Jam Night

Last night I jammed with a bass player and drummer I’ve been talking to about a possible band. It went OK, but I was a little rusty and they only had a few jams they’d been working on, no songs. They asked if I had any riffs or anything and despite the fact that I do, I drew a blank, of course.

There’s just something about auditions, job interviews, and first dates. I end up stammering like a buffoon, but sounding like a genius on the ride home, when I think of that I should have said, and no one else is around. Basically it goes like this:

Them: So what bands do you listen to?
Me: I like… uh… music.

Them: Do you know any songs?
Me: My name is Mike. I like shiny things.

Them: Do you have any original material written?
Me: My guitar has 6 strings.

Them: Can’t you name at least one band you listen to???
Me: Um… Hanson.
(Sometimes when I’m under pressure, Hanson is one of the first things that pop into my head.)

I have a feeling I’m not going to hear back from those guys. They were both very good, but it’s OK with me though either way. I just couldn’t seem to get into a groove with the drummer. I’m looking for something that is a little more ready to go too. Plug & Play, baby!

I’ll have another tryout after the holiday weekend and that one sounds like a better fit anyway. It was good to actually shake some of the rust off though and play with actual musicians! Once my nerves settled I played better and felt like I was picking up right where I left off. It was definitely a confidence booster. I might just not suck after all!

Catching up with stuff...

I have been neglecting this blog for practically the last two months. A lot has happened in the meantime. The main reason I’ve been so busy is I closed on my house last month, and I’ve been settling in.

After a lot of back and forth between the lawyers everything finally got resolved and now I’m moved in! The main delay was that the seller’s lawyer was either very sneaky, or an incompetent moron. My vote is on the latter. We’d ask a question, and get a response that not only didn’t answer my question, but usually made no sense. She was even unprepared for the closing, forgetting several documents. At least the lawyer I was using was good!

I had my friends Keith and Cesar help me move. Yes, I’m one of those guys that have their friends help them move. If I move again though I’ll hire movers! It went pretty smoothly except for my beastly 14” band saw!

Now I just need to get some curtains, and some furniture. I bought a 42” Plasma Philips TV with Ambilight. The ambilight is lights on the side of the TV that shine against the wall (for ambient lighting, clever, eh?). You can set it so the colors vary by what’s on the screen too. Very cool!

I’m no longer making my football picks because I was pretty much below .500, and I missed a few weeks.

I’ll try to be more diligent about posting something at least once a week here. Not that anyone actually reads this, but just in case!

Week 4 Picks

Houston at Cincinnati (-10): Cincinnati
Indianapolis (-7) at Tennessee: Indianapolis
New England (-4) at San Diego: New England
Buffalo at New Orleans (-1): New Orleans
St. Louis at New York Giants (-3): New York Giants
Detroit at Tampa Bay (-6.5): Tampa Bay
Seattle at Washington (-1.5): Seattle
Denver at Jacksonville (-4): Denver
New York Jets at Baltimore (-7): Baltimore
Minnesota at Atlanta (-6): Atlanta
Philadelphia at Kansas City (-1): Philadelphia
Dallas at Oakland (-3.5): Dallas
San Francisco at Arizona (-2.5): San Francisco
Green Bay at Carolina (-7.5): Green Bay

More House Hunting Goodness

Last week I got a call from my realtor about the house that I had put a bid on. The people who were buying it kept asking for extensions on getting their financing, so the seller wanted to know if I was still interested. I was, and we put together an offer, that was for a fiar amount less then the original bid (when there were two of us bidding on the property).

I was told if the other people weren’t able to finalize their financing by last Friday they would take my offer, since I’d be able to close pretty quickly. On Friday we found out that they had been extended (again!) until Wednesday. I went out and looked at more places on Saturday just in case. On Wednesday we found out that the people did get their financing, so I did not get the house (again!).

I liked one of the houses that I had looked at while all that was going on. It was in the same neighborhood, but was a little larger with a HUGE basement, and more privacy in the backyard. The square footage was a little less, but I think the way it is laid out made it seem bigger.

My realtor and I put together an offer yesterday and it was accepted. So now I have a contract! Just need to do the home inspection stuff, which hopefully won’t uncover anything too bad. They wanted a quick close as well since their original deal fell through. That’s why the house was back on the market. I’m able to do a quick close so things should be moving along very quickly.

I know a lot can happen between now and the time we actually close, but I have my fingers crossed that everything goes ok and I can get settled into my first very own house!

Week 3 Results

What a brutal week for my picks. Four of my picks won but didn’t cover the spread. I only count vs. the spread, so it was another tough week. I went 5-9 (.357) vs. the spread but would have been 9-5 straight up (I would have picked Indy to win, but not by 14!).

So far for the season I am at 19-27 (.413). That’s the worst I’ve ever been going into week 4!

Lost & Found

Here’s one reason I love my job. I just received a list of items that have been found by security at work and that are available at the front desk. Here are my favorites:

A little blue skirt from a toy doll. (Maybe from a Barbie doll, etc.)
A little blue skirt from a toy doll?? I work in an office? Wtf?!

