emptying my brain onto the internet since 1998…
… is that I write most of them as songs. Some of them seems silly on paper, but when I read them in my head the band plays with them.
Only, I’m not a song writer. The music doesn’t flow nearly as well as the words. Sure, it sounds great in my head, but I can’t put the notes on paper or play the instuments. I can’t even describe them enough for someone else to play it.
But such is life.
By the way… this means there is more poetry in the Poetry section.
One of the few things I do like about living in Atlanta is Music Midtown. Its a 3 day music festival. This year it had 8 stages, plus the usual set of vendor booths and non-profit organizations.
Friday. We (Kevin, Jodi and I) headed down a little late, got there just in time to catch a song or two of American Hi-Fi on the 99x stage, and then wheeled over to 96rock to see Cheryl Crow with a plan to return for the big act (for us) of the night, Live. A few songs into her set, the winds picked up, and with the lights swinging over the stage they called for a break and slipped off. A few minutes after that, the sky opened up and dumped water on the city. We made a run for cover, and waited a bit. Before we could decide if we wanted to try to wait out the rain, the PA system crackled to life and announced that the show was being called and that everyone should head for cover. Seems there were “extreme weather” warnings out for our area. Despite the forecast for rain, we’d hoped it wouldn’t, and optimistically didn’t buy ponchos. So we walked about 6 or 7 blocks back to the car in the rain. In the parking garage we dried off a bit, then called it quits and went home. It rained. Alot. All the way home. Then it stopped. Live played at midnight. We missed it.
Saturday. We managed to get downtown a little earlier this time, around 2:30. Armed with ponchos this time, we stood in the rain and heard the last few songs of Die Trying on the 99x stage. Jodi and I headed off to check out the vendors who were weathering the weather, but returned shortly (not much to see). The rain stopped. The clouds began to part, and the blue sky beneath became revealed. Evanescence took to the stage. Poetry. They played their album, which of course, as often is the case, would have been better had the guy working the soundboard not decided that EVERYTHING had to be set at eleven. During their set, the crowd around the stage increased ten fold as people came crawling out into the sunlight. After Evanescence, we slid back to the food court near 99x’s stage and found something to eat. As we sat consuming our far too expensive food, Angie Aparo went on and played well. A good performance. After that we wandered around a bit, mostly checking out the location of some of the other stages and passing through the non-profit zone. Then returned to the 99x stage to catch Cowboy Mouth and a few drinks. At 8:30 we had to make a dash for the other end of the park, to the V-103 stage, to see the greatest band ever… Morris Day & The Time! (oh-ee-oh-ee-ohh!) After 20 years you expect a band to be tight and have a polished act, and they do. Song to song, Morris and the Time play and perform almost perfection. It was like opening a door and looking into the 1980’s. Pure bliss. Once we’d finished absorbing the funk, we split up and Kevin headed off to see Godsmack, while Jodi and I took a mellow turn and visited the stage of Tony Bennett. All these years, and Tony still knows how to croon.
Sunday. Down for the last day, we went late. We slid past the 99x stage as Jack Johnson played and headed to where I would plant my feet for the remainded of the day, 96rock. drivin n cryin were up first (not Kevin Kinney solo, but dnc a.k.a. the good stuff) and they put on a decent show, swinging through all the expected hits with a few other tunes for flavor. We stayed there through Everclear. While I respect any band that puts themselves out there, and Art is a pretty decent guy, Everclear really needs to expand their sound. I enjoy them. They have a bunch of good songs. But boy do alot of them sound alike. Still worth listening too though. Kevin took off again at this point to go see Zwan, while Jodi and I remained to experience Def Leppard. They opened with Side 1 of High and Dry. Not many bands have the balls to do something like that. Then they began to slither down through their hits (avoiding notable love balads like “Love Bites”, but hitting all the others that got them banned from Dial-MTV in the 80’s like “Animal” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me”) and slipping in a new song now and again from their new album “X”. Just like Morris Day & The Time, after 23 years (Def Leppard first came to Atlanta in 1980) you expect to see a good show, and they delivered. Joe still has a pretty good voice, Vivian and Phil are good guitarists, Rick Savage thumbs a mean bass, and Rick Allen, the one armed drummer, still bangs a wicked set of bongos. I missed them in tour for Hysteria (my parents wouldn’t let me go, my brother did, I have a t-shirt), while this doesn’t make up for it, it helps.
