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Monday, June 1st, 2009
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9:41 pm
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Mastodon - Leviathan - Awesome. A metal concept album about Moby Dick. What's not to like?
Propagandhi - Supporting Caste - When did Propagandhi get math-y? Good album.
The Fun Lovin' Criminals - Come Find Yourself - Still awesome.
The Real McKenzies - Off the Leash - Not as good as Loch'd and Loaded, but definitely worth purchasing
Neutral Milk Hotel - On An Aeroplane Over The Sea - Delightfully weird
Mclusky - Mcluskyism - Wow, these guys are pissed. Very solid album.
The Smoking Popes - Stay Down - Nowhere near as good as Destination Failure, but there are some real standouts (eg, "If You Don't Care")
Year of the Rabbit - Self-titled - Like Failure, but a bit more accessible (at least compared to Fantastic Planet).
Silversun Pickups - Swoon - Album of the year. Buy it now.
Tiger Army - II: Power of Moonlite - Very solid psychobilly.
Evil Dead: The Musical - Awesome, crappy recording.
Jesu - Conqueror - metalgaze FTW
Coming up in the next installment of Remarkably Brief Album Reviews: Slowdive, United Nations, Leathermouth, Isis, Wolf Parade, The Thermals, Converge, Year Long Disaster (this is really to remind me what to listen to over the next couple of weeks)
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| Monday, March 9th, 2009
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10:26 am
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Dan, Sara, Liz and I went to see Purdue's performance of Dracula yesterday. Embarrassingly enough, I've never read the book. The performance was pretty solid. They chose to play a few things for laughs, which I found odd in a drama, but overall it was a very enjoyable experience.
This weekend also saw a return of grilling weather. We grilled twice, it was the awesome.
I'm not sure what's going on in this Misfile.
Wizards of the Coast is apparently releasing a second PHB for 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons. Link here. It seems a bit . . . excessive. If I were not feeling charitable, I would say that WotC is just trying to eke a few more dollars out of the franchise they've repeatedly brutalized.
STABS (specifically GCC's -gstabs+ option) is making me stabby.
current music: Built To Spill - The Plan
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| Monday, February 16th, 2009
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7:31 pm - New bands, gummi candy
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Süsse Mäuse candy is available via Amazon these days. I have some on my desk, but I have yet to try it (Noland and Sara procured it for me while they were in Germany, many thanks).
The latest group of bands to whom I have been listening consists of: Converge, Jesu, United Nations, Year Long Disaster, Dillinger Escape Plan, Slowdive and Lily Allen. I'm sure there are a few others in there. I want to pick up Leviathan by Mastodon, simply because it's about Moby Dick.
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| Wednesday, January 21st, 2009
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1:49 pm - Bakuretsu Tenshi
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I love Burst Angel, it's awesome. They finally released the manga in English, so I've been picking it up as it comes out. I finished volume 2 the other night, and it's quite a bit racier than the anime (which really doesn't say much, the references to Jo and Meg having a relationship within the anime are oblique at best).
Obama's finally in office, historic event, yadda yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that we have a black dude as president. I just don't think he (or McCain, for that matter) has a viable plan for solving some of the glaring issues currently facing our country. His inaugural speech was definitely good, and I hope he approaches the idiotic War on Terror in a manner that is consistent with what he espoused. However, his economic and energy plans are fundamentally flawed.
And to everyone who thinks he's the messiah: you're wrong. He's just another guy who made a lot of promises he can't keep so you would vote for him. This is not the end to an economic recession, this is not the end to racism in America, this is not the end of poverty or injustice. It's the beginning of a new presidency. The king is dead, long live the king. Grow up, realize that your idols would fuck you over to get what they want, and act accordingly.
Anyway, that's about as much political shite as I can take.
current music: Bad Religion - American Jesus
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| Monday, January 12th, 2009
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6:36 pm
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Wikipedia entry for Cheese Whiz
Note the last paragraph:
Cheez Whiz was reformulated in the early 21st Century to include both a changed formula, and a new, wider jar that allows dipping straight from the container.
