Monday, June 30, 2008

One more time.

Today I decided it would be a good idea to walk out to my aunt's house. She was going to take me to lunch and a haircut, so I figured I would do her a favor and save her the drive to campus. She lives in WestU, so it was really the perfect plan- I could make a pit stop in the Village for a Jamba Juice refueling (or rather, my daily fix), pick up a book I ordered at the WestU library (Kings of Methlehem... I hope it's as cahrazy as it sounds), and then meet her with time to spare. Halfway there, she calls me asking where I want to be picked up, to which I gleefully respond, "Don't worry about it! I'm walking over so I'll probably be there in about twenty minutes." She laughs for a bit and reminds me that she moved earlier this summer. Far away. Past 610. Which means I'm retarded and walking to the wrong house. Now that was a fun conversation. Though I have to say, the award for most awkward exchange of words goes to one we had later in the day:

Aunt: What's that red mark near your shoulder?
Me: What mark? Oh, err...it's from my bag. I always put too much stuff in it so it's really heavy.
Aunt: Ah, okay. I was worried for a moment. And what's that mark on your neck?
Me: Uhm...that's from my bag too. Sometimes I have to change up the way I wear it since it's so heavy...
Aunt: Hm, it looks more like a bruise.
Me: I bruise easily.
Aunt: On your neck?
Me: Wowlookattheclouds! Can you believe that it's looked like it was going to rain all day and it hasn't yet? Houston weather is so crazy.

In other news, I'm temporarily obsessing over Daft Punk. Again. I blame the viewing of Interstella 5555 (anime version of the album. So fucking good.) I went through Discovery on my walk to the house that is NOT my aunt's and it turned out to be surprisingly good background music. Especially for a journey leading nowhere. One more time. (Story of my fucking life, amirite?) The songs all set the perfect walking pace and I realized that the lyrics, though repetitive, shouldn't be discarded as just meaningless accompaniment to the pulsing melody. Music makes you feel so free. Don't stop. Let's just celebrate. You know you need it. Hey. I need it too. Allright. It's good for you.
One more time.


So yea, good day. I really enjoyed my walk. Found some gorgeous flowers (see pic above. I bet you thought I stole that off the inturwebz to add some color to this post, didn'tya? WELL I DIDN'T. Houston really is quite colorful when you stop and look around), really listened to a great soundtrack...

I guess even journeys to nowhere can end up being pretty meaningful if you let them.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

It's not you, it's the E talking.

Newest musical obsession:
Erol Alkan: Bugged Out Classics (Disc 1 and 2)

I originally met him through his rework of Interpol's Mammoth, but fell in love when he remixed Justice's Waters of Nazareth. Listening to this mix has just confirmed that I want to have his children. (Even if it means giving the lame-emo-hair gene a chance at surviving for another generation.)

Basically, the tracklist is a compilation made for those of us who do not have the luxury of attending Bugged Out! parties. Personally, I like the first disk a lot better because it really captures the club feel-- the songs are more intense, upbeat, and basically overwhelm you with the urge to do the D.A.N.C.E. The second disc is aptly dubbed the "Bugged in" mix since it's built of the more chilled-out tracks. Keeping it on shuffle creates a dynamic bouncing-around-the-room experience, since you alternate between frenzied rock-out and soothing trip-out. All in all, LOVE IT. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go yell at my mom for birthing me on this side of the Atlantic.

My two favorites (so far) :

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Mmmm Houston clouds, how I missed you.

Currently listening to:

Friday, June 27, 2008

It's meme-tastic!

If you can name the 8 meme-characters present, I will give you a cookie.
(This really only proves that you can read, but I still think it deserves a cookie.)
If you can name the origin of the 8 meme-characters present, then DING-DING-DING! YOU WIN AT ONLINE LIFE!!1 I will award at least 100 online respect points, but I'm going to have to deduct over 9000 for you being such an IRL loser. I hope you're ashamed of yourself. Go outside and fly a kite or something.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Adventures in Local Music Pt 2

Meet the Future Blondes, a trance-like experimental industrial* project.

