American terrestrial radio, as opposed to satellite or internet radio, sucks. Louisville-area radio is especially lame. The main choices around here are Country, Christian, Top 40, and Dinosaur Rock. The only time I listen to the radio is on relatively short trips, usually to Shepherdsville and back. I especially hate having to listen to the radio while at work. Being forced to listen to music I don't like seems to taint my memories of working at places that were otherwise somewhat pleasant to work at. I think I was one of the only people who cheered when Main ex-Employer decided to no longer let us have radios in the warehouse.
The only station that I really wanted to hear all day at Main ex-Employer was 91.9 WFPK, a public station, but we couldn't pick it up.
Top 40 stations were the worst because they play the same songs EVERY HOUR! KISS 98.9 had a much heavier emphasis on Urban hits than 99.7 DJX did. For some parts of 2005, 98.9 felt almost like "All 50 Cent, All the time", since you could hear as many as five songs featuring 50 Cent every hour, namely three of his own singles and two of The Game's singles that he guested on. One day in particular that was really annoying was when we listened to 98.9 for a couple of hours, then I turned it over to something different for the sake of hearing something different, then this girl from the weekend shift who was there for overtime turned it back over to KISS. After a while, I changed the channel again, then after a short period of time the same girl turned it back over to KISS.
Being forced to listen to one of the Country stations was even worse because I don't like new mainstream Country at all. For some perspective, I still consider any Country going back to 1990 "new Country". I don't like '80s Country either, but I'll save a Country rant for some other day. One of the last times I was forced to listen to a Country station at work was in October 2009. I ended up hearing Carrie Underwood's then-new song, "Cowboy Casanova", twice, and found it so irritating that I (figuratively, almost) wanted to kill myself.
Classic Rock is also pretty horrible because I've been so burned out on it for so long. Hearing the openings to some songs, especially "Turn The Page" by Bob Seger, makes me want to go postal. Louisville has two Classic Rock stations. The worst of the two is 107.7 SFR because they seem to play the same five songs from any particular artist/band, and is mostly '70s-centric. It's like their playlist consists of a 20-CD changer filled with those Millenium Collection CDs, and a CD-R of one-hit wonders (ex. "Never Been Any Reason" by Head East or "Jackie Blue" by Ozark Mountain Daredevils) and single tracks from major artists, like maybe one song each from AC/DC and George Harrison ("You Shook Me All Night Long" and "My Sweet Lord" respectively). 95.7 WQMF is the better of the two because they have more of a variety from across the decades, and deeper cuts than SFR. The sad thing is that what QMF now refers to as "Deep Cuts" is stuff that they used to play regularly 20 years ago when they were an AOR station.
Now on to the stations that played newer Rock in 2004/05. The station that I preferred was 105.1 WLRS. The LRS letters had a long history, but from 1997 through 2008 it was a half assed Modern Rock station, mostly playing harder '90s stuff, Pop-Punk and Emo type crap, a lot of Post-Grunge, and occasionally some Alternative Rock. The Rock station that most people preferred was The Fox (first at 100.5, then 93.1), which was more of an Active/Mainstream Rock channel, mostly a lot of post-Grunge/Nu-Metal with some '90s Megadeth, Pantera, or C.O.C. thrown in, and of course the harder overplayed '90s stuff. While I said that I preferred LRS, asking me which channel was better was like asking me which pile of shit smelled better. I remember one time, "Jane Says" by Jane's Addiction came on, one of only two Jane's Addiction songs that get played regularly on the radio. Some kid asked me, Who's this?", and I told him Jane's Addiction. I can't remember exactly, but I think he asked me what else they sang, and I told him they were the same band that did "Been Caught Stealing". The kid said, "Man, they're horrible!" You wouldn't believe how fucking pissed I was, and I explained to him that those songs are neither their best songs, nor representative of them. Later on, the kid asked me about some Crossfade song, and I was like, "Man, fuck Crossfade!" Crossfade ultimately had one hit and faded into obscurity, while Jane's Addiction live on as legends. I thought they also had one of the absolute best singles of the 2000s, "Just Because", which like many of the great Modern Rock singles got played for a while, then disappeared.
The only station we could pick up at Main ex-Employer that I could tolerate listening to all day was the oldies station, WASE 103.5 from Elizabethtown, mostly because you were guaranteed not to hear a song more than once throughout the day, and they played only a little of the '70s Rock that was the main focus of the Classic Rock stations. There was another oldies station around at that time, 103.1 WRKA, but I didn't like it as much for some reason. The two stations just seemed to have different vibes, and 103.5 had the better vibe.
The last job where I had to listen to the radio was last Summer at a warehouse in Cecilia, on the very west side of Elizabethtown. I didn't have to listen to the radio all the time, just occasionally, and the main channel they listened to was 98.3 WQXE, I think the best way to describe it would be MOR (Middle Of the Road). I remember walking by this one woman's work area and hearing the chorus to "All The Right Moves" by One Republic. I kind of thought to myself, "Oh shit, this moment is going to haunt me for the rest of my life." What made it even odder was that I thought the line went "They've got all the right friends in all the right places, who cares, we're going down!", and thinking it made no sense, especially since I didn't know how the rest of the song went. BTW, it turns out he's not saying "Who cares, we're going down," but "So yeah, we're going down." And while I can't say I "like" one Republic, I don't dislike them, and I think they have an interesting sound, especially that ridiculously huge John Bonham-esque drum sound. Another story from that same job: The radio wasn't on, but I was trying to explain to these two girls about how I like music, but hate radio, and I also said that I liked Rock, but I didn't feel like explaining that I only liked certain types of Rock. The radio was eventually turned on. I got back to the work area after a break or lunch sooner than most of the people. The radio was on WQXE, and at one point they played "A Little Respect" by Erasure, a song that I actually like. The girls get back from the break, one of the girls hears "A Little Respect", turns the radio off, and says "It's got to be to EVERYBODY's taste. That makes me want to go to church." To which I responded, "There's really no such thing." I don't know if she mistook it for a Rock song and thought I had turned it over to a Rock station or what, but I thought that was ignorant. That pissed me off almost as the time I mentioned earlier about the boy saying that Jane's Addiction was horrible. But seriously, WQXE was about the closest thing to "everybody's taste" as you're going to get. I think the radio ended up getting turned on later anyway.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Happy Dynamic Range Day! Some of my favorite recent masterings.
In celebration of Dynamic Range Day, I've decided that instead of bitching about bad mastering jobs, I'll list some of my favorite relatively recent mastering jobs, mastering engineers, etc. It will follow no real format.
Neil Young - Greatest Hits, mastered by Tim Mulligan. Original master tapes transferred by John Nowland, just thought I'd add him in there.
Rod Stewart - The Definitive Rod Stewart, mastered by Dave Schultz and Dan Hersch. I bought this expecting a compressed mess, and was pleasantly surprised when I actually heard it.
