a few months ago, sebastian and i were joking and decided we were going to start calling people "chief" and "champ." we laughed and laughed about it, but the funny thing is…we put it into practical application. little by little, people around us started picking up on it and using it. why not, right? it's funny.

well the funniest thing happened, yesterday. i opened up a copy of entertainment weekly and starng me in the face on their "hot list" is "calling people 'chief'." i was astonished. after all that work, sebastian and i have finally gotten our due. even if it's not by name.

and yes, jimmy olsen…we are totally stealing your word. if you want to do something about it, you little redheaded punk…bring it on.

yesterday was a classic high drama day for me. i really don't know how certain things are going to end up, but…oh well. the only thing you can do is sit and wait. it's always a pain in the ass when someone thinks they know the complete story when they don't and they start shooting pretty intense accusations in your direction. that's never what you'd call "a good thing."

today is my last day off, this week, so i plan on doing as much nothing as possible. i really don't want to completely hate my job before i'm through with an entire week. that would be a mess. and i have enough messes i'm dealing with, at this point.

time for me to shut the hell up and eat my pop-tarts.

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forgotten story from yesterday: while i was sitting up in the self-serve computer services area, printing some oversizes, this crazy guy with a hook for a hand came over and needed to use a computer. no problem, right? well when i asked him his name so that i could log him in, he got all exasperated…

hook: i can type it! i can type my own name!
me: i understand that, sir…i'm just logging you in.
hook (getting exremely snippy): dude. hey, dude! i can type it!
me: alright, chief…be my guest.

i just put the password in and let him type his own damn name. he then proceeded to not know how to use anything on the computer. every few seconds i heard "hey, dude! i need some help over here!" getting increasingly more shitty. well…by this point, i was pretty fed up with mr. hook. so i just ditched him and charged him full price because the dumbass was sitting at the design station for half an hour, trying to surf the internet for hook porn or something.

yeah…fuck you, hook guy. stop calling me "dude."

(no offense to any of you out there that may or may not have a hook for a hand)

last night i went out to a big post-valentine's day acoustic showcase at the rud. quite a few people were lined up to play, but i only ended up sticking around for dennis (from blue goat war) and kelly scullin (from tha lways awesome second story man). both of them played awesome sets, with dennis whipping out a calssic dinosaur jr. tune and kelly was joined onstage by carrie, who is also in second story man. it was dandy.

and then i went to cahoots and got some chicken strips. i can't help it…i'm addicted. they're just so damn good…

and now i'm at work. bummer. oh well…ive only got another 3 hours and then i'm free for the next two days. can't beat that with a stick.

did i mention that ign sucks now? completely. they've switched over to some crappy pay service where you have to be an ultra-premium ass-lickin insider to even read a review of a frickin' playstation game. that's just plain stupid.

no concrete plans, at this point. maybe i'll rent a movie tonight…

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note to self: get back on a regular schedule. staying up until 5 or 6 am just because you don't have to be at work until 2 in the afternoon is just not a good idea. not at all.

sitting at work in the back office, blasting circa now!, and eating these weird oat bran pretzel nuggets that scott gave me. they're supposedly healthy and stuff, but they're damn tasty, so who knows? they sure do dry my mouth out, though…

did i mention that i hate pepsi? well…consider it mentioned. why am i mentioning this? because the only refreshment machine we have in this stupid building is a (you guessed it!) pepsi machine.

damn these pretzels! i'm dying of thirst!

i have been listening to the stones pretty much nonstop for the past week or so. it's kinda cool, as well as scary. i do have a copy of that new wilco record that's deserving of a few good spins…maybe i should review it for 75 or less. if someone hasn't already…

one month without a job. i finally score a job and it's driving me batshit by day 2. this does not bode well…

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it's been a slow week. not much going on. but, happily, it appears that a couple members of the old murray crew will be coming into town this weekend to hang out. it'll be the first time we've had quite this many together since jim's wedding. it should certainly be interesting.

on Saturday, we're planning a little get-together at Jim's house… the band will probably play, possibly even Old Man if they're up to it (we haven't really asked them yet, so Paul, this is me asking).

Valentine's day came and went without much difficulty, i mainly just did my best to ignore it. i'm not going to whine and bitch about not having anyone to share this "special" day with, because really, the fault lies mainly with myself. i need to get up off my lazy ass, go do some things that make me happy, and yank my balls out from where they've crawled up inside my abdomen long enough to talk to a girl (or four) that i might be interested in. one 'o these days, that'll happen. this is the year for it.

last night i finally made my first batch of turkish coffee, though i found out (did a little online research) that i really probably picked up the wrong kind of pot. i guess the one i've got is adequate, but the real ibriks depend on the wide bottom and narrow top to help "cook" the coffee (the coffee grounds sitting on top of the water form a lid of sorts that helps raise the temperature… or something like that), but the pot i picked up is only marginally narrower at the top. really though, it turned out pretty good for a first attempt. only thing i didn't have was a froth on top of the coffee… the froth got all boiled away. and i drank three of the little fuckers, so needless to say, i was pretty wired for a while last night.

well, now i've got something to fix next friday when we get back from the bar… assuming i'm lucid enough to prepare it… drip coffee is quite a bit easier to make.

ah well. that's it. that's all i got.

