|
| Not really - but I didn't want to lose the page based on xanga's e-mailed threats.
So based on this idea from the onion AV Club, I decided to come up with a random list:
http://www.avclub.com/content/blog/geeky_list_time_pick_an_album_for
The idea is that you pick the favorite album for each year you're born. It's a bit hard for the 80s years - I don't listen to much from then. But I"ll try it anyways. And yes, my music taste is not that varied.
1982 - Michael Jackson, Thriller
1983 - Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
1984 - Metallica, Ride the Lightning
1985 - R.E.M., Fables of the Reconstruction
1986 - Beastie Boys, License to Ill
1987 - Pixies, Come On Pilgrim
1988 - Jane's Addiction, Nothing Shocking
1989 - Soundgarden, Louder than Love
1990 - They Might Be Giants, Flood
1991 - Pearl Jam, Ten
1992 - Alice in Chains, Dirt
1993 - Nirvana, In Utero
1994 - Weezer, Weezer (Blue Album)
1995 - Radiohead, The Bends
1996 - Beck, Odelay
1997 - Radiohead, OK Computer
1998 - Beck, Mutations
1999 - Chris Cornell, Euphoria Morning
2000 - Modest Mouse, The Moon & Antarctica
2001 - Cake, comfort eagle
2002 - The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
2003 - The Postal Service, Give Up
2004 - Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
2005 - The Decemberists, Picaresque
2006 - The Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
2007 - Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
2008 - The Raconteurs, Consolers of the Lonely
| | |
| So, as a update on my living situation - I've now been unemployed for 2 months. But that's about to end soon. Later this month, I'll be moving to Houston to work for Lockheed Martin Space Systems with the Orion Project, a joint effort with NASA.
But that just serves as the setup for this entry. Today, someone tried to break into my apartment. I was enjoying one of my unemployed days of sleeping in. Suddenly, I heard a big loud noise. I ran into my living room and saw through the blinds of my sliding door someone on my patio - and the sliding door now open halfway. I yelled out "what the hell?" and the person took off. Unfortunately I got no good look at them - but I was freaked. I called the apartment office, explained to the police what happened, and got back to my day.
So the interesting thing... if I hadn't been laid off... my apartment would have been broken into. Breaking open the sliding door in the loudest way possible wasn't a stealth maneuver. As soon as I ran in and yelled out, the person took off. I also had a package receipt on my door - that may have been another thing that tipped them off that I wasn't there. But I was. And only because I got laid off earlier. Just weird.
| | |
| So this is long. A little break, and my L.A. story will follow up. Also I'll be making this post private in about a week or so, so enjoy it while it's here!
| | |
| i'll start out by saying that i'll probably be ending this xanga pretty soon. not sure more than a small handful of people actually read it, and a bigger problem is that i've lost desire to write in it. i used to think "that would be good for the xanga" when something crazy happened. in fact, i've even had xanga come up in dreams before. now, i over-think whether anything is worth writing about - plus i think i don't have too many crazy stories any more. such is life.
but, i will talk about the 2 situations i considered xanga-ing (need an less awkward way of spelling of that) lately. and seeing how i haven't posted in 3 months, there's no time like the present.
first off, i'll tell the crazy happenings of my visit to san francisco to go see sushi. went up there over st. patricks day weekend, and we had the good sort of crazy times i would only expect out of a weekend with sushi. there were normal parts of the trip as well, including a fantastic wine tasting trip to napa. but the crazy stuff makes for good xanga (even though i put off writing about it because drunk tod xanga stories are becoming a bit repetitive...):
- a trip to a bar called buddha lounge where the bartender was completely crazy. he had a bottle of his own homemade liquor (called the hong kong special) that sushi ordered us shots of. when googling this bar i found this description of it:
WHAT IS THAT STUFF IN THE CLAY POT? It is called "Ng Ka Py", pronounced "NG GA PAY" Given that there is no accounting for taste, I find it to be a vile
combination of cough syrup, jaegermeister, and cinnamon mouthwash.
That pretty well covers it. the bartender also had a good screaming match with some customers (also part of his apparently legendary reputation) and finally, he had a ritual of gambling against customers for drinks in a game of liar's dice. i had never played the game before (it's similar to the game bullshit played with dice instead of cards, and was also featured in pirates of the caribbean 2). despite this disadvantage, sushi and i managed to win 2 games in a row against the bartender (and i made SEVERAL risky/questionable plays). that's my most successful drunken gambling venture since getting cut off in vegas.
- we ended night 1 by walking around with a brown bag flask of jack daniels and two tomatoes. why two tomatoes? because i took them out of the basement of a mexican restaurant we went to eat on my way back from the bathroom. so i guess i stole 2 tomatoes. also took a couple bites out of one of the raw ones (the other made it back to the hotel unharmed) despite the fact that i don't like tomatoes. don't worry, it makes very little sense to me either.
- st. patricks day in one of the few beer-selling bars in napa wasn't too crazy. though i'll say sushi spent the night polling women in the bar on whether i should grow facial hair. my biggest shock - someone actually voted for a soul patch (seriously, no one looks good with a soul patch). i can only hope that girl was drunk. anyways, the poll was pretty inconclusive, so sorry sushi, i'll remain clean shaven.
and now to completely shift gears and write about.... well, death. i went through a rather bizarre sequence of events starting when i came down to houston for beer bike. as rice people are aware, beer bike was cancelled because of the death of a student the morning of the festivities. that day while at valhalla drinking with the other alumni who needed something to do before we hit the village pub crawl, i got a call from my mom that my grandfather had died. the funeral was that wednesday, and the whole weekend of having a good time with old friends contrasted with the news of death was very strange. to link everything in a strange circle, i blew out my tire driving home from the funeral and had to get a new tire (after my jack breaking while putting on the spare, it wasn't exactly a great week). while reading the austin paper waiting for the new tire i came across.... parker redman's obituary, the rice student who had died. i'll be honest - right about then i felt really bad for being upset just a few days earlier that the 50th anniversary of beer bike was cancelled.
a few thoughts:
- i've been fortunate in my life to have attended very few funerals. i've been to the funeral of my dad's father when i was 10, my great aunt's funeral 5 years ago, and now my mom's father. and though i feel callous saying it, i've never had someone die in my life i was very close to. i'm one of 13 grandchildren on my mom's side, and being the quiet person that i am, i'm sure i wasn't a very easy person for my grandfather to get to know. i was fortunate to have him come to my rice graduation, but most of our contact was during family holidays that are as much about managing a house packed with family as any real interaction. i probably learned as much about my grandfather hearing my mom and aunt's stories about him as i did during his life. (i'm not really sure where i'm going with this - this part of the xanga is sort of just throwing thoughts on a page). i was glad to hear the funny stories of his life raising a household of 5 girls growing up - those personal stories really aren't frequent conversation by any of my family often, i'll say i fit right in with the family in that respect.
- i'm not a fan of catholic funerals. it almost follows the exact same routine as a sunday mass. i know catholics are the most tradition and routine based religion around, but i wish the funeral could be a little more personal.
so i don't know how many posts i have left in me. i'll try to go out in some sort of recap blaze of glory before i retire this thing. and if there's any requests for me to write about something (i think the only person who cares is sushi, but you never know), let me know.
| | |
|
