So Yummy

Things for which I am thankful

2011-11-24T00:01:00.001-08:00

In no particular order:

a house in which to live
a furnace for which to heat
a dog for which to mock/walk/talk (to) and be entertained by
a job for which to make a few dollars (and new friends!)
a daughter for which to be proud of, cherished and loved by
a son for which to be proud of, to play with, and to watch grow
a wife for which to hold near, dear and true to my heart

Ok, so it’s a little sappy. I think I’m just nervous for Black Friday.

I’m also thankful for:

my mom, pitching in when I need help
my brothers, for being my brothers and always being cool
my dad, for being “out there” and “always around”
my friends, for caring and reaching out

But wait, there’s more!

my Kindle, it’s always by my side
my basses, neglected recently, but will go with me to the grave
my VW, 2 idiot lights on at all times and I still love it so
my bed, where the magic happens (SLEEP)

Speaking of sleep……… zzzz

Back, what is up with you?

2011-11-19T00:31:00.001-08:00

Somehow, some way, my back hurts. I have been lucky to not have back issues for the past 39 years, but for the past few days something has been up.

Today, my back hurt a bit at work but nothing terrible. It’s just above my left hip, maybe about two inches above my belt/waistline. I would stretch it a bit between tech appointments, but it was manageable.

For some odd reason, once I got home and had dinner, it really fired up. It hurt to sit, then it hurt to stand. I ended up heating up a heat pad we have and strapped it on before heading to a Boy Scouts meeting.

At the meeting, shortly after Riley’s den did a little skit (best of the night, IMO), I realized that I simply couldn’t sit anymore. I ended up standing and leaning in the back of the church. After the meeting was over, walking to the car was actually pretty painful. Grimacing, breathing through my teeth, all the signs of OLD AGE that I think are catching up with me.

Once I got home, a friend of mine who is a LMP called me at the request of Marci and gave me some tips and pointers. Then Marci slapped some weird homeopathic medicine on my back. All that did was make my back cold and clammy. Weird.

Now I’m slouching on the couch, surfing Facebook and typing up this quick entry. It’s still sore, but not as bad as earlier. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Hopefully it feels better for work tomorrow.

Books

2011-11-06T00:40:00.001-07:00

I’ve been tracking the books I’ve read since 2009. Here they are:

2009

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
Killing Yourself To Live by Chuck Klosterman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Persuader by Lee Child (on Kindle)
Afraid by Jack Kilborn (on Kindle)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (on Kindle)
Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
Rusty Nail by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Kindle)
Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch (Kindle)
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
Cemetery Dance by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston (Kindle)
Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Millan
Paranoia by Joseph Finder (Kindle)
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan
The Last Detective by Robert Crais
Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
Collision by Jeff Abbott
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace
A Few Seconds of Panic by Stefan Fatsis
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman
The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
Fuzzy Navel by J.A. Konrath
Dirty Martini by J.A. Konrath
Cherry Bomb by J.A. Konrath
Borderlands by Brian McGilloway
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
The Watchman by Robert Crais
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais
Shutter Island (again) by Dennis Lehane
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais

2010

1. Under The Dome by Stephen King (Kindle)
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larssen (Kindle via library)
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Steig Larssen (Kindle)
4. A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane (library)
5. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
6. Sacred by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
7. Ariel by Steven R. Boyett (library)
8. Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett (library)
9. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane (library)
10. The Pawn by Steven James (Kindle)
11. The 25th Hour by David Benioff (library)
12. Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz (Kindle)
13. The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross (Kindle)
14. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (Kindle)
15. Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (Kindle)
16. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep And Never Had To by DC Pierson (library)
17. The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
18. Fever Dream by Preston/Child (Kindle)
19. Legacies by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
20. Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
21. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
22. The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
23. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown (Kindle)
24. Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Kindle)
25. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo (library)
26. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (library)
27. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (library)
28. The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
29. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
30. The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
31. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
32. In The Woods by Tana French (Kindle)

2011

1. The Likeness by Tana French (Kindle)
2. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Kindle)
3. Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale (Kindle)
4. Faithful Place by Tana French (Kindle)
5. Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (Kindle)
6. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (Kindle)
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Kindle)
8. The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
9. The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
10. Gideon's Sword by Preston/Child (Kindle)
11. The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer (Kindle)
12. The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (book!)
13. Collusion by Stuart Neville (Kindle)
14. Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock by Sammy Hagar (Kindle)
15. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Kindle)
16. Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales (Kindle)
17. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Kindle)
18. A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton (Kindle)
19. The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (Kindle)
20. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
21. Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child (Kindle)
22. Headhunters by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
23. Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville (Kindle)
24. War by Sebastian Junger (Kindle)
25. Cherry Bomb by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
26. The Killing Moon by Chuck Hogan (Kindle)

I’m currently listening to The Drop by Michael Connelly. Does that belong on the list?

Books are cool.

Happy Brain Transplant… er… Surgery Day!

2011-11-04T09:47:00.001-07:00

My running joke for Riley is that Dr. E switched his brain with another brain 3 years ago today. The reality is that Riley had brain surgery 3 years ago and it really changed his life.

More recently, his headaches are way, way down. No longer is he using pain patches on a daily basis. In fact, I can’t remember the last time he used one. So, that is quite awesome.

Some of his other issues are still works in progress. Speech, drinking, fine-motor, all coming along, but still not where we’d like them to be. But, as usual, he just goes with it. It’s part of his life and he doesn’t know any different and, the truth of the matter is, life is good.

Weekend update

2011-11-03T09:06:00.001-07:00

Yes, as a matter of fact, it is my weekend today and tomorrow.

I am loving my job. It may still be the honeymoon phase, and even though when I walk through the mall to get to work, I think to myself, “Man, I work at the mall,” I still love clocking in and helping people.

Funny thing is, some days are weird. When I get customers and they have issues with their computers that I have a hard time with (re: OUTLOOK!), I get bummed out. Every once in awhile, I get an issue that is quite easy (last night, helped a customer burn a song to his mp3 player) and I end up feeling great. Then I get a tricky one (and maybe with a less-than-patient customer) and BLEH, it feels rough.

The kids (so young! and smart!) I work with are FANTASTIC and I’m learning from them all the time. It’s hard to flounder around when I get a tricky question, but thankfully, everyone I work with is super-helpful and patient.

***

The next few weeks should be interesting. For now, I have Thursdays and Fridays off, which for now, is kind of cool. What’s not kind of cool, though, is that when Marci and the kids have Sat and Sun off, I’ll be at the mall, getting my retail on. Which isn’t so bad either; I am getting paid, after all. But for the rest of the week (Mon-Wed), the earliest I am off is 8pm. In other words, I’ll see the kids for about 30 minutes before school, and for 3 other nights, they’re asleep when I get home.

I’m feeling some daddy guilt since I’m not seeing the kids as much. I’m feeling some husband guilt as I’m not around to help Marci, but during the day, I’m trying to keep busy. Dog walking (since Friday, 4 walks with Bella!), dishes, laundry, garbage, etc.

Anyway, I keep thinking to myself that the scheduling thing will change soon enough. We’ll all be super-busy at work during the holiday season, so that’s to be expected, but afterwards, I’m hoping to get at least one weekend day off, as well as one or two nights a week where I can have dinner at home.

***

Next week I’ll be heading to the studio with the Scheme to record some… backing vocals? I think? Way back in February we recorded 7 rhythm tracks. David has gone in and finished up some guitar, vocals, stuff like that. My plan is to go in on Friday and lay down some velvety, syrupy backing tracks. It’ll be my first time-I hope they don’t have to autotune me.

***

Last thing. Can we have a running game on Sunday? Please? I want to see some BEAST MODE.

"To bad being stupid isn't painful"

2011-10-15T12:06:00.001-07:00

I drove by a car with that written on its license plate frame and I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be ironic or not.

Were they being overly clever and in on the joke? Or simply stupid? The mind boggles.

Late nights, bored

2011-10-11T22:53:00.001-07:00

The past few nights I’ve worked the late shift at, er, work. It’s kind of cool to do as it gives me all day to do what I want/need, but man, it sucks for the family life.

I got home last night at 10:45 and tonight around 9:45 and the kids are asleep and the wife is turning in. I suppose I’ll go to bed soon as well, but I’m not quite ready and, well, it’s boring without anyone to talk to. I can only check FB so many times. People, do something interesting!

Tomorrow I should be home after 8, so in time to see the kids a bit, as well as Marci. And then Thursday I think I’m off at 7. But next week it’s still the weird late hours. Not sure how it will be the following week.

They did say it was a 40hr/week job, which it has been, but it’d be nice to be able to have dinner at home/see the family a bit more than I have been as well.

And sorry for the weird formatting. For some reason, Windows Live Writer is doing something to something. I will try to figure it out.

I saw Fountains of Wayne the other night

2011-10-09T23:58:00.001-07:00

Growing up, my favorite band by far was Rush. Then it was Boston. I was lucky enough to see both of those bands in concert (though with Boston, it was way late in their career). As I got older, college age, I developed more mature (yeah, right) tastes, branching off into, er, chick rock, mainly with Juliana Hatfield and Aimee Mann, both of whom I’ve also seen in concert.

After my college days, I just played in bands and didn’t listen to much new music. And then I really got into power pop bands as I am in power pop bands. Stuff like Weezer, Oasis, and, most recently Fountains of Wayne, none of which I had seen live.

Until Friday.

Fountains of Wayne released a new record earlier this year entitled Sky Full of Holes. I wrote about it here.

When I found out they were coming to town, I was pretty excited. My friend David was kind enough to spring for tickets, so all I had to do was wait.

Anyway, Friday rolled around and it was off to the Croc for the show. Curiously, it was an older crowd at the Croc. Not a lot of youngsters there. I’d say that the average age of the club-goers was probably 35 or so.

I got there a little early so I had to wait through the opening act of Mike Viola, who was an excellent guitarist and singer. Sort of like FoW light, as all his songs were catchy and told stories. All in all, a good fit for the night.

FoW finally took the stage and they started with Little Red Light from the excellent Welcome Interstate Managers record. It sorely missed the keyboard line present on the recording though as they only brought the four band members.

And I think that was why I felt pretty underwhelmed by the band for the night.

FoW is an ultra-slick and polished band in the studio. They are tight and everything sounds incredible. They have horns (listen to Mexican Wine for example), keys, more guitars, percussion, and chances to make everything sound right.

Live? Well, as much as I enjoyed the music, the live performance left me wanting more. It seemed that Jody Porter, on lead guitar, didn’t want to be in Seattle at all. He basically wanked his way through some solos and played just adequate guitar.

The other guys did well enough and I guess that was cool. Then they tried a little cover song medley in the middle of one of their older songs, including riffs from Burning for You (BOC), Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas), Do You Feel (Frampton), among others, and the wheels kind of fell off.
I don’t know. Maybe they had a bad night? I just felt a little unfulfilled. It certainly wasn’t like when I saw Muse for the first time, or Rush at the White River after their 5 year hiatus.

Ah well. I’ll still watch them on Leno this Wednesday and listen to their CDs religiously. And maybe I’ll catch them if they ever come back to Seattle.

My nightmares are to become reality

2011-10-03T19:15:00.001-07:00

I realized recently that the holidays are just around the corner. I recently started working at a local mall.

What happens at the mall during the holidays?

CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

Aside from the long hours, tons of customers, Santa, kids everywhere and providing excellent customer service, I will be subject to at least 9 hours a day of at least some Christmas music.

I can’t imagine they’ll play Xmas music for all the music in the mall and/or Microsoft Store, but I know that there will definitely be some.

And to me, that some is simply too much.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m no Scrooge or anything, but my feeling is that Christmas music should be played at only one time: Christmas Day. None of this starting-mid-October stuff. Christmas and Christmas only is when those tunes should be played.

Well that only took all night…

2011-10-01T23:04:00.001-07:00

Goodness. Yet another several hours fixing what should’ve taken just a little while.

After upgrading my computer to Windows 7 yesterday, it made Marci’s computer unable to print. With the previous setup, the printer was connected to my XP computer and she was able to print via the network.

For whatever reason, the printer was still seen on our network after the W7 upgrade, but it simply wouldn’t print.

I removed the printer several times, tried downloading drivers, researched the internet, and could find nothing indicating what might have been the matter. I brought her laptop downstairs and plugged it in directly to USB and it worked fine, so I know it wasn’t a compatibility issue. Plus it had just worked less than 24 hours before!

Anyway, I did some more reading and realized that Marci’s laptop was running W7 64-bit and my computer is running the 32-bit version. Someone mentioned downloading the WinXP 64-bit driver, which I did, and lo and behold, we have a winner!

Canon (the printer manufacturer) doesn’t have a W7 64-bit driver, but the XP one works fine anyway.

Problem solved.

Randomness on Saturday

2011-10-01T10:36:00.001-07:00

I finally got Windows 7 on my computer. Good news is it is installed and running well. Bad news is I had to pull out a bad stick of RAM in order for it to work. So, though it works, it’s a mite slow.

___

I’m drinking coffee now. I have some flavored creamer and I keep forgetting there’s already sweetner in it, yet I keep adding sugar. Extra sweet, I guess.

___

I really need to clean my desk. Or, rather, junk-holding-apparatus. What a mess.

___

Working Sunday through Thursday is taking me some time to get used to. True, I had yesterday off but being with the family just for today is sort of weird. Plus, when I would work on a Sunday, it was always a shorter shift. The mall, however, is a beast that never sleeps. I’ll do 8 hours tomorrow. Plus, I have to miss football, but it’s sort of fun to blast through it on DVR after the kids are asleep.

___

Fountains of Wayne at the Croc next Friday! Can’t wait to see them.

___

Have a good weekend!

Dogs, they are a barkin!

2011-09-29T22:35:00.001-07:00

I just finished my first week at the Microsoft Store. Though my official capacity there is on the technical side, I do spend a bunch of my time on the floor helping customers, greeting customers, and basically hanging out with customers. As such, I’ve been on my feet a lot and I’m discovering that I need better shoes.

Or, more specifically, I shouldn’t wear my old boots anymore. Or my newer Pumas. But possibly only some Adidas cross-trainers I bought last year.

So far, I had one day where I worked in the back tech room, where I could sit a little. But the other days, it was go-go-go on the showroom floor.

But even with all the standing and fatigued legs, you know what?

I’m diggin’ it.

So far, it seems I’m making a great impression on the folks I work with. They’ve had a chance to see how I work with the customers at the Answers Desk and, though I don’t have all the answers, my demeanor and rapport with the customers is calm and engaging.

Or so I’m told.

Anyway, it’s exciting to be there. Still a ton to learn, but it is fun and I am looking forward to continuing for a long time.

Riley time

2011-09-24T20:32:00.001-07:00

Marci and Haley left the men today to go on some horse thing over in Cle Elum. So what did Riley and I do today?

Well, I did some laundry and some dishes. We took Bella to the local grooming salon as she needed to be, ahem, excreted (don’t ask), as well as have her nails done. After that, I drove around to some local parks and let Riley run around for a bit. He’s nuts.

From there, we hit the library, then a few drug stores. I’ve been noticing for months that my eyes can’t seem to focus very well on computer screens. Basically anything that’s maybe 2 to 3 feet from my eyes is blurry or just barely out of focus. When I cover one eye, it’s better, but still not perfect.

To Marci’s great pleasure, she offered me the use of her reading glasses and to my great chagrin, they seemed to make things clearer for me.

Anyway, in the drug stores, there are plenty of options, but I don’t know exactly what to do or to look for. I’m figuring that since I’ll be getting some great benefits with Microsoft, I’ll wait until they kick in, then go see my eye doc and have her tell me I need reading glasses.

Wow. Did I digress?

For dinner tonight, I was going to take Rye to the Outback Steakhouse. Marci had gotten a free steak dinner card in the mail and since Riley loves steak, I figured we could go there.

Then I read the fine print: Valid Monday through Thursday only.

Oops.

