Costa Rica Summed and the Dark Times Ahead

Here's some of the one’s I’ve knocked out since the last update.
Went to go see Paul and Megan in San Francisco, which would count for "Visit Friend Outside of L.A. County", but that also counted for "Take a Road Trip of at Least 750 Miles."

Oh and about the part where I Go To Costa Rica…

Amy and I got stranded in the rain for our last 60 hours on the northern pacific coast in Costa Rica, and even though we were trapped inside our hotel we couldn’t muster the interest in keeping up this damn thing. Instead, we spent the last few days complaining about being surrounded by Americans for our first time there.

So as a form of weird summation, here’s a link if you want to see the whole huge collection of strange and silly photos from the trip.

As for where this space goes from here through the upcoming blue period (aka the time where I prepare for the February bar), I’ve decided to shift it into a part-time capacity. One project I’ve been putting off is sorting through the digital pile of music that’s been rotting on my hard drive unlistened for two years. I’ve been getting bored of the fifteen or so albums I've been playing in a heavy rotation, and I've got too many albums that I've downloaded, then never really sat down and thoroughly listened to. It's a stupid, gluttonous situation that I hope to remedy in the way college basketball and Mortal Kombat is resolved. A 64-team tournament bracket.

I've sorted through the music on my computer that I've added for the last two years and came up with 64 albums that I need to make a judgment call on. My idea is to put them in a single-elimination bracket style tournament in which I match each album up against another I've not listened to until a final hidden gem rises from the rest as the best album I've ignored for the last two years.

I've intentionally excluded albums that have already made my regular rotation from the tournament, because they would be heavy favorites in any bracket and undercut the purpose of this contest, which is to figure out what I don't hate. I'm thinking I'm going to have to come up with at least one good and bad comment for each album, a mention of any standout tracks, as well as a final verdict. The verdict should include not only which of the two albums moves on to the next round, but whether the album is to be kept or deleted. Towards the end, I imagine most of the chaff will have been culled, but you never know what a second or third listen through will do.

So here are the tentative rules:
- Each album must be listened to in its entirety
- Tracks can be skipped, but only after at least 50% of the track time has elapsed
- The artist's previous work cannot be considered in ruling on the present work
- In order to ensure that there have been no unfair pairings (beware of Russian judges) in any of the brackets, I will simply seed them in alphabetical order, based on album name
- As for whether an album should be judged on the totality of its work, or whether two excellent tracks and the rest as crap can carry the day over a nice, that will have to be determined on a case-by-case basis

Final bracket to be uploaded in the coming days.

Catching Up

I've been noticeably absent the last five weeks, but that's because it's been the summer of J(Ge)orge. I thought that for my last few weeks of my last Summer Vacation^TM, I might ride in a hot air balloon or discover a new use for iridium or something. Instead, I've spend a lot of time with amy, rediscovered how to read for fun, eaten out at new restaurants, caught up with old friends, went to Magic Mountain for a friend's birthday, went to (and watched on TV) lots of Dodger games, played Guitar Hero II (as well as other virtual exploits)and just relaaaaaaaaxed in an air conditioned condo. It's been great. A week from today, I leave for Costa Rica to start my month-long Central American adventure, and I expect to update this more often then as there are more novelties to report and pictures of parrots to post.

Tonight, I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl to see the Decemberists play with the L.A. Philharmonic with amy and a picnic packed, in a previously unmatched night of yuppie-ness. Bourgeoisie or not, I'm really excited.

As for my to-do list, tonight I'll take the time to officially cross off...
- See Two Concerts: the Decemberists tonight, at the Horrors a few months back at the Echo. The Horrors were surprisingly fun, for a band composed of men with expensive haircuts.
- See a Show at the Hollywood Bowl: check.
- Read 3 Books for Fun: "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman, "The Blind Side," by Michael Lewis, and "Letter to a Christian Nation," by Sam Harris. Klosterman I now love. Lewis I continue to love, after changing the way I look at baseball with "Moneyball" blew my mind in this book about how high school kids are recruited for collegiate sports. Harris I don't love, but he did help cement my burgeoning religious cynicism.
- Teach Parents to Use the Internet: my mom now can send me very long run-on sentences asking me if I'm coming over for dinner, as well as book her own airline tickets. I'll leave it to my brother to show them where the porn is.
- Go to a Las Vegas 51s Game: last month when visiting amy's grandparents in Vegas, I was able to go check out a AAA dodgers baseball game. It was decidedly small town for a city like Las Vegas, but still cool to see the young guys who might get called up to the big club. Also provided major bragging fuel for my fellow Dodger fanatics.
- Go See The Doctor: my cousin finally booked me an appointment with her doctor, who is the first doctor I've ever liked. He gave me shots I needed, in case I get bitten by a monkey in the tropics next month. He also made sure I didn't have testicular cancer, which was made less awkward because we were talking about how weird Mormons can be.

35 Before 25: See Snow in Person

This one was completed accidentally. Two weeks ago, I was in Oklahoma visiting with family. It's a nice place to visit if you really like any of the following: church, college football, Wal-mart, or oversized American trucks. Overall, I was nonplussed. That said, I did feel a redeeming moment when I was walking around on my aunt's backyard acreage and it snow flurries started to fall from the sky. In April. I'm sure there's nothing enchanting about snow for people who have to shovel their driveways on a yearly basis, but for a guy from L.A. whose concept of snow is limited to the slushy, 1/2 manmade slopes of the local snow resorts, this was a cool moment. You just don't get moments of newness and wonder that often after about age 12. And maybe, it was just enough to get me back to Mammoth next winter, even if it means Josh gets carted down the mountain on his back by the ski patrol again.

35 Before 25 Completed: Fix Up the Car

When I originally envisioned this goal, it seemed like one of the easiest ones to accomplish. After changing the oil and touching up some dents, I'd be on my way to fielding a revitalized smooth-mobile. The reality is that I should have been grateful to have had my car this long without any problems. Since the initial posting, here's what's drained my purse:
- Headlight went out, which for some reason can only be replaced at the dealer. For $600. Ye gods.
- After cramming too much stuff (possibly laundry and/or my wii) into my trunk, I punched a hole into my subwoofer. That should set me back about $200.
- Estimates into taking care of the cosmetic dents came back at $700+, as few places are willing to do "paint-less" dent removal. I'm not interested in re-painting the car.
Other minor issues have come up, but the ultimate result is the same. There's a good reason that cars devalue so quickly. Not even the most paternal of car owners can protect their car from the elements or the riff-raff that call this town their home. Or my own stupidity, for that matter. In fact if I lived in a place like this, I probably wouldn't care what it looked like. So for now, I'm shelving the vanity, getting some style, and putting my money towards my freaking passport. Fucking feds.

I'll chalk this first goal up as complete, but I'm going to be unsettled if each of these has a stupid motivational poster life lesson attached as opposed to a funny picture.