i just uploaded a bunch of new images to the gallery, some old stuff (like brian's and my trip to Chicago in 2000, pictures i only recently unearthed when trying out Picasa), and a lot of new stuff from recent trips to visit family, and from other various things (like my self portraits from my portfolio and "matt reads his favorites" sessions).

also, i presented the list of potential names to the guys, and, aside from Rob's abstention because he didn't like any of the names, we narrowed it down a bit. here's the revised list, with explanations of what the names mean (where necessary):

i'll give 'em this list next time, and we'll see if rob, brax, or jim comes up with any alternatives, then we'll cull the list again.

jesus, it's been a long day. (see technically, this is still the 22nd for me, so this is Saturday's post).

i finally decided (thursday) to take Sara up on her suggestion, and join her running team. now, mind you, i have no intention of running any races, or doing any of that really crazy stuff. if it's raining or snowing, my ass will be sleeping. but nevertheless, i got up at 8 am, donned my newly purchased running apparel (with that fancy "water-wicking" fabric, bought on sale at Tar-jay), got my ass down to the track at Seneca park, and proceeded to run/walk 3.something miles. ouch. my thighs still hurt.

afterwards, we went out for a celebratory breakfast at Bob Evans–her celebrating that i finally got off my ass and exercised, me celebrating that i did so and didn't keel over from a heart attack. then we went home for about… oh, five seconds… then ran out to meet our realtor to look at a condo and a house we were interested in getting second opinions on. her dad joined us, to help give us advice. turns out, both places were really not great, so we're now moving on to other possibilities. with each additional "unnacceptable," we're moving farther out from the epicenter of our target area, but y'know, there's not much we can do about that without winning the lottery or something. next step, a place sort-of out by bowman field.

i also finally got my papers from the military, and it looks like i'll not be eligible for the VA loan i was kind of holding out a dim flicker of hope for. so, now we gotta find out what exactly we qualify for. then, the "real" search begins.

after that, we chilled at my place for about… 15 minutes, then headed out to a birthday party for her little five-year-old niece. food, family, and er… fun-ish.

the last stop of the night was a birthday gathering for the inimitable puffin, at ZA's. we hung out until the early-to-bedder's (including my lovely fiance) had to beat a retreat, then proceeded to make fun of the ska and rap bands that set up to play a show. we were all getting pretty soused and having a good time, none moreso than neil.

a highlight of the evening was getting to hang out with brian for the first time in god-knows-how-long. but really, the whole evening was great, and i think the puffin could hardly have asked for a better birthday celebration. good food, good drink, good friends, and bad bands.

loverly.

oh, and my thighs are still sore.

i don't remember if i've mentioned it here yet or not, but my band Lucifigous Prick–which was a three-piece, then a four-piece–is now a three-piece again. we realized that the addition of the drums was taking the band's sound in a direction that we didn't want Lucifigous Prick to go… which is not to say that we didn't like the new sound, but it just wasn't what we wanted to do with LP. we toyed with the idea of breaking up or going back to a three-piece, until we realized that we could have the best of all worlds if we just split stuff into two separate projects. So now, we've got the original Lucifigous Prick line-up, and… the new band, which, after 4 months or so, still is unnamed.

still unnamed, and "in the studio" nevertheless. we're currently recording our 10(ish) songs under the able guidance of Jason Loewenstein, and have, in fact, gotten them mostly in the can already. pretty much just vox & mixing left, then we'll be ready to put out whatever it is we end up putting out under whatever name it is we end up stumbling upon.

in that vein, i thought i'd bounce a few ideas off of you guys. i had a previous list that i seem to have misplaced, but i was just thinking of some new ones last night, perhaps you all can pitch in and give us some more idee-s. oh, and the band's sound is still dark (not goth, not death metal, but dark) but more heavily rock centric than the Prick.

some possibilities:
Emergent Intelligence
Emerging Intelligence
Emergent

Construct
ConstructDestruct
DestructConstruct

Study of Human Behavior
Studies in Human Behavior

Anthropomorphize
Anthropomorph
Anthro

Extravasate

Go the Spoils

By the Victors

Obfuscate

(from Medical terminology/disease names)
Criduchat
Tinnitus
Hyperacusia
Dysacusia
Bradyacusia
Vestibular Schwannoma
Otitis Externa
Acoustic Neuroma
Cotard's Syndrome
Aphthae
Catarrhal
Epitaxis
Gleet
Scrofula
Scirrhus
Scrivener's palsy
Worm Fit

(general rules for suggestions, no numbers, no use of the words "black" or "red", no use of "day" or variations thereof. phrases/cliches should be obfuscated or subtle)

well, that ended up being longer than i thought, especially once i started looking up disease names… still, i invite you to weigh in, perhaps make some other suggestions.

sara & i have finally really started the ball rolling on this whole buying-a-house thing we've been talking about. we're talking to real-estate and mortgage agents, and we've been to our first open house this past weekend. what fun. and so many questions to ask & answer… do we top-end it, or bottom-line it? do we get a fixer-upper, or something we'll not need to do much work on? where exactly in the hell are we willing to live? obviously we can't afford much in the highlands, so how much are we willing to compromise on location? (in case you're curious) if anyone sees or knows of any decent houses in the 100k – 115k range in that general area, feel free to let me know. we are on the hunt in a big way at this point.

in other news, sara, in her constant struggles to get me off my lazy ass and exercise for a change, has now resorted to bribery. she's now offered to get me "whatever MP3 player" i want, if i'll join the running team she's on and at least walk with the walking contingent. it is a tempting offer. so far, i've narrowed down my choices to either: the iRiver H340, or the (no surprise here) iPod.

