New Erasure!

I just went out to an Erasure CD release party tonight and picked up their new album Nightbird for free. No stand-out awesome hits yet but I'm so tired (12:30AM) right now I can't concentrate on the music much. I also got a sticker and a button but some girl swiped the button off me when I put down my goodies to step onto the dance floor. I love Erasure, especially Chorus, Chains of Love, Ship of Fools, Stop!, and I can't remember what else at this hour. I need to go to bed. I'm sooo tired.

Getting excited about Coachella

Ambitious Outsiders is reporting that among the bands confirmed are Nine Inch Nails, Coldplay, Gang Of Four, New Order, Rilo Kiley, The Arcade Fire, M83 and Miss Kitten. There are still a lot of blank spots to fill but the line up is already starting to shape up. My friend K got back Monday from South Africa and when she found out about Coachella she flipped that New Order would be playing. Anyone from San Jose want to carpool down? I'm still wavering on whether to go depending on if New Order will be playing any Northern California shows... To be determined.

Coachella 2005

I went to Coachella last year and it was by far the most awesome festival I have ever been to. Kraftwerk, Radiohead, the Cure, Pixies and so many more made it all worthwhile despite the 110 degree heat that was killing everyone. They just updated the website and the official dates are Apr. 30 and May 1. This site has the list of confirmed bands (the official line-up hasn't been released yet.) The only confirmed bands I'm really looking forward to are Rilo Kiley and Miss Kittin. If Gang of Four and New Order will be making appearance, I will be sure to make an appearance. But as of yet I haven't decided whether to make an appearance. There is a ticket presale and the password is 'gobi'.
Things to remember:
- Will be 100+ degrees with $2 bottles of water which you must buy since you can't bring in your own.
- Parking is atrocious taking up to 4 hours to get out of the lot (4AM!).
- There IS an air conditioner in the video tent. This is key.
- Every music tent is hot and steamy, like a sauna.

Anyways when the lineup comes out I'll decide whether its worth it to go to or not.

Tsunami? Who cares?

Am I the only one who doesn't empathize much with those tsunami victims? Does anyone else out there find it hard to relate while living in an area of the U.S. where disasters never seem to strike. Can I help it that I only feel love and pain for those individuals I personally know?
Am I wrong?
A friend has suggested that perhaps it is the way us Americans deal with tragedy and support the oppressed. We have a checkbook response to everything. Everything we see as an injustice we pay off to not feel so guilty. How many people actually did something more to help? We are too out of touch with the rest of the world. Our lifestyle is completely at odds with the lifestyle of most of the world. Are we even human anymore? More often we are mob-mentalitied groups that emotional rational individuals. Who hasn't felt pressure from society to feel bad about the situation?
I for one am going to unabashedly say that I don't care about what society thinks. My emotion is reserved for those I know. Any other emotion God will have to stir up in me because I won't let the pressure of society do it.

Audio recording on a laptop is hard!

I've been working for hours trying to get a decent recording out of my laptop. Nothing but static mixed with lo-quality audio. I guess mic in isn't quite gonna work as well as a true line in. Especially since line in levels are so much higher. I had the mic record level almost to the bottom but my recording levels were still redlining! So much for signal to noise ratio.

Such a good weekend!

Saturday play by play:
-Lazy until 4PM when friends show up, played video games all day.
-Drinks at some local dive then dinner at a nice Italian restaurant.
-Back home for some 8-bit NES power pad action to burn off our dinner + some Contra.
-Time to go to down town San Jose, we hit up a cafe and it has a comedy showcase, the comedians mostly suck but there were a few good jokes.
-Dancing at Johnny V's, I love the 80's!
-Back home to crash.

Sunday:
-Earrrrly morning sound set up for church.
-Drive to San Francisco in my new car, fun times singing along to the Get Up Kids.
-Lunch somewhere at some bar/grill'ish place, it was good but I don't know my way around the city so I'd never be able to find it again.
-Near the Golden Gate hanging out to take photos. M and E are officially engaged now so they wanted me to get photos of them, a lot of photos.
-Drive along the beach and visit Coit Tower. Did I mention parking in SF sucks? Yeah, well it does!

So that is a really boring post which does a disservice to my awesome weekend but at least the summary points are out there so I'll never quite forget it. TTFN

My friends are coming to town today!

I'm so excited M and E are coming into town today! We're gonna party it up and head up to SF for whatever coolness we can find there. In the meantime while they are out wedding ring shopping (thats another story) I am at home all dressed up and ready to spring into action.
Eyeliner? Check! Lipstick? Check! White face makeup? Check! Black clothes? Of course!
So now they just have to show up and I'll be ready for any non-normal occasion!

Oddity is great. Nothing like making the silly norms stare when walking down the street. They're always like trying to get their little kids to look away. The kids go, "Mommy why is that man look like a clown or something, why is he wearing makeup?" And of course kids don't whisper so I've heard it all.

Rain is depressing...

