| from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee |
[Dec. 12th, 2009|06:17 pm] |
Today should be the last day of my white-knuckled, bloodshot-eyed, racing brain, brow etched in a deep scowl marathon at work. At high points I was conducting a 100 piece orchestra and in low moments I was howling while the ship I was sailing was destroyed by forces small and large. Oddly I feel like I do the best work there when I'm challenged beyond all reasonable demands. The days where 1000 bullets are fired and you dodge as many as you can, you walk up the stairs to sign out feeling pretty good. The dust hasn't settled on this project yet and I don't feel like we did the best we could but when given a impossible deadline which we impossibly made (in part by me and another guy who are salary and are basically working for free), the fuckups don't matter much when you can say you're pretty much done.
It's raining today, it's been raining recently. I'm glad there were no visitors this month. I hope February will stay nice and dry. I'm about to go down the street to get some dinner. I took a small nap earlier and sat down and read Rolling Stone's Top Things of the Decade. While reading that it was weird, albums from 2000 seem legitimately 10 years ago, they seem from a different time. But things from even 2003 seem pretty fresh and it's hard to imagine all that time has passed. |
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| 110 |
[Dec. 5th, 2009|07:11 pm] |
110 hours this pay period. Depending on the hour I either feel full of energy or completely devoid of it. Lots of other guys have put in tons of hours too (more than me) however they get a little thing called overtime. I don't. I took the leftover pizza today as my extra incentive. The big problem that killed me today was my boss came late and left early. I'm doing my best, this team is doing their best, but when the coach who is creating ridiculous deadlines leaves, it really makes you think I should just leave. I'm putting in 4 hours tomorrow too, but it's during the time that I was hoping to watch the Bears win one more game. Late nights the upcoming week. The way I rationalize it is that if I put in the time now, I'll be able to rest next weekend. I have been planning and scheduling the whole thing.
Well I'm home now, that's good. |
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| Dear The Bears, |
[Nov. 29th, 2009|04:33 pm] |
Dear The Bears,
I hate you.
Love,
Kevin. |
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| Jimmy Eat World |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|10:07 pm] |
The great thing about having a shitload of music around is that you basically don't listen to most of it that often. So when you dust off an old album it can hit you again, maybe not like the first time, but sound really fresh. When we were moving in here, we had a couple of CDs on rotation and one was Jimmy Eat World's "Bleed American" which sounded awesome. We were both shocked by how loaded that disc is, there are seriously like 7 singles on that thing. Tonight I found another cd wallet I hadn't imported and found their 1997 album "Static Prevails". It is not as good, but it's where I first heard them. It totally reminds me of my freshman year of college and reminds me of losing a friendship. Anyhow, there are some great gems on that thing too. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 25th, 2009|08:28 pm] |
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Emily created an ad for a friend at work and it's now in full-color in City Beat. Pretty cool. |
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| Dolly |
[Nov. 23rd, 2009|10:29 pm] |
Wednesday we took Pierre to his previous home to stay while we went on vacation. It's a bit of a drive up there and the lady, Bea, who took him home from the pound was very happy to see him again. She has a huge ranch out in the middle of nowhere in Ramona. When we entered, all these dogs started popping out from nowhere, following us around. Pierre felt right at home, prancing around and saying hi to all his old friends. One of his old friends, Dolly, caught my eye and I ended up falling in love with her. She is a very, very shy dog and I only got to pet her once, and she flinched and ran away. We had a good chat and Bea was just so happy that we've given Pierre a good home. She was convinced he would never be adopted and is very happy he's with us.
No time to expand on our Vegas vacation now, but soon. |
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| Let It Be |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|02:58 pm] |
I'm listening to the actual album Let It Be and haven't heard it for while. The title track is much different on the album compared to the single version that you normally hear. I really like it, there's some curious awkward drumming by Ringo and some nice scathing guitar work that is high in the mix.
