Austins-Web

Top 5: Albums 2008

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:13:00 -0800

New years has come and passed. 2008 came and went so quickly. In that year I have racked up a slew of new albums that will always be cherished in my music collection. It was hard to whittle down the albums to only 5.

#5: The Bird & The Bee - The Bird And The Bee

As intoxicating as a Brazilian breeze and ironic as a David Lynch night in L.A., the Los Angeles duo the Bird and the Bee make a soothingly hip, deliriously cool blend of pop. Inara George is a breathy singer who channels Astrud Gilberto via Julee Cruise. - Amazon.com

#4: Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

This new installment shows Hot Chip at its best- wonderfully quirky, clever, soulful and poppy. The sound of the band has evolved towards a wilder, heavier electronics, though still coupled with a signature pop aesthetic. This tougher sound is no more evident than on the single Shake A Fist which created a massive stir when it crept out at the end of 2007 on a limited etched 12" - Amazon.com

#3: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend took my headphones by storm. Soon enough I was dancing around my room to the ska / pop sounds of the band. This album didn't reinvent the wheel by any stretches of the imagination just a fun pop album to really get into

#2: The Black Kids - Partie Traumatic

Surfing around the twitters, I found that a ton of my followers were all about listening to the Black Kids. After a few months, I caved and fired up my torrent downloading machine and downloaded their album. I was outside mid-summer about to bbq some burgers, when I loaded the album and popped open a beer. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the album kicked so much ass. So much energy and charisma. I also catch myself dancing around my room singing along to The Black Kids.

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
Uploaded by Black-Kids

#1: Girl Talk - Feed The Animals

No one has rocked me more hardcore than Girl Talk. His album transformed the way I listen to music when I work out. I can't say enough great things about this album. The re-play value Feed The Albums is astounding.

AT&T DSL

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:27:00 -0800

So I move into my apartment, the first that any software engineer / gamer / internet addict really needs is the interwebs. So I called AT&T on December 1st and order a DSL package. They say that my model will get mailed to me and all I have to do is plug it in on the 8th and everything should be activated. Seemed easy enough.

So the 8th rolls around I plug that sucker in. To my surprise, I get a fat red blinking light in the middle of the modem, which usually means that something went wrong. I call tech support and ask them what is going on? They tell me to check back at 8PM that's when the services should be turned on. 8PM rolls around I look at the DSL modem with no change. I call back tech support and they say that the place that needs to help me is out for the day to call back the next day.

Now it is the 9th, and the first thing in the morning, I call back tech support and ask explain to them the situation, they look up my account and assure me that my connection will be up that evening at 8:00 PM. They said something about a power outage stopping them from putting in my connection. Satisfied with the answer, I hang up and wait out until 8:00. 8:00 rolls around and the blinking red light is still flashing at me. Needless to say, I go to sleep mildly pissed.

The 10th rolls around and I call tech support in the early morning. They say that this whole delay was due to a water main that broke near their central servers (or something to that effect). They said that maybe it would be up tonight, but most likely it would be up tomorrow. With nothing else to say, I hang up the phone. Before I go to sleep, I check the modem and nothing has changed. I go to sleep pretty pissed.

The 11th passes by and still no internet. Now I am pretty pissed. So on Friday the 12th, with still no internet and hours of calls logged to tech support I say fuck it with AT&T and their DSL and their horrendous tech support. I call Charter Communications (Local cable company for Glendale) on the 12th and order a cable internet package and they are able to install it on the very next day. At that point, I was very flabbergasted at how easy Cable is. In fact, I was pretty skeptical at whether or not they could actually be able to install cable with less 8 hours notice.

Saturday the 13th comes around, and I wake up early and run out to grab some coffee grinds for my morning coffee, I come back and the Cable guy installs the cable and internet works. Again I am dumbfounded at how easy this is. The cable dude leaves and another cable worker comes by to finish the installation, he some how manages to disconnect my connection to the internet and I didn't figure it out until the cable dude left. But the technicians were able to come back within the hour to rectify the situation. Again I was floored at the customer service of Charter.

From Monday through Saturday I have called AT&T at least an hour or two an evening trying to figure out what is going. On many occasions I have been transferred to several different departments all telling me different things all on the same evening. At one time, I got transferred to a department that promptly asked me to call back the next day because they closed less than 10 minutes ago. Not only was I tired of the lack of DSL, but I was extremely tired at the lack of communication the lack of action and the lack of urgency to my whole situation. To AT&T tech support, it seemed like the norm for customers to go 5 or 6 days without their DSL working.

Photo Credit: mia takahara

Yellowpages.com Beta

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:38:00 -0800

Want to see the new up and coming shiz coming out at YELLOWPAGES.COM? Sure you do. Go ahead and click on the link: betalabs.yellowpages.com. In case you were wondering, I had dealings with the widget.

One Reason Why I Love Twitter: Lance Armstrong

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 14:58:00 -0800

Lance Armstrong recently joined twitter and naturally I started following him. I find him one of the more fun people to follow. Sometimes you get gems like this. A picture of him taking a picture of the press. One of the press members caught wind of what he was doing and posted a photo of him taking a photo of them. I find it very fun to get a small glimpse of what it is to be Lance Armstrong.

Thankful

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 21:59:00 -0800

I tend to complain alot about crap in my life. The past couple of weeks I have had time to sit back and really contemplate the state of my life and the situation I am currently in. I really have no reason to complain about any aspect of my life. I am currently employed, have a wonderful girlfriend, loving family, and dependable friends. What more can I ask for in life?

I am going to try to go out and live life instead of sitting down and bitching about how shitty I have it. I hope you do too. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.