Monday, October 19, 2009
Owen's New Leaves showed up at my office today, which is exciting. Polyvinyl ships media mail. I'll forgive them for that. It's pretty much impossible to make any money off of vinyl since the price increase as it is. The good thing about waiting for something to ship is that I've usually forgotten ordering it by the time it arrives. I enjoy intentionally setting myself up for sorta-surprises. I also enjoy "Good Friends, Bad Habits", the best song from the album, as well as the accompanying video. Although that Wilde and Hemingway line is pretty cringe-inducing.
Machinarium looks beautiful. At first glance it looks like a playable version of the first half of Wall-E, although I'm sure it's not like that at all. I peeped the forums for the game and the creators sound like nice, humble guys. I'm not sure my PC is powerful enough to play any games other than Solitaire, but I'd like to give it a try at some point.
I wish I could have been able to easily click-thru to finish the rest of the article that Paul posted yesterday.
Yankee game starts at 4:17.. or 13, or some other weird time today. Safe to say that my mind will be checking out around then, and my body will be angled to the LCD screen that's about 25 feet to my right from there until packing up for the day.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Sonuvabitch. I basically picked PRX out of thin air based on its industry and its beta, and Barclays goes and upgrades the motherfucker a few days after I buy. Nice.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Amazon has a Buy 2 Get 1 Free video game promo going on until Saturday, the 17th. Not a terrible selection at all...
I was jolted awake by an idiotic dream this morning around 4:15AM. Unfortunately I was unable to fall back asleep, so I headed upstairs to research electronic drum applications (decided on EZDrummer). Then I watched Baseball Tonight (kinda dull since there are no games until Thursday.. I mean, there was a segment on Curt Schilling when he was with the Phillies) and Sports Center, which had too much college football coveragefor my taste. Once the sun came up I headed to the gym and listened to loud music. I’m a little groggy now, but so far, it’s been a pretty good morning.
My idiotic dream involved a friend of mine telling me that he had Trent Reznor’s phone number, and that I should call him. He was saying that they were talking about my new songs and that Trent wanted to hear them. So I called. And Trent was mean… like “why the hell are you bothering me?” mean. I didn’t really know why I was bothering him, other than the fact that my friend had told me to call him, so I didn’t have much to say. When I woke up, I couldn’t stop going through all of the ways I should have approached the phone call but didn’t. I really just wanted to go back to sleep, though. At least the Trent Reznor thing reminded me what I’ve wanted to learn digital drum software for awhile.
Have an Aggregrate Economics midterm tomorrow night that I’m medium-stressing about. Professor is a bit whacky… he emailed last semester’s exam to us to use while studying and closed it with the following: “I would give you the answers, but they are too hard for me.”
Super.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Now for something that’s not stupid bands and stupid video games. I’ve started day trading a little bit of stock. Backstory:
When you’re negotiating an initial salary or a raise at my current job the powers that be will always heavily harp on stock awards being the most fruitful part of your compensation. It was tough for me to get comfortable with at first. I was used to the standard “paycheck comes twice-per-month and by the end of the year we’ll have paid you your entire salary” thing. The occasional bonus was always nice, but it was never guaranteed (well, it sorta was when I was in investment banking, but we all know the problems that those practices have caused in the last 15 months …). Anyway, you get a whole fuck-ton of shares, which sounds great, but you don’t get them all at once. There’s a schedule. Each “award” you get is on a different schedule. When I was first hired, I got a schedule of 10% the first year, 15% the second year, and 75% the third year. When I got my first bonus I got a new award that was 50/50 over two years. When we got purchased by a large company I got a new award that was 33/33/33 over three years. I got another award last year that was 20/20/60. It’s a little bit confusing, but ultimately pretty cool to get an email every once in awhile that a whole bunch of stock was available for you to do whatever you wanted with. The effect of this kinda sucked at the beginning, because it generally came at the expense of a better salary and the awards weren't super substantial at the beginning. But now that they're becoming more significant, it’s great. I’ve essentially pretended that this stuff didn’t exist for awhile, and have learned how to live on the budget that my salary alone pays me. Now it’s like I have this whole other thing that makes me feel good about not saving as much as I would’ve liked to over the last few years.
