the bonnaroo entry.

Dear real world,

I am back. I just spent 4+ days in  a whirlwind of indescribable zen and am better for it. It was an accumulation of some of the things I love most. For those not in the know, bonnaroo is an annual camping/music/entertainment festival held very near the small town of Manchester, TN. It is a shocking but very relaxed (I suppose it is what you make of it on a scale of relaxed to hectic) style of camping, tent and car up against tent and car, with nearly one hundred thousand temporary and interestingly friendly people. It is a mind blowing 150 musical, comedic and entertaining acts spread over more than a handful of various stages and venues. It is a smorgasbord of micro-brews, delicious local and festival eats, general stores for survival, handmade crafts and band merchandise.  It is a 48 hour non-stop party, with a never-ending echo of sub woofers and guitar solos under a shower of glow-sticks and fireworks. It is a canvas transforming over the duration from an inviting park-like atmosphere, into a vibrant and over-vandalized beauty, thanks to the artists (and non-artists) in attendance. It is wandering for days and never accomplishing everything there is to offer, missing bands you must see, never finding where your buddy set up a camp of his own, missing that text to meet up, forgetting to get to bed early to see the adult swim booth early in the day, not able to get to the front of the crowd for your favorite band, and not caring about any of it. It is a constant but bearable battle for shade, cold water, beer and hours of sleep here and there. It is four days without showering.

It is the bonnaroo experience.

…and the entry ends. peas frogs.

Thank you for watching. Photos (except the one from a helicopter) are credited to my android phone and my super sweet apps. Bye for reals now.

 

Delta Spirit
ALO (walked by)
Joy Formidable
Shins 1/2
Young the Giant (1/2)
Phish
Dawes (small stage)
Blind Pilot
Flogging Molly
SBTRKT
Childish Gambino
DISPATCH
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Skrillex
Garfunkel & Oates – comedy
Needtobreathe
2 Door Cinema Club
Avett Bros
Ludacris
Radiohead
Black Star (mos def and talib kwali)
Umphreys Mcgee (walked by)
Flying Lotus (walked by)
Cave Singers
Dale Earnhart JR JR
SOJA (the end)
Big Gigantic (1/2)
Alabama Shakes (1/2)

Hello. I am a Transformer. Prime.

Here comes another, very much delayed post in my blog…

Apologies again, of course. I am staying out in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia right now, still working at these scheduled maintenance outages at commercial nuke plants. Life has been a roller coaster of travel, work and fun for the most part. This work has had me living out of Hampton Inns and the like on Lake Michigan, near the coast of southern Maryland, in middle-of-nowhere Missouri and in the heart of Orange County, SoCal. I will not complain; however, since these assignments have given me the opportunity to be in St. Louis to see my Cardinals grab a World Series Championship, meet up with old friends and catch a game at Wrigley in Chicago, watch the Capitals play a game in DC, watch the sun set over countless beaches traversing the Pacific Coastal Highway (stopping at the GooglePlex, Monterrey, Big Sur, Carmel, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, and the San Diego Zoo) and even more.

I also recently joined the tablet computing world and am now blogging on my new Transformer Prime tablet running Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich, with the attached custom keyboard dock. Now I can be more current, trendy and nerdy all at the same time, and despite have just finished listening to, and very much respecting “Steve Jobs” on Audible, still sticking it to the conformity of Apple. Anyway, I LOVE IT. This tablet is one of my greatest purchases. Ever. Angry Birds Space. Zombie Smash. Flick Golf Extreme. That Adrenaline racing game I forget the name of. Apperatus. Draw Something. If you are looking for apps to download, I know the best. Please feel free to ask and we can talk forever about how to waste 12 hours at a time working nights on shift work. Please tell me you aren’t still content merely playing words with friends (only when the plane is at a complete stop) and enjoying it…

Does anyone here even remotely remember what this blog is about? Why are you even here reading this stuff?? It’s about Geocaching. It’s about the adventure that is Geocaching, my adventure in this case I suppose, but the search for an end none the less. It’s a metaphor. Fulfillment in this life is my cache, is our cache. The stories and thoughts that I share with you all on these pages of blogosphere make up my adventure. It’s all happening.

