I was dead at the time
That's my excuse for not posting as often as you'd like. That's right some people actually complain that I DON'T WRITE OFTEN ENOUGH! Which mean some people READ THIS! Huzzah, break out the Frambois Lambic. Well to be honest, it's been so long I don't even remember what i've done since my near miss with the NYPD for exposing my hairy legs. I guess you'll just have to cope with a gaping void in my life. But like I said, I was probably dead at the time, so nothing happened.
One thing I do remember is going to yet another Brandi Carlile concert in Phillidelphia. It just might have been her best yet. I spent the day with Susan, wandering around her city and getting lost even though she'd lived there for nearly half a year now. Then we met up with Gabby and picked up Susan's mom at the airport. Apparantly Susan's family trains seeing eye dogs and she brought one with her on the plane. I had no idea how many friends you can make by just having a dog with you at all times. While we were waiting for her luggage at the carousel, at least 67 people came up and talked to her, seeming to have already met her on teh flight. Seriously, she was being invited to everything from dinner parties to college keggers. I need to get me a seeing eye dog. Anyway, Gabby and I went to the concert, which was in the same venue as the last time but were surprised to find that they had taken out all of the seats and tables. Apparantly Brandi had sold way more tickets than they had ever expected. So we stood. We also looked around at the other people who had gotten there early and noticed that 95% of them were 16 year old girls. Now Brandi may Webster's definition of "the shit" but her demographic is certainly not teeny bopper barbie girls. So Gabby and I took one look at all of them and made our way to the satelite bar next to teh stage, where we knew full well that the kiddies couldn't bother us. We eventually ordered 3 or 4 drinks each and chatted up the hottie bartender who was just as disgusted with the crowd as we were. It turns out the first opening act was some high school heart throb who was on the show "Love Monkey". Well at least I knew Brandi hadn't sold out to MTV's Total Request Live. Still, we had to sit through his standard emo-packed love pop, before the field trip of girls finally disapaited. I think some of them tried to stick around for the next act just to see if it was good. Luckily for us, the nex act was some duo from Kentucky that played nothing but country-folk on a steel guitar and an upright bass that looked like it had done a few rounds with Roger Daltry of The Who. Needless to say, thsi was not the Dashboard Confessional that the teen chicas were hoping for. So by the time Brandi finally came out the place was packed with the right people who normally show at her concerts, with me right up front and center so I can scream and dance like 16 year old barbie girl (kidding). Still, I talked to Tim (lead guitarist) as he set up before she came on and asked if he could snag me the set list after the show. He said it was in the bag. Then brandi comes on and gives the show of her life. It rocks the house in a whole new way since she's got her drummer with her again. The acoustic sets were good, but she was made for harder music than that. So she killed. After the set, someone else reaches on stage and STEALS MY SETLIST. I put another check mark on my number of arch nemises, and waited for Tim to come back out on stage since he'd left his shoes out there. He never showed. But I did get to talk wit hthe drummer for a while and he said he'd save me a setlist at the next show in NYC which I was going to. (sweet). I feel a little better and was able to get a pick so at least I've got something. Gabby and I finally leave and walk into the lobby. It turns out Brandi is there signing things with Phil (bassist). By now most of the crowd is gone and they're just chilling at the table, so we go and chat it up with the two of them. I manage to get pictures with both of them and have them sign a poster that I stole off their table. I also bought one of her new T shirts which I happen to be wearing now. SO all in all, I guess you could say that I like her music. not that I follow her around the country and collect memorabilia or anything ;) Sadly I couldn't make it to the show in NYC so I didn't see them again. I was so angry I turned into the HULK and wrestled the Jolly Green Giant in a cage match.
