John’s Crawlspace

Umphrey’s McGee has been working on a new album, “Mantis”, to be released early next year. I heard one of the new tracks from the album a few times on Sirius, and another one that made it’s way onto the web. You can hear the track “Made To Measure” here. “Cemetery Walk” (my favorite of the two) can be downloaded here.

Ever wonder what a snowflake looks like close-up? Like super magnified? Check out this image of a columnar snow crystal, it’s pretty cool looking. Don’t stare too long, though – It’ll kill you.

Sure, we all know that Coca Cola used to have cocaine in it. But did you know that 7 UP used to contain lithium, and was originally marketed as a hangover cure? Check out these 10 Fascinating Food Facts.

A judge ruled that cartoon characters are people too. So possession of Simpsons porn with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie in it is equal to child pornography. That’s pretty crazy, but why would you want to look at that to begin with?

Check out The Magic Kingdom: Confessions of an Ex-Captain Jack Sparrow. A guy who worked at Disneyland and played the part of Jack Sparrow talks about some of the ridiculous rules that they have for their employees, it’s pretty interesting.

Did you know Jethro Tull had a Christmas album? I definitely didn’t. Check out The Best & Worst Christmas Songs.

This past Thursday (the 4th) was my birthday, so I spent the weekend in the Poconos at a cabin with a bunch of friends. It was a pretty good time, although I’m hurting right now. Not much else to say about that. The Phoenixville Firebird Festival will be taking place about 4 blocks from my house this coming Saturday, so I’m looking forward to checking that out… Should be interesting. That’s all for now.

Keep an eye on the sky tonight. According to this article, Jupiter, Venus, and the moon will line up a manner that won’t be seen again until 2052. And with my luck, I’ll probably be blind by then.

On December 9th, don’t forget to call in sick gay. Wait, what?

A little while ago, it was confirmed that the anime classic Akira was being redone. This was met with a lot of negative criticism, and rightfully so. I’m not a big anime fan by any means, but I saw this movie a few times when I was younger, and I thought it was pretty badass. This clip is more or less why the movie should be left alone.

I never thought I’d see the day that Guns N’ Roses completed Chinese Democracy. But somehow they managed to do it. I have no interest in this album at all, but I’m sure some of you do… So if you want to check it out, you can download Chinese Democracy here. Let me know how it is. Also, I thought this was kinda funny… I went to verify that the upload went through, check out the CAPTCHA code they wanted me to enter in order to download the album.

I’ll be honest, I never thought that those Chuck Norris jokes were all that funny. These Chuck Norris facts are much funnier in my opinion.

I meant to post this last week, but if you’re looking for a good comedy, check out Role Models. I didn’t expect much going into it, because I didn’t know much about it. But when I saw that it was directed by David Wain, I got excited (read: horny). It turned out to be pretty hilarious, and I need to see it again because I probably missed some parts due to laughing uncontrollably. We checked out Zack & Miri Make A Porno afterwards, and I didn’t like that nearly as much… Actually, it sucked, and I wouldn’t even recommend it. I hate to say it, but I doubt Kevin Smith will be making many legitimately funny movies in the future… Oh well.

I’ve always been interested in photography, but somehow never heard of tilt-shift photography before. Check it “50 Beautiful Examples of Tilt-Shift Photography“, awesome stuff.

So apparently, it’s unnecessary (not to mention potentially harmful) to get your transmission fluid flushed at a place like Jiffy Lube. I went to get my oil changed about 2 weeks ago, and they told me that Dodge recommends that you drain and replace your transmission fluid every 50,000 miles or something. I know next to nothing about cars, so I gave the guy the benefit of the doubt and went for it. Then I read this article. If my car breaks down I’m gonna find that dude and shit on him. That was expensive, too. Oil change, new wipers, and transmission fluid junk cost like $160.

Check out these photos of strangely colored beaches. I wouldn’t mind checking out… Well, all of them really. The black sands (actually volcanic rock) of Punalu’u Beach and the reds of Kaihalulu are both awesome.

Have you heard about the oil tanker that was hijacked by pirates? I heard this on NPR earlier this evening. I had no idea that pirates still hijacked ships… That’s awesome! This particular oil tanker was more than 3x the size of a US Navy aircraft carrier. Also, apparently there are ten other vessels currently being held by pirates who hope to secure ransoms before releasing them. How does one go about becoming a pirate? Do they have internships?

