man, that old counter says times are hard and nobody likes me anymore. maybe because i forgot about the world last night — too busy with a presentation i should have started before 9pm the evening before i had to give it (the next morning at 10). it was a speech about how jetpacks work, so it could have been way worse; but i put in a lot of work, so no time for blogging. it went really well, in case you were wondering. from my speech:

[after discussing heigh/weight ranges to safely ride an XFV personal flying vehicle]

“this means the morbidly obese or freakishly small will not get to experience the sublime joy of flight until demand urges the design of petite and plus sizes of the XFV…”

haha… i’m such a bitch.

but wait, there’s more! phantom planet played a short show at high noon in the middle of our campus to promote their cd release (which was today). so that happened. i don’t know, my thought process while hearing and watching them was along two lines, mostly. the first was that they sure looked like they enjoy being in a band. and that’s important — they were obviously having a great time, or at least convincing me that they were. i suppose it’s possible that they’re just showy.

the second line of thought was that they’re not that great, however, i started thinking about how not every band i ever see or hear can be spectacular . . . it’s just not possible. if every band was amazing, my standards would just keep getting higher and higher until i expected more than any real humans could deliver. perhaps i’d have to turn to heroin to get my kicks, since music wouldn’t really do anything for me anymore. is this a dangerous opinion to take? is allowing for mediocrity only a step away from enjoying dave matthews? well i didn’t mean to get into all that, i just wanted to say this really: phantom planet isn’t that great. it’s true, i think, and i don’t know anyone who thinks they’re too impressive, but i did enjoy seeing them. you could say i liked them, or thought they were good, even though i realize there are so many better things out there.

i feel like by saying these things i’m teetering on the edge of losing all credibility or taste, somehow. well, screw you guys. i’m going to go watch mtv and hope to catch a linkin park video. damn those things are funny. have you seen the one with the floating ninjas, where he sings upside down standing on the ceiling in this weird sewer/cave place? it’s a stellar video, really. the song is “one step closer”, i think. fucking priceless.