Red Zeppelin
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Friday: April 01, 2005 - April Fools Day
As my first April Fool's prank in a good long time I called the grad office today and pretended to be a potential doctoral student. It went over well--my plan was to change which degree program I wanted every time Bryan Richards would ask me about one and get more angry each time. I did such a good job that I had to reveal myself after he ready to transfer me.
I'm so far behind on these updates I don't even remember what else I did on Friday. Bryan and I went out to lunch and I most likely worked the rest of the day. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Saturday: April 02, 2005 - Garage Saling
Jamie and I went to some garage sales in the morning. It was mildly fruitful--I got a kitchen island for $10. It's a lot bigger than I thought so it looks out of place in my small eating area. At least it'll buy me some storage time.
The website-demo project is nearly complete. I can't say who it's for but the picture above will give a very general idea from an old copy. I think I worked all day too. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Sunday: April 03, 2005 - Surprise, Surprise
Surprise, surprise. I worked all day again. I made this chart. I think it looks pretty nice.
Jamie went to Jacksonville with her family so I was on dog duty for the afternoon/evening. Both dogs were really well behaved. I don't know who trained them but it's nice. Oh, it was me. Good job!
Michael also gave his senior recital. He played this Vivaldi piece that sounded more like Lygeti. Weirded out! Good job! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 04, 2005 - Happy Birthday!
I know you're thinking one of two things:
1) Is that a birthday bib? (Yes)
2) Isn't that the same photo as last year? (Yes)
That's the only digital picture I have of you-sorry. Happy 22nd birthday though!
On my 22nd birthday I think I fell asleep against a dumpster outside of Waffle House. (Kathy didn't let me stay there for very long so don't worry--I turned out just fine). [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 05, 2005 - Start of Baseball Season
Ok, new plan. Survive through next weekend on three hours sleep. The only good news is that baseball season started yesterday. Who cares that after two days the Cubs are already in 4th place? Not me. For the first time I'm going in with a reasonable expectation: 2nd place wild-card losers. I'm not going to get my hopes up for the umpteeth year just to have it blown. Maybe I'll give a pupdate tomorrow since there hasn't been one for a while.
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Wednesday: April 06, 2005 - Jesus in a Pretzel
I read an article online yesterday morning about a long turtle who survived a pet store fire that killed all of his adoptable mates. A few weeks ago I read about a turtle whose shell contained the face of Satan. The picture to the left is Lucky (the pet store) turtle. Don't tell me you can't see the face of the devil in that because I sure can. I wonder if turtles in general are satanic...What I do know is they're not mentioned in any Ozzy or Zeppelin songs so I doubt they can really be all that bad.
I think the only thing we have to save us in these terrible times is the power of Jesus...who can be found being cradled in his mothers arms...in this pretzel. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: April 07, 2005 - Comcast Sucks
You might have thought I would have taken the time to match the actual Comcast font but no, they're not worth the effort. I mean, why should I expend the effort to do something right when they can't? Needless to say, cable was out across the country last night. That really pissed me off. Because of my hefty nap schedule I was ready to crank some work out after dinner but no.
Kathy told me REO Speedwagon is coming to Wild Adventures. Although this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, the last time we went to WA to hear an aging rock band, The Beach Boys, we were thoroughly disappointed (I was anyway). Unlike the Beach Boys, REO still has most of their originals members including James Speedwagon and Tom Reo. Kathy is also going to go live with Brian rent-free this summer. I'm ready to live with Brian too--maybe he should just build an extension to the back. He has all weekend, I'm sure he can get it done. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Frida: April 08, 2005 - Jerry is Leaving
Jerry came by Jack's this morning for the last time to give the final status on everything. Although I didn't get there until 11:30 I was still able to catch a lot of Jack's yelling. This woman Toni will be replacing Jerry. She has a masters in Creative Writing and seems like someone I'll enjoy working with. Like everyone else, including myself, that has come in she has the genuine desire to help out and get things done. She knows that if she can get Jack to focus and prioritize then it will be "all good". She, like Jerry, had at least some knowledge of Jack as a friend coming in. The problem is that for all her good qualities, the environment in which we "work" is a nightmare. I hope she can do it. I told her I had her back.
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Saturday: April 09, 2005 - Cleaning
I cleaned all day. And my house still isn't all that clean.
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Sunday: April 10, 2005 - Longhorn Sucks
Man, the Longhorn Steakhouse sucked for the first time. I'm not sure our waitress was retarded or the "chefs" in the kitchen were. My "medium" steak was, as my brother used to say, BK--burnt (to a) krisp. I don't remember how the hell that came about. Anyway. The cut of meat looked and tasted like it was a center cut of brain. I invited the waitress to taste it but she said it looked "gross and overcooked". After being mean to Chris, we went to Cool Grindz. Once sufficiently caffeinated, Chris and I parted ways from Michael and Jamie and would up at Tallahassee Nurseries. It was a relatively cheap trip--only $36. We came back here and potted the new plants. Chris went home, I cleaned up all the dirt I had spilled then took a nap.