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sitting at work. this must be a common theme, for me. at least it's a new (old) job. change of scenery is a good thing, every once and a while, right? damn it. not nearly as good a thing as i would want it to be.

more than halfway through with my day, now. working these 8 hour days instead of the long 11 hour days i worked at the old place is gonna be a nice change of pace. except i don't have that extra day off, anymore. damn it. enough about this stupid job change.

valentine's day. what a load of horse shit, huh? it's all a corporate conspiracy to make all of us either (a) buy lots of candy, jewelry, and greeting cards or (b) kill ourselves. i'm in the (b) category.

this haircut is really starting to piss me off. it's doing that "flippy wing thing" in the front. it's drivin' me apeshit.

will you kill me, valentine?

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today is my last day of freedom. tomorrow i start back at my old, much hated job at kinko's. at least it's money. damn…the things we do for money.

last night i somehow got sucked into watching figure skating. it was 3am, and it was the only thing on tv. i tried to get up, but i ended up sitting right through it. i only turned the tv off when the speedskating came on, which i had watched earlier that evening. damn olympics.

that new adam sandler movie, mr. deeds, looks to be as funny as some of the sandman's classics, like happy gilmore and waterboy. it can never touch billy madison, so i won't even put it in comparison. nothing can touch billy madison.

last day of freedom and i don't have a clue what to do…this sucks.

time for some lunch.

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tomorrow i swallow my pride and go back into kinko's for an interview. the only thing that keeps me from getting totally depressed is my decision that this is only a temporary thing. damn you, pride…damn you.

random instant messenger conversation:

person: you have been hit with the valentine love triangle. you must send this to 10 other people or on valetines day you will be the loneliest person on earth but if you succeed you will get a gift from that special someone…
me: i am already the loneliest person on earth.

that person then decided i wasn't worth the effort.

i have decided that i completely hate sum 41 and alien ant farm. completely. as a matter of fact, i pretty much hate all modern popular music. there…i said it. when did music get so stupid?

i have it on good authority that matt has tried to leave scott, chris, and me out of his account of the proceedings of friday night. scott's response: "maybe he just didn't enjoy our company."

transmission3000 is back. it may be running kinda slow if the server gets maxed out, but hopefully that will work itself out.

hey, bob…just who is the new guitarist for hey mercedes, anyway?

fuggit…i'm sure i've got some stones to listen to, or something…

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i seem to have returned to a semi-regular practice of actually turning on my webcam, turning on the chat client, and maybe… if you're all really lucky (or not, depending on your point-of-view) of posting to ye olde bipolar.

had a fairly fun weekend (except for the Sunday that wasn't) hanging out and being social. paul and i chilled most of Friday night watching various incarnations of Trek until it was time to go get our drink on. we did the normal friday thing at the bar, meeting up with neil and BRIAN and SCOTT and their friend chris. we did have quite a bit of fun, as usual, looking at pretty girls, screwing up our courage, and… completely ignoring them. woo-hoo!
at the end of the eve, BRIAN and SCOTT and neil came over to the house so i could play that "jive" delta airlines sound clip for SCOTT, and so we could all laugh our asses off for a while. i think at this point, i was on coffee, but neil & paul were still drinking. by the end of the night, we nearly had to bury poor neil.

saturday was a lazy day, woke up and got some "kefk" (that's KFC to you phonics impaired people), and did some more chillin at the house. we (that is, my roommates and i) briefly toyed with the idea of going out for a fun night of bowling, but instead opted for a somewhat-less-fun-but-still-enjoyable evening out at the rud watching two bands we'd never heard of, looking at pretty girls, screwing up our courage, and… (you guessed it) completely ignoring them. well, except for Rachel, but she doesn't really count since we already know her and she's just really friendly anyway.

i stayed up way too late Sat. night/Sun. morn doing god knows what tinkering around on the computer, ended up slinking off to bed about 6:30 or 7 AM, and ended up sleeping until the sun was down again. boy what a waste of a perfectly good day. but nevertheless, two hours after i woke up, we had our normal 8:00pm sunday band practice, and though it got off to a slow start, we did make some progress, making the day not end up a total waste.

today at lunch i finally broke down and bought a turkish coffee set (sort of) from a Russian grocery near a place my work crew frequents, so hopefully, once i get off my ass and down to the "real" grocery store to buy some sugar (note to self: add sugar to grocery list, you moron.), which we've not had since we moved in back in May of last year…. well, then i'll be able to have some real turkish coffee, just the way Arslan used to make. now if i could only make Baklava and kebabs (A.K.A. gyros), i'd be set (and fat) for life. I do have a recipe for Sarma, which i hope to break out here sometime soon… perhaps that'll be turkish coffee & sugar night as well.

oh, anyway, i've got shit i want to do tonight, and at this point, i think i'm using this blog as a crutch to avoid "work." hep me jeebus. i thank i just self-revelated.

g'night.

