When you have a day like I have on Wednesday, it's a good thing Thursday is the next. I woke up at 8:20, which was fairly early, but I lounged around watching Sportscenter and checking email for a little while. Have you ever woken up after a long day the day before and had your legs feel like lead? That's what I felt like this morning.
I got a few things done around the house before lunch time, which included looking up what I needed to do to pay our car taxes. Our tags expired this month, so I needed to get that done sooner rather than later. Today I had told Robbie I would eat with him, so I left around 12:30 to be able to meet him across town at 1. I ended up being a few minutes late because I had to turn around to get the car titles that I forgot, and then I missed a turn going to the restaurant. We eat at this cool little place called "Snapshots." It's on Rutherford really close to downtown. I would say the food is only decent, but the atmosphere is really nice for social lunches.
It was good to see Robbie. I knew him pretty well in high school, and then he went to school in California. He has been back for a bit, and we recently reconnected at that concert I went to at The Channel. He tells me stories about what the west coast is like and I wish that I lived there. Seriously, from what I hear I really think I would fit in so much better out west. It just seems more artsy and free spirited. I am guessing I will always be on the east coast, but who knows? We talk about more important things also, which is nice because I don't have too many people to talk about important things with these days.
I told him about the new Jack's Mannequin album and then played him a song before he went back to work. I am really loving the CD. For some reason the lyrics that Andrew McMahon writes really resonate with me. Did you know that he had acute Leukemia not too long ago? A few months before his first Jack's Mannequin album he was diagnosed and had to fight that whole cancer battle. It seems like alot of his songs on the new album came out of that period of his life. I enjoy the lyrics and melodies the most, but the production is pretty good too. Like I said, they made some pretty bold choices in not processing his voice. There are definitely pitchy spots and spots where he doesn't sound great. I appreciate the artistic choice though, and I really like how it works out altogether. My favorite song is definitely one called "Hammers and Strings."
The new Anberlin CD is kind of a disappointment for me. I really tried to have a good attitude about the new producer, but I really think that Aaron Sprinkle played a huge role in some of the magic that was Anberlin for me. This new CD still has several elements that I love about Anberlin. Stephen Christian still writes some great lyrics and some really catchy melodies. I still love how they play together as a band and how creative alot of their parts are...but now for the bad. My biggest complaint is that there just isn't as much continuity. I don't feel like the album flows really well. The sound and feel changes alot over the course of the entire thing. It isn't as bad as Lovedrug's second album was, but "Cities" was amazing in it's continuity, so that really disappoints me about this album. From a production side, it just doesn't sound as intense as Anberlin's older albums. The guitars sound really good, and even the drums too at some points, but somehow it often lacks the in your face energy that I love about Anberlin. They re-did "Feel Good Drag" for this album, and I actually compared it side by side with the version off of "Never Take Friendship Personal," and I just don't like the sound as much, especially with the gritty bass in that song. The vocals I don't think are as great either sound wise. Another thing dealing with production is that everything seems dumbed down a little and a little more pop-ish. One thing I loved about Anberlin was the creativity of the drum parts, the complexities of the vocals, and just how everything worked together. It seems like they just made everything more straight forward on this album which was disappointing for me.
There are some songs I really like on the CD, and it really isn't that bad. It's just that Anberlin is one of my favorites, and they disappointed me a little with this one. We will see where they go from here.
I digress. After lunch I went to the County Auditor and payed our car taxes. They give you a receipt that you have to take to a local DMV, so I did that on the way home as well. They gave me the new license plates at the DMV. I am not really sure I like them as much as the old ones...man I am being negative today.
After that I headed home for extreme schoolwork afternoon. I am behind in Statistics, and I have a ton of tests and projects coming up in the next two weeks. I figured I could spend all afternoon getting things done. I got home and tried to connect to Campus Cruiser to get started...nothing. I tried to connect to my iGoogle...nothing. My schoolwork afternoon was promptly cancelled because my internet was down...awesome, thanks again Charter.
