I have just ordered a new toy . A shiney new Kaossilator . This makes me happy.
Where am I going in life? I feel burned out and directionless lately. I have a thesis to do… Enlightenment will be achieved. Not sure what will come after my thesis. Life will happen.
I need to start lifting heavy things and setting them down again.
Covered with hope!
So Amanda and I went to see And One and VNV tonight at the 9:30 club in DC. And One was awesome and frankly should have been the headliners. Of course, I also feel they outdid Covenant the first time I saw And One back in Chicago. Then VNV played…. Now to put this in perspective I’ve seen VNV 3 times now. The first time I went cause Amanda likes/liked them and Icon of Coil was playing with them. The second time it was VNV and Haujobb. Both of these previous times I enjoyed VNV but they’re not really my thing. They were still playing stuff off their first couple albums which didn’t/don’t suck. However, the last 3 albums have been airy trancy shit. Future pop my ass… VNV makes pussy trance. After seeing VNV tonight I felt as if I had been aurally assaulted by an insistent throbbing cunt. Now I’m hesitant to compare VNV to vaginae given that I’m a heterosexual male and I’m a pretty big fan of vaginae, but in the metaphorical sense VNV make pussy chick music that is enjoyed by VNV cultists, women, and romantic soppy hearted guys who have poor taste in music. Now that may have sounded pretty misogynistic and to a degree it was, but seriously ,VNV makes boring airy music that women(aka chicks) seem to dig for some ungodly reason. On that note we’re probably going to try to go to the Philadelphia show tomorrow(since we’re heading there for the weekend) but I’m gonna have to remember to bring earplugs for VNV and find a nice place to sit the VNV out while Amanda enjoys herself dancing to their shitty new music(which she thinks sucks too for the record but still seems to perversely enjoy dancing to).
RAWR I’m going to get some sleep or at least try.
Zodiac Blues
We went to a 10:10 showing of ‘Zodiac’ last night in the middle of an ice storm. Both the storm and the roads looked less obnoxious than they actually were when we left but once we got near the theatre it became increasingly clear that Maryland has the snow competency level of a retarded camel. An ice storm has been going on for 6 hours and they’ve just started plowing the roads. Almost died twice getting to the theatre. Thankfully, growing up in Indiana actually means I can drive in snow even when it’s getting bad. Either way we made it to the theatre without any damage to car or body.
‘Zodiac’ is a very long movie, a very slow movie and ultimately, a very good movie. I can see how people might make complaints about it being boring cause it is so slow, but Amanda and I both really enjoyed it. It actually managed to be creepy without being overbearing and the biographical nature of it all was interesting. The Zodiac was one of those legendary serial killers surrounded in mystery like Jack the Ripper which makes him a fascinating snapshot of history. If you do a wikipedia search on Zodiac Killer you’ll see he was the inspiration for like 15 different movie villains.
Robotic Lust
I need to invest in the parts/gear/tools to start making robotic systems in my free time. Of course being a gradstudent I don’t get quite the luxury of a working stiff to have “office work” and “personal work”. When I’m working I feel like I should be working on grad school stuff and otherwise I feel like I should be relaxing. I work at home mostly or I’ ll go to the lab for a few hours any given day and work there. I tend to work in bursts which makes predicting when I’ll be working or when I’ll want to work difficult to plan around. I could arrange my life to be more of an “office” v “personal” arrangement but at the same time that just never seems to work out for me. Either way having a robotic arm to transfer cd’s from a spindle to the cd tray and then from the cd tray to a second spindle would make ripping my cd collection so much easier. I’ve ripped about 140 some CD’s so far but I still have about 250 left to go. Plus I’ll need to rerip any CD’s of Amanda’s I want since we have different directory and ripping standards. Maybe I’m just too obsessive. But soon I’ll never have to carry cd’s with me in the car or on trips again as I now have an iPod radio adapter as well as myBose noise canceling headphones.
Alright it’s breakfast time.. I’m going to IHOP cause I’m mildly addicted as I haven’t gotten to eat IHOP much in the last few years as they don’t stay open 24/7 in MD. It’s really weak. Maybe while I’m eating I’ll even think of a theme for this blog beyond my life and things I do. Then again maybe I’ll just do more interesting things. Either way I think I may make a page of self quotes to indulge is some serious narcissism.
image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace