In my mach 5

I'm still alive. Promise. I even made it back from Sasquatch! in one piece! It was awesome. I'm about to start writing up the blog entry to end all blog entry about the whole experience, but first a little business to tend to.

True story: When I was probably 5 or 6 years old I told a woman who lived in my neighborhood that I wanted to dress up as a can of English peas for Halloween. That's how much I loved them when I was growing up. I still love them. So, now we know what side of the line I stand on, Aleta! You can keep your gross bananas, I'll keep my delicious canned peas.

My favorite food growing up was my mother's chicken and rice. It was/is incredibly simple to make- just Rice-a-roni Chicken flavored mix (which sounds really gross and unnatural when you say it in your head) and canned chicken, really. I also loved Le Sueur peas, which I thought were called Leisure peas until I was probably 18. Then I discovered that you could mix the two together and it was better than sex. Well, sex with me anyway.

One thing's for sure, though. If you do an image search for Le Sueur peas it turns up some pretty gross looking recipe images. Still probably delicious, though.

Don't know when I'll be back again

I really don't know why I'm slacking so hard on blogging recently. What's up with me? I don't have any valid excuse. I'm gonna make a real effort to blog more... just as soon as I get back from Sasquatch Music Festival! That's right, folks. The time is here! I'm leaving tomorrow morning from Huntsville to drive to the Birmingham airport and fly to Seattle! I'm excited! Exclamation points!!!!

This is going to be so much fun, guys. I'm going to try to Twitter from the festival, but it'll likely be sparse. I don't foresee any blogging. When I get back? That's a different story. It will be pretty weird going so long without the internets. Be sure to keep everything in order while I'm gone, k? I don't want to miss anything. I can't be missing things like this picture I found when image searching "Sasquatch".

I'm admittedly a little wary of flying, but I'm looking forward to getting a chance to read a hell of a lot of my book while on the plane. More exclamation points!!!!!!

This afternoon I'll be packing, which is my least favorite part of traveling. I realized yesterday that the extent of my 'luggage' is a couple of old leather duffle bags I no doubt stole from my father's closet. I honestly can't remember the last time I packed for a trip lasting more than 2 nights. I imagine it'll be a bitch to get 6 days and 5 nights worth of clothes into a duffle bag. Anyone got any sweet packing tips?

Upon my return from Sasquatch I will begin, in earnest, my search for a house. I've also been considering signing up for an internet dating site so I'll probably look into that, too. Some of you may judge, but others of you have met Very Significant Others online and I count those relationships amongst my arguments for trying it out. We'll see how this turns out.

Now for a short song based around a terrible pun that made me laugh out loud at work. I can't say much for the video, but you can ignore it for all I care. The song is only about 2:30 of the video, though.

Paul and Storm- "Captain's Wife's Lament"

You said the same thing about the microwave

I'm not going to jump the gun here and talk about the Free the Hops bill passing the Senate. I'm just not going to do it. No jinxes. It ain't law yet. I'll wait...

Instead I'll do what I came here to do, and that's write a list about what I want in a house. I don't think it's a long list. Let's find out together!

- Location: Somewhere close enough to downtown Huntsville (and subsequently my friends) that I don't have to drive far. While it'd be nice to be closer to work it's not as important to me as good times.
- Big kitchen: A very, very close second to location. I hate being cramped when I'm trying to cook. HATE IT.
- At least 2 bathrooms: These first three are really more like absolute requirements. I need me a poopin' bathroom when I have company over.
- Front/back porch: I'd love to have a large back porch for lazy summer afternoons.
- 2 floors: I don't expect I'll get this, but for some reason I've always preferred two story houses.
- Hardwood floors: I guess?
- Large yard: I'm actually torn on this one because one on hand I'd love to have a dog and a big back yard to play about in but on the other hand I am not a fan of mowing grass. A dilemma to be sure.
- Large bathroom - I hate tiny showers. A walk-in shower would be so cool.
- Fireplace: It'd be nice, but I don't actually care that much. I never use the one I have now.
- A hot chicks room:

Upright Citizens Brigade
Hot Chicks Room
comedycentral.com
Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games

- Anything that I'm forgetting? Not that y'all would know what I want, but you might have some ideas that haven't crossed my mind yet.


Lastly, Paste Magazine is going through hard times right now. Of course they are, right? Not only does the economy suck, but the entire printed media industry is on the bubble right now. This is one of the first publications that I genuinely care about to be on the verge. So if you've ever considered a subscription now is the time. Or if you love 'em, too, they need some help. I donated what I could and the tracks they provide are pretty awesome. It says a lot about a magazine that artists would donate rare material to them in order to help them stay afloat.

