counting only blue cars

that's right. that is a dishwalla song reference. so, tell me all your thoughts on God.

dr. dog was a great show. the concert going experience is a strange one. you're surrounded by a large group of people who are their for a common thing: to see the show. they like the band, presumably. but everyone has their own experience. i tend to get wrapped up in my head. i start to associate all songs, lyrics, sounds with my life and it takes on supreme resonance. sometimes the experience is more than i want and i'm affected more than i want. but most of the time, it's the right balance. that and i need to sit down more than the average fan. standing around in a closed group of people, not my thing.

you guys been paying attention to greece? it's still going on.

this is a great post regarding hyperinflation and the causes in post WWI germany and recently zimbabwe and how different those scenarios are from our current status.

here is 10 ways the economy is built on fraud.

the amazing month of may begins with releases of the new pornographers and broken social scene. next week is the national and soon after that is lcd soundsystem.

terrible love

the live version of "terrible love" is outstanding. not sure what happened to the balls of the recorded version.

"it's a terrible love and i'm walking with spiders." i have no idea what the literalness of that statement means, but it resounds quite deep everytime i hear it.

i only wear blue

dr. dog is tonight. boo yes.

i have another exam in four weeks. the madness continues. but without the madness, my life would be a lot less interesting.

i'm so tired

i've studied and studied and studied. i'm ready for this test. don't know if i'll pass, but i've acquired a bit of knowledge that if i don't pass, i'll be ready to take it again soon. i'm taking regulation at the end of may, so that will be three of the four taken, with only financial still hanging out there. i've left the hardest two for the last. don't know how smart that is.

but if i can pass business tomorrow and have two under my belt this early in the game, that would be a major coup for me. i'd have the rest of the year to pass the final two. actually, i'd have until august 2011, when my audit credit expires, but i want to pass them all this year. i feel like 2010 is going to be a good year for me. i've made some major changes this year and it feels like forever since i've been this productive. define productive i suppose. but i'm looking forward to tomorrow. i enjoy the mental rigor of taking these tests. i don't enjoy missing out on beautiful days like today though. i could have ridden my bike all day and picked flowers. seriously. but, i'll do that tomorrow after the test.

if you aren't enjoying seeing goldman sachs suffer, than you probably don't really understand the situation. so i'll boil it down for everyone: let's say i sold you a car. i knew the car was a piece of shit. but i didn't tell you. i told you it was in great shape. so after you bought it, i made a huge side bet that the car was going to break down. and it did. you suffered. i made out huge. that's what goldman sachs did. read the emails. they knew exactly what they were doing. how the public hasn't torn down this company only shows that we either don't understand or don't care. and neither one is acceptable.

this isn't the first time that the government has had to battle a large financial institution. andrew jackson took on the 2nd bank of the united states and won. here's that story.

being there by wilco is year by year becoming my favorite album of all time.

high violet

for those you the national enthusiasts, please refer to the NYT website by april 27th to stream the new album.

you're welcome.

in other news, hot dogs still taste like wasted ass.

more than words

today is my two wedding anniversary. we went to san antonio this past weekend and celebrated. we went to the alamo and the riverwalk.

but the most awesome thing was the botanical gardens in san antonio. it was freakin' amazing. i could have spent all day there. easily.

anyway, that's two years in the books. she is now my longest relationship ever, surpassing my high school girlfriend who was in first place. not anymore. move over.

here's to two more. and two more. and two more. and two more. than three. than two more.

sec sues goldman sachs!!!

ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!ha!

taxman

the taxman has cometh and the taxman has goneth. my days of working 10 hour days and saturdays are over. that's right baby. over. my life is back.

the astros won today by the way. they started 0-8. that's amazing. it's going to be a long summer.

i saw the white rabbits this week. they were orgasmic. that's actually a bit extreme, but they were really, really good. those guys are going to be huge. and they seemed so young. that's strange at concerts. to listen and really get into some band that's younger than you.

listening to the new MGMT right now. not bad.

wet cement

two things:


saw "the reader" on friday. awesome, awesome film. highly recommend it.


saw a band called the sideshow tramps. sounds like they'd be totally lame, but this band was fun and totally wacky in their presentation. and this was at a crawfish festival. i don't eat crawfish so i had a corndog. it's been ages since i've had a corndog. it was perfection.


other than that, studying a lot.


oh last night, i almost turned into a phil collins robot at HEB. what is a phil collins robot? it's a robot that goes around singing phil collins in a robotic monotone voice obviously. this happened in the frozen foods area by the milk. i began singing and the danger was mounting, but it turned out okay. i turned back into myself.

i learned the hard way

if any of you chaps is having a shindig and wants to throw down some soul crunching soul moving music, check out sharon jones and the dap kings. love their style man.

astros lose the opener. somehow, i knew.

i wonder how long i could get by on four hours sleep. probably two/three days. then i would collapse. it's something i would like to try at some point. i bet i could get a lot done.

the last days of disco

it's good friday. last day of eating fish on friday. i'm sure i'll eat fish again on fridays, but with a side of chicken and beef for dessert.

there's a top fed official who wants to break up the banks. this guy is something. i totally dig his style. he's the lone voice of reason amongst the federal reserve officials.

here's his story.

paul krugman disagrees.

here is the history of the toothbrush and toothpaste. of course it was the chinese who invented it. love those chinese.

i passed the audit section of the cpa exam. this weekend i'll be studying endlessly for the business section, which i take at the end of april. i really hope i pass that one too. to have 50% of the test done, with still basically 14 months to accomplish the other two section is a big deal. that would put me in a really good spot. but either way, i feel really good about passing. it gives me a lot of confidence and i'm going to need it because each section gets harder and harder. i wish i could pass each one the first time. man, that would be great.

