Dave Hammond

Required Reading

2008-01-23T06:51:42Z

Alright - I'm in the need of some new music.

Figure out which ten artists you have the most tracks by in your library. Then, for each artist, give a short description of their music style, where you picked them up and pick one song for every ten you have that you would recommend.

The Descendents - 30 songs

Descendents are a high-energy fast paced punk band. I actually decided to try them out after hearing a recommendation for them in the NoFX song "13 Stitches"

Cool to Be You - Nothing With You
Cool to Be You - Dog and Pony Show
Cool to Be You - Mass Nerder
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The Aquabats! - 33 Songs

Typical ska/punk band out of Southern California. Erin Blass was kind enough to introduce me. They put on the best live show I've ever seen.

Myths, Legends and Other Amazing Adventures Vol. 2 - Pool Party
Myths, Legends and Other Amazing Adventures Vol. 2 - Pizza Day
The Fury of the Aquabats! - Super Rad
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Dave Matthew's Band - 33 Songs

Jazz funk, progressive guitar, and jam band mentality layered over smooth vocals. I probably heard about DMB first on the radio.

Under the Table and Dreaming - Rhyme and Reason
Under the Table and Dreaming - Typical Situation
Before These Crowded Streets - Crush
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Queen - 34 Songs

Freddie Mercury was quite arguably the best rock vocalist of all time, and Brian May arguably the best electric soloist of all time. I remember when my brother got me into these guys back in 5th grade. I still love 'em.

A Night at the Opera - Bohemian Rhapsody
Jazz - Don't Stop Me Now
The Game - Save Me
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The Streets - 38 Songs

When I first heard The Streets I described them as British Punk Rap. I'd still describe them that way, but Mike Skinner's rhythm's have really grown on me. I picked up Fit But You Know It on a demo disc in Zia Records in Tempe.

A Grand Don't Come for Free - Could Well Be In
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living - When You Wasn't Famous
Original Pirate Material - Stay Positive
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Yellowcard - 50 Songs

Kerry Ward got me into Yellowcard, my sophomore year of college. That was the year my musical tastes changed. They're pretty much pop/emo punk. A lot of their stuff is catchy, but the vocals and heavy harmonization are what really get me.

Ocean Avenue - Only One
Lights and Sounds - Holly Wood Died
One for the Kids - Something of Value
One for the Kids - Big Apple Heartbreak
One for the Kids - A.W.O.L.
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Garth Brooks - 51 Songs

Nothing but Classic shit-kicking country. I can't remember when I started listening to Garth Brooks, but I think it was back about 3rd grade.

The Chase - Dixie Chicken
No Fences - Mr. Blue
Ropin' The Wind - Shameless
In Pieces - Ain't Goin' Down 'till the Sun Comes Up
In Pieces - Kicking and Screaming
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The Beatles - 55 Songs

I don't think the Beatles need any explanation - father's of modern pop and all pioneers of rock. How I only have 55 songs is a mystery. First time I heard them? I dunno. When I was born? Abbey Road is the first album i can remember listening to.

Abbey Road - Oh! Darling
Abbey Road - You Never Give Me Your Money
Abbey Road - Golden Slumbers
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Please Please Me - I Saw Her Standing There
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The Ramones - 59 Songs

The Ramones are likely what you associate when you think "Punk Rock." They more or less pioneered the genre. I got into them after downloading an anthology to see what all the fuss was about the last time I was big into expanding my library.

Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
Leave Home - California Sun
Rocket to Russia - Surfin' Bird
Too Tough to Die - Howling at the Moon
?? - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
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NoFX - 66 Songs

I've heard NoFX called many things - poly punk, comic punk, but they're really just modern punk rock. They've got some very original stuff too. Rob introduced me to them one day without my asking. It took me a bit to warm up to them.

The Decline - The Decline
I Heard They Suck Live - The Brews
So Long and thanks for all the Shoes - Champs Elysees
The War on Errorism - 13 Stitches
The War on Errorism - We Got Two Jealous Agains
Wolves in Wolves' Clothing - The Man I Killed
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The Vandals - 97 Songs

I was rather surprised that I had more Vandals than anything else - I'd call them comic punk. This is another band I picked up from recommendation by NoFX - this time from We Got Two Jealous Agains - "I knew you were for me when I saw the first Vandals EP" (singing about this girl who had shitty taste in music, but he realizes by the middle of the song that she actually shares a lot of music interests with him.. Anyway, they list off a lot of good punk albums, and I took a lot of that advice to hunt down those bands.)

When in Rome, Do as the Vandals Do - Viking Suit
Hitler Bad, Vandals Good - I've got an Ape Drape
Hitler Bad, Vandals Good - Idea for a Movie
Hollywood Potato Chip - Don't Stop Me Now
Hollywood Potato Chip - Don't Make Me Get My Fat, Lazy Ass Off This Couch...
Live Fast Diarrhea - I have a Date
Live Fast Diarrhea - And Now We Dance
Look What I Almost Stepped In - Jackass
Look What I Almost Stepped In - Flowers are Pretty
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Anyway, that's what the upper end of my library looks like. I'm eager to see what yours are. I'll be ready to do some downloading :-)

From the Magpie's email list:

2007-11-01T15:54:41Z

WOMAN'S DIARY

Saturday 20th October 2007

Saw him in the evening and he was acting really strangely. I had been
shopping in the afternoon with the girls and I did turn up a bit late so
thought it might be that. The bar was really crowded and loud so I
suggested we go somewhere quieter to talk. He was still very subdued and
distracted so I suggested we go somewhere nice to eat.

All through dinner he just didn't seem himself; he hardly laughed and
didn't seem to be paying any attention to me or to what I was saying. I
just knew that something was wrong. He dropped me back home and I
wondered if he was going to come in; he hesitated but followed.

I asked him again if there was something the matter but he just half
shook his head and turned the television on.

After about 10 minutes of silence, I said I was going upstairs to bed. I
put my arms around him and told him that I loved him deeply. He just
gave a sigh and a sad sort of smile. He didn't follow me up but later he
did, and I was surprised when we made love. He still seemed distant and
a bit cold, and I started to think that he was going to leave me and
that he had found someone else. I cried myself to sleep.

========================================================

MANS DIARY:

Saturday 20th October 2007

England lost to South Africa. Gutted. Got a shag though.

This pisses me off.

2007-10-03T15:32:00Z

http://wcbstv.com/local/local_story_275172255.html

Got the article from fark. Maybe I'm just a little disillusioned with the human race right now because its before nine in the morning and I'm only on my second cup of coffee, but what the fuck, people?

These teachers should not be in any sort of trouble - the exercise teaches critical thinking and the ability to look at the controversial side of an argument. Its not as if there is a realistic fear of these kids growing up to be plantation owners and own slaves of their own. If its truly a concern of the parents that this might impress bad ideals on their children, perhaps they should carefully examine their parenting.

