If you are reading this then you may not know that I have moved from Blogger to my own place. And that place would be:
sweet HYPOCRISY
You should probably check it out.
So I have been trying my hand at a bit of experimental photography, experimental for me at least. I really like photos and photography and all that jazz but my digital camera is just a point-and-shoot and is a few years old so, needless to say, the pictures it produces are not of a particularly stellar quality. What I do have, on the other hand, is a sweet Canon AE-1 35mm SLR from the 70s passed down from my dad. The catch? The camera is fully un-automatic. "All I shoot is in manual mode on my DSLR!" you say, "The manual setting takes better pictures anyway!" you might inform me. This is all true but you have to know how the hell to adjust things correctly or you pictures look like your drunk uncle took them with his RAZR. Srsly. Over the past few months, I have gotten more familiar with manual-style picture taking and the pictures just keep getting better. Additionally, there is definitely some nostalgic quality about being the only person in over a year to drop off a roll of film at the Wal-Mart on Tchoupitoulas. Thats right...Wal-Mart. Its close, its cheap, and I never have to worry about getting my photos mixed up with anyone else's because there aren't any others. Simple as that.
The pictures you see in this post however are taken with that old point-n-shoot I was talking bad about earlier. All this lead up was just rambling...I get sidetracked. As you might (or might not) be able to tell, they are HDR photos. Just a little something to pass the afternoon time and to exercise my Photoshop muscles. I took them right from my doorstep. The first one is of our friends house across the street and the other is from my front stoop looking west down Magazine St. As I pat myself on the back, I have to say that they turned out really pretty good. They are defintely are better than I thought they would be.
Listening:
Death Cab for Cutie
Narrow Stairs
Vampire Weekend
Vampire Weekend
p.s. -- Hey CBS, Talon here, no one is going to watch CSI: Miami if a certain Mr. Horatio Cane isn't involved, FYI
I hate it when you approach somebody coming the opposite direction walking down the hallway, or sidewalk, or sideway, or whatever and you give a courtesy smile and they just stare back at your face like an OB/GYN waiting for the head to crown. I wanna punch those people in the face.
BTW:
dunyun (n. plural dunyuns) /,dʌn'jʌn/
- A deep and insightful take on a subject, situation or occurrence; a random thought
- I drink your milkshake
So, I've been as busy as a dolphin, as they say, working on my thesis and work shiz so my posts have been non-existent. So there ya go.
So I am in Wal-Mart last night looking for a new rug and I happen on this sign. I say to my wife, "Hey, look, apparently its coyote season...hold on..what the hell is a deer dog?" Thats right, the last one on the list, an apparent Louisiana favorite, deer dog. Please tell me this is just an awesome colloquialism and not really a dog.
Now, as I pull out my iPhone in order to capture this sweet piece of southern amazingness, I hold in my hand a freshly opened Coke Zero. The sign is above my head, naturally, and I get as close as I can so I can get a good shot. I lift my phone up, two hands, and along for the ride is the Coke. I hear it hit the floor before I feel it on my shirt. In my fervor to make fun, I have in fact shamed myself my pouring half of my bev on to my shirt (srsly, bought it two days before, brand fn new) as irony slaps me on the face. I am awesome.
Good times...deer dog, spilled coke on a Wal-Mart floor (which I left there, uncleaned...hey man, its Wal-Mart). On a lighter note, my a/c in my car does not work. I think I might be able to live without it (bc its gonna take a lot of work to fix it), you know, by rolling down the windows and such, except for the fact that yesterday, the driver's side window decided to work only like 1/5 of the time. I am a bit worried. I need you window.
Went to Jazzfest on Sunday and got to see The Raconteurs. The show was great, (I didn't realize Jack White was such a badass on the guitar. He is.) as was the weather, and, of course, the food was outta sight. Then a little Neville Brothers to close the evening. Towards the end of the show, Aaron sang Amazing Grace a capella which absolutely silenced the crowd. It was just so calming, I think for everyone. With all the talk about recovering after the storm, the firsts for Jazzfest since the storm, etc, it gave everyone affected a little solace and time to reflect. You know, that song has strong words that, when you hear them, make you feel like you're doin' OK. We are, I think.
