Checking out the iPhone; Farewell to David; Dallas

7/9

Made my first trip to check out the iPhone at the Apple Store, and it was everything I'd dreamed it would be. What with the California trip having been all but picked up by my funding agency, and the resulting air travel voucher, I was in a pretty good place financially. So I started thinking about the logistics of getting out of my T-mobile contract, selling my Blackberry, and acquiring an iPhone.

After getting back, Cindy & I made our airplane ticket purchases and watched some Sopranos.

7/10

Band practice, followed by picking up some Whataburger on the way home. Yum.

7/11

Sometimes-collaborator, frequent annoyance David from the lab decided to plan his going away party while the boss was out of the country, since he's kind of a dick like that. That had the side effect that, sadly, the event was not on the lab's dime. Anyway, we hit Gingerman after work for some beer, then Nit Noi for some Thai. Somehow, I was the group's expert for Thai food and so did the ordering.

Afterwards, Cindy & I scooped Will up from Baker Street to catch the new Harry Potter, which I recall being nice enough.

7/12

Grocery shopping and then the Sopranos. Super exciting evening.

7/13

I took the day off and headed up to Dallas for my annual visit to see Bryan. I got in, checked out their awesome house in the Lower Greenville neighborhood, played some Wii Tennis, and then Phil met up with us and we walked up to Blue... Mesa? (help me out, Bryan) for Tex-Mex and margs. Then, more walking (I do like being able to walk places—no worries about having to drive home and such) up to the Granada theater to catch a solid set by Centro-Matic. I'm sure we grabbed some more drinks somewhere else afterwards (or maybe not) before we headed back to Bryan's place.

7/14

Bryan and I started the day with some Wii Tennis before grabbing lunch at a Mediterranean place (again, Bryan, remind me). Bryan had wanted to show me Penzey's Spices, which was pretty sweet, and then we headed back to his place.

What came next was a revelation. Bryan had gotten some beers from Thom: the magical lambic variety known as gueuze. I was familiar with the fruit-flavored lambics, but not this wonderfully sour beer. Bryan had four bottles that we worked our way through. The first was Lindemann's Gueuze, which I think is kind of a dumbed down version of the style, with some extra sweetness to cover the sour flavors. Next we tried their Cuvée Rene, which is a pretty faithful representation, and I loved it. In addition to the sourness there was a nice dark roasted nut flavor behind it. There were two more which I found pretty similar to the Cuvée Rene (Bryan, more help...). The Cuvée is the only one (well, and the Gueuze) I can get in Texas, and I've since taken to stocking a few bottles.

In a very lucky coincidence, Nick and Alison happened to be rolling through town that same evening. Nick caught up with us during our beer tasting and joined in... and brandished his new iPhone. I was, of course, jealous. We went out for a great Indian dinner (Bryan...) and Alison very patiently put up with us catching up, before they had to be on their way.

7/15

We grabbed some lunch (the details escape me... Bryan?) before doing some shopping at Good Records and then I headed back to Houston. My notes specify that I went to Buffalo Wild Wings that night... presumably with Cindy.

The 4th; Thom's visit

7/2

Dropped Bryan off at the Airport, receipts off at Rice, then headed in to school.

7/3

Band practice, then Cindy & I squeezed in some Sopranos since the next day was a holiday.

7/4

I had intended to hit a couple of 4th of July parties, but I hadn't logged much time on Resident Evil since getting back from California, so I ended up spending a good portion of the day on that. Cindy and I made dinner once she got done in lab; either steak or something Greek-ish, I can't remember...

7/5

For 7-year-old Ward, we went and saw Transformers. The parts that involved giant robots kicking each others' asses were awesome; the parts that involved people talking or situational giant robot comedy were not. But my inner 7-year-old was happy.

7/6

Thom was in for a wedding. We did Goode Co. BBQ for dinner before retiring to Hans' for beer.

7/7

Since Texadelphia hasn't made it to Boston yet, we went there for lunch. Thom and co. spent part of the afternoon getting ready for the wedding, while I played more Resident Evil (pretty much a full blown addiction by that point). When the guys got back from the wedding, there had been some vomit-based collateral damage to Thom's grandparents' Buick, so he got that cleaned up and we all had some Shiners. Except for Dave (not that Dave), who was pretty much passed out by that point.

7/8

We hit Star Pizza for lunch, and Cindy & I went to Rudz for drinks later that evening.

Bryan's visit

6/29

Something I've learned: when you don't have actual vacation days, you have no reason not to a) stretch the days you're going to be gone on either end and b) just be generally vague. So it was that I had a day off in time for Bryan to come into town.

He, Sabrina and I hit up Reggae hut for lunch (I think there were some bad "Jamaican" puns made, and jokes about a nearby funeral home). Food was great, as always. After that, we went and saw Evan Almighty, although I don't know why, because it was pretty bad.

The entire day, I was resisting the impulse to jump in line for an iPhone. Instead, we headed back to my place for some Wii.

We met up with our respective better halves for some Star pizza that evening, and then hit the Davenport for some fancy martinis. We capped the night with a traditional night swim at Sabrina's apartment complex. With alcohol.

6/30

Bryan and I hung around my place and played some Wii before hitting Central Market for dinner ingredients. We got an artichoke, and made Bryan's famous tomatillo chicken tacos.

After that, show at the Proletariat: Voxtrot. It was filled to capacity when we showed up, but in half an hour, enough of the jaded hipsters got bored that we were able to get in. The band kind of got screwed; didn't go on until after 1:00 and played only a short set. Good show regardless.

7/1

Bryan and I decided to catch Ratatouille Sunday afternoon (great flick), before having Indian food for dinner at Khyber. I always enjoy Khyber when I go; it's a little pricey but it was a good meal.

Tweets for Today

• 13:22 Circumstances last night prevented me from Twittering, so I will attempt to recap now. #
• 13:23 1) Nice dinner with Jeff, Jim, Jerry, and Cindy at Buca di Beppo. Well, nice company. Mediocre dinner. #
• 13:23 2) Drink back at Jeff & Jim's. The man makes an excellent martini. #
• 13:24 3) Leave, discover my car along with several other has been egged. Hastily go after my car door with paper towels. #
• 13:25 4) Aside: who says drugs are bad? If those little shits that did this had been strung out on heroin, they wouldn't have been egging my car. #
• 13:25 5) Manage to find car wash that's open at midnight (59 & Kirby). Feel a little better. #
• 13:26 6) Decide it's too late to catch Trail of Dead at #s. Instead consume pitcher of Lonestar at Late Nite Pie with Char & Alison. #
• 13:26 7) Beer makes me feel better. #
• 13:28 8) Who the *fuck* eggs cars anymore? Couldn't they have just broken in and stolen my iPod? Would have been cheaper. #
• 13:29 Now at the car wash getting some *other* cosmetic issues taken care of. Good thing I didn't get that done yesterday. #
• 13:30 Oh, apparently the little fuckers that did this got caught. There are phone numbers, but no guarantee they're real. Feeling litigious. #
• 14:57 Is money that used to buy CDs paying off credit card debt incurred buying CDs? tinyurl.com/589n8b Probably not the whole story... #
• 15:03 My car has been washed 3 times in 3 days. Strange. #
• 15:37 Hick high school kid: why are you playing crap country on your laptop speakers in the car wash waiting area? Because you are a douchebag? #
• 02:54 Cindy & I split the Dogfish Head Red & White tonight. Not as good as I had hoped. Reminded me of their Jiahu or one of the Chimays. #
• 02:55 Watched Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. The Bruce Timm/Paul Dini DC Cartoons (Batman, Superman, Justice League) are *so* excellent. #

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More work; Cooking and TV; the Davenport; Art Car parade and 28 Weeks Later; Day of Rest

I'll note that this post was written on 5/16. It'll probably still be six months (try seven!) before anyone reads it, but at least it was written when everything was still fresh on my mind.

5/7

Continued working on the paper. Got in on time, stayed late, came home, ate a quick meal (veggie burger), got back to work, stayed up late working. Wow, how dedicated of me.

5/8

The "deadline" artificially imposed by the boss having come and gone on the paper, I was free for the evening. Cindy picked up a couple of New York strips, which I seasoned in the manner passed on to me by my father (lemon pepper and steak seasoning) and grilled up in my grill pan. I'm still getting the hang of doing steak on the thing. It's tough because it seems to hold heat and the steak keeps cooking more than one would expect after I remove it. So my steak was a little too done for my taste, but Cindy fixed us up a nice lemon butter sauce for it which covered my mistakes. She had also picked up a whole bunch of vegetables: zuchini, eggplant, bell pepper, and a big portabello muchroom. We tossed them in some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, habanero tobasco, garlic, and maybe something else I'm leaving out, and then grilled them in the grill pan. The veggies came out a little better, particularly the mushroom and eggplant. The zuchini was a little bitter.

Anyway, there was some Heroes and 24 to keep us entertained during our meal.

5/10

Another night of cooking and TV. This time we fixed Bo Kho, a Vietnamese beef stew. It didn't turn out as well as what I'd had at Mai's, but hey, it was my first time cooking Vietnamese. I don't know what Cindy's excuse was!

Grey's Anatomy (where, once again, everyone does infuriatingly idiotic things) and the Office (beach party episode, great) were watched.

