Nothing For The Weekend Listening: The Theme To Epcot's Illuminations Show.
So, I haven't written much this week. There hasn't been much to say. I have been covering for a lot of people and I have had some pitfalls. Lately I have been taking some heat for some things going wrong or not getting done. All of these things are not my responsibility, but they're things that I'm doing to cover for other people. There was some stuff not done on Tuesday evening before I left and heat came down. My boss' boss called me in and read me the riot act. He tried to guilt trip me a bit too telling me that it was mistakes like this (which I don't usually make) that make him not want to send me over to the other side of the business. I simply told him that I dropped the ball and I knew it and that I was covering for someone who was out and the process was new to me and that it wouldn't happen again and left it at that. I figure he's gonna do what he's gonna do. I'm not gonna kiss his ass just because of a simple oversight. I've proved my worth to the Corporation. If he doesn't get it, well, we'll see if he sends me over. If he doesn't, I'll most likely walk. I don't need to deal with the shit anymore.
There's a new girl at work who seems pretty cool. She seems much more original than anyone else on the floor. I actually had a real conversation with her for the first time today. She has been on the floor for the whole week though. Before I go any further, I have to say that she has a boyfriend, so no action there, but she's still really cool. She's skinny as all hell and looks a little like the character Fred from Angel with shorter hair. At first, when I saw her, I was like, Oh, whatever, another corporate drone... About mid-week, I noticed that she had a tragus piercing on one of her ears. So, I was like, Well, you don't see one of those every day at the Corporation. Today, I noticed that she had tragus piercings on both sides and she was wearing a funky little outfit. It was a pair of tux pants with a long sleeve t-shirt covered by a short sleeved sweater and a kind of funky knit scarf. So I was like, Aiight... I gotta talk to this girl and figure what she's all about. I strike up a conversation with this girl and find out that she's actually an aluminum sculptor. I thought that was pretty cool. She was just doing this to have a steady paycheck. We talked a bit about music, food, working abroad and other things. She seems really cool. She's definitely more original than the other people on the floor. She recognized that about me too. It was cool. I may have a new friend on the floor.
In other news, it has been like four days of back pain. I think that it is because I have been coughing so much that I have bruised my ribs or something. I don't know. All I know is that it's a consistent ache and it hurts when I'm standing up and am bending over to put something into my file drawer. If it keeps up, I'm going to have to breakdown and buy some ibuprofen.
I just finished watching a Travel Channel special on Walt Disney World. My parents were just there a couple of weekends ago. I think it has been a good two years since I have been. I kind of miss it. As strange as it sounds, I feel so relaxed when I am there. I think that I'll have to go sometime in 2005. even if I'm abroad, I'll meet up with some friends there. Maybe I can convince my parents to help me get a two bedroom villa at the Boardwalk and I'll just fill it like it was my job. I think that by the end of 2005, I'll have a number of friends who are itching to go.
Okay, I don't have much more to write. My one plan for this weekend fell through. So, I don't know what I'm going to do. I was going to go for a walk around the city tonite, but I fell asleep on my couch and ate dinner really late. Also, I didn't really have any company for it. I was going to ask one of my freinds, but they haven't returned my last phone call. Maybe I'll take my walk tomorrow. I bet that it'll make my back feel better.
So I'm gonna go now and watch more Iron Chef America, and obviously rigged show. Clearly Sakai and Morimoto are better than Flay and Batali. Flay blows. Batali is bland. I'm just disgruntled about it.
It's A Strange Thing To Realize... Listening: It's not always rainbows and butterflies. It's compromise that moves us along. My heart is full and my door's always open. You can come anytime you want.
It's a strange thing to realize that I have lived without coffee for the past week and it has subsequently been replaced by backpain. It's a strange thing to realize that sometimes to move forward, you have to move back. It's a strange thing to realize that you actually care about the NBA Playoffs when you never really followed basketball before.
Work combined with my illness has really kicked my ass lately. There were mistakes made that I took some heat for, but they weren't really my fault. All of it could have been avoided with appropriate communication or if I hadn't been providing support for all five groups in my department. So, this morning I took for some heat. It sucked, but I knew it wasn't my fault so, I was like, "whatever." If they wanna get all huffy at me, I'll tell them to look at their communication skills and their management skills.
In better news, I think I may be five months closer to getting a job in Europe. After getting mildly reamed, my boss told me that his boss had sent a formal letter to one of the managers on the other side of the business asking to send me over. They're sure they'll take me the question is just setting a date. My boss said he wouldn't let it happen within the next two weeks, but thinks probably in a month. He wants me to train FOP on everything I do. So, basically, we'll be switching roles. I'll be doing a lot of her grunt work and I'll also be showing her how to do do the thorough research that I know how to do, or rather that I learned how to do over the past few years. I just hope that she has the patience to be thorough. Sometimes she reminds me of me when I was REALLY impatient and just wanted people to tell me things. I don't care how, just tell me. She's going to have to learn how and why and is going to have to be patient enough to not get frustrated with a line of thought. I hope she's up to it.
Tonite, I made myself a yummy dinner of salad, roasted red bliss potatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme, and garlic breaded chicken. It was nice. I also finished folding my mountain of laundry as well. All I have left to do is iron. That's tomorrow's project. Note to self: Don't hold the iron still on the red shirt again. I'm tired. I'm going to try to go to sleep now. I coughed all last night. I hope tonite is better.
The Rundown Listening: The world keeps spinnin'. The world keeps a-spinnin', yeah!
Just a quick note. Made dinner last night for The Violent One and another friend, because The Violent One was nice enough to drive me to the grocery store.
I got run at work today. Eight hours of non-stop, no lunch work. I stepped out to get a pack of cough drops.
And now I'm, apparently, everyone's backup. I'm really not all that thrilled with it.
Love Thy Neighbor? Listening: 'Til it's over and then it's nice and quiet but soon again, starts another big riot. You blow a fuse.
I'm not really sure how much I have written about this, but I have been having some major issues with my new neighbors. When I saw that they moved in, I said, "Hi, if my music ever gets too loud, feel free to just knock and let me know." I said this because I know that sometimes I do like loud music and I know that people don't always like to listen to loud music when I like to listen to loud music. I said this out of courtesy and because sometimes I don't have a gauge on how loud my music is.
Now, the first time, the girl came over and knocked on my door and I apologized. I had been washing dishes and had my music up slightly louder than usual. My T-Bass on my Aiwa system was up to four of four and I was listening to fairly bassy hip hop. So I was like, cool. I'll turn it down. It didn't bother me much that time.
Over the past month and a half, or rather since I got home from Chicago, only a month ago, she has come over with shit eating sneers, indignant looks and a little blue terry cloth robe at least six times. Almost every time, I would turn my stereo lower and lower. It happened twice yesterday. As of yesterday morning, I had my T-Bass down to one of four and my bass reducer on my iTunes on as well. Around six, she came over and complained. I didn't know what more I could do. I turned off my T-Bass completely.
By that time, I was completely disgusted with my neighbors. I had told a bunch of my friends about this. Fester even told me that he thought that I was exaggerating about the music. He knows how I like my music. He thought that what I thought was an acceptable level would have been louder than what anyone else would find to be an acceptable level.
Last night, with witnesses of Fester, Carpenter and one of Carpenter's Burning Man friends, I got another knock on my door. I was playing an Real Audio stream of a Adam Gibbons mix from my computer through my stereo. My T-Bass was at zero. They were all over, because we were having a few drinks (like two) while waiting for Ye-ah to come over so we could go to Soul Revival. I had not more than five minutes ago told Carpenter and his friend what had gone down earlier in the day when I heard a knock-knock-knocking at my door.
This time, it wasn't the little mousy Asian girl with the shit eating sneer and the blue robe. It was her boy. She just tood behind him looking indignant. They told me to turn it down. Fester's initial reaction was to turn it down, since he was near the stereo. I was red with a beer in my hand and I just said, "Dood, it's not loud. Would you like to come in and check it out?" He said no and said that he knew we were having a party (which we weren't), and that I needed to keep it down or he would call the cops. When he said the C word (cop, for all y'all who couldn't guess), that got to me. I apologized and I shut the door. He declined my invitiation in to check it out. His bitch just told me that her sofa was vibrating, and I had three witnesses who were telling me also that the sound was not loud at all. We were all talking at comfortable speaking levels. Me from the kitchen, Carpenter and his friend from the suede chairs and Fester from the stereo area.
You know, if her couch was vibrating so much, I would really advise her to just take off the robe, sit on the couch and let me play my music. Maybe she would be a happier woman. Grrr.
Anyways, the concensus by the peanut gallery was to continue playing my music at appropriate levels and when they knock, tell them that I disagree and have them call the cops. I hate cops. I don't know why, I just hate them. They wig me out. I don't want to deal with cops, but if this is the only way, then this is the only way.
