Chaotic Revelations

So I roam these open roads

2009-03-16T23:51:00.001-05:00

I’m kind of roaming iTunes right now, looking for something new. Its been 5 or 6 months since an album has blown me away (U-Catastrophe), so I’m getting antsy. I’m digesting Lijie’s Roam right now (and no, I don’t know how to pronounce Lijie), and downloading Tara MacLean’s Wake and Keane’s Under the Iron Sea. Tara I found while listening to Pandora (better than the radio for finding music) and Keane comes from a recommendation from my sister-in-law. I’m pretty much a sucker for music people suggest to me, if someone thinks its worth mentioning to me, its usually worth a look at. We’ll see how this all turns out.

I don’t want to turn into one of those people who can only listen to a type of music from a certain time period (hi dad). That being said, I wish there was another Rush or Genesis album coming. Thank god Tori is releasing one soon.

Ian is crawling now, it surprised us somewhat since for so long he had no interest in moving around. He was quite willing just to watch his big brother run amok. His focus was on the talking. Then he stopped talking for a couple of days. We should have figured out what was going on, but we can all be oblivious at times. Needless to say, he got it in his head it was time to start moving, and he focused all his energy on that. Now he’s all over the place, babbling while he tries to grab everything in sight.

Needless to say, I’ve had to put the staircase gates back up. Including the one Gavin ripped out of the way a couple years back (Gavin MAD!)

What’s not surprising is his determination to follow Gavin. During Gavin’s bath time a couple of days ago, I put Ian on the floor and watched him crawl out of the office. First stop was Gavin’s bedroom. After circling around the whole area (apparently he was checking if he was hiding), he sped off to the bathroom where he went right up to the tub and gave his big brother a huge grin.

Gavin’s taking it all in pretty good stride, and he doesn’t mind herding him around somewhat. Its funny to watch him scramble to get his toys out of reach of Ian’s drool covered hands. So if nothing else, Ian’s crawling will teach Gavin the importance of picking up his toys.

Warm weather this weekend meant we got to take Gavin & Ian to the park for a while. These trips are always amusing to me as I can watch Gavin interact with any other kid or group of kids. He somehow becomes instant friends with anyone. No idea how he does it, he sure as hell didn’t get that from me. He even charms the parents.

I hope he keeps that skill when he enters school….

And I will smile till my heart stops beating

2009-02-16T01:10:00.001-06:00

Well, another year, another DVD of the kids out the door to the extended family. Took me long enough. It’s already mid-February. You’d think with dropping a couple of months would make it easier right? For those of you who don’t understand, the DVD’s used to take place between Gavin’s birthdays. With Ian now with us, that only makes sense if we REALLY want to give Ian an inferiority complex. Now we all know I’ll mess with my kids minds, but that’s a bit much even for me. Hench, this year’s DVD going from March to December. Surprisingly that made it a pain the ass. Everything felt compressed and uneven. I started over three times.

I know, its my own fault, I’m a perfectionist.

Anyway, I can say it was a success by my standards (Pam cried). Not as good as last year, but I have a feeling it will be a while until I put together something as good as last year. Such is life. At least the music choices were easy. With the obvious song for Ian’s birth laying the groundwork for everything else.

What you do you mean it isn’t obvious? You need to update your music library with the classics. Here’s a hint, it was on Live in Australia.

Anyway, now that project is over, and work is relaxing its grip somewhat, I’m going to try to be counterproductive for a while. God knows I’ve skipped enough fencing sessions, its amazing I know which end of the sword is the pointy part.

Maybe I’ll update this blog more than once a @#$#ing month. That’s right, I said @#$#. We’re adults, we can handle it. My writing skills have definitely suffered from the time off. I’ve deleted about 5 or 6 half written blog entries over the last couple of months because I haven’t been able to keep a coherent thought between sessions. So this one is going out, even if it is utter crap. Stream of consciousness time.

I usually don’t talk about work, but I do have to mention that I successfully fought off being given a blackberry for the time being. I see what those things do to good people. It isn’t pretty. When you are waiting for your ball to be returned to you in bowling, and you are typing into your blackberry, it is a sign. I’m not a big fan of texting either. I’ve received about 2 text messages from my brother in my life, and sent none so far. I like talky talky. If it isn’t urgent, I’ll live with an email communication, but texting just sets my teeth on edge for some reason. Maybe its the belief people seem to have that the act of texting while in a conversation with you isn’t rude since they aren’t actually talking on the phone. I’m not casting judgment on you people who use it, its just not for me OK?

Time for some calming thoughts. I got Pam Rock Band for XMas, and I have to say it was much more fun than I anticipated. I’ve re-kindled my love for drumming. After a stressful day, I find it to be very therapeutic. Gavin enjoys playing along as well, either running through all the possible drum sounds in freestyle mode, or playing along with his toy guitar while I drum. It seems to suck in others as well. P&A complete a regular foursome at the household. Pam usually takes guitar, I’m on drums, P is on bass, and A is on vocals. We have a pretty good time, and with A singing I actually understand some of the lyrics for some of these songs. We had A&A over today and I think we addicted them as well, and I learned I wasn’t as bad on vocals as I thought I would be.

Anyway, its fun, come by if you want to rock.

But back to drumming for a minute, I want to shout out to my old college drum teacher, who knew what the hell he was talking about. When I first graduated to a drum set from the little snare drum I started on in college, his first question to me was “Do you dance?”. When I admitted I was not what you would call a dancer type, he just smiled and said “You are now”.

When he asked me what I thought my biggest problem was going to be at the end of the first day on the set, I told him it was obviously going to be my feet. He told me it was going to be my left hand. Since I am a violinist, who’s left hand is quite dexterous, I voiced my disagreement.

He was right about everything. When I’ve got a piece, I feel like I am dancing with the kit. My foot has become like an extra hand, and complex rhythms using the bass petal don’t throw me anymore. My left hand has revealed itself to be a control freak and doesn’t like to relax when I have to do even triples or quads. My right hand, which has never been called on to do the complex finger work on the violin, does the finger movements to control the drumstick perfectly. Just like he said.

He taught me to get more efficient movement by relaxing and stop getting in the way of myself. How hitting the drum sooner was better than faster. A lot of how I listen and feel music today came out of those lessons. I wish I would have been able to keep on drumming after graduating, but I don’t think the people in my apartment building would have appreciated it. Or my roommate.

But I am glad to be doing it again, even if its on a fake drum set that wasn’t as fake as I thought it was going to be.

I do feel like a bad husband for getting so much enjoyment out of my wife’s present though :)

On a final note, I am on facebook now. I really don’t know why. OK, I know why, its because A kept nagging me on the phone to do it, and since it has been proven (and published) that I will spend $100 dollars to shut him up (he’s proud of that), it was pretty much a given I was going to just do it.

Wow, there were WAY too many commas in that last sentence. SL is probably writing a nasty comment about that right now.

Anyway, it was a little freaky how the initial friend selection list found so many people I actually knew, but hadn’t seen in a long long long time. Either all the people on facebook who went to Wash U. were APO people, or facebook is just freaky.

I’m not complaining mind you, its actually quite nice to see (figuratively) again. Its just a little freaky how good it was at picking those people from the ether. And even more so since it didn’t even bother suggesting anyone from my high school except one person. That’s a good thing, I can think of only a very few people I’d want to see from there.

Its also a little out of my comfort level. Yes, I have a blog, but let’s be honest, there’s like 10 people who read it. I don’t count the people who came and read the Limelight album review, I don’t think they stuck around (if you did, cool). But there’s a lot of people on facebook. As Gavin would say, a lot a lot.

Maybe I’m just getting old….young whipper-snappers and their technologies these days.

And now it seems as though we're disappearing

2008-12-31T12:10:00.002-06:00

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

2008-09-14T21:48:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-10T20:58:00.013-05:00

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

2008-08-27T22:46:00.003-05:00

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

2008-08-14T22:41:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-19T20:18:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-17T00:15:00.003-05:00

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

2008-06-26T23:23:00.000-05:00

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

2008-05-24T20:16:00.000-05:00

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

2008-05-04T23:15:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-09T23:20:00.000-05:00

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

2008-02-23T23:00:00.000-06:00

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

2008-02-14T23:28:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-08T00:08:00.000-06:00

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.....)

All is calm

2007-12-25T07:22:00.000-06:00

Well, we've accomplished the long drive to Pittsburgh. Gavin thankfully was pretty good for the trip, even though he hates being cooped up in a car for a long time. We stopped for the night in Columbus, and Gavin got his own big bed which he loved. I had to let him run laps in part of the hotel main floor, but not that many people were there so no one was bothered. Thankfully the pool was open late so Gavin got plenty of swim time to exhaust him. As I get older, the trip going east seems to get harder and harder, so I was thankful for the break. Strangely the trip going west I do in one day without a stop. Probably because 1) We get an earlier start and 2) The time change works in our favor in a weird psychological way.

My sister has a dog now, and Gavin loves it. The dog loves Gavin too, but a sometimes little too much as it is twice Gavin's size. Gavin loves to run, and the dog sees running and catching as a game, you can see how this works out.

Christmas Eve is when my family decorates the tree, which is probably a large reason why I hate doing Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving. Gavin attempted to help decorate, but with breaking 2 out of the 4 decorations while attempting to put them on the tree, he got a new job of unwrapping decorations which he tackled with great enthusiasm. Gavin loves 'helping', I wonder how long that will last....

Its been a calm Christmas morning, Gavin isn't at the "OH MY GOD SANTA CAME!" stage yet. When asked what Santa did, Gavin said "Bring candy canes". Gavin was impressed by the number of presents that appeared after he went to sleep, and is currently cuddling with the very large Elmo doll Santa brought him. He's not nagging anyone about opening the presents though. We're waiting for my brother to arrive, and my sister to awake. My brother lives about an hour away, so good money is that he'll get here before my sister wakes up. I'm sure once everyone arrives and he sees the orgy of present opening, it will imprint on his mind and he'll be much more excited next year. I'm enjoying the current calm and quiet right now though. I had a great Christmas present this morning when Gavin crawled into bed and said "I snuggle daddy, I love daddy".

I know I haven't been blogging much recently, blame work, I do. In fact, I'm doing a little work right now, not much but they're moving all the servers from one building to another over the break and I need to make sure my apps are still up. Merry Christmas to me :) Anyway, while I'm on break I'll be blogging quite a bit.

If they told me you'd be the one, I wouldn't have believed them

2007-11-22T13:10:00.000-06:00

So when my stress levels get high enough, I have a habit of buying more music, only blindly. This is usually an incredibly stupid thing to do, as you can easily end up with some really terrible stuff no matter how good that 30 second clip is. Surprisingly, I'd had some really good luck in the last couple of years.

I saw a quick article about an new artist named Liz Tormes, never heard of her before, and apparently her stuff was folk/rock/blues which means the reviewer had really no clue how to classify. I decided what the hell and got her on iTunes (Limelight is the name of the album), and as a back up I bought some more David Gray since I figured he's be a safe bet, and because spending MORE money is always the answer...

Anyway, after listening to her, I agree with the reviewer, we have no freaking clue how to classify this person, but damn its a good album. If you're in the mood for something different, yet fantastic, download "Black Luck", its more of an emotional/musical painting rather than a traditional song. The whole album has this off-the-cuff, raw live feel. This won't be for everyone, if you only listen to very structured music stay the hell away from this one. But if you're in the mood for something different, give it a try.

As for the David Gray album "A New Day At Midnight", quite good, and the man continually finds ways of pissing me off. I should NOT LIKE the song "Be Mine". Its a freaking simple cheesy poppish song....but he has a way of perfect execution that takes stuff like that and makes it irresistible. Frankly the man is a genius when it comes to instrumentation, and can perfectly layout a track so it shines no matter what genre he decides to tackle. All my years of writing and playing music, and the knowledge that I couldn't even think of the stuff he comes up with in the most subtle ways to craft a song irritates me.

Speaking of stuff I shouldn't like. I hate cover albums. I usually hate most cover songs in general. Played live they're usually OK, but in recorded form they usually just fall apart. Either they're not even trying and just copying the song (so why am I buying it?) or putting a 'twist' on the song that usually involves a drum machine to turn it into a dance tune.

So why the hell am I enjoying "Reproductions" from Charlotte Martin so much? When I saw she was putting out a cover album I pretty much avoided it until I heard a clip on her site. That was "Bizzare Love Triangle", and it was a complete re imaging of the song that sounded incredible. I played it for Pam and she liked it as well. She even took songs I wasn't that fond of ("Cloudbusting" by Kate Bush) and made them not only listenable, but loveable.

Charlotte is definitely embracing the iTunes system, while she is putting out albums she's also putting other bits and pieces on iTunes as EPs. And I can't resist gobbling them up (see, thanksgiving reference, you can stop looking now). If you want to try one new artist, try her. Give her some love so she keeps the good stuff coming.

Everybody wants to know the score

2007-11-11T23:59:00.000-06:00

Its been hard to blog, since really the only things noteworthy deal with work. And remember what my first post said...

What do you mean you haven't read the first blog post? For heaven's sake, start at the beginning and work your way back here.

While those people are off reading, I can talk about what else is going on.

Gavin is definitely in the imaginative stage, he makes up lots of games (I think we're on 5 variations of his "baseball game"), he practices conversations with himself, he talks to his bunny, its all quite cute. He doesn't always explain the rules of the game at first, but he'll teach you as you go. And he's very gracious, when I roll a ball down the banister for him to hit with a drum stick (baseball variation #2) and he misses. He calmly picks it up and tells me "I missed. Try again daddy". I highly enjoy the imaginative stage, some parents do get weirded it out by it though, especially the self-conversations. I just think its cute, I think that speaks for itself about my personality.

At this point, I've completely lost track of who we've told, so if you don't know, Pam is pregnant. If I tell you again, just live with it. I really should keep a chart of who we've told and who we haven't. Both Pam and I though the other told our next door neighbor, so she was the last on the block to know. And no, we don't know what it is. And I won't mention what I'm hoping for in case our future child reads this blog at some point in time because well, they just had a boring day. But if you know who you have to free from the Big Daddys in Bioshock, then you know what I'm wishing for. No way my kids will know what that game is when they get old enough :)

Speaking of video games, it seems slightly strange to me that a 32 year old guy like myself is still into that kind of thing. Apparently it isn't something you out grow. Though I do find myself passing on a lot of the normal action bang-bang boom games that are in the market, and really get engrossed in the ones with a great deal of attention to the world & the story. Bioshock is becoming one the best games I've played, frankly they should take the story and make a movie/book. It is that engrossing.

