Willo O'Brien

for those of you in SF – read this. It was written by a bass player named Anthony – but expresses what I wanted to say so I’m reprinting it here for those few of you here in SF who read it will go out and vote tomorrow!!

“Every article I’ve read on the election says the same thing – it’s all going to come down to turnout – the candidate who can get their people to polls is going to be the winner. I’m tired of having the worst people in America govern us because young people with a conscience and some common sense are too lazy to walk a block and a half to the nearest polling place. Please please please vote tomorrow, and don’t be afraid to hassle your friends to do it too. A lot is at stake.

Dig this – did you know you can vote at ANY polling location as long as you’re registered? It doesn’t even need to be your assigned polling place. At every poll they have a special ballot for people who aren’t at their proper polling location. There’s no good reason not to vote.

I’ll get off the soapbox now, but please, if you’re a registered voter in San Francisco, please contribute to history tomorrow. Vote for Matt Gonzalez. “

For those of you who aren’t in SF – this is a HUGE topic of discussion around here lately – it’s been AMAZING to see the communities pulling together to get this guy in for Mayor! If you can’t vote – please send Matty G. your positive vibes from across the country.

hilarious

link from ev

Seems a lot of venues aren’t booking into January just yet – but FYI I just added a few updates to the events list there on the left…. which again, can also be viewed on the calendar.

Last week might have been the slowest show weeks I’ve had in awhile – only 2! This week there’s already 5 (!) on the schedule (Friday night I’m hitting 2 different shows…. hopefully – we’ll see.) And actually, there’s one night that’s a wild card, as much as I want to go – it might get nixed due to work and/or needing to chill before the busy weekend hits.

Next weekend is crazy busy already – and overall I can’t believe I only have 2 weeks until I leave for Steamboat.

Am I supposed to be doing Christmas shopping? AK!! I have gotten a few things I guess – but boy oh boy – I know I need to be thinking a bit more seriously about that before it’s too late.

*sigh* dreaming of beaches and the sound of waves….

David Dondero was one of the openers lastnight – he’s really good! Rick bought his newest CD and I really dig it already.

Azure Ray went on after him – and to give you an idea of how they are – it is 2 delicate and beautiful ladies singing slow, haunting songs… They have *amazingly beautiful voices*… However, I have to admit, it was a taaad too slow & sad after David Dondero’s fun set (and my giddy wine stupor) but honestly the sexy ladies and their amazing voices somehow made it delightfully bearable.

Crooked Fingers was great to see live… When I first listened to him his raspy voice made me think it was a crusty, whisky swillin old man behind it – but instead it’s a quite handsome irish decent looking fellow [pic] – who has an amazing voice!!

We started way in the back w/ my friend Michelle (who I was *SO* psyched to see, cuz she’s one of my dear friends in this city, but somehow it’s been FOREVER since I saw her!! Hilariously I could track the last time we’d seen eachother by the fact it was the night of the epic Lovemakers show in October!) and then Jem & her friends showed up – and eventually Jem, Rick & I moved up to the front row… yup, I said front row! Somehow it was easy. even though it was a sold out show – tame crowd I guess.

It was a good show. I was glad I got into it more, cuz for the first opener I felt myself doing that “uh oh maybe I’m too buzzed to get into a show”… realizing I sometimes have this fine line I walk on when drinking where I either get WAY into the show – or (very rarely) I find myself just wanting to chat at the bar. That really only happened once or twice in the last couple months – usually I’m WAY into the show. Hence my super ecstatic reviews – ha!

This whole world getting darker earlier thing just throws me off – todays errands felt like they took forever!! But I finally got groceries (I was down to turkey bacon & cheddar cheese sandwiches, which really are quite good!) enough to last me through another Hermitville Session™. However, I’m afraid that might not happen again till mid January at the rate I’ve got things booked on the calendar!! Tis the Season! Either way – can I just say right here and now:

I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My life is so RAD. :) Happiness abounds in this girl – it just barely gets any better than this. (Well, besides beaches, bikinis and umbrella drinks – but don’t even get me started dreaming about that again)

Oy – today has just flown by. I’ve relaxed in a geek out way – but didn’t get the work done I’d planned to do. After having coffee and breakfast, setting up my new geek toys, taking the photos and blogging about it – talking to friends on the phone, having lunch, petting kazoobie, reading some other blogs… OY! It’s already 5pm!!!

So now I have to rush out of the house – we’re hittin a housewarming party first at Jenn & Guam’s and then we’re off to the Azure Ray/Crooked Fingers show at the Hizz.

BYE!!!!!!!!

I just got the COOOOOOOOOLEST new monitor!!! I’m so excited I could just about go stand outside and yell it to the whole neighborhood. But they would look at me funny, and that damn dog next door would start barking… so instead I’ll just tell you :)

LOOK AT MY NEW MONITOR EVERYBODY!!!!!

It’s a Dell 19″ Flat Panel. Cool, eh? I can finally design a site of 800 pixels wide and see the *whole thing* without closing down the side panels of my design program! IT’S ABOUT TIME!!