A small, round black earring with a splash of cream.
I think they used to work for QVC

An oblong silver hoop earring. (thick)
An oblong gold hoop earring. (thin)
I wonder if these belong to that colorblind lady who always has her head tilted to one side?

3 different earrings- one just turned in today- 1 has a medium size ball hanging from its (brown and cream) clip on. 1 has a small brown stone (?) hanging from it (pierced ears) and the third is a small round brown ball hanging from it. (Pierced earrings).
What, is brown the new gold?

Eyeglasses
I would respond to this email, but I can’t read it without my glasses

A pink ribbon with a high heeled shoe hanging from it.
This one is just plain weird. Did someone mean to hang it at someone else’s cube? “Look Jenny… I put your shoe on a pink ribbon. Pink is pretty, You’d look pretty in pink. I had to sneak in while you were sleeping to get it. You look so peaceful when you’re sleeping. Want to go out with me for lunch today?”

Week 3 Picks

Here's my week 3 picks:

Atlanta at Buffalo (-2.5): Atlanta
Cincinnati (-3) at Chicago: Chicago
Tampa Bay (-4) at Green Bay: Tampa Bay
Cleveland at Indianapolis (-14): Cleveland
Tennessee at St. Louis (-6.5): St Louis
Carolina (-3.5) at Miami: Carolina
New Orleans at Minnesota (-3.5): Minnesota
Jacksonville at New York Jets (-2.5): Jacksonville
Oakland at Philadelphia (-8.5): Philadelphia
Dallas (-6.5) at San Francisco: Dallas
Arizona at Seattle (-6): Arizona
New England at Pittsburgh (-3): Pittsburgh
New York Giants at San Diego (-6): San Diego
Kansas City at Denver (-2.5): Kansas City

B.B. King Concert Review

The B.B. King concert was quite a night, even though it got off to a shaky start. The first thing was that I forgot my change of clothes at home, so I had to go to home first to change. I wasn’t going to a concert in my work duds.

The concert was at the Convocation Center at NIU in DeKalb. It only took me 45 minutes to get there, so I stopped to get something to eat to kill time. I stopped at a place called Pizza Villa. This place had the weirdest process. You order and pay for your food, get a receipt, and then find a seat. Now the waitress comes by, takes your receipt, and gets your drinks. You pay her for the drinks. What’s great is as the waitress took my receipt she tells me its 15-20 minutes for the pan pizza ordered. Nice to find that out after I order it. At least I was there to just kill time.

After eating I found my seat, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and was an aisle seat. Next to me was a large, older lady, and in front were a woman and a young boy, who is best described as Timmy from South Park.

Before the show starts Timmy is flailing around, and I’m thinking to myself “man, that is gonna be so distracting.” Ok, so maybe I’m a jerk, but I’m very picky about concerts, and the littlest things can ruin the whole night.

Luckily, the opening act was Joe Bonamassa, whose yawningly good performance calmed the little guy right down. Unfortunately though, the large woman is now bouncing in her seat to the music, which is causing my chair to shake too. I’m not sure if it was the pan pizza, or Joe Bonamassa’s playing, but I’m starting to feel queasy.

Since the stage was to my left, I could see that the large lady kept staring at Timmy. Personally, I think it is rude to stare at those that are “alternately enabled”, and a woman of her age ought to know better. I realized though, that he was much more entertaining than Joe Bossanova.

I would like to tell any young, white, blues guitarists that happen to be reading this to go listen to someone other than Stevie Ray Vaughn. Please, for the love of God and everything holy, you are not SRV reincarnate. Stop acting like it. Blues is about the notes you DON’T play! Also this Joe Bono-SOMA opened his mouth so wide when he sang it made me think of the previews for that Exorcism of Emily Rose movie.

What really upset me was that the crowd actually encouraged this guy. When he was done the large lady turns to me and says “He was good, wasn’t he?” I though “Are you related to him somehow?” I was just glad when his soulless, heartless, gutless performance was over.

Thankfully the next act was Kenny Wayne shepherd. I wanted to see him at Rib Fest this year but I had something else scheduled. He was the polar opposite of Joe Bagodonuts. He played tastefully, and put on quite a good show. He had Noah Hunt on lead vocals, and the only problem was sometimes his guitar sometimes got lost in the mix.

Shepherd played one of the best versions of Hendrix’s Voodoo Chile I’ve ever seen or heard. He had the crowd eating it up! After his set I noticed he had several female roadies. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. His mellower playing stopped the large woman from bouncing so my stomach was finally settling down.

Now after another mad dash off to the restroom the lights go down again and B.B. King’s band takes the stage. They played a song with each musician taking a lead. In the band was a big, older black guy playing guitar and I wondered how many people there thought this was actually B.B. King.

When he took the stage the crowd went nuts. It must be a great feeling to get a standing ovation just for walking onto a stage and sitting down! After introduction of the band he opened with Why I Sing the Blues. The set included When Love Comes to Town, Wille Nelson’s Night Life, Nobody Loves Me But My Mother which carried into How Blue Can You Get, All Over Again and several others. When he played Rock Me Baby and The Thrill Is Gone I knew the show was coming to an end, and he finished the evening with Please Accept My Love .