My fifth grade teacher had our class do a very similar exercise - where we had a whole classroom debate on whether or not slavery was a good idea. Half the class got assigned to one side of the argument, the other half to the other side. I happened to be on the "slavery" side. It stands out in my mind as an assignment that really taught me how to understand the root cause of the conflict during the time period. Guess what? To this day, I own no slaves.

Forgive the curtness and likely improper grammar. I'm angry and groggy.

Day 3: Flagstaff 10s

2007-09-23T09:09:49Z

I woke up at 5am this morning. I don't even do that on weekdays, how do they expect me to do it on rugby days? Admittedly, it was my own fault, as i did not want to pay the extra $40 to stay in the hotel for the night, and wanted the freedom to come back down to Phoenix.

i arrived in Flagstaff at about 7:30, trekked to the hotel where all the 'pies were gathered, and eventually set out for the fields.

We got to the fields and there was a bit of a problem - see, my shorts ripped at the last game of last season. I've got no rugby shorts. I was told that ballsout rugby would be there - for all of our rugby needs, but the guy who supplies them with black shorts had not yet showed up (we'll forget that I ordered a pair of shorts from them 2 weeks ago... its kind of ridiculous that I would have to buy another pair from them even after being forced to wait so long for my hooker-shorts.)

Anyway, we rushed around, in typical Magpie fashion, and didn't begin warming up (with shorts from the rather tardy and hungover ballsout representative) 5 minutes before our first match.

Our first match was honestly pretty close. This was pretty suprising. There were errors that weren't present this year that there were last year. Last year, the Magpies were notorious for arguing with the referees, and generally playing sloppy rugby, but in this first match, we showed up, and on a lucky pick, Scottsdale won, 5-0.

By midway through the first game, it had started pouring. Now, I generally like the rain, but rain in Flagstaff sucks balls. Did you know its fucking cold up there?

Somewhere before we decided to go watch one of our old teammates play for Yuma, I had this picture snapped of everyone who played front row that game:

From left to right, we've got:

Ed Down - my trusty tighthead prop. Also known as the "loud englishman." for his boistrous - and rather common - voice on the field.

Me

Trevor Pappas - he played some loosehead prop the first game, second half. Truthfully, he's a lock, and a damn good one at that, but its good to have someone to spread around. This is one of the rookies (though he played for the U-19's, I believe)

Ben (something.) - This guy shows a lot of promise at loosehead prop. For someone who hasn't played the position before, I can't think of any advice i could give to him to improve him. In the third game, he got a chance to hook a little bit, and he did pretty well there as well, so i'm thinking he might just be adept in scrums.

The second game was rather frustrating - We played Phoenix, who is notoriously bad. We played them well too. We were up 7-0 at the half, and I was pretty pumped up. I had gotten a steal in the scrum, laid a few hits, and was ready to tear someone's head off. Sadly, the altitude and fatigue got to a lot of the guys in the second half, and we ended up losing 7-17. Quite honestly, it should have been a much more respectable 7-10, but we stopped playing at one point.

The next couple of hours were a little hellish. Though we all knew we didn't come to this tournament to win, it didn't bode well for the season to begin on this down of a note. We started tearing each other apart a little bit (and I'm not without fault here... i got particularly unreasonably angry with our new scrum-half) and that doesn't help matters at all.

I was pretty beaten up by the third game, so I was more than happy to sit out the first half and let Ben have a crack at Hooker. I stood on the touch line, and watched one of the rookies score a try. It was pretty impressive. I started in the second half down 7-5, but this was soon turned around as we picked up a few very good looking tries.

Seriously, it was like all of the rookies started to understand the game (the entire point of the trip!) and the people who have been playing longer actually started clicking. Admittedly, my scrums sucked in that third game, but my open field play shone pretty well (I nearly got a try, and would have, had Tim not beaten me to the punch, and a second time, my offload pass while being tackled led one of the rookies to score a try.) We looked good out there in our third game, and it was definitely a nice change to win a game for once (we haven't won a game in actual play since the beginning of last year against Phoenix.)

I wish I could have stayed around a bit longer for the team social, but I had to immediately drive back down to Phoenix.... and might I say - the drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff is far worse than the drive from Tucson to Phoenix will ever dream of being!

Day 2:

2007-09-20T07:23:52Z

Yeah. Mansfield hasn't gotten any softer.

It was a bitch to get started at practice today. I mean, I was tired after the first practice, and the first practice was hard, but at about 7pm yesterday, my legs went from "rubber" and not wanting to work to full-on "holy shit I'm sore" status. I couldn't even touch them today because of how sore they were. Imagine my horror as I stepped out onto that concrete-like grass to play touch today.

We had 18 guys out there tonight, which is a step up from the first practice. Oddly enough, we had more new guys than veterans. As such, drilling went a little slower, but at least the new guys want to work. It pissed me off a couple of times to see a couple of the older guys saying "fuck it" to the fitness and taking a breather while the rest of us worked our asses off. Steve took a lot of flak for yelling out in frustration: "for fucks sake, if you don't want to be here, leave" - but the truth is, I really agree with him. It sends a horrible example to the new guys, and its the second practice for fucks sake.

Standardized warmup again. More fucking gorilla jumps. Fuck I hate gorilla jumps. They are the sole reason that i am sore right now.

After some passing drills, we worked on tackling. See, we've got a game (three, actually) on Saturday, and many of these guys haven't made a tackle in their life. I got through to Kalob (side - I found out its actually spelled that way) though, and he started making some hits. At one point he landed me right on my ass. Right on that old tailbone bruise. That's gonna make tomorrow suck. One of the new guys got stood up hard enough to knock the wind out of him and take him out for the night. Hell of a first night. Something tells me he won't be back this year.

We set up the forwards for Saturday. We're going to have an interesting pack this year. Out of 8 guys, 4 are new. Myself at hooker, Ed at Prop, John at Flanker, and Dieff at eightman. Hopefully the new guys pick it up pretty quick. Even Steve moved from wing to Scrum half, so I've been trying to train him to get the put-in at the correct moment. Saturday is going to be... interesting. At least we have 2 dedicated props now. I'm very happy about that. No more Dennis at prop - put him at center or flank. Somewhere the mofo can hit someone already.

We also sorted out the line-out. Only zorb knows why, but Rouff decided to have Kalob jump. Kalob is about 2 inches shorter than John. As such, my first two throws, exactly 2 inches too high for Kalob. No, nobody was impressed with this except me. I think maybe John was too, because he didn't yell at me, like usual when he can't reach my always perfect passes, but either way... I've got to get my throws down. All I know is I'm glad I'm not the one being lifted. My feet belong firmly on the ground.

