Rough Draft

Fun Weekend

This weekend I had a chance to hang out with Dan who was one of my best friends in high school. He had told me he was taking a trip across the country, so we had been planning to get together once he made it out here. He got here around 1 on Saturday afternoon. After the quick tour of the apartment we went to BJs for lunch to catch up since he haven't really kept in touch and then I showed him the Apple campus, took him over to my office, and showed off Soundtrack Pro.

After lunch, we went geocaching with Andrew and Ricci. This is the third weekend in a row I've been geocaching, though this ended up being the least successful one. The first coordinates we went to put us in a residential area, so we think we may have typed the coordinates in wrong. The second one we went to we found the area it was in along this walkway, but after looking for quite some time, we finally had to give up. Fortunately we had success at the next cache (in a park at the west end of Stevens Creek Blvd) we went to. Dan actually found the cache so that was cool since it was his first time geocaching. The cache along the walkway was the first one where we've actually found the general area of the cache and not successfully found it. We need to check the clue on geocaching.com and go back there.

After the geocaching, we stopped by Jamba Juice because Ricci had a bunch of free coupons. Then we went over to Ricci's to play Settlers of Catan and some video games. We also watched The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou which I had gotten from NetFlix. It was pretty good, but I also thought it was pretty slow in some parts. I gave it 3 stars, though it's rating average rating is 4.5. Maybe I missed something about it. As far as Wes Anderson movies go though, I definitely like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums a lot better than The Life Aquatic.

On Sunday Dan and I went up to San Francisco. We didn't have any specific plans, so we parked at the Daly City BART station and took the train to 24th and Mission. We walked around a little while and Dan got some coffee at a place called Muddy Water. We passed a bunch of people dressed in costumes ranging from brides to pirates to Elvis. I later found out these were people running the Bay to Breakers race.

I suggested going to Golden Gate Park because I hadn't been there yet and I've been wanting to see the Japanese tea garden. After looking at a map at a Muni stop, we decided we'd walk a ways to the 'N' stop which looked like it would take us pretty close to the park. After getting to the park we then attempted to find the tea garden. We started walking in the direction we thought it was, and ran into this group of guys (they sounded British) and they asked if we knew how to get to the tea gardens. We said no, but that's where we were trying to get as well. We walked a ways and eventually found a map and started looking at it when another group of people came up and said they were also looking for the tea gardens. I said just finding the tea gardens was going to be a fulfilling experience. After determining the map was oriented upside down (north was at the bottom) we figured out which way to go. We walked a bit further and came across another, this time correctly oriented, map and verified we were going the right way. Along the way we passed this car that looked like a piranha. Then eventually we got to the tea gardens.

After getting to the entrance, we realized it cost $3.50 to go in. I said "That doesn't seem very zen." Of course I really didn't mind paying. It was a really cool place. There were a lot of really neat plants and flowers and lots of water. It would be a great place to just sit and read all afternoon. I had my camera with me and took some good pictures. This really just made me want to go to Japan all the more.

Next we made our way to the Golden Gate bridge. Unfortunately it was incredibly foggy and you could only see a few feet of it before it disappeared into the fog. We did walk partway across the bridge and then back, just to say we'd been on it. We took the Muni back through the city by way of Fisherman's Wharf and Chinatown and eventually got off near Market Street. I decided I wanted to look for the Apple store since I hadn't been there yet and I was curious if they might have the Final Cut Studio and/or Soundtrack Pro boxes yet. We were standing on a street corner waiting to cross and then just as we did, I looked up and realized the Apple store was right there in front of us. Unfortunately, it was about 7:00 and it had closed at 6:00. In the minute or two we were by the store I was amazed at the number of people coming up to the store only to find out it was closed. Finally, we crossed Market and listened to a Funk street band for a few minute before getting back on the BART.

It was a really fun weekend and it was good seeing Dan since I haven't seen him in a couple years.

Mics Are For Singing, Not For Swinging

Eric and I went to see Jimmy Eat World with Taking Back Sunday and Mates of State in Oakland last night. It was at the Henry J Kaiser Arena (the basketball arena for a local college). Eric and I think there were about 1500 people at the show, so it's definitely the biggest show I've been to in quite some time.

We got there just as Mates of State's set started. They were composed of a female keyboardist and male drummer and they shared singing duties. A couple of their songs sounded a bit Arcade Fire-esque, though not nearly as complex given they only had two instruments. Overall they were pretty good. Though for some reason I had thought The Format were opening, but I guess they were only on the first half of the tour. So I was a little disappointed about not seeing getting to see The Format.

