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Here's the deal. From here on out, I will be posting blogs over at urgack.com, and only a snippet and a link to the post on this blog.
I know the design of urgack.com is pretty nasty right now, so this blog will remain up until the redesign is done.
Once the redesign is finished, this address (urgack.blogspot.com) will just bring you right to urgack.com.
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El Auto Bus (El out-oh boos)
(Note: If you'd like, you can read this blog at www.urgack.com. As soon as the design is all finished, I'll be moving all my blogging over there. Until then, all blogs will be posted in both places.)
For the past couple of weeks I've been back to riding the the 'ol CTA to and from work. It's been kind of nice, actually, since it's not bitterly cold out, and it really doesn't take much longer than it did to drive. But it had been quite some time since I was a regular bus user, and it's reminded me that I live in the city. Por ejemplo.
The bus, without question, is the most diverse place I've ever been. I grew up in a town that was predominately white. In fact, Wikipedia tells me that Cary is 95% white. That's a pasty town. Rock Island, home to my Alma Mater, may have had a bit more of a diverse population with only 77% of its residents being Caucasian, but Augustana College itself was 95% white. Up until moving to the city, I had lead a very racially segregated life. It wasn't a matter of racism or of conscious decision to do so, it was just where I was born and where I ended up going to school. But no matter the reasons, my exposure to a racially and culturally diverse populace was extremely limited.
So back to the bus. The bus is an amalgamation of all the people of Chicago. I take two buses to work, the 76 East bound on Diversey, and the 50 North bound on Damen. These buses both go through numerous neighborhoods and pick up all sorts of people. It makes for a great people watching experience. And it's also good for me to get rid of some of my inhibitions, my preconceived notions.
I wouldn't call myself a racist (but who would?), but I know that because of my limited interaction with people of other races and cultures I base most of my thoughts and actions about other people on stereotypes. Riding the bus has let me be around a 'melting pot' of people and really allow me to see beyond the stereo types.
I've held conversations with the random people sitting next to me, seen the common courtesy of people giving up their seat for an older woman, call out for the bus driver to stop when they see someone chasing the bus. As dirty as some the CTA buses are, it really seems to be its own little community. We are bus riders, and we have that in common, so we can look out for each other. Even just a smile at the person who sits down next to you is more than you'd ever really get just out and about.
Once it gets a bit warmer out, I'll be riding my scooter to work mroe often, but I'll definitely be taking the bus on rainy days, and I think I'll look forward to it.
Still working on will power
This week started my "get up at 6 and go workout" week.
I did it on Tuesday, and I was very proud of myself. I felt really good. Then this morning rolled around. Alarm went off at 6, I said "holy shit it's cold out" and went back to bed.
When I did get up an hour later, I did some pushups and planks, so that's not too bad. But if I'm gonna reach my goal, I'm gonna have to actually go to the gym.
I've been working on exercising my will power recently. I had started to slip into a habit of "just one won't hurt" and all those "just one"s were starting to hurt.
Just one stop at McDonalds, just one donut, I'll just bite this one finger nail. You get the picture.
I haven't bit my nails in over a week (which is impressive for me, really). I actually busted out the nail clippers like a real human being!
So, here's to hoping I can keep up with my own ambitions.
On another note, Dave and I sat down to build my new computer on Tuesday. It was quite a daunting task, with wires everywhere and all sorts of very vague installation instructions. After four hours of plugging and screwing and securing, we were pretty sure everything was connected and in the right spot, so we plugged it in and... nothing.
After another hour of trouble shooting, we had pretty much concluded that my power supply was dead. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is probably the best component to be dead. I verified this with Raidmax tech support (the maker of the PSU) by completing the circuit with a paper clip and trying to turn it on (and not electrocute myself).
It didn't turn on, so it's definitely dead, so I ordered a new PSU from Amazon and it should be here on Monday. So keep your fingers crossed.
