Never gonna fall for Modern Love...
- David Bowie

I spent a pleasant afternoon with Anne yesterday. And, thank you God for it! I was at an end with reality, to be honest.

Last week, Jake wasn't at the Grill. He quit, and it made things mighty hard on The Jay... I spent the week baking glorious desserts and breakfast pastries, trying desperately to hang on to what was left of my sanity. I worked with Pat, Kelly and Larry with Theresa nagging us all the way. It was rough. Well, maybe not "rough" but just disappointing. It was a moment of drama I simply wanted all of us to avoid and it smacked us all in the face.

Plus there was other shit going on. Musicians Friend was jerking me around with my new soundcard (Which I'll get to momentarily) and Billy left for Europe, among many other things. To top it all off, I hadn't heard from Anne in like two weeks so I had figured that was the none-to-subtle way of giving me the ole "Fuck Off".

But, like all bad storms they generally give way to sunshine. (Unless you live in Ohio where Storms give way to Drought. We love it here!) First, I received my copy of "A cooks Tour" by Anthony Bourdain from Amazon.com. Already I'm wound up in this book. As you all know, his book Kitchen Confidential changed my life. Then, Monday, Anne calls me, apologizes quite thoroughly for not calling me for so long, and asks me out to a movie. Yesterday, I baked a bad-assed Blueberry Buckle at work and it was EXCELLENT! And to top it all off, my Turkish coffee arrive from TasteofTurkey.com!

After work, I came home, cleaned up and went and saw Van Helsing with Anne. She bought my ticket without my OK, so I bought her dinner at El Zarrape and we talked for a good long time. We split a fried cheesecake and talked about controlling relationships.

When she dropped me off at my house, she gave me the "Friend-Hug" but the afternoon in general made it seem like something more. I dunno, we will see, wont we?

After she left, Baxter came over and he and I talked for a while. I brewed an AMAZING pot of Turkish Coffee and we smoked clove cigarettes while listening to an old Mix Tape I found in a box. (Stuff like Dean Martin and Mel Torme...)

Today, to my pleasure, I received my new Soundcard from SamAsh.com. I am the proud owner of the M-Audio Quattro. Zero Latency, 4-in/4-out, Direct Monitoring goodness. I was originally going to get the M-Audio MobilePre but this was so much better for the exact same price.

I shouldn't be so happy about acquiring material shit, but I had a hell of a time getting that soundcard and I'm just happy things are smoothing out. Now, I'm thinking about Anne and I know that later this year I want to go down to Florida and see Jim and Maria. Plus I want to do a big run out to Colorado for a few days to see Troy, then down to SD to see Edwards. It's a lot of planning for me right now, but hey... Ive got my faith and plenty of time.

"I have to say it was a good day..."
- Ice Cube

Det. Green: Did they find a murder weapon in there?
Det. Briscoe: Not unless you count the worlds most boring record collection...

I'm a big fan of Law & Order. Billy once mentioned that it's probably because it's the only sense of justice in my life.

I was a little put off when I heard they were taking Jerry Orbach off the show. Through out the whole series, I've liked his character the best. The revolving door cast of members has always been interesting (Paul Sorvino was a pimp...) but Orbach played the character I wanted to grow up to be. Cynical, flawed, and weary of everything except his gun - but a defender of the peace.

It's unfortunate that NBC is screwing with their entire schedule of shows. I'm not terribly upset about 'Friends' going away, but tanking 'Fraiser'? I wasn't a big fan of that show but, c'mon... A Hit Show is a Hit Show! And don't even get me started about 'Scrubs'! I love that show but the last three episodes really pissed me off.

And now L&O is 'moving' Orbach over to the 4'th spin-off show; Trial By Jury. That won't be so bad, messa thinks... Plus, I have to admit that I'm kind of psyched for who they got to replace Briscoe.

Ladies and Gentlemen... Dennis Farina! Dennis Farina is one of those underused but overly amazing actors. Snatch? Big Trouble? How about in the movie Out of Sight when Michael Keaton walks in wearing a shirt that says FBI in big bold letters and Farina asks him: "Gee Ray, do you ever wear one that says: UNDERCOVER?"

