January 30th, 2001 14:05 hours CST currently listening to: "X-track - plan 94" by Paul Van Dyk

I am a Thrust-ship. I am small and tricky - where you think I am, I probably am not. I can work very fast, but I tend to go about things in a round about way, which often leaves me effectively standing still. I hate rocks. Bloody rocks. What Video Game Character Are You?

January 29th, 2001 10:05 hours CST currently listening to: "You Tear The World In Two" by The Pale Saints

I went to the dentist office again today. This time to have them work on the filling they just worked on yesterday. It felt like I was biting on a rock. There was just too much of the filling material and Deaver drilled it down without having to use any anesthetic as all. The guy is damn good. On my way back I checked out the ice rink where Rachel and I are gonna go tomorrow night. It's right on Michigan Ave by our offices! It's supposed to snow tomorrow too. Rock.

I couldn't really decide what to do for lunch so I just went to subway. There was this guy in front of me yammering into his cell phone about work. Actually, it was in radio mode, which I hate. Completely pointless. It's just so that the people around him will think he's more important than he really is. So, he orders a foot long, roasted chicken sub. Then, when he gets to the counter he tells them it's a foot long TURKEY, which is about $1.20 cheaper. What a fucking asshole. Yet another person who should be set on fire.

January 28th, 2001 13:15 hours CST currently listening to: "Belle Chasse" by The Sunflower Conspiracy

For starters, I'd like to make a complaint. I don't know who's dicks at FOX these NFL assholes are sucking, but I'm sick and fucking tired of seeing no Futurama or King of the Hill episodes because of these guys. Fuck the NFL. Fuck football right in the face. Get it off my TV. They aired everything 15 minutes late and because I time my VCR to record all the stuff, I missed the end of the X-Files. Drop these people in a vat of their own filth and leave them there to stew for about a week or so to think about what they've done. Bunch of redneck assholes.

Ahem. I feel better now.

Crazy weekend. Very fun. Friday night was my company's winter party. It was at the House of Blues. Free food. Free booze. All good. I took my dear friend Marissa, who I never get to see these days. We had a blast. My office is fun drunk. The vodka tonics flowed like wine. The wine, I was told, was terrible. She and I ended up jetting around 10:30 to go to Joe's Crab Shack for her friends birthday party. Her friends are all freaks. It was fabulous. I don't remember any names, but there were several gay couples and at one point they ALL sang along to A-Ha's "Take On Me". It was a good time.

Saturday I did absolutely NOTHING. Apart from play Grand Theft Auto 3 all day long. I didn't even make it to the gym, which was just stupid. I made a point to eat well though. Egg whites for lunch, and stir fried veggies with no rice for dinner. Diets suck. But sitting on my ass and playing video games all day made me forget about all that.

Sunday morning I picked up Jeff and Kim and we drove north to Evanston. We ate breakfast at Clarks and then walked around for a bit. We saw the 12:15 showing of Lord Of The Rings. Our 2nd time seeing it. I love that theater up there. It's new, and clean, and really inexpensive when compared to Chicago. The tickets were only $5.50 a piece. There were too many damn kids in the theater though. I wanted to throttle the two little fuckers behind us to our right. One of them had just read the books and insisted on filling in his friend on EVERYTHING. They were about 11 years old or something. Old enough to be set on fire.

We walked by the lake in the freakishly warm weather. It was beautiful out, but god dammit. It's January! I need snow!!! Oh well. We walked through Northwestern's campus and we all commented on how much it reminded us of our times back at I.U.. We watched a whole bunch of ducks being fed and people were walking their dogs and riding bikes. Very pleasant. We went to a great little restaurant called the Heartland Cafe. Jeff and I both got this poached Salmon dish that we loved. Mmmmmmmmmm cornbread muffins...... After I got home I realized that I smelled like food. I hate that.

