It’s the second weeeked of the new premiership season, but the first time that Arsenal are on Fox Soccer Channel.  I’m pumped and may even wear my new Fabregas jersey, even though he’s still out with injury :(  Go Gunners!

In other news, it’s been a very busy two weeks.  Work has been filled with setting up new computers, going into the ceiling to wire cat5e cables to rooms and moving other employees computers and desks in a massive office shuffle.  It’s all in preparation for 3 new employees starting over the next 2 weeks.

When I get home there’s no shortage of sporting options.  There’s the Olympics, NFL preseason, MLB baseball, EPL soccer, etc.  It’s been particularly disappointing to see the US Track & Field team underperform after watching them at the Trials here in Eugene. Phelps was quite exciting, even though the west coast never gets to watch anything live.  So, I had to avoid all media outlets during Phelps’ 8th gold medal try and then watch the 3 hour tape dealy on NBC.

The fantasy baseball playoffs are approaching fast.  There’s only one more week fo the regular season and I’ve been holding 5th place for quite some time.  The top 6 make the playoffs, but i wouldn’t mind slipping into 6th so that I could avoid the 1st place team, who I’m losing to this week, if I make it to the 2nd round/semifinal.

3 weeks ago was Lollapalooza and it was a great weekend to be in Chicago.  Great weather and great music, what more do you need?  Radiohead were that Friday night’s headliner, playing all the new songs and other classics from In Rainbows and providing a great light show throughout.  Saturday night was Wilco,  who played a very nice set while tricking out their suits with Hello Kitty patches and lots of other stuff.  Sunday night was NiN, who I had never seen before.  They had a great rock show and a very cool stage setup that included a screen that comes down in front of them that Reznor can manipulate with lights.  Their bassist is JMJ, aka Beck’s bassist, and he definitely added a lot to the set.  All in all, great headliners choices so that made it easier to avoid Kanye and Rage Against the Machine. A few other great shows during the days were: Girl Talk, Explosions in the Sky, The National, The Foals, Bloc Party and The Black Keys.

The weekend also gave me the opportunity to see TDK at the Navy Pier IMAX late in the morning on Sunday.  It was fantastic and IMAX really helped the action scenes.  I’ve now seen the movie twice and it is easily the best movie I have seen this year.  I really noticed some of the screenplay subtleties the second time around that gave hints to things that would happen later on.  Ledger’s Joker is truly great with so many memorable scenes: the bank robbery, the pencil trick, the Nurse uniform, the interrogation, it’s goes on.

Inspired by Marktopia, I’ve decided to list my iTunes artists. I didn’t go with the iPod since I’ve still got an old Nano. I shall be upgrading to an iPhone or an iPod touch this summer. The March 6 presentation really sold it for me with Exchange, Cisco IPSec VPN and SDK in the 2.0 Software Update due out in June. There’s the added excuse that I need to upgrade my iPod anyways, so why not go all the way.

Back to the list:

Air
Arcade Fire
Badly Drawn Boy
Barenaked Ladies
Beastie Boys
Beck
Bell Orchestre
Belle & Sebastian
Ben Folds
Bjork
The Black Keys
Bloc Party
Blur
Bright Eyes
Caribou
Christopher O’Riley
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Clash
Coldplay (insert Derek Jeter jokes here)
Cream
The Cure
Daft Punk
The Darkness
Dave Attell
David Bowie
David Cross
Death Cab for Cutie
The Decemberists
Dire Straits
ELO
Elton John
Explosions in the Sky
Final Fantasy
The Flaming Lips
Foo Fighters
Franz Ferdinand
George Harrison
Gorillaz
The Hives
Incubus
j.c. wilson (note the dots)
Jeff Buckley
Jeff Tweedy
Jim Gaffigan
John Williams
Journey
Katamari Damacy
The Killers
Lewis Black
Madvillain
Modest Mouse
My Bloody Valentine
My Morning Jacket
The National
OK Go
Panda Bear
Patti Smith
Pavement
Pixies
The Police
The Polyphonic Spree
The Postal Service
Public Enemy
R.E.M.
The Raconteurs
Radiohead
Rage Against the Machine
The Shins
Sigur Ros
The Smiths
Sonic Youth
Spoon
Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
Sting
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens
Supertramp
Talking Heads
Thom Yorke
Tom Petty
Traveling Wilburys
U2
Weezer
The White Stripes
Wilco
Wolf Parade

Anyone who knows me, knows that I loves me the Radiohead. They released In Rainbows, their latest album, via digital download on 10/10 of this year. I downloaded the album after purchasing the ‘discbox’ option. They weren’t to ship until Dec 3rd so I just got mine on Tuesday! It’s pretty damn cool. Vinyls of the proper LP, vinyl-sized album artwork, the LP & Disc 2 on CD, lyrics and a cool holder to contain it all.

