SteveJamieson.com

I like to think that I’m a safe driver. My record has been clean—no accidents my fault in the 10+ years that I’ve been driving. However, on Sunday, November 25th, I skidded on a wet on-ramp into—and partially over—a curb. Don’t worry, I’m fine (there was nothing but grass on the other side of the curb). In my defense, something was definitely wrong with that spot of pavement. Mine were not the only tire tracks in the mud, and while I was visually inspecting my car on the scene, an SUV came hurtling over curb and bounding through the grass up alongside me (thankfully not at me).

Apart from some damage to the one wheel, my car looked fine. However, as soon as I started driving it, I knew something was wrong. At the very least it needed a new alignment. I took it in for service the following Wednesday and hoped an alignment and maybe a wheel was all that would be required to get me back on the road. Instead, my suspension was mucked up to the tune of a couple thousand dollars (parts & labor). That afternoon I made my first collision claim with my insurance company.

So now I’m waiting (and waiting) while the insurance company processes the claim and figures out if it’s worth it to fix my 10 year old Neon. It seems so stupid that such a little thing could total my car. On top of that, the really annoying aspect is that I just sunk a good chunk of change earlier this year into fixing the A/C system and into preventative maintenance so the car would last me a few more years.

As you all should know, sports don’t often capture my attention. I’ll be first to admit to being a bandwagon fan. Last fall was one of those times when I took interest in baseball—the St. Louis Cardinals were on their way to becoming World Series champs. This year hasn’t gone so well for Cardinals fans. However, what’s this? The Philadelphia Phillies make the playoffs? My hometown team? Ooooo… Time to jump on the bandwagon!

On Saturday night I went to see They Might Be Giants perform live at The Pageant. The show (my 4th) was absolutely awesome. The setlist (available at This Might Be A Wiki) naturally included a large selection of songs (9 in all) from their new album, The Else, but it also included 4 fan favorites from Flood, and 2 each from Apollo 18 and The Spine. Particular highlights included…

• Opening with “I’m Impressed”
• “The Shadow Government”
• “The Cap’m”
• “Spider”
• “The Guitar”
• “Birdhouse In Your Soul”
• “Particle Man”
• “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” with an amazing opening guitar solo
• “Damn Good Times” as the final song

Even the opening band, Oppenheimer was good. Their music was enjoyable, and they did a really good job warming up the crowd.

Oh, lastly, I wore my <GEEK> shirt from ThinkGeek and got two compliments… albeit from other guys.

Previously, I wrote about my friend Beth getting me hooked on Guitar Hero. So in celebration of being halfway done my MLS, I gave in to my new Beth-induced addiction and purchased a Guitar Hero bundle. Right now I’m working on mastering the medium difficulty in general, and “No One Knows” as made famous by Queens of the Stone Age from Guitar Hero 1 in particular.

Here’s a pic of my co-worker Kenny and I rocking out in the break room.

A couple weeks ago, I finished up Intermediate Web Development (final project here). Afterwards, I realized that I’m officially half-way done my MLS degree. 21 credits down, 21 to go! Yea!