DC Day Two

After a refreshingly late start, we were off to meet Erik at Starbucks in Dupont Circle (well, one of the 3-4 there). After a egg/sausage english muffin and a quad espresso, I was ready for the world! Note to Starbucks - your breakfast sammiches are DELICIOUS and should be rolled out beyond your limited test markets. I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS, STARBUCKS.

It was a cold, rainy day all day. The umbrellas were out, the puddles were deep, the dampness profound. What a good day to go to the Smithsonian museums! A thought shared by every single tourist in DC today.

First we ran into the big Cherry Blossom festival - sumo wrestlers, singers, dancers, and food stands. Two things here: 1) There were a lot of wet grumpy kids dressed like Dragon Ball Z characters (This is called "cosplay"). 2) I was able to buy a bottle of cold unsweetened green tea, just like I drank in Tokyo last year! It was delicious!

First stop, American History - saw a display of old computers (TRS80, Apple 2, Altair), and Julia Child's Kitchen, and some big trains, First Ladies' dresses, and Ray Charles' yamaha KX88 midi keyboard with braille on the switches.

Then off to Eriks museum of the Native American - a huge, beautiful museum filled with art from the first Americans. Erik showed us a lot of the clever touches, and made his feelings known about some of the exhibit designs... No backstage tour this time, but his running commentary was fantastic.

We had a GREAT lunch in the cafeteria of the Native Museum - it had different food stations for different regions - eastern america, central america, south america... I had some plank roasted salmon, pamela had some brined turkey, erik had some tacos. But the quality was very good - and the sides were nummy. I had fennel and fiddlehead salad!

A quick detour into the Air and Space museum (and a promise that next visit we'd go to the huge new annex out near Dulles), and a breeze through the Herschorn (to see some Japanese guy's photographs... taking art pictures of nature dioramas and wax museum figurines...).

No happy hour today - we met Heidi at Teaism for, well, tea. Also the best oatmeal cookies on the planet. (just had a half of one for breakfast!). It was a relaxing break. Then we had some time to kill before dinner reservations at 9:45.

So we visited Heidi's studio and acquired a few very nice necklaces, and went back to Erik and Heidi's and watched 5 episodes of Arrested Development - man was that a great show!

Dinner was at Indique - a nouvelle Indian restaurant. Great flavors, but some very loud republicans were at the table next to us. And one guy looked like Paul Reiser, and you know about me and him. The feud. But they couldn't ruin a great evening.

To bed by midnight, and up at 8, and we'll be home tonight with the final installment.

DC Day One

Good Morning! We arrived in DC safely and on-time after an early, bumpy NW flight... Nothing to report there, however. We decided to metro into town, with Eriks help... A relaxing way to go with the most polite and informative Metro driver ever. He did pronounce Washington as WAH-Hah-Shing-Ton-Ah. Very important sounding.

We needed to change trains to get to the hotel, and Erik surprised us by being at the transfer point! So he walked us over...

The Hotel Madera is a funky little Kimpton Hotel, with surprisingly large rooms, and it's pretty quiet! We're very happy with the place so far....

First order of business, let's see some flowers. DONE - the Cherry Blossoms are still in bloom, so we got a few great pictures. Second: COFFEE. Fortunately, DC has been throroughly Starbucks-ified since our last visit, so caffeine was ours. We started over toward the Mall, with the intent of meeting Heidi for a light lunch. She recommended a Spanish restaurant, and they had room for us.

TWO HOURS later, we finally crawled out of this magnificent place. The food was great, the Decor was mind blowing. We had delicious spanish wine, and the highlight was the fried custard dessert. MMMM.

Then off to the National Gallery for the Dada exhibit. IT really helped place Dada into the historical context of WW1 and Weimar Germany, which added an angle I don't think any of us had really considered before. Also, there was a huge installation for the Ballet Mechanique - 16 player pianos, 3 drums, 2 xylophones, a police siren, many bells, some fans... And it was HUGE sounding. We enjoyed a 10 minute performance (excerpts only - the original is 24 minutes long).

A great way to relax: Mojitos! Erik had a favorite place, and we loved them (Well, Jimmy did - Pamela loved her Diet Coke)

Walking past the White House, Pamela swears we saw Condi going into Blair House. I for one believe her.

We chilled at Erik and Heidi's swanky pad (they have truly maximized their 760 square feet - from floor to ceiling!) - watched some 1950s educational films and a few Colbert reports, and then off to a LATE dinner.

We wound up at a small country italian place called DINO, and had a GREAT meal, though by the end of it (11pm) we were all falling asleep. A cab was caught for the Hotel, and it was bedtime. But alas the night did not end there. Jim got his FIRST EVER Red Wine Migrane. My sister Carrie gets them all the time, so she's sworn off of Red, but this was my first. I hated it hated it hated it. Very sad.

But by the morning, all was well. We're off to meet Erik for some coffee and another fun day - we should be seeing Erik's museum today!

It's different up north.

Yesterday I had a very short lunch break between meetings, and so the travelers took me to Wendy's. Now I haven't been to a Wendy's for many many years, but I did remember that there was something about them making your burger just the way you want it, and you were supposed to tell them how you like it.

We walked up and Jen (one of the travelers) let the small, older woman behind the counter know that all four of us are on one bill. The woman looked fearful, and said "allright, I need to clear out these orders then!" After a few minutes of busywork, she carefully set up 4 trays, and braced herself. I could tell, she was a person who was easily upset.

So I'm ordering. I start with a Spicy Chicken Filet. I have to repeat myself several times as the lady looked for the right button. No, not a combo, just the sandwich. And a single burger... with lettuce, onions, tomato, ketchup..... she has stopped pushing buttons and is looking at me with dread - apparently I am not ordering this right. She says "just tell me what you DON'T want on it". I tell her I don't know what DOES come on it, could she tell me? She just looks at me as though I am some sort of alien, and have asked for a cup of oxygen. Apparently she will NOT be telling me what is on the standard sandwich. We stare at eachother for a minute.

I move first - OK I'll take everything except cheese and mayo, whatever else that entails is fine with me. BEEP. I see she has rung up cheese. She heard cheese and ordered it. At this point I know enough that to take that cheese off, she's going to need a manager. Now I am just looking to end this transaction. I will not argue about the cheese. I WILL NOT.

Fine fine fine. She looks past me to the next customer, and I say "could I also get a cup of water?" She literally pushes back from the register and throws up her hands in horror.

All the while, my three companions are watching this with ill concealed mirth. After me, Jode walks up and says slowly and clearly "Number 7 with a Coke, Please". He gives me the raised eyebrows and a smirk.

As I ate my unwanted cheeseburger, I reflected - what had I done wrong? I had gone off script - I had dared to take them up on their advertising promise of having it "MY WAY". I wasn't a jerk, I was just confused!!!!

As we went back to the car, the travelers lit up their cigarettes, and chastened, I said "I'll be good next time".

Project Manager 3

Just put the touches on a third Project Manager song: C-Suite. For those of you not in corporate america, that refers to the "nice" row of offices occupied by the CEO, CIO, CFO, and other other C-guys. The general idea is it's a love song by a mid-level manager who is sweet on an admin assistant who moved into his area during a re-org.

The music is, like all Project Manager tracks, done in rigid early 1980's style. While Requirements might have been done by Cabaret Voltaire, and I-Consultant sounds a bit like Alphaville, I'm pleased that C-Suite is very Kajagoogoo (like "Hang on Now").

I can't wait for us to actually get some of these tracks finished and shared with y'all soon... but until Caesar (my nemesis) does his guitars and bass, and Paul does his vocal magic, I'm afraid there's no "there" there yet.

But I'm happy about what we're achieving here!

Getting to be home...

The new workplace is coming along pretty well. By the end of Tuesday, I started feeling better about what my role is. Yesterday I was able to start presenting strategies to people, and TODAY people started coming to me for advice on various issues... So my confidence and comfort are returning.

Lunch has been fun: Turns out most of the people here are travelers with a generous Per Diem, so they just trade off buying lunches and expensing them, and they don't mind if non-travelers get in on it. So I've been freeloading. It's VERY nice of them, and I don't take it for granted, but I'm also enjoying it. The only downside - they are smokers. They smoke on the way, and on the way back. So I'm going to have to work that out.

BIG NEWS: We're taking a trip out to Washington DC fri-Sun. I'll blog any important events. Not sure if Condi will be in town for us.

Are you my mommy?

Day one of the new gig was the typical exercise in disorganization: I did get my parking, my id badge, my network, and my email set up (yes, another client email address which I will discourage people from using). But what I didn't get was a boss or any work direction...

Me: "Hi, I'm Jim, and I'll be doing Environment management and change control"
Someone: "GREAT! We really need your help! You've got a lot to do!"
Me: "Glad to help - can you point me towards my first task?"
Someone: "Actually, I'm not managing you, and I'm not sure who is... Sorry!"

Repeat several times throughout the day. I felt like the little chick in that children's book "Are you my Mommy?"

Some co-workers have warned that things move pretty slowly here, so not to worry about a lack of direction yet... but as you all know I like to have my work, and uncertaintly like this does get to me.

As cavalier as I've been about this change in work, I confess it does have me nervous to be starting something new like this, and the uncertainty got me a bit wigged out... fortunately Pamela was able to talk me through it, and I'm much calmer today.

On the plus side, I've already been welcomed into a "go to lunch" gang - which I confess I had NOT had for the past 3 years - 3 years of eating lunch with a book or newspaper. It was pretty cool.

All done...

Today was my final day at my client of 30 months, and it was bittersweet. I brought donuts and coffee for the team, and we had some good reminiscences. I have to say that I really did transition well this time - there's NOTHING that was on my plate that didn't have a new owner, and there was nothing that I wasn't 100% sure was being handled well by the new owner.

Of course I went to say bye bye to my people at the coffee shop... and they were sad to see me go.... I also got a hug from one of the security guards... an older lady who I got a warm welcome from every morning. She thanked me for letting her know I was leaving because "she would have got worried when she didn't see me".

It was time to go, and I feel good about it, but it's always a strange thing to leave a home, and this place really was a home.

Bring on the new gig!!!!!

Easter SCIENCE

I had to share these pictures of Pamela's insane Easter Display. Yes, those are bunnies under glass, with a beaker of jelly beans, as well as some "experimental" easter grass under glass as well.