Last month Radiohead did a live webcast to celebrate their new album. It was quite great since they played songs from In Rainbows, Amnesiac and covers from The Smiths, Bjork and Joy Division/New Order.

If you missed it, Radiohead’s US label has it available as a widget (see below)

More Radiohead:

Thom Yorke interview w/David Byrne
How Radiohead fans can reduce CO2 emissions for concerts
Get a free, printable Radiohead 2008 Calendar [PDF]

I have a lot of catching up to do readers (passive post recipients).

I’ve been doing a lot more blog reading since Google Reader came into being. I definitely read more since I’ve been in college, is that wrong? Blog posts are hardly as well thought out as novels, or even short stories, but my attention span is short, hence my love of short stories, articles, blogs and foreign-language films.

Blogs I’ve been reading more since Google Reader:

Fire Joe Morgan: I first heard of this site about 2 years ago, but I only took a fleeting interest in it. Now that I consistently watch Sunday Night baseball with Joe Morgan and Jon Miller, I have a new appreciation for Ken Tremendous’ posts.

The Dilbert Blog: Scott Adams’ Dilbert comic has been my favorite comic for a long time. I’ve never felt a true understanding of the “truth” of Dilbert-like scenarios, even know that I work in an office. That’s definitely a credit to Adams’ humor and that’s why I read his personal ramblings at the Dilbert Blog. Topics include global warming, Iraq, your optimal age, happiness formulas, etc.

Dead Air Space: Radiohead’s new album is being mixed as we speak and you can keep track of all the studio details via this blog. DAS is the official Radiohead blog for LP7 and is usually updated twice a week. Nigel Godrich just posted a sample of the new album’s songs in mashup, mix format. Any reader of dsjoo knows that Radiohead is my favorite band, followed closely by Arcade Fire.

The concert:

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to the Arcade Fire concert in downtown Portland. My third time seeing Arcade Fire was on that Sunday night at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. The concert hall was great and the opening act was pretty good too, Electrelane. The acoustics, the lighting, the stage and, not the least of all, the performance. The set mostly came from Neon Bible, but there were plenty of Funeral holdovers.

I’ll continue to update you all my super interesting life during the week.

People, I just ate some Chicken Tikka Masala and it was delicious. It’s the first time that I’ve eaten Indian food since coming to Oregon. There are apparently a couple of Indian restaurants in Eugene, but not near my office. We are rife with Mexican, Thai, Pizza and Burger joints, but BBQ and Indian are low in quality or sparse. So, tonight while in Portland, da big city, I chose Indian and was not disappointed. It was definitely on par with the India Buffet in Iowa City, but this was dinner so I couldn’t go back, like the pig I am, for a third plate. There was plenty of food anyways with each component, rice, entree, yogurt, vegetables, desert in separate cups and the nan, oh the nan.

I am currently digesting the food and keeping track of fantasy baseball stats. Baseball has been quite exciting. The Mariners still stink, the Cubs are still hopeless (Prior to have surgery) and the East has the only exciting divisions in MLB. I’ve been doing more calculated research and statistictioning (is that a word?) with the help of Baseball Prospectus. The NFL Draft is coming up, but I won’t even be tuned in for highlights since I get to help a coworker move tomorrow. It doesn’t matter though since the most exciting sport right now is soccer or futbol or real football. I’ve been quite keen on Premiership and Champions League happenings. I watched my first Champions League match last year around the same time and I saw a brilliant and crazy finals between Arsenal and Barcelona. I’ve been hooked ever since, watching the World Cup as often as possible and now watching Premiership matches whenever they are broadcast live. The matches usually start around 7:30 am PST on Fox Soccer Channel on Saturdays. The only way to keep track of Champions League games is to watch the live text via the BBC. It’s pretty crazy that the EPL, Champions League and FA Cup could all come down to the Chelsea and Manchester United. Very exciting indeed!

