Andy Laub

Somehow I ended up on an old post I made shortly after getting the Saab, about the things I planned to do to it (strikes added):

1. Alignment, check-up, oil change – scheduled for Monday.
2. Wash, wax, buff out the small clearcoat scratches – as soon as the weather gets nice.
3. New speakers – as soon as I can figure out how to fit the back ones.
4. De-badging – I’m thinking I might remove the “SAAB” and “9-3” from the trunk, but I’m not sure yet.
5. Possibly get some smoked side markers to replace the amber units – I don’t think this would be complicated but I’m on the fence about doing it at all.
6. Replace the black interior door handles with chrome ones – if I can freaking find any.
7. Replace the lower center console – the current one has a hole drilled in it and some scratches, so if I can find a cheap one it might be a weekend project.
8. New tires – maybe around fall, and these would possibly be accompanied by new, larger wheels as well.
9. Look into getting the one larger scratch buffed out – we’ll see how the car holds up before I decide whether professional cosmetic work is worth it.

Huh.

I did this before. Here it goes again:

As January hit Wisconsin, we were running down the middle of the street trying not to fall on our asses. Now that I think about it, that’s a pretty good metaphor for the year.

February took us to Chicago with some friends who used to live there, and we did all kinds of good stuff.

In March I bought a camera and took some pictures.

April was not so great, but in retrospect it was actually not so bad either.

I read a lot of books in May.

In June I loved the iPhone 4. And I still do.

I relaunched this site in July. (Side note: wow, that was only July?)

I rode my first ever half-century in August, which dovetailed nicely with my first ever 500 miles run in July.

On the subject of running, I ran a 10K race (off road!) in September. So much fun!

I accidentally another play in October. Is that bad?

In November, Conan came back and I made a pie. Both were delicious.

December. Miami.

The top ten things I’ve seen in the last 72 hours:

1. Miami Beach, daytime
2. Miami Beach, nighttime
3. Exotic cars being driven ever so casually
4. Exotic cars for rent, should you only need that Rolls Royce for a day
5. A submarine (from the air)
6. Cruise ships (from the highway)
7. The Atlantic Ocean (from the beach)
8. Free in-air WiFi
9. The Miami Opera House, because it’s so cool-looking
10. The Miami International Airport, because it’s so huge*

*I didn’t fly into or out of MIA, but it’s worth mentioning that I was on the phone for about ten minutes at one point and we were driving past the airport the entire time.

Last year I introduced the new year by participating in what had to have been one of the lamest questionnaires ever. This year I feel the need to again look back on the year that has just passed, but I want to do something that’s a little more original. Instead of a bunch of arbitrary questions, I’m choosing one event or experience from each month that has held the most significance in my mind.

The year started strong. January didn’t bring the same drama this year that it brought in 2008 (thankfully). Instead, I get to point out that that was the birth of the current iteration of this website.

February was relatively uneventful as well, aside from preparing for shows. But I did put together some awesome LEGO.

I spent a lot of time complaining about the weather this year, as I was already raring to get back on two wheels when March rolled around. That was only exacerbated by the new toy. The day trip to Minneapolis to pick it up was awfully fun too.

In April I put new wheels on my car. No, I mean I put them on. By myself.

May brought the first of a number of shows last year: The Last 5 Years, in which I was approximately 50% of the cast. It was a great experience and the theatrical accomplishment that I continue to be most proud of.

Then Godspell happened in June, and that was awesome too! Great cast, great technical staff, great venue, and a great show. Probably one of WCT‘s best, ever.

Things wound down a bit in July, but we had the official Godspell reunion / cast party up in Tomahawk. AKA Real World: Godspell. TEXT MESSAGES!

August was a quiet month, so I spent a lot of time on the bike, and did my first (and second!) 40-mile ride(s).

After years of planning and months of labor, Citizen Wausau 2.0 was finally launched in September, much to the excitement of those involved.

In October, I ran.

The only potentially negative item on the list happened in November, when I passed out on stage. Even then, it’s just something that happened, but I don’t think of it as being decidedly “bad”.

I had such a great vacation in December, you guys. Seriously, it was wonderful. Plus it was my birthday!