Start with Numbers' dark, hollow, shell of a room. Then, abruptly bathe the stage in red light. Cue drum machine and synthesizer. Add one well-dressed man who stares intensely into the audience as he murmurs an ambiguous string of words into an echoing microphone. Shake well. Lather, rinse, and repeat. Listen here.

(Honestly, we were pretty sure he just repeated iloveyouiloveyouiloveyou for the entire 20+ minutes of the song, but once you take a linguistic stream out of context it's almost impossible to interpret. Whatta mystery! We basically have to assume it was something profound!)

Strange as it was, the experience reminded me of how much I adore live music. You don't have to recognizing or even like the band playing. It's all about being pummeled by the surround sound. Thrilling.

Oooh, and speaking of cool experimental music:
Who knew that my freshman-year-roommate's older sister was an PhD certified avant-garde composer? NOT ME, THAT'S WHO. Good stuff though- really trippy. Imagine walking through Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory at night all alone. A bit eerie, but fascinating nonetheless. And delicious! Listen here.

*Wow, that was some terrible musical hairsplitting, even for me. It doesn't help much that the band refers to themselves as "other/other/other" on their website. Listen and decide for yourself. If you DARE.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I think I am a pretty cool guy,

I read too much AND DOESN'T AFRAID OF ANYTHING

Book Review:

Sellevision does NOT get my stamp of approval. Even though Bret Easton Ellis says it's "savvy" and "very entertaining," I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. It tried too hard. It was not neither dark nor subtle enough. So maybe it succeeded in mocking a culture, it failed at being clever (wow this is oddly reminiscent of my I-hated-Juno rant.) Sorry. Anyway, it's follows the stories of a handful of shopping network television show hosts- how lives intertwine, how everyone is fucked up and how they fix it. Nothing groundbreaking. Blah.

Today we went to Claim Jumpers for dinner. I have never seen such big portions in all of my life. We need us one of them in Texas.

After that we dropped into Half Price Books, which means I'm now equipped for my plane ride home. I just have to decide between Lunar Park or Girl Interrupted. It really just depends on whether I'm in the mood for my least favorite book by my (currently) favorite author or something (& someone) that I have never read before, a haunted furby or a woman with borderline personality disorder, dark and depressing or dark and depressing. Decisions, decisions...

Sorry, I couldn't help myself:
Random: the Stranger Than Fiction soundtrack has reawakened appreciation for Spoon. Yay!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Just Another Monday

I leave for Houston tomorrow. Ugh.

This morning as I was driving my cousin to work, he asked me, "Now that you've been away for an entire week and a half, what do you find yourself missing most about home?" I hesitated for a moment, assuming he expected some warm & fuzzy answer like "family", "friends", "the teddy bear I sleep with every night", or "this one kid I've been stalking since September." But as I stopped to really think about it, I realized that what I honestly miss the most about Houston is the weather. Mostly the heat and the cumulus clouds, not so much the humidity. If I stayed long enough I would probably start to miss solitude, but I haven't hit that point yet.

"Hmm... probably friends and family."

Started reading Sellevision. Exciting!

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Drivin' down the 101. California, here we come.

DAY NINE
San Francisco travels, continued. First stop, Chinatown. Somehow I managed to make it past all of those cute little shops without buying one trashy collectible item. The temptation was killing me, let me tell you. (Of course I'm not sarcastic.)

Though I will say, I was actually thisclose to buying a samurai sword (wait no, Samurai's are Japanese aren't they? Be an ignorant American with me for a moment and just pretend like you know what I mean) Except then I remembered that I still have to buy a new pocket-knife, and that takes priority. I've been knife-less for an entire week now! Sad story, it got taken away at the airport in Houston (Apparently they don't allow knives on planes now?) It was actually a pretty amusing scene: the tweenage kid behind me in line at security turned to his dad and asked, "Did that girl have a knife?" Which was my cue to spin around and smile, "Yeah, sorry about that. I had been planning on overtaking the plane midflight, but I guess now we'll just have to actually reach our destination." Completely straight-faced, he responded, "That takes all of the fun out of it." Then his dad jumped in and started chattering on about how this one time airport security argued with his wife over a cardboard nail file but the kid and I just smiled exchanged knowing glances (knowing what, I'm not sure) I really enjoy temporarily bonding with strangers. Even if it's just over silly things like potentially life-threatening breaches in homeland security.