For the record that all sort of fell onto this page just minutes ago. I didn’t even know that the blog had a purpose until just now. Or maybe I forgot, who knows. Mind that you may always take anything I say with a grain of salt. Who can really know where this blog is headed next.

Neverminding all of that let’s skip straight to the Music of the Month:

Bonnaroo.

I know that this is not a band, but I’ve featured a radio station before so let’s make it work. I am attending the festival this year for the first time in a week or so and I am very pumped. Finally getting to knock out a few bands like the Chilli Peppers and Radiohead and Phish that i am not sure why I have never seen before. Plus there are over 150 acts int total over four days. How is that not worth checking out??

App of the Day:

I will also throw in an app worth checking out. Pixlr-o-Matic. It’s an android thing but maybe on Apple too? It’s sort of my quiet rebellion against instagram, for no apparent reason. I have been having a lot of fun with it (including the concert pic above, and many more I have thrown up on Google+ if your curious…). Have a with it! You can also use it straight on the desktop if your in to that.

Also, there is another Lynchburg pub crawl coming up. I don’t know what percentage of my audience is local, or is my audience even exists for that matter, but I felt it worth mentioning. Should be another night filled with amazing times and also it falls on my birthday, so that’s pretty amazing. Come join us for some Hill City fun if you’ve got the time! Check out my G+ link here.

That is all I have for now. Just wanted to get something out there to keep this thing moving forward. Hope you enjoyed yourself over the past few minutes. Transforming your future, one blog at a time… See you next time!

peas, frogs.

Winter is Coming… Still…

Hello again. It again has been quite some time since my last post here and global warming seems to be in full swing. I am very apologetic to leave you all on such a sad note with that whole Leroi and DMB rant last time. For those loyal followers still with me, I am ever so grateful, and for those who have found this blog wherever you may have picked it up at some point, please stay tuned. I am coming back…

So much has happened since I last inked these pages. I did the Europe thing. Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Capri. It was pretty much the most amazing trip ever. Thanks so much to my sister, Katie, for giving me the inspiration to go out and visit her. Unfortunately I sort of dropped the ball on the geocaching of things across the pond. I grabbed one in Barcelona and picked up a few on a pretty awesome run in Rome. It is just hard to focus on the caching experience with a group of 6 and traveling so fast and trying to pack so much in. No regrets though. FB me for pics if you want to ooooh and aaahh at my European adventures. Moving on.

I won’t bore you with some long re-cap of my life in the past year. We covered the Spain and Italy deal. Saw baseball games and grabbed caches in Philly, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee (well I didn’t cache in every city listed but 5 different ball parks! That’s an accomplishment right??). I worked at some nuclear plants in Michigan and Central Missouri. I attended the world series and Saint Louis… one of the most amazing paid vacations I think I will ever have in my life! Fourth of July at Fandango in Floyd, VA again. Christmas and New Years Eve back in St. Louis with friends and family per usual. That is all I will say about the past. Time for the future right?

Where is the blog going? What is going to happen next?

You are on the edge of your seat aren’t you??

Here enjoy this world series picture. What would this blog be without some of my funny wit and a joke that most people who aren’t exactly like me won’t even get. (like my HBO-themed title…)

OK. so today was just a teaser. And also, correct me if you disagree, possibly some of the worst work this blog has scene since Blog One. I apologize. I really didn’t think this through.  I am all packed and killing some time before bed so that I can catch a plane to Cali tomorrow morning. Finally a break from this freezing cold winter weather… (that is funny because this has been like the warmest winter in my life-time).

 

I just wanted to check up on everyone and make sure you knew that the best is yet to come. I have been reading books lately… well, listening to audio books but we are counting that.  Just finished “reading” book one of the King of Thrones series, and as intimidated by the genre as I was, I loved it. I probably wont pursue the TV series or next book anytime soon, but cover to cover, a good read. It sort of reminds me of this year with its never-ending summer, and also hit close to home since this year was the year of Skyrim… (OK now my references are going over everyone’s head)… Either way I have been honing my sweet writing skills by doing lots of reading in preparation for the return of the blog. And I do all of this for you!

The drought that was the silence between the blogs is ending. The never ending summer is coming to a close. Winter is coming… and it is my blog.

