July 19, 2008

shalom from israel

I'm in Israel visiting my family in Hertzliah. My cousin and I are about to go out to a "dance bar" with his friends. Apparently it's a bar with different kinds of music in different rooms. I think these things exist in Dallas, but I wouldn't know, because I keep going to pubs.

I got here yesterday afternoon and we went straight to the beach after I landed. It was awesome.

The rest of the week will consist of more beach, more bars, and some traveling around the country to go hiking, kayaking, and maybe camping. I haven't been in Israel since 2002 (I think) so it's nice to be back and see everyone.

More to come...

Posted by particleman to beer; travel on 19 Jul 08 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2008

moving... moving... moved.

Hey particlefans. Guess what. I moved. Again. In case you had forgotten, moving sucks. The owner of the duplex in which I lived sold the house and the owners have two sons who decided to occupy the duplex. After looking around for a suitable place to live, I finally signed a lease a whole five days before I had to be out of the duplex. Yes, I like to live on the edge. I spent Saturday and Sunday frantically packing and moving.

Because renting a moving truck would have been really expensive with that short of a notice, I ended up making 48 trips to and from the new place with my car filling it up as much as I could. Ok, maybe not 48 trips. But it was a lot. At least the new place was a whole two blocks away, so it wasn't so bad. And my friend with a pickup truck came to help too. And so did his fiance. Well, she mostly rode in the love seat in the truck bed talking on the phone, but, you know. That's how it goes. (She's from Oklahoma so she knows what she's doing) (Her words, not mine).

Oh, and did I tell you? I'm blogging from my new Macbook, which I got a while ago. It's sleek and black and awesome. And totally not Windows.

Posted by particleman on 30 Jun 08 9:33 PM | Comments (2)

June 18, 2008

even better than the Klingon license plate

I didn't get to confirm that she was really Q T. Oh well.

qtlawyer.jpg

Posted by particleman to law on 18 Jun 08 8:32 AM | Comments (2)

June 16, 2008

music connections

If you don't play an instrument, or you don't care about key changes and music composition, you may want to skip this one...

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs released a song called Kiss Kiss that I immediately liked. I couldn't figure out exactly why, but the progression in the verse section sounded like something else I knew, but I couldn't place where it came from.

I had Nirvana's Nevermind playing in the car for a couple of days. I'll sometimes listen to a song four or five times in a row because I focus on different parts of the song. On the way home from a friend's house last night, I listened to Drain You for the entire duration of a 20 minute drive.

Then this morning, something occurred to me. The reason Kiss Kiss sounded familiar and the reason I couldn't figure out where it came from is because the verse progression is a carbon copy of the verse section of Drain You, but in a different key. I recognized the intervals, but because the key was different, I didn't immediately pick up that it was essentially the same riff.

I verified this by checking the Kiss Kiss tab. There it was. Drain You is in A. Kiss Kiss is in D. But the progression is the same.

The Drain You verse section isn't exactly the most unique or ingenuitive progression, but it's strange to see it show up again.

See? This post is really not that interesting for people who aren't music nerds.

Posted by particleman to geek; music on 16 Jun 08 1:27 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2008

speaking of nerd

One of my favorite movies growing up was Short Circuit. Imagine my surprise when I saw a preview for Pixar's new movie Wall-E.

Meet Wall-E.

wall-e.jpg

Now, meet (not for the first time, I can only hope), Johnny #5.

j5.jpg

I rest my case.

That said, I still want to see the movie, I still think it's a great idea for Pixar's next film, and I'm sure Wall-E's creator is tired of people asking if he's seen Short Circuit.

