Steve Billens
Lotsa crazy things afoot. I can’t complain. If I did, no one would care. Well…I guess I jumped the gun stating I was out of Bleach Battalion. Basically the next day Natassja from BB e-mailed me to see if I could play 4 dates in the next month. Hrm. Sounds like I’m in, and the band is back on. That is awesome news! BB has a few new tunes and I really dig em, they range from straight up Punk to a sorta Reggae Ska thing. I gotta practice the drums for sure. I think I can play them, but practice makes perfect. Yeah, as soon as I got the e-mail I was like, Oh crap, I better start practicing. So I went down and practiced. We have shows booked at The Box Social, which is some joint up by the Congress Theater. The dates are May 29 and June 12. I dunno what the deal is for June 12, but there are like 5 shows that day that I want to see. Bleach Battalion of course. Does that count? I won’t be seeing BB, I will be part of BB. That’s the ultimate concert experience. “Feel like you’re one with the band!” What else? I just saw that Concrete Blonde is doing a reunion tour where shockingly they will be playing Bloodletting in its entirety. I would’ve considered that if I wasn’t already occupied. On a side note, The Church, who I guess have some kind of awesome catalog of material (Under the Milky way and Reptile?) are messing with the format of playing your seminal album. They are playing one song off of each of their albums. I didn’t get it really, but I think UTMW and Reptile are on the same album. I’m not gonna chance that. The only Church song I like is Reptile. Back to June 12. Did I mention Bleach Battalion is playing at the Box Social? Must see for sure. Thrice is playing w/ Kevin Devine at HOB. I hate HOB. I’m not too bummed about missing that, although KD is playing with a band which prolly means he’ll be busting some classic Miracle of 86 stuff. Off With Their Heads is also playing at Subterranean. Then we’ve got Bottle Rockets at Ribfest, Bamboozle roadshow with a bunch of bands I’ve never heard of, and that’s basically it. I might try to catch OWTH after the BB show if I can, although I’ll be driving around w/ drums in my car that will be screaming to be stolen.
On a not so side note, do you guys know what a Box Social is? I just found this out. I feel enlightened. A Box Social is the opposite of a sausage fest: a place that is packed with women. I dunno if women ever say, “Let’s not go there, it’s a total Box Social.” I’m thinking not. I’m thinking it’s more guys saying, “Yeah bro, total Box Social, wink wink nudge nudge.” Still, important information for you urban slang challenged folks out there. Lotsa throwback shows coming that I have more than a passing interest to check out. Pink Floyd’s The Wall will be unbelievable. I think. It is being performed by Roger Waters and Ringo Starr and friends. I think Johnny Winters is playing guitar, Donald duck Dunn is playing bass, and Joe Satriani is helping out w/ lead guitar. I just made all that up in a sort of half-assed slam at the fact that Roger Waters is not Pink Floyd. But I’m sure it will sound as good or better than Pink Floyd ever did. RW should just change his name to Pink Floyd. That would totally mess up the song Have a cigar…or would it? The ultimate irony? Pointless questions? Other bands that are coming? Rush? Reo Speedwagon? Styx? Kansas? The Buzzcocks? I totally want to see The Buzzcocks. They are coming to double door. I gotta make that happen. I think it’s on a Sunday or something. I need more information. I have the information. That’s why the internet rules. Sunday, May 23 at Double Door. Then Monday, the Ponys are playing at the Pritzker Stage at Millenium park. Lots to do fo sho.
I really have a ton to say. I am drawing a blank. We are losing people at work left and right. It’s a bummer. I’m glad that they are moving on to greener pastures (hopefully), and it obviously solidifies the jobs of those that stay (read me), so that’s good too. The bummer is that I lost my buddy. His name is Dave. He’s from China. He is one of the smartest people I’ve ever met and I was trying to learn from him or hang with him so some of his intelligence would rub off. I don’t think it did. I was fascinated by the way he thinks in math. I think in words, that’s why I’m a bad writer and flailed through college and somehow came out with an English degree. Dave and I were in the options class together. When people had questions, I would try to answer them in common terms that all should be able to grasp. Well all didn’t always grasp them, so Dave would step in. He would go up to the blackboard and write down the equations, then he would explain the concept by how different variables affected the outcome of the equation. So for example, when time is in the denominator, and it increases, it makes the overall number smaller, so an increase in time causes a decrease in delta, or whatever. He would say, “Dis guy affects dis guy, and we can forget about dis guy.” Each piece was a “guy” I thought that was trippy. I didn’t know math was a bunch of little “guys” hanging around together. That’s what math is though, you can book it. Well I wish Dave well. He’s a smart mother. Before he came to our company he was working at Carnegie Mellon writing code to teach computers how to see. I shit you not. He’ll be ok. His real name is not Dave either. He just goes by that. His real name is Xuhui. I have no idea how to pronounce that. Dave is easier. Or maybe in China Xuhui sounds like Dave. I doubt it, but it’s fun to think about.
Oh well the work stories are flowing so why hassle it? When I started here, Compliance and Operational Risk shared an office. There were 6 people in there. We were a motley crew for sure. Well one woman, who was way talented was a contractor. Her contract expired and she left. Then Opererational risk moved out. That left 3. Then Compliance moved out. Then one of the guys from Compliance left. He was my bud from Michigan and he was an outdoorsman (still is I believe.) He left. Now one of the operational risk guys is leaving too. So there were six in the office, now there are 3 out of the office. Old times. Old spaces. Old disgraces (well not really). They are all moving on to greener pastures and the rest of us will pick up the pieces. Life goes on. It’s good to see that the economy is picking up, and that there are opportunities. 1 year ago, it was hold on to your job with a death grip. I guess the job market is loosening up.
There’s more, but I can’t think of anything. We’re all meeting for drinks tonight to say goodbye. That will be good. It was supposed to be drinks for 1 guy, but I think it will basically be for 3 now. Weird. Oh well. Keep on keepin on
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The metal
The best thing about being in a band is the drama. Seriously it’s better than a soap opera. Nothing against the people that I had the pleasure of jamming with, but it’s just a fact, it’s hard to get 4 people to play the same song the right way, let alone get 4 personalities to agree on issues outside of the music. So, with that, my tenure as drummer for Bleach Battalion is over. It just sounded like there were a lot of forces outside of the music that we couldn’t get over. Basically the band is one person, and she wrote all the songs, sings, and plays guitar. She can be backed by pretty much anyone, and that jams for her. She’s very talented and I hope she finds the right people, so that the band can move forward. I don’t really get the politics of it all, but it doesn’t matter. I just don’t think I was a good fit for the band. They really need someone who can represent the same way that they represent. I can play the songs, and enjoy playing the songs, but I don’t live the life. They live the life, and that means something special to them. I think they need a drummer who lives that life too and who can fight for the issues that the band espouses. Something like that. Anyway, I’m out of the band, and that’s ok. I’ve got plenty of other things to worry about right now. I still really like BB and the music. They said they’d keep me in mind for some of their other projects, so that’s cool. I’m glad that I was good enough to hang on a musical level, that was big for me. I haven’t played the drums in weeks though. I gotta get on that.
