll warrior, keep rerolling your stats until your strength is like 18/50+ and your con is over 18 as well, then head on down and start wacking shit. Angband

If You Haven't Seen This

Please watch.

It's Stephen Colbert roasting the president.

Colbert

Freaks & Geeks

If you haven't seen this show, you should. Shows like 'Freaks & Geeks' are what tv should be, well written, entertaining and honest. Just 18 episodes long (fuck NBC), it joins elite company in the tv show pantheon of really good shows that were killed before their time, like Firefly (1 season) & Sports Night (2 seasons).

Most shows like this get ruined when the tv execs get involved and fuck things up, like showing episodes out of order, changing the night and times it was shown, etc. In a world before TiVo, not knowing where or when your show was on was a nightmare, and usually a sign that the show was on the way out only to be replaced by some crap show with former cast member of 90210.

I enjoyed the show for many reasons:
One, the music kicked ass and was the reason it took so long to be released on DVD. They had to secure rights to everything. From Black Flag and Joe Jackson to Buddy Rich and Rush.
Two, it depicted high school as I remember it, and how most of us remember high school. Stretches of akwardness laced with laughter and pain.
Three, it was well written and parts of it were unexpected. I've seen lots of tv and can usually guess what's going to happen in a show before the first commercial break. Much of tv is sterile and appears stamped out by a large cookie cutter machine. The ending of the series actually shocked me. Not shocked like hand from the grave at the end of Carrie shocked, but pleasently shocked. Plus this ending was better than what I was expecting.
Four, I have this 'thing' for high school cheerleaders and became infatuated with Cindy, the girl who would become Sam's girlfriend for like 3 episodes. I thought she was the hottest thing in the show until the final episode in which Linda Cardellini dances around her room to 'Box of Rain'. Hippie dancing is way hot.

God bless NetFlix for allowing me to see this, after watching all five seasons of Babylon 5, Freaks & Geeks was a nice change and a better show. (Only because of the 5th season of B5 was tacked on at the end and it felt that way.)

So rent Freaks & Geeks, better yet, buy it, you won't be disappointed and if you are then i will buy your used copy from you.

Collision Of Issues

Just yesterday my love of lists and my music collection ran into each other again. Every two years or so, I order my Top 50 cds. The first list was back in Dec 91 and had only 25 on the list. As my collection has expanded, so has the list. Now its 50 albums long. The top 10 for those who care, or dont care:

10 - Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones
9 - Revolver - The Beatles
8 - Joshua Judges Ruth - Lyle Lovett
7 - Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement
6 - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
5 - Come On Pilgrim/Surfer Rosa - The Pixies*
4 - London Calling - The Clash
3 - Whats Going On - Marvin Gaye
2 - Pauls Boutique - The Beastie Boys
1 - Highway 61 Revisited - Bob Dylan


[* technically these are seperate albums, but I always listen to them together and the first CD i had of them had both on the same CD]

Post your top 10 if you feel so inclined.

Do Ducks Have Au Pairs?

I sure hope so, because I saw a duck surrounded by 10 baby ducklings this afternoon at the lake. Now, I know my knowledge of ducks is limited to they quack and they are hard to cook properly, but 10 seems like an awful lot of babies for one duck to have. This means she laid a minimum of 10 eggs, again, this seems like a large number for one duck to lay.

Now these might have been small eggs, and the thought of hearing her loudly quack "You did this to me!" at least 10 times is kind of funny. But 10, that quantifies as a fuck load.














This is for Lane. I found a site that my friend put up long ago about the 'band' I 'played' in before I moved to NC. I guess I am on the web.

Bloat

The End Of An Era

Unless someone sees me tomorrow morning, the next time anyone will see me will be with my new car. After 9.03 long years the Metro will be sold and I will be the owner of a 2005 Ford Focus ZX3S 2D Hatchback. Technically the bank will own the car until I pay it off, but thats just semantics.

Nine long years, almost 60,000 miles. It will be sad to see Polly go, she was a good car. After 13 years she still got 36+ miles per gallon, which is good considering she is missing parts. Apparently Metro parts are very hard to come by and instead of replacing them, my mechanic has removed them. Telling me that I didn't need them, a sensor here, a computer chip there, etc.

I've abused her (a dozen trips to NY), ignored her (just 9 tanks of gas in 2001), but most of all, loved her. Nine years is longer than I had my first two cars combined. The Honda Accord (Daphne) got wrapped around a telephone pole, and the Dodge Colt (Liz) needed to be put to sleep after just 12 months. I can only hope that the new car will last as long as the old one.

Like any relationship there are things I will miss and things I could do without:

PRO:
-still 36+ mph
-who's gonna steal a Metro?
-turning radius of a helium atom
-easy to wrap
-impossible to get a speeding ticket (Metro's top speed is approx 88mph, tough to tell as the speedometer stops at 85)
-haven't had to be designated driver for the past 4 years ("That's your car? You can drive mine.")

CON:
-no CD player
-being hit on the head by the hatch falling suddenly
-8 gallon gas tank
-heat barely functional, A/C worse
-everyone's going to want to ride in it (maybe)
-the lingering smell of oil & gas for 3 days after I filled the tank
-men on Segways pass the Metro on inclines

I will miss not having hubcaps, I will miss not having to wash my car, I will miss all the squirrel/chipmunk jokes about the 3-cylinder engine, I will miss the 8-year old crack in the windshield. I will miss you Polly.


Listening To: iTunes folder 'Older Missing Mid Length 4+ Stars'

Tired

I'm fuckin tired. Inventory is over, its 3am, reguardless of what the time at the bottom of the post says. Bed is calling, my feet are screaming, i dont know what the hell i am posting.

I Still Want The Robot Stealth Monkeys

The motherfuckers that were stealing dvds were caught! We nailed those sons of bitches, although the real credit must go to the people at Edward McCay who called us when they got there to sell the stolen DVDs. It was a great fuckin day to be at work. More than one person said they had never seen me smile this much. Its been a long time since a day at work was so much fun.
After being reamed by shoplifters for hundreds of years, its nice to see some of them get caught. Its even nicer to see them sitting in the back of a police car in front of the store. Fuck yeah! Rot in jail you fucks!
It could have been better though; if, when they were speeding through the parking lot to escape they had run over the guy with the jungle helmet. That would have been the greatest day in the history of the world. Bar none. Although today was one of the best days ever at work.

The sad part is it was only 1 pair of shoplifters and until we get our robot stealth monkeys and trap door in the vestibule, it will happen again. And again. Now I'm sad.