At the beginning of 2009 and more recently I talked about my efforts to save money and not go crazy buying games. Looking back I would say I did a pretty decent job; I saved myself from a few titles that were definitely not worth buying but still had the opportunity to play through pretty much everything I wanted. Finding a game that you want on sale is an added bonus over just being able to go out and buy it, and practically becomes a game in and of itself. I even managed to mostly abide the “no $60 games” rule, with Forza 3 being an obvious and acceptable exception.

* gift card incentive
** shared purchase

In the past week, two iPhoners friends with iPhones have asked me what apps I’m currently using on my iPhone. And while I’m not writing this down with the pretense that anyone will actually care, I figure it’s a thing appropriate for a blog such as this. Yes, I’ve covered this topic before, but this is a more comprehensive listing that also accounts for my tastes having since changed.

The List

I have my phone divided into four pages, plus the typical quick launch bar at the bottom (Phone/Text/Safari/Mail):

1. Primary Apps (11 + Settings)
2. Secondary Apps (16)
3. Games (8)
4. Web Shortcuts (3)

I’ve decided to include arbitrary ratings for usefulness (how good it is at what it does) and frequency (how often I use it), 5 being the highest.

Recommendations

I’ve already covered Twitteriffic, TWC, and WhitePages Mobile; my reasons for liking them still stand. But here’s a quick rundown of the others:

• CameraBag is a nice little filtering app that makes the photos taken with your phone not look quite so lame. You can either shoot directly from the app itself, or edit photos after the fact. Here’s a quick example: before and after.
• Delivery Status Touch is the best package tracking app I’ve found with support for every delivery service imaginable. As a bonus it’s updatable from the web.
• Aurora Feint: The Beginning is a really fun game, when it works. It used to constantly throw out errors when it couldn’t talk to the server, to the point where you couldn’t even resume a game you were playing. It looks like the original free version had been removed from the store, replaced by Aurora Feint II; perhaps this newer iteration works better.
• Sol Free Solitaire is solitaire, with a few variations. Go play Demon – I’ll see you in a few hours when you realize what time it is.

While I usually try to avoid doing the self-quiz/meme/etc thing, especially on this site, one occasionally comes along that I find genuinely interesting. The latest as such is spreading though Facebook, and simply asks users to share 25 personal facts. As I read a few lists put together by friends and acquaintances, it became apparent that when you start to add up all these relatively miniscule bits of data your result is a good portion of the writer’s personality. It’s not just the actual facts themselves, but the way they’re presented and the fact that those were the points that were included.

With that said, here are some things about me you may not have known:

1. I like a good conversation, but I have a hard time telling people about myself when they say “tell me about yourself.” And I’m awful at small talk.
2. I prefer multiples of 5. I always have – for some reason, that seemed like the ideal number to me. I’m pretty consistent in my work about following this compulsion, as a number like 625 or 630 just makes more sense to me than a number like 627.
3. I never finished college, even though I was there for four years. It would’ve taken another year or so for me to get a degree, and instead I started a full-time job doing the thing that I was originally getting the degree for. Even so, I remember looking at the calendar occasionally and thinking “If I was still in school, I’d be almost graduated, etc”. That feeling has slowly gone away over the years, because…
4. …I’m not convinced having a BFA would put me any further along in my life than I already am.
5. I own a lot of stuff but I feel guilty about it, especially given the current economic situation.
6. I somehow manage to be both hard-of-hearing when somebody is talking to me, and hypersensitive to ambient noise.
7. I am not totally sure how I should be spelling my middle name. For the longest time I thought there was only one T, but there may be two. I continue to use one.
8. It wasn’t until I got to around fifth or sixth grade that everybody started to call me Andy instead of Andrew.
9. I don’t think I know anybody in my family all that well, and while this makes me kind of sad, I also feel as though it’s too late to change that, partially because…
10. …I don’t think anybody in my family knows me all that well either, and I’m not convinced they are that concerned about it.
11. A project as it ends up on paper very rarely lives up to the standard I’ve set in my head.
12. I’ve had a blog since 2002, more for my own sake than anyone else’s. I’m not deluded into thinking anyone else cares that much about what I have to say.
13. I’ve cut my own hair since I got out of high school.
14. I’ve never broken a bone.
15. I didn’t take any serious art classes until college. My electives in high school were geared toward drafting and engineering. I originally wanted to be an architect – sometimes I still do.
16. I would like to live in a house of my own design someday.
17. I feel that there is no such thing as “too much” garage space.
18. I worked at a library in high school – it was my first job. As such, it only supported what was already a pretty voracious appetite for books. However, when I left that job, there was a sort of stigma placed on libraries in general and I while I would happily still read a ton of books, I don’t go to the library to get them and so I end up not reading very much at all.
19. I generally prefer remakes of movies to the originals (sorry). On that subject, I have not seen very many of the movies that people consider to be “the classics.”
20. I rarely prefer movies that were based on stage productions – for all the added budget they seem to lose an awful lot of personality and creativity.
21. I like seeing myself in the mirror but I rarely like photos or videos of me – what I look like in my head is nearly always different than what I actually look like.
22. I am trying to be less of an asshole this year.
23. My favorite musical instrument is the piano. I think it’s one that can contribute something of value to any type of music, and the acoustics of a grand or baby grand are just amazing to me. Close runner up is drums, because I like rhythm. I wouldn’t mind a piano + drums band.
24. I go through spurts of really needing to hang out with people, and then some of wanting to just spend some time alone. It’s not your fault.
25. I have a million grey shirts, I prefer my electronics in black, and I want a white car.

