8.29.2002

We were quite pleased to accept a new roommate into the house the other night:



We lived happily with this little critter for about 15 seconds before I got tired of him crawling on the kitchen counter and heading for the Fig Newtons, the greatest cookie ever invented. So I took the Living/Arts section of Tuesday, August 27th's Boston Globe and I seperated the insect into approximately 15,234 pieces.


posted by Jeff Copetas

8.28.2002

Freshman year in college. Oh, the days. What the hell did I do in college?


posted by Jeff Copetas

8.27.2002

Couple of things today:

1. I really would like to go to Australia at some point in my life. Did you know that I have never - ever - been away from North America? The furthest I've been out of the States is Toronto, Canada. That's embarassing, because I love to travel. I've driven around the country, I've flown a hell of a lot, blah blah blah, but I've never been the UK? Ireland? Anywhere? No, no and no. Anyway, I mention Australia because they have one hell of a sense of humor - I mean, how funny is this? Classic stuff.

2. A couple of bands that need to be recognized (probably 10 years too late): Mark Lanegan was the lead singer for one of Seattle's best bands, The Screaming Trees. The Trees, unfortunately, were bitten by the one-hit wonder bug when their song "Nearly Lost You" ended up on the soundtrack to the excellent movie "Singles" back in 1991 or so. However, that band had about 20 songs that just killed "Nearly Lost You," so it's too bad that nobody really heard any of their other stuff, because they were one hell of a powerful band. Well, all along Lanegan has been releasing solo albums, which are a 180-degree departure from the kind of music the Trees were doing. Where the Trees were all power chords and fuzz, Lanegan's solo stuff was quiet, etheral and acoustic - and phenomenal. His deep, gravelly voice is much better suited for his quiet, catchy tunes, which you can find on any of his superb solo albums. Start with I'll Take Care Of You and while you're at it, get the Screaming Trees 1994 album, Dust. You will thank me. Sure, grunge is more-or-less dead, but these works transcend that stuff. My favorite quote from the grunge era is Kurt Cobain acknowledging within the liner notes of their album "Incesticide" that Nirvana was "the Cheap Trick of the 1990s." How true.


posted by Jeff Copetas

8.26.2002

This is truly amazing.
posted by Jeff Copetas

Hi. My name is Jeff. Yesterday we went to downtown Boston and walked through a portion of the new underground tunnel, part of Boston's Big Dig construction project - the largest construction project the world has ever seen. It was pretty incredible. We ended up 120 feet below the city of Boston, below the subway system, above the new Silver Line bus system, and under Boston Harbor. They've been working on this project for 17 years now, and to finally see part of the finished project is quite exciting. I cannot wait to finally drive through it - it truly is a modern marvel. Initial counts on the news had 600,000 people showing up for the free mini-tour, and it sure felt like it.

This is pretty good stuff. My favorite quote is the one closest to the bottom - genius.......
posted by Jeff Copetas

8.23.2002

Picture time! Here's me jumping off a bridge in Martha's Vineyard a couple of weeks ago (don't worry, there was water to fall into):



This is Sloan, one of the finest rock bands on the planet (Earth) playing in Boston last month:



And here's me clapping along to a wonderous slice of delicious rock and roll from Sloan that night:



posted by Jeff Copetas

8.21.2002

So I'm in the bathroom at work today (we share a bathroom with two other companies) and I'm standing there at the urinal, peeing, and I see that the mailman walks in with a bin of mail. Fair enough. I'm sure even the postal service workers occasionally get the urge to relieve themselves during the course of their treacherous workday. So he looks at me and says "you work for Ask Jeeves, right?" I inform him that yes, I do, work for Ask Jeeves, and he must notice the puzzled look my face. After all, it's the first conversation I've ever had with a mailman in a bathroom about where I work. So he pulls a huge box out of his mail bin and says, "would you mind just bringing this up to the office, then?" He then hands me the box. Incredible!

So check this out - some dude is essentially having a lottery - whoever sleeps with him last is the winner.

And finally, I love this story. In fact, I love all stories about stupid, or incredibly unlucky, criminals, as is the case here. What a bummer. The guy's just trying to make a living, right?! Hah.
posted by Jeff Copetas

8.19.2002

Oh, hello there. Not-so-seriously - my apologies for my absence again. I had to be in San Jose, CA for work last week and then I was in New Hampshire to visit my parents over the weekend. There's little opportunity for blogging when you're working, dining clients, then flying home to find the temperature somewhere around 347 degrees and then immeadiately driving two hours to visit my parents, you know? However, all this tripping was guaranteed to give me a few highlights, and here you go:

I seem to have acquired a new taste for jumping off things into water. Not just wimpy two-foot diving boards, either. While I was in Martha's Vineyard, I made a few jumps off a 15-foot bridge into the water below (picture coming soon, actually!). That must have activated some kind of daredevil gene that I never knew I had, because I am usually quite wimpy when it comes to things involving heights. Nonetheless, a year ago I wouldn't have even considered jumping off my dad's boat, but my new Vin Diesel ballsy-ness has allowed me to run across the bow and just leap right over the railing into the water - probably about 10-15 feet. Sweet! Who knows when I'll strike next?