That's right. They changed the packaging because people are too goddamned lazy to pour their processed cheese sauce into a bowl.
current music: Hot Water Music - The End Of The Line
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5:21 pm
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Apparently everyone in Florida is on food stamps
Short album reviews:
Mclusky - Mcluskyism: These guys are (were, I guess, they broke up years ago) awesomely pissed off.
Smoking Popes - Stay Down: Not as good as Destination Failure, a bit sappy. Decent overall
The Old 97's - Blame It On Gravity: Not very good. At all. Seriously inferior to Too Far To Care and Wreck Your Life
I want to make Alton Brown's Red Beans and Rice recipe (link). I'm curious whether the pickled pork will be noticeable.
current music: Mclusky - Alan Is A Cowboy Killer
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| Sunday, January 4th, 2009
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1:07 pm - A world gone mad
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What the fuck is up with football this year?
- AU lost to Vandy
- Ball State lost to Buffalo, historically one of the worst teams in the NCAA
- UA was embarrassed by Utah
- The Tennessee Titans went 13-3 with their backup quarterback, alcoholic Kerrie Collins (not that I don't respect the guy for getting clean)
- San Diego is the first team to make the playoffs after starting 4-8
- Arizona (9-7) beat Atlanta (11-5) soundly in the first round of the playoffs
- Indy lost to San Diego in OT
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| Saturday, January 3rd, 2009
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12:58 pm
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Charlaine Harris' first book of the Southern Vampire Mysteries series, Dead Until Dark, is pretty good. It's an easy read, and it roughly parallels the show True Blood. True Blood develops a lot more characters than the book does, which I like. For example, Lafayette gets short shrift in the books but is a decently developed character in the TV show.
One sentence album review:
Conor Oberst - Phenomenal album, reminds me of Paul Simon's Graceland in places.
My shoulder is dramatically better than it was last week.
I need to update Tiki God Hate more often . . .
TabMixPlus has supplanted Tabbrowser Preferences as my tab management plugin of choice. It comes with idiotic session management that I have to turn off, as Session Manager is far better.
current music: Silversun Pickups - Common Reactor
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| Sunday, December 28th, 2008
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10:07 am
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My uncle, who shall remain nameless, fried a turkey for Christmas dinner. In the process, he managed to break almost every tenet set out in the Good Eats episode covering the subject. He used the exact stand that Alton Brown said to avoid, he set everything up in the garage, and he left the fryer unattended for about 45 minutes.
I could have started an argument by correcting him, but I thought it easier to just ensure that my stuff was in Adam's truck. I mean, his house burning down is minimally inconvenient to me. Truly not worth the effort.
The trip was pretty miserable, but my mother got me a truly great Christmas gift: one of the Underarmor AU Coach's polos.
American Rifleman, one of the NRA publications, indicates that Obama is going to renege on everything he said about gun control legislation. The tone of the article was pretty hysterical.
The Old 97's album Blame It On Gravity is truly inferior to their other offerings.
All of the driving has rendered my shoulder into an epicenter of agony. It looks like Adam and I have the same rotator cuff problem.
"Tie Me Up With Jackets" by Fight Like Apes is a truly great song.
current music: Fight Like Apes - Jake Summers
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| Friday, December 26th, 2008
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11:37 am - In Montgomery, thankfully leaving shortly.
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I'm in Montgomery, AL for the moment. We're going to do lunch with mom down in the asshole of BFE, AL, and then we're running some errands and heading to Athens. On the upside, I'll probably have a whole heap of my old Rifts books when I return.
I'm strongly considering leaving for WL on Saturday afternoon.
(this post is mainly to assure people that I am, in fact, still alive. This will be cross-posted to my Facebook account, which I can't log in to. Genius that I am, I forgot to bring my password safe with me, and I'm too lazy to go to the work of downloading it and using it on a computer that isn't mine)
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| Friday, December 5th, 2008
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9:45 am
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I saw a stupid bumper sticker on the way to work this morning:
"I am coming soon" -- Jesus
This contradicts 1st Thessalonians 5:2-4 and 2nd Peter 3:10.
