reconnaisance

completed on a day with nothing else i felt like doing, typed on a night where i had nothing else i felt like doing. went for a nice walk today through the neighborhood and a little beyond, including a stroll down the 'avenue of technology', a.k.a. market street. there wasn't much in the way of technology, and the street reminded me of wealthy, zero to shit in like a quarter mile. in fact, my apartment here kind of reminds me of my place on wealthy except the whole apartment is split in half and stacked on top of each other instead of the bathroom being split in half. further info on apartment move-in scores: there is a trash can, which i had thought about needing right before i looked through the place again. hell yes. also, most intriguing is... mystery metal. no, not me (although the re-metaling has begun, more on that later), but this really inexplicable thing in the kitchen of my new place. i've talked to a couple people, racked my own brain, and engaged in some serious peering, but nothing really comes to mind. check it out: about eight inches or so off the floor in my kitchen is the bottom of this compressed metal accordion-rack type thing. it is clearly very old, and it doesn't compress entirely correctly, but it begs the question of what in the hell it could possibly be. my sister and ben will get a good look at it tomorrow when i get to for real move in, so maybe one of them will have an insight that my limited drawing and explanatory skills could not provide. if not, you had better get your ass out here. you've got some 'splainin to do. yeah, that's right, you. tell me what that shit is.
but serious sources indicate some sites of significance in the area. there's the nearby cvs of which i was already aware, but it is still pretty handy. lots of restaurants to check out, usually a few of every kind. few pizza places, few chinese places, few more interesting places, indian, ethiopian, soul food, etc. and some place with a 25 cent wing night with 20 flavors to choose from. soooo hitting that up. surprising and definite lack of mexican restaurants, however. i don't really know what is up with that. there really don't seem to be many hispanics around, not compared to home. nothing is bilingual here either, which i find kind of strange, surprisingly, since it is not like spanish is my first language, or even one i know a damn thing about. still, a noticeable difference from back home. another odd thing is that although being a food establishment is what allows a place to sell beer to-go, but only the pizza places really seem to be the venues offering this option. i'm sure there is some underlying logic there as well.
i found my laundromat, which is further away than i would have expected or hoped, but it really is not that far at the end of the day. i don't think i've ever patronized a laundromat before; i don't know why there isn't any laundry in the basement of my building, but i'm sure there is a good reason for that too. i haven't gone in the laundry place yet, but that day will come. so far, all i know is that it shares space in a mini-mall with a porn shop called risque, which had big sign proclaiming that you should "get your risque gift cards here". it also had a large piece of graffiti alerting everyone that "corporate media lies". great graffiti for the front of a porn shop if you ask me.
more importantly, i think, i located my nearby "beer distributor", which is the place you have to go if you would like to purchase more than twelve beers in a single transaction. however, i hear the price break is not that great. we'll see about that, i'm mostly curious about the selection. all i know for sure is that they offer keystone light half barrels for fifty bucks. not going to be taking advantage of that deal any time soon, but it is somehow comforting just to know it is out there. yet another pizza and sub shop is right next to said beer distributor, and they also offer the four tall boys of beck's for five bucks. and for the first time, i noticed a price scaling that made sense in regards to beer purchase here. six packs of pbr tall boys five dollars. hell yeah. although the house that's the best across from my place does offer two for five forties as well.
also located the nearest grocery store, which i also did not enter just yet. however, the name has me excited enough. the place is seriously called supreme shop 'n' bag. what more do you need to know? my sister does her groceries there, so it can't be too bad. unfortunately i don't think i will have her situation where the guy at the fish and meat counter never lets her pay full price. today, she got charged full price and the guy chased her down like five minutes later (she was still in the store, it isn't that crazy) to give her two bucks cash. she was a little weirded out, but my position is hey, it's two bucks, fuckin take that shit. just like how i save seven dollars if i pay rent before the first of the month. i'll take it. but yeah, SUPREME shop 'N' bag.
most importantly i found my concert venue. there is a place not all that far away called world cafe live, and i had heard the name in some tapes, but looking at the lineup they have posted for they next couple of months is pretty impressive. tea leaf green, jacob fred jazz odyssey, project object, robert fripp, agent moosehead, lotus, and that's just the shit i've already heard of that i would like to check out. i just missed drive by truckers the other month there, unfortunately, and u-melt as well. but it is reasonably priced for most things and really quite nearby. i'm looking forward to checking it out proper; that tlg show is like next week already. i am excited to see those guys, i wrote them off at first but a serious consideration of their sound and ability has me questioning that. anyway, it should be fun, and lord forbid i might actually meet people i don't go to school with. maybe even some, uh, people, you know. i like to have people i know, who have people they know. i don't know if that exactly counts as "social networking", but i like to have that sort of thing together.
speaking of social networking, it is one of the skills some bullshit on npr listed "the millenials" as having. that's right, if you are a "twentysomething", you're a millenial, which means you are high-risk, high-demand, and high-output in the job market. you expect more than you deserve, and it is because you've been coddled your whole life. that's right, everyone who is within a decade of being born with someone else is the same as them. never mind actual age, economic status, ethnic group, whatever, we're all the same. and fortunately for us, some good folks out there have broken it down in an economically useful manner for the good folks who hire people. FUCK YOU WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THE TERM AND DOUBLE FUCK YOU TO WHOEVER PERFORMED THE STUDY. this is a prime example of the perpetuation of selective stereotyping of groups. in a culture of political correctness, this must be done very specifically and with a defined intent - we're not claiming to make assumptions, it's just the numbers... that shit just gets me. really really bad. so thanks for reading this, if you're between 20 and 30. we're the same, so i'm sure it all makes great sense. fuck you npr for airing that. i'll save my npr rant for later.