Circadian Shift

Another week has gone by, and I don't feel like I have a heck of a lot to show for it.

So here's what's on the board this week (starting from the lower-left hand corner):

• I went and picked up Set Yourself on Fire, the latest CD by Stars, which happens to be yet another disc that everyone's liking a lot. If I had to describe the band's sound in terms of what other groups sound like, I go with it being a cross between Prefab Sprout and Lush, accompanied by a Nintendo Gameboy. No, really, it's good. (Damn, I just noticed that the New York Times also cited Prefab Sprout in their writeup. And here I thought I was being so original.) I've seen the adjective "devastating" being bandied about a couple times, due to not only the sheer gorgeousness of the instrumentals, but also to the lyrical content. If you've ever had your heart broken -- be it last week, last year, or last decade -- you'll know what they mean about the lyrics.
• As the jobhunt thing continues, one company that I've applied to asked me to cough up a sample requirements document with use cases, which gave me the opportunity to show off a bit of the UML stuff I learned recently.
• Saw the movie Sideways. It's a bittersweet sort of film, heavy on the themes of aging and watching your dreams fade away, while trying to fight back and not give up on it all so easily. Nice visuals, fully drawn characters (flaws and all), understated humour, and pacing that feels leisurely without being draggy -- in all, a film well deserving of its handful of Oscar nominations (although Paul Giamatti should have gotten one too).
• Nick Lowe appears on the board, thanks to Tuesday's theme song.
• It's been a while since I visited Exploding Dog, where Sam has posted a number of his ink drawings on paper, in additon to his usual digital drawings. This particular pic has been especially appropriate for me lately.
• The background text is another jobhunt artifact, the well-known FOAD letter.

Not showing on the board is anything pertaining to school. While I'm all up-to-date on the reading, I've been thrashing around on the assignments. Blech. One's due Monday, so you know how the rest of my weekend will be spent.