Lauren Armistead

This is tough to write about. Lauren was a friend from Vanderbilt. An intelligent, driven, extremely caring and chill girlfriend of a very good friend, Chris Lloyd. I didn't stay in touch with her after Vandy, but I miss her anyway and feel much heartache over her family's loss.

Original Articles:
http://v1.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=123877§ion=localnews
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/525007.html

It makes me so sad to think about this, but I don't shy away from it. It should make me sad. It feels right being torn up when I see her smiling face. I guess I think it's honoring her and her family. I doubt there was ever a person that met Lauren and didn't like her. Thinking about her and they way she lived her life makes me want to smile more often. It makes me want to tell the people I love that I love them more often. It makes we want to be thankful for each day. It makes me want to be closer to my family.

This tragedy happened last year at this time. I'm writing about this now because Chris and Stephanie, one of Lauren's best friends, put a tribute video together and put it on youtube. Chris's email says the rest best:

In honor of Lauren’s birthday three days ago, I decided to put her slideshow on Youtube. The following is a four part compilation of photos put together by Stephanie Beatrous in tribute to the memory of everyone's friend Lauren Armistead. Steph really did a great job with this so a big shout out to her. The slideshow is in parts because Youtube has a 10 minute time limit and the total slideshow is about 30 minutes. Be sure to turn up the volume because the video has sound. I'm sure when you watch this you will notice Pete is nowhere in the slideshow. That's not a snub to Pete at all. When Steph flew up to Charleston to help Pete with Lauren's things, she asked if she could keep some pictures and he gave her every picture that wasn't of the two of them. Steph didn't know at the time she would make a slideshow so she didn't ask for any with that in mind. When she finally decided to make it, she just worked with what she had. I'm sure when you watch this, you'll see she had a lot to work with and did a fantastic job. The slideshow is great and I've watched it many times. As sad as I still am, I can't help but smile that I was lucky enough to know Lauren. She really was amazing.

Please forward this to anyone I left off the list or anyone that cared about Lauren. I’m sure they will appreciate the slideshow. Thanks again Steph!

The beginning of the slideshow has a picture and a quote that goes too fast for you to see it so I just thought I’d put the quote here before you begin the slideshow.

“The world is full of people who will go their whole lives and not actually live one day. She did not intend on being one of them.”

Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8f55wPv1ec

Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8stG51NB3es

Part 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7WwlwvjrPQ

Part 4:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdZJ-w5kuhg

Music

I love buying music on itunes. It's so frickin easy and fast. I just went through a recent wave of clicking the "buy" button on lot of stuff in rapid succession. You should try it. It's fun. Anyway, I thought I'd post what's new in my possession and if you'd like a listen, well, you just let me know.

Rufus Wainwright (man I love this guy's music) Recent Album Purchases:
~Release the Starts (2007)
~Alright, Already [Live In Montreal] (2005)
~Poses (2002)
~Want One (2003)
~Want Two (2004)

Spoon Recent Album Purchases:
~Girls Can Tell
~Kill the Moonlight

Billy Bragg & Wilco Recent Album Purchases:
~Mermaid Avenue
~Mermaid Avenue Vol. 2

Radiohead Recent Album Purchases:
~Rainbows

Arrested Development Recent Album Purchases:
~Since the Last Time

And 'yes', Arrested Development did put out a new album. It's decent. There are probably 3 songs I really like a lot. If I fall in love with a new song on an album I just bought, I tend to listen to it very frequently. A few such songs from these recent albums for me are:

~"Sanssouci" by Rufus Wainwright on Release the Stars
~"The Way We Get By" by Spoon on Kill the Moonlight
~"All I Need" by Radiohead on Rainbows

The Spoon purchases were brought on by watching Stranger Than Fiction last night. It's Will Ferrell's drama where someone is narrating his life. The movie was actually much much more than I expected. And I really enjoyed it. It might have even moved me. I actually had a Spoon album from a friend (Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga). I've listened to it maybe 5 times. I liked it alright. But anyway, "The Way We Get By" was in the movie. So today I looked up the soundtrack. I also really enjoyed the song Will Ferrell played on the guitar in the movie. It was also a really sweet point in the movie, so that added to my interest. Turns out it's called "(I'd Go the) Whole Wide World." It's played and sung by Will Ferrell in the movie. The rendition on the soundtrack, though, is by Wreckless Eric, whoever the crap that is. I read a bit more and found that it's originally a song by The Monkees, so that's the version I bought.

