February 28th, 2002 08:50 hours CST currently listening to: "Taste" by RIDE

There's no updates this week folks. I'm jetting off to a tropical island for the week. I need a vacation badly and this one comes just in the nick of time. Whatever the hell that means. I'm about o have a four alarm breakdown and I need some sun on my pale skin. Oh ho am I kidding? I burn faster than flash paper. I have auburn hair and freckled skin. That's a personal recipe for death, if you ask me. But regardless, I'm coming back on the 9th, kinda late at night. Sunday I'll hopefully have my pics up and a huge update about all the naked island chicks that didn't give me a massage while feeding me rum drinks. Take care. I'll be back before you know it.

February 26th, 2002 08:50 hours CST currently listening to: "Rolling Thunder" by RIDE

Words cannot describe how fantastic I feel right now.

February 25th, 2002 08:50 hours CST currently listening to: "Ri" by airiel

Had an interesting weekend. Friday I stayed in and finally started playing Final Fantasy X. My social skills must suck by now. Can't help it though. It's a fantastic game. Saturday I had to go into work around 10:00. Dave and I moved a server cabinet with 2 servers and external arrays, one monitor, and two giant UPS units to the other end of the office. This cabinet had been in a closet almost all on it's own, because we have heat issues in the office during the summer. Anyway, it was hard work and a lot of grunting was involved. Then I went to the gym for even more grunting. I met up with a guy named Chris, who for all intents and purposes will most likely be airiel's new bass player. He's a sweet guy who's very easy to talk to. We met up at Pick Me Up over in the Lakeview area and we got along from the start. With any luck, he'll be coming out with me to California to play a couple for shows. We went over to Fuel for a beer and then I went back home to go out to Neo.

I don't think it's likely that I will go to Neo on my own again. It's a little tough on the ego when you really think you look attractive and can't get a single person to dance with you. One drunk girl pinched my ass though, but it didn't go anywhere. It's probably for the best, right? The music was great though. When I walked in they were playing "Cuts You Up" by Peter Murphy, followed by "Pictures of You" by the Cure. Later on they played "Breakfast in Vegas" by Praga Khan, and "Unicorn" by Bell Canto. So, that part didn't suck at least. I was there for close to 3 hours and danced way more than I drank. Also a good thing, I guess. So, anyway, I'm a bit humbled right now. Somebody send me an instant message and show me you care, ok?

Sunday was a good day. Despite being hung over the next morning, I got a great email from Betsy Rockett that made me feel a lot better. About myself, not the hangover. I downed a bowl of cereal and went back to bed for a bit after chatting with Kristen. Then I busted ass and rearranged my apartment. I tore down the dinning room table. Despite the fact that I have really cool place mats now, I just never use that thing. I moved all of my sound gear into the now former dinning room and then placed tons of stuff into the closet that was housing the sound gear. Now I actually will have a recording area where al my stuff is set up 24 hours a day and it's all ready to go. I even put the door back on the closet in the living room and things look nice and roomy in there now. Partially due to my new TV setup and the cool modular thingies I got from Target. I was also doing a ton of laundry during all this. It was about 60 degrees that day, so I open all the windows in the place and it was wonderful. As nice as that weather was, this winter has been completely lame by my standards. Rachel and I were going to go to club lucky but we both decided it would be better to stay in. So I cooked up a Frechetta in the oven and pigged out. I figured I deserved it, since I kicked so much ass that day and was snubbed so heavily the night before. Eh. So what if I'm not fully goth anymore? So what if I never really was ever fully goth? You're all secretly just a bunch of Ramstein fans anyway. I shun you all. Pttthhhhpppptthh!!!!!

There. I feel better now

February 22nd, 2002 13:15 hours CST currently listening to: "Friday I'm In Love (strangelove mix)" by The Cure

Had a good time last night. Met with several people from work and some others at Delilah's, which is right across the street from where I get my hair cut. In fact, the owner of Sine Qua Non Salon came in with her husband. They were really sweet. He asked me what kind of hair goop I use and we got on this great conversation about hair goop preferences.

