War Inside My Head

Quick Updates

2008-10-15T11:31:00.002-05:00

I haven't been blogging much lately. Things have been pretty busy and I just hit one of those periods where I didn't feel much like blogging. I have a few different posts in the planning stages (including my endorsement for the election) that I hope to get out soon. For now, I just wanted to do a quick update on a few fronts.

P.J. is doing well. She's learning to be a better dog, although she is still somewhat of a puppy at times. A new neighbor just moved in next door and he has a part bird dog/part something named M.J.! PJ and MJ have met a couple of times and seem to get along. It's good for her to be around other dogs so she can learn to not be so excited when she sees one.

On the music front, I borrowed a bass guitar from a friend and he ended up selling it to me. I found a amp head on craigslist and bought a nice cabinet to go with it. I've been playing about a month and am picking things up pretty quick. I'm still playing guitar, but have been playing bass a lot more. Here's my rig...

Alec and Zack are doing well. Alec has been driving since May and is handling it well. The marching band show is much better this year (music and show) and Alec is in his 2nd year marching snare. Zack is in 6th grade and thinks he is big-time now. He still gets cracked up (I do too) at some of our catch phrases and made up sayings.

There have been a few changes at work and there will be some news coming soon about work. I will cover those later.

I haven't finished it yet, but I highly recommend the book Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries by Naomi Wolf. I also read her End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, which was also very good.

Vote (for a movie, not election)

2008-09-15T10:08:00.002-05:00

A good friend of mine, Chuck Angell, has a film in an online film contest. He needs your votes! I act (if you can call it that) in the movie and did some of the music. Alec was the sound guy and stunt driver and Zack was the lighting guy. We had a blast making it. It's only 4 minutes long, so take a few minutes to check it out and vote.

"The Victim" directed by Chuck Angell

New family member

2008-07-30T12:14:00.003-05:00

I'm happy to announce a new member in my household. Meet P.J., who appears to be a mix of Australian Cattle Dog and Shepherd. She is about 2 years old, house trained and generally well behaved. Her previous owners were moving away and couldn't take her, I luckily saw their ad on Craigslist and got her for free! I've had her for about a week and she is a great dog. She's very obedient, she already knew Sit when I got her and she just about has Shake and Speak down after just a day or two. We go on two walks a day and she pretty much follows me around the house at all times. I haven't slept late once since I got her since she gets up around 5:30 every morning and is much more persistent than my alarm clock. She wakes me up by poking me with her nose, letting me know that she's ready for our morning walk.

Here she is... (click the pics for larger versions)

More pics on Picasa

Bonnaroo 2008

2008-06-18T14:24:00.005-05:00

Well, Alec and I survived Bonnaroo '08, 4 days of sun, rain, dust, mud, sleeping on the ground and music. The original plan was to stay in a house where a friend of mine's parents live that is really close, but my friend ended up having to go out of town for work. So $200 worth of camping gear and non-refrigerated food later, we were roughing it.

Thursday
We got everything packed on Wednesday night and had the car packed with everything except the cooler. The original plan was to get up early Thursday morning and head out. I decided that sleep would be in short supply over the weekend, so we slept later on Thursday and took our time getting on the road. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Manchester and we found that we had to go all the way down to exit 127 (another 13 miles) to exit. We stopped at a gas station and topped off the tank, just in case. I had filled up before we left but wanted to make sure we had as much gas as possible in case of long lines. We also hit the restroom, which was our last sighting of a flushable toilet until late Sunday night. We got back on the road and followed the traffic and signs. We were cruising along for a few miles and then hit the line. It took 3 hours to travel the next 8 miles.

We finally got in and had a quick car search (they just looked in the glove box and console). We got routed to our campsite, which was in Camp Randall "Pink" Floyd (all the camps are named after movie characters). When we parked, I was able to leave a pretty big gap between me and the car next to me, which gave us more camping room. We jumped out and put up our canopy, then put the tent up under it. We got everything situated and headed up to Centeroo. It was about a 15 minute walk from camp to Centeroo. We walked around a bit and then got some ice cream. We wanted to catch one of the shows in the comedy tent and got in this long line. We get up to the very front and they have a sign about getting passes before the show and then getting in line. So we bailed out of the line and gave up on comedy.

We headed to That Tent and caught the end of Grupo Fantasma, a Latin orchestra that was pretty good. After they finished, we were able to get up pretty close for the next act, The Sword. They are a heavy metal group from Austin, TX. They were LOUD. We were standing in a direct line from the PA speakers and pretty close and I could feel my skin vibrating. They were good, I just couldn't understand 99% of the lyrics, because of the mix, not the singer. After their show, we went back outside the tent, but hung around to catch Lez Zeppelin, a female Led Zeppelin cover band. Their show was good, but nothing special. They did play "The Ocean", which is my favorite Led Zep song, so they get bonus points for that. After their show, we called it a night and headed back to camp. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep so fast.

Friday
I woke up early to bright sunlight, heat and one of neighbors whistling. Then he started rummaging through the ice in his cooler, it seemed like his cooler was inches from the tent. We woke up, brushed our teeth using bottled water and had some Pop Tarts. I realized that the canopy would only block sunlight when the sun was almost directly above it, so I pulled the tarp out from under the tent and hooked it up on the east side of the canopy (using my wisely purchased multi-length pack of bungee cords). I then realized that we only had about 10 square feet of space to sit two chairs and a cooler that was shaded. So we decided to move the tent to the "back" of camp, where only the very front of the tent was under the canopy. We would only be using the tent at night, so didn't really care if it was shaded. This gave us much more room and we would just have to move the tarp to the west side in the afternoon. We played cards for a bit then headed out at noon to catch Drive By Truckers, one of the coolest bands around in my opinion. They played a great set, although I was hoping for a few more songs off the "The Dirty South" album (specifically "Where the Devil Don't Stay"). We had planned on catching Umphrey's McGee, but we quickly learned that looking at a schedule on paper and planning shows to fill your entire day is much easier than actually hanging in the heat and crowds all day. We knew we had a big night ahead, so decided to walk back to camp, eat and rest up for the night. We headed back at 4 to catch The Raconteurs. I'm a huge fan of the Raconteurs and Jack White so my expectations were high. Those expectations were exceeded 100%. They put on one hell of a show. They played just about every song on their new album and a few from their first.

We had a pretty good spot, so we just decided to stay right there and eat vendor food. $30 later, I had a chicken pita and lemonade and Alec had a couple slices of pizza and tea. When it was time for Chris Rock to start, Lars Ulrich and Kirk Hammet from Metallica came on to introduce him. Chris did an awesome set, joking about performance enhancing drugs and how cheap pancakes would be if he invaded IHOP. Chris Rock returned the favor and came out and introduced Metallica as "the greatest fucking rock band in the world." I happen to disagree, as the greatest fucking rock band in the world wasn't scheduled until the next night. Anyway, Metallica came out and did not fuck around. They started the show with "Creeping Death" and didn't let up for 2.5 hours. They played mostly old stuff, there was only about 3 songs after the ...And Justice For All album. Speaking of which, they played the song "…And Justice For All", which I've heard they never play live. It is my favorite song on the album, so that was pretty cool. The only thing about the Metallica show was that it felt scripted. I imagine that everything, even James Hetfield's crowd interaction is exactly the same night after night.

After Metallica, we followed the massive tide of people over to the Which stage to see My Morning Jacket. It was rainy and crowded and the Superjam started in about an hour, so we decided to go ahead and go to the Other tent to catch that. We got just inside the tent so we weren't getting rained on, although people kept trying to squeeze in and take our spot. I was tired, wet and getting pretty pissed at everyone's inconsideration. Then they announced that the show would be 20 minutes late. After 30 minutes it finally started. It was Les Claypool on bass and a group called Gogol Bordello. Unfortunately, we were extremely uncomfortable and tired, so we could only hang for a few songs. I saw several people recording, so I figure I'll just find the bootlegs later. Turns out Kirk Hammett showed up as well.

We got back to our camp and found a little water in the tent. I think we just didn't have it zipped all the way. Luckily, nothing was too wet. Right after we got in the tent, it started pouring rain again.

Saturday
I actually slept til almost 9 on Saturday because it was overcast and cooler. We hung out and then headed up around noon and caught Two Gallants, a band from San Francisco. The "band" is just two guys, one on guitar/vocals and one on drums. They sounded really good and put on a great show. I got one of their songs from a free iTunes coupon for Bonnaroo artists and may look into buying their album. We then watched Against Me! a political punk band. They sounded good, although all their songs started sounding the same. We headed back to camp to eat and rest up for the night. It was entertaining to listen to our neighbors, there were 4 of them and they were giving one guy hell the whole weekend. I began to feel sorry for "Big Ed."

We went back up at 5 to watch Zappa Plays Zappa, which is Dweezil Zappa and band playing Frank Zappa's music. Wow! I've never been a huge Zappa fan, mainly because no one I know listens to him and I've been reluctant to just buy any of his albums without hearing any of it. I will be buying some of those albums now. Then we headed over to the What stage to find a spot for Jack Johnson, buying dinner along the way (another $30, this time for 2 baskets of chicken and fries, lemonade and tea). Actually, we wanted to find a good spot for Pearl Jam, it's just that Jack Johnson was on first and we were going to find a spot and keep it. Jack put on a good show, it was better than I expected. I've only heard his radio singles and he has some stuff that is a little less "strummy" and laid back. He forgot the lyrics at one point and laughed it off. He said he was looking forward to Pearl Jam playing that night and said he just couldn't wait, so out comes Eddie Vedder. They played a song together (don't know what it was).

10:15, time for Pearl Jam. I had told Alec that I had no idea what they would open with because sometimes they open with a rocker, sometimes something slow. I said they played "Corduroy" (my fave PJ song) 2nd quite often. They opened with "Hard to Imagine", which is a slow B-side. Then they launched into "Corduroy." Man, it sounded good. Next up was "All Night" from their Lost Dogs collection (same as "Hard to Imagine"). I found out later that this was the first time they had played "All Night" live. Next up was "Why Go", then Eddie talked a bit about Bonnaroo and how they thought they wouldn't ever play a festival again (some fans were killed at a festival in Denmark in 2000). He compared it to a small town and they started "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town". They kept going, playing their asses off. They were obviously digging the crowd and the crowd was definitely digging them. They wrapped up the set with The Who's "Love Reign O'er Me", which Eddie sang like his life depended on it, "Do the Evolution" which fuckin' rocked then "Rearviewmirror" with an extended jam ending. They left the stage and the camera man showed their encore set list on the big screens. They ended up changing a few things on it though.

They came back out and played a cool, laid back version of "W.M.A." Then Eddie started the intro to "Better Man." We all sang along and everyone was holding up their lighters. As usual, Ed stops singing and just lets the crowd sing during the song. After the 2nd verse he stopped playing and said "That's fucking beautiful." After the song, he said he hadn't realized how many people there actually was out there. Then he said he didn't want to ruin the good vibe, but they were going to play "the saddest song we know" and they played "Black." They finished out the encore with "Life Wasted", "Crazy Mary" (with Ed climbing off the stage and giving someone in the audience his bottle of wine) and "Porch" (with a break in the middle while Ed ranted about politics). At some point in this encore, the moon, which was almost full, was directly over the stage, which was very cool looking.

For their 2nd encore, Ed came out alone and talked for a bit about the war and his friend, Tomas Young, the guy who helped make the movie "Body of War." He was paralyzed in Iraq and has become an anti-war activist. Eddie was saying that he went into a coma a few weeks ago and is not doing well. He then played "No More", the song he did for the movie. The rest of the band came back and Ed said they normally don't play their next song at that point in the show, but he was dedicating to a friend whose father had died the day before. The song was "Release", which was beautiful. Then they rocked out on "Alive", I can't even begin to describe the feeling of being in the middle of 70,000 people singing "I'm still alive…" They left the stage again and I kept telling Alec "they have to play Yellow Ledbetter." It was on the set list they showed earlier. Instead, they came back out and played an absolute blistering version of "All Along the Watchtower." In total, they played almost 3 hours and it was exactly what a rock concert should be like. It's funny, but I never once said "I wish they had played …" Yes, there were songs of theirs I would have liked to hear live, but the show was so good, I didn't miss hearing them. Besides, if they played everything I wanted to hear live, the show would have been about 6 hours.

We were planning on going to watch Phil Lesh & Friends and then check out a little of the Kanye West show, simply because his light show was supposed to be spectacular. As we were leaving Pearl Jam, Alec and I talked and decided to just head back to camp as there was a mass stampede headed toward Phil Lesh plus I had just seen my favorite band in the world and wanted to fall asleep still hearing their show ringing in my ears rather than Kanye West. That was probably the best decision we made that weekend.

Sunday
That morning I walked down to the port-a-potties and was standing in line. Everyone was talking about how bad the Kanye show was. I asked a guy what happened and he said that first, the organizers asked Phil Lesh (you know, from the Grateful Dead and one of the original artists to support and play at the first Bonnaroo?) to end his set early (he was scheduled from midnight to 4am) because of the Kanye show at 2:45. Now, they were playing different stages, not the same stage, so it wasn't like Phil couldn't keep playing during the Kanye show. Anyway, he ended early and 2:45 came and went and no Kanye. They didn't even start setting up the stage until 2:45. This apparently took a while and they announced that the show would start at 3:30am. 3:30 came and no Kanye. He didn't take the stage until 4:30am and when he did, he didn't apologize or even acknowledge he was late. He just said "Good morning" and started the show. That was the last thing he said to the audience at all. The sun was coming up during his show, which pretty much ruined the whole light show thing (the very reason they scheduled him at 2:45am, he was originally schedule to play earlier around sunset). Less than an hour later, his show was over and he just walked off the stage. From what I hear, there were a lot of boos following him. All day, we saw "Kanye Sux" spray painted on the fences (where they let people put up graffiti).

Sunday was a late starting day, we didn't get much sleep in the morning, but the acts we wanted to see were later in the day. So we did a lot of hanging out at the camp, eating and playing cards. We played an epic game of Rummy to 500 points. I led most of the game, Alec took a slight lead and then we ended up both just a few points away from 500. Alec had 485 and I had 480. We knew the last hand would decide it. I got some good points early and only had 2 cards left, but couldn't get anything to match up. Then Alec started getting every freakin' book possible. He ended up with over 200 points in one hand, I've never seen that many points in a game of Rummy (and I've played a lot of it). We discussed possibly leaving that night instead of in the morning as a few cars around us were packing up to leave. We couldn't get out of where we parked unless enough of them left, but it looked promising based on who was packing. We went ahead and packed up everything except the tent, canopy and cooler just in case. We had brought a watermelon that we hadn't eaten, so I gave it to our neighbors (Big Ed and his friends). The guy I offered it to thanked us, but didn't seem real excited about it. But we heard Big Ed when he found out about and it sounded as if we had given them a steak dinner. That made us happy because we had started to feel bad for him, hearing his friends give him hell all weekend.

So we headed up toward Centeroo around 2:45. We wanted to see Harrybu McCage at 3. They are a jazz trio consisting of organ, bass (standup) and drums. The drummer is this guy named Matt Cameron, who has played for these other bands you may have heard of: Soundgarden and Pearl Jam. We got there right after they started and it was awesome. They played some very cool music and we were standing 20 feet from Matt Cameron playing drums.

We found a bit of shade to sit in and figure out where we were going next. We could hear Robert Randolph still playing. We had wanted to see him, but we had seen him before opening for the Black Crowes, so we chose Harrybu McCage. So, we strolled over and listened to the end of his set. Then we headed to the big stage to listen to Yonder Mountain String Band, a bluegrass band. We found a stretch of fence in the shade and sat down. We couldn't see the stage, but we could hear it. Neither one of us are big bluegrass fans, but their music was catchy. They did say something like "We'll play the late night light show next year and do it right!", which was a nasty dig at Kanye. People walking by were still randomly yelling "Kanye Sucks."

I noticed that Sunday had a higher number of girls who were topless than any other day. Honestly, I had only seen 1 or 2 topless until Sunday. I saw 4 or 5 on Sunday, one poor girl I saw could have gone topless anytime. At least 50% of the guys there had bigger breasts than she did.

During Yonder Mountain, we wandered over to the market area again and looked around a bit. Then we decided to head to the cinema tent and sit in the shade and A/C for a while. Sunday was the hottest day there and it was draining being out in the sun all day. They were showing "Charlie Bartlett" and we came in during the movie. We left before it was over, but I liked the bit I saw, I will have to rent it.

We had to leave so we could find a spot for Robert Plant and Allison Krauss w/ T Bone Burnett. By that time, we had decided that we were going to try to leave that night, so we sat way back from the stage. Robert Plant and Allison Krauss were wonderful. It was a pretty laid back show, with some bluegrass, blues, old country and rockin' stuff. I only recognized a few songs, all Robert Plant stuff. They played "In the Mood" (from his solo work); a very cool, slow version of "Black Dog", which you could only recognize by the lyrics; and a spine-chilling version of "Battle of Evermore", a song I've always loved and to hear them sing it together was awesome. After their show, we grabbed another $30 dinner. Alec: cheeseburger and tea, me: Greek salad w/ chicken and lemonade. I forgot to tell them to hold the sauce (that white Greek sauce), but by that point I didn't really care. It was cooked meat and vegetables and it was wonderful. I told Alec after I ate it that I don't know what I had craved more, the meat or the veggies.

Next up was Widespread Panic. I'm not a huge fan, I only have 1 of their albums. Alec has never listened to them at all. I told him we would probably head out in the middle of their show to get on the road. I told him if he just wasn't digging the show to let me know and we would go ahead and head out. About 3 songs in he leaned over and asked if I was ready. We stayed through one more song ("Climb to Safety", a song I knew from the album I have) and then headed back to pack up camp. Panic was putting on a good show, we just weren't into and both of us were ready to get home.

We packed up the tent, canopy (which took a few minutes to realize there were release buttons we had to hit before folding it up) and cooler and headed out. Traffic leaving wasn't bad until we go to the main road. Even there, it wasn't real bad. It just took 10 minutes or so to get out. We turned back the way we had come in, and I realized we were going to go way out of the way and should have turned right. We turned around and sure enough, the interstate entrance was right there. We made it about 20 miles and Alec was asleep and I was tired. Plus because of some change falling down in my car lighter, we didn't have my iPod to listen to, so I had to keep switching stations to find something halfway decent. I pulled off in Murfreesboro to get a Coke. Since we were so grubby, I thought I would just go thru a drive-thru. Unfortunately, everyone else who had left Bonnaroo with us had the same idea. We tried Taco Bell, gave up and hit McDonalds. It seemed quicker until after I had ordered, then the line just stopped. We finally got back on the road and made it back in about an hour. It was a luxury to take a shower and have a real toilet.

So, how was Bonnaroo as a whole and would I do it again? Let me start by saying I am glad I went. The music was amazing and Alec and I had a great time together (it was probably the coolest thing a teenager and dad could do together on Father's Day, although I missed not seeing Zack, who was on his way back from Disney World). Plus it was a learning experience on a personal level, seeing all the things we think are "necessary" that aren't really.

I had heard about how friendly everyone was and that was partly true. There weren't really any "rude" people, but it wasn't like everyone was friendly either. I'm sure if we had been consuming some of the various drugs most of the people seemed to be consuming, they might have been friendlier. The first few days, the only people that really said anything to us were selling t-shirts or drugs or wanting to buy drugs. Saturday, a girl walked by, obviously stoned and said we looked too grumpy to be at Bonnaroo. Of course it was hot, muddy and we were walking through the area where there were port-o-potties on both sides of the road and the smell was quite fragrant, so we may have had a sour look on our face. The last day we did talk to more people, one girl came by our camp and asked us where we were from and if it was our first 'roo and were we having fun. While we were sitting in the shade of the fence Sunday, a guy came up and sat down and we chatted for a minute. He then offered Alec a lighter for a drink of his water. We had brought a couple of extra bottles with us, so I gave him a full bottle (and let him keep his lighter).

My biggest surprise and disappointment was in seeing the litter created by everyone. The crowd there typically leans to the left, politically (as evidenced during Chris Rock's show when he mentioned Obama, virtually everyone there cheered). This is the crowd that is, or claims to be, at the front of the environmental movement. There was a lot of information about being green there and they offered recycling cans right next to the trash cans. When we arrived, we were given a trash bag and another bag for recycling. But by the end of each day, there would be so much garbage on the ground it was ridiculous. Leaving the What stage every night, you would literally wade through piles of trash. There were trash cans everywhere, but most didn't seem to care. They dropped their bottles, plates, pizza boxes and cups right where they stood. Alec and I were always careful to throw all our trash in the cans. I think Saturday night, we had 2 cups that we didn't get in the trash. We had them with our stuff to carry out after Pearl Jam, but during the show, they got kicked away from us. It was just really disappointing to see the lack of concern for our environment on such a large scale. I was proud because when we tied up our two bags at camp before we left, we had twice as much in our recycling bag as we did in the trash bag.

