we got to relieve the people...
Saturday, November 17, 2007
a lot going on
most of my blog titles are something like "it's been a while" or "overdue update", etc. i like to do my blogging in a batch style, as opposed to the more traditional (and effective) "little bit here and there" style. engage stream of consciousness:
the biggest news is probably that i resigned from CSC. having spent 4.5 years there, it was time to move on. the contract is coming up for recompete, which nobody feels to good about, and there are a lot of changes going on there which made my decision to look for something else easy. what made it even easier is that i got an email about my future job, applied, interviewed and was made an offer in the span of about 2 weeks. the company is Peopleclick, Inc, located in downtown Raleigh. they do online careers pages for a lot of companies out there. the position is Operations Engineer, which means for about a year i'll be learning how the applications work, troubleshooting, etc. eventually, i'll be productive and they'll give me a pager every now and then. with a full staff, which they have for the 1st time in a couple years, it will be every 2 months or something. not bad.
the job is really good. i'm excited for a lot of reasons.
as excited as i am about the new job, it is tempered against my sadness for leaving friends behind at the old job and my concern for their well being. i wish i could bring them all over to PC, but most of them live out in Durham/Wake Forest/Chapel Hill which isn't a desirable commute. probably at least an hour. so, if you're reading this and you know i'm talking about you, shoot me an email! i want to hear from you.
Andrea and i continue to settle into our life together. we both feel like we have so much catching up to do, in terms of just being married, but we need to be patient and just let it happen. that last comment pertains mainly to me since i've been the one to gripe about how we're not doing enough of this or that... we analyzed why that seemed to be the case and decided i came home from my old job everyday bored and unfulfilled and tried to get fulfillment from working around the house. now, i get home and i'm tired! so i've definitely slowed down a bit. but giving credit where it's due, it's a lot easier to slow down when you have a wife who picks up your slack every day. Andrea's been great about cooking every night and helping me clean up afterward, and just doing a little here and there, instead of both of us waiting until the place is a mess and needs a big cleaning. that is a huge deal to me b/c a lot of Saturdays i've felt the need to clean (FUN!!) and today, she's out doing errands and i built a fire in our new Chimnea and mowed the grass since the house is already clean!
my new hours are 9 - 6 and with the time change, it gets dark so early. last night Andrea had set up a little date night for us, but i'm always a baby about coming home and leaving right away. this is b/c i hate getting the dog all fired up that we're finally home and then leave him hanging. so, long story short, she called and asked if i wanted to meet her somewhere straight from work b/c she gets home a lot earlier than i and could take care of Krust for a while. that sounded good to me. she had me pick up a pizza and meet her at Fletcher park. when i got there, she had a little pick nick blanket set up with candles, beer and the dog!! it was a nice surprise. she totally knows how to make me happy. i need to try harder to do that kind of stuff for her. she deserves everything!
the biggest news is probably that i resigned from CSC. having spent 4.5 years there, it was time to move on. the contract is coming up for recompete, which nobody feels to good about, and there are a lot of changes going on there which made my decision to look for something else easy. what made it even easier is that i got an email about my future job, applied, interviewed and was made an offer in the span of about 2 weeks. the company is Peopleclick, Inc, located in downtown Raleigh. they do online careers pages for a lot of companies out there. the position is Operations Engineer, which means for about a year i'll be learning how the applications work, troubleshooting, etc. eventually, i'll be productive and they'll give me a pager every now and then. with a full staff, which they have for the 1st time in a couple years, it will be every 2 months or something. not bad.
the job is really good. i'm excited for a lot of reasons.
- i've been there for 3 weeks and have been busy all day, every day: very big change from CSC. i had to look for stuff to do there.
- there seems to be upward mobility, or at least the potential for increased responsibility as i gain experience. also a big change from CSC, where i maxed out a while ago.
- it's downtown so i can ride my bike! it's about a 6.5 mile round trip. it's just now getting cold, but i rode the entire 2nd week and enjoyed it greatly.
- feeling that i'm really doing something, as opposed to trying to look like i'm doing something. i used to feel like i could skip a week of work and nobody would miss me. now, i have a few things i'm expected to do and if i slack off, they won't get done and it will be noticed right away.
- i could go on and on.
as excited as i am about the new job, it is tempered against my sadness for leaving friends behind at the old job and my concern for their well being. i wish i could bring them all over to PC, but most of them live out in Durham/Wake Forest/Chapel Hill which isn't a desirable commute. probably at least an hour. so, if you're reading this and you know i'm talking about you, shoot me an email! i want to hear from you.
Andrea and i continue to settle into our life together. we both feel like we have so much catching up to do, in terms of just being married, but we need to be patient and just let it happen. that last comment pertains mainly to me since i've been the one to gripe about how we're not doing enough of this or that... we analyzed why that seemed to be the case and decided i came home from my old job everyday bored and unfulfilled and tried to get fulfillment from working around the house. now, i get home and i'm tired! so i've definitely slowed down a bit. but giving credit where it's due, it's a lot easier to slow down when you have a wife who picks up your slack every day. Andrea's been great about cooking every night and helping me clean up afterward, and just doing a little here and there, instead of both of us waiting until the place is a mess and needs a big cleaning. that is a huge deal to me b/c a lot of Saturdays i've felt the need to clean (FUN!!) and today, she's out doing errands and i built a fire in our new Chimnea and mowed the grass since the house is already clean!
my new hours are 9 - 6 and with the time change, it gets dark so early. last night Andrea had set up a little date night for us, but i'm always a baby about coming home and leaving right away. this is b/c i hate getting the dog all fired up that we're finally home and then leave him hanging. so, long story short, she called and asked if i wanted to meet her somewhere straight from work b/c she gets home a lot earlier than i and could take care of Krust for a while. that sounded good to me. she had me pick up a pizza and meet her at Fletcher park. when i got there, she had a little pick nick blanket set up with candles, beer and the dog!! it was a nice surprise. she totally knows how to make me happy. i need to try harder to do that kind of stuff for her. she deserves everything!
Saturday, October 27, 2007
photos of the past month or so
The Dog
Old Man Stuss wants to know, "where's your Halloween spirit?":
here he is after destroying every room in the house after a thunderstorm. "destroy" is a bit extreme, but the fruit couch might argue that point:
note the guilty head tilt. i put him in a "down-stay" and walked out of the room. he hates that. we eventually made up, but this whole thunderstorm destruction cycle must be broken...or his legs will be. maybe i'll start with his teeth, then move onto the legs. i haven't decided yet.
Squirrel Patrol '07:
he actually caught a baby squirrel a couple weeks ago. if not for me intervening, it would surely have suffered a chaotic, less than desirable death. lucky for the tree rat, i was feeling soft hearted and commanded him to let it go, which he did. i will live to regret the decision.
OHIO
we went up to OHIO last weekend for my Dad's 60th Birthday. it was a surprise. we left around 6:15am Saturday morning, spent the day at my Aunt Linda and Uncle Jerry's and left Sunday after brunch. we had a great time! i have a lot of wonderful childhood memories from spending time at their place. here are a few pics:
My Homeland:
Robby, Alison (sibs) and me and my baby:
Hayride!!
on the way to the farm, we went through McConnelsville. my Mom's Mom (Grandma Glenna) lived there. Andrea shot this at a stop light. there's one in the middle of the town square, too. i had never read the plaque before. it's a WWI monument. neat.
group photo:
my Dad and his wife (Karel) on the front row with his parents, Grandma and Grandad, in between. back rows: Dad's kids/kids-in-law on the left, Karel's kids/kids-in-law on the right.
The man: Uncle Jerry
Old Man Stuss wants to know, "where's your Halloween spirit?":
here he is after destroying every room in the house after a thunderstorm. "destroy" is a bit extreme, but the fruit couch might argue that point:
note the guilty head tilt. i put him in a "down-stay" and walked out of the room. he hates that. we eventually made up, but this whole thunderstorm destruction cycle must be broken...or his legs will be. maybe i'll start with his teeth, then move onto the legs. i haven't decided yet.
Squirrel Patrol '07:
he actually caught a baby squirrel a couple weeks ago. if not for me intervening, it would surely have suffered a chaotic, less than desirable death. lucky for the tree rat, i was feeling soft hearted and commanded him to let it go, which he did. i will live to regret the decision.
OHIO
we went up to OHIO last weekend for my Dad's 60th Birthday. it was a surprise. we left around 6:15am Saturday morning, spent the day at my Aunt Linda and Uncle Jerry's and left Sunday after brunch. we had a great time! i have a lot of wonderful childhood memories from spending time at their place. here are a few pics:
My Homeland:
Robby, Alison (sibs) and me and my baby:
Hayride!!
on the way to the farm, we went through McConnelsville. my Mom's Mom (Grandma Glenna) lived there. Andrea shot this at a stop light. there's one in the middle of the town square, too. i had never read the plaque before. it's a WWI monument. neat.
group photo:
my Dad and his wife (Karel) on the front row with his parents, Grandma and Grandad, in between. back rows: Dad's kids/kids-in-law on the left, Karel's kids/kids-in-law on the right.
The man: Uncle Jerry
Thursday, September 27, 2007
our new neighbors
Andrea and i were doing yard work a few Saturdays ago. you may remember Tropical Storm Gabrielle brewing in the Atlantic. i wanted to be prepared in case we got a lot of rain so i was on the roof cleaning out the gutters.
don't get me started on the gutters...they are worthless. the 1st time i cleaned them, we didn't have a hose. i pulled out all the big leaves and sticks, then Andrea handed me up a 2 gallon watering can, filled. my plan was to flush out the small stuff. we did this twice and the gutter, in addition to said small stuff, now held 4 gallons of water. thank goodness for the leaky seam, or that water could've been there forever!
during the gutter fiasco and subsequent yard duties, a moving truck pulled into the yard next door and several people started unloading. this is the house where Carlos and Sophie, the border collie we adopted over the fence, lived. we walked over to introduce ourselves, but they were pretty busy so we didn't hang around. over the course of the next week, i noticed a bunch of kids playing in the back yard. i love kids and ever since moving from Cary, where i was the adopted (creepy?) uncle, i've been jonesing.
these kids are great. 3 boys and a girl, ages 3 to 10. Zaria, the girl, is 3. she is adorable. the youngest male, DeShawn, is your typical 5 year old. at least, i think he's five. and he has braids! Markel (pronounced Mar-kell) reminds me of Chris Rock. he's funny. the oldest is Jeremy, aka, TJ. he's pretty quiet and introspective. at least, this is what i surmise after talking with them for a total of 1 hour.
when i hear them in the back playing, i go out with Krusty and they flock to the fence shouting "Krusty! Krusty!". it makes me feel good. they take turns throwing the ball for him and once they practiced throwing disc golf putters at my target over the fence. but what i really enjoy is talking to them, more importantly, listening to what they say. they are really funny.
Markel was asking me about Krusty...how long i've had him, where i got him, why i named him Krusty, etc. then out of the blue, he says "do you think it's wrong to kill nature?". i asked for clarification. "like spiders and stuff". i wanted to be a good example for him b/c kids are very impressionable and said "well, sometimes when bugs get in the house we squash them, but sometimes we catch them and let them go. i mean, i don't go around looking for bugs to kill or anything".
YEAH RIGHT! as the words were coming out of my mouth, i thought twice about saying it. i hope he doesn't see me out his window at night kicking the recycle bin scaring up roaches to squash. that's my nightly routine. i abhor roaches.
the conversation continued.