Moving on to look towards Saturday though - its going to be interesting. Just counting out in my mind, I'd say about 5 of the starters will be new, 5 will be veteran. I'm gonna go ahead and venture a guess that there will be no mauling, and minimal rucking. (Do you even maul in League / 10's? Anybody? Bueller?) Most 10's players will be smaller though, I'm assuming.. so assuming I can get some good phase play, I MIGHT be able to power 1 or 2 in.

My Status:
- Rouff cleated me good. -1 tonail.
- My shoulder is beatup from hitting someone. I don't know who or when that happened.
- My thumb. Its really swollen. I got stung by something when I was doing push-ups, and now its turning funny colors.

Day 1:

2007-09-18T07:49:22Z

My legs are screaming at me to go to sleep, but my brain is retorting with: "But I'm still tripping balls on endorphins!" So I'm writing in order to possibly calm my mind a little bit.

Tonight was the (dreaded) return to Mansfield Park for the (much anticipated) return of the rugby season. Last time I was at Mansfield, I couldn't walk right for a month from simply landing on my heel wrong. This brought about a horrible injury called a Heel Contusion, and the most painful shot of my life [see March '2007, true believers!] I'll tell you this: The ground is still that hard, but at least there's a small layer of green grass covering the dead grass that was there before. This at least makes you feel a little better about the idea that the soccer teams all want to knife you because we're a bunch of dumb gringos interrupting their rowdy game of footie.

I was a little off-put by the turnout tonight - we only had 16 guys and of those 8 were new. Of the new guys, I'll be surprised if two stay. Either way though, there were a couple of guys that I recognized from touch this summer (including the straight-laced mormon boy, Caleb - who I'm very interested to see how he handles the other 90% of rugby) but a pretty good mix. We picked up a new prop, a new lock, and a handful of backs. There were a couple of returning Magpies that didn't play last year - one or two I've met. The only one I have any solid memory of is a guy named Eddie who played for Tempe (I think) last year. We had a few drinks at the bar as per natural after our game and I was exceedingly curious how he knew everything about everyone on the team.

Practice started out standard - touch. I was slightly disoriented by it remaining one-hand touch (instead of last year's two hand touch) but I suppose that plays into our theme: This year we aren't going to rely on our pack so much to take the ball into contact. We're going to try to spread the ball out, and in doing so hopefully be better than the Wildcats at executing our plan.

It seems we've switched to a more intense warm-up. I'm pretty happy to see this, and was actually going to ask Tim if we could do so. It seems now we will warm up as a team, instead of just "take a lap" after touch. It never made sense to me last year how we could have a designated warm up routine for before our games, but never implement it in practice.

The running was way more intense. Its another thing i'm happy to see, and i hope it doesn't cool off as the temperature begins to drop. I came home pretty gassed tonight. Like I said before, my legs are dead tired. I feel like they're not going to be able to move tomorrow, but at the same time my quads are going to look nothing short of badass.

Coy didn't return this season. None of the new guys have previous hooking experience. It looks like I have no competition for the position this year. I'm kind of torn on this, to be quite honest. On one hand, I know that I can guarantee to any of my friends and family coming out to games that they'll see me play. On the other hand though, it means that I'm damn likely to be playing 160 minutes of rugby every weekend, injured or not. That's gonna get old pretty fast.

I'm pretty interested in how the drills have shifted so much to passing. We played a few passing games today, one which was hilariously fun the more tired we got: Take 16 guys, put them all in a 20x20m area, and say "complete 9 passes and your side wins." The loser gets punished, and you're not allowed contact with the other team. We can imagine how that ended up. "No contact with the other team" quickly turned into "No 'intentional' contact with the other team." Sadly, no hitting drills yet though. Apparently we're doing that on Wednesday.

Next game up is Saturday. I've decided to go ahead and make the trip to Flagstaff even though I'll be in Phoenix this weekend visiting my parents. This means I won't get to ride on the team bus, but I'll save a lot of money by not having to pay for a hotel. So I'm going to drive up at about 4am on Friday morning, and leave at about 6 after our last game is over (give or take, depending on when the last game actually is.) Its also just rugby 10s though, so i dunno how i'm going to do at that. I'm not exactly very fast.

And finally, our schedule for this year:

Preseason
September 22nd - Flagstaff Tens (Away)
October 20th - Yuma rookie match (Away)
December 1st - Wild West Rugby Fest (Phoenix)
December 14th - Vegas baby, Vegas!

Regular Season
12-Jan Old Pueblo
19-Jan Tempe
26-Jan Scottsdale
2-Feb @ Red Mtn (Phoenix)
9-Feb BYE
16-Feb Gilbert
23-Feb @ Old Pueblo (Tucson)
1-Mar Red Mtn
8-Mar BYE
15-Mar @ Scottsdale (Phoenix)
22-Mar @ Tempe (Phoenix)
29-Mar @ Gilbert (Phoenix)

Since Prince was on Apollonia

2007-09-14T03:02:16Z

The temperature has lowered that slight two, maybe three degrees and the sun is down easily by 7 pm. There's the smell of sweat and autumn pollen on the air. Norman Greenbaum is blasting out of my stereo about the "Spirit in the Sky." The stones are asking for shelter, guns 'n' roses are asking "where do we go now?" Daft Punk has got the music making them feel so free. My lungs are burning a bit, and my quads are starting to look like they might belong in a pair of short shorts. Queens of the Stone age may have it all in their head, but like Nelly I'm pushing myself to the limit so my talent will surface. My legs are itchy from the uncut grass and my car smells like sweat. The time just feels right.

I'm ready to hit someone on Monday. Then Saturday is Flagstaff 10s.

Crouch!
Touch!
pause...
Engage!

Hurghh!

Nest of tangled wires.

2007-08-06T07:27:23Z

I'm staring at the nest of tangled wires over by electric guit that I set up earlier today. I've never really found a way to make it look nice and neat... and that kind of bugs me.

What also bugs me is that my crybaby-wah peddle seams to have bit the dust. Over two years of inactivity will do that, no doubt.

The good news is, I had forgotten how cool my RP-80 sounds. Preset 24 recreates the opener to "Sweet Child of Mine" more accurately than my ear can detect.

Seems the amps are in working order, which is lucky.

Of course, now I could afford one of those amps like Russ had back in the day.

Speaking of Russ (I dunno if you check livejournal anymore, dood.) I took another listen to BSKTM the other day with the treble ramped up just the slightest bit (as it always is in my car) and holy fuck that song is cool and meant to play loud.

I miss having a band. Perhaps that will be my next project.

Sushi tomorrow. Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

Wuh Teh Eff?

2007-07-19T19:23:18Z

I certify that this post is 100% spoiler free.

The new Harry Potter book was released through popular bit torrent sites.

Not really a big suprise there. Nor a big suprise was the media explosion when it happened. What particularly irks me though, is that now innocent news reporting agencies are being served with papers. Apparently, for reporting that someone has leaked the book (even
without providing links to the leaked content) they are under legal scrutiny.