Would I go again? I'm still not sure. It was an ordeal, but the music made it worth it. I'm uncomfortable in crowds and have a pretty large personal space bubble and most people there don't seem to have any concept of personal space. I got very annoyed with the way people walked through the crowds. Everyone would be sitting down waiting for a show to start and people seemed to pick the most difficult way possible to get through, stepping on people's blankets, kicking their stuff, sometimes even kicking the people. I got kicked in the arm once and I saw another guy get kicked in the head. Several times, we almost had our lemonades and teas get spilled and at $5 a pop, I would have been pissed. You weren't supposed to bring full sized chairs in, but I saw several people with them. One lady in particular set hers up directly in front of us before Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. We were already pretty far back, so could only see the video screens and she was smack dab in the middle of that. I think part of the problem with getting annoyed with people and where they stand is that none of the stages are set up like most amphitheaters. There's really no hill (there's a slight one at the What stage, but not much). So you aren't able to look over the people in front of you and it makes it difficult to see. I had one guy in front of me at Pearl Jam who kept switching which leg he was leaning on, so his head would be in one spot and I would look over his right shoulder, 30 seconds later he would lean to the right and I had to lean to the left to see over his left shoulder. This went on every 30 seconds for 10 minutes. And I'm sure my moving affected the guy behind me as well. Finally he moved over a bit and sat down during some songs.

Overall, I'm glad I went and I would probably do it again, depending on who was playing. I do know one thing, had I been a cave man I wouldn't have invented the wheel, I would have invented the chair with cushions.

GOP Primary

2008-01-31T16:11:00.000-06:00

I haven't written a lot about the primaries, mainly because I just haven't had time and I have been able to vent with a co-worker (hey Chris!). But it's time I wrote something on the subject. If you've read my blog before, you probably can guess which candidate I support; Ron Paul. I don't agree with all of his policies, but he's the first major party candidate in many years who has even come close to representing my beliefs. Unfortunately, it seems that a majority of Americans don't hold similar beliefs. I could go on a rant here and get completely sidetracked, but I'm not going to. Suffice it to say that it saddens me that so many voters seem to vote the opposite of what they say they believe.

I watched the McCain-Romney, oops I mean Republican, debate on CNN last night. Apparently, they invited Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee to give McCain and Romney occasional breaks so their voices didn't get too tired. I haven't seen the total minutes each candidate got yet, but McCain and Romney had to have had at least double the time Paul and Huckabee had. When people bitched about Ron Paul not getting many questions in the early debates, the media cried that there were so many candidates on the stage, it was hard to give each one ample time. Well, now we're down to 4 and some are still getting the shaft. I'm sick of the media picking the "front runners" and shoving them down the public's throat.

Fox News showed their bias in New Hampshire when they left Ron Paul out in favor of Thompson and Ghouliani. At that time, Paul had gotten more votes than Ghouliani in Iowa and more delegates than Thompson. Fox kept repeating the "Ghouliani didn't campaign in Iowa, he's focusing on Florida." line of crap like it was the gospel truth. A little investigating shows that Rudy made 35 campaign appearances in Iowa, Ron Paul made 27. How many appearances constitute "campaigning?"

One exchange in the debate last night that I thought was great was Ron Paul's response to the question about whether he agreed w/ McCain's idea that we need to leave troops in Iraq for as long as 100 years. This was immediately following a 5 minute exchange between McCain and Romney about what Romney said about timetables. The exchange can be boiled down to
McCain: "You said blah"
Romney: "No I didn't"
McCain: "Yes you did"
Romney: "No I didn't"
Repeat for 5 minutes

Dr. Paul's response was spot on…

PAUL: I don't even think they should have gone, so keeping them for 100 years, where's the money going to come from?
(APPLAUSE)
You know, the country is in bankruptcy. And when I listen to this argument, I mean, I find it rather silly, because they're arguing technicalities of a policy they both agree with.
They agreed with going in; they agreed for staying, agreed for staying how many years? And these are technicalities. We should be debating foreign policy, whether we should have interventionism or non-interventionism, whether we should be defending this country or whether we should be the policemen of the world, whether we should be running our empire or not...
...The dollar is crashing, and you're talking about these technicalities about who said what when?
...So when I talk about these long-term stays, I think, "How many men are you willing to let die for this, for something that has nothing to do with our national security?"
There were no al Qaeda there. It had nothing do with 9/11. And there was no threat to our national security. They never committed aggression. It's unconstitutional. It's an undeclared war.
And we have these silly arguments going on about who said what when. I think it's time to debate foreign policy and why we don't follow the Constitution and only go to war with a declaration of war.
(APPLAUSE)

(I edited it down a little for brevity, you can find entire source at CNN transcript)

It was silly that these two spent so much time arguing over semantics. And the moderators just let it happen. These so called journalists are not doing their job. Out of all the candidates, Republican and Democrat, Ron Paul is the only one that I've heard that has actually said how he is going to cut spending. Several times last night McCain talked about cutting taxes, none of the "journalists" ever asked what spending he planned on cutting in order to do so. We're already running a huge deficit, we can't cut taxes and not spending.

I don't care for Huckabee, but he scored a few bonus points from me last night because he mentioned a couple of times how lopsided the questions were. But he lost those points with his comment about federalism. Maybe he just mixed up his words, but it didn't sound that way. He seems to be a little confused about Thomas Jefferson and federalism. He was responding to a question about CA having stricter environmental standards and said…

"It's the genius of our founding fathers when they had the idea of federalism. Thomas Jefferson was right, and Alexander Hamilton was wrong. That debate we thought was settled."

Yes, Thomas Jefferson was right and Hamilton was wrong, but Hamilton was the federalist not TJ. The Federalists advocated a stronger central government, the exact opposite of what Huckabee seems to be supporting.

I've been watching CNN for most of the election coverage because they seemed to be at least a little balanced. I can't stand Fox "Ghouliani Is a Frontrunner and Ron Paul Doesn't Exist" News, so I guess I'm going to have to hold my nose and give MSNBC a shot.

A great article

2008-01-02T18:14:00.000-06:00

"You don’t have to be a Nazi. You can just be, well, a sheep.

In his journal, Sebastian Haffner decries what he calls the “sheepish submissiveness” with which the German people reacted to a 9/11-like event, the burning of the German Parliament (Reichstag) on Feb. 27, 1933.

Haffner finds it quite telling that none of his acquaintances “saw anything out of the ordinary in the fact that, from then on, one’s telephone would be tapped, one’s letters opened, and one’s desk might be broken into.”

But it is for the cowardly politicians that Haffner reserves his most vehement condemnation. Do you see any contemporary parallels here?"

Creeping Fascism: History's Lessons

Read The Bills Act

2007-11-16T11:28:00.001-06:00

You may notice a new banner on the right side of the page (until I change my layout again). This banner leads you to a site called DownsizeDC that I have mentioned a couple of times in my posts. DownsizeDC's overall goal is to reduce the size of the federal government (bet you couldn't guess that by the name), and the main push right now to accomplish that is their "Read the Bills Act." Congress passes hundreds of laws every year, most of them are hundreds and hundreds of pages long. There is no way that each representative and senator voting on the bill has read the entire bill. Plus there are usually last minute changes to bills, often done in secret, before a vote is held and the practice of adding an unpopular proposal to a bill that no one wants to vote against (this is how the internet gambling law got passed, it was piggybacked on a bill dealing w/ port security (shipping ports, not network ports :) ). The "Read the Bills Act" requires that...

Each bill, and every amendment, must be read in its entirety before a quorum in both the House and Senate.

Every member of the House and Senate must sign a sworn affidavit, under penalty of perjury, that he or she has attentively either personally read, or heard read, the complete bill to be voted on.

Every old law coming up for renewal under the sunset provisions must also be read according to the same rules that apply to new bills.

Every bill to be voted on must be published on the Internet at least 7 days before a vote, and Congress must give public notice of the date when a vote will be held on that bill.

Passage of a bill that does not abide by these provisions will render the measure null and void, and establish grounds for the law to be challenged in court.
Congress cannot waive these requirements.

quoted from DownsizeDC

We have allowed our representatives to vote on and pass laws that they don't understand for too long. I urge you to write your representatives and ask them to support and/or sponsor this bill. DownsizeDC has a very nice system where you can register and they will automatically send your message to your representatives based on your address. They have a standard message they send and you can add your own personal message as well.

More information about Read the Bills Act

Information about another important effort the "One Subject at a Time" bill (to prevent them from tacking on unpopular proposals onto bills no one wants to vote against)

If you can and want to, please contribute to DownsizeDC. When a big corporation or industry wants to get a law passed, they throw millions of dollars at Congress through lobbyists.

And while you have your debit/credit card out, swing by Ron Paul's site and donate.

Thomas Jefferson was a terrorist

2007-10-26T10:17:00.000-05:00

Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 passes House 404-6.

If this passes the Senate, "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." will be illegal. What is an extremist belief system? Well, that's not defined in the bill, it's up to the government and the commission that will be formed. Maybe they can call the commission the House Un-American Activities Commission, oh wait, that's already been used.

This is absolutely an outrage that something like this can pass with such an overwhelming majority and NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION! It is time for all Americans to wake up and smell the tyranny. First, it was the Patriot Act which gave the government unprecedented powers to monitor communications and gather data on everyone. Then the Military Commissions Act which suspended habeas corpus and allows the Executive branch to imprison anyone it wants. Now, to complete the tyrannical triple-play, this bill gives the government the power to define its enemies based on their beliefs.

If you read the text of the bill, it defines Violent Radicalization, Homegrown Terrorism and Ideologically Based Violence. Hell, it even defines Commission. But notice it never defines what an extremist belief system is. That's because not defining it makes it easier to apply it with a very broad brush. I've seen media and politicians calling Ron Paul and his supporters (of which I am one, for now) extremists. So stating that the Constitution should be consulted and followed when considering laws is extremist? You know, that annoying document that politicians swear to uphold and defend when they are going into office and then spend the next 2-4 years attempting to shred it?

Not defining the term also is an affront to the rule of law, one of the founding principles of our country. In a nutshell, no one is above the law and government authority is only legitimate when exercised under written, publicly available laws and follows due process. One of the major issues at the forefront of the American Revolution was the British constitution. The British constitution was not a written document, it referred to a vast collection of laws and judicial decisions. And there was no defined authority to decide constitutional questions (i.e. our Supreme Court). By enacting vague legislation like this bill, the government is moving away from the rule of law.

To add insult to injury, there's a section of the bill about "protecting civil rights and civil liberties..." They pass a bill that makes certain thoughts a crime and expect to protect civil rights? Can you say "lip service"?

Let's hear what Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding ~~fathers~~ terrorists has to say...

"[If] the King can model the constitution at will... his government is a pure despotism. The question then arising is, whether a pure despotism in a single head, or one which is divided among a king, nobles, priesthood, and numerous magistracy, is the least bad. I should be puzzled to decide."

"We surely cannot deny to any nation that right whereon our own government is founded, that every one may govern itself according to whatever form it pleases and change these forms at its own will... The will of the nation is the only thing essential to be regarded."

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

"The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed."

"As revolutionary instruments (when nothing but revolution will cure the evils of the State) [secret societies] are necessary and indispensable, and the right to use them is inalienable by the people."

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."

"For a people who are free, and who mean to remain so, a well-organized and armed militia is their best security. "

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. "

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. "

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too. "

Two Close Ones and other stuff

2007-08-29T17:20:00.000-05:00

This time last year, the baseball team was 1-3. This year, we are 4-0! The last two games have been close ones. Saturday, we kept the game close until the 3rd inning when we gave up a lot of runs because of walks and steals. Zack did hit another double, this time on a fly ball to left. He is hitting so much better this year. Bottom of the 3rd, we were out of time so it was our last at bat, we were down 14-8. Our #7 hitter led off the inning with a hard line drive right up the middle, his first hit of the year. A couple of walks and steals later, we're only a couple of runs down and it's looking like we might actually have a chance. A hit by our #4 hitter scored a couple to tie it and he ended up on 3rd. I told him he was the winning run and to get to home plate however he could. A couple of pitches later was the 4th ball on the batter and the catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher, who turned around and started shuffling back to the mound not looking. The player on 3rd just casually started walking toward home and when he got halfway, took off. If the pitcher had thrown it, he might have got him out, but he tried to run to the plate instead. Ballgame.

Last night, was another close one. After 2 innings, it was tied 6-6. We scored 1 in the top of the 3rd, with the same steal by the same player as Saturday. We put in a new pitcher and just shut the other team down in the bottom of the 3rd. We still had time, so I was hoping we'd get some more runs as padding in the top of the 4th, but they had their ace pitcher in as well and no one was hitting. They get up for their last at bat at the top of their lineup and we start off with a strikeout. Next two batters walk. Now they have 2 of their fastest kids on base and their #4 hitter up with 1 out. It's not looking good for us at this point. A hit to the outfield is almost guaranteed to score the two baserunners. First pitch is a strike. 2nd pitch, the boy smacks a hard line drive to the right side of the field. I didn't even have time to think "It's over" before it was over, but not in the way I thought. Because Zack was playing 2nd base and the ball left the bat and about a half second later was grabbed out of the air by Zack's glove. The runner on first was headed to 2nd and before he knew what was going on, Zack tagged him. Unassisted double play and ballgame. He got the game ball for that.

I never posted anything about my trip to Cleveland to see Dream Theater. Alec and I drove up on a Saturday (August 11th), caught the show, crashed in a nice hotel and drove back the next day. It was an 8 hour drive, but it was worth it. It was a great show and the people in Cleveland were very nice. I had always had a bad impression of people from Ohio, but everyone was cool. I was wearing my Rush Snakes & Arrows shirt and Rush was coming to Cleveland on the 30th, so I had several people (even a cop) ask me if I had already seen them and how it was. It was great getting to spend that drive time with Alec too. From talking with other fathers of teenagers, I consider myself extremely lucky that I can spend 16 hours in a car with my son and we actually have conversations and don't argue.

I've also started school again. I'm doing the RODP (the online degree program), majoring in Organizational Leadership. I'm taking 2 classes this semester, hoping to increase after I get back in school mode. I have US History and Music Appreciation. I'm hoping to finish my bachelor's degree before Alec goes to college.

New Season of Baseball

2007-08-22T10:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I am coaching Zack's fall ball team again this year. We've got a more solid team this year. They did a blind draft this year, so it was pretty much luck of the draw. I ended up getting 2 kids that were on the team last year. We started the season on Saturday with a 7-5 win. Zack hit a double that would have been a triple if he had been watching me signal him to round 2nd and keep coming to 3rd. It worked out cause he ended up stealing 3rd and home anyway.

Last night, we had a great night of baserunning. We won 10-7 on 3 hits and only 1 RBI. That means we had a lot of steals. 23 if I counted them right (which I probably didn't). Of course, a lot of those were on wild pitches or errors, which would mean they don't really count as steals, but these guys are 9 & 10 (some are only 8), so I keep simplified stats.

And before I get any angry emails from the soccer infested, competition in kids sports is bad, the only score should be how much fun did we have? crowd, let me say a few things. 1) The stats I keep are available to the parents/kids however, unless the parent shares the URL with them, they don't know how to get to them. 2) I do not talk about the stats in practice/games, or even tell them I keep them. 3) the only reason I keep the stats is because I have a terrible memory and often my first impression sticks. I only use the stats to make the lineup. At this level, every player hits, so I'm not using them to choose who doesn't get to play. And truthfully, I don't really look at batting avg. I look more at on base % (OBP). I put the kids that get on base the most at the top of the lineup. 4) The kids have fun whether they win or lose and that is the most important thing. But teaching them not to compete at all will not help them later in life.

And it begins...

2007-08-07T15:34:00.000-05:00

Aging Road May Lead to Tax Hike

Tragedy is to politicians what a bell was to Pavlov's dogs. It enables them to pluck the heartstrings of the general public while pulling money out of their pocket with the other hand. Every time there is a disaster, they line up in front of the cameras and talk about how we need to increase funding for .

The only thing that makes a politician salivate more than a disaster is war. That enables them to control you, not just your money.

Congress Backs Foreign Wiretaps

The 4th Amendment already looked like it had gone 9 rounds against Muhammad Ali, and it just took even more of a beating. It's on its last legs for sure. The gov't keeps infringing our rights in the name of security, and we just keep taking it. Do you feel safer now?

New Music

2007-07-27T11:10:00.000-05:00

I've gotten a lot of new music lately and haven't had time to post reviews of everything, so I'm going to do one post and just do a quick review of everything.

Pearl Jam - Live at the Gorge Box Set

It's a pretty well known fact that I am a HUGE Pearl Jam fan. In my iTunes library, PJ has the highest number of tracks out of all artists (619 tracks or 629 if you want to count the Temple of the Dog album). This box set contributed 100 of those tracks. 8 hours of music, all live, all recorded at The Gorge in George, WA. There are 3 complete shows represented, 1 in 2005 and 2 on back to back nights in 2006. The music covers PJ's entire history, going all the way back to the beginning, even including early stuff that wasn't on Black like Wash. Technically, they go back to before the band existed as Crown of Thorns (originally done by Mother Love Bone, Stone and Jeff's original band). The 2006 shows include a lot of new material from the 2006 self-titled album.

The sound is great, song choices are great, it's live Pearl Jam so what else would you expect? PJ knows what playing live music is all about. They truly appreciate their fans and it shows. How many bands are willing to record every show they do and make it available to their fans? One of the things that makes me love PJ so much is represented on this box set: when they record a live show and release it, they don't "clean it up" or fix mistakes, you get the real thing. On the 2005 show, Eddie misses some lyrics in "Off He Goes" and they just laugh it off. He totally blows the lyrics to "Do the Evolution" in one of the '06 shows, but they didn't go into a studio and re-record that part. Live music isn't about perfection.

Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell

I bought this the day it came out, after listening to the first 3 songs on their MySpace page. Punk has always been considered a young person's genre, but this group of 40-somethings show the kids what punk really is. BR has been around since 1980, I remember hearing some of their early stuff on the local college radio station back in the early 80's. I forgot all about them until 1994 when they released Stranger Than Fiction. A lot of fans view it as their "sell-out" record because they went with a major label. I leave the "sell-out" argument to the hipsters and those that care about that kind of thing. A band exists to make music and if that music is good, it doesn't matter what label they are on.

New Maps of Hell is a fast and furious sonic assault. It rocks out of the gate with "52 Seconds" and stays balls to the wall through the first 5 songs. These 5 songs (52 Seconds, Heroes & Martyrs, Germs of Perfection, New Dark Ages and Requiem for Dissent) are the best on the album. That doesn't mean the rest of the album isn't good, it's very good. Other honorable mentions are Grains of Wrath, Scrutiny, Prodigal Son and Submission Complete. The music is fast and hard, but still has those great BR melodies. And, of course, there are plenty of vocal harmonies. The lyrics are very topical and, as always, scathing attacks on society and government. Like most BR albums, you will probably need a dictionary at some point. How many punk bands can pull off lyrics like

Amid the heat and the wrack
Hot boots invested and cracked
Poor candidates jacked into gray light
An ultra-violent call summoning both poet and thrall
Sweet catalyst for the acolytes
-Heroes & Martyrs

If you like BR, it's a no-brainer, go buy it. If you are younger and think Green Day invented melodic punk, you need to pick this up and learn where Green Day got their influence. One complaint, it seems that CDs now are getting louder and louder. Not a good louder, but one that causes distortion when listening with headphones. This album is guilty of that and the vocals are at times buried in the mix.

Velvet Revolver - Libertad

I liked the first Velvet Revolver album (Contraband), but it never got to that level of "that's an awesome album." I couldn't even tell you the last time I actually listened to the whole thing all the way through. But I've listened to Libertad 4 or 5 times since I got it 4 days ago. That's all the way through, no track skipping. You can tell they have gelled as a band now. Stand out tracks are: the album opener "Let It Roll" which kicks ass, the first single "She Builds Quick Machines" which is a catchy rocker, "The Last Fight" is this album's "Fall to Pieces", great wah guitar on "Pills, Demons & Etc.", "Messages" has a beautiful Slash guitar melody, bringing up memories of "Sweet Child O' Mine". And check out their cover of Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer", they did it justice.

The Mars Volta - Deloused in the Comatorium

This isn't a new release, but I just got it. I've been hearing about The Mars Volta for a while now, but never really checked them out. I'm glad I did. This isn't music for the casual listener though. They use lots of weird time signatures and changes, poly-rhythmic stuff, ambient noise and strange lyrics, which sometimes flow between English and Spanish within the same song. So if you like progjazzpunk music, check this out.

Effective Tax Rates

2007-07-17T13:45:00.000-05:00

http://tinyurl.com/ypawsq

In this election season, much ado will be made over tax cuts, tax rates and the fairness of taxes on the poor versus taxes on the wealthy. The information above, straight from the Congressional Budget Office should lay to rest the effective tax rates of the different levels of income. The effective tax rates above include all federal taxes (income, payroll (FICA/Medicare) and corporate). This data is from 2004, the tax code hasn't changed much since then but for reference, the FICA rate in 2004 was 6.2%, Medicare rate was 1.45% and the FICA limit was $87,000.

