Sir Paul

I've had the song "My Brave Face" by Paul McCartney stuck in my head for the last week, so I wanted to track down the album it came from, "Flowers in the Dirt."
Of course, iTunes doesn't carry anything from The Beatles or the individual Beatles, so that route was out. I then checked my trusted used-record source, The Princeton Record Exchange. No luck.
(A lyrical digression: "Drove downtown in the rain, 9:30 on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late night record shop." I digress.)
I was further unsuccessful at Borders, Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble. How is that bloody possible. This is Paul McCartney we're talking about!
Since there aren't many used record shop floating about here anymore, I on a whim went to the FYE in Quarkerbridge Mall.
It was too easy....it was the first CD that I picked up, and it was even a used copy. It even rang up cheaper than the sticker said.
I hope I haven't used up all my good luck this week just by finding a used copy of this CD. That would be a drag. I also can't get over that I found an apparently obscure (Paul McCartney obscure??) record at a mall.
A moment of nostalgia: when I was at UF, there were at least four or five used record shops within walking distance of one another. I remember making the rounds.

The trees win

House of God vs. Mother Nature. A lot could be said about this, I suppose.
I pass by this old decrepit former church rather frequently as I travel home from my brother's place. (I say "former" because there is no roof and a giant tree is growing up where pews should be. Usually a sign that it's no longer in use.)
I've wanted to explore it for a while, so on my way home this afternoon, I decided to stop over and take a few snaps. There's quite an impressive little eco-system happening in there, it seems. I didn't take too long to explore the grounds, as from where I took these photos, I was standing in the middle of a cemetary.
Just in case I was doubting it, I don't like standing in the middle of cemetaries. And by "middle," I mean anywhere within the confines of a cemetary. Creepy places.

Cube art

This is what happens when people I work with go on vacation:

I helped a bit with the saran wrapped cube, but not with the post-it one.

I might need one of those calendar things

I've never quite been known as the king of advanced planning...it would be the exception rather than the norm if I knew what I was doing in two weeks. As it stands now, I have the next three weekends planned. Shocking, I know.
What's even more shocking is that I've already gotten Thanksgiving planned, which is, what, 2 months away? Wow. That's almost adult of me.
I'll be heading down to Knoxville for the Thanksgiving weekend, and I've even taken off the Wednesday before and the Monday after for travel. I'll most likely head down by car, as that's the most fun and I'd like access to my own car down there, but the mind-numbing 12 hour drive stretches my patience for sitting still. While I like the chance to be alone with my thoughts, not even I can stand myself for that long!
That being said, I love hitting the road. It's a much more satisfying means of travel than being stuck in a tiny seat in a metal tube with wings that performs some sort of physics voodoo to bring you, and possibly your baggage, to your destination. There's a certain freedom that the car allows, and freedom is always a good thing.
The route down is a familiar one. I'll drive through Washington, and then hit 66 over to I-81, which takes me through the Shenandoah Valley. It's a great, easy drive and affords beautiful scenery, so I'll most likely come back with a whole bunch of photos.
Damn, I love Thanksgiving! I can't wait for turkey.

My indecisiveness makes me hungry

I've been sitting here at my computer for about five minutes, trying to write a post about indeciveness; however, I can't decide how to start, so I've beenn writing, and then promptly deleting, sentences. Isn't that appropriate? I think I'll just drop the post about my stunning bout of indecisiveness I experiences this afternoon.
I've restarted reading "Love in the Time of Cholera," by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I've wanted to read this for a while. I tried starting it a few weeks ago, but I let another book (and then another book) get in the way. I picked it up again this weekend, and I think I got myself hooked. I foresee several trips over the next few weeks to my favorite reading spot in town, which works just fine for me, because I'll get to look all "coffeeshop cool" by reading this book. And we all know the point of reading "important" novels is only to look cool.