Big weekend. I love to break news and destroy a well kept secret, so here goes. I hit Old Town Social for the second time and it was just as jamming as the first time I hit it. If you haven’t been there, you gotta check it out. I really can’t remember a place that packed in the ladies like this. I don’t remember what crobar was like back in the day, or way before many of the people in my office were born, there was a place called Kaboom. Those places packed in the ladies, but not like OTS. The nice thing about OTS other than the ratio, which I have to put at about at least 1 to 1, is the fact that the women who do hang there are also very attractive. Double winner, lotsa women, and very hot women. That works. So my buddy and I are gonna start going there every night. That’s the thing about these places, you can’t go there all the time, you gotta pick your spots. So we prolly will only go there every other night. They have a jamming beer menu there too. Lotsa tasty brews to choose from. Although it’s not cheap, and I did try the food there and it wasn’t very good. I think restaurants can’t serve burgers medium anymore cuz some people got sick. Well my burger from OTS was way too well done. Not tasty. The plethora of babes def made up for it, and I washed the char down with some tasty beers. Not bad.
I did not go to the Dashboard Confessional show on my birthday. I just didn’t want to see the band as much as I just wanted my money back. Well getting my money back proved to be a difficult task. I dunno. I haven’t had to sell tix in a while, so I don’t think I was using common sense, and it didn’t help that the show started at 530. I did put 2 of the tix on CL. They sold for a good price and I made the connection there, which was one of my concerns. That left me with 2 tix. So there was nobody buying, I was trying to get more than the market would bear, and the market was non-existant, so that didn’t help. There were some dudes hanging around that didn’t look like DC fans. They were trying to buy some tickets so they could flip them back out. I was getting to the point where I just wanted to move on so I could meet my buddy for a beer on my Birthday. So I talk to one of the guys and he says he’ll give me 70. I say ok, basically get my money back. So he gives me a 100 dollar bill and I give him the tix and 30 bucks. I look at the 100 and immediately think that not only did I give my tickets away, but I paid somebody 30 to take them. It was phony. I shouldn’t be surprised, it looked weird. Didn’t feel like money, and looked like 2 pieces of paper glued together. My initial reaction was, this is fake, maybe someone else will take it. Then I’m like, no, I’m not gonna give away 100 bucks and hope to pass off a phony 100 on someone else. That’s bull. So I say to the guy. “This isn’t real man, give me my tickets back.” I thought for sure that the dude was gonna put up a fight. He was just like, “What are you talkin about?” I said, “This isn’t real man, it’s two pieces of paper glued together.” He’s like, “Alright let me talk to my guy over here.” He gave me back my tix, my money, and I gave him the phony 100. After that, I was done trying to deal with those guys. After about a half hour I came upon somebody legit looking for tix and sold them for 70. After that a bunch of people came around looking. I prolly could’ve gotten more than face, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to roll on.
I think I was talking about preconceived notions a couple of weeks ago. It’s funny how powerful they are. You look at something and you totally have it summed up for what you think it is, and then your expectations just get blown out of the water. My buddy and I went to another joint after OTS and there were some hot women there. I ended up talking to this girl who was off the charts nutty gorgeous. I mean picture the hottest swimsuit model you can think of. This girl’s body was like a Barbie doll. She was tall, had huge fake hooters, and a really tight bod all around. Why she was talking to me, I have no idea, but I wasn’t going to question it. Anyway, it turned out that she lived in Indiana, an hour east of South Bend. It’s like…ok. Although her body was a picture of feminine perfection, she was a total tomboy. She was nuts about animals. I think I mentioned a while back that I’m not really an animal lover. I like them, and I wish them well. Sometimes I eat them. That’s about it. Well this woman had horses. A few of them. And rented a barn somewhere to keep her animals. I tried to hold my own by saying that I care for my kids’ hamster, but I wasn’t getting very far with that. Especially when she came out and told me that she wanted a camel. Hrm. Ok. I think she said camels are really cool and chill, and that unlike horses, they don’t spook easy or something like that. I was willing to take her word for it. She said she can get a baby camel for like 4k. I was like, righteous bucks. Then she went on to tell me about her hairless pygmy cats. It sounded like she had a bunch of them running through her place. She said they stay like kittens their whole lives and I should look into them. I told her I would. I have it on my things to do list. Yeah, so safe to say this person was about as polar opposite as could be from what my preconceived notions of her were. She also had two kids, which was fine, but she didn’t look like she’d had kids, and she looked young for it. But who’s to say these days, it’s hard for me to judge age anyway, she could’ve been in her late 20s. Anyhoo. Gotta love preconceived notions. They are fun for sure.
I’ve got more stories, but I think that will do for now. I’ll try to be more regular with this thing soon.
Big weekend. I love to break news and destroy a well kept secret, so here goes. I hit Old Town Social for the second time and it was just as jamming as the first time I hit it. If you haven’t been there, you gotta check it out. I really can’t remember a place that packed in the ladies like this. I don’t remember what crobar was like back in the day, or way before many of the people in my office were born, there was a place called Kaboom. Those places packed in the ladies, but not like OTS. The nice thing about OTS other than the ratio, which I have to put at about at least 1 to 1, is the fact that the women who do hang there are also very attractive. Double winner, lotsa women, and very hot women. That works. So my buddy and I are gonna start going there every night. That’s the thing about these places, you can’t go there all the time, you gotta pick your spots. So we prolly will only go there every other night. They have a jamming beer menu there too. Lotsa tasty brews to choose from. Although it’s not cheap, and I did try the food there and it wasn’t very good. I think restaurants can’t serve burgers medium anymore cuz some people got sick. Well my burger from OTS was way too well done. Not tasty. The plethora of babes def made up for it, and I washed the char down with some tasty beers. Not bad.
I did not go to the Dashboard Confessional show on my birthday. I just didn’t want to see the band as much as I just wanted my money back. Well getting my money back proved to be a difficult task. I dunno. I haven’t had to sell tix in a while, so I don’t think I was using common sense, and it didn’t help that the show started at 530. I did put 2 of the tix on CL. They sold for a good price and I made the connection there, which was one of my concerns. That left me with 2 tix. So there was nobody buying, I was trying to get more than the market would bear, and the market was non-existant, so that didn’t help. There were some dudes hanging around that didn’t look like DC fans. They were trying to buy some tickets so they could flip them back out. I was getting to the point where I just wanted to move on so I could meet my buddy for a beer on my Birthday. So I talk to one of the guys and he says he’ll give me 70. I say ok, basically get my money back. So he gives me a 100 dollar bill and I give him the tix and 30 bucks. I look at the 100 and immediately think that not only did I give my tickets away, but I paid somebody 30 to take them. It was phony. I shouldn’t be surprised, it looked weird. Didn’t feel like money, and looked like 2 pieces of paper glued together. My initial reaction was, this is fake, maybe someone else will take it. Then I’m like, no, I’m not gonna give away 100 bucks and hope to pass off a phony 100 on someone else. That’s bull. So I say to the guy. “This isn’t real man, give me my tickets back.” I thought for sure that the dude was gonna put up a fight. He was just like, “What are you talkin about?” I said, “This isn’t real man, it’s two pieces of paper glued together.” He’s like, “Alright let me talk to my guy over here.” He gave me back my tix, my money, and I gave him the phony 100. After that, I was done trying to deal with those guys. After about a half hour I came upon somebody legit looking for tix and sold them for 70. After that a bunch of people came around looking. I prolly could’ve gotten more than face, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to roll on.