But wait, we caught somefucks! Got back $660 bucks! Fuck yeah! Happy again! Have fun in jail fucks! Don't drop the soap! Ha ha ha ha! Fuck yeah!

Open Letter To The Writers Of Lost

If you don't start answering some questions I will drive to North Dakota, break into a missile silo, dispatch the armed guards, figure out how to launch a missile and then nuke the cast, crew and set of Lost out of existance.

Multi seasonal story arcs are great, a little mystery is good, things coming out of left field are fine; but if all I have is questions after the end of season 2, someone will die a most horrid death. Maybe even Hurley, that way it won't be all in his mind and you'll have to come up with another explination for your entire show.


Listening to: Dr John - Gris-Gris

Demented And Sad

Being a self-professed rock snob sucks. I am compelled to fill in my library with so-called 'classic' albums usually for no other reason than to say "I got that" when I look through music magazines/books that contain a list of great albums of some kind. I am also compelled to get albums on these lists that I don't have.

For example, the lastest issue of Uncut lists the top 50 Greatest Cosmic American Albums. I had 11. I ordered 4 more. Why? I still don't know. Could I live without Shuggie Otis' "Inspiration Information" or Doctor John's "Gris-Gris"? Probably. Would my library be complete without these? Yes... maybe... not sure. But I can't stop. Acquiring music is my compulsion, not listening to it, but acquiring it. I don't have enough time to thoroughly listen and enjoy all the music I get. Much of the new stuff I get I'll listen to once or twice, rate it in iTunes and then hope it shows up again when I hit random.

In my neverending quest to complete my library I've searched high and low for some kind of uberlist of 'classic' albums. Needless to say there isn't one, nor will there ever be one that isn't at least 10,000+ albums long. But I must continue to search and feed the monster that is my library, filling it in with Bowie catalog albums, genre boxsets (like Nuggets or Motown) and greatest hits by the Buzzcocks and The Fall, for no other reason than its what I do and who I am.

My library defines who I am, and sadly I've had this reoccuring fantasy that I will find my soul mate when I find the person who 'completes' my library the most with the 'classic' albums that I still don't have. Currently this means my soul mate is someone with a penchant for female singer-songwriters (Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Bjork), old country-western (the Carter Family, Hank Williams Sr), electronica, blues, reggae and world music.

Whoever she is, she will walk into the store wearing her Aphex Twins t-shirt, humming something off of "Court and Spark" and want to know which Elvis Costello album to get after "My Aim Is True" and "This Years Model", which cd to begin her Richard Thompson collection with and if "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison is really worth it. Over several cups of tea we will discuss the top 5 Dylan albums, the wonder of Ella Fitzgerald and if The Flaming Lips are currently the 'Worlds Best Rock and Roll Band'. Then when she says that "The Weight" is her favorite song in the world, I will ask her to marry me.




This post got completely off track. All I wanted was to show a link to this website.

Listening to - Prince - 3121, My Morning Jacket - Z & The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

J Michael Straczynski Sucks Ass

Not as a writer or a person as a whole, but as a commentator on his show Babylon 5.

I enjoy watching the commentaries on DVDs. I've learned some interesting things. For instance in Seven Samurai by Kurosawa when actors are shot with arrows, they are truly shot with arrows. An expect archer is standing right off camera and shooting an arrow into the guys chest. Of course the guy being shot has a board strapped to his chest under his robe. Or the sound of laser fire in Star Wars is actually someone hitting a high tension wire with a hammer.

These things are fun to find out and fun to know, but what I shouldnt learn in the commentaries is that Sheridan will become President of the Earth Alliance or that his wife is still alive and works for the shadows a full 3 seasons before it happens!

Thanks Mike. Thanks for ruining the fucking surprise. Next time put a disclaimer in the commentaries, something like "Don't watch this commentary because I tell you exactly what is going to happen and ruin your viewing experience over the next 3 seasons." That warning would have been nice.

Here's some others:
Crying Game - its a guy
Sixth Sense - bruce willis is already dead
Star Wars - vader is lukes father and leia is lukes sister

Worst. Game. Ever.

Its disappointing to watch your team go out with a whimper. No fire, no hustle, nada. Getting beat to a missed rebound in the last minute is sad, getting beat to TWO in the last minute is unforgivable. They didn't want to win tonight.

Other than that, thank you JJ, for a great year and a great career. Now just 7 months until next year, which, unfortunately will see the team with the powder blue as national champ contenders, not Duke. Unless there is a fiery bus crash or a crazed sniper somewhere on the UNC campus

A Couple Of Things

I cannot put into words my disdain for the people who refuse to use their turn signal.

GET OFF THE FUCKIN PHONE AND TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU ARE GOING TO DO WITH THAT GOD DAMN ESCALADE IN FRONT OF ME!!!

Am I overreacting? This is common courtesy people. What kind of lazy fucks have we become?

-------------------------------

The Greatest-80s-Song-That-Never-Became-A-Huge-#1-Single

"Bringin' On The Heartache" - Def Leppard

This song is 80s to its core. The great opening riff, a great chorus, not one, but three heavy metal solos. And not the crappy speed solos of the 80s, more 70s british bluesy solos. This was Def Leppard at the top of their game. They still had the long hair and everyone had two arms. They fuckin rocked. The second greatest Def Leppard song of all time ("Photograph", duh) and it fell flat on the charts and almost crushed my 11 year old spirit. I mean, look at the the top 10 singles of 1981, the year the song was released:

# 1. Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes
# 2. Endless Love - Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
# 3. Lady - Kenny Rogers
# 4. (Just Like) Starting Over - John Lennon
# 5. Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
# 6. Celebration - Kool & The Gang
# 7. Kiss On My List - Daryl Hall & John Oates
# 8. I Love A Rainy Night - Eddie Rabbitt
# 9. 9 To 5 - Dolly Parton
# 10. Keep On Loving You - REO Speedwagon

"Bringing on the Heartache" is better than 8 of the songs on that list.


------------------------------------

My 7th Annual NCAA Vacation began today. It is a good time. I am happy now. I will watch more games this year than last. I will cook every day. I will clean. I will see the ducks. I will get at least 10 games right tomorrow. I will work on the campaign. I will shop at Target.

------------------------------------

Sad news, Games Galore moved from the corner of Glenwood and Duraleigh. They moved to Cary, which sucks, because the last time I drove to Cary, my car died for about 20 minutes. And I was in the mood to buy a board game. Maybe Hobby Master, but I dont think so.


Listening to - Pete Townshand 'Gold'

What Is Too Much?