I picked up Jamie for the Mas N' Steel concert around 7:45. We sat in the very center, third row. The Korean Ensemble was first and they were pretty cool except the two guys in the group (one especially) was terrible. I'd try to describe it but you had to be there--it was the most embarrassing individual performance I'd ever seen in any venue. The best part was when he had to play the ching (gong) and he was holding it so tightly with his other hand I don't think it would have made a sound if Godzilla had struck it. You dumbass.
Mas N' Steel played really well. The lower pans...wow. It was weird to hear all the non-leads being so good with such a weak lead section. But as long as the triples are loud, that's all I care about personally. The passion is still missing but as far as the notes go, they were much better rehearsed than we ever were. Jeff's solos still kind of annoy me. He's got chops, definitely but his chromatic runs get old fast. When did they outlaw playing linear passages? Oh that's right, Spring 2004. Chris has really come a long way with his solos. It seems like just yesterday he adamantly refused and now he's soloing on every piece. Matt's were...Matt Flynn. A concert without Matt Flynn's solos would be like going to see Lynyrd Skynyrd where they didn't play Freebird.
After the concert Jamie, Matt and Jara came over to hang out and watch the taped version of Desperate Housewives. Jara's only here ten more days and her going-away party is going to be Friday at my house. 8:30pm. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 11, 2005 - Thanks You Guys
Hey guys, thanks for your money. Seriously, thank you. It seems that since Ricky has stopped playing poker my luck has been really, really good. My neighbor Brian and Elena joined the usuals to take turns filing my wallet. Elena's husband had to work on a paper but hopefully he can come next time to pay the Mike-tax. Both Chris and Brian put up valiant efforts against me but ultimately had to succumb to Rickyesque luck.
Tuesday: April 12, 2005 - Helping Nancy
I went over to Jack's friend Nancy's house today to help figure out which items of artistic value they might have that FSU would want. Nancy's now-deceased husband, Jimmy, was a professor of music in the '50s when the School of Music was first getting started. He quit when they wouldn't let him have any composition students and stuck him teaching only theory. Yeah, that's terrible.
Nancy is a famous artist in the world of encaustics and has hundreds of them throughout the house. And man, they are indescribably good. Not like that crap I had to use for a picture but...amazing. A section of their house was designed like of like this: / / / with paintings on each slat and a small window in the corner to allow sunlight. It's incredible. I'm going back on Thursday to see some more of the music. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: April 13, 2005 - Helping Pat`
This record Pat (from City Hall) gave me has been such a pain in my ass I can't begin to describe it. Last night was supposed to be the day I was done with it but oh no, the 1/8" to 1/4" converter wasn't there so now it's going to take me another day to get it done. Did I mention that the record is The Best of Lenny and Squiggy?
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Thursday: April 14, 2005 - Keanu Reaves Dead
I am sad to report that Keanu has finally died. With no rear fin and with maybe 75% of his scales left in tact, he finally succumbed last night despite extreme measures to keep him alive. The exact cause of death was cannibalism...by his kids.
What a way to go. Poor Keanu.
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Friday: April 15, 2005 - Jara's Going-Away Party
I did it...I paid my taxes on time. Well, I filed for my extension on time. Go me!
Tonight was Jara's going away party. It consisted mostly of having some drinks and playing Pictionary. I'm not sure if I felt old or not--playing games. I'm not sure what "real" adults do when they hang out. Watch TV? Talk? We had some really bad drawings, all of which Jara kept to hang up in her place in Virginia. We were up until about 3am. For some reason that seemed ridiculously late to me even though I'm up most nights working until then. Oh well. Bye Jara! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Saturday: April 16, 2005 - Ricky's Bachelors Party
Around noon I left for Panama City Beach for Ricky's bachelor's party. I was already a day late so I missed all the debauchery from the previous night. I didn't get too lost and made it in about two hours. Since I couldn't find anyone I took a little nap and then hit the beach. A couple hours later I caught up with the group and we sat on the patio and watched these two retarded kids throw sand into each other's eyes while their expensive boogie-boards floated into the ocean. We assumed they were left alone with such expensive toys because their mom was up on the 15th floor banging some dude.
For dinner they seated five us at a table roughly the size my mouse. The waitress also spilled water down my back but hey--it's a party! Bob and Kathy's condo is really nice and there was no beating the view. Better start saving my pennies. I should probably replace my futon first, though... [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Sunday: April 17, 2005 - OKGO Concert
After a surprisingly restful sleep on the bottom of two bunk beds we had breakfast at...wait for it...a diner. Who cares if they had a section devoted to just butter and that the bacon was deformed and probably not from a cow--not me because I was so thrilled to be eating in a diner again. In this place's defense, the pancakes and potatoes were excellent. I wish we had a diner in Tallahassee. Oh well.
I got home around 4 and Jamie had some brownies waiting for me. We played a couple games of cribbage while we waited for them to cool. On our second game I heard this weird sound. Abby had eaten about 80% of the pan. Jamie was pissed. This isn't the first time Ab has eaten brownies, although it has been the first time in 2005. She spent the rest of the day in a stationary ball on the couch. I picked up Chris and we had some pretty average Starbucks coffee before he made pork tenderloin for dinner. Mmm mmm. He used some of little green babies from the backyard and my god Chompy, what a difference fresh herbs make. It was superb.