I understand that scholastic is worried about people releasing spoilers on the internet (and admittedly, I'm rather suprised I've been able to avoid them for so long given all of the digg I read alongside the user comments I browse following these stories) however the news sites that are under fire do not release any spoilers, nor do they even discuss plot points: They reveal that the book was released online.

This is outrageous. Where does it stop? Yes, the person who leaked the book is actionable. Yes, the site which hosted it should be actionable (though apparently it is not.) Yes, the people who download it should be actionable. Yes, anyone posting on some backwater messageboard anything that even smells like a plot point should be actionable. I believe that Scholastic should have every right to hunt them down with the force of 10,000 lawyers, but going after a site reporting that this event has taken place is ludicrous.

Just so it is clear, I could recieve a legal takedown notice for this post, simply because of the second line. However, had I not included that second line, would I still be in a position to recieve legal threats? - I'm only one more level secluded from the actual content, and after all, I always thought one level was enough. Where do we draw the line now?

Reference: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/18/scholastic-loses-it-over-harry-potterbittorent-story/

Anthropic Principle

2007-07-04T10:06:56Z

First, to set a bit of the scene - this is gonna be a long entry. I've got a bottle of scotch that I'm just getting into at 2:00 in the morning for the very purpose of seeing how my writing is affected as I get more and more inebriated. For anyone who is interested, I'm drinking a Bowmore single malt. Its an islay, so its a little sweeter than I'm used to, but after two sips its grown on me. I just got back from Transformers. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Not only did it not suck, but it was pretty cool. My nails are currently nubs.

Anthropic Principle for the Bored and Increasingly Inebriated

My thoughts on how the universe works (or rather why it works) have always been a little off. I've always had trouble subscribing to a straight scientific version of the universe - things are too... exact for that. Pi doesn't equal 3, it equals somewhere around 3.1415926 and some smaller change. I've often sat around and wondered exactly why that is. What would a circle who's pi = 3 look like? I've also had a lot of trouble with subscribing to the idea of an intelligent designer who at one point, existing somewhere outside of our universe thought to himself "hey, this sounds like a good idea, and I'll throw humans in just for the fuck of it as well" (in a very british accent, because I've always imagined God using a cockney rhyming scheme.)

Well pi is a constant. Its a universe-wide number that (though we can only approximate it to what... a few million digits or so?) rings true for all of existence. Whether you are here, or somewhere near Betelgeuse, if you see a circle or sphere, the radius of that object will wrap around the solid exactly twice. That said, as humans we will never see a circle with a radius which doesn't conform to the 2 pi rule. We may define pi to be more and more exact, but we will never be able to change the way circles behave as pi defines them.

I'm sure by now you've heard of string theory, brane theory, and M theory... if not, you've at least heard of string theory. If you don't know what it is, it basically says that any matter in our universe is but a single point anchored in the aether of space, and that all matter is made of "strings" which traverse multiple planes of existence. Lots of string theories (and there are a lot of them) state that there are multiple universes. Millions of them, in fact. A lot of people think that these millions of universes are our key to faster than light travel, as any quark (or whatever is smaller) in my body could be linked to any point in our universe billions of light years away by passing through x other 3 dimensional universes on the fourth dimension to get there.

You look confused. I'm sorry. I'll get back to my point. String theory is messy anyway.

Pi. We will never be able to ~~see~~ observe a universe where pi = 3. Anthropic Principle goes so far as to state that we could not exist in such a universe, and as such, the universe could not exist because we could not observe it.

Not really, but that's the long and short of it. Lets meander over to quantum physics.

There's a lot we don't understand about our universe, and quantum physics is at the forefront. As you might recall, I posted a rant a few months back about how quantum computing is finally making its debut. Exciting and scary stuff. I know. There are odd bits to quantum theory though - take this example:

Assume you have a pitching machine that throws baseballs covered in paint at a wall. There's a bit of variation in where the baseballs will end up, so if you were to point it at a screen x feet away, you would get a rough sphere after a while. Assume that if you put a screen in front of it with a slit in the screen big enough for a baseball to pass through. What pattern would be made on the wall? Exactly, a straight line. Easy enough to follow so far. With 2 slits, there would be 2 lines, and so on, even though the baseballs are only passing through one slit at a time - because the machine is left on for a while, we get that pattern on the wall.

That's how we used to think that matter worked.

Light or sound (each a wave) works slightly differently. If you were to fire one of these through a single slit, you would get a very fuzzy line when it hit the wall, but still roughly a line. When fired through two slits however, an interference pattern forms (if you want a physical demonstration of this, strike a tuning fork then place it near your ear and rotate it slowly. It will alternate between being louder and softer due to the interference between the two prongs.) As a result, you would get multiple lines on the wall. With me so far?

A while back, scientists fired a particle cannon through two slits. Now, with our old understanding of matter, we would expect two lines to appear on the wall, however they instead found an interference pattern. Even when slowed down to fire only 1 particle at a time, an interference pattern eventually formed. This led them to think that inherently a particle must be a wave existence. In order for the particles to create the interference pattern, they would have to leave the barrel of the cannon, split into two seperate entities, pass through each slit independently and interfere with itself on the way to the screen. This isn't so far fetched if you've ever read anything on Hawking Radiation.

Scientists were intrigued by this however, and decided to measure the amount of particles passing through each slit. Particle counters of some such were placed on each slit, and the experiment was re-ran. Suprisingly, two lines appeared on the final sheet - no interference pattern. So, when the particles were observed, they behaved as particles, and not waves. That's the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle at work - by observing something, we change the state of the thing being observed.

You can find a pretty cool demonstration of this on youtube somewhere. Just look up quantum physics. Something to note here though, is that when the particle left the particle cannon, it was a particle, even though it was yet to be observed. After all, one could deduce with Occam's Razor that the particle does not leave as a wave, "smile for the camera" and then remain that way until it hits the sheet. So a future observation forces the past to change.

Here's where Anthropic Principle comes in. We're living beings. We're observing the universe and changing the state of things by doing so.

Is your mind blown yet? Lets talk about black holes for a second or four.

There's a blog I like to read (on an almost daily basis) called "bad astronomy." You can find it at http://www.badastronomy.com . Anyway, he had a pretty cool blog entry at one point about how black holes can not exist.

I'll summarize: Essentially, black holes are supermassive. The event horizon is where escape velocity equals the speed of light. For anyone who studies computer science, think of a black hole as a giant divide-by-0 exception in the universe. Lots of mass x, in 0 space - the singularity: x / 0 = error. Anyway, this can never really happen, x / 0. Black holes get really close to this, but some space is always taken up with a black hole. Here's where that kook Einstein comes in with special relativity. Time is a part of our universe. And just as any other part of our universe, it is affected by its surroundings. Someone somewhere proved that time slows down in major gravitational fields. So imagine a gravitational field of infinite proportions such as that in a black hole - time effectively stops - that is to say, it slows until it nearly stops. Hawking Radiation kills the black whole long before time = infinity, and the black hole disintigrates.

