i've added a set from drive like jehu to transmission3000 yesterday. it's from '94 and it doesn't sound half bad. thanks to sebastian for donating it.

speaking of donations, transmission3000 is in sad need of funds to upgrade the server and for more bandwidth. if you can donate, please do.

on to the "real world"…last night was a lot of fun. i ended up coming home from work early, only to have steve and billy show up at my house shortly thereafter. we all hung out and drank beer on the front porch for a while before heading down to the bar to close the place. brooksie labelled the night the beginning of his summer, so as you might imagine, everyone got pretty drunk. fun was had, chips and salsa was eaten, and hollow threats to beat up an asshole bartender were made. all in all a good night.

the girlfriend and i slept in today, as this was her last day in town for a while. she'll be back in a couple of weeks, but it always sucks when she leaves. i'm just glad i don't have to come into work until 4 now. it gave us a little longer to hang out, even if we were doing absolutely nothing.

yeah…i'm also in the middle of 8 straight work days. this happened because i switched my schedule up so i could have fridays and saturdays off. i would complain, but…i now have fridays and saturdays off. this will help a lot when august rolls around and i'll end up being out of town or busy every frickin' weekend. hell…at least it'll be something to do.

guess i better get back to doing what they pay me for…

transmission3000 is finally back up. it's been a long, slow crawl back but at least there's a new show up. i launched the hot snakes show the other day, which i was going to do over a week ago before the site went down. either way, the site is back up now, so everyone can go over there and enjoy the music and whatnot.

matt hooked me up with the gallery script he's been using, and i've slowly been going through my various image directories and applying it. you can find the two i've completed here. that's the main gallery index, which you can get to both individual galleries through. that matt is one badass codemonkey.

sorry for the lack of posts, as of late. the girlfriend has been in town, so i've had little time to monkey around on the internet, as you might be able to imagine. we did get out to have some pizza at za's the other night. matt and sara showed up and it was a damn fine evening. we then went out and bought lottery tickets, only to not win. hey…you can't win if you don't buy a ticket.

we've also been spending time out at a variety of drinking establishments, hanging out with the various friends that we don't see often enough. the girlfriend sees them even less often, since she's moved away.

so…yeah. very little internet time. sorry about that.

i haven't finished reading this week's comics, so i haven't had a chance to review them all. expect that over the weekend.

i guess i better get back to work, or something.

yesterday i was all fired up to get mexican for lunch. we left work, went over to where the mexican joint is and…they were closed for the 4th. we were lucky that the chinese buffet didn't share their view of the celebration of our great nation's birfday. they even had a little sign in the window:

"we are open at independents day!"

well thank goodness someone was.

i ended up getting out of work two hours early, last night. it probably has something to do with the fact that as soon as i finish work tonight i'll have two hours of overtime, that's counting my early exit last night.

anyhowways…i left work and went straight down to the pralor show at the newly renovated uncle pleasants. wow. that place used to be a complete shithole and now it's really, really nice inside. we're talking downright swanky. it was a small comfort to know that it was, however, still incredibly hot in there.

after the show it was to the bar to hang out with billy, kevin and danny. i ended up getting drunk and talking about vonnegut and bukowski for a couple of hours. always a good time.

the air conditioner in my room isn't working. my room is on the third floor. do the math. i've been sleeping downstairs on brooksie's couch, while he's in texas.

even though i don't have a chance in hell of winning it, i bought $12 worth of tickets for tonight's $200 million powerball drawing. it's fun to dream. we all know that some toothless redneck somewhere in wisconsin will end up hitting the jackpot and blow all of the money on cigarettes and beer in just under a month and a half.