The only thing I could really do without internet was make notecards for Micro. I wasn't really planning on doing that today, but I didn't want to just sit around, so I ended up doing that while I watched the NLDS on TBS.
Kristi came home around 6 and we went to my parents' house for dinner. Originally we were going to go out with them, but my dad needed to do some painting in a room they are renovating before the construction crew puts up the molding. We just picked up Little Caesar's instead. We took Lucy, but Molly wasn't there because she was at Camp Aldebol. This is what we call where the dogs go when we go on vacation. The family that keeps them is the Aldebols. My parents are going to the beach this weekend, so they already took Molly over there. Lucy was really disappointed Molly didn't come greet her and ran around the house for a while trying to figure out where she was. I felt bad for Lucy because she seemed bored the rest of the time.
We came home in time for the VP debate. Actually it was for The Office and Gray's Anatomy, but alas they were both cancelled due to the debate. I watched it for a while, but was getting really frustrated. Palin wasn't answering any questions, and alot of it was just the classic "He said, She said." That's kind of funny that that phrase is gender correct this year. Eventually I just watched football instead. As we all know, football is generally not frustrating unless Clemson is playing. It was a good game, and I was still able to flip back and forth to get a feel for the debate.
Tomorrow I have to work during the day, and then there is a staff outing tomorrow night which involves bowling. I love bowling, so I am fairly excited about it. There is a ton of staff, I wonder how many lanes we will take up. Joe won't be there because his sister's rehearsal dinner is tomorrow night. Too bad I won't get to see his backwards technique...
Thursday, October 2, 2008
If you named your band "Endemic" and then got world famous, would you have to change the name?
Wednesdays...ugh. I feel so tired right now. Something about leaving at 8 in the morning and not really getting home until 10:30 or 11 just stinks. I guess I did come home for a few minutes for lunch, but that doesn't really count. The only reason I did that was to stick to the saving money scheme.
I woke up fairly early to get ready so that I could take Lucy to my parents' house. Lucy was pretty excited to see Molly this morning. Sometimes when I take her over it makes me think that Lucy would really enjoy having another dog in the family. The problem is I have no time to train another puppy, and neither does Kristi. I wonder what we would get though...maybe a Bassett Hound or a Dachshund?
After dropping Lucy off I went to school and faithfully attended all my classes. As if we hadn't already discussed childhood obesity enough in Psychology, we discussed it again for 15 minutes. After that we discussed ADD and ADHD for the rest of the time. I have drawn some really cool doodles in that class.
In Microbiology we talked about pandemics and endemics and how they relate to outbreaks of diseases and viruses caused by microorganisms. It got me thinking about what a cool word "pandemic" is. I think you could probably use that to make a pretty good band name...maybe screamo or metal. I also thought of a really good book title for someone talking about how the gospel relates to the world, or maybe about something related to missions. I would call it "The Pandemic Gospel." Pretty cool, don't you think?
After class I stopped at home quickly to eat lunch. I finished the rest of the lunch meat, so I am not sure what I am going to pack on Friday. I may have to be creative, or maybe I can just eat breakfast and then hold out until dinner. Did you know that I never eat breakfast? After making my lunch I quickly cleaned up and got in the car to drive to work. On my way I called the small engine repair place at Five Forks. I dropped my broken weedeater off there the other day just for them to see what was wrong with it. I figured if it was something simple there was no reason not to pay a few bucks to get it fixed. Well today was the moment of truth, and it wasn't good. Apparently there is something really wrong with the engine that causes the compression to be way too low. And apparently there are no serviceable parts in Briggs & Stratton 4 cycle engines, so you would have to buy a completely new engine to fix it. Sooo....anyone want a broken weedeater? I guess that lady really did rip me off. I feel naive to be a part of craigslist scam. Live and learn I guess.
