asimplechord: (Default)
~ Soundgarden. They played the Bayou Music Center Friday night. It was an okay show. IDK, Ben Shepherd was phoning it in, the guitar didn’t sound crisp (I’m not sure if it was Thayil’s playing or the sound system), and they need to either project stuff or have a light show, not both. The song choice was good until the very end, when instead of performing something like Outshined or Slaves and Bulldozers or basically ANYTHING upbeat, they performed Like A Suicide and Rowing. Most. Depressing. Songs. Ever. I had tickets to the show in Austin on Saturday, but didn’t feel like making the drive for a lackluster repeat.

+ The Hush Sound. River City Extension opened for them. I’m perplexed about why they were all shirtless, and I thought they used to have more members, including an actual trumpet player? But I like their music and energy. Did not care AT ALL for Hockey. Just, boring lyrics, too much 80s influence, weird vocals effects.

+ The French Open has begun! This is great, as we ‘ve reach the point in the season where there is no longer hockey every night. I’m excited to see if Sharapova can repeat or if Serena will maintain the stranglehold she’s had on clay this spring. And if Rafa’s return takes him back to the finals.

~ Work stuff. I applied to a couple of jobs in Chicago this weekend. And updated my past employers, since they will probably be contacted by future employers. It’s weird; my thesis advisor has been sitting on a paper for 13 years, not doing any work on it. She’s a serious procrastinator. When I applied for faculty positions back in the day, I got notices from various institutions that they’d love to interview me but they were still waiting on her letter of reference. You can imagine how much I appreciated that. So I emailed the prof the other day expecting to get zero response, but she replied WITHIN ONE DAY. And she’s got a student who’s interested in the subject of that last paper, so it MIGHT ACTUALLY GET PUBLISHED SOME DAY. It’s been so long, and other papers have been published on the topic, so what I wrote will have to be re-evaluated. But it might not hide on a shelf forever. I’m excited about that!

+ Star Trek: Into Darkness. I didn’t have high expectations for this movie, because it’s Star Trek. The even-number movies always suck. But I enjoyed it for what it was, despite some annoyances, particularly the flip in Kirk’s and Spock’s roles between this movie and original The Wrath of Khan.

+ Lagunitas' Gnarlywine. Delicious. I'm not always a fan of Lagunitas, but I'd drink this one again. But probably not much of it, because at 9% alcohol it knocked me on my ass.
asimplechord: (Default)
Watching last night's Badgers/Seawolves game, because we had plans.

When UW's Tyler Barnes scored and the guys all piled into each other to celebrate, A turned to me and said, "That's why they wear full cages: because otherwise they'd all be kissing right now."

...


Yeah.



Unrelated: whose idea was it to drink multiple mojitos and only eat a couple of pieces of sashimi and half a spicy tuna roll? I need so much more coffee before I am functional.
asimplechord: (Default)
+ Attended the The Draft Festival this weekend. It was pretty mellow, but probably the best organized microbrew fest I've been to in the last couple of years. There were plenty of breweries present, with an emphasis on locals. In addition to the French Canadian Marrieds, another colleague and some friends went, so we had a good group, but I am the most anti-social, and by the end of the day, I really just wanted to go be by myself for a while instead of continuing social interaction.

? Science geekery: A and his co-workers are going to put together a Fantasy Chemistry Publication league. They've already worked out how many weeks it will run, which journals will be worth what points, scores relating being the first author/corresponding author/etc, and whether continued publication in the same journal deserves continuing reward or diminishing return since it indicates familiarity with the editors. NO, REALLY, I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP. COULD THEY BE ANY MORE RIDICULOUS?

+ Thanksgiving is this week! That means that it is birthday week, and [personal profile] jmc_bks and I will cling! On the downside, that means that the hated shopping holiday season is also upon us, as well.

+ LOLLLLL. (Look, I need a laugh when it comes to NHL news right now, okay?)
asimplechord: (Default)
+ Last weekend when we went to SATX for the family ~thing, StepMom loaned us the DVDs for all seven seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Time to marathon a season or two?

~ Work is work. Two post-docs are on maternity leave + Student defends his masters thesis next week, so we're experiencing temporary shrinkage. We're hiring a technician to help with some chores and animal care/characterization (b/c the one thing I stipulated when I was hired was no animal care. ever.) and I'll have a summer undergrad, so we'll be full-up again soon.