The entire show he had the crowd laughing and singing along. There are probably only a handful people that can work a crowd like B.B. King, I guess when you’ve been doing it as long as he has, you know a few tricks. Hopefully he will keep doing it for a long time to come too!

Mr. B.B. King

I am going to go see one of my top five favorite guitar players ever tonight. Mr. B.B. King! I was watching a concert of his I rented from NetFlix, and I got to thinking, not to be morbid, but he is an obese, 80-year-old diabetic.

I checked to see his schedule and saw he was playing at the NIU Convocation Center in DeKalb. It’s kind of far, but it would probably take me about the same amount of time to drive into the city, find parking, etc. Kenny Wayne Shepherd is also playing, which is a nice bonus. I wanted to see him play at the Naperville Rib Fest, but I was already going someplace else.

I had it all planned out to leave straight from work to go out there, but of course, I forgot my change of clothes at home, so I have to stop there first to change. Luckily it isn’t too far out of the way.

I made a CD with all of my B.B. King MP3s and that’s what I’ve been listening to all day, getting geared up! B.B. King had a big influence on my guitar playing. I remember seeing him on the Tonight Show, probably when I was still in grade school. I saw him do that strong vibrato by shaking his whole left hand. I spent hours and hours practicing just that until I finally got it as fast and smooth as he did it.

Week 2 Results

7-9 again. Not good! I was all set to pick Tennessee over Baltimore, than for some reason, at the last minute I changed my mind. What is wrong with Green Bay? Once again my “sure thing pick” misfires.

So far on the season I am 14-32 (.437). Hopefully things will get better or I may stop bothering with making the picks.

Week 2 Picks

Here are my picks for week 2. I’m hoping to have a much better week this week than last week (7-9). My “can’t miss” pick this week is Green Bay over Cleveland. The Packer played like crap in week 1, but I don’t see anything on the Browns that makes me think they can win. Not only this game, but just about any matchup for that matter.

Detroit (-1.5) at Chicago: Chicago
Minnesota (-3) at Cincinnati: Cincinnati
Baltimore (-3.5) at Tennessee: Baltimore
Jacksonville at Indianapolis (-9): Indianapolis
San Francisco at Philadelphia (-13): Philadelphia
Buffalo at Tampa Bay (-2.5): Buffalo
New England (-3.5) at Carolina: New England
Pittsburgh (-6) at Houston: Pittsburgh
St. Louis at Arizona (-1): St. Louis
Atlanta at Seattle (-1): Atlanta
San Diego at Denver (-2.5): San Diego
Cleveland at Green Bay (-6): Green Bay
Miami at New York Jets (-6): Miami
Kansas City (-1) at Oakland: Kansas City
New York Giants (-3.5) at New Orleans: New York Giants
Washington at Dallas (-6): Dallas

Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans

I’ve never been to New Orleans. In fact, it is on my list of top 5 places I do not want to go (even pre-hurricane). Corrupt cops, extremely high crime, hot & muggy… not my ideal vacation. I think I might like being there for mardi gras, seeing as how I really like boobies, but I don’t like big crowds of sweaty, drunk people, so it is a tough call.

I happened to be listening to Louis Armstrong at work, because I’ve listened to just about everything else already, and happened across the following song. Regardless of my feelings about the city, I thought it was appropriate for the people that actually do love this city.

Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans
And miss it each night and day
I know I’m not wrong
This feeling’s gettin’ stronger
The longer, I stay away
Miss them moss covered vines
The tall sugar pines
Where mockin’ birds used to sing
And I’d like to see that lazy mississippi
Hurryin’ into spring

The moonlight on the bayou,
A creole tune that fills the air
I dream about magnolias in bloom
And I’m wishin’ I was there

Life's Little Reset Button

It isn’t often that a Martin Sheen line in a movie makes me think about the choices I’ve made in life, but he had a line in Greed that really stuck with me:

Stop going for the easy buck and start producing something with your life. Create, instead of living off the buying and selling of others.

That quote kept popping into my head, and then I saw Loudon Wainwright III on Conan O’Brien singing “Last Man on Earth (Year 2000)”. Ever since then I’ve been miserable about my job. I even took a year off to try and do something more fulfilling.

I wanted to build guitars, birdhouses, make candles, something, ANYTHING! I was too lazy and unfocused to do any of these though. I’d start something, and then move on to something else.

So now I’m back at the same job, at the same client, dealing with the same stupidity and frustrations as I did before, and I’m no better off. I’m getting a steady paycheck, which is nice, but I’m not really contributing anything.

I don’t want to just work for the money, even though the money is pretty good. The main reason I came back was to be able to get financing to buy my own house. Once I do I’ll probably be stuck even worse because I’ll have a house payment I’ll need to make! (Even though it isn’t much more than paying rent).

I need to find some sort of creative outlet. I should talk to Dr. Phil. I need to join a band. I should go to church again. I must make changes in my life!

Week 1 Results

To me, weeks one and two are the hardest to pick because you never really know how a team will do the first game. Then in week two you don’t know how well they’ll adjust, or if week one was a fluke. Regardless, I’m still disappointed with my picks. I ended up 7-9 (.435) on the week.

My sure thing pick was wrong, of course. I should’ve made Green Bay over Detroit my sure thing. Oh wait, that would have been wrong too. My third choice was Cincinnati over Cleveland, where I finally would’ve been right!

My apologies to Willie Parker of Pittsburgh who stepped up to prove me wrong. Kurt Warner looked awful to prove me wrong. At least Jake Plummer played awful to prove me right. I used to be a huge Plummer fan, but he’s been in the league way too long to still play that bad. It means he’s not going to get any better either.

The Monday night game was crazy, but good! Even better was the fact that T.O. got no big plays! He got a good amount of yards, but didn’t seem in synch with McNabb. I wonder why that is? I’m only wondering why they threw to him 19 times.

Could the MNF halftime show be any lamer? I hope they’re not doing the Tim McGraw thing every week. I never thought I’d miss seeing the brothers Gramatica singing with Santana. Who thought Jimmy Kimmel was a good idea? If I wanted someone squinty and whiny I’d go find former VJ Kevin Seal.

Week 1 Picks

Finally! Football season is here again! Now I have something to do on Sundays besides laying out the couch all day. Now I’ll be lying on the couch watching football!

It is also time to once again start making my weekly football picks. This year I’m not going to pick straight-up winners and winners vs. the spread. I’ll just be picking teams against the spread. I’m already 1-0 since I picked the Pats on Thursday. My picks should appear here by sometime on Friday evening.

Weeks 1 and 2 are always the hardest to pick for me since you don’t really know how a lot of teams are going to shape out, but here goes!

Week 1:
Oakland at New England (-7.5): New England Patriots
Houston at Buffalo (-5.5): Buffalo
Cincinnati (-3.5) at Cleveland: Cincinnati
New York Jets at Kansas City (-3): Kansas City
Denver (-5) at Miami: Miami
Tampa Bay at Minnesota (-6): Minnesota
Tennessee at Pittsburgh (-7): Tennessee
Chicago at Washington (-5.5): Washington
New Orleans at Carolina (-7): Carolina
Seattle at Jacksonville (-3): Jacksonville
Green Bay (-3) at Detroit: Green Bay
Arizona at New York Giants (-3): Arizona
Dallas at San Diego (4.5): San Diego
St. Louis (-6) at San Francisco: St. Louis
Indianapolis (-3) at Baltimore: Indianapolis
Philadelphia (-1.5) At Atlanta: Philadelphia

Miami, Tennessee, and Arizona are the only upsets I have this week. My sure-thing-o’-the-week is the Rams over the 49ers.

A "Fluid" Situation

A few days ago I received an email at work concerning the employees that are out in the field in regards to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath that said the situation was "fluid". Seeing as how New Orleans is under 20’ of water, I found this choice of words little ironic. (Water being a fluid). Apparently, this is a common phrase as the handful of quotes below show:

"The situation is fluid and subject to change at any time"
Fred Stratmann - Ohio Emergency Management Agency

"This is a fluid situation"
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart

"My own sense is this is going to be a very fluid situation for a while"
Jim Morris - Missouri Department of Education

Since we have to be careful about the words we use (like "Refugee"), and the fact that somewhere between 50% and 60% of me is made of water, I’ve decided to be offended by this.

Here are my Top Ten suggestions for alternative words in alphabetical order. Use them in the following:

“The situation is…”
1. Capricious
2. Desultory
3. Dexterous
4. Lubricious
5. Mercurial
6. Permutable
7. Spasmodic
8. Vacillating
9. Vagarious
10. Volatile

Very Cheap, Legal (sort of) MP3 Downloading

A friend of mine just told me about allofmp3.com, a Russian mp3 download service. The songs are about 10 cents each, and most albums can be bought for under $2!

Is it legal? Well, sort of. It’s a matter of interpretation. “Loopholes” in Russian copyright laws allow the service to exist, and, technically speaking, you are buying the mp3s in Russia, and importing them. If you are using them for your own personal use, and not redistributing them, this is legal, as long as you consider an mp3 a “phonorecord”. The RIAA is reluctant to go after people using this type of service because they don’t want to give it any publicity.

To me, it is more legal than using a P2P service, and more convenient, since you don’t have to rely on someone else already having the album. The selection is pretty good too, so I’ll be getting my mp3s from there now.

Check it out: AllOfMP3.com

Happy Chair Day!

What do you do if you are a not-for-profit organization, and you have a profit? New chairs for employees of course! I’ll take a $700 Think by SteelCase eco-chair (or as the company calls it, an “environmentally sustainable seating product”) with all the trimmings please.

My old chair was like a bad shopping cart. The wheels wouldn’t swivel so it didn’t roll. It was quite amusing watching the whole IT department pushing their old chairs to the elevators one by one, and smiling like kids on Christmas with the new ones. The old chairs were lined up on one side like a giant office chair graveyard. Very sad. I need to find the right adjustments, but so far my butt likes it.