5/11

I snuck a nap in after getting home. Cindy and I didn't make it in time to catch a showing of 28 Weeks Later, so instead we went up to the Davenport and had a round of martinis. I had the Dixie, which contained SoCo (always reminds me of Rebecca and my trip to Europe) and Disarono. Tasty. Cindy had a dreamsicle, which really didn't taste all that dreamsicle-ish.

The tamale people came by, and Cindy intelligently took advantage. She had a couple then and there, but we saved the rest for...

5/12

...breakfast the next morning. Not much better than tamales and fried eggs. Mmm. After that we packed a cooler and Cindy's fancy new DSLR camera, and took off for the Art Car parade. We had both been concerned about finding parking, but we called Jeff, who was there with his friend Chandra, and headed for their location, finding plenty of parking lots with entirely reasonable rates. A short walk later, we caught the parade.

Some of the cars were cool, but overall, I was a bit nonplussed. Maybe if there had been alcohol, or maybe it was that things would have been better if you could see the fine details in the cars they would have been more impressive. It was fun and I'll do it again, but maybe not as wonderful as I had been lead to believe. We went over to Chandra's well-appointed and very moderne townhouse nearby, hung out for a while, and then headed home.

I made for Susan and Jerry's, stopping to pick up some peach tulips for Susan for Mother's Day. A little later, I headed back home, Cindy came over, and we went to the slightly ghetto AMC 30 theater out west to catch a late showing of 28 Weeks Later.

I saw the original film with Thom at the old Waco Square Six that had been turned into a second-run theater, on the occasion of one of my first weekends back in Waco after moving to Houston. I remember enjoying it.

The sequel, however, was torture. Very technically impressive and artfully done, cleverlyh relevant to current events, etc., etc., but also extremely scary, violent, disgusting, and, worst of all, cynical and hopeless. I guess I'd recommend seeing it just because it was all so well done, but where the first movie ends with a note of hope, this one (spoiler) teases hope and then destroys it.

If nothing else, the political parallels are deftly handled. Great film making, but I felt dirty afterwards. That, and I had recently had a nightmare involving being in a big house at night, with floor to ceiling windows, and zombies outside trying to get in. Both experiences made me want to invest in a blunt, heavy object, if not a gun. Still need to go to Lowe's to pick up that crowbar.

5/13

The Sunday I had been waiting for for three weeks had finally come. No obligations, nothing pressing. Absolutely wonderful. I read, I played video games, I framed posters which had been waiting a month on me.

Cindy and I went up to Rudz and met Dan for some cheap Lonestar. A Miller rep was there handing out samples (samples? what happened to a free bottle?) of Miller Chill, their "chilada" beer. Now I know a good michelada, and have even been known to make a good one on occasion, but this, this was some sweet lime flavor in very weak beer. The beer was just a hint of flavor, really, compared to the lime and the sweetness. A good analog would be the most bland beer you can find mixed with Rose's sweetened lime juice.

But it got me thinking, hey, this would potentially be a great base for a margarita. In fact, hell, I'd drink one with a shot of tequila mixed in it, particularly if it was a double shot of triple sec and tequila. That would be pretty good, actually. And I think I will buy a six pack before it goes off the market (this shit is not going to last, seriously; too malt beverage for the beer drinkers and too beer for the malt beverage drinkers) and construct a margarita around it. It will be interesting.

I got home, a little buzzed from the Lonestar, and, in a very unneighborly gesture, finished hanging my posters (actually, I'm not even sure I have neighbors in that apartment right now). Then it was time for a late dinner.

There is something to be said for taking food and charring the hell out of it. I applied that method to my quesadilla that night in a drunken orgy of cooking. I defrosted a chicken breast, seasoned with jalapeño seasoning, garlic powder, salt, fajita seasoning, and jalapeño tobasco, gave it a nice sear on the grill pan and the cooked it through while also cooking some garlic cloves, chopped it up, put a tortilla down on the grill pan, spread some salsa on, sprinkled on cheddar and the seasonings I used for the chicken, dropped the chicken on top (all of it), and let the tortilla brown.

With all that chicken on top, there was no way I'd be able to add the top half and flip the thing; instead I cooked the top half sepparataely and then put it on top.

Served it with some sliced pickled jalapeños and damn was it ever good. Best quesadilla I've ever had. My drunken cooking was an exercise in excess, but a successful one.

Rockets; Sabrina; Spider-man; Dinner and bars; Mexican martinis

4/30

Cindy had gotten games to one of the Rockets playoff games (against Denver, if memory serves). In the spirit of being adventurous and sharing in her interests I agreed to go, but once again I'm reminded that sporting events are just not my thing. Combine large groups of annoying people, bad parking, over-priced beer and food, and you don't get a very happy Ward.

I seem to recall going to the Proletariat afterwards, but for the life of me I can't remember why...

5/1

Jeff had started his new job at school, so we went for lunch for the first time in the year or so since he'd last been employed there.

5/3

Sabrina and I hadn't hung out in a while, so we hit up Chuy's. Afterwards, it was the release night for Spider-man 3, so a group of us went. The movie had some cool bits but was ultimately disappointing, on the level of X-Men 3. Actually, come to think of it, the entire trilogy and the X-Men trilogy were parallel, quality-wise. Decent opening chapter, spectacular sequel, then tanked the third time around. Wonder why?

5/4

A colleague of Cindy's was moving away so a big group went to dinner at Pico's in Bellaire. Their "authentic" cuisine was good, though it hasn't exactly blown me away. Afterwards we hit up Gingerman to meet up with another friend of Cindy's, and then went to Poison Girl.

5/5

My quest for the perfect margarita recipe has never really gotten off the ground. I've tried a few variations, and once again we came back to the recipe we had found online for Trudy's Mexican martini. It's never quite right, though. Never quite smooth enough...

5/6

Despite the fact that my committee meeting was behind us, the pressure was on to get two papers out, so I put some work in Sunday afternoon (though I can't remember the exact reason).

Recording; Bill Callahan; Science of Sleep; Tapes 'n Tapes

4/16

Another Monday at the Prole. These come to an end soon when Dan gets tired of the DJ gig.

4/17

With Jeff's new toy, we had our first recording session. I've got some rough mixes from that, and though they're far from perfect sonically or musically, it's pretty damned cool having recordings of us. Vincent will be graduating soon. I'd like to have something akin to an EP finished before he goes, but that takes time. Lots of time.

4/18

Back in December we were fortunate enough to attend Joanna Newsom's magical performance at the Orange Show. You might recall that Bill Callahan—formerly of (smog)—opened the show. Well, he had another show booked here to kick off the tour for his new album, Woke on a Whaleheart. My friend Zach, owner of Austin's Backspin Records, had sent out a request for someone to shoot video of the show, a request that came from Bill to Zach through Zach's wife, who was touring as part of Bill's band.

So, sensing an opportunity, I passed the opportunity along to Greg, who likes to do the whole video camera thing. In doing so I managed to get he, myself and Cindy on the guest list. Sweet.

So we show up at the Orange Show. First act is Astronautalis, whom I might have realized sooner that I had actually seen before had he still been called MC Astronautalis. Turns out I saw him when he played a Polyphonic Spree Christmas show in... 2001? Anyway, I recall him wearing a t-shirt that said "World's Greatest Lover 1981" and he did a freestyle about that. Maybe he did some breakdancing too, or maybe that was somebody else.

Regardless, I wouldn't have expected what I got at the Orange Show that night. Astronautalis (or Andy, which I have less of a tendency to misspell) has a rap background, but hearing him that night, indie rock was the first thing that really came to mind. I mean, hip hop, in general, bores me. I think a large part of that is due to repetitive production, and with Andy, I don't have to worry about that. Modest Mouse, Built to Spill, Explosions in the Sky, lo-fi, K Records; these are all influences. Sonically and lyrically, you get something that's dense, intense, and emotionally evocative. I violated my "don't buy before you try" policy and bought his CD right then and there. Apparently he's a huge Bill Callahan fan, as are his parents who had flown in from Florida for the show that night, hence Andy having the gig. (As a side note, I saw him play this weekend and it was phenomenal. But more on that in... six months?)

So anyway, Bill Callahan was up next. I found his folky songs much more enjoyable with his full band (mostly culled from Austin act Shearwater), but ultimately I wasn't crazy about it. I 'd be interested to hear how it compares to his older (smog) material, though.

But the Orange Show is so great that you don't have to be crazy about the act to have a great time, and we did. Yay Orange Show.

4/19

Committee meeting time, and I wanted to be able to work in the Tapes 'n Tapes show on Sunday, so I worked late...

4/21

I worked on a Saturday. That's how committed I was to having everything ready so that I could go to the Tapes 'n Tapes show. Yep. Dedication.

After calling it quits at work, Cindy and I watched The Science of Sleep. It was cute and quirky in that Amelie sort of way. But ultimately it was sort of tragic. It would have been easy for it to have ended well, but it just... didn't. I'm a sucker for happy endings. I readily admit it. So my suggestion is if you watch this, stop it ten minutes before it's over. Make up your own ending.

