Birthday presence

So where do I begin? Well, I guess technically I did turn 39 last week, though with the way my body has been breaking down at times it feels more like 59 some days. The weekly volleyball sessions have come to an end. I took a few weeks off of playing and when I went back they told me they had been cancelled. On one hand it sucks, I liked getting out of the house and doing something I enjoyed, on the other hand, I managed to mash my body up pretty good playing. One would think that volleyball would be an easy sport to play, being non contact and all, yet through the course of playing I managed to pull a groin muscle, bruise the heel of my foot and either severely bruised my elbow, or chipped a bone in it, because it blew up to about twice the size of my other one. It is true, some days it is better to have not gotten out of bed.

As for the birthday itself, I tried to keep it low key. save for a brief mention on the posting of "The Onion" video, I made no mention of it here. I didn't put it on the calendar because it wasn't a radio related event, and it wasn't like there was a bunch of celebrating around these parts. Other than the birthday greetings on this page (mucho thanks again everyone) and an email from the Coke rewards people, the only thing I got was a card from my grandmother. I imagine my mom has something for me, but she will most likely save it for when I next see her, which I have no idea when that will actually be.

Since my last scribbling I have dumped about 10-11 applications out there. Nothing yet, but I have been pretty lazy about the process, usually just doing one or two at a time or even worse, applying from my computer at home, depending on my motivation. I imagine someone may have tried calling while I have been out, but if so, they didn't leave a message to call them back.

Sorry about that, just did another online application. I am the epitome of lazy. The more I can do in front of my computer, the happier I am.

Speaking of my computer, I made a couple of upgrades to it recently. I added a Firefox browser, not really by choice, because I am one of the mentally imbalanced people that still likes Internet Explorer. Actually, I like IE because it is easier for me to grab audio with than Firefox has been in the past. I just find it convenient to be able to download audio by doing the simple right click and using the "Save Target As" option. Plus I already have all of my passwords saved with IE, so Firefox wasn't really what I wanted. I only downloaded it because Surf The Channel was having some issues and it seems to run better with Firefox than IE. I guess they had some issues with a new platform they released, which is a shame because it worked okay for me, but when they switched back to the old platform, IE encountered some problems with some of the servers they link to, so I became a not so proud Firefox user.

I also added Audacity top the computer. I have been looking for something like it for quite some time. It is a multi track audio editing program. Usually I would look for it in stores and what not and it would be a relatively expensive piece of programming to purchase, but I was looking through the top 100 tech items in some techie trendy magazine one day and about 3/4 of the way through the article they mentioned Audacity, which was put together just up the street from me at Carnegie Melon University a few years back. The creator of it went on to bigger and better things at Google, but he still works on the bells and whistles for Audacity as well. I have only begun to experiment with it, using it for some stuff at work (where I also downloaded it) and played with the bells and whistles on it here at home, just experimenting with cutting up some music I have downloaded and what not.

As I type this I am doing some real time watching of my fantasy baseball team. Right now I am in a three way tie for third place, though I do have someone up with the bases loaded in his game and amazingly halfway through the season, many of the categories are still so close that this at bat matters still.

And I got nothing and liked it. I still lead in two categories rather comfortably, by 25 in runs and by 19 in stolen bases, but I trail in batting average by a less than a point (.2756-.2747) and I am close enough that I could pick up some ground this evening in homeruns and RBIs as well. But for that to happen, my guys have to actually make contact with the ball and not blow bases loaded opportunities like two of my guys just did (thank you BJ Upton and Evan Longoria, the check is NOT in the mail).

I did go to a real live baseball game the other night, the Pirates were home to the Blue Jays in an interleague matchup and it may have been the best baseball game I have seen in ages, with the Pirates actually winning 1-0 in 12 innings. Great pitching, good defense and a quick moving game (it took a little over 3 hrs to play 12 innings) and it was a Fireworks Night to boot, so yes, I have more firework piccies on my camera. Maybe I will upload them later, I don't know.

I did upload another tune compliments of Pepsi, I think I am up to 31 freebies now. I have been on a Replacements kick recently, so I uploaded "My Little Problem". Damn I miss when music was that good. I was peeking around Imeem while my tune was uploading and they had a new Avril Lavigne video. It is the epitome of what is wrong with music today. Who exactly told her she was hardcore? She is about as hardcore as that album I had as a kid, Chipmunk Punk, featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks doing stuff like The Knack's "My Sharona". The video has everyone all dressed in black and cheerleaders that looked liked they missed the casting cut for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and the stupid and overly publicized anarchy symbol on the drumset, and then Avril starts singing and it sounds like something from the freaking Disney channel. That may be hardcore for the Mickey Mouse set, round these parts it is more reason to dislike Canada.  Now for your viewing pleasure, evidence of Avril's suckiness......

 

 

I am passing on a Pogo badge this week. I did the two offered but didn't do my personal. I was going to blame it on that game I posted on the blog earlier (where I am on Level 11 now) but since this is the summer of global warming, it is all global warming's fault.

I just made the mistake of turning on the TV and another of those programming wonders "Blind Date" was on. This time they hooked up some guy with a porn star. Time out here. How absolutely sad of a porn star do you have to be that a TV show has to get you a date? I mean really, unless you are doing it with animals on film, the fact you are flaunting your cooch for the world to see usually means that at least one guy will date you without requiring outside assistance. Then again, maybe she doesn't make the big screen (or the small screen for that matter), I suppose she could be a fluffer, which would be no screen time at all.

I must say, my insult the spammers campaign is working somewhat, I have probably cut my spam mail in half so far. I guess they don't like receiving their spam back in their email all that much.

I mentioned this in my Neverending blog recently, but damn if the Tim Dorsey book isn't freaking hilarious. I should have been turned onto him much sooner. For those unfamiliar, the stories settle around two people, Serge, a serial killer who wants to stop but he keeps running into people that need killing and his stoner friend Coleman. The books are just full of cynical writing and off the wall cultural trivia that you will either really enjoy the books or not get them at all. Prime example, Serge is just about to electrocute an owner of a retirement home that has just kicked the residents out so he can remodel it and put higher priced elderly in, with a contraption that he devised involving a vibrating bed, a thermostat, a nail gun and aluminum foil (don't ask me to explain it) when he looks at the man tied to the bed and tells him that he has good news. The now captive's eyes get big, thinking that he may be untied and let go when Serge tells him "I just saved money on my car insurance." It is a warped sense of humor you either get or you don't, I am just sorry I have only read two of Dorsey's books so far.

 

I think I will save the pictures for another time, I might go music shopping before bed and I have blogged long enough for one night.