Here's how it breaks down for me so far:

if anyone can think of any pros or cons i missed for either of these two, or has any specific thoughts/suggestions either way, please post a comment and help me make up my mind.

wow…today has been incredibly eventful.

first i found out that the live hot snakes 7" they were selling on their most recent tour was, in fact, a peel session. not only that, but it was the last peel session ever. wow. i found all this out after kurp sent me an email to let me know that they were selling the 7" on the swami records merch site. after some begging and pleading, i was able to find someone who could order it for me (i have no credit/debit card). so…that was awesome. i'm happy.

add to that the fact that i won a contest over on jim lee's blog. i am walking out of that deal with a very rare, retailer only copy of batman #608. it has a different cover than the normal edition and goes for $400-500 on ebay. super awesome! not only is jim lee one of my favorite comic artists of all time, but he's a super swell guy. wow.

something i forgot to mention yesterday was that i spent most of my weekend putting together a dvd of nirvana's 1993 mtv live and loud performance. i made new menus and even added a couple "hidden" extras. i'm quite proud of it. you can download it via bittorrent from here (you'll have to register for the site). that's a raw dvd folder that you'll have to burn onto dvd with a (shock!) dvd burner, but you should be able to play the dvd from your hard drive with just about any dvd player software (does windows media player support dvd now?).

wow. i'd call this a pretty decent tuesday.

wow…it finally happened. the nirvana box set came out today. i was thinking some sort of extinction level event would happen this morning before the thing actually had a chance to make it to market. i'll probably buy it this weekend after getting paid. it'll be my one splurge on myself before descending into the suburban combat that is "the holidays."

to be honest, i've had the music portion of the box set for a few days now. i'll still buy it, though. i really want the book and dvd that the set comes with.

we're playing a show on december 11th at dutch's tavern with arch and ronnie mack. this is cool, since billy has been playing drums for ronnie mack for a little while, now. nothing better than playing rock and roll shows with your rock and roll friends.

i've had to type this entry twice now and i still haven't been able to come up with anything else important to post. maybe tomorrow…

whoa. i fell off the posting wagon for a little while there. my apologies. i'm back in the saddle, though…never you fear.

i spent the weekend up in chicago seeing the pixies. man…that was one awesome show. i'm just stoked they played "hey." that was probably the highlight of the show for me. they closed with "vamos," which was chock full of guitar shenanigans.

we're playing a show on saturday. it's our first official all-ages show, so i'm kinda excited, i guess. it'll be interesting to see what the "kids" think of the L&N sound. we may or may not be playing some new material.

next week…thanksgiving. the girl and i are still debating on what we're actually doing. i think we're driving to owensboro, but that changes every other time i talk to her. i figure i'll find out the night before and we'll go from there.

halo 2 is sucking up a lot of my free time. i've almost completely abandoned gta san andreas in favor of sitting on blaine's couch, blastin' fools over the internet. is it odd that i have an xbox live account, yet i have no xbox or even a copy of halo 2?

firefox 1.0 was officially released on tuesday. i recommend that everyone go and download it. it will change your life for the better.

unfortunately, i botched my install of it, last night. i'll have to completely nuke my profile (for firefox) and start with a clean install when i get home tonight.

i'm also working on a dvd of this nirvana show. if anyone has a high quality video file of this performance or the rehearsals please let me know. or, more to the point: gimme gimme gimme.

seth and i were talking last night about how we wish that someone would release a comprehensive dvd (or dvd set) of all these assorted nirvana mtv performances. and is it too much to ask for dvd versions of Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! and 1991 – The Year Punk Broke? i mean…shit. someone needs to get on the ball. with the new box set coming out, they should have all of this shit ready to go on the swanky dvd format.

actually…there's this entry on amazon which is interesting. it says it's not planned, but they'll email you when it is released. it also says "You'll also be voting for this release; we'll let the studio know how many customers are waiting for this title." interesting. now…just need a few hundred more people besides me to sign up and we'll be on our way.

top 3 drum intros ever:
1. when the levee breaks – led zeppelin
2. paradise city – guns 'n' roses
3. scentless apprentice – nirvana

the brian death watch: i'm still alive. you can't have my guitar yet.

jon made a liar out of me and posted the hot snakes review shortly after i made the post about him not posting it.

post post post? post! post post post, post post.

still not getting the amount of sleep i would prefer. i don't know how to combat this early waking bullshit. i've started doing little things like shutting the cat downstairs so she can't wake me up…no dice. i still wake up. there's no cause, just bam! awake. it's driving me nuts. nuts, i say!

it appears paypal is having some serious issues. i'm really glad i found out about this yesterday, right after i won an ebay auction. great. two days now and i haven't been able to access the site, at all. splendid. keep up the great work, paypal!

blaine and i went up to spring street for some wings and a few pitchers of beer. this ended up leading to a long discussion about just about everything in life, but mostly fathers. as blaine is about to become a father, i can see why he was down to talk about that type of stuff.

other than that, i've just been watching a lot of tv…

jon finally posted my new hot snakes review. i know it's short, but it's about as "to the point" as i could get it. if you don't own that record, go buy it now.

now…on to office politics…

dear customer service rep,

your pal,
brian.
high speed data department

other than that, i got nothin'. i've been watching too much tv, lately. i think it might have something to do with that fancypants cable box i just got installed. yep. i think that might be it. something tells me having every fucking channel our cable system offers and a dvr box to record shows that i would otherwise miss…yeah. i think that might be a problem.