Blurgh. Too cranky to sleep.

Granted, I have been an idiot today. 1) We went out to dinner, and I failed to bring the appropriate gift card with me. 2) Realized when home, that I left my laptop cable at work.

Tom haaaaates going back out when we've just come home. It makes him seriously cranky, and it does not matter if it's only a five minute drive, it's the whole act of getting up and going out again. I can somewhat understand this.

My forgetfulness also makes him actively angry. Now I understand it can be frustrating, but he says it embarrasses him and makes him really angry. I suspect this is because he has great respect for my potential intellect, and it frustrates him when I fail to work it properly. (Stupidity makes him downright angry. It makes me, and most people, kind of sad and disappointed, but it makes him actually angry.)

So, after dinner and a stop at the grocery store, we got home, and I realized I didn't have my laptop cord. I called work, and Ashley answered with "hey! guess what you forgot?" I do not work tomorrow, and Monday we leave for NC for a few days to spend Thanksgiving with his dad and grandma. Tom said he was NOT going out again tonight, but grudgingly agreed to pick it up from Paper Factory after he got out of work tomorrow. (PF closes Sundays at the same time he gets out - he said they could just leave the cord outside.) This was vaguely okay, and I was willing to do this, and try to type on my main computer. (This is NOT something that really works for writing purposes, it's less comfy to type on this one, and it has waaaayyyy too many distractions.)

So, I called the store again, and this time Lucas answered. I said Tom was being a less-than-compassionate-person, and, without me asking, Lucas answered with a "well, I don't know exactly where you live, but I can drop it off for you after work".

I. love. these. people.

Thus, my facebook status became "I have the best coworkers on the planet. Lucas J DuBois you are my hero and I love you more than Thomas Hamilton right now. ;)".

...I do understand Tom's pov. But I would also like to point out that, if the car were broken, and HIS power cable was left somewhere, I would walk if needed to go retrieve it. (Really. It's a gorgeous night out, and I am seriously music-binging lately, I'd love the quality time with headphones cranked up.) Yes, he does go out of his way to take me to and pick me up from work every day, and I know that's been making him slowly crazy these past few months. So it's a big deal in his head, and I can understand that. So I'm (trying desperately to feel) not mad. He has also taken issue with my forgetfulness - which, honestly? Does not really hinder him on a day-to-day basis. It occasionally causes me annoyances, and costs us 30 seconds in leaving the apartment in the morning. "You should really do something about it." Wtfh am I supposed to do about forgetfulness??! I leave myself a hundred thousand notes when things are important. I get myself into schedule-mode for things like getting ready for work, and rarely forget things in those cases. Done. "It's embarrassing." And it's NOT embarrassing to me??! I called work, and whined to my coworkers, and they took pity on me and brought me my damn cable. That makes me feel like a winner in society?

...there. Off my chest. I can't go to bed with this crap running through my head. Now it can stay here and leave me alone.


Anyway. A few minutes past 9, I head out to where my road meets a bigger road, so Lucas can find me. Shortly thereafter, he pulls up - "I brought you this too" - my cakepan! Which I had forgotten, and knew I'd forgotten, but didn't feel it was worth the effort of retrieving, as I won't need it for awhile. And he handed me my cable, and I thanked him a lot, and he was so light and casual and friendly about it all.

And it's such, such, a simple act of kindness, but God did it mean the world to me tonight.

Labels: griping, life in general, navelgaze, storytime

 
Posts have been scarce, I know. I've been on Twitter a looot, since most things are just fleeting little thoughts. But in other news, there has been:
- A walk through town (where I bought an old book on the Johnstown flood! woo!).
- Lots of cooking (macaroni salad = awesome, potato salad still kind of a fail, no idea why).
- Paper Factory picnic, where everyone brought food, Tom kicked total ass at croquet, and a good time was had by all despite drizzy weather
- Lots of banners and invitations and things (some headaches, some awesome).
- Saw Iron Man 2 - though the highlight of that trip was probably DJ's usual insanity as we (Tom, me, DJ and his gf) had burgers at Red Robin afterwards.
- Mom's graduation from MCC up in Rochester - we made a day of it, tried out the Ethiopian place, finally made it to Niblack where I got spices, hung out with family. I worked on a pretty blue doily all through the usual ceremony speeches.
- Dad and Mel came down for a visit on the fourth, we wandered around town, I introduced them to Campi's pizza (which is amazing), hit up a farm stand, and ate whoopie pies in the town commons.

