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Blog - June 2007 |
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This page stores my blog entry from June 2007. The entry is from June 10.
Last Five Months - Includes: Closer to 5.1 / My Landmark Birthday / Jello and D.U. in a Week's Time / 3 Years / 4 Years / Friend's Landmark Birthday Sunday, June 10, 2007 The following are a few things I wrote over the past five months, and it includes what I've written recently. I haven't been too interested in writing much of anything. I'm reconsidering what I want to do with this site. ********** ********** I'm one step closer to 5.1-surround-ness. I introduced my hand-me-down 5.1 speakers and receiver to some cables, speaker wire, and connectors a week ago. Now I just need to put it all together and hope it works. I won't have cable, will have no CD or DVD player, and will only have a VCR connected to the whole lot. It's a start. But at least I'll get it in surround. <grins> My computer is my next project. I had thought about just upgrading my current computer, but I want to keep Win98SE for any games and programs that wouldn't work on Vista. I thought about different scenarios, but I think building a whole second computer would be the best option. I'll probably use a KVM switch, so I won't have to buy another monitor, keyboard, or mouse. ********** ********** I had an awesome, landmark birthday a few months ago. Pam cooked me dinner and bought me the Doors complete discography. I wanted the Doors discography for some time, so this was a cool surprise. For the weekend after, Pam organized a big get-together with all of my friends. She wanted it to be a surprise, but she wasn't sure what I'd really want to do (I can be hard to read for that). But, what she had in mind sounded great. We bounded off to a local indoor indy racing complex and raced a lap together. I got a renewal of my membership and raced my favorite lap (the Dr. Pepper Track). I didn't do too well that day, though I'll have to check with previous results to see how I did for myself. From there, we got some dinner at a chinese smorgasbord/mongolian barbecue. The initial plan had us going over to the Fox and Goose for drinks and darts, but with as filling as dinner was, I decided against it. So, we bounced back to my pad and poured through a game of The Lord of the Rings Trivia board game. I had hoped that someone could have brought "The Haunting of Hill House", but it was not to be found. (FYI: I ended up buying this game within the next week.) I've read the LotR books once, so my knowledge and memory of them are a bare minimum. So, I took that time to discover that, hey, good vodka and juice are rather good! We had a few drinks, a few laughs, and an all-around good time. Thanks, everyone! ********** ********** The past few weeks allowed me to tap into my semi-eclectic musical interests. Back on April 9, Jello Biafra spoke at Sac State. He started out dressed like a judge with dark glasses and read off an order of the government. The fictional order directed people to "shut up, be happy" and if you are found outside after the 7pm curfew, "you will be shot." Many other orders were in that "document", most of which would lead to one "being shot." From there, Jello launched into a 3-hour set covering the Iraq war, "communication", and several shots at President Bush (usually ending with a mimicked voice saying "don't mess with Texas!"). Last Thursday (April 19), my grade-school days came back with the arrival of Digital Underground. They performed at a local club, and at $5 admission, I couldn't lose. The dress code varied: you could either dress to the "T", or you could participate in the bedroom theme. Since I don't go to clubs and have club-wear, the slippers and black and red plaid bathrobe came out. I partied at the club with some work friends until midnight. Then D.U. came out and rocked the joint. Actually, in retrospect, it seemed a little confusing. Their DJ spun for a little bit, and then the crew came out for parts of a song or two. Then Shock G called over someone. They performed some song I somewhat recognized, but it certainly wasn't D.U. He apparently was a part of a group and had a solo album coming out. Then D.U. had some sort of Tupac tribute and eventually broke through the rest of their major hits. Shock G did come out as Humpty Hump and did a couple of songs, though he disappeared somewhere in the middle of "Freaks of the Industry" and wasn't seen again. Admittedly, after "Freaks of the Industry", I realized they did all of their hits and left. It was near 1am and I needed to go to work the next day. Overall, though, it was really cool. ********** ********** After the D.U. concert, I felt a need to get some of those old hip-hop tracks I remembered hearing and liking back in 1990 or so. I managed to get both "Sex Packets" and "This is an E.P. Release" on CD. I have "Sex Packets" on cassette from when I bought it nearly 15 years ago, but I needed something that would last longer and not break on me. The only problem is that the CD lacks "Hip Hop Doll", "Sound of the Underground", and "A Tribute to the Early Days", with the latter two being a couple of my favorite tracks from that album. Hopefully, in a couple of years, Tommy Boy will re-release it on its 20th anniversary and include the full album on CD. I'm finding that it may be one heck of a hunt to find D-Nice's "Call me D-Nice", either as a track on a compilation or the solo album upon which it appears. I need to head to the Bay and check out Rasputin and Amoeba to see if one of them might have a copy. I could get it online, but I'd rather not. Somehow, buying these kinds of CDs online lacks something. ********** ********** I recently reached my 3-year anniversary with my company, and it fell on a weekend. So, I did what any normal person would do: I took the closest weekday off. ********** ********** Pam and I saw our 4th anniversary together. We didn't really do anything special for it, but we did have a nice dinner together. I bought her the limited edition of the Lord of the Rings movies (it has both the theatrical and extended editions). Pam bought me a rug bookmark, $20 in Bevmo gift cards, and the 2-CD version of the original Broadway cast recording of Rent. For the latter, I loved the movie, and hearing the original Broadway actors (only two didn't get in to the movie) was a great treat. The Bevmo gift cards went with the $25 gift card she gave me last year. With those, I purchased a bottle of Graham's Late Vintage Port, a bottle of He'Brew Pomegranate Ale, and a bottle of Glenmorangie 10-year-old single-malt scotch. ********** ********** Our high school troop is slowly going through a landmark birthday, and one other was celebrated this weekend. The semi-surprise party was held at his parents' house. We lounged around the pool (neither of us brought our swimsuits, so swimming was mostly out of the question), chatted, and drank away. Talks about Dune books, projectile vomiting, and embarrassing others stretched around watching the birthday boy unwrap presents and watching one friend drink himself silly and repeat himself numerous times (the latter being rather humorous after a bit). We watched some Futurama and drank Millennium Falcons and Fernet. His dad even went out of his way and made some awesome pasta for us for dinner. |
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