Bad Kitty

So my beloved Tigers played in the Sun Bowl. They were winning by 10 with less than 6 minutes to go... and they choked. Fucking chokers. Oh well.... it's the life of a Missouri fan for you.

On a bright note: Rachael let me buy her old Ipod off her for $40. Yay! I have a working Ipod again. Life is good.

Also I got a raise. Well I'll get a raise in April. Either way, more money. And I'll still get my regular raise in August. How cool is that?

Speaking of money, it looks like I'll be moving in with my cousin Jessica's friend Cat. She owns a three bedroom townhouse and needs a roommate to help pay the rent. She's only charging me $300 a month. Score!

To summarize:
Tigers Suck
New (to me) ipod is awesome
Raises are awesome
Paying only $300 a month for rent is amazingly awesome

For New Year's Eve it looks like I'll be going out with Jessica and her friends. She's DDing and offered for me to come along. I really wanted to go out but all my ponies are out of town so I happily accepted her offer.

Speaking of partying... I'm going to solo party tonight. Bought me some beer and am going to drink it while playing FFXII...or FFIII for my DS... which by the way is amazing. The graphics are awesome. Couldn't believe a DS could pull that off.

Alright peeps. Later.

Smelling colors

Sorry about the delay in posting. I didn't even wish my loving audience of say...10 people tops... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all that.

My Christmas went as follows:
Realized Friday night I had yet to purchase the only Christmas gift I had to buy. All the adults on my mom's side of the family drew names so we could minimize holiday expenditures. So I had to buy two CDs for my cousin Jessica. Luckily she told me exactly what she wanted so I just headed over to the nearest record store, purchased and left.
Saturday I went with my dad to the tire shop to get new wheels for my Corolla. My 30,000 checkup revealed I needed new ones and I had no money. My parents were nice enough to pick up the tab. Not even a loan. Whew.
Dad and I ate lunch at Chilis while they worked on the car. It was a good time. We talked sports and had a beer. A very male lunch.
On the way home, I popped in to say hi to my best friend's family. He wasn't quite in town. Well he was but he was busy. Either way shot the shit with my second family and then made my way to my humble abode a few hours later.
I was supposed to go out with the Flutist Saturday. She called and said she just got off work and had Xmas shopping to do. She said we could meet for dinner but warned me she was in a shitty mood so might not be the best of company. I told her if she's in a bad mood she certainly doesn't have to entertain some random dude (being me). She made sure I was ok with that idea. I reminded her it was my idea and she should just take care of herself tonight. There are always other nights to go out.
Sunday I got a panicked call from my mother in the morning. Apparently the giant TV my mom bought dad for Xmas could not be delivered by Xmas eve. They wanted to give her a different TV and a $100 gift card for her inconvenience. I told her BS. Told her to get over there and get a ton of free shit and do not let them give you another TV. She did and ended up getting the TV at cost, free delivery and a $200 gift card. Not bad return. We took Dad over to the electronics store to see his present since he wasn't getting it that night or on Xmas. He was pleased. Dad never gets cool presents for Xmas so it was a big change.
I stayed at the parentals and played my brother's 360. I decided to stay the night. It would be easier than having to drive back home that night and drive back in the morning for Christmas.
Christmas morning was cool. My haul included both seasons 1 and 2 of Battlestar Galactica, a Shins CD, Clerks II, V for Vendetta, Final Fantasy III for the DS, a Barnes & Noble gift card, a Fruit Fucker T-shirt and some money. Not bad. Not bad at all. No Wii but I can't complain :)
Jeff got a Wii though... fucker.
Since then it's been basically all work no play. ::sigh:: Money has been tight but things are looking up. Let's hope 2007 won't be nearly as weird as 2006. I certainly don't plan on going to Japan, getting engaged, having my said fiance leave me and start dating all over again.

Here we go again

The Grand Taking All My Ex's Crap To Her New Home Trek of 2006 is over. It all began with me driving my ass over to my friend's apartment. They took me to the airport, where I picked up my fine automobile: a Kia Serrento. I drove this silver chariot back to my apartment.
I had approximately 40 minutes to pack the car and get the hell out of dodge. Right away I knew there would be a space problem. A chair that seems little in a living room is HUGE in a smallish SUV. So little chair has to stay home. The dresser was the next biggest item and it fit ok. But it also made it impossible to then pack the filing cabinet. So I had to empty the contents. The rest went inside the car fairly easily. Off I go! Woo!

Thanks to the new love in my life, Sarah Vowell, the first six hours just flew by. I had bought her book, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, in audio form for the ride up. If it wasn't illegal to stalk people or if it wasn't generally viewed as an activity of the insane, I would totally stalk Sarah Vowell.
For those of you wondering to yourself, "Who the FUCK is Sarah Vowell?" Well....
here
or here
or here
(specifically listen to the music episode found on the Our Favorite Shows link)

Anywho the rest of the trip... boring. I made fantastic time though. A little less than 12 hours. Pulled into the Ex's new apartment. Unloaded all the crap. Set up a shelf for her. Got the hell out. No hug, no kiss, no hand shake. I barely looked at her. She fawned and giggled and was extremely complimentary. I made sure to leave as soon as possible.

Then I hung out with my family for the rest of the weekend. My cousin's daughter Amanda was adorable. She's four and she is such a fricking ham. It made me giggle. I gave her piggy back rides, shared war stories about little brothers (hers is almost 2, "He can't help it. He's a baby," she said.), and she used me as a pillow cause she didn't want to use her big girl bed for a nap. And besides, "I'm just sleepy. Not nappy."
Kids. So damn cute. And totally germ factories. I caught a cold from Matt the little brother. It's not a big deal. I'll nyquil and VapoRub myself tonight and hopefully it will get me better as soon as possible.

I also hung out with my aunts and uncles and grandparents. My grandparents are getting on in years and I want to make sure I spend as much time as possible with them. We talked about work and how to advance in the world and about football and how two teams we really didn't care about were really playing a great game. Right before I left, we hit a Mexican place for dinner. I think pretty much any time I've visited the area we've gone to this place. It's ok. Not quite sure why everyone is so ecstatic. It's a thing.

Then it was off to the airport and back home. My friends picked me up and got me back to my car. I got back to the apartment where my cat was waiting to meow it me mercilessly for leaving her alone for a weekend. She's nuts. The cat.

That's it. That was the grand weekend. I have an appointment with my over-the-counter medication.

On the Road Again

Turns out the Teacher didn't mean to stand me up. Really does look like a case of miscommunication. We're going to try to hook up later when I get back.
Get back? From where? you might ask.
Well I'm hauling the rest of the ex's stuff to her new locale. I have a bunch of family up where she is now so I'm using the annoying trip as an excuse to visit with them, most of whom will not be down my way for vacation.
Ex is paying for the rental and the flight home which makes it a bit more palatable.
Either way... hauling is what I will be doing. 13 hours with nothing but me, my favorite CDs and the road.