They were showing some black and white foreign movie on the monitors. Then they switched to some old Russ Meyer film. That rocked. Cheesy 70's soft porn with the biggest tits you've ever seen. How fantastic for a bar. Ahem. Anyway. We all talked about tons of stuff. It just felt good to get out and drink with people. Kim and I blabbed about the Olympics. Personally, I think we talked about how much we love Michelle Kwan too much and we jinxed her. Sorry!!! DJ was in good form. Singing his own personal rap versions of church hymns. We found a great add in one of the local papers for Syphilis. It was a picture of a guys torso, and then you realized that there was the top of someone's head at the bottom of the picture. Adds with BJ's are so cool.

A lot of crazy stuff happened this week. I purchased an all new entertainment center contraption from Target that I now love. I did a super piss poor job of drilling holes in the back for the wires of my components. I need to take everything out and make new ones. I've got a couple of wires that get pulled out when I pull my surround sound receiver out. That's not good. Christian and Linsey helped me pick up my brand spankin' new Sony Wega 27" TV on Wednesday night. It's the bomb. and I never use that phrase. The s-video from my PS2 makes things look noticeably better. Too bad my VCR's aren't s-video capable. I'll have to accept that my porn will be lo-res until I start buying it on DVD. Ahem.

I've got so much to do this weekend. I have to come in to work tomorrow morning to help Dave move one of our servers into the server room. It's in it's own little closet right now. Hopefully I'll have time to make it to the gym before I go downtown to the office. I have to buy a new wetsuit at some point this weekend. I'm going to Bonaire again in a week with my family to go diving. Apparently the water is a bit cooler than usual, and I need to get a thicker suit.

I've also got to tear down my dinning room table and get it down to the basement of my building. Now that I have tons of cardboard to wrap the glass table top in, it shouldn't be a big deal. Hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed though. I don't want to be sweeping up glass all day long from the back stairwell of my apartment. Once I get that done I can set up my recording gear in the former dinning room and finally get my shit together since I just bought a huge freaking TV, I'll have to wait a while before I can buy a good set of monitors. I'll have to start sniffing around e-bay.

Sigh. I want to move to Seattle.

February 20th, 2002 08:40 hours CST currently listening to: "Gloscien" by Lovesliescrushing

Oh my god. David Hayes, from Sonic Syrup Records, sent me a copy of the new Lovesliescrshing album. Scott Cortez has done it again. I'm absolutely in a state of pure bliss right now. This is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard in my life. If I don't get some recording done after listening to this I'll just have to shoot myself.

An on an interesting note, I stumbled across a girl I met over at the house of three Chris's a while back. Her name is Amanda. You might remember her from the July, 2001 journals. She was the one drunk out of her mind and wearing those fantastic black and white striped stockings. She signed my guestbook and I went to check out her journal. She has this gorgeous picture on there with her wet hair and it's all saturated in blue. It fits the first track off the new Lovesliescrushing album perfectly. Captures the emotion exactly.

February 18th, 2002 08:35 hours CST currently listening to: "Stone Me" by Wire Train

Had a neato weekend. Friday i did absolutely nothing. Didn't even make it out to Neo despite the urge I have right now to wear some leather and dance my ass off to some good wholesome goth music. Oh well. Saturday was mostly me cleaning up my apartment and running errands. All I have to say is that Swifer and Swifer Wet are the two greatest inventions of the 21st century. So far, anyway.

Rachel found a new apartment but is still sorta homeless right now since getting kicked out of her old place by one of her roommates. I had to drive out to Oak Park to pick her up. I drove past the Mars/M&M factory! That's too cool. Rachel says that the entire area smells like chocolate during the summer. Can't wait. I made a serious amount of french toast when we got to my place and we just camped out on my couch for the evening. She passed out around 1:00 and kept lamenting at how lame she was. Here I was thinking about how I haven't left my apartment except to go to work and to the grocery store in a bout 2 months. Eh. Whatever.

