Must.....finish.....paper.

I've got like, 2 pages to go, and I think I've got it pretty much planned out. Just collecting quotes now....

I just ran across this one, and it's too funny. Rousseau may have been brilliant, but he was a bit off the mark with this -

"One essential and inevitable defect which will always make monarchical government inferior to republican govenment is that in Republics the public voice almost never elevates to the highest places any but enlightened and capable men who occupy them with honor: whereas those who succeed in monarchies are most often nothing but petty bunglers, petty knaves, petty schemers whose petty talents, which at Court give access to high places, only serve to show the public their ineptitude just as soon as they have acceded to those high places."

*ugh*

I've been on school management meltdown A1 for the past couple of days.  I missed several first days, as I got in a lot of classes on waitlist, and so I missed out on getting printed syllabi.  That, plus I've just been lazy getting back into the swing of things - I'm so used to not worrying about school that it's hard to get back into that mode.  So since school started, I've been kinda reading a bit.  I read most of the Social Contract, a bit of my law book, and a bit out of one of my Texas history books.

Flash forward to Monday night - I get an e-mail saying "Good luck with your papers!"  I flipped the fuck out.  Literally, when I read that it was like when you touch a hot pan and your hand jerks back - I convulsed and screamed something like "wleolal!!!", thinking I'd missed some crucial comment in class and a paper was due the next day.

Not so bad.  It's not do 'till the 28th.  But that little shock... I started having like an anxiety attack or something.  I grabbed a book for one of my history classes that I knew I was supposed to be getting done, read 10 pages of it, couldn't concentrate from the anxiety, took a shower, took a sleeping pill to knock me out, and went to bed.

I got all of my syllabi in order off of Blackboard Tuesday morning, and I haven't stopped reading for more than an hour or so since.  I've been through just a bit over 300 pages since yesterday morning, and I think I've got things back into manageable mode.  Still not good, but manageable.  I've got a law test next Thursday, that paper due next Friday, I just finished up some accounting homework that I didn't know I had, and another history test coming up the week after next.  I'm just about up to what were supposed to have read for the French history class when the paper was assigned, so I think I'm about to where I can start working on that.  My Texas history book that I'm supposed to have done by tomorrow I've got about 80 pages left, so I should be able to finish tomorrow.  I'm going to a supplemental class for that tomorrow, just to catch up because I've missed a class or two.  I'm still a bit nervous about my law test, but I think I've got my French reading almost caught up to the point that I can finish the paper, neglect the french reading a bit whilst studying for business law, and then catch up.

Lord just help me keep this pace up for another couple of days.  My eyes won't focus right.  I'm going to bed.

The show last night was great.  I was really feeling it during the set, for whatever reason, and there was a great crowd that actually moved around some, so that's nice from a performing standpoint.

I ended up having to park down near 12th and Trinity, which was a bitch.  Walking back to the club, I saw a Jeep Cherokee all shoepolished up with "GO HORNED FROGS!" and TCU stuff, and someone had bashed in the rear window.  Way to go asshole.  Represent UT reall good like that.  I guess there were a lot of assholes in that area of downtown last night, 'cause I noticed this morning that my car had been keyed.  I didn't notice it last night, but it probably happened while my car was parked downtown.  Some asshole ran keys all the way across the sides of my suburban, twice.  WTF.  Why?  It's just a car, not a big deal.  But still, it's fucked up.  Why would you do that?

It's kinda fucked up too because, all day in the back of my mind I've been trying to think why someone would do that to my car.  Part of me has constructed this scenario in my head where the driver of the Cherokee with the bashed in rear window retaliated on my car.  I did park real close to that car, and I've got longhorn stickers on my car.  It could easily be that, or just any pissed off, drunk TCU fan who parked near my car.  Or just some drunk asshole with no particular collegiate affiliation.  But the TCU thing makes sense in my head, as I can't think of why else someone would single out my car to be keyed.  It's got one of those "Kinky Friedman for Governor - Why the hell not?" bumper stickers (which sums up my thoughts on the issue, as long as Rick Perry's in office), but I can't see that making someone want to key my car.  Apart from that, just a cdfuse sticker and the longhorns.  Maybe some hippy thinks I burn too much gas.  Whatever bitch, I've got gear to haul.