:::sigh:::

like i said…it's fun to dream.

been a long time without an update, so i figured i should post one. the july 4th weekend is imminent, and i'll be working through the whole thing. and it doesn't look like the girlfriend will be coming home, either. sounds like a lot of fun, huh?

transmission3000 has been down all week. it's all stemming from a server upgrade gone horribly, horribly wrong. i'm a little pissed about it, since i was right in the middle of getting the site back up to full speed. there's nothing i can do about it, though, and the best case estimate is that it'll be back up by the end of the week. which would be…uh…tomorrow. i'm not holding my breath.

i will be launching a hot snakes set from 2000 as soon as the server is back online, though.

i've got a few new reviews up over at 75 or less. we've got the new turbonegro, the reissue of uncle tupelo's no depression and the swami records sampler.

i really wish billy's parents would stop breaking their computer so that i could stop having to fix it.

apparently i had a hand in someone at the bar losing their job. she was a horrible waitress and i'm actually kinda glad. she stole money from me, after all. i will not tolerate a thief. i'm not the only reason that she was let go. i wasn't even the straw that broke the camel's back. but i was involved, to an extent.

i fucking hate being at work…

transmission3000 has been updated, yet again. i've added an at the drive-in set that we recorded back in 1999. it's one of the best quality recordings we've ever done, so if you're into that type of stuff, you should check it out. i also added a donate button to see if we can try to offset some of the expense of doing the site. some idiot somewhere said it best: "bandwidth isn't free."

the girlfriend and i went to my old roommate's wedding, yesterday. it was a beautiful sunny day, and everyone had a good time. we ended up getting a little drunk, which was fun. that's what they get for having an open bar. at the end of the whole reception thing, the old roommate was just hanging out (they didn't have a honeymoon to get off to, right away) and then she started handing out the leftover booze. we ended up with 2 bottles of merlot, 3 bottles of champagne, 1 or 2 bottles of white zinfandel and 2 24-packs of coke. yeah…we have enough to get drunk for at least the next night or three…

nothing much else happened. we passed out shortly after getting home from the wedding, then i woke up and did the previously mentioned update to transmission3000.

back to work, i guess…

it's a sad day when you realize transmission3000 is getting updated more often than my side of bipolar. i've been getting a whole slew of new shows, so i'm trying to keep it updated, over there. since i took the time to get it moved over to movable type, i figure i should make use of it and update the thing. expect shows from hot snakes, trans am, drive like jehu and jawbreaker soon.

now, back to my actual life…

i was sitting around, working on transmission3000, and my little sister called. she informed me that there were a bunch of pro skaters down at the skatepark and told me she wanted me to come down and hang out. so i cruised down there to chill for a while and ended up not finding my sister. i also forgot my camera, which proved to be a big mistake when ed templeton started doing insane disaster slides on the lip of the 13 foot bowl, right in front of me. damn.

anyhowways, i was hanging out after they got done skating, talking to the guy that's been filming them (the toy machine team) on this tour. turns out we have a mutual friend from kansas city, so we talked about that and whatever else. while we were standing there bullshitting, ed kept taking pictures of my profile. the team was hungry, so we all ended up cruising down to kashmir to get some dinner. ed ended up declaring it a "toy machine dinner," since it was the last tour stop and they were all headed home, and he ended up covering my dinner, as well. they were all really nice guys, and i ended up getting a couple of email addresses to swap some photo prints (and live radiohead shows) with ed.

the girlfriend is coming home tomorrow. she should be back before i have to leave for work, which is nice. jess (the ex-roommate/ex-girlfriend/still good friend) is getting married on sunday, so we'll be going to that.

and as of right now, i'm still sitting at work, wondering what i'm gonna end up doing when i get out of here in an hour and a half…

i spent tuesday night in owensboro with the girlfriend and her family. it was nice to be able to spend time with her, but it really makes me hate the situation we're stuck in. things didn't work out with the school she was trying to get into, so hopefully she'll be able to move back into town soon. on one hand i'm upset that she didn't get into the school she wanted, but on the other i'm glad she'll be back soon. selfish, huh?

i was up at the asscrack of dawn on monday and tuesday. i had to be in at work by 8:30am for orientation. i've completed that and now i'm a full-fledged employee of the company. no more of that temp silliness.

transmission3000 has been updated with a few new (old) tracks and the opening of the forums. go over there and bitch about new shows not getting posted fast enough.

since i was out of town on wednesday, the bought and thought got delayed a bit, but here's what I've read so far:

Dark Days #1:
I was a little late on the 30 Days of Night bandwagon. It might have had something to do with the first issue coming out while I had a comics buying embargo going. Either way, I heard all the hype about it and I was lucky enough to get a signed first printing of the trade. Well…Dark Days starts off with a bang. It moves the action to LA and a whole new realm of nightlife. I can't believe I've ignored Steve Niles, up to this point. Templesmith's art is beautiful and his vampires menacing. I expected a weak sequel, but I feel like I'm getting something just as good as the original.

