My daughter apparently hates it when I sleep.

I'm really tired. Leah and I take shifts at night with Harper and it seems that on my shift she hates sleep and loves crying but then the next morning Leah insists that she was really good for her. That's some bullshit, there! I guess she's cute enough that I'll let it slide, though.

Quiet Company had our first practice in over a month last night and it went well. It felt good to play again and see my musical brothers, though it felt bad to leave my wife and child after I'd already been away at work all day. These are the lives we've chosen. Tonight after work isn't much better. I've got to go downtown to record an in studio performance for NPR that will play in Austin next Thursday I believe. I sound ungrateful, and I certainly don't mean to. I shouldn't say I've "got" to do that, I should say I "get" to do that. I'm very, very thankful for all the attention the record and band have gotten.

Kurt Vonnegut used to say that whenever you find yourself in pleasing circumstances its important to recognize it and say out loud, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is," so as not to take it for granted and whatnot. I find myself saying that all the time.

The new mewithoutYou album, It's all crazy! It's all false! It's all a dream! It's alright, came out yesterday and I went and snagged it on my lunch break. Just as I'd heard, the era of Aaron's talk-yelling is over and the era of singing has been ushered in. And just as I predicted, they've made a terrific record. The record sounds more like Neutral Milk Hotel than previous mewithoutYou, but the brilliant poetry and smart understanding of musical arrangement remain. I'm giving it a thumbs up.

Also, I was looking through Entertainment Weekly today and I found something I think is funny.

As someone who used to smoke, I feel like I understand what appeals to people in a cigarette ad. People start smoking because it looks cool. Anyone who tells you different is deluding themselves. To me, and I believe most people, smoking is one of the most effortless ways to look cool and it takes tremendous effort to make it look uncool, but congratulations, Newport, you did it. How does this even advertise anything other than looking like a dweeb who's clearly having trouble blowing out 3 candles. Maybe he has Emphysema? If anything this is an effective anti-smoking ad.

I'm not advocating smoking, just to be clear, I'm just saying that if you want to be cool and look cool the best thing to do is to smoke cigarettes.