Being that it was Saturday, the Outback was out of the question. But since I am a quick thinker, I dropped the Five Guys Burgers & Fries bomb on Riley. He’d been there before, but not like this.

As he’s getting older, we’re finding that the skimpy little kid’s meals offered at most restaurants simply don’t fill him up. I figured a gut-bomb of a burger would do the trick.

We got to 5 Guys and I ordered the “small” bacon cheeseburger (one patty as opposed to two) for Rye and I. He got mayo, ketchup, mustard, relish, grilled onions and mushrooms. The girl behind the counter said, “He’ll eat all that?”

I said, “You have no idea.”

I got myself mine and we sat down for some chow. Once we got it, I prepped him on how to eat it (squish it down a bit, tuck it in your mouth, and BITE!), and we got down to business.

He DOMINATED that burger. His mouth and hands were’nt quite large enough to do it the way I showed him, but he made it work. Add in a handful of fries and he was one stuffed dude.

We then came home and just hung out the rest of the night.

Sometimes I forget how much fun it can be to be a dad.

Back to Blogger… for now

2011-09-24T20:11:00.001-07:00

I haven’t been blogging much at all for the past few months. It just seems I have not much to write about. Or that I do, but I find it terribly boring, and if I find it boring, well, goodness knows what anyone else would think about it.

Anyway, with my new job at the Microsoft Store, I’ve been trying to learn more about the MS products, one of which is this free program called Windows Live Writer. It’s basically a word processor, but it imports your blog settings (in this case, Blogger’s settings for the original So Yummy blog), and it allows you to write within the blog itself, instead of Blogger’s horrible back end. Imagine writing with the power of MS Word, and when you’re done, you press “Publish,” and, POW, it’s published!

Pretty cool.

Trouble is, WLW doesn’t support tumblr. I guess that’s not a terrible thing, but it just means for now, I’ll be bouncing back to Blogger.

154/365

2010-06-03T21:39:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a picture and have no computer with me so here's a picture of a picture I took tonight in Fremont. More tomorrow.

Moving on...

2010-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

I've been a user of Blogger since 02/05. I've written about a lot of stuff here, ranging from my music to my kids to my dad's passing. I'm still going to write, but I'm moving the writing to a different blog host.

Not that there's anything wrong with Blogger.com; Blogger's been great to me. But I came across a different blog host that seems a little neater with some cool bells and whistles.

I've imported the last 50 or so posts from here to the new link so you can check it out. In the meantime, if you are looking for new So Yummy content from me, check it here:

http://soyummy.tumblr.com

I'll continue doing P365 with Blogger.com for the time being. I like the format there, but I will mess around with tumblr's templates to see if there's something else that's better suited. Plus, I'm hoping the switch will inspire me to post more boring stuff to entertain you with.

Hit it!

I feel like such a slacker!

2010-05-16T19:04:00.000-07:00

It has been almost a month since I last blogged here! I've been spending most of my time blogging pictures. I figure I'm not important enough to have to blog here as well. Then I read someone else's regularly update blog and thought, "What the heck? Let's blog!"

It's been the same old, same old on the job hunt front. I've been looking, but to no avail. I'm pursuing this photography thing a bit more seriously, though. If you haven't already seen, I'm putting some of my better shots (IMO) on a fan page at Facebook. There's no nice, direct link, but if you click here, you'll go to it.

The past week I've been able to get out and shoot stuff I don't normally shoot. On Friday, I asked some skater kids if I could take their pictures and they let me. I put the ol' camera in sport mode and clicked away. The shots turned out cool and you'd never know that they didn't land any of the tricks.

Yesterday I hit up Capitol Hill in the afternoon prior to and after a gig we played at the Comet. Talk about an awesome place to take pictures. Everywhere you look there's something interesting and colorful. I have about 200 shots to wade through before putting them up.

I hit up Discovery Park last week to scout locations to shoot a friend's sister's engagement photos. I think the location is incredible and the light will be great in the late evening, but with the daylight stretching out until after 8pm these nights, we'll be out late if we want to capture a nice sunset shot. Trouble is, we haven't been able to hook up yet. Hopefully time and weather will cooperate this week.

I have some photos I shot of my hairdresser's family at Gene Coulon. I've been editing them and hope to have them up for consumption sometime soon. We really got unlucky on the weather; that day, it was pouring intermittently and very overcast and gloomy. We did the best we could and I think I got some good ones. I'll post the best ones for viewing soon.

As I've been working with photos, I've also been deleting a ton, trying to conserve hard drive space. It's a good exercise, though, as who needs 14 shots of the dog panting in the grass? I'm also trying to develop a better work flow, especially with shots I'm putting up on my P365 blog. I'm finding myself leaning toward a high contrast, slightly desaturated look. I'm so new to things, I don't know if that's lame or not, but it's how I like it to look.

These days, I just need to find a block of 2-3 hours where I can edit, learn, and put myself out there. Trouble is, between the kids and stuff around the house, the only time I'm finding that kind of time is after 10pm or so. Makes for late nights. Then, I feel like I need to be out shooting and trying to get out of my comfort zone, so sitting around the house doesn't feel as productive as it could be. Add in the looking for jobs thing and I seem to stay pretty busy without a lot to show for it.

I'll keep plugging away, though. I think I have my picture for day 136 shot (just did it). It's nothing spectacular, but I think it'll be pretty cool.

In the meantime, keep reading, keep checking my photos and, hopefully, keep enjoying them. I love putting them out there for you to see, that's for sure. Here's a dude checking his phone.

So slow. So very slow.

2010-04-19T22:40:00.000-07:00

Last week I hit Fry's to buy memory for my computer. I've been thinking I needed memory because of all the photo editing and multi-screening I've been doing, so I added 1 whopping gig of RAM to my aging rig.

When I built this computer back in September of 2004 (OMG), I just wanted it to be able to run Half-Life 2. And it could, but not all that well. I forget how much RAM I had in it, but until last week, it was 2gb. And in some horrid oversight, the board I bought could only hold 3 sticks, so unfortunately, I'm stuck with 3gb max (and, IIRC, Windows XP only sees 3gb anyway, so more wouldn't help anyway).

It's been a week now since I've upgraded and... I'm wondering if I should just build a new rig. Or repurpose an old rig I have from the old business that's just sitting around.

I got a new camera (used T1i) yesterday and it's been fun playing with that. Trouble is, when shooting in RAW, the files are twice as big (15mb) as on my ol' Rebel XT. So downloading the pix takes... a... long... time. Though I think there's something up with my Photoshop Elements. I switched over to Lightroom for now to import the pix in.

Either way, this computer is starting to show its age. For surfing, movies, light gaming and daily duties, it's just fine. But for what I'm trying to do with it, photo editing (and not even that intense), it's getting a bit porky. Turn on an mp3 player (MediaMonkey) in the background and it's positively glacial at times.

Oh well. I will soldier on.

Snow, brush with death, working late

2010-04-09T00:23:00.000-07:00

We took a mini-vacation to the great state of Leavenworth this week. It snowed today. In order, we did the following:

Took a hot tub in said snow (kids and wife, not me)
Visited Jim and our dog, Bella. Not as much snow at his house.
Went to lunch with Jim, no Bella, at the Gingerbread House. Tasty sandwich and soup!
Went back to Jim's and geeked out on photography and stuff.
Drove to Smallwood's and looked at peacocks, colored chicks (literally), goats, alpacas, sheep, pigeons and lots of candy.
Drove over Blewett Pass, saw a SUV going uphill somehow fishtail, over-correct, then plow into the car RIGHT BEHIND US. Whew. Not us.
Drove to I-90 and had clear sailing until the base of Snoqualmie Pass, then it was everyone stop and put on chains.
Drove over I-90 and felt sorry for everyone that had to put on chains, because, in reality, you didn't need 'em. SUCKERS!!
Stopped off an exit because Riley had to pee, and man, did he have to pee! Melted about a 2'x2' patch of snow.
Drove to Issaquah, almost got blinded by sun in the low western sky and also its darn reflection DIRECTLY INTO MY EYES LIKE A SODDING LASER BEAM! Almost death again, but I'm being dramatic.
Ate dinner at Pallinos Pasta or Pasteria. I simply don't remember.
And now I'm working on updating my P365 blog to look nicer. It's not a cool gallery format, but it's free and I'm liking where it's going.

So, back to that blog. Back to Bellevue. Had tons of fun in Leavenworth and look forward to doing it again.

Peace out.

Hello friends

2010-03-26T21:23:00.000-07:00

Day 84 is up and done! It's been fun and most days, I totally look forward to shooting something for my P365. Other days? Not so much. Either I need to get out of the house more or I need to start finding beauty in the mundane.

Seriously, how many more shots of flowers and junk can I take???

In lieu of killing myself with boring shots, I've been working on learning more technique (using the histo more than ever!), post-production (just got a refurbished Wacom tablet for my controlling pleasure), and setups (lightbox, anyone?).

The past few days have been a little off for me. I think I have a sinus infection. I don't feel horrible, but I do feel off. Like on a 1 to 100 scale (one is good, 100 is bad), I feel about a 5. Just enough to notice, not enough to care, I suppose. Hopefully it's not a sinus infection and it goes away on its own... but I think it's a sinus infection. Bleh.

Oh, hey. I cleaned my desk today!

I'm trying to set up a gig for the Lunds at the Comet on Capitol Hill. I have my friend's band, the Hard Way, willing to play with us. Now I just need another. It'll be for May 15th, and it's a "matinee" show, meaning late afternoon. Know anyone??

I guess that's it for now. Here's what the tablet can do!

Bring on spring

2010-03-11T21:56:00.000-08:00

I am sick of being cold!

In other news, I had a job interview today. In fact, I had one on the phone yesterday, so I'm on two interview streak. Both went pretty well. Both are for jobs that would pay less than what I'm getting via unemployment. However, I am totally putting the cart before horse here, so until something gets offered officially, I'll just keep thinking about things.

The job I interviewed for today was at a high-end car dealership to be a porter. You know, the guy who brings the car around, gets it cleaned up, runs all over the lot, etc. That guy. It's an entry level job that pays as such, but I'm trying to look at it as a foot in the door. Doesn't mean I wouldn't do my best at it, but it's not necessarily a career move (being a porter).

One interesting thing about the position would be the scheduling. 3 days on, 4 off. And those 3 days? You work a lot! 12-13 hour shifts! But, having 4 days off would be cool. Take a day to cool out, hang with the family for a few days, then work on photography and building that up!

Speaking of photography...

After the interview, I headed around Chinatown in Seattle to take some pictures. It was a little rainy so I was trying to be selective of shots and standing under awnings, etc. I was going to shoot an old decrepit sign when the darn camera locked up again. :( So, I missed the shot, of course, and had to worry about the stupid thing all the way home.

At home, though, I was able to get the camera up and running again, but I have no idea what's causing the issue. I have not been able to definitively link it to any one thing, so it's a little troubling. I guess the good news is that I don't have any big "shoots" to worry about in the near future.

Speaking of shoots...

I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot a family for their portraits last month. I took a ton of shots and whittled them down to the best ones. I did some PP (post production) on them via Photoshop Elements and have uploaded them to a free smugmug.com account. I do have their permission to post, so here's a link to the site: link.

Anyway, take a look at the pictures and make some comments. Also, if you want me to take pictures for/of you, let me know. I am starting out and I am reasonable and I want/need the experience!

Camera update

2010-03-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Well, so far so good. I did some troubleshooting today and found some tips regarding yesterday's ERR 99. Apparently it is a kind of "catch all" error, meaning that it's nothing specific, but it's still an error that needs to be reported. According to websites out there, it can be caused by a CF card, battery, shutter, lens contacts, and other things.

I tried messing with the CF and battery and that didn't seem to do anything. Then I tried using a pencil eraser (as advised!) to wipe down the contacts on the lens and the camera body. At first I used a yellow eraser and that didn't seem to work. Camera was still dead and I was still panicking. After that failure, I tracked down a pencil with a standard red eraser. Did the erasing and a different battery. That seemed to do the trick! I've been able to take more pictures tonight than I did yesterday and this afternoon and so far, it seems to be working. (Please, please!)

Time will tell, I suppose. Here's a shot from today to prove that it works. Get ready for something amazing.

I guess we need to dust...

Camera woes

2010-03-06T18:33:00.000-08:00

We took Bella out for a romp at the dog park in downtown Renton today and I had my camera and new lens in tow. I was all excited to shoot and see how things would turn out.

A few shots in, the shutter closed and did not open again. I saw "ERR 99" on the screen. Flipping the switch didn't do anything so I removed the battery, which usually resets everything. Well, after doing that, the screen stayed dark and I had no power or anything.

Weird.

I thought it might have been the battery and, since I didn't have my spare, I was out of luck.

Once I got home, I did some research and found that "ERR 99" is kind of a general error, meaning anything from a bad connection between lens and camera to a faulty memory card and anything in between. Using my masterful deduction skills, I deducted that my problem was due to my CF card being weird. It's said that instead of simply deleting photos off the card when you don't need them, you should use the camera to format it from time to time. I don't know if that was the issue, but after pulling off a few sorry pictures (my P365 will be lackluster yet again), I formatted that sucker in the camera. So far so good.

Last thing I need is for my camera to fail me. I love this old thing and would be bummed if it took a nosedive.

Here's a picture from a day without technical difficulties.

Friday, Friday!

2010-03-05T18:34:00.000-08:00

Did some cool stuff today. In no particular order, I:

Drove my mom's new BMW into Kirkland for an errand.
Picked up Riley from school for the first time in a while. It was his "half-birthday" today.
Had lunch with a new friend and hit it off quite nicely.
Received a new lens from said friend. Thanks!!
Talked photography for the better part of an hour over Thai food.
Took mom's new BMW to BMW Seattle with the kids. Only made it to Mercer Island with the top down before the kids started getting too cold.
Saw my brother at BMW Seattle.
Took some pictures of the kids dancing at the new BMW parking lot. It's quite the facility.
Met a neighborhood dog in our back yard at home. We think it belongs to a family around the corner. Very friendly Golden Retriever.
Decided to try to teach Riley how to ride a bike sans training wheels. Was minorly successful. He did better than I thought he would.
Had breakfast for dinner.

Not a bad day! :)

XM/Sirius radio

2010-02-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

We've been subscribers for several years and each time we think about canceling, they give us insane prices for six months.

I love/hate the service. Love it because it's commercial, static and, for the most part, DJ free. I hate it because it's like they have a stable of 1000 songs they rotate and nothing more.

For example, I might be listening to a station and a cool song I haven't heard in years comes on. Something obscure enough to be cool, yet popular enough to be known. Then, I'll be listening to the same station the next day and that same song comes on.

Maybe it's the station? Right now, I'm listening to 80's on 8 and just heard one of my favorite songs, Easy Lover by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey (don't tell me you don't love that song!). Now it's Why Can't This Be Love? by Van Halen. Another good song that I loved in the 80s.

Now, I suppose there's only so many songs they can choose from the 80s. Even so, there should be a whole bunch, you know? But it wouldn't surprise me to hear either one of these songs in the next few days (or maybe another awesome one I heard earlier, You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates).

At least they're cool songs, right?

Weekly update

2010-02-21T23:08:00.000-08:00

Hello friends. Sitting at the computer on a Sunday night, weeding through hundreds of pictures snapped in the past week, listening to Fountains of Wayne and freezing my tail off in the basement.

In other words, things are cool.

What weather lately, huh? Sunny, but cold! Brr! I am seeing signs of spring everywhere and I can't wait! Some friends and I took advantage of the weather on Friday and took family portraits. We hit up Kelsey Creek Farm out in the Wilburton area of Bellevue and spent an hour or so looking cute (them) and taking pix (me). I have a lot of work to do, but and I'm excited about the potential of these pictures.

I've been doing a lot of reading too, both fiction (currently: Dennis Lehane's A Drink Before the War) and non-fiction (mainly about photography, of course). Though this year's pace is a bit off last year's. I think it's been due to some big-ass books I've read. And maybe all the photography books, too.