Currently I am wondering what size my next external harddrive should be. The current one is 80GB and is almost full, mainly from music.

iTunes tells me that I have just shy of 50GB of music, 12359 songs, 37 days + 7 1/2 hours worth of music on the harddrive. This might seem excessive, especially since there are almost 2000 songs (almost 6 days worth) I have yet to listen to. At one point I was down to a day and half of unplayed music, but this has changed and I add albums faster than I can listen to them.

But how can you turn down the chance to burn 5 Miles Davis Box sets (an entire days worth of music!) in the span of a month? How can you not get excited skimming through the promo box at work thinking 'Sweet! I don't have to buy this. Sharon, I will be returning this cd tomorrow' or 'I think I've heard of this band, what the hell, let me burn it.'

Obsessed? Clearly. But iTunes is so much fun. And for people who are obsessive/compulsive about listing things (like me), its pure heaven. It tells me the first song added to my iTunes 'Eat It' by Weird Al (added 1/28/03 at 12:09 pm), most played 'Shake your Rump' & 'High Plains Drifter' (both by Beastie Boys, at 33 times), that its been 30 months since I listened to 'Is There Anybody Here That Love My Jesus' by Medeski, Martin & Wood (last played on 8/12/03) and that if you played every song longer than 10 minutes on my harddrive (360 of them) it would take 3 days, 14 hours 40 minutes and 29 seconds.

This might be too much. But, its never been easier to make mix CDs. I can type in almost any word and pull up at least a full cds worth of music, and since it finds the sequence of letters, not the word, you get all sorts of things. The word 'turd' pulls up a suprising number of songs, like those with the word Saturday. Or if I want to make a CD of 5 star rock songs from 1970-1975 between 4 & 5 minutes long I can with no problem because there are 43 of them on the harddrive.

So, again, is it too much? Probably. Do I care? Hell no. I love music and you never know when you might need 6 different versions of 'What A Wonderful World'.

Last Month

About a month ago I broke up with my girlfriend. After 6 years we decided to call it quits.

When people find out they want to know three things, A) what happenned; B) if I am ok; and C) whose fault it was?

When I get to the part about it was no ones fault, it gets kind of hard to explain and I've had trouble trying to describe the new status of our relationship. Last week I talked to Xris and she gave me the perfect description.

So, she gets mad props, not only for describing the impossible, but for the last 6 years of my life.

Although we are broken up, we are 'eligible for rehire'.


Listening To: John Coltrane - One Down, One Up (Live At The Half Note)

Airplanes

Everytime I fly home I enjoy it. There is something about seeing the world from 25000 feet that makes me want to play SimCity. Everything is so simple from the air. Everything is divided and clean. The nice sharp lines of property boundries. The meandering way a river makes it way across the ground. The way hills look like folds in a bed sheet from high above. Hell, even junk yards look nice from above.
The best height is somewhere around ten to fifteen thousand feet. You can spot the specks of cars making their way along roads. Structures become distinguishable. Look for the small oval (high school track), normally in proximity to a green wedge or two (baseball fields). Malls become rectangles stacked on each other sitting on a larger black rectangle of parking spaces. Golf courses are large green swaths with numerous different green dots across it.

When I fly into Raleigh I try to find my house, and now it should be easier, since the normal flightplan takes you over the North Raleigh Borders, which I can usually spot. Find 540 to the north of the store, then find the water tower to the south, in between is the store. Unfortunately some old hag had the window, so I didnt get to spot anything but her blue head.

Now I have to find my copy of SIMCity3.

Following The Flame

Just 5 days left until Winter Olympics XX, the big double X, the 'Score', a dozen & two-thirds of another dozen.

Watch the opening ceremonies for sheer TV pomp at its best, and for this: The Sparks of Passion.
The Ceremonies involves choreographers, directors, costume designers and international professionals; they will also involve a choreographed exhibition on skates called Sparks of Passion, in which eight ice hockey athletes will race at 50 km an hour inside the Stadio Olimpico. The uniqueness of this exhibition is also guaranteed due to the Sparks of Passion, generating red flames 2 metres long.


See where the flame is right now!
The Route

Best Live Albums

The Who - Live At Leeds (deluxe edition) Although the single disc version is very good as well, you need the second disc with a live version of Tommy. A wall of noise comes from just three guys and show The Who as the best live band of any from the British Invasion.

The Allman Brothers - The Fillmore Concerts The two-discs covers the best of the four sets. The best from a great, great live band. Just think, in a world without 'Freebird' the Allmans would be looked at the undisputed champs of southern rock.

Frank Zappa - YCDTOSA Vol 2 (the Helsinki Concert Volume two of Zappa's career spanning 12 disc set, these two discs highlight one of the most talented bands ever, playing some of the most ridiculously complex music ever. And they play it very well and very quickly. Anyone who loves supremely talented musicians will love this concert.

Santana - Live At The Fillmore 68 Five men find a groove and ride it for two hours, laying down some of the funkiest rock music ever. Greg Rolie's keyboard (of later Journey fame) swirls around while Carlos soars over the entire band with his distinctive sound.

Van Morrison - Its Too Late To Stop Now The tempermental Van and his band are in top form on this set and as a bonus, no live cover of Moondance.

The Grateful Dead - Dicks Picks Vol 10 The band synonymous with playing live, this is one of the best efforts in their catelog. Jerry and the boys play with abandon and the songs teeter on the brink of exploding into chaos.

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

I know spring is just around the corner when i see Cadbury Creme Eggs in the store. The Creme Egg is my absolute weakness, I'm pretty sure the Creme Egg would be in my last meal. These things rock, a chocolate shell covering some white/orange spongy, sticky mass of pure sugar. Whoever invented this thing should be fucking knighted.
It also has one of the most timeless advertizing lines of all time. The Cadbury bunny has been schilling these sugarbombs for as long as i can remember. Also the eggs are only available for a short time, disappearing right after easter like jesus.

But the Creme Egg is only the predecessor to the real star of the junk food spring scene. Girl Scout Cookies. These things hit strip malls like mating season and people go fuckin nuts. Tell me of another time you've ever bought more than 2 of the SAME kind of cookie in one shopping trip. These too have remain relatively constant over the years, allowing me to buy box after box of thin mint every spring until the girlscouts disappear, returning to their magic tree to start baking next years batch of chocolately goodness.

Also, I heard some magical words today. "Two weeks until pitchers and catchers." A glorious phrase, especially this year with a stronger team. Delgado & Wagner. I love Omar Minaya. In fact if i ever get a dog, his (or her) name will be Omar.