4/22

More working on the weekend. But it was all to get to see Tapes 'n Tapes play at Numbers. The show was... maybe a little disappointing. But it'd be hard to top the intimacy and energy of that show at Super Happy Fun Land a mere day or two before they blew up at SxSW that year. Maybe it was subjective, but they just didn't quite translate to the bigger venue very well.

In Real Life...

Busy week ahead. Revisions on one paper, trying to figure out what to do with another paper that got rejected (well, that's a negative way to look at it; we'll say they "declined our offer to allow them to publish the article"); trying to get some programming done that will yield another paper (hopefully), and then putting a poster together for retreat in the latter half of the week. Busy busy. But at least I'm not Cindy, who has not one but two papers that have to be rushed out lest they be scooped...

Other than that, things are good. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze a couple of entries in this week.

Grindhouse, Recruiting, Art takedown, More chili

4/9

Since the reviews came out, I had been quite intent on going to see Grindhouse, so at first opportunity Will, Cindy and I went on an Angelika Monday. Robert Rodriguez's half was entertaining, and had nice portions of violence. The "intermission" was thoroughly enjoyable and might have been best distributed amongst the start, middle, and end of the entire experience. As it was, I missed some of the wonderful faux grindhouse trailers to take a much-needed bathroom break.

The highlight was Tarantino's Death Proof, which, in my opinion, could have stood on its own as a film. Not a particularly big or ambitious one, but I think that directors should feel free to make "side project" albums the way, say, Beck handled Mutations and Sea Change, or the way some bands do nice, compact EPs. The movie itself was lots of fun, from the beaming celebration of the city of Austin in the first half to the fun of doing stupid and dangerous shit with cars and turning the tables in the second half. I probably have no reason to ever revisit Rodriguez's Planet Terror, but I can imagine buying the DVD just to be able to watch Death Proof and the faux trailers from time to time.

Afterwards, a quick round a little Woodrow's.

4/10

Band practice...

4/11

More recruiting, more free drinks. Probably another night at the Volcano?

4/12

More of the same, though details escape me.

4/14

Rebecca was in town to disassemble her installation. We did lunch at Mai's, which I think has gotten Becca on a bit of a kick. I took off to catch Levi at guitar center to get myself a keyboard case and to get Jeff a digital recording interface/Pro Tools combo. After that (which took forever), I stopped by the gallery and helped clean up some tape. Once I became a third wheel, I went home and played a bit of the newly-arrived Paper Mario for Wii. Later that night, we grabbed dinner and drinks at Rudz.

4/15

Becca, Ali and I hit La Mexicana for brunch, which was good as always. That afternoon I did some shopping and went round two for perfecting our chili recipe, with Cindy's help. We corrected some problems we found with the original recipe, ending up with more of pretty much everything except the meat. In particular this batch ended up hotter, and we significantly increased the amount of beer to give us more liquid to work with. It was a success.

Afterwards Cindy and I watched Stranger Than Fiction which was a surprisingly clever and enjoyable film. The ending was sentimental and by the numbers, maybe, but I am a sucker for happy endings.

Becca's Art; Concerts; Lab Dinner

Updates resuming soon my ass. The past six weeks or so have included two (2) trips by air, two (2) trips by car, two (2) weddings, two (2) weekends of company staying at my place, one (1) paper almost finished, and a whole lot of good times.

It has also left me nearly six months behind. So expect to read about those events in, oh, February. For now, I've got to get back in the habit, so in between loads of laundry I'll get at least one entry in before moving on to a late birthday present for Cindy.

3/5

Rebecca arrives in town so that she can do her installation at the Lawndale Art Center, but sporting a minor Wii sports injury on her foot which is starting to look a bit infected. Cindy and I point out our proximity to a minor emergency center before leaving to catch a film at the Angelika.

We see Zodiac, which is quite enjoyable at the beginning, but slows toward the end, and the fact that the real case remains unsolved makes the ending... unsatisfied.

Rebecca opts not to get her foot treated due to the $100 co-pay.

3/6

Cindy and I head off to see the Shins at the Verizon. As is often the case, the show proves less than satisfying, with the sterility of the venue infecting the band's music. I enjoy seeing them, but the most fun is just hanging outside with the smoking crowd, where we find Dan, Nick, Mandy, and, randomly, Bryan's brother Evan, and Katie (that I met at the genetics retreat and her boyfriend, with whom we talk about music, both listening and making.

Afterwards, given Becca's and our proximity to it, Mai's seemed like a great place to meet for a late dinner, and was satisfying and refreshing as usual.

3/7

Hui, who had not felt like much of a part of the lab since long before he graduated, had finally found a job (or at least a post-doc) and so is leaving. Consequently, Olivier arranges a a goodbye event for him. We meet at the Ginger Man for a couple rounds, and for once I arrive early enough to get the free glassware. After that, we amble over to Nit Noi for some Thai. Cindy joins us and meets the lab and Olivier. Olivier orders for us (soup, curry, pad thai, eggplant) and does a good job.

Afterwards, a quick trip by home and then off to numbers for the Explosions in the Sky show, which is characteristically enjoyable. Greg has a new ladyfriend with him...

3/9

Art, Tafia, "the taco train", the Mink

Becca's art show opens Friday night, so she and I head there and immediately grab beers: me for refreshment and her for that good ol' "liquid courage" because she has to give a brief artist's talk. There were a few pieces I liked. The best ones not by Becca are some very intricate paper cuttings attached to the walls that are somewhere between internal organs and flowers, a flickr group called "Never Been to Houston Before" where people that had never... you know, been to Houston posted pictures of what they thought Houston was like; a clever idea, but maybe one that could have done with some editing and focus.

There is also the guy who constructed skateboard-style ramps in a room and used them to run up and along walls, creating patterns of scuffs and documenting the process with his camera. It's a nice combination of performance art and other media, but better in principal than in practice.

Becca's work is, as usual, brilliant. She had covered the floor with white vinyl to give the room a unified look, and then her tape was various shades of blue and worked in clever ways with the doors and corners of the room. Cindy shows up with her brother, as did my parents, aunt and uncle, Dan and Emma, Jeff and Jim, and Will. It's nice for my parents to get to meet some of my closest friends here (particularly Cindy), and I am glad to have brought out support for Becca.

Afterwards, due to familial constraints, Mom and Dad take off. Becca and I go to Tafia to crash an art party, and take advantage of what free food was offered there, although we foolishly buy a round of beers before moving to the free wine. After that, around the corner to Tacos-a-Go-Go for some food with Becca's crew, then to the nearby Mink for some drinks before calling it a night.

3/10

I head out to Susan and Jerry's to catch Mom and Dad for lunch before they head back to Waco. Later that evening, Cindy and I meet up with Molfese, who had moved away with his lab but is back in town for his birthday. We catch him at BW3's, have some wings for dinner, but then have to pass on a Wii session in favor of catching Deerhoof, who put on a good show but whose music I'm not sure I'm arty enough to "get".

Will's birthday; New toy; Seminars, drinking, cigars; Half Nelson

2/27

So. About six months prior Will's green iPod mini got swiped out of his lab (he thinks by a scruffy looking college student that had a temporary position). I decided that nobody who has lived with an iPod should have to go back to living without one, so for his birthday I endeavored to gather a group of people to buy Will a new iPod.

After some exploratory fundraising, aided by Char, I settled on a 4 GB nano, the same size as his previous iPod, again in green. Which is what I was doing at Best Buy the previous saturday.

So I got everyone that contributed and could join us together at Woodrow's, and somebody made sure to get Will there. While we were waiting we let everybody sign a card.

Leroy had picked up a miniature Spider-Man lunch box which we were going to present to Will as his "present" with the iPod hidden inside.

In the end we managed to genuinely surprise him, and he was appropriately thankful. I was glad to have organized such a fun favor for a friend, and was excited about getting back to giving Will good music.

2/28

Will needed to fill up his iPod, so I hitched a ride with him. We decided to make an evening of it and started by hitting the comic store, then grabbing dinner (the traditional Double Dave's), and then back to my place to get that iPod filled up.

3/1

Somebody had been working on putting together a med center-wide happy hour for the students, but whoever planned them must not have been a grad student, because they didn't realize that to get grad students to come to things, you need cheap drinks and free food. The happy hour was held at the overly fancy Trevisio's on the top floor of a med center building, and featured the usual in lame appetizers (crackers, cheese, fruit tray, vegetable tray), and $4 beers. An assortment of people from the lab went, and I decided to go too, using the opportunity to sneak out of lab early to also catch the early bus home so that I could retrieve my new networked digital music player that had been delivered (see previous post about my bedroom system).

I had just enough time to get it up and running before Cindy and I went to meet Shawn and Sabrina at Spaghetti Western, where I'd been once before with Lauren. Three of us started with a round of margaritas (decent, though I might opt for the additional amaretto floater next time), while Shawn had a beer. We ordered some cheese bread for an appetizer, which is hard to mess up, but that's not to say it wasn't enjoyable. For my entree I selected the tombstone chicken, a grilled chicken breast held vertically by being wedged between two pieces of eggplant parmesan, topped with greens and sauced with marinara and their chipotle alfredo. Clever plating, and tasty. I think I talked Cindy into the Italian enchiladas; always good.

3/2

Drunk early, dinner, cigars
Will and I headed over to Rice for a physics talk. It was some interesting culture shock; everything was, dare I say, much more scientific than the usual biology talk. Of course I couldn't really keep up with the theory, but it was still an educational experience.

