XM Radio, Like it was

I'll be the first to admit that change isn't always a bad thing - it's actually refreshing and worth gaining the new perspective on things most of the time - but seriously, what the hell has happened to XM Radio?

All my favorite channels are gone, changed, or just fucked up. The Verge, 52, no longer exits. It's now "The Faction", Action Sports Music. What the hell is "Action Sports Music"? XMU, 43, is now "Sirius XMU" and abosultely blows. Tobi is no longer a DJ, so far as I can tell, which means no more XMU After School special. Now everything revolves around the 'Sirus Music Blog' and that's all they talk about anymore. Plus, now the music sucks too. It's getting more and more obscure where it seems now they're not looking for "Good" indie music anymore but simply music NO ONE has heard of, and people haven't heard of it for a reason. It sucks. I used to listen to XMU all the time because they had such great playlists of easy listening indie, and now all they talk about it this music blog and play bad indie.

Also, I hear commercials ALL the time now on XM radio. What the hell? I'm PAYING for radio so I DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO SHITTY COMMERICALS. I just don't know what's happened to my once glorious XM radio. I liked XM, because it wasn't Sirius. I didn't like Sirius, and now that's all I hear about. Hopefully, things won't get any worse but we'll see.

The Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West Is a Douche

I stumbled upon this and loved it. Now you love it too. It was written by a guy named schmutzie (the link will take you to his blog). This is hilarious (and true)

The Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West Is a Douche

Kanye West is a douche for many, many reasons, but it is easy to falter and find yourself thinking "Man, that Kanye's a pretty wicked dude". It happens to the best of us, we falter at times, but it shouldn't have to happen. I have narrowed the proofs of his douchiness down to a ten-point emergency checklist that folds easily into your pocket or wallet for those times when his blinding douchebaggery eludes you.

1. He douched out at the Grammy's when he took the stage to accept his award, refused to leave the stage when his time was up, and then actually told them to stop playing the get-off-the-stage music so that he could keep talking. Me Kanye. I bes vewy, vewy important.

2. His new album, due out on November 24th, is a departure from his usual style, as he sings more than he raps. That is all good and well, because he is a talented musician, but then he had to go and douche it up by saying that this change in style is an attempt to challenge the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney, who he describes as "those artists in black and white photos", because taking a crap on music legends serves to make Kanye's genius obvious to all and sundry.

3. In a recent interview, Kanye said, and I am not kidding: "I realize that my place and position in history is that I will go down as the voice of this generation, of this decade, I will be the loudest voice. It's me settling into that position of just really accepting that it's one thing to say you want to do it and it's another thing to really end up being like Michael Jordan."

4. In that same interview, he showcased his inveterate respect for other performers by slamming Justin Timberlake: "There were people who had the potential to do it but they went on vacation, so when Justin went on vacation I made albums, and it just came out to be that."

5. Kanye pulled the race card when it was announced that Britney Spears would be hosting the 2007 Video Music Awards. "I can’t believe she would perform. She hasn’t had a hit record in years. Maybe my money’s not right. Maybe my skin’s not right." Riiiiight, that's it.

6. In an interview with Tim Westwood, Kanye said "I'm doing pretty good as far as geniuses go... I'm like a machine. I'm a robot. You cannot offend a robot... I'm going down as a legend, whether or not you like me or not. I am the new Jim Morrison. I am the new Kurt Cobain... They feel like, yo, you know 'he's got a God complex, because he said if they wrote the Bible again that he would be in it'. Duh, yeah, I would be in it. I feel like I'm one of the more important people in pop culture right now... The Bible had 20, 30, 40, 50 characters in it. You don't think that I would be one of the characters of today's modern Bible? And people have their own forms of bibles now. It's a new day and age..."

Watch the interview here.

Somehow, I just don't think Kanye's going to be my new personal Jesus.

7. In a display of extremely douchey poor sportsmanship, he now claims that the MTV awards shows are fixed, because how could the "voice of this generation" lose otherwise?

8. There are ten Facebook groups that come up when you use the search terms "Kanye West douche".

9. Kanye West blogs up a storm. Mostly he's fairly boring, but he drops these gems once in a while that turn being a douche into a spectator sport.

10. When his video for "Touch the Sky" did not win at the MTV Europe Music Awards, Kanye publicly expressed his incredulity. "It took a month to film; I stood on a mountain; I flew a helicopter over Vegas. I did it to be the king of all videos and I wanted to walk home with that award," he complained. Kanye? Whining about how you are not the most popular will not work to make you more popular, but it will get you a "Top Ten Reasons Why Kanye West Is a Douche" checklist. Congratulations.

That time of year again...