I'm not much for TV outside of the Simpsons and L&O. Yes, I do watch more than just those two shows, but those two are the only ones that I've ever taken a serious interest in. I've been quoting the Simpsons for a long time now, and I got hooked on L&O after Hannah dumped me off. (Hey, it's a better addiction thank crank or blow or smack!) Thank God for TNT. Unless the damned NBA playoffs are screwing with my schedule, I'm generally guaranteed 3-5 episodes a night. I only wish I got USA with my cable package so I could watch SVU too.

'Eh. I need to start downloading as much of the L&O franchise as possible so I can sit in front of my TV all night drinking Turkish Coffee and continually re-enforcing the notion that Diane Neal, Elisabeth Rohm and Stephanie March are three of the hottest women on TV - Ever. Awww Yeah...

Let it be...Let it be...
- The Beatles

Alright.
I'm not going to go so far as to say Fuck Sony, but I'm very close. I can't really freek out too hard about all of this, then again - Yes I f**king can!

Here's the story kids: The write-head on my Sony Net MD (Mini Disc for those of you from Lakota) has died. Inevitable, really. I've used that thing for more than two years and I've loved it completely. And it still plays my discs, too. It's just that I can no longer record to disc without killing an entire mix - Which I'll get to shortly.

What is pissing me off to no end is Sony's brilliant strategy for helping out of this dilemma. (Not to mention losing my favorite mix disc in one clean sweep.) I called Sony and went through the whole Support phase of fixing my problem. I knew it wasn't the software but hey, better safe than sorry. After about twenty minutes of this foreigner speaking in complete gibberish, she deducted with her mighty mental powers that the write-head "got some-tang wrong wit at..."
Her solution, was Sony's standard replacement plan. For a "small fee", she said, they would send me a refurbished older model of the NetMD and I would send them mine. This sounded good to me, as I love my MD recorder.

So, my foreign liaison to all thing MiniDisc transfers me to a customer service operator to get all my billing info and get me my new MDR. I'm happy and relieved, as things seem to be working out for the best here. That is, until the nimrod (Nimrod being the greatest warrior in the Bible) on the other end informed me that the small fee was $110.36. I stopped and just stood in silence. $110? I paid $149 BRAND FUCKING NEW!

I made it clear to this woman that I could go to Crutchfield's online store and get a NEW one for $79.99! (And I'd like to be clear that THIS is where I got pissed...) After a few seconds of silence, I hear a loud annoyed Sigh and the words: "Well, Mr. Olzak, THAT certainly is an option, isn't it?"

I'd like to say, very happily, that I didn't swear at the woman. I didn't get nuts. I just told her to not process my order and hung up on her.

I was mad, sure... Because I love my MDR. It's one of the few purchases in my life I truly stand behind. This thing has lasted forever really and this is THE first problem I've ever had with it. See, I'm not a fan of MP3 players. And here's why:

MP3 - You get roughly one minute of CD quality sound per megabyte of memory. (That is unless of course you like your Music to sound like AM Radio!)
MD - One 80 minute Mini Disc can make (roughly) a 160 minute CD-QUALITY mix.

MP3 - Batters life is short. Decoding MP3 is tough on a desktop PC, what makes you think 2 AA batteries are gonna last you very long?
MD - Runs off of One AA battery and only needs to be changed about once every 2 months. Plus is has a built in charger if you're one of those freeky tree-huggers who like rechargable batteries.

MP3 - Generally around $150 for a regular "good" MP3 recorder.
MD - Same price, but better software and cheap discs that can be written to, supposedly -if the write-head doesn't die, more than 1 Million times.


I love my MD recorder. I felt very informed when I bought this thing and it's served me well. What I don't like is Sony yanking my junk with a $110 bill for a Refurbished MD.

Plus, I lost a great mix I've been working on for about a year now. I called it my "Living Mix", as I was writing to it and rearranging it all the time. It was amazing too. I started it right after Baxter's wedding and It was nicely shaped. Then, in the blink of an eye - Gone..