Taking Sunday were up next. The lights dimmed and some really epic sounding music played. Music that upon hearing you would expect one of the greatest bands on earth to come out...or a band that is just really full of themselves, and TBS is certainly the latter. Now that I think about it Good Charlotte did some similar shit on their tour, so there you go.

I wanted to enjoy Taking Back Sunday, I really did. They just really weren't that exciting to watch. Most of their songs sounded a lot different than the album versions. I couldn't quite figure out what it was, different effects on the guitar perhaps. And Adam used some sort of Robotizer on his voice for some songs which really didn't sound that good. I was amazed at how still the crowd was for most of the performance. The most jumping around was done during Your So Last Summer (too bad Flava Flav wasn't with them) and Cute Without the 'e' Cut From the Team. But I was really expecting a pretty crazy crowd for their set. The band just really never got the crowd into the show. During all of TBS's set there was only a small circle pit during part of one song. To contrast during all of Jimmy Eat World's encore there was a huge circle pit with ton's of people dancing. I will say I really enjoyed them breaking out the acoustic guitar for New American Classic and then following up that song with Cute Without the 'e'. That was definitely the best part of their entire set. The one other good thing I have to say about TBS is they played all their songs in one stretch and didn't do the whole lame encore thing.

Jimmy Eat Wold came on next and this is definitely who everyone was there to see. They opened by having Jim come on stage and singing (with no instruments) the chorus to Futures, and then the band came on one by one adding background parts and then they jumped into a song from Clarity. I really couldn't even begin to compose a setlist, but they definitely played a lot of songs with a good mix from Futures, Bleed American, and Clarity. They played a great set and interacted with the crowd very well. People were jumping, dancing, and singing pretty much constantly. I even enjoyed their performance of The Middle which is probably one of the most overplayed radio songs of all time. Jimmy Eat World put on a great show, and I definitely recommend seeing them if you get a chance.

New Music Recommendations

I updated my music recommendations for the week in the sidebar. I'm not sure if I'll always make an official entry when I update the recommendations, but I wanted to talk at length about a couple of them.

First up is the album Based on a True Story by The Starting Line. Let me just say: Wow! This album is so much more than I expected. I don't put it in quite the same class as Deja Entendu and Forget What You Know, but there's no denying this album his a huge leap from Say It Like You Mean It. You still get the fun poppy hooks and catchy choruses but there's also a lot more this time around. No longer is the lyrical content strictly songs about girls. The album's title is Based on a True Story and it seems to be just that. Lots of lyrics about being on the road, being in a band, and generally growing up. And Kenny has become quite a musician, as he is credited with Vocals, Bass, Guitar, Wurlitzer, Piano, Glockenspiel, Bongos, Synths, and Harpsichord. Very impressive. I loved the acoustic album they put out a couple years ago, so I was very happy to hear a new acoustic ballad in the form of the song Photography. This album is definitely going to be getting lots listens and is sure to make my Top 5 albums of the year.

The next album recommendation is Songs for Silverman by Ben Folds. The first time I listened to this album no one song really jumped out at me and it just sort of all blended together. After a few more listens though the album has really grown on me. I listened to it at least 3 full times at work today. The songs Bastard and Landed have started to stick out as a couple of my favorites. The entire album is pretty mellow and really just pleasant to listen to. I highly recommend it to everyone reading this.

Ben's going on tour soon with Rufus Wainwright and you can be sure I'll be at that show. Also, Nick pointed me to this interview with Ben by The Onion AV Club. If you like Ben Folds, you should definitely give that read. It talks about the weird area he falls into where he doesn't really get much if any radio play, and yet he sells out huge venues everywhere he plays.

Song recommendations for the week include Grazed Knees by Snow Patrol who I saw in concert last week. Sarah had mentioned this song to me as being one of her favorites, and I have to agree. It's definitely a sad song, and yet there's something uplifting about it at the end, sorting giving you hope that everything's going to be ok.

The next song is Gravity by Days Away from their just released album Mapping an Invisible World. This is another mellow song. I really like the way the song sounds during the lyrics "Hey you, over there, is gravity getting you down?".

The last song recommendation, We Can All Get Along With Dinosaurs, I already posted about the other day.

Woo, so this post ended up a bit longer than expected. Anyways, enjoy the music!

And the record begins with a song of rebellion

Sweet, just read that Say Anything are going to be playing the San Francisco date with The Get Up Kids in June. I saw them open for Straylight Run last fall, but that was before I really had a chance to listen to their album. Is a Real Boy is a really fun album, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing them again and being able to sing along.

Fiesta Lime Chicken

Fiesta Lime Chicken is yummy and delcious. It's by far my favorite meal at an Applebee's/TGIFriday's/Chilis type of restaurant.

