Thought Sausage

Welp its Monday and I've had a full day to let that Year Zero Remixed album (or Halo 25..jesus that whole "halo" bullshit just about beats all for pretentious artist antics..its a fucking record dude get over yourself and that Nothing Records label that never got off the ground) permeate my brain. I've said it before and I'll say it again, NIN songs just plain don't remix very well, and I've heard 'em all. Year Zero was a weird decidedly un-industrial sounding album (IM oh so HO) to begin with, and in a way is almost minimal in the lo-fi instrumentation (by Trent's standards). So when you get a bunch of remix artists together they run with that vibe I guess. And jesus some of these put the stink on pretty hard. Capital G could very well have been done entirely with the presets and built in sample set that came with Fruity Loops back in 2002. Seriously, I've got millions of wannabes on Myspace if I want to listen to that shit (not to mention I've coined a few shitty FL pieces myself over the years). Other songs feature a bunch of 16 bit sounding bleeps and bloops over boring dance beats with Trent's vocals sitting awkwardly over the top.

That said there's a couple really good pieces. The acoustic Great Destroyer was cool, and Zero Sum was already my favorite song on Year Zero and they did it well here too.

So, you basically pay for an albums worth of material and get 2 songs that are halfway decent. If you're the sort of person that has to have every single thing Trent has ever done, you'll probably want to pick this up just to be thorough. But if you're expecting something akin to the quality that was The Fragile or Downward Spiral you'll be sorely disappointed.

I'm REALLY hoping Trent decides he doesn't have to construct every single song on laptops with crappy emulator trance-o-matic softsynths going forward. Cos we got Moby for that stuff d00d (as Schmudde will no doubt agree). Given his choice of remixers, I'd say the outlook for that prospect bodes poorly.

UPDATE: Let me add In this Twighlight and and Another Version of Truth to the list of songs on here that don't suck. Other than that...I stand by my previous opinion.

This week has been hitting me hard sleep wise. I'm totally out of steam about this time of night. I'm now into week 2 of AM Crossfit sessions. I've decided to add another day since I'm working the whole body anyway. The diet can suck balls at times, but I've been in this position before...so ...meh...

Met/went out with a new girl last night. Lively one. It's weird going out with a girl who is professionally stable with an actual (gasp) financial strategy to her life. Like she seems to grasp the concept that she's 100% accountable for the lifestyle she will or won't be able to provide herself in the next 20-30 years. So she's taking steps to get where she wants to go (no offense ladies and I know girls I've dated probably read this, but for the girls I've dated in the past, y'all seem to think life is somehow going to magically hand you bliss and some semblance of a safety net without you doing anything to make it happen...life does not work this way). It's refreshing really. She's going to be running the Honolulu marathon this weekend (same one I did last year) so she'll be away from the city for awhile. But it sounds like some sushi rendevous and a thorough education on cheesy/classic 80's movies are in order for when she gets back (per conversation). Cos that's how I roll...

Turns out, I'm actually in the #3 slot for Swimmer of the Year with Chicago Blue Dolphins...how 'bout that! We've got one more meet on the 16th which is my last grasp for points. There's some gift certificates and some sort of recognition/certificate I'm sure....but of a team with a roster of 300 people, and for a guy who's only come out of swimming retirement in the last year, it's pretty cool to move along like that. I've got a long way to go, but getting back into swimming was easily one of the smartest decisions I've ever made. I've entirely changed how I look physically, I feel better and I've met a lot of awesome people. It almost sucks in a way because now I look at how much time I wasted in my mid 20's not doing this. I guess that's the price of having hindsight

We got our first proper snow tonight. That'll make this weekend's cycle interesting. Already the Bikewinter email list is lit up with people talking about how awesome the initial snow ride was. I rode my bike to and from work today and I wasn't all that blown away. Then again, my commute to work is too short to really enjoy the ride (and I'm riding my beach cruiser). A thorough romp through the forest in the snow should change my perceptions (and help me gauge if riding in slippery conditions will work or not...ice would deifnitely suck balls).

I have exactly half of my holiday/xmas shopping complete and I'm totally stumped for the rest. I have SOMEWHAT of an idea where to go with this but this will require either A. a long drive to contemplate or B. A sign from god. Either way, it aint' gonna happen till the weekend.