My parents are coming in this weekend for dinner, and my dad and I are hopefully going on the Goose Island Brewery tour (we're on a waiting list right now). I'm looking forward to it, and if we don't get in on the tour, we can at least just drink beer!
So this is the new year...
Christmas was great. I went home with Amber and Ethan to see my whole Mom's side of the family. It was a fantastic few days, with Ethan being a big hit and falling in love with my cousin Kendall, and just being around family.
New Years was fairly low key. We went over to Amber's friend's place for a kid friendly party. In this case, 'kid friendly' meant the kids stayed in the basement with a baby sitter and the adults got drunk and ate bagel wrapped hot dogs. Good times, and only a bit of a hang over the next day.
We recently joined XSport fitness and it's been good to get back to the gym (though being sick on and off for the past few weeks have made that difficult). I'm really excited to get through their little training for the climbing wall so I can go use that whenever I please.
I'm going skiing up at Cascade this Saturday, and though it's no Breckenridge, I'm still really pumped. It's just Dave and Russ and I going I think, but that should be a blast. I get to try out the new goggles I got for Xmas.
Well, that's all for now. Peace.
Technically a tomato is not a vegetable. It's a kind of dolphin.
short post now. longer post later.
This post is really just because I'm super bored at work. Half the office is in a meeting, I've been out sick for the past two days and it's hard to really do much when the boss isn't here and tomorrow is Friday. I kind of want some V8, and I'm thinking about walking down to the convenient mart, but I'm pretty sure it's fucking cold out there, so we'll see how much I don't want to be here.
Rumor has it we're in for another huge snow storm tonight. I heard horror stories about 5 hour commutes and such on Tuesday night, but I was busy laying in bed being sick, so it didn't really affect me. I just got to watch big fluffy snowflakes fall outside the window.
So I'm all moved into the new place, and it's looking pretty schnazzy. Way less bachelor pad than the old place, much more sophistomicated adult. There are nice pictures on the walls. Furniture that wasn't bought on craigslist. And it doesn't smell like rotten fruit.
The first few days we were without heat, so we didn't sleep there, but I did spend a long time there in the 43 degree living room putting various Ikea furniture together. All in all, I've put together a bed, a fancy shmancy headboard, a book shelf, another bed, and I have a coffee table to do when I get home tonight. I also still need to hang the coat rack and the guitars. It's been kind of fun putting the place together, and it already feels like home.
I'm really looking forward to christmas, going home to see the family. It'll be nice to break away from the city and work and all that for just a couple days. Although, minus the slush, the city is quite beautiful when snow-covered.
Anyway, I probably should get back to doing something productive at work. I've got a bunch to spew out in here (not unlike all the spewing I did Tuesday night), so I'll post that later... though perhaps in an interesting format...
~Bry
This post is all about bands
Sometimes, if you get your hopes up to high, the actuality turns into quite the disappointment.
I've been on the search for a band that I can really pour myself into. My search has lead me to a few different bands in the past year, and none have really satisfied what it is I'm looking for.
I recently came across the band Flame Shark (thanks to Amber randomly picking up a Reader one day) and gave them a listen. Their music is really really good. It's like early Wilco meets Dylan meets some of the slower stuff by Jet. And, there were looking for a drummer.
Long story short, I'm frustrated, disappointed, and just kind of down. I met the guys in Flame Shark, had dinner at their place, hung out, and turns out they are three really cool guys. Their attitudes toward music and their musical abilities were exactly what I had been looking for in a band. And on top of that, their music was really good.
So last night, after about a month of "courting," I finally got over that and jammed with them a bit. And I felt nothing. I don't know if it was the fact that I had built it up too much, or that it really just wasn't a style meant for me. I'm leaning toward the latter, as I really feel like I need a more rock centered band.
So, the search continues. I'll scour Craigslist and the Reader and hope to find a band that embodies what I want in a band that happens to be looking for a drummer.
It's rough when your passion is so hard to fulfill, but I'm not going to stop trying to find the right band for me.