Lots of boring details, I guess. But I’m in a place now in which I have this stock in a Schwab account with some cizash in it, don’t really need the money for anything, know enough about portfolio management to know that I need to diversify it, and have a little bit of free time at work. I’ve started small with some buys of GE and PRX, and am going to see how that goes before diving in much more. But it’s sort-of exciting. You know, like gambling is. I’d like to get to a place where I have long positions in about 30 companies, with a little extra cash to fuck around with some short stuff. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll put what’s left in a Bodog account and start betting on Football. My picks is naztee when there’s no real money on the line.
When you’re negotiating an initial salary or a raise at my current job the powers that be will always heavily harp on stock awards being the most fruitful part of your compensation. It was tough for me to get comfortable with at first. I was used to the standard “paycheck comes twice-per-month and by the end of the year we’ll have paid you your entire salary” thing. The occasional bonus was always nice, but it was never guaranteed (well, it sorta was when I was in investment banking, but we all know the problems that those practices have caused in the last 15 months …). Anyway, you get a whole fuck-ton of shares, which sounds great, but you don’t get them all at once. There’s a schedule. Each “award” you get is on a different schedule. When I was first hired, I got a schedule of 10% the first year, 15% the second year, and 75% the third year. When I got my first bonus I got a new award that was 50/50 over two years. When we got purchased by a large company I got a new award that was 33/33/33 over three years. I got another award last year that was 20/20/60. It’s a little bit confusing, but ultimately pretty cool to get an email every once in awhile that a whole bunch of stock was available for you to do whatever you wanted with. The effect of this kinda sucked at the beginning, because it generally came at the expense of a better salary and the awards weren't super substantial at the beginning. But now that they're becoming more significant, it’s great. I’ve essentially pretended that this stuff didn’t exist for awhile, and have learned how to live on the budget that my salary alone pays me. Now it’s like I have this whole other thing that makes me feel good about not saving as much as I would’ve liked to over the last few years.
Lots of boring details, I guess. But I’m in a place now in which I have this stock in a Schwab account with some cizash in it, don’t really need the money for anything, know enough about portfolio management to know that I need to diversify it, and have a little bit of free time at work. I’ve started small with some buys of GE and PRX, and am going to see how that goes before diving in much more. But it’s sort-of exciting. You know, like gambling is. I’d like to get to a place where I have long positions in about 30 companies, with a little extra cash to fuck around with some short stuff. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll put what’s left in a Bodog account and start betting on Football. My picks is naztee when there’s no real money on the line.
Monday, October 12, 2009
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart's Higher Than the Stars showed up at work this morning, which is great because I'd forgotten ordering it in the first place. I've been listening to it pretty regularly since I snagged a downloadable copy a few weeks back and think it's an awesome accompaniment to the self-titled and makes me super psyched for the follow-up, even if that's a bit pre-mature.
I’ve been married for one year to the day. Hard to reflect back on much as it’s gone incredibly quickly. Having lived together for two years before being married, and having gone through a lot of the crap that other couples go through even before that, I’d say that Year 1 was pretty damn smooth. To reward ourselves for being awesome we’ll be picking up the Canon Digital Rebel XSi just in time for our early-November trip out to LA, Santa Barbara, and Paso Robles. Anniversaries rule!
Tracks 1 and 2 off of A Place to Bury Strangers’ Exploding Head are pretty bad ass. I’ve had the rest of it on in the background this morning and haven’t been as impressed, but it’s great to hear folks making this kind of music still. They’re a bit too influences-on-sleeve to be truly great, and they wouldn’t be the first ones to do that in 2009, but it’s still enjoyable.
Tracks 1 and 2 off of A Place to Bury Strangers’ Exploding Head are pretty bad ass. I’ve had the rest of it on in the background this morning and haven’t been as impressed, but it’s great to hear folks making this kind of music still. They’re a bit too influences-on-sleeve to be truly great, and they wouldn’t be the first ones to do that in 2009, but it’s still enjoyable.
Friday, October 09, 2009
Beneath a Steel Sky for iPhone seems interesting, but mostly just fuels my desire to have the old 90s Sierra games officially ported to the iPhone. Lucas Arts has already done it with Monkey Island… get with it Activision! For better or worse, there are few memories from my childhood that I remember as fondly as spending hours with games like King’s Quest and Space Quest. And while I’ve replayed them via the Collection re-issues a few years back, I’d absolutely love to be able to have them in my pocket. I can’t think of a better way to spend time at the airport than hitting up Daventry for a little King’s Quest 6 action.