Another thing happened as a potential solution. See Fester seems to have a knack for research when he has nothing better to do, so this is what he did. He researched Cambridge noise ordinances. It has a convenient table to tell me what dB I need to be at during what time of day. He also hooked me up with a dB Meter so that I could turn my speakers around, so that the would be facing my bedroom instead of the wall that I share with my neighbors, and I could see what kind of dB they would be hearing at what levels. I would need to calibrate my iTunes and stuff, but I think it could be worth it. I just want to be absolutely sure that I am in the right if and when a cop comes around.
The thing about this is that I feel that I am seriously bending backwards to be a good neighbor. I don't lie. Music is an important part of my life. A big part of me moving out from my grandparents' place was because I wanted to listen to my music without having to wear headphones. Now, I feel like I can't live in my own place. I feel like I'm being encroached upon. I could relate if they lived next door to me when I had the Midnight Pancake Party. That was a loud ass party. What I have had on my stereo lately has been nothing. It has been just short of elevator or waiting room music. I really think that I have the only things that I can really do is A) wait for their lease to be up and then hope they move, B) wait until the Corporation sends me to Europe and then I'll just be done with them then, or C) move out with roomies somewhere. Regardless, it bothers me a lot and I spend a lot of my thought time on it. To be honest, I don't think I had as good of a time as I should have at Soul Revival due to the fact that I was thinking about it so much.
As much as I try to be mean and nasty, I don't believe that I am. I believe that I have the potential to be mean and nasty and I have been mean and nasty, but I don't think that I am mean and nasty on the whole. I think most of the time I am a rather nice considerate kind of a guy. I have a strong work ethic and I play as hard as I work. I have done nothing but be nice to these people next door and accomodating to boot. When should I make a stand? How should I make a stand? What do I do?
Okay, honestly, enough of that for now. Let's talk about Soul Revival. Walking into Soul Revival, each time, is like walking home. It was nice. The beats were big and fuzzy. The soul was in the instrumentation. It was all good. I really shouldn't have been there, though. I was still sick, but I had to be there. I had a really good time for like the first hour or so. The music was good and with the exception of a couple of technical difficulties, it could have been great. About halfway through, they started this whole African drumming thing, which I thought was aiight, but I really just wanted ot hear the house music. After about a half hour of drumming, they started up the DJ set with "Brother's Gonna Work It Out," an old soul tune featured on the Chemical Brothers' DJ mix album of the same name. I thought for sure that the DJ was heading in the right direction. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He did select some good soul tracks, but he broke the flow too many times. There were seconds of dead air between tracks. I was disappointed as hell. I still had a good time though. I missed coming out to Soul Revival.
Anyways, that's all I have to say tonight. The Violent One and someone I haven't named yet are coming over for dinner and Alias in a little while. Should be good time. Tonkatsu, rice, kimchee, and maybe some other vegetable. *shrug* I'll figure it out when The Violent One drives me to Star.
A Little Daffy For Dinner Listening: I got a bad disease. Up from my brain is where I bleed. In sanity it seems has got me by my soul to squeeze. Well, all the love from me with all these dying trees I scream. The angels in my dreams have turned to demons of greed. That?s me.
So, since I got sick, I haven't felt much like writing. I've started a self-enforced quarantine with the exception of work. I started it on Tuesday and I plan to end it on Saturday for Soul Revival. Regardless of my health, I'm going. I need some deep house beats to penetrate my soul and make me whole again. I've been out a little bit these past couple of months, but nothing that would qualify as soul reviving. Even if I'm not energetic enough to dance, I just want to close my eyes and have the beats push through me. I can't wait.
Today, I was smart about food. I knew that I wasn't gonna have the energy to go to the grocery store after work, and I knew that I wasn't gonna ask my friends to go for me, so I went to Chinatown during lunch. I got myself some soup for lunch and I bought some beansprouts and a half a roast duck for dinner.
With the greasiness of the duck, I can really only feel good about eating three or four pieces. So, when dinner was said and done, I split up my leftovers and found that I had enough for three more reheatable meals. Yay. I'll be eating yummy food for at least the next day and a half or so. Hopefully, I'll feel better and I'll get myself some more food.
Actually, what I think would be really good right now would be some of my grandmother's soup. She makes good soup. I tried to learn how to make the soup, but she doesn't exactly break it down well. A lot of it is language barrier. Another big part of it is that the ingreidents are Chinese and can only be found in Chinese grocery stores and have labels that are written in Chinese. I really don't have all day to be cooking with my grandmother if it's not going to yield usable information. I know it sounds lame, but it's the truth. I think that if I were to try to spend that much straight time with her, she would try to start getting me to believe in some of the superstition. I just don't have the ear for that either. I have more of an ear than my mother, but not enough to just listen to her drone in Chinese where I'm not understanding anyways.
FOP called into work sick today. I fear that I have given her what I have. She was describing it to me over the phone. I feel bad. I feel even worse that we have to pick up the slack with the condition that I'm in. what's even worse is that I have to be into work tomorrow, because my boss will be out, FOP could call in sick again, and I have a conference call with the people who lied to my collegues and I last Friday. It's not gonna be a fun day tomorrow. I am just going to go to work, gonna come home, and I'm gonna chill out.
Anyways, it's half past midnight now. I need to go to sleep if I want to wake up tomorrow morning. I didn't this morning. Long story. Ask if you really wanna know.
Still Sick. Listeing: This is the book I never read. These are the words I never said. This is the path I'll never tread. These are the dreams I'll dream instead. This is the joy that's seldom spread. These are the tears, the tears we shed. This is the fear. This is the dread. These are the contents of my head.
Hot And Bothered Listening: I'm not sick, but I'm not well. And I'm so hot, 'cause I'm in hell
For the last couple of days, I've been laid up in bed. After work, after meeting Blondie with The Violent One, Fester and a box of Krispy Kremes, I went straight home and crashed out. From about half past four until about half past eight, I was passes out on the couch. From half past eight until about seven today, I was passed out on my bed. At seven, I called into work sick. From the phone call until noon, I was passed out in my bed again.
I don't know what I have/had, but it hit me quick. I knew I was coming down with something when I woke up and my throat was scratchy, but around the time I went to the marathon, it was really kicking in. It was headache. It was fever. It was congestion and it was throat soreness. I mean, I was so hot that I was sweating up a storm. Luckily, most of that heat has gone away (though not completely). I still have a hefty headache and a sore throat. The headache is killing me. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I think it could be a Tylenol moment.
The rest of the day was spent eating and vegging. I didn't have much to eat in the house and I didn't have the energy or the mental fortitude to suck it up and go, so I stuck with soup, ramen, and some rice with some additives (believe me, it was more than seaweed and soysauce, but I won't get into it because some of you may not "get it.").
I watched "Lost In Translation," if that qualifies for something to do today. I just felt like shit all day long, so I don't have much to say. My head is hurting something fierce, so I'm gonna go and try to push through the pain. Ouch. Laterz.
This Isn't Helping My Gut Any. Listening: So when I'm lying in my bed, thoughts running through my head, and I feel the love is dead, I'm loving angels instead.
It's Sunday night. I'm wearing my black UFO shorts and a white t-shirt. I am barefoot. Spring is surely on it's way if it's not here already. For the past six months, I have worn my comfy Adidas windpants, a t-shirt, sometimes a sweatshirt, socks and while on the couch, I would normally be covered up by my "Hippy Blanket." It's so nice to finally have warm weather. I love it. Soon, I'll forsake wearing the jeans in lieu of my canvas shorts or my UFOs.
When I last wrote, I was in a pretty foul mood. I was feeling stupid and loserish. I was, in fact, having a loser day, which is like having a fat day for your mind. It happens. It's called regret. It's something everyone has once in a while. I think that at that point, my foul mood was only enhanced by the fact that I had been busy all day dealing with stupid lying people at work, and between the time of midnight the night before and about four thirty (a little while after I left the office), my sustainance consisted of a thermos of coffee and four or six pieces of Orbit's Wintermint chewing gum (yeah, it's sugarless). So, yeah, I was foul, hungry and was about to meet thousands of beer drinkers.
So that's how I left the office to meet up with Fester before heading over to the Beer Summit. when I finally found where he was waiting for me, I needed some food badly. So we headed over to Chinatown so I could hook up with some char siu baos. My, they were the love of my life for the next couple of minutes while I scarfed them down.
Upon arriving at the Beer Summit, there was a buzz of activity. Move buckets here. Move ice there. Ice this down. Set this up. It was just a lot of stuff going on so that we could open doors at six. Not all of the brew reps were there and not everyone knew what was going on. As out of it as I was, I really did know what was going on most of the time. They had a lot of veterans volunteering and a lot of other people knew what was going on. Apparently they had people at The Castle as early as nine in the morning beginning set up.
Originally, Fester and I were slated to work at the Spaten booth. They have a number of quality German beers. I particularly like their weissbier. It's very tasty with just a hint of a smoky flavour. However, when one of the guys running the show found out that the woman from Euro Brew, Inc would be showing up, he needed someone to set up and man their booth in a hurry. Last year, I worked for Euro Brew pouring beers from the Witchwood Brewery, the Black Sheep Brewery, the St. Peter's Brewery, all from the U.K., and the Kaiser Brewery from Brazil, so I was a natural choice. That's where Fester and I sprung into action.