I know that this sounds entirely tangent, but its not.

The "big bang" is a pretty commonly accepted theory now. The universe is expanding, and has been ever since T = 0. Philosophically (Ah! There it is) we are all privvy to ask "what happened before the big bang? Was there a universe before us? Are we the result of a big bounce? Did God sneeze us out?" Anthropic Principle states that the universe is here because living things observe it. The more we define pi, the more clearly definied pi will be in the eyes of the universe. Its a cool thought really, and there are a few books on it, but here's where scientits opinions end, and my opinion begins.

Months ago when i was watching "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" - an anime that touched on Anthropic Principle - I didn't quite get it, but its starting to come into focus for me. Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Anthropic Principle - these are all aproximations on how the universe works - in our eyes. As we come to better and better understanding of what these are and what they clearly define, some are refuted and some are proven. Touching back on the article at badastronomy.com - there are certain laws of physics which don't compute within a black hole - one can also assume that these laws of physics did not exist when we (the universe) was teensy i.e. the singularity before the big bang.

This is where I take issue with all of it. Our universe? Right now? Its fucking teensy. Its a singularity from a certain point of view. Hell, spend any amount of time with a telescope and you'll be a little inclined to say 'I feel pretty insignificant to all of it.' But if we were each the size of our universe, would we have any concept of what an atom is? Would we even have a concept of what a planet is for that matter? Or is all we would be able to determine the existence of is the supermassive black holes at the center of each galaxy? The truth of the matter is, barring a little bit of gravitational resistance, we are still moving at the same rate we were coming out of the big bang. The only difference is that time is speeding up, where it was observably stopped before the big bang. Its a little hard to imagine that at some point, zoomed way out, we look like a big bang - a fleeting glimpse of the beginning of the universe.

As I break to refill my glass - yes, this is the first time. Its a big glass - let me pause and say: i'm trying to steer clear of a theological discussion, though that IS one of my favorite drunken topics, I'd like to stay away from it tonight.

These are clearly naval strength drinks. I knew these glasses were big, but I didn't know they were THAT big. Of course now I've completely lost my train of thought on the subject, but looking back I think I've said what I want to say. Instead I think I'll go watch some Haruhi, and you know... just appreciate the space/time we're living in. It won't be here forever.

Its been a while.

2007-06-30T12:28:21Z

I picked up my guitar today for the first time since my move.

It was an odd feeling, but really good considering that I played until my fingers bled for the first time since... shit... 3 years ago?

Anyway, I haven't had a good old drunken entry like this in a long time, and I had a lot to say on the way home, but now... now I can't really remember shit.

Maybe it was that last shot Chris had me do before I left, He's butt crazy in love with some girl. Honestly, I'm a little envious. Its someplace i've always wanted to be, and despite years and years of trying I've never gotten there. I do take it as a sign of hope though - the guy is 28 and has found the love of his life - she is hot, intelligent, and has absolutely no baggage. Apparently its possible.

Anyway, I've been drinking for... 8 hours now, and desperately need sleep. Its been a while since I've done something like this.

All around me are familiar faces, worn out places....

2007-06-27T05:07:03Z

I just spent about $100 on groceries. Never really figured I'd be the one to do that, but there's something about having a stocked fridge that's aesthetically pleasing. Of course, that's not really what this is all about, but it was that act that got me to thinking.

Specifically, I got to thinking while I was climbing the stairs to my apartment. I've been talking a lot lately about Tucson. There's a lot to left to be desired from this town, and while I figured my trip to California would satiate my desire for the big city, it did just the opposite. Granted, it also taught me that I need to be sure to put on sunblock even when its cloudy out, but regardless of my now peeling and gross forehead on top of my Rudolph-worthy nose, but it further disenchanted me with the little rat-hole some of us dwell in.

As I reached my door, I contemplated a feeling I had back in San Diego in November - there was a "holy shit, I got myself here." wave that rushed over me as I downed a carbomb with my fellow ruggers. That's an amazing feeling - to know you've accomplished a goal that has taken you farther than you would expect - I want that again. Oddly though, I'm now standing on my own two feet. I pay my own bills, maintain my own apartment, and aside from a lack of excitement, I'm pretty damn happy. Even when that specific excitement comes my way, I tend to shy away from it now: its not something that I want to do just yet. I digress - as I reached my door, I didn't feel all that accomplished. Tucson isn't the endgame. It isn't exactly what I had in mind when it came to residences, but I suppose it will do. For now.

Enough of these damndable tangents though - without further ado, our main event: I picked this apartment for one reason and one reason only - I was in a crunch. I found some amazing apartments up north backed up to the Catalinas, and it pained me to do so at the time but I had to pass on living there. It would have been nice - barbeques with Jeff and Ana every weekend, someone to carpool to rugby with, and a tranquility that I've yet to see anywhere else.

Its hard to describe - that apartment complex is the one place in Tucson I've been truly at piece. Sitting on Ana's porch, sipping a beer and staring at dusk settling over the Catalinas. Nothing broke the silence but good conversation and a little quiet music coming from inside.

I didn't end up renting an apartment there. I didn't imagine it would disclude me from any relaxing times at Ana and Jeff's, and for a while it didn't. When Meredith and I broke up though, two things happened: first, it became excessively awkward to be there. Secondly, the invites stopped coming from Jeff and Ana for barbeques. Now, I can understand that - it would be very awkward if I were to show up. What I'm getting at, is that was the one time that I was actually contented in Tucson. While it was probably in my top 10 list of best decisions I've made in my life - the decision to not rent the apartment above Meredith's and as a result have to rush to find another - it did close the door to the tranquility I felt at that apartment.

I suppose I'm just wondering if this is going to be one of those events I look back on as "wow, that was pretty spur of the moment, and look where it lead me."

In Search of a different kind of Zen

2007-06-17T00:48:28Z

One week from Yesterday, I'll be starting this trip. It looks like I'm probably going it alone: Nando blew all his money in Vegas, Mike probably won't go if Nando doesn't go, and Jon can't get the time off of work.

I'm not discouraged - I'm still going. I'll be pestering to find people all week, because this is something I enjoy sharing with other people. All that said, I've compiled a list of photos from around the net that will describe the trip as well as possible. Now, some of the shots that I had in my minds eye - I wasn't able to find but I did my best.

Alright, so I'll be starting out Friday morning early. 3am early. About 30 minutes into it, I'll be seeing some familiar sights:

Yes. I realize that that is a shot from the north looking south. Ignore that. I try to be more accurate as we go on.

A few hours later. Four maybe... I won't attempt to guess times exactly because I don't know what traffic is going to be like, and last time I made this trip I was limited to 60 mph in a beat up truck - is Parker, AZ. This is where I'll cross into beautiful CA.

Aint it beautiful?

