Monster BTZ

I made BTZ a monster hoodie for Christmas so that he would look like his doppleganger Bre Pettis.
Which one is BTZ?

Heathkit

For a while now I have wanted a Heathkit amp. I am no audiophile but I like how the tubs light up and how they look in general.
I came home today and found that BTZ had restored (with the help of some guy named Earl) this:It is official he is the best boyfriend ever!

Do The Test

If you have 2 minutes do this.
http://www.dothetest.co.uk
It may blow your mind.

The Best of Youth

I saw the movie The Best of Youth over a year ago and I still think about it a lot.
I know a movie is good if I am thinking about it the next day. But a movie is great if you are thinking about it over a year later.
The Best of Youth is a six hour movie and it is in Italian which might make some people think "hell I am not going to watch a six hour movie in Italian." But I have major movie ADD, I normally spend part of the time in the movie theater trying to figure out how much more of the movie is left, and I did not do this in The Best of Youth. We did watch it over two nights but still three hours each night is a lot. Also I would watch all six hours again.
The movie itself is about two brother in Italy in the late 60s. It follows them through the 70s and 80s. I won't tell you more about it just that you should watch it.
It is one of the best movies I have ever seen and it is so worth six hours of your time.
I have a good song from the movie that I will upload to my next muxtape.
What movies do you still think about?

Muxtape #2

I just updated my muxtape. This is actually a mix CD I made for my friend Amy sometime last year. The CD had 19 songs on it but you can only have 12 songs on a muxtape so I cut some of the songs. Also, the song "I found a love" is supposed to be by Wilson Pickett but I did not have that song in MP3 form so I used the Ryan Shaw version of the song. If you get a chance check out the Wilson Pickett version of the song since it is really great.
Here is the track list:
1. I Found a Love - Ryan Shaw
2. Johnny Appleseed - Joe Strummer & The...
3. Our Hell - Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
4. Going Missing - Maximo Park
5. If Looks Could Kill - Camera Obscura
6. Think Long - Mates of States
7. The Underdog - Spoon
8. Australia - The Shins
15. Anthems for A 17 Year Old Girl-BSS
16. Song for Myla Goldberg - The Decemberists
17. Plasticities - Andrew Bird
18. A Bottle of Buckie - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
19. Back in Your Head - Tegan and Sara

Love is a Muxtape?

I love mixtapes. I like the idea of sharing music with others and discovering what other people are listening to and how they put what they are listening to together in a mixtape. I was going to get all existential about how a song becomes more than a song on a mixtape but I won't. You can read the great book Love is A Mixtape by Rob Scheffield for that. What I am getting at is that I was so happy when I head about the website muxtape.com because it lets you make mixtapes on the web and share them with everyone. I made a muxtape and so did my friends tow and superg. I have decided I will change my muxtape up every few weeks (maybe every week if I feel inspired). I will post the track lists here.
Have you made a muxtape?
I thought this muxtape was funny.
*********UPDATE****************
Bryan just made a muxtape.

And here is my track list

Users with muxtapes who favorited this one:

• tow
• superg

• The Faces - Ooh La La
  
  
• MGMT - Kids
  
  
• The Ting Tings - Great DJ
  
  
• Flight of the Conchords - Business Time
  
  
• Dengue Fever - Tiger Phone Card
  
  
• The Raveonettes - Dead Sound
  
  
• Cat Power - The Greatest
  
  
• The Cars - You Might Think
  
  
• The Beach Boys - God Only Knows

Notes on the bus

It has stopped raining which is nice because now I get to ride my bike to school. All last week it rained and I had to take the bus everyday. I don't mind taking the bus here in Oakland/Berkeley because a lot of people take it and the bus also allows for some fun and not so fun experiences. I thought I would write about a few.
The bad:
Last week I got on a bus that smelled really bad, like someone had peed all over the bus, but I think it was really just one smelly guy. After my 20 minute bus ride I was glad to get some fresh air but the bus I caught home turned out to be the same bus and the same guy was still on the bus.
The good:
I overheard 2 preteen girls talking about Project Runway. Fortunately, I had just seen the episode they were talking about and I agreed that Ricky's outfit was horrible. Also one girl did a perfect impression of Jillian.
The awesome:
2 teen boys were talking about smoking weed on the bus and one turns to the other and says "here is what you do you order a pizza to be delivered then you smoke and then right when you get the munchies a dude shows up at your house with pizza." On a bus full of Cal students who think they are geniuses this kid is the true genius.

How do you know that?

Overheard while waiting in line for the bathroom at a family friendly (no alcohol allowed) showing of Kooza by Cirque du Soleil.
30ish woman #1: So do you know Matt*?
30ish woman #2: Yeah he is a nice guy. Sexually he is into tying up and stuff.
#1: How do you know that?

