Merry Christmas

Christmas time
Originally uploaded by flyin j.

headin to minnesota

commas

boy, it, seems, I, use, a, lot, of, these, when, I, type, Somehow, I, feel, that, internet, has, ruined, my, English, skillz,

Christmas Gift Madness

Well we opened our gifts to each other the other day, and I got something sweet. You won't guess it, so I will tell you. It's a Cooperstown Collection, Mid-80's ,powder-blue, Minnesota Twins, throwback jersy that has #24 Brunansky on the back. Oh yeah, You know you are jealous.

new poll up

make sure and vote. i finally changed the poll.

Christmas Cards

Don't be upset if you don't get aChristmas card from us. Its not that we don't like you in particular, but that we don't like any of you as a whole. In all honesty we have been so busy that it doesn't look like its gonna happen.

Self-Serve Shopping

Today I went to the post office to mail a CD to a friend. I discovered that they now have a machine where you can weigh your package and mail it with out the assistance of the postal employees behind the counter. Normally I would be against using this, but do to the holidays they are already overloaded with work and longer hours, so this is helpful to them.
Normally I avoid all of these types of purchasing avenues, the self-check out lines. You now what I am talking about. They have them at Home Depot and most notably at the large grocery stores. I refuse to use them no matter what kind of wait there is, and I urge you to do the same. It upsets me a little that bag-boys union even let these in. If you are asking why, well I will tell you. It's simple math. Most grocery stores have four of these registers with one person usually monitoring them, sometimes none as someone will be splitting their normal work at the customer service counter to cover them. The space taken up by the four self-check registers is equal to what two normal registers would take. To those two registers open would require to cashiers and one bag boy, plus the customer service rep would be able to do here normal duties, and not have to deal with idiot shoppers who don't understand how the self-check works (here's a hint: don't use coupons or purchase alcohol and produce.) This gives us the consumer better overall service. So back to the math.
Four self-check lanes = 1 to 1/2 of an employee to run them.
2 regular lanes = 4 employees.
So by using the self check lane you are essentially talking away 3 people's jobs and and adding stress (via added workload) to a fourth person's life, and all that is achieved by this is more money for the big company that undoubtedly will not be seen in any of their employees Christmas bonuses this year.

Life Aquatic Concert

metro aquatic
Originally uploaded by flyin j.

Well this was a pretty good time. Me, Von, and Bigtime arrived about an hour before the doors opened for the show. It was at the Metro in wrigleyville and the show included the artists: The Safes, The Abstract Giants, The Kevin O'Donnell group with Andrew Bird, and The Autumn Defense. We made sure to arrive early so that we could get free tickets to the preview screening of Life Aquatic. I lodged a question to the promoter before the show via email about how we would get tickets and he was nice enough to send me ten tickets and two official Life Aquatic skull caps. Jealousy was definately expressed to us by people at the show. Bigtime received another piece of film swag at the show. That's right he got an official Team Zissou powder blue speedo. not as wearable as the skull-caps but equally cool. As far as the show it was ok, with some moments of real coolness. The first band, The Safes, were ok. To explain their sound, imagine punk rock being played by very clean-cut white guys in their mid to late thirties.
The second Band was called the Abstract Giants. I though they were definatley the highlight of the show. I definately would like to see them again sometime. They are a hip-hop group that included 3 MCs, guitar, bass, keyboards, drums, a DJ,and a violinist. The MCs were nothing spectacular and the white guy was a little too Eminem-ish, but the band was superb with their stylings verying from straight hip-hop to salsa to dub/reggae to rock.
the Kevin O'Donnell group was ok and kind of a bring down after getting so pumped up from The Giants set. Kevin O'Donnell's group consisted of drums, upright bass, three violins, acoustic guitar, two saxes (alto and tenor,) a flute, and a trumpet.
Lastly was The Autumn Defense. I don't know anything of them except that they included two members of Wilco. Their set started with a few Wes Anderson songs (the highlights being great versions of Love's "Either/Or" and The Faces' "Ooh La La.") They then went into some sad-bastard alt-country that was a little too draining for all of us since it was about 12:30 and we had work in the morning.
All in all the show was alright and a decent time. It would have been more of a let down if it weren't for the free movie tickets.

on a side note: I really don't care for Wilco. Much of the reason stemming from their fans, who did not let me down. During The Autumn Defense's set I heard multiple shout-outs for for Wilco songs and even an "I love Jeff Tweedy." As if these guys don't spend enough time living in Jeff's "alt-country godliness," at least give them the respect of not bringing it up at there show. Save if for the next Wilco show.