Leaving Parker, I'll head North once in the California borders towards a hole in the side of the road called Needles:

Yeah, I know, that's southbound and I'll be headed northbound - but those few signs in the distance pretty well show what Needles is. Its a rat trap. From Needles, I'll be heading to Barstow. The Needles to Barstow leg of the trip is legendary.

Notice its 129 miles. Its roughly 104 Miles from Tucson to Phoenix. Only, between Tucson and Phoenix, there is a lot of "stuff." People complain about the I-10 and what a boring drive it is, but they haven't been on this road. There is absolutely nothing between the two towns. A drive that claims to be 129 miles feels around 180 - partially this is because when your top speed is limited to 60mph, it really does end up taking around 3 hours. The highway used to be 2 lanes unsplit also. that sucked.

Finally arriving in Barstow, I'll continue through to Four Corners - the point at which the 58 meets the 395, and I turn North, hoping to begin to see the bottom of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Bishop, 180 miles to the North. I'll turn North happy that my goal is at least on this highway.

A couple hours later, I will finally be in a truly scenic Area. Lone Pine, California. A town known for how many movies have been filmed there. Hundreds upon Hundreds of old spaghetti westerns:

Its so scenic isn't it? Can't you just stare at the scenery? Can't you detect my sarcasm?

Oddly enough, I'm not being sarcastic at all. The road pictured above is the 395 - that road I'll turn onto at 4 corners. That building right in front - the hotel - I'll eat there. Great biscuits and gravy. Lets glance left though:

In case you think I'm joking - note on the side of the foreground hill - the big LP stating that this is located just to the West of Lone Pine.

In the background are the Granite Sierra Nevadas, and more specifically, one of those is Mt. Whitney - the Highest point in the contenental US at somewhere around 13k feet.

I couldn't find a picture of Bishop, CA. But after a few more hours of driving, I'll arrive there, and head the final 60 miles to Lee Vining. This is a picture of that road coming just out of Bishop.

60 miles north of Bishop is Lee Vining, CA - population about 350, and gas prices to match. Its so small, I couldn't find a picture of it. I could however, find a picture of Mono Lake - a large salt water lake easily seen from Lee Vining. In the background of the next shot, you can see the Canyon I'll head into.

What these pictures (especially the ones that are coming up) really lack is scale. Try to keep in mind just how massive this mountain range actually is. Even when you're there, they look massive, but oftentimes you don't realize how massive they are until you arrive back in Arizona, and can see the tops of the mountains.

The next picture is taken from... I'm not exactly sure. But you can see the road going up the side of the mountain. That's Tioga Pass. Its a gorgeous road, winding up the side of the mountain.

As a kid, every year my grandparents would take me into this canyon and we would camp. Its a really fond memory, but I always wanted to camp up on top of the mountain. I've always had a bit of an obsession with camping in high altitudes. The air is crisper, colder, and fresher. The sky is ridiculously blue. You know, that sort of thing. The Sierras are where I belong - I belong on top of them.

The next picture is the view from Tioga pass (coming down, not going up.) In the bottom of the canyon you can see a little cluster of trees. That's pretty much where Big Bend campground is - that's the campground that I'll visit while I'm here - y'know just to stop in and make sure the creek is still there.

My goal is the top of the mountain though - That's where I want to camp. Lets take a look at the few places I'm considering:

The first is Saddlebag Lake. I've fished here a few times - Its really high. I want to say that its around 10,000 feet, but I'm not really sure. I do know that it is right on the tree line.

The prettiest I've ever seen on Saddlebag lake was a day that I was there fishing, and the ice was breaking for the first time in the season:

It was a windy day, and razor-thin sheets of ice were breaking off the lake and tumbling across the ice - Creating a giant, 2-square mile windchime. Together with the wind on my cheeks and snow-blindness on my eyes, it assaulted my senses. I'll never forget it, and I'll surely never see anything quite like it again.

Out of the bottom of saddlebag lake comes Lee Vining Creek - tumbles down through that canyon that was shown earlier (past Big Bend) and finally into the salty waters of Mono Lake This stream runs right by the trail leading up to Saddlebag Lake Campground.

Another shot of saddlebag lake: This is pretty much how I expect it to look when I get there. Notice the lack of trees - This is shot from the edge of the forest, but those mountains are too high - not enough oxygen - to support any trees. I know, camping, you want to do it in the thick of a forest - with dense underbrush - but its such a unique experience that its strangely beautiful.

The second choice for campgrounds is a little farther up the road - farther towards Yosemite. This is Tioga Lake. I've never camped there, just passed by it 50 or so times into Yosemite.

Its a very pretty lake. I just have no memories of it - There's a chance Saddlebag will be full though, or that something will strike me to camp there. Who knows. I'm pretty well going to play it by ear. I'm not going to try to do everything - I can always come back in a few weeks.

Here is another shot leading towards Yosemite - just off of Tioga pass. Tons of snow filled meadows line the highway. Its interesting timing a trip like this - I like to go when there's some snow to play around in, but you can't go too early or the road will be closed. I've seen the notice online that Tioga pass is open, but I'm thinking that going before July will mean its a little cooler.

Who the hell am i kidding? The weather is perfect year round.

A final choice of campground: Ellery lake - just outside of Yosemite.

How can anybody resist coming along for the ride with granite mountains like that? I mean seriously. Ellery is pretty gorgeous, but I'm not sure what sort of camping there is around there. At any rate, I'll be finding a spot around there somewhere to camp.

Dana meadows is either just inside of Yosemite, or just outside of it, I'm not really sure. Probably Sunday, I'll be heading into Yosemite. It is the prettiest place on earth. Throughout my life I will hike hundreds of trails, and hopefully know the wilderness like the back of my hand.

Just inside of the park boundries (hopefully its only like $20 to get in for the day) is Tuolomne meadows, and Tuolomne creek -

This is all very beautiful, but its my kind of beauty. This is the high-altitude beauty that's unique. Pretty soon we'll be getting into the pictures of the glacial valley that's Yosemite, and believe me, I love that beauty, but I gravitate toward this sort of scenery.

The next shot is the road into Yosemite. Still on Tioga pass, I think this is a shot of Sentinal Dome. Anyway, this is probably some pull off. The point is, you get all sorts of these views. They're just constant.

Another shot from Tioga pass into Yosemite - Notice for anyone who has ever been to Sedona - Sedona is the wilderness of the Red Rock. It looks like Christmas threw up all over that valley. This is the kingdom of white rock. God I heart granite.

Down the road a ways, you get another lookout point. I found a good shot of this on the internet, but its very high resolution. So I'll just link to it - but its one of the many views that simply take your breath away when they're presented to you in glorious panorama.

Olmsted Point? I think?

A couple of hours of driving through redwoods and bristlecone pine gets me to Yosemite valley.

In the shot you can see El Capitan and Half Dome. It takes a couple of hours to get there, I'll choose to do a hike or two, and then probably grab lunch.

