adrian is rad

I’m sure I’m the first person to express this sentiment.

I spent basically all the time from 8:30am to 10pm yesterday moving. By the end of the day boxes I thought were light earlier were feeling really heavy. By the end of the day, I was threatening to drop couches and things after just a few feet because my forearms were atrophied to such an extent.

I got one of those stylish back support things that you see movers and home depot employees wearing. I pretty much wanted to look professional while I moved, but it did have some benefits in back support. (And, really, I don’t want a back support device, I want an Impenetrable and Invincible Back Exoskeleton Now Made with Super-Alloy-Z.)

Our one break was a visit to In N Out in the evening. We parked our Budget rent-a-truck across three parking spaces laterally and I had the biggest meal I’ve had at an In N Out. It was the most guilt-free meal I’ve had since the Tahoe century.

Today I hurt. Back, forearms, calves, quads and all the other areas that contain muscle.

The A’s are offering All You Can Eat Seating. $35 for a game and you get all the hot dogs, ice cream, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and soda you want (though only 2 items + soda per trip through the line).

Jesse, do you see this??

Post-easter half priced candy time! I love it.

Some days now I don’t even think about having lived in Taiwan. For weeks, something would remind me, some element of reverse culture shock or talking to someone about what I’ve been up to. But these days, America seems quite a bit more normal and when someone asks what I’ve been up to, I generally talk about the more recent happenings since coming back from Taiwan.

The overwhelming Taiwan-related thought/ feeling these days is that I’ve been itinerant for a long time. I haven’t lived somewhere even semi-permanent since August (and even through June-August I knew my time there was limited) and it’s started to wear on me. In a couple weeks I’ll move into somewhere for at least a year and I’m looking forward to that feeling of permanence.

Wii swimming.

[fin]

I don’t think anyone but my brother and I know about this. Maybe my parents knew, but I’m not sure. This story takes place after we moved to Pittsburgh, but before my brother entered high school, I think, so that’d put it in the 1989 to 1992 range.

When we were young we watched some TV, especially during those gloriously long summers between school years. There’d be commercials and they’d say “Call this toll free and we’ll send you a free informational video!” (Or information packet, or any number of other things.) And we’d say “Free video? That’s awesome!” and so we’d call up that 1-800 number and ask for the free stuff that they wanted to send people. A few days later it’d arrive.

(I have no memory of doing anything with most of the stuff once it arrived. The moment was finding it in the mailbox.)

We got information packets. We got a video about those beds that adjusted and tilted and whatnot with motors. We even got the Book of Mormon, which we gave to my mom, and though she tried to seem appreciative of the “present” we could tell she didn’t want it. (Looking back, that has to be among the top five most awkward presents I’ve ever given.)

I remember the day we stopped. There was an ad for a hair loss clinic on the TV. They wanted people to call to get their video cassette, so we did.

Here’s how that conversation went:

Brother: Yes, we’d like the free video from the commercial.

Operator: Uh, how old are you? Why don’t you have your dad call?

Brother: Oh, he doesn’t want the video. He’s got hair.

Operator: Why are you calling then? Do you know someone else that’s losing his hair?

Brother: No, we just like getting free stuff in the mail.

Operator: Oh. Oh! Well, then! <mumble>

<click>

And so ended our foray into free promotional materials.

number of pens that burst in the pocket of my pants on Thursday: 1

number of pants I brought to SxSW: 1

I just got back from “South by” as some (silly) people call it.

I saw around 38 bands in 5 days. It was pretty crazy. Some amazing stuff (like J Tillman (listen in, Tarky!), Two Sheds, and Fanfarlo) and some not so great stuff, but overall I was pretty thrilled with the stuff I saw.

But it got me thinking about music. I mean, even moreso than normal. After all, I had five days to basically only think about music. Here are some thoughts:

• label: seeing so many great bands that are unsigned or not signed in America got me thinking that maybe I should start a label. I don’t know the second thing about starting a label, though–I know the first thing, the first thing is that it’s a time and money sink–so I’ll need to talk to some people and get a better idea of what’s involved if I’m serious about it.
• self: I want to start recording and playing more music. I was even thinking about trying to get enough tracks together for a demo and maybe try to play a show sometimes. I don’t know what instrument I’d use. Maybe Wurly or banjo? I’m not sure. I need to get better at instruments as well.
• self, pt 2: I think I ought to get decent at trumpet again and ply my trade to the bands of SF to play for them.
• blog: I spend a whole lot of time on that thing. Is it worth it?
• presents: I should present more shows, I think. I was even thinking it’d be cool to be involved in a party/ showcase at SxSW next year. I’ll need to talk to some people about how to go about this.

I’m in Austin for SxSW. You can follow along at my other blog or my other blog’s corresponding twitter feed.

David Bazan recommended some nachos to me tonight. This is the sort of life I lead.

When I moved to Menlo Park in 2003, there were three car dealerships along the main drag, El Camino Real. By the time I moved away in 2007, all of them were closed up. I’d meant to do a photo essay on them for a while and I finally did one time in December when I was back there.

Click for larger images.

I woke up today at “7:10am”.

Weird things:
a) I’d set my alarm for 7am and have no memory of hitting snooze.
b) After reading some email and heading to the shower (but not yet getting in) I realized it was 5:10am that my alarm went off and the clock requires hitting at least two buttons (“time” and “hour” or “minute”) simultaneously to change it. I have no memory of doing that either.

[I’m only going to have I love/ hate posts from now on]

I love when the barber trims my neck/ behind my ears with a straight razor. It’s so smooth! Infinitely better than any other shaving method.

I went to Willy’s Barber Shop during lunch today. It was possibly the cheapest haircut I had (in the U.S.) since living in Pittsburgh. (I wonder if Lenor barber is still $8?)

And it was great. The guy even gave me a one minute head/ neck massage at the end. I’m going back.