That wonderful time of the year!

That wonderful time of the year!

So, hey, wow, it's almost December!* How the heck did that happen?! That means it's almost time for year-end lists, holiday parties, vacations, ineffective fist-shaking at snow and ice and face-shearing winds, convincing GalPal it is NOT a good idea to put reindeer antlers on Betty the Beagle, bourbon sippin' with a movie on the couch in lieu of braving the elements to go to a bar, bitching about a cough that just will NOT go away (oh look, I'm already doing that!), winter snugglin', enjoying the gym for thirty-one more days before the Resolutionaries stream in and temporarily fuck everything up, my newly mended leather jacket to come out of the closet and onto my shoulders, and me giving into GalPal and allowing her to put party hats on Sash the Cat and Pickle the Kitten.

Yup, almost that time of year!

*A side note, if I may? I woke up the Friday after Thanksgiving morning to discover our house had already been festooned with Christmas decorations. GalPal has enough sense to know Thanksgiving is too early, but as of midnight the next day the holidays have free reign in her house! I noticed, similarly, that the owner of the corner bar by our house did the same thing at midnight that morning; he removed the rotating boobie sculpture to replace it with the seasonal leg lamp and a Festivus pole. Viva la holidays!

As I type this, I think Pickle the Kitten has found some residual catnip around the scratching post.

As I type this, I think Pickle the Kitten has found some residual catnip around the scratching post.

Y'know, it just ain't fair that this year Cyber Monday falls on the the day BEFORE I get paid. Usually I wouldn't be so broke, but I laid out all the dough for an all-inclusive vacation GalPal and I are taking this winter. It's nice to have such a big expense paid before you even take off -- nothing worse than coming home from a vacation realizing you have yet to pay it off, right? -- but it comes at the expense of missing any great deals that pop up today.

In other "it ain't fair" news, I spent most of the holiday weekend sick on the couch. Yay! No, it blew. I'm not used to being ill and I really hate being ill during any sort of vacation time! On the plus side, GalPal enjoyed the fact that my up and down fevers and constant coughing meant we stayed in almost all weekend, which made for a really relaxing couple of days off work for her. I'm trying to accentuate the positive here.

Finally, this week is shaping up to be a challenging one at the 9-to-5. My teammates and I have a lot on our plate, and that's daunting, but I'm also excited that the things facing us are the sorts of things that will end up allowing us to create some really, really cool stuff.

Get groovy...

Get groovy...

Let yourself get lost in the Tame Impala song I included in this post.

Have a killer weekend!

The Thanksgiving post.

The Thanksgiving post.

I'm not gonna write some lame blog post about what I'm thankful for, no! Instead ... I'll Tweet it! (And post an image of said Tweet below for the benefit of my mom, who is not on The Twitters.)

I got a fever ... no, not for more cowbell.

I got a fever ... no, not for more cowbell.

I've spent the past two days hovering at a fever of 102° F, alternating between sweating profusely and shivering until I think my bones will work their way up through my skin. It's been really pleasant AND it's kept me from going out on the town on on of my favorite bar nights of the year. Boo!

Ground control to major Tom!

Ground control to Major Tom!

I'm feeling like crud. Which is not good just before a holiday weekend, during a work week in which I have a million thing I HAVE to get done before the office closes tomorrow. I know I'm just going to have to power through -- I always do* -- so whatever. I'll just ignore how I feel and get what needs to get done, done. If I need to go to my happy place at any point I'll just imagine a better world; a world here David Foster Wallace actually interviewed David Bowie.

*Much to GalPal's chagrin. She says she's never found anyone with so many reasons not to take a sick day in her life. I blame my discomfort in calling in on a) an unusually strong work ethic and b) an unusually strong sense of Catholic guilt that fears people won't believe me even when I'm telling the truth.

If we put cool indie music in the commercial, people with think it's cool. Like Apple."

"If we put cool indie music in the commercial, people with think it's cool. Like Apple."

You could subtitle this with "yet another reason bands let their music be used in commercials ... because it's gonna happen anyway so you may as well make some money off of it."



[Via Dangerous Minds]

Portrait of Tankboy as a young man.

Portrait of Tankboy as a young man.

First, I can't believe this video of me made it online!


Second, you ARE coming to see me and GalPal DJ at The Burlington tonight, right? I promise I'll play some David Bowie...

Proof you can't "create a viral video on purpose."

Proof you can't "create a viral video on purpose."

Not that it didn't stop GalPal's favorite morning crew from trying...

They know!

They know!