Time Machines

Dont you wish sometimes you had a time machine to go back in time and redo something? Even if it was a limited time machine that set you back an hour or two. Especially after you read the instructions on something and say 'Well, whats the worst that can happen?'
Here's a tip, when the instructions on the bath mat say 'wash alone and on gentle cycle' listen to them. I didnt, figuring whats the worst that can happen.
The worst that can happen is that your mat sheds blue over everything else in the load and starts to come apart, so you spend 10 minutes pulling out chunks of the rug.
So beware, read instructions, especially during washing.

I can't believe...

I forgot how good De La Soul's 3 Feet High And Rising is. Fuck.

The Great Game of Cricket

I have no clue what this next means, but it sounds good... maybe...

Match State: Drinks

And the drinks come onto the field

End of over 17 (4 runs) Pakistan 56/1
SC Ganguly 2-0-5-0 (1nb) - Pavilion End
Younis Khan 25* (42b 4x4) Shoaib Malik 18* (56b 3x4)

16.6 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, no run, short of a length and outside the
off, punched off the back foot to cover
16.5 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, no run
16.4 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, no run, full and on the pads, clipped to
the leg side
16.3 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, FOUR, short of a length and outside the
off, Malik stands tall, opens the face of the bat and eases the
ball past the lone slip fielder to the third-man boundary
16.2 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, no run, short of a good length and outside
the off, driven off the back foot to cover
16.1 Ganguly to Shoaib Malik, no run, just short of a good length and on
the off, defended back down the pitch


That was a portion of a cricket boxscore between India & Pakistan. Two HUGE cricket rivals. Think Yankees-Red Sox, but with 80 million fans on each side.

Now cricket looks epic, but also very English. A huge swath of perfectly maincured lawn. Men scattered across the lawn, standing still. Its quite serene. Then the bowler runs at a batsman and throws a ball right at him. Then the batsman swings a giant flat bat and all hell breaks loose. Since you can hit the ball (a small rockhard sphere) in any direction, there is no foul ball. After that i have no idea what the hell is going on.

It would be interesting to learn what 24.3 Kumble to Shoaib Malik, no run, low full toss on leg stump, Malik flicks but cannot beat midwicket means, but what purpose would it serve? Where is this going to come in handy? Should I even learn it? Wouldnt my time be better spent doing something else than trying to dechiper a cricket box score?

You know what, fuck it, i will waste my time learning this. I've always wanted to know what cricket scoring meant, just so i can say i know it. And I'm gonna do it.

It would be another bizarre fact i know in place of actually knowledge, something that may actually be useful in life. Like Ted Williams life time average [.344], or the level adjustment of an ogre mage [+7], or the first novel ever written on a typewriter ['The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'] or that the word 'typewriter' is the longest word in the english language that uses only the top row of the keyboard.

Why the fuck would anyone know this kind of stuff off the top of their head?

For some reason I do. I cant name both my state senators, i dont know how to change my oil, but i know that the USS Hood was the ship that Riker left to join the Enterprise. What good is this knowledge going to? Which cancer will it cure? How is my life going to be better because i know there are 3 golfballs on the moon?

But then again it will help me get the cricket jokes in Sports Night.

My Post Apocalyptic Choice

I've always wondered which kind of post-apocalyptic world I would like to live in. Would it be the pastoral simplicity of 'The Postman'? the future utopia of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'? or the hiding-from-robot worlds of 'Battlestar Galactica/The Terminator/The Matrix'?

There are definate pros and cons to each choice:

pastoral/Postman
pros: no laws, everyone gets a horse, all natural food
cons: Cosner doing shakespeare, being overrun by an insane power hungry warlord

utopia/ST:TNG
pros: warp speed, Risa (the pleasure planet), the holodeck
cons: jumpsuits, Q, the Crystalline Entity

robot-hiding/BG
pros: everyones in shape from running & hiding, everyone gets a gun, the ability to tell a fable testing the strength of the human spirit against overwhelming odds
cons: running & hiding all the time, evil robots, mind/anal probes

I'd probably go with the Next Generation world; its clean, sterile and your computer can spout any song or piece of music from all history by voice command. Plus I like Starfleet. I'd probably be some kind of Liutenant working on an Oberth-class science vessel, but only if the ship had a holodeck.

Work

Started the new year in a good way. Got written up for an inter-office email and learned an important lesson. Dont send these to Gary.
Now, i dont really care that i was written up, its not like its the first time, but now there is one less happy thing that can happen at work.
A logged on email account can bring sun on a rainy day, turn lead into gold and make work a bit less sucky for a while. It makes me forget about lp, about scum bag thieving 10 year olds and being at the red-headed stepchild of the triangle stores. Sales wise only, we clearly have the best staff & the best looking store.

The upcoming inventory nightmare is scaring me. our numbers will be shit, especially if they include a bounce back from last year. i'm fearing the worse.

Listening To: my ITunes Mix Stoner folder

speaking of music, does anyone have the Donnie darko soundtrack? Im looking for the song "Mad World" by Michael Andrews, its a Tears for Fears cover. I'd get it from itunes store, but the individual song isnt available to buy. fuckers.

NyQuil III

Unfortunately a third night of nyquil produced no dreams, but i did find out that NyQuil makes my kneecaps sweat. Cough still wont go away so its onto Duratuss.

Listening to: CAN - Ege Bamyasi

NyQuil II

Another night of the big fuckin Q, another fucked up dream. This one contains 3 borders people and one of the stores.

I'm in the Cary store back in music and Lane is trying to shelve the Beatles cd 1963-66 (the red 2 disc set), but there are already close to 100 in the section, so i tell him to put them in understock. That's when Joy comes over and asks what this door is. I look up and there is a locked metal door in a place that didnt have one before. Oddly enough my key works and we step into an field between to buildings.
In the field there are rows of corn, no two rows are the same height (some are 12 feet tall and others 2 feet tall), they aren't in any ascending or descending order either, its very chaotic. There is some one tending the corn, its Joost. Then i notice the pile of cigarette butts by the door.
Then on the wall of the opposite building there is a large flat screen tv, so we sit down and watch whats on. It's a piece of notebook paper, torn from the book and cut in half. On it is a game of hangman, but instead of single words, there are complete phrases, one of them being 'He thrusts his fists against the post and still insists he sees a ghost' and other tongue twisters. We sit there entranced staring at the screen unable to move, it feels like being so high that you can't (or rather, don't want to) move, but we are not high.
The channel changes to two high school students' home movie project that involves acting out a scene from 'Great Expectations' page 171 from a baby crib. The one with the camera is lieing under the bed shooting the other one as he hangs over the edge of the crib to act out the scene. I reach up to the shelves and grab a copy of 'Great Expectations', but the book looks exactly like 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' (the white qp, same cover design, thickness, etc) so I can follow along with the scene.
Then the scene ends and the tv switches to the Israeli Prime Minister making a speech in the UN in 1968.