Superman Red Son #2:
Millar continues kicking out the brilliance and the art is still top knotch. I like how it's a sudden surge forward, so it's just understood what the Batman and Lex Luthor (separately) have been doing. I'm looking forward to the finale of the mini and Millar's inevitable run on one of the main Superman books. With this thing selling out like it is, DC would be retarded to not let him take a stab at the character, in continuity.

HERO #5:
I was wondering how it would be possible to top the first arc, but the creative team showed me how it's done. Telling what appears, on the surface, to be a quick one issue story, they boil down the process and make the destruction of someone's life look so easy. This is seriously a book to watch.

More later as I read 'em.

note: if anyone was a bit excited when burger king announced the bk veggie, yet hadn't really gotten a chance to get one…save yourself the trouble. it tastes like dog shit. i'm not kidding. i took one bite and threw it away. it was one of the nastiest things i've ever made an attempt to eat.

i repeat: do not try to eat one. you will thank me for this, someday. you really will.

it's 5:30 in the morning. i'm sitting up, waiting to see if my cousin gives me a call, needing me to take him home. he just wandered off, trying to find some of his friends…

i had just turned in to get some sleep about an hour ago. the lights were off, i think i may have even been asleep. the phone rang. i thought it was the girlfriend calling back, for one reason or another, since i hadn't talked to her that long before. nope. my cousin. he's ridiculing me for being asleep. i can't figure out what his deal is, then he tells me he's down front. and drunk. so i go down to see what the big deal is. he was hanging with some friends and they were bringing him down. since he was in the neighborhood, he decided to wander over to my place.

he was a little upset with life. upset that he's not doing what he feels like he wants to do with his life. it hit really close to home, considering i was sitting in the car thinking exactly the same thing, the other day. i have a decent job. i have a wonderful girlfriend. yet…i don't feel like i'm doing what i want to do.

we talked about this and the fact that it's so hard to find what you really want to do in the world, these days. it's so easy to lock yourself into playing a role that might not necessarily be yours. talent and the application of those talents are two different worlds, it seems. would the world's greatest painter worry about how he would go down in history? would he fret about how to coast through life on his painting ability? or would he just paint?

my cousin hasn't called, but i think i'll still be up for a while, yet.

i added comments to transmission3000. this could be a good thing, this could be a bad thing. either way, you can now comment over there.

i had to move desks, here at work. i'm all the way on the other side of the office, right up next to the cable tv people. that whole department is staffed by fat women. the floor shakes whenever they walk. i am not kdding. i keep thinking that i've got the shakes or something, but then i look up to see one of those beasts lumbering about.

the bought and thought for this week's comics:

Exiles #28:
One of the most godawful comics I hae ever read. I will say no more.

100 Bullets #45:
Great issue. Azz and Risso amaze me every month. I'm looking forward to their run on Batman. It should kick some serious ass. Loop is finally starting to learn that chess and life are one and the same…

Alias #23:
The continuation of Jessica's origin. I like her throwing up on Thor. It was a nice touch. As long as Bendis keeps cranking out the enjoyable books, I'll keep buying them.

Ultimate Spider-Man #42:
Peter and Geldoff try to have a heart to heart. Peter realizes he hates talking to idiots. Bendis' characterization is right on.

New X-Men #142:
I bought this issue solely for the Bachalo art. Morrison's stories still don't really grab me. I thought the exchange between Sabertooth and Wolverine was just…ridiculous.

Arkham Asylum: Living Hell #2:
Ryan Sook. That's all I have to say. I really like the "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" vibe of this issue.

Wildcats Version 3.0 #10:
Dolby's first night out as the new Grifter goes a little south. I really took notice of Joe Casey during his run on Wildcats Vol. 2. Version 3.0 continues to consistently impress me.

I forgot to buy Wolverine: Snikt! #2.

now i have to figure out what i want for lunch…