Afterwards I went to the usual Friday seminar while Will hung out at Valhalla, and then we started drinking the free after-seminar beer and chatted with Jeff and some professors. Will gave me a ride home, but we stopped off at the village for a beer... which became two... which became a trip across the street to Baker Street for more beer. Will went to retrieve his car from the garage while I walked over to the Briar Shoppe to pick up some cigars.

I got home and started sobering up, Cindy came over with some Chinese takeout, and after dinner we met up with Char and Angela for cigars and beer. It was a nice night, and we sat alone out on the other patio whose existence I was completely unaware of. All very pleasant.

3/3

Cindy and I decided to rent (or maybe borrow) a movie to watch, and ended up with Half Nelson. I guess it was competent enough, but it didn't leave much of an impression.

Little Children; Valentine's Day; Dan & Modest Mouse; Bowling; Chinese New Year

2/12

Will and I resumed our Angelika Mondays with the viewing of Little Children, a tale of suburban ennui, extramarital affairs, and child molesters. It was certainly an interesting exploration of its themes. It's been a while so not all of my impressions are still remembered, but I think I was a little iffy on its conclusions. I could go back and read up on it, but movie reviews aren't exactly an emphasis of mine.

One thing I will comment on is this: if you go into a nearly empty theater, do not sit directly in front of the other people in the theater, particularly if seating options are plentiful. Sometimes, people like to put their feet up, or not have to listen to your idiotic chattering. It's not a big deal, exactly, except that it doesn't hurt you to fucking sit somewhere else. It really doesn't. All things being equal, if you have a choice between inconveniencing someone you dont' know, and not doing it, just don't. It's that simple.

2/13

Cindy and I decided once again to cook our own Valentine's Day dinner, so I spent my time going to the grocery store, etc.

2/14

There was morning run to pick up flowers and some last minute items from Central Market.

And then I ironed a shirt, got dressed up fancy, and started on dinner.

I had decided to try out Alton Brown's take on meatballs. The recipe includes the use of beef, pork, and veal; parmesan cheese for flavor, bread crumbs for body (I used the Italian-seasoned variety because hey, you can't have too much flavor), spinach and egg to bind it, and some various herbs and seasonings. Cooking them in a miniature muffin tin helps heat them evenly.

With this we had some fettucini and (just a little) marinara sauce, a salad (Cindy), tomato and white bean bruschetta (the secret is slicing open a piece of garlic and rubbbing it on the freshly toasted bread) (again, Cindy), and creme brulée with real vanilla bean (again Cindy). And a bottle of wine.

It turned out really nice. The meatballs were great and I would enjoy them a lot over the next few days. I'd love to always have a batch in the refrigerator.

The entire evening was nice as well. It was probably the first meal eaten on my dining room table since, well, last Valentine's Day.

I think we ended up watching TV instead of renting a movie, but as good as TV was this spring, that worked well.

2/15

Cindy came over for TV and then left early because of a conference the next day, and then Char called and invited me out for a beer. Details escape me.

2/16

The receiver was fixed and I went to pick it up but the guy wasn't there. Whoops.

Went over to Rice for seminar, but Char and instead opted to hide out in Valhalla and drink cheap beer until seminar was over, when we could move on to the free beer.

Cindy was away at her thing, so I enjoyed a relaxing evening at home before catching up with Dan online and deciding to pick up some beer and go hang out over at his place. We listened to music (including the new Modest Mouse, which had leaked out in an event almost as big as the Arcade Fire album), had beer, chatted. It was a pretty nice evening.

2/17

Picked up the receiver in the morning and everything was in good working order. More on that shortly.

Char and I ended up going bowling with BT and her friend whose name I can never remember but was Helen Humphrey's roommate at Baylor. We opted to get some beer at the closest non-bowling alley bar to the bowling alley, Bellaire Little Woodrow's. It's a quaint little place, right next to the railroad tracks. I liked it, but drinking in the Bellaire/Southside/West U area scares the fuck out of me.

Bowling was OK. I bowled a decent game though I discovered that my Wii bowling skills didn't exactly transfer over. For the second game I decided I wanted to try to learn how to put spin on the ball.

That didn't go well.

2/18

Cindy got back from her conference and since she had decided not to go to her parents', we grabbed some brunch—I think we hit up La Mexicana again.

Later on, we went to Dacia's girlfriend Lorien's Chinese New Year party. They had put out some nice vegan springrolls and potstickers, and there was plenty of beer. Everyone was glad to see Cindy as she brough an air of legitimacy (as well as legitimate foods) to the proceedings, despite not actually being Chinese. Cindy ran into somebody she knew. We talked to Lorien's roommate who it turns out had done some PR work for Baylor and interviewed Cindy's boss. Kristin was there, as was Dan, which was a little awkward, but it didn't stop Dan from chatting up a German girl whom he seemed to get on pretty well with, although it turned out she eventually stood him up. I know how that one goes.

Anyway, great evening all in all. As I often say, I miss parties and don't get to go to enough of them.

Cheap date night; Sabrina & Ghostland Observatory; Arcade Fire leaks & blues; Pool; Car show & school stuff

1/22

It had been a while since we'd taken advantage of cheap date night (actually now it may be "student night" which isn't as good of a name, though it may be more accurate) at the Angelika. Cindy had been wanting to see Pan's Labrynth, so she, Will and I went and enjoyed the cheap ticket, free popcorn and soda.

The movie was, I guess, a disappointment. It tells of a girl's escapism, using a fantasy world to avoid and confront the problems she encounters in living through the Spanish Revolution. But the fantasy world really wasn't the focus on the movie, and it didn't complement the film's plot as well as I would have liked. Not a bad piece of flimmaking, but not spectacular, either.

Afterwards, we drug Will out to the Proletariat to see Dan DJ. Will eventually got a little bored and Leroy came by to pick him up, but I think we all enjoyed the beer and tunes.

1/23

Band practice, except I forgot my laptop. My keyboard plugs into it and is basically just an input device; the laptop turns the button presses into music. But the keyboard is USB, and there shouldn't have been any problem plugging it into Jeff's home theater PC. Except there was. So we messed with it for an hour or so, our efforts confounded by the week wireless signal his PC was receiving.

Eventually we gave up. I played on Jeff's Moog instead, but I realy a lot on chords, and analog synths only produce one note at a time. It wasn't half bad, though, and I certainly wouldn't deny that the Moog is a nice piece of gear.

1/25

Sabrina and I had not hung out in quite some time; the last time I had seen her was probably after the Joanna Newsom show (and her finals), so we caught up over Mexican food and margs at Chuy's; see Sabrina's account of the evening for more information. Needless to say, it was some much-needed hanging out time and a lot of fun.

Afterwards, Cindy and I met up with Greg, who had recruited us to go (for free!) to the Ghostland Observatory show. I knew next to nothing about the group. Turns out they're a duo; one wears a cape and works the electronics, while the other, at least at first, appears to be either a slim, flat-chested girl with pigtails, or a very slim boy with pigtails. Turns out it's the latter. He does the vocals, dances around, and provides the charisma while the other guy provides the beats.

The music is, perhaps obviously, dancy. Not quite my thing, but they're good at what they do, and I enjoyed it, particularly once I was a few beers into the evening.

They managed to sell out the Warehouses' small room, which surprised the hell out of me since I hadn't heard of them. Cindy reminded me (and reminded me again last time I brought it up) that they had been big on the festival circuit and that not every band blows up because of Pitchfork.

1/26

I'm sitting in Friday afternoon seminar when I get a text from Dan: the new Arcade Fire album has leaked.

In case past posts didn't make it clear, I'm a big fan. They're great on record, they're great live. They rock, they have complex, multi-instrumental arrangements. They're emotionally touching. They're sad but hopeful; enthusiastic, even.

So I've been waiting very impatiently for a follow-up to their 2004 debut album, and when I had a chance to get my hands on it, it became a priority. I stuck around for the beer after seminar, but as soon as I got home I threw the copy that Dan had sent me on the stereo and had a nice listening session. And then fell asleep on the couch.

Oliver and I have this thing. He invites me to blues shows and I never come, and I invite him to rock shows and he never comes. I decided to break the cycle, and so when he invited me to come see Texas Johnny Brown at the Big Easy.

I'd never been to the bar. It's divey but by no means intimidating or scary. Oliver and crew had a table, and pitchers kept coming, so after providing one of my own, I grabbed a seat and soaked in the blues. The blues are one of those genres like jazz and classical that I enjoy but don't claim to know anything about, so I certainly won't attempt to critique this old African-American's art. But it certainly sounded good to me, and a couple of beers in with those soothing sounds hitting me, I felt like life didn't get any better.

Plus, I had the Arcade Fire to return home to!

1/27

Cindy and I hit up Mai's for a late dinner, and then Joined up with Char, Angela, BT (that's "Black Tiffany") and a friend of hers at Slick Willie's for some pool. As usual, Cindy schooled all of us and I sucked. But I don't have to be good to enjoy it.

