I do believe I've found a new favorite album....

[Listening to: Zero 7 - Home from the album "When It Falls"]

I got some new music CDs in the mail on Friday, both from British producers Zero 7. I got Simple Things and When it Falls. I've known about Zero 7 since they came along in 2001. They make some really chill music and I've been wanting Simple Things since forever, but I never got around to buying it. Plus, I forgot about it many times. One day it came to mind and I made the decision to just go and buy it. You have no idea what a great decision that was on my part. Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns (the two guys behind Zero 7) are friggin' amazing! The sounds and soundscapes they weave together, along with the help of singers Sia Furler, Sophie Miller and Mozez, and string section The Brilliant Strings, take you through worlds and lands you'll never want to leave. It's such a beautiful and well done album, one that I highly recommend. This one's become an instant favorite of mine. When it Falls is Zero 7's sophomore album. While not quite as ethereal as Simple Things, it continues the producers' winning formula of chill. I just found out not too long ago that a new album is coming along May 15th, and I'll be patiently awaiting that one. I'll have Simple Things and When it Falls to hold me over quite well until then.

Well, enough music jabber, let's talk about my weekend. Not a bad weekend. A bunch of us took a trip over to this spot in Hartford called City Steam. It's a restaurant/bar/micro-brewery. They have very good food, and according to Dave and Christian, very good beer. It's too bad it's like $3 - 4 a glass. Makes me glad I opted for raspberry lemonade. We weren't really hungry, and so we all ordered lightly. Kristina and Lauren bought apple crisps, Dave and Christian shared buffalo wings, Doug I don't even know what he bought, and CJ and I shared fried calamari and pork nachos. It was basically nachos with all the fixins, plus BBQ pulled pork. Man was that friggin' good! After eating, CJ, Lauren, Doug and I left, and Dave, Christian and Kristina stayed for pool.

Saturday, I washed my hair and messed around with it thoroughly, and ended up with a pseudo-Claudio Sanchez doo going. people seemed to like it, except for one who thought it made my head look flat. Ah well. Later that night I saw a performance of the Vagina Monologues that was being held by the univiersity's drama group Dramatis Personae. I had some qualms about going, but I knew a few people that were going, and Danielle was going to be a part of it, so I sucked it up and went. It was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be. It was very entertaining and insightful. Some of the skits made you laugh, some of the skits made you feel bad about having a penis, but overall it was well done and I enjoyed it.

Today, Dave and I were gonna record a new Hott Lixxx song, but we realized the song wasn't ready to record, and we need to practice more. No big deal. Afterwards we watched TV, then I worked on a project that's been griping my ass for weeks now, and i finally got it done. Happy am I. Now I shall celebrate by sleeping.

Home - Zero 7 f/ Tina Dico
Lost in cheap delirium
Searching the neon lights
I move carefully
Sink in the city aquarium
Sing in the key of night
As they're watching me
Take me somewhere we can be alone
Make me somewhere I can call a home
'Cause lately I've been losing my own
Wrapped in silent elegance
Beautifully broken down
As illusions burst
Too late to learn from experience
Too late to wonder how
To finish first
Take me somewhere we can be alone
Make me somewhere I can call a home
'Cause lately I've been losing my own

Jean-Claude Van Damme can fight....

But can he dance?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LHGHAAQCd4

V.D. and other euphemistic abbreviations....

Valentine's Day a year ago, I was a bit hostile about it. This year was much better though. Last year I think I was just bitter about not having a significant other. This year the situation was no different, but I didn't let it get to me this time around. That, and I wasn't really feeling the alternative singles holiday, Singles Awareness Day (S.A.D). I went about my day as usual. I think waht made the day good was that my mother sent me a Valentine's Day e-card, and a few of my female friends wished me a Happy Valentine's Day. That brightened things up for me.
Yesterday I got a music CD in the mail. It's called Let it Ride and it's by Alan Evans, the drummer from Soulive. I heard a lot of good things about the album, so I had to get it myself. I was originally gonna get it sometime last year, but fucking musictoday never bothered to tell me that they were out of copies, and I waited a whole month without even an email from them about it. But that's in the past, and now I have my CD, and it really whips the llama's ass! My favorite song right now is "Ua Ah". The name makes no sense at first, but if you listen to the song you understand. Now i'm gonna have it stuck in my head for the next week. Ua, ua - a - ah!

Holy Shizz!

According to NBC 30 (Northern Connecticut's NBC station), all of Connecticut is expected to get 10-18 inches of snow! We're seriously getting snow-pwn3d. sn0wned.

Yep.

Well it's been three weeks since i've gotten back to school. Things seem to be going good. My classes aren't terribly hard. Ever since I worked like crazy for my final Computer Graphics project, I'm ready for just about anything. I have Chemistry, Data Analysis, Software Development and Operating Systems. I'm also back working in the Commons. Same old grind. Except I lost my friggin' keys. They could be anywhere in this time zone, so they're basically gone for good. I kept hearing from various sources that the front door lock may have to be replaced, and I'd have to pay $150+ for it. After large amounts of cursing and searching for my keys, I gave up and went to Residential Life and told the, I lost my keys. There was some good news for me there, though. I may not have to pay for a new lock, they may just go and cut new keys. It's even possible they may not charge me for the keys. It's been well over a week since I've heard anyting from ResLife, but I have a temporary key, so I can get in and out of my room.

WARNING: Extreme computer geekery ahead. If you do not know what UNIX is, you may want to skip the following paragraph. You've been properly warned. Thank you.

My nerdness has gotten off to a good start this year. For Operating Systems I have a project that involves the use of a UNIX terminal. So one of my friends made the suggestion that we build our own server. It would belong to the four of us (me, Rick, Josh and Will). Rick had a server PC sitting around in his house, so he brought it to campus and we all had a field day with it. We added some new hardware, we temporarily stole Rick's DVD drive so we could install Fedora, since the install files were on a DVD and the server doesn't have a DVD drive.
One very important part of having a server is being able to connect to the internet. This server had no network card. No network card = no internet. We had to wait a few days for Rick to go back home and dig for parts. We got plenty enough to set up at that point. I'm probably the most excited about this whole endeavour, and possibly the more knowledgeable. I set up just about all the network aspects of the server, setting up the router, figuring out how to set up remote access, etc. Today I got remote access set up for the server, so me and my friends can access the server from any computer anywhere. And that to me is freakin' smurf.

Things are good on the music front as well. Dave and I are working on a new song for the Hott Lixxx, we'll be recording that soon. My next door neighbor Dwight has a small home recording studio in his living room, and from time to time we'd talk about recording, etc. I told him that I play guitar, and he said if I ever wanted to record anything to let him know. Sunday, while I was waiting for the Super Bowl to start, I brought my guitar next door and Dwight and I tracked a couple of ideas, one of which turned into a real hot beat. It's in the process of mixing, it should be done soon. Once I get it, I'll post it on my music page.

That's all I feel like writing for now, I need to go to bed.