Not much incentive to fight fair, now is there?

I will be the first person to admit that my friend Chitown totally badgered me into caring about Michael Jackson's death. That, and the incessant Facebook updates from everyone I know. Craziness.

I'm not the first person to think of this, but MJ is functionally my generation's Elvis. We grew up listening to him, he's the King of Pop, he was cool and interesting when he was young, and became batshit crazy and weird as he got older.

All of the unsavory child-related grossness aside, he was an insanely talented artist with the bad luck to have spent the bulk of his life in the spotlight. I'd probably be weird as hell too if I'd been in front of the press since I was 7.

Either way, I hope that MJ, Farrah and Ed all rest in peace. And that no one else dies for a little while--this is getting way too weird.

Quote of the Day: "'Cause this is thriller, thriller night/Girl, I can thrill you more than any ghost would ever dare try/Thriller, thriller night/So let me hold you tight and share a killer, thriller, ow!" Thriller, Michael Jackson.

I'm so sleepy lately, and it's starting to concern me. I'm getting more exercise, and eating better, and drinking less. I am trying to get more sleep, and that's sort of working, but I just feel like I am still tired all of the time.

Is that normal? Is it because work isn't terribly exciting right now?

Am I spending too much time staring at a computer screen?

Could be. I'll try to be more exciting soon!

Quote of the Day: "Andy, this is my business, it's nothing to do with you. Go downstairs and do what you do best, patrol the couch in your underwear." Nancy Botwin (Mary Louise Parker), Weeds.

Getting up wasn't the easiest thing to do on Sunday morning after dancing until 2am, but the sun beating down on my tent and heating it to approximately 97 degrees by 8:30am made it a moot point. I don't like saunas to begin with, so sleeping in one became really, really unattractive.

After changing into decent clothes, freshening up at the bathroom and drinking approximately 2 liters of water and Gatorade, I decided that staying awake wasn't the worst move I'd make all day. Marshall and I decided to hang out and make fun of Duke until he decided to get up and start making us breakfast. This actually took a lot longer than we thought it would, since Duke was apparently determined to work up quite a sweat staying asleep. He finally did get up and made us some rather delicious breakfast burritos complete with coffee and other necessities.

Our neighbors woke up after we were done with cleanup, so we razzed them for having serious bedhead as well as staying up late dancing. Around 11am, we all decided we were feeling much better and could start cracking PBRs again. The neighbors' friends came over to join us, and we all sat around chatting before the show.

At one point, one of the Canadians came over to chat, but he was apparently actually Alaskan, and from Wasilla, to boot. He then proceeded to tell us a long-winded story about how he, a dentist, hired this hygienist, and how it turned into the weirdest, biggest deal ever because her sister happened to be Sarah Palin. Talk about a serious turn for the weird, eh? Once he wandered back off, we all just looked at each other like, "did you hear that too? OK, just checking." We believed him...I mean, there wasn't any reason not to!

Finally we decided to go find the shuttle to take us into the show just in time to catch The Walkmen on the mainstage. After them, Duke and I wandered off, while Marshall set up camp on the grass. So, here's what I thought of everyone:

The Walkmen: I love the Walkmen, and yes, I totally did see them on "The OC." I love their song "The Rat," and that's exactly what they were playing as we picked our way down the gigantic grassy field at the top of the amphitheater. It's a large space for a band like that, but I thought they did pretty well.

John Vanderslice: Duke went over to the Wookiee stage with me to check out John Vanderslice, who is a staple on KEXP, my favorite Seattle radio station. He's kind of indie-pop, and wore a fan's incredibly silly sunglasses during his set. It was a very nice little diversion.

Calexico: I have the album that Calexico did with Iron & Wine, which is pretty good. Calexico just has a nice, laid-back vibe, and they were fun to watch. It also happened to be sunny and warm, and the people-watching was perfect.

St. Vincent: I dragged Duke back up to the Wookiee stage to check out St. Vincent, and I was less than impressed. She must have started one song at least four different times, and didn't seem to be happy with the crowd's response. It was really strange, and didn't make us want to stay. So we didn't.

The Avett Brothers: These guys were fine, but very folksy and kind of got lost in such a big venue. In their defense, it was starting to get really, really warm, and we were starting to decide that maybe we should look for some shade.

Murder City Devils: I saw these guys at Bumbershoot, like, 10 years ago and didn't like them. They haven't gotten any better with age. The lead singer alternately swaggered around the stage screaming lyrics into the mike and screaming obscenities at the crowd. While I couldn't totally blame him for cursing, listening to 45 minutes of it was giving me a headache that even Fat Tire couldn't cure. Fail.

