2005 November Archive at eastowners

Monthly Archive for November, 2005

Guten Morgen

Published

on November 22, 2005

. 0 Comments

Howdy all. It’s another fine morning on IT Mountain. The birds have all gone, the warm breeze of summer has been quickly replaced by a bitter cold of the impending winter, and the sun has begun it’s long hibernation until spring. The last time I passed this mark in our yearly rotation around the sun, I was headed for new opportunities with an employer who’s business it is to perform IT services. This time around, I’m headed back to the company who’s business it isn’t.

The interesting thing is that I’m feeling a bit of anxiety about this change. I have to admit that I’ve known about it for some time, or at least known that the discussions were going on. My feelings at the time were closer to glee than to anything resembling anxiety. But now, as we get closer to the 1/1/06 date, I’m starting to feel some uncertainty. I’m pretty sure that it’s related to my pesky resistance to change, which I fight to the best of my ability, so I shouldn’t be too worried.

It is cold outside this morning. Google is telling me it’s 30 degrees. There was ice on the bike. I’ve been at work for twenty minutes and I’m still cold. Enough said.

Of course, I’m going to continue with the randomness. I’m feeling random this morning.

DirecTV added XM radio to their channel lineup recently (sometime last week). It’s really nifty. I could easily become a proponent of satellite radio. Of course, this just means I’ll find all sorts of new things that I’ll have to buy.

Our VoIP provider, Packet8, will be implementing E911 on 11/28. Yeah for that!

We’re off to the in-laws tomorrow night in preparation for Turkey Day festivities.

Hmm… I think that’s it.

Out.

moving time again

Published

dead headphonist

on November 20, 2005

in Annoucements

. 0 Comments

Well… we’ve moved (again). This time, the site should be
faster, staggercat.com and funkcoaster.com should work, and Char has
her favourite webmail client back. The idea of using a
Windows-based hosting provider was a good idea to start, but proved to
be a pain due to how I like things setup. The Gallery is now back
online in it’s previous mammoth incarnation. Thanks to Marc, we
now have the space for everything!

I was in Texas most of last week for work, so not a lot to say about
what’s going on around here. Texas was not all that exciting, but
I did have some good food while I was there. Beyond that and it
being slightly warmer there than here in Michigan, there’s not a lot to
write home about.

Well… that’s it for now. More later.

…and the villagers rejoiced.

Published

dead headphonist

on November 10, 2005

in Music

. 0 Comments

As the refrain to John Sebastians overplayed “Welcome Back” danced in
the back of my mind, we were today presented with our destiny; we will,
as of 1/1/06, be returned to the company that outsourced us last
year. Breath of fresh air? Probably, but for no other
reason than the fact that the visionaries will once again be in control
of the dollars. That’s good for “architect” me, not so good for
“manager wannabe” me. Of course, I think I could use a rest and
going back to the creative side of IT might make me happier in general;
at least in the short run.

So as predicted, I actually have an entry today.

I’ve also been working to resurrect funkcoaster.com and
staggercat.com. Look for something creative from both of those
sites pretty soon. I think staggercat.com is going to become a
shrine to music that I’ve made with friends over the years and will
probably showcase some of the new stuff that Matt and I have been
working on. And no… the band isn’t getting back together…
unless The Minnow moves back to Michigan, of course.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with funkcoaster.com. I’m sure
I’ll think of something. The good news here is that we’ll be able to
put the whole photo gallery back online and Char will get an e-mail
client that works the way she wants it to. All e-mail addresses
stay the same by the way.

I’ve been listening to some new music lately that I highly recommend to
everyone. Stevie Wonder (finally) released his latest effort,
called “A Time 2 Love”, to much critical acclaim. The naysayers,
of course, are expecting another “Songs in the Key of Life” and are
highly disappointed. I personally think the album stands very
well and I was highly surprised that it turned out to not be another
disc of watered down crap for the likes of Oprah’s Book Club
members. Anyway… superfunky, supersmooth, and just a nice disc
all around. Stevie’s definitely taking a nod from the neosoul
crowd and getting back to his 70’s soul days.

A couple of other things have hit my ears recently and stuck. One
is an Ann Arbor band called Porchsleeper. The drummer is the SO
of Char’s former college roommate, Angie. We saw them at a
downright aweful bar in GR called Jukes. Unfortunately, the PA in
the place sucked so badly that they weren’t able to shine like they
should. While there, though, we bought both of their
discs. Of course, rips were made for listening to at work, and
those two discs have gone into heavy rotation. The best I can
describe their sound is kinda “Uncle Tupelo-meets-Fugazi”. Very
nice stuff, well-arranged from guys who know their craft.
Standout tunes are “Nineteen Seventy Two”, “The Rub”, and “Orange &
Fairfax”. Oh yeah… and they are all really nice
guys. If you live over near a-squared, check ‘em out.
(Hi Angie!)

We’ve also picked up Depeche Mode’s latest. I won’t say much
about this, other than if you like Depeche Mode, you should love this
disc. Dark and well-produced. I like it.

The final shiny round disc that has been attached to my aural nerves
lately is “Odditorium or Warlords of Mars” by The Dandy Warhols.
It’s excellent. If I had to give it a rating, it would definitely
be 9/10… the same rating I would have to give their previous effort,
“Welcome to the Monkey House”. One of the flaws is the
usual track or two of what seems like filler material. However, the
disc is still listenable. I also hate the intro. It’s fun
to listen to once. Beyond that, I skip it… every time.

dr. strangejob

Published

dead headphonist

on November 8, 2005

in Rants

. 0 Comments

Welcome to another installment of “Will He Have a Job in
January”. In today’s episode, our happless hero is confronted yet
again by the prospect that change is imminent and there’s really
nothing that can be done to set aside fears that all will be lost with
the haphazard stroke of some corporate exec’s gold-encrusted pen.
Our hero, either unfazed by yet another chapter in this sick and
disgusting tale or through just plain stupidity, decides to stay on and
see what kind of strange new ways Corporate America can threaten his
financial well-being.