3 Days, 2 legendary bands, a few other good ones, rain, feet aches, expensive food, more expensive drinks, and a couple of souvenir t-shirts. All in all, a good way to spend a weekend.
WARNING: Job rant to follow.
I work for a software company. I work in tech support. (No. I have never had someone ask me about their coffee cup holder. It’s not that kind of support.) I deal with a GUI Development Software package, and I support the programmers who use it.
So all today I have sat in a training class on the newest features of our latest release of one of our products (all of which will be integrated into all of our products). And I’m in awe. With all these new tools and functions, knowledgeable developers will be able to do some really cool stuff. And not only that, they will be able to do large amounts of work in a short period of time. If someone takes a good month or two and develops a nice set of templates for our product that use all the little features we have made available, the programmer will be able to do a one time pass through of the automatic GUI building procedure and be left with only minimal changes, those minor things we have yet to incorporate, to make before they have a final product. They just need to sit down, read all the instructions and then they’ll be set.
So why am I really not looking forward to all this?
It’s that last line. It turns out that 98.5% of all programmers don’t feel they need to read instructions. They know they basics, and they should be able to “feel out” the rest of it. Boy, is that a complete load of bullshit.
When our new product comes out, I will spend the next 3 to 4 months “recovering” people from their “feeling out” the new features. People will manages to irrevocably delete entire projects without making backups and blame me. People will accidentally invalidate data and even the Windows registry playing with things that they have no idea what they are doing, and in the end they will blame me. Every step, every tool, every piece of information they will ever need is within their reach. And each one of them will throw it in the trash because they are “programmers” and they don’t need “handholding”, they aren’t “children”. But they will cry. Each and every one of them will cry when I explain, “Well, you shouldn’t have done that. It says so in the manual.”
So if you ever learn anything from me and my postings here it is this… RTFM. Read The Fucking Manual. Every page. Every word. Every step of every tutorial and example. And don’t blame the support guy for your mistakes. He’s just doing his job.
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Theater Review:
none.
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Today’s Song:
Overkill by Lazlo Bane. This is originally a Men At Work song, but I picked up this CD from Lazlo Bane based on someone telling me that if I liked the original I would love the remake. Well, I loved the original, so I snagged 11 Transistor by Lazlo Bane and popped it in the CD player. Man, I was totally blown away by this version of the song. Where the original was kind of bubble gum poppy like most of Men At Work’s stuff, this version is smoldering fire. It builds up, starting with one man and a guitar, and ends with Collin Hay himself guesting in the final verse. Truly worth my money, ’cause the rest of the CD isn’t too bad either.
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Today’s Movie:
For some odd reason, I’ve had quotes from Real Genius floating through my head all day, so I’m making it my movie of the day. If you have never seen this Val Kilmer classic, you must. Go to the video store now and rent it. Some of you might have to wait because someone else might get to it first, but that’s okay. Go tomorrow. And the next day. And everyday until you get it. And Kent, stop playing with yourself.
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TV Highlight:
(sarcasm)
RERUNS!! I love it when I get to see shows that I’ve already seen, especially if I have seen them 2 or 3 times before. But one step even better is when they preempt reruns so they can air some movie (edited for television) that made hundreds of millions in the theater guaranteeing that 99% of their audience has already seen it, and probably rented it too. Titanic will probably be a good one to run on TV (over 2 nights even!!) because NO ONE has seen that one. And NO ONE has rented or bought it yet. I mean, can you imagine all of the people (all 6 or 7 of them) who will finally be able to see Titanic!!!
(/sarcasm)
This morning I woke up a little late. Our Monday morning meeting (which is always held on Wednesdays) was due to start and I wasn’t going to have enough time to do my normal morning ritual AND make the meeting. So I took a 3 minute shower instead of 10. I’ve got a ghost of a goatee one cause shaving just the sides took less time that the full shave. And I skip out the door, breakfast in hand.
And then I stop.
I live in Atlanta, and we don’t get snow that often. So when I got outside and saw that everything was dusted in a powdery white, I had to pause and take it in. The whole drive to work was slow and I made my way in awe of the beauty that fresh snow can bestow upon an otherwise dingey looking world. Before I even got out on my neighborhood I almost turned around to get my camera so I could take some pictures of this wonderland around me.