"but here i go again, wishin' never solved a problem. if you wanna get it big time, you better get it, get it big time."

not a great quote, but i really dig the song by yeasayer.

i'll come running

i went running yesterday and my entire body feels like goo. gelatinalized goo.

i got my business cds in the mail. time to hang up the tunes and hang down(?) the monotanized female business voice that feeds me endless amounts of information. yes!

actually this weekend i have a ton of studying to do. i think i'll do it. and i think i'll eat some eggs too.

another day

"it's just another day."

paul said it best. it's just another day. another day.

i passed the audit section of the cpa exam.

white rabbits and dr. dog coming to houston in april. am i excited? yes. am i going? yes. will i continue to ask and answer questions from myself? probably. no, definitely.

hey joe

well said mr. vice president. well said.

on down the line

health care has passed people. let us rejoice. now let's get out of iraq, get out of afghanistan, close down wall street and give us all candy.

alex chilton. the dude invented power pop. if power pop sounds lame, that's because no one does it like alex chilton. he took rock and added life and soul to it and with chris bell made it beautiful and touch and shady. he deserves a place on the rock history mount rockmore with bob dylan, john lennon and mickey dolenz. i love mickey dolenz.

uh-oh, love comes to town

"if you were really smart, you'd know what to do."

it's about to come a gully-washer here in houston.

i ate two chicken biscuits for breakfast and lunch. brunch. lunkfest. either one is a wonderful new word. born of laziness.

this weekend has its promises.

crystalized

this is the first week i have felt good in about a month. that sickness took me down hard for like the whole month of february and some of march. i feel strong again. i've been getting up early and going to the gym. i'm dying at like 3 in the afternoon, but it's worth it because i have tons of energy in the morning.

i saw a concert last weekend in austin: legs against arms. they kicked raw ass. man that was fun. full of energy. the next day we stumbled across a kite festival in zilker park. we walked the greenbelt until we came to the park and then just walked around the kites. i've never seen so many kites. it was incredible. we had a blast. i was still feeling a little crappy, but that was the last day. it was the sunshine burned it out of me. i love the warmth.

did anybody else see jon stewart doing his glenn beck impersonation for the entire 1st half of the show last night? it was brilliant. totally f-in' brilliant. check it here.

has anybody heard of vertical farms? these pictures are amazing. check them out.

centerfield

the 2010 baseball season is upon us and it's time for my predictions. this is going to be easy because i don't see anything changing. the cardinals will win the NL Central, the phillies will win the NL East and the rockies will win the NL West. the wild card from the NL will be the dodgers. same as last year but with the rockies and dodgers flip-flopping.

in the AL, the yankees will win the AL East, the twins will win the AL Central and the rangers will win the AL west. the tampa bay rays will win the AL wild card. that is a little different than last year. i think the rangers will be the surprise team this year, but mostly everything will be the same as last year. not a lot has changed to make anything different. the tigers will be a little worse without curtis granderson, the angels will be a little worse witout john lackey, plus they're getting a little old. the mariners will be a little better with cliff lee. the reds should be a little better with some seasoning. the NL Central promises to be comedicly bad. the most excitement will probably come from the possibility of another phillies-yankees world series. the same two teams have never, ever met in the world series in back-to-back years in my lifetime. it's never happened. so that will the biggest storyline.

i can't wait. as for the home team, they're going to be a little better i think this year. the rotation is younger and should be stronger. the bullpen is a little tighter. our offense is still pretty pathetic, but our defense has improved enough that i think we'll win 80 games. that's my prediction: 80-82. another losing year, but we're moving in the right direction.

while you wait for the others

so....who's watching the watchers?

we have major accounting firms not doing their job (i'm looking right at you ernst and young!)

we have credit agencies giving bogus credit scores to garbage assets (i'm looking right at you moodys!)

these are the agencies we depend on for their adherence to rules and compliance. we cannot trust them. therefore, we cannot trust anyone. it's all made of fiction and gorilla dust. all of it. something doesn't look right, move it off the balance sheet. the audit firm won't mind, we pay them millions. they'll do what we say.

i hesitate to link this article, but i have to. some of you (actually the only guy who reads this agrees with me) don't want to believe what's really going on. that everything you know and rely on is made of crumbs and it won't take more than a collective sneeze to blow it away. really. the game is rigged. do your best as a person. have as much fun as you can. nothing is going with you in the next life. don't be greedy. let it go. but realize what you're up against and who you're playing with.

republicans=democrats=republicans=democrats and on and on and on and on.... no one has your best interest in mind except you.

someday i will treat you good

mark linkous killed himself the other day. he was basically sparklehorse. apparently he walked down a street, pulled out a shotgun and shot himself in the heart. must have been in a lot of pain.

i remember being young. i remember listening to "someday i will treat you good." that made me buy vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. i bought it. i listened to it. to this day, i still am blown away by the feeling the album generates. it's beautiful. it's haunting. it's sad. it's hopeful. it's disjointed. i love it.

i'm sorry he was in such great pain. i hope he's feeling better now.