Sunday, December 30, 2007

Remember Me?

May the new year bring much peace and happiness into our hearts.

Happy New Year!!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Short Attention Span Blogging

  • I've been reading a LOT lately. I got addicted to the Tales of the City books by Armistead Maupin and read all of them in just a few weeks.
  • Right now I'm reading The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning. I'm having a hard time getting into it but its not the book's fault.
  • I have been enjoying my patio. A few of us in the apartment complex have these nice large (for an apartment) patios with tall fences around it. I use to sit out on mine but eventually I just started storing things out there. One day, I noticed a my neighbor had left some things out and the wind blew them under my patio fence, so I went out there to clean it up and saw the other neighbor's beautiful patio adjacent to mine. She had wrought iron furniture, wall decorations, plants, a bamboo rug and a little dog bed. I was jealous! Plus, I felt bad for my poor neighbor who obviously enjoyed her patio but had to sit next to my piece of crap! So, on that Sunday evening, I began cleaning. I threw away most of the stuff that I had stored out there. I cleaned my nearly new patio furniture and I found some candle holders around the house to put out there. Then I was on a quest. Everyday I would go out there and see what my neighbor had and go shopping for something comparable. She had some iron artwork on the wall, so I found some iron artwork to hang on the wall (although mine is completely different). She had a bamboo rug out there so I found a cool shag-type rug that matched my furniture. She had a dog bed, so I got TWO dog beds. I added other things to my liking of course, she was just my muse. Now, I have a lovely and comfortable patio!



  • The Astros have made some aggressive trades. We've gotten Miquel Tejada, Kaz Matsui, Michael Bourn and just last night, Jose Valverde at the expense of a LOT of guys I really liked. We've lost Adam Everett, Luke Scott, Chris Burke and Chad Qualls, just to name a few. Unfortunately, it's what has to be done to get a good offensive team. Now...what the hell are we going to do for pitching? We've traded away so many of our potentially good pitchers!

  • I suppose I should mention the Mitchell report and the steroid controversy. I don't know what to say. I'm sad for baseball and the blight this era will have on it in the history of baseball. I'm sad mostly for the guys who chose not to use and will be affected by all of this in the future. I could give a shit about Roger Clemens. He could very well be innocent but he's still an ass.

  • I'm no where NEAR ready for Christmas. I still have tons of shopping to do. I love getting gifts and I really love giving them, I just hate the crowds and the huge build-up of the holiday. I don't really have a lot to look forward to. It would be different if I were married and/or had kids but there really isn't any reason for me to get excited. Santa stopped visiting me a long time ago.

  • I don't do New Year's Resolutions for the very fact that I never keep them but I will TRY really hard to be a better blogger in 2008.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

It's My (Radio) Head

Is Radiohead pulling the proverbial wool over our eyes?
I mean seriously, have you listened to Kid A and Amnesiac?

This morning, a radio DJ was talking about how bullshit the group Sonic Youth is. How people claim to be rabid fans just to be cool but Sonic Youth, in his opinion, are terrible.
I wouldn’t know because I’ve never really paid much attention to their music but then he said, “Like Radiohead….don’t even get me started.”
I pondered that for a second and thought maybe he had a point.
I was suckered in to the Radiohead thing several years ago with Pablo Honey and The Bends which I thought had a few really great songs on it.
Then Ok Computer came out and I bought it like a good little lemming and I thought it was good. A friend of mine equated Thom Yorke with a god and said she listened to Ok Computer over and over and over again.
A few years went by and Kid A came out. Again, I ran to the store and got it. I listened to it and thought quietly, “What the fuck?”
For a fleeting moment I thought, “Thom Yorke is fucking with us.”
Kid A seemed to be nothing but whining and instrumental feedback. I had this mental image of Yorke, with his googly eyes, sitting in a recording studio saying, “Let’s see how many of these idiots buy this piece of shit.”
And lots of us did.
But it didn’t stop there. Amnesiac came out and I found myself standing in line, clutching my copy of it, anxiously awaiting the moment I could rip off the cellophane, pry the tape off the outside while cursing the CD manufacturers that make it almost impossible to open one without beating your children or kicking your dog.

Again, I didn’t get it. Maybe I’m just not musically intellectual enough to “get” Radiohead but I thought it sucked.
However, I never questioned why I bought that CD. I just did it as if previous Radiohead album contains some subliminal instructions to buy the next album.
Maybe Thom Yorke is brainwashing a whole generation?

So, this morning, after listening to the DJ diss Sonic Youth and Radiohead, I dug out my copy of Ok Computer and listened to it on the way to work.
It’s really a very good album.
I have this uncontrollable urge to go out and buy Thom Yorke’s newest solo endeavor.

Dammit!

Friday, December 7, 2007

Baseball....winterizing

I know I haven't been around in a while...blah blah blah...no one wants to hear excuses.

The baseball winter meetings are over and although the Astros didn't finalize anything, there is a great possibility Miquel Tejada may be joining us here in Houston.
We'll be losing a few of my favorites in this trade but I've already mourned over the biggest loss for me....Brad Lidge.
Yes, my boy Brad is gone. He'll be in a Phillies uniform next year and I seriously thought about giving up on baseball FOREVER when I heard the news.
But then I remembered that baseball is cruel. Just when you fall in love, they send your boy off to the enemy.

I love Chris Burke but he's not going to see much playing time with the Astros so I'll be happy to see him go to a team that will put him into an everyday position.
The same goes for Luke Scott. And, if we can get good players in exchange, all the better!

We won't even recognize the team next year and we'll have to get to know new players like Kaz Matsui and Michael Bourn (if he's not traded in the Tejada deal) but I'm excited about the new season even though it feels like it's still a lifetime away.