I’ve posted once so far this year. It used to be that I had a rule of updating at least once a week. What happened? What have I been doing?

Lately I’ve found it hard to muster the concentration to sit and write anything, as I’m sure you’ll note as the last several posts are primarily just embedded video. Also, I’ve spent much more time on various micro-blogging sites, like twitter and such (I’m on nearly everything). Services like those really cater to the semi-retarded ADD freak in me.

I also hate looking at my site. It’s outdated and cramped and I’ve not had the concentration or motivation to whip out a new design. Excuses, excuses…excuses.

So what have I been doing?

• I attended 45 concerts in 2008. 5 so far this year.
• I took lots of photos.
• I started doing yoga, which is mildly embarrassing to my manly ego, but whatever. I’ll live.
• I discovered a TON of new music, which I have failed to post about like I used to.
• I’ve watched an impressive amount of Horror films and , like above, failed to post.
• The rest… pretty much the same.

Thrilling stuff, kids. I’m a lazy lamerz. I have no excuse.

Still, it really bothers me that this site just rots here on it’s server. So, I promise to get off my ass and back to posting at least once a week. It’s good for me. The redesign…god help me. I’ll do it when I do it.

Meet me down by the expressway exit ramp. Bring hairspray.

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Amon Amarth has posted a new video. I can’t wait to get their new album next week. Come October, I see them live again. They put on a great-ass show. Vikings!

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I used to be really into The Cramps as a teenager. They’re one of the few bands from my adolescence that I can stand to hear and still rotate in my playlists.

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Putzing around last Sunday, I decided to give MPD a try. I store all my MP3 files on my desktop computer, which runs Ubuntu and I’ve wanted to be able to control music playback on that machine from my laptop, wherever I happen to be lazing about at home.

I had a bit of a hard time getting MPD set up, working and compiling a database. The main issue was file permissions, but once I got that hammered out, installed MPC so I could run commands, it worked nicely.

However, I much prefer a GUI to manage music, so I hunted around for a front-end for MPD. I first tried gmpc, which worked fine. But, I need support for last.fm and to handle this with with gmpc, you have to compile a plugin, which was a huge bitch.

While trying to get through the plugin compile, I stumbled on Sonata, which seemed popular and well regarded and contains built-in support for last.fm. Also, it’s in the Ubuntu repositories, which is a big plus for me. So, I dropped gmpc and gave it a try.

Sonata works well, it displays album art and all that fun stuff, but doesn’t have the smart playlists that I’ve grown used to with Amarok and exaile, which were two programs I’ve loved and relied on in the past. Truth told, it’s low on features, but so are most MPD front-ends. It works, though. It handles last.fm and doesn’t look too fugly. I’m going to stick with it for a while and see how it goes, since I really like being able to run a central music server. But, if there’s a better front-end out there, I’d like to know about it.

On some Public Access show, circa 1997:

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I would never take advantage of your naivety.

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I would never RickRoll you.

As I wait to get the Hell out of New york City and some place rural, with grass and trees for a few days, here’s what I’m getting down with:

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…and yet there’s more:

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This is how I’m rolling today. Rock it:

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Sheer comedic genius.

Jesus Christ: The Musical