 

Goodness this is getting corny…

 

Now partake in the regularly scheduled musical segment this week…

 

MUSIC OF THE WEEK: Like Pandora Radio? don’t like Pandora because of the ads and time-outs, or maybe you are just sick of the same old website/app? Try on some Jango and let me know how it feels. I am giving this site a shot and really loving what I am finding. I have a station that started loosely based around the band, Slightly Stoopid, but has grown to be a radio station that I don’t think I can ever disagree with. Let me know what you find on there. rate a few bands. There’s so much user support. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Happy New Year, dudes. That is all for now. Peas, frogs.

 

The night I couldn’t make it to a concert…

Welcome back. Tonight is the night that the first musical performance that I agree with is happening in Lynchburg, and I can’t go, because it sold out before I knew about it.  How does one even find out about, or hear about worthy events in a city that doesn’t have worthy events?? Anyway, Jeff Coffin and the Mu’tets are dropping by the new, Stoney Badger, over by the Areva – Old Forest Road offices.  He’s the new saxaphone guy in the Dave Matthews Band, to those uninformed. Well he’s the sax guy in DMB, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones and apparently the Mu’tets… a 4-piece with him as lead on the phone and the flute mostly, alongside a “space” trumpet guy, a bass-man and a drummer. Click here for a neat little interview with the Lynchburg Times about where he’s coming from.

In other news, Facebook.  Right? I just saw the controversial movie via Netflix blu-ray, watched the 60 minutes interview with the real Zuckerburg, and now, not only is it dominating my internet experience and challenging Google for king-of-the-hill status, they’ve finally won me over. Sure I’ve had a facebook account since the day I found out it was accessible to students with an @slu.edu e-mail account and could stop listening to those damn Mizzou kids brag about it, but not until now have I fully appreciated it. Not until I could turn my FB homepage into a live-action Senor Frogs dance-party could I give it my full attention. check that out! What does Google have on that? To copy me, since that’s what you would be doing, copying me, and make a sweet and trendy facebook photo homepage, check out picscatter. Or I guess if you know how to do anything productive with Photoshop or GIMP see this informative instruction.

Also rattling the techie world, today is the day of the Apple. The new iPad2 was announced, and as much as I try to stay strong… they make some ridiculously amazing stuff. They are continuously the best and cheapest tablet on the market, and by a respectable margin too, now with a pair of cameras, lighter thinner pad, faster dual core processor and every other incredible thing an apple product can do. Well done, I suppose. I guess I can only hope that somewhere around a year form now, then I finally cave to the concept that a tablet is a necessary piece of nerdy equipment, the folks behind Android have something worth blogging about.

Geocaching News:

Did a little geocaching lately. Few things I find worth mentioning. I ended up going for Davannah’s “Shark Repellent Bat Spray” on the island. That’s the cache I mentioned in my last post for anyone following along. It was pretty amazing. Definitely worth checking out if your in the area.  I won’t spoil anything for you. Also, later that weekend the gf and I grabbed a personal record breaking 9 smilieys in 12 attempts in the Blacksburg, VA area. Some of them were even Premium Member only caches just to kind of get my money’s worth I guess. Goes to show that I guess theres no longer such a thing as a lazy Sunday afternoon in my book. Just this past weekend I got to explore some new areas in the Blackwater Creek Trail System here in Lynchburg and grab a few hidden back in the woods, where we met a nice caching family and their dog and two cute little girls. It’s always nice to see others out enjoying the adventure. All in all, things are groovin’.

Music to reflect:

In light of tonights blog title and a great respect to music as whole, let’s give the smooth sounds of the saxophone of Leroi Moore a try tonight. Give a listen to your favorite live version of Crush, or #41, or maybe Seek Up, if you have the time. He will always be remembered as one of the greats in my heart, and his ability to work the “jam” and turn music into the magic I discovered late in 2002, is most definitely why I have the appreciation for music that I do today. So raise your glasses, tip a lil’ for the homies, and celebrate the lives of the Groo Grux King, and anyone else who won’t be able to make it to the concert tonight…

free memories. click here.

and I’m out. peas frogs.

A Blog From a Chemical Trailer

**Note: This blog has been produced while on a 12 hour night shift working on a chemical testing project that our team is working on. No person or project was put in danger in order to produce the following writings as it was written over the entire 12 hour period as spare moments presented themselves. All funding for this blog has been provided by Areva Inc. and is very much appreciated.

