The Irish Thug

… eight to go. It’s official, I broke my right pinky finger. For future reference, if you are going to try and stop a lacrosse check with just one finger, don’t use the pinky. It doesn’t work.

In keeping with my habit of not actually posting about something when it happened, I waited about 2 weeks to get this up. I had a big splint on it over the weekend when it happened, which was pretty awkward. But now it now just keeping the last joint from bending (where the fracture is). Going back sometime next week to see how it is coming along. On the whole it could be worse. I can’t write, but I can do most other things with my right hand. Common task that is surprisingly hard with your weak hand: wiping your butt. Non-common task that I am surprisingly good at with my weak hand: Wii Sports.

Last week was my birthday and to celebrate my friends and I went to see Queens of the Stone Age. The show was very good and was the best way I’ve celebrated a birthday in recent history. In an intriguing twist of fates, it was also the bassist’s birthday and according to Wikipedia, we were born in the same year as well. But that’s enough about that, let’s talk about the good stuff.

Joshua Homme is an underrated guitarist. It’s ok, I didn’t know his name either until just before the show. Queens of the Stone Age works essentially on the same level as Nine Inch Nails. It’s Josh’s band and the people he plays with is in a semi-constant rotation. That fact makes the following comment even more amazing. The band as a whole was very tight and always in time with each other. You could see that they were always looking around to catch one another’s eyes to make sure they were in pace with each other.

I went in expecting it to be an Era Vulgaris (newest album) show. I was happily surprised that is was not that at all. They even played some songs that I had not heard before. One of the best songs was Better Living Through Chemistry. It’s one of my favorites of the band, so it was great to hear it live. The lights they used the most were yellow-green and blue strobes that pointed at the audience. The lights were all programed to switch right on the beat of the song, which added to the tightness of the music. While this is a minimal lighting set-up, the performance of Sick, Sick, Sick had one of the best lighting effects I’ve seen. For this song, they added two lights that were pointed at Josh as he played. These two lights would strobe in opposition of each other so it looked like he was turning back and forth every quickly, almost as if two people were standing there.

Other comments on the songs they played go as follows. I would have preferred they use the slot for Feel Good Hit of the Summer for one of their stronger songs. I would have played Suter Up Your Future instead of Make It Wit Chu, but that song went very well so I can’t complain.

On the whole, great show and a great way to celebrate a birthday. Hopefully I’ll be able to top it next year.

…is not up yet and it is not my fault. My end of the website is done. There are a few subjective style changes that could be made, but everything runs.

The reason why the website has not been published yet is because Northeastern Club sports is being slow in giving the team access to server space. Last Monday I sent an email asking for server space. Of the two people that received this email, one emailed me back saying that it was the other person’s responsibility, as he is our supervisor. The reply also stated that all our supervisor had to do was fill out a form online so that the request could be processed.

I did not have any other contact with the team supervisor until I went to talk to him last Friday. He clearly wouldn’t have done anything if I hadn’t gone to see him. He seemed to just vaguely remember that I had sent the earlier email. While I am in his office, he fills out the form and says “next business day, it should be ready”. Next business day means Monday, so I have to wait a few more days.

Monday comes and goes. Tuesday comes and goes. Still no response from our supervisor. On Wednesday I sent an email asking for an update on the status. Again there is no response, so I sent another email Friday morning saying I would be coming by his office to talk to him. He was not in his office at all on Friday.