In a hurry, we checked out how much they bought for the Summit and what we could find for promotional displays for the table. I ended up just putting out two full sixers of the two Brazillian beers and lined up the rest of the English ales up on the table. There were seven English ales and two Brazillian lagers. After the setup, Fester went back to work for the Spaten guy and I stuck around to work the Euro Brew table.
At that point, all of the excitement had me forgetting that I was upset and why I was upset. I just sort of got into a groove of pouring, engaging people in conversation about the beers and luring people (in my case cute girls) to the table. It took me a little while to get re-acquainted with the beers, but after a pour of each, I really got to a point where I could actively describe and speak intelligently about each of the beers. It was great.
After my dinner break, Fester re-joined me at the Euro Brew table and we ran it like it was our business. It was so much fun. When it was all said and done for the night, I wasn't grumpy anymore. I wasn't tired or hungry anymore. I was kind of happy. It might have been the beer, but I don't think so. I was flirting with every single girl who walked up to my table. I had it turned on that night.
When I got home, a lot of people had read this journal. Within five minutes of logging on, there were at least four IM windows open with people. It was kind of strange and rather unexpected. Some people knew what had been going through my head, and some did not. I revealed some insight to some people and I didn't for others. But really, it's amazing what honesty can do. It builds walls as well as bridges. As much as it all weighed on my mind on Thursday night and Friday day, once the weekend got rolling, I didn't think of it quite as much as I think I would have if I hadn't been working at the Beer Summit.
Even though I had gotten home at the reasonable hour of eleven, I was tired as hell. I worked for eight hours at the Corporation on no food and I worked the Beer Summit, setting up, pouring, entertaining, engaging and being generally pretty peppy for a total of five more hours, so I was bushed. When The Violent One IMed, I really wanted to go to sleep. She wanted to call me. I was like, "Let me brush my teeth, set up my sleeping music and hop into bed and I'll call you." So I spent from half past midnight until about half past one talking to The Violent One from the darkness of my bed, at points desperately wanting to just go to sleep. But then again, you know me, whenever someone wants to chat, I'm almost always up for it. You just have to get me running.
The next day, I was up early for Beer Summit again. Fester and I worked both shifts, from eleven to five and from six to ten. This time, the woman from Euro Brew was there. She was really cool. It wasn't the same girl from last year, because she was tall, blonde and French. Yeah, I was kind hoping that it would be her. In stead it was the person who had merged her company with Euro Brew. This woman had set up a company importing the two lagers from Brazil. It was pretty cool, because she had some insight into the beers that neither Fester or I had.
Originally, Fester and I were gonna play the "Who Can Get Digits?" Game throughout the day, but I don't think I was really up for it. There were plenty of cute girls running around, but I think I was too busy having fun with the people who were coming up to the table to try our beers. Fester, on the other hand, did well. He got digits from a slightly intoxicated Asian girl who tried to count in binary. Me, well, I played with drunk girls by telling them that I was Brazillian-American. I had a couple of them convinced. Ahh, drunk people, how you amuse me.
Saturday night, when I got home, I could barely keep my eyes open. I layed on my couch and watched The Animatrix on the Cartoon Network, and just kept nodding off between eleven and half past midnight. So, when I finally figured out that I should go to bed, I did. Half past midnight.
It was so hard to wake up this morning. Fester gave me a wake up call at twenty to ten and then again at twenty to eleven. Yeah, I was supposed to meet him at a quarter to eleven. And, yeah, I was late.
The Sunday session was really laid back. The crowd was tiny compared to all of the rest of the sessions, but I did have a number of really good conversations and good responses from the people trying out beers. Since the volunteer staff wasn't as big on Sunday as it was for the other sessions, Fester got moved to a crappy beer table.
At the end of the Beer Summit, I walked away with quite a bit of take. Let me tally it all out for you. As far as my expenditures went, I bought breakfast one morning for about five dollars and fifty cents at Au Bon Pain. Hmm... I think that was it on my expenditures. What I came away with was worth much more than five fitty. To start off, I walked off with seven new pint glasses, which is a welcome addition to my kitchen. I had three pint glasses prior to the Beer Summit and I used them to drink absolutely everything. Now, I have total of ten, which means I can use them if I ever throw a dinner party. Everyone will now get a pint glass. Be glad no more go cups. I addition to the pints, I also snagged some Pilsner glasses from the Warsteiner guy who had the booth next to the Euro Brew booth.
I took home two t-shirts and as far as beer goes, Fester and I took a lot. Unfortunatly, Fester didn't want to keep it at his apartment. I'm not quite sure why, but he didn't. So, the lot of the three cases came back to my place. I currently have a case and a half up in my booze fridge and a case and a half just chillin' out next to it. I have all sorts of beers from the high end English ales that I was serving at the Euro Brew table to some microbrews to some cider to some other special stock stuff. Let me just tell you that it was quite a variety. I even have three bottles of this special microbrew ale from the west coast that is bottle conditioned and is unpasteurized. It's really quite tasty. It has the aroma of fresh bread and tastes just as yeasty. Oh, it's quite a pleasant drink.
Also, as an "Iron Man" who worked all four sessions this weekend, I took home a giftpack from the Olde Saratoga Brewing Company, which was packed in an oblong pail. It consisted of two bottles of their beer, a t-shirt, and empty half gallon jug (presumably for beer) and a gift certificate for something that I couldn't quite read. I'm not too sure what it is. I'm going to ask the guy who runs Beer Summit when he has his volunteer party.
While I was at the Beer Summit, I never had to worry about food. Brother Jimmy's Barbecue from Harvard Square was providing the food for the event, and because I was a volunteer, I got a free meal with each session. This meant barbecue heaven for the ZEN!!! Master. Three blissful days of pulled pork, ribs and corn on the cob... Man. I was such a happy bastard. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. It was such a beautiful thing. But with all this beer and barbecue, I don't think it's helping the cause to get rid of the gut. Well, at least I'm enjoying myself.
Finally, I think the best thing that I walked off with from the weekend was a job. It's not a full time job, but more of an on-call job. The Euro Brew woman liked us so much that she's going to have me work a WBUR fundraiser as the Euro Brew representative. See, she can't make the show, because she'll be doing another show in New York, so I got the job. I'll, again, be pouring at two sessions on a Saturday for charity. That's awesome. She's got a small budget, which I'll prolly split between Fester and I, if he ends up working the event with me. I'll also be doing beer tastings at different liquor stores, which will be cool, and I'll be paid for that as well. I'm thoroughly psyched about that. It's something that will occupy my time and my mind. I'll be working for a company that produces a product that I can stand behind, and I'll be meeting all sorts of people. How great is that? I'm psyched.
Anyways, it's getting late and this post is getting long, so I'm gonna cut it here and go to sleep soon. I have some fun stuff on tap this week, so I'm excited about that stuff, and I want to get myself back on track. I want to get my head straight, or at least pulled out of my ass. Stop getting myself "twisted" as Keith Sweat would say. Time for me to start shooting from the hip again. *Bang Bang*
When Honesty Preceeds Sensibility Listening: Just last night I was reminded of just how bad it had gotten and just how sick I had become.
It's two to two and I'm beginning my blog for the day as I am finishing up my work. To be honest, I'm in a foul mood. I've been in a foul mood for the past twelve hours. I barely slept through the stench of my mood. I think I would be being generous if I said I got two hours of sleep last night. My foul mood stems from a lot of things, most of which deal with my future and the lack of solace that I have in thinking that I will lead a satisfying life. I'll explain this as I recount the events of last night.
So, after London Calling and I left Cassava, we headed to Avalon to stake out a spot in the crowd. After noticing that the unit that the three DJs were going to be spinning from was kind of elevated, it really made no sense to be right up front. Had we been up front, we would have been craning our necks. So instead, we staked out a spot on one of the speakerboxes lining the dancefloor. We were elevated enough to see past people and were close enough to get some good looks.
Surprisingly the show wasn't all about DJ Shadow like I anticipated. Instead it was more about his crew, the Quannum Crew. They consist of DJ Shadow, Latyrx (Lyrics Born & Lateef), Lifesavas (Jumbo, Vursatyl & DJ Rev. Shines), Blackalicious (Gift of Gab & Chief Xcel), DJ D Sharp, and Joyo Velarde. It was a really high energy show. Of all of those artists, the only ones that I have heard have been DJ Shadow (of course) and Blackalicious. The truth of the matter was that neither of them tore it up. DJ Shadow was... well, a shadow. He was in back most of the time just laying down beats and stuff. He wasn't really being the showy rockstar or anything like that. Blackalicious, or rather the voice of Blackalicious, Gift of Gab, really sucked. I have respect for him as a poet and his ability to whip out rhymes, but his musicality, the way his flow fit with the music just absolutely sucked. Every time he got out on stage, he would spit rhymes so fast that it was well ahead of the music. And though I find fast rhymes to be a great talent, I don't think it's worth a hill of beans if it's conflicting with the music or vice versa. It made either Gift of Gab as the MC or Chief Xcel as the DJ look like they had no clue what they were doing.