Parents: Want to make sure your children know you love them? Go get yourself a Microsoft home server so they'll grow up with an undeserved sense of self-importance only the best of parents crave for their children.

Bought tickets today for Jay and I to see what is being called the farewell Ministry Tour (really?). It'll be cool to see Grandpa Al's big sendoff (in Chicago no less-that in of itself oughta make this a star studded affair) at the House of Blues, which is one of the better venues to see a show this size in our town. Meshugah and some opener I know nothing about are opening. Meh. Of course this whole affair takes place in May (seriously?) and the first show already sold out (!) so they announced the May 8th gig. Man I remember back when I could go see Ministry when they'd sell out the Aragon Ballroom and even scalpers weren't selling tickets for 52 bucks. Now I remember why I don't go to shows as much as I used to. Funny how ticketmaster charges 9 bucks for the "convenience charge" for a show like this and only like 3 bucks for the opera. Like all that industrial is way too much for Ticketmaster to put one guy on it so they had to staff it with three. Or they just subscribe to NIN's Australian label's theory that since Ministry has more of a devout following than the Phantom of the Opera did, they can charge more. Asstards...

Nevertheless, I'm quite stoked. Last time I saw Ministry was the Animositisomina tour and since then, they've put out 2 pretty good albums and 1 spectacular album (Houses of the Mole'). Tommy Victor is playing guitar (yawn) and obviously Paul Raven isn't going to be on bass so who knows will play bass. I'm pretty sure his first name isn't Paul and his last name isnt' Barker so its kind of a moot point.

I'm finding myself in the midst of trying to figure out what the fuck to do for New Years. On one hand...I'm not the sort of person who puts a lot of thought into New Years aside from going with the flow. Only the flow isn't going in one consistent direction. You see on the other hand...I have friends (and a brother) going to Vegas, and a flock of Chicagoans that want to "do something" but nobody has quite turned that into a plan. Rumor has it there's some deal at Witts that people are leaning towards, which is not unlike spending New Years in a liquor store, but whateva. I'm to the point in my life where I've played shows on new years, not played shows, gone to high rent exclusive parties downtown, and parties where people like Tara Reid are too drunk to actually make it to midnight, then of course, my Iowa days that are probably the most, I dunno? Comfortable? ...at this point in my life I really don't give a fuck as long as I'm around people. The rub of course is now the Vegas faction is telling me I gotta make a decision and yet I'm not exactly sure what the fuck is going on here in town. If this sounds like trivial bullshit to you, you and myself are in agreement. Why the fuck is this something that is even occupying my brain?

I have nothing intelligent to add here, other than SES is in town right now, but PubCon is going on in Vegas (jesus for a city I detest it's making its way into my site pretty frequently today). Of course, all the cool people I normally use SES as an excuse to meet up with are going to PubCon which basically means SES is nothing but a bunch of n00bs and hanger ons that didnt' get to go to PubCon. All the talking heads went to PubCon. I've had too many meetings and stuff during the day to pay much mind to SES, especially since there's like no fucking parties whatsoever this week. The party scene for this convention has steadily gone downhill since 2004. Perhaps its just Chicago because out in San Jose (San Fran basically) this thing is the shiznit (same with Ad Tech)

The girl from Monday departs for Hawaii in the morning for the marathon (aka Japan's now-annual re-invasion of Honolulu...it's what ya get for letting JAL sponsor the fucking thing I guess). Won't see her until the end of the month (as reported yesterday)

I got some function for Illinois Tech Association tomorrow night so I'm bailing on swimming. Then hopefully I'll make it to the CIMA holiday party. I'm told it'll be "off the hook" (thanks Brad). Off the hook is no longer something I do particularly well mid-week. Damn old age...

UPDATE: Oh shit CIMA party is so off the hook it sold out. Not that I'm particularly thwarted by that notion (seeing as how my boss is the president of that organization)...but I guess if I needed an excuse to not plunk down 100 bucks to hob nob with a bunch of people that I inadvertently make 'feel stupid' (their words not mine), that right there falls conveniently in line.

