Prosaic Paradise

Since it’s like a spring day, right now I’m airing out the house. I absolutely had to get some fresh air myself, so I also took Jack on a forced march through the neighborhood to get some sun and hopefully remind my body that it has a purpose other than racking with coughs. I always intended to go to the Laurel Museum and since we live within the official historic neighborhood and our house is officially almost as old as the incorporated town, I had always intended to give more support to the Historical Society. We happened to take our walk during Sunday hours so I got to see the museum at last! It was neat, though I was not allowed to take photos inside. So you get cats and the neighborhood.

Tags: pics

Well, I’ve joined the ranks of the sick. I thought it was just residual discomfort from being in a smokey bar, but no. It’s some kind of ick. I was supposed to be in Norfolk meeting Ian for the first time, but since Genie & fam are shrouded in darkness and apparently it’s my turn to be coughing up a lung, the signs from fate were right, and Ian and I will have to meet later.

This also means I’m kind of useless in terms of writing. I’ve been on the couch eliminating every dreg of watchable television from the DVR. (This includes Forensic Files and Ellen.) I try to get up and move around, because inevitably sitting down all day makes me feel even more like hell, but then I just cough more violently.

So, I need some audience participation, and to cheat and get anyone who reads this thing to help me generate content.

On Progressive Ears, I found a thread asking members to post 20 random songs from their entire collection based on whatever the iPod tosses out, no cheating. There was so much I didn’t recognize on these lists I began to feel lost. Combine that with reading more “top albums of the decade” lists than anyone should really pay attention to, and you start to really need a filter. It’s hard to come up with whole albums that are consistently good (as you might see when I write my own decade list) so let’s go with songs.

Tell me the best song you think I’ve never heard.

This might mean avoiding a genre you think I know well, or it might mean skirting pop songs you’re pretty sure everyone’s heard. I’m missing some pretty surprising stuff in my collection. If you give me a song, I’ll download it. If I get enough (let’s say minimum 15), I’ll make a playlist and promise to listen to that playlist for my next week of commutes.

The person who contributes the song I like the best and had no familiarity with gets a gift certificate to Amazon or iTunes.

Or you can talk me into some other music downloading service. Quick, while I’m still delirious! Actually I will take one submission per commenter until the end of Monday. If I have heard the song I’ll let you know and you are welcome to keep trying!

OK while I’m waiting I’m going to go hold my head over a pot of boiling tea.

Tags: Music, survey

I was pretty impressed with the total variety show that Heathenfest was. The Paganfest shows have been more consistent, maybe a little doomy here and a little more folky there. What you get when you follow the intense military precision and violent rage of Vreid with happy Scotsmen Alestorm and then follow that up with demon-obsessed black metal Belphegor is pretty bipolar. The number of pirate hats I observed in the back bar during the Belphegor set were many.

Without doubt for me the musical highlight of the show was Vreid. Their drummer was so good – you could see how hard he had to work, not in the bad way, but in the was that makes you go, fuck, dude. This was the band that had me so into the music I wasn’t really caring what was going on around me but just experiencing it. I was standing right in front of Ese on guitar and he practically was in the audience half the time, he was so engaged. It was intense. I am going to check out their back catalog though I know some of the lyrical content is plenty challenging. When I saw that the metalsucks commenters all thought that Vreid was the only worthwhile band on the bill I expected not to like them. Wrong!

Alestorm came out next, and the audience was clearly really really into them. Watching the pit for this was pretty amusing. Musically thought I believe by the end of their set I was experiencing a little pirate metal fatigue; they seem to get really loose from the recordings which can be really good, or it can just make it seem like the band is tired. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed a full-out rendition of “Wenches & Mead”, “Captain Morgan’s Revenge”, and of course their most well-known song “Over the Seas”. Their music is meant to be fun, and I think they delivered.

I’ll skip commenting on Belphegor ’cause… yeah. Not my bag.

But I survived because headliners Eluveitie are worth the wait. They embrace the folk-metal blend intelligently and with artfulness, and well, I don’t think any of the other bands on the bill embrace it at all so it’s a completely different experience. They kept a pretty good balance of lighter and heavier songs in their set… oh who am I kidding. I wanted them to skip the more acousticy stuff but the audience seemed to like it and it was a rest for my neck. But they did play Slanías Song which pleased me greatly. Meri and Anna’s voices sounded excellent live.

The fest as a whole didn’t blow me away like Paganfest did that time, but it came pretty close. I was surprised that the place wasn’t packed and that the show didn’t sell out. I kind of wonder if it didn’t have something to do with the way the lineup was.

