the cost of doing business

i’m now the proud owner of a new macbook. i had to buy a laptop with money that i don’t yet have.

reasons it sucks:
-as i mentioned, i don’t have the money to buy it.
-my business isn’t old enough to qualify for apple’s leasing program.

reasons it doesn’t suck:
-i can now get accounting and design stuff done for the gym without having to do it at midnite.
-the new macbook has that cool ipod touch thingy where you can zoom, drag, and do neato stuff to pictures and stuff.
-i finally have an isight camera.

now i just need to pay off the enormous credit card balance that i’ve created since feb 1.

*faint*

procrastination.frustration.elation.

1.
one of the things that i’m best at is putting things off when i don’t really feel like doing them by coming up with clever excuses like, “well i could do it better if i had ___,” or “i’d rather wait until i can do it all at once and we have to wait for _____ for me to finish it.”

such is the case with this blight on my life that is also known as “the addition.” i’ve been building this stupid room for 3 years and still haven’t finished it. i have some very good reasons and some very bad excuses, but we’ve reached critical mass at casa de newton and its time to put up or shut up.

2.
one of the things that frustrates me most is when i delay doing something because it will be hard/time consuming/messy/whatever only to find out that it can be done in 30 minutes without much mess if i would just do it.

i’ve had baseboards cut for the blight for 2 months but haven’t installed them because i needed to buy quarter round, which apparently is one of the hardest things in the world to find, given the two month delay in purchasing some. in 30-45 minutes last nite, i attached the baseboard, cut the quarter round, attached said quarter round, and cleaned up. idiot.

3.
being finished with something is such a great feeling.

i still have to finish the deck (which actually is hard and requires time and knowledge that i don’t have). i still need to install lights and light switches (not hard, but i need to pay attention when i’m doing it, lest i burn the house down). i also need to install the fan (pretty sure i’ve done that in my sleep). once those three things happen i can officially say that the addition is done. that is, unless bwe decides she wants something else added to the room, which might result in my pitching myself off the top of said addition.

lend me your ears

i’m stuck again. i can’t seem to find music and bands that both inspire me and that are “gym friendly” (read: upbeat, without lots of dirty words). i’m hoping you guys can help me. it doesn’t have to be new music, but i’d like to avoid classic rock station playlist stuff or prog rock. apparently nothing says “lame-ass climbing gym” like molly hatchet and rush. hip hop does well, as does electronic/electronica, but i haven’t had the time to do much research into the electronic stuff, and i’m not very good at finding hip hop that is pg-13.

i’m thinking about dusting off some of the less well known stones stuff, maybe an uncle tupelo or son volt album (already have wilco in heavy rotation), and things that i haven’t listened to in a while, but i’d like to include some newer stuff as well. i’ve been playing belle & sebastian, neutral milk hotel, the black keys, gang starr, jurassic 5, portishead and the black crowes quite a bit. we’ve also had a large dose of arcade fire, wilco and the broken social scene “family”.

say you walked into a climbing gym tonite and wanted to get your climb on (ha, you like that?!)…what would you want to hear?

sorta like braveheart, minus the whole “sugartits” thing.

there’s only one line i can quote from seinfeld, and now it applies to me:

I’M OUT THERE, JERRY!! I’M OUT THERE AND I’M LOVIN’ IT!!!

no, it doesn’t have to do with underwear or the lack thereof. i’m now a member of the small community of american men who can call themselves kilt wearers.

discuss.

flippin’ out

i have a quick breather between events at the gym and thought i’d toss out a quick post about something that is both mesmerizing and ridiculous. of course i’m talking about sign flippers.

don’t know what sign flippers are? sure you do. they’re those crazy dudes on the side of the road that flip arrows or rectangles or whatever shape to try to get you to visit some business or website.

on the mesmerizing side, some of these guys do simply amazing things with pieces of foam board. on the stupifying side, i just have a couple of questions:

-say i wanted to become a sign flipper; is there a program or course i can take?
-what if i needed to find a sign flipper; is there a sign flipper’s union or collective? is there some sort of bonding group like you find for plumbers?
-once i become a badass, ninja level sign flipper, how do i go about getting sign flippin’ work?

these are the questions that keep me up at nite.

oh, and one other thing…

to further clarify and state my point about how style, image (image is dead), demographics and marketability have turned the “major label” music industry into a joke:

umpteen years ago, the first “band” in country music was alabama.

please, someone explain to me how these guys are marketable on anything besides musical prowess.

today, we have…

tell me there wasn’t some serious discussion about how much frosting on the tips would be right to attract the city girls but not turn off the john deere crew.

sneaky

so i own a climbing gym. that’s fairly well documented.

one of the changes i’ve instituted at the gym involves the use of vis-a-vis wet erase markers. the ones that teachers use on the overhead transparencies.

well, last week i was trying to figure something out about the marker when the following thought blasted into my head like a canon:

“i’ll just call mom and ask her how she used to do it.”

sneaky dead parents: 1
newton: 0

my mom’s been dead for quite a while now, and it’s been quite a while since i had one of the “i wish i could just call…” thoughts, let alone one where i actually reached for the phone to call for the advice.

strange days, indeed.