The Bucs

When I lived in Gainesville, I would spend Sunday afternoons driving around town listening to the Bucs games on the radio, as the games were rarely on TV. It was usually an exercise in frustration, given that the Bucs lost with consistency. This was during the years that Vinny Testeverde and Trent Dilfer were quarterback, they wore orange and white uniforms, and they never won more then 7 games in a season.
Good times.
Still, this afternoon as we were driving toward PA, we heard the Bucs game on the radio...and the team was doing badly. They eventually lost rather handily, and taken with the absolute blanking they had last week, it's a return to form!
Maybe if I'm really lucky, I can start driving around central Jersey on Sunday afternoons listening to the Bucs lose, just like I did for years in College.

Go Gators

The Gators were finally able to come back from behind in the fourth quarter and maintain the lead in the final two minutes. In the last few years, if the Gators were down by a score in the fourth, the score would most likely reflect the same once the game finished. There were also a few games in which they lost a small lead in the final minute or so by some sort of "miraculous" play from the other team. Those losses were brutal.
Considering that they were also playing a huge rival away from home, I was pretty much nervous the entire second half.
But when that final second ticked off....WOOHOO!

You hippie

Wow. I just found this picture of me taken 5.5 years ago when I up in the city with a friend. Little did I know then how drastic and odd a turn my life would take just a month and half after this photo was taken.
But anyway, that's another post.
Holy crap, look at the hair! If I remember correctly, I let it grow for maybe another 6 months after this, so it got even longer. Sheesh. I wonder how I had the patience to do this.

Yesterday, I read my horoscope here on Myspace. It said "Undefined." Nice.
Also, I've had many dreams relating to water lately. Sometimes, it's a clear, gently flowing creek and at other times it's a large ocean or shore with beautiful blue water. And, thanks to a dream from a few nights ago, there are sometimes 50ft tall giants rising from it.
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
I tried to find out what having a giant in your dreams could actually mean, but I've had no luck.
On an unrelated note, I'm trying to find the perfect zippered hoodie. There are several sites where you can customize at will, but there are so many options...where can one start! It's the paradox of choice.
On another completely unrelated note, Brandi Carlile, a singer-songwriter from Washington state, rocks. I've noted before my weakness for women who play guitar...she's that dangerous mix of talent, beauty, and sheer unattainable-ness that I always fall for. Smiley Smile :)

Excuse me while I write this...

So, a friend pointed out that I will now share my birthday with Britney Spears' new baby. Good luck with that, little kid.
So, as usual, my birthday leads me to reassess where I am...maybe that's why I don't like them all that much, because the answers I come up with aren't that easy to implement and then I find myself not following through.
These are some things I've thought of:
1) I like my job. I work with fun people, and it's possible I can forge some sort of "career" out of it. However, I'm not necessarily challenged, and I don't think I'm using the abilities I do have to the fullest. I'm by nature a very creative person, but I feel my creativity has been somewhat dulled over the last few years. I dont believe I'm anywhere close to fulfilling my potential, and that's disappointing and frustrating, and honestly, I don't feel all that good about myself because my creativity is holed up somewhere. So, I'm going to start thinking about next steps to rejuvenate my mind and rekindle the creativity. How how how?
2) Where shall I go next, and how much do I really want to stay in New Jersey? I do like living here and have met a bunch of great people. I appreciate having my brother and his family here, and I've learned much about myself with having them around and spending time with the nephews and niece. However, I have been here 7 years, and I think I'm getting kind of antsy to try someplace new. Knoxville has always been a very appealing option, and I'd have family there, which is certainly an added plus. Nevertheless, it's easy, and I've lived my whole life easy. I'm thinking about California...seriously. I'm not even sure why, but it's almost the opposite of New Jersey, isn't it? People say "Dude, you won't like California...it's so unlike you." Uh, yeah, that's the point, friends.
3) Tread carefully in romantic minefields. I think I might have thought the same thing last year, and talk about not implenting! Sheesh. I think I'm going to develop a list of criteria, the first of which possibly being that she should be born some time in the 70s, as that may give us at least a common jumping-off point. Also, I've discovered my heart and my brain don't necessarily work as the team they should.
4) I've got to relearn how to create my own opportunities. I've done this before, and it worked rather well (until the dot com economy tanked. Long story.). This requires an unrelenting faith in myself, which I have to dig up again. I'm too close to just floating along these days.
That's what I've come up with for now. I feel I've shared too much, but I think I've turned off some of the filters...so be it.

