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Yes, I really did see this today:

I’m back!

You thought I was a goner, didn’t you?  Yes, it has been close to three months since I last updated, but that certainly doesn’t mean I’ve abandoned my loyal readers.  Let your RSS feeds flourish with my grandiose posts!

The first thing you may notice is the dramatically different design.  I became tired of the old one, although it did do many things well.  I feel this design is much better suited for the style of blog I’m running, that of short posts and lots of links and videos.  The old design looked terrible when I didn’t write copious amounts, but this one looks good for posts of any size.

The second thing I’ve just finished working on is fixing all of my tags and categories.  When I first started this blog, I completely ignored tags and just used categories, due to my own ignorance.  I literally didn’t read the captions to each, and was using categories as tags!  Yes, I am an idiot.  Now the tags function as tags, and the categories are much more concise.  Only want to read posts where I post videos?  Then follow this link.  Or are you simply into my opinions (bless you!)?  Then use this link.  My hope is that this will be much more user-friendly.

A lot has happened in my absence, but I’m not going to go on a posting frenzy of what I failed to publish over the past few months.  I will instead attempt to get back into the groove of blogging.  This blog will never deliver on its promise of a post every day, but what I can’t give you in quantity I hope to make up for in quality.

You can still follow me on Twitter, so keep tabs on me there.

And for those of you who’ve never seen this blog before, here are my old designs:

The Daily Belmore 1.0

The Daily Belmore 2.0

Music: The Saturday Knights Record Release Party

I’ll admit, this is pretty shameless self-promotion.  But that aside…

The Saturday Knights (MCs Tilson and Barfly with DJ Suspence) are coming out with a full-length album on that fashionable label I help out at, Light In The Attic.  It’s called Mingle, and it is fucking incredible.  I’m not just saying that because I’m connected, I really think it’s a fabulous album (and yes, I have a copy, and no, you can’t have it).  It comes out June 24th, and to coincide with it, they’ll be playing the Nectar on June 27th with The Budos Band (who also fucking rule) for their CD Release Party.  I’ll be there, and I suggest any and all of you in the Seattle area to join me.  The details are below, and scroll down for a few MP3s.

• The Saturday Knights - “45″
• The Saturday Knights - “Dog Park” (via Stereogum)

Music: Marlena Shaw - California Soul

For those of you unaware, there’s a new Dockers commercial out, featuring beautiful views of San Francisco and (mostly white) people enjoying themselves.  The commercial also features a great song I had never heard before, which is actually a few decades old but still kicks your ass like yesterday’s news.  That song is California Soul, sung to perfection by Marlena Shaw.  Not surprisingly, Shaw was part of the incredible roster held by Chess Records in the late 60’s.

I highly highly recommend you go check it out, and if you don’t believe me then just check out the commercial and see for yourself:

Maurice Cheeks: All Class

While watching the Pistons @ 76ers playoff game, I remembered what Maurice Cheeks brings to the table as a coach: class.  He’s a stand-up guy, and even if he never wins a championship, I’ll still think he’s a great coach for an NBA team.  He did the best he could in Portland with some extremely volatile groups of players, and I wish him the best in Philadelphia.  Here’s an example of his grace:

The Ting Tings: Turn it up!!!

I normally don’t post about a band based on one track (see: Yeasayer, who’s album sucked hard), but there’s something about The Ting Tings’ song “Great DJ” that makes me want to put it on repeat and turn my stereo to 11.  If you don’t believe me, then go check it out and tell me I’m wrong.

• The Ting Tings
• The Ting Tings (Wikipedia)
• The Ting Tings (Myspace)

It’s Friday!

Have a drink with me:

Twitter: Round Two

I wanted to post real quickly to let you all know I’m on Twitter. You can follow me here (I have it set up so I have to approve you to follow me, so if I don’t personally know you this entire post might be a little useless).

This is my second attempt to use Twitter. The first time, I had heard about it from one of my countless tech podcasts and signed up immediately. Then I used it once, never gave it a second thought, and let my account go dormant for close to a year. Well now I’m back, and I hope to actually use it. If you’ve never used Twitter, I don’t blame you for not signing up and/or following me. It takes a while to wrap your head around the point of it (which I’m still not completely sure of), so no hard feelings.

Now, if you want some reasons to get on Twitter, try Merlin Mann or Andy Ihnatko. They do a great job showing the humor.

• Wikipedia: Twitter
• Twitter Support: FAQ

Bill Raftery > Billy Packer

I’m sitting here eating a frozen pizza and drinking some Smithwick’s, watching the NCAA Tournament. As I’m able to switch between games (big ups to KIRO for putting two to three different games on their three channels), I’m struck with an obvious thought: Bill Raftery is awesome to listen to, and Billy Packer should be taken out back and shot like the old worthless mule he is (maybe by these women).

I don’t mean to reference the brutal art of farmland retirement to get the animal lovers up in arms, I simply mean that Billy Packer SUCKS at announcing. He does two things: he states the obvious (you should attack someone with two fouls early in the first half? I had no idea!!!), or he berates players for no reason (yo, Billy Willy, these are college kids, not 10 year NBA veterans. They’re going to make mistakes, and a good-hearted individual will not condemn them for one or two in the biggest game of their lives thus far).

I know I haven’t posted in a while, and I know this sports-related post will only be happily read by a few, but I just wanted you to know my feelings.

I Hate The Suburbs

Names have been changed to protect the innocent my state of employment:

Coworker #1: They have a Costco in Sequim, Coworker #2?

Coworker #2: Yeah, a nice, big, new one.

#1: Ooh, sounds fancy.

#2: Mmhmm.  You know what?

#1: What?

#2: I think they have an Applebee’s now too.

#1: Wow!

Mind you, neither of these individuals were being sarcastic.