Apollo Rock It!

Don't call it a comeback

2009-11-25T14:18:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone. Anyone? Did my long hiatus leave me completely bereft of readers? Doesn't surprise me. Regardless I'm back now. I miss blogging and I've got a bevvy of shit to talk about now. Not a little bitty bevvy, either. A really big bevvy. I'd love to catch y'all up on everything that's happened since I last posted about four months ago but I don't even remember half of it at this point and if you follow me on Twitter — which you totally should — you'd be all, "Dude. OLD NEWS." So I'll just try to hit the high points.

I haven't been entirely absent from the web, you may well know. Back in August, while on a fairly uneventful business trip to Sacramento, I was asked to write an album review for my favorite local music site, bham.fm. Since then I've written a few more and I'm really liking it. As you are surely aware I absolutely cannot live without music. Being given the chance to write reviews for a site like bham.fm is a great opportunity for me to flex my critiquing muscles while supporting local bands. I'd like it if people commented more on any of the stuff that's posted on bham.fm so if you're ever perusing the site be sure to leave a little love for us. I just wish I had time to write more, honestly. I've got a couple more reviews in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled. The same goes for this blog as well. This hiatus wasn't a planned thing. But I'm kind of glad it happened, even if it costs me part of what little audience I had in the first place.

Other big news. Let's see... I met someone and subsequently lost someone. It was tough. There are very few people who know the whole story and it's not one I intended to share here for the sake of her privacy. It suffices to say that I wish things could've worked out differently but knew well enough that they wouldn't. Denial is a real bitch sometimes.

Now for the real big news. I bought a fucking house! Yeah, crazy right? I know I mentioned before that I was looking well guess what I found one! It's a cozy little 3 bedroom/2 bath really close to downtown Huntsville in the 5 Points area. I closed on it at the end of October and kept my lease on the apartment through the end of November. It's a nice feeling being able to move and take my time with it. Especially since it's only about 15 minutes down the road. Some Very Fantastic Friends and I moved the majority of it this past Saturday. Of course there was drama. A fixture on the waterline that runs to the ice maker on my fridge came loose not 2 hours after we finished unloading the truck so I had to cut the water off to the house... and the power because the leak was right behind an outlet. My heat was also not working because the gas company here sucks at life. So I didn't have running water until yesterday. But, hey, last night I spent my very first night in my Own Damn House! I also started unpacking stuff last night, a process that will no doubt take the entirety of my 30 year mortgage to complete.

Now comes the arduous task of organizing and *gasp* decorating a new place. So you can doubtless expect another entry or two in my "Gotta Keep 'em Decorated" series. Also expect pictures. And foul language. And more blog posts from your favorite rocket scientist and music enthusiast.

Hville is the new Bham

2009-07-16T21:19:00.004-05:00

Hey there. How are you? Good, I hope. I'm doing fine. I've been neglectful of this blog again, but that record is sounding so broken at this point that it's hardly worth mentioning. It's been a couple of weeks. Lots of stuff has happened. The most exciting thing was meeting probably my favorite blogger ever, Colleen Kane. She, her husband, and a friend of theirs drove to Birmingham last weekend to watch Sonic Youth play at Sloss Furnace. Totally. Awesome. People. F'real. They ended up having an extra ticket so I went along with them to the show. For one reason or another I've never listened to much of Sonic Youth's music. After having the opportunity to see them live I've acquired several of their albums and have enjoyed all of them thoroughly. If you've never seen them perform I would totally suggest that you do it when you get the chance. It may even be worth a 6+ hour drive, but you'd have to ask Colleen about that.

The light show was pretty incredible, but not very conducive to pictures.

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The weekend before that a friend and I went to Auburn for the 4th of July weekend. It'd been about 6 months since I'd been back and it's amazing what can change in so short a time. It was a good time. I think I'll be trying to go back at least once every couple of months now, especially since my friend is willing to go along and split gas money. There's an awesome video/cd/book store in Auburn called Hastings that I always make a point to stop in when I'm there. Why, you may ask? Because on top of having a rad selection they also have shit like this:

That's Mr. Bacon and M. Tofu to you, bud.

I feel like Mr. Bacon should come with a lady on each arm. Maybe Ms. Cigarette and Ms. Whiskey. And maybe M. Tofu comes with, like, I don't know, Mme. Impotence or something.

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I've joined a dating site, which I've been thinking about doing for a while now. I've gotta tell you I was a little put off at first. Honestly I still am. I don't like the idea of paying $27 a month for 6 months. Especially when the first 'compatible profiles' the site returned that were even remotely promising lived no less than 100 miles from Huntsville. If that doesn't tell you what the dating pool here is like then I don't know what does. The latest batch of matching profiles is only slightly better, but still not good enough to justify a $180 commitment. I think I'm going to switch to another site before I just give up and start a credit line with an escort service.

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I'm sure you've all heard or at least are tangentially aware of the current troubles that the space program is facing. I mention it regularly on my Twitter stream (that still sounds dirty to me). Basically they are giving even stronger consideration now to canceling the Ares 1 program. Full disclosure: that's the fucking rocket that I happen to be working on. I don't want them to cancel it. Not for the sake of job security, either. I think that if they cancel (or 'redirect' or however they want to spin it) a program that we've spent 4 years and $3 billion on we'll never fully regain the trust of the public. I've got a lot to say about this, so it's probably best that I don't get too far into it right now. Perhaps another blog post. One of these days.

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Lastly, I've been on a big new music kick recently. I've discovered several new faves, all of which I hope to someday write at length about. For now, though, I'll just leave you with this music video for "Stillness is the Move" off of the new Dirty Projectors album, Bitte Orca. It's a fantastic listen and I recommend it. A lot. Even though the video is a little awkward and, according to the description on YouTube, features rare llamas.

They say it's your birthday

2009-07-04T14:36:00.004-05:00

This is going to have to be a really quick blog entry because I'm currently pilfering wireless from the video/book store while sequestered away in the kiddie fiction section. I'm in Auburn for the weekend and my gracious hosts didn't have gracious internets, but this place does! So fist off, Happy Birthday America! I like you sometimes, and with this new administration in place it seems that recently it's been more often than not. Though the idiots out there with their TEA parties can fuck right off. Not necessarily all of them, just the ones who are protesting simply for the sake of protesting without having a dime-store clue what they're talking about. So I hope everyone is enjoying their 4th of July celebrations and no one is losing fingers or any such thing.

More importantly though we should all wish this here blog a big ol' Happy 1st Birthday! Celebrations!

So what does one get a blog for it's first birthday? Well, I was planning on spending some time today giving my blog a total spa-treatment makeover with new widgets and colors and what-haves, but with my internets situation being less than ideal that'll just have to wait until tomorrow when I get back to Huntsville. Plus, honestly, every time I start fucking with html or xml or anything like that I just feel like a right damn idiot. Does not compute. So anyway I'm going to go because that family over there is starting to give me dirty looks. Maybe I'm a little too close to the Nancy Drew kiosk.

Happy First Birthday Blog!

What a way to make a livin'

2009-07-02T15:29:00.001-05:00

I'm sitting at work ~~without much to do~~ and not doing much. I've got things I should be doing, I'm just not. Know what that's like? It's as though I don't feel compelled to complete the tasks set before me. I've thought about this a lot. I've seriously got a half-dozen things I could be doing right now. Part of me feels like doing them is really pointless, though. As if the tasks are unimportant. How do you get over that feeling? When I say unimportant I mean that I'm fairly confident that at least half of the shit on my to-do list could go undone ad infinitum and no one would notice. Maybe even more than half. I don't really like that feeling, you know? I like my job and I'm certainly glad to have one but there are plenty of times, such as now, when I feel like I'm just doing busy-work. I think it's the only work there is to be done right now, though. In 5 years will someone be looking at the work I've done and say, "I'm glad someone took the time to do that. It's really saved our asses"?

Believe you me, I enjoy getting a paycheck for browsing the damn internet. It's a sweet gig. But I shouldn't be browsing the internet. I should be working on this other shit. I just honestly feel like I'm making just as much of a difference either way. These past two weeks have been keeping me busy. And by that I mean that I've been kept away from the computer. Hence the lack of blogging. But now that I'm back in front of the computer at my desk with no fires to put out here I am blogging again. Go figure. I guess I don't really know why I'm writing all of this shit. Just something to do, I suppose.

Long hot summer days

2009-06-29T22:31:00.006-05:00

The title of this blog* is the song I'm listening to off of Sara Watkins' eponymous debut. She's the fiddle player from Nickle Creek and her first album was produced by Led Zepplin's John Paul Jones. Sound interesting enough for you yet? Here's the track. It's pretty awesome.

I've gotta tell y'all something. I've been running this blog now for almost a year. It'll be exactly a year come the 4th. Yes, that's right kids. My blog was Born of the Fourth of July. But when I started it I didn't have a job. And then when I actually got a job I had a lot of downtime which I used to blog. I figured if I'm gonna spend 8 hours a day in front of a computer with only 2 hours worth of shit to do then I might as well Rock some things in my free time. Well, it's been a while since I Rocked something, ain't it? You know why? Because NASA apparently wants me to do shit on the clock now. How absurd! I've been busier than hell recently. If y'all know me at all you know that it takes some doing to get me to work past the 5 o'clock whistle. I've been at work until 7 PM or so at least 4 times in the last 6 work days. Before that I was at work at 7 AM! What kind of shit is that? But it's okay. I'm just getting adjusted is all. So that's the reason that my blog presence has been somewhat wanting as of late. I know, you've heard it all before. But them's the facts. So, instead of calling it quits, I'm going to have to start blogging on my own time. I shudder to think.

Anyhow so aside from being busy at work it also seems like since the summer started I've not really been home for more than an hour without being asleep (which is also MIA). Anyone else catching some of this action? What's up with that? Seriously, for the last two weeks at least it seems like as soon as I get home from work someone is calling about dinner or a bar or hiking or something. Not a bad problem to have, I think.

I've also met a girl or two in the past month, which should be a great thing. Of course we've all seen how well I deal with women so let's not go picking out drapes or anything. I'm not even sure if they're actually interested. Who saw that one coming? God I'm a schmuck. I'd totally be joining a dating site right now if it weren't for the fact that I'm trying to save money to buy a house. This is turning out to be an ordeal. The house-buying, I mean. And I guess the women thing, too. Natch.

Speaking of relationships, everyone say congratulations to Colleen who just got married! And she met her beau on the nets! So should the day ever come that I have discretionary income again I'll be begging her advice on how to best approach the e-dating situation because she obviously aced that shit. Also, read her blog because she's totally awesome. With any luck I'll be getting to meet her (and The F, er, H) in a couple of weeks when she sees Sonic Youth in Birmingham.

*It's also a perfect way to describe the ridiculous heat wave that we've been experiencing here. OH MY GOD.

A man in a gorilla suit

2009-06-19T17:31:00.009-05:00

I'm gonna go ahead and knock out the last of my Sasquatch! posts. Took me long enough AMIRITE?! I actually just sent an email today to one of the folks we met up there who's asked us to come visit him in Portland. I may take him up on that. I hear good things. Anyway so here are my notes from Monday, May 26th- the last day of Sasquatch! Music Festival.

Horse Feathers:
- All strings = awesome
- Like Great Lake Swimmers
- Kind of repetitive
- Better served in small venues
- Probably not a 'whole CD' band
- Hell yes play the saw! (Gotta love it when folks play the saw, right?)

These folks work hard to sound good.

Bishop Allen:
- Party music
- Good energy
- Catchy
- Good
- Uke!
- Probably better cause I'm drunk (Maybe my favorite note from the whole trip.)
- Harvard grads (Yeah, indie party music from Ivy League grads. Vampire Weekend much?)

Gogol Bordello:
- Fucking packed (It was ridiculous. The rush of people to get in front of the stage was mad.)
- Rock
- Pogo (I was jumping like I was 14 again and watching The Supertones.)
- Crowd loves it
- Awesome hot dancers (Always adds to a show.)
- No talking (My only complaint. They didn't even introduce songs!)
- Lots of sweat
- Lots of it (You pack 300 people into an area the size of a tiny apartment in 98 degree weather and see what happens.)

He hardly stopped moving long enough for photos

It kind of looks like those are my hands and I took this photo with my mind.

Fleet Foxes:
- 20 min late
- Young!
- Start out a capella
- Kind of boring
- Don't sound great
- Mandolin + keyboard = impressive (Playing them simultaneously, that is.)
- Warming up
- Awkward and quiet between songs
- Play well (It ended up being a good show but those guys are the antithesis of rock stars.)

Ahh! It's Sasquatch! Oh, no. It's just Robin Pecknold.

And that's it! Damn if I had realized that I would've just tacked this onto the last post. Heh. Oh well. We left early that day because we had to drive back to Seattle so we could fly out the next morning. So we missed a few acts but no one critical (Ben Harper, meh). As we were leaving:

Check out my sweet armband tan

As always feel free to look at the rest of the photos. You've seriously at least gotta check out the pics from the drive over there. Here's a preview:

So that's it for my trip to the great pacific northwest for Sasquatch! What do y'all think? Seems like a pretty good time, doesn't it? Now who wants to go with me next year?

He's a large out-of-focus monster

2009-06-14T11:15:00.011-05:00

Time for my notes from day two of Sasquatch! Music Festival. Let the record show that this was Sunday May 24th and I am in fact a total lazy-ass for just now getting around to putting this on my blog. Natch.

The Walkmen:
-Dude talks like he sings
-Sounds good
-Brought on horns from Calexico
-Triangle rock!
-Like to see 'em again
-Need to listen more often

Calexico:
-Lots of people in this band (7?)
-For some reason I expected them to be Spanish
-Lots of instrument switching
-Tons of energy
-Horns!

The Avett Brothers:
-Look different every time (Probably the fourth time I've seen them and they literally change their look every single time. Beard? Not this time, sucker! Long hair? Other brother, bro!)
-Open with "Laundry Room" (I think this is my new favorite of theirs.)
-So fucking great
-Love different arrangements
-Most I've heard 'em talk (They were pretty chatty this time around. Super humble.)
-Problems with bass
-New song? Title track, new album (They closed with "I and love and you" and it's a great track)

One of my favorite photos from the festival

I took a crapload of pics of the Avett Bros

Murder City Devils:
-Intense
-Hates mic stands (He was throwing the mic stand around the stage so much I was sure that he was going to hit someone.)
-Cute keyboard player
*We only watched them play 2 or 3 songs because the dude started ranting about "faggots and high school jocks" and we couldn't take it anymore

Zach Galiafinakis:
-Attacks the organizers for adverts (Great way to start a routine, by the way. There were stupid Verizon advertisements all over that beautiful venue.)
-Packed out!
-Hilarious
-St. Vincent (She came on stage and sang a song about choo-choo trains. It was great watching all these hipsters sing along with a ridiculous choo-choo train song)

Airborne Toxic Event:
-Don't know much about 'em
-Sounds good
-Love women on fiddle (Seriously. It's a condition or something.)
-Only the Boss can wear headbands
-Humble
-Depressing

He just can't pull of a bandanna like Springsteen

Nine Inch Nails:
-Sounds great
-Awesome lights
-Sitting up top (I was at the top of the amphitheatre for this performance smoking electronic cigarettes* with a friend of my brother)
-Pretty impressive
-Probably better solo (As in I'd like to see them again when they're headlining)

Er, Trent Reznor is in there somewhere.

Jane's Addiction:
-Knows how to work a crowd
-Awesome lights
-Dave Navarro? (Don't know why I didn't remember he was in this band. In case there was any question the answer is no, he was not wearing a shirt.)
-Shreds (Dude is impressive, for sure)
-This is how the pros do it
-I thought PF quit drinking
-Fed booze to the audience
-Talks about sex a lot
-Made a joke about midget fisting (Seriously. It was his segue into "Ocean size". Don't ask.)

Day two was effing awesome. The Avett Brothers may have been my favorite performance of the whole festival. Jane's Addiction was just impressive as hell to see live despite the fact that I've never really been into their music. They know how to put on a damn show, that's for sure. And Zach Galiafinakis was super funny.

"One thing I've learned is that looking like me it's hard to get a table for one at Chuck E. Cheese. Especially when you have a sketch pad. And ice cream truck music blaring out of your Subaru."

If you want to see more of my photos (there are a ton) the full album can be seen here.

*I'll probably end up buying on of these soon. They're so neat! And it seems like they're better for you being smoke free and all.

Run! He's fuzzy. Get outta here.

2009-06-11T15:02:00.009-05:00

Okay folks, here's the deal. You've heard me say on several occasions now that I've been too busy lately to keep up with my blog. At this point we've all gotta assume it's more than that. I mean I only posted like 4 times last month. How lame is that? But fear not, I'm not insinuating that I'm giving up on blogging but more something along the lines of "I'm gonna stop lying about starting to post more often." I think that would be best for all of us. I still haven't gotten around to posting about awesome Sasquatch! awesome Music Festival!! For Pete's sake! That was going to be a multi-part, massive blogapalooza about music and awesomeness but it's become apparent that I don't have the time/willpower to accomplish that goal. So instead what I'll do is transcribe my notes about each band and let you refer to my awesome pictures below for more proof of the awesomeness. I am really glad that I decided to keep a festival diary, lemmetellya. So here are the notes I took about the bands I saw at Sasquatch Music Festival.

First, let me show you our first impression of the main stage at The Gorge:

Beautiful, right? Does that even do it justice?

Now to the actual notes:

Vince Mira:
-Holy shit! (You like how my first note about the festival is utter amazement? Yeah, read on)
-Sounds like Johnny Cash (No seriously, EXACTLY like Johnny Cash.)
-Opened w/ Big River (Probably my favorite Cash song)
-17 years old (really!)
*Y'all have to watch this video to hear this guy. It's short but awesome. I took it with my phone so forgive the quality.

From Sasquatch Music Festival 05.09

AA Bondy:
-Small sound problems
-These guys rock
-Dig the lyrics
-Loud as fuck
-[Camping neighbors] like 'em
-Country song about vampires? I'm in.
-"I slept in my mom's car the other night. It's cool, she has better drugs than I do." (The singer said this at one point and I thought it deserved a quote!)

Doves:
-U2?
-Great venue for arena rock
-They even look like U2 (See photos for proof. Singer with shaved head and large, goofy glasses? Check. Guitar player with military cap and sleek sunglasses? Check.)
-Impressive drummer
-"Kindgom of Rust" (Must've been a song I enjoyed)

M. Ward:
-Elaborate soundcheck!
-Opened w/ "Chinese Translation"
-I love "Rave On"
-Violin player from DeVotchka (He joined for one or two songs)
-He's an awesome guitar player (I was surprised by this)
-All Post War and Hold Time (His two most recent albums)
-Maybe one from End of Amnesia (Another of his albums)
-Finished w/ "Roll over Beethoven" (How cool is that?!)

DeVotchka:
-It makes the people dance
-Carnival Rock
-He sings into two mics? (I've never seen that before)
-Very pretty music
-Finally some clouds (One of the few times we got shade during the days there.)
-They've sold me (I liked 'em before but their live show was awesome!)