Fight Like Apes is an awesomely pissed-off Irish band. Noland and I ordered their CD, Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion, and it's pretty great. Unfortunately, the album does not contain, "Lightsaber Cocksucking Blues," which is a great song. You can find their web presence here. Their shipping rate (and time) was surprisingly reasonable.
I spent Thanksgiving in Bradenton, FL with the Showalters. We brined, cooked and consumed a turkey. The turkey was apparently grown with some kind of cybernetic plastic device tethering its legs to is asshole to its spine. In the process of extracting the device (plastic not known for being Good Eats), Showalter managed to fling raw turkey into my mouth. It was salmolicious. The turkey turned out great, and we managed to resurrect this recipe for "Corn Bread Pudding," which is actually more of a dressing than a pudding (pudding in the British sense of the word?).
You can find pictures from the trip here. Some of them turned out well.
Tommy Tuberville, Auburn's 4th winningest coach, is no longer at the university. This says he resigned, but I think it's probably bullshit. The whole situation reeks of Bobby Lowder. This indicates that some people associated with the organization were a bit surprised and miffed.
For anyone who is interested, I will be in Montgomery, AL (also known as the heavily-fissured asshole of the universe) between Dec 24 and 28.
One (perhaps two) sentence album reviews:
The Lawrence Arms - Cocktails And Dreams: Good, but not as good as Oh! Calcutta! and Apathy and Exhaustion.
The Replacements - Hootenanny: One of their best, rawer sounding than Tim
The Smoking Popes - Destination Failure: Excellent album, but more indie/rock than punk.
Anti-Flag - For Blood and Empire: Preachy and self-righteous, but so consistently good that your forgive them for it.
The Eels - Souljacker: Awesome indie-rocky album with very great, clever lyrics.
The Falcon - God Don't Make No Trash Or Up Your Ass With Broken Glass: Hard-to-find EP that's definitely worth grabbing.
Tegan And Sara - This Business of Art: Pretty Ani Difranco in places. Nowhere near as good as The Con or So Jealous, but worth a listen do to some standout tracks like "My Number"
Hot Water Music - Fuel For The Hate Game: A very solid album with incredible drumming that reminds me of Avail. Listen to "Trademark"
Sundowner - Four One Five Two: Awesome, primarily acoustic, album with my favorite song about jumping off of a bridge ("Traffic Haze"). Also contains two excellent Lawrence Arms covers.
My Vitriol - Between The Lines: Nowhere near as good as Finelines
This (NSFW) may be the single worst thing I have ever seen on the internet. It rivals "Two Girls, One Cup." There's glass, blood and a dude's colon. I cringed and lolomited.
current music: Sundowner - Endless Miles
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| Monday, November 10th, 2008
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10:39 am - Sweet Fucking Christ
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It's stuff like this that makes me think there should be a test administered prior to voting. I'm not sure what the technical term is for states that allow voters to vote directly on a proposition (referendum states?), but FL and CA seem to have consistent problems with people voting for dumb shit. One of the medical malpractice propositions that was passed in FL basically made it impossible to practice medicine in the state, but none of the voters understood that nuance. All they saw was, "medical malpractice BAD" and voted accordingly, much like the Neanderthalic caricature of James Hetfield back in the Napster days.
Is the average voter really this stupid and/or bigoted? Wouldn't we be better off with, as this guy says, "two well-dressed men getting married and settling down, or two idiots tying the knot and cranking out any number of additional idiots?", for example?
"If we're really this stupid then we'll never succeed"
(apologies for the screed, the American political process is disheartening at best. And, for the record, I voted for Bob Barr)
current music: The Lawrence Arms - The Old Timer's 2x4
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| Friday, October 31st, 2008
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3:23 pm
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This is a pretty cool animation of states won by popular vote in the presidential elections.
current music: She Wants Revenge - Pretend The World Has Ended
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| Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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3:33 pm
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Ron Edwards is a pompous ass. Here is the evidence.