1/28

Char picked me up and we went to the Reliant convention center to check out the Houston car show. For what was essentially advertising, a $10 entrance fee seemed a bit pricey, but it was fun. I enjoyed checking out the "obtainable" cars more than the exotics, particularly things like the Mazdaspeed 3, RX-8, and CX-7; the VW Golf GTI; the Subaru Impreza WRX wagon and WRX STI rally car, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, and, slightly less realistically, Audi's various A and S offerings (I'm particularly fond of the A3) and some of BMW's stuff. Of course, looking at the exotic stuff was fun too, but it's more fun to play the "what car do I want to buy when I have a nice job and am out of grad school" game than the "if I could pick any one car, what would it be game?".

Afterwards, I had to get up to school to get some work done and get some shit done.

MLK; KILLER ICE STORM OF '07; El Tiempo & Bukowski

1/15

In a cruel twist of fate, I spent my day off mostly sleeping, as I had some symptoms that some would think might indicate that I was sick. So I slept it off, had some green tea, some emercen-c, some fruit juice, slept it off some more. There were better things I could have been doing, but at least I wasn't at work.


1/16

Things got cold, as in below freezing, which means, of course, that civilization is at risk of grinding to a halt. And, God willing, no school.

Dan called me up and he was braving the apocalyptic weather for some drinks at Rudz. At the time, the weather hadn't quite worked its way below 32, and the precipitation was minimal, so I figured I'd risk it. We also made a stop off at the Proletariat before calling it a night.

1/17

Of course, God was not willing (or at least school wasn't), so I was greeted by this message:

Weather Update: College open
posted 01/17/2007

Update: 5:30 A.M. - Jan. 17

The College is open and conducting normal business operations. Employees who live in northern, western and 290 areas, where there have been higher accumulations of ice, should contact their supervisors about arriving late to allow time for roadways to be sanded, ice to thaw and travel to be safer.

All employees are encouraged to be cautious in traveling to work. Employees unable to come to work due to personal situations must contact their supervisor and arrange for time off.

Dicks.

1/19

Cindy came over for Grey's Anatomy and we attempted to make snake bites, but we never could get the Guiness to layer properly on top of the cider. One day I will learn...

1/20

I was lazy Saturday afternoon, then ran around taking care of some errands, in the process finding some bargain GameCube games. I gave up on going out to Susan and Jerry's, and instead came home.

I stopped off to get the mail, and, moments later my phone rang; apparently Oliver was in the complex. He was going out to dinner with some friends to El Tiempo, which I had only been to the one time, and he invited me along, so I decided to join them.

I ended up not really knowing anyone, which was definitely awkward, but hell, them's some good fajitas.

They were then going to meet up with some people (including ones I actually knew), but I figured I'd try to catch up with Cindy.

We were going to go to the MFAH for one of their shindigs, but we arrived late and the line was around the block. Some people were buying museum memberships to jump to the front of the line, but they were pretty expensive and it just wasn't worth that. I had lobbied against it from the beginning, feeling strangely antisocial, but Cindy had told her roommate we would meet them there. But you can't argue with the facts, so we left.

Instead, we went and rented a movie and then picked up some ingredients for sangria. The sangria turned out decently, but I think I can probably do better in the future.

The movie was Factotum. My familiarity with Bukowski is only really due to Modest Mouse; their previous album had a song named after him, and their song "Long Distance Drunk" was based on a short story (which I actually read). The movie was pretty good. The story arc wasn't particularly strong, but the acting and dialogue were good and I'm guessing it gave a pretty good feel for Bukowski's style.

1/21

Not much going on Sunday. Did some cleaning up and such, and played some DS.

NYD; Day off; Two Rows'; Children of Men; Monster Trucks; Work

Spurred by a friend request from Erica Shatford on Facebook, I begin pilfering profiles to find (well, I could keep this aliteration thing going, but I won't) people (OK, couldn't resist) to add to my friend list. Facebook is so much more pleasant than the blight that is Myspace. Anyway.

I spied a quote in Lindsey Bacon's profile that now has me listening to a junior year of high school staple, Everclear's fun So Much For The Afterglow. Ahh, memories.

Speaking of memories...

1/1

New Year's Day was nice and quiet. I took the opportunity to finish settling back into my apartment after my holiday absence, got some good DS time in, made a nice pot of slow-cooked black beans (leftovers from salsa), and generally relished my free time, as I am wont to do.

Cindy was supposed to meet me up at the Prole to see Dan DJ, but as I was about to leave I got a call from her saying she'd had a flat, and though she could change it herself, she was feeling a bit isolated, so I jumped in the car and headed up to meet her and provide security service.

After that, on to the Prole. All the Prole nights are running together, but doubtless there was beer and good company.

1/2

In a brilliant stroke of strategery, I had told the boss that I would be getting back in town on the 2nd and would return to work on the 3rd, and thus managed an extra day off without incurring any difficulties. It was glorious.

1/3

Another night up at Two Rows', probably organized by the kids in the program. The problem with writing these entries 4 months out is that things like Two Rows', the Prole, Woodrow's, and (formerly) Cecil's all blend together. But it's unlikely that anything particularly distinctive happened.

1/5

Cindy and I went to join her brother for the pre/post-apocalyptic Children of Men which had been getting good reviews. The film was technically impressive (though the whole apocalyptic London thing may be overplayed; see 28 Days Later, V for Vendetta, and, most recently, 28 Weeks Later), with appropriately weird atmosphere, great acting and camera work, etc., but I found the overall plot disappointing. No real payoff, no real explanation of anything.

We dropped by Woodrow's afterwards, presumably meeting up with Will and others for beer...

1/6

I'm pretty sure this one was Angela's fault. She and Char decided that it was worth checking out the monster truck rally, and, deciding it was a perspective-expanding experience, Cindy and I opted to join them. Coming back to civilization from Susan and Jerry's, I met Char, Angela, and Char's friend whose name I can't remember at Angela's place, chugged a beer, and then took off to pick up Cindy and park at an apartment complex near Reliant. Char had some mini bottles of Cuervo; I quickly polished mine off on the walk over, figuring a buzz would only improve the experience.

It's funny that something as simple and common as a monster truck rally could sell out the fucking Reliant stadium. But it did. We got there, got beer, and settled in.

I have to say, the "race" section of things blowed. Completely boring. Well, the truck races. The ATV races were reasonably entertaining. But once the races were over (really, how much racing can two monster trucks do on a football field?), the "freestyle" event began, and that's where we got to see big ass trucks with big ass tires destroy other vehicles, and that's where things got good.

You could tell who had money because they were the ones that let loose. The ones who didn't may have crushed a few cars, but the ones who did made sure that they rolled their trucks, blew things up, etc. And if you can't see what's great about watching a truck jump over a mobile home, clip the top, roll a few times, and then burst into flames while the driver walks calmly out, well, I don't know if I can still be your friend.

(pictures coming later for proof)

Afterwards, some dinner. I think it was Cindy that suggested 59 Diner, which was apparently an old high school hangout for her. Nothing special, but I had a decent burger.

1/7

Notes say "dinner"; that's not very descriptive. Presumably I ate something. Maybe Cindy cooked? I dunno. Anyway, I had to put together a presentation for our lame journal club at school, so afterwards I got to work hunting down a paper to review.

Justice League, Disturbing news, the Prole; Pizza score; Hans'; Jana Hunter and Lola's; Valhalla, Tapatia, the Petrol Station; Borat; Wii

11/13

Will came over and we watched some Justic League. Which was good.

Amidst that, Bryan sends me an IM and mentions he had gotten an e-mail from Rachal, who, apparently, is now married. I could list many reasons why this should have meant absolutely nothing, and they're all pretty much true, but at the time, it was like being punched in the stomach, having the wind knocked out of me. It took a good week or two to process. In the end, all is well, but hell, we're over three years past this and it still stings a bit. Maybe it always will, maybe it won't. But the worst is long past over, and that I'm thankful for.

So shortly after that I went up to the Prole for the usual Monday activities. I was more than a bit distracted, but good company, good beer, and good music improve any situation.

11/14

I only stop here to note that after journal club, I managed to snag a whole Star Pizza to take home. Yoink!

11/16

Jana Hunter, whom Cindy and I had met in Austin, was playing her first show in Houston since I'd met her. I only knew her musically through her affiliation with Devandra Banhart and the "freak folk" movement.

What she played was nice, light, pretty folky acoustic stuff. It was really good, actually, and I really enjoyed the show. It's funny, hearing her voice, it was like hearing a different person from the one I knew.

Afterwards, I caught up with Merry-Lynn and some of the other youngsters from school at Lola's for some cheap drinks. After paying the homeless guy a couple bucks to not deface my car, I walked into the ultra-divey place. I liked it a lot, actually. A few parts Scruffy's, a few parts Mary Jane's. Dan later would ask if I went there to buy drugs, but it didn't seem that shady to me. I thought it was rather nice, though nice as in pleasant, not nice as in high quality.

11/17

Cindy, as usual, was working late, so Kim from Keck and I went to get some dinner at Tapatia since we don't always get to hang out much, and it's a good time.

Cindy and I had made arrangements to hang out with her friend Tyson and his maybe-maybe-not girlfriend Louisa. We me them at their place up in the Heights, or, actually, in their neighbor's backyards where we were promptly offered food and beer. We took them up on the latter, noticed how nice and neighborly they were, (The Heights: Houston's Canada), and then drove a little ways to the Petrol Station, which was, gasp, outside the loop.

