Sentimental Valium

Sun is out again. It changes things. I continue to listen to my "Sun Songs" playlist and it's making me smile. (Check it out foo!)

Ran the first two miles in the new sneakers yesterday morning. I've never bought this particular brand before, but I think this purchase was a good idea.

My good blog friend c@it has started collecting terrible church sign/announcements. Unfortunately, there are plenty to choose some. Feel free to add your favorites here.

Couple of strange news stories to share:

Delivery Man Stuck in Elevator for 3 Days
NEW YORK - A Chinese food delivery man was found trapped in a broken elevator on Tuesday, more than three days after he was reported missing, police said.

Ming Kung Chen, 35, who worked for the Happy Dragon restaurant in the Bronx, was reported missing late Friday when he did not return an hour after setting out on a delivery.

Police said he was found at about 6 a.m. (1000 GMT) on Tuesday and was hospitalized with dehydration. Police were unable to question him immediately because he did not speak English.

Newspapers had reported the Chinese community feared that Chen, who is from Fuzhou province in China, might have been a victim of robbery or foul play by immigrant smugglers.


Man Drives Into DMV's Wall, Renews License
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A man drove his car into a wall at the Division of Motor Vehicles building, then walked in and renewed his driver's license, police say. Police believe the man was driving while impaired on medication and charged him with driving under the influence.

No one was injured.

The man's car went up over a sidewalk Thursday, denting the building's metal siding, cracking the inside of the wall and startling workers sitting nearby in the DMV's accounting department.

"I saw the guy back up, get out of his car and walk into the DMV like nothing happened,'' said DMV employee Michelle Steinman.

No one in the public area of the DMV noticed the accident. Workers in accounting notified higher-ups and pointed out the driver, who had taken a number, apologizing to a clerk that he had "tapped'' the building.

By the time police arrived, the man had paid $20 and renewed his license.

I leave you with my random indie playlist of the day:

Astropop 3 -- "Anything"
Superchunk -- "Every Single Instinct"
The Standard -- "Jump Rope"
South -- "Loosen Your Hold"
Cat Power -- "Good Woman"
Pinback -- "This Red Book"
Loquat -- "Time Bomb"
Walk Wink -- "Love You Better"
Ken Stringfellow -- "Here's To The Future"
Dismemberment Plan -- "The City"
The Wrens -- "Ex Girl Collection"
A Girl Called Eddy -- "Life Thru The Same Lens"

posted by -tr0y- @ 1:37 PM

Bought some new sneakers today. I want to start using that word more often--sneakers. I needed some new running shoes and unfortunately it costs a lot to get good ones.

Have you ever known anyone who has won a really good, really big prize? Like say in a contest? I have never known anyone.

Until today.

A friend of mine--who will remain nameless to protect him from vultures and mooches--told me today that he won the grand prize in a contest that he didn't even know he was in. Evidently he was entered into a contest because of some things he was doing online and he won a major prize: ten thousand dollars. It's outrageous. I plan to go to the "ceremony" next week and see if they give him one of those big checks and maybe get some pictures. If so, I'll be sure to post.

It's been so nice the past two days here and I've been LOVING the sunshine. So I thought it was time for another Top 10 List. (Except this time it will be Top 20.)

Top 20 Favorite "Sun" Songs
1. Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
2. Asleep On A Sunbeam (Belle & Sebastian)
3. Blister In The Sun (Violent Femmes)
4. Brighter Than Sunshine (Aqualung)
5. Cry In The Sun (Better Than Ezra)
6. Follow The Sun (Ooberman)
7. Here Comes The Sun (The Beatles)
8. I Don't Believe In The Sun (The Magnetic Fields)
9. I Never Knew You From The Sun (Innocence Mission)
10. Island In The Sun (Weezer)
11. Moment In The Sun (Clem Snide)
12. Nocturnal Sunshine (Me'Shell Ndege 'Ocello)
13. People Of The Sun (Rage Against The Machine)
14. Sunburn (Muse)
15. Sunlight Makes Me Paranoid (Elefant)
16. Sunset Soon Forgotten (Iron & Wine)
17. Sunshine [Come On Lady] (Josh Rouse)
18. You Are My Sunshine (Johnny Cash)
19. You Are The Sunshine Of My Life (Stevie Wonder)
20. Your Fucking Sunny Day (Lambchop)

I've leaped back up to an 8.5 rating at hotORnot. Take that suckas!!