My second-hand Blackberry is starting to act funny too. The battery cover is taped on now thanks to Riley dropping it a few months ago. That's no big deal. The phone just locks for no reason. It'll be sitting in standby and I'll hit a button to light it up and... nothing. Just the spinning "wait" symbol. The good news is that my contract is up and I'm eligible for an upgrade. The bad news is that an upgrade costs money and, well, money's tight. For now, it's the Blackberry.

Had a Lund Bros. gig the other night. Went ok, I suppose. Played with a so-so band called Full Life Crisis, and a really eclectic band called Bone Cave Ballet (ok, I hate the name too!). BCB was very good at what they did. Two girls singing wicked harmonies, a really solid band behind them and some really gothic, indie, proggy music. Does any of that make sense? Next up is the Scheme at the New Frontier in Tacoma on Friday.

Kids go back to school this week. I'll hopefully be able to catch up on photo editing (Yakup's recording sessions, plus shooting some more for him; Ben's birthday from last week; the McCaskill family shoot; various shots on location, including my friend's motorcycle shop, Twinline Motorcycles) and job hunting and taxes and stuff.

Whee!

Hi everybody

2010-02-14T23:57:00.000-08:00

Still here. Still doing my thing. Been spending most of my blogging moments updating P365. So far, haven't missed a day. Still am enjoying it and looking forward to learning, shooting and posting.

I have another project scheduled. This one is doing some family portraits of some friends. I told them to set the expectations waaaaay low. I've been boning up on reading all about portrait photography and the like as well. Hopefully the weather cooperates (next Friday) and that I'm able to "connect" with the kids. (We all know each other pretty well, so that shouldn't be too difficult)

This will be a busy music week. Tomorrow night I have Lund Bros. practice for the first time in a month or so. We were supposed to gig a month ago but Chris was sick and we had to cancel. I think he's better now so practice should be on for that.

Thursday brings the first Scheme practice of 2010. The gig LB had to cancel on was originally offered to the Scheme, but both Gregg and David were out of town in Hawaii at the time (supposedly separately!). We will need the practice as we have a gig next week on the 26th.

Then on Friday, after my photoshoot, I have the first Lund Bros. gig of 2010, at the Skylark in West Seattle. Still following me?

In addition to that, I have to edit/primp/preen some pictures I took of my friend Yakup's side project. He hired me to shoot some more recording studio pix of him, a bassist and a drummer on three separate days. Kept me busy and got me out of the house to do some photography, so that was cool.

If only I could do all this cool stuff and make a living at it!

Lakland Duck Dunn pictures

2010-01-27T23:00:00.000-08:00

Since my little widgets tell me that a lot of people come here by searching for "Lakland Duck Dunn", or some variant of that, I figured I'd put some pictures up of said bass, instead of the ones that the previous owner took.

Here you go!

Enjoy!

Feeling neglected

2010-01-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

My poor blog. After starting my Project 365 blog, all my writing has gone to it. And all it's about is the photo of the day. Unless you're into the pictures, I guess it's pretty boring.

As far as So Yummy goes, things are pretty much the damn same, I'm sorry to say. No job leads. No progress on improving my resume. Just a bunch of the same stuff.

On the other hand, I have some friends going through some issues that make being unemployed look like a walk in the park. So, I'll stop complaining now.

I have a Lund Bros. gig coming up Thursday. We're playing with a couple bands we've never played with before. Look for me; I'll be playing the SB-2 and taking pictures before and after.

I had a friend dial me up the other day on Facebook. His bassist and him had some issues and, with a CD release on the horizon, tensions flared. He is now without bassist and has asked me to pinch hit. I told him I would and we're going to hook up tomorrow night. My other band, the Scheme, is on hiatus as the other two members are going to Hawaii on "business" related activities (re: their SOs are attending conventions and photo shoots and the boys get to tag along). Lucky them.

Haley has been selling the heck out of Girl Scout cookies. I don't think it's her superior sales skills as it is the GS cookie fiending old folks we live by, but we'll take it.

I guess that's it for now. I'll check in from time to time, but if you feel some compelling need to read something I wrote, you can find me at the So Yummy Project 365 blog. It's been fun doing that blog and I feel kind of obligated now.

In the meantime, if you see my earplugs anywhere, let me know. Last I used them was at Scheme practice in late Nov, early Dec sometime and I miss them dearly. I bought some replacements last weekend and after practice tonight, I will only use them in an emergency.

Who knew one could get so attached to earplugs?

A picture of my junk.

Had a run in with Johnny Law today

2010-01-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

Though I had nothing to do with it.

Yesterday after a doctor's appointment at UW Physicians in Factoria, I drove through their parking lot and saw something I thought I might shoot for my Project 365. I jumped out of the car, snapped some pictures, jumped back in the car and continued my adventure.

Ultimately, I didn't use any of those shots and thought nothing of them until today.

Marci called as I was out and about and told me that we got a little visit from Bellevue's Finest. Apparently where I was taking pictures yesterday, someone saw me and was coming out to talk to me when I jumped in the car and took off.

I didn't see anyone, but he thought I was being suspicious or something, so he took down my plate and called the cops.

Anyway, the place I took pictures of was the Honda of Bellevue parking lot. There were a bunch of Civics or something backed in and I thought it would be a cool shot.

The police officer thought it was pretty funny. I guess she asked Marci if there was any reason I'd be photographing the lot. Marci told her that I am obsessed with photography and that was why I was shooting photos. The officer laughed and suggested Marci tell me to "tone it down" a little.

I'm guessing if the guy at Honda had gotten to me, I'd explain what was going on. Supposedly they've been having or just had cars stolen/vandalized/messed with and thought the perp would TAKE PICTURES OF THE CRIME SCENE IN BROAD DAYLIGHT.

All in all, kind of funny. Though when Marci called, I was wondering what I did in Georgetown today to merit a visit from the po-po.

Big whoop, right?

Finally. Sun.

2010-01-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

So much so that I've walked the dog twice this week. Incredible!

On Monday, I took Riley to the Y for his swim lessons. After I dropped him off, I realized I forgot towels, so I headed to the front desk. When I got back, the pool Riley was in (there are 2 at the Y) was empty. He was in the lap pool.

I asked the lifeguard what happened. He said the pool was contaminated. I asked if that meant what I thought it meant. He said it could be one of 3 things.

Awesome.

Anyway, Riley was quite excited about it. He told me twice that someone "throwed up" in the pool because they drank too much water. It was in an area he wasn't in so I'm assuming he didn't get contaminated either.

Must be all the newbs. At the Y yesterday, I heard the staff complaining/commenting on how all the "New Year Resolutions" were showing up. Which explained the horrible parking (which is no surprise; whoever designed that lot should be fired) and the full house.

I guess the New Year is awesome for business at health clubs and the like, but I wonder at what point the huge jump in numbers smooths out.

This is from last summer, not the puke Y.

Project 365 has begun!

2010-01-01T20:39:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I've developed some interest in photography recently. An "imaginary" friend of mine just finished this project and it inspired me to do the same. It's called Project 365 (or something similar) and it's about taking and posting one photo a day to a blog, flickr, Facebook, whatever.

This guy did a blog and, incredibly, finished it yesterday. It's pretty amazing how far his photography went from day 1 to day 365. I haven't seen all the pictures, but there definitely are some good ones there.

Today I took Marci's camera to a friend's party and ended up forgetting all about it. This evening, after dinner, I did some shooting around the house and didn't come up with anything super awesome.

What's cool about the project is that there really are no rules. Sure, there are some AWESOME pictures taken out there, but I'm going to post what I like and what works for me. I'm hoping to improve my technique and knowledge about photography as well as entertain some folks. Along the way, I'll have a cool little photo diary of sorts to keep as an historical view of 2010.

Assuming I complete it, that is...

I will try to update daily, but if I'm unable to, it'll just have to wait. After all, life does go on, right?

The link is here: gwonchang365.blogspot.com. I hope you check it out and follow me along.

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T17:12:00.000-08:00

Have a good New Year's Eve? Marci made it to 12:00am, as did I. It was pretty uneventful, but I, for one, am glad to have 2009 behind us. Though lots of good things happened, the one thing I'll remember the most is being unemployed for most of the year. So now that that's out of the way, here are the good things that happened, in no particular order.

We got to go on a vacation of a lifetime, right after my unemployment started, to Orlando, FL, as part of Riley's Make-a-Wish wish.
The family made it through the year with no major health issues save for Marci's burned hand in March.
We added a member to the family in June. A dog. We went from being non-dog family to complete dog lovers.
We witnessed the complete love and support from both new and old friends.
I personally discovered a love for photography and have spent a lot of time learning how to do it.
Being out of work, I've spent more time at home and with the family than I ever have.
I read a lot of books and rediscovered our local public library.
We went on a "camping" vacation during the hottest weekend of the year. I went 3 days without a shower, the longest I've ever gone without a shower.

I'm sure there are more, but I'm "busy" job hunting (and watching the Rose Bowl), so I'm gonna back out now. Go Buckeyes and Happy New Year!

In a blogging rut

2009-12-20T22:48:00.000-08:00

I think I am out of things to write about. I mean, who wants to hear about my job search anymore? Or my lack of gigs? Or my kids? Or anything about what my life revolves around?

Even I don't want to read about these things, let alone write about them.

I guess I could write about Christmas, right? This year, we will be celebrating with the in-laws. Surprisingly enough, we have been able to get a few presents here and there with some creative eBaying, Craigslisting, anonymous gifts and some odd jobs. It won't be a barren Christmas, but it won't be a bank-breaker either.

Now, if I could just get Riley to realize that people weren't put on this earth to give him gifts. That little stinker needs to have some gratefulness beat into him. I think he's becoming what I fear the most: entitled. Yikes. Makes me shudder.

Marci has been a holiday whirling dervish. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was having an affair with Mr. Santa Claus because of all the time she's spending making gifts. She basically spent all weekend making and baking treats for friends and family. When she hasn't been doing that, she's been scouring thrift stores and the like, looking for inexpensive gifts. When she hasn't been doing that, she's been looking for ways for our family to get by. She's started babysitting a friends 3 month baby (SUPER CUTE!) and she's still part-timing at a local church, as well as the Y.

So, she's keeping busy. And doing quite well at it.

I'm still looking and applying and applying and looking. I did spend some time recently helping out an acquaintance set up some computers and printers at their house. Between the husband and wife (empty nesters), they have 4 computers and 3 printers. Sounds like overkill, sure, but all those computers sure make it easy to get online without having to go too far. Plus being able to print from the bottom floor and pick it up 2 floors above is kind of neat.

It's the simple things.

We just passed the 6 month mark with our dog Bella. She is still a fun girl and we really enjoy having her. She does go a little nuts when we let her outside, and she occasionally will still eat a poo, but she's not bad, provided we brush her teeth if she eats a poo.

I've been working on uploading lots of pictures to Flickr the past few days. Everything from ice skating to truffle making to our Make a Wish trip from April is going in. I hope you get a chance to check them out.

I think I'm going to try another year-in-review post, but not right now. Maybe when we're with the in-laws. It'll keep me occupied for a little while, at least.

In the meantime, have an excellent Xmas if I don't write by next Friday, and do stay safe. Here's a picture for you to enjoy until then.

December is here

2009-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

And, as has been for the past few Decembers, I'm freezing my buns off. I'm just so cold! It took me almost all day to finally get comfortable. Of course, it didn't help that I was at a friend's house for a few hours where their temperature was probably in the low 60s. Ugh.

I'm still looking for work, sadly. I did have a phone interview last week and have yet to hear back from them. It's getting to the point where the work will probably have to come via someone who knows someone, as opposed to applying. I'm finding that when I see something interesting, I apply, only to see that I've already applied for it. Yay for redundancy!

I have a few gigs lined up, one for each band. Unfortunately, they aren't until January and Feb., so don't get your hopes up.

I've also been doing a lot of Craiglisting and ebaying of stuff. I forgot how valuable one's junk can be to someone else. One new thing with ebay/Paypal is this "pending payment" stuff. Apparently Paypal will monitor transactions and if you're the seller (which I've been in two transactions), they "hold" the payment from the buyer until that buyer receives the product.

Huh?

I guess it's designed to protect the buyer from paying money and not getting their items. Paypal holds this money for 21 days or until the buyer indicates they've received the item they bought. In the meantime, I am screwed. I'm not sure how Paypal protects me if the buyer gets a working product, yet reports that it's broken, or, worse yet, that they never received it. So for now, I have about $120 sitting with Paypal, that I can't access until the buyer makes note that they got it. Lame. Maybe I should stick with CL. At least it's cash and local.

That's about it for now. I have run out of steam and will conclude this post with the following picture. Enjoy.

Moving on

2009-11-25T21:41:00.000-08:00

Once again, for those who care, my old MusicMan Sterling has changed hands. I traded it for a Lakland Duck Dunn in 08/08 or so. That guy then sold it this past March to someone in Portland. That guy then sold it to a guy in Nevada. And that last guy just traded it to someone in CT, all the way on the East Coast.

Ironically, Marci saw pix of that Sterling tonight and said she liked that bass. She basically told me to get it back. All I need is a sugar mama to hook me up...

Is it weird to stalk a bass?

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-23T21:55:00.000-08:00

Nope, still no job. Yes, still looking. Good news is that my unemployment extension went through so, sweet, I get to have a little income while I look.

My mom has been back in town and I've been running back and forth between here and her house. It's nice to be needed, but it does cut into my time a little. On the positive side (at least I think it's positive), she's a big fan of the OCB (if you don't know, you need to know) and we've gone there twice in the past few days.

All that, and Thanksgiving on Thursday? Better let out my belt.

Sigh

2009-11-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

It finally caught up.

Last week, my unemployment benefits ran out. I applied for an extension and that should be going through soon. So far, due to some sort of black magic, we've been able to stay above the waterline with creative ways of keeping money in the bank.

Last Wednesday, I sold a bass on Craigslist. It was my black SB-2 and it wasn't getting off the bench. I sold it to a guy for $350 and that money went in our USE jar.
Last weekend, I cleaned out our downstairs closet and came across a bunch of computer games that I'd purchased over the past 15 years or so. I didn't list them on eBay or Craigslist, but on some forums I frequent. I listed them fairly cheaply and have moved a few of those at $5 to $10 a pop.
One game I found was an original copy of the legendary FPS, Doom. It was on 3.5" disks, had the original manual and box. I did list that on eBay for $50. After a day or so, a guy from Austria started emailing me about it and before long, he bought it from me. That was a nice surprise, but, did you know that PayPal will sit on funds for 21 days on an international transaction? They basically wait until I confirm that it has shipped or the buyer has received the item until they allow the money to go through. I see how that protects the buyer, but what about me? Shrug. The buyer seems cool through our emails, so we'll see what happens.
On Monday, I hit up Half-Price Books with a box of books (duh) and a bunch of DVDs. They offered $50 and I took it before I could calculate really how much stuff I "sold". After that, I sold a chorus pedal to a Craigslister for $25. I also went to Gamestop with about 6 games and an old Gameboy Advance SP. When purchased, all those items totaled about $300 or so. What did I get? $14.16. I took it anyway. $89.16 for a bunch of stuff that was sitting around the house. That was pretty cool, but it went straight to groceries that afternoon.
Marci got a job being pretty much a full-time nanny for a friend's 9 week old daughter. That starts at the end of November when the mom can go back to work. In addition to that, she's been subbing at a local church and our YMCA when they need her. She's also been very persistent in looking for ways to get help from organizations like Hopelink. Every little bit helps.

Anyway, this morning my phone blew up with emails. Several were from Chase indicating we had a low balance, then the dreaded Overdraft ones as well. We checked the bank today and the good news is my unemployment deposit is pending and should go through today. The bad news is that we're hit up for at least 2 overdrafts. Lame.

I'm still on the hunt for a job. I sent out 3 applications tomorrow and will send out more today. It's getting old, aggravating, depressing and soul-crushing that I can't even get myself an interview anywhere. And the frustrating thing is that it's not like I'm looking for upper level jobs! I can't even get in the door as an entry level kind of guy.

