Everything has finally been moved over to the new host. I’m with Dreamhost now and really like them so far…TONS of storage space and fast servers, what more could you want?

I’ve also upgraded to Movable Type 3.2 and Gallery 2.0.

In other news, it’s Halloween today and we haven’t had ANY trick-or-treaters. This neighborhood sucks. It’s full of angry old people who won’t open the gates, so no kids come in to take all this candy off of our hands. Even the kids that live here don’t trick-or-treat in the neighborhood! God, this place is dull.

I found a new host and will be moving all the content onto the new server. Might take a few days for me to get Movable Type, Gallery, etc installed and for the DNS to propagate.

Last week, some friends and I went to Knott’s Scary Farm. The night went something like this:

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!”
“Let’s get an icee!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!”
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“Let’s get a caramel apple!”

It was definitely a lot better than I expected it to be. They have a ton of “mazes” spread around the park that you can go into. At first, they were scary because when the park opened there were not a lot of people so you often found yourself walking through this maze alone, with random Knott’s employees jumping at you from above and popping out of the most random areas. It’s funny how something can still be “scary” when you know going in that people are going to be jumping out at you and startling you. Near the end of the evening though, the park was much more crowded, so when you went through the maze you were in a huge line and the scare factor was zilch. Most of the rides were open, too, and they put them in “scary” mode by turning off all the lights inside and having employees setup along the ride routes to jump out of the darkness and scare you. Anyways, it was definitely worth the drive to Orange County land, check it out if you get a chance.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from my advisor at 1:10am PST letting me know that I had successfully completed the requirements for my MSc in Russian & Post-Soviet Studies at the London School of Economics.
Now I can go back to London in December to parade around in a silly hat and gown. Afterwards, I plan to visit all my old pubs and drink Strongbow.

Also, it would be nice to have a job. Please?

This site has been running pretty slowly lately, and I’ve definitely outgrown my 333MB quota over the past year. I’ve been looking at Lunarpages, Midphase, Simplehost, and Bluehost. If you have any experience with those companies or know anything about them, let me know.

Two weeks ago, my friend Kim and I went to the British Sea Power/Killers concert in Long Beach. Over the past few months, I’ve been corresponding via e-mail with Mark, BSP’s (now former) tour manager. He contacted me one day to let me know he used my site to get some info for the band’s upcoming tour to Russia, and we’ve been e-mailing ever since. In September, he told me that BSP would be touring with The Killers out here and asked if I’d like some tickets, so of course I had to take him up on the offer, as I love both bands.

After a long drive on the traffic-laden freeways of Southern California, we arrived at the Long Beach Convention Center. You know what’s odd? I don’t think I’ve ever been to Long Beach. Well, maybe I have a long time ago, I just can’t remember ever being there. Let’s be honest, though, there isn’t much in Long Beach except the Queen Mary, so I don’t feel as if I have a huge void in my life because I haven’t spent a significant amount of time in Snoop Dogg’s hometown.

I picked up the tickets from will call at the window with the “KILLERS GUEST LIST” sign. The employee handed me two pairs of these:

She told us to put the bracelets on right away, as they were our “ticket” but didn’t say anything about the green passes so I asked her what we were supposed to do with them. She looks at me like I’m an idiot, and says “Uhhh…they are your backstage passes.”

“Ohhhh….right, of course.”

Wow, definitely wasn’t expecting that! I’ve never had backstage passes before, so it was pretty exciting.