Sun Kil Moon:
-Only know Tiny Cities (Their album of Modest Mouse covers)
-Sounds problems
-Meh
-Probably enjoyable for big fans
-Lots of old people here

Animal Collective:
-THEY SUCK

The Decemberists:
-Hazards of Love (They played the whole album)
-Goosebumps! (I got 'em)
-Margaret doesn't look like I thought she would.
-Neither does the Forest Queen. (Who completely stole the show, by the way)

*side note: It was during this concert (during "The Wanting Comes in Waves" no less) that two people began doing the no-pants dance on a bluff overlooking the main stage. The crowd and the band got a kick out of it until security busted up their amorous entwine. Nothing like sex in front of 20,000 strangers to get the evening started! Picture!

edit: I found equally blurry/kind of obnoxious video of the ordeal. God bless the internets.

Bon Iver*:
-30 minutes late (apparently they'd had some issues getting an inebriated Mos Def to finish his preceding set)
-Started out w/ "Flume"
-Wish he would play standing up (I was waaay in the back, check the photos)
-Some woman singing with him. Forest Queen? (It was indeed the same woman who'd performed with the Decemberists not 30 minutes prior. She's that awesome.)
-I like it when they play songs different than the album (They're prone to some jamming)
-Crowd participation (singalong!)
-Covering Katherine Edwards
-Tech difficulties so they can't perform certain songs? (It was a truncated set anyway because of the late start)

That was all for Saturday (just the first day!). I'll break the other two days up into separate posts so they're more readable and aren't a billion pages long. So I guess this will end up being a multi-part, massive blogapalooza after all. Though expect those other posts soon. Like maybe even later today.

Y'all really should go look at the rest of those pictures though because the scenery out there is just gorgeous. No lie. I love that place.

*I saw Bon Iver play this past weekend in Birmingham with Elvis Perkins making it the second time in less than a month that I've seen both of them play (bragging). The performance in Birmingham was effing awesome and I would definitely recommend that you see them play as soon as you can.

Bonus points to anyone who gets the title reference.

Shake it like a digital picture

2009-06-04T13:12:00.003-05:00

Okay I really have been trying to get a post out about Sasquatch! but I've been swamped, yo. So for right now just have a look at the album I put up. There are about 120 in all. I'll put some of the better ones into the blog entry about the festival. These were all taken with my phone, which has a built-in 5MP camera. As you will see, though, it also has its failures. I've never used Picasa before, but it looks like it's going to work. Please let me know if you have any issues looking at the pictures! Here's a nice slide show:

In my mach 5

2009-05-29T17:00:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-20T15:53:00.002-05:00

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

2009-05-14T15:50:00.005-05:00

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

- 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

2009-05-12T15:27:00.003-05:00

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.
--

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

2009-05-06T15:32:00.009-05:00

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.

Song-stravaganza

2009-04-29T14:23:00.001-05:00

In the spirit of the my last post, I figured I'd drop a quickie on y'all with a few of the bands I've been listening to this last week or two. I feel like a lot of these bands have been around a while and for some reason have just flown under my radar. Well, I knew about The Swell Season, but only insofar as I knew about Glen Hansard and Marketa Irlgova (because I saw Once, which is an incredible movie). I guess since I have the soundtrack I even technically had The Swell Season's CD without even knowing it. So, here's five songs from five bands I'm digging on presented without comment. Let me know what y'all think! And, more importantly, let me know about more good music to listen to!

Delta Spirit

The Felice Brothers

The Swell Season

Justin Townes Earle

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

I should say that I discovered a couple of these bands through the wonderful folks over at bham.fm and one of them through Rachael. So they deserve some of the credit. Give it to 'em.

And go love on Some New Trend while you're at it.

We ain't got no place to go

2009-04-27T15:28:00.005-05:00

I was trying to post every day last week but, as you probably didn't notice, I had to skip Friday. M'bad. The reason? I had a short work day filled with meetings and then upon leaving (at, like, 2:30) I had to go home and clean up the apartment because I had company coming in town. Yay, company! A friend from Atlanta came in town to visit and to see Against Me! with a bunch of folks. Yes friends, we are getting into concert season and it looks to be a good harvest this year. Here's the menu for the next month or so:

4/24 Against Me! and Pine Hill Haints in Huntsville
4/25 The Avett Brothers in Birmingham
5/3 Death Cab for Cutie, Ra Ra Riot, and Matt Costa in Nashville
5/23-25 Sasquatch! Music Festival in Quincy, Washington*
6/6 Bon Iver in Birmingham

That's all I've got planned so far. I feel like there's even some shows I'm forgetting. This should prove to be an excellent summer for a music fan. Also exciting is the Rocket City Brewfest coming up here in Huntsville on May 7th and 8th. I'll be volunteering on Friday night and drinking for free on Saturday! So, anyone who's planning on being at any of these shows/events should let me know! We'll have a meet-up.

The Against Me! show was awesome. It's been a while since I've been to a punk rock show. I forgot how much fun they can be. Especially when you're there with a bunch of friends and you know all the words. And you don't mind being covered in sweat and beer and jumping around like a fool.

I went to The Avett Brothers on Saturday in Birmingham at Sloss Furnaces. The weather was perfect for an outdoor venue. They played some of their new stuff, including one of my new favorite songs, "Laundry Room". Here's a video of them performing it:

How awesome is that song? Seriously. Those guys never cease to amaze me. "Last night I dreamt the whole night long/ I woke with a head full of songs/ I spent the whole day/ I wrote them down but it's a shame/ Tonight I'll burn the lyrics cause every chorus was your name."

Oh, and here's a couple of pictures I took yesterday evening on the lake behind my apartment. So nice...

^click for larger

So, folks, what concerts are y'all going to during this summer o' shows? Any that I need to be aware of?

*I've previously mentioned how excited I am about this. It is now less than 4 weeks away. ZOMG.

Apollo Rocks The EP, a trial

2009-04-23T16:33:00.004-05:00

A while back I had my first "Apollo Rocks It!" contest to come up with a great theme for a mixtape. Heather won with a kick ass idea. Sarah also had a good one, though, and I told y'all I would come up with an EP for hers. I've been putting it off because I wanted to try out the mixtape.me utility. I think this is going to be a good relationship. So here it is, the first of what I imagine could be a shitload of mixes that I put on the blog. For Sarah: "Apollo Rocks Holy Shit, Get the Fuck Outta Here!" (minus emo and scene music) The limits of their catalogue could be a problem eventually, but I think it'll work smashingly well for EPs. What do ya'll think?

*Okay upon trying to listen to it straight through I noticed that my Thin Lizzy stops playing at ~1:30. I haven't tried to listen to the others all the way yet. Is that happening to anyone else? The whole song is there, I promise. What's the deal mixtape.me?

Flash bang

2009-04-22T15:39:00.003-05:00

For a long time now I've had an interest in fiction writing. Mostly because I am constantly getting little snipets of dialogue or a story stuck in my head. I do the same thing with song lyrics, but for me it's easier to write songs for some reason. So while I've written probably a dozen songs or so over the past 5 years I can't say I've sat down and honestly attempted to write creatively (read: fiction) since I was in highschool. That was a long time ago.

A while back I discovered that a good friend of mine wrote flash fiction. When she told me that my mind went immediately to the gutter, as it is wont to do, with intricate dramas unfolding around college girls who liked to, uhm, show themselves. Upon being ~~slapped~~ corrected, I discovered that the actual definition was just as intriguing but for totally different reasons. It's like a hobby-kit for fiction writing!

I've read a good bit of it now and it's obvious that it takes a whole lot of talent to do well but just a little free time to do poorly. Free time I've got! There are, according to the All Mighty Wikipedia (May He Live Forever), even recognized subsets of flash fiction that are as short as 55 words! I don't necessarily know what it takes to be recognized as a 'subset' of flash fiction other than being published, but that's beside the point. Of course there is a challenge in trying to fit all of the classic story elements into such a short space, but I like challenges. I've even taken a shot today at writing something that fits that bill for Twitter. I didn't post it; it didn't go well. 140 characters is a hell of a limitation. Of course Ernest Hemingway predated all of this with his infamous, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn" which delivers some sort of story in about 33 characters. This kind of stuff is all over the place now. It's perfect for the internet. So I hope to write a little bit of really short fiction, some of which I may share here down the line.

I didn't put it on Twitter, but I likes yous guys so I'll embarrass myself by showing you the "Tweet-fiction" (coined?) I almost posted earlier:

"Z was loved by many, but the woman killed him anyway. His failures overtook his successes in sharp, stabbing steps. Blood poured cleansing."

Yeah, I know. It's a little morbid and not well-phrased. I really hate that last sentence. It's like chorus from a Misfits song. It's hard to convey a point with so little space. I do think that having 'characters' go by one letter is useful, though. So, for the writers amongst you with actual talent how would you go about telling a story in 140 characters or less? Care to share?

Milk, milk, lemonade

2009-04-21T15:12:00.002-05:00

This whole 'blogger awards' thing seems to have taken the internets by storm. Seems like every day I read a blog where someone has received an award from another blog and then passes it along like so much herpes; except more fun! So I realized that about a week ago Heather gave me The Lemonade Award because I commented on her post therein concerned. According to her, it is "an award given to sites which the giver shows either great attitude and/or gratitude." So if I'm reading that right, thank you, Heather, for showing me great attitude and gratitude. Upon accepting this award I am supposed to list 6 unimportant things that make me happy. I'm of the mind that anything that makes me happy is pretty damn important, but I'll give it the ol' college try. Here goes:

1) That first sip of coffee in the morning - Oh. My. God. Is there anything better? It seems like every day at work (and occasionally weekends) starts off with me sitting in my chair, taking a whiff of my fresh-brewed coffee, having a sip, and then melting in happiness. I usually don't reconstitute until after I've drank it all.

2) The blue herons around my apartment - They're simultaneously majestic and a little goofy-looking. I think there are about a half-dozen that live on the lake I walk around for exercise. I smile whenever I see them.

3) Going to the grocery store - Okay so this might not fall under the 'unimportant' category because, as Checker's is wont reminds us, you gotta eat. However, since I always wait until I have absolutely no edible food in the house, it's a great feeling whenever I come home with a trunk chock full of food. I realized recently that I buy mostly breakfast food, but that's a subject for another post.

4) New headphones - Now this is unimportant! I just bought a new pair of earbuds to replace the shitty ones that came with my ubiquitous mp3 player. These guys, actually. It's such a relief to be rid of the old ones. I don't have to worry about these falling out of my ears if I get particularly dance-y while on my walks.

5) Twitter - Yes, I'm addicted now. Damnit.

6) Cheesy Jokes - While I'd hardly argue that these are unimportant, some may. I've amassed quite a number of cheesy jokes over the last 5 or 6 years, all of which I'm too willing to share. Exempli gratia: A spark plug walks in to a bar and the bartender says, "Okay. I'll serve you, but you've gotta promise not to start anything." Or: What'd the fish say when he ran into a wall?? Dam... See what I mean? That's just two! I've got dozens of 'em, all tucked away somewhere in my head. Have you got one? I'd love to hear it. If I'm ever about to take a picture where I should be smiling, I'll typically think of one of these jokes so my smile doesn't look forced.

Okay so that was actually harder than I thought. Not sure if that reflects poorly upon my psychological wellness. The thing about these awards is that you're supposed to pass 'em along. So, here's two folks who have my gratitude: Sarah and LadyGlutter. F'real, though... make with the corny jokes people.

Complete uninanonomonitity

2009-04-20T14:58:00.004-05:00

Hey blog friends! I've been negligent recently in updating. I think I can fix that, though. I'm really glad that I got so many responses to my last post about a vision for Mars. I've spoken to a bunch of my rocket science friends and gotten their opinions on the matter, as well. One guy even drew a very apt comparison to the colonization of the Americas and the corporations which provided the funding. Interesting to think about, anyway.

I fully intended to put up some pictures today but I loaded them all on the computer at home and deleted them from my camera [No, Heather, not pictures of me. Still trying to maintain a little anonymity, here]. When I went walking last Friday I took some pictures on the trip. Kind of a 'step into my (painful) running shoes' idea. One thing I learned is that it's best to stop walking before you take photos, lest they come down with a case of the blurries. Oh well. You'll see 'em soon.

Is it lame that I'm trying to keep this blog a little anonymous? I realize that almost everyone who comments either knows me well or has hung out with me before. My justification is two-fold, really. The most important reason is that I occasionally write about work. There are plenty of people out there who have gotten fired for the things they wrote in their own time on their own website. While I don't think I've ever written anything so scandalous such that would warrant reprimand, I do know that other people might not agree with what I have to say. Which is fine, really. Unless those other people happen to be coworkers or bosses. The best way to avoid that little snafu is for me to keep my name/face off my blog. Sure, I know that there's a significant chance that no one in NASA has ever even heard of this site, or would care that I run it. I'm just being safe. That being said I also love establishing friendships with readers and would love to hear from anyone out there who reads but doesn't comment.

The second reason I keep my name/face off the blog is that I don't want family or (some) friends to know about it. I have my own reasons for that.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I think it's best. I wonder if it's not a little cowardly, though.

Neptune city here I come

2009-04-14T15:13:00.003-05:00

I've got a question for you sci-fi (not SyFy) fans out there. Actually, scratch that. It's more of a question for fans of space exploration. Are those two mutually exclusive? Whatever. I think it's kind of a question for fans of space exploration and sci-fi. Confused? Me, too. I've told you recently that I finished reading Red Mars and it has got me thinking a lot about Mars exploration. Being part of the whole space exploration effort has given me a sort of new prospective on the whole thing so I'm curious as to what y'all think about this. How important is Mars to your vision of space exploration? How should it be treated? Does anyone besides myself actually think about this stuff?

I suppose it might help to clarify my point. Or my question. Or whatever. One thing you may have picked up from reading my blog or any news source is that space exploration is fucking expensive. Really fucking expensive. Even before the recession the amount of money being spent was staggering. Staggering but, in my opinion, totally worth it. Now, with the recession on and people clamoring for massive cuts in government spending it will only get harder to convince voters that all that money is worth it. Even I have a hard time doing it, and I know about all of the benefits of the space program. So if the problem is funding, what do you do? I've always been a big proponent of doing whatever it takes to get the private space exploration sector off the ground (PUN!). I think that if anything could really get space exploration going it's avarice and greed. The problem comes when you try to turn exploration into a money-making venture. It's not so easy. Sure there plenty of potential breakthroughs that could come from extensive experiments in space, but those don't necessarily have the immediate revenue potential needed to justify the investment.

I feel like I need a shower after writing those last few sentences. Honestly, though, I'm all for unchecked greed if it can get billions of dollars invested in space exploration. I hate unchecked greed when it ruins/costs lives. It could certainly take some of the monetary burden off of NASA (and thus the taxpayer). And maybe some of the public scrutiny, as well. The tallest tree is the first one cut and all that. So, back to Mars. If you believe that Mars is critical to our future (like I do) would you be okay with letting big corporations strip-mine the planet for metals/resources if they were willing to put up the necessary capital to establish a permanent human presence? That was a mouthful. But that's basically the question that I've been chewing over for a few weeks. It's one of the major questions dealt with in Red Mars but the book doesn't deliver much for an answer. I think I'm okay with it. But then I think I need a shower. Is there anything wrong with letting someone else pay the tab this time?

I realize I probably won't get an answer to this question, but it's something to consider. Because at some point, even if you're not a fan of space exploration or sci-fi, your vote will be counted amongst the ones that make the decision. Either by direct vote or by voting for a policy-maker (e.g. a senator who thinks we just can't afford it all).

Then again we could just cut the fucking defense budget in half and double-fund NASA for the next 100 years without ever taking an extra dime from the taxpayer. There. I said it.

It's got one magic trick

2009-04-13T17:16:00.001-05:00

Gah! I've been meaning to update now for, like, 5 days or something. It just seems like every time I get a little bit of free time I blink my eyes and it has disappeared! Who's disappearing my free time? Well, there are a few culprits. First, Jim Dunn over at Raising Jacobzona. He runs a couple of blogs, both rife with the funny. Check him out. F'real! Second, the city of Birmingham. I was there this past weekend and, as is often the case, filled my 'free time' with 'alcohol' and 'friends'. Then there was this other mixtape I had to finish for The Mixtape Club in Birmingham. We really ought to come up with a better name... any suggestions? Anyhow the theme was "Mixtape Suicide Note". As in 'if you were going to kill yourself tomorrow, what songs can you find that would best describe why'? Not the most fun theme to ponder at length, folks. I'd post the tracklist here but then you'd be all like 'what the hell is his deal' and 'of course he'd pick a Danzig song'. Besides, out of all the mixes I've made in the past couple of years I can say I like that one the least. Probably because I wasn't too keen on the subject matter. Also because I was kind of in a hurry to finish it. We exchanged these mixtapes at a friend's 30th birthday party. Let me tell you suicide music does not liven up a party. Actually they weren't all super-depressing, Morrissey-esque ballads extolling the virtues of death. Mine even had some upbeat sounding alt-country! More specifically it had a song called "You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying" by Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs. Here it is:

Yes, that's a very British band playing very good country western music. So it really wasn't all that bad, you see. Tonight I'm going to try to go see Jason Webley at a house show in Huntsville. I'm curious as to why he's playing at a house. He seems to have a decent following. I'm sure he could've played at an actual venue. I'm actually a little wary of house shows, to be honest. Houses don't typically have enough room or decent enough acoustics to accomodate more than about 20 people comfortably. At least that's been my experience, anyway. Maybe this'll change my opinion.

Apollo Rocks Roots and Burial

2009-04-08T14:41:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I had a contest to celebrate my 100th blog post. Heather Rose won and has been ever so patiently waiting for her mixtape. I know, I should actually call it a mix CD, but I don't care what I should call it, I like calling 'em mixtapes. Seems cooler that way to me for some reason. Anyhow, Heather came up with the awesome idea of a Roots and Burial mix. This was intriguing to me because I can think of all sorts of songs about death, but not necessarily burial; family, but not necessarily roots and so on and so forth. So it was challenging and really fun to make. I finally got it done yesterday. I haven't technically delivered it yet, but I did make my own copy which I've been listening to since yesterday to make sure that it all worked the way I wanted it to. It did. Without further ado (and with warning to Heather that if she wants it to be a surprise then turn away now) I present the tracklist for what I hope to be the first of many "Apollo Rocks It mix contests.

1) William Elliott Whitmore - Digging my grave
2) Blind Lemon Jefferson - See that my grave is kept clean
3) Oakley Hall - Bury your burden
4) Great Lake Swimmers - I am Part of a Large Family
5) Eisley - Many Funerals
6) Rancid - Roots radicals
7) Tom Waits - Cold Cold Ground
8) William Elliott Whitmore - Cold and Dead
9) Pine Hill Haints - Don't Wait for Six Strong Men
10) The Ramones - Pet Sematary
11) H2O - Family Tree
12) Modest Mouse - Bury me with it
13) Talking Heads - Pull up the Roots
14) Old Crow Medicine Show - Beech Creek Dirge
15) Tom Waits - Dirt in the Ground
16) Alisdair Roberts - A Lyke-Wake Dirge
17) The Pogues - Worms

I'm still working on the cover design. Since I don't have a printer at home it takes some doing. Once that's done, though, it's all hers. And mine. Cause I'm totally keeping that mix forever. What songs would you have put on this mix if it were yours to make? There were probably six songs that were on the bubble for me but didn't make the cut.