I ask that you read my entire post before responding, you may take something one way when you read it, but another way when you've read the entire post.

The fact that the tax rates for the lowest 20% are below the FICA rate shows that their federal income tax is negative. This is most likely due to Earned Income Credit. This is what enables people to pay in almost no federal income tax, yet receive a $3000 refund. And the 2nd tier (up to $36,000) is paying very little over the 7.65% FICA/Medicare rate. These are the two groups usually referred to as the "working poor" that politicians love to drag out and whine that they barely got a tax cut while the "mega-wealthy" got a huge tax cut. Well, if you aren't paying federal income tax to begin with, how much of a cut can you get?

The middle class is made up of the next 2 groups ($37,000 - $81,000). These two groups are paying 13% and 17%, respectively, of their income to the federal government. Something that is true for all groups, but probably most pronounced in this group is the difference between 2 married people earning the money versus a single person earning the money. I pay more in taxes as a single person than my ex-wife and I combined when I was married and our combined income was 50-60% more than it is now. Then the top 20% is paying 25% of their income. Keep in mind, this is before state income tax (which Tennessee thankfully does not have), state sales tax (where TN makes up for not having an income tax), county/city sales tax, wheel tax, property tax, utility tax, permit tax, fuel tax, all those taxes listed on your phone and cable bill, pet tax, toll roads, etc.

The table includes the top 1%, which is already factored in to the highest 20%, but it is interesting to note that the effective tax rate is 31.1%. The effective tax rate for that group is 25%, so you have to assume that the lower incomes in that group are paying quite a bit less than 25%.

I created the table below, which shows the percentage increase in average income and the percentage increase in tax rates between the groups. This shows that the average income increases faster than the tax rates. Does this mean the tax system is not progressive enough? I don't think so, keep in mind this is comparing 2 different types of numbers. The income amount is an average while the rate is the effective rate for the entire group, not an average for the group.

Income Group	Avg Pretax Income	Eff Fed Rate	Increase in Income	Increase in Rate
Lowest 20%	$ 15,400.00	4.5%
Second 20%	$ 36,300.00	10.0%	135.7%	122.2%
Middle 20%	$ 56,200.00	13.9%	54.8%	39.0%
Fourth 20%	$ 81,700.00	17.2%	45.4%	23.7%
Highest 20%	$ 207,200.00	25.1%	153.6%	45.9%

What this table does not include are those tax payers who do not draw a paycheck. If most of your income comes from capital gains and dividends, you would only be taxed at 15% and they are not subject to FICA/Medicare taxes. This is one of the favorite whipping posts for the crowd that complains about "tax cuts for the mega-wealthy." I don't know how many people actually earn the greatest portion of their living this way, but I imagine it's not a very large group.

The article quotes Bush as saying "On principle, no one in America should have to pay more than a third of their income to the federal government." My question to that quote and all the data mentioned above is: Who's principle? Where, exactly, did he pull a third as the correct maximum amount of tax? Let's look back to 1916 when the income tax was enacted (well, the 3rd and last time it was enacted), the rates went from 1% all the way up to...7%. Less than 1% of Americans (the top earners) paid income tax. Fast forward 90 years and we have teenagers working part time at McDonalds paying income tax and the president thinks no one should pay more than 1/3 of their income and there are people who don't think that is enough!

So what is enough? How much of your income do you think the federal government has the right to take from you before you even receive it? This post is full of numbers and percentages and comparisons between income levels. You could take the numbers I provided and argue that our tax system is progressive and that the rich pay significantly more in taxes than the poor. But you could also take the same numbers and present them a different way and argue that the system isn't progressive enough and the rich don't pay enough.

I didn't provide the numbers to argue either one of those things. I provided them to prove my point. My point is that using numbers to argue a moral and philosophic question is a waste of time. Look back at the numbers, you could add 10% to every percentage listed and we could still have the same debate about who's paying their "fair share." Add 20%, 30%, where does it stop? Why is 1/3 of my income the most I should pay? Why not 1/2? Why not 1/4? There are no fractions in ethics and morality. If the government of the United States thinks that they have the right to 1/3 of my income, then they think they have the right to 100% of it.

Let's not ignore the privacy issue brought about by the income tax. Before the income tax, employment was a private matter between an employer and an employee. How much you made was between you and your employer only. Now, you can't work without filling out a bunch of forms and by the time you get your first paycheck, there are 5 or 6 government agencies that know exactly how much you make.

Also, think about all the exceptions I mentioned above. All the different rates and differences between single and married, parent and childless. The tax code is huge and has created an entire industry that exists just so normal people can file their taxes. And God forbid you file them wrong, get ready to pay serious penalties or worse, lose some property.

And if the "taxes aren't progressive enough" crowd is so up in arms about taxation, why aren't they willing to talk about the most regressive tax of all, FICA? FICA and Medicare taxes everyone at 7.65%, with an additional 7.65% begin paid by the employer. And to make it even more regressive, the FICA portion (6.2%) stops after $94,500. Why isn't this group willing to look at reducing or eliminating these taxes? Because they fund the ultimate nanny-state program, Social (In)Security.

The sad thing is, politicians won't talk about taxes like this. There seem to be only two schools of though: 1) lower taxes for the middle class and poor and make up the difference by taxing the rich (often the definition of rich here means those making over $75,000 a year which is a long way from rich) and 2) tax cuts for everyone! No, we don't need to reduce spending, we'll collect more from taxes because the economy will improve. I've got an idea, how about we really, I mean really, cut taxes and cut spending til we're only funding what the government is constitutionally allowed to do and everyone will have more money. Sure there will be a brief economic downturn for all those government employees out there, but they will get swept up in the booming economy that would follow such drastic tax cuts.

There is only one candidate running in the 2008 primary that is willing to talk about taxes in these terms. That candidate is Ron Paul. I swore on this very blog that I would not vote for a Republican or Democrat again. I am revising that statement. Ron Paul is not really a Republican. He has ran on the Libertarian ticket before and his views align more with the Libertarian Party than the Republican Party. I am going to vote for Dr. Paul in the primary (as of right now, future events may change my mind).

My theory (caveat: with my non-mainstream views, any political analysis of major candidates by me is apt to be completely and utterly wrong) is that Dr. Paul is the only hope the Republican party has at winning the presidency. Based on the current approval ratings of our current despot, the American people aren't going to go for Ghouliani, Tancredo, Romney or any of the other Bush clones who want more war and torture and less rights. And how can anyone forgive McCain's involvement in the McCain-Feingold bill, one of the biggest affronts to free speech in recent history? So we're down to the district attorney from Law & Order, Fred Thompson and Dr. Paul. From what I know of Thompson, he talks a good game about the Constitution, but he falls into the party line on a lot of issues, so the left will see him as just another R.

Historically, you've got 40-45% voting D and 40-45% voting R no matter who is running. It's the 10-20% of swing voters that truly decide an election. If, and this is a big if, Dr. Paul were to win the Republican primary, then the Libertarian party would be best served by not running a candidate and throwing their support behind Dr. Paul. With their support and enough of those middle of the road voters who don't go third party, he could win the election. I think with any other R candidate, everyone will see it's going to be more of the same and those 10-20% swing voters will cross to the D side so fast, the boat might tip over.

"America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation." ~Laurence J. Peter

Summer Vacation Days 1 & 2

2007-06-26T11:43:00.000-05:00

This year, Alec, Zack and I are going to Gatlinburg and Chattanooga for our summer vacation.

Day 1 – Sunday

We drove up to Gatlinburg Sunday afternoon. It was a great drive, I made a playlist with 528 songs (about 1.6 days worth of music) for our trip. We jammed to whatever came on and the 3 of us talked pretty much the whole way here. It’s great that Alec still likes talking to his dad, even though he’s 15. We got up here around 5 and checked into the hotel. We went out and walked around for a bit and found somewhere to eat dinner. We ate at the Mountain Edge Grill, which was pretty good. Then we walked around and found an indoor miniature golf place. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and had a great time. We also road go-carts, which was fun.

Day 2 – Monday

This morning, we decided to go hiking. We drove up to the national park entrance and went to the Sugarlands visitor’s center. We got a map of some day hike trails and decided to do the Chimney Tops hike. It’s a 4 mile round trip and rated as strenuous. The first part is easy, leading down to a bridge over waterfalls and a pool in the river. Several people were swimming, even though the water is pretty cold. Alec & Zack waded in and got their feet wet. We climbed out over some big rocks and got a lot of pictures. Someone picked up Zack’s water bottle, so we were down to 2 bottles. We hiked on, going up some pretty steep inclines. We crossed several bridges and got tons of pictures (which I will post this weekend). We reached a point and realized we were only half way up. We were tired and running out of water. Alec wanted to press on, but I knew we would run out of water and would need some food soon. So we turned back. Not 3 minutes later, it started to rain. It was just a drizzle, so no big deal. We got back to the car and started back down the mountain and it started pouring. It was raining so hard, we had to pull into one of the parking areas because I couldn’t see the road. If we had pressed on, we would have been over a mile up a mountain getting soaked. So we eventually got back to town and relaxed in the room for a bit and dried out.

We went out walking, looking for something to do and hit one of the candy stores. It was still raining and we couldn’t find anything fun to do. We headed back to the room to get ready for dinner. For dinner we went to the Hard Rock Café. It was pretty cool, the food was not bad, just nothing special. But it was cool to look at all the guitars and pictures on the walls and listen to good music while eating instead of the standard muzak. Our waitress was Anna, who was from Belarus. I've now met 3 women from Belarus (I worked with 2 years ago) and let me tell you, there are some beautiful women in that country. The table we were at had Chet Atkins memorabilia, including his Fender Telecaster (with his name on the neck) and a red, sequined outfit he wore at Carnegie Hall in 1969. The table next to us had Johnny Cash stuff, so Zack had to get a picture of that. He also took a picture of the Chet Atkins stuff cause my granddad will get a kick out of that. Other acts in the room we were in were the Allman brothers, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Jimmy Vaughn next to each other and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. I didn’t get pictures of those because people were eating at those tables. In the lobby, I took a shot of Eddie Van Halen’s display, Guns N’ Roses (Duff McKagan), a Sex Pistols t-shirt and a couple of other things.

Tomorrow, we go white water rafting!

Chris Cornell Review

2007-06-07T16:39:00.000-05:00

I'm going to kill two birds (pun intended, you'll get it later) with one stone and review both Chris Cornell's show in Nashville Thursday night (May 31) and his new album "Carry On" that came out Tuesday (June 5).

Live Show Review

When I saw that Chris had left Audioslave AND was going on tour AND that tour was going to hit Nashville, I was very happy. Don't get me wrong, I liked Audioslave and they made some good music, but if you listen to Chris' previous work with Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog and his solo stuff, you realized how much Audioslave limited his style. I think the other 3 musicians from Audioslave are great musicians, but when you have 4 or 5 songs on an album where the guitar solos are the same tired "make weird noises that sound like record scratching" solo, you're not really pushing new musical boundaries.

On to the show, I met up with a friend of mine earlier in the afternoon and we drove by City Hall to see if there was a line. There were about 10 people waiting, so we went back to his office to meet up with a couple of other friends. We had a couple of drinks and walked down to the venue. The line was around the corner. We didn't wait too long and when we got in, we ended up about 75 feet from the stage, right in the middle. It didn't take long til they killed the lights and the band came out. Chris has put together a great backing band. He opened with Spoonman and the whole band was rocking it just as hard as Soundgarden ever did. I had never seen Chris live before with any of his bands, and let me tell you, his voice will just blow you away. It sounded just as good live as it has on any studio album. One of the guys I was with, Ace, always says if he had a voice like that he would never talk, he would sing everything he had to say. I have to agree.

After Spoonman, they rolled into Outshined, which has always been one of my favorite songs. It just plain kicked ass. They did some Audioslave songs, Original Fire sounded great. He sang "No Such Thing" off the new album, which wasn't out yet. I had heard 2 songs of the album and this was not one of them. It sounded great live. Then he reached back to the Temple of the Dog album and did Hunger Strike, which was great but I did miss hearing Eddie on it. Then Chris said something about it being great being able to play some of the old stuff and said that they hadn't played the next one yet. Then the opening notes of Say Hello to Heaven rings out. Man, I was floored. I first heard that song about a year after my mom died and it's just one of those songs that reminds me of her. It was great getting to hear it live.

He introduced Rusty Cage by saying something about he still gets a high when he thinks about Johnny Cash recording one of his songs. It was freakin' loud and hard and amazing. After Sunshower, the band took a break, but Chris played acoustic versions of Can't Change Me (the only song he did from Euphoria Morning), Scar in the Sky (from the new album) and I Am the Highway. He started Call Me a Dog from the Temple of the Dog album acoustic and the band came back in halfway through. Listening to Chris just singing with an acoustic guitar is further proof that he is an amazing singer and musician. I think one of his talents has always been creating such great melodies on top of the music. He uses his voice as another instrument and the melodies he creates are just amazing. At that point, the words don't even really matter, he could sing his grocery list and it would sound good.

After the acoustic set, they did some more Audioslave songs. This was the point I started realizing it was hot. I don't mean "fan your face a little" hot, I mean it was fuckin' hot. I had on a lightweight button down shirt and a t-shirt and when I took off the outside shirt, it was soaked in sweat. He did a couple of songs from the new album, including Billie Jean. Yes, that Billie Jean. It's a completely different take on the song and it sounded really good. That was followed by Like a Stone one of my fave Audioslave songs. Then, wait, is that...holy shit, that's Loud Love! (from Soundgarden's 2nd album Louder than Love). That was rockin' and then when they kicked into Jesus Christ Pose, I about lost it. That song is one of the heaviest, hardest hitting songs ever. And Chris' backing band did it justice. Those guys are pretty damn good to be playing music from 3 different bands, especially considering those 3 bands consisted of Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Matt McCready, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Tom Morello and the bassist and drummer from Audioslave (I can't remember their names and I'm too lazy to go look it up). Plus playing stuff from Chris' solo albums, which are all over the place stylistically.

After Jesus Christ Pose, they all left the stage and we waited patiently for an encore. I was drained after JCP, but was ready for more. They came back out and open with that great guitar riff that starts off My Wave. They did a great job on it. Then Chris said something about he hadn't played the next song in a long time and the guitarist starts picking Seasons. Holy shit! I mean, if you had asked me before the show what songs I thought he would play, Seasons would have been way down at the bottom of the list. But it would have been near the top of my list of songs I would want him to play. It is a song he did solo for the Singles soundtrack (Soundgarden also had a song on there). It was amazing hearing it live. They followed that up with Black Hole Sun. That's one I loved when I first heard it (I bought the Superunknown album the week it was released), but after the radio and MTV wore it out, it's one of those songs I usually skip over. But hearing it live made me love it again. I loved it without the vocal effects that are on the album.

The house lights actually came on toward the end of Black Hole Sun. They finished up and Chris thanked everyone and left. I found out later that they actually were going to play a 2nd encore with Never Be Your Man (new album), Be Yourself and Slaves & Bulldozers (which would have been awesome), but they got shut down because it was so hot and people were passing out. Even without the 2nd encore, it was an amazing show. He played for at least 2.5 hours, maybe a little more. We definitely got our money's worth. I'm still pissed about paying $35 to go see Sting 7 years ago and he only played for 1:45, which included a 10 minute acoustic version of Roxanne, and what made it 10 minutes was mostly him repeatedly singing "Roxxxxaannne". I spent the same amount for this show and was close enough to read the Gibson name on the headstock of the guitar and Chris put on a fucking show. I included the setlist below, thanks to someone on the Chris Cornell forum.

Spoonman
Outshined
Original Fire
Show Me How to Live
No Such Thing
You Know My Name
Hunger Strike
Say Hello to Heaven
Fell on Black Days
What You Are
Rusty Cage
Sunshower
Can't Change Me (Chris solo)
Scar in the Sky (Chris solo)
I Am the Highway (Chris solo)
Call Me a Dog (started Chris solo, band came back at end)
Doesn't Remind Me
Cochise
Your Soul Today
Billie Jean
Like a Stone
Loud Love
JCP

Encore:
My Wave
Seasons
Blackhole Sun

Album Review: Carry On

Carry On is Chris Cornell's new album that was released yesterday. He apparently recorded it immediately after recording Revelations with Audioslave. In February, he announced he was leaving Audioslave and releasing a solo album. I was always a bigger fan of Chris' work in Soundgarden and solo than Audioslave, so I was pretty happy to hear that. I've heard that he is pretty much an asshole to work with and that he is egotistical. If I had his talent, I would be freakin' unbearable. I don't really care if he's a jerk, I just know I like the result of his musical creativity.

The album opens with No Such Thing, which starts off as a up-tempo rocker. The guitar riff at the beginning is pretty generic, if you've listened to any alternative in the past 10 years, you've probably heard it before. But the music suddenly drops to just an acoustic guitar and light drum, with Chris' vocals. The choruses go back to that generic riff with Chris singing. I guess it's a good opener because it's one of the harder rocking numbers on the album, but it's just not one of his best. But, my opinion of the song went up a few points when it got to the bridge. It shifts into a great sounding arpeggioed guitar with Chris' vocals split over the left and right channel. On the right, he's singing in that high falsetto he has (not the primal scream) and the left channel is his lower pitched, rougher voice (think of When I'm Down on Euphoria Morning).

Up next is Poison Eye, which doesn't have the best lyrics, but the chord progression, riff and melody makes up for it. Arms Around Your Love starts out sounding very poppy and radio friendly. And it stays there. That's not a bad thing, I'm sure some fans who only want to hear him sing Outshined for the rest of his life won't like it, but that's their loss. I think pop sounding songs like this are great when the artist is authentic. It's the manufactured pop music or the bands that say "hey, Pearl Jam sold millions of records, if we sound like them we'll sell millions too." (ahem, Creed) and even worse "hey, Creed sold millions sounding like Pearl Jam, we'll sell millions sounding like Creed sounding like Pearl Jam" (ahem, Nickelback). And I can't even bring myself, okay I guess I can, mention (I cringe even typing it) Hinder, which sounds like a rip off of a rip off of a rip off of Pearl Jam. Ok, back to the review.

Safe and Sound is a great song. It's got a bit of a bluesy feel, which I love when Chris does blues flavored songs (Call Me a Dog, When I'm Down). The lyrics are great, concerning a utopian view of society. Next up is She'll Never Be Your Man, which is written from the point of view of a man who's woman left him for another woman. Apparently Chris knew several people this happened to and he wrote this song about it. It's a very catchy song and has a great vocal melody and the lyrics are catchy. Ghosts has a some great guitar chords opening up, which fade into a great sounding acoustic strumming. I'm definitely going to have to learn the chords to this song.

The next song is Killing Birds (we finally get to the source of my pun at the beginning). Very interesting sound, opening up with a low-key acoustic guitar and some electronic drum sounds. After the chorus, it kicks into a more rocking tune with either a piano or guitar playing some weird notes while the rest of the band plays a straightforward rhythm. And the guitarist has great tone on the solo. The lyrics sound very personal and intense. Up next is Billie Jean and as I said above, yes the Billie Jean written by Michael Jackson in the 80's (back when he was cool). First thought is the guy from Soundgarden covering Michael Jackson?!? But you should check it out. Hit iTunes or Amazon and listen to the 30 second preview. He has rearranged it into a slow, bluesy tune with subdued vocals during the verses and cutting loose during the choruses.

Scar on the Sky is a pretty song that would sound at home on a Soundgarden album. That is followed by Your Soul Today, which I think is my favorite on the album so far. It's got an infectious guitar riff and a funky beat. Finally Forever has a Beatles feel with a slide guitar. Silence the Voices starts off sounding vaguely like an old school Soundgarden sludge-fest. But the vocals and drumming change that feel. It's actually a tough song to classify. Interesting. Disappearing Act is next. I wondered if it was related to Disappearing One from his last solo album (Euphoria Morning). It's a pretty, mostly acoustic song. Closing out the album is You Know My Name, which you've heard if you saw Casino Royale. It's a good song, with great lyrics and music. Chris collaborated with a composer on it and the orchestration in the song blends well with the standard guitar/drums/bass sound. Being a Bond fan and a fan of several Bond songs, I love that Chris has added one to the list*.

*Cool Bond Songs
Live and Let Die - Paul McCartney
The World is Not Enough - Garbage
A View to a Kill - Duran Duran
You Know My Name - Chris Cornell

Summer Concerts

2007-05-13T13:31:00.000-05:00

This is going to be an awesome summer for music. I have tickets for 3 concerts this summer.

First up is Chris Cornell May 31 at City Hall. I have been a huge fan of Chris since I first heard Soundgarden back in 1990. He has continued to make great music as a solo artist and in Audioslave (Soundgarden was much better though). He has left Audioslave and has another solo album coming out. Should be a great show.

Next is Rush in Atlanta on June 13. Since Starwood has closed, there's no amphitheater here, so Rush isn't coming to Nashville on this tour like they usually do. So I am taking Alec, who is a huge Rush fan and has never seen them live, and a friend of his to Atlanta to see them.

