Bagels? Mmmm....yeah, alright.

Something I neglected to mention yesterday.

I was driving home from work on Tuesday, and was sitting behind a car with a number of goth-type bumper stickers adorning its rear end. Fine and dandy, I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing. I think they were kinda silly myself, but no one asked me. The other thing that caught my eye was one of those fish on the trunk. It was in the shape of the normal Jesus-style fish, but it had a little fang where the mouth would be, and it said 'vampire' on the inside.

So I found that to be pretty silly too, but it got me thinking: if this lady is a vampire, why is she outside in the middle of the afternoon on an extremely non-cloudy day? Shouldn't she be a pile of goo on the sidewalk? Despite what the commercial implied, I refuse to believe a pair of good snuglasses would adequately defend a vampire of going 'poof' upon stepping outside.

Then again, maybe it was the vampire's daughter or something, and she was on her way to....no, I'm not going to go the obvious route, so just stop it.

Ah, who cares.

Maybe she was on her way to the blood bank.

Take that!

Dracula: it's been DONE TO DEATH!

My entire body, below the neck, is hurting in many unpleasant ways today. This goalie thing really gets to you after awhile. Still, I played probably my best game since I took the position (even my teammates said so). Shoot, even the other team seemed impressed.

About that other team: my Spanish teacher sophomore year at DeSmet, Sr. Saali, plays on that team. All night I was telling myself: don't let him score. Naturally, he scores the tying goal not 30 seconds after saying he was going to get one on me.

Sigh.

Regardless, I played well, and the team played well. And we didn't lose!

I think that's about it for now. Back to work I go.


No me digas! Esta libro, esta tarde!
Dave

Sounds like I deserve a three hour lunch.

A three our lunch! a three hour lunch!

Or something like that. You get the idea.

I went to get fitted for a tux Monday night. Generally, I'm against the concept of dressing up. Ties and dress slacks send me into a frothing rage. I've only warmed up to dark socks in the past year. But for some reason, I'm all about getting a tux. Maybe it's the pants with the racing stripes, or the cool adjustable buckles on the side. It could be the plastic shoes, or one of the other 37 parts. Don't know for sure, I just know I enjoy them. I think I look halfway decent in one, too, so that's a bonus.

I have a color selected for my bathroom. Hopefully I can get the wallpaper down on Friday. Sunday, weather permitting, I'm going to plant flowers and some shrubberies out back.

A shrubbery! dramatic chord

And a little path running down the middle. a path, a path!! Ni!! Shh!

Um....yeah. Home improvement. It's where it's at. But once I get this bathroom painted, what will I have left to look forward to? Painting Steve's room obsidian? I guess so, but I don't want to rearrange his furniture.

Yeah. I don't know. I'm just trying to pad this thing out, because I don't really have a lot to say.

I got my tax refund like 3 weeks ago, and didn't even know it! When I sent in the paperwork, I checked the box to have it auotmatically deposited in my checking account. I didn't find out until Monday night, as I was looking over my bank statement. So there it was. And I was happy. A bit miffed that Uncle Sam didn't at least send a note or something, but hey, not that big of a deal. Acoustic guitar, here I come.

So Thomas is going to be staying with me for a month(ish) before his wedding in June. That should prove interesting. I've not had anyone non-family stay at the house for any length of time before. Steve and I pretty much know how the other one works (a well-oiled machine, if you will), but throwing someone completely new into the mix is going to be different. Granted, I'll still be at work all day, so it won't be too huge a difference. We'll see. Lots of quality jam time, though.

I don't think this post is really going anywhere, so think I'm going to wrap it up. Or wind it down. It depends on how that last part went.

Anydangways, I'm off to work, or something like it.

I'm quite happy right now. A bit sore in the ribs for some reason, but otherwise, quite happy.



your friend in the diamond business,
Dave

daddy, daddy better go back again for it must be a mighty fine town-o, town-o, town-o.

Just a quick note: Nickel Creek puts on one helluva show. Extremely talented, and good fun to watch. After the ho-humness of last week's Guster performance, it was good to see some energy on stage. Highlights include: an uber-fun cover of Beck's "Where it's At," hearing some of my favorites, an amazing unplugged section at the end, with all four on stage playing into a single mic, and one majorly cool bass player.

How cool?

He played upright bass (mmmm), banjo, AND he did a bit of tapping/clogging on one song. Alas, his tapping surface wasn't miked too well, so it was hard to hear him at first. But all the same, very cool.

And yes, Kelly, they played 'This Side.' They also played 'The Fox,' 'Lighthouse's Tale,' and 'In the House of Tom Bombadil.' And that unplugged bit rocked-no amps or effects--just a mic and a really quiet audience (save for the annoying drunk girls in front of me who would not shut up).

