90's

ACOUSTIC SUNDAY!

Well, my friends, my absence the past few days should be a clue as to just how busy I’ve been. I am desperately trying to get my data center built, so that I can get my ass back to Michigan, and back home. A funny little story. Friday, I’m on a design authority call with representatives from the customer, including their network engineer. He asked how I was doing, and I mentioned I was trying to build a data center out from bare tiles to completely cabled and fibered server racks, network racks and storage area networks all in 2 and a half week. His reply? “Who’s stupid fucking idea was that!”. I just left it at that, since the persons whose idea it was, the customers director of IT who escalated to get it built, was also on the call. I got a HUGE satisfaction out of that one!

So, from the comments the other day, I have some fellow IT workers out there. That’s good to know, and cheers to you all. It’s a tough business, and I don’t think most people know exactly the insane working conditions we suffer so that when you want to print that Word document, or send that email, or surf the internet, it all goes smoothly. The IT business, especially as you rise up the ranks, it just a tough, grueling business, where 18 hours days are not uncommon, and being home 3 weeks in a row is not all that unusual. The earliest I left the raised floor this past week was midnight.

One of the younger guys on my project asked me how I did it. I have no clue. I told him that IT tends to weed out the weak and those without the stamina to work super long hours. Not everyone can do what we do. Enjoy the music!

A DELAYED DOSE OF JACK UP MUSIC FOR YOU ALL

Check it out…I wanted to get this posted yesterday, and have something else completely cool for you all today, but the events of the past three days have kind of kicked my ass. More on that in a bit, because I REALLY need to vent. So, if you’re not interested in some severe ranting on my part over my job, I would read this paragraph and skip to the tunes. Like I said, I originally had this lined up for yesterday, but music never dies, and it never gets old, so one day won’t really matter, I don’t think. I have some more tunes based on the Jack FM format…I am seriously loving the freshness of it. At least for now, it’s keeping me sane for 20 minutes in the morning, and 20 at night.

Now on to my rant. Work of getting kind of completely out of hand, and today I’m pretty much going to put a stop to that today. It’s become apparent that the project managers in my company are content to allow me to take over the effective management of all areas of their projects, including resource management, ordering, priority setting, etc. I am an architect. My role is to provide a sound technical solution, and a map for them to integrate complex applications across the board. Instead, I have been doing so much project manager crap that I’m behind. Way behind. And I just had a come to Jesus meeting where I laid it all out, and told my lead PM that either he gets a team here tomorrow, or I go home.

So, hold on…I have to be in Boulder for yet a third week in a row, and the second weekend. No, my wife is not happy, and no, I am seriously not happy.

IT CAME FROM THE 90′S, UPDATE EDITION!

Today’s list is my update of one of my favorite blog series called “It Came From The Nineties” over at Can You See The Sunset On The South Side. The author of this blog, which, by the way, if one of my favorite reads, has a pretty good eye for talent, and usually posts outstanding stuff. A month ago, I did a 3 day series on what I thought was the best of…if you get a chance, I still recommend going over and visiting his blog.

Of today’s list, maybe the song that means the most to me is The Nixons’ Sister. It was a moderate hit in 1995, but the words really hit me pretty hard. In 1995, the relationship I was in had fallen apart, due to the distance between us…I was in Chicago, and she was in California. We were both going through pretty nasty divorces, and though we loved each other pretty dearly, the stress just tore us apart, and we went months without speaking to each other. I heard this song, and the words just kind of shot through me, and I realized that I was making a mistake I would never recover from by letter her go. I mailed her a copy of the song, and fortunately, she felt the same way. A few months later, with both our divorces complete, she moved to Chicago. A year later, we were married, and this December, it will be 12 great years. Never has a song made such a difference in my life.

JUST ANOTHER MELLOW MONDAY

Happy Monday, everyone out there in the internets. This weekend, I was away from home for the first time in years. Usually, my business trips end on Fridays…this time, it’s a full two weeks. I’m not ashamed to say that it’s damn lonely. See, this past week was my daughters 13th birthday. There’s nothing harder for me than to be away from my family, but when I have to miss something as important as my baby becoming a teenager…well, lets just say it’s completely fucked I was away.

So after just hanging out in Boulder, sleeping and relaxing, and trying to get caught up on my work. And preparing for the week ahead. I still have a tremendous amount of work to get done. I think we’re gonna thread the needle and pull off a miracle for this customer, but it’s going to come at a price, that’s for sure. I’m happy with the progress we made last week. By far this is going to be one of the biggest success of my career.

So, enjoy. I’m having a mellow day, just trying to maintain until I can get back home.

I DON’T KNOW JACK ABOUT MUSIC…OR DO I?

One of the nice things about traveling for business is that I sometimes find some great music stations on the radio. It’s rare, but when I find one, I get pretty jazzed. Well, my friends (as John McCain is so fond of saying), this week, I have found one, though it has a little twist, as you’ll see. First of all there is a Denver Station that calls itself Jack FM, and I gotta admit, they play one hell of a variety of songs. Not every song is great, or even a song I like. But unlike most stations, I can listen to 3 or 4 songs I really enjoy for everyone I don’t. Normal stations are lucky to have the reverse ratio.

