| Friday, July 3rd, 2009 |
| 8:24 pm |
Lessons
Things I've learned today:
- Spray painting is easier than I thought it would be.
- Spray painting is harder than I thought it would be.
- Arts and crafts and I have the same strained realtionship we did in 3rd grade art class.
- After inhaling enough paint thinner fumes...I don't really care that much!
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| Monday, May 25th, 2009 |
| 12:54 pm |
Heading out
I'm going back to NJ for a bit to visit this little bugger (aka Jillian Rose, my niece). See you when I get back!   |
| Friday, May 15th, 2009 |
| 5:09 pm |
Fraud
Just spent a bit over an hour dealing with a fraudulent credit card charge. About half of that time was on the phone with my CC bank. The steps for reporting such a charge involve answering the same questions repeatedly interspersed with some calming hold music for 5-10 minute intervals. The other half was updating all my automatic billings with the new CC number. It would be so nice if my CC bank could manage that for me.
Anyway, be on the look out for charges from www.ppcflash.com, apparently I'm not the first to get hit with this. It's a small charge, around $10.
Current Mood: annoyed |
| Monday, May 4th, 2009 |
| 11:36 pm |
Just as was about to make dinner tonight I was overcome with the urge to clean
out my cupboards. I embraced this because I've gone several years without any
such urge. I'm really not the tidiest person when it comes to, well,
anything, but in this case, I refer to determining what should and should should not be shoved in the back of some shelf. That is, probably nothing should be shoved to the back of some shelf, but I shove everything back there.
Who knew such hijinks could ensue from such an industrious intention? Oh, the
fun I had when a bag of tapioca flour came tumbling off the top shelf ("What's
in there? I'll just give it a tug and catch it as it falls"). Fortunately I
was wearing all black so I could clearly see where the flour landed on me and I
could brush at it in annoyance. Now I'm wearing all grey. I also got to enjoy
the lovely music of all those pieces of rotini crunching underfoot. Or were
those the peppercorns. Or some other cupboard oddity I couldn't identify.
Gah. At least my cupboards are clean.
And now I'm on that Dreamwidth thing as "dang". Come find me if I haven't found you. |
| Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 |
| 4:31 pm |
The future of the music industry
Would you pay $50 to chat
with one of your favorite rockstars (current limited supply also requires Josh
Freese being one of your favorite rockstars)? I don't think I would. I mean
I'm sure I've spent that much on stupid shit before, but...I'm just really not
a phone person, you know? And without the option to stick another
quarter sawbuck in
the slot to extend the call it seems like the opportunity of getting hung up
just as things started to get interesting is too great. An all-you-can-eat dinner at
Sizzler, on the other hand? Definitely worth the 500 clams.
I wonder if this sort of thing will go anywhere. It seems like a good idea at
first, but I just don't see how it would scale. My friend thinks this is
definitely the future though and if nothing else you have to admire Freese's
creativity. And given how someone was willing to
pony up* for the $20,000 package,
well maybe he's on the right track.
*I don't read Wired much. Does it always read like The Onion?
Anyway, click the link, the article's worth the read for laughs. "I'm sure we'll be friends for
a long time". |
| Saturday, April 18th, 2009 |
| 11:28 am |
Sincerely...
On Wednesday night Gill and I had the great fortune to see Leonard Cohen at the Paramount. I couldn't post about it earlier because I just didn't have any words for it. I'm not sure that I do now either but the emotional intensity has worn off a bit by now so I can try. It hadn't really sunk in until the show started that I was actually going to see him. For so long I've just assumed I would never get the change to see him perform so I was sitting there as the first song began not at all prepared for what was coming. Suffice to say, it was an absolutely stunning show. His ability to perform those well know LC classics with such verve and sincerity would, I suspect, well impress even someone unfamiliar with work. But having such a personal connection to his music, I was floored. I've never been moved to tears like that during a performance and I don't know I could be for anyone but Cohen. Though the night wasn't perfect (there were one or two songs I wouldn't have swapped out of the list: I really couldn't believe he played Democracy, there are some parts of the LC songbook best left in the past), it was a night I've never experienced before. To the point, even, that I wonder if I would go see him again because I could never hope that another concert could, for me, live up to that night. Oh, alright, of course I would! |
| Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 |
| 12:30 pm |
oh, that's what that wobble was
 I am so much better at debugging computers and electronics than cars, it would seem. Qunice needs four new tires which isn't all that surprising since this set lasted (for some definition of lasted) about 95k miles, IIRC. He also has a torn boot (so see, the CV join diagnosis guess wasn't totally off the wall). On smarter people's suggestions I rented a car to go down to the south bay yesterday. I was pleansantly surprised to find it was cheaper than I expected ($30 all told). Winning question of the day from the guy that rented me the car: "So, you going anywhere today?" |
| Sunday, February 1st, 2009 |
| 12:53 pm |
DeV
Went to see DeVotchKa at the Fillmore last night with Gill. Was anyone else there? What'd you think? G really enjoyed the show but I thought they were pretty off, especially comapred to how great they've been in the past. I can't put my finger on any one thing that wasn't working for me, but they just didn't seem to click. I might have just been too tired to really enjoy it, but it sure seemed to me like they didn't really want to be up there and that the crowd was picking up on that too. Everyone has off nights, I guess. Looking forward to enjoying the gorgeous weather while everyone is inside watching TV today. |
| Saturday, January 31st, 2009 |
| 5:45 pm |
Who knows of cars?