So it's that time of year again - it's cold, it was snowing a little on the way to class, and NO one was walking to class (I mean, come on...it's cold in Blacksburg). All this got me thinking...and that means it's once again, time for all the little girlies to pull out their Ugg boots, dust off their NorthFace jackets, and time for ME to stock up on hot chocolate and peppermint snhapps.


So excited!
(Oh, and for the record...I'm totally ragging on girls who wear Uggs and NorthFace alldayallday - but I totally love me some peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate)

Just a simple cog...

...in a complicated gear.



Yes - that's right. I'm referring to Gears of War 2. Such an awesome game. SO, I started drinking last night during our apartment's weekly watching of Son's of Anarchy (which is right up there with Gears in Bad-ass-ness) and by the end of the episode, I was feeling pretty good (3/4 solo cup of bourbon tends to do that). And naturally, after watching a show like Son's of Anarchy, I just had to play some gears - and keep drinking.

In short, this is me on Gears:



AND, this is me on Drunk Gears:



(Please take note, that I'm the locust in the both of these.)

What can I say? I'm better when I'm drunk! I played Gears for about three straight hours - always with a drink at hand and always kicking ass. Overall, I think I went 7-3 and always finished in the top 1 or 2 (even in losing matches) - except for the very last one where I came in fourth.

Goodtimes - now, if you'll excuse me, I have a hangover to attend to.

Blood!

That's not really what I want to talk about - but it's still funny.

So, today Danny and I were walking to class and we saw signs for a blood drive going on in Torg and after a few minutes of deliberation, we decided that after CAD, we were going to stop by and donate blood.

After class, we set up an appointment and came back an hour or so later where we waited for awhile, answered a bunch of questions, and finally sat down in our blood giving chairs. The whole giving blood process wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The people were awesome - free drinks - free Jimmy Johns. Hell yeah. I am definitely giving blood again as soon as another opportunity arises.

Game Day...

So, apparently Virginia Tech won last night! And I say apparently, because I don't remember the game...my pre-game activities caught up to me I suppose and I left the game early and DAMNIT it was a good game. We played SO well against Maryland and it's nice to see our Offense show up. I've missed that all year long. Go Hokies. Oh, and Evan Powers broke our school record for Rushing yards. Go Evan.

The Cynic Hall of Fame

Ran into this on Stumble...thought it was an interesting read:

The Cynic's Hall of Fame

Belated Bottling

So, freaking finally I bottled today. That damn brew has been sitting the utility closet for over a month now. I've either been too busy or too lazy to do anything about it...so I was feeling productive today and one thing led to another...and finally it's done.

Brewing blog: http://sweetlovinbrew.blogspot.com/

Physics, StumleUpon, and Drunk People

So, since I probably have the worst professor in the history of physics professors, I get absolutely nothing done in class...I started reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and got through the first three chapters half way through class. Then, I tired to understand what was going on and failed miserably. Since then, I've been Stumbling and just trying to make it through class so I can go home and dick around even more.

On a side note, StumbleUpon is probably the greatest - GREATEST - invention since the internet itself. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go here: http://www.stumbleupon.com/ download, signup, set your parameters, and find some of the coolest things on the internet that you never would have found on your own.

But anyways - Gina found an awesome blog (using SU) with some great pictures on it - things that you've wanted to do to your friends when they are passed out drunk on your couch - but never followed through with. These are hilarious. Enjoy:

New River Clean Up

So, all my roommates got Scuba certified a week and half ago and made our first free dive on Sunday with the SCVT (Scuba Club of Virginia Tech) to clean up the New River. There were about 12 or so divers and everyone went how and brought up cans, tires, golf balls, a toilet, signs, etc, etc.

The first decent was a little scary. Visibility was about 3-6 feet and at a certain point, you couldn't see the surface and you couldn't see the bottom. But it got better as soon as we reached the bottom (a little more than 40ft down).

Jason and I buddied up and spent our first dive collecting trash, but our second and third dives we concentrated on catching cat fish. I would swim behind a fish and try to get it into Jason's bag, or we would try to grab the one's lying in the mud on the bottom. We only got one on the day, but it was still fun. Jason lost his weight belt really early into our third dive, so were forced to surface and pack up for the day.

Leaving!

So...I finally made the decision: I'm finally leaving the college of engineering!

As of October 27, 28, or 29, I should be in the Department of International Studies.

I've never been so miserable as I have been with the engineering curriculum and I'm glad I've finally decided to move on and study something that I'm actually interested in.
And hopefully, down the line, I'll pick up a double major with History and a minor in German.

Now all I have to do it figure out my schedule, and try and fix the fact that I'm going to be really far behind in IS. I guess I'll see what happens...

