okay, i’m testing out a few images that i made myself for a project in photo class. the top being my favorite out of the things i made in photography class this spring (i didn’t jump), and the lower being a picture of me not very ugly, i think. subject to replacement (is that a word?) if i make or find a better representation of me for this purpose. the city in the top picture is downtown LA.
back safe and sound from waterloo. i know bill and ted said they have the most excellent waterslides, and i guess as far as waterslides go they were okay, but i remembered once we’d been there for a while that waterslides just aren’t that exciting. give me a nice rollercoaster anyday. although i’ll admit i don’t mind the amount of clothing on the pretty girls when i’m at the water park… (stop staring brian. or should i stare? do they want me to stare? would they be flattered if they caught me staring, as long i wasn’t making creepy faces or doing anything weird? these are the sort of things i wish i knew.)
for now it’s downtime before our friend allison makes us dinner. she grew up in japan (although she’s not asian) and she’s making us japanese food for dinner. i’m excited. free exotic meal, good deal.
speaking of good deal, only two people have taken me up on the pez offer, and they were both people i already knew, one of whom i right out suggested this site to. not that i’d stiff them the pez they deserve, they’re getting it. but the real genius behind this was me meeting new people. maybe there are people reading who just aren’t interested in pez, or wish to remain anonymous. that’s fine too. it’s just that if i don’t get more of a response i may have to abandon the whole idea. perhaps it’s childish and uncool, all this pez business. how was i to know?
i was looking through some pictures of me to maybe find one i could make very small and put on this page. you know, as a way to make more of a human connection. but as i looked, i found that i don’t really like any of the pictures of me that i have. i don’t think i’m bad looking, the camera just never captures me at my full glorious irresistable potential. maybe i’ll have to settle for something unsexy. or leave it pictureless. i don’t know. i suppose you’ll see.
tack this on to thursday: got the snatch dvd in the mail from my homies, so when we got back from a rousing debevic dinner, we plopped down and watched my new movie. what a hip flick. it’s a very stylish movie and brad pitt does an amazing job with that accent, but i’m not sure i like it as much as its predecessor. lock stock and two smoking barrels just made me laugh more than this one, what can i say.
tomorrow it’s up and at ’em and off to waterloo. fun! see you at the slides, kids.
oh the satisfaction. i bought my waterpark ticket and some blank tapes, and did some laundry, and finished a new mix tape already. now i have something to listen to on the way to and from work for the next month! this is no masterpiece mix tape like some i’ve spent a whole week deciding on tracks for in the past, this is just a bunch of stuff i’ve been listening to lately that i wanted to make portable and convenient to listen to while mobile. it’s all my recent (mostly) indie rock/punk purchases and downloads. now don’t worry, recording industry or musicians… i have a strict personal policy about downloads. i only download with intent to buy, music listening on a trial basis. i think digital download sites are great for that sort of thing. you can see what you like, and hear new stuff. but i’m only a pirate in the swashbuckling sense. the only burned cd i own is a disc of hum b-sides, live tracks, and out of print stuff i couldn’t find anywhere else after looking at length. so it’s all good. i think robbing from music-makers is a terrible idea. i like music, why would i want all the people who make it to lose money? especially since the bands i listen to are the sort who could probably benefit from every purchase they get.
so in case you want your own copy of this mix tape, make it with these songs (although be warned, the songs on side one just barely fit on one side of a 90 minute cassette). they’re all excellent.
side one: 1–burning airlines – scissoring….2–hum – puppets….3–the dismemberment plan – the city….4–the impossibles – oxygen….5–north by northwest – that conversation made a lot more sense this time….6–grade – for the memory of love….7–owls – everyone is my friend….8–hot rod circuit – the power of vitamins….9–gorillaz – clint eastwood (couldn’t help it with this one)….10–burning airlines – all sincerity….11–alkaline trio – stupid kid….12–hum – boy with stick
side two: 1–deltron 3030 – virus….2–hot rod circuit – remover….3–burning airlines – the deluxe war baby….4–the impossibles – disintegration (is the best album ever)….5–hum – hortense….6–owls – life in the hair-salon themed bar on the island….7–north by northwest – the collapse….8–grade – seamless….9–hot rod circuit – radio song….10–alkaline trio – mr. chainsaw….11–burning airlines – carnival….12–hum – aphids.
whew. linking all those was probably not worth as much typing as it took, but once i started i felt oddly compelled to finish the job. oh well, what else was i gonna do on thursday at six o clock? the simpsons won’t be on for another half hour. (another 15 minutes now, actually). time to go get some snacks for now. can’t go without food until dinner, which will be at ed debevik’s (mmmm, chicken fingers and vanilla cokes!) and probably not for a few more hours. can’t wait.
hot damn, a day off with not even a barbeque to worry about. that means 100% chillin’. woke up late, went to buy some stuff like blank tapes (it’s about time for a new mix tape for the headphones; the last one’s been being constantly played for about a month and i don’t have a skip-proof cd player that’ll play while i’m riding the bumpy bus or pumpin’ on the longboard) and a ticket for our trip to the water park tomorrow. discount prices at the USC ticket office aren’t half bad. 16 dollars for a day of water slides. and not just any water slides either. this is the water park in san dimas california as seen in bill and ted’s excellent adventure. they called it waterloo, and so shall i, no matter if it says “raging waters” on my ticket.
and last night i went loony and bought three new cds. i haven’t bought any music for a few weeks at least and it was high time. i think i made the right decision. hopefully it’s all as good as i think it will be, and nothing godawful. (actually i know they won’t be bad, i just wanted to make a link joke about a terrible band).
