I put the new Sigur Ros CD on before I retired to bed last night. The third and last track of the EP has these wierd moans that alternate between the left and right stereo channels. Really strange to wake up to with the rain pounding my window. Make me think of the last time that I had two strange voices moaning in my bedroom while I was trying to sleep. Oh!

I will never say that I hate the weather when I am in New Orleans. I love the weather here unconditionally, and it loves me. People try to bitch at me about the weather, but I just nod my head and smile. A good New Orleans thunderstorm is always a great way to start. You're soaking in it!

I am going to my favorite city in the world, San Francisco. I'll be doing all my favorite things while I'm there, including skiing and record shopping and pretending that I'm gay. All things just keep getting better! Mark my words, there will be an entire generation of children born in the next year that will be named Kyan. Not to diss the other queer eyes or anything...but I digress. I'll be there until next Tuesday.

I have developed a sickening distrust and disgust in humankind within the last week or so. This may have something to do with the coming and going of Mardi Gras.

I think I should use my tax refund to start seeing a psychiatrist or something. Funny thing is that I already know what my "cure" is but can't bring myself to ask for it. Not because I am afraid of being rejected, but because I know I don't have any place asking at this time. Could I be more cryptic? Yes, I could...

I guess the fact is that she's got a railroad to run. I'm busy with my own designs, but I've got no place to ask her to set her concerns aside for me. I've especially no business in developing expectations, which are as annoying as my upstairs neighbors. Who is John Galt?

My father isn't the most tactful of people. In fact, he is completely void of tact. Come to think of it, I cannot find any desirable qualities in my father's personality. I might give him "firm in his convictions," but that would actually interpret to "a stubborn ass who used to be a lawyer."

A few weeks ago, I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be hilarious if people asked each other in conversation, 'What sex are you?'" Fodder for the sketch comedy in my head, I suppose. However, yesterday afternoon, my father asked a woman in costume (who was obviously female), "Are you a man or a woman?" He thought she was a man in drag. I thought my ole dad was a few moments away from being sterilized, but the woman glared and went off for a few minutes. He realized the faux pas, and actually ran away!

A couple shows that I am pretty excited about. Not as excited as I would be if say, the Pixies played a show in Winnipeg, but exciting nonethless.

Both are at Howlin Wolf:
3/21 - Calexico | Stars | Broken Social Scene
4/23 - Death Cab For Cutie | Ben Kweller | Pedro the Lion

During my formative years (age 9-14), my house was considered by neighborhood children to be some sort of mad scientist's laboratory. I was considerably nerdy, and when kids came over, instead of going out to play football or whatever, I wanted to show off how I had rigged up a pulley system in my room to perform menial tasks without getting out of bed.

Anyhow, my backyard became sort of a minature "Junkyard War." We broke alot of stuff in creative ways. So much that my parents actually questioned if kids were coming over not to play with me, but to break our stuff, since they couldn't do it at their house. Not that we were breaking anything valuable, but our yard just proved to be a good venue to destroy/incinerate random objects.

One of my least favorite people ever (yet for some reason, he kept coming over to my house), decided to pee in the tank of my childhood fire engine Tonka truck and was using the pump to spray his own piss on my mom's herb garden. I actually snapped right there and kicked the truck, spilling the tank of piss onto his Pumps, soaking his socks and the intricate air bladder system inside of the $120 shoes. He tried to punch me, but settled for leaving after I picked up an aluminum baseball bat. He left my yard and sloshed down the street with his shoes wheezing urine.

Later that day, his ho-ma of a mother showed up with her hand on her hip demanding that we pay for his shoes. After a quick talk to the hand (in pre-"talk to the hand" days!), my mother rebutted the bitch and calmly closed the door. Thanks, mom.

We had a meeting at work yesterday to discuss salaries, bonuses and career advancement. I got a chance to see the promotion ladders for other job titles, along with their salaries. This got me to thinking. If I could go back and get my Electrical Engineering degree on my company's dime, I could make more money and be a more attractive employee.