All I can say is that someone with extremely questionable taste must have borrowed my computer, I swear:

1. Spin – Lifehouse
2. 100 Years – Five for Fighting
3. Mandy – Barry Manilow
4. Toxic – Britney Spears
5. Trouble – Pink
6. Na-NaNa-Na – Nelly
7. La La – Ashlee Simpson
8. Little Girls – Oingo Boingo
9. Livin La Vida Loca – Antonio Banderas & Eddie Murphy (Shrek 2)
10. Invisible – Clay Aiken

Terrible music aside, I Twittered recently that it would cost me $135 to upgrade my purchased iTunes music to iTunes Plus. In news that’s both depressing and reassuring, that number has since climbed to $153. Imagine my relief when I read today that iTunes is now offering a la carte upgrades, so I can upgrade the stuff I’m actually glad I bought the first time without having to deal with the guilt that would stem from paying yet again for the shitty songs.

As a bonus, I’ve been able to recover a few songs here or there that managed to lose themselves in my computorial transition last year. The ol’ Powerbook was easily confused and ended up occasionally trying to put music on its internal drive instead of the external where it belonged, and that music was lost when I formatted the machine. I was able to recover a good portion of it either from CDs or off of my iPod (SHHH IT WILL BE OUR SECRET) (also this is why I demand an iPod that will hold my entire library), but upgrading filled in a couple of the gaps that still remained.

The other day Kottke pointed out this thing on MetaFilter that basically talks about quality of life and how it can be dramatically affected by some of the things we use every day.

I find the concept fascinating, and it hits close to home for me. When I reached a point where I became self-sustaining, I started to adopt the philosophy that if I’m going to buy something, I might as well do it right the first time. Otherwise I know that I’ll just regret it down the line, and eventually buy it again. Since then I’ve still found myself burnt on occasion, but that’s not what this post is about. Nope – I think it’s time for a good old-fashioned meme:

• I love my iPhone. I am convinced it is the best phone in existence for me. I realize this is not the case for everyone, but regardless, something you use every day should be something that works with you, not against.
• Intel Macs are phenomenal. I can’t see a reason to go with any other brand for day-to-day computing.
• Get the biggest, nicest, highest-resolution LCD you can afford. There’s no such thing as too much screen.
• High-speed internet should be obvious.
• One year I spent my tax return on a really nice office chair. It’s a Herman Miller Mirra, and it’s awesome. I can’t say that it’s the chair for everybody, but everybody should have a chair that is equally awesome for them.
• Dyson vacuums suck so hard. In a good way, though. Especially the ones with The Ball™.
• The filtered water from our GE Profile refrigerator is the best water I have ever tasted.
• If you’re into TV, then you should have some sort of DVR. We went with TiVo, and will probably be shopping for a TiVo HD shortly. But it’s so nice not to be chained to your TV (or worse, a VCR).
• On that note, Hulu and friends are awesome, but they’re even better when you can watch them on your TV. There are a ton of approaches to this, so whatever works for you. But the ability to lay on the couch and watch the internet go by is key.
• Finally, one of the best things about no longer living in an apartment is a garage. Especially in snow country – I think I cleaned my car off a total of 5 times last season, and I can live with that.