Zaria is so tiny, she has to climb up the chain link fence to be able to throw the ball, but it goes right in Krusty's mouth every time. Andrea came home from work one day and stepped out back. Krust ran towards her to get some love and Zaria asked where he was going. "he loves his mama", i said. now, everytime she sees the dog, she asks "that dog loves his mama?". so cute! TJ was looking at me and said, "he loves is daddy, too". he's a good kid.
before i came out last night, a squirrel fell out of a tree and landed in the middle of our yard. they told me about it, complete with sound effects, and that got us talking about squirrels. in addition to roaches, i hate squirrels, too. maybe i'll explain why one day. suffice to say, i was upset the squirrel survived the fall, which they told me it did.
don't get me started on the gutters...they are worthless. the 1st time i cleaned them, we didn't have a hose. i pulled out all the big leaves and sticks, then Andrea handed me up a 2 gallon watering can, filled. my plan was to flush out the small stuff. we did this twice and the gutter, in addition to said small stuff, now held 4 gallons of water. thank goodness for the leaky seam, or that water could've been there forever!
during the gutter fiasco and subsequent yard duties, a moving truck pulled into the yard next door and several people started unloading. this is the house where Carlos and Sophie, the border collie we adopted over the fence, lived. we walked over to introduce ourselves, but they were pretty busy so we didn't hang around. over the course of the next week, i noticed a bunch of kids playing in the back yard. i love kids and ever since moving from Cary, where i was the adopted (creepy?) uncle, i've been jonesing.
these kids are great. 3 boys and a girl, ages 3 to 10. Zaria, the girl, is 3. she is adorable. the youngest male, DeShawn, is your typical 5 year old. at least, i think he's five. and he has braids! Markel (pronounced Mar-kell) reminds me of Chris Rock. he's funny. the oldest is Jeremy, aka, TJ. he's pretty quiet and introspective. at least, this is what i surmise after talking with them for a total of 1 hour.
when i hear them in the back playing, i go out with Krusty and they flock to the fence shouting "Krusty! Krusty!". it makes me feel good. they take turns throwing the ball for him and once they practiced throwing disc golf putters at my target over the fence. but what i really enjoy is talking to them, more importantly, listening to what they say. they are really funny.
Markel was asking me about Krusty...how long i've had him, where i got him, why i named him Krusty, etc. then out of the blue, he says "do you think it's wrong to kill nature?". i asked for clarification. "like spiders and stuff". i wanted to be a good example for him b/c kids are very impressionable and said "well, sometimes when bugs get in the house we squash them, but sometimes we catch them and let them go. i mean, i don't go around looking for bugs to kill or anything".
YEAH RIGHT! as the words were coming out of my mouth, i thought twice about saying it. i hope he doesn't see me out his window at night kicking the recycle bin scaring up roaches to squash. that's my nightly routine. i abhor roaches.
the conversation continued.
- markel - "do you think it's bad luck?"
- "to kill nature?"
- m - "yes"
- "i dunno. what do you think?"
- m - "i don't know either"
Zaria is so tiny, she has to climb up the chain link fence to be able to throw the ball, but it goes right in Krusty's mouth every time. Andrea came home from work one day and stepped out back. Krust ran towards her to get some love and Zaria asked where he was going. "he loves his mama", i said. now, everytime she sees the dog, she asks "that dog loves his mama?". so cute! TJ was looking at me and said, "he loves is daddy, too". he's a good kid.
before i came out last night, a squirrel fell out of a tree and landed in the middle of our yard. they told me about it, complete with sound effects, and that got us talking about squirrels. in addition to roaches, i hate squirrels, too. maybe i'll explain why one day. suffice to say, i was upset the squirrel survived the fall, which they told me it did.
- TJ - "has Krusty ever killed anything?"
- "yep. two squirrels"
- t - "in this yard?"
- "no, no. it was in Atlanta a long time ago"
- t - "how did he do it?"
- "a squirrel got out in the middle of a big field and he saw it. he chased it down and shook it to death"
- t - "what about the other one"
- "we came over a hill and there were two. one got away and he got the other one. come to think of it, it wasn't dead after he attacked it so i had to kill it"
- t - "how did you do that?"
(stomping the heel of my foot into the ground) "like that" - t - "yeah, i guess that's how you'd do it"
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Bob's forensic analysis of video
this is great. you should click over and read it from the source, but in case you're too lazy, here's a copy-n-paste:
Highlights include:
Highlights include:
- Seth smiling and smirking his way through the whole affair, as he does with many things in life.
- Mrs. Updyke looking like the happiest bride in the world.
- Mr. Updyke, with beer in one hand and woman in the other, looking like a seasoned barbershop professional having a little fun.
- Me mostly sort of looking like I am in pain, which I was not. I was having the time of my life, but I was also trying to concentrate and not mess up.
- -02:57: Jerry assuring Seth he was playing the right note on his pitch pipe. Seth never grew to fully trust that pitch pipe. He always thought it was playing him the wrong starting note.
- -02:52: Me not sticking my opening note. If you’re going to be solid on any note, it should be that opener. And I swear I always hit it in our practices. Oh well. Everyone else stays right on key and I recover ok.
- -02:05: Jerry holding up his ring finger when we sing “Place a wedding band upon your hand.” This is the extent of what we could come up with, choreography-wise.
- -01:49: The crowd interpreting a pause as the end of the song and going wild.
- -01:02: Mr. Updyke leaning in to the mic and really emphasizing the crazy low note he hits here. People being greatly amuzed by this. (check out the look of horror on Andrea's face as I lean in...i think she thought i was passing out or something. then, when she sees all is well, she snaps back into a smile and continues singing. my personal favorite part of the whole video)
- -00:54: That’s right. Key change.
- -00:18: Seth taking us out with a cool-looking, commanding “bam!” hand motion that was actually a signal for “I’ve been holding this note for a long time and I am now out of breath.”
- -00:15: Seth, Andrea, and I coming in for some love and Papa Updyke shoving us away. He later explained to me that he was trying to get us to spread out and take a bow, but then came to the realization that it was too much to orchestrate. (in retrospect, it would've been nice to have mentioned my plans to you all. instead, it has a "Get the hell away from me!!" look about it. couldn't be further from the truth!)
- -00:09: The four of us celebrating the culmination of several months of work, and our shared musical bond, by warmly embracing each other.
- -00:04: Me getting a face-full of Updyke’s boutinerre, because he is so freaking tall.
i added my own thoughts in bold...
that'll do, Bobby. that'll do.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
finally
by popular demand...
here's my first crack at posting a YouTube video. it's from our wedding reception on August 25, 2007. me, Andrea, Bob and Seth singing "Didn't Want To Fall".
here's my first crack at posting a YouTube video. it's from our wedding reception on August 25, 2007. me, Andrea, Bob and Seth singing "Didn't Want To Fall".
Friday, September 7, 2007
sneak peek: Honeymoon pics
Warning: high resolution and unmodified. i.e., huge.
coming in for a landing in San Francisco, or "Frisco" as the locals like to call it:
sea lions at the wharf:
Frisco's infamous South Side Segways (SSS):
GGB:
Napa:
sunset from our B&B in Ft. Bragg, CA:
Andrea, the Mustang and some Redwoods:
a few of the Oregon coast:
coming in for a landing in San Francisco, or "Frisco" as the locals like to call it:
sea lions at the wharf:
Frisco's infamous South Side Segways (SSS):
GGB:
Napa:
sunset from our B&B in Ft. Bragg, CA:
Andrea, the Mustang and some Redwoods:
a few of the Oregon coast:
some of the best tags on YouTube
Realtime
2005 Quarter Finals
"Yesterday I Heard The Rain"
Tag at 4:09
by far my favorite live performance of all time and the best tag in history.
Glory Days
2007 Quarter Finals
"Do-Re-Mi" Medely
Tag at 4:20
fun song. they finish with the "Tonight" tag.
Storm Front
2006 Finals
"Bare Necessities"
Tag at 2:25
the Lead passes the post off to the Bari at 2:43. pretty cool. these guys are really funny and got 3rd in 2007.
more to come, so be sure to check back...as if i need to say that.
2005 Quarter Finals
"Yesterday I Heard The Rain"
Tag at 4:09
by far my favorite live performance of all time and the best tag in history.
Glory Days
2007 Quarter Finals
"Do-Re-Mi" Medely
Tag at 4:20
fun song. they finish with the "Tonight" tag.
Storm Front
2006 Finals
"Bare Necessities"
Tag at 2:25
the Lead passes the post off to the Bari at 2:43. pretty cool. these guys are really funny and got 3rd in 2007.
more to come, so be sure to check back...as if i need to say that.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The Chronicles of Harmony-a
last year some time, i had a hankerin' for some barbershop. i don't remember what prompted it, but i went looking for an album to buy online and found "4 Voices" by the quartet Four Voices. it was my first exposure to modern barbershop. up until then, i (falsely, but understandably) assumed it was a genre performed exclusively by guys with big giant mustaches, straw hats and matching red and white striped blazers. and sometimes canes.
after becoming enthralled with with the Four Voices album, i started looking online for more information. the Barbershop Harmony Society website has a bunch of good stuff. that's where Bob found the learning mp3's of "Keep the Whole World Singing"! (the recordings of us singing that are somewhere between awful and terrible...we were just kids then). i also looked on YouTube and found a ton of entertaining stuff...including people who film themselves singing the 4 different parts of Barbershop "tags" and splitting the screen, Brady Bunch style, so you can see them all at once. hilarious. and brilliant. this guy was the first, as far as i can tell. raw and unproduced, which i like. conversely, this guy is the reigning king, but sounds a little too perfect for my tastes. no question he's good, though. i digress.
my plan was to listen closely to the Four Voices version of "Didn't Want to Fall" and record the individual tracks using a keyboard, a computer and a Bass Podxt. i borrowed Matt Wood's keyboard (still have it, in fact) and got the first couple measures done, but then the parts pretty much became indistinguishable. particularly, the Baritone part. wow. what an awesome part! if i were to join a quartet (rather, another quartet) that's the part i would want to be. in my opinion, it's what makes a quartet a barbershop quartet. all these great 3rds and 7ths...
so i had the first measure or so recorded using the keyboard. in addition to sounding like crap, everyone else in the project let me know that it wouldn't be all that useful to them. but i wanted to do it anyway b/c i knew the way my brain works and i would benefit from it. eventually, i got wise and contacted the fine folks at the Barbershop Harmony Society and purchased the sheet music to the original arrangement of the song by Joe Liles. it's slightly different from the Four Voices version, but close. between the two, i figured we could make the version we wanted to perform.
on May 22nd, i gave the music to our resident musicologist, Matt X. and asked if he could record the four parts from the sheet music onto four tracks using a piano. with that, i reasoned, i could tell which part was which and make the minor changes between the 2 versions and record them onto one learning track for us to use. "you don't even have to sync them up", i said, trying to make it easier on him. what i got back was masterful.
he recorded the song, string quartet style, using violin for the tenor and lead, viola for baritone and cello for bass!! it was amazing! and he delivered it in 24 hours! but...it was in the key of F and the Four Voices version is in E. X even asked me before he started if i wanted him to do it in E to match 4V, but i declined. big mistake.