Now I've just got to finish the Suicide mix that I'm supposed to be doing for my Mixtape Club. Yeah. I know. Depressing theme, right? Once that one is done I'll probably post that tracklist here as well.

Do y'all think I should keep doing these? Cause I get a kick out of making mixtapes. I can imagine that Heather won't have a problem trying to win 'em all.

A rocket's not an easy thing to make

2009-04-06T12:46:00.003-05:00

Well these last two weeks were pretty busy for yours truly. This past week was especially so because not only was work pretty hectic but I also had some friends in town from Wednesday to Saturday. This, of course, was occasion to drink. A lot. And I also got a girl's number on Friday night who I've kinda been crushin' on for a bit. Good times! Things should settle back down this week, though. That should give me more time to attend to my bloggin'. I'm almost done with Heather's awesome mix. It's been a fun challenge and it's pretty dern good if I do say so myself. I'm hoping to have the tracklist up here for y'all tomorrow.

Okay so I don't know how many of you have been following the trials and tribulations of NASA's Ares program. I'm pretty sure I've blogged about this before but it's starting to come up in the news again so I thought I should revisit it. Ares is the name of the rocket that's meant to replace the Space Shuttle for the U.S.'s future human space exploration. The Space Shuttle is (as of now) retiring late next year. It's been used now for almost 30 years and is getting a little too risky to operate without major, expensive upkeep and changes. So NASA decided about 5 years ago to go with a design that looks like this:

The Ares I is on the right in that picture and is meant to be used primarily for human transport to the moon and, eventually, Mars. Hence the name. The one on the left is the Ares V and is being designed as a 'heavy lifter'. In other words it'll be taking on the Space Shuttle's cargo-carrying duties. The main reason the Space Shuttle is still in use today is that nothing else available can carry large cargo (like Colbert, the new module for the International Space Station). I'm working on a part of the Ares I project that keeps it steady during launch and ascent.

There has been a lot of to-do about the problems and delays with the Ares I program. It is, per NASA's own schedule, already at least a year and a half past it's initial launch target of 2014. Some people are saying that it's more like 3 years behind schedule. It's hard for me to say. It's such a massive undertaking that trying to make it adhere to some schedule seems to me like a fool's errand. Lot's of people are calling for a complete cancellation of the Ares I program. That, to me, seems like throwing the baby out with the bath water. Yes, there are lots of problems with the Ares program, but so much time and money has been invested in its development that it would be a travesty just to abandon it. And it would probably completely kill NASA in the court of public opinion. That is the absolute last thing we need. I'm saying this not as an aerospace engineer but rather as a person who has watched science, mathematics, and engineering take a backseat in this nation's mind and its education systems. LadyGlutter recently spoke to this on her blog. It's all a big mess. To be honest I've never really been a fan of the Ares I design. It seemed too derivative of the Apollo program to me. I don't think it's a design that spurs a lot of innovation. That being said I will stick behind this design because it's the one that we've been working so diligently on. I'm not really worried about my job security, though maybe I should be. I just think that backing out of the Ares program this far into development would be devastating to the U.S. space program. Plus, without going into a lot of detail, most of the proposed alternatives aren't so hot themselves.

I hope I'm making my point clear. It's hard for me to elucidate how I feel about the current direction of the space program because I'm embroiled in it. That's kind of why I started this blog entry -- to clear up in my head what I think about all of this. Feel free to ask me any questions you have about this whole mess. It may even help me understand. I think this song (by one of my favorite bands EVER) may well sum it up:

In other news, SPACE ROBOTS.

Teenagers from Mars and we don't care

2009-03-31T11:37:00.002-05:00

First let me say that Heather Rose totally had the best mixtape idea- Roots and Burial. I'll be making a sweet mix for her real soon-like. As for the other ideas- Sarah's "Holy Shit, Get the Fuck Out of Here" (minus emo music) mix I think I'll put together a quick list of awesome escape/getaway music here soon, too. And dear LadyGlutter wants some good road music. To that I say please get yourself a copy of the soundtrack from Motorcycle Diaries. Absolutely awesome for roadtrips. Lots of classical guitar. Good thinking music. Thanks for all the ideas, y'all! I'll probably do this again sometime. I like it! I only wish I had the time to make 'em all.

I just finished reading Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's the first book I bought and read on my Kindle, by the way, and that's totally awesome. As a matter of fact when I finished reading it I was in the midst of a meeting that I knew was going to last a few hours more so I went ahead and bought the second book in the series and started reading it. How cool is that? Anyhow, back to the book- it was really good. It is a science fiction novel about the beginning of human colonization of Mars. It focuses specifically on 'the first 100', the group of scientists and engineers that were sent to set the foundations of the colony. I don't know much about Robinson but I discerned this much - the guy knows his stuff about the science. He discusses at length everything from the health effects of zero-g environments, the geography of Mars (a lot of this), to the physics of the voyage from Earth. If you're not science-minded it may even be a little heavy.

Don't let that deter you from reading it, though. I found that I could kind of skim some of the more overscienced parts without losing any of the heart of the story. And boy is the story compelling. It deals primarily with the relationships between the scientists and the work they do. There is a lot of politicking going on, as can be expected. The story is divided into about ten different parts. Each part deals with a new phase in the development of the colonies on Mars. The whole book is written in the third-person but each segment focuses on a different person in the 'first 100'. This, in effect, eliminates the standard 'protagonist/antagonist' storytelling mode which makes for an interesting reading experience. No matter whether or not you like a character in the story you are probably going to be made to see things from their perspective before it's all said and done.

It may also challenge what a lot of people consider to be "science fiction". There are no three-boobed aliens a la Total Recall (rats!). No laser-pistols. No warp drives. It's really a story about struggling to live amongst a small colony in a truly harsh, alien environment. It could draw a lot of comparisons to the popular frontier literature of the 1800s. I would definitely suggest this book to people who get a little tingly when thinking about space exploration. It accomplishes the amazing task of delivering a great human drama while simultaneously making me all wistful for another life. On Mars.

You shouldn't have!

2009-03-25T16:14:00.002-05:00

This is my 100th blog post! Yaaaaay! Wait... where's the confetti and balloons? And isn't there supposed to be cake or something? No presents?! What kind of celebration is this? Well you know what? I didn't want any cake or presents anyway. That's right. Yeah. Who needs 'em? Not me, that's for sure. Cake is bad for you. And I've got plenty of stuff so I don't need no more stupid presents. I could hardly fit anymore stuff in my apartment because it's so full of cool stuff.

This blog hasn't been nothing but trouble any how. I mean, sure I've gotten some cool new friends. Yeah, maybe I have used it to sort out a few issues. I've even challenged myself to write a dumb music review or two for it... Well, maybe on second thought it ain't been so bad. I guess it's actually pretty cool! Okay well I guess I'll be going now. I'll come back tomorrow if I've got the time.

Oh, you know what? I've got an idea. In honor of my 100th blog post I'll post a kick ass play list for the person who comes up with the best mix-tape theme. If you're awesome enough (and I have time) I might even make the damn thing and mail it to you. How does that sound? I'll decide at the end of the week. And if no one posts any ideas I'll just make one up.

There's cake at 1000, right?

You stick around, I'll make it worth your while

2009-03-20T15:30:00.007-05:00

It's a beautiful day outside. I wish I wasn't at work. Then again I'd probably wish I wasn't at work even if it were pissing rain and freezing outside. But it's not; it's sunshiny and 65 degrees. I can't wait to leave work and go for a walk around the lake.

I still haven't called Old Flame back. I will. I just keep putting it off. I'll probably call her today while I'm on my walk. I'm not looking forward to it but she deserves the call. I'm pretty sure that once I'm off the phone I'll be wanting a stiff drink, so I'm hoping that tonight is a good one.

Taking a day and a half off from work in the middle of the week really killed my productivity. I feel like I haven't been able to get anything done. I may have killed one too many brain cells on Tuesday night. Poor guys, I should really get 'em something for treaing them so bad recently. Maybe a new book?

Now for my top five good-weather/sunshine albums. These are the ones that are perfect for a day at the park with your dogs, your lovers, and your dog lovers. So break out the frisbees, hacky sacks, and Nerf footballs then crank the stereo up, folks.

1) Bling Melon - Blind Melon -- This 1992 classic has to be my all-time favorite park album. The music is so sunny! If you can get over the tragic death of lead singer Shannon Hoon and the mostly depressing lyrics, that is. Just listening to "No Rain" makes me think of sunny days with friends.

2) Bob Marley - Legend -- What better music for sunshine than the best-selling reggae album of all time? Plus, it features arguably my favorite song ever, "Redemption Song".

3) Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty -- I think that the Beastie Boys made some of the best feel-good music to come out in the 90s. This is probably my favorite of theirs.

4) Rancid - And Out Come the Wolves -- I remember hearing this album when it came out in 1995 and knowing that I'd love it forever. It's just filled to the brim with punk rock angst and California sunshine. May still be a toss-up with Let's Go for good-weather goodness.

5) The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds -- This album pretty much defined sunny weather music. I couldn't leave it off the list, could I?

Also ran: Sublime by Sublime and Odelay by Beck.

Now that I've got myself in a rockin' good mood I think I'm going to cut out of work early and head to the park with my hacky sack, a six-pack, and my friends. Any music suggestions?

Say what now?

2009-03-19T13:50:00.000-05:00

I had a good time in Birmingham celebrating my birthday and St. Patrick's day. I'm pretty sure I drank all of the Guinness. All of it. There was also a lot of whiskey and Irish Car Bombs. I saw a bunch of friends I don't normally get to see, which was cool. I hate that I couldn't spend time with all of my Huntsville friends, but I'm glad I went back for the night.

That's not to say that the night was without its drama, though. Towards the end of the evening I ran into an Old Flame. She and I had a relationship that lasted about 3 months and ended over a year ago. We have a good mutual friend so this wasn't the first time I've seen her since we stopped talking. That's how the relationship ended, by the way - we just stopped talking (apropos of the entire relationship, honestly). No big fight or sobbing phone calls. Just stopped talking. You may judge me poorly for letting that happen but, hey, here we are more than a year later and she's telling me she loves me... Yeah. What. The. Hell. Can you say OUT OF THE BLUE? We never even said that to each other when we were together! I mean I had gotten the impression a couple of months ago that she was still attracted to me but I didn't think it was anything like this. She wants to get back together. She kept saying it, drunkenly. My only response was, drunkenly, "Why would it be any different this time?" to which she had no real answer.

I don't have any intention of getting back together with her. I think she picked up on that because when she left she was crying. A lot. That really made me feel like a dick. She called me yesterday. I didn't answer. She left me a message to call her back. I haven't yet. I am going to call her, I'm just going to let her cool down for a day or two first. I feel like I need to handle this delicately. Any advice?

Where streams of whiskey are flowing

2009-03-17T10:28:00.001-05:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Today's my birthday! Yay! I'm 26 years old and I don't feel a day over 40. I am at work right now. It's probably the first time I've worked or gone to school on my birthday in a really long time. It's always been a policy of mine to take my birthday off. I'm only working til lunch, then I'm going to get a haircut (finally!) and heading back to Birmingham. I'm taking tomorrow off for rest and rehabilitation. The good thing about having a birthday on St. Pat's is that everyone else is celebrating, too. One of the main reasons that I'm going back to Birmingham is that, honestly, I plan to stay out late getting all boozed up proper and I just don't know that many people in Huntsville who are willing to do that during the workweek. Totally understandable, really. In Birmingham, though, I know a number of people who have night jobs and don't necessarily need to be at work tomorrow. Lucky me, huh? So there will be much Guinness and Irish Car Bombing tonight. Tomorrow I will feel like death warmed over but I'll get to see my family and do the birthday thing with them. My mother and her husband came into Huntsville on Sunday to bring me presents and cake. It was awesome. When I was living in Auburn my mother always made a point to come down on my birthday which is totally awesome of her.

Now for a quick list of my St. Pat's must-listen songs:

1) Dropkick Murphys - Barroom Hero
2) Flogging Molly - Death Valley Queen
3) The Pogues - Dirty Old Town
4) The Dubliners - Whiskey in the Jar
5) Tommy Makem - Wind that Shakes the Barley
6) Dropkick Murphys - Finnegan's Ball
7) The Pogues - Streams of Whiskey
8) Against Me! - Pints of Guinness Make Me Strong
9) Clancy Brothers - Whiskey You're the Devil
10) The Dubliners - Wild Rover
11) The Descendants - Lucky Charm
12) Bondo - Fuck You I'm Drunk
13) Flogging Molly - What's Left of the Flag

In all honesty, though, I'll be listening to nothing but Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly today. Hope y'all have a good one!

We'll, uh, listen to beautiful music together

2009-03-13T15:46:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to write this post for a while but I knew I wouldn't be able to do it at work because it'll take some doing. I've mentioned before that I really like making mix CDs. I treat each one like an awesome assignment. Like I'm going to make a mix CD and some record company/pretentious rock magazine will stumble across it and begin paying me to put together awesome albums. Like that. Anyhow I've been working on this one mix for a long time. It's my "Beautiful Songs" mix. It's been long in development because I had to define for myself what exactly I think a beautiful song is. I eventually came to an admittedly weak definition: a song that forces you to stop and listen. I know it's a weak definition, but it worked for me. There are hundreds of really pretty songs that I love that don't quite make the 'beautiful' cut. For instance right now I'm listening to Bon Iver, a chap who makes pretty, good music. I just wouldn't call his songs beautiful. So, without further ado, here's my latest "Beautiful Songs" revision, with some descriptions. These are not in any particular order.

Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah -- Hands down without a doubt the most beautiful song I've ever heard. I could probably write an entire essay about the way this song makes me feel.
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water -- The original and best version.
Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Loving You -- Background choir, 'nuff said.
Stevie Wonder - Ave Maria -- First time I heard this I had to pull my car over and listen to it again.
Jolie Holland - Grey Funnel Line -- I absolutely love her voice and this old shanty is as good as it gets. The lilting accordion in the background really does it for me.
Elvis Presley - There Will Be Peace in the Valley -- Ain't nothing prettier in this world than some old church music, especially when sung by one of the most prolific voices ever.
Alison Krauss - Down to the River to Pray -- See above. Plus, acappella!
Don McLean - Vincent -- I'm really a sucker for McLean's song-writing (his alliteration kills me!) and this song is such a beautiful tribute to another artist.
Willie Nelson and Ray Charles - Seven Spanish Angels -- Two of the greatest ever. Together, man!
Sarah MacLachlan - Arms of an Angel -- Yeah. I know. It's cliche as hell. But damn she's got a beautiful voice. I can't deny this song.
Everly Bros- Unchained Melody -- Probably one of the first songs I ever fell in love with.
Sigur Ros - All Alright -- It's all the beauty of Sigur Ros but in english!
Denali - Time Away -- Why this band was overlooked I'll never understand.
Chuck Ragan - Geraldine -- Every time I hear it I have to call my mother and tell her I love her.
Fleet Foxes - Meadowlark -- Picking one Fleet Foxes song that characterized the beauty of their music was hard. This is probably the best of 'em, though.
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees -- When they played this live in Atlanta in 2002 I honestly had to sit down like a tween at a Jonas Brothers concert. That's how much this song affects me.
Radiohead - Nude -- Picking one song that characterized the beauty of Radiohead's music was impossible.

The whole time I was writing those notes I was thinking, "Man, you could've put this song on there!" Mind you that this is a list of songs meant to fit onto one CD, otherwise I'd go on for miles. So there's that. It'll likely be different in a month. What do you think are the most beautiful songs?

Here's one that'll probably be on the list at some point. Damn Willie and his smooth layered vocals.

Don't want security to get suspicious

2009-03-12T14:24:00.001-05:00

I'm at work doing some online IT Security training. Nevermind the fact that I just did last year's training a little over a month ago when I started. I've got all the time in the world to drop what I'm doing and dedicate an afternoon to common-sense training in computer security. Really? I shouldn't print secret information and then leave it in a coffee shop? Really? I shouldn't download viruses? Really? No porn at work? Well I guess I've just been DOIN' IT WRONG.

Time for a cup of coffee. I need something to take the edge of this exciting adventure in ass-hattery.

In completely unrelated news I am feinding for some Oreos right now. They are NOT diet-friendly. Since I'm going to eat ze German food tonight I don't think it's in my belly's best interest to hit up the snack machine. Stay strong, Apollo. Stay strong.

I think I just twit myself

2009-03-11T19:03:00.002-05:00

Yep. I did. I twat?

Let's see how this works out.

ITP: I watches the Watchmen

2009-03-10T10:15:00.002-05:00

I went and saw Watchmen last night. It was so fucking good. I think I'd like to go see it again. It's been a long time since I wanted to see a movie twice (or more!) in the theatre. As a general rule I don't enjoy going to movie theatres because, well, they suck. I don't like people and at movie theatres people are always around trying to ruin my hard-earned, well-spent dollar. Luckily there is a kick-ass movie theatre here with a few view-and-brew auditoriums and big, comfy chairs. Sure it's a little pricier than I'd like ($13!) but since I don't go that often it's worth it to splurge.

Without going into too much detail I'll say that I thought they did a fantastic job of telling the story and conveying the mood of the original book even if they did have to leave some stuff out. I understand and like the changes they made at the end. The two people I went with had not read the novel and they both enjoyed it a lot. It's definitely something that you could watch a dozen times and still not pick out all the details. The sound quality was astonishing and the visual style and effects were breath taking. I'm trying not to sound too much like a fanboi here but OMG THE MARS SCENES NOMNOMNOM. That shit gave me goosebumps. Okay I'm done now. Whew. Anyhow if you haven't seen it GO SEE IT and if you haven't read it GO READ IT, TOO.

Oh, and you'd probably want to abandon all humanity too if you had as bad a case of blue-balls as Dr. Manhattan. *rimshot*

Aparmentalism

2009-03-09T15:22:00.002-05:00

Man I've been for real slacking on my blog lately! What's up with that? I mean I've been keeping kind of busy at work, sure, but I should still make time to update. I think I'll try to do better about that. I think I also want to stop doing as many 'diary' entries as I've been doing lately. You know what I mean - those entries where I just talk about my weekend and shit like that. I kind of like writing them but I don't think they really say much. I think I could probably do better to put some actual content on here. That's my plan, anyway. We'll see how well it plays out.

I do have to tell you that I went back to Birmingham this weekend and saw my nephew who is effin' tiny and adorable. I also don't think I'll be seeing Date Girl again after this past weekend. I will likely expound upon that in a later post. I also drank like a fish.

I still haven't seen The Watchmen yet. I know, right! What's my deal? I'm going to try to go tonight or sometime later this week. Speaking of later this week I'm going to be having dinner with Ari and Heather Rose and I'm totally stoked about it. We'll be having German food at Ol' Heidelberg. Tasty!