Another funny thing that happened while the three of us were walking around before the movie, was that we were thinking of a great store that used to be in Bloomington in the mid '90's. They sold great import cd's and records and had these ultra huge posters of bands like The Cure, the Stone Roses, RIDE, and Lush. Those of you who have seen my apartment know what I'm talking about. None of us could remember the name and it was driving me absolutely mad. I had it on the tip of my tongue. This was at around 11:45 in the morning. It wasn't until close to 7:00 that night that I remembered what it was. Ozarkha's. It was such a relief!! What a great shop. I miss it so.

January 25th, 2001 10:10 hours CST currently listening to: "Your Street Is Dark" by Brittle Stars

I found a CDR of a recording session of my old band, Black Olive. I put some mp3's up for you all. They won't stay there forever though. You can get them RIGHT HERE.

January 24th, 2001 09:10 hours CST currently listening to: "One" by The Dandy Warhols

Oh my god my neck is so sore. Rachel sprung Charlatans UK tickets on me Tuesday. I had forgotten completely that they were coming through here. I haven't kept up with them because, frankly, when their 4th LP came out, I'd lost interest. They just don't have the danceable energy that they had during the big Manchester scene in the early 90's. But, I dig Rachel a lot and I wasn't about to pass up on this show. We grabbed nummy Chinese over at Papa Jin in Wicker Park and then high tailed it back home to get dressed up. Those pinstripe pants I have just weren't clicking with me, so I went for my black leather pants instead.

Now, what I put on next goes against the taboo of live band performance. A lot of people like to frown upon the guy who goes to a show already wearing a t-shirt of the band that is playing. But I gotta tell ya, people loved my shirt. I got this Charlatans t-shirt back in '91 (the golden age, if you ask me) and it kicks too much ass. I never used to wear it because it always was too small for me. Thankfully these days small things it me now.

The first band was called Star Sailor or something. According to Rachel and Rolling Stone, these guys are supposed to be the next big thing. I'm really not sure why. I thought they were boring and passé. But that's just me. We made it down to the front of the Vic Theater when our boys started to play. The crowd outright sucked. I don't know why it is that when Rachel and I go out to places, we're the only rockin' people there. Nobody danced. They just stood there looking grumpy holding their cigarettes and beer. Anyway. The Charlatans played a good show. They actually played stuff off of their first two albums to which I was a) very surprised and b) went completely nuts over. They played "They Only One I Know", "Sproston Green" and "Weirdo". People, I tell you, I was a mass of flailing arms. My neck is killing me because of it. I have this video tape of them that came out to compliment "Some Friendly" and Tim Burgess does this head bob thing that I completely loved. So, I do that all the time when I dance. And now I'm paying for it. Ouchy.

The night ended off on a severe down note. As we left the Vic, somebody said to us that the bands were going to be at Smart Bar after the show in just a few minutes. So, we got in my car and went over there. We got to the door and Rachel had her fake ID taken away!!! I felt so bad. At one point in the car on the way home she was almost in tears. She has no friends that are under 21 and they all get together at bars and clubs. It's not even the alcohol aspect. It's the venue. She has 9 more months before she turns 21. That absolutely sucked.

January 21st, 2001 11:36 hours CST currently listening to: "How Can I Apply?" by Trash Can Sinatras

Weekend was good, but too short. I still need another day to sleep in. Stayed in on Friday night and did the pizza and a movie thing. Antisocial as ever. Saturday I managed to get 95% (estimated) of the dog shit out of the handle of my car. I can believe how much got crammed into that thing. Ick. Saw a wonderful car wreck outside the parking lot of the grocery store I went to. SUV vs. SUV. One was pulling out of the parking lot of the new Jewel across the street from my Dominicks and the other just rammed right into it, all the while laying on the horn. It was if one driver was shouting "hell asshole! I'm going to ram into you now!" vicariously through his horn. The horn even made a goose-like squawk when he hit. It was grand.

