Brain Dump

So right now I’m living in a condo that I haven’t quite purchased yet, and I’m looking forward to an Iceland vacation in about 5 days, and I finally cut my teeth on a wee little video project and I just ate some delicious tacos from marination mobile.

I’d like to say how it feels to own a place, but I don’t, I’m pretty sure its going to be kind of odd at first, like maybe when if my refrigerator dies and I’ll have to find a fridge repairman instead of rousting some kind of apartment manager.

I’m actually really looking forward to purchasing a garbage disposal unit. I’m going for something top of the line so I can throw in entire cornish game hens for demonstration purposes.

When GW and I get back from Iceland, I think we’re going to be throwing a holiday party of some kind, I think its going to involve macaroni and cheese.

In Iceland I’m mostly looking forward to eating various odd foods and probably hanging out atvarious bars and trying to look cool in a vest. GW bought a holga camera so there will probably be plenty of poor quality medium format pictures of me posing with a drink wearing said vest and probably flashing a vulcan hand signal of some kind.

Doing the breakfast video was pretty fun, I was initially going with something involving explosions and violence and batter exploding everywhere, but I think what I ended up with is probably better. I wanted to include Flexo and Robot Santa in the video but I didn’t make enough pancakes.

In really boring news I am hanging my blinds on Friday. There are a few home improvements I’d like to make, and maybe I’ll document them here. I want to put up garish wallpaper somewhere in that place, I just haven’t decided where.

Oh right, so the condo should close next week or something to that effect, rendering me immediately poor. Which is just about right.

Suck it Blog

I had hoped to post a non-stop energetic orgy of posts from Bothell while we were over there, but a lot of the time I was using a method I learned from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in how to sleep, in which I substituted bourbon and sugar cookies for catfood, glue and beer.

In any case, there are no real adventures to be had, despite their lack of crosswalks and excess of overly friendly theater staff. In truth, I only ventured into Bothell once, but spent a lot of time in Woodinville and Totem Lake (specifically the totally defunct Totem Lake Malls)

We did not go to the Bollywood theater nor the ice skating rink.

Fast forwarding to the present a bit, we’re now sort of squatting in my almost bought condo at the moment waiting for the deal to close and trying to figure out what to do with our garbage. The situation isn’t ideal, but at least we’re back in town.

My immediate plans are centered around purchasing some batter blasters and make a fine morning out of making pancakes. I’m also planning to go to the Tin Hat on Friday and eat some tater tots. There is a definite lack of tater tots near Bothell. But I guess you probably already knew that.

In other news, we are going to Iceland in like three weeks and I plan to video myself eating rotten shark meat. So there’s that.

October 2009 Playlist

1. Gilt Complex – Sons & Daughters

2. Big Black Car – Big Star

3. Arming Eritrea – Future Of The Left

4. Convinced Of The Hex – The Flaming Lips

5. Jeannie – Sidestreet Reny

6. Psalms 40:2 – The Mountain Goats

7. Cold Hard Times – Lee Hazlewood

8. Am I Evil? – Diamond Head

9. Genesis 3:23 – The Mountain Goats

10. Ludlow St. – Julian Casablancas

11. Goodbye Babylon – Black Keys

12. Angelika – Devendra Banhart

13. Sailing Home – Karen O And The Kids

Latest Playlists

Just catching up on a couple of playlists of stuff I’m listening to. I’m a huge fan of the new Cave Singers album, and also the new Avett Brothers album (as well as listening to their older stuff as well.)

At this very second I am listening to Ray Charles “Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music” an album whose songs I have heard a bunch of times, but have never listened to by itself.

In other news, there is a Bollywood Theater near my temp house in Bothell and they sell Samosas.

September 2009

1. Grievances – Daniel Johnston
2. Run This Town [Jay-Z + Rihanna + Kanye West] – Jay-Z
3. Uprising – Muse
4. Fight – Ben Kweller
5. Kick Drum Heart – The Avett Brothers
6. Leap – The Cave Singers
7. The Traveling Song     – The Avett Brothers
8. Things I Like To Do – Ben Kweller
9. Give A Little Love – Noah and the Whale
10. Incomplete and Insecure – The Avett Brothers
11. Daddy Sang Bass (Live) – Johnny Cash

August 2009

1. True Love Way – Kings Of Leon
2. Generator – The Holloways
3. I Want Some More – Dan Auerbach
4. Casually Finding a Torso On a Sunday Morning – Destruction Island
5. Midnight Cruiser – Steely Dan
6. Summer Light – The Cave Singers
7. Buy Me a Drink – My Life In Black and White
8. The End Is Near! – Destruction Island
9. At The Cut – The Cave Singers

For all the best of intentions

In posting that playlist I realized I hadn’t gotten around to putting one on the blog since last October. It’s actually really busy here at work and  I probably shouldn’t be blogging, however, I’m about to go home, so maybe I’m just enjoying my free time on an employer owned computer.