Music wise I'm addicted to Vanessa Carlton's "Home" and "More Than This". The album as a whole is ok, if a bit uneven. Definitely listen to those two songs. I've been listening to some clips of a new artist Liz Tormes and will probably download her sometime soon when I remember to take the iPod out of the car.

In reference to my last post, I've long resolved never to be "that parent" who pushes their kids to excel in something with an irrational passion. Like football, or some other sport. Yet, I find myself on the brink when it comes to hide and seek. Seriously. You have to understand, my family are at the professional level of hide and seek. Some of my siblings had no patience whatsoever, but would sit in a hiding spot for hours. I'm not kidding. The kid's got to step it up, the family's reputation is at stake!

You got to know when to hold em, know when to fold em

2007-10-16T17:08:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I played probably the best game of poker I've ever played from a technical perspective. I got away from every hand I should have gotten away from, I raised when I should have, I played slow when I needed to.

And I still lost.

No matter how good you are, you will have some nights when the cards just don't like you. For example, I got dealt 2,3 seven times that night. Now, that isn't as bad as 2,7, but it isn't good. When I got them as a suited connector, out of frustration I decided to bet them. Lo and behold, I get 2 more 2's on the flop. I go ahead and keep betting them driving people out of the pot except on guy who would sometimes stay in longer than he should. It turns out I had him beat the whole time, until a 9 showed up on the last card giving him 3 9's to my 3 2's.

It was that kind of night. Still fun though.

Oh, and I forgot something from the last post, Pam's iPod's hard drive died as well in that 2 month period.

Gavin's reached a point where his conversations are much more complex, and his ability to draw conclusions has really improved. There was a book he was addicted too, "The Bunnies Are Not In Their Beds". He asked for it as the "Bad Bunny Book", but no where in the book does it say that the bunnies were bad (though they were). His social skills, while not perfect, have improved quite nicely as he usually plays well with others. He enjoys group play, though I've noticed that sometimes he will leave the group and just play by himself. He's really pushing to grow another inch or two so he can reach his pedals better on his tricycle. His friend J can pedal it and Gavin is determined to do it too, just legs just aren't cooperating.

My favorite Gavin moment had to be when I was sick in Chicago. He was downstairs watching Sesame Street (which is holy writ to him) when I had to sprint to the bathroom to be sick. I hear this "DADDY!" from downstairs, then the sound of little legs pumping up the stairs. Next thing he was behind me patting me on the back asking "You OK Daddy?", "Feel better Daddy". It was nice, even if being sick wasn't.

He's still the worst hide and go seek hider in the history of the game, we'll have to work on that...

...Pulls you down on your knees

2007-10-14T18:06:00.000-05:00

So what was so screwed up about August & September?

First, our camera broke. It wasn't completely unexpected since M&K have the same exact one and it broke 3 months earlier in the same way. Basically your pictures were colored snow. For someone who takes as many pictures as I do (www.faier.net/scott) this was a major issue.

Second, as was blogged before, the new computer I had purchased and put together had some major issues. Let me be clear, I will still be putting my next computer together from scratch like this one. I have built all my previous computers from scratch and they've been perfect long term performers. However, something strange was happening with this one. I ended up shipping the motherboard back twice to ASUS, then shipping my processor back to Intel. Since processors are not supposed to be defective, what we believe happened is the 1st motherboard was defective and fried the processor. The 2nd one was probably OK, but ASUS never tested it. The 3rd motherboard was tested, which led us to realize the processor was fried.

Third, my car. They did an oil change and rotated the tires, and afterwards when I hit 40 MPH the steering wheel started shaking. I took it back in, and they said the back wheels were not balanced correctly which they fixed. But that didn't solve the problem. So I took it back in, and they re-rotated the tires back to their original position. That fixed the problem, and I guess I can't rotate my tires anymore until I get 4 new ones.

Fourth, we had a nice visit to Kansas City to see some friends. When we came back home, we found the refrigerator had broke. After getting a guy to look at it, the culprit was the compressor. Unfortunately to fix that costs $800, so we just bought a new fridge (which is why I'm hoarding money right now).

Finally, the night before we went to Chicago, Gavin got a stomach bug which delayed and almost canceled our trip. He gave it to me, and I was sick on the day we came back which left all the driving duties to my wife.

My old roommate found nothing weird about all these things happening in the same timespan, because he's used to this stuff. When I've mentioned MacDonald's law of luck, people think its something I came up with. The actual law was discovered by my old roommate, who found that there was some relationship to Murphy's law, frankly it wasn't as consistent, and had that taste of spite. He then came up with I believe 3 corollaries to the law, the only one I remember though is the one of distance. "MacDonald's law will not touch those close to Scott MacDonald as it would draw attention away from the spite and suffering when the unfortunate instances occur from the main target, therefore, those close to Scott MacDonald will have a greater concentration of good luck not only to keep them safe to witness the events, but to act as a foil to the shit that happens to him". I'll have to remember to ask him what the other two were, but they were of no help to me :)

Now we are in October, all my issues have been resolved, I have a working computer, car, camera, and fridge. So next is the house blows up I guess.....

More posts coming soon :)

Where the honey flows and takes you by the hand

2007-10-06T20:53:00.000-05:00

OK, I know I was going to give an account of the many woes of the last month, but I figured I'd delay that with something good that went on. I saw Genesis live, and it was good. And oh my god they played Ripples!!!!!!

You don't know what song Ripples is do you. Fine, go to iTunes, download it from the Trick of the Tail album, I'll wait.

OK, we all good now, fine, OH MY GOD THEY PLAYED RIPPLES!!! (See, you're on board now).

We had to travel to Chicago to see them, because no one good comes to play concerts in St. Louis anymore (besides Rush). I don't know what we've done to piss good shows off, but whatever it is, we as a city are sorry. We had nosebleed seats, but we had a good angle on the stage, and we could hear everything perfectly.

I'd like to digress on that for a second, so many concerts I go too you get lots of sound, but you can't understand a word of the lyrics, or even when they talk to the audience. I usually blame the over reliance on the bass levels. Whatever it is, I usually am annoyed with the sound crew. I had NO complaints that night, it had a great full sound that reached the rafters, yet it was clear & clean. OK, digression over.

It was a great set, combining old stuff with new stuff. From the set list you could tell it was a lot of band favorites with a lot of energy. Collins spent a good amount of time behind the drums and there was a good selection of instrumental movements. They did some interesting things, like opening with Duke's End transitioning to Turn It On Again, then later did the middle part of Duke's Travels (right before Duke's End starts) in the middle of an instrumental medley piece.

Sigh, just go buy the Duke album then re-read the last paragraph. If you like creative music you won't be disappointed, its a very solid album with strong instrumentals.

Another good point was that my wife experienced a Genesis concert with me, and hasn't divorced me, so that's a good sign. She says she understands my obsession more now, which could be just her humoring me, but I'll take it in the positive light :)

Next Genesis surround sound box set due out in November, can't wait!

2007-09-18T21:44:00.000-05:00

So we were at the art fair a couple of weeks ago. Frankly it was a bit of a disappointment, the best pieces on canvas were actually photographs. Some good pieces there, but nothing worth spending big bucks on. At least I only saw two booths with fruit & bowl art. I despise fruit & bowl art. If you want to practice on that stuff fine, but don't waste a booth at the fair with that stuff. I don't like the 3d mixed media stuff (it freaks me out) but at least its something interesting.

On the upside, while waiting for Andi & AD to make their purchases I heard some music that caught my ear. Female singer, good voice, very clean chord structures on the guitar. I checked the performance schedule, made a note of the name and went to dinner.

I listened to a couple of 30 second clips on iTunes, which is about as satisfying at eating only 1 chip, and decided to take a chance.

Her name is Martha Berner, and the album "This Side of Yesterday" is fantastic. Incredible vocals, great lyrics, and beautifully written songs. Its very acoustic/folk with some twists thrown in. I've been quite addicted to the album for weeks now, I had to buy it on iTunes since I can't find her in Best Buy, but I highly recommend you checking this out.

On another note, sorry I haven't been posting much, as many of you know the technology gods have not been kind to me. This will be the subject of the next post which should be out in the next day or so while I'm in Chicago (Genesis concert on Tuesday!!!).

I notice that my opponent is always on the go

2007-09-10T22:05:00.000-05:00

Sorry for premature posting earlier, I hit the wrong button, we now give you your very late post in full.

Well after a month off, I'm back at fencing. The month of August was rough with it being the end of our fiscal year, plus visitors from out of town, add a week of a sick kid and the month goes by pretty fast.

While not my best bouts in foil, at least my epee was pretty solid. What's the difference? A foil is the basic fencing weapon, you place hits on the chest only. Its a very light weapon, with quick flashy strikes. Basically everyone starts learning with that weapon, and it lays down the foundation for the rest of the sword types. The epee has a much larger guard, and its more of a positional weapon. Any part of the body can be hit, and instead of parrying you do more of a counter strike. Frankly, while I enjoy the foil, I was born to wield an epee.

For those of you who have watched Olympic fencing, let me assure that what we do is nothing like that. Our fencing is actually fun to watch, and is a martial art. What goes on during the Olympics is basically spastic motions with no thought for defense. We act as if the point is actually sharp and would kill us. It makes a large difference.

Women seem to get in sync with fencing more then men, don't know why, it just is. Probably because men's basic instinct is to smash, while women are more subtle.

It does take a certain change in mindset. Your basic instinct when a sword point is coming at you is to bash it out of the way with a lot of force. This however puts you off balance, unable to launch your own attack, and a skilled opponent will simply dance their sword around that parry and hit you. Instead you almost need a sterotypical super-calm British mentality. As if your body is saying "Would you terribly mind moving that sword to the left just a tad so I may live and skewer you? Jolly good!". The perfect parry is one that has your opponents sword almost brushing your body. Its an economy of effort that allows you the best chance for a strike at your opponent before they know what is happening. When you have two skilled practitioners bouting, you can get movie quality sword fights every couple of minutes.

Its a lot of mental and physical discipline, but its an awful lot of fun!

My computer is still awaiting a good motherboard (and yes, the irony of a previous post has not escaped me), so blogging is still sporadic. Hopefully this weekend everything will be OK, but considering my luck with electronics this month, I'm not holding my breath.

Help me through the hopeless haze

2007-08-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

I'm being a bastard with the lyric today, you'll have to know the song (or google for it) for it to make any sense.

So I drop off my car for its oil change and safety inspection. The guy they gave the job of driving me back to work was the chatty type who was asking about my job. When I brought up the hardest part was the scientists constantly changing their mind, he mentioned it was the same for him. When querying on his work, I found he deals with custom work for cars & detailing.

Now having people want to change software all the time can be understandable since it's just text (all developers reading this just winced a bit). But frankly, if you're going to detail your car, this is not something you should be wishy washy about. I guessed flip-flopping came because a husband made design choices the wives later disagreed with. It turned out I was right :).

Speaking of those scientists, we're going to be locking our users to what they want early. If it isn't funded, they probably aren't going to get it. This allows us to devote our resources a bit better, and frankly will give me less gray hairs. Predictably, our users like this as much as they like getting their nose hairs pulled. But this initiative came from way above me in the food chain, so I can just point the complaints in that direction and get on with work. Hee hee.

Gavin's growing again, and he's definitely more little boy than baby now. He's much more self-sufficient these days. Even to the point of being able to ride his bike down the hill without daddy right behind him. More importantly, daddy doesn't have to carry the bike back up the hill anymore. Because I like being lazy in my old age.

Reservations on the next train to the moon

2007-08-19T21:51:00.000-05:00

I've been away for a while, work has been hectic, home life has been hectic, blah blah blah

We suffered a strange illness in our son that even had our doctor scratching her head. Basically, after a day of sickness & vomiting, he would be fine the next morning. But then, at 4pm he's just shut down in a very disturbing manner. He'd just lay on the floor, not wanting to eat, saying he's sleepy, and basically being miserable. He'd want to be put to bed, then come stumbling out, come right up to me, then plop down in my lap, or on the floor. Maybe some more vomiting.

The next morning, he'd be fine, until 4pm rolled around again, then we repeated the drill all week.

When your child is energy personified, this is pretty much my personal hell. Thankfully, on Saturday when 4pm came around, he was his old bouncy self. He then started eating the whole house, so we were happy again.

The pieces of my new computer arrived, and for the first time, when I put it together, it wouldn't turn on. This was a problem. 3 tech support calls, a 2nd power supply and 5 days later it was determined that I needed to send my motherboard back. So it will probably be another week before I have a computer again.

All in all, not a great week.

Now I’ve looked in the mirror and the worlds getting clearer

2007-07-30T23:28:00.000-05:00

By the time you read this, I'll be 32, happy birthday to me :)

Unfortunately its going to be during a work day, and even worse than that it will be on a 'meeting' day AND a product release day. So no lazy day for me. The challenge will be to find time to do my ritual listening to "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" straight through. Since its 90 minutes, that isn't very easy during a work day. I'll probably have to wait for Gavin to go to bed and listen while Pam watches 'Big Brother'. Or I'll camp out in an empty conference room and not tell anyone where I am.

We had visits from Gavin at 2am and 5am last night. He wasn't hard to put back in bed, I'm thinking he's just randomly waking up, and since he's up, he figures he should come to our room. At least he isn't going downstairs and setting off the alarm. At least not yet. I'm slowly getting accustomed to getting up earlier in the morning. I've never been an early bird, I much prefer staying up later. Gavin isn't giving me much of a choice these days though, so I'm adjusting.

Finally saw the Bourne Identity tonight, good flick. I'll be interested to see how they tie in the sequel. My neighbors invited me to a guy's afternoon out to see the 3rd one this weekend, so I need to catch up :)

Speaking of our neighbors, we had a block party over the weekend which went pretty well. We tried it in a row of back yards instead of the cul-de-sac for a change. It worked pretty well though lighting was an issue as the night went on, but we managed. The kids all had a great time grazing on junk food and running every which way. We had some friends in from out of town, and we also had M&K (w/ C&T) join us giving a nice sized contingent.

