And now it seems as though we're disappearing

Soooooo, its been a while. Does anybody read this blog anymore? :)

Every once in a while, you get tasked with something at work that is pretty much impossible, but you have to do it anyway. That's where I've been. Enough said.

Anyway, 2 posts ago (sept 10th) I made reference to the fact I was very wrong about something music wise. The last couple of posts have had some obscure lyric titles as a promise to myself that I would keep quoting the album until I came clean. So here we go.

I'm usually very open minded music wise, but there are a couple of guidelines I apply to music before I listen to it that have served me pretty well

1) A drum machine should be done only by a drummer, otherwise it will suck.
2) Covers of a song to put them to a dance beat, will suck.
3) Children of successful musicians will usually be mediocre, if not outright bad, and are best avoided.
4) Trance music sucks unless you are dancing.

It is with rule #3 that I openly responded "no interest" when queried about a certain artist, on 4 separate occasions, and one of them being my wife. In fact, I got quite irritated when asked why I had no interest in the son of an artist I was known to admire. I openly scoffed at the potential of his career. Especially when I heard his first album was dealing with some trance music in his early days.

To those people, I apologize. I was wrong. Very wrong.

The artist is Simon Collins, the album is U-Catastrophe (his 3rd album). And its my pick for the best album of 2008.

It's rare to come across an album with this much variety in it. The first 3 songs are a definite picks for rock fans, while the next 4 will please those who range more towards pop. Then we start getting progressive & experimental. If you're a person who picks just a couple of songs off an album, you'll like at least one or two things here. No only is the music good, but the lyrics are fantastic.

The biggest surprise for me was the RANGE of Simon's vocals. Hitting hard rock with screaming intensity, then softer more emotional range.

Simon also does the drums on the album, it surprised me he was more of a rock drummer than the jazz/fusion that his father is.

With my last review I mentioned going away from talking about individual songs too much, but with the variety on this album, its hard not too.


U-Catastrophe (****) - Frankly this is one of the best album openers I've ever heard. You can envision this opening a set in an arena concert. It really gets the blood pumping to start the album.

All I've Left to Lose (****) - The most hard rock type song on the album, with a surprising melodic bridge. Simon really lets it loose on the vocals here. Rock out in your car with this one.

Disappearing (****) - Simon's angry about a couple of things, and it really comes through on this song. The lyrics on this song are incredible, and the music takes you on a roller coaster of different paces. The rhythmic delivery of the 2ndary verses is hypnotizing.

Powerless (*****) - Best song of 2008. You may disagree, but you're wrong. Many songs out there about drug addiction, this one is a haunting honest look at the addict (unfortunately from personal experience). The beautiful melody is counterpointed by the subtle drums that drive make the song feel like it might go out of control at any moment. The pure crafting work put into the details of this song is breathtaking. You will sing along, you just can't help yourself.

Go (Only One I Know) (***) - The weakest song on the album, back to the rock vein. The verses are good, but the chorus just disappoints for some reason. It seems as if this song still needs some polishing, which is strange considering the rest of the album. Still a fun song though.

The Good Son (****) - The song structure on this is quite interesting, it flirts with pop at times, then breaks away with some surprises in instrumentation. The verses are the highlight of the song, while the choruses fill their assigned spot without taking away from the song, but not really adding anything to it either. The lyrics again are fantastic.

Unconditional (***) - Pure pop fans, this one is for you. This love song is as close to pop as you can get. Upbeat, fun, good lyrics that are easy to sing along with. Its a setup though, because as you finish listing to this song, you would never expect what comes next.

The Big Bang (*****) - Wow. This is an instrumental drum duet with some music in the background. Simon drums with his dad, and the surprising thing is, it doesn't SOUND like Phil. Phil's always been a jazz/fusion guy, I've never heard him do rock drumming like this. If you like drums and rock, you will love this. The rhythms and fills are incredible.

Eco (****) - This is an environmental protest song that causes my son Gavin to ask lots of questions about the lyrics. He starts introducing some electronic sampling elements into the song that incredibly done to accentuate the music without detracting from it. This song will shift gears on you with angry verses to an incredibly beautiful melodic chorus.

US (****) - Soft love song, that started out at 3 stars, but grew on me. Romantic, elegant.

Between I & E (***) - Religious protest song. I love the lyrics on this, but for some reason I just can't get into this song as much as the others. Its got a good rock feel to it, but doesn't grab you in like Eco did.

Fast Forward the Future (*****) - Simon drops the drums for a drum machine here, but that's ok because of rule #1 above. Its hard to define this song. It starts off with some trance elements, but includes rock and progressive as well. It grinds together a lot of genders and comes up with a gem. The bridge on this song is well....luminous. With all the gear shifting, and variety on this album, this was the perfect ending song.

There is also an extra remix song of the Big Bang. But if you have the Big Bang, you don't need this remix, it just doesn't compare.

So, for those of you who cherry pick songs instead of picking up albums, here's how I would recommend.

Rockers: U-Catastrophe, All I've Left To Lose, Disappearing, The Big Bang
Poppers: Powerless, Unconditional, US, The Good Son
Progressive: Powerless, The Big Bang, Eco, Fast Forward The Future, U-Catastrophe

Everyone: Powerless

With a knowledge we're unbound

A couple of quick things...