Guess which beagle is now onto my morning schedule and starts heading downstairs to be let out about 30 seconds before my alarm goes off?


And guess which kitten is already by HER food bowl at that time?


And which cat is laready rubbing up against the window shade waiting for me to open it and turn on her "Kitty TV?"


Betty the Beagle, Pickle the Kitten, and Sasha Cat ... y'all are too smart for your own (or my) good!

Drawing a blank.

Drawing a blank.

Today Leah wrote about having nothing going on.* I realized that while I have the opposite problem I have a really hard time articulating it. Whenever someone asks me "what's going on?" my answer is always "not much" or "same old same old." It's akin to when someone asks me what I'm listening too or what my new favorite band is; there's just too much going on there for me to answer in a bite-sized nugget that would be appropriate for a simple socially polite question. Sometimes I almost feel like I should carry a cheat-sheet with me, or a flashcard, or something similar so I can field what should be a simple query.

Do you have the same problem?

*To be honest, I think Leah's idea of "nothing going on" is probably still WAY busier than the average person's idea of "nothing going on."

Dark all day.

Dark all day.

It's Tuesday and it already feels like a long week. Rising to darkness and coming home to darkness can begin to do weird things to your head, and with the dropping temps I can't even take solace in a ten-minute lunchtime walk across the street. Instead I find myself hugging buildings and diving into underground tunnels to avoid the chill. The only upswing is that with the recent time change I do feel more rested, what with that whole gaining of an hour. But it's a bittersweet achievement since I know that advantage is only a week or two from melting away completely to be replaced by the cold throb of another Midwest winter.

Man, what a downer to start the day, huh? Let's counter those previous thoughts with some sequins to try and offset the above a bit. This dude LOVES HIS LIFE, so I'm going to try and follow his lead...

All Day, all Girl Talk.

All Day, all Girl Talk.

I have a super early meeting today, so I'm up early. And what do I discover? There's a new Girl Talk album out right now, and it's available as a free download! Grab it!


You're welcome!

One thing follows another.

One thing follows another.

Last night GalPal surprised me with a bottle of wine, followed by warm chatter, followed by a bit of Conan, followed by a trip to the Corner, followed by a bunch of beer and camaraderie and mocking certain denizens of the bar who were perhaps a tad overly made-up and obviously looking for love in all the wrong places, followed by a brief walk home, followed by some snuggling and smiling and an eventual drifting off to sleep.

It was a pretty good night.

About all those Twinkies.

About all those Twinkies.

So, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University lost 27 pounds in 10 weeks eating on a diet almost wholly composed of Twinkies (and other snack foods). This is NOT a repudiation of eating healthy food, but it does help people understand that it’s the calories, stupid.* You can lose weight eating whatever you damn well please as long as you are consuming less calories than you burn every day.** Do you want to lose weight? Fuck crazy diets and count your calories. Want to lose weight faster? Exercise while doing it. Hell, exercise no mater what. You know why? Because it helps you feel good! It ain’t rocket science kids.

If you’re looking for help with tracking your calories, and you own an iPhone, I’ve already endorsed my favorite method of doing so, the Lose It! app. If you don’t have access to that, there are a multiple number of other ways to track what you eat. In fact, if you have NO access to technology, you should still keep a food diary. Once you see WHAT you’re eating you’ll understand HOW MUCH of it to eat at a time.***

On one hand I appreciate that this professor has demonstrated on a strict caloric regimen that losing weight is possible, even on a diet of junk food. I just hope it doesn’t lead to people misinterpreting the outcome and thinking it’s a good idea to do it on a diet constructed of Twinkies.

*Let me make one thing absolutely clear: I DO understand how difficult weight management can be for some (many?). Intimately so since I've struggled with keeping my weight where I want it be since I was a teenager. I am in no way disparaging anyone struggling with weight issues; I am merely underscoring a simple medical fact that is often lost in the modern chatter.

**Though I do admit a bit of confusion over the fact his "good" cholesterol rose and his "bad" cholesterol fell, but since his diet wasn't 100% composed of sweet snacks that just means we'll now see a jillion different studies over which "good" part of his diet worked to have that effect.

***This is one of the keys to my own weight loss. I never deny myself sweets. Hell, I love desserts of all kinds! I just keep an eye on how many of them I'm eating.

Scattered.

Scattered.

I need to do a better job of either carrying a notepad with me to collect writing ideas. I always have my tankPHONE, but sometimes (often) whipping out a notepad while talking or in a meeting appears far less intrusive then typing away on a phone's keypad. With the phone folks don't know if you've just entirely checked out and are either surfing email or texting, but with a notepad if a flash pops in the back of that cavernous brain you can jot it down without interrupting anyone's flow.