We got in line, went through the security check…they were confiscating cameras but luckily didn’t come across Kim’s. Actually, they did a rather poor job of finding cameras, as it seemed like everyone and their mom had smuggled them into the venue. When we got in, we checked out the merchandise and food stands. I wanted to get a beer, but paying $10 for a plastic cup of watered down domestic draft seemed incredibly ridiculous. The beer at Angel Stadium seems like a downright bargain compared to that. The opening band, Lemon Sun, had just started playing so we went to go check them out. They were good! (You can listen to some of their songs here). After Lemon Sun, there was a pretty large gap in between them and BSP, so we decided to check out the magical area known as backstage, where they have wonderful things such as free cans of Coke. We went back out to the arena area, and BSP came on shortly afterwards. Here’s the setlist, which I took from another site because my memory is not THAT good:

Men Together Today
It Ended On An Oily Stage
Remember Me
Oh Larsen B
Apologies To Insect Life
How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?
Please Stand Up
Carrion
Lately
Rock In A

This was my first time seeing BSP in concert, and I must say that they are very entertaining because they do the most RANDOM stuff! We were on the floor, near the right end of the stage, pretty close up, so we had a good view of everything going on. Eamon got off the stage and started wandering around, banging his drum with a palm frond. The Killers fans were clearly puzzled. During the performance of “Lately” (a track which is a bit under 14 minutes), the band members started jumping on each other’s backs and pretty much just acting crazy. Noble started climbing the ladder which led up to the rigging for the lights, and then came down and jumped off some equipment in the center of the stage, spilling beer everywhere. It was quite a site to behold.

After BSP finished, there was a bit of a delay while the stage was readied for The Killers. They turned on all the lights in the arena and started playing Frank Sinatra over the loudspeakers. Now, Frank Sinatra has some good music, but Kim and were still like “WTF?”

The Killers came on and played:
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
On Top
Somebody Told Me
Midnight Show
Believe Me Natalie
Change Your Mind
Under the Gun
Smile Like You Mean It
Andy, You’re a Star
Indie Rock n Roll
Mr. Brightside
Everything Will Be Alright
Moonage Daydream
All These Things That I’ve Done

After they played Mr. Brightside, Brandon Flowers, the lead singer said “We’ll be right back” and the band left the stage for a few minutes. Then they came back on and he said “OK, encore!” which was kinda random. During one of the last songs (forgot which one) he told everyone “Let’s see those cellphones” (or something like that) and the crowd got out their phones and started waving them around. I remember thinking “Oh, wow, this is soooo ridiculously southern Californian” but at the same time it looked pretty cool, since the entire arena was dark and filled to capacity (it was a sold-out concert, so duh). And safer than swaying lighters, right?

After the concert, Kim and I headed to the backstage area, where there was already a crowd waiting to get in. Of course, it didn’t help that there were a lot of people in the crowd who didn’t have passes and were trying to talk their way in. You know that part in Wayne’s World where Wayne and Garth have backstage passes to Alice Cooper and have to work their way through the crowd to actually get there? It was kinda like that. There was a group of teenage girls behind us who asked us why we had pink bracelets instead of the yellow ones that signified floor tickets. Before I could mumble an answer that I wasn’t quite sure why they were pink, they saw our passes and started screaming “Oh my God! You get to go backstage!”

“Er, yeah.”

“Oh my God, do you get to meet Brandon?!”

“Uh, well if he is there I suppose we will see him.”

“Oh my God, tell Brandon that we love him!!”

“OK, will do.”

We finally got backstage and walked around a bit to check it out. We saw Yan and Hamilton from BSP, and said hello to them, but they seemed pretty tired, and wandered off somewhere shortly thereafter. We went into another room where everyone was congregating, and there was a huge steel container filled with ice and bottles of Corona (nice!). The problem was, someone had neglected to bring along a bottle opener, and not one person in the room had one on them. How odd is that? There was a very talented lady, though, who did a neat little trick to get the caps off, so beer was finally enjoyed by all present. Brandon Flowers came in, followed by a guy who I am almost positive was Ryan Reynolds. Ryan (or whoever this fellow was) was holding a mini box of Raisin Bran cereal over his head, and violently shaking it back and forth, so that raisins and bran flakes were flying everywhere. Everyone was shaking hands with Brandon, congratulating him on the show, and taking pictures with him. He finally came up to a group of girls, one of which had to pur her heart and soul out to him and tell him all about her internship at MAC cosmetics company (uhh, maybe he uses MAC, I’m not quite sure). Kim and I snagged a picture with him…forgive the fact that I look like a total idiot, I wasn’t even drunk!