at this point, i had
- the CD version as done by Four Voices
- 1/4 of the song done keyboard style
- the full Matt X. string quartet version in F
- a live version of Four Voices singing it in E and
- yet another live version by a quartet called Joker's Wild (in F)
we needed a definitive recording people could use to learn their part, myself included. throwing caution to the wind and confronting my insecurities about singing, i began the process of recording myself singing the 4 parts of the song using the same multi track recording program i had used with the failed keyboard project. it's a good thing my studio is so advanced or else it might not have turned out so good: a crappy PC mic that's the size of half a roll of Life-Savers, a mic stand made of a rubber band and a bottle of Windex, and a paper towel, folded in half and stretched between my hands, held in between my mouth and the mic to reduce the popping sound of hard consonants. watch your back, Taylor Roberts! i'm coming for you!!
after getting about half the song done, up to the bridge, i sent it out. the plan was to give it to them incrementally and i would keep working on it until it was done.
the first crack was awful. my technique was to listen to the Four Voices version (and when necessary, the Matt X version, followed by using the keyboard to modulate down from F to E), record 4 or so measures of bass, then go back and do the same for lead, then bari, then tenor. everything was going ok, sort of, until i played the Four Voices version along with mine. i was getting flatter and flatter with each additional recording segment. i was enraged.
without headphones it was hard to really hear what was going on. and being in the apartment, i couldn't turn the speakers up OR really belt it out during recording (those insecurities i mentioned). so i scrapped the whole thing and started again, much to the chagrin of the group. they were like, "no, it's fine, we can use it", but i am stubborn like that. i mean, if i'm gonna record it, i want it to be in key, you know? and i was a little angry...at myself and at Barbershop for being so hard.
but at this point, my confidence was blown and it was much, much harder for me to do the 2nd time around. i couldn't seem to find the pitch and was flat over and over. my blood pressure was rising. i would tell Andrea, "I'm gonna work on the song tonight" and the next day, she'd say, "Did you finish?". finish?? Finish?? HA. i'd just give her 'the look' b/c i had only gotten 4 or 8 measures done in 2 or 3 hours. this period was pretty upsetting. i began to question whether i could even do it or not...and whether we, as a group, could pull it off.
yadda yadda yadda, i got it done all the way to the very end. i had the 50 or so different segments of the song merged into 4 and everybody had a mix of their part, plus multiple combinations (3 parts in the left, your part in the right, bass-bari, bass-lead, bass-tenor, tenor-lead, etc...), but all the mixes were originating from the same 4 tracks, so it wasn't "confusing", per se.
the lead and bass parts were pretty easy to hear and record, but i still couldn't figure out the baritone and tenor parts at the very end of the song. the Four Voices ending is different from the Joe Liles arrangement, and trying to meld the 4V tenor part, which Andrea liked, with the original Bari part (4V does this crazy thing where the Bari takes it up an octave, which we didn't want to use) was tough. so Bob and Andrea were kind of on their own. they came through brilliantly.
barbershoppers like to finish their songs with tags, defined as "...usually the last four to eight bars, and often considered the best chords in the song." during the tag, it's not uncommon for someone to hold out a long note while the other members sing around that note, finally resolving at the end and holding it out for a while. this is called the "post". that was my favorite discovery in my barbershop journey; the first time i heard a post (the double post on the 1st song of the Four Voices album, "It's a Brand New Day". the lead starts it off for 4 bars, then the tenor picks it up and finishes it off. it's extremely sweet). Seth was nervous about the post and was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold it out, etc., but if you were there, you heard with your own hears that he nailed it. he really did a great job. way to go, Seth!
i have since gone back and finished the last 2 parts and the song's done for now. it's funny how the 2nd half is all sloppy compared to the 1st half. when time was getting short, my perfectionist nature gave way to "get it done, already!!!". with better equipment and some spare time, i would like to do it again with fewer track segments, so as to have a more consistent mix from segment to segment. i already have folders on my machine called DWF, DWF2, DWF3, etc... what's a few more??
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Barbershop?
"that ain't been popular since ought-6...dag nabbit!!"
- Bart Simpson
so, anybody who's interested in the story of our Wedding Reception song performed by myself, my wife, Bob and Seth, should just go to Bob's website. the link is on the right. there's nothing substantial i could add to his recounting.
i will say that Andrea and i had so much fun hanging out with Bob and Seth practicing over the months. as time became short, we were making them come over 2 or 3 times a week...on top of all the work they poured into doing all the other reception music, which kicked ass. those two guys, plus the other 2 Witchger men (Kevin and Bob, Sr.) are the real heroes of our wedding day.
so yes, everything Bob says in his blog is true (except the part about him not being a "...rare, undeniable, dyed-in-the-wool musician." oh, he is. you better believe it). it was pretty rough during the Feasibility Testing phase of the project. i'd say if we hadn't locked in on a few of those "Keep The Whole World Singing" chords, we may not have pursued it. but as they say, that's what keeps people coming back to Barbershop! that feeling you get when you really ring one out!
i can't say it enough times publicly how indebted we are to Bob and Seth. we are very indebted to them. they would say, "no, it was fun!" or some other deflecting comment. but i don't even know how much work they put into our wedding. only they know. hours and hours and hours...more time than i've put into anything recently.
thank you guys!!
- Bart Simpson
so, anybody who's interested in the story of our Wedding Reception song performed by myself, my wife, Bob and Seth, should just go to Bob's website. the link is on the right. there's nothing substantial i could add to his recounting.
i will say that Andrea and i had so much fun hanging out with Bob and Seth practicing over the months. as time became short, we were making them come over 2 or 3 times a week...on top of all the work they poured into doing all the other reception music, which kicked ass. those two guys, plus the other 2 Witchger men (Kevin and Bob, Sr.) are the real heroes of our wedding day.
so yes, everything Bob says in his blog is true (except the part about him not being a "...rare, undeniable, dyed-in-the-wool musician." oh, he is. you better believe it). it was pretty rough during the Feasibility Testing phase of the project. i'd say if we hadn't locked in on a few of those "Keep The Whole World Singing" chords, we may not have pursued it. but as they say, that's what keeps people coming back to Barbershop! that feeling you get when you really ring one out!
i can't say it enough times publicly how indebted we are to Bob and Seth. we are very indebted to them. they would say, "no, it was fun!" or some other deflecting comment. but i don't even know how much work they put into our wedding. only they know. hours and hours and hours...more time than i've put into anything recently.
thank you guys!!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
it's been a while.
due to an overwhelming lack of an overwhelming response to my blog inactivity, it remained inactive for much longer than i intended. we've been crazy busy trying to get this wedding ready and as i move my eyes slightly to the right at the counter, i see we're under 10 days. wow.
things are moving along at a furious pace. we've heard from a lot of people we're excited will be coming next week and a few we're sad won't be able to make it. but it will still be awesome. that is, if i can shake this cold. summer colds are the worst. it started 5 days ago just in time for the weekend. hit me like a ton of bricks: sinus congestion, sore throat, headache...the usual.
turns out it's not so much a viral thing as a late season allergy attack...unlike any allergy attack i've ever experienced. thanks to medical staff at my beck and call, i'm on the mend.
i've been liquidating a lot of the junk i've been dragging around for years. you know you've underpriced something on Craig's List when you get 13 responses for it in a day. conversely, you know when you've overpriced something, too. no takers on my old Army BDU's. unbelievable.
with the $20 i scored for the La-Z-Boy, Andrea and i went to AC Moore to get stuff for, you guessed it, the wedding. $19.99 for some brown bags and fasteners for the programs. easy come, easy go.
i'm actually about to get back on Craig's List and put a bunch of stuff in the "For Free" section. yeah, it's old and cheap but it has history. i'll be a little sad to get rid of it: the coffee table and end table were bought by my Mom and stepdad after they got married in 1984. i used them all through college and beyond. every burn mark and gouge has a story. a story that i will blog about one day. i bet you can't wait.
i'm out.
things are moving along at a furious pace. we've heard from a lot of people we're excited will be coming next week and a few we're sad won't be able to make it. but it will still be awesome. that is, if i can shake this cold. summer colds are the worst. it started 5 days ago just in time for the weekend. hit me like a ton of bricks: sinus congestion, sore throat, headache...the usual.
turns out it's not so much a viral thing as a late season allergy attack...unlike any allergy attack i've ever experienced. thanks to medical staff at my beck and call, i'm on the mend.
i've been liquidating a lot of the junk i've been dragging around for years. you know you've underpriced something on Craig's List when you get 13 responses for it in a day. conversely, you know when you've overpriced something, too. no takers on my old Army BDU's. unbelievable.
with the $20 i scored for the La-Z-Boy, Andrea and i went to AC Moore to get stuff for, you guessed it, the wedding. $19.99 for some brown bags and fasteners for the programs. easy come, easy go.
i'm actually about to get back on Craig's List and put a bunch of stuff in the "For Free" section. yeah, it's old and cheap but it has history. i'll be a little sad to get rid of it: the coffee table and end table were bought by my Mom and stepdad after they got married in 1984. i used them all through college and beyond. every burn mark and gouge has a story. a story that i will blog about one day. i bet you can't wait.
i'm out.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
OK I admit it.
Andrea blogs more often than me, she is better at it, AND she leaves comments. She is the greatest almost-wife in the whole wide world.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Clairvoyency Watch - 2007
i want to update my estimation of being 1 in 100 in the history of mankind to pull this stunt (see post immediately below). i submit i am roughly 1 in 1, i.e., the only person alive or dead. that's if you narrow it down from "predicting what song is playing on the radio" to "predicting 'Feels Like The First Time' by Foreigner is playing on the radio". however, when you get down to that level of specificity, it becomes less special. like, you may be the only person ever to watch an episode of "Cop Rock" while eating a hot pocket and drinking strawberry Yoo-Hoo. you get the idea.
oh, on my way to work this morning i flipped to 100.7 again and Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was playing. but "Feels Like the First Time" came on immediately after. no lie. i hope they're not in the middle of some Foreigner contest, like a ticket give-away and they play that song 100 times a day. while detracting slightly from my sense of accomplishment/achievement, i would still feel the need to talk about how awesome it was every now and again.
oh, on my way to work this morning i flipped to 100.7 again and Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was playing. but "Feels Like the First Time" came on immediately after. no lie. i hope they're not in the middle of some Foreigner contest, like a ticket give-away and they play that song 100 times a day. while detracting slightly from my sense of accomplishment/achievement, i would still feel the need to talk about how awesome it was every now and again.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Classic Rock
real quick: Andrea and i pretty much keep it locked into 91.5FM, which is the local NPR station. it's #1 on my radio. #2 is 100.7 "The New River". i liked "The Old River" better, which used to be a pretty good station that played classic rock, but not the cheesy rotation consisting of only Boston, Frampton and The Eagles. they had a much deeper rotation. until a year or so ago when they went totally cheesy. the other cheesy classic rock station went country and the "new rock" station (96.1, #3 on my saved list) now plays "everything that rocks", which means all the crappiest songs you can think of from the past 25 years. i have the NC State station all the way over on #6, but i never listen to it. i'm too old for college radio. give me my news and the occasional rockin' 70's or 80's tune and i'm happy.
so, we were coming back from Cary last night listening to NPR and i blurted out "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME - FOREIGNER!!" and hit #2 on my radio. and what song was playing? on my mothers eyes, it was "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner. i about went off the road. it was awesome.
it's not like i've done that same trick every day for a year or anything. even if i had, the chances of catching it at the exact moment the song was on would be low percentage. truth be told, i've only ever tried that one other time: yesterday. i said "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME: FOREIGNER!!!" and hit #2, but it was The Cars, i think. so i'm 50%. not too shabby.