Commence experiment: I'm now listening to one version on my iPod and the other on my computer simultaneously to hear the differences. The album track picks up the pace a bit at about 1:25 and the string/horn accompaniment is a lot more dominating. The first guitar solo is way fuzzier and a little more loose, where the single's is a little more standard and packaged. There are a few extra guitar lines popping up here and there too. The album track is 12 seconds longer with one more added reprise of the chorus before the keyboard outro. I wonder if they thought it was just one too many "letitbe"s for the radio. |
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| 5 road purchase |
[Nov. 14th, 2009|02:50 pm] |
Thursday night the Bears played the 49ers on the NFL Network. I was going to go to the bar but got home late and needed to eat and just plopped down to watch it on the Mammoth. Emily had some friends coming over later to play Catan so I stayed watching it until the board was set up. Jay Cutler threw 5, count them all if you can, 5 interceptions in a 6-10 loss. The defense actually played well, although against a bad quarterback Alex Smith. It was a crushing loss but a little bit of a relief because I won't have to go through the agony of them in the playoffs. We played Settlers for the first time in a year. I can't believe it's been a year but then again I can't believe it's already November. Her friends were really cool and had read up on Catan tutorials on their iPhones. This was HUGE to me because trying to teach people takes quite a while and is difficult. They had a great head start so it was nice to get going right away. Her friend Mike (who looks 83% like Jeff Norman) actually did really well on the first game. The Bears however got my blood boiling and I was feeling like taking it out on someone so I mounted a huge 5 road purchase at the end with flipping over a victory point. It felt good to win. The second game her friend Regina got some beginners luck after the 4 of us rolled an 8 about 780 times and she was on both 8s. They stayed a while that night which was fun but at the same time I knew I had a huge day at work the next day. Friday I worked 11 hours non-stop. I skipped lunch to save some time however I think it's better just to eat for 8 minutes because you start going crazy at about 4:30 pm after not eating since 6:45am and that was just a bowl of Rice Chex anyway. Today is a beautiful Saturday and I had a nice walk to the library listening to the Beatles. I then walked over to the vintage audio store to see their turntables and talked to the nerd there for a while. I think rather than investing in a new turntable I just need to clean the one I have and the records themselves as well. I then walked to the small dumpy record store down the street to try to get some old tunes but they have them priced at respectable prices. I always like getting classic stuff for no more than $2.50. However Thin Lizzy's Bad Reputation really is worth $9 but I passed. The ladies who ran the place made me think of Bev from Toad Hall. Now here I am at home, not cleaning. |
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| Stat Guy |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|07:08 pm] |
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My friend Jeff (california Jeff not Rockford Jeff) will put out phone calls to his "Stat Guys" -- calls to people when he needs info right away about an issue or question. In the age of iPhones with web access I'm sure this practice is in decline but I got a call today about a Beatles question. I was happy to oblige but turns out I was not exactly right. Anyhow, I got a call about 45 minutes later from Emily with a question. I nailed that one. I was .500 as the Stat Guy today. |
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| Johnny |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|10:52 am] |
Some guys can pull off the Camo Pants/Striped Polo/Leather Bracelet/Patchwork Scarf/Blue-tint Aviators/Sand Fedora and the rest of us hang our heads. |
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| 10 years |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|07:12 pm] |
Last week's Bears game was on the 10 year anniversary of Walter Payton's death so they were honoring his life. I'm not a big fan of the anniversary of someone's death, I think it should be their birthday. At any rate it just brought up a lot of reasons why that man is still a hero to me. I was extremely young when he was still playing but the way he played and the way he lived his life is really an inspiration.
On another note I realized the other day that this past summer was the 10th anniversary of our first Zombie Fest. We were at Borders and seeing the tons and tons of wacky zombie books that are coming out and it seems like zombies are at an all-time high in popularity in pop culture and it's cool to think that my friends and I were way ahead of the curve on that one. Zombie Fests bring back a lot of great memories and they were tons of fun at a point in our lives where we could just cut loose and have fun like that for a week in the summer.
