Latest Listening Pleasure... Newsted

Okay, I wanted to do this LLP post several weeks ago for this new video/EP, but the winter funks had me and never got around to it.  After posting Paramore, now I just have to post the new Newsted.  I do enjoy the Paramore but the new Newsted EP is pretty darn good... and heavy.

Now, I'm a great fan of early Metallica (mid-80's), then they went bigtime and I enjoyed them some, after that I got sick of them and, for the most part, have been neutral ever since. I saw them on the 'And Justice For All' Tour, shortly after Jason Newsted joined them, then after that was the Metallica 'Black' album with that 'Enter Sandman' song.  That was the beginning of the end for me, I kinda liked it then but they lost me after that.  No, they lost me before that, I just enjoyed that era of metal trying to get it's comeuppance, especially after the Jethro Tull debacle of 1989.

That was a different time and place, and this is just a new EP by their former bassist, but dang it, I'm diggin' it!

Latest Listening Pleasure... Paramore - Now

I think the song is good, I think the video is better.  Anyway, I'm not sure how I came across the new video by Paramore called 'Now,' but I have been enjoying it lately.  The song is off their yet to be released new self-titled album, fourth overall as they have been around for almost a decade.  I will be interested in their new release when it becomes available.  I have been looking into their past music a little bit as I had not heard of them before, and while they seem like a pretty good one, they sound like a band you would hear on top 40 radio these days.  I believe they are from Tennessee, but it seems they have had more success overseas.
This kind of music is hit or miss for me, and this song and video hits.


You can read more about them here on wikipedia. 

And if you know me, you know I love the live stuff.  Here they are playing their new single last week live in Bangkok.

Shoe Shopping

I've worn the same shoes for about 20 years now.  No, not the same exact pair, I've had several pair over the years.  They are completely black tennis shoes, leather, and high top.  Well, not the high tops that I remember from the eighties, they come up around but not above my ankle.  I remember a doctor a couple years ago remarking to me that he liked the type of shoes I was wearing, they would help my back, or knee, or whatever problem I was having at the time.  I like these shoes because they are comfortable, and the completely black color lets me get by wearing them for any occasion.  Whenever I get a new pair, the old pair gets demoted to yard work or other uses when you would rather not wear your 'good' shoes.  The style has changed slightly over the years, but it would be hard to tell unless you had them side by side as I have many times.  So when my current pair started squeaking, meaning it was getting moisture in the sole when it is wet out, I started looking for my next pair.  I didn't like what I was about to find out.


They changed the color of the soles!  It was no longer the black tennis shoe that I could wear for any occasion.  Why, after all these years, would they change it?  And now what the hell am I going to do?  Shoe shopping has been so easy for me for so long.  All it used to take was a very short trip to the shoe store, I didn't even need to try them on.  Recently the internet has made that even easier - click click and it shows up at my door.  I don't think I even want to consider the new style, which means I need to do some actual shoe shopping for the first time in ages.  I dread going in to one of those large chain shoe stores and emerging hours later with shoes that I settled for.  But do I trust shopping for something so intimate to my daily comfort online?  I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, it's all just so much to take in!

Tears.  Drama.  Anger.  Resignation.  Acceptance.  Sigh.  Eff you, Reebok.  PTFO.

Valentines Day and Videos

Happy Valentine's Day, yada yada.  We're not doing anything special though I may try to make tonight's home made pizza into a heart shape.  Here's a funny vid from 5SF, video may be NSFW.




Okay, now that that's done, I've been hanging on to a few things that I wanted to post, but felt that I was posting too much other stuff rather than writing.  I've narrowed it down to one more video, a Superbowl commercial that I missed live and came across later.



PTFO

Esquire Interviews The Man Who Killed Bin Laden

Esquire interviews the man who killed Osama bin Laden.

Just because.

Snow In The Northeast

As much as I hate winter in Wisconsin, it could be worse.  This is Friday in Hartford, Connecticut.
Reposted from Bits & Pieces!

Green Fairy Dreams

Last night we met our friends Bridget and Zubin at the Malt House for a few drinks.  Having the next day off, I eventually had some of the absinthe, Livid was the brand.  Bridget took photos, but it seems that uploading all those pictures from my Mom's retirement party to flickr has put me over the limit for the time being, so this is just a similar pic from the internet. 

I've had absinthe a couple times before, but never for an evening.  I had two last night and still drove home easily.  One of these days when I have the time - and extra cash - I think I would like to see what it is like to drink absinthe exclusively one night and see how I like it.  Maybe I won't write the next great american novel or even paint the latest greatest masterpiece, but it might be a nice drunk!

Lingering Cold, Vacation

Time to post something, even though I don't really feel like it.  Although I have been over the worst of it since about last Wednesday, this cold is still lingering in me.  Saturday I started a stretch of 8 out of 9 days off.  Just a little time off for myself to do something - or nothing, depending on the day.  Sleep is what I really want.  Good, long restful sleep is always hard to come by these days, but I shall try to achieve it.  Sigh, maybe tomorrow.  Oh, I did not jinx myself and passed the needed tests to take the other position at work.  That will not start for many months yet, though, so anything can happen.  Until then I plan on keeping my eye out for other positions that may better suit me.

It is hibernation season and I think that's pretty much all I plan to do this week so perhaps I shall post more, perhaps not.  PTFO

How I Caught My Cold

Tonight is the night we are going out with friends to celebrate my wife's birthday, except I won't be going out tonight due to a pretty nasty cold.  I had been fighting it since Monday, on Wednesday at work I felt it settle into my sinuses and I have been more than miserable ever since.  I was around my neices and nephews last weekend at my Mom's retirement party, so that would seem to confirm my 'all kids are disease carrying vermin' viewpoint, no matter how cute they are.  Or maybe not.

Here's how Heywood Banks caught his cold, reposted from Bits & Pieces:

Laid Off.... Wait, What?

Due to the loss of contracts, layoffs have been impending at my place of work.  It has been a tense, somber couple of weeks at work watching friends and co-workers get picked off one by one.  Many people in the company have been escorted out on the same day, some have a date when their position is eliminated and yet others have been offered lower positions and the lower pay that goes with it.

I had hoped I was safe, but I finally got the call into the office late yesterday.  My position will be eliminated this fall.  The surprise is that I will not be out of work, in fact, I will be getting a raise and a promotion to move to a different, if less desireable, department (pending two tests I have to take that I should pass easily - knock wood).  Well now, I certainly did not expect that!

Actually, I am not very pleased.  Oh, I'm happy that I'm not out the door and have to look for another job, but I was happier in my present department, with the work and the people, than I have been in a long time.  And now things will be different.  I must be doing very well for them to want to keep me, as my wife says, yet it is still upsetting for me.  I'm not just sad for myself losing the great situation that I'm in now, I'm sad for all these people that I know and care about losing their jobs or having to accept demotions.  I will still be with the company at a higher level and with more pay, and after being in the new job for six months I can start applying for other positions that open up that better suit me.  Meanwhile other good, hard working people will have to start all over again and I think that sucks.

PTFO