i figure that exact occurrence has happened maybe 100 times in the history of mankind. but the radio didn't get big until the 1900's, so it's not that big a deal, right? wrong!! it's not my fault humans were too dumb to invent it sooner! so yeah, i'm one of maybe 100 people in the world to do that. not counting the time a radio station was changing its format from country to classic rock and played "Stairway To Heaven" for 24 hours straight, back to back. i imagine plenty of people could guess what song was playing on that station at any given time, but were probably not as excited as i was to be correct.
please don't leave a comment telling me how you "thought of a song" and then turned on the radio, only to hear it. no witnesses = it didn't happen. i'm talking about pulling a Babe Ruth, in radio form.
you just don't know how excited i was when i heard Foreigner playing my song. hehe, "my song". like i love that song or something. i do now, i can tell you that much!
it doesn't take a whole lot to get me excited.
so, we were coming back from Cary last night listening to NPR and i blurted out "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME - FOREIGNER!!" and hit #2 on my radio. and what song was playing? on my mothers eyes, it was "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner. i about went off the road. it was awesome.
it's not like i've done that same trick every day for a year or anything. even if i had, the chances of catching it at the exact moment the song was on would be low percentage. truth be told, i've only ever tried that one other time: yesterday. i said "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME: FOREIGNER!!!" and hit #2, but it was The Cars, i think. so i'm 50%. not too shabby.
i figure that exact occurrence has happened maybe 100 times in the history of mankind. but the radio didn't get big until the 1900's, so it's not that big a deal, right? wrong!! it's not my fault humans were too dumb to invent it sooner! so yeah, i'm one of maybe 100 people in the world to do that. not counting the time a radio station was changing its format from country to classic rock and played "Stairway To Heaven" for 24 hours straight, back to back. i imagine plenty of people could guess what song was playing on that station at any given time, but were probably not as excited as i was to be correct.
please don't leave a comment telling me how you "thought of a song" and then turned on the radio, only to hear it. no witnesses = it didn't happen. i'm talking about pulling a Babe Ruth, in radio form.
you just don't know how excited i was when i heard Foreigner playing my song. hehe, "my song". like i love that song or something. i do now, i can tell you that much!
it doesn't take a whole lot to get me excited.
Friday, June 22, 2007
The Onion
the content filter at work blocks The Onion, YouTube...all the good sites. but that's OK b/c i have The Onion headlines on my personalized Google start page. my "iGoogle Page", if you will. and even though i can't follow the links, i enjoy reading them...imagining how much more funny they would be if i could go there and read/listen to them. but another part of me (the part that adjusts to things that don't work properly, i.e., a burnt out light bulb, a squeaky hinge, improperly functioning brakes, etc) just enjoys them as is: stand-alone funny headlines that make us laugh:
Cult Leader Pretty Cool, Actually
Bar Skanks Announce Plans To Kiss
[audio] Area Man Mows Around Dead Body
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Entertainment Update
our friend Seth called us up to see if we wanted to see "Knocked Up" with him last night. Andrea had some cheap movie tickets she got through work (good for movies that have been out for 2 weeks or more) so we decided to do it. it's kind of a big deal for us to go anywhere or do anything on a weeknight, but i'm glad we did. it was hilarious. we laughed and laughed and laughed.
without spoiling it for you, she dies at the end. j/k. it's a filthy movie, from a language perspective. but if you can get past that and just enjoy it for what it is, you won't be disappointed.
here is my ratings analysis:
acting: 7 out of 10
plot: 6 out of 10 (it ain't "Gone With The Wind"...it ain't even "A Mighty Wind")
script: 9 out of 10 (very well written. dialog is what makes this movie a masterpiece)
hilarity: 12 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10
stop what you're doing and go watch this movie right now. unless you don't like foul language, in which case you should steer clear.
without spoiling it for you, she dies at the end. j/k. it's a filthy movie, from a language perspective. but if you can get past that and just enjoy it for what it is, you won't be disappointed.
here is my ratings analysis:
acting: 7 out of 10
plot: 6 out of 10 (it ain't "Gone With The Wind"...it ain't even "A Mighty Wind")
script: 9 out of 10 (very well written. dialog is what makes this movie a masterpiece)
hilarity: 12 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10
stop what you're doing and go watch this movie right now. unless you don't like foul language, in which case you should steer clear.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Operation Goatee: Mission Aborted
i shaved it off this morning. it wasn't working out for me OR Andrea. i gave her a kiss last night and she yelled for no apparent reason. turned out one of my chin hairs poked her in the follicle. ouch!
not much else going on. i'm still playing ukulele all the time and getting more familiar with the chords. i taught myself Stairway to Heaven the other day! it's pretty easy. come to think of it, most stuff is "easy" on a ukulele which is probly why i like it so much. me and Seth jammed on a little A-D-E thing Monday night, as well as a few classics. he was on 6 string, of course. he's good! he's gonna teach me "Big Love" by Lindsay Buckingham, which rocks...AND ROLLS.
i want to get some pickups for the uke so i can plug in and share it with the world. or at least the neighbors. Andrea has a set that fit in her old acoustic, but i'm scared to put them in. not only would it involve rendering them useless for future use in a guitar, i don't want to render the uke useless, too! i'm not the handiest dude on the ranch.
in summation: my Lanikai LU-11 is best Christmas gift in a long time. thanks Schuster's! (and Baby for suggesting it)
not much else going on. i'm still playing ukulele all the time and getting more familiar with the chords. i taught myself Stairway to Heaven the other day! it's pretty easy. come to think of it, most stuff is "easy" on a ukulele which is probly why i like it so much. me and Seth jammed on a little A-D-E thing Monday night, as well as a few classics. he was on 6 string, of course. he's good! he's gonna teach me "Big Love" by Lindsay Buckingham, which rocks...AND ROLLS.
i want to get some pickups for the uke so i can plug in and share it with the world. or at least the neighbors. Andrea has a set that fit in her old acoustic, but i'm scared to put them in. not only would it involve rendering them useless for future use in a guitar, i don't want to render the uke useless, too! i'm not the handiest dude on the ranch.
in summation: my Lanikai LU-11 is best Christmas gift in a long time. thanks Schuster's! (and Baby for suggesting it)
Monday, June 4, 2007
i'm "in the band"
as in, my wedding band is here! it's a little tight on my fat finger. guess i need to get it bumped up to a 10.75 or go on a finger diet. but snug or not, i'm glad it's here. i've been stoked about the prospect of finally getting to wear jewelry without anyone being able to give me a hard time. who knows? maybe i'll really like it and this will be but the first step in a journey of 1,000 rings.
Slight Topic Change
i have the stubble of a 13 year old, except now instead of being reddish-blond, it's coming in gray. that's awesome. anyway, i took advantage of the weekends worth of growth to try my hand at growing a goatee. it's a big step for me to actually leave the house with facial hair, as can be seen by my 1st and only attempt at growing a full beard a couple years ago:
before that, i went for the "Shaggy" look:
wow. i haven't aged at all in the 10 years between those photos.
anyway, here's what i'd look like if i could grow a mustache like Matt Wood:
that's Matt's actual mustache, which he donated and we had surgically grafted onto my face early last year. it turned out great. sadly, my face rejected it and i'm back to looking like i'm 13.
Slight Topic Change
i have the stubble of a 13 year old, except now instead of being reddish-blond, it's coming in gray. that's awesome. anyway, i took advantage of the weekends worth of growth to try my hand at growing a goatee. it's a big step for me to actually leave the house with facial hair, as can be seen by my 1st and only attempt at growing a full beard a couple years ago:
before that, i went for the "Shaggy" look:
wow. i haven't aged at all in the 10 years between those photos.
anyway, here's what i'd look like if i could grow a mustache like Matt Wood:
that's Matt's actual mustache, which he donated and we had surgically grafted onto my face early last year. it turned out great. sadly, my face rejected it and i'm back to looking like i'm 13.
Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends!
"friendship is rare. do you know what i'm sayin' to you? friendship is rare."
- The D
screw that. i have the "burden" of trying to keep in touch with a lot of friends spanning the entire country (and the past 20 years of my life). it's awesome! i love my friends. if it's true you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep, i'm the most squared away person around. all thanks to my friends!
speaking of which: i was an engineering student at Auburn University, as were most my friends at the time. "birds of a feather", and what not. back then, Chemical Engineering was the hot major in terms of salary for grads. that being the case, we all couldn't wait to get out and start making that money!! it was also considered one of the more difficult majors b/c of all the math and chemistry. i figured since i was in such a hard program, i was entitled to act superior to folks in other majors. looking back, i can see what a jerk i was. my ego got the best of me. i didn't respect liberal arts majors b/c their curriculum wasn't "hard enough". i'm ashamed! especially considering those same people are now my closest friends and the ones whose talents i respect the most! not to mention i wouldn't last a semester majoring in philosophy, any kind of art, sociology, etc. screw all you chemical engineers! (except Hao. he's alright).
most of my Raleigh friends are exceptionally talented folks in things other than math and chemistry, thank God. it's awesome having artistic friends! lucky for me, they don't judge based on my artistic talent the way i judged their ilk when i was in engineering. which, by the way, i gave up on after 1 year in the real world.
in conclusion: everybody stop being arrogant jerks and get to know people for who they are and what they have to offer the world.
- The D
screw that. i have the "burden" of trying to keep in touch with a lot of friends spanning the entire country (and the past 20 years of my life). it's awesome! i love my friends. if it's true you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep, i'm the most squared away person around. all thanks to my friends!
speaking of which: i was an engineering student at Auburn University, as were most my friends at the time. "birds of a feather", and what not. back then, Chemical Engineering was the hot major in terms of salary for grads. that being the case, we all couldn't wait to get out and start making that money!! it was also considered one of the more difficult majors b/c of all the math and chemistry. i figured since i was in such a hard program, i was entitled to act superior to folks in other majors. looking back, i can see what a jerk i was. my ego got the best of me. i didn't respect liberal arts majors b/c their curriculum wasn't "hard enough". i'm ashamed! especially considering those same people are now my closest friends and the ones whose talents i respect the most! not to mention i wouldn't last a semester majoring in philosophy, any kind of art, sociology, etc. screw all you chemical engineers! (except Hao. he's alright).
most of my Raleigh friends are exceptionally talented folks in things other than math and chemistry, thank God. it's awesome having artistic friends! lucky for me, they don't judge based on my artistic talent the way i judged their ilk when i was in engineering. which, by the way, i gave up on after 1 year in the real world.
in conclusion: everybody stop being arrogant jerks and get to know people for who they are and what they have to offer the world.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
PI-4 (finally, with pictures)
got the photos off Andrea's camera last night. they aren't "all that", but it will give you an idea.
recapping:
2 pecan trees with respective poisonous vines. the first one i chopped up around Christmas time with a borrowed axe and ended up infecting my eyes, face and neck. here is what that vine looks like now. i wanted to include the ground in the first one for scale purposes:
this one shows how it forks off and what not:
the death tree i worked on a week and a half ago, which ended up infecting both my arms, neck, hands, etc., is here:
look at that! i've never seen such a disgusting display of poison ivy anywhere else, ever. that's insane. most of them were small enough to chop with lopppers, but the big tangle in the middle required chopping with a hatchet. that's what got me this time around.
