Been such a lonely lonely lonely time...

Sorry for not posting in so long, but Matt's Blog has spurred me on to post again. He's put up 5 scary videos for all-hallows-eve and I thought I'd do the same (though I'm a little behind).

First up we have one of my most hated... Love and Rockets as their alter-egos the bubblemen" performing The Bubblemen are Coming.

That was awful. Now we move on to another rotten egg: Bolly-wood Thriller

KALI-MA, Ma, Ma, ma! Anyway, I was going to post the Klaus Nomi, but Matt did that already, so I choose Hellbent by Kenna because the video is sad, but there's a terrifing element to the claymation...

That has to be what got the freque-ball rolling for the boys in Tool. My fourth pick is the death-metal band Lordi with Hard Rock Hallelujah because high school sucks and zombie highschool is awful.

Those guys make Kiss shit their tight leather pants. The final scary video I submit to you is Deathklok with Die For Deathklok because it's fucking metal and will melt your face right off with both fear and joy.

I hope you all enjoyed my little selection of doom and gloom in the world of music.

The did the Monster Mash...

Wild Weekend Wind-down

What a crazy fun weekend! I played out to a packed (at times) club and had a blast. Despite the sound issues (you can read my other blog for the details on that) it went off well and everyone had a great time with great people, great bands, and everything was really... great! We made it to the boxer/lingerie party about 1 or 1:30 and stayed out until four in the morning.

I took a nice six-hour disco nap and went and had lunch/ breakfast (if only there were a word for that kind of meal... like lunfast or something) and let my brain enjoy the comedic stylings of the incorrigible Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther and The Party at the Paramount (for the dirt cheap price of $4.50, I might add) with a nice hearty Indian food dinner at Clay Pit. Afterwards I went back home, watched a little TV (I'm still wondering why The Venture Brothers wasn't on last night...) and crashed, only to have to wake up for my bloody boring class six hours later!

The prof went right through the lab (I guess we'll make it up tomorrow or Wednesday) and continued for a full FOUR HOURS OF CRAP. It's not that I dislike the subject matter (wait, it is) but I don't need to hear someone talk for four hours on end unless they have their shit together, so to speak. I want someone organized, someone on the ball, who sticks to lesson-plans (or gets off on tangets that they know something about, at least) and not some stammering, stuttering boob who forgets his notes, everyone's name in a twenty person class, and repeats himself endlessly! He spent the first hour going over the last exam in excruciating detail when the average was an A and a good number of the class got 100%! If there were issues, he does have office hours. My only solace is the fact that I will be rid of this worthless (in my eyes, anyway) class and last requirement for my major soon!


Eran buenas esas épocas

Fine Then!

I've had a few demands made, a few insults thrown. Fine! You want an update, I'll give you one. I finished my two UT summer courses. Right now I'm laboring in the hell that is ACC electricity and magnitism class. The professor, every other day will drone on for -and I shit you not here- four fucking hours of mind-numbing, spirit-crushing boredom the likes of which I've not had in a class in a very very long time. Things are looking up for me, however, as I have been graciously given a job, or rather been tapped as the behind the scenes, under the table, off the books subcontractor for the job of a soul whom I cannot thank enough for letting me gnaw at the table scraps of the $9.50/hr. job that has gotten too large for one full time student to work alone. I'm coming into a stream of cash and that makes me and my incresingly impatient parents, very happy indeed.

I plan on spending a small sum of my money on a new chef's knife. I know just the one I'm getting too. I was thinking of a nice, shiny Wustof but they require twice weekly sharpenings and a run on the diamond every time I use it, whereas the knife I am getting, a Global, is Japanese (unlike the German Wustof) and will stand up better, I think than the heavy german chef's knives. I'm excited by the thought of a new kitchen knife. I think this makes me kind of lame, but it also needs to make you excited, because I will need to try it out on some new dishes, and I need people to try new said dishes.