I realized I hadn't posted a fucktard in a little while. Today I also realized I'll never be in a shortage of said fucktards so long as there is YouTube and I can type "keytar" into its search bar...

Coming soon to an 'art performance venue' near you. Mothers lock up your daughters!

Couldn't have said this better myself. Kinda like that time John Kerry rode half a day of RAGBRAI and shit out cos it was like, hard and stuff.

"Skeletons ain't got nowhere to stick their money and nobody makes britches that size"

New Drive By Truckers song posted on their myspace page (Ghost to Most). Check it out to hear some of the coolest lyrics you've heard since, well, the last Drive By Truckers album. Brighter Than Creations Dark (which gets my vote for coolest album title of 08...I don't need to hear the other entries) is supposed to be out in January and that's a great way to start off the year.

I wake up this morning (last night we went to Joe's to watch the fight, and then 'somewhere' and it all gets fuzzy) to find I was missing my phone. A thorough search around the house revealed nothing so I slowly arrived at the conclusion that my phone was now in a cab somewhere. Oh just fucking perfect.

So after cancelling my phone, I schlepped my ass down to the one AT&T store that is open on Sundays and purchased a new phone (full price since I've long sinced burned through the replacement phones insurance gives you). So 300 bucks later I now have this multi-media clusterfuck that is Samsungs answer to the iphone (i guess?). And boy howdy this phone sure wasn't made for the John Waynes of the world. Every single function in this thing is accompanied by some gay-ass ring, noise, and animation. Just fucking shoot me

So, the other fun part of losing phones is that while people I really don't care to talk to again, I actually _CAN'T_ talk to, all the people I need to contact are now out of the phone. This includes the girl from last Monday who is out of town until the 28th. Seeing as how this is the 21st century world of dating, the phone is but one of the ways we stay in contact. Still...fucking pain in the ass.

I'm so happy I could just shit.

Well I now have all the pertinent people back in my phone...the girl from last week texted me about the marathon so she's in there, so I'm pretty much back to normal. Anybody I think I'll need to get a hold of between now and whenever I can get their digits some other way.

On the plus side, I've managed to get my phone off the "sounds for fairies" motif and am actually playing with some of the media stuff. I've never been a big phone guy (although I almost dropped the cash for the iphone) but playing with the new features is cool. I installed the Gmail mobile app and it is t3h awesome just as I figured it'd be. So there's some upside to actually having a phone that wasn't designed 7 years ago.

Did my first snow ride on Saturday. Correction: I did my last snow ride . Fuck that noise. I can see where studded tires could be of use, but gaining any traction in the snow is futile. So you end up working twice as hard. I think my overall distance wasn't even 10 miles. Lots of cross country skiers out and they all gave me strange looks. Anyhow...snow cycling isn't near as fun as I thought it'd be, so I'm going to have to find other ways to amuse myself in the great outdoors. I still run, but I hate not having the bike out. I did some rides on the road bike last year and the salt and shit required the crank to be rebuilt this season and I'm not about to go through that again.

My phone debacle and the fact Horowitz's assumptions of what flights cost to Vegas are grossly understated, I think I'll be doing New Years here in Chicago. So yeah...that's that.

I've got a metric fuckton of shit to sort out by the weeks end. My goal is to have this big knowledge base for the company populated before everyone leaves for the holidays. This will mean we can come back at Q1 when all the projects are ready to launch with a rock solid back-end for the n00bs and a go-to for people who needs templates and docs quick. It's been a long time coming but ultimately it is gonna RAWK

So tomorrow marks week 3 (really?) of the Crossfit morning routines. I'm starting to notice things getting tighter. Between now and the summer, I need to shave 10 minutes in running and 20 in the cycle to be "competitive" (aka start placing). That's a tall order, but it seems do-able integrating the strength training.

Tomorrow is the big day. Led Zeppelin reunites. This is obviously one of those things that is going to be either really good or really shit. Prediction: Really good. I dunno, I got high hopes. If they focus the set on songs where Robert Plant doesnt' have to hit the super high wails (aka earlier shit), it could work. Song I RLY wish they'd play? I'm thinking Wearing and Tearing. Chances of them playing that? I'm gonna throw out 5%.