Someday though, on an extended trip, I want to make this hike:

A seven mile trek to the top of Yosemite falls - the sixth highest waterfall in the world - the highest in the US. I want to stare the waterfall in the face. Yes, I'm very afraid of heights, yes, the trail is carved out of the side of that cliff. No, i don't care. It will be for a future trip though - preferably when I've got a seasoned hiking companion to go with me. Its in the future though - just gotta find the right buddy.

I did this hike with Miranda years ago: Vernal falls. Its not nearly as high as Yosemite falls, but its a very pretty hike. Thousands of stairs, and one ledge to traverse, but with a view like this, its worth it (and the trip back was worse, after the mist stopped hitting you, it started getting a little hot.)

The trail ends just to the right of the top of the falls. Its pretty flat up there, and there's a hand rail to make sure that you don't fall over. I believe this shot is taken from the trail, right before you head across a bridge.

After a long day of exploring and climbing redwoods, I'll stop in for a bit of tradition: Lunch at the luxury hotel in the bottom of the Valley - the Awhannee hotel:

Its really cool - if you get a window seat, each of those windows has a picturesque view that you can get lost in while dining on lobster, steak, burger, or whatever your upper-class palette desires. I can't wait.

Naturally, I'll spend most of the day gawking at my favorite part of yosemite: Half Dome:

Its always been my favorite attraction, I'm not sure why - probably just the idea that at some point, this was a full dome, and the might of a glacier sheared it in two. Just think about how much power that is. To shear a mountain in two.

Whichever day I decide to go to Yosemite, I'll probably take the other day and visit Mammoth Lakes - I'd really like to retire there someday. Its halfway back to Bishop from Lee Vining, and is a little german-style ski town. If I can find it, there's the Good Life Cafe which has the best burgers in the world:

There are some cool sites to see there as well, there's an earthquake fault that you pass over on the way into the town (Mammoth Mountain is an apparently active volcano) -

I've never really looked that closely at it, its just sort of off the side of the road. Maybe I'll stop and take a look this time. Climb down in it or something.

Devil's postpile is pretty amazing. Its an obsidian formation - something about magma from Mammoth Mtn. rapidly cooled and caused this hexagonal structure...

Even cooler is the view on top - A natural dance floor. Extremely smooth and tessalated:

Then, after all that excitement, (and marshmallow roasting, and campfires, and tents and fresh air) I'll pack everything up Monday morning and come home.

It is gonna be a rather fun trip. I'm a bit excited, so I apologize in advance for the obsession over the next week.

One last thing - if you want to come - I'm picking up all expenses except splitting food and campground expenses with whoever comes (if its just the 2 of us, expect $10 a day for camp) - so don't let money be an issue. Fuck, I don't want to make the drive alone so much, I'll even pick up the tab at the Awhanee. I'm afraid of pestering people too much though - so just ask to come along I've got room.

You know my name...

2006-11-21T09:56:33Z

Alright, I said I would reserve judgement until I saw it a second time, as too often I find myself on the cusp of the hype of a movie, and rate it much higher than it really deserves.

Most of you who know me, know that I'm a straight Bond fanatic. I may not have gotten to the books yet, but I'm working on that. I just got back from my second viewing of Casino Royale, and until I find something that rubs me wrong about it, its contending with my previous top 5 for the pole position.

I never really liked Timothy Dalton as a Bond. The reason is that he was always known as the "serious" bond. Its easy to see after Craig's debut as bond (and who knows, it honestly could just be because of the superiour script writing and direction) that Daniel Craig has taken that title. There was always something wrong with Dalton. He was too greasy, or too soft... or something. Daniel Craig? Not so. Daniel Craig delivers the Bond that was originally in my mind's eye before it got clouded by all the beautiful cars, women, and gadgets. He has a dry wit, a quick tongue, and a dirty fighting style.

So now I've hit a bit of a cunundrum: Nobody can replace Sean Connery. I mean hell, he chokes a woman with her own bikini in Diamonds are Forever. However, I watched Diamonds are Forever last night, and what I saw was a slapstick action movie. Casino Royale casts away the gadgets and explosions for a serious spy movie. Daniel Craig is the first Bond since Connery to be able to deliver one-liners without the audience cringing; (see also: "I thought Christmas only comes once a year.") Just to make sure my tastes hadn't simply changed to enjoy the more "serious" Bond more, I watched the beginning of The Living Daylights tonight. No, Dalton still has no charm.

The test will come in 5 movies' time. Traditionally, a Bond actor starts out amazing, fresh, and loved. After all, that's why they're invited back for more (Except Lazenby who publicly slandered the role. Even though he was loved, he was not invited back for more.) Brosnan had his moment: Goldeneye. Roger Moore is the exception with Live and Let Die: it really was an odd piece, but then again, anything set in the bayou would be. He instead hit his mark in his next film, Octopussy. After the first few films, a Bond's jokes begin to become tired. The wrinkles set in, and we are left to rely on Q and the Bond women to really lift the film. Connery relied on Jill St. John, Brosnan on Halle Berry, Moore Relied on... well... Christopher Walken, but that was a horrible Bond movie anyway.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: I want this to be the birth of a new vision on the series. I want to see Daniel Craig play Bond until his hair turns grey, but I don't want to see him falling into relying on gadgets and poor puns. I want more of Casino Royale. If that happens? Connery will still be thought of as Bond, but Daniel Craig will be thought of as the man who perfected the role.

Anyway, I guess time will tell, but for now, here is my updated top 5 (In order of release. There's no possible way I could put a definate ordering on them):

Goldfinger, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, The Spy Who Loved Me, Goldeneye, Casino Royale
Knocked Out: Thunderball

Ladies and Gents, Britton Hall!

2006-10-26T09:39:34Z

Heard through the door, yelling at 2am. I go to see whats up:

"Daaaaave! Daaaaaave!"
What?
"I love you?"
What the fuck?
"I LOVE YOU!"
Dude. I knew you were gay!
"Dude! I KNOW!"
So you admit that you're gay!
"I can't help it!. FUCK YOU!"

-----------------------------------------------------

"Daaaaaaaaaaaave I've fucked more women than you!"
Trying to compensate for something?
"Yes!"

------------------------------------------------------

"You're So Gay! You're so gay I'm going to fuck that n----- up the ass!"
"N------"!

-------------------------------------------------------

"I bet you can't find me! I'm fat!"
I bet I can't either.

(note, that he's STILL in his room yelling through the wall.)

--------------------------------------------------------

"Ew! STICKY! STICKINESS! -- I LOVE YOU! YOU SUCK!"
(short pause)
"N-------------- N----------- N------ N----------"
(longer pause)
"N--------------"
(short pause)
(loosely translated) "Kiyess mai beezeees!" (that's about how it sounded)

--------------------------------------------------------

Now he's yelling in french. Now he's singing in french. Seriously. Wuh teh eff.