Next we hit up Japantown, which surprisingly enough was not just a smaller, more democratic and progressive version of our previous stop (that would be HongKongTown. Coming soon to a metropolis near you!) It was really more like a mall than a street of shops- chock full of anime stores, fake cherry blossom trees, and some DE-LICIOUS SUSHI. As Americanized and cliche as the experience may have been, I found it completely delightful. I even gathered up the courage to try a "Japanese" desert- green-tea ice cream with red bean paste wrapped up in a crepe. It was... er... culturally enlightening, to say the least (Who invented that phrase? Euphemisms usually leave you saying more than the original tactless response. Meh.)

After that cultural explosion, we decided to just wander around for a bit. San Francisco is gorgeous. There's this crazy thing called "elevation" here (yes, my dear Houstonians, it does exist) which meant we worked muscle groups I didn't know existed. Which somehow led to an argument with one of my cousins about whether walking uphill or downhill was better. He said they were equal, because while downhill might be harsher on your feet, it's easier in general. I said that uphill was immeasurably better because even though it's a little more work, you always stay in complete control. We continued this discussion longer than I thought humanly possible, and ended with me wondering aloud if this whole issue could somehow be twisted into a metaphor for how people approach general problem solving in their lives. He said that that was the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard and pushed me the rest of the way down the hill (which was amazingly steep by the way. So beautiful!)
By about 5:00, we decided it was time to head back (Rather, our digestive tracts decided for us by robbing our bodies of inordinate amounts of energy to digest the obscene amounts of Japanese cuisine we had consumed earlier in the day. Yup.) However, as we were driving out of "The City" we passed by the coast and couldn't resist the enchanting call of the beach. My cousin didn't seem too impressed by it, but growing up near Galveston Bay has made my standards for beaches pretty goddamn low. I loved it.
  We just stood around and chatted for a bit while I took pictures of the sand, clouds, waves, and nearby children. Good times.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Too busy to write posts. I'll update eventually. Not that any one was holding their breath.
Till then-- SAN FRANCISCO FLOWERS!

Rock 'n Roll. Deal With It.

DAY EIGHT

Chill day #2.
Sat outside by the pool. Read Rules of Attraction.
Walked to Safeway (for grapefruits! yay!) and Blockbuster (for romantic comedies! boo!)
Sat outside some more. Watched the sun set.
Then at night we went out and saw Get Smart, which was really really good. Really. Cute, good acting, decent amount of political satire, and of course, three million cameos.
Even the trailers before the movie were pretty bad ass. Dark Knight looked glorious, but that's old news. Hell Boy 2 actually caught my attention (I don't care if the movie itself looks obnoxious. It's all about being visually and acoustically pleasing. Who needs a plot when you've got the dude from Pan's Labyrinth and a hardcore metal song in the background? Yeah, that's what I thought.)

And then I went crazy and jumped out of a window. *CRASH *

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Look, there's two women fucking a polar bear!

DAY SEVEN

This was our first intentional trip to "The City, " so I was pretty excited (last time we ended up here by heading 40 minutes in the wrong direction.) Basically spent the day perusing Pier 39 which is a slightly classier, more commercial version of Kemah.
It's really too bad I've already filled my quota of Fear & Loathing references for the year, because Fisherman's Wharf was just asking for it. We rode a carousel. Got my picture taken with a Hannah Montana signed guitar. Fortunte told by Zoltar. Saw a store selling pearl-bearing oysters. Guaranteed. This is not a good town for psychedelic drugs. Reality itself is too twisted.

Though in the Pier's defense, I must add, the (completely sober, in case you were wondering) carousel ride was amazing. There's nothing like riding a creepy gem-encrusted horse spinning round and round to eerie tinkling background music. Just like the good ol' days. Besides, I enjoy wandering around these cute little tourist hot-spots, no matter how much I mock them. Besides, they served a mean clam chowder-bread bowl.