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we've finally hooked the dsl back up, here at casa di…chichester? its not really the bipolar house anymore, without matt. hrm. anyway…we're now enjoying blazing fast internet access and wondering…"how did we live without this?"

just to flex those bandwidth muscles, i'm downloading royal tenenbaums. not that i'm intentionally breaking the law, or anything…

scott and i met up with chris, matt and paul last night, up at the back door. a few pitchers of beer were drank. quite a few beam and cokes by the matt. we hung out there until they kicked everyone out, then we headed over to matt and paul's to listen to this. it still makes me crack up, even after hearing it a hundred times or so. in a row.

today was a pretty lazy day. i hooked up the dsl and got it running while scott was out at band practice. then scott and connor came back to the house, and we headed out to the record store and za's for calzones.

we ended up at the irina show, which started incredibly late. the panic button played their first show tonight, and they were really good. connor kept calling them "gang of four meets santana." i think the santana elements were more subdued than that, though. but what the hell do i know? your black star played, turning in an awesome set that i thoroughly enjoyed, regardless of the fact that i was sitting in the side room about to pass out asleep.

then irina played. best joke all night: a friend of irina asked steve "hey…how did you train that bear to play bass for you?"

i understand that you will only get that joke if you've ever seen irina. so…nevermind.

now it's late, i've finished downloading an assload of stones songs, and i'm bored and tired. i think that calls for me to go to bed.

what the hell else do i have to do?

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i've now been getting shit from all sides (er… well, from brian and nathan, anyway) to get off my ass and post. so here goes…

well the french project is done. i got all the lessons digitized, encoded, and burned to a disc, so now i can listen to it at work without having to drag my cassette player with me everywhere. at this point, i've just worked it into a playlist, set it on random and let it go. so i get my favorite music with french language instruction sprinkled in. i'd thought about trying to run two different music players… one for my music and the other for the language, and trying to get music & french at the same time, but i really don't think my poor machine at work can handle it. especially considering the usual heavy load it's working under. ah well, i think the current arrangement works well enough. now i just need to get off my ass and actually do the damned exercises the way they're supposed to be done, i.e. with concentration and determination. the whole "subliminal learning" thing doesn't really seem to have had any major impact on me.

we (that is, the band) have been playing around with our new recorder the last couple practices, and even the very first "practice" recording is 10,000 times better than what we achieved with that crappy old Tascam 4-track. once we get the hang of tracking out and mixing down songs, i think we'll have some damn good results. keep your eyes here, as we get good recordings, i'll probably upload a couple and link 'em so you guys can give me some feedback. in other band news, i think i may have a professional web designer creating a design for the new band site. my co-worker, proprietor of arteye.com, and all-around kick ass graphic designer Jason has offered to create something for us. quite frankly, i'm so excited i could just shit myself… but i'll try not to.

have you been watching enterprise? no? well, you should be. the new Trek is damned good. i'll be the first to admit that Jolene is very hot. but Jolene is only part, and a small part at that, that makes this show watchable. is it Trek? yes. is it good Trek? hell yes. is it good TV? hell fuckin yes. i can't stand 90% of what's on TV right now, and for about the past 3 years or so, i've hardly watched any tv, Trek included. well, this show has given me a new appreciation for the franchise. (and the fact that Paul watches DS9 like it's going out of style doesn't hurt either)
for a first season show, and a new cast of low-profile actors, this show really fuckin rocks. i would have to say this is probably the best, most consistently well-acted and well-written first season of any i've ever watched. these people have come to grips with their characters remarkably quickly, and there have been some great character development episodes that allowed them to do so. the most notable characters (and actors) thus far, in my opinion, are the doctor (dr. phlox), tucker (the engineer), and reed (the armory officer). of course, Scott Bakula is really good, the only reason he's not on my list is primarily because of the occasionally overly dramatic way he plays his character. he's gotten much better since the first episode, he's definitely becoming more comfortable with the character, but still at times his delivery of lines sounds more like he's reading them than speaking them "naturally." it sometimes feels too much like he's acting the part, not that he is that character.
to sum up this little geek fest here… if you're a Trek fan, you have to watch Enterprise–it's vying for the title of best all-around series in the franchise. if you're not a Trek fan, but you are a sci-fi fan, you should watch the show. if you're not a sci-fi fan at all, but you like good stories & characters (90210 watchers need not apply), then you really should check out at least an episode or two. and now's a good time too! there's a huge buzz surrounding next week's episode. all the actors involved are raving about it, fans are giddy with anticipation (mostly because of the actor's comments, i'm sure), and the episode preview did look very promising. (though, now that i'm thinking about it, i really hope this isn't the long rumored "Malcolm Comes Out of the Closet" episode…)

ok. i think that's enough for one post. i really need to get some better blogging habits… anybody out there have any to spare?

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