Undisclosed Location

Better than the CD

As far as I'm concerned here are a select few groups that sound better live in concert than on their CD (Third Day comes to mind). The Swell Season is one of these groups hands down, so if you happen across one of their concerts I highly suggest you check them out.

For those of you who don't know who they are, you might recognize their music on the soundtrack for the movie Once (if you haven't seen this movie yet, stop reading and go watch - thank me later). Check out their myspace page to hear clips and read more about them.

Julie and I saw them a couple weeks ago when they came to the Allen Theater and I'm become an even bigger fan than I was before. Julie's actually been playing their music nonstop since the show, so I figured I should do a write up about it and encourage everyone to support them on their tour.

There's something refreshing about artists who just get up on stage and pour their hearts out with music...no pretense, no glitz, no fancy lighting, just straight up soul on the stage and great music. Glen and Marketa seem so down to earth and earnest that you get sucked into their world and you never want to leave. It's like when you hear a lullaby from your childhood and you get that comfortable warm feeling - that's the closest I can compare it to. 

There's something for everyone to connect to when it comes to their music. Whether its feelings of lost love, personal growth, or getting older they have something poignant to say through their art. Check out their tour page and look for a date near you, seeing them live is like sitting with them in your living room and sharing life stories.

The state of theater today

Julie and I took a trip to the theater with some good friends last night to see Shakespeare's "As You Like It" and had a great time despite what I thought was a pretty mediocre performance by the local troupe. I couldn't help but come away with a few impressions after watching the show.

It has got to be hard for theaters to compete with other forms of entertainment available these days (movies, concerts, etc.) when ticket prices are as high as they are. If you're not a college student you're pretty much priced out of the loop unless you're somewhat well off. Sure, there are cheap tickets to be had for $10 way up in the balcony, but we were 14 rows back from the stage and I could barely hear the actor dialogue. Our ticket pricing was $50+ and whenever the players would face away from me or TB Joe coughed in the audience I completely missed what was being said. I missed half of the "jokes" because I'm relying on acoustics that should have been left to the ancient romans and greeks. Is it that hard to install a hanging mic system?

Couple that with 85-year-old seat ushers who insisted on leading us to our seats (one shuffling step at a time) and still brought us to the wrong row, and you have a pretty antiquated entertainment experience. I'm a fan of tradition as much as the next guy, but from this and past experiences at the theater I can't help but wonder why things can't be updated a bit. I'm not shocked that most 18-34 year-olds I've come across want nothing to do with the performing arts. It's not that we expect a hot dog derby race or a kiss cam, but the current state of affairs is just too expensive, stuffy, pretentious, and outdated.

Robert Looogia

L...for Looogia

Dubious Marketing Tactics

There used to be a sign near my home that read "Prostate Cancer Sucks." After researching the sign I learned that "cancer sucks" is a widespread marketing awareness-type campaign for cancer and cancer research. Even so, I couldn't help wondering if Prostate Cancer wasn't just a little too serious for a sign that incorporated the word sucks. The sign went down after a while but today there was a new sign....

"Let's put prostate cancer 'Behind' us."

A double-entendre - a little more sophisticated than "Prostate Cancer Sucks," but it still seems.......well, not funny.

Best Buy is really shady

Reading this story about how Best Buy was caught red-handed conning customers out of money reminds me of an experience I had there myself.

Julie and I were at our local Best Buy to buy her mom a digital camera because of a web advertised price we found while shopping on the internet. Since time was of the essence we decided to buy in-store instead of ordering online like I usually do. We went straight to the camera section of the store and asked for the specific model seen in the advertisement.

Coldplay rocked the house

(Photos above are courtesy of Coldplay Message Board member "MV")

I know I'm a few days late, but the high is still wearing off from the show Chris and the rest of the guys put on the other day at the Q. I wasn't a huge fan of the opening act, but was pleasantly surprised at how good of a live show Coldplay delivers. If you have any doubt that Chris Martin is charismatic enough to be a lead singer I think you definitely need to see him in concert. He more than held his own. If not for what I thought was a poor sound system in the arena (the music was so loud the speakers actually cracked and distorted at times) and the teenie boppers sitting in front of me who took self-portraits with their flash cameras throughout the whole damn show, this would have been the perfect live-act. Expand the post to check out pics, the setlist, and even a video from the night.

UL Reviews 2.0 now with the review crew

I'm trying to breathe new life into my side-project review site UL Reviews. To that end I've enlisted the help of some friends to contribute to the content and give more regular updates than I was able to provide. Keep your eyes on the site for the time being through the RSS feed and through the link I've posted in the sidebar under "Looking for some good reviews?" Also check the sidebar over there to read short bios about each contributor in the review crew and find a link to their weblog.