Now for the controversy. I guess that Jack FM is a new type of format, or so says Wikipedia (who we all know is NEVER wrong!). The playlist creation is centralized, and market research driven. Their catalog of songs are, I guess, twice as large as other stations, and they are no where near as specific to one genre of music. Honestly, I find none of those things disturbing, and in fact, it’s a nice change. The stations (and there are several across the US, Canada, and now even in the UK), have no local programming. No DJ. No local voice to add that local touch. I guess that upsets people. To be honest, though, there are very few DJ’s I honestly care to listen to. The last one passed away a few years back (I hope your jamming your ass off up there, John Peel!). It’s all about the music…the other stuff is just fluff.

That brings me to today’s list. All the songs on the list are from a 2 hour period. Of course, I choose the ones I liked the most, and left off the clunkers like Neil Diamond and Kool and the Gang (apologies to those that like those two artists…I have nothing again em. Hell, I even dig the hell out of Neil once in a while.). But the stuff listed here is pretty typical of the range of styles, both in genre and in decades, that they play around the clock. Like I said, it works for me, and makes that drive to and from work a little more bearable. Enjoy!

MO’ MONEY, MO’ MONEY, MO

I watching Wall Street gradually melt into a big pile of goo the other day, wondering how much of my 401K actually exists anymore, which led me to wonder what it will be like to still be working at the age of 80. Hey, how bad an it be? Except for the fact I’ll need to take more naps, and change my adult diaper during breaks, it might be so bad. But watching all that chaos unfold just kind of reminded me of one thing…In Living Color! I’m pretty sure most people know it as the shows that launched the Wyans and that other douche, Jim Carey. And it launched the phrase “Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money, Mo’ Money!”

I thought it might be a hoot to come up with a list of songs with Money in the title, as a tribute to the innate greed of the average Wall Street CEO. I hope you enjoy the music…it’s about all I can afford to give out anymore!

A DAY OF PEEL SESSIONS

First, for everyone who commented about Mr. Sicks, a huge thanks. It really did make my wife feel a lot better reading them all, and for that, I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. There are a lot of really great people in the world, and I’m lucky enough to have quite a few of them reading this blog.

Someone left a comment the other day about this blog having the influence of the great John Peel running through it. I take that as a high compliment, indeed. John Peel had the finest taste in music, and sadly, most people over here have no clue who he was, or what his influence on modern music is. Never let it be said that I am guilty of either of those. I’ve done numerous posts featuring the Peel sessions, but it’s been awhile, so I thought I would gather up some great tunes from Peel sessions, and pass them on to you all.

The thing I love best about the Peel session is that the songs all have a rough edge to it, yet not as rough as a live recording. I’m not a fan of live recordings…usually, I just don’t find the music as good. But the Peel session gives some of that live quality, while still keeping a bit of the studio polish. It’s just good stuff. Enjoy!

A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO MR. SOCKS

I mentioned a few days ago that a stray cat had come to live on our back deck. We informally named him Mr. Socks. That him there in the picture. The rains of the past few days, along with the coming of fall, and eventually winter, spurred us on to take him to the vet this morning, to get him checked up, immunized and try to get him ready for winter.

My wife took him into the vets office this morning. An hour later, I got a call from her, and on the other end, I heard only sobbing. The vet had done a feline HIV test on the little guy, and the test came back positive. Further more, the vet said he was already pretty sick, and could not survive a winter. Unfortunately, it was time to make a very rough decision. Mr. Socks has been living on the back deck for two months now, and we honestly have grown extremly fond of the little guy. But this morning, we made the decision to put him at rest. It was hard, and it sucks, and it’s left a little bit of a hole in our home, but we just could not stand to watch the poor guy suffer, and gradually pass away. So it’s with more than a little sadness that today, we said goodbye to our little friend, Mr. Socks.

SONGS ABOUT CARS FOR A THOUSAND, PLEASE…

You can tell I’m going a little stir crazy. After three days of non-stop rain, this is the best title I can come up with. For some reason, I was sitting here playing some xBox, watching football, and generally trying to not be bored out of my skull, when somehow, the thought came into my head to try to come up with 10 songs that mention cars in their title. You know what? It wasn’t even close to being as hard as I thought it would be! Plus, I think I actually put a great list together to boot!

There’s something for everyone here…some old stuff from the 70’s (Adam and the Ants), to newer stuff (Arcade Fire), and everything in between. There goodies from the 80 and 90’s. If you can’t find a song you like in this list…then you must not like songs about cars. What the hell ever that means! Like I said, it’s been raining here for 3 straight days, and will be for another 3 it looks like.

Enjoy the car tunes!

MY WEEK OF AWESOME POST PUNK, DAY 4

Friday, at last. which also means the last day of my post punk posts. I hope you all enjoyed this half as much as I did. Post punk is, more than any other genre of music is my favorite, and this week of listening to tunes every evening to pick out the right one has been a blast.

On a more personal front, I think I mentioned the other day I fashioned myself a treadmill desk, and have been walking while I worked. Well, a little update on that whole deal. I’ve been averaging 3 miles a day, while “walking” at 1.3 miles an hour. So far, I’ve dropped 5 lbs. I haven’t changed my diet, haven’t done anything other than walking a little while I’m working. So far, it looks like it’s paying off. Enjoy the tunes, enjoy the weekend!

Aggregation

Search