I've been spending a large amount of time on my computer over the last week, pretty much all the time except for when I get up to do light exercises and go for walks or food. I've filled my time with writing, playing madden, doing what little freelance copy work I've had, commenting on the usual sites and downloading music.

LEGALLY OF COURSE. /winkwink

So, after downloading every album I could think of that I've wanted to but just hadn't gotten around to (LEGALLY AND ALWAYS PAYING THE APPROPRIATE SHARE TO THE LICENSED MUSIC DISTRIBUTOR SO THAT JAY Z DOESN'T GO HUNGRY /winkwink)
I started mining all of the okcupid accounts that I have saved for artists that I recognized but had never really listened to. I selected one from each of my 17 saved profiles (though it was actually 11 as six profiles/five people were useless and did not have specific artists or any music listed at all...) and here's what I came up with. A few of my saved profiles are not regular journalers, but most are.

Lou Reed
Tegan And Sara
Papa Roach
Nellie McKay
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Avett Brothers
Otis Redding
Lucinda Williams
Leonard Cohen
Belle And Sebastian
Feist

Feel free to recommend more stuff in the comment section below. I'm pretty open to anything that doesn't sound too 80s rock cheesy or heavy metal.

AND THE BEST PART OF RECOMMENDING THINGS TO ME IS THAT YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS WILL ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY DEFINITELY COLLECT ROYALTIES OFF OF ME /winkwink

So, here's a tip for you amateur internet bargain shoppers. If you're online and you see an item you want, but it costs $50 and you don't want to pay that, message the seller and ask if $40 would be okay. Or even $30, if you're feeling ballsy. Don't ask the seller if $20 would be okay, then message him five minutes later saying that your offer is actually $10 and make it sound like you're doing them a favor. And if you have done this, don't follow up with another message about some friend's birthday and won't they please please please lower their price to virtually nothing because of that. This is not an effective way of getting what you want.

I've decided to keep the hyphen in my title posts, as an homage to the original.

Tonight is a big basketball night. Game 7 of the Finals.Lakers vs. Celtics. Championship on the line. Very thrilling. Not very thrilling is the injury I sustained at basketball on Monday. Something in my back gave out while I was going up for a rebound. I've been very limited since. Can't even lay down to sleep. I will wait this injury out over the weekend, and go to the doctor next week if it doesn't significantly improve. Could be a slipped disc, or maybe I just pulled something. I will see. Then I am going to make my best effort to abstain from playing any sports for six months or so. The injuries are starting to compile. Think I'll just do some form of yoga or tai-chi instead for a while. No more sports until my body has rid itself of all the little dings and dents that never seem so serious until they get serious.

In better news, I have started writing a bit more consistently. This is big for me. I'm not quite churning out text the way I used to, but the meaninglessly boring copy writing I've been doing for a racing website seems to have reignited something in me that has been missing for years. I'm filing this under good news.

All the spare time I'm about to be left with while abstaining from sports will come in handy. I expect to have a premium of free time to write, at least until I find steady work. And I am craving steady work more now than I have since before I entered the exciting world of self-employment. Change is in the air, and I am looking forward to taking a deep breath.

This is insanity.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-BOWMAN-CHROME-SUPERFRACTOR-STEPHEN-STRASBURG-1-1-/190398394834?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Baseball&hash=item2c54a0f1d2

For those who are unfamiliar with baseball, Stephen Strasburg was the first pick in last year's MLB draft, and is projected to be a superstar for years to come. Whether that will come to pass is to be seen. He has performed remarkably well against minor league players, but the question will always remain with a player until they prove themselves at the highest level of the sport.

So, to summarize. Jackass trading card company, the type of company that inserts various 'rare' cards into their packets in order to justify the ridiculous price tags they attach to their product, a product that was once intended for kids but is now designed mostly for idiots with lotto dreams, they produce these one of a kind cards that some lucky schmuck pulls, puts up on eBay and will now sell for anywhere from 15-30 grand. Good for him. Bad for America.

Even at my most materialistic point in life, and at that point I was pretty materialistic, with a ten page list of comics and various collectibles I wanted to buy, many of them pricey, I would never be so stupid. Basically, if this player does not go on to be one of the greatest players in history, this card will not retain its current value. Odds are it will never even come close. And don't even get me started on the number of morons who will now run out and drop a hundred bucks on a box of cards that will most likely contain 20-30 worth of cards at the most. The frenzy of this 'once in a lifetime opportunity' is insane to me. It is the collector in me that hates how hobby companies market these one of a kind items, it is the pragmatist in me that cannot stand how blind these hobbyists are to the strings they dangle from and it is the absurdist in me that just wants Stephen Strasburg to suffer a career ending injury the night this auction closes.

So today I almost stole a hundred bucks worth of comics. It would have been very easy too, just walk out the door with the box they gave us to shop with, past the unguarded area and just head home. That had to be some of the poorest convention planning ever. I didn't do it because I don't believe in stealing anything with an actual value of over a dollar (sometimes stealing plastic ornaments from decorated eateries for the entertainment value gets a pass, I am not perfect) or any sentimental value at all, but man it would have been so easy. I will sometimes find myself planning crimes, but today is the first time I can remember having even semi-seriously considered one. It really would have been far too easy.

I need to make some new friends. I've got my fair share, and they are all wonderful people (by association with me, obv), but the one specific type of pal I am lacking is a comic book geek with a car and a love of going to NJ for conventions and sales. What a shame.

Today I officially check another thing off on my list of things I have seen on the subway. I seem to blog about these whenever they happen as the new and unusual things are so, well, unusual. As with most N'yawkers who take the train at all hours of the day and night, I have covered the basics. Guy pissing in a plastic bottle? Please. Girl pissing on the platform as her three drunk friends form a stall around her? Yup. Man taking a dump over a garbage bin? I was amazed at the time that he was thoughtful enough to not leave it on the floor. Today I experienced a variation that had simply never occurred to me, even though it is quite simple. A homeless woman got on the train and sat down right across from me. She had quite the strong odor and was talking to herself about negroes and mexicans. About halfway to my destination I started smelling something foul. It did not take long to figure out that she had just shat herself. She was wearing light pants and when she got up to leave the train, the stain was all over the place. Diarrhea yo. I felt really bad for the businessman who got on the train as she left and sat down in her vacated seat.