The first 10,000

According to last.fm, since joining March 7 of last year I have listened to 10,000 songs. I'll admit to leaving iTunes running a few nights and for artificially keeping Third Day at the top of my artist list (that's all about loyalty), but I also lost a lot of songs that were played on my iPod.

To put things in perspective, I've been a member for 355 days. With 10,000 songs I've listened to an average of 28 songs a day. At an average of 3-3.5 minutes per song, that's about 1.5 hours of listening a day. A good majority of that comes from my commute to and from work and the rest from those days when I have time at home to listen to a few albums. Not too shabby if you ask me, especially considering the hours I put in at the hospital.

Apple really has dropped the ball here when it comes to iTunes. I don't see any reason why I can't see some sort of generated statistic list by artist/genre/album. Play counts for each song alone really don't tell me much. Don't be mistaken, however, there are some features I wish last.fm had after looking at my statistics.

For instance:
- A color indicator of some kind to let me know how long it's been since I've listened to a particular artist (ex: artists not played in the past 7 days in blue, not played in the last 14 days in green, and not played in the last 30 days in red)
- An "artist of the month" and "song of the month" box that lets me know at a glance the most popular artist in my playlist and the most popular song for this particular month
- Play counts attached to each tag that I make (this in particular would make it easy and quick to see what kind of music a person listens to overall)

Arbitron ratings

I was surprised to get the following letter in the mail the other day:

Be a part of the radio ratings! Whether you listen a little, a lot, or not all, you are important. Yours is one of the few households in your area chosen to tell radio stations what you listen to.

It's easy and fun to take part in our radio survey. In just a few days, an Arbitron research assistant will call with more details.

PS: Please accept the small token of appreciation we have enclosed with this letter

That small token of appreciation is a crisp one dollar bill...not much, but I gotta wonder how many of these letters Arbitron actually sends out. Is one dollar really enough to get people motivated to take part in these surveys? Hell, I would have done it for free. Now if the Nielsen people to send me a letter and let me join in...

Keep your ear to the ground

...our you'll miss out on all of the new artists coming of the woodwork faster than you can keep up with them. After spending the last few days listening non-stop to their music, I had to dedicate a post to two musicians who've got a great sound (plus, I have to give my review site some traffic).

James Blunt - Fans of his will chime in that I'm late to get on the bandwagon, but hey, better late than never right? British folk-pop hasn't sounded this good since David Gray. Check out my review for more thoughts on his music.

Brandi Carlile - It's funny, but the first time I heard this album my first thought was that Mark Lee from Third Day would probably dig her sound. So Mark, definitely give her a listen if you haven't done so already. As for the rest of you, check out my quick blurb about Brandi and her music at UL Reviews.

I periodically update UL Reviews so the best thing to do is to subscribe to the RSS feed and then check in when I update. That is, if you actually care what I have to say about movies, music, TV, dvd and food. I'm always looking for new music and movies, so I'd love it if you checked in to comment on the things I write about and then suggest related items that you've enjoyed.

My iTunes stats

After downloading this iTunes stats widget I now have a renewed obsession with my music library. Those of you who have seen me fire up iTunes know I'm a stickler with album art, ratings, and metadata, so when I saw the following statistics I knew that I had gotten lax with my management.

Music I've gotten into the last few months

Janie Porche (yeah, the one from the Apple "Switch Ads") - She's got a real low-key style that appeals to me. You can download her tracks from her old weblog (in the left sidebar)

Amos Lee - This guy is smooth as silk...amazing voice and a great vibe. He's one of those artists that sounds right on point even when he's performing live.

Rachael Yamagata - Her debut album has been out for some time, but I was late to the party...she reminds me of Fiona Apple, but she's not as strange.

Happy Endings: Soundtrack - Maggie Gyllenhaal actually has a great smokey voice, I was pleasantly surprised listening to her covers.

Joshua Radin - A-MA-ZING. Go on iTunes and buy all of his tracks...you won't be sorry.

KT Tunstall - I've just recently discovered her music and I'm blown away. She's a one-woman band, which is funny because if you didn't see her perform you'd think there were four or five people backing her up. Make sure you head over to the iTunes store and download the video of her live performance on the Today Show.

Expect to see lyrics and have some samples from these artists soon...

David Lee Roth aint all that bad on the radio

Stern was entertaining in his over the top way, but I gotta say that Diamond Dave is turning me into a fan. I haven't had much use for the radio since getting my iPod hooked into the car, but I've been listening to "Roth Radio" on my way to work the past couple of days. The cool part is that even if you don't live in a radio market where the show is played, you can listen over the internet. This works out nicely for me because my commute to work isn't all that far and by the time I get there, inevitably there's something going on in the show that I don't want to miss. While having a podcast would be the perfect solution, I'll settle for internet replay. Having a weblog that gives key recaps is also a nice feature too.

If only this button worked

I got one of these today and hit it multiple times...either it's broken or it works on a delay.

