this weekend was a long one, if anything. i've long since finished the coffee for the morning (not before it got cold, though…hrm), and now i'm settling in for the long work day. always fun.

thursday my friend joe and i drove up to chicago to catch hey mercedes and burning airlines at the metro. we got a kinda late start, but i ramped up the speed and we were making good time. great time, in fact. until we got right outside of indianapolis. we were cruising along until traffic slowed down until we were at a dead stop. dead. not moving. for 45 minutes. we were actually out of the car, hanging out on the overpass that we were stuck on, shooting the shit with various other stranded motorists (mainly the bus driver that was behind us). i even skated up to the front to try to discern what the hell was going on. apparently they had traffic down to one lane for some construction and some joker decided to go ahead and cause an accident in that one lane. effectively killing northbound interstate 65. lovely. we finally started moving, and when we reached the next exit, they made all traffic get off the highway. they had some crazy back road detour set up that had us bumper to bumper with cars, busses, and semis, way out in the middle of nowheresville, indiana. for 20 miles or so. seriously. this whole ordeal added around 2 hours to our drive time. it was ridiculous. but when we finally got back on the highway and moving, we stopped at a truck stop and the attendants were watching ferris bueller, so i guess it evens out.

and then when we got to chicago, we found out there was a cubs game going on, which only matters because the metro just happens to be a block away from wrigley. needless to say, we drove around for about an hour, looking for parking. we parked way down clark and hoofed it down. we showed up just in time to see burning airlines take the stage. since they were the headliners, this meant we missed hey mercedes. curses! the second time that has happened! i ran into bob so we hung out and drank the beer that seemed to be everywhere.

damon mentioned that they were playing in indianapolis the next night, and that we should just head down there and catch the show on the way home. a decision was made. we stayed at bob's thursday night, got up and did some assorted odds and ends (scooterworks and flat top grill), and then headed straight down to indy to meet up with allison. we got there way before the hey mercedes (something about a minivan/mercedes collision), so we hung out and waited for them. the show was kinda sparsely attended and there were 8 bands on the bill. 21 and over. tara jane played, but then we waited through about 5 more math-rock outfits until hey mercedes finally took the stage. i think i'm under a secret pact to not discuss the show in detail. let's just say…there was blood involved. joe made sure to say "bob…use the pick," and the stage right vocals were completely unheard.

and then we drove home. all the way. finally getting home around 6:30 in the am. yawn.

last night allison and i checked out zoolander. this movie was worth it just for the love scene involving a girl, ben stiller, owen wilson, two finnish dwarves, and a maori tribesman. word.

so the problems with liberty meadows over at "my aol" still persist. they continue to such a level that i refuse to link their crappy site. but i have dug up this little nugget of info: it looks like liberty meadows will come to an end as a comic strip. never fear, though…it will soon rear it's head again in comic book form. i dunno if this is a good thing or not. i'll miss my daily dose, for sure (not like i've been getting it lately, anyway), but it'll be nice to get a fat monthly helping.

and all that talk about liberty meadows sounded way too racy for what it really was.

tomorrow i'm heading up to chicago to catch the hey mercedes rock and roll machine as they try to single-handedly (with the help of burning airlines and rival schools) level the metro. i'm hoping to record the set for transmission3000, so keep an eye open to see how successful i was…

i was forced to create a new resume from scratch in microsoft word in under an hour, earlier. i somehow pulled it off, which amazes even me. i just want to state for the record that word is pure, unadulterated…shit. viva la pagemaker!

thanks to paul and his apparent addiction to mtv, we have been exposed to "feelin' on yo' booty." i highly recommend checking out the video to get the full impact of this work of "art."

more later as i think of it…

oh yeah…head over to transmission3000…there's a live fugazi video to download.

i walked out the door, this morning, to a perfect early fall day. slightly overcast, last night's rain still drying on the streets. nice and cool outside. sweater weather. the drive in to work was peaceful, listening to old favorites (the afghan whigs' gentlemen and the lemonheads' come on feel…). the cute girl wasn't working at the coffee shop, this morning, but the hippie dude with the funny pants that always throws an extra shot of espresso in for me (you kick "the ass", man) was, so it worked out.

as i navigated tree lined streets, watching what little sun there was filter down through the odd falling leaf or two, i started thinking about how life is never really what you want it to be. i've had the odd glimpses at true happiness, i'd say. some of them were actually fairly recent. it's just that those glimpses are all too brief. all too fragile. i've tried to set a lot of things aside, over the last month or so, but when i come down to it, the most recent glimpses that i'm talking about still carry the light the way they did when they happened. when things seemed like they were working out, they were wonderful. in hindsight, i think i'd still say that it was all worth it. i'd do it all again, i'm sure. i think, maybe, i'd just try not to fuck it up as bad.

but i decided to try to face the day not dwelling on all of that. as much as i'd like to call "her" or have her call me, or even respond to any of my past attempts at communication, maybe it should just lie there. some say "let it die," but as long as it's in my heart, it never will. some might say that's not exactly a good thing, but there's not much you can really do about it, i guess.

and then as i climbed out of the car, i spilled coffee on my pants. lovely. some beautiful fall day…

wow. it's been a few days. i'm slowing down in my "no computer, no phone, no readily available email" old age. or something.

friday night i went out to catch tara jane o'neil play with papa m. it was at this museum/gallery thing, and it was a very packed little bitty show (packed meaning the place was full, not that there were 600 people there). tara jane played an awesome set, and then proceeded to play banjo and extra guitar for the papa m set, also doing background vocals. a good evening of what could only be defined as "kentucky post-rock."

we then met up with allison and headed over to scott's house for a little bit. guy got tired and i had to take him back to his car.

saturday was spent rocking out with my friend oran for a little bit, then hanging out with paul and matt. we did lunch and the mall. they picked up a remote for their playstation2 and some dvds and games. they may never leave the house again. after that, i headed out to a show to see second story man and my morning jacket. second story man rocked the house, as is usual, but i ended up not hanging around for my morning jacket, mainly because the smoke in the place was digging my eyes out. it's kinda hard to enjoy a band when your eyes are watering so bad it looks like you lost your best horse.

cute girl report: i saw the cute girl that works with me on campus when guy and i went out to do laundry friday afternoon. unfortunately she's got a boyfriend who also works here. drat. there's also a really cute girl that works at the coffee shop. now i'm faced with the dilemma of engaging someone that's taking my order in actual conversation. i can imagine it would go something like this:

her: what can i get you today?
me: i'll have a medium mocha. would you like to go out sometime?
her: mocha it is. do you want whipped cream on that?
me: drat. no…no whipped cream.

ahhh…the endless pitfalls of the heart.

last night after work, i headed over to guy's place to hang out, eat some dinner, and shoot the shit. we cooked up some spaghetti and hung out for a while, talking about our various girl troubles and everything else. conversations with guy are always terribly interesting because we both have an insane proclivity to go off on wild tangents that somehow always loop back into what we were originally talking. huge looping stories that elicit other stories and cracked comments and who knows what else. then there's also the points we both hit, sometimes, when we look at the other and say "what was i talking about?" typical.

we talked for quite a while, after dinner, then headed to the grocery to pick up some ice cream, yogurt, starburst jellybeans, or whatever. then we camped back out at his place, listening to whatever and complaining about women. isn't that the way it always goes?

code red may be effectively dead, but you should keep your eyes open for nimda. that one is lookin' pretty nasty. early warning may help this situation, though. i'm fairly certain most people that were affected by code red are not eager to have it repeat.

i'm still working on securing pre-paid cell phone access to be able to communicate with the outside world.

and if you have any spare motherboards, processors, powerbook g4s, ram, video cards, or audio cards laying around…please . i seriously need to build a new computer real quick-like.

from ben:

hey guys…
here are some photos from last week's disaster. Some are from my roof top, some are from ground level just a few blocks from the whole thing the following day (the 12th).

as per the link, you can find those pictures here. some of them (most of them) are rather large, so they might take a couple of seconds to load.

a good weekend. that it was. i feel a little guilty for having such a pleasant weekend in the face of everything that spins around us in the world, right now, but i think everyone deserves whatever measure of happiness they can claim.

i didn't really do much. i hung out with guy and had a late lunch. we looked at guitars. we went to the skateshop to see if our friend sean was working. he wasn't, so guy called him. sean tipped us off to a big cookout thing out at his girlfriend's parents' house. we rolled all the way out to lagrange, ky and spent an evening cooking smart dogs on the campfire and eating amazingly delicious baked beans. we swung on a rope out over the lake (not jumping in, due to it being kinda chilly out), trying to top each other on what outrageous method we would use to swing as far as possible out there, even launching from the top of the nearby picnic table.

i was amazed by how many stars you can see in the sky when you're a good 20 miles outside of town. it was a nice night, staring at stars, talking to new friends. a very nice evening.

but what about the rest of the world? i was involved in a conversation at the skateshop about local islamic owned businesses. someone asked about omar's gyros. the comment leveled after that was "omar's flying the flag. he's spooked." where i support omar's decision to fly the american flag outside of his business, i wish it were just to show his support for the country and those who had their lives snuffed short. but the second part, about omar being spooked, just isn't right. we live in a land of freedom. we live in a land that, ideologically, should be opposed to discrimination of any kind. i am constantly amazed that racism still persists in this "free" society of ours. it shows ignorance and poor education. it shows fear and cowardice. omar should have no reason to be spooked. he should not have to fear for himself, his family, or his business. omar may be of arab descent, but omar is an american. it makes me sick that instead of uniting as a country that has always been a "melting pot," we're squabbling amongst ourselves and discriminating against our friends and neighbors.

omar is a good man. he's a business owner. an american.

and he makes the best damn falafel you'll find in this city.

okay…so the nightmarish week that has transpired for the entire country is just a bit too much to write about, at this point. so let's start small…

guy and i were looking at various websites the other night, when we got distracted by the tv and it's endless coverage of the ongoing disaster/investigation.vigils/etc. we leave the computer running and watch tv for a few minutes. we go back to the computer and bam. dead.

i proceeded to try to troubleshoot the problem for a while, only to discover: yep. it's dead. motherboard or processor is fried. ain't that a bitch? well…i hung out with guy for the rest of the night and then went home. i hooked up the mac to try to dial in and check my email. no dice. no dial tone. no phone. totally….gone. yep…the phone got turned off. don't ask.

so…making lemons into lemonade, i'm at the library, looking for some more books to read as i have suddenly been shot into the realm of lud. ain't this a blast?

i decided not to trek up to chicago this weekend. i was supposed to be in nyc (thank god i'm not, but i'd still like to be there to help out in any way possible), but i thought maybe a trip to chi-town might be nice, instead. no dice. decided against it. i was still thinking of going as i began typing this, but i decided against it because i'd have to drive home after the show (hey mercedes at the metro. go!), because i have to work tomorrow. i'm exhausted just entertaining the idea.

she still won't return my calls. i told her i was going to new york. i don't recall if i told her when, but she didn't even call, just to make sure i was okay. some people.

as bad as life seems, right now…i still have my health, which is more than a lot of people can say.