Why doesn't anyone else seem to hate itunes as much as I do?
I hate that I have to use this program. I know there are other programs that I can use, and I do, but the problem is that I like the 'genius' feature and if I plug in my ipod to my computer it deletes everything. I hate the fact that I can't just drag and drop folders of music onto itunes. All of my music has just been deleted for the 3rd time in as many weeks.
I'm going to just say it: I hate apple's mentality that computing and the transfer of data has to be 'cute' or 'cool' or 'proprietary'. I grew up with drew building computers, installing 9600 bps modems as an upgrade. Dos was logical. If you want the elitist sensation that an apple provides, just learn linux. I don't care that when I delete something it makes a 'fun' animation, I just want to make sure its deleted, not from the 'library', but off of my computer.
This is what happens when the focus switches from 'function' to 'design'.
So, if you want to spend 2500+ on a new mac that makes you look super cool when you check your email, twitter, or vlog, go for it. Then, when it comes time to upgrade and you don't have any options and it costs you more than most car repairs, I'll be laughing, as I swap out the broken part with a spare one someone has lying around their house.
Sure there are problems, and pc's are frustrating too, but I hate hate Itunes.
Well, i picked the worst economical time to move back to the states. I'd post more, but all my spare internet time is spent looking for work in/around Richmond. If you can relieve me of this stress, please let me know. I will work just about anywhere/do just about anything.
After I get this taken care of I will post about the inauguration and how cold cold can be.
I would recommend buying 'put' stock options on apple (aapl) because it looks like steve jobs is dying, or steve jobs looks like he's dying. Either way, it's down almost 7% after hours and i'm sure it'll keep going down for a couple days because he's taking leave as the ceo. All i'm saying is that a properly invested 1000 could be 3000 in 2 days if you know what you're doing and i am in no way qualified to give that advice. my prediction is that its below 75 a share within 2 days.
also, did bernie mac die? I was looking at martin show clips and one said 'bernie mac r.i.p.'
i did stumble on a chris tucker standup where he talks about how there could never be a black president because he would have bbq's and shoot people, he was 20 at the time. Then i saw a more recent one where he 'disses lil wayne', he looked really fat, high, and the jokes weren't funny.
here's some funny chris tucker (aka the best parts of Money Talks):
I can't find the new Mates of State or any The Magic Numbers albums for download.
If you have these albums please let me know.
Also, if you've been listening to anything that has been making your ears moist, let me know.
I've been listening to the new Matt & Kim (grand vo) , Vetliver (tight knit), and the new Animal Collective cds. I think all three are a good quality showing, the Matt and Kim album is their best yet, the Vetliver is still doing quality upbeat slow jams, and the Animal Collective makes dave feel like he's doing acid. I've also been revisiting Jenjune's Afternoon Malady, one of my repeat plays when i was 17. It's basically Rockinghorse Winner but with some street cred.
Other than that, I've been applying to jobs, looking for a place to live, looking at graduate programs, relaxing at the parents, and generally trying to get life set up.
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Now playing: Matt & Kim - I Wanna
via FoxyTunes
For a handful of solid personal reasons I have decided to return to America. I will miss Egypt, or most of it, the friends that I made there, the kindness I was shown, the people I met, etc. My experience there has left me changed, if even in a small way, and I will be forever grateful. I don't get as anxious about a lack of personal space, quality of air, and I realize how little I need to be happy. I also developed an appreciation for my country that I had all but written off. I may never want a taquito. ever. but i'm glad I can get them at any time, day or night. I'm glad I can go to a diner called 'ya'llz' and play rock band with friends until an hour after the doors are shut. It's the simple things. It's sleeping on couches and being woken up to a dog licking your mouth, but you have a bandana on your eyes because its too bright in the room so you couldnt be more confused.
Damn your super thin eyelids!
It's about friends, its about family, its about making things happen.
Right now i'm going to make it happen in richmond and i'm going to see more of my family and friends...i just need a job and a place to live.
Thanks to everyone who has seen me in the last week and been genuinely excited that i'm staying. It has meant a lot ot me.
Every single review i read lately for anything in the 'folk/alt country' genre always uses the word 'haunting' as a positive adjective.
Last night I listened to the Boss' Nebraska with friends until 5am.
