1. Started seriously acquiring lossless copies of a few things lately. All of Coheed, NIN, Pink Floyd and Tool, along with the most recent remasters of the Led Zeppelin and Beatles (both mono and stereo) catalogs.

2. Found some Sennheiser CX-300-IIs (MSRP $80) on sale at Fye for $30. Mine.

3. Installed the newest version of Rockbox on my iPod, and copied over most of the above listed FLACs.

4. Killed all the lights, lied down, and turned on the new stereo remaster of Strawberry Fields Forever.

Operation Blow Fuzzy's Mind: COMPLETE SUCCESS. Why the hell didn't I go down this road sooner? Next step will be to start seriously cutting down on my collection, and saying goodbye to everything worse than V0 MP3. Hard drives are cheap, right?

Alright, let's go in order.

1. Work is pretty awesome. I've been selling pretty decently, next paycheck should be nice. So we'll see.

2. Speaking of, I got paid on Saturday, so me, Doc, and Dennis all went down to Denver yesterday. Went to Cheeburger Cheeburger, ordered the biggest burger they sold, (20 oz. of ground beef before cooking) and somehow finished it. Dennis did the same. There is now a picture of the three of us on the wall of the restaurant. We then went exploring a local mall (Flatiron Crossings; has a significant, well-engineered outdoor area, I approve) then decided to go try to explore Boulder. Unfortunately, when we were almost there, we got word that weather was getting progressively worse up north, so we decided to hightail it the two hours or so back home. By the time we got to the state border, we were in the middle of one hell of a blizzard. Got back to Cheyenne safe, though; dropped Dennis off at his place, hung out for a while, had delicious cookies (thanks, Kim), talked zombies and gaming for a while (thanks, Andrew), then me and Doc went home, where we are still hiding from the snow that has yet to stop coming down.

3. Luckily, I don't work until 4:30 tomorrow, which means I have time to read

4. Cory Doctorow's new book that just came out today. Makers. He serialized about the first third as 'Themepunks' on Salon years ago, then rewrote it and started serializing it again on Tor.com this year. I've been obsessive about checking every MWF since he started, and now that it came out.. well, all of a sudden it's three hours later, and I don't know why. Best book Mr. Doctorow has written since Down and Out..., and possibly better still than that. (You better believe that's some high fucking praise from me.)

Other than that.. uh, yeah. That's about it.

Okay. Doc and I saw a 12" touchscreen LCD monitor on eBay last week, so he bid on it. It arrived today.

Today's project has entailed setting it up with an old laptop of mine to serve one purpose: the home theater software we use, XBMC, has a web interface with big, chunky buttons for play, pause, stop, etc. The laptop (for now) boots straight into Firefox, which lets us prod at the buttons on the touchscreen. The whole rig is currently set up in and on top of a small end table at one end of the couch, within easy reach of the television's audience.

Tonight's project is me writing a whole new interface for it, and Doc skinning the whole thing, because I am never satisfied with anything technological unless I've done it myself. (You'd think I'd've written a whole OS by now.)

This whole exercise has made me realize something, though.

( More through here. )

Holy shit, now I understand (even more) why my father taught me to fix things when they break instead of buying replacements. We've had to put in a few hours work to get it all running, but it's so much more satisfying sitting down and watching something on our cobbled together with duct tape setup than anything you'd see at Best Buy.

(although i wouldn't mind a new 50" plasma. >_>)

Great part is, I start work at Radio Shack this coming week. Which means discount on parts to do moooooooooooooore. Love it.

Went on the interview. Assuming I pass a background check, and why the hell wouldn't I, I should be employed by Monday.

I HAVE A JOB, BITCHES.

Also, played the Brütal Legend demo. Holy. Shit. Can't wait for October 13th now.

I HAVE AN INTERVIEW AT THE RADIO SHACK NEAR THE APARTMENT AT 4PM TOMORROW.

So, Beatles: Rock Band comes out on the 9th. Won't be getting it then, but I'll probably have it by the end of the year.

