Current Mood:
Happy
Head over to digtune.org to read my latest review.
Author Archive for dead headphonist
I’m writing now over at digtune. Follow this link to view my review of Pete & The Pirates’ “Little Death”.
I’ve solved why people bang their head on the wall. The moments in between each sudden stop against the wall are complete bliss compared to the searing pain that occurs when flesh and bone are pummeled into a hard surface. I think for most people it’s hard to imagine why one might seek out this kind of pleasure, but those in IT or some other industry in which you are hated for simply doing your job know differently.
Add the wonderful economic climate to this usual situation and you’ve got yourself the making for a salad of bitter greens and hot sauce.
Recently some of us met up for a usual lunch at one of our local watering holes. It was a mix of former and current colleagues and of course, the vast amount of the discussion was around current employment situations, career choices, and what the hell any of us are doing about it.
One of us (that’s probably me) says too much and is edgy almost to the point of making others uncomfortable. Fuck it, he says. We’re in a bar, swilling pints, eating artery-clenching foodstuffs, and inhaling a thousand other drunks’ second hand smoke. According the health experts, we are on the edge of death anyway. The guy proceeds to talk trash about most everything. It’s an American bar tradition.
The older gent in the party is as he usually is, taking everything is stride. No one is sure that he’s ever threatened by anything. The young bucks in the group should probably take a page from his laid-back, almost Laissez-faire playbook, but they won’t. At least not until they “get it.”
Another of the guys is a 30-something recently jettisoned from his long time employer and wondering what the hell is next. He a dedicated guy who, in the time he has been known to the group, has never been known to be stressed or even the slightest bit bitter. He has a plan and is confident, laughing, and comments on how being unemployed and worried about where he’s going to go is less stressful than the job he held a few weeks earlier.
The group still notes the slight tinge of worry and bitterness coming through in his story of not getting a single solid lead in the near month of holding the title “professional unemployment line squatter”.
In fact, from the laid back veteran to the bitter, loud barfly to the job seeker, it’s apparent that all these guys are deeply affected by the crumbling economy. All have an uneasy demeanor that was absent even a few months earlier as they got together for lunch to discuss technology, beer, and make the occasional vulgar comment or three.
The conversation digresses into complaints about the new jukebox and the bitter dude splits the scene, leaving the other two to most likely discuss how much of a pain in the ass he is.
Over the past 24+ hours, I’ve thought long and hard about the conversation; probably more than any of the other participants. I keep looking at my demeanor and the things that fly out of my brain in fits of passion in the rear view mirror. Most times, it looks like a train wreck, but I think there are things to learn.
I have a new mantra that goes something like this. “I’m tired of waiting for things to happen to me.” I think in order to act on that thought, I have to start paying a little more attention and maybe making a few less train wrecks. Figuring out how to direct my passion in a constructive direction is definitely my first priority.
Anybody know anyone who’s looking for a crazy, passionate, brilliant, well-written information technology professional to become a significant and active member of their organization? If so, hit me up in any of the usual places.
Current Mood:
Loopy
I’m not one to do anything half-assed. I don’t like fondue where the maker uses a not insignificant amount of cream or half and half with mostly milk chocolate and whips it up into something that only hopes to resemble melted chocolate. No… that’s just NOT how I roll. And you shouldn’t either.
So first, get yourself about a pound of 70%+ dark chocolate, the higher quality, the better. You’ll need about 12oz, but it’s easier to work if you’re not chopping the whole thing straight away. Get about 3oz of good quality white chocolate (not that confectioners stuff, but real cocoa butter white). You’ll need 1/2 cup of milk and 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter; no margarine, no mix crap… REAL butter. This stuff is not health food, so don’t even try.
Get some amaretto; you’ll need a good solid shot (2-3oz) so don’t drink the whole damned bottle before we get to that a little later on, ok?
Chop that chocolate with a good heavy ass knife and for god’s sake, be careful! Use a freaking cutting board, fool. Don’t you know that chopping chocolate is the second most dangerous activity in the kitchen next to the preparation of ice water?!?!