Caught up with Taylor at the show, which was nice.  And got some compliments on my basslines, which is always a bit warming.  I have such a wierd deal with bass.  Out of every instrument I can play, it's the one I've had the least formal education on.  I pretty much had just "rest the thumb here, pluck with these fingers", and that's it.  And yet I play it constantly, and I feel like I write pretty good parts, and am a good bass player.  I can move around the neck pretty easily, can fret effectively with all of my fingers, have got my speed up to the point where I can hit those sixteenths at the end of Lie, which is pretty fast to begin with, and I feel like I'm improving pretty regularly.  But, I've had no education on the thing.  I've pretty much extrapolated what I know out of a couple of lessons from my guitar teacher, what I've learned on guitar, and general theory.  So I'm kinda insecure.  I feel like maybe my technique is fucked up.  Sometimes I think maybe my attack is messed up.  etc. etc. etc.  So while I feel good about my parts, and know that I can play stuff that a lot of other people can't handle, I'm still insecure in that I never quite know if I'm really playing correctly.

At any rate, it was nice to get some compliments on my playing, and my basslines.


Also, my friend Angela from my ACC spanish I summer class showed up, which was cool.  She drove all the way in from Waco to meet up with a friend and catch the show, and she got to see Ethan Durelle as well, which is good.  Apparently she did know them.  I figured as much.

Alright, I'm dropping that Russian History class.  I can't understand a word the prof says, and the reading is pretty dry, so there's no way I'd get a reasonable grade in that class.  Not worth it.

Of course, I already bought 7 books for the class, and they're not like, textbooks, so I'm not sure if the Co-op will take them back.  Hopefully.

I really like my business law class, but the co-op is out of the books, so I'm never prepared for class.  Lame.  Will get book on Monday.

I'm nervous about the UT-TCU game, which begins momentarily.  UT looked less than stellar against Ark. St., but hopefully that was just one of those games.  LOL at Michigan getting owned by Oregon, after losing to App. State.  Someone's gonna get fired over there.  A&M is having a tough game with Fresno State, so maybe they're not that hot this year.  Oklahoma mopped up on the Canes, so they look good.  Pending how UT does tonight, we may have a rough season.  Hopefully not.


And show tonight.  Red Eyed Fly.  Yay for Ethan Durelle playing... I wonder if they're going to stay at our house?  Hmm.  The bassist for the Angels works at Music Lab, and he's really pumped about the show, which is pretty funny.  I think he's just really pumped to be in a gigging band.

Ready to go.  Pretty much.

I ended up making those cookies.  Not bad at all, but it's not my Mom's recipe.  I'll have to dig through her recipe box and see if I can't find her recipe for layer cookies.  But the ones I made are pretty good - I made one batch chocolate and one batch butterscotch.  And the word batch is pretty funny.

Preheat oven to 350, melt a half cup butter in 13x9x2 pan in the oven, spread a cup and half of graham cracker crumbs evenly over the pan, spread seven ounces shredded coconut over the crumbs, pour a 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk over that, and then spread a cup of peanut butter chips and a cup of chocolate (or butterscotch) chips over the top.  Place in oven for 25-30 minutes, until lightly browned.  Cool, cut into squares, and serve.

I've got them all in ziploc bags divided by flavor, and managed to survive the night with only about 7 of them getting eaten, and three of those were me tasting the flavors.

One of the last things I said last night was to Casey, about how we'll plan to leave at noon, so we'll probably leave around 1:30.  That's about accurate - I don't foresee getting on the road before then.  I'm just about ready, but I don't even know where everyone is.  I guess it'll just be me, Wandy, and Bandy in my car.... Juan and Tyler are already in Nacogdoches, and that just leaves..... me, Wandy, and Bandy.....  you'd think after 5 years, and a full year with the current lineup, I'd be able to keep track of every dude in the band at this point, but I'm still convinced I'm skipping someone.  Oh right... Jeremi.  I was skipping him because he's driving a seperate car so that Dane(?) Casey and Noey can come.

Anyways, should be fun.  Gotta get on that road!

Fuck yeah.  Michigan just got pwned by a division I-AA team, and we've got the labor day show in Nackytown tomorrow, so all is right in the world.  I think I'm going to make some layered cookies for the labor day party, and just thinking that probably means I'm into dudes now, but whatever.  Layered cookies kick ass, and I don't think I've had any since my Mom died.  So it's high time.

I probably should've replaced my tires before this weekend.  They have like.... *does quick calculation* 80,000 miles on them.  That's a lot of miles for a set of tires.  They should make the trip alright though, but I've got to get some new ones on there stat.  I'm really looking forward to going to Nacogdoches tomorrow.  Last year was a whole lot of fun - the drive down there was fun, the party was fun, and the drive back was fun.  I got absolutely shitfaced and ended up hitting on this chick with pit hair, which is kinda funny in retrospect.  Moreso because I *almost* had the deal sealed and then, 'cause it's a neighborhood party or whatever, her parents showed up and intervened.  I should probably track them down tomorrow and thank them, because I don't think I would've ever lived that down.  And then I ended up stealing a hotel room that night, and woke up to people trying to get into the room I was sleeping in, which was kinda funny.  I'm pretty sure I left a belt in that room, because I know I took it on that trip, and I got the hell out of that room in a hurry and never saw that belt again.