87 points to Nickel Creek.

I'd like to mention that I finally got my kiester over to a certain website with certain characters doing certain amusing things.

It's sewiously funny. Why it took me so long, I'll never know.

"Obivous exits are: NORTH, SOUTH, and DENNIS."

How about Hector Luna's suicide squeeze in the top of the 12th inning last night, eh? I love that play...


I got two turntables and a microphone,
Dave

You know, I'm a guy you don't want to fight.

When I say "jump," you say "yeah right."


87 points to anyone knowing the source of those lines.

Dedicated readers might recall my concerns over the digital alterations of pictures in our Annual Report at work. Oh, wait, I'm sorry: retouching. They make it sound so nice, don't they? Anyways, I saw the finished product today. There are probably around 6 instances I can name where an image was altered beyond what I consider acceptable. The big one, with the exterior shot and the clouds added, looks, well.....a bit fake. Or so I think. The clouds just don't seem natural. So I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not. In another image, the background was blurred with a filter, and it's pretty obivous, as the edges of the foreground and background aren't too clean. One guy was flipped around, and the logo on his shirt removed so you couldn't tell. A kid, dressed up in a robe for a Harry Potter party, had his hands taken out (they were just sticking out from the edge of the robe).

Tsk, tsk, tsk.

Triple tsk.

That's a tsk all the way!

Something from yesterday I forgot to mention: I went to mass, and after the homily (I think), the priest blessed the holy water, and did proceeded to sprinkle the assembly with it. Now, at Sacred Heart, they don't use that little orb-on-a-stick thing (anyone know the name?). They use an actual branch (maybe an olive branch?), and it holds a lot of water. Well, when he got to my section, he had to get a fresh supply of water. So I got DRENCHED (had to clean off my glasses). It was quite amusing, as everyone had a bit of a smirk on their face, as I've never seen so much water used.

It was kinda fun. I apologize for such bad wording, but it was all I could come up with.

My first attempt at a BBQ failed miserably, as the fire went kaput, and I was forced to cook my brats inside. But they turned out well in the end, and I have a wonderful leftover for tomorrow.

Mmmm....brats.

But no mustard...

Heh.

My monitor died at work today. Kinda sad. Thankfully, IT had a pretty nice one to replace it. They may not be able to help with my other problems (we use Macs in our department, and no one in IT is terribly Mac savvy), but they do have new monitors.

I'm going to see Rush in June! And the Flecktones 3 days later. That is, of course, after the amazing back-to-back BOC/Cowboy Mouth weekend in just over a month. August brings Weird Al to Six Flags. This week has Nickel Creek at the Pageant.

Good stuff.

I was rooting through my desk last night, trying to find a decent sized envelope, and I happened across something interesting. Wedged behind the back of the drawer were two of my old X-Men comics, dated 1992 and 1993. Wow. Probably about the time I stopped buying them. I can't think of a lot to say about them, but it did bring back some old memories.

And it makes me wonder what there were doing in there to begin with.

I cut my grass last night, and after I finished, my neighbor came up and asked if he could add some stuff to my garbage, as they're getting ready to move, and have tons of stuff to get rid of. Crazy. They were here when we moved in some 13 years ago. 13!!! Man I've been here a long time. I don't interact with my neighbors too often. I don't think anyone around here does, really. I wonder why. Is it that way all around? If so, why? Whatever happened to block parties and fun stuff like that?

Oh well.

I think I'm done. Quite a long post, considering I had originally intended to mention just the Annual Report and church. Aren't you proud of me?



half a block down the street from jerry's bait shop,
Dave

Oooooooooooohhhhhh, there's: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....

6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 wheels on a big rig!!!

Yeah, toast!

Sorry. I've been out in the sun a lot this weekend, so I think my brain is a bit fried. But it was a good weekend. Drove up to Kirksville on Friday for some time with Tom. I learned an important lesson: when driving in the direct sun, your arm WILL get sunburned if you keep it out the window for three plus hours. Also, your knee.

Really. I have no idea how it happened, but my left knee has a small patch of sunburndness.

Anywho. We saw the band Guster play on Friday night. They weren't too bad, but as a live act, they were pretty dull. Mostly, they just stood there and played. Ho-hum. They did, however, have an amazing drummer/percussionist who had some of the best rhythms I've ever heard. And, the music certainly wasn't bad. Definitely something I could listen to at work, in the car, etc. Just not my thing live. The opener, however, was a group called Ross Christopher, and they were exceptionally cool. The lead singer dude played an electric fiddle/violin sorta thing (I can't tell which is which), and there was just a lot of energy from the band. Plus, they played snippets of 'Voodoo Chile,' 'In the Hall of the Mountain King,' and a cover of 'Devil Went Down to Georgia,' with a snippet of 'Hoedown' thrown in for good measure.

