It is utterly ridiculous that the embedding of YouTube videos is disallowed on xanga. How else am I supposed to share with you the awesome-ness that is Japanese math-rock band Toe? Will have to seriously reconsider a return to Blogger.

Self-Employment tax is a bitch. Okay, government, take 15% of my income. Wait, what do you mean there's an additional 15.3% base SE tax before that? How will I afford my sugar-free cough drops? Jerks!

Among my friends, there has been a recent trend of revisiting college pastimes. Or rather, college-appropriate activities that little-to-none of us actually did in college, but enthusiastically partake in now (e.g. drinking games, costume parties, studying tax law, etc.). I fear one day in an all-too-near future, I will look back on my college days and realize they look like this:


Meanwhile, the job-hunt in New York continues. Any leads, loyal readers? I need to get out of LA before the end of spring - otherwise the Southern California sun will coax me to stay, and those warm summer swells will having me rolling on the west coast until at LEAST September. And we can't have that, right (Can we? Please?)?

(Whaddaya know, Vimeo works!)

Guess I'll just have to keep a line out, and dream of the future until something bites.

Day 35 of fruitless cross-country job-hunting inevitably leads to a revolving door of apathy, frustration, unreasonable optimism, and humility. Nothing like a historic economical meltdown to turn the NYC job market into a zealously Mormon-feminist-misandrist on prom night. Maybe I'll just move to Saskatchewan instead.

Fortunately, in light of all the crushing despair of unemployment, there are always distractions abound on the interwebs.

things I like this week

1. Company of Thieves
Their album Ordinary Riches has pretty much been on constant rotation since I slipped it into the coveted number 1 spot in my car CD changer (actually, the order is pretty much completely random, but there should be some sort of hierarchy implemented in the changer, no?). Check out their Rushmore-inspired video for their song "Oscar Wilde" (featured on the blog!):

- to holidays where all that is required is the presence of family and friends, and lots of good eating.

- to feeling connected, regardless of the space between.

- to finding the song that defines the season.

- to making the moment last.

- to beers with friends, and friends with beer.

- to warmth despite the cold weather (less the sipping-the-open-soda-you-forgot-about-and-has-since-been-sitting-in-the-sun-all-day warm and more the tucked-tightly-under-three-layers-of-blankets-and-wearing-sweatpants warm).

- to reunions and goodbyes, and second tries.

- to finally figuring out where it was you know that song from (gah! finally! it's from Patrick Doyle's Great Expectations score!).

- to birthday wishes.

- to awkward situations, like when someone's chewing gum suddenly ejects itself from their mouth mid-conversation and everything slows down, and you contemplate whether or not it would be rude to dodge, or if it would be best to simply stand there and act as if nothing has happened, even as the chewing gum barrels relentlessly toward the arm of your freshly washed merino wool sweater.

- to leftovers, lots and lots of leftovers.

- to packages in the mail.

- to toasts for no reason, other than the end result being that everybody drinks.

- to shameless self-promotion.

- to you, for being here with me today, and to us, and all that will come to pass before we give our thanks again.

- and to adding your own toasts in the comments below.

l'haim.