Anyways.  I think I'm going to make those cookies.  And I bought a bottle of tequila.  So once I wash the shotglasses that have been in a ziplock bag sitting on my cabinet ever since last year's labor day party, I should be set to go.

First day of school today.  It went alright.  I was supposed to get up at like, 7:30 and drive down to the radio station and be on the 101.5 morning show with a couple of the other guys, but that didn't end up happening.  I remembered to set my alarm clock before going to bed... I just forgot to turn it on.....

Whatever.  Apparently it went well - Tyler and Jeremi went.  They played Lie on the radio, which is good.  They were supposed to play Two Words, which is a fun catchy song, but Lie is just so much cooler.  I'm glad that whoever was tuned in had that bumping on their systems.

School was alright.  It's nice to be back on campus - for all extents and purposes, I took a year off, so it's good to be back and actually finishing up my education and what not.  I have a Russian history class, which should be interesting, but my teacher is this RUSSIAN chick.  So I need to sit closer to the front, 'cause I can't understand a gd thing she says.  My Greek history class seems interesting, but I ended up getting into that French Revolution and Napolean class, which should be equally interesting and doesn't require me to go to school from 4-5 on a Thursday, so I'm droppin' the Greek class.  I'm on two more waiting lists, and I'm hoping I'll get in.  I'm 7th in line to get into a foundations of environmental business law class, so maybe I'll get in, and i'm first to get in a class on the history of Texas since 1814, which would replace an interesting but brutal Monday 3-6 on the rise of the German empire.

The reading for the Greek class didn't look too bad, but I'm not taking it, so it doesn't matter.  The Russian class, on the other hand, is going to be over 120 pages a week.  Hopefully the rest of my classes won't be so bad.


And now I gotta go down to the music lab, load up, head downtown, and rock the fuck out.

Snippets like this are why I freaking love P.G. Wodehouse.

"Those who know Bertram Wooster best are aware that in his journey through life he is impeded and generally snootered by about as scaly a collection of aunts as was ever assmbled."


" 'A telegram, sir,' said Jeeves, reentering the presence.
    'Open it, Jeeves, and read the contents.  Who is it from?'
    'It is unsigned, sir.'
    'You mean there's no name at the end of it?'
    'That is precisely what I was endeavoring to convey, sir.'"

Scaly is about the best adjective I think I've ever heard, as is "That is precisely what I was endeavoring to convey, sir." in regards to an answer about a dumbass question regarding an unsigned telegram.

Fuck yeah.  I'm doin' shit.


I just fixed the internet, found my wallet (missing for two days), and found my remote control (missing for a week and a half).  Plus I shoved one of my guitars that had been just kinda laying on a pile of books into a gig bag.  Maybe I'll clean my room or something.

And I've officialy been up for 32 hours, and am still not tired.  Just kinda wobbly.  Maybe I'll lay down and see if sleep comes.  Nail down one more thing I've been missing for a while.  Futurama marathon - I could just chill out and watch that till sleep.

Goooood Lord I've had insomnia lately.  It's like I can't get on a normal schedule, and it pisses me off and stresses me out (for whatever random reason) at the same time.  Like, yesterday, I didn't end up falling asleep till around 6 in the morning, and I woke up at like 3:45 to Bandy calling me to tell me that I should probably head to San Marcos for the show.  Which was hilarious.

But I've been up since then.  I laid down for a while last night, but I just ended up watching Arrested Development until the sun came up.  I'm not really all that tired yet, either.  Just kinda mentally sluggish.  Like, I wouldn't want to drive very far right now.  But if I were to turn off the lights and crawl into bed, I'd just lay there with my eyes open.

It doesn't help that my room is fucking 90 degrees.  I have to do that kinda one leg under one leg out bullshit to find some equilibrium where I'm under the covers but not sweating.

Whatever.  I think I'll just stay up till I'm out to the point where I can just fall asleep.  I've only been up for 24.5 hours right now, so maybe that'll hit around midnight.  Hopefully.  I could get something normal going on if I went to sleep at midnight.