It’s nice to have some warmer weather around here lately, though I hardly get a chance to see much daylight with my new, but temporary hours. Hopefully that means that Spring is just around the corner, which can only mean longer days, more encouraging weather, back into my running routine, and that my trip to Europe is that much closer (just bought a new carry-on bag for the trip, don’t worry i found it 60+% off…)! The coming of Spring also can’t hurt my geocaching habits, but that goes without saying.

GEOCACHING UPDATE:

I did get some caching in lately. One of my favorites was most definitely the ski-o-cache, about half-way down the “flume” ski run at Snowshoe Ski Resort a couple weeks back.  Looking for a micro in the trees along side the beautiful slopes in some fresh snow on a brisk foggy morning had a nice feel to it. Very classy. It’s a good thing I remembered how to ski at least as well as last year so that I could grab that one. Although it was probably the easiest run on the mountain, so I don’t know how much that speaks for my skills. I will say that my skiing is improving though.  I’ll race you down any blue run in the Mid-Atlantic… and I may only fall a time or two on the way down if I’m lucky.

In other news, I’ve got my eye on a few new Lynchburg caches. One of which is basically a Tour-de-Lynchburg that seems worth checking out, and the other… well… some friends of mine have started their first geocache, and a supposedly creative multi at that! So I guess that makes me one step closer to starting my own… I really need to get on that. The one they placed is along my favorite local running trail (or greenway I suppose is the proper term) on Percival’s Island, so hopefully I pick that one up and get back into physical activity all at the same time real soon. That would be nice. Either way they have me all hyped up about it, and seem very proud of whatever they came up with. I will have to see. It should be appearing on the site, making it officially up for grabs in a couple days so feel free to take this as a head start should you feel so inclined!

Also, those who commented will be excited to learn that I joined an elite group that is Premium Membership on Geocaching.com.  It was sort of a Happy Valentine’s Day gift from the lovely gf. I hope that they appreciate the 30 dollars and put it to good use.  So far I haven’t really done anything with it, except expose myself to about 50 new ways of looking at my caching statistics, which I will admit, makes me want to break personal records and find more ASAP.  I also used the favorite points feature which is sort of like “liking” on facebook, but you can only give out so many based on how many caches you’ve discovered and only allowed to those serious about it… Wouldn’t be a terrible thing to enforce on FB, really. It was kind of neat going through all my past smileys to figure out which ones I felt were deserving of the praise. I have opted to pass on the official geocaching android app, since I figured out why my other app wasn’t giving great results, and I honestly just keep reading that the official app isn’t as good. There’s something they could put my 30 dollars towards.

Give the gift of love this February 14th.

APP O’ THE DAY:

I have not yet played this one yet, but I am giving it my blind support due to all of the good reviews, both from online reviews and my own friends and family (including my youngest sister who just got into Nursing School at St. Louis University!!).  Hopefully now I will have a chance to join in the fun with its cross-platform compatibility, if all those hipster iPhone users I know aren’t already sick of it already. O well. I just downloaded it about two hours ago, so we’ll see how it goes. I won’t expect it to cut into my Valentines Day levels of Angry Birds, but I’d like to get some use out of it.

IN THE NEWS:

This night shift work is really biting into not only my social interactivity and ability to get outside in any daylight, but also my ability to stay in touch with the news.  I do know that although fans of the red nation are trying to  change the subject with word of Stan “The Man” Musial receiving one of the highest honored civilian awards in the United States by Obama, himself (who coincidentally also called his grandfather Stan-The-Man) , Pujols still has yet to make up his mind, and his proposed deadline is hours away! Word is he’s being pressured from all sides, but whatever the case, it would be nice to know what’s going on. On the topic of St. Louis, since you made me go there, it has also been announced recently not to fear about the continually growing Schlafly Brewing Co. following the AB business plan and selling out to a foreign corporation, but that they are definitely looking for a local heir to the hoppy throne. Three cheers to the rise of local brewing!

