I found out the other day that Cox business internet would run me about $120 a month, only $10 or so more than my current internet provider, Speakeasy. But Cox’s internet would give me 8 IPs instead of 4, and also give me twice the speed (12.5 mbit down and 1.5 mbit up.) Unfortunately when I moved into my condo I committed to another year of DSL service with Speakeasy, and even after pleading with the sales rep, he said there’s nothing he can do, due to Covad’s requirement of a year long contract from Speakeasy. Isn’t passing the blame nice and convenient?

Oh well I guess. I’ll be able to switch next year around March. Maybe by then fiber will be more prevalent? Hrm.

DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE COMPLETELY RUINED. GOT IT?

With that said, here goes. Highlight below to see the spoilers:

• Dumbledore is very much alive.
• Burbage dies.
• Hedwig dies.
• Mad-Eye Moody dies.
• Scrimgeour dies.
• Wormtail dies.
• Dobby dies.
• Snape dies, killed by Voldemort, after turning “emo over Lilly Potter’s death”
• Fred Weasley dies.
• Harry gets really really hurt by Voldemort.
• Harry sacrificies himself, ala what Lilly Potter did, but because he is a horcrux (contains part of Voldemort’s soul), he is able to kill Voldemort without killing himself.
• Harry brings himself back to life (see above.)
• Tonks, Lupin and Colin all die.
• The epilogue states that 19 years later: Ron and Hermoine are married with two kids named Rose and Hugo, Harry and Ginny are married with three kids named Lily, James and Albus. Draco had a son named Scorpius.
• The epilogue has Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermoine seeing their children off to Hogwarts on the train.
• The final line of the book is “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.”

My friend/ex-coworker Mike has started a business of his own named Hire A Helper. At first I wasn’t totally sold on the idea, but now that the site is up and fully running, I get it. His website offers a quick and easy way to find people in your area that are available for hire on various jobs, such as lawnwork, moving, and cleaning.

I know when I moved recently that I definitely could’ve had extra help with moving. And now that I’m a homeowner, I could stand to get some cleaning help every so often. Luckily since I’m in a condo, I don’t have to maintain a lawn, but I know others who do.

On the flip side, if you run a company that provides those services, you can sign up and get started, getting targeted business headed your way. Or heck, even if you’re just a college student trying to make extra money, you can sign up too.

If you’re looking for any of that sort of thing, or are just curious, be sure to head over to Hire a Helper.com and check it out.

Check out my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/33771723@N00/1732wc

Heather was originally supposed to go, but got very sick today, please keep her in your prayers. Instead, Michael went with me and we had a great time.

It was so awesome being able to go whereever we wanted, hang out backstage, etc.. but I’m kinda bummed that we watched Eisley from the side of the stage. I wanted to hang out/talk with them a bit, but didn’t really get a chance to.

Gomez was alright, but not really my cup of tea. The Fray was amazing, I definitely need to pick up their CD. Lots of energy and emotion going into the music.

I’m trying to upload a video of The Fray performing Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”, but having some trouble with YouTube. I’ll try to post it later. Why can’t it just take the AVI off of my camera? Hrm. Anyhow. Wait, it worked! Check it out here.

With all that said, a few rants about concerts in general:

• People, your cell phone is not going to take a nice photo of the band from hundreds of feet away. Your cell phone camera’s zoom is DIGITAL, not a real zoom. What could you possibly want a blurry overexposed photo for? To send to your friends to show you’re there?
• STOP SMOKING MARIJUANA. I don’t care what you do in your personal time, but smoking pot out at a concert is just lame. And blowing it directly behind someone (namely me) makes me enjoy the show a bit less.
• Hey, guy? Yeah, you, the one who sells water in bottles for the venue up and down the aisles? No one wants water bad enough to have you ruin the concert with your flashing red-LED headband and lit–up water bottle in the pitch-dark of night. It’s a bit distracting.
• People usually come to see the band perform. They usually don’t want you and your (drunk/high/dumb) friends shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Just a thought. Oh yeah, your random phrases and shout-outs during the silence between songs is really “cool” too. SAN DIMAS HIGHSCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!
• If you don’t have tickets to be in that section, then why are you trying to climb over/push through people to get to that section? This applies mainly to the “pit” but can also work for the people in the standard assigned seats. Why are there 10 of you crammed into a space that has 4 seats?

Oh yeah, by the way, I saw a large “Zune” sea-train with lots of flat screens and Zune units/headphones for people to check out, and there were also little Zune teams wandering around the crowd (in-between acts) to demo the Zune. I thought that was kinda cool. Anything to get it out there, you know? I still prefer it 2 to 1 over my iPod any day.

Watch Kanye West ruin the song about halfway through. Ugh. Should’ve left the guest lineup as just John Mayer.

I can’t stand Kanye. Look man, you’re not Jesus. And you’re not Akira or Daft Punk. And GEORGE BUSH DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE!

It’s awesome. I can’t wait to hear what the rest of the album, named “Combinations”, is like. You can tell they’ve spent a lot of time and crafted their sound, just based on this one single. And I can tell too, that the production value is a lot higher. On their first album, they had a number of producers doing different tracks, and it kind of showed. Some of the tracks were even engineered poorly (in my opinion.) For this album, they got Richard Gibbs, who was in the amazing band Oingo Boingo, and like his former bandmate Danny Elfman, currently writes scores/music for television shows (Battlestar Galactica!) and movies. Richard’s experience shows in this single.

It’s called “Invasion”, and from what I’ve heard, is based on the movie/book “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, which seems to be a cool concept to write about, something you can really read into (or hey, aliens taking over other peoples bodies if you want to stay literal.)

Download the MP3 for “Invasions” here, and check out the lyrics:

the colorless words are burning our heels as the bright lights
of the city fade
taking the chase to curb our fear as the bloodless moon
cast's it's face

oh something's not right, i can feel it inside

you would take the breath from my throat
and you would take the cherished people that i hold

all in time you will be one of us painless, us blameless
go to sleep, this wont hurt a bit
shifting your shape to our shells

and they will try to make us forget ourselves
one by one one by one
call me crazy but they are after us
one by one one by one
you don't have to know the truth
if you believe it, i believe it too

oh something's not right, i can feel it inside

you would take the breath from my throat
and you would take the cherished people that i hold

P.S.: Visit Nicole’s excellent Eisley pix site if you want to see more pictures of the band, etc.