To get ready for this, I decided to download new copies of all of their discography, this time at a much higher quality level. (My old copies were shit on decent headphones.) I thought, 'hey, I'll listen to all of it, and really get a grip on the catalog.' Great idea.

What actually turned out happening is this: I have listened to Revolver at least once a day for the last two weeks.

When I was a kid, I would steal my parents' LPs and 45s a lot. So stuff like Head East, Wish You Were Here, BTO, Bill Cosby, Cheech and Chong.. and Revolver. For a couple years, I listened to Revolver almost constantly. God, that album has a place in my heart not even Coheed or Five Iron can match most days. (Not that I'm a screaming fanboy.)

Went walking around putting in applications earlier. I forgot so many phone numbers, halfway through the first one, I had to come home and pull them from my various address books. A little embarrassing, but oh well. Put in a few more, then walked home. Put on Help! as I was leaving, wishing that 'I'm Down' had made it onto the album, and I'd barely finished it by the time my fingers were begging to put Revolver on. Damn addicts.

Other than that.. uh. Not much. Applying for jobs, listening to music, playing video games, wrestling with computers, wishing to God I just had some source of income and wasn't worried about having to piss test at any arbitrary point. I'd love a joint right about now.

And the Japanese Festival is this weekend. Fffffff. ;______;

EDIT: I forgot to share this with you all, didn't I?

Still looking for a job.

Amanda moved out, Doc moved his computers and such into his bedroom, I moved into the second bedroom. So, now I have a door for the first time since I was living with Aaron at the start of 2007. So I can pretty much have music on constantly now.

Going down to Denver on Sunday for some show-off the local Lego fan club is putting on. Actually kind of excited about it, 'cause it'll be the first time I've been out of this town since the start of June.

Also, want to punch myself in the face. And not just because I found one (uno, singular) cigarette while cleaning and now I'm listening to Whatever and Ever Amen and it turns out I have never listened to this album without smoking constantly and now I miss not having self-control.

Also been having srs thoughts (srs bsns) about relationships and related bullshit lately. Really not a fan. ;____;

Last couple weeks have been lots of applying at everywhere. Still no job, what a fucking shock.

I just hate all of this. Just when I think I'm starting to make a little, tiny, tiny fucking bit of progress with you, turns out I'm not. Shouldn't be surprised to much by that, either. Don't even know why I bother anymore. Maybe I shouldn't.

Post end, I'm going to go listen to the Smiths now.

From blog.okcupid.com:

Would you consider role-playing out a RAPE FANTASY with partner who asked you to?

data set: 340,000 people answered

Well, I believe we learned that WYOMING LOVES CONSENT FANTASIES.


lulz.

Yeah, I update Twitter a lot more than this place. Like, semi-daily. Crazy.

I really, really don't have anything {to|I can} say here. So. Business as usual, etc. Going to go sell plasma now.

Okay. Um.

Spent two weeks down in St. Louis. Had a mostly pretty damn good time. Got to go to Pointfest with Meagan, McCormick, Kyle, and a few others (though everyone but Meagan kept running off). Got to see Ludo, Anberlin, and the Used. Spent the rest of the time down there just hanging out, which was both relaxing as hell and a little stressful. Figure that shit out.

Flew back up here, found a cheap netbook, and am now applying pretty much everywhere within walking distance, even though I only expect to do whatever it is for a couple months.

Oh, by the way, if I haven't told you yet: Doc and I are moving back to St. Louis by the end of the summer.

Ever since we decided to close the store, I've looked upon things as 'the end of an adventure,' 'cause really, that's what this whole thing was. Moving across the country to run a business with a couple friends? It didn't end quite the way I'd have liked, but valuable experience nonetheless, etc.

I went up to the mall today with Isaac to grab one of the couches and bring it back here. We got to the store, put the couch on the dolly; then I sat down and remembered just how comfortable the couch was. So we pulled it up to the front of the store, facing out, and peoplewatched for a while. Good times.

