My first video uploaded to YouTube. 🙂

This video was taken with my new Canon SD870 IS.

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A bunch of people have been posting the Death by Booze thing lately… I finally clicked through to take a look at it. The regular results aren’t that interesting, but I thought this one was hilarious:

It would take 22467 bottles of O’Douls to kill me

These results are based on a 3-hour drinking period. That’s almost 125 bottles per minute, or more than two per second. Good luck with that.

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First, they don’t deliver my replacement Xbox 360 last Friday after it was out for delivery in the morning (I got it Monday instead)… then this.

I don’t think it will actually delay my laptop delivery, though. Also, it’s hilarious.

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Monday night, I went to see Billy Joel play Fresno. I left work around 3 PM, drove four hours each way, with a stop in Ventura to pick up and drop off a friend, and got back home at 3 AM. It was worth it.

The show really wasn’t very different than most of the other times I’ve seen him. The setlist (below) was pretty standard, without any real surprises. With the exception of Root Beer Rag (which was great), I had heard all of the songs in concert before. I guess the biggest surprise was that he would have even considered playing She’s Right on Time, but the audience voted for Vienna instead, which was just fine with me. Some of the jokes he told were new since the last tour, and pretty funny. It turned out to be a pretty standard Billy Joel show, which means it was awesome. If anyone one reading this has a chance to see him on this tour (Russ, Chicago, Dec 1), you should absolutely do it.

I bought the tickets on eBay, paid about half of face value, and had third row seats just above the floor, one section in. They were great seats, much better than my cameraphone pic makes it seem. Before buying them, I looked everywhere for tickets behind the stage, because those are usually the best seats for his concerts. Ticketmaster’s website had a “behind the stage option,” but said they were sold out. None of the ticket sites or eBay had any tickets in those sections. It turns out that’s because those seats weren’t used for the concert, so I ended up in about the next best place.

Setlist:
Angry Young Man
My Life
Everybody Loves You Now
The Entertainer
Vienna (voted by the audience over Summer, Highland Falls and She’s Right on Time)
Ballad of Billy the Kid
Allentown
Zanzibar
New York State of Mind
Root Beer Rag
Movin’ Out
An Innocent Man
Don’t Ask Me Why
She’s Always a Woman
River of Dreams
Highway to Hell
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Big Shot
It’s Still Rock ‘n Roll to Me
You May Be Right
—
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
Only the Good Die Young
Piano Man

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My brother Jon and his wife were in Santa Barbara visiting this weekend. A lot of what we did while they were here was shopping. Saturday, we walked around State Street here, and they twisted my arm into buying a bunch of clothes and also toys we saw once in these bunny vibrator reviews. From there, we drove down to the outlet stores in Camarillo. In addition to more clothes, I ended up buying something else there. I’ve read a bunch of people rave about the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 noise canceling headphones, but hadn’t had a chance to try them. Bose had a store in the outlet mall. I went in and tried them twice. I checked Amazon on my phone to see if I could save shipping and tax. Nope, Amazon only has them through Bose as a partner. So I bought them, factory renewed for $50 cheaper. They’re incredible. The real test will be later this week when I fly to New York.

Every Sunday in Santa Barbara, there’s an arts and crafts show along the street by the beach. I usually go whenever I have people visiting. It’s a nice way to spend a few hours. I’ve bought a few things there before, but usually nothing terribly big or expensive. This time I saw a painting that I had to have, and knew it would go perfectly on a wall in my house. The artist wasn’t around his area the first time I saw it. He still wasn’t there when we walked back by it again after lunch, and I figured it would be a lot more money than I wanted to spend, so we eventually kept walking. About 20 minutes later, I decided I had to go back and find him, so we did. It ended up being about 1/3 to 1/2 the price I thought it would be, so I bought it. I’m glad I did.

I couldn’t get it home in my car, so the artist drove it by yesterday morning.

Tonight, bowling. Thursday, off to NY.

Is it bad that I’m really looking forward to leaving work at around 2:20 today……. to go to the dentist?

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I seem to be getting back to where I should be bowling. It’s about time, I’ve been in a bit of a slump for a while. Besides the 691 series the day after I got back from Reno, my scores haven’t been great. A few good games here and there, but very inconsistent and my series scores not where I want them to be.

Monday:

Last night:

I think more important than the scores this week, though, is the fact I feel like I actually know what I’m doing again. That might just be the beer.

It’s my birthday today. I’m now 28. Tonight, I’m going out to dinner with my parents… which really isn’t any different than any other night they’re here, but will be nice.

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Saturday night, after my visiting parents were exhausted and in bed, I was talking to a friend of mine. A friend of his was having a few people get together for her birthday, his car was in the shop, and the guy who was supposed to drive him flaked out on him. I wasn’t doing anything else, so I drove and went along. We went to a bar downtown, and then moved to a club. Not really something I normally do, but I had a surprisingly good time. If I didn’t have to drive home and get up fairly early, I probably would have had more to drink and stayed out really late. I ended up getting home at 1:30.

It was worth leaving early, because yesterday I went to the Mets/Dodgers game with my mother. We were out the door by 9:30 for a 1:10 game, because you never know when there will be terrible traffic somewhere in LA. We ended up getting to the stadium about an hour and a half before the game, which was fine. The game was a lot of fun, a ten inning 5-4 win for the Mets. I’ve now been to three Mets games this season, two of which went extra innings. The Mets scored a run in the 8th, 9th, and 10th, to win. The bottom of the 10th was very stressful, even though no one was able to put a ball in play against Wagner. He walked two (one intentional) and threw a wild pitch, but struck out the side. My mother had never been to a stadium other than Shea, and hadn’t been to a game at all in at least 15 years, so I’m really glad she wanted to go. We had a great time.

The Braves lost in extras last night, so the Mets lead in the division is now 3.5 games. Still too close for comfort, but they seem to be playing better lately.

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Not all that much to say lately. I got bored of online poker again pretty quickly, and when it’s boring, I lose money. I need to find a way to make it fun again. I need Badugi, dammit.

The Mets are having a horrible June. They were like 6-14 before finally winning 4 in a row, sweeping the A’s and taking one game against St. Louis. Two days ago, they tied the game up in the bottom of the 9th only to lose in 11 innings, and last night they won a rain-shortened 5.5 inning game (Glavine CG SHO! One hitter! Win 297). Somehow, they still have a 3.5 game lead in the NL East.

Last Saturday, I played disc golf for the first time. It’s a lot of fun, and a good way to get me outside. There’s a course pretty much right down the street from me, which is nice. I also played at Lake Casitas, which is about 45 minutes away, and a beautiful place. I’ll have to get back there sometime just to use my camera, not to play.

This weekend, I’m heading up to Reno for the USBC Nationals. It’s on a tough oil pattern, and I don’t expect to bowl particularly well, but it’ll be fun. The league I’m in on Saturday mornings has been using the same pattern, and I’m averaging around 175 in it, which is pretty much what I expected. I’m driving up there with a couple of friends, instead of taking the bus that broke down, like I did three years ago.

I guess that’s all I’ve got for now.

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