Tumblr Exodus!

Hi Steven, plus the one or two other people who read this :)

I'm moving to tumblr, so you might have to update your RSS links if you still want to follow me:

http://blog.rodarmor.com

Life in Xela

Every day is pretty much the same:

7:15a Alarm goes off
7:45a Mama Cony yells, "VAS A COMER?!" - "ARE YOU GOING TO EAT?!"
7:55a Eat Breakfast lovingly prepared by Mama Cony
8:10a Arrive, late as always, to Spanish school
1p FINALLY finish Spanish classes. Jesus, 5 hours 1 on 1 is a killer
1:15p Eat lunch with the fam. I will make halting conversation, while the other American, Douglas, will look on, dumbfounded.
2:30p shower with the pathetic electric shower head (truly, a masterpiece of Guatemalan engineering)
4p take a salsa class (I still suck, but soon.. Dance floor carnage!)
5p Use the internet for a couple of hours
7:30p eat dinner with the fam. I've pretty much gotten used to the traditional Guatemalan dinner of beans, eggs, and tortillas.
8:30p go out, maybe. If so, mama cony will probably express light exasperation, ask me where my keys are, and make me promise not to get robbed.

First joke in Spanish!

I was eating dinner with my Guatemalan family yesterday (super late, because I passed out for 8 hours right after I got there). Mama Cony, mi madre guatemalteca, has all these cow tchotchkes, including a salt and sugar dispenser that look like beatifically reclining cows. However, she had washed them earlier, and they were on their sides. So, I said, "Ay caramba! Tus vacas!" And started setting them upright, like they were injured or something. All present were at least mildly amused.

Top Thirty

I was in the library, just about to get down to working on the BSC's broken online application and reservation system. Instead though, I wrote a script to extract some statistics from my iTunes library. Oh well, they can't all be productive days...

Top 30 artists by total play count

Harold Budd:           881
Uakti:                 784
Yoko Kanno:            727
The Sea and Cake:      713
Andrew Pekler:         577
Boards of Canada:      551
Sam Powell:            510
Richard Bone:          508
Ten and Tracer:        433
Goldfrapp:             419
Capcom:                340
The Beta Band:         334
Talking Heads:         318
To Rococo Rot:         306
Juana Molina:          283
nagz:                  271
Brian Eno:             235
Spoon:                 233
Kraftwerk:             233
Moby:                  229
I Am Robot And Proud:  228
Familjen:              219
Hossein Alizadeh:      218
Royksopp:              208
Plej:                  192
José González:         191
Geinoh Yamashirogumi:  187
DJ Shadow:             187
Koji Kondo:            179
Queen:                 177

And, just in case you'd like to assemble a playlist that's representative of my musical tastes, here we have the most played song by each of those artists:

Harold Budd - Luxa - Nove Alberi
Uakti - Aguas de Amazonas - Purus River
Yoko Kanno - Music for Freelance - Space Lion - 4 Hero Remix
The Sea and Cake - The Fawn - Sporting Life
Andrew Pekler - Cue - On
Boards of Canada - BOC Maxima - An Eagle In Your Mind
Sam Powell - Shadowrun - Mortimer Reed
Richard Bone - Joy of Radiation 12" - Radiation
Ten and Tracer - An Hour Brighter - Next Sun
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry - Train
Capcom - Mega Man 3 - Magnetman Stage
The Beta Band - Heroes to Zeros - Space
Talking Heads - Popular Favorites - I Zimbra
To Rococo Rot - staubgold - mit dir in der gegend (sehr)
Juana Molina - Segundo - El Desconfiado
nagz - Nagz's CV - GardenGuardin'Gordon
Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain - China My China
Spoon - Girls Can Tell - Take the Fifth
Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express - Europe Endless
Moby - Play: The B Sides - Sunspot
I Am Robot And Proud - The Electricity In Your House Wants To Sing
Familjen - Det Snurrar I Min Skalle - Det Snurrar I Min Skalle
Hossein Alizadeh - Torkaman - Daramade Rast
Royksopp - Melody AM - Poor Leno
Plej - Electronic Music From The Swedish Leftcoast - Lay Of The Land
José González - In Our Nature - Time To Send Someone Away
Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira OST - Exodus from the Underground
DJ Shadow - The Private Press - Six Days
Koji Kondo - Super Mario Bros 3 - Nervous Breakdown BGM
Queen - Greatest Hits - Under Pressure

Oh Yeah, Oh No

I've had a song stuck in my head on and off for at least two years. I mean, it wasn't really stuck, it was just this song that I knew that I didn't know the name of. It infuriated me, and I would hum it sometimes, which just infuriated me more.

Well, today, at 10:50pm, I finally figured out what it was. Turns out it was Oh Yeah, Oh No, by Add N to (X). Now that I know, I feel like a more complete human being.

How to make dinner*

*assumes you are Casey Rodarmor

1. Get home to your coop at 3:30am after 8 semi-productive hours of studying and wasting time at Soda Hall

2. Make two open faced sandwiches, each consisting of half a bread roll spread with some sambal oelek from the gigantic jar in the fridge, and a whole avocado

3. Eat your sandwiches standing up in the kitchen while listening to this song over and over again on your ipod. Make sure you're mouthing the lyrics, dancing spasmodically, and thinking about writing this post

4. Go to sleep

PS Just kidding, don't go to bed. Instead, read about databases for an hour or two.

I made a video

It is a mash up of lectures and presentations given at UC Berkeley. <link>