the maw of Fafnir

Quote from Nick Hornby's book High Fidelity:

"But I find myself worrying away at that stuff about pop music again, whether I like it because I'm unhappy, or whether I'm unhappy because I like it. [...] I've spent nearly thirty years listening to people singing about broken hearts, and has it helped me any? Has it fuck. So maybe what I said before, about how listening to too many records messes your life up ... maybe there's something in it after all. [...] It seems to be that if you place music (and books, probably, and films, and plays, and anything that makes you feel) at the center of your being, then you can't afford to sort out your love life, start to think of it as the finished product. You've got to pick at it, keep it alive and in turmoil, you've got to pick at it and unravel it until it all comes apart and you're compelled to start all over again. Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as a consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship."

It's been somewhat stuck in my head for this entire week, due perhaps to my awareness of just how much listening to music or reading books changes my mood. On the other hand, I'm not sure that I can shrug off personal responsibility for how I feel onto media that I consume, as it seems a little petulant.

I'm going to see Jonathan Coulton live at the American Music Hall tonight.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aqTaqVi9J8k
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MwWF7JHwS4w

Here is a fun exercise.

Find me a song that will fit as a transition between http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vd34vJohGXc and http://youtube.com/watch?v=X--QWXGjXfg in terms of a mix cd.

I'm lacking any sort of inspiration -- the closest I've come is Susanne Vega's song "Tom's Diner", but have also considered various Santana songs and Garbage's "The World Is Not Enough."

Opinions? And remember, the first rule of mix cds is that the same artist can't have two tracks in a row. So no, I can't use Cake's "Frank Sinatra".

Man, I love sleeping in. I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow. At least, it's a short week, what with Thanksgiving and all.

I watched "Secretary" last night. I don't know if any of the people reading this have seen it, but it's a rather bizarre movie. I've decided that I really like Maggie Gyllenhaal (at least, in this movie). Bunches of people on multiple coasts recommended this, so I figured I had to check it out eventually. As it turns out, having a Blockbuster nearby is great for immediate movie gratification and having a "AAAAHHHHH, MUST DO SOMETHING" need inspired me to walk there. In some weird way, I kind of wish I could be a secretary like her.

I feel like I should get out of the house and go hiking or something ludicrous like that, but you know what? It's kind of cold outside. Guess I'll figure something out, though.

Thing I am happy about: AC/DC. Three chords of pure rock god-dom. It's the same three chords in every song, and they have tons of songs. And it's just feel good music. Unsurprisingly, it's making me feel happy. Also, it's eggnog season again.
Thing I am less happy about: Discovering that my disposable camera expired in February. I can't say as I've ever had film expire before. I guess I'll track down a developing place or something, and see if they can get anything out of it. I don't even know what's on here.
Thing I am working on: eating healthier. I spent the last week in New York eating practically no lunch and about 6 desserts a day. This is fine if your metabolism is great at digesting LARGE QUANTITIES OF SUGAR. Mine is only okay at this. Although, if you consider what I had for breakfast (apple turnover, yogurt, chocolate, eggnog), I'm probably not doing so well with this.

It's almost Friday. It's almost Friday. It's almost Friday. Do you think that if I keep repeating this to myself, I will be more able to deal with the fact that it's not Friday yet? It's almost Friday. So close, I can get the barest taste of it, filtering through the day like sunshine through San Francisco fog. (It has to be San Franciscan - that's the only reliable place to see fog and sunshine, after all.)

On a whim, I bought tickets to go see Air in San Francisco last night with a female coworker of mine. The fact that she's female is important, if only because it attests to my continued attempts to find more cool girls to hang out with. The show was fantastic, but I ended up walking all over San Francisco in 3" boots, which wouldn't have been so bad had I not done the exact same thing in Mountain View only the night before. In any case, my feet are a little achy, but honestly, I think this is more due to the fact that I don't walk much any more (there's not a huge university campus that I'm trying to cross multiple times every day for class) than the boots themselves. These boots are Boots of Awesomeness +2 at least. Even if they don't improve my awesomeness, they are awesome enough in their own right.

I was going to segue into something witty here, but all I can keep thinking is that it's almost Friday and more immediately, it's almost time for me to go home. See, I'm crazy, and I often come in ridiculously early and leave relatively late. I'm only allowed to work 40-45 hours a week, which means that by the end of the week (in our case, Thursday, since Friday is apparently the start of the week according to Kronos), I have too many hours, so I have to take off early. Thus, my coming in at 945 (due to various things like Alex and I both sleeping through our alarms and us therefore catching the 825am shuttle instead of the 730 shuttle) does not actually preclude me from leaving at 430 in the afternoon.

Firefox is a bloated piece of software and nothing that I use on a regular basis is coded for IE. It's really annoying when I'm trying to read my email and can't do it because FF is memoryhogging my computer. No matter, I will persevere.

In other news, this (ZOMG NOT SAFE FOR WORK) is weird. This is also weird (although it's mostly safe for work). This is what I get to look at at work, when I'm looking at new trends in advertising.

And finally, since I should probably pay attention to the irrelevant-to-me-meeting I'm in, does anyone (aside from the person I got the link from) know much about this mod for Half-Life?

Bah. It's almost Friday. (It occurs to me that I should perhaps be wishing for the weekend, but Friday night is kind of also the weekend and Friday is donut day, so I'm going to get me some awesome donuts tomorrow. Also, tomorrow will be spent writing performance reviews and not doing any other work, so it's kind of like a non-work day anyway.) And I need to purchase a copy of Legend.

Why do I have the song "In Public" by Kelis featuring Nas stuck in my head?

OMG, NEW BON JOVI ALBUM.

today, i am happy about: this site, which, combined with youtube, allows me to listen to bunches of new music. Then, combine it with this site, and you've got your new music discovery process.

today, i am less happy about: the fact that i don't have itunes on this computer, nor can i dload it because i also don't have admin access.

today, i wish that: it were tomorrow. or that jer had called me so that i know what the heck i'm doing tomorrow. or tonight.

today, I am happy about: this poem, even though I think I may be the person sitting in the room, not doing anything, wondering if someone will call. But it's still an awesome poem, and when Neil Gaiman was out this way, he read it - it's one of the few times I've ever understood the reason to have a book signing. Also, I'm going home on the 18th for a week!

today, I am less happy about: the fact that my Google cd case full of awesome CDs has mysteriously gone missing. I also can't remember the last time I saw it. Which means one of two things - I either left it somewhere (and someone has it) or it got stolen (and I'll never see it again! ) Happily, I think most of the stuff in it is replaceable, but I am missing his album, as well as some techno, zero 7, van halen (disc 1 of 2, i think) and ok go. If someone has this case and was wondering who it belonged to, it's mine. Can I have it back, please? At least the CDs -- keep the case for all I care.

today, I wish that: it was Friday already. And that I had some idea of where the hell my cds were. :(

I think Linkin Park needs to write angsty songs about work, instead of just relationships. I think it would increase my productivity immensely.