Those are a few that came to mind as I was vacuuming this evening (ha!). What do all y’all think?

I’ve the iPhone from the first time I used one last year. The idea of having the “real” internet and email that didn’t feel like you were reading it on a phone really appealed to me. It truly felt more like a pocket-sized Mac than a typical phone. Since then there’s only been improvement – 3G, GPS, and of course, the App Store. In the past two weeks I’ve downloaded at least a dozen different applications, some good, and some not so good. Instead of reviewing them all, which would be remarkably boring, I want to just share the applications (included and downloaded) that I most appreciate. Disclaimer: this may be just as boring. Also I have not counted the “Phone” and “Text” functions as apps, since they are core functions of any modern mobile phone.

AIM (Free)

Having any instant messaging app at all is nice, as it doesn’t use up my allotted text messages. And at least a majority of my contacts are on AIM to begin with. But here’s hoping for Adium mobile.
Download →

Calendar (Included)

I was a little hung up on how I was going to handle calendars on the iPhone. The built-in calendar works well, but I’ve been using Google Calendar now for about a year and really appreciate its across-the-board accessibility. The problem is that Google Calendar on the iPhone SUCKS and is extremely limited in its functionality. Then I stumbled on this article pointing to a site called NuevaSync, which basically keeps your gCal in step with your iCal. Phenomenal – it’s the best of both worlds.

Mail (Included)

It’s email. Having email on a phone is nice.

NetNewsWire (Free)

I’ll be honest – I’ve never been much of an RSS user. But on a mobile platform it makes so much more sense than accessing sites one by one. NNW has been great in this regard. The only problem is that I haven’t seen a way to add feeds through the app itself – you have to manage them through NewsGator’s web interface. Not a big deal if you’re adding feeds at home, but if you’re out and about and only have Edge, then have fun hoping the page will load. Once it’s done though, it’s fantastic.
Download →

Safari (Included)

It’s the internet. Seriously, I’m not sure what else to say about it, but I love the internet and therefore I love Safari. Duh.

TWC (Free)

It’s The Weather Channel, on the iPhone. Much nicer interface than their website, and loads faster too. Great for checking out the forecast as I’m getting out of bed.
Download →

Twitterriffic (Free)

A nice free Twitter app for the iPhone. Ad-supported (by The Deck), but it works extremely well for the cost of zero dollars.
Download →

WhitePages Mobile (Free)

Why in the world would you not want a built-in phonebook on your phone?
Download →

…that I have found myself looking for in the past month, but cannot bring myself to move beyond that stage for any of them.

• A road bike
• A PS3
• A motorcycle
• A convertible
• A digital SLR
• A piano or keyboard
• Acoustic drums
• An iPhone
• A television
• Peace & quiet

That is all.

Well, here is the finale for 04. It was what I would call a moderately exciting year. Here’s the best stuff:

Events:

• January – I bought my Powerbook and became a full circle Mac user
• February – after months of waiting, we finally move to our new apartment
• March – I got promoted at work, bought a PS2
• August – I decided I couldn’t function without a car
• December – CellOne is done, and I am happy with Sprint

Music:

• The College Dropout – Kanye West
• Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
• Super D – Ben Folds
• The Spine – They Might Be Giants
• Pressure Chief – CAKE

Movies:

• The Incredibles
• The Butterfly Effect
• Napoleon Dynomite
• Kill Bill
• Shrek 2

Games:

• GTA San Andreas
• Half-Life
• Burnout 3: Takedown
• Katamari Damacy
• Sly 2: Band of Theives

Cars:

• Acura TL
• Chrysler 300C
• Land Rover LR3
• Porsche 997
• Ferrari 612 Scaglietti

Stuff We Bought:

• Herman Miller Mirra
• Sony Grand WEGA
• Apple Powerbook G4
• Sony Playstation 2
• Car Insurance
  