It was a hauntingly good time.
It's been the longest layover ever. Fortunately, everyone here in Kokomo is great and very accommodating. This really is the place to go to get away from it all. I tried to get money from the ATM and it just shot out clam shells. THAT'S THE CURRENCY HERE! It's great, and once a week there's a town meeting around a bon fire on the beach to discuss town business.
The downside is that all the music sucks and there's about 69 guys that 'kind of' know how to play 2 songs each. if i have to hear one more cover of wonderwall or champagne supernova i'm going to go crazy. also, if i hear 'jah-makin me crazy' one more time i'm going to fork stab someone.
also, i dont like pina coladas.
i wonder if they'll really vote me off? I wonder if i'll get sent back to America?
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Now playing: The Beach Boys - Can't Wait Too Long
via FoxyTunes
Lebanon just had some 'splinter groups' launch an attack on Israel, forcing zion to fight a war on two fronts. France and Egypt are trying the diplomatic route and the US is still giving Israel more money than it gives every other country combined, thanks to military ties like Project Jericho. Meanwhile, a handful of people are taking up slingshots in a modern day David and Goliath to fight for the right to not live in refugee camps, but their homes. They don't fight for the right to control oil or global expansion, they fight for their families, their freedoms. They are outnumbered, outmanned, outgunned, outfunded, but they still give their lives. The media portrays them the same way it portrayed native americans, as savages who use dirty fighting methods. The same way slaves that rebeled where seen as gruesome murderers, Palestinians are lumped in with Al Qaeda in the minds of Americans. But when all you have to fight with is a shovel, a pickax, a slingshot, or a stick, every kill is going to be gruesome, every kill is going to make you look like you've lost your mind.
Stick me in a refugee camp for decades, marginalize my existence, take away my basic freedoms, and kill my family and i will lose my mind. Of course, one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. But if it's all about perception, maybe Hamas and friends just need a new PR firm to represent them. Remember when R. Kelly got busted peeing on a 13 yr old girl and then released Remix to Ignition and everyone was instantly cool with the peeing thing? Maybe Palestinians just need a hot album.
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Now playing: Animal Collective - My Girls
via FoxyTunes
Since my flight still isn't leaving for a while, I decided to explore outside the airport. So i put on my Ward disguise, dressed up as a pretty lady, and got to take a tour with a giant inflatable shrimp!
life couldnt be better right now. man, shrimps would look a lot cooler if they wore hats and sunglasses. this also applies to dogs, robots, and wizards but not cats or whole cooked pigs (which i see a lot of around here).
i've already been offered a job as a scuba instructor because someone mistook my glasses for goggles. i dont think that its a reputable organization based on the fact that they offered some random guy wearing goggles around in public, or so they thought. i guess it shows equal levels of dedication and insanity.
I just got this email from Dave, who rode his motorcycle in dc's nasty weather to teach inner city kids maths.
"Today while I was researching zicam loss of smell for a student who was huffing this plastic cold stick thing I discovered the word for loss of smell is "amnosia". I hope someone got a PhD for coining that."
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Now playing: The Egyptian Lover - Egypt, Egypt
via FoxyTunes
So my 16 hours layover has turned into a 22 hour layover, as the flight has been delayed multiple times. I guess i could be in a worse place, but i took a photo of me killing time at the airport. While they were refueling our plane, seen in photo, i took the opportunity to entertain the masses with my acoustic, jose gonzalez style rendition of Cheeseburgers in Paradise. Its been a day since i've slept so i got so into it that i started to cry a little. 
i thought it was funniest at the end when he starts talking about snakes and then makes up an hilarious quote.
My flight leaves in 2 hours.
Airport wifi is expensive
Dave and i made soup, it was delicious 2.0
We watched 'The Wrestler'. I found it to be dull.
My layover is 16 hours long. lame.
At least its in Kokimo
'Big ups' to all my 'dawgs' for letting me sleep on their couch, eat their food, drink their drinks, etc. I had a great time on my visit and everyone has been more than accommodating. During this trip I have wanted for nothing, except maybe more sleep. I got to do lots of karaoke, dancing, eating, relaxing, funning, etc. All of you prove that i have great taste in human beings. Great job.