And here I was, laboring under the illusion that roleplaying games were about . . . having fun.
current music: Against Me! - Unsubstantiated Rumors
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| Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
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10:06 am - Alien vs. Predator
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We watched Alien vs. Predator last night. It wasn't as terrible as I was expecting. Sure, the whole "pyramid 2000 feet below the ice of Antarctica" thing was pretty silly, but at least the Alien vs. Predator fights were neat. And it was a blissfully short movie.
current music: Anti-Flag - State Funeral
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| Monday, October 13th, 2008
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5:14 pm
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We code freeze Friday. Things could be looking better, but they could also be looking a hell of a lot worse. Things are _mostly_ working.
Liz and I went to see the Colts whip the shit out of Baltimore yesterday. Many thanks to her parents for, you know, paying for it. On the way there we listened to Less Talk, More Rock by Propagandhi. I seriously disagree with some of their (often ill-informed, to my mind) political and social views, but they're are a really solid hardcore punk/thrash metal band (depending upon the album). Some of the lyrics on the album are eerily appropriate given the current political and economic climate.
"publicly subsidized! privately profitable!"
that's the anthem of the upper-tier (the puppeteer
untouchable).
I seriously doubt Liz likes the album as much as I do.
I attended my first Catholic wedding over the weekend, which was . . . interesting. The painting behind the alter only has 11 disciples in it. They left out Judas, and we all know he's the hero of the Bible.
current music: Propagandhi - Anchorless
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| Thursday, October 9th, 2008
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1:51 pm - 30 second movie review, random crap
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In The Mouth Of Madness is a really great, really weird movie. I found the subtle humor directed at Stephen King pretty amusing, mostly because I generally dislike his work.
The Blueberry Crisp Clif Bars are decent.
Work has been hectic, so I haven't been doing much other than . . . working.
The presidential debates have done nothing to demonstrate for which bullshit politician I should vote. I'm leaning towards Obama because the idea of McCain dying in office and Palin, in all her people-lived-with-dinosaurs-6000-years-ago weirdness, taking the helm fills me with a childlike terror. The Republicans have done an excellent job of selecting a neocon wet dream as their vice presidential candidate.
Something tangentially related to the above: if you are running for office and argue that intelligent design is science, I will not vote for you. We don't need _more_ idiots in office.
current music: The Jam - Sounds From The Street
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| Monday, September 1st, 2008
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2:23 pm
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| Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
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10:38 am - Bluefin Bistro mini-review
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We ate at the Bluefin Bistro in downtown Lafayette last night. Everyone liked their food. I had a California roll and Bulgogi. Both were excellent (granted that it's hard to fuck up a California roll, but I've seen it done). Liz had pork tenderloin with a bleu cheese sauce. Noland got Unagi over rice, and Sara had two sushi rolls. They all seemed satisfied with their food. The sushi rolls were longer than what is typical, and were of a normal diameter (as opposed to Kokoro, where the individual pieces of maki are unwieldy).
The reviews I've read said that the service was terrible. Our experience was a counterpoint to those opinions, as the service was decent but not exceptional. The server was knowledgeable and reasonably prompt.
current music: The Old 97's - Timebomb
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| Sunday, August 24th, 2008
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5:29 pm
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David Brin makes some good points about Star Wars.
I keep hearing good things about Nighthawk Custom firearms. I may have to pick one up.
There's a problem with Rachel Ray's recipes: they're usually freaking expensive. I'm watching an episode where she makes "Chicken Cordon Bleu" with bacon and bleu cheese instead of ham and gruyere. I may have to try it. Also, the bacon is wrapped around the chicken breast instead of being stuffed inside of it.
I wonder what mashed potatoes would taste like if you used bleu cheese salad dressing instead of milk/butter/chicken stock/mayonnaise.
Noland, CC and I brewed beer yesterday. This time we're shooting for a nice brown ale, like Newcastle. There were no major fuckups. We were a little short on fresh hops, but hopefully the old ones we had will be sufficiently potent. We used a different variety of hops -- fuggles -- this time.
Assuming I managed my money properly this month, I will be picking up a new CD player. I've decided upon the Music Hall CD25.2
Almost everything I own is now in the new apartment. There are a couple of dishes and a table at the old place, but that's about it.
I refuse to use facebook's blogging facilities. I wish there were a way to automatically crosspost between facebook and livejournal.
current music: Rachel Ray
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woodfjo's journal