I had a bunch of stuff to do when I got to work. I did something I would enjoy first; soldering a new male XLR end to this tiny mic cable we have. I love to solder. After that I had a ton of stuff to clean up on and around the stage. I also ended up moving the percussion off the stage because there is no one playing the stuff this week. I was glad that tonight was my eating out night, 'cause I was hungry after moving everything around. Joe and I went to Zaxby's around 5, and Zaxby's generally does not disappoint.
I am running sound this week, so when we got back we went to the pre-rehearsal meeting and then I got ready. It ended up being a fairly frustrating night. There is a big orchestra, along with all the other regular instruments. All the stuff that is going on makes everything really muddy and loud, and this problem is only exacerbated but the large amount of live mics all over the stage. I spent most of the night just trying to figure out how to create some space for the singers. Hopefully things will turn out well on Sunday, we'll see. I did get several of the instruments sounding pretty good by the end.
After rehearsal I just went and picked up Lucy and then came home. I have formed more opinions on the new CD's I got, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow because I am so tired. I bet you can't wait to read tomorrow's post!
I woke up fairly early to get ready so that I could take Lucy to my parents' house. Lucy was pretty excited to see Molly this morning. Sometimes when I take her over it makes me think that Lucy would really enjoy having another dog in the family. The problem is I have no time to train another puppy, and neither does Kristi. I wonder what we would get though...maybe a Bassett Hound or a Dachshund?
After dropping Lucy off I went to school and faithfully attended all my classes. As if we hadn't already discussed childhood obesity enough in Psychology, we discussed it again for 15 minutes. After that we discussed ADD and ADHD for the rest of the time. I have drawn some really cool doodles in that class.
In Microbiology we talked about pandemics and endemics and how they relate to outbreaks of diseases and viruses caused by microorganisms. It got me thinking about what a cool word "pandemic" is. I think you could probably use that to make a pretty good band name...maybe screamo or metal. I also thought of a really good book title for someone talking about how the gospel relates to the world, or maybe about something related to missions. I would call it "The Pandemic Gospel." Pretty cool, don't you think?
After class I stopped at home quickly to eat lunch. I finished the rest of the lunch meat, so I am not sure what I am going to pack on Friday. I may have to be creative, or maybe I can just eat breakfast and then hold out until dinner. Did you know that I never eat breakfast? After making my lunch I quickly cleaned up and got in the car to drive to work. On my way I called the small engine repair place at Five Forks. I dropped my broken weedeater off there the other day just for them to see what was wrong with it. I figured if it was something simple there was no reason not to pay a few bucks to get it fixed. Well today was the moment of truth, and it wasn't good. Apparently there is something really wrong with the engine that causes the compression to be way too low. And apparently there are no serviceable parts in Briggs & Stratton 4 cycle engines, so you would have to buy a completely new engine to fix it. Sooo....anyone want a broken weedeater? I guess that lady really did rip me off. I feel naive to be a part of craigslist scam. Live and learn I guess.
I had a bunch of stuff to do when I got to work. I did something I would enjoy first; soldering a new male XLR end to this tiny mic cable we have. I love to solder. After that I had a ton of stuff to clean up on and around the stage. I also ended up moving the percussion off the stage because there is no one playing the stuff this week. I was glad that tonight was my eating out night, 'cause I was hungry after moving everything around. Joe and I went to Zaxby's around 5, and Zaxby's generally does not disappoint.
I am running sound this week, so when we got back we went to the pre-rehearsal meeting and then I got ready. It ended up being a fairly frustrating night. There is a big orchestra, along with all the other regular instruments. All the stuff that is going on makes everything really muddy and loud, and this problem is only exacerbated but the large amount of live mics all over the stage. I spent most of the night just trying to figure out how to create some space for the singers. Hopefully things will turn out well on Sunday, we'll see. I did get several of the instruments sounding pretty good by the end.
After rehearsal I just went and picked up Lucy and then came home. I have formed more opinions on the new CD's I got, but I think I'll wait until tomorrow because I am so tired. I bet you can't wait to read tomorrow's post!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
It's funny how everyone starts to speak spanish in Mexican restaurants...for the last time, the waiter is not your amigo.
