mrshl | blog

What’s a Sunkist Shandy? Well, it’s basically:

And I’m having one right now. It could really be any lemon soda mixed with an average lager-style beer. What you get is something that’s pretty damned refreshing and not terribly high in alcohol content. Oh, and since Sunkist has more caffeine than a coke, you might even get a bit of a boost out of it.

When Jordan and I were in Spain a few years ago, we’d drink these things all day.  Tasted great in Madrid’s constant dry heat. Over there, the Spaniards call them Clara or Clara con Limón.

When we got back, we looked everywhere for a decent lemon soda, and couldn’t find one. We were bummed about not being able to recreate our Claras.

Then, when we were in San Francisco a while back, I picked up a Sunkist Sparkling Lemonade from a convenience store as we waited for a bus. Turns out, they’re available here in Houston, too.

And that’s why I’m having a Sunkist Shandy, and you are not. Get yourself to a store ASAP.

I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be an eMusic customer. Last month’s price hike already had me reassessing my love for the company. Then came last week’s revelation that eMusic would be imposing a limit on the number of times you can download tracks you’ve already purchased. Furthermore, there’s no way to know what that limit is. The company’s terms of service, updated as of June 16, now read as follows:

6.13 eMusic may allow you to re-download each of your previously purchased tracks a limited number of times for any technical reasons at no additional charge; nonetheless, if you exceed a reasonable number of re-downloads (as deemed by eMusic) on any given track(s), you will be required to re-purchase such track(s).

The new fuzzy limit is probably intended to discourage abuse from people who share their login information with friends. But the language is much broader. It says the only legitimate reason for re-downloading a track is a technical problem, not your convenience as a customer. What’s really creepy is the power the eMusic gives themselves: they can decide how many is too many, and then charge you (retroactively?) for the “extra” downloads.

The ability to re-download all my old tracks came in pretty handy after the great hard drive crash of 2004. I’ve rarely used the feature since then, mostly to download a few tracks at work. Still, as a longtime subscriber, being able to download all my previously purchased tracks is one of the key features that’s kept me around for so long. If my tracks aren’t going to be there the next time I have a hard drive failure, there’s no ongoing reason for me to pay a monthly subscription.

Anyway, I’ll be with eMusic for at least one more month. But after that, I’ve got a decision to make. Here are my downloads for June.

After recently uninstalling the Google Toolbar, I've actually been using Bing quite a bit. I've found it's just as good, and in some cases (Image search, product comparison), much better than Google.

That doesn't mean people will start using it though. As this video indicates, Bing will have a serious problem overcoming the search engine that made it's name a verb.

Had a short day at work.

Because I had to go to the dentist.

After that I went to get my hair cut.

I had posted on the Handsup Board because I needed to find a good, cheap place to get chopped. As I said on the board, the lady who does my hairs is great. But I drop $50 every time I go there. And #inthiseconomy that’s not really sustainable. Got a lot of good suggestions, but I ended up going with Times Barber Shop. It turned out great. Not as good as my regular hair ninja, but well worth my $14. Especially considering the nice hot towel and shave treatment on the neck.

Freshly shorn, I went to hang out in Montrose to avoid the traffic on 59 and 610. First stop was Soundwaves, where I like to shop their sale selection of Vans. I was still wearing my shirt and tie when I picked up the Killers edition of Iron Maiden Vans.

They also had branded Vans by Slayer and The Germs. All for $25 a pair. Three years ago I would have been stoked. Now I just felt sort of sad. I am 34 years old and about to have a kid. I’ve developed a formidable beer belly that hangs out over my belt and dress pants. Can I still see myself rocking these Vans on a regular basis?

Apparently the dudes manning the surf shop counter were thinking the same thing. After I put the vans down and began browsing for more sensible options, they started laughing, and one of them said “Look at this guy” (because apparently that’s what you say when you want to make sure the dork in the tie can hear you). It was kind of a sitcom moment.

Now, there was a time when two dude-brahs at the Soundwaves laughing at me might have gotten me down. But there, in a tomb of CDs and other dead media, amongst all those $95 Volcom shirts waiting for markdown, I just kinda had to laugh at myself. I’ve already become a dad, and the kids can sorta tell.

I ended up not buying anything. Because other than Vans-on-sale, there’s absolutely nothing else worth buying at Soundwaves anymore. Instead, I went over to Rudz and dropped $20 on a Rudz burger and two Harps on draft. Probably didn’t do any favors for my gut, but considering the cheaper haircut, I still came out ahead.

Bummed that Texas lost. Astounded at Mark Sanford’s weird press conference meltdown. And impressed as hell that our soccer team beat the #1-ranked Spaniards.

Now I’m going to bed.

I’ve not fallen for either of this year’s earlier hype monsters, highly praised releases from Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. That’s because I generally don’t need any more monotonous, easy-listening music. Ah, but what about the Dirty Projectors, who are now receiving similar heaps of praise? Bitte Orca is a record I can get behind. Sure there are nods to the chamber pop meme that seems to have taken hold of all indie-dom, but there are also hints of Led Zeppelin and Queen and the complex rhythm guitar-ing of Deerhoof. Add layers upon layers of virtuoso vocals tinged with modern R&B, and you get a record that’s exactly what everyone says it is:

An ambitious and tuneful slab of awesome.

Here's Your Score: You correctly answered 12 of the 12 possible questions along with approximately 6% of the public. You did better than 94% of the general public.

So I took this current events quiz offered by the Pew Research center and got a perfect score. If, like most of my pals, you listen to NPR on a regular basis, you’ll probably do about the same. So, get to answerin’ their questions.

LINK to Quiz

Even the hardest-crusted baseball scouts say Strasburg would be a front-of-the-rotation guy for more than half the big league teams right now. The scouts who have fallen in love with Strasburg -- that's most of them -- say he'd be a front-of-the-rotation guy for everybody. There simply isn't much debate -- he throws 102, he sits at 97-99 over the course of 110 pitches, and his curveball is good enough to make the scouts swoon. He has a 93 mph "one-seamer" -- think Kevin Brown in his prime -- that dives at the back foot of a right-handed hitter. And San Diego State pitching coach Rusty Filter, the man who created the monster, says Strasburg's "plus-plus" changeup couldn't be used in college because the hitters weren't good enough to be fooled by it.

So, if he's a big league-ready talent, why shouldn't he be paid in a manner equal to that talent? If he were a free agent on the open market -- say, a Cuban 20-year-old with Olympic experience, a young arm and a nasty streak -- he wouldn't be able to fend off the suitors. They'd have an auction, and the Yankees would undoubtedly win with a Powerball number.

ESPN's Keown gets it exactly right. If i see one more "Scott Boras is ruining baseball article," I will puke. Because the alternative to paying the kid what he's worth is saying that a kid in college should be subsidizing a bunch of gazillionaire owners.

This isn't some guy who's going to spend 4 years in the minors and MAYBE work out. He's going to start. Immediately. He needs to get paid that way.

In May of 2007, I wrote a long-ish post about why I thought Facebook was great:

Facebook lets you share your life with people you care about while allowing you to easily micro-manage your privacy. Instead of worrying about customizing your crappy looking page, Facebook focuses on your connections with real people. That's why eventually you and everyone you know is going to be on this site. I'm not even going to ask you to join. I don't have to. You, your co-workers, your friends and family will all sign up.  And you will wonder what took you so long.

But I could not then have predicted something like this could one day happen:

Holy crap. Am i excited...Listening to the free mp3 right now.