I want a motorcycle. And I would wear one of those old style helmets with the spike on top and a chin strap. It would be a street bike--not one of those crotch-rockets. I'm a notoriously slow driver. I'd definitely be a cruiser on a street bike! One day....

Can you wear sneakers on a street bike?

You should listen to Feist. Great folk/jazz stuff. Killer voice, even if she chooses to sing in French sometimes.

Sneakers. Makes me smile even typing it!

posted by -tr0y- @ 6:53 PM

After a week or so off, I'm feeling a new energy to sit in front of my computer and type away instead of going outside and enjoying the sunshine.

I got to go see the cute little nieces this past weekend. They turned one year old and they had a birthday party. They are adorable as ever--walking (waddling) around with cute little smiles and still not wanting to get close to the scary bald uncle. It was great to see the family and I didn't even mind the long drive there and back. I listened to a lot of music and didn't talk. I actually really enjoy both.

I spent a good amount of time this past weekend looking for a house to buy. I'm planning to be in something by the fall so I'm re-working my budget, probably moving in with a guy for a few months and looking around for stuff. It's strange to think about owning a home--it's like I'm actually a grown-up. I've been pretending to be for a long time...

Strange occurance this morning. I got an email from a girl I was crazy about in college. She was the first girl who broke up with me because I wasn't "confident enough in myself." She's married with two kids and just 'found' me online and thought she'd say hey. It was a really nice email--she was gracious and kind. She even mentioned our "thing" in college and wondered if I even remembered her. I have to admit though--the email made me a little sentimental. I had the urge to listen to Death Cab For Cutie and let little tears come to the corners of my eyes as I thought about relationships that didn't "make it."

Instead I wrote her back and probably tried too hard to make it sound like things are great and I've been just fine since she pronounced me "not good enough." It's weird when worlds collide--someone from the past showing up in the middle of my now-everyday life. Not sure what to make of it.

Been reading Douglas Coupland again lately. I'm re-reading Generation X right now and laughing like crazy. It's a fantastic first novel. I wanted to share a few of the more meaningful definitions he gives in the book. Maybe these will encourage other people to read the book. Keep in mind, this book was written in 1991 so some of these definitions might not seem all that profound now, but they were FAR ahead of their time when he wrote them.

McJob A low-pay, low-presitge, low-dignity, low-benefit, no-future job in the service sector. Frequently considered a satisfying career choice by people who have never held one.
Vaccinated Time Travel To fantasize about traveling backward in time, but only with proper vaccinations.
Emotional Ketchup Burst The bottling up of opinions and emotions inside oneself so that they explosively burst forth all at once, shocking and confusing employers and friends--most of whom thought things were fine.
Ethnomagnetism The tendency of young people to live in emotionally demonstrative, more unrestricted ethnic neighborhoods: "You wouldn't understand it there mother--they hug where I live now."
Successophobia The fear that if one is successful, then one's personal needs will be forgotten and one will no longer have one's childish needs catered to.

Lastly for now--an inspiring story for those of us who are looking to earn some extra money... and simply don't care how we get it:

Utah Man Selling Naming Right on EBay
UINTAH HIGHLANDS, Utah (AP)

Matthew Jean Rouse doesn't like his middle name and he's letting you pick a new one. The 31-year-old father of two is selling the naming right on eBay.

The "Buy It Now'' price is $8,000. As of early Monday, there had been a total of 30 bids, with the high bid $2,175.

The winning bidder gets to choose a new middle name for Rouse, a software engineer.

Rouse also agrees to use his middle name ``whenever plausible and not hide it.''

"If he wants to walk around with 'Fool' as his middle name, that's his problem,'' said Rouse's wife, Corinna Rouse. "If someone changes his name to 'Poophead,' he may decide it's a little more important than he thought.''

Rouse's middle name was taken from his late grandfather, Jean Stelter, with whom he didn't get along.

His older brother, Bill Rouse, 46, of Mesa, Ariz., bid $1,500 for the name. "Basically, he's trying to dump our grandfather's name, and I'm trying to buy it and make it stay as it is,'' Bill Rouse said.

Poophead? Don't they use profanity out there in Utah?

posted by -tr0y- @ 4:19 PM