That's it. Once more down the rabbit hole tonight as NyQuil again is on my to do before bedtime list.

Listening to: Phish - New Years Eve 1995

NyQuil

The cough medicine of the gods, if the gods were continually fucked up.

I always have the most fucked up dreams on this stuff and last night was no exception. I was in a Resident Evil game, but you could play either side, human or zombies and even the zombies had guns. The guns zombies carried allowed them to shoot their serum into humans to make more zombies. I was a human first, then I was a zombie. I had more fun as a gun toting zombie, creating legions of zombies that overran the humans.

Also, the map was my old grammar school.

The Metro

My girlfriend, and a few other of my friends, call my car The Metro, as if it was the only one in the world, which I know its not. But, I'm pretty sure its the only one in the world thats lost all four of its hubcaps while in motion. Not all at once, although that would be impressive. No, they've fallen off one by one, usually when I race around a turn at speeds Metros arent supposed to do around corners. I know this because I saw the first one fall off.

Back when I lived in Cary I spent way too much time at Cary Towne Center. It was between work and home and I enjoyed many of the shops there. Speeding through the parking lot was always fun, as it was relatively deserted. Long sweeping curves around the backside of Cary Towne center were always a fun place to open my car up (40MPH! back off MF! woo-hoo). One day while exiting a swooping curve I saw something roll in front of my car that was round, plastic and going faster then the car. Neat, I thought, then, Fuck!?!, was that mine?

I got confirmation that I had lost a hubcap when home and found my car was missing one. I never saw the other 3 fall off the car, but it only took an additional 9 months for me to lose them all and the Metro's been that way ever since.

Now seven years later, the Metro (who I call Polly) passed the 100,000 mile mark and is doing fine. It makes many noises, the hatch refuses to stay up, the heat has only two settings [very high & volcanic] and the dome light is always on; but other than that its in good shape. It still gets 35+ miles to the gallon and continues to get me from home to work & back, which is all I need it to do.

I looked into replacing the hubcaps for Polly, but since she's got such odd sized wheels, the hubcaps would cost about half what the tires do. $50 for the 4 hubcaps, $120 for 4 tires, and I refuse to replace them as I will just fling them off my car eventually.

So, here's to you Polly, the best car I ever had. May you continue to shuttle me around.

listening to: The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

Good News

Good news

We find that the secular purposes claimed by the board amount to a pretext for the board's real purpose, which was to promote religion
Judge John Jones

Our Future In Domes

How creepy will it be if in the year 2043, when we are living in our corporate controlled housing units inside the city sized domes that protects us from the global-warming super storms that rage across the world, we finally find out that it was Bush and his neo-con cronies who planned 9/11, just to be able to justify his secret monitoring of communications at the end of 2005, which would lead to the eventual repealing of the First and Fourth through Eighth Amendments, thereby ushering a new world where large corporations run the government. [Like the Shadowrun world, without the magic, although having magic would make up for living in a sterile cookie cutter world. Sort of.]

Be very afraid. The president is urinating all over the 4th amendment. What he's doing is very frightening. He must be stopped. I know I don't want to live in the Greater Atlanta Coca-Cola Dome




Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Olympic Fever

just 64 days to go until the 2006 Winter Olympics begin in Torino, Italy. the grandest world spectacle (well, second behind the summer games).
a place where everyone (well, everyone who lives in a country with winter) gets together to do compete with items ill-equiped to walk in, attached to your feet.

oh, so grand! and guess what makes it better? the insanity of the events.

slide down 70m long ramp on skis and then jump? YOU BET!
hurl yourself down an icy replica of your small intestine at 90mph on a radio flyer? RIGHT ON!
ski around in circles with a rifle on my back? YEAH... wait, what?
slide a rock with a handle while i use a broom to direct it? now your just making shit up

more good news? you're gonna know more about 2 or 3 american girls (ages 15-22), who happen to skate very well, than you know about your neighbor.

so what should you do? watch the damn games. i will, because i am a sucker and love this kind of crap. over dramatized, homogenized, nationalist drek crammed down my throat. oh, and, and hot italian women in tight fuzzy parkas

1.6 Seconds

thats all it takes, from utter disbelief that MY team was going to lose the first game i ever saw live AT home to an UNRANKED team to unbridled joy.

i really still cant believe it happened. i really still cant believe i saw it live.

when i see the replay on the morrow, i will be like 'hmm... looks like the shot... it could be... but then again i saw it from a different angle, CAUSE I WAS FUCKIN THERE!'

and when i see the replay every game this season it will make me smile, not cause Duke won, but because i was there. it will also make me smile because i sat two rows back of a pair of fine asses.

and a pair of fine asses in proximity to each other causes one to smile; the closer, the wider the smile

My Five

Nicole Kidman
Ashley Judd
Kirsten Dunst
Reese Witherspoon
Charlize Theron

Harry Potter & GOF

Tonight i saw the fourth Harry Potter movie and i ruined it for myself in the first five minutes. I am familiar with the books and once i spotted the first major deviation from the book, i turned my attention to catching other 'mistakes'. This led me to miss the movie.

I really couldnt tell you what happened, but i can tell you exactly what was different between the book and the movie. I mean the weasleys hair should be RED, how hard is that to get right? Its like Harry without the scar, or Hermoine with the proto-boobies and young blossoming body..... wait, i mean, they even changed the sets! fuck! i liked the old sets, they were bigger. Theres a reason its called a Great Hall, because its supposed to be fuckin GREAT, not some cramped room that resembles my high school auditorium.

Fuck! Now i realize the whole movie was smaller, every room, every shot, even Hagrid! All smaller, much smaller. Thats bullshit. If i'm gonna spend $8 bucks to go see a movie thats 2 and half hours long i want some wide, grand shots, some kind of epic feeling; not some 2+ hour long G-rated music video. The only tongue i saw tonight was in the trailer for Aeon Flux.

Aeon Flux? thats a tough one, see it, not see it? Plus side to this movie is that i will enjoy the movie and not look for 'mistakes'. i had no idea what the plotline was on the short videos i caught on MTVs Liquid Television, probably the last good thing mtvs done, so i should go see it. double plus: Charlize! one of my 5

So then i shouldn't read the Narnia series i just picked up until i see the movie, that looks sweet. it better not be a fuckin g-rated music video. i want grand fuckin shots, i want shots taking from a fuckin helicopter sweeping across a giant fuckin battlefield. i want to leave the movie theater saying 'that was fuckin cool' not 'what the fucks up with their hair?'