Ricci called up after work today to see if Andrew and I wanted to go out to eat. Andrew had already eaten, but I had just gotten home so Ricci and I went out. My first suggestion was IHOP since it's right across the street, but Ricci wasn't up for breakfast food. Our next potential stop was Chipotle and I said how I like the lime flavored rice. Then that reminded me that I had recently saw an ad for Applebee's and really wanted Fiesta Lime Chicken.

Ricci thought he had seen an Applebee's from the highway, so we got on the highway and looked for it, but didn't see it by the time we had gotten to Winchester Blvd. So we got off and I called Andrew to look up where the closest one was. In the meantime Ricci and I got back on the highway and just as Andrew was telling me there's an Applebee's on Saratoga we saw it. Clearly, I should not have doubted Ricci's ability to see a restaurant from the highway. After we got inside I saw they had a special shrimp and steak dinner which was very tempting, but I decided I had come for the Fiesta Lime Chicken, so that's what I got.

A big part of the goodness of the Fiesta Lime Chicken is in the small, colored, wavy tortilla pieces that come with it. Unfortunately, when our plates came out they were pretty skimpy with the tortillas, so when the waitress came back Ricci said "So this usually comes with more tortillas" and the waitress brought us back a good sized bowl of the tortiallas. w00t.

On a side note it was slightly amusing that one of the ads during the basketball game they were showing was for Chilis.

We can all live with dinosaurs

Saw this linked to on AP.net. Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids and New Amsterdams is putting out a children's CD. There's three demo songs for download on that site. I dig it. And this quote from Matt at the end of the article is great:

"My wife was joking that I'm going to do this kids music, and you can listen to that until you're about 14. Then when you go into your angsty teenage phase, you can listen to The Get Up Kids stuff. Then when you go to college, you can start listening to The New Amsterdams," he says. "It's like my own little Viacom."

CD List Updated

I finally got around to updating my list of CDs. Recent purchases include From Under the Cork Tree by Fall Out Boy, The Everglow by Mae, Stop All the World Now by Howie Day, The Laptop EP by MC Lars, Final Straw by Snow Patrol, and Frances the Mute by The Mars Volta. On Tuesday I'll definitely be adding The Starting Line's Based on a True Story (definitely one of my favorite albums so far this year).

I'll be updating the rest of the Media Collections as well as book and concert lists very soon. With the recent release of Tiger and me actually having some free time I've started playing around with Core Data and have started whipping up an application to help me manage these collections. I made a model for my CDs, hence the update to the CD page and the only code I had to write (under 50 lines) was to export it to a php file so my script can read it. Very good stuff.

Long Month

Wow, so all of April went by without a single post from me on this site. First time I've had a whole month go by without a single post. I was insanely busy at work all of March and April and made two trips (Cleveland and Las Vegas). I managed to make it to a couple concerts as well. I'll definitely be posting more on all of these things in the near future.

But for now I've spent the last couple nights doing some work on the site, prompted by a post made by Josh. I've started to revamp the sidebar, although there's still some things I want to change about it. I removed the Recent Entries as they didn't serve a lot of purpose since they are all on the main page and my posts aren't insanely long. I also moved the Monthly Archive links to an Archives page since that too was just eating up space without a whole lot of usefulness. In the same style as Jeff I added a Navigation section to the sidebar. This gives quick access if you do want to browse through the monthly archives or the categories. The Navigation section also points to the newly created About Me and Contact Info. pages. The last thing I added to the sidebar is a Music Recommendations section. I plan to update this every few weeks as I come across new albums and "songs of the moment". The album links point to the iTunes Music Store if it's available there while the song link either points to the ITMS or PureVolume if the song is available there for free. The artist link points to that artist's homepage.

Other small changes I've made include making links blue and visited links gray. Before all links were a light gray which was unnecessarily difficult to see on the white background, so changing them to blue made links stand out more without them needing to be underlined. Visited links are now gray, but a gray that is a bit darker and easier to read. I also revamped the "Posted..." tag that appears at the bottom of each post. Previously clicking on the time took you to the permanent link which was rather non-intuitive so I pulled the Permanent Link out explicitly. I also added a link to the category archive the post is from, so if a particular post piques your interest it's easy to get to similar posts. Finally I added a link to the official Disclaimer for the site.

I've been keeping a list of changes I've made and changes I plan to make using OmniOutliner. Jeff has been telling me about the wonderfulness that is OmniOutliner for quite some time, but I had never really used it. But now I have finally seen how great this app is and have been using it for quite a few various lists lately. And now Ricci points out to me that you can make different column types like pop up lists, dates, durations, and the standard checkboxes. Cool!