Floods, storms, the lake that my patio has become, etc.
Its a miserable time to go outside. Resigned to my apartment cleaning looms overhead. I just get depressed when the most exciting part of my day is coming home to mop my floor. Its too wet to go out and I'm too miserable right now to go out dancing by myself. My friend K is in South Africa until the end of the month so I can't go dancing with her. I want to go hiking. I want to attempt Mt. Diablo up in Walnut Creek but its just too wet.
Oh well. Misery loves company

I was able to search for my blog over at Feedster! Which of course means my blog can be found! So find me!

Yay a new laptop!

So at work today the greatest of things is happening:
They are replacing my PC with a laptop!
This is so great for so many reasons:
-I can bring it to meetings
-I can work from anywhere
-I can work in coffee shops. Mmmmm.

And of course it is just simply cooler than a desktop PC.

Synth, wave of the future

I'm pretty sure few people love synth, electro-pop, electroclash and other Joy Electric is one of the bands sheparding the new era of synth into place. With bubbly songs with equal parts sappy and serious its music you can slip into and wrap yourself in until the realities of the world melt away.
Also, the Faint are pure awesome too. They invoke more primal urges and desires while hitting your heart harder.
Entranced, romanced immortalized. ¡Viva la synth!

That and the original 80's stuff has really been my life recently. One day you all will see the beauty as I see the beauty.
...Without tenderness there's something missing....

Dogs are pretty much evil

So my parents have been trying to get rid of their purebred Jack Russell Terrier for the past 2 months and finally somebody has come to look at it. You think more people would be interested in a free purebred dog but I guess everyone assumes there is something wrong with him. I will do a dance of joy when that dog is gone. It has been my tormentor ever since I moved away from home. Cats rule, dogs drool. Cat girls rule even more but thats another story altogether....

I hate fax machines!

Its 1:30 AM in the morning. My arch nemesis called me. Its a fax machine that has my number and calls every other day at random times. How can I get a fax to stop calling?

Christians...

You know what bothers me about most "real" Christians? Its not the faith or anything since I'm a Christian. The problem is Shiny Happy Christian syndrome. Too many come off as ineffectual puppy dogs content with everything like nothing ever goes wrong. Christians should be joyful always but not always happy looking. Well some people are entirely too cheery and they suck the darkness out of life. I need more darkness more black more sadness more depression. I need reality. Faith tempered by life rather than watching TBN and shopping at the local Bible book store. I'm happy that they are Christians I just want them living in reality.

This leads me to my other issue. Looking at whats out there in the world like 1% of non-Christians I consider 'cool' (which may be overestimating). Whereas there are maybe .01% Christians that would meet my coolness standards. This of course means that in a metro like San Jose with ~ 1.2 mil people with ~15% Christians and of those like ~ .01% are cool.
1,200,000 * .3 * .01 = 1,800 cool Christians. Now this number must be too high because if they were cool Christians I would have spotted more than the five or six I have met since I moved here six months ago. So this means one of the following:
1) There are less Christians in the San Jose area <- This may be it
2) There are even fewer cool Christians like .0001% or something
3) I just don't get out enough. :) (or they don't)
Anyways I hope 3 isn't the answer (though 1 or 2 aren't appealing either) but if there ever was a place for a cool Christian to be it would be the Blank Club on Thursday night. If you are up to the coolness challenge check it out. I may be there, all in black, wearing more makeup than most girls would.

Cromulance

So the japanese are crazy. I don't think I need to validate that statement but if anyone questions this will be my response "Nasubi".

Although I can't deny that that would finally make it worth getting cable if it was on TV over here. I also want real Survivor, none of this wussy corporate sponsored stuff. Just give me a bunch of people on an island Surviving! If people die well so what its all part of the show. Just make them sign waivers and such.

So there is this Jeep clip on TV where there is this Jeep I guess either on top of or in an active volcano. This volcano then commences to erupt spewing out the Jeep and it lands unscathed. What gets me is the small print "Do not attempt" Who in the world would attempt to drive their vehicle into a volcano for the chance to be spewed out?
1) They would die horribly and they wouldn't be around to sue Jeep nor would their molten remains.
2) Their genes probably shouldn't be in the gene pool. Anything that resembles the MTV way of life deserves to be eradicated. Bah!

I'm happy I don't have cable. Less to complain about. Although I would like to watch Cartoon Network and Iron Chef America. Oh well.

Me getting ready to hit up the Blank Club 

Welcome

So I'm late. Late in coming onto the scene. Its not like I wasn't around first its just that I had no ambition to write. Apathy. Well I'm sick of my most lucid thoughts coming and going in a flash. What good is a mind if nobody is around to hear it.
December was a grave month. As much as I love Christmas and family, everytime it happens malaise sets in. Can't do anything. After 8 solid hours at work (yeah right!) , I feel like I should give 8 more. It just isn't happening.
My faith.... slips and I slide into the grave. I hope to arise to life soon.
I wear black on the outside 'cause black is how I feel on the inside.

By the way shin-yo means faith in Japanese. At least I hope it does.