I think my favorite MCs of the show were Lyrics Born and Lateef. Both of them had excellent musical flow and they had real control of the audience. Lyrics Born is this kind of loaf-ish Japanese guy with this incredible voice. He has a few different registers that he works with and all of them come across as genuine. Quality. Lateef is a hispanic guy, but up on stage he looked whiter than white bread. I really felt like Lateef came with the power. He would have these long dramatic silences where he just held the crowd in the palm of his hand. Actually both Lateef and Lyrics Born did that. Amazing.
I fell in love at the show too. Joyo Velarde... Mmm.... Joyo. She's the Joy o' someone's life that's for damn sure. So she's this tiny little filipino chick with really curly hair and an amazing smile. She was a backup singer for most of the show, but came out to sing one solo song. You can check out the song she sang, called "Sweet Angels" at The Quannum Project website. I can't wait until her record drops. She has an amazing set of pipes. She was just amazingly cute and had an amazingly cute attitude about her.
I think one of the funniest parts of the evening was where Vursatyl of Lifesavas did a duet with himself called "HelloHiHey." It was basically a conversation with himself, where he finds out that he's really talking to his own ego and it's kind of overblown. It was really funny. They had a video of him projected on screens at the back of the stage so it was like he talked to himself in real time. Very funky very cool.
They opened and closed their show with this Quannum Crew kind of theme which I thought was really kickin. I felt like it had a lot of heart behind it and really worked into the idea that this tour for them was a manifestation of family. It was cool.
After the show, as London Calling went to get her gear from coatcheck (I was smart enough to only wear what I needed.), I ended up getting my ticket stub signed by DJ Shadow. I thought it was cool. It currently resides up on my refrigerator. After getting my ticket signed, I went up to London Calling and showed her. We talked about me buying a piece of vinyl to get signed, but there were none of DJ Shadow's left. London Calling is a big fan of Lyrics Born, so I said, I'll give you five bucks if you get a piece of vinyl and go up to Shadow and say, "Yo, that was a really good show and all, but I have this record, and you're really great and everything, but I really just want Lyrics Born's autograph." She said she would do it, but when she went, he wasn't back there. Lateef told her that they were all hopping a car to go to Philly so they were all about to bust out. When she heard that, she had given up.
When I heard that, I was under the impression that they hadn't left yet. So I was like, "Well, let's find that car!" So we go out and we run into Jumbo and Lateef again outside by a bus. We ask around and then Jumbo goes and checks in the bus to see if Lyrics Born is there. He wasn't. He then proceeds to take us back into Avalon, backstage and into the dressing room. Alas, no Lyrics Born or Joyo Velarde. On the way out, I snag a set list hanging on the wall. We wait outside some more when London Calling gets wind that he went to some Mexican restaraunt, which we couldn't figure out which one. While she was off, I got a bunch of the artists to sign her vinyl and my setlist. It was an excellent score. That setlist currently resides next to my DJ Shadow signed ticket on my refridgerator. It's like a kid hanging up crayon drawings.
From there, we were both hungry and we couldn't for the life of us find Lyrics Born or Joyo Velarde, so we decided to just pack it in. We decided to try McCormick & Schmidt's for their late night menu. Alas when we go there, they were all out of food for the night, so we headed over to the South Street Diner over near South Station. She had herself some breakfast. I had myself a greasy greasy burger.
This is when things get bad. Now those of you who know me really, really well, know that I did something I wasn't supposed to do. I developed a mild crush on London Calling. Now, you all know what this means. This is where All Men Are Stupid, All Women Are Crazy fits in. I'm stupid. I'm wikkid stupid. So we start talking and somehow we start talking about issues that I have. Now, I wear my heart on my sleeve 95% of the time. So I was kind of powerless to stop the conversation. It sucked. So aside from the fact that she's still hung up on her clearly mentally challeneged ex-boy, I have killed any chance if there was any at all. Grr. This was one of the more apropos time to be Mysterio. I felt really dumb from there on out, not only for opening up on said issues, but for allowing myself to start thinking about said issues.
So after I got home, I kept thinking about it and thinking about it some more and I started really getting down on myself in terms of my outlook on the future. It's not a good thing that I can't see anything lastingly good happening to me in my life in the near future. It's all this giant rut that I can't get myself out of and my friends are no hope either. I vented a bit to Japanaphile until about four in the morning. I know he means well, but I don't think he gets it. As I said to him, I feel like I'm just losing celestial coin toss after celestial coin toss. If there is any such thing as luck, I must have either very little of it or I spent it all in the process of getting my apartment.
At four in the morning, I really wasn't even tired. What I really wanted to do was mix some records. But with the new neighbors who suck bigtime, I knew it would be an unwise move. Seriously, they suck.
So, here I am at work. Actually fifteen minutes after work now. I've had a day of meetings where people conference called in have blatantly lied to me and my collegues. I'm losing hope that a very annoying part of my job, FOP's job and the group will go away as it should have eight months ago. We are seriously being jerked around. I have never seen so much either idiocy, dodgy-ness or organized conspiracy.
Anyways, I have to go now. Fester is downstairs and we're supposed to go work the Beer Summit. It should be a good time if I get out of this funk. This funk is killing me.
Time, No Time, Time, No Time. Listening: Jingle jangle, rip it up from every angle.
So it's been a busy couple of days. Yesterday I got to work an hour late. It was kind of fuct. I went to sleep early that night too. I went to sleep at half past midnight as opposed to my usual two in the morning. I mean, I was tired any everything, and I even drifted right off into sleep. When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock, it said a quarter past eight. I was supposed to be at work fifteen minutes ago! G'damn. I hopped out of bed, gave the office a ring and proceeded to get my ass to work.
Strangely enough, it was a calm day at work. There was only one thing I pawned off on someone else due to my tardiness and the fact that there was a deadline that was past by the time I got in. One little thing. The rest of the day cruised.
Thoughout the day a number of people asked me if I was going to go to the Francis Kim Band/Kevin So gig at the Middle East Upstairs. To be honest, by the end of work, I really wasn't sure. Was I tired? Should I get more sleep again? Do I want to spend the coin? Am I gonna be wrecked from working out again? Did I want to stay home to watch one of the last six episodes of Angel? I just didn't know.
At the gym, it was legs day. I did pretty well. I'm keeping with my plan of less weight, more reps in an effort to build strength and tone up a bit. The strange thing about this workout was that I felt it while I was at the machines, but I didn't feel it while I was doing my cardio on the eliptical or this morning when I woke up. My hip flexors feel it a bit, but other than that, nothing. I guess that's somewhat good, right? Cardio was done to the second disc of the Superstition 2001 mix. It's a good little trance mix. Much better than the commercial ones you see running around. There were a couple of Mijk Van Dijk tracks that really got me going. I had a really good workout. I sweated something fierce though. I think that could be attributed to the immense amount of water that I took in over the course of the day.
I have been drinking a lot of water lately. I'm trying to cut down on soda. I also figure that if I am working out as much as I am, I should probably keep myself hydrated. Over the course of the two hours that it takes me to complete a workout, I drink just over a nalgene bottle's worth of water and then I drink a twenty ounce bottle of water on the way home. This is all in addition to the water that I drink with lunch, my coffee and so on and so forth. I think it's an overall healthy thing. Cheap too.
So, I get home, shower, cook up a quick dinner, and just as I am about to leave for the gig, London Calling IMs me. Now, I was alreadt like fifteen minutes behind schedule, but she just got back into town and we had to figure out our plans to see DJ Shadow. So I chatted with her for a while and headed off to the gig.
When I left my apartment, I had to head back, because I forgot my ID at home. I realize that this is dumb, but luckily I caught it when I was only a couple of blocks from home. Since I was running so far behind and my contacts to the Francis Kim Band said that they would be going on at around half past nine, I thought that I was going to be totally late. I thought I was going to miss at least half of their set. Fortunately, I didn't. When I got there, the second act was just finishing up (thank goodness, because they sucked). I mean, come on. their name is "Bigger Than Britney." How good could they be?
So after Bigger Than Britney, The Francis Kim Band popped on stage. It was kind of interesting, the dynamic that happened on the floor. When Bigger Than Britney played, there was this huge open space in front of the stage and a bunch of people hanging back in the back of the room and off to the sides. When Francis Kim hit the stage, the space filled in quite a bit. It was by no means packed to the gills, but I'm sure that any possible echo in the room was kind of killed.
I have seen The Francis Kim band once or twice before, have hung out with the members (as I have friends who are friends with them/are groupies/band-aids). Their performance this time around seemed a little less confident than other times that I have seen them. No doubt, they put on a good show and some of the sound issues could be blamed on the sound tech who blew goats, but besides that, the confidence wasn't there. Maybe I was expecting a little more rockstar out of them. Perhaps that's something they could work on. Kevin's got the charisma to boot, but it's definitely something that FKB can work on.