Slowly, slowly, I made my way to work. And I wasn’t alone. Other people were driving slow too. Not because the roads were slick. We had no ice, no snow on the streets, they were clear. People were driving slow, just like me, to take it all in. It wasn’t a blizzard, or even just a handful of flakes here and there. This was the perfect amount of snow for a place that doesn’t get it that often. A thin layer of white over everything but the roads. The rooftops, the yards, the branches of trees. And that which had fallen on the street had melted in place, so that it drifted away as water and didn’t leave those ugly clumps of brown and black dirty snow.
It was pure.
And it brought to me something I had been missing for a while… with my job, my home, my everything, I was getting a little tired, defeated, and depressed. But now I realize, for what is not the first nor the last time I’ll have it pointed out to me, that sometimes all you need is to look at things with new eyes.
Have a wonderful day.
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Theater Review:
none.
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Today’s Song:
The entire New Miserable Experience album by the Gin Blossoms. It’s all good. Not a bad song in the bunch. Even the country song is cool (“You can’t call it cheatin’ ’cause she reminds me of you”). I listen to this and to their other stuff and it makes me a little sad to know that the group broke up, but at least they put out music this good before they did.
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Today’s Movie:
Cloak & Dagger. I had forgotten about this movie until last night when it was on the Disney Channel. It’s not a great movie, it’s not even a good movie. But I remember when I saw this and I was big into the role playing game Top Secret, and at that time, this was the coolest movie. It’s about a kid who has this imaginary role playing character that he actually wills to life. Now, compared to other super spy guys, Dabney Coleman as Jack Flack seems kind of silly, but to a kid of 9 or 10 years old, he made a great secret agent.
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TV Highlight:
Well, another week, another Buffy. Last night saw the return of Vampire Willow. Alyson Hannigan is cute, but when she gets all dressed up in those evil leather outfits, its just that little something extra that pushes her into the sexy category. Still, Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains one of the best shows on television.
So I have this dream last night… it was an odd mix of The Postman (more the book than the movie) and The Stand. It started as a worst case scenario of the Y2K bug (which will never happen, it’s not like the world is just going to shut down over night), a little anarchy, a little war. People banded together here around Atlanta and we started rebuilding society. It was just an odd dream all around. I don’t remember my dreams all that often, so why do I remember this one?
Dreams can tell you alot about a person, I think. What they are thinking, what they really feel, what they strive for, what they hide. I used to keep a dream journal, and I should probably start that again. I just wish I could find that old journal, because maybe now, looking back, I might get a little insight to myself, applying what I know now to what I felt back then. But sometimes, I think that maybe it’s good that I can’t find it. Overanalysing yourself can lead to a mental lockdown. I don’t know.
Occationally, I get this de ja vu feeling, that feeling that you’ve done or seen or heard something before. And later, after I go through the situation, I’ll remember, “I dreamt that! Months ago! Exactly as it happened!” But for some reason, and maybe it’s good and maybe it’s bad, I can’t remember that I’ve dreamt these things before they happen, always after. What good are precognitive dreams if you can’t remember them on time?
By far though, I would say the coolest thing I have ever had happen in dreams is a shared dream. Where I had a dream and someone I knew was in it, and when I talk to them, I find out that they had the exact same dream, only, from their point of view. And it’s like we were in the same dream space or dream scape or whatever, because everything is the same, and in my dream I had full control, and in their dream, so did they, and it’s just so cool and weird and exciting and frightening. And to me, I guess, it lends credibility to things like mental powers, astral worlds, and magic (or magik or majik or however they are spelling it this week to denote real power not illusions of power). Do you believe in magic?
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Theater Review: She’s All That. When I first heard the title of this movie and saw the preview I though to myself, “This is going to be another one of those throwaway John Hughes wannabe movies of the ’90s trying to recapture the ’80s teen angst genre.” But I did go see it, and I was surprised. It was actually entertaining, funny, warming, and good. It made me laugh and smile, and at moments, had me remembering times in my life that were (while not that fantastic) similar. While I don’t think any movie will ever quite get was Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, and all those other ’80s classics had, this one comes pretty damn close.
