The last while when I've been making itunes playlists I've noticed that all the songs are from the 2000's. I was starting to get really creeped out at my musical tastes being so narrow. Then I realized that it's almost 2010. It's the end of a friggin' decade people. I think this one's creeping up on people way more sneakily than than the previous, ridiculous Y2K business of 1999. You should probably start freaking out without really knowing why other than you've been startled by time just like me.
Also, I really need some sort of awesome full-time job soon. Preferably I should be able to get back downtown by 5:30 when I'm done, only if the job is somewhere other than downtown. Let me know if you have any leads.
I went to a party on Friday night where we made sculptures out of uncooked wieners and spaghetti. I made a horse with a cowboy riding it. When they were judged by party applause I was declared the winner. My prize was a cooked hot dog with the stringy, hair-like spaghetti noodles popping out of it on a plate with "#1" written in ketchup. A loud dude got everybody chanting, "EAT IT! EAT IT! EAT IT!" And, without missing a beat I went into a celebratory dance along with the chant-beat. While I did pose for pictures with the wiener partly in my mouth I did not eat it. Just so you know, sculpting with hot dogs leaves a lot of "wiener juice" on your hands, and even after washing you do not care to eat a hot dog.
Party side note: I was ever so slightly part of a conversation about friends of friends getting their skipper's license in Vancouver and then sailing around the Bahamas with people on vacation. It definitely made me revisit dreams I've had in the past about learning to sail.
Okay, so Halloween afternoon I was on Whyte Ave with Natasha for a bit. We passed by two dudes trying to promote Greenpeace or something. One was dressed up as a robot and the other was a gnome, both still sporting the snazzy, green vests. The Gnome smiled and tried to talk to us, but we were on a mission to get frames at the Army & Navy, so we couldn't stop. Instead of stopping I yelled, "Hey! You're a gnome!"
I started a new job this last week. So, on Wednesday I went to my first Staff Development Day. Just four days after I hollered at the guy in the street I had the chance to actually meet Chris, also newly hired. It was pretty funny to shake hands with him for the first time and be like, "Hey, I yelled at you the other day."
A few weeks ago I was riding my bike down Jasper Ave and had to stop at a red light. I looked over at a large pickup truck two lanes to my left. There was huge, full key chain hanging from the keyhole in the passenger door. So, I sort of straddle-walked over with my bike and pulled the keys out of the door. The people in the truck sure looked surprised and embarrassed when I held them up and said, "Hey, I think you might want these."
It's funny how doing something little like that can give you a really nice feeling. I still feel like a good citizen.
Also, I don't know about the Threadless t-shirt business. Who knows if they'll choose my shirt. I still haven't heard from them, so I'm thinking I probably won't. Don't cry too hard about it though. I'm not too broken up. But, if you do choose to cry for me/the design let me know in the comments.
I totally designed this T-shirt. Please click and vote for: "Percussion," to help it get printed on Threadless!
If my shirt gets printed I'll get $2000, plus $500 credit with the Threadless store. So, who knows? If it gets printed maybe I'll have some contests on my blog where you could win one. Please, please vote. It only takes a moment.
So, true story: New Orleans on a Tuesday night in October is pretty boring. When Jesse and I first got there we went to the National World War II Museum, which was pretty cool. But, after that we wandered into the French Quarter, to Bourbon Street and such. It was just bar after bar without any live music. We did see fully clothed showgirls whip beads as hard as they could into the faces of male passersby. That was funny. But, mostly we got bored, so we ended up going to Harrah's casino. Now, before I continue I should mention that we arrived in New Orleans on the train having already been awake for approximately forty hours. We got there around three in the afternoon and then stayed up all night until our next train ride left at seven the next morning. So, by the time we got to the casino we had been up for around fifty hours. Once inside we soon realized that you were allowed to smoke in there. Jesse doesn't usually smoke at home, but he'll pick up some Marlboros while in the States, because of the better quality. So, when we sat down with out Starbucks drinks to play slots and he jokingly offered me a cigarette the word sure quite easily slipped out of my mouth. A whole lot my inhibitions were gone by that point just from being exhausted. Plus, it was pretty funny: The two of us with one hand holding a coffee and the other a cigarette and playing slots. My first gambling experience and my first cigarette in the same night.
Okay, so it's been forever and the three people who read this aren't even interested anymore. Forgive me already. My whole entire life changed. I lost my job, moved out and travelled a good chunk of America. I've been busy and quite entirely emotionally detached from my blog.
Over the last couple weeks I traveled with my cousin, Jesse to Austin, New Orleans and New York. First, we flew to Austin for the Austin City Limits music festival. It was fantastic. We saw Kings Of Leon, Thievery Corporation, Phoenix, The Walkmen, The Knux, School Of Seven Bells, The Parlor Mob, The Bright Light Social Hour, Bon Iver, Mute Math, Grizzly Bear, The Virgins, Pearl Jam, The Dead Weather, The B-52s, Arctic Monkeys, Girl Talk, Passion Pit, White Lies, Brett Dennen, Here We Go Magic, and Mike Posner. The first day of the festival was hot and overcast. The second day was pouring rain all day. The third day the entire park turned to thick mud. Just like more than half of the crowd we went barefoot for the mud day.
The hugest highlight of the festival was seeing Mute Math. They quite easily put on the best show of the whole weekend. The drummer taped his headphones to his head and splashed water all over his drums so that it sprayed when he played. The lead singer did breakdance stalls on his Rhodes piano. They were completely amazing. Also in Austin, we visited Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop which is owned by Lance Armstrong. They had Lance's Tour De France jerseys on the walls and original Sheppard Fairey art outside.
That's all I can stand to share at the moment seeing as I've told all my stories to friends like five times over. Oh, but we did see Vince Vaughn in Central Park.
Today, I finally got my new label maker in the mail. It's an old school one that I was lucky to find on eBay. Fortunately it came with this awful, brown-with-black-polka-dots tape to try out with. My first few labels were for my sister. They said,
"NO MORE TEARS"
"LIKE JESUS SINGING"
"BOO, YOU WHORE."
P.S. That isn't my hand in the picture, but it is my label maker.
Today, I was going to ride a 50 km loop out to Spruce Grove and back on my bike. I got out to the Grove, but then one of the spokes on my back tire broke. Fortunately my Aunt Nancy was home and she was able to give me a ride home.
So, I pretty much decided that the next best thing to imitating Jeff's Chicagoan accent while watching BB (a.k.a. Big Brother) is to imitate the announcer's voice at the beginning of the show. Instead of saying, "Previously on Big Brother..." you can say, "B-B-iously on Big Brother." It's guaranteed laughs from there on in.
Also, at work today I learned from Simon that Lady Gaga is a hermaphrodite. Of course he learned this from a YouTube video of Lady Gaga straddling a bicycle and mumbling under her breath, "Oh no, I'm not wearing any drawers." Although Simon hasn't checked it out for himself, he said that Lady Gaga even openly admitted on her blog. While I can't verify the story because I'm not willing to google 'hermaphrodite,' I can say that we had a good time making fun of Simon for believing whatever he finds on the internet.
Thirdly, Someone else's secret may have recently got out through that Someone's blog. I just thought I'd blog to say that I might have been part of the "next to no one" Someone told before. Whoop whoop. I love secrets.