Normally I'm not a worrier. I tend to lay back and see the positive. This morning was a reminder that things are not ok and they need to change.

Interesting day

2009-11-03T23:27:00.000-08:00

It all started off nice enough. Sunny out, etc. Marci and I had an early morning meeting with an advisor and got some good insight on some things we're working on.

We headed to the library after that. A few weeks ago, we were at the library and I got an email on my phone saying I got a second interview for the Parking Enforcement Officer job. Today, I got another email, only this time, it was to say that they had chosen other people to move forward. First thought? "Oh, no." Second thought? "Now what?"

I was pretty bummed. I got a few books and kept to myself for the ride home. After awhile, though, I started coming around. I figured feeling sorry for myself wouldn't help things. That, and Riley came home and was all goofy, so it was cool.

Speaking of Rye, he and I headed to Children's Hospital (aka Seattle Children's) for his weekly speech appointment. While we were there, I realized that one year ago tomorrow, we were in that very hospital getting his decompression surgery done. I wonder if they would've had cake and ice cream for us if our appointment was for tomorrow instead of today??

Later tonight, I perused Riley's blog a little, for the aforementioned reason of the one year anniversary of his surgery (was that redundant?). It's pretty amazing to think about what's gone on for him in the past 364 days. Just looking at that picture of him checking his new haircut just a day before the surgery is pretty poignant for me. I think that's the last picture I have of his head still intact. LOL.

Ok, then. Happy Surgery Anniversary to Rye. It's time for bed!

All's quiet on the Eastside front

2009-10-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

Had my interview on Tuesday. I think it went pretty well. At least I didn't stick my foot in my mouth.

I did feel like I rambled a bit, though. Rambling in order to think up a decent answer beats awkward silence, I suppose. I know I answered one question quite well and the Director appeared impressed. Or he's a great actor. And by "great", I mean he can fool an idiot like me.

In other news, does anyone have the key to deciphering a 7.5 year old girl's emotions? A taste:

Haley: Let's play this game.
Riley: You always choose the game.
Haley: I'M THE BADDEST GIRL IN THE WORLD!!! (storms off to her room)

or this:

Haley: playing on piano
Riley: touches a few keys on piano
Me: Rye, stop bugging Haley!
Haley: FINE. I DON'T WANT TO PLAY ANYWAY!!! (storms off to her room)

Marci and I are at a loss. It's gotten so we can't even talk to her without worrying about her blowing her lid. I'll save any other chat for her blog.

Lund Bros. are playing a short little gig on 11/7 at the Skylark. We'll be doing 2 Riffbroker songs (it's their 10th birthday) and possibly one of our songs to wish them a happy birthday. It's short, but it'll be our first time out since 7/11 (ooooh, that's cool!!), and we're looking forward to it. Hopefully we can get some more shows lined up soon.

We are babysitting our friend's boxer, Lulu, for the weekend. They watched Bella the one weekend in July when it was 100+ degrees, so we're returning the favor. Lulu is a few inches taller than Bella, but besides that, they could be twins. Except that Lulu is full boxer and Bella is 1/2 (we think). I'll take some pictures this weekend and share them. It should be a kick.

Oh! Been watching this new show on ABC called Modern Family. Do yourself a favor and watch it. It's on Wednesdays at 9:00pm and it is a freakin' laff riot. I am in love with this show and you should be too. Similar to The Office, it follows 3 families through their days and revels in their awkwardness. Awesome.

In more other news, Friday Night Lights started season 4 on DirecTV last night and darn it if I don't regret getting Dish instead of DTV because of that. Do yourself another favor and check out FNL if you haven't already. In my opinion, the best show on TV.

Happy Halloween and all that stuff. Watch out for sugar high kids as you drive around on Saturday.

Getting closer

2009-10-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

I finally got a response from the SPD today regarding my application for working as a PEO (Parking Enforcement Officer). For the next step, at least.

I have made it to a second interview! Sweet! I will meet with 3 VIPs of the Parking Enforcement department and interview with them next week! After that, who knows? I'm just happy to still be in the game! More as it happens...

Music is fun

2009-10-19T22:41:00.000-07:00

Had a Lund Bros. rehearsal tonight! First time I've seen Chris & Sean since our last show on 7/11 at the Sunset! It's been a very long time. Ironically, though we did get together, we ended up rehearsing 2 songs by our friends, the Riffbrokers, for a show we'll be doing in their honor with a bunch of other friends. That show is 11/7 at the Skylark and I'll let you know more as it gets closer.

As we finished up and were about to leave, Chris played for me one of the songs we recorded way back in 6/08. As funds are always tight, we've been slowly piecing together songs for another CD. I haven't heard anything but the rough mixes of me and Sean's rhythm tracks, plus a few scratch guitar and vocal tracks threw in.

Anyway, Chris played a rocker for me called "Are You Ready?" We've played this live before and I have some live rehearsal recordings, as well as the rhythm tracks. This time, though, it was done, save for the mixing. The guitars, vocals and pretty much everything else was ready to go. He hit play and...

It. Was. Awesome.

I bobbed my head and grinned along to the song, loving what I was hearing, and also bumming that I hadn't heard it yet and probably wouldn't again unless I begged for it, or waited until we decide to release it. It's cool to hear a finished product, but I'm a little chagrined as I'm in the band, yet I don't get a chance to hear anything else. Luckily I'm a laid back kind of dude, right?

Anyway, it was great to see the guys and play again. We'll hopefully start firing that up again and getting some gigs. Lordy knows we need to get some.

Gigs, that is.

Next up: Scheme rehearsal on Wednesday. Sweet!

The Test

2009-10-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

I woke up today feeling pretty crummy. A few Tylenol later, the congestion had abated and things were as good as they were going to be. I headed for West Seattle a little after 9 and it was a beautiful day.

Once at the West Seattle Stadium, ran into one of the guys who interviewed me for the PEO position a few weeks ago. He greeted me by name and I thought, "Cool. He remembers me." Then I realized that he was expecting me and, after seeing the other folks arrive (all white, 4 guys, one girl), well, by process of elimination, he knew who I was. Or, as I like to think of it, I made a heck of an impression on my interview and, therefore was, unforgettable.

Anyway, after some waiting, we got started. The testers (all PEOs as well) lined us up at the track and had us do jumping jacks, minus the jumping. In other words, we were waving our arms in the air, waving them like we just didn't care. Or to 40 waves, whichever came first. Easy enough.

After the jumping jacks minus the jumping (does that make them simply "jacks"?), it was onto the track walk. We had 8.5 minutes to make two laps around the track. Half a mile in 8.5 minutes. Walk, run, crawl, skip, they didn't care. We just had to be under 8.5 minutes.

And, they're off!

We all started walking and, after about 100 yards or so, I was in last place. Short legs, you know. For real! Everyone else was taller and had long strides. One guy decided to start running, but the rest of us continued walking. Until I started strategizing, thinking that I wanted to show the PEOs that I wanted this job. So I started running, weird cold and all. I inhaled for 3 steps, exhaled for 3 steps and that was a good little rhythm. I kept pace with the first runner and made one lap.

Next thing I knew, the other 4 applicants were running and soon I was eating their fumes. Just watching them, I could tell that they were runners. They were fluid and graceful in their strides. Me? I was counting, "1, 2, 3..., 1, 2, 3..." and trying to keep pace. I then decided that I wasn't gonna finish last so I picked it up to a 4 stride pace and ended up passing the first guy at the 1.75 lap mark. I finished 5th and was sucking wind. Keep in mind, now, that this weird cold I have has been impacting my breathing a little, and I was on some meds, which have made me a little woozy at times. Not that I wouldn't have been sucking wind at 100% health, but that's beside the point, right?

Next up were the stations: cone placement; sign placement; scooter entry/exit; stair climb; wrist rotation.

At cone placement, there were two stacks of 10 cones each. Ten yards beyond the cones were 20 points, arranged in a pattern. We were to take one stack of cones and place the individual cones on each point in the pattern. Once cone 20 was placed, we were to retrieve the cones and bring them back to the original start point. The time limit was something like 3 minutes, so there was plenty of time. Apparently we were not in competition with the each other, but I still wanted to be speedy quick, so off I went.

(aside: 10 cones are kind of heavy!)

I started placing the cones, feeling a little winded still, and realized some cones were sticking together. No matter. I'd just shake them apart, right? Only they wouldn't come apart! So I'd put them on the ground and step on one while pulling the other off. That worked better and before long, I had placed all the cones, retrieved them all and sprinted (re: slogged) past the "finish" line. I forget what my time was, but I was done with that and it was onto the sign placement test.

At the sign placement, the PEO asked me to pronounce my name, and, in my winded condition, though I said, "Guh-won," I think he heard, "Juan." Sigh. Anyway, this test took place at the hammer toss pit (it's not a pit, but more like a point from which lines emanate from. I don't even know if it's the "hammer toss" either. It's the track and field event where the athlete holds a handle and spins in a circle. The centrifugal force picks up the weight on the other end, and after a few spins, release! Off it goes!). There were 4 "No Parking" A-frame signs. I was to take one, straddle it across the first line, skip a line, place a sign, etc, until all 4 signs were placed. Then pick them up and bring them back. Easy enough.

I grabbed 2 signs and off I went. I did a jog and got this task done quickly enough without pinching any fingers or hurting myself. I did suck more wind, though, and it was getting kind of embarrassing. I felt like an old man.

Next up was the scooter entry/exit test. For this test, you sat in the little 3 wheeled chariot (you've seen 'em) and held the chalk stick. You'd exit, mark the rear tire, go around back, mark the other tire, go around front, mark the front tire, and enter again where you exited from. Then you'd have a seat and exit the other way and do it again. So you were doing figure 8s, basically. That's all well and good, right? We had to do 12 circles (6 each side) and with my dizziness, it was tough. I was woozy already and this was a not so fun exercise. We had something like 3 minutes to do this and it was pretty much a no brainer.

From the scooter I headed to the stadium stairs. Each applicant had to climb the stadium stairs 3 times. I didn't count the stairs, but did tell the guy I had to catch my breath. I didn't catch him scowling at me, or playing the world's tiniest violin, but I did feel lame telling him that I'd been sick (his response? "Yeah, lots of people have been sick." I.E.: cry me a river). I did the stairs and for the first two trips, felt pretty good. On the third trip up, my legs were getting a little weird, but I made it and was able to hobble over to the next station.

The wrist rotation station consisted of holding a flashlight in one hand, with arm parallel to the ground. We had to point the flashlight up, pause, point it forward, pause, point it up, pause, point it backward, pause, then back up, for one minute. Supposedly, this was to test shoulders. I guess if I had shoulder issues, this would've been difficult. As it was, it was nice to be able to not have to exert myself anymore (how pathetic am I?). Mary (the tester) and I joked around and she told me about the job. I repeated the exercise on my other hand (right, if you must know), and that was that for that. She did hand me a whistle to see if I could do the stop signal (long whistle... fade a little, then a staccato punch) and go signal (two quick punches), and I passed that with flying colors.

So, that, in a gigantic nutshell, was my morning at the West Seattle Stadium. A whole half hour worth of "testing". I'm confident that everyone that took the test this morning with me passed easily. How the HR department at the City of Seattle filters through the results will be interesting. Though we weren't in direct competition, I can't see how the HR people would look at it otherwise ("That spunky kid that came in second to last in the run/walk. He's got spirit. Let's hire him!" Yeah, right!).

They said we'd be contacted sometime this week with further instructions. I hope I met their needs today. It would be cool to move onto phase 4 of this hiring process. If not, all I'll have to show for it is a free whistle.

I am ill

2009-10-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

About one time a year, I get sick. Thanks to my superior genes and flawless physical make-up, this is true. Usually, when I get sick, it's over in a day or two and I'm back to normal.

This time, not so much.

It started with those killer headaches from a few weeks ago. They're still happening from time to time, but at least I know what to expect. Doesn't make it any more fun though.

The past few days, it's been congestion and coughing. Though my sinuses don't hurt, I think I'm long overdue for a sinus infection. Perfect timing, as I have my agility test tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't affect anything.

Sunday is the day

2009-10-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's agility test time! That's right. At 1000 hours (or, 10:00am), I get to head into West Seattle for my Parking Enforcement Officer's Agility Test (caps mine). I'm told to dress accordingly and that I can bring water if I so desire.

I will be tested on the following:

Jumping jacks
Track walking
Moving cones
Stadium climbing

Now, I'm no athlete or anything, and, at the risk of sounding cocky, I'm pretty sure I can pass this test.

Unless, it's some sort of reverse physical psychology or something? Because if all the applicants take this test, maybe it'll weed out a few of them, but surely at this point, they're wanting to trim the numbers? So, with my RPP logic, maybe they're trying to fool me into thinking it'll be way easy, when in fact they'll have me do, say, 2000 jumping jacks, 20 laps (5 miles) around the track, move cones into intriguing and interesting positions, and climb the stadium stairs 10 times in less than 5 minutes. Could it be?

At any rate, by this time tomorrow, I'll be done and hopefully feeling pretty good about my progress. Stay tuned...

Update before bedtime (for the kidz, that iz)

2009-10-01T18:56:00.000-07:00

Still unemployed, but that situation is looking better. Nothing is guaranteed, other than that I made it through the interview process for the City of Seattle Parking Enforcement Officer job. Next up is the physical agility test, which, I was told, consists of walking and the like. The training officer at the first test basically said if you can walk, you will pass this test. So, if I make it past that, I think it's another interview with some VIP at the City.

I spent about 2 hours on the roof today blowing leaves, pine needles, and other junk off. Cleared out the gutters, too. And now it's pouring. So I fully expect the gutters to be filled by tomorrow morning.

The whole Dish Network thing is working out ok. We have the DVR upstairs and that's cool. For downstairs, I have the receiver and Tivo hooked up and though it's kind of a bear to record a show (set receiver to channel, set Tivo to hopefully [but not mandatory] same channel, hit record), it's working. And did I mention we're saving a few bucks? Cool!

No gigs to speak of, though I did bum rush my way onto a bill with the Unsmashable crew. It's the Riffbroker's 10th anniversary and we're (the Lunds) are going to cover a few of their songs. I got the ok from the bros, but haven't heard back from them yet.

I have Scheme practice tonight, but it'll be shorter as I can't get there until later. It'll be good to play, though.

I cleared out my side of the garage (thanks Mom's Empty Garage!) and now I can park the LILDRGN inside again. I realized that I didn't want to have a car outside all fall/winter, so that kind of got my rear in gear. I'm also trying to sell a lot of the computer stuff, but heck, I can't even give that stuff away...

I've been having these murderous headaches recently. Yesterday it was so bad, I went to the doctor. Of course, I felt fine when I went (Tylenol, anyone?) but it was good to get checked out, I suppose. I think they're migraines, but I don't know how they're caused. They happen behind my right eye, along my right temple, above my right ear, etc. The doc prescribed me a nasal spray steroid so we'll see how that works. It may be allergy related? I've been having a lousy past few months with stuffiness, itchiness, etc. Maybe I'm allergic to the dog...

Speaking of the dog, she's still cool. Kind of hyper at times, but I think we're pretty much used to it by now. She's probably gonna gain a few pounds now that weather is going to SUCK FOR 6 MONTHS as it'll be tougher for Marci and I to take her out. Even worse when/if I get a job. She'll (Bella, that is) just have to suck it up.

I guess that's all for now. Happy October. Carve a pumpkin!

Goodbye Comcast Cable

2009-09-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hello Dish Network!

After getting our last Comcast bill, well, it was way too much. Marci and I started talking about satellite TV and seeing that it was quite a bit cheaper than Comcast. Basically, it came down to DirecTV and Dish Network.

The past few days, I've been on the phone with both companies, as well as researching on the internet. Both have their positives (cheaper than cable, better picture, more channels) as well as their negatives (dish on house, possible interruptions in service by weather, have to install new equipment).