Venom - Black Metal (2002 remaster), I don't know who mastered it. Not a great sounding recording, but whoever remastered it did a great job. The Venom remasters are some of the only properly mastered Metal CD remasters that I know of. Totally makes me want to snatch up "Welcome To Hell" and "At War With Satan".
The Beatles remasters, mastered by Guy Massey and Steve Rooke. Only some very mild peak limiting was used on the stereo remasters, and no compression was used on the mono box set.
Franz Ferdinand - self titled debut, mastered by Steve Rooke. One of the best mastered popular CDs of the 2000s, proving that loudness doesn't improve sales, or makes a song louder on the radio. Seriously, I hear no difference in volume on the radio between "Take Me Out" and any other recent song.
Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy, mastered by Bob Ludwig. I bought this CD on the strength of the mastering alone. It's no "Appetite For Destruction", but it's pretty great compared to what passes for Hard Rock these days. One of my friends even called it GnR's "Pet Sounds".
The Clash remasters, mastered by Ray Staff and Bob Whitney, remastering supervision by Bill Price. I don't know how compressed these actually are, but I think they tend to sound good overall.
Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs, mastered by Chris Athens. Seems pretty loud with all that bass thumping going on, but it's far from brickwalled.
The Essential Cheap Trick/Hall & Oates/Roy Orbison, mastered by Vic Anesini. If you see Vic Anesini's name on something, then it probably sounds good. It's a shame that he didn't do all of the "Essential" CDs, in fact the only "Essential" in my collection that wasn't mastered by him that I can recommend is...
The Essential Bruce Springsteen, mastered by Bob Ludwig. I think it sounds really good, up until you get to "The Rising". It's an interesting study in recording techniques over the years, and how the crappiness of modern recorded sound isn't always the fault of the mastering engineer. (Update, May 4, 2012: Or maybe it is. Bob Ludwig has done great work in the past, and while a lot of his recent work is nowhere near as bad as, say, Vlado Meller or Ted Jensen, I'm still not impressed with a lot of it. But Brendan O'Brien's tendency to make loud mixes still makes me think that the problem with "The Rising" is more in the mix than the mastering.)
Faith No More - Angel Dust (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab gold disc edition), mastered by Rob LoVerde. Angel Dust was one of the most compressed CDs of its time (1992), and here it gets a more dynamic mastering. I swear I've heard things in this edition that I've never noticed before, even while listening in the car!
Alice Cooper - Love It To Death/Killer/School's Out (Audio Fidelity gold CDs), mastered by Steve Hoffman.
Now on to some Louisville music.
Brigid Kaelin - Keep Your Secrets (mastered by Chris Griffin, assisted by Ben Andrews) and West 28th Street (mastered by Duane Lundy).
Eddie & The Fuck Munkys - The World's Greatest American Barroom Rock n Roll Band Vol. 1, no mastering credit.
None of the three above seem to have been mastered with loudness in mind. The more recent of Brigid Kaelin's CDs, "West 28th Street", is even quieter than the previous one.
Blade Of The Ripper - Taste The Blade, no mastering credit. I hear some of the same kind of distortion as on "Death Magnetic", but it's only mildly compressed, and severely crankable! I wish more Metal CDs were mastered like that.
Stonecutters - self titled debut and Christhammer, no mastering credits. The first Stonecutters CD is another one that I wish more Modern Metal CDs sounded like. Christhammer is more compressed, but still not bad.
The last CD I want to mention is an oldie-but-goodie, and one of the most nut-bustingest finds in my recent used CD search. It's the 1994 reissue of Slayer's "South Of Heaven", mastered by Barry Diament. I didn't get into collecting older Slayer until after the remasters in 1998 came out. Ever since I discovered the Loudness War, I've been hoping to find earlier editions, and last Thursday I found that copy of "South Of Heaven". It's by far my best sounding Slayer CD. Here are what waveforms are supposed to look like.
Here are the same songs from the "Soundtrack To The Apocalypse" box set.
Bleargh! So we know that the remastered versions look yucky, but how does the sound actually compare? The main difference I've noticed is that the kick drums on the original almost sound like a real kick drum was miked in a studio, as opposed to just a generic thump. The original also just seems to have more "depth".
The Dynamic Range Day Award
The Dynamic Range Day site just gave out the Dynamic Range Day Award. The nominees were:
Laura Marling – “I Speak Because I Can”
LCD Soundsystem – “This Is Happening”
The Coral – “Butterfly House”
Elbow – “Build A Rocket Boys!”
Massive Attack – “Heligoland”
Neil Young – “Le Noise”
Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More”
Four Tet – “There Is Love In You”
Norah Jones – “…Featuring”
The winner was Elbow, with "Build A Rocket Boys!"
I think I may have to get those LCD Soundsystem and Massive Attack CDs in the near future.
Neil Young - Greatest Hits, mastered by Tim Mulligan. Original master tapes transferred by John Nowland, just thought I'd add him in there.
Rod Stewart - The Definitive Rod Stewart, mastered by Dave Schultz and Dan Hersch. I bought this expecting a compressed mess, and was pleasantly surprised when I actually heard it.
Venom - Black Metal (2002 remaster), I don't know who mastered it. Not a great sounding recording, but whoever remastered it did a great job. The Venom remasters are some of the only properly mastered Metal CD remasters that I know of. Totally makes me want to snatch up "Welcome To Hell" and "At War With Satan".
The Beatles remasters, mastered by Guy Massey and Steve Rooke. Only some very mild peak limiting was used on the stereo remasters, and no compression was used on the mono box set.
Franz Ferdinand - self titled debut, mastered by Steve Rooke. One of the best mastered popular CDs of the 2000s, proving that loudness doesn't improve sales, or makes a song louder on the radio. Seriously, I hear no difference in volume on the radio between "Take Me Out" and any other recent song.
Guns n' Roses - Chinese Democracy, mastered by Bob Ludwig. I bought this CD on the strength of the mastering alone. It's no "Appetite For Destruction", but it's pretty great compared to what passes for Hard Rock these days. One of my friends even called it GnR's "Pet Sounds".
The Clash remasters, mastered by Ray Staff and Bob Whitney, remastering supervision by Bill Price. I don't know how compressed these actually are, but I think they tend to sound good overall.
Beastie Boys - To The 5 Boroughs, mastered by Chris Athens. Seems pretty loud with all that bass thumping going on, but it's far from brickwalled.
The Essential Cheap Trick/Hall & Oates/Roy Orbison, mastered by Vic Anesini. If you see Vic Anesini's name on something, then it probably sounds good. It's a shame that he didn't do all of the "Essential" CDs, in fact the only "Essential" in my collection that wasn't mastered by him that I can recommend is...
The Essential Bruce Springsteen, mastered by Bob Ludwig. I think it sounds really good, up until you get to "The Rising". It's an interesting study in recording techniques over the years, and how the crappiness of modern recorded sound isn't always the fault of the mastering engineer. (Update, May 4, 2012: Or maybe it is. Bob Ludwig has done great work in the past, and while a lot of his recent work is nowhere near as bad as, say, Vlado Meller or Ted Jensen, I'm still not impressed with a lot of it. But Brendan O'Brien's tendency to make loud mixes still makes me think that the problem with "The Rising" is more in the mix than the mastering.)