Tuesday's are nice because it is the first day I can ease into the day after Sunday. I never mind waking up super early (read before 6:30) as long as there is a day soon after where I can take it easy in the morning. As I've said before, I feel bad for my wife, because she has to wake up super early 5 days in a row.
This morning I woke up at 9, and then watched Sportscenter and checked emails for a little while. I then went outside to use my new functional weedeater, which worked wonderfully. I didn't wear pants, which was probably a mistake, because rocks sting quite a bit when hitting your bare legs at blazing speeds. By the way, I was wearing shorts...that last sentence sounds a little weird. I also spent some time digging up dead grass, but got tired of that really fast. I think I will do more of that on Thursday.
After the yard work I took Lucy for her daily walk. She decided to get incredibly dirty again, which meant that I had to give her another bath. Surprisingly she engaged in minimal growling, which was nice.
I took a shower and left early for work because I wanted to stop at Best Buy. I was excited to find that they had both the new Anberlin and Jack's Mannequin in stock. I didn't even bother looking at Wal-Mart, so often Wal-Mart is useless when it comes to CD's. The first thing I checked was the producer on the Anberlin CD, and as I thought the name was not "Aaron Sprinkle." I decided to listen to that CD on my way to work. It is called "New Surrender," and I tried my best to have a good attitude about the new producer. I want to withhold my full opinion until I've listened to it a little more, but early reports show dissatisfaction. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, it is just kind of what I expected with the new label and the new producer. I still like it though, and let's face it...following up an album as amazing as one like "Cities" is pretty hard.
So far I am enjoying the Jack's Mannequin CD quite a bit. There is some really interesting guitar work, which I think is probably a product of this CD being more of a band thing than just an Andrew McMahon CD like the first one. I do miss Tommy Lee playing the drums, although the drums are fine. They made some interesting choices in not doing a whole lot of production to McMahon's voice, but I kind of like it. I will comment more on that CD later also.
Work today was pretty busy. We shot some footage off site at a local Mexican restaurant, which was fun. There was alot to do setup wise because of tearing down the sails, and the enormous group on stage this week. There is a full band and also an orchestra, which means alot of inputs, chairs, stands, etc. Dan Leslie suggested putting the orchestra in the middle, which we ended up doing, and it looks pretty good. There is alot for me to clean up when I get to work tomorrow.
Today was the first day of me packing my dinner. Really all we had was sandwich stuff, so that's all I had, a sandwich. It worked out ok, except I was still incredibly hungry. I will have to make sure to get some side items real soon. I think I am still going to eat out on Wednesdays, and then take my lunch on Fridays.
I'm watching The Daily Show right now, and Jon Stewart was talking about congress being out because of a Jewish holiday...seriously? Our country's economy is about to completely collapse, and congress is taking a break? Weird.
Tomorrow is such a long day. My parents said Lucy can come over again, which is nice. She wouldn't eat her food tonight, so I'm hoping she won't get sick. I guess it would make for an interesting blog post though...
This morning I woke up at 9, and then watched Sportscenter and checked emails for a little while. I then went outside to use my new functional weedeater, which worked wonderfully. I didn't wear pants, which was probably a mistake, because rocks sting quite a bit when hitting your bare legs at blazing speeds. By the way, I was wearing shorts...that last sentence sounds a little weird. I also spent some time digging up dead grass, but got tired of that really fast. I think I will do more of that on Thursday.
After the yard work I took Lucy for her daily walk. She decided to get incredibly dirty again, which meant that I had to give her another bath. Surprisingly she engaged in minimal growling, which was nice.