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Today’s Song: No More Love by God Lives Underwater. If Alice In Chains did techno music, this is what it would sound like. And I gotta admit, I love this song. The music is pumping and the lyrics are just cool. I picked up Empty, GLU’s first full album and the second that I have bought, specifically for this song, much like I picked up Life In The So-Called Spaceage for From Your Mouth, and found that once again, while looking for one song, I found a good album.
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Today’s Movie: Book of Love. It’s an odd little throwaway movie that most people will never see, but I have, and it was a good way to spend a couple hours. A light comedy about a kid trying to land the girl of his dreams in the ’50s.
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TV Highlight: I watched the first part of Stephen King’s Storm Of The Century. This was good story telling so far. I’ve heard from some people that it drops off at the end, but so far I’m glued to the screen. I can’t wait to watch parts 2 and 3.
Nothing worthwhile was ever easy.
That’s a great quote. I’ve always liked it, and I see its truth. But does it mean that if something is hard, it must be worthwhile? I met this girl, you see. I met her on New Year’s Day, but then she had to go back to school. I liked her alot, but the distance between us and a few other things were killing me. I’ve always believed that a relationship, while it may actually be work should never FEEL like work. The work you do for a relationship should feel good, you should never mind what you have to do. So when things started feeling like work, and I start censoring what I said, I ended things.
Then I meet this other girl. I already knew her, but it was like turning around. Bang. There she was. I like hanging out with her, everything seems so cool. I’d love to hang out with her more, but I get this feeling, and she has told me, that she isn’t totally over the last guy she dated. I want so much to help her, but here is another quote I heard once that I also see the truth of: “You can’t hire contractors for a broken heart, it’s a Do-It-Yourself job.” You can talk and listen, advise and sympathize, but in the end, only the person with the broken heart can know when to move on. When they have healed enough to dare again. And therein lies my problem… I like this girl, and while I’m not looking to get married, I’ve never been one to just “date”. But I’m afraid to get too close for fear she isn’t ready and I know she doesn’t want to get too close for the same reason, but I can’t help but want to get closer.
“Nothing worthwhile was ever easy.”
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Theater Review:
Varsity Blues. It’s a high school football movie. That just about covers it. But I have to say, it’s done really well. At the end of the movie, during the final game, I was on the edge of my seat. I really got caught up in the emotions of the situation. I have to give this movie a thumbs up.
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Today’s Song:
“If I Can’t Change Your Mind” by Sugar. In a bizarre sort of way, this has to do with everything I said above. The song rocks, but it’s the lyrics that bring me back to it again and again.
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Today’s Movie:
Total Recall. I got this on DVD. It’s just a good movie because sometimes, don’t you just wish you were someone else only pretending to be in your current life and that actually you were part of something bigger, something better, something.. important. I know I do sometimes… not all the time, but just sometimes.
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TV Highlight:
It’s been here before and it’ll probably be here again, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This show is still one of the better things on television. If you don’t watch it already, you should.
Missed the update yesterday cause I went to have drinks with co-workers… again, I had something to rant about, but it’s gone again… this forgetting is becoming annoying.
I will say one thing, I’m annoyed at computer makers and Microsoft. I tried to play Might & Magic I yesterday, and my computer is too fast to run it. I can’t see the damage, or the attacks, or anything. And as far as I can see there is no way to force my Pentium 200 to run slower for just that game. It’s just agrivating that I can’t play a good game because my computer is to advanced for it, and then I go to buy a new game and it isn’t advanced enough to play it. I just can’t win.
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Today’s Song: How Soon is Now, the version done by Love Spit Love. I love this song, and it’s been my song of the day before (back when I gathered up about 10 different versions of the song) but this version was originally on the soundtrack for “The Craft” and now it’s the opening song for “Charmed”, that new show on the WB with Alyssa Milano and Shannen Doherty (although my favorite is Holly Marie Combs). Anyway, the song rocks, check it out.
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TV Highlight: Speaking of Charmed… I’m digging this show. It’s only had one episode, but it’s got possibility as long as they don’t wuss out and keep up the occult content to a good level like they do on Buffy. Plus the three stars are quite attractive, not a bad one in the bunch. If you like Buffy, check out Charmed and give it a chance.
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Trivia Answer: Meg Ryan and hubby, Dennis Quaid starred together in Innerspace, D.O.A., and Flesh and Bone. The bonus 3-D movies: Meg was in Amityville 3-D, and Dennis was in Jaws 3-D.