(I love San Francisco!)

Oh Finals

So I should be working on my finals but I keep watching this video.
Damn you Jason Schwartzman!

Make a circuit with me

Bryan just played this song and it made my day.
For some reason I think if Bryan wrote me a love song it would be something like this.
Check out the video I could not find the MP3 anywhere online.
The Polecats-Make a Circuit With Me

This Must Be The Place

When I went to Puerto Rico I remember feeling like I woke up one day and I could speak Spanish. There was no learning involved just one night I went to bed not speaking and the next day I understood everything. I know this is not how it worked but it is funny how you reach points in your life where things change so quickly you wake up say to yourself "Oh right I get it".
This week has been like that for me. After months of struggling with all the changes that have happened in the last few months, tonight while riding home on my bike I have an "oh right I get it" moment. It is not like one thing changed today but for some reason I now feel like I made the right choice for me moving up here and going back to school. Somethings have changed: I now use the word "odds ratio" more than I used to and I think I get what it means, I have friends (or at least people I talk to in class), I feel like my apartment is home now (even if it is 32 degrees), and I look forward to my bike ride when I wake up in the morning. It feels good to feel this way let me tell you.
The title of this post is a Talking Heads- This Must Be The Place I love this song and listening to it makes me smile and bob my head I don't know why. Listen to the song and see if you feel the same way!

Blimpin'

Last Friday night Bryan and I were walking down Grand Ave when we saw a blimp up in air:
Bryan: Check out the blimp
Me: What do you think it is doing?
Bryan: Blimpin' (then he starts singing) Big blimpin' On B.L.A.P.'s

So today is 8 years since Bryan and I went on our first date* and this exchange above shows why the last 8 years have been so much fun.



*hey BTZ if I put it on my blog does it mean I am right about the date?

Saving The World

7:10 Yesterday Morning
Bryan: You know what I have been thinking?
Me: What? ( a little shocked that he is actually talking)
Bryan: In Ghost Busters, why would anyone be obsessed with Sigourney Weaver? She is not that hot.
Me: Well yeah but why would anyone like Bill Murray he is not that hot either?
Bryan: She did not like him until he f-ing saved the world!
Touche

Never Played

In iTunes I have a playlist for songs with zero play counts. Right now this playlist has 1387 songs in it. It is a smart playlist so once I listen to a song it is removed from the list. For the past few days I have been trying to only listen to this playlist. I think it is going to take a long time before I have listened to all these songs.

Boring Post

So I realize I have not posted in a long time and that is because the last few month have been full of lots of personal changes and in general I think personal blog posts are boring. I am also of the belief that it is better to be evil than boring when it comes down to it. Just call someone in my family boring and you will notice that all of the sudden you are having a string of insults fired at you. Anyway I am going to do a boring post now so you do not have to read if you don't want.

So the reason for all the changes is because I have decided to get my MPH in Epidemiology and Bio statistics at Berkeley. Because of this the fallowing had to happen:

Bryan had to find a job in SF
Bryan had to quit his job in SC
We had to move out of Ledyard
Mike and Em had to find a new place to live
Bryan and I had to move in with my parents for a month and a half
Bryan and I had to find a place to live in the Bay Area and move there
I had to quit my job
I had to find a way to pay for school
I had to find a job

There were more changes but I can't think of them right now.

Today was my first day at Berkeley. It is actually welcome week classes do not officially start until next Monday. Bryan and I now live off of Grand Ave in Oakland. I have decided to sell my car and ride my bike to school. My daily ride takes me up a pretty gnarly hill but it is still really fun. It takes about 40 minutes to get to school and 30 minutes to get home. I am hoping I will get faster and cut down on the time. I also had to buy a new bike. I wanted something light that would not get stolen so I got an old fuji touring bike. After telling one girl about my ride to school she said "wow you are hard core" I was kind of taken aback by that, I wanted to say "that is the nicest thing a stranger has ever said to me" but I did not want to freak her out.

I spent this morning listening to all the great work the school does and different resources they have for students. I felt like they took 2 hours to do something that could have been done in a few minutes. The only interesting part was when one professor gave a presentation on her work on Dengue. After that we met with our program and everyone started to size each other up. People wanted to know what sort of undergrad work others had done. I decided not to engage in this and remained quiet, I hate forced socialization. At lunch the sizing up continued so I went to get my school ID with a girl I had met. While waiting in line for the ID (45 minutes) there was a guy preaching about how Jesus saves and the penis is not meant for the anus, some students got upset and started to engage with him (my guess is they were new to Berkeley) the cops came and said there was nothing they could do because of the free speech rules of the campus.