360 Degrees of Crap

Why is 360° the new buzzword everyone has to have? You have the XBox 360, Yahoo 360° (MySpace ripoff), and at work they keep talking about this 360° customer view.

Also, please try to remember, if you turn 360° you are still going the same way. If you change completely it is 180°. This is a pet peeve of mine.

Natural Disasters

I’ve been watching a lot of the coverage of the hurricane Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans. Mainly it is because I don’t want to actually work. It got me thinking about natural disasters. For some odd reason, in cases of floods, I take the side of the flood.

The reasons are complicated, but it is basically because we, humans that is, build levees and dams, and try to “reclaim” land from the water. Every now and then though, Mother Nature gives us a mighty bitch-slap and takes it all back.

I don’t mean to say that I’m not sympathetic to people that lose their homes, and God forbid, pets and loved ones, to the flood waters, but it is like the Earth is hitting the reset button, reminding us that we aren’t quite as all-powerful as we like to think we are.

Most times, the floodwaters eventually recede and we can start over. Unless of course, you have built your city in a bowl shaped hole, below sea level, and surrounded by a lake, the mightiest river in the land, and the Gulf of Mexico. That is a whole other story though!

Here is what I think of other types of natural disasters:

An Earthquake is like a big, muscle-headed bully that walks down the street and pushes people down, just because he can. He’s saying “Hey, look at me, I can knock you down because I’m big and strong and there’s nothing you can do about it either!”

A tornado isn’t quite as bad. A tornado is the belligerent, drunken guy in the bar who wants to start a fight with everyone. If you stay out of his path, you’re fine, but if you tangle with him you can get hurt.

A volcano is like giving a friend who has had too much to drink a ride home, but instead of being grateful, they just puke in your backseat.

A tsunami, whose best friend it the earthquake-bully, is like a big, fat guy that pushes everyone else away from a buffet and eats all the food, then just leaves. In his aftermath is a big mess and a bunch of people asking “what the hell was that?!”

A landslide or avalanche is an annoying neighbor that dumps their garbage and yard waste over the fence and into your yard.

A drought is a deadbeat relative who keeps borrowing money. No matter how much you give them, they need more and more.

On the other hand, a flood is like a small farmer who tries to make a living with a little fruit and vegetable stand. Gradually the city encroaches closer and closer, corrupt politicians change zoning laws to allow town homes and strip malls to be built on the farm until there’s nothing but a little square left. The old guy doesn’t complain though, he just tries to keep on going.

The runoff from nearby industrial areas start poisoning his crops, the yuppies in their giant SUVs just speed by his little stand on the way to the nearest Whole Foods supermarket. The city creates a new “roadside fruit & vegetable stand tax”. Eventually all the guy is left with is some yellowing lettuce and seeds.

So one night, the guy finally decides he has had enough, so he goes all over the place planting vegetables. All the people in their quarter-million dollar town homes are worried about their imported exotic Japanese plants in their gardens being replaced by romaine lettuce. The carrots growing in the cracks of the new highway break up the pavement. Eventually every open space is covered with peas, green onions, leeks, bean sprouts, and parsnips.

No one can drive their giant SUVs over the roads, which are now covered in alfalfa sprouts. People need food! Luckily for them, just down the road, within walking distance, is an old guy, sitting in a rickety chair, smiling away, happy to sell you a wide choice of fresh, organically grown fruits and vegetables.

A Swing and a Miss

On Wednesday, after getting the good news from the heart doctor, I went to check out a house I liked during the first house hunting trip. I liked it because it was a very good fit for what I was looking for, so I decided to make an offer on it. Since there was another offer it was $100 over the list price.  

I was going to do that today after work but I got a call last night from my realtor that the seller’s realtor told him there another offer had been made. I went back out and met with my guy and we wrote up an offer.

Later the same night I got a call that both the offers were the same, and could we do any better. So I did, in fact I’m now offering even more ABOVE their list price.

Their realtor said she was concerned about my financing because I got a pre-qualified letter from lenders from lendingtree.com. I guess this doesn’t hold much weight when making an offer.

So this morning I called the guy from Country Wide that my realtor suggested to get a qualification letter from them for the offer. He wasn’t available most of this morning because he was at a closing, but he talked to their realtor and verbally said my credit was good (around noon).

So now I’m waiting to hear back about my offer. The last thing my guy heard was that both offers were “practically” the same, and that both of us were equally strong as buyers (not having any conditions such as having to sell another house or something like that).

I’m waiting to hear back, and waiting, and waiting. In the meantime I start thinking, “if they do have 2 identical offers, why are they not picking one?” I get a call from my guy about 6:30pm and he says he still hasn’t heard back from her. At 8 he calls and says he still hasn’t heard back from her.

Now I’m starting to get feel a little hinky about this whole thing. The only reason I went above the list a second time was to lock this thing up. Not hearing anything back from their realtor isn’t helping.