TV on the Radio: After seeking shade and food for much of MCD's set, it was nice to get back to the grass for TV on the Radio. I realized that this is one of those bands I keep hearing about, but I have absolutely no idea what any of their songs sound like. Their live show was fine, if a little high-concept for a large venue, and I think I'd like to check out some of their music before seeing them again.

Nine Inch Nails: As a '90s teen, I loved NIN for both the music and the rebel factor. Years later, the music is totally holding up, and so is Trent Reznor. I have said a number of times that I have always wanted to see NIN if it weren't for the largely insane and scary fans. This was my perfect opportunity, and I was right--NIN is amazing live. Trent just came out and killed it on every song. I learned that the song "Terrible Lie" is not actually "Down The Line," and I discovered that I didn't really care what NIN played, as long as they kept playing. They wrapped up their set with a truly brilliant version of "Hurt," which I am eternally grateful for.

Jane's Addiction: I saw JA in Portland about 8 years ago, just out of college, and I recall being so close to their second stage that I could read Dave Navarro's tattoos during "Jane Says." Fortunately for me, seeing them again was not a letdown. Perry Farrell blew out on stage in a boozy, woozy cloud of smoke, and regaled the crowd with the most random collection of non sequiturs I have ever heard at a show. I am not entirely certain that Farrell knows what is going to come out of his mouth until he says it. Once again, the standards "Been Caught Stealing," "Mountain Song," and "Had A Dad," were included, as well as the killer encore of "Jane Says."

I've heard some opinions that NIN should have been the headliner, and I don't totally disagree with that, actually.

Once Jane's was done, we slowly staggered back to the shuttle to make our way back to camp. Once we got there, we hung out with the neighbors, watched the Canadians crank the party machine back up, and decided to sit around and wait for security to break the party up, since quiet hours started at 2am, and it was already 12:45am. The neighbors and I did a little dancing, but were considerably less energetic than we had been the night before. Once security did their thing, we all headed for bed, and shipped out very early in the morning for home.

Quote of the Day: "I hurt myself today/to see if I still feel/focus on the pain/the only thing that's real." Hurt, Nine Inch Nails.

Sasquatch! 2009 has come and gone already and what a seriously whirlwind weekend it was. Marshall, Duke, and I braved the crowds, the sun, and the insanely disorganized staff at the Gorge for another weekend of epic music and general partying.

The music did not disappoint. The venue and staff on the other hand...just, wow. For a venue that hosts as many large-scale concerts and festivals as the Gorge does, the level of disorganization regarding camping is totally unacceptable. Almost as soon as we got off of the highway, we were directed towards the Gorge and into a pair of lines that were not moving. We sat patiently, inching our way down the road and killing about 45 minutes. Once we got to the front and could see the campground down the road, we were diverted into the event parking lot and not allowed to proceed to the campground. This was problematic for two reasons: 1) We had paid for Premier camping and 2) we were being told to sit in some other line for no apparent reason and with no end in sight.

For a variety of obvious reasons, this really, really pissed us off. Instead of sitting in our third useless line of the day, we zipped across the field and headed back out towards the entrance. We attempted to explain our situation to one of the people directing traffic, who just started yelling louder and gesturing for us to head back towards the freeway. Which solved nothing, because we still had no idea why we weren't allowed to go to the campground. This managed to escalate to the point where a very nice sheriff from Grant County came over the car and, once he calmed the three of us down, gave us and the three cars next to us directions to get into the campground. We drove off mollified, but still titanically irritated at the total lack of communication and idiocy among the parking staff. Once we got to the campground entrance, we saw someone being loaded into an ambulance, which may have explained why they were diverting us, but we'll never know.

On the bright side, getting to the campground was a cinch in comparison. We got excellent directions right off the bat and picked out a spot quickly. Which in retrospect may have not been a good idea, but we were really, really sick of being in the car by then.

Once the tents were set up and the cooler was opened, we started meeting our neighbors. There was a huge group from Canada right in front of us, which became meaningful later on. We got a bit of a late start into the venue, but still managed to have an awfully good time. Saturday's lineup consisted of:

M. Ward: We set up camp about halfway up the hill and watched part of M. Ward's set. Unfortunately, not enough for it to be memorable, and partly because we were still largely getting settled in an organized. Which is really too bad, because he seems really interesting.

Devotchka: These guys were really interesting, and I think would have been a great lead-in to Gogol Bordello, whom I'm very sad I missed because we had to go home instead of staying for Monday. Again, I didn't listen terribly closely to their set, but they looked like they were having fun, and I'd catch them again.