And to finish up the summer, I'm going to Cleveland, OH to see Dream Theater on August 11. I've been a fan of theirs since 1992. I've never seen them live, since they never come to Nashville. I am very excited about this show. Alec and a lot of his friends love DT also. I bought the tickets on the spur of the moment because I happened to check on them right after they went on sale and had the opportunity to get pretty good seats. We'll be in about the 30th row, right in the center in front of the mixing board (which is typically where the best sound is). I bought the tickets just a couple of days before Alec's birthday, so they were part of his present. I printed a map with the route from Nashville to Cleveland, then pasted Dream Theater's logo above Cleveland. I handed that to Alec at his party. It took him a few seconds to figure out what it was. A friend of his was looking over his shoulder and I could see his reaction when he recognized what it was. I did tell Alec that since the concert is 2 days after my birthday, he had to buy me a t-shirt at the show.

Counting Cards (sub story from Vegas story part 2)

2007-05-13T13:25:00.002-05:00

This is a sub-story to my Vegas story. I had a brief encounter with a guy I'm pretty sure was counting cards.

Now, I've always been interested in the odds and the math behind games (not just card games). So naturally, I'm interested in card counting. One of the great things about blackjack is that it is one of the only games in Vegas that has a memory. I have argued several times with a friend about probability and independent events. His idea on roulette was to watch the history and if several reds had hit, to bet on black. But each spin of the wheel is independent from the last spin. The same with dice. If I flip a coin 1 time, the probability of it landing on heads is 50%. If I flip it 10 times and it lands on tails all 10 times, what is the probability of the next flip being heads? It's still 50%. While I was playing roulette one day (and yes, even though I know it's mathematically inconsisitent, I still found myself watching the history and betting based on the past ), I saw 5 numbers in a row hit in the 30s and it hit 33 twice in a row during that run. That seems improbable, but statistically, it was just as likely to hit 33 the 2nd time as it was the 1st time.

My encounter with the assumed counter was during my Monday night blackjack marathon. It was early in the night because I was still sitting in the middle of the table. This Asian guy was standing behind us just watching the game. There were open seats, but he didn't want to play. He just stood and watched, he didn't seem to know anyone at the table. About 3/4 through the shoe, he decides to sit down. He cashes in a C-note and places all $100 in the circle. Damn, dude is serious. I've seen people do stuff like this before, but they didn't sit down, they walked up put their money down, either lost or won and walked off. Lo and behold, the dealer busts and this guy is $100 richer. His next bet was only $15. Now that's a big change in betting strategy. He lost. Next hand, he lays out $25 and wins. It starts dawning on me that he was back-counting the whole shoe (when you count the cards while not sitting at the table) and he waited til there was a high positive count to sit down. The next hand he lays out $50, I had just won $10, so I left it out there for $20. We both won. He leaves $50 out there, I put out $30 and won. When we finished the shoe, he got up and left. I won about $75 in the 3 or 4 hands where I watched what he bet before making my bet.

The process of counting cards is simple. Statistically, more low cards favors the house while more high cards favor the players. So, you don't actually count the cards that are played (meaning you don't have to know that 4 Kings, 2 fives and 3 10s have shown up), you just keep a running count of the high and low cards. Low cards (2 - 6) are worth +1 point, high cards (10 - Ace) are worth -1 point. 7, 8 and 9s are neutral. When the count is positive, that means it is more likely for high cards to come out, favoring the player. So the idea is to adjust your bet according to the count. If it is negative, you bet the minimum, if it is positive, you bet more ( raising the bet for higher positive counts).

Now, if you go to Vegas and you count the cards down at the table and you are fluctuating your bet drastically based on the count, you will stand out like a turd in a punchbowl. Trust me, they've seen it all before. One of the ways counters have gotten around this is by working in teams. You can have several people sitting at various tables, just betting the minimum and counting. When the count gets high enough, instead of them changing their bet, they signal to a partner and he or she comes in and just starts betting big. Since he hasn't played any other way, it's not as suspicious. When the count goes down, that player leaves.

Welcome Back to Nashvegas (Part 2)

2007-05-13T13:25:00.001-05:00

Well, I promised this would be shorter, but I probably lied. This is part 2 of my Vegas trip. If you haven't read it yet, here's Part 1.

Monday, we got up and went to the NAB show that was in Vegas. It's the National Association of Broadcasters and they have everything from radio transmitter stuff to cameras to video editing and a whole lot of other stuff I didn't know anything about. Ace was able to hook Chuck and I up with free passes to go to the trade show floor. We got to check out some really cool shit. Chuck was drooling over some of the DV cameras, we were all drooling over the new Final Cut video editing software from Apple. I've had the bug to buy a Mac for a while and seeing some of the stuff there has made me want one even more.

After our trip to the trade show, I played a little blackjack and when it was time to go to dinner, I was up about $100. We had a hankering for Hooters hot wings, so we walked down the street to the Hooters hotel. As we were walking to the restaurant, we saw another restaurant called Dan Marino's (you know, the former QB of the Dolphins) that was advertising all you can eat ribs for $16.99. Since none of us have ever met a rib we didn't like, we decided to try it out. We ordered some boneless buffalo wings as an appetizer to satisfy our wing craving and then it was on to the ribs. They brought out a plate with a huge rack of ribs and my 2 sides (which were also all you can eat). Damn they were good! There were 3 or 4 sauces on the table also and the whiskey sauce was excellent. We all knocked out our 1st rack and Chuck got another half rack and Ace and I got another 1/4 rack. We were all stuffed. One of the things that made the meal even better was that our waiter, Nick, was one of the best waiters I've ever had. We never had to ask for anything, he was just there with it and he was actually friendly. Not the normal "I'm your waiter and I have to be nice so I get a good tip" friendly. We got the manager over there and complimented both the food and the service. We figured that usually people only comment when they are complaining, so we would share some positive comments.

After dinner, we hung out in the room to let the food digest and I was itching to get back to the blackjack table. This was my last night in Vegas and even though we weren't leaving until after 3 the next afternoon, I knew I wouldn't have much time to play on Tuesday. I headed downstairs around 9:30 and found a good $10 table (the $5 tables are gone after 6 or so) with several people.

Side track: one of the things I enjoy the most about Vegas, and this will probably be a shock to the people who know me, is getting to meet so many different people. There are literally people from all over the world in Vegas. I like talking to people from different cultures and backgrounds.

Ok, back to the action. I sit down at the table and change out a black chip (that's $100 for you non-Vegasy people ). I'm betting the minimum and looking for a cocktail waitress. The first couple of hands are terrible, then I get a pair of 8s. The dealer is showing a 5. You always split Aces and 8s because they both are terrible hands. So I split my 8s (meaning I put down another $10 and have 2 hands). My first 8, I draw a facecard to make 18, so I stay. Next 8, I draw a 3 to make 11. You always double down on 11, unless the dealer is showing an Ace. The dealer is showing a 5, which is a bad card for the dealer (you assume they have a 10 not showing and that they will bust). So I double down the 11, drawing a 6 for a 17. I now have $30 riding on this hand and the dealer is showing a bust card. Everyone else plays, the dealer flips his hole card. A fucking 6. The dealer is sitting there with 11. I know what the next card is before he flips it, a fucking 10. The dealer hit 21, costing me $30. I won the next hand, then got a pair of 7s with the dealer showing a 2. I split and drew a 3 on the first one. Double down. I drew a 10 for a total of 20. Drew a 4 on the next 7, double down. I drew something crappy like a 5. So I have $40 on this hand, dealer flips his hole card, has to keep hitting, he meanders through 5 cards to get...you guessed it: 21. I was down $100 before I even ordered a fucking drink. I cash in another black chip, the cards were just not falling my way. Some people got up and I moved over to the middle of the table (I had been sitting at 1st base). The cards weren't much better.

My second $100 went almost as fast as the 1st. I wasn't happy about it, but it was money I had won the night before and earlier that day, so I hadn't even touched my stake for that day yet. So I pulled another $100 out (this time it was green and made out of paper). Things kind of went back and forth. Then the card counter sat down.

I decided to make this story a separate post because it involves some backstory and a lot of information. See my next post to get the story of the card counter. I'll include the end here so we can continue with the narrative. I had about $125 in front of me when he sat down, when he left, I had about $200.

The guy on 3rd base (the last spot on the table to act, to the far right of the dealer) finally left, so I moved over there. By this time, I had been playing about 2.5 hours and still had the last $100 I had cashed in plus a little more. Considering I lost the first $200 in less than an hour, playing for an hour and a half on the same money was good. People were coming and going at the table, the dealers were changing out every so often for breaks, the waitress was putting orange slices in my screwdrivers, life was good.

There were about 4 of us at the table and this laid back looking Asian guy sat down and threw $100 down. At this point, instead of giving 20 $5 chips for change, they were giving 2 $25 and 10 $5, I guess encouraging us to bet bigger. He lays down $25 and bam, bad cards. About 5 hands later, out comes the wallet, another $100. 7 or 8 hands later, repeat the process. This guy dropped 7 $100 bills on the table in the span of an hour. Then he seemed to hit the spot I was in (I was still playing on the same money) and he didn't have to go into his pocket anymore. We started talking and introduced ourselves. He was from Singapore, there for the NAB show. There was a couple at the table from Chile and the dealer was Armenian.

So, here I am, the hick from Nashville, the only representative of America at the table. It's not like we have a great public image anyway. It's about 1:30 in the morning and I've been drinking screwdrivers as fast as they can bring them. But I am not a sloppy or mean drunk. I'm friendly and when I'm playing cards, especially for that kind of money, I'm very serious, no matter how much alcohol I have. So I'm being nice to everyone and we are all joking around. The Chilean husband was making me nervous because he split 10s several times. He won 2 out of the 3, but it's not a good idea to do it. There's only 1 card that can give you a better hand and if the dealer is showing a low card (which is the only time you would even consider splitting 10s), you will often end up taking their bust card. Anyway, while all this international goodwill is flowing, Mr. Drunk Ass American decides to sit down at our table.

Now, I've been around drunk rednecks, drunk headbangers, drunk black people, drunk geeks, hell even drunk Cajuns. And unfortunately, I've been around the most obnoxious type of drunk there is: the white, upper middle class, middle age business man. That's the tribe this guy belonged to. He sat down right next to me and started playing. At the same time, he started asking where the hell the cocktail waitress was. He said he needed some Maker's Mark. That's red flag #1 that you are dealing with this particular tribe, they refer to what they drink by it's brand name. They wouldn't be caught dead drinking "whiskey" or "vodka" or "tequila", they drink Maker's Mark, Grey Goose and Patron. Now, don't get me wrong, these are good liquors (although I prefer Absolut to Grey Goose), but I'll drink OFC, Smirnoff and Jose Cuervo just as quick.

So Mr. Drunk Ass gets his drink and promptly knocks it over and spills it all over his chips and a few cards. The dealer (Roosevelt from Armenia) was very gracious about it, even though I could tell it pissed him off. The little bits of ice left on the table hadn't even melted before he was loudly saying he needed more Maker's Mark. Yea, that's exactly what you need jackass. Now, when you play at a blackjack table for longer than an hour with the same person or people, there will usually be some sort of comraderie going. If you make a bold move like doubling down on 8 and win, your "friends" will congratulate you, maybe even shake your hand. This guy wanted to shake hands every time we won, no matter what we did. Then his asshole buddies showed up. They were just as drunk and just as obnoxious. They were egging him on to bet more and more and totally disrupting the flow. Finally, they decided they needed to go and hit on a cocktail waitress or something and they all left. I just looked at Vincent (the guy from Singapore) and shrugged trying to say "not all of us are like that".

Shortly after that, the couple from Chile left and it was just Vincent and I against the dealer. We were both still playing on the same money. I would get down to $10 in front of me, then work my way up to $200. We went through several dealers and had a few people sit down for a few minutes, but no one really stayed. Then they raised the minimum to $25, but we could still bet $10 since we had been there. Sometime around 3am, Vincent asked me about tipping the waitresses, he wasn't sure how much to give them. He didn't know if the drinks were free or not. I told him the drinks were free, and that I usually gave the waitress $1 and every 3rd or 4th round give her $2 (or usually $2.50 which is the chip you get if you hit blackjack when playing $5). He offered to tip for the next round (there was 1 other guy at the table at this point). So this started a cycle where we would take turns tipping and we were giving her $5 a trip. I think at one point I gave her $10 because she was putting 2 orange slices in my screwdrivers.

Around 3:30, the dealer said they were going to close the table soon and we would have to move to another table. I started bumping up my bets a little trying to get back as much of my money as I could. A little after 4am, the pit boss said we could play one more shoe and then the were closing the table. After a couple of hands, I was betting $25 or $30 a hand and Vincent was playing 2 hands at $25 or $50 a hand. He was getting pretty good cards, mine were kind blah. I got down to my last $20, got back up to $100, down to $50, up to $150. There were only about 3 or 4 hands left in the shoe and there had been a lot of low cards, so I put $50 down. Won it, bet $50 again, lost. Last hand, I had $50 in front of me. I said fuck it and put it in the circle. Vincent laid out $50 in two different hands. He won both his and I won mine. When he colored up, he had about $600, so he lost $100 over a 4 hour stretch. I lost $200 (which I had actually won previously) over a 6 hour stretch. Even losing that much, I still had a blast and it was cool to play that long and actually close the table down. Once I fell asleep, I woke up around 7am and my hand was making the "stay" motion you make when you don't want anymore cards. I guess I was dreaming about playing blackjack.

The next day we had to pack and get ready to leave. We checked our comps and had free buffet meals, so we had lunch at the buffet, then bought some souveniers for the people back home. I found my way back to a blackjack table, playing single deck. That was fun, I had played single deck either Friday or Saturday night also. Ace joined me for a little while, Chuck came over and watched and reminded us that we had a plane to catch and gave us a deadline. We played just a few minutes past the deadline, headed to the room and headed to the airport.

Last time I came home from Vegas, our plane took off at like 8am, and I had been up til 4 drinking Kamikazis (vodka, triple sec & lime juice) and had eaten nachos sometime during the night. I spent most of the flight trying not to vomit and fighting a headache that felt like kamikazi pilots had flown their planes into my head. I also only had $4 on me.

This time, it was much better, I had a lot more than $4 (even though I had less than I left with) and I wasn't hung over at all. Our flight was later in the afternoon, so we stopped in a airport bar to have a beer. We boarded with the A group this time, so we were all sitting together, I was on the aisle which is so much better than the middle. And I had another little blue friend to help make the flight that much more pleasant. We landed in Nashville at 9:15 and I did get a little worried that they may have lost my luggage. Chuck and Ace got theirs quickly. I waited and waited and didn't see mine, I kept seeing the same bags go by and none of them were mine. Then I spotted my business card on the conveyor belt. I had this thing from work that attaches to your handle and one side had a plastic laminate you put a business card in and then sealed. It makes finding your luggage much easier. Well, I saw the whole tag thing lying on the conveyor belt attached to nothing. Finally, I spotted my bag. Tammy once again transported us home and I tried to go to sleep, since I had to work the next day and knew I wouldn't be adjusted back to Central time. But, I had a hell of a time going to sleep.

Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Welcome Back to Nashvegas (Part 1)

2007-05-10T09:44:00.000-05:00

This was actually written almost a month ago, I just haven't gotten around to posting it. I was in Las Vegas April 12 - 17. This is the account of my trip. Names have not been changed to protect the guilty or innocent.

I think I'm finally back on Central Standard time and mostly rehydrated. 6 days in Vegas can be hard on your body and mind. Everyone's first question is always "did you win anything?" No, I didn't. But I didn't do too bad, I think the money the casino took from just barely covered the tequila and vodka bill. I rationed my money out so that I had the same amount to gamble on each day. 2 days I ended up with more than I started, 1 day I broke even and the other 3 days I lost. BUT, I ended each day with at least some of my gambling money left over. Did I have a good time? Hell yea.

We left Nashville Thursday afternoon after being driven to the airport by Tammy's Taxi (thanks Tammy!). I love to fly, but I hate to be close to my fellow man like you are on a crowded flight. Luckily my doctor understood and gave me a prescription for my flights. Unfortunately, I needed it. We (Ace, Chuck and me) had made sure to check in for our flight exactly 24 hours before the flight so we'd be in the A group (if you've ever flown Southwest, you know what I'm talking about). Well, after going through the security (the illusion of security) checkpoint, we stopped and got a pizza and a beer. By the time we got over to the gate, the flight was boarding and we were pretty close to the last people on the plane. I ended up in the middle seat between two guys who weren't talkative. I didn't mind as I left my sunglasses on, put on my headphones with some Pearl Jam and opened up a book. With the help of my doctor's little blue friend, I fell asleep after takeoff but before the plane even leveled out.

Chuck won the "fastest way to lose $20 in Vegas" award. We got out of the taxi at the hotel and he pulled some money out of his pocket to tip the cabbie. It was very windy and we were under a covered driveway, which acted as a wind tunnel. I caught site of a $20 bill flying off about 10 feet in the air. I swear I saw Andrew Jackson waving as it fluttered off. Chuck went to look for it, but it was long gone. Somewhere on the vast Internet, someone is posting a blog right now about how they were in Vegas and a $20 bill just flew right into their hands.

We got settled in and went to eat at the buffet at Excaliber (where we stayed). It was the first of several trips to that buffet and the first 2 lbs that I gained for the trip. Great food and there is so much variety, you have to eat some of all of it. We then retired to the roulette table and did ok. I walked away with about $30. We then went to the Keno lounge.

The Keno lounge is infamous in my circle of friends. This is due to several reasons. 1) Keno is the slowest paced game in Vegas. There is one game every 5 or 10 minutes. 2) You can bet as little as $1 per game. 3) They still bring you drinks while you are playing this slow paced game. 4) You don't even really have to play to get drinks. Just play once or twice and then keep the slips of paper on your table and look like you are playing. Tip your waitress well and you will be hammered in no time. 5) All of this adds up to a hilarious story that happened on a previous Vegas trip that I cannot relate here because what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. ANYWAY, the Keno lounge has become the last stop of the night for our crew. The first night went very well, we played a few games and then all 3 of us played the same numbers (the numbers on the outside edge) and hit for $25. We decided to leave while we were ahead.

Ace was actually in Vegas for work, he was going to classes and the NAB show. Friday, Chuck and I walked with him over to the MGM Grand so he could catch the monorail. Chuck stopped by his personal slot machine and won back the $20 that floated away the day before. They had told me all these stories about how they constantly would win money from this particular machine. Since it seemed to be in the mood to hand out money, I stuck $20 in. I actually won $12 my first spin, but Chuck had as well and he had pressed on and eventually won about $20. So I pressed on. Roughly 45 seconds later, my $20 was gone. It just confirmed my hatred of slot machines.

Chuck and I wanted to see Grindhouse and since spending $7.50 for 3 hours of entertainment is hard to come by in Vegas, a movie sounded like a good idea. So we took off down the street where Chuck said the theater was "right down there." There was a sign with the movie times over one of the buildings and he remembered that you had to walk down a side street and the theater was behind a building. We looked and walked and walked and looked. We finally decided we must have passed it and turned around. As we were walking back, we noticed the sign that we had walked right by close enough to touch. The one that was at eye level, about 5 feet high and 40 feet long and said "Some name Theater Now Open" and had ginormous arrows pointing down the street. We followed the arrows and sure enough, there was the theater. After the movie, Chuck and I stopped at this cantina we had spotted on the way to the theater. We got a margarita which was awesome. Of course, it cost $9.50, so it should be.

That night, we all decided we wanted to get drunk. We had drank Thursday, but just a bit. After dinner, we decided to walk to the liquor store. It was much further than it looked. Since I had been drinking margaritas that day, I bought some tequila and margarita mix. We hung out in the room for a bit and drank and then went down for more roulette and Keno. We accomplished our mission to get hammered. At some point in the night, I was having a very raunchy conversation via text messages with a certain someone here. As I told her (to explain my willingness to say anything), I had drank so much tequila that I could now speak Spanish.

The next morning, I was amazed. I had no hangover whatsoever. I've never drank that much tequila and not woken up with at least a headache. I also realized that I had been in Vegas for 2 days and had yet to play a hand of blackjack, which is pretty much the only game I like playing in Vegas (liking keno has nothing to do with the game itself). So that afternoon, I setup camp at one of the tables. I switched back to screwdrivers (my regular drink of choice). I played for several hours and stayed about even money-wise.

