.*skis

I slept for 3 hours last night, brilliant. I had a paper due and wanted to study for my Calc test today. I finished up my paper early this morning and studied just enough to get some of the test done. It wasn't very hopeful though as Jane came out of the room as I was going in and said that even she thought the test was hard. So that was not a good first impression of the test. But after it took me 15-30 minutes to remember that I was looking for the word polar in PolarPlot[Sin[3x],{x,0,Pi}] that I started rolling. But then I took a nap in Lauren's room as it snowed like 4-8 inches and I did not want to walk home, only to come back again. So I was kept going through the day by little sleep and a large cup of TMC coffee, which is, in my opinion, gross. For the last bit, I loaded it with french vanilla creamer and it was sooo much better. I also haven't eaten yet, but I ate too much food yesterday. After not eating for a bit and having my stomach shrink down in size, I scoffed 3/4 of a subway meatball marinara sub into my gut. Then it hit me like my stomach turning to concrete. It took about 30 more minutes to finish the last 1/4.
Then, I went to the community dinner and although I tried to get smaller portions of food, I ended up with more food than the people around me, and I ate most of it somehow. But I was soo zoned out that I barely knew what was going on. But after fighting with a 1"x2"x2" piece of cornbread I felt victorious. (V-v-v-victorious! (anyone?)).
So now my gut is starting to complain. But I still have chili (chilli?) at home so whenever I go there I'll be set. mmm.

I love noise

So there's this band called fuck buttons. Yeah, pretty great name huh. But they have a 50 minute album that is 6 songs that are just amazing amounts of noise. Loud, staticy, rhythmic, sonic, soundscape, rumbling, scraping, wonderful and overwhelming noise. And I dunno why exactly, but I love it. I guess I'd call it art rock music. Because it doesn't really fit into any other genre. And it has to be called art to actually have people somewhat understand why I would listen to it. But yeah, that's what I've been listening to for the past half an hour.

What's the diff?

So, I am the youngest of three children. I am one of the youngest of my cousins on my Dad's side. He was the youngest in his family. My Mom wasn't the youngest in her family and I am closer to the top of that cousin-age bracket. What's the difference/point?
Well, I've started thinking about how people are different for being at one end of a generation. For me, I'm the youngest and I'd say I have some "youngest sibling" tendencies. I'm shy because I have two older, more outgoing, siblings. I connect with a wider range of aged people, because I spent time around a lot of differently aged people, from my siblings friends to little kids at my parent's friends houses. I am pretty passive, cause I saw my siblings be non-passive.
There is just a lot of things that I see connected to my relative age. But I look at others, who are the oldest, and see some oldest sibling traits as well. I just wonder if anyone else thinks about these things when they meet someone. Because I do, and I think it helps define people and make them understandable sometimes. Just something to think about.

Does bread always smell like this?

i think I fed my cat most of two pieces of bread dipped in chili. I hope he appreciates my cooking and generosity.

So. Vinyl. Next year I'm going to start massing my already decent collection of records. I was at Prash (spelling is probably horrible) and matt's place today and they have a great (kinda) vinyl collection. Like, it's all really old and only some of it is actually good. I was impressed with the Chaka Khan album I picked out. It seemed to be a slight hit. But I want more. More good albums. I was talking with Lauren today ( :) ) and told her about my list of perfect albums and how my goal was to have them all in some hard copy someday. Well, as great as CDs are, vinyl just seems so much more...classy. So maybe my goal will be to own all my perfect albums on vinyl. Costing at most (hopefully most) $20 a pop, thats a lot of mulah. But I have a start and a few on CD, so maybe I'll settle for that. I dunno. Maybe when I'm filthy rich, then I'll buy them.

Another short one bites the dust

I know this is another short post, but I can't write a big one now, gotta go to see planet earth. But this is what I'm doing with my moleskin to get used to writing in it more. Everyday I will put one song that I can play into it. By summer I will have about 60 songs that I can refer to at anytime. Size is sadly a limit as I could barely fit kissing the lipless onto one page. But then I just take it somewhere and can play for sixty songs worth of acoustic greatness. So far it's iron and wine, the shins, and fleet foxes.