After the Pier, we headed back for the San Rafael Street Fair. Every Thursday, the city shuts down an entire street for people to set up tents and tables to sell their stuff. Fresh fruits, veggies, baked goods, earrings, hippie purses, clothing, vietnamese children. Really, something for everyone. I bought a sundress and a can of homeade mixed pepper preserves. Good day, it was.

I couldn't resist

People are afraid to merge on freeways in San Francisco.
You can disappear here without knowing it.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Journey to Walnut Creek

DAY SIX
So on the surface, today seems like it was just another day of driving, shopping, and eating more Thai. But it was so much more than that.
...Okay not really.
All we did was wander around.
Hooray!

Random sidenote: How have I never heard this song before?
I'm a failure.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Napa Valley!

DAY FIVE

Today my grandma and I drove out to Napa Valley to go winery-hopping. We only hit two, Artesa and Larson Family, but I think that was enough to get a good touristy feel of things.
I've never been too big a fan of wine (I only drink grain alcohol and rainwater, remember?) but I think this experience has changed my mind for the better. Unless this tingly feeling of general well being is just a side effect of multiple wine tastings... nah! It was great because the guy serving neither asked me for my age or the nominal wine tasting fee. I guess he knew that in the end I would buy out his nice little shop... No matter! First, we tried a soft white Gerwurztraminer and then a fruity Pinot Noir Rosé (deceitfully tasting of strawberries. Pictured right.) This was followed by a crisp Meritage and their award-winning deep, dark Cabarnet Sauvignon. This is the one I ended up buying- something about the varietal aromas married with the vanilla and spice of the barrels gives it a distinctive Cabernet flavor full of currant and dark cherry fruit that you can't help but roll around in your mouth. Yeah, so I didn't really write that myself- it's on their website. In the end, it was good and I was buzzed. Yay wine!

Now it's time for THE MOAR YOU KNOW: Wine Edition.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...
  • The name "Meritage" is a sign of quality, caliber, and how much you are willing to pay for the naming license.
  • I found the acidity of the Cabarnet Sauvignon on their website: 0.428 to 0.458 g/100mL, with a pH of 3.69 to 3.81.
  • There are two methods for getting the juice out of the grapes- beating/pummeling them, or pressing them (I bet they still step on them sometimes just for fun...) The beating is usually more for the red grapes and the pressing is more for the white.
  • Red wine is dark because the skin is left on during fermentation. whites, in turn, do not. Rosés are somewhere in the middle. Welcome back to kindergarten kids, that's how hues work.
  • The juice is first put in the vats to ferment and then the barrels to age. Somehow I managed to get a good shot of both when I took a picture of a cute employee. Imagine that.
  • They leave glass stoppers in the barrels so they can see the when the bubbles of CO2 (produced by the yeast breaking down the sugar) stop and the wine is ready to be set in a barn somewhere to age.
  • Wine is delicious. Yum.
NOW YOU KNOW!

On top of the Cab, I also bought tiny bottles of Rose, Merlot, and Pinot Noir. Translation: I can either host a nice wine-tasting in my room when I come back, or revel in the fact that I have the proper ammunition to get myself shit-faced drunk alone on some weeknight. Win-win!

I almost feel bad about enjoying my day so much when duty calls me to go into a seven-month mourning period. Crushingly disappointing as it was, I'm proud of you boys for making it that far. Hope you're ready for next year, because we're going to kick some serious ass!Want MOAR wine-day pictures?

Monday, June 16, 2008

Disappear Here.

DAY FOUR

Today was our first chill day. Both of my cousins returned to work so my grandma and I did some necessary shoppin' (not the cool computer kind, I'm afraid). Grocery shopping for ingredients to make her delicious Thai coconut soup (ginger, lemongrass, asparagus, celery, basil, chicken broth, coconut milk, straw mushrooms, pure deliciousness) and jeans shopping so that my legs won't freeze and fall off as soon as the sun goes down (I found the perfect pair. I may actually wear them.)