~ I finally finished the March bookclub book, The Thirteen Tale. Eh. Sort of gothic mystery, Jane Eyre meets... IDK, Rebecca? I was not impressed. It took multiple instances of picking-up and putting-down before I settled into it, and the ideas expressed about twins irked me. Like, REALLY. I don't care if it was supposed to be early 20th century psychology of twins, it was just lame. a) Don't compare non-twinned people to amputees, missing something they need; if they never had a twin to begin with, they don't know they're missing anything, unlike an amputee. (The narrator's ~issues feel sort of inflated, and I know she has them to parallel what the Missus thinks re: twins, but if she hadn't been a sneak and found info as a kid, would she ever have known? I doubt it.) b) Don't act like there's some amount X of empathy that an embryo has in the womb, and if all of it goes to one twin then the other won't get any. Physical =/ emotional. Also, if pyschology DOES have some basis in genetics, identical twins start with identical genes. Someone's got some weird ideas. But I did enjoy the way, in the story within the story, the narrator's pronoun choice signaled shifts and gave clues to the ultimate outcome.

+ Apparently we are brewing beer this weekend? There's still imperial stout on tap, but the double IPA didn't age well. Whatever, as long as I don't have to be the person organized and alert at 8am on my day off, I don't care.

+ New music! AAR's album, Empires' EP, and The Used album all dropped on Tuesday! Anyone else I'm missing? I'm sure there is. I feel like my twitter feed was pretty chatty about this topic earlier in the week.

~ I feel like there was something else I was going to say... maybe about tennis? Rafa + Daveed both made it to the QFs at Miami. The Williams sisters lost, but I was super impressed that Venus made it as far as she did, and have high hopes for the rest of her season. And I'm hoping that Sharapova delivers a smackdown to Wozniacki today. Even as I type. Or... IDK, maybe that Electric Touch is at HOB tomorrow, and I haven't decided if I'm going to go see them or not? Memory, the first thing to go!
asimplechord: (Default)
In an effort not to rant about the House Oversight Committee a bunch of old, relatively wealthy dudes (who receive government-sponsored health care) not allowing any female testimony on birth control provision by insurance policies in the US, I'm thinking about plans for the weekend.

Saturday, before seeing Richard III at BAM, I should go hang out at Brooklyn Brewery and drink alllll the beers, yes?
asimplechord: (no sitrep)
+ There should be a countdown on my phone:

11Oct - PWTs, Houston HOB
18Oct - Panic/Patrick, San Antonio
19Oct - Panic/Patrick, Austin
20Oct - Panic/Patrick, NOLA
21Oct - Jack's Mannequin, Houston HOB
22Oct - Buzzfest, Houston (Bush, Evans Blue, Chevelle, Filter, etc.)
28-30Oct - Voodoo Experience, NOLA (28th - Soundgarden, My Chem, Fitz & the Tantrums, the Wombats, Mates of State, Ani DiFranco; 29th - Social D, blink-182, Snoop Dogg, Girl Talk, XX; 30th - The Raconteurs, TV on the Radio, Fatboy Slim, Cheap Trick)
31Oct - Panic/Patrick, DC
3Nov - Panic/Patrick, Philadelphia
4Nov- Panic/Patrick in Sayreville OR Frank Turner in Philadelphia

Theoretically, I should be completely done the last round of experiments for a paper by the Texas Disco dates, but I guess we'll see. Things never work out quite the way I hope, in terms of timing. I'm taking off for them and for Voodoo + a trip to the east coast for Discos and family-time whether or not the paper is submitted. Already requested leave.


- How does a president who has received the Nobel Peace Prize justify continued support of a government that sentences its health care workers to years of imprisonment for doing their jobs? Oh, yeah, the Fifth Fleet. That explains that. /cynicism

(On a related note, holy hell, the twitter sniping going on at Jeremy Scahill for his critique of the Awlaki assassination... O.O)


- A teeny, tiny fire ant bit me on the foot at BestFest last Saturday. (I squished it viciously in retaliation.) It itched for a few days, but that subsided. Now a purply-red welt the size of a penny surrounds the raised, darkened spot of the original bite. This cannot possibly be normal... Is it?


+ GameDay for ESPN is in Madison this week for the big red battle. It is entirely possible that we will be homebodies on Saturday night so we can watch Wisconsin play Nebraska at Camp Randall. I cannot even IMAGINE what the stadium will be like - it was crazy enough for the rare night game (I think we played Purdue and Oregon at night while I was there) but for it to be such a good match-up, ranking-wise, and for GameDay to be there (I think they only came to UW for the Michigan game back then)? State St will be soooo rowdy, OMG.


+ Sign-ups for [livejournal.com profile] yagkyas are open! Go on, you know you want some.


+ It's been that kind of week at work. I believe I am going to go drink some Stone 15th Anniversary Black IPA. Mmmmm.
asimplechord: (no sitrep)
+ The grant is submitted, so at this point there is absolutely nothing that can be added to my work to-do list. This is a good thing.

+ We brewed (I say that, but really A brewed today, a wheat IPA, while I cleaned), and smoked a brisket (beef: not my thing, but it's his, so whatever), and instead of being social, we're going to hang out at our house tonight. Friends are having a party, but one of the people involved pissed me off: last week he told me that my ink "looks nice in comparison to most prison tatts". Uh. Yeah. My response: you are drunk, so I'm going to point you toward your wife (who was also annoyed, b/c he was the designated driver for the evening) instead of shoving my beer and my fist in your face. I just. Yeah. Lots of people comment on my ink, people I know and strangers alike, and mostly it doesn't bother me; I'm patient about explaining what it means if they ask. But for an acquaintance to deliver what he probably meant as a joke in his drunk mind but came off as insult? When he's been semi-insulting to me about them in the past? No. I'm done. He can fuck right off.