Animal Collective: I just caught the very beginning of their set, and now I realize I should have stuck around longer.

Sun Kil Moon: I'm starting to realize that I didn't actually get to see all that much music on Saturday, which is really too bad. Indie Rocker and I really like Sun Kil Moon and Mark Kozelek. I caught a few songs, but none of his Modest Mouse covers, which are awesome. And I realized that I missed Ra Ra Riot, which is really too bad.

Mos Def: Mos Def was by far the biggest disappointment of the weekend. He came out on stage in this rather awesome mask, and then proceeded to do a decent song, but he pretty much ignored the crowd and let wayyyy too much time pass in between songs. It killed the energy, and killed our interest in seeing too much more. And irritated us because we missed The Decemberists, who were probably awesome. Argh.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: This band restored my faith in Sasquatch. They were totally full of energy, played all of my favorite songs by them, and Karen O. wore something so totally out there that Marshall and I decided that we are dressing up as her and Nick Zimmer, the guitarist, for Halloween this year. They had a giant, glowing eyeball hanging behind them for the whole set, and they ended with their love song, "Maps." It was fantastic.

Bon Iver: This man was the find of the weekend. We decided to skip Kings of Leon because Marshall and I had already seen them and weren't impressed that time. And I hate their song "Sex on Fire." We wandered up to the Wookiee Stage and were literally stopped dead in our tracks by Bon Iver's voice. He was singing "Skinny Love," and there was something totally otherworldly and amazing about the whole experience. We stayed for the rest of his set, which did not disappoint, and I ran home and bought his album "For Emma, Forever Ago," as soon as I walked in the door. Amazing.

After Bon Iver, we headed back to the campsite. At this point, it was dark and we could hear Kings of Leon wrapping it up at the Gorge, but the party was just getting started back at the campsite. Our neighbors were back, so we hung out with them, and then the Canadians came back to crank up the fun machine. They turned on the generator, which we discovered was powering a portable party machine. They had DJs, surround sound, even a smoke machine. It was insane. I ended up dancing with our new Seattle friends until 2am because I figured that I wasn't going to get any sleep anyway. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

Quote of the Day: "And now all your love is wasted/And who the hell was I?/I'm breaking at the bridgesAnd at the end of all your lines." Skinny Love, Bon Iver.

I'm turning 30 on Monday, which isn't actually as alarming as I thought it would be. I really did think that I would be a lot more agitated by the whole thing, but turning 30 is a little anticlimactic at this point.

I assigned Indie Rocker to plan me a birthday party. He came up with a night at one of my favorite bars, playing Skee-Ball, and drinking beer with my friends. It was perfect. A bunch of my friends couldn't make it, and some were worried that I'd be upset. The party was a last-minute affair, and frankly, I planned an enormous party a few months ago, so I don't really need a big-ass party.

Here's some of the evidence:




Needless to say, I had a great time. And as Strong Draught's lovely girlfriend and I discussed, 30 is totally the new 25.

Quote of the Day: "I'm gonna walk into this office and not let anyone know I'm hung over." Jenna Rink (Jennifer Garner), 13 Going on 30.

After some more consideration, I have decided that putting together another 101 list isn't a good idea. It's not that I don't think that I can do it, but I started to jot things down and realized that I am not all that interested in it.

I thought about why this felt like drudgery, and it's because it is. Putting together a fairly arbitrary list of things I want to do between now and February 2012 seems like an unnecessary chore. Instead, I want to have the freedom to do a bunch of cool stuff and not have to adhere to some list I came up with and quickly outgrew. Which is essentially what happened with the last one, and is why I couldn't finish it to any satisfactory degree.

So there is clearly nothing wrong with me; instead, the system itself is flawed. I love it. What a perfect solution!

That said, there are a handful of things I am positively elated to be planning for: Chick Ski 2010 in Europe, my first wedding anniversary, my graduation and potential new career, redoing the kitchen, and supporting Indie Rocker if he really does decide that he wants to do Paris-Brest-Paris in the next five years.

Yeah, not exactly sitting around eating bon-bons, am I?

Quote of the Day: "Letting everyone down would be my greatest unhappiness." Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst), Marie Antoinette.

...where we've totally gone before. That said, I really liked the new "Star Trek." I am not a Trek fan, per se, but I've watched most of the movies, watched some of the series(eses?), and have a general pop culture awareness of the franchise.

It needs to be said that I am a *huge* J.J. Abrams fan. After 6 seasons of Alias, and four of Lost, I love the man's work. I think he is a great director and despite screaming obscenities at him a few times (the entire fifth season of Alias, anyone?), I will almost inevitably watch something he has created.