First, in target the other day I'm looking for an accent table with Ian, when I notice my cart isn't moving quite as smoothly. I look down and there's a strange kid hanging on the side of my cart.
"What's the baby's name?", he asked.
"Ian", I replied.
"What's your name?"
"Scott"
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for accent tables"
"Where's your mother?"
"I dunno, what are accent tables?"
At that point, I turned around and deposited the kid with his mother.

What surprised me on reflection, was how calmly I took the whole thing. This isn't the first time I've had kids who have never seen me before attach onto me. The most memorable was the one at M&K's house who on entering their kitchen, saw me for the first time, and came over and attached himself to my leg. Apparently, I've become numb to the whole thing. I don't think I even mentioned it to Pam.

Second, I'm soooo unprepared for hockey season this year. It managed to sneak up on me. Those of you going against me in fantasy hockey will have an easy time of it.

Third, when you get Gavin into cleanup time, he goes all in. His little legs were pumping in place looking for the next thing to pick up. We had fun.

Fourth, go Steelers!

Fifth, the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian is an absolutely fantasic series of books (the movie Master & Commander was based on them).

Sixth, its been a strange week. Gavin & Ian have both been in bed and asleep around 8:30. Pam and I have had....free time. We weren't sure how to cope with that...

We're too sick to know we're sick in the mind

What to blog about, what to blog about, I have home stuff, I have politics stuff, I have music stuff...

I just blogged about politics, I'll put that on hold...

The music stuff (the title is a clue) means admitting I was very wrong about something, not up to that yet...

So apparently work has been busy enough that I can't seem to sit and relax anymore. On Sunday, Gavin was playing quietly by himself, and Ian was asleep. Pam was busy watching her shows, and I was on the couch. Being lazy. I hadn't been lazy for a while, I liked it. But that nagging feeling started, the feeling of needing to be productive...so I rearranged all the furniture in my family room.

I've been thinking about it for a while (and I've gotten plenty of suggestions as well). I finally did some measurements, plugged it in Google's SketchUp, printed out the plans, then saved them for a rainy day. There was no rush after all...

Btw, for any space planning project in your home, I highly recommend using Google's SketchUp. It's free, and pretty functional. The interface can take some getting used too though.

Anyway, this is what the family room originally looked like


(OC stands for Orange Chair)
It's set up for maximum viewing comfort of the TV. However, we lose some space due to the size of the TV (it's not a flatscreen, and the partition of the back wall of the couch. It wasn't terrible, but that 'what if' kept nagging us.

So now it looks like this


The TV now goes through the opening and invades the room on the other side that holds Pam's shot-glass collection and other nice things. We'll have to keep the kids away from the back of the TV, but look at all that room!

Gavin wasn't very happy about it at first, "I can't go over the back of the couch!" (he's not allowed too), but he's on board now. The downside is not all the viewing angles to the TV are as comfortable as they used to be, its not bad, it just isn't as effortless as it was. On the upside, I can actually set up the surround sound correctly. Speakers in the old setup were all over the place, now the effect is much better.

BTW P, when you get back from Europe, I need to borrow your sound meter and re-balance the speakers again.

I'm quite proud of myself, yet slightly sickened by my inability to seriously slack off. Well, that's not exactly true. I can slack off as long as I've accomplished something that day, however with kids, if you miss your window of slacking by being productive, you don't get another chance that day.

Frankly this is probably the best way for my wife to get me to do home improvement projects, just clear everything out of my way during the day and leave me to my own devices.

I need help.

And even I'm getting tired of useless desires

So the Olympics are over....I guess that means the break is over, and the election is back in the news....again.

It's not that I've made up my mind (I haven't), it's just that this has gone so long it's getting ridiculous. Both the media, and the campaigns.

Seriously, you're going to slam Obama for vacationing in Hawaii?

Seriously, you're going to slam McCain over the houses his wife owns?

Remember how at the beginning of all this everyone agreed we had a rich field of candidates (any one of them better than Bush)? Why does it now that it seems like we're tired of all of them?

On the up side, it does seem like the bubble of invincibility around Obama has popped, so he'll have to do more than coast on good rhetoric. That's not a bad thing for him, he rose to the challenge that Clinton put out. When he said Clinton made him a better candidate, he wasn't kidding. At last the Democrats have someone who can run a campaign again, god knows Gore and Kerry couldn't.

As for the Republicans, they've always known how to run a campaign. So well in fact its hard to know what the candidate actually wants to say, slave to the message machine that the GOP runs.

However the GOP is making a misstep trying to run commercials slamming Obama for not picking Clinton as a VP. One, it only works if Clinton rises to the bait (which she won't). Two, it's putting more good emphasis on a Democrat. As long as this election is Republican vs Democrat, there's no way the GOP can win. The only way McCain wins is its McCain vs. Obama. People just don't like the GOP that much. The GOP needs to accept that and step into the sidelines. Three, the only people who really care about the VP choice is the media who is dying for something new to talk about.

Its interesting talking to people, around here I will hear "I like Obama, there's no way he can loose". When talking to some people back East, I will hear "I like Obama, shame there's no way he can win". Why? Well look at the people who believe that Obama is a Muslim. Then realize that isn't the bad thing, the bad thing is that is matters. Why? Because as Carlin said "Imagine how dumb the average American, now realize that means that half of America is dumber than that". Remember the footage of voters in West Virginia? There are a lot of those people, and they vote.

