The Yanks lost 15 to 2? Holy Fucking Shit!

-Brian : 11:37 PM

Neat! Thanks to the local video store, which has seen fit to put it out a few days early, Ray and I will tonight get to see if they've actually managed to improve Star Trek: The Motion Picture with this new director's cut of the film. Granted, that's not really altogether hard to do, given that Star Trek I was uniformly boring, with the exception of the main theme and the long, adoring shots of the Enterprise in drydock.

Ray's probably masturbating right now, if I had to guess. If we were only having Pork Chops for dinner than I suppose the trifecta would be complete. However, Mr. Tom Chalker, Ray, and I are going to go get the best sushi known to man or beast this evening.

-Brian : 5:26 PM

You know, there's a good reason that one should get used cars checked out by a mechanic that's on his or her side before buying it. For instance, when I took the shiny '96 Cherokee to get checked out, all looked well until it was put up on the lift. Once up there, we saw the incredible amount of rust that was under there. I decided I didn't want the car when we saw the hole in the floorboards that allowed me to see through to the carpeting under the passenger seat. It's a shame I didn't have a camera with me.

So, uh, the hunt continues. If you have a Cherokee you want to sell, then e-mail me already, damn it.

Monsters, Inc. was very cute and funny. I recommend it. The little short they played before it, For the Birds, I think it was called, was just hilarious. The Episode II teaser trailer, which is showing with Monsters, was alright I guess. It had some neat looking scenes that kind of makes me hope it may be better than Episode I, but on the other hand, the trailer did nothing for getting me all excited or anything. The Harry Potter trailer looks kind of neat.

I'm not sure why, but I've been writing about various things related to Star Trek a lot lately. I guess it's a phase. Ray writes about Pork Chops and Masturbation, I write about Star Trek. If he and I did a blog together, that could make for some interesting entries, I think.

Quasi / Stereolab on Tuesday. Rock on, G.

Blogger's spellchecker is working, and I've suddenly stopped misspelling words.

-Brian : 5:01 PM

I realized last night that I'd feel better about giving up this old car if I could have it self destruct with a bunch of evil klingons in it and then crash it into another planet. Eh, or maybe not.

Either way, time to go get the new car checked out.

-Brian : 9:38 AM

Oh, gigging is fun. I've missed it so... We got to play a pretty long set...nine songs or so. We played our entire cache of originals, seven tunes, and then two covers, End of the World As We Know It by REM and South Side by Moby. All in all, a fine time was had by all, and for a first gig, it went really well. The crowd seemed to enjoy us, though we didn't incite a riot or anything.

All the usual not so good things about open mics applied. No soundcheck, instrument and microphone levels were kind of all over the place. However, all of that is to be expected, and wasn't any big deal. It was just so nice to be playing in front of folks again. Even nicer to be doing it playing our own material.

A long time ago, when I first started playing, I did it because it looked like fun, and because I liked the idea of writing my own stuff someday. To be in a band where we're all working together and writing original tunes, that folks seem to be digging, well, that's a step towards fulfilling that goal I set for myself so long ago. It'd be great if we could keep this roll going, get some local gigs, and work our way towards gigging in Boston. If we could one day build a following in Boston...well...that would be our goals achieved.

The Yankee game is still going on. Don't they know they should win it now so I can go to sleep? :)

Monsters, Inc. comes out this weekend. I think I might try to see that. I'm kind of sleepy, so I'm going to go crawl under the covers.

-Brian : 12:23 AM

Derek Jeter kicks ass. Sing it, Frank.

-Brian : 12:07 AM

Hey! They've finally ficksed fisicked fixed the blogger spellchecker! Neat-o!

-Brian : 10:47 PM

Tomorrow evening, the band I’m in, Ångstrom, will be performing in public for the first time! It's been quite some time since I've last played a gig, so I am extraordinarily excited. The other guys in the band are going to have to duct tape my feet to the floor by 8pm tomorrow night to get me to stand still.

It's a nearly ideal environment for our first time out, too. We're playing a local (very local – only about 2 miles away) bar / restaurant that has an open mic night every Thursday. Other than the close proximity, what makes the situation ideal is that, according to the bar folks, they've lately had a great turn out of people to watch the bands, but a low turnout of bands themselves.

