Just in case you were wondering, since some of you might not have seen them in action, after a single day of continous use i can say with all integrity that iPods are some of the absolute coolest things on planet Earth.

The iPod is here. The name is Scout, in a small nod to literary classics of my childhood. I’ve spent the majority of my day off getting it set-up, charged up and, currently, waiting for 20gb of music to load onto it. It might take a little while… what do you think?

So I lied. Apparently I can’t be trusted.

Why am i awake? #615175902317 arrived at the FedEx ramp in Greer, SC at 2:39am… a scant hour away from here. Yay hooray. Let the hoopla begin. And let the sleeping commence. And let Anderson College turn the wi-fi signal back on in the dorm across the street from my house so I don’t have to drive to the other side of campus to scam their signal.

I think i just finished my business card design. Maybe? Finally? Maybe.

So… if you look at the top of the page… you’ll see that i finally have a logo. That of course means I want to redesign the site now. But i’ll wait. The current plan is to have my dot com up by Christmas as a present from me to me. I’m so thoughtful. Fun times.

iPod watch 2004… package #615175902317 left FedEx Sort Facility in Indianapolis, IN at 3:38pm. Sweet.

On Monday… i’m posting a fun project for you all to do. A community thing of sorts. You’ll love it. I promise. Wait for it…

Can I tell you how much I like UPS/FedEx tracking numbers? It might very well be the smartest, most useless, most awesome thing they’ve ever done. Package #615175902317 left a FedEx ramp in Oakland, Ca at 2:17am this morning and is currently making its way cross-county towards me for delivery before 4:30pm tomorrow. Do I really need to know that? No. Is it pure-bottled-fun that I know that? Yes.

Also, I adore the FedEx logo. It is perfect.

Sleeping was nice last night. I should do it more. I have lots on my mind today… but no discernable way to get it all out into tangible thoughts. I hate it when that happens.

I haven’t given you a good link to sort through lately. You should probably take a peek at Atlanta-based designer Chris Rushing’s site Where Beauty Fades. He’s just plain good. His bio is great too… “I have an extensive taste in music. I have an extensive taste in food. I have expensive taste in just about everything. The only catch is that one day everything I do and am will be forgotten. Except by One. Thank You for blessing me Lord.” I think I have a doppelganger. I think we shall have to meet when I am in Atl this weekend. I think I am emailing him now. Yes… yes I am.

I’m sure it lacks merit when you come to visit and I haven’t posted anything. It’s not like there’s a very large amount of content and information changing around here on a regular basis (with the possible exception of the site often looking completely different every time you reload the page.) But… I hate it when people apologize on blogs or journals for not writing. Posts should never begin with “wow… I haven’t posted here in so long.” Annoying.

I’ve had 12 hours of combined sleep in the past three days. This weekend, Mcd and I are off to Atlanta for some rest and relaxation. Taking a Sunday off will be strange. But great. This afternoon… cardio at the gym and then sweet, sweet sleep.

To continue the string of iPod-related posting… Duke is a college that gets it.

Oh course… now that i find BlogThis!… Blogger has apparently fixed the issues with Safari and Mozilla and the new editor layout. I bet their engineers have been pulling all nighters and consuming inordinate amounts of pizza and caffeinated beverages to fix it over the past few days. Kudos to them.

I still like the BlogThis! interface better.

I think I might have found a fix for the Safari Blogger users and our crappy “new” editor. If you use the little BlogThis! interface, it works. Just drop the BlogThis! url in your bookmark bar. (Hint: if you put it as the first link on your bookmark bar, you can just hit apple+1 and it opens automatically.) For whatever reason, the BlogThis! editor isn’t all screwy. And, as a bonus, if you’re on a particular page you want to link, and you bring up the BlogThis! window, it automatically has the link to that site’s url.

Handy. Cute.

Yeah… after patiently awaiting the arrival of the newness… i just bought 40gb of iPod goodness. I love cool stuff. (and yes, i know this won’t make me happy… but it will make life a bit more enjoyable… and musical.)

Whew… having friends is hard work sometimes. But dang it’s worth it.

I am ashamed to say i’m using Internet Explorer to type this right now because Blogger just… won’t… work… in Safari anymore. Grrrr. Nonetheless, rumor has it that Emily Cox will be moving to the upstate in mid-August. I will now address the situation publicly. Ecox… truth or fiction? 1, 2, 3, go.

Hey Blogger… guess what? This new wysiwyg editor SUCKS and doesn’t work in Safari. Way to make life difficult for all the Apple users.