Jamie left for the OKGO concert right before Jara arrived to watch Desperate Housewives. Woo-ee. What a good episode. I won't spoil it for those of you waiting to watch it on tape >:o but it was really good. Cleared up a lot of loose ends. And when I say cleared I mean just made more loose ends. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 18, 2005 - Poker ditching
Where the hell was everyone for poker last night? Chris was the only one that came so we decided to watch the Cubs lose to the Reds instead. Jara stopped by to say her last goodbyes and to drop off the Desperate Housewives tape. In honor of Jara's leaving, let me list my why we might be in trouble without her.
1) She never bitched about gigs unless we were all bitching collectively--she never chose sides.
2) She was already to play gigs; even when I'd call the night before.
3) She never complained about the dull double seconds parts in the pieces I wrote. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 19, 2005 - Happy Birthday Abby!
Well Abs, it's midnight so you're officially the big 2. I was going to make you some birthday brownies but you've already eaten a pan of them so...tough.
Tomorrow is the web demo. Goodie abdrops. A new Pope was selected today too. While at lunch with Bryan Richards we debated the way the Pope comes up with his new name. Apparently the Pope just picks one. Personally, I'd like to see a Rufus or Spike. Pope Spikus. Hah! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: April 20, 2005 - A New Website Project
See, that's the problem with demos. You want someone to say "Yes, I like the big picture concept, now go make it happen" or "No, I don't like the big picture concept, go back to the drawing board" when they want to see something closer to a finished product to be able to judge the big picture. But that's impossible. Not that the presentation went badly but the changes are either enormous or things that need to be worried about in a few months not right now. What's funny is that it seemed a good number of the comments were centered around adding more pizzazz. When you've got a page full of tables working with old graphics that pixelate at the slightest resize, things aren't going to be heart-stopping. Sorry. I've got some more modernist ideas but they might be too much.
I went over to Nancy's again to finish documenting her music. I really like her a lot. You wouldn't think that a 25 year old guy and an 82 year old woman would have much to talk about but the time passes by quickly and I wish more of my duties for Jack involved her. Did I mention that her art is crazy-good?
Happy Birthday Ab! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: April 21, 2005 - Sports Entry
It's been a while since I did a sports entry so here goes. My beloved Cubs are not doing so hot. There was a time a few years ago when I foolishly thought the Cubs had made a permanent turn for the better. They were spending money and actually having winning seasons. Stupid, stupid me.
I have this fantasy that all our pitchers could be healthy at once. Too bad it's just a fantasy. You foolishly spent $8 million this year for Nomar (pictured left) to fall down and grab himself. In your defense, you had no idea he was going to get hurt. It's not like he had a track record of injury. Oh wait, yes he did. When you first signed him I was so excited I couldn't sleep but now he's just another excuse for a .500 record. What you, The Tribune Company, needs to realize is that we don't care why the Cubs aren't winning. All we care about is that we have three people starting that should be either playing at AA or pumping my gas. You have to realize that we look at our sad little lives and see these people on TV that make more money for a single at-bat that most of us make in a year. We don't care if their arm is bruised or if they're having back spams. We want to see some tough guys suck it up and go back the next day to earn their $14 million/year contracts. You ask us to spend our precious money to watch your prized ponies run and we do. All we ask in return is that they earn their money. That's it.
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Friday: April 22, 2005 - Notorious CHO
I don't understand how sites can be made entirely in flash. Don't get me wrong--I love Flash and I really enjoy using it but come on. Surely at some point you have to think, "Wow, I'm on layer 257 and only on frame 2". I guess if you don't use flash you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Jack is back in town and I went over around 10am after dropping Jamie off at the airport for her weekend with her Grandma in Ohio. I spent the afternoon making HTML tables where only single columns resized when you changed the screen size. Tomorrow I'm going to sit down with one of my JavaScript books to see if I can make a navigation bar that follows you as you scroll down the screen. I personally don't care for those at all but we'll see.
I went over to Chris and Mike's around 9pm. I caught the end of a Trivial Pursuit game, ate some specially-made mashed potatoes and watched the first half of Margaret Cho's Notorious C.H.O.. She was funnier than I remembered but that really doesn't say much. I drove Mike's former roommate Brad home then came back and slept for nine hours. Wowee. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: April 24, 2005 - Weekend Projects
With Jamie out of town for the weekend I got down to doing one of my big projects: redoing my office. I parted ways with the small WalMart bookcases dangerously stacked on each other and splurged for some matching cabinets. The office looks nice now, like a real office and I wouldn't be that embarrassed to have a stranger come in and talk to me there. Within the office I finally finished another project that had been left incomplete for the past 10 months: setting up the stereo in here. Neatly embedded within the new shelves is my homemade nine-piece stereo. Now I can blast NPR into the row of townhouses across the parking lot. All I need now are some motivational pictures with clips of how hard work and focus combined with synergy ensures me a healthy financial future and a place in heaven.
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Monday: April 25, 2005 - Corpse With Make-Up On
Remember that time Ellen Zwillich told me one of my pieces reminded her of a corpse with make-up on? The problem with anything creative is that things are so subjective. I spent a good eleven hours of my day bringing a demo into what I thought was going to be a pretty cool site only to be reminded of reality.