Bella said "CUTE!!!!" When I came home and saw this, I was doubled over with laughter for 15 minutes. And I've been laughing ever since. I am SO glad Pamela uses her powers for good - this much insane creativity in the wrong hands would lead to world domination.

Dream into Action

We're really trying to live closer to a "budget" and that means we're cooking a lot more, eating LEFTOVERS (yes, I have been "repurposing" previous meals), and generally trying to be better citizens of the culiniary world.  

So I've been experimenting in the kitchen a little.  You need to know that I have amazingly powerful kitchen DNA - my mother is one of the
best "scratch cooks" in the universe - she would be a great iron chef, able to take 8 random ingredients and make something not-too-fancy but amazingly tasty.

These superpowers have not yet manifested in me, unfortunately.  I do try and sometimes it is
good and sometimes it is tragically flawed.  But tonight, it worked.

I had a vision 3 days ago of a steak.  A skillet sauteed steak with a shallot-wine-butter reduction.  I got the steaks (basic skirt steaks here)... but Pamela made a goat cheese lasagne which made two dinners for me, so tonight was my steak night.  And it was WONDERFUL.  The meat was a little tough (flash sauteeing is not the most tender way to cook an already tough cut...), but the flavors were amazing.

And it paired very well the Cab i poured for the evening.  The only possible downside was Bella burning her mouth on the mashed potatoes and screaming for like a half hour... 

The new gig....

I've begun the ramp-up process on the NEW gig starting Monday... 5 hours of meetings so far. The only downside was that I NEED a PC to do this work. For the past 3 years, my gig has been writing and emailing and people management, for which a Mac is as good as anything. But this gig will require some PC only tools (Access, Visio, Project), and while I can run Visio and Project in a limited fashion on the Mac, it's not terribly fast... and Access would not work very well.

So I'm blogging this from a PC. Can you feel my joie de vivre somehow being sucked out of me by the very touching of the keys?

Back to the gig: There was no ramp up. I started in a meeting where there was a crisis, and decisions needed to be made, and heads were turning my direction for my advice. Strangely enough, I actually HAD advice, and was able to help plot a course of action. It's strange to sometimes have to remember that.... I'M GOOD AT THIS STUFF. That's why I'm doing well in this business.

In other news: Moog just released a new Synthesizer: It's called "Little Phatty". How ADORABLE.

Do you Believe?

Strange dreams last night.  All I can remember is that I was a lead player in a romantic comedy.  When I woke up, the last thing I remember was a montage of me and people doing some big "project", with "Do you believe in Love" by Huey Lewis and the News as the soundtrack.

I've never been so happy to hear my alarm clock go off.

Comments...

In case anyone has been stymied by this - I finally figured out how to allow you to comment on my posts...  so go ahead and try it.  Both of you!

Back to the Coffee Shop.... the shocking twist

Don't worry - I'll only be at this site for 4 more days, after which the Coffee Shop Updates will cease.

I went up to get my double today, and again one of the "girls who make the sandwiches" was helping me out, again appreciative of the simplicity of my order (and inadvertently giving me a QUAD in the process). I commented that I hadn't seen Ryan for while, and they gave me a look.... and said "he's gone.... and from what I heard, there was trouble".

The sweet guy with the chemo? I started thinking - man, maybe this is a health insurance thing, and those evil managers got tired of paying for his expenses and came up with a way to cut costs... I had all sorts of theories.

Well, later on, I was in the lobby and saw the "OTHER girl who makes the sandwiches", who stopped me to ask me where I've been (because I hadn't been down there in a while...). I mentioned that I was surprised not to see Ryan, and she spilled the beans. He disappeared. They were roommates.... and he just up and left one day. And he was addicted to painkillers. And he may have lifted from the till, and certainly walked off with a bunch of her stuff...

I told her how sad I was to hear about that, and that I had friends who had gone through this as well, and perhaps it's just as well that he's not in the house right now... I also told her that this was my last week at the site, and that I would sure miss that whole crew.

What a terrible end to the Coffee Shop saga... Thinking about it, these are people who I just talked to a little bit every day, and I wound up knowing a lot about their world... and it is just strange to think that this sort of drama can be lurking under just about any situation out there.

Three Unrelated Points

1) Some friends are out in San Jose at a conference - but alas they have to work the "Booth". It brought back horrible memories of when I've had to work booths in the past. The "uniform" which everybody shares (one year, I swear EVERY vendor decided that Khakis and a Jean Shirt was "different" It was impossible to tell anyone apart!), the people who come by just to chat, or just to take your free thing, and never to actually BUY. The pain of your feet on the concrete floor.

I am sending "visions of softness" to them. And mentally encouraging their barkeeps to add an extra shot at the end of the day. My brain powers have that sort of influence.

2) Cute Bella thing today: After Gymnastics Class, Pamela took Bella to the Flower Show downtown where they had a good time. Bella was getting pretty tired, and Pamela asked her during the ride home - "Are you sleepy?" NO. "Are you going to take a little nap?" "NO.......... Actually yes. I am going to take a little nap". And immediately closed her eyes and was out COLD.

I was reminded of a quote of Timmy P's I heard related once by his Roommate the legendary Greg Neuhaus - after a long night of studying, he closed his book and said to no one in particular "Sleep... my mind welcomes it" and dropped off.

3) I have lust in my heart for a keyboard: The Poly Evolver by Dave Smith Instruments. But it's MIGHTY expensive, and pretty limited - but it has beautiful knobs and lights and it sounds VERY big. And Dave Smith signs each one, and he's the inventor of the Prophet 5, which was a classic from 1977.

He was interviewed about being a hardware maker in the age of software synths (In truth, my entire setup is software running on a G5, and I love it). He said that in 10 years, all that software won't work (the manufacturers will have likely moved on - and that's probably true), but his keyboards will keep on working. And in 10 years, you'll have something to SELL if you need. And that's true - I've thrown away old software (Unity DS1 anyone?) that was unsupported.

I thought that was pretty persuasive... but then I realized - his keyboard costs $2600. Used they already go for $1900. So it loses $700 in value immediately. A software version of his Prophet 5 costs $300 new, and even if it just STOPS WORKING in 5 years, it costs less than HALF of the first year depreciation on an actual piece of hardware.

So then I decided that software is ok anyway. Even if I need to buy a new version every 3-4 years, I think it's not a losing proposition. It's more like LEASING sound. And that's my economics article for the day.

Sore....

Man alive, particle board is Hea-VAY.  We have come to terms with the fact that our books and videos are officially "out of CONTROL", and decided to get some Ikea Billy bookshelves.  You know, just temporary until we can get the Stickleys in (HA!).

Not sure what I was thinking when I went to Ikea alone on Sunday to "pick some up".  One flat pack was 80 lbs.  Two at 50 lbs.  But man that I am, I did wrestle it all into the car and get it home and get them all on the proper floors....  and MAN am I sore!!!!

I finally finished assembling them last night...  and they're looking pretty dang good.

Quick Coffee Shop update:  Pamela came to visit work yesterday and finally saw the legendary coffee shop.  Alas, the regulars weren't there!  The two "Girls who make the Sandwiches" were improbably working the front counter.  They told me "We're caterers, we dont' make coffee!"  But since my Double was easy to make, they indulged me.  

They also said "We're working a double here - there's an event we need to cater tonight, and it's hot food, not trays, so it'll be a lot of work.  Let's just say that if the manager doesn't come through with some beer for us tonight, we're not coming in tomorrow."

I have not yet confirmed whether this threat was taken seriously.

Mike and Ike

I was sitting in a meeting today, and watched a coworker eat TWO movie theater-sized boxes of Mike and Ikes (they're like long jellybeans).
  
One after another, without pause.  Over the course of an hour, those boxes were DEVOURED without mercy.

I'm gonna level with you:  It scared me.

Back to the Coffee Shop

Two stories worth repeating:  Yesterday I was dragging arou 2pm and needed a fix.  I went downstairs, and ordered my double...  Ryan made the shot, but before handing it to me, paused:  "I think I may have packed the coffee too tightly, and it may have overextracted - let me dilute it for you"

I insisted on the full strength monkeyfur brew...  and he refused to charge me for it.  Apparently if the coffee isn't up to his standards, it's going to get tossed, so might as well give it away.  I do love this joint.

Today, I went down for a post-lunch toot, and caught the following conversational snippet from Ryan (who you'll recall was in hospital last week, and also voted me best dressed): 

"After Chemo, I can't drink for a few days, and my friends usually call me up to go out knowing they've got a guaranteed designated driver".

There are at least three different layers of sadness implicit in that statement.  To be honest, I'm a bit bummed.

Still Rocking

I haven't had the guts to look under the bandage, but at least it doesn't hurt to type... too much.

Project Manager has a new Manifesto - it's not enough to be 80's wink-wink-nudge-nudge but we need to really be TRUE to it.  That means making records that may have fallen through a time tunnel from 1982 - without stutter edits or great digital samples (unless emulating a recorded instrument) or really lush reverbs...  there needs to be some rawness.

To that end, I gutted the first song, "I Consultant" and replaced EVERY SOUND, thinned it out, redid the effects, and made it sound like a room full of synths almost threatening to go out of tune.  One of the instruments is actually blatently out of tune.

The nice late-Depeche era drums are gone, and a quantized Linn and Simmons track is in it's place.

And the result is just great.  It's liberating to have a "direction" - to have a sound that you're really GOING for.  It's a fun project, and I can't wait to share some of the finished tracks.

But no previews you jackals.  NONE.  

Ow - my thumb still hurts, dang it.

OW OW OW.

I slammed my thumb into a door jamb, bent back my nail, and it's all the wrong color.

OW.

OW OW OW.

DANG IT.

Sort of hurts to type. 

OUCH.

After the love...

So... we got CREAMED by 8 inches of heavy snow last night, but the show must go on, so we disentombed the cars, shoveled the walks and off I went to work.... Where surprisingly EVERYONE else actually WAS - so meetings went on as planned, work life was as a normal day.

During a late morning break, I loaded up the ipod with my german interview podcasts and walked to the adjoining hospital (where they serve the NAKED brand of thickjuice, which is much superior to the ODWALLA brand which they sell at my cafe). On the way back, I passed a wall of windows and saw Dick, the CEO of the multimillion dollar healthcare chain standing there on the phone.