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Now playing: Sean Na Na - Princess and the Pony
via FoxyTunes
Let's get personal.
I dont think i've been this conflicted since i graduated college.
I'm leaving in 2 days to go back to a third world country where I barely make enough money to survive and where my social life isn't complex(?) as it is here in the states. i'm saying goodbye to friends i've had for most of my life again, and this time its more bitter than sweet for some reason. i question how much i'm really accomplishing by being there and what i might accomplish by being here.
life seems to be a personal balancing act between 'fun/adventure' and 'safety/security.' Some people lean more toward 'safety/security' and get just enough 'fun/adventure' to be able to have something to talk about at the office monday morning. Then there's the opposite, the kids that live in squats in portland or rhode island, surviving on the excess of society.
I feel like I just ride the fence. my lack of commitment, or as i like to call it, my desire for complete and total freedom, has existed for so long i'm not sure I even know how to 'settle down'. I've always figured i'd cross that bridge when i got to it, but i have no idea if i'll ever know when i get to the bridge, or if it even exists.
i remember approaching graduating with a great deal of dread, which stemmed from everything everyone had ever told me about 'the real world'. I didnt know how i was going to support myself in 'the real world' or how to do a lot of the basic 'adult' things, like ironing. i eventually found out that the real world doesn't exist unless you want it to, or have a kid, and if you put a shirt in the dryer for a minute then wear it, its good enough.
'life is what you make it' is a pretty solid bumper sticker way to live life, but what happens when you don't know what to make?
Looking back on it, i know i've made a lot of great things happen and i've had an amazing life, but now its like i'm at a restaurant, i can't read the menu, and i'm asking everyone what they're ordering so i can get some sort of clue as to what i want. i'm also finding out that i'm not alone. very few people seem to know what to order, are just looking for a cause to fight for, or gave up long ago.
i try to focus on being happy with everything i'm dealt in life, but the problem with that is that it breeds apathy. I remember mediating on 'it's only when you see everything in life as banana peels that you will truly be happy'. it made a lot of sense at the time and provided a great deal of peace. i believe its true that our pain and sorrow stems from our wants and desires, but can happiness really come from a lack of wants and desires? I'm starting to think that a world made out of banana peels is pretty busted.
My fear is that if i commit to a place, a person, a job, that i cut myself off from all other options, thereby robbing myself of freedom. A lack of movement is an idicator of death. obviously, it seems like this sentiment is overly dramatic, but you only get one life and my youth is not something i want to waste. although, according to some, that ship has sailed and i just need to grow up.
So do I move back to the states and settle into a place for a few years, or do I keep traveling alone? Is there a middle ground?
'its about who you know' - traditionally applies to nepotism, but i think it holds true for all of life. The most valuable thing i have is my relationships with friends and family. I honestly believe that i have the most subjectively perfect friends/family and i would do anything for any of them. so maybe its not about where i am, but who i'm with and who i truly 'know'.
I've always said that richmond will be there when i get back, but if history is any indicator, i think that applies more to the pyramids.
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Now playing: Damien Jurado - Big Decision
via FoxyTunes
I have seriously been too busy to knock out a well prepared post during this trip, but here's some randomness...
i've been conflicted as to how much i'm actually accomplishing in cairo and where it will take me and if i really want to go there. after being home just a couple of weeks i want to just buy a house in church hill and try to balance keeping it real with a 9-5. part of me thinks that is giving up, another part thinks its growing up.
drew and i talked for a night about how when we were kids we thought we'd both be married by now, probably with kids. now neither of us see a good reason to make that mistake. my plan now is to just have fun until i'm into my thirties and meet a woman who was too focused on her career early on and at 35 she has decided she wants to settle down. i'd make an amazing househusband. the only flaw in that plan is that i can't iron -at all- but i fully expect science/technology to take care of that, or for her to be wealthy enough to do dry cleaning, i'll pick it up for her.
i'm going to buy a voice recorder today. i figure i have too many great ideas to let them all be forgotten because i'm too busy to write them down. for example, last night i dreamt of a trailer for the new bill and teds movie. the dream gave me enough to write a screenplay, but no tape recorder. also how funny would it be to listen to a tape recorder full of things like 'original cast...rufus hand of god...bill and ted deities...timespace rifts antagonist...shadowy character behind it all...maybe recycled footage of george carlin?'
