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January 14th, 2009
August 9th, 2008
01:15 am
Sabrina told me this evening that I haven't posted in a while. I guess I have some things I could post, but I've been really caught up in work and no one really wants to here about that. Also, you don't need me to tell you that I enjoyed the Batman movie didn't really enjoy the X-Files movie.
In lieu of real thoughts about anything, here are my top 13 songs of the last 3 months, according to last.fm.
Los Campesinos! – The International Tweexcore Underground
The Decemberists – O Valencia!
Wolf Parade – I'll Believe in Anything
The Kinks – This Time Tomorrow
Weezer – Everybody Get Dangerous
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends (Franz Ferdinand version)
Weezer – The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
Weezer – Troublemaker
The Hold Steady – Constructive Summer
N*E*R*D – Kill Joy
The Mountain Goats – The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Possess Your Heart
Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out (Daft Punk remix)
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July 15th, 2008
June 2nd, 2008
11:28 pm - Behold...new kitty
Say hello to Bianca.
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May 11th, 2008
01:27 am - Some Updates
- That Los Camesinos! records is truly great. I just don't get excited by music as much anymore and this is a whole lot of fun, big sounding and very melodic.
- I haven't seen Iron Man yet. I have actually been sort of busy. Now I feel I need to watch Speed Racer first as it looks not long for the theaters. I haven't seen forgetting Sarah Marshall either, so I hopelessly behind. I just saw Juno last week. That movie was good.
- I've been trying to play ultimate regularly. I am bad at every area of the game (catching, throwing, speed, stamina, defense) but I'm starting to see the game a little better.
- Last.fm got an update where the ipod thing is supposed to work better, but it doesn't always work.
- We got a new cat. Her name is Bianca and she is a very sassy snowshoe siamese aged 6.5 months. It is much harder to name a girl cat than a boy cat. Giving a girl cat a funny name feels like you're making fun of it. Pictures to come, I'm sure.
- I hate my job.The most attractive alternative is winning the lottery, so I may be stuck for a bit.
- I'm not feeling SNL tonight.
- Both The Office and Lost have totally brought back their a game.
- I liked Baby Mama, but it was vastly overshadowed by the fact that 30 rock is the best thing on tv.
- Don't Mess With The Zohan looks kind of good. I am crazy?
- For Mother's Day, we're doing a cookout at my parents' house. After playing ultimate, shopping, showering and watching the second Mets game with Forman, I spent the evening hand packing burgers and marinating chicken. I miss doing cookouts at our house, but 1. I don't have time and 2. the contractors that were supposed to fix up our house left things worse in may ways (including tearing up the backyard by driving on after the ground had frozen and not picking up after themselves at all).
- At this point, I honestly don't care who is elected president. I will try to make a vote that I think is the right choice, but I don't see any candidate actually doing what I think they should.
- For me, the issues candidates should be working to fix include: Value of the dollar, letting the RIAA and MPAA basically write bad case law, the awfulness of flying and the TSA, farm subsidies and how they effect food and gas pricing during shortages, lobbying reform, education spending, doing something real about the price of gas and energy independence and repairing government oversight and balance of powers in the wake of the Bush Administration.
- For some reason, I got the full tax rebate on top of my refund. For some reason, I got a I made a mistake and decided to spend it. I now own an XBox 360, but I 'm going to try to hold off on buying GTA IV until the fall so I actually get some work done between now and then.
- I don't have a rudimentary of strategy in Basketball like I do in most other sports, but I can tell you with certainty that it was a mistake for both Mike D'Antoni and The Knicks for the Knicks to pay Mike D'Antoni $24m over 4 years to coach the Knicks. I understand that D'Antoni should have left Phoenix after their front office have mismanaged drafts, trades and free agents and because of that stuff it wasn't his fault that crapped out this year, but going to a organization that is worse in almost every way is mistake. Maybe he wants to do what Larry Brown did in NY: sign a huge contract, get fired and get paid for doing nothing.
- Speaking of sports: I'm a Mets fan because I like it when they win and I don't like when they lose (and I hate the Atlanta Braves). Watching games on tv and seeing the home crowd boo players, I feel like I'm doing something wrong.
- Generally, I'm not happy. I feel like I'm not doing the things I need to do to make myself happy. That's my true failing. Also, I'm fat and I did I mention I hate my job? Things are weird.
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April 18th, 2008
February 28th, 2008
12:42 pm - Casper's Back!
Is it me, or does he look kind of drunk?