Suffice to say there’s a lot going on in my life right now, what with trying to launch a big project at work, attempting to get at least one personal project off the ground and buying a place, I’ve been filled with distractions. It hasn’t kept me from bloggin per se, but instead of expressing my thoughts for a small audience on the internet it makes me want to stay inside and play video games or watch clips from late night talk shows.

I’ve been thinking of writing a moving post that recaps all my other posts about when I move, but reposting something from just last March will probably make me throw up all over my keyboard, and I won’t be able to finish, so I’ll just save that for another day.

I’m working on some skits with a couple of dudes (one of whom is named Steve Perry, but you know, not the Steve Perry), and maybe we’ll shoot them. I’m not wild about creating sketch comedy, but it’s been fun spitballing ideas and singing Oh Sherry and stuff. Our only completed idea is one involving a commercial for a lawyer who specializes in suing genies for mis-granted wishes. I’ll probably update this space if the whole thing turns out.

Anyway, I just received a text message from GW stating that I have a surprise waiting for me at home, and I’m sincerely hoping it involves tater tots. (GW just started part-time at the Six Arms)

Later,

Matt

July 2009 Playlist

Mid-summer playlists always work out the best, I think.  In other news, I’m a huge fan of that Avett Brothers single. They’re playing tonight, but I’m not going.

1. Lisztomania – Phoenix
2. The Old Days – Dr. Dog
3. Hang On – Illinois
4. Dreams – TV On The Radio
5. Army of Ancients – Dr. Dog
6. Panic – Dyme Def
7. Dynamite – Son Volt
8. The Singer (album version) – The Lonely H
9. Growing Trade – Levon Helm
10. I And Love And You – The Avett Brothers
11. The End Is Near – The Fiery Furnaces

Cooked

This weekend certainly went by like a shot, I don’t have any other way to describe it. I didn’t have much in they way of plans and I ended up hanging out with my family a little more than I expected. (Note: This is a good thing)

I ended up having breakfast with my sis at the Brown Bag Cafe somewhere near Kirkland on Saturday morning, and I ordered some kind of giant scramble concoction bigger than my head and my stomache. The Brown Bag is pretty much golden for their giant breakfasts and vast array of cute waitresses. I’m pretty sure that I’m a dirty old man for even noticing them actually, just because the place seems so wholesome, but I’m assuming that there is another even dirtier older man behind the whole hiring process and I’m just some pawn in this pervert waitress hiring scheme. In any case, I recommend going there if you happen to find yourself between Kirkland and Bothell, especially if you’re lonely and have a tape worm.

After breakfast, Jamie and Scott invited me to go wine tasting somewhere in Woodinville, I think. This is something I’ve never done before, but apparently a bunch of wineries just bought a bunch of cheap space in an old industrial park and set up shop. It’s a pretty efficient way to get drunk I noted, as for 5 bucks you can try a bunch of different wines. Personally, I have no idea how these things are supposed to go, but at the last place I had like 10 partial glasses of wine, so I’m pretty sure I win at wine tastings. I came home with three bottles, 2 as gifts and another an impulsive purchase, mostly because the label had a pretty young lady on it, and it’s called ‘oooh la la syrah’. I can’t be held responsible for these types of purchases, and that’s before I went on my obscene 10 glass orgy at the last place. Apparently afterwords, we went and had lunch and I woke up later on their living room floor staring at my sister’s fuzzy bowling ball of a cat, wondering where my afternoon went.

I also watched part of a dog show there in the middle at some point, but I can’t accurately recall the entire course of events, only to say that you must try this sort of thing, especially if you have family whose floor you can crash on nearby if you get into trouble like I did. I apologize for being an amateur, but what are you gonna do?