I bought the new Bob Dylan CD, Modern Times, tonight, so I drove around town listening to it. Very impressed so far, and some songs immediately grabbed me. I want to read the lyrics and give it a few more listens, but the first impression has been very good.
I think I may expound on this in a little while, but I wanted to post the lyrics for an Indigo Girls song that I dig, Galileo. The song seems to fit. There must be a reason I named my cat after the song....fate lauging at me?
Galileo
by Indigo Girls

album: Rites Of Passage (1992),
Retrospective (2000)

Galileo’s head was on the block
The crime was looking up for truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth

And then you had to bring up reincarnation
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now I’m serving time for mistakes
Made by another in another lifetime (Emphasis mine)

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision, king of insight

And then I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision, king of insight

I’m not making a joke, you know me
I take everything so seriously
If we wait for the time till all souls get it right
Then at least I know there’ll be no nuclear annihilation
In my lifetime I’m still not right

I offer thanks to those before me
That’s all I’ve got to say
’cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
Now I have to pay
But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
To let the next life off the hook
But she’ll say look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think I’ll write a book

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach the highest light
Except for Galileo God rest his soul
(except for the resting soul of Galileo)
King of night vision, king of insight

How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long

iPod iEscapism

P-ton is rather busy these days, what with all the new and returning students. There's a cool vibe in the town when school is back on (dreams haven't been crushed yet), but there does seem to be a disproportionate amount of people who wear their polo shirt collars upturned. Haven't quite gotten around to co-opting that trend.
The iPod is calling. I think I just want to drown in music for the next hour(frankly, the next few days) or so until I slowly drift off to sleep. This week looks to be a long one.
That being said, you gotta love the Austrians for creating a drink(kirsch) that's powerful enough to start cars yet goes down smooth. An alcohol that multitasks. I like being half Austrian.

I forgot what happened five years ago. Remind me, TV

I've made it a rather concious point not to watch any of the recent 9/11 based movies that have come out like United 93 and World Trade Center. No matter how well they stick to the truth or are considered sincere and well done, they are still presented to us in the realm of entertainment, and I haven't quite understood how one can put that disaster into neat two-hour capsules.
Also, despite all the good intentions that they espouse when they are marketing the movie, movies are still in the business of making money. Seriously, when have they ever made any movie for noble reasons?
Reason I bring this up, is despite my intentions, I got sucked into watching the last hour of a movie called Flight 93 on A&E or one of those channels. It was depressing and rough emotionally, but overall, I felt I was being manipulated into those emotions. All those events are sad enough without a soundtrack of mood music in the background, or actors crying fake tears on screen. Stop. Please. The real thing was bad enough. Is doing this really helping anybody?
On another point, I've seen all the major channels clamoring for viewers by presenting "docudramas" or by saying they'll have the best coverage of the 5th anniversary of 9/11, some even going so far as doing a replay of events in real time.
Fuck you, you self-serving, opportunistic pricks...hope you get your damn ratings. Wasn't it bad enough watching this once on live TV?

Well...krikey

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed
Who would have thought that it'd be a Sting Ray that brought him down? I lived on an island called Grand Cayman for a year, and I remember feeding Sting Rays when we'd go out to a place called Sting Ray City. I didn't know the little buggers could acttually kill you if they got the right spot. Eek.
Bummer. I thought the Crocodile Hunter was cool.