The big problem is most people are getting their news from a source that has turned it into an entertainment medium. Looking to twist every little thing into drama, even if has nothing to do with a person's qualifications for President.

Why can they do this? Because the level of education in this country seems to be on the continuous decline. And that's something I'm waiting for the candidates to discuss.

At least the debates will be good. I hope. I just know I'll be ignoring politics as much as I can until then.

I've definitely been on a Patty Griffin kick lately. I've definitely been pulling from here lyrics for post titles recently. I'll have to start putting a little more variety into it next time.

Some people want to know what it feels like to fly

I've been watching the live olympic gymnastics, and I have to say, I miss tape delay. Surely they can show something else that happened during the day while they do warm-ups. Actually its the fact the commentators feel they need to talk ALL the time. They run out of things to say really fast, so they go into repeat mode. Oh well, it gives me time to actually blog again.

BTW, the last review I did actually ended up linked on Liz Tormes's site, so anyone following that link....hi! The review is down below this post.

Speaking of that, I recommended that you all go buy "Black Luck", how many of you did that? You don't trust me enough to spend 99 cents on iTunes? I'm not judging, I just find it a interesting psychological question.

Let's see, since last I left you, I took Gavin to my cousin's wedding in Maryland. It was a no-kid wedding, but if I left Pam at home alone with a 2 month old and a 3 year old.....so Gavin came with me to Maryland.

Gavin's first plane ride where he got his own seat went very well. He told everyone he could that he was going on a plane ride. Even when they were on the plane with him. Of course, 15 minutes up in the air, he got over it and wanted to watch his movies. Strangely, he enjoys turbulence ("Daddy, it's bumpy!").

I'll hand it to Gavin, he knows how to turn on the charm. Within one evening, he had the adoration of every family member (and non-family) that he met. His crowning moment came when he found an old guitar, out of tune and missing a string, and started strumming and singing his heart out. People kept drifting in to watch him and cheer him on.

Luckily a baby-sitter was arranged for Gavin so I could enjoy the wedding. By the way, my family can drink your family under the table. They definitely proved that during the reception, and kept going even after I had to leave. It was a great wedding and we had a lot of fun.

I always enjoy seeing my cousins (of which I have very many), it's tough I don't get to see them as much these days. Gavin enjoyed seeing his great-grandparents and exploring the farm. My granddad has been selling off his land as this is now a hot up and coming area. It's weird seeing what used to be an empty plot of land behind the house now filled with 2 million dollar homes. Progress I guess.

Back at home, Ian keeps growing. He is finally putting together a 5 hour sleep session at night. He's beginning to smile and even laugh a little bit. Mom & Dad came to visit which means he could be held constantly. And a held Ian is a happy Ian. We were all pretty much couch potatoes for the visit, my family loves the olympics. My favorite is volleyball, beach and normal. But we'll watch any event :)

By the way, the judging for the women's gymnastics all-around is incredibly insane. They are all over the place, one mistep by one is equated with 10 misteps with another. I wonder if they give a base value then roll some dice.

This post is getting more and more disjointed, so I'm going to stop this while I'm ahead. I've caught you up on the major stuff going on, I can talk about something more interesting next time.

Darkness has been a friend to me

OK, I was originally going to do a review on the new Coldplay album. But I think everyone who reads this blog has it already, or has listened to it. I might still do one just to give people who have the album an idea of how I listen to stuff. But for now, we shall delve into a new artist I discovered last year.

And holy crap, its been a while since I've done one of these.

Liz Tormes - Limelight

I literally stumbled on this artist by accident. After some quick clips I decided to take a chance and grab it on iTunes. A couple of minutes into the album I had stop and start over, this was truely something different, and I wanted to reset my mind and sink into it.

This isn't a flashy, over produced record. In some ways, arrangements are quite simple, yet the subtleties in the music are profound. The whole album has an organic feel to it, making it feel like a casual live performance in your living room. There is a lot of excitement in the album, but it's driven by emotion not by meter. Very possible to do, but very difficult to do for a whole album. I'm constantly amazed that the songs are mostly to a moderate beat, yet the intensity can be so high.

Liz has a fantastic voice, and the lyrics are well polished. Liz can lend emotion to the music without having her vocals overpower the song. Sometimes her voice is sweet, sometimes very smokey, her range is fantastic. I also love the fact there are hardly any self-backing vocals on here. I feel those are used way too much (except for Charlotte Martin who is the queen of knowing how to use them effectivly), when they are used, they're very focused and perfectly executed. From time to time a male backing vocal will appear on Maybe You Won't, Black Luck, and Sorry. I call this out due to the perfection on how this vocal is weaved into the songs. You'll be surprised on how subtly it's used and yet gives a huge impact to the song.

I won't go song by song on this album for three reasons
1) I'm trying something different
2) I think that was boring people
3) Frankly, this is an album that should be bought as a whole.

However, I will point out some highlights

Black Luck is the strongest piece on here, the longest piece, yet it will seem to pass too quickly. The most organic piece on the album, it will sometimes seem to have no structure, yet it's the piece with the greatest punch, and will stick with you long after it's over. Everything on this song is crafted perfectly, and the male vocals I talked about above are used to perfection here. If you buy one song this year, this is it. I could not rate a song higher.

The other very strong songs on the album if you're a cherry picker is Better Days (with the best lyric on the album, "It's not that I don't want to be your girl, I just don't want to be"), Limelight, Without Truth, Sorry and Fade Away.

