Antennas to Heaven

I think one of the best feelings in the world is to listen to the first song off an album and fall completely for it such that by the time it is over you have to wonder why you waited so long to listen to it. I did it for "HLLLYH" by The Mae Shi and today it was done by "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven" by godspeed you! black emperor. The only reason I even have that album is because of eMusic, and how you get so many downloads per month, and how when downloading albums you always end up with a handful of downloads left, and how gy!be albums are only 4 songs long, so you download two songs this month and two the month before that, and now you have 80 minutes of captivating music that was otherwise absent from your life because 30 second snippets don't do this band any justice but you decide to download them anyway because what else are you going to do with those two leftover downloads this month.

I sewed them into a sail and left

I decided to treat myself with my income tax refund and ended up getting myself a new digital camera, the Nikon Coolpix P60. It is truly a step above any digital camera I've ever had. There are two programmable modes, one which allows me to change the exposure and the camera changes the aperture and shutter speed accordingly, and one which allows me to choose the aperture setting and the shutter speed. It has vibration reduction and an electronic viewfinder in addition to the large LCD screen. It also gives me the option of taking up to 8MP pictures in standard size, 35mm ratio, and widescreen. And of course the only things that I really have to take pictures of lately are my knitting projects, plus one of the most useless things that I've ever purchased.

These are the first Noro socks that I finished.


And these are the Noro socks that I am currently working on:


I really really like how this pattern (Gentlemen's sock with lozenge pattern from "Knitting Vintage Socks") works with this yarn. Unfortunately, my fears were true and my first attempt was definitely too big. I plan on doing one less repeat of the lozenge pattern and going up one needle size. I'm sure that will do it.

I managed to catch the end of the last Woot-Off and bought myself a Woot screaming monkey!


I did my best to take a picture so that it looked like it was flying.

I made one of my best music purchases of the year last week, the latest album from The Mae Shi, "HLLLYH". I listened to the first song and just was blown away. I can't say that the rest of the album disappoints either. I'm not the biggest fan of their earlier material, though I do enjoy that too, but this is just a step up for them. Originally I thought that the religious undertones of the album would put me off --I avoid Christian rock like the plague-- but this, along with "Rise Above" by Dirty Projectors have been getting serious amounts of playtime lately.

I got the best ever music related news this weekend. DAN DEACON IS PLAYING IN ORONO ON MAY 3! I don't know how to explain just how awesome this is. I told the good news to my office this morning and got empty stares. I do have one officemate who knows who Dan Deacon is though. After this concert/dance party, Sigur Ros and Kimya Dawson will be the only acts on my "must see before I die" list.

Dan Deacon - "Crystal Cat"