Non-creative types are tough. They want something sharp and cool but still within the constraints of traditional. It's hard to find that line--at least it is for me. It's like they say "Webern" when they really mean "Bach with Ocean Sounds in the background." [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 26, 2005 - Sallie Mae
Is there anything good about this picture? I think not.
I made my last catch-up/get-ahead payment today. Take that Sallie Mae.
I spent the day working on websites and doing research for a proposal to TMH. Boy, today zoomed by.
I really have nothing to say except that now that I've been making real sites this one looks worse to me daily.
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Wednesday: April 27, 2005 - Webcam Installation
What a long day. Jack found an interesting article in the Democrat. For me, when I'm stage any sort of nerves simply aren't there. Some people I know puke their guts out first and they perform really well too. I think the study will show simply that no two people cope with high-performance stress the same way. Personally, I have much more stress working "normal" jobs than playing in front of 10,000 people but that's just me. At least on stage there are bodyguards between you and the people paying you.
I spent most of yesterday in a Photoshop forest machete'ing my way through dense forests of layers and 1 pixel wide pencils. In other news, more copies of my Concerto for Pan and Orchestra have sold. I'm not sure where all the interest came but I'm certainly not going to complain.
Jamie and I went over to her parents' house for dinner and I installed their new webcam. I need a haircut. After dinner we met up with Chris N' Mike N' Friends at Leon Pub to celebrate the birthday of one of Chris' labmates. In other news, I feel old. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Weekend: April 31, 2005 - Destin-ation
For our 2 year anniversary Jamie and I went to Destin for the weekend. Theory-Chris was kind enough to stay with Die Chomp. The drive down was uneventful and our room had an ocean view. Sort of. If you stood on the balcony and leaned way over you could indeed see a tiny sliver of ocean. The next day it poured rain and we foolishly drove through pools halfway-up the car to get to the Outlet Mall. We didn't have any food so we didn't have much of a choice. By the time we were finished and had gone to Winn-Dixie to get supplies for dinner the roads were nearly free of water. It was pretty amazing that they got 3' ponds off the roads in a matter of hours. We can't do that in Tallahassee with 3" of water. We ended up going out to dinner at this place where all the Destin-prom-kids were. We got burnt on the beach yesterday (even me!) and we sadly did not find any conchs the size of my arm--my whole reason for going. We did find a shark's head on the beach though. I think a fisherman caught one, cut off the head and left it there for the birds, which did a pretty mediocre job picking it clean. We made great time on the ride back with plenty of breathing room for Desperate Housewives/Family Guy night. Steve had already sent me a copy of the first Family Guy so I watched DH instead with the upstairs TV on Fox to make sure FG got the ratings it deserved.
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As my first April Fool's prank in a good long time I called the grad office today and pretended to be a potential doctoral student. It went over well--my plan was to change which degree program I wanted every time Bryan Richards would ask me about one and get more angry each time. I did such a good job that I had to reveal myself after he ready to transfer me.
I'm so far behind on these updates I don't even remember what else I did on Friday. Bryan and I went out to lunch and I most likely worked the rest of the day. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Saturday: April 02, 2005 - Garage Saling
Jamie and I went to some garage sales in the morning. It was mildly fruitful--I got a kitchen island for $10. It's a lot bigger than I thought so it looks out of place in my small eating area. At least it'll buy me some storage time.
The website-demo project is nearly complete. I can't say who it's for but the picture above will give a very general idea from an old copy. I think I worked all day too. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Sunday: April 03, 2005 - Surprise, Surprise
Surprise, surprise. I worked all day again. I made this chart. I think it looks pretty nice.
Jamie went to Jacksonville with her family so I was on dog duty for the afternoon/evening. Both dogs were really well behaved. I don't know who trained them but it's nice. Oh, it was me. Good job!
Michael also gave his senior recital. He played this Vivaldi piece that sounded more like Lygeti. Weirded out! Good job! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 04, 2005 - Happy Birthday!
I know you're thinking one of two things:
1) Is that a birthday bib? (Yes)
2) Isn't that the same photo as last year? (Yes)
That's the only digital picture I have of you-sorry. Happy 22nd birthday though!
On my 22nd birthday I think I fell asleep against a dumpster outside of Waffle House. (Kathy didn't let me stay there for very long so don't worry--I turned out just fine). [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 05, 2005 - Start of Baseball Season
Ok, new plan. Survive through next weekend on three hours sleep. The only good news is that baseball season started yesterday. Who cares that after two days the Cubs are already in 4th place? Not me. For the first time I'm going in with a reasonable expectation: 2nd place wild-card losers. I'm not going to get my hopes up for the umpteeth year just to have it blown. Maybe I'll give a pupdate tomorrow since there hasn't been one for a while.
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Wednesday: April 06, 2005 - Jesus in a Pretzel
I read an article online yesterday morning about a long turtle who survived a pet store fire that killed all of his adoptable mates. A few weeks ago I read about a turtle whose shell contained the face of Satan. The picture to the left is Lucky (the pet store) turtle. Don't tell me you can't see the face of the devil in that because I sure can. I wonder if turtles in general are satanic...What I do know is they're not mentioned in any Ozzy or Zeppelin songs so I doubt they can really be all that bad.
