from hill to shining hill

If you're a Matisyahu fan , you may have thought of him when you read this post's title. What I mean by 'from hill to hill' is that in Philly we lived in an area called Drexel Hill but now we live in Chapel Hill. Since we've lived here I've been able to compare the 2 hills and have found some differences.

Garbage Men
The garbage men, or 'sanitation engineers' (the PC term) are thoughtful in Chapel Hill. They always put our trash can back where it was and they always put it right side up. This might seem like a no brainer, unless you had lived in Drexel Hill. There we were lucky if our trash can made it back to the curb once it was emptied. They usually just threw the empty can in the direction of where they picked it up. Half the time I had to either get it out of the street or out of the driveway.

Also, the first week we put our recycling out, I broke down all of our cardboard and put it into one cardboard box. The guys took all the cardboard out of the box and left the box behind. At first I was puzzled, and a little upset that they left it. But then I realized they probably thought that was my 'special box' that I used for putting cardboard out and that I might want to keep this box for this purpose. This went on for several weeks until I finally took that box somewhere else because I actually wanted it to go away.

Waving (Southern Friendliness)
I grew up in the South (Georgia to be exact, the buckle of the Bible belt) but haven't lived in the South for a number of years. So I am not used to the friendliness of people. I am used to the 'cooler' more distant East Coast way of treating people, otherwise know as acting like they don't exist if you don't know them. In our lovely Chapel Hill neighborhood however, people wave at us (and we wave back) whenever we go down the street. Not only that, people actually talk to us. In Drexel Hill, that never happened; People pretty much leave each other alone unless they actually know each other. I kind of like the Chapel Hill way a little better. It makes me feel welcome.

Driving
First of all, thank God for Right on Red!! In Drexel Hill, and the Philly area in general, almost every traffic light had a "No Right Turn on Red" sign. This always frustrated me, especially when no one was coming. I often still made right turns on red just because I thought I should be able to. But in Chapel Hill (and most normal places in the world) you can turn right on red!

Also, in Philly, there is a phenomenon called "The Jersey Left" by some and "The Pittsburgh Left" by others. I guess it depends on where you are from. Basically this particular maneuver happens if you are the first car at a red light with no left turn signal. If the first car wants to turn left, it just turns left as soon as the light turns green, even though they don't have the right of way. I hate this and tried hard not to pick up this driving habit. Since it was something I tried not to do in Philly, if I was ever at the front and wanted to turn left, I would just wait. But then the person across the intersection would wait for me to turn because they expected me to do the quick left. If I didn't, some people would actually honk their horn and wave me through. Even though I didn't want to.

Finally, in Drexel Hill and the surrounding areas, people didn't know what to do with turn lanes. I have seen way too many cars halfway in the turn lane as they were trying to turn across traffic. I would actually look for these people blocking my lane, get right up behind them, stop and lay on the horn. Thankfully, in Chapel Hill, people understand what they are for. Except for the Philly and Jersey transplants!

Anyways, we love this Hill much better then the last Hill. We are glad to call Chapel Hill home.

More L.A. Symphony

This is a vintage Symph clip that I only recently came across. Its Authentic, probably one of my top 3 favorite Symph songs ever:

Spotlight on: Jurassic 5

If you've never listened to Jurassic 5, you should!

The Influence


Quality Control (Live)

Chainfire

Chainfire, book 9 of the Sword of Truth series and the most recent book I've read was just awesome. Author Terry Goodkind continues to rock my world. His writing is beyond good; His characterization is par none and interesting does not begin to describe the yarns he spins. When I am reading his books, all I want to do is read them.

If you like fantasy at all, you have got to read these books. Even if you don't like fantasy, these are still amazing books. You might not want to commit to all 11 books, but at the very least, read Wizard's First Rule. I bet you a root beer float that you'll be hooked on Goodkind!

The Symph!!

How much do I love L.A. Symphony? Enough to put up a DOUBLE SHOT!!!!

"Ten" (from the Baloney EP)


"Broken Tape Decks (Live)" (from Call it What you Want)

why do the Black Eyed Peas suck so bad?

I used to love the Black Eyed Peas. Their first album Behind the Front is one of the great debut albums ever. And their second, Bridging the Gap was amazing. The BEPs came out of the LA hip hop scene that birthed other great hip hop acts like LA Symphony and Jurassic 5. The BEPs set themselves apart from the hip hop scene of that era with their very non-gangster, quirky style. They had a real funky flow and were original.

But now they suck. And I don't mean that they're just not as good as before, they truly suck. Jo and I saw them on some TV show a few weeks ago and I couldn't watch or listen at all. I mean seriously, I used to be a die hard BEP fan, but now I cannot stand them. And its not just Fergie either; their music is just terrible. Its unoriginal and formulaic, something their first two albums managed to not be.

I think they sold out. Like some other bands I used to like (Smashmouth for example) they got some fame, got some of their songs on some TV ads, and then all of a sudden their music turned to crap. They are hypocricital too because on their first 2 albums they had several lines against what they soom to have become - money loving rap stars. "Money is a drug and emcees are on it", is just one line from the song BEP Empire on Bridging the Gap.

This is what they used to be:


This is what they turned into. Painful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F444CELomo

the haps

So what's happening these days? Lots and lots and then some more. I've been at my new job for about 1 month (maybe its time to stop calling it "my new job" and just call it "my job") and it's going pretty well. Apart from work, a lot has been going on - a move into our own place in Chapel Hill (finally), settling in, life in general, etc. I haven't blogged in a few weeks because I've not had much free time, but since we're a bit more settled now so we can breathe for a bit and I can do things like blog.

Other than all that, life goes on. Its nice for things to be 'normal' again. For the first time in about 8 months, Jo and the girls and I are all in the same house without anyone one else. We get to all see each other every day and the girls are so happy. Life was always good even when we didn't know what was going to happen, but things are easier to deal with when life has a bit of predictability.

Random things:
What I'm listening to - Sufjan Stevens, Blonde Redhead, The Raconteurs, and a bunch of old CDs that had been packed away.

What I've been reading - ever since I finished VLI in June, I've been cranking through this fantasy series called The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind. Its an 11 book series. I'm on book 8 now. This has to be the best book series I have ever read. It rivals The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter! I've also read a number of graphic novels/ comic book collections in the past couple of months. Worth mentioning are Nexus and Elfquest.