First day of work today!

Seems like it'll be a good time. First day I walk into my plant and who do I see? the brother of the guy who I had been living with for the past 5 months. Pretty crazy if ya ask me.

But yea, that was the highlight of the day pretty much. A lot of paperwork and "getting me into the system." That's a lot of what this week is going to be.

Oh, and I'll have a daily starting time of 6 AM. That won't be fun. Oh well, that's what ya get for being the n00b. As a final thought, today made me think of this. And yes, having true life events make one recall an xkcd does make one a major nerdburger.

So does using the word "one" instead of "me".

I'm On a Roll Tonight

Can you tell it's the first weekend with just me and the 'rents? Not that there's anything wrong with that....

If you follow the blog you know that I have a way out of character fondness for Brand New. I say out of character because usually I don't harp on a single band this much (Exhibit A: they have their own tag, with multiple entries). I was going through their website checking for when they planned on putting out some new music ('09 looks good) and looking at some of the old news posts they had.

This entry caught my eye. While every band harps on the "it isn't for the money" line, I think this may be one of the most poignant forms of saying that I have seen yet:

We would like to express our gratitude to anyone of you who has ever spent a nickel on this band, whether it was getting into a show, or buying a sticker, or a t shirt, or a record. It takes money to tour, and feed a band and its crew, or to record an album (after the label has spent all of yours). You all make these things possible, and in turn keep Brand New a band. But the bottom line is that we would rather this band didn't become something we felt like we were constantly selling to you guys. The only thing we as a band will ever claim authenticity on is our music. Just because all that other stuff comes from us, just because you bought a shirt on our website, or at a show, or got a lyric book in the mail, it doesn't mean it's any more unique or authentic then something you could do yourself. In fact it is less. It's just merchandise. The only "official" part of the band is what you hear on our records or at a show, the sounds we make. Write BRAND NEW on your knuckles or on a wall and it's just a good as some sticker that has an "interscope" logo on it. If you're feeling up to it, save the twenty bucks you were gonna spend on our merch site and write "The Devil and God are Raging Inside me" in marker on your dad's old t shirt. It will scare your parents, cost you nothing, and be about the most limited edition thing anyone will ever own... unless you make two.


What we are trying to say is that the important thing is that you are listening, and not so much buying. Spread it around. Share us with your friends. We thank you for supporting our band, and appreciate that you continue to do so, especially by playing our albums and coming to shows to watch us play. We hope everyone has a good holiday and a joyful new year. We're brushing up on our German and Gaelic.

This is why I don't mind waiting two years for them to release a new album. They do it for the right reasons, and if it doesn't sound right, throw it away and do it again. The candor - or honesty, or whatever you want to call it - is nice.

And now for something you have all seen before

Two posts today, mainly so I don't fall further behind on my "365-post" rule this early in the game:

Five Things I'm Interested in Right Now that I Will Probably Burn Out On in a Month
(A derivative of my "Top 5")

1.) Cooking - Thanks to watching Top Chef marathons pretty much all of finals week, some Pavlovian shit has made this a major curiosity/hobby/interest of mine lately. To add to it, I got Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for the Food for Christmas, and I've realized I like reading about cooking when it's not in the form of a cookbook. It's like a chem lab that you get to eat at the end, which totally revs me up.

...Long distance...

2.) Converting vinyl to digital - It was a Christmas present/project to mom and dad and (like all good hobbies of mine) is turning out to be a lot more work than I had originally imagined. It helps feed into my visions of being Rick Ruben/Scott Storch. I've realized grown-ups still play pretend, it's usually just a lot more expensive than when "we" (I'm not a grown up.) were younger.
3.) Rock Band 2 - I've gotten up to being able to play aboutttt half the songs on Hard. It's those half-beat kick drum patterns that are causing me trouble right now, but I'm working through them, all the while giving myself more false hope of being musically talented. Nothing like this guy though:



3.) Meh, can't think of anything here. Put this as another long distance in between

4.) Reading good books - Finally having a shitload of time after a semester of not having much has its benefits. No more information to be divulged in this sector right now because it will make for good blog-fodder later.

5.) Dashboard Confessional - This one is taking the "right now" qualifier pretty literally. Haven't listened to Chris Carrabba in a while (like, since A Mark A Mission A Brand A Scar was released), and I must say I don't mind him.

A good family picture:

In case you were curious, this would be a solid general description of my family:

Prior to watching Step Brothers (but obviously after dinner, which mainly consisted of a random collection of whatever sounded good at the time with no culinary rhyme or reason: nachos, mac and cheese, chili maybe, chili dip, or in my case just some dry noodles) my sister and I decide it is high time for a Funfetti cake. In my family, Funfetti is the sacred cake-mix of all cake-mixes. Like a top shelf liquor, it can't be drank on just any Saturday movie-night. To give sufficient reason for this 13x9 pan of glory we ran to the cabinet with the food coloring. Since the sister teaches elementary school kids she always has a solid grasp on those holidays that I, being a college student at a school that doesn't really let us out for anything, have since forgotten about.

We mixed red, then blue, then some green, then a little more red, heck throw some yellow in while were at it, and finally a little more red and that... right... there... maybe... yes!

Our very own Martin Luther King Jr. day African-American Funfetti cake. Off color? Probably. Should I have posted this on the interwebz for (potentially) all to see? Probably not. Either way, good, fun times for all. And the Funfetti was glorious.