Tags: shows

Probably just about everyone reading this is of the right generation to have been witness to the prevalence of the cassette tape. By the time I was choosing and procuring my own music, cassettes were in their peak of production. Of course, now the nostalgia market has images of the cassette on t-shirts, pillows, purses, etc. They are to teenagers now what tie dyed t-shirts and peace symbols were to me. Oh, and there’s also the vast amounts of cassette tattoos I keep seeing all over the place.

Well I don’t need a tribute to the cassette, because hiding under the spare bed all this time has been most of my tapes from the 80s & 90s. Yes, I have been carrying around these relics from home to home since I stopped using them 15 years ago. Most of their content I have purchased digitally, and what I haven’t can’t really be that great, can it?

The only things that might survive this purge are the custom mixtape art. Here’s an excellent example by the wonderful and amazing April from approximately 1988. No way I’m getting rid of that. 

As a coda, I ask – what the hell do I do with them? Trash them? Can anyone possibly want these at the Goodwill? There are lots of fun creative projects out there I have no time for or interest in perpetrating – lamps, more lamps, furniture, ties, and art that impresses. It seems like there are lots of bloggers out there who don’t want their cassettes in a landfill, but very few people with concrete recycling suggestions. They are all held together with little screws! I guess I might try Freecycle first.  If I find a good solution I’ll report back.

Tags: Purge Thursday, stuff

In honor of the women and men who have served; this video for “Home Again” from Queensryche’s album American Soldier – a concept album created from interviews with veterans.

If you want to help a cause that helps veterans, check out Vets Rock: they are raffling a Gibson Joan Jett Signature Series SG guitar (want!) and the proceeds go to help vets in need. Many of the nation’s homeless are veterans. Check out their mission statement.

When I got sick a few weeks back, one of the things I was told was to stop with the caffeine. I am not a huge caffeine drinker; one diet coke a day, maybe two. I’ve always been a little sensitive to it, such that more than one cup of coffee sends me & my attention span into a place usually inhabited only by small terriers during a thunderstorm.

I was told in Nutrition class that intake of phosphoric acid in soda has been related to wacky things happening to your mineral levels through the pathways of absorption & elimination. It seems like the research on this is still pretty inconclusive – but it also seems like there are far better things to drink than soda out there.

At any rate, I had a habit, and when I stopped, there were repercussions. A full day of horrible headaches, though I have had worse. Then it was over and for 19 days I was fine. Until today, when I am ready to prop my eyelids open. Is it really worth continuing my caffeine hiatus? If I can make it to 5pm when I can hit the road then I guess the answer is “yes”.

Tags: food

This weekend I found myself in social situations slightly outside my comfort zone three nights in a row. Friday our good friend Paul was having his birthday party which we were pleased to attend. Saturday our long lost friend Josh was having his birthday outing to the Pirates Tavern. Sunday our friend Brooke was celebrating her imminent return to her homeland, complete with S’mores. These events were lovely, and involved meeting many new people.

Inherent in this experience is this feeling I have that I need to be charming. Which really is the wrong way to go about being charming, but it always happens – right up until the drive to the actual place, I am fine. We get ready to get in the car and I think fondly of my couch, where no one else is. But, something always kicks in. This extrovert person kind of takes over and manages things.

That is such a learned response. (See: My mother locking me out of the house so I’d socialize.) I liken it in my head to being a salesperson. It’s an interesting line, the line between genuine extroversion and studied socialization. I guess the reason I feel that the latter is beneficial in a social situation and almost abhorrent in a sales situation is the motive. I’ve never been a salesperson most likely because I feel like I have a tenuous enough grasp on how to be friendly that muddying the waters with money would be truly scary.

Anyways, I started out the weekend pretty game for whatever. By Sunday I was wondering if I had any gregariousness left in me. But actually, sometimes those strangers can rescue you. Brooke’s rock climbing buddy turned to me after a long lull and said, “so, what’s your go-to story?” and this is exactly the kind of directness I can really get behind. It gets me feeling in a natural social state and not like I’m “trying”. So I told him about being bit by a squirrel.

I try to save the “there’s not enough rum in this” stories for more advanced levels of friendship these days.

Tags: introspection

I got up, popped my comfy slippers on, went downstairs and ate breakfast, read this fad diet book I might use as a guide, and watched CSI: Miami all at the same time. This is all various delaying tactics to stop me from having to go into the spare bedroom.