On a lighter note, I'm about to write a review of mint.com over on team hamster hat so go check it out.
Rocket
Today is the Chicago Marathon. I stood up on the roof for a while, watched the leaders come through. They run right down Taylor Street in front of our place, around mile 17 or so. There was a pack of three right out front, and a lone dude back in forth a little back. I'm pretty sure it was the guy in forth that ended up winning it. Pretty cool, I have a picture of him from the roof.
About 3 hours later, there were people walking by. Team Hamster Hat has a nice little article about how I feel about them.
Amber and I went to see Broken Social Scene at the Vic on Thursday night. It was a pretty good show, though not as good as when the played the Metro. The Vic just doesn't seem to be as good. Plus, the urinal flooded all over my feet. That's just gross.
I think I'm gonna look for another band to play in, or if I'm feeling quite ambitious, create my own band. If any members of Catch a Tiger are reading this, don't worry. It's not a replacement band. It's just another band. I really want to play some straight up rock. Raconteurs, Queens of the Stone Age, Black Mountain type stuff. Really good riff rock, where I can play with some mean sass and really groove. We'll see how that goes, since my initial perusal of Craigslist certainly left me with something to be desired.
The fonts on my computer somehow got all fucked up a few days ago (I blame a certain someone... but she's cute enough for me to not be mad). So I just backed all my stuff up and did a clean install of the whole system. Sometimes I like doing that. For one thing, the computer always seems to run a little faster after that, just cos all the random crap that ends up on here is gone. Also because any software that gives you a free trial, you can get it again. I'm thinking I might actually buy Transmit, an FTP client, because it really is just better than anything else out there for the mac.
Band practice tonight, which will be the first in almost two weeks. I'm antsy, been too long since I played.
I think it's shower time.
Urgack lives!
Just a quick update.
my website, www.bryandunk.com no longer exists (in practice).
Urgack.com is the new home to Bryan Dunk. As such, blog.urgack.com will bring you to this blog (and will probably eventually just pull posts from this blog directly).
I've decided to do this because I wanted to build more of a brand for myself, and Urgack is that brand. There will now be music, web development, blogs, and more all from the central hub of Urgack.
So update you links, books marks and all that good stuff if you so choose,but I've set it up so you shouldn't even have to do anything to see this change anyway.
They Say Smell Can Conjure Memories
I'm sitting here at work, tying not to be incredibly bored. Today was one of those days that I have to pretend I'm not a web developer and am instead the office admin. (I don't like these days). I've been creating invoices all day, and next i'm going to fill out stupid paper work for a mail in rebate on a new computer. Fun stuff.
When Finally Set Free
I think summer may really be over. The forcast for the next several days (as far as I can see anyway) is barely gonna break 70, with lows in the 40s. 40s!!!! What is this, Alaska!? I wore a long sleeved shirt for the first time since last winter, and if you know my usual getup of t-shirt and jeans, you know that's strange.
Catch A Tiger played a show at The Bottom Lounge this past Thursday with some pretty cool bands (The Lauretes, The Winter Sounds, and Love In October). There was free Sparks for the bands which wasn't a good thing. It wasn't a bad thing either... but my body hurt on Friday. I don't think the human body is meant to drink 4 of those. Met some cool people though, and overall I think the show went really well.
In related CAT news, I've been working on the website a bit and I think I should be able to finish it by the end of October. Juli designed the site, and I'm working on all the coding. Got some cool things in store like a video blog, as well as a sweet backend I'm working on that will let the band members log in and post blogs and stuff. Should be a good way for me to expand my skill set and make something cool for the band. I'll definitely let you know when it's all up.
I've been looking at apartments lately, trying to find something in a better neighborhood, off busy streets, and closer to the places I frequent. Little Italy is a nice place, but I don't go to UIC so there's no real reason for me to be down here. Plus, I think I could find a place in Wicker Park, Logan Square, or Ukranian Village that's the same price or cheaper and much nicer. Our place is ok, but has some huge draw backs.