Bob Dylan is one of my favorite musicians. Lyrically he just can't be beat. I've talked about him before on here. He has a show on XM Radio called "Theme Time Radio Hour". Each episode has a different theme and Bob Dylan picks songs pertinent to the theme. Bob Dylan makes the playlist! When I heard about this show I considered subscribing to XM Radio. Just for that show. Seriously. Anyhow I do have Sirius Radio in my car and now that they've merged I could hear his show if I decided to go driving around every time it was on. I imagine that might get expensive. All that to say this: I found an online mp3 archive of all of the shows! How cool is that? It's all I've been listening to since I found it. Here's the link. Love on 'em a bit.

Lastly I'll say that this has been on my mind a lot lately. It's an article about why renting can be better than buying a house. I told myself when I moved here that I would rent for a year and then buy a house but, honestly, I don't think I want to. Not just because of this article, either. I don't like the idea of being tied to a property for 3 or 4 years before you can get out without a loss. How do you homeowners out there feel about this?

Uncle slacker

2009-03-04T13:52:00.004-06:00

So I've been pretty busy at work this week and haven't had much time to blog. You would think that maybe I would do it when I get home but, uh, eff that. Work is for blogging. I don't really have much time right now but I'm going to make time. You know why? Because I love you. That's why.

So, big news first. My brother and his wife had their second child on Monday! So I'm an uncle^2. Pretty cool, huh? It's another baby boy, too. He's got an older brother that turned two in December. I imagine that house will not be a fun place to be when the babies aren't happy. Good thing they aren't mine and I don't live there!

I, too, have a new baby now. His name is Kindle. He loves reading. What's that you say? You want to see pictures of him, too? He's adorable.

Really though it's pretty damn cool. I am still amazed by the e-ink technology they use in these things. I imagine that within a few years they will be able to do color images and that will completely change the world of print media forever.

In other news, I feel like for the last two days I have been not-all-here. No idea why, either. Weird, huh? Like the last two days are just kind of a montage of cold weather and bright images. Hopefully this feeling will go away soon.

I'll leave you with this image. It was taken at the Salvation Army store in Cullman, Alabama this past weekend. It is the most disturbing anti-drug poster I believe I've ever seen. If they had put these around my elementary school I think I'd be a wholly different person right now. Click for full size. Believe me it's worth it.

With Leonard Nimoy kickin' out the jams

2009-02-27T17:52:00.002-06:00

I've got my tickets. It's official. I'm going to the Sasquatch! Music Festival!!! Here is a list of bands I'm stoked about seeing, in no particular order:

The Decemberists
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bon Iver
Devotchka
M. Ward
Sun Kil Moon
Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele
Jane's Addiction (original lineup!)
Nine Inch Nails
The Murder City Devils
The Avett Brothers
M83
Calexico
The Walkmen
St. Vincent
AA Bondy
Ben Harper and Relentless7
Fleet Foxes
Gogol Bordello
Grizzly Bear
Blitzen Trapper
Beach House
Chromeo

That's not even all the bands that are playing! Best. Memorial Day. Ever.

Oh, and there'll be a comedy tent there, too. Tim and Eric! Zack Galifianakis! Demetri Martin!

And there is some band called Natalie Portman's Shaved Head. What is that about?

It's okay. You can be jealous.

Going nowhere fast

2009-02-26T14:12:00.003-06:00

I've been pretty busy with work lately so I haven't been able to update as much as I'd like. I'm trying, though! Speaking of keeping busy has anyone been paying attention to the Alabama State Legislature this year? (WARNING: IMPENDING RANT) I'll go ahead and tell you now that I try to pay a lot of attention to Alabama politics, especially when the legislature is in session. There are two primary reasons for this. The first and foremost is that I think it's important for people to be aware of the politics in their area so, if nothing else, they can be part of the discussion. The second is that Alabama politics is hilarious. Watching the Senate do its 'thing' is like watching the Keystone Cops. As soon as they're in session people start wondering, "Gee, I wonder what those wacky overpaid assholes are going to get into this year? Is there going to be another fistfight on the Senate floor? Are they going to fail to pass an education budget again? What could they possibly do this year to top themselves?" If any of you pay any attention to Alabama politics you'll know what I'm talking about.

For those of you that are unaware of the nature of the beast I'll give you a quick fill-in. The Alabama State Constitution is the active longest constitution in the world. It has 798 amendments. 798! It was written in 1901 and meant to centralize all of the power in the state to the capital, Montgomery. Almost no authority was given to local government. So anytime, say, Limestone county (most recently) wants to make bingo legal they have to amend the constitution of the state, meaning it has to go through the state legislature. So in any given legislative session in the state of Alabama you'll see an untold number of bills dealing with small municipal affairs. As you may imagine this slows things down a bit. Adding to that hurdle is the fact that personal vendettas in the Senate lead to a whole lot of useless filibustering and backstabbery. Seriously. PERSONAL VENDETTAS. These are the type of people that'll punch you in the face, after all. And in the Alabama Senate if you mean to filibuster apparently all you have to do is tell the legislative body that you mean to filibuster and they just leave for the day. Ever seen Mr. Smith goes to Washington? The final scene where Jimmy Stewart is giving his hours-long, impassioned speech in defense of his position to prevent a bill from going before the House? NOT IN ALABAMA. No sir. All you have to do is imply that you'd be willing to do that and they just give right the fuck up.

Currently, the Senate is being held up by Sen. Poole (D) from Tuscaloosa county. He is filibustering his own bill. HIS. OWN. BILL. Why? Because he knows it'll get shot down and he doesn't want that to happen. It has to do with sewage piping in his county. I don't know why it'd be shot down but I bet it's because this guy is a dick. He has said before that he will not quit. They are in session for 28 weeks and he full well intends to filibuster 'em all until he gets his way. To pass a sewage reallocation bill for Tuscaloosa county... Stops the entire Senate legislative process in its tracks... NOW YOU SEE WHY THIS IS SO FUN?

Oh, and one of the other main reasons I pay attention to this is the Gourmet Beers bill. It always helps to have a horse in the race, so to speak.

Nights like these

2009-02-23T14:57:00.002-06:00

Well the last few days have been fun. I went and got more German food last Thursday for dinner (yes, more schnitzel). I've taken to walking around the lake at my apartment complex every day when I get home from work so I'm attempting to eat a little healthier and drop some of the weight I've put on. Obviously eating schnitzel doesn't fall into this scheme but it's effin' tasty and I allow myself a few transgressions. I shouldn't let myself do that, though. Especially not before I go to Birmingham like I did this past weekend. When I'm in Birmingham I pretty much eat whatever my dad has around the house and it ain't what you'd normally call healthy. I try, though. I try. Then I get drunk and go to Waffle House. Two nights in a row. Fuck.

The Lucero show was awesome. I got to hang out with some friends of mine that I don't see too often AND I saw a kick ass rock show. AND I got blitzed drunk. On Irish whiskey and Pabst, no less. Momma sure woulda been proud. Then I went to Waffle House with my equally drunk friend and struggled to finish my All Star Breakfast while the serving staff unburdened their souls on us. That seems to happen to me a lot when I go there.

More Lucero music:

On Saturday I got to hang out with my family and celebrate my mom's birthday. Since all of the ideas she gave me for gifts were hella lame I decided I'd blow her damn mind with my awesome gifting prowess and bought her 3 tickets to a Cirque de Soleil performance here in Huntsville in April. Yeah, that means I have to go, too. YOU SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE? After dinner with the fam I went down to Speakeasy and started knocking back Guinness like it was the antidote. My ex was there and lately she's been acting like she either wants to get back together or do the no-pants dance again. Ugh. Date Girl and her friend came and met me out there, too. The last time my ex was around and I payed attention to another girl she started acting a little like a needy harlot so I was expecting the worst. I was able to keep that from happening this time without too much effort, though. It was a fun time. We shot pool and I totally beat the crap out of 'em all manly and efficient-like. I've never been a student of the 'let the girl win' school. At least not in pool, anyway. I decided to hold off on calling her and talking about 'us' last week even though I said I would. It was too early. It still may be a little early but I think I will do it sometime this week. If I can adequately express to her that I want more than friendship without sounding like I'm pressuring her then I think it'll go well. Of course I don't know how she'll react, but we'll see.

Oh, I got a speeding ticket yesterday. I hate that shit. I felt like explaining to the officer that the reason I drive fast is to get away from the other idiots on the road and to get off the road as quickly as possible but I don't think I could've properly made my point without screaming, cursing profusely, and smoke coming out of my ears.

Tennessee

2009-02-18T12:43:00.003-06:00

I've been thinking a lot recently about Date Girl and my vacillation about a relationship. First, let me say that I'm certainly putting the cart before the horse here because I don't even know if she's interested. I didn't get any strong signals from her when we were together and to be honest it's just convenient for me to blame that on something like the 'fog of medication'. I was wrong to do that and I've realized it (thanks, Sarah). That may well be the case but it could just as easily be - and in fact, more than likely is - my inability to read women in general. This would be a great Cyrano case. It's frustrating, that's for sure. I think I'll call her tonight and try to talk to her about things. I think I can do that without coming off as too forward and pushy, right? The more I think about it I really would like to see her again. Really.

--

I totally ate schnitzel for lunch today. Jealous?

--

I'll be in Birmingham (again!) this weekend. I'm going to see Lucero with a bunch of friends at Bottletree on Friday night. It looks like it may be an epic evening. Saturday I will probably get together with my family to celebrate my mother's birthday, which was Monday. I still need to buy her something. My whole family just plain sucks at birthdays. Gift cards? Really? That's all you effin' want? LAME. Anyhow I'm planning on seeing Date Girl sometime this weekend and I think I'll just have to cowboy up and see how she feels about me.

Lucero's song "My Best Girl" off the album Tennessee.

--

Any snazzy web designers out there want to give me some cheap/free advice on how to change my blog layout? By that I mean suggestions both stylistic and code-tastic. I'm getting tired of this design. I'm also considering moving this to my own url and off of blogspot. Not that I'm having any problems with blogspot but urls are cheap and it would give me more control of the format.

--

I'm driving to Tennessee after work to stock up on quality beer. Free the Hops, Alabama!

Bad medicine

2009-02-16T14:34:00.002-06:00

The date went well. I went and picked her up and we went to get sushi. Nothing says first date like raw fish and sake! She told me all about her career and we laughed a lot and seemed to get on pretty well. Afterward we went to this bar in Birmingham that I'd been wanting to check out called Black Market Bar. It's owned by a guy that used to run a punk venue I went to a lot when I was a teenager. He also owns another bar in Birmingham called Speakeasy. Both are quality places. While we were at the bar she showed me pictures of her artwork. She spent a year in school to learn metal-working so she does a lot of cool sculpture work. We stayed at the bar drinking Guinness for a few hours and talked about all sorts of stuff. I took her home and we hung out at her place for a bit. It was kind of awkward there because I wasn't sure if she wanted me to make a move or not and I'm certainly not one to risk it. Especially when sober, which despite my best efforts I was. She's a pretty reserved and shy girl so that made reading her pretty difficult.

Before I left I told her I'd see her this coming weekend. I mean to, too. Here's the killer, though. I don't know that there's anything between us. Here's how I figure it: She's sweet, smart, sexy, likes Guinness, and knows how to weld. Those are all in my plus column for sure. There is one big thing in the minus column, though - she takes meds for some psychological issues. Not like Prozac for occasional bouts of depression, either. I don't think she's crazy but apparently she does and her doctors agree. I have a general distrust of the pharmaceutical industry and I think that this country as a whole is incredibly over-medicated, especially when it comes to psychological issues. The way I see it is that if you're going to take meds for something it'd better be a cure because otherwise you wind up with dependency issues. She feels like she can't live a normal life without her medications. When she told me that I couldn't help but wonder what type of person she was without the fog of medication, you know? I really want to like this girl for a whole bevvy of reasons, not the least of which I've already listed. So I intend to see her again this weekend and see if I can't gleam some sort of response from her that changes my mind.

Y'all I've seriously been beating myself up over this since I left her apartment that night. I feel like I'm being a judgemental dick. I don't honestly know what to think here. She's a great girl and I don't think I should let something like this dull my opinion of her so I'm not calling it in just yet.

In other news I think I'm getting a damn cold. Also, having to work on President's Day while everyone else in my office is on holiday leads to a wholy unproductive day.

I am a robot

2009-02-12T15:38:00.005-06:00

On Monday of this week I ordered myself on of them there newfangled Amazon Kindle 2s. I was feeling particularly upset about my dog and figured a little bit of retail therapy might help some. If nothing else it distracted me momentarily with its promises of instant book delivery and constant access to Wikipedia, God of Information. It's pretty sleek looking, too. It won't ship until the official release on the 24th of this month so I've got to somehow survive reading like a normal person until then. How will I survive? It'll be okay though because that should give me enough time to finish reading the book I'm on right now, Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Downfall of the Record Industry in the Digital Age. I'd say that it'll be the last dead-tree book I'll ever read but I've still got a Joe Strummer bio sitting on my coffee table. Anyway I think the first book(s) I'll buy on it are the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Speaking of sci-fi, how about some new music? Have you heard of The Phenomenauts? They're pretty awesome. They're kind of a rockabilly band that does music only about Buck Rogers-esque space life. Pretty good, too. Here's the video for the first track off of their second record.

Watching their music videos gives me many tattoo ideas. I think it may be about time.

Tall green grass

2009-02-11T00:02:00.002-06:00

Okay, so I did actually call Date Girl. I know, I'm shocked, too! Of course I went to the bar first and had a few drinks. You know, to take the edge off. Honestly I didn't expect her to answer her phone so I had a whole voicemail message scripted in my head. She did answer the phone, though. I think the alcohol helped my improvisational skills. I'm going to Birmingham on Friday to take her to dinner. Normally I'd hate to drive to Birmingham two weekends in a row but this could totally be worth it. I'm still not entirely convinced that she and I are on the same page. See how weird I am? I mean anyone else would probably take this as a sure sign that there is mutual interest here but I'm sitting here pontificating about her verbage and vocal inflections because I'm so damn crazy (and mildly intoxicated). That doesn't matter though because we're having dinner Friday night and things are looking good!

It's a date?

2009-02-10T15:12:00.001-06:00

This past weekend was a pretty good one. Friday night I stayed in Huntsville to hang out with some friends of mine and see my buddies' band play. I'd tell you what they're called but since they're in the midst of changing their name it wouldn't do you much good. Anyhow I went to this place called Philby's with some folks and had a pretty good time. Saturday I woke up and drove back to Birmingham to celebrate my older brother's birthday. Good times. I went out and had a decent night in Birmingham but nothing really happened that was noteworthy. Sunday was an eventful day. New paragraph eventful!

I woke up early and went to have breakfast with my mother and her husband. I cooked a coffee cake Friday night and took what was left of it to Birmingham with me to test it on my family. They all seemed to like it so I will probably end up using that recipe for the potluck next week. Anyhow after breakfast I had a coffee date* with the girl that I mentioned from New Years. This was actually the first time I've seen her since that night, actually. I'm going to try not to get over-analytical here, though. So I met her for coffee and we ended up hanging out for the rest of the afternoon. Good sign, right? She had her dog with her (he's a cutie) and the weather was fucking fantastic so we went to the dog park next to the coffee shop and let him play. After a few hours she invited her friend come meet us at the park. Keep in mind I went to school with this girl (and her friend, actually) so we go back a ways. I don't necessarily know why you need to keep that in mind but I am so you have to, too. I didn't try to kiss her when we said goodbye because I'm absolutely petrified in that type of situation, honestly. I also didn't make any specific plans to see her again but that's because I live in Huntsville and I'm never positive when I'll be in town again. Immediately upon parting ways I regretted both of those decisions and considered calling her to make plans for this coming weekend. I'm still considering it, actually. I wasn't planning on going back to Birmingham this weekend but, hey, if it's a date I most certainly should. That's not too strong a gesture, right?

I ended up staying in Birmingham Sunday night although it was never my intention. My friends were having a house warming party and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to hang out with the group. It's not too often we can all get together because some members of this group work nights and it makes it difficult. Once I decided I was staying in town I called Date Girl and asked her if she wanted to come hang out. She sounded interested and told me she would call me back after she ate but I never heard from her. For the sake of my ego I'll just say she forgot and it wasn't that she didn't want to talk to me. Not that her forgetting to call me is very good for my ego, either. I've only in the past year or two come to terms with the fact that some people just suck at calling back and it isn't a reflection on me but I still hate it and chew over it in my head, especially in a situation like this. I'm not sure exactly what that says about me. I guess I'm still a little insecure and maybe slightly off-balance. Hey, aren't we all?

So here's the part when I ask other people to tell me what to think of my date because I am completely incapable of making a rational judgement in these situations. Does she just want to be friends like my worrying head keeps telling me or is she interested like I thought she was on New Years? If you want more details just ask.

*The sole reason I think this a date is because when she gave me her number on New Years it certainly seemed to be a gesture of romantic interest. I also wanted it to be a date.

What I mean to say

2009-02-09T22:08:00.002-06:00

I was eleven years old when we got you. I kind of thought of you as a rebound dog at first. Samson, our first boxer, had died of heart worms not too long before we got you. He was eight at the time. This will sound terrible but at first I didn't really like you all that much. A lot of that probably had to do with the fact that you weren't Samson, the dog that I had grown up with. You also threw up in my lap on the way home from the house we bought you from; that didn't help your cause. But before too long I came around. You were, after all, one of the cutest puppies I have ever seen. How long was my hardened little eleven year old heart supposed to hold out against forces that adorable? Jeremy, my older brother, was really into the Bloom County comics at the time so he thought that Opus would be a good name for you. I didn't object because I idolized him. My parents didn't object because they had two children to contend with on the matter. Most people thought it was a goofy name for a dog but then again you were kind of a goofy-looking dog (no offense) so it fit pretty well. We had papers saying you were a full-blooded boxer. I don't think any of us ever actually believed that was true. We didn't care. You were awesome.

You used to be really damn good at getting out of the backyard and terrorizing the neighborhood. By "terrorizing" I really mean "slobbering on". You were a big, intimidating looking animal and most people were scared shitless of you but in truth you wouldn't have hurt a fly. You were scared of most any loud noises: thunder, vacuum cleaners, the trash compactor, garbage disposals, etc. I chased you around the neighborhood more times than I care to remember. When you got out you never jumped the fence but rather when you were smaller you dug under it and once you got big enough you just ran through the damn thing. It's a sight to behold watching a 100 lb boxer ram a wooden fence until it splinters just so he can piss on the neighborhood mailboxes.

Mom always had allergies so you weren't allowed in the house all that often before she moved out. When it was cold or raining she would let you sleep next to the backdoor but not venture any further. I remember laying with you down there a lot of times when you were scared of the thunder and shaking. I had allergies, too, but I didn't care. You were awesome.

I moved off to college and about three months later Mom moved out and after that it was just you and Dad for a long time. I wish I could have spent more time with you during these last seven and a half years. Dad ended up getting another dog about 4 or 5 years ago. You had started acting pretty depressed and Dad and I agreed that it would be good to get you someone to play with. It worked out pretty well and Baxter has become part of the family now. Of course after a few years of that you started showing your age and you didn't have the energy or patience to keep Baxter entertained anymore so Dad got another rescue dog to keep Baxter happy. Lucky for us all of the dogs seemed to get along well enough and now Baxter and Toffee are keeping guard over your old spot in the kitchen.