Sit down.... Stood up.

So this is what it's like to be stood up. I'm actually more confused than upset. The teacher seemed psyched about dinner. And I gave her my cell if there was some reason she couldn't/didn't want to make it. Hmmm.... very curious.

Welll whatever. I'll just eat at home and play more FFXII. I was tired of all this "activity" anyway.

Round Three: Beg for Pain!

Last night with the Flutist was great. We just did dinner and a movie but I felt really comfortable with her the whole time. She's really cute and it was fun to talk to her. She had work not long before the date so she wasn't glammed up or anything but she still looked great. Granted she thought she didn't but isn't that what women think most times? Did I mention she wears glasses? ::pants::

Today Jeff and I checked out the townhouse owned by one of my co-workers. It was a great looking place. Quality neighborhood, a little small but the bedrooms were of a good size. I hope Katie will approve when Jeff tells her about it. As long as the rent is under $1400 I'll be really happy. $1400 would probably be ok but it would suck until May. And I really want to have money again.

Shortly it will be time for the third date this weekend. The Teacher and I will be going to a brew pub at 7. So far things have improved with each date. If things continue in this fashion I'll be very pleasantly surprised. I gotta say though... pretty tired in general.

Same as it ever was

Last night was a pretty busy night. Finished work. Headed over to a now former co-worker's going away party. Had a beer. Sounds like the dude's going to land on his feet, which is always good to hear. Took off and headed home.
I ate dinner and chilled out basically till 9. Then texted girl#3 to see where she was at. The plan was to meet her and her friends and have a few brews in celebration of her semester being over.
So I headed over to the bar.
Her friends were pretty decent people. Girl#3 was kind and I don't think I embarrassed myself or pissed off her buddies in any way. She had work in the morning and this was clearly a non-date/I still want you in the game kind of event. So around midnight we went our separate ways.
Went home. Went to sleep.
So busy but relatively uneventful.
Today I've played FFXII most of the day. Pretty soon I have to get ready for my date with the Flutist at 7:30.

Today is my birthday!

Happy birthday to me! Today is my birthday. I'm going to have a good time. I'm glad it's my birthday. Happy birthday to meeeee!

Done. Sorry.
Two new ponies in the dating stable , officially. First up is the Flutist. We we're going out on Saturday. Next is the Teacher. We'll be going out Sunday.. well likely. I still need to work out the details with Teacher.

Time to eat breakfast. And shower. And dress. and go to work. boooo.

Presents! Cake! Booze! Woo! Birthday!

Mass Hysteria

Jeff and I checked out some places to rent this weekend. Found some good places to check out more indepth. So it looks like Jeff, Katie and I will be living together soon.
As I was falling asleep last night, I realized how big a deal this was going to be to Outlaw.
She's already a pretty neurotic cat. Outlaw is scared of everything that doesn't smell, look or sound like me. That's only a slight exaggeration.
How the heck is she going to deal with a big black lab puppy? Jeff's dog is cute and a good dog but I have no idea how the dog will react to Outlaw. And I know Outlaw's going to have a rough time adjusting to the dog.
My plan is to give Outlaw till May to get used to the dog. After all the time, if she's still spending all of her time being utterly terrified, then I'll have to move out. I could ask Jeff to have Macey (his dog) stay at my parents house. But that's mean to Jeff to make him move his dog again just cause my cat is insane.

Girl#3 is still being weird. Not a lot of communication and what not. No big. She's probably just not that into me. In the meantime, I'm talking to two other girls. No dates yet. Getting past that is he/she a psycho or not stage. One is a teacher and one is still in school getting her degree. They'll get official blog nickname designations once a date happens.

I'm kinda cranky about my friends lately. No one calls. I have to initiate all contact all the time. Even then, people don't call me back. It's fine when I'm with them but I dunno...
Considering I'm a pretty good friend, it's annoying that I feel like I'm rarely thought of to be included when my friends go out. (Nerd circle excluded from this, well usually)

It's frustrating.

Ghosts with voices

At last the weekend has arrived. Yesterday, Jeff and a friend of his from work came downtown to pick up tuxes for their company Christmas party. Not just any tuxes. They ended up renting the tuxes from Dumb and Dumber . Either way, Jeff asked if I wanted to get some drinks when I got off work. So I walked over to Chase Field and met them at the TGI Fridays inside the stadium.
It was disconcerting to be in there when it wasn't baseball season and there was no one in there essentially.
Drank some Kiltlifter and ate a quick dinner. Then I had to go cause I was meeting Rachael from work at the movies to go see Casino Royale. She had already seen it but she was being nice. We were talking at work about our weekends and I was whining about how my weekends are usually pretty boring. While I love my friends, for some reason I'm not on their lists for someone to do something with. I call, they don't call back until it's too late. And they don't call me. Usually.
Anywho yeah so I was whining and Rachael said she'd go with me to the movies on Friday so I could at least said I did something other than play video games and play with the cat this weekend.
It was really kind of her. That and the movie fricking ruled. See Bond isn't supposed to be some tony playboy. He's supposed to be a spy, a hired gun, a cloak and dagger man. Bond is a darker creature, a hard brutal figure. A sociopath. I loved it. Best Bond movie I've seen in a long time. I actually enjoyed it as a standalone movie.
Dude I'm hungry. Nothing to eat in the house though. Which means I'll have to go out. Which means I'll have to put on something remotely presentable. And go outside.... blech... I'm way too lazy.

The Show That Never Ends

Today's topic: Music, particularly music that gets stuck in my head. Like most people, songs tend to get wedged into my brain. So when this happens to me, I create a playlist of all the songs that fit that category. These are my Brain Drain playlists. I listen to them enough times and it's like the songs are drained out. They no longer hold that odd thrall over me.
I've been listening to a lot more new music. Well it's new to me. Either way, new music=new songs stuck in my head=new brain drain playlist.
Here are my three Brain Drain Playlists with notes on certain songs where necessary.