Sony, you goss some 'splaning to do!

Everyone it Lucky, everyone is so kind... On the Road to Shambala...
- Three Dog Night

Last week man, wow...

In a nutshell, I worked my ass off baking pies and cakes and cornbread and shit, had Anne over for dinner on Saturday, and had my mom and Grandmother over for dinner on Mother's Day.

It was really weird cooking for Mom and Gramma. I've never really cooked and served a whole meal for them without some sort of meddling from my mom. Don't get me wrong though, it was so nice to cook for them. There was no fighting, no complaining, no dirty looks... My mom and Gramma were just cool about everything. I made some nice center-cut pork chops (Just like Linda used to make at the Grill)with sides of garlic mashed potatoes and green beans with shallots. My mom brought a Lemon meringue pie which I served with a raspberry coulis. I did the coulis\sauce in the shape of a heart on the plates to make it seem sorta kinda special for my women - yous know I'ma talkin' 'bout? We listened to Dean Martin and Bobby Darin and ate food and it was all so nice. No one fought, there was no bickering... I was in heaven.

I was so freeking tired though. I didn't stop moving all week (Especially on Saturday!)and when I finally got my kitchen cleaned on Sunday afternoon I simply passed out. Today made it no better because I went into work to bake my pies and my boss asked me to stay for the whole day. I went in at six so I wouldn't be in Jake's way and thought I'd be there for two hours -TOPS- and wound up going the distance. It was nice though - I made a nice mixed berry pie with a lattice top and IT WAS EXCELLENT!

Alas, now I'm about to eat, pass out, and start all over again. But, as I look back on all this goofiness I know I wouldn't change it for the world. It's like: Next on FOX! How Johnny got his groove back!

Later peeps...

Is it safe?
- Clerks, The Animated Series


I just finished watching Big Trouble. I love that movie, though not nearly as much as the book. I love any movie or book that centers on relationships but that brings better and more interesting questions to light. For all the goofy jackassed behavior in the book Big Trouble, the underlying premise was that everyone had a counterpart or "match" that they found before the story was over. The maid and the vagrant, the divorced dad and the depressed mother, the two hitmen... It all comes together in the end that everyone finds that "someone". I particularly liked Big Trouble because of the way it puts it all together through chance and extreme circumstance. A guy who hates Cleveland comes to Miami to try Cuban food because he loves Fritos... A two idiots who don't realize they're toting around a nuke... Two hitmen who hate Miami and so forth...

I like that. It takes my mind off of my own sad state of affairs and puts everything into a much more interesting light. What is it that makes two people come together so that one soul can inhabit two bodies? (sigh) I have a much different idea of romance than most people. I want a challenge, but I want practicality. Suddenly, I have to laugh because I'm the only idiot on the planet who thinks that there actually ARE rules to play by in that game.

It's been an interesting and frustrating week and I'm really not sure how I'm feeling right about now.
- Baxter left for Ethiopia.
- I missed out on Sloan. (By my own doing)
- Mothers day is coming up on Sunday.
- Fuck Best Buy.
- Fuck Musicians Friend.
- Other miscellaneous shit I don't feel like talking about.

Jake has noticed that I've been in a bad mood all week. It comes and it goes though. One minutes I'm restless and irritated and don't want to be talked to, and the next I'm laughing my ass off while watching Detroit Rock City while eating Kristy's Pizza. Then there is tonight....

I went up to Spots and got a phillysteak and the cute blonde was there. I might have mentioned her before. I dunno, anyways I came home and watched Big Trouble and I listened to a little Marvin Gaye (Got To Give it Up prt 2) and some Medeski, Martin & Wood to chill out. Tomorrow and Saturday are going to be rough at work but I'm not going to get into that. Larry wants me to go out drinking with him on Saturday night and I know I'm going to wind up getting loaded even though I don't want to. I just wanted to go see Van Helsing and be done with it all. Life can just never be simple, you know?

Life is so strange when you don't know your destination...
- Missing Persons