Monthly Archive: March 2008

My music notes – January/February/March 2008

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Mon. March 31, 2008

I’ve been lazy with these music notes entries. As a result, the CDs have been piling up. Now that I’m about to list them, the list is looking a bit ridiculous.

My Recent CD Purchases:

  • Santana – Ultimate Santana
  • Lily Allen – Alright, Still
  • CSS – Cansei De Ser Sexy
  • OneRepublic – Dreaming Out Loud
  • Neverending White Lights – Act I: Goodbye Friends of the Heavenly Bodies
  • Lenny Kravitz – It Is Time for a Love Revolution
  • Feist – I Feel It All – EP
  • Wintersleep – Welcome to the Night Sky
  • k-os – Joyful Rebellion
  • The Hives – The Black and White Album
  • Die Mannequin – Unicorn Steak
  • Paramore – Riot!
  • Gorillaz – D-Sides
  • The Trews – No Time for Later

My notes:

I was surprised by Lily Allen’s CD. It’s a lot of cheeky fun. Same with CSS. So silly. “Lick lick lick my art tit! Suck suck suck my art hole!” Ha!

I think I prefer Act II in comparison to Act I for Neverending White Lights only because there’s a consistent feel to the whole thing.

OneRepublic’s CD was interesting. I think I prefer their original arrangement of Apologize to Timbaland’s remix because of the added drama. Although, both have their merits, right?

I enjoyed Wintersleep’s album, though I’m not sure why. All in all, maybe it’s just that it’s an easy listen all the way through.

I purchased Joyful Rebellion a long while ago, but didn’t add import it for the longest time because I didn’t really pick up on it the first time. I popped the CD in again recently and was surprised by how much my attitude changed toward it. I really like it now. Funny how that happens. Last time I wrote music notes, I said I wasn’t feeling the latest from Alicia Keys. Now, I’m starting to like it.

I enjoyed the Do It or Die track from Die Mannequin. From that I bought the whole album. I’m not sure I’m liking the whole thing though. I need to give it a few more listens. Same deal for The Trews. I kind of liked Hold Me In Your Arms but the whole album didn’t really sit with me.

What I like about Die Mannequin and Paramore is that they’re both fronted by strong female voices. The contrast against a hard rock background is really intriguing.

From Gorillaz D-Sides, the Schtung Chinese New Year Remix of Dirty Harry really sticks out. It’s strangely awesome.

I didn’t know what to expect from The Hives. I only heard of them from Timbaland’s Shock Value. That was enough to make me find out more. I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed their garage punk sound. As a whole, the CD is entirely a lot of fun to listen to.

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House projects

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Sun. March 30, 2008

After my run this morning, I headed to the kitchen to grab something to eat. My father was there washing dishes. As I poured a bowl of cereal, he started talking about various projects that he wanted to do around the house. The first he mentioned was removing this dwarf spruce out that he planted in front of the house. Due to its positioning close to the driveway and the numerous winter months since it was planted its slowly turned browner and browner. See, the poor tree often gets buried in the snow when we clear the driveway. And, without exposure to sunlight the tree has slowly died. My mother and I have been telling him how ugly it’s gotten and that it should be cut down. All this time he’s been against cutting it down for various reasons.

Him: “The brown is only temporary! It’ll get greener come spring.”

Me: “Dad…it’s called an evergreen for a reason.”

Ugh. So, I don’t know why he’s suddenly had a change of heart, but frankly I’m glad: the thing is really fug right now. He also mentioned something about adding panelling or moulding to a wall in the sitting area. The thought of a DIY project like that made me shudder, and I let him know by voicing my displeasure. He got into his usual defensive mode and started telling me “why are you stopping me from doing these projects?”

Gross gross gross.

I didn’t want to get into one of those arguments because they really turn ugly pretty fast. So, I just said “I don’t care anymore. Do what you want.” Seriously. I was tired of caring. I would have been content to leave it at that, but he added on “You have your own condo now. Don’t interfere.”

UGH. I’m still living in this damn house for a year. Alright though. I don’t want to deal with that anymore. If he wants to make the house look like shit, that’s his business. :roll: Seriously.

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60 minutes of darkness

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Sat. March 29, 2008

Earlier today, I wondered out loud whether or not I’d actually make an effort to participate in Earth Hour. In the lead up to 8 pm, Toronto seems to have been pretty gung ho about it all. For our household though, I’ve been wondering whether my parents would just scoff at the idea. I was prepared to just hide out in my room with the lights off and just block out the world. I was surprised though that my mother actually knew about the push to turn off the lights. She seemed mildly enthusiastic. My father was clueless though, but willing to participate as well, I guess. Heh. Go figure.

So, at 8 pm I sat in bed, turned off the lights, and listened to my iPod to kill time. If it was brighter out, I would have read a book, but whatever. To be honest, I don’t think it really did much in terms of added awareness in this household. Everyone knows about the need to not want to waste too much energy. Just turning the lights off for an hour to demonstrate an abstract goal isn’t going to really make a mark in terms of changing attitudes. However, in practical terms, I think if you translate it into monetary terms, then it becomes a little bit more concrete, right? I’m actually interested to see what the reports say after the fact.

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Seeds of discontent

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Fri. March 28, 2008

I realize this is kind of evil, but once in a while if an opportunity to sow seeds of discontent presents itself, I will do so where it’s warranted. It’s a tough thing to do because in order for me not to get burned I really have to pay attention to which way the winds are blowing, know what I mean?