I think I was talking about preconceived notions a couple of weeks ago. It’s funny how powerful they are. You look at something and you totally have it summed up for what you think it is, and then your expectations just get blown out of the water. My buddy and I went to another joint after OTS and there were some hot women there. I ended up talking to this girl who was off the charts nutty gorgeous. I mean picture the hottest swimsuit model you can think of. This girl’s body was like a Barbie doll. She was tall, had huge fake hooters, and a really tight bod all around. Why she was talking to me, I have no idea, but I wasn’t going to question it. Anyway, it turned out that she lived in Indiana, an hour east of South Bend. It’s like…ok. Although her body was a picture of feminine perfection, she was a total tomboy. She was nuts about animals. I think I mentioned a while back that I’m not really an animal lover. I like them, and I wish them well. Sometimes I eat them. That’s about it. Well this woman had horses. A few of them. And rented a barn somewhere to keep her animals. I tried to hold my own by saying that I care for my kids’ hamster, but I wasn’t getting very far with that. Especially when she came out and told me that she wanted a camel. Hrm. Ok. I think she said camels are really cool and chill, and that unlike horses, they don’t spook easy or something like that. I was willing to take her word for it. She said she can get a baby camel for like 4k. I was like, righteous bucks. Then she went on to tell me about her hairless pygmy cats. It sounded like she had a bunch of them running through her place. She said they stay like kittens their whole lives and I should look into them. I told her I would. I have it on my things to do list. Yeah, so safe to say this person was about as polar opposite as could be from what my preconceived notions of her were. She also had two kids, which was fine, but she didn’t look like she’d had kids, and she looked young for it. But who’s to say these days, it’s hard for me to judge age anyway, she could’ve been in her late 20s. Anyhoo. Gotta love preconceived notions. They are fun for sure.
I’ve got more stories, but I think that will do for now. I’ll try to be more regular with this thing soon.
Friday, July 31, 2009
I dunno lots of crazy stuff going on. My wife and kids are up in Ludington Michigan having fun at her bro’s vacation home. I’m still plugging away trying to get a job. So I get a call yesterday that they want my daughter to audition for a Reynolds (of reynold’s wrap fame) commercial. I guess the gig is Sag wages and I don’t know if you get into SAG just by being in the commercial, but the person from the agency basically suggested that it would be a good idea to go. Ludington is roughly 4.5 hours away, I got the call at around 4. By the time I got all my shit together, it was 6 and I hopped in the car and headed up to Ludington to get her. I got up to Ltown around 1015. Sucked back a brew and then hit the sack.
Got up this morning, grabbed the kid and hit the road. Headed right into chitown and took her straight to the audition. I basically drove roughly 10 hours in less than a 24 hour period to get her to this gig. So she goes in and comes out. She was a little groggy, prolly hasn’t been sleeping right on vacation. No biggie. What the heck. We are walking toward the elevator and I say, “How’d it go?” She says, “They asked me to smell a tray of cookies. I thought it would be funny to cross my eyes when I did it.” I was stupefied. I’ve been running my ass off for the last 18 hours, and she clowned around at the audition. I was pissed. What can you do though, she’s a kid. The thing is, that her personality really carries her through on the acting thing, so I don’t want her to be too self conscious about it. I did stress to her that she never do it again. She didn’t get a call, so I don’t think she is going to be called back. Who knows, they might have thought she was actually cross-eyed.
I feel a little guilty. I’m drinking a local brew by 3 floyds, Alpha King. It’s really tasty. I feel guilty cuz it’s not a two brothers brew. I don’t know who came first, but I think there was a little issue between both breweries for a while. I think Three Floyds was miffed that Two Bros came along with the number thing. Kinda weird. I never even thought about it, 3 floyds, 2 bros, who cares? It’s all about the beer. I mean give me a Cain and Ebel any day of the week, that rocks. And Heavy Handed definitely holds up to Alpha King for a bombtrack IPA, but right now this AK tastes pretty damn nice. I’ll also take a French Country by 2 bros any day of the week too. I actually like going to Murphy’s bleachers after Cubs games. Well for one reason, it’s just to get a damn beer. I don’t drink at Cubs games cuz all the beer there is bad. They do have Labatt’s blue, but that’s it. So I usually just wait til after the cubs game and get a Murphy’s ale, it’s actually French Country Ale, they just threw their own name on it.
Do you guys like fun toys at all? I like fun toys. I hung out with my kids at the beach today. Great time. Perfect day. Anyway, they had gone to Walmart and gotten some mini kites. These things were only $2 each, bargain. The thing about mini, it usually means junky shit that is small and works much worse than the regular size version. Not these babies. These little kites rocked. I think they had 40 feet of string on them, there was a strong breeze today, these puppies just shot right into the air. They have long tails on them, so they look cool and you can do some tricks with them. By the end of the day, we were having Kite battles. The first time they got tangled, it wasn’t much to get them untangled. The second time, my boys were playing with the kites and they got them stupid tangled. Def more than $4 tangled. Still I knew the kids wanted to play with them some more, so I sat down for the next half hour or so and untangled the kites. It was a nutty hard tangle to undo. The streamers and the string were all garbled together. I was proud of the fact that I actually got them untangled, that was a miracle in and of itself. It will also be a miracle if those kites make it home fully functional after tomorrow at the beach.
I forget what the show was on comedy central, but it was a cartoon and they had a joke about a guy who thought some woman was pregnant who wasn’t. It was funny. Today we are at the restaurant and my wife asks the waitress if she has tried the beer. She said, “I haven’t had a beer in about 9 months.” To which we replied, “Oh, we just thought you were a fat pig.” Seriously, she didn’t look pregnant, she just looked that shape. She was not thin obviously. Oh well. It wasn’t a good day for offending mothers. I had my daughter at the burger king and this young woman was in there with her daughter who was about 8 months. I told my daughter to go see the baby. The woman wasn’t that young, although she looked young, I mean she didn’t look 16, she looked 20s. So my daughter says to her, “Are you babysitting?” Shes like, “no this is my daughter.” It was obvious it was her kid. Just by the way she was holding it. I think she might have been a little offended. I mean she had a ring on, it wasn’t really an engagement ring, or if it was, it didn’t have a diamond in it. Anyway, she looked betrothed. I think she was legit. She had giant lactating boobies too.
Slftd: I’m not ok. I’m not ok.
FMT: Torrent kiss is up in bed.