You’ll need a fondue pot, or a good heavy medium sized saucepan and everyone will have to do their thing around the stove. That doesn’t sound too “dinner party”-like, so might I suggest the Cuisinart fondue pot? It’s what we have and I absolutely love it. I don’t think there is a better fondue pot on the market. Serious berries, or however the kids say “cool” these days.
On whatever medium low is on your pot, melt the butter into the milk (you’re using a non-stick whisk right?). Bring the temp up (if you have to) to start the milk/butter mixture just to the bubbling point. Don’t let it foam up. Dump your chocolate in. You can either do it in a couple of batches or just dump the whole thing in and stir like hell until it’s melted real-good-like.
Yes… put that white chocolate stuff in too. You want it mixed in, though if you’re talented, you can try to marble it for that “I’m better than the rest of you” look. If you’re gonna try to “be that guy”, then add the amaretto (you didn’t drink it all, did you?) before the white junk. If you’re fully integrating, then it doesn’t matter, just dump the liquor in whenever, so long as it’s toward the end of this process.
Lower the temp to just below the temperature at which the human tongue melts to the roof of the mouth, present the pot along with a plethora of good things to dip. We suggest pretzels, cheesecake bites, marshmallows, graham crackers, sugar wafer cookies, pound cake and fruits like strawberry and banana.
Dip away until everyone around the pot is fully engulfed in choco-coma. Enjoy the smell of your place for the next couple of hours. There’s no better air freshener.
Shopping list recap :
- 12oz of chocolate (though cutting 12oz from a 1lb block is easier) chopped
- 3-4oz of white chocolate (NOT confectioners)
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter (and ONLY butter)
- 2-3oz (fluid) amaretto
- Various junk food that you like to dip in chocolate
Current Mood:
Mischievous
This is the PB Granola in it's glory
2 1/2 cups rolled oats (do not use instant. get the large flake rolled oats from the health food store)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup flax seed meal (not whole flax seed)
1/8 cup unsweetened flake coconut
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup honey
2 1/2 tablespoons butter
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Note : spices/salt are to taste. Feel free to experiment
Pre-heat oven to 275 degrees F. Prepare cookie sheet by covering in parchment or tin foil. Use a cookie sheet with raised edges (no “air bake”) as you need to turn the granola over while it cooks.
First, in a large pot melt together the honey, butter, and peanut butter over low heat. Mix well and add vanilla, spices, and salt. Mix well. Mix grains and coconut together lightly in a separate bowl. Add grains to the wet mixture and quickly mix well to coat.
Spread mixture evenly on a cookie sheet and press together into a solid sheet. Keep the mixture away from the edges of the pan or it will burn easily. Bake for 20 minutes, turn over and press back into a solid sheet. Bake another 20 minutes or until the oats start to slightly brown. Remove from the oven, press the sheet together again and allow to completely cool before transferring to the storage vessel of your choice.
Current Mood:
Esctatic
I look nothing like the advertising material Apple has so ubiquitously spread around the airwaves. I am neither a hip and cool twenty-something with no responsibilities and a distaste for everything “business” nor am I a fourty-something stodgy business type. I am an overweight, not particularly stylish thirty-something who works all day holding down a desk in a manufacturing and engineering company.
I have growing distaste for Microsoft’s OS business, but I am particularly fond of products like Office 2007 and OneNote from them. I have no particular love for Apple, but I’ve come to respect their OS, and now that I own one of their flagship products, their really slick and useful hardware.
I work in IT and I work with Windows machines all day long. In fact, I’ve worked with what amounts to pretty much the same GUI since 1995 and Microsoft has asked me to spend what precious free time I have doing exactly the same thing into the foreseeable future.
Microsoft expects that I will continue to do my blogging, music production, social networking, and very little else on an OS that constantly gets in my way, is difficult to customize, lacks modern window management that even free software has managed to implement pretty well, and generally has the look and feel of that radical departure that Windows took with Windows 95.
Everything else has been evolution in design; great for business which relies on not having to re-educate user bases of the barely computer literate on new paradigms. Hey… I can dig that. I face these issues every day in my day job.
The problem for me is exhibited in a simple activity that I participate in at least once every couple of weeks.