Other than the concert, I was in a new Improv everywhere event. This one was slightly less exciting than the rest but it's always fun to be a part of these things. We met up in Union Square with a backpack and a cell phone each, and Charlie told us what we were going to be doing. apparantly there was a bookstore about 10 blocks away. They required it's patrons to leave their backpacks at the register where they had a bunch of cubbys. SO the plan was to pair up with people and trade phone numbers. One of the pair would turn their cell phone ring as loud as it would go, and put it in their backpack which would then be put in one of the cubbys. The other person would stay in Times Square and at the given signal, would call the phone. It worked perfectly. I think we got nearly 50 phones ringing at once in teh store. Though Christen and I both opted to stay in Union Square calling people. there's a video and commentary on the improv everywhere website. www.improveverywhere.com.
Lastly, this last weekend was the first trip to Florida that I got to take with my Field Methods class. It was one of the most fun things I've ever taken part in. Mostly becasue the people I flew down with were hilarious and I spent the entire weekend laughing. I had never been to Florida so it was all new to me. Bobby and I spent the majority of the time yelling "God, It's SO hot". My group flew done on Thursday evening after being delayed ON THE PLANE four hours because of needing to be de-iced. Finally we land in Fort Lauderdale around 2:30 and find our crappy motel for the night where we immediatly order pizza. After nearly 2 hours of sleep, we get up the next morning to go visit Florida Atlantic University. THey have more labs than you can shake a stick at. Seriously. One of the senior girls gave us a tour and showed us the senior design project of building several UAV's (underwater Autonomous Vehicals) and a scaled model of the ship that will run them all. By scaled I mean, the boat was still 40' long. Those are some seriously talented kids. Then we went over to Florida International University to go bug some of Wade's (the professor) old colegues. They took us to a MArdi Gras party across the street and bought us a fair few pitchers of Yuengling before we finally staggered out of there. Finally, we go to South Beach so we can walk up and down the strip as the Professor (Wade) goes and picks up the rest of the class at the airport. We eventually meet up with them and have more drinks outside of Mangoes, which is apparantly the most notorious place to be in South Beach. The waitresses wore kind of a unitard with half the ass missing. Bobby and Leo spent about half an hour trying to discretely photograph this girls ass that was standing about 20 feet away from us using my camera. I looked at the pictures when I got home and all 34 of them are blurry and unrecognizable. I guess they were too excited to operate the camera. Anyway, after another late night we get to bed around 3 or 4 o' clock and get up the next morning at 7:00 so we can be on our way to the everglades. On our way there, we looked for alligators because, well, we're easily amused northerners. We eventually saw 452 of them and lost interest. The day was mostly spent on our party barges wandering the everglades. We looked for a beach to set up our platform on, and attach all our sensor equipment. That done, we tossed it out into open water and went in search of a good place for lunch. We ended up driving nearly out into the open ocean and found a nearly deserted insland where we made sandwiches and swam around. I'm always impressed when ocean water is warm. It somehow seems like a trick, like there's no way it could be anything but ice berg inducing cold. After swimming we went to retriev the platform and found that it had only worked for a few minutes before crapping out on us. I never heard the exact reason why but I'm blaming the car battery that was nearly submerged in water by a barely floating platform. Still, we had fun and went out again that night to Coconut grove. We ate a fancy dinner and bought a lot more drinks all of which were paid for by grant money. (I didn't spend a dime the whole trip). The next day we made a mad rush to the airport. I was almost denyed entry through security because I was carrying two C-clamps in my backpack. Which is really nothing compared to the thing in Bobby;s backpack with looked for all the world like a bomb and a detonator but were actually a YSI sensor for Carbon Monoxide and a wench, respectively. (We were the shadiest looking group EVER). But we all made it through and played the trivia game that the plane offered all the way home. It was a quality trip. I think I'll be going back in early April.
I also took a training course for the SAT. To teach the SAT that is, not take it. I am not certified through Princton Review to teach the SAT to high schoolers the world over. I don't know if I'll be able to pick up a class before I go back to Seattle but it's a good way to make extra cash.
SO that's what I do, go on trips, cause mayhem in bookstores. Oh and I'm going to New Orleans in a couple of days to go help in the clean up effort down there. With luck, I'll be doing wood frame contruction of demolition. Yay demolition! And as for writing more often, I'll only do it if people start responding to my thoughts of the day. You all are the worst converstaionalists in the history of ever. so here is todays:
If Raffi were to start an electronica movement, would he change his name? and if so, would it be controversial to the radical right?
