..in about 10 Minutes. For San Francisco. Just wanted to say this. Thanks.

Apple introduced a full featured mouse, the Mighty Mouse Yes, it even comes with two buttons, sort of. This looks like a really nifty device, Apple just does it again and again. Anyhow, I will NOT fall for it. No way. I’ll wait for the Bluetoothed version, heh. Anyone needs a Logitech MX900 Bluetooth?

Well, besides the alarming affinity that I have developed towards Apple over the last few months, I booked my flight to San Francisco yesterday. So it’s Frankfurt - Atlanta - San Francisco on August, 18th and vice versa on September, 9th. Thinking about it, I might as well visit Cupertino if I’m hanging out in CA anyway. Rrrrrrrrr.

Summer broke loose, again. And while it’s a little too hot during the day (I have a hard time getting used to the heat if I’m not given more than four days of it in a row), I just love the nights. Sitting outside at 4:30 in shirt and shorts, drinking beer and babblig about this and that and all the rest while the sun rearms for another assault.. on to the news and random facts..

• Been to the Melt! Festival and while being not quite what I expected I had a great time. We missed everything on Friday for rain, beer and stuff came in our way, but we caught a glimpse of 13 & God and the whole show of The Faint vs. Bright Eyes on Saturday. I feel like a fscking groupie having seen them three times in three weeks (June 24th, Ulm, Juli 6th, Karlsruhe, Juli 16th, Gräfenhainichen). Well, I guess there’re things worse that this. Anyhow, there was lots of ‘electro’ which, at least for me being unconditioned for that genre, did actually sound like plain stupid techno. Something for everyone I guess.
• Speaking of worse things, punknews.org writes that Karate broke up. I only know this band for about two months now and also only their selftitled album, but I really like it. Well, at least there are a few more albums to discover.
• I’m just going to get my new ID and passport from the town hall, be right back. re. Well, that was a two km walk and I’m soaked, like totally. Wayyyy toooo hooooot, I’m melting. Blub. Or not. Very pretty girl handed me over my new papers, San Francisco, here I come. At least if I get it managed to look for a flight anytime soon.
• Got myself a towel for I’m dripping all over the place. Urgs.
• /. writes about the world’s smallest MP3 player. Well, probably not too handy to carry a cube around in your pocket, this might hurt. And no ogg. Sebastian got himself a Shuffle (de) and seems to be pleased. Well, this might get boring but somehow I don’t get tired saying that: no ogg. iRiver to the rescue: The T-Series. With or w/o battery, small size, light-weight and, you guess it, ogg-support. I probably will get one of those.
• A friend just messaged me that my copy of Dance Of Death arrived, great. Exciting hours with SA Pendergast to come.
• Under no circumstances must MMORPGs be installed during summer. I’ve been reading a lot of Penny Arcade and combined with the bad weather the last few days (weeks?) it created an urge to play something. I had a still sealed box of EverQuest 2 lying around that I got from my brother a few months back. I tried the demo Trial Of The Isle which lets you play seven days and up to level 6 and you guess it, it got me. I even went to my local hardware dealer today and got myself a memory update for my XPC (2×512MB). Great. I’m sooo weak. Oh, and I had to reanimate my wintendo installation. Pretty lame, huh?
• Penny Arcade brings me to more WebComic recommendations: The obligatory Questionable Content and it’s little sidekick indietits, best punk-webcomic, Nothing Nice To Say (make sure to read Mich’s comments, there are some pretty interesting thoughts every now and then), Punks And Nerds (OK, Bruceman is pretty lame but they’ll get over it, hopefully..) and …hey suburbia! (which is not reachable right now).
• And last but not least: after decades of die-hard training sessions, strict diet, tons of proteins, steroids and testosterone injections, I can finally do five push-ups while doing a handstand (which is, not a real one but with my feet leaned to a wall *cough*). I did it and so can you: Build it and they will come. Err, guess I screwed that one up, must be the steroids, gotta go..

I’ve been to Munich for a Sick Of It All show yesterday. Those guys are quite amazing. 20 years and still kicking. None of this Tough Guy attitude you’ll see at most hardcore shows, just plain, feel good spirit. Stretch Arm Strong supported, I saw them for the first time and quite liked them, although, if I got it right, there was some “dedicated to our troops” babbling before one song..
The other two bands playing that evening were Crushing Caspars from Germany and Amen from the states, the later looking like some really troubled bad taste fashion whores or as a friend put it: “The singer looks like a bad rouged mixture between Marilyn Manson and Glen Danzig, just fatter”. Well, so true. But if you didn’t look at those guys, the sound wasn’t that bad at all.

On Friday, Bright Eyes and The Faint are playing at the Ulmer Zelt. I already secured my ticket and well, it’s a whole new indie-world out there. First preparations for the Melt! Festival..

Enough for now, in case you haven’t noticed, it’s summer, finally. There are way better things to do than to hang around a computer, that is, if you don’t own a notebook.. thinking about it, the Powerbook’s screen isn’t bright enough to compete with our sun anyway.

Random trivia:
Cut off my dreads last week. Seven years of cultivating those things and they were gone in seconds. But honestly, it’s a whole new feeling. Awesome, great, light, easy, flexible, fast-dry, cushion-feeling and I don’t know what else.. errrr. Maybe I post some before-after pictures some time.

No updates for some days, way too lazy. I just stumbled over something I’ve written after reading “Another Bullshit Night In Suck City” last week:

Thinking about ones future influenced by a book’s not too funny story line. Worst case scenario - maybe. But it happened to someone, it might as well happen to anyone. How much precautions, if any, can be taken? How to control ones fate and prevent it spiraling out of control? At which time is the direction set, the path cleared and how to get off the running train? Jump, run away, close your eyes, just swallow, smile, bright on the outside while dying on the inside. See you there.
But maybe it’s not that bad, maybe it won’t get that bad. We’re all hoping for the best, while we miss our opportunities to just make the best with what we have in our hands, at our fingertips. Instead, we embrace our drama, the tragedy so irresistible, the pain so appealing. Too numb too even feel anything else, emotions cut down to those we can barely handle. As long as we’re still falling, it can’t be that bad. Self-fulfilling prophecies. Self-medication. Let’s drown ourselves, just for the fun of it. Everything will turn out alright. It won’t be that bad. It can’t, right?