You know I'm tired when I'm congratulating myself on spelling 'contingent' correctly on the first try, go me.

On a random side note, I've been amazed at how much the latest Tori Amos and Charlotte Martin albums have been sticking with me. After months, they're still on my current favorite listening play list. Cardboard Ladders, The Dance, Redeemed, Digital Ghost, Secret Spell, Girl Disappearing, Dragon and Programmable Soda seem to be destined to be long time favorites of mine.

I know that no one took me up on my call to buy the "Playing the Angel" album by Depeche Mode (yes, I checked when I was over at your house, deal). But give those tracks a try.

And so as the clock is soon to toll midnight on another year of my survival, I shall sign off with this

And all we have is who we are
And where we been got us this far
So let me go

Would you say if I was wasting my time

2007-07-11T22:02:00.000-05:00

OK, so there's going to be a "Sex and the City" movie. Why? I was a large fan of the series, but what possible movie could you make of it? The episodes were nice and bite sized, and considering they put everyone in a happy place at the end of the series, the launching point is going to be quite ridiculous. Notice that no one has made a Friends movie, there's a reason.

Speaking of Friends, we've started watching the old episodes on DVD again. I still find them quite amusing after all these years, even some of the crappy episodes in season 3 are better than some stuff out there. I know a lot of people focused on Jennifer Aniston, but Courtney Cox & Matthew Perry were really the heart of the show, and the work they've done outside of the show shows that (Dirt is awesome, and I loved Perry in Studio 60).

Gavin has started coming in to visit us when he wakes up in the morning. Its all nice and cute, but at some point in time I'm going to want that half hour of sleep back. Especially with the week of work I've had where I've been going in early and working late.

I've also started planning a new computer purchase. I've had my current one for 3 years now and its getting to the point where I should hand it off to Pam and get a new one. Pam gets the hand me downs because she primarily uses it for email, reading big brother blogs, and occasionally playing The Sims. I'm looking forward to handing it down as much to reduce the noise in the room (her current one is LOUD) as much as getting a shiny new toy. However putting together the pieces for a new box is much more complicated these days, 3 years ago I had 3 choices of motherboard chipsets. For those non computer people, its the big circuit board in your computer where all your components plug into. Now there are like 9. Plus the options of computer cases, they're just now and explosion of different brands and types. Do I use water cooling, or conventional fans? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Researching all this to get it right borders on obsession, but thats because I want my computers to last 6 years (3 for me, 3 for Pam). So far I've been pretty successful. Amusingly, each time I do this, I end up with a price tag of $1,100 - $1,200. Its looking like it will be the same this time.

Why do I build my own instead of getting something from Dell? Dell appears cheap, but you do make tradeoffs. They might give you a good graphics card but you'll get a crappy motherboard. You can upgrade a graphics card, upgrading a motherboard that's made specifically for a Dell box can be a major pain. IBM, Dell, Micron all seem to skimp on the motherboard, networking, & I/O, and those are the heart of a machine. Now if you're like my wife, you'll never notice. But for someone like me who pretty much abuses any piece of hardware put in front of him, quality components are a must. Usually I can put together a box that gets close to the price of a Dell but your components will be better quality. And with quality your box can last quite a while, Pam's box is 6 years old, but beyond the noise by the fans it still works great for what she needs. And upgrade for her just means she'll be able to play the Sims at a higher resolution :)

So I'm waiting to see if the rumor of a processor price drop happens in July and I'll do the buy. At which point I won't have to think about this stuff for another 3 years.

Tired of the computer talk yet? I bet you're wishing I would start taking about Genesis again right about now :)

Need more water if this gets much hotter

2007-07-08T17:59:00.000-05:00

OK, so I've been slacking in my blogging. It isn't that I haven't had anything to write about, its just after work, playing with the kid, and entertaining the wife its hard to get the drive to do this. However I do feel slightly guilty since A & P are in England and don't get to hear much of what's going on with us, so I will try to do better.

Anyway.....

Gavin's entering the phase of development known as the 'fish stage'. Kids these days have a huge advantage since they sell float vests now. Gavin's taking full advantage of it and doggy paddling away. At his age I was doing constructive drowning. Thankfully he doesn't seem to have any fear of going underwater anymore in the pool. However he still refuses to dunk his head in the tub, go figure. Thank god for the pool, something for him to do in this summer heat that he loves and tires him out for a good nap :) I don't know how

People are loving his new haircut, its weird seeing him without the curls though. Its like its changed him from a toddler to a little boy.

On another note, I did get those Genesis surround sound DVDs, and they are incredible. Its like I'm hearing the albums for the first time. The use of the surround speakers really lets the subtle parts come out. There are parts of the music I'd never heard before and I've been listening to these albums for over a decade. Surprisingly, Gavin enjoys them as well. He likes running to the individual speakers and listening to what's coming out of them and usually saying 'cool!'. The cutest thing was when he grabbed the speaker and started singing into it like a microphone during "Behind the Lines". The Duke album is our current favorite though Trick of the Tail comes a close second. When I have him to myself on Tuesday nights, we usually end the night with "Duke's Travels" before going to bed. Corrupt them early...

My fencing hobby is going quite well, I've found that the Epee is really clicking for me (for those of you who don't know what an Epee is, just ask next time your over, its really quite clear when you hold one the difference between that and a foil, you just can't explain it in text). However, one should never ignore the basics so I had our instructor give me a foil lesson the other day since I wasn't feeling quite right with that weapon anymore. I make a point of mentioning this lesson because I did almost all of it (30 mins) blindfolded. Yes, you read right. We had a rough start as he would thump my opponent's chest to let me know where to point my weapon, and I had to explain to him that being deaf in one year, I can't tell the direction of sound. However we got that worked out and down to business. Now, he didn't blindfold me to have me access my latent Jedi skills (would have been cool though), the whole point is to develop the tactile sensation of your opponent's blade on yours. If its coming straight down the blade you want to one type of parry, if it leaves, you'll do something else. Its MUCH harder than it sounds. It does give you another way of anticipating an opponent though, not just by sight, but by feel as well. Cool stuff. There is a tournament coming up, I missed the last one because Gavin was just born, I might try this one though for the hell of it. Honestly just for the hell of it, the tourney will be Foil. I'm decent at it, but I stand almost no chance in winning unless I'm having a REALLY good day.

Well that was enough material for 3 separate posts condensed into one single random one, I really do need to post more.....

The hurt doesnt show; but the pain still grows

2007-06-25T00:10:00.000-05:00

OK, so the last ceiling fan is up, finally. Though no attic work as I was replacing the crappy contractor fan, it was still a pain. Ironically, this was the one I really needed a 2nd person for, and yet this one I do by myself. For those who have not seen our bedroom, it has a vaulted ceiling, and the fan is on a slant. Which meant I was really high up on a ladder trying to bring a heavy fan down (held in one arm while I quickly unscrewed wire caps), and putting a heavier one up.

Of course in the middle of trying to take the fan down piece by piece, there is an emergency at work (by the way, 29 releases on the same day is NOT going to go well, no matter what testing says). So I hastily attempt to reassemble it and get on the problem. Only to find that I've completely unbalanced it and the light isn't working now. After taking care of the problem, I was left with the fact that while I had attempted aborting this task today, I now have no choice but to proceed. Fearing another call from work, I said screw taking it down piece by piece and just brought the whole thing down as described above in parenthesis, which you probably skipped reading.

With only one false start after that however (one must put the coverings over the wires and drop rod BEFORE one wires it up), we had success. You'd think that after hanging 3 of them so far, THIS one would go smoothly. Well you'd think unless you knew me, then you'd just expect the opposite.

On the Gavin front, we stole the toddler bed from Pam's parents and put it in his room to get him used to it before moving him to it. Gavin had none of that however and immediately wanted to take a nap in it. Probably the first (and last) time he has been eager to take a nap. 2 nights later he probably doesn't realize he still has a crib. Though this sudden transition was unexpected, it was far from unwelcome. Though I had to instruct him not to bounce in this bed, though in return, he may bounce in Mommy & Daddy's bed (this is true). Frankly, our bed is pretty big and Gavin probably won't fall off of it. When I was growing up I always resented the no bounce rule, so I feel I should give him something. Sort of a very delayed rebellion.

However he's taken this to the next level apparently as today he was showing off for C by jumping from the bed to the floor. I greatly admired his technique, distance, and the fact he did NOT take a step on the landing. Then I put him in the corner and told him never to do it again. So if he's anything like me, my grandkids will be jumping from the bed to a specially made floor. That's progress.

And yes, I do realize that the song referenced for this is puny due to the subject matter, and all I can say is no one is perfect, and puns run in the family, so its not COMPLETELY my fault.

Crazy skies all wild above me now

2007-06-13T23:40:00.000-05:00

I'll make you google that title to understand it, I'm in that kind of mood.

Anyway, we're back from our vacation, hence the lack of posting. To be quite honest we've been back close to 2 weeks now, I've just been very lazy. That and the fact that apparently I can't leave work for a week without things going nuts.

But first off, the cruise. It was fun, food was good, but I have discovered some rules.

1) Always leave yourself 2 hours after your excursion to make it back to the ship
2) Always assume your excursion will come back 2 hours later than stated
3) 30 SPF does nothing for you while snorkeling
4) It especially does nothing for you when you do your second snorkeling dive.
5) Only do one excursion a day
6) The cruise ship knows nothing about the excursions its selling you, especially about things like how long it takes to get there, and how long the event actually is.
7) Use my wife to book all your excursions (pam@pmmtravel.com)
8) The entertainment staff love their jobs, I mean REALLY love their jobs, or they are REALLY high.
9) Tenders suck, if you can, book a trip with the least amount of tenders to go ashore as possible.
10) If you go into the shops in multiple ports, you are not crazy, they are actually selling the same stuff with different names for the most part.
11) Fresh pineapple is much better.
12) If you're going to pay extra for the fancy dinner, don't eat. At all, I mean the whole trip up to that point.
13) Go to the piano bar early, as the night goes on the guests will start buying the player shots. He'll still do good, but after 3 shots, there is a limit to how good.
14) Towel animals are cute for about 5 minutes, then they're just in the way.

Those rules aside, the cruise was quite nice. I even got to play some volleyball, which I miss. However you can't play volleyball for any community area unless you have a team. Getting 6 people is hard. Especially since you should have 8 in case someone doesn't show.

If you get the chance to do a dolphin encounter, I highly recommend it. It was a lot of fun, and hey, dolphins are cool. Pam enjoyed the stingrays which I don't understand at all, frankly I'm not wild about being in the water with an animal with the word 'string' in the name. Bad things are bound to happen.

Its late, so I'll stop there for now and catch up on other stuff later on.

Can you tell me where my country lies?

2007-05-22T21:25:00.000-05:00

said the unifaun to his true love's eyes.
"It lies with me!" cried the Queen of Maybe
- for her merchandise, he traded in his prize.

"Paper late!" cried a voice in the crowd.
"Old man dies!" The note he left was signed 'Old Father Thames'
- it seems he's drowned;
selling england by the pound.

Sorry, I can't start that lyric without singing the whole thing in my head, so I might as well write it down. In fact, those lyrics are probably a major catalyst in my love of music. I can still remember sitting on the couch listening to my new tape on my parent's stereo. On the start of this day I didn't know that Peter Gabriel had also been a lead singer of Genesis. I had been listening religiously to Invisible Touch, and with my meager funds I had picked up a second album based on the interesting picture on the cover. Those lyrics opened the album, and turned me from a Genesis fan into a fanatic.

I bring this up for a reason. Those who know me know that I am the cheap Scotsman. My wife constantly teases me about my hesitation about buying anything over $50. I've put off my new computer purchase for months (and more months to come), and I haven't picked up a new game since 2006.

However, even though I own all the albums, and 2 box sets, I will not hesitate on June 12th in heading over to Best Buy and slapping down over $200 the new Genesis 1976-1982 surround sound mix box set.
Reviewed at http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/musicreviews/2285/genesis-in-surround.html

The fact the reviews of the surround sound mix were very good was the final nail in the coffin.

For all my frugality, I do have very little willpower when it comes to hardback books and music. Especially for my favorite bands.

Now, there's something I want to point out about my favorite top 3 bands vs what is out there today.
Between 1974-2007 Rush had 17 albums
Between 1990-2007 Tori Amos had 9 albums
Between 1969-1997 Genesis had 16 albums

That averages to an album (I didn't count live albums) under every 2 years. If you look at the early years of Rush & Genesis you'll see sometimes they did an album every year, or twice a year. Compare that with today where new artists won't see their second album until after 2 years, usually 3. You have to wonder if the ability to continuously craft your music back then really helped these bands grow. They could gradually evolve their sound over time. In fact, if you listen to the albums from their beginning days to current day you can see the connections. As opposed to today where an artist's second albums is usually a glaring contrast to their first.

With today's technology, you'd think producing more music more often would be easier. However the industry seems to want to space these things out, and I think its a reason people are dissatisfied with the recording studios in general. They seem to want to gamble on each release being a huge hit instead of growing an artist. Especially with their love of the 'single'.

While I despair over the possibility of the potential loss of the album in today's digital age, I hope it means that artists get to push their work out more often, and get better at honing their craft.

The cleanest I've been

2007-05-20T22:25:00.000-05:00

Well, after over 3 years of faithful service, our faithful companion started showing signs of its age. Stuttering, stumbling, and falling. I am speaking of that most reliable of servants, our Tivo. For all our research, we found only one way to save it. Wipe it clean and start over. All the favorites, preferences, and knowledge its accumulated throughout the year, all gone. No longer will it find episodes of "Family Guy"wherever it may show and bring it to me. At least, not for a while.

Its amusing that after a certain amount of time our computers and computer like devices need to be cleared out and restarted. Even in a virtual world, we can't clean up after ourselves.

Driven up and down in circles

2007-05-14T23:15:00.000-05:00

So I spoiled my son a bit and bought him a little three-wheeled scooter. We fitted him with a helmet (which he will slap while on his head going "knock-knock"), and pads and turned him loose on the streets. And by streets, I mean my driveway and the adjoining sidewalk. He's getting off to a decent start though sometimes he will end up kicking the wheel by accident. We definitely need to keep the knee pads up as he's already scraping them up.

I mention the padding because with that padding came some fingerless gloves that we did not put him in. However he discovered the gloves and insisted on wearing on them. At this point he went around stating "Gavin Cooking!".

