Internet Gambling Ban

Read George F. Will article, Prohibition II: Good Grief, from Newsweek on MSNBC.com about internet gambling. He makes great points about the hypocrisy of this law. While our government is protecting "the people", it allows the states to do whatever they want [all 48 of them that have some form of legalized gambling]. So playing Blackjack online for money is illegal, but buying a blackjack lottery ticket is legal??? What's the difference? You are spending your money on a game of chance.

Its just another attempt by the social conservatives to dictate what Americans should and shouldn't do. I have a feeling this will become one of America's next futile wars, soon to be deemed The War on Online Gambling. Yet, another "war" that can never be won, ala, the War on Drugs. The goverment will waste billons of tax payer dollars to prosecute companies and people who will operate overseas instead of legalizing it, regulating it and taxing it like any other business.

Broken bones, fuzzy memory

So like any normal weekend down here at the beach, I'm out drinking with Jewbacca and Mark when total chaos is unleashed by the big dumb animal Joe. After leaving the pub early (around 11) completely wasted Joe starts checking Mark and myself into parked cars.

Well, after a few bruised ribs, Joe appears to calm down when he grabs a traffic cone and starts waving it around like a madman. Mark and I decide to take off. So here we are, 2 drunken assholes running down Hermosa Ave. being chased by a large drunken buffoon. Well, Mark tries to outsmart this gorilla by knocking over a trash can. Meanwhile, I've turned back to look at Joe and the next thing I know I'm flying through the air. Yes, I ran smack into the trash can and came crashing to sidewalk.

I'm laughing at first until a huge amount of pain starts rushing to my arm as I'm lying on the sidewalk. It feels like something is broke but since I'm drunk it isnt too bad. After a few moments I get up and we continue walking back to Steff's house while I'm trying to inspect the damage that has just occurred.

We get no more than 50 yards before Joe decides to give Mark the ole ball tap. mark drops like rock in pain. I'm standing there laughing uncontrollably when Joe proceeds to ball tap my injured ass. I hit the ground again for the second time in the last 5 minutes.

Mark and I finally recover and make it to Steff's where I'm ready to crash because walking home doesn't appear to be the best idea considering the circumstances.

So I crash and I wake up at 5 AM in pain, a lot of pain. I wake up Steff and ask her to take me to the ER. We end up ging around 6:30 and end up waiting in the ER for over an hour. The doc examines me and sends me to x-ray. My left elbow is in excruciating pain by this time (I hadn't taken anything). After about 25 minutes of getting x-rayed all to hell, I'm back in my room. The doc comes in and says you've fractured you left elbow and chipped a bone in your right wrist. So in essence, I've got 2 broken arms. The end result is below:


Sidebar: This post took entirely too long to type due to only having one hand working at this time.

UPDATE 9/8/06: You can now read Mark's more dramactic version of the story as well.

Leave my hotel porn alone!

Ultra-Conservatives are trying to curtail hotel porn by pressuring the Justice Department to crack down on the hotel industry. Yet again, its the same group of wack-jobs that want to tell you what you should and shouldn't watch/listen to, be that it radio, television, or print. Groups like the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family and Concerned Women for America want to impose what their morality on the entire country instead of having the freedom of choice. They spew out progranda as

Adult hardcore pornography can tragically lead to sex crimes against women and children. link

and

As more and more of these (hardcore) titles become available, we're going to have sexual abuse cases coming out of the hotels...Hotels are just as dangerous as environments around strip joints and porn stores.

There have no facts or statistics to back up such allegations, just their moral agenda. For god's sake, leave my hotel porn alone!

Half of U.S. wrong as usual

Apparently, half of U.S. still believes Iraq had WMD. This half also must believe in other mythological creatures such as the tooth fairy, the boogey man, unicorns and Santa Claus.

These people are just searching for anything to justify the War in Iraq and just ignore reality. Perhaps, its like Stephen Colbert said about the President at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner,

The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday -- no matter what happened Tuesday.

