laying down a monster

DeBeers fascinates me and I know Taylor never passes up a chance to say cartel so I thought other people might be interested to know DeBeers may be headed back to the US.

Is it wrong that I walked out of my Friday department meeting singing "I gotta get out of this place?" Is it funny that my dad always says "LSU" at the end of the chorus instead of "me and you?"

The guys had dinner at Bone Daddy's House of Smoke on Thursday. Imagine Hooter's with barbecue and flirting. Made me very uncomfortable. Sad thing is, and I know this is going to sound like the hot wings defense but, the food was actually damn tasty. Funny, funny, world.

After dinner the four of us played Mario Kart Double Dash till way too late in the morning. I really have to give it to Nintendo for taking their games and giving you a goal other than just playing the game. We really got into getting first place and getting that next secret item/character/course. Looking forward to my next Nintendo experience.

Want to know what one of the saddest things in the world is? A color blind husband picking out clothes without his wife.

I've been listening to FM 94/9 a lot lately and sometime last week I heard Clumsy by Our Lady Peace. It's weird how music can really take you back. I guess now I understand all those far off looks my parents get when listening to the oldies channel. If my memory is correct I saw them at House of Blues at some free show in college. Seems like forever ago ...

Just in case anyone wonders why it took so long to charge Ken Lay.

Quick, how much did you pay for gas the last time you filled up? What about your last physical? Was that an interesting mental exercise or do I seem to be going deep on the cheap?

Random quote after catching up on Motley Fool Takes: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." -- Leo Tolstoy

Well Aamir it seems like other people have thought of this quarter life crisis thing. For you the answer may be grad school. For me, well ... maybe an Alamo?

I was in New Orleans, and Waveland to be fair, for only a few days and still I felt slapped in the face by race. What do I mean by that? Well I guess its just that I can go months here in Austin and not really think about race, but in New Orleans ... man ... it came up all the damn time. Read an interesting article in Gambit on a related topic. One of the last quotes of the article is "I think indifference to the public education of African-American youth is a moral crime." That line has had me thinking for days.

Sometimes I feel like Austin is my gated community. It's the place a lot of people have run to when their city wasn't working for them. Sure it's easy to run away to another place rather than stay in your town and fix things, but is that better in the long run? Everything around here is new. Even the old stuff is kinda new. I drive around New Orleans and I see run down shopping areas right next to nice new buildings and now that looks so odd to me. It's not like that here in Austin. Once I think about it I realize those parts of New Orleans are over 50 years old and the parts of Austin I am thinking of are lucky to be 30 years old, some maybe 10. I mean think about that aread by I-35 and Parmer. Sure its looks nice, it's brand spanking new. Why don't we have that in New Orleans? We ran out of land like 40 years ago. Arg. No doubt it's easier to keep building on the next ranch than it is to keep things going well. How do you keep things looking nice once you run out of land? ... I think I'll end this slight incoherent rant now.

One last thing. I read an article on CNN right after Kerry had picked Edwards. Kerry is quoted as saying Edwards "understands and defends the values of America." The RNC is quoted as saying "Who is John Edwards? A disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal and friend to personal injury trial lawyers." God do I hate political rhetoric.

(12:15 AM) I lied. Pictures from the 4th of July trip and the Alamo Road Rally are now up on imagestation.