Speaking of driving, gas prices have gone up again. This of course leads to my chortling at SUVs, and reading in the paper about how catastrophic it is. This irritates me. Not the chortling, I quite enjoy that. Here's the deal, the U.S. can handle $3 dollars a gallon. SUVs are still selling quite well, and while hybrids are well publicized, they're still a drop in the bucket in production. The economy will adjust. And don't get me started on that one day boycott of gas. You'll just buy it the next day, you know, I know it, they know it, stop kidding yourself. Useless public gestures just irritate me. Its just for people going "Look at me! Look at me!".

I'll give you a second to see the irony of that last statement.

Back to Gavin, he walked his first dog today. Well, he started walking the dog, it ended up with the dog walking him. He never let go of the leash though, he was determined to get it done. It was quite adorable.

We can act like we come from out of this world

2007-05-07T22:51:00.000-05:00

Gavin and I have a secret, when mommy's away, we dance. Though his version of dancing usually evolves into spinning, it still looks a lot better than mine. Hence we do it while mommy is gone. Otherwise there will never be a brother or sister for Gavin (not that we're currently trying, but still). It is just that bad, but we have fun. However I need to make sure not to choose "Steam" by Peter Gabriel since its so long, dancing around with a 2 year old can take its toll.

Speaking of music I had a great day on May 1st. Having a new Tori Amos, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Rush album come out on the same day is almost too much. But not quite. Now I was a little worried about the new Rush album. Their last album, Vapor Trails, was not one of my favorites. However, I am pleased to say their new outing is quite good. In fact, all of them are very well done. My current favorite is Tori's new outing, she can fully pack a 74 minute CD with no fluff again and again.

On a very bad segue, what the hell was up with this season's Amazing Race? For an "all-star" season all the legs were poorly planned, and generally very weak. The worst was the season finale where all the teams went through multiple tough tasks, only to have that not matter because everyone was going to be on the same flight anyway. You'd think they would have learned from the season Chip & Kim won after doing terribly on all the tasks leading up to the final flight. Here's a hint, on the final leg, do the flight, THEN do all the tasks.

Bull in a China Shop

2007-04-30T23:15:00.000-05:00

So we were on our walk on Sunday, for the first time we went sans stroller. Gavin was doing pretty well and we stopped by the park at the top of the hill for some serious sliding. To our dismay, we found that someone had been there recently, with some spray paint.

Now, realistically the slides still work, but its just irritating. If people want to paint so bad, I have some rooms in my house you can work on. I can understand being bored, but what situation are you in where your thought process goes to paint and a toddler's playground?

On a happier note, this year's hockey playoffs have not disappointed. Its been high-energy, close games most of the way through. There's even been some double overtimes. And if there's anything I like better than playoff hockey, its overtime playoff hockey. I'm watching San Jose vs. Detriot now, and San Jose just took the lead. Which is a good thing. People who know me know I'm not the largest fan of San Jose, but I absolutely hate the Detriot Red Wings. No sport can truly be enjoyed if you don't have an enemy, and Detroit & New Jersey are mine. No offense to the cities of course, all I have to say is I'm a Blues & Penguins fan and they'll understand :)

Its been about 2 months since Pam stopped working. All in all I think its been a good thing, Gavin is happier, Pam is happier (though still very busy), and so I'm happier. Gavin's conversation skills have also jumped dramatically since she's started staying at home. Plus it means I get Gavin blowing kisses out the window at me when I leave for work, and who doesn't want that?

Now, to be clear, I don't have any problems with my wife working. I'm not quite that old fashioned. However her last job was such soul-sucking hell (my words, not hers), life is just better because of it. Frankly I'd like it better if she got a nice worthwhile high paying job so I could stay home instead. I'd make a good stay at home Dad. Except for the cooking. Pam doesn't cook because we're an old fashioned family, she cooks for the sake of her health and taste buds. You should never, EVER give me spices without explicit instructions. I'll take something that just needs a pinch for 2 gallons of food, and slather it over everything. Its just the way I think. I can follow a recipe, but don't ask me to be creative. Your stomach will not thank you.

Like an angel with clip-on wings

2007-04-23T22:17:00.000-05:00

Well the rains have finally stopped for now, and we actually have some warm weather again. This leads to the yearly awakening of my cul-de-sac. Its amazing how for months we don't see our neighbors, but as soon as it gets warm again we pick up where we left off. And yes, I realize I mangled that last sentence structure. Hockey playoffs are on (AWSOME SAVE! Vancouver vs Dallas 3rd period 10:04 left), so I'm slightly distracted. Deal.

Anyway, where was I...cul-de-sac, neighbors like hibernating bears, got it. The real nice thing about living in a cul-de-sac is its a natural place for kids to play and neighbors to meet. Gavin is finally old enough to actually interact a bit with the other kids. He especially enjoys the trampoline. Its one of those large ones with the mesh cage, which makes it safe for bouncing toddlers. Gavin's balance has improved greatly as he can actually keep his feet and keep bouncing in the ripples the other kids cause. He's learning to time his own bouncing to take advantage of the the bigger kids springs. His major accomplishment came today as he managed to launch himself from one end of the trampoline to the other (about 10 feet). As he went through the air he shouted with a grin, "I FLY!". The look on his face was so precious, I couldn't stop laughing.

We have had the good luck to have a very good set of neighbors. They're all friendly, good people. Though if you're an outsider speeding through the neighborhood, you wouldn't guess that the two enforcers in your face are actually sweet people (that poor pizza guy :) ). Our neighbors are a big reason we stayed in our house after the 2nd break in.

J.T.'s son has just gotten old enough to be introduced to the lawn mower, and he's currently "in training". Now as a rule I mow my own lawn since I don't like paying professionals what I can easily do myself. However, I have always been a fan of supporting the work of an neighborhood kid (since I used to do that myself). So I look forward to hiring him to mow my lawn. J.T. and I have realized that with the distribution of ages of kids in our cul-de-sac, we'll soon be set mowing wise for years to come. I believe lounging on lawn chairs and drinks were mentioned...

As an ending note, some tips on interacting with my cul-de-sac
1) People walking by are invited to say hi and introduce themselves. We don't bite, not even the kids.
2) Do not drive and circle the cul-de-sac then leave, that irritates us.
3) Don't do it fast, that infuriates us.
4) We do NOT have an entrance to Vago Park. Go to Dorsett & Fee Fee and head north. There will be a turn to your right a couple blocks down the road.
5) For those soliciting, beware the attack neighbor.

Breaking out through the silence

2007-04-17T21:28:00.000-05:00

We've reached the point where Gavin is starting talking in sentences, small sentences, but sentences nonetheless. Which means that conversations are beginning to happen, and more of his personality begins to emerge. My favorite conversation lately was...

Gavin: C'mon daddy, floor

Me: Daddy needs to go upstairs

Gavin: Daddy, floor please

Me: Daddy needs to order pizza

Gavin: Bye bye daddy!

Me: I'm not leaving, I'm ordering pizza

Gavin: Pizza! Bye bye daddy! Pizza!

As you can guess, my son likes his pizza, even more than playing with me apparently. I don't blame him, I like pizza better than playing with me too. Wait, that came out wrong...

Anyway...

The singing has also begun, his new one is "Happy Day", the single will be released next year, or whenever he adds more than two words to the song, whatever comes first.

Nonetheless, the meeting of the minds has begun (and with me, not so far to go). However, with all my powers of communication with the young ones, I will never master the mental telepathy that goes on between toddlers. So many times I've watched Gavin and another child exchange a look, and suddenly they laugh, or go in the same direction, or play a game. Even with strangers, he can make that connection. It seems a shame that as he improves his speech, he'll lose that. But the conversations that I get to hear between them are funny enough to be worth it.

My favorite was a conversation between him and C discussing if a light was off, or if it was broke. Note I said discuss, they never once raised their voices. They just simply discussed it for 10 minutes. What can beat that?

The first cut is the deepest

2007-04-13T00:06:00.000-05:00

Those that know me are aware that I have always been adverse to paying someone else to do something I can do myself. Whether it be mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, installing ceiling fans (hey, I didn't say I did it FAST, just that I could do it), etc. However, I am seriously thinking of putting that on hold for the month of April when it comes to mowing the lawn.

Every year its the same, the first warmth comes in with a host of rain, which makes the grass grow at an alarming rate. But yet the rain still comes, which leads me to take that one time it is not raining, and get out there and mow. Note that I didn't say the ground was still dry. Which means I'm out there restarting the clogged mower every couple of minutes, and bagging ever swath or so. It didn't help that for the first mow I had my father chuckling at me through the back porch window. Those of you who believe parents should be supportive in every situation should stay away from my family. They've had their knocks and they're enjoying watching others go through the same pain.

Not that I'm much different....

Nonetheless, just did the second mow and its still freaking wet. So I'd like to pay someone to mow my lawn for April next year. But you can't do that, you have to sign up for the whole year. So I'll be out there next April swearing loudly at the lawn mower. Only 11 more years until Gavin can mow, hee hee.

Now I could stop there, but I haven't thought up a lyric for the title yet. That's what I think is the main thing that slows me down in posting. Because I'm so freaking perfectionist about it. But I started this post about MOWING THE LAWN. Last I checked, there wasn't much music written with that in mind, so I have to either 1) Make the start of this post lead into a greater point, or 2) Do something abstract.

I could go ironic with something from Heavenly Day by Patty Griffin for humor effect, but that doesn't work when I've already shown I'm having problems with the title. Its too much of a cop out. Of course, there is a line, "Tomorrow may rain with sorrow" which works nicely but then you google the title of the song and go what the hell? All the other titles not only work as lyrics, but as the song titles themselves somewhat.

And yes, I am stalling, I can run through lyrics in my head while I type, I've very weird like that. Multitasking is a normal operation for me, which usually drives my wife a little crazy as I'm sometimes doing work while watching Lost with her. And by the way, I just got it. But you knew that since its now there at the top of the post.

So that leads to the question, did I know the title all along and just rambled for the hell of it, or to mess with your mind a bit? The time of the post should answer that question.

Colour Moving And Still

2007-04-08T18:05:00.000-05:00

A quick note, my in-laws have recently gone out of the country for close to a year. Since we won't have too much contact, so I'm feeling a bit pressured to update this blog a little more than I do currently so they know what the heck is going on here. Maybe more posts will make them smaller for once?

Gavin's Year 2 DVD is shipped! For those of you who don't know, I take all the pictures and movies that I've taken from birthday to birthday and compile a 25 min or so movie. I pop on some of the cute full movie clips that I've taken, and I ship them out to the friends and family who care about this sort of thing.

For 25 minutes worth of material, it is a freaking lot of work. Every image needs to have its moving crops set, I have to go through hours of video to find 10-15 second segments to use, and I have to score it. OK, lets be honest, you know and I know I love the scoring part, but it is still quite a bit of work.

To top it off, apparently something happened with the WMV movie file codec or something because the movie I did for Year 1 is now stuttering. That annoyed me, so I went back and using this new tool I bought, I redid the whole thing.

Speaking of tools, I used Microsoft's Photo Story 3 last year, which works pretty good for those of you who want to automate most of this. It takes up to 300 pictures, automatically sets moving crops, and allows you to add a soundtrack. However, as much as a helping hand it was, it didn't really do as nice as job as I would have liked. So I picked up the Sony Vegas studio this year, and while it doesn't automate the stuff for you, it does allow you to do some really nice things. Its weird when you view something you did just a year ago, and were proud of, and want to just rip it apart. Progress is like that. At least I got it finished on time this year.

I'm beginning to believe Gavin is invincible. He seems to be able to bounce off of ANYTHING. Falling off of things seems to be his new favorite sport. Whether it be his bike, the couch, our bed, etc, he eventually will purposely fall off and giggle the whole time.

I wish I could do that :)

I have my little pleasures, this wall being one of these

2007-03-20T23:52:00.000-05:00

To put it plainly, the last couple of months at work have been rough, I won't go into details (see first blog post), but its been a tiring time. There is light at the end of the tunnel, just need to make it a couple more weeks.

When times get tough, there are certain things that I usually turn too:
Tori Amos (who the title quote is attributed to). Her music usually isn't what you'd expect to pick someone up, but I just find listening to artistry very soothing and energizing. If Scarlet's Walk isn't in your collection, it should be.

Cuddling with my wife while Gavin is playing. I highly recommend it as good therapy, but get your own wife and kid, I don't share.

Daily Show / Colbert Report - You need to laugh.

Playing with my video editing tools - I accomplish SOMETHING, and it looks neat, at least I think so.

Fencing - Swords are fun.

Speaking of which, I had an 'old' moment when I was wearing my Tori Amos t-shirt at fencing, and one of the 14 year old girls asked "Who's that?". I mean, she's still making albums, touring and selling out concerts. So what the hell? I shouldn't be having these moments for another decade or so...

As I'm growing older I also notice that I do other fun things less, video games, playing hockey (not at all lately), and going to movies. Part of growing up (somewhat) I guess.

As a closing thought, hockey playoffs are coming soon. You should watch, there is no sport on earth like playoff hockey. For those like me in St. Louis who do not have a team going to the playoffs, I urge you to cheer for the Pittsburgh Penguins. They are an incredibly fun team to watch, and you can count on the fact that as soon as the playoffs start, I'll be watching them any way I can. Go Pens!

Driving away from the wreck of the day

2007-01-18T23:21:00.000-06:00

A couple of random thoughts, as if I ever put anything else up here

1) I'm very tired, losing people on your team sucks. Especially when you've got to pick up the slack. I can do the work of two people (seriously), but 3 or 4 starts to get on me. While my multitasking skills have increased (I honestly have a project up on each monitor and I work on the one which is not building or running tests, and sometimes another project in the background). It gets a little harried. Also, today I was interrupted so much it took me 4 hours to do a 15 minute piece of code. To be honest, I don't mind the interruptions that much because its part of my job, and I like helping my developers. And frankly, I'm supposed to be doing less project coding and do more long term stuff. But STILL, I think about taking a day off just to get work done. If I could find ANYONE decent I'd bring them in, but after 2 months, still no one.

2) Gavin just rocks. For some reason he has not inherited the tantrum side of my family (yet). His temper tantrums last about a minute and a half. The kids in my family would be good for 3 hours. Because if we wanted something, damnit, we were going to fight for it. Not sure if this is a good thing for Gavin long term, but I appreciate it for now. That and now that he has "Thank You" firmly under his belt he's charming people left and right. And let's be honest, parents love it when their kid can charm people. We pretend it has something to do with us.