Finished a few crochet things - I have a new shirt, a new pull-over tank top, and several new doilies. Making a giant insane doily for Tom's grandma, who he'll visit soon. Worried about finishing a mobius wrap (in yummy bamboo yarn) because I'm not sure I have enough yarn left, aaand I was sent the wrong yarn twice before I got that one. Yarn! I won free yarn from Phat Fiber! I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, and since it's 99% wool I hardly want to even touch it right now, pretty as it is.

My coworkers are all having Tupperware parties - I was stuck working for the first two, but the third I get to go to, that'll be this Tuesday at Sam's. Sam's making food plans and I suspect it is going to be a very fun evening, despite Tom's comments. A coworker is also an Avon lady now, I just placed my first order through her last night. I love Avon's stuff, and I'm glad to help Ashley out while getting stuff I want. ;) (Plus, catalogs mean I can at least sort of trust color swatches, and better define exactly what shade of pale my skin is.)

I'm trying to do more art, because I feel twitchy when I don't, and depression sneaks up on me. (I had a very, very rough night earlier this week. Rationality never can overcome 1am insomniac insecurities.) I did some actual physical sketches last week while enjoying the summer sun... and wound up with a pretty little flower sketch I really like, as well as a ridiculous sunburn on my legs. ;p

It has been insaaaaanely hot this past week. 90s most days, and I live in a brick oven that does noooot cool down. Heat finally broke today, it's been raining and was supposed to only hit 77. (10am in the bedroom? still something like 88. blehhhh.) Humidity makes a cranky Melissa. And there have been far more migraines than I've had in awhile. Heat has also thrown a serious monkeywrench into my newly-attempted exercise routine.

My plants keep dying and I don't know why. (This was before the heat wave.) Some kind of little gnat-like bug got into them, and when I took my mint outside to attempt some resuscitation, I found there were little cobwebs all around the stem! booo. My passion flower and sugar plant are still doing amazing though, and what I assume is a forget-me-not (it's a very different flower from the one I'd expected, but still similar) is blooming away happily.

Tom has all kinds of vacation time he needs to take asap, so he'll be off for nearly two weeks starting... sometime next week. He's planning on some serious immersion-time in his 3D modeling... and I'm hoping he sticks with it, because if he paws at me for attention all morning every morning before I go in to work, I am never going to get anything done.

Counting down the days 'til our trip to Florida for the Star Wars convention! woo! (Though this also means Tom has been on my back for a week and a half about making ABSOLUTELY OH GOD CERTAIN that our hotel reservations are, in fact, reservations, even though they haven't charged me any money yet. They have my credit card number on hold as a deposit, if I cancel I will be charged $70-something. The actual bill is paid at the end of your hotel stay. I know this. Tom is not reassured because he's convinced that, because I'm a scatterbrain about a lot of things, I'm a scatterbrain about EVERYTHING. Sooo, I have sent emails to three places now, trying to get 100% confirmation that will satisfy even Mr. Travelling Paranoid.)

...I did not mean for that to be a mini-rant, but, really, it feels damn good to get that off my chest. ha.

Next post: new wallpaper!

Labels: being social, cooking, crochet, drawing, family, friends, griping, life in general, navelgaze, plants, travel, work

 
//WARNING// The following is me writing things out in order to help myself make a decision. I would recommend skipping this post, unless you're in the market for an mp3 player too, in which case, omfg help.


Blehhhh. Trying to pick out a new mp3 player is annoying. I had to go up a price-range, because the 8gb Zune I was thinking about is an old (and apparently iffy) model.

So. iPod Nano 16gb: $179. Zune HD 16gb: $199. blehhhhh.

I *like* my current Nano. I'm used to it, and god knows my iTunes has hours and hours and hours worth of effort already put into playlists. (I am playlist-happy. I use playlists like most things use tags.)

Tom has heard nothing but rave reviews on Zunes, and I think the software has a lot more going for it in terms of growth.

The Nano has VIDEO CAPTURE. ickickick. The Zune's big advertisement is the ZunePass music-buying deal, which I am not so sure I would do.

