two.points.collapsing

saturday morning. well, afternoon technically, but i slept pretty late.

we did make it to zoolander last night, although my first comment is never ever go to a general cinemas theatre. 9 dollar tickets, and no student discount? that’s unacceptable. i’m certainly never going back there again. never ever.

as for the movie, well, it wasn’t really worth nine dollars. it would have been worth seeing for free a few weeks ago at the pre-screening, if that hadn’t been cancelled to remove world trade center shots from the film. as it stands, the fair price for that movie is probably somewhere between the two at maybe 5 or 6 dollars. it wasn’t a good movie. it was funny, and i laughed plenty here and there, so it was enjoyable. ben stiller is a funny guy. overall though there were a lot of things wrong with it, for example a plot line with his father that served no point and delivered almost no humor.

i guess you can’t win ’em all.

later i did some relaxin’ at the pad and strolled with a friend over to 7-11 and picked up a snickers ice cream bar. mmm, yummy. on the way in, there was a possibly-homeless, and if not at least very weird and crazy guy on the corner of the street we had to cross toward, and he was demonstrating some kung fu type punches for us apparently as we tried to take a wide path around him; i wanted a snack, but i wasn’t about to break out the fists of fury just to get 99 cents worth of empty calories. anyway, he mumbled something at us as we passed, and i turned and gave him what i called the “respectful-distance nod” to at least acknowledge the guy. i figure crazy people don’t want to think they’re being ignored, so just let them know you noticed them but don’t want to rumble. needless to say, on the way out, kung-fu master had crossed a different street and was at the gas station opposite. i remarked to my friend, no one messes with the respectful-distance nod.

okay, i just read this from a link on shiner’s home page. you should check it out, they’re talking about their new album (october 23rd will be the best new music day of the year, hands down, when you add hey mercedes and d-plan on top of shiner) and you can listen to a couple of the new songs in real audio.

the real reason i mention it is this though. i laughed my head off:

“What sets The Egg apart from previous Shiner records is its exploration of sounds and structure; many of the songs having an ethereal quality that seems to tie them together. Although “The Truth About Cows” and “Surgery” bring the rock like always, the middle five tracks (beginning with “The Egg”) are darker, more expansive and seem to be thematically linked, almost like a concept album.

“There’s no, like, fucking gnomes or wizards or anything like that,” Malinowski is quick to add. “Musically, it’s concept-linked.”

oh man. gnomes and wizards. that’s outstanding.

mission control by burning airlines is a cd i could listen to all day. i was playing it at work and it made me so happy. not because it’s a cheerful cd, i don’t mean that kind of happy. it’s just an amazing album and it lights up the part inside me that appreciates excellently crafted music. this cd is definitely an example of that.

hoping to check out zoolander tonight, which would be fun. if that doesn’t happen i have a bad feeling nothing will be going on. tomorrow night new end original is playing only a few blocks from here, so i’m gonna check that out i think. i’m anxious to see if the two parts which i really like, but in two very different ways (one being the guitars from texas is the reason, another being the touching songs and singing of jonah), combine to a sum greater than the parts, or if they don’t work out as well together. all i’ve heard is the three song single, which i like. three songs don’t make a show though. so i’ll report back sunday on that.

the more pressing issue though is what to have for dinner. and even more frighteningly: i’m completely out of root beer. send help!

back from a little party at “the spencer” (an apartment complex my friend lives in). i want to live somewhere with a good name like that. who wants to live in a building called “founders’ apartments”? that’s pale. but not only was the building well-named, but a swell time was had. it’s a promising thing, hanging out with a crowd comprised mostly of people you don’t know very well, and having a good time anyway. gives me hope that maybe there are additional friends to be made in the world.

plus, i got to hang out with justin, who is metal (he also has a monday night radio show, but later and scarier) and also rocks in a non-music way. yeah, that’s right justin, i mentioned you AND linked to your metal militia webpage.

(see, justin’s a collapsing fan too.)

jared at entropy is the man; first reader to get the title reference, or at least first one to vocalize it. he’s got him a fine weblog as well.

rocking the qbert again, doing some laundry, considering the possibilities for this fine thursday evening. i’d like to see zoolander maybe, if someone with a car would like to go too. i don’t care what you say, i’ll support ben stiller to the very end.

there was a career fair on campus today, with long rows of tables between nearly-graduated students and representatives from hiring companies, each one displaying a little sign with the company name and the “desired majors”. although it’s somewhat reassuring that a large majority of them wanted “BUAD”, (that’s me, alright), it put me into a gloomy mood anyway. i hadn’t thought to participate in the career fair because i’m just a junior, but it’s not far off and pretty intimidating. so i went to work and got all introspective about how my life is going to change drastically one way or another in about a year and a half, and i’m very close to the part of my life where i’m going to have to shape that change into what i want it to be, or end up very unhappy. for now i’ll put a lid on complaining about having to join the real world though because that’s so your-typical-college-student’s-malaise, which i don’t want to be a part of. to be honest, i’m excited despite any anxious or nervous underlying feelings.

on a brighter note, later in the day i was passing by the now-vacant career fair tables and ran into a girl named janelle i know, who happens to work for the career center and was probably coming back from helping close up the event. we talked for a few minutes and she said something about how so many people are looking for business majors, which of course invoked little excitement from me, since i’m not so into being known as “one of those”. more importantly though, she said to me, “you should be an author, not a business major… you just seem like the kind of person that i’d like to read what you think about things”. and she’s an english major, so that was an extra nice thing to hear (and it was probably more articulate in her actual words). sincerely though, i think that was an extremely flattering comment. isn’t that what we all want, in some part of us, is for people to want to hear what we have to say? it made me feel good, in any case.

so i told her that maybe i could become one in my spare time while i worked at some regular job to make a living. i also referred her to this webpage, where anyone could technically do just what she said — read what i think about things.

so if she ever ends up here: hi janelle. you’re rad.