NPR has even been fairly dry lately. Sure they still have their two cents to offer on the riots in Cairo/Egypt coming to a close with their president finally throwing up his arms in defeat for better or for worse.  Other than that and your regular, but still fun, sampling of ethnic musics and their origins, it has gotten dry enough that I have twice gotten into my car (two separate days mind you) to catch the middle of a piece on the one and only Justin Bieber.  Really? On NPR? I don’t know, maybe it’s just the odd hours that I’m in the car these days. I do still find fun things to do on NPR online though. If you appreciate dorky things and anything related to the ever-evolving world wide web, you might check out the audio history of the internet in you spare moments.

MUSIC OF THE DAY:

I dedicate this section to the Black Eyed Peas this week. They are a fantastic group of musicians with a great idea and god love em’ for it.  They deserve a mulligan on that super bowl half-time show right? Maybe one where the audio is straight off the CD so we don’t have to hear their attempt at it on stage? I am not suggesting that they don’t know what they are doing, but the art of lip-syncing was created so that an audience doesn’t have to hear your heavy breathing and attempts at keeping a tune while running around and acting out the movie Tron for a crowd of 103,219 people packed Jerry Jones’ $1.3 billion mega-stadium  for Super-Bowl-Sunday XLV (still 766 fewer than at the 1980 Super Bowl held at the Rose Bowl). I like the music the group produces and they should just let have just let us hear the CD tracks we already know we love. In their defense, the are not only the first band that I ever heard live in concert (opening for Lit, who opened for No Doubt at Riverport in St. Louis) but they are also one of the only bands played mainstream that will forever get me bouncing in the club like it ain’t no thang. Maybe they can do a song for us at the World Series? They could give us there version of the National Anthem and we can all vote to see if we like theirs or Christina’s version best (zing-bang!) (I suppose if you’ve never seen every episode of Better of Ted – all available on Netflix, you’re not going to get the zing-bang reference… or I guess even the title picture for the blog, so, per usual, just go ahead and ignore anything that seems to be whizzing over your head).

That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. Tune in next week…

peas, frogs.

Pro-Bowls and Pujols

To be honest I really don’t know how to watch this Pro-Bowl. I watch it, because after watching Sean White stomp a few McTwists on the half pipe in Aspen, there is really no other reason to watch much more of the Xgames. I just don’t know how to pick who to root for, or if anyone is really out there to win or just for the sunny vacay to Hawaii. Either way, it made for a fun blog title… enough about that noise.

Rant begins: Pujols.  What the hell is going on? I understand that I left the STL a couple years back, and probably upset and saddend many people in doing so, but this is different. I wasn’t carrying the entire city on my back and still putting up the best statistics in baseball history. Ever. I understand he will probably make more money than anyone in the game come 2012, but come on St. Louis, let’s hang on to this guy. Quit signing used up Astros and trying to figure out if you can cheat this legend out of a few bucks again, just because he’s an all around good guy who loves his city. Make this happen, and please try to figure it out before spring training gets up and running down in Florida in a few weeks. Were talking about locking in a couple more rings over this coming decade. Or at least tipping the scale in our favor. The waiting on the edge of my seat is killing me! On the bright side, get ready for a spectacular summer this year and hopefully a Cardinal organization who can capitalize where last years soldiers tripped and fell into fall. Rant Ended. Whatever happens, I guess, respect the game and cheer for the home team!

Music of the Day:

I’m giving it to Kanye today. Regardless of your feelings on the guy, or whatever he may stand for, he can put together some current sounds, and make them work. His new drop, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, is worth a listen IMO, provided you don’t despise anything rap or in the spotlight. Pitchfork gave it a 10.0, so it has to be legit right? He’s even got a 35 minute feature film up on YouTube that is worth a look if you’ve nothing better to do with your time than read blogs and scan for celeb viral videos… Let me know what you all think I guess. I also do not vouch for this being a completely clean experience so don’t go down this rabbit hole if you are easily offended, but come on, the name of the CD should have been a hint. Consider this my parental advisory sticker. Enjoy.

Geocaching Update

Another successful Sunday. Four tries. Four smilies. Three of them were caches I had either did not find or meant to find in the past, including the notorious “From This Point Forward” on the bridge over the James River. I can finally stop losing sleep over that little guy. The weather was unseasonably warm and beautiful, but I suppose I won’t complain.  Had another “wish-I-was-a-premium-member” moment about an hour ago when I logged on to post the days logs and saw that we could have easily been FTF at a new cache placed FEET from where we were caching! For those uninformed, being able to get notified as soon as new caches are hid in your local area via email is a paying members only feature. Soon enough I guess.