Speaking of iPhone games, I’ve been playing a lot of Peggle lately, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Well worth the $5 price tag. It’s super addictive, and really easy to pick up and play when you have a few extra minutes. Not so easy to put down, though.
Speaking of iPhone games, I’ve been playing a lot of Peggle lately, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Well worth the $5 price tag. It’s super addictive, and really easy to pick up and play when you have a few extra minutes. Not so easy to put down, though.
So, people still make music videos, apparently. That’s neat, although I must admit that my first two thoughts upon watching the new Modest Mouse video for “Whale Song” were “Man, Isaac sure has gotten larger than I remember him being” and “Where the hell is Johnny Marr?” Petty stuff. My less petty side thinks that it’s a cool video for a song that is super awkward to listen to, by design. It’s guitar parts like that that make Pandora liken Modest Mouse to bands like Les Savy Fav and Cursive, although most listeners that aren’t computers would probably not agree with the comparison.
Two of my favorite bands that happen to be on major labels (the same label, in fact) have new releases spaced out by a few days from each other, Built to Spill and the Flaming Lips. After a few days of listening, I declare BTS’ There is No Enemy to be wonderful. I’ve been describing it as the album that should have followed up Keep It Like a Secret for a few days now, and stick by that assessment. Ancient Melodies of the Future was fine enough, I guess, and Secret would be tough for anyone to follow-up… but I’m fairly confident that over-time this will be the 00s BTS album that I pick more than any other. The other album, the Lips’, Embryonic, is insane. F’real. Blips, noises, weird samples. Not Kid-A shit, though. These songs sound even less like songs than those did. It sounds more like the soundtrack to the sequel to Christmas on Mars than it does a new record. But that said, I think I like it. I’m just not sure I’ve found the appropriate time and place to listen to it yet. (too distracting for work, too jarring for relaxing at home, too polarizing to listen to with someone else, too disorienting for the gym). The next time I take a solitary car ride at night should be ideal. Wayne Coyne talks a little bit about the record here, and essentially confirms that its creation was appropriately as weird as you’d guess upon listening to it.
”Expert Herder” by Lemuria is probably the best song you’ve heard this year. And if you’re not listening to Lemuria yet, they’re probably the best band you’ve heard in the last three years. And also, get fucking with it, man! Alex Kearns from Lemuria put up some demos of his solo stuff here, which is pretty damn good, too. I don’t think it’ll sell you on Lemuria, but if you’re clamoring for more, it might help you get through. Goddamn is that dude’s voice amazing.
Two of my favorite bands that happen to be on major labels (the same label, in fact) have new releases spaced out by a few days from each other, Built to Spill and the Flaming Lips. After a few days of listening, I declare BTS’ There is No Enemy to be wonderful. I’ve been describing it as the album that should have followed up Keep It Like a Secret for a few days now, and stick by that assessment. Ancient Melodies of the Future was fine enough, I guess, and Secret would be tough for anyone to follow-up… but I’m fairly confident that over-time this will be the 00s BTS album that I pick more than any other. The other album, the Lips’, Embryonic, is insane. F’real. Blips, noises, weird samples. Not Kid-A shit, though. These songs sound even less like songs than those did. It sounds more like the soundtrack to the sequel to Christmas on Mars than it does a new record. But that said, I think I like it. I’m just not sure I’ve found the appropriate time and place to listen to it yet. (too distracting for work, too jarring for relaxing at home, too polarizing to listen to with someone else, too disorienting for the gym). The next time I take a solitary car ride at night should be ideal. Wayne Coyne talks a little bit about the record here, and essentially confirms that its creation was appropriately as weird as you’d guess upon listening to it.
”Expert Herder” by Lemuria is probably the best song you’ve heard this year. And if you’re not listening to Lemuria yet, they’re probably the best band you’ve heard in the last three years. And also, get fucking with it, man! Alex Kearns from Lemuria put up some demos of his solo stuff here, which is pretty damn good, too. I don’t think it’ll sell you on Lemuria, but if you’re clamoring for more, it might help you get through. Goddamn is that dude’s voice amazing.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
One cup of rich hot chocolate. About 2 oz. of steamed skim milk. One shot of espresso. And one extremely loud listen through of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Automatic. I’m good to go this morning. Now that I’ve made the official transition from cold, caffeinated morning drinks to warm ones I’m ready to fully accept the end of summer and embrace the fall. I’ve got a thermal shirt on today. It’s comfortable, and I’d like to think that it’s happy to see me after 5 months of neglect. We’re friends again, and that means that the sweaters are soon to follow. I’m sure they’ve missed me, too.
