Thought Sausage

Thank Travis for remind me (and by association you) of t3h Awesomely 80's that is/was Roxette

Best new vid of the day has to go to this new Bounte vid which has about as much awesome as you can physically pack in under 3 minutes

Yeah.....fuckin' suuuuuuuuuuuweeeeeeeeeet

Yes...he's talking about, and doing, and posted exactly what it looks like he's doing

Instant formula for trailer trash...there ya go.

Thanks Drew (and Mike...my bro) for pointing out Fred's similarities to Vigo (the Carpathian)...little too close for them not to be one in the same don't you think?

How the fuck is it a guy who is actually a warlock from the 10th century was able to snag himself a fine little thing like this?

Life is officially unfair

I guess this means now that he's probably out of the political realm, we're one step closer to her ending up in Playboy right?

Fuckin' hell we had a bitch of a workout. This bothers me. Either the workout was a bitch or I am a pussy. It's hard to tell becuase I'm doing a lot more yards than I was last year. Regardless...I'm layin here feeling like I was beat with a sack of quarters. Since I picked up lifting, I'm...I dunno, bigger? I don't know how this is going to help me be faster. In fact its not...all my 10k times are progressively slower and hovering around that 50 minute mark. This is not good...I need to be rocking around a 42 come June. I suppose the fact I have to run in downtown or west loop Chicago is reason to believe that the time spent waiting for lights to change or for cars could eat up a couple minutes in of itself. Nevertheless...I've got my work cut out for me. Getting on the cycle is going to help I imagine. I haven't been on a spin/trainer at all this winter.

Super magic fingers Tuesday was yesterday...meh. Olbermann is a never ending source of amusement in these situations what with the smart-ass pot shots. I don't know that these results really told us anything we didn't know on Monday. I am suprised to hear the rumors Romney may be pulling out. Good for Huckabee and his massive list of dumb-ass redneck sayings (my fav from the coverage: "it's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog"). For some reason, I figured Cali would end up going Hillary's way. Maybe its cos of all the special interest bullshit she's got funding from (although it bears mentioning that her recent injection of 5 million could certainly give Obama the edge he needs). Personally, I LIKE Obama. Like he seems like the sort of dude that hang out in my crowd. Of course my typical disdain for politicians in general looms large. I'm sorry, but I can only take so much of people giving America the message that all your individual strife is somebody's fault and the only way you can rise up and do something meaningful with your life is if you elect the person telling you this so they can go in and sort shit out with all the "other people". This is why I'd never make it as president. My "Stop waiting around for people to fix your shit and take actions to positively contribute to the quality of your life" platform isn't going to ring with the middle class, moderates, the right or the left.

...sigh....

In other news...I've decided to devote a sizeable chunk of the weekend to reconfiguring how I've got my music/studio/guitar rig set up. Its time I came to terms with the fact that me and this halfstack are stuck together for life. I may as well start figuring out how to make it fit in with the motif in the room. So that'll require a trip to the home depot where I'll be procuring some beefier steel shelving to house the whole schbang (as opposed to the pedestal for the Roxbox and the upper half of the 2x12 combo in here. I'll post pics when I'm done. My requirements aren't all that elaborate. I just need a way to elevate anything that produces bass so my scrawny little effeminine Indian neighbor doesn't call the front desk every time I decide to listen to a mix with any bass or percussion in it.

Bagel Thursday tomorrow morning....suweeeet. It's slushy as fuck and I have to ride over to the Michigan office tomorrow all along Lake St....nawt suweeeeet

Saw Rambo tonight (cos I'm like, a masculine motherfucker). Fuckin' hell Grandpa Rambo just owns the fuck out of burma in this one. It's comical how excessively violent it is. Rambo Stallown's the fuck out of Jason Bourne, Neo and their ilk. Of course, the premise was entirely unbelievable and I don't think Sly's in any danger of winning Best Picture or Movie of the Year. Fun movie no less. Definitely not for the squeemish, as this basically makes Robocop I look like The Little Mermaid. Old people don't take shit...that much is obvious.

This weekend was typical irish mis-behavin. Nothing major. I did get everything sorted with the music rig. I finally got to where I got everything set up in a way that makes sense for my workflow. Small, centralized, and all based around guitar (you'll notice no synths around here...I program what I can't physically play, and my keyboardin'/piano skills are rudimentary at best).