So around 8:30 my guy calls again and I don’t want my offer just sitting there for too long. The only reason I bid that high was to seal the deal. So he leaves another voicemail with her saying that we need to at least her from her, and that if we don’t we’re probably going to withdraw (because we’re both starting to think she’s dragging her feet waiting for a possible third offer, or trying to get the other guy to raise theirs again). Sure enough she calls back 5 minutes later to say they went with the other offer. This took all of about 30 seconds, why she waited I don’t know.

In the end I’m disappointed that I didn’t get the house, because I thought it was a really good fit for what I’m looking for, but with all the weirdness I’m also fine with not getting it. Like I said, I just got a hinky feeling about the whole thing. Back to the drawing board I guess!

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other One

Here is another example of why the world, the U.S. in particular is so messed up. This is the list of “Most Viewed” stories on MSNBC.com, on a day where New Orleans is underwater and hundreds have died in an Iraqi Stampede (hmm... good band name). See if you can tell which one of these doesn’t belong:

A) New Orleans faces bleak future
B) Stone furious over role lost to Zeta-Jones
C) Beslan marks first anniversary of school siege

If you guessed B, you are needed to help me build an underground bunker for the day of reckoning.

My Unbroken Heart

I got all the results from my Stress Echo and Cholesterol tests. My cholesterol is low, my blood pressure is just right, and my heart looks and sounds healthy. Basically, I have been officially diagnosed as fat & lazy, but I have a healthy heart!

Scenic Sandy Balls

A new book lists England’s top 100 most dirty sounding towns, villages, and streets. Thankfully it gives pictures and the story behind the names. Here are my Top 10 favorites:

94 - St. Mellons
92 - Booty Lane
66 - Old Sodom Lane
40 - Hill o'Many Stanes
33 - Titty Ho
25 - Wetwang
20 - Spanker Lane
6 - Muff
5 - Sandy Balls (Why this isn’t #1 I’ll never know)
4 - Twatt

View the entire list here.

102nd & Ewing Ave.

I saw on the news that the guy that holed-up in a house in Villa Park, causing the police to close every road within 100 miles, was from "102nd & Ewing" in Chicago. I grew up on the 102nd block of Ewing Ave!
http://www.nbc5.com/news/4901907/detail.html

House Hunting Again

I went out looking at houses again. This time there were eight of them on the list. Two of them stood out this time, the rest were either just average or not what I’m looking for.

Now I have it narrowed down between two. One in Warrenville and one in Woodridge. I saw another one in Warrenville, in the same division that I liked, but when I compared the two in Warrenville I liked the one I saw last week more. Then the last house I looked at was in Woodridge, on a cul-de-sac. I didn’t think that much of it at first. The more I thought about it the more I liked it.

The one in Warrenville is newer, bigger, and cheaper, but it is in Warrenville! The one in Woodridge is close to 75th and I-355 so I’m leaning towards it. It not much older or smaller, but I think the layout might work more for what I want. Plus, it isn’t out in Warrenville!

More People That Suck

People that drive really big SUVs, and when turning left, when I am trying to turn right, keep pulling up until I can’t see if anyone is coming.

People that throw their money into the basket on the tollbooth, then wait for the light to turn green, even if there is no gate. Are you really that desperate for reassurance in your life?

A Day In The Life...

Them: How do you think we should do this?

Me: I think we should (my solution)

Them: What I was thinking was (their solution)

Me: That would work, but here are (10 reasons why my solution is simpler and better)

Them: I’m going to do it my way. Thanks.

Me (thinking): Ok, then why the hell did you ask me my opinion in the first place?

Synthesizer Pioneer Moog dies at 71

Robert Moog invented many early synthesizers and was a pioneer of electronic music.

I happen to own a MultiMoog. I got it about 15 years ago from a guy at an electronics flea-market my dad was at. I remember because he had forgotten some of the stuff he intended to sell and I had to drive it out to him, getting very lost along the way.

The guy in the booth next to him had the Moog and sold it to me for $100. A lot of money for me at the time but as it turns out a good investment!

I always pronounced Moog as in “Food”, but I was told it was actually pronounced with an “oh” sound. This was from a guy who worked at Coolsavings.com, where Matt Moog, Robert’s son, is now the CEO. (I could be wrong about all that, but that’s what I was told).

Here are some pictures of my Moog. It has the serial #1096, making it the 96th one made, since I read that Multi Moog serials started at 1000.





Synthesizer Pioneer Moog dies at 71

Party Animal

It is usually weird hanging out with people from work, when not at work, but I went to a party a coworker was having a party and it wasn’t much different than at work. I think this is because we don’t usually talk or act appropriately for the work environment!

I am such a lightweight now. I had two, somewhat strong, Rum & Cokes and had a buzz from it. I used to go out with my friends Jodi and Alex every Tuesday (Alternative night at Cassidy’s), Thursday (Jam night at J.J. Kelleys), Friday, Saturday, and most Sundays (The Thirsty Whale) to go out drinking. I would probably drop dead if I tried to drink half as much as we did then. Getting old kinda sucks, but it saves money on alcohol.

