You know I hate going so long without updating The Root Down, but this week was col' brutal. Yeah, I've been bad to my readers. I know this. How can I make it up to you? Let me know and I'll do it. It just needs to be legal. Immoral I can deal with.
Yeah, if it ain't work killing me (I'm almost done planning out Christmas...Christmas), we're remodelling the master bath room at home as an anniversary gift to ourselves. Of course, that also comes with excruciating back pains and the knees that pop when I get up from a sitting position. It'll be nice when it's done, but let me just give you a little tip when doing any kinda of tile work in your house: screw Lowes. Just go directly to the tile guys. Lowes tells you they will hook you up with $4.25 per square foot installation, but what they don't tell you is they basically give the contractor of their choice all the liberty in the world on their estimate (they wanted to charge us $1,900 for the removal of the floor tile and bath tub liner) and then you basically hand over a blank check to the contractor to go on a shopping spree at Lowes without any knowledge of what they're buying (they would show me the list, but wouldn't let me have a copy of it...same with the estimate) and whether or not it'll actually be used in the project. I lost $35 in that deal because they require you to pay for the estimate and if you get the job done, you'll get that $35 rolled into the total bill. Too bad that $35 was only 1% of the total. We're going to get the floor done for only $500 saving about $600 just by going directly to the tile guys. Plus, the moron at Lowes who admittedly was "not too good on computers" charged us twice to the tune of about $700. Whatever.
Elsewhere in loose ends, I got my air conditioning and stereo back in my car about a month later. I ain't pissed. Nice to have air conditioning during July in the Yellow. Better to hear the sounds of Ol' Dirty Bastard blasting through the speakers. Now I'm that dork that takes the face off, puts it in the little carrying case and preps the car for overnight parking. At least I learn a lesson.
Joined LinkedIn this week after hearing all about it. Pretty slick. Found some former employees and was amazed at how some people overstate their qualifications. Beyond my own resume, I haven't read too many, but geez, when you've actually worked with an individual and know all that they did (and didn't do) and then you read their resume, it's like a completely different person. You did what? You were responsible for what? I worked with you for three years and you didn't do anything except talk on the phone. Stop your frontin', homegrown.
Red Sox are a half game back of first place after falling to five and a half back to Tampa Bay (who?!). I guess the Rays are discovering you gotta win a few games on the road if you wanna win a division. Hopefully, after today, everything will be back to normal. And Papi's expected to return shortly. AL East beware.
Went to see Wall E last night with my lovely wife. I think this movie confirmed for me that I'm becoming a softy. I really am. Not because I went to see the movie, but because I became overwhelmed emotionally at a few scenes and really had some difficulty coming to terms with those emotions. It's not that I don't like getting sappy. I can cry. I don't care. But it's a freaking animated robot...what the hell? There was me, probably about ten families so, let's say, 1.3 kids per family...about thirteen kids. I hear 'em talking through the whole movie and I'm slumped over in my chair chewing on my knuckle screaming from my inner self, "I'm experiencing incredible swings in mood and character and I don't know why!!" I even had a hard time with the after-movie discussion with my lovely wife. "Yeah, I thought the choice in direction to really expose the concepts right out of the gate instead of unfolding them gradually was really ballsy, but I got it. It didn't seem to hurt the pace of the movie. It's just unusual that you see that from an animated feature. I also think the...geez...the landscapes were crazy. The animation was...uh...it was, uh...I'm, um, having some difficulty here...please bear with me. Um, I, uh...I almost cried, damn it!" My lovely wife can respect it. I just don't know if I respect myself because of it.
Digable Planets killed. Peep their two records.
On the music tip, Owen and I are working on a mix using Serrato. It's the dopest program ever. I wasn't familiar with it except the name until I went over to his house to gander at the setup. Basically, it perfectly replicates the sensation of scratching off of two turntables onto the digital file of your choice. That's the basic function of it, but it has so much more. Afer first discovering some of the capabilities, I started building a mix for us to work with. The theme of the mix is to dive right into the greatest Gangsta Rap tracks (man, it's been years since I've said that) from 1986-1991 and weave it together with a backdrop of original breaks, related movie/TV soundbytes to create a 360-degree, all-out blazing gangsta soundspectrum. It's like a quilt or a goulash, if you will. Included are Ice-T, Ice Cube, Geto Boys, Pink Floyd, Royal Flush, Gary Numan, NWA, Cypress Hill, Parliament, Dr. Dre, Cream, Scarface, Chuck Cornish, MC Twist, Def IV, Above the Law, Curtis Mayfield, 2Pac, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Deniro, Isaac Hayes, the Isley Brothers and more. Yeah, tell me that don't sound dope. Still working on a title. Any suggestions, holler at me.
Also piecing together a mix that's all about money. Yeah.
I'm sorry for leaving you for so long. I love you. You're beautiful. Happy Sunday.
1 comment:
I overheard Dale talking to a friend about your LinkedIn page. He was very impressed by some of your "connections" or whatever (I have never been on linkedin so I don't know the correct lingo). He is proud of his Jeffro.
Post a Comment