Faith No More - Angel Dust (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab gold disc edition), mastered by Rob LoVerde. Angel Dust was one of the most compressed CDs of its time (1992), and here it gets a more dynamic mastering. I swear I've heard things in this edition that I've never noticed before, even while listening in the car!
Alice Cooper - Love It To Death/Killer/School's Out (Audio Fidelity gold CDs), mastered by Steve Hoffman.
Now on to some Louisville music.
Brigid Kaelin - Keep Your Secrets (mastered by Chris Griffin, assisted by Ben Andrews) and West 28th Street (mastered by Duane Lundy).
Eddie & The Fuck Munkys - The World's Greatest American Barroom Rock n Roll Band Vol. 1, no mastering credit.
None of the three above seem to have been mastered with loudness in mind. The more recent of Brigid Kaelin's CDs, "West 28th Street", is even quieter than the previous one.
Blade Of The Ripper - Taste The Blade, no mastering credit. I hear some of the same kind of distortion as on "Death Magnetic", but it's only mildly compressed, and severely crankable! I wish more Metal CDs were mastered like that.
Stonecutters - self titled debut and Christhammer, no mastering credits. The first Stonecutters CD is another one that I wish more Modern Metal CDs sounded like. Christhammer is more compressed, but still not bad.
The last CD I want to mention is an oldie-but-goodie, and one of the most nut-bustingest finds in my recent used CD search. It's the 1994 reissue of Slayer's "South Of Heaven", mastered by Barry Diament. I didn't get into collecting older Slayer until after the remasters in 1998 came out. Ever since I discovered the Loudness War, I've been hoping to find earlier editions, and last Thursday I found that copy of "South Of Heaven". It's by far my best sounding Slayer CD. Here are what waveforms are supposed to look like.
 |
| Live Undead |
 |
| Silent Scream |
 | |
| Live Undead |
 |
| Silent Scream |
The Dynamic Range Day Award
The Dynamic Range Day site just gave out the Dynamic Range Day Award. The nominees were:
Laura Marling – “I Speak Because I Can”
LCD Soundsystem – “This Is Happening”
The Coral – “Butterfly House”
Elbow – “Build A Rocket Boys!”
Massive Attack – “Heligoland”
Neil Young – “Le Noise”
Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More”
Four Tet – “There Is Love In You”
Norah Jones – “…Featuring”
The winner was Elbow, with "Build A Rocket Boys!"
I think I may have to get those LCD Soundsystem and Massive Attack CDs in the near future.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Dynamic Range Day is March 25th!
I meant to mention in one of my last Loudness War entries that there seems to be a little progress being made. Bands like Pearl Jam, Weezer, and Iron Maiden have dialed the compression down on their most recent recordings compared to some of their earlier work. That makes it all the more sad when I hear something recent that's significantly louder than its predecessor. Take Kanye West for example. I think most of his CDs sound decent by modern day standards, but his latest one, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", is significantly louder than "808s & Heartbreak" from 2008, or any of his other CDs for that matter. When I listen to my Kanye CDs in the car, I have to turn the bass and treble down a little bit, mostly the bass. The new one is so shrill sounding that I turn the treble all the way down to 0, while the bass is is probably at 3 or 4 (The highest I can go is 7, with the lowest being -7). Another example are the Dethklok/Metalocalypse CDs. The first one wasn't exactly audiophile quality, but wasn't bad by modern Metal mastering standards. The second one is significantly louder. It's nowhere near Death Magnetic bad, more like closer to your average Metal CD.
Some good recent Loudness War articles:
1.Loudness means NOTHING on the radio.
Debunks the myth that louder CDs sound better or louder than less loud songs on the radio, and in fact they just sound worse.
2.Loudness War vs. Sales - The Truth
3.Up to 11: The problem with modern music
A good overview of the Loudness War. My only gripe is the mention in this and other articles about "Songs For The Deaf" by Queens Of The Stone Age as being one of the worst. It's not.
One thing I want to do in this entry is mention pre-Loudness War CDs in my collection that are really loud and compressed, in this case I'll go by stuff released before Guns n' Roses' "The Spaghetti Incident?". I've had some of these since the early 1990s, while others have been bought more recently. I'll admit, the ones that I've had for a long time did sound pretty good on the Sony boombox that was my first CD player. I'll try to list these in order of release, and I'm judging them more by actual sound quality than the appearance of the wave forms. And NONE of these are remasters!
1991
Fishbone - The Reality Of My Surroundings, released April 23, mastered by Wally Traugott.
I bought this last year, I expected it to sound way better than it did. This is one of those that I'm not entirely sure can be blamed on the mastering. Their cover of "Freddie's Dead" from 1988 has a similar sound, so it's possible that they were going for a really compressed sound. It's no wonder that the records don't do their live show justice at all. Below is "Sunless Saturday" and "So Many Millions."
Skid Row - Slave To The Grind, released June 11, mastered by George Marino.
One of the first CDs in my collection. I think I had to turn down the treble a little in my car when I listened to it recently. Here's "The Threat".
1992
Godflesh - Pure, released Spring, no mastering credit.
Another one of my early ones, and another one that I have to turn down the treble for. Could use some more bass. Earache Records had a bad habit of not listing mastering engineers on their CDs. We'll see more from Earache later. Here's "Mothra."
Black Sabbath - Dehumanizer, released Summer, no mastering credit.
I snatched this up a couple of years ago because it wasn't a remaster, and thought there was no way it could sound bad. Boy, was I wrong. I don't know if the 2008 remaster is any better or not. The deluxe versions of Black Sabbath's albums that have come out more recently are said to be the best on CD, and supposedly "Dehumanizer" is no exception. I've heard from at least one person that the deluxe edition does indeed sound better than the original. But back to the original, here's a "typical" track, "Letters From Earth".
Alice In Chains - Dirt, released September 29, mastered by Steve Hall and Eddy Schreyer.
This one looks more typical of a 1994 release, like it was digitally limited. If so, then it would probably be one of the earliest examples. I rarely ever factor clipping into my judgments, but I swear I hear some clipping on the title track. Overall, it still sounds way better than "Black Gives Way To Blue". Here's "Dam That River".
1993 - All three of these releases are from Earache Records, released during the time that Earache was being distributed by Columbia Records. None of these have mastering credits.
Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror, released February.
Here's "Midnight Mountain".
Fudge Tunnel - Creep Diets, I think it was released in the Spring.
Relatively lo-fi, suffers from the compression. Here's "Grit".
And last, Entombed - Wolverine Blues, I think it was released in the Summer, possibly Fall.
I think this one doesn't really sound too bad. Here's "Hollowman".
I apologize for the spacing in this entry, it was kind of a bitch to try to format.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Crowds: I don't like them.