It's a bit cold here and I'm gearing up for a brutal time at work where we have to move the entire contents of one facility into another, mostly on nights and weekends. Hopefully though if we put in a good solid effort in November and get it right, December will be downhill. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 4th, 2009|10:04 pm] |
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I should make a note here that last night was the birth of the new Southern stand-up comic sensation Shit Williams. |
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| Please just at least say "Trick or Treat" you little twerps |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|09:15 pm] |
Last night we had a great Halloween Eve party. Lots of Emily's work friends came and none of my friends showed up. We had tons of treats and beer and pizza and had a good time outside in the dungeon. Emily was in a good mood after the Geico money costume she made for a guy at work won best costume and the Lady Gaga dress that she made for someone else also won a prize. I really like our luck with parties, they end up just my style. They are really fun for a few hours and then everyone gets out and the cool people end up staying til real late.
Today is Halloween, I had a hangover from last night so the whole day was pretty much a waste. I turned on the World Series, Yankees vs Phillies Game 3, and the kids started coming to the door. At 30 I am becoming a grumpy old man. In my day, kids a) actually said "Trick or Treat?!", b) said "Thank You c) wore a costume. Or maybe it's always been like that and we were one of the only families with manners. It was really hard for me to give candy to the kids without costumes who didn't say Trick or Treat. Who are you? What are you doing? Oh well, the only vindication was the fact that Emily picked out the worst candy to give out so at least it was fair.
Tonight we are going to see the Night Marchers. I seriously can't believe it's been a year since their other Halloween show, it seems pretty fresh in my mind. This past year has gone very quickly. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 30th, 2009|07:16 pm] |
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Halloween Party Tonight!!! |
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| mid-rockout |
[Oct. 27th, 2009|10:01 pm] |
One of my favorite things in the world is getting ready and going out to rock out to my favorite bands in concert. It was really cool to get home tonight and get a call from my dad in mid-rockout while Bob Dylan was laying it down onstage in Rockford. I hope it was a great show.
In related news, I don't wanna work on Maggie's Farm no more.
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| fall |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|04:05 pm] |
It's hot today. I went outside to get the car back from the mechanic and noticed just how hot it was. The sun really beats down. The car is back now and it works. The battery was shorted out, luckily it wasn't the alternator. The year was almost done, I should have known something needed to go wrong with the car. Every year I need to do something to it, but then it's done. I'm glad it started not starting yesterday instead of tomorrow. Just imagine us getting ready to take Em's mum to the airport and the car not starting. Yesterday we were saved at Trader Joe's by some, uh how should I say it, Hillcrest residents. One in a The Bronx band tshirt so that was probably the cosmos working in our favor. We got it home and this morning Connie steered while myself and Emily and later a passerby pushed it down the sidewalk next to the house, through the 711 parking lot and down the wrong way of the street to the mechanic. Well that's done now and it's still hot.
This past week has been good for Emily. Well good for both of us to see her mum but of course much better for her. Emily lobbied hard for Denny's by LAX for the first meal together and she was happy with her Moons Over MyHammy and I loved my LemonadeSpriteStrawberry concoction. The ride home was good and we had a small relax. I was allowed to stroll over to watch the game at Rosie's. They came over a bit later and got a nice seat at the bar where Emily was treated with a Raspberry beer. Connie ordered what I think was a Gin and Dry, which was supposed to mean Dry Ginger Ale but ended up being Dry Vermouth so her drink packed quite a punch. Gin and Dry Vermouth to me sounds like about the worst drink ever but it got her right. The game was a punishment to me, the Bears giving a game away. As a fan I am content to have them lose a game while getting outplayed by a better team. But to give the game away is depressing. I went to work the next day and Emily and her mum got over the jetlag by cleaning the house. I certainly didn't complain and the house looks great. Later in the week they did some gardening and now the front and back of the house look great. I'm not sure what the word vacation means in Australian but they certainly did put in a lot of work over theirs. They did plenty of shopping and eating and even managed to walk all the way to Balboa Park. The walk from our previous apartment would have been considered a nice walk and the walk from our house would be considered just ridiculous. Thursday they went to the mall and they are back there again today. I took off yesterday (Friday) and we went to Coronado at Emily's favorite crepes place, then had margaritas on the Coronado Beach. We went to Seaport Village (Emily calls this iPod Village since it is a perfect place for me to put on my iPod) and then to the Midway aircraft carrier where we took the tour. Unfortunately between spending time at the Kissing Soldier sculpture and the cafe, the tour was cut short a bit. I will try to take my dad when he comes out. We then went to Mission Beach to get some tshirts and leaving the Midway was when I noticed the car not starting that great. I left the engine running while they were shopping at Mission Beach and then we went to Trader Joe's. I thought running it that long would have rectified whatever was wrong and I was wrong.
