This is an actual conversation from work today.

Socially Conscious Female Customer: So what’s it like to be called a barista?
Me: It’s a lot like being poor. Except people think you’re cooler.

I’ve been doing pretty well lately and staying pretty active.  I think I’m just beginning to see the raised energy benefit from the increased activity as well.  I’ve been playing soccer two or three nights a week already, and now I’ve been breaking out my trusty bicycle, Phineas.

It started out rather inadvertently, just riding around on Wednesday.  Then on Thursday I decided to make my flyer run for the new show at the gallery with the aid of Phineas as well.  On Friday, suffering from baseball withdrawal and looking for something to fill my evening, I called up Amy Hartley and we rode down to Minute Maid Park, caught the Astros game [they won 4-3] and rode back.  Saturday was a concerted effort to still put in a few miles on the bike and take some pictures, so I rode down to Discovery Green and then to the ballpark again, stopping at each to take pictures before heading home.

Today I went out merely to ride.  It’s become extremely fun for me to get out, I know it’s good exercise and I love pushing myself.  I nearly chose to make the 20 mile ride out to Sugar Land, but my folks weren’t too keen on that idea and no one was willing to drive me back in town.  So instead, I opted for this route which turned out to be about 13 1/2 miles.  You can’t see the A because it’s hidden under the C, but it starts and ends at my house.  Made the run in just over an hour.

All together my mileage for the week looks something like this.
Wednesday: 14
Thursday: 9 1/2
Friday: 5 1/2
Saturday: 6
Sunday: 14 1/2
So that’s around 49 1/2 miles in five days.  Not too shabby.

Speaking of the new gallery opening on Friday, here’s the flyer for it.  It’s going to be an extremely crazy week for me this week, so I’ll have to cut out some riding time unfortunately.  The opening reception is Friday night from 7-10 pm.

Hey anyone who still reads this.

Just to let you know, I have a new website, for my photography:  www.clickwindrepeat.com
Also, I have a new flickr account: flickr.com/photos/marcbrubaker

The purpose of these is because I am starting to foray more into doing my own photography, and need a more professional setup.  The site is fully live, but I’m going to continue to add and alter content over the next couple weeks until it reaches a semi-permanent state.  Meaning it will continually have updates and blog posts on what I’m doing photographically, but the overall setup of the site will not vary.

I’m also trying to figure out if I can host a blog/photoblog on my .Mac account.  If this is possible then this space and the accompanying photoblog may become obsolete.

Anyway.  Back to Work.

Tags: website, photography, flickr

No, I don’t mean my posting habits, which are positively deplorable (particularly because I have had more time to post than ever before).  I am at work, slacking, well kind of - it’s service time, so I’m just sitting in the office, hanging out while the bar is closed.

I have discovered that I can get into the vacant duplex next to my house.  It is, as mentioned, empty and awaiting demolition.  The owner sold it to a developer who I’m guessing, is planning on ripping it down and building some tiny three story monstrosity of a loft.  Sigh.

But I am very pleased that I can get into the house.  I’m going to attempt a photoshoot inside of it, as well as a recording session.  Which means I am in need of a few things.  There is no power in the house, so I’m going to have to run an extension cord over from my house.  For the photoshoot I’m going to try to find a different guitar, preferably one that is rich in color and fairly well-used.

For a recording session I am going to need a tracklist of what to record.  I’m planning on spending an entire day in there, so if you can think of anything I ought to attempt, leave me a comment.  It’s a room with a wooden floor, and I’m going to try record with a pair of ambient microphones and possibly a line out for the guitar.  All sort of singer-songwriter stuff, some of it being songs I have up on my Virb and probably a few new songs and a few covers.  Oh, and I’ll probably be looking to borrow a guitar to record with, something a bit more rich in tone than mine.

Anyway, that’s what’s up.  Listen to Nick Drake, Syd Matters, and The Dodos.

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Tags: abandonedhouse, recording, music

I’m sort of sick of talking about this, but I know there’s plenty of people that want to know what’s going on, so I’ll make a post.  Though I doubt more than three of you read the blog, I’m assuming a handful of you will spot this on ye olde facebook.

The short version:  I left the hospital last night.  I still have a hernia.  I still can’t work.  I still need surgery.  I’m quite aggravated with the way my hospital stay went and how I was treated.

I’ll elaborate a little bit, but I think that I’ll wait a little bit to outline everything.