The setlist:

01. Good Times, Bad Times
02. Ramble On
03. Black Dog
04. In My Time Of Dying
05. For Your Life
06. Trampled Under Foot
07. Nobody's Fault But Mine
08. No Quarter
09. Since I've Been Loving You
10. Dazed and Confused
11. Stairway To Heaven
12. The Song Remains the Same
13. Misty Mountain Hop
14. Kashmir

Encore:

15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Rock and Roll

By all accounts, Jimmy, John, Robert and Jason owned the fuck out of these songs. The reviews are basically glowing all around. So guess I was good to be optimistic. This is good. Zeppelin deserved a post-band gig that wasn't subpar (Live Aid and that stupid Aerosmith infested Awards show in 95). All the more reason to believe they may drop some science on all these young whipper-snapper bands and show 'em how a real rock band does business.

Of course I didn't actually -go- to the show, however I'm given to understand Lance did (last minute hookup). Lucky bastard is right.

So, allz I have to go on is the BBC clip that is everywhere and that setlist. General impressions:

-Only one song off of Led Zeppelin III? Really? No acoustic numbers? Howz come?

-For Your Life for the first time? Nice....

-Nothing off of In Through The Outdoor? Well yeah I can understand that I guess...

-Nobody's Fault But Mine = t3h Awesome

-In My Time of Dying? Wow...after reading Hammer of the Gods I was given to understand Robert Plant had a beef with performing this after his kid died. Very very cool though. VERY cool. I would have been impressed with 10 Years Gone or The Rover (while we're on the subject of songs on Physical Graffiti that RAWWWWK) as well, but this is cooler.

-Only Song Remains the Same off Houses? If I were writing that list, I woulda swapped out Misty Mountain Hop for The Ocean

-I gotta hear Black Dog and Rock and Roll before I'm gonna take NME's word that Robert Plant's vocals are just as they were in the 70's. Somehow I don't see that...

So there will be a DVD of this I'm sure...and I'm sure I'll be 1st in line for it. Until then, it's cool that this went over so well. They look ancient as fuck up there, but if Zeppelin can still put the rock on, maybe Metallica will actually deliver an album worth a shit next year too.

He may have been an abusive drug addled prick, but we lost a great one today. So long Ike

Jeebus.

Fucking Jeebus

So we won our big lawsuit with Chicago in regards to them towing the bus. Now we're faced with the challenge of figuring out what the fuck to do with the bus now that it's been bailed out. Only problem is, it seems Chicago can support many things, long term bus/RV parking doesn't seem to be one of them (really?). Condos have pretty much wiped out all the open lots and people have a real problem parking buses in these lots (seriously? Even if there are two across from each other?).

The net result of this is that finding a place to stash the beast has turned into a headache. It appears as though its temporary address will be McCormick Place (at 30 fucking bucks a night) which is only available until Jan 10th (Bears game? Boat show? Don't know don't give a shit frankly). If all goes according to plan, it'll then be driven out to Elk Grove where there is a RV Storage lot that charges 60 bucks.

Shoot me...

Everything about this article makes me wish somebody would stab me with a fucking brick.

Not that I care about what mainstream America thinks about music...but if this isn't irrefutable proof that what's popular doesn't translate to what's good, then I don't know what is

To be fair, David Bowie, Tom Waits or Drive By Truckers didn't put out albums this year

RIP fair chariot. You did well by Spokeeasy.

I think Ian's email sums this debacle up best
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Well folks if Hell really and truly does exist it may resemble the trailer (complete with a port-a-potty out front) that is the “office” of the South Side impound. The only other person in the place that didn’t resemble a gang banger or serial killer was a girl who had apparently talked a cop into coming down there with her for her own safety (no I’m not joking about this one bit). Well after showing our paper work we were allowed to send one of us into the lot. James took that task upon himself and was pretty quick to return.

The status in order least to most important:
* Door was open (of course) and everything of any value on the interior was gone. Whoopdy friggin do.
* The front driver side tire was gone period… no joke!
* The back deck had been forced into the back of the bus collapsing the back end into itself. We’re guessing that they attached the towing apperatus to this and when it was raised it crushed the deck into the back of the bus and had enough force to cave it in.