It looks like America is right there with him.

Drinking is Good for You

For those of you out there that don't drink or don't drink enough; yet another study to validate drinking, Light Drinking Cuts Risk for Death, Heart Attack.

Pics of the new Pad

I took some pics of the new pad in Cali.

Enjoy the photos.

Greetings from SoCal

Arrived here this morning around 9:30am Pacific time. I started working basically as soon as I walked in the door. I have to do some scouting around later today to check out the town and get some gear.

Ann Coulter Review

Here's an honest review by a lefty, of nutjob Ann Coulter's latest book at CampusProgress.org. Read God Help Me and you can see for yourself that the woman is batshit crazy.

More Reasons to vote out your Congressmen

This is what Congress is working on this week:

• Flag burning amendment [defeated]
• Congressional pay increase yet no increase for minimum wage workers

FON

I just found out about FON while reading an article on YAHOO! News (see article). FON is a global community of people who share their WiFi, all free of charge.

All you do is sign up, install some firmware to your home router and you are able to connect to any FON WiFi hotspot around the country for free. I think this is a great idea. If this catches on, people could go anywhere and connect and not have to worry about paying for connections over and over again if they aren't at home or in the office.

On top of that, the FON community is selling Linksys wireless routers for $5!!! All you have to do is sign up and keep your router connected to your ISP. It's that simple.

The only downfall I see to this is if you get bandwidth hogs attached to your network or some jackass hacker that tries to gain access to your network PCs.

With that said, I think the concept is great and I hope it becomes widespread.

People in Congress are a bunch of Assholes

For the following reasons (as of the last few weeks):

• Video Game ratings hearings


• Non-binding bills about the troops in Iraq (Dems for withdrawl and Reps for victory)


• Proposing a Gay Marriage ban


• Allowing DHS to cut New York City's anti-terror budget because its not as likely of a target anymore

Why don't they focus on slightly more important issues such campaign finanace reform, better energy policy, social security, balancing the budget, the government splaying on millions of Americans, or universal health care??? Because these jackasses are trying to get re-elected this fall. Did you know they have a encumbancy rate of 98%!

Lost Contacts

Yesterday while checking my e-mail at Hotmail, my contacts were erased. So for the better part of yesterday and last night, I went through hundreds of e-mails, other address books, and various online directories trying to piece together a new address book. So send me your info (phone # and e-mail address) by using the Contact Me link on the left.

From now on I'm going to use multiple accounts to store my contacts and not get screwed by MickeySoft.

Viva Losing Timmy

Well I'm off to Vegas for Timmy's bachelor party, his one last big hurrah if you will, for the weekend. Let's hope I don't come back broke, too hungover, and/or married to a stripper!

Viva Las Vegas

Roo schedule screws me

The Bonnaroo 06 schedule was just announced today and they are completely fucking me. How might you ask with so many artists and bands in one festival; that is spread over 4 days?

Quiet simply, they stacked a major group of artists I wanted to see all in one fucking day. Just take a look at the Bonnaroo 06 schedule.

More importantly, look at Friday's list of shows. All in one day, they put Mike Gordon & Ramble Dove on at 3:15PM and start G. Love & Special Sauce at 3:30PM. On top of that, Ricky Skaggs' set starts at 5:30PM, both Robert Randolph & the Family Band's set and Oysterhead's set start at 5:30PM. And to drive a nail deeper into my heart, they have Nickel Creek starting at 6PM. So that's 6 of the 11 main acts that I planned to see (see post) and they all crammed into a 3 hour window. So I will only be able to see 2 full sets. Luckily, Robert Randolph is playing a mini set on the Sonic Stage at 2:30PM, so I'll get to see him perform some tunes.