I had seen a TV show about the Freemont Street Experience and really wanted to go. Tammy and John had went when they were in Vegas and said it was a must-see. So, we mixed some drinks to go and caught The Deuce (a double-decker bus). Our driver was officially the grumpiest man in Las Vegas and he honked and maneuvered the bus between cars so close that I couldn't see pavement between the bus and the cars. We talked to a woman from Greece on the bus and she was very nice and after listening to her description of Greece, I am ready to go. There was also an older woman on the bus who's son is a police officer in Hendersonville. I told her that he has probably given me a ticket at some point. We finally made it to Freemont Street in one piece. My first order of business was to secure orange juice and vodka. Ace kept talking about eating dinner, obviously ignoring priorities. Of course, he still had some of his drink since it was in a 10 gallon cup. One of the great things about Vegas is that you can buy just about anything in just about any store. We went into a store that within the first 10 feet of the door had 1) souvenier t-shirts 2) cokes/water/orange juice (woohoo, we're halfway there) 3) poker chips 4) chips and last, but definitely not least, bottles and bottles of liquor. So I purchased a 20 oz orange juice and a half pint of Skyy. NOW, we can find dinner. After watching one of the overhead video shows, we ended up at Binion's having a great steak dinner that was $6.99. We all upgraded with a salad and clam chowder. I had gone out on a limb ordering the chowder, since I have a hard and fast rule about eating soups I can't see through. I dislike opaque soups. But this stuff was awesome. I'm now rethinking my soup transparancy scale.

After dinner, I made 2 drinks with my OJ and vodka. I poured half the OJ in a glass and about 1/4 of the vodka. that was an average screwdriver. I then poured the remaining vodka into the 1/2 empty OJ bottle. That wasn't a screwdriver, it was a fucking hammer. By the time we made it back to The Deuce, I was doing great. Since a co-worker of mine has several inside jokes about "The Deuce", I thought he would find it humorous that I was riding on a bus called that. So I text messaged him letting him know I was riding "The Deuce." It was somewhere around 12:30am in Las Vegas. Which made it 2:30am here. I didn't get a reply til morning (surprise). He correctly guessed that I was "hammered" because I misspelled "duece" and didn't message again to correct it (I'm a stickler about spelling).

Part 2 coming soon. I promise it will be shorter.

REAL ID

2007-01-26T15:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while, I've been pretty busy with work. This is my 100th post to this blog, I've been trying to think of something special to do for the 100th post, but nothing really appealed to me. But I think the REAL ID legislation is definitely important enough to be the subject of my 100th post. I subscribe to a newsletter put out by an organization called DownsizeDC. They have some really nice tools that allow you to enter your information and contact all of your congressmen at the same time.

They have put out a notice about the Maine legislature voting nearly unanimous to NOT comply with the REAL ID act and request that Congress repeal it. Way to go Maine! I have written my congressmen with a slightly modified letter from DownsizeDC. As I was doing this, I discovered that Bob Corker does not have any way of emailing or submitting a message electronically on his page. So he will be getting a paper version, along with the recommendation that he accept electronic communication.

I also plan on writing my local legislators asking them to do what Maine has done. If we sit and do nothing, by the summer of 2008 we will be carrying a national ID, the federal government will be collecting even more information about us and if your state decides not to comply you will not be able to travel by plane. So I urge anyone who reads this to write their representatives and demand the repeal of this invasive law immediately. Below is the message I am sending. You can find your representatives by going to http://www.house.gov/ and http://www.senate.gov/.

"I read in the news that the Maine legislature has refused to comply with the REAL ID Act, and they've asked you to repeal it. Surely you know that more states are going to follow Maine's lead. There are already similar bills pending in Georgia, Massachusetts, Montana and Washington. I am writing my local representatives in Tennessee to urge them to introduce bills exactly like Maine's. Please read the handwriting on the wall and take immediate steps to repeal this bad law. Don't try to fix it. Just repeal it.

I don't want centralized databases and controls over my personal information. The federal government has shown itself completely incompetent to manage and properly use the powers and tools it already has. Perhaps if you spent more time having the federal government do less, it would stand a better chance of doing a few things reasonably well. Please repeal REAL ID now!"

Vote 2006

2006-11-07T13:27:00.000-06:00

I got to my polling place this morning around 6:40. The line wasn't too bad, there were about 40 or 50 people in front of me. They let us in right at 7:00 and started checking people in. The L-M line was a little slower than the others, so I ended up being behind about 75 people in the line to vote. I was done by 7:30.

How I Voted

Governor: David Gatchell
"Gay Marriage" Amendment: No
"Property Tax" Amendment: No
Senate: David Gatchell
House (6th District): I wrote myself in, because all of the candidates were big government advocates
State Representative (45th District): I wrote myself in
Alderman: Lisa West

Reasons Why I Voted That Way

In both the Governor & Senate race, I voted for David "None of the Above" Gatchell. He ran on the premise that we should have a NOTA (None of the Above) option on every ballot because too often, there are no quality candidates on the ballot. Especially when the only person to run is the incumbent. If the NOTA option received the most votes, there would have to be a 2nd election for that race that allowed new candidates. His campaign is that he will hold the office until a new election can be held for that office. In the hotly contested Senate race, most people felt like they had to choose between Ford and Corker. I couldn't vote for Ford because he voted for the MCA2006 (Military Commissions Act). I couldn't vote for anyone who voted for that and not get physically sick. Corker didn't vote for it, but that's only because he didn't have a chance to. He seems like a typical Republican rubber stamp.

I voted against the "Gay Marriage" amendment because it's an abuse of the constitution. The state constitution exists to grant powers from the people to the state. By adding language that limits the rights of people, we are reversing the flow of power. We are giving the signal that it is okay for the government to meddle in the affairs of the people. Plus, it raises red flags when there is language that specifically mentions that "judicial interpretations" will be void and unenforceable. It is the judicial branch's raison d'etre to interpret the constitution and stating in black and white that no matter what a judge decides, the amendment stands, it makes me think the amendment just might be unconstitutional to begin with.

The property tax amendment was a tough one to decide. While the idea of someone having lower taxes and helping senior citizens is appealing, I don't like the idea of basing taxes on age. I also think it will create a group of people who don't care about property tax issues, because it won't affect them. How about we all work toward lowering everyone's property tax?

As stated above, I wrote myself in the House and State Rep race because none of the candidates seemed to believe in individual liberty.

This is a must read

2006-10-23T10:15:00.000-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15321167/

Mr. Olbermann has written an editorial on the the Military Commissions Act that says what I would say if I could write that well. I can't add or take away anything from this. Everyone should read this.

Some selected quotes...

"Each of these actions was undertaken for the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And each was a betrayal of that for which the president who advocated them claimed to be fighting."

"We have accepted that the only way to stop the terrorists is to let the government become just a little bit like the terrorists.

Just the way we once accepted that the only way to stop the Soviets was to let the government become just a little bit like the Soviets.

Or substitute the Japanese.

Or the Germans.

Or the Socialists.

Or the Anarchists.

Or the Immigrants.

Or the British.

Or the Aliens.

The most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons. And, always, always wrong."

"We have a long and painful history of ignoring the prophecy attributed to Benjamin Franklin that “those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

But even within this history we have not before codified the poisoning of habeas corpus, that wellspring of protection from which all essential liberties flow.

You, sir, have now befouled that spring.

You, sir, have now given us chaos and called it order.

You, sir, have now imposed subjugation and called it freedom.

For the most vital, the most urgent, the most inescapable of reasons.

And — again, Mr. Bush — all of them, wrong."

"We have handed a blank check drawn against our freedom to a man who may now, if he so decides, declare not merely any non-American citizens “unlawful enemy combatants” and ship them somewhere—anywhere -- but may now, if he so decides, declare you an “unlawful enemy combatant” and ship you somewhere - anywhere.

And if you think this hyperbole or hysteria, ask the newspaper editors when John Adams was president or the pacifists when Woodrow Wilson was president or the Japanese at Manzanar when Franklin Roosevelt was president."

"This President now has his blank check.

He lied to get it.

He lied as he received it.

Is there any reason to even hope he has not lied about how he intends to use it nor who he intends to use it against?"

"The moral force we shined outwards to the world as an eternal beacon, and inwards at ourselves as an eternal protection? Snuffed out."

Habeas Corpus

2006-10-18T15:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 into law. Ironically, it is the 135th anniversary of the last time habeas corpus was suspended in this country.

This absolutely makes me sick. The few protesters that were at the White House were dressed up like Abu Ghraid prisoners like allowing torture is the worst part of this bill. This bill gives the president and the secretary of defense despotic power. What's the lead story at The Tennessean? "Ex-nanny says Evans' husband never made pass." A little known country singer's divorce bullshit. And there are 3 stories about this on the front page! There is nothing about the new law, not even in the U.S./World section. Do we as a society really not care about our freedom? Has the Constitution just become another piece of paper that doesn't mean anything?

There have been many books written where totalitarian governments used media as a way to pacify their subjects. 1984, Brave New World and Running Man just to name a few. I'm not going into conspiracy theory land here and saying that the present gov't is doing that, but look at how easy it would be. We are more interested in what celebrities are doing or what's going on on some "reality" show than the fact that the government that we elect and empower just gutted the supreme law of the land.

I have, in the past, voted for some Republicans and I have voted for some Democrats. Both parties have become a cancer to America. Their only goal is power. I cannot bring myself to vote for either party, I refuse to endorse the blatant power grab. Until enough people wake up and realize what is happening in our country, we will continue to have our rights trampled. I hope it happens soon.

"Every generation needs a new revolution"
--Thomas Jefferson

House update

2006-10-13T14:14:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, I finished my 2nd home improvement project. My grandfather and I replaced the faucet in the upstairs bathroom. We ended up having to replace all the pipes underneath as well. I've taken down half the border in the living room and plan on finishing that tonight. I'm going to try to paint the living room this weekend.

Military Commissions Act of 2006

2006-10-12T13:36:00.000-05:00

I've been gathering my thoughts on this issue for the past week. I'm sure everyone has heard about the Military Commissions Act of 2006 . If you haven't, it may be because of the ruckus over Mark Foley. The press seems to be paying a lot more attention to that scandal than the usurpation of the right of habeas corpus. People, it is time to wake up! Between this law and the two Patriot Acts (calling them "Patriot" is like having jumbo shrimp), the government has gutted the Constitution and a lot of people in this country think it's a great thing.

Some people have said that the law only applies to non-citizens while others claim that it can be applied to citizens because of the use of "unlawful enemy combatant" doesn't exclude citizens. But it does define "alien" as a non-U.S. citizen. And in a later paragraph refers to "alien unlawful enemy combatants". I'll leave the analysis to the lawyers. Either way it is truly frightening to me that we are willing to do away with one of the oldest cornerstones of a free society. The right of habeas corpus has been recognized as a necessary right in free society since the 11th century. If the government can imprison you without trial or even telling you why you are imprisoned, how can you be free? And for those who say they aren't worried because this only applies to non-citizens, this administration has attempted several times to have wording added to bills to allow for the stripping of citizenship from a person accused of "terrorist activity." How many times has President Bush said "You're either with us or against us"? So what happens when dissent becomes a "terrorist activity"?

For years, the government has overstepped the powers granted to it by the Constitution (more on this later). Since 9/11/01, our rights have been under a full scale assault. For a while after 9/11, there was a lot of talk about "if we do/don't X, we let the terrorists win." Like "If we can't travel freely, we let the terrorists win" or "If we don't shop for Christmas presents, we let the terrorists win." Well folks, by letting the government violate our inalienable rights in the name of security, we are letting the terrorists win. President Bush has often said that the terrorists hate us for our freedom, so I guess the plan is to do away with that freedom so they don't hate us anymore.

I mentioned more on powers granted in the Constitution in the last paragraph, so here it is. I often hear people say something like "The Constitution grants me the freedom of speech/religion/etc." No it doesn't. You have that right inherently and it is inalienable. The Constitution doesn't grant rights to the people, it grants priveledges to and puts restrictions on the government. It's purpose is to protect our rights from the government. The laws that are being passed are unconstitutional, and the lawmakers know they are. But they don't care. Their ultimate goal is power and the only way for them to get power is by violating our rights.

Elections are a few weeks away. Both major parties have proven they don't care about our rights. Don't vote for them. Vote for a candidate that believes in freedom. Find Libertarian or independent candidates. If there isn't one, write one in. In the TN Gov and Senate race, there is the option of David "None of the Above" Gatchell . A lot of people view this as "wasting" my vote, but if I don't vote in what I believe in, then I am truly wasting it. I'm tired of choosing the lesser of two evils.

Paranoid?

2006-10-11T08:43:00.000-05:00

Bill O'Reilly says N. Korea nuke test was to influence our election

"the reason North Korea is causing trouble" by allegedly developing and testing nuclear weapons "is that it wants to influence the November election." He added: "That is not a partisan statement. It is a fact," then concluded that North Korea "hate[s] Mr. Bush and want[s] to weaken him as much as possible."

Yes, Bill, N. Korea spent years and all that money so a few extra Democrats could get elected to our Senate. And he doesn't present this as his opinion, but actually claims it's a "fact." What a maroon!*

*Before you comment saying I misspelled moron, see Bugs Bunny

Voter registration

2006-10-05T14:12:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Oct 6) is the deadline for registering to vote if you want to vote in the upcoming election. It had slipped my mind, I was just checking on it because I recently moved. You can mail it in as long as it is postmarked by Saturday.

Here's where I got my form...

Voter Registration Form

It is especially important for Tennesseans to vote this year because we have a constitutional amendment on the ballet. So go register!

First project done

2006-10-04T08:30:00.000-05:00

Last night I got my first home improvement project done. The kitchen used to have this monstrosity...

Now it has this...

Movie Invitation

2006-10-03T13:16:00.000-05:00

I am going to the Belcourt theater to see America: Freedom to Facism on Sunday at 4:45pm. It is playing for one week only. Where Farenheit 9/11 was a personal attack on one politician, this movie shows what the entire government is attempting to do. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or independent, you should see this movie.

Since I'm using the beta of blogger.com, I think comments are broken. So drop me an email if you can come at the same time and I'll meet you. If another time is better for several people, maybe we'll change it. Email is jeffwmartin at gmail dot com

Mi casa

2006-09-29T08:35:00.000-05:00

I'm all set to move in tomorrow. I stopped by Wednesday and took a few pictures...

Welcome

The living room as you come in. That border is coming down by Sunday!

Other side of the living room. That border is ugly!

The kitchen. The wallpaper will come down soon and that light will come down as soon as I get to Lowe's to buy its replacement.

A few other things I want to do is scrape off the popcorn from the ceiling and repaint the ceilings. I'm going to paint everywhere. I want to replace all of the interior doors because the ones that are there are old and showing their age. I'm thinking about replacing the vanities & sinks in the bathrooms and when I win the lottery, I'll replace the appliances in the kitchen.

Words and Phrases I'm Tired of Hearing

2006-09-27T21:26:00.000-05:00

Talking points
Alliances
Mega-wealthy (usually preceded by "tax breaks for the")
I approve this message
Playing the game

I'm sure I will think of more later.

New House

2006-09-25T20:22:00.000-05:00

After jumping through a bunch of hoops and hitting every possible roadblock when buying a house, I just closed on a condo. It's in Hendersonville, across the street from the lake. 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. I will post some pictures this week. I will be moving this weekend.

Pending updates

2006-09-25T10:37:00.000-05:00

I haven't updated in a while. I've got a few big news items that I will be sharing, but I'm not ready just yet. Look for an update tonight.

Finally!

2006-09-01T09:21:00.000-05:00

Our Tuesday game was rained out and we made it up last night. We were playing the team that had beat us so bad last week. They didn't really beat us, we just walked most of them the entire game. Anyway, last night the boys came out in the first inning and played good defense and kept them from scoring the 1st 2 innings. We scored 3 in the bottom of the first on actual hits! They were really hitting the ball last night. I haven't checked the book, but I think everyone at least put the bat on the ball. During the 3rd inning, they scored 3 to even it up. We threatened, but couldn't score in the 4th.

We started the 5th and held them from scoring. We got up to bat with Z being the lead off. I told him to bunt so we'd have a baserunner. He laid down a beautiful bunt that just barely went foul down the 3rd base line. I signaled for him to swing away because they were playing in looking for the bunt. He fouled one down the 3rd baseline again. So now he's got 0-2 count. Next 3 pitches were balls. Next pitch, he hits back up the middle for a single. My #2 batter gets up and gets a wild pitch, Z steals 2nd. #2 batter hits it back to the pitcher, who throws to first getting the out. But Z advanced to 3rd. I was coaching 3rd, so I had Z make the turn and threaten to go home. The 1st baseman ran in towards home to keep Z from going, then when Z turned back to 3rd, 1st threw it to the pitcher and he missed it. I sent Z in and he scored the winning run. Because we still had 1 minute, we kept playing (we play 6 innings, but won't start a new inning after 1.5 hours). We had a K and a out at first, then they called ballgame. Final score: 4-3. I had to take the boys to Sonic for ice cream after that one.

0-3

2006-08-28T14:13:00.000-05:00

Game 2 was rough. We let a few kids who had never pitched before pitch and it was a walk-fest. The good news was we hit the ball a little better, but wasn't able to make up all the walked in runs.

Game 3 this past Saturday was a little better. We pitched another new pitcher, but he threw strikes. The other team was hitting everything he threw, but that's better than walks. On the offensive side, we got the bases loaded a couple of times but couldn't really take advantage of it. Z did steal 2 bases, 1 of which was home, scoring the first run of the game. We put in our star pitcher the last 2 innings and shut them down, but we couldn't mount enough offense to come back.

Baseball game

2006-08-20T11:19:00.000-05:00

Well, my record as head coach is now 0-1. We lost our game last night 4-3. We definitely need some work on hitting. I haven't reviewed the scorebook yet, but I'm pretty sure all 3 runs were from walks and steals.

Next game is Monday night.

Racism and Christianity

2006-08-13T15:14:00.000-05:00

Wow, our church service today was amazing. The pastor spoke about racism. Growing up in the south, even in the 80's, I was exposed to a lot of racist attitudes. My parents and their friends often told racial jokes and made comments. It was just something I never really thought much about until I was an adult. Because I have been able to work and interact with people of different races and nationalities, I realized that you cannot judge a person by their color.

We watched part of Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech from 1963. It moved me to tears because I realized that it's been a couple of weeks shy of 43 years since he gave that speech and most of what he spoke about has not come to pass. And the truly sad part is that a lot of the people who still harbor prejudice towards other races were sitting in churches today. I personally know several people who regularly attend church, yet use racist words to describe entire groups of people. How can they reconcile this? I knew a woman who told me that I shouldn't let my son read the Harry Potter books because they were evil, when she freely used the "N" word around her son. Our children will learn from us. We should be teaching them to love, not to hate.

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. -Galatians 3:28

Will Hoge

2006-08-11T09:08:00.000-05:00

Just found out that Will Hoge will be playing at the Exit Inn Sep 29 @ 9:00pm. So far, I've managed to miss his show every time I've planned to go. I will be there this time. Anyone else going?

Happy Birthday

2006-08-09T08:49:00.000-05:00

to me! I've been 34 for about 3 hours now. There's nothing like having a birthday and having your son start high school the next day to make you feel old.

I'm celebrating by picking A and Z up tonight, going to dinner and then a round of mini-golf.

First night of baseball practice

2006-07-28T11:06:00.000-05:00

Well, I survived my first night of coaching the baseball team Monday night. I had a couple of dads volunteer to help out and we split the kids up and had some hitting practice balls and the rest taking infield. We've got some pretty good kids. There are 2 that have never played before, so I want to make sure I work with them. I have 6 more practices to get them all ready to play.

One thing I learned about being the coach. There is no leaving right after practice. I ended up talking to various parents for 15 minutes after practice. Z and I had just enough time to run through Wendy's drive-through and make it to the high school for A's band meeting.

Our next practice is Saturday at high noon. I hope it's not too hot.

Coaching

2006-07-19T13:02:00.000-05:00

I found out Monday that I will be the head coach for Z's fall baseball team. Z is very excited about it. I went to the coach's meeting/draft last night. I think this will be very fun. I've assistant coached before back when A played ball, but never head coached. I ended up w/ ten 8, 9 & 10 year olds, 2 w/ pitching experience. The fall league is a lot more relaxed than spring. There's only going to be 3 teams in our age group. It will be good for the kids to work on the fundamentals of the game and not have as much pressure to win. I think striving to win is important, but I don't like the situations where I've seen coaches focus all their attention on those 5 or 6 good players and forget about the 3 or 4 that could be good if they just had some instruction.

Advantages of Government Surveillance

2006-07-11T12:25:00.000-05:00

This is hilarious...
http://www.slate.com/id/2145415/fr/rss/

Gatlinburg

2006-06-28T15:23:00.000-05:00

I am on vacation this week and it has been the week A and Z stay with me in the summer. We went to Gatlinburg for a couple of days and had a great time. We went to the aquarium which is awesome. We went to a place called Wonderworks which was dubbed as "An amusement park for the mind." It was fun, but a little crowded. Later that night, we went on a 3D ride which was fun. The next day, we drove up to Newfound Gap and hiked up a trail. It was very cool to get away from all the crowds and be the only 3 people in sight. I got a lot of good pictures, i'll include a few here

Shark at the aquarium

Wonderworks (yes the building is upside down)

View from Newfound Gap

A & Z during our hike

A big log + 10 second timer = picture of all 3 of us

River in the Smokies

Baseball playoffs

2006-06-10T16:34:00.000-05:00

Z's team played in their 2nd playoff game last night and won 7-1. They are playing the championship game tonight. They have played great all year, but last night they were just awesome. They were very fired up. The game was 1-1 up until the 4th inning when his team scored 6 more runs. There were several defensive plays late in the game that kept the other team from scoring. Z struck out once and hit a fly out to 1st base.