Coffee Crazed

http://www.millstone.com/pages/ourcoffees/OurCoffees.jsp?Section=Flavored&Coffee=HolidayPeppermint
So Millstone brand coffee makes this great holiday peppermint coffee. I have purchased this the last couple of years, but rarely buy any of there other stuff. I went to Jewel a few weeks ago to pick some up. To my surprise I found that they had cancelled there contract with Millstone, and were now getting some other coffee, who did not stock a peppermint coffee. I drove around and checked a few more Jewels and realized that this was a chain-wide decision not individual store. I sat and pondered this for about a week, when I realized that I think Cub Foods carries it. So I thought, let's check it out. This is a little more of a challenge than some of you may think. Cub Foods doesn't really have a large chunk of the grocery market here, and has only one northside location with sporadic suburb locations. I first drove to skokie to check there. I found that they did in fact have it, but that the wholeself-serve bin was empty. I asked but they had none in back.
Next Store: Arlington Heights.
I was shopping in the area or so I thought, so i decided to journey there. It was 30 minutes further away than I had expected. Turns out that Arlington Heights is a farely large city. Anyway they had two bins there. Both empty. I asked the manager and it seems that a Millstone Vender supplies them when ever he comes. They do not actually have any onsite.
Next Store: Lombard
I was at work and happened to drive buy this. I stopped in and they had one bin... empty.
Next store:
Chicago Northside
After the advanced screening of Life Aquatic thursday, Me, Von, and Bigtime went to the store to check it out. Low and Behold they had one bin with just a little left. I shook it until I could get every last bean out. It equalled one half pound of pure gold.
I am rationing it out as we speak and have made my first pot just now. Wouldn't you know it, as if it was someone's sick joke. I have made it too weak.

Finally I'm back

So sorry i haven't written in awhile, but I've been massive busy this week. I will break things down into short columns so you don't have to read a bunch of crap at once.

Seattle.
So I went to seattle last week to visit my friend Phil and his wife Ruth. I had a good time, and it would be my hope that they did as well and weren't just trying to not hurt my feelings. It was a quick trip that started with me arriving in seattle at about 8:30 friday night and getting back to the airport at 3:00 sunday afternoon to head back to chicago. The trip mainly included these activities.
-Drink a lot of Tulley's Coffee (west coast coffee chain based in seattle where phil works)
-Drink some different seattle based micro-brews.
-8 mile hike(4 each way) to Twin Falls in Iron Horse State Park.
-Chill out.
All in all in was a fun but brief trip. The skys did clear up for one of the days. Enough so that we could see The Olympics and Mt. Ranier.

Seattle in one word:

Wet

1 hour to go

I leave for Seattle in one hour. I can't wait! Plus my Phil Spector Christmas album arrived to day. It's a little warped, so vonny's old "classic" record player skipped across the first song. Spectacular. Guess I'll have to reserve play of it on my good record player. Unfortunately the neighbor lady is asleep at the moment since she works nights dang.

A Rough Night

Man,Iwas on-call this weekend for work. At 9:30 last night not a call had come in yet. I thought "alright we are home free." I had spoke too soon. At 10:300 Illinois Masonic Hospital called with an emergency. Their computer's server room was at 120 degrees. I got there at 11:00 and didn't leave until 4:30 this morning. I just woke up about an hour ago. I splet solid from 5:00 to 7:00, but had to force myself to keep sleeping, waking up every hour or two, until I finally got up at 1:00. Now I have a splitting headache, probably fromnot having any caffeine yet today, and 'm going go get some Christmas presents.

Light a Candle

TomBrunansky
Originally uploaded by flyin j.

and lift a glass to your favorite non-steroid Major League baseball players.
Here's to you...

Tom Brunansky

Man am I bored

that about sums it up

Crap Helsing

When I saw the theatrical previews for this I thouight to myself. "Man, that looks horrible." Then when it was released on dvd they came out with a whole new trailor. I then Thought to myself, "Well that looks kinda cool." After watching the first hour and forty-five minutes and sleeping through the last 30 minutes (by choice.) I can now say thatit was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Not quite "Mission Impossible 2" but in the top five.