The poor guy was so busy talking to everybody that he didn’t even get to finish his beer. Kim and I decided to hit the road for the long drive ahead, and when we were leaving the backstage area, came across Noble from BSP. He was sitting there, strumming on his guitar, with two huge bottles of Blackthorn nearby (the man has good taste in drinks, apparently). We told him we enjoyed his acrobatics with the rigging and he said he would have liked to do more but we are a bit lawsuit happy in America. Yeah, he sure got that right.

Before leaving, we managed to catch the t-shirt people as they were packing up, and purchased some BSP shirts. They have a polar bear on them (some people who went on the DC trip senior year of high school might get a kick out of that) and said “Now go and show the world what the valleys already know” (hence, where the title of this post comes from).

We managed to get back to the desert around 3:30…stopped at Del Taco on the way back…highly recommend their new fish tacos.

It was a great concert, and overall awesome experience, and THANK YOU MARK for making it all happen!

El Capitan tagged me a few days ago and I finally got around to it…I like this one…

Seven things I want to do before I die:
1. Visit all the countries I haven’t been to
2. Fly a MiG over Moscow
3. Live in London for a few more years
4. Acquire a flat in the Old City of Dubrovnik, Croatia
5. Serve in the Peace Corps
6. Ride the Trans-Siberian railway
7. See the Angels go to the World Series (again), but this time watch the games from my owner’s box

Seven things I can do:
1. Kick ass at Trivial Pursuit
2. Make great guacamole
3. Fix my own computer/network
4. Carry three pints of beer through a crowded pub without spilling a drop
5. Pack for travel (seriously, I am the packing goddess)
6. Ignore State Department travel warnings
7. Explain to you why you just paid $50 to fill up your gas tank

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Math (it was always my worst subject in school)
2. Sing or play any sort of musical instrument
3. Sleep on an airplane
4. Listen to country music without ripping my hair out
5. Read “Das Kapital” without falling asleep
6. Dance
7. Travel at/below the posted speed limit

Seven things I say a lot:
1. Dude
2. Can I have a side of ranch dressing with that?
3. Davai, Davai, Davai!
4. Whatever
5. I’ll have a pint of Strongbow
6. …and a packet of salt & vinegar crisps
7. Like

Seven things I find attractive in a male:
1. Accent (certain ones, like…ummm English)
2. Eyes
3. Democrat (but negotiable)
4. Likes to travel to strange and exotic places
5. Good sense of humor
6. Wears business suits with pink shirts or ties
7. President/CEO of a large corporation

Seven celebrity crushes?
1. HUGH GRANT (it’s the accent)
2. Colin Firth
3. George Clooney
4. Jon Stewart
5. Rob Lowe
6. Brian Williams (yes, the news anchor)
7. Bradley Whitford

Seven people who must do this tag, or else…:
1. Ryan
2. Emily
3. Cincy
4. Kim
5. Cindy
6. Christopher
7. Rachel

I’m heading off to “the OC” in a few hours to go to Knott’s Scary Farm (OMG, I am, like, totally scared). I’ve lived in SoCal for how many years and never been to this! Will post tomorrow about BSP and the Killers.

Wow, that was a horrible series for the Angels. Was this really the same team that beat the Yanks in the ALDS?

The only time I saw Vladimir Guerrero hit was in that damn overplayed Pepsi commercial with Alex Rodriguez.
Kelvim Escobar might want to spend some time with Little Leaguers…maybe they’ll demonstrate how to properly tag a runner out.

As for the umpires, yeah, they made some horrible calls in this series, but that still doesn’t excuse the complete lack of offense on the part of the Angels. That said, I still hate Doug Eddings.

