Lament of the Seatbelts

I stumbled upon this video while reading through the Encyclopedia Dramatica, and it really made me want to go to a Seatbelts concert...  For those of you who may not recognize this song, it's "Tank" from Cowboy Bebop.  The music may very well be the best thing that came out of that series, and it makes me wonder if there are similar bands floating around out there.  I will have to investigate this.

Triumphant return!

The past couple of months have been some of the best in recent memory. It wasn't long ago that I attended the Gogol Bordello concert, and now I have two more fun things under my belt: vacation and Asher's send-off.

Seattle was an amazing city, and I enjoyed every minute that I was there. My friend Kelly hosted me for 8 of my 10 days in the northwest, for which I am extremely thankful. We did a lot of the standard Goat House partying, but we also did a lot of sight seeing. Here is a laundry list of things that I experienced:

•  Seattle Space Needle
• Science Fiction Hall of Fame Museum
• Seattle Central Library
• Museum of Glass
• Pike Place Market (and brewery)
• Mario Warp Pipe Park

I also spent a couple of days in Portland hanging with my friend Lauren. We did the Thanksgiving thing and hit up Vodoo Doughnut and a gigantic Chinese garden. It was a little more low-key during that period.

This past weekend was my friend Asher's pre-deployment party (see pic above).  We got a bunch of the local friends to head over to the Jive and Wail for a night of debauchery and entertainment.  The pianists took requests, and they ended up playing "Proud to be an American" with Asher blushing on stage.  We then retired to my place for a little Beatles Rock Band and some drinks.  It was truly a night to remember (or not depending).

I must admit, I'm more than a little sad to see him go.  Very few people have touched my life to the degree that he has, and I could not have asked for a better friend.  I can only hope that our paths will cross again soon.

Cheers.

Ultimate

I spent this weekend hanging with three of my best Goathouse friends, Brien, John, and Sam. We spent the weekend partying it up, with the main event being a Gogol Bordello concert at Liberty Hall in Lawrence, KS. This adventure has really revived my spirit and enthusiasm for living life to the fullest. I've been working out this week and jamming through work with Gogol tunes in my head.

I'm going to try my best to post one set of lyric interpretations every day for the next while because no one should go without a little Gogol in their lives.

"Ultimate" is a song about living out your days to their fullest without regret of or despair from what's past. It's a song about taking everything you can from life. (Hence my inspiration for this post.) I wasn't able to find a translation for the Russian/Romani part. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

ULTIMATE

If we are here not to do
What you and I wanna do
And go forever crazy with it
Why the hell we are even here?

There was never any good old days
They are today, they are tomorrow
It's a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow

When we stand here in a row
Looking like a bunch of heroes
I know that-a deep inside
Nothing more than bunch of zeroes

O skolko utechki tepla
Vot takaja vot sudba
Nam segodnja suzhdena
A bit mozhet chto kogda da-j povezet!

There was never any good old days
They are today, they are tomorrow
It's a stupid thing we say
Cursing tomorrow with sorrow

Stepping on the trail of ultimate
I would never choose to die
Give me rest of all the secrets
Give me new culture of life

Ultimate!
Ultimate!
Ultimate!
Ultimate!

Wish You Were Here Contest

On my old blog, I held the "Wish You Were Here Contest".  The co-winners hailed from DC and Seattle, so I have been on a mission to visit both cities.  Here is my proof of visiting DC:

I will be fulfilling my promise to visit Seattle somewhere between November 20th and 29th.  It's already in the works.

In addition to my west coast trip, there are a number of things that I am looking forward to right now.  In the immediate future, I have tickets to a Gogol Bordello concert.  I'll get to hang out with a couple of good friends during my stay, which is honestly more appealing that actually hearing the band.  I miss having my college friends in proximity, but I'm glad that we've managed to stay in touch for the most part. 

Mega-update

Here are some pics from the Cards game I saw on my birthday weekend.  Derek and I had a lot of fun, and it was definitely the closest we've been to the action on the field.  I think my favorite part was watching Scales, the left fielder for the Cubs, give us a homerun.  It bounced right off of his glove and over the fence.