That’s all for today, just getting back into the swing of things. Still don’t really know where the blog is headed and still not upset about that. In the spirit of this blog becoming a blog about geocaching I will drop another question of the week (assuming last week’s was whether I should go premium or not… still no responses people…) in the spirit of the adventure. I just got two new travel bug tags and I need ideas for a new track-able Travel Bug to send out.  I’m open to pretty much anything and everything. Just keep it friendly.

And just like that….

I’m out. peas frogs.

Sorry. I wasn’t paying attention. I’m still here…

Well. Here we are again. It is still January. But it’s 2011 already… it has been almost a year and for that, you have my greatest apologies. Who else is blown away by how fast time seems to fly by lately?

It’s a hard life being a blogger and an all around sweet dude at the same time. Things have been busy out here in Central Virginia! Playing some Fallout New Vegas when I can. Fringe is back on… Work’s still pretty darn good, and now I’m taking classes to maybe work toward a mechanical engineering masters with some sort of certificate in nuclear. Still traveling and exploring the mountains when the opportunity presents itself. And the geocaching…. let’s just say this blog is about to get real…

The count that pops up next my name (my new caching name is Owal Nad. kudos to you if you get that…) as of today is 159 and I am proud of every one! I can remember a road trip down to Charlotte, NC last fall (so still a good bit after my last post for anyone keeping a timeline) to visit a buddy with the gf, and hitting number 70 at a rest stop off hwy 29 after about three years of membership, and thinking it would be incredible if I hit 100 by the new year. Call it an early new years resolution or whatever you’d like, but from that day forward, things got moving and there was no looking back. I have gotten more than a handful of friends around here into the adventure as well, and that helps out a lot! And this winter hasn’t slowed me down like I thought it might. So with no further ado, here is this week’s…

GEOCACHING UPDATE

I will try to make it a quick re-cap for those who may be interested (for those who aren’t feel free to scroll on through):

I’ll only hit the highlights, like dominating Old Rag Mountain on the eastern edge of Shenandoah National Park last spring, a much recommended day hike if i may say so. Or maybe the slamalamadingdong cache outside of Busch Stadium in St. Louis on a trip to see the family. Or how about grabbing the Percival’s Island Geocache along the beautiful Blackwater Creek Trail in Lynchburg because I actually started RUNNING for distance last year, and a good bit (hooray for me)!. That one is the oldest cache in the Lynchburg area from around 2001. There was also the geocaching/camping trip to Smith Mountain Lake State Park with friends, the Pandapas Pond Park and Mountain Lake Resort trip near Blacksburg, VA (this is where Dirty Dancing was filmed and yes, the Lake is now mysteriously disappeared) and a pretty awesome trip and hike up the pleasantly surprising Bald Knob. Can’t forget the caching trips to Riverside park along the James River in Lynchburg and to Rockwood Park and some other finds around the Richmond, VA area. There were hikes up Crabtree Falls and Dragon’s Tooth. And the infamous hike up Spy Rock, near Montabello, just recently in the ice and snow with about 40mph 15 degree winds at the top. This was the closest I have come to a First-To-Find (FTF) as I found the cache for the first time in its new location and that fresh log was a great feeling!!! The Nelson County Hurricane Camille Flood virtual cache was one of my most interesting local finds. Caching and road tripping to St. Louis for the holiday, detouring to add Ohio to the list! An interesting memorial multi-cache in Lake St. Louis that required us to pick ice off of plaques with a window scraper and use flashlights to find a cache at night inside of a tree in the snow! And last but not least my most recent trip to the Bahamas, via the most luxurious Carnival Cruise Lines, with caching on the road trip down the the gorgeous city of Charleston, SC and a handful of smileys in Nassau and Freeport that I shall not soon forget! I am now officially an international cacher!!

top of bald knob at Mountain Lake

Sorry for the run-on paragraph, but give me a break, it’s been a year!

BACK TO THE BLOG:

I really don’t know how to follow that last section. All the memories that just flashed through my head make me feel kind of like I just blacked out… Just please excuse the whirlwind of poor sentence structure and move on with it.