Brain Drain 1:
Clint Eastwood- Gorillaz
Yesterday Never Tomorrows- The Stills (I'm fairly certain I started liking these guys after hearing them at Coachella)
Title and Registration- Death Cab for Cutie
Ziggy Stardust- David Bowie (LOVE this song)
Get Your Hands Off My Woman- The Darkness (The hardest core song sung in falsetto ever)
Since U Been Gone- Kelly Clarkson (....It's a good pop song! I can't help it.)
Jetsetter- Morningwood (These guys are awesome live)
Let Go- Frou Frou
Soul Meets Body- Death Cab for Cutie
The House That Jack Built- Aretha Franklin (I got the car, I got the house, I got the rack but I aint got Jack... great song)
Rio- Duran Duran (One of the most incomprehensible set of lyrics, still a pop masterpiece)
You're the Best Around- Joe Esposito (ROFLMAO)
In Da Club (Benny Hill mashup)- 50 Cent (ditto)

Brain Drain 2:
Supernova- Liz Phair (When she decide to start sucking?)
Dance With Me- The Sounds (Also great live, also started my love affair with them at Coachella)
Hey Ya!- Outkast (One of the best pure pop songs in decades)
Bad Cartridge (E-Pro Mix)- Beck (Funny, the song is called E Pro on Guero.... so should it really be E-Pro the Bad Cartridge Mix??)
Orange Crush- R.E.M. (One of my all time favorite songs)
Take It All Away- Cake
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, pt. 1- The Flaming Lips (She's got to be strong to fight them so she's taking all her vitamins)
Pink Bullets- The Shins
Go to Sleep- Radiohead
Braggidocio- MC Frontalot (The Finest in Nerdcore HipHop)
Gigantic- The Pixies (My Big big love, heh)
New Slang- The Shins
Living In America- The Sounds
Do the Evolution- Pearl Jam (Great video for this one)

Brain Drain 3:
Human Behavior- Bjork (the main melody is in percussion, how often can you say that)
Beetlebum- Blur (They're more than just Song 2)
Helicopter- Bloc Party (Girl #3 turned me on to these guys. They're pretty good)
Prophecy- Remy Zero (Yeah...still digging this one)
Dry The Rain- The Beta Band (I need more of their albums)
I Better Be Quiet Now- Elliott Smith (So sad, the dude killed himself by stabbing himself in the chest... that's depression)
True Love Waits- Radiohead
Set the Fire to the Third Bar- Snow Patrol w/Martha Wainwright
Hoppipolla- Sigor Rus (Don't know what they're saying since it's in Icelandic but it's a great song)
Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk- Rufus Wainwright (First appearance of siblings ((I think)) on a Brain Drain playlist where they are not on the same song or in the same band)
Analyse- Thom Yorke (Best song on his solo album)
The Middle- Jimmy Eat World (Someone I know from HS was in this video, she's a whore)
The Trickster- Radiohead (One of my favorite B-Sides)

Feel free to post your Brain Drain playlists in the comments. Hasta.

The Collapse of Thought

Weekend Wrapup:
Slept in on Saturday morning. The fuzziness of waking up eluded me for far longer than usual. By the time I rolled myself into alertness, the Tigers had essentially finished beating the snot out of the hated Jayhawks.

Saturday afternoon I went over to Steve's parents house and hung out for the rest of the day with Steve, Heather and Steve's little sister Anne. Anne's boyfriend Tim asked Anne to marry her. Very sweet and also good news. Tim's a great guy and Anne seems very happy with him.

Steve can't drink for six/nine months. He's taking medication because he was exposed to TB at some point in his Navy tours of duty or what not. If he drinks, he risks giving himself chemically induced Hepatitis. Sucks to be Steve and for this weekend, sucked to be me. Can't very well go get drunk with your best friend if he can't drink without giving himself the hep now can we?

Went home around 11. Saw an email from Girl #3 arrived. She apologized for the delay but I didn't really care anymore anyway. Not about her. Still think she's pretty cool. I just don't care about all the scenery. Do I want a relationship? Do I not want one? Should I be happy when someone responds or calls back? Frankly, it's quite tedious and it wears me out. I'm happier just being me and let the chips fall where they may. I remember now that's the point.

Work today was odd. I got things done. I just didn't feel all there. Hours floated by. Ideas keep drifting through my head. Stories I need to write and I don't mean for work. When I imagine writing out the stories, they become cliche or pat. Sentimental or boring. Not as interesting as when they're just ideas. The confident part of myself tells me I need to write them.

My birthday is rapidly approaching and emotionally I'm closer to 7 than 27. Does anyone ever grow up? What does it mean to do so? How can we tell when we've crossed the line?

The Morning After

Thanksgiving is gone. Hope everyone had a good one. Had to work today. Boring....
Zombie project came back from the dead. Will try to kill it one more time on Monday.
Saw Borat after work. It was funny. The scene with his producer and him fighting .... whoa. That was pretty gross. But funny.
Feeling kind of lonely today. I want to see Steve and Heather since he's in town. Haven't heard from them though it's pissing me off a bit. I am being a bit selfish though. They do have a wedding to plan and all that. Either way, I'll try their cells tomorrow.
Sorry nothing interesting to say today. Think I'm going to play Final Fantasy VII and try to finish it.

The Song Remains the Same

Happy pre-Thanksgiving everyone. Today's post is more of a random collection of thoughts. (shut up those who say that's what this whole blog is all about)
*****
I had a great day at work today. I did about a million things. I felt like a superhero, jumping up out of my chair, running off to fix something, plopping back down, fixing more things... I felt useful, powerful.

Not that I don't normally feel useful. I just felt particularly useful today.
*****
Rachael I don't know was wondering about the "Women I'm Dating" naming conventions. It's not that I can't remember their names. I'm just trying to keep things mainly anonymous. Besides it's like changing names to protect the innocent. Or the guilty. Or the ambiguous.
*****
Still waiting to hear back from Girl#3. Should I have called her instead of emailed? She said last time I called her that email was working better since she was so busy. Whatever... tired of even thinking about it. If being a doofus and asking for a kiss instead of taking one was all it takes to get someone to lose interest, then she's not worth it. I need to be like Fonzie and be cool. Quit worrying about stupid crap.
*****
Girl #2 or MP or whatever is officially out of the picture. I talked to her on Tuesday. Turns out she found someone who is ready for a relationship now. That's good though. I knew I was never going to be interested in that with her. I told her I'd still like to hang out as friends. She was/is cool. I just didn't feel the same way about her.
*****
I told Marcia today at work that since MP is out I need to get a new pony for my stable. I was joking but I think it's a good idea. Seeing multiple people allows me to manage my feelings a bit better. I fixate too much. Or at least I have that tendency.

Delayed Reaction

God damnit I can't keep to my schedule for even one week. Anywho, consider this Monday's post.

I think I've been overreacting about Outlaw not eating. I talked to the ex about it. She has more experience with kitties than I do. She said she's probably just weirded out by me being gone for a weekend. She also suggested that perhaps Outlaw is stockpiling food in case I take off again. This idea amuses me greatly. I can just imagine what the thoughts in my insane cat's brain must be like.

The date on Saturday with Girl #3 went well. We went to a cool wine bar. It has a very date-ish atmosphere. Low lights, good music, good wine, partly indoors, partly outdoors. Date started at 7:30ish and we talked till almost 11.

She's gorgeous. She's funny. She has interesting things to say. She's intelligent. Oh and she's a giant nerd. We commiserated over the death of Chewbacca in one of the extended universe Star Wars books. She just had finished Vector Prime so the loss was fresh for her.