Today I drove up to my mom’s house for a crab feed, brought them beer, and generally stuffed myself on their outside deck (affectionately termed “The Wheelhouse” even if the wheel is out for repairs).  I ended up taking home a couple of crab, some shrimp, 2 pieces of chicken, a box of sugar cookies, 6 cans of chili, and a bon appetite magazine. I guess I hadn’t been out there in a while…

Next weekend I’m going to do some more family stuff, in that my dad told me this week in no uncertain terms that I have to get rid of that Volkswagen I have parked in his carport, a thing I’ve been putting off for like the last couple of years. I think he’s just going to push it off the cliff at the edge of his property and let God sort it out if I continue to fail to do anything about it, so I’m going to clean it up and see if I can’t get it running before I post it on Craigslist or thesamba.com. Maybe I should try and swap it for a couple more VWs and see if that doesn’t help me win on a technicality.

This week is going to be busy at work and in general, so hopefully the weather will cooperate a little bit and chill the fuck out so I can have some peace. Otherwise I’ll probably just throw a tantrum.

-Matt

The Deconstruction Continues

I pretty much finished deconstructing the old television for my Zeniquarium (though the idea of owning fish has not grown on me at all), and now its time for fitting, in fact I’m just kind of wasting time here at home in anticipation of driving to an aquarium store in Shoreline to go look for some tanks that might fit inside of it.

The next step is bringing it to a place with power tools, or perhaps even renting my own, in order to create a hinged top. I’m also considering attaching some castors to the bottom in order to move the heavy bastard around. It’s already pretty goddamned heavy on its own, owing to its solid early-80s construction, I figured it would be far less heavy sans tube, but its still got some heft, and I’ll probably need a bit of a hand getting it into my car and getting it over to the aquarium store. I’ve sort of resigned myself to probably needing a custom tank, but maybe I’ll find something close to the 26×16x16 tank I’m looking for. (In doing some quick research, its fairly close to a standard 20 gallon tank, so that’s good.)

In lieu of fish, Troy suggested that perhaps I come up with some sort of action figure battle scenario inside, which I’m pretty sure would include dinosaurs vs. robots. I could also probably get some kind of reptile, but that just seems destined to be cat food.

The final step will be to create a remote controlled lighting system, either something I figure out and wire up, or maybe just a remote controlled power strip. I removed the old IR sensor today, not sure if I could easily repurpose that or not, so I’l have to do some reasearch before I can finish.

It feels pretty good to be finally putting a project together I’ve been talking about for almost 10 years (Though to be fair to my laziness, I had to wait 7 years for the TV to die.)

I’m hoping this thing gives me a bit of momentum to get into some other projects I’ve got in the hopper, I’ll post more on them later.

Spencer Moody is the Greatest

A lot now, we play these shows in front of a lot of people, and I see a lot of gross, disgusting high-school jocks in the audience. But what we do is for all the beautiful faggots, and the rest of you can all eat a big bowl of wet dicks… You think this many people get together and they’re all good people? They’re all shitheads… I may be stepping out of bounds, but all the heterosexuals in the audience, all the straights, can just turn around and face the other way.” He waited. “If you don’t turn around, I’ll accept that you’re homos, just like all of us up on the stage… Right now, we play and you all sing and cheer, but after this show, you’ll go back to your high schools and pick on the faggots and the kids in the chess club. Fuck you, all of you guys. Who do you think we were? When I went to shows, it was just faggots… I’m glad you took the time out of your day that you usually would’ve spent flat-ironing your hair, but before this band, there was a band called Iggy & the Stooges”—the audience cheered—”and you can cheer all you want, but you don’t know a fucking thing… Fuck you.” —Spencer Moody of the Murder City Devils.

via Eric Grandy

Why I am not writing here these days.

Twitter. Is the main reason, I’m not into writing long stories about adventures at the moment (not that I’ve been having many), but twitter lets me satisfy the craving for people to listen to me while simultaneuosly relieving me of any effort.

Also, I’ve started a Tumblr blog, which is a lot simpler than this thing (and is at admiralzing.tumblr.com) which sort of aggregates Google Reader shares, Twitter, this blog and Flickr together into one tight little package. I called it “Your Socks are White” because I honestly didn’t think I was going to use it, and then found out it was cool.

Things that are going on:

1. I’m starting my new job on June 1st, and am excited for that. I feel like I’m graduating college all over again.

2. I’m stupidly excited about getting a new cell phone, even if it will be like retardedly hard to get. (the Palm Pre)

3. I haven’t purchased any SIFF tickets yet, but better get my ass on that, because I think SIFF is a week shorter this year.

4. I listened that Danger Mouse + Sparklehorse album you can only get by stealing, and it is first class all the way. The first track with Wayne Coyne is my favorite.

5. I haven’t continued work on my television aquarium as I need to buy tools. I might steal one from my dad this weekend.