In other news, I’ve continued the Netflix journey.  I won’t give full reviews, but I can recommend: Borat, Who Killed the Electric Car? and The Squid and the Whale.  I HIGHly recommend: Elizabeth I and Empire Falls, both HBO miniseries with fantastic casts and great storylines and execution (no pun intending Mary Queen of Scots).  I am eager to see Pan’s Labyrinth and Volver.  I have Volver sitting at home, but I’m waiting for the right moment to watch an Almodovar film.  After previous gems such as: All About My Mother and Talk to Her, I am stoked.  Plus, Penelope Cruz is hot.

Lastly, Music.  The Arcade Fire show is less than a month away, so that’s great.  I got the new Modest Mouse and Bright Eyes CDs.  Both very good and fairly main stream for Brock and company and more folky from Cono.  The new Wilco album arrives next week, so that’s a must buy.

Btw, if another one of my closers blows a save, I’m gonna have to break something.

Things are churning along nicely at work. Let’s just say that Windows Updates are interesting. Oh, Outlook and Daylight Savings Time, DARN YOU!

Music Updates:

Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City - I’m giving the album 3.5 out of 5, so far. The album is growing on me. Highlights: ‘Waiting for the 7:18′, ‘Hunting for Witches’, ‘I Still Remember’

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible - I stole this album, just because it hasn’t been officially released. Don’t worry, I’ll be buying the album, DELUXE edition, on March 5. The whole album is great and will definitely make the year-end top 10. The only question is, do I go to the Portland show this May, or do I wait for the second go around in teh fall. Highlights: ‘Black Wave/Bad Vibrations’, ‘Ocean of Noise’, ‘Intervention’, ‘No Cars Go’. 4.5 out of 5 stars

In other Arcade Fire news, they’ll be on NPR this Sunday Night and SNL 2/24

Still waiting on the new Radiohead, Modest Mouse (with Johnny Marr of THE SMITHS) and Wilco albums.

I definitely have found my TV show sweet shop:

Monday: Heroes, Studio 60
Tuesday: Gilmore Girls
Wednesday: Nothing Good I know of
Thursday: Scrubs, 30Rock
Friday: Monk, Numb3rs, Real Time w/Bill Maher — starts up again this Friday
Saturday: Not consistently SNL, except for 2/24
Sunday: Extras, Rome

The Daily Show is on now. Time to get my satire on/embolden some terrorists OR NOT!

This week has been very busy and now the sleeping-in begins. We finally got Qwest (#@$%^&ers) to come and hook up our T1 line, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut our T1 line still doesn’t work. Hmmmmmm. Sounds like Qwest still has more work to do, more than a month after the scheduled delivery date.

Onto more fun stuff. The week was topped off by leaving early on Friday. It was nice to catch-up on my favorite comedies: 30 Rock and Scrubs and jam out to the Flaming Lips and CYHSY. (Music selections inspired by this blog post) I also got a PS2 slim from eBay, madden 07 and a memory card. The plan is play madden online with a friend from Iowa. This is two years after I sold my original Ps2 to buy a dvd player, since I never played games. Even though I’m usually quite tired after work, I’m still less busy and stressed-out compared to school. So, I’ve been working on my console Football skillz and have chosen the Bengals as my team. Once my game gets up to snuff, I’ll be ready to take on all comers.

Keep your ears open this spring:

4 albums are either out or coming out that will keep indie-rockers quite busy. 1. Radiohead 2. Arcade Fire 3. Bloc Party 4. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah . I’ve seen all of these bands live and have rated them based upon lived performances and album quality. We’ll see if the order shakes after their albums come out in the coming few months. Also, Radiohead fans should look for the Live at Bonnaroo DVD that Thom Yorke promised this fall. I was at that performance and it was the best musical experience I’ve ever had, EVAR!

NetFlix: With the full time job I’ve also got to consistently watch my NetFlix rentals. I’ve hitting up the standup comedy section lately. I recommend Louie C.K., Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifiniakis and the rest of the Comedians of Comedy gang.