I did get one of those crazy new smart-phones. The HTC Incredible. It has basically turned my world upside-down! Annnnd, it still makes phone calls! I can attribute most of geo-caching explosion to the most amazing android application, c:geo. This really makes things a lot easier, I promise you that. Also, it’s not 10 dollars like the Groundspeak sponsored geocaching app… OK, I shouldn’t say that. I am all for supporting Groundspeak and really I have considered switching to their app, if only for the principle of it. I will admit that I have never donated blood voluntarily, I don’t give money to the stations like npr and KEXP-radio that I listen to 24/7, and I am not even a member of the Warehouse Fan Club, after all of the 15 or so DMB shows I have attended and the obsessing I have displayed over that band throughout my life. But I am ready to be convinced to help out the friendly folks at Groundspeak with my support (for those of you who are out of the loop or living in the real world and not out living under rocks… Groundspeak is the mastermind behind what geocaching is today).  If I get at least TWO comments from any of you amazing blog readers encouraging me to take the plunge, I promise that I will scrounge up the 30 dollars for the yearly premium membership (and reap the benefits!) and the 10 dollars for the official android app.  They’ve earned my loyalty. I also promise to make a detailed comparison of the free c:geo vs. Groundspeak geocaching app for those interested, and I know that I am…

I also promise that if said plunge is taken, I will make an effort to visit the Groundspeak HQ in Seattle before the year ends.  I know that sounds ridiculous, but seriously, the Dave Matthews Band has leaked information that leads me to believe they are putting on a small music festival at the most beautiful Gorge Amphitheater in Washington State this summer, 2.5hrs outside of Seattle!

2011 is our 20th anniversary as a band and we want to celebrate by playing music together.  While we are still taking the year off from touring, we have decided to plan four multi-day, multi-artist music events that will take place this summer.  We will be sending out save the date emails and announcing more information soon but we wanted to share the news with our fans first.

I have fantasized about making the trek up there to see a show (seriously check out the link)  for almost 10 years now. Who’s to say now isn’t the time! And if I’m headed up that way, how could I not check out Groundspeak, the site of the first cache, and the last remaining A.P.E. cache?

MUSIC OF THE DAY:

I will not again mention the incredible radio station that is KEXP-Seattle simply because I am listening to it now. It would not be fair to the other outstanding music that exists out there to send you all to the same place twice.  Instead I will give a warm shout out to the Decemberists and a congrats on their new album, “The King Is Dead.” If you are reading my blog soon enough you can probably still catch the premiere of the new album, performed live on NPR and  if not, check out the CD. I swear that I will try not to torrent the CD for free onto my PC in the near future…

I am going to f*@%ing Europe in MAY!!!!!

Sorry. I will try to make that the closest to foul language you find here on my pretty awesome blog, but seriously, how can I not be excited?? I am going to Barcelona for a couple nights, then to meet my sister in Madrid, where she will have been studying all semester, then we are all going on to Italy, and maybe part of Switzerland for the rest of my short two week trip.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

APP OF THE DAY?

I don’t know how many of you all dig the new smart phone craze yet, but this is blog is all about experimental, so I am going to try the app of the day section. No one has complained about any thing I have posted so far, so why not? Today’s android app of the day goes to… SketchBook Mobile, courtesy of Autodesk applications, proud sponsor of AutoCAD and other incredible engineering software.  Anyway this is a pretty interesting deal. It’s like the Photoshop of Microsoft Paint meets smartphone, if that makes any sense… You can draw, touch screen style, whatever your little heart desires. I imagine that it may really start to shine once I give it a go on one of the new android tablets coming out in the not so distant future, but for now I have impressed myself so far. If you really want I can make a thang or two for the blog. I dunno…

OK. I have to go catch up on the highlights on the Obama State of the Union Address. I missed watching it live for you guys. That or it’s just so much easier to watch CNN afterwards and catch the main points in 15 minutes. Thanks for sticking with me! I guarantee that more is to come of this blog coming up. And seriously let me know what you want to hear. I ask a lot of you in this one.  Am I going to keep posting about phone apps? is that too dorky? Am I going premium? Am I going to Seattle? what am I doing in Europe? Does anyone really care? Please don’t flood the comment boards here or revolt against the blog, all Cairo-style.

check out comixed.com

Thanks for listening, and as always…

peas frogs,

-Dan