With your help, we increased the traffic from my site to Shipwire by 550%. Who knew I had you trained so well?

As a reward, I will introduce you to The Hold Steady. I was just turned onto them this morning and they are knocking me on my ass. My favorite song right now is Stuck Between Stations, which reminds me of Springsteen mixed with some of the 80s Minnesota punk-rock bands. The video is below:

Don’t say I never gave you nothin’.

Yep, it’s one of those “I haven’t been blogging” posts. I like to think of them as the blog equivalent of the sitcom “clip show”. Remember when….

• Over on the Dilbert Blog, Scott Adams blogged about a comic called Basic Instructions. I’ve really been enjoying go back through the archives. Some of my favorites include How to write a self-evaluation, How to explain a plan, How to use the universal comeback, How to create and wear a memorable Halloween costume, and How to pitch a movie idea.
• The new Matt Nathanson album Some Mad Hope came out yesterday (well, today, but yesterday is when my preorder arrived), and it is just fantastic. It has been in constant rotation ever since I opened it.
• I also bought Bubba Ho-Tep (Hail to the King Edition) from Best Buy. I love that movie ("They dyed me this color!"), and the packaging is excellent. The DVD box has a sleeve that looks like the Elvis shirt in the movie. Also, there’s a commentary of “The King” himself (Bruce Campbell does it in character). Fantastic.
• The new job is going great. I checked in my first files, which is always an exciting milestone. Also, my Mac is so very sexy. We have a fully-functioning development environment set up, so I can work even without internet access. Very nice.
• While working on this blog entry, I won $40-something playing online poker. I would have been more, but I let my focus slip while making some of the above links and made a dumb play. Still, it’s nice to be reminded that I’m okay at poker when I’m running bad and not playing as much.
• Of course, none of these things even hold a candle to Peru. Rachel and I leave in about 16 1/2 days for our 18 day trip. We’re both a little crazed with final plans and shopping and such things, but it’s shaping up to be the experience of a lifetime. If you want a postcard, make sure I have your address before I leave!