To make matters worse, a blantant disrespect is being shown to Mr. Robert Randolph. Outside of Warren Haynes, he has been the hardest working man at Bonnaroo the last few years and is playing in The Other Tent instead of the Which Stage (btw Death Cab for Cutie is playing). Give me a fucking break. What moron made that decision? Something else worth noting is the fact that Nickel Creek and G. Love both played on the Which Stage at Bonnaroo 03, now both are tents this go round.

Now I know, artists' schedules have a lot to do with what days they are playing but this is only the BIGGEST festival of the summer in the US. And overall the rest of the weekend is planned out OK. But com'n Bonnaroo, spread the love out over the weekend. Don't cram everybody I love into one day.

and if you thought i could be replaced
i wouldn't just stop with an ear
i would cut off my whole fucking face
just to make my point clear

Groovin' to Iron & Wine

My iRiver has completely screwed me on playing time so I've had to result to the MP3s I have on my work computer the last few weeks and surprisingly I'm not too let down. For one I bought Iron & Wine's Passing Afternoon and received Glen Phillips' latest Mr. Lemons in the mail. New tunes are always good.

If you haven't gotten into Iron & Wine, you really should. Anyways....

Finally!!!! I will get to see the above mentioned Mr. Phillips this Thursday at the Birchmere. Its been a long time coming but I finally scored tickets and I will enjoy a show by one of my favorite singer/songwriters of the the last few years.

On another note, my birthday and Bonnaroo starts in a month. God I love Live Music and being drunk and blogging.

Mary, carry your babe
bound up tight like lips around a whimper
your fingers over my face
blind eyed Sampson driven to the temple
and night birds digging until dawn
freedom hangs like Heaven over everyone

100 Days

That's right, only 100 more days until the OBB4. It seems like it was only yesterday that the greatest party of the summer took place. Mark your calendars and tell all your friends to mark theirs. The Owens Brothers have prepared a few surprises for this year's set and the kegs of beer will be flowing like cheap wine.

Sleep all day, out all night
I know where you're goin'

Cali Photos

I finally got around to taking the photos off my camera and uploaded them to Yahoo! Photos. Most are from San Francisco from the hotel I stayed at. The Bay Bridge and Ferry Building look pretty cool at night. I didn't take too many in LA probably due to all the boozing we did. But the Southern California sunset overlooking the Pacific is breathtaking. Damn I gotta move out there.

You can view all of my lovely photos.

like a summer rose, i'm a victim of the fall
but am soon returning
your love's the warmest place the sun ever shines
my morning yearning

SoCal

So I've been out in California the last 2 weeks and I have enjoyed it alot. I spent the majority of my time in San Francisco where it has rained almost everyday which blows. I spent last weekend in LA area and I'm back again this weekend. I think I could definitely live the SoCal lifestyle; warm weather, chill people, the beach. I almost 25 and I need to figure out what I want to do in life.

Living in Northern VA for almost 3 years has been a blast, but it might be time for a change of scenery. Hell, I could probably convince my work to let me move out here. Moving across country would be crucial and I'd miss my family and friends, but I think it would be a great learning experience.

I'm just throwing this out there. Should I move out to Cali? Let me know what you think.

but my savior is not Christ the Lord
but one named Virginia whom I live my life for

Bound to Ramble

I'm off to Cali for 2 weeks for work and fun. I'll be in San Francisco April 3-7 and 9-13 with a stop in LA in between. Unfortunately, I'll be missing John Butler Trio again. Hopefully, I'll get sent back to San Fran the last week of April where he is doing a 2 night stand at the Fillmore.

Once I get back from the west coast, I'm heading to the good ole BC for Easter. I'm in dire need of some good home cooking. I'll be in town for 2 days then its off to Orlando for my company's user's conference for our clients.

The summer concert season is upon us and I just bought my ticket to Bonnaroo. Yesterday, tickets went on presale for Ben Harper at Merriweather Post Pavillion and I scooped up a few. If anyone needs lawn tickets I have 2 extra.