They did, however play my favorite song of theirs, "Five Foot Four." I SWEAR that song was written just for me. ^_^ There was a girl there who was filming a documentary on up and coming bands. I thought that was pretty cool. I joked with one of my friends that it was for the Francis Kim Band DVD to be released with the next album.
*****Break from 4:00PM-1:45AM*****
Happy And Sad Listening: You tell me I can go this far, but no more. Try to show me heaven and then slam the door. You offer shelter at a price much too dear and your kind of love's the kind that soon disappears.
So I took a break to go home after work and I didn't pick it back up before I went out, so here we start again.
Anyways, the Francis Kim Band. Good band. Seen 'em better though. Kevin So also played on the bill with his new version of his band called Midnight Snack. Truth be told, I like the old Midnight Snack. I mean, Andrew wasn't on the drums and Kona wasn't on the bass. Those were two big things for me. Also, Kevin didn't play my two favorite songs.
What made the night good was that I had a lot of friends there to chill with. Photogenic was there... taking photos and buying me drinks. Fester was there as was The Violent One. I knew the bands and some of their friends. It made it kind of fun.
Today, work was a bit hectic. One of the kiddies was out because he had a class and I was picking up some of the slack. I spent most of the day in anticipation of seeing London Calling and going to see DJ Shadow. I thought about that a lot today. I anticipated it. Somehow it put me into a calm.
I remained in this calm lasted up until I met with London Calling. Before the show, we went to get bubble tea at Cassava. She commented on my chillness. I think it was mostly because she was bouncing off the walls in excitement.
Okay, it's a quarter to four and I have to work two jobs tomorrow... well, one job and a volunteer thing. I should go to sleep. I'll write more about today tomorrow.
My Experience With Soggy Bottoms Listening: What about me? It isn't fair. I don't have enough, now I want my share. Can't you see? I wanna live, but you just take more than you give.
I don't know what it is with my sleep patterns as of late. I, again, woke up late. It's just a huge pain in the ass. I could blame it on going to Rise, but I know that, two days into the week, it's not that. Last night, I ended up going to sleep at two something. I woke up at three, because a couple of songs popped into my head and I had to go either write them down or download them. Well, my computer was already on, so I just upped and downloaded them. In case you're wondering, they're two minor hits from the late eighties. Eric Carmen's "Turn The Radio Up" and Moving Pictures' "What About Me?" I know, I know... A lot of you haven't heard of these songs or don't remember them, but I have some really good memories of these songs. It was well worth getting up at three to download them.
Today at work... well, it was today at work. There wasn't much more to say than that.
I did, however, go to the gym today. It was uppers today, and I kicked my ass. My upper body is soooooo tired. My left shoulder aches too. I don't know what I did to it. There were no jerking motions or anything like that, but it just hurts. Bah! This sucks. I think I may have over worked myself. I nearly cut my weight in half and did a number more reps. I dunno. It was just fuct.
When I left the gym, it was raining. Hard. It sucked. I ran into a friend from college on the T. She randomly met Shoeless and her man at a birthday party last week. It was strange.
The walk home sucked something fierce. Water dripped from my umbrella to my bag and then from my bag onto my pants, right at hip level, soaking my pants. It sucked. And it was a long walk home with soggy pants. Unlike Kaz, from "Gung Ho," I do NOT like the way my shorts feel when they're wet. G'damn.
Anyways, it's early and I have to do dishes and make coffee before I fo to sleep at a reasonable hour. I'm tired and achy anyway. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to the Middle East to see a show, and that's pretty much it. Sleepy. Must wash dishes now.
The Long And Short Of It Listening: I have some food in my bag for you, not the edible food the food you eat. No, perhaps some food for thought.
So this weekend really was quite good. Last you heard from me, I was just back from a good night of seeing Junkie XL and going to Rise. I ended up going to sleep sometime around six and didn't wake up until three or so. I got a call from Carpenter at like one, but I went to sleep after talking to him.
After I did wake up and called Carpenter back, we decided to get together with Emeril. We met up at Virgin Records on Newbury at a quarter past five. A long ass time ago, Emeril e-mailed me looking for ten canonical electronica albums. I couldn't help him out. I just couldn't whittle it down to ten. There are so many sub-genres and subtle nuances. So, instead, we went to the dance section of the store and I walked him through the section artist by artist. I think I may have overloaded him with information. It was quite amusing. We just went through all of the "important" artists A to Z and then through the DJs A to Z. I had a lot of fun doing it too.
After a jaunt through Virgin, we went and had dinner at La Famiglia Giorgio's down the street. I haven't had diavalo sauce in quite some time, so I opted for that. It was pretty damn yummy. Now, what happens when you get three single guys together around a table? The dialogue gets crass. We started talking about some of the most humorous things that have been said on a date or that have happened on a date. Mine was that the girl said she was passionate about being passionate about nothing. This was easily topped by a girl saying that if she won the lottery, she would spend her time and money basket weaving and the girl who seemed perfectly normal until she got all Christian and started talking about Jesus and claiming that she had done extensive research and decided on that partiular faith without actually reading what some critics of Christianity had said. Both of those topped mine.
After that, we headed back towards the Virgin end of Newbury and stopped into CD spins. Emeril wanted an education, so I gave him an education. I got him to buy six discs with varying styles to see what he dug. We started with some Shamen, some Robert Miles, some William Orbit, some DJ Deep, some Artful Dodger, and something else that I can't remember. Very cheap stuff.
Following the CD binge on Emeril's part, we got some Christina's ice cream and chilled at my place. We played some of the DJ Deep stuff and watched MTV's Pimp My Ride. It was a good time. The ice cream flavours of the day were Mexican Chocolate and Creme Fraiche. It was good stuff.
On Sunday, I woke up late again. While I hung out with Carpenter and Emeril, Ye-ah called me an invited me to a pot luck at his place. It was like ten when he invited me, so it didn't leave me much time to think about what I was going to make. When I woke up, I had no clue what to make. I invited Fester to come with and when he went out to get his groceries, he figured out that a lot of the grocery stores were closed because of Easter. Damn Christians. So I had to look around at what I had in my house to figure out what to make.
It turned out that I had all of the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies according to a recipe that I found on Allrecipes.com. So I went at it. It wasn't a conventional chocolate chip cookie recipe, seeing as it used no white sugar, no vanilla, and used melted butter. The dough was extremely stiff. So stiff that I actually needed reassurance. So I called Fester up knowing that he made cookies on a regular basis. He reassured me that it was an unconventional recipe, but should work out fine.
I only had one cookie sheet, so I ended up taking to top part of my broiler pan and covering that with foil as a second cookie sheet. Yeah, ghetto fabulous. So, they were plain white chocolate chip cookies, and truth be told, they came out pretty damn good, considering that I haven't made cookies from scratch in well over four years. I'm much more of a savory person.
Anyways, I went to the potluck with cookies in hand and it seemed like people enjoyed them. I'm not that great at gauging sweet foods, since my palette is geared so much more for the savory. A lot of the time I think it's just too much.
There were a lot of Ye-ah's students there, his brother and a couple of other people that I knew. It was a good time though. The food wasn't bad. Anti-Scott showed up late as did The Violent One. There was this one really cute girl that showed up late as well. Very very cute. I can't for the life of me remember her name though.
Something that really pissed me off that night though. Stringbean was there at the party at the beginning and then went out for a date at seven and was back before nine. The first thing out of her mouth was "he was short." Man. I don't think any of you really understand how this kind of thing affects me. See, I have always been considered short, and I understand that some people prefer taller men. But when it's the first thing out of your mouth when describing someone, I take real offense to it. I mean, I take serious offense. I don't care if you say, "Brotha was toe-up" or "Brotha wasn't put together very well." But when the first thing out of your mouth is, "he was short," that kind pisses me off. Honestly, just because someone's short doesn't mean that they're not cool and I am sick and tired of short people being discounted because they're short. I expect more out of friends. I mean, fuck that shit. I wouldn't date anyone who would rule someone out because of that or who would mention that as the first thing out of their mouth when talking about a date. I prefer to date someone with a heart and a mind. I wouldn't want to date anyone who would treat me as a second class citizen because I'm "not tall enough to ride this ride." You know what? Y'all can take a ride on my middle finger. You don't know how? Well, just sit and spin.
After I got home, I started on my chores. I had a sinkful of dishes, a basket full of clean laundry to fold and iron, and some e-mails that I needed to send out. It didn't help the speed of the process that The Fifth Element was on TV and I had some friends IMing me. I actually like folding clothes. I dig it. I like how it all fits neatly into the proper spaces and stuff. I normally say I'm pretty good at it. While I was ironing, though I think a mishap happend. I didn't notice until I hung up my maroon button down shirt. It looked like it had little white spots in the pattern of the steam vents on the iron. I didn't hold the iron on the same place for a long time. I might have pushed the steam button and that might have done it. I hope it'll come out when I wash it again. I would hate to lose that shirt.