barbeque went well. came away feeling completely overstuffed though. usually i don’t have that problem because there’s never anything good on the table, but today was a tasty day. mad bratwurst action. [roommate] josh’s friend james came and brought three of his friends, so i think we achieved real ‘gathering’ status. they were cool kids too. james told a story about his mom getting some crazy urge to breed cattle and purchasing four gallons of bull sperm and keeping it in their freezer. it was even funnier when we all tried to imagine how you would go about getting the sperm into a female. yuck.
aaah, holidays. it’s so nice to have my weekend actually start on tuesday night this week. that’s rock and roll right there.
oh, i finished reading high fidelity today too. what a great book. i love the movie, and the two are pretty similar, but although the book lacks the hilarity of jack black, i think the insight into the male mind (or at least one variety of the male mind, one which i felt i could really relate to) in reference to relationships was better dealt with in book form. and i loved it. so i’d recommend it to you. next on the menu, a bit of shakespeare from a book i bought around christmas time but cut off without about a dozen other books for school and a couple since. everything in due time, i say.
one thing about high fidelity though, before i forget: there’s a part where the main character rob says (and i don’t think this was in the movie) that “no serious person can have less than 500 records”. assuming that the same goes for cds — because if it’s strictly records that puts me even farther from being a serious person — i still have a long way to go i think. last time i was troubled enough to count, i think i only had something like half that many. i know i can’t honestly measure myself by these possessions, but i can measure my status in the world of music collectors. . . am i that small-time? do people with multi-thousand disc collections smirk at my attempt to call myself a “music enthusiast”? i guess it’s necessary to point out that i’m only 20 (and a half) years old, and have never had any job that paid me much, as some sort of excuse as to why i haven’t attained amazing heights of collector-dom, but still. i wonder how i compare to my peers in this regard. any opinions can be sent in the usual way.
ooooooh man. fourth of july barbeque coming up in a matter of hours. today is all rock. after sleeping til about eleven and having some blueberry muffins lovingly prepared by my lady friend for breakfast, got showered and cleaned and off to the store. we are stocked up. we got a bunch of hamburgers, hot dogs, and a nice load of bratwurst. so much food! it’s going to be great! even a bunch of these in all flavors for us non-drinkers. mmmm, frosty. it’s gonna be a helluva day, even though it’s a little bit hot. but that’s tolerable when you got the good friends and hot meat cooked over a fire. we’ve got plenty if anyone’s lonely.
story: i was talking during lunch at work yesterday about how i’m going to have a big barbeque today for the fourth, and i mentioned that bratwurst were on the menu. so my boss turns to me and says, “gross dude, you put that on your hot dogs?”. whoa. deja vu. i swear, this really happened. so i’m glad i can set things right with these nutty californians and get them to figure out the difference between sauerkraut on hot dogs and bratwurst instead of hot dogs. mmmm, sausages.
my only complaint is that we don’t have any fireworks, but then again those really aren’t quite as amazing to me as they were when i was a tyke, so i guess i can do without them. instead, we’ve got rock, or at least i do on my box right now. happy independents day! (that’s not a typo).
tonight was good. cooked up some eggs and toast for a satisfying dinner, read some, and went out for a skate with the boys. now i’m showered and fresh and going over to visit the lady. sure, it’s not much of a story but i felt like i needed to wrap up the day.
and if you’re going to be anywhere near downtown LA tomorrow and have nothing to do the afternoon of the fourth, give me a ring, and you can come to our fun rock and roll barbeque. nighty night!
rock. rock rock rock. what a good day this could turn out to be. already i found out that on top of having tomorrow off for the holiday, i also don’t have to go in thursday to work, and since i already don’t work fridays, that means it’s already the weekend! score! how good is that. and i also got to leave work at 3 today, which makes for more happiness.
but that’s not all. i got one of these in the mail from two of my wonderful friends from illinois today; a very belated thank you gift for letting them stay here for five days while they were on spring break. so i’ve spent the past hour fiddling with curious george and string, and other leisurely things, during time when i should normally have been working. aaaah, good day. maybe i’ll catch a flick tonight, or finish a book, or something.
and check it out, collapsing has a friend!
alright, who wants to count down the days until i die? i didn’t fully realize until yesterday that i basically never intake anything of nutritional value. my friend josh said once, “if i keep eating the way i’m eating now for much longer, i’m not going to be alive anymore”. yesterday was a prime illustration of that. my menu for the day: half a domino’s pizza for lunch at around 1pm (no breakfast), and half a pint of new york strawberry cheesecake ice cream and some chips ahoy cookies and milk, around 10pm. couple that with little or no “exercise”, and you have a dead brian.
enough dietary discussion though. it’s awesome that tomorrow is a holiday. holidays were a great idea. to celebrate our nation’s independence, or this dead historical figures birthday, or this religious occasion, let’s stay home and do nothing. great idea. i love it. i’m gonna hook up my friends and i with a fat burger/bratwurst barbeque tomorrow on the patio. it’ll be so . . . independent. in the spirit of the day.
story: i had the great idea one day that i hadn’t had bratwurst for a long time, and we should buy some and grill them on the patio (that sounds funny. i don’t mean grill them directly on the patio, but on a small weber grill sitting on a picnic table sitting on the patio). so i asked my girlfriend, knowing that bratwurst might be kind of a chicago-type thing, “have you ever had bratwurst?”. and her reply was, “no, i don’t like that on my hot dogs”. it was so funny. she thought it was a condiment. the end.
back to drudgery. i thought yesterday’s assignment was a one day thing. i was wrong! oh boy!