The channel packages are pretty much the same. The package I ended up getting with Dish Network, the Silver 200, does have AMC so I can continue my Mad Men addiction, however, it's in standard def. Also, no more National Geographic channel, so goodbye to my pal, Cesar Millan. The pricing for HD channels ($10.00/month) and equipment pricing ($7 to $10/month) was about the same. So, after researching, to me it came down to one main difference:

Equipment.

With DirecTV, if I have 3 TVs in the house (which we do), I'd need to have 3 receivers installed. One HD receiver downstairs, one upstairs, and one SD receiver in the bedroom. Sure, they're "free", but I didn't want all that hardware.

Dish Network has these dual tuner DVRs that are pretty slick. For our 3 TVs, we are able to get by with 2 receivers. One HD downstairs, and one HD-DVR upstairs. What's cool about these is with the dual tuner capabilities, we can have the upstairs TV on HD while our little SD TV in the bedroom runs off the other tuner. It sends the SD signal through the existing cable to do this. The technician put a little antenna on the back of the box in the front room and we're using a remote in the bedroom to control it.

Pretty slick!

Anyway, it's working fabulously upstairs. The picture is great, even on the SD side. I'm able to record a show from the bedroom and watch it in HD in the front room. Or vice versa. Or record 2 separate shows and watch 2 previously recorded shows, if we desire. Slick!

So, downstairs, I was going to go with the HD receiver only, with no DVR. As I started realizing that I'd have to watch football on the SDTV or hog the other TV, I started to hyperventilate. I eyed our trusty Series 2 TiVo from way back when and brought that sucker downstairs.

With the dual tuner capabilities of the Dish Network's receiver, I'm able to send the SD signal to the TiVo, have the TiVo control the satellite receiver, and record shows that way! Yes, it's another box down here, but I'm not paying $12/month for the service, and sure, the shows will be recorded in SD (but transmitted via S-Video, at least!), but I'll get to watch them on my time, without bogarting the TV from Marci and the kids.

Right now, the TiVo is chugging away downloading and organizing show content from the Dish Network servers. That should be done shortly and then it'll be go time.

I love it when a plan comes together! Plus, saving about $50/month on TV bills is pretty nice too.

Well, that was close

2009-09-20T22:53:00.000-07:00

The past few days, I thought my hard drive was failing. I'd be downstairs and I'd hear a click from over here. My lights would dim for a second when I heard the click too, so I thought maybe I had a bad light bulb too.

Anyway, I turned off my computer and the sound was still there, so I knew it wasn't the CPU. Tonight, I finally sat at my computer and listened. Strangely enough, though my computer is to my right, the sound was to my left.

I heard it once more and looked that way and saw... the iron I plugged in sometime this weekend. I was going to iron a shirt and forgot all about it.

Yikes.

The good news is, the computer is fine! ;)

Cakes n Cukes

2009-09-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

This just in! Marci has a blog. The clever, clever title was gifted to her by Yours Truly. The content? All her, except for some pictures here and there.

If you couldn't already tell, Cakes n Cukes is a blog about cakes and vegetables, two of Marci's favorite hobbies. You can go there and check out what she's done the past few years. Hopefully she'll keep updating as time permits.

Sweet!

Went to see Dad today

2009-09-10T22:57:00.000-07:00

It was good. Good to see Dad, so to speak.

We weren't sure how Haley would take it as she's still sensitive about Dad being gone and all. But she said she wanted to go and she was great when we were there. I put the kids on my shoulders (separately!) and let them see Dad in his, er, cabinet (he's cremated, in an urn, high on a glass shelf). I told them how happy he was to see them, how proud he was of them, how excited he was to see how big they've grown and that he missed them so much.

I told the kids some stories about Dad and they had a good laugh. I told them about a friend of mine that used to work at C&A. He was new to the country in '99 and my dad gave this guy his first job. The job at C&A allowed him to get to where he is at today. This guy happened to learn yesterday (power of Facebook) of Dad's passing and was really moved by it. He sent me a super nice note about his thoughts of Dad and I was happy to receive it.

Anyway, as I talked to the kids, I didn't cry, but got a little misty. As much as I miss Dad, I miss him the most for the kids. It makes me so sad that they won't get to know Dad and just be with him. I am grateful, though, for the time they did get to spend together.

Afterward, we went to see Mom and she was doing just great. She and Knight went to see Dad earlier in the day and things were good. It's amazing to think that 365 days and 20 minutes ago, my dad died.

What a year. I love you, Dad, and I miss you every day. I wish you were here...

One year later

2009-09-09T20:18:00.001-07:00

Last year, I wrote this: link

This year, we're better, or as better as we can be. A year ago, I was pretty sure Dad was going to die. I just wasn't sure it was going to be so dang soon.

As some of you know, this has been a rough 364 days. I'll spare you the pity party, but suffice it to say, it's been the most difficult of my life. Having said all that, though, it's weird. I don't feel all that bad.

Sure, it'd be nice to be employed and out of debt. It'd be nice to have Dad around and stuff like that, but, truth be told, with all the drama in the past year, life isn't too bad. Let's be thankful for the following, in no particular order:

A loving, caring, compassionate, patient, wise, sweet wife. I do wonder sometimes how I roped her in and kept her here. I still have a LOT of work to do to be the man I want to be for her, but I'm trying every day.
Kids that try my patience every day, but also show me every day why I love being their dad.
A roof over our heads.
Supportive family and friends.
A dog that loves the heck out of us.
Good health.

I could go on and on, but those are the important things. I do hear about other people's problems and issues, and I realize things could be so much worse.

Anyway, that's enough of that. We're going to go see Dad tomorrow and see what's up.

DIY R-Strap

2009-09-05T22:30:00.000-07:00

Do a Google search on R-Strap and you'll find a ton of links indicating DIY (do it yourself) straps. Basically the R-Strap is a camera strap that allows you to wear your camera over your head and one shoulder, like a messenger bag. A company named Black Rapid in Seattle makes the strap and, apparently it's quite cool.

I found that the "free" Canon neck strap that came with my camera was too short to wear over one shoulder and too sweaty to wear over my bare neck. Most times, I'd just hold the camera in my hand and bunch the strap underneath.

When I saw the R-Strap and the DIY R-Straps, well, I just had to try making one myself. Most people used 1/4" screws of some sort to mount into the tripod socket. I had a few free minutes yesterday so I headed to Home Depot and spent $2.95 on some hardware. I picked up a .98 cent bag of 1/4" screws and eyes and a $1.97 locking ring. I had a guitar strap in the closet somewhere that looked to be perfect, so I put it all together today. Check it out.

Flickr link!!

Finished product
Originally uploaded by gwonchang

Just a quickie

2009-09-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

Quick update before the in-laws come downstairs to turn in and I have to give up my computer...

I heard today that I passed Phase 1 of the parking enforcement officer test! Now I get to go charm them with the interview portion of the application. That will happen in a few weeks or so, and is scheduled to go until the first week of October for all applicants. It's a long process, I guess!

The kids started school this week and so far it's been hit and miss. They seem to love it, and it's nice to have some no kid time, but man, when they get back? Whoo. It's crazy time. Riley is nuts and climbing on everyone/thing/dog. Haley has been ok, but today she had about an hour of COMPLETE INSANITY! I keep telling myself it's a transition thing and that they'll be better soon, but my patience is wearing thin. Maybe I need a bubble bath.

We (Lund Bros.) got offered a show at the Skylark by Jessie (the owner) for 9/19, but I had to turn it down as it's the one weekend that Chris is busy. So I ran it by the Scheme and we were all go, but then Gregg remembered that he had company in that week and had made plans. Ugh. I had to turn it down and now we're showless once again. I miss rocking out. Or rockin' out, if you prefer.

Been taking a lot of pictures and posting them to flickr.com. You can see a lot of them over there --->. Hope you're enjoying them.

I went to my neighbor's house today because they had a friend in town who was using a huge zoom lens to take pictures of birds. 400mm, I think. Now, I know next to nothing about lenses other than the lens he had was one big mofo. I took a peek through it and it was super cool. I don't need a lens that big, but a telephoto or zoom (or are they one and the same? I told you I knew next to nothing) would be cool, way down the road.

Bella is great, btw. She's a hoot every day and we all love her. She "graduated" from her discipline class, but she's far from disciplined. But, in reality, she's awesome and we are so lucky to have found her.

I guess this wasn't a quickie update after all. But I'll wrap it up now. See you later.

Getting ready for a test and other stuff

2009-08-22T10:23:00.000-07:00

Just chillin'. We had Riley's 5th birthday the other day and he's upstairs now playing Superhero Guess Who? with Marci and Haley. I just dominated him at it so I'm free for a minute.

I have a "test" today. At the suggestion of a friend, I applied for a job with the city of Seattle as a Parking Enforcement Officer (re: meter maid!). I get to take a test today that focuses on "Numerical Coding and Proofreading, Parking Enforcement Law Interpretation, Map Reading, Math Aptitude, and Spelling." Seems easy enough, right?

If I pass this test (70% or higher to move on), it's onto an interview. After that comes an agility test, then a background check.

Of all those, I'm sure I would pass the background test with flying colors. Here's hoping I make it that far!

In other news, I've been taking pictures like crazy and am way behind on editing them (prettying them up) for public consumption. I was invited to a party last week for a bunch of kids at a place called 1-2-3 Bounce. It's basically a warehouse with a bunch of "bouncy house" type toys inside. Pretty clever, if you ask me. No inventory or stock, very little overhead.

Anyway, the pictures were pretty good. I still need to work on getting better at what they call "tack sharp" photos. Some turned out really clear, but for the most part, my technique (or lack thereof) is causing me some grief.

On the music tip, things are pretty quiet. Lund Bros. haven't played since early July. We have no shows, and Sean is (or was) in Costa Rica for a few weeks. I've put out some feelers to clubs but have gotten no responses.

The Scheme is down now, too. Gregg's thumb is healing and we've rehearsed a few times, but David is out of town for another week. We should be revving that up again next week and hope to have some shows booked for that soon.

In the meantime, it's Sunday Morning Worship Rock with Emmaus Road. It's not my first choice, but it keeps my fingers busy.

Orange fleece sweats

2009-08-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

We went over to Mom's house today. She had a big ol' bag of Dad's old clothes she wanted me to try on/give away. Dad was a pretty flashy dresser. He liked bold colors. Yellow, red, green, pretty much all the primary ones.

In this big bag was a pair of orange fleece sweatpants. Bright orange. I don't recall ever seeing Dad in them and I wasn't too keen on them. Riley, however, put them right on, pulled the waistband up to his shoulders and walked around. I had no camera, but it was pretty funny. Haley found a purple pair and did the same thing. She looked like Barney.

We ended up bringing a few things home and Riley had those horrible orange sweats with him. After a shower, he was pestering us about what to wear to bed (he likes to know what temperature to expect so he can dress accordingly). He started to almost cry (I thought he was tired and frustrated because we wouldn't tell him how to dress) and said, "I keep thinking of Tai Yeh," which is what he called Dad.

He then said he wanted to sleep with the sweats because they reminded him of his grandfather. I asked him why, and he said, "They smell like Tai Yeh."

I took a sniff.

Sure enough, they smell just like Dad. LOL. Now, I don't know if Mom just took them from the closet and didn't wash them and it's the smell of the house, or if she washed them and put them in the bag and it's the smell of her laundry. But, dammit, if those sweats don't smell just like Dad.

I had Haley smell them and she agreed, but she's still having some trouble with Dad being gone, so she just wanted a small whiff. I took a few more smells and it was uncanny.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool tonight.

Just saw an old friend

2009-08-08T18:26:00.001-07:00

My old bass is back up for grabs over at Talkbass.com. I traded it away for what seems to bring most visitors to my blog, the Lakland Duck Dunn Skyline bass. The guy I traded it to sold it and now the guy who bought it is selling it again.

If only I had some extra $$$ laying around...

Screaming and yelling, screaming and yelling

2009-08-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

What is with all the screaming and yelling?

Haley had a nice day today. We all went on a walk with Bella and it was great. Marci got to spend a few hours one on one with Haley and they went to lunch and ran some errands. Afterward, they came back and Haley, Riley and I watched The Iron Giant as a little summertime movie treat. We had a nice dinner, bath and then it was storytime...

And then the wheels fell off.

Haley just started apologizing for something. "I'm SORRY!!!" Thing was, she wouldn't tell us what she was apologizing for. This went on for a little while. It escalated until she was pretty much out of control. She was (and still has been) screaming, hyperventilating, crying, etc., and simply won't tell us what it is she's apologizing for.

I went in her room for about 20 minutes, doing my best not to lose it. I told her to tell me what was bugging her. She made some stuff up. I tried to question my way around what was bugging her but she wouldn't tell me. She started coming up with excuses why she didn't want to tell us. I told her it was starting to become an issue of trust; if I couldn't believe or trust what she was saying, that could lead to big problems down the road.

I gave her a few more minutes with the hopes that she'd say something, but she'd just hyperventilate some more and say, "But, but, but, but," and not say anything at all. She started an old trick of hers, saying that all she needed was a hug and I told her that I had a big problem giving her a hug when she was in this state. I told her I had to go take a breather and suggested she do the same. So I'm here, venting, taking a breather, hearing her wailing a bit and hoping that she'll be calm when I go back upstairs.

I think I'll give her about 5 more minutes. What is it with 7 year olds??

Allergies? What's up with that?

2009-08-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

I am not an allergic dude. At least I wasn't. I used to be allergic to cats. Then I met Marci and her 3 cats and somehow developed immunity. Nowadays, I'm fine around the one remaining cat.

This morning, Riley woke us up at 5:16am to tell us he had to pee. Super. After that, my nose started running and I started sneezing. Then I got all stuffed up. Awesome. I have no idea why. The trend continued all day into the night.

I took a Claritin D in the morning. No use, really. I took an Allegra tonight. That helped a little, I think. In the meantime, my nose is all dried out from the blowing and my throat is sore from the sneezing (and it didn't help that I had Scheme practice tonight and sang a bunch).

My dad had horrible hay fever in the springtime and as far as I know, Mom has no allergies. We just had the kids tested this week and it turns out both are allergic to grass (great. Seen our back yard? All grass!) and Riley is just a tiny bit allergic to cats and dogs (isn't irony grand?). Marci has in the past year developed serious allergies to beans and nuts. It's really lame.

Anyway, hopefully whatever's in the air decreases tonight and tomorrow so I can get back to some semblance of normal.

Now how about that? Blogs every day this week! Go me!

Riley's action packed day

2009-08-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

I started my day by taking Riley to Children's Hospital, currently known as Seattle Children's, for his weekly speech therapy session. He usually spends an hour there with Miss Wendy and she plays games with him. Only there is a lot of speech involved and she really hammers him with corrections and suggestions. It's pretty intense, and I'm 37. Imagine Riley being 4.9 and I wonder how he feels.

Anyway, today he was a bit distracted. I think it had something to do with being up late last night (we went to a party at a friend's house) and he didn't actually fall asleep until 10:30 or so. He was tired and he said his head was hurting. During his session, he ended up laying on the floor to alleviate the ache in the back of his head. He told me (and this wasn't the first time) that he wished he had a rolling bed so he could move horizontally (again, to relieve the ache).

After the session, we went to "Five, down", which is how Riley refers to the cafeteria location, as it's a floor below his therapy. I got him a bowl of pasta and he chowed down. In between bites, he'd ask to take a break. He just looked worn out. I asked him if sometimes he wished he could just hang out at home instead of going to doctors and hospitals all the time. Of course he said yes, and that made me a little sad.

From there, it was back home for a bit before we loaded up again to go to yet another therapist, this one of the occupational variety. He spent about 45-50 minutes with Miss Jessica working on things like opening packages, writing, squeezing dough. His fine motor skills need work and that's the kind of thing Jessica works on.

Since we've been seeing these two therapists, Riley's speech and motor skills have improved dramatically. It's pretty incredible to see and hear his progress. We are very fortunate to have these people helping Riley. It's great to know that he'll be able to master most of the things that other kids can master; it'll just take him a little longer.