My glass house

Things have been pretty slow recently at work. I've actually made an art out of web-surfing. I'd love to share some of the better things I find, but I never remember to save them. Plus, if you follow me on Twitter you'll probably see most of those links anyway. That being said, if you don't follow me on Twitter then you damn well oughta.

As I previously mentioned, this past weekend was the First Annual Rocket City Brewfest. I volunteered there Friday night and attended on Saturday. I didn't go to work on Friday because I was feeling sick when I woke up and I wanted to try to get some rest so I wouldn't have to miss my shift at the Brewfest. That's dedication, Holmes. It turned out to be a fun time. I actually think I may have enjoyed pouring beer more than I did attending the next day, although that's mostly because I wasn't feeling well. There was a ton of good food there and loads of great beer. I'm sure next year will be even better.

So here's big news: I've decided to buy a house. I got a letter from my apartment complex the other day informing me that they're raising my rent ~$200 a month! I should've seen this coming because they gave me a hella sweet deal on the place when I signed on, but damn it still hurts. I'm not really okay with paying that much for an apartment and I'm also not really interested in renting again so I think it's high time I dove into the wicked world of realty. Luckily I've got family in the realty bidness who can set me on the right track. My problem is that once I make a decision like this I'm super impatient. I don't want to be living in my apartment once my lease ends in two months, but I know that's totally unrealistic. I'll probably end up staying at my apartment and paying the extra rent until I can buy a house.

I'm also really bad about listening to advice on things like this. I'll ask tons of people (y'all included) for any tips and tricks and then likely disregard the majority of what I hear. Laziness and impatience do not behoove a first time home-buyer. But really how hard can it be? Tell me about your first home-buying experience so that I may learn from your collective wisdom.


*I totally won't even mention realty on Twitter because if I do I'll get a billion new realtor-followers and realtor-replies and that's just annoying.
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Oh, I went and saw the new Star Trek movie last night. I won't go into much detail but I will say that it's definitely worth seeing, even if you're not a fan of the franchise. If you are a fan of the franchise, even just a little bit, you will absolutely love it. We're all talking about it over at Sarah's place. Join in!


Here's the Swingin' Utters song, "My Glass House"

Glove compartment

Oh wow it's been a whole week since I've posted. Need to nip that in the bud, folks. Sinec last Wednesday there has been a little bit of excitement here in Rocket Rain City. I got a Roomba! Also, I went and saw Death Cab for Cutie in Nashville. I guess that second one didn't really occur in Huntsville, but that's beside the point.

I'm not even sure if I mentioned it on here when I bought my Roomba off of Woot a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't a total impulse buy, although it was pretty close. It's the Roomba 530 model, which I got for significantly less than that listed price. It's pretty neat, although I wish it used a more efficient cleaning path. Sorry, that's just the engineer speaking. They make some accessory products to that end, which I will likely end up purchasing before too long, but until then I'll just let it vacuum it's inefficient little heart out. I just hope it never develops a taste for blood.

I went to Nashville last Sunday to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Ryman Auditorium. The opening bands were Ra Ra Riot and Matt Costa. Ra Ra Riot was meh but they had a lady cellist who was hot and she rocked the fuck out so more power to 'em. Matt Costa was better than I expected. Considering that all I knew about him before the concert was that he was on John Mayer's record label that didn't take much. I still don't like it when there are 5 people on stage playing music and the only one who gets title credit is the singer. Sure, the other guys in the band were probably just studio musicians hired to play Matt Costa's arrangements, but it's not like Matt Costa could've put on that same show by himself as the billing would have you believe. Death Cab was great. Ben Gibbard is hella skinny now, which is a little weird. He was also very violent with his equipment which lead me to believe he was upset about something. If he was, though, it didn't show in the performance because they sounded awesome. Pictures!

Ra Ra Riot (note hot cellist)

Matt Costa (+4 not-Matt-Costas)


Death Cab for Cutie (notice skinny Benny)

Oh, and the Rocket City Brewfest is this weekend! I'll be volunteering Friday night and attending Saturday. Y'all should all come out and support the breweries and the Free the Hops effort. With any luck by the time the weekend hits we'll have already passed the Free the Hops bill (fingers crossed). There will be a bunch of good music, good food, and good beer! You can't beat that with a stick.