Realistically attainable goals for 2006

1. Post at least two times a week.
2. Get more reading done.

What are your goals for the new year (goals sound better to me than resolutions)? Post them in the comments below or leave a link to the entry where you have them posted on your weblog.

God Bless TiVO

Without my trusty TiVo I would be cut off from the outside world. My purchase of this machine complete with DVD recorder is probably the best buy I've made since I got my iPod. It's gotten to the point where I have basically stopped watching live TV and just view the programs that I've recorded with the DVR. (And for the record: I can't convey enough how cool it was to record the entire fourth season of 24 and then burn it onto DVD for later viewing.)

Here's a list of my can't miss shows that I've got on season pass (in the order of their priority). Some of them overlap in time slots, but for the most part I can catch them all with repeats and what-not.

Desperate Housewives / Scrubs / Iron Chef America / The Ultimate Fighter / The Amazing Race: Family Edition / Family Guy / Everybody Hates Chris / Prison Break / Survivor: Guatemala / Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels / $40 a day / The Real World / Iron Chef / Barefoot Contessa / The Naked Chef / Anthony Bourdain / Malcom in the Middle / Will & Grace / Saturday Night Live / Invasion

What shows are on your TiVo? I'd be interested in seeing what all of you consider your "can't miss" programs. That is, those of you who aren't too cool for TV...

Shoutout to Laura

Since Tim is too much of a punk to praise his own wife, I'll step up here and thank Laura for the wonderful dinner she prepared today (technically yesterday now). I had no idea that I would get a cooked meal and was pleasantly surprised with a spaghetti dinner complete with homemade sauce and meatballs. Good company with good food is a winner every time.

I'll be looking forward to reading a recap of the wedding from the couple themselves someday as well...*cough*

Having faith

After helping with a resuscitation in the vascular unit at 2am, I walked passed by the small chapel that's near the central surgical waiting room. I don't know if it was the emptiness of the hallways or the soft glow coming from the room, but I decided to walk in and sit down on one of the small pews. It was so quiet and peaceful in that tiny room...I could see why people would step in to get away from the sickness outside.

On the small altar in the front of the room I noticed a binder sitting next to the bible. Here's a snapshot of what was written inside:

It was so touching to see these prayer requests and praises scribbled in the hospital chapel. I get the distinct impression that I'm not the only one who has flipped through this binder and taken encouragement from the words inside. I hope the others leafing through the worn pages took as much encouragement as I did when I was half asleep and emotionally exhausted. Seeing the faith displayed by those who left their mark in this binder gave me the hope I needed to get through the rest of the night.

Getting my Coldplay fix

Now that I've gone and bought up all the music of theirs that I could possibly find, I've moved on to video and concert performances. The MTV first leak was a great little show as was the Vh1 Storytellers performance. I hope they somehow make the audio from those shows available for sale, because I'd get them in a heartbeat.

Today I found another performance for those of you equally obsessed with them at the moment (which is a lot of you judging by the current Audioscrobbler charts). They did a concert for AOL and the full audio as well as video of the show is up at AOL Music. It's yet another stellar set and shouldn't be missed. But you don't have to take my word for it...

If it had lyrics it would be perfect

The latest Coldplay album has a strange symbol on the front cover that I assumed at first glance to be some kind of color representation of the X and Y chromosomes (since the title is X&Y after all). Turns out, as I was flipping through the CD booklet, I realized that there is a table in the middle of it that looks suspiciously like a code key. The last page of the booklet even contains some more of the strange colored blocks.

They had to stand for something, so I went about decoding them and came up with a message. If you're curious as to what the cover and the last page spell out, go ahead and decipher them yourself using the table I've scanned in here.

I thought this was pretty cool...or at least something that I've never seen before in liner notes. I'd have rather had lyrics to follow along with the songs, but I give Coldplay kudos for doing something different.

UPDATE: I knew I should have posted this yesterday. Turns out vh1 beat me to the punch. You can read their article about the code and get the answers here if you don't want to work it out yourself. Also, I've found out that since the single for Speed of Sound came out people have known about this "code." Yeah, I guess I'm slow on the uptake.

UPDATE 2: I just found a code generator that I thought was pretty neat. Just type in the word you want to spell out and you get the appropriate picture. This code encrypter actually shows the code in real time...also pretty cool.

not pr0n - the game

I posted this in my del.icio.us links, but after becoming hopelessly addicted tonight (thanks a lot...I'm looking at you Pocketlint), I wanted to make a full post. If you head on over to not pr0n.com you'll come across an online game that I can only call a more difficult and twisted version of myst. Basically, your job is to make it through a series of screens by solving puzzles...the only problem is you have no frame of reference and all rules are out the window. You solve puzzles in whatever way you can using whatever resources are in front of you and things that are both seen and unseen. It's all about thinking outside of the box. It's hard to describe without giving it away, so I would suggest you just visit and jump right in.