DMB tickets go on sale next weekend for the summer tour. Nissan lucked out and got a Saturday show. The band is doing a few two night stands that are well worth mentioning; they are at Fenway Park in Boston July 7, 8 and at Randall's Island in NY August 5, 6. I'm definitely going to try to get tickets for the Fenway shows but the Randall's Isle shows fall on the weekend of the OBB, so that one is out.

Anyways, here's to the summer concert season and all the greatness it brings.

I'm Bound to Ramble
All my days with another…

Wine Glasses

The Gizmodo gadgets weblog posted about a set of interesting wine glasses. They are made of blown glass but shaped to look like solo cups on a stem. They scream let's forget class and sophistication and shout let's just booze it up. Perhaps if these had come out while I was in college, I would be more into wine. They are a bit expensive at $43 a pop, so let's hope Solo comes out with a plastic knockoff.


See their article on the Sommelier Wine Glasses or purchase them at Thorsten Van Elten.

Mardy Bum

Tonight, I'm going to see the Arctic Monkeys at 9:30 Club with Britto, Owens, Matt, Zoe, and Angela.

Britto first introduced me to them a month or so back. He informed me that they had the fastest selling single in UK history. I went to their site and some fan sites and started listening to them.

They have a good Brit Rock sound that reminds me at times of the Beatles, the Stones and Oasis with bits of Sublime intermixed. The 4 piece band plays quite well together despite playing together for such a short time. Hell they aren't even 21 yet.

Stop making the eyes at me, I'll stop making the eyes at you
And what it is that surprises me, is that I don't really want you to

SanFran

So I've been out in San Francisco all week for work. Unfortunately, I've done nothing but work and eat at nice restaurants. I got put up in a pretty nice hotel in Union Square which is cool but I haven't had any time to check out the rest of the city. I'd really like to check out some shows at the Fillmore or a chill little bar.

I took a few pictures from my camera phone from the hotel that came out pretty decent. I took more with my regular camera and will post them later.

You can see the bay in the background of the first two.



As luck would have it, Guster is playing the 26th at the Fillmore. I'll be back in town for that week of work so I'll have to hit that up.

I took some pictures of city hall and uploaded them to Yahoo! Photos. Check out my San Fran photos.

2,083

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart brought up a few great points the other night.

2,083. That's the dollar cost per taxpayer for the Iraq War so far. Now I know what you are thinking 2,083 dollars, that could have allowed me to adopt several underpriveledged children in third world countries or buy an eight ball and have a night with a fancy hooker.

For those of you paying attention that's 250 Billion dollars the Iraq War is costing tax payers. Its slightly higher than the initial $1.7 Billion the Bush administration had said the war would cost. There is a an upside to this though. We are deficit spending!

It's deficit money...they're taking out loans from other countries to cover this. So don't think of that money as $2,000 you don't have. Think of it as $200,000 your grandchildren won't have. And seriously, Fuck Them. They think you smell like ass.

You can view the video clip of Your Tax Dollar$ At War.

OBB IV date change

The OBB IV date has been changed to August 5^th, 2006. It is now a week earlier than previously stated and the earliest date in its short history. The date had to be changed because my friend Tim decided to get married on the date of the OBB causing a big conflict for me. Wedding or OBB? Wedding or OBB? Now I can do both!

The countdown to the left has been updated to reflect the change of date.

I hate awards shows

The Grammys were on last night and as with all awards shows, I didn't watch them. I watched Lost instead. I didn't watch primarily due to the fact that they honor record company giants with blown up/manufactured artists not truly worthy of such acclaim. Another award show that honors music pushed by gigantic music companies that pay radio stations to play their artists' music.

Just take a look at the Grammy Awards Nominee List and winners. Pathetic. First off their categories are retarded. Record of the Year is not the same as Album of the Year. And Record of the Year really is Song of the Year. But Song of they Year is really Songwriter of the Year. I'll give it you in logical operators. Check this out.