In other news, I'm going to be the DJ at the Austin Traveler Magazine's "Global Groove and Give" party at Copa Bar and Grill downtown on the 22nd. Copa is a great club and I've been before and the magazine had their opening party there a year ago. There will be some live bands, but I'll be spinning whenever someone's not on stage. I'm going to try and smooze with the owner (maybe try to get a residency?). If you're in the Austin area and like breakbeats and French house, feel free to stop by. The Copa website has directions and I'm sure it will be a blast. The cover at the door is $10 which is a bit steep for an Austin party but all that goes into great international food (it's a travel magazine after all) and stellar drinks. The really great thing about the cover is that the proceeds go towards M.E.D.I.C.O. which helps needy kids in Central America with health care and medical supplies.

There will also be a really neat silent auction with gifts from S. America as well as gifts from local Austin businesses! I've seen a few of the prizes and they look great. Everything from cookbooks to artwork to gift certificates are availible with the proceeds going to help out M.E.D.I.C.O. All in all it should be a neat event and a great night out if you happen to be in the Austin area and want to have fun while you help out your global brothers and sisters. The other bands are an eclectic mix of Russian alt-rock, female blues vocalists, organic beat-heavy jazz, and some other stuff rarely heard. Plus of course, yours-truly on the ones and twos spinning the best in worldwide breakbeats and house.

So I'm also excited about Katie finally turning twenty-two (is it strange that that fact makes me feel a little old?) and is throwing a ninja vs. pirate party. If you don't know by now what I'm going as, you need to pull your head out from whatever corner of your anatomy it might be lurking and look around... oh, that's right... you won't be able to see me... coz I'm TEN NINJAS. I'm much like the fabled Chuck Norris, If you can see me, then I can see you. If you cannot see me, then you may be only seconds from death!

Some people from the LBJ school of public affairs (the future politicians and policy makers, keep in mind) are throwing a boxer-lingerie party and hopefully after I'm done spining records, I can take off my clothes and have a few drinks in the privacy and comfort of someone else's home. This will, in fact, mark my fourth boxer-lingerie party and I hope I can stay longer at this one than the last (I had MCATs in the morning, so no drinking for me) and have some good fun. I will be sleeping most of tomorrow if I can, so I feel well rested and ready to play out for the first time (you have no idea how nervous I am at the moment).

So I've updated -read and be satisfied my literate public. I promise I will update again on Sunday (though late, for obvious recovery reasons) and tell everyone of the great parties, food, dancing, and debauchery that weekends in summer are supposed to be about. Have a good one.


Take this job and shove it...

Don't Even Say It

I know it's been waaaay to long between posts, but hopefully that will all change soon. I'm in a few summer school classes now (they should be easy A's) and they're pretty enjoyable for the most part. My car got fixed (the engine siezed up) so it's good that I can finally get around without mooching off other people so much. I've got a trip to Houston planned for this weekend where I will get to see friends at NASA, the anatomy exhibit, and my aunt and uncle. The next weekend after that, I'll be taking a trip to Dallas to see my parents and brothers and friends. I'm not super stoked about Dallas as there is a lot of business of school and money to be delt with, but whatcha gonna do?

I moved into my new house and for about a week now I've been living by myself in a big empty house (which is kinda cool) and watching a lot of World Cup matches on the tele. I've actually been keeping my class up to speed with the scores and whatnot. I'm thinking that writing all this when half awake is a bad idea, as I can't think of much to post at the moment. I promise I'll start posting daily again and perhaps this afternoon if I can get some caffine into my bloodstream.


Don't speak, I know what you're sayin'

Far Too Long

It's been a whole bleeding month (and some change) since last I posted! Things that are new in my life include: FINAL EXAMS, a new house, old friends, new music, new job prospects, and summer school. In that order, I suppose we begin with FINAL EXAMS. I just took my first of four today and I must say that I wasn't worried about that one. I have another tomorrow (I've been cramming for it, but I'm not super worried about it either) and then one Saturday and the last one Monday. I am kind of sick of this semester and wasn't really enthused with my schedule and hope I can make up for it with the fall. I'm not about to bore anyone with finals stuff, as it's my own private hell and I've got to suffer through it by myself.