Addendum: Actually, it looks like Short Circuit got its inspiration from another non-human sentient being. Eventually, I will find the first movie to feature an alien or robot with a head shaped like binoculars on top of a long neck and squarish body.

et.jpg

Posted by particleman to geek on 15 Jun 08 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

June 12, 2008

only a certain breed of nerd


Posted by particleman to geek on 12 Jun 08 9:45 AM | Comments (2)

June 1, 2008

the summer travel schedule

June 4 - 8: NYC with my boss. We're meeting with clients on Thursday and Friday and then staying for the weekend. It's my first time to New York proper so I'm psyched.

June 21-22: toobing in San Marcos.

July 4-6: NYC again. This trip was planned months ago; the one above was planned well afterward. I'm going to hang out with my friend who is interning at a law firm in NY. July 4th in New York! Woo hoo!

July 17-27: Israel. I haven't gone to visit my cousin in five years, so I figured it was time to suck it up and make the flight. I'm gonna plop down on the Tel Aviv beach and take in the scenery...

Posted by particleman to travel on 01 Jun 08 2:02 PM | Comments (0)

May 24, 2008

addicted

This song has been stuck in my head for weeks. I wish I could write songs half as good as this one. With only four chords, she manages to create a catchy and powerful melody.

Not to mention PJ Harvey is totally hot.

Posted by particleman to music on 24 May 08 9:48 AM | Comments (0)

May 14, 2008

did i tell you?

I saw The Breeders last week. And they weren't drunk and/or high on something this time. I saw The Breeders in college (2000?) and I'm pretty sure Kim and/or Kelley had engaged in illicit substances prior to the show. But this time, the Deal sisters were sober and witty. They played some of my old favorites - Iris, I Just Wanna Get Along, Shocker In Gloomtown, Divine Hammer, and a song I did not expect to hear, Happiness Is A Warm Gun, which may have been the best song of the night.

The opening band, Colour Revolt, really wants to be an experimental indie band. They have a ways to go. "A" for effort. I'll reserve judgment on the rest.

Who knows how long the Deal sisters will keep touring. Go see them while you can. It's a nice taste of off-camber mid-90s indie-pop. Which, of course, will never go out of style.

Posted by particleman to music on 14 May 08 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

May 4, 2008

i eat, and sometimes snort, bugs

I went biking after work on Wednesday in an effort to whip myself back into shape. It's been a while since I've ridden the ol' bikes on a consistent basis and I figure I am all out of excuses (rain, cold, work, band, lazy) so I was determined to get a lap or two in at the lake.

The first lap was great. I hauled ass and went faster than I normally do. Since the sun was still kind of up, I thought I could get one more lap in before it set entirely, so kept riding. About twenty minutes into the second lap, something strange happened. Well, it I wasn't so strange because I experienced the same thing a couple summers ago when I was an intern here, but I didn't expect the same thing to happen since it's not really summer yet.

What happened was this: swarms of tiny airborn bugs descended on the lake. It was like the Ten Plagues. Determined to drive me away from their feeding grounds, they bombarded me with their presence. They made noise as they hit my helmet and glasses and bike. They were too small to see with the fading light, but as soon as the sun was completely down and my bike light was the only thing illuminating the bike path, I could see them streaking past in the night. I had to duck my head as I rode to keep from eating or snorting them. It was hilarious. One of them got caught in my ear. That wasn't a pleasant feeling.

Today, I went for a ride in the beautiful 75 degree three o'clock air with The Evil I. After he complained of nausea and impending hurlage and headed home, I kept riding for another lap. Somewhere along the way I found myself in a strong head wind. While I was huffing and puffing up a hill, a bug much larger than the tiny insects from the other evening set itself on a direct crash course with my mouth and quickly got lodged in my throat.

It happened so fast I hardly had time to come to terms with the fact that I had just eaten a bug. Thankfully, he didn't go all the way down, but had just gotten caught in the back of my throat, so I hocked him right back out. Bastard. I'll show you. Then I vigorously rinsed my mouth with water, cursed at nature, admired the pretty trees, and rode on.

Posted by particleman to bikes; this is broken on 04 May 08 7:18 PM | Comments (0)