Apparently, I'm the first "good" guy she's gone out with in a long time. She said she has a long history of dating losers. Guitar players, drummers, pitchers, interesting but generally jerk-like individuals.

Maybe I'm too good of a guy. Example: end of the date essentially. We're standing in a parking lot, again, talking still. I know I want to kiss her. I've been looking for the right moment or whatever. Kept not finding it. So I put on my "lame guy" hat and asked her if it would be ok if I kissed her.....
.....
Not my smoothest of moves. Anywho, yeah she said it was ok but she giggled and said, "You really are a nice guy." ugh... It's true but I don't want her thinking that. I want her feeling something a bit more visceral. Simple kiss, not much to it. We both knew we were going separate ways at the end of the night so that didn't surprise me. As we walked to her car, she joked I need to get some mojo. Ack! See! It is a problem...maybe problem is too strong a word.

We did talk about seeing each other again soon. She even suggested a place. So maybe I'm overreacting. The problem is I obviously really like her. The more I like someone the more I overanalyze every thought every feeling every action. Besides, I'm trying not to go crazy over someone again so soon/ever.

I'll try to be a bit more smooth next time though. Maybe not rely so much on my Bruce Lee of Dating style... you know.. the game of no game. (Bruce Lee's fighting style is the style of no style..get it?.. ::sigh::)

Sad kitty

Ok.. I'm a day late on this but I have a good excuse. My computer was really loud and I was worried something was wrong with it. I switched it off last night and switched over to worrying about Outlaw.

Since I have returned from Mexico, Outlaw has hardly eaten anything. She's had maybe a little more than a half bowl of food since Sunday. It makes me think something is wrong with her health.
The odd thing is she is still going both #1 and #2 in the litter box. Where the heck is she getting the fuel for #2 if she's not eating??

I decided to monitor more closely how much she is eating this weekend. If she is still barely touching her food, I'll take her to the vet on Monday.

Oh and date#2 with girl#3 tonight. Here's hoping I don't screw it up.

The Trickster

Almost forgot my new posting schedule. Whew.. that was a close one.

Been talking to the ex lately. It's not weird.... well not most of the time. I want to be friends with her. I just don't want to devolve into talking to her all the time. That would be bad.
We talked about friendly type of topics like her brother shooting himself in the leg and the very high rental prices in the Bay Area. Then I overreached. I mentioned my struggle with making date plans for this weekend. She wigged out completely. Said she didn't want to cry at work. Whoa...

The whole breakup was her idea to begin with. Why's she crying about me dating someone else? Either way, I don't feel the same way about her regardless. I'm 100% positive I would never get back together with her, even if she threw herself at me. I just wouldn't be able to trust her feelings again.

She eventually chilled and conversation returned to normal. Again, would like to be friends. Can't imagine us not being friends. Constant chatting would be bad though for all parties.

On happier news, I'm dating another girl. Some of my fellow co-workers like to tease me about this whole dating thing. That's ok by me. It is a bit bewildering. I have a lot of lost time to make up with dating. I didn't do a lot in high school and even less in college. Right now it's fun so I'll roll with it.

New girl is pretty cool. She's cute. She's funny. I feel completely comfortable around her, good for a first date. Her taste in music is exemplary. She asked me what my favorite Radiohead song was: Let Down. I volleyed the question back to her. Talk Show Host.
Whoa.. a B-side. She really does like Radiohead. soooo hot. She could have had me right then. But you know... she could have had me before that too, I'm just making a point.

Gave me her number, she's cool with something this weekend. I said let's try this cool wine bar I went to before with my friend Jenny and her husband. Stay tuned for further details.


Oh and I just like the Radiohead B- Side The Trickster. Doesn't really have much to do with the content of this post. Athankya.

South of the Border

First, some house cleaning:
To make sure I keep a regular updating schedule, I will now update on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I need to make sure there is an incentive for me to keep writing. That's all.

Ok on to Mexico:
My parents know someone who owns a house in Rocky Point. My extended family all went out there for a long weekend. I took Friday off and spent Thursday night with my parents so we could leave early in the morning. Four hours later, I was on a beach in Mexico, drinking beer.
Most of my younger cousins were there. This means babysitting for Head. I took each of the kids kayaking. We played frisbee and bocci.
Because there's only so much time you can spend on the beach and because I'm insane, I brought my PS2 and Guitar Hero 1 & 2. I played it so much my thumbs are still sore from the effort. The fast songs are just brutal on my strumming thumb.
I got about 200 pages through the newest Pynchon book. It's good so far but it's slow going. Kind of like Dostoevsky in that there's a lot of characters and a lot of plot lines and they all swoop and dive around each other.
I really wanted to sleep out on the back porch as I could hear the waves crash onto the shore and the cool breeze come off the horizon. Instead I had to watch the kids in the guest house. Boo.
Either way, it was a very relaxing time. We pulled back into Phoenix at 3 p.m. and I got back home a half hour or so later.

Perchance to Muse

Last week, Rachael was telling me how much she liked the band Muse. I had heard a bit of them and had thought they sounded a fair bit like Radiohead. Granted I had only heard two or three Muse songs but I thought it was enough. There's no doubt their lead singer is trying for a Thom Yorke vibe.

Rachael told me she thought Radiohead sucked. ::gasp:: Yeah I was shocked too blogience. It turns out she had only heard Creep. Not exactly a song representative of Radiohead's greatness. So I told her I'll burn her some Radiohead if she burns me some Muse. This deal works out great for yours truly because I just wanted some Muse. I had already decided I would probably like them. Rachael on the other hand could be getting two CDs she doesn't even like. Honestly though, what are the chances that would happen?

I've listened to most of one album and I've moved to the newer one. My thoughts so far:
They are very Radioheadesque. I think they need a better producer sometimes though. The snare is too loud and intrusive and they don't take advantage of volume and tone contrast enough. Their singer sounds great but on the first album I was listening to there was some annoying use of distorted voice. His voice is so clear and cutting, why ruin it with distortion? Especially since it would provide a great contrast to the thrashing guitars, at least on the song I'm thinking of here
They do have their own identity. They're not just a cheap Radiohead clone. Muse has a strain of metal band in them on some tunes. Sometimes to great effect, other times not as much. At times they've got an almost hiphop/triphop? kick underneath. It's like only 10% of the songs but it's noticeable and kind of cool.

I also got a bonus Interpol CD I need to listen to as well. Sweet. Ok.... that's all I have for now.

