Song of the month for April, 2010: Before It Breaks by Brandi Carlile.

I really discovered Brandi some time in mid October last year. My dad had bought her second CD, The Story, some time before, after hearing her on Pat Monahan’s (of Train) solo album Last of Seven. (The song is Pirate on the Run and it happens to be the best song on the album. The album has some other good tunes, but as a whole it’s a bit too “pop” for me.)

I had heard Brandi’s music here and there but never really paid attention until I started hearing some of her stuff playing at work, where we have all of our music on the server and have a rather large randomized playlist. I finally paid attention and realized it was some really good music.

Come Christmas, I gave my dad her new album, Give Up the Ghost, on vinyl, only mostly because he wanted it. As many new albums do, it took a bit of warming up for me; new and modified sounds and styles tend to throw me. But after a couple of listens, I knew that Give Up the Ghost was still great music, and one song in particular stood out to me.

That is, of course, Before It Breaks. Honestly, I don’t know what it means. I’m a bit slow on the uptake of song meanings; but with a beautiful piano lead (which happened to be inspired by Elton John, who spun another song from the album, Caroline, into a fantastic jam) and Brandi’s incredible vocals, this song quickly pushed its way into the rank of my “Temporary Favorite Song, Period”. That is to say, right now there is no song I like better, but it’s probably only a matter of time before that changes. Then again, it has been in the position since at least early February; I recall at the concert I had the pleasure of attending in Knoxville, Tennessee, I was practically the only one who clapped excitedly at the introduction of the song, though two others seemed to briefly follow my lead.

Speaking of concerts, even some of my least-liked Carlile songs became a thousand times better when experienced live. If you like any of her music, go to a concert. I hope I haven’t used the word “amazing” too many times in this post, because I’m too lazy to go check, but she and her band put on an amazing performance.

Anyway, the song was stuck in my head tonight, so spilling it into a blog post seemed like the right thing to do.

Is it just me or does something just seem off about spilling all your personal details and goings-on in a blog? While I find fascinating the blogs of those who do, I personally only feel comfortable talking about things that aren’t really that important.

I can talk about how I sat outside Starbucks with a laptop today and accomplished nothing, to be pleasantly surprised by the sudden appearance of Rachel, whom I hadn’t expected to be in Ellijay any time soon, much less on a Thursday night, showing up where I happen to be.

Past that, my deepest thoughts and fears and innermost feelings are not released into the everlasting ether of the internet. As Ghost Rocco said, real men hide their feelings. (By advised that this link is laden with colorful language.)

Today, I bit the bullet and purchased a new video card from Tiger Direct to replace my aging Foxconn GeForce 8800 GTS–the old model with the G80 architecture and 320 MB of video RAM that I bought for way too much money about two weeks before the cheaper and slightly better-performing 8800 GT was released. My disappointment was palpable, like many things are.

However, the GeForce has served me well and I’ve gotten nearly two and a half years of bang out of my buck. Of course, it would go even further if I wasn’t greedy and didn’t want to run Starcraft 2 at 1080P on full settings on a 47 inch LCD… but I digress.

The replacement? (more…)

Kyle was playing through the entirety of Dire Straits’ self-titled debut album for the wild guess of about the 1,663rd time in his life, so I decided to look for a live video of the song “Lions” on YouTube. I was waiting for the album version to finish playing before I watched it, so I scrolled down to the comments, which is usually a terrible idea on YouTube.

(more…)

Lately, I’ve been looking at carry options for my Glock 19. I currently have a Don Hume leather clip-on IWB holster, the model of which I don’t know; I bought it at a gun show because it looked decent and the price was right, without knowing a thing about Don Hume beforehand.

The Don Hume holster works enough for the two locations at which I can and do carry, but it leaves quite a bit to be desired. The small clip will allow the gun to cant whichever way physics wants it to, particularly since the weight of the gun tugs at and bends my jeans waistband.

As of yesterday, I went on the market for a new holster. I had started hearing a lot about Raven Concealment Systems recently, particularly because ARFCOM Hero Chris Costa and His Manly Beard rock the Raven Phantom (with special Magpul Dynamics cut!) as their holster of choice. And certainly, it looks like a fantastic option. The modular design allows OWB, IWB, overhooks, underhooks, soft hooks, and tuckable mounting options, all with a single holster.

And who wouldn’t be impressed by customer service like this or OWB carry this close to the body?

However, I’ve also only just discovered that there’s a wait on just about any good holster. Raven is currently advertising 60 day lead times; I guess that’s what happens when ARFCOM Hero Chris Costa and His Manly Beard are Raven’s proponents. Another current trend, the Crossbreed SuperTuck, is apparently still ringing in under three weeks, while long time IWB staple Milt-Sparks only takes a limited number of orders each month, and Comp-Tac advertises an 8 day production time.

The worst part about it all is I’m a six foot tall beanpole trying to wear a Glock 19. There’s no way to know what will work for me, having what seems a rather uncommon body type, without just trying it; and each of these holsters runs in the vicinity of $70.

On the bright side, I’ve still got about a year and a half to find the right one.

I was sitting here at my desk at work, and just moments ago, I looked out the window. There, about forty feet away, I observed a man walking down Sailors Drive with an air of malevolence.

This man was wearing a dark purple velvet sport coat, solid black shades, and had his short gray hair swept back. He was walking with a purpose.

I feel like he might have been an assassin. Something just wasn’t right about this guy. He was looking too cool for someone walking down a side street in a purple velvet sport coat.

I’ve noticed recently that adding guns to mundane situations can make them funny. For example, when swapping stories about scars, saying

I cut myself trying to cut a zip tie once.

is not funny. Instead, try

I stabbed myself in the finger once trying to take a zip tie off an AK47.

Now it’s funny. Here’s another example.

There’s my other flip flop! It was under the desk.

Not funny. Instead, try

There’s my other flip flop! It was under the M16.

I hope this helps you in your funnious exploits.

I nominate this for best thread on the Starcraft 2 beta forums.

If you work in an office environment, you’re probably familiar with the sounds of computers humming, people coughing and the clearing of throats, shuffling of feet, and tapping of keys.

I’m trying to think of a portmanteau of “office” and “ambience”, but all I’m getting is “officebience” or “offbience”–neither of which works, so I’ll just drop it.

Either way, the ambience in an office is similar to the colors of a hospital; it makes you feel sick. It’s that work sound.

I’ve found it extremely important to spice up my work day with a constant stream of background music. Not too loud; you don’t want it to be distracting, but you want to be able to hear and enjoy the music. It makes things much less dull.

Do it now.

It’s that I hate this daily grind of

1. Wake up to an alarm clock
2. Eat breakfast
3. Brush teeth
4. Get dressed
5. Go to work

I dread the morning way more than I dread actually working. There’s got to be some better way.