3) The Pittsburgh Penguins are the best puck movers in the NHL. Watching those games is like watching art being created. If they fix those defensive breakdowns, they're going far in the playoffs. Watch a game on Versus if you get a chance.

4) I seriously am going to shoot the next person/columnist/pundit that complains about CEO salaries and golden parachutes. I'll use dull bullets for people who say they should give the money back to the company. If you got offered that much money, and money for being fired, would you take it? Of course you would. You wouldn't say that's immoral or anything, you'd take the money and skip all the way to the bank. Do they deserve it? It doesn't matter! Someone offered it, someone took it. Its not like these CEOs held guns to these guys' heads. Do I think they're ridiculous sums of mone?. Hell yes, but that's the fault of the board, not the CEO. Business isn't charity, its business. We're all here to make as much money as we can and then retire and drink lots of cherry cokes (or your beverage of choice). If you are a stockholder in one of these companies, complain to the board, don't take it out on the CEO. Lucky bastards that they are.

5) I can't do short posts, I've tried, but I can't. Perhaps if I posted more regularly, but see item #1.

6) Go see Casino Royale. Now.

7) Some music awards (some of these are 2005 albums I found in 2006, deal).
Best Music: Charlotte Martin - Stromata.
Best Lyrics: Anna Nalick - Wreck of the Day
Best New Discovery (for me): David Gray
Biggest Surprise (Good) : Elton John - The Captain And The Kid
Biggest Surprise (Bad): Barnaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me
Best Complete Album: Depeche Mode - Playing The Angel.
Worst Complete Album: The Killers - Sam's Town
Best Guilty Pleasure: Erasure - Nightbird

And seriously, why don't you own the good albums on that list yet?

8) When Genesis tickets go on sale in the U.S., I'd appreciate if you'd wait until I make my purchase before you buy. I'll post and let you know when I'm good.

9) Save for retirement/kid's college early. I'd like to personally thank the 23 year old version of myself who started that investment. I was pretty nervous about doing it back then, and I'd like to let him know that everything is OK. When you can actually start seeing pieces of your retirement falling into place, its a good thing. Even if you're 31 and not planning to stop working anytime soon.

10) Why in the age of multiple LCD monitors, does Dell not have a docking station for their laptops with 2 DVI outputs? VGA output to a LCD monitor just doesn't look good.

11) My first viewing of American Idol yesterday (seriously, I don't watch it) while Gavin was having playtime at a neighbors makes me wonder what is so good about waiting in line forever to get embarrassed on national TV? Is being on TV THAT good? WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY? If you're famous you can't get away with anything, I like to have the option to get away with things. Therefore I have no desire to be famous. I think this is a rational opinion. However in the democracy of ideas, apparently I am wrong. What shocks me is that people don't KNOW how bad they are, and that Simon doesn't rip into these guys more after all the bad auditions amazes me. Listen, there is this thing called a tape recorder. Sing into it, now play it back. If you need to, play any published artist. Compare the two. It should be pretty damn apparent. Now, way back when, I had a good voice. In my little pond, I was pretty good. However, not even then, immature as I was, would I think for a SECOND that I could succeed on this show. This is why Amazing Race is the closest I get to reality TV.

12) (wow, 12? WTF?) My wife's computer is loud, I am very tired (see #1), I'm going to bed.

All I Want Is A Couple Days Off

2006-12-19T16:57:00.000-06:00

Well this is my last day of work for the calendar year, and by all rights I should have left by now. It can be bloody inconvenient to be a professional, grumble. The fact that MS windows seems to take forever to determine if a network directory exists or not is just one of my delays today.

I've fallen way behind in album reviews, simply because its freaking hard to do. Describing an album isn't so bad, but trying to write something for each track can be tricky. I usually end up deleting most of what I write simply because it gets too much. People just aren't interested in phrase by phrase analysis of a track, so I try to give the feel in a sentence or two. Which in some cases just seems so shallow. Nonetheless, I shall soldier on. It seems SOME people are reading this from time to time (though I haven't been as good with the updates).

So what to do this holiday break? Usually when I have a vacation I end up painting a room, which is a possibility. Or if the weather seems nice I might finally get around to replacing all the outside lights since the bulbs have burnt out, and replacing them is a pain. I seriously want to know who thought putting a small screwdriver into a black hole on black paint and completely taking the damn thing apart just to change the bulb was a good idea. Add to the fact that bugs do seem to wiggle in there through small cracks, then die, then their guts rust out said post. We're going with an open bottom. Appologies for all those who walked up to my porch after the ice storm in the dark. I wasn't being inconsiderate, the lights just don't work.

But frankly, the first thing I'm going to do is sleep, and lots of it :)

Stromata

2006-11-30T13:18:00.000-06:00

Charlotte Martin - Stromata

For those of you not acquainted with Charlotte Martin, I highly recommend you start listening to her stuff. She is not your typical artist that you hear on the airwaves. Her previous official album release On Your Shore has been a favorite album of mine for a while, and I've eaten up her intermediate EP releases on the way.

This album marks a departure, as it is more rhythmic whereas her last album was very melodic. A risky move as albums of that nature tend to fall flat after the first song or two. I can happily tell you this is not the case here.

The album never bores you or gets trapped in one sound, at time you don't feel like you are listening to a pop album as you are a piece of art. An additional note, the mixing on this is superb, those of you with good sound systems will get a extra bonus as the songs sound incredible on a good system.

The songs:
Stromata - The opening defines the album very well, there multiple rhythms and harmonies intertwining here giving the impression of chaos, yet holds together very well.
Rating: 4

Cut The Cord - Continuing with the rhythmic theme, this percussive piece has a Stomp feel to it with the drums. Minimal instrumentation, mostly drums and voice, but it works very well.
Rating: 4

Drip - Very appropriately named as the piano and synth create a very fluid watery sound. Like the music the vocals just continuously flow through the versus until it hits the chorus. You might have problems singing along, but you'll definitely enjoy the listen.
Rating: 4

Little Universe - A quick rhythm chant piece, very minimalist.
Rating: 3

Civilized - High tempo, angry sounding track. Heavy piano driving the beat. Very metered vocals.
Rating: 3

A Hopeless Attempt - The toy piano sound gives a innocent, yet sorrowful sound to this track. A sweet, beautiful piece.
Rating: 3

Four Walls - This actually appeared first on her Veins EP. Very driving rhythm that catches you and keeps hold for the whole song. Expect to hear this one on the radio at some point in time. My son likes to dance to this song :)
Rating: 4

Inch - Leaves the rhythmic pieces for a flowing, reflective, melodic piece. Fans of her first album will feel right at home with this one.
Rating: 3

Keep Me In Your Pocket - Snappy piece with dueling vocals and plucky piano which has a nice charming effect.
Rating: 3

Pills - Fun little novelty piece about......Pills. Mostly piano with other instrumental effects at times.
Rating: 3

Just Before Dawn - A surprising operatic track, this acts as kind of a palette cleanser before hitting the bottom of the record. You probably won't listen to this song on its own, but as part of the album it does its job very well. You can be impressed with how well she sings this.
Rating: 3

Cardboard Ladders - A completely melodic piece that has a haunting, echoing feel to it. Its just simply beautiful. The last 2 1/2 mins will really hit you.
Rating: 5

The Dance - The culmination of the rhythmic feel of this whole album. Full of imagery with a simple yet perfectly crafted melody with builds up to a great climax.
Rating: 5

Redeemed - If you need to expose Charlotte Martin to someone, this is the song to use. It perfectly blends the rhythmic & melodic areas of past in present into a beautiful piece that has an incredibly full sound even though there are a minimum of instruments. The vocals & backing on this piece are perfect. If I could improve one place, it would be adding more of an explosion in the drums in the bridge section. But otherwise, this is almost the perfect song.
Rating: 5

Though some people might read this review and cherry pick the 5's from iTunes, I HIGHLY recommend buying the whole album. Its pieced together so well that it deserves to be listened to as a whole. Everything just builds up to the ending 3 songs that wrap up the album so perfectly. Buy this album today, and make sure to pick up copies for your friends.

Album Rating: 4

Sam's Town

2006-10-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

Sam's Town - The Killers

I never like it when reviewers spend the whole time comparing an album to the previous and base their review on that, so I'll be looking at this as a fresh album. By the way, that isn't the easiest thing in the world to do. I will make some comparisons, but I'll save them until the end.

It seems the goal of this album was to create a more gritty sound in the way of rock albums from the 80's. Vocals are very loose, especially the backing on some songs. Surprisingly, the album has sort of a broadway musical type feel to it at times. Over all it feels very gray and rough.

By the way, when I mean loose vocals its when the singer's voice doesn't stay tight on a note, but breaks and wavers very noticably. In this album it isn't because the singer is not very good, but because he's doing it on purpose to create a type of sound.

Loose backing vocals means that the backing vocals aren't in sync exactly with the lead (and will do some wavering as well). A chorus type sound.

The songs:
Sam's Town - The opener definatly has that sort of musical feel to it as mentioned above, then transitions into a more synth pop briefly then enters a standard rock pattern then back and forth. It ends with that musical type feel again with the entrance of the first loose backing chorus vocals which will be a theme in future tracks.

The song's structure is not predictable, and is pretty creative, which are things I like.
Rating: 4

Enterlude - Quick musical number to enter into the body of the album. A good solid melody.
Rating: 4

When You Were Young - I guess this would be considered the 2nd opener, however it isn't nearly as strong. Some reviewers have stated that this album tries to recreate Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run, which has slight merit, but is a grevious overstatement. This song is why. While somewhat catchy, it does seem like a carbon copy of that sound, and it just doesn't work today.
Rating: 3

Bling (Confession of a King) - A synth pop/rock piece who's vocals are tight in the beginning, yet become very loose with a desperate sound in the chorus then stay loose from that point on. It tries to have a driving rythym but doesn't succeed. It tries to emote, but falls short of drawing the listener in. This track becomes forgettable quickly with its almost monotone sound.
Rating: 2

For Reasons Unknown - Starts off with a classic sounding guitar rock riff which leads the listener to expect an explosion that never happens. It stays true to a classic rock sound, yet brings nothing to distinguish itself.
Rating: 2

Read My Mind - A mix of 80's synth pop with that Born To Run sound. The vocals are overly loose on here to the point of being slightly annoying. If he tightened control over his voice here this song probably wouldn't be too bad. Except again, this seems like something we've heard before. The entry to each chorus and the bridge are actually pretty good, I wish the rest of the song lived up to those pieces of potential.
Rating: 2

Uncle Jonny - Solid bass rock line driving the song. The loose vocals actually WORK in this song. A solid rock song.
Rating: 3

Bones - This is a really fun poppish song that I real like. It has a mix of classic pop and ska. Unlike previous tracks this one is pretty exiting and you'll probably ending up tapping your foot along with it.
Rating: 4

My List - This song feels like its in a musical sung by a bunch of upset people in a bar. Not saying that's bad, but that's the image that comes to mind. This tune actually sticks with you.
Rating: 3

The River Is Wild - Another Born To Run sounding piece, however this actually improves on the sound and brings something new to the table. While it feels familiar, its pretty exciting and fun to listen to. The verses are very quick paced and you'll find yourself dancing along with them.
Rating: 3

Why Do I Keep Counting - Currently my favorite track on the album. This definatly feels like it belongs in a musical somewhere. The vocals are suddenly tight again, and it really helps make this track shine. The loose chorus
Rating: 4

Exitlude - Repeat of the enterlude theme, but fleshed out until a full song. Again, the musical chorus sound appears. Catchy ending.
Rating: 4

In the end they were trying to recreate a classic rock sound, yet didn't learn any lessons from those past albums. This is strange considering the song "All The Things I've Done" from Hot Fuss was a poster child about how to revive a classic rock and roll song in the modern era, and stands as one of my all time favorite songs.

What's interesting, is the album is pretty weak starting out, but gets better as time goes on. However, fans of Hot Fuss will need some patience to enjoy this album, and in fact may be turned off completely.

I can appreciate what they were trying to do, but for the most part it just didn't make it, mostly because they didn't use some of their strengths. They have a great singer, yet its hard to tell on this album. Part of the joy of Hot Fuss was the treatment of the singer as an instrument like on the song "Everything Will Be All Right". The song structures on Sam's Town were more creative than Hot Fuss for the most part, yet didn't bring in anything interesting in the music to back it up for a lot of the songs. I'm hoping their 3rd attempt will bring in the lessons learned from both these albums. However, while Hot Fuss was a stand out album, Sam's Town simply seems run of the mill.

Rating: 3

Life In Slow Motion

2006-10-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

Life In Slow Motion - David Gray

Not a brand new album, it was relased in 2005, but a recent aquisition after hearing the title song, "Life In Slow Motion" on ER this year. I'd heard of this guy before, but never got around to hearing his stuff. I'm now kicking myself about that.

Its a very folksy sounding album with a mix of upbeat and somber pieces. In some cases you could visualize the singer with a guitar in a bar and band (say Mississippi Nights), and in other places you'd think of a concert hall with an orchestra backing him up. The songs feel very introspective and the music is full of visuals. You'll also find yourself singing a long with a lot of the tracks on here, always a good sign.

A note on the production values before going into the songs, this is one of the cleanest sounding albums I've ever heard. Every part comes through very clearly, and the lyrics easy to hear without dominating the music. For someone who's half deaf, I highly appreciate an album that's mixed like that.

On with the songs, note that I'm rating on a 5 scale.

