February 10, 2007

Ooooomens are Spooooky

[Music] The Decemberists - When the War Came

Have you ever gotten the feeling that your surroundings were trying to tell you something? Had a creeping suspicion that mine were trying to deliver a message earlier. Around 10:45, David, Nima, Evan and I decided that we wanted to go play some miniature golf, and the only place we could think of that was close and open until midnight was this place called The Putting Edge over in the Marq*E center off of Silber. So, we set off on 610 North, only to pass a burning building. The building? Golf World. Strike one. Unshaken, we pressed on, found that the exit onto I-10 West was closed, and that we would have to drive almost up to 290 to be able to turn around. Strike two. We finally looped around and got back to I-10, only to find that the exit for Silber takes you two streets too far down, forcing us to make another U-turn. Strike three. If we had been paying attention, we would have gone home by now, but nope, we were determined to get our putt-putt on. When we arrived, what did we find? The Putting Edge hadn't been paying their lease, so they had closed up shop and gotten the hell out of Dodge. Single-minded determination is good sometimes, but I guess you gotta pull your head out from time to time.

At least we did get to go bowling, so the night wasn't completely wasted. Silver lining.

February 07, 2007

Report of My Demise Have Been Few and Far Between.....Wait, I Meant Premature

[Music] Great Big Sea - The Mermaid

It's late, so I'll try (and fail) to keep this short. Not much has been going on in my neck of the woods. Still rooming with David, still working at the radio station, still driving my crappy old car. But, times they are a-changing. I've been dealing with the bureaucratic mess that is the university's HR department, and as of next Monday, I will officially be a full-time web developer for KUHF Radio. Yes indeedy. Got the official offer today and everything. And you know what this means...new stuff! Yeah, I can finally buy stuff without having to feel guilty about it! I can get a new car! I can replace the monitor on my computer! I can take vacation days! I get health insurance! It's gonna be hell of awesome.

Speaking of a new car, I think my current car knows that I'm contemplating seeing other vehicles, and it's getting petulant. The CD player stopped working for one (and only one) night. The alarm sometimes rearms itself while I'm driving, or refuses to arm at all. The noises it makes might actually be getting louder. It's odd little things. Hopefully, it can make it for another couple of months so I can pay down some stuff and start amassing funds for the new vehicle.

I picked up Guitar Hero 2 last month, and it was everything I had hoped it would be and more. My initial assessment was correct: while playing, you look like an absolute dork, but it's really fun, so you don't care. I've bested Easy and Medium modes, but Hard is presenting a problem, namely that I now have to use more buttons on the guitroller (guitar + controller = guitroller) than I have readily available fingers. Practice might help. So yeah, whee!

Been picking up some new music such as the Decemberists, Royksopp and Great Big Sea. I haven't gotten a chance to listen to all of what I have gotten, but so far they're pretty awesome in their own rights.

Oh, and speaking of music, I upgraded my MP3 player. Ever since I upgraded the firmware and all, my Zen Xtra was acting kinda wonky. So, after scouring your nascent webs, I discovered that I could easily replace my player's hard drive. Now that little sumbitch can hold 80 gigs of music. Sweet, no? The best part is, the upgrade cost me $75. Compare that to an 80GB iPod, which will run you about $400. Now I just have to finish reorganizing my music collection so I can dump it wholesale onto my player with plenty of space left over! Mwa ha ha ha! I did find the warning on the page about how opening up the player will void my warranty, which would be a concern if the warranty hadn't expired over a year ago.

Finally, I am now on NetFlix. Since I'm going to finally have some positive cash flow going, I figured that now was a good a time as any. Oh, and within about 20 minutes of signing up, I already had about 45 movies in my queue. What can I say? I've got a lot of catching up to do. Can't call myself a proper movie nerd without having seen the movies, right?

And now, I sleep!