The show was hilarious.  It was just drunk dudes and sluts drinking beers and broing out.  We sounded fucking awful - the sound guys were like... I dunno.  Maybe they're somewhat legit, but in my mind they're 50 year old dudes that own a PA and play in a blues cover band, and figured they'd make some extra cash running sound for a party.  They kept trying to get us to bring the stage volume down, and even wanted Wandy to unplug his speaker cab.  I get it, you can't be too loud if the speakers aren't that powerful, but it just doesn't work that way with us, and they fucking *hated* us.  So we sounded shitty.  And we came on after this like... smoke weed every day reggae jam band, which was pretty funny.  And Tyler kept saying shit like "Yeah smoke weed!  Get wasted brah!", and changing the lyrics of the songs to be about smoking weed, which was pretty funny.  And the entire time, I don't think *anyone* but our crew figured out that weren't really laughing with them, so much as at them.  And at the end, these two wasted guys got up and wanted to sing along, but we play originals, so they didn't know the words, but they were shithoused so they just kinda broed out while Tyler and Wandy egged them on.

I'm always amazed when we suck absolute shit and people are still like "Tight show dude!".  It's almost depressing.  It's like.... does it really matter what we do?  As long as its loud and we move around a lot and there's alcohol, does anyone give a fuck what we actually sound like?

Meh.


In related news, I can't find my wallet.  Dammit.

I like cheesy movies.  I like the good ones too, but there's something about just a real good, cheesy feel good movie that I like.  The ones where the guy and the girl end up on a high note, and we just leave it there, assuming everything just works out and they live happily ever after.  I know it's not realistic, and like... artistically or whatever, it's completely empty, but I still love a good cheesy feel good movie.

"It Could Happen To You" is on AMC right now.  I remember watching this movie with my Mom in Austin when I was relatively little, and we had this lake house that we owned with several family friends.  We'd go up to the lake house, just off lake Travis, and spend the weekend in Austin.  We'd *always* eat at Hill Country Pasta, where I'd get the sweet red pepper tortellini (they took it off their menu... sigh).  We'd get a box of the sugary cereal we were never allowed at home, and we'd spend a day out on the lake.

Anyways, I just remember watching this movie with my mom one of those weekends, and we both really liked it.  It's just this cheesy movie with Nicholas Cage, Bridget Fonda, and Rosie Perez (I think that's her name), where there's this upstanding, honest cop from Queens who offers to split a lottery ticket with the struggling waitress for a tip, and his bitch wife goes nuts on him and leaves him and sues them for the money and gets it back, but people from all over NYC send money to the cop and the waitress and they fall in love and she buys the restaurant and gives free food to homeless people and they live happily ever after etc. etc. etc.  Love it.

I survived the drive to Houston.  I took a shower just before I left, and that perked me up a bit.  Plus there was an Astros game on, so there was something interesting to listen to on the way home.  And of course, the stros managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, and lose the game in the 9th inning.  I think Pujols broke Lidge with that homer.  Funny enough, it turns out my Dad was at the game with some of his friends.  He hasn't been to a game since he took me as a kid and Bagwell hit two home runs in the same inning.  We were supposed to go to the game on Sunday, but there was a huge promotion (like, Biggio appreciation day, which I would've loved to be at), and not everyone was sure if they wanted to go or not so I had to put off buying tickets till the last minute, and the game sold out.  Biggio hit a homer and the Astros won.

Anyways.  The show was awesome.  I was feeling pretty good by the time I got there, and the place was absolutely packed.  It almost sold out.  I think that's the most kids I've seen at one of our shows.  I'd like to sellout Javajazz at some point - that would be cool.  I showed up in the middle of Cruiserweight's set, and they were playing well.  I think before Saturday, the only Cruiserweight member I'd really talked to was Dave the bassist, but we kinda "met" Stella and Urny on Saturday.  We'd talked a bit before, but we actually had a conversation with them, which was cool.  I remember being in high school and thinking of Cruiserweight as one of those huge bands out in Austin, and it's cool to know them now.  We talked to them when we were cooling down after the show about what we'd all been up to, and label stuff, etc.   Apparently Stella bought one of our CD's, which is cool.  I'm pretty sure Dave already has one, and we woulda just given her one anyways, so it's cool that she went out and bought one.  They told us they'd pass along a copy of our new album on to Doghouse if we're interested, which is cool.

