Really, Charlie Davies??

I like Charlie Davies as a footballer.  I wouldn't call him great by any means, but his speed gave the US Men's National Team a bit of a spark when he played.  And of course I was saddened when I heard about the car accident a couple of years ago that ultimately cost him a chance at playing in the World Cup.  But he's recovered fairly well, and had a pretty solid season in the MLS this year.  And I wish him the best in his soccer career going forward.

With that being said, however, I think that his current lawsuit against the Shadow Room, the nightclub where he partied the night of the crash, and Red Bull is completely frivolous and without merit.  The lawsuit apparently claims that the Shadow Room and Red Bull are responsible for the car accident (in which one person was killed, in addition to the others that were injured) because they served excessive alcohol to the woman that later drove the car.

Really??

I have a couple of questions for you, Charlie...

1. Did the nightclub in any way force the woman to acquire or consume those alcoholic beverages?
2. Did the nightclub force her to get behind the wheel of a motor vehicle while intoxicated?
3. Did the nightclub wreck the car?

I strongly suspect that the answer to all those questions is clearly "No".  So drop the stupid lawsuit.

The whole idea is so dumb that it's not even worth my time writing this post.  Except for the minor point that it allows me to make about free will.  My opinion is obviously that we are each responsible for our freely chosen actions.  An excuse such as "I was drunk" does not relieve you of that responsibility (assuming here that you were not forcefully or surreptitiously drugged, or anything like that).

Since I am also a determinist, some might argue that I must provide an account of how free will is compatible with determinism in order to be able to claim that we are indeed responsible for our actions.  But that's a discussion for another time...

Every online service should have a data extraction feature

This post was initially inspired by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings' blog post that apologized for the recent price hike and then announced that their movie-by-mail service would be spun off to a separate site named Qwikster.  My concern was that I would then have to manage two separate movie queues and, more importantly, two sets of movie ratings.

Sidetrack...  One primary driver that makes me like Netflix so much is my horrible memory.  I've seen a fair number of movies, but I don't really remember much about most of them.  But given any particular movie I can take a glance at my Netflix rating history and get an idea of how much I liked (or disliked) it.  This seems like a pretty simple idea, but for me it's pretty great.

Anyway...  The announcement of Qwikster even had me considering quitting Netflix for about half a second.  But Netflix does not provide a way to extract your rating history from their service.  And I've rated a lot of movies on there - 1120 at latest count (though I'd estimate that I've only watched 700-800 on Netflix).  There are, or at least were, some ways to hack your rating history out of Netflix, but the couple that I found appear to not function any more (though I did not verify this myself).

Wouldn't it be great if Netflix, and other online services, had a data liberation team like Google's?  The folks at Google even have a feature called Google Takeout that allows you to download your data from an expanding list of Google services.  Even Facebook has a way to archive and download all your Facebook data (there's a link that says "Download a copy of your Facebook data" at the bottom of the Account Settings page).  This makes it easy to keep all your data if you stop using a service, or transition to a different provider.  Unfortunately, this ties into why they wouldn't want to provide this feature - they want to keep you hooked.

OK, so maybe Netflix doesn't really have enough of my data that they need a huge archiving system.  But I would have thought that it wouldn't be that hard to provide a simple API that allows external applications (that I authorize) to access my movie ratings.  In fact, this feature has been in request for over 3 years now.  It seems that the hang-up has been with the legal department - privacy issues and the like.

Anyway, Reed and Netflix today announced that DVDs will be staying on Netflix, and that Qwikster is not going to happen.  So the status quo will be maintained.  And I won't be leaving Netflix...which wasn't going to happen anyway.

The PNC Virtual Wallet Android app has finally arrived.

And it mostly lives up to the hype.
 
It's been about a year since I switched my main bank accounts from the one that everyone and their mother uses (Bank of America) to PNC.  Part of the reason for this is PNC's Virtual Wallet product.  It basically involves giving you 3 accounts: one for everyday spending (Spend), one for short-term saving (Reserve), and one for long-term saving with a "high" interest rate (Growth).  And they have a novel UI (centered around a calendar view and a "Money Bar") for presenting your account status.  That's about as much selling of it as I'm going to do here - see https://www.pncvirtualwallet.com if you would like to find out more.  I will note that their system can be a bit buggy at times, especially when new features are released, and they seem to be down for maintenance a bit more than I would like.  But overall I'm quite pleased with their services.