It was a charming little place. Equal parts neighborhood coffee shop and neighborhood bar, there was tastefully mismatched furniture both inside and outside, and pleasant-seeming people both inside and outside. Even some playground equipment out back (you know, for the kids), and a fire, which sadly we did not sit around. There was a nicely chosen selection of beer available. I'm not exactly wholly comfortable with Tyson, and his situation with Louisa was pretty strange, too, so it wasn't the most socially at-ease evening, but seeing this hidden gem of a bar was reward enough.

11/18

It was t-minus 12 hours and counting until Wii-day, and I was determined to do what I could do get one. I knew Toys 'R Us was having a midnight sale, so I called them to see what the deal was, and apparently there were already 60 people in line for 100 systems. That option didn't look good.

Cindy had made plans for us to see Borat with her brother. I made sure that it would be over in time for me to hit Amazon at 11:00 PM when the system would theoretically be available.

The film was, frankly, awful. I liked the wonderment at the cultural differences of the Americas; I hated the naked fat guys, the other gratuitous nudity, and other low-brow humor that was neither clever nor particularly funny.

Anyway, we did a sweep by Toys 'R Us just to confirm that there was, in fact, a long line, more to witness the spectacle than anything else.

We got home, I started hitting the reload button on Amazon, and Cindy went for Whataburger. Amazon never put the systems up for sale, or, rather, I missed the 15-second window in which they were up for sale. I resolved to hit one Target location for an 8:00 opening, the next for a 9:00 opening, a Circuit City across the street for a 10:00 opening, and Sam's for an 11:00 opening.

I stayed up a little longer, until 2 AM, still thinking that Amazon might put the Wii up for sale. No such luck, so, to bed.

11/19

Up at 7:05, threw some clothes on, and Cindy and I took off for the South Main Target. We got there and only saw a few people in line, and I knew that it couldn't be that easy. Apparently they had already given out the tickets for all available Wiis and that the people who had them had gone for coffee, breakfast, and/or bathroom breaks.

The remaining people politely filled us in on the situation. I quickly made for the Meyerland Target store, arriving there by 7:30. I was told by the nice ladies waiting in line to get systems for Christmas for their kids that there were 34 systems available. I think I was something like 35th in line, but not everyone in line was buying one, so I figured I was safe.

Cindy's brother wanted us to pick one up for him, too, so just to be safe, Cindy went across the street to Circuit City and was second in line after a hispanic family, who apparently was buying them to sell on eBay, and had other family members in line all over town. A fucking racket, apparently.

Anyway, turns out the store was opening early (8), so soon the manager came out and passed out tickets. As he got closer, I got nervous, as the stack rapidly seemed to diminish. Turns out, I had reason to worry, because the bastards only passed out 30 tickets (I later saw two spare Wiis sitting out).

But I got the last ticket, #30. I couldn't believe my luck. I had maybe five minutes to spare between my arrival and the arrival of the people behind me. One of the guys behind me stayed in line because he was special or something. The rest went across the street to try CC. I chat pleasantly with the ladies in front of me, some of whom wanted iPod advice for Christmas presents.

So they open up the store, and we walk to the electronics section in the back and line up. Basically, they let people walk down the aisle one at a time to pick out games and accessories. I grab Zelda, the primary impetus for the entire outing, consider picking up two more games to get a free gift card but decide it's probably not worth it, as there aren't really two more games worth buying and I already have some store credit to use at Best Buy. I also grab an extra remote, so that Cindy and I can play Sports, and, against my better judgment, grab an extra "nunchuck" attachment, which at the moment only allows for two-player boxing, and also against my better judgement, the "classic" controller for playing more traditional games with more traditional controls.

I then get up to the register and get one of the last three Wiis. The guy behind me asks to make a phone call, puts the sales associate on the phone to talk to whoever it is on the other end of the line, and is given a system to buy, just like that. Nice that he didn't try to take one of the vouchers from the unconnected customers.

So, bag o' Wii in hand, I wander through the store to the built-in Starbucks and get beverages for Cindy and I, walk out, stow the Wii safely in my locked car, and go over to Circuit City to wait with Cindy.

There's a rumor that the store will also open an hour early, but they don't, nor do any of the employees entering offer up any additional information. The wait's a bit long, and slightly cold, but a bit before 10 vouchers are passed out. There's some bullshit about having to show a driver's license so that they only do one per household, which is completely silly but not important. Then they say that if multiple people came in the same car, but of course there's absolutely no way to enforce that. Idiocy.

I briefly consider buying one to sell on eBay but decide instead to let somebody else in line have one in hopes that it will go to a loving home. I ocasionally regret that decision...

Circuit City is a bit short on games and accessories, so I'm glad that I bought my system at Target. Cindy and I return to my place, I quickly hook the thing up, and we play some tennis. It's great, though most of you reading this already know that. Cindy leaves to go visit her parents', and I take a nap.

Later I'll get up and get started on Zelda...

Rocking & Headache; Afghani and BtS; Grey's & Beer; Downing & Sweater; Devil & Daniel Johnston; Okkervil & Jenny

10/17

More band practice, followed by a bad neck ache thingy.

10/18

Way back in '04 when I visited Thom in Boston, he and Ali took me out for "terrorist food" at an Afghani restaurant. The food was spectacular, and when I returned to Houston I immediately asked Citysearch where I might find such food in Houston, only to be greated with its cold, digital reply that there was none to be found.

Two years later, I happen to be reading the Houston Press and see a writeup on a new Afghani place that had opened up out West. I made a mental note, and suggested it to Cindy for this particular occasion.

Afghan Tandoori King was unassuming, in a small strip center. The interior was spacious, sparse, and the restaurant wasn't particularly busy. We were quickly seated by an enthusiastic waitress. I ordered a squash and yogurt appetizer that was in theory the same as the pumpkin-based dish we had ordered in Boston, but not as tasty. I ordered a chicken dish served with rice, carrots, and golden raisins; it wasn't particularly impressive. Cindy did much better, ordering something akin to wontons or pot stickers, filled with a very mediterranean array of meet, veggies, and sauce. That dish was much closer to the cuisine we had in Boston.

Our enthusiastic waitress pushed dessert quite heavily, so we accepted. It was good, if different. Sort of a pudding, but beraing a fairly unique selection of spices (though I think I've had something simpler in Indian cuisine).

All in all, not as good as the place in Boston, but I think I owe them a second visit.

Afterwards we took off to go see Built to Spill at the (blech) Warehouse. We got there about 10 or so, not expecting the show to start until 10:30 or 11:00, only to find the band already in their second song as we entered.

We got reasonably up front, emulating the strategy that worked so well at the Gnarls Barkley show. But Buil to Spill are a band very much dependent on sonics, and in an environment as harsh as the Warehouse, they just weren't as good as when I had seen them in better venues.

It was worth going, though, to hear them play their almost-forgotten "Nowhere Nothing Fuckup", adapted from the Velvet Underground's "Oh, Sweet Nothin'". Also, I felt vidincated when Doug thanked us for coming to hear what it would be like if they "played in a giant shower".

10/19

Cindy comes over to watch Grey's Anatomy and drink beer. No one is shocked.

10/20

Cindy and I decided to check out Good Co. Hamburgers & Taqueria, as part of our continued search for the best burgers in Houston. The interior was definitely very taqueria, and there was a nice patio in the back dominated by a huge fountain. The burger setup was very Fudruckers, with all the fixins in a salad bar setup. The burgers themselves were tasty, probably on par with Beck's Prime, with some nice mesquite (?) smoked flavor. The atmosphere at Goode Co. probably pushed it ahead. Both places are maybe a little pricey for fast food-ish burgers, but a whole step ahead of most fast food chains, and maybe a half step ahead of Whataburger.

Afterwards, another night at Downing St. with Angela, the Marshes, the Bakers, and Char... except, they turned me away at the door for wearing a t-shirt. Guy inside is wearing fucking scrubs and I can't get in in a t-shirt and jeans? Fuck you, Downing Street, and in particular, fuck you, asshole door guy who probably singled me out because I was white. Yes, I went there.

Char saw us walk away, and arranged to bring me... a woman's sweater. Yep. Thankfully, it was big. Black. Plain. A little tight, maybe, but not particularly affeminate. So I put it on and the asshole door guy let me in.

But beer and cigars (surprisingly reasonably priced at the in-store humidor) made that all better...

10/21

Cindy and I decided on a movie night, and, after some debate, settled on watching the documentary The Devil & Daniel Johnston. I had heard of the man, as Guster (and a whole bunch of other notable bands) had performed covers of his songs on a tribute disc, and Dan and Kristin had gone to see a play about him, and I knew him to be a somewhat crazy songwriter.

By then end, I felt like I knew him intimately. An eccentric kid who made outsider art and wrote simple songs, he somehow ended up in Austin after briefly working for a travelling carnival, and then followed the local scene before frying his brain a bit with LSD. After that a bipolar disorder dominated his life and led to frequent delusions that the devil was all around him, haunting him and the people he loved. But enough people (musicians in particular) liked his music that he developed a following, which exploded when Kurt Cobain wore one of his t-shirts on MTV.