Went with Christian and Linsey to see Brotherhood Of The Wolf on Saturday night. I honestly didn't know much about this movie except for what I'd seen in the two trailers that I managed to catch. It's all in French, with English subtitles (just the way I like my foreign films) and it has some really fantastic cinematography. Interesting characters, and wonderful music. The pacing of the movie makes it drag out a little bit, but it's definitely worth a look. Linsey slept through 85% of the movie.

Sunday was nice and laid back. Got to the gym. Tried to meet up with Meghan, who might be playing bass for airiel (some day). I finally got out the Alesis SR-16 that I got off of Ebay a couple weeks ago. I nearly had a heart attack when I tried to plug in some patch chords to the main outs. There was something jammed deep inside the left main out and it took me two hours to get it out. Thank the stars I have a bunch of really tiny screwdrivers for fixing computers. It was the tip of a quarter inch patch chord head. Ugh. But, the good thing is that the thing works pretty damn well. The pot for the volume knob is a bit dirty, so it scratches a bit, but I'm not going to do real time volume changes from the drum machine itself anyway. Since my other SR-16 is full I haven't been doing any drum programming at all and was impressed at how easily it all came back to me.

This Sunday night football bullshit has to end. Period. I want my fucking Futurama!!!!

January 18th, 2001 10:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Cities In Dust" by Sioxsie and the Banshees

Had a rather interesting night last night. I finally got my haircut, which was long overdue. I think I lost 5 pounds of hair. Anyway. Afterwards I went over to Jeff and Kim's to hang out with Kim and do laundry. She made us a spinach salad and a Freschetta 4-cheese pizza. Christ, those things are good. We watched ER, and then my American Pie 2 DVD. I moronically bought the full screen version by mistake. I need to return it today to get the better (widescreen) version. Everything was going great. Kim and I don't hang out a lot anymore, and we got to catch up a bit. So, I got all my laundry and hugged her goodbye. Went out to my car and discovered that somebody had smeared dog shit all over the handle of my driver side door. I thought at first that it was ice, so I was stabbing it with my finger. It was actually frozen, and I couldn't get the door open. When I leaned down to look at at it, I noticed the smell and damn near went Grand Theft Auto on the entire neighborhood. Throw grenade first, ask questions later. I went back inside to wash my hands, and then climbed in via the front passenger side door. What pain in the ass. Atl east I think it was dog shit. I t was most definitely shit, anyway.

January 17th, 2001 08:20 hours CST currently listening to: "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" by St. Etienne

It looks like I'm not going to make it to Atlanta this weekend to see Kristen. At first it was because I didn't buy tickets early enough so that they were still cheap. So we waited, because Airtran's ticket prices sometimes fluctuate wildly. They didn't. They only got worse. So now it's a matter of me simply not having enough money in to buy them at all. And I even get paid on Monday. This sucks. I'm going to try my best not to mope around and actually get some recording done. Maybe I'll go to a strip club.

I spoke with Xio, Deb, and Rianaon last night. I love them all so. Ri sent me this St. Etienne song yesterday that I simply cannot stop listening to. The really funny thing is that, even though I've never met her, I can completely picture Ri dancing to this song. It's absolutely weird. I can't even describe it, but I have a very clear picture in my head. Crazy.

I get to hang out with Kim tonight. She's my best friend, and I see her about once a damn month. That really sucks, and needs to change. It's all about free laundry, Freschetta 4 Cheese pizza, and watching ER. Let the good times roll.

A couple of years ago I burned a CD with all of the tracks off of the three singles that came out for Wish by the Cure. That very well may be my favorite album of there's, with Disintegration and Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me coming in right on it's heels. I brought that disc into work with me and made the tracks into mp3's. I ended up giving them to Lil' Mis Rockett and she flipped. It's fun to do that. Just suddenly give somebody something completely out of the blew. I did that with Xio, Deb, and Rianon too. I think I increased Ri's Stone Roses collection 10 fold. Hooray for me! Or something.