I think the only thing we have to save us in these terrible times is the power of Jesus...who can be found being cradled in his mothers arms...in this pretzel. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: April 07, 2005 - Comcast Sucks
You might have thought I would have taken the time to match the actual Comcast font but no, they're not worth the effort. I mean, why should I expend the effort to do something right when they can't? Needless to say, cable was out across the country last night. That really pissed me off. Because of my hefty nap schedule I was ready to crank some work out after dinner but no.
Kathy told me REO Speedwagon is coming to Wild Adventures. Although this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, the last time we went to WA to hear an aging rock band, The Beach Boys, we were thoroughly disappointed (I was anyway). Unlike the Beach Boys, REO still has most of their originals members including James Speedwagon and Tom Reo. Kathy is also going to go live with Brian rent-free this summer. I'm ready to live with Brian too--maybe he should just build an extension to the back. He has all weekend, I'm sure he can get it done. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Frida: April 08, 2005 - Jerry is Leaving
Jerry came by Jack's this morning for the last time to give the final status on everything. Although I didn't get there until 11:30 I was still able to catch a lot of Jack's yelling. This woman Toni will be replacing Jerry. She has a masters in Creative Writing and seems like someone I'll enjoy working with. Like everyone else, including myself, that has come in she has the genuine desire to help out and get things done. She knows that if she can get Jack to focus and prioritize then it will be "all good". She, like Jerry, had at least some knowledge of Jack as a friend coming in. The problem is that for all her good qualities, the environment in which we "work" is a nightmare. I hope she can do it. I told her I had her back.
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Saturday: April 09, 2005 - Cleaning
I cleaned all day. And my house still isn't all that clean.
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Sunday: April 10, 2005 - Longhorn Sucks
Man, the Longhorn Steakhouse sucked for the first time. I'm not sure our waitress was retarded or the "chefs" in the kitchen were. My "medium" steak was, as my brother used to say, BK--burnt (to a) krisp. I don't remember how the hell that came about. Anyway. The cut of meat looked and tasted like it was a center cut of brain. I invited the waitress to taste it but she said it looked "gross and overcooked". After being mean to Chris, we went to Cool Grindz. Once sufficiently caffeinated, Chris and I parted ways from Michael and Jamie and would up at Tallahassee Nurseries. It was a relatively cheap trip--only $36. We came back here and potted the new plants. Chris went home, I cleaned up all the dirt I had spilled then took a nap.
I picked up Jamie for the Mas N' Steel concert around 7:45. We sat in the very center, third row. The Korean Ensemble was first and they were pretty cool except the two guys in the group (one especially) was terrible. I'd try to describe it but you had to be there--it was the most embarrassing individual performance I'd ever seen in any venue. The best part was when he had to play the ching (gong) and he was holding it so tightly with his other hand I don't think it would have made a sound if Godzilla had struck it. You dumbass.
Mas N' Steel played really well. The lower pans...wow. It was weird to hear all the non-leads being so good with such a weak lead section. But as long as the triples are loud, that's all I care about personally. The passion is still missing but as far as the notes go, they were much better rehearsed than we ever were. Jeff's solos still kind of annoy me. He's got chops, definitely but his chromatic runs get old fast. When did they outlaw playing linear passages? Oh that's right, Spring 2004. Chris has really come a long way with his solos. It seems like just yesterday he adamantly refused and now he's soloing on every piece. Matt's were...Matt Flynn. A concert without Matt Flynn's solos would be like going to see Lynyrd Skynyrd where they didn't play Freebird.
After the concert Jamie, Matt and Jara came over to hang out and watch the taped version of Desperate Housewives. Jara's only here ten more days and her going-away party is going to be Friday at my house. 8:30pm. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 11, 2005 - Thanks You Guys
Hey guys, thanks for your money. Seriously, thank you. It seems that since Ricky has stopped playing poker my luck has been really, really good. My neighbor Brian and Elena joined the usuals to take turns filing my wallet. Elena's husband had to work on a paper but hopefully he can come next time to pay the Mike-tax. Both Chris and Brian put up valiant efforts against me but ultimately had to succumb to Rickyesque luck.
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Tuesday: April 12, 2005 - Helping Nancy
I went over to Jack's friend Nancy's house today to help figure out which items of artistic value they might have that FSU would want. Nancy's now-deceased husband, Jimmy, was a professor of music in the '50s when the School of Music was first getting started. He quit when they wouldn't let him have any composition students and stuck him teaching only theory. Yeah, that's terrible.
Nancy is a famous artist in the world of encaustics and has hundreds of them throughout the house. And man, they are indescribably good. Not like that crap I had to use for a picture but...amazing. A section of their house was designed like of like this: / / / with paintings on each slat and a small window in the corner to allow sunlight. It's incredible. I'm going back on Thursday to see some more of the music. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: April 13, 2005 - Helping Pat`
This record Pat (from City Hall) gave me has been such a pain in my ass I can't begin to describe it. Last night was supposed to be the day I was done with it but oh no, the 1/8" to 1/4" converter wasn't there so now it's going to take me another day to get it done. Did I mention that the record is The Best of Lenny and Squiggy?