Situation resolved

I've reached an understanding with MP now. Went out Saturday night, a dinner and movie date. I told her since it has been a relatively short period of time since I was in a relationship, I'm not looking for another one now. She asked when that might be. I honestly told her I have no idea. She seemed ok with it. Or at least she understood it. And since the date continued as planned without any problems, I'll assume we're all good.
Backtracking a bit, I finally got the work crew to go out together. We had a good time Friday night. We started with drinks at Mi Amigos and had some very funny conversations. Finished there around...7:30 or 8. Then Diana suggested we all go to this place called Padre's that she frequents.
Everyone but Amanda (boo Amanda, you would have had fun) went. More drinks. More fun. Diana is quite the dancer. The rest of us stayed glued to our butts and watched her do her thing. It was cool. Around 10:30, we called it a night. Marcia had to undo her braids and get her new hair installed. The rest of us.. well I dunno about everyone else. I just went home and crashed.
And Mizzou lost. Again. Fricking chokers. They played a good second half but the first half was horrible. And the playcalling... abysmal.
Ok time to hit the morning shower, get ready for work, pick up my new glasses and acutally go to work.
Go to wvrk...go to wvrk... hehe

Whoa there.. where's the fire?

I reaffirm the belief that dating is a difficult process. So on Sunday, after date #1 with MP, I saw she had sent me an email telling she had a great time. Standard stuff I believe.
I responded, said I had a great time too and would love to go out again sometime next week. I said I had some ideas and she could feel free to call me if she liked.
She called me. That night.
Luckily I was driving to my parents house and I had an excuse not to talk. It weirded me out to have her call so soon after I left her my number.
(For those wondering the reason she didn't have my number before this point: my phone was broken and thus I had no phone for her to call. Phone replaced on Sunday.. thus phone number provided)
I assured myself I was overreacting and it would be no big deal. I told her I would call her back. I didn't specify when.
I decided I would call her on Monday. Maybe I should have waited. I dunno. I just wanted to lock down plans so it wouldn't be all floating around there and what not.
Got a hold of her that night. We nailed down some plans. Movie.. probably dinner, a good time estimate, etc. Talked a bit longer afterwards about general nonsense. Getting to know you kind of stuff still.
The conversation was quality-stuff I'll admit. I felt like I was being myself the whole time. That's important to me. I don't want to change who I am for someone else.
Today she sent an email. For those keeping track, that means she's communicated with me in some form every day since the date. On the one hand, clearly she's interested and it's enjoyable being pursued for once. On the other hand, I'm not looking to jump back into a relationship any time soon.
I joked with Marcia at work today that I think I should at least go on 7 dates with 7 different women before I decide to start getting in monogamous relationships again. You know, one for each year I was with my ex. Really, it's being conservative I think.
I'm not saying I want to sleep with seven different women. Just go on some dates. See what's out there. I don't know if MP understands that. I'll have to be more clear I think. I said I didn't want to get into a serious relationship any time soon. Maybe I should just say I don't want to get into a relationship, i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend style, at all.
And yes I'll do that before I sleep with her. C'mon. Did you really think I was that kind of guy?

There's another girl that's responded on Match. Someone who didn't say the last book they read was anything by Dan Brown. I swear to God... if I talk to someone or read someone's profile that says Angels and Demons or the Da Vinci Code is the last thing they read or it's their FAVORITE book...GEEEEARGHHH! Speaking of reading, I need to remember to bring the new Pynchon book I bought home from work. I keep leaving it on my desk. It's actually going to be out in stores by the time I remember.

That's more like it

Different girl, different first date. But before I go into details about last night, I will explain how it happened in the first place.
At some point I realized my friends are not the most proactive people in the world when it comes to setting me up on dates. Considering my own inability to approach women at a bar or some such place, I decided to do something I never thought I would do: sign up for an online dating service.
::cue organs, a woman screams::
A week or so after I joined, I got an email from someone. We chatted via email for a few days. It turns out this girl graduated from the same high school as me. We even graduated from the same class. Now I have no recollection of her, try as I might to remember. She remembers me though. A scary thought because I can't imagine what about me was memorable in high school.
Anywho, for the sake of anonymity we will call her MP from now on.
The emails were good. A quality mix of getting to know you stuff and light hearted banter. I asked if she wanted to go out this weekend. She agreed. I suggested the State Fair which I had never been to before. She agreed.
Breaking online dating protocol, I picked her up at her house. MP was ok with that since she knew me from high school and was fairly certain I wasn't a psycho killer. I got there a little early so she wasn't quite ready yet. I was happy cause she looked cute. Her house is really nice. Tiny for a house but certainly much bigger than my apartment. It's also cool she owns her own place. While she finished getting ready, I snooped around her house, picking up ideas for conversation later that night.
I didn't have to wait long before she was ready. We talked while I drove us to the fair, bouncing around from topic to topic, pets, family, work, etc. We were both shocked at how much one had to pay for parking. One place was charging $20!! For parking!! We paid half that. Still highway robbery as far as I am concerned. Tickets were $10 each. So to get into the door cost $30 for both of us. Is ok though. I really only paid slightly more than your average dinner and a movie night.
We walked around a bit, just taking the place in. Ate corn dogs and sodas for dinner. Went on the sky tram thing, then the giant ferris wheel and finally a mini roller coaster that had spinning cars. We walked around a lot too and talked. It was good. I enjoyed it. She was interesting, didn't seem crazy or annoying. A little scary that she didn't seem bored about my stories. Ripped off a few Fogg tales from college which are always amusing. After two hours or so we decided any more time at the fair would require more money and she was kind enough to say that wouldn't be necessary before I even had a chance to lament my wallet's status.
Drove her back to her place. Then, she asked me in. wait... she actually asked if I wanted to come in. I said yes, of course. I wasn't planning anything more than a good night kiss and a drive home. But heck.. why not?
We got inside and we talked some more. She had a weird water container that seemed to defy gravity. There has to be a reason why that thing didn't work. It kinda distracted me. Then we talked a bit about how not being able to know certain facts can drive me crazy until I get the answers. I brought up another example and she actually pulled out her laptop and helped me find the answer. Most people would find this weird. I found it hot. She popped in The Incredibles because I had mentioned that I loved that movie. Kind of her.
Then movie on, sitting on the couch together. Time to make my move right? Wrong.
My stomach starts hurting something fierce, like that corn dog was seeking revenge on me for eating it. I excused myself to the bathroom. I couldn't go a full-fledged deuce at her house. Not on the first date. Realizing my personal situation was going to require medication, a few hours in a bathroom and other unfun things, I had to call it a night.
I went back in the living room and sat down. I told MP that I was going to kiss her but I really feel sick to my stomach and I thought that it might be best for me to go home for the night. She was very understanding. Walked me out to my car. We kissed goodnight. And it may be because I haven't had any physical contact in a while, but the kiss was extremely good. I hope she felt the same way. She definitely is a cool girl. I cursed the heavens for making me ill and drove home.
I'll definitely call/email her today or tomorrow to let her know what a good time I had. Hopefully we'll go out again soon and my stomach won't betray me. The date made me happy for other reasons too. I didn't have any crazy thoughts like wanting to get into a relationship with her right away or insanely thinking I loved her already. Very good. I'm a bit emotional and tend to jump ahead before I should. The fact that I didn't do that makes me feel better about the whole dating thing.

