So Far I Have Not Found The Science

I generally try not to double post to my el-jay and the blog I actually use now, but this is too good to not post to as many places as possible.

Prodigy is I think maybe the best blogger ever

It's been a while since I've gotten out to any shows, so its probably as good a time as any to get some tickets and get ready to rock out.

Because rocking out is better with people, I will post a whole bunch of the main candidates to get some feedback from folks.

Travis Morrison Hellfighters are coming to Garfield Artworks on 3/7. It's the solo project of the former frontman of The Dismemberment Plan, who probably make my five favorite bands ever list, so I am definitely going. Fuck the haters who crapped on his solo stuff, the new album is streaming from his website and is quality. If you guys don't know his stuff, make me send you some Dismemberment Plan. Also, for serious, it is only $8. That's a bargain.

Stars are coming to Mr. Smalls on 3/30. They're on Arts & Crafts, so of course at least some of them are Broken Social Scene members, and they play electronic-tinged Boy/Girl dual lead vocal pop.

On 4/12, There's an interesting double bill in Homestead of New Pornographers (who I love) and Okkervil River (who I've heard once or twice). I intend to be at this show.

4/13 brings Mike Doughty back to Mr. Smalls, where I saw him a few years ago touring his last album. Since I saw that show, I'm withholding judgement here until I see if anyone else would go and until I pick up his new album and see if I love it such that I am compelled to see the new songs live.

http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/

Lightbox. Sometimes useful, but flow disrupting and kind of annoying javascipt image zoomer.

http://www.cabel.name/2008/02/fancyzoom-10.html

FancyZoom. Nicer looking, and preserves flow. Way to go, cabel.

Looking at the code, it looks like it always works on all images on a page, which makes it less flexible than Lightbox which goes image by image, but it is just a much better implementation from an aesthetic/HCI standpoint.

I have a twitter now, curious if that winds up useful in any way, or at least entertaining.

http://twitter.com/relaxatorium

Also re-found the faux Best of Blur cover thing that some nice British girl did for me. Icon'd!

Wow, that was a pheeeeeenominal game. A few basic points.

1. The Giants D played their balls off. Pushed around a great O-line like nothing.

2. Brady was definitely off with that ankle planting on deep throws, he made a few of those that came up short in a way he probably doesn't if the ankle's fully healthy. That's football though. If you want a sport where injuries don't happen, you root for pro bowlers.

3. The Pats could have ended that last drive three times, the sack that Manning weaseled his way out of and the picks that Samuel and Merriweather had slip through their fingers. You always remember those 'almost' plays.

4. Speaking of the Manning sack avoidance, wow, that's gotta be one of the all time top Superbowl plays now, right? Pretty much the defining play of this one.

5. 12 days until pitchers & catchers report.

I have friends who are big gadget guys, who can quote camera specs, know what 1080p is, all that stuff. I am normally not that big a gadget guy.

that said, daddy wants him a stylophone.

Watched the end of season 2 of Deadwood tonight, it was completely fucking badass.

It is finally the first day of the winter that is moustache freezingly cold.

As a reminder notice to those who might be interested in reading my other bloggy stuff, but don't have independent RSS readers setup (coughs significantly at mistergone), You can read my other blog (less personal stuff, more cultural stuff), at culturizer.

That is all for now.

By rights, this is the sort of thing I should be posting over at Culturizer, but I want to wait until I make some downloads and impulse purchases first to make a larger and more informative post and music filled post there about the genius that is Raymond Scott. for now, I just want to share this, which might be the best thing ever.

So, I am using CakePHP on a freelance project, and I was looking at their API, and it had google ads, and one of them was for Prantil's, advertising almond tortes.

I am suddenly wildly hungry.

Last night I dreamed that I was shot three times in the stomach.

I didn't die though.

Hot, hot Four Tet on Andrew Bird 'Imitosis' remix action.

Good shit.

Imitosis Remix

The reason that I am where I am now is that I have spent most of my life taking the path of least resistance.

If something does not come to me easy, I do not do what it takes to get that thing.

This is why my life never really changes, it just moves. It's pretty good, really (I am fucking lucky in so many ways), but fundamentally unsatisfying.

So, I have been trying to think of entertaining/crazy projects to throw some time into, and I think this is my favorite idea yet.

I came up with the idea when I saw that SourceForge has a Religion and Philosophy section, and then wondered why I always have to piss around on the web to find scattered plaintext versions of famous philosophical works.

They should really be packaged together in an easily downloadable, strongly and conveniently searchable form. My brain wants it to mostly be command line, but it should really be an API flexible enough that it could be done graphically as well. Scarily enough, the forces of philosophical knowledge are already far behind the Christians in this sort of endeavor.

Surely the grand pursuit of human knowledge deserves as much of a solid access/research API as the stupid Bible.

Wow, I definitely need to start working on some of my own projects.

I tried just relaxing today, doing nothing all day. Holy shit, it was so fucking boring. It's still so fucking boring. I am fucking bored as I write this, and will probably pop out of the apartment just to walk around or something, which will still probably be boring, but at least mobile and not involving any screens.

I'm not a smoker and never will be, but if I was I would carry around one of those long barbecue/candle lighters to light my cigarettes.

At 2:30 PM on Friday, after a morning of doing absolutely nothing and one last random joke filled conversation with my co-workers and project manager, threw my building badge to the floor in mock anger, said my goodbyes and walked out of my first post-college job. It wasn't quitting, it wasn't a firing, the contract just ended and I declined to accept an offer for another contract, as that project, even moreso than the one I was working on, just didn't come close at all to what I want to be doing with my life.

Now, as I see it, there are just about two directions that I am likely to go.

One is the path of least resistance. I hole up for a month or three, relax, recharge, putz around on a few of my own things, while taking the time to find a job that, while better and more in line with what I want to be doing, is not entirely dissimilar to what I just left. It's honestly not that bad a way to go.

The other is not nearly as well defined, but involved me finding something more interesting to do with myself.

I really don't know which way I am going to go.

Nov 3: Melt Banana w/Psyopus, Benedum Auditorium @ Pitt

Nov 10: Broken Social Scene (or just Kevin Drew I think, not sure) @ CMU

Nov 15: TMBG @ Mr. Smalls

Nov 19: Pipettes @ Diesel

I'll be buying tickets for these soon, except for Melt Banana, which I'll be grabbing at the door and BSS, for which I need to bum a freebie/cheapie from someone still @ CMU (anybody?)

So, who wants to see some Japanese noise rock tomorrow night?

12:00 AM - Awesome friends get engaged, Dave laughs in background.



12:00 PM - Boston Red Sox win second World Series in four years.



Oh yeah, in between, I drank and hung out with a ton of my friends and watched a bunch of football, including a massive amped crowd for the Steelers game and, oh yeah, that Pats game that went pretty well (52-7, my God).

Jeesus fook, this was a great day.

hey folks, I don't really use my andrew account anymore.

If you have something you would like me to actually read, please send it to david.l.stern(ATnospammynospammy)gmail.com

Then, I will read it, which is good for everybody.