At one point, Isaac went to the bathroom, and some random guy came in to look at the stuff we had left to sell. We got to talking, discussed PSPs and Mother 3, and he sympathized with me about the store closing. On his way out the door, out of the blue, he said 'Good luck on your next adventure.'

Ever since then (around 6pm), I've been wondering if maybe some greater cosmic entity than myself made sure I heard that. If maybe there's some new adventure I'm supposed to go out on now, other than wait a month and start working at Roger's bus depot. Is there something I'm supposed to be doing elsewhere?

Hell. Philosophical crisis. I'm going to go do some sudoku or something until I pass out.

While sitting at a restaurant earlier, waiting for food, Doc opened the conversation with this:

'I want a bouncy ball that bounces off the ground with 101% efficiency.'

So we discussed exactly how that would not only A) controvert Newtonian physics completely, but B) implode the universe after a given amount of time/acceleration. (Short version: as an object accelerates towards the speed of light, according to Einstein's theory of relativity, it also gains mass; if, as I believe, Zeno's Paradox only exists in a purely theoretical realm, then when the object attains the speed of light, it also mathematically attains infinite mass, therefore causing the entire universe to almost instantaneously implode around it.) This lasted for about ten minutes, in which time we somehow managed to rope another person into the conversation. 'I have to get in on this,' he said as he leaned out of his booth, just before killing the conversation dead with poorly-informed fears of the LHC.

As the unknown man was leaving, he made sure to wish me a 'happy 4/20'. I didn't bother to point out to him (but made sure to do so to Doc) that, if I were stoned, I would have had a lot more trouble spitting out phrases like 'asymptotically approaching the speed of light' without giggling for half an hour and forgetting where I was.

So, yeah, unemployed now. Buying a plane ticket this week. Playing a lot of video games, sitting around, probably not drinking as much coffee as I should to keep up this hipster stereotype I seem to keep around.

While at the mall earlier, slinging a yo-yo repeatedly, I ran into one of the locals; he related to me a conversation he'd had one of his friends.
person A: 'You know that guy who works at GameOn, looks like Jesus?'
person B: 'Oh yeah, Fuzzy.'
It never ends.

The store's lease expired at 9pm last night, April 17th.

And I should be a lot more upset than I am.

Don't get me wrong, I'm upset and all, but.. eh. It's such a weight off my shoulders, I guess. Add the facts that 1. I spent the entire night having delicious alcohol with our one employee and one of my co-managers, 2. I'm actually kind of okay with things outside of the store, and 3. Swing Life Away just came on.. y'know, I've been in worse places in my life.

I had a lot more to say here, but things like that pale in comparison to needing to go have a drink and sing.

let's pack our bags and settle down where palm trees grow

I love. So much. Not that it doesn't hurt, it does. But I still have so much to give sometimes. </emo>

Details to follow, but we're closing the store in a week.

Yeah.

Okay, today was... hell.

( bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch )

So I'm spending the rest of my night with a cat on my lap, scrolling through iTunes, trying to pick out songs that might mean something for some fucked-up flipperbaby of a mix CD. I really, really do not want to sleep any time soon, 'cause I figure any dreams I may have tonight will switch back and forth between emo teenager bullshit, and the ritual disemboweling of JJ and half of the mall's management company. (Except for the PR lady they've got. Yum.)

* Upon some autopsychoanalysis, I have noticed that the intended end result of most things I do is, directly or indirectly, to get laid.

* Upon more of the same, I have noticed that I don't really enjoy or desire sex; at least, not to the extent I think that most people do,

So, basically, most of what I do is without a real point.

Note: totally not omgemopost. More of a bemused 'huh.' post.

Thinking about starting a new kind-of-writing project re: music. Might say something about it here later, might let it wither on the vine.

Also, I like crullers.

Night 1 (The Second Stage Turbine Blade)
Night 2 (In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3)
Night 3 (Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness)
Night 4 (Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow)

Coheed does a four night live stand in New York, and plays each of their albums in their respective entireties.

I am an unapologetic fanboy of the band, so all I'll say is this: if you're not a fan already, you probably won't be after having heard this. It's still damn good, though.