I am wearing my musical passport

So this was an idea that Colin had and it builds on an idea that I've had since making t-shirts. The idea is to keep a record of live shows you goto by adding that bands stencil to a shirt. Eventually you have a shirt that is a record of what shows you've seen. I think it'd be pretty cool to do, like really cool. And you'd end up with a stencil design for each of your favorite bands.

I totally had a topic when I clicked new post

But now it's gone. What was it? Argh, sorry readers. I haven't exactly been the best about posting too interesting things. But I'll get back into the swing of things soon(ish).

D'you ever get this feeling?

Sometimes I get this feeling that something isn't real or didn't happen. I wake up and think I had a wonderful dream. Well, I got that feeling I guess.

Also, I remember one quote from a dream a couple of nights ago, all it was is someone asking me if I had their capo. So, whenever I play guitar I check to see if it's my capo I'm using.

Do I roll critical too often?

In my ethics class, we talked about different generations and more specifically how skeptic each generation is. Our teacher brought up a story about someone two generations older than us that believed the mail that said he had possibly won $5,000 and always sent in for the money. The mail looked official so he believed it. The same generation was more able to detect scams and BS from the traveling salesman type, or in person. Back then, being able to read people was a much more useful skill and I'd say everyone was probably better at it because of the more common interaction with people face to face. The next generation started using telephones and got more distant with personal relations. People who want your money commonly want to be as distant from you as possible so they can be the most believable. So, the phone generation got used to telemarketers and TV adverts. Their parents weren't necessarily used to this increase in distance and so they fell for them more.
This brings us to my generation, whatever we're called these days. We have the internet, and an extremely detached sense of communication. With spam and phishing a huge problem, we have become more and more skeptical and critical of what we take in. I know that i like to have proof of something before I truly believe it, and I try not to believe things for face value. This means I take longer in trusting things that aren't scams, but I also catch more scams. It bleeds into personal communication as I quite frequently doubt people if they can't back up their claims and although I'd say I can usually tell when someone is lying, I do believe people face to face more when they can give a little backup evidence.
There isn't really a point to this observation; just observing.

You are amazing.

I just cleaned my room and so I'm on break. Yuppers. What to say what to say,,,? What are three commas in a row called. Elipses are useful, but commas should have their own group of three. Like, it could be an awkward pause or something. Because most people stumble over commas in some way or another. When I read things out loud, I never look ahead to look for punctuation so I can plan my talking, so I usually stumble over things like commas and question marks. Because a sentence can become a question so fast, right? And I usually don't expect it. You should listen to my radio show, then you'll get it. I think next week Lauren is going to cohost my show with me. I'm excited. Her show is at 10 on Wedsnesdays and (no offense) her cohost doesn't have my favorite taste of music. So, he was gone and her show got 10x better. But you all (except tasha, not because I don't like you, but because you can't actually listen and this is my preemptive appology to your hypothetical comment saying that you can't listen, sorry) should listen next week. Hey, you should listen every week for that matter.
What you all should do as well is tell me to send you music. Well, within reason. For the peoples that are abroad that would involve lotsa stamps that I don't have. If you send me money for postage, i'll send back music. It's not really a good deal, but hay. Anyways, tell me to send you musics. I gave tasha up to M, but I need to send moar. And maybe i'll make a mix and send it to everyone too. Hmm, I know, I know. You're thinking "ha, martin being ambisious again and nothing will come of it, bahhahah!" Well, yeah, but if you pressure me into it, I might actually do it. And I've been thinking in mixes lately so hay, you never know.
Well,,,this is a tad awkward. I didn't plan on making a post and this one was all over the place, maybe I'll start a new one that is more focused. I just really don't want to finish cleaning my room. I don't even have a vaccum.

Bury me in peanut butter

I was hungry and so I got the large jar of peanut butter out and a spoon and started ascooping away. I get a few big scoops and enjoys them immensely. then I get scoop that hits something hard. With the knowledge that peanut butter is not indeed hard, I scooped out the perpetrator, a bit of a cracker. I was eating crackers and peanut butter a month ago and one must have broken off in the jar. Thing is, it was not stale and preserved perfectly. It was also delicious.