On a weird note, is it me or did Gillian Anderson look absolutely amazing in Season 4?

January 16th, 2001 09:50 hours CST currently listening to: "High (higher remix)" by The Cure

I went to see the Royal Tenenbaums last night with Rachel. I don't think there could have been a better person to go see that movie with, and she said the same thing last night. I (we) absolutely adore Wes Anderson as a writer/director and he is now ranking up in my top 5. We didn't stop laughing until I dropped her off at her apartment. It was that good. I'm still smitten about it.

I REALLY need a haircut. I can't remember the last time I was this shaggy. I can't even pull off my Morrissey look today. Life is hard! ;) I'm supposed to go lunch with Linsey today. I've hardly seen her or Christian since before the holidays. I need a nap.

January 14th, 2001 11:02 hours CST currently listening to: "Blue Skie'd an Clear" by Slowdive

This is how cool my girlfriend is: Last night I left a message on her voicemail, just to say hi and to tell her that I was stuck on this sniping mission in Grand Theft Auto III. She called back from the bathroom of where she works to tell me how to get past it. Can you believe that? I mean, how cool.

January 11th, 2001 13:20 hours CST currently listening to: "In Your Room (full version)" by airiel

Satan, thy name is Taco Fresco. Good lord I feel like hell. I've just hit my onion quota for 2003. Bleh.

January 9th, 2001 11:10 hours CST currently listening to: "It's Not For You" by Slowdive

For some reason, I feel all jittery. It's like I'm on caffeine or something. I don't know what it is, but I'm very awake. I was reading a book while on the train this morning and came access something really sad. I won't say what, because you'll think I'm a freak, but still, I found myself getting misty on my walk from the Monroe stop to my office. It was weird. I must be PMSing or something.

I got completely frustrated with MGS 2 last night. I've already played through it one the easy mode, and am now playing it again on normal mode, getting all those damn dog tags that I didn't realize you could get the first time through. Anyway, and I'm really flying my geek flag here, but you have to fight the final fight with this god damn sword. Throughout the entire game you're using guns, or grenades and such. And then for the last two damn levels of this game, including the final boss fight, you have to use this weapon that you have absolutely no experience with and can't wield easily at all. It pisses me off. Grraaaahhhh.

Looks like Scott Cortez of Lovesliescrushing and Astrobrite fame is coming over to my place on Sunday to play Grand Theft Auto 3. I'm tickled pink. I spoke with him on the phone out of the blue last Friday. Poor guy had to sell a shitload of his gear recently.

We're looking at a release date of April for the In Your Room 7" single. I can't believe that this thing is finally going to come out. It was originally slated for a December '99 release, and the guy who was to put it out simply stopped returning my calls. It was rather disappointing, to say the least. Go to Sonic Syrup Records to read more about the label. They're just about to release the new Lovesliescrushing album. It should all be very cool.

Speaking of releases, have you guys seen the new iMAC? I'm very confused. I actually think the design aesthetic is rather cool. I really feel that computers as a whole need to be revamped physically to keep them fresh looking. That's a big portion of the reason why I'm liking Windows XP so much, because it looks little like the older OS versions. But they only have three models; two of them only running at 700mHz and one at 800mHz. What the hell is that about? They must be just trying to save money or something. Maybe I'm not supposed to understand this. You can get processors for PC's that go over 2gHz. That's 2,000mHz compared to 800mHz. Eh? What the hell? But it does look really cool though. Certainly better than those horrible primary colored pieces of shit that came out a few years ago, which I secretly think spawned the manufacture of the new Volkswagen Beetle. But that's just me thinking out loud I guess.

January 6th, 2001 21:20 hours CST currently listening to: "I Saw The Sun" by Slowdive

Ok, so I haven't been updating recently. I'm sorry you guys. The holidays kind of throw a wrench in the gears. You understand, I'm sure. Hell, none of you are updating your pages either. So there. Nnnnneeeeaaaaa.