Last night, I went to a bar called Third Street Dive (sort of poking fun at Louisville's 4th Street Live complex) to see what is possibly my favorite Louisville band ever, Dead City Rejects. Dead City Rejects played their last show in September 2008, and I think they were reuniting for one show to say "Good bye" to the Dive's current location. The new location is just next door to the current one. I knew there was going to be a big crowd, but I went anyway because, seriously, this is Dead City Rejects we're talking about here. There's something about crowds that makes me want to hit people. But I don't. While I hate crowds in general, crowds at the Dive are particularly problematic because the place is set up in such a way that watching bands is kind of awkward. I'm not even sure how to describe the setup. I can tell you that what I've seen from the new place looks way better, more open and less awkward.
When I am in a crowd, I try to position myself so that people who are trying to walk through can walk by me without me having to move. As the crowd got bigger, that became more of a challenge. There was plenty of room in the back around the pool table, which would have been cool had there not been anybody playing pool, because I had to occasionally get out of the pool players' way so they could make their shots. I'm not sure what pissed me off more, the fact that I had to move for these people, or the fact that these people were playing pool while this great band was playing.
Despite my crowd-o-phobia, the band was awesome, and it was nice to see friends that I haven't seen in a while. So ultimately, it was a good night!
One thing that I realized yesterday was that the last time DCR played, I was still employed. :(
When I am in a crowd, I try to position myself so that people who are trying to walk through can walk by me without me having to move. As the crowd got bigger, that became more of a challenge. There was plenty of room in the back around the pool table, which would have been cool had there not been anybody playing pool, because I had to occasionally get out of the pool players' way so they could make their shots. I'm not sure what pissed me off more, the fact that I had to move for these people, or the fact that these people were playing pool while this great band was playing.
Despite my crowd-o-phobia, the band was awesome, and it was nice to see friends that I haven't seen in a while. So ultimately, it was a good night!
One thing that I realized yesterday was that the last time DCR played, I was still employed. :(
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Another quick update
March Madness and some other things seem to be distracting me from my writing. I did get started on a post last night, but it was way too ambitious for me to finish in one sitting. I worked on it for well over two hours and didn't get anywhere near as completed as I'd like to be. I'd try finishing it up today, but I've got too much else going on. I watched the Kentucky game a couple of hours ago, and the Morehead game is coming up. Then later on I'm going to see one of my favorite local bands play a reunion show.
I always knew I'd be unlikely to settle on a name for this blog. There's a page on our blogs when we're signed on called "Dashboard", and seeing the word today reminded me of the Modest Mouse song called "Dashboard". It goes, "Well it would have been, could have been worse than you would ever know. The dashboard melted, but we still have the radio." I figured that "The dashboard melted, but we still have the radio!" would be a good title for the blog, partially since I talk about music so much, but also because it's like the ultimate in Positive Thinking. But that was too long, so I shortened it. It's still not short enough really, but it works.
After getting another rejection e-mail, I think I'm done trying to go back to work at Main ex-Employer. If they actually call me back with a job offer, I'll totally go for it, but I don't plan on applying for another position there. But then again, this isn't the first time that I've sad this.
I always knew I'd be unlikely to settle on a name for this blog. There's a page on our blogs when we're signed on called "Dashboard", and seeing the word today reminded me of the Modest Mouse song called "Dashboard". It goes, "Well it would have been, could have been worse than you would ever know. The dashboard melted, but we still have the radio." I figured that "The dashboard melted, but we still have the radio!" would be a good title for the blog, partially since I talk about music so much, but also because it's like the ultimate in Positive Thinking. But that was too long, so I shortened it. It's still not short enough really, but it works.
After getting another rejection e-mail, I think I'm done trying to go back to work at Main ex-Employer. If they actually call me back with a job offer, I'll totally go for it, but I don't plan on applying for another position there. But then again, this isn't the first time that I've sad this.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Just a quick update
I got the tooth filled in on Monday, it all cost me $185. The dentist said that what I really need for that tooth was a crown. He also said that I had a cavity in the tooth behind the problem tooth, but that overall I had a pretty good mouth.
Today, I finally got my state tax refund!
Today, I finally got my state tax refund!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sports rivalries
This might not surprise you since I hardly talk about it, but I'm not a huge sports fan. I've got too many other things going on to get into it full time. The only purpose it serves for me is to delay the start of TV shows, which pisses me off. If I do watch sports, it's usually not until the post-season. This is especially true with the NFL. I hate the start of the NFL pre-season because it marks the beginning of the end of the year, but I kind of enjoy the Super Bowl because it reminds me that Spring is around the corner. I hate the beginning of basketball season because it reminds me that Winter is getting ready to start, but love the college conference and NCAA tournaments because they remind me that Spring is here, or at least really close. For some reason, I just can't get into the NBA, even when I intend to keep up with former UK players.
I grew up a blue-bleeding Kentucky fan, and watched the games whenever I could back in the 1980s/90s. And being a blue-bleeding UK fan, I hated the Louisville Cardinals. I intended to follow the Cats when I moved to Austin, but was evidently not determined enough. Even though I adopted the Texas Longhorns, any interest I had in sports totally waned. When I moved back to Kentucky, I still had virtually no interest in sports. When I joined Louisville Mojo, I gained a lot of friends who were UL fans, plus I grew to appreciate the city, so I became neutral between UK and UL. People can probably accuse me of being too chicken to argue about it, but it's more like I don't care enough, and actually hope to see them both do well. It's more fun to stand back and watch them argue than it is for me to join in the arguing. I'm confident enough in my knowledge of music to argue with just about anybody on that subject, but I'll leave the arguing about sports to the people who actually follow it. But while I'm neutral between UK and UL, I'm far from neutral when it comes to Texas and their rivals, probably because I love the city of Austin so much more than I do the state of Kentucky, the city of Louisville, or even the rest of the state of Texas. Then I'm like, "Hook 'em Horns! Rip their goddamn heads off!" While UT's basketball team has been good the past few years, it seems like the rare times that I actually see scores from their games are the times when they lose.
I've realized recently that I actually have five favorite college teams.
1.Kentucky
2.Louisville
3.Texas
4.LSU (Because my brother goes to grad school there)
5.Whoever plays Texas A&M
I always hope to see Texas play UK or UL in the NCAA tournament, but it has yet to happen. I'd root for Texas since it hasn't been until the past ten years or so that they've become a basketball powerhouse. My mom and dad would root for UK or UL. Whenever Texas plays an SEC team, mom and dad root for the SEC team because they're SEC-centric.
The only NFL team I even care about anymore are the New Orleans Saints. I've only been to New Orleans once, but I loved it and adopted it. Even when they lose, I can usually take pride in the fact that the city of the team they lost to probably isn't as cool as NOLA. It's also nice to see the team come up after years of being "The 'Aint's" and after Katrina. Since the Saints didn't make it to the Super Bowl, I originally didn't care who won. It wasn't until I went to a SB party that I took a side. Packers fans were far outnumbered at the party, so I ended up rooting for the Packers, because that's how I roll. There was one Steelers fan that was so annoying that him alone probably would've drove me to the Packers even if Packer fans were the majority. I was really glad that the Packers won.