From my four stellar years of studying French, I knew 'sans' means 'without', so I looked up what 'sanssouci" meant. It means carefree, if you didn't know already. Wikipedia taught me more in the process

D'OH

hmm... I did not anticipate the issue of terrorists using Google Earth. It certainly makes sense. It reminds me of how Bush confirmed that he used "the google" and he said he liked to pull up images and maps of his ranch. Now, I don't like the guy, but I sincerely hope you can't get too much detail on locations like that. But then again, that is Israel's very issue.

http://mashable.com/2007/10/25/missile-attacks-israel-google-earth/

Wells Fargo Receives EPA Green Power Partner of Year Award

For those of you concerned about your carbon footprint, take a look at some of the progressive things Wells is doing. I think it's pretty cool to work for a company who is interested in wind farms, solar projects and other green power. I hope their efforts help and I hope more and more companies begin to substantially contribute.

read the full story here:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/071023/aqtu168.html?.v=20

3 days of methane rain to start your morning, eh?

When dawn comes on Titan it's nearly 300 degrees below zero with a steady drizzle. And the drizzle is methane — an explosive gas on Earth that is chilled into a liquid on that moon of Saturn. They reported that the drizzle seems to dissipate after what would be about 10:30 a.m. Titan time, if the day there were divided into 24 hours. However, because Titan takes 16 Earth days to rotate once, the drizzle continues for about three Earth days after sunrise.

So, um, when can us Earthlings move there? Sounds great!

the story

No really, it's up to you

You may have heard already. Radiohead is releasing a new album soon. The relevant detail is that they never re-signed with EMI and have not signed with a new record label. What does that mean? For starters, they are distributing and selling the album themselves over the internet. Pretty revolutionary step in the music industry! A step that record labels must be hoping fails.

What makes this even more interesting is the fact that you are able to name your price for the download! Did I mention this is a double-disk album? And did I mention that you can pay $0.01 for it if you want? I'm almost too excited to even consider what I will enter as my purchase price. I mean, on the one hand, I don't want to be a dick and pay a penny. On the other hand, would I get a copy of it from a friend anyway?

buy it here:
http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex.html

read some nytimes commentary here:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/01/radiohead-album-price-tag-its-up-to-you/?hp

Pretty exciting stuff!

header

I completely thought the title of this youtube clip, "after 100 times its still funny!" was going to doom itself. But I have to admit, I've watched it a dozen times now and it IS still funny...

"Santa" can derelict my... chimney?

um... wow...

"Forget the rest. Just work with the best! Wooooo"

Now that the housing bubble burst and some lenders have closed their doors (or had their doors closed for them), competition between mortgage brokers and banks is fierce. I mean, how am I supposed to compete with this and the simple 4 figure process???

The CLAW is good luck!

I'm right there with you, JonJan. Well, kind of. Your injury must simply be heartbreaking (and a lot more painful). But I have no doubt you (and I) will make off the field contributions to the Redskins throughout the season! Hang in there, buddy.

This is what happens when you lend money to poor people

Michael Lewis produces a hilarious opinion piece here. The author of "Moneyball", "The Blind Side" and "Liar's Poker" chimes in with his take on the subprime mess that has put the U.S. economy in the toilet.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a5lhZkEauCu8

Nipples Are In

I don't even know where to begin with this... brain hurts... so many directions to take this...

Think about 100 of these will make a good halloween costume?

S-M-R-T

ROCHELLE, Ga. -- A woman was arrested after she called local police to help "get her money back" after she was unhappy with the crack cocaine she purchased.

You mean the police didn't help her??? What kind of civil service are these officers performing exactly?

No mugshot, unfortunately.

http://www.cbs46.com/news/13878002/detail.html

Monk-E-Mail

I hope this doesn't insult or offend anyone. I mean, afterall, it's just one monkey's opinion! And it's perfect and hilarious!

http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/Default.aspx?mid=22960571&cbRecursionCnt=3&cbsid=4ef91058db304283b3eb39299ff941e7-240575617-KC-5

Orioles 12, Yankees 0

Man, that's just a thing of beauty isn't it? GoodGuys 12, EverythingThatIsEvil 0.

So I went to see the Orioles play in the Bronx last night and man was it fun. Especially since I was there with 3 Yankees fans. The offensive onslaught got me to thinking. I haven't been to tons of Orioles games in my life, maybe 10 or 15. But I don't think I've actually seen them win all that often. Yeah, that's depressing but it made last night that much more awesomer!

We were sitting in the lower part of the right field upper deck, by the foul pole, in foul territory. Aubrey Huff's 3rd inning grand slam landed so close to us! It landed 3 rows in front and about 10 seats away. I've never been anywhere near a homerun before! AND I've never seen a grand slam.

Man, last night was sweet. And whatever Daniel Cabrera did before last night's game, please make him do it before every start. He actually started the game on solid ground, instead of walking and hitting batters for the first 3 innings as usual. He did end up walking 6, which is unacceptable. But he was unhittable, only giving up 2 in 6 and 2/3 innings. Good work, Daniel. You're [temporarily] off my shit-list.