Basically it was described as “utterly totaled and un-drivable.” One of the yard attendants told James “man I ain’t never seen nothing like this happen before you’s needa’ file a discrepancy and get u this thing all fixd.”

Well we went back through the gates of Hell and asked to file a discrepancy. We were blessed with the following: The bus needs to actually be removed from the impound lot to the front area where the trailer is in order to file a discrepancy. We kindly explained that would be a bit problematic seeing as how in the city towing process it was destroyed, on and someone gangked the front tire. “What you want me to do – you wants a discrepancy you get it up here for us to look at.” We asked how she suggested we moved a 40 foot bus lacking a tire amongst other thigns to the gate and received a shoulder shrug.

So here’s what is happening as of today – the lawyer is going to ask for 48 more hours of storage (which we may actually have to pay for) and then see if we have any recourse or law suit ability against the city. I’d say we’ve run fresh out of legal luck however…my guess? I’ll be perusing ebaymotors.com for a while so prepare to be coming on links that get sent your ways over the next couple of months.

Sadly,
Ian

OH PS: They have a rule – no matter what no working on your vehicle in the lot. So yes attempting to take apart anything (such as the inverter etc) for removal and re-usability is not allowed
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To the assholes responsible for this...you may have won the battle but you sure as fuck ain't gonna win the war.

And another one down. We had our season ending banquet and big swim today. The team that is. 5k race this morning. That particular conundrum resulted in me not drinking at all last night for Monica's b-day which prolly resulted in more success than it did failures.

Aight...so having said that...bout that 5k....boy howday was today an exerise 'not preparing' proplerly. Actually I've done worse. But today was one of those times where I was actually racing..as in, it was a swimming event, verses a tri or marathon where basically finishing is the end goal (although I _SHOULD_ be fairly competitive for tri's next year). I had a buffalo chicken sandiwch @ Bridget's and boy howdy did that do a number on me right around a half hour into that set. FUCK. I mean FAWWWWWWWWWWWWWK. Suffice to say, a duration of a rage wherein your stomach feels like it is on fire and you extremities (hands, feet) have gone numb like 10 minutes ago is basically pure hell. I made do. Ya gotta remember this particular race was indoors in a 25 meter pool which meant 200 lengths. That's two hundred flip turns people. Yeah...you fuckers who bitch about "eating food that disagrees with you" before boarding a flight in nothing short of a blue angle test flight better not bitch to me 'bout shit ya see!!???!!!!

That said..your hero didn't too too bad. Took 4th (out of about 300) in the race today. And @ the banquet I was the #3 for "Swimmer of the Year" (#1 was given to Sarah Randag...a bird I don't even really know myself...cos she's so fast you see). So...what ya think of that! I really need to get better at sports that are spectator events. Monica says she wants to come watch me swim, but well, swimming isn't known for being a spectator sport. It's certainly known for weeding out the pussies, but nobody wants to watch that part....(sigh)

That said...new Batman Trailer out today. I'm not one to be a fan-boy...but well, this one's got me giddy. Heath Ledger's Joker OWNZ the fuck out of everything I've ever seen prior. Sorry jack, but well, c'mon...this is what it is. That said...it looks like about 90% of this movie takes place in my neighborhood. If you recall, this summer when they werefilming it, I captured some of the malarchy. But if you watch that trailer...almost all of the outdoor scenes are occuring in my neighborhood. Yeah, I live there.

So they finally are making the one book in this series that made an iota of sense to me into a movie.

This barely warrants an entry other than the fact I've been building knowledge docs all morning and need a break. The fact is I never drank the Lord of the Rings kool-aid and probably never will. I can make it through a grand total of about 20 minutes of any of these movies without being fast asleep. They are basically guaranteed 2 hour naps for me. I'm sure its me and not the movie. But hey, I don't think guys like me were the ones who gave Hollywood the impression midgets with hairy feet wandering around talking about sorcery and shit would translate to box office gold.

That said...I never did understand why the Hobbit was considered a prequel and just like, part of the friggin' story.