The holidays were good. I'm trying to catch up on all the damn games I have now. I've played through Metal Gear Solid 2 once already now, and I'm in the middle of it again. I love this game. Final Fantasy X will get my full attention once I'm done. After that, it's Shadow Hearts, then Grand Theft Auto III, then Tony Hawk 3, then Batman: Vengeance, then Gran Turismo 3. Phew. There are not enough hours in a day.

I saw one of the most fantastic plays ever a week ago. It's called "Sci-fi Action Movie In Space Prison." You really have to see it to get the full understanding of the play. It pokes fun at action movies, sc-fi, Kabuki theater, and best of all...... prison movies involving gay inmate sex. It rocked. It was on a friday night, and the night before a bunch of us were at Diversey River Bowl. The smoke was thick as hell and I came to work the next day feeling like total shit. I developed a sore throat, and had I not already purchased a ticket for SFAMISP I would have stayed home and gone to bed. But I'm glad I went. It was absolutely worth it. I'm gonna try to get some people together to see it again.

Well, the sore throat worsened, and despite my best efforts to wipe it out by restricting my activities to nothing but sitting in front of my TV, reeking of panda love, I mean Playstation 2 love, it just wouldn't go away. Kristen arrived at the airport on Monday, luckily with a cold of her own. I mean, yeah that sucks, but at least we would both feel shitty at the same time as opposed to just me, and then her getting sick when she got home. We went to Jeff and Kim's place around 10:30 or so. DJ was there and he was already making me laugh just by seeing the condition of the shirt he was wearing. He had burned a whole in the left sleeve when he was reaching over a candle to get his drink. Silly little Irish boy.

Speaking of burning holes in things. I found out why my electric mattress pad stopped working on one side. The dam thing shorted out and burned a quarter sized holes in itself, my other mattress pad, and the fucking mattress itself. People, my apartment could have been burned to the ground. That thing was really damn old anyway. It came with the bed, which belonged to my parents. I now have a new one, but damn, there's a reason why you get renter's insurance.

Anyway, the 5 of us went to DJ's and met up with a few more people, one of whom happened to be from SFAMISP. I'd met him, oddly enough, at DJ's new year's eve party last year. It wasn't a big affair, but then that was the idea. We're all old and tired. Once I get over this damn cold I'm going to make a conscious effort to stay up late and be bad again. I'm rubbing off on Kristen. She doesn't even drink anymore. Well that's all gotta change! Tomorrow. Whatever.

I went to Lord of the Rings last night with Christian and Linsey. I hadn't seen them in weeks. I missed them. It was such an outstanding movie. Hopefully Gorge Lucas will take some notes. Jeff and Kim want to see it again, so I may go this week. Rachel and I will hopefully go see the Royal Tenebaums this weekend as well. I can't wait for that one. Wes Anderson is one of my favorite writer/directors ever.

Um, I think that petty much brings us up to date. I realize that I'm a whinny bitch when I'm sick. I felt bad for Kristen, having to put up with me through all of that. Her flight was supposed to leave around 8:30 on Thursday morning, but due to all the snow in Atlanta, it was pushed back. Atlanta handles snow about as well as a reformed drug addict handles a Grateful Dead show. Badly. We got up at 5 AM and check the airtran website to see if her flight was still on time. It had been pushed back to 11:30, so we went back to bed. At 9:00 or so we checked it again and it still said 11:30. When we got to Midway all of the morning flights to Atlanta had been cancelled and there was a 70 yard line to the airtran ticket counter. While we were in line we managed to get her another flight at 9 PM the next night. So, she was actually here from Monday until Friday. That's the longest we've ever spent together and we were both sick. How fun. Oh yeah, I got the webcam up and running again and it's also on the cams page for makeoutclub. Later.