Vftd: http://www.mtvmusic.com/killers_the/videos/107542/mr_brightside_version_1_.jhtml
Got up this morning, grabbed the kid and hit the road. Headed right into chitown and took her straight to the audition. I basically drove roughly 10 hours in less than a 24 hour period to get her to this gig. So she goes in and comes out. She was a little groggy, prolly hasn’t been sleeping right on vacation. No biggie. What the heck. We are walking toward the elevator and I say, “How’d it go?” She says, “They asked me to smell a tray of cookies. I thought it would be funny to cross my eyes when I did it.” I was stupefied. I’ve been running my ass off for the last 18 hours, and she clowned around at the audition. I was pissed. What can you do though, she’s a kid. The thing is, that her personality really carries her through on the acting thing, so I don’t want her to be too self conscious about it. I did stress to her that she never do it again. She didn’t get a call, so I don’t think she is going to be called back. Who knows, they might have thought she was actually cross-eyed.
I feel a little guilty. I’m drinking a local brew by 3 floyds, Alpha King. It’s really tasty. I feel guilty cuz it’s not a two brothers brew. I don’t know who came first, but I think there was a little issue between both breweries for a while. I think Three Floyds was miffed that Two Bros came along with the number thing. Kinda weird. I never even thought about it, 3 floyds, 2 bros, who cares? It’s all about the beer. I mean give me a Cain and Ebel any day of the week, that rocks. And Heavy Handed definitely holds up to Alpha King for a bombtrack IPA, but right now this AK tastes pretty damn nice. I’ll also take a French Country by 2 bros any day of the week too. I actually like going to Murphy’s bleachers after Cubs games. Well for one reason, it’s just to get a damn beer. I don’t drink at Cubs games cuz all the beer there is bad. They do have Labatt’s blue, but that’s it. So I usually just wait til after the cubs game and get a Murphy’s ale, it’s actually French Country Ale, they just threw their own name on it.
Do you guys like fun toys at all? I like fun toys. I hung out with my kids at the beach today. Great time. Perfect day. Anyway, they had gone to Walmart and gotten some mini kites. These things were only $2 each, bargain. The thing about mini, it usually means junky shit that is small and works much worse than the regular size version. Not these babies. These little kites rocked. I think they had 40 feet of string on them, there was a strong breeze today, these puppies just shot right into the air. They have long tails on them, so they look cool and you can do some tricks with them. By the end of the day, we were having Kite battles. The first time they got tangled, it wasn’t much to get them untangled. The second time, my boys were playing with the kites and they got them stupid tangled. Def more than $4 tangled. Still I knew the kids wanted to play with them some more, so I sat down for the next half hour or so and untangled the kites. It was a nutty hard tangle to undo. The streamers and the string were all garbled together. I was proud of the fact that I actually got them untangled, that was a miracle in and of itself. It will also be a miracle if those kites make it home fully functional after tomorrow at the beach.
I forget what the show was on comedy central, but it was a cartoon and they had a joke about a guy who thought some woman was pregnant who wasn’t. It was funny. Today we are at the restaurant and my wife asks the waitress if she has tried the beer. She said, “I haven’t had a beer in about 9 months.” To which we replied, “Oh, we just thought you were a fat pig.” Seriously, she didn’t look pregnant, she just looked that shape. She was not thin obviously. Oh well. It wasn’t a good day for offending mothers. I had my daughter at the burger king and this young woman was in there with her daughter who was about 8 months. I told my daughter to go see the baby. The woman wasn’t that young, although she looked young, I mean she didn’t look 16, she looked 20s. So my daughter says to her, “Are you babysitting?” Shes like, “no this is my daughter.” It was obvious it was her kid. Just by the way she was holding it. I think she might have been a little offended. I mean she had a ring on, it wasn’t really an engagement ring, or if it was, it didn’t have a diamond in it. Anyway, she looked betrothed. I think she was legit. She had giant lactating boobies too.
Slftd: I’m not ok. I’m not ok.
FMT: Torrent kiss is up in bed.
Vftd: http://www.mtvmusic.com/killers_the/videos/107542/mr_brightside_version_1_.jhtml
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Geez, I feel emancipated. I feel like Ralph and his rabbit brothers must’ve felt when they got out of that weird warren where rabbits would just “disappear.” If you haven’t read Watership down, you should. Ok people. Love you. I’m no longer employed. I know you are all shocked and dismayed, don’t be. It’s a relief. I have taken one very important lesson away from my last employer, don’t work for people who are not sane. I’m looking forward to finding employment with sane people very soon.
On to much better subjects. I got to check out the Erin Andrews link. I think it lived up to the hype. She looks great in clothes, she looks great without them too. Although I didn’t watch the whole thing. She was standing in front of a mirror doing her hair, and although she is completely nude, it gets boring pretty quick. She has an awesome body though and I’m even a bigger fan than I used to be, but that is shrinking quickly. There are safe links out there to the video, good luck with that. I’m not going to post a questionable link on here, so it’s up to you to find it. Although you should be reading bad sandwich chronicles in which case you would have the link already.
I thought of the best T shirt today and I’m totally gonna make it. “I Tango Alone.” What do you think? I’m not sure what it means, but it’s basically a weird take on “it takes two to tango.” I can’t decide if I love it or hate it, so it must be good.
Good times last night. I met my parents for dinner and had a delish meal on them at McCormack and Schmicks. I got the Burger and it was going for 2.95 cuz of some happy hour deal. Here’s the catch. You have to buy 4.50 worth of drinks. No probs there. So I’m looking at the beer list and they have 20 beers and they all suck. I’m totally bumming. Then I spot Matilda by goose Island and I’m instantly geeked. I order one. The guy comes back and says they don’t have it. So I order a sam adams, totally bummed. Then he comes back and brings the Matilda!!!!! Oh Joy!!!!!! So a 4 pack of matilda usually runs about 10 bucks. I was wondering what they charged for it. They would never put the price on the menu, then people would know if they were getting hosed or not. So I check the bill. 8.50. You got it, 8.50 for a beer at a suburban restaurant. Shocker. Oh well, Lucky I just ordered one. If the guy had asked when my beer was getting low, “do you want another?” I would’ve said yes. He didn’t so I didn’t. Lucky break there.
Ok. Here’s the recap on what happened at my last job. This should close the book on it:
It was a strange situation over there. I was learning the trade basically scalping SPYs around the vwap. The problem was that sometimes you get run over and one loser is bigger than all of your combined winners. It was a tough two weeks to try to scalp, it basically went straight down, then straight up. Pretty much everyone got beaten up, but they were putting pressure on me to have a positive return on capital. I was trading very small, and by the end of the two weeks I was down 800 bucks. Scratch to most people. Not these guys. They were worried about my return on cap. I told them that a batting average evens out over a long period and that I was still learning the trade. That wasn't enough. I had to take a personal day yesterday, and that ticked them off. Then they wanted me to restructure my deal, on my own, with no guidance as to what they were looking for. The owner wouldn't sit down and talk to me, so I said "I think we should call it a day." That was it. Strange. Oh well. In trading you meet all types of people. They are smart guys and I wish them the best.
SLFTD: People are strange when you’re a stranger, faces look ugly when you’re alone.
FMT: Drunk buns we like
VFTD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onjaC3A2xjk
OVFTD: My daughter is one of the munchkins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCmdnOLjQos
On to much better subjects. I got to check out the Erin Andrews link. I think it lived up to the hype. She looks great in clothes, she looks great without them too. Although I didn’t watch the whole thing. She was standing in front of a mirror doing her hair, and although she is completely nude, it gets boring pretty quick. She has an awesome body though and I’m even a bigger fan than I used to be, but that is shrinking quickly. There are safe links out there to the video, good luck with that. I’m not going to post a questionable link on here, so it’s up to you to find it. Although you should be reading bad sandwich chronicles in which case you would have the link already.