Anyway, Virtual Wallet has had an iPhone app for a while now, and it's been making my Nexus S jealous.  There has been a PNC app in the Android Market, but it is (to be frank) pretty crappy - it is little more than a bookmark to their mobile site, which has no VW-specific functionality.  The VW iPhone app gives you the Calendar, Money Bar, and (most impressively) remote mobile deposits - the ability to deposit checks by taking a picture with your phone.  Chase was the first bank I was aware of to offer this last bit of functionality, and from what I understand Bank of America has plans to do so as well in the near future (if they don't already).

The Virtual Wallet Android app was released two weeks ago, with a feature set to match its iOS counterpart.  Everything advertised seems to be there, but I have not yet had a chance to actually perform a mobile deposit - I have not received any checks recently.  Normally I don't like receiving checks, as depositing them requires making a trip to the bank (though the BoA ATMs with automatic no-envelope check processing are pretty slick), but I'm kind of itching to try out this feature.  I'm still a proponent of all-electronic finances, though, so I'm glad to see Virtual Wallet offer PopMoney integration (though not in the mobile version).  And in a similar vein, the arrival of Google Wallet  is also a welcome event (though it is, unfortunately, only offered for Sprint's Nexus S 4G, even though my Nexus S has the required NFC capabilities).

But back to the Virtual Wallet Android app...which is not without it's minor flaws.  My main gripe is having to perform a full sign-in (i.e., typing in my user ID and password) each time I use the app.  It would be nice if I only had to sign in once, and then each subsequent time only had to enter in a PIN unless I performed a manual log-out.  Other than that, though, it seems to work pretty well.  Maybe I'll go write myself a check from my BoA account...just to give the app the full once-over...

Journey of my music files

I just bought the album Pala by Friendly Fires (whom I will hopefully be seeing this Saturday at Lollapalooza) earlier tonight.  In the process, I kicked off an interesting chain of MP3 file transfers that illustrates how my music "lives in the cloud" these days.

First, I bought the album with "1 Click®" (actually 2, since I have my account set to confirm my MP3 purchases) on Amazon.  I have my account set up to automatically add my MP3 purchases to my Amazon Cloud Drive.  From the purchase confirmation screen, it's one click over to the Amazon Cloud Player, and then four more to initiate the album download to my PC using the Amazon MP Downloader.  The MP3 Downloader is set up to download songs into my music library on my PC.  The folders in which my music library resides are watched by a couple of services running on the computer.  I use Windows Live Mesh to automatically synchronize my music (as well as my pictures, videos, documents, etc.) across a couple of of PCs - my Media Center PC was actually asleep at the time, so this transfer actually will not kick off until it is awakened.  The other service, Google's Music Manager, watches for additions to the library and automatically uploads the songs to Google Music - this transfer did kick off shortly after the download.  So I am now able to stream Pala to my (Android-running) Nexus S using the stock music app.  I can also use the Cloud Player in my Amazon MP3 app to stream from my Cloud Drive, but I prefer using the music app (better interface, includes on-device music while offline, and *scrobbles* to Last.fm).  I should note that for a few minutes all these file transfers do slow my Internet/network connection to a crawl for other non-music related activities.

So in about 6 clicks (after finding the album on Amazon), I set off a process that put the album on 2 cloud services and 2 PCs, and allows me to stream it to my phone using 2 different apps.  In 2 clicks (1 if I turn off purchase confirmation), I would have been able to stream to my phone from the cloud using only Amazon services and the Android mobile platform.  The tech-savvy among us will note that Apple's upcoming iCloud service will provide the same type of functionality, though they (and Apple fanboys everywhere) claim that their way is the way that it "should" be - it's yet another case of Apple taking something that's already being done and making it shiny and pretty, and charging more for it (though I will give them kudos for how seamlessly it appears that their cloud functionality will be integrated with everything Apple).  One reason, among others, that I'm not considering a switch to the iEcosystem/iUniverse is that, as is typical, Pala costs $2 more on iTunes than on Amazon.

As an aside, T-Mobile's (and other mobile carriers') network engineers are probably not too thrilled with this cloud-based availability, as I (and I'm sure many others) have switched to using my phone as my music player while driving in my car (using my stereo auxiliary input).  Prior to the switch, I consumed under 200 MB per billing cycle in data usage.  This billing cycle is the first full one that I will be in the country since the switch, and I had consumed about 1.5 GB of data with a week or so left in the cycle.