Apparently in a move toward "accessibility", they decided that the CEO should have a transparent office that anyone could walk up to and press some ham on the glass... Fascinating. Of course I had walked past the office a dozen times and never seen anyone in there, so perhaps it's not such an invasive plan after all.

Since I was snowed in, I decided to eat at the cafe that has served as the basis for too many of my posts. I'm here to report that while the Espresso was delicious, the sandwich was a confused mess. It was an "italian panini". But no salami? Just ham and capiccola, and the capiccola was spectacularly TOUGH, like HAM JERKY. Three leaves of spinach and two weary slices of roma tomato, no sauce, no vinagrette, no joie de vivre.

This evening after slip sliding home, I decided to check on my dad's house - he never asks me to shovel, but I like to check when he's out of town. I got there, and yes, it had been freshly snowblowed. But in the process of checking it out, I got my car well stuck in a snowdrift - DANG IT MINNEAPOLIS and your "snow emergency" plowing regs. Here in Edina, we were plowed out by 8am. The whole dang city.

Two pedestrians pushed me out, which was wonderful - and once back in the "tire grooves" that pass for Minneapolis' "plowed streets", I stopped the car, lept out and thanked the profusely. That's one of those things that I always feel strongly about - I don't like that feeling when you pushed someone out, and they just TAKE OFF with the little wave.... Ah well.

The West Wing rewarded us last night (but come on, if Donna and Josh don't just get FREAKY by the end, I'm giving up on humanity) Tonight we watch the Sopranos. awwww YEAH.

Project Manager

So my little project for world domination:  The supergroup is called "Project Manager" and we sing songs of life in corporate america.  The first track, "I, Consultant" is in the can (awaiting vocals, actually).  The song has a moby-esque feel.

The second track has come along nicely.  "Requirements" is the name, and it has a very Cabaret Voltaire like groove (Code-era).  It's now ready for guitar and vocals too - so Caesar and Paul better get CRACKING.

The other night, I sent a rough mix to Caesar, and the next morning got an email back "Oh look, what happened?  The track has guitar on it!"  My response was "Knock knock,  Who's there?  INTERNATIONAL MEGAHIT."

When I finished the mix last night, I somehow decided to up the Tempo 1bpm (106 to 107) completely forgetting that Caesar already had tracks laid...  and my little bump threw all his work off.  Nice guy that I am, I re-bounced it at his preferred tempo.  

Work life continues... I'm just wrapping stuff up at Client 1, and Client 2 continues at their low level of hum... Client 3 should start up next week!  

And regular readers will be relieved to know that Ryan is back at work in the Coffee Shop, as is the "girl who makes the sandwiches".  I didn't ask about monday, but I registered my pleasure at seeing them by buying a sandwich for lunch and being very vocal about how good it looked.  (Truth be told, it WAS delicious).

Coffee Shop Update - Emerging Crisis

I went down for my now-traditional late-morning double, and noticed the crew was a bit light, and there was an absence of breakfast sandwiches... so I asked if I missed the big rush or something....

"Well, you're a regular so i can tell you....  Ryan's in the hospital - you know, he was on medication, but I don't know what for.  The girl who makes the sandwiches didn't show up either, no call, no nothing, which is strange because she seemed to be doing pretty well.  Maybe it has to do with Ryan - I think they're friends.

"So now I have two managers in back and they're making sandwiches for lunch, and it's just me up here holding it all together, but I'm not doing too well either....

"My little kitten spent the night up in a pine tree - she bolted out the door after a squirrel last night, and went straight up the tree, and of course she can't get down.  I was out there calling her, but nope.  My dad's over there right now with a ladder, hopefully he'll get her down.

"I would have asked my boyfriend, but HE's in the clinker with a DWI - we had brunch yesterday and he just felt like keeping on going - I said "no thanks, I need to work a double tomorrow", and the next thing I know, it's the evening and he's in jail.  I think I gotta make a change in that department."

That all said, it was a good cup of espresso.

Best Dressed

I am beyond proud:  At the coffee shop (see post regarding the insanity of the coffee shop in the basement of client number one)...   anyway way the coffee shop, I am now known as "Espresso Guy".  They start my double as I walk up.

Now, i'll admit perhaps I'm going there too much (once, maybe twice a day), but it's pretty flattering to be known as a regular, even if i'll NEVER go there again after 3/31.

Anyway, today apropos of nothing, my coffee shop people notified me that they had decided that I am one of the THREE BEST DRESSED CUSTOMERS THEY HAVE.  

I'm thinking that might be a good epitath:  In 2006, he was one of the three best dressed customers at a corporate coffee shop.  Yeah, that's a legacy.

One of my co-workers said she'd go have a talk with them because god knows I DO NOT need the encouragement.

Melissa Rocks

After dinner, the simple verdict is:  Paul's new lady Melissa is a swell dish, and it was great to meet her.  SOLID.

My apologies to anyone else who actually reads this and doesn't get what this means.  ;->

The Mixing Mystery

I've been working up this new song, and last night I felt like I had a good mix... but it had been a few hours with the cans on, and it was hard to tell.  So I burned a CD for the car today.

The mix, it was terrible.

But I listened to the song a good dozen times throughout the day, and began to realize what was wrong, bit by bit.  The snare wasn't REALLY too soft, it was the bass creating too much "boom" in the mix, it was throwing off the other parts.  Also, there was a part that created a horrible clash at two parts of the song, which was odd because note-wise it was just right.  But the OVERTONES were out of tune?

I came home and sprinted upstairs, spent an hour applying the "lessons" I'd learned, and suddenly the mix "gelled" in a beautiful way.  But I didn't change any notes, or really any sounds... it was just in how they were mixed.

There's probably a life lesson in there somewhere - where you have fixed elements of your world, and rather than pitching any of them over the side, look to fix the mix a little.  

Or maybe not.  Maybe it's just music.

The hardest thing...

The hardest thing about getting a new gig is dealing with the other gigs you had in the pipeline.  I swear I wish I could clone myself...

I had a VERY nice call from one of the prospects asking me to call when this gig is over, and the other one made the same offer...  I also think this means that the Consulting Market is officially "warming up" a little bit.  That, or my resume has got REALLY good.  ;->

The new song has rolled round my head all day, and I'm ready for a second draft tonight!  I'm feeling pretty alive these days.

On the EBay

I'm cleaning house - I have stuff up on the E-Bay.  A Powercore Compact and a Microwave XT.  Basically the almost last vestiges of "outside the computer" synths.  All that will remain is the big Yamaha, which may go and get replaced by an simple controller keyboard... or maybe not.

I started a new song tonight on the big G5:  "I, Consultant".  It's the first in a series for an epic EP by my new band "Project Manager"...  watch for more info.   The flow is good on this song, and I have high hopes!

To wrap up the posts about the illness in the house - Bella recovered a few days later, but Pamela got it, and she's only just now feeling "up to snuff".  Poor sickies.

Still Workin'

I finally got an exit date on my longest-term client (2.5 years at a hospital system) for 3/31 - a date that was apparently selected by the CIO for cost cutting measures, having no regard for where the project was at. I've been working on my transition, however, and was starting to look for my next gig.

I had one opportunity possible through my current firm, and one outside of my firm... Both sounded interesting, but the inside gig was a software eval and RFP, and would require navigating a political maze of Cardiologists. The outside gig was a step back in time for my resume doing a big Data Warehouse, and would have been a 40 minute commute.

Out of the blue Thursday, I got a call from a peer at my current firm, grilling me on some skills I have. By 4pm she had my latest resume. By 2pm Friday I had an interview at ANOTHER hospital - this would be managing development and production environments for a huge system install: Cards on the table, I haven't done this before, but I know what to do. It's in a very hot bit of software, would grow my skills, and it's early in the project, so it's being PROACTIVE rather than reactive. Add to this, I have some friends on the team already, AND it's 10 min from my home.

The interview went VERY well - By the end, we were talking about WHEN I start, not IF. Then I had a conference call to get on for another client - and they let me use an office. While I was on this call, I was watching my email, and saw the proposal, the statement of work, and the approvals all come across, so when I left at 4pm, I knew I had the job.

And it involves a raise too! So no work worries for many more moons, and this sets me up even better for the NEXT gig.

It was a good day.

The new Coffee Shop

After two months of being in the "NEW" space at my client, the espresso shop in the basement is FINALLY open. Now, when I can, I like a post-lunch double espresso to keep me going until my "just got home" espresso before dinner (this is after the two "wake up" espressos before leaving the house... THANK YOU CAPRESSO).

So I went on Tuesday, got a great cuppa in a small 3-oz cup. Went on wednesday, got a great cuppa in a small 3-oz cup. On Thursday, I asked for my Double... and it came in an 8 oz cup.

Immediately, a short woman with a clipped british accent was at my side - apparently the manager in mufti - scolding the employee that she had used the wrong cup, and apologizing to me. Now, I'm pretty used to getting a double in a big cup - not many shops actually have the mini cups these days.

"Oh no, sir, an Espresso is a premium drink, and people who appreciate espresso are premium customers. You deserve the full experience!" I thanked her, but said that since the cup is already dirty, I'll be happy to use it. Then she took the cup and peered inside...

"I see that the espresso was well made, at least" eyeing the crema. She then told me "You let me know if you ever get an espresso with a less than perfect golden crema. True coffee fans appreciate the crema, and wouldn't dream of polluting the drink with milk or (shudder) flavored syrups....".

At this point, I realized I'm dealing with a lunatic the likes of which I hadn't seen since working for Ed Dunn in St Paul, who had very fixed ideas of what was appropriate for people to order: "There is no such thing as a LARGE CAPPUCINO, sir. CAPPUCINO is a drink with a doubleshot of espresso, a thin layer of thick frothed milk, and a dollop of the light froth. IT CANNOT BE MADE LARGER!!!!!"

The next day, the Brit was gone, but the espresso was served properly. I heard she was back to the corporate offices in New York. She had offered the Barista additional training in how to truly prepare exceptional coffee... and the company training center in Milan.

Bleeeahhh

Is there anything sadder for a parent than hearing your child puking? Poor Bella walked in the house tonight and let loose on the foyer rug (it was on it's way out anyway...), and then spent the evening spitting up whatever was left, water, pedialyte, oxygen, parameciums, and the cosmic ether, apparently.