We ran a few errands later and made it home for dinner. His wheels finally fell off at bedtime. He was so exhausted (huge dark circles under his eyes) that he pretty much screamed for 10 minutes before going to bed. And this is from a kid who pretty much never screams about anything anymore.

I just have to remind myself sometimes that when I was 4 going on 5, I was usually just hanging around the house, playing with my brother (only one at the time!), or doing whatever 4-5 year olds do. Riley has gone to the doctor in his almost 5 years more than I have in my 37. We just hope he continues to improve and the doctor visits will be for follow-ups only, and nothing more.

It's done

2009-08-04T23:41:00.000-07:00

I finally finished painting a neighbor's house today. It took about 3 weeks or so, with me doing what I could when I could, but it's done. White on white, kind of a pain. But then, when I thought about it, I realized it could've been worse, especially if he wanted me to paint the trim a different color. As it is, I didn't have to worry about anything other than painting that house white.

Next project, weeding Mom's yard. Joyous.

Hiatus over

2009-08-03T21:36:00.000-07:00

Ok. I took an unexpected hiatus. It wasn't planned or anything. I don't even know if you could call it a hiatus, actually.

I've just been lazy. There it is. I've had plenty of time in front of this computer, but I've been lazy.

So what have I been up to the past month? Here you go, in no particular order:

Stayed in a yurt (look it up).
Walked the dog.
Lost my temper with the kids.
Got a library card. Back in the day when I applied for a card, it took a few weeks to be mailed home. Now? Fill out a form, pick a card and, pow, it's yours. Pretty cool.
Read a bunch of Cesar Millan books.
Played a gig at the Sunset for the first time in a long time, and it was only 5 songs!
Played with the Scheme for the first time since Gregg sliced his thumb, and it was only 5 songs! :)
Bought a DSLR (used) Canon Rebel XT.
Got in some hot water for buying said camera.
Sold bass effect pedals on craigslist.
Painted neighbor's house.
Sweated a ton when the temps were 100+. Gave thanks for buying a room AC unit when Marci was pregnant with Riley.
Hung out with my brother, who was in town from Ireland.
Went to the new Spaghetti Factory in Tukwila.
Applied for a bunch of jobs.
Did not get invited to any job interviews.
Questioned my abilities to find a job.
Saw a movie with Haley on the hottest damn day of the year.

(Firefox just crashed! Unpossible! But, Blogger autosaved so I am back to entertain you!)

So in between all those activities and happenings, it's not like I haven't had time to post. I just haven't been motivated to do so. I don't know why.

Anyway, I am going to try to be a better blogger, for my own sanity's sake and for the meager entertainment for others. Believe it or not, for reasons unknown, people still check this blog. I guess that's cool, right?

In the meantime, here's a picture.

It's July and I'm avoiding laundry right now

2009-07-08T22:13:00.000-07:00

There's a big pile staring me in the face. I'm avoiding it. So here I am.

Not much to report on the anything front. My sister-in-law, Alison, and her two daughters, Ella and Chandler, visited us last week. We had gorgeous weather and really took advantage by hitting Snoqualmie Falls, Newcastle Beach Park, and then Pt. Defiance Park in Tacoma. Took a ton of pictures and generally had a lot of fun with them.

I've been spending a lot of my "down time" taking pictures and generally learning about photography and trying to improve. I've been doing the flickr thing and reading a lot. It's a ton of fun and I only wish I'd gotten into it a long time ago.

Bella has been great still. She's a bit of a poo eater at times, but if we clean up RIGHT AFTER, there's no issue. We start obedience classes this weekend and we're looking forward to that. She's been really good with us, but could use some polishing around the edges. Pulling on a leash is one I can't wait to work on.

I had a job interview a few weeks ago. I thought it went well but I still haven't heard back from them. I was gonna call them today, but forgot. So I'll make the call tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

Saturday night Lund Bros. is playing at the Sunset. We'll get about a 15-20 minute set as there are 6 or 7 bands playing that night. It's the 6th birthday for our friends at Unsmashable Records and they were kind enough to put us on the bill. It'll be a great gig to play and watch/listen and you bet your ass I'll have the camera out in full force. I'll get pix of everyone but us... :(

In the meantime, stay cool and hope that summer comes back soon.

Rock and Roll Marathon pictures

2009-06-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Rock and Roll Marathon

2009-06-26T16:11:00.000-07:00

I'm not running it, silly, I'm playing in it. I'm doing the "Rock and Roll" portion, not the "Marathon" portion.

Lund Bros. is playing tomorrow. We have to be there at the ungodly hour of 6:00am (considering Bella has been waking us up daily at 5:30ish, it shouldn't be too different). Poor Sean and Chris are coming from Tacoma so they're probably leaving their necks of the woods around 4:30 or so. Yikes.

I just talked to a friend who is running the 1/2 marathon and she's leaving for Qwest (where the runners are congregating) at 4:00am. Yikes again.

Looks like the weather should cooperate. Hopefully the logistics are set up for tomorrow. I know kind of where we're playing (SR99 S @ Elliot Ave onramp), but beyond that, it's kind of wait and see. As in wait until I get there and see WTF is going on.

Good luck to the runners! Get ready to rock!

One week and counting

2009-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

I suppose a full-fledged dog update is in order. Trouble is, I haven't been able to stop playing with her to sit down and write!

Actually, the truth is, I've been lazy. But she has been great. We're only a week in, sure, but she has been everything we could've asked for and more. In fact, I think we've been very lucky. Whatever the previous owners did with her has lead to an incredibly easy transition for us.

Bella is very low maintenance, loving, funny and a kick to be around. Her worst habit would be bringing us a toy/animal/sock/slipper every morning to greet us. Oh, and waking us up every morning at 5:30, but she goes to sleep after so it's not *too* bad.

She has integrated completely with us. From the first night, Bella has slept in our room on the floor. It is a little annoying when she shakes or scratches (re: noisy tags), but we're pretty much used to it by now.

When meeting new people, she's been great. No jumping or intimidating. She'll bring them a goodie too and it's just too funny. She's a bit of a licker and a tiny bit of a nipper (when she's excited), but by and large, we completely lucked out. When we take her out, she pretty much stays in the yard. Her and I did some frisbee work yesterday and it was a lot of fun. She needs a little training in "come" and "heel", but she has "sit" down, provided I have a treat for her. Leash walking needs some work too (she is STRONG), but as she ages, I think she'll improve.

I've surprised myself with what a "dog" person I've become. We went to Petsmart yesterday and having a dog (though Belly wasn't there) is a total ice breaker. Talked to a lady about her big black poodle. Plus, getting the kids comfy with her has been great too in that their confidence around other dogs has increased. It helps if the dogs aren't in their faces, but even when they were around my friend Evan's excited dog this weekend, they did great.

L to R: Duke (Evan's dog) & Bella

I couldn't be more happy with how the adoption and transition has gone. It's like Bella's been part of this family for a long time, the way things are going. I do wish the cat would be a little more open to things, though. She's been sulking around and generally being ornery. Of course, everytime Bell sees the cat, she wants to play and the cat just wants to be left alone. Doesn't help that Bell is all energy and whining/playful barking. They are pretty much coexisting. I'm glad the cat doesn't bolt at the sight of the dog, and she's come a long way, but I'm looking forward to when she gives Bella a smack to show her who's boss. Maybe that'll settle her (Bella) down a little.

Anyway, enough about the pets. It's time to head out.

We done got ourselves a dog

2009-06-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

And things couldn't be better.

Well, I could have a job and no bankruptcy pending, but otherwise, things with the dog are great. I'd write more, but I'm lazy, so here are some pictures instead.

Decisions, decisions

2009-06-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks, we have been going to the Humane Society to look at dogs. Knight and Shannon have two dogs and one weekend last month, Hay, Rye and I went over and Hay really took to the dogs. She cried herself to sleep that night wanting a dog (re: tired), so the following day, we went to take a look. We didn't see anything terribly enticing, plus, we're really in no position to adopt, so it was really just looking.

At home, we started looking online at pets and the associated things that go with pets. It'd come and go like the tide. As the weekend drew closer, we'd find ourselves over at the Humane Society again, looking and listening to the barking dogs, then leaving.

In the meantime, Haley's been going over to her friend Erin's house every couple days to walk Erin's dog Lulu. Lulu is a boxer and she's a kick in the pants. She's super strong and playful and is just a sweet little dog. Erin's mom is pregnant and can't very well walk Lulu so Marci, Haley and Erin take her out. As such, they've gotten fond of that dog. Even Riley seems to like her and if you know Rye, you know Rye isn't the biggest fan of dogs.

Two weeks ago, there was a cute little beagle there named Jody. I forget the specifics, but we asked to see her and were allowed to take her to one of their meet and greet pens. Evidently beagles are very nose oriented as Jody spent pretty much the whole time sniffing the pen and ignoring us. Again, we weren't adopting nor were we planning to, but Jody didn't sell herself very well. I hope she's found someone by now.

Anyway, today we were out and about and on the way home from Riley's occupational therapy, I asked if they wanted to go to the Humane Society. We pulled in and looked around. No dog really caught my eye, but Haley was really drawn to this dog that didn't have any info on its kennel. It (no info, remember?) was brown and whimpered a little. It had a soft tongue that licked through the crack in the door. It was very cute and seemed happy to see us. After some finagling with the fine volunteers at the Humane Society, we got to see this dog, Bella, in the meeting area.

Unlike our last visit with Jody, this one was much more entertaining. Bella, an 11 month old boxer/lab mix, was happy to see us and seemed to enjoy being out of her kennel. She played fetch with a tennis ball (until we accidentally rolled it under the fence) and would sit for treats. She'd walk around on a leash and we all felt really comfortable around her. Riley really enjoyed being around her as well and was very excited about playing fetch prior to losing the ball. We've also read/heard that dogs are good for therapy, and goodness knows that Rye might like some therapy that didn't involve going to Seattle Children's. Maybe playing fetch with Bella would do him some good...

Though I don't consider myself a dog person, I don't not consider myself a dog person and, dang it, I kind of liked Bella too. Apparently when I snuck out to get my camera, Marci said Bella whined the whole time I was gone. Is that good?

Anyway, we had to cut it short because there was another couple interested in Bella. Evidently when Marci got helped at the front desk, she got in *just* ahead of these other two ladies that wanted to see Bella. If they'd gotten to her first, I'm pretty sure they would have adopted her right then and there. As it is, we did put a hold on her and we've been discussing it all night. These folks have second dibs.

From the HS, we headed to Nancy's (Erin's mom, where Lulu lives) house to pick her brain about dogs. I got a chance to play with Lulu and, you know what? I enjoyed it. Of course, the consensus at her house is to get the dog.

I got home and called my bud Evan. I remembered he has a Golden Retreiver and I picked his brain. Of course, the consensus at his house is to get the dog.

I've put a picture of Bella on Facebook and, of course, the consensus on the Internet is to get the dog.

The thing is, I can't get a dog because of what everyone says. I'm pretty sure if we get a dog, my mom and Marci's mom will disown us. My brother (he of the 2 dogs!) may not approve, but in the end, I know he has my back. My niece Megan in Ireland will now have another reason to want to be back in the US (the other 2 reasons are Knight's dogs. She really wants a dog).

But, the thing is, I can't not get a dog because of what everyone says.

So I guess I need to think of what's best for my family and I. One other thing to consider is that cat of ours. She's been with Marci and I since '95 or so and she's pretty mellow. Knight's brought his dogs here once and though the cat didn't like it, she survived. Of course, if we adopt Bella, they do a cat test and if Bella eats the cat, well I guess all bets are off.

But back to us. I see two main factors. One is money. In talking to Nancy and Evan, they estimate yearly dog care to be approximately $500 or so. Managable. In talking to my brother, keeping in mind he has 2 dogs, well, the cost is much more. In addition, with me being unemployed (but finally receiving unemployment!! Yay!) and Marci being partially employed, maybe it's not the best time.

The other factor would be the added responsibility. My bro is always running home to let his dogs out (either that or he's avoiding us!). We'd have to feed and water and walk the dog. More poop, too. Added wear and tear on stuff, furniture, etc.

But are those "responsibilities" enough to make us pass this up? I don't know! Was this dog fate? After all, it was me who suggested going there. And they happened to have a dog that Haley just gravitated to. And tonight at dinner, the pot Marci cooked the pasta in had a label on it. Bella Cuisine, it read. For real.

I guess the bottom line is I'll be giving it some thought tonight and tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Music stuff

2009-06-02T12:20:00.000-07:00

Well, gigs are a comin'!

The Scheme had 2 gigs lined up. One was for this Friday at the New Frontier in Tacoma. The other was at the end of June, where we'd play a stop in the Rock n Roll Marathon. We got assigned a stage at the 99 and Elliot Ave off ramp (or something like that). They gave us a 2 hour slot to play and it sounded pretty cool.

Then I got a phone call from David with some bad news. Gregg, our drummer, sliced his left thumb pretty badly (ligament and tendon damage; surgery and PT to follow) and would be out for pretty much the whole summer. Major suckage.

But, that's the beauty of playing in two bands. After making sure it was cool, I ran it by the Lunds and they agreed to play these two shows. So, for the month of June, that gives us 3 shows (the third one is 6/19 in Olympia).

This Friday's show should be fun. I had asked Llama to play with us, but evidently their drummer is unable to play due to health reasons, so Rusty will be playing an acoustic set. After he plays, the Lunds will take the stage and following us will be a new band called the Build Up. I'm excited to see the Build Up as it features a bunch of Unsmashable All Stars, with Heather on guitar and vocals, Wesley from Young Sportsmen on bass, and Ryan from the i love myselfs/Young Sportsmen on drums. I'm hoping they bring a nice contingent of people as it's their first show. We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, here's hoping Gregg has a safe and relatively pain-free road to recovery. I can't imagine what I'd do if I gutted one of my hands.

My babies done left me

2009-05-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

This morning.

This evening.

:(

Good bye feathered friends,
I hope we meet agains.

More birdy pictures

2009-05-26T16:27:00.001-07:00

Mama bird

5 days old.

7 days old.

9 days old.

Today, 10 days old. So furry!

Spring has sprung?

2009-05-26T10:49:00.001-07:00

We have baby birds living in a bush RIGHTNEXT to the back door. As in, open the door, reach out, and get buzzed by a low-flying red breasted robin.

The next was empty for a while, then, one Saturday, I peeked in.

Then next morning, not even 12 hours later, I peeked in again.

A few hours later, I peeked in again.

This was just over a week ago. Since then, the mama bird and a daddy bird (I think) have been flying around. When we slide open the door, the bush rustles, then a bird takes off. We've seen both birds hanging out by the bush, on our back hill, on the nearby bushes, often with worms in their beaks.

Today the chicks are chirping and, when we peek in, looking for food from the parents. They have feathers and have pretty much doubled in size. It's kind of neat. I've grown pretty attached to these guys. It'll be neat to see how they turn out.

Back from the dead

2009-05-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

No reason for the downtime. Just not into blogging, I guess.

I just got back from 2 hours of God Rock. I played in the worship band at SPU for a little function for the college kids. I rehearsed for 3.5 hours yesterday and now my hands are kind of tired (but not too tired to blog).

In addition, today, I climbed on the roof and cleaned the gutters (leaf blower to gutters FTW), went to a friend's house for a double family Memorial Day barbecue, came home and mowed the lawn, then weed wacked the back yard. It was a busy day.

Anyway, it was interesting playing this gig. Musically, it wasn't my finest moment. I guess I did ok, but it's hard playing the worship songs because we never practice but for the performances, which is my fault, because I don't want to tack on any more practice time than needed. Also, the drummer we had today has been away from drums for awhile and is out of practice. He has some time issues, but appears willing to learn.

What was cool about playing there at SPU was the people that came to watch. It was college students and, since SPU is a Christian college, they were religious. Usually when I play out, the people watching are drinking beers and sitting around. For this thing, people were out in the middle of Martin Square dancing, singing, praying, kneeling, holding hands and just having moments. Though it wasn't for the band, the sight of these people showing some sort of emotion or reaction to the event was pretty cool.