One thing I do remember is going to yet another Brandi Carlile concert in Phillidelphia. It just might have been her best yet. I spent the day with Susan, wandering around her city and getting lost even though she'd lived there for nearly half a year now. Then we met up with Gabby and picked up Susan's mom at the airport. Apparantly Susan's family trains seeing eye dogs and she brought one with her on the plane. I had no idea how many friends you can make by just having a dog with you at all times. While we were waiting for her luggage at the carousel, at least 67 people came up and talked to her, seeming to have already met her on teh flight. Seriously, she was being invited to everything from dinner parties to college keggers. I need to get me a seeing eye dog. Anyway, Gabby and I went to the concert, which was in the same venue as the last time but were surprised to find that they had taken out all of the seats and tables. Apparantly Brandi had sold way more tickets than they had ever expected. So we stood. We also looked around at the other people who had gotten there early and noticed that 95% of them were 16 year old girls. Now Brandi may Webster's definition of "the shit" but her demographic is certainly not teeny bopper barbie girls. So Gabby and I took one look at all of them and made our way to the satelite bar next to teh stage, where we knew full well that the kiddies couldn't bother us. We eventually ordered 3 or 4 drinks each and chatted up the hottie bartender who was just as disgusted with the crowd as we were. It turns out the first opening act was some high school heart throb who was on the show "Love Monkey". Well at least I knew Brandi hadn't sold out to MTV's Total Request Live. Still, we had to sit through his standard emo-packed love pop, before the field trip of girls finally disapaited. I think some of them tried to stick around for the next act just to see if it was good. Luckily for us, the nex act was some duo from Kentucky that played nothing but country-folk on a steel guitar and an upright bass that looked like it had done a few rounds with Roger Daltry of The Who. Needless to say, thsi was not the Dashboard Confessional that the teen chicas were hoping for. So by the time Brandi finally came out the place was packed with the right people who normally show at her concerts, with me right up front and center so I can scream and dance like 16 year old barbie girl (kidding). Still, I talked to Tim (lead guitarist) as he set up before she came on and asked if he could snag me the set list after the show. He said it was in the bag. Then brandi comes on and gives the show of her life. It rocks the house in a whole new way since she's got her drummer with her again. The acoustic sets were good, but she was made for harder music than that. So she killed. After the set, someone else reaches on stage and STEALS MY SETLIST. I put another check mark on my number of arch nemises, and waited for Tim to come back out on stage since he'd left his shoes out there. He never showed. But I did get to talk wit hthe drummer for a while and he said he'd save me a setlist at the next show in NYC which I was going to. (sweet). I feel a little better and was able to get a pick so at least I've got something. Gabby and I finally leave and walk into the lobby. It turns out Brandi is there signing things with Phil (bassist). By now most of the crowd is gone and they're just chilling at the table, so we go and chat it up with the two of them. I manage to get pictures with both of them and have them sign a poster that I stole off their table. I also bought one of her new T shirts which I happen to be wearing now. SO all in all, I guess you could say that I like her music. not that I follow her around the country and collect memorabilia or anything ;) Sadly I couldn't make it to the show in NYC so I didn't see them again. I was so angry I turned into the HULK and wrestled the Jolly Green Giant in a cage match.
Other than the concert, I was in a new Improv everywhere event. This one was slightly less exciting than the rest but it's always fun to be a part of these things. We met up in Union Square with a backpack and a cell phone each, and Charlie told us what we were going to be doing. apparantly there was a bookstore about 10 blocks away. They required it's patrons to leave their backpacks at the register where they had a bunch of cubbys. SO the plan was to pair up with people and trade phone numbers. One of the pair would turn their cell phone ring as loud as it would go, and put it in their backpack which would then be put in one of the cubbys. The other person would stay in Times Square and at the given signal, would call the phone. It worked perfectly. I think we got nearly 50 phones ringing at once in teh store. Though Christen and I both opted to stay in Union Square calling people. there's a video and commentary on the improv everywhere website. www.improveverywhere.com.