My car's steering has been acting funny, most recently wobbling quite a bit as I drive. After some research, I suspect a CV joint to be the culprit. I have an an appointment to bring him in on Tuesday, but of course it transpires that I really need a car to get down to the south bay on Monday. Any car knowledgeable people out there? Would it be stupid of me to risk a 100 mile drive suspecting a bad CV joint? |
| Monday, January 19th, 2009 |
| 6:55 pm |
Civic Center?
I think Gill and I are going to be @ Civic Center for the big event. Anyone else planning on being there? |
| Saturday, January 17th, 2009 |
| 5:40 pm |
Downtown style comes to the bay
Yoshi's (OaklandSan Francisco flavor) has finally posted the Zorn dates: | Tuesday, March 10 | Secret Chiefs 3: Play Masada Book II | | Wednesday, March 11 | Masada String Trio | | Thursday, March 12 | Masada | | Friday, March 13 | Bar Kokhba | | Saturday, March 14 | The Dreamers | | Sunday, March 15 | Electric Masada | I kinda want to go to them all! Would that be excessive? Who's in? ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) m4dh4tt3r? httf? cindymonkey? In related news, Frith at du Nord on February 8th. He's always awesome. And (only tangentially related), the Master Magician Musicians of Jajouka are going to be at Yoshi's SF on Feb 11 & 12. I'm really excited about this, I've been trying to see them for years. Anyone want to go to this?
ETA: Note that I screwed up. All the Zorn shows are actually at the SF Yoshi's. |
| 4:34 pm |
Dear random chick in the park...
...who just gave me a really dirty look: Really, it wasn't me that reeked of urine. It was just that general area that we happened to be walking through at the same time. Honest. |
| Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 |
| 11:33 am |
I can't see!
I just went to the eye doctor and have mega huge pupils. You'd think with big pupils you'd be able to see lots more, right? Well you can't. You can't see crap. After an hour I was hoping I'd be able to drink some coffee and read my book, but I can't. I thought then well I can zoom up the text really huge (huge pupils-huge text...makes sense, right?). Well, I can, but it still kind of uncomfortable to focus so I'm just staring at a blurry screen. So I excuse myself for any typos. Not that I really have much to say. I do think, though, that despite me harbouring a slight resentment at her responsibility for my current debilitated state, I like my eye dr more than any doctor I have ever been to. I highly recommend her to anyone needing one: Dr. Edna Lee on Fillmore @ Bush. I'm going to the Jewish Contemporary Museum with httf in a litle bit. Thankfully I'm primarily going to see the Zorn (audio) installation. One of these days (when I can see what I'm typing) I will post something real about the joys of being unemployed. [Addendum too good not to...addend: The really irritating people sitting next to me are talking about me! I'm blind, not deaf, you idiots! They think I look like I come from the Mission. It must be the dirty look I'm about to give them.] |
| Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 |
| 10:43 am |
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| Sunday, November 16th, 2008 |
| 12:39 pm |
Is this common?
I've never seen someone selling a few random bottles of wine at a sidewalk sale before. |
| Saturday, October 4th, 2008 |
| 8:57 pm |
Zornophiles take note!
It's not up on their calendar yet, but I have it on good authority that Zorn will be playing a string of shows at Yoshi's d'Oakland in March: - March 11 - Masada String Trio - 2 sets
- March 12 - Bar Kokhba - 2 sets
- March 13 - Masada Quintet
- March 14 - The Dreamers
- March 15 - Electric Masada
Woo! The only problem is figuring out which ones go to go! Who's in? |
| Thursday, September 25th, 2008 |
| 11:13 pm |
Now it becomes clear
I couldn't understand the logic behind the McCain camp's position about postponing the debate because of the economic crisis. Clearly he would want a forum to talk about what he would do about it and the way he would prevent this from happening again. It seemed to fit right in with his message of reform. But now I see. The new schedule they're proposing would put the presidental debate in the slot slated for the VP debate and postpone the latter indefintiely. They want to get Palin off the hook. And watching the way she's imploding in front of the media lately, I can't blame them! |
| Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 |
| 9:10 pm |
This is just sic
In the process of googling Frank Black and the Catholics' album Show Me Your Tears I couldn't help but notice google's very first auto-suggestion after three words: |
| Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 |
| 5:51 pm |
The end is nigh
I think these kids opened a portal to some other dimension or something. |
| Sunday, September 14th, 2008 |
| 5:54 pm |
The only hope for America
Al Jazeera has an interview with Howard Zinn (author of A People's History of the United States in which he talks about the crumbling US empire and says that the only hope is a massive social "movement of rebellion". It is a short and interesting read. I think it is notable that he doesn't make any mention of the current presidential race. I myself go back and forth between being excited about the possibility of Obama winning the presidency and despairing that the change it supposedly would bring about is really just a small token and that the two ruling parties really aren't different enough from one another to matter that much in any real way. |