Here's what the setup looks like now . Obviously I'm in no danger of impressing the folks on Analog Industries or anything, but fuck 'em...I never claimed to be rocking anything more than a project studio at best (and 'studio' is a big of a misnomer for what is essentially a rack with a bunch of shit on it). That 2u server in the middle is the roxbox I keep talking about. It's a champ (albeit a loud champ). I got barstools from in the kitchen which work, but sooner or later I gotta get down to the business of getting a really cool one for this rig. Maybe a custom Spokeeasy perch is in order ...SWEET

This would have posed a much larger problem when I was living in Iowa, but since I live smack dab in the middle of down fucking town Chicago, its more of a nagging nuisance...but I went out to drive to swim practice after work, only to fine my battery was not capable of turning over. I hadn't driven it since Thursday and it seemed the cold weather zapped it. Ugh...so that nixed practice for tonight. Instead I did some lifting and then Horowitz came over with his big 'ol blue Impala and its big 'ol battery and once again we couldn't get the fucker jumped (this same thing happened a couple years ago). So now I'm stuck in the position of not having a car to get to practice. This shouldn't be that big of a deal since I ride there in the summer (and somewhat last winter) anyway. But I really got in the habit of taking the car, and even though its only a mile, it's kind of nice getting out and driving.

So...yeah...shit on that. This basically means I have to coordinate/engineer a truck over to the garage to do whatever the fuck it is they do. Ironically, my cell phone of all things comes with some sort of coverage for this sort of thing so I just call 'em up and they send somebody over. I'm RLY hoping this shapes up so they can look at it before 7-ish so I can still make practice. I certainly didn't take in calories today with the idea I wouldn't be swimming.

In other news, I'm digging the new Atomica Project single that just dropped this week....

I'm only one listen into it so far, but it's sexy-female-vocals-done-right make no mistake. None of that Evanescane wannabe bullshit so many bands cop. It's easily up there with Collide. Wade's a cool ambient/noisy-yet-melodic dude (save for Scanalyzer which is just plain fucking noisy). The remixes on here are pretty tasty as well...from my initial impression. Sort of sound like they were done in Fruityloops though...not that that's a bad thing persay...cos I do a lot of shit in Fruityloops (GASP). I like Bounte more and more though...kid has skillz and not in a Paul Oakenshit flavor either.

....heh, I only realized now that Fruityloops is apparently now called "FL Studio"...guess I'm not hip to the kids nowadays

Anyway...you can go grab this single for a measly 2 bucks so you're really only demonstrating your lack of perception for good music if you don't go grab these songs.

(patiently awaiting the full album release)

Actually listening to this makes me wanna program and go electronic more. It seems I've stumbled into a Hansel Und Gretyl kind of heavy (sans vocals, cos I don't have any yet). Kinda cool cos I always wanted to get 'that sound' but haven't quite gotten it yet. But despite not using a single amp, and playing fucking Parker Niteflys of all guitars, I got a pretty mean slammin tone. And I finally stopped being afraid of putting a 909 foot behind my "real people's kick drum" samples and the net result is....i dunno "modern"? Perhaps I've discovered what everyone else already knew, which is most heavy bands nowadays don't actually have a drummer "play" the parts in the studio, but rather sample the kit and arrange accordingly in pro tools. Oh wait...I knew everyone else was doing that...I was just too lazy to program percussion that heavily cos I always had a real live drummer with real live drums till now...

Since I essentially work for a giant agency conglomerate, we get Presidents Day off (how 'bout that). So it feels like I havent' been to the office in like, forever. Shit I haven't even logged into my work email since like Saturday. Craziness.

The net result of all this time off is that I basically spent the weekend getting stupid drunk with various people along with me. Somehow I pulled all this off without losing a phone. A few close calls though.

Oh and I spent a metric fuckton of money too. One of those "dave drinks away a grand in 3 days" binges. Incredible. Of course statistics do no justice to what actually occured.

Took in the auto show too this weekend. These events (aside from being the single biggest clusterfuck this side of the Taste in the way of idiots and their offspring coming to our city and taking up space) always get me thinking about buying a car even though I don't actually need a new one. The Mustang is more than capable of schlepping my ass out to Palos and to the grocery store. However, this year I was quite taken by the Hummer H3t. They aren't out until fall, but depending on whether or not things like a condo come together between now and then, I may be procuring one of these. I'm basically a truck sorta guy anyway...and i needs the space for my various cycling endeavors.

There's a package you can get for it that turns the bed into a tent, and there's AC power back there. Plus they have a bike rack that goes on the roof so bikes can stay up there. Nice...