87 points to each member of the band.

Otherwise, we didn't do too much of anything, which is always nice. There was some good jamming, an enjoyable game of catch, and an afternoon spent wandering around dowtown K-ville. It's about what you'd expect.

After the show Friday, we went with some of Tom's friends to a bar. I really don't see how anyone can go to a bar and expect to pick up a guy/girl. It's loud, and people aren't at their mentally sharpest, so any conversation is really pointless. Am I missing something? Let me know if I am.

I spent some quality time on the Chain of Rocks Bridge today shooting the Gateway Kite Club for the Journal. Lots and lots of fun. The wind was unbelievably strong, so there weren't too many people out. But that's okay. I improvised.

Oh yes, I like the idea of a "recommended" list on the sidebar. Greenight it. Go. Etc.

I really could go with a spring break. Anyone have some time off they don't want?


up in flames,
Dave

Harvester of Eyes

It is currently, wait, let me check.

Eh, call it "9."

I've been awake for, oh, around 4 hours. Actually, I set my alarm for 4:45, but I think it was around 5 when I rolled out of bed. Why, you may ask? To go downtown and provide moral support, of course! We have Food For Fines next week, so we went down to promote it on Channel 5's morning show, which starts taping at 5:50 a.m. So I had to leave around 5:20 or so to get down there on time. And I did, remarkably. It seems that the earlier I have to get up, the easier it is, maybe because if I'm getting up that early, it's probably for something important and/or exciting. Now I have to try and make it through a soccer game tonight. Thankfully it's not the 11:15 game.

I don't really recommend waking up that early unless absolutely necessary, though. Still, the traffic was non-existant, and I had an excuse to stop and get a bacon/egg/cheese biscuit on my way back to work. Yummy. I didn't get to really see the sunrise, though, since our location downtown did a good job of hiding the sun.

Oh well, maybe next time.

No, wait....

A few weeks ago, I posed the question "I there love in space?"

The answer, I'm happy to say, is a resounding "yes." So, everyone should do themselves a favor and go buy the new Joe Satriani album.

What are you waiting for? Go! Now! I'll wait.

............................hmm hmm..............................................brother?.......................Scorpion?!?.....

Oh good, you're back. Please allow me to whine a moment.

All three guitars have broken strings. The 12-string broke whilst I was tuning it, and the Strat broke....well, I don't know why, but it did. And the SG broke during a jam on Sunday, but it's been breaking quite frequently the past month or two. But I've already posted on that. Now I have to go buy at least 3 new strings, maybe 3 sets. I don't know. I think it's recommended to change all strings when you change one. I'm unsure why. Very annoying.

Tomorrow is tax day. Did you get yours sent in?

Oh! Exciting news.

So CM is gonna be at RibFest on May 29, which I'm sure you (Janice) already knew. Ah, but even cooler news: Blue Oyster Cult is gonna be at RibFest on May 28!!! How cool is that? And Mr. Satch is going to do some touring with Deep Purple this summer before embarking on his solo tour.

Good, good stuff.



Hands in the air,
Dave

Freak! On the left, it's the cheese-head man!

I'd like to point out that the 'freak' in that line is not an adjective, rather, it's more of a command. Also, the 'cheese-head man' is not a reference to rabid Packers fans. It was a stream of consciousness thing I came up with once.

Just so you know.

If you were wondering.

Were you?

Ummmmm, yeah. Anyways. Yesterday I had bratwursts for dinner at dad's. Smothered in Maul's, no less, so it was really yummy. Different from ham, I might add, and quite tasty. Oh yeah, and lots of chocolate. I should be wired on the stuff for a couple weeks. Also, I got the required allotment of Peeps, which, of course, will be stale and still sitting in my basket come mid-May. I should just pass them on to Ms. Sullivan, who, in her own words, just bought "$10 worth of Peeps."

The MaxRes staff is impressed.

Last night witnessed the first (sort of) concert by Routine 27. Consisting of one (I) song played (not totally butchered) to a rapt audience of one (one) over a phone.

Hey, it's a start.

We did play pretty well, though, until someone (read:me) broke a string (again!) during a very nice performance of 'Rinse and Repeat.' Dave is going to get some new bits for that guitar so I can keep it in tune AND keep strings from breaking.

Fun, no?