As you saw, I got to bed at around three or three thirty last night. With the sun streaming in, I was woken up at around six or so. When I woke up, I was fine. I started the day off strong. Unfortunately, it didn't last. Around eleven, I started to fizzle and by the end of the day, I decided to pack in the whole idea of going to the gym and I went right home and I went to sleep.
I didn't wake up until eight thirty. I brushed my teeth and ate some dinner. While eating, I worked on a quiz on eHarmony.com, which is like a matchmaking service. The quiz took me forever, probably about an hour. After an hour of test taking, I submitted my answers and they basically told me that they couldn't help out someone with my personality. At first, I thought that it was just like a "Oh, we can't help you right away, because we have to calculate all of these things..." But Fester pointed out after I showed him the profile that it was a "No, our service can't really help anyone with your personality type." Can no one hook a brotha up? Maybe I'm just too short. *insert middle finger*
Tomorrow, tomorrow... I am most definitely going to the gym. I have to. I need to. Other than that I have nothing planned. I bought pea pods at See Sun Market, so I already have the stuff for dinner tomorrow. I'll just defrost some of the flank steak that I have in the freezer and make me up something de-lish. Hopefully I won't be tired tomorrow. Time to do dishes, make the coffee and go to sleep for the night.
Killer. Listening: My friend assures me it's all or nothing. I am not worried. I am not overly concerned.
This is a short post. It's ten to three and I have just finished my chores for the evening. I had a killer weekend and I'm predicting a killer week coming up. I'll update you on the weekend probably tomorrow sometime. This week will bring London Calling back from the abyss, which I'm pretty psyched about. We'll be going to see DJ Shadow, which I'm pretty psyched about. This weekend will be the Beer Summit which is run by OMG's boss' husband. I'm pretty psyched about that and if I have a large number of friends there, well, I'll be psyched about that too. There may or may not be Soul Revival on Saturday, but Raver Girl will be in town, which I'm pretty psyched about. I'm psyched about her engagement too. A week from Monday will be the Boston Marathon, which Blondie and Anti-Scott will be running in. I was asked by Blondie's spouse to be at the finish line area with a box of Krispy Kremes for him, since she will be in Japan at the time on business. I'm predicting a good eight days coming up. I think this weekend was a good prelude to it. It's time for me to go to sleep. Three hours of sleep before I have to get up for work. *sigh* Maybe I'll be ex-pat a year from now. Ahh, dreams. If only one of you would come true....
A Little Less Conversation... Listening: Choose the blue pill, choose the red pill.
It is exactly twenty five minutes past five and I can barely type. I don't know why that its. I haven't had that much to drink tonite. I was flasking it for part of the night though. I mean, if they can't serve past two, it doesn't mean that my friends and I can't serve ourselves.
Okay, an update on the evening's festivities. Unfortunately, I was unable to see LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad and Ming & FS. This was because the door between Axis and Avalon was shut all night long. Bastards. But I did get to see Junkie XL from start to finish. I think the best thing that he did was that he kicked off his set with his mix of Elvis's "A Little Less Conversation," so he wasn't obligated to play it later. He tore that shit up tonite like it was his job though. It was a truly kick ass set. It reminded me a lot of Dance Valley. It was exactly like seeing him at Dance Valley, except for the facts that it was indoors, I was seeing him from ten feet away and in Amsterdam, I wasn't surrounded with completely lame losers. Damn, I hate Boston club crowds. They don't know anything.
Oh yeah, I have to say that JXL's set was especially good because he didn't spin one record. He did all of his stuff live PA with a Korg synthesizer, a sampler and some other equip that I couldn't get a good look at. It was awesome. JXL is such a rockstar. He was pulling all sorts of rockstar moves on stage and was playing the crowd like Johnny Chan would play a pair of pocket bullets. He had that crowd in the palm of his hand. It was thoroughly unreasonable how enthralled I was with the performance. He killed me completely.
After we left Avalon, Special K, Shoeless (yeah, that's the hot girl with the boyfriend that I met last time I went out), and I headed to Rise. My dancing clone was there. We greeted each other. I really don't have anything to say to her other than "Hey" and "I like the way you move" (ba-dump-bum). So it was the three of us drinking rum and Pepsi then rum and juice from the flask. We people watched most of our time there. The upstairs uptempo room was hot and sticky as hell. There was also an overwhelming number of guys up there. Much more fun being downstairs in the downtempo room, which wasn't all that downtempo. We left there at around five.
It's now ten to six. I see the sun peeking over some buildings on the horizon. I'm still a little awake and I'm talking to Shoeless on IM. She's awake too. We're very similar people. We drink at the same pace too. Quality. Okay, I'm going to finish up my juice and then I am going to go to sleep. Good thing I ain't got anything going on tomorrow. I'm gonna just sleep and fold laundry all day. Anyways... Maybe you'll hear from me tomorrow.
Damn You, Christians, But I'll Take The Day Off Listening: By now I should know better. Your dreams are never free.
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was so tired by the end of the day, or rather by the middle of the day that I couldn't even think about posting anything. All day it seemed like people's asses were dragging. Fester said that he felt like he was constantly a half step behind all day long. People were yawning all over my office and it was just a bad scene. I think that if it had been dark outside, I would have fallen asleep at my desk. I would have put on the Lost In Translation Soundtrack and I would have fallen asleep with my nose on the space bar. My workers weren't really on the ball all day either. They were sort of lollygagging around. That's my job. I'm the only lollygagger on the floor. They should all be scurrying. Me, lollygagging. Them, scurrying. That's how it should work. Alas, no. But then again, when does everything go as it should?
Also on Thursday, I had the long postponed meeting with my new boss' new boss. He's a cool guy. He used to manage the group next to mine when SCUBA was my boss. But he got a promotion at the same time as my new boss got the okay with his lateral move. Anyways, it was a lot of talk about what kinds of changes I would like to see in the near future and so on and so forth. But soon enough, we got to the whole "Where do you see yourself going?" thing. I gave him the standard, "You know, I'm not sure... But if I stay with this company...." Basically, I told him that I had my eye on the job that was left vacant when he moved up. And I was planning on doing that or finding a way to get and ex-pat post. So we talked about that quite a bit. He told me that if I wanted to go ex-pat, he could help me. It would mean a couple of things. First, it would mean that I shouldn't go for the manager position that was made vacant by him. Second, it would mean that I would have to move over to the other side of the business from what I do. He said that he would start looking for places to send me within our unit. That's what another girl did. She got a posting to get to know that side of the job, as opposed to the side that I work on now. He said that he could probably make a deal where I was only committed for six months before I could post out to ex-pat positions. That's kind of a sweet deal. I would love to post out to Europe or somewhere other than the United States. With our company's acquisition of another company, it is creating a lot of new ex-pat postings. I wish I could get more specific with all of this stuff, but I think it would be unwise, professionally to go about talking about all of the different fascets of The Corporation. And besides, I think y'all would think that it's lame. Hey, I even think it's lame.
Right after work, I crashed out for a little while before I had to run to Harvard Square. The Violent One was in one of the many shorts that were a part of The 48 Hour Film Project. She was in a short called "Irish Blood" which was definitely one of the top two if not the best film in her pool. There were some ultra lame ones and some really shitty ones, but there were a couple that really shined. "Irish Blood" was very well done. I was surprised. The last time I saw The Violent One act, she was playing an old Chinese woman with a really shitty Chinglish accent. In this movie, she played a Japanese organized crime boss. This role was much better suited for her. I'm sorry, but The Violent One will NEVER be mistaken for someone of Chinese descent, unless they think of us all as "Orientals." But she was good in this short. Real good. Very proud of mei mei.
Before the screening, I asked her what the project was all about and I found out that what happens is that they get all of the people in a room, they pick genres out of a hat, and are told the three elements that need to be in the movie, in this case, there had to be a garden hose used as a prop, the line "So what's the plan now, braniac?" and a character who was a pastry chef named Spudgy McGonnagle, and then they have 48 hours to film, edit and finish a film. I thought it was awesome. I really want to do it next time they have one in Boston. I would really just want to write for one of these films. The challenge of working all of the elements into the story with the given genre and the time constraints sounds like a rush. To top it all off, the film can only be eight minutes long. Sounds so cool.
After the films, I stopped by MIT on my way home. I thought that Carpenter would be at the dance, but he wasn't. I think that it was my first time out dancing in about two months. I only danced with one person. I wasn't really there to pick up on all of the new undergrad eye candy. Undergrads... *shutter* I danced two dances, looked at the eye candy and left before the dance was over. Carpenter wasn't there and Emeril wasn't there either. Those are the two people that I would have been there to see. So after a while I just bounced out.