I think this week is going to be a good week. I have a healthy amount of work on my plate at Sandstorm, as well as some personal projects to work on in my free time. Going to see a movie tonight, and have dinner planned with my parents on Sunday. All in all, I like the way things are going.
One last thing before I go. As a web developer, I encounter alot of non-tech people. The vast majority of people who use the internet don't actually know anything about the technology they are using. They use what someone taught them to use, be that a friends or family or their job. And 9 times out of 10, that person doesn't know anything either. Check out Dave Schwantes' blog for a better idea of what I'm getting at. And if you're one of those people still using IE6, please think of upgrading, as you'll be doing everyone, especially yourself, a favor.
I feel fall coming
The days are getting shorter. It's noticeable now. Sun sets well before 8. Weather having a hard time getting above 70. I can feel it in myself too. Drinking more tea. Hot apple cider. Looking forward to warm mornings in bed. The extra body heat is nice.
I was going to go the Hideout Block Party this weekend, but became highly unmotivated. A combination of not wanting to spend the money and of having band practice Sunday.
I wish I could talk more on this blog about what's been going on, but there are obvious reasons I can't. I want more people to know how in love I am. I want more people to meet her, to get to know her. To see what a perfect match I've found. And I will, in time.
Catch A Tiger is playing the Bottom Lounge this Thursday. Some bigger bands are on the bill, all three of them signed to labels I believe. I feel like this is going to be a good one.
I don't like when she leaves without a kiss. Without telling me she loves me. I know she does, but I still don't like it. I know I could have been more helpful. What's 15 minutes to give her a ride? She deserves to be at the top of my priorities at all times. I'll do my best to make sure she is. After all, she makes me incredibly happy. I should do the same for her.
The Massive Update
I know, I know, it's been way too long since I've written anything of substance in here. No one really cares about the yellow pages, or how much i dislike people who misspell my name (alot, for the record).
So here are some of the things you've been missing out on, if I never talk to you.
On the musical front, there's been some sh*t goin down! I left The Uncontrollable Few. They are great guys (and gal) and I enjoyed playing with them, but our musical paths were not leading us in the same direction and I felt it was better to just cut loose than to try and force change. It is Megg and Charlie's baby anyway, so better for them to find a drummer who can be content just playing their songs.
I joined a new band, Catch A Tiger. It's a six piece band that mashes together dance-rock, indie pop, and carnival waltzes. Pretty fun stuff. We've got our first show coming up this Friday at The Elbo Room, so if you're in the area, cover is $9 and we play at 10:30.
I've also finished up recording an EP of my solo stuff, which I have done under the moniker Dark Bunny (an anagram of my name). You can check out a few songs there, and I think I'm going to figure out how to make a torrent and get that up for people to download if they're interested. I love constructive feedback (or over-the-top praise...) so check it out and let me know what you think!
Nathan moved in around the beginning of July, and it's been pretty cool living with him. Steve now lives next door with our 4th room mate, Dan. We have dubbed our dual appartment complex as Castle Katssen Schlogen (or simply "The Castle"). We've thrown a very successful housewarming party, and it's pretty fun to just hang with everyone.
Yesterday, Steve, Nathan and I went up to the Bristol Renaissance Fair. It certainly was much more grand and fantastical in my memories (and last year it was just really really wet). The turkey leg was lackluster and the falconer was clearly from New York, but it was still a fun adventure.
We also stopped by Mar's Cheese Castle and got some cheese curds (of which I ate way too many) and two loaves of cheddar cheese bread at Amber's instance (of which I have also eaten way too much). The mini-roadtrip aspect of the whole thing was the best part. Windows down, music up, dancing like maniacs on 94. Good times.
I suppose the last big thing I can update is on the love life front. I know it's been a bit shrouded in secrecy and vague little stream-of-consciousness posts on here for a while. But it was all with good reason, and still is. If you haven't met her, you will. She's the most incredible woman I've ever met. She's my best friend, and I'm crazy in love. It's quite the feeling. She's also far away for a few more days, and I miss her. But no need to get all sappy.