In the end, I couldn't really tell whether he was an eccentric outsider artist who developed this persona, or an idiot man-child whose condition was exploited to the success of his art, and a question I still can't answer even after seeing him live.

10/22

Look, I have nothing personal against Jenny Lewis. I'm sure she's talented and her fans have legitimate reasons for liking her solo work and her work with her band, Rilo Kiley.

But she doesn't hold a candle to Okkervil River. And when I miss a chance to see Okkervil river headline because their headlining show was cancelled and they were moved to an opening slot for Jenny Lewis's show, I get fucking pissed off.

I'm sure it was a financially beneficial arrangement for all parties involved. I'm sure it made complete logical sense to the bands and the promoters.

But fuck you, Jenny Lewis and Super Unison, for depriving me of an Okkervil River headlining set. Fuck you for promoting a steaming pile of mediocrity over one of the most interesting and talented bands to emerge this decade. And fuck you, fans of steamping piles of mediocrity, for making it all possible.

But we went anyway. I mean, hell, it's Okkervil river, right?

And it was a beautiful night. First cold night of the year, which is an occasion for me to be happy. Cold weather energizes me and makes me giddily happy to be alive. It makes me wonder if I would be genuinely a more well person if I lived somewhere that wasn't Texas. It was a beautiful night to be out, and catch a short set by a great band, and then hang out on the patio drinking beer and bloody marys while the fools inside listed to Jenny Lewis.

Cindy picked up a sweet collection of prints by Will Sheff. His art is a little violent and psychotic for me, but it's good, and I think it will be a neat thing for Cindy to use to decorate her apartment. I had to prod a little, but the collection was $30 for 10 or so prints, and though that's a lot of money, it was a good deal, and I reminded Cindy that she was paying less than 1% per print of what I had payed for my art.

I wanted to pick up their Australian tour EP, which has the great "Love to a Monster" and "The President's Dead" on it, but I guess it's called Australian for a reason. I've since remedied that situation through other venues, but it was a bit disappointing at the time.

Still, a great night out. Even with fucking Jenny Lewis fucking headlining.

(Nothing personal, Jenny, I swear, although the award for hottest indie rock redhead still goes to Neko Case. But seriously. Nothing personal. You were just the beneficiary of bad circumstances, and an easy target for my wrath.)

Plastic Constellations; Boys & Girls Club; TV w/ Will; Shopping & The Corpse Bride; TV, Beer; Little Miss Sunshine, Poison Girl; Prole

The blog's been competing with Zelda lately for leisure time. And, frankly, the blog doesn't have an immersive 3D world with sword play and clever puzzles. Sorry, blog.

8/28

And student #2 from our lab makes it out. Good for him. Light at the end of the tunnel and all that.

The Plastic Constellations, whose rock/half-rap Mazatlan I had liked, were scheduled to open for the Fatal Flying Guilloteens at the Proletariat. I guess a highly-rated local band outranks a low-rated national band, even if on the absolute scale the national band is probably better.

Of course, since it was a Guilloteens show, Chris B. was there, as was Colin, and it was good to get a chance to see them both. Chris parlayed it into an occasion to do his bar column for the Houston Press, but didn't parlay it into free drinks for the rest of us, sadly.

The Plastic Constellations' new material didn't seem quite up to their '04 album that I was rather fond of, which was a disappointment.

Still, a nice night out.

8/29

I had first heard of it from Matt B, who did it. Large LCD TVs, without built-in tuners, are, technically speaking, monitors. Monitors happen to be one of the things that I can apply my equipment budget towards. And I didn't have a monitor for my Mac mini (except for my TV), or a big screen flat panel TV. So certainly, it was something that filled a niche.

After spending some time poking around the internet previously, I had pretty much settled on one of Westinghouse's 1080P displays. They were cheap with a good feature set, and though the brand was a relative unknown, they had certainly developed a large following on the internet.

Labor day weekend seemed like a good time to buy. I spent a good deal of time researching my buying options...

8/30

Boys & Girls Club is a nice occasional divergence; a good thing to do if you're up for more partying after starting your Wednesday night out slow, but it's rarely a primary destination for me.

Occasional special events, though, change that, and one was the opportunity to see Andy Rourke of the Smiths DJ at anonymous strip-mall club A38. So Cindy and I took off. Dan and Kristin told us things hadn't really taken off yet, so we stuffed them in the back of Cindy's car and moved over to the Mink for a few rounds, before stuffing them and Levi back in and heading back to A38.

Seeing Rourke DJ wasn't really anything special, but it was somewhat interesting. I was surprised to hear him play a solo Morrisey song. Guess there's not that much bad blood there. We stuck around for a while, but a few Lonestars later, we took off.

8/31

Lab Dan was fed up with his laptop and wanted to go to Micro Center for some RAM, inviting me on the field trip to do so. He had ridden his bike, though, so we first rode that to his place to pick up his car before going to MC. The motorcycle ride was less initially scary, but the trip down Braeswood had a few bumps that made the whole lack-of-being-strapped-down thing a little jarring. Still, it reinforced my opinion that a bike would be a supremely fun, if dangerous, thing to own.

After getting back to lab, Will contacted me, wanting to watch some TV. We stopped by the store for some snacks, settling on some of the more bizarre kettle chips we saw: beer and cheddar, and spicey thai. The beer and cheddar were nice, good authentic cheese flavor with a little extra something. The thai were also pretty good; lots of ginger and a few other things I couldn't put my finger on.

We watched Justice League. It was good as usual. Bless you, Paul Dini.

9/1

Ah, the Friday before Labor Day and midnight madness sales. I had previously missed out on an opportunity to pick up a cheap Logitech Harmony remote. These aren't anything special in terms of hardware, but the software is what makes them "I should have thought of that" brilliant. They download device codes off the internet, and then, based on some Q&A with you on a web site, configure macros automatically for doing things like watching TV, listening to music, watching a movie, or playing a video game. As such, they're great at replacing a pile of remotes, and great at keeping SOs who aren't intimately acquainted with your setup happy.

CompUSA had one for $50 after rebates (which I still haven't gotten; assholes), which was a real bargain, considering it went for $120 or so at the time. After a brief debate as to whether or not to leave work early to pick one up, I decided to be safe, and it was a good thing I did. I got there about 5:45 for the sale that started at 6, and they were already handing them out. I grabbed one and then killed time until I could check out at 6. I also found a wireless router for $10 after rebates, so I picked one up with the intention of giving it to Cindy (who it turns out didn't know she already had one), although it's ended up at my parents' place.

After that, on to Best Buy to check out the TV. I realized while there that it was only a couple hundred more to go from the 37" to the 42". I was still deliberating about that somewhat, and they didn't have either in stock, so I opted to wait until the next day and go by a place that did have it in stock.

Cindy and I went for dinner (Chinese?) and then ended up renting The Corpse Bride that night, which was an entertaining, pretty little fairy tail (and the last movie I watched on the old TV).

9/2

Robyn was in town with some of her Baylor folks for the Body Worlds exhibit and wanted to meet up for lunch. Sadly I didn't have the opportunity to steer them someplace good for lunch, so they ended up in the village, at Brian O'Neil's. The food's not so bad there, though, and I had a good roast beef sandwich, potato leek soup, and some beer. Plus the company was good. It was great to see Robyn, however briefly.

Then on to Susan and Jerry's for a visit, laundry, and dinner,

After that, I headed over to the I-10 Best Buy to buy my TV. Of course, nothing ever is perfect, and they wouldn't let me use my 12% off coupon because the TV was on sale. But I did get $100 off for agreeing to sign up for HD cable service, which was pretty much free for me anyway. So I got their last TV, loaded it up into the Mazda (perfect fit!) and headed back home.

Traffic was backed up quite a bit, and a look ahead showed why: a huge plume of smoke was coming up. Getting closer, a truck on the other side of the highway was on fire. As in, I could feel the heat from 50 feet away driving past it. Absolutely crazy.

Got home, Cindy helped me unpack the TV, and made a quick trip to lab to borrow a DVI cable for the Mac mini. Went up to Woodrow's for beer, then left to meet a very bored-sounding Kristin at Poison Girl.

9/3

Cindy and I put some breakfast together and then went to see Little Miss Sunshine at the River Oaks theater. The movie... well, it was OK, but didn't have the kind of richness that would lead to a purchase.

After I got home, I got a call from Dan, who was hanging out at Poison Girl with his daughter, so I joined them and had a drink or two, before returning to some quality time with my TV.

9/4

Spent the day enjoying the TV, and bet up with the usual crowd at the Prole later on for drinks.

Pappadeaux's & the Ginger Man; Practice; Batman Beyond; Khyber & Snakes on a Blog; Minty drinks; Woodrow's; Cooking

8/14

We were interviewing a postdoc candidate in lab, and I was asked to take him to dinner, which seemed like a good idea at the time.

This was right around the time of all the "heightened airport security" bullshit, so after I ran home to get my car and picked up the interviewee, I had to take him to get bubble wrap so he could pack his laptop in his luggage. Then I had to run back up to school to pick up my lab mate that was joining us.