The other songs aren't as strong, but they should not be considered weak. To quote Coupling "One of them has to be better". When listened to as an album, every song gets a boost by the atmosphere created by the surrounding pieces.

If there is a weak spot on here, it's the song Maybe You Won't, which doesn't seem to deliver like the other songs, and never really gets going.

If you're more popish, then Don't Love Back and Without Truth will probably be your favorite tracks. This album pretty much has something to offer for everyone.

One final note about this incredibly positive review. I have an iTunes playlist "My Mood" where I take songs in and out of as my mood strikes me. This album got added there a week after I bought it last November. It has not ever left that playlist.

It is the only album I own to claim that.

Maybe you're right but I don't think so

OK, no album review....yet. This one is pretty much going to be rapid fire since it's after midnight

First off, if you have kids, go buy the Barenaked Ladies kids album "Snacktime". Here's a music video from it that Gavin just loves. I'll admit the song is getting stuck in my head somewhat as well.



I'm done painting Ian's room, we went with two colors, you know, advanced stuff. What I don't understand is a gallon of paint usually is good for the bedrooms I've painted so far. So why is it with only painting two walls each, the paint cans are almost empty? Maybe you always subconsciously allocate the paint on the wall to what you have? Or maybe Gavin used a lot more paint on the little parts of the wall he did than I thought...

BTW, I'm having trouble with a lyric again for this one, we'll see what I come up with, iTunes shuffle is on.

Speaking of iTunes, why is it they have every freaking Barenaked Ladies video EXCEPT for Pinch Me? Which is the one I would actually buy.

Speaking of buying, will people shut up about the InBev buyout? And by people, I mean politicians who posture like they have any influence on this at all. As I've said, I don't mind stupidity, it's WILLFUL stupidity that pisses me off. (ah, there's the lyric title, thanks Barenaked Ladies). Frankly, its just insulting you think we're that stupid. Especially since now the deal's done you'll be cozing up to the new owners. Oh, and by the way those of you who think it's your patriotic duty to stop drinking Budweiser fall into that bucket as well. If you want to be patriotic, drink even more so less people who work here in St. Louis don't lose their jobs. Alcoholics, we're counting on you.

From a business point of view, the buyout makes good business sense. I hope that in the long term St. Louis will benefit from the global reach. This is unlike the stupidity that is happening between Microsoft and Yahoo. As my father is prone to say, 80% of the mergers/buyouts that happen are because of ego, not good business. This is definitely an ego purchase. It's like the dog chasing the car, once he catches it, what's he doing to do with it? (I apologize to the female dogs who would accuse me of gender bias in that last sentence, of course you chase cars too). Microsoft should be running from the deal, and Yahoo should be begging them to buy. Instead both parties being run by ego.

My wife probably got bored and left after that last paragraph, let's get out of the business world.

Speaking of something more interesting, Ian is doing much better now. We actually get sleep, and I can actually type with two hands tonight. Hence the lack of posting (there's always a reason, isn't there. I haven't even dug that deep into the bucket of excuses). Our wonderful Dr. Allison suggested putting some towels under his mattress so he can sleep at an angle, and it worked quite wonderfully.

Speaking of Ian, Andi, I told you earlier by email that you don't need to bring anything over to visit the baby. You never listen to me. So you'll come over this weekend. Clear your calendar.

Speaking of visits, our finished basement had it's first guests over the 4th of July from A&S who brought their daughter Maya who's gotten much bigger. Her phrase right now is "dop dop" which is quite cute when you hear it. Anyway, they didn't complain or run screaming out of the guest room, so I guess the money was well spent.

The playroom also survived a 4 hour play date with Gavin's friend J. I shudder to think of the damage these two can do when they get older. Frankly as much fun as he has with J, playtime with C is much easier on my nerves.

Thanks again to A&A (you know, this tradition of abbreviating names just irritates me sometimes) for helping paint the basement. After that and Ian's room I have lost all desire for the task.

Holy crap, has it been 30 minutes already? How did that happen?

Speaking on money spent (3 paragraphs up, stick with me), could I stop spending money on the house for a bit? After the basement was done, you'd think I'd let it sit. But no, I have to buy a bookshelf, curtains (which I haven't installed yet), new blinds for Ian's room, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something in there. I need some time to recover for my credit card's sake.

Speaking of credit cards (see, we're back on track now), my credit card company decided to improve their systems. Improving their systems apparently involves giving me a new credit card number. I don't understand how that is necessary, since we still have the same # of digits. I had my old number nice and memorized, now I have to actually look for my wallet if I want to make an impulsive purchase online. So thank you for changing my credit card account I guess.

Those of you who chuckled 8 paragraphs up are just sick. I'm too tired to change the sentence though.

Speaking of sentences (this one's a stretch, stick with me), apparently Gavin can actually write letters. He attended his first afternoon adventure, which is apparently like an afternoon school like program, or getting kids used to pre-school, or something like that. I'll let Pam field the questions on what it is. Anyway, he came home with traces of the letter A (and a). Frankly the only thing I've seen this kid do with a crayon is turn a kid's menu monochromatic (that's right, 1am and still churning the multi-syllable advanced words). So I was surprised to see he could actually do that kind of thing. Apparently he loves "school" and can't wait to go back. Apparently he was so energetic, he used up all his energy as I had to carry him up to bed tonight as he fell asleep on the couch an hour before bedtime.