Even towards the end when it got to be so hard for you to get up and move around I could still see so much life in the expressions on your face. And although I know that this was the right thing to do the look in your eyes the last time I saw you makes it a lot harder to deal with.

You should have heard Dad when he called earlier today to tell me. He was really upset. It was all that I could do not to start crying right there in the cafeteria. It was really hard to finish out the day at work. I haven't cried about anything at all since Pawpaw died twelve plus years ago and now I'm sitting here at my laptop bawling like a toddler with a skinned knee. I'm really angry at myself right now, too, because I don't have many pictures of you to show everyone just how pretty you were. I loved you a lot, Opus. I still do. I don't even want to imagine what the house in Irondale is like without you there. I know it's going to seem empty. You've been there loving us for the last 14 years and I can tell you now that you'll be with me forever, loved. Thank you so much for always being such a great dog and wonderful friend.

Goodbye friend

2009-02-09T13:19:00.003-06:00

Opus 1994-2009

I really loved that dog.

Meeting of the bored

2009-02-05T15:15:00.002-06:00

I seem to be using a lot of 'bored' puns for titles recently. Fancy that. Anyhow I just got out of a meeting and I thought it might be interesting to transcribe here the notes I took during that meeting. In all their glory:

I wish I wasn't falling asleep in this meeting. I don't really know why I'm in here. I'm not going to contribute. I guess I'm here to learn something. There only seems to be about half a dozen people in here that are contributing. Maybe ten. There are forty people here. I seriously would love to see a running tally of the money being spent on engineers in attendance. I am sure that would streamline things. I can't even begin to imagine. Well, yes I can. Here's some math for you. Let's say the average hourly pay of each engineer in this room is $20. That's probably actually really low. [ed: somewhere my 6th grade English teacher cried when I wrote that sentence] Even then that's $800 for one hour. This meeting was scheduled for four hours. That would mean $2400 wasted.

Rocket science, y'all. After giving it some thought I believe that $30 an hour would have been a much more reasonable wage for that calculation. Also, I forgot about the engineers that had called into the meeting, of which there were at least 5. The Wage Tally Calculator is an idea I had after I went to a meeting of about 200 engineers where about 20 were actually involved. A meeting of 200 engineers where about 20 were actually involved that lasted eight hours. Seriously. That was a month or two ago when I was still working with the Department of Defense, though. That's tax money, baby. If there was just a little application that could run with the Powerpoint slides that showed that tally in the bottom corner of the screen I bet the higher-ups in attendance would shit. I shouldn't complain, though. After all, one of the wages in that tally is mine.

What you got cookin'?

2009-02-04T13:14:00.002-06:00

The Mediterranean potluck was last night. It was a really good time. The food as always was fantastic. I made the spanakopita and it was a success. Everyone loved it. There was also falafel, hummus, tzatziki sauce, potatoes, and salad. Tasty tasty tasty. After we all ate until we were stuffed to the rafters we drank, joked, and played team Scrabble. My team kicked all the ass because the the other guy on my team, much like myself, has spent a considerable amount of time playing Scrabble online. That means we know all the cheap two letter words (qi, anyone?) and how to effectively use all of the bonus squares. I'm glad this potluck thing is working out because it's a good ~~excuse for me to try new recipes on unsuspecting victims~~ chance to hang out with friends during the week. The next theme is totally awesome: breakfast! I need some good recipe ideas. Right now I'm leaning towards coffee cake because it's effing delicious. Just look at it!

Speaking of cooking I've found a couple of cool recipe sites recently. Omnomicon is an awesome read. She takes pretty pictures, makes tasty-looking food, and is a good writer. Can you ask for much more? Cooking for Engineers is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It gives step by step instructions with photos for a variety of recipes making even some complex dishes look easy. I've found some recipes through these two sites that I'm going to be trying this week. I'm attempting to eat better and lose some of the weight I've put on since I left Auburn. Since I live in an apartment with a small kitchen and I don't have the tools or the skills to cook elaborate meals I spend a lot of time trying to find simple, healthy recipes. Between these two sites I've already found a few that I'm going to be trying sometime soon. Soups, pastas, and rice dishes galore! Here's hoping they're all scrumdiddlyumptious.

A trivial pursuit?

2009-01-28T14:30:00.001-06:00

Damn I'm tired. I can't figure why, either. I went out last night but I was home and in bed by 11:15 which is when I typically go to bed. Even when I woke up this morning it took everything I had to get out of bed. I feel like I didn't get but 3 hours of sleep or something. Weird. I'm at my desk with a double-shot Americano from the coffee shop on the first floor listening to "You in Reverse" by Built to Spill and trying my damnedest not to fall asleep. By the way that is a fucking spectacular album. If you haven't heard it yet stop what you're doing and go borrow it from a friend or just buy it. I'll give you my copy if you want. It's that good.

That reminds me, I've got a couple of albums in mind for a possible return of Apollo's Awesome Album Areview. I'm also still taking suggestions. If you ever have an album you'd like for me to listen to and review I'd be more than glad to.

Like I said I went out last night. It was the first time since I've been in Huntsville that I knowingly put myself outside of my comfort zone for the sake of meeting new people. Some acquaintances of mine were going to a trivia night on the other side of town. I only knew maybe three of the people and I didn't even know them very well. While I'd hardly call the evening buckets of fun or a smashing success I don't regret going which, for me, is saying something. I talk a good bit on here about wanting to meet new people but I am always hesitant to put myself out there and actually do it. I feel like I need to have someone there with me that I know well as an escape route. Otherwise I'll just sit by myself and drink while watching people have fun. I almost did that last night because the place was so packed I couldn't find a seat at the table with the folks that I knew. So I sat at a different table and just ordered some food and a beer. It ended up working out, though. It was better than sitting at the house alone at least.

I hope that I never come across on this blog as an unhappy person. I'm not unhappy. I just wish things were a little different here and I hope that some day (sooner rather than later) they will be. Either I'll find something that I enjoy more than going out with friends or I'll make more friends that enjoy going out. I really hope it's the latter.

Headbored

2009-01-27T15:42:00.002-06:00

So I'm sitting here at work and I'm pretty bored. You'd think what with being a rocket scientist and all that I'd constantly be surrounded by astronauts and things on fire. Or space. Well let me tell you that is just not the case. Of course my current boredom all stems from the fact that I don't yet have all the access I need to do any real work. I've got an untold number of pages of documentation concerning the project that I'm to be working on. I could be reading those, I suppose. I am, periodically. It's not very riveting, though.

Now for some movie updates. I watched Cloverfield on Sunday night with a couple of friends. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I'm not typically into monster movies but the style was novel and it hooked me. There are talks about making a sequel but using a completely different style. I think that the whole queasy-cam thing is really what made the movie interesting. Last Sunday I watched Juno and didn't really enjoy it that much. Some parts were funny but I couldn't ever really get into the story. Probably because I'm not 16. Or a girl.

I think that tonight I'm going to try making spanakopita. Some friends and I have started getting together every other week for a potluck dinner and every time we pick a new theme. The last two times I just brought booze so this time I'm going to try a new recipe. The theme is Mediterranean. Spanakopita looks tasty. Any other suggestions?

To round out yet another completely random entry I'll say that I'm excited about the two books I just ordered: Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age by Steve Knopper and Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz. It's been a while since I've read any non-fiction so I think it'll be a nice change.

Yakety sax ftw

2009-01-26T16:41:00.002-06:00

Benny Hill-ifier

It takes youtube videos, speeds them up, and plays Yakety Sax. Hilarity ensues.

I'm at work so I don't have time yet to go crazy with this but I damn sure will when I get home.

Obviously the greatest instant-comedy tool on the internet since gizoogle.

What a way to make a livin'

2009-01-23T10:58:00.004-06:00

I've been working now at NASA for three days. So far it's been good. I've had to do a bunch of lame orientation stuff but that comes with the territory. Also, it's kind of frustrating that I don't have a government computer yet and likely won't get one for at least a month. I've still got my work lappy, though, so it definitely could be worse. Not having a gov't computer means that I can't access the multitude of server-goodies that I'll be needing for my job. I'll make do somehow.

The folks I'm working with all seem pretty intelligent, which is nice. They also seem amicable enough. I had lunch with a few of them yesterday and while I don't envision myself going drinking with 'em or anything they will probably be good folks to work with. It looks like I'll be primarily working in a group of about 6 engineers. I'm still adjusting to the whole 'cog in the machine' feeling, though. Unfortunately I don't work with any sassy ladies like Dolly Parton and Lily Tomlin.

I went out last night with a couple of friends and had some beers. One of the guys is a party boy* like me. He said that when he first moved to the Rocket City he thought it was boring and shitty, too. Now he really likes it and manages to carouse and enjoy himself, which is heartening.

I'm heading back to Birmingham this weekend. I'm going to call that girl from New Years and see if she wants to get dinner or something. It's hard to imagine what this'll be like seeing as I've known the girl for 12 years or more. Of course I could be way off target and she really just gave me her phone number because she wants another booze-buddy or something. I need to stop thinking about shit like that or I'll drive myself crazy.

*Did I mention that someone in Auburn told me that I was a 'party boy'? We were talking about my troubles with Boring Ol' Huntsville at the time. I'm not sure if I should accept the title or be offended. It doesn't sound good to me but maybe it's not so bad. Maybe it's the 'boy' part of the title. How about 'party enthusiast'? That's pretty lame. Uh, 'party dude'? Too Bill and Ted. Fuck it I'll come up with something later. Suggestions? I still don't like 'party boy'...

Putting the ass in NASA

2009-01-19T13:20:00.004-06:00

So there has been a lot going on in the last week. First and foremost I found out that I got the job working on Ares I. That's pretty awesome, y'all. It's really what I interviewed for back in the summer. That means that I'll no longer be working on the missile defense stuff that caused so much strife. I actually never got to the point where I was really working on the program as much as attending meetings where people talked about working on the program so I guess that's something. I guess we can thank the slow-moving nature of government work for that. Too many cooks in the kitchen and all that. Back to the main point: I'll be working for NASA! That's cool not only because I get to tell people that I work for NASA* but also because I'll be getting back to the type of work that I want to do. More accurately I'll be working on This Complicated Stuff:

Aren't you excited?

Tomorrow I move all of my stuff from my current office to my new office on Redstone Arsenal in the Marshal Space Flight Center. It really is like starting a brand new job. I'm still technically working for the same company but I'll be in a brand new location with an entirely new group of coworkers and a working on a completely different task. One of the only bad things about this whole change is that I'll be sacrificing my big cushy office for a cubicle. I'll also be losing the convenience of having about one billion places to eat within 5 minutes of my building. So I've taken to saying that the work will be more rewarding but the work environment will be more, uh, shitty. Another thing I'll doubtless lose is the excess of free time that I've had over the past few months in my current position. This may lead to less blog updating but I'll try to find the time somehow or another.

Outside of work I've been pretty busy as well. This past weekend I took a trip down to Houma, Louisiana for a late Christmas celebration with some extended family. I always enjoy seeing that part of my family and I'm hoping that since I'm out of school and have some expendable income and free time I'll get a chance to go visit them more often. I'd fill you all in on the minutiae but it was pretty boring for me so I wouldn't torture you with it. Oh, and when you do a Google Image Search for Houma, La you turn up things like this:

Happy MLK Day, everyone! Go punch a racist.

*This does not get you laid so guys don't you go climbing into an aerospace program just to pick up chicks.

Hallelujah

2009-01-14T11:18:00.001-06:00

Daddy's going to work for NASA! Hell yeah. Updates soon.

Bikini girls with machine guns

2009-01-13T14:29:00.003-06:00

The title of this blog will unfortunately/fortunately have nothing to do with the content. It's just the first song title that popped in my head for some reason. I'm sure that says something disturbing about me.

Okay I just had to throw that in there. We're done with that now.

So those nice folks at Auburn University actually handed me a large piece of paper saying that I have been awarded a Master's Degree in Aerospace Engineering. You're probably thinking to yourself, "Well yeah dude, duh." But what I'm thinking is, "HAHAHHAHA NOW THEY CAN'T TAKE IT BACK!" Imagine me standing in front of a castle lit only by occasional lightning strikes while I scream that, eyes maniacally widened and gesticulating wildly. I think this mad scientist thing could be a good move for me.

Aside from the relief of actually holding my degree in my hand the trip to Auburn was a fun time. I got to see most everyone I wanted to see. I got to drink large amounts of cheap beer. I got to hear some good music. I got to relax and reminisce (I just learned from the ever-informative Sarah that the literary term for that there rhetorical device is anaphora).

Friday night I went to the bar where I probably spent most of my student loans, Roosters. Always good to see the place intact. You never know with that crowd. Then I went to my friends' house with loads of cheap beer in tow. It was fun but a little strange for two reasons. One is that their house was right down the street from somewhere that I used to party and pay rent which lead to some major can't-go-home-again feelings. The second is that the house my friends were renting had at one point been occupied by some characters who had a stripper pole in the living room. I know because I went to some parties there. Cringe.

Question: does anyone know if Bradford Health Clinic has a program for Hershey's Kisses addiction?

And now this:

How about a quickie?

2009-01-09T12:23:00.002-06:00

I'm about to leave Huntsville and head to Auburn for the weekend. Fun times. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I'm still not 100% sure that I've actually finished my master's degree so I'm hoping that'll be laid to rest once I have the diploma in my hand.

In other news I did a pseudo-interview for a job today that would be much more hands-on and much more space-propulsion-y. I'll still technically be working for the same company but in an entirely different capacity. Should everything work out, that is. Wish me luck.

Confessions

2009-01-08T15:35:00.002-06:00

Okay I know I'll probably be denied admittance to any film-snob parties for this but I've got to get it off my chest. Whew, this is hard for me. Here goes. I really liked the new Indiana Jones movie. There, I said it. Man I feel better already. Now that I've got that off my chest I can't even remember what most people's complaints were about it. I think some folks were having issues suspension of disbelief or something. In an Indiana Jones film.

In other news I also enjoyed Don Cheadle's new movie, Traitor. It wasn't fantastic and I don't think I'll be purchasing the film but it was relevant and entertaining which is more than you'll find in a lot of movies these days.

Oh, and everyone should check out this band: The Low Anthem. Here's one of the tracks off their newest CD, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. It's called "Charlie Darwin".

[It starts with some cheesy advert for a website, but it only takes about 10 seconds]

If you're not a fan of that sound I can tell you that their music has a lot of variety in it and they're still worth checking out.

Weekend worrier

2009-01-07T13:08:00.004-06:00

I spent this past weekend in Huntsville and it was very low key. Too low key for me, in fact. A lot of my friends were out of town and there was nothing going on. Friday night I didn't even leave the house. I feel kind of stupid saying this but god damnit staying home on Friday night is no good! Maybe that makes me immature or juvenile or some shit but you know what I don't really care. That's how I work. I'm a little fucking social butterfly. I spend enough time sitting on my ass by myself at my apartment during the week. I've never been the type to go to a bar alone. I'm not there yet. To be perfectly honest if I had known Thursday that there wouldn't be anything to do in Huntsville on Friday then I probably would've driven back to Birmingham. I feel kind of like I should be grown up enough at this point in my life that something like this shouldn't bother me but it still kind of does. I suspect I'll be this way for a long time. I'm okay with it. I really enjoy going out to bars and hanging out with friends. I really don't enjoy not going out to bars and hanging out with friends.

Saturday night I went over to some friends' house for dinner. We had planned on going out after dinner and having some beers but, yet again, there was nothing of interest going on so we just stayed in and drank at their place. It was fun. It was definitely better that sitting at home and doing nothing. I still would've rather gone out somewhere, anywhere, just to get out but it was probably better that we stayed in, truthfully. I don't know what my obsession is with going out on the weekend. Maybe the fact that I spent the last 7 years going out every weekend? Whatever it is I probably need to get over it. It certainly seems like it would be for the best living here in Huntsville.

As for this coming weekend it looks like there's a good chance I'll be heading to Auburn. With any luck I'll be able to pick up my degree while I'm down there but I'll need to leave work pretty early on Friday to get there in time. It's been a while now since I've been back and from what I hear the town has kind of become Dullsville but I still think it'll be nice to get back. If nothing else I'll get to see some folks I haven't seen in a while. Hooray for a potentially exciting weekend!

News from the high frontier

2009-01-06T10:07:00.004-06:00

So there is a lot of interesting news coming from the aerospace industry. Most of this stuff is science-nerd interesting, but that's beside the point. Here's what has recently got my rocket-senses a-tinglin'*:

- The Hubble Space Telescope, along with a bunch of other telescopes, has created the largest, most detailed image of the center of our galaxy. Sure it's false color, but it's still pretty damnit. Here it is, the center of the galaxy in all of it's glory (not actual size):

[To download a better version and read a better explanation of what you're actually seeing, go here.]

- Straight from our "My God, it's the future" desk comes a story about how astronauts should probably be steering spacecraft with their minds.

- Are you familiar at all with the concept of a space elevator? I think it's gotten enough news coverage by now that most people are at least passively aware of the idea. Anyhow, a scientist from the European Space Agency has demonstrated a solution to one of the more complicated problems with current designs - how to transfer energy to the actual climber. And he did it using a broomstick and an electric sander. Go here for a short video showing his concept. Occam's razor, anyone?

- Finally, in less scientastic, more industry-riffic(?) news, FloridaToday has an article detailing what they think will be the biggest headlines from the aerospace industry this year. It talks primarily about the importance of the decisions that the Obama administration will be making but it also discusses the final Hubble repair mission, the workers at Kennedy Space Center who will lose their jobs when the Shuttle program ends, NASA's lunar pathfinder, and a few other interesting news goodies.

I'm curious to know if anyone else actually interested in this stuff or am I talking on a dead line here? Is there any point in even wondering about that kind of stuff when you write a blog?

*I hope this statement gets taken out of context by someone.

28 days beyond escape from thunderdome

2009-01-05T11:35:00.004-06:00

I don't know what you guys thought but I can tell you that Doomsday movie was pretty damn terrible. I watched it last night and spent a good portion of the movie with my 'WTF face' on. I don't have much to talk about right now so I guess I'll talk about movies I've watched recently.

I got Hancock for Christmas. I like Will Smith and all but that movie was pretty damn terrible as well. Good cast, bad story. It almost worked. I also got I am Legend for Christmas. I saw it in theatres and really enjoyed it. I'm excited to watch the alternative ending that comes with the Blu-Ray because I heard it was totally different. I think I'd like to read the book, too. A friend of mine that went to the movie with me said that he enjoyed the movie and the book but the two were remarkably different.

I saw the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, not too long ago. That was pretty good, too. I like the new direction the Bond films have taken and I've been a big fan of Daniel Craig since I saw Layer Cake.

I watched Mongol a couple of weeks ago. It's the first in a trilogy of foreign films about Genghis Khan. I liked it, though I wasn't really sure what to expect. I'm interested in seeing the next two films.