Today was... Well, I don't really know. I didn't spend a lot of time on the web at work. This one client called me up and was really frikkin annoying. It's like this woman can't organize her thoughts before she calls me up. Okay, I'm going to list all of the bad things about this client, just because I feel the need to vent about her. First, she calls me up without examining all of the information available to her provided to her by my company. Second, she can't seem to organize her thoughts. She's going a mile a minute, but there's no logical thought process to what she says. She's going backwards and forwards and is jumping all over the place when she's trying to explain what she doesn't understand. She can't just cut to the minimum information. I would get into that, but it would be hard explaining without actually naming names and such. Third, she has a thick Chinglish accent. Okay, it's one thing to be disorganized. It's another thing to be lazy. It's another thing to have a mouth that goes at a mile a minute, and even another thing to have English as your second language. When you put it all together, do you know what we get? ZEN!!! getting annoyed as fuck and trying desperately to be polite and not blurt out, "HOLY FUCKING SHIT, ARE YOU AN IDIOT?!? HERRO? HERRO? You readie Engrish? GROW SOME BRAIN CELLS AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE ASKING ME BEFORE YOU CALL ME UP!" Yeah. I dealt with her a couple of times today.
I really have no clue what else I did today at work. Oh yes, I added a Creative Commons license onto my page. After reading all of the stuff that Hipstomp has been going through with people plagarizing his content (word for word, mind you), I decided to make it clear that my shizzle is not to be plagarized. I have no problem if I'm quoted and I'm given credit (where credit is due). I spent a lot of time looking at all of the material on the Creative Commons website. Very interesting stuff.
After work, it was to the gym with me. It was all lower body stuff today. You know, I realize that my lower body is so much stronger than my upper body. I'm looking to even the playing field though. I want to be strong all over. It was a good workout today, both weights and cardio. I think the reason that I was having such a shitty time last time was because I was tired to begin with and plus the music I was listening to on the eliptical was much more intense than what I was listening to today.
The hot halfie was at the gym again today. I saw her during my intermission between weights and cardio when I switch my CD and my water bottles. I thought for sure that she was going to come up stairs, so I made sure that the eliptical next to mine was free (because that's what happened last time). When she didn't show up, I was heartbroken. Well, not really, but I was somewhat disappointed. When I went downstairs to change, I saw her again. She was in a "Bootcamp" class that actually looked good. I think that I'm going to try it next Thursday. I think that it would be good for me to get someone to push me into doing calisthetics. I dig the pushups, but the sit ups, I need someone to really push me to do those. But, yeah.... She was in a class. *Swoon* But I can't really meet someone at the gym. I would just feel slimy, like guys who "pick up" girls in bars or clubs. I'm so not that guy.
So, today was the first day since I got back into the gym that I actually felt good coming out of the gym. I felt productive and energized. I was psyched about that.
Anyways, over the past week or so I have been IMing with this girl that I shot a note to on Boston.com Personals. She mentioned some ZEN!!! catch phrases including a line from "Before Sunrise" and Henckel knives, music and food, so I felt obligated to shoot her the note. Turns out she's a cool chick. We have a lot in common and can talk music until the cows come home. I met her for the first time tonite at the Diesel. It was kind of odd, but our first in person conversation flowed just as well as the ones that we have had over IM. It was cool. So we sat and chatted from eight thirty until eleven thirty. We basically got kicked out of the place. Good conversation though.
Anyways, that's been my last two days. Tomorrow, LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad and Ming & FS in one room and Junkie XL in the other room. I'm gonna get schitzo trying to decide which room I want to be in. Special K is gonna be going late. I think the cute girl that I met at Avalon with her boyfriend (damn I gotta get this girl a name, though she hasn't earned one yet) should be going to. Hopefully Kandi Thug and some others will come too. I may go to Rise for after hours too. It should be a good night.
During the day though, my plans are to get my hair cut and do laundry. Sounds fun, huh? I think I'll make some pasta with veggies and pesto for dinner tomorrow too. That should be yummy. It's gonna be a "ZEN!!!'s gonna treat himself nice tomorrow and is gonna take it easy." kind of a day tomorrow. Then dance like a fiend tomorrow night. Yay. Speaking of night, it's about time for me to go to sleep.
A Good And Bad Day Listening: It's not right, but it's okay. I'm gonna make it anyway. Pack your bags up and leave. Don't you dare come running back to me.
This is going to be another short entry. I have good update and bad update. We'll go with the bad update first, just to get it out of the way.
So, I went to the gym after work and I just had the worst work out. I was working the upper body today and it was like I had no strength at all. I know how much I can normally do on each machine, but today, I could barely pump out seven reps on each set. I usually do twelve rep sets. I just felt so weak. It was very strange. I was lifting for about a half hour or so when I finally gave up. I was doing myself no good and I think I was on the verge of hurting myself, or at least making a fool of myself.
So, I go down to the "cardio theater" to go do my eliptical work out and I'm struggling with that as well. I set the machine for level eight and for thirty minutes. It was exactly what I had it set for last time I was in the gym. This time, it kicked my arse. I had to force myself to only drink water every five minutes. I guzzled so much water at the gym it wasn't even funny. I talked my way through the work out, telling myself stuff like, "Okay, you're one sixth of the way done... Keep on pluggin'!" "You're almost halfway done.... Push it!" and "You're over half way done, just suck it up and push the rest of the time out!" I think the one thing that helped me was that in the last ten minutes, this REALLY smokin' halfie (half sumthin' asian, half sumthin' white) got on the eliptical next to me. Yeah. I had to look good for that. Wow, pretty.
Anyways, that was the bad update. The good update is that while I was at work today, I got my new earbuds. YEAH, BABY! They rock. The sound is so clear, and I don't have to have my music turned up nearly as high as I did with my other earbuds or my other headphones. They're ultra light and lodge themselves in my ear canal. It's complete closure, so that there's no stray bass escaping or anything like that. I hear it all. In addition, they block out sound from the outside. I was wearing them coming home from the grocery store and my neighbor pulled up next to me and asked me if I wanted a ride. I didn't realize this until after I pulled out my headphones upon seeing the nose of his car pacing me. Yah... They're so wonderful. They come with a really cool little case and so on and so forth.
So it's late so I'm gonna go brush my teeth and hit the sack. Mmmm.... Sleep... You are my friend, sleep. Why can't you visit me more often?
What's Up? I Am. Listening: Music is worthless unless it can make a complete stranger break down and cry.
So last night was weird. Coffee hasn't ever really affected me late at night. I have had like twenty cups of after dinner/dessert coffee and I have been fine to go to sleep at a regular hour. Well, regular for me. Last night, I had a medium cup of Dunkin' coffee after dinner at Glare and Totoro's place and I just couldn't get to sleep. If you read the previous entry, you'll see that I stopped blogging around four or so. I went right to bed. My sleep mix is just over two hours long, because it's not rare for me to just lay in bed listening to the music as I think (yeah... I know... It's bad on so many levels... Me thinking.). I faded out after a half hour and woke back up an hour later and then went back to sleep in and out between then and the end of the mix, which was right before I was supposed to wake up to get ready to go to work. Yeah. It sucked.
Today's day at work was surprisingly productively. I must have, unbeknownst to me, bitten some of my co-workers in my zombie state, turning them into zombies as well, and forcing them to do my bidding. "PICK UP MY REPORTS, ZOMBIE SLAVE!" "CHECK YOUR REPORTS THOROUGHLY, ZOMBIE SLAVE!" "MAKE ME A CHICKEN POT PIE, ZOMBIE SLAVE, AND THIS TIME NO ROTTING FINGERS IN IT!" But, anyways, I got a lot of work done for the amount of Rocket Mania I was playing and the lack of brain power that I had running.
The plan for after work, normally, would have been to go to the gym and work the uppers (body muscles not the pills). Instead, I went home and crashed from about five thirty until about half past eight. A little dinner. A little web based research, two units (ha ha - if you don't get it, you don't get it). And here we are now. Not much to say about this evening.
In other news, I think I may have found some people to go see LTJ Bukem with me. I think Special K is interested. Kandi Thug is kind of interested. I also think the cute taken chick that Special K and I met at Avalon with her boyfriend might want to come along too. I think it may be a good night out. Woo woo.
Anyways, it's one. Time to go to sleep... Hey, look. It's a normal hour for me.
Ummm... Check, Please. Listening:Oh, come on and have a drink with me. Sit down and talk a while. Oh I wish I could and I will, but now I just don't have the time.
This weekend was a rather interesting one. After a week of trying to entertain/cook for/play social coordinator for my brother who was in town from Montana and after a week of mind numbing work, Fester IMed me and asked if I would be up for rounding up a crew for sushi on Friday. I said I was up for it and I asked if my brother could join, because he was kind of sketchy with his plans and I think that if I didn't get him to come out, he would have stayed in and watched the NCAA tournament on TV, something he could have done back in Montana.
So, the group for sushi just ended up being four of us. It was myself, the brother, Fester and one of Fester's co-workers. It was an altogether good time. Fester was curious to meet the brother because he had heard stories about him from myself and my father during Thanksgiving. Actually, I think Booch and The Violent One also had stories that day too. I don't know. But, anyways, Fester was curious to meet him. We ate lots of sushi and drank a couple of Asahi Super Drys. I'm pretty sure a good time was had by all. Fester's co-worker came out because her significant other doesn't do the whole sushi thing and it was a good opportunity for her to go out.