This will probably be my only sports-related post ever. Or at least until next year. :D
I grew up a blue-bleeding Kentucky fan, and watched the games whenever I could back in the 1980s/90s. And being a blue-bleeding UK fan, I hated the Louisville Cardinals. I intended to follow the Cats when I moved to Austin, but was evidently not determined enough. Even though I adopted the Texas Longhorns, any interest I had in sports totally waned. When I moved back to Kentucky, I still had virtually no interest in sports. When I joined Louisville Mojo, I gained a lot of friends who were UL fans, plus I grew to appreciate the city, so I became neutral between UK and UL. People can probably accuse me of being too chicken to argue about it, but it's more like I don't care enough, and actually hope to see them both do well. It's more fun to stand back and watch them argue than it is for me to join in the arguing. I'm confident enough in my knowledge of music to argue with just about anybody on that subject, but I'll leave the arguing about sports to the people who actually follow it. But while I'm neutral between UK and UL, I'm far from neutral when it comes to Texas and their rivals, probably because I love the city of Austin so much more than I do the state of Kentucky, the city of Louisville, or even the rest of the state of Texas. Then I'm like, "Hook 'em Horns! Rip their goddamn heads off!" While UT's basketball team has been good the past few years, it seems like the rare times that I actually see scores from their games are the times when they lose.
I've realized recently that I actually have five favorite college teams.
1.Kentucky
2.Louisville
3.Texas
4.LSU (Because my brother goes to grad school there)
5.Whoever plays Texas A&M
I always hope to see Texas play UK or UL in the NCAA tournament, but it has yet to happen. I'd root for Texas since it hasn't been until the past ten years or so that they've become a basketball powerhouse. My mom and dad would root for UK or UL. Whenever Texas plays an SEC team, mom and dad root for the SEC team because they're SEC-centric.
The only NFL team I even care about anymore are the New Orleans Saints. I've only been to New Orleans once, but I loved it and adopted it. Even when they lose, I can usually take pride in the fact that the city of the team they lost to probably isn't as cool as NOLA. It's also nice to see the team come up after years of being "The 'Aint's" and after Katrina. Since the Saints didn't make it to the Super Bowl, I originally didn't care who won. It wasn't until I went to a SB party that I took a side. Packers fans were far outnumbered at the party, so I ended up rooting for the Packers, because that's how I roll. There was one Steelers fan that was so annoying that him alone probably would've drove me to the Packers even if Packer fans were the majority. I was really glad that the Packers won.
This will probably be my only sports-related post ever. Or at least until next year. :D
Time marches on...
Tonight is the beginning of Daylight Saving Time. I've started typing this at 4:07, and it hardly even feels like 3:07! I wish Daylight Saving Time was all year around because I hate when it gets dark at 5:30 in the afternoon, it makes me think it's 9 or 10:00.
I've got a dentist appointment at 9:00am on Monday morning. One reason why I'm glad that Daylight Saving Time is this weekend is because it means that I get to skip an hour in the wait for the dentist appointment. Is it strange that I'm actually kind of excited about it? I guess you would be too if you were dealing with this tooth. I'm less afraid about what they'll do with the tooth than with how much it will cost. I figure at best, they'll just refill it. At worst, they'll probably pull the damn thing out. It actually hasn't been painful the past couple of days, just mildly annoying. I've learned that one thing that helps is to not take such big damn bites out of whatever I'm eating.
I rarely ever actually talk to friends. There's maybe a small handful of people that I talk to on a semi-regular basis, but still not frequently enough. There are some people on my friend list on Facebook who I'd probably be like, "Eh, whatever" if they de-friended me. But it does kind of bum me out when somebody that I really do like de-friends me, it's even worse when I realize that they've been gone for a while. This girl was actually one of the few people that I talked to semi-regularly back in 2009. We haven't really talked as much in the past year and a half, in fact I can't remember the last time her and I actually talked. It seemed like out main form of communication was occasionally "liking" each others status or videos. The fact that she no longer lives in town probably didn't help much. I didn't even know she was gone from my friend list until I saw that she was a friend on some girl's profile, but didn't show up as a mutual friend. Oh well, life goes on.
Lady Gaga played in Louisville tonight. I'm not really a fan or a hater. Hell, if I had a lot of disposable income, I probably would've went just for the hell of it. I'll admit, I'm jealous of the people who did go because they had the money for it, when I had to miss two shows last Fall that I was hellbent on going to because I was broke. In fact, one of my ex-coworkers was at the Lady Gaga show as well as the show I missed from October.
I've got a dentist appointment at 9:00am on Monday morning. One reason why I'm glad that Daylight Saving Time is this weekend is because it means that I get to skip an hour in the wait for the dentist appointment. Is it strange that I'm actually kind of excited about it? I guess you would be too if you were dealing with this tooth. I'm less afraid about what they'll do with the tooth than with how much it will cost. I figure at best, they'll just refill it. At worst, they'll probably pull the damn thing out. It actually hasn't been painful the past couple of days, just mildly annoying. I've learned that one thing that helps is to not take such big damn bites out of whatever I'm eating.
I rarely ever actually talk to friends. There's maybe a small handful of people that I talk to on a semi-regular basis, but still not frequently enough. There are some people on my friend list on Facebook who I'd probably be like, "Eh, whatever" if they de-friended me. But it does kind of bum me out when somebody that I really do like de-friends me, it's even worse when I realize that they've been gone for a while. This girl was actually one of the few people that I talked to semi-regularly back in 2009. We haven't really talked as much in the past year and a half, in fact I can't remember the last time her and I actually talked. It seemed like out main form of communication was occasionally "liking" each others status or videos. The fact that she no longer lives in town probably didn't help much. I didn't even know she was gone from my friend list until I saw that she was a friend on some girl's profile, but didn't show up as a mutual friend. Oh well, life goes on.
Lady Gaga played in Louisville tonight. I'm not really a fan or a hater. Hell, if I had a lot of disposable income, I probably would've went just for the hell of it. I'll admit, I'm jealous of the people who did go because they had the money for it, when I had to miss two shows last Fall that I was hellbent on going to because I was broke. In fact, one of my ex-coworkers was at the Lady Gaga show as well as the show I missed from October.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
The Tooth
One thing I wish I had done while I was still employed and had insurance was to go to the dentist. A few reasons why I probably didn't:
1.Trying to pick out a new dentist seemed like it would be a pain in the ass, and I didn't want to go back to my old dentist because he really wasn't all that great.
2.I had bad memories of making payments the last time I went to the dentist.
3.Trying to fit the dentist into my work schedule also seemed like it would be a pain in the ass.