In other news, I started reading Less Than Zero (it's just as dark and deliciously desolate as last time) to make up for the the grotesque overdosing of chick flicks inflicted upon me by my grandma and younger cousin. They've been setting up marathons each night assuming I'd want to be included just because I'm female (incorrect on both counts unfortunately.) But whatever, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make to hang out with my family. Besides, this is great practice in learning to suppress maniacal laughter and caustic commentary (which also comes in handy for weddings and well... daily life in general.) In any case, I think it's funny that I can read and adore such depressing books, while the only thing that truly kills my spirit is a good romantic comedy. (Elizabethtown, PS I love you, and did I mention that I saw Bridget Jones 1 & 2 in the same sitting? I wanted to stab myself in the face. I should win some kind of award for surviving the experience.)

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Aerobics and Tissue Engineering in a Coast Guard Hangar... Hiking with Cows... Oysters!... Accepting Official Shiny Happy Status.

DAY THREE

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Today started bright and early. Even though I woke up cursing my Office-Themed ringtone alarm, something about the California sunlight streaming in through my window didn't let me stay angry long (I bet you thought those raisins were just on crazy drugs. It's the sun, I tell you, the sun!) But waking up ridiculously early was most definitely worth it- I got to go to a Sunday morning aerobics class with my older cousin. What makes this class so amazing you ask? Let me count the ways: First off, the YMCA is located at his workplace, which, if you remember, is actually just a redecorated World War II hangar (saweeeet!) This means I got to pretend that I was training to be an secret agent sniper marine pilot as I liquefied my major muscle groups (double saweeeet!). Secondly, my 24 yr old cousin and I were the only people under the age of 50. It was almost surreal, as if I was acting out some cheesy movie scene: punch-jab-hook-ing invisible assailants while completely surrounded by little old asian ladies.
Oh, but then it gets better!

After the class, my cousin took me on a tour of his office. In case I haven't mentioned it yet, he works for a tissue engineering company that focuses on making blood vessels. As a mechie, his job is to build the reactors that hold media for the growing the tissues (triple saweeeet!) I got to see his cubicle, the labs where they work with the tissues and the fridges that hold the cultures. Surreal moment of the day #2: the overwhelming sense that I was walking through a Michael Crichton novel (I can die happy now.) I wanted to take more pictures, but a man in a nice pressed suit stepped out of the shadows and informed me it was against company policy. Too bad. But no matter, I was soon hit with yet another wowmylifeisamovie moment when I saw that the glass walls of his boss's office were covered complicated dry erase markings- equations, notes, diagrams etc. (Ok, it's official. This whole thing is a sham. The office is too desperately modeling the stereotypical bioengineering lab, I don't buy it. I wonder how long they spent trying to make the dry erase markings on the glass walls of his boss's office look sincere... Seriously guys, you're not fooling anyone.)
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All memories of events that followed the return to cousin's apartment have been repressed for my own sanity's sake. Wait... I think it might be coming back to me.... something about how I will always love my Rice Baseball team even if they lose 17-5 to Fresno State and I drink myself into a stupor to numb the pain... No, that can't be right. I probably just fell asleep or something.

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Next on the itinerary was a quaint little hike through a cow pasture. Don't worry, it was a real and intentional tourist site, we didn't just hope a barbed wire fence and wander around on someone's private land (*cough*.) The weather was thisclose to being perfect, but the wind had the terrible tendency of blowing away all of the warm sun rays. Blast you, wind! (I think I have to give in and buy a pair of pants. To wear. During the summer. Yuck.) Something interesting about hanging out with my grandma & cousins the past few days: now that we're all adults it's a completely different dynamic. It's very.... comfortable. I like it.
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After our little bonding-wandering session, we set up a little picnic by the bay. We bought 50 oysters, 1lb of clams and 1lb of mussels to grill. I've never been a big fan of shellfish, but I have to say, I'm a convert. Maybe it's because everything was so fresh, or because we grilled it ourselves. No matter. It was quite the experience.
.
Seriously?
Did this day really happen?
An aerobics class, hiking in happy cow pastures, and the grilling oysters on the bay? This has been the most stereotypically authentic California experience ever. (Tomorrow I'm getting a nose-job and overdosing on my inattentive mother's antidepressants!)
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Actually, I have a confession to make.
Try as I might, lately it's been hard to be cynical. No matter how much I want to write scathingly critical posts revealing the shallow wasteland that is Ellis' California, I can't help but just sit back and just enjoy its shiny happy surface (It's the sun, I tell you, the sun!). This trip has been nothing but wonderful so far. I guess even my inner nihilist is taking a temporary vacay. And I can't blame all negativity on Houston's heat, humidity, pollution, traffic, or mosquitos, because I know that this is what vacations are for, right? Throwing obligations and responsibilities to the wind and existing for awhile. As gorgeous/friendly/organic as California is, I don't think it's actually the catalyst in temporarily melting my cold heart (besides, it's fucking freezing here. 60 degrees is NOT okay for June). It's just summertime in general. *happy sigh* I'm lovin' it.