Watching:
The Savages
Man, what a great movie. Moving, Thought inspiring, things movies should be. That is all.
I am all over the place.
So, I am a huge Weezer fan, always have been. People tend to either really like them or really hate them. As far as I'm concerned, one listen to the Blue album and you're hooked. As of late, I haven't really been able to get into their stuff but here a while back Rivers released a solo album that was just some stuff he had recorded himself through the years...very interesting stuff.
But today my friends, Weezer has revealed the release date of of their 6th studio album, and for the third time, it is named Weezer and has a red cover, so naturally, the Red Album it shall be called. You can check the new single Pork and Beans here. Definitely awesome. Too bad we have to wait until the end of June to have the rest of the album. They are going on tour...lets all hope they make a swing down New Orleans way.
I have been incredibly busy the past few weeks. You see, I am trying to complete my Master's degree. I started in 2005 and then I got married and got a job and never finished. I finished the classes but the thesis never got past the first chapter. That all has changed now of course. I have been pounding on the keyboard and the paper is so close to being done. I reckon only about 2 more weeks and then the defense this summer and done...hello, new diploma frame.
Listening:
Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
So, I am a rabid user of Last.fm and scrobble my songs daily. I am definitely one of those people who likes my music organization [like a meticulously groomed iTunes library with every song's tag filled out with more information than a passport] and even more so a service that will give me stats about my music listening. Last.fm does this fantastically…but I have one quibble. What can't I scrobble my tracks played from my iPhone? I mean seriously. In my mind, people who have iPhones are the kind of people who use things like Last.fm. Not really a big deal, just thought we could all use it.
I went back to my alma mater this weekend for a bit of "frat" action. See, we have this thing called Founder's Day where alumni come back once a year for a bit of drinking, golf, and crawfish. I always look forward to it every year (like a dork) but end up disappointed afterwards. Don't get me wrong, I had a decent time...I do love to swing a golf club...but every time I go back and visit old college friends, in any setting, I end up thinking, "I do not belong here." [Gets on soapbox] I have done a lot of growing apparently, personality-wise, since I graduated (unbeknownst to me) and I really don't enjoy sitting around watching people act like jackasses and drinking themselves into oblivion. Don't get me wrong, every time I drink I certainly think to myself that drinking until I cant feel my lips and the tip of my nose is a good idea, but it invariably ends up in fail. I would much rather watch basketball or employ my self-aggrandizing raconteur-ery. Srsly. I have outgrown some of my favorite pastimes (that would be the acting like a jackass part) while others, very clearly have not. I mean, it really is OK if i decide not to drink while I'm golfing. [gets down]
Worst roads in America: New Orleans. Srsly.
Listening:
In Defense of the Genre (totally not as good as ...Is A Real Boy)
Reading:
NASA Memos...ftw
CAVEAT: Now, not all of my friends are like what I described. I suppose the people I was referring to are people that are not really good friends but just regular hey-man-how-you-doing friends. This of course makes sense because I try to be friends with people I like to be around. Wow, what a novel idea. Just to clear that up.
CAVEAT: Now, not all of my friends are like what I described. I suppose the people I was referring to are people that are not really good friends but just regular hey-man-how-you-doing friends. This of course makes sense because I try to be friends with people I like to be around. Wow, what a novel idea. Just to clear that up.
