Incaseyouhaventheard's Weblog

This Is Beautiful

incaseyouhaventheard — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:02:53 +0000

This is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. Props to Opie and Anthony for letting this guy perform on their show.

Be sure to watch the video. Click here for the original link.

Homeless Guy ‘Mustard’ Sings Radiohead’s Creep

15 December 2009 View
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Living in Los Angeles my entire life has jaded me when it comes to street musicians, failed actors/entertainers, and the countless homeless people telling me to buy them food (yes, begging died with the economy).

If there’s any homeless person who deserves a moment in the spotlight, a huge royalty check, or even just a warm place to sleep, it’s Mustard, the homeless guy who came onto Opie and Anthony’s Sirius XM radio show to blow the minds of everyone in the building with a unique and extremely soulful rendition of Radiohead’s Creep.

I discovered this video on Reddit and a user who goes by ‘fingerrockets’ shed light on the backstory:

“I listen to the O&A show daily at work so I’ll give a little back story here. When they brought this guy on they had no idea he could sing. It was just going to be a radio bit promoting their upcoming “homeless shopping spree.” During the interview it came up that he has written some songs and could play guitar. So they went and got the man a guitar (he did not own one himself) and he proceeded to shock the hell out of everyone. No one expected him to be as good as he was. He played two other songs that he wrote that are kind of in the style of Dave Matthews or John Mayer, I would imagine that stuff will be online shortly.”

My Worst Nightmare

incaseyouhaventheard — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:07:17 +0000

I have been lacking a computer since Wednesday. My Macbook isn’t waking up when you open it. Supposedly it’s a pretty easy cable to replace. Since then my only online activity has been via my blackberry. I came over to my parents house to watch the Jazz game tonight and decided to check my favorite website Digg.

I was immediately ~~surprised~~ terrified by one of the front page articles.

Spider “Resurrections” Take Scientists by Surprise

Charles Q. Choi
for National Geographic News

April 24, 2009

Spiders in a lab twitched back to life hours after “drowning”—and the scientists were as surprised as anyone.

The bugs, it seems, enter comas to survive for hours underwater, according to a new study.

The salt marsh-dwelling wolf spider Arctosa fulvolineata can revive itself from comas after up to 40 hours of “drowning,” according to an April 2009 report.

Photograph by Sonia Dourlot

Some scientists in France were studying several species of wolf spiders survivability under water. While most spiders died in 24 hours, 2 species from salt marshes offered some very different results. After first being submerged for more then a day, then pronounced “dead” they came back to life in just 2 hours!

Wolf spiders are no laughing matter. Anyone who has ever seen a wolf spider in person understands what I’m saying here. Imagine one day you wake up and find a wolf spider in your shower. Instead of grabbing your favorite spider killing weapon (mine is a vacuum with a 3 foot hose extension,) you simply turn on the water and wash it down the drain and forget about it. A few weeks later you open your shower door only to find this.

She’s back, and she brought her posse, think Cloverfield on a smaller scale. Whats the worst part? These killers are everywhere!

Greenland should really jump on this and start promoting itself as one of the safest places in the world. Untill I can afford to move there, I’m stocking up with a few cans of raid and a dustbuster. I suggest you do the same!

Does making someone feel like a jerk, make me a jerk?

incaseyouhaventheard — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:09:02 +0000

I haven’t been grocery shopping in a couple of weeks because it is very difficult to push a cart while using crutches and it’s even harder to navigate a busy grocery store in an electric cart. Today while turning into the Smith’s parking lot I noticed someone backing out. They were in the closest spot to the entrance that wasn’t a handicap spot. I signaled with my blinker and waited for them to back out. As I was waiting someone coming from the other direction decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of their superior angle and pull into the spot right in front of me. As I pulled past the car in pursuit of a less desirable spot I made eye contact with the other driver. She had a large smirk on her face and wasn’t bothered at all by what she had done. I knew I needed to make her regret it, and I knew just how I was going to do it.