I also watched Vantage Point recently. It sucked. Here's how I imagine that movie pitch went: Oooh, let's tell the same story from 5 or 6 different perspectives then totally change directions and tell it from a non-party perspective because people are dumb and won't be able to figure out our harrowing plot from the disjointed narrative we've already provided. How clever! They could've made the movie thirty minutes long and still told the whole story. It was like a bad episode of 24.

Hellboy II was good. I like Ron Perlman, I like Selma Blair, and I like the director, Guillermo Del Toro. I'm excited that he's been given the directing job for the two upcoming Hobbit films. Apparently he wants Ron Perlman to do the voice of Smaug which I think is a great fit. I really like his teams' stylistic interpretation of fantasy elements and I can't wait to see what the Hobbit films look like. Unfortunately for me the work they're doing on the Hobbit is delaying the Blu-Ray release of The LoTR Trilogy until at least 2010. That makes me sad.

I think that about covers all the movies I've seen recently. I've reestablished my tradition of Sunday Night Movie Night so hopefully I'll be getting the chance to watch more movies this year. I'll keep you all posted on my opinion of the films I watch as you're obviously all dying to know it.

What a year for a new year

2009-01-02T12:44:00.003-06:00

I feel refreshed. Having a week and a half off of work was a nice break, even though I spent half of it feeling less-than-par. But I don't think that's what I mean when I say that I feel refreshed. I think that this is going to be a good year for me. A lot of this new-found optimism is probably stemming from the fact that I finally finished my masters degree. It's just starting to sink in, honestly. It seems so apropos me finishing my degree right before the end of what had been a very trying year. A lot of things changed for me in the last year. I left Auburn - my home for 7 years. I moved back to Birmingham - my home for the previous 18. Then I moved to Huntsville - my home, I suspect, ad infinitum. I got my first big-boy job, which I've enjoyed though it's led to some dilemmas. Most of all I feel like I learned a lot in 2008. I learned a lot about myself and my field. These are lessons I intend to carry with me through the next year and beyond.

I feel refreshed like I am starting a new and significant chapter in my life in which I can become a new person. I feel like my options are limitless. I am hopelessly hopeful. I feel unburdened. I wonder what direction I will end up taking? I really feel like I'm going to change a lot in this next year.

I rang in the new year with some of my closest friends. I wish they all could have been there. I wish you all could have been there. You know how I know 2009 is going to be a good year? Because not even 2 hours into this annus miribalis I got a girl's phone number. Since she lives in Birmingham it's hard to imagine that it'll be a lasting relationship but hey it's a start, right? She's cute, too. I've actually known her for a really long time but only recently did I start seeing her around Birmingham. In the past I've always used a woman's attraction to me as some sort of validation. Bad, right? I still do though I think I'm getting better about it. Maybe that's one of those flaw things I will be able to finally get rid of this year. I certainly would like to have a girlfriend right now, though. It'd surely alleviate some of this boredom. People always say that you'll find someone when you stop looking. I think that's a load of horseshit. I'll keep off the topic off my love life though because this blog is supposed to be mood: hopeful.

I don't have a new year's resolution because I think new year's resolutions are crap. If I did, though, it would probably be something cliche like getting healthy. I don't have a new year's resolution but I do have a perpetual resolution that I feel has fallen by the wayside a bit since I left Auburn. My perpetual resolution is that I will constantly, actively be trying to make myself a better person. I intend to return to that in force. Hopefully it'll be a lot easier without the distractions of this past year. So here's to 2009; I hope it's a fantastic year for all of you.

From the folks at NASA:

Magic Mushrooms

2008-12-31T16:49:00.002-06:00

I had a rather pleasant lunch today with Sarah of Sarah, etc. fame. I'm always glad to meet new people. Admittedly it's hard to say I 'met a new person' when I've been reading her blog for the better part of a year now. It's nice to meet someone for the first time and not have to wonder whether they're half a butt-puppet, though. I was really just wondering if she had a bitchin' mohawk or some intimidating face tats.

Now back to playing Super Metroid. I hope you all have a pleasant New Years Eve. See you next year.

It's in a book

2008-12-29T10:06:00.003-06:00

Well it's been pretty nice being back in Birmingham for the last week or so. I hope everyone had a good holiday. Sorry my last post was so, well, pissy. I managed to hold on to that cold for a few days longer and then I came to discover that somehow I'd pinched a nerve in my neck which left me with a rather nasty headache that lasted nigh on a week. That'll make anyone a little testy, methinks. That's all taken care of now, though.

I brought my laptop back to Birmingham with me but it's been giving me fits due to some power issues that it's having so I've not even plugged the damn thing in once since I came back. I'm currently on my father's laptop. He's pacing around the kitchen no doubt wondering when I'll be off his portal-to-the-world. Perhaps I should hurry, eh?

I have had the opportunity to read a lot since I've been here which is extraordinarily nice. It's been so long since I've been able to spend days reading. I was able to finish the second Dark Tower book by Stephen King. It was really beginning to irk me how long it was taking to finish. Mostly from lack of interest, I think. I'll likely continue reading the series but it won't be before I finish a few books that've been on my list now for a while. Since I finished that book I've started reading Matter by Iaian M. Banks. It's a science fiction novel that is relentlessley broad in it's scope. I don't honestly recall what made me want to read it. I added it to my Amazon wish list some months ago. It's good, though. Worth a read, for sure. It definitely follows this model:

Not to say that the book isn't good, but it seriously could do with some major appendices. Apparently Banks has written many books about this universe and I think that someday I'd like to read more of them. First to finish this one, though. Back to reading... Yay!

Give me something to break

2008-12-23T11:06:00.002-06:00

Yes, I just referenced a Limp Bizkit song. Eat me. I'm in an incredibly foul mood today. Why the hell did I have to go and get sick right before Christmas? That really pisses me off. Now I'm all tired and pissy at work. I'm only going to be here for another 30 minutes or so but then I have to go do some Christmas shopping which will undoubtedly make me want to strangle people even more than I currently do. Seriously, every little thing is putting me on edge today. I realize it's absurd and even that is pissing me off. I'm like a vicious cycle of anger right now. And since I'm driving back to Birmingham today for the holiday I get to deal with traffic on I-65... fuck. We'll all be lucky if I get through the day without killing someone or intentionally driving my car into a tree. To make things worse I've been bugging my mother for weeks now to send me a Christmas list and she never did and now she's not answering her phone so maybe she'll just be getting a giant bag of rage for Christmas. God damnit. Someone shoot me now.

Cat Scratch Fever

2008-12-22T15:30:00.002-06:00

Or, more appropriately, completely random ill-timed fever/sickness. Ugh. On Friday night I went out in downtown Huntsville to see some friends' band play. Debauchery ensued. Cut to me crawling into bed at ~5:30 in the morning (I think). Before you get all curious I can tell you I was not doing cocaine off of a Playmate's ass. Promise. Sorry. Anyway so I woke up about 6 hours later, kicked my friends out of the apartment, and proceeded to lounge around the apartment playing video games and generally being a couch potato for the rest of the day. Strangely enough I felt fine. I decided I would go to some friends' house and keep it pretty low key that evening. Low and behold about the time I got over there I started feeling a little feverish. Not stopped up, not groggy, just feverish. So I went home pretty early, watched some episodes of 30 Rock and slept. For 11 hours. I can't remember the last time I slept that long. Not only that but I was having fever dreams, too.

Now I honestly have mixed feelings about fever dreams. Yes, it is possible to have mixed feelings about something like fever dreams. I do it all the time. Watch me. I don't like fever dreams because they typically require, uh, fevers. Fevers is no good. I do like fever dreams because they are always hella realistic and incredibly fucked up. And, for the most part, I always remember them for a long time. For instance I still remember a fever dream I had in, like, January of this year where I was being chased through the workings of a giant clock a la The Great Mouse Detective. Except with fire and brimstone for some reason. I don't remember who was chasing me but I do remember on several occasions realizing that it was just a dream. Not quite like lucid dreaming, mind you, but somehow different. Well I had some fever dreams Sunday morning that literally defied memory, no matter how hard I tried. That's my schpeel about fever dreams.

So all of this to say that I am sick, I don't know what I have, and I hate the idea of being sick around Christmas. I am at work right now and I honestly just want to go home and curl up on my incredibly comfortable sofa and watch my incredibly comfortable television. I have to get Christmas shopping done though because that's what I was planning on doing yesterday. That obviously went right down the crapper what with my fever-induced laziness which is a much more potent form of my regular laziness.

School's out forever

2008-12-19T13:57:00.002-06:00

This is going to be a long post so I’ll apologize in advance but this has been a long time coming. I initially started writing it two days ago when I put up my last entry. I started but I had to stop. You will understand why shortly. First, the big news: I GOT MY MASTER’S DEGREE. I repeat: I GOT MY MASTER’S DEGREE. Once more, for effect: I. GOT. MY. MASTER’S. DEGREE. Let’s pause until that sinks in.

… … …

Finished. Done. Three years in the making. Three. Years. It shouldn’t have taken that long. In the process of getting my masters degree I unearthed some character flaws that I still have not been able to fully sort out. There were times during this whole ordeal when I questioned whether or not I had the ability to see it through. That is honestly something I never in my wildest dreams would have considered before I started it. I simply knew that I had what it took to do it. I’m not sure if I’ll ever understand why this was so difficult to me. Not just difficult, embarrassing. Really! When I first started this blog it was in large part because I wanted a place to vent my frustrations (mostly at myself) about my inability to complete my master’s degree. Then it honestly became something that I was too self-conscious about. I felt that it reflected very poorly upon me and exposed flaws that I didn’t want people to know about. I felt like part of me regressed to the way I was when I started college and I wouldn’t let anyone within arm’s length (emotionally) because I didn’t want people to see any of my vulnerabilities. I was just a typical snarling punk kid wearing a leather jacket and t-shirts with expletives. I really didn’t like that person and I made a conscious decision to change who I was. This was, to me at least, a partial regression to Apollo v 0.9- a rawer, less amicable version of the current user-friendly* you see before you. I’m still working on the EULA. No GUI puns, please.

Most of my friends probably didn’t know I was still working on it unless they explicitly asked about it even though it was constantly on my mind. My Dad took to asking me about it a lot which meant I took to snapping at my Dad a lot because it was a sensitive subject and it was NONE OF HIS GOD DAMNED BUSINE- sorry, sorry, still haven’t flushed it all out yet I guess.

Truthfully I don’t think it has completely sunk in yet. The reason that I stopped writing this post the other day was because although all of the work had been turned in and it was completely out of my hands and almost entirely assured, I didn’t want to jinx it by jumping the gun. The graduation ceremony was earlier today down in Auburn and I wasn’t there to walk across the stage and receive my diploma. When I first started graduate school I told myself that I’d walk across that stage every damn time I got a degree because I had earned it. I think that part of the reason I wasn’t there today is because I’m still not sure I actually earned the degree. Don’t get me wrong I did a lot of work and definitely put in my time but part of me feels like I cut some corners in places, whether it’s true or not, and I don’t like that feeling one bit. Hopefully it will fade with time. I’ve gotten really good at telling the story in a way that takes the majority of the blame for the amount of time it took off of my shoulders. It might even be true. I just don’t know if I believe it. I do believe that the things I’ve been through the last three years have completely changed my life plans. I never planned on 1- Living in Huntsville 2- Being done with school at 25 or 3- Driving fancy cars to all the bars and hanging out with the biggest stars. Okay that last one still might not be true. What is true is that I started college with the intention of going straight through until I finished my doctorate and that obviously is not how things worked out.

There is a lot more that I could say about this but I think I’ll stop there. I feel like all of this crap is taking away from what should be a rather auspicious occasion and I don’t want it to. Since I found out that it was official I’ve been having alternating fits of joy and crippling self-doubt. It’s like I just lost my virginity all over again.

Anyway, this is probably what you've been waiting for. Who am I not to deliver the goods?

* Some of you may be laughing at this. I will smite you.

Comic hilarity

2008-12-17T14:21:00.005-06:00

I posit that Questionable Content is the best web comic. Ever. Exhibit A:

It's like it was written for me. Life updates coming soon. Hopefully tomorrow. Maybe later today.

Quick addendum for Shuttle porn. I never knew the Space Shuttle was a top.

Skyrockets in flight

2008-12-12T11:23:00.003-06:00

As much as I am happy that Barack Obama was elected, I am completely unsure of what impact it could have on my job. I'm not really worried, but I'm pretty sure that some overarching changes are going to be made to the space program. I'm really not worried that my current defense job will lose funding. I've heard that Obama intends to cut the defense budget but I'm totally behind that. Besides I don't think it'll happen anytime soon and it won't affect the project that I'm working on. Actually, I may not be working on this project for much longer anyway. I may end up getting the job that I was actually hired for believe it or not. This is what makes me worry a little because that job is working on the Constellation program. I'm not really sure how I feel about the Constellation program, honestly. Let me rephrase that. I can't help but think that the current direction of the space program is not the best option. That being said I hate to think of the alternative because, well, the alternative is nonexistant. So I would much rather the space program have a direction than no direction. For obvious reasons. Here's an article from the Orlando Sentinel that highlights the current conflict surrounding the Obama transition. The first lines:

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is "not qualified" to judge his rocket program, the Orlando Sentinel has learned.

I don't know what to think. Really. What do you think?

XXXmas? Man that's cliche.

2008-12-09T09:33:00.007-06:00

This is definitely going on my Xmas mix. Definitely.

John Legend is growing on me slowly. Stuff like this helps because I love toilet humor. A lot. I think what really put me over on him recently was his duo with Al Green, "Stay With Me", off of Al Green's most recent album Lay It Down. For the record that album is awesome and you should absolutely buy it right now.

I recently mentioned that I started a Mixtape Club when I was living in Birmingham. It was really awesome. What's even awesomer is that I've found a bunch of people here in Huntsville that want to start a Mixtape Club. It really is a lot of fun. I think that I'm equally excited about getting a group of people together once a month or so for the listening party. Admittedly though the task of actually getting this group together, ever, seems daunting. I think I'll be really happy if I can manage to get this going.

As if musicals weren't gay enough

2008-12-04T10:57:00.003-06:00

Prop 8: The Musical from the fine minds at Funny or Die starring John C. Reilly, Jack Black, Sarah Chalke, Neil Patrick Harris and some others whose names escape me right now.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

My input here may be coming late to the very well dressed party; however, the idea that two people who love each other can't get married is fucking ludicrous. End of story. And the Mormon Church can, as Louis C.K. might say, suck a bag of dicks.

Comfort Eagle

2008-12-03T13:50:00.002-06:00

This has got to be one of the coolest cakes ever made for a little girl's birthday.

In other news I've been trying to come up with the perfect Christmas mix CD for a week or so now and I think I'm getting pretty close. I'm one of those schmucks that actually enjoys Christmas music and starting the day after Thanksgiving it's pretty much all I listen to for a month. Much like my previous mixes I've set a few ground rules so as to ensure an awesome mix. The first is that I can't use any artist more than twice. The second is that I can't have any repeated songs. That makes it really difficult because I can only choose one version of a bunch of Christmas classics. I've got a [i]shitload[/i] of Christmas music at my disposal and I'm always acquiring more so I've got a lot to choose from. Anyone have any suggestions? Suggest songs, albums, or artists that are Christmas-tastic (Christmastic?). I'm also thinking that I may send a copy of this mix to a few people so if you're nice I'll be glad to ship you one.

I just realized that I've never mentioned my mix CDs on my blog before! How crazy. I love mix CDs. I think of them as an art and I really enjoy making them for people. For a while a group of my friends all got together once a month for Mix Tape Club which was pretty damn terrific. The concept is simple: you all decide on a theme for the mix and then everyone swaps. For example our first theme was Space and Rockets (my suggestion obvs). If I remember to later on I'll post the tracklist. I loved it. The only rules for each mix were that you could use no artist more than twice and that each mix had to be at least 45 minutes long. You also had to include a tracklist and decorate the CD (which was equally as fun sometimes). It can get pretty difficult to put together but if you've got the savvy and the friends it's an awesome excuse to get together and share music. I want to get another one started up here in Rocket City USA sometime soon.

And I'm totally serious about sending Christmas mixes to people, btw. Just email me an address to send it to and I'll try to get one to you!

Take my love, take my land

2008-11-25T12:47:00.002-06:00

NASA proposes Firefly mission

If that statement didn't make your pants a little tight I understand. If it did make your pants a little tight I'll forewarn you that the link will be a letdown. It's a cool mission idea and everything but it doesn't involve nearly enough space cowboys.

Gotta keep 'em decorated Part II

2008-11-21T09:53:00.005-06:00

A while back I wrote about my misadventures in interior design. It's hard for me to decide on anything because I'm really just not confident in my style choices. For instance, yesterday I went to Target to buy some new linens. I probably walked up and down the same three aisles 20 times trying to decide on a damn bedding set. It's hard stuff! This is what I came up with after feeling awkward staring for about 20 minutes.

In the past I've typically avoided patterns and tended towards simpler designs but I've made a big step forward in my home decorating journey recently and I thought it deserved some celebratory patterns. I am referring to the fact that a couple of weeks ago I went out and bought myself a new entertainment center (!), a new bed (!!), and a whole new bedroom suite (!!!). I went and picked up the entertainment center last night and after 6 hours of construction and rewiring my whole living room I can say that I'm really happy with my purchase. The bedroom suite is being delivered to the store today and I'm hoping I get to pick it up tomorrow and then my transformation will be complete. I'll be so grown up I'll have a guest bedroom! How weird is that?! Here is the entertainment center in a demo living room that is much cleaner than mine.

And here's the bedroom suite. I didn't get the chest of drawers because, really, who needs that much damn drawer space?

So that's that, I suppose. It cost me a good amount of money but I think I'll be happy once it's all in. I'm really excited about the fact that I'm getting a super-comfortable queen-sized bed. Sleeping by myself every night in that full bed wasn't quite depressing me enough. Now with all that extra space I won't be able to ignore the fact that I'm dreadfully alone!

Now you have a detailed history of my home decoration purchases. Tell me what you think. Give me advice on what I should purchase next. Am I going to hate that quilt set in a month? Should I start investing in house plants and sconces to complete my soul's gentrification?

Do you want to take my picture?

2008-11-20T10:44:00.006-06:00

I got a new phone last week and I've got to say it's pretty fucking awesome. It's a Motorola Motozine and it's got a 5 megapixel digital camera made by Kodak built in. That's super cool. Now I've never been the type to go around taking pictures of abandoned buildings or anything like that but I do enjoy having a camera on me at all times in case I feel inspired to take some photos. So rest assured I'll be posting pictures on here more often. This won't turn into a photo-blog or photog or picto-blog or whatever you kids are calling it. But who doesn't want to see pictures of my dogs? They're so cute!

This is Opus. He's really old.

This is Baxter. He's my little gentleman.

He also has an adorable "I want attention" face.

And this is Toffee. She enjoys sitting in my lap even though she weighs 60 pounds.

Last but certainly not least, this is my friend Tina playing a rousing game of grab-ass with our friend Brittany. Not dog related per se but certainly noteworthy. Brittany has cute dogs, too. Neither one of them ever update their damn blogs, though. Also, Brittany has no ass.