It's just so hard... and she's being very polite - telling us to watch out because here comes some more, and don't get it on our clothes, and maybe we should leave the room so we don't get sick too?

Such a sweetie. All indications are this is a fast but fierce one (perhaps related to the evil that waylaid me a few weeks back?)

Back to the bedside! Suffice it to say, the Olympics shall be Tivo'ed and savored at a later time.

High DEEEEEF!

So I've had a 30" Philips Hi-Def TV for a year up in our sitting room and used it for movies only... but the other night I watched the Olympics in HD at a neighbor's... and it was a revelation. This coincided with my general "being tired" of having that TV in the sitting room, which is a very cute space and didn't deserve all of those wires causing trouble.

So last night we did a TV Fire Drill: Living room TV to basement in front of workout gear... perhaps that will inspire. HD tv to living room. Hook up the big surround sound.

Today we finished the deal: Traded in the DVR for an HD DVR from the cable company, and voila, I'm watching figure skating RIGHT NOW in glorious hi-def... and have also set up the hi def for movies too... while maintaining an "easy" hookup for Bella's VHS and DVD movies with another player.

Ooooh, it is very nice. And you can sure see the wrinkles. And thanks to Paul Sebastien for his comment about Discovery HD - that's just gorgeous too.

And the sitting room is looking more inviting than ever. I have a new-ish Iain M Banks book that's been dying to get itself read.

Cute Girl Moments:

Last night, over the course of play, Bella came up with three dog names:

"Bucket", "Pig", and "Fair and Square"

I need to get three dogs now.

Update: My wife has been napping this afternoon, and it is a delicate dance to wake her up from these slumbers - done wrong, there will be crabbiness. So I have to regularly pop in and ask how she's coming along on the wakeup... Just a minute ago, she (after assuring me thrice earlier that she was AWAKE dang it), she said:

"Just fine - I just finished filling your rubber head cast with plaster"

Oh yeah, she's AWAKE.

Moog

I just watched the movie MOOG - a documentary about Dr Robert Moog. Most of it was filmed in 2003/2004, and it's made bittersweet by the fact that Bob was back on top in that era, having released a very excellent update to the minimoog called the "Voyager" that was selling well and getting him many kudos... and there was a big concert in his honor... and then he died quickly last year (2005) of a brain tumor (which happened after the film was released, so it's not addressed).

Moog was a big earth daddy nerd - never fewer than 4 pens in his shirt pocket, and very into his geeky details, but a very gentle, amiable guy. There are scenes where he just looks confused, like when DJ Shadow is telling him about how sampling is just another sort of modular synthesis, and when Rick Wakeman and Bernie Worrell are comparing playing a minimoog to romancing a woman....

But my favorite parts were when he was explaining his inventions - because while he loved the music people made with his synths, HIS love was in making the instruments, and knowing that once they left him, they'd be used to make people happy. He explained that every one of his designs is his artwork, and when you play his instrument, it's like he's there helping you. It made me knuckle away a tear, and really really really want to get one of his machines in here just to noodle with.

Not a fantastic movie (there are some sort of painful "music jam" moments that are perhaps lingered on too long) but a fantastic guy and worth viewing for that!

Normalcy?

It's been 5 days since getting home and I'm only now starting to feel like I'm really BACK. I feel like I've been in a bit of a haze (solving client crises also made the time FLY by). I've also consciously NOT blogged for a few days so that my full trip would stay on the main page... but as of now, you officially need to click on the "February" link on the right to see them all. SORRY!

Today was very quiet at work, so I spent my work time listening to radio shows in german again... I tried in Spanish for a while, but it was very distracting - for some reason German is more soothing. Dear god what am I SAYING?

The blog is called Jimventions - and part of the reason is that I was going to make up a crazy invention every day or so. The problem is that I actually came up with some pretty interesting product ideas, and they're LODGED in the brain demanding that I draw up designs for them, and they're effectively not letting anything else out. So my apologies - you'll just have to wait until I get my bajillion dollar idea fleshed out a bit before you'll get my "automated ketchup slicer" or whatever.

And here endeth the random posting for the night.

Sea World and Home again!

Yesterday, we did Sea World:

First we had breakfast at the hotel: Now, no blaming here, but Pamela did manage to drop the camera onto the pavement upon our re-arrival in San Diego - and this was the third time it had been dropped... this time, the body busted open. We were talking about it at breakfast, brainstorming solutions, and the manager, Anna, walked by and heard us mention Duct Tape... and minutes later, she was AT the table with Duct Tape and scissors. Anna was a sweet woman, and this did keep the camera working for the day (we're up to over 500 pictures, by the way!)

It was a slightly cool but very clear day, which made for pretty small crowds all day at Sea World! We managed to see everything! We started with the Shamu Show, which was in the "smaller" arena (off season and all). Man, those are some big whales. Then we hustled over to the Seal comedy show, which was predictably mild, but the pre-show comedy bit was one of the only things Bella stated as her favorite bits of the day...

We visited Penguins, Walruses, Manatees... All SOOO cute. Bella and Jenny were a bit crabby for the day, but whenever we entered an aquarium area, they were RAPT - they loved the fish... except for the sharks. Bella hollered that she didn't want to see any sharks, she doesn't like them, she doesn't even want to see them... until the very end, when she DEMANDED to be brought back in for another look.... Another moment was when she was exploring the "Polar Bear Cave", and a recorded ROAR filled the cave - her eyes widened and she bolted for mom (she just retold me that story at bedtime tonight)

They had a Pets show with dogs, cats, geese, pigs, etc. That was impossibly charming... with trained Cats? I honestly had no idea that could be done, but here they were all running around climbing stuff on cue! All I could think was that there were a LOT of treats hidden around for them - I can't imagine them doing it for love like the dogs do. Nothing against cats - I just don't think of them as able to be motivated in the same way as dogs.

Bella also pet a starfish, a Dolphin, and gave a good college try at petting a Manta, but the water was a bit too deep for her (but I did pet the Rays - LOTS). We also saw the Dolphin show, which was just great for a few reasons, two of which were PILOT WHALES - it was just amazing to see those big whales in the same ring as the Dolphins! Also, they TOTALLY fooled us with a gag - they had a family sitting to the side in "honors" seats, and the "Dad" leaned out to take a picture and fell in... to be nosed around by dolphins and a pilot whale... turns out he was a trainer in disguise, but they had us hooked!

The food was very good for lunch - the Annheiser Busch people have a flagship area (with Clydesdales wandering around, including a baby!), with a surprisingly good kitchen and beer tasting. I enjoyed tasters of a Lager and a Stout, which I had no idea the Bud people were selling, but hey, they were great. Went well with the beer brat!

By the end of the day, the girls were ready to chill out... so we caught the bus back to the Dana, and did room service, and the girls watched Chicken Little (which I sure wonder how that worked for them - it was all sight and reference gags and some surprisingly mean spirited revenge bits... but maybe that was only at our level - the girls thought parts were funny and it didn't damage their psyche).

The funny line from last night - Bella was being a bit pokey on finishing her mac and cheese, so we assumed she was done, and asked if she wanted dessert... She waved it off and said she wasn't done. 10 minutes later, she calls over to us: "HEY MOM: is THIS done enough for ya?" Holding up the empty mac and cheese bowl with a big grin... and then she took her dessert. Absolutely out of nowhere this was.

This morning came early - 6am wakeup, and a quick shower for me... and then the water main busted and the whole hotel was out of water. So Pamela had to wait until tonight to hose off! We did go to the hotel restaurant, where the Manager (Anna again) was determined to serve, water or no water: She filled up tons of water glasses and made a dozen pots of coffee right when she heard about the water troubles... so everyone got what they needed. She was getting worried about dishes, but told us "The people need to be fed - I will serve them on Paper Plates if I need to". Anna was a treasure.

A quick drive up to LAX, easy checkin, easy flight again. Bella was a real trouper AGAIN: I mean, 2 hours drive, the bustle of the airport, and a 4 hour flight, and she was still in a great mood... Nothing hilarious to report... though to kill the last hour, Bella and I read the SkyMall catalog from end to end. She liked the giant fake rocks you can use to hide unsightly septic plumbing - she thought they'd be good for protecting flowers from the rain.

When we got home, I bolted out to get a Burrito in that girl. It's 9pm now, and she's just winding down - but she is VERY excited about being home - she started dressing her dolls and setting up a "party", and was telling me what she liked about her week, and even asked when we get to go to Disney again!

And this ends the vacation BLOG - it was an amazing week, and we got SO much out of it - and I would have never expected we could have achieved so much with a 3 year old in tow, but she was really a great traveler, and always game for adventure!

Thanks to y'all for reading!

Back to San Diego

The drive from Disney to San Diego was very smooth - Bella passed the time watching Dora on the iPod Video, and then singing songs... We checked into the Dana Inn - which is just up the block from SeaWorld, and was billed as having a massive renovation... which they did - from the Lobby eastward, it's all new, in classic white spanish architecture, updated facilities, etc. Of course, we're in the western end of the property, which is still forest green MOTEL units... but it's very charming in a retro way.

The squirrels raced over to the pool (a toasty 80 degree pool) and swam for an hour, then Randy and I went out to get... IN-N-OUT burgers! Ah these sweet little burgers - so delicious! And their menu is so minimal: Burger, cheeseburger, fries, shake. That's it! Everybody wears white, the counters gleam, and they're so darn polite... Sort of the Disney of fast food? All I know is that my tummy was happy.

The girls watched The Rescuers on the laptop while we noshed... and then it was off to bed. Today we go to Seaworld!

On the way out...

Two details on the way out of Disney:
1) We watched a Koi feeding frenzy outside of the hotel: The nice guy was letting any kid out onto the platform to grab a handful of fish food and have them swarm, giving "fish kisses". These fish were so excited they were leaping out of the water. Bella and Jenny were fascinated, but declined the honor of feeding them.

2) At our Brunch with Goofy, guess who showed up? Burt from Mary Poppins - this time as a chimney sweep (yesterday he was dandied up). He of course remembered Bella and Jenny, and plopped right down to sing and color again, and was there for around 20 minutes, completely NOT going from table to table. And he waved over Pluto and Goofy and we all had a very casual playtime - Bella was frolicking with Pluto quite a bit. She was dancing and laughing - she was just enchanted by Pluto!

