Why should I possibly bother myself with Linguistics homework when I'd much rather be entertaining you all with tales of the week? So here are the highlights, in no particular order.

On Monday evening I think, Ed (Slow Goat Riot's manager/mom/sexslave) sent out a rather crappy email to the members. Not too much of it was directed at me, but Greg and Rhiannon were seriously pissed. Greg got over it, but Rhiannon was pissed. The solution was to spend about 2.5 hours at the crappiest Denny's in the world (the one on Kitsap Way in Bremerton) in the middle of the night and discuss the state of the band with the other members and Ed. Things have sort of been in suck mode due to no guitarist. We're doing a lot of work to prepare for shows but we're basically treading water. In a sense, I sort of suspected that this would happen when Brian left, and maybe I subconsciously prepared myself for that. But every now and again I get frustrated too, and I usually just put it out of my head with the realization that I can't make any judgements until we're a real band again. Have I mentioned that we need a guitarist (preferably two) really bad? Anyway, the one question I wanted to know was if we should continue to work together (Greg, Rhiannon, and I). The main reason for this was because we're sort of clawing eachother's eyes out because we have different styles when it comes to about everything. Owing to my marching-band past, I'm very much into consistency and well directed intent. Greg, and especially Rhiannon, are a bit more free-form, and we chafe on this point. The main reason that I asked the question is because I really don't want to have happen what happened between Winston and I; basically, we ignored our differences long enough that we were ready to kill when we couldn't take anymore. I think Winston is still pissed at me, and that bothers me, although I feel that my only error in judgement with that situation was putting myself in the situation where I was continuing to work with him musically when I knew that I wasn't happy.

AT&T Wireless sent me a bill which had a $36 activation charge, but they only credited back $26. (It was supposed to be free activation, so $36 credit was in order.) Anyway, I called customer service and braced myself for what I've heard really sucks. The result? I was pleasantly surprised when they not only answered relatively quickly, but took care of the charge without any argument. My only bitch was that I wasn't able to report the areas where I have no service (and should have service). The guy said that there was a form on the website to do that, but there is so much on the website I haven't been able to find it yet.

I got my student loan check today, so now I'm officially using student loans. The loans are covering my tuition, the GI Bill should cover my transportation expenses, food, and other stuff.

Last night I did the once through on the fuel system in the Buick. It's been stalling quite a bit lately and driving me nuts. Another issue is that I think the starter is going. It acted like a bad battery (and indeed the battery did test bad, although not grossly so) so I changed the battery on Sunday. But it still cranks slow. It does start however, so I'm going to cross my fingers and keep a can of starting fluid in the trunk. I checked the codes in the computer; I'm getting code 33 (manifold absolute pressure sensor), and a code 45 (oxygen sensor rich condition). BTW, info for you Neil: the GM computers also distinguish if the oxygen sensor circuit is open, which may let you know if your hypothesis of a bad wire is the correct one. Anyway, I pulled the idle air control valve out, and cleaned off a bit of gummy, oily residue with some carb cleaner. I took it apart, lost the spring, and after about an hour of searching in my driveway with a light (of course I do my auto repair work in the middle of the night) I found the spring and put it back together. Using the diagnostic mode, I verified proper operation. Still, though, not really any change in idling performance. So I start messing around with things looked at previously. I pull the wire to #1 spark plug and it idles absolutely no differently. Weird. Plenty of spark coming from the boot to the block. So I ohmmeter the plug to make sure I'm not getting the "screwed up spark plug" syndrome that baffled me with the Ford truck I had a few years ago (another one I forgot about.) It's reading infinite resistance, so that's good; nothing shunting the spark to ground. I pull the pull and the gap looks good; like it's been firing, but there is a lot of carbon on the plug. What the hell? Based on the exhaust, I'm burning little to no oil (maybe a touch at startup). The plug is not wet either. So where is the carbon coming from? I'm pretty sure this cylinder isn't firing; at least not reliably. That would explain poor gas mileage that doesn't really change. I guess I'll need to hook up a compression gauge and see what's happening. If it's seriously hosed, I don't think I'm going to do much; just not drive it much. After all, it is a backup car. But it's fun trolling the hooptie around Kitsap.

Lisa and I went to Fred Meyer tonight and in addition to petrochemical products and some groceries (the same thing if you're Biff) we bought some CD's that we were talking about at dinner. The CD's were: The Very Best of Elvis Costello, the soundtrack for "Lost in Translation", and The Man Comes Around by Johnny Cash. That's the one where he sings a bunch of modern songs. The Trend plays his cover of "Hurt" every now and again. The "Lost in Translation" soundtrack is fucking awesome, it's as good as the movie. My favorite song my far is "Sometimes" by My Bloody Valentine. The guitar textures and string sounds are absolutely delicious; so don't screw it up for me by telling me that the lyrics are about killing cats or something.

Today I met up with Heidi, the lady who I took pictures of for her album cover, and showed her the pix. She's pretty happy. She dropped me a 50 for my supplies and trouble. I'm doing the shots for credit on the album. So my name should be in album credits, even if it's not my album.

Ed wanted to roll around Bremerton and check out the pawn shops, so we did that. I took some of that money I made from Heidi, and discovered that a Friday afternoon is the worst time to visit a pawn shop (because all of the sailors, shipyard worker, and Bremerton crackwhores are tying up the counter-people by renewing their pawn loans or reclaiming merchandise since they just got paid or something). After that revelation, Ed and I made out OK. He found a nice 28-200 zoom lens for a Minolta body which he haggled and got for $45. I used some of the afforementioned money and after getting rebuffed by a wanker counter-person for my monetary offer for a Crybaby pedal, took home a Digitech DSP128 rack mount effects processor for $35 plus tax. Not too bad a deal. It's what you'd expect. A little noisy....it's got delay and chorus which sound OK, but most importantly, a flanger. $35 would have been a good price for a flanger alone; to get it with other stuff is simply a bonus. I spent about an hour tonight playing flange happy butt-rock on the butt-rock Flying V, and some other stuff. I need to learn how to play "Within Your Reach" by The Replacements (like on the "Say Anything" soundtrack); maybe Lisa would think that's pretty cool and we'd, uhhhh, "do it" more often...... Flanger is cool, but I can see how the effect quickly becomes tiring.

Well this has gone on for a long time, and I've spent too long writing it. But I hope you enjoy your update.