right on bro!

Work was pretty hectic today. I keep getting worked by last-minute things that keep cropping up on the launch of the new product on Wednesday. I’m supposed to be working on future products but I keep spending my time on what’s now. Whatever, I guess.

Went to Palermo for dinner tonight. Was supposed to do some more songwriting tonight but I have food and alcohol coma so I think I’m just gonna fold.

Hey, has anyone ever heard of Eclipse car stereos? I’m thinking about buying a new head unit, so I went to Al & Ed’s Autosound yesterday and homeboy was pushing me an Eclipse CD3403.

My current car stereo (some Alpine jam) refuses to play CD-Rs, and it seems to be choking on regular CDs a few times a week. It’s about four years old. I’ve tried the laser lens cleaners and stuff, to no avail.

I searched on the Web and didn’t really find much information about it beyond a few product listings and a couple of messages in the Usenet groups that recommend it. But I’ve never heard of Eclipse.

I’m not trying to do anything fancy - this is going in my ‘98 Toyota Corolla, I’ll still be using the stock speakers, and I won’t be adding an amp or subs or anything like that. I just want to play CD-Rs.

Affirmation that Eclipse makes some pretty good shit, or suggestions for other head units in the sub-$200 price range would be greatly appreciated.

Played at the Scene in Glendale last night. It seems like quite a cool bar, and one of the few places I’ve played at where they actually have rooms for the bands to store their shit before going on stage. Didn’t play so well, though - missed a bunch of notes and was late on some slides. Whatever, I guess. Amp still sounds fantastic but I think I might switch back to using the Rat next weekend instead of the amp’s dirty/more dirty channels, which I think are sounding good, but a little too muddy.

The really cool part was that two old friends showed up, neither of whom I have seen in a long time. We took off about mid-way through the next band and went to the Roost to chill out and catch up.

I’m starting to realize that my track record with keeping up with friends is absolute shit. Weak.

Spent this morning reading about Saddam Hussein being captured.

It’s raining.

Ok, it was a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial according to the filming notification that was posted on our building’s front door. I heard a bunch of people yelling something, not sure what it was. There isn’t even a frickin’ Dunkin’ Donuts within 200 miles of here. Wack.

I changed the strings on my guitar today.

Songs I really like lately:

• “Hanging Marionette,” The Appleseed Cast
• “Voyager (Reprise),” Rollmottle
• “Looking for Love (In the Hall of Mirrors),” The 6ths
• “Consequence,” The Notwist

WTF - look at the cam.

Customer Service Quote of the Week is the automated message I got from AT&T Wireless’ GSM customer support line: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot answer your call at this time.” Then it hung up on me. Nice work!

This was a pretty decent week. Spent most of it at work trying to get fixes & revisions to my projects. The core product is looking and functioning way better than it is now. We’re about as competent as we were three years ago (it’s all been downhill since then). It should be a fairly smooth launch next week.

I also got to drink from the boot - two boots, rather - at the Red Lion, which is always a fun thing to do.

I’m getting worked on SOCOM though. I played for like two hours this week. Despite doing really well and being on some winning teams, my rank keeps dropping like a rock. I’m now ranked in the mid 50,000’s. I don’t know what’s happening.

Got my car back today, finally. Looks like new. They even detailed the inside. Whee!

It’s two weeks to the Christmas holiday and I haven’t even done anything remotely related to Christmas. Looks like I’m not going home this year, so I guess I need to figure out something to do.

I feel pretty much fine now, except that I have a bad cough. It probably has nothing to do with smoking cigarettes, does it? Anyway, I ate like an entire bag of cough drops over the past day.

Still reading Comp City, although I skimmed over the last 1/4 of it already. It’s kind of cool, I guess, but some of it seems kinda shady. Still a pretty fun read - Max Rubin isn’t going to win any literary awards, but his slang is colorful and gets you all jeetered up about going to Vegas.

I watched part one of the Battlestar Galactica “re-imagining” mini-series on SciFi, and I’m going to watch the second part tonight. I never really watched the first one (or if I did, I don’t remember it). It’s pretty good.

I went to Hooters tonight for the first time ever. It was OK. I saw “Big Daddy” last week on TV and when my friend said “brewery” I thought about Hooters, so we went.

I think I ate about a gallon of grease, which isn’t really sitting well right now in my recovering-from-the-flu stomach.

Other than the food, I guess the other reason you go to Hooters - that was OK too. It kind of freaked me out when the Hooters girl (that’s what she called herself) sat down next to us to take our order. I am not used to strangers suddenly getting that close in my personal space.

Would I go there again? Eh, maybe. Maybe if they had a way less-greasy version of their chicken wings. But otherwise, probably not.

I finished reading “Bush At War” today. Things I learned: Bush isn’t as insensitive a person as I thought he was; Cheney and Rumsfeld (via Wolfowitz) are really the clowns who pushed to invade Iraq; and Colin Powell has been somewhat marginalized. Oh, and CIA operatives carry around millions of dollars in cash to buy support in the Middle East. (well, at least one did)

Next up: Comp City by Max Rubin.

Feeling better, but coughing somewhat. Amp sounds fantastic.

I’m fuckin’ worked right now. Just got back from setting up my shit for this party tonight. Still felt sick the entire time. Bleah.