Man. I wish I had that United States Men’s Downhill coach at my house. If he yelled at me “RIP IT UP JOSH HEAD! LET’S GO! YOU GOT THIS! SHRED IT! RIP IT UP!” every time I walked out the door I think I would, in fact, rip every day up.
Monthly Archive for February, 2010
Oh yes, it’s S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT and I am living it up at work! Woo yeah! Let’s get right to the Awesome/Not Awesome for the week.
Awesome: This was from a couple of weeks ago, but the This American Life episode House on Loon Lake (itself almost nine years old) was amazing. It involved abandoned houses, seemingly discarded lives, and mystery. Just a perfect story.
Not Awesome: Some guy crashed a small plane into a building in North Austin. Joseph Stack, the aforementioned asshole, wrote up a suicide note/manifesto, posted it online, burned down his house, stole a plane, and crashed it into a building killing a couple of people in the process. Look, I don’t like paying taxes either. I feel like I’m getting screwed six ways to Sunday every year by the IRS. However, I’m not going to steal a plane and try to take out as many people as I can with me. Some Austinites are viewing this as their own personal 9/11. People are gawking at the crash site, talking about how they want their kids to be able to see it. How can we ever feel safe again in this post-2/17 world? I’m sure a memorial will be up within the year.
Not Awesome: Colds. I hate having a cold. I hate it even more when I have to be at work with one. I think the worst part of a cold is the fact that you aren’t quite sick enough to stay in bed but not quite well enough to really do anything. It’s the limbo of sickness.
Awesome: Mid to late 90’s music. I spent tonight listening to Lauryn Hill, the Fugees, Fiona Apple, Chemical Brothers, Gorillaz (even though their first album came out in 2001 it feels like mid to late ’90s music). I think I need to make a mix of my college years.
Thing that is neither Awesome nor Not Awesome: I miss taking photos. I haven’t done it in awhile. Call it lack of inspiration or whatever. I think it’s time to start it back up again.
In tribute to my new favorite podcast / imaginary radio program, TBTL, I’m stealing one of their segments for blog purposes. It’s called Awesome / Not Awesome (insert sound clips here). It’s a segment in which they discuss things in the news that are either Awesome or Not Awesome. Pretty self explanatory eh? Let’s jump to it.
Awesome: The Winter Olympics have arrived! I’m an unrepentant lover of the Olympics. I’ll even watch the “boring stuff” like cross country skiing and biathlon. I love the stories, the cheese, the winners, the losers…everything. If I had to choose, I’d say I like the Winter Olympics more than the Summer. Awesome.
Not Awesome: The death of the Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. The luge track at Whistler is one of the fastest ever designed. In the World Championships a luger hit 95 mph at the finish line. When Nodar crashed into an unpadded steel pole near the track he was going about 90 mph. Track officials have taken a stance that Nodar was to blame for his own death by not compensating for a bad line he took on the track. Definitely not awesome.
Awesome: I’m a little late to the game on this. I’m going to put Indian food in the awesome column. Last week I made mulligatawny soup from scratch. Saturday night I had curry. I’m down with it man. A very solid awesome.
Not Awesome: This morning I woke up. I went to the bathroom to start the shower. As I turned the knob, I heard a distinct cracking sound and then the knob just spun. No water came out. This is not the first time it has happened. The other bathroom in our bedroom had the same thing happen…twice. Since I didn’t fix the bedroom shower last time, there was no backup plan. I had to go to the garage, break out the toolbox and use pliers to turn on the shower. After I got out I remembered Kristin had a lady doctor appointment today and would probably want to use the shower. I drove down to Home Depot, bought replacement knobs, then came home and installed them. I was only 45 minutes late to work. Definitely not a good way to start a work week. Definitely not awesome.
Awesome: Too Beautiful to Live, or TBTL. TBTL is a podcast that started out as a radio show on KIRO in Seattle. It’s hosted by Luke Burbank out of his home in Seattle. Appearing are Jen “Flash” Andrews and “Japan’s #1 mixer”, Sean DeTore. These guys, they are my kind of guys. If you are interested you can find them at TBTL.net or in the iTunes store. Huge awesome.
When I heard about the Underground Railroad as a kid I thought it was an actual underground railroad. I thought to myself, “How could they not know about this? A big train underground? That’s got to be noisy. Plus the tracks and stuff. It doesn’t make any sense!”
To this day whenever I hear underground railroad, I flash on a coal driven steam train chugging along in tunnels all over the South.