Now, I'm gonna go spend the entire day doing laundry, cleaning dishes, vacuuming, and probably playing Tiger Woods 09. I am a PGA champion!
Save some trees
No one likes the Yellow Pages anyway. That's why we have the internet.
This site will allow you to opt out of receiving those 5 pound phone books and do your part to help the environment.
Enjoy!
I hate you
You, yes you. You who write be emails addressed to 'Brian'. Is it so much to ask to read how I signed my name in the email you are responding to? It looks like this.
Thanks,
Bryan
See that 'y'? It's in there for a reason. I didn't make a mistake. You're stupid. And especially those of you who have been corresponding with me for some time. Have the common decency to make sure you're referring to this business associate with the correct name. It would be like if I called you Henry and your name was Beverly. It's insulting. And I hate you for it.
In this life, here...
Sometimes I'm afraid to go to sleep. What if I wake up and it was all a dream?
Somehow, despite living in Chicago, I managed to miss the notice that this weekend is the Taste of Chicago. I'm impressed with my own obliviousness. In my defense though, I don't go downtown much these days or read the Red Eye or anything. But I suppose I should try to be more aware.
Stevie Wonder is playing tonight, and it's free, so I'm pretty sure I'm going to try and make it out there. It would just seem wrong not to.
Every new piece of you I learn just weaves another beautiful pattern in the fabric of us.
I woke up this morning to the front door buzzer going off, which is weird since no one ever uses that except for punk ass kids as they walk by. So I ignored it the first time. Second time I decided to put some shorts on and go see what was up. There was just a hand through the mail slot trying wrap a belt around the doorknob. I laughed.
I guess the people moving our neighbor's shit outta their apartment locked themselves out. They thanked me a million times and assured me they were really movers. I never really doubted them. I think it was the large dresser sitting in the stairwell that helped their story.
I'm gonna go shower.
In some life, somewhere...
I've spent the last two hours writing this drum part in Garageband for a song of mine. It's done now, and I really like it. Now I just need to get the guitar and vocals down, then lay down the bass track, then some auxiliary ones, and I'll be all set. Sometimes I forget how much I love writing music.
I emailed Justin the other day to talk to him about getting me some studio time to properly record an album. I have 9 songs I'd like to put on there, so it'll probably take a couple weekends, but I can handle that. I'll probably try and get in there later in July, see if I can't work out some more rough mixes here on my own so I know exactly what I want when I go in there.
I've gotten some encouragement recently to really focus on making my own music. It's funny, because they've never heard any of my music, and yet seem fairly insistent that I work on it more. I'm not really sure I understand why, but I can hope it's because they just care about what I'm passionate about.
The Uncontrollable Few has a nice little month ahead of them as far as shows go. July 2nd at the Bottom Lounge, July 11th at Lily's (still getting final confirmation), and July 23rd at The Eblo Room. We're also playing a b-day party, which is lame. And I know you read this Megg, and I think it's lame. Suck it.
I was in rare form today. So much to say, and all that would come out was jumbled words and nonsense. I find myself wanting to do the every day things with you, just have you be there as part of my life. Going to the store? wish you were there. Wake up? wish you were there. Get home from work? Wish you were there. See a trend? I miss you and you're right there. But it has to be like that. I know you've got more going on than I can probably comprehend.
Got Broken Social Scene tickets today. I'm really pumped about that show. I've been listening to a slightly different scope of music these days. Or more so, I've just expanded my tastes. Broken Social Scene, The M's, The Wrens, The Swell Season, The Frames, Metric, LCD Soundsystem, Wolf Parade. To rattle off a few and give myself some serious indie cred... But anyway, really excited for that show. It's not till August 2nd, and that does make me a bit nervous. Fingers crossed man, that's it.
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