I can't remember when it started, but years ago I noticed a tiny hole developing in a filling in one of my back teeth. It started to get really bad about two years ago. It figures that everything would start falling apart AFTER I lose my insurance. I couldn't afford COBRA coverage until the Federal government came in and helped pay two thirds of it, so I did have insurance for a little while in 2009. I wish I had went to a dentist instead of an endocrinologist during that time, when I thought for sure that I had Cushing's Syndrome when I really didn't. The hole is so big now that you can see tooth. Starting a couple of days ago, it's gotten to a point where I can't even chew with that side of my mouth anymore because it's too painful. I would've blogged about this last night, but I was in too much pain. I'm afraid I can't put off going to the dentist any longer.
I tried calling a free dental clinic, but they said they only take appointments on Mondays.
I tried calling the U of L School Of Dentistry, but they said they were filled up for tomorrow, and they would be closed for Spring Break next week. I believe she said that the next time I could schedule an appointment would be March 18th, but I wonder if she meant the 21st.
You know, while I was glad that we were able to pass some kind of health care reform, I'm not too happy that it didn't go as far as I would've liked. I would've liked to have seen Single Payer instituted, but then that probably would've put the insurance companies out of business, and we can't have that now can we, especially with so many Congressmen paid for by the insurance companies.
Had I lived in a country with a more socialized form of health care, I probably would've went to the dentist more often. I seriously have considered going to another country just to get my teeth taken care of. I guess I should look into getting a passport.
1.Trying to pick out a new dentist seemed like it would be a pain in the ass, and I didn't want to go back to my old dentist because he really wasn't all that great.
2.I had bad memories of making payments the last time I went to the dentist.
3.Trying to fit the dentist into my work schedule also seemed like it would be a pain in the ass.
I can't remember when it started, but years ago I noticed a tiny hole developing in a filling in one of my back teeth. It started to get really bad about two years ago. It figures that everything would start falling apart AFTER I lose my insurance. I couldn't afford COBRA coverage until the Federal government came in and helped pay two thirds of it, so I did have insurance for a little while in 2009. I wish I had went to a dentist instead of an endocrinologist during that time, when I thought for sure that I had Cushing's Syndrome when I really didn't. The hole is so big now that you can see tooth. Starting a couple of days ago, it's gotten to a point where I can't even chew with that side of my mouth anymore because it's too painful. I would've blogged about this last night, but I was in too much pain. I'm afraid I can't put off going to the dentist any longer.
I tried calling a free dental clinic, but they said they only take appointments on Mondays.
I tried calling the U of L School Of Dentistry, but they said they were filled up for tomorrow, and they would be closed for Spring Break next week. I believe she said that the next time I could schedule an appointment would be March 18th, but I wonder if she meant the 21st.
You know, while I was glad that we were able to pass some kind of health care reform, I'm not too happy that it didn't go as far as I would've liked. I would've liked to have seen Single Payer instituted, but then that probably would've put the insurance companies out of business, and we can't have that now can we, especially with so many Congressmen paid for by the insurance companies.
Had I lived in a country with a more socialized form of health care, I probably would've went to the dentist more often. I seriously have considered going to another country just to get my teeth taken care of. I guess I should look into getting a passport.
Monday, March 7, 2011
The Loudness War, continued
It should be noted that Rock and Pop music doesn't really need the amount of dynamic range that genres such as Classical and Jazz require, they really just need enough dynamic range to keep from causing headaches.
When I said at the end of my last Loudness War entry that Fear Factory's "Demanufacture" was loud enough to not need a remaster, I meant to say that it didn't need a remaster that was even louder and more compressed. IMO it could use a less compressed remaster. (Update, July 15 2012: From what I've read, the remaster supposedly has more bass, which kind of makes me wish I still had my remaster to compare with, but I still think the old CD sounds fine.)
One of the reasons for the Loudness War was supposedly so CDs could sound better in cars, boom boxes, and other low end stereo equipment. I'll admit, with all the road and car noise going on, a lot of compressed CDs do sound better in the car than "quieter" CDs. While I don't really regret selling my remastered copy of Fear Factory's "Demanufacture", I almost do regret selling my remastered copy of their first album, "Soul Of A New Machine", just because it sounded better in the car than my original master does. I might even buy the remaster for Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine" because the old CD is too quiet for car listening. However, I'm keeping my old copy for home listening.
But a lot of modern CDs are barely even tolerable to listen to in the car. The worst and most documented case is Metallica's "Death Magnetic". Song-wise, I think it's the best album Metallica has put out since "...And Justice For All." I'd even go so far as to say it's one of my favorite Metal albums of the 2000s. But sound-wise, it's absolutely atrocious! There are no dynamics, and it's distorted as all get out. Not even road noise can cover up ALL of the clipping! It's one of those cases I referred to in my last Loudness War entry as being jacked up in every step of the process. They recorded everything too loud during tracking, the mix was jacked up if not compressed all to Hell, and the mastering was the cherry on top. Mastering engineer Ted Jensen claimed that the mix was already jacked up when it got to him. Whether he did any further compressing or not, he could at least have let the sound peak at something lower than 0 dBFS. The wave forms for it remind me of a fake porn title used in the movie Clerks, "All Holes Filled With Hard Cock." "Death Magnetic" is arguably the all around worst sounding CD in my collection, but it's almost saved by the fact that the music isn't as extreme as some other Metal CDs that are only marginally louder or quieter.
Metal is the biggest victim of the Loudness War, the more extreme, the worse. I'm mostly referring to Death Metal, Black Metal, and Grindcore. It's like, "Let's take something that's hard to listen to, and make it totally unlistenable!" No wonder I'm so jaded when it comes to newer Metal. I occasionally like to see Metal bands play live, and as long as the mix is okay and you're wearing earplugs, it usually sounds pretty good. The CDs don't really capture the sense of live dynamics though. The bad mastering is especially sad since modern extreme Metal is so much better recorded than the extreme Metal of the late '80s/early '90s. (Hardcore can be just as extreme and badly mastered, but I don't really care for most Hardcore made after 1986 anyway.)
When I said at the end of my last Loudness War entry that Fear Factory's "Demanufacture" was loud enough to not need a remaster, I meant to say that it didn't need a remaster that was even louder and more compressed. IMO it could use a less compressed remaster. (Update, July 15 2012: From what I've read, the remaster supposedly has more bass, which kind of makes me wish I still had my remaster to compare with, but I still think the old CD sounds fine.)
One of the reasons for the Loudness War was supposedly so CDs could sound better in cars, boom boxes, and other low end stereo equipment. I'll admit, with all the road and car noise going on, a lot of compressed CDs do sound better in the car than "quieter" CDs. While I don't really regret selling my remastered copy of Fear Factory's "Demanufacture", I almost do regret selling my remastered copy of their first album, "Soul Of A New Machine", just because it sounded better in the car than my original master does. I might even buy the remaster for Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine" because the old CD is too quiet for car listening. However, I'm keeping my old copy for home listening.