Fair warning: this is all 320kb MP3, so each one of those links point to a zip file somewhere between 130MB and 180MB.

In other news, <null>

Okay, just kidding. Been a long few days, lots of whatever man whatever, but kids, I'm not emo. Just.. out of it. Need some time to internalize a few things, really make myself aware and cognizant of reality. Things can change quickly, even up here; I forgot that.

But hey. I spent all day sitting around at the store, listening to Coheed. Hard for things to seem real bad when you realize that.

I wish my typewriter were up here. I have some letters I want to write.

For whatever reason, I have 'Hey There Delilah' stuck in my head.

Regardless, Coheed and Cambria trumps Hannah Montana, Bluetooth headsets for the win, emotional vulnerability for the lose, cigarettes in the Wyoming winter for the all-encompassing fail, and confusion reigns supreme. Gotta dig it. Start it with a long night at work, end it with Wallace and Gromit and poorly-forethought emails, and you have a night, or something.

Collars. With bells. Why bells? Why collars?

I'm getting too old for this shit.

Dear Christ.

No, no spoilers here. Just wanted to tell you all that it's really, really, really good.

It diverges from the graphic novel slightly at the end (y'know, that one thing that happens that one time?) but my absolute favorite scene from the book is intact, and it hurt even more seeing it on the screen than it did reading it.

Holy shit, that was fantastic.

Our cats are now service animals.

Amanda went to the doctor and got them classified as such because of her hyperacuity, or some excuse like that.

However it works, we can now move into Prairie View, not only with all 5 cats, but without any pet deposits.

Figure that shit out. Filling out application paperwork like crazy now.

That whole 'worrying about bills' thing? Crisis averted; had more money saved than I thought, so bills are paid or being paid tomorrow; either way, taken care of, and the store's starting to pick up again. Not as worried anymore.

The three of us are starting to look for better apartments, 'cause the management company wants to raise our rent, and frankly, this place isn't worth what we're already paying. Problem is we have five cats, and there's very few places in town that are okay with even one or two.

Doc and I went out looking today, and we think we might've found a nice three-bedroom, two-bath; bigger than this place, and not much more money. I'm going in early tomorrow so Doc can take Amanda to look at the apartment and have a sitdown with the apartment staff, see if they can work something out about the felines. If not.. well, I have some small amount of faith that we'll find something.

I want to go back to St. Louis at some point. Probably only for a week, 'cause that means I lose less money, but we'll see. I would prefer to do it before summer hits, maybe around the end of May? I don't know, we'll see how things stand around the end of April, when we should be officially taking over the store. God only knows what hell will break loose between then and now.

One more thing: Doc and I have been spending the last couple weeks (on and off) working on whipping our media center situation into shape. Doc put together a nice little file server, which now has a shitload of TV shows, movies, and anime on it, and I've been playing with XBMC on Doc's Xbox, getting everything tagged up real pretty. We'll likely be replacing the Xbox with a dedicated Linux box running XBMC soon enough, though; then it'll have enough memory for the MediaStream skin. (translation: shiny.)

When all this is done, sitting down and watching something will go something along the lines of:
a) turn on TV/surround sound/PC or Xbox
b) select 'Movies'
c) pick a movie
And bam, gorgeous HD movie for you long time. I am far too pleased with this.

(Also, BitTorrent is a hell of a thing. Downloaded all of The Young Ones, Jericho, a bunch of other shit; also checked out Monty Python's Flying Circus from the-best-library-ever (yeah, all 16 DVDs, for two fucking dollars) and we're in the process of ripping/transcoding/copying it to the file server. So uh we rock.)

I'm done here.

Sometimes I hit forget to set a private flag on things I put on here until a few hours later. It's rare, but it happens. Oh well.

There is not much going on up here, really. Sitting at work, wondering about how I'm going to pay bills (mine and the store's) with how little we're making nowadays. I am.. worried, to put it mildly.

but hey things work out blah blah blah. whatever, we'll see, i'm not holding up too much hope.