We're heading to the championship game now.

Nashville Zoo

2006-06-06T08:26:00.000-05:00

This weekend, my company had a picnic at the Nashville Zoo. I got to take A & Z even though it wasn't my weekend. They've improved the zoo since it moved to Grassmere, but they still need to expand it (which they are). We had a pretty good time and some good food. Here are some pictures...

Elephants

The newest addition, giraffes (they were pretty far away)

"Are you lookin at me?"

Big anaconda

Iguana

Huge turtle. I took one w/ Z standing next to it to get some scale, but it was dark in the room w/ the aquarium lighted, so I used a flash and it darkened the aquarium. Trust me, it was huge.

The antelope looking animal is a Bongo.

Summer Movies

2006-05-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

This has been the weekend for summer blockbusters. Sunday, I took A & Z to see X-Men: The Last Stand. You could tell Bryan Singer wasn't at the helm for this one, because it just didn't have the character development like 1 & 2. Also, I despise Halle Berry because she, from what I heard, bucked for more screen time for her character, Storm. Storm happens to be my least favorite character in the franchise, so thanks Halle. Yea, you look good in a leather suit, but your character is lame.

Today, I went to see Mission Impossible 3. The following paragraph will contain discussion about scenes from the movie, not spoilers, I will sanitize it so I don't give anything away. But if you don't want to know anything about the movie, don't read anymore.

I have yet to see MI:2, but I don't think anything carried over. Let's face it, these aren't exactly Lord of the Rings. Anyway, the movie itself was pretty good, very action packed. One thing I didn't like was, even though we are following the hero (Ethan Hunt), there were several action sequences when we don't know his objective. One second, he's deciding to go to city X, then it cuts to him running through a factory planting bombs. It was pretty easy to figure out what he was after, but how bout a little setup? Also, I'm fine with suspension of disbelief. I believe I have written on here before about it being okay to change the rules of the universe, but you must follow the rules the movie sets up. I can believe there really is a gov't agency called IMF that has highly trained agents. I can believe that Ethan Hunt can do these awesome stunts and not get hurt. But if you are going to use real world objects, don't change the rules just to build dramatic affect. A defibrillator that takes 30 seconds to charge? How useful would that be? These things are meant to save a person's life in an emergency, you can't tell me they take 30 seconds to turn on. My laptop boots faster than that. I may be wrong, it just seems they did it to build drama. Another thing I'm sick of seeing: someone getting shot and flying backwards. There's this annoying little thing we have called physics. In fact, in one scene Ethan is doing some calculations as a nod to physics, so why do they have to have one scene (no one else who is shot in the movie flys backwards) where someone gets shot and they go flying out the window behind them? There's that little law about equal and opposite reactions. Basically, in order for a bullet to strike someone with that much force, it would have to expend the same amount of force in the opposite direction, blowing the shooter back the same way the shootee was. Another nitpick, why cut down the time left to accomplish the mission to a point where it becomes unbelievable? At one point, they have 2 hours left til their objective and they are just now planning it. They come up w/ a lot of specialized equipment within 1.5 hours, plus apparently do more planning since things happen that we didn't see them talking about. We're talking stuff you don't go pick up at the corner Walgreens. My point is, it would have been more dramatic to say they had 6 hours left, then they pull it off at the last minute; instead of having this totally unbelievable time remaining.

Proud dad

2006-05-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

I am very proud of A, my oldest son. Tonight was his school's awards ceremony. For the second year in a row, he won Best Percussionist for his grade.

Upcoming Concerts

2006-05-11T10:09:00.000-05:00

Awesome, I just heard The Black Crowes are playing this summer and Robert Randolph and the Family Band is opening.

June 27 at Starwood, tickets go on sale Saturday (May 13). Anyone want to go?

And as mentioned by the photogenic Jane, Steely Dan is playing Starwood on July 10, tickets are on sale now.

I need to start saving my pennies for tickets.

New Music

2006-05-04T07:14:00.000-05:00

I've been sitting on this post for a week and a half, I just haven't had time to throw it out here.

A couple of new bands and an old band w/ new music...

Damone - Out Here All Night. I got the title track as a free iTunes download and liked it. It reminds me of 80's hard rock. I listened to the samples of the rest of the album and bought it. It's pretty good. I don't imagine it will stay in heavy rotation once it falls out of my "New Songs" playlist, but it's nice to hear a guitar solo that's more than 3 notes in modern music.

Wolfmother - Dimensions EP. I got Dimension as a free iTunes download and just went and bought the 4 song EP. Awesome. Take 3 Aussies, lock them in a room with a guitar, bass, drums and keyboard. Only let them listen to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd for 6 months and this is what you get. They just released a full LP, but I haven't picked it up yet. Target has it for $7.99 vs. iTunes at $9.99.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium. It's not out yet, but I grabbed the single "Dani California" and it's really good. I haven't been really into RHCP since Mother's Milk/Blood Sugar Sex Magic, but their new one is on my wishlist.

Minimum Wage Update

2006-05-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

I received a comment from State Representative Susan Lynn, who was quoted in my recent rant on Minimum Wage. It turns out she has a blog. Since I called her comments "idiotic", I thought I would be nice and include her comment to me and a link to the article she references.

Dear Jeff,

I was pretty frustrated by the article too. Please remember, articles omit a lot of other comments.

Actually, I wrote a guest column in the Nashville City Paper. You can see that article on my blog: http://susan-lynn.blogspot.com

The article is called: Public Policy & Raising the Minimum Wage

Thank you for allowing me to respond.

Rep. Susan Lynn

Public Policy & Raising the Minimum Wage

I'm betting she found my rant by doing a "vanity search", but I still think it is great that lawmakers are taking the time to see what the public is saying about them and sharing information via blogs. What's even more impressive is that I'm not one of her constituents, I don't even know where the 57th district is. So it wasn't a case of "vote grubbing."

Online Movie Rental

2006-04-26T08:41:00.000-05:00

I think online movie rentals is a great idea. I had been considering trying one of the services for a while and finally decided to give it a whirl last month. I kept seeing billboards for www.gamezandflicks.com and I checked them out. They were cheaper than NetFlix AND offered video game rentals, so it seemed like a no brainer. I wasn't real jazzed about NetFlix anyway after reading about them "throttling" their high volume users.

So I paid my $16.99 and added some movies and a couple of games to my queue. They quickly shipped 2 movies and a game and I had them within two days. As I started trying to add movies to my queue, I realized why they were so cheap. Their selection was very limited. And when you selected the New Releases category, they listed all the movies that were recently released to DVD. Now, I know that makes it a new release, but I shouldn't have to browse through 6 pages of 70's movies to find a new movie. When you go to the video store, they don't put Smokey and the Bandit 2 in the New Release section just because it was just released on DVD.

Their navigation also left a lot to be desired. When you added a movie to your queue, they didn't provide a way for you to return to where you were when you added the movie. So you end up hitting the Back button and as a web developer, that's never a good thing when you are submitting information to a site. I just looked today to get the link and it looks like they have done a redesign, so maybe that is not an issue now.

Their customer service also pissed me off. They don't provide any phone contact, so it's all done through the website and email. They even have a help request for finding out if they carry a particular movie. I submitted a request because they didn't have The Sopranos Season 5. I found Season 4, but not 5. They just closed the ticket, no response, just closed it.

So I started searching for an alternative. I found a guy on the web (I can't find the link now) who compared all the services and rated Intelliflix highly. I check them out and they had either a $16.95 plan for 3 movies at a time or $24.95 if you wanted to be able to checkout games also. $24.95 is a little steep, so I decided the game rental could be done locally because I really don't rent many of them anyway. Plus, I generally only want them on the weekends A & Z are over and one thing I've learned from this online movie adventure is you can't control what you get or when you get it. So I sign up for the $16.95 plan and add about 50 movies to my queue. I was very pleased with their selection and when you click New Releases, you get new releases.

Alas, things were too good to be true. I notice my bank says the charge from Intelliflix was $18.45. No big deal, probably some sign up fee that I overlooked when registering. So I head to the site, go to Help and submit a ticket. They don't let you type more than 500 characters when submitting a ticket. Now, they do have a couple of dropdowns that let you narrow you ticket type down, but 500 characters is still pretty limiting. Still, no big thing. I send them a quick note asking what the extra $1.50 was. Get an immediate "Your ticket was received and is number ######, we'll get back to you shortly." A day passes and I get an email from support saying that it was forwarded to the billing department. Then nothing. No more response from anyone. I head back to the site and look for somewhere I can enter the number they assigned my ticket to see the status. Hmm, there's nowhere to do that. All you can do is submit new tickets. I just let the $1.50 slide and kind of forgot about it.

While this is going on, I've been watching movies. I got my first 3 and sent them back and then received 3 more. I noticed shipping was a little slower than G&F, because G&F seemed to be shipping everything from Kentucky, but Intelliflix was all over the map. What's an extra day though? After a couple of cycles, I noticed they had received all my returns, but hadn't shipped anything. They had been shipping 1-2 days after receiving a return. I waited 2 days and submitted another ticket saying "Hey, you're not sending movies, I've got 50 in the queue, surely something is in." I got back a response saying "We're sorry, we are looking into the problem and we made sure somethign got shipped to you." Sure enough, I get an email saying something was shipping out that night.

Now it comes time for the monthly charge. I have MSFT Money set to automatically enter the $16.95 and it does. I check my bank and surprise! They charge me $18.45. Another ticket, another forwarding to billing, but this time I get a response. It simply says that it is a processing fee. Hey, don't flood me in information here. What kind of processing fee? I'm not going to let them off that easy. I reply and ask what kind and is it an avoidable fee and if it is not, why is it charged separatly and not advertised? No response. Now I'm pissed.

I had gotten another batch of 3 and returned them. They marked one received on the 19th and the other two on the 20th. As of the 21st, they had not shipped anything, so once again I submit a ticket. And included my questions about the processing fee. I hit the 500 character limit (you knew that would come back up, didn't you?) and probably sounded like an idiot. Hey, it's hard to rant in 500 characters or less. And I get the exact same response (about shipping new movies) as before, just from a different person. So one movie ships on 22nd. I replied to the canned response and repeated my complaints about slow service and the processing fee question not being answered. I requested that my ticket be escalated to someone who would give me more than a canned response because they were in danger of losing me as a customer. That was on Monday, today is Wednesday and I have heard nothing from them. I haven't received the movie that shipped on Saturday and they haven't shipped anything else, even though my other 2 movies have been back for almost a week now.

I don't expect to get 100 movies a month for $17, but I do expect them to provide a basic level of service. If it takes 3 days transit both ways, I should be able to expect to have at least one new movie every weekend. My boys and I watched 2 movies 2 weekends ago and I sent one back on that Saturday and one on that Monday and I still haven't gotten a new movie.

Intelliflix has lost me as a customer. I'm going to finish this month since I paid for it, but I'm looking at the two remaining services. Blockbuster and NetFlix. I know people that use both, so I'm torn. I've never really liked Blockbuster and I don't like the idea of NetFlix manipulating customer's queues but I'm sure all of them do it. They are both the same price ($17.99), but Blockbuster adds the feature that you can print a coupon once a week to get a free in-store rental. Maybe that is my option, so if they aren't shipping movies or I don't have anything kid friendly on my kid weekends, I can just run down to the local Blockbuster and pick something up.

Anyone had experience with either of these and have any input?

Mein Gott! This is a long post. I apologize, I just got started and couldn't stop.

Does our government meet this criteria?

2006-04-25T13:16:00.000-05:00

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

--Thomas Jefferson

IRS, FCC, USDA, ATF, SEC (not that SEC), Departments of Energy, Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Education, DEA, EPA, etc. Hmm, I don't think so.

Speaking of the ATF, "Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms" should be the name of a store, not a government agency. I know I would shop there.

Fewer calories, less filling

2006-04-24T19:11:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a grammar policeman, I do love spotting misspellings, but I normally let the grammar mistakes go. Probably because I make so many myself. But if I were writing an advertisement, I would probably pay more attention to it. I noticed a sign on the way home today that has been there for years and I never really paid attention to it. It was at The Mac Authority in Nashville. The sign mentioned that Macs have 97,000 less viruses than PCs. Since you can count the individual viruses, it should be 97,000 fewer viruses.

Now back to your regularly scheduled life.

Eagle Eye Webcam

2006-04-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

I had to share this link. It's a webcam viewing an eagle's nest. There are two eagles incubating two eggs.

Eagle Webcam

Apparently, I have the best profession in America

2006-04-12T12:50:00.000-05:00

According to this Money article, Software Engineer is the best job in America. Just a few years ago, the media was predicting nothing but gloom and doom for developers.

Catching up

2006-04-11T06:35:00.000-05:00

I think I blogged myself out last week, I haven't had much to say. Things have settled back down since returning to town. I took this weekend and did as little as possible to unwind.

I hope everyone out there weathered the storms okay on Friday. I was worried for my grandparents because they were right in one of the areas hit and I couldn't reach them. I tried to go to their house, but traffic was too backed up and I couldn't get through. They finally called around 8:00 that night and everything was fine except they didn't have power. They didn't get it back until 9:00 Saturday night. And the church that was destroyed (Metro Baptist) was where they went to church.

I met up with a friend Saturday night that I hadn't hung out with in a while. We met up w/ some friends of his from work and listened to karaoke. Suprisingly, about half of it was pretty good. There were actually some people that could sing. I didn't stay too long though, I was really tired. In fact, I slept late both days this weekend. My allergies are acting up, so I've needed my rest.

Z's baseball team made up their Friday night game on Sunday. They won a nail-biter 4-3. I've got a lot of kid activities this week, last night was the only night this week where something wasn't going on.

Dev Connections Day 4

2006-04-05T15:56:00.000-05:00

I don't have my notes in front of me, so some of the titles may be wrong.

8:00 - 9:15
TDD and SharePoint Web Parts

This was interesting and the presenter did a good job, but it wasn't much new information. In fact, most of it was exactly like a presentation I gave a month ago to other developers at my company.

9:30 - 10:45
Synchronous and Asynchronous Web Services in .Net 2.0

This was a great session. Cody was in this session and he had see the presenter before. He said he was good and knew his stuff. He was right about that. Microsoft just keeps making it easier to write code. Asynchronous Web Service calls are almost as easy as synchronous in 2.0.

10:45 - 11:15
This was a coffee break. About 10 minutes before the next session started, I got a phone call from work. One of our SQL Log files was eating up all the disk space on our test server. I had to go to the car and get my 10 lb laptop and VPN in and fix it. The database got in a weird state because of the lack of disk space, so I just deleted the database. I'm subtle as a sledgehammer.

11:45 - 12:30
Security for the SharePoint Developer

I will give the guy the benefit of the doubt on this one since I came in 30 minutes late. But he was flat and uninteresting and instead of doing demo code, he showed us part of a real application. You would think that would be better, but when there is so much code around the concepts you are trying to teach, it makes it very difficult because you start having to explain way too much. I left and relaxed in the lobby.

12:30 - 1:45
Lunch

We had a good box lunch. Cody and I practically redesigned the app we just finished with some of the stuff we learned.

1:45 - 3:00
Improving Performance & Scalability for .Net Applications

This was the best session of the week. Steven Smith did a great job of providing tips for improving your app's performance. I had to leave right at the end so we could make it to the airport.

We are sitting at the airport now. We should be boarding in 30 minutes. I'm ready to go home, I'm very tired.

Dev Connections Day 3 Part II

2006-04-04T21:36:00.000-05:00

Just got back from the party. Great food! They had casino games set up and Lee, Cody and I played poker for an hour and a half. I wish we had been playing for real money, because I started w/ $30,000 and finished with $108,000 (excluding the last hand where everyone went all in).

I also forgot to say thanks to the guy who returned my wallet today. Apparently, it fell out of my pocket during the second session today. After the 3rd session, someone called me and told me he had found my wallet. I didn't catch his name, but to the tall bald guy, thanks a million. I'm glad you thought to look at my business card and call my cell phone. If you had just turned it in someone, I might never have got it back. Thank you.

It is time for bed. Final day is tomorrow, it's going to be a long day.

Dev Connections Day 3

2006-04-04T16:35:00.000-05:00

Well, it's 5:30 on day 3. The day isn't over yet. We are going back at 7:30 for the party. Free steak and chicken. One thing I can say is the food has been excellent here.

I originally planned on blogging the actual information in the sessions, but I just don't have time to get to that, so I'm going with more of a quick summary and review. I have about 5 of the sessions I'm going to go back and write more in depth summaries and will either post them here or at www.workagile.com (when I get it up and running).

The sessions were 1 hour long yesterday and we had a keynote in the morning and 4 sessions. Today, the sessions went to 1 hour 15 minutes and we had 5 sessions.

8:00 - 9:15
SOA and SharePoint - Using Web Services to aggregate disparate data sources

It was a mouthful of a title, unfortunately the content didn't live up to the title. Bob Mixon is a low talker. He kept getting off track telling us about how his system is setup or how does this nifty post build event. It reminded me of when you are replacing someone at a job and they are leaving. The last day when they are supposed to be training you, they keep bouncing around saying "oh, yeah, this is neat, wait I have to show you this over here and that over there."

9:30 - 10:45
How the Core ASP.NET Engine Works

This was really a filler session for me. There was nothing else I wanted to go to. But Rick Strahl blew me away. I think he knows more about the internals of ASP.NET than most of the MSFT guys. Excellent speaker and very knowledgeable. As he said at the beginning, there wasn't a lot of practical take-away information, but it's good to know how the "magic" happens.

10:45 - 11:15
Coffee break. Cody, Lee (another co-worker from a different dept) and I compared notes on our sessions. I drank a Mt Dew and a Starbucks Mocha iced coffee and I can feel the caffeine coarsing through my veins.

11:15 - 12:30
Building a Corporate Telephone Directory w/ SharePoint

He could have given us all the useful information in 10 minutes. This plain sucked and I don't want to waste anymore time typing about it.

12:30 - 2:00
Lunch (very good lasagna and meatballs. And some kind of vegetable dish that was heavy on the zucchini. Normally I don't like zucchini but this was awesome)

Cody and I walked around the hotel and tried to teach a parrot to say "asshole." It kept saying "Hello" and "cracker." Stupid bird.

They gave away the Harley. A Russian girl won it. They asked if she likes motorcycles and she said her boyfriend would. I bet he will. If she plays it right, she can trade that motorcycle for a ring.

2:00 - 3:15
Building Web Parts the Smart Way

Great job by Patrick Tisseghem. Great info on the SmartPart which I guess I will be using soon.

3:15 - 3:45
Break

I am taking all of my white shirts and throwing them away. On the flight down here, I was wearing a white polo. I was eating a muffin. I dropped a bit of muffin onto my shirt, where it left a stain! Who but me can get a muffin stain on them? During the break, I was eating a very tasty dessert. It had a plump, juicy raspberry, I poked it with my fork to eat it and it squirted its juice all over my 2nd white polo. Only black shirts for me from now on.

3:45 - 5:00
Advanced Web Part Development

The presenter, Scot Hillier, was very knowledgeable and a great presenter. The content just wasn't very useful because it dealt with building web parts in .Net 1.1 and I work exclusively in 2.0.

I may post more after the party, or I may not. Depends on if anything cool happens.

DevConnections Day 2

2006-04-04T11:09:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in posting yesterday.

8:00 - 9:00
We started off at 8:00 with another keynote speech. Prashant Sridharan spoke about MSFT Team System. You know the piece of $10,000 software that you can recreate with Open Source software for free. The session was pretty boring. It's nice spending this much money and having a marketing pitch thrown at you. One thing he mentioned was a new VS ad campaign at www.400plusdifferences.com . There were a few humorous clips.

9:30 - 10:30
Deep Dive Into ObjectDataSource

I was looking forward to this one. We design our apps to have objects in a middle tier and this seems to be targeted exactly to that. Kashif Alam was the speaker for this session. Basically, he demoed the same databind/paging/sorting crap that they do in all the demos. He just used an ObjectDataSource instead of SqlDataSource. That's fine if he had used a real object, you know like a custom class, but he just used a typed dataset. Also, his presentation leaves a lot to be desired. He is well-spoken, but very lowkey and he jumps around in the code a lot and never completes a thread.

He referenced www.asp.net/QuickStart which look pretty cool.

10:45 - 11:45
Creating Dynamic Web Sites w/ ASP.NET Web Parts

As is becoming the standard, the slides were not in the book. Remember, this is the extra book I paid $100 for. Thanks.

My first boneheaded move of the conference. The way the doors were labeled, we were in D&E and should have been in F (which was in the back of the room). So we sat in the wrong session for 20 minutes. We were wondering when he was going to get to web parts. We found the right room and discovered that the session we wanted had been rescheduled. So we went to the mobile pc lab and checked out tablets and got a hat.