Sunday I went to work out and came home 10 minutes late. Otherwise I would have seen a naked Rachel prancing about my apartment. Such is life. We drove down to this crazy little kitch shop right by Lula Cafe. They had these fantastic Betty Page wallets but the woman who runs the place wanted close to $40 for them. Gee whiz. She knows people will buy them at those prices too. It's gonna be Wicker Park all over again. We had lunch at Lula and Rachel kept trying to get me to talk to the the uber hot waitress who, and even I will admit this, was actually making eyes at me. Had it not been a restaurant setting, I think I would have put on the charm. I'm such a chicken. Rachel also made a good comment on how it's impossible to hold a conversation in that place due to all the rubbernecking that occurs with the 8 billion gorgeous people in there. Unless of course, you happen to be talking about those people. And that's easy to do.

We vectored off towards Schaumberg and went to IKEA. I'm buying a new TV this weekend and I unfortunately have to get a new entertainment center since the fantastic one that I got from IKEA won't hold up to the weight load. This TV is a 27" Sony Wega, but it weighs 99 freaking pounds. So, alas, I have to get rid of my Timra unit and go for something else. Nothing really struck me as cool, but the ones that got close could only hold 110 pounds, which wouldn't work due to my stereo components. Rachel was like a kid in a candy store. She found a whole slew of cool items for her new studio that she moves into this weekend. All I bought was a big bag of tea lights (you can never have too many), some cool white cube candles with a groovy blue circle in them, and some fantastic flat, glass squares that are going to go in my bedroom above my computers.

I drove Rachel back home via 290 and we bounced the entire way while listening to the jesus and mary chain. If we ever took a road trip together we would fly off the road due to all the dancing going on. Anyway. So I was still without an entertainment center substitute, so I went to Target to check out what they had to offer. I simply don't like what most people consider and entertainment center. Some hulking monolith with glass doors and really shitty looking wood is just repulsive to me. Like "behold! my TV and stereo reside here!" kinda thing. Blech. But I did find something pretty cool. These modular, cube-like things that may work. I bought a whole bunch. They aren't supposed to support a lot of weight, but I think if I combine them (they're designed to interlock), it should provide enough support. Oh yeah, the smaller cubes hold LP's!!

I was only up until midnight last night but it felt like 4 AM. I was putting together several airiel CD's to ship to various people around the planet. I'm purposely not going to the gym tonight so that I can finish the living room stuff, and the dinning room. Per Rachel's suggestion, I'm just going to dismantle my dinning room table and place it in storage in the basement. It's a beautiful table, and I now have really cool placemats and stuff, but I simply never use it and I need the space for my sound gear. I'm sick and tired of having to set up everything when I record. I want a studio again and this will be it.

February 15th, 2002 11:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Jumping Someone Else's Train" by The Cure

You know what bugs me? When people leave their webcams on, pointed at their bed while they're sleeping. Who cares? Nobody should be so fixated on you that you have to reenact "The Truman Show" for the entire internet community. Unless you're naked, masturbating, or having sex, turn the stupid thing off. Get on with the fucking. That's what I say. Do people actual sit at their monitors saying "oh she's such an angel. wait, that's just a pillow. wait! I see her hair. awwwwwwwwwww." What the hell, people? Go watch some porn and get something done.

February 14th, 2002 16:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Ri" by airiel

So I walked into the bathroom a little a while ago and looked down and noticed that had no belt on. And for a split second I wondered if someone had stolen it.

February 11th, 2002 14:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Watch Me" by Slowdive

This weekend was kinda weird. Got to hang out with Jeff and Kim over at their place on Friday night. Frozen pizza and beer. I can always count on those two to appease my personal hunger demons. We watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics and then we watched the "Fast and the Furious" video that I snagged from a video store. Oh jesus did that suck. But Michelle Rodriguez is oh so hot. Anyway. This time when I left their place I didn't have dog shit crammed into the drivers side handle of my car. So I must being doing something right. Saturday I did nothing. I watched "Office Space" and it inspired me to be utterly lazy. I did manage to clean up the living room and my bedroom, however. In between 2-3 hour sessions of Grand Theft Auto 3. That game is far too addictive to be good for you. But who cares. Sunday I had to go into the office. I ended up taking some pictures for Betsey Rockett. Not sure if I'll put them up. Not that I'm shy mind you, I just miss my abs the way they used to look before the holidays. Sigh.