But a lot of modern CDs are barely even tolerable to listen to in the car. The worst and most documented case is Metallica's "Death Magnetic". Song-wise, I think it's the best album Metallica has put out since "...And Justice For All." I'd even go so far as to say it's one of my favorite Metal albums of the 2000s. But sound-wise, it's absolutely atrocious! There are no dynamics, and it's distorted as all get out. Not even road noise can cover up ALL of the clipping! It's one of those cases I referred to in my last Loudness War entry as being jacked up in every step of the process. They recorded everything too loud during tracking, the mix was jacked up if not compressed all to Hell, and the mastering was the cherry on top. Mastering engineer Ted Jensen claimed that the mix was already jacked up when it got to him. Whether he did any further compressing or not, he could at least have let the sound peak at something lower than 0 dBFS. The wave forms for it remind me of a fake porn title used in the movie Clerks, "All Holes Filled With Hard Cock." "Death Magnetic" is arguably the all around worst sounding CD in my collection, but it's almost saved by the fact that the music isn't as extreme as some other Metal CDs that are only marginally louder or quieter.
Metal is the biggest victim of the Loudness War, the more extreme, the worse. I'm mostly referring to Death Metal, Black Metal, and Grindcore. It's like, "Let's take something that's hard to listen to, and make it totally unlistenable!" No wonder I'm so jaded when it comes to newer Metal. I occasionally like to see Metal bands play live, and as long as the mix is okay and you're wearing earplugs, it usually sounds pretty good. The CDs don't really capture the sense of live dynamics though. The bad mastering is especially sad since modern extreme Metal is so much better recorded than the extreme Metal of the late '80s/early '90s. (Hardcore can be just as extreme and badly mastered, but I don't really care for most Hardcore made after 1986 anyway.)
So much for cutting back.
I ended up going out on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. On Friday, I went to my favorite theater to see "Cedar Rapids". I had plans later on to go see a friend's boyfriend's band called Rockaway Drive. There was plenty of time to kill between the movie and the show, so I went to my favorite coffee shop. The club I went to was a place called Phoenix Hill Tavern. It's a really big place where multiple bands can play at the same time, usually Hard Rock/Modern Rock cover bands in the two main rooms, the downstairs "Saloon" and the upstairs "Roof Garden". The Saloon is also where touring bands play. There's also the small-ish "Tap Room" where bands that usually don't fit the Hard Rock/Modern Rock thing usually play, a karaoke room, and the outdoor patio that usually has dance music, and is the only place where people can smoke. The venue itself is nice, but I don't really care for the clientele, which are mostly male douchebags of varying kinds, and their female equivalents of which I don't really have a name for, except maybe "WOO Girls." While I really did want to see Rockaway Drive, I wouldn't have gone if it hadn't been for the fact that there was no cover before 9:00. Or at least there was no cover as long as you weren't there to see Taproot, who I don't like and wouldn't have paid to see anyway. The Original Rock Showcase, where Rockaway Drive were playing, was up in the Roof Garden. They were the first band up. I really liked them, they play really old school Heavy Metal, it would probably be fair to say they were along the lines of bands like Judas Priest, Accept, or Krokus. All the other bands I heard in the Original Rock Showcase were more modern style Metal. I didn't like those bands near as much. I'm really fickle when it comes to modern Metal, probably because something that seems fresh and exciting one year will sound old and stale to me just a couple of years later. In fact, some of my more recent favorite Metal bands are bands that remind me of older Metal, like The Sword or Dead Child, and while I haven't heard a lot from Three Inches Of Blood, I've liked what little I've heard. That's a far cry from where my mind was in the early to mid-1990s, when I thought old school Heavy Metal was just as lame as the Hair Bands and would've been more into the Modern stuff. Anyway, I found out that night that King Sonic was playing in the Tap Room. Before they started, I told my friend from King Sonic about my current work situation, and he said, "You ought to get some whores and start pimpin'!" I was like, "Heh, might as well!" I ended up watching more of King Sonic than from the bands in the Original Rock Showcase.
On Saturday, I went to my favorite record store to see some Doom Metal bands. The store recently started hosting shows after their normal hours, this was the first one that I've gotten to check out. The headliner was a band called THOU, who I found out were from Baton Rouge. The other two bands were local-ish. While I enjoyed the show, I was getting kind of antsy because a bunch of people I know were gathered at one of my favorite pizza places, and I really wanted to go there. I really did want to see THOU, but this other place was calling my name, so I left early and went there. :) I had a really good time. I figure if I'm lucky, I'll get to see THOU the next time I'm in Baton Rouge to visit my brother.
On Sunday, I went to a bar to watch some movies. :) They showed "Ichi The Killer" and "Vamp".
On Saturday, I went to my favorite record store to see some Doom Metal bands. The store recently started hosting shows after their normal hours, this was the first one that I've gotten to check out. The headliner was a band called THOU, who I found out were from Baton Rouge. The other two bands were local-ish. While I enjoyed the show, I was getting kind of antsy because a bunch of people I know were gathered at one of my favorite pizza places, and I really wanted to go there. I really did want to see THOU, but this other place was calling my name, so I left early and went there. :) I had a really good time. I figure if I'm lucky, I'll get to see THOU the next time I'm in Baton Rouge to visit my brother.
On Sunday, I went to a bar to watch some movies. :) They showed "Ichi The Killer" and "Vamp".
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Cutting back on fun stuff.
You know, stuff is expensive when you're broke. The rise in gas prices especially has me not wanting to leave the house. To make matters worse, my gas mileage has gone downhill since I got some new tires just over a year ago. The tires were fairly cheap, and they drive pretty well on wet roads, but the gas mileage just isn't as great as when I had the Goodyear Assurance tires that originally came with the car. I guess you get what you pay for. I've been reading about how families are cutting down on stuff, mostly staying in for food and entertainment instead of going out. I guess that's fine and dandy if you've got a family or a significant other, but if you're single (strike one), and love the city but live in B.F.E. (strike two) with your parents (STRIKE THREE!), going out is a necessity. But still, I'm afraid I'll have to cut back on some things.
I already decided about a year ago that I was going to cut down on the music collecting. Price is one factor, but there's also the fact that I don't get to listen to music all that much, and have loads of music that needs listening to. The only thing that sucks about this is that physical product isn't as mass produced as it used to be, so if you find something you want, you better get it. This includes shopping for used CDs.
Since I've already cut down on music, movies are currently my most expensive habit. Like music, I'm not buying many DVDs or Blu-Rays these days, so I'm merely referring to the theater experience here. Going to matinees are expensive enough, and I rarely ever go to full price evening showings. Most of the theaters I go to currently charge $6.75 for a matinee. Besides new movies, I also like to go see older movies at my favorite theater's midnight series. Most theaters don't charge much when they show older movies, but my favorite theater charges student pricing ($7.50) for the midnight series. That's the General Manager of the theater's idea. It had been full price, but my assistant manager friend who actually books the movies convinced him to lower the price. I'm sure if it was up to my friend, the price would be even lower. But anyway, movies are really one of the only things that gets me out of the house these days, I can't see myself totally avoiding the theaters. I guess if I really have to, I can just go to the midnight movies. There are actually all kinds of old movies that I'd watch that are available for streaming from Netflix, plus I record lots of movies from the HD movie channels on Dish Network. Dish Network is one of the few perks of living with my parents.
