Tickets!

As you may know, Nine Inch Nails is disappearing for awhile. Trent Reznor is to me as Morrissey is to some people (although I do love Morrissey, he can’t come close to Trent for me). I remember being so excited about The Fragile and With Teeth. I’m a member of NIN Remix. Although my taste in music has grown and changed throughout the years, Nine Inch Nails has consistently stayed my favorite. Trent’s music, his vision, his viral campaign for Year Zero, his music videos, his amazing voice, his views on DRM and the RIAA… I love the guy.

However, I’ve never been able to see him live.

Until now.

I’m depressed that Nine Inch Nails is going away. Although he’s said it’s just “for awhile,” his actions have been speaking loudly and they say it’s going to be for a VERY long time, if not forever. Trent may be retiring. I knew that if I wanted to see him, this would be the time to do it. I mentioned briefly to J how badly I wanted to see him but how difficult and expensive finding good tickets would be. He agreed and went back to his computer. An hour later he sat next to me and showed me what he had gotten: 12th row tickets to see the last tour NIN may ever perform, the NIN/JA Tour, at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

I’m dying over here. I can’t WAIT for May so I can finally see Trent live. You are all jealous. Yes, you are.

In other news, you may have noticed a change in lunsh.net. I’m thinking of changing my blog and portfolio around. I know this sucks for the few people who have actually subscribed to my feed, but I promise this change will most likely be permanent (no more moving around after this). I don’t know yet. We’ll see. I’ll let you guys know.

March 30, 2009 @ 11:49 am . Comments (3)

Culture — Tags: bliss, lunsh, music

Springtime nights

I had the best evening in the universe last night. Lately I’ve been trying my best to eat only vegetables and fresh foods, and I was shocked at how well I did yesterday (oatmeal, apple, peas and corn, and some dried cranberries), so for dinner my friend Chris and I decided it was a good day to make homemade potato chips and a really good salad, and cupcakes for dessert.

So, I picked him up from school and we swung by my apartment to get some supplies, then we walked to his place and then to the grocery story to buy some cheese for the salad and potatoes. It was beautiful last night - 75 degrees, sunny, just perfect. Texas often sucks when it comes to weather, but sometimes it’s really, really good. And those are the days that you spend outside.

And also, making food with friends is amazing and excellent. We invited J and My Roommate to come along, and so we had a feast outside - homemade potato chips and fries, salad with blue cheese and sunflower seeds, springtime cupcakes, and white wine. It’s something you can only do when the weather gets warm.

I don’t mean to rub it in to everyone who doesn’t live in a) Texas b) California c) Florida, or d) Southern Hemisphere, but as soon as the weather gets warm, get your friends and go have a picnic outside. I mean it. It’s amazing.

March 19, 2009 @ 10:22 am . Comments (4)

Health — Tags: bliss, relaxing, well-being

San Antonio, Texas

First of all, greetings to everyone coming to Austin for South by Southwest! I hope you enjoy the city and I hope you enjoy the transvestites that Austin is so famous for! I’m not sure who’s coming, but if anyone wants to get together for a drink let me know.

That said, Spring Break is upon us. Austin’s spring break always occurs during sxsw. Because duh. J and I decided to spend the first few days going on an adventure to our neighboring city, San Antonio! Now, I’ve been to San Antonio a few times to visit a friend and for a Dragonforce concert, but I’ve never done any of the touristy things, like the Alamo and the Riverwalk. J’s done a few things but he barely remembers it and we both were just itching to get out of town for a couple days.

The first thing we did was head to Six Flags: Fiesta Texas. It was a ton of fun. We were promised chilly and rain, and although the morning was a bit dreary it ended up being 70 and sunny, so it all worked out. It was also really crowded, but we were able to ride two roller coasters, the carousel (on my insistence - we were the only adults without kids on it but it was way fun!), and the swinging ship. We also spent a lot of time walking around, we watched some people line dancing (much to my Northern amazement - how did half the audience know the steps to the dance?), and we bought a funnel cake and didn’t finish it. It was a ton of fun after it warmed up. We also decided to buy season passes so we can go back another few times, preferably on a weekday during 100 degree heat to avoid the crowds.

At about six on Saturday we left Six Flags and checked into the hotel. It was nice and we were absolutely exhausted. We unpacked our bags and turned on the TV just in time to watch the Discovery launch! It was incredible, if anyone caught it. Then we were off again downtown to grab some food.

Here’s the weird thing about San Antonio. Not only is it confusing as anything to drive there, but there’s also two restaurants. Two. We must have driven the entire city because we were so lost and we didn’t see a single other restaurant. Austin, on the other hand, has a restaurant or a bar or a cafe every other building. It was very weird to have to actively search to find a restaurant, because in Austin you can’t go two feet without tripping over one. And, as a consequence, the wait for one of the restaurants was an hour and a half, and the wait for the other one was thirty-five minutes. We went with the second one.