A few of us went out for food after the gig and found a cool place in Fremont. Forget what the place was called, but you get big ass slices of pizza for $4.95. Pretty neat.

I'll get caught up in another blog tomorrow. It's time for bed now.

What's next?

2009-05-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

I think I have writer's block. All I want to write about is how I've been spinning my wheels the past few months. No progress on the job front. No progress on the legal front. No leads on the horizon.

At what point to I swallow what little pride I have left so that I can at least get a paycheck?

Church today said that God will provide. I'm not looking for a handout, but a little nibble might be nice.

I feel like a dull failure. I feel like I'm wasting my time looking on Craigslist every morning. Then I set my sights higher, look at Amazon.com or Microsoft or something and realize that I simply cannot do the things that they want an employee to do.

Heck. I don't even know what I want to do. People ask me and I have no idea what to tell them. When I went from the Y to work for Dad, I didn't have a job interview. I didn't have to give a resume. I guess that's a plus when your dad is the boss.

These days, I have a resume, but, in my humble opinion, it's kind of a joke. It's so hard to be objective about myself. I know I'm good at stuff, but so many of those employers are looking for something specific.

Part of me is like, "Hey, get your ass back to school! Get some knowledge on these 'specifics' and get your ass hired!"

Then I realize you need to have $$$ to go to school and $$$ is something that is sorely lacking. Plus, the way the C&A situation is, well, let's just say I won't be taking out any loans anytime soon.

On the plus side, I'm really enjoying the family time. I love spending extra time with the kids and with Marci (what little I see of her. She's a busy bee!). I wish I was more handy; I could whittle down my imaginary Honey Do list. I'd start with replacing the ballasts in the garage lights, then maybe power wash the driveway. Gutters need cleaning too.

All of a sudden I just realized those things are easy. I just need to do them. Don't worry. I'm on it!

I just hate having a pity party.

What's new?

2009-04-29T23:29:00.000-07:00

Been spending lots of time in front of the computer at home. The past few days have been spent working on C&A taxes. I have finished them; now I just need to get the funds to pay them. Sweet!

I've been pounding pavement (ie: searching the internet/Craigslist/etc) for job listings. People ask me what I want to do. I have no clue. Selling computers isn't cutting it, that's fer sure. I've emailed and called customers and either they hate me or they are out of money or both. I don't really know. In the 2 or so weeks I've been "working", I've made 2 sales, which should pay for lunch sometime soon.

Our trip to FL was super duper. I've been posting my journal entries verbatim and, while they look good all handwritten, something gets lost in the translation to blog form. Don't know if I'll put any more up, but I may use the notes and springboard from there.

Not much else to note. I tried growing facial hair the past week but I shaved it all this morning. If I could only grow sideburns.

I'm going to bed.

Now listening: Katy Perry

2009-04-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Not bad!

10:10PM EST end of day 3

2009-04-26T14:02:00.000-07:00

Today was kind of back to routine, I suppose. Well, at least we got the kids in bed by 9:30. Still up, though.

Another beautiful day here. We got up around 8 and were done w/breakfast by 10 or so. We headed for the Magic Kingdom at WDW.

Well, we got there and spent about an hour in Main Street, just inside the park. We got the kids lanyards and some pins to start pin collecting. It was fun to see the kids hook up with cast members. We tried to get Rye a haircut so Marci waited with him. Hay + I took off + found Pinocchio and got some pix and an autograph.

The magic button Rye gets to wear sure is cool. It will be tough to go back in the future.

We made our way over to Fantasy Land and did the Dumbo ride, had lunch, got our stroller lost (moved), and took some more rides. (Snow White + Pooh x2)

I think my favorite thing today was meeting the Princesses + Fairies in Mickey's Toon Town. The kids all got pix + autographs with the fine, fine ladies. Riley got some serious smooches and then they met the Fairies.

From there we headed to Tomorrow Land + got to meet Buzz Lightyear and do his shooting ride (not that exciting, IMO).

We also watched the Monster's Inc comedy show. That was cute but boy am I glad we have those passes.

And what day would be complete without a meltdown by Haley? Marci wanted a hat so we got her one. Then Haley couldn't decide what she wanted. Instead, she dragged her feet and then lost out. She is unable to make decisions and it cost her again. She basically freaked out until we got on the ferry to go to the parking lot.

Things got better when we got back, but it's now the horrible bed time routine again. Riley is singing now. Not sure about Hay, but I'm gonna read now.

Tomorrow's agenda: Animal Kingdom. Wish us luck.

9:30 EST Day 2

2009-04-24T21:14:00.000-07:00

Horrible night sleeping for some reason. Maybe the bed was too bouncy. Anyway I'm up now with Riley & we're hanging out on our front porch enjoying the warmth and each other's company.

I am so happy to be here, for Rye's sake and our family's sake. Just to be AWAY from everything has been such a relief, even though we just got here.

Haley is still sleeping and at this rate, we may miss the big breakfast. Marci is at the orientation and should be back shortly.

In the meantime, I'm gonna hang out & enjoy Rye's company.

12:45EST

Waiting for lunch. Spent a fun morning hanging out at GKTW. Lots of fun stuff for us to do, all of it FREE!

Rye got a tasty strawberry shake. The kids got wish pillows. We got a free lunch. It's pretty cool!

9:45EST

Wow. That was fun! After lunch we headed to Universal and ended up going to Islands of Adventure. Not the most kid friendly, but it had Dr. Seuss-Land and we wanted to hit that up. We went on the One Fish 2 fish ride. That was fun. Me + Hay got all wet. It was hot and sunny today. Pretty crowded too. I took a ton of pix and had fun documenting.

The whole MAW/GKTW pass was awesome. We got to the front of the few rides we did. We also got to "meet" Spider-man and get an autograph. Later on, Storm, Rogue and Wolverine came by and we got to have special meet + greet with them due to the passes. Very cool. We did a few more rides and bought some souveniers. And it is so much fun to do it on someone else's dime. Everyone should get an opportunity to travel without worrying about money.

We headed back to the Villa for some dinner (not so yummy) and partying as it was Mayor Clayton's birthday @ GKTW. Dancing and tons of pictures ensued. Haley + I had Dippin Dots and then we all took a train ride.

All in all, it was a very fun day. Haley had a few moody moments - quite a few, actually, including now, at 10:00pm. Overtired and she simply can't control herself. Super annoying and it gets our goat every time.

4/17/09 Day One

2009-04-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

Shuttle Xpress limo van
Make a Wish credit card
Wendy's lunch
Southwest boarding - weird
flight to KC, then ORL
Kindle on board, Moving Pictures on MP3.

3:25PST

Descending into KC.
Kids good on first leg.
Read a lot.
DVD player wasn't charged after all. Hope it doesn't matter on 2nd leg.
Plane is 3 seats/side. Marci sat w/kids & I sat on other side of aisle.
Nothing terribly interesting to report. Some turbulence. 74 degrees @ KC.

4:30PST

Back in the air. Tried a sudoku puzzle + failed miserably. Some nice folks let us borrow their DVD player. They're on the way to WDW too.

I guess we landed in Kansas City, MO, not KS.

2+ more hours of this fun. Hay + Rye watching Scooby Doo. I'm going to read and we'll be there in no time. Also, why do pilots always mumble when they speak on the P.A.?

9:20EST

Plane descending, Riley asleep. Haley a little grouchy but hanging in.

I caught Riley picking his nose... and EATING it. It's the second time I've seen it. ICK.

Dark outside, then it's off to eat, most likely at the airport.

Finished my book "AFRAID". Pretty action packed. Someone should make a movie out of it.

I am ready to be off this plane and on with our trip. Kids are gonna be a mess, I think.

Oh well, all's well that end's well. No drama. But I am full of gas and the seats are not cloth. So I'm being polite and abstaining. But it's uncomfortable.

1am EST

We are at the villa, #284. It's pretty cool. We have a king size bed. The kids have twins in their own room, plus a giant bathroom complete with "hot pool".

They stocked the fridge with Boston Market as they knew we were getting in late. Yum.

They rented us a Toyota Camry and it's noisy.

Toll roads everywhere. It's kind of lame. It's warm + muggy and the kids may still be up right now.

Not sure what the plan is tomorrow but it should be fun!

Guilt trip

2009-04-15T22:48:00.000-07:00

Our big trip is on Friday and it couldn't come at a better/worse time. It's coming at a good time because of all the drama that we've endured the past 6 months or so. I won't rehash it here as if you've been following along, you know what's going on. It's bad because right now, Daddy is not making any $$ and is, for all intents and purposes, unemployed (not getting a paycheck means unemployed, right?).

Trouble is, the state still sees me as an officer of my corporation. On paper, I am. But the business is dead and I have to jump through a bunch of hoops (and pay taxes) to get out from under it. Until then, I can't collect unemployment.

I have sent out resumes and haven't heard anything back yet. I'm tempted to go pull shots at Tully's or something because even at $9.00/hour (or whatever they pay), it's more than what I'm making now.

So, while we're vacationing in sunny, muggy Florida, I'll be missing out on prime job hunting time, as well as business wind down time.

It's a conundrum, no? I just gotta get in the vacation mindset, I suppose. Once we're off the ground, I should feel better. After all, this is 6 days where Marci and I can just spoil the kids and not worry about anything else.

I can't wait, but part of me is feeling guilty for leaving this mess behind...

I turned 37 today. What did you do?

2009-04-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

I think I'm having a pre-mid-life crisis. Is there such a thing?

I had a gig on Friday. I talked to some friends in other bands. I felt like such a crybaby telling them about what's been going on. They ask how I'm doing, I say ok. I tell them about our MAW trip coming up and why we're going. Which leads to talking about Riley's surgery. Which leads to discussing our past 6-7 months.

If I'm sick of talking about it, I'm sure you're tired of reading about it.

Anyway, I figured, they asked, I'd fill them in a little. I just don't want to come across like I'm throwing a pity party. I'm not. But, it is my/our life and that's what's going on.

So, for me, the last 7 months or so of being 36 were pretty crummy. So far, the first day of being 37 has been pretty rad. Except for the rain.

Things I've done since I turned 37:

played bass in church. Normally not too exciting, but today it was pretty cool. Good song choices.
watched Marci get dunked in a pool. Normally quite exciting, but today it was pretty awesome. It was Easter, after all.
dyed Easter eggs with Riley. It was his first time. Pretty fun. Haley had the dropsies. She'd be lucky if she had one uncracked egg.
took Riley to the doctor. As luck would have it, he has Fifths disease. It's weird. Don't ask. Nothing serious.
lectured Haley about eating candy. She's turning into quite the candyholic. I think she needs help.
had a birthday party with some friends and their family. It was quite nice of them to invite us over as all my family are either passed away or out of the country. Quite literally, my entire family is not in North America. Well, except Dad, but he's in an urn. LOL.
ate a steak. It was tasty. The house is still smoky.
did excise taxes for C&A. That was lame.
got my hair done. Haley likes to play hair salon with my unruly hair. Sadly (for her), I'm getting it cut tomorrow. Manageable hair, here I come!
opened birthday presents. I got a man purse (messenger bag), a photography book, some money, and a cool shirt from the McCaskills for helping name their baby. ;0

All in all, not a bad day. It was a nice reprieve from the job hunt/business closing. Unfortunately, I can't avoid that crap much longer. I'm going to have to hit it this week before our trip and then when I get back. I think there is an end in sight, but I'm gonna have to work at it to make it happen.

In the meantime, here's a picture of one of my new friends.

Last night at the New Frontier Lounge!

2009-04-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

It was an epic 3 way battle for Tacoma's affections. In one corner, it was us, the Lund Bros. In the other corner, rock heavyweights Guns and Rossetti. And in yet another corner, it was relative newcomers, the I Love Myselfs (though their collective experience probably outweighed everyones!). We all descended upon the NFL for some serious rock and shenanigans.

First up was GNR. I spoke with ex-guitarist, current bassist, Marsh Gooch, at length about his new position in the band. Apparently the ex-bassist left/moved and kind of left GNR in the lurch. Marsh took it upon himself to get a bass (offered a trade for my SB-2, black. Too bad I don't play guitar!), a rig and learn the songs. He ended up getting an Ibanez P (Destroyer?) and a sweet little (re:big) rig.

The guys took the stage and did not disappoint. Marsh's bass was aptly named as his tone did destroy. The music flowed fast and free, kind of nasty, a little naughty, definitely rocking and fists were pumping. Strangely, the boys in GNR wore matching sweater vests. It was sort of cute.

I brought my fancy new camera and took a ton of pix, almost 300, but sadly, most of them were crap. I'm learning how to use it, but what I learned last night was that this camera may suck for low light shooting. Of the 50+ pix I took of GNR, maybe 10 were worth keeping. But I digress.

Dick and co. put on a great set, though the sound was a bit weird throughout. Vocals were down and it just seemed off to my ears. Oh well, as, weird sound or not, we were up next.

After some technical difficulties (bad monitor output), we were off and running. We started off with Enjoy the Fire, from the Loser record. It's a fun little tune to start with and I felt really good about things, until I exhaled through my nose and felt a snot bubble (a little TMI here). I was able to sniff it up during the song, but it was there and it was bugging me. There was no Kleenex to be found anywhere, so I had to tough it out. Luckily, our second song was I Don't Believe in You and I don't play for the first 16 bars or so. I was able to disengage my bass, set it down, poke my head out the side load-in door, do a farmer's blow, get back on stage and continue, all without missing a note. Go me!

We continued on and I think our 4-5 consecutive weeks of rehearsal paid off. Things felt really cohesive and tight. Though there was a little hiccup in the middle of Accident, we were strong. At least I felt that way until our new cover, Flavor of the Month, by the Posies. We'd had two practices with that song. I'd worked on singing the vocals all week (backing in the verses), even busted out the keyboard to figure out the notes. Came up with a little device to remember the melody (think "Oh when the Saints" from When the Saints Come Marching In). Plus, the note I sing is the same note I play on bass. Did any of that help?

Nope.

It was a train wreck vocally for me. Instrumentally a little as well, but, in the end, it was fine. It'll come together quick enough.

Oh yeah, we debuted Sean's new song, It's Okay, and that was great. No screw ups there and the people seemed to dig it. I was also able to make it through my arch-nemesis, Chris' Find the Sun, with hardly a problem. Good for me, I suppose.

Up last was the I Love Myselfs. I think they played their first show with us. Back then, it was Oly (Twink [among others]) on guitar, Heather (Riffbrokers) on bass and Jason (Small Change) on drums. I think it was the Skylark and it was pretty loose. Fast forward to last night (we'd played with them since the first time) and add Ryan (Sportsmen) on guitar and some rehearsals and you have a whole new band.

These guys were great. I think I've written about Oly before. He's big and tall and has this cool spastic stage presence. His songs are quick and to the point and just plain cool. Neal at the NFL finally dialed in the vocals (I think he did in our set too, so I hear) and it was great to hear everyone backing Oly. I've seen Ryan sing many times, but I think last night was the first time I'd heard him sing.

They did Great White Buffalo!!

All in all, it was a super night. People seemed to have a good time. I know I had fun watching and listening. And we get to do it all again next Friday at the Skylark. It'll be us, the ILMs and Throwback Suburbia from PDX. Should be a super time. Plus it's my birthday on the 12th. Buy me a drink!

Friday at the New Frontier

2009-03-30T22:23:00.001-07:00

Welp, it's almost over

2009-03-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

Since mid-February, I've been winding down the family business. Mom and Dad started the business back in 1981. It's been a part of my life for just over 27 years. In 5 days, it'll be done. Computers & Applications will cease to exist.

At least physically, that is.

You see, I have to be out of our space by 4/1. The past few weeks have been spent selling, Craigslisting, recycling, shredding, dumping, and just plain moving. The next few days will consist of more moving and selling, some cleaning and possibly some relief.