+ Mmm, banana bread with pecans.

+ Tropic of Chaos by Christian Parenti. Interesting topic, but a book published by someone who writes for The Nation? I expect to be copy-edited well enough that the South American nation's name is appropriately spelled. Colombia, not Columbia.

+ NCAA lacrosse finals on my TV. MD/VA. Totally making me want to write more about Brad/Nate in the college AU. Y/Y/MFY?

+ Rafa/Nole tomorrow. Breakfast at Wimbledon? We might even have some strawberries to mix with cream.

+ Fireworks Monday at Tinsley Park. We'll probably hang out at the Flying Saucer beforehand, if anyone wants to meet for beers and then walk over by the Allen Parkway.
asimplechord: (half-faded)
+ J is going to visit in October. \o/

+ I've flailed about Rise Against before. There are no heart-eyes big enough to express my love for this band. Seriously. Tim McIlrath was on HLN's Showbiz News the other night before the MTV premiere, and he's blogged about this song and its video, which was a collaborative effort with the It Gets Better project.

+ I had something to say about songs that are popular right now (including some of Rise Against's and Lady Gaga's Born This Way) vis a vis 33 Revolutions Per Minute, but my brain is fried.

+ Also had some thoughts about Emily's Army's debut album, but haven't really collected them. Except that I am pretty amused by Asslete.

+ Wimbledon! I haven't been able to watch much (just the first few games of Serena and Venus Williams the past couple of days - they were up and down but triumphed), but the Radio Wimbledon app is working pretty well. Far better than Radio Roland Garros did, actually. Rafa made it through with no problems today, as did Deliciano, but Fernando lost to Haase in the second round. Daveeeed plays Ryan Harrison tomorrow. \o/

- Work. I'm so tired of my lab mates. As I explained to the email chain, this happened today. )

+ White Collar. This week's ep? Diana is a badass, y/y/mfy?

+ St. Arnold's Pub Crawl, Saturday. Downtown. I know where I will be!

+ A entered a couple of his beers in a local competition. Their names? Glory Hole Golden Ale and Cock-eyed Porridge (oatmeal stout). I laughed until I cried when he told me what he named them.
asimplechord: (Cupid's chokehold)
1. Mumford & Sons will be at Bonnaroo. \o/ They didn't come to Houston on their last tour.

2. Discos are joining Weezer at the DC101 Chili thingy. It is possible that I will visit my sister that weekend. Just, you know, maybe. :D

3. Goddamn, PStump. Bring your ass to TX soon, pls. (I am sort of amused by the reviewer saying that PStump "fronted" FOB for a decade. He sang. He played guitar. IMO, Pete was the frontman.)


And now I'm going to fix some coverslips, and then head up to the Saucer for Aaron's sixth plate party. (JFC, that's a lot of beer. 200 beers per plate.)
asimplechord: (Tomrad)
1. Bistro Provence for supper tonight. Mm, wine. And the Poire Belle Helene was amaaazing. Totally made up for spending a weekend day at work.

2. I'm not sure what it says that the song I have on repeat right now is Frank Turner's The Road.

3. Bonnaroo passes purchased. IDC about Eminem.

4. It pains me more than I can say that in an issue of Rolling Stone where independent bands like Empires get a few inches of space, Justin Bieber gets the cover plus a multi-page article. I just. Really? He sang songs that were essentially fluff before his balls dropped. I get that plenty of teenies love him. But as a long-term investment for an industry, how is that workable?


asimplechord: (caffeine)
Perhaps staying awake after last night's concert to watch the night matches of the Australian Open (okay, mostly so I could watch Rafa's) was not a good idea.

I should not try to operate machinery when I've been awake for over twenty-four hours.

There are coffee grounds in unspeakable places in my kitchen.


But on the positive side: River City Extension, you charmed me. I was convinced by the two-trumpet harmony, but your ability to fit 8 people and at least 10 instruments on the tiny stage at Warehouse Live's Studio didn't hurt.
asimplechord: (caffeine)
It is possible that my caffeine addiction is out of control. Had a raging headache all afternoon that Advil, aspirin, a dark, quiet office, and copious amounts of water could not touch.

I finally realized that I had only had one medium-sized dark roast today. (My usual is a tall black-eye first thing in the morning and then another cup of dark roast mid-morning and with lunch, if I don't make and consume the full pot at home in the morning. It's worse over the holidays, because I make coffee continuously when we and guests are at home all day.)

Stopped and got a red-eye on my way home.

So much better now.

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