Netflix is beginning to test my patience

As Netflix has become a more and more dominant player in the home movie arena, they have not been shy about trying to squeeze more profits out of their customers.  Or are they simply barely covering their costs?  The latter is what their latest account update e-mail would lead you to believe:

Dear Obinna,

We are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into two separate plans to better reflect the costs of each. Now our members have a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan, or both.

Your current $23.99 a month membership for unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray access) will be split into 2 distinct plans:

   Plan 1: Unlimited Streaming (no DVDs) for $7.99 a month
   Plan 2: Unlimited DVDs (including Blu-ray), 3 out at-a-time (no streaming)
              for $19.99 a month

Your price for getting both of these plans will be $27.98 a month ($7.99 + $19.99). You don't need to do anything to continue your memberships for both unlimited streaming and unlimited DVDs.

These prices will start for charges on or after September 1, 2011.

You can easily change or cancel your unlimited streaming plan, unlimited DVD plan, or both, by going to the Plan Change page in Your Account.

We realize you have many choices for home entertainment, and we thank you for your business. As always, if you have questions, please feel free to call us at 1-888-357-1516.

–The Netflix Team

Fair enough, at first glance.  But lately it seems that I can expect this type of e-mail every few months from these guys.  I've had their "unlimited" 3-discs-at-a-time plan with unlimited streaming (since they've offered it) for what seems like forever.  Here's a summary of all the price adjustments that they have made for this plan in that time (these prices do not include tax, which is typically about $2):

• November 2004 - $17.99
• Cost when I started
• August 2007 - $16.99
• $1 decrease due to competition from Blockbuster
• October 2008 -  $17.99
• $1 increase for customers who rent Blu-Ray discs
• May 2009 - $20.99
• $3 increase for Blu-Ray option
• January 2011 - $23.99
• Plan price adjustment to account for rise in streaming demand
• September 2011 - $27.98
• Separation of disc and streaming plans

As you can see, the price increases have been especially sharp as of late.  This is supposedly due to the shift towards acquiring and providing more streaming content.  It's somewhat understandable, but a 55% increase in 3 years seems a bit harsh.  Too bad they're pretty much the only viable game left in town.  Plus I can't say that I'm disappointed with their services.

AT&T broadband usage cap - should I be worried?

It appears that the answer is no.  For those unaware, AT&T recently instituted a cap on usage for its broadband internet customers - 150 GB per month for DSL (which I have) and 250 GB per month for UVerse (after which there is a $10 fee for each 50 GB over the cap).  My initial reaction to this was of course outrage - especially since even their Elite DSL package (which I have, because UVerse is not available in my area) can be inconsistent at times.

I would have been even more indignant if they did not provide a way to monitor your data usage.  But, fortunately, they do - though I had to do some digging find this out.  You just need to go to http://www.att.com/internet-usage, follow the link to "View my usage", then log in.

When I followed these steps, I found the results below.  They did not have any data for me for the current billing cycle, so I pulled up my historical usage data.  Note that I'm missing data for my March-April billing cycle - I do not know the reason for this.

AT&T DSL Data usage over the last few months

So it seems that between two tech-savvy internet users (Chike and me), we top out around 100 GB per month.  So we have about 50% room for growth before worrying about the cap (especially since I've begun streaming more Netflix and Hulu content as of late).

This is obviously not an optimal situation, but I'll have to make do since Charter's required agreement periods and price jumps make them a non-starter for me (though their speeds are faster, and they have no cap that I'm aware of).  It doesn't help either that AT&T has a history of questionable data accounting, at least in their wireless division.

Recycling pick-up...finally...

St. Louis City has been slowly rolling out its new recycling program that includes recyclables as part of the waste pick-up.  And my ward/neighborhood has just joined in the fun - I received my blue recycling roll-cart today.

So instead of 2 trash pick-ups per week, we get 1 for trash (green cart) and 1 for recycling (blue cart).  And this is all included in our refuse charges.  In my hippie opinion (and despite my libertarian tendencies), this is much better than the old opt-in program that cost an extra fee, and only gave you the little blue tub...which I didn't do anyway - I took my recyclables to the recycling center about 5 minutes away.  So now I don't have to load up the car and drive over there every couple of weeks.

More info about the recycling pick-up service:
http://stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/street/refuse/recycle/alley-curb-dump-cart-recycle.cfm

The IRS isn't *all* bad...