Nerds!!!

Ok here's a little something I've probably spent the last 12 years of my life or so thinking about. It's still a work in progress :)

It's my definitions of the various terms for social outcasts.

Nerds
Nerds are individuals with above average intellect and an obsessive devotion to any subject or topic. For the typical nerd this means video games, comic books, science fiction, computers or technology or any variation/combination of these general areas. Nerdiness as a trait is spreading more into the mainstream. Fantasy Football and fantasy sports in general is an example of this. It's the nerdification of sports.

Nerds tend to overanalyze and overthink most situations. It's what makes them nerds. The same trait that enables a 26 year old male to follow the geneology of the Summers family in the X-men comic books allows him to suss it out why the wireless network is down in the office.

Nerds can associate somewhat with others. They usually find their lives handicapped in some way due to their lack of social acumen. There are exceptions but they are rare.

Perfect famous person example: Al Gore. Dude... what a nerd. He basically didn't win the presidency of the United States cause he was a giant nerd.

Dorks
Dorks, in most cases, are mutually exclusive from nerds. Dorks are the guys you knew in high school who were involved in athletics but were always on the JV team, even as seniors. In college, they usually joined the lamer fraternities or snuck on as hangers on of cooler friends. Dorks are usually of average intelligence. They lack the physical presence to be athletes. Dorks do not have winning, compelling personalities. They're not pure losers though. They have some talents.

More than any other social outcast class, they wish to not be an outcast. So they will do almost anything to be part of the normal non-outcast world.
Dorks tend to have guile. They excel as the people behind the scenes. Since they're always on the edge they tend to know the ebbs and flows of the popular crowds better than the popular people themselves. This skill is simultaneously what keeps them out of but near the circles of power. They're necessary but dorks are hard to trust.

Perfect example: (sorry to go political again but most political advisors are dorks) Karl Rove. Complete dork. There's no way he was athletic enough to be a star athlete. He's not attractive enough to skate by on looks alone. And while he's good at manipulating opinion, there's not a lot of people who go around bragging how he's their good friend. More like they brag that he's a weapon that can be used.

Geeks
Geeks are SuperNerds. They are extremely intelligent and completely lacking in social skills. Many geeks are afflicted with symptoms of autism or Asperger's Syndrome. Geeks are the people nerds go to if they can't find the solution to a technical problem.

You know the geeks in your workplace. It's the IT guy who never becomes management cause he can't handle people as well as servers. He may have problems with personal hygiene because he doesn't see it as important. Most people avoid them or fear them cause they're hard to understand and may be kind of stinky. Nerds will describe geeks with many laudatory terms but secretly are happy they're not that far gone socially.

Famous geeks: Stephen Hawking? Even then he may have too many social skills to be a geek. It's hard to find famous geeks cause most geeks are too immersed in their own world to be famous in the first place.

Losers
Losers lack social skills, are of average or below average intelligence, aren't attractive and possess few physical talents. The utter lack of redeeming traits doesn't necessary make them losers. It's the result of those traits. Losers are easily led from one task to the next. They're easy to fool and coerce because they lack the social skills or intelligence to see through most ruses.

The biggest thing that makes losers who they are is a lack of drive to accomplish or do anything. Even people who have few redeeming qualities can make something of themselves through effort. People who are more likely to become losers have to put more effort into life than most to accomplish something, to not be losers.

In some cases, people become losers by squandering gifts they do have such as good looks, intelligence, exceptional talents or the ability to get along well with others.

Famous Loser: Ryan Leaf- dude could have been a multi-millionare stud as a starting quarterback in the NFL. Gave it all up to be a colossal loser. He had all the phyiscal talents but no drive to do much with it or his life in general.

That's it for now on definitions. I've given it a lot of thought but I'm still not sure how people enter most of these catagories in the first place. Are you born a dork, nerd, geek or loser? I'm almost positive that losers are made not born but what about the other three? I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this one. I'll probably spend a lot more time thinking about it on my own anyways.

I think no matter how much you change as you grow older, being a social outcast as a child or adolescent stays with you. It's something that is intrinsic to who you are as a person. Being on the outside changes your perspective. It changes what you value in life, your goals and how you go about achieving them. This is not a value judgement. It is what it is.

er... this is gone on pretty long. I'll stop for now, chill out and listen to the rest of Takk.

How do you like your steak?

I went to a concert tonight. The main attraction was a Japanese punk bank called Peelander-Z.
It may have been the most fun I've had at a concert since.... 2 Skinny Js back in Columbia my freshman year in college.
Doors opened at 8. I was there around 8:30. It was sadly empty. Maybe 5 people other than the band or Modified Arts staff. There were discussions about changing the take the band got of the door due to the low turnout. This had the stink of failure all over it. Some arrangement was made that the band would play two shows, one at Modified and then another at the Trunk Space? at midnight.
Anywho...
Bored bored bored waiting to hear the band. Then finally... things start happening.
The band members wear these insane outfits that are essentially like something out of the Power Rangers but no helmets.
It's clearly punk music cause they barely know how to play their guitars. But what they lack in musical talent they more than make up for with raw enthusiasm.
Audience participation is necessary. At some point everyone in the crowd of like 25 people were pounding on pots and pans that were passed out by the band. During the bowling song/event, the band gave their instruments to audience members who fumbled around playing while the band members set up bowling pins and then had one band member use the other as a bowling ball.
It was a ton of fun even though the crowd was so small. The band was really cool and totally sold this ridiculous concept. For $6, I had more than my money's worth.
So to the ...4? people who read this blog... if you find out that Peelander-Z is playing in your area, go. Bring tons of friends. Cause it may be the most ridiculous/insane/childish/giggle-worthy concert you've ever attended.


The correct answer to the post title is Medium Rare apparently. We had to shout this numerous times during the Steak song. Yes... the steak song.

You're Just Playing the Part

Tried to start running again this week. That didn't work. I'm so out of shape it's pathetic. I'll go back to lifting. I might do stationary bike instead for a while. I need some kind of cardio.
Starting writing again this week. It's going ok. I have some ideas in my head that I need to get out. As long as I get five pages done a week I'll feel good about it.
Outlaw's been driving me crazy lately. Very ADD. Though at least the last two nights she let me sleep. On Monday she woke me up at 5 a.m. On Tuesday it was 4 a.m. She's lucky she's still among the living after Tuesday.
Friday is payday. Thank Jeebus. I can pay my parents back for the loan they gave me and I can buy groceries and go out or what not. This two week a paycheck thing is going to take some getting used to.
Got a forwarding address for the ex. I have to buckle down and get a box of her stuff out to her. She asked for me to make sure I include any correspondence from her previous employer. I don't remember seeing anything. I'm slightly worried that I may have tossed it by accident.
Well I'll send her what I have. Not looking forward to that task. Just getting the email from her put me in a funk for a day or two.