right now i'm at my parents table with dave. we're drinking chocolate milk and daves sitting across from me watching 'welcome home rosco jenkins' and narrating the entire thing to me. occasionally he flips his computer around to show me what queen latifa is wearing.
speaking of dave and black comedies, the other day we were in macarthur mall trying to find ninja stars or shoes, and as we where going down the escalator a group of girls where going down the elevator. keep in mind these two things are about 40 yards apart and as i looked over they were frantically trying to get our attention. i nudged dave and they blew us a kiss? this seriously happened. then, the best part, is when dave caught the imaginary kiss and put it in his pocket.
i think that might have been the same night we decided to go to an all Filipino dive bar and sing dashboard confessional on midi karaoke. since that song didnt work dave sang 'since you've been gone' and i sang 'islands in the stream' with sarah carter. i love her voice, but it ended up being like that 'afternoon delight' scene in arrested development.
another good idea? peanut butter and jelly french fries.
party at my parents house-
If you're reading this and in va beach, come over to my parents house tonight. My aunt is up from georgia and my mom and her are making way too much food. My sister brought over the wii and a ton of games, and there's tons of free booze. Do yourself a favor and come over between 6 and 9.
Normally I don't post anything involving (mis) adventures with the opposite sex. Somehow it just seems...unrefined? Tacky? Personal? But i recently had a comment requesting otherwise, so...
I went over to Drew's apt last night, where we caught up, got blogged, and told jokes. Eventually Drew got hungry so we walked over to the restaurant/tequila bar closest to his place. One of the things i really enjoy about norfolk is the food scene. Since Peta has their headquarters here, there is a financial incentive to provide delicious veg fare. Sitting at one of the cocktail tables, I had a spicy steak chimichanga that was completely vegan and totally delicious. First off, I had no idea that a chimichanga was just a fried burrito. awesome. I also decided that this products marketing team has dropped the ball. how many more chimichangas would be sold if you just said 'deep fried burrito'? I also came up with the term "Texas Egg Roll" for our friends to the south, and the 'far' east.
After being there for about a while I noticed some 'talent' and made eye contact. Keep in mind that Drew has an amazing beard and every 5 minutes I'm falling into a laugh hole. Side note - one of the laugh holes started with me saying "lordy lordy look who's forty...Aint it nifty, look who's fifty...Aren't you sneaky, guess who's sixty."
Anyway, three girls walked up to our table, and one of them dropped some lame line like 'you guys just looked cool and interesting and we thought we'd just come over and say 'hi.' To which I responded, "well you guessed right. we are fun and interesting."
The woman doing most of the talking was the outgoing (read: drunk) 31 yr old lesbian. The other two were complete normals who would each be a 7-8, if you couldn't tell that they were from the eastern shore, or if you never looked at their eyes. One of them had the eyes of jim breuer and the other had one eye that was so crazy lazy that she could make eye contact with both drew and I at the same time. My other major issue was that they had come over to our table and offered nothing interesting in the way of conversation. The lesbian, on the other hand, was pretty funny and apparently worked at a tugboat captain? At one point she told drew that he had to arm wrestle her. Drew tried to bail but I encouraged the situation and, thankfully, drew won -although it was close for a while.
Eventually, the two girls with no game went to the bathroom and drew and I just left. We went back to drews, ate maple syrup and ginger snap gellato, and laughed about how funny that situation was.
I raced back from Harrisonburg in order to get to the annual Oregon Hill Christmas Caroling. I made it just in time to practice a sweet Daryl Hall and John Oates song. The entire caroling process took 4 solid hours and ended up at Ipanema for a Karaoke fundraiser for books on wheels. It started at Mamma Zu's with almost 30 people crowding the small Italian restaurant. The people paying 30 dollars for their entrees had to stand up so we could all fit inside, only to find out that we were singing Dust in the Wind and Footloose. The most notable moment was when we stopped a car, surrounded it, caroled at it, and then realized that the lady's car had just had her car broken into and was crying that snotty weird breathing kinda cry. I think Broken Wings would have been the most appropriate choice for that one.
Here's a video of us in 821 (note Tony Waste's solo at the end)-