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Thursday: April 14, 2005 - Keanu Reaves Dead
I am sad to report that Keanu has finally died. With no rear fin and with maybe 75% of his scales left in tact, he finally succumbed last night despite extreme measures to keep him alive. The exact cause of death was cannibalism...by his kids.
What a way to go. Poor Keanu.
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Friday: April 15, 2005 - Jara's Going-Away Party
I did it...I paid my taxes on time. Well, I filed for my extension on time. Go me! Tonight was Jara's going away party. It consisted mostly of having some drinks and playing Pictionary. I'm not sure if I felt old or not--playing games. I'm not sure what "real" adults do when they hang out. Watch TV? Talk? We had some really bad drawings, all of which Jara kept to hang up in her place in Virginia. We were up until about 3am. For some reason that seemed ridiculously late to me even though I'm up most nights working until then. Oh well. Bye Jara! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Saturday: April 16, 2005 - Ricky's Bachelors Party
Around noon I left for Panama City Beach for Ricky's bachelor's party. I was already a day late so I missed all the debauchery from the previous night. I didn't get too lost and made it in about two hours. Since I couldn't find anyone I took a little nap and then hit the beach. A couple hours later I caught up with the group and we sat on the patio and watched these two retarded kids throw sand into each other's eyes while their expensive boogie-boards floated into the ocean. We assumed they were left alone with such expensive toys because their mom was up on the 15th floor banging some dude.
For dinner they seated five us at a table roughly the size my mouse. The waitress also spilled water down my back but hey--it's a party! Bob and Kathy's condo is really nice and there was no beating the view. Better start saving my pennies. I should probably replace my futon first, though... [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Sunday: April 17, 2005 - OKGO Concert
After a surprisingly restful sleep on the bottom of two bunk beds we had breakfast at...wait for it...a diner. Who cares if they had a section devoted to just butter and that the bacon was deformed and probably not from a cow--not me because I was so thrilled to be eating in a diner again. In this place's defense, the pancakes and potatoes were excellent. I wish we had a diner in Tallahassee. Oh well.
I got home around 4 and Jamie had some brownies waiting for me. We played a couple games of cribbage while we waited for them to cool. On our second game I heard this weird sound. Abby had eaten about 80% of the pan. Jamie was pissed. This isn't the first time Ab has eaten brownies, although it has been the first time in 2005. She spent the rest of the day in a stationary ball on the couch. I picked up Chris and we had some pretty average Starbucks coffee before he made pork tenderloin for dinner. Mmm mmm. He used some of little green babies from the backyard and my god Chompy, what a difference fresh herbs make. It was superb.
Jamie left for the OKGO concert right before Jara arrived to watch Desperate Housewives. Woo-ee. What a good episode. I won't spoil it for those of you waiting to watch it on tape >:o but it was really good. Cleared up a lot of loose ends. And when I say cleared I mean just made more loose ends. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Monday: April 18, 2005 - Poker ditching
Where the hell was everyone for poker last night? Chris was the only one that came so we decided to watch the Cubs lose to the Reds instead. Jara stopped by to say her last goodbyes and to drop off the Desperate Housewives tape. In honor of Jara's leaving, let me list my why we might be in trouble without her.
1) She never bitched about gigs unless we were all bitching collectively--she never chose sides.
2) She was already to play gigs; even when I'd call the night before.
3) She never complained about the dull double seconds parts in the pieces I wrote. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 19, 2005 - Happy Birthday Abby!
Well Abs, it's midnight so you're officially the big 2. I was going to make you some birthday brownies but you've already eaten a pan of them so...tough.
Tomorrow is the web demo. Goodie abdrops. A new Pope was selected today too. While at lunch with Bryan Richards we debated the way the Pope comes up with his new name. Apparently the Pope just picks one. Personally, I'd like to see a Rufus or Spike. Pope Spikus. Hah! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Wednesday: April 20, 2005 - A New Website Project
See, that's the problem with demos. You want someone to say "Yes, I like the big picture concept, now go make it happen" or "No, I don't like the big picture concept, go back to the drawing board" when they want to see something closer to a finished product to be able to judge the big picture. But that's impossible. Not that the presentation went badly but the changes are either enormous or things that need to be worried about in a few months not right now. What's funny is that it seemed a good number of the comments were centered around adding more pizzazz. When you've got a page full of tables working with old graphics that pixelate at the slightest resize, things aren't going to be heart-stopping. Sorry. I've got some more modernist ideas but they might be too much.
I went over to Nancy's again to finish documenting her music. I really like her a lot. You wouldn't think that a 25 year old guy and an 82 year old woman would have much to talk about but the time passes by quickly and I wish more of my duties for Jack involved her. Did I mention that her art is crazy-good?
Happy Birthday Ab! [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Thursday: April 21, 2005 - Sports Entry
It's been a while since I did a sports entry so here goes. My beloved Cubs are not doing so hot. There was a time a few years ago when I foolishly thought the Cubs had made a permanent turn for the better. They were spending money and actually having winning seasons. Stupid, stupid me.