One Star (out of 5) and sadly, i might go see it again

Austin City Limits

Like most times I catch the show on PBS, I've already missed at least the first half. Tonight, no different. This time it was the fuckin Pixies!! and I saw the last 3 songs, 'Hey', 'Gigantic' the encore 'Caribou'. In honor of 12 minutes of the best TV I've seen in the last month, here are the top 8 Pixies songs of all time, in no particular order:

Bone Machine
Break My Body
Caribou
Gigantic
Gouge Away
I've Been Tired
Levitate Me
The Holiday Song

What I Need

About a week off where I can spend my time cataloging all my music. I've added so much stuff since I got the external harddrive I know my master list is sadly out of date and needs to be updated.

Also, another external harddrive. At least 160GB this time.

A box of blank DVDs to back up my music harddrive.

A way to get the dead bug out of my clock.

Oh Boy...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4454738.stm

Make way for dumb ass.
Watch the video.

Top 7 Albums That Begin With S

no particular order

1. Screamadelica - Primal Scream. The best of the late 80s early 90s Brit trip pop. Perfect for: the hashish clouded co-ed dorm room.

2. Shoot Out The Lights - Richard & Linda Thompson. The sound of a marriage falling apart. Perfect for: the first three weekends after a breakup.

3. Sign O' The Times - Prince. The Minneapolis Imps masterpiece. Perfect for: the first three weekends of a new relationship.

4. Slanted & Enchanted - Pavement. Lo-fi magic from the kings of lo-fi. Perfect for: impressing that barista with the tongue ring.

5. Spiderland - Slint. Lost classic, laid the heavy guitar blueprint for current breed of screamcore. Perfect for: US Interstate 95 at 3am.

6. Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones. Among the greatest of all time, the Stones at their best. Perfect for: tailgating with your cool uncle.

7. Surfer Rosa - The Pixies. What the fuck is he saying? Where's my spanish dictionary? Who cares. Perfect for: under the bleachers with two fat joints.

Employee Appreciation Day

Its a happy time, where I spend my hard earned cash at the store that gives me the large discount and gives me the opportunity to buy CDs I wouldnt even buy at my standard discount, mainly to fill in my catalog and to try new stuff. This years take, part 1:

Can - Tago Mago
Otis Redding - Otis Blue
Thelonoius Monk Quartet w/ John Coltrane - At Carnegie Hall
Richard Thompson - Grizzly Man (soundtrack)
Talking Heads - Fear of Music
Richmond Fontaine - Post To Wire

also, now that Joy is gone, I have no one to burn me alternative rock cds in exchange for something from my list.

The Can is interesting, might have to check out some more.
Have rediscovered the Talking Heads after listening to 'side 1' of Remain in Light over and over again. World Music for people who hate world music.

Happy Happy Joy Joy

I feel blessed. I am in love with two different sports, and because of their schedule, never the twain shall meet. Well, almost.

Tonight College basketball began when Duke beat BU, a scrappy America East team that should win 20+ and be a tourney team come March. The beginning of the season comes during the week that Major League Baseball announces their award winners, a sure sign that the World Series ended about two weeks ago.

The worst two weeks every year, that small nulltime between MLB & NCAA BB.

The only weekend they overlap is at the end of the NCAA tourney, Final Four weekend is the first in April, the same as opening day. So, overlap is a weekend.

Boy this post sucked, but since I have so few I might as well keep it.

Guide To Defending Teen Wolf

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2005/11/4malla.html

My Friend Dave. He Is Very Smart

The man who followed me as Executive Editor of
the Press and the reaper of the seed I sowed, now
works for Forbes.com,he created this. I take full
responsibility for his genius.

"Forbes.com on Communicating," a mammoth special report
that published this morning. It's the first project I've
edited at Forbes.

It's really huge: more than 40 feature articles and
interviews, 90 minutes of audio, 20 minutes of video,
and interactive elements including an application that
allows you to e-mail yourself decades into the future.
We pulled in contributors ranging from Kurt Vonnegut
to Noam Chomsky to Walter Cronkite.

You can see the final product at
http://www.forbes.com/communicating

STOP THIEF!

My first day back from vacation and I stopped two thieves.

One was the 'sticker remover' bastard who had 25 books staged in 5 different places in Politics. Apparently he is almost done with stealing the entire lit section as he had all of Vonnegut's books ready to be lifted. Fucker. Pulled his stashes before he could leave and then I creepily stalked him until he left the store. Did he get the hint? Doubt it.

Two was the 'guy i chased'. The fuck walked out the front door with stuff, then proceded to walk towards Kroger, all the while speeding up. Once he started walking faster outside, I cut across the store through the cafe. When he turned the corner between the stores, he took off running, that's when i started running as well. He had a good lead on me and there was no way I was going to catch him, but found an alternate way to stop thieves.

Yell "Drop that shit, punk ass".

I was so happy I almost plotzed. I returned with his booty (3-disc Wizard of Oz & 2-disc Big Lebowski) and felt good for the rest of the day.

Two Or So Things

Dreamt I met the new GM last night (sort of). I actually had a dream that contained one of my first managers at Borders, and he said that Gary [gm6] was alot like him, but thats all I remember. So this could mean various things, Gary is irish or prematurely balding or has a skinny wife or likes D&D or is overweight and doesn't shave. Very cryptic. Let's see how true, or untrue, this is.
Good news is that gm5 no longer has any power over our store, although she's been harder to find than julie ann boler since she left.

The purchase of my iPod has led me to 'exercise' more, if you can call alternately walking and jogging around Lake Lynn exercise. But I have realized that it is tough to jog to songs where my natural jogging speed doesn't match the beats per minute of the song. Like Dance Naked by Mellencamp or Suzie Q Part 2 by CCR, and jogging to live Coltrane is impossible.

Was finally able to get my hands on all the good Van Halen cds (pre-sammy), Flamestrike Boy hooked me up with the Van Halen, as well as much OutKast, Wu-Tang and a pair of bowls. He burned Van, Lyle, Jimi, Floyd & the Dead among others.

My iPod

I've only had my iPod for about 2 weeks and now I've already divided my life into B.i. and A.i. It is a magical device, the mythical philosophers stone. Most mornings I wake up and thank the higher powers that Steve Jobs returned to run Mac. Without him life would suck and I would be on some crappy pc clone praying not to be struck down with the 'blue screen of death', which, rumour has it will be in the next version of the OED.