RATM + Tornavalanche = One day as a lion

Zach De La Rocha has a new band, One day as a lion. It's pretty sweet in my opinion. If you were a fan of Rage against the machine, it should be a good listen. They released their self titled ep which is 5 great songs. The way I would describe it is Ratm minus some of the speed and intense guitar, replaced with grungy instruments. The band is really only Zach and the drummer from the mars volta, Jon Theodore.
Just go check it out.

Quick link

Here is a sweet site that visualizes last.fm's connected music feature: http://pattie.fe.up.pt/i_know_that_artist/

Chess, midnight coffee, and a music off

So last night I went to the DPHQ, the something headquaters that is francis, jack, and alec's apartment. It was a lot of fun. The best part was probably an idea that Alec's friend jake had, which started off as a challenge to francis to play the more awesome song. Jake was up first and it was really nice. I don't remember the name of the band, but it was very good backwards guitar and intense drumming. then francis played his and after it went back to jake, they realized it would be difficult to have only two people facing off of best songs. So it was opened up to the entire group and so gockel, alec, shep, colin, shannon, and i joined in. And then it got amazing. It went from some crazy stuff to classics, but they were all amazing songs. I didn't have my ipod so I couldn't play my first choice, but was delightfully satisfied with fireworks by animal collective. Other bands played were ween, mastodon, crosby stills and nash, white stripes, and ra ra riot. There was no pressure if your's was a different genre or whatever, it was totaly chill and relaxed, just how music enjoyment should be. I plan on having one when I'm in a large enough group, like 4-6, in morris.

Oh and here is what I contributed to their whiteboard. It started off with shapes and stuff then got a little more intristic. It's the square thing on the bottom that grows.

I love the feel of dead moles

I got a three pack of moleskine pocket notebooks. They're pretty sweet. I got the ones with no lines so I can doodle to my woodle's noodle. I don't know why, but in my senior notebook, Emily Spokowski and I wrote woodle noodle in a bunch of silly fonts. I read it and was throughly confused. Anyways, the notebooks are sweet because they fit in my backpocket well enough for me not to always notice it, which I think will be a problem come laundry time. I'm also going to stencil numbers on the front of them, so I wil eventually have a collection of them and in order too. Speaking of stencils, I think I'm going to go ahead and buy a bunch-o-shirts. I figure if I put more into sketching ideas in these notebooks, maybe I'll be able to sell some shirts at morris before the summer. And, as I always say, if you want a specific design, that is totally doable, so let me know.

Do I wish I was broke?

I have been very close to being in the negatives for my checking account this past couple weeks. And it was different. I couldn't just buy whatever I wanted. Although I try not to anyways, it wasn't even an option anymore. What's the point of finding the cheapest computer you can build if you can't actually buy it afterwards. So instead of thinking for hours and not following through, I just don't even want to put the effort into something I know I will not follow through with. It totally ruins it for me.
But now I put all my old childhood savings into my current account and I am not broke. But now what? Do I still worry over spending money on things if I can actually afford them. Actually having money is like the opposite of being broke. And I know that is one of my most obvious statements, but there is more behind it than just being antonyms. Like, if I spend 3 hours on which LCD monitor is the best deal, instead of not buying it, I probably will. So, instead of giving up now because I can't give up later, I want to give up now because I know I won't give it up later. Hours of debating and research gone down the drain of an actual purchase.
I liked having just enough money to entertain the idea, but not enough to go through with it and pay next months rent.

Can you just call me everyday and be excited about life and make me smile?

I am going to a music festival in Quincy, Washington. It will be the greatest thing of the year. Thinking about it makes me extremely happy. Here is why:

• It is a days drive from MN, and I love to drive.
• I am going with new friends and old. And I love friends.
• It is in Washington, which is beautiful. And I love beautiful things.
• It is during the transition between Spring and Summer. And I love those seasons.
• It lasts three days. And I love three days.
• It will have almost every band I want to hear in one place. And I love bands, here are some key ones:

