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President Bush is giving a State-of-the-Union tonight. Among those in attendance will be a handful of crazies eating bean-sprouts and banging on pots and pans in an attempt to drown out POTUS' speech. They will be doing this from OUTSIDE the Capitol. I'm not kidding.

Labels: stupid

Some guys in Alaska decided to build their own ice tower. This is what they came up with (it's 151 feet tall!).

Labels: pictures

Jenny Gontarek and her family had their Niceville home burn to the ground Tuesday night. Why do we care? She is the owner of Cayenne Cafe. I think we should help them out by patronizing this afternoon.

Labels: local

Labels: music, stupid

Congrats to Joe and Shane on their new jobs!

I've changed my work schedule. I now work from 6:30am to 4pm.

Did anybody else see 24 last night? Wow.

Labels: pictures

Let me introduce you to a blog I've recently discovered. It's the blog of Jason Killingsworth, 20-something editor at Paste. You can start with his written plea to the other editors at Paste to keep the magazine focused on music.

Labels: blogging, music

I woke up very early this morning to the sound of "Mr. Tambourine Man" - or at least a memory of it that had not left the confines of my brain for a straight two days. I recently bought Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan documentary "No Direction Home" on DVD ($17.88 at Wal-Mart) and "Mr. Tambourine Man" is featured prominently throughout. It was a very well-made film, and I learned one or two things about Bob Dylan that I had not previously known. I like songwriters who understand humor. I think that you can't write a great song without some understanding of truth, and I don't believe truth can be thoroughly understood without a sense of humor. Bob Dylan is a very funny guy, and I respect him more for his songwriting than I did before I heard some of his killer one-liners.

Living at my parents' home in Blackman means that I don't have internet access and I don't have cell service. I am 80% isolated up there (I can still be reached on land-line, but only if nobody else in my family is using the phone). To keep myself busy I've tried to remain in the South County as much as possible, and for the time spent in Blackman, I rely on printed and other non-interactive media to keep myself occupied (spare for the moment the question as to whether or not this is the best use of my time, please). That includes Paste, music I get from various mp3 feeds, music I get from B&N or Central Square Records, 24, and DVDs of mostly the documentary or independent type.

Before "No Direction Home", I picked up the first two DVD sets in the Director's Label Series. Each DVD in the series profiles a director known primarily for their music videos. The series is very entertaining, and while Dylan's song has stuck with me longer than most of the songs featured in the series, I consider that to be a plus. No good song is good enough to plague your sleep. The Director's Label Series DVDs include interviews with each director, as well as the music videos, television commercials, short films, and clips from feature films that each director has created. I can't think of any of my friends who might be interested in this, except for maybe Luke and Mr. and Mrs. Mosley, but here it is - my stamp of approval.

I would apologize in advance to those of you who could not read three (four, if you count this one) paragraphs of text on a computer screen, but that would be dumb, because you aren't reading this.

Labels: movies, music

We occasionally receive word that an upcoming Friday will be a day for wearing jeans to work. This is really exciting to a lot of people. Friday will come and about one half of the people in my building will be sauntering through the halls clothed in their finest denim with huge smiles on there faces. Jeans are really comfortable, and it's only on these few Fridays that we are allowed to be that comfortable (although this Christmas, we were actually allowed to wear jeans for almost two weeks!).

I don't wear jeans to work, though. I think I have some kind of superiority complex about it. It's not a professional-looking thing to wear jeans to work, and I want to look professional - especially when others do not. It's been my observation that many who can't wait to wear their jeans are the ones who drag their feet and aren't normally too productive (and often on the heavy side).

Of course, I'll wear khakis and polos and whatever else meets the bare-minimum dress standards on any other day. It's not denim, but it's not as professional as I could go for. I'm being inconsistent. I think I'm going to have to dress up a little more.

If I start putting on ties at work, I guess I'm going to have to raise my standards for church-attire as well. Being consistent in my beliefs and my actions usually involves a lot more than I expect.

Labels: work

It is a well-known cliche that winter is a down time for a lot of people. It's when families come together in all of their disfunctional glory and when a lot of us singles wish we weren't single. This is not a post about family problems or wanting to have a girl. My family life is healthy and while it's true that I die a little each day I go without the exclusive presence of a female, this year's winter has been difficult for other reasons.

I can narrow it down to three major events. There are many other things that have occured, but without these three things would have been relatively easy.

1. Losing my wallet. It's been recovered, but I have already had most of its contents replaced. That was a HASSLE.

2. High-profile presentation at work. I've never liked presentations, and this was the biggest one I've done yet. I can deal with this amount of stress on an average day, but this timing was a little screwy.

3. The Incident. A little embarrassment and a huge amount of stress is what I got out of this. For those of you who know the details, no, I have not yet had it taken care of but I am doing everything within my power.

So yeah. The first two are over and the third is almost done. Things are back to quasi-normal. I've also made a list of a ton of things I've been wanting to get done for a while (kind of a short New Year's resolution quick-sheet - stuff I can get done in only a small amount of time and with unextraordinary effort). I've knocked about half of it off, so I'm feeling very productive right now.

However, I'm still reeling from the effects of everything so I am short with pretty much everybody right now. I'm not asking for forgiveness, because everybody pretty much deserves it, but I need to tone it down. I think a little Cayenne Cafe and the new LOST tonight will help.

So yeah, that's been my winter so far. Oy, I'm tired.

Labels: complaining

Labels: music

Labels: pictures

Trinity-ers:

Be Jolly For Girls!
.brodie
Down to a Sunless Sea
For the Love of Incense
God will honor those who honor Him
joebrodie
September in '86
What Is and What Should Never Be

Family:

coffeemagic
Notes from Little Spain
Omnis Viperas Mortum Est

People I Know IRL:

A Soldier's Story
Beautiful Feet
CARDCO
CARPE DIEM
frecklejess
keepin up
Peace, Love & Penguins
Ponderings by Brittany
Rod Martin
Scottie's Life

People I Don't Know IRL:

Barlow Farms
The Blog of Josiah Q. Roe
doodlepost
Next-To-Last Song
Razing the Bar

Music:

Asthmatic Kitty
Gorilla vs. Bear
Paste
Pitchfork
Stereogum
WOXY
You Ain't No Picasso

Version: 4.2
(January 12, 2007)