There are very few sites i visit everyday. Jason Zada’s photo page Manipulation, the almighty Google, dictionary.com, Relevant Magazine… but Nashville designer Michael Eades’ personal site Yewknee has been a favorite ever since i’ve had a job within easy reach of an internet connection. Great links, and definitely some personality…. which seems rare on the web.

Well, Eades has some Summer Mixes up for download right now. Most of them are hefty, 90mb or so… but there’s some fantastic music in there compiled by (basically) a bunch of Nashville designers (Jeremy Cowart included… his mix rocks my face) and a few stragglers like yours truly who have some sort of connection to Eades… or who just emailed him with a mix. Fun times, great tunes. Download some music… then go buy what you like so i don’t feel remorse for giving it to you for free. (For all you folks here in the office, no need to download… my summer mix is on my iTunes and is aptly called… Summer Mix. Behold, the joy of networked iTunes-ness. And remember, it’s a mix… so you have to listen to it in order or you’ll just ruin the intended experience. Wow… that sounded pretentious. Whatever… i’m a snob about music…. i always sound pretentious.)

I heard a little Marc Cohn Walking in Memphis while i was getting my blueberry muffins in the Bagel Shop this morning. It did my heart good. I have a bunch of stuff to say about my current thoughts on the idea of working… good stuff… but i actually have a superhuman amount of work to do today, so i’ll have to make this a bit of a cliffhanger post…

And… again. With the changing of the site design. I think we might have a winner this time. What do you say? (And oddly enough, the site works in IE PC and has a bug in Mozilla…. what? All you ‘zilla users… sorry. Depending on how big you have your browser window set, there’s a little 1 pixel shift between the top graphic and the rest of the site. I might fix it. I might not. It’ll be a fun game for us to play.) By the way, did you know that if you park your vehicle outside the Quality Inn in Anderson, SC that you can scam their wireless signal? Did you also know that it is way past my bedtime? At this point, it would almost be a worthwhile purchase to get a room at the instead of driving home. Almost.

Tomorrow, we play another fun game… seeing if i can actually take my day off or if i will have to do work. Right now… it’s not looking so good for the home team.

New song i did at Carpenter’s Cellar a few weeks ago (unfinished) and finished last night at Jammin Java prior to playing it. No drama… just memories of how hard it is to get certain people out of your system (and a little poetic license.) No title yet… as usual. Apologies in advance for depressing you.

You win. I’m done.
I’ve done all that I know to do
with you, but leave you alone.
Whatever grace smiled down on me
walked out with the clothes in your suitcase.
You’re gone… going… gone.
Long gone.

And in my mind
you’re still by my side.
Less like a lover
and more like a thorn.
No one warned me this could happen.

Three words. Monk. Neagle. Fun. Yeah… i managed to get a picture looking at their website… while they were sitting in the background with their wives… while LB was eating. Perhaps you don’t find this humorous. I laughed for ten minutes. I’m weird like that. Nonetheless… fun times with Monk and Neagle last night. Their new album will be ridiculous. Ed Cash produces, Dan Needham drums, Calvin Turner does freakish bass things. Good stuff. It’s out August 24. (You can listen to some preview tidbits here.) Hopefully more people will buy their album than actually showed up to see them play last night. Ouch. Columbia… on a Tuesday night… deadly. Thank you, Jesus, that i don’t have to earn a living playing shows.

Today? Designing billboards and cd covers and the like. Oh… and i want to change the design of the site. Again. Of course. Do they make some sort of medication for design ADD? I’m killin’ me.

I like pizza. I like my laptop. I like that someone thought of this.

These lovely guys are growing outside my bedroom windows right now. A very pleasant surprise in the morning. It’s no birdfeeder, but it will do for a moment of beauty when i first get up.

Um… i changed the site. Again. It might last for two weeks… it might not last for two days. But it has two columns! And an exclamation point! And a lot more work to do on it before i like it, but i suppose you’re used to the site looking different everytime you check it. I wonder what this says about me?

For any of you in the Southeast who are interested, i’m opening up for Trent Monk & Michael Neagle tonight in Columbia at Jammin Java. I will lull you into surrender with songs of love and loss. Or something.

And now… work, work, work.

Brian Regan is the funniest man alive. I laughed until i had a headache and i was sweating in an air-conditioned comedy club. The best $20 i’ve spent in months. (For all those who missed out, he’ll be in Atlanta at The Roxy on Friday, November 5. Bring it.)