1. Animal Collective
2. Bon Iver
3. Fleet Foxes
4. The Decemberists
5. Devotchka
6. M. Ward
7. Ra Ra Riot
8. Mos Def
9. TV On The Radio
10. M83
11. Silversun Pickups
12. Gogol Bordello
13. Grizzly Bear
14. Explosions in the Sky
15. Blitzen Trapper
16. Santigold

So. I am very excited about that. Eff Why to the Eye

I want a shower and not a hurricane

I don't know what I want, but I want it in light doses. I want it in a pill form that i can remember to take every day. I can put it on a todo list and check it off and feel acomplished. I want it to be able to do it whenever, whereever. It should be right between dinner and desert, while I do the laundry, when I'm reading a book. It has to be portable, and I can use it at anytime I need it.
I want everyone and everything with me at all times. I would then always have what I want to do with me and who I want to do it with as well. But that would require two semitrucks, and that's a lot of money, assuming everyone would actually follow me everywhere and never feel leftout in the trailer.

What do Vin Diesel and I have in common?

Let me set the scene: It's late at night, about 1 or 2. I'm sitting in my room with Meghan. We both have to write papers. Mine is due the next day. What do we do? Goto Coborn's to get energy drinks of course.
So we go and are looking at the vast selection of dranks and the guy working the graveyard shift comes over and hears me talking about how they should can pure focus and sell that because that's what I need. Me + focus = paper done in half an hour, no contest. Sadly I am never that focused and so it usually takes 5+ hours for the simplest papers. So the guy recommends NoS as his favorite. I haven't had that kind before so I grab one. Then he tells me about the new cappuccino flavor cookies and cream. Sounds delicious? Yes. And guess what, it was sooo tasty. I downed it like nothing else. It took a bit for the caffeine to kick in so I had already started the NoS before I felt it.
Bam, paper wrote itself almost.
Sadly, this has the repercussion of keeping me up all night. And when I say all night I mean until 10AM, where I slept until 12:30. But it was a great time. I played WoW and had fun and am now running on two hours sleep.

Slow Snow Day

Yesterday was freezing rain, today is snow. Convenient snow, on a day that I didn't want to goto school. Everything was canceled. It's nice, but now I'm inside and I don't always like being stuck inside. But w/e, I'll take a day off when I can get one from the school.

Recommending Music

I just read another person's top ablums list and started thinking (again) about how recommending music works. Like, can you really find great music from someone else's top list? Well, yeah. But part of it is that you already like some of their favorites. Say I read a top classical pieces list, I dunno what I like in classical music, so I'd probably nod my head and say yeah that's good, only to never listen to it again. But if I already like the bands, then it turns into a list of music I already like/know/have and that gets boring. What I usualy look for is a few albums I like, usually the basics in a top list, and then hope the list is 20% things I haven't heard of or don't have. Then I get those and the chance is usually high that I will like them.
This idea goes into how I make mixes as well. I don't always like to throw songs I know someone has and likes into one, I like to switch it up and take them in and out of what they know and like. Hopefully they like a song and look it up or ask for the album. That's rewarding.

Why my ankle hurts...

I think my ankle hurts because it was on a textbook when I slept. No, I didn't fall asleep studying, haha that'd be the day. I didn't remember that the textbook was in my bed, as it was quite a mess. My bed included, as of last night, a textbook, 3 CDs, a notebook, my computer(playing music to sleep to), and almost my entire wardrobe. When I got back from the cities this weekend I had two bags full of clean clothes. On the bottom of one of the bags was my toothbrush and toothpaste. So, in a quick effort to brush my teeth, I emptied one bag to only find there were only clothes. So, empty the other one and find it. But now I have a bed with all my clean clothes, and it was a lot of clothes. So, after brushing my teeth and getting into sleep mode, I decided I would put them away later and pushed them to one side of my bed. Well, it took me till today to put them away. And my bed slowly got additions to its mess like a game of katamari. Anyways, that's why my foot hurts, I think. That or I just stepped on it wrong.

In twenty years...