Also, I partially blame this on Arte Moreno for changing the name to “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim”, therefore totally screwing with karma. Everyone knows that God hates the hell hole city of Los Angeles, and thus everything associated with it. God therefore hates the Angels. Change the name back, Arte.

One thing I’m looking forward to, though, is a World Series free of any annoying east coast teams (read: Boston and New York). Congrats to the Sox on their victory, and best of luck in the World Series.

So…hockey is back this year, how ’bout them Ducks?

On Friday I went to my first postseason baseball game at Angel Stadium. As you can imagine, the opportunity doesn’t come very often for this Angels fan.

First, I’ve never seen so many people at a game before. The last time I personally saw the stadium so full was back in 2000, when I went to an Angels-Yankees game and 2001 for an Angels-Dodgers game. Second, I’ve never seen so many ANGELS fans there. Usually, when you go to a game at Angels stadium, you get a lot of transplants who come to the game and root for their home team. At this game, though, there was tons of RED and hardly any Sox fans. They gave out thundersticks and everyone was banging them together, yelling, on their feet, and LOUD. Needless to say, a lot sure has changed over the past few years.

Our seats were in right field, which was great because that happened to be where umpire Doug Eddings would be positioned. Eddings, if you don’t know, was the villian in the controversial ALCS game 2. As you can imagine, he received a verrrry warm welcome from everyone when the umpires were introduced. Throughout the game, whenever the ball would go anywhere near Eddings and he would make a call, the crowd would boo him and chant “You suck! You suck!” One girl in our section had a sign that said “DOUG U R FIRED” but stadium security took it away from her. The crowd booed the security guard and one guy started shouting “Communist!” at him, which was hilarious. In between innings, two Anaheim police officers stood by Eddings, but I honestly wouldn’t have expected any trouble, as Angels fans are pretty laid back. You don’t see our fans leaping onto the field and attacking base coaches, do you?

I loved being back at Angel stadium, eating the overpriced hot dogs and nachos, and drinking a large Mountain Dew from a plastic cup I would add to my collection. It’s something you don’t get in the UK because a) no baseball, b) Brits don’t know what nachos are, and c) no Mountain Dew. I loved seeing the silly Rally Monkey videos they show, even though the A/V guys were breaking the Rally Monkey rules and brought him out when there was not, in fact, a rally. I love having a guy named Vladimir on my team so I can yell “Vlady, Vlady!”, which I never thought I would be yelling at a baseball game. Hockey, yes, but baseball? I’ve never met a Vladimir that wasn’t from Eastern Europe, and there’s not many Eastern Europeans playing pro ball (uh, are there any?)

Anyways, the Angels lost that game 5-2, and they lost tonight’s game 8-2. Santana’s pitching was all over the place, and the Angels offense is COMPLETELY MISSING IN ACTION. Combine that with a few blown calls by this inept umpire crew, and you’ve got the Angels facing elimination in Sunday’s game.

As for me, tomorrow I am heading off to see the Toyota Indy 400 at the California Speedway, so maybe I’ll have some pictures of that. My next post will be about the awesome British Sea Power/Killers concert I went to last week!

From the WashPost:

In that case, Santana, a 12-game winner who had not appeared in any of the first four games of the series, was a pretty decent spare part to have just lying around the garage.

At that point, they can sleep as long as they want, but it will be the sleep of the haunted.

Tonight, the ANAHEIM Angels face off against the White Sox in Chicago. I still call them the Anaheim Angels because their official name, “The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” is ridiculously stupid and an insult to the residents of Anaheim that have supported this team throughout its 40 year history in that city. ANAHEIM IS NOT IN LOS ANGELES and is, in fact, in ORANGE COUNTY. When I’m an oil baron, I’m going to buy the team from Arte Moreno just so I can change the name back to Anaheim Angels.