Anybody Want A Sandwich?

I used to have a nice car. Okay, it wasn't a Mercedes or Lexus or anything that nice, but it was nice to me. With the exception of heated seats, my 2002 Nissan Maxima was fully decked out. Its 3.5 liter, V-6 engine pushed out a respectable 255 horsepower. The leather seats were pristine. The climate control system blew cold. It had relatively low miles.

But why am I talking about my beloved car in the past-tense, especially since I drove it out of my garage just this morning?

This is why...

Yep, I was involved in an auto accident this morning. Some dipshit slammed right into me and plowed my car into an SUV in front of me, thus causing the damage you see above. Of course this guy didn't have insurance (I was told that 40% of people in Houston don't), so I get to claim it on my policy. Great. And for a little icing on top, I had just filled up the gas tank. 62 friggin' dollars! Double Great.

They told me I should grab my valuables out of the car, which I did, but I didn't have a garden hose on me to siphon out my gas tank! Oh, did I mention that I had just gotten new tires last month to the tune of $700.00? Can I grab those too?

Alright, they haven't told me if my car's going to be totaled yet, but do you think they can fix this properly? I mean, that's a lot of damage! I don't know if I would want it back after this (I have this thing about damaged goods), but damn, what about my new tires and full-tank of gas!?!?

I'm not going to be pissed of at the guy for hitting me, but I am pissed off at him for not having insurance! WTF? You guys can put down $60 in beer over one weekend but you can't pay $60 a month to carry insurance?

I'll add more later after I hear from the adjuster...

Who Hid My Razor Blades?

So one of my favorite bands, Coldplay, released their fourth album yesterday, entitled Viva la Vida (or Death and All His Friends). Naturally, I immediately downlo.... errr... I mean, I rushed out and bought the album.

No, this is not going to be an album review - I'm not much of a music critic. I think this is going to be more of a comparison from old to new.

Being that this is a relative short album (~46 minutes), I have been able to listen through it twice this morning so far. It's not a bad album, not bad at all... but it's just not the Coldplay of yesteryear which I have grown to love. It's too happy and upbeat, and it doesn't make me want to slit my wrist or hang myself at all. But I really miss those feelings of pain and sorrow their earlier work invoked upon me.

Their first album, Parachutes, was one of the greatest ever created. Songs like Yellow, Trouble, and Everything's Not Lost made me want to drink myself into a stupor and jump in front of a train - but in a good way. Now who could forget the line from Yellow (which is, by the way, my favorite song of all time) that goes ,"...for you, I'd bleed myself dry?" Classic, classic stuff!

The follow-up album, A Rush of Blood to the Head, was equally as great and depressing. Songs like In My Place, The Scientist, Warning Sign, and the title track made me want to shoot heroin and then swan dive off of a freeway overpass - but again, in a good way. I bet that fearing people may actually would have done that, Coldplay put the upbeat Clocks (another of my all-time faves) on the same CD. Good move. Awesome album.

Then came the third album, X&Y, which was the beginning of their transformation out of the gloom. Boo. Hiss. I did like a couple of their songs, although I can't recall what they were. Oh wait, I do remember them now... Speed of Sound and Talk were the two I found somewhat enjoyable. However, I don't remember any good and depressing songs on that album. Evidentally, all their sadness and angst had gone away... maybe due to financial success or personal happiness? Damn you, Gwyneth Paltrow!

Viva la Vida should have been called X&Y: New and Improved or even X&Y, Part Deux. It's better than the last one, but still not what I was hoping for. Again, it's not bad... it's just not Kevorkian-quality stuff.

Oh, why must things change?



Well, at least there have been some changes over the last 7 or so years which bring about nothing but sorrow and anguish...

Finding Things To Write About

I know it's been a long time since my last blog entry. Sorry, but it takes certain things to inspire me to write. Usually they're things I find really interesting, or things that piss me off, or things I think are friggin' hilarious. Apparently, these things don't happen often enough, so in effort to keep up with this blog, I'm going to start writing about things that I find just somewhat interesting, sort of irritating, and mildly amusing. No, these entries may not be as funny or interesting as others, but who cares? At least I'm writing about something. I'll call them "filler entries."

So here's my filler entry for today:

I've been listening to country music lately. Not all the time, though - about a third of the time I'm in my car. (Let's say it equates to about 30 minutes to an hour of country everyday.) Anyway, a song by Craig Morgan comes on called That's What I Love About Sunday. I've heard this song many times before but have never really listened to the lyrics.

I do that sometimes. I'll hear something like 58 times and still will not know one entire line within the song. I guess I do that with people a lot, too. You know - when I see your mouth moving but all I hear is, "...blah blah blah BEER blah blah MONSTER TRUCK blah blah blah CHECK HER OUT blah blah..." I get the general idea, but really just process the key parts.

Getting back to my story...

So I'm listening to this song, then I hear a line in it that made me laugh.

The line went:

It's 35 cents off of ground round,
Baby, cut that coupon out!

Now, is that friggin' mildy hilarious or what? That's why country music is so great.

Okay, I guess I'm easily amused sometimes.

"yee to the hizzle, my nizzles"