I'm reading the watchmen in preparation for the movie coming out tomorrow. I downloaded the pdf and I'm halfway through it so far. One common thing that I see the various retired watchmen think is that they don't know why they did what they did. Why did they dress up and fight criminals? In their old age, they say it was a fad and that they were bored. I say that isn't it. They did those things because they believed in something, justice. It let them go out and risk their lives day to day. They believed in something so strongly that they devoted their lives to it. It takes a strong belief to not give that up as the "fad" dies and move on to "real life." That was their real life. That was what they did. In the end, they were prevented by more legitimate reasons like laws and public distaste. But twenty years after they were the watchmen they look back and almost laugh at themselves for devoting their lives to something. I hope I never look back and don't see why I did something with my life.
My point is that what we do, right now, is important. It is the most important thing we will do. And if we don't see that, then what's the point? If tomorrow matters more than today, what is the point of today? I know I have the urge to do things. I want to do a lot, and it isn't because I'm bored or it's "cool," it's because I feel the need I know that if I don't do something, I will be miserable. I am miserable because I don't do anything, I know this. And when I am doing something, I am at my happiest. Last summer I sat in my basement with Colin and we made music and T-Shirts. That's what we did, and it was fantastic. I don't do anything like that right now. Because in addition to feeling good when I am creating something, people make it better. I will try harder and put more into something if others are involved. It might be my work ethic saying that if I do my best, others will do their best, but I've done that and no it can fall through. The people you work with have to care like you do. I have partially thought about taking a semester or two off from school to just do things that I feel like I can't right now. Now, I'm not going to because right now I can't focus enough to make that time worth it. But the fact that I feel like doing something that much makes me feel bad that I'm not. I was thinking, after the P.O.S. show last weekend, that it would be awesome to be surrounded by people with this feeling. Have a collective of people working together. I see this in the doomtree group, and in various bands. They live to create and they join together and create together. I think it is wonderful.
I see it here in Morris occasionally. At the jazz concerts where a combo will blow me away because of how they take what they're doing. They put their hearts into it and it shows. Also at open mic nights, when people do a song together, there is a lot of heart behind that. And it is something that takes practice to make work so well. Working as a group is a skill and I'm kinda sad that I'm not actively practicing that skill. I hope that soon I will feel more that I am, but for now I'll keep looking and practicing on my own so I'll be prepared.

A to Z

So I like mixes, a lot. Today for my radio show, inspired by those old countdown shows, I did an a to z of martin's indie picks. So not just all music, but mostly indie music. It was fun and rough. Here's the list:
Animal Collective - Fireworks
Beirut - Nantes
Clout Cult - Everybody here is a cloud
Dirty Projectors and David Bryne - Knotty Pine
Eyedea and Abilities - One Twenty
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
Grizzly Bear - Don't Ask
Hush Arbors -
Iron and Wine - The Sea and the Rhythm
Jennings, Mason - Big Sur
King Kahn - Torture
Lightning Bolt - Birdy
M.I.A. - Bird Flu
Noah and the Whale - Jocasta
Of Montreal - Softcore
Plastic Constellations - We Came to Play
Q and Not U - Wonderful People
Radiohead - Idioteque
Sigur Ros - Gobbledigook
TV on the Radio - Dancing Choose
Ulysses - Push Your Away
Vampire Hands - Stunning Blonde
Why? - These Few Presidents
Xiu Xiu - Crank Heart
Yeasayer - Tightrope
Zox - The Squid

This isn't candy

I went to health services today to get a cold pack. It comes with a baggy of sudafed, a baggy of Tylenol, a pack of cough suppressors, cough syrup, and tissues. It's pretty great that I can get it for free too, cause all that costs money. But the cough drop suppressor things make my whole tongue go numb, my throat too, but it's the tongue that is more interesting. Then after sucking on one, I drank some pop, and it was the strangest feeling. Like, kind of cold and sweet, but only on a few parts of my tongue. I think you all should try it sometime.
Oh, and they made my arms numb for a bit, it was crazy.

vodoo chile (slight return delay)

Songbird's release, "hendrix", that was set to be out in Feburary, has been delayed because it makes vista crash too much. Sad day, because i've been waiting for the ability to have it watch folders and fetch album art in a stable release.

Hulled, Roasted, and Salted (or: can I eat 3/4 of a pound of sunflowerseeds?)