I thought of the best T shirt today and I’m totally gonna make it. “I Tango Alone.” What do you think? I’m not sure what it means, but it’s basically a weird take on “it takes two to tango.” I can’t decide if I love it or hate it, so it must be good.
Good times last night. I met my parents for dinner and had a delish meal on them at McCormack and Schmicks. I got the Burger and it was going for 2.95 cuz of some happy hour deal. Here’s the catch. You have to buy 4.50 worth of drinks. No probs there. So I’m looking at the beer list and they have 20 beers and they all suck. I’m totally bumming. Then I spot Matilda by goose Island and I’m instantly geeked. I order one. The guy comes back and says they don’t have it. So I order a sam adams, totally bummed. Then he comes back and brings the Matilda!!!!! Oh Joy!!!!!! So a 4 pack of matilda usually runs about 10 bucks. I was wondering what they charged for it. They would never put the price on the menu, then people would know if they were getting hosed or not. So I check the bill. 8.50. You got it, 8.50 for a beer at a suburban restaurant. Shocker. Oh well, Lucky I just ordered one. If the guy had asked when my beer was getting low, “do you want another?” I would’ve said yes. He didn’t so I didn’t. Lucky break there.
Ok. Here’s the recap on what happened at my last job. This should close the book on it:
It was a strange situation over there. I was learning the trade basically scalping SPYs around the vwap. The problem was that sometimes you get run over and one loser is bigger than all of your combined winners. It was a tough two weeks to try to scalp, it basically went straight down, then straight up. Pretty much everyone got beaten up, but they were putting pressure on me to have a positive return on capital. I was trading very small, and by the end of the two weeks I was down 800 bucks. Scratch to most people. Not these guys. They were worried about my return on cap. I told them that a batting average evens out over a long period and that I was still learning the trade. That wasn't enough. I had to take a personal day yesterday, and that ticked them off. Then they wanted me to restructure my deal, on my own, with no guidance as to what they were looking for. The owner wouldn't sit down and talk to me, so I said "I think we should call it a day." That was it. Strange. Oh well. In trading you meet all types of people. They are smart guys and I wish them the best.
SLFTD: People are strange when you’re a stranger, faces look ugly when you’re alone.
FMT: Drunk buns we like
VFTD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onjaC3A2xjk
OVFTD: My daughter is one of the munchkins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCmdnOLjQos
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Buckner Ball!!
I love coming to amazing realizations about seemingly trivial or mundane things. I came to one recently that I would like to share with you. Everyone has heard of Hershey’s kisses and I’m sure they make Hershey’s more money than any of their other products. It seems like such a bizarre idea, and you think, “what genius came up with this idea to put chocolate in that form.” The other day I realized that a Hershey’s Kiss is just a giant chocolate chip. Some goof was prolly making chocolate chips on acid and he just made them giant because he was hallucinating.
This brings me to another concept that I’ve grappled with in this blog and elsewhere. Is the best art conceived and executed under the influence of substances? I know Van Gogh was a user and Mozart was always hammered. Pink Floyd and basically most rock music was made under the influence. Does the mind need to be expanded in order to create art that is mindblowing? I don’t think Salvador Dali did a lot of drugs. Or if he did, he did it early. I guess you can either do a lot of drugs, or just be nuts, one or the other in order to be a successful artist.
Maybe drugs would help me be a better trader. I had a tough week last week. Prolly just first week jitters. I guess I can’t complain cuz I get paid a salary. I was trying to feel my way around the trade. It’s not an easy trade. Sometimes it stays in a range and sometimes it breaks out and goes running. The problem is that when you are trading, you don’t know if you are in a range or not, so you get whipsawed around, or run on depending on what you are doing. It’s tough. It’s a grind. Oh well, it’s back to work tomorrow. Fun times.
I went to the Old St. Pats block party on Friday. It was pretty fun. Back in the day we used to drink like fish at the thing, this year, not so much. You get 5 drink tickets with your admission, I don’t think any of us had 5 drinks. All they served was bud and bud light and I hate bud. I had one and dumped half of it out. For the rest of the night I drank Barefoot wine. It tasted like some had soaked their bare feet in it prior to pouring it in my glass. Actually it wasn’t bad, much better than bud. Collective Soul played and I recognized some of their songs. They weren’t bad. Gavin DeGraw was the headliner and I have no idea who he is. He sorta reminded me of Ben Folds or something, he played the piano. His music didn’t do much for me. I’ll tell you one thing, if you are single, you should go to the Block Party. Oh my!!!!! There were a ton of babes there. I guess there were dudes too, but jeez the ratio seemed like 2 to 1 and I didn’t see many women that weren’t worth a second glance. I was with a couple of single guys. One of them looked like he was making some progress with a young lady.
I’m taking my son to see Green Day tomorrow. That should be fun. He loves GD. I hope they put on a good show. I hope they don’t play much of the new album. I’m sure they’ll rock the house. I heard from someone that they are playing a long show, so we’ll get our money’s worth. I hope it doesn’t go too late, I gotta get my beauty sleep.
My daughter is playing a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz which starts this week. That should be fun. I hope she enjoys it. It’s a big time commitment, so we’ll be glad when it’s all over. I’m anxious to see the thing and see the other performers. It’s a major production, so the other actors are serious. We’ll see what happens.
Went to the Cubs game yesterday. Lots of babes there. You gotta love cubbie, they pack in the honies. The cubs won, they had to hold on. I’m not a big Cub fan, so I didn’t really care. After the show we went to Red Ivy, which serves the world famous Palermo’s pizza!!!!! Delicious. Then we slid out to Sheffields, which was kind of a bummer cuz two of the people bailed. I was hoping to have like 5 beers there, but I just slammed a quick one and then cruised. Oh well.
I got home in time to watch a movie. Gattaca. I have been meaning to see that movie for a long time. It was pretty cool. I guess I wasn’t in the “blow the premise out of the water” mood, but it was pretty far fetched. Like they can rewrite your genetic code but they can’t cure paralysis. The guy had to wear contact lenses, they couldn’t correct his vision. Tough premise to make hold up, but it was kinda good. I got tired of the guys swimming out to see. I just don’t get why they had to swim out to sea and prove the stamina thing twice. That’s total overkill. I didn’t get the point the first time. I totally knew the other cop was his brother, you had to know that. I don’t buy that they wouldn’t have recognized each other. It was a cool movie though. Food for thought.
Alright I gotta go and read this book on trading. Maybe it will teach me how to make some money.
SLFTD: Answer me a question I can’t itemize I can’t think clear you look to me for reasons.
FMT: Eat my pie universe.
VFTD: http://www.mtvmusic.com/flaming_lips/videos/46635/she_don_t_use_jelly.jhtml
This brings me to another concept that I’ve grappled with in this blog and elsewhere. Is the best art conceived and executed under the influence of substances? I know Van Gogh was a user and Mozart was always hammered. Pink Floyd and basically most rock music was made under the influence. Does the mind need to be expanded in order to create art that is mindblowing? I don’t think Salvador Dali did a lot of drugs. Or if he did, he did it early. I guess you can either do a lot of drugs, or just be nuts, one or the other in order to be a successful artist.