I’d like to talk about the caffeinated beverages thing for a moment, though – not because there’s much of a point to it, but because I just glanced over at my office’s setup and thought to myself, “you are super fucking spoiled”. We have a great selection of beverages here at the office to choose from. We have a Starbucks machine that brews up two different blends and the aforementioned rich hot chocolate. We have a pod maker and a selection of at least 12 different blends, not including teas. We have a fridge filled with all kinds of fizzy drinks, both caffeinated and uncaffeinated. Orange Juice. Apple Juice. Milk. And then we have the espresso maker. She is my baby. I pet her softly and whisper sweet nothings into her ear as she brews me up delicious espresso every morning. We’ve had a rather large influx of new employees lately, and I’ve become the resident teacher on how to properly use it. Since I’m sort-of in between projects at work right now, I guess it’s better to be known as the guy who knows how to make a kick-ass cappuccino than the guy who wants to hook up the Wiis that we have for a lil’ afternoon bowling match, right? (oh yeah, I’m that guy, too). It’s cool, though. My period of calm here at work is only temporary and I’ve been informed that a rip-roaring project is coming my way in about two weeks.
I’ll make no mention of chiming in with a new blog post like I’d never stopped blogging in the first place. I’m missing something lately (I’d guessed it was a modern video game console that wasn’t the Wii, no time to read fiction like I used to, and the inability to loudly write songs in my super-quiet apartment building). But maybe it’s this.
Someone in my Marketing Communications class last night had a SlingBox stream for the Yankees game playing on his laptop. He was kind enough to turn his machine towards me, which pretty much meant that I got absolutely nothing out of the lecture. I used to take school very seriously, but lately I don’t care all that much. I’m just over two years removed from embarking down the MBA path, and with still over a year left, I’m just completely bored with it. I show up. Half-heartedly do my homework. Roll my eyes at my idiotic classmates. And occasionally buy the text book three days before the midterm. But that’s about all I’m giving these days. Le sigh.
I’ve been reading lots of Brendan Kelly’s Bad Sandwich Chronicles lately. It’s a shame I took a break from it for awhile, he’s hilarious.
Let’s do this again sometime.
I’d like to talk about the caffeinated beverages thing for a moment, though – not because there’s much of a point to it, but because I just glanced over at my office’s setup and thought to myself, “you are super fucking spoiled”. We have a great selection of beverages here at the office to choose from. We have a Starbucks machine that brews up two different blends and the aforementioned rich hot chocolate. We have a pod maker and a selection of at least 12 different blends, not including teas. We have a fridge filled with all kinds of fizzy drinks, both caffeinated and uncaffeinated. Orange Juice. Apple Juice. Milk. And then we have the espresso maker. She is my baby. I pet her softly and whisper sweet nothings into her ear as she brews me up delicious espresso every morning. We’ve had a rather large influx of new employees lately, and I’ve become the resident teacher on how to properly use it. Since I’m sort-of in between projects at work right now, I guess it’s better to be known as the guy who knows how to make a kick-ass cappuccino than the guy who wants to hook up the Wiis that we have for a lil’ afternoon bowling match, right? (oh yeah, I’m that guy, too). It’s cool, though. My period of calm here at work is only temporary and I’ve been informed that a rip-roaring project is coming my way in about two weeks.
I’ll make no mention of chiming in with a new blog post like I’d never stopped blogging in the first place. I’m missing something lately (I’d guessed it was a modern video game console that wasn’t the Wii, no time to read fiction like I used to, and the inability to loudly write songs in my super-quiet apartment building). But maybe it’s this.
Someone in my Marketing Communications class last night had a SlingBox stream for the Yankees game playing on his laptop. He was kind enough to turn his machine towards me, which pretty much meant that I got absolutely nothing out of the lecture. I used to take school very seriously, but lately I don’t care all that much. I’m just over two years removed from embarking down the MBA path, and with still over a year left, I’m just completely bored with it. I show up. Half-heartedly do my homework. Roll my eyes at my idiotic classmates. And occasionally buy the text book three days before the midterm. But that’s about all I’m giving these days. Le sigh.
I’ve been reading lots of Brendan Kelly’s Bad Sandwich Chronicles lately. It’s a shame I took a break from it for awhile, he’s hilarious.
Let’s do this again sometime.