Here is my past four days:

Thursday:
I didn't have class until 3 so I didn't really do anything before then. I finished the paper that was due in my ethics class and kinda hung out till then. Oh, right, it also snowed. Like, a lot. So I got a ride with Meghan to campus because she offered. So the plan was to be on campus from 2:30 to whenever I left open mic night (usually around 12). With the idea of 10 hours on campus, I was not thrilled. But whatever, I went and brought a can of soup to eat there. It felt weird bringing a can of soup to eat, borrowing a bowl and spoon and heating it up (very messily) in a microwave. The bowl was too small, so it was more difficult. The first one had all the liquid and splattered, the second was all the mass of the soup. Then I had a KUMM meeting at 6 and went to my AI class's group programming meeting thing. It was fun, kinda. I don't think the other two guys got what I was suggesting and so I took over and just typed it out and stuff, so it went faster. I got what to do and I haven't necessarily been to class all that much (oops). But then I went to the TMC to get a good seat for open mic. I was going to preform, but I chose not to, and good choice because my voice was going that night. Getting sick is lameski. Open mic blew. Like, I always know that it has been getting progressively worse as time goes on, but I always go, hoping. But I get out before the love songs started. Then I went home and probably did nothing.

Friday:
Slept through AI, because I'm just genius enough to not go after I actually do the group work. Yeah, sad. So, in lieu of not being able to get up, I made a list of things I needed to do that day, buying an alarm clock was on it for sure. My phone just doesn't cut it for waking me up. I have this alarm clock at home that uses the idea that waking up to sunshine or light is a smoother feeling. So the clock starts to light up about 10 minutes before the alarm goes off. It works pretty well, problem is that it always has a faint glow, so it can be distracting. But not more than my stereo flashing the time like a VCR. The list also included buying shelves for organizing, doing laundry, picking up my room and reviewing music. I went to school for my two afternoon classes and then went to pamida to buy my needed items. They sold neither. Blast, foiled again. But then Meghan pointed out that I can just go while I'm home. And I knew I could grab my old alarm clock and probably a shelf from home too, both for free. Sweet deal. So, I did some laundry, of which I fail at every time. I leave clothes in the dryer. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, and I just deal with it because I for some reason don't want to get them out. Weird, eh? But anyways, at night I went to the jazz concert and it was simply amazing. Just amazing. Bob (my housemate) and his friend Gill did this amazing piece that battled guitar against saxophone. And Gill did his circular breathing on sax which is always amazing to see. After that I watched Hot Rod and loved it. Went to bed.

Saturday:
Woke up actually at a decent hour for a Saturday, 10 AM. Did some stuff, played some WoW, got ready to go home. Drove home. Got home at about 5. Hung out with my dad and mom for a bit before going to the show. Told my parents about a student at Morris committing suicide and they pointed out that I've been around more death and loss than they had when they were at my age. It was a downer, but it was great to talk to them about real things, it's something I don't do nearly enough. Going to the concert was kinda a mess. Tessa had txted me asking if I wanted to carpool, and figuring it'd be her colin and I, I said sure. but she wanted to leave like 10 minutes earlier than colin was going to be free. So it was just her and I. Eh, not horrible, but, y'know. got to P.O.S. concert and the next 3-4 hours were amazing. Maybe another post for that. After the show Colin and I went to Francis' to see some people and what not, ended up leaving to go hang out at my house for a few more hours into the night. It was great, although I was exhausted from being sick and a long day. Went to bed.

Sunday:
Got up at 9, hung out with parents. Did laundry that i brought home. Played drums, GTA IV, and watched TV. Ate doughnuts. Talked to my dad, the motivational speaker, for a long time about lots of things. It was amazing, as it always is. He knows so much about psychology and even though he doesn't actively use it, he can pull it out and it makes so much sense. So, I got pumped for life and stuff. And the talk was free, usually that would cost hundreds of dollars, sweet deal for me. Found a shelf I wanted, put it in car. Put stuff in car, avoided getting too much food from my mom that I would forget to eat. Got Meghan and Jake, drove to Morris. Cleaned my room, reorganized my stereo set up. Started reviewing music and playing WoW, then switched to reviewing music and writing this. And now I'm writing this sentence, and from now on it seems kinda stupid to keep going on.