Motivation is a funny thing. I have tons and tons of it when I am very specifically in a position not to act. For instance: when I am in the car driving somewhere, when I am about to go to sleep, when I am trapped at my desk at work. During those times I am Totally Pumped and Ready! For things like cleaning house, working out, organizing my music, whatever.

Then Sunday morning hits. Prime GTD time. Uhmmm… what’s on the DVR?

Times like this I contemplate the wisdom of having cable. That said, I just went through three jewelry boxes full of old costume pieces and consolidated the few things I’m keeping into one. I put the rest on Freecycle. It’s one baby step, but that’s good. So really I am getting the best of both worlds today. The world where Frosted Mini Wheats and watching David Caruso act are satisfying, and the one where you accomplish something and that’s satisfying.

I have to remind myself pretty frequently that the latter is way, way more satisfying than the former. Why is that so hard to remember?

Tags: introspection

I was browsing the Diablo III blogs, like you do, and I saw the headline “Torchlight: A Diablo Clone?” and I thought, now here we go again – another Sacred. (That game kind of blew. I mean it was fun, but buggy as hell.) For the record, I don’t think I have ever loved a game more than Diablo II. Possibly only Zelda 3. So I’m sort of bound to like something that’s considered a clone of it.

Torchlight turned out to surprise me a little, not due to gameplay and the much ballyhooed pet inventory/errand dog feature, but because of the smoothness! The action in the game just looked way better than I expected for a game that seemed to come out of nowhere with no multiplayer option (?!?) and working on the same principle that many games have long since tried to move beyond: the principle of click-kill-random number generate-loot.

I don’t mean that to sound derogatory. It’s something I quite enjoy for relaxation purposes.

Jack is always trying to get me to play these challenging games like Portal. Oh, god. Please spare me another mental meltdown like the one I had playing Myst. Please. I solve puzzles, essentially, on the job; I have zero need to be frustrated and stumped at home. Give me that old fashioned action with reward.

Anyways, a number of folks out there have written very helpful reviews on the game. I don’t think I need to say more than this: If you like the Diablo games, and you don’t mind the less dark atmosphere of a WoW type art style, then you will probably like this game. You have three character classes to choose from and pretty varied skill trees. The game is probably even hard if you don’t play it on easy level like I do. And, well… OK the pet feature is awesome, I shall sing its praises alongside everyone else.

You can see the menus and inventory all probably look pretty familiar. For some “action” shots see here and here. For the low low one-time price of 19.99, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal. I obviously won’t get the play time out of it that I might get out of a Diablo game, but that’s ok.

Tags: games, Gaming

I’m so lucky. Blessed. Whatever word you want to use for it. I like the word blessed, because it takes out the chance part, but then it puts in the god part and I don’t much buy into that. I’ll try to think of something better. Anyways.

Even though lately I don’t really show it, being late and never reading the book and updating the web page only sporadically – I love book club.

Back in 2001 I was 4 years out of college and casting about for intellectual stimulation after spending a few years chasing … other kinds of stimulation. I was reading books but no one had read the books I was reading, or I was only reading certain kinds of books, and I needed more. I sent out an email to a few friends trying to cajole them to read a book along with me. A few people took me up on it. And now look where we are!

Periodically I take stock. 83 books. 9 years. 1,215 baby carrots. Wait, what? Thankfully in between the brownies and dough-wrapped cream cheese someone usually brings some baby carrots & hummus. We’ve had as few as two attendees and as many as… I’ve lost count, maybe 15, back in the day.

Members have come and gone but we’ve settled in to a familiar group, now all having read many books together and knowing each others’ tastes and having at this point countless in jokes – what’s that about having two colons? Where would we shove with Patricia Cornwell’s nonfiction efforts given a chance? Why do I consistently fail to read Todd’s suggestions? And of course, why can’t we have two votes???

The web site I built for Peril Book Club, one of the first I ever built, I wrote in pico. It still pretty much exists as-is, and shows my amazing table skills (a level of coding skill I never surpassed). I named it peril because Jack hosted the mailing list on his server, peril.org, back before we had an LJ community. After 9 years I’m still too lazy to build in links to amazon or wikipedia for the various books.

I actually think about, at the times I am contemplating the future, if someday I wanted to move, experience another part of the country or the world. I think about how far I would be away from my parents and stuff like that but I am not kidding when I say that I think about how I would have to leave book club. I’ve had book club longer than Jack. I can depend on book club. I’ve only ever “missed” two, and those we made up later.

Monday night is book club. Meetings are open as always, though it’s been a while since we had a new member “stick”. We’ll discuss Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) and eat carrot sticks or possibly potstickers, so I hear.

Tags: book club