Just recently:
"DUDE! I can't beat this tight end! This tight end is HUGE!"
What. The. Fuck.
"You're so Gay!"

---------------------------------------------------------

"Ouch. Oh shit, I'm fucked up."

---------------------------------------------------------

"Look at me!"
No dude, you're naked.
"yup!"

------------------------------------------------------------
(after about 5 minutes of "Jon? Come in here baby!")

"Bend over baby!"

------------------------------------------------------------

So anyway, Britton got a little drunk tonight. What I can't get across is all the moaning and falling over I could hear coming from his room. I gotta say though, it was pretty comical.

447 Songs

2006-09-26T10:26:42Z

Some folks are born made to wave the flag,
ooh, they're red, white and blue.
And when the band plays "Hail To The Chief",
oh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,

It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no senator's son,
It ain't me, it ain't me,
I ain't no fortunate one, no

447 Songs. It took me two and a half hours to sift through, when I should have been sleeping, but there was a lot of music I needed out of that pack. Took me 2 days to download 2.4 gigs of music, but my collection is better for it.

By the way, Rolling Stone apparently thinks Bob Dylan is the best singer of all time: he had something like 20 songs in their "top 500 songs of all time" compilation.

Bigger Picture.

2006-09-24T09:03:56Z

Stuff is just stuff. I'm over it. I've got whats important :)

This weekend has been amazing, granted, if Arizona hadn't dropped that final punt, it would have been more amazing, but it really didn't detract from my overall experience. Friday night was amazing and wild, Saturday night was nice and relaxed, and I plan on Sunday being productive.

... I haven't used my digital camera in... oh I dunno, about a month, but now I'm wishing I still had it, thinking of all the times I'd like to be taking pictures and whatnot. I don't know if its because I don't have it now, or if I actually would normally be thinking that I want it, but either way, it looks like I've got another purchase on the horizon.

Discovered the iTunes music store. THAT is going to get me into trouble.

On another note, I've reached another iteration of my thoughts on religion. *Shrug* Stuff is good right now.

Wuh. Teh. Eff.

2006-09-21T09:47:51Z

Alright, so I keep going through a few different emotions.

During class? Defiance. It really felt unreal. Hell, I didn't even leave class when I found out. I mean, what the fuck, right? That sort of shit doesn't happen to us.

Afterwards? When I got home? Disbelief. Wow, No really, all of my DVDs? Gone. Xbox? Gone. Camera? Gone. Broken fucking Bose iPod Player? Oh, its still there, Britt's whose works? Its gone. Both of our iPods? Gone. So we just sort of sat around and waited for the cops to get here. Guess what? He took down the information, ... had me look up the serial of my iPod, then left. I don't have insurance. Britt doesn't have insurance. Puzio might be covered by his parents, but fuck, he only lost a school-owned-laptop. Britton fucking lost every piece of electronics he owned.

Yes. I know its just -stuff-. I DO know that something worse could have happened. I almost slept in today (hell, I almost didn't take my laptop to class today). What if one of us had been here? What if the jackass had been packing heat? I know all I could have been armed with was a machete, or maybe a golf club if I had the presence of mind at the time.

I know that Chris isn't happy about it, but its a question of self preservation. I'm not happy about it either, but fuck it, I'm buying a shotgun. At least to have for as long as I live in Tucson, which I hope to God, is not long at all.

Playlist

2006-08-28T02:07:54Z

Songs that sort of suck right now:

Killers - All these things that I've Done
White Stripes - I want to be the boy
White Stripes - The Air beneath my fingers
Augustana - Boston
Tony Rich Project - Nobody Knows
Toadies - Possum Kingdom
Madonna - Take a Bow
Stealer's Wheel - Stuck in the middle with you
Stereo MCs - Connected
Straylight Run - The Tension and the terror

Snakes on a PLANE

2006-08-18T09:19:09Z

Best movie ever? Probably.

Best crowd ever? Without a doubt.

Never before have I wanted a camera at a movie theater so badly.

Knackered.

2006-07-28T02:37:19Z

I kid you not, I heard the odd british guy that I play rugby with use "Knackared" properly in a sentence today to describe his state of being.

Hehehe. Rugby rocks.

Did I Get Lost While I Was Gone....

2006-07-27T10:35:39Z

I must have been thinking about something...

When I came to, an hour had passed. I hadn't moved. I guess I got lost in the sounds (and lights, happily enough.) Amidst the lightning which blinded me for just that split second where the scene is burnt into your retinas, the thunder which followed, seconds later and wouldn't diminish like normal thunder, nor crack like most desrt thunder, the conversation taking place two or three streets down, the random night birds... I guess I got lost. Its probably the first time ever that I've sat out on the couch without some sort of substance to accompany me - alcoholic or smokeable, and it was likely that which made me lose myself. I can only pinpoint one or two thoughts I had out there, concerning this weekend, concerning a few nights ago when I couldn't sleep, my actions then and their inconsequence, and rummaging through some lyrics that have been echoing through my head, but nothing altogether consequential. I'm not ready to go back to the real world though -- I've decided this much -- "I don't want to come down... I like it here."

When I was a little kid, or maybe through Junior High I can't quite remember, I could close my eyes and you could hold your finger right in front of the bridge of my nose. When you got close enough, my eyes would hurt. I tried it just now, I've got nothing. No unexplainable soreness that people looked at me funny for saying I have. That's kind of depressing.

Tell me all your thoughts on God.

Call it a VERY emo entry.

2006-07-25T11:52:36Z

That was long overdue.

I just wrote an email that I should have written two years ago. Will it clear anything up? Probably not. But do I feel accomplished for having written it? Yeah. At least there's that piece of mind.

And the answer is no. I never thought MySpace would be useful for anything. Well, (and I'm only going to say this once.) I stand corrected.

When there's nowhere left to run...

2006-07-24T06:31:12Z

You gotta help me out...
Don't you put me on the backburner.....

Gah. So I finally broke down and got a last.fm account. Thankfully, I managed to save all of my old music through some iPod-fu, and did a clean install of windows. This computer is running tip top now. That's one for three I guess. So now I just have to transfer everything of worth off of my laptop and do the same to it.... computers with clean installs of windows are so nice :) Anyway, back to the last.fm account. Its my current obsession, as I'm always posting lyrics to show what I'm listening to, so this should save your eyes from that.

http://last.fm/user/AntiScurvyLg

and there that is.

This weekend I've learned the horrors of working through an entire weekend. Its sunday night now, and I've worked 7 days straight. ... only 5 days until vacation!

Ok. Wow

2006-07-22T11:15:21Z

Yeah, I had a really deep conversation tonight, and for whatever reason, I'm drunk enough that typing is a problem. at any rate, I'ma go to bed. Tonight was a good night though. *squints with one eye* you better understand how much trouble that took just to squint. Wow. I'm so going to delete this when I'm sober.