Date #1

Getting back into the whole dating scene=difficult. That's the lesson I learned from Date #1.
It's not that it went bad. I think it went well. Girl #1 was cute, I think conversation came easily, she seems interesting and we're looking for the same thing. Why did I think it was difficult?

1. I was nervous
2. While she was attractive, I wasn't really turned on at all...
3. I'm finding it difficult to strike the appropriate balance between being friendly and wanting to get into her pants/dress.

Not that I made a fool of myself. Heck I don't think I did anything risky at all. Maybe that's why #2 never happened. I played it very safe.

The problem is this:
I'm not the kind of person who's going to sleep with someone he just met. At the same time, I don't want a serious relationship. So how/when do I get physical? I don't want to mislead women who want a relationship just to sleep with them. I don't want to hit the bars and sleep with random women. I don't want to end up in the friend zone either. grrr...

That and girl #2, who I really think is hot, hasn't responded since I asked her out. Meh..
This shit is hard work.

Bored bored bored

At times I hate being idle. Today is one of those days.
Tuesday night is World of Warcraft night for me and the guys. It's the only night I play. Even though I'm completely burned out from the game I still play because I want to hang out with everyone. It's basically a $15/month interactive chat room.
Tonight I got on a bit later cause traffic was horrible. This made me miss out on the group finishing this quest I needed to complete.
Then the A's lost 5-1 to the Tigers in Game One of the ALCS, while I was waiting around for another group on WoW. Which never happened. Or at least not until it was too late for me. I don't like starting big deal instance runs at 9:30. I'm a wussy and like to be in bed around 10 or 11 on work nights, with the occasional exception.
Also I missed Veronica Mars, or at least 95% of it. Again because of WoW. This is going to be an issue for me. I need to find a reliable source to download episodes of this show. It's really one of the few shows I really try to watch. WoW night is Tuesday cause that's the only time everyone can get together. So Stealing TV it is!
But now I got out of WoW because of the time and I'm not sleepy. And I'm bored. Thus mindless blogging. I say mindless cause there's no real point to writing any of this other than it's giving me something to do.
Quiet you who say that's all blogging is anyway. Ok I give up. I'll go read a book till I get sleepy.

It helps to pay attention

When using personals on Craigslist and age is a factor, it is important to notice the age of posters before responding to their ads. I did not follow this rule. Apparently BOTH women I'm dating are considerably younger than I am (five or more years). Now.. the deeper question is this: Why is this a bad thing?

With younger women it will be far too easy for me to slip into some.. superiority complex. Which is ridiculous of course. Why does my age make my superior? It doesn't. In fact when I was younger I used to get pissed when people did this very thing to me. Ok. I will not do that. I'm aware of it and can thus supress it.

Also though it is only five years there could be less to talk about. Are they in school still? Probably. Whoa.. dating college girls. That kind of makes me feel lame and cool all at the same time.

It could be a good thing too, dating younger women. Besides the ..ahem... obvious benefits. I'm not ready to jump right into a relationship again. I want to see what's around first. I think more women my age are looking for a relationship (of course, this is generalizing and I could totally be wrong here because honestly what do I know about women as a group? Not much)

Why stress about any of this? This is stupid on my part. I just want to have fun. No pressure. No worries. No making long-term plans. No sitting by computers or phones waiting for responses.
Take it as it comes. All Zen and shit.

Alright. I feel better now. Thanks blog!

Not going on upstairs

So one of my best friends talked to me last weekend. She told me that her fiance is graduating from college soon and would like me to attend. She also says she has to email me the information about it. "Call me on Tuesday if I haven't told you be then. Otherwise I'll forget," is what she tells me.
Considering how urgently she wanted me to receive the info I assumed ( yeah I know, this is where the problem comes in) that it was THIS Sunday.
I rush around to get ready, putting on a shirt and tie and what not, then hustle my ass over to Glendale. Apparently the Cardinals have a home game today. I kept telling cops there was this graduation thing I HAD to go to and they just didn't know about it. (Boy am I dumb?) Then I finally weasel my way into a parking lot near the arena. Walk up the arena, pull on the doors. They're locked. I call my friend and ask her where I need to be. She says at home dummy. The ceremony is NEXT Sunday.
This moment of idiocy brought to you by my scatter brain.

Oh but good news:
I have a real live actual date on Thursday. And I'm talking to a different woman who is pretty cool so far as well. Hopefully a date will be happening with her soon too.
Thursday is with a 20 year old blonde. Taking her to a Japanese place that sounds pretty cool to me. Crossing my fingers that it will be fun.
The other woman is 28 and a brunette. She's really interesting to me so far. Very pretty as well as easy to talk to.
More as this develops.

Doom Vanquished?

Speakers were plugged back in this morning and no squee. Watched a few Youtube vidoes... no squee. Perhaps time defeated the squee. God willing cause that sucked.

Felt a bit down Thursday and I blame Marcia. Talked to her Wednesday about the whole break-up thing and I said I don't feel sad about it most of the time. She seemed surprised I was taking it so well. Others have mentioned this too. I've been feeling odd physically lately. Maybe the two things are connected. Consciously I feel ok about it all but subconsciously I feel horrible so I get these painful headaches and my back hurts and just feel weird in general. It definitely does not feel like an illness.

To explore that theory, I tried really hard Thursday to let myself feel sad and depressed if the thoughts came up. No avoiding sad songs, no avoiding sad thoughts. It worked. I definitely felt worse emotionally today. But all the physical symptoms are still there. So it didn't work. Except now I feel like butt emotionally and physically. There goes that theory. If only Marcia had not sounded so surprised when I said I was doing ok. :)

Went out on Friday again with my old high school friend. It's homecoming weekend and she was going to go check it out but didn't want to go alone. All weekend the big LAN is going on. So I'll be out pretty late with the guys, killing each other in Halo and other FPS and maybe we can squeeze in some non shooters since I can't hit the broad side of a barn.

Maybe I'll bring my PS2 and Guitar Hero. That game is so fricking cool.

The Squeeling Sounds of Doom

I was all ready to go for a fun WoW night with the guys. I'm logged into Vent, we're getting our little ducks in a row for a run at Lower Blackrock Spire and all of a sudden.....
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Ack! WTF was that!? Apparently my speakers made an attempt on my life. At first I thought it was Vent so I changed my settings to no avail. Then I thought maybe the speakers were just plugged in funny. I wiggled and jiggled said plugs and cords (BTW this is very similar to how I fix any automotive issue, wiggle wires and pray)
It stopped for a little bit. Then 10 minutes later the SQUEE of doom comes back. I tried switching to headphones, no difference. Is it possible for a sound card to develop emotions.... Homicidal emotions?
The rest of the night was spent playing WoW with no sound which means no vent which means relying on people to tell me what to do in text form. If you've been doing voice chat for as long as our guild has, it makes it very difficult to type in tasks.
Around 9:30 I called it a night. I didn't even gain a level. ::sigh::
I read this Running With Scissors book my aunt got for Christmas last year that I've been avoiding. It's all right. It's a memoir but the guy's childhood seems too insane and thus not as interesting to me.
Anywho... I'm running late. When my family cleaned out the apartment they also took my deoderant and my razor. I have to make a trip to the store before I can even start getting ready to go to work. blech...