Album == Album
Record != Album, Record == Song
Song != Song, Song == Songwriter

Why not just call it what is it. If you go out to a music shop and tell the clerk that you want to purchase Joe Nobody's latest record, they won't give you a single or one track recording. They will give you the full length album or record.

And there's the fact that U2 won 5 awards. Those lame jerkoffs won Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Album, and producer. I can see why the won the first one because nobody worthy was nominated. Hell, who wouldn't win against Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani, Kanye West or Paul McCartney. If those were my only options, I just would have cancelled the award altogether.

For Song of Year, again no competition, songs from Mariah Carey, Rascal Flatts, John Legend and Bruce Springsteen were nominated. Green Day wins for Record of the Year but their song isn't nominated for Songwriting. A song can be the best song (record) of the year but not good enough for songwriting.

As far as Best Rock Album, it won over Coldplay, the Stones, Foo Fighters and Neil Young. Even though every member of the Stones might die at any given moment, I still think they probably had a better album that U2. Oddly enough, a band like the White Stripes was nominated for Best Alternative Album and won, and they are more rock than Coldplay. The White Stripes were also nominated for Best Pop Performance. What are they Pop or Alternative? Neither, they are ROCK.

For Best Rock Performance they beat out Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Franz Ferndinand, and The Killers. Yet again, all these bands should have beat out U2. Hell, the Killers were nominated for the Best Pop Perfromance like the White Stripes. I doubt anyone would agree that they are pop.

Probably, the only bright side of this shitshow was the fact that Alison Krauss + Union Station won every category for country, even though the album was release in late 2004. They truly are amazing unlike U2. Also, it was nice to see the sorry excuse for music, Gretchen Wilson or those sorry bastards Big and Rich not win anything. These overhyped "country" stars should be drug out in the street and shot. Nothing they play is country, its country pop bullshit.

God I hate awards shows.

New Feature

I was kinda bored so I added a random quote generator to the below the OBB countdown. It randomly picks quotes about politics, drinking, humor, and religion from the likes of Ben Franklin and Thomas Paine to Tucker Max and Homer Simpson.

Enjoy.

Bonnaroo 2006 + other music goodness

The Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival for 2006 has been announced for June 16^th-18^th and the initial artist announcement has been made. Artists from all genres of music will be jamming out. Here's a shortlist of the artists/bands performing with my highlights below.

Radiohead
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Phil Lesh & Friends
Beck
Elvis Costello & the Imposters
moe.
The Neville Brothers
Bela Fleck & the Flecktones
Ben Folds
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Dr. John
Matisyahu
G. Love & Special Sauce
My Morning Jacket
Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder
Mike Gordon and Ramble Dove
Medeski Martin & Wood
Nickel Creek
Steve Earle
Blues Traveler
Jerry Douglas
Soulive
Rusted Root
Donavon Frankenreiter
It appears tickets are bit more expensive this year with tickets starting at $169.50 which is up a bit from last year, but still not bad for all that music. Obviously, there will be a lot more artists/bands added so it looks to be another great Roo. Visit the Bonnaroo site for more information.

In other music news, The John Butler Trio is coming back to the US to do a short tour. They are making a stop at the 9:30 Club in April which should be a good.

Glen Phillips is scheduled to play the Birchmere in Alexandria in May. Hopefully, I'll actually try to make this show. He has probably played 6+ times in the DC area over the last 3-4 years and I have somehow missed him every time.


Last night I scooped up the latest EP by Iron and Wine with Calexico entitled In the Reins. It has to be one of the most chill recordings I've ever heard. Samuel Beam's (of Iron and Wine which oddly is just him) delivery is calming and the pedal steel fills adds a very soothing effect. I'm definitely digging He Lays in the Reins and History of Lovers. I decided to download Iron and Wine's set from last year's Bonnaroo because I was so impressed with In the Reins. Listen to the entire EP via the Iron and Wine player or download the Bonnaroo show.

one more drink tonight as your gray stallion rests
where he lays in the reins
for all of the speed and the strength he gave

More new music in 06

Not only is Ben Harper putting out a new record this winter/spring (see my post) , but so are Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Will Hoge.