We'll be happy to oblige. :)

So, it sounds like we'll be playing anywhere from 30 mins to almost an hour! <bill and ted> Excellent!! </bill and ted>

We'll be playing mostly originals, which suits me fine. Bands seem to find their own character, and level, as time goes by. Some seem to gravitate towards working on covers, and others, less often, gravitate towards working on originals. To my glorious surprise, we happen to be very well suited to writing originals. I've never been lucky enough to be in a situation like this, and it's been so much fun so far. Now, if we can just find somewhere local where we can practice regularly without having to set up and break down lots of equipment. Oh, that would be the life.

I'll be back tomorrow to mention how the gig goes! For now, I'm off to watch this weeks episode of Enterprise. Yay, Andorians!

-Brian : 10:37 PM

So, TNN is showing episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation now. I love that show. However, I believe they're cutting bits out here and there, and I'm certain they're using that inane time compression process. You know, the one where they speed up action at times when they'd expect you not to notice. Maybe they figure you wouldn't notice a crewman walking down a corridor at twice normal speed, or that the scene where they discover the method to solve the problem of the geological instability of the planet was missing.

Bah. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Fuck that shit! TNN should go back to showing reruns of the Grand Ole Opry till 2am, and continue to be my local source for Dukes of Hazzard reruns. They should not mess with Star Trek.

Thankfully, they're going to start issuing Next Generation DVDs in season boxset format early next year.

Word.

-Brian : 12:16 AM

The day has finally come when I've decided to get a new car. Well, a new used car, to be honest. The car is new to me, however. My current car, an ancient Jeep Cherokee has got around 180,000 miles on it, and it's starting to get kind of tired. Kind of tired in that Captain of the Exxon Valdez asleep at the wheel sort of sense. She's almost done.

Knowing this, I've sort of looked around here and there for several months. At the same time, I've been kind of putting this off. However, thanks to Ray I came across a pretty good deal, and so it's time to move the old car out to pasture and move on to (hopefully) more reliable transportation. The new one is on hold at the moment, and assuming it checks out, I'll be committing to the purchase this Saturday. I'll likely have the car sometime next week.

While I'm not one that really fears change, I also very much respect something that works. Sometimes, change is overrated. Along those lines, I'm buying another Cherokee. One that's seven years newer than my current one, but it's still a Cherokee. :)

The car that I currently have, I've had for quite some time…since 1994. It's been with me, getting me from point a to point b, through so many experiences. Starting college, going away from home for the first time, road trips, first love, discovering all different sorts of music, playing my first gigs, moving away on my own, important talks with important friends, silly discussions with important friends...all of these experiences have taken place in, around, or have had something to do with that car. True, it's just a vehicle, but there are things about it that just make it feel like a piece of home.

I remember driving with Ray down the Meadowbrook Parkway, when we ended up weaving from side to side on the parkway, tossing ice at each other on the way home from work at the bowling alley. Driving to Florida to visit Josh, a couple of times...through all sorts of inclement conditions and weather. Long nights of driving and talking with Jessica. That night on the way home from Hofstra Library, in the snow, after working on the Calc 3 final. That time in Oceanside when Kathy first gave me a clue she was interested in me. Barreling into that Thunderbird. Late nights in Baldwin Harbor. Moving to Binghamton, moving away from Binghamton. Moving to Massachusetts.

It's amazing how vivid the memories are, when I really think about them. For example, I can remember sitting in the car out in front of donuts, late some weekend evening, chatting the night away with Jess. I can remember the specifics of the discussion, and even the kind of donut I had that night. Her and I don’t talk anymore, but perhaps we some day will. I remember the time I sneezed, and Ray turned to me with a straight face and said “Warp Speed” instead of "bless you." Yeah, we're geeks. He and I still talk sometimes. …every once in a while. ;)

Perhaps one day the memories won't seem so vivid, or so important. However, right now they seem very important indeed.

Maybe it's crazy to have these kinds of nostalgic feelings about a car, but I feel that way nevertheless. Sometimes you have to be a little crazy.

I wonder what kind of memories I'll forge in this new car.

-Brian : 12:12 AM