Glass Intrepid was hilarious.  They were just so hilariously cliche alt-rock.  It was even funnier because they had this corporate sponsership from Vitamin Water, which just cracks me up - they are such the type of band that some middle aged white collar beverage exec would think was edgy and cool, and would get their brand in with like, rebellious disenfranchized youths or whatever.  But they were just this like.... lame Nickelback/Creed late 90's alt rock act.  The chorus to one of their first songs was something like "Hey baby gonna take you out tonight we're gonna have a good time."  We were all watching from sidestage, and cracking up.  They were all wearing gauntlets.  The lead singer/guitarist had a wireless microphone on a mic stand.  All of the movements they made were just.... ahhhh.  And there was a coffin shaped flight case.  We were making up new names for the band based off of doje, and Amelia and Noey and I had a laugh.  Platinum Doje.  Doje Ablaze.  Dojes for my Valentine.  Puddle of Doje.  Dojeing Pool.  I felt kinda bad afterwards because the bassist (I think) showed up and offered us pizza after the show, and he seemed like a real nice guy.  But it was just too funny.  It looked like some of the kids enjoyed their set, though, so I guess that's........ good.....




Our set was..... it was alright.  The stage was one of the hottest/humidest ever.  It was already hot and humid outside, and the stage is pretty much outside anyways, with those two huge openings next to it... but I don't think the AC at Javajazz was on (or ever is anymore), and the whole room was absolutely packed, so that made it even more hot.  And we were out of practice - we only practiced twice the week before, and we'd been off for like a month and a half before, so there were some iffy moments.  At one point during Snowflake, I was just like.... what the hell is the part here?  I've played this song approximately 2.3 million times, and I'm fucking up the verse?  But the heat was just awful, combined with the fact that we were doing our best to rockout really hard.  I almost lost where the ground was and ate shit a couple of times, but managed to stay upright.  The crowd didn't seem *that* enthusiastic from the stage, but I think that was more because we played a lot of new stuff - only Red LIght, Better, and Snowf off of the EP, and even Better we played the version that's going on the album.  We got a lot of comments afterwards, in person and via myspace, and no one seemed dissapointed, so I guess the show was a success.  Plus we got a fat envelope, which hopefully means we can pay off our EP pretty soon.

And man, I'm pumped about the EPK.  It's been up for four days, and it's sitting on 1000 views, which is *exactly* what the fuck we want.  Part of me thinks that the viewrate will decrease, giving it a bit of time, but I'm not positive.  It's the only place up where kids can hear snips of stuff off the new album, so I'm sure kids are watching it over and over and over again.  And I really think it's even sped up over the past two days - I think it was up to about 200 before the show, was around 500 when I got back to Austin on Sunday, around 700 when I woke up this morning, and is at 1000 right now.  That's freaking awesome.  Hopefully in a month or so it'll up to the 10,000's, and that'll look good for any labels that look into us.  Plus the whole freaking video just looks great, so there's that too.  And I'm pumped about the album - I made up a tracklist and put it in my car and listened to it on the drive up, and the whole thing just sounds great.  Can't wait to release it.

But, my media hard drive broke.  Sucks.  Almost *all* of my music is gone, as well as a shit ton of TV shows.  Like, 500 gigs of shit just gone.  Plus I don't have a media drive anymore.  Lame.  Such is life, I suppose.

I feel like shit, and I have to drive to Houston and play a show.  I don't know what it is, but I feel like I could just lay in bed all day with a cold glass of water.  Instead, I've gotta get in my truck, drive for 3 hours, and rock the fuck out.  I'm almost afraid of the prospect.  I don't know if I can take 3 hours of driving without passing out and driving into a ditch.  But I guess I'll give it a go.  Maybe I'll take some of that no doz and see if that perks me up.  Once I get to the show I think autopilot will take over and I'll rock out without really thinking about it.  Then I can go home and collapse into bed.  I wish I could skip the driving part, postpone the show part till I'm up for it, and just go straight to the collapsing into bed part.

We've got a new EPK.  Check it out -

I had the wierdest Harry Potter/Star Wars/The Office dream last night.  I was pretty much Harry Potter - I think I looked like him.  But I was a Jedi, with a purple lightsaber, but it was green and blue at times.  The other Jedi with me where pretty much HP characters - I think Dumbledore was there, and McGonnagol (sp) was definitely there, but they were all dressed up like Jedi.  And Darth Vader was pretty much Voldemort, especially in that he could fly.

But it started out as this really wierd "The Office" thing.  It was like season 4 had begun, and Dunder Mifflin and Wernham Hogg had merged, so the company was like... Whernham Mifflin.  And we were headquartered on some sort of correllian cruiser kinda deal.  And I think Jim was in charge, but Jan was still the higher up boss, and David Brent might've been there too.  Pam had a desk and was taking reception calls, and Dwight was there.  And Jim was a jedi, and Dwight had seen his lightsaber and really wanted one, but Dwight's not a jedi, so he woulda just hurt himself, but Jim decided to play along with him and gave him a fake toy lightsaber that made a loud *pop* noise whenever Dwight hit something, and Dwight was oblivious, even though he kept accidentaly making moves that would've cut off his own arms if it had been a real lightsaber, and he was just giddy with joy to have something like a lightsaber.