...Tom finally had to tell me that I need to look at what things I WANT, not things I DON'T want. lmao. How sad is that. But the problem is, that with each new generation of mp3 player, they add more bells and whistles. The Nano does voice-overs that will tell you (in basically any language) the title and artist. The Zune has an oled screen and will supposedly play HD quality (on a 3" screen). I DO NOT CARE. I rarely watch video on a screen that small (I'm an art kid, I want to be able to see details!). It does not cause me any trouble to glance at the screen if I'm not sure on a track title, and the need to do that is insanely rare anyway.

I rarely buy things from the iTunes store. The ZunePass deal lets you download all you want, but only 10 of those songs each month will be playable after 30 days. (Which, honestly, is a huge leap forward - thank you for being reasonable about letting people try out new music. But... I need more than 10 songs a month if I'm after an album or two.)

The fact that the Zune will sync wirelessly is making me lean pretty heavily that direction. But, my iTunes is so nicely organized right now - and having used both, I feel like iTunes handles huuuge quantities of music better than the Zune software. Granted I've only thrown in a test batch of music, just to poke at the Zune software, but.. meh I don't know.

I'm aware that there are other things out there, buuuut, I want to stick with a major-major brand on this. I use my iPod.. probably 6 hours on a workday. All but like two or three waking hours on a day off. So reliability is a major issue, as is compatibility. I haaate that nothing will handle flac or ogg or anything still, but, I can deal. What I do not want to happen, is have major chunks of my stash inaccessible. MUST have Audible support. Occasionally I have weird formats floating around, and goodness knows what I'll get in future, audiobooks I download are sometimes in weird things.

Zune also has a touch screen, which I'm not sure if I want or not. I probably do. But I also foresee it potentially causing problems.

Both of them are stupid annoying sizes. I do not want something as big as a phone, but apparently there's not much choice on that one.

Lmao this should be such a fun, exciting thing to think about, but it's just making me angry! Maybe I *am* becoming a curmudgeon. (Tom keeps accusing me of this, but he also tends to forget what the word actually means.) sigh. idek. I *did* *want* a nano, but having looked at all the info... it really looks like apple is just rehashing the same old things and trying to keep up with microsoft, in this round of releases at least. The Zune just looks like it handles all the extra goodies in a MUCH more logical way, while the nano has to kind of fudge things into working. (Tag a song you hear on the radio, so you can buy it from iTunes when you plug your iPod into your computer! Or, hear a song on the radio, click and buy as long as you've got wifi going.)

Damnit I'm leaning toward the Zune. I can't believe something non-Apple costs more than something Apple. But then again, touchscreen (and a bigger screen, and an oled screen) and wifi for $30 more. That's not bad at all.

Blehhhhh I did not want to spend much over $100. And I do NOT want to have to migrate eeeeverything into Zune from iTunes. But if I do it now, I should have a few playlists good to go by November, which is when they're most crucial.


My iPod isn't dead yet - it still comes back from screen-death if I let it sit untouched for about 15 minutes - but as Tom's pointed out, the SECOND it does die, I am going to OMFGNEEEEEEED!11!! a replacement.

Labels: griping, product whoring, technology

 
Uploaded this for Katie, but also for anyone else who would like:

U2 - Angel Too Tied to the Ground

oh Bono. <3 title. Though really, it's Adam and Edge who are standouts on this track. Gorgeous bassline (a la New Year's Day), and the prettiest little icy piano runs.

It's an outtake from the War sessions, and I have to say it's about time they started putting these things out. ;p I knew it would happen eventually, and I know there is a MASSIVE, massive stash of perfectly beautiful songs in U2's studio stash. On top of all the half-finished things they have laying around.

And I want to hear it all. XD But really! I do. I absolutely love the rough cuts of things, hearing songs come up out of nothing. I forget what it was on (probably Making of JT video), but I remember listening to part of the session where they found a song, must've been Running to Stand Still, or maybe Exit. And it was just amazing to listen to, the evolution of these songs, from the first glimmer to the final product, and the thousand variations in between...

Uuuunfortunately for me and all the other people out there who are psycho-fans enough to want to listen to this stuff... it's been released in the money-grubbing way. Remaster an album, add a bonus disc of b-sides and unreleased goodies, and throw in a booklet with "never before seen" photos and someone's essay.