11:45 - 1:30
Lunch and cruising the vendor area for more swag.

1:30 - 2:30
Visual C# Under the Covers

This is covering new stuff in C# 2.0 and upcoming features in 3.0. The presenter was Mads Torgersen and he did a very good job. This has been the best session so far. There is going to be some cool stuff in C# 3.0; Lambda trees, Extension methods and the LINQ stuff are very interesting.

2:45 - 3:45
Overview of Patterns & Practices Library

This was pretty lame. The only Enterprise Library pattern I was even remotely interested in was the Logging. And it doesn't support rolling log files, so log4net is still my choice.

4:15 - 5:15
ASP.NET 2005 Tips and Tricks

I didn't have high hopes for this, except for the fact that it was Scott Guthrie presenting. But it was awesome. Lots of useful stuff. He showed an RSS from MSFT that lets you write a few lines of code and generate an RSS feed for your site. That will be added to www.workagile.com very soon.

We came back at 7:00 to the MSFT "Unplugged" event. Free pizza and beer and a Q&A session with all the MSFT guys. Some people had some good questions. I didn't get to ask mine. I wanted to know what they thought the advantages were with Team System over Open Source alternatives. After that, we went and watched the Florida-UCLA game.

Day 3 should be up tonight. It's actually lunchtime on day 3 right now.

Dev Connections Day 2 Postponed

2006-04-03T23:54:00.000-05:00

Postponed until tomorrow.

Dev Connections Day 2 Quick Note

2006-04-03T17:14:00.000-05:00

Full post on day 2 will be up later tonight. I'm just taking a break before the MSFT Unplugged event tonight, not enough time to type up all my notes.

Just wanted to post a link to another blogger that is at the conference. He helped me name the rocket I mentioned last night...projectile swag. Check his blog for a video of the swag in action.

http://iwkid.blogspot.com/

Dev Connections Day 1

2006-04-02T20:56:00.000-05:00

It has been a long day. My flight left this morning at 11:35 and landed in Orlando at 2:00. Between daylight savings time and the flight into the Eastern time zone, I lost 2 hours today. The flight was smooth, but the plane was small and crowded. Cody (my co-worker) and I watched Saw II while waiting to board and then we finished on the plane. It was good, but I liked Saw better.

A couple of U-turns later, we found our hotel and checked in, then headed to check in at the conference. Check was very smooth, they gave us backpacks with all the books and CDs and info. It took less than 2 minutes to check in. We had 2 hours til the keynote started, so we headed to Chevy's Fresh Mex and had way too much food.

The keynote was not bad, but it wasn't much new stuff. Scott Guthrie (ASP.NET team) and Mike Nunn (formerly SQL Server PM, now on Visual Team System) gave keynotes. Scott talked about building Atlas apps, but gave basically the same demo that is on the Atlas asp.net page.

Mike Nunn talked about SQL Server and its integration with Visual Studio. He demoed CLR integration w/ SQL Server, which has greatly improved since the beta. Last time I looked at it, you had to jump through hoops to get it to work. Now you create a project, add some code and click Deploy. He also showed some Business Intelligence capabilities, which I will have to check out later. It was way high level and I didn't really get the use of it.

After the keynote, they had a dessert reception. Lots of desserts, a bar and vendors. We had a free drink ticket, thankfully, cause beers were $5. We walked around and collected swag. Score so far: 3 t-shirts and one of those rockets that you pull the string back and fire from your finger (see the image). I know there will be another free tshirt from MSFT tomorrow and they are giving away a Harley, several tablets and other goodies.

I'm done for the day. I'm going to call my A and Z and then hit the bed.

Weekend Update

2006-04-02T07:54:00.000-05:00

Friday night was the "season opener" for Z's baseball team. One of the Tennessee Titans, Jacob Bell, threw out the first pitch. It's great to see these guys doing stuff like this in the community. Too often, all you see is people like T.O. on TV making an ass out of themselves. But you never hear about the players going out on a Friday night to a small town baseball game. It made the kids' night. He stuck around for about 30 minutes signing autographs for all the kids at the park.

Ozzie, the Nashville Sounds mascot, also came out. I've had kids playing ball there most of the last 7 years and I've never seen them do stuff like this. Someone there is doing a good job. I took some pictures of Jacob Bell and Ozzie, but since my camera doesn't have a good lens, my far off shots suck. I need to save up $1000 to buy a good camera. Of course, I need to save up $1000 to buy a lot of things.

Z did pretty good Friday night. He walked twice and struck out once. Both times he walked, he got stranded on base, so he never got to score. They won, 6-0. Saturday's game, Z struck out twice. He took a bunch of strikes, I think he was looking for a walk again. But his team still won, 7-6. Z and I practiced some that afternoon, I taught him how to bunt. It's fun when they move up into the age group where kids pitch and they can bunt and steal.

I woke up this morning to very loud thunder. Nothing like being woken up by a thunderstorm the morning you are getting on a plane. I just checked and everything is still on time. I've never flown in one of the smaller jets before. See y'all in Orlando!

Friday Etc.

2006-03-31T09:27:00.000-06:00

This is something new I'm trying. Usually I have a specific topic when I post, but that means I don't get to post a lot of little random stuff. So on Fridays I'm going to start posting all the little things that go on during the week.

Today has been hectic because I'm trying to make sure I have everything ready for my trip. I don't know why I'm so worried, I don't leave until Sunday and I am meeting my co-worker at the office to go to the airport, so if I forget something today, I can get it then.

My grandmother forgot to tape 24 for me Monday night, so if anyone has it on tape, I'll pay for shipping and the tape. If anyone has it on Tivo and can transfer it to their computer and send it to me, I'll be really thankful and buy you a beer.

I played my grandfather's Fender Telecaster last night. Oh my, what a nice guitar. I'm not worthy of playing a guitar like that. Learning has been going very slow for me. Honestly I haven't had a lot of time to practice the last couple of weeks.

Ran across this the other day and have downloaded the first 6 lessons onto my iPod. I've always wanted to learn German, so I'm listening to them during my (shortened) commute. I guess if I'm going to learn German while I'm driving, I better learn to cuss in German soon. The most important phrase I've learned is "Ich möchte ein Bier, bitte." (Not sure if the umlaut will show up)

Developers are always saying they are "done" with a project when there are still hundreds of defects. Talking to a co-worker this week, I said "The code is complete, it's just in the wrong order."

CodeWolf, I saw your comment and I'm thinking about the article you sent. I'm working on a post for it, I'm just a little slow. Quick thoughts: I think in addition to strengthening our borders for security, we should streamline the immigration process so those who want to come here can do it legally and without jumping through hoops. But if you live here, you are an American. It's great to have pride in your homeland, but don't move here and then fly your former country's flag over your new country's flag. If you like it so much, go back.

I have a favor to ask of everyone. A friend of mine's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and she had surgery a few weeks ago. The doctors wanted her to have radiation therapy also and as of right now, she has decided to not have it. She is concerned about the effects and possibility of the radiation causing other cancers. The favor is to keep her in your prayers or thoughts and pray she makes the right decision.

My youngest son Z has his first baseball game of the season tonight, hopefully the rain will either move on through or wait until after the game. One of the Titans is supposed to throw out the opening pitch. I don't know which one. I'm picking up A and Z early today since I will have to take them home Saturday night instead of Sunday night. I've been trying to think of something fun to do this afternoon. Now that it is supposed to rain, I guess that means a movie or bowling.

I think that is all I have. Be looking next week for my posts from Orlando.

Commuting Bliss

2006-03-29T18:31:00.000-06:00

All the new lanes are open on 65 North now. I just did my normal 35-40 minute commute in 22 minutes. What will I do with my 10 minutes extra a day?

Random Thoughts

2006-03-29T08:56:00.000-06:00

What a beautiful day! I walked out this morning and there was just a little chill in the air, but the sun was shining and it was the perfect temperature. I love this time of year.

I also love all the expansion they have done on I-65. It is now 5 lanes both North and South and it has cut down on congestion immensely. Now that this 6 or 7 year project is done, I'm sure they will pick some other stretch of interstate that I drive on regularly to tear up.

I leave Sunday morning to go to Orlando for the developer conference. I am going to attempt to blog about the conference each day (it runs from Monday - Wednesday). I hope my non-technical readers don't get bored and unsubscribe, I don't have enough readers to lose any.

Movie recommendation: "Intacto", directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. It's a Spanish movie about people who are lucky (I mean, really lucky) and gamble in high stakes games with other "lucky" people. It's hard to describe. It's a very good movie and the cinematography was amazing. One scene where they are racing through a forest of large trees was just beautiful.

Listening: Psycho Monkey by Joe Satriani

Another iTunes Meme

2006-03-28T13:26:00.000-06:00

I'm going to have to come up w/ my own iTunes thing and see if I can get it to spread.

From Jane's Blog...
Go to your iTunes and fill out the first band that's in each letter, and don't be all like "mmm, I don't want people knowing I listen to them so I'll pick the coolest one".

A - Adam Sandler
B - B.B. King
C - Cake
D - The Damned
E - Eagles
F - Falco (yea, I'm embarrased by that one)
G - The Gap Band
H - Hall & Oates
I - Incubus
J - J. Geils Band
K - Kansas
L - L.T.D.
M - The Magic Numbers
N - Natalie Cole
O - The Offspring
P - Page & Plant
Q - Queen & David Bowie (you know the song Vanilla Ice didn't steal from)
R - R.E.M.
S - Safety Scissors (Sometimes the iTunes free download is free because the song sucks! WTF is this? And why haven't I deleted it?)
T - Talking Heads
U - U2
V - Van Halen
W - The Wallflowers
X - X (that's a tough one)
Y - Yarbrough & Peoples
Z - Zack Hexum

Soup update

2006-03-25T19:24:00.000-06:00

It's done, and it's pretty damn good. I'm not just saying that because I made it. Who needs tomatoes?

Tomatoes

2006-03-25T18:38:00.000-06:00

I'll be up front and say I am weird about tomatoes. I'll eat fresh tomatoes on a burger/chicken sandwich, but could live without them. I like spaghetti sauce, chili, salsa and other things made with tomato sauce as long as there are NO chunks. There is nothing worse than a cooked tomato (well, yes there is, but for the purposes of this post, work with me). I hate ketchup as mentioned in a previous post.

For dinner tonight, I'm making a cajun 15 bean soup. It's been in preparations for almost a whole day if you count soaking the beans overnight. I was just doing the final preparations, which is adding the sausage, onions and tomatoes. My grandmother told me to get the diced tomatoes and smoosh them up so there wouldn't be any chunks. I opened the can of tomatoes and took a look and decided "fuck it, the soup doesn't need tomatoes." I couldn't even smoosh the damn tomatoes because I didn't want to touch them. I have no problems touching dead animal flesh, but a simple vegetable (or is it a fruit?) freaks me out.

Oh well, let's see how this soup tastes without the tomatoes. It will be ready in about 20 minutes, so I'll find out. The recipe says it serves 14-16 people and I'm the only one here. I could invite all my readers and still have leftovers.

The Great Goatee Growing of 2006

2006-03-23T07:33:00.000-06:00

Thus ends the goatee experiment. I trimmed it way down last night and shaved it off completely this morning. It was irritating me. It's weird, I only had it for a few weeks, but this morning I barely recognized myself in the mirror.

You can no longer call me "spinach-chin".

Customer Service

2006-03-22T08:06:00.000-06:00

Bad Customer Service
I have a Zyxel wireless network card. Yes, it was the cheapest one they had at CompUSA, and you get what you pay for, but their customer service just plain sucks. I moved the network card to a different computer recently and when Windows prompted for the driver, I realized I had lost the CD that came with the card. So I hit their website to find the driver. Went to Support, Downloads, entered my model number and was presented with a list of files I could download. Sure enough, there was the driver. Click the link and receive an error that the file or directory doesn't exist. So I click on Contact us and send a message asking where I can find the driver. I got an automated response that my question would be forwarded to the correct person. That was 5 days ago and I've received no response at all.

I checked this morning and the link is still dead. I noticed that the link was just a plain ftp link, so I hit the top level directory of the ftp site and tried to see if maybe there was just a typo in the link. Nope, the directory for my model number doesn't exist. My model number is G-302, and there was a G-302_v2 directory, so I downloaded that driver. I haven't tested it yet, but even if it works, this is not how customer service is supposed to work.

Good Customer Service

I rented a U-Haul truck when I moved earlier this month. When I picked up the truck, I wrote down the mileage that was on the odometer and did the same when I returned it. When the charge went through my bank account, it was about $32 higher than it should have been. I pulled out the original agreement to get the phone number and noticed the starting mileage on there did not match what I had written down. It was about 50 miles lower than what I had written down. At $0.59 a mile, there was the extra $32. I called the local U-Haul number and told the guy what had happened. He didn't question me, he didn't make me explain numerous times, he didn't argue and say that I had signed the agreement with the mileage (they make you sign it before you get the truck, so how are you supposed to know how many miles are on it?). He simply apologized and said "I'm putting a $35 credit on your card, it may take 2 or 3 days before it goes through." U-Haul just got a repeat customer.

On a lighter note

2006-03-20T19:41:00.000-06:00

Now that you sat through my mental regurgitation, you get to hear my completely stupid idea. I'm trying to learn to play guitar right now and pretty much suck. The other day, I learned "Anarchy in the U.K." by the Sex Pistols, all the Sex Pistols' stuff is pretty simple. Anyway, I only have an acoustic guitar, so it sounds pretty funny playing a punk anthem on an acoustic. I thought, wouldn't it be cool to have an acoustic Sex Pistols cover band? No, you say? My thoughts exactly.

Listening: Boys of Summer by The Ataris

Welcome to my Nightmare

2006-03-20T19:10:00.000-06:00

I can't afford therapy, so my faithful readers will be forced to read my pathetic attempts at self-analysis. Exhibitionist therapy at its worst. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and have figured out that I am one screwed up individual. I would say my biggest issue is communication of my thoughts and feelings. I can try to lay that off on the whole "I'm a guy, we're supposed to do that" thing, but seriously, I cannot, and I mean absolutely cannot, communicate my feelings using spoken words.

When someone hurts me or makes me mad, I just push it down inside. I've spent my entire life restraining my words because I didn't want to hurt other people's feelings. Well, most of those people never gave a fuck about my feelings, so why should I have been worrying about theirs? I recently sat through some therapy sessions for marriage counselling and I couldn't tell the therapist what I was thinking or what was bothering me. I finally tried at the last session but I wasn't able to express the emotion or power behind the feelings. I just spoke words. I could've been telling him how to get to the nearest McDonald's.

Someone recently told me I was hollow inside. That's a pretty damn good description. I love my two kids (A & Z) more than anything and I love my grandparents, who are pretty much the only family I have left. I seem incapable of maintaining a relationship with someone I'm not genetically linked to. I have very good friends, but as proved by my actions a couple of years ago, I can just stop contact at a moment's notice.

I'm sitting here going back and forth on whether to post this or just delete it. The old Jeff would say delete it. The new Jeff just said fuck it and hit Publish Post (after proof-reading of course, I'm not that screwed up).

Listening: Jungle Love by Morris Day & the Time, but if I had to tell you that, you suck.

Minimum Wage Redux

2006-03-17T09:03:00.000-06:00

Back in 2004, I posted a letter I wrote to a journalist about minimum wage a while back. I never did receive a response from her, not that I expected one. Some of that material, or at least the general ideas may be recycled in this post.

Yesterday, I read an article in The City Paper about a bill being debated in the House that proposes a $1 hike in the state minimum wage. Articles like this always piss me off, because it makes me realize that our elected representatives are ignorant. Politicians don't give a damn what is right or logical, all they care about is doing the thing that gets them the most votes in the next election.

This article was no different from hundreds of other newspaper articles about minimum wage increases. The article split the politicians into their two camps and the Democrats are for the increase, of course. And the Republicans are against it, of course. Both of them for the wrong reasons, of course.

I will quote the article and add my thoughts…

Democrats think raising the minimum wage will help lower-income, under-skilled Tennesseans.

It will help lower-income, under-skilled Tennesseans temporarily. It will help them until the prices rise because of the increased cost brought about by the minimum wage increase.

Republicans think raising the minimum wage will actually hurt lower-income, under-skilled Tennesseans in the long run.

Actually, it hurts everyone in the long run, because it results in higher prices.

“This is just trying to help the little guy out a little bit,” Rep. Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory), the sponsor of the minimum wage increase, told the House Government Operations Committee.

I love quotes like this. How do you argue with the guy and not seem like a heartless bastard? He actually says nothing factual or logical, he's just trying to help the little guy out. What, are you against the little guy? This type of phrase ranks right up there with "It's for the children." Okay, back to the subject at hand; as I stated before, it won't help the little guy because prices will rise. Then the little guy is right back in the same boat as he's in now.

Republicans on the panel disagreed with Turner’s arguments that lower-skilled employees will benefit, saying raising the minimum wage actually hurts the “little guy.”

I have to admit, I got a little excited when I read this. I thought someone actually got it, but then I read the next paragraph and realized they are actually clueless.

Rep. Susan Lynn (R-Mt. Juliet) said increasing the minimum wage would motivate more people to want to work because of the increased salary. As a result, competition for minimum wage jobs would increase and lower-skilled workers currently earning $5.15 an hour could be pushed out of jobs.

“It will attract people into the market who were previously happy and content to not have those jobs,” Lynn said. “These [lower-skilled people] simply won’t be hired.”

Ha! There are several idiotic statements here. 1) Motivating more people to want to work is a bad thing? Huh?

2) I don't believe that $1 an hour will actually result in a sudden rush of people trying to get jobs. These people that she seems to think are currently sitting on the couch watching Jerry Springer scoffing at $5.15 an hour while the rest of us toil away aren't going to say "Hey, now I can make $6.15 an hour at McDonald's. Screw this couch potato stuff, I'm going to work!"

3) Let me get this straight, there are apparently two groups out there, one is lower-skilled, but they currently have jobs and the other is slightly higher-skilled, but they don't currently have jobs. When the minimum wage goes up $1, these higher-skilled slackers are going to jump back in the workforce and steal jobs from the lower-skilled responsible workers. Right. If I'm hiring someone and I look at their application and see that Person A just dropped out of the workforce a year ago and hasn't done anything and Person B has been shoveling shit for the last 3 years for $5/hour, guess who I'm going to hire? I'm going for the guy who's going to work his butt off.

“This is a modest increase to help the [poorest] amongst us, like the good Lord said,” Turner testified to the Republicans.

Raising the minimum wage is just a temporary fix! Why can't these people understand that? It is a false economy.

Oh, and Turner better watch it, the DNC will be sending him a warning about the separation of church and state.

But Rep. David Davis (R-Johnson City) replied, quoting a Bible verse in support of his argument, and saying that the people Turner wants to help would actually be hurt “the most” with an increase.

I wish they had provided the verse. I'm curious, I've never come across mention of minimum wage in the Bible. He is correct about who would be hurt the most.

Turner said raising the minimum wage would not hurt businesses, adding that even if it did, government for years has been helping corporations through tax breaks and not doing enough to assist lower-income workers.

It won't hurt businesses, they will just pass the expense on to the consumer who, surprise, surprise, is the little guy who just got a $1 an hour raise.

And it's true that the gov't helps corporations through tax breaks. But the way to end state supported welfare is not to give more money to a different group! Cut the welfare out, period. I realize the state is not giving money directly to lower-income workers via the minimum wage, but it's still welfare. The gov't is just forcing businesses to pay an artificially higher wage. The government's job is to protect the rights of all its citizens. That does not include making sure they bring home a certain amount of money each week.

“The gap between the rich and the poor gets wider and wider each year,” Turner said. “All I’m trying to do is level the playing field.”

Keeping the playing field level actually precludes setting a minimum wage. That is rigging the game. By setting an artificial floor to the market, you raise production costs, which results in higher prices. The "rich" are able to absorb these higher prices, but it truly affects the poor.

Also, does he honestly believe that $1/hr ($40/week, $173/month, $2080/year) is going to make that gap any smaller?

House Republican Leader Bill Dunn (R-Knoxville) told Turner that leveling that playing field regulates businesses.

I would be more supportive of Republicans when they say something like this if they didn't turn around and try to regulate my personal life.

Another bill being debated in the legislature would raise the minimum wage to $7.15 an hour.

How about $10.15 an hour? I propose we set the minimum wage at $50,000 per year. If raising it $1 an hour is going to help so much and have no harmful effects, why not?

Listening: Minimum Wage by They Might Be Giants (of course!)

Dancin' in the District is Dead

2006-03-16T10:50:00.000-06:00

Just saw the article in the City Paper that Dancin' in the District has been cancelled for good. That really sucks. (I was going to provide a link, but their website is not responding at the moment, try www.nashvillecitypaper.com and it should be at the top)

There is another article about minimum wage that I'm going to post on later today. I'm too busy to get sucked in to it right now.