It kind of raises questions though. Who am I to judge where it’s warranted? Although, if there’s already a little bit of unease on the part of another party, is there really much harm in directing the party toward a mutually beneficial outcome? It’s like being a bit of a puppeteer.

I’m patient. Results can take a long time to develop. However, when it comes time to harvest, there is potential for a heap of cosmic justice to enjoy. However, I fear that if I’m not careful, karma will come to collect and it won’t be pretty.

Heh, sorry. Just some cryptic rambling.

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Final upgrades

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Thu. March 27, 2008

Bloody hell. I just wrote a couple of paragraphs about my day and the damn browser crashed on me. Ugh. Well here we go again.

Whoo, I’ve had a full morning. Today I had another appointment at the design centre to finalize all of the selections the consultant and I had drafted out during my previous visit. In the end, I did decide to go with my full wish list–so yeah: that’s one big chunk of change. Throughout the process I was letting out big sighs of disbelief. I mean, the whole thing was like this weird dream where I’m signing away large amounts of cash. It felt totally unreal. I mean, how often do you get to do that, right?

The lead up to this morning has been mildly rough. I’ve been really apprehensive about the whole thing because I’ve been worrying about where I’m going to get the funding to do everything that I want to do for my place. When it comes to monetary things, often I worry a great deal. In the end, things usually work themselves out due to paying close attention to flow or other circumstances, and I end up having worried for nothing. It just turned out that this morning’s meeting was just another case where circumstance was on my side.

OK, so here’s some background. I have to pay 15% of the purchase price as a deposit for my place. I’ve already paid off a large sum of that, but not the full percentage yet. I have to come up with the balance of that cash (which is a couple thousand) by my possession date next April. Secondly, since I’m trying to finance my upgrades, I only have to pay off 35% of the total cost of the upgrades as a down payment. That can be spread out, but it’s still a hefty bill. So you see, that’s why I was concerned. I mean, I was worrying about where I’d come up with the cash to take care of both. So this morning is where the magic happened.

As I signed away on pages and pages of forms, the design consultant told me that the down payment for the upgrades would count toward the 15% balance. What in the world?! She punched in the numbers into a document, and after deducting the upgrade cost, the remaining balance due next year turned out to be just a few hundred. She wasn’t sure that the numbers were right, so we calculated it all out together, and indeed, it was correct. Oh, but since it was just a few hundred, I told her that I could write another cheque for that balance and throw it toward a larger down for the upgrades. So I did that, and when she punched in the numbers into the document, the balance listed was $0.

$0.

What in the world??? Effectively then, I don’t have to pay any more come next April. Again, we were both questioning the numbers, but yeah, they worked out. That is absolutely insane. It frees up funds for other uses! It’s certainly one less thing for me to be stressing out about. Craaazy! I may have had doubts before, but seriously, I can do this! I’ll be honest and say that I really feel blessed that something this important has a bit of resolution, know what I mean?

And so, today was a good day.

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Need more anesthetic

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Wed. March 26, 2008

At about three in the morning I had to get up out of bed to attend to a sharp pain in my mouth. About a week ago my dentist changed the wires for my braces, and since then my mouth has been extra sensitive. At some point the braces abraded the inside of my lower lip and it’s since developed into a sore. It hurts like heck due to its positioning–it’s constantly being jabbed by one of the brackets. It’s really quite irritating. Last night I had a bit of wasabi touch the affected area and it hurt like heck. Of course, it’s nothing that a little (or a lot of) Anbesol can’t make me ignore.

Before going to bed last night I put some anesthetic on the area in the hopes for a good nights sleep. So, I was pretty surprised to be waking up in pain in the middle of the night. I guess the anesthetic wore off pretty quickly. How much should I numb my mouth? Do I want to go the night without being able to feel my lower lip? I guess if it means sleepy soundly I can deal with it.

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Return of the early mornings

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Tue. March 25, 2008

So, in order for me to make the practise run session tomorrow at 6:30 pm, all while putting in my full 8 hours at work, I have to leave here an hour and fifteen minutes earlier than I usually do. I haven’t had to do that since last year. I know it’s not like I’m the only one who has to wake up early, so I’m going to suck it up and remind myself that it’s not like anyone’s forcing me to do this. I want to make time for the run. I want to get better.

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On the verge of the return

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Mon. March 24, 2008

I woke up this morning with the sunrise, but forced myself to get at least another hour of rest before getting up. I think some subconscious part of me was keenly aware that I should normally be at work today. However, today was my last day of vacation.

Even though I was off, I felt like I was actually pushing myself harder than I have been during the past week. I used my time today to knock several errands out of the way. I did a lot of driving as I hopped from place to place. Prior to today I’d end up taking a nap for a few hours in the afternoon. Today? Nothing: my energy levels were up there. I guess the only way I can explain this is that it’s about time for me to get back to being productive.

So, now that I’m relatively rested I’m making a small vow that I will not be surly when I’m back in office. I will not be a sarcastic bastard. I will try to stay positive. I will be productive. When I left, I was in the middle of solving an issue that’s been plaguing me since the beginning of the year. Working on the problem and not making much progress was getting me down. No problem has ever made me feel so impotent. Now, tomorrow I plan on tackling it all once more and putting it to rest.

I’m ready, yo.

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