Acting like life is a big commercial

2008-11-19T09:48:00.002-06:00

I spend most of my day at work listening to Air America Radio. I'm listening to it now, even. I know it's liberal tripe radio but it's easy for me to listen while simultaneously working (or not working, as the case may be). I tend to go on talk radio kicks about once or twice a year where it's pretty much all I listen to. I listen to NPR on the way to work and Air America when I'm at work. It's obvious that I want my talk radio to be neither fair nor balanced. A friend of mine listens to right wing radio on his way to work because he enjoys being angry. How weird is that?

Anyway, as much as I enjoy some of Air America's programming (particularly Ron Kuby) I really wish their commercials weren't produced by drunk 12 year olds. I guess most of them aren't that bad but a lot of them are SO. DAMN. ANNOYING.

Seriously I think that guy up there ^ produced some of the commercials. I realize that I probably get too worked up over these commercials but JESUS. If I thought I could find the audio of some of them I would post it and ensure that no one ever read this blog again ever. A few descriptive examples:

The one where the guy says "We need more space and we need it NOW" in a whiny 3 year old pitching a fit kind of way. You can almost hear the guy lying on the ground and holding his breath while his says it. I've probably heard the commercial infinity times by now and I've literally blocked out the name of the company so as I will never ever ever bring them any business. Who the hell came up with this advertising campaign? Who the hell thinks that 'whiny' is a good descriptor for their company's advert? Obnoxious does not (I hope) deliver business.

The one for a weight loss product that was designed by "a woman medical doctor." I don't know why that descriptor bothers me so much but it gets my eye all twitchy when I hear it. If one of these women is responsible for whatever the hell product that is someone should tell her that she's a bad person.

The one where Thom Hartmann whores himself for some gold company. I already don't like Thom Hartmann because he's kind of a preachy asshole but when I hear him verbally fellating one of his advertisers every 20 minutes I lose respect for him.

One that really chaps my ass starts with some woman saying, "You want to know the difference between all the millionaire in this country and you? Well, they decided they wanted to be millionaires."...
Seriously? That's the fucking difference? WELL SHIT IF I HAD KNOWN THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE DECIDED I DIDN'T WANT TO BE A MILLIONAIRE ALL THOSE YEARS AGO. WHY DIDN'T MY GUIDANCE COUNSELOR TELL ME ABOUT THIS? THAT'S ALL IT TAKES, HUH? I swear some of these people should be held criminally liable for the shit they put on the radio.

That's just, like, your opinion, man

2008-11-18T10:52:00.002-06:00

I am an admitted music snob. All of the music I listen to is totally better than your favorite band. Getting into an argument with me about music is, in many instances, a fool's errand. Not necessarily because I'm right but because I can't be wrong. That's just how it is. This annoys the hell out of my friends just like it annoys the hell out of me when I come across someone like me. I'm a lot better now than I used to be, though. Back when all I really listened to was punk I imagine I was insufferable. This whole thing probably stems from the fact that I used to listen solely to punk, by the way. It's a musical genre that basically requires you to be an elitist prick. Damn good music, though.

Of course I realize that in truth I'm not always right about music. Seeing as how tastes are entirely subjective it could be said that I'm never right. Contrary to popular opinion I'm okay with this fact. I'm not just some schmuck who likes an argument. I like discussing music with people because I love introducing people to new bands or genres and things like that. I would love to get a chance to talk to you about the music you listen to. If I could help you discover your New Favorite Band then I feel like I've done some good.

All that being said over the years I've noticed some specific trends in musical opinion. Four specific trends, to be exact. In my many nights spent talking about bands I've discovered that there are four musical arguments that are pervasive and divisive. They are as follows, in order of severity:

#4- Neil Young vs. Bob Dylan

#3- Aerosmith vs. Guns N' Roses

#2- Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam

#1- The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones

Admittedly numbers two and one are more divisive than four and three but they all seem to create lines in the sand to some degree. Now while 90% of the time this simply comes down to preference* the arguments (and these are arguments, not discussions) always seem to revolve around things like influence or artistic credibility. It's ridiculous, really. For the record I enjoy the music of all of the bands and so do most of the people that I've talked to about them but everyone seems to enjoy the music of one a lot more than the other. If I were to count the number of hours I've spent arguing why The Rolling Stones are better than The Shitty Beatles I'd surely find that it rivals the number of hours I've spent shirking responsibility at work.

*I prefer the latter in every instance because they are soooooooo much better than the former and if you disagree you're an idiot and probably a bad person, to boot

Songs that get stuck in your head

2008-11-11T10:16:00.003-06:00

So I pretty much have a jukebox in my head that plays all damn day. I started writing this post because there is a particular song that, despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the artist and I haven't heard the song in months, is on rotation in my mind at least 5 times a day. That song is Jack Johnson's cover of "Mama You've Been on My Mind" by Bob Dylan off of the I'm Not There soundtrack.

Like I said, I'm not a fan of Jack Johnson. The I'm Not There soundtrack is damned amazing though and that track is one that I just can't get out of my head. I guess that's why he's so popular. The section at the end where he gets all Jack Johnson is his interpretation of part of an absolutely amazing poem that Bob Dylan wrote when asked to sum up his feelings on Woody Guthrie. The video below is just a bunch of random images laid over the audio of Bob Dylan's reading of the poem. The full text can be found all over the place and is most certainly worth a read (or a listen).

As an example of how many fucking songs pass through the subway station that is my brain I can tell you that since I started writing this post I've gotten two more songs that I have to post. The first of the new additions is (appropriately enough) "Jukebox in My Mind" by Alabama.

The second is Glen Campbell's version of "Gentle on My Mind".

I took a ride on a Gemini spacecraft

2008-11-07T10:06:00.002-06:00

I just found an article that got me thinking so I figured I would share it. Apparently the UN has decided to send the full text of the Universal Human Rights Declaration into space. They will be storing it, I suppose just for the purpose of symbolism, in the Columbus space lab on the ISS. When I first read the article I assumed they were broadcasting a reading of it into the deepest recesses of our galaxy and it was that premise that got my proverbial cogs turning.

I've linked to the full text of the UHRD because it's really worth a read. It isn't long at all. After reading it I asked myself the same thing I'm about to ask you. If you were an outside observer of this planet (a la Kang and Kodos) and you heard a broadcast of the UHRD do you think you'd come up with an accurate vision of this planet?

Here are a few interesting snippets from the UHRD that I think could be seen as less than accurate*.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 16.

(1)Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

I'm sure there are more, too. It's odd that in going through the Universal Human Rights Declaration looking for statements which obviously aren't true throughout the world (or even throughout the industrialized world in many cases) I managed to pull out well over half of the damn thing. Do you think that if an alien race were to hear the UHDR they would be getting a truthful representation of the state of our planet? It almost makes me feel like we're lying to the whole damn universe about who we are. I realize that there may not ever be a day when the whole text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can be said to be true for every person on this planet. I realize that this document wasn't meant more as a beacon in the dark than a mirror on the wall. I just wish that it wasn't so easy to shred it by reading a newspaper. What do you think? Are we there yet? Are we at least closer than we were 60 years ago when this was written? Is it even something that we should be aiming for or is it just some damn liberal tripe that we're better off leaving in the past? You've probably figured out my opinion, now I'd like to know yours.

*The opinions expressed in this blog are mine and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Kang and Kodos.

A change is gonna come

2008-11-05T12:56:00.002-06:00

Seriously how cool is that?

For a fun drinking game my friends and I took a swig every time Barack said "America/American" during his completely awesome acceptance speech. Totally worth it. We were going to drink every time he took a state but then we wouldn't have woken up Wednesday.

John McCain's concession speech was pretty damned good, too. I seriously thought his relief was palpable towards the end of the speech.

The slideshows that I have seen showing pictures of people celebrating all over the world make me feel really great.

I drove an hour and a half to Birmingham then waited an hour and a half in line to vote for the first time (not counting the primary). I was eligible to vote before but until now I never felt compelled to. Hell I even stood in line next to my Dad who more than likely canceled out every vote that I made but I knew that going in and it was still worth it.

Alabama politics was pretty much business as usual other than Bobby Bright winning and Ballot Initiative No. 1 passing. I really wanted Vivian Figures to win but I knew it was a long shot.

[I honestly wanted to make a less-cheesy blog title but I've literally had that song stuck in my head ALL DAMN DAY. Damn you Sam Cooke and your silky croon!]

I will remember you

2008-11-04T09:07:00.002-06:00

Posterboy

2008-10-31T10:59:00.005-05:00

How uncharacteristic of me to post twice in the same day! Just thought I'd share some of the art that I've recently bought to spruce up my apartment and office. Given my recent struggle with decorating I'd say I'm doing pretty well to come up with anything. First, here's a piece that I purchased for my apartment:

I wish I could post a larger image but it's a piece from Morgaine von Slatt, who has some other really cool stuff. I'll probably be buying more of her work in the future.

I also bought three posters for my office from an artist named Steve Thomas. This is one of them (I hate it when people put watermarks on web images):

I'm pretty sure that I'll be buying a new entertainment center soon so I'll have stuff to decorate besides my walls.

I remember Halloween

2008-10-31T09:19:00.002-05:00

Happy Halloween!

Here's hoping your costume kills. Now for a video that used to Officially Freak Me Out when I was a kid. It's the first thing I think of every Halloween and I'll probably watch it 20 more times before lunch.

Together forever

2008-10-30T08:47:00.005-05:00

It seems like home entertainment is taking one more step towards awesome. For those too lazy to click the link it's an article discussing how Netflix and Tivo are teaming up to offer streaming movies to Tivo's set-top boxes. Much like the author of the article I too thought to myself a few years ago that this would be an amazing idea. I used to have Tivo but have since switched to the cable company's version (only because my Tivo box was on the verge of giving up the ghost). This is making me consider going back to my beloved Tivo.

[For those with sensitively cool eyes I'll warn you that things are about to get nerdy]

Streaming movies is a pretty cool idea but if you're really stuck on high quality it might not suit your fancy. In order to make a movie small enough to fit into the tubes that bring the internets to your house it is necessary to use a lot of video compression. For some reason the US seems to have much smaller tubes than a lot of other countries, meaning more compression. If the US were ever able to match the broadband speeds of other countries that kind of compression would be all but obsolete. Think about how cool it would be to stream high-definition video straight to your TV? Last I heard the Netflix streaming video service had about 12,000 movies available (or at least that's the case for the Xbox 360 tie-in). That number is increasing every month. It is not beyond reason to assume that Netflix will one day have almost every movie ever available for you to stream to your home. That. Is. So. COOL.

Warpigs

2008-10-24T11:42:00.001-05:00

I haven’t talked a whole lot about work recently, mostly because it’s been pretty quiet (read: boring) around here. The project that I was working on when I started has wrapped up and in the process netted me my first publication*, so that’s pretty cool. Aside from that nothing much has happened. That project was all but through about 2 weeks ago and since then I’ve been struggling to find ways to fill my time at the office (read: a lot of fucking around on the internet). It has recently come to my attention that one of the reasons for my perpetual boredom is that there has been some issue with funding. Apparently the economy isn’t doing so hot right now. Who knew? According to the chief engineer at my company I’m not at risk to lose my job (whew!) but he thinks that there will be some restructuring in my future. It’s like I just got my palm read by the world’s most boring gypsy. What it means is that before too long I’ll probably be reporting to a new boss and I’ll be working in an entirely different area of my field.

It’s that new ‘area’ that is giving me cause to blog, you see. And not necessarily in a good way. One of the troubles that come with working in aerospace engineering is that without some careful canoodling and kissing of keister** you likely won’t have much control over what kind of projects you end up working on. Another of the problems is that the ever-increasing military/defense budget and a waning public interest in space exploration has caused the aerospace industry in recent years to move even more towards total domination by the dreaded Military Industrial Complex. That means that most of the work that’s being done in Huntsville these days is military work. Without going too deep into detail I’ll say that I’m not a fan of military work because of moral objections that I have with what I feel is the misplaced emphasis on the role of the military in the modern world. Since I don’t want this post to be about my sociopolitical leanings I’ll just leave that there for now.

By now I’m sure you’ve figured out what’s been asked of me because you’re all so damned clever. My company does a lot of military technology development and they want me to help with some of it. Up to this point in my short career I’ve been able to avoid it and I was hoping beyond hope that I could continue to avoid it ad infinitum. I even had delusions that should the option come before me I would refuse it outright. I guess the problem occurs when it isn’t really an option. Sure, they may have asked me if I would like to work on these projects but I got the impression that it would not behoove my career should I object. That’s not to say that I felt intimidated in any way but rather that with the work that is presently available to me if I’m not willing to bite the bullet (so to speak) I might find that their willingness to pay me for time spent updating my blog is diminished. So that’s where I stand right now. The question now is whether I should voice my objection before I take the work on the off chance that they can find some work that’s not so morally taxing for me? Let me make it clear that I fully intend to take the work despite my moral objections to the nature of the task. I’m not happy with it but I need to have a job and with any luck it won’t last for too long. [It took me a really long time to come up with a way to justify that decision and that makes me feel even more like shit.]

*It hasn’t been published yet so there’s still time for something to go wrong but I’m holding on to hope

** Kalliteration! [Skirting decency for the sake of wordplay? Count me in!]

Runnin' with the devil

2008-10-21T10:23:00.002-05:00

Over the last 6 months or so I’ve been terrible about exercising and watching what I eat. It’s an odd thing for me, too, because just a year ago I was fresh off of a healthy-living kick that lost me 40 lbs. While I haven’t gained all of that weight back I have managed to find a lot of that weight that I lost. Apparently it was hiding in the lethargy-closet with the red meat and ice cream. Obviously I’m not happy about the fact that I’ve gained weight and I’ve been telling myself now for several months that I need to get off my ever-expanding ass and do something about it. When I was still in Auburn the healthy living thing honestly wasn’t that hard. It was really easy to walk to work every day because it was only a mile or two away. I took it as a point of pride that I never drove my car. Of course now that I’m in Huntsville things are different because work is about 6 miles from home and I’m just not going to make that trek every day. It’s no longer practical to walk to work or anywhere for that matter. Just like I’m not a fan of decorating for the sake of decorating (see: my distaste for non-functional items) it’s hard for me to justify walking for the sake of walking. It was a completely different story when I had a destination, but now I don’t.

So I’ve had to look for motivation elsewhere and up until recently I just couldn’t find enough of it to actually exercise. It wasn’t quite enough motivation that my clothes weren’t fitting me well anymore. It wasn’t quite enough motivation that my self-esteem was taking a hit. It wasn’t even enough motivation knowing that my apartment complex has a goddamn gym not 500 yards from my front door. HOWEVER, I have now found enough motivation to start running! There were a few things that finally pushed me over the edge so to speak. Three things to be exact: one was a friend, one was a doctor, and the final straw was (I’m not sure what this says about me) boredom. I get off work every day and go home and do nothing. NOTHING, PEOPLE. There isn’t even anything good on TV until at least 6 PM and I’m normally home before 5. So I get home and literally struggle to find something to do for an hour before the quality programming comes on the telly… AND I HAVE TIVO. So the burden of knowing that I was such a ridiculous person for not exercising finally broke me and I went running last night.

Now that I’ve said all that I feel kind of like I’m putting the cart before the horse. One night of running does not a runner make, as they say. Especially when what I call running I’m sure most seasoned runners would point to as a perfect example of What’s Wrong with Today’s Society (WELL GUESS WHAT YOU THIN BASTARDS NO ONE IS EVER IN THAT GYM TO PASS JUDGEMENT ANYWAY BECAUSE WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY OF LAZY FAT FUCKS LIKE ME HAHAHAHHAHA) But that’s not the point. I plan to stick to my guns here and go running at least 4 times a week when I get off work and hopefully before too long I’ll be dropping pounds and feeling better about myself. I also plan on eating healthier by sticking mostly to salads and rice for dinner for a while. Now if I could just find something to do with all that delicious cookie dough I bought.

Gotta keep 'em decorated

2008-10-14T14:40:00.002-05:00

I moved to Huntsville at the beginning of August. Against all logic I ended up renting a 3 bedroom 2 bath apartment even though I live by myself (short notice, only place available). The last place I lived (aside from my 6 month stint in Birmingham with my Dad) was a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment in Auburn. So, for those of you keeping track that’s 2 extra bedrooms, 1 extra bathroom, and enough money to afford to replace my shitty college furniture. Now that we’re all on the same boat everyone grab a paddle cause it’s about to get choppy. I haven’t purchased one piece of furniture since I moved to Huntsville. What’s more than that I haven’t even unpacked my Swanky DVD Collection or my Extensive Library of Intelligent Books because I told myself that as soon as I got here I was going to replace my shitty college DVD rack and my shitty college bookshelves with nicer ones because I could finally afford to. [and what’s the point of having an Extensive Library of Intelligent Books if they’re being stored in a glorified kindergarten cubby?]

Now we get to my current dilemma. For the first time ever I have the means to decorate my apartment as I wish. The problem is that I have NO IDEA what to do. I’ve been pontificating over this pretty much ever since I moved and haven’t come up with much. I did purchase some art from a local artist and hang it, so at least that’s a start. I’ve looked through decorating books, browsed websites, asked friends, asked family, asked hobos, and think I’ve finally figured out why I’m so hesitant to decorate…

I have a natural aversion to purchasing items that don’t serve some purpose! While that doesn’t necessarily apply to furniture (I haven’t purchased furniture because I’m lazy, honestly), it does apply to everything from sconces to vases to decorative plates. Apparently that’s what people decorate their house/apartments with. Who knew? I think it’s absurd. Now like I said I’ve got some art. Decorating with art doesn’t bother me and I don’t know why that is. Maybe it’s an ego thing? I really don’t know. I just can’t bring myself to hang a candle holder on my damn wall because I know good and damn well I won’t ever light the damn candle. Damnit! Who cares if it ‘looks nice’- it’s superfluous. So sorry, Mom, I don't want that nice candelabra that you got from some lady at work that matches my coffee table and brings a pleasant focal point into the room. I just can't.

I guess the bottom line is that I can’t bring myself to decorate even though I want to. What’s a boy to do? Should I just bite the bullet and start besconcing my apartment? I guess for now I’ll just start with buying some furniture and maybe move on from there. Gotta crawl before you can walk, right?

In vino veritas

2008-10-11T02:21:00.002-05:00

How cliche is that title? Really? I can do better than that. Well, not right now I can't (probably because of the 'vino' or in this case 'cervisia'). So despite the fact that I haven't been writing much recently I feel like I have a lot of things that I want to write. Not a day goes by that I don't think about writing something on this blog, but most of the time I don't (obviously) because I don't know why. Maybe I don't think it's actually worth writing about? But what the hell is that? This is my blog, right? Not yours, mine! So if I feel like penciling up a rant about the minutia that I experience why the hell shouldn't I? To be completely and totally (REDUNDANT PHRASING HOW LAME IS THAT?) honest I only write to satisfy my ego. I honestly believe that I have a certain pinache for writing and that maybe if I write in some sort of public forum I might receive validation. There, I said it. How does that make you feel, huh? Kind of makes me feel dirty, to be truthful. This is awkard... let's move on to something else!