i mentioned how there are branches coming off the vines several feet with giant leaves and flower clusters. check it out:
all the wilting leaves in the foreground are what i'm talking about. this was the day after, so they were already starting to die (YES!!). the branches are roughly 71/2 feet off the ground and between 5 and 8 feet in length.
here's another one where you can sort of make out the flowers. they're beautiful. to bad they're all dying, Andrea and i could've used them for our wedding:
sorry they're all so dark. the sun was setting and i wanted to get this documented before the leaves die and fall off. although, the wind storm i told you about caused a large number of leaves to fall off, which i had to rake up to keep Krust from tramping all over. here is the pile, with my shoe included for scale:
that's all i have, except for this one Andrea took on my way out to do the chopping with Kari's hatchet and machete. the only reason i include it is to point out the only place i was exposed (arms) are the only places i got it. imagine that! also, i like the look the dog is giving the camera.
i just viewed the post and noticed when you click on the pics, they get huge, which is good and bad, i suppose. i'm leaving them as is b/c you really need to zoom in to see what i'm talking about. and in looking at the dorky picture of me with the hatchet, i saw in the background something else: the tree in the background and all the poison vines it had sent out in all directions that i pulled up on Sunday:
i had to get those up before i mowed, lest i contaminate Jessica's mower to the point it would have to be condemned. plus, the ground would have been covered in poison juice, rendering it unusable. a superfund site, practically. all the vines you see on the ground were traced back to the trunk of the pecan tree. there's not much left to do but douse the severed trunks with Ortho poison ivy killer which we purchased from Home Depot recently. that will be fun, except now i'm scared of the giant red ants that live back there, too. can't win for losin'.
again, this was a hasty post and not my best work. not much worse than my best, but still: not my best. if you want to read quality, check out Dean or Andrea's blogs. if you want crap, keep checking back here.
recapping:
2 pecan trees with respective poisonous vines. the first one i chopped up around Christmas time with a borrowed axe and ended up infecting my eyes, face and neck. here is what that vine looks like now. i wanted to include the ground in the first one for scale purposes:
this one shows how it forks off and what not:
the death tree i worked on a week and a half ago, which ended up infecting both my arms, neck, hands, etc., is here:
look at that! i've never seen such a disgusting display of poison ivy anywhere else, ever. that's insane. most of them were small enough to chop with lopppers, but the big tangle in the middle required chopping with a hatchet. that's what got me this time around.
i mentioned how there are branches coming off the vines several feet with giant leaves and flower clusters. check it out:
all the wilting leaves in the foreground are what i'm talking about. this was the day after, so they were already starting to die (YES!!). the branches are roughly 71/2 feet off the ground and between 5 and 8 feet in length.
here's another one where you can sort of make out the flowers. they're beautiful. to bad they're all dying, Andrea and i could've used them for our wedding:
sorry they're all so dark. the sun was setting and i wanted to get this documented before the leaves die and fall off. although, the wind storm i told you about caused a large number of leaves to fall off, which i had to rake up to keep Krust from tramping all over. here is the pile, with my shoe included for scale:
that's all i have, except for this one Andrea took on my way out to do the chopping with Kari's hatchet and machete. the only reason i include it is to point out the only place i was exposed (arms) are the only places i got it. imagine that! also, i like the look the dog is giving the camera.
i just viewed the post and noticed when you click on the pics, they get huge, which is good and bad, i suppose. i'm leaving them as is b/c you really need to zoom in to see what i'm talking about. and in looking at the dorky picture of me with the hatchet, i saw in the background something else: the tree in the background and all the poison vines it had sent out in all directions that i pulled up on Sunday:
i had to get those up before i mowed, lest i contaminate Jessica's mower to the point it would have to be condemned. plus, the ground would have been covered in poison juice, rendering it unusable. a superfund site, practically. all the vines you see on the ground were traced back to the trunk of the pecan tree. there's not much left to do but douse the severed trunks with Ortho poison ivy killer which we purchased from Home Depot recently. that will be fun, except now i'm scared of the giant red ants that live back there, too. can't win for losin'.
again, this was a hasty post and not my best work. not much worse than my best, but still: not my best. if you want to read quality, check out Dean or Andrea's blogs. if you want crap, keep checking back here.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Hurricane Season
yesterday, a storm system surprised everyone and formed 3 weeks before the official kick-off of Hurricane Season. it was crazy: i looked out the window at work and it was cloudless and sunny, the next minute, lightning and sheets of rain. then it repeated a few more times. the culprit behind all this precipitation? Subtropical Storm Andrea!
i thought that was funny, so i called up Andrea to let her know. her dad beat me to it. he also pointed out that our relationship is golden b/c her new initials will be AU, the symbol for gold on the periodic table. the best i could come up with was "Auburn University", my alma matter. so kudos to Les for being on the ball!
anyway, i thought it would be neat if this year there was a Hurricane Jerry, too. slim odds, i know. but i think i'm gonna go buy some lottery tickets today b/c after 20 seconds of internet research, i discovered the following:
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
what's up??? that's pretty cool. there have been 3 Hurricane Jerry's before, the last of which i remember was in 1995 after Jerry Garcia died. (there was one in 1989 and one in 2001, also). i can't find any record of a Hurricane Andrea. so it's official: this is our year. or as Andrea said, "We're taking 2007 by storm!". when i suggested maybe it meant we are in for a "stormy relationship", she fired back, "no, it means we will 'weather the storm'". this could've gone on and on. she's good like that.
anyway, how many of you out there can say you married your spouse in the year each of your names was associated with a severe weather phenomenon? just us and our friends Humberto and Chantal. so eat that!!
i thought that was funny, so i called up Andrea to let her know. her dad beat me to it. he also pointed out that our relationship is golden b/c her new initials will be AU, the symbol for gold on the periodic table. the best i could come up with was "Auburn University", my alma matter. so kudos to Les for being on the ball!
anyway, i thought it would be neat if this year there was a Hurricane Jerry, too. slim odds, i know. but i think i'm gonna go buy some lottery tickets today b/c after 20 seconds of internet research, i discovered the following:
2007 Hurricane Names
AndreaBarry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
what's up??? that's pretty cool. there have been 3 Hurricane Jerry's before, the last of which i remember was in 1995 after Jerry Garcia died. (there was one in 1989 and one in 2001, also). i can't find any record of a Hurricane Andrea. so it's official: this is our year. or as Andrea said, "We're taking 2007 by storm!". when i suggested maybe it meant we are in for a "stormy relationship", she fired back, "no, it means we will 'weather the storm'". this could've gone on and on. she's good like that.
anyway, how many of you out there can say you married your spouse in the year each of your names was associated with a severe weather phenomenon? just us and our friends Humberto and Chantal. so eat that!!
PI-3
this will be a quick one since the poison in the yard hasn't tried to make a comeback...yet. this is more an update on the rash i got last weekend.
they say poison ivy rashes don't "spread", i.e., that scratching them won't make you break out elsewhere. everything i've read supports this: you break out in the areas you were exposed and the blisters you get are filled mainly with watery goodness, but not contagious juice. that being said, it seems to be popping up in new places on me.
i got a new patch on my left forearm, right forearm and right bicep! and this morning i see a little itchy bump on my left thumb! what's up? it could be that i am encountering remnants from the weekends work, like from my shoes or something. or maybe from a dog toy. who knows. maybe it's actually contagious.
i was sitting in my cube Monday or Tuesday and my spots were itching. i decided to "scratch" them without really scratching them by turning over a can of compressed air and blowing subfreezing compressed gas on a couple places. it was neat, but didn't help all that much. the skin froze and i gave myself a mild case of the frost bite, but in the end, i was no better off. i don't recommend doing it.
hopefully PI-4 will have more exciting news. better yet, hopefully there won't be a PI-4 b/c i will never have to speak of it again.
they say poison ivy rashes don't "spread", i.e., that scratching them won't make you break out elsewhere. everything i've read supports this: you break out in the areas you were exposed and the blisters you get are filled mainly with watery goodness, but not contagious juice. that being said, it seems to be popping up in new places on me.
i got a new patch on my left forearm, right forearm and right bicep! and this morning i see a little itchy bump on my left thumb! what's up? it could be that i am encountering remnants from the weekends work, like from my shoes or something. or maybe from a dog toy. who knows. maybe it's actually contagious.
i was sitting in my cube Monday or Tuesday and my spots were itching. i decided to "scratch" them without really scratching them by turning over a can of compressed air and blowing subfreezing compressed gas on a couple places. it was neat, but didn't help all that much. the skin froze and i gave myself a mild case of the frost bite, but in the end, i was no better off. i don't recommend doing it.
hopefully PI-4 will have more exciting news. better yet, hopefully there won't be a PI-4 b/c i will never have to speak of it again.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
PI-2
follow up: we had a very windy day yesterday. i got to Andrea's after work to get ready for Home Group, which was at 7pm. me and Krust were playing in the back yard when i noticed them...the ground was covered with giant poison ivy leaves. the wilting leaves from the vine i severed Saturday were being blown off and scattered everywhere. good thing there's a brand new rake in the shed: i went to work piling up the leaves, being careful not to let them touch me. i photographed the pile next to my shoe (for scale). pictures are still on Andrea's camera, but i'll get them on here. when you see the picture, keep in mind i wear a size 13. it looks like a child's toy next to the mammoth pile of green death-weed. madness.
in other news, i can now verify 7 rash spots from the weekends work.
my friend Nancy at work asked a Botanist friend of hers whether my gasoline technique would kill the root system. the answer was no. the good news is there are special poison ivy killers on the market. using the same process with said killer will supposedly do the trick.
more info, and hopefully pictures, coming soon.
in other news, i can now verify 7 rash spots from the weekends work.
- 1 big cluster - left "bicep"
- 1 medium cluster - left forearm
- 2 small clusters - left forearm
- 1 tiny spot - left hand
- 1 tiny spot - right wrist
- 1 medium cluster - right shoulder/neck
my friend Nancy at work asked a Botanist friend of hers whether my gasoline technique would kill the root system. the answer was no. the good news is there are special poison ivy killers on the market. using the same process with said killer will supposedly do the trick.
more info, and hopefully pictures, coming soon.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Poison Ivy!!!!!!
where to begin.
poison ivy is one of the banes of my existence. i hate it. it's one of the few material things i can honestly say that about. it does nothing but make me itch. or worry about itching. just talking about it makes me itch. i also hate ticks.
so i don't like poison ivy? join the club, right? it's more serious than that!! it's personal.
poison ivy grows pretty thick in North Carolina. i play my share of the disc golf, which means being out-of-doors. that equals bad news for my exposed body parts. i keep it in the fairway these days, for the most part, but back in the diz, i had to go hunting in the woods for bad shots. i got it so bad on my legs several years ago that i stopped wearing shorts. REI Sahara pants became the norm for me year round. and so it is today. i decided it wasn't worth the risk and changed my ways. but dealing with it on its turf is one thing. when it invades my personal property, that's something completely different. and so begins my story...
Andrea bought a house in Raleigh late last year. it was a great find: 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood and a great back yard. the yard needed some attention, but i was looking forward to getting on it. the sellers mowed and picked up the big limbs, but there was still plenty to do. lots of trash all over the place and broken glass. the glass collection is an ongoing project.
one of the things that caught my eye were 2 of the big pecan trees in the back. they both were home to very large, very healthy vines of some sort. one of the trees had a significantly larger vine system than the other, but both were quite healthy and old. they had been left untouched for years and years. how many, i could only guess (1,000?). i don't recall thinking they might be poison ivy right away, but for whatever reason, i came to suspect it.