Matt, Robin, and I have got ourselves a new house at 32nd and Beanna, about a block north and 6 blocks east of our present loacale. This new place (it's a duplex) is better for a myriad of reasons: it has hardwood floors, a washer and dryer that work, large rooms and living space, and the real clincher to the deal: and honest-to-goodness DISH WASHER. I have wished for one for a whole year now and yippy skippy hoorah that I will have someplace to put the dishes from my cooking, which can use every dish I own at times (what can I say, I enjoy cooking- it's zen for me).

Old friends could be a little confusing, but my insanely cynical and highly genius friend Megan friended me over myspace (a subsidary of FOX corporation). I hate myspace. I like it here with Google where I'm safe with the other geeks, or if nothing else, on Facebook, where there are no friend-whores, odd messages, people without education, and all the other scaryness of an internet licking its chops for my precious info to make me into part of the collective (pardon the Borg reference). But Myspace is good to keep in touch with those who are not on Facebook or you just don't see that often. Megan is a riot, though you are going to have to use the little grey cells or have worked in retail to get a lot of the jokes. She's a great girl and I'm glad to see my Borders commerades in arms whenever possible.

I finally got around to finishing my first mix, called ELE-RUDI-MENTARY. It's a little over an hour and is comprised of 15 tracks. If you would like a copy, complete with jewelcase and liner notes, feel free to comment and I'll send you one, free of charge if you promise me you will play it in the company of others and when they asked who put the odd noise on, tell them I made it and they would do well to solicit my services for their next get together. Enough tooting my own horn (that always sounds dirty), but you should listen and enjoy.

I had a job interview of sorts yesterday with the director of the Chen lab on campus, that is, Dr. Chen (NOT Dr. Tran) and we had a nice chat about an undergraduate spot in his lab. They study polyploidy in Arabidopsis and Cotton. In layman's terms, PLANT SCIENCE! Hopefully I'll get it (I have experience in cloning and gene splicing) and then I'll get paid 8 bucks an hour and have some cash in my far too empty pockets!

I'm going to be taking two classes for the first summer session at UT, one on conflict in culture and the other in drugs and their impact on our society. They sound like fun and hopefully won't get in the way of the ACC physics class I'm taking over the summer. I should be planning a trip to Dallas soon to see friends and family, and then it's back to work with my lame ass!


It's been much too long, I feel it coming on...

Weekend Sounds

This last weekend was full of music. On Friday, I got my two new CDs from Amazon, then we went to the Waterloo Records' 20% off sale. I brought my list and found a good 6 CDs I wanted. We then got silly with booze and laughed over Super Troopers (ok, not music but still fun). A bunch of us (Nick, Matt, Robin, Katie, and I) went to the Austin Record Conention. I wasn't having much luck from opening until lunch. We went and ate at this really great place Katie knew and Matt, Robin, and I felt we needed to go back - we have to get something, right? Well, I went back and within the span of about 2 hours, I found 7 CDs I wanted, all for under $20! I felt like a goddamned master theif who hit the jackpot. One guy gave me a super-hard-to-find Propellerheads EP for a dollar because it was an advanced copy rather than the actual album (whatever you say, pal) and another guy gave me a brand new Basement Jaxx album for two dollars because he liked my shirt.

Later Saturday night, we went to the SPRUNG! shebang at Velvet Spade. It was a great venue, though I think the timing was bad. There were 2 other big events going on at the same time which probably attracted the same crowd. The 80's dance-party, Rock The Casbah, was going on downtown at the Parish. Alternitively, Common was playing at 40-Acres Fest. The music was good, but DJ Scot Gray didn't get on until we were about to leave, so we stayed and danced a little more (he was really good). It's a shame we didn't get to see more, but I think everyone was tired. I have some pictures up on facebook if you're down with that. DJ Rocky Rodd (a.k.a. DJ Gir) played a really great DnB set, though the amps were far too loud inside to hear too much of it. He was however really cool to me by giving me a mixtape (it's really good) and some beer tokens (they were just as nice). If you're a fan of Drum n' Bass, you should buy his little set-tape at his website.