I took a shower and left early for work because I wanted to stop at Best Buy. I was excited to find that they had both the new Anberlin and Jack's Mannequin in stock. I didn't even bother looking at Wal-Mart, so often Wal-Mart is useless when it comes to CD's. The first thing I checked was the producer on the Anberlin CD, and as I thought the name was not "Aaron Sprinkle." I decided to listen to that CD on my way to work. It is called "New Surrender," and I tried my best to have a good attitude about the new producer. I want to withhold my full opinion until I've listened to it a little more, but early reports show dissatisfaction. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, it is just kind of what I expected with the new label and the new producer. I still like it though, and let's face it...following up an album as amazing as one like "Cities" is pretty hard.
So far I am enjoying the Jack's Mannequin CD quite a bit. There is some really interesting guitar work, which I think is probably a product of this CD being more of a band thing than just an Andrew McMahon CD like the first one. I do miss Tommy Lee playing the drums, although the drums are fine. They made some interesting choices in not doing a whole lot of production to McMahon's voice, but I kind of like it. I will comment more on that CD later also.
Work today was pretty busy. We shot some footage off site at a local Mexican restaurant, which was fun. There was alot to do setup wise because of tearing down the sails, and the enormous group on stage this week. There is a full band and also an orchestra, which means alot of inputs, chairs, stands, etc. Dan Leslie suggested putting the orchestra in the middle, which we ended up doing, and it looks pretty good. There is alot for me to clean up when I get to work tomorrow.
Today was the first day of me packing my dinner. Really all we had was sandwich stuff, so that's all I had, a sandwich. It worked out ok, except I was still incredibly hungry. I will have to make sure to get some side items real soon. I think I am still going to eat out on Wednesdays, and then take my lunch on Fridays.
I'm watching The Daily Show right now, and Jon Stewart was talking about congress being out because of a Jewish holiday...seriously? Our country's economy is about to completely collapse, and congress is taking a break? Weird.
Tomorrow is such a long day. My parents said Lucy can come over again, which is nice. She wouldn't eat her food tonight, so I'm hoping she won't get sick. I guess it would make for an interesting blog post though...
Monday, September 29, 2008
I just tried to put some html tags in my title, and didn't realize that you wouldn't see them because they would be used....shows what i know
So I worked on the look of my blog quite a bit. Joe gave me some tips (what is it that he wants to be called...my muse?) and I did my best to take the design to a new level. I am still deciding what I think, right now I think I may like it. The big problem with redesigning is that I am severely hampered by my lack of html knowledge (or xml, or whatever I'm editing in, I don't really know). I pretty much just read through the code and try deleting things and changing values to figure out how to make things like I want.
Today i actually went to school. Psychology was not my favorite again. We spent most of the time discussing childhood obesity as a class. I am not much for class discussion, I would rather the teacher lecture about the material and teach me things I need to know. Maybe it's just my personality, but if you were in this class with me you might agree.
Micro lab was incredibly short, and I didn't feel like hanging around for an hour just to go to lecture, so I headed home to eat some lunch. I didn't have eggs today, which is rare, because we had some sandwich making material in the fridge. Last time Kristi and I bought cheese we went to BiLo as opposed to Wal-Mart, and I must say that the deli person did a lousy job with the Muenster. You can always tell when a deli worker cares about their job, because the cheese is at a reasonable thickness and the slices are separated on different pieces of plastic. This BiLo cheese...let me tell you...it is thicker than any normal person would prefer, and it is all mounded together, meaning that it is practically impossible to get an entire sheet of cheese off in one pull. You end up with several smaller, torn, misshapen pieces, which makes the sandwich that much less enjoyable. Maybe next time at Wal-Mart I should thank the person for their care in stacking my cheese.
A little after lunch I went over to the Boyds with my weedeater. Charlie (my father-in-law) had offered to look at it and see if he could figure out if it was starting. Even more amazing and kind, he told me that he would give me his old weedeater as he was looking to buy a new one. He wasn't able to figure out my weedeater's problem, but he did give me his to take home. It seems pretty powerful, and has a straight shaft, so I am fairly excited about it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other one.