When the deposit into my bank account for my federal tax refund was approximately $200 higher than what I filed on my tax return (using free file fillable forms, because I don't think that I should have to pay money to file my taxes electronically), I was a little suspicious.  But not suspicious enough to complain to anybody about it.

A little later, when I was doing my mother's tax return (with TaxAct, because she's willing to pay their fees for e-filing the state return), I noticed that TaxAct let her claim the Making Work Pay credit.  I again became suspicious, because I was unfamiliar with this credit, and figured that I should have qualified for it as well.

It was not until I received a letter from the Internal Revenue Service a few days ago that I put all the pieces together.  The IRS explained that they had adjusted my refund by giving me that tax credit, even though I had never claimed it.  How generous of them!  It's nice to see that they make adjustments to our benefit from time to time, not only the other way around.

This doesn't mean that I've changed my mind that the IRS is a mostly unnecessary organization, though.  If it were up to me, the tax code would be grossly simplified, and most (if not all) deductions, credits, exemptions, and adjustments would be removed.  I think that the purpose of taxes is simply to raise only as much money as is necessary to run the government, not to also encourage or discourage certain behaviors.

Android app roll call

It's been a little more than 3 weeks since I acquired my new favorite toy - the Samsung/Google Nexus S.  I must admit that I went a little overboard downloading apps the first week that I had the phone.  But I've since uninstalled quite a few, and am settling into a decent set that I think may be worthy of sharing (as inspired by a request from Ron Sturm).  So here's a list of the non-system apps that I use - I downloaded most of these from the Android Market, but several of them came with the phone.  An asterisk (*) denotes that the app is on one of my home screens, and a hash (#) denotes that the app came with the phone.  By the way, these were all free, or can be acquired for free.