Wow. Well, I’m not really sure what to say about last night, but it was absolutely insane. Some friends and I met up in the city and caught the last three innings of the game at Good Dog on 15th Street. After the Phillies won the World Series, everyone went nuts. No one needed to say anything, everyone immediately took to the streets. We followed the crowd over to Broad Street, and for the first fifteen minutes or so we basically just ran around screaming like maniacs and high-fiving everyone in site. Then things started to get ridiculous. Everyone left the bars with beers in hand, and soon enough those beers were flying through the air. People started climbing road signs, and I actually saw a guy fall from one. Celebration turned into destruction pretty quickly. People were flipping potted plants, smashing store windows, and starting fires. There were cops everywhere – The only time I’ve ever seen more cops in one place was at a PSU/Ohio State game. But the abundance of cops definitely didn’t stop people. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty exciting. Believe it or not, I didn’t participate in any kind of destructive behavior. I missed the last train out of the city, but was able to catch a ride back to a friends house. We decided it was time to get out of the city around 12:30, and on the way out we saw a flipped car. You can check out some pictures of the chaos here and here. God my head hurts.

I took off work tomorrow so I can go to the parade. They’re releasing free tickets @ 3 PM on Phillies.com for the post-parade celebration. At least I think that’s what the tickets are for, I’m not positive. But I’m grabbing some either way. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be pretty exhausting. I have tickets to see Of Montreal tomorrow night at the Electric Factory, so hopefully I can make it to that after what is sure to be a ridiculous day of drinking and screaming. I’ll probably end up taking my shirt off too.

My buddy Nick and I ended up taking the R5 into the city last night to watch the Phillies game. I obviously didn’t have tickets, but I knew that tons of people would be crowding into bars to watch the game and get rowdy, and I didn’t want to miss it. A bunch of people were meeting up at Fox and Hound on Spruce, so we headed there, but it was at capacity when we got there, and there was a decent sized crowd standing outside in the rain waiting to get in, so we took a taxi to Finnegan’s Wake instead. I’ve been there a good amount of times before and it’s definitely not my favorite place in the city, but I knew some people that were already there. $25 all you can eat/drink, which was a good deal, but probably not in my best interest, since I left my car at the train station and would need to drive it back to my apartment later that evening. Anyway, those of you that read this site can probably tell I’m not a huge sports fan, but it’s easy to get into it when that many people are so worked up for the game. As I’m sure you know, the game was rained out in the 6th inning after the Rays tied it up 2-2, and my understanding is that the game (which won’t be happening tonight) will be resumed at the exact point of suspension – “The completion of a suspended game is a continuation of the original game.” That was a pretty big dissapointment, but I still had a good time. The train on the way back was absolutely packed. They said it wasn’t going anywhere until they fit everyone in, and it didn’t even end up leaving 30th Street Station until probably around 1 am. I ended up getting back to my place around 2:30 or so, and I’m exhausted today, but it was worth it. People seem to be pretty dissapointed with the suspension, and there is definitely a good amount of negativity surrounding the continuation of the game, but it’s definitely understandable considering this team’s track record. Anyway, it will be interesting to see what happens next. In a way I think it’s good that the Rays tied it up right before they called the game – Who wants to win a World Series in a rain shortened game? It’s actually snowing in PA and NJ right now…

I somehow managed to forget to post this when it originally leaked… Between the Buried and Me have released a live album which consists of them playing their latest album, “Colors”, in its entirety. It’s an awesome album, and if you’re into any kind of metal/progressive rock you should check it out. A few weeks late on this one, but you can download Colors – Live here.

Apparently Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler has been jamming with Led Zeppelin, and he may replace Robert Plant. I’m pretty sure that’s some major BS.

As f’ed up as this is, it’s pretty funny to me. The guy who put up the display actually stated that “the message isn’t political, it’s racist”. It’s funny to me that he isn’t beating around the bush at all. Oh no, I wasn’t trying to be political, I just hate black people. Also, two white supremacist skinheads (read: morons) got busted while plotting to kill Obama. It’s pretty funny how that the article mentions that “the plot did not appear to be very advanced or sophisticated”. Morons.