Goofy took my water glass and went out to the porch to put his feet up, so we joined him for some loafing off... We got some great pictures of us all just kicking back with Chef Goofy.

You know, you see these ads for Disney showing families getting quality time with "characters" and you think "oh sure, THAT'll happen". And here we were getting all sorts of great one-on-one time with Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, Mary Poppins, even the Mad Hatter?

One slightly grim image sticks with me as the "tell" of the Disney Experience: A very well dressed "manager" type standing over a pile of kid-puke on the sidewalk, politely waving people to either side, waiting for a clean-up. At other times, I saw gardners and clean up guys giving very detailed directions and even carrying things for people. Service is truly an art for these people!

We left Disney very very impressed and satisfied.

Final Disney Morning

Today we're off to San Diego - but first a "Character Brunch" at Goofy's Kitchen...

Today's Word from Bella is "Tiperator" (tip-er-ay-tor). She's used it in the past too, but today she said "It's Tiperator, and that means I want to keep it FOREVER!" A few days ago she said "It's fine and tiperator, and that means it's FANCY!"

So Tiperator it is.

To conclude the evening last night, we had very good Neopolitan Pizza, and hit the park for a last run: The Enchanted Tiki Birds were wonderful (and retro-tastic). And we got in one last Carousel, Dumbo Ride, and K.C. JR Circus Train... and that closed the park.

Bella fell asleep in the stroller again, so night night was easy, though she woke up a few times in the night shouting about rides or sites, so I'm pretty sure her brain is chock full of the experience, and one more day would probably make her explode. I know OUR feet are KILLING us, and I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing drive down to San Diego... and no plans for the night. Tomorrow, SEA WORLD!

Midpoint Report

Allright, forget all about sequential: I need to tell you about what happened this afternoon! We had a great day in general, and were on our way back to the hotel for swimming, when we spotted Mary Poppins and Burt strolling along, so we tailed them. They sat down at some tables in a cafe and we walked up to them. They were politely not signing autographs, but invited Jenny and Bella to sit down and do some coloring with them.

After a little hesitation, they both plopped down, Bella by Burt (the Dick Van Dyke character), and Jenny by Mary Poppins. And they grabbed paper and crayons, and colored. And talked to them, and sang songs together... for over 45 minutes.

Bella and Jenny had a 45 minute private playtime with Mary Poppins and Burt, COMPLETELY impromptu. It wasn't exclusive, but lots of people just ran up wanting autographs and pictures, and they weren't giving either - they invited people to play if they wanted - and a few kids did on and off, but Bella and Jenny were SO into it. And I can't stress this enough - even though other kids came and went, Bella and Jenny were really getting the one-on-one treatment.

This was just one of the most incredible things yet on an incredible vacation.

Which we needed, because this morning, both girls woke up a bit grouchy - and who wouldn't after all of the stimulation of the days? They really needed some downtime, and so after a quiet, separate morning, we met at Toon Town, which is sort of a free form playland, where bella also got to meet Pluto, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy.

Finally, about the consumerist frenzy from the night before - Bella did not let us forget it - right away this AM she said she wanted a toy... and we had put her off yesterday by saying "tomorrow". So we stopped in many shops and we held all manner of toys in front of her, and she would give an imperial shake of the head NO.

But when we went into Tomorrowland, she immediately fixated on a SILVER ROBOT Pluto, with lights that walked, and she gave the queen's nod - this would be her toy.

And after all of the princess stuff and the mickey and minnie and everything, it warmed my heart that at the very end of it, she picked a DOG and a ROBOT. My little girl is a geek at heart.

More later!

One more thing about Superawesome Day

The Mommys did Space Mountain - did I forget to mention that? They were very proud of their bravery, and they got a picture of themselves screaming. Again, I post: "THE MOMMYS DID SPACE MOUNTAIN!!!!!!"

It's the next day now (Wednesday), and Bella slept in to 7am! Randy and Mae are out having a morning "date" for coffee and pastry, and we have the Squirrels for a little while.

A big day ahead - lots on the agenda!

Jimmy OUT (and off to find some espresso!)

Oh - there's a fire

There's a huge fire someplace near LA - there is a huge plume of smoke over the horizon and the sky has a yellowish tint in places... and there's ash floating down over everything!

Yesterday the smell of smoke was strong (but not acrid - more like a fireplace), but today it was better.

Yet strangely, my asthma has not kicked in even a little bit! And that's the story of the fire.

Superawesome DAY

So Bella woke up at 6am again... and I ventured out to find some stronger coffee, only to find that (after walking all the way up and down Downtown Disney) that everything opens at 8, except for the coffee shop 20 feet from the entrance of my hotel, which had been open the whole time! A Quad espresso got the day started right (along with my constitutional walk...)

The park opened 1 hour early for Hotel guests, so we had the run of the place from 9-10, which let Randy and I do Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, and the Matterhorn (what a charming old ride - but very jarring!) Pamela and the girls did tons of the Fantasyland rides like the Teacups and Small World (sparing me the horror!).

Randy and I hightailed over to California Adventure for some more rides - worried that the lines would start forming... turns out we needn't have - someone forgot to tell the world that that park was open today - every ride we did, there was NO line. In the course of 2 hours, we did the Tower of Terror (the 13 story elevator drip ride), the Soaring over California (IMAX flying movie with hanging chairs and dangling legs), the big California Screamin' roller coaster (TWICE), and two other non-premium rides. After this, my "jones" for rides has been satisfied. And my Inner Ear was letting me know in no uncertain terms that enough is indeed enough.

To put in perspective, the guidebooks say to plan to hit ONE or TWO of these rides in a typical day at the park. We hit FOUR in two hours. To all the people in the world I say, the first week in February is an excellent time to come here. I'd suggest homeschooling your children just so that you can take them this week instead of waiting for a busy time.

For lunch, we went to Ariel's Grotto - and it was a PRINCESS EXPLOSION - my god. Ariel, Belle, Mulan, Snow White, Aurora (?), Shoshanna, Trixie, Zlontar... actually just the first 5. They went from table to table signing autographs and talking to the little princesses, and taking pictures.

At some point, Disney started working this Princess Cult thing, and the little girls go flipping NUTS at the concept of these ladies. They wander around the park at a slow saunter and little girls in princess dresses flock after them like ducklings!

We did more rides, and got home for a quick nap... 5 very busy hours followed by 2 hours of rest. Halfway through naptime, I got up and made my way to the arcade. 4 pinball games, and one round of Dance Dance Revolution - an indignity made better by the fact I was dancing to a Specials song, and there was NO one else there.

After naptime, it was back to Disneyland for more rides - Autopia for driving, the Pooh Honey dream, Peter Pan, the Storyland boat. And maybe the only disappointing meal - Mexican food done very much in the "mess on a plate" style of ChiChis. We closed the park down at 8pm and started back home.

Bella had her first meltdown about not being able to buy something - we let her just cry it out... for 20 minutes... oh well! In general, she's holding up VERY well considering how much we're packing into these days. I wonder if us Adults are holding up as well...? One sleepy daddo signing off for the day.

The Bellman's Lament

While bringing some luggage up to Randy's room, the Bellman was telling us about the sad state of employment at Disney: Back 20 years ago when this guy started, a Disney job was very coveted by teens, and they paid a good dollar over minimum wage. These days, they have a hard time hiring - and they only pay $.40 over minimum.

Add to this, they have pretty rigid rules for conduct and appearance: No piercings (one pair earrings for females, none for guys), no visible tattoos, no facial hair on men. He said they hold orientations, and half of the people drop out by the midpoint - this is an 8 hour day!

In summary, the Bellman lamented that kids weren't as into the job as he was (and is), and was extrapolating conclusions about the general state of kids and their work ethics, while also questioning management decisions, while hoping they'll move to a more career-focused pay scale which might encourage more professionalism.

With all that said, I have to say that every single person we've interacted with here has been enthusiastic, polite, and extremely helpful. If there are problems, it's certainly not showing to the public!

So much to tell

Yesterday at the San Diego Zoo - I forgot to mention the kid show we attended: Creepy Crawly Critters. Now, all the kids were in front, but I was off to the side... There was one participation bit where people were asked whether they thought the walking stick was a boy or a girl.. I didn't answer to either because I just didn't know and didn't want to make an emotional decision... and the presenter lady called me "sleeping guy". Several more times, she picked on "sleeping guy"... and at the end, "sleeping guy" was invited up for a extra special treat: To eat BUGS. You all must know that Bugs are my big phobia. So it was pretty big of me to crunch down those dried mealworms and not hurl and scream and run from the park.

Today, we made it up to Disneyland! And we were supposed to meet Randy, Mae, and Jenny at 4pm or so, but the MAGIC just started right away - they were in the lobby right when we walked in! We did split up though, they had Princess business to start and we needed to unpack.

We Monorailed - wait - I just need to say this. Mom, Dad, I have harbored a secret resentment for years - I always wanted to ride the Disney Monorail, but we never did. Today, I rode the monorail, my dream since youth... and the driver asked if I (we) wanted to ride up front in the pilot's car! Just us and a retarded guy, and that was just fine, because I think ALL of our dreams came true. Ok, back to the story.

We Monorailed into Tomorrowland (which has been redone with a retro Jules Verne look, better than the Gil Gerard Buck Rogers look of the 70s it had last time I was here. I immediately went for Space Mountain, and it was FANTASTIC - A pure thrill ride! And it instantly transformed me back into an 11 year old boy. I was yelling and laughing the whole time!

When I got out, there was a message from Randy - he had some Fastpasses to Space Mountain when I was ready (these are a "reservation" to the front of the line - VERY cool) - so 10 minutes later, I was on the ride AGAIN.

Then we did Star Tours, which was a Star Wars inspired "bumpy movie" ride - which was pretty fun, but it made me a little woozy... The design of the LINE environment was actually better than the ride I think... While we were riding, the girls were hearing a story read by a princess, and got to sit with her and get her autograph. Jenny was in heaven.

I should say that Disneyland was VERY spare today - most rides were a 5 minute wait, and even the hottest were not more than 30.