• Adobe Flash Player
• Not really an app per say (especially since it doesn't show up in the app list), but worth highlighting since it enables web content certain other phones don't support.
• Adobe Reader
• For PDFs, just like on the desktop.
• Amazon
• Includes a bar code scanner and the ability to search by taking a photo.  But I got it because I buy so much from Amazon.
• Amazon MP3
• See last sentence above.
• Audiogalaxy (*)
• Streams my music collection from my home PC.  One of my new favorite music services.
• Bank of America
• (Google) Books
• I like the idea of Google Books, but I don't really use it.
• (Google) Calendar (*#)
• If you know me, you know that my life is on Google Calendar.
• Car Home (*#)
• A collection point for shortcuts you would use while driving.  Especially useful if you dock your phone in the car.
• Chess (for Android)
• I'm not really into games, but if I played any, chess would be it.  I'm still trying to decide between this and Chess Free.
• Chess Clock for Android
• In case I need to time a real-life game.
• Chess Free
• See 2 items above.
• Chrome to Phone 
• Send links that you are viewing in your PC Chrome browser to your phone so you can continue browsing on the go.
• Dictionary.com
• The secret to maintaining my impeccable diction.
• doubleTwist (*)
• A great alternative to the stock music player (thanks, Chike!).  Useful for syncing your music collection when paired with the desktop program.  Also provides alternate lock screen during playback that allows quick/easy music controls w/o unlocking the screen.  And, like the stock music app, provides support for Last.fm scrobbling.
• (Google) Earth (#)
• Evernote (*)
• Great for recording all sorts of info.  I only mainly use for notes and useful links.
• Facebook
• Firefox
• Still in beta for Android.  Crashed my phone the only time I tried to use it.
• fring
• Supports VOIP calling (for a fee), IM (using various services like GTalk, Y! Messenger, AIM), video chat (over Y! Messenger).
• Gmail (*#)
• (Google) Goggles
• Barcode/QR reader and all-around augmented reality app.
• Google Search
• Only worth pointing out because certain manufacturers and carriers make Bing the default search engine on some of their Android phones.  Wack.
• Google Sky Map
• For the casual astronomers out there.
• Google Translate
• Not only can you enter in text to translate, but you can also translate your SMS messages and audio that you record (e.g., someone speaking to you).
• Grooveshark (*)
• Stream almost any song from the web.  I think the app requires a paid Grooveshark membership (which I have).  Even w/o the app, the Grooveshark website is worth checking out.
• GTasks (*)
• Task manager that syncs with Google Tasks (part of GMail and GCal).  The fact that Remember The Milk requires a Pro account to use their app has sped up my transition from RTM to Google, though Google Tasks is still lacking in some features (and thus I've kept some stuff on RTM).
• IP Cam Viewer Lite
• Theoretically this should allow me to view my security camera video on my phone, but I haven't gotten it to work yet.
• Kayak
• Not entirely sure why I have this installed - searching for flights is much better on the full site.  But this app supports itinerary management and flight status checking.
• Last.fm (*)
• We all know how much I love Last.fm (even though I haven't had a post entirely dedicated to it).
• Latitude (#)
• If you've brought your Android phone in my presence, I've probably asked you to be my friend on Latitude, or installed it on your phone for you.  In case you're not in the know, this is the app that allows your friends to see where you are.
• Lookout
• I use this for anti-virus and for locating my phone in case of a loss (you can also make the phone "scream").  With a premium account (which I don't have) you can also remotely lock or wipe your phone.
• (Yahoo!) Mail (*)
• The UI is slightly better than the stock e-mail app for using Yahoo! Mail, but it seems to have some issues syncing the count of unread messages.
• (Google) Maps (*#)
• (Android) Market (*#)
• Mint.com
•  A highly regarded personal finance tool...that I don't really use.
• Mobile Queue
• You have no choice but to go third-party since Netflix does not (yet) have an official Android app.
• My Account
• Check my T-Moble account status (minutes, data usage, etc).
• (Google) Navigation
• Free turn-by-turn (driving and walking) navigation.
• Newegg
• Not really sure why I have this, but I sure do buy a lot of stuff from their website.
• News & Weather (*#)
• OpenTable
• Make restaurant reservations online.
• Opera Mobile
• Opera has been making solid desktop and mobile browsers for a long time without much recognition.  Doesn't mean I use this, though.
• PayPal
• In addition to account management, there seems to be feature where you can bump phones to transfer money (unfortunately, I don't know anyone to try this out with) as well as a bill splitter.
• (Google) Places (#)
• PNC Mobile
• This app is fairly pedestrian - it just supports regular account features, and isn't much of an upgrade over a web interface.  I wish that they had a Virtual Wallet app for Android (in addition to the existing iPhone version).
• (Google) Reader
• A little better to use than the mobile web version.
• Ringdroid
• Create custom ring/notification/alarm tones using your MP3s.
• (ESPN) ScoreCenter
• Shazam
• Want to know what song is playing in the club?  Start up this app and be amazed.  Too bad there's now a limit on the number of songs that you can tag each month (though I don't use this very often).
• (Google) Shopper
• Kinda like the Amazon app - search/shop by photo and bar code.
• Skype
• The OS supports VOIP calling integration with Skype...if you have Skype credit.  But you can still make Skype-to-Skype calls for free.
• Tags (#)
• For managing NFC tags.  With the next iPhone rumored to support NFC, I think (and hope) the technology could take off.
• (Google) Talk
• Timerrific
• A great (and free) alternative to Locale (which changes phone settings based on location) - you can automatically change setting based on time.  E.g., I use it to automatically put my phone in airplane mode during the hours that I'm normally at work.  I also put the phone on silent while I'm in class (even though I normally don't take my phone into class).
• TripIt
• TripIt is another one of my favorite things, since I travel a little bit.  This brings their awesome itinerary management service to my phone.
• UPS Mobile
• For tracking all the packages that I receive.  Not really necessary.
• (Google) Voice (*#)
• This may be the single most important reason (among many other very compelling ones) that I own an Android phone.  The OS natively supports calling and texting using GV.
• YouTube

Top Albums of 2010, Part 3

There really should only be two parts (well only one this year) to the Top Albums of 2010 posts, but I can add another one just for me because I own this blog after all.  I had a hard time narrowing down a top 10 this year (unlike last year where I struggled to find a worthy #10), as I would have been fine with any of about 13 albums making my top 10.  To give these others a little bit of credit, I tried to make a top 25 list, with 11-25 to appear in this post.  But then I couldn't keep the list at 25.  So instead, you get a list of noteworthy albums (in my opinion) outside my top 10...though the rankings don't mean too much once you get past about 20.  So here:

11. Delorean – Subiza
12. Phantogram – Eyelid Moves
13. Local Natives – Gorilla Manor
14. Miike Snow – Miike Snow
15. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night
16. Black Milk – Album of the Year
17. Blonde Redhead – Penny Sparkle
18. Vampire Weekend – Contra
19. Interpol – Interpol
20. Massive Attack – Heligoland
21. Freelance Whales – Weathervanes
22. Active Child – Curtis Lane EP
23. Apparatjik – We Are Here
24. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
25. Kele – The Boxer
26. Eluvium – Similes
27. Hot Chip – One Life Stand
28. Broken Bells – Broken Bells
29. The-Dream – Love King
30. Four Tet – There Is Love In You
31. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks
32. Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
33. LCD Soundsystem – This Is Happening

34. OK Go – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky

I'll also give a shout-out to Jim Kolpack, who always brings quality music to the table.  He only had 9 albums to give (he's still catching up on what's hot on the streets), and he didn't rank them.  He did, however, put them in alphabetical order by band name, and provide some comments.

• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Some great tracks - it's hardly as inspiring as Funeral, but it's a much better listen than Neon Bible
• Beach House - Teen Dream
• I've enjoyed their previous albums, but <3 this one
• Best Coast - Crazy for You
• Quiet persuasive - I almost wish he was my (hetero)boyfriend too :D
• Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
• Not disappointing from the great BSS
• Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
• Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
• Not the most cohesive thing ever, but it's a lot of fun
• Hot Chip - One Life Stand
• A few years ago I thought these guys were a gimmic band, but this is a good album
• LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
• Yes, it is happening
• Vampire Weekend - Contra
• How do they pull this kind of polished world-music-inspired pop album is beyond me

And while I'm at it, Brian George had these 5 to add:

• Dreamend - So I Ate Myself, Bite by Bite
• Gucci Mane - Mr. Zone 6
• Gucci Mane - Jewelry Selection
• Harvey Milk -  A Small Turn of Human Kindness
• Best Coast - Crazy for You

Top Albums of 2010, Part 2

Unlike last year, there will not be a Part 1 to this year's top albums post, since only one other person submitted a full top 10 list.  So here are the individual lists:


Obi Orjih

1. Jónsi – Go
2. Foals – Total Life Forever
3. Yeasayer – Odd Blood
4. Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles (II)
5. Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon II: The Legend Of Mr. Rager
6. Caribou – Swim
7. Bonobo – Black Sands
8. Sleigh Bells – Treats
9. Beach House – Teen Dream
10. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy


Robert Schwartz

1. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
2. Yeasayer – Odd Blood
3. Stars – The Five Ghosts
4. Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
5. Sufjan Stevens – The Age of Adz
6. OK Go – Of the Blue Colour of the Sky
7. Caribou – Swim
8. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
9. The National – High Violet
10. Sleigh Bells – Treats

Five year travel plan

2010 is the first year since 2005 that I have not taken a big international trip (no, Montreal/Quebec does not count).  I tried to go to the World Cup in South Africa this year, but that ended up not working out.  I'm not terribly sad about that, though.

Anyway, I've come up with a (very) tentative plan for trips for the next 5 years (assuming that my life continues pretty much on the same path that it has been going).  And one of them isn't international...

• 2011 - Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Prague, Zurich)
• 2012 - Europe (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo)
• 2013 - USA (Western road trip with stops @ Grand Canyon, Highway 1, Yosemite, and Yellowstone)
• 2014 - Brazil (World Cup)
• 2015 - Middle East (Turkey, Israel, Egypt)

Consider this an invitation to join any of the above.

28 was a good age

Overall, my 29th year on this planet (while I was by convention aged 28) was a pretty good one, even despite a break-in at the homestead.  I think a lot of the good feelings can be attributed to my new-found BFFs in the EAT crew, so this is basically a shout-out to them (you know who you are).  I was lucky enough last night to bring them all together with my mother and brother, who constitute half of another part of what makes life so awesome these days - my family (sorry you couldn't be there Nedu and Pa).  And I even had a couple of semi-stable non-platonic relationships during the past year, which is an atypical accomplishment if you know my history.

So here's hoping that my final year with the dreadlocks goes as well as, if not better than, the last one.  And that I can avoid having to commit suicide or pay for a vacation in 10 years (it's a long story that only a select few would appreciate, so don't ask).

A new view on voting.

'Tis the eve of the mid-term general election, so it's also time for my political post for the year.  And this time around, I've basically given up on political candidates.  I've long held that my life would not be too significantly different if either a Democrat or Republican won any particular election that I've been a part of.  And we all know that voting for an independent candidate is a wasted vote these days.  The final straw was probably all the unsolicited mailings (a complete waste of paper, if you ask me) and phone calls that I received in the few weeks leading up to the election.  So I'm done voting for people for legislative and executive offices in government (and pretty much any position where a party affiliation is listed on the ballot).