Had the company holiday party last night. I've said it once and I'll say it again, I can't fucking rage during the week anymore. I think the reason I'm saying that is twofold: 1. I'm getting older and that's just the way it is and 2. Now that I'm in probably the best shape I've been in since I was 17, normal is 10x better than my best day back when I was living really hard. Hungover and shitty in the mornings feels way worse when your perception of normal is way higher. I tolerate these functions, but left to my own device, I think my "binge all week" days are in the rearview mirror now.

That said, it was a good time. I work with a ton of awesome people...Monica accompanied me, and by all counts, was warmly recieved by everybody. And other than Roly telling me she looked like she'd been run over by a truck this morning @ work, I think she had a good time. So that's that.

I did a really wussy 5k (25 minutes...so basically an old lady pace) tonight and finished my holiday shopping. The latter required a trip to Dipshit Central, known as Michigan Ave (the River North end of that street...I actually have an office on 225 on the other side of the river). If for anything else, this time of year is littered with people who all decide they are going to "come to the city", thus clogging that particular area with people wandering aimlessly, unaware of their surroundings and oblivious to the effect they have on the ebb and flow of traffic. And that's just the sidewalks. Jesus fuck I about die riding my bike down that street. It's amazing how different the attitudes of people in that area of River North and people in the loop are. The loop is usually populated with people who actually live and work in the city (except the theater district which is a clusterfuck of mass proportions and always will be until Wicked stops playing)

Tomorrow is my last day in the office for quite some time (Note to self-find out when I actually have to be back at work). I'm going to Breckenridge Colorado for a week of skiing with my decidedly very active family (and yes that involves the massive 13 hour drive featuring the lovely and varied landscape of Nebraska..thank fuck for my video ipod). I was originally going to try to snowboard this trip, but I've decided to stick to skiing. I'm not like GOOD at skiing, but i can git r done. The rest of my family is probably in the same boat (I hope). That said, I love the town of Breckenridge. I've spent a fair amount of time there, in the summer and winter months and it's t3h Awesome. I'd move to a place like that if it had any kind of job opportunities for me (Denver would, which is also an awesome town, but well, no).

the degree to which work is accomplished this week? I'd give it a 7/10. I'll do some shit in the car I'm sure. We had some big client stuff crop up that pulled me away, but in a very good way. so that's cool. Our team is having a year end lunch of sorts at Fogo De Chao, which means I'll be summarily stuffed and in full blown meat sweats. For those of you who haven't been...well, you basically eat a years' worth of food in about an hour. You love every minute too. Unless your a vegetarian, in which case this place is probably the closest thing to hell on earth.

Am sitting in the La Quinta hotel off highway 70 in Denver on what has to be the slowest wi-fi in a hotel EVER. The rest of this place isn't so bad.

Travel was fairly uneventful once we got past the blizzard-like clusterfuck that was hovering around Des Moines on I-80. Jeebus, y'all are gonna have a big blanket of snow for breakfast tomorrow. It appears to be pretty nice around these parts (we motored in around 10:30). There are two cases of beer in here and my brothers, myself + my cousin Brad who is joining us for the ski excursion. We will finish them off...oh yes. It also bears mentioning that 1 beer in the mile high equals roughly 2 in Chicago. I like those ratios.

Unfortunately I've had a few snags on this trip. First off, I did a Crossfit on Friday and upon my last dumbell snatch, I pulled a muscle in my lower back somethin' fierce. I was in writhing pain for all of Friday (since I do those workouts in the morning) and spending 12 hours in a car all day today probably didn't help. In short, I an projecting a smell of Ben Gay in a 20 foot space anywhere I am. Amazingly, this stuff is really helping. First ski day is Monday so we'll see what happens between now and then. For now, I'm loaded up on plenty of Ben Gay (have you Ben Gay?...yes I let the ribbing begin) and have what looks like an okay bed for tonight.

Second, we procured a Thule ski rack for the van that we rented and made very clear that a luggage rack was requried for said van. Apparently my definition of a luggage rack and Enterprises's are two entirely different things. My definition is like, a functional rack with crossmembers to afix said luggage rack to. Theirs seems to be something akin to decrative rails that have no functional use whatsoever. So this trip was made sans Thule rack. Luckily, Town and Country minivans have way more storage capacity than I remember them having, this enabling us to stuff luggage and food fairly comfortably in it.