Maybe drugs would help me be a better trader. I had a tough week last week. Prolly just first week jitters. I guess I can’t complain cuz I get paid a salary. I was trying to feel my way around the trade. It’s not an easy trade. Sometimes it stays in a range and sometimes it breaks out and goes running. The problem is that when you are trading, you don’t know if you are in a range or not, so you get whipsawed around, or run on depending on what you are doing. It’s tough. It’s a grind. Oh well, it’s back to work tomorrow. Fun times.
I went to the Old St. Pats block party on Friday. It was pretty fun. Back in the day we used to drink like fish at the thing, this year, not so much. You get 5 drink tickets with your admission, I don’t think any of us had 5 drinks. All they served was bud and bud light and I hate bud. I had one and dumped half of it out. For the rest of the night I drank Barefoot wine. It tasted like some had soaked their bare feet in it prior to pouring it in my glass. Actually it wasn’t bad, much better than bud. Collective Soul played and I recognized some of their songs. They weren’t bad. Gavin DeGraw was the headliner and I have no idea who he is. He sorta reminded me of Ben Folds or something, he played the piano. His music didn’t do much for me. I’ll tell you one thing, if you are single, you should go to the Block Party. Oh my!!!!! There were a ton of babes there. I guess there were dudes too, but jeez the ratio seemed like 2 to 1 and I didn’t see many women that weren’t worth a second glance. I was with a couple of single guys. One of them looked like he was making some progress with a young lady.
I’m taking my son to see Green Day tomorrow. That should be fun. He loves GD. I hope they put on a good show. I hope they don’t play much of the new album. I’m sure they’ll rock the house. I heard from someone that they are playing a long show, so we’ll get our money’s worth. I hope it doesn’t go too late, I gotta get my beauty sleep.
My daughter is playing a munchkin in the Wizard of Oz which starts this week. That should be fun. I hope she enjoys it. It’s a big time commitment, so we’ll be glad when it’s all over. I’m anxious to see the thing and see the other performers. It’s a major production, so the other actors are serious. We’ll see what happens.
Went to the Cubs game yesterday. Lots of babes there. You gotta love cubbie, they pack in the honies. The cubs won, they had to hold on. I’m not a big Cub fan, so I didn’t really care. After the show we went to Red Ivy, which serves the world famous Palermo’s pizza!!!!! Delicious. Then we slid out to Sheffields, which was kind of a bummer cuz two of the people bailed. I was hoping to have like 5 beers there, but I just slammed a quick one and then cruised. Oh well.
I got home in time to watch a movie. Gattaca. I have been meaning to see that movie for a long time. It was pretty cool. I guess I wasn’t in the “blow the premise out of the water” mood, but it was pretty far fetched. Like they can rewrite your genetic code but they can’t cure paralysis. The guy had to wear contact lenses, they couldn’t correct his vision. Tough premise to make hold up, but it was kinda good. I got tired of the guys swimming out to see. I just don’t get why they had to swim out to sea and prove the stamina thing twice. That’s total overkill. I didn’t get the point the first time. I totally knew the other cop was his brother, you had to know that. I don’t buy that they wouldn’t have recognized each other. It was a cool movie though. Food for thought.
Alright I gotta go and read this book on trading. Maybe it will teach me how to make some money.
SLFTD: Answer me a question I can’t itemize I can’t think clear you look to me for reasons.
FMT: Eat my pie universe.
VFTD: http://www.mtvmusic.com/flaming_lips/videos/46635/she_don_t_use_jelly.jhtml
Thursday, July 9, 2009
I’m back, did you miss me? Oh. Ok. Well you’re reading, so you must have some interest in my situation.
My head hurts. I had a bad day trading. I got run on all day and lost 180 bucks. That doesn’t sound like a lot. Because it isn’t a lot. But it still sucks. I seriously would make trades and like 15 seconds later I was stopped out for a 20 dollar loser. That means the trade ran 10 ticks on me, in 15 seconds. That is a bad trade. That happened to me a couple of times. It was like I was a buffoon or something. It didn’t feel good. When you get put through the grinder like that, you seriously don’t know which way is up when it’s all over. It’s good to be back at work though, and I seriously have a lot to learn about this trade. I made decent money last week, when the stakes were smaller, now that I’m trading more size, I panic quicker. I have to be less of a pussy. I don’t know if I can be, it’s human nature to want to protect your assets. I’m learning. Things will get better. It’s my first week. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the course of my 16 years in the workforce, it’s that the first week usually sucks. You just feel like shit. People have expectations of you and you are still shocked that they even hired you. You act like you know what’s going on and talk the talk. You read up on the web to figure out what your job is and how to do it. The first week sucks. Nobody knows you. If you are at a big place, the locals (people that have been there for a while) sometimes treat you like shit. They resent you. It’s not like that at my new place. The people are cool. They are understanding. I guess I have to cut myself some slack. I would drink a bottle of whiskey, but I have to go to Adoration tonight.
Anybody watching the Tour de Lance? It’s actually exciting this year. Namely because Lance is in it. I bet the French hate that, but they have to admit that having Lance in it has brought it back to the premier event status it deserves. I can’t believe Lance is contending. He has been away for 4 years, I know he trained and stuff, but training at 33 is a lot different than 37. Well actually it isn’t that different. Once you are over 33, your body is pretty much as messed as it’s gonna be til you turn 40. Still, I really don’t have a grasp on how crazy a sporting feat it is that Lance is even in the race, let alone right on the leader’s heels. Would it be nuts if he sported the yellow jersey for a couple of days? I dunno. It doesn’t sound that crazy to me, but to some people (rick reilly of espn) it’s bigger than Jordan coming back, or Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters at 46. I guess I can’t put a finger on it. It’s cool though. I like watching the tour. I’d totally like to go to France, ride my bike, and watch the tour. That’s on my list of things to do.
The Old Saint Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party is this weekend. It seriously is the World’s largest, they couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. I probably started going to the block party when I was like 18 or so. You are supposed to be 21, because the beer is free flowing. You need a ticket though. Back in the day, you could just drink as much beer as you wanted. No tickets, no nothing. People would just get annihilated at the thing. Not me of course, but some people. Seriously. One time I went to the block party on Saturday, it started at like 4. At like 7 I had to go. I had tickets to the Butthole Surfers show. I don’t even remember the show. I vaguely remember going into the Aragon, but the show is a complete blank. The Stone Temple Pilots actually opened for the Surfers too. I missed them. I have no recollection of the surfers. Maybe my memory will get jogged when I see the Surfers as part of Riot Fest!!!!!!!
I saw Revolutionary Road the other day. I don’t recommend the film. It was an interesting tale, but I just can’t deal with Leonardo and Kate Winslet. I hated Titanic. Those two bring back bad memories. Leonardo always looks like he’s 19 years old. He’s lucky that he looks young, but I just don’t buy him in these serious roles. I think Kate overacted a bit in this film. At the end of the day I just didn’t buy it. There was this insane guy in it too, and I didn’t know what to make of his character. He was supposed to be the voice of reason or something. Oh well.