I then had to meet with my advisor this meeting was to give her an idea of what I am interested in and for her to direct me to places on campus that can help. She met with me and one other student. True to form I stumped her. I told her I wanted to work on Psychology and epidemiology, she was like I have no idea and went on to talk to the other student about infectious deceases. I then had to explain to her what I wanted to do. I want to look at grief as a risk factor. For a long time I have been interested in infectious deceases but I figure after working in grief so long and also the fact that not much has been done in that area maybe I could do some good research. Anyway finally she got the idea and I was good to go.

See how boring that was.

Song of The Week 10 and 11

I know I missed the song of the week last week. I don't really have an excuse other than I have been kick boxing a lot and it has been difficult to find time at night to post because after kick boxing I can barely lift my head up.
So this week I bring you two songs to make up for last week.

The first song is Hot Chip - And I Was A Boy From School. I picked this song because I heard it on Veronica Mars last week. Can I just say that if you are not watching Veronica Mars you should be. As Em said last night "This is how TV should be, every line is funny" it reminds me of how Gilmore Girls used to be when it started you have to really pay attention to catch everything.

The second song is Feist's version of Broken Social Scene's - Lovers Spit. I heard it in the movie Half Nelson this weekend and since (if you could not tell already) I am currently obsessed with Feist I just had to go out and find this song. It can be found on the EP Bee Hives by Broken Social Scene. You can find more info on the blog Quick Before It Melts where I found this MP3. Also Half Nelson is a great movie. Have you seen it?

Original

So the original reason I started this blog was to write out letters I received while I was in Puerto Rico. I guess I kind of got caught up in the song of the week thing. I thought I would type out another letter because right now I am just sitting around trying to let my leg recover from a contusion I got while trying to kick my co worker during Khmer Boxing.
So here is another letter for you:
Hey Katie,
How are you? Thanx for calling, I just wish I had more to say. I'm sorry I haven't written. I have no excuse I'm just a lazy bum. That's what I feel like these days lying around , no job, no school, a bum. When are you coming back? I miss you so much! You should be in no hurry to come home. Santa Cruz Sucks! It's so boring here, only depressing things happening. There are so many sleazy men in Santa Cruz. They're everywhere. It's even worse than before. Well, I'm excited about getting a job and going to Cabrillo "C is for Cabrillo and that's good enough for me!" Ha Ha! I so many plans for my future that I'm over whelmed. Everyone is doing good here. I'm still worried about H and B. But I hope she will wisen up soon. R seems happy with J. A and A are a cute little couple. I think that A1 is in a sense rebound and A2 is an experience. That's okay though, they're happy right now. How about you Kate, how's the dating scene. I am jealous of you, you're away from Santa Cruz surrounded by new people, free from your parents and all this on a beautiful island! Live it up baby! Have fun while you can, we'll all still be here when you get back. We're the unfortunate ones without you around. I wish I had a walkman so no matter where I am I can listen to music and be happy. The sky is so beautiful right now. The stars have been so bright and powerful lately. I know I'm getting random here but it fits the letter since I'm writing to Random Girl! Once again I apologize for it being so long since I've written. I'm so bad with this stuff. Okay I'll go now and write you again another day, I promise!
I miss you-
I love you-
I envy you-
C

A few notes about this letter. Until I just read it I did not realize my friends were jealous of my trip. While I was in Puerto Rico I viewed it as something I just had to do like going to second grade is something you just have to do even if you don't want to. Also how cool is it that she wanted a walkman to listen to music all the time. Now that I have an I Pod I forgot what it is like to not have music all the time.

Song of The Week 9

This week I have a true song of the week. On Saturday I got the Patrick Wolf album the Magic Position, it will actually be released in the US on May 1st but it was leaked way back in January and it has been out in the UK for a while. Ever since I heard the album I have to listen to the title track at least 3 times a day. Yesterday I listened to the song and then I thought that is so good I have to listen to it again.
Check it out for yourself let me know what you think.
Also what have you been listening to lately?
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position

Song of The Week 8

So I am really late with the song of the week. And that is because until yesterday I really did not have one. I did not listen to much new music this week because I have been really busy kickboxing four days a week.
This weeks song is
Feist - One Two Three Four

Also I really like the video for this song. Check it out and tell me if you don't think Feist is an indie rock vixen.

Song of The Week 7

The song of the week is:
I'm From Barcelona - Treehouse

This week I have been singing this song a lot.
The best part was one day I was singing it and Bryan started to sing along, now if we could only get 648 people to join in with us we would have as many people as our in this band. Just kidding, I don't know how many people are in the band but it is a lot. I do know they are not from Barcelona. I hope none of my friends from Norway hate me because this band is actually from Sweden.