Man, this has been a good week. Well, except for the fact that I had to slog through snow to get to work on Monday. That was so stinking horrible. There really ought to be a law. I don't mind things like that before the arrival of the equinox, but once we hit that point of the year there should be no turning back. Like leaving a music venue, all exits from seasons should be final. Would really clear things up for me, and prevent my toes from getting frostbitten because I'm too much of a jackass to look at the weather report which explicitly tells me to not wear Tevas in the snow.

But all in all, like I said - good week. How did it start? Oh yeah, the victory of the Syracuse Orangemen over the Kansas something-or-others in the men's NCAA Basketball Championship. Now, while this went unpredicted in the ATF picks for this year, it still comes up pretty huge and I'll tell you why. Since a good friend of the ATF squad grew up in Syracuse NY, and we all went to a relatively unknown school in upstate New York with no real chance of winning any NCAA sports except hockey (go Big Red!), we all were rooting for da 'Cuse to take the championship. More importantly, I tied the purchase of my new laptop to the Syracuse winning in the penultimate round of the tourney (that decision came sometime at the end of the first quarter, where it was looking pretty good that they were going to win. I'm not much of a gambling man, and I really wanted a new computer).

The following days brought some information that I am not yet at liberty to reveal to the public, but I imagine you'll find out soon enough. Suffice to say that it was pretty good news. And then some more good news about the US military taking of Baghdad with minimal US and civilian casualties. Nothing like seeing symbols of fascist regimes being destroyed by a joint effort of the US and indigenous peoples. That statue coming down in Baghdad was kind of a nice metaphor for the entire situation, in my opinion.

Last night I went to a Fischerspooner show (which you may know from such alttext quotes as "LISTEN TO FISCHERSPOONER"). It ranked about a 6 of 10 on my going to shows scale (with 10 being held by experiences like my first nine inch nails show, seeing Black Sabbath and the first Ozzfest, and my very first show ever [a free They Might Be Giants show at Summerstage], and the dubious honor of 1 being held by the first ska show I ever went to - a Scofflaws show on Long Island where the Scofflaws never showed). Fischerspooner is funny, because they make no bones about not actually playing any music during the show. Rather, they do play music, in the same way that I'm playing Fischerspooner as I write this - they press play on an iPod (or CD player, or DAT, or something), and lip synch on stage. Well, sometimes they lip synch. As often as not they were taking drags of cigarettes or drinking Sam Adams when they were supposed to be singing. That I kind of liked - it's not like I believe the headpiece mic that Britney has on is doing anything during her shows, and FS is just admitting it. The problem was that the fact that they don't actually make any music on stage should have been made up by a spectacular floor show (check the photo galleries on Fischerspooner.com for some examples), and the floor show just wasn't. There was a whole lot of wall breaking - talking to the crowd about how things were screwing up, missed cues, starting songs over from the beginning.

But I laughed a lot, which I guess is the most important thing. To me. I was wrong however, because looking around the venue it was clear the the most important thing that night was not to have a good time, but rather to have people see how incredibly well put-together you can be while still not having any fun whatsoever. And perish forbid you express appreciation for the clear amounts of effort someone took getting ready for that nights festivities (I don't care how many times week you do it, getting into a corset is not trivial), because you'll then be subjected to the withering gaze of the hip and beautiful - the MOAL (the Mother Of All Looks, a weapon that has recently been condemned by the UN for its inhumanity. Where's Amnesty International on this one, I ask?). In any case, it was funny that they played Emerge twice. And regardless of the fact that the show was a bit of a letdown, you should definitely listen to Fischerspooner, 'cuz they rock really hard. And by rock I mean... well I'm not sure what I mean, but it's really good music.

Oh, right. And finally (best news ever) is that my laptop was sent off to shipping this morning, and should be arriving in the next couple of days. I don't know if you understand what this means to me. I'll try to explain. Ummm... I'm actually at a loss for words. Or at least words that don't include a sexual metaphor, but I don't want to give the wrong impression about the entire thing. Let's just say I'm way more psyched about my new laptop than I was about my last date (Hmmm... I wonder if I feel this way because my last date went so poorly, or if my last date went so poorly because I feel this way?). That's actually a surprisingly accurate way of looking at the situation, because I get a new computer with approximately the same frequency as I get dates.

What else... Oh yeah, the apartment. This is an apartment blog, right? Well, since it's dropped below 50 degrees outside, the upstairs tenants have jacked up the heat again. I've taken to sleeping with the windows in my room open and a fan on blowing air over my bed. It kind of sucks. And I think their child is training to be a runner, since that seems to be all he does - run back and forth throughout the house. Over and over and over. And over. At all hours of the morning. On Saturday. Oh, and I walked in on Sam doing something embarrassing the other night. He didn't seem to mind that much, but I was really uncomfortable. I suppose it's something we all indulge in once in a while, but in the middle of the living room? I really never expected to have the Wedding Planner showing on my television.