Bless you Mac

My Greatest Bands of All Time

1. The Beatles - the lads from Liverpool have done more for rock music that any other band. they didnt just open new doors, they built the house. true ground breakers they turned the simple pop song into genius, had 80 bajillion number 1 hits in just three years, then they went out and in less than 2 years produced Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt Peppers (holy fuck that's a good stretch). still bigger than jesus.

2. The Band - 4 canadians and 1 american redefined music right in the middle of the psychadelic era, mixing folk, rock, gospel and blues into a tight package that yearned to explode at the seems. from a hoary r&b dancehall band to dylan's backing band, they transformed themselves through two albums of americana folk tales into one of the most influential bands of all time and put a large pink house in upstate new york on the map.

3. The Replacements - rising from the minneapolis scene, their punk influences and their rollercoaster live shows (blisteringly hot or drunkingly incoherent) set them up for breakthrough with Let It Be. westerberg's songwriting skills blossomed on that album and allowed them to make the jump to warner bros, which tamed them a bit, until they fell apart and became paul's springboard to a solo career. their unwillingness to promote themselves kept them from being larger than life.

4. The Pixies - out of Boston, their influence continues to grow to this day. they have become a modern day velvet underground, exploding a music scene (alternative rock) to the forefront without ever really being part of it, until now. squealing guitars, bizarre lyrics and a female bass player set the standard for the next decade of bands, as has their 'loud-quiet-loud' song style.

5. (tie) R.E.M & The Rolling Stones - bands similar in their overall careers. both have periods where they were the absolute 'Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the World' and produced records that are withour peer. rem (83-87), stones (68-72). both returned years later with another classic album after a decline, rem (Automatic For The People); stones (Some Girls). and now, both bands continue to slog along without founding members who have retired. both bands need to stop now, or in the case of the stones 20 years ago.

Fitzpatricks War

Fitzpatrick's War: The Early Life of Sir Robert Mayfair Bruce is a wonderful book. Theodore Judson creates a wonderful world in a very possible future. Set in the late 26th century the world is powered by steam (electricity has been forgotten) and the age of fuedalism has returned.

The world's most important science has become history and not only has history been written by the victors (the Yukons), but rewritten by them to glorify Isaac Prophet Fitzpatrick, the conquerer of the world and a young man with an Alexander complex. Or has it?

If you are a fan of historical fiction, speculative history or alternative earths, then this book is definately for you. Not only does Judson create an all too convincing possible future of earth, but he dots the book with humorous takes on current times as seen through the eyes of a puritan society 600 years in the future. The book is filled with footnotes that point out the inconsistancies between Robert's tale and what has become the remembered history of the Age of Fitzpatrick, which allow you to see the power that history creates.

One can only hope that Judson will write more about his future earth as he leaves plenty of back history and potential stories littered in his footnotes. It's been a long time since I have read anything this good.

Humans Vs The Vampire Car

My car (95 geo metro named Polly, 95K miles) is a vampire.

It doesn't like sunlight and tends to die in the face of overwhelming heat. Example one, yesterday. While driving home it stalled on Lynn Road while doing 50, I tried coasting to a place to jab a stake in its heart, but you really can't coast uphill, so it stopped in a turning lane about 50 feet from an intersection.

As luck would have it, two cars behind me was a cop. He helped me push it uphill through the intersection onto a side road into a bus lane, where I sat down to wait for a while. In the past waiting has given my car a chance to cool off? return from gaseous form? or something, and then it usually starts up again.

Within 5 minutes I was asked by not one, but three people if I needed a ride anywhere (not help), but a physical ride to someplace. One of them had pulled off Lynn Road and turned onto the sidestreet to see if I needed help. The other two happened to be driving on the side road.

People stopping to help a stranger? in 2005? with Bush in the whitehouse? It made me happy, renewed my faith in humans again and proved to me, once again, that in a global war of humans vs vampires that humans would win

Dogs Kick Ass

Another reason dogs are better than cats...

SAN FRANCISCO - One of the swimmers in this weekend’s Alcatraz Invitational swim has dog paddled his way into the record book.

Jake is a 65-pound golden retriever and the only non-human in the tenth annual 1.2 mile swim from the infamous prison island to the San Francisco shore. The four-year-old pooch swam across the cold, choppy water in just under 42 minutes, finishing 72nd out of the more than 500 swimmers. Organizers say it was the first known crossing by a dog.

The crowd cheered as Jake made his way onto solid ground, shook himself and dodged a woman who tried to put a medal around his neck.

Jake’s owner, Jeff Pokonosky, says the two swim four miles a week and bodysurf together. His training secret? Jake always gets scrambled eggs before a big swim.

Funny Things

Its been a while, but I needed to write something.

Things that are always funny:

1. People walking into things. Funnier when its glass walls or doors, like that new AOL commercial. I always pray for that commercial rather than the AOL commercial with cake, because cake isnt funny.

2. Mascots getting beat down. Specifically college mascots in full soft cloth puppet heads and accompanying costume, not the lame mascots who only wear a fake head (George Washington U) or just dress in period costumes (FSU & WVU). If its two mascots going at it, its even better.

3. Puppets cursing (or saying rude things). Especially when its unexpected. Also, the cuter the puppet, the funnier. This is why Greg The Bunny was very funny.

sports night

aaron sorkin is a god.

the first season of Sports Night proves that. probably the greatest first season of any tv show known to man. every so often I pull out my dvd copy and watch it again, the eight hours it takes to watch the 23 episodes. the writing is razor sharp and delivered at a pace unseen on network tv, until sorkins next (and more popular show, The West Wing).

if you haven't seen this show your life is incomplete, as is this post is because I am trying to compose this post while watching the show, which is turning out to be much harder than I thought.