It’s officially time for the XMASLIST. Here goes:

1. A car would be nice. Like this one. ($$$$$)
2. Maybe an Xbox. And Halo. ($$)
3. A G5. Loaded or not. + Cinema Display. ($$$ – $$$$)
4. Clothes. Shirts, pants, I don’t care. Shoes too. ($$)
5. Since it’s a wishlist, how about some local Cingular service? (-)
6. And a decent phone. ($$)
7. What’s a wish list without a TV? ($$$$)
8. Drums! ($$$)
9. Money ($$$$$)

Since the move earlier this year, we’ve acquired much of what we wanted. Abe made the excellent point that with most of the stuff we want, we just buy it. I need to stop doing that or start making more money.

Speaking of money, I’ve been sent a lot of fake credit cards as of late – you know, the ones that look real but say “YOUR NAME HERE.” Well, Discover sent one that’s almost not worthy. It’s made of cardboard, kind of to simulate plastic. That is really probably the most pathetic thing I’ve seen. It wasn’t even attached to anything, just floating around in the envelope.

Friday night. Saw the new Mustang. It is definitely one of the best-looking cars this year. First impressions? Bad-ass. Super-wide. Bargain – well, it is if you don’t get a loaded one. I priced one out online last night (GT Manual) with a final result of about $26,000. That’s pretty impressive. Other cars I didn’t know I would really like this year:

• Chrysler 300C / Dodge Magnum
• Nissan Titan
• Subaru Legacy
• Scion tC

Anyway, got bored with my iPod (though they’re not that exciting to begin with) so now it’s German. I know nothing else.

Um, well – I played GTA: Vice City today, to see how it was since I’ve been playing Driv3r for quite some time, and now I don’t know what to think. I really like Grand Theft Auto for its immersiveness (I know I’ve mentioned this prior) but Driv3r, in spite of its numerous glitches, is really a nice-looking game. Furthermore, the controls feel tighter compared than those of GTA. This is purely subjective, but I think Driv3r balances well between the looseness of GTA and the extreme tightness of The Getaway. It will take awhile to get used to again, but I think I can make the sacrifice for San Andreas.

Speaking of websites (who?) – here are some that I’ve recently been enamored with: gtagaming.com; engadget.com; joystiq.com; consolidatedskateboard.com; adultswim.com; elementskateboards.com; toymachine.com; edmunds.com; apple.com; gamespot.com; esfootwear.com; that’s it for now.

And so Adult Swim – what is going on here? This week Seth McFarlane (creator of Family Guy) is showing his four favorite episodes and personally introducing each. Fine – great idea. But so far, two of the three were on last week. Just venting.

I was putting a thing together at work today which, among other things, was featuring a new vendor of ours, ipath. Because of this, I ventured over to their site to check it out, and it is good. There is a section where people can send pics of their ipath shoes. One week, however, they were pretty light on images so they just took random photos of their office, which is probably the funniest thing ever – you don’t generally expect to see “isn’t this the coolest printer ever?” on an action sports site. Also notable, since I’m in this groove, is Alpinestars, as well as Seven2, whose initial ads (which are awesome) had no url on them so for a long while I didn’t even know what they were for. And finally, go get this magazine because it’s cheap and interesting.

I saw this movie/music thing somewhere and figured I’d do it too*:

• opening credits: Never Gonna Give You Up Cake
• dreaming / waking up scene: How It Should Be (Sha Sha) Ben Kweller
• happy friends scene: Bohemian Like You the Dandy Warhols
• driving scene: Hunter Björk
• action/fight scene: Horndog Overseer
• car chase: Date With The Night Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• happy love scene: Hotel Yorba the White Stripes
• mellow scene: Float On Modest Mouse
• sex scene: Stellar Incubus
• angry / bitter scene: Gone Ben Folds
• breakup scene: A Mistake Fiona Apple
• evil / revenge scene: Shiver Maroon 5
• contemplation scene: In Other Words Ben Kweller
• sad / breakdown scene: Look What You’ve Done Jet
• death scene: Flying High Jem
• funeral scene: Winter Tori Amos
• nostalgic scene: The Scientist Coldplay
• closing credits: Supreme Robbie Williams

*If you don’t already have iTunes, you live a sad, sad life.