Alibi - Very somber opener. A song full of sorrow and regret. The orchestral backing here is subtle yet powerful. Slowly swells into a sound that will propel you into the rest of the album. Rainy day song.
Rating : 4

The One I Love - After the somber beginning, we get a nice toe tapper sing along. A bright feeling song that I like to put in when driving away from work.
Rating : 4

Lately - Slower folksy piece, very easy to sing with though. Another introspective rainy day song.
Rating : 3

Nos Da Cariad - Driving rythym with excellent poetry.
Rating: 3

Slow Motion - This song is very simple, yet very beautiful. I find myself listening to it again and again. Proof that you don't always have to have a lot of lyrics to have a great song.
Rating: 5

From Here You Can See the Sea - Folksy guitar piece. Another good piece of poetry yet this didn't grab me too much.
Rating: 2

Ain't No Love - Another beautiful piece, it feels of sweet sorrow.
Rating: 4

Hospital Food - After so much slow introspective pieces, we have a nice refreshing almost pop like piece. You'll like singing along with this in your car.
Rating: 5

Now and Always - Starts slow with driving drum beat and piano, builds to a dramatic climax. Feels like this should be the end of the album the way it is set up. But think of it as a fake ending as the next song finishes the album nicely.
Rating: 4

Disappearing World - This a great way to wrap up the album nicely, has that introspective feeling that has been tying the album, mixes soft sweetness with a rocking bridge. You'll sing along.
Rating: 4

Everybody's Leaving Town (bonus) - If you buy the album off iTunes you'll get this track. Don't let that influence your decision though. While it has a nice classic sound to it, this track is pretty forgettable.
Rating: 2

I know I usually buy CDs instead of buying albums on iTunes, but this CD does come with some copy protection which might get in the way of getting it on your iPod. So be careful there.

In the end I found this a great album that has been seeing a lot of play time from me. Its great for a fall or rainy day, I suggest picking this up as a full album rather than cherry picking songs.

Album Rating: 4

Stone Blind Alibi

2006-10-09T10:54:00.000-05:00

I've been busy, OK? Get off my back :P

I've recently finished my latest home improvement project of putting up a handrail for Gavin, which he sometimes actually uses! It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and would suggest any parent with a small child learning the stairs put one up.

On another Gavin note, he's definately entering the terrible twos, random temper tantrums and all that, fun times ahead.

I've come to the theory that basements are never done, just in constant states of reorganizing and throwing out. Though spending a productive weekend moving stuff around, there's still a lot to do down there, and I'm sure there is a lot to throw out if we ever get around to it. Especially if we want to finish the basement.

To make up for my recent absense to all of the 3 people who read this, I'll be doing a couple rapid fire posts soon. One of the reasons I started to blog was to talk about music. Well I just recently picked up 6 new albums and I'll be reviewing them on here, so look for that.

Watching TV this season, I've noticed a good trend in the music selections done for the most part. Instead of just randomly taking a new hit and slaping it on the show, they're actually looking for good stuff that fits. Noteworthy this year is Bones with the discovery of Susan Enan, who hadn't even put her album out yet. Do yourself a favor and go to www.myspace.com/susanenan and check out her two songs on there, especially Bring On The Wonder. This will be an album I will be picking up.

The other kudo goes to ER, which is surprising since I didn't think they had anyone on there who knew what a good song was. But their season premier featured a song by the artist who's lyric is the title of this post. It will also be the first album I review, coming soon :)

Between The Tick And The Tock

2006-09-05T23:16:00.000-05:00

So I've been busy obviously from the dead silence on here. Work, baby, and a trip to the hospital all seem to have interfered with my blogging life, but we must soldier on!

I just finished reading Freakonomics. It is a book I gave to my father, and my father in law, but not have gotten a chance to read until recently. I loved this book. It really has no unifying theme, except asking strange questions like "Why to crack dealers live with their mothers?" and analyzing the data to come up with some surprising results.

I've always been a large fan of economics (which is why I minored in it), and frankly econ 101 should be a required class for any college degree. Its the basics of how the world works. Supply, demand, and above all, incentives.

It always amazes me how people don't get the basic grasp of how things work, why people act they way that they do. Make everyone take this course (and pass it), and I think the amount of stupidity in politics and tv news will go down.

At least it would stop people from whining about gas companies gouging us. Now I'm not saying that they are the most ethical companies in the world, and god knows they could spend some of those profits on maintenance and saftey. But seriously, the prices are competitive, and they're driven by the simple fact that more people are driving cars all over the world. The price of drilling oil hasn't gone up much, and the cost of refining it is about the same, which means that since more people WANT the gas, it costs more. Which means that the company makes more profit. Its not evil, its supply and demand (though my explanation was extremly summerized).

Besides, we can afford it. Not everyone of course, the lower end of the spectrum is really feeling it, it sucks. But as a nation, our economy can handle it. If we couldn't, we'd be really serious about alternative fuels? Are we, no. Why not? Because we just don't have the incentive yet (see, econ 101!). Let gas go up to $4, and MAYBE we'll get serious. If we threw on a larger gas tax we might really be able to improve public transport, and throw more money at research. It would also stabilize prices for a while as well.

Anyway, just wanted to say, go out and read Freakonomics. It doesn't talk about gas, but it will open your eyes to some cool stuff.

Crash! Boom! Bang!

2006-08-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

First off, yes that is a song lyric, look it up.

Gavin played a fun game yesterday where he would just run and plop onto the ground on purpose. He started with something soft like the couch, upgraded to carpet, then was daring and did the kitchen floor. He found the hard floor made the best sound so for the rest of the night we just heard "hee hee hee hee BANG hee hee hee hee BANG".

So far that's been a one night thing, but I'm sure it will come back at some point.

Gavin has reached the age where he's beginning to act out, throwing toys for one thing. Our first line of punishment was responded too with laughing, which is never a good sign. We're trying to do a time out by putting him in his stroller and strapping him in. We tried sitting him in a corner, but that just won't work with a boy who's first rule is FREEDOM. It seems to have some success so far.

Gavin is also giving head first diving a try. He'll go belly down on the couch then slide off head first. It sometimes makes a loud thump, but he seems undamaged (and actually happy afterwards). His header off the stairs however I wasn't quite as amused with. Luckily, though I was at the bottom and he was at the top of the flight, I was able to catch him mid-fall, so no damage done. It does mean we have to start watching him on the stairs again. He's been so good on them that we've gotten a bit lax.

I've often cursed the fact I was born deaf in my right ear. But now with Gavin enjoying the banging of his pots, and also the putting away and taking back out of his pots, I've found it a nice benefit. Though I'm sure it drives my wife crazy at times.

Well this one is sort of a rambler (I'm very tired) so I'll end here and start afresh with something new tommorow.

Take a little walk right through our home

2006-08-01T16:45:00.000-05:00

Posts are probably going to come rapid fire over the next few days, that is if I remember everything I want to post about :)

I must start by giving thanks to M&K for hosting us during the power outtage. They kept us and 5 others in air-conditioning for 2 nights. They may find it to be no big deal, but it is to me. Home is a sanctuary, and sharing it with no notice and no visible end in sight was a huge guesture. I guess they DO like us. Even though it is MY puck.

A great deal of fun was had though, the children had fun running around each other, and M & I had fun playing some Guild Wars :)

It is a difficult to abandon your home, even for a short while. The walls seem to speak with deep sorrow when I must depart for a while, and it always hits me a bit. It also is because I'm definatly a homebody. It has been pointed out by Sarahlynn that given a choice of destinations, I would choose my home. And she's quite right. I work so hard to pay for this place, and to improve it, I like the ability to actually enjoy it from time to time.

Also related to that is why we don't have a cleaning person like some of our friends. In my view:
1) Its my house, its my job to clean it.
2) I don't like strangers in my house.

#1 comes from my mother, and #2 is just the way I am. Though I will admit finding time to clean the house with Gavin gets harder and harder. Once he gets older I'll be putting the kid to work though!

On a final note, don't disrespect the host. I see this from time to time and it just pisses me off. I don't care what problems you have, don't bring it into that person's house. There are a lot of reasons I don't talk to one of my old roommates anymore, but at the top of the list was the massive disrespect I got when they visited the house, and when I was paying most of the rent.

Don't do it, I have a Claymore and I'm not afraid to use it!

Am I Getting Through?

2006-07-18T00:49:00.000-05:00

Welcome to those newcomers to this blog. I figured telling my wife about it would keep it between us for about 15 minutes, to be fair I think she actually waited a couple of days. Oh well, added pressure to write better.

One is never quite prepared for when their child starts responding to complex instructions. I mean beyond sit, stop, and no. For me it was a month ago or so when I noticed that Gavin had grabbed some scrap paper in the office and was seeing if it tasted good. Out of exasperation (it had been a long day), I said "Gavin, just throw it away please". And was shocked completely when he did. Knowing that throwing away meant the trash can rather than any other area is actually a big step for little ones. I was quite impressed, but also now cautious as we had passed the time where casual slips of the tounge could be forgiven as Gavin wouldn't understand anyway.

I've always made sure I say please to kids. I think if I'm going to expect them to say it to me, I should at least say it to them. Fair is fair. The same holds with Gavin. Though he cannot say please, many of his day care friends now do, as they know this is the magic word to participate in the "bouncy game" I play when I pick him up at the end of the day. I always asked Charlotte to say it, and it didn't take long to have the other kids catch on. Now I have to spend 10 minutes doing all the kids before I can leave. It can be pretty exhausting, but that's the price you pay for spreading good manners I guess.

Its wierd now that when I ask Gavin to do something, there's a good chance he might actually do it. The exception is "Come here" when we're outside. I know he understands it, he's just ignoring me because he's exploring. I'd be mad except I know I'd do (and did) the same thing. Besides, I can still run faster than he can.

Our playtime is much more fun now as I can say "Go get mommy!", or "I'm gonna get you!" and he responds accordingly. What's fun, is now when confronted with Gavin and Charlotte wanting in someplace they're not supposed to go, I can grab Gavin and tell him to get mommy, then grab Charlotte and tell her to get Gavin. Crisis averted, kids diverted.

He's just changed his schedule, and is doing 1 nap on weekends. But on the bright side he lets us sleep in more (for now). Also he hasn't fought nap time much, and bed time at all. He knows the routine, and he knows he's tired.

The largest sign of our improved communications just happened over the weekend. He was playing with his toy hammer, and then decided to take a couple of whacks at daddy. Probably following some instructions Alix left him during her visit (and don't deny that you'd do it, we both know you would). I told him that was quite unacceptable and took the hammer. He looked sad at me, but didn't cry. He seemed to ponder his action, and that I was sad too. He then came over and gave me my first real hug from him (as opposed to the running and falling on me). That was worth the hammer whack.

Chase the wind around the world

2006-06-26T22:33:00.000-05:00

Woot! Just finished the great project of installing a ceiling fan. And yes, there was no existing light fixture so we had to do it the hard way. By we, I mean Merl (My puck!) and myself with some knowledge help from Phil.

The project didn't start off too well, as I picked a spot in the ceiling, drove a screwdriver up, and hit a beam. My luck as usual. Then came the part where crouching at a very uncomfortable angle, I was drilling a hole for the new wire, and was in the wrong space. Luckily putting the hole in for the fan box, and wiring that part up wasn't too bad. Uncomfortable, but not too challenging. The big disappointment came from the fact that after getting the fan up, the blades on, and the light fixture attached, we had no power. The wall switch had power, but nothing was getting to the fan. Something about the circuit wasn't quite right (the capped off white wire from the existing circuit should have been a clue). But we had put a good 5-6 hours into this, and we had to go to work. So we double checked that nothing was going to cause the house to burn down, and called it a night.

By the way, I'm still incredibly tired (though happy!), so this probably won't be my best literary work.

I decided to accompany my wife up to her gaming session to conference with Phil & Merl. The capped white wire was still bothering me, but I am not the best electrician in the world so I kept my mouth shut. After much discussion, three circuit diagrams, and many stupid questions (by me) later, we had a plan. Well, THEY had a plan, I was the one who was going to follow it. It was going to be easy as it was all in the switch box.

Unfortunately, I had already taken the fan completely apart so I could test the power coming in to the top. This was my bright idea to save time after Gavin went to sleep. Rewiring the box took about 5 minutes, re-installing the ceiling fan took about an hour. Amusingly enough, taking the fan down only took 10 minutes.

But joy was mine as my father in law hit a switch and the lights came on. I had installed a ceiling fan and my house was still intact! I'm ignoring the fact that I have to go BACK up into that freaking attic to do prep work for the next fan into Gavin's room. I will instead bask in the glory that is my intact house, and dwell on the rewards that will fall upon Merl for his hard work, and Phil for his electrical knowledge.

Speaking of light bulbs (we really weren't, but I don't feel like finding a better transition), a couple of researchers came up with a really neat idea for pen based desktops (http://honeybrown.ca/Pubs/BumpTop.html). The basis of the idea is that on people's desk, they work in piles, not folders. Its so simple its brilliant. Watch the video for a bit and you'll get the hang of it. I think this could really be adopted to the mouse system as well. In my opinion, the brick wall we've run into on the desktop is the folder. While they group things, they're not convienent to use, or navigate. The concept of piles is so much better. Watch the video, its hard to describe in a blog.

And to wrap it up, I'll give you the song for the lyric since its one of my all time favorites. Available Light by Rush. I think this comes pretty close to my philosophy of life. So read the lyrics, maybe I'll make more sense then.
(http://www.lyricsdepot.com/rush/available-light.html)

I'm one of many, I speak for the rest but I don't understand

2006-06-05T23:53:00.000-05:00

I've been away for a while (being a daddy is hard work). That and it took me a while to come up with a good lyric for this topic. I'm being very stubborn about this lyric title thing, probably overly so. So what? This one's pretty obscure, so bonus points for those who get it without a web search.

First off, a shout out to my brother's band Aridne (http://www.aridne.com). They've posted some stuff online, and I'll be the first to admit to being shocked how good it was. No offense to my brother, but you just don't expect something that good coming from someone you're related too.

Anyway, check it out. Very old-genesis like in that 1) there are a lot of different ideas in a song, and 2) it doesn't suck. Its nice to see music like that is still being written. Gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

However this post is not about them, if it was, the title wouldn't make any sense. No, this is about Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Yes, I'm talking about game consoles. Go figure, I tell my wife about this blog, and then I post something that will bore her to tears.

Anyway, if you've been following the media blitz, you know the current state of the world is this.
1) Microsoft was out first with the XBox360, though there aren't that many good games out for it yet. Price $400

2) Nintendo will be next out the gate with the Wii. Strange name, but revolutionary controller. Price $250

3) Sony out last. Probably best graphics & hardware, Blu-Ray next gen DVD player. Price $600.

$600 for a game console??? The industry media has been in shock for days proclaiming the end of Sony's reign as the top console. And predicting the XBox360 as taking the top spot.

However, it might not be that clear cut. Don't get me wrong, Sony is taking one HELL of a gamble. Their price point might be ok if 1 of 2 of the following turns out to be true.