I went to a massage therapist in Lakeview to work on my right shoulder. Somehow about 2 weeks ago I really messed up my back. Don't know how, but I did. And it gets so bad towards the end of the day that I almost can't move. So I went to this place called Neck and Shoulders, and plopped down 50 bucks for a 45 minute session of pure physical discomfort. I've never responded well to aggressive back or shoulder rubs. Couple that with some freaky positions taken out of the Kama Sutra and then you can picture me. Wearing nothing but jeans and a look of a scared child on my face. Really, it wasn't all that bad, but there were a few moments where I was honestly close to tears. Because of the pain. I ended up icing my back for close to three hours last night. That's why I wasn't responding to any IM's or emails until much later. Sorry folks. Now my back is still in pain and is also really stiff. I'm not sure if the pain is the same simply due to the swelling. I need a nurse. A young, attractive, nurse. Ahem. Anyway.

February 8th, 2002 13:35 hours CST currently listening to: "Half-life Remembered" by the Pale Saints

I am Peter Gibbons from Office Space. Take the test and find out who you were.

February 7th, 2002 09:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Nothing Natural" by LUSH

I find it amazingly cool that I can go ice skating during my lunch break. Rachel and I met up at the little rink right next to our offices. It was the perfect temperature, but the sun on the ice was blinding. We went to the little food court underneath Marshal Fields for lunch. I had some sushi and she got what I refer to as the Jeff Moore Brown Plate: chicken pot pie, macaroni and cheese, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh how I hate lactose tolerant people. Not that I hate Rachel, but you all know what I'm talking about. The sushi had me a bit worried because all of the packages said 2/6/02 on them. I was a little worried, seeing as how that was today's date and that they might have been sitting out for who knows how long. But then I realized that was just because they were MADE THAT DAY and they would have to be thrown out that night. Anyway. I'm still alive. So, all is good.

Had a kind of weird experience at the grocery the other night. I went to my Dominick's again, this time searching for some fat free frozen yogurt. Out of the 10 things I looked at, every single brand and flavor had at least one milk product in it. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of having it be frozen yogurt? To me it should say "Ice cream with some yogurt in it" because that's really what it is. Jeff told me to go to Whole Foods and Kim told me to go to the Jewel that's right next to my Dominick's. We'll see what I can find. I've been craving some sort of ice cream-like desert for weeks now.

February 5th, 2002 10:10 hours CST currently listening to: "Chinese Burn (headcase medipack mix)" by Curve

I wrote a journal entree on my iPAQ wile on the plane to Atlanta on Friday:

--2/1/02 journal from plane (flight 31, Airtran)
-7:00 flight left at 10:20
-clear sky with moon on my (port) side
-moon reflection on city below
-good hair day. Should have taken pictures for Rianon. (I looked hot, dammit)
-moonlight on clouds below reminds me of a scene from Dragonslayer. Sort of foamy water with tiny candle lights within it. February 4th, 2002 09:45 hours CST currently listening to: "Onion Flower" by Medicine

Oh big fat surprise on THIS one. Wait..... shit, I thought I'd turn out to be Jane. God dammit.

February 1st, 2002 10:40 hours CST currently listening to: "Halo" by The Cure

My day has kind of sucked so far. Not sure why. I'm just in a crappy mood. My back has been hurting since yesterday.

I went ice skating with Rachel on Wednesday night. It was perfect. There is this new outdoor rink right up the street from my office right on Michigan Ave. It's kind of small, but who cares? It's free, unless you need to rent skates, which Rachel said was only $3. I finally got to skate in Chicago. I didn't get to skate at all last winter. None of the people I was hanging out with knew how to and they were simply too macho to try it. I can understand that, I guess. Not that you'd ever guess it by looking at me, but I played ice hockey from the 5th grade through my senior year of high school. I missed being on the ice. That's about all I miss, however.

The snow was coming down pretty hard. It was really pretty, except when you were facing south. Then it just went right into your eyes. I got a couple of pictures of Rachel, but they didn't turn out very well. Oh well. We ended up going to Lula for dinner, which she had never been to before. I got her to order my beloved roasted turkey sandwich and she went nuts over it. We both went grocery shopping and then went our separate ways. The snow is so fantastic. Still not as much as last winter, but I will welcome it with open arms regardless.