After several years of mental anguish at the hands of his captors, our
hero has learned to fight back through small acts of passive
resistance. He regularly (and sickingly) defends folks who don’t
deserve defending rather than give them up for the hanging. “Hang
me!”, he says gleefully. The hangings never come. Plenty of
asschewings, but never a sweet, sweet hanging…

Disappointed (but not discouraged) by the lack of hangings, our hero
makes regular visits to websites promoting his cause, leaving them up
when the bossman comes to visit, and reads as much of H.D. Thoreau as
is humanly possible before feeling the uncontrollable need to throw
oneself from a cliff. He finds solace in the fact that fru-fru
books about management are more comedic to him than
inspirational. He finds inner zen by visiting the local watering
hole for much needed lunchtime r&r, coming back an hour late, and
spending the rest of the afternoon in a daze that makes a Tim Leary
acid trip seem like a toddler’s daydream. And when that magical
moment arrives signalling the end of the workday, he saddles up on his
two-wheeled deathrocket from hell and screams off into the rising dusk
with a maniacal laugh that would haunt the dead.

At least that’s how I see it in my mind.

Reality, of course, is quite different. I’m a drone, not a
hero. I have a little bit of work ethic left and it bugs me not
work hard to collect my paycheck. As with most of the rest of
America, I don’t feel that I’m paid enough for the crap that I put up
with and I bitch about it with no regard for the fact that there are
folks out there that have much shittier jobs for less pay. I’ve
read the fru-fru management books, I’m too cool to admit that I see
things that are applicable to real life in them, and I spend a lot of
time trying to apply some of the principals they are teaching in a way
that won’t result in me being called on the table by my team for buying
into those principals.

While it’s true that extended lunches do happen, most of them are spent
discussing something going on at work and I always make up the time by
working a little over or coming in early.

I ride a 1982 Yamaha XJ 650, hardly a deathrocket from hell, and my
laugh is probably closer to “annoying the dead” than haunting them.

Basically, I aspire to completely flake out and pull an “Office
Space”. Maybe if I were independantly wealthy (or crazy). I
don’t think anyone really like having to go to work. There was a
time when I did and maybe that’s where this problem started. Now,
it’s just Dr. Strangejob… and as long as the paychecks keep coming,
I’ll keep on giving it my best.

I predict more writing on Thursday.

Interesting

Published

dead headphonist

on November 2, 2005

in Interesting

. 0 Comments

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=9953

It’s an interesting read, but the comments at the bottom are even more
interesting. Of course, reading through all the comments with
butchered English from folks claiming to be Americans (I believe them)
is both painful and distressing. People, please learn your
language! I can stomach (and even applaud) the folks whose
primary language is not English, come to the site and struggle to put a
thought into our language so that we can understand the other side of
the story. My plead is to the countless folks who have all the
best intentions and who know no other language, but possess no ability
in the lost art of grammar of the English language.

Anyway… I have a headache today and it’s making my irritable.
There are two things that this article brings up; the first being the
age-old problem of certain administrations being completely immune to
these neat things we have in this country called “laws”. Of
course, you can read a million other blogs on this subject and get a
more concise and stable argument than I could ever make about that
particular subject. Besides… I don’t have the energy for it
anymore. Bush is an untouchable moron. I’ll leave it at
that and let the experts lambaste him for what it’s worth.

Here comes my point, though. Every time one of these things goes
into a public forum, someone plays the race card. It’s an
unfortunate side-effect of the situation and EXACTLY what the
powers-that-be want us to do. If we’re infighting about issues of
racism and pointing fingers at “Arabs” or “White America” or “Those
Damned Different-looking People”, we lose sight of the real issue at
hand; that we’re all being screwed. The ONLY difference is that
every group, excluding “filthy rich”, gets screwed in different
ways. The powers-that-be have to create complacency in the middle
class because middle class possess enough economic power that, if
organized, they could topple the regime. If the “filthy rich”
can’t sell their product the middle class, they aren’t “filthy rich”
for long.

They don’t have to be as careful with the lower tiers of society, and
can leverage the fact that the lower tiers have little-to-no economic
power to create tensions between the economic classes (see crack
cocaine vs powdered laws). This also works to increase crime,
thus creating jobs for more police officers and special task forces to
deal with it. A focus on certain minorities as “troublemakers” by
the powers-that-be increase the tension even more; on both sides.
It convienently becomes a race issue to the people involved. Of
course, there are some idiots mixed into the ranks of power who are
bigots, but you have to wonder if they are purposefully placed to bring
the seperation based on skin color to the forefront or if they are just
completely sold on the bullshit that is fed to the rest of us.

I guess I’m just tired of all the racist bullshit that gets spewed in
both directions in this country. We all need to realize that the
biggest problems in this country stem from economic roots. We
need to focus on those problems and the rest will follow behind.
Of course, no one wants to think about that because it’ll hurt
short-term profitibility and god forbid if Mr. Corporate Mogul were to
make $.50 less this year than last so that an inner city family might
be able to have a chance to lift themselves out of the economic funk
that this system puts them in year after year.

Out.