I'd be curious in finding out how far each of you get as you keep playing. I've managed to only get to level 10 (out of a current 133) tonight, and this is with Karen (formerly of silver beetle fame) working on the puzzles with me over IM. I think that if a few of us put our heads together we can crack this thing. I'll try to get Tim to help me with this tomorrow and we'll go from there. If any of you want to join our group and try to crack all the levels (something which few people have done) leave a comment here or contact me via IM.

06/02 UPDATE: Tim, Karen, and I are now on level 18 26.

Now HERE'S a deal

This morning I went looking through the iTunes store and the new additions when I saw the best deal I've ever seen in digital music. I remember when I was in undergrad how much I enjoyed listening to enya while studying or just browsing the web. Well if you're anything like me (or a fan of hers) then you're in luck, because they're selling her "Only Time" box set for $10. Yeah that's right, 50 tracks for $10. This works out to 20 cents for each song, which is an even better deal than the U2 digital box set that goes for 34 cents a song. True, the U2 set includes a digital booklet, but for this price I'm not going to be picky. Consider that on Amazon it goes for six times the price.

If digital music was always this cheap, I wouldn't hesitate to get all of my music this way. My big problem with buying albums online is that you don't get the booklets and you don't get the physical media to re-rip songs at higher bitrates, yet you still pay pretty much the same price as you would in the store. Most albums are ten dollars on the iTunes store and I can pick up most of them for 10-12 dollars at Best Buy or Target when they are first released. If more artists released digital box sets like this I'm sure people would go for them, I know there are lots of artists that I'd love to build a library of without having to spend obscene amounts of money. Booklets or no, paying 1/5 the cost of retail is a bargain too hard to pass up.

UPDATE: I just found out that the Official enya website also includes a pretty thorough track listing and lyric database, complete with translations and little blurbs about most of the songs. THIS is the way all artists should do it, especially if they want to sell their music digitally.

UPDATE 2: As of 06/04 the price has changed to $39.95. I hope you acted early and already bought the set.

Time's still flying and I'm still blogging fun

Today marks the second year of Undisclosed Location being on the internet through Typepad, and it's been a year of growth in more ways than one. If we are going by human years, this place is still very much a toddler. Hopefully, with things being what they are on the internet, however, my humble abode is a little older when going by weblog years.

Here are some numbers from the statistics department:

Year one: 22,110 visitors -- 61 visits/day -- 558 posts -- 568 comments
Year two: 67,878 visitors -- 186 visits/day -- 252 posts -- 637 comments
Overall: 89,988 visitors -- 123 visits/day -- 810 posts -- 1,205 comments

Jatser is a huge Star Wars dork

(This conversation takes place after Tim tells me that he's buying matching Star Wars T-shirts for everyone who'll be going with him to the premiere.)

Me: So since you're going to wear a Star Wars shirt to the premiere, are you going to take your lightsaber too?

Tim: No, I don't want it to get injured.

Me: Don't you mean damaged?

Tim: No...I meant injured.

Keep your head up Alfonso

The Contender has been one of my guilty pleasures for the past couple weeks, mostly because of the backstories that make each fight more than just a boxing match. Since day one I've been rooting for Alfonso, who for some reason I saw as the underdog of the group. No one thought much of him, and all of his opponents took him for granted because of his small size. He showed the heart of a champion and an iron jaw that absorbed everything that was thrown at him. It's a shame he had to lose this week to a fighter that he already took out.

I saw this happening as soon as Peter was allowed to come back. As hard as it was to beat him the first time, I knew it was going to be even harder for Alfonso to take Peter out a second time. Pride is a powerful motivator, and Peter had this going for him tonight. They had a hell of a fight, however, which made the unanimous decision a surprise, especially since I saw Alfonso taking the early rounds and almost laying Peter out. Even though he's out of the running for the million dollars, I don't think Fonzo has anything to hang his head about...he'll be back in the ring soon enough.

My location revealed

Look for the yellow dot to find me...

They don't make shoes like this anymore

While watching the '93 NCAA championship game between Michigan and N. Carolina (yeah, the one where Webber called the infamous timeout) I was reminded of my favorite pair of tennis shoes. The original Nike Air Force Max B was the team shoe for the Wolverines, and it was the shoe I used for over two years. I beat the hell out of those things, and wore them until they literally fell apart. They just don't make shoes like this anymore.

It was the perfect shoe as far as I was concerned, because it was comfortable and supportive for basketball while not being flamboyant. These were basketball shoes that you could wear with jeans and a shirt and not look like an idiot. Nowadays basketball shoes are so butt-ugly that I would never consider using them for anything else but hitting the hardwood, and even then I cringe at how ridiculously ornate they are. The black suede was sleek and understated, and the gray/white color scheme didn't draw too much attention. They were just solid, comfortable, and useful shoes.