1) People will realize that they're getting a damn cheap Blu-Ray DVD player, and the game console is a bonus. They have to market the hell out of this, because as long as people see an expensive game console, it will drive people away. However, since HD-DVD & Blu-Ray DVD player are running at minimum $900, this is a great deal.

2) The console market is underrated. Considering the massive shortages of the XBox360, and the fact that they were selling on ebay for over $600, this might be true. People MIGHT actually be willing to spend that much considering that consoles last for 5 years.

If either one of those facts is true, Sony won't be in much trouble for their price point. If both are true, they will probably dominate again.....maybe.

There has been a lot of press on the XBox360 vs the PS3, but on the side is the new Nintendo Wii. This little box got a lot of good press at the recent E3 conference. The new controller that acts like a wand of sorts opens up huge possibilities for new types of gameplay (imagine swinging a bat, or wielding a sword).

The fact that its graphics aren't as high powered as the other 2 might actually be an ADVANTAGE. With more graphical power comes higher production costs. Making the Wii more attractive to developers. The graphics vs. gameplay argument comes into play again as well. This balance has been coming on the side of graphics for quite a long time. Though there are old games that I go back and play, once you get used to the nice graphics, its hard to go back.

However, I think there's a law of diminishing returns in effect, and we've finally reached it. The fact that Guild Wars does not have the highest power graphics engine, yet still looks beautiful lends credence to that. I don't think gamers are going to care that much this time around. However, the magic wand of the Wii is something revolutionary, and that's going to get gamers talking.

So I'm going out on a limb and call the winner of the next round of console wars for Nintendo's Wii. We'll see if I'm right this XMas.

Play me old king cole

2006-05-10T23:56:00.000-05:00

Well that last post rambled for a bit. My writing style is very conversational so you expect SOME ramblings, but that might have been pushing it.

Let me tell you about my new toy. Its called the Squeezebox and its wonderful (http://www.slimdevices.com). Basically it plays all your digital music files that live on any computer on your network. It works wireless, or wired ethernet. If you have iTunes, it allows you to use your playlists. Even better it can be controlled by a remote, any my logitech universal remote even has it in it's system. To top it all off, I can access the music server through my laptop and arrange song orders and playlists on the fly. I can even change the Squeezebox settings over the network. Its a well polished piece of hardware.

No more putting CD's in the DVD player, or hooking up the iPod and getting up to change the song. Its even better since my iPod will soon not be able to hold my entire library as I finally get around to finally ripping the rest of my CDs.

It seems like a simple thing, but we're already finding it was well worth the $300. Its nice to have music going almost constantly. Gavin and I have been doing quite a bit of dancing. Gavin has added the 'spin' to his dance moves, which is incredibly cute. For some reason the song that has gotten him the most excited was Depeche Mode's "Pain That I'm Used Too". Maybe it's the base line.

Speaking of which, go out and buy Depeche Mode's "Playing The Angel" CD. Its some of their best work. Its got songs that are danceable, sing-a-longable, and even great creative pieces. Go ahead, I'll wait....

Good choice buying that CD, you'll really enjoy it. Continuing on.

It really adds some warmth to the house when we can have music on command. Next step is to be able to serve it up to the kitchen, dining room, and the outside patio. We can get the mustic to the kitchen and dining room simply by turning up the volume in the family room. The downside is that its way too loud for anyone sitting there. So I want to put a speaker in each of those additional areas (an outdoor speaker for the patio of course).

A couple of ways to do this, I could by 3 squeezeboxes, and 2 sets of computer speakers and 1 set of outdoor speakers and set them up in each room. And yes, the Squeezebox's can play in sync with each other. Surprisingly, this might be one of the cheaper solutions. It has some drawbacks though, if the tv is playing hockey, or football, that doesn't get served up to those areas. Also this means I have a visible Squeezebox in each area, and I have to have a remote in each area to turn the thing on and off. It DOES give me a great deal of flexibity in controlling volume and they Squeezeboxes don't HAVE to play in sync.

The other solution would be to take the monitor out of my reciever, and run it to the basement, then under the floor to an amplifier. From that I can run cables to speakers in each area. That's going to be a lot of cable and drilling, but it will allow whatever is playing in the family room to be heard everywhere. I don't know how I'll control the volume in each area though. Also, it means that if I'm watching hockey, Pam can't listen to music in the kitchen.

I could also do an official multi-source, multi-room audio system. I have NO idea what the final cost of that would be. Probably > $1000. I'm probably willing to spend around that, it will improve the value of the home, and more importaintly, it will improve our quality of life for the many years we'll be here. I WISH there was better sources of detailed information on this. It looks like I'll have to track down an audio installer and get a quote. I hate not having a good idea ahead of time though.

See! I can do a non-rambling post. Now please excuse me, its overtime hockey time between Edmonton & San Jose. God I love playoff hockey.

I know what I like, and I like what I know

2006-05-08T23:31:00.000-05:00

I'm slowing down in posting a bit, which is strange since I've had the idea for this post for weeks. Parenthood is strange like that. Maybe I should let my wife know about this blog so she'll start nagging me to post things for her entertainment.

I'm quite capable of keeping secrets from my wife, but I don't like it. This shouldn't be confused with keeping other people's confidences/secrets. That's different. I'm talking about me concealing things from my wife when I'm not going to surprise her in an enjoyable way (parties, presents, etc).

Anyway, that wasn't the focus of this post. The focus is iTunes. Wonderful, beautiful iTunes. How I love thee.

Such a large collection to sample and explore. Its a great way to find old favorite songs, or to sample an artist. Or, if you're like me, you can get those one or two new songs that get released on a greatest hits album from an artist who's complete library you already have. That annoys me, I know why its done, but it still annoys me.

The medium its introduced has only gotten started though, and what I love is it paves the way to free artists from the oppressive yokes of their record companies. Now, to be fair, those yokes existed for good business reasons. You needed someone to publish the albums, get them on shelves, pay for the recording sessions, give you some seed money for a tour. That's a lot of cash for an uncertain return on the investment.

But the digital arena allows new artists that aren't Jessica Simpson clones to have a chance to get heard. Smaller, more agile and hungry record companies may be born. Record companies can test the waters on the digital side before putting them on store shelves. Word of mouth can help sell an artist as an e-mail link to a song is more likely to get heard then telling someone to go to the record store.

In fact, a new record company is trying something new. Instead of albums, do micro-releases of 3 songs. This allows a great deal of flexibility for artists & record companies alike. Less investment in recording sessions, and the greater ability to meet publishing schedules. It also means artists might produce more. Currently after an album, its usually 2-3 years before you see another album. Contrast that to 3o years ago where artists might come up with albums every year or so. Artists were constantly giving their fans new music, and tried a lot of different things. Some things worked, some things didn't. But it allowed the band to grow. Now the 2nd album has so much effort focused on it (and way too much engineering and tweeking) that artists usually play it safe. Which is why the idea of the softmore slump for artists persists. On the first album, it was new a fresh, the 2nd album is usually a rehash of the 1st, or whatever is popular at the time. If the artist makes it to the 3rd album, they usually begin to relax and let the creative juices flow.

The artists that buck that trend tend to be my favorites.

So what's wrong with this new world order? The title of this post. The ability to cherry pick songs could mean the death of the album. And I don't believe albums should die. First of all, the song that gets me into an album is almost never the song that keeps me there. Its usually the non-singles that shows the meat of the artist, and they usually grow to be my favorite songs. Now that's not to say that I never love the songs that become singles, but if I only bought the singles, my musical life would be much emptier.

Secondly, intentional or not, an album usually ties songs together in a unique way that makes the sum greater than the individual parts. Songs usually just sound better when played within the scope of their album.

Thirdly, if you know what you like, and you like what you know, when will you know anything new if you don't get a chance to experiment? Albums give us that chance, and gives artists a chance to put out something unexpected. "Drop in the Ocean" on Michelle Branch's debut, "All these thing's that I've done" on the Killer's debut, and "The one you have not seen" on Sophie B. Hawkins's 3rd album are great examples.

My drum teacher was a large voice in trying to break people out of liking what they knew. He belonged to a group called the New Music Circle which presented a lot of different stuff. Some cool, some very very very strange. I credit him for really opening my mind up to new horizions. I always thought my musical tastes were varied, but you never see the rut you're in. I don't think I would have given Patty Griffin a chance without that.

God that would have sucked.

I've aquired quite a taste for a well make mistake.

2006-05-01T22:41:00.000-05:00

Everyone loves to hate the record companies, and honestly, they make it really damn easy. They short change their artists in their early carrier, they put secret rootkits on our computer, they sue kids who can't fight back, the list goes on.

My loathing comes from a slightly different source. I understand why they short change their artists. Developing new talent is expensive, and risky, and quite frankly, doesn't pay off a lot. Suing those people that were just serving up copies of music, I get that, they needed to send a message. Mission accomplished. But some of the strong arming they did on kids that just downloaded...that was probably pushing it. I'm a firm believer against piracy. If you believe a CD is too expensive, or overpriced, don't buy it. It does NOT give you a right to steal it, no matter how evil the record companies are.

Sorry, I'm digressing from the focus I want to get too, but I've heard all the whining about why its ok to make illegal copies of CDs. Its annoys me, you're just justifying something you know is wrong. Its not a ideolgical fight, its a purchase. Deal.

Anyway, back to business. Now, I can understand stupidity and ignorance. Not everyone is the brightest, and not everyone has all the info. Its not their fault, so I don't get down on those people. God knows I've had enough stupid moments in my life. But WILLFUL stupidity. Well that I just can't stand.

And that's where the record companies are going. The world is changing, and they just can't handle it. One exec stated that people would just have to buy a seperate CD player instead of playing the music on their computer. Another stated that you should pay again if you put the music on your iPod. I bought the right to listen to the music, how I listen to it is my business.

And for god's sake, stop treating your customers like they're criminals. How is THAT supposed to help? The grand success of iTunes has shown that people want to own their music. They are willing to pay to have a legal copy instead of stealing. So what is your problem? All you're doing is driving away customers. Boards should fire their executives, and hire some people who know what the music consumer wants. If you're not going to let them play their music on their iPod after they buy the CD, they're not going to buy it. Or worse, they'll steal it.

You got to realize, as much as the digital age has come, people still LIKE buying CDs. It feels more real, and gives a nice fuzzy feeling. That and they sound better too (for now). So let them buy CDs! You get money, they get music. Put extras on the CD: videos, interviews, and such. Copy protect the hell out of THAT. That's stuff that people don't need to casually copy to other devices, and it gives them that feeling of exclusivity. People like extras.

Its amazing that iTunes exists with the current attitudes over there. Steve Jobs must be one hell of a salesman. Of course, they already want to tinker with it. Instead of 99 cents per song, they want make new hits more expensive, and discount colder songs. Now I've seen a lot of consumers rant against this idea saying its stupid. That's not true, its a great idea, its just not a great idea RIGHT NOW.

The digital download is a hot growing market. Emphasis on growing. There's a lot of market penetration to do. What brings in new consumers? The fact that everything costs the same. 99 cents. It makes sense to a consumer. It gives the consumer a warm fuzzy feeling. Let it go a couple of years. Once iTunes is a household word, then change the pricing model.

And for god's sake, don't equivilate what people pay for a ringtone on their cell phone with what they'll pay for a song on iTunes. They're two different things. People only have a limited number of ring tones. So they'll pay a little bit more since they won't be paying again for a long time.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned the terrible music being put out, and the way artists are dealt with. That will come in a later post. For now, start making good business decisions instead of decisions based on decades past. As big as you are, you will fall if you don't keep up.

That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it

2006-04-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

I had a shock when I bought a copy of Guild Wars:Factions. The store clerk attempted to sell me scratch insurance. You gotta be kidding me! I mean, if the space between my CD rack and my computer was a gravel road with potholes, I could see that. But its not. I know I've always said that I've never had a problem with companies making money off of stupid people, but this might be pushing it. And they're doing this with music CDs as well. Though those travel enough to make slight more sense (not enough to buy it though).

I'm probably more irritated by the fact the guy did a hard sell on me. Do I LOOK that stupid? OK, I do look very young, but still....when I say no, I mean NO. Unless its too my wife of course, that's just an opening negotiating position to an argument I will lose because she's cute. That's different.

I can understand why they do it, a lot of inexperienced parents to suck more money out of. But this MIGHT come back to bite them. More and more people are switching from buying CD's and games physically to electronically. The selling of insurance on these disks will start making some people think that this purchase NEEDS insurance. But digital downloading doesn't. So they're next buy will be online, not so good for EB Games, Best Buy, or whoever. It sounds like a stretch, but these are the same people who will buy insurance on a CD.

Have I ruined a CD due to scratching? Yes, one. Seven years after I bought it. I own 400 CDs or so (I stopped counting a LONG time ago). Imagine the money I would have wasted if I bought insurance on all those? Hell, just on the amount of game CDs I own (all of which still work).

Oh well, can't blame someone for making a buck. Just stop trying to make it off me, I'll take my chances.

These are days you’ll remember

2006-04-25T23:58:00.000-05:00

Today was a good day. Its always good when your child is happy, laughing, and bouncy. Gavin was a lot of both today. Him and Charlotte started with a nice little giggle fest as when I bounced and spun them both when I picked him up from day care. They both have delightful giggles. I know Charlotte got it from her mom, I have to assume Gavin learned it from Charlotte. I know I sure as hell don't giggle like that.

Gavin had a sing-a-long with the music playing on the iPod in the car. Now he's only 14 months, so obviously it wasn't a very accurate sing-a-long, but the effort was there. Along with some driving directions ("GO!"). The boy likes speed.

Gavin's ball throwing has improved considerably, and we had a great time passing the ball back and forth. He's beginning to enjoy these interactive games, which is a big step from the solo playing. Another game he started doing today involved his new walking backwards skill.

Pam and I have been working on getting Gavin to keep his sippy cup in the kitchen. Sometimes he'll make a break for it, not because he wants the cup in the other room, but because its fun to have us go after him. Well today he started just inching backwards towards the family room while drinking from the sippy cup. When he got to the carpet, he looked at me, saw me give him a look, and he laughed and ran back into the kitchen to begin again.