But this does NOT mean that I'm no longer voting.  I just will be voting for the things that I think matter.  For example, measures that are put to a popular vote certainly matter.  I don't think a vote on a ballot measure is ever a wasted vote - in this case everyone's opinion counts equally on an issue that matters.  I will also be voting on whether to retain the judges in my district.  In the past, I abstained on these because I had no idea how to vote on any of these.  However, thanks to Lester Kyles, I have been made aware that the Missouri Bar association rates judges based on surveys given to lawyers and jurors in their cases; see here.  Unfortunately, the Bar seems to almost always recommend that every judge be retained, even when they have significantly lower scores than their peers.  There also seems to be a saddening correlation between a judge's low score and his/her race (I assume/hope that lawyers and jurors are not generally racists), but I digress.  Needless to say, I will be not be voting for all judges to be retained.

Lastly, in case you're interested, here's how I think I will be voting tomorrow morning:

• All judges will be getting a vote for retention except:
• David Mason will be getting a vote to NOT retain
• Angela Quigless, Barbara Peebles, and Paula Bryant will probably not be getting a vote either way
• MO Constitutional Amendment 1 - The exception (for Jackson County) is arbitrary and stupid; so NO.
• MO Constitutional Amendment 2 - This does not seem like the appropriate way to reward disabled POWs - NO.
• MO Constitutional Amendment 3 - I think this is a YES, just cuz I don't like new taxes, but I don't know that I have a more thoughtful justification for why this should be in the MO constitution.
• MO Proposition A - ?
• MO Proposition B - I get the animal cruelty deal, but I don't understand the limit on 50 puppies.  Not certain, but I think this is a NO.
• St. Louis City Proposition F - YES.
• St. Louis City Preferential Proposition L - YES.

It sucks being a victim.

Bear with me while I vent a little...

So I get a call at work this morning and the ADT rep informs me that my burglar alarm is going off.  My first thought is that my brother or my mother accidentally set something off.  I tell them to alert the police just in case, while I give my family a call.  I call Ma - no answer; probably not at my house.  Then I call Chike - he left shortly after I did and set the alarm.  So this could be the real deal.

And it was.  When Chike and I arrived at the house there were two police officers waiting.  The burglars had kicked in my front door and taken my TV and one of my computer monitors.  I was in shock.

Since then, I've had a few hours to calm down and try to set things in order.  A contractor is putting the finishing touches on my replacement door frame (with better reinforcement this time around), and my insurance claim has already been processed (they'll mail out a check to me first thing tomorrow).  I might even be able to make it to my class tonight.  And thankfully I have a home alarm, or I would have more than I did.

As you can tell, I'm trying to look on the bright side of things.  I would have lost most of the little faith that I had left in humanity if it wasn't for the people who have helped me along today.  But the truth is that it still hurts.  Not so much that my electronic gadgets were stolen (and we all know how much I love gadgets), but the feeling of being utterly violated.  I've taken my security for granted for so long, even when I hear similar stories from friends about being burglarized.  It's totally different when it happens to you.  And it sucks.

I guess I don't have much else to say than that.  Hopefully the next (of my lately infrequent) post returns to concerts or tech gear or something superficially philosophical.  I'm not even sure that I'll post this...maybe after a night or two to sleep over it.

Update: I guess I should post this after sitting on it for a week.  I'm obviously a lot calmer than I was a week ago, and things are pretty much back to normal.

Phoenix @ The Pageant (8/9/2010)

2009 was a huge year for Phoenix.  Even though they've been around for over 10 years, it wasn't until the release of last year's Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix that they finally broke through (Stateside, at least).  And now they're kind of like a big deal.  And everybody loves them.  Except for Jim Kolpack.

Toro y Moi was the opener for the show.  They hurried through their set, finishing in under 25 minutes of their allotted 30.  I did finally find out how to pronounce the name of the band - the "Moi" is pronounced as it is in French.  No, they're not from France (like Phoenix is) - Chazwick is from South Carolina.