I wish they'd bring them back in a "vintage" line of some kind...as it is now you have to hunt around to find them and pay an arm and a leg for 'em.

Being a hypocrite can be fun

You ever have someone ask you for advice and you tell them something that you know good and well you'd never ever do? Even as the advice is coming out of your mouth you laugh inside and realize how ridiculous it is and how there's no way in hell you'd ever follow it.

I'm not saying you lie to them, you just tell them what they should do and not what you would do. This is why when I ask people for advice, I ask them "what would YOU do?" and not "what should I do?" There's a big difference...

For the record: I automatically give both answers when someone asks me for advice. The people I've dispensed advice to should be able to vouch for this.

What's in your iTunes shopping cart?

There's a lot of music I wish I had the money to buy. At any given time my CD wishlist is 10-15 albums long, and that's mostly comprised of music I missed the first time around or artists that I've been lead to as a result of listening to similar music. Part of what I love about the iTunes store is that when I find good music and add it to my shopping cart I get other artist recommendations. Playing this "iTunes trail" game has lead me to a lot of music I probably would have never heard of otherwise, and it's a good way to waste time when you don't want to study. I'm curious as to what all of you are wanting to buy in the near future (regardless of whether you use the iTunes shopping cart).

If you're industrious, take a picture of your iTunes shopping cart with the recommendations and point us to the link in the comments. If not, just write a list of what you want to buy here in the comments. I've included a picture of my shopping cart over to the left, just click on the thumbnail to see the full-sized image (I think about hitting that big "buy now" button every time I look at it).

Apple really should add a wishlist feature to the store (like amazon). I would imagine people would be a lot more likely to buy you 99 cent tracks that require no shipping and are instantly redeemed, than books and other amazon-purchasable materials. It could become a sign of good patronage in the blog world: "hey I liked what I read on your site so I thought I'd get you a track from your wishlist." It would be like, dare I say it, micropatronage v2.0

For Mark Lee and other 'Freebird!' yellers

Shows you how out of the loop I am. I had never heard of this until Mark mentioned doing it on the first Third Day DVD. I think I remember a few people yelling it in jest at a 3D show I went to way back when.

Rock's Oldest Joke: Yelling 'Freebird!' In a Crowded Theater

Typing speed showdown

Here's your chance to show off those typing skills. Visit this site and post your best speed with no mistakes and your fasted speed achieved with mistakes in the comments.

With no errors I was able to clock in at 74 wpm and with one mistake at 96 wpm.

EDIT: When I just went for just raw speed with no regard for mistakes (or legible words) I managed 495 wpm. Tim is making futile attempts at beating that and failing miserably...

How do your song ratings work?

I'm curious to know how all of you rate your songs in iTunes or your favorite mp3/AAC player. Here's the system I use and the percentage each one has in my library.

5 stars (~7%): Songs that are just about perfect in my mind, I never skip them
4 stars (~17%): Songs I love to listen to but can't consider my favorite
3 stars (~24%): Songs I'll listen to while going through a CD, these are usually the ones I listen to on random and say "wow, I haven't heard this song in a while" and smile
2 stars (~25%): Songs I don't really like and will only listen to under the rarest of circumstances
1 star (~27%): Interlude tracks, really bad songs...things I never want to listen to that usually remain unchecked in the library

How does this work anyways?

Is it live to blog?

Or is it blog to live?

...just happen to blog while living?

That wasn't me, that was the chair...honest

Have you ever been in a quiet public place and moved in such a way that your seat, bag, or something around you made a noise that sounded like you had passed gas? Did you then try to duplicate the movement again to assure the people around you in some way that in fact you did not just rip one in public? Am I the only person out there that has done this? Please tell me i'm not just crazy, because this has happened to me many times.

My blogroll all-stars

Listening to Keane, Aimee Mann, and old Taxiride tracks late at night get me thinking about things that I'd get in trouble writing about, so I'll take this opportunity to run down my blogroll of "disclosed locations" and give a little bit of background on why they're in there. Hopefully you'll give everyone a visit and let them know that Izzy sent you.

I Could Have Been A Contender
Billy is a blogger I've been reading since joining the Typepad cult, mainly because his location across the pond had a soft spot in my heart and I knew I could count on his blog for almost constant content. This is a man who blogs at a rate probably double or triple my own...and the crazy part is that a lot of his writing is still relevant and insightfully honest. He's a great storyteller, and if there is anyone else on the planet who loves the ellipsis as much as I do, it's Billy.

This Guy Falls Down
If a member of your favorite band had a blog, you'd be crazy to not bookmark him and check for updates frequently. It's great to read the insights of someone I listen to almost daily (a 3D CD is in my car at all times), and being linked on his site was a thrill for me as well. Mark is a talented musician and a founding member of Third Day, so if you don't read his blog the least you can do is head on over to Third Day's homepage and give the music a listen.