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February 19th, 2008
12:24 am
Proposal Buildlog
She said yes
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February 13th, 2008
10:08 pm - Warren Ellis gives us free comics because he loves us
Current Music: You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told) - The White Stripes
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February 12th, 2008
12:23 am - Some updates
I didn't really have too much to post about, but then I noticed that I've posted about twice in the past two weeks and both times about sports, which I felt needs to be broken up.
Sports
Before breaking from sports completely, there is one more thing about the Santana deal I need to mention if you haven't heard it from me before. Before he won two Cy Young Awards and led the AL in ERA, wins and strikeouts, Johan Santana played minor league ball for the Auburn Doubledays. This is of note because a couple of Sabrina's friends worked in the ballpark and tried to set him up with Sabrina. She wasn't interested, but now he's signed to the Mets as the highest paid pitcher in major league history, making the Mets prohibitive favorites to claim the NL pennant and go to the World Series, Meanwhile, Sabrina's dating me, who will never be the highest paid anything and will use anything good or bad that happens to The Mets in the fall as a reason to be unable to help out around the house. Sorry, Honey!
Social Networking
Last FM will stay for now. I think I've found the secret to getting the ipod scrobbling to work: unplug it and replug it a few times and it may work or not. That combined with the facebook plugin, and people are going to damn well know I'm listening to the new Northern State record (Thanks, Jesse!)!
However, I did manage to clean my office some and put in the new turntable and that's getting a lot of usage. My top 5 weekly chart for that (unaided by computers):
5. Station to Station - David Bowie
4. Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk
3. My Aim is True - Elvis Costello
2. Computer World - Kraftwerk
1. Graceland - Paul Simon
As other blogs will attest, I've been listening to Graceland the most by far. Not only did I like this when my parents bought it on cassette when I was eight, but I still like it and for a lot of the same reasons. As opposed to just shortchanging anyone whose read this far by not trying to explain this feeling, I will say that I've tried to explain this to several people over the past few weeks and I don't seem to be able to.
After all my pontificating the other day, I had completely failed to notice that Jeff had already deleted his myspace page. Way to go, Jeff! I can't quite bring myself to do the same yet. The Family Jeff is still keeping busy with other blogging endeavors. I seriously recommend the red sox interview
Movies based on Michael Chabon Novels
Mysteries of Pittsburgh is at Sundance, it was just announced that The Cohen Brothers are adapting The Yiddish Policeman's Union and Kavalier & Clay? Still "in development." Guh.
Current Music: Boston Symphony Orchestra/Erich Leinsdorf - Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony
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February 4th, 2008
01:04 pm - Nobody in this picture knows what just happened
I actually watched the Superbowl (or as my spellcheck would have you believe, the superb-owl) all the way through, even though we had an event to work earlier in the day and I was so tired that I opted out of any parties I was invited to. Instead, Sabrina prepared a traditional Superbowl meal of baked seafood-stuffed haddock with a couple of bottles of La Fin du Monde
It was a lot of fun, as the combination of a lot of fancy Canadian beer and Sabrina's rudimentary knowledge of football led her to effectively heckle Eli during the whole fourth quarter and laugh uncontrollably when the Giants somehow won. I could offer additional comment about the game (or my problems with The Huffington Post's commercial coverage), but...
( instead I will leave you instead with some insightful commentary from possibly football's finest analyst )
Current Music: Good Vibrations - Brian Wilson
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January 30th, 2008
05:15 pm
This New York Times Article is exactly how I feel about the Santana deal. Also, the bullpen is still a big issue.
Current Mood: I also feel bad for the hold steady.
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January 28th, 2008
10:36 pm - Question
Similar to Mattie's question from the other day, is anyone here using last.fm?
I signed up for an account the other day, and I'm already questioning its usefulness. The new version of the osx desktop client seems to be able to grab songs played off of my ipod, which makes it much more useful in accurately depicting my listening habits (and it can present the data in ways that's a little easier for me to digest than itunes smart playlists), but the release notes describe this feature as experimental and setting that up and getting it to work is a process that basically involves me plugging in my ipod and wondering if it's going to work this time.
Also, I got a really awesome Christmas present from Sabrina. The best feature may not be the usb a/d converter, but actually the built-in preamp. I have no idea why more consumer-grade turntables don't have this feature (additional noise? price? i just don't know). I've also been promised from my grandparent's house a turntable/cd player combo with built-speakers that would be perfect for the bar area, I just need to haul myself down to Cohoes when someone with keys is around. To use each turntable, I need to do some major cleaning/rearanging in the rooms I would like to put them, but once that's done I can see myself listening to a decent amount of vinyl. Over the past 10 years, I've gone through 3 different turntables that don't work/i don't have anymore for various reasons, but I did get some pretty good usage out of them when they were working. Translating that usage to having 2 working turntables in new/like new condition (coupled with the fact that I found a website that will sell me a brand new factory issued tape deck for my car at below dealership prices) makes a last.fm account less useful.