A few months ago, I bought an Axiom 61 MIDI controller so that I could start practicing piano again and so that I’d have a keyboard to adding parts to tunes and building percussion loops. To do this in Windows took me no less than an hour of prep to get the keyboard working and then a $100-$300 piece of software to get a convincing enough piano to want to practice with it.
On Friday, I got the Macbook Pro. On Saturday, I took it downstairs and hooked up the Axiom and turned it on. Nothing happened; no pop-up, no “I need to install a driver for this”, nothing. I figured what the hell and started GarageBand, an app that is bundled with the Mac. Within seconds, I was playing a reasonable sounding piano sound through the headphones.
So what does this mean? To me, it’s that OSX is purpose built for folks exactly like me; folks who want to be able to get their creative job done with as little trouble as possible in a convienent and stylish package that actually works.
And work, it definitely does.
The touchpad and new “chiclet” style keyboard are worth the cost of admission alone. The new Macbook has what would say is the single best keyboard and “mouse” input hardware of any laptop ever. The unibody build is very solid, the laptop is unbelievably thin, light, and powerful compared to the Dells that I previously used. The screen is really bright with excellent contrast compared to other laptops I’ve owned and used. The headphone circuitry is excellent.
As I work more with the Mac, I’ll probably write more with my experiences in the realms of computing that mean the most to me.
Please share any thoughts you have on alternative operating systems to Windows and what effects they’ve had on your work process.
I had heard mixed reviews of one of our local watering holes, Hopcat. Several people complained of various grievances regarding everything from service to the kitchen to the price of beer. Looking at the menu, however, convinced me to give it a try of my own.
I’m the type of person who finds many things that the critics dislike on my list of more enjoyable. Typically, because of this, I find myself not bothering with others’ opinions except to set a baseline or to compare notes to afterwards. I still like to make my own opinion. This is one of those situations.
When I arrived, my party hadn’t shown up yet, so I made my way to bar after locating the requisite chalkboard with the current offerings. After flagging down a barkeep, the evening was started with a well-drawn Fuller’s London Porter. The beer was as is to be expected but served a little too cold; a problem that soon rectifies itself. Beer served too cold is an American thing. It’s hard to find a place that doesn’t.
The room is nice; the interior design is contemporary with alcohol advertisements on raised board on the ceiling, providing both decoration and acoustic management for the high-ceiling narrow room. The bar is beautiful, seating is comfortable and there is room for large parties. There is a typical beer hall table near the front door.
It was the middle of the week, but there were still a fair number of people there, showing that it is a rather popular hang-out. Situated along a row of other bars and clubs, they have the advantage of being one of a number of drinking holes in a very small area.
Hopcat has glass wash stations underneath each tap and give their glasses a good rinse before the beer hits them. This is a nice touch as it ensures there no dust in the glass. Not many bars have this attention to detail.
The beer selection was global, showing a huge number of styles, types, and breweries ranging from local Michigan brew to the UK selections to German beverages. The board was organized by type, which helps with picking from the nearly 50 beers that they have on tap. If for some reason you can’t find something in this crop, they also feature a number of bottles. On this trip, I did not even peruse the bottle selection.
After our party arrived, we ordered dinner. Everyone was impressed with their dish, and it seems the Macaroni and Cheese was a large hit. I didn’t have it, but rather had a cup of tomato bisque with a veggie burrito.
The tomato bisque was extremely tasty, but could have used a run in the blender for a little longer to make it smoother. It was served with bleu cheese, which was something wonderfully different. I really don’t want to have tomato bisque without it now. It -was- that good.
The veggie burrito was your run-of-the-mill “wet” burrito, with what was likely a canned burrito sauce. It was only remarkable by the plethora of veggies and the beans which were cooked in some kind of chipotle sauce. This made the burrito something a little different, and it was tasty. I would order it again… eventually, but there are a number of other selections on the menu to try first.
What is most impressive to me is the knowledge that the barkeeps and waitstaff have on the beer. I usually don’t take suggestions from people I don’t know on beer, but on one of the beers I tried, I took a barkeeps suggestion; Stone 12 year Anniversary brew. It was one of the best beers I’ve had in a while. The barkeep’s “nom nom” eyes-rolling-back suggestion was correct. It was a very good beer.