Disclaimer: In reality, once the mix got baked, the color didn't really stick around much. It was more of an Italian-in-the-summer tan. Oh, and this was meant in no way to be derogatory to African Americans or Italians in the summer. Thank you and have a nice day.

How many roads must a man walk down?

This week I finally got around to reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a book I've been interested in for years and avoided seeing the movie for reason of avoiding it ruining the book for me (both because of spoilers and the quality).

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe is already on hold. Douglas Adams is probably one of the best character builders I have experienced. Whether it's Arthur Dent, your average Joe, Ford Prefect, the automobile-named alien who intended to be on Earth for a week only to be forgotten about for 15 years to finally have to escape to leave, or Marvin, the manic-depressive robot. They all have a sense of depth, personality, and even a unique voice of sorts (and sense of humor).

Writing a book based around a veritable encyclopedia of the universe can't be an easy task. Small pieces of the guide are mentioned throughout the novel, helping to build the reader's understanding of the history of the universe and provide more lighthearted comic relief.

Which is the reason I'm planning on reading the whole series now. Sure, the characters are wonderful and the ability any sci-fi writer worth his salt has to create a whole universe (and it's unique machines) astounds me, but Adams does all of it with a sort of lightheartedness that I really can't get enough of. I'm not a huge reader by any means. So when I actively want to read a book rather than turn on the PS3, it's a huge compliment to the abilities of the writer. This writer has me hooked.

Attempting to not sound like a prick here....

Work with me here. The LA Times posted this picture of Steve Jobs today and a year ago, to show how his pretty highly publicized hormonal imbalance has affected him.

To me, all his picture shows is that 1) he is balding and 2) he shaved on Sept. 8th, 2008, but not on Sept. 16-18th 2007.



It's been rumored that he has been dealing with a rare treatable form of pancreatic "cancer," so maybe a type of chemo has to do with the hair-loss and discoloration. Either way, I hope the best for him. A world without Steve Jobs (or Bill Gates) would be like the Galactic Empire not having Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. Just kind of empty and "what are we really doing here"-esque. Mainly I don't think the time lapse picture was the best choice for the article, it just invites needless speculation (see: this blog post).

Ahhh

Vacations are nice. Now a week from today I will be enjoying (I hope) my first day of real work. What real entails I still have no idea, other than that it is at the aircraft engine portion of GE. So that'll be interesting....

Until then, a however-many-part-I-feel-like-making-this part series on what I have been doing. However, in an effort to make this not seem LiveJournal/Xanga-y, I will throw in completely meaningless and absurd pictures, like the one to the right >>>

Part 1
Apparently, rocking my exams. I won't go into specifics because then some smarty-mcfee will jump in the comments and rain on the parade, but it was all A's and B's. If I have a solid mix of those the rest of school I can't complain.

Part 2
Pretty much after Part 1 there was a long lull of complete randomness and non-newsworthy happenings. Costume party, to which I busted out my Elf costume famous from tacky Christmas sweater day from senior year of high school.

I'm pretty much a carbon copy

Part 3
Part 3, which could realistically be exchanged with Part 2, and could be placed either BC (Before Christmas) or AC (After Christmas) consists of a large amount of Fallout 3 (Happy Bird-day to me!) and Rock Band 2 (thanks, Santa).

Fallout 3 is pretty much the shiz-nizzle. Not recommended if, like me, you are a big weenie when it comes to post-Apocalyptic radiated zombies that look eeriely similar to the things from I Am Legend. They lurk everywhere; dark places, the middle of the block, behind you, or in abandoned buildings.

While not the same (at all really), visual similarities are there.

Overall, I have to say its a very good game. Maybe the best I have played so far on PS3. The biggest flaw is that for a console game it is still surprisingly buggy (a trend in nearly all "next-gen" multiplatform games it seems). Nothing major, just the occasional freeze.

I really don't think I could say anything about Rock Band 2 that hasn't already been said/heard by any of you. It's sweet, and basically exactly the same as Guitar Hero World Tour. Only difference is the song selection. I'm impressed with Rock Band's and have already spent too much money downloading everything from No Doubt ("Don't Speak," if you were curious) to Boston ("Peace of Mind").

Part 3 has been the largest part of my vacation, for sure.

Part 4
That is of course unless you count Part 4 (ohhh, twist!!). Part 4 can be the coverall consisting of spending time with that one girl that lives down the street (also referred to as Stinky, because she is really really white like the uncle of the friendly ghost and has poor hygene habits). Yea, I saw her occasionally.

We went and saw the Nutcracker, with the highlight being the kid behind us telling mom, "I wanna go hoooooommmmeeeeee," about midway through Act 2. I grinned and couldn't really disagree with him. At least someone had the kahunas to say it. Don't get it twisted though, still an enjoyable time.


Overall, good break. Definitely needed to some extent. Now comes 2009, which I can already say with confidence will be nothing like 2008.... or 2007, or 06, or 05, or... you get the idea. My resolution-to-be-broken this year is to learn to cook more than eggs, mac and cheese, and cheeseburgers and to have 365 posts by the end of the year. I'm already behind, so clearly not off to a good start. Maybe this one can count as two....

Happy (end of) Holidays and New Year to all!