Speaking of bedtime....seriously, did you need me to finish that?

Peering out of tiny eyes

Well my last post was somewhat prophetic, as Ian Ramiel MacDonald was born on May 27th, 6:30 pm.

That's for the random people who have stumbled on this blog and wondering why after stating I was going to post more often, that I go silent for a month. The rest of you know this. We all up to speed? Good.

His middle name can be interpreted as Thunder of God, or Mercy of God. To be quite frank, he seems to be trying on both hats to see which one he likes. One night we get 4 hour sleep sessions, the next, 2 hours. Such is the life of a newborn.

It was quite strange this time to actually come home with the baby. With Gavin in the NICU, we didn't have him in our room, and when we left the hospital we left him there. Otherwise known as the worst day of my life. However we did have the benefit of easing up to being parents as we did it part time for a week before we brought him home. With Ian, we had him as soon as the nurses were done checking him out. A bit of a shock, but it was quite nice. Even nicer was Ian's natural ability to nurse. After Gavin's initial troubles, that was a welcome change.

Gavin surprisingly did not regress as is normal, but went the other way. The week we brought Ian home, he suddenly decided to be potty trained. He will reject some of the little forks and spoons and call them "baby spoons" and he wants a "big spoon". Gavin also tries to give Ian advice during tummy time, and disposes of his dirty diapers. He's starting to resent the amount of time Pam spends with Ian, but we're addressing that.

I suggested to Pam that we might want to try the same potty training technique for Ian, however she is not so keen on the idea. No surprise there.

The basement is now done pending the final county inspection tommorow or Monday. I'm quite pleased with the results, not so pleased with the time it took. Not my contractor's fault though, let me give you a breakdown of the latest issue we had.
1) We buy hardware for the shower/tub (faucet, shower head, bath head, etc)
2) We buy shower surround walls for the bathtub
3) Shower surround walls crumble when the glue is applied, Lowes won't take it back because holes were already drilled into the walls.
4) New shower surround walls bought and installed OK
5) At the end of installing shower hardware, it is found a piece is missing.
6) Manufacturer is contacted and ships said piece.
7) Manufacturer takes a week, and does not ship the unique screw needed to attach piece
8) Manufacturer ships screws (somewhat faster)
9) Hardware installed, however bath and shower come on at same time, and water temperature control just keeps spinning
10) Manufacturere contacted, sends whole new control out
11) 3 weeks later, shower works.

If you aren't a believer in MacDonald's law of luck by now....

But I have a finished basement, and I'm happy. Tired, broke, but happy.

I think my next post will be an album review, I haven't done one of those for a bit....

Come the day I awake the child inside

I have drywall.

After weeks of inspectors, corrections, re-inspections, and the discovery that I apparently am not qualified to run my own phone lines (and must pay someone to do it for me, exactly the same way), I have drywall.

This means that someday my basement will be finished. Someday very soon actually. So it was great joy that I came home Tuesday, went down to the basement to see for myself the amazing spectacle.

I have drywall.

On other happy news, the finals for the Stanley Cup playoffs has begun. Pittsburgh vs. Detriot. I of course am cheering for my beloved Penguins and against the hated Red Wings. This will though be one hell of a series. The 1st game so far has been a little worrisome since the Penguins can't get a good bounce of the puck. However it is offset by the fact that the Red Wings can't catch a break either. A strange situation, but makes for a tense game.

Speaking of tense, not a day goes by that I don't expect a phone call from my wife at work telling me its time for the new baby. Pam is quite big now, and the baby is making her life miserable. However it apparently is content to stay in for a bit longer. We haven't settled on a name yet, however we're not too concerned. I think we're going to wait until he's born to see what feels right.

If we're lucky, the basement will be done by then. But I'm not holding my breath...

Hey I, but, I'm still alive

I thought it was going to be longer until I quoted Pearl Jam, oh well

Sarahlynn (http://sarahlynn.blogspot.com/) has tagged me, which is pretty much a wake up call for me. I've had a lot of false starts over the last month and a half. I'll log on, start writing, look at the clock, then say screw it and go to bed.

Besides, it's hockey playoffs, if you didn't think I was going to be distracted, you haven't read this blog very long. (does anyone still read this blog?)

OK, according to the rules I have seen, you must do the following (shamelessly copied and pasted from Sarahlynn):
1. Link to the person who tagged you. (done, 2nd paragraph, hers is good, read it, she rocks)
2. Post the rules on your blog. (done)
3. Write six random things about yourself. (following)
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. (ummm, maybe next post)
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is up. (it's 11:30pm, should I call? :) )

Random stuff:
1) I love Oreos. I love them so much that I have to protest whenever anyone buys them for me, because I know that the battle of wills has begun. It is a battle I will lose. I feel shame.
2) As much as I praise the likes of Genesis, Rush, Tori Amos, plus countless other artists in that vein. The website I check just as much for a new album is Roxette. (probably because its never going to happen)
3) I have problems convincing myself to buy anything over $50.
4) I have problems imposing myself on anyone, for any reason (hence reluctance for rule #4)
5) My favorite series of books is the "Death Gate Cycle" by Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman
6) I am planning to write a series of 7 books (more on that later)

So let's catch up. We've started the process of finishing our basement. We decided to go the contractor route instead of doing it ourselves. There were a lot of reasons, but the main one being that I'd spend days obsessing over the spacing and leveling of each stud, where a contractor gets it done in a day or two.