This is a good game, it uses positive reinforcement to remember to keep the cup in the kitchen, which is tons more effective then telling him "NO" over and over and over. I'm not afriad of laying down the law when needed, but I'll always try to find a way to use positive reinforcement. This sometimes leads to excessive cheering and sillyness, but its pretty effective, and my boy is pretty darn happy AND well behaved.

I said well behaved, not perfect. He still thinks its fun to pound on the TV. We're working on that, though its difficult since I'm positive if we were out of the house, he wouldn't touch the TV. He's doing it for the reaction and probably a sign that we're not paying him as much attention as he'd like. If I looked at each time it happened, it would probably be when Pam and I are in discussion, or in those very rare instances the TV is on while Gavin is awake. I'll admit that hockey playoffs are an exception to that, but hey, that's special.

I'm extremely glad that when the TV is on, he usually ignores it if it isn't Baby Einstein. Don't know why he pays attention solely to that, but I'm not going to question it.

All in all a lot of laughing by baby and parents today. I've spent a good portion of my life thinking about what it means to be a good parent, and I'm happy to see that its working pretty well. Don't know if my friends agree with my parenting styles or not, but hey, they don't read this anyway.

Frankly my friends have a lot of differing styles, some I like, some I'm not quite comfortable with. I'll be honest and say the stuff I'm not comfortable with seems to be working just fine, and its a matter of personal style for me. We seem to be raising some good kids so far, and that's all that matters. I usually keep my opinions to myself unless it comes up in converstation, and then I try to coach them in the most non-agressive terms. Though I'm sure I've offended someone at some point in time. People take this parenting thing personally, as they should. No rocks through my window.....oh...wait...but that's another story.

My style is very soft, with a definate line. I believe in allowing the kids a great deal of freedom to explore their environment. This involves letting them occasionly push my kitchen chairs around, and his high chair as well. He's learning about moving stuff, navigating, and how things react. As you can't push a chair through a table. I keep a calm, pleasant, happy voice. A lot of positive reinforcement when he does things I approve of. But when he crosses a certain line (pounding on the TV, playing with a power cord) the reaction is firm, immediate, and sometimes a little harsh. I always try to keep it as consistent as possible, which sounds easy, but when you're tired its temping to let things slide. As soon as he stops, we go back to happy nice daddy. Gavin's a smart kid, he figures it out pretty quick for the most part.

My only worry is that day care won't be as hard on him when he misbehaves. So far he's been a good kid there (at least from what they tell me), so I can't really judge that yet. I told them to drop the heavy end of the hammer if he starts pushing and shoving, hopefully they'll listen.

Anyway, that's enough for this post. Maybe one day I'll try a short post and see what that's like :). I'm getting better at catching my writing mistakes and correcting them as I'm going along. I'm also getting back to the smoother style that I used in college. Maybe I'll actually tell some people about this thing someday.

Then I can criticize Merl for his parenting. How could you lie to your daughter like that? It was MY puck.

In a moment we could make heads turn

2006-04-24T22:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it takes me a while to find a good lyric for the post. This one's a tough one, though Google can probably find it quickly. But that's cheating :)

ANYWAY, It's the hockey playoffs!!! The only thing better than playoff hockey in sports, is overtime playoff hockey. Which is happening right now with the Montreal/Carolina game. No other sport compares to the energy generated during these playoffs. Screw the Super Bowl, give me the ups and downs of a good playoff matchup any day. Not to slam football (go Steelers!), but the action of hockey during this time of year cannot be denied.

I will never forget my favorite playoff game of Pittsburgh vs. Philly about 5 years ago or so, 7 sudden death overtimes. The goalies were awsome, and the players gave everything they had. Diving saves, players sacrificing their bodies to block shots, face plants to try to get their team the puck. Even though my team didn't win, I still loved that game.

Every player gets it, they're not in the playoffs for the money. They want the shiny thing. The wonderous Stanley Cup. It IS the hardest trophy to get in sports. Every game is played like its going to be their last. Watch a series, any series, and you'll get it.

I've hardly gotten to exercise my Center Ice package this year since I've been busy being a daddy, but its worth its weight in gold for the post-season.

And now we're going to 2nd overtime. Yummy.

By the way, I love this game.

When it don't come easy

2006-04-19T00:40:00.000-05:00

Well, that last post was definitely why I needed to start writing more. It was all over the place. New rule, if I can't finish a post in a sitting, wipe it and start over. That last post was done in 4 different sessions. I must resist hitting the Save as Draft button at all costs!

I'll probably have a new rule, no posting after midnight, but we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, we had a storm tonight, which for people in the St. Louis area will know is no surprise. However what was a surprise was my 1 year old son Gavin, woke up. This kid sleeps through everything. And I'm not sure it was the thunder that woke him, rather than being thirsty. He can't tell me so I'll have to guess.

It’s never a good feeling when your baby wakes up in the middle of the night. The first step is always to see if its a temporary thing (which it usually is). You continue on hoping he will fall back to sleep. 10-15 minutes later, it’s apparent that it isn't going to happen. This makes you feel extremely guilty for waiting those 10-15 minutes. Even though the last 20 times he's fallen back to sleep in 5 mins or less.

Then comes the going into the room. This never happens without the thought that something BAD has happened. He's hurt and I should have been there 10 mins ago, and doesn't his cry sound different? The 5 seconds it takes for me to get to the door and open it really is the worst a parent can have.

Case in point, a month or so ago someone threw a large, heavy rock through our back patio door. This of course woke us up since it makes a very loud thud (we never heard the crash though). We at first thought that Gavin somehow had 1) gotten out of his crib and fell, or 2) he somehow caused the crib to fall over. Both of these scenarios are very unlikely, but anyone who's dealt with me when I'm woken unexpectedly can tell you my mind doesn't move through the low gears very quickly. It does make for higher top speed, but I'm digressing.

Anyway, I rushed to Gavin's room. My wife caught up to me a couple of seconds later, outside the bedroom. This is because even though I had sprinted top speed to the room and had my hand on the doorknob, I could NOT open the door. Those 5 seconds of worry had literally caused my brain to overload with every worst possible scenario. My wife showing up got me to shake that off, otherwise I wonder how long I would have been standing there. Gavin of course was fine, and in fact bouncing up and down thinking mommy and daddy were here to play.

Frankly, after that the fact that someone had swiped my wife's purse & my laptop bag didn't really bother me at all. I don't think my wife really understood that, as she seemed to get quite irritated with me about how calm I was about the whole affair.

I love being a dad. Gavin is literally the greatest baby; I don't know how we got so lucky. Other parents will disagree of course, but that's ok. It’s good for people to be wrong sometimes :)

But I hate those 5 seconds.

Get 'Em Out By Friday

2006-04-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

Going to start making my titles lines from songs or song titles, just for fun. Though I see this being a pain in the ass in the future, for now it amuses me. This one is easy, its the name of the song as well. But I'm getting off topic, or is it I was never on topic? Anyway....

Years ago I argued heavily against term limits. My position was that simply, if we didn't get a bad politician out of office, it was our own dumb fault, and we should let the good guys go as long as we can. I was very passionate, and I even convinced my opponent. What is unfortunate is that I'm beginning to believe I was wrong. Damnit.

Is there really a member of Congress that we absolutely have to have? Someone who we can't live without? Frankly I don't think so. However there a LOT of them we would be happy to dump. So dump all of them. (See! There's the title relevance to this post!)

To be quite honest, while I'm not a Bush supporter, the root of our problems isn't him. The problem is our Congress (to quote Steven Colbert) "has no balls". They're very good at posturing, but not much else. They only time they seem to act is when it would be complete suicide not too (social security). The president can run them over without any more consequence of some harsh language on the pundit shows. What is funny is that this is the time where Congress should feel free to flex their muscles. Bush's popularity rating is at an all time low, and Congress still won't break ranks for fear of making their party look weak.

What happened to less federal government interference, financial responsibility? All pushed to the wayside in the interests of party unity with Bush. What happened to the true conservatives? And I'm not talking about the social ultra-religous conservatives, so sit back down.

Congress should have stepped up and put Bush in his place. He is not the government, only a branch. But they can't do it. And problem's root is at the House of Representitives. We have carrier politicians in a position that gets re-elected every 2 years. This certainly isn't what the founders had in mind. The idea was that people would serve their 2 years, then get back to their life. A house of the common people.

Well, they won't vote term limits on themselves. So I say, if there isn't anyone there we can't live without, just vote them out. Every 2 years, vote out the incumbant. Republican, Democrat, whatever. Its not like you actually pay much attention to the congressman you vote in anyway. I wonder what the typical congressman would look like after 8 years....

But then, this whole plan depends on the voters who got us in this mess in the first place.

Yeah, it was just an idea.

Current favorite albums

2006-04-11T14:11:00.000-05:00

What's this? Didn't I just post earlier today? Thanks for paying attention! All one of you. Hey, the title of this blog starts with 'Chaotic' for a reason. But the real reason is that I'm doing a large test run and so this what I'm going to be doing while that goes on. Anyway....back to music.
My current favorite albums.....
Mad Season - Matchbox 20
While liking their 1st & 3rd albums (I believe their first is my wife's favorite), #2 strikes a chord. The album is...melancholy, and I love it. I'm weird like that.

Wreck Of The Day - Anna Nalick
Discovered this one when iTunes was displaying free videos. Slow and fast, sweet and rough, this album has a good mix that is good to listen too.

On Your Shore - Charlotte Martin
I don't know many people who know this artist (besides my sister-in-law), but she does a good mix of classical piano mixed with pop. The songs are well crafted, and her rendition of Wild Horses should not be missed. If you've heard the song Every Time It Rains, this is her.

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
For some reason this album sticks with me more than Dark Side or the Wall right now. That might change later. I can't help but wonder what if the song Wish You Were Here would be like if they played with that musical idea for more than 2 minutes.

Youth - Collective Soul
I waited a LONG time for a new Collective Soul album. Their albums have so much energy its hard not to get sucked in. This one is just good fun listening.

And now we'll round this out with the top song list as my test run is still going...
The Carpet Crawlers - Genesis
Every Genesis fan who reads this is nodding, everyone else is going eh?
2112 - Rush
All the Rush fans who were planning to stone me for not mentioning 2112 as a top favorite album can put their stones away now.
Supper's Ready - Genesis
Its about a 25 minute song, people don't really have the paitence for that kind of thing these days. Its a shame, because some of them are really really good. This is one of them.
An Island In The Darkness - Tony Banks
This is another long goodie. One of my favorite song endings of all time.
Everyday Glory - Rush
This song rocks, and the lyrics will get you motivated.
Before I Walk On Fire - Sophie B. Hawkins
Its hard for me to even think of a song that is as well crafted as this. It blends modern & classical together in a way that is pure elegant beauty.
When It Don't Come Easy - Patty Griffin
If you've ever gotten a mix from me, this song has probably been on it.
Walk On - U2
A well crafted song. Another good ending.

And that's enough of that.

Here we go

2006-04-11T12:41:00.000-05:00

OK, its been a couple of days, I guess I should actually start posting something. Not that anyone is waiting on baited breath quite yet....

So I stated music as #1 on my list of things to blog about, so let the first blog address that.

Top # lists annoy me somewhat, everyone assumes they are definitive and don't change. Yet its something I get asked about from time to time. Therefore, I like too break it down into the top albums I've found over my lifetime I can listen to again and again, and the current favorites that I might get tired of, or not.

So overall, my top favorites (for now) are....
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway - Genesis
Everyone needs to listen to this one. Frankly its one of the most creative (and yes, very weird) albums ever made. Even if you don't care about (or understand) the story, the music will carry you along. I always listen to this on my birthday

Scarlet's Walk - Tori Amos
I can hear the Amos fans screaming now that I didn't say Little Earthquakes. I love Little Earthquakes, but Scarlet's Walk is what I feel is to be her best work as a complete album. A great variety of musical styles, and not a weak song on there. It will amuse you, it you make you think, it will move you.

Roll The Bones - Rush
People criticize this album as being over produced, which it is. Yet start humming any song from this album around a Rush fan and they'll start humming along. This is just good solid rock that's fun to listen too.

Patty Griffin - Impossible Dream
Describing this album in modern terms is almost impossible. Why? Because country music sucks. If country music didn't suck, it would be this album. But see? You've already formed an opinion on this album as soon as I said country. Think the soundtrack to 'O Brother Where Art Thou'. Got that? OK. That style, only written today. Oh, and its better too. You know, just go buy the album.

A Curious Feeling - Tony Banks
You've never heard of this album, I guarentee it. You probably can't find it as best buy (you CAN find it on amazon, though its through a different seller). Its another concept album with a lot of intrumentals that are so well done, you can see the story playing out in your head. I think this currently holds my record of number of straight repeats played. You really are missing something if you haven't really, deeply listened to this album.

Tounges And Tails - Sophie B. Hawkins
I can't think of any other artist debut album that makes this list. Everyone knows Sophie through the song "As I Lay Me Down". Which was a #1 song for a very very very long time. Its not on this album. Sophie blends pop, classical, rhythm and twists it into something really interesting.

Ok, I need to break from this, but I'm on a roll in my head so current albums & top songs coming up then we'll put this music thing behind us for a bit.

2006-04-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

Sharon would be very disappointed in me if she saw this. We've never really understood why people do these things, since we're both private people. So why the hell do I have a blog?

To simply put it, I wrote a paper a month ago dealing with an interview I did for our little leadership class (which will never end apparently). My interviewing skills were very good, my analysis was good, my writing sucked. Seriously, it was crap. Not that anyone cared, but damnit, I am (was) a good writer.

So I now have a blog. Not sure if I'll actually tell anyone I know that I have one, we'll see. Just so you know what to expect there will be

Posts about music. Music is my lifeblood.
Posts about my son, Gavin. He rocks. If you met him, you'd agree.
Random rants and observations.
Politics observations very rarely, I tend to still be private about that.
Things I think are funny and think you will find funny as well. Except for my wife, who never thinks I'm funny (I'm working on that).

You will NOT see

Opinions on friends and acquantices, this is not a soap opera. People might show up from time to time for context, but otherwise you will not find any dirt here.
Except for Merl, it's MY PUCK you bastard.
Daily posts on what I did today and what not. If I feel its noteworthy and good writing, I'll post it, otherwise, you're not going to know what I had for dinner. Get over it.
Posts about my co-workers. I'm not stupid, Google is everywhere.
Posts about my company, except to say that it is the best company in the world, and I love it. (Raise please?)