Highlight of flying to Los Angeles last week: one of the flight attendants (male) walked up to the gate before we boarded and I noticed that his hair was all blond, spiky and out-of-control, and I thought to myself, "this guy must be a Rod Stewart fan." So we start boarding, and he picks up his bag, and sure enough, there's all kinds of pictures of Rod Stewart ALL over his bags. Backstage passes, pictures of he and Rod, all kinds of stuff. And he has hair just like him. Hmmmm. A male Rod Stewart groupie? Pretty funny.

Speaking of gays (did I just say that?), I read in the Globe yesterday that the New York Times will start publishing same-sex unions on their wedding announcement pages. About damn time. The Globe, however, was "still reviewing their policies," which translates to "we're still stuck in 1962." Just do it for chrissakes. Who cares if you're gay anymore? In 10-15 years, it will be no issues. Just think about all the gay characters on TV now and all the gay spokespeople out there. The "next" generation of kids won't even bat an eyelid. Or a false eyelid, for some of 'em. Hah.
posted by Jeff Copetas

8.8.2002

Every now and then I'll go over to Au-Bon-Pan and pick up a fruit cup (grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew). Sidenote: I am on a pretty insane diet for absolutly no reason. I'm not even close to overweight, I work out 3 times a week and I pretty much eat right. Yet, I'm still on a diet - every morning I mash all kinds of fruit together with some protein powder and orange juice and I make smoothies. I righteously avoid sweets - most of the time. I mean, I'm not insane about it, but I do occassionally stuff pieces of cake or pie into my mouth. I generally eat enough vegetables, although I suppose I could increase that a little.

Oh, anyway, so I go over to Au-Bon-Pan and get a fruit cup, right, and I open it up and start shoving nature's candy into my mouth. Hello, delicious little red grape. Nice to eat you, succulent, bright orance, juice cantaloupe. And major props to you, Honey Dew, for brightening up the fruit cup with your flourescent green tinge and refreshing, distinctive taste. Hi there, watermelon - but wait - you're littered with those disgusting black seeds. I can't eat those, and I refuse to obsessively stick my fingers into my mouth continuously and pull out black watermelon seeds while sitting at my desk. Forget it, dude. And hell no, I certainly won't be performing any raucous displays of spitooning them into my trash basket from my desk. No way, San Jose. So why can't Au-Bon-Pan just take the frickin' seeds out? Why can't they? Huh? Huh? Why? Oh, how I like the fruit cup, though. And I got a salad. Au-Bon-Pan is pretty good. They used to own Panera Bread, which is MAJOR-LEAGUE bad-ass. My favorite lunch place!
posted by Jeff Copetas

8.7.2002

"Waaahhhhhhh" goes the sound of the hundreds of thousands of RustedRobot fans who read my site. I've been gone a while, yeah, but even 'ol Jeffo needs a vacation now and then, so we packed up that hunk 'o crap we call a truck......and we headed to Martha's......Vineyard, that is. And let me tell you, six straight days on the beach has rejuvenated me. I told my girlfriend on the drive down there that my goal for the week was to return to the mainland looking like an African-American (I can say that, right?). Well, I think I came close to my goal. Six days on a beach will do that to you.

I'm driving to work today and I thought of a completely genius idea. Not only is it genius, it's also selfless and heartwarming, which is really quite shocking for a nasty capitalist like me. Of course, nasty capitalism does play into it in the end, but check it - you know how your old college seems to find you no matter where you go? I've moved three times in the last 3 years, and it's like Kent State has personal satellites or private investigators on me or something, because they seem to know my new address like 6 years BEFORE I move. Well - here's what you do. You employ the alumni offices of every university in the United States to find missing children. Shit, they could find most of these missing children within 30 minutes, I bet, since they seem to find their alumni within 15 seconds. Easy, huh? It's my idea. I'm trademarking it. And while it's great that millions of lost, runaway or abducted children would be tearfully and cheerfully (most of them would be cheerful, anyway) reunited with their families, I'd get rich because it was my idea. I thought of it first. So there. I'm back. Hi.
posted by Jeff Copetas

8.5.2002

Just got home from vaca - post soon. Hi.
posted by Jeff Copetas

posted by Jeff Copetas