Things have been bad at C&A for a while now. It wasn't until mid-Feb that I realized just how bad things were. If I had more of a business mind (M&D always said I should've taken more accounting courses) it's possible I would've seen this coming earlier and perhaps made changes, or even pulled the plug then, but I didn't. So I'm pulling the plug.

I've had a long time to think about things. I've had time to point fingers and get advice. At this point, there is no blame to be put around, other than with myself. I'm pretty sure if the two guys who left in Oct/Nov 08 didn't leave, I'd still be in the same boat, only with a lot more drama then there already is.

Speaking of drama, as if closing the business and being out of work isn't dramatic enough, there's the little matter of all the money owed to creditors by C&A. I'd get into it more, but it just doesn't seem the place to do so. So I'll just say that things will continue to be interesting even after I am out of the building and working on closing out C&A. Not looking forward to that.

So, having said all that (and believe me, that's brief), it's not to say that everything sucks and is horrible. On the contrary. Besides the fact that I haven't been paid since Feb. 1, well, things aren't too shabby.

Luckily we have money saved up. It won't last forever, but it'll get us by for now.
We have Riley's Make a Wish trip coming up in a few weeks. Timing is bittersweet. It's good in that we get to get away at a most stressful time. It's bad because I need to find a job and I probably won't find one in Florida.
Everyone is healthy and doing well.
Spring is here and it's going to get nicer out soon.
Friends are really helping out and being there for us.
Though I don't have any job leads yet, something positive may be coming my way...

This period in my life is just a little speed bump. Or perhaps a fender bender would be more appropriate. It's not going to be a lot of fun, but I'll come out ok in the end. When I'm 80+ and shuffling around the retirement home, this period of my life will be long gone, but it'll definitely be a pivotal period, and it may go a long way in determining what I'll be doing and who I'll become.

Should be interesting, no?

AWESOME!

2009-03-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Trying to stay positive

2009-03-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

It's not that hard for me to do so. I get bummed, so I think of others who have it worse. Then I don't feel as bad. Then I see what I'm up against and KAPOW! A little overwhelming.

So, I'm thankful for the help, support and love of others. I wanted to give some shouts out to people who have been completely awesome in this time of EPIC FAIL for me. In no particular order:

Yumei: she showed just how awesome she was when Dad died. Now that we're going through what we're going through (and I'm sorry for the vagueness. It'll come out in due time), I'm just glad she's here with me, doing the grunt work so I can do some of the important (re: NOT FUN) work.
Rich L. & Ed: they went above and beyond the call of duty, basically out of loyalty and a desire to serve. Incredible.
Knight: There's a reason that after 1. Voice Mail, 2. Marci Home, 3. Marci Cell, Knight Cell is Speed Dial number 4. He's my go-to guy and his help, advice and occasional butt-whompings have kept me pointed in the right direction.
Evan: He's gone rough trials of his own recently, but he's found time for me. I wish I could say all my calls to him were for fun reasons, but more often than not, it was for advice. As he says, "that's what friends are for." Indeed.
Mom: she's been a pretty much constant companion (if not car-pool buddy) through this. The more I talk to her, the more she channels Dad. It's funny. Now she's on a cruise to Italy (I think) and she left her digital camera battery here. Ugh. Kind of my fault. I forgot to tell her to take it. Oops.
Rob: someone who's been through a lot and has been willing to share his experiences and knowledge with me. Sometimes, I think of how he might handle a situation and try to do the same. Believe it.
David: another friend who's been helping me professionally. Normally I don't like working with friends for fear of letting them down, but David has been nothing but straight forward with me and his advice and friendship has meant a whole lot. Not to mention we make music together, so that's cool too.
Mark: his cool demeanor and willingness to help has helped me get perspective on things when I'm feeling overwhelmed. This kid (I have 10 years on him) teaches me something every time I see him. I don't know if that's good or bad.
Ted and Judy: yes, the in-laws make the list too. They've come across tough times of their own in this economy, yet they find time to advise us and share their experiences.
Jill B.: it was short and sweet, but seeing Jill was a definite pick-me-up. Plus it helps that her parents are super cool. And that the kids love them. But definitely, Jill will pick you up when you're down.
Jill C.: her friendship and professional advice to me has been very stabilizing. Again, someone I call only when I need something, it seems, but I hope she understands that she's more to us than just someone we have a business relationship with.
Haley and Riley: every night when I get home, I come up the stairs and say, "Hi friends!" and more often than not, I get ignored because they're watching TV. No big deal, as that just means I'm in Daddy Attack Mode and the tickle time begins. I recharge with a couple big ol' hugs and all is good in the world. Plus, those kids have been with me the past 3 weekends when I've been at work and haven't complained yet. Have they?
Marci Chang: my rock steady wife has been so awesome through this whole ordeal. A lot of the time, how Marci goes, I go. This time, she's been solid and I cannot tell you how important that is to me. In this time of uncertainty and worse, she has held it together remarkably well, all the while managing this house, the kids, the PTA, groceries, cooking, planning dates (she shared a massage with me this weekend!), talking to all sorts of unfun, but necessary people, and so on and so forth. Once we get through this, Marci will get a big gold star. She's the best.

Now I know how Oscar winners feel. I'm sure I've left some people out, but, truth be told, I'm gassed right now. I am going to go chill for a little bit.

Positivity! It's the new black!

Playing around with the new camera

2009-03-11T22:07:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago we got a new camera. I bought a book. I've tried learning about apertures and shutter speeds, composition and the 1/3rd rule.

It's kind of fun!

The camera we got is a Canon SX110 IS. It's a point n shoot, but not totally entry level. I like it a lot and I've been trying to get my photog on with it. Here are some samples.

Trying to get fancy with depth of field on a bike rack.

My favorite recent picture of Haley. She just got her hair cut.

I saw the badge and wanted to make it artsy.

My favorite recent picture of Riley.

I am writing a resume

2009-03-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

Jesus, what a drag.

Come the end of the month, I will be joining the masses of the unemployed. I'll save the story for a later date, but suffice it to say, it's time to get my rear in gear and "market" myself.

I am sitting here, listening to a Boston bootleg of their songs from the Boston record. These are pre-production and they are raw, but they are genius. It's pretty amazing to hear just how complete these songs are.

Anyway, I better get back to work. Just wanted to check in.

Haley's Blog

2009-03-02T22:25:00.000-08:00

For anyone interested, I did start a little blog for Haley a few months ago. Marci has Riley's blog pulled to her FB account and I have my own on mine, so unless we have a third parent, Haley's will not be included.

Until now!

I was gonna make something using Yahoo Pipes, but it got too convoluted and I didn't want to have multiple entries. Anyway, if you want to read up on Haley, check her out here:

Haley's Blog

We promise not to disappoint!

OH MY GOODNESS MARCH SUCKS SO FAR!

2009-03-02T21:22:00.000-08:00

I love Caps Lock.

Interesting things I've done in March:

Contacted a lawyer (then uncontacted him)
Spent a Sunday at work (yesterday)
Thought my ceiling was leaking (see above [no pun intended])
Fixed a computer at home (usually done at work)
Canceled band practice (hate doing that)
Worked on a resume (wait. what?)
Cried (though technically that was 2/28)
Got an ice cube massage (from Riley. Don't ask)
Made big ass changes at work (more detail in the future)

If the rest of March is like this, and I have reason to think it will, well, I'll be dead.

APRIL FOOLS!

Right now, it's all a "situation", as a wise sage told me last night (a friend working on refinancing our mortgage). Many of us are going through "situations" right now, right? Money's tight, between jobs, etc, etc. Will we survive? Most definitely. Will it be easy?

HELL NO.

But, what doesn't kill makes stronger, blah blah blah. What happens if I'm not stronger at the end of this? I'll wish I was dead? I don't think so. Does an optimist ever wish he was dead? That's a weird thought.

---

In completely unrelated news, I have some shows coming up in April. Both are with the Bros. and they happen in back to back weekends. First up is 4/3, at the New Frontier in Tacoma. That should be boss.

Next up is 4/10 at the Skylark. That will be boss as well. And, to top it off, my birthday is that Sunday, so I'm thinking of promoting it as a birthday show. This could be very cool, or completely deflating and depressing (what optimist?). I'd like to think people would want to come regardless if it was my birthday or not. My experience would show that I'd have 1-2 or .5-1 or .25-.5 people at any given show. Though, my last Bros. show at the Mars Bar, there were at least 3 people there for me.

So, I'm thinking if I say it's my birthday that weekend, maybe instead of 1-2 people, I'd have 3-5? More? Less? I don't even want to think about it. The potential of MAJOR FAILURE is always there and to get my hopes up that even 1 or 2 people would show up is not worth the crushing defeat later.

It's like I'm Charlie Brown and they're the Little Red Haired Girl. I just want them to notice me. That's all.

Tough times, that's for sure

2009-02-24T23:08:00.000-08:00

Still here, still kicking around. What's that I sense?

A change, that's what.

I don't want to get into too much detail until who knows, when, but suffice it to say, this economy is not making things easy for us.

As Dad used to say, "Be alert! Be positive!"

:)

Another Facebook rip-off

2009-02-21T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here's the lastest thing going around Facebook. If anything, they get you thinking.

Think of 15 albums, CDs, LPs (if you're over 40) that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life. Dug into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wasu, literally socked you in the gut, is what I mean. Then when you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it! These are listed in no particular order of preference.

I will do as many as I see fit and though they were not necessarily "life changing", they are records that introduced me to artists/bands that I simply cannot be without anymore.

Here we go...

Rush - Moving Pictures: I grew up listening to Top 40 stuff. KUBE 93 (before they went hip hop/R&B) way back in the day. When I got to high school and started playing bass, things changed. A friend of mine turned me onto Rush for some reason and when I got Moving Pictures, I had to have more. It began an unhealthy obsession with this Canadian band, but one that has been with me for most of my life.
Rush - Exit Stage Left: Rush's second live album, though I got it on tape. I wore it out in my bedroom. I had my little Steinberger bass copy (Hohner) and would hit [PLAY], then [STOP] and [REWIND] to learn Geddy's bass parts. I spent many an afternoon playing through that record and then marveling at how bad I was and how AWESOME Geddy and Co. were.
Boston - Boston: I turned myself on to these guys in high school as well. Don't remember why, but for whatever reason, I'm glad I did. I know there's people where their 70s were my 80s, and that they're sick of this band, but every time Boston comes on the radio (or mp3 player, or Rock Band), it stays on and I love it. It's incredible, too, that all the guitars and bass were done by one man (and some of the drums, for that matter), and that that record still sounds so good today.
Juliana Hatfield - Forever Baby: In college, where my folks business was was right next to a Tower Records/Video/Books. They put out a monthly magazine called Pulse. In that magazine was a mention of a Boston artist named Juliana Hatfield. For whatever reason, I was intrigued by her and decided to pick up her solo debut. As I listened to it, something in her music clicked with me. I don't know if it was lyrics (usually I'm not a lyric guy) or the music (more likely the case) or the fact that she played bass (always a sucker for that), but I just loved this record. Listening to it now, I still like it, but it's a first record, after all, and it's me that's changed. Jules has matured a bunch too, and I still love her music, but this was my first intro to her and as with Rush, my obsession with her has continued through the years.
Aimee Mann - Whatever: Another college discovery for me. In college, I knew who Aimee Mann was, of course. We'd all heard the song "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday (hush, hush, keep it down now, voices carry). Then (here's where the 6 degrees of Rush kick in) Aimee guested on a Rush record called Hold Your Fire. She sang some backing vocals on a song called "Time Stand Still" and "co-starred" in the horrible video that corresponded to it. I figured if she was good enough for Rush, she was good enough for me. I ended up picking up this record and just fell in love with it. So much good music, so catchy without being saccharine. As with Rush and Jules, anything Aimee puts out is a must buy for me.
Muse - Absolution: A few years ago, possibly in 04, prior to me getting an mp3 player, I would listen to the radio. I heard a song on The End that was quite intriguing to me. It had this really cool fuzzed out bassline, this incredible build of a pre-chorus, and some major hook action going on throughout the song. After doing some research, it turns out the song was "Time Is Running Out" by a little power trio out of England called Muse. I seem to remember heading to my local Barnes & Noble to pick up Absolution, only to find it not there. But their first record, Showbiz, was there and I grabbed that. After that, I was on a quest for all things Muse. As with Rush, Jules and Aimee, Muse is another Day One band for me.
Bryan Adams - Reckless: In middle school, this was a huge record for me. Sure, it was Top 40 material, but we all had to grow up sometime, didn't we? I remember how much "Kids Wanna Rock" just ROCKED. I remember not quite getting the "It's Only Love" duet with Tina Turner (TINA TURNER?) but now? What a great song! And the gravelly voice of Bryan Adams was something I could only dream about. 20+ years later, you gotta admit, Reckless is a pretty great record.
Styx - Paradise Theater: The first record I ever bought (meaning Dad got it on a 12 for .01 Columbia House deal) was Cornerstone by Styx. I picked that at age 8(?) because I liked the cover. Little did I know that the most powerful of all power ballads, "Babe", was on that record. But I digress. I soon thereafter got into Paradise Theater and I remember being a little confused. Now, don't get me wrong; I was all about the laser etched side 2 of the record that featured the Styx logo. I just didn't understand the concept behind a, well, concept album. I knew all the songs were tied into each other, I just didn't know why. These days, Styx is good for a trip down memory lane. Just watch out for the really new stuff. Ugh.
Rush - 2112: Speaking of concept albums, this little gem from Rush is the bee's knees, or something like that. I remember how much I loved the entirety of the 2112 side, and how much I loathed side 2, save for "A Passage to Bangkok", and that was from being exposed to that song from the ESL record. Playing along to it was always fun, until side 2, that is. These days, Rush performs this in drop-D tuning, which makes it sound kind of weird. Still good, but undeniably weird.
Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album): For whatever reason, I had a copy of this CD. Picked it up used, I think, but at the time, I never got into it. I don't know why that is. Because a few years later, I started listening to it and I COULDN'T STOP! Sure, I'd heard "Buddy Holly" and seen the video for "Gone Fishin'" (starring the Muppets) from the Green Album, but it wasn't until I really gave the Blue album multiple spins in the car that I fell for Rivers and co. They've had some missteps (and I'm looking at the last 2 records), but overall, =w= is another band I'm thankful for.
Damone - Out Here All Night: Ok, it's becoming pretty clear that this list of music maybe isn't so much "Records That Changed My Life", but more "Records From Bands I Really Really Love". This record is one of them. The story is much the same as the one where I discovered Muse. I heard this song, "Now Is The Time" on The End. Did some research. Saw they were a band out of Boston (what's with me and all the Beantown music??) and that their lead singer shared a last name with a co-worker. Turns out, the two were related and it was super weird and cool at the same time. Anyway, Damone is kind of party rock. Think Donnas with chops and you have Damone. It's pop + 80s hair metal and it's all good.
Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm: I love this record. I blogged about it here. It's such a good record, I listen to it at least once every couple weeks. It's another "concept" album in that she's telling an overarcing story, but each song is independent of the others and it's JUST SO GOOD. YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS CD. Seriously. Love it.
Lund Bros. - Tangents: Ok, this is kind of goofy. I play in this band, though I'm not on any of the Tangents songs. When I first hooked up with Chris and Sean, they sent me a handful of songs to learn. Once I heard them, I knew I had to play with them. Almost 4 years later, we're still on it and I'm still loving it, despite the drive. We have new CDs now and shows booked (or "show", as it were). I guess you can say that this is one record that did change my life.
Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory?: I completely dismissed this CD and band. I had this CD somewhere in the stacks, bought used, and didn't ever listen to it. Sometime last year, I dusted it off and started listening. I fell in love with these 10+ year old songs. I think the 90s called and wanted their Oasis CD back. Anyway, I sought out the rest of Oasis' catalog and became a bonafide fanboy. Maybe it's the brother angle (see #13), maybe it's how Noel stands like a statue when he sings, maybe it's all the drugs (??), but I really dig these guys and songs like "Don't Look Back In Anger" really do it for me.
Sara Bareilles - Little Voice: Trendy