Friday Exam...really?

So, I have a wonderful Physics exam today - Friday. And it's not like it's in the morning or even at 2:00...it's at 8:00pm! What the fuck? Why the hell do you schedule an exam for 8:00pm on a Friday?! This sucks - so I'm sitting Deet's (our campus coffee shop) studying my ass off.

This is going to set the tone for the rest of the weekend...wee!

So much...

...going on.

So, I have about 3 unfinished drafts (and a few more ideas I've yet to write down) sitting in queue on various topics - I just don't have time to flesh them out and properly express my thoughts because I'm so freaking busy and bogged down at the moment.

But pretty much, they deal with my thoughts on Absurdism and Existentialism (ok, yeah...lame, but don't judge me. Recently, I've been trying to hash out my own outlook on everything and it revolves around those two fields of thought) AND the key elements of life: 1) The People and 2) Time, specifically dealing with the kind of people who are important in our lives (and merely the fact that people in general are probably one of the most fundamental aspects in life itself) and how we spend our time (i.e. who and what we make time for in our lives and simply how important time is because it has to do with everything).

So, that's pretty much what's been on my mind recently (that and some other things that I won't get into on here).

Football

I love football.

Regardless going on in my life (good, bad, and otherwise), I can always turn to football to clear the mind and calm the soul (yeah, it sounds corny, but doesn't make it any less true). There's nothing like rolling into Lane Stadium, surrounded by thousands of Virginia Tech fans. And then, there's the game - and I'm convinced there's no better therapy. A therapy I'm going to need tomorrow for so many reasons. Plus, it's homecoming (which I suppose is pretty exciting).

Go Tech!

Things I've Lost Recently

So, if you know me at all, you know I'm notorious for losing things (and spilling things on myself, but that's not the point). Here are few things I'm lost over the past few weeks:

My Orange Effect tshirt
A lot of money (on gas, scuba, food, etc)
Half my contact case
My favorite beer glass
My ideals
My bandanna
My favorite Patagonia jacket
One of my beer books
My pillow
My marbles
A pair of underwear
My camera (UPS's fault...still working on it)


I've also had somethings taken from me too:

My bank account (Scuba...)
My pasta sauce (I think it was one of my roommates)
My beer
My time (fucking engineering)
My creativity
Sleep
My hobbit
My dignity

Maxïmo Park

So, I've been delving into the vaults of my iPod (looking back, instead of forward for once) and for whatever reason, I've found myself engrossed once again in Maxïmo Park's A Certain Trigger. I discovered the band sometime early my junior year and absolutely loved the album. Looking back on it, I probably would have said it was a happy album, but the lyrics were obviously written by a guy who was really hurt by someone.

Anyhoo...did you know that the lead singer for the band was discovered by the drummer's girlfriend at a pub while he was singing along to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" when the band was on the verge of breaking up.

What else I've been listening to recently: Doves, matt pond PA, The Stills, The Thrills, Brendan Benson, The Fratellis, Stars, and whatever comes on XMU 43 and The Verge 52.

P.S. If anyone ever gave me a beer bottle as freaking awesome as a Maxïmo Park New Castle Brown Ale bottle...I'd cry and be forever indebted to said person.

CHOKE

Holy crap, so I just remembered Choke was turned into a movie.

I'm so stoked...I absolutely loved the book and have pretty high hopes for the movie (although, I'm suspicious of how they crammed everything into an hour and half) and I'll probably go see it this weekend. I have a test in 40 minutes, so I'll probably come back and add a lot more about Choke (or maybe not).

And for everyone who's seen Fight Club, believe it or not, it was originally a novel and the same guy (the amazing Chuck Palahnuik) also wrote Choke. Go see it.

Walter Meego

I've been listening to these guys for about a month now, without tiring. It's some really good stuff (although, I feel lame because I discovered them through that Heineken commercial). I've been listening to a lot more electronica, techno, and funk lately. Because, who can be depressed about all the work that needs to get done when you're listening to that? No one. That's who.





And, wouldn't this make a freaking awesome t-shirt? I think so.

Mixed Feelings

So, I downloaded the first two seasons of Eureka. I'm not exactly sure what it's about, but I'm pretty excited to find out. And I suppose that'll be very soon, as I need to unwind after a stressful drive. Then I suppose I'll study for my Engineering Economy test that's tomorrow and work on my group project. Woo!

Oh, and it was a great weekend for Football. Tech beat Nebraska. App. State crushed The Blue Hose. The Redskins over the Cowboys. And the ACC did fairly well (minus Wake losing to freaking Navy).

Blogging...round 2

So here we go again. I'm gonna try and maintain a blog. ready go.