We're doing a playroom, a guest room, and a bathroom. The guest room is causing the largest issues since it is a 'living area' and the permit office has all sort of annoyances for the permit and what not. Every contractor I talked to suggested that I skip the permit process unless we got caught. My neighbors that had done their own improvements agreed. However, I know my luck, and each time I take a shortcut it comes back to bite me. So we went through the frustrating process (even though my contractor handled it). I wouldn't of minded as much except that its costing me more money. Oh well.

We decided to put a guest room in the basement and turn our upstairs guest room into a room for kid #2 (no, we haven't picked a name yet, but we have finalists). There was talk of bunk beds, or moving our upstairs office. But it came down to the fact that keeping an upstairs guest room we used once or twice a year wasn't worth it. On the upside, the new guest room will have direct access to the bathroom.

I'm thinking of putting a security camera down there as well, so I can send Gavin and friends down there to play, and know what that crash was. Probably not a bad idea to have when he's a teenager too now that I think about it...

Hey, don't look at me that way. My mother's deviousness pushed me and my brother to higher levels of creative trouble making. With this trend, I'll need higher tech to keep up. Spend some time talking to my mother and you'll understand.

Speaking of Gavin, people have been showering him with gifts lately. Not only people I know, but random strangers. I'm not talking about people driving up and offering him candy, stop panicking. I'm just saying that while Gavin and I are waiting in Pizza Hut, a random woman playing the little "win a toy" game in the corner gives the prize to Gavin when she's done. No big deal, but after 3 incidents, I went back to check this wasn't a Give A Gift To Gavin month.

By the way, I'm not promoting that month, we have enough stuff in our house already.

OK, this post is long enough as it is, besides if I do it all now, there won't be another post for another month again...

They search for the color they can never quite see

Gavin's 3 now, thanks for everyone who came to his party! I started getting worried when I kept getting sick kid reports that we wouldn't get anyone, but everything turned out OK. Note, 2 boys playing together is a chaotic, 3 boys is a natural disaster. Yet no one gets hurt, funny how that works out. Managed to finish his year 3 DVD in time for it as well, so I was able to show it off to the in-laws, Pam, and M&K(w/C). I know I'm getting decent at this when I can point to a time point and say "Pam will cry here" (and she did, that's 3 years in a row, woot!). I had help this year though, Vanessa Carlton's song "Home" is perfect for this sort of thing and I was easily able to setup the pacing to that moment. This was probably the easiest year I've had doing this thing, simply because I'm now used to the tools I'm employing, and I know how to use my source material.

If you decide you wish to do your own DVD of your kid's moments, here are some tips:
1) 25 minutes is your target length, 20 feels just too short, and 30 is when people have had enough. Cap it at 25 and you'll be good.
2) The pictures you posted to your website might not be the ones you use in the video, I have one in the video of C & Gavin's back to me, not good for a published picture, but with the context, fit in perfectly in the video.
3) Get a rough idea of your soundtrack first. Know what song you're starting with, and which one you're ending with. The rest will usually fall into place. Eliminate all voices from your shot video, trust me you won't need it. The soundtrack will be the glue that drives the pacing.
4) During the year shoot a lot of pictures, and a lot of video. I usually have 2 hours of video shot and about 1000 pictures. Of that I'll get about 10 minutes of good video which works in the DVD (of which I'll use 6 minutes worth), and 300 pictures. If you are using all your pictures & video in the movie, you haven't shot enough.
5) Mix your pictures & video together. My first DVD did a picture slideshow, then I dumped all the movies in the extras section. The feedback from year 1 was mixed, once I decided to weave them together all I got was good feedback.
6) Buy a good tool. I got Sony's Vegas Movie software (that comes with a nice DVD architect). It runs about $100 but will make your life a WHOLE lot easier.
7) No one will usually obviously notice things you sync up with points in the music, but over time it will make an effect on the viewer. This is how I make Pam cry every year.

That said, you can always use option 8 and ask me to do one for you, I'm easily bribed. Now that I'm comfortable with it, this is quite a bit of fun.

All you need to do is give me some oreos.

But you shouldn't because they're bad for me.

Even though I love them.

But I shouldn't eat them.

Even if I beg you.

And trust me, I am begging....

You've only begun to shine

I know, two posts in a month? I'm as shocked as you are.

First I must start off by mentioning a completely evil but wonderful game that has entered my life, Audiosurf (http://www.audio-surf.com). This game takes a song you pick, generates a track that bends, climbs, twists, and dives all based on the soft and intense moments of that song. That's pretty cool as it is, but then they added a sort of bejeweled type game with it where you match colored blocks. And to top that off, there are many types of 'cars' each playing the game a different way. Its great for a casual game where you want to listen to your music, and its good for those more intense people too at the harder difficulty levels.

So why did I say evil?

Well, after my first 'ride' through the game to a Genesis song, I saw my score. It then showed me the scores of everyone else who had played this song. The software doesn't use randomness, so for a song, you'll have the same generated track as everyone else. That person had a higher score than me, on a Genesis song. This could not be. So I went back in there and crushed him.

That's not evil, that's just mildly addicting (and a bit of pride as well).

What's evil is 2 days later I got an email stating that someone had beaten on of my scores.

That's just evil.