So, while everything hasn't been entirely perfect I can't complain. We made fairly good time, and I spent most of the trip watching law and order on my ipod and/or comedians and movies on the DVD player my brother brought along.

Oh, and Daniel Tosh is t3h Awesome. Funniest motherfucker I've heard in a long while. Basically the exact opposite of Dane Cook

Am writing this from my phone since the t00bs here aren't available...in short, ski is good...beer is good and the condo here has a steamer...so no complaints here! Happy holidays y'all!

After a 14 hour drive, I'm now in the Quad Cities at my parents house,where my car is buried under what looks like a foot of snow. Needless to say, I'll be making my way back to Chicago tomorrow (after a stop by the Genghis Grill, natch).

In the drive from Breckenridge Colorado to Bettendorf Iowa, the temprature changed 42 degrees (from a -20 to a 22 F). Suffice to say, the last couple days were COLD. That didn't stop me from getting to the "next level" in my skiing (which isn't to imply that I'm like, a good skiier or anything). I actually found myself enjoying the upper bowls and summit runs this time around. Usually I get dragged up there by somebody (usually my brother) and more or less, tumble down. By mid-day Tuesday, after re-acquainting myself with the blue and green runs that I've been skiing since I was 12, I worked up to the black and double blacks and much to my suprise, I was having a "good time". I guess most of that can be chalked up to the fact that since the last time I went skiing, I like, got in shape and stuff. All else went well, except for my cousin who ended up with a level 2 shoulder separation no thanks to some dumb snow-bunny bitch who 'snow-plowed' her ass in front of him prompting an un-planned collision with the gound. Pity since he was having an otherwise good run of it. Jesus fuck if there's one reason I don't ski in Aspen, its these prissy soccer mom bitches who can't ski to save their life but must wear the most extravagant 'outfits' that just scream "I am the epitamy of everything you hate" to anyone who wasn't born with a silver spoon up their ass. I am told this is the target demographic of Aspen and while I've never actually ski'd there, I've been through town enough to assess that to be an accurate description.

So that's that. We've got Josie's b-day tomorrow night, and I've elected to help Patrick move into his new pad in the northern quadrant of the loop. So in theory, since he's now in my 'hood (as opposed to Lakeview where the rest of the Irish lads live), I have a running partner.

I've also decided to get smart about my money (or heinously stupid, time will tell). With the help of my astute (and Jewish even!) investing/trading buddies, I'm going to join the rat race and open an Ameritrade account this week. I've been buying Omnicom stock with my employee discount plan for a little bit. It's been plunging in Q4, however, projections are good for next year and the hefty discount they sell shares to us minions for more than makes it worth while. This new endeavor involes me buying out on the open market and making "good decisions" (yikes) and striking when the iron is hot. I've -sorta- made some good mock calls. Nevertheless, I've got 5 grand earmarked for this adventure, so either I'll piss it away on some dumbass tip or make some money for the condo downpayment kitty.

And last but not least, my Tri bike fancy is rapidly shifting away from the Fuji Aloha and more towards this insanely priced rocket (if its even legit...1700 off? Really?). I'll do some more investigating tomorrow, but I'm not entirely sure why it's got Dura Ace derailers and not Ultegra all around like its little brother . Am I missing something here? Anyway, at that price, with free shipping, I'm well below my budget with money left over to throw some Spinergy Rev-X's on that bad boy. I didn't know much about Motobecane but my brother was investigating them pretty heavily and we ended up buying my dad this for X-mas and it is in fact t3h Awesome. Specialized is behind that brand, and while I've seen Ian beat the fuck out of that Roubaix he has, I still have faith in 'em.

So that leaves me with a new tri-lust, stocks to purchase and a car buried under snow. Does this make me some sorta aggro-yuppie?

UPDATE: Apparently I was confusing Dura Ace with Tiagra components. Dura Ace is in fact the step up from Ultegra. Now only if I learned that BEFORE I emailed the company asking them about this...Dave: 0 Motobecane: 1