Speaking of crazy people, well I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I saw some weird stuff walking to the train after work today. It’s nice being back downtown and it’s actually nice having a bit of a walk to the train, you see some crazy stuff. You see a lot of beautiful young women with big boobies, so that’s nice. Today I saw some other weird things. I saw this guy, I guess he was homeless, either that or he just had footwear issues. This guy had a sweater tied strategically around his foot as a makeshift shoe. Maybe he was trying to be trendy, I know those sweater boots are in. I couldn’t tell what he had on his other foot. It looked like a tight leather sock. Then I got close enough to see that his other foot was bare and it just was swollen and beaten up like old leather. The sweater shoe seriously is something I had never seen before, that tripped me out. It should’ve made me forget about my bad day trading. I should’ve said, “At least I’m not wearing a sweater for a shoe.” But I didn’t.
Then just as I was crossing the street to go to the train station, this woman who was dressed elegantly and carrying shopping bags just up and bought it. She tripped and fell flat on her face. It was pretty vicious. A bunch of people rushed to her assistance, which is more than I can say for Sweater-boot man. The woman seemed ok though.
I’ll try to come up with some better stuff later this weekend when my head stops pounding.
SLFTD: I don’t wanna work, I wanna bang on the drums all day.
SFM: The biteless embrace.
VFTD: http://www.mtvmusic.com/weezer/videos/29895/undone_the_sweater_song_.jhtml
My head hurts. I had a bad day trading. I got run on all day and lost 180 bucks. That doesn’t sound like a lot. Because it isn’t a lot. But it still sucks. I seriously would make trades and like 15 seconds later I was stopped out for a 20 dollar loser. That means the trade ran 10 ticks on me, in 15 seconds. That is a bad trade. That happened to me a couple of times. It was like I was a buffoon or something. It didn’t feel good. When you get put through the grinder like that, you seriously don’t know which way is up when it’s all over. It’s good to be back at work though, and I seriously have a lot to learn about this trade. I made decent money last week, when the stakes were smaller, now that I’m trading more size, I panic quicker. I have to be less of a pussy. I don’t know if I can be, it’s human nature to want to protect your assets. I’m learning. Things will get better. It’s my first week. If there is one thing I’ve learned over the course of my 16 years in the workforce, it’s that the first week usually sucks. You just feel like shit. People have expectations of you and you are still shocked that they even hired you. You act like you know what’s going on and talk the talk. You read up on the web to figure out what your job is and how to do it. The first week sucks. Nobody knows you. If you are at a big place, the locals (people that have been there for a while) sometimes treat you like shit. They resent you. It’s not like that at my new place. The people are cool. They are understanding. I guess I have to cut myself some slack. I would drink a bottle of whiskey, but I have to go to Adoration tonight.
Anybody watching the Tour de Lance? It’s actually exciting this year. Namely because Lance is in it. I bet the French hate that, but they have to admit that having Lance in it has brought it back to the premier event status it deserves. I can’t believe Lance is contending. He has been away for 4 years, I know he trained and stuff, but training at 33 is a lot different than 37. Well actually it isn’t that different. Once you are over 33, your body is pretty much as messed as it’s gonna be til you turn 40. Still, I really don’t have a grasp on how crazy a sporting feat it is that Lance is even in the race, let alone right on the leader’s heels. Would it be nuts if he sported the yellow jersey for a couple of days? I dunno. It doesn’t sound that crazy to me, but to some people (rick reilly of espn) it’s bigger than Jordan coming back, or Jack Nicklaus winning the Masters at 46. I guess I can’t put a finger on it. It’s cool though. I like watching the tour. I’d totally like to go to France, ride my bike, and watch the tour. That’s on my list of things to do.
The Old Saint Pat’s World’s Largest Block Party is this weekend. It seriously is the World’s largest, they couldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. I probably started going to the block party when I was like 18 or so. You are supposed to be 21, because the beer is free flowing. You need a ticket though. Back in the day, you could just drink as much beer as you wanted. No tickets, no nothing. People would just get annihilated at the thing. Not me of course, but some people. Seriously. One time I went to the block party on Saturday, it started at like 4. At like 7 I had to go. I had tickets to the Butthole Surfers show. I don’t even remember the show. I vaguely remember going into the Aragon, but the show is a complete blank. The Stone Temple Pilots actually opened for the Surfers too. I missed them. I have no recollection of the surfers. Maybe my memory will get jogged when I see the Surfers as part of Riot Fest!!!!!!!
I saw Revolutionary Road the other day. I don’t recommend the film. It was an interesting tale, but I just can’t deal with Leonardo and Kate Winslet. I hated Titanic. Those two bring back bad memories. Leonardo always looks like he’s 19 years old. He’s lucky that he looks young, but I just don’t buy him in these serious roles. I think Kate overacted a bit in this film. At the end of the day I just didn’t buy it. There was this insane guy in it too, and I didn’t know what to make of his character. He was supposed to be the voice of reason or something. Oh well.
Speaking of crazy people, well I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I saw some weird stuff walking to the train after work today. It’s nice being back downtown and it’s actually nice having a bit of a walk to the train, you see some crazy stuff. You see a lot of beautiful young women with big boobies, so that’s nice. Today I saw some other weird things. I saw this guy, I guess he was homeless, either that or he just had footwear issues. This guy had a sweater tied strategically around his foot as a makeshift shoe. Maybe he was trying to be trendy, I know those sweater boots are in. I couldn’t tell what he had on his other foot. It looked like a tight leather sock. Then I got close enough to see that his other foot was bare and it just was swollen and beaten up like old leather. The sweater shoe seriously is something I had never seen before, that tripped me out. It should’ve made me forget about my bad day trading. I should’ve said, “At least I’m not wearing a sweater for a shoe.” But I didn’t.
Then just as I was crossing the street to go to the train station, this woman who was dressed elegantly and carrying shopping bags just up and bought it. She tripped and fell flat on her face. It was pretty vicious. A bunch of people rushed to her assistance, which is more than I can say for Sweater-boot man. The woman seemed ok though.
I’ll try to come up with some better stuff later this weekend when my head stops pounding.
SLFTD: I don’t wanna work, I wanna bang on the drums all day.
SFM: The biteless embrace.
VFTD: http://www.mtvmusic.com/weezer/videos/29895/undone_the_sweater_song_.jhtml
Friday, July 3, 2009
On the Yob Front
I’ve got a lot of stuff to talk about today, but something hit me when I was sleeping and it’s a conundrum that I’ve been grappling with ever since.
What happened to racquetball?
Back in the day racquetball was the shit. Every respectable health club had a r-ball court, my buddy had a r-ball court in his basement, r-ball appeared in the movies, what the fuck happened? I don’t think you can get r-ball equipment anymore. It was supposed to be the sport of the 21st century. Oh well. We still have curling. That would rule if someone had a curling rink in their basement. Some rich dude in Denmark prolly does.
