Currently Listening In Our Bedroom After the War By Stars see related

looks like an annual update now.

Currently Listening OK Cowboy By Vitalic see related

moving in...

i have a new office now.

it's pretty bare... wonder if i should put up posters and stuff, or just leave it professional (taken with my crappy cellphone).

my entire office only has 4 plugs.  2 of which are occupied by my desk lights, 1 for my monitor, 1 for my computer.

i have nowhere to plug in my speakers, or my phone charger.  I asked for a power strip or something, and they were like, "We ran out.  They're so cheap, buy one yourself."  Yay.

My office view from the 7th floor (yea, our building has a putting green hehe):

and... potential for mischief:

doesn't make a whole lot of sense huh?  Well.. apparently my office is the only one in the hall with the thermostat.  This controls the temperature for all 5 offices on my hall.  :)

btw.. this vitalic cd rocks.  it's a compilation so if you're into the euro music scene, some tracks might sound familiar.

I'm honestly shocked at how amazing the New Pornographers are.  I love all their albums, and their solo albums are just so freaking amazing individually.  Neko Case, Destroyer and AC Newman... some of my favorite solo performers of all time, and they all get together to make a "super" band.   I just couldn't make the concerts they've had recently :(   I say this b/c I want to highly recommend the last 3 albums by related persons:

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (2006)
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (2005)

Speaking of music, is this coachella?

Saturday, April 29th

Depeche Mode, Daft Punk, Franz Ferdinand, Sigur Ros, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Common, Atmosphere, Carl Cox, My Morning Jacket, TV on the Radio, Ladytron, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Tosca, Cat Power, Animal Collective, HARD-Fi, Derrick Carter, Devendra Banhart, She Wants Revenge, The Walkmen, The Juan Maclean, Imogen Heap, Audio Bullys, Lady Sovereign, Deerhoof, The Duke Spirit, Eagles of Death Metal, Lyrics Born, Matt Costa, The New Amsterdams, The Zutons, Platinum Pied Pipers, White Rose Movement, Chris Liberator, Colette, Joey Beltram, Hybrid, Living Things, Wolfmother, The Like, Nine Black Alps, Celebration, The Section Quartet, Shy FX & T Power, Infusion.

Sunday, April 30th

Tool, Massive Attack, Madonna, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bloc Party, Paul Oakenfold, Scissor Sisters, Matisyahu, James Blunt, Sleater-Kinney, Mogwai, Coheed and Cambria, Wolf Parade, Gnarls Barkley, Phoenix, Coldcut, Digable Planets, , Amadou & Mariam, Louie Vega, Mylo (DJ Set), Seu Jorge, Ted Leo / Pharmacists , The Go! Team, Kaskade, Metric, Editors, Art Brut, Dungen, The Dears, Jamie Lidell, The Magic Numbers, Los Amigos Invisibles, Jazzanova, stellastarr*, Michael Mayer, Murs featuring 9th Wonder, Mates of State, Gilles Peterson, Infadels, Gabriel & Dresden, The Subways, Minus the Bear, OneRepublic, Be Your Own Pet, Youth Group, Giant Drag, Kristina Sky, The Octopus Project.

Honestly, I thought last years lineup was amazing, but this lineup has 2x more bands I want to see (bold = bands i'd make every effort to see, bold/underline meaning = i would have paid to see solo, or probably already have).

Here's a link to a music player that has 96 songs by the coachella bands on loop:

http://www.coachella.com/music_player/

Last year we got a hotel room (me gary and jenny), and the exhausting heat / desert / nastiness from standing outside all day was totally bearable and worth it (probably not worth it if we stayed on the campgrounds), so I supposed this year will be the same.

some more links b/c i like going link crazy:

• Chuck Norris read the chuck norris facts
• Life expectancy calculator (fun to play with... will i really live until 82?)
• Should students/parents be blamed for our poor education system?  i tend to agree.
• Why health care will never get cheaper: http://finance.yahoo.com/columnist/article/economist/2760

And grats to David Park and Crystal Ikeda (gogo claremont, even though i hated claremont personally).  The wedding was fun.  And for those of you mudders who just haven't kept up to date, Elliot Kam got married last month to Angeline Chen.  That wedding was great too, even with Elliot messing up the wedding vows    This is the year of the wedding.  2 more on the calendar.  I'd post pictures but I'm lazy.

holy crap.  they hacked the new intel based macs so that you can install windows on them!!!   i love my old laptop, but the macbook pros just look cooler.  i might get one now...

my current laptop:

the macbook pro:

it's at least faster than my current laptop (2ghz dual core + 256mb ati X1600) vs my current (1.7ghz singlecore + 128mb ati 9700pro).  they're the same weight (5.5lbs), same thickness (1in).   I guess i won't buy it.  not a big enough of a difference, and I guess since my laptop is only 2yo and still plenty fast for anything that comes out.  I'm just afraid they'll make future revisions of the laptop windows xp-proof, which would eliminate a lot of the applications I use and already have (and games hehe).

Oh well.  Saving my pennies for a new car.  The lease is about to expire on my current one.  Gonna buy it straight out this time.

first update in a while..

random things...

1. my childhood friend zach skipped out on a possibly lucrative law career and turned down law school to become a writer.  now he lives in a shack in brooklyn.  but anyways, he started a pretty funny blog:   http://www.underpantsontheoutside.com (superhero reference), and does little comedy things about 24, Lost, comics and the odd random musings.  he also gets published from time to time at collegehumor.com.  here's his article:  http://www.collegehumor.com/articles/1652526/
2. natalie portman doing the hardcore gangsta rap (it's pretty funny): www.devilducky.com/media/42822/
3. some guy does these random flash skits called YAAFM (you are a f***ing moron), and features a different set of idiots every episode.  here are the last 2 i saw which were kind of funny (extremely un-pc.. don't watch if you're offended by these sorts of things.  no nudity or anything like that though. just plain biting satire/social commentary): 
1. scientologists http://www.zipperfish.net/free/yaafm11.php  
2. muslims http://www.zipperfish.net/free/yaafm12.php
4. some pretty cool googlemap type websites:
1. do you have a sexual predator living near you?  i don't, but of course, my friend sewhoy has one living across the street from his parents house... HAH...  http://www.familywatchdog.us 
2. curious to see what that house is worth?   this is a googlemap type thing that shows you detailed pricing history and estimated appraised value of homes just by typing in an address, and viewing by neighborhood and all that jazz:   http://www.zillow.com
5. now for some more videos!!!   
1. what if microsoft redesigned the ipod? what would it look like?  this is pretty damn clever:  http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=36099539665548298&q=microsoft+ipod
2. what do you think this guy uses his dell for?  hehe.. gotta love live home shopping network shows:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqloHbHlA40&feature=Views&page=4&t=t&f=b
3. some cool new interface innovations for computers (think minority report style stuff... very neat): 
1. mixed reality interface: http://youtube.com/watch?v=kzGljuievpM
2. multi-touch interact interface: http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/ , click the quicktime thing on the upper right to stream it (if you want a direct link to download the video: http://mrl.nyu.edu/~jhan/ftirtouch/multitouchreel.mpg)
6. DARKNESS!!!!  fun at the onion:  http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45792