Wednesday, September 09, 2009
10 years ago today I called in sick to work, headed to Electronics Boutique, and stood in line to pay the $180 balance of my Dreamcast pre-order. I’d also pre-ordered Soul Calibur, Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, Sonic Adventure, and NFL 2K. I tacked on an extra joystick and two VMUs. I think the whole shi-bang cost about $600, which at the time was the most money that I’d ever spent at once. For whatever reason, 9.9.99 is one of the most memorable days of the last 10 years, which is strange because roughly ten million things have happened that should be more memorable since.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
i do not know about you peeps. but i am finding it really hard to be enthusiastic about anything anymore. there is a heavy sense of spiritual dread and physical malaise. no motivation. i guess i have always felt like that. it is only recently i am keen to the impressions this world had on my beings. bee boo bop fiddly tiddly dop titties in a nickel cop.
well i guess consumption is always an option. i mean, maybe not, cause you do not really have a choice in that matter. basically your choice is what you will consume, but you will consume fat 
batty, their lives depend on it.
unfortunate because the harvest has come in the uk. the cereal crops are machined and ready to be processed. this means the end of the crop circle season. something i have been looking at recently. i have been told by someone who lives and visits the area that this is something done by very sneaky individuals. two doods, doug and dave. mates. they go to a pub nearby wiltshire. personally i think doug and dave are not capable of doing some of the things i have seen this season. in the uk there has been roughly 70 formations. all presumed to be done at night. and no one has never seen hide nor hair of doug and dave. and there are people over there who take crop circles very seriously. staying up observing fields and setting up cameras. not a wink of one of these chaps.
i seen signs in my folks dvd collection. so because of the wonder and energy i put into the fuckers i watched the entirety of it. the only thing i really enjoyed was thinking about river phoenix's name. because you see joaquin is in this shit and he has some interesting lines.
nuts on nuts. how bout music. going to see battles. couple of weeks from now in sept. peeps should go. other than that how many times can you listen to lady gaga. what are you freaks listening to these days? where is the talent and inspiration. this is it, we are at our worst. no one can channel this pain behind their eyes into something for my aural consumption? dur hurrr.
well i guess consumption is always an option. i mean, maybe not, cause you do not really have a choice in that matter. basically your choice is what you will consume, but you will consume fat 
batty, their lives depend on it.unfortunate because the harvest has come in the uk. the cereal crops are machined and ready to be processed. this means the end of the crop circle season. something i have been looking at recently. i have been told by someone who lives and visits the area that this is something done by very sneaky individuals. two doods, doug and dave. mates. they go to a pub nearby wiltshire. personally i think doug and dave are not capable of doing some of the things i have seen this season. in the uk there has been roughly 70 formations. all presumed to be done at night. and no one has never seen hide nor hair of doug and dave. and there are people over there who take crop circles very seriously. staying up observing fields and setting up cameras. not a wink of one of these chaps.
i seen signs in my folks dvd collection. so because of the wonder and energy i put into the fuckers i watched the entirety of it. the only thing i really enjoyed was thinking about river phoenix's name. because you see joaquin is in this shit and he has some interesting lines.
Morgan, this crop stuff is just about a bunch of nerds who never had a girlfriend theiralright so that is one line. but i enjoyed it more than i enjoyed the movie. unusual name, river phoenix. two very heavy words. m night shamalyan is kind of odd. this movie was very low budget low rent. hard acting. rough. i would be curious to see village or lady in the lake. my curiosity is piqued. but i am not expecting much.whole lives. They're like thirty now. They make up secret codes and analyze Greek mythology and make secret societies where other guys who never had girlfriends can join in. They do stupid crap like this to feel special. It's a scam. Nerds were doin' it twenty five years ago and new nerds are doing it again.
nuts on nuts. how bout music. going to see battles. couple of weeks from now in sept. peeps should go. other than that how many times can you listen to lady gaga. what are you freaks listening to these days? where is the talent and inspiration. this is it, we are at our worst. no one can channel this pain behind their eyes into something for my aural consumption? dur hurrr.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
I'm buying the fuck out of this if I win my $450 Fantasy Baseball league this year.
Rage and Final Fantasy XIII will make it worth the price of admission alone!
Rage and Final Fantasy XIII will make it worth the price of admission alone!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
All I’m saying is that New Jersey is emblematic of a culture that’s given up on progression. Historical or cultural or technological. We’re cannibalizing the 20th century, the last time it looked like we might mean shit.
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