Thanks to Jimmy I enjoyed a fine Cuban cigar, and I finally met my friend Keith’s wife after knowing him for 3 years or so! I pretty much hung out with the guys I knew from work there, but it was fun.

The people having the party have an African Grey parrot. I was so close to buying one a couple years ago! I’m jealous! He didn’t talk to me but did make some chirping noises. I was told he will mimic everything from cell phones to the blip-blip from the TiVo!

I’m such a doofus, on the way there I completely forgot to take the exit I was supposed to, and on the way home I ended up taking a wrong turn and driving for about 10 minutes before I realized it. I need one of those dashboard compasses. Man, I really am getting old.

Black Metal Separated at Birth

These dudes are *SO* metal it hurts. Actually it was the side-splitting laughter these pics produced that caused the pain.

Behold, the Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics. And if that isn't enough for you, here are the Other Top 10 Most Ridiculous Black Metal Pics.

Seperated at birth?
Abbath of Immortal and GI Joe Master of Disguise, Zartan:

Be Vewwy Vewwy Quiet... I'm Hunting Houses

I met with my realtor today to go look at some houses. There were six houses on the list, in Wheaton, Warrenville, Lisle, and Woodridge. One was sold yesterday so I didn’t really look at that one.

The first one was a dinky little house right on Roosevelt Rd, but the second one I looked at was pretty nice and I’m interested in it. I looked at one that had a great floor plan, and was in a good area, but it needed a lot of work. I don’t want to have to spend that much time working on my house. It’s where I want to relax! The rest were ok, but not quite what I’m looking for.

I’ll get more listings as they come onto the market, and I upped my price range a bit to find more, hopefully something nice in Naperville that I can afford! I’m just hoping I can find something fairly soon. I want to be moved before it starts getting too cold or snowy. I become a hermit during winter after all.

I Got An A On My Stress Test

I had my stress test today. I think I did well because I studied all week at work for it. If anything it just proved that I am horrifically out of shape.

Before I had about a dozen electrodes stuck to me, the Echo Technician (Is that a cool title or what!?) ran a razor and the equivalent of a sanding pad over the spots where they would go.

The first part of this test is an ultrasound of your heart at rest. I watched my own heart beating, very creepy. To me, it looked like it worked fine, Lub-dub… lub-dub… and so on. I’ll have the full news on the 31st when I got back to the doctor to go over the results of my cholesterol test and the stress test.

After the ultrasound is was onto the treadmill. It only took about 8 minutes for my pulse to reach 180, and then it was a quick jump back to the ultrasound to see my heart in action again. I sat there panting and wheezing for a while they basically told me I was fat and out of shape. Thanks!

It wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be, after all, I did live through it. It isn’t something I would do on Saturday afternoon if I was bored though.

FACES Job Satisfaction Scale

In the 1980’s, Donna Wong Connie Morain Baker were working in the burn center at Hillcrest Medical Center, Tulsa, OK, where they developed the FACES Pain Rating Scale. This was helpful in cases when the patients were children. They were easily able to relate the level of pain they felt.

In 2005, working on his own, frustrated software developer, Me, expanding on this idea to provide the same easy to use scale for all employees.

You may find this chart helpful when talking to managers, recruiters, mental health-care professionals, friends, coworkers, or random strangers.

Town Hall Meeting Day

One great thing about where I work is the occasional Town Hall meeting. That is when the executive management talks about recent healthcare & patient safety legislation, press coverage, and other really important stuff that affects the level of quality of healthcare throughout the country.

That isn’t the good part. The best part is the question and answer session that comes at the end. About half the questions deal with actual policy and the business, the other half, well they basically fall into 3 categories: the cafeteria, the parking garage, and the bathrooms.

I wasn’t here at the time, but someone once asked why there weren’t more noodles in the chicken noodle soup served at the cafeteria. I did once hear though that the reason they don’t have toilet seat covers is because there is an air freshener. Apparently, these two items are mutually exclusive.

Some highlights today included such pressing issues of how to get coffee in the afternoon once the cafeteria has closed, and of course, how can one keep track of the time spent by those pesky smokers and their filthy habit.

I didn’t realize that in today’s society Flip-Flops caused such controversy. First a women’s lacrosse tam at the white house, and now here. Apparently, flip-flops are not acceptable, even on casual Fridays (which you all already know how I feel about.) According to the insurance companies loss specialist, flip-flops, and sandals as well, are a safety issue, as well as a fashion faux pas.

I also learned the difference between cropped pants, and Capri pants is the amount of leg that shows. Ankles = cropped, whereas calf = Capri. Both are considered casual. I couldn’t help but wonder if pant leg length has any effect on the danger levels of sandals.

Also, and I am so incredibly ticked that I missed this one, I found out that whey they went from business formal to business casual, there was a fashion show of what is appropriate business casual attire. Holy crap. A fashion show!

The good news of the day is that four new shelves will be added to the refrigerator, and new chairs for many employees have been ordered.

Since the company is over 60% female employees, and therefore there are always women in varying stages of pregnancy, a question was asked about “pregnant parking only”. IT was good idea that would be taken to, and I am quoting here, the “Parking Committee”.