The food was pretty good. The place was called La Margarita. I’d go again if I’m in the area in the future. Not that I have much choice. Being downtown late at night was really fun, because I feel like I got a real taste for Hispanic culture. People wore traditional outfits and played and sang songs, religious icons were everywhere, and the atmosphere was really friendly and fun. I had a really good time, and so did J, even though were so exhausted.

When we got back to the hotel, some guy next door was yelling at his kids, who were screaming as if they were being beaten. Yeah, it was interesting. I’m sure they were just screaming for whatever reason - I’m sure the guy wasn’t a child abuser. I hope. But man, he really was yelling.

No pictures from the first day - Six Flags is not a good place to take a camera, and I was so tired in the evening I just forgot.

But! This morning we woke up with plenty more adventures on our minds. We checked out of the hotel and headed downtown again, to go to the Riverwalk! The Riverwalk is a really famous walk along the San Antonio River, with shops and food and beautiful scenery. You can even get on a boat and ride down the river on a tour. We didn’t do that, though. We just walked. It was really beautiful, filled with trees and flowers and the sky was so blue way up above us. It was chilly in the morning but got to maybe 80 degrees, and it was perfectly sunny - we couldn’t have picked a better day. We walked along the river and eventually stopped at Cafe Ole, where we had lunch.

After a couple hours at the Riverwalk we headed for the San Antonio Zoo! It was SO much fun. If you’ve ever been to a zoo, you’ll know how fun it is. Seeing the animals in captivity was a little sad, but seeing animals at all was a lot of fun. The zoo was very crowded, with small children running around almost aimlessly, and adults slamming their strollers into us, and really huge people blocking the walkways. We started off by looking at the bears, which was fun, but I realized the entire zoo was going to be ridiculously crowded if we started at the front and worked our way to the back, so J and I decided to immediately head for the back. It worked - the zoo was less crowded in the back because everyone was in the front.

The zoo was great. They had tons of birds, from ostriches to parrots to flamingos to teeny tiny little green birds that were the most adorable thing ever. We looked at lions and rhinos and hippos and giraffes and tons of kinds of monkeys and giant anacondas. We also saw tigers and kangaroos and they had a really nice aquarium with sharks and jellyfish and crabs and stingrays. They also had a reptile house, which I liked a lot, with every single kind of snake you can imagine. And then we went to the butterfly observatory where a butterfly actually tried to eat me. It landed on my hand and kept sticking its proboscis on me as if it were trying to drink me. It felt really weird.

I posted a lot of pictures up on my flickr if anyone’s interested in seeing the animals. Most of them were taken by J because he’s honestly the better photographer than me. Oh, and add me as a contact, too!

So, we just got back a few hours ago. We’re really, really tired. But all in all it was a really good trip. Coming home to Austin was so wonderful - I fell in love with it all over again. A short vacation was completely what we needed. And the best part is now I get to enjoy the rest of spring break!

March 16, 2009 @ 9:19 pm . Comments (3)

Adventure — Tags: travel

Writing group?

I don’t know how many of you enjoy writing, but I really want to get motivated with my writing. I realized that part of what’s holding me back is no one ever asks me to see my writing and so I don’t show anyone, and so there’s nothing motivating me except myself. And while I’m good at motivating myself for the most part, I really want to write a lot more. So I was thinking - how about a writer’s community? A small, tight-knit, password protected group where you can post up your work and read and comment on other people’s work. It’d be like a Wordpress blog, and anyone who’s interested would be a user on the blog, and the entire blog would be closed off to non-registered users.

I really want writers who will be pretty active, posting up at least something maybe once a week or once ever week and a half, but really I just want people at all to post stuff. I also want to keep this really small so that it’s not overwhelming and so people aren’t so afraid to post. If you’ve always wanted to get motivated, the best way is to be part of a supportive community like the one I’m thinking about.

So, anybody interested? Let me know. If I get at least three or four people, I’m going to set it up. I’ve already got one person: Stephanie, but we’d love to get more people! Let me know in a comment if you’re interested, or if you know someone that might be interested.

Oh, also, any kind of writing would be awesome - journal entries, fiction, novels, poetry, etc. As long as it’s creative writing, it works.

March 12, 2009 @ 3:41 pm . Comments (3)

Art — Tags: writing

I’m not dead

Sorry guys - two midterms on Wednesday. It’s been a little hectic.

I’ll be back on Thursday.

March 10, 2009 @ 8:12 am . Comments (4)

General — Tags: school