I pulled into a spot much further back and jumped out of my car as quickly as possible, grabbed both my crutches and started moving towards the entrance right past her car. As soon as she saw that I was on crutches she jumped out of her car and started apologizing for taking the parking spot. I’m sure she had good intentions but I knew if I allowed her to apologize she then she wouldnt feel so bad, and that just isn’t my style at all. Our conversation went something like this.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realize you were on crutches”

“Didn’t you see me waiting with my turn signal on?”

“Oh no I didn’t… but if I ha…(interrupted)

“Oh, well I thought you saw me waiting to park there and then just decided to pull in anyway. Since you didn’t see me waiting there you didn’t do anything wrong, besides you look like you’re in a bigger hurry than I am. Have a great day!”

She gave me kind of a blank stare as I walked away from her with a big smile on my face and grabbed a cart.

Buy this car to drive to work, Drive to work to pay for this car….

incaseyouhaventheard — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:08:24 +0000

hmmm…..

:’( Sidelined Again

incaseyouhaventheard — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:52:35 +0000

Yesterday was the first real powder day Utah has seen all year. My friend Jessica and I knew we needed to make some turns but unfortunately the ski busses weren’t scheduled to start running until today. We had to do what any rational powder crazed shredders would do, so we drove to the nearest Big O Tires and bought chains and started back up the canyon.

“Too much snow” Is there really such a thing?

This was my 7th day on the slopes. My knee had been feeling pretty good when the season started but has continued to bother me more and more with each trip up the mountains. After about 2 hours I was starting to feel a lot of pain. I took a quick break in the lodge to find some Ibuprofen while Jessica took another run.

Jessica dropping in for some freshies in the trees at Brighton

I probably should have called it a day when I noticed my knee was starting to swell but the snow was too soft and fluffy. I managed to put in another 2 runs before I had to call it a day. By the time I got home my knee had ballooned and was almost entirely unrecognizable.

Knees are not suppose to be this round!

I think I am going to be stuck off the slopes until I have a chance to get into my orthopedist again and see what he recommends. It’s really tough to accept that fact that for the first time in my life I’m being held back by something like a knee injury. Waking up to even more snow definitely did not make my reality any easier.

Thanks World!

incaseyouhaventheard — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:24:22 +0000

I have been extremely stressed out for the past few weeks. The semester is coming to and end on the 11th and in typical Craig style I have lots of homework I probably should have started working on weeks ago. Mix that in with a month long sinus infection, losing a few friends, and a job that is ridiculously stressful at times and its easy to become overwhelmed.

I left work on Monday at around 11:15pm. I was trying to find the most effective way to accomplish everything I needed to this week and further began to realize how much time I didn’t have. Then something incredible happened. As I came around the corner on the 600s off ramp in Salt Lake I noticed there was no on else on the road. I slowed down to 40 mph and was coming down to ground level when the first stoplight turned green just soon enough so I didn’t have to brake at all, As I rolled up to the second light it did the same thing. I set my cruise control and began to wonder if it was really possible to make it all the way to my house without hitting a single red light. This may seem like a silly thing to care so much about, but anyone who has been in a car while I’m driving knows how frustrated I can get when I get stuck in traffic. I kept cruising, through main street, then state street, and so on. When I go to 5th east the light started to turn yellow just as I was entering the intersection. In my mind I started to consider speeding up to try and beat the next light, but decided against it. As I approached each light I was just barely making into the intersection as each one turned yellow. It seemed like the world was letting me know that things were going to be okay. I made my left turn on 9th east as my the final stoplight turned yellow. I had done it, without touching the gas or the brake pedal once.

It felt really good.

Proposition 8

incaseyouhaventheard — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:58:31 +0000

I just finished reading a very interesting article about proposition 8 from Yahoo news. It can be found here.

I think everybody with a strong opinion on this issue realized that matter what the outcome was, someone was going to be upset. I was really surprised at a few peoples responses.

Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said in a statement about the temple protests Friday that it is “disturbing” that the church is being singled out for exercising its right to speak up in a free election.

While I do agree that the LDS church might be catching a lot more than their fair share of negative media for their stance on proposition 8. I don’t know that I would call it “disturbing.” The church should have had the foresight to expect this when they became so outspoken on the issue.