Tabula Rasa

This past weekend was quite eventful. My ex officially moved out of my apartment. My parents and my aunt flew into the same space on Sunday and turned the apartment into a surgical room it's so damn clean. I went out with an old friend. My cat spends a lot of time looking for said ex. Loudly. In Meow form.
Today was spent recovering since I didn't get any sleep last night and was pretty stressed out anyway.
So where do I go from here? Why is the path unclear? (ok ok I'll stop the Buffy reference)

Basically, I'm ready to do something else now. Time to start meeting new people, going out on dates, learning cool new things for work. I can't say I won't be spending a few moments or days missing the hell out of my ex and the life that was. It was a good life and worth a few mournful mornings. Or evenings. Still, it's time for me to take some steps forward and live life again.

Now if only I can manage my bills....

Where is my mind?

Ok... I need to think here for a bit so I can remember the blog posts I was thinking of writing at work.
....
....
....
Now I remember. I had to do that mental VCR thing. Rewinding my day and thoughts until I could recreate where the ideas came from in the first place. Anywho... on with the post.

At what point do high standards=becoming a flaming jerkwad?
I recently got out of a seven year relationship. I want to move up to the next level of competition. In other words, while I don't want a relationship now or any time soon, I would like to be spending time with women who are very attractive to me and also are interesting to me say... conversation wise. Not to say my ex wasn't any of those things. I just want better. The next step up. Whatever that may be.

When does this desire cross the line into me being a jerk? Like thinking I'm better than other people. I'm worried about that. It would be easy to slide into, that mindset.
I guess if the thought even floats through my conscious than it's likely not going to happen. Also I have friends that I hope will tell me if cross that line.

So tomorrow, going out with a friend and getting my ex out of the apartment. A big day to be sure.
I like the clothes I have been borrowing from my brother. Unprincipled me says to take them.
HAHAHAHHA I am indeed an evil mastermind.

Taking care of business

It's been a busy but productive week of work. I finished all my work this week a day early thanks to a request for the population of downtown Phoenix being impossible. Apparently most of the downtown populace is in prison. Statistics about them is not exactly going to give insight into urban living patterns huh?

Bought a CD this morning. The soundtrack to The Last Kiss. To those who like indie rock it's pretty good. Those who hate Zach Braff and all he touches.... I'd say you should pass. Unless of course you're trying something new.

Either way there's this Remy Zero song on the album that is really awesome. I normally don't like Remy Zero. Aren't they the band that does the annoying Smallville theme song? Uch. Apparently they decided to write at least one awesome song. It's called Prophecy. I predict it will worm its way onto many a playlist for me.

Which brings up a habit of mine: I get hooked on certain songs and then I make playlists and 2/3 of the songs are the same. I have to fight to put new things on the playlists. I'm like a crappy radio DJ or something. Or whatever the title is of the person at the radio station who selects the playlists.

Songs that are on more than one playlist:
Artist- song:
Liz Phair- Supernova
Aretha Franklin- The House That Jack Built
David Bowie- Ziggy Stardust
Marvin Gaye- Mercy Mercy Me
Marvin Gaye- What's Going On (Two Marvin Gaye songs cause I have a soul playlist and a protest song playlist)


Ok... I guess it wasn't that bad. Maybe I just listen to certain playlists a lot. Those are all good songs too. I have no ending for this rambling post that probably should have been two or three seperate posts....
Oh and I know I'm late to this party but dude... Rufus Wainwright is fantastic.

Weekend fun

So sadly I did not do much this weekend.... again.
Friday, I went to a Diamondbacks game with a co-worker. He had free tickets and offered so, what the hell why not? I guess that was fun. I should have gone out drinking afterwards but I chickened out.... again.
Saturday I played video games and watched/listened to college football. Again I should have gone out to the bars but I chickened out and watch 40 year old virgin on dvd which I had never seen. How's that for lame? I don't go out and I watch that particular movie...
It was funny though. I'm glad I got to see it finally. But I do wish I had gone out instead.
Sunday I slept in, ate breakfast, took a shower and then went to an early movie.
Saw The Last Kiss with Zach Braff. Pretty good movie. I really didn't like Braff's character but that's good for a change. He got what he deserved for his actions though and not in a lame morality play kind of way. In a more like real life kind of way. Nice to see that in a movie too.
After that I hung out at Barnes and Noble for a few hours. I almost hit on the Starbucks girl, but i was worried she might be in high school. That's a good general rule to follow: If she looks like she might be in high school, walk away.
Then I drove over to Target and bought a present for my friend whose birthday dinner was last night.
Went back home. Chilled out till it was time to go. Watched some Kill Bill and fed the dogs.
Birthday dinner was fun, but I talked to fricking much, again. And the single female friends of friends who I hoped would show did not. Sigh... instead just pretty wives of good friends. Everyone was fun to talk to but I gurantee people driving home complained about how I would never shut the fuck up. I wish I could control that better. Afterwards I always feel like crap because of that habit.

Not quite crash and burn

In the last three weeks, my fiance/girlfriend of the last seven years dumped me, I've temporarily moved to my parent's house until she moves to California and my cat's gone nuts.
Considering all that, I'm doing pretty good.
So good in fact that I tried to get back in the old dating saddle again. Granted I feel like I'm 15 and I have temporarily lost what little social acumen I have. But even attempting to start dating again, to me, is a pretty cool.
There was a cute girl at work. Thanks to some basic googling I found she has a lot of the same interests as I do. I had another co-worker find me a mole from which to get info. I'm feeling good, thinking this might actually work out.
Then.... my mole gets back to me. Cute Girl has a boyfriend already. Apparently, it's pretty serious.
Oh well.
At least I didn't have to ask and then get shot down. And.... I personally didn't get shot down. She already had a boyfriend. She's not rejecting me. She's stating the circumstances. Not too shabby. I turned a loss into a win. I think...
So watch out cute girls who are at least a little bit nerdy.. I'm free and I'm apparently crazy enough to ask people out on dates again. (Do people even date anymore? what's this "hooking up" thing I've heard so much about on the interwebs? kidding) The world may never be the same.

Huzzah

Public blog... Gooo!
If you are here, I either told you this address or you randomly came across the site.
Those who know me... it will just be me blabbing.
Those who do not know me.... maybe you will find it interesting, maybe not.