I have this fantasy that all our pitchers could be healthy at once. Too bad it's just a fantasy. You foolishly spent $8 million this year for Nomar (pictured left) to fall down and grab himself. In your defense, you had no idea he was going to get hurt. It's not like he had a track record of injury. Oh wait, yes he did. When you first signed him I was so excited I couldn't sleep but now he's just another excuse for a .500 record. What you, The Tribune Company, needs to realize is that we don't care why the Cubs aren't winning. All we care about is that we have three people starting that should be either playing at AA or pumping my gas. You have to realize that we look at our sad little lives and see these people on TV that make more money for a single at-bat that most of us make in a year. We don't care if their arm is bruised or if they're having back spams. We want to see some tough guys suck it up and go back the next day to earn their $14 million/year contracts. You ask us to spend our precious money to watch your prized ponies run and we do. All we ask in return is that they earn their money. That's it.
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Friday: April 22, 2005 - Notorious CHO
I don't understand how sites can be made entirely in flash. Don't get me wrong--I love Flash and I really enjoy using it but come on. Surely at some point you have to think, "Wow, I'm on layer 257 and only on frame 2". I guess if you don't use flash you have no idea what I'm talking about.
Jack is back in town and I went over around 10am after dropping Jamie off at the airport for her weekend with her Grandma in Ohio. I spent the afternoon making HTML tables where only single columns resized when you changed the screen size. Tomorrow I'm going to sit down with one of my JavaScript books to see if I can make a navigation bar that follows you as you scroll down the screen. I personally don't care for those at all but we'll see.
I went over to Chris and Mike's around 9pm. I caught the end of a Trivial Pursuit game, ate some specially-made mashed potatoes and watched the first half of Margaret Cho's Notorious C.H.O.. She was funnier than I remembered but that really doesn't say much. I drove Mike's former roommate Brad home then came back and slept for nine hours. Wowee. [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Weekend: April 24, 2005 - Weekend Projects
With Jamie out of town for the weekend I got down to doing one of my big projects: redoing my office. I parted ways with the small WalMart bookcases dangerously stacked on each other and splurged for some matching cabinets. The office looks nice now, like a real office and I wouldn't be that embarrassed to have a stranger come in and talk to me there. Within the office I finally finished another project that had been left incomplete for the past 10 months: setting up the stereo in here. Neatly embedded within the new shelves is my homemade nine-piece stereo. Now I can blast NPR into the row of townhouses across the parking lot. All I need now are some motivational pictures with clips of how hard work and focus combined with synergy ensures me a healthy financial future and a place in heaven.
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Monday: April 25, 2005 - Corpse With Make-Up On
Remember that time Ellen Zwillich told me one of my pieces reminded her of a corpse with make-up on? The problem with anything creative is that things are so subjective. I spent a good eleven hours of my day bringing a demo into what I thought was going to be a pretty cool site only to be reminded of reality.
Non-creative types are tough. They want something sharp and cool but still within the constraints of traditional. It's hard to find that line--at least it is for me. It's like they say "Webern" when they really mean "Bach with Ocean Sounds in the background." [Comments: 0]· permalink ·
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Tuesday: April 26, 2005 - Sallie Mae
Is there anything good about this picture? I think not.
I made my last catch-up/get-ahead payment today. Take that Sallie Mae.
I spent the day working on websites and doing research for a proposal to TMH. Boy, today zoomed by.
I really have nothing to say except that now that I've been making real sites this one looks worse to me daily.
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Wednesday: April 27, 2005 - Webcam Installation
What a long day. Jack found an interesting article in the Democrat. For me, when I'm stage any sort of nerves simply aren't there. Some people I know puke their guts out first and they perform really well too. I think the study will show simply that no two people cope with high-performance stress the same way. Personally, I have much more stress working "normal" jobs than playing in front of 10,000 people but that's just me. At least on stage there are bodyguards between you and the people paying you.
I spent most of yesterday in a Photoshop forest machete'ing my way through dense forests of layers and 1 pixel wide pencils. In other news, more copies of my Concerto for Pan and Orchestra have sold. I'm not sure where all the interest came but I'm certainly not going to complain.
Jamie and I went over to her parents' house for dinner and I installed their new webcam. I need a haircut. After dinner we met up with Chris N' Mike N' Friends at Leon Pub to celebrate the birthday of one of Chris' labmates. In other news, I feel old. [Comments: 1]· permalink ·
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Weekend: April 31, 2005 - Destin-ation
For our 2 year anniversary Jamie and I went to Destin for the weekend. Theory-Chris was kind enough to stay with Die Chomp. The drive down was uneventful and our room had an ocean view. Sort of. If you stood on the balcony and leaned way over you could indeed see a tiny sliver of ocean. The next day it poured rain and we foolishly drove through pools halfway-up the car to get to the Outlet Mall. We didn't have any food so we didn't have much of a choice. By the time we were finished and had gone to Winn-Dixie to get supplies for dinner the roads were nearly free of water. It was pretty amazing that they got 3' ponds off the roads in a matter of hours. We can't do that in Tallahassee with 3" of water. We ended up going out to dinner at this place where all the Destin-prom-kids were. We got burnt on the beach yesterday (even me!) and we sadly did not find any conchs the size of my arm--my whole reason for going. We did find a shark's head on the beach though. I think a fisherman caught one, cut off the head and left it there for the birds, which did a pretty mediocre job picking it clean. We made great time on the ride back with plenty of breathing room for Desperate Housewives/Family Guy night. Steve had already sent me a copy of the first Family Guy so I watched DH instead with the upstairs TV on Fox to make sure FG got the ratings it deserved.