Lastly, this last weekend was the first trip to Florida that I got to take with my Field Methods class. It was one of the most fun things I've ever taken part in. Mostly becasue the people I flew down with were hilarious and I spent the entire weekend laughing. I had never been to Florida so it was all new to me. Bobby and I spent the majority of the time yelling "God, It's SO hot". My group flew done on Thursday evening after being delayed ON THE PLANE four hours because of needing to be de-iced. Finally we land in Fort Lauderdale around 2:30 and find our crappy motel for the night where we immediatly order pizza. After nearly 2 hours of sleep, we get up the next morning to go visit Florida Atlantic University. THey have more labs than you can shake a stick at. Seriously. One of the senior girls gave us a tour and showed us the senior design project of building several UAV's (underwater Autonomous Vehicals) and a scaled model of the ship that will run them all. By scaled I mean, the boat was still 40' long. Those are some seriously talented kids. Then we went over to Florida International University to go bug some of Wade's (the professor) old colegues. They took us to a MArdi Gras party across the street and bought us a fair few pitchers of Yuengling before we finally staggered out of there. Finally, we go to South Beach so we can walk up and down the strip as the Professor (Wade) goes and picks up the rest of the class at the airport. We eventually meet up with them and have more drinks outside of Mangoes, which is apparantly the most notorious place to be in South Beach. The waitresses wore kind of a unitard with half the ass missing. Bobby and Leo spent about half an hour trying to discretely photograph this girls ass that was standing about 20 feet away from us using my camera. I looked at the pictures when I got home and all 34 of them are blurry and unrecognizable. I guess they were too excited to operate the camera. Anyway, after another late night we get to bed around 3 or 4 o' clock and get up the next morning at 7:00 so we can be on our way to the everglades. On our way there, we looked for alligators because, well, we're easily amused northerners. We eventually saw 452 of them and lost interest. The day was mostly spent on our party barges wandering the everglades. We looked for a beach to set up our platform on, and attach all our sensor equipment. That done, we tossed it out into open water and went in search of a good place for lunch. We ended up driving nearly out into the open ocean and found a nearly deserted insland where we made sandwiches and swam around. I'm always impressed when ocean water is warm. It somehow seems like a trick, like there's no way it could be anything but ice berg inducing cold. After swimming we went to retriev the platform and found that it had only worked for a few minutes before crapping out on us. I never heard the exact reason why but I'm blaming the car battery that was nearly submerged in water by a barely floating platform. Still, we had fun and went out again that night to Coconut grove. We ate a fancy dinner and bought a lot more drinks all of which were paid for by grant money. (I didn't spend a dime the whole trip). The next day we made a mad rush to the airport. I was almost denyed entry through security because I was carrying two C-clamps in my backpack. Which is really nothing compared to the thing in Bobby;s backpack with looked for all the world like a bomb and a detonator but were actually a YSI sensor for Carbon Monoxide and a wench, respectively. (We were the shadiest looking group EVER). But we all made it through and played the trivia game that the plane offered all the way home. It was a quality trip. I think I'll be going back in early April.
I also took a training course for the SAT. To teach the SAT that is, not take it. I am not certified through Princton Review to teach the SAT to high schoolers the world over. I don't know if I'll be able to pick up a class before I go back to Seattle but it's a good way to make extra cash.
SO that's what I do, go on trips, cause mayhem in bookstores. Oh and I'm going to New Orleans in a couple of days to go help in the clean up effort down there. With luck, I'll be doing wood frame contruction of demolition. Yay demolition! And as for writing more often, I'll only do it if people start responding to my thoughts of the day. You all are the worst converstaionalists in the history of ever. so here is todays:
If Raffi were to start an electronica movement, would he change his name? and if so, would it be controversial to the radical right?