That said, Star Trek is good. Great, even. It's funny, action-packed, doesn't feel too long, and is just faithful enough to the original to make everyone happy without being textbook. I loved Uhura, and the fact that her skirts haven't gotten any longer. I loved Chekhov and his teenage enthusiasm. Indie Rocker and I both giggled "Harold!" as soon as we saw John Cho onscreen as Sulu, and we both laughed heartily at the Red Shirt shout-out.

And to be honest, the two best things about the movie are Karl Urban as Dr. "Bones" McCoy and Simon Pegg as Scotty. Brilliant, pitch-perfect casting on both of them. I adore them individually as actors, but they were truly excellent here.

More than anything, I love that Abrams has a knack for managing large casts. He knows how to organize the group so that you can follow each thread, but not get bogged down in the details. It would have been really easy to focus solely on Kirk and Spock and forget entirely about Chekhov, Sulu, and the rest. But Abrams didn't, and the movie is much better for it. I'm totally in for the sequel.

Quote of the Day: "Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life-forms and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before." Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Star Trek.

So I am actually starting to put some serious thought into doing another 101 list. Not because I did so spectacularly well on that last one; rather, because I did so poorly.

Essentially, this all comes down to my undying love for to-do lists. I love to-do lists. I always have one sitting on my desk at home. You would think that this would translate into having one at work, but not so much. I'm not entirely sure why that hasn't occurred, but for some reason, I cannot seem to make that happen. That might be something to consider at the entirely-hypothetical-at-this-point new job.

I'm still thinking about it. I might just start jotting down ideas for list items, and if it gets too onerous, chuck the whole thing. On the other hand, I might get all inspired and totally go for it. I may also decide to be more realistic this time, and actually include list items I already have plans to do. Which may be cheating, but again--look at how I did on the last one.

Quote of the Day: "You know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things, and then wonders why his life sucks? Well... that was me. Every time something good happened to me, something bad was always waiting around the corner. Karma. That's when I realised I had to change. So, I made a list of everything bad I've ever done and, one by one I'm going to make up for all my mistakes. I'm just trying to be a better person. My name is Earl." Earl Hickey (Jason Lee), My Name is Earl.

I've apparently become a 60-year-old woman since getting back from the honeymoon since I now wear a pedometer every day. And actually attempt to put 10,000 steps on the stupid thing as often as I can.

I succeeded today after making one last lap around the coffee table, much to Indie Rocker's amusement. So that, combined with an actual workout at the hands of Benny, makes me pretty happy. And very deserving of the glass of sparkling wine I'm enjoying right now.

I was not one of those brides who felt the need to hit the gym every spare second before the wedding. Perhaps it was the total lack of spare seconds, or the two weeks of seeing myself in summer clothing, but I've definitely become very interested in whipping myself back into shape. Don't get me wrong--I certainly hope that I never look back at the wedding photos and think, "Wow, what a whale!" Because I wasn't, and the photos make both of us look great. If I do say so myself!

More than anything, I wasn't enjoying the fact that I couldn't just go out and do whatever I wanted to. I am really happy that when Marshall called and asked if I could run 6-7 miles with her last weekend, I could say yes and mean it. And that gives me more incentive to go out and kick some more ass, just so that hiking this summer doesn't kill me. Or surfing. Or cycling. Whew--see what I mean?

Quote of the Day: "Golf is a good walk spoiled." Mark Twain.

I had read, and had heard from a number of people, that things in your relationship change once you go and get married. Now that I am a Mrs., which in and of itself is a weird concept to get used to, I've encountered this question from a bunch of people.

Indie Rocker and I laughed this off before we got married because we were already living together, raising the Munchkin, and figured we had it all figured out. Duh--how hard could it possibly be?

So glad we asked. It's not impossible, but there was a perceptible change. We both noticed it. I can't really put my finger on it, but I think part of it is the disappearance of an easy out. The escape hatch is still there, but now it involves attorneys, paperwork, and total acrimony.

That said, we have a lot more incentive to work on our relationship, and to work on ourselves. Indie Rocker is training for the Creampuff again, and I've decided to get in shape for short-track mountain biking, and running more often again. So much for the newlywed weight gain--if anything, we're both going to weigh less on our first anniversary.

I'm definitely getting more motivated to get back into cycling and running. Since I'm getting really, really close to graduation, it's about time to start thinking of what I'm going to get to do with all that free time! Well, when I'm not looking for a new job come September!

Quote of the Day: "When it starts, whatever the reason is that you're doing this, focus on that." Surgeon, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.