Listening: No Attention by Soundgarden

2006-03-15T10:58:00.000-06:00

March is flying by. I can't believe we're half way through the month. Deadlines are looming, and I'm starting to get uptight about my trip to Orlando at the beginning of April. I'm going to a developer conference down there and I'm excited about that. I don't get nervous about travelling itself, I just get nervous about preparing to go on a trip. I'm always worried I'm going to forget something. It's totally irrational, but I'll be a wreck the night before my trip.

Are any of my fellow coders going to the conference? Info is at DevConnections

Indestructible Sandwich

2006-03-14T07:36:00.000-06:00

My oldest son called me last night and told me that he had found a guitarist for his band. They have taken a vote and they are going to use my suggestion as their name. So be on the lookout in the next few years for Indestructible Sandwich. If my son's musical tastes are any indication, they will sound like the red-headed step child of Rush and Green Day

Clarification

2006-03-11T14:36:00.000-06:00

Sorry for the confusion, H'ville means Hendersonville, TN to me. I didn't think of that other H'ville called Huntsville.

I moved to Hendersonville, TN so I'm still in the Nashville area.

Last Week and Looking Forward

2006-03-08T06:02:00.000-06:00

Last week, I promised more information on what I was doing on Wednesday. If you look back at my blogging history, you realize this is not really a personal blog. I haven't really said much about my personal life on here. And don't worry, I don't plan on starting. Except for now.

Last week, I moved back to H'ville, which is where I'm originally from. My wife did not move with me. We lasted 1 year, 4 months. I'm now 0 for 2, and have benched myself.

Also, I am starting a web site centered around Agile Development. I've made some technical posts on here about continuous builds and development in general. I will be moving those types of posts to my new site. So this blog will be about current events, life in general and things that piss me off. My new site is www.workagile.com. It's not live yet, but you can leave your email address and I will notify you when it goes live.

We will resume our regularly scheduled programming next post.

Something/Anything?

2006-03-02T17:04:00.000-06:00

OK, so I'm a little late to the party. Todd Rundgren is one of those artists that I've heard on the radio and liked, but I've never really listened to him. Since today* is iTunes allowance day (why do I have to have 2 accounts to give myself an allowance? Apple, can you please tell me why?), I bought Something/Anything by Todd Rundgren. Wow! I've been missing this for all these years. Of course, I've heard "I Saw the Light" and "Hello It's Me" before, but hearing them in the context of the entire album makes them sound even better.

*Actually yesterday was allowance day but I was busy all day and didn't have time to do any music shopping. More on this later.

New Will Hoge CD

2006-02-10T12:51:00.000-06:00

It came in the mail today! Sounds good so far. I've listened to the first 5 tracks and "Woman Be Strong" stands out the most. "The Man Who Killed Love" just started and it's got a killer guitar lick. I've got a meeting to get to, so I'll have to finish listening this afternoon. It's loaded up on the iPod ready for the drive home.

Listening: The Man Who Killed Love - Will Hoge

The Man Who Killed Love

2006-02-08T12:15:00.000-06:00

I just ordered the new Will Hoge CD "The Man Who Killed Love" that came out yesterday. Can't wait for it to arrive. I've gotten spoiled by iTunes, I just click Buy and I'm listening to it. I had to order this the old school way directly through his site. I will review when I get it.

Listening: Improve/Amazing Grace - Bela Fleck & the Flecktones

"Celebrities" on Ice

2006-01-31T07:52:00.000-06:00

While waiting for the best television show currently on (24) to come on last night, I had the misfortune to witness some of show "Skating with Celebrities". Is this what passes for entertainment these days? Washed-up celebrities skating with has been skaters? People, if you have enough time on your hands to watch pap like this, you need a hobby. Read a book, take a walk, play a game with your family or just sit there and think. Anything would be better than watching has beens make a last ditch effort for 15 more minutes in the spotlight. I just wonder if it is the money or just another chance to be on TV for these former celebrities.

iTunes meme

2006-01-25T12:06:00.000-06:00

Saw this was going around and thought it was a fun diversion.

(Note: I excluded podcasts, videos, educational and sound effects)

Total Songs
2935 songs, 9.2 days, 12.61GB

Sort by song title - first and last
"'Til the Day I Die" by Third Day
"Zoot Suit Riot" by Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Sort by time - shortest and longest
Shortest: "Blank" (0:00) by John Mayer.
Shortest non-zero is "Prelude to the End of the Game" (0:20) by Sting
Longest: "Octavarium" (23:58) by Dream Theater

Sort by Album - first and last
First: 'Til The Medicine Takes by Widespread Panic
Last: Zoot Suit Riot by Cherry Poppin' Daddies

Sort by Artist - first and last
First: .38 Special
Last: Yarbrough & Peoples

Top five played songs
"A Boy Named Sue" - Johnny Cash
"Black Math" - The White Stripes
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" - Bob Dylan
"Liberty" - Steve Vai
"Tangled Up in Blue" - Bob Dylan (yes, I've been on a Dylan kick lately)

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 21
Death: 15
Love: 162
You: 326
Home: 20
Boy: 77
Girl: 23
Blue: 312*

*I added this because I have a playlist just for songs with "Blue" in the name.

Listening: Dust in the Wind by Kansas

Yellow Submarine

2006-01-17T16:22:00.000-06:00

That's what I'm going to need to get home. It's raining cats and dogs out there. Just checking in with random thoughts...

On the way to work, I heard some lyrics that were appropriate for the weather...

"And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'."
--Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-changin'

I had a funny occurrence at the bank drive-through. The guy in front of my left, so I pulled up to the air tube thing. The little plastic container wasn't there. I hit the teller call button, but they were pretty busy. Then I see the guy that was in front of me come walking back with the container. We had a chuckle about it.

Listening: New Rose - The Damned

Free Speech for the Dumb

2006-01-10T13:07:00.000-06:00

First off, who the hell cares what Harry Belafonte thinks or says? You may or may not agree with him. Personally, I do not agree. But he has the right to say what he believes, just as I do. What I find disturbing about this tempest in a teacup are the reactions of some people. Some of the reactions from here are simply nauseating. Let me be up front and say I am a white, male Christian and when making a choice at the polls between a Republican and Democrat, I generally choose Republican at the national level. If I had to choose a classification, I would pick libertarian. So I should be Fox's target audience.

"Harry Belafonte is an idiot, and should be deported." — Charlie (Newport Beach, CA)

"I think H. Bellefonte should be deported and have any U.S. citizenship revoked." — R.S.U.

"Belafonte should be ashamed of himself especially when the USA has been good to him, he is only digging himself deeper and deeper to the left, his US passport should be taken away from him." — Richard

So we are going to start deporting idiots? That will definitely cut down on traffic for my commutes.

Another "deportation" I had to single out…

"Harry Belafonte should be deported to his own country or better yet to Venezuelan where he can party with his buddy Hugo Chavez. The man is a disgrace. All the money and fame in the U.S. and treats the country like crap. Deport him, revoke his citizenship and no visa allowed." — George (Orlando, FL)

Belafonte was born in New York City (New York City!?!), so if we deported him to his own country, wouldn't that cause some kind of rip in the space-time continuum?

"Good job, Comrade Belafonte. You have always upheld the highest traditions of the Communist Party. After all, what has America ever given you? It's no wonder that millions of Americans are fleeing this rotten country to live in the socialist and communist paradises in North Korea, Cuba and Communist China. Good and faithful Comrade, your ticket is waiting." — Andy

This is great! See, this is how you should react to people when they spout socialist propaganda. Others in this vein…

"Mr. Belafonte should stick to writing and singing songs, and leave the politics for the nation's leaders." — Kelsie (Spring, TX)

"I think Harry Belafonte is a washed up, communist, bigoted, old man who wants the spotlight again. If he doesn’t like it here, by all means, go away!" — Fran

"I don't care. Most Americans don't really care and I can assure that Mr. Bush don't give Mr. Belafonte a second thought." — Richard (Washington, DC)

"Belafonte should take his act to Venezuela on a more permanent basis." — Ron

"Harry should move to Venezula, give up his US citizenship and learn how much of a democracy there is in Chavez-land." — Ron

"I don't give one darn 'Day-O' what Mr. Belafonte thinks. When he sings 'Me-wanna-go-home' -- he should, back to Venezuala!" — Matt (Kings Mountain, NC)

"Thanks, Harry! Now I have a reason to clean my shelf of all your albums. Oh wait, I don't have any and neither does 99% of America!" — Phil (Los Angeles, CA)

"Mr. Belafonte has the right to speak his opinion. MANY Americans have died so that he has that right. I think that if he believes Mr. Chavez and Venezuela are so great, he should really consider moving there. He would be much happier, I am sure." — Cathy

Then you have the people throwing around the "t" word: Treason. Speaking out against the government is not treason.

"Harry Belafonte is an idiot. I think he can be called a traitor!" — Bonnie

"This is outrageous! It borders on treason." — Bruce

"I feel he is a traitor! This country is at war. We need support and prayers. He is endangering our countrymen who are on the front lines." — Shirley (Mount Washington, KY)

I hear the ideas behind Shirley's comment quite a bit. That because we are at war, we should automatically support the president and the government. Should we support the troops and their families during war? Of course we should. Do our elected representatives get an automatic pass because we are at war? Hell, no. If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. And are the Republicans who are saying this trying to convince me that if John Kerry were in office right now (and we were at war), they would shut up and support his decisions? Yeah, right. The radio waves would be overloaded with people complaining about everything he did.

"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
--Voltaire

Out of the Silent Planet

2006-01-05T16:00:00.000-06:00

It's been quiet around here. The holidays and readjusting to working again after being off for a week and a half have consumed most of my time. The other time has been spent importing every CD I own into iTunes since I got an iPod (Video/30GB/Black) for Christmas. It took a while, but now I can carry all my music in my pocket. Awesome.

If you are looking for an in-car FM transmitter for your iPod (so you can listen over the radio), check out the DLO TransPod. I first bought the Monster (can't remember the model) and it pretty much sucked. I realized that I really wanted a dock, so my iPod wouldn't be sliding around in case I had to stop quickly. Plus the FM transmitter either was very weak, or it was sensitive to positioning. I had to change channels several times during my drive home to keep a clear signal. With the DLO, I've had to change it one time. I keep it on 105.5 and if that gets a little interference (north of town), I switch to 106.3. $79.99 at CompUSA.

Listening: (Pretty Sure) I'm Over You - Will Hoge

Damn Right, I've Got the Blues

2005-12-15T15:32:00.000-06:00

This is just wrong. I was browsing through iTunes' Blues section and found this album cover.

Crash Course in Brain Surgery

2005-12-12T10:51:00.000-06:00

As I've stated in a couple of previous posts, I am using Agile development methodologies. I'm not using one particular discipline, but my own Frankenstein creation that borrows from Scrum, Crystal Clear and XP. I thought I would share a few of the books I found useful with my 2, no make that 3 readers. After getting a comment from a guy I used to work with, I discovered I had 3 readers. Anyway, here are 3 of the books that really helped me discover Agile development...

Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams by Alistair Cockburn
User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn
Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber

I also have Agile Project Management by Jim Highsmith which I have not finished yet. So far, it's been a little tougher to read than the others.

I am starting to work on a series of articles on unit testing. I'm not sure how often I will post them here, but be looking for the first one next week.

This is not a paid endorsement, I am not an affiliate of Amazon.

Listening: 'Til the Day I Die - Third Day

Key to the Highway

2005-12-09T08:53:00.000-06:00

I understand that HOV lanes are a big hit in some areas, such as L.A. and other big cities. There is even talk of allowing single occupied vehicles access to the lanes via a toll, which would be a moving price based on demand. Here in Nashville, single occupied vehicles don't have to pay a toll to ride in the HOV lane. They just do it. And there is no penalty for this action because there is no enforcement of the law.

I don't like HOV lanes. I believe they make traffic worse, not better. And the impact on the environment is negligible at best. Every driver is paying for the interstate system, yet we are not allowed to use certain lanes at certain times of the day. And for those of us that do follow the law, we must deal with three different types of asshats on the roads.

Asshat #1 - The person just flat out ignores the HOV lane signs. This is the guy who just doesn't care about the signs. That is, until they are getting ready to pass a cop. Which is very rare, because the police never watch for HOV lane violators and if an officer happens to be on the interstate, they are usually going faster than everyone else, so the violator never catches up to them. This morning I saw the king of these asshats. He whizzes past at about 85 in the HOV lane, obviously alone in his Buick Rendevouz. It has dealer plates, so the guy is probably a car salesman, which already makes him an asshat. He comes up behind a car going 65 in the HOV lane (see next paragraph) and proceeds to tailgate the offending car. I don't mean a "I’m a slightly unsafe distance from your car" tailgating, I mean a "stuntman can jump from my hood to your trunk" tailgating. I pass both of them in the lane next to the HOV lane. He squeezes between me and the car, rides my bumper until he gets around and starts to try to squeeze back to the left lane, getting very close to my bumper. I, of course, let off the gas so the gap doesn't widen as quick as he estimated, but he missed me.

Asshat #2 - The person who thinks because they have 2 people in the car, they MUST ride in the HOV lane. Okay, the idea behind the HOV lane is that when traffic gets heavy, those who are carpooling can ride in a less congested lane, thereby going faster than other traffic. If regular traffic is going as fast as the HOV lane, there's no reason to ride in it, if you are planning on going slower than traffic. That is what the right hand lane is for. The person who was being tailgated in the above example was this type of asshat. She was going 65 (the speed limit is 70) in the far left lane when just about everyone else was going 70. Tennessee (and most other states) specify that slower traffic must keep right. Which leads us to our final asshat type (at least for today).

Asshat #3 - The person who drives slow in the left most, non-HOV lane. When the HOV lane is in effect, the lane next to it should become the "left" lane for single occupied vehicles. For example, there are 4 lanes at one point of my commute. Starting with 1 for the right lane, you would have 4 3 2 1. 4 is the HOV lane. So 3 should be the "fast" lane for non-HOV cars. Some people don't get this. They driver slower than traffic in that lane. I can't pass on the left without breaking the law and I can't pass on the right because they get people seem to get a herd mentality on the interstate where they want to drive in tight packs with other drivers.

If you are one of these types of asshats, pay attention to your driving! Quit shaving, putting on makeup, eating, talking on the phone, reading the newspaper, reading a book or sending e-mail* and drive!

*Yes, I've seen all of those things being done by someone while driving.

Listening: Trip Through Your Wires - U2

Practice What You Preach

2005-12-02T16:25:00.000-06:00

Creating software is all about delivering value to the customer. By focusing on features of the software instead of framework, you are free to concentrate on delivering that value. Your users don't care about your object model or customizable database schema. They care about what the software DOES and how they interact with it.

You may be creating software that uses all the latest buzz words and is a technological marvel, but unless your customer getting more value from these technologies, it is pointless. I realize they may not realize immediate value, because some decisions are made to make the software more customizable or flexible in the future. But if all you are doing is pulling data from a database (which is what 90% of all applications I've ever worked on were doing), you don't need to spend the next year creating a distributed database engine with 456 abstract classes that are the basis for on-the-fly generated code to handle XML in Swahili*.

Business software development is not an academic exercise. Just like a manufacturer who produces widgets to sell to Wal-Mart, we must create software that gives the user more value than it cost them to purchase our software. So, quit reading this and go write something useful. Unless you are not a developer, then go do whatever it is that you do. Just stay away from Microsoft Access©.

*unless Swahili support is on the feature list

Listening: On Any Other Day - The Police

Working Too Hard

2005-11-23T08:47:00.000-06:00

The past few weeks have been very busy at work. The good thing is, it has been very productive. I feel like we are starting to get a handle on agile development and we are seeing pretty good results.

Software development is very much a "what have you done for me lately?" career. It doesn't matter if you delivered your last project early and it wowed everyone. If your current project is late, you're in for it. I think we are getting back on track and agile is helping us deliver often, which shows our progress. At the end of August, we were given 4 projects and asked if we could deliver them all by the end of the year. 3 were small projects, one was big. As of right now, one has been delivered and is in use; one has been delivered and is in use, but still has some defects to fix (will be done by today); one has been completed, pending some requested changes from the demo, and will be in place and running by Dec 1; the other is in it's 2nd 2 week iteration with more features completed during the 1st than planned. Even though I feel like we can meet our goal, I will still be amazed if we reach it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Listening: Would? - Alice in Chains

Veteran of the Psychic Wars

2005-11-17T12:09:00.000-06:00

Kevin Drum says Congress evades its own responsibility for war

Listening: Black Ice - John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess

A Fool Such As I

2005-11-15T14:08:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I doubt my intelligence when writing code. This morning I was working along, writing code and tests, running them in nUnit. I added a new test and some code and suddenly got an error in nUnit:

nunit-gui.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.

I had the option to Debug or Close. I closed it, looked at my test and didn't see anything out of whack, so I tried it again. Same issue. So the next time I chose to Debug. I loaded it into my open copy of VS 2005 and got the message below.

This was on the code in my service that the unit test was calling. So I look at the code a little closer.

public DataSet GetPrimeInvoices(string employeeCode)

{

return this.GetPrimeInvoices(employeeCode);

}

See anything wrong with that?

The function I was calling was an overload of another function that took 2 parameters. I forgot to add the 2nd parameter to the call, so it was just calling itself until it crashed. I added the 2nd parameter

public DataSet GetPrimeInvoices(string employeeCode)

{

return this.GetPrimeInvoices(employeeCode, Level.ProjectManager);

}

I reran my tests and got the beautiful green dot...

Listening: Mr. Soul - Rush

Am I Evil?

2005-11-11T15:08:00.000-06:00

I'm tired of the comment spam! So anyone who wants to comment will now have to use word verification. I'm sorry to my 2 readers that you will have to go through this ordeal, but I can't handle the spam anymore.

Now I will never have any comments because no one ever reads this except the spammers!

Listening: Fife and Drum - John Petrucci & Jordan Rudess

A Little Bit More

2005-11-11T12:44:00.000-06:00

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
--Thomas Jefferson

I'm in a good mood today because I passed my 2nd Microsoft certification exam this morning (See my other blog). And now I can start reading the book I got from Amazon yesterday: User Stories Applied : For Agile Sotware Development by Mike Cohn.

Listening: My Black Cadillac - Lightnin' Hopkins

Deleted Comments

2005-10-13T16:38:00.000-05:00

You may see some comments that say they were deleted by the blog admin. I'm not censoring anyone, I just had some spammer try to pass off a advertisement as a comment.

A moment of silence...

2005-06-24T07:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8331097/

Let us have a moment of silence for the death of private property rights. They have been on life support for a while now. Yesterday, the Supreme Court took them out behind the barn and finished them off.

I just read a story in my local paper about the cost of land in my area. There are people who bought land in the 50's and 60's for $100 an acre. That land is now selling to developers for $50,000 - $75,000 an acre. Now, the local government could just declare that building a neighborhood is better for the public good than having a farm or wooded area. The developers would no longer have to pay 50K per acre because they can just bribe an elected official (yes, that happens) and get it on the cheap.

This is just further evidence of our "government knows best" nanny state. The Constitution was written to protect the rights of individuals and to limit government. Where is the protection for the individual in this situation?

Gemini IssueTracker

2005-05-06T08:56:00.000-05:00

I recently set up Gemini to be a part of my build system. Gemini is an awesome product. I am using SQL Server 2005 Beta 2 as my database and had some issues getting Gemini's DB setup script to work on 2005, but was able to easily fix them. Here are my notes...

Installed Gemini to local machine using Setup.msi and had no problems.

Ran SetupDB.msi and got this error for several stored procs…

Msg 4104, Level 16, State 1, Procedure gemini_getlut_1, Line 18

Multi-part identifier 'b.username' could not be bound.

Msg 104, Level 16, State 1, Procedure gemini_getlut_1, Line 18

ORDER BY items must appear in the select list if the statement contains

a UNION operator.

Contacted support via email at 2:07pm, received reply at 2:15pm (awesome support). Support said they do not support SQL Server 2005 yet, but that other customers had modified the install scripts to work. They did not say what changes those customers had made. So I opened the Create_Procs.sql script in Deploy\Step1_SQL_Database.

I edited the following stored procs…

gemini_getlut_1
gemini_getissueupdatedata
gemini_getlutentries
gemini_getxplutentries

I changed the order by clause for the union all to "username" instead of "b.username", i.e.

union all

select a.userid, b.firstname + N' ' + b.surname as username from projectresource a, users b

where a.projid=@projid and b.userid=a.userid and a.isactive = 'y'

order by b.username

Became...

union all

select a.userid, b.firstname + N' ' + b.surname as username from projectresource a, users b

where a.projid=@projid and b.userid=a.userid and a.isactive = 'y'

order by username

Ran the script file and everything installed correctly.

Logged in using admin/admin and created a new user with admin privileges.

To move to my build machine, I backed up the database and restored it on the target server. Installed the executables (setup.msi) to the target machine and edited the web.config to point to the new server. Also pointed web.config to SMTP server for e-mail.

Sorry for the incomplete sentences and any grammatical mistakes. I was just recording my steps in OneNote as I was working through the process and I am posting them unedited.