In general, I've been thinking about paring down my recreational online presence. Between my livejournal, friendster, myspace, facebook, flickr, last.fm and the (*cough*) comic book forum I frequent, I feel it's a little overkill. All of these things do different things well, but at the end of the day, it's really about the people they connect you to and the signal to noise ratio between the people you want to commune with and the ones you try to avoid in real life or want you to check out their cam show or (*cough*) won't shut up about how a team consisting of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Dr. Strange, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and Maya Lopez should not be called The Avengers (even if Clint Barton is a member) or whatever.
It's been well documented that the general social networks have a lifecycle of usefulness dependent on saturation of users, etc. Maybe this is just me coming to this realization.
The other thing is that every couple of months I think about updating my resume and getting it out there (or at least trying to get some more rewarding freelance work to replace all my kneejerk tv [read:sportscenter] watching), and I always think that if I did do that, it would be a good thing to cut down on the non-professional (and unprofessional) info about myself online.
I've also been thinking about exercising more and going to bed earlier, and I'll give you one guess how well that's going, so I'm pretty much all talk. Still, this base level of self-consioussness blogging is better than watching uconn highlights i couldn't care less about for the Flight of The Conchords references.
Current Music: All My Friends - LCD Soundsystem
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January 25th, 2008
12:34 am
I stayed up late tonight watching a rerun of a congressional subcommittee hearing from today. It played out how I thought it would, with some dude not really answering questions about something he did that's pretty indefensible and me getting pretty upset, but the great thing is that the committee cannot contain their anger. I'm really just a sucker for Barbara Boxer flipping out on CSPAN.
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December 25th, 2007
08:57 pm - Merry Christmas
-My phone's screen is dead. I can't see texts but call me
- The Tyra Banks show is not getting any better. Oprah is just Oprah; she doesn't aspire to be some other talk show host.
- Dennis Miller has a new weekly show on Vs. This show is just like his HBO show, except it's all about sports. This is almost perfect because you get some real classic Dennis Miller goodness, but since it's all about sports it bypasses his post-9/11 politics completely.
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December 19th, 2007
02:15 am - Professor 200?-2007
After a long illness, Professor's condition worsened last night and we had to have him put down early this morning. It was not the easiest thing to do. If you see Sabrina, give her a hug.
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November 26th, 2007
01:42 am - Ouch
Thanksgiving was great. I'm too sore to post about it, but Jesse and Mar have it pretty well covered.
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October 25th, 2007
12:49 am - Boston
Through a few major scheduling errors on my part, my weeklong New England Odyssey turned into a few days in Boston. Boston is a city that a lot of people I know have moved to, claim to love and tell me to move to or visit all the time. I don't really see it. I had a really good time this visit though. I had an inkling it would be good when I had the most beautiful, peak-foliage, truck-free and traffic-free trip on The Mass Pike ever. A few highlights:
I hung out with Chris. Our primary activities:
Head of The Charles
Before dinner, we took a walk up to Harvard Square, most of it along the Charles River, where a large crew race was going down. We caught the tail end of a time trail, which is not the most exciting thing to watch. Absolutely gorgeous day, though.
Biking
On an intellectual level, I knew that Chris spent a lot of time biking. It wasn't until I hung out with him and stayed in his house with a ~2.5:1 bike:person ratio and 1:3 car:person ratio that I realized how much this was. Chris gave me a guided tour of Boston on bicycle. Some places we visited included: The Mass Ave Bridge, Boston Common, Newbury St, Fenway Park, Commonwealth Ave, Inman Square, MIT, some nice parks and Bukowski's - a great bar with an amazing beer list where I took the above photo of the bikes we used. This was during game 6 of the alcs, so there were a lot of people about. Chris estimated we went 15-20 miles. I was pretty proud of this because I'm probably in the worst shape of my life, I haven't been on a bike in years and I only felt like I was going to die a few times.
The next day, a very sore Rob followed Chris on bike to The MIT Press loading dock sale and Brunch at Miracle of Science.
We also went to a party and got locked out whilst having Manhattans on the porch.
Then, I went to hang with Derrick and Tim.