The trouble with dinner was, our interviewee he was (originally) from Algeria, and because of the culture he was raised in, didn't "like to be around drinking". So no beer on the lab budget, tragically. I took him to Pappadeaux's, as he seemed willing to try something new. Lab Mate (who happens to be a little dense) managed to order the cold shrimp and raw oyster plate—without realizing that the oysters were raw. Smooth. Seemed like such a waste. I tried one, but I wouldn't necessarily say that I enjoyed it. Thankfully, I had ordered crab cakes for us as an appetizer, which were good. Our interviewee went with fried crawfish; labmate went with some kind of plank grilled fish, and I tried the blackened catfish (which was actually disappointingly bland). Lab Mate also has an annoying habit of hearing things, misinterpreting them, and spitting out the misinformation at a later point, so I spent a good portion of the evening correcting some of his notions about the US, Texas, Houston, BCM, and the lab for our guest.

I talked them into getting the sweet potato pecan pie for dessert, though, so it wasn't all bad.

Then I had to take interviewee back to the hotel, and then David home, and finally, finally, made it back home to enjoy the rest of my birthday. Cindy came by and picked me up to take me out for beer at the Gingerman.

8/15

Band practice. I continue to suck less. We pick up a few cool covers. Jeff has a nice original called "Satellite" that's a waltz. Rocking occurs.

8/16

At some point I had borrowed a DVD with the first few episodes of the animated Batman Beyond on it. I had not long before that rediscovered my love for the excellent DC Comics animated TV shows (Batman, Superman, Justice League) and so was glad to get to fill in this missing piece.

I think I had previously watched the DVD, but since then I downloaded a bunch of episodes off of BitTorrent and so I spent my evening working my way through them. The show was entertaining, but probably the least so of the four cartoons. It seems to be a bit far from being a masterpiece, but I can't help but wonder if the feature-length movie corrects some of that—particularly, darkening the tone a bit, which is a bit kiddie because of its teenaged protagonist.

8/17

Graham and Angela hadn't made it to my birthday party, and offered to make that up to me by taking Cindy and I out to dinner. We ended up at Indian restaurant Khyber, which was quite tasty.

Afterwards, we had a date with Will to see Snakes On A Plane (seems overly pretentious to capitalize that). The movie delivered what was on the tin, and did so in a completely entertaining manner. So, surprisingly not criticisms from me.

Well, more tits wouldn't have hurt it. I mean, it was just that kind of movie. Oh, and that music video at the end was just awful.

8/18

Despite the best efforts of Kristin to get us up to the Prole, Cindy and I opted for a cheap night in. Cindy brought over some mint leaves and we made mint julips (which were good but would have been better with seltzer instead of plain water) and mojitos. TV was probably watched.

8/19

Matt, who had previously left school, was back in town for the weekend and wanted barbecue. He, Graham, Char, Will and I hit up Goode's for some sauce-drenched goodness before wandering across the street to Goode's Armadillo Palace for a round.

Notes indicate that I went to Woodrow's that evening. No more details available.

8/20

Notes would seem to indicate that I spent the evening cooking. I think (think!) that was probably the evening that I tried a couple of Alton Brown gazpacho recipes. One was sort of a dip that used Bulgar wheat in addition to the traditional tomato and bell pepper flavors. The other was fruit-based, but in the more traditional cold soup form. The tomato-bssed dip one didn't really turn out very well; it just never quite tasted good.

The fruit one, on the other hand, was pretty good. I should have cut the cucumbers, and I was short on walnuts, but the grapes, white grape juice, and apples combined well with everything and it ended up being tasty—especially after I added my own touch, one (carefully) seeded habanero.

The next night I would try an Alton Brown macaroni and cheese recipe, which turned out badly thanks to my managing to fuck up tempering the egg into the sauce. A suggestion for the recipe was to take a bar of the final product, chilled, and batter and fry it, which redeemed it, though I would imagine it would redeem just about anything.

Carpentry; Proletariat; Randa & Sabrina; Practice; Valhalla; Mom & Dad, Cindy's Reunion; Movies and Rudz

7/31

Unhappy with the fact that my keyboard wasn't really beefy enough to straddle my keyboard stand, my thoughts turned to engineering a solution. Luckily, I thought to consult Lab Dan, who himself was an experienced engineer in the Navy ("in the navy").

He had some good ideas, and offered to help me construct something that night, which was good since he actually had a space to work (his garage) and a full complement of tools (including those of the power variety).

We met at the Lowe's near me, and grabbed a pre-cut plank of wood, some rubbery shelf lining, some contact cement, and some spray paint. We headed back to his place and set to work. I glued the shelf lining to the top side of the plank, this would provide a nice non-stick surface to grip my keyboard.

Dan set to work cuting some small pieces of wood; these were then glued to the underside of the plank and provided hold the arms of the keyboard stand in place. Finally, we primed and painted the thing, and left it to dry.

8/1

Um, went to the Proletariat, I guess. Can't remember details.

8/2

Randa was in town, an occasion which called for drinking. She, Sabrina and Shawn picked me up from school, dropped by my apartment, and then we made for the Saucer downtown. It was pint glass night, and by ordering a pint of Sam Adam's seasonal summer beer, I scored myself a free logoed pint glass. Sweetness. We had dinner; I enjoyed their tasty buffalo chicken wrap. And then there was more beer. I finally got around to trying their "chocolate truffle": a pint of Young's Double Chocolate Stout, with a splash of Lindemann's lambic framboise (rasberry). Quite tasty.

We stopped by Woodrow's in the village for a round before calling it a night.

8/4

The annual graduate student council night at Valhalla arrived. Cindy had grudgingly agreed to take off work early and drive me over there, but that afternoon Dan came by and offered me a ride over... on his motorcycle. It seemed to me that this was a way for everyone to win. I got to ride a motorcycle and start drinking early; Cindy got to work later and not have to alter her schedule. Apparently my changing our plans pissed her off, though she later got over it and realized that I was, as usual, right.

Anyway, the motorcycle. Dan's got a Honda VTX 1800, a cruiser-style bike with a 1.8 liter engine. That's bigger than some cars, like Cindy's (1.6, if I recall correctly). It's only slightly smaller than my car's 2.3 liter engine. And this is on a bike that's a fraction of that weight.

Anyway, I'd never ridden on a motorcycle before. Hopping on and riding out of the parking garage, I was scared shitless as I realized that the ground was moving below me, with nothing between me and it but my balance. Moving out onto the open rode, the feeling intensified, but I started to understand how it would be signifcantly less scary with the bike under your control. Dan had, wisely, informed me not to move around, and that you didn't actually have to actively lean into the corners, but that the laws of physics pretty much did that for you. All you had to do was follow what felt natural.

We made it to Rice without dying, and I actually found the experience quite thrilling.

So on to the beer. We had kegs of Shiner and Lonestar available to us. Not only that, but my car was safely back at my apartment, so I was free of responsibilities and proceded to start getting dee-runk. Char had cleverly gotten venders to sponsor the event, so the beer flowed freely. It was a good time.

The kegs began to run out and arrangements were made to move the party on to the Saucer. Cindy showed up to pick me up, and after a brief stopoff at my apartment, we headed to the Saucer. I got involved telling some story (oh, how mom had called me to ask for an explanation about my car being towed and me replying angrily that it was none of her business and that I had been well on my way to forgetting that little slice of injustice) and we missed our exit off of 59, and then our attempt to turn around somehow got me even more bizarrely turned around, which almost never happens.

We eventually made it to the saucer, where Oliver was working on a girl, Wanda was working on a guy, and Cindy and I got to work (more boringly) on an order of cheese fries (which were inferior to the Cricket's variety, though I've always thought that the Saucer was an inferior version of Cricket's, though the Saucer is probably the older of the establishments). Lots of grad schoolers made it out, which was always good to see. It's fun to get everyone in the same place every once in a while.

8/5

Mom and Dad came into town to catch a flight out to New England the next day. As an early birthday dinner we went out to eat at Pei Wei. Mmm... lettuce wraps...

Cindy's high school reunion was at the nearby Sam's Roadhouse, so a quick trip up the road from my aunt and uncle's got me there.

It didn't, however, get me in without having to pay their damned $3 cover. Cindy didn't know about it because she managed the ol' "I'm talking on my cell phone" trick. Regardless, it was idiotic, so they go on my monetary karma list, owing me $3 (along with my apartment complex and the city of Houston).

Despite the crappy venue with its crappy country and annoying suburban clientele, I had a good time with Cindy. It probably would have been a better time if I'd thrown back a few extra beers, but I had to drive us home.

On the way to the bathroom I snagged a bottle of Frank's Red Hot Sauce, nearly full. We'll be generous and put the value of that at $1, bringing Sam's Roadhouse debt to me down to $2.

One word of advice, though. If you have a bottle of hot sauce in your pocket and it leaks a little, and you move it around to keep it from leaking more, and you happen to be a guy using the bathroom at the time, be careful what parts of your anatomy you touch with that hand. Just FYI.

8/6

A nice, leisurely Sunday. I finished up watching the movies that Cindy and I had rented, including the aforementioned Jesus Is Magic. There was also that other movie Cindy and I had rented... maybe something she had seen but I hadn't. For the life of me I can't remember what it is now.

Got a call later in the evening; Dan and Kristin were up at Rudz. I stopped by for a couple of rounds, before taking off and making a Whataburger run. Will was up at Woodrow's, so I dropped by and consumed my food there, along with beer, conversation, and darts.