After dinner, Fester's co-worker went home and the remaining three of us went to The Enormous Room to get drinks. We were only there for a couple of minutes before we snaked the prime corner seating area on the raised platform. It was perfect for people watching. It was right across from the small bar window and was high enough so that we could easily see anyone who happened to walk in. I had a couple of party fouls happen. First, I knocked my own gin gimlet a bit, splashing some onto my jeans, but not spilling it completely. Then when we moved to the corner raised platform, Fester accidentally shifted the weight on a two piece table, throwing the top off balance and spilling the rest of my gin gimlet. It was an accident, so, oh well.
We had a good ol' time sitting up there talking about the chicas running around. Fester accurately pointed out a chick that I thought was cute. She was asian, had her hair in two pigtails, and had a tat on her right arm. She had a bit of the pop-punk thing to her. But she was clearly with someone else, and quickly faded into the background. I was feeling particularly instigatory, so I pushed Fester to buy some girls some drinks. The first one was an asian girl in this big party of people who were all kind of dressed in eighties throwback clothing. I wasn't really down with the eighties throwback, but, hey, the girl was reasonable cute. So, we get the waitress to buy her a drink and she comes back with the line, "Oh, I don't drink." Damn, girl. Get a frikkin Rob Roy or a Shirley Temple. Anyways, that was her lame excuse. The second time around, we bought drinks for these two girls in line for the bar. Again, both were asian. I was in the bathroom when my brother was anxiously trying to flag our waitress. Drinks were bought by the time I got back from the pisser and a few minutes after I sat back down, the rather attractive one of the two came over and sat down to talk to Fester. She was a hot little half Japanese girl with olive skin and a little nose stud. Mmm... Piercings. She was really cool. I was really hoping that Fester would be able to keep up the conversation with her. It lulled in a few places. I tried to pick up the slack, but I really wanted him to hit it. It turned out that she was with a group of people who were there for a birthday and could only stay for a little while.
A short while after this girl left, we left The Enormous Room. I had had enough to drink. Enough to get me buzzed, but not enough to get me tanked. When we turned to leave, I can't find my fleece vest. I was pissed. I had just replaced my ear buds because the left channel was out. I just replaced my gym bag because the zipper busted with my shoes in it, so I had to cut the bag open with scissors before I was late for work. I didn't want to have to replace my fleece vest. I just did not want to have to shell out more duckets. So I asked around and no one saw it. They told me to call and ask about it the next day.
The next day, I got woken up by my grandparents at around half past ten or so. They wanted to know if my brother and I would be coming over for dinner. I told them that I had no clue what my brother was up to and that I would have him call. He was already out and about. He came back at noon and brought bacon I asked him to get the night before, but he was gone already by the time that half past ran around. After a shower and a brief glance at blogs, I made myself breakfast/lunch. I made myself a nice three egg omelette with broccoli and cheddar cheese. Instead of just folding over the omelette, I flipped it before I put everything in. It was kind of fun. It was difficult getting the whole piece free from the non-stick pan, but eventually everything was cooked enough to be free enough to flip. The one thing that was disappointing about the omelette was that I cooked way too much broccoli and the cheddar didn't melt as nicely as I would have hoped. To accompany it, I made four strips of bacon.
I spent the majority of the day getting to know my couch a little better. I knew it quite well, but you can never get to know some of your best friends even better. Pimp My Ride was on TV as was The World Series of Poker. They occupied a lot of my time. Six o'clock was dinner with the grandparents, and after I got home at half past seven, I called up The Enormous Room asking about my fleece. THEY HAD IT! Woo woo! I didn't have to spend more money on a fleece. It made me happy for a second.
So, I ran out to get my fleece. About halfway there I got a call from Fester asking me if I knew what we up with getting together with Digitaldewi later on that night. I told him that I was expecting a call from Digitaldewi telling me what was up, but I thought we were probably going to end up meeting around nine or ten downtown at Peking Tom's. So he called me up and asked if he could chill with me until we got the call. So, I picked up my fleece and met him on the way home and he came over and spun some rekkidz while we waited. We got the call around nine telling us to meet them at ten so we headed out at half past nine.
When we got to the T, I got another call from Digitaldewi telling us that she, Photogenic and another one of her friends were running behind and wouldn't be at Peking Tom's until eleven. Since Fester and I were already at the T, we decided to head into town anyways. With an hour to kill, we went to The Good Life, which is a jazz bar across the street from Peking Tom's. Fester and I got drinks there, watched the bartenders experiment with new drinks and chatted a bit. The hot girl bartender made a drink that Fester decided tastes like an animal cracker. It was such a mish-mash of ingredients including milk, graham cracker crumbs, Absolut Citron, Frangelico, triple sec, stoli vanilla among other things. It wasn't horrible.
After an hour, Fester and I headed to Peking Tom's. We were hoping that the girls were already there, so that we could get a waitress to bring them drinks from us, knowing full well that they would laugh their arses off when they saw that it was us that bought them drinks. That wasn't the case. They weren't in Peking Tom's when we got there. It was an amazing number of azn folk in that bar. I don't know how I felt like that. Photogenic said to me that she felt "Chinked out." I had to agree with her. I was a bit "Chinked out." Too many asians in one place, and that being the place where I am, makes me feel a bit odd, because I'm really a multicultural kind of guy.
Anyways, they arrived a bit later and we just chilled and drank. Digitaldewi had a shirt on that Photogenic had bought for her. It said "On the rebound... You'll do." It was hilarious. Furthermore, Photogenic kept asking random guys to take pictures with her. They're gonna come out really funny. I hope for Digitaldewi's sake that they don't end up on a blog. It could be embarassing as hell. It was funny as hell though. After a little while, Kandi Thug showed up. She's a riot. She totally misheard everything that night. She heard us talking about porn and strippers and the night just went downhill from there.
After Kandi Thug misheard something about strippers, she decided that since Digitaldewi and Fester had never been to a strip club, that we would have to go. So we paid the bill and Digitaldewi, Fester, Photogenic, Kandi Thug and I were off to Centerfolds. Now I have been to Centerfolds a couple of times with some people from work. Yeah, it was weird. But this time I was with three rather attractive (dare I say pretty?) girls. It was funny, because right off the bat, we got Digitaldewi a lap dance and we were looking for someone that Fester found attractive. It was fun. Drinks and dollar bills flying. For a while Digitaldewi and Fester left the table to sit right up against the stage. I had to throw a couple dollar bills up there to show them the ropes. Haha. It was amusing. I had so much fun watching Fester (though none of the women were his type) and Digitaldewi, because she seems to pure to me. It was great.
After the last pair of panties hit the ankles of the last dancer of the night, we split and went to get some grub at Kandi Thug's uncle's restaurant. There was so much food. At half past four (after the Spring Forward), I got a call from my brother saying that he was leaving for the airport and was leaving my keys on the table and the bottom lock locked. I totally didn't factor daylight savings time into the night. The night just felt so much shorter than it was. By the time I got home, it was five something. I went straight to sleep.
I woke up at one something because Totoro called me and invited me over for dinner. Between then and dinner, I showered, snacked and chatted with people over IM. Dinner was at six and I didn't leave their place until ten thirty or eleven.
I started trying to blog right when I got home at a few minutes past midnight, but I couldn't. I was listless. I still am listless. I ended up IMing with The Violent One for a while and then with PJ. PJ and I had one of our typical discussions trying to motivate me. We uncovered some stuff about me and why I haven't really gone anywhere. Well, more like I revealed some of it. I'm still listless, but my blog is now complete. It is ten to four. I'm not really tired. Just kinda wish I had someone to talk to right now. Nothing deep or anything. Just you know. Someone here. I should go to sleep. I need to be up un just over two or two and a half hours. Hopefully this week will go smooth. I won't hold my breath though.
What Do You Bring To The Table? Listening: Why do you build me up, Buttercup, baby, just to let me down and mess me around, and worst of all, you never call, baby, when you say you will, but I love you still.
Today, all in all, was a boring day at work. I spent a lot of time just sort of doing nothing. I got all of my work done earlier than usual and just sorta cruised the web most of the day. I think I got everything done early, because I was into work on time today.
This morning, The Violent One came over to my place at seven in the morning to use my shower. It turns out that hers was being re-caulked or the doors on her shower were being replaced or reset or something and she couldn't use her shower for twenty four hours or so. So, she came over to my place and used my shower. I guess it was pretty good for me, because it forced me to get up, answer my phone, buzz her in, open the door and interact with someone. I guess it was kind of awakening. With her, she brought some donuts. Because she was driving to Emerson to do some acting stuff before she went to work, I got a ride to work, hence being on time.
After work, I had a quick workout and then walked home in the rain, because I had lent my brother my umbrella. He had an interview today at Emmanuel College near the Fenway, so I figured that he needed the umbrella more than I did. I am such a good brother. I cook for the kid. I lend the kid my umbrella. I let the kid crash at my place. The funny thing is that I am the kid brother. In some ways, I feel like I'm more grown up than he is. I know that I don't have my shit together and that I wear baggy raver pants during my non-work time and stuff, but I