Anyway, I know there's lots of stuff I've been wanting to write about but for some dang reason -- maybe I'm just not feeling it this early in the morning this particular day? -- none of it's filtering to my fingers. I mean I could go on some screed about this, that or the other, but honestly man, nothing is really stirring my cauldron at this second. There's all the usual stresses (money, Betty the Beagle, work, hoping my leather coat gets back from the tailor's before it gets much colder, getting my passport renewed in time for a trip to Jamaica that's coming up) but nothing out of the ordinary that I can't handle.

So let's take the glass half-full stance and accept that on this particular day, at this particular hour, having nothing to really write about means my life is going OK at this second and maybe I should just enjoy this moment instead of worrying about filling it with words.

Good idea.

I am typing this...

I am typing this...

...on my back, on my couch, thoroughly enjoying Conan's return. And then the super annoying actress from Glee (even more so since she's obviously ultra hot but Glee cast her as the "nerdy, gawky one," thus furthering my belief that show actually hates its audience) pops on and I'm actually tempted to flip the channel ... until Conan proves why he's a pro and makes what could have been BO-ring into a pretty fun interview.

Why, oh whyyyy?!

Why, oh whyyyy?!

I've been listening to the new Cee lo Green this afternoon and all I can say is WHY DIDN'T IT COME OUT DURING THE SUMMER ... IT WOULD HAVE RUUUUULED!


You probably want to pick this up when it comes out.

Happy birthday dad.

Happy birthday dad.

Still miss you...

My fellow citizens...

My fellow citizens...

Dear United States of America,

You are a bunch of idiots.

Just once I'd like to see you vote on issues and facts instead of sound bytes and sloganeering. And to all of you that didn't vote? I don't want to hear a single gripe from you because you haven't earned the fucking right to complain.

Love,
Me

And here I thought I was the most interesting man in the world!

And here I thought I was the most interesting man in the world!

A bunch of friends of mine have teamed up with a beer company to offer up an event at House of Blues tonight dubbed The Most Interesting Show In The World. The Chicago stop is M.C.ed by Andrew W.K. -- and it appears he will even play a handful of songs between acts which would be awesome since it's been a really long time since I saw him play on the I Get Wet tour -- and features a variety of different acts (I think including a trapeze artist or something?).

RSVP for free entry but be warned, like any other corporate sponsored party their producing more tickets than capacity to ensure the party is packed so get there early!

Photo from the St. Petersburg stop of The Most Interesting Show in the World

Halloween was absolute panduh-monium!

Halloween was absolute panduh-monium!

I dressed up in a Halloween costume Saturday night. I haven’t worn a costume in many, many years, but GalPal came up with one – the rabble-rousing pandas (panduhs) from LCD Soundsytem’s “Drunk Girls” video – that was so much fun I couldn’t resist.* And it was a HUGE success. We threw confetti at people, jumped onstage to dance with a friend’s band at Double Door (he didn’t know it was us until afterward) and generally did our best to have fun and wreak havoc (without actually wreaking any havoc that might ruin someone else’s god time.**)

It was also the first year that GalPal didn’t wear a “sexy _____” costume (though previous years’ “sexy _____” costumes she wore were often “sexy” primarily because of their formfitting nature and often countered with gruesome make-up so she looked like a zombie or the Black Dahlia). I would like to go on the record saying I see nothing wrong with folks that want to get “sexy” or “slutty” on Halloween. It’s the day everyone gets to be whatever they want to you should feel free to wear as little, or as much, clothing as you feel comfortable in. Don’t be hatin’ of people that want to be hot on Halloween, they have the right to do so.***

*Bonus costume for Friday Night: We attended a Halloween party urging you “mash-up” costumes – our friend was “Garth Vader” and GalPal was “Vampire Weekend at Bernies” – so I just wore and old Boy Scout shirt and went as “Tankboy Scout.” Har de har.

**Well, there was one dude at Panic! That got super aggro when I just walked by him and the target of his affections in an overly exaggerated “I’m so sneaky” manner. He actually shook his fist at me and started yelling. I still have no idea what that was about. Maybe he’s just really scared of panduhs?

***I will admit I was a bit afraid I’d see way too many “sexy Lady GaGa” costumes though and was really pleased to see almost no one dressed up as her at the places I ended up. Like I said, “sexy” is fine with me, but I do like to see “original” too.