We went back to the hotel for some Swimming - Bella was a bit timid, but Jenny was a swimming MACHINE - the lifeguard asked her to swim all the way across the pool by herself to prove she could do the waterslide - and she DID - to even Randy's amazement! Good old Foss Swim School!

Dinner was at the Blue Bayou - which is inside of the Pirates of the Carribean ride (???) and the meal was delicious - like good even outside of a Theme park good. Pamela got the Pork Tenderloin, and no kidding, it was well over a pound of meat - the pictures will prove it.

Then off to the big Parade, where we got some great seats on the route just 15 minutes before the show... and lo, we were at one of the "performance stops" - which means they stopped the parade do do a mini show right in front of us. We got some great pictures, and Bella and Jenny got special attention by ALL of the princesses!

Are you getting the picture that the day was about as perfect as you could possibly get? The weather was warm but not hot, no lines, and things just kept falling into place. Little bits of MAGIC kept happening.

We ended with Pirates of the Carribean and the Jungle Adventure. Bella loved Pirates - she said "I liked ALL of the parts of it". She was a bit disappointed to learn that there would be no pirates in the Jungle Adventure. (apparently headhunters and animatronic Hippos weren't exciting enough.. she started nodding off). Time to go home!

On the way back to the hotel, both girls fell asleep in their strollers, and were out by 8pm. We just needed to transfer them into their beds, and our work was DONE.

So the first day of Disney was as good as it gets... wonder what'll happen tomorrow?

First update - ADDENDUM

Dinner tonight at the hotel: A "Footlong Vienna Hot Dog" for me. What I was not prepared for was that it was over 12 inches long, but over 1" in DIAMETER - this thing was MASSIVE. Honestly, it was hard for me to even start it. I didn't even eat half of it.

OOOOF.

First Update from CA

Allright, this is a blog, so I'll blog about the vacation! The flight went smoothly yesterday, with Bella and Jenny being VERY well behaved on the plane - they only got squirrely at the very very end. Then, two hours by car down to San Diego from LAX. In a Land Rover LR3. I got an upgrade through Hertz Gold (a perk of AMEX - along with the Worldclub permissions too.) But that doesn't explain it all - yes it is ridiculous luxury. But it's fun!

Last night, we were pretty cashed by 5pm, bella was getting loopy, so we just did room service and watched the Wallace and Grommit movie on Pay per View. The resort is "Paradise Point" - owned by the same people who own Little Palm Island that we loved.

On the way down: a sexy sports car with the following BLINGED out license plate holder: "MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST". Only in So-Cal, baby.

Today, breakfast at the marina. A huge Kingfisher sat a table away... looking quite regal, yet surreal.

Then it was the San Diego ZOO, and we had a complete blast. We were there for 6 hours, and saw almost everything. We took the bus tour, two sky rides, saw Elephants, saw a Rhinoceros' willy... ate food.... were harassed by a peacock. Basically, this is the best zoo on earth - such lush greenery too, we were just intoxicated by the environment.

The Hippo gave a good show - running around on the floor of his pool. The Meerkats were adorable, as were the Foosa, which I didn't know actually existed (I thought they were made up for Madagascar).

On the way there and back, the talking GPS-directions unit kept us on the straight and narrow - but every time it says "point five miles ahead" Bella groans "Oh no, FIVE MILES?" Because right now, in her brain, FIVE is the biggest number. So she thinks this unit is telling her to have INFINITE patience!

It was a bit chillier than expected (60s) so swimming is out, as is beach lollygagging. What we'll do this evening is anyone's guess. But tomorrow... DISNEY!!!! Also, we'll meet back up with Randy, JeMae, and Jenny (who are visiting family right now, which is why Bella may be a bit stir crazy).

That's it for now. Pictures will be posted at the end of the trip, superfriends.

Off to Disney

Posting will be even less frequent than usual as the family goes to southern California today for a week of Disney, Seaworld, and the San Diego Zoo. I'll post stories as possible, but that's the scoop!

The Mystery of Squirrels

Bella and her "sister" Jenny are playing upstairs right now. They just came downstairs wearing pajamas, with stuffed animals stuffed into their shirts. They said "I have a double-ditch baby!" "Me TOO!" "Oh no, we've got to go upstairs and get into bed, the baby is going to come out!" "MINE TOO!"

Pamela and I are trying to figure out what a "double ditch baby" could possibly mean.

Right now I'm hearing yelling and running around - it sure sounds like the miracle of life is pretty dynamic.

Reminder: Jenny is 4, Bella is 3.

Prepare to Disengage

I was having lunch today with my buddy Paulie, and he had recently gone through a pretty rough breakup - after 2 years, they with no real animosity had to concede that things weren't working all that well. When I saw him last, I was a bit worried, but relieved. So today it turns out, he's back in the dating pool, and seems very happy. And he's going to read this and say "dude, what you talking about me for?"

It's actually relevant, because at the same time, I'm starting to break up with a long term client... at not with a bang but a whimper. After a few years, we've decided to start seeing other people. I'll always have fond memories of them, but with every day I spend separating, spending less time over there, the more "in-focus" it's becoming just how strange things had got.

This is a small hospital, and when I started, I was sort of "consultant at large", helping their team where needed. We had some great successes together. But as time went on, the project got bigger, and my time allocation stayed the same, and things just grew past the point where I could really be effective as a project manager. Then they hired a guy to "help me" - and now he's going to do the job.

I should be clear - I've done a great job, and they're a great client - but it's time for them to move forward with their own team for a while, and perhaps they can bring me back in as a "consultant at large" again when things have stabilized a bit.

It's been strange to have this happening - at first I was a bit panicky about losing these billable hours... and there was the fear that "they'd never get along without me". Again with time, I find that they're getting along fine, and my other work is more than compensating with the hours!

So it's a long way around to say that me and my friend both have gone through ending some long term relationships recently, and honestly it made me really happy to see him doing so well today.... because I can see myself turning that corner pretty soon too!

This month in Keyboard

In my third favorite geek magazine, Keyboard, there are two interviews that rocked my world: Goldfrapp and Imogen Heap. I love them both - Goldfrapp's soon to be released (but inexplicably in my CD player for over a month) album Supernature is superfantastic, and Imogen Heap's solo album is an amazing labor of love.

What's interesting to me is that both of these artists do music that is not that far removed from what I do when I have time - electro-ey dancey stuff with a nod to the 80's and 90's... but reading the interviews, they couldn't have a work style further from mine.

Imogen is an obsessive editor - she records everything as audio and chop chop chops it up and rearranges every note until it's perfect. It took her a full year to create the 11 songs on her album... in her home! She never sequences.

Goldfrapp are PLAYERS - they do take after take to get the performance right, then splice it together. You wouldn't guess it to hear their blippy bloopy stuff, but again, they never sequence!

Both referred to long hours of just noodling on the piano. Imogen said that growing up she would play the piano for 5 hours a day, and when her family traveled, they had to find places with a piano nearby or she'd go nuts.

For both of these groups, they are very engaged in the music making PROCESS - they like to play, to edit, to tweak.

This is compared to ME: I am very engaged in the music making RESULT - I rarely can spend more than 8 hours total on a composition... I need to move on. I don't like to improvise or "noodle" or "jam" - I prefer to direct my efforts toward creating a product. I think that realizing this critical DIFFERENCE in my style from others is sort of a relevation:

For years I've read things like these interviews and said "man, I'm going to TOTALLY work on my scales now - I've got to work up my CHOPS for JAMMING!". And 30 minutes later, I'm done with that idea and reading a book. This time, I read it and realized - the difference is that they love their process in a way I never really did or do. I'm WAY too impatient.

So my resolution is to be more comfortable with how I DO work - I get great results from my own process, and not to feel inferior when reading about total musos and their work styles. It's their bag.

Chicago and the Deep Sleep

As I type this, my daughter is asleep 8 feet away in a semi dark hotel room in Palatine Illinois. 20 min earlier, I was catching an allergy break back at the hotel (everybody we see in Chicagoland has a dog, cat or multiples thereof - I am always VERY allergic down here). Pamela and the in-laws were going to swing by to pick me up to go see Grandma B (not the Grandma K for whom we were here celebrating her 90th birthday)

Anyway, I got a call from Pamela - Bella had fallen asleep in the car - I could get a pass on this Grandma night if I took custody. I readily agreed and met the car as it pulled up.

The entryway is as far from our room as you can actually get in this hotel - at the opposite end of an L shape, and four floors up. I wrested the sleeping girl from her car seat, and carried her the entire way up, put her in bed, got her coat off, put pajama bottoms on, and tucked her in, without even a HINT of waking up.

I vaguely remember times when I was a little kid falling asleep in a car, or at a holiday party, and waking up in my own bed, and thinking that something truly magical had occurred... it made me feel safe and small and cared for. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be on the other side of this mystery!

Rolling back a day: We did have that 90th birthday party for Grandma K, who was just thrilled about her gift of the iPhoto book. Pamela's brother Richard did a very nice iMovie to accompany it - nice songs and photos, with video greetings at the end from family who couldn't make it (and some extras from those who did... BELLA!). I was happy to help burn it to DVD, and my laptop pitched in when the DVD player conked out too!

In all, it's been a good trip, and I got to eat lots of evil Chicago food: Lou Mahnati's pizza (where the sausage is a complete LAYER of the pizza), Portillo's burgers, Beefs, Polish.... Mmmmmm!

Baltimore!

So in real life, I'm a healthcare IT consultant. Most of the time, this means I just manage projects and beat up on underperforming vendors. But sometimes I means I get to be STRATEGIC. Monday was just such a day.

A client in Baltimore engaged the company I subcontract through to help them determine their Vision 2010: Apparently Vision2005 was decided in 2000, and it was very Accounting focused, and the clinical people were adamant that Vision2010 have more of a patient/provider centric view.

No problem. Others from the company went and did current state assessments, looked at their budgets, their issue lists, etc. I was asked to go and help them brainstorm on a few subject areas that I'm pretty good at: Web, Radiology, Labs, Pharmacy, Rehab, Orthopedics.

The gig was I go with the project lead (Glenn, the owner of the company) who would give the presentations and guide the discussion - I was to be a note taker "ringer" who could move the discussion forward. The meetings started at 9am Monday, and we flew out Sunday night.

7am Monday, Glenn called - he got a stomach flu. He would not be able to attend AT ALL, and can I run with it?