I'll tell you what I would ask is I were an actual employee here: Why are there 4 "Full Size Van Only" parking spaces on each floor, when there are *never* full size vans parked in them? They're always empty. I drive a ’97 Lumina, not a small car, yet I’m always dwarfed and squished between two gigantic SUVs. Let them park in these spots so that I can actually get in and out my car without having to hold my breath!

I don’t know when the next Town Hall meeting is but sure it will be just as entertaining.

"Double" Confirmation Dialog Design Pattern

Sometimes when building a software application you may need to verify a user’s action. This is usually done with a confirmation dialog box or “pop up” that says “Are you sure you wish to…”



There have been many articles written about why these should not be used. Some of the issues are that users are so used to seeing these they don’t actually read any warnings, or that sometimes a user can inadvertently confirm the action simply by typing.

A better idea, one recommended by UI guru Alan Cooper , is to provide an Undo capability. A good example of this is Google’s Gmail. When creating a reply, if you chose to discard the reply the page then shows a message saying “Your message has been discarded” with an option to “Undo discard”.

A time that you might need to use a confirmation is when an Undo option isn’t practical. For example, I a project I once worked on moved data from a temporary database to a different location. (The reason was that the data contained confidential information that needed to be removed before storing into the permanent database.) The user would remove the confidential information, and then choose to “publish” the data, which removed the temporary data.

Originally another developer had employed not one, but two confirmation dialogs because the “users wanted to have the system double check”. Well I firmly believe that two wrongs don’t make a right, so I suggested an alternate design pattern.

My alternative is based on the “terms of service” dialog that many websites use. It is a confirmation dialog that requires you to check a box to confirm your actions, than click OK. You still need to click two items to confirm (the checkbox, then the OK button) but this way you only use one actual dialog. Also, your users are less likely to scream “Yes dammit! I am sure I want to do this already!” to their monitors.

NetFlix

I finally broke down and signed up for NetFlix. I usually don’t have time to watch a lot of movies. In fact my DVD collection is only about a dozen DVDs. I usually watch movies when they’re on HBO or Showtime, or if it is something I really want to see I’ll order it on pay-per-view (I have DirecTV).

I like watching movies, but I am so sick of 90% of the crap that Hollywood puts out. It is boring, and to me, very predictable. A real plot twist would be a movie where the person you think is the bad guy actually turns out to be the bad guy!

The thing that sold me on NetFlix is the number of music DVDs they have. I put about 50 in my queue within the first day. This is great because these are things that I’d like to see, but wouldn’t really want to spend the money on (since I’d probably only watch it once or twice), and most video stores wouldn’t carry them anyway.

I went with the 3 movies for $18/month. Four PPV movies would be $16, so as log as I watch 5 or more I can justify it! Hopefully if someone asks me if I’ve seen a movie I’ll remember to add it to my queue.

A Very Good Experience

I went over to Good Sam hospital to get blood drawn for a cholesterol test.

I like the fact that in life, if you’re paying attention, there are always reminders of the fact that you don’t have it as bad as it seems like. For example, as I’m in the waiting room, thinking “Arg, this is gonna take all day” I hear on the intercom system “CODE BLUE. CODE BLUE. 4205 Bed 1….” Ok. Thanks! I get your point. I’ll just shut up now.

Another good example was when I had broken my little pinky toe and I was waiting for x-rays while they wheeled in a guy who was slumped over in pain, and sobbing. My little black & bruised toe didn’t seem as important anymore.

Anyway, as I’m sitting waiting for the nurse to come get my blood I see a sign on the wall that says:

Are you having a very good experience?

A “Very good experience”? Um… no, not really, can’t say as I am. I’m sitting here waiting for someone to poke a needle in my arm and take out some of the very stuff that makes me live.

The nurse came in and was very nice. I barely even felt the needle. In fact I thought it was just a test-poking until I saw the blood pouring into the blood collector thingy. (That’s the medical term for it).

I don’t freak at the site of blood, but I don’t really like watching it flow out of my arm. I would have to say that at that point I still was not having a very good experience. It was all done pretty quickly and I got a band-aid, but no lollipop.

I’ll know the results on Friday when I go in for the stress test. Hmmm… me on a treadmill. Doesn’t sound like a very good experience.

Chicago City Limits

I went to check out the local band Ten With Strangers at Chicago City Limits in Schaumburg last night. I found about them through myspace. I wanted to see them play because they were looking for a guitar player. I talked to one of the guitar players after the show, but it looks like they may still have their other guitarist after all. Guess I’ll have to keep looking.

Chicago City Limits is a cool club. I hate places that are too smoky but either they have good airflow or there weren’t a lot of smokers. The price of Rum & Cokes varied between $3 and $4 (averaging $3.50) each time I ordered one. I didn’t realize the price of rum fluctuated that much.

At one point I see the sound guy walking to the stage carrying a hockey stick. I’m thinking maybe he didn’t like the band, but he ended up “adjusting” the power supply to some of the stage lights.

It has been ages since I went to a club to see a band. From now on I think I’ll try to do it at least once or twice a month.