Mmmm...that was before my haircut.  Look at those sexy sideburns.

Cardinals win!

Here's a pic of my roommate giving our mutual friend, J, a haircut.  Usually we have to get him drunk before trying this.

I was offered the same service, but I declined.  In other news, Ohio is a vile frozen wasteland of corn, trees, and computer work.  I was going to bitch about work here, but I changed my mind.

Ohio does have a few places of interest, one of which is "The Jaol", an old jail turned bar.  I was really hoping that the establishment would have kept some characteristics of the original structure when designing the place, but it looked like a normal bar on the inside.  The waitresses did wear little cowgirl sheriff outfits that I enjoyed.  Maybe I should have snapped a picture of that.  I'm sure there are other places in Ohio just waiting to be discovered.  Maybe next week...

Oh yeah, I went to the Schlafly Bottleworks this weekend!  It's a pretty small brewery, as you might imagine, but the beer is top notch.  I had the Schlafly hefeweizen, pale ale, oatmeal stout, and dry-hopped APA.  The oatmeal stout tasted a lot like coffee, which was a bit of a bummer.  I can understand why you would have it for breakfast though.  It is a serious full-bodied beer.  I highly recommend trying some of the seasonal Oktoberfest beers across the US.  I have been a huge fan so far, especially of the ones in Ohio.

As some of you may know, my mom bought me a violin for my birthday.  I can't get the damn thing to make a sound, and I swear I tried applying rosin like 100 times.  I'm taking it to the string shop tomorrow to get some help.  Hopefully, they'll be able to hook me up with an instructor while I'm at it.  I'll let you know how things progress.

My Absence

I have been a little scarce around the web community of late.  I recently got transferred to a project in middle-of-nowhere Ohio, and they're trying to lock me in for another year or so of the same stuff I've been doing.  That really doesn't interest me, so I'm considering employment options elsewhere.  My plan this week is to schedule tours of facilities that I might like to work in and see what an average day in the office would be like...or even if that career path is something I'm interested in.  I can always fall back on my technical experience if need be, but this might be a good time to explore my options.

When I return next weekend, I will post pics of the Cards game I went to for my birthday, my roommate shaving a mutual friend's head, and hopefully the Smucker's HQ near where I work.  Next weekend I plan to attend AB's "beer school", a portion of the brewery tour!  I'm pretty excited about it, but for now...ciao!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

In an hour, it will be my mom's birthday. To show my gratitude for her putting up with me for 25 years, I made a little video. It's nothing fancy. I have no video editing software, and I'm shooting video with an Olympus Stylus 710. At any rate, I hope she likes it better than a card.

Talking to Girls

(Movie courtesy of Kelroy at goathouselives.blogspot.com)

I have never really dated for any significant amount of time. I always say I'm going to, and then I agree to be exclusive and end up in a 5+ month relationship. With that said, I suck at chatting up girls and getting myself put on the "real ladder" as opposed to the "friends ladder". If you're unfamiliar with the ladder theory, read up.  Let's look at a couple of this week's failures and learn from my mistakes.

Scenario 1: Neighbors from downstairs
Overall Attractiveness: 7/10
Scene: I have just arrived home from picking up The Beatles Rock Band, and I see that my neighbor has taken her dog outside.  (They just moved in too.)  I am wearing clothes from the day before with a Cardinals hat covering my crazy morning hair that I haven't cut in over a month.  Hawt!
Dialog:
Girl - Hello.
Me - Hi, who do you have there with you? ... How are you settling in? ...
Girl - Beatles Rock Band, huh?  I hear that game's pretty fun.
Me - Well, it just came out today.  I'm about to take it for a spin.  You and your roommate should come hang out later if you get bored.
*end of dialog*
Thoughts:
- I have no idea how much small talk I need to make to be polite, especially in those random meetings.
- My invitation to hang out was pretty weak, and I could have worded it better.  Telling her that we're in need of a singer or something might have worked better.  Maybe offering beer would have helped too.  Who knows.

