So I did not exactly participate in Blog Action Day like I said I would. I owe this mainly to the fact that … I don’t actually have a good excuse. The internet is distracting? I’ve been trying to pass Calculus? I was practicing my guitar nubbins for that entire week in order to perform at Open Mic Night, a performance I’m glad I did but we could definitely do better? Hopefully next time I’ll be less panicky about playing things in public. Lights! Microphones! Stage gremlins!

I think it is refreshing to exhibit some of your more unrefined talents in public. It gives you a sense of humility. Or, better yet, this overwhelming need to become better at what you do. This is perhaps the reason that I can’t listen to songs I know anymore without looking up the chords or tabs. So I’m a fanatic. At least some day I’ll be a fanatic who can play classy guitar!

In addition, I attended my second ever concert today. My first was a middle school Shania Twain concert at the Toyota Center, which I constantly refer to as the “Not-concert” because what I saw today was so much better. And Shania Twain didn’t climb up the scaffolding like Gavin DeGraw did. My blurry cellphone pictures can act as a testament to the awesomeness of Austin live music. The set was Need to Breathe first, opening for Gavin DeGraw, and they were fantastic. Rock harmonica and everything. The man himself was amazing — he pulled a little bit of Freddie Mercury out and got the crowd to sing along to some crazy stuff. We were about fifty feet away from him, because we thought the concert was at 7 and not 9, and spent about an hour trying to figure out if people were going to start playing or if some sort of stage ghosts kept turning the lights on and off. Or, you know, gremlins. Because they’re everywhere. He played a bunch of songs on a black, glittery, dwarf piano. As if having a dwarf piano was not cool enough. Or calling it a dwarf piano. At any rate, thoroughly impressive. I think I danced (you could call it dancing and you would be wrong) myself into a hyperactive frenzy because I don’t think I can go to sleep just yet. Except for the bit where I’m running out of adjectives and my brain is threatening to jettison if I continue to write this post.

Did I mention that he climbed the scaffolding? Apparently not enough, because that was flipping sweet.

There’s something beautiful and exhilarating about live music. Nine times out of ten, you actually can dance to it, and aside from the random stuck-up person who pushed Jenna out of the way so she could have more standing room to herself, it really brings out the best in people. I had a fantastic time, and I’m so happy to close off the week that day.

I am not counting tomorrow because I have a Biology quiz tomorrow. These are not often good days for me. And I have sold my weekend’s soul to the devil that is Calculus. Half a semester and I am done, done done with stupid nonsensical math. Then I can take even more abstract Liberal Arts math for an easy credit! Hooray for loopholes.

Much to my chagrin, I will probably not be majoring in Linguistics, and I will only be pseudo-majoring in Classics and Biology. Because apparently a Bachelor of Arts is not so fancy as a Bachelor of Science. But at least this way, I can fulfill Plan II’s mission to turn all of its students into academic “Swiss Army knives.” I kid you not, that is an actual quote. CORKSCREWS! CAN OPENERS! TINY FILE THINGS … FOR FILING!

Wait, what?

Design notes

I can now add these three sites to my portfolio. They were a lot of fun to do, and they are, in order:

• Blogging Downtown Houston (and logo)
• True Light Tracey
• Matthew Wettergreen (and logo)

I am working on a very spiffy new design (which Danny suggested should have graphs and charts) that is essentially a lot of text and not so many images. I think I’ve officially broken free of the elaborate but oh-so image intensive grunge phase of my life. I attribute this victory to Sublime and In Rainbows Disc 2. And some books that I’ll have to write about later because they are highly interesting and more than a little weird. Hint hint: one of the books is called A Clockwork Orange. HOW IS THAT FOR SUBTLETY.

Addendum

Might I add that I love the direction that the WordPress dashboard is taking. It’s a wee bit of Movable Type and a lot of elegance. Good show on that! I can’t wait until it comes out! I’m suddenly excited about WordPress again. Will I be changing? Probably not. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t use WordPress for other things!

• No comments
• No trackbacks    |

My interest level in the presidential election has waned significantly from, say, the beginning of the year when we could come into class and talk about the variety! and change! and reform! that each of the candidates promised. And make fun of the the crazy third party people. Of course, here in Austin, Obama is the new party drug, Which is cool, because I think I’m leaning towards Obama myself (it’s better to have a candidate who at least supports most of the things I support than someone who supports none of them and has a certain Alaskan governor as his vice presidential nominee — I think that’s reasonable). Even if the words “Change,” and “Hope” don’t have any concrete meanings, at least they inspire something better in people, which is more than I can say for McCain.

While the first debate between McCain and Obama was entertaining, and the vice presidential debate was all sorts of hilarious (I almost want to make a wall of Sarah Palin quotes, but it’s too easy to make fun of her), the second debate really got on my nerves.

• Neither of the candidates really answer the questions (Obama did make an effort, but he went back to his stump speeches quite a bit) — I realize this is a staple of (presidential) debates, the idea that questions are optional and that people have only come to hear you say things you have said to them for the past year.
• McCain was all kinds of condescending. And not even in the hilarious gaffe way. I wanted him to spend his time bolstering his foreign policy and general political experience, which is the most significant edge he has on Obama. Instead, I just heard a lot of belittling and bickering, especially in the latter half of the debate. This one quote which had me thinking:

  Well, you know, nailing down Sen. Obama’s various tax proposals is like nailing Jell-O to the wall. There has been five or six of them and if you wait long enough, there will probably be another one.

  But he wants to raise taxes. My friends, the last president to raise taxes during tough economic times was Herbert Hoover, and he practiced protectionism as well, which I’m sure we’ll get to at some point.

  John McCain (Transcript of the debate)

  What exactly does that quote mean? Is McCain supporting protectionism or is he supporting Hoover? Because, in the wise words of Jonathan Coulton, “Hoover screwed the pooch in the Great Depression.” If that’s the stage that we’re at — and I certainly think we’re on some kind of brink — Hoover isn’t a name you want to be throwing around, not for good credit anyway.

What cracked me up the most during the presidential debate was the much-publicized “That one!” comment that McCain threw at random in the middle of the debate. The context is below:

By the way, my friends, I know you grow a little weary with this back-and-forth. It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney.

You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me.

John McCain (Transcript of the debate)

Now, I don’t think of that as particularly offensive — a bit crude, I’ll admit — because I started cracking up when I heard that. This is what came to mind immediately:

I sincerely hope that the next debate will be a more serious discussion. I really wish the candidates had used the town hall format to speak directly to the voters instead of dancing around, throwing things at one another. Mostly words. Sometimes cheese.

Now, Wednesday is Blog Action Day, and the topic is “poverty.” which means that I’ll be updating a few more times this week at least. That has me excited. I missed writing commentary so much.

• No comments
• No trackbacks    |