when i first started driving, gas was somewhere around $0.79 cents a gallon.. i drove a VW, and the fuel capacity was about ten gallons.. so, for $7.90, i could fill a totally empty tank to capacity.

today, i drive a honda accord.. it has a 14 gallon tank, and it was bone dry yesterday. i pulled up to the pump, and decided to put only ten bucks in, since i wasn’t going anywhere this week (at least in my car.)

at $3.79 a gallon, this is how much gas was put in my car..

we REALLY need to do something about this..

the last time i was in santa paula, where i was born, i was with my dad. we had a rental car, and tank regole crapsvideo poker online,giochi online video poker,video poker online gratisdownload gioco roulettecasino online gratisroulette da scaricare gratisplay free baccaratgiochi gratis video pokerquestionario bonus casinovideo poker freewarekeno gratisaprire un casino onlineeurobet casinoroulette systemsgiochi keno inlineacasino online mobilecasino on line con bonuscasino online legaliroulette russai video pokerslots on linebonus code casinogiochi roulette,giochi di roulette,giochi da tavolo roulettetrucchi casino onlinecasino on line gratiscasino online in italianovideo poker gamesi casino on linegiochi casino gratis on lineamerican rouletteeuro casinovirtual gamblingregolamento rouletteroulette giocacasino on the netsoftware video poker,video poker gratis,video pokergiochi jack blackvideo poker virtualemacchinette video pokercasino paypalroulette strategycasino italia bonusgioco baccarat gratiscasino con bonus,casino italia bonus,casino bonusbonus europa casinocasino online autorizzatigioco keno inlineacasino on line conmetodi per vincere alla roulettemobile casino gamesbonus casino on net full of gas, and an afternoon to kill. we drove all over santa paula, and i had him show me where he lived when he was growing up.. where the lived when they got married.. and had him tell me all kinds of stories about the people i had known when i was a kid.

i urge anyone who wants a new take on things to do the same thing.. hang out with one of your parents, and have them tell you about their childhood.. and your childhood.. and all the people that came in and out of your life..

this picture is the house that my parents lived in when i was born. it’s hard to believe that i used to sleep in the same cradle in this house so many years ago that my baby paloma sleeps in now… so long ago.. so far away..

i was turned on to today’s artist, jesca hoop, from an old friend back home, steven vega. he grew up down the street from me, and we did catechism and school together until i left town. he was also a drummer, but but he was way more serious about it. he’s got a dream job over at DW Drums now.

anyway, i totally dig jesca’s sound. today’s song, “Intelligentactile 101″ has a feel that reminds me of merril bainbridge’s song “mouth”. i liked it enough to buy the album. i have an amazon prime account, so i still buy cd’s instead of digital downloads. hell, i still buy and listen to vinyl.

if you like the song, grab the album here:

Jesca Hoop - Kismet

today’s artist is todd snider. i would imagine most music junkies and some critics already know about todd, but i think he still deserves a little spotlight for those who aren’t in the thick of the music thing. besides “horseshoe lake,” this is my favorite of his songs. the song is off the album “step right up.” you can pick up the album here: Todd Snider - Step Right Up

enjoy!

i was hanging out with laurie last night, and she was telling me how much she missed picture of the day, and that she wanted to see some pictures of california. it has been MONTHS since i have done this, so i decided to put up a series of california pics. these are from my last visit, for my mom’s birthday party. so, laurie, this series is for you! oh.. and laurie.. i keep losing your email address.. so send me an email when you get this.

today’s picture is the view of the sunset looking north from carpinteria. the shiny things are railroad tracks. the bumps in the water are santa barbara.

i never realized how much the train tracks were a part of california until recently. it seems that everywhere i went, train tracks and train cars crisscrossed daily life. when we were kids, the train tracks were a playground. every time the train ran by, we would grab as many pennies as we could, and toss them on the tracks. one day, when i was a really little kid, i did this with my grandma, and the penny came out shaped like a heart. she put it away, to save it until i got older, but i lost her in 1987, and never got the penny back.

there were always stories of kids putting pennies on the track and derailing the train, but i never saw one topple over. i can name the names of three kids who would shoot at the train with bb guns though. they lived across the tracks. they were nasty little kids. i won’t name names, but their initials were juni and tito (and jerome).

here is another oldie but goodie.. today’s song o day goes out to lancey who turns (cough cough) today!
some background on this song.. back when we were kids, this was the official birthday song. sure, most kids played the beatles, but this was just a little cooler. in the morning, we’d get up early, and call KROQ, and beg the poorman to play this for song for our friend.

the band was “altered images,” and for those of your SERIOUS dorks, you will remember her from the tv show Red Dwarf, as the lovely Kristine Kochanski. back in the days when i was in a band, you might remember that i dedicated songs and shows to “kochanski..”
well, now you know who kochanski is..
anyway.. happy birthday, lancey!

i got an ipod shuffle yesterday. at first, i was taken aback by the simplicity of the interface. not just that it has no display, but the amount of fiddling that you can do with the playlist is very sparse. you really can just attach to it, fill it up, and move on.

i was talking to my brother, and we both wished it had a facility to let you grab the newest three podcasts from each of your subbed podcasts. that would be a really cool way to go. unfortunately, there is no such thing..

this morning, in the shower, i remembered that the itunes library is just an xml file that is well defined, and super simple to whip through. my first instinct was to just write some ruby code that jumps into the xml file, and makes this kind of playlist.

then, reality set in.

as far as i know, itunes uses this file to mess with its playlists and listings. i don’t THINK it’s generated from another source, but i am not keen on running the risk of messing it up. thinking further, i don’t want to let some source code out that might possible mess up someone else’s itunes library..

i will think about this a little more, and maybe take a whack at it..

but for now, here is a smart playlist that will do something similar. it gives you a list of 25 of the newest podcasts that are less than 4 weeks old. i will mess with this a bit, and see if it works for me.

if i find that the itunes library xml file is not read, but only generated by itunes, i will think about messing with that, too..

let me know if you find this useful..

yesterday, i was driving home, and flipped on “the coffee house” on sirius. i had to do a triple take. i like to check in on this station to see who is doing what in the singer songwriter arena. i was floored when i heard a friend of mine, Mike Farley. for whatever reason, i am still shocked when i find out that other people recognize the brilliance of some of my friends.

i kinda discovered mike farley the dude and mike farley the artist at the same time. Mike, like most people with something to say (myself included), he is a multi faceted guy. we as thinkers, artists, and promoters, run through life, with a list of things we are feverishly trying to accomplish.. yet, at the same time.. we are just regular guys with too much on their plate.

Mike’s Music comes from those few seconds in the week where a scent or a song on the radio.. or the memory of a familiar voice can take you back to a space when you had time to think about life.. and be confused, intimidated, and awed by it.. a time when melancholy was something that was not only cool, but something we had time for.

today’s track is “Home for good…” a song i remember from the mike’s cleveland days. enjoy.