Friday night witnessed the induction of two new members into the 'UHF Lovers' HOF. 'UHF' is a love it or hate it movie: there is no middle ground, trust me. And when Janice and Jess damn near put a hole in my floor, I think it's safe to say they enjoyed it.

Awwwww, man!

I have a puddle of drool under my desk. Can you tell me why?

Saturday's date was a good thing, and I'm pleased to report that all the animals were out, and doing things animals do. I even had a lizard waving at me. Really! All the cats were out, doing things cats do (sleep), and the hippos put on a good show.

I FINALLY got a new remote for the TV upstairs. For those in the know, this is a big thing. For those of you out of the loop, don't worry.

You are now up-to-date.


Don't fear the reaper,
Dave

Easter Bunny Films Presents:

Dave vs Grandma's Yard, Round 1

Score?

Me: 1
Yard: 0


Yeah, take that you assemblage of grass, hills, poles, and other general annoyances. I took your happy ass to the cleaners!!!

Yes, I KNOW it's just grass, but you have to understand just how difficult/annoying/etc/etc/ that yard can be when it's at its nastiest. Best to nip it in the bud, if you will. And the sooner that house is sold, the easier my life will be. And dad's. And grandma's.

Mostly dad's. Then I won't have to listen to every little problem about it.

Not that I don't mind listening, but I'm only one person! I can only take so much, you know. And I was pushed to my limits on Saturday. I did so much listening, I should have set up a couch. Again, I'm more than happy to listen, but we all have our limits. So he got cranky, which would have got me cranky, if I didn't have the pleasure of shooting a baseball game for the Journal. Works for me. So of course, father comes to say hi/apologize whilst I'm shooting, which isn't easy. Focusing on the game, and continued listening is not easy.

Best advice: leave the photographer alone.

Okay, I'm done griping.

And I got some nice shots from the game, so it all works out. It'll be even better if I actually get the Journal delivered to me this week.

I got to watch my Godzilla movies last night, as they arrived in the mail. I'm quite the happy camper, I must say. Ups my total to 18.

Yeah, I'm a nerd.

Problem with that?

Didn't think so.

The return of baseball and the NHL playoffs also make me a happy camper.

This weekend's date makes me an extremely happy camper.

Thief 3 is due out in about a month. We're less than a week away from the new Satriani album (drool).



Praise the truck farmer at the church of your choice,
Dave

It's foreign on this side, and I'll not leave my home again...

A couple observations I made today:

1.) I saw myself in Chip's eye. It was quite surreal, really. She was laying on the couch, and I was doing the required TLC that comes with owning a cat, and I was close enough to her face that I could catch my reflection in her eyes. And, I suspect she could see herself in my glasses. What does it all mean? Probably nothing, but it was such an odd sight (ha!) I thought I'd mention it.

2.) I saw the WORST example of driving today. I was on my way home from work, and stopped at the Lindbergh/Clayton intersection for a red light. A car pulls up next to me, stops for about...maybe a second, and drives RIGHT THROUGH the red light. Keep in mind, this is a major intersection, 4 way, left arrows, etc., and this bonehead goes right on through like it's no big deal.

Jeez, people are stupid sometimes.

I ordered a couple Godzilla movies today. It's been a good long while since I've done that. Good times ahead, oh yeah.

I also got a haircut.

I way a little less now.

I had my interview at the Post on Tuesday. Much to my surprise, I got to sign the official stringer contract, but with the caution that it could be some time before I actually get any work. It was weird having my work critiqued my someone in the field. Generally, I show it to friends, family, and coworkers, and it's nothing but "oh this is great," or whatever. But actually getting criticism was odd. Not necessarily bad, just not what I'm used to. And, I don't know how much I can take from said criticism. Most of it seemed to be a case of my getting the backs of heads too often. I think it's worth mentioning that most of those shots were sports, and it can be tricky, because everything is so split second, and it can be hard to get every little detail down. Something to work on, of course.

So, we got through all my stuff, and maybe 4 or 5 of the 30 I showed were considered quality work to base a portfolio around. Maybe I was too attached to the other stuff, but I think the rest was pretty solid, on par with some other work I've seen. Then we look at work from other stringers, so he could show me 'what I'm up against,' and I was getting the impression that it was a case of 'you're stuff isn't good enough, come back later.'

Apparently not. I dunno. Maybe you just had to be there, but it was just a bit hard to figure out where I stood in the Scheme of Things.

But, I'm in. Again, apparently.

On the bright side, I have an absolutely wonderful layout in this week's NorCo Journal Life section. So for those who can, check it out. I can't, because it wasn't delivered, had to look at the library. But I shall request a copy, oh yes.

And.....I think that's about it.



there's no place to hide, but I don't think I'm scared,
Dave