Scenario 2: Tivoli Snack Stand Attendant
Overall Attractiveness: 6/10
Scene: As you might have guessed from my previous post, I went to see nine with a few friends of mine.  One of my female friends, we'll say M, was chatting with me as I stood in the concession line.  Finally, it was my turn to order something.
Dialog:
Girl - What can I do for you?
Me - I'd like a Schlafly Pale Ale.
Girl - That'll be $4.50.  *gets drink*
Me - Talks to M.
*group goes to sit down*
Other friend - I just needed to mention that the concession attendant was alternating between checking you out and giving M the stink eye.
The attendant was not there when we got out of the movie.
Thoughts:
- My glasses give me super tunnel vision.  I have no idea what my posture is like when I wear them, but I generally don't look at people because I focus on my auditory sense.  Maybe it's best to stick with my contacts.
- Should I have chugged down the beer and gone back to chat her up?  What do you say to someone that's working that won't make you seem like an ass?  I need to think on this one.

Scenario 3: Two Female Neighbors
Overall Attractiveness: 7.5/10 & 6.5/10 = 7/10
Scene:
My roommate and I get home from hanging out with our mutual friend J.  Two girls that I've never seen before are out back with their dog.  I jump out of the car to introduce myself.  My roommate is sulking by the staircase up to our place.  It's about 11:30 at night.
Dialog:
Me - Hi there.  Do you guys live here?  I'm Lancifer from 3W next door.  Do you go to school around here?
Girls - Wash U and SLU.
Me - Cool.  Well, I won't keep you out, but I just wanted to say hi.
Roommate - That was awkward.
Me - It didn't help with you standing over by the stairs.
Thoughts:
- My roommate needs to be a better wingman when I actually have the courage to talk to women.
- I'm not sure if I should have approached them considering that it was night, and I might seem like a creeper.  I don't know when I'll see them again though.  *shrugs*

Overall considerations:
- At least I'm trying a little.  I need more practice though.
- Wear the damn contacts.
- Look your best from the moment you walk out the door.  You never know who you'll bump into.
- Pay attention to your surroundings, or you'll miss opportunities you didn't know you had.
- Still not sure how to have an effective small talk conversation.  I need to work on that.

9 the Movie - Psuedo-Spoilers

If you don't want to ruin the surprise, don't read this.

I had high hopes for the movie 9 once I heard that it was a Tim Burton movie.  The animation was well done.  I'd say beautiful, but we're talking about a post-apocalyptic landscape here.  The soundtrack was pretty killer.  Check out track 13 "The Aftermath" here. 

On the other hand, the ending was cheesey, and I was disappointed with the good guys' character development.  I'll concede that many of the characters experienced a trial of sorts, but their overall demeanor remained unchanged throughout.

The villains, on the other hand, were pretty wicked.  The foremost villain reminded me of Dr. Wiley meets a matrix sentinel.  This thing is a robot that creates other robots to do its bidding.  Originally, it was intended to serve mankind, much like Wiley did when he worked with Dr. Light.  Then the government turned on its master, and it went on a rampage.

(image borrowed from imdb)

There are a host of other villains that I thought were cool.  The hound was pretty basic (see below).  There was also a raven and snake that I can't seem to find pictures of.  The raven and snake were by far my favorites, too.

(image borrowed from imdb)

Overall, I give 9 a solid B-.  Thanks for reading!

Site Construction: Background

I want to use an image for the background, and I was thinking something comic book-esque, so I made this from some pictures on my computer.  I may try some other stuff later.

I get by with a little help from my friends...

Several weeks ago, I pre-ordered The Beatles Rock Band. It arrived today, and I have already beaten the game.  I didn't know much about The Beatles until my friend Asher showed me the movie Across the Universe, which has a truly amazing soundtrack.  I digress. 
The video above is a morph between the incomparable John Lennon and myself.  I checked out several morphing applications, both freeware and shareware, and found that Morpheus Photo Morpher rendered the most desireable results.  Enjoy!