To add to the cheesy perfection of it all, we listened to Beck's "Mutations" in the car ride to the hike and bay. If you ignore the tone of the lyrics for a moment and just appreciate the mellow flow of music, it fits perfectly. (AH! LAME LIFE METAPHOR, you should have known you couldn't hide for long!) Anyway, the true essence of the day (and light) is captured by this song:

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Intro... AIRPLANE!... Campus Tour... Strobe lights, Samurai Swords, Alcoholic Piñatas... and assorted asides

DAY ONE

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So I know you've been wondering why.
Why California? Why now? Oh dear god, why has she left me for so long, WHY?!
Background info: my grandma likes to travel in the summer, and she was just lonely enough to ask me to come with her this year. Originally she wanted to go to Mexico or Spain, but unfortunately, the (people we were staying with realized that I would be coming along and) plans fell through. California was the next best choice because we have family out here: the 2nd daughter of five lives in Bakersfield and her two children, my cousins, live in Novato (near-ish Berkeley or Oakland).
But I actually left just because I hate you. Yes, you.

And this is where my photo-blog of a journey begins.
[WARNING: I'm going to list out the things I do each day as if I were some attention starved blogger addict (as if!), so for those of that you don't actually care about what I do, don't waste your time reading. Scan the titles and pictures and you'll be good to go. I tend to get obnoxiously meticulous when I document my life, which is why I don't usually make the posts public. But enough about me. Back to me.]

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I was super excited for the plane ride since I haven't flown anywhere since I was a rising senior in high school. (Wow. Please ignore the extent to which saying that makes me sound like a spoiled brat.) I love plane rides, especially really long ones. It's a freebie break from life to just sit, chill, readabook, stare at clouds, gain two hours of life, and accept free drinks from strangers. Really, my idea of the perfect outing. Oh yea, and the best part about airplane rides is when you get off the plane you ARE VERY FAR AWAY FROM HOME. That's always pretty cool. Did I mention that airports/planes are also perfect people-watching terrain? Mostly because everyone too preoccupied wandering around trying to find where they are supposed to be to notice some passersby happen to be staring at them and jotting down detailed notes about their various facial expressions. Though I also mean it in the warm&fuzzy sense. Maybe.

Landed. Drove home. Passed the fuck out.

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GOOD MORNING, California!
Started the day off by driving my older cousin to work at Hamilton Field so that I could steal his car for the day. Bought some 4.50$/gal gas and then set off for UCBerkeley, where my younger cousin is a student. I got a nice tour of the university and took some pretty brochure-worthy pictures, if I may say so myself. (This is the part where I off-handedly mention that I've decided to drop out of Rice and move to California. There are so many trees here. I am powerless to their call!) After exploring the surrounding area a bit, we went out for Thai food, (I think I ruptured my stomach. It was so worth it) and then we drove home and made dinner. Huzzah (If anything binds the family together, it's gotta be our joint obsession with food. Mmmm fooooood.)
And that was my DAY. (And that is my mango ice cream from the restaurant. It's so much more satisfying to see your food smile at you before I eat it... Take that as you will. )

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As for my NIGHT...
I went out with my older cousin to a friend of a friend's birthday party. It was a pretty cute get-together slightly reminiscent of our first-semester-freshman-ye
ar-parties, back when alcohol abuse was a novelty. At the same time, the party seemed to be a premonition of future parties to come: a group of young adults meeting up at a friend's house to escape the drudgery of their jobs and desperately cling onto the last remnants of the "college experience" still acceptable for their age group. There were some sloppy (aka n00b) games of beer pong, a vodka-watermelon (which was DISGUSTING, by the way. I recommended next time they try oranges ), and a pirate ship piñata. This was the BEST PART. Get this- to open the piñata, the birthday boy turned on a strobe light and sliced it open with a samurai sword (I assure you, it was a real fucking sword.) It was the classiest and most responsible thing that I have ever seen (to top it off, the piñata was filled with an assortment of tiny liqueurs, condoms, and fake mustaches.) Moral of the story: people never grow up. Thank god.