I rely far too much on both. This blog is just not what I want it to be. Now that I have finally found a design that I like I really need to focus on improving the content. The entries should be statements, not questions as though I’m seeking affirmation for the way I feel about things. I wouldn’t mind hearing as such, but as of now I am done listing and asking unless there’s a very good reason for either.

…and by everybody I mean excurs.us and ten23.net. So without further ado, my list of the ten best cover songs:

U2 – Theme from Mission:Impossible The original M:I theme was great. This version is awesome. I don’t really know why, since it’s just a remake of a theme from an old tv show, but it is definitely cool.

Bloodhound Gang – Kids in America I guess, because it doesn’t sound like the Bloodhound Gang? I think this was originally the Muffs, but I could be way off and I don’t feel like looking it up.

Ben Harper – Strawberry Fields When I was *gasp!* tired of the original, Ben
made it cool again.

Ben olds – In Between Days Honestly? I didn’t know this was a cover. I like the new song and I like the original. PS original by the Cure.

The Wallflowers – I Started a Joke The original (Bee Gees, I think) – boring. This? Not.

Bond – Libertango Orig: Grace Jones. Both good. Bond’s songs are great.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes – Mandy Actually, MFGG’s songs are all incredibly good – what do you expect from a and who makes a rock ballad out of a Barry Manilow song?

Cake –Mahna MahnaAnyone who watched the muppets should know this song. And since everything Cake touches is awesome, who’s to say this is any different? I highly recommend hunting this one down.

Billy Joel’s Movin’ Out OK, so Billy Joel wrote the musical, but the artists (Darren Holden, Matt Wilson, Michael Cavenaugh, depending on what show you see) who perform the songs are fantastic, and the remasters of the originals are incredible. I’d have to say my favorite is Shameless, but the whole CD is great if you’re into Billy Joel.

Santa Esmerelda – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood As good as it gets – I love this song – that Quentin Tarantino is so great at picking out music. From Kill Bill vol. 1, by the way.

PS, happy July, and to get the songs you’ll need iTunes.

And Driv3r has a lot of them. It’s shaping up to be a decent game, although the combat is peppered with areas of frustration, stemming from the sheer randomness of some situations. For example, on your final mission in Miami, you’re required to “shoot your way through” a building with another person on your side. This other person, I swear, is absolutely insane. There were times he’d stay back and do what you’d want him to do (shoot bad guys), but every so often he’d rush ahead and get himself killed or he would shoot me. That’s about the most frustration I’ve experienced so far, barring some vague instructions that left me wondering what to do. All in all, I would recommend the game to anyone who’s into that kind of driving and shooting business, because I certainly am.

And speaking of motorcycles, I watched Mission Impossible 2 the other night. It was decent but I really just like it for the Triumph Speed Triple. In addition to that, and because I haven’t made a list in awhile, here are other good motorcycles:

• BMW F650CS
• Ducati Monster 620
• Harley-Davidson VRSCA
• Honda 599
• Triumph Speed Four

These, with the exception of the Harley, of course, are all 600cc bikes. That means that not only are they cool to look at, they’re attainable (with the exception of the BMW) as well. I really am a big fan of both the Honda and the Triumph specifically, and those will probably be the two main contenders if I start to look at motorcycles over the next couple of years.

There was this one time where I had this blog and I didn’t update it for like two weeks. Wait – that was now. Anyway, here I am with a list of fragmented thoughts:

• scootering is fun, biking is almost as fun, especially with the weather finally getting nicer.
• bought Kanye West’s the College Dropout and Jay-Z’s Black Album. Kanye’s is better.
• also bought the Kill Bill vol . 1 soundtrack – also good.
• also also bought Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. MGS2 is good, Hitman is hard.
• still enjoying the Getaway and eagerly awaiting my reserved copy of Driv3r.
• finally updated my blog with more meaningless blather nobody cares about.
• thinking about a new phone (camera!) but there aren’t any good ones around here. Yet.
• we gave the cat another bath the other day – he liked that a lot
• I need to go rollerblading sometime.
• it’s finally almost summer and I’m happy about that. I think