Coffee is my second most expensive habit after movies. Coffee gives me a reason to hang around town a couple of hours longer than I would if I were just going to see a movie or go music shopping. At $4-5, blended frozen coffee gives me the most bang for my buck. (I rarely ever drink hot coffee btw.) I could get through a large hot chocolate entirely too easily, blended frozen coffee drinks (and some reading material) can last me one to three hours.
When I'm out in Louisville and it's been a few hours since I've eaten, eating while I'm out is generally a good idea. I can forget going to restaurants though, I might as well just go to a gas station and buy a sandwich.
I already decided about a year ago that I was going to cut down on the music collecting. Price is one factor, but there's also the fact that I don't get to listen to music all that much, and have loads of music that needs listening to. The only thing that sucks about this is that physical product isn't as mass produced as it used to be, so if you find something you want, you better get it. This includes shopping for used CDs.
Since I've already cut down on music, movies are currently my most expensive habit. Like music, I'm not buying many DVDs or Blu-Rays these days, so I'm merely referring to the theater experience here. Going to matinees are expensive enough, and I rarely ever go to full price evening showings. Most of the theaters I go to currently charge $6.75 for a matinee. Besides new movies, I also like to go see older movies at my favorite theater's midnight series. Most theaters don't charge much when they show older movies, but my favorite theater charges student pricing ($7.50) for the midnight series. That's the General Manager of the theater's idea. It had been full price, but my assistant manager friend who actually books the movies convinced him to lower the price. I'm sure if it was up to my friend, the price would be even lower. But anyway, movies are really one of the only things that gets me out of the house these days, I can't see myself totally avoiding the theaters. I guess if I really have to, I can just go to the midnight movies. There are actually all kinds of old movies that I'd watch that are available for streaming from Netflix, plus I record lots of movies from the HD movie channels on Dish Network. Dish Network is one of the few perks of living with my parents.
Coffee is my second most expensive habit after movies. Coffee gives me a reason to hang around town a couple of hours longer than I would if I were just going to see a movie or go music shopping. At $4-5, blended frozen coffee gives me the most bang for my buck. (I rarely ever drink hot coffee btw.) I could get through a large hot chocolate entirely too easily, blended frozen coffee drinks (and some reading material) can last me one to three hours.
When I'm out in Louisville and it's been a few hours since I've eaten, eating while I'm out is generally a good idea. I can forget going to restaurants though, I might as well just go to a gas station and buy a sandwich.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
We're #5! We're #5!
It seems that Louisville is tied for fifth place on the Worst Cities For Findng A Job In 2011 list.
I've not only went through all the money I accumulated back in December, I've also went through my entire Federal tax refund. I'm supposed to be getting a state refund, but the state seems to be holding it hostage, seeing as that as of a few weeks ago I still owed them some money from last year. Had I known sooner that they were holding my refund hostage, I wouldn't have sent them a check for the amount that I owed them, and I'd still have some of my Federal refund money. Technically, I still have money in the bank, but most of it will disappear when the $95 check to my psychiatrist clears. Today, I got an envelope from the Kentucky Department of Revenue with a Form 740-ES (estimated tax voucher), with no explanation as to why they sent it to me. WTF?
Back in 2006, my car was falling apart, and my sister suggested I trade it in for a new one. I was determined that my next car was going to be brand spanking new, and I got a 2007 Saturn Ion. Since I got laid off, I've been wishing that I had gotten an '04/'05 or even '06 model car, I probably would be just about finished with the payments right about now if I had. I still have a year left to go. It actually would have been a few months later had I not refinanced in March 2008. In 2009, I considered selling my car and buying something older, yet reliable. My parents decided that was a bad idea, and told me that they'd help with payments. My mom even said that that wasn't the time to be making major changes, which sounded pretty stupid to me seeing as that all kinds of people who were being downsized had to downsize their lives, I'm not sure why I should be an exception. I've been thinking lately that they should have just let me sell it. I was hoping to have a job by now so I could possibly make my car payment this month. I really, really dread asking my mom and dad for money. Hell, on Halloween 2009, I was dreading asking them for money so much that I considered downing an entire bottle of Lorazepam. Well, I wasn't just dreading asking them for money. One of the last days I worked at Main ex-Employer before I got laid off was Halloween 2008, and so I woke up on the morning of Halloween '09 thinking about how downhill my life had gone in the year since the previous Halloween. I don't think I got out of bed that day until about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I wouldn't have gotten out of bed had I not had to use the restroom. I also decided not to take an entire bottle of Lorazepam, just one pill if I took any at all.
You know, it really pisses me off to hear about all these bankers getting these huge bonuses. Bank robbing, or rather banker robbing, is sounding like a good profession at this point.
I've not only went through all the money I accumulated back in December, I've also went through my entire Federal tax refund. I'm supposed to be getting a state refund, but the state seems to be holding it hostage, seeing as that as of a few weeks ago I still owed them some money from last year. Had I known sooner that they were holding my refund hostage, I wouldn't have sent them a check for the amount that I owed them, and I'd still have some of my Federal refund money. Technically, I still have money in the bank, but most of it will disappear when the $95 check to my psychiatrist clears. Today, I got an envelope from the Kentucky Department of Revenue with a Form 740-ES (estimated tax voucher), with no explanation as to why they sent it to me. WTF?
Back in 2006, my car was falling apart, and my sister suggested I trade it in for a new one. I was determined that my next car was going to be brand spanking new, and I got a 2007 Saturn Ion. Since I got laid off, I've been wishing that I had gotten an '04/'05 or even '06 model car, I probably would be just about finished with the payments right about now if I had. I still have a year left to go. It actually would have been a few months later had I not refinanced in March 2008. In 2009, I considered selling my car and buying something older, yet reliable. My parents decided that was a bad idea, and told me that they'd help with payments. My mom even said that that wasn't the time to be making major changes, which sounded pretty stupid to me seeing as that all kinds of people who were being downsized had to downsize their lives, I'm not sure why I should be an exception. I've been thinking lately that they should have just let me sell it. I was hoping to have a job by now so I could possibly make my car payment this month. I really, really dread asking my mom and dad for money. Hell, on Halloween 2009, I was dreading asking them for money so much that I considered downing an entire bottle of Lorazepam. Well, I wasn't just dreading asking them for money. One of the last days I worked at Main ex-Employer before I got laid off was Halloween 2008, and so I woke up on the morning of Halloween '09 thinking about how downhill my life had gone in the year since the previous Halloween. I don't think I got out of bed that day until about 4:00 in the afternoon, and I wouldn't have gotten out of bed had I not had to use the restroom. I also decided not to take an entire bottle of Lorazepam, just one pill if I took any at all.
You know, it really pisses me off to hear about all these bankers getting these huge bonuses. Bank robbing, or rather banker robbing, is sounding like a good profession at this point.
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