And then, at some point it started moving away from being a wierd Office/Star Wars dream into a wierd Harry Potter/Star Wars dream.  Sith started boarding the ship, and I knew I had to kill Darth Vader, and so I was fighting him and basically wrecking shop on bystanding sith/empire troops/droids, and all of the random other good guys (many HP type people) were fighting.  And I kept killing Darth Vader, but he kept coming back, but with like, clones.  And finally I kill him when I'm not all distracted by other people around me, and his body turns into this wierd goop stuff and starts re-forming, and so I'm just slicing the goop into half over and over and over again until basically it's in like, 200 pieces, but they start reforming, and a Dumbledore type dude says something like "Each time you cut him in half, each half becomes a new Darth Vader!" (horcrux much?), and so we put the ship into like, superdrive, and start shoveling the reforming goo out of the ship in bits and pieces, so there won't be too many Darth Vader's at any one spot when we start going back, and once they're all out, we start slowly making our way backwards to take on the new Darth Vaders, and they're all flying through the air at the ship with their lightsabers out, and the Dumbledore dude tells me that I have to stab him, instead of slicing him, so he won't just double... and so we did that for a long time, and at some points I was flying through the air to and catching Darth Vaders from behind and stuff, and it was really just this crazy, wierd dream.

And then I woke up, and I though I heard dog noises from Tyler's room, but it turned out it was just Noey.

  I love how now that the Beckham's live in the US, and David Beckham plays for whatever LA's soccer team is, they actually put soccer games on ESPN when LA plays.  Wait.... except, instead of "I love", that should read "I think it's funny".

I wonder how long it will last before they realize that American's just don't care about soccer.  I guess maybe LA will turn into something of a soccer town, as they have Beckham and their games are on TV.  Plus that whole town is filled with retarded celebrities that want to look smart, and they think that that means either talking with a fake british accent, or at the very least pretending to like the same things that people with real british accents like.

But anyways.  Hey.. thanks, Europe, for the Beckham's and everything, but we're all good over here when it comes to sports - we've got three of them that we already like just fine, and two of them have great competition at the college level, as well as pro.  So you guys can just have soccer.

Tonight was funny.  My sister Rachel came home from NYC for like, the first time in forever, and brought her boyfriend with her.  I've not met him before, and I don't think anyone else in the family but Dad and Mary have met him before either.  And of course Emily, the straightlaced conservative, already hates him because Rachel's 24 and he's like 31 or something.  Seemed like a nice enough guy though, but it was just funny having dinner with the sisters, Dad, Mary, Aunt Roberta and Uncle Mike, Talley, Meemaw, Em's husband Ryan and their little toddler (is 15 months a toddler?) Johnathan.

To start off, they were late - Rachal and.... jeez I already forgot his name.  It's like, Seth or something.  I'll just call him Seth.  They showed up about 15 minutes late and Emily made some little comments, and Dad and Uncle Mike decided to make things awkward by waiting in the front lawn.  They show up, and it's immediately clear that Seth's trying to make a good impression with the fam and all that.  Introduces himself to everyone and we go in for dinner.

Seth's from somewhere in Massachussetts, lives in New York, and works at Fidelity with Rachel.  So of course for dinner we had all sorts of barbecue from Country Line, my dad's jalapeno cornbread, coleslaw, potatoe salad, and two chocolate pecan pies (my favorite).  Links, chicken, brisket, and ribs - mmmm.  Gotta love getting a good meal for free every once in a while.

So we all ambled into the kitchen and filled up our plates, and then headed back to sit in the dining room.  Begin funnily awkward moment number one - when do you begin to eat?  I'm sitting next to Rachel and Seth, and I'm waiting for everyone to be sat with a plate full of food in front of them - my plates got sausage, brisket, and a rib.  But Mary just digs right in, and I guess maybe Dad might have begun.  Then everyone's sitting with food in front of them, and I think "Hmmm, Emily and Ryan are here - should I wait for a prayer?", but decide since a couple of other people have already commenced, I'll dig in.  And all the while, I can tell Seth's kinda watching me out of the corner of his eye, to follow my example in the finer details of etiquette at the table.  I dig in, and he and Rachel follow suit.

