So early last year I stumbled upon Damien Rice – the ‘O’ album – and really, really enjoyed it. And when I had listened to it a few times all the way through, I realized it was quite possibly Lisa Hannigan that I was enjoying the most – her voice is just amazing. Then I saw them both perform on one of the late shows, and I was spell-bound by Lisa. There was just something about the way she sang – not just her voice but her entire presence, so earnest and simply sweet (or painfully sweet, depending on the song). Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m not infatuated with the girl or anything – it’s not a physical thing. It’s just something about the way she sings, and it goes beyond just the sound of her voice. I figured at the time it was just that – that album, with that voice, at that time in my life – it all just fit. Without all of the pieces, I wouldn’t have been as impressed or intrigued by her. Turns out, that’s not the case!
Mr. Rice and Ms. Hannigan have a new single available (I’m a couple weeks behind, I know) called “Unplayed Piano”, and here’s the kicker: if you buy it on iTunes (for $.99), you get a video version as well. I grabbed it, listened to the song (good – not great, but good), and then watched the video. It wasn’t just the album+voice+time-in-my-life, ’cause I was mesmerized yet again by Lisa Hannigan. The girl is just amazing! Check out the song and the video if you get it from iTunes – it’s definitely worth a buck.
Just watched this episode, and damn that was funny! The Santa Claus bit was hilarious, as were several other of the smaller ones. Definitely one of the better episodes I’ve seen.
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Originally uploaded by rlaneve.
Seriously…he was all about the bag of cheetos. I’m not entirely sure he really likes eating them, but he definitely likes playing with them. Most of them wound-up on the floor, in the pool, etc, etc… I’d guess-timate about 3-in-20 wound-up in his mouth, and at least 1 or 2 of those still wound-up on the ground. Too cute.
My new toys arrived (despite Amazon saying the “big one” wouldn’t show-up ‘till Monday).
It’s been all of 30 minutes since I hooked up my new 20” wide-screen monitor, and I’ll tell you right now – you’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands to get it away from me. Screw that “dual-monitor” bullshit. This is what I’m talkin’ about!
Amazon has great selection, prices, ease of use, blah, blah, blah. But do they have to make it **so** easy to buy stuff?
I’ve got a couple of new gadgets on the way. I’ll post more when they show up (Friday, hopefully).
…I love my PowerBook! I still don’t use it for as much as I would like to, but that’s my own failure to make time to do those kinds of things. But, I did – finally – find a blog tool I like (ecto) so I can post stuff to this thing without much effort at all. That’s definitely a requirement for me to post anything, so maybe this time I’ll get more than a half-dozen posts before quitting again.
Anyway…the PowerBook rocks. I love the integration between the apps, especially the iLife suite. The bluetooth “just worked” with both my phone and my Microsoft mouse (which didn’t even work on Windows XP without an hour long fight). I also finally got it to connect to a shared drive on my PC after trying several times. Turns out, it was a security restriction on the PC – nothing wrong with the Mac at all. Figures.
Ok…I have to at least try to sleep now. It won’t work, but I have to try.
Now Playing: Mina Loy (M.O.H.) from the album “Mina Loy – Single” by Billy Corgan
Taking six days off of work has got me all screwed up, and not just my “schedule”, though that’s whacked all to hell right now also (case in point: I should be sleeping right now!). Monday – the first (official) day back – was fine. I had actually gone in for a few hours Saturday and Sunday, so I was mostly caught up on email and ready to get something done. I actually got up when the alarm went off – despite having only slept five hours – and was all about getting to work. That lasted one day.
Today sucked. My interest in the work to be done is practically non-existent. A review late yesterday of what’s coming up in the next few months lowered my motivation level even more. The entire dynamic within my group had changed a couple of months back, and that’s not helping either. Top it off with my usual “anniversary-depression” – I’ve been there six years as of tomorrow, the 25th. Add it all up and the summer is looking pretty bad.
I’ll try to latch on to my belief that this is all really just the usual anniversary-related crap, and it’s really no worse than years gone by, so there’s nothing to get all worried about. Still, though…I spend too much of my life focused on work – despite wanting and planning to do other things – to be content with the drudgery that makes up 90% of my job.