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Good Things Take Time...
-6 days until FSU Football (2010)
Random Picture...
There's my happy family. I think this is before the girl behind my mom spilled beer in her hair.
There's my happy family. I think this is before the girl behind my mom spilled beer in her hair.
Time Machine:
09-10-2009
· 09-10-2008
· 09-10-2007
· 09-10-2006
I took the day off blogging but only because I was thinking of you.09-10-2008: It seems like just yesterday I was dreaming about Dr. Spencer and the Corkasaurus. Turns out it's been a whole year. Last night I was talking to Chris Green and he's going to do a guest entry next week to catch everyone up on his life so get ready! Later in the evening I was thinking to myself that it would nice if a bunch of people would write "catch-up" entries so that we could find out all of the exciting things that have been happening since we interacted on a daily basis. Even the people that I've seen/talked to somewhat regularly, I don't really know the full-blown details of what's going on with their lives. Here's where you come in--you too can write an entry to catch everyone up. Send me an email and I'll give you a date from which to start. Then you can post on here in the next few days/weeks. Just think--between 150 and 200 people reading all about your interesting life! And to think I get to live that each and every day.
09-10-2007: Apparently Britney is back after performing at the MTV Music Awards over the weekend. Everyone railed against her out of shape body and poor performance. While I won't comment on performance (I didn't see it, although I'm sure it was a abysmal), she just had two kids. She's not a miracle worker, she can only look so good.
In sadder news, it looks like my mentally-vacating grandmother is headed for an assisted living facility. That sounds really cold but for the past year my dad has dutifully driven over there to attend to her every day and took a sabbatical from work the past six months and she apparently can't even remember that he visits at all. There's been some speculation that since she's lived alone for so long her memory deteriorated into nothing because she never really had to use it; she's at the point now where she can easily ask you the same question six times in ten minutes. It's really sad. I really don't envy the decision my parents have to make at all.09-10-2006: Chompy, what's this? jamie and I scored some tickets from her sister's husband's parents for the Troy game so naturally we went. The game even more horrible in person than it could have been on TV. FSU couldn't hold onto the football to save their lives. De'Cody Fagg was the only trustworthy receiver and there were no, and I mean no, trustworthy rushers. I wish I knew what went on in Lorenzo Booker's head. I bet it's something like, "'Lo, listen" (it should be pointed out that Lorenzo sounds strikingly similar to Alex) "don't dance this time. Just run straight ahead." Then he gets the ball and his feet take over. "Damn it, feet. Stop doing this, we've been over this a zillion times!" And that goes on like that every play.
Their damn band would not shut up. They played under our band the whole time since of course the eight members of the TSU band could not be heard over the Marching Dorks. They played when we had the ball...or Troy had the ball...or there was a timeout. However, the largest trigger to their playing was...our band playing. Which was funny because there were so few of them that you only realized this after FSU's song stopped and the Troy band kept going. Anyway it was horrible. Next week is Clemson and I'm going back solely to beat the shit out of their fan who kept tapping my head last time. I know Jamie doesn't believe it but after eight months of fighting at least twice a week I'm feeling pretty confident I could kick some frat-ass.
In sadder news, it looks like my mentally-vacating grandmother is headed for an assisted living facility. That sounds really cold but for the past year my dad has dutifully driven over there to attend to her every day and took a sabbatical from work the past six months and she apparently can't even remember that he visits at all. There's been some speculation that since she's lived alone for so long her memory deteriorated into nothing because she never really had to use it; she's at the point now where she can easily ask you the same question six times in ten minutes. It's really sad. I really don't envy the decision my parents have to make at all.09-10-2006: Chompy, what's this? jamie and I scored some tickets from her sister's husband's parents for the Troy game so naturally we went. The game even more horrible in person than it could have been on TV. FSU couldn't hold onto the football to save their lives. De'Cody Fagg was the only trustworthy receiver and there were no, and I mean no, trustworthy rushers. I wish I knew what went on in Lorenzo Booker's head. I bet it's something like, "'Lo, listen" (it should be pointed out that Lorenzo sounds strikingly similar to Alex) "don't dance this time. Just run straight ahead." Then he gets the ball and his feet take over. "Damn it, feet. Stop doing this, we've been over this a zillion times!" And that goes on like that every play.
Their damn band would not shut up. They played under our band the whole time since of course the eight members of the TSU band could not be heard over the Marching Dorks. They played when we had the ball...or Troy had the ball...or there was a timeout. However, the largest trigger to their playing was...our band playing. Which was funny because there were so few of them that you only realized this after FSU's song stopped and the Troy band kept going. Anyway it was horrible. Next week is Clemson and I'm going back solely to beat the shit out of their fan who kept tapping my head last time. I know Jamie doesn't believe it but after eight months of fighting at least twice a week I'm feeling pretty confident I could kick some frat-ass.