I fully expected Phoenix's setlist to be loaded with songs from Wolfgang, since it would be likely that many in the audience had not heard much, if any, of their previous stuff (including myself - I had only listened to each of their previous albums once or twice).  And that is exactly what happened.  In fact, it utterly dominated their setlist, and they played every song from it.  Which is a good thing, since their other albums (in my opinion) are not as good.  Of the other songs, I did recognize one - "Everything is Everything" - though not until the chorus because they were playing a "reduced" version (vocal and guitar only) of it.

The sound quality started out a little imprecise (it didn't seem crisp, and the instruments overpowered the vocals), but improved as the show progressed.  The surprise highlight of the show was "Countdown", but that may be because it was the first one that they seemed to nail sonically.  As expected, they closed with "1901".  Thomas' foray out into the crowd during the reprise, however, was not expected.

Other observations:

• Oddly, one of the guitar players regularly switched guitars during the beginning of songs (i.e., after the song had already begun), instead of doing so in between songs.
• Thomas thanked the crowd a lot.  It almost seemed like he was in disbelief that Phoenix had made a big enough breakthrough in the U.S. to sell out a show in a medium-sized city in the middle of the country.
• I would not recommend this concert for epileptics - they had several kinds of seizure-inducing strobe lights.  I don't know how they can even play their instruments with all that going on.

Here are some cell phone videos that I took:

4.3/5

I apparently am not a very good samaritan.

Something very awkward happened to me about a week or two ago.  I was stopped at a traffic light when I noticed via my peripheral vision a bit of a commotion in the car sitting to my left.  I normally take great care to avoid eye contact with other drivers while waiting for lights, so I tried to ignore it as best as I could.  However, when the front passenger door opened up, I had to steal a few quick glances over to try to determine what was going on.

From what I could tell, there was a young black man in the drivers seat and a young black woman in the front passenger seat.  There also appeared to be a young child (no more than 5) in the back.  The woman seemed to be struggling mightily to try to get out of the car, but the man looked to be holding her back - I think by the wrist.

This went on for what seemed like a minute, but was probably really only 10-15 seconds - I wanted to get the eff out of there.  The thought did occur to me to perhaps get out of my car and try to help defuse the situation, but I quickly shot that idea down by reasoning that they likely would not want me interfering in their business.  Plus I was scared that such an act would put my own person in danger - the thought of the man drawing a gun on me even flashed across my mind (which makes me kinda feel like a horrible person).

Anyway, as soon as that light turned green I booked it out of there.  I'm pretty sure I made the right decision (though I'm still struggling a bit to rationalize it based on some semi-plausible moral principle, e.g., that of utility), but I kinda wish that I was a "better" person than some of my reasoning in the situation would indicate.  Oh well.

Tool @ Family Arena (6/26/2010)

Videos barely do a Tool show justice, so any words that I use to attempt to convey the awesomeness will fall short.  So just take a gander at a couple of the videos I recorded:





(Sorry for the dumb and high bitches that kept knocking my arm on this one.)



Their setlist was mostly composed of songs from Ænema and Lateralus, with only a couple from 10,000 Days (I expected more from the newest album, though I guess it is 4 years old) and one from Undertow.

4.8/5

Passion Pit + Tokyo Police Club @ The Pageant (6/23/2010)

Both bands (Tokyo Police Club and Passion Pit - I only caught the last couple of Brahms' songs) were pretty solid.  Neither blew my mind, but neither disappointed either.  I was more excited about TPC going in, but PP put on the better show - maybe it was the fancy lights, or the crowd really getting into it.  I wish TPC had played a couple more of my favorites.

Here's a video of one of my favorite TPC songs off the new album (Champ):



Because Mr. Angelakos whined about audiences taking pictures and videos at shows (he said something to the effect of appreciating the crowd in St. Louis getting into the music instead of holding up cell phone cameras), I didn't take any videos of Passion Pit.

4.2/5

The Temper Trap @ The Pageant (6/9/2010)

Note to others: if you misplace (or in my case, never receive) your ticket from Ticketmaster, The Pageant box office can print you off a new one...even if you call Ticketmaster after the show has already started when you realize that you don't have the ticket.

So, yeah...I missed Warpaint (the opener)...but I wasn't too broken up about it.  As for The Temper Trap, they put on a pretty solid show for a group with only one album out, and despite a somewhat sparse audience.  Mr. Mandangi certainly does have an incredible vocal range.  And he has inspired me to play a drum with water on it.  I managed to capture one of my favorite songs from 2009 (which happened to be on the soundtrack of my favorite movie of 2009):




4.0/5