I find myself listless these days. I quite literally do not know what to do with myself. I'm finally at the point in my life where I get to decide what to do with it instead of being restricted by family, education, church or any other institution, but all I do is look for control mechanisms. "No way, I can't leave for a random road trip, I'm scheduled five days at work next week." "Can't move out, gotta save money for, um..." For what exactly?

And yet I'm reluctant to tie myself down to any new commitments that would restrict my freedom (namely, a career). I'm comfortable with a low level of responsibility, probably because I feel needed but not so desperately needed that anything would collapse if I weren't around. I still have the option to pick up and move to Russia for a year and my world and the people in it would continue as if nothing had happened. There are always plenty of people who can serve tables.

Also, my ears are ringing unbelievably loud right now. I can't believe nobody else can hear that.

1: Nice party, huh?
2: Yeah, it's not bad.
1: So what do you do for a living?
2: Oh you know, just side jobs. Odds and ends really.
1: Like gardening or construction or something?
2: More like controlled demolition of national landmarks on behalf of shadowy cabals running the governments of said nations.
1: Huh.
2: I'm going to get another beer, want something?

Luckily I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Hold me.

But I like this one, it's called You Can't Deal With My Infinite Nature and it goes back to as early as 1997 so there are some gems on there.

1. The Mountain Goats - This Year
2. Clinic - Internal Wrangler
3. Built to Spill - Carry the Zero
4. The Microphones - I Felt Your Shape
5. Radiohead - No Surprises
6. The Decemberists - Grace Cathedral Hill
7. British Sea Power - Carrion
8. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth
9. Phoenix - Too Young
10. El-P - Tasmanian Pain Coaster (first 50 seconds only)
11. Trail of Dead - Another Morning Stoner
12. Devendra Banhart - At the Hop
13. Dismemberment Plan - The City
14. My Summer as a Salvation Soldier - Stagedives and Highfives

Don't even try and front like you don't want a copy.

Say there's a spaceship traveling at half the speed of light, or 0.5c. They turn on their headlights. From the perspective of the astronauts on the spaceship, the light should be leaving those headlights at the speed of light, 186,000 miles/second, right? Assuming this is a very bright light, a planet 186,000 miles ahead will be struck by light exactly one second after the ship turned on its headlights.

Well, what about the people on a different planet watching this spaceship pass them by at 0.5c? How fast do they observe the light leaving the headlights of the spaceship? The speed of light is supposed to be a constant c, no more and no less. But the light is leaving the headlights at c and these headlights are attached to a ship travelling at 0.5c, therefore isn't the light travelling at 1.5c? And isn't this not allowed?

What am I missing here? It's thoughts like this that keep me up at night.

At least Sunday mixes things up a little.

Any day now we'll be getting farmed for our bioelectrical energy.

Last night was a good one.

and even though
I like the original
WCW poem
I lol'd a little bit

forgive me
not for laughing at the parody
but for liking
the original

So I'm only taking 9 units this quarter (my last quarter at Cal Poly!) and 1 of them is an archery class. My goal is to have someone shoot a perfect bullseye and then I will split their arrow in half with mine, like in the Disney Robin Hood movie. A friend from class pointed out that the arrows are graphite, but it doesn't matter. I'll do it anyway. Or die trying. No, no. Forget that last part.

But at least the music's good.

The new Panda Bear album, Person Pitch leaked. I thought the Bro's 12" that came out a few weeks ago was outstanding, like a 21st century Beach Boys on (more) LSD. Almost every song on the album is just as good. Lots of people really love the more abstract noise-folk that the Animal Collective offers up on their albums. I've always been a bigger fan of their poppier and more accessible songs (obviously you'll never find an actual pop song from AC), like "Chocolate Girl" and "Winter's Love." That must be why I love Panda Bear's solo stuff so much, he really is the pop backbone of the collective.

Plus how cool is this album art?

Explosions in the Sky's All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone also leaked a while back, though I never wrote about it. It's good, and continues with the more restrained Explosions we've come to know and love since The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place though are no real standout tracks like "Your Hand in Mine" or "Greet Death."

Woodpigeon is a quiet, folky, indie-pop outfit from Calgary that I was turned on to by Said the Gramophone. I listened to the songs on their myspace and then bought the album on iTunes (thanks for the Christmas gift cards, everyone). Excellent album, especially "Home As a Romanticized Concept, etc." that you can hear on their myspace and "Feedbags."

Ok, I'm done.

David Pajo - Ten More Days
Time: 0:00-0:12
The opening nine seconds are great, but that single strum at the nine second mark is the best part of the entire song. It somehow reminds me of taking road trips with my family as a child and listening to James Taylor. The rest of the song is somewhere between mediocre and pretty good but at least I can just keep hitting back and listen to the opening over and over again.

Joanna Newsom - Sawdust and Diamonds
Time: 4:48-6:10
The entire song is fabulous, but that part smack in the middle of the song, the "why the long face" section...oh my God. It's a horrible cliché, but I literally get goosebumps every time I listen to it. And that's a lot of times.

The Wrens - 13 Months in Six Minutes
Time: 5:05-6:50
This one is only worth it after the payoff of listening to the rest of the song first. The song tells the tale of the disintegration of a relationship due to little more than apathy, and the regret that follows. Heartbreakingly good song. But the final section, when the band drops out leaving the single hestitantly strummed electric guitar to be overtaken by a propulsive and, basically, totally different 45-second song is not only one of the most awkward transitions I've ever heard but one of the best.