Ok, let’s get to the shit, I got a job. Wheehee. I’m really excited about it. I’m more excited about it than all of my other possibilities. The guys are way cool, they gave me a very fair deal where I can make good money if I’m profitable, and it’s a small firm with big plans, so I’m in on the ground floor. These guys have serious vision and a game plan and I’m totally fired up to be a part of it. I’ll let you know how it goes. Here is the link to the website: http://www.reverbcapital.com/. The space they are in rocks. It’s on the corner of Monroe and Lasalle, right in the heart of the financial district. Right now it’s only like 8 people, but I’m hoping in 2 years we’ve got 80 people and the thing is a juggernaut. There is so much space at the office, that they have a ping pong table, foozball and a jam room. That’s right, a jam room, to rock out in. Music is kind of a theme over there. I think all they have are a couple of guitars and amps, but I’m thinking about bringing my drums over and rocking out. I’m not sure if the other tenants in the building would dig that though. First things first, I have to rock out with the trading and then rock out with the music.
The big event at emusic occurred and I think it was kind of a dud. They acquired rights to Sony music, but there isn’t much that I don’t already have that I want. Here’s the deal. They added like 700 huge artists, I had 40 downloads, I went at it searching for something awesome. I had high hopes. I thought it would be no problem using up my 40 dls. Well I searched for about an hour and only came up with the first album by Cypress Hill which I dled. I did get the whole album for only 12 credits. So that was cool. I also dled Sometimes Salvation by the Black Crowes. I dunno what it is with that song, but I don’t see why it gets disrespected. They left it off of their best of album. I think it’s their best tune. So I dled that. And that’s it so far. I was looking at Blizzard of OZ. I just wanted to dl I don’t know, Crazy Train, Goodbye to Romance and Mr. Crowley; and they lock Crazy Train so you only get it if you Dl the whole album! That’s shady! That’s not the emusic I know. What gives? Locking certain songs. I bet that ends soon. That’s just lame. Even itunes wouldn’t do that. I gotta go back after it today and see if I can find anything else. The problem with major label, old school type of stuff, is that I already have most of what I want. They could’ve done a better job with access to the new stuff from Sony. I don’t want to search every artist to find out if they are on Sony or not, they should just have a section titled “the shit” and let me peruse through it to see what all the fuss is about. I was half considering dling some ELO, but I put that on hold. I ran across Kill the Musicians by Screeching Weasel. It has 31 songs on it. I totally would’ve dled it, but it wasn’t offered for 12 credits as it should be per the new deal, so I sent them a message asking “what gives?”
I have seen a bunch of movies lately and I’d like to rank them in order of how I liked them. Here goes. Some of the movies are old and were on Comcast. Here’s the list:
6. Happy Gilmore: Good movie, kinda gets dumber and less funny with each viewing.
5. The hangover: See my previous blog for more details on this one.
4. Meet the parents: Pretty classic. Kinda less funny each time.
3. Tropic Thunder: Not bad. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome. Worth seeing just for him. Some other stuff is pretty funny. Jack Black could have been better.
2. Into the Wild: Awesome book, solid movie. The movie tried to be the book, like exactly like the book, major success, but should’ve been more of a movie and less an exact clone of the book.
1. Iron Man: Top spot. Great movie. Good story. Cool effects. Solid performances by RDJ, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others.
SLFTD: There’s a beach there known for cancer…waitin to happen.
FMT: Meet the warm long lie.
Vftd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqFkVNlWs8
What happened to racquetball?
Back in the day racquetball was the shit. Every respectable health club had a r-ball court, my buddy had a r-ball court in his basement, r-ball appeared in the movies, what the fuck happened? I don’t think you can get r-ball equipment anymore. It was supposed to be the sport of the 21st century. Oh well. We still have curling. That would rule if someone had a curling rink in their basement. Some rich dude in Denmark prolly does.
Ok, let’s get to the shit, I got a job. Wheehee. I’m really excited about it. I’m more excited about it than all of my other possibilities. The guys are way cool, they gave me a very fair deal where I can make good money if I’m profitable, and it’s a small firm with big plans, so I’m in on the ground floor. These guys have serious vision and a game plan and I’m totally fired up to be a part of it. I’ll let you know how it goes. Here is the link to the website: http://www.reverbcapital.com/. The space they are in rocks. It’s on the corner of Monroe and Lasalle, right in the heart of the financial district. Right now it’s only like 8 people, but I’m hoping in 2 years we’ve got 80 people and the thing is a juggernaut. There is so much space at the office, that they have a ping pong table, foozball and a jam room. That’s right, a jam room, to rock out in. Music is kind of a theme over there. I think all they have are a couple of guitars and amps, but I’m thinking about bringing my drums over and rocking out. I’m not sure if the other tenants in the building would dig that though. First things first, I have to rock out with the trading and then rock out with the music.
The big event at emusic occurred and I think it was kind of a dud. They acquired rights to Sony music, but there isn’t much that I don’t already have that I want. Here’s the deal. They added like 700 huge artists, I had 40 downloads, I went at it searching for something awesome. I had high hopes. I thought it would be no problem using up my 40 dls. Well I searched for about an hour and only came up with the first album by Cypress Hill which I dled. I did get the whole album for only 12 credits. So that was cool. I also dled Sometimes Salvation by the Black Crowes. I dunno what it is with that song, but I don’t see why it gets disrespected. They left it off of their best of album. I think it’s their best tune. So I dled that. And that’s it so far. I was looking at Blizzard of OZ. I just wanted to dl I don’t know, Crazy Train, Goodbye to Romance and Mr. Crowley; and they lock Crazy Train so you only get it if you Dl the whole album! That’s shady! That’s not the emusic I know. What gives? Locking certain songs. I bet that ends soon. That’s just lame. Even itunes wouldn’t do that. I gotta go back after it today and see if I can find anything else. The problem with major label, old school type of stuff, is that I already have most of what I want. They could’ve done a better job with access to the new stuff from Sony. I don’t want to search every artist to find out if they are on Sony or not, they should just have a section titled “the shit” and let me peruse through it to see what all the fuss is about. I was half considering dling some ELO, but I put that on hold. I ran across Kill the Musicians by Screeching Weasel. It has 31 songs on it. I totally would’ve dled it, but it wasn’t offered for 12 credits as it should be per the new deal, so I sent them a message asking “what gives?”
I have seen a bunch of movies lately and I’d like to rank them in order of how I liked them. Here goes. Some of the movies are old and were on Comcast. Here’s the list:
6. Happy Gilmore: Good movie, kinda gets dumber and less funny with each viewing.
5. The hangover: See my previous blog for more details on this one.
4. Meet the parents: Pretty classic. Kinda less funny each time.
3. Tropic Thunder: Not bad. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome. Worth seeing just for him. Some other stuff is pretty funny. Jack Black could have been better.
2. Into the Wild: Awesome book, solid movie. The movie tried to be the book, like exactly like the book, major success, but should’ve been more of a movie and less an exact clone of the book.
1. Iron Man: Top spot. Great movie. Good story. Cool effects. Solid performances by RDJ, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others.
SLFTD: There’s a beach there known for cancer…waitin to happen.
FMT: Meet the warm long lie.
Vftd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqFkVNlWs8
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