The person who waited our table was also very knowledgeable about all sorts of beer, even things they didn’t have. It’s always good to talk to someone else who is passionate about beer, and I can’t say I was any kind of disappointed with the evening.
Overall, if Ashley’s in Ann Arbor were used as the 5 star reference, Hopcat would easily walk away with 3 ½ stars, if not 4 (this remains to be seen on another visit though). Prices are typical for a downtown “trendy” watering hole; a bit more than you will pay at your neighborhood bar. I didn’t feel an instant “this is home” vibe from the place because of its distinctly upscale atmosphere, but the selection of beers is good, the waitstaff is nice and knowledgeable, and the food is good enough for a night out with friends.
We will be returning on the Friday after Thanksgiving for an acoustic show with some of the guys from Domestic Problems.
As many of you know, we are reluctant migrators to Grand Rapids. At first, Kalamazoo was our home and it is a town that we dearly loved and felt like we had our place in. When I got a job here in GR, we kept living in Kalamazoo and I commuted. One day, it was pointed out to me that I had a moving benefit available to me that had a lot of advantage; basically moving Char and I up a notch in the housing scheme of things for absolutely no cash outlay of my own. What a deal!
We decided to get an apartment first and get the lay of the land before buying a house. We moved into the luxurious trailer park high-rise up on Alpine and went about our merry way, trying to find our place in this seemingly commercialized urban landscape that was rather unfamiliar to both us.
After a couple of years (and a baby), we decided it best to buy a house and we had a pretty good idea where it ought to be. We landed here in Eastown, in what can only be described as a gem of a home on a great block with really great neighbors. Life was good, but we had never built the sense of community that we had in Kalamazoo.
After a few years of being here (more than I’d like to admit to), we discovered an online social networking tool called Twitter. It’s actually a really simple application with a very simple interface; send up to 140 characters at a time in “microblog” fashion. The only other major feature is the ability to “follow” other users who are doing the same thing, getting a “blow by blow” list of everything everyone you’re following says. You can respond to each others “tweets”.
Kind of interesting. The geeks actually pointed it out and we moved the geeklist there first. Then I discovered that there was actually a large group of local people (GR Twitterfolk) who were also doing the same thing the geeklist was doing. I got intrigued and started following random people who looked interesting and who were local. My lovely wife did the same and soon started to become a member of a local social group that discusses things going on around town, our common lives, good places to eat and get entertainment, and pretty much any other topic under the sun.
This has gone on for a while and we’ve been begged to come to what is known as a tweetup (a local gathering of online friends who use twitter). We’ve been unable to attend for various reasons and always been sad about it. Thus, we keep on communicating with these good folks via Twitter and hoping to get together someday, which is very exciting.
The reason this is exciting? Well… this group has created that missing sense of community for Char and me. We have just recently come to love our town for so many reasons, including the passion that these folks have for the great things in our city (and there are a lot of them). But we’ll get to that in a minute.
As most of you know, we’ve had a hell of a couple of weeks around here. A lot has happened. My car got stolen a couple of weeks ago and showed back up with a crumpled roof and hood this week. Last night, some hooligans stole a group of pumpkins from our porch, one of which was a pumpkin that Clare had grown from a seed this year. It was heartbreaking after the emotion of having the car stolen and the pain in the neck that entailed.
Of course, we shared our woes with our community, the good people of the GR Twitter group. Sympathy was given all around when talking about how our faith in humanity had been somewhat shattered by the goings-on of the past couple of weeks. It made both Char and I feel better to vent our frustrations and talk about how some of the people in our town had really let us down. It really was therapeutic.
Tonight, about 15 of them showed up to our place and left an amazing number of beautiful pumpkins on our front porch (as well as left us a couple of bottles of Dark Horse beer… yeah!!!). Both of us are in complete and utter awe of the kindness of this group of people. Shocked is a word, but it doesn’t point out the jaw-dropped, tears welling up joy that this act brought to our Eastown household tonight. There are not words in the English language to describe just how we feel about our friends. Suffice it to say that this is kindness and caring unlike anything we’ve ever experienced in GR and that we are genuinely moved at this self-less and random act of kindness.
GR Twitterfolk are one of the greatest things about this city, and after tonight, I feel more passionately about that than ever.