Listening After Dark
Apart from her impeccable grammar, April has a lot to offer in her weblog and is what I would call a "thinker." I love the way she's always evaluating her place in the world and eloquently expressing the big themes of life...the things that we all deal with but sometimes can't quite put into words. Her talent as an editor is evident in how succinctly she frames all of this "heavy stuff" and it's always a bonus when she displays great photography. At the risk of creeping her out, I'll freely admit that this queen of the semicolon is someone I regret not living near to get to know better.

Prognosis Negative
Classmate, roommate...constant source of irritation. We give each other a lot of grief, but it's all good-natured. I think what keeps us from killing each other is that we're usually laughing, even when we argue. Saying this may come back to bite me in the ass later, but Tim is a standup guy who I consider a close friend and someone who always has something pithy to say about the world around him. I'm thankful that he's finally got a woman because...well, when you live with a guy for four plus years and you never see him with a woman you start to get worried.

SassylilPunkin
I came for the lack of capital letters and the aptly named personality, and I kept coming back for the amazing writing. I don't know quite how to put it, but Lindsay puts a such a personal stamp on her entries that I think regular readers could easily pick her posts out of a lineup.

Sparkwood & 21
We'll get the obvious out of the way...yes she looks like Sara Gilbert and even has a "Darlenesque" quality to her writing (and she's gotta be sick of hearing that so I'll apologize if she ever stumbles across this post). Although I've never met or even corresponded with Brittney, I feel like I've spoken to her just reading her blog. Plus, anyone who is as annoyed by stupidity as me can't be all bad. I dare you to read a page of her archives without laughing.

Stepping Into the World
I'll freely admit that Leah was my first blogging crush. What can I say? I have a soft spot for smart, spunky girls with dimples. When she's not trotting across the globe having adventures in exotic locales she can usually be found doing something nature or photography related in the great outdoors.

This Beautiful Mess
Michaela is someone I started reading at the suggestion of my ex, and was an unfortunate yanking off my blogroll post-breakup. I stumbled across her site again a few months back and would like to formally apologize for ever removing her from my all-stars. Her writing is poignant and warm, and if she ever leaves my disclosed locations again I give everyone permission to smack me in the face.

Vortexia's Secret
The flirty, confident girls are intimidating in real life but fun and engaging on the internet. V reminds me in that way of a lot of the girls I knew in HS and undergrad that I never had the balls to talk to until I had a girlfriend of my own. She also receives the award for the most interesting way my name has been displayed in a blogroll.

My roommate and the death of conversation

Imagine I'm Bucky the cat and Tim is Satchel the dog. This is pretty much how every one of our discussions end up.

He even makes that same stupid face when I burst his bubble.

My blacklisted corporations

I don't know if any of you out there are like this, but there are things a company can do that will make me swear to never use them again. These corporations end up on my blacklist and out of principle I will never give them money again. This post will serve as my running tally of the horrible in business. If any of you have companies you refuse to patronize any more, make a post on your weblog and either leave a comment with the permalink or trackback here so everyone else can read it.

It's all about love

I spent a minute or two yesterday organizing the Moleskine display at Barnes & Noble. Just like I still do with Macs whenever I see them in stores, I made sure everything was in the right place. Instead of cleaning up desktops and getting demos running again, however, I was making sure all of the different varieties were clearly visible and grouped together. Someone had mixed in clever knock-offs and I wanted to also make sure these were shelved separately from the real-deal Moleskines. Even though I'm nowhere near filling up mine, I even stashed away a squared large notebook behind a stack of furry pink journals. I figure the obnoxious fur should keep my future notebook safely hidden for a few weeks to come...

Thinking out loud

How do women feel about younger guys and gray hair? I noticed today that the few gray strands I once had are now a somewhat significant amount on the sides of my noggin and are more prominent than I'd like to admit. Is it time to go to Grecian formula at age 24?

Can people aged 21-25 think of anything else to do besides going to bars and clubs? I'm dying to go out and do something, but everyone I know is fixated with doing the same two things over and over and over and over...

Why is it that when I can't get out of the hospital I have all these things racing through my head that I want to write about and all the desire in the world to get them down, but as soon as I get some time off and opportunity to write I can barely get myself to type a "thinking out loud" post?

Gluttony: A still life

Nothing in this picture was staged or arranged. This a true snapshot of U.S. consumerism and gluttony.

God Bless America.

(For those of you keeping score, we have the following name-brands represented in this shot: KFC, Fritos, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Snyders, Dominos Pizza, and Doritos (indirectly shown are Pepsi and Olive Garden). This could set some kind of record for the most calories on one coffee table.

Moleskine heaven

I know I'm obsessed when a picture like this gets me excited.