Our primary activities:
The Boston Comic Con
Despite going to a really cool comic shop with Chris & pals the day before, I always had the impression that Boston is not much of a comic town. The famed Newbury Comics is awful for comics, there's talk of canceling WizardWorld Boston and it's just not New York (the major metropolis I most frequently visit that is the cradle of comics in America). The Boston Comicon was a nice little convention that's about twice the size of the one in Saratoga Springs. The big guest was Jim Steranko, who I'm still too intimated to approach at a comicon. Don't ask why, bit makes no sense. The convention space had a very swanky bathroom, where the above photo was taken.
Watching the game
Through a confluence of events, we watched game 7 of the alcs at 3 different places. I wouldn't say drinking was involved, but I also wouldn't say drinking wasn't involved. The Sox didn't pull away until Drock started resting beers on his head.
Hanging with the dogs. Derrick and Tim live with 4 other people and 3 dogs. All the dogs have human names, which made it even more difficult to learn everyone's names
This is Zach. Zach thought it was a great idea for my hangover to sleep on top of me starting at about 9am. Other than that, very sweet.
This is Zoey. While Zoey does have a busy schedule of clamoring for attention from the humans and fighting for supremacy from the dogs, Derrick says that her schedule mostly consists of laying down on the couch like a corpse and sucking the initiative from anyone who sits in the living room. I know this for a fact because I spent most of a day lounging on the couch with Zoey.
Rock Concert - so good!
I ostensibly went to Boston to see the Art Brut/Hold Steady concert which was pretty much the last thing I did. In my effort to not be the guy using my phone at a show in order to better experience the show while it's happeneing, I didn't take any photos. It looked something like this, except it was at The Roxy. That means that it was in a nice fancy place where only half the people could see the stage. This would later prove to be problematic. Derrick and I did a somewhat miraculous job of leaving the apartment, starting to run just as the T showed up, having a table at Bartley's open as soon as we showed up, eat, make it to the Roxy and find a spot on the middle of floor seconds before Art Brut went on. Our spot was so nice that when Eddie hopped into the crowd during Modern Art, he was jumping up and down right in front of me. All the jumping made Derrick and me thirsty and tired, so we sat down and had some water in between sets. By the time we got up, there really wasn't a place for us to both stand and see The Hold Steady. It was still pretty great, but I'm glad I'll have a shot to see them again.
We also went to a party.
More Boston photos can be found on my flickr stream.
Had fun, Boston! See you in another 2 years! Maybe then, Kristin and Jason will be in town.
Current Location: bed
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/tired.gif) sleepy
Current Music: Sportscenter
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September 21st, 2007
01:56 pm - Purchases
Because way more people look at my flickr photos when I put them on the livejournal.
First off, Sabrina bought some gifts at The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store.
For Me:
For Professor:
After I picked her up at the train station, we stopped by The Drive In Movie Store on the way home and they were having a .99 VHS sale
"Two of the same?"
"Yes!"
"You want to buy both?"
"Yes!"
best $2.10 I ever spent.
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September 17th, 2007
06:11 pm - Lists for vacation
So I have this week off, which is crazy when I think about how little time I've had off since I've left college (not counting when I was unemployed).
Number 1 priority for the week is catching up on sleep, which I have already screwed up 3 times:
( whiny part 1 )
My summer was long and am told that I looked pretty pathetic for most of it. Evidence of this:
( whiny part the second )
Number 2 priority is to think long and hard about my future. While it was very difficult, I got good reviews from my work this summer from my superiors, sponsors, visitors and my subordinates (well, some of them). It doesn't come without a certain sense of achievement, but I just don't know what to do. It's very complicated.
Speaking of pictures, I was going to use photos instead of lj cuts to make this post seem a little more structured, but I couldn't find the photos I really wanted to use:( Part 3, less whiny )
Also, out of nowhere, there are all these good shows in the area this fall. I already saw Interpol at the Palace, which was a pretty perfect presentation of the band. Not to say they are the best band, but they sounded like the record and their rhythm section is the truth. The smoke, lights, etc. were good for the atmosphere, but the fact that they wish were Joy Division has never been more apparent. Liars opened, and I now officially don't get Liars. I expected them to maybe be difficult, obtuse, confrontational, etc. They were just kind of droney and boring (and loud, which I did expect). The entire audience seemed to agree, as they mimicked our pattern of finding our seats, sitting down for a few songs and then deciding to get up and go into the lobby for beer and/or candy. The lobby was packed before their set was done.
Old person complaint: Monday night is not a good time for a rock show!
Coming up in the area:
( Part 4, no whine )
I will probably go to the first two shows as they are the cheapest. I also have tickets to two The Hold Steady/Art Brut shows.
Tonight I rented The Host and Children of Men. In the fridge I got bear chili, turkey meatballs and leftover Hattie's Mac & Cheese from my parents party. Things are looking alright.
Current Music: PTI
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