(The fire pic was from grillin' dinner. Not that I needed an excuse. Fires are kickass.)

[Guilty. A lot of this post is a redux copypasta of messages I send people. This is because I'm a lazy piece of shit. And really, there's only so much you can say about what you did in a day. So anyway, to those people, if you even read this: I'm going to continue to be a lazy piece of shit and recycle messages here as the days go by. It's also because I care about the environment, okay? California does that to you.]

Thursday, June 12, 2008

List of things to do before I die.

At the end of the summer.
...and then I burst in flames and am reborn from my own ashes!
I decided that if I formally list everything out here, there is a slightly better chance that I will hold myself accountable and actually do some of them. That, or that the list will just remain a constant, public reminder of what a failure I am . I figure this will build character.

- Six Flags
- Menil Collection
- Beach (Galveston counts, just this once)
- reread MOAR Crichton
- Miller Outdoor Theater
- Live music
- Lolololapallooza (maybe? plz?)
- Kemah Boardwalk
- Little Sister's Swimming meet
- The Dark Knight
- California
- Pick a water park, any water park

I know that some of these are pretty given, but it makes me feel good about myself to cross things off on a list irregardless of how silly the item might be.
LET ME HAVE MY FUN.

If we still find ourselves too bored, there's always Social Rule b.99.1.
Or we could start using made up words like IRREGARDLESS and see how many people still take us seriously.

"Music for people who should know better..."

Leaving for California tomorrow. Be in San Francisco till the 24th.
Hm. Probably should start packing.
...Or I could stay up finding new music.
Sounds like a plan.

Here's where my recent obsession with music blogs has its perks-- avoiding life!
A big "thank you" to Missingtoof for introducing me to Heads We Dance , Dopplereffekt, and Gescom. Exploring them led to the roundabout discovery of Geek Chic Soundsystem, Autechre, Sounds like Silver (LCD Soundsystem Remixed!) and a Busy P mix I didn't have yet. Scoooore. Then, thanks to Stereogum I met the Remix Artist Collective (a bit of Bloc Party, The Shins, Justice, and Chemical Brothers) which led to CSS, which led to furry porn, which led to our old friend Erol Alkan. Fucking glorious. I'll never sleep again!

Apologies for the excessive linkage. Long is the way, and hard, that leads to relatively unknown electropop, experimental, and industrial musica. Meh. Here's a taste test:


Wednesday, June 11, 2008

A Tale of Two Outings

I take a strange pride in being easily amused. Mostly because it allows me to stay content being while others are feverishly searching for stuff to do. However, living in the loneliest hallway in Jones Dorms (complete with creaky doors and a flickering ceiling light at the far end- I kid you not) has made me realize that even I, the great antisocialite, need to hang out with people and do things sometimes. Notice, I am not admitting weakness here. Human interaction and IRL events are only necessary so that I don't run out of things to blog about.

Monday Night I crashed your party...
Drove with Kyle to JavaJazz Cafe with the promise of a live local DJ. At first I was skeptical, since the venue has a reputation for catering to tweens (and as we all know, I'm more into 8 year olds...), but P.D.A was an altogether pretty impressive show. Review: Even though I hate to pigeonhole his mad-stylez, he was kind of a pop-ish rapper with solid electronic/melodic beats. Very catchy. Very danceable. I approve. (Except for the name. Just so you know, PDA stands for Public Displays of Afflection-- a portmanteau defined as the struggle between love and hate. Really? ...really?.)

Tuesday Night I said I'm sorry...