Andrea's dad came over with some tools, so just before Christmas 2006, i began chopping one of the vines with an axe. it was like chopping down a small tree: wood chips were flying. with every swing, i was saying to myself "if this is poison ivy, it's the likes of which i have never seen!!". well, it was poison ivy, as my swollen face and watery eyes would attest days later. each flying wood chip that bounced off my face carried with it a large amount of urushiol which caused said puffiness and wateriness. it wasn't until i went home for Christmas that i got relief in the form of a steroid shot. looking back, i was extremely lucky. there are some nasty photos of P.I. rashes out there on the internet. there's no good reason my rash wasn't 100 times worse. thankfully, i now know i am not allergic. like most people, though, i am susceptible.
fast forward several months. instead of using an axe to take care of the other infested tree, i got a pair of heavy duty loppers. with these, i could sever the lifeline of each vine up to about a 9" or 10" circumference. that was all of them but 1. there was one big daddy roughly the size of my leg (below the knee) and i needed to do more chopping to take care of it. i borrowed Kari's hatchet (the neighbor), protected my face with a dust mask and a towel and headed into the yard. it was hot and trying to chop the fat vine with all that headgear on with a camping hatchet was tough. but i managed to get it done with minimal exposure. again, there were lots of wood chips, but this time i ran in the house after finishing and took a long shower, including wiping myself down with alcohol squares. even with the precautions, i was sure i was going to contract it again. not helping matters was the allergy attack i was having. i crawled into bed like a scared little girl and awaited the rash.
thankfully, it didn't come. the next day, Andrea was out of town, so i went back to her place to tempt fate yet again: the first vine i chopped, back in December, had sent out about 50 vines radiating outwardly from the trunk of the tree along the top of the yard in a last ditch effort to sustain itself. as old and huge as the vines were, i can only imagine how vast the root system is. if so, i may be dealing with this for a while. years, maybe.
i put the gloves back on and started pulling up vines. they varied in length from a few feet to as many as 20 or more. when i was done, i had quite an impressive pile. every time i felt a leaf touch me, i ran into the house to wash my hands. that happened 7 or 8 times. i was being overly cautious and i think it may have paid off. the yard is, for the most part, free of poison ivy and i only managed to contract it in about 6 or 7 places...a few spots on my left arm, my right shoulder, my right wrist. and maybe a little on my face and in my ear. i'm again very surprised and lucky i didn't contract it all over my face and neck.
my project now is to keep the vines off the yard by pulling them as soon as i see them. my theory is that without leaves, photosynthesis can't happen and the root system will die in the ground. how long will that take? a while. i'm hoping the gasoline i poured on the exposed root will bring death more quickly. no matter, i'm nothing if not patient. and next time i'll wear long sleeves.
i have pictures to include. i'll modify the post to include them when they're ready. i went looking for pictures online of nasty poison ivy, but nothing i found compared to what's in the back yard. nothing. i read how, when healthy and mature, the vines can have branches "up to 3 or 4 feet in length". the branches coming off the vine in the back are upwards of 8 feet or more. it's horrifying. but now, i am pleased b/c the leaves on those branches are already wilting. it doesn't take long for them to die. but as i learned with the 1st vine, the roots stay active and it's only a matter of time before it sends out the emergency shoots seeking to preserve its life.
with any luck, i'll be there to pull the plug.
poison ivy is one of the banes of my existence. i hate it. it's one of the few material things i can honestly say that about. it does nothing but make me itch. or worry about itching. just talking about it makes me itch. i also hate ticks.
so i don't like poison ivy? join the club, right? it's more serious than that!! it's personal.
poison ivy grows pretty thick in North Carolina. i play my share of the disc golf, which means being out-of-doors. that equals bad news for my exposed body parts. i keep it in the fairway these days, for the most part, but back in the diz, i had to go hunting in the woods for bad shots. i got it so bad on my legs several years ago that i stopped wearing shorts. REI Sahara pants became the norm for me year round. and so it is today. i decided it wasn't worth the risk and changed my ways. but dealing with it on its turf is one thing. when it invades my personal property, that's something completely different. and so begins my story...
Andrea bought a house in Raleigh late last year. it was a great find: 3 bedroom in a decent neighborhood and a great back yard. the yard needed some attention, but i was looking forward to getting on it. the sellers mowed and picked up the big limbs, but there was still plenty to do. lots of trash all over the place and broken glass. the glass collection is an ongoing project.
one of the things that caught my eye were 2 of the big pecan trees in the back. they both were home to very large, very healthy vines of some sort. one of the trees had a significantly larger vine system than the other, but both were quite healthy and old. they had been left untouched for years and years. how many, i could only guess (1,000?). i don't recall thinking they might be poison ivy right away, but for whatever reason, i came to suspect it.
Andrea's dad came over with some tools, so just before Christmas 2006, i began chopping one of the vines with an axe. it was like chopping down a small tree: wood chips were flying. with every swing, i was saying to myself "if this is poison ivy, it's the likes of which i have never seen!!". well, it was poison ivy, as my swollen face and watery eyes would attest days later. each flying wood chip that bounced off my face carried with it a large amount of urushiol which caused said puffiness and wateriness. it wasn't until i went home for Christmas that i got relief in the form of a steroid shot. looking back, i was extremely lucky. there are some nasty photos of P.I. rashes out there on the internet. there's no good reason my rash wasn't 100 times worse. thankfully, i now know i am not allergic. like most people, though, i am susceptible.
fast forward several months. instead of using an axe to take care of the other infested tree, i got a pair of heavy duty loppers. with these, i could sever the lifeline of each vine up to about a 9" or 10" circumference. that was all of them but 1. there was one big daddy roughly the size of my leg (below the knee) and i needed to do more chopping to take care of it. i borrowed Kari's hatchet (the neighbor), protected my face with a dust mask and a towel and headed into the yard. it was hot and trying to chop the fat vine with all that headgear on with a camping hatchet was tough. but i managed to get it done with minimal exposure. again, there were lots of wood chips, but this time i ran in the house after finishing and took a long shower, including wiping myself down with alcohol squares. even with the precautions, i was sure i was going to contract it again. not helping matters was the allergy attack i was having. i crawled into bed like a scared little girl and awaited the rash.
thankfully, it didn't come. the next day, Andrea was out of town, so i went back to her place to tempt fate yet again: the first vine i chopped, back in December, had sent out about 50 vines radiating outwardly from the trunk of the tree along the top of the yard in a last ditch effort to sustain itself. as old and huge as the vines were, i can only imagine how vast the root system is. if so, i may be dealing with this for a while. years, maybe.
i put the gloves back on and started pulling up vines. they varied in length from a few feet to as many as 20 or more. when i was done, i had quite an impressive pile. every time i felt a leaf touch me, i ran into the house to wash my hands. that happened 7 or 8 times. i was being overly cautious and i think it may have paid off. the yard is, for the most part, free of poison ivy and i only managed to contract it in about 6 or 7 places...a few spots on my left arm, my right shoulder, my right wrist. and maybe a little on my face and in my ear. i'm again very surprised and lucky i didn't contract it all over my face and neck.
my project now is to keep the vines off the yard by pulling them as soon as i see them. my theory is that without leaves, photosynthesis can't happen and the root system will die in the ground. how long will that take? a while. i'm hoping the gasoline i poured on the exposed root will bring death more quickly. no matter, i'm nothing if not patient. and next time i'll wear long sleeves.
i have pictures to include. i'll modify the post to include them when they're ready. i went looking for pictures online of nasty poison ivy, but nothing i found compared to what's in the back yard. nothing. i read how, when healthy and mature, the vines can have branches "up to 3 or 4 feet in length". the branches coming off the vine in the back are upwards of 8 feet or more. it's horrifying. but now, i am pleased b/c the leaves on those branches are already wilting. it doesn't take long for them to die. but as i learned with the 1st vine, the roots stay active and it's only a matter of time before it sends out the emergency shoots seeking to preserve its life.
with any luck, i'll be there to pull the plug.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Check the counter
if you have been paying attention, you saw the counter on the right was set to expire at midnight, January 1st, 2008. it will now expire at midnight on August 25th, 2007. this means 2 things: first, that on Friday, April 13th i asked Andrea to marry me and she accepted! the date was set for August 25th. second, it means i'm very slack about keeping this blog updated with pertinent information. you can read all about how it went down at Andrea's blog.
in fact, i'll go ahead and say if you want any information at all about what's going on in either of our lives, go to Andrea's blog. if you want to read my little rants about all things unimportant, check back here. but not too often b/c as i said before, i'm slack about updating.
we're both excited about our future together. our good buddy Geoff Wood took several pictures in the back yard, one of which we used for our "Save the Date" mailer. you probably already got yours. i hope i got your address right b/c i forgot to put return address labels on the ones i sent to my peeps. woops! invitations forthcoming.
speaking of invitations, my future Brother-in-Law, Dean Schuster, will be helping out with invitations. and by "helping out", i mean "doing them all by himself". thanks Geoff and Dean!
also, thanks in advance to everyone we haven't asked for help yet. your days of not helping are numbered!!
in fact, i'll go ahead and say if you want any information at all about what's going on in either of our lives, go to Andrea's blog. if you want to read my little rants about all things unimportant, check back here. but not too often b/c as i said before, i'm slack about updating.
we're both excited about our future together. our good buddy Geoff Wood took several pictures in the back yard, one of which we used for our "Save the Date" mailer. you probably already got yours. i hope i got your address right b/c i forgot to put return address labels on the ones i sent to my peeps. woops! invitations forthcoming.
speaking of invitations, my future Brother-in-Law, Dean Schuster, will be helping out with invitations. and by "helping out", i mean "doing them all by himself". thanks Geoff and Dean!
also, thanks in advance to everyone we haven't asked for help yet. your days of not helping are numbered!!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Blades of Glory
greatest movie of all time, except maybe for 'Tenacious D in "The Pick of Destiny"', which i haven't seen yet.
see Blades of Glory...or die trying. it would be a noble death.
see Blades of Glory...or die trying. it would be a noble death.