I just looked at the course requirements at Tulane that I would have to fulfill and I feel pretty demoralized. If I were to continue working at here while working toward this degree, it would take me at least two years and four or five semesters.

I guess I would like to believe that I am such an incredibly intelligent person that I can figure out any problem, or accomplish any task with proper references and ingenuity. Make no mistake, I am incredibly intelligent (and good-looking, charismatic, great in bed, yadda yadda yadda...), but I am just coming to terms with the fact that I have chosen a path and I am walking it.

Throughout my college career, I took a path of least resistance. Not because I was looking for that path, but people told me that I should pursue what I enjoy. OK, so I pursued computers and problem solving. It just so happens that this pursuit was incredibly easy for me, thus I was rarely challenged.

Now I am working, and I am unchallenged. A problem arises and I create a solution and put it in place. Granted, I am not exactly in the most cutting edge field and it doesn't require cutting edge solutions. But there is something missing.

So who is challenged by their work? Who is forced to innovate at the risk of their employer's collapse, a person's death, or a country being destroyed? Do they really feel like they are being challenged after doing that for a year or ten years? Does a surgeon feel the same thrill in completing his 100th operation versus his 10th?

I guess I am just looking for a permanent fix with the following requirements: constantly challenging/exciting, lots of money, and low stress. I don't think it exists. I think there is an iron law that dictates that you can have at most two of those, but never three. Currently I am working with the money/stress combo, but I think I want to switch to challenging/money.

Back to school in June. I think I'm excited.

There is a restaurant in the general area of my office building that used to be a brothel. They owner took this bit of history and ran with it.

The restaurant is decorated in a baudy, decadent, New Orleans cum Moulin Rouge style. The menu items are suggestive of sexual acts that might have been consumated at one time at this establishment.

On the other hand, the food is really nasty, as in "it tastes really bad." The waitresses aren't remotely attractive (or in shape), yet are dressed as though they are. If I order a club sandwich, I would prefer if you didn't arrange the four pieces in the shape of a woman's labia with a whole pickle sticking out (or in) of the middle.

What have I learned? Office lunches and prostitution don't really mix.

However, transvestites and office parties definately mix.

File under "You Probably Don't Care..."

I have been piecing together a high-end audio system for the last few months. With two of the most important components arriving on Friday, I set up everything and started listening and was extremely pleased with the results. My primary goal in building this system was to have a way reproducing recorded works with a completely realistic transparent soundstage with perfect clarity at a flat frequency responce. In civilian terms, a stereo that you don't know is there: it just disappears.

Being proud of my accomplishment, I have demo'ed the system to about 15 people so far. I sit them down, ask them what they would like to listen to, and put the selection on at a moderate volume.

I realize that most people my age associate "good sound" with two things: loudness and low frequency "bump." Loudness is the accentuation of the low and high frequencies during reproduction, often achieved by a V-shaped EQ curve, resulting in an over-the-top sound. The aformentioned "bump" comes from large bass drivers in small enclosures. This combination forcefully moves air out of the enlosure, and you feel this air moving. Both of these tactics result in sound that is colored, and bass that is sloppy and muddy. I'm pretty sure that youger people value these characteristics because of the glorification of car audio. It is not difficult to make a car bump and play loud. Fratboys don't care about the transparency of their stereo; they want it in your face! They don't care about the stereo imaging, they want it to play down the block. They don't care if the bass is tight and fast, as long as it sets off car alarms when they drive around.

I purposefully left a subwoofer out of my system because I live in an apartment. A subwoofer will inevitably piss off your neighbors if you live in an apartment. There are seven other people in my building, and if I had any subwoofer (not to mention the one I have my eye on) I would probably be kicked out.

But back to the demo. People have been universally impressed, but I continue to recognize that peole just don't care about this as much as I do. I have been met with universal disbelief when people ask me how much it cost. I am still in disbelief over that actually. But it sounds soooo good. Come over. Have a listen and we can drink martinis.