So if you do pick this game up ($10 on steam and comes with the Orange Box soundtrack), keep an eye out on the scoreboard for Genesis songs. The name at the top of the list should be Darkthorn. That's me. Pick your favorite band and dominate!

I'm not going to go into why my gaming screen name is Darkthorn, that's for a different post hopefully I won't be writing for a while.

That'll make sense eventually, trust me.

Gavin is progressing in his potty training. We're putting him in underwear, and he's doing pretty well. He's much better after 11am than he is before that. For him its not a matter of knowing, its just if he's busy, he doesn't care if he goes potty in his pants. Focus is a good thing I guess, but I'd like him to get this down before the baby comes.

Speaking of the baby, its my turn to pick the first name. So I'm digging through tons of Scottish names right now. I've got a couple I like, but none I've settled on. For the middle name I'm leaning towards Raguel. Look it up, and learn something. I know I give M crap for picking Gabriel for his son, but Raguel is more complementary to Gavin's middle name Raphael. Again, look it up, knowledge is good for you.

Don't ask me why an agnostic like myself is picking angel names for his kid's middle names. It is just one of those things OK?

On the reading front, I finished Stephen Colbert's I Am America (and so can you!), which I found amusing. I'm now working on Terry Goodkind's final book in his series. I have to admire this guy, he's managed to write an 11 book series that well paces the overarching storyline, while giving detailed individual subplots. He writes great characters, and does a fantastic job of keeping you on your toes. Its not a perfect series, but I highly recommend it. Warning the first book will shock your sensibilities about 2/3 of the way in, push through it and you will be rewarded. He decided to end this series with a sub-trilogy, that started very very slowly, but once it got moving its hard to stop turning the pages.

On the music front....Anna, Anna, Anna.....This is very disappointing. Those of you who actually remember what I post remember that I highly regarded Anna Nalick's first album "Wreck Of The Day". That came out in 2005, then re-released with more tracks in 2006. You might also remember my post about prolific album releasing vs non, and my worries about what the record companies would do this this artist since it had been about 3 years. Well, apparently after 3 years all that's coming out is an EP with 2 new songs, and 3 old songs acoustic versions.

Now I have nothing against EPs, Charlotte Martin has shown what good outlets they can be. But after 3 years I would hope there'd be something more. Anna's mentioned a new album in a couple of her posts (though she seems unsure when it will be released herself), so I assume the material is there. Her new song "Shine" is quite good, so she's not out of talent (I hope). So what's the deal? I know this isn't a huge deal to people, I just hate what seems to be stifling of good talent by the record company. I could be wrong, but after seeing what has happened to Vanessa Carlton, Sophie B. Hawkins, and others I doubt it.

So this post wasn't as deep as the last one, I never said I would be consistent.

Can I have better days? Let them come

Wow it's been a while. Not that you've missed too much since I've been working quite a bit. And I don't blog about work, though I have been very very tempted. But rules are rules.

We enjoyed the last snowfall we had, and Gavin and I built his first snowman. Got some decent pictures though we had to reverse the snowman's face to the other side because the sun was constantly in his eyes when attempting to take said pictures. The snowman ended up falling over while attempting to fix one of his arms, but that's ok, because a fallen snowman is just the first step in a new snow fort! Gavin was so happy with the concept, I ended up ripping half the snow in the back yard to build it, it looked like a white fort in a sea of green.

On a quick side note and non-humble moment, if there's proof of mutations in our gene's its in my brother's and my ability as snow engineers. Both my parents have tried to claim credit, and have been refuted by their respective parents. So in this case we're mutants. Its not much of a mutation, but it did serve my brother and I well in the long snowy winters in Pittsburgh. No snow fort was complete without a couple of entry tunnels. I'll be interested to see if Gavin inherits it...

Anyway, Gavin and I had a great deal of fun sledding, and pelting each other with snowballs. I'd only hit him when he was outside his fort (gently, he's just almost 3), so he got the concept of the fort pretty quickly.

Its strange how fast the year has gone so far, Gavin will turn 3 in less than a month. Which isn't good news for me since the DVD I do yearly usually gets started in January. Whoops. Luckily I've already got some of the soundtrack picked out, which I'll admit is what I end up spending a lot of time on (wow, that's a surprise).

Pam got me the 2nd Genesis CD/DVD box set for x-mas, 1985 to present day, and Gavin and I have been enjoying dancing to it. Gavin definitely has taken to "Home By The Sea" (which sounds incredible in surround) which shows his good musical taste :). However at a song clocking over 10 mins, dancing to it turns into quite a workout. Speaking of music, Amanda (you're name's on the comment relating to this sentence, fair game) left me some comments for some artists to check out, I need to get to that...

My string of bad luck has continued as my computer's power supply blew up last week. Literally blew up, pops, sparks, and smoke! Which is what I told the tech support guy when he said "be more specific" when I told him it blew up. Apparently people tell them that figuratively. They replaced it and it worked fine. The next morning my car died. Specifically the battery which needed to be replaced. Can't really get too mad about that, the battery has lasted over 5 years, which is pretty damn good.

Surprisingly I didn't vote in the primaries this year. When I was thinking about going and doing it, I realized on the Republican side, that McCain was going to end up as the nominee, and on Democrat side I was happy either way.