Monday, March 26, 2007
pronounced "gYOOGle".
if you don't have a google account, find someone who does and get an invite. they're cranking out the best web services available and it costs nothing to use. one such service prompted me to make this post:
i was on my personalized start page which has different widgets like weather, news, etc. mine consisted of a couple news outlets, weather for several US cities and The Onion headlines. they have it now where you can add multiple tabs within the page, so i added a new tab and named it "News". my plan was to go in and add a bunch of news widgets, right? when i clicked in the newly created tab, it was already full of all things news. cable news headlines, newspapers, AP, etc. so i created one called "Sports"...same thing. then i did "Entertainment"...same thing. it's quit a time saver. check it out. this article, of which i have read 1/2 of the 1st sentence, says it much better than i.
i won't go into all the other neat things you can do while on google, like gmail, analytics, calendar, shared documents, etc, etc. i think for $50 a year you can have a business account which ups your mail storage, removes ads and a few other features.
i'm out.
if you don't have a google account, find someone who does and get an invite. they're cranking out the best web services available and it costs nothing to use. one such service prompted me to make this post:
i was on my personalized start page which has different widgets like weather, news, etc. mine consisted of a couple news outlets, weather for several US cities and The Onion headlines. they have it now where you can add multiple tabs within the page, so i added a new tab and named it "News". my plan was to go in and add a bunch of news widgets, right? when i clicked in the newly created tab, it was already full of all things news. cable news headlines, newspapers, AP, etc. so i created one called "Sports"...same thing. then i did "Entertainment"...same thing. it's quit a time saver. check it out. this article, of which i have read 1/2 of the 1st sentence, says it much better than i.
i won't go into all the other neat things you can do while on google, like gmail, analytics, calendar, shared documents, etc, etc. i think for $50 a year you can have a business account which ups your mail storage, removes ads and a few other features.
i'm out.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Scoutin'
that 12 year old Boy Scout who was missing for 3.5 days in the hills of Western North Carolina was found today...alive! i was all worked up about it and was worried he would turn up dead. thank God he is alright! what a great, feel good story. of course, that means i am now free to make fun of him with impunity.
here are a couple quotes that caught my eye today when reading about this little boy:
from Spokesman Review:
Michael had stayed behind with an adult leader Saturday morning while the rest of the troop went for a hike "because apparently he wanted to sleep in," said David Bauer, a ranger with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Michael was there when the troop returned for lunch, but the group of about 10 Scouts and their three adult leaders soon noticed he was missing, Bauer said.
[His father said] "He ate lunch, chatting with the boys. He was walking around with I think some Pringles and a mess kit. The next moment, sounds like a blink of the eye, he was gone."
Searchers found Michael's mess kit late Saturday within a mile of the camp site, and White said they had also found a candy wrapper and a potato chip bag.
after being found, the first words out of his mouth, from CBC News in Canada:
"He just said, 'I'm hungry,"..."He wanted peanut butter crackers and water."
and perhaps best of all, from FoxNews:
A two-year-old dog named Gandalf from South Carolina led search-and-rescue officials to Michael's location, which was about a half-mile northeast of the campsite where he was last seen.
i apologize for being insensitive and would he have perished in the woods, i would never state these things publicly, but come on! he skipped the hike to sleep in and hooked back up with his buddies for lunch...then he wondered off with a can of Pringles and a candy bar...got lost for 3.5 days, and when found (a half mile from the campsite!!!), immediately requested peanut butter crackers!!
wow.
if i've learned anything from this story, it is: this kid is a litterbug. and it saved his life. he left a trail of cellophane and cardboard in his wake so thick, all 'ol Gandalf had to do was follow it straight to him. so i ask you all to litter. litter like there's no tomorrow. it may be our only hope.
here are a couple quotes that caught my eye today when reading about this little boy:
from Spokesman Review:
Michael had stayed behind with an adult leader Saturday morning while the rest of the troop went for a hike "because apparently he wanted to sleep in," said David Bauer, a ranger with the Blue Ridge Parkway. Michael was there when the troop returned for lunch, but the group of about 10 Scouts and their three adult leaders soon noticed he was missing, Bauer said.
[His father said] "He ate lunch, chatting with the boys. He was walking around with I think some Pringles and a mess kit. The next moment, sounds like a blink of the eye, he was gone."
Searchers found Michael's mess kit late Saturday within a mile of the camp site, and White said they had also found a candy wrapper and a potato chip bag.
after being found, the first words out of his mouth, from CBC News in Canada:
"He just said, 'I'm hungry,"..."He wanted peanut butter crackers and water."
and perhaps best of all, from FoxNews:
A two-year-old dog named Gandalf from South Carolina led search-and-rescue officials to Michael's location, which was about a half-mile northeast of the campsite where he was last seen.
i apologize for being insensitive and would he have perished in the woods, i would never state these things publicly, but come on! he skipped the hike to sleep in and hooked back up with his buddies for lunch...then he wondered off with a can of Pringles and a candy bar...got lost for 3.5 days, and when found (a half mile from the campsite!!!), immediately requested peanut butter crackers!!
wow.
if i've learned anything from this story, it is: this kid is a litterbug. and it saved his life. he left a trail of cellophane and cardboard in his wake so thick, all 'ol Gandalf had to do was follow it straight to him. so i ask you all to litter. litter like there's no tomorrow. it may be our only hope.
Readin'
i don't read nearly as much as i should. every now and then i'll try to motivate myself to get back on it. sort of like college when i would voluntarily choose an 8am class over a later one thinking, "it'll be good! it'll be different this time! i'll get up and get going, be done with classes by noon and have the whole rest of the day to kick ass!!". makes sense. good theory. except that i'm not a morning person and however good my intentions, i would skip that class more often and put myself in a much worse situation by having to catch back up. the only ass that got kicked was mine.
2 years ago, i decided to ask for books as Christmas presents. i specified Patriots, on the recommendation of a great friend (and patriot) Bob Hutchins, as well as Ben Franklin's Autobiography and yet another book about Benjamin Franklin. that was apparently during my American Revolution kick. that kick has since ended, but not before reading none of the books all the way through.
the friggin' Autobiography of Ben Franklin is tiny, people. it fits in your pocket. literally brochure style. didn't finish it. the other two are mammoth. started Patriots, but it had so many names and dates...the other BF book was very intimidating. huge.
i even got a library card late last year. of the 3 or 4 books i checked out, all were returned late, but none were not returned unread.
i'm back on a reading kick. this time, i'm starting with small and realizable goals. Thurston loaned me "V for Vendetta". it's a comic book. i finished it. a friend from work loaned me "Marley and Me". it's a 'Man and his dog' type book. after a few months, i finally started it and it's pretty good.
why do i want to be "a reader"? it's cool, i guess. people say, "hey have you read such and such? no?" and they turn away to go find somebody who's read it. it's neat to talk about cool books you've read. the coolest i ever felt was when somebody saw a movie and i was able to honestly say, "yeah, the movie was pretty good but i read the book and it was much better". who cares that it was "The Firm" by John Grisham? i was finally able to say those words: The Book Was Better.
in conclusion, i see that i'm not so much "pretentious" as "wanna-be pretentious". that's much worse!
2 years ago, i decided to ask for books as Christmas presents. i specified Patriots, on the recommendation of a great friend (and patriot) Bob Hutchins, as well as Ben Franklin's Autobiography and yet another book about Benjamin Franklin. that was apparently during my American Revolution kick. that kick has since ended, but not before reading none of the books all the way through.
the friggin' Autobiography of Ben Franklin is tiny, people. it fits in your pocket. literally brochure style. didn't finish it. the other two are mammoth. started Patriots, but it had so many names and dates...the other BF book was very intimidating. huge.
i even got a library card late last year. of the 3 or 4 books i checked out, all were returned late, but none were not returned unread.
i'm back on a reading kick. this time, i'm starting with small and realizable goals. Thurston loaned me "V for Vendetta". it's a comic book. i finished it. a friend from work loaned me "Marley and Me". it's a 'Man and his dog' type book. after a few months, i finally started it and it's pretty good.
why do i want to be "a reader"? it's cool, i guess. people say, "hey have you read such and such? no?" and they turn away to go find somebody who's read it. it's neat to talk about cool books you've read. the coolest i ever felt was when somebody saw a movie and i was able to honestly say, "yeah, the movie was pretty good but i read the book and it was much better". who cares that it was "The Firm" by John Grisham? i was finally able to say those words: The Book Was Better.
in conclusion, i see that i'm not so much "pretentious" as "wanna-be pretentious". that's much worse!
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
climate change
read this article by George Will that appeared in the February 12th issue of Newsweek.
he has a point: people complain that the US walked away from Kyoto, but let's face it: it's not in the interest of hundreds of millions of Americans to lock ourselves into this thing without really knowing the impact economically AND without holding China and India, specifically, accountable to make the same commitments! they're spewing an awful lot of stuff into the air, too.
check out what this other guy has to say here:
"The Kyoto agreement does not apply to China as a developing country! By placing more and costly regulatory burdens on Japanese and European industry-- whose governments unwisely signed the Protocol, it will drive more manufacturing out of those countries and into Kyoto-free China. "
interesting. we're having a tough enough time competing with China without giving them another leg up.
he has a point: people complain that the US walked away from Kyoto, but let's face it: it's not in the interest of hundreds of millions of Americans to lock ourselves into this thing without really knowing the impact economically AND without holding China and India, specifically, accountable to make the same commitments! they're spewing an awful lot of stuff into the air, too.
check out what this other guy has to say here:
"The Kyoto agreement does not apply to China as a developing country! By placing more and costly regulatory burdens on Japanese and European industry-- whose governments unwisely signed the Protocol, it will drive more manufacturing out of those countries and into Kyoto-free China. "
interesting. we're having a tough enough time competing with China without giving them another leg up.
Stock Market
several months ago, i listened to a financial guru on NPR talking about what you and i, the little people, can do to achieve success in the market. he was rattling of ways to diversify: 15% here, 30% there...i about went off the road trying to write it all down. luckily they posted it online and i 'll paste it at the bottom for your review.
yesterday i decided to log onto my 401k page and move stuff around, as per this guys suggestions. i moved money out of my company's stock and into an International Equity Fund, as well as some Bonds. this morning i logged back on to verify the change had gone into affect and noticed i had lost several hundred dollars. what the??
turns out i chose to mess with my stocks on the biggest losing day since 9/11/01. what timing! it may work to my advantage, if things rebound quickly. that's a big IF.
diversify!!!
***********************************************************************************
* Domestic Equity (30 percent): Refers to stocks in U.S.-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
* Emerging Market Equity (5 percent): Refers to stocks from emerging markets around the world, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
* Foreign Developed Equity (15 percent): Refers to stocks listed on major foreign markets in developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.
* Real Estate Investment Trusts (20 percent): Refers to stocks of companies that invest directly in real estate through ownership of property.
* U.S. Treasury Notes and Bonds (15 percent): These are fixed-interest U.S. government debt securities that mature in more than one year. Notes and bonds pay interest semi-annually. The income is only taxed at the federal level.
* U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities, or TIPS (15 percent): These are special types of Treasury notes that offer protection from inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. They pay interest every six months and the principal when the security matures.
***********************************************************************************
yesterday i decided to log onto my 401k page and move stuff around, as per this guys suggestions. i moved money out of my company's stock and into an International Equity Fund, as well as some Bonds. this morning i logged back on to verify the change had gone into affect and noticed i had lost several hundred dollars. what the??
turns out i chose to mess with my stocks on the biggest losing day since 9/11/01. what timing! it may work to my advantage, if things rebound quickly. that's a big IF.
diversify!!!
***********************************************************************************
* Domestic Equity (30 percent): Refers to stocks in U.S.-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges.
* Emerging Market Equity (5 percent): Refers to stocks from emerging markets around the world, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.
* Foreign Developed Equity (15 percent): Refers to stocks listed on major foreign markets in developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Japan.
* Real Estate Investment Trusts (20 percent): Refers to stocks of companies that invest directly in real estate through ownership of property.
* U.S. Treasury Notes and Bonds (15 percent): These are fixed-interest U.S. government debt securities that mature in more than one year. Notes and bonds pay interest semi-annually. The income is only taxed at the federal level.
* U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protection Securities, or TIPS (15 percent): These are special types of Treasury notes that offer protection from inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. They pay interest every six months and the principal when the security matures.
