Jeani’s Neighborhood

Colleen

testing somethin'

Don't mind me.

1 comment
Colleen

I need ideas

My parents' 40th wedding anniversary is coming up and I have NO idea what to get them. They're driving up to Michigan with my Grandma that weekend, so they can visit her sister and the rest of my mom's family. I was thinking about just giving them money for gas and whatever but that's not really thoughtful. I honestly can't think of anything they actually need and if I ask them what they want, I won't get any kind of useful response. I was thinking about gift cards for restaurants, maybe.

What the hell do you get people who've been married for 40 years?

5 comments Tags: gifts, mom and dad
Colleen

Vintage U2

Word is that U2 is working on a new album due out in November (squee!). Completely unrelated to that, I was listening to "War" earlier today and then found this tonight. I forgot this video even existed.

Three things:
1. I don't get the acrobats, at all.
2. I'm not sure why this song was picked for a video. I love it because I'm a U2 fan but it doesn't really go with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day," in terms of picking singles.
3. Cuties. They're all in their way early 20's in this video.

U2 : two hearts beat as one : RARE !!!
Post a comment Tags: music, u2
Colleen

Vox Hunt: Dream Pet

Show us a picture of the pet you'd most like to have in your life.

Working dog
Working dog

I want a dog. I don't care if it's a puppy, an adult dog, big, little, purebred, a mutt, whatever. I just want a dog. Two would be great but I won't be greedy.

My apartment doesn't allow pets and I want a condo anyway, so I've been tucking money away over the past few months. If I do that consistently, I might be able to buy a place in the next, I don't know, five years? I could find an apartment that allows dogs, I guess, but I can't afford the rent on a new place so I'm kind of stuck here for a while.

1 comment Tags: vox hunt, dream pet
Colleen

Dearest internet users,

When contacting online technical support, customer service, or anyone else who may help you with a problem that you're having, please refrain from using the following phrases - "Please advise," "What gives?" or "What's up?"

These phrases make our skin crawl and we ask you to kindly stop using them. Thank you!

- The people who help you fix things.

5 comments
Colleen

Trying out Blog It on facebook

The Cubs are on FIRE right now. And the fact that I care still disturbs me.

4 comments
Paul

Accelerate

Accelerate
Accelerate
R.E.M.
R.E.M. is the band that essentially introduced me to music. This is no small honor; before them I was listening to the usual B96 style drivel that everyone else was listening to. But Automatic for the People brought me into the fold and soon I wasn't just a fan - I was a fanatic for R.E.M.

Lots of stuff happened along the way, though. My tastes changed a tad over to power pop and other things due in part to the R.E.M.'s influencees and influencers, and R.E.M.'s efforts started lacking urgency and appeal. Around the Sun holds the distinction of being the only album of theirs I don't own - I even found some good in Reveal (and Up has underrated tracks like "Daysleeper".)

That said, Accelerate is R.E.M.'s push to be relevant again. Are they more relevant with me, though? Because I matter the most, you know.

The answer is, "Somewhat." The album has a number of uneven moments but at least it's Weezer-short at just over half an hour. "Man-Sized Wreath" is easily my favorite song on the album in part because of the layers. The lyrics are good but not great, but what did it for me was the almost inaudible reading of the lyrics buried on the left speaker during this tune. Stipe's just there, reading them at a very quiet level. That kind of little attention to detail is something that has been lacking in R.E.M.'s stuff for years, traded in for electronic bleeps and bloops.

"Houston" is another standout, clocking in at just two minutes and recalling "Try Not to Breathe" in its sound. Stipe sets the visual, articulates it, and moves on. "Mr. Richards", a track I initially disliked, came back to me as a strong one. And "Supernatural Superserious", despite nearly being played out on radio, is a good song. "Hollow Man" surprises - after the first verse, one wouldn't expect the chorus to speed up, but thankfully it does. In general I find that any song (outside of "Superserious") that doesn't resemble R.E.M. stuff resonates the most with me.

The remainder of Accelerate is either okay or good but not outstanding. "I'm Gonna DJ" is a modest closer that feels like the band's trying too hard to be "fun" (ie, "Stand".) "Living Well is the Best Revenge" is a good opener, and the segue between "Wreath" and "Supernatural" is smooth and brilliant - Mike Mills carries it. "Sing for the Submarine" has too many cutesy-poo R.E.M. catalog references to be substantial. "Until the Day is Done" lacks charm, "Horse to Water" lacks substance, and the title track - despite another great Mills performance - doesn't seem to say much.

The album as a whole doesn't feel cohesive, but rather like a collection of songs. I have this same feeling about In Rainbows, for what it's worth. 

All told I'm pleased that R.E.M. has put out a good album at this stage of their career. I just hope they follow it up with another good one or, better, a great one.
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Colleen

Vox Hunt: Let's Disco!

Share the song that most makes you think of "disco."


Post a comment Tags: vox hunt, disco time
Colleen

Hiring an illustrator/artist

I'm thinking about finding an illustrator to create an image for my blog that I can base a theme redesign around. Basically, I want a cartoon-ish image of a girl, based on me, holding a pear. Something really fun and eye-catching. I have no idea where to start looking for someone to hire, though. I've always designed my blogs myself so I don't know where to look for someone to help me with the part I can't do. I wish I could draw but I can't!

I'm going to look around online to see if I can figure this out but if any of you smarties out there in my Vox 'hood have suggestions, lemme know.

3 comments
Paul

So long, DreamHost

Next week my DreamHost account expires.


I don't recall exactly how I first heard of DreamHost, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of the blogs and sites I read used them for hosting. I had bounced between a number of different hosts for my sites, but found none that was reliable and had gobs of space. DreamHost filled the bill.

Unbelievably, that was 5 years ago now.

The problems with DreamHost are almost always exaggerated on their blog and others' blogs. But sometimes those descriptions of what's going on are accurate. My sites would occasionally go offline for a while, come back, and support would have no clue what was happening. Or mySQL would die - no idea why. Little things like that.

But I soldiered on. I stuck with them as I thought, still, they had offered me a good deal. The uptime wasn't great, but hey, it was fairly cheap.

I wish I could say, "And then, the most AWFUL THING EVER happened!" but that's not the case. I simply experienced another big outage - email this time, then web - and didn't want to deal with it anymore. I shopped around a bit and moved everything off of DreamHost late last year. I'm extremely happy with Pair, my host for everything now.

It's a little thing to be sure. There are many larger decisions in life. But not having to deal with random site outages with no explanation, random things going wrong, and the like is worth my saving money at Pair. Pair's been cheaper (!), far more reliable, and more like a Real Company. That works for me.

It's been a good run, DreamHost. Thanks.

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