They are still at the mall and it is still hot. I will go outside and pull up some of the more nasty weeds that live in our front yard. With all the gardening they did, it's my turn to take a crack at the yard and see if I can do some CPR to bring it back. We're pissed at the bank for letting the yard die while we twisted away in escrow so now I don't know if it can be salvaged.
It's October 24 and it's hot. Back home, a phrase that I've been using less and less I'm afraid, it is quite a bit colder, with some rain I hear. I think I've written about this every year on here but I definitely do miss the change from summer to fall. The new colors, the new smells, and the crisp air that you can feel in your lungs. Things get more real in fall, things hold more weight, and you try to take it all in without thinking about what winter is going to bring. I do miss that. It shouldn't be hot today, it's late October. But it is and I'll make the most of it.
We take our visitor back tomorrow. If any of you out there want to get away from winter this year, you are welcome here. But enjoy fall for me. |
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| 3 margaritas |
[Oct. 19th, 2009|08:58 pm] |
I will not apologize for last night's drunken outburst. It is the type of post I would normally delete but I'm keeping it up there. It is a reminder that we live in the real world and we have real loyalties. Fantasy football is fun but when you are a fan, fantasy football should take a back seat. Always.
Yesterday we drove to LAX to pick up Connie and had a nice drive back. We were here for a while and I was allowed to go to the bar to watch the game. Emily and Connie came in the 2nd quarter to hang out as well. I was pretty emotional during the game, for some reason I'm really taking this season to heart. It was a tough loss indeed. I am fine (to a point) with losing to a better opponent, but giving the game away is something that really frustrates me. Anyway ...
Today I went to work and they hung out at home. They actually spent a lot of time cleaning here today which blew me away. Her mum is welcome here anytime if she can convince Emily to clean!!! We just got back from Cafe Mahaueyla (spelling is bad due to the 3 margaritas) -- one of our new favorite neighborhood places. I am typing slowly due to the margaritas. We had some delicious street tacos on wonderful fresh tortillas. They are watching House and I am listening to Aerosmith. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 18th, 2009|09:03 pm] |
look dude you are here every week with a bears shirt/hat on cheering on "your" team. then this week you are cheering fucking michael turner because he is on your fucking fantasy team. fuck that. you have your team -- YOUR team. Fuck your fantasty team -- look I love fantasy football as much as the next guy but when your Team is playing you cheer for them. you are disrespecting your team, yourself and your bar. go home and shut up. i hate you.
Bears lost tonight. |
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| , tired |
[Oct. 17th, 2009|11:52 am] |
Oh man I'm tired. Last night I had to go back to work after working a full day, got there at 9:30 and was there til midnight, then had to come back at 7 this morning and left at 10:50. Loading pallets off a truck last night. Unloading pallet stuff onto the floor this morning then waiting for the drivers to come to load new pallets onto the truck. I'm home now, tired. Took Emily to her brunch and I will find some scraps and then take a nap. Today we are thinking of going to the casino to root our friend on. There is a BBQ competition there, I just don't think we'll make it on time. Los Lobos is playing the evening so that is incentive too. Tomorrow Emily's mum arrives in LAX.
It's a beautiful day in SD today. I want to make you all jealous.
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