***********************************************************************************
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
post Oscar wind down
i'm still mad about Melissa Etheridge winning the Oscar for best song. without rehashing the incident, it appears the Academy is now awarding top honors to people for splattering dung on a piece of paper and calling it a song. in this case, the dung in question was apparently organic, in keeping with the whole "Green" theme.
i predicted below there would be backlash. i am hard pressed to find any. that's too bad. but if i'm honest about it, it's not that surprising. talk about un-PC: verbally bashing a gay woman who won an award for a song she wrote about environmental responsibility?? might as well kick some puppies while i'm at it. but seriously...who could make that up??
i predicted below there would be backlash. i am hard pressed to find any. that's too bad. but if i'm honest about it, it's not that surprising. talk about un-PC: verbally bashing a gay woman who won an award for a song she wrote about environmental responsibility?? might as well kick some puppies while i'm at it. but seriously...who could make that up??
Monday, February 26, 2007
Oscar fever!
yeah, so my buddy Oscar at work has been out sick with a temperature of 102! just kidding. i need to make this post quick and go to bed b/c unlike some people, i don't have a 4 day weekend.
i don't know what's more annoying: the old days when people used the opportunity of an acceptance speech to pump out political crap (Michael Moore, et al) or now with the whole "Green Movement". don't get me wrong, i'm all for the "Green Movement", and i ain't talking about what happens after you eat too much spinach. collectively, thousands of individuals can make a change. but the pessimist in me says we're all doomed. people can't even commit to going to the gym or to quit smoking, what makes anyone think we can radically shift the whole nature of the world economy and the daily life of billions who, incidentally, have more important things to worry about (like where their next meal is going to come from) than about the environment? i'm not saying it's not necessary: just not possible.
everybody loves Al Gore now. i still see him as a stereotypical politician (rich, white, boring, Brylcreem). he's found his niche and he's working it. i'm just pissed b/c Melissa Etheridge won an Oscar for that piece of crap song that goes along with his movie. it was bullshit. Andrea and i were both stunned. we had already made fun of Etheridge and her band during their performance of the song. we were later wowed by a pretty awesome Dream Girls medley. the two were not comparable.
but we all know the one holding the Oscar isn't always the one who deserves it. i think there will be (or at least should be) outrage on real blogs and infotainment sites about what a rip off this was.
that drivel will get you a gold statue, people!! looks like my songwriting career may have some hope after all:
2 minutes on RhymeZone. how long did she spend writing hers???
i don't know what's more annoying: the old days when people used the opportunity of an acceptance speech to pump out political crap (Michael Moore, et al) or now with the whole "Green Movement". don't get me wrong, i'm all for the "Green Movement", and i ain't talking about what happens after you eat too much spinach. collectively, thousands of individuals can make a change. but the pessimist in me says we're all doomed. people can't even commit to going to the gym or to quit smoking, what makes anyone think we can radically shift the whole nature of the world economy and the daily life of billions who, incidentally, have more important things to worry about (like where their next meal is going to come from) than about the environment? i'm not saying it's not necessary: just not possible.
everybody loves Al Gore now. i still see him as a stereotypical politician (rich, white, boring, Brylcreem). he's found his niche and he's working it. i'm just pissed b/c Melissa Etheridge won an Oscar for that piece of crap song that goes along with his movie. it was bullshit. Andrea and i were both stunned. we had already made fun of Etheridge and her band during their performance of the song. we were later wowed by a pretty awesome Dream Girls medley. the two were not comparable.
but we all know the one holding the Oscar isn't always the one who deserves it. i think there will be (or at least should be) outrage on real blogs and infotainment sites about what a rip off this was.
Now I am throwing off the carelessness of youth
To listen to an inconvenient truth
To listen to an inconvenient truth
that drivel will get you a gold statue, people!! looks like my songwriting career may have some hope after all:
if you care about global warming and glaciers forming,
hurricanes storming and locusts swarming,
Al is still boring and Melissa's performing:
the crowd is roaring but i'm pissed b/c Dream Girls should've won.
hurricanes storming and locusts swarming,
Al is still boring and Melissa's performing:
the crowd is roaring but i'm pissed b/c Dream Girls should've won.
2 minutes on RhymeZone. how long did she spend writing hers???
Monday, February 12, 2007
music
i've been playing bass for a little while. been through periods of "high" activity and periods of no activity. i use "quotes" around "high" b/c it's a very relative term. i wasn't on retainer for a studio or anything. it has to do more with my interest in playing. the interest has gone up a couple notches recently, which can be attributed to 4 things.
1 - Church
i've been in North Carolina for 6 years now. upon arrival, playing was limited to upstairs jam sessions with my computer. more often than not, Iron Maiden. anyway, in 2002 i volunteered to play bass at the church i was attending. meanwhile, my buddy Daniel was the 1st and only bassist at Vintage21. my church had a good rotation of great musicians, but V21 was still very young and used a lot of the same people. to try and help keep Daniel from burning out, i offered to sub for him once in a while. that lead to a busy period of playing alternating Sundays at both churches. in 2004 i jumped ship and went to V21 full time. we now have a solid rotation of talented musicians and i play there once or twice a month. but most of my friends go to Vintage, which leads to reason #2...
2 - Side Projects
i go to church with a lot of very creative people. without mentioning names, Matt Wood is one of them. he writes and records a lot of music (an album every month, in fact) and recently decided to take the act on the road. the resulting side project is called Dujour Presents. "recently" means a year ago, by the way. the lineup consists of Matt, his wife Lisa, me and Andrea, Katrina and Kevin. we've done a few shows and it's fun.
another side project involving Matt Wood is The Whale Watchers. this is me trying to fill Daniel's shoes again, as he was the original bassist for these guys. they're just coming out of a long hiatus and are now a 6 piece (added keys and a full time rhythm guitarist). Matt is now free to dance around the stage and sing, ala Jim Morrison. he certainly has the chest hair for it.
other side projects involve playing bass tracks for people doing home recording stuff. it's not an everyday thing, but i'm doing 2 of them now. it's a lot of fun. i'm not the best at coming up with cool licks, but i'm alright at reproducing something inside someone's head. if they can hum it or whistle it, i can usually play it. and the pay is great, too! i've been fed terrific Chinese from P.F. Chang's and given a couple beers. it's more than i get for playing with The Watchers. i end up paying for beer with those guys! they say it's part of the initiation process. which explains why it's a 6 piece now instead of a 4 piece. next practice, i'm expecting there to be a 7th...ceremonial 12-pack in hand.
3 - Equipment
it's fun to get toys. i recently got a Line 6 Bass PODxt. it's a digital effects thingy that models all sorts of classic amp/cab combinations and has 1,000,000 stomp box models (distortion, flange, delay, etc). i don't know that it was entirely necessary, but it allows me to run direct into a PA and sound like i'm playing through an Aguilar® DB750 amp with a 4 x 12 Hiwatt® Bass Cab, for example. or some other amp and some other cab. or you can make your own signature tone, which i won't do b/c it would take too long, by combining all the different effects. or you can just download tones created by other users. i doubt i'll get into all that. oh, i can also use it to record on my computer. these attributes make it a nice addition, but messing around with all the annoying sounds it makes during practice and pissing everybody off makes it a must have.
i traded a guy my Rickenbacker for his Fender Jazz. we are both pleased with the transaction. so getting that bass has got me playing a lot more. i also put together another fretless "Frankenbass" comprised of various parts. it's alright and requires practice to get intonation down. otherwise, you're always sharp or flat, which is where i'm at now. oh, and i finally got a real practice bass amp. i've been using Peavey Audition's for years and they sound terrible. this baby packs 15 Watts of window rattling power that will make the neighbors say "do you hear something? no? ok.". the main thing is being able to get an idea of what i will actually sound like when plugging into a real rig. so far, so good.
4 - Desire to improve
this is the one i need to concentrate on. i want to be a better player, which could mean making less mistakes at church, being more creative when making new music, being more technically capable, or any combination of the 3. whether that means lessons, or just practicing smarter, i don't know yet.
that's about it from the music perspective. i'll talk about the ukulele and banjo next time!
1 - Church
i've been in North Carolina for 6 years now. upon arrival, playing was limited to upstairs jam sessions with my computer. more often than not, Iron Maiden. anyway, in 2002 i volunteered to play bass at the church i was attending. meanwhile, my buddy Daniel was the 1st and only bassist at Vintage21. my church had a good rotation of great musicians, but V21 was still very young and used a lot of the same people. to try and help keep Daniel from burning out, i offered to sub for him once in a while. that lead to a busy period of playing alternating Sundays at both churches. in 2004 i jumped ship and went to V21 full time. we now have a solid rotation of talented musicians and i play there once or twice a month. but most of my friends go to Vintage, which leads to reason #2...
2 - Side Projects
i go to church with a lot of very creative people. without mentioning names, Matt Wood is one of them. he writes and records a lot of music (an album every month, in fact) and recently decided to take the act on the road. the resulting side project is called Dujour Presents. "recently" means a year ago, by the way. the lineup consists of Matt, his wife Lisa, me and Andrea, Katrina and Kevin. we've done a few shows and it's fun.
another side project involving Matt Wood is The Whale Watchers. this is me trying to fill Daniel's shoes again, as he was the original bassist for these guys. they're just coming out of a long hiatus and are now a 6 piece (added keys and a full time rhythm guitarist). Matt is now free to dance around the stage and sing, ala Jim Morrison. he certainly has the chest hair for it.
other side projects involve playing bass tracks for people doing home recording stuff. it's not an everyday thing, but i'm doing 2 of them now. it's a lot of fun. i'm not the best at coming up with cool licks, but i'm alright at reproducing something inside someone's head. if they can hum it or whistle it, i can usually play it. and the pay is great, too! i've been fed terrific Chinese from P.F. Chang's and given a couple beers. it's more than i get for playing with The Watchers. i end up paying for beer with those guys! they say it's part of the initiation process. which explains why it's a 6 piece now instead of a 4 piece. next practice, i'm expecting there to be a 7th...ceremonial 12-pack in hand.
3 - Equipment
it's fun to get toys. i recently got a Line 6 Bass PODxt. it's a digital effects thingy that models all sorts of classic amp/cab combinations and has 1,000,000 stomp box models (distortion, flange, delay, etc). i don't know that it was entirely necessary, but it allows me to run direct into a PA and sound like i'm playing through an Aguilar® DB750 amp with a 4 x 12 Hiwatt® Bass Cab, for example. or some other amp and some other cab. or you can make your own signature tone, which i won't do b/c it would take too long, by combining all the different effects. or you can just download tones created by other users. i doubt i'll get into all that. oh, i can also use it to record on my computer. these attributes make it a nice addition, but messing around with all the annoying sounds it makes during practice and pissing everybody off makes it a must have.
i traded a guy my Rickenbacker for his Fender Jazz. we are both pleased with the transaction. so getting that bass has got me playing a lot more. i also put together another fretless "Frankenbass" comprised of various parts. it's alright and requires practice to get intonation down. otherwise, you're always sharp or flat, which is where i'm at now. oh, and i finally got a real practice bass amp. i've been using Peavey Audition's for years and they sound terrible. this baby packs 15 Watts of window rattling power that will make the neighbors say "do you hear something? no? ok.". the main thing is being able to get an idea of what i will actually sound like when plugging into a real rig. so far, so good.
4 - Desire to improve
this is the one i need to concentrate on. i want to be a better player, which could mean making less mistakes at church, being more creative when making new music, being more technically capable, or any combination of the 3. whether that means lessons, or just practicing smarter, i don't know yet.
that's about it from the music perspective. i'll talk about the ukulele and banjo next time!
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