So there's that. Plus since its a Hummer, I can still keep the "he must be compensating for something" aura that seems to go with all my vehicles anymore. Gotta have that don't ya know.

Today, despite being hungover from trying out some new watering holes in Greektown with Horowitz Sunday, I went down to Palos and got a mountain bike in (yes it was 8 degrees, yes there was snow on the ground and yes the weather gods are sorely mistaken if they thought that would keep me away). Fuckin Palos closes all the roads going to where the mountain bike trails are. So you're essentially in for about a 2-mile ride on really shitty icy roads on your bike. Boy howdy that'll kill any semblance of "fun". All in all I did a few runs but I had to bail before any real riding could be done. In fact, this could very well put the kabosh on my riding until this winter shit goes away. I've been told by persons who do such things that cross country skiing is equally enjoyable. Somehow I doubt it but perhaps that'll be how I get my fix. I came home and did a 5k run...again...outside. It got noticeably colder (and I suppose the lack of windchill out in the forest makes up for something). I haven't really shaved since last week and I got that whole icicles on m face thing. The good news was this run was one of my faster splits. So I guess I do well in the cold.

Tech Cocktail is on Thursday. Apparently a lot of people from work are going to that. For those that don't know, this is essentially happy hour that all the techy companies in Chicago all meet up at. It happens once a month (I think?) and while I'm aware of 'em, I never go. Mostly cos I didn't realize search marketers knew about it (I of course do because everybody I know is in the hosting industry).

Aight...I'm tired and in dire need of about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep...

Just for the record...I fucking loathe Microsoft Outlook. I've never liked it. Work forces me to use this piece of shit program (for its CRM and Sharepoint integration) and it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if it shuffled off this mortal coil. Why the fuck can't something rise up and put this resource hogging, prone-to-crashing, inbox-incapable-of-auto-cleanup-ing app out to pasture where it belongs?

For the record, the one that comes with Office 2007 in no way improves workflow or resource usage. If anything it's worse.

MS Outlook, you've effectively fucking swallowed 30 minutes of my Thursday morning i'll never get back. Right now I'm waiting for it to "check for corruption" which has taken almost 5 minutes after it crashed itself and proceeded to freeze up the whole computer while it mustered up enough inertia to restart. Oh, and gee, thanks for reminding how "performance may be affected during this period" you fucking fuck. I'm so appreciative of your concern for my workflow I could just shit. Stab me with a fucking brick.

I went to the garage to get my car to go to swim practice and the following note was under my driver's side wiper:
_________________________

You're hot & your car is too!

Have a great day!

<3 | ?
_________________________

Yeah...so how 'bout that! The old man's still got it! Well either that or my car's still got it. To be fair, she does have a lot less miles on her than me.

Speaking of 'old man'...my birthday is tomorrow. I've given up on making a big issue of it. 29 isn't that amazing of a b-day anyway. 30 will really be something...and Horowitz and Roly are dealin with that landmark in the coming weeks too. Sounds like some sorta plan is being cobbled together to (gasp) get all shitty on Saturday night. I fail to see how this differs from any other Saturday...but hey...what ya gonna do.

I caught the tail end of the debate (was it really a debate or a discussion?) tonight. By all accounts, it wasn't one of Obama's better performances, but it certainly wasn't one of Hillary's. When asked to pronounce the name of the Russian choice to succeed Putin, Hillary went "medi...medi...medivi..whatever!". riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

To be fair though, I couldn't pronounce the bastard's name either. But then again, I'm not running for president.

I put Slingblade on just now....why the fuck don't I own the soundtrack to this? Jesus fuck this is brilliant ambience.

If you can put any credence towards what this blog says, the new Micronaut album Callisto, should be out like any second now. The last one, Europa was really fucking good. Ganymede was too. Before that it was real hit 'n miss. Some good stuff, some just sounding like a dude tinkering with his synths (suprise). Either way...Callisto has a lot of promise.

And mark my words....we're seeing the seeds being planted for a whole new genre in commercials right here folks....make shit weird/fucked-up enough, and people like me who normally don't give two shits and a rolling donut about Starburst post your commercial on my blog

I don't know that I have any urge to try the Berries and Cream Starburst....but I do wanna punt that leprechaun in his pussy.

You made some cool cars, and had your own colors (I bought many cans when I was in junior high). Fair travels sir

Best fucking news of the week right here

And in case you're wondering...yes I'll be going to New York if/when those shows are confirmed