“a shattered nation longs to care about stupid bullshit again”… wow. the onion is doing a superb job of remaining clever and tuned in to the situation without crossing the line and being tasteless. i’m so proud of them. what a great thing.

on a similar note, i’ve seenthe daily show a few times this week, and i wasn’t quite as impressed. at least last night, it seemed like they were holding back. maybe it was just a rough night, because normally that’s the funniest thing on tv (not counting family guy night).

i’ve also made a new friend called morpheus. no, i don’t mean the guy from the matrix or even the dream king, the sandman, from the outstanding comic book series. i mean the file-sharing agent that lets me download music videos and not have to watch any mtv hoping to catch some guilty pleasures. it’s like napster, only better. rock and roll.

ps–i still don’t advocate downloading instead of supporting music, fear not. as a matter of fact, the list of cd’s i’m trying to resist buying until i can afford it is dangerously and temptingly long, and i don’t stand much of a chance.

this morning i was riding the seniorita (my skateboard) to class with shannon, and as we rounded a corner there were another guy on a skateboard and a girl on a bike heading right at us. she veered right and narrowly missed ramming right into the guy, whereas i veered left toward the curb, which unfortunately was the same way bike girl decided to go. since i was leaning to try to turn, her front tire basically hit me in the shins and sent me flat on my ass in a sort of twisting fall over the curb onto the sidewalk. it didn’t hurt so much because i’ve learned over many falls how to do it right, but it sure was funny. the girl apologized profusely and was very concerned that i was hurt. i assured her i was fine and there were no hard feelings, and continued laughing. it was a fun start to the day and further proof that i should be a stuntman if business school doesn’t work out for me.

and you laugh as if that’s not something i’ve seriously considered on multiple occasions.

finance class today furthered my opinion that there’s no reason to go to that class, ever. actions will be taken. it was especially no good because awful classes are a lot more awful when my partner in cynicism doesn’t show up to complain with me. no spencer equals no fun. but at least i came home to my new dj qbert cd. thank you, cheap-cds. these are some fat beats.

aaaah, today. what happened today? i didn’t have to give a presentation because we ran out of class time, i had an inexplicable, bright little moment where i was pretty happy which was later snuffed out by marketing class… but really, nothing has happened today.

last night was good though. i gave mike his birthday present. a tomato rug. that’s right, it’s a rug shaped like a tomato. if you’re not laughing, then either you just don’t appreciate fine home furnishings, or you don’t know the story of why i bought it for him. and i don’t feel like explaining. perhaps more amusing, dom gave dustin a fishing hat that comes equipped with a business-card-sized LCD screen into which you can program scrolling messages. that’s right, it really exists. so he walked around with a message proclaiming “it’s my birthday!!!” (followed by three hearts) for a while before he took it off. now that was a great gift idea. also, we played with my new water balloon slingshot, off our balcony. it’s juvenile, agreed, but so much fun! and later i hung out with this very neat girl that i used to go out with. it was a fine evening.

we’ll see what i can manage tonight. a free dinner, for starters. being friends with people who like to cook is totally the way to go.

today is my two roommates’ birthday. happy birthday mike and dustin! now you’re old, like me!

i was having such a good day today, i decided not to go to my finance class, which of course only makes the day better. it started because my computer class is cancelled this week, and that’s normally a three hour class. so i went to my first class, only an hour, which is always fine. then i went to the lab where we normally have class to do my project which is due next week in class. and it only took me about 2 hours to do, and it turned out great! (maybe i’ll post it to show off next week). so i got a cheeseburger and came back here instead of going to finance because i was in such a good mood, it made the most sense.

and oh yes, i must tell you about the dj qbert show last night. MY GOD, it blew my mind. i can’t express or describe the level of skill that must go into doing what that man did. there were a few opening dj’s who already had me impressed and gasping, but when qbert came out (in crutches no less — he’s having surgery on his leg this week and did the routine standing on one leg, as if i wasn’t impressed enough) he put on a show that was easily the most impressive and technical musical performance i’ve ever seen. of course, it’s just sounds, he doesn’t have to write lyrics, so he doesn’t compete with great songwriters, but as far as mastering a craft, that guy gets top honors in my book. he’s so insanely fast and intricate it’s unbelievable. we decided he’s not so much talented as a genetic anomaly for being able to do what he does. apparently, he was forced into retirement in 1995 from the world scratching competition for “monopolizing the first place spot”. oh my god. if you get a chance, check the guy out. and buy his cd, he’s got some fat beats.

the only thing i didn’t like was the weird movie/cartoon/video they showed between sets. it was basically the extended music video to qbert’s whole album, but it’s this really weird, trippy, scary acid-induced barrage of bizarre anime-inspired imagery fit loosely around the story of this dj/dentist character (i’m not making this up) who has to travel across the galaxy and fight enemies to teach the people of the world the art of dj-ing and also give them dental examinations. it’s funny in retrospect, but it frightened me, to be honest. my roommate thought it was great though, and is trying to get it on video. but what can i really say about that.

wait until you hear about what i got him for his birthday though. heh heh heh. i’ll tell you tomorrow after i give it to him tonight.

the kenna video is gone and the raddest video ever is up in it’s place. “coffee and tv”, by blur. you should have already clicked there and stopped reading this.

some days, i feel just like that little milk carton.

but not today! QBERT!