I decided to stay in Huntsville this weekend. So I'm here... ... ... honestly trying to figure out what this city has to offer. This is maybe the third or fourth weekend that I've stayed in town since I moved here in August. It's not that I am trying to avoid spending weekends here- quite the contrary- it's just that it's really easy for me to find reasons to escape back to my comfort zones (Bham and Auburn). It seriously feels like ages since I was in Hville on a Friday night. I really had no idea what to expect. Would this be a crazy stay-out-til-5-in-the-morning-waffle house kind of evening or not? Well it's now about 2:30 and I'm home writing in my blog. That's not to say that I didn't have some fun tonight. I did. It's just that I'm not used to having to try so fucking hard to have some fun. I certainly didn't have a lot of fun. It was ok. I guess. Even then though I didn't leave my apartment until just about midnight. If I had been in Bham I would've been at the bar by 8 and drunk by 12. Not here.

I really want to like this city because (this is honestly just now sinking in I think) it looks like I'll be here a while. I need a place that I can go to and feel comfortable. Okay I'm going to bed now kind of in the middle of a tirade because I'm falling alseep at my laptop. TO BE CONTINUED dot dot dot

It's been a while

2008-10-08T09:52:00.002-05:00

Yeah. I've been busy with work lately, baby. I know you miss me and I miss you, too. I wish I got to see you more often but that's just not how things have been working and I apologize for that. I hope that things can change for the better here. I think we have a great thing going between us and I'd hate to see it get thrown away. What was it we used to love talking about so much? Oh yeah that's right- music. Remember how we used to go on and on about music? You'd just sit there and listen to me ramble and that's why I love you. Well I've been listening to a lot of new music recently, hon, and let me tell you I could go on for days about it. Days and days. Hopefully I can make some time to spend with you so you don't forget why you loved me to begin with. For now though I'll leave you with a little bit of a rock-teasing and tell you to check out DeVotchka. That dude that sings for them sounds a lot like The Big O and there ain't nothing wrong with that. Nothing at all.

The Waiting

2008-09-24T16:09:00.003-05:00

I swear if this whole work thing keeps interfering with my blogging then I might just have to quit. A man's gotta have his priorities straight in this life or the world will just turn him inside out. It's like my Grandpa always used to say, "Son if you don't get out of that bathroom soon I'm gonna flood it with the garden hose." Okay that might not apply directly to this conversation but boy was he a hoot!

We can make this work

2008-09-18T08:53:00.002-05:00

Ok, so no one suggested an album to review last week. I expected that would happen sooner rather than later and had decided that I would just review an album of my choice instead. Yeah, that's right, I get a say around here on occasion. So hopefully I'll still get a review done before the weekend.

In other news I tried a new recipe last night that worked out pretty darn well, if I do say so myself. It's a recipe I got from the New York Times for Black Bean Soft Tacos. It's really easy and damn good for you. If anyone wants the recipe (it's also vegetarian, Tina) let me know and I'll send it to you. I'm trying to build a repertoire of dishes that utilize black beans. They are low fat and full of lots of good-for-yous.

On a more current-events note: I've been thinking a lot this week about the financial crisis that's going on right now (something tells me I'm not alone). I have a little bit of money in the stock market by way of a mutual fund I bought into about 10 years ago. I don't really keep track of the damn thing- I couldn't even tell you how much it's worth right now- so I'm obviously not too concerned about my personal finances but according to some experts a lot of people could stand to lose a lot of money before all is said and done. It's times like these that make me wish I understood the economy much better than I do but also simultaneously kind of make me glad I don't. I'm sure if I actually fully comprehended what was happening I would probably be freaking out right now.

It's also made me wonder about the concept of a government bailout. The U.S. gov't just invested $85B taxpayer dollars in AIG to keep it afloat. The idea is that if AIG had crashed suddenly then the implications would have been serious and far reaching. Of course I never heard anyone say or even hint at what those consequences might be, just that they would be bad. It's not that I don't believe what these folks are saying, it's just that I'd like to know exactly what might happen that deserves risking $85B public. This isn't the first time (nor will it be the last) that the government has bailed out a company because the company was "too big to fail." I'm sorry but I just think that's a load of crap. Isn't this just capitalism taking it's course? Like I said, I'm sure that there are some good reasons for this course of action, I just haven't heard any. Anyone care to explain?

I don't pretend to understand economics, people. It's just that stuff like this has never sat right with me. Huge companies collapsing as a result of investor uncertainty/fear is part of the system, right? Isn't that just one of the risks inherent in a free market economy? I might understand this bailout a little more if it could be shown that the trouble was not in any way the fault of the AIG business plan, but I refuse to accept the fact that a corporation can simply be "too big" to fail. That's likely a slippery slope.

Come Monday

2008-09-11T15:27:00.002-05:00

Ok so since the last installment of Apollo's Awesome Album Areview took me a little longer than expected I'll change my schedule just a little bit in an attempt to make this an achievable weekly endeavor. It isn't a big change and I'm not sure if it'll work or not but we'll see.

I'll be reviewing another album next week and YOU get to pick what album. REALLY! CRAZY, RIGHT? So comment on this post by noon Monday with your suggestion for Awesome Album of the Aweek and I'll review it! Simple as that. Whatever album you want. If more than one person suggests an album I'll just pick my favorite from the suggestions. With any luck I'll have the review done by the end of next week and we'll start the whole crazy process over again. IT'S LIKE A VICIOUS CYCLE OF KICK-ASSERY.

The end of the world as we know it

2008-09-11T10:04:00.003-05:00

Well, not literally the end of the world, you see, just the end of the world as we know it. I've been thinking about how the earth wasn't destroyed last night and I am (understandably I think) quite excited about it. The experiments that are going to be happening at the LHC in the next decade could easily change the world. If nothing else they will better our understanding of how the universe works. To that end I started wondering if some of the overblown media scare wasn't driven by an overwhelming fear/mistrust of science that seems to be perpetuated by some religious nutjobs. I know, I know, this may sounds like some stupid conspiracy-theory shit and it's likely not true. By that I mean that there probably isn't a room full of Falwells instructing the media to tell the general populace that those damn particle physicists are trying to kill us all because we all know that SCIENTISTS HATE GOD. But there certainly is some anti-scientific sentiment running through a lot of religious institutions and that distrust is unfounded and detrimental to progress.

The bottom line is that some of the experiments being done at the LHC could further solidify the Big Bang Theory as scientific truth and thereby push the Alpha and the Omega to the proverbial (PUN!) back of the bus. I'll be open here and say that I have a general dislike and distrust of most religion but it's because of things like this anti-scientific mumbo jumbo. If a better understanding of the scientific workings of the universe is going to jeopardize the sanctity of your flock then they are grazing on the wrong field.

Apollo's Awesome Album Areview

2008-09-09T15:31:00.004-05:00

Ok sorry for the wait here folks. I've been pretty busy at work this past week and just got the chance to turn my notes into a full-fledged album areview. I also, as you may have noticed, didn't get around to detailing my trip to Louisville. I'll kill two birds with one stone and give you the Cliffs Notes® version of the Louisville trip: bourbon and bad jokes. Ok so that about sums that up now onto the review.

This is my review of Beck's Modern Guilt that I meant to have done last Friday. Oh well shit happens enjoy:

Beck’s latest album, Modern Guilt, is not really what I expected after his previous two albums but then again maybe that’s my mistake. It’s a good album to be certain but it isn’t exactly in the same vein as his recent releases. His two efforts prior to Modern Guilt, 2006’s The Information and 2005’s Guerro, were both classic, happy, dance-y, goofy Beck. Modern Guilt is not happy, only occasionally dance-y, and hardly goofy. Of course this isn’t entirely unlike Beck - give a listen to 2002’s Sea Change and you’ll realize that Mr. Hansen isn’t always the cheeriest chap in Chestershire. That’s not to say that Modern Guilt is just Sea Change Round 2. The two albums don’t share that much in common other than that they aren’t what people were expecting from the guy who gave us Odelay.

Sea Change was an album inspired by a rather harsh break up. Modern Guilt seems to be more inspired by a world breaking up rather harshly. There are images of buildings falling, fighter jets, warheads, and isolation. Even the fun, dance-y-ish (let’s see how far I can take that word) tracks don’t sound as big or fun as most of his work. They sound really good, they just don’t sound like most of his other work and I think that’s great. If I told you that Beck was coming out with an album produced by Danger Mouse (of Gnarls Barkley fame) this probably isn’t the first thing you’d imagine (of course, if you took a long look at some of Danger Mouse’s other work it might not surprise you that much – the guy’s got a dark streak a mile long). There are a couple of tracks where Danger’s influence is obvious, for instance on “Gamma Ray” which sounds kind of like a Gnarls Barkley song featuring Beck (which is really good, by the way). Speaking of the production, I really enjoy how this album isn’t too loud or overproduced. It’s a welcome change from most of the crap on the radio where every instrument or vocal track seems to have been recorded with the boards cranked up to eleven.

A lot of the computerized backing beats on this album remind me of The Postal Service (band, not governmental mail carrier). I’ve been noticing that a lot recently, not just here. Whatever program they are using to create the computer backing tracks (or the whole song in the case of The Postal Service) seems to have become an industry standard and makes a lot of stuff sound the same. I could probably rant for a long while about the problems in the music production industry right now, but we’ll stop that train here before I punch the face of my nice new work laptop.

The first two tracks (“Orphans” and the aforementioned “Gamma Ray”) have awesome bass lines. As a matter of fact this album is full of really good bass lines. That is something that I’ve come to expect from Beck and he has yet to let me down. “Orphans”, aside from having a kick ass bass line, also has Cat Power. She sings back up on the track “Walls” as well. I kind of wish they had given her more prominent parts in the songs, honestly. I didn’t even realize it was her at first until I looked on the track list.

There are some upbeat songs on this album (the titular track, “Soul of Man”, and “Profanity Prayers”, for example). Even those songs, though, sound kind of like Beck on opiates. That’s not a bad thing, people. The only upsetting thing to me is that Beck has an ultra-emo moment in the closing song, “Volcano”; one line goes [I’ve been drinking all these tears so long/All I've got left is the taste of salt in my mouth]. C’mon, Beck.

All in all Modern Guilt is a good album. Whether or not you’re a fan of Beck you’ll want to check this one out. It’s a good sleepy-time album and it’s fairly short (just over 30 minutes) so put it in one afternoon when you’re getting ready to nap and see how groovy Beck is even when he doesn't appear to be trying.

Hit me baby one more time

2008-09-02T16:24:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I really enjoyed reviewing "Challengers" last week and have decided that, much like I had intended, I will review another album this week. Of course I will be reviewing whatever album you want me to review, so get your thinking caps on and come up with another! Don't worry yourself trying to pick something I might like or anything like that, just pick something you'd like to hear my honest opinion of. Like last week I'll pick an album to review on Thursday at noon so comment on this post with your ideas and I'll pick from those. Also, let me know if you like the review I did for the "Challengers" album! I've long been considering reviewing music as a hobby and need constructive criticism if I'm going to get any good at it.

P.S. I went to Louisville this past weekend and all you got was a lousy post telling you all about it coming sometime soon.

Apollo's Awesome Album Areview

2008-08-29T12:18:00.002-05:00

Here it is, folks- the first installment in something that I'm hoping will become a regular occurrence on my blog. Let me know what you think.

The New Pornographers are a band that I’ve never fully immersed myself in and whenever I do stumble across one of their albums in my musical journey I always think, “I’ve got to start listening to more of these folks.” I got their most recent album, Challengers, as soon as it came out and had only listened to it a few times until the other day. Luckily, I was spurred into giving it another round on the proverbial turntable. I’m not typically a fan of ‘pop’ music. I’m even less of a fan of the term ‘pop music’, but in this case I think it lends itself well to the description. It’s easy to get lost in the plethora of pop bands that want to be as good as The New Pornographers. There are two very important things missing from most of those groups: A.C. Newman and Neko Case. A.C. Newman is the mastermind behind the band; the genius that arranges the majority of their poppy, dance-y, harmony –fueled fun times. Neko Case is Neko Case. If you don’t know who she is then stop reading now and go listen to her music. Then you can return to my blog knowing full-well that I’ve totally got dibs if you find her.

Challengers is a great record. Overall it is pop rock at its finest; a quirky, fun, and at times challenging testament to the power of strong composition. It’s all there- awesome harmonics, Neko Case, guitar riffs so hooky and elegant that they’d make Rivers Cuomo jealous, orchestral backing, poetic and challenging lyrics, Neko Case, piano rockers (“All the Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth”), flutes, and even a few songs that make you remember what makes you love music as much as you do. If you can listen to the titular song (the third track) and not fall head over then you’re not on the right ship, kid. Even the weaker tracks (Entering White Cecilia, Adventures in Solitude) on the album could probably stand up as a great single. There are toe-tappers (“All the Old Showstoppers”, which sounds like it’d be amazing live) and hip-swingers (“Myriad Harbour”, which also a killer talky song), too.

One of my major modes when I listen to any song is the ‘what does this remind me of?’ mode. Well, this is what all I’ve got scribbled down on my notepad here: The Shins, Phil Collins, Eisley, Polyphonic Spree, The Decemberists, and Radiohead. Those are just the ones I could actually place, too. What does that tell you? The last song (“The Spirit of Giving”) even recalls Bob Dylan in a strange way that I just picked up on. Speaking of which, the last song is incredible as well- it’s bitter, depressing, beautiful, and probably my second favorite track on the whole album (the first being the titular track and the third being “Go Places” because she uses the phrase ‘deus ex machina’ in the song).

If I had to say one negative thing about the album it’s this: I don’t think that Newman’s lyrical complexity is well-matched by the music. Sonically, this is the sort of stuff you’d want to play at a party, which isn’t typically the best venue for songs about poverty and loneliness. You can listen to this whole album 30 times and not ever really gleam much meaning from a lot of the songs, but that’s because the music is good enough that you don’t find yourself asking much of the lyrics. Some of Newman’s writing would probably be better served in arrangements that made you want to sit and think, not jump and dance. All in all, though, this is an album that you should definitely own.

Brain Candy

2008-08-28T16:03:00.003-05:00

This is a link to an article that I think is worth a read. It's about the new trend of buying one song off of a music service as opposed to purchasing the full album. I guess the trend isn't really new per se, but it's resurgent in an industry-changing way. I think it's bad news, and apparently some folks tend to agree with me. Here's a quick snippet:

Online music sales continue to skyrocket at the expense of CDs. iTunes continues to be the leader of the pack, too, not only in online sales, but music sales overall. But a small rebellion is brewing against iTunes as artists become disgruntled with the hit they're taking on overall album sales thanks to the now-wildly-popular method of cherry-picking favorite tracks for download.

I've been wanting some other opinions on this phenomenon.

P.S. Apollo's Awesome Album Areview coming soon

I want a new drug

2008-08-26T08:42:00.001-05:00

So I’m sitting here at work again and I thought to myself, “Hey, Apollo, it seems like it’s been forever since you updated your blog. I bet people are starting to worry!” Ok not really but I do want to start updating this thing more. I know I’ve said that before but it’s different this time baby, I swear. What I need is a neat-o recurring thing. Hmm… what should it be? I know! I’ll start reviewing albums! But I can’t just be like every other wannabe Fricke on the internet, can I? So instead what I’ll do is I’ll let whoever happens to read this tell me what CD to review. If there is more than one suggestion then I’ll pick whichever I prefer (this ain’t no democracy). If there are no suggestions by noon Thursday then I’ll review whatever I damn well please thank you very much.

In other news I’m going to Louisville this weekend to celebrate Long Weekend Day. It’ll be good times.

Also, I got my first paycheck last week! So Daddy’s got some butter to spread, folks. The bread line starts at the door.

Further down the spiral

2008-08-21T15:00:00.002-05:00

Now I've bought cookies from one of the kids of a lady that works with me. He's selling them for his 3rd grade class. It seems like only yesterday my Mom was selling cookies for my 3rd grade class.

Well not literally but you get what I'm saying.

One more against the wall

2008-08-18T13:03:00.002-05:00

I use Pandora radio service. It's a really awesome way of discovering new music. I put in an artist that I like, Pandora plays me that artist's music along with similar artists that I may not have heard of. It's simple, effective, and efficient. In the two weeks since I started working I've discovered no fewer than 5 new musicians that I enjoy. 5! I intend to buy their music and I intend to see some of their concerts (some of them are dead). This article from the Washington Post pretty well sums up SoundExchange's destruction of an effective radio format for the sake of a failed business model:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/fasterforward/2008/08/music_biz_still_trying_to_kill.html

An excerpt:

"As I wrote a year ago, when the CRB reaffirmed this foolish idea, choking off Web radio by imposing discriminatory and disproportionate fees is just about the last thing the music industry needs. Webcasters like Pandora are far more effective at exposing listeners to new music than the playlist-choked wasteland of commercial FM and AM -- so of course we should tax them to extinction, ensuring record labels and musicians a one-time profit, followed by years of much poorer exposure for new musicians."

Hazy days of summer

2008-08-18T10:07:00.001-05:00

This weekend I went out both nights, spent too much money, met new people, drank way too much, did things I shouldn't have, saw the sun come up, spent an entire day with a hangover, heard some good music, and developed a crush on a total stranger. I'm back, baby.

Cog against the machine

2008-08-13T15:45:00.001-05:00

So I’m sitting at work on what was up until a little while ago a busy day. Now I’m waiting for my project manager to get back from a conference so we can discuss whatever I should be doing right now instead of blogging. I was going to use the term ‘boss’ instead of project manager, but I don’t know if it would be accurate. How does one define boss? Since I have two managers (one project manager and one functional manager) who are both equally in charge of my fate in this company, is it fair to say that only one of them is my boss? I know that in reality I just have two bosses but that hardly seems like an appropriate rendering of the situation; and I mean that in the best way. I guess you could say that I’m all settled in at the office now. I’ve got pictures of the family, sports memorabilia, and creepy gargoyles placed sporadically in my office. Hard to say that it feels like home, though. Speaking of home I’m enjoying my new apartment a lot. I’ve probably said that before so I may sounds like a broken record but, hey, I’M REALLY ENJOYING MY NEW APARTMENT. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I just prefer living by myself.

I don’t see nearly as much of my friends as I thought I would when I moved here. I’m used to living in B’ham where I’d go out every night. I think a lot of that was my desire just to get out of the confines of my Dad’s house, though. Here I don’t feel nearly as much of a desire to leave my apartment once I get home from work. Hell I’ve only been to the bar (in Huntsville) once since I moved here. That’s ridiculous. I have yet to determine whether or not I’m ok with this phenomenon. I don’t think I am. I’m not saying that I want to spend every night going out to the bars and getting drunk. What I’m saying is that I’m a very social person and I like that about myself. If I sit at home for two nights without seeing any of my friends I feel like I’ve done something wrong. I guess what I’m really getting at is that I don’t ever want to be boring. I think it’s weird that none of the people I work with seem to hang out with each other outside of the office. That’s really weird to me. What the hell do these people do? What the hell am I going to be doing in a year? Whatever it is, I hope to hell it’s not boring.