The best part is that I got it for less than it’s listed on Dell.com – AND I got to go see it and test drive it first. Did you know you can’t go buy Dell’s in a store like Best Buy or CompUSA? They only sell online… except they have an authorized dealer here in San Francisco: BedfordMicro.com! This place is cool! You can go down to their showroom down on 2nd & Harrison and check out all their systems, etc. The guys know what they’re talkin about and they have both refurbished and new products. They even fix computers, too! I’m way into supporting a small business than the corporate giants, so if you’re in SF or are interested in buying on line from a place you can trust to give you a great deal, give them your business!

Oh & if you look up at that photo up there, you’ll see a shiny new printer too! My old one was seriously sucking after being 4.5 years old – no amount of cleaning or getting new cartridges was helping…. So I’m tres happy to have a new one! (except the buzz kill of the morning was me realizing I actually don’t have a USB cable for it, so I need to go down & pick one up before this shiny little box can print out any colorful wonders.) But needless to say – I have new geek toys – YAY!!!!

I also just ordered myself 1G of RAM too – wahoo!! Crucial.com has some really excellent prices for RAM if you’re looking for some.

Here’s some more photos, showing me & mr. fuzzy pants celebrating my new purchases :)

There’s more room for Kazoo to stand behind my monitor now… and he of course LOVED the boxes they came in!

Even Naughty Kefer is excited! WAHOO!

hey!! why didn’t anyone tell me my archive pages weren’t showing the comments? what kind of faithful geekout blog readers are you? :) well, no need to be alarmed… it’s fixed now. CRAP. It’s not working…. I’ll have to fix that later.

update two seconds later: ah, it seems haloscan is down – so maybe it will be working in a little while. Now I’m really running late! oy!

update a day later: yes, it’s all fine now. haloscan is cool even if it does go down every once and awhile. I’m still amazed at how easy it is to impliment.

:::::::

and finally here’s the link to those les savy fav pics, review is burried in this post here, however I never got around to going on about the kick ass lead singers antics… the iron/ironing board was CLASSIC and unfortunately this guy Maly who took these photos didn’t get any of that – but he said he has video, so I’ll post that here when I get it.

oy, I’m running late. bye!

Today I get new RAM!!!!!!!!!! WAHOO!!!!!!!! and if all goes right in the world I’ll also be coming home w/ a pretty new flat screen monitor & color printer too. (insert homer slobber happy sound here)

Lastnight was so fun seeing my darling friend Persephone for her birthday. she’s so beautiful and sexy and sweet and happy and golden as a ray of sunshine. mmmmooooiiiiii!!!!!! I love that woman! I was almost going to go to Burningman w/ her this year, but at the last minute decided to save that $500 for a trip overseas – which then got nixed cuz I went solo and wanted to save every penny for a rainy day – and now has gotten nixed because I’m too busy to go anywhere!! (except back home for xmas, where I’ll have to sit on my hands and actually do close to nothing for 6 days – how will I survive?!?!)

Anyway – next year I am NOT missing it. Even though the damn ticket price will have gone up – and who knows WHERE I’ll be in 8 months from now… life is mysterious and amazing that way.

Ok – today I’m off to meet w/ 2 clients, then run home and maybe get some work done before I head out to an appt this afternoon and then run home again to maybe get a little more work done – and then go out to a holiday party tonite!! How’s that for gettin outta the house!?!? (the 3 days in a row stuck at home thing was rare, and I was *proud* of it dammit!!)

OK! I’m here! 24+ hours later!!

Yesterday I did not get abducted on my way to get coffee, I just ended up coming home and gettin’ BUSY! (don’t get any dirty ideas now!) In fact – if you get any ideas – think CLEAN. Cuz that’s just what I did!!

My house has suffered something fierce through my insanely busy life these last couple weeks, so it was in serious need of some TLC. It’s so sparkly clean you’d think relatives were coming!! I cleaned for 5 hours straight! woooee!!! It feels good.

So then today I had a meeting down south & got to have lunch w/ an old friend who I haven’t seen in a couple years!! It’s insane to me that it’s been so long… but it was so great to see him. We ate some yummy Thai and did some long overdue catching up.

On the way back I ran a few errands and now after catching up on a few phone calls, I’m finally able to post. :) So here I am! hahaa (I’m sure you were waiting on the edge of your seats eh?)

Well for those of you dyin to see a review of the Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks show – I’ll just say this: That man is TALENTED!!!!! I enjoyed the show so much. We were 3rd row, and you can just tell this guy knows his stuff. He’s been around a long time – is a total professional – and has mad skills on the guitar.

I mostly have just his first solo album – and have since listened to quite a bit of Pavement. I love his voice and his songwriting. Anyway – he’s just mad talented and a total joy to see live. He’s a kick ass musician, quirky, skinny and funny. (J & T badapples, you woulda loved him!)

Ok – that’s all I got for ya right now – I gotta get some more work done & then hop out to a friends bday suaree.

I’ll post about this after I go get myself some *REAL* coffee. (not cowboy coffee* like I’ve been doing)

*matt gave me the idea for cowboy coffee, and dammit it’s made me drink bad-but-just-good-enough coffee at home & saved me the walk to the coffee shop (much to George’s shagrin) for a month or so now!

(wow, that’s funny – I just realized one of the last times I posted about George, I also posted about that Travel site that I just linked to below. I. AM. NOT. A. ROBOT.)