Begin hilariously awkward moment number two - by this time I realize that Seth's trying to make a good impression, and is following my lead in regards to table manners.  With a rib on the plate, that complicates issues.  It was a hilarious like.... juxtaposition between fine dining and working class food.  Aunt Roberta sets a nice table, and of course there's one of those silly little decorative pieces in the middle of the table, two sticks of butter on butter plates, a nice tablecloth, three bottles of good wine (red, white, and rose), nice silverware, good plates, and even a little glass jar full of honey (Uncle Mike digs the bee's product).  And yet here we are eating barbecue - we should be sitting at an uncovered picnic table with a bucket full of suds and some plastic utensils.  Even the napkins had this wierd juxtaposition deal going on - they were (pretty high quality) paper napkins, so they're paper... but they're stacked in all of these neat little piles on the table, readily in reach to anyone eating.


Anyways - the ribs.  I started off with the sausage and a bit of the brisket, and then decided to have a go at the rib - I hadn't really noticed, but Rachel and Seth both had ribs that they also hadn't touched - without really even thinking about it, I picked up a rib and went to work.  Seth did likewise and made a little comment, something like "I wasn't sure if we were supposed to eat these with our hands or not.", and I said something like "Well, they are ribs!  I don't know how else I'd go about eating'em.", and we had a nice little "Hey man, Emily's been acting pretty cold toward you, but I'm not against having an amiable relationship." moment.

And Emily was pretty cold - it was kinda funny.  She didn't make a big deal out of it - if you didn't already know that she disapproved of the relationship, you might not pick up on it, but she was cold.  I don't think she said anything to him all night except for "I'm Emily.", and she didn't really look at him either.  I'm pretty sure he picked up on this, but he's just gonna have to learn to roll with it.  Rachel's going to have to date a 24 year old conservative Christian successful business entrepreuneur for her to like him, and even then, she'll still probably be cold at him.

Seth seemed like a good guy - he's shorter than Rachel, which I think is funny, but he was friendly, and he had a hilarious accent.  I guess I just don't meet a lot of people from Massachussetts - he sounded like Mayor Quimby.  At one point he was talking about living in the city, and said "I doan't considah mysewf a New Yoakah.", and I thought that was pretty funny.

Jonathan was cute.  He's talking more than the last time I saw him - he's got something like 25 words these days.  Emily's trying to brainwash him to be a UT kid from the get go, and one of the things he says is "Texas Texas Yee-haw!"  He calls my dad "Papa", and his Dad "Daddy", and whenever he sees a dog he says "Woof!".  Golden (lab/retriever) barked at him when he was pulling her hair, but he just giggled.  And he says "All done!" a lot - if he wants down, or if he's finished eating, or if he just flicked off the lightswitch, he says "Aaaallll done!"  He looks just like I did as a baby, and Emily was asking my Dad if I had fat feet when I was little, because apparently Johnathan does.  I'm not quite sure if he remembers me, but he seems to kinda.  He just kinda looks at me and smiles, and that's cute.  And Rachel tried to pick him up, and he ran away and pointed at me, which I thought was funny.

Anyways, good night.  Always good to have a nice meal at the Aunt's house and see some family.

Damn it.  There's a fucking arena football game on TV, and I can't watch the Astros game.  What is the world coming to.

Whenever I'm flipping channels, and the Godfather part I or II is on, I have to watch.  I can't help it.  I've seen them both a million times, but if it's on TV, and there's not something completely urgent on on another channel (digging AMC's Mad Men series), I've gotta watch the GF films.  And AMC and Bravo are doing like... a simultaneous Godfather off and on marathon.  Bravo was even playing something yesterday called the "Godfather Saga", which was the Godfather I and II cut up to be shown in chronological order, which was wierd but kinda cool.  Whenever I'm watching II I get a little disappointed when it cuts away from young Vito's story and goes to Michael's story, 'cause Michael's is so much more depressing.  Plus, it takes place in places like Cuba, and deals with stuff like gay (question mark) children and bad marriages, where Vito's just killing wannabe gangsters and extorting greedy landlords, which is way more fun.  Man, that scene where Vito gets to Ellis Island, has his name changed (even though in the book he decided to take on the name of his hometown), and is placed in quarantine, where he looks out the window and starts to sing is strangely sad, but not really sad.....

Anyways, I've been watching the Godfather for like the past 9 days.

And I found this commercial that cracks me up - I vaguely remember the cute little girls face, but LOL at the mobster voice, and freaking Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy Bonpensiero) playing the soda jerk to boot?  CLASSIC.

The Joy of Cola

I wonder what that little girl is up to these days.