The biggest fallacy in the whole article came from another blogger named John Aravosis from www.americablog.com He made several statements I have an issue with.

“At a fundamental level, the Utah Mormons crossed the line on this one,” said gay rights activist John Aravosis, an influential blogger in Washington, D.C.

“They just took marriage away from 20,000 couples and made their children bastards,” he said. “You don’t do that and get away with it.”

“At this point, the Californians are the victims and the Mormons are the persecutors,” he said. “We had won this until they swept in. … We need to send a message to Utah that they need to stop trying to inflict their way of life on every other state.”

“The main focus is going to be going after the Utah brand,” he said. “At this point, honestly, we’re going to destroy the Utah brand. It is a hate state.

So if Mormans are the persecutors, and he wants to destroy the Utah brand, does that means he thinks Utahns and Mormans are the same thing? If people read Mr Aravoris’s blog decided to go elsewhere for their vacations, which group of people would suffer? The outdoor industry is about as far removed from the church as you can be in Utah. Both Park City and Salt Lake are not predominently LDS. Mr Aravosis is basically telling people to boycott something that has absolutely nothing to do with the LDS church, or proposition 8, although if it means the pow isn’t tracked as quickly I might be inclined to agree with him… I feel terribly sorry for all the people that were hurt in the outcome of the bill passing, I personally would have voted against it.

I really hope I’m not the only person who finds John Aravosis’s reaction “disturbing.”

The Deer Hunt

incaseyouhaventheard — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:04:35 +0000

This weekend marked the start of the deer hunt in Utah. I know that for many people the deer hunt killing beautiful animals is a time honored tradition passed down from generation to generation, but I really can’t comprehend what it would be like to kill something so magnificent. I wonder if the thought that goes through someone’s mind after they pull the trigger and watch an animal spend it’s last few moments of life in extreme pain and overwhelming fear, is any kind of remorse or sadness. I imagine for a hunter it’s excitement fueled by adrenaline. I do realize that hunters keep the deer population under control, and in some ways could argue that hunting is necessary, but I haven’t ever met a hunter that does it solely for population control.

As a kid I remember watching a movie called Wild America. I remember it specifically because my Dad enjoyed it just as much as I did. I was 11 years old when the movie came out. The basic plot of the movie followed 3 brothers as they tried to become animal photographers. At some point in the movie one them says something about how he would rather shoot animals with a camera, and not a gun. That idea has stuck with me ever since.

Its about time…

incaseyouhaventheard — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:13:09 +0000

I’m not usually a morning person, however today was an exception.

I should try this.

incaseyouhaventheard — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:33:59 +0000

Today at work I was being more productive then usual, (meaning I was wasting time on the internet, as opposed to wasting time sleeping) and came across this interesting article from WIRED.com Chances are if you are like me you know at least 1 person who falls into the “Music Geek” category. In my case I happen to live with 2 of them… and sometimes aspire to be one. Below is the article.

Bluff a Music Geek

From Wired How-To Wiki

Illustration: Jason Lee

Ever been smacked down by a friend with an encyclopedic knowledge of music? You can fight back without really having a clue.

Adopt obscure tastes. So obscure they’re nonexistent. Tell your friend you’re a big fan of the Egyptologists or some other made-up group. (What’s he gonna say — “I’ve heard of every band, and that’s not one of them”?) If he can’t get a handle on your palate, your opinions are unimpeachable.

Answer questions with questions. “I think I’ve heard of Flop. Who was their manager?” Checkmate. It’s surely not your fault this so-called fan can’t provide enough background info to help you pluck Flop from your mental jukebox.

Use the magic words. To paint bands you know nothing about with broad, meaningless strokes, you need only two adjectives: overrated and underrated. With careful use, you can position yourself as a sophisticated critic of criticism, a qualified judge of not just music but the canon itself. Leg-sweep your foes with baffling pronouncements. The Beatles? Underrated. Another good word is reactionary. Everything is reactionary so it’s a superfluous statement.