A slight delay...

I just realized that I haven't posted to this in a while, and that I had news worth posting a while ago, so I better get to it. To anyone who reads this that I don't regularly talk to, I had applied within ETC for an opening at project manager back in late January. After a few weeks and two interviews, they offered me the position, which I'll begin my training for next Monday. I'm quite happy about it, as what I was doing before wasn't all that mentally stimulating. With the amount of time I had during the automated part of the test sequence, it was easy to find me doing puzzles from the morning paper while still maintaining the same output as if I weren't. So yay for more challenging ventures!

On another note, I've decided my car is committing suicide. With all the things that keep falling apart/breaking, and people trying to hit me on the road, I believe there is a universal calling for my car to come home to pasture. So I'm hoping to have some new wheels by fall, once I get some cash stashed away.

Also, for anyone in the Madison area - or those that would like to come to the madison area - J Davis Trio is playing here Friday night (the 16th of March) at the Union. They're amazing, and I'll be there, which should be the only reasons anyone needs to come out.

as mom would say, "NO"

So if anyone's been listening to the news at all in the last few months, the USA has been requesting that Iran suspend uranium enrichment studies in order to begin talking about their nuclear program, and Iran's request is that the US also put it's nuclear program on hold, to put the discussions on even ground. Why, then, do I feel that this is not the best way to move toward those discussions? Almost looks as if we'r preparing for them not to suspsend their actions.

ah, winter in the midwest

As the snow melted with temperatures in the mid 40's throughout the week, it was a nice feeling to head to work in the morning with the temperature above zero. And then just like that, we could be getting up to a possible 20 inches or so of snow by the end of the weekend. Driving around Friday night in the weather, I'm thankful I was stuck drving in that horrible blizzard that crippled Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, etc. a couple years back, becuase this is nothing compared to that. And this is the second thundersnow of the season, as I did see lightning and hear thunder behind the snow earlier tonight. I thnk Wisconsin is about to be destroyed. Just ask Lewis Black...

automobile security

geeks rejoice. i wonder if this will ever be commercially available....

new nin

Just checked up on the progress for the new nin record: should be out in april. ROCK. with teeth played out quickly for me, but the new singles from year zero, "my violent heart" and "survivalism" kick my ass. They're both here.

damn the sound man!

So I went to see The J Davis Trio down in DeKalb last night, since they're awesome and I love them. Unfortunately, the fates conspired against me. Picked up Tori from the dorms and had Portillo's for dinner - eat your heart out Jake ;) - and hung out with some of the old Upstaging crew, which was all good, but then things took a turn.

We got to The House, and the show started 30 minutes late, which really isn't all that bad. The first band had a good keyboard player, and that's really all I can say there. The second band could at least play their instruments (same keys player in both bands...), but made a travesty of a mix of reggae and rap, the extremely white singer with complete fake carribean accent. All summed up in a pop culture statement, the two opening bands were like Dyson's, they never lost suc(k)tion.

So then JDT has everyting set up at a quarter after midnight, which was good since I was still driving back to Madison once the show was done. Unfortunately, the sound guy took another 35 minutes to set up mic's, putting their start time around 12:50. I only stayed for three songs, since it had been snowing and I didn't know what condition the roads would be in, not to mention it was pretty late with a two hour drive ahead.

So I was pretty pissed that I went down there to only see three songs from the band I wanted to see, but checking the band's website this afternoon found that they're playing here in a month at the Memorial Union, and I'll stay as late as I need to this time.

One more good thing, my Airport Express station showed up today! iTunes playing over the stereo wirelessly. Yes.

I owned this split

Picked up the 4-6-7-9 split at league tonight. It was awesome.

tournaments and taxes

So I'm watching the big game right now, and have to ask a question of the masses: does anyone else think that the ref is getting a little too into the signals for penalties? Maybe he's just excited to be there...