So here I was on a gig that I literally had only briefed myself on in the airplane, was only going to be a kibbitzer and stenographer, and now I'm the leader.

Fast forward to 2:30pm, the meetings are done, Glenn was safe to travel, and we took an early flight home - 3 hours earlier than planned, and i was able to tuck Bella into bed!

And the meetings? I TOTALLY KICKED ASS. I think I'll be going back to assist with more of these...

Visioning sessions are such fun because you get to throw out the rule books and talk about what is best for the patients and providers - people really start talking about what would make people's lives easier and better - and they're often surprised to hear that their ideas aren't so crazy, that I've seen it happen elsewhere, that this is POSSIBLE.

And if my sessions do lead to something better happening at this site, I'll be very proud.

KONG!

King Kong was amazing. THE HUMAN MIND was not meant to process such THRILLS I say. The montage of depression-era NYC started it so beautifully. Skull Island was incredible - not so much the natives bit, but more the Brontosaurus LANDSLIDE? Or the scene with Kong and 2 T-Rexes and the girl caught in vines in a ravine? Or the BUGFEST in the crevasse?

But what was most amazing was that Kong really felt REAL - sure there were some moments where he looked a bit CGI, but there were as many moments when the PEOPLE looked CGI too (rag doll effect). But the facial expressions and the hand movements were very organic, and really created a REAL creature for me.

Some comments: First, me and my buddies had a STRONG urge to leave at the end of the Skull Island sequence, because we all know what happens in New York... Secondly, I do think that through some judicious trimming a half hour could have been lopped off... Jack Black was FANTASTIC in his role, as was Naomi Watts.

And finally, this movie owes a debt to Kerry Conran - Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow really blazed the trail for this retro-realism and showed us that you CAN make a movie like the good old days, only BETTER. You could argue that Conran and Jackson were playing from the same score, but really, before Sky Captain, nobody had tried to truly recreate the "feel" of an old film quite like this.

Hablo un pocito d'espanol

Today I am a man. I finished the first level of the Pimsleur Spanish lessons this morning - 30 lessons. I can now speak in three tenses and use two dozen verbs... and have the basic rhythm of the language flowing! On Saturday when our househelper Ana came by (Venga de El Salvador) we spoke in spanish (Hemos hablado juntos en espanol) and she was floored. We've agreed to speak for at least 5 minutes just in spanish when we see eachother (Accordamos hablar solamente en espanol para cinco minutos quando veremos).

Of course German remains a love too - I have come up with a "Strategy" for both German and Spanish: I will make a list of words and concepts that are relevant to my life. Music, synthesizer, computer, robot, synthpop, sausage, roast beef, pizza, daughter, laughter, satire, shoes, coffee, espresso, drumming, levitation, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, the future. I'll focus my learning around these concepts... so I can be properly JIMMY should the need arise in any language. (Might as well collect the words in French and Japanese too - you never know.)

Going to see King Kong tomorrow night! To quote George Michael:

Why can't you do it?
Why can't you set that monkey free?
Always giving in to it...
do you love the monkey or do you love me?

Ghosts of Gear Past

As we were scanning pictures from Grandma K's history, I came across some old pics from my life too... and this one stopped me COLD. Some may know that I was once the king of the Gear Junkies - I got into collecting old synthesizers in 1990, about the time that a LOT of people were unloading their beautiful synths to get the latest digital beasts from Korg, Roland, and Yamaha.

In this picture from 1993, you can see my TWO PPG Wave 2.3s, and the PRKFD keyboard. Not shown is the Waveterm B "brain". Also in the picture is the Rhodes Chroma that I got for $200 in perfect working order, and a Roland Jupiter 8. Cropped out was a Linndrum.

Around this time, the studio also had visits from... a Yamaha TX816 (8 DX7s in an austere black box), a MemoryMoog (nicknamed "Dr Voltage"), an Arp Odyssey, A Simmons SDS7.

The CABLES were a complete snake pit - there were at least 3 and upwards of 12 cables attached to each unit of the studio (power, MIDI, audio) - the snarls were the stuff of legend. I was uniquely blessed by an absence of ground loops, so my music didn't suffer from hummmmmmm.

Compare and contrast with my current studio... a Mac G5 and a Yamaha ES7, One cable. Bliss.

You call this UPDATED?

Sorry to both of you who read this that I haven't been updating this past week - the holidays were hectic. A few tidbits:

1) The In-Laws were in town for New Year's and we worked on a secret project for Pamela's Grandma's 90th birthday: a hardbound iPhoto book of her life. 70 pages, and we scanned over 130 old pictures! We hit the limit of my old (3 years) scanner, and I ran off to MicroCenter and I got a new one - WAY better - higher resolution, faster, and with better software for autodetecting documents and cropping - it completely made the task do-able! One button press per picture!

2) My Language Frenzy continues unabated: I just finished lesson 25 of Spanish, and have been working through German Textbook to improve my grasp of grammar: I'm finally "getting" some of the compound constructs. Example - Schlissen is to use a key. Abschlissen is to lock, Aufschlissen is to unlock, Einschlissen is to Lock IN, Ausschlissen is to Lock OUT.... It's a language by and for nerds.

Also, I had fun with Papa - since I'll be going to Tokyo sometime in 2006, I'll be learning Japanese, and I want to know how to do some basic reading. So I got some kiddie books on Kana and Kanji, and am learning them by drawing them. So Papa and I went shopping for Calligraphy pens and Sumi brushes and grid-ruled notebooks... it was a great bonding experience!

3) The MOVIE premiere was Tuesday the 27th, and it was VERY well received. Nick the Chicken and I went together, had dinner at the Loring Pasta bar first, then over to the Varsity, where we sat with over 200 people to watch the 2 hour romantic dramedy that Justin wrote, directed, and starred in. It was inspiring - just the concept of it - and the movie was very good too! Great work Justin, and I was happy to be a part of it!

That's it for right now, but there will be more updates in the coming days...

Jimmy

The wisdom of Neuhaus

Greg Neuhaus was the singer of Karl, our post-PG13 protofunk band. He went to MCAD, and was wildly creative... well, fearless anyway. Two Neuhaus stories for you today.

1) Some classic Neuhaus Lyrics:
"South Africa" - our "apartheid awareness song"

there's trouble... in South A-fri-ca
oh there's trouble... in South A-fri-ca
there's white folks... in South A-fri-ca
and there's black folks... in South A-fri-ca.

(chorus)
ooooooooo South Africa! (repeat 4 times)

2) Greg's Lie to me about the St Clair Broiler.
When I met Greg, I was a senior, getting ready for College, and Macalester in St Paul was going to be my home. When I made that decision, Greg said "Oh right, it's by the St Clair Broiler! I love that place!" "I've never been there" was my reply... which led to this:

"Aw man, that place is AMAZING. It's going to be your new hangout. The Broiler's ok, but you gotta get in to the back, which is where the ACTION is. Here's what you do. Walk in, right past the hostess counter, take a right, and there's a door past the kitchen. Open it up, and you'll see the back room. Walk right up to the bar and lay down a wooden nickel and ask for Doris. Say I sent you, and you'll be IN, baby."

Now, the "wooden nickel" should have tipped me off, but being the kind of kid who took vacations to Wall Drug, I actually had more than one wooden nickel in easy reach. I actually took one to the St Clair Broiler my first week of school.

Fortunately, I went alone, and nobody saw me try to get in the broom closet.

Been Hyp-mo-tized

I was in the mood for a "hypnotizing" movie tonight. A movie that would take me to a state and just let me be mesmerized. I had two likely candidates - Andy Goldsworthy's "Rivers and Stones" documentary or Tasha Tudor's Take Joy. Alas, I could find neither in the clutter of the closet.

But I did find Solaris.

This is one of those movies that is hard to recommend to people because it's not really a sci-fi movie, not really a romance, not a lot of drama, but it's 1000% atmosphere - it demands that you give over to it and just LIVE it. But I'd say that it just doesn't WORK on most people. The only people I know who love it as much as i do are the people who demanded I watch it - Paul and Nick.

I've watched it 4 or 5 times, and each time, it just flies by - I don't look at the clock, I don't need to use the restroom, I don't sip my water... I just watch it. And I do get a bit weepy too...

So I've been hypnotized this evening, and I feel refreshed.

Soundtrack Details

Justin seems to dig the tracks I did for Prick the Movie, and I've got some nice other feedback. If you're curious, it's 100% virtual, of course.

WARNING: IT GETS GEEKY HERE:
The Main Theme has mostly Logic instruments (EVP88 electric piano, Sculpture for the fragile bells, EXS24 for samples, ES2 for one synthy part, ESP for another synth pad, UltraBeat for the synth drums) I did use NI Battery 2 for the "Real Drums".

The Fight Scenes: Battery2 for the drums, Logic ESM for the 303, Sculpture for the bells, and ESP for the Prophet Pads. No loops on Fight 1, but lotsa loops from EastWest STORMDRUM for Fight2 - Eastern Loops, TomTom samples, Taiko Samples...

The Club Scenes: I'm embarassed to say this, but there's a lot of AppleLoops in there - From GarageBand Jam Pack 2. Some played parts (EVP88 electric piano, ES2 basses, ESP Strings, Battery2 Additional Drums), but the core beats and some of the textures are from the Apple library. I got to give respect to Apple there - they sound GREAT!

The Fantasy Transitions:
All played by me - 1 is ESP Pad, and EXS24 Harps. 2 is Arturia CS80 and Minimoog V, played - this was not a one finger evolver. 3 was an EXS24 harp, played (not a strum sample).

For all of this I have to say the G5 has done me proud - on none of this work did the CPU meter ever peek past 25%. And there were a LOT of effects present.

GEEKY STOPS HERE:

Side Note: Bella lept up to give me a hug tonight and almost broke my nose... it was VERY hard not to yelp or make her feel bad.... so I just sort of went "hoooo boy... well.... ah.... I'm ok, darling!" She seemed not to be overly concerned, which is actually the best way to handle it.

Poor iMac

Pamela's iMac has had a rather rough history. It was one of the first G5 ones, and it had the rattly fan issue, so I had the whole guts replaced once. Then this summer, it started acting funny, and the HD got a big error, and I had to reformat it (fortunately I had a full backup!).