Just look at all those beautiful Moleskines. All the different sizes, the varieties...my wallet surrenders at the mere thought of being in front of this display.

(via Moleskine Art)

Where are the snow plows?

With the latest slamming of winter weather I've been convinced that this '04-'05 season has been the worse when it comes to road conditions that I can remember. It's almost as if the snow plows are non-existent. There's no excuse for me sliding around in a couple inches of snow when there was ample warning ahead of time that a blizzard was coming through. I drive around and don't see any city plows. I look on the roads and see no salt or paved surfaces. It's a joke. I can understand when the snow is coming down too fast to keep up with, but I don't see any snow banks on the side of the road. Cars just roll over the snow and create tire-sized paths of slush.

It's gotten to the point that when it snows I don't want to go anywhere because I know the roads are going to be crap. We're not talking huge snowstorms either, even in one or two inches things get ridiculous. We should be used to dealing with snow around here, we get enough of it to know how many plows will be needed and how much salt should be spread around. The only thing I can think of to explain it (other than incompetence) is that there have been budget cut-backs with the DOT.

How are the roads in your area?

UPDATE: Looks like I was right. The DOT here has a 23% smaller workforce and lower budget than last year.

Rosie must be proud

Is it me, or is Darlene on ER? She even threw out some of that Connor wit after the code.

Ongoing tweakage

Now that my new online obsession is page loading time, I've done a little editing around here. The referral list, blogsnob, and two of my trackers are gone because they were the biggest culprits in slowing this place down. I also figured that I didn't want to be part of the problem when it came to referral spam, especially since it's getting worse.

There are a lot of things I still have on here that I could probably trim...I'm especially eyeing those webrings at the bottom of the sidebar which have generated me only a handful of hits in all the time I've had them listed. I'm also toying with the idea of a one-column layout, but the implementation of that would be a major hassle. If you can't tell by the simple layout around here, I'm a fan of the clean and elegant. I'd love to be the "Apple Store of weblogs" when it comes to design.

Is Roland Emmerich in town?

Today's high: 68
Today's low: 33

That's a 35 degree shift in temperature in less than 10 hours. There is a flood warning to the south and a snowstorm to the north. I'll be a little worried when I see the large barge float down main street, but if I have to outrun the cold I'll be screwed.

Putting out an APB

Reading a Mac magazine (I don't remember if it was Macworld UK, iCreate, or Macformat) at Borders the other night I came across an article that highlighted cool Apple gifts for geeks. One of the gifts was an Apple-branded ID badge reel that I just gotta have. It was supposed to be available at themissingbite.com, but I didn't see it on the site anywhere. Has anyone seen what I'm talking about or know where I can get it? It's an all white badge wheel with a black apple logo (that works like this), and it would look perfect latched onto my coat in the hospital.

D-Skin protective disc covers

File something else under the "I wish I had thought of this" category. This weekend while purchasing tickets at the theater I was given a five pack of D-skin covers. What are D-Skin covers you may ask? They are clear plastic covers that clip onto your CD/DVDs and protect them from being scratched or smudged. They can be left on at all times and don't affect playback while protecting your discs. They add hardly any bulk, which means they will work with both slot-loading or tray-loading drives. I tried them on my DVD player and in my car and everything worked without a hitch. The only problem I ran across was when I tried using covered discs in my iBook. Things felt a little too snug with the covers, so I didn't push them all the way in and risk them getting stuck. I'm sure they would go in, I'm just worried if they would spin or come out...so I'll let some other brave soul figure out if they work in slot-loading laptops.

From browsing all of the online stores it looks like a pack of five will run you 5-6 dollars while a pack of 20 will set you back 17-20 dollars (I found the best price at Amazon). If the price was half this amount I'd run out tomorrow and cover all of my CDs. As it stands now I'll probably only use them for discs that I play in the car. If you're rough with your CDs or worry about your discs getting scratched up this is definitely the way top go, especially since there is little hassle once you've snapped the covers on.

Terry Tate: Office Linebacker

This is by far the funniest clip I've seen all year. You must watch.

(It's the NFL Office video dated 11/24/04)

THATS OLD SCHOOL RULES BABY

Living Strong

When I first saw those yellow "Live Strong" wristbands, I wanted to get a few. At a dollar a piece they really don't cost that much and the money goes toward a worthy cause. I went to the Lance Armstrong Foundation and tried to order some only to see that they were sold out. Unfortunately, I didn't have the patience to order them and wait a few weeks, so I just forgot about it and moved on. Lucky for me that Karen had more patience than myself and ordered a box of ten without telling me. I received a small package in the mail today with five of my very own courtesy of the Silver Beetle herself.

Here's a big thank you to my friend and photoshop wizard Karen, I'll be wearing these things like all the cool boys now ;-)

Secret Santa for Bloggers

How cool is this? Someone set up a Secret Santa for bloggers that you can read about by visiting the website.