  I've been so pumped for baseball lately, which is wierd, because the Astro's are sucking pretty hard this year.  They've had a decent record in the past week or so, but they're something like 45-60 on the year, and it'll be a miracle of they make the playoffs.  But it's been such an awesome year for Biggio, and that makes me like.... strangely proud?  I dunno.  Biggio has played at every MLB game I've ever gone to, from when I was like 5 until... like a year ago I guess.  But as long as I've know about baseball, Biggio has been one of the main guys on the Astros.  I remember being like 7 or 8, flipping through baseball cards, and there was this card of Biggio when he was still a catcher and all young and stuff, crouching behind the plate with his cap backwards, and I thought he looked like such a badass.  And he and Bagwell have always just kinda *been* the Astros.  It sucks that Bagwell's career ended the way it did, but Biggio's last season makes up for it - he hit 3,000 career hits in a game at home when the Astros won, and he ended up with like 5 hits in that game.  And then just a couple of days ago, the day that he announced that this season would be his last season, he hit a game winning grand slam.  It's great.  Apart from like, the Astros having an amazing season and winning the world series or something, there have been a lot of moments this season that make it kinda special for a guy like Biggio that's meant so much for his city.  And I guess hell could freeze over and the Astros could somehow make it to the playoffs and win the World Series, or at least like a division title, but I think that would be about one of the most shocking things that could happen.

And I'm pumped about Hunter Pence too.  That guy's got mad promise.  Hopefully he'll be another dude like Biggio or Bagwell that decide to become a franchise player, and stick around with one team for a really long time.

And right now I'm pissed because the Astros are playing, and FSN is showing some stupid show about God know's what instead of the game.  And the Astros are winning, to boot.  Weak.

I can't wait for the college football season to start.  I like baseball, and I enjoy watching the stros, but NCAA football is like, a completely different level for me.  I can watch games between teams I don't even really care about and still get pumped about it, because every single freaking game matters.  If this team loses, than it makes this victory that this team won from this team look less badass, and so that will effect the Longhorn's likelihood to get to the national championship in this way, etc. etc. etc.  Colt McCoy is supposed to have beefed up a whole bunch, so hopefully he'll kick ass.  He was doing so well last season, until that stupid injury against Kansas State.  I think Colt is gonna end up bringing another championship to UT, and I would love for it to be this year.  He's got a bunch of good receivers - Limas Sweed's here, Jordan Shipley is finally not injured, and Billy Pittman's still around, right? 
    And now Jamaal Charles is *the* runningback, unless Mack Brown's got some other back he's trying to develop, which is one of the things that I've never liked about his coaching style.  He can never seem to make up his mind about the running backs.  He kept putting Selvin Young in last year, and he's never really been that good.  He always fumbles or just picks up a couple of yards...  and then there was that asstard Ramonce Taylor.  At least he was pretty good, and useful as a receiver, but he's one of these assclown Vick/Clarrett types.  I remember seeing a picture of him in the endzone doing some sort of over-the-top celebration after a touchdown against Baylor, and I could've sworn he was wearing grillz.  I knew that that was a bad sign.  On two levels - wearing grillz on a football field... and fucking *celebrating* after a touchdown against BAYLOR.  C'mon.  It's BAYLOR.  Why would you celebrate?  Scoring against Baylor is like winning a military victory against the French.  It's not impressive.  It's something you're supposed to do.  It does not exceed expectations.  Like, I don't think that Hitler looked on with awe and amazement as whatever general explained their plan to breach the impregnable Maginot Line and invade France by *gasp* going around it!  They probably just sat down and said "Okay, while the French are distracted pretending that the Maginot Line is an effective defense, we'll just go around, put the tanks in neutral, and just kinda coast into Paris.", and then started talking about how lame jews were.

I forgot what I was talking about... oh yeah... Brown always seems to use like 19 guys in the running back spot, and none of them ever really have a chance to blossom.  Hopefully with Ramonce and Selvin gone, and Melton playing something like defensive end, Jamaal Charles will finally get a chance to have something like a breakout season. 

Anyways, I'm pumped, and USC sucks.

Okay internet, now we're gettng somewhere.

This is pretty cool - apparently they're making a film adaptation of Beowulf, and all of it is going to be CGI.  But it looks pretty good - I remember being impressed with... shit, what was that video game movie that came out a while back that was all CGI... Final Fantasy, and that was like 5 or 6 years ago.  I might have to see this - I've never read Beowulf, and would be interested in seeing the story without having to murk through middle english or whatever the hell that stuff is.

The Trailer