Tonight was a nice end to the week of minimal work. With only one class and rest of the time being University work, this semester’s Fridays are excellent for starting the weekend. While it seems fairly far away, finals are about 6 weeks away and that means the end of my undergraduate era. It is unlikely that I will return to a traditional school setting and guaranteed not to happen if I ever have to pay for a class again.

Two years ago about this time I dropped my last math class and decided to switch majors to MIS. Management of Information Systems has its tedious aspects but Education and abstract math classes had run their course. Even though I have tons of group projects, their substance is actually of interest. For instance, in DB I we set up a database with a web-front end for the inputing , updating and extraction of data for a real business. Now in DB II and Systems Analysis and Design we are doing same, except now we utilize more advanced concepts that allow for a more efficient design and implementation of a system and/or database.

Stop being so laissez-faire

The MIS major is fairly small in terms of other business majors at Iowa, so ‘each vote counts more.’ This is especially important since the MIS department is considering changing their course requirements by dropping one course and making the open space another elective. As a senior MIS student, my concerns about the major requirements are actually being heard by the MIS faculty, giving hope to the notion that students’ opinions matter. Now these are some politics that I am actually interested in participating in. Juxtapose this with state and national politics, where persuasion and rational thought are wayside concepts to the partisan lobby machines. Politics that have an effect on people that I know and/or may decide the future of people in my profession and passion are worth investing time and energy in, not party-controlled, power mongers.

So… There’s why I design websites, why I want to graduate and why I don’t vote. Oh, and South Park is god!

- Another Bloc Party inspired title

Thursday in Iowa City is traditionally called ‘Thirsty Thursday.’ The monaker was bestowed upon the weekday as to instill a sense of drinking necessity. But, I am not like most UI undergrads, so I am hardly out and about on the weekday nights. Recently though, I have found a nice little bar that has wonderful music and a fairly quiet atmosphere. The only other comparable bar in the downtown is Joe’s Place. The Iowa City Piano Lounge takes all of the best atmoshperic qualities of Joe’s Place and then classes it up. In the past three weeks I have been to the Piano Lounge twice, both times on Thursday night. Thursday nights have half-price wine and martinis and full-quality live piano music. Two weeks ago our pianist was Sean and he rocked the house until 1 am. He played a huge variety of songs and did ‘Happy Birthday’s for my age-turning friends. Last night showcased Eben or Evan or some name like that. Either way, the E-man was great and was better than Sean in that his playlist featured RADIOHEAD and Beck.

Before Piano Lounge this Thursday, the Scruple group had pizza at Pagliai’s. Boy was it tasty, but expensive and cash/check only. The conspiracy theorists, me included, believe there is a mob family running the business and selling drugs/’bad stuff’ on the side. Inside sources from a financial institution handling Pagliai’s money say that the daily cash deposits for this ‘pizza’ establishment are “sick.” I’m off to 3rd base for cheap burgers and fries and then it’s nappy nap. Sleepy sleep

Week 3:

I finished setting-up a new user’s workstation and domain accounts. The process started yesterday with discovering that the machine for an incoming employee had an unknown administrator password. This meant that a windows repair was needed. After that was sorted out, the Microsoft updates began and took the rest of the afternoon, no sp2 installed. Thanks to Slashdot, this morning found that more windows updates were on the way and will eventually need to be installed on other users’ machines.

The fun project began this afternoon where I was able to start installing Windows Server 2k3 on a brand new Dell server. This 600GB, dual-processor machine took a little while to finish the initial setup, but now that is finished and all that’s left is the updating and hardening of the server. Once that is done, I can begin copying over files from the soon-to-be-defunked, current windows file server. The new server will also house an MSSQL database server for software testing and development. Hopefully, most of these steps will be completed before I leave for a long weekend.

I shall be departing on Thursday morning from Portland for Nashville, TN. From there, it’s a short ride with some friends from high school to Manchester, TN. This will be our first time at the Bonnaroo music festival featuring Radiohead and many more. That means four days of music, comedy and camping before I’m back to the grind. This will be a much larger festival than last year’s Sasquatch Festival. There’s a few trade-offs. There will be no Arcade Fire or Wilco. Instead, we’ll get Radiohead, Beck, Tom Petty, Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, Ben Folds, The Streets, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, plus Comedians Lewis Black, Patton Oswalt and more.

-Derrick