To use Secret Santa, all you need is a wishlist at Amazon. First you tell Santa about yourself. Then on December 10th you will be told who you're buying a gift for. And by Christmas Day, everyone has a sparkly present to open!

I really want to sign up for this, but I've had horrible experiences with gift exchanges in the past. I might just take a chance though...

Newly revamped and online ULReviews

A bit of self promotion here for my new (but not really new) blog venture ULReviews. It's been around in some form or another for some time now (most prominently as a sidebar item), but I've decided to dedicate a whole new page to it. Also, since movie and music review sites are a dime a dozen around the web, I decided to do something a bit different and also include food and TV reviews. Of course I wont be as eloquent as the Zagat Guide, Roger Ebert, or Rolling Stone, but it always helps to have the opinion of a regular joe like myself as opposed to a paid professional who's sold out to the man. I will do my best to keep it updated with current reviews from today on.

You can visit ULReviews by either linking directly to it, or using the link in the sidebar underneath the search box that says "Read my film, food, music, and TV reviews." I've taken the time to make it look respectable and have even added some links that you may find useful for movie and music news, stats, and reviews. Hopefully you'll enjoy.

...and if you tell a friend about it I'll throw in the steak knives for free.

The voice behind the text

I was just talking with my roommate when the topic of writing styles came around. We threw around a few blog names and made our observations based on their writing (whether or not they were accurate is another entry entirely) when something struck me. If people were to read my blog and then meet me in person, would they not recognize me? Of course, everything written here is genuine and some part of me, but there's nothing on here that is totally me, and that's for several reasons (maybe more on that in another post). I'd be willing to wager that if people who know me in person were to read this site, they wouldn't know it was me without reading specific identifiers. However, if I were to tell them about it, I think they would be able to recognize parts of me that come through in the writing. That's an interesting dynamic.

What they don't show you

As much as I love watching cooking shows on the Food Network, I can't help but notice how I never see an accurate representation of real-world cooking. Why not have a show where counterspace is limited instead of having a large mahogany covered island? Where there aren't three different cutting boards dedicated for meats, veggies, and baking. Where there are only one or two infomercial knives vs. a whole German custom-made carving set with diamond coated blades. Where the host actually fights through traffic and drives to the grocery store (yes, a real normal grocery store, not some specialty shop in the village), stands in the checkout line and has some pimply-faced teenager tell them that the sale sign clearly placed over the produce isle doesn't exist. Where the vegetables aren't prewashed or precut in progressively smaller glass bowls. Where there is only one good skillet. Where the stove doesn't have 12 burners and the grill isn't some ultra-deluxe Weber 9000 with the built in vibrating massager and side-burners. Where the only appliance is a blender and maybe a mixer, not some KitchenAid amalgamation with 27 different attachments. Where someone has to wash all of the dishes and clean up the kitchen after the dinner, when really they are tired and just want to take a nap.

I'll tell you why. It's because then people would remember what a pain in the ass it is to cook a good dinner and then they would just get take-out and be done with it.

Female roommates: A recipe for disaster?

You know there's something I've always wondered about when it comes to women (one of many things actually, more on that later). Why is it that when a few women get together and decide to live together it more often than not ends in disaster? What is it about women that prevents them from having civil living arrangements that leave them still being friends at the end?

I am by no means saying that women can't live together in peace, but I think if you take it on a case-by-case basis you'll find that guys have an easier time living together. Is it jealousy/resentment/competition? Is it pettiness? Is it because the women living together refuse to put things out on the table and are artificial with each other? Is sharing a bathroom THAT difficult?

(Good God am I going to get hammered by you ladies after you read the following...LOL)

Status quo

I wish I could say that things have been exciting/interesting/amazing the last couple days, but then I'd be lying. Other than getting the soundtrack to Garden State and picking up Girl Next Door on DVD, I haven't done a single productive thing. It's been all work and then coming home to veg afterwards. Nevermind that there are tons of things I should be doing and bad news is hovering over my head.

I've finally come to the point in my life when I can just let things roll. It took long enough to realize that all of this shit is really the status quo for me.

It's funny when I realize that statements like the ones I made above are just about as clichéd as you can get nowadays. Angst, hopelessness, and self-loathing are well chartered territory throughout the internet, and especially on blogs. This is for good reason, because happy themes usually don't make for interesting/engaging weblog fodder. It's the real fucked up, anguished posts that connect you to people and make you want to read more. You can admit it. Reading an all-happy weblog with countless miracles and cute anecdotes would do nothing but depress you. It's better knowing that someone else is suffering like you have suffered...that's what makes you nod your head. Happiness is just less relatable for some reason. Is it because there are more sad than happy people? Is it jealousy? Is it in our nature to suffer?

...or maybe it's not true. Maybe it's just me.