...I will admit, U2 did it right, for going that route. Edge babysat on the remastering process (which I am still so freaking happy about). The essay in the War booklet is from Niall Stokes, who's followed and written about them ever since forever. They included "Treasure (Whatever Happened to Pete the Chop)", which was one of the most obscure tracks ever (and in fact used to be my benchmark for how serious a U2 fan someone was, lmao), and a song even *I* had never heard.

What surprised me though, looking at War and Unfire at Best Buy yesterday... was just how many of the songs I already had. Yes there are four mixes of NYD and three of Two Hearts...but I totally had them already. From NAPSTER, mind-bogglingly enough. Everything else, I have on VINYL. (Well, Mom did. And she bequeathed. Hooray for parents!)

I HATE that I had to buy War again. I already had it on cd. I have it on cassette. I have it on vinyl. And now I have it on cd *again*. I'm almost enough an audiophile to care that it's remastered. (Okay maybe I am. sigh.)

I WANT. A collection of cds. Hell, I'll take mp3s at a high bitrate, or flac or ogg or whatever floats your boat. I want a big massive stack of JUST UNRELEASED THINGS. You can throw in some b-sides for fun, though after two Best Of's that had bside discs, and all these re-releases, I think that's a major copout.

I will pay! Significantly! For all those outtakes collecting dust around Larry's house. I would love them! I would love them SO much more if I didn't have to sift through all the re-re-re-re-re-released packaging that's currently around them! If all I'm getting from each re-released album is ONE track that I never had... you really couldn't offer a single disc of all those ten or eleven tracks? Really?

I understand full well that your average consumer, your casual fan, wouldn't buy an album of outtakes that are - holy crap - almost thirty years old. But they might just buy a collector-y looking item with a pretty case and extras. So you get the average joe to plunk down $30 instead of $15 or so. Congrats. I would have paid the $30 for a SINGLE disc, if you'd put a good 20, 25 tracks on it. And honestly, I think U2 has a big enough fanbase for that to be a viable thing. I stood with an AWFUL lot of people on the streets of NYC at 6am for an 8pm concert, and we talked to them about a mutual online buddy who can tell you just how many times a U2 concert has EVER opened with "Gloria".


...I did not mean for this to be a giant mega-rant. It honestly didn't pain me to plunk down the money for this thing, and I'm sure I'll eventually get around to the rest of them. I have a hell of a boxed thing for the Joshua Tree re-release. I have... let's see. "Boy": cassette (Mom's original US release), cassette (I bought in Italy, with the original cover art), CD, LP (original US release, I think, a friend bought me at a garage sale), LP (super-pretty re-release with original cover art that Mom bought me). And I will get a re-release CD because I am *absolutely* obsessed with babyU2. (I cannot wait for the day when I can buy an official, pretty, cleaned-up-audio, version of "Street Missions" and "The Fool".)

I am, in fact, the target audience for this shit, and I will, in fact, gobble it right up. damnit.


Which is why I uploaded the song online for all of you - if the $30 is spread among a little gift for a handful of people, it's not so bad. ;)

Labels: griping, music, U2 spazz

 
So... if you buy a digital music album.

Where do you go to find the liner notes?



I just bought the Hope for Haiti Now album on iTunes, and I was listening to the track with Bono and Edge, and I was curious as to who was drumming. Because in places it sounded like Larry. I pulled up the file info...and there's nothing more than the main four artists. I poked around online to the places selling it - nada. There's no listing of production credits or any of the other usual goodies.

That is going to really, really bother me, if music is (as is likely) going totally digital. I love reading through the liner notes, being all happy when a favorite band has the same producer as another favorite band (Coldplay and U2 share Eno, Guster and U2 shared Steve Lillywhite...I'm such a nerd), or when I spot names I recognize in the U2 thank you blurbs (yay Gavin!). Bad enough that album art has become the size of an lj icon, and with less importance. ick ick ick. There goes my dream job...

p.s. If you're a U2-spazz like me and were willing to buy an entire album just for some new Bono listening.. he sings back-up to Rihanna and you can hardly hear him. Doesn't even get a little verse of his own in the live version, which is by far the better. booo. Fortunately, there is a plethora of pretty sparkley Edgeguitar...and the song itself isn't bad in general. ;)

Labels: griping, music, U2 spazz