I have another Blog and I'll post reviews of the CDs I bought over the weekend there. I hope everyone's weekend was as relaxing as mine was, I certainly needed it after last week's test-bomb. In other news, I've started my application for medical school again, and I need to sign up for classes both here and ACC. Matt, Robin, and I might get a 3/2 at 28th and Rio Grande, so that might be nice, though I'm gonna need a place to stay over summer...any suggestions?


Music makes you lose control

Spring Has Sprung

I had a great time over spring break and I hope everyone checked the other blog to see what we did and how we did it. I thank all the people that went with me and helped it go off beautifully, you made it very special. This week back has been test-ful and next week proves more of the same, though if Kim and Lisa are there to help me whith art history, that's one less thing I need to worry about. The proffessor gave us the test on Wednesday for Human Sexuality, so that's two tests down. Now all I need worry about is Metabolism and Biochemistry of Microorganisms on thursday. If anyone is interested in hearing a talk about the use of microbes for cleaning up: oil spills, naturally-occuring oil spills, and the upcoming change from oil to ethanol (we'll all be using it soon with a quick trip to the mechanic to change a chip in your car's computer) then come hear my proffessor (Dr. Dennis Schneider - Vice-President of Micro-Bac International)on Wednesday, March 29th at 6 p.m. in PHR 2.108. He's a really funny guy and a great speaker. He knows a lot about this business and really cares about cleaning up mistakes made by a lot of fat-cats.

In other news, I went to Guitar Center to buy a little LED light for my mixer and ran into DJ Michaelangelo (he's the 40 something father of Austin breakbeat and house music back when the shows at SKY downtown were a blast to go to) who was working there as a manager in the DJ section. He told me about an upcoming show that I'd love you all to join me at:


It's only $7 at the door and free if we get there before 9pm. It goes until 3am but I doubt if we'll stay that long. There should be 16 DJs out there, so we will have a good variety of music. One of the groups, Gir and Byrd are the team-up of Rocky Rodd (DJ Gir) and Daniel Byrd, the two that practically invented RocknBass, an offshoot of DrumnBass that has amazing guitar riffs and very beat-heavy rock influences, so I think it's got a little something for everybody.


Spring into action!

Travel Time

I'm in Dallas as I'm typing and the drive was actually really smooth. I made it in really good time, with very little traffic. I'm really stoked about the trip, it seems everything is going to work out really well. I just hope we can pull it all together in the last few days. Matt is down in Houston; Katie's got her mom in town; Kim's busy (she got into gradschool); and Robin, Julie, and I are in different cities. We're going to try to pull it all together (set itinerary, buy food, pack clothes, set directions) on Tuesday. We're going to leave very early on Wed. so as to make good time. Matt is bringing his GPS locator so we should have no problem getting to our destinations. Just in case we do, however, we have a new tool that Kim found!

I'm pretty impressed with Google on this one: Google's Send-To-Phone. You highlight text on any webpage and click the icon on the toolbar. The text will then be placed into a text message(s) that you send to any phone number. The only problem is that you need to know the cellular carrier. But the really nice thing is that we can text directions to everywhere we go and have it on our phones. I need to get ahold of some walkie-talkies so we can communicate between cars when there might not be cell towers out there.

I'm tired and I don't know if anyone's in town, and I don't know if I feel like going out but we shall see. I think I'm going to start homebrewing my own beer when I get back. What do you want to drink - Pale ale? Lambic (fruit) ale? Belgian ale? Scottish ale? Porter? Imperial Rusian Stout? Get back to me and we'll brew and have a party when it's done!


Hit the road, Jack...