Anyway, on to what I came to post about. Yesterday I headed back down to Illinois to be in closer proximity to Sterling, where I participated in a sport shot bowling tournament with my buddy Matt, who found out about it being in much closer proximity to Sterling than I am. For those who don't really follow, bowling, which would be most anyone reading this, the "sport shot" is a very difficult oil pattern on the lane, which affects how the ball moves for higher averaging bowlers. While the field was small at this tounament - only 17 people total - I did well enough to make the cut to the top 8 after the four qualifying games, and wound up making 3rd place, and along with a couple side contests I'd put in for, made back $16 more than I paid to get in. Had a chance to take 2nd, but just barely missed a couple of spares which put me down a few pins. But I was quite pleased with my level of play, and look forward to finding more tournaments to enter.

I guess after a few years away from competitive bowling, I'm now itching to get back into it, though I do want to work on my game a bit more first.

In other news, I'm not looking forward to doing my taxes this year at all. Six months working two jobs in Illinois, six in Wisconsin, blech. I suppose I might pick up some software to deal with it all soon.

A documentary to see next winter

If anything could help the push to the public eye and spread the joy of disc golf, it's a documentary. Check out the trailer.

Ineptitude?

Why is it that the majority of people trying to convey a message close to their heart don't have the decency to first run it through a grammar check before plastering it all over the web and through email? And why is it that the messages that get forwarded are the worst ones? Here's an example from a recent email received comparing the lives of President Ford, James Brown, and Saddam Hussein:

"There is only one choice and Gerald Ford's life exemplifies the nobility of choosing to walk in harmony with The Creator through the acceptance of Jesus Christ as his Redeemer.

James Brown choose to walk in the flesh. His life's work glorified the flesh and his death magnified the flesh.

Sadam Hussein choose evil. He was a narcissistic megalomaniac. His life glorified evil and his death was gruesome."

Well, where to start? I think I'll start with the fact that the use of "choosing" in the first example obviously prompted the the incorrect use of "choose" in the next two. Next, I will not be one to disagree that James Brown lived a life of the flesh, but one must also take account of the fact that his break into music came with a gospel group, and gospel music in general being one of the cornerstones of his sound. I think the author is still just mad he played a pastor in The Blues Brothers, and probably hasn't ever shaken their groove thang.

The most glaring thing - to me at least - is that this person is writing about recent events, and CANNOT SPELL SADDAM CORRECTLY. Saddam Hussein has been a household name for the last five years, and well known since the 1980's. If you're going to be brazen enough to spout out your religious beliefs to the general public, please at least be able to correctly identify a name used almost daily in the news, even after his death.

In addition, while their reasoning for Saddam being evil walks the path of his deeds against others, the tone of the the entire email - as I'm sure many can pick up from the short excerpt above - is that people who don't follow the teachings of the Bible are not good people. I respect their right to hold this belief, but I don't feel that it will help our culture further itself toward acceptance of all those that reside within our borders.

Those that wave the flag that America was founded on Christian morals and beliefs must be forgetting the part of the tale where the settlers drove the Native Americans out of their land and further west, eventually designating certain areas where they can live and open casinos. So really America was founded on disrupting an established culture and implementing their own. Sounds like current events to me.

Music Deals

I stopped at Vinyl Tap this afternoon to check it out. Not disappointed, but not what I though it would be. They seem to deal mostly in 12" singles for DJ's, which makes sense once you go into the sister store across the street (Audio Depot, soon to be closing) which has a lot of DJ quality turn tables, mixers, etc. They also have a few beginner guitars, which is why I stopped in, since anyplace that does anything with guitars will also carry strings, which is what I needed. And then I came upon something that made me very happy. A used Pro Co Rat distortion/overdrive pedal that I got for $65, a steal considering most of the models with the logo of the one I got go for at least 100 on ebay.

So today, I got a great pedal for cheap, met a couple cool people who were working the shops, and Matt came up to visit. Unfortunately my plan to take him downtown was cut down with the snow which melted before the streets were salted, so with the cold it all just turned to ice, which made driving on highly crowned roads incredibly difficult. So rather than continue to where the slant got even worse, I turned home and we hung out, watching football and playing darts.

I'm still pumped about that pedal.

A new start

While I know this is somewhat syndicated as well, I feel it's a bit more individualized than the LJ or Myspace blogs. That might be total bullshit, but it's my perspective on the issue. Plus while I'm on the kick of trying out the Google takeover, might as well dabble with this one too.