RRFB's album isn't due out until May and includes guests like Eric Clapton and Dave Matthews. For more info see the this article.

Will Hoge's latest will be released Feb 7^th in Philadelphia. You can pre-order the new cd starting today from the Will Hoge Store. He rolls into the 9:30 Club March 4^th.

Beer Goggles Exist!

According to a study done at the University of Glasgow, beer googles exist. Now we all know, the next time your buddy is hitting on an unattractive girl at the pub, its not his fault.

Read the article, Do "beer goggles" really exist?.

License Plates

I was looking at pictures from college today and couldn't help but laugh at Mike's old license plate. Now this isn't the funniest one he has had since I've known him, but it made me want to post.

His worst one and the one that he caught so much shit for (even to this day) was JMUMOM2. Granted when he changed cars from the mighty big blue Blazer to JMUMOM2 Lebaron he didn't get the plate changed for almost a year. This lead to endless ridicule by every single one of our friends including myself. I guess to college kids this is the funniest thing in the world. Seeing your buddy driving around campus and getting called out as JMUMOM2.

J-45

So the other day I was browsing Ebay, looking at vintage Gibsons and decided to search for J-45s. I was primarily interested in the 70's models because they are square-shouldered as opposed to the sloped/rounded-shouldered models from all other periods. My uncle happens to own an 72 and I have become quite the fan of this instrument, so I began to casually look for one from this era.

Well, I found a couple of them, decided to bid and was quite surprised when I actually won. I had just won a 1970 Gibson J-45 Deluxe. The guitar arrived on Friday and it has been quite the treat. It was in great shape for a guitar built over 35 years prior and it sounded as amazing as my uncle's 72. It puts out this great bassey, bluesy, mellow tone.

I've been playing it pretty solidly the last few days and Mike was complaining about me not writing about it, so I decided to post and add some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

The front view.

The back view.

The top side.

The bottom side.

The back of the headstock.

Walking by the river's edge
Reach my hands to cup the sky
Run down my arms a bitter blue
Turn to red and the gashes grew

World Series of Beer Pong

Its true! Two guys from Michigan won the Beer Pong Championship in the World Series of Beer Pong. These guys scored a cool $10 thousand. Who says drinking doesn't pay?

For more information about this great sport, check out the Beer Pong home.

Holes in my head,
Holes in my shoes,
At least there's a hole in my head to fill me with booze.

New Ben Harper Album

It appears Ben Harper will be releasing a double album March 16^th titled Both Sides of the Gun. Swer.net has the track listing and a link to the Rolling Stone article discussing it.

I have no doubt this album will be the shit. I heard Black Rain from an internet leak, along with Gather Round The Stone and Get It Like You Like It from this past summer's club tour.

You don't fight for us but expect us to die for you
You have no sympathy for us but still I cry for you
Now you may kill the revolutionary
But the revolution you can never bury
And it won't be long 'til the people (fill) the streets
We come for you
One and all

Buy me something!

Have you ever had the urge to buy me something but never had any idea of what to get. Well, luckily Amazon has saved you some time and work. I have created a Wish List that you can access to find that perfect gift. My Wish List includes a variety of things, for example: CDs, DVDs, and Books. I'll keep it updated with items I buy myself, but don't fear, there will always be something else that I want.

In other news, Bonnaroo 2006 has been announced for June 16-18. The organizers have even decided to reduce the total number of attendants by 10,000 this year so hopefully it won't be as crowded.

By the way, Baby O has started blogging about this, that and the other. Check him out, geoffrioinns.

Sometimes we might fall
Stand up taller
Someday we may graduate into a perfect state of mine