Trivia Question: Keeping the chain alive – Dennis Quaid shared a role with Val Kilmer, who did they both play?
I finished the first in the Myth Series of books by Robert Asprin. Great book. I am looking forward to the rest of the series… I think I have about 10 books to go or so.
I’ve been thinking I should do more reading… but then they put on all these good TV shows… I may have to give up working just to get all my leisure activities in. hehehe
At one point I was considering putting up a picture of myself on my web page… but thanks to sCary’s Shugashack and the “wack links” section pointing me to www.fugly.net, I have reconsidered. I don’t need that kind of stress in my life. :-p
There was something that I was going to say today… a rant about something cool… but I forgot… maybe tomorrow I’ll rant about forgetting cool stuff… or maybe I’ll forget.
Time to get back to work…
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Today’s Song: The title song for the TV show “Buffy: the Vampire Slayer” performed by Nerf Herder. Probably the coolest TV theme to come down the pike in years.
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TV Highlight: One word… Buffy. ’nuff said.
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Trivia Answer: The Top Gun costar of Tim Robbins who would later team up with him again for a love story that involved Albert Einstein is Meg Ryan in the movie I.Q.
Trivia Question: Keeping with the trivia train I’ve got going, Meg Ryan has been in 3 movies with husband Dennis Quaid, what are they? And as a bonus, they didn’t star in these together but both of them have done a movie filmed in 3-D, what are they?
Things are a brewing around here… A friend and I started up a new Clan for online gaming (and for social gatherings for the local people) called “Nobody’s Heroes”… the name is cool, Pete gets kudos for that. Things are going well with it, gathering up some of our old friends, some from our old clan, some from other clans… it’s nice.
I’ve been toying with the idea of sponsoring a “National Standing” for TF2… I worked out a bunch of details and I think it could work.
Pete and I have also come up with some cool map ideas for TF2 that we are going to start working on… they should rock if we can do them right.
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Today’s Song: “Operator That’s Not the Way it Feels” by Jim Croce. I work in tech support. I sit on the phone all day. And this song just gets stuck in my head sometimes. It’s a great classic tune, and if you’ve never heard it, you need to. Most of Jim’s work is really good. It’s folky, but sometimes it’s just what you need to lift you up on a lousy day. And not the way heavy metal or punk lifts you up. Not pumped. Just a smile.
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TV Highlight: If you have the Sci-Fi channel check out “Space: Above and Beyond” on Sunday nights at 7pm. The show was created by a couple of guys who left the X-Files, but never got seen much. It originally aired on Fox, and only ran a season, maybe a little more. It’s about the 58th Squadron during a war with aliens in the near future. It’s not so far fetched, and it’s not just about killing aliens. This week was an episode where after setting down on a planet in enemy control to med-evac the 61st, they discovered that the Chigs (aliens) were using their radio signals to triangulate rescue ship landings and attack the group waiting for rescue. But the episode is done from the point of view of Nathan West, the appearant sole survivor of the 58th, who is having trouble remembering what happened. It turns out the 58th aren’t dead and that Nathan only played dead to get pulled out so that he could communicate the new landing zone directly to his commanding officer, to eliminate the use of the radio. It was definately a cool episode, and the show it good all the way through. Too bad real sci-fi never lasts on regular TV (see this show, Sliders, and I’m sure a few more. Any show that uses real plots instead of a “Monster of the Week” format gets cancelled. And face it, X-Files is still an MotW format show.)
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Trivia Question: What current Top Notch actor once played a character nicknamed “Mother” in one of those Spring-Break-Fraternity-Romp movies?
Answer next update.
Some baseball games are just better than others. Game 2 of the Braves/Cubs playoff was phenominal. It was slow to start, but then any good game should be. I’ve never liked games that ended in the first inning where some guy hits a 3 run homer and the rest of the game is just great pitching. Being in the crowd at a game like that is just awesome… I need to get season tickets.
Is $60 too much to pay for tickets to a baseball game? The seat are regular season $15… hmm… maybe.
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Theater Review: None.
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Today’s Song: Centerfield by John Fogerty. Great song… good baseball music… but I hate when they tease you with the few opening claps of this song at ball parks but won’t play any more of the song.
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Today’s Movie: None.
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TV Highlight: None.