After working with the weedeater I talked to Karen (my mother-in-law) and Kristi's grandmother for a little while. They had some interesting food items for me to try, including pimento cheese and hummus. Neither tasted too bad, but I'm a big texture guy, and I don't know that I can handle the texture of hummus.
After a little bit I came home and waited for Kristi. When she got home we decided just to go through the Chik-fil-A drive through and then I dropped her off and went to Wal-Mart and Lowes. Lucy needed some new chew items (other than the household items she prefers) and also I needed a wheel barrow so that I can start digging out the grass for our expanded mulch beds. I barely fit it into the car, and I'm not sure what I would have done if I wouldn't have been able to get it in. Maybe I could have walked home?
That's about all I did today. Kristi went to bed pretty early, so I've just been watching football and trying to keep Lucy from barking. Tomorrow will be pretty busy. I think I'm going to do some yard work in the morning and then I work in the evening. I'm going to start trying to save more money, so I'll be packing my dinner tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about it not being enough, but I need to find a way to cut down on food expenses.
By the way, the bailout didn't go through, and Wachovia was bought out by another bank. I thought that was pretty funny considering the discussion last night. It also makes me feel weird as I am a Wachovia customer. I guess I've got a new bank now? I hope they offer me an interest rate on my checking!
Today i actually went to school. Psychology was not my favorite again. We spent most of the time discussing childhood obesity as a class. I am not much for class discussion, I would rather the teacher lecture about the material and teach me things I need to know. Maybe it's just my personality, but if you were in this class with me you might agree.
Micro lab was incredibly short, and I didn't feel like hanging around for an hour just to go to lecture, so I headed home to eat some lunch. I didn't have eggs today, which is rare, because we had some sandwich making material in the fridge. Last time Kristi and I bought cheese we went to BiLo as opposed to Wal-Mart, and I must say that the deli person did a lousy job with the Muenster. You can always tell when a deli worker cares about their job, because the cheese is at a reasonable thickness and the slices are separated on different pieces of plastic. This BiLo cheese...let me tell you...it is thicker than any normal person would prefer, and it is all mounded together, meaning that it is practically impossible to get an entire sheet of cheese off in one pull. You end up with several smaller, torn, misshapen pieces, which makes the sandwich that much less enjoyable. Maybe next time at Wal-Mart I should thank the person for their care in stacking my cheese.
A little after lunch I went over to the Boyds with my weedeater. Charlie (my father-in-law) had offered to look at it and see if he could figure out if it was starting. Even more amazing and kind, he told me that he would give me his old weedeater as he was looking to buy a new one. He wasn't able to figure out my weedeater's problem, but he did give me his to take home. It seems pretty powerful, and has a straight shaft, so I am fairly excited about it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the other one.
After working with the weedeater I talked to Karen (my mother-in-law) and Kristi's grandmother for a little while. They had some interesting food items for me to try, including pimento cheese and hummus. Neither tasted too bad, but I'm a big texture guy, and I don't know that I can handle the texture of hummus.
After a little bit I came home and waited for Kristi. When she got home we decided just to go through the Chik-fil-A drive through and then I dropped her off and went to Wal-Mart and Lowes. Lucy needed some new chew items (other than the household items she prefers) and also I needed a wheel barrow so that I can start digging out the grass for our expanded mulch beds. I barely fit it into the car, and I'm not sure what I would have done if I wouldn't have been able to get it in. Maybe I could have walked home?
That's about all I did today. Kristi went to bed pretty early, so I've just been watching football and trying to keep Lucy from barking. Tomorrow will be pretty busy. I think I'm going to do some yard work in the morning and then I work in the evening. I'm going to start trying to save more money, so I'll be packing my dinner tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about it not being enough, but I need to find a way to cut down on food expenses.
By the way, the bailout didn't go through, and Wachovia was bought out by another bank. I thought that was pretty funny considering the discussion last night. It also makes me feel weird as I am a Wachovia customer. I guess I've got a new bank now? I hope they offer me an interest rate on my checking!
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