the obiligitory pope post

The pope. He’s dead. And by the time new one is finally elected, our ADD world will be all poped out.
The cardinals aren’t allowed to meet for at least two weeks, due to papal law. An eternity in the news cycle. I’ve learned more about John Paul II in the last 4 hours that I had in my entire life, and I went to catholic school for 9 years.
Pope John Paul II was an important man. Let’s just leave it at that. His part in the fall of Communism, apologizing for the church’s past sins and reaching out to all countries to end hostilities, these are things that important men do. But, as the head of the church, the Pope guided their policies, which included attacks on gay marriage, abortion and women.
The process that’s about to begin will show the Catholic Church for the lumbering dinosaur it is. Don’t get me wrong, Roman Catholics are among the best for traditional pomp and circumstances. But Latin, come on, is there anyone besides paleontologists that still use Latin?
It should be fun though, 3 weeks (minimum) of pope coverage. Whoever becomes the next pope will have some huge shoes to fill, not just as head of the Catholic Church, but as an important man. How the church handles the election will determine what kind of player in the world they want to be
A return to past glory is unlikely, as few institutions will ever be as powerful (or corrupt) as the Catholic Church was in medieval times. Sounds like someone we know. But the election of an aging, European pope will signal a return to tradition drowning in centuries old dogma. Also, an older pope would mean a greater risk of having to do all this again in a decade or so. And nothing lessens a 21st century persons attention like repetition in a global event. Quick, when’s the next Olympics? and where?
Pope John Paul’s reign of 27 years is a long time for a pope, third longest, in 2000 years. We’ve been come accustom to a sitting Pontiff, waving his hand, and not much else. Early film showed a spry pope (well spry for almost 60), and that’s what the world needs, an even younger pope, preferably one that speaks English.
What the Catholic Church needs to do is to move forward. A new pope will have an unique opportunity to grab the worlds attention for a while, and he needs to bring serious world issues to everyone’s attention, especially those of us who call themselves Christians.
The election of a younger pope, from somewhere other than Europe, will move the church forward. What’s that you say? Not gonna happen. Why not? The nation with the most Catholics in the world is Brazil. The church’s fastest growing regions are South & Central America and Africa. Places a new pope could do the most global good. Any coincidence that a Polish pope would return home to spark the Solidarity movement that would eventually end in the fall of Communism?
Think what an African or Latin American pope would be able to accomplish by sparking real debate on the African AIDS epidemic or the plight of the poor and hungry across the globe. That is one of the strengths of the papacy. Their ability to be an outside observer and point out what is ‘bad’ and ‘wrong’ the world. Granted the church’s definition what is ‘wrong’ has changed over the centuries. Just think of how many US Senators would have purchased indulgences for themselves –and business partners- had this practice still existed. But they have come a long way from the banning of scientific fact and paying for forgiveness.
So now, I’ll sit back and watch what happens. This will be the first Conclace I remember, so it should be interesting. With two millennium of history to pull from our airwaves will be covered with papal biographies and documentaries on Christianity. Few institutions have a history like the Catholic church, drenched in power and secrecy, ever see Hudson Hawk?

Or (alternate ending)


So now, I’ll sit back and watch what happens. This will be the first Conclace I remember, so it should be interesting. With two millennium of history to pull from our airwaves will be covered with papal biographies and documentaries on Christianity, from the celebratory (resurrections, miracles, saints, puppies) to the regrettable (inquisitions, crusades, corruption), all in all I am looking forward to the next month.
By the way, the Twentieth Olympic Winter Games takes place in Turino in 2006.

a strange night in iTunes

Coming down from a good high is always fun and hearing the right album at the right time is essential, but you never know where iTunes will lead you.

Tonight I went from 'Dark Side' to 'Ok Computer' to see if 'ok' is the dark side of our time. Answer: maybe. Then a quick shuffle through Stoner Mix starts me with the live 'Up on Cripple Creek' from 'The Last Waltz', so off to the Band it is. Get almost 2 hours of the band before Van shows up to sing an Irish Lullaby, so I head for 'Its Too Late To Stop Now' by Van. About an hour later Frank pops up and I end the night with the chairman of the board.

Its fitting that i am finishing this post with Auld Lang Syne playing.

Good night iTunes, thanks for a great burn.

guitar albums

Spiderland by Slint
A remarkable album, it pre dates Nevermind by almost a year, and it grows stronger as the years go by. Not 40 minutes in length, this album is drenched in trail blazing guitar sounds. Planted deep in the music is the seeds of loud-soft plan, Nirvana would steal from the Pixies and math rock, and the thousand bands its spawned.
"Nosferatu Man" is the crunchiest song here and its outro jam is among the finest in all rock. "Good Morning Captain" brings the album to a close by building up to the last minute when everyone comes crashing back together.


Weezer (first album)
It doesn't have to be technically superior to be important. Weezer let us know that you could right pop songs AND play the guitar really loud. Really good pop songs are few and far between, but it all worked on this album. Like most 'sounds' this album bred far too many copies, luckily few have remained. Weezer's remained, becoming the Pearl Jam of alt-pop bands, still making quality, hoping for a return to their early highs when each had been "Greatest Band in the World", even if for a short time.

a pair of jeans

Is there anything better in this world than a woman in a perfect fitting pair of jeans?

Normally I am a leg man, but when the perfect ass struts by in the pair of jeans it was built for, there's only one thing I can do. And that's trying to keep myself from walking into street sign or parking meter or parked car.

It doesn't matter the color of the jeans, black, dark blue, green (although faded blue is best) as long as they fit perfectly and appear to be one with the woman. Slight wear marks right under the cheek, a stray bit of fraying at the waist, maybe the outline of a lighter or change in one of the pockets. Or better yet, just the hint of a panty line.

These jeans don't just spring into existance, they adapt over a long period to the body underneath. Built by years of tugging and stretching over firm muscles. Finally coming to rest in perfect contours after the demin goes through its own version of continental drift.

The perfect pair of jeans is something to be respected and worshipped, not everyone has them, more importantly, not everyone can create/wear them. And like anything that is American at its core they should be saluted when they go by.

Joshua Judges Ruth

Talk about ignoring my blog, its been like 6 months. Now I'm trying to talk myself into writing more.

Lyle Lovett kicks ass. No doubt about it. His 1992 album 'Joshua Judges Ruth' is a wonderful disc.

[geek note - Joshua Judges Ruth are the 6th, 7th & 8th books of the old testament]

The album, now 12 years old, might be Lovett's best. A double shot of gospel leads the album off, then it makes a left onto a West Texas highway. You can see the stark landscape slide by as you listen to 'She's Already Made Up Her Mind' and 'North Dakota'.

The last half of the disc is just as strong and possibly more fluid. 'Since The Last Time', 'Baltimore' & 'Family Reserves' make you feel like a fly on the wall in a large farm house at a family reunion. The album ends with 'She's Leaving Me Because She Really Wants To', 'Flyswatter/Ice Water Blues' & 'She Makes Me Feel So Good'; the bad, the long & the good of a relationship.

This album is not in my top 50 yet, but will probably be next time as I rediscovered it after it got burned to the hard drive. A perfect album for Sunday afternoons or weekday mornings on which you don't work.