And stupid, stupid me spent last night first looking up my own credit report, and upon finding that it was pretty decent, all things considered, spent a while looking up Dell's financing terms on laptops, 'cause man I could go for a Mini 9 running Leopard. (Name it Gatito? Would fit in with the G-theme Doc has going.) I'm an idiot, someone dissuade me from this course of action.

I'm trying to get my last.fm profile to mirror what I actually listen to, as opposed to what I listened to for two months in 2005. I'm kind of amazed it's changed that much in only three years--

oh God, it's 2009, it's been four years. what happened, where has my life gone. ;_;

Self-loathing, blah blah blah, emo bullshit.

I'm not looking forward to much of anything at the moment.

Alcohol, sleep.

braveSaintSaturn finally released Anti-Meridian, the conclusion to the trilogy begun with 2000's So Far From Home and continued with 2003's The Light of Things Hoped For.

And I can't review it.

No, it's not perfect, but it's Reese, Dennis and Keith. I can't review it. I can't be pretentious about it.

I will say this: just like both of the other albums, just like a lot of Frenzy stuff, it broke me at the end. Just completely snapped me over its knee and broke me.

Dear Christ, I remember why I stopped listening to these guys for so long.

Doc put together an NAS box (FreeNAS is pretty badass, surprisingly), and I'm killing the network backing up my music (all 170 gigabytes or so of it) onto it.

I started it copying around 2am Friday morning, and as of 24 hours later, it has alphabetically worked its way through to Mindless Self Indulgence.

So, in other words, no albums for a couple days.

But that's not the point. This is.

I want you all to tell me what you've been listening to recently. I will use this, and try to make recommendations (with samples, if I have them) to better expand all of our musical horizons.

Likewise, if there's something you think I need to hear, now is the time! Fill me in on what I've been missing by making fun of Pitchfork. (I'm sorry, but TV on the Radio's Dear Science is absolute shit, and The Airborne Toxic Event... really isn't that bad. Far better than 1.6/10. Twats.)

So. Music. <points at comment button> Go.

Ludo Broken Bride (2005, ~128kbps MP3)

It may only be five tracks long, but you'd be hard-pressed to find an album anywhere near this solid, no matter how long it is. Half an hour of the best rock (pop, punk, country, metal, etc.) you will ever find anywhere. (And they're from St. Louis! How righteous is that?) Standouts: Fucking all of it.

Another album coming in a little while.

1. Thanks to Doc's extreme assistance, I have a desk up here now. And it's a beast. All solid steel construction, except for the inch-thick wooden desktop, along with a nice side island and five good-sized drawers. This thing could take a direct hit from a ballistic missile and still be solid enough to tap dance on. It also makes a nifty bed for Linus.

2. Oh yeah, I have a cat now. His name is Linus (I didn't pick it), he's about 10 years old, Siamese, and entirely too adorable and affectionate for his own good. He's doing a fantastic job of helping keep me sane up here.

3. I've been wanting to try the White Russian flavor that Monster sells for a while now, and the other night, I did. Verdict: slightly watered-down White Russian without booze. I am impressed! Still not as good as Low-Carb, though.

4. Nothing works better for marketing a gaming cafe than a big-screen TV with an NES emulator on it. Nothing. Got a friend in here right now playing around on it, and it's drawing the idiot kids in like flies. Unfortunately, I think the Dandy Warhols I'm playing is driving them away.

5. Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is a damn good album. Yes, I'm putting it up soon, along with Broken Bride, and whatever else I can think of. Suggestions?

That's all. For now.

And fuck those '25 things' memes.

Doing this St. Louis thing. (not the East St. Louis Toodle-Oo, shut up Steely Dan) And it's not working out fantastically so far.

I mean. Well. It's working, but things are not as I expected them to be? I did not come into this town for drama, so I'm ignoring it. It's just easier this way.

Who wants to hang out this week? I am around, and have nothing planned past Monday.

Also, who's doing what for the Super Bowl? Looking for a party, etc. (Jen/Tait/Courtney? Eh? Eh?)

Ah, screw it.