• I went to the ER at Memorial Hermann Hospital at 9 pm on Monday night.
• After two hours in the waiting room [totally reasonable], I was called back into the ER room at 11 pm.
• I was checked out by a nurse, medical resident, medical attending, two surgical interns and their attending surgeon, in that order, over the next four to five hours.
• The medical attending was able to “reduce” my hernia, which is the term they use for pushing it back in to place.  This happened probably around 2 am.
• The surgical resident examined me and recommended to her boss, the chief surgeon, that I go in for surgery.  She informed that she was getting off shift, and that I would be put in a room waiting for her boss to get on shift and examine me.  This was around 3 or 3:30 am, and he would be getting on shift at 5 am.
• I was finally put in a small room off of the ER at 5 am.
• The Chief Surgeon visited my room at nearly 6 am.  He examined me and informed me that because they were able to reduce my hernia earlier, I no longer qualified for emergency surgery.
• They tried adding me on the surgical schedule anyway, with the knowledge that there are many potential procedures that could come in that would take priority.  The chief surgical resident came in and had me sign consent papers around 6:30 am.
• I was visited by an anesthesiologist around 7:30 am.  He informed me that they were trying to fit me into the second surgical slot for the day, told me what drugs they would give me, and had me sign another pair of papers.

All of this was complicated by the fact that I don’t have health insurance.  Because of this, I could not simply be transferred to the surgical clinic in the hospital and scheduling this as an outpatient procedure.  I then wound up spending the rest of the day in a hospital room, with very little being told to me, and being discharged with the following options.

1. Apply for a Gold Card, and go through the county hospital system in order to have surgery to repair the hernia.  Unfortunately, because there are many out-of-county people trying to apply for one, the screening process takes a while.  Essentially it would take about four weeks to get a gold card, and then I would be at the mercy of the county hospital system as far as scheduling for the surgery goes.  This means probably two to three months until I could have the surgery.
2. Find a surgeon on my own.  Get quotes for the surgery, and pay it out of pocket, and get it scheduled for as soon as possible. Could have surgery as soon as next week probably.

Unfortunately I have to go with option two.  This is disappointing to say the least.  And I realize I did quite a bit of elaborating up there, but that’s still not all of it.  It’s all extremely frustrating and exhausting.  Anyways, I’m done for a while.

 - M   

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Tags: inguinalhernia, memorial hermann, hospital, disappointment

So at the moment I am sitting in Memorial Hermann Hospital, in the medical center here in Houston.

I am wearing an oh so stylish hospital gown, and nothing else.  And I have had the pleasure of having no less than six different people touch my genitalia today.

At the moment I am waiting to go in for surgery, time unknown, but it’ll be today.  I have an inguinal hernia, and they have to go in to repair it.

Awesome.  I’ll be out of commission for a few days.  I won’t be able to lift anything over 15 pounds for about a month.

Anyways, the whole thing is just thriling [rolls eyes].  But the hospital has WIFI and I have my laptop.  So that counts for something.  I’ll try to keep you posted.

 - M

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Tags: hospital, surgery, inguinal hernia, surprise WIFI

You best be there, if you know what’s good for you. Seriously. It’s gonna be good.

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Tags: waste no buffalo, music, booking, walter’s on washington

Hello 2008 I suppose.  You don’t seem to be too terribly different from 2007 as of yet.

Anyways, my resolutions are fairly simple:

 - Deposit $20 into my savings account each week.  Factoring in compound interest, this is an extremely efficient way to save money that will develop into a significantly large amount over time.

 - Shoot one roll of film each week.  This is really more of an exercise in relaxation.  And to make sure that I’m continually shooting pictures.  I’ll try to post these online regularly.

Anyways.  Need to sleep.  Opening at Taft tomorrow.  I’ll update again later.

- Bru

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Waste No Buffalo is proud to present to you their
second show, which just so happens to be a MIA KAT EMPIRE Showcase! We
love our friends at Mia Kat and are really excited to throw this show
for them, so come out and join us, it’s gonna rock!

Where? Walter’s on Washington 4215 Washington Avenue, Houston TX
[http://www.4215washington.com]

Show starts at 9pm, Doors will open at 8pm.

Bands: Hollywood Black, Buxton, The Ride Home, Oui

It’s only ten bucks, so tell all your friends!

http://www.myspace.com/wastenobuffalo
http://www.miakatempire.com
http://www.myspace.com/miakatempire
http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodblack
http://www.myspace.com/buxtonband
http://www.myspace.com/theridehome

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Adam P. Newton and I have started a booking company: Waste No Buffalo. Check us out on Myspace and Virb. We’re hosting our first show a week from Saturday.

The Day: Saturday, October 20th.

The Time: Doors at 8pm. Concert begins at 9pm.
Where: Walter’s On Washington. Houston, TX.
The Event: Waste No Buffalo’s Inaugural Show.
Who’s Playing: Wolf Explosion, The Mayapples, Wood & Felt, My Milky Way Arms, & Paula May.

9:00 - My Milky Way Arms
9:40 - Paula May
10:20 - Wood & Felt
11:00 - The Mayapples
11:40 - Wolf Explosion

So come on out and party with us as we put on what is hopefully the first of many many shows to come!

technorati tags:waste no buffalo, show