So I have been hearing all of these things about this new thingy called Muxtape, which is essentially web mixtape. The idea is fantastic and the implementation is uncomplicated and well done. I decided to give it a try with a few songs that I have on my work computer (since that's all I can get to right now) but I plan to add to it later on. The best thing about it is that you can share it with whoever, like a real tape minus the walkman, and you can pick thru (<--why cant we spell "through" like this? I've always thought (damn, there's another one) words with the "ough" thing were stupid anyway.) other people's mixes and discover some good stuff. Maybe you'll ruin a hipster's day and listen to their music and force them to create a new mix so they can stay on top of their I-listen-to-music-that-no-one-else-has-heard-of tactics. Burn. Speaking of good music on teh webz, I found a great site that puts forth a great little sampling of new and interesting music on a fairly regular basis called Said The Gramophone. Not all of it is my taste but every once in a while I'll find something that is to my liking like this fella I have been listening to lately.
OH BY THE WAY, my work has decided to block all things interesting i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Gmail, etc. (and every proxy site, apparently), seriously guys, I will find something else to keep me from doing work.
Listening
BARR
Summary
I spent most of yesterday evening preparing my old laptop for my friend, who has purchased it from me for a nominal fee. I feel really good about this, even though I am a bit scared to go without a Windows machine for the first time ever, because this will be his 1st computer. I know, who doesn't have a computer? Well, the thing is is that he has never really been a person who is at all interested in anything tech, I mean anything. The kid bought a DVD player for the first time last year...seriously. Why does he need a computer now you say? Well, he is going back to school and need it for that. These are all good things because I was worried about him, lifestyle-wise, for a good while. But now, he seems to be back on track, which makes me very happy. All of our other mutual friends from years past have sort of abandoned him for a few bad decisions he made, one's he regrets. I consider him to be a "best" friend of mine, as far a friend classification goes. So I have rambled off topic...back to what I was saying
I wiped the HDD clean on the old lappy and set it all up for him to dive right in as soon as he gets it. No bloatware or unnecessary-ness. What I wanted to say is that I actually enjoyed doing all of this, usually it is a hassle when I am doing it for myself but the prospect of this machine being somebody's first computer, how exciting!! (<--sarcastic tones, of course) No, seriously though, it is a groovy thought. Its all finished and polished and ready to be used. I am proud, nee, filled with hubris that I can hand down this sword of technology, this staff of fulfillment and satisfaction. Ok, I'm done with that thought. I hope he enjoys it.
Listening
Panic at the Disco (no exclamation point? wha?)
(hey now, don't judge, its new and it needed a listen, ok?)
Just Read
by John Krakauer
I am admittedly a people watcher. So for me, personal blogs are like people watching reading material. I love them and I cant stop reading them...oh so many
Dooce
Thatnight
Intensify
Lucky
Vacant.cc
5ives (not really a blog, just really good)
It is so interesting for some reason to have a little window into other people's lives. As you read day to day, you feel that you begin to build a rapport with the writer and each post seemingly becomes a conversation between you and the writer, where you listen and they talk. You are the best listener in the world. Ok, so I've said that. I just have been thinking this for a while and wanted to get it down.
On another note, I have decided to take my entire family into the "internet" age...wow, that looks a lot cheesier when I type it out. I want to make a push to get my entire fam on twitter, which may or may not be a daunting task. I am pretty confident that everyone in the family is fairly acquanited with casual computing, i.e. e-mail, internet-ing, etc so I am sure they can handle twitter technology-wise. I have in my corner a great explanation video from Common Craft that explains twitter amazingly ("in plain english" as the call it). I plan on using this video and a bit of prompting to get the fam using twitter. As I have gotten older, and as a result become busier, I have less and less time to talk with my family...certainly less than I wish I had to talk. I think twitter will be a great way for all of us to see what each other are up to...even when we are busy or just don't have time to sit down and have a conversation, even though we might want to. I'll post back with my results of this undertaking.
On another note, I got in my black MacBook yesterday and I am at work wishing I was at home so I could fiddle with it. It is really snappy and looks amazing. So far I am really impressed. I am worried though, that with this laptop, I really might not have much use for my iMac. Is there a reason to have two seemingly same computers, one a desktop and one a laptop??
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