Two months ago, it died completely, and the Apple Store replaced the guts again. But it wasn't really acting fully kosher. Apps were taking a looong time to process, and there was some flakey behavior... also the fans were on ALL the time - sort of noisy. This past weekend, I decided that the strangeness was sufficiently odd that I ran another full backup... and literally as soon as it finished, I got a very odd error message saying "Disk out of space", the screen went blank, and it refused to boot up.

I connected via my laptop, and it said "dude, this disk is FRIED".

So I brought it into the Apple Store, and they put in a new hard Drive and returned it to me in less than 2 days. I'm restoring all of the old files now.... And what they told me is that ALL of the strange behavior I had seen recently was pretty much typical of a disk on it's way south. They said they tried to hook up the old drive to see what data they could retrieve, and it started making a shrieking and clicking sound... complete brain death.

The lesson, my friends, is to BACK THAT STUFF UP. And while I've been frustrated with Pamela's iMac's health, I also concede that Apple has been VERY responsive to fix it when problems have arisen - and turnaround is VERY fast. So I say, THANK YOU for making it right.

Jimmy

More Soundtracking

Well, Pamela's ready to kill me for disappearing all week... but I'm finally done with my work for the premiere next week. My songs can be heard out at Jimmy's Website. The movie website is www.prickthemovie.wildclay.net

Of course my songs aren's the score for the WHOLE movie - Justin is using a ton of his favorite songs in the movie too. Since it's small, he can do that and not "clear" everything... but if this gets bigger, I'll need to sub out more music.

In the process, I've really enjoyed reconnecting with my musical side - I remember that I used to work FAST - a song a day for weeks at a time. Nick has heard the proof - 300+ songs on DAT from 1989-1995. For the past few years, I've been able to point to 3-4 finished works a year. But 2005's looking pretty good now! Over 9 Songs! (Abuse, The Metro, Anyone Out There, TrailerFun, and Prick Songs - Theme, Club 1, Club 2, Fight 1, Fight 2, and some ambient bits.

So that's "done" for now, I can go back to enjoying Eggnog or scotch in the evenings, watching movies, and taking my proper turn putting Bella down for the night!

Soundtracking and OTT

Hey now - what better way could I have to spend this busy holiday week than to do 8 cues for a temp score for an independent motion picture? Our Manny Justin finally got me a rough cut of his magnum opus, and he has a screening NEXT WEEK. I was always going to score the dang film, for sure, but he has these 8 cues that REALLY need something original. So I have two done now, and will really have it nailed by the weekend! Then in the new year we can revisit the rest of the cues (and rip out the temp music he's using in there....)

But it keeps things interesting!

Back in 1984-86 when I was just getting geeky about keyboards and technology, Schinder's had a magazine called "One Two Testing" which was a forerunner to today's Sound on Sound or similar - a british music technology magazine where the stars got nerdy (Phil Oakey of the Human League moaning about quantization on a Synclavier), and the reviewers were gum snapping sassy (unlike the american magazines of the day, they weren't afraid to say "it's CRAP")

When I moved out in 1986, my trove of magazines was doomed for the dumpster: To be fair, I don't recall even thinking about them until the mid 1990s, so any housecleaning that took place, I have no resentment.... but I've also had a devil of a time finding them.

Until yesterday, when my Ebay Trophy of OTT #28 (with Blancmange and the Thompson Twins) arrived from the UK, a fresh Ebay acquisition. I have been EATING IT UP. I think I'll have to keep an eye on Ebay for a few more. Of particular delight is an ad on the back with an african tribesman gleefully beating on an electronic syndrum with a bone. No freaking lie.

PS - It's Spanish

Yep, I've started my Spanish Lessons. Just finished lesson 7 today. I gotta say they're a bit more intense than the German ones were for some reason - the lessons are a full 1/2 hour, while the German 1 series were 23 min each. But I am really sinking into it. And Pamela seems thrilled - I'm trying my new words out on her, and she's coming right back at me.

I will also say that I started Spanish with downloaded lessons, but purchased the full set to go legit for three reasons:
1) There were skips and glitches in the MP3s which were annoying.
2) The Bookchip medium is way better - it remembers where you stopped, and it it techno cool.
3) They worked hard on these excellent lessons and deserve proper compensation.

On the other hand, my anti-DRM (copy protection) rant on the previous post could apply to these bookchips, I should be able to back them up, right? Well, I did lose a bookchip (German 3) and they replaced it for me for a very small fee. So they have their act together.

Japanese, cool as it is, will simply have to wait until spring.

Roku Soundbridge and DRM

This morning, Pamela reminded me that we actually do have a stereo in our bedroom - it's attached to the TV, so I tend to forget it exists, since we so rarely watch shows up there. But this morning, she was listening to the radio, and I thought - hey, I should be listening to music up here, no?

So out on some errands, I stopped at Best Buy and got a new gadget - a Roku Soundbridge 1000. This little unit has built in WiFi, and it connects to your ITunes library and to your stereo - it's super slick, and WAY cheaper than another computer, and easier to use than another Airport Express.

I was testing it out and WHAM got hit with the message "this unit can't play Itunes Music Store protected files". Boom, can't listen to Althea and Donna "Uptown Top Ranking" in my bedroom?

I may be something of a downloader sometimes, but I'm also a fervent music BUYER, be it CDs or through the iTunes Music Store. I've got a few hundred tracks purchased through ITMS. And suddenly, I've decided that DRM blows. It never REALLY affected me before - IPods can play these tracks no problem. And until now, I never tried to use something I couldn't "authorize" for iTunes.

Fortunately, if you have a handful of CDRs, it's really no problem to convert these files - just burn to CD as Audio, then re-import. But what about the Tags you ask? Two discoveries: First, if you name the Playlist and CD 8-characters or less, Itunes will recognize the CD when you reinsert it and all your tags will still be there. Or there are some utilities for copying tags wholesale.

So I'm 75% done De-DRM'ing my library. Information wants to be free.

End result, I can listen to The Postal Service, Mum, Althea and Donna, and Desmond Dekker anywhere in my house on any machine. YAY! Also, the Roku Soundbridge is REALLY REALLY REALLY COOL and I recommend you try it out. SHOCKINGLY COOL.

In related news - Isabella has decided on a unilateral diaper boycott this afternoon. I am waiting waiting waiting for the accident. It's going to happen. I'm on tenterhooks.

UPDATE: The accident did in fact occur within 2 minutes of Mommy coming home, naturally, after ALL afternoon with me, no diaper, and no accidents. ON THE COUCH.

Just sharing my geekness with the world.

On an "Audience"

Twice in the past year, I've come up with rather nutty song ideas - one was to do a cover of "Wild Boys" by Duran Duran with the lyrics changed to refer to a restaurant in Tokyo called "Checkers", and the other is to do "Ooh to be Ah" by Kajagoogoo with robot voices.

In both cases, my nemesis Caesar accused me of pandering to my fan base, because god knows, the world is just WAITING for almost-40 guys to do strange 1980s covers that require extensive backstories to make sense.

It got me thinking - what really is the GOAL of doing music when you're 38? Who IS your audience? You really do need to re-examine the old rationales: Girls? we're all happily married. Admiration of Peers? Most of my peers have no idea what I do, and the ones who I'd want to impress with music I actually tend to work with on songs.

It's mostly for self gratification, for putting in your own car, and maybe sharing with other pals...

But it feels good.

No more Hatin'

I've put my last bottle of Haterade away. I've decided that BT, Brian Transeau is not for Hating anymore.

Oh yes, I've had my issues. His insanely anal mega-editing techniques, his microscopic mix detailing, his surfer-dude-at-Berklee persona, his constant references to 12-tone, Stockhausen, and Cell Theory in his interviews... I won't lie to you - I've thrown magazines down in disgust in the past.

But I've decided that despite his pomposity, he's actually a geek like me, and if we ever DID meet, we'd probably have a great time talking. Also, he's prolific AND successful, and he does seem to want to stretch himself, so you know what, BT? I'm calling off all the hate. I'm sending out the love.

It's official.

The Batman Dream

Me and 2 friends (Mark Loesch and Paul Sebastien actually) are busboys at a Las Vegas comedy club, and we're standing around backstage just joking with eachother - and suddenly Paul Sebastien turns to me and says "man, our act is SOLID - we should just go out there and DO THIS!"

So we rush the stage and push the performers off. Cut to a montage of us telling jokes, singing, doing little skits... then cut to us at the side of the stage, giving eachother high fives and whooping, while the Manager is up on the stage, apologizing to the audience and promising refunds. Clearly we were actually terrible.

After the show, we return to our "crash pad" - it's a an old building with a decrepit Lamp shop on the first floor and a big "Real World" style apartment upstairs. Everyone's going upstairs, and I pause at the lamp shop.

Dang it, I'm going to clean up this shop and really make something of it!

So cut to a few hours later, I've swept and dusted, and replaced bulbs, and got the power working, and turn everything on - it's a beautiful shop.

My friends come back downstairs, and say "uh oh - you weren't supposed to do that". Why? Suddenly the floor opens up and the BatPlane raises up from the basement. Batman is standing there.

"Man, this place was a great cover - now there are going to be people wanting to buy lamps - how am I supposed to get in and out of here secretly?" Batman is VERY mad at me.

And then I wake up.

Harry Potter and the Lost Shuffle

So we had a babysitter for the night, but Pamela had to go decorate church, so I decided to take a boy's night out - just me - to see the new Harry Potter, and boy and I glad i did - it was FANTASTIC. Not a good one for someone who hasn't seen any of then yet... it relies on a LOT of foreknowledge, but it is very rewarding.

And Ralph Fiennes was BRILLIANT as Lord Voldemort - as creepy as you could imagine ever.

And the Shuffle: I came home yesterday to find my iPod Shuffle sitting on the counter. It's been missing since spring. I had NO idea where it was. But Pamela found it. So I plugged it in, and loaded the "random play", and spent the evening enjoying a random "slice" of my music collection, and I gotta say, there's something intelligent in those shuffles - it was mixing some of my favorites somehow! Cibo Matto - you gotta know your ckicken, Japan - Life in Tokyo, Simple Minds - Promised you a Miracle, Depeche Mode - Now this is Fun.... Not songs that would spring to mind if you were making a mix tape, but there they were.

It reminded me that Steve Jobs is a fricking GENIUS.