I know I'm going to regret posting that last sentence, it seems a lot of my friend's are Obama fans. I feel kinda bad for not sharing in their enthusiasm, but while I like the guy I just can't get that enthusiastic yet. I think its just the fact that I'm more cynical politically, and there's a just a bit too much idealism in what I'm hearing to make me comfortable. Our Congress just isn't that responsive, and as much as Presidents like to ignore it, they make the laws. We'll see how I feel as we start leaving the primaries behind us if he wins.

I know Clinton has that love/hate thing going on with her, a lot of people don't like her because she's hard nosed, a bit too crafty, and will play dirty at times. I guess it says a lot about me that those are the reasons that I like her :).

In the end I'm split pretty evenly between the two, which is a good thing for the Democratic party, though the media thinks that's a bad thing for some reason. I'm looking forward to a convention showdown. I think its the kick in the pants the party needs, maybe it will wake up some of their congressman contenders as well, one can only hope.

On the Republican side, I have a problem. McCain is probably going to win the nomination, which puts me in a quandary. You see, though I'm not a Democrat or Republican, I was fully intending on voting Democrat for the President since the Republicans have done their best to piss me off during the last 8 years. This is now a problem, because I have a great deal of respect for McCain. I'm not saying that I agreed with him on everything, but I realized early on that voting on someone just because they agree with you on the issues of the day is slightly wacked out because
1) I could be wrong
2) They could be lying
3) What about the handling of the issues of tommorow?

So my level of respect for someone plays a major factor. Again, you're seeing my problem here.

What the Bush campaign did to McCain 8 years ago seriously pissed me off, and I've wondered how much better off we'd be today if McCain was President during the aftermath of 9/11.

In the end, this means I'm actually going to have to think about my vote this year. Frankly, I haven't had to think about my vote for President ever, they've been all no-brainers.

Damnit.

A strange new sound you never heard before

OK, so I lied. Its not that I didn't have stuff to talk about, I just didn't seem to get back in front of the computer much. There were many culprits, watching poker on tv with my father, playing Canasta with my parents, playing Settlers of Catan with my parents, playing Munchkin with my siblings, playing the bean game with everyone, and playing Final Fantasy III that my brother got me for x-mas.

So in case you just skipped through that paragraph, blame my brother, I do.

For those of you who have been wondering, we did have the ultra-sound, and we do know what we're having. The title lyric is all the clue you need, if you're too lazy to figure it out, you didn't really want to know anyway. SL has already figured it out, why, because she's cool like that. Follow her example won't you? Then get the song, its one of my all time favorites.

(OK, let's just get this out of the way, I know you're thinking, "Is there ANY post he's going to do that doesn't reference his music tastes in some way?", the answer's NO. Get over it)

We had a great x-mas, as predicted we did the drive back without stopping for the night. It must be the psychological effect of the time change going west. Go figure. Portable DVD players for the car are great for entertaining your child. Though I must admit I was hesitant to get one for Gavin, probably because I didn't have one when I was a kid.

Quick note on the elections, I was REALLY hoping that looking at the field, religion would stay the hell out of the Republican primaries this time. I thought we had a good shot. God fucking dammit. Let's get this straight, I don't give a damn how/if/when you pray, I care about leading the damn country. Truthfully if it wasn't for the religious right, I'd be leaning republican. I've always been drawn that way for fiscal policy, they're just plain morons by messing it all up with stupid social policies that just piss me off. Republicans should be for equal rights for everybody because it makes more money, you discriminate, you lessen the talent pool. Simple economics, wake the hell up.

To be clear, I think Huckabee's a pretty nice guy, I'm not targeting him with that rant, I'm just pissed religion became an issue that Romney has to defend, and even Giuliani (seriously?) jumped on.

Oh and stop predicting who has this sown up after one state, especially since that state is Iowa. Stupid primary system, thus ends that rant.

Since we got a 2nd kid on the way (nice transition there don't you think?) I'm giving myself 2 years to finish the basement. I took a big first step by measuring the damn thing. I say a big step because I've been talking about doing it for over a year now. Gavin wanted to help, but once he realized that meant having to stand still holding the end of the tape measure in one place, his enthusiasm waned. But its done, and I'm trying out Google SketchIt (free!) to put it into the computer to try a couple of ideas. Then I get to figure out if I can actually afford this thing.

BTW, for any house builders out there. PUT THE DAMN FURNACE IN A CORNER INSTEAD OF THE CENTER OF THE DAMN BASEMENT! I know why you did it, but moving 10' to the wall would still keep it mostly centralized and made my choices for the basement much better. I won't get started on the placement of the bathroom rough-in.

To end this bit of ramblings (hey, check the title of this blog), I'd have to say that last year was a pretty good year music wise for me. I discovered 2 new artists who have some real staying power with me, Martha Berner & Liz Tormes. And even though you don't care, here are my yearly awards.

Best Music: Tori Amos - American Doll Posse.
Best Lyrics: Liz Tormes - Limelight (specifically, Black Luck)
Best New Discovery (for me): Martha Berner
Biggest Surprise (Good) : Charlotte Martin - Repruductions (Its a freaking cover album that's actually good!)
Biggest Surprise (Bad): Collective Soul - Afterwords (decent album, but lacked the punch that "Youth" had)
Best Complete Album: Martha Berner - This Side Of Yesterday
Worst Complete Album: I can't say, because it was a gift.
Best Guilty Pleasure: American Gladiators (OK, its not music, but still.....)