Here’s some grainy pics that don’t do justice to this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadheadphonist/sets/72157608311613612/
I got my car back last night. Certainly in worse shape than I last
saw it and with damage I couldn’t have anticipated, but we’ll get to
that in a moment.
The story goes like this : yesterday, we got a voicemail from a dude
calling who reported (to us) that there was a silver Nissan parked in
their drive and that they had dug through it looking for a phone
number because it had been sitting there for a couple of weeks. They
found ours on an oil change receipt.
We called the guy back and let him know that we had filed a stolen
vehicle report on it and that we had to get the GRPD out before we
could anything about the car. We called the GRPD with the location.
They told us we needed to go there and confirm that it is our car. We
drove over there (two blocks away from our house) and called the GRPD.
They arrived, took this story, and dusted for prints.
Exciting, I know. Some of you (who might have seen me this morning), are probably wondering why then am I still riding my bicycle to work. Now we’re getting to the good part.
A flashlight inspection revealed the following “interesting” scenario:
doors unlocked, no broken glass (I religiously lock my doors). The
ignition wasn’t punched. The column wasn’t broken. The car stereo
FACEPLATE was stolen (irony, I know, but it was a $75 stereo).
Couldn’t see anything else that was stolen other than I think they
took some change I had between the seats. Weird stuff, but it gets
weirder.
The roof was caved in from what appears to be multiple people JUMPING
on it (good shoeprints… I don’t wash the car). The hood is in the
same condition. Yes, people, someone stole my car so they could ditch
it in a random student housing parking lot two blocks away and JUMP ON
IT.
I wish I could make this shit up…
I drove the car home and parked it. It started, car was in the off
position, doesn’t appear to have been hotwired, but I can’t be sure.
It wasn’t out of gas, but was as close as I had left it; floating near
E. In the dark, I can’t do an electrical inspection to try to figure
out how they got it started so I don’t trust going anywhere in it
until I determine that the wiring is still safe.
Un-fucking-real… that’s all I have to say.
Anyone want to buy a 97 Nissan Altima with a caved in roof and a hood
that looks like crumpled up paper? Needs a little work, but it
runs….
We are moving to new hosting over the next couple of weeks. Please bear with us as we pull this off. In the meantime, here’s something I sent to the geeklist after a twitter post.
—
Marc brought up a good question on Twitter, asking if I knew what my
ideal job would be. In fact, this is something I’ve considered as
there are parts of this job that I absolutely love along with the
generalized disdain. First some background on exactly what I do,
because I don’t think most of you even really know (hell… sometimes
-I- don’t).
I have assumed the role of IT architect here at Dematic. You know
that line that says “duties as assigned” in your job description?
Well… -that’s- my job. I can’t even say I primarily do any one
thing anymore. I’m a subject matter expert on just about everything
to do with enterprise IT at an engineering and manufacturing company,
up to and including the financial aspects of running a medium-sized
enterprise IT organization.
My highly opinionated, loud mouth gets me tagged for all sorts of
shit, but ya know… I’m not unhappy about that.
This includes project management, admin of all sorts (security, active
directory, sccm/sms, san, network, exchange, vmware, linux/unix, etc),
it system design and implementation, development, resource management
(including capacity planning), support, and education.
Not that I do this stuff alone. We have a great team here who are
also generally highly opinionated and loud (except for Brandon, who is
just not loud). :)
As an example of my varied life, my current task list includes
virtualizing a couple of servers that haven’t been yet, writing a new
PC database application (along with automating the data population by
writing a couple of client-side applications), recommending revisions
to the capital forecast for FY09 by restructuring project proposals,
and providing back office support that Brandon would otherwise be
doing if he were not off gallivanting around Mexico celebrating his
nuptials. :)
I’m learning C# and Linq at the moment.
Of those four or five items, three or four are doing things that I
generally love. One, the restructuring of the capital forecast, would
be fine if it weren’t for the way in which I have to do it and the
reasons why. Basically, there’s an expectation that we provide
something for which we are given no resources and expected not to
fail. When we point out the stupidity, we are laughed at. It’s
maddening. So we’re left with trying to do things the “least worst”
way instead of doing things right.
Continue reading ‘Eastowners moving soon’