Metrorail'd myself over to the Angelika to catch Iron Man with Viren. It's one of those movies that everyone but me had seen, so I was starting to get left out of lots of conversations. And birthday parties. Somehow, I found the only other human being on the face of the earth that hadn't seen it yet to accompany me. Unexpectedly proving my hyperbole-- we ended up being the only two people in the theater. Pfft. Where's the fun in buying popcorn if you have no one to throw it at? (Fine, you caught me, I didn't actually buy popcorn... but we ended up having a good amount of spare change between us for when a couple decided to enter the theater forty-three minutes after the movie started.) Review: I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it's not going go win any awards, but I found myself cheering and laughing out loud more than I found myself yelling constructively-critical obscenities, which is always a good sign. And DAMN, the explosions were HAWT (*drool*). So yea, thumbs up. I'd definitely recommend the movie to people if I knew there was any possibility of someone out there not having seen it yet.
But that would just be ridiculous.


Wednesday came and trashed it out again...
Actually, all I did on Wednesday was go to work. Though I might head out to an apartment gathering later. I guess I have to do something blog-worthy now, like set furniture on fire or toilet paper their room to keep with this WILD OUTING trend of mine.

I was only having fun, wasn't hurting anyone.
And we all enjoyed the weeknights for a change.

I don't know why I had to add that in... the titles are in no way relevant to the post itself.
Bah, I'm a sucker for Billy Joel.
So sue me.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Savage Journey into the Heart of the American Dream

Because honestly, what's more American than Baseball? (I still haven't posted part I yet... but I'm getting there.)

Super Regionals
Rice vs.Texas A&M
Game 2
The baseball game actually fit quite nicely into the day's theme, especially since it ended up reminding me of this quote:


"And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply PREVAIL. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave..."


Yes, I did just take a beautifully profound statement about socio-political consciousness and apply it to a sport. Bear with me. Because if you've ever been to a Rice baseball game, maybe you understand the point I'm trying to get across. The very energy that binds an idealistic generation to notions of love, peace, and understanding also flows through the crowd in the stands, washing over the field and players. No matter how many errors we make or how many points we're down-- you never lose that feeling that winning is inevitable. I think it's because somewhere along the line, we're taught that it's the thought that counts. Or maybe we're just naively narcissistic. Whatever the case, we're riding that wave.

Hunter S. Thompson would probably punch me in the face for using his words in that context (good thing I'm into pain, eh?). But I think he would have to agree, that under the circumstances, I'm allowed to say lots of stupid pseudo-deep shit because zomg RICE WON AND WE'RE GOING TO OMAHA!

But back to the original question-
What's more American than baseball, you ask?
DESTROYING STUFF.
(What would Jesus blend? That is the question)

Last but not least, I have deemed this the official Rice Baseball song:

Good luck, guys!
Post pending.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Not another Baseball post

I'm going to keep this short and sweet to keep myself from getting repetitive with these baseball posts with these baseball posts.* Thanks to Daniel for getting me supah saweeet tickets to the sold out game!
Super Regionals
Rice vs. Texas A&M
GAME 1
OBSERVATIONS:

1)
Cole St. Claire is a motherfucking BEAST.
aMAZing job pitching. And I love the wind-up kick. :D

b) Quality over Quantity anyday.
The sections were pretty well separated by affiliation. However, one Rice man somehow managed to infiltrate and survive the A&M section behind third base. It was really cute to see a lone cheerleader emerge from the mob of people to cheer when Rice scored 3 (count it!) runs leaving us with the final score of 9-6 . I guess the picture doesn't show it as well as I would have liked. Just take my word for it, it was cute.



iii) Little kids are funny.
My little sister called me in the middle of the game and asked where I was. When I told her, this is the conversation that followed:

Her: Wait, which one is baseball?
Me: ...What do you mean?

Her: Oh! Is that the one with the baseball bat and you hit the thing?

Me: Uhm... Yes.
Her: Oh yea, I remember! I always get my sports confused.

uh- huh. Riiiiiiight.
RICE WINS AGAIN!

*It's okay, I laughed enough for the both of us.

Friday, June 6, 2008

IS FRIDAY!

Nothing worth updating yet.
So here's a picture.
And a song.



Now all you need is a strobe light.