Linkstew

Time goes by.

I've been in Berkeley for a little over a month now, and have already had my first midterm. Things definately could be worse.

The only negative thing I can think of is that I haven't found a place to buy the new White Wolf books as they come out, which is saving me money I'm sure, but at the same time I miss them. I'm sure that will all be resolved in the future.

I went and saw They Might Be Giants in concert on 1998-09-10, and it was a very groovy show. I'd recomend seeing They in conert to Anyone, even if one has Never heard of They Might Be Giants. After the concert, I got the autographs of a couple of the Dan's, A broken string off of Flansburghs guitar and a pick which was obviously very heavily used. I'll post the setlist and my comments on it sometime in the future.

I am now in Linux pretty much full time on my PC, now that Steve and I have managed to resolve the libc problem... Linux really is a great operating System, however it still lacks in ease of use. I still maintain that if one wants power, they will use a flavor of *nix, and if they want ease of use they will get a Macintosh.

Speaking of which, my Mom is getting an iMac, and I really want one my self. But I think I will wait until the second generation of iMac's, which will hopefully include much faster processor and an internal DVD-ROM drive.

I think I'll write a report on my first month at Berkeley and post it on here sometime soon.. But in the meantime, I have to go to Math.

Well, we were treated to a very fun show by Dan Dan and Dan, Jim and Tim, And John and John. I was there with two other people from Berkeley and a friend of one of those people, and we all had a blast. And now, for your amusement, I'm going to comment on everything that happened during the show that immediately springs to memory.

But first, in case you get bored of everything else, I'll say now that I got the autographs of Dan (the drummer) and Dan (the guitar player) and got flan's broken guitar strings and a pick.

The opening act -- I don't even remember who or what it was, other than an absolutely generic rockband -- was rather umm... not much fun. It had much of the audience staring dumbly at the stage, and a few having fun mocking the band. If you were there, I was with the group that was waving their arms at one point during the 3rd song or so... So I was really glad when that ended.

Then there was the break, and then came the band. They played triboro, and I wondered a bit where flansburgh was, as all we had was a Linnell -- who was pointing a lot at the balcony, which should have been a clue -- So finally they got a spotlight on flansburgh in the balcony with the bass drum, and they played Whistling in the Dark, which was very cool... And boy did flans look like he enjoyed that drum &%^)

Then we got Dr. Worm, which was very good, but nothing new, and She's Actual Size, which was very good, but nothing new. When I say nothing new, I mean that they were, for the most part, what was on Severe Tire Damage, except for the inclusion of the introduction of Dan during the middle of She's Actual Size.

Then we had Twisting, which is one of those songs off flood, along with Racist Friend and Lucky Ball and Chain, which just sort of lump together in my mind, but it was definately cool live. Heck, every song was cool live... Twisting went straight into She's An Angel, and it was a good performance, but again still faithful to Severe Tire Damage.

Then they had a new song called "We're working undercover for the man", which was pretty cool right up to the point where the song abruptly ended and John said "We should write another part for that song". Yes, they should.

Then we had "Another Brand new song, I Palindroem I", which was nice to hear, and pretty cool live. Then we had Battle for the Planet of the Apes, and frankly, the Johns improv wasnae too hot, but Dan Dan Dan Jim and Tim were pretty rocking. Yes, the people definately won in this case.

Then there was "Absolutely Bill's Mood", which was performed quite well and had a very amusing bit in which John and John kinda stood there trying to decide whether or not they should finish the word "insane". Well, it was cool. Maybe you had to have been there...

Then we had "They Got Lost", which had an amusing Intro... Flansburgh asked Linnell if they should play it too fast in the beginning and too slow at the end, and Linnell related the question to the audience, who applauded. Flansburgh then pointed out that "Well, I didn't hear the BAND cheering John. We're important too".. and after a brief exchange, Flansburgh said "We'll compromise and please nobody." So we had They Got Lost, pretty much the same as on Severe Tire Damage, except that "Dan turned to Dan and said I see somebody walking this way"

Then they just went off into "I am not your broom", which was very cool, no instruments, sung pretty slow.

And then The Sun, which was very rocking, but alack, no alternate lyrics. Straight of Severe Tire Damage, again. Oh well.

Then Flans started singing "I'm an artist, and I've grown self consious aobut my shins.." which turned out to be an improv about the confetti cannon.."What's this cannon... doing on the stage...?" It was pretty cool, actually. Then we had a faithful rendition of James K. Polk, and had the firing of the cannon. Shoom. I got some confetti along with my other artifacts from the show.

And then they played Window... Which was cool. That's about all. It's one of those songs that doesn't in particularly stick out where it is on John Henry, but in the concert it was pretty cool, and that is one of the songs actually still stuck in my head.

And then we had Racist Friend, another of those songs off flood which become mushy in my head.. but again, it was very groovy live.

And then we had S~e~X~X~Y... dedicated to ... The Roadcrew? And birdhouse in your soul. Both of these were, again, pretty much the same as found on Severe Tire Damage.

And then the cool cover of Mr. Tambourine Man... Linnell on the accordion with Flans singing.. it was very good.

And then that went into the Guitar, which rocked, adn in which flans broke his guitar strings (one of which is now in my posession) and after which they handed flans a new guitar.. with a price tag on it. It was amusing.

And then the conga line from hell. The only purpose it served was to get me closer to the stage, it seemed. and I didn't hear much of No One knows my plan, but I am now sure of the fact that people from the bay area cannae conga. ::sighs:: Oh well. My friends and i tried real hard.

Then Mammal, which was .. well, unexpected, but still cool.

And then Particle Man, which I found neat for some reason.. Linnell sang one verse with no instruments going at all, and it sounded very nice.. I just don't remember which verse. I think it might have been triangle hates person...

And then the Famous Polka, sans lyrics. Very fun.

And then New York City, which was pretty much the same as off Factory Showroom...

And then the first Encore.. Equisite Dead Guy was very cool with the heads, because they only had the lights on the heads the whole time, and well.. it was just cool.

Spy had a nutty long instrumental improv... first with Flans directing, then linnell took over and began conducting Dan and Flans.. It was pretty amusing, watching the concentration evident in dans face as he tried to read Linnell...

and then they got out the stick. The performance of this song had to have been my favorite. The stick on the ground with Lie Still Little Bottle, along with Linnell on the bari was just plain awesome. I loved it a bunch. Great great great!

And then Istanbul. It seemed fast to me, but it was cool.

And then Shoehorn, and good god is Dan funny when playing that glock.. Flans - "This is our Glockenspiel technician" (not referring to dan, but to a member of the roadcrew.)

And then Don't let's start.

All in all, a very awesome show. My friend got to shake Linnell's hand at around 11:20, but I was off talking to Dan Hickey at that point, so missed Linnell... Awww me. Oh well.

My teeth are already chattering in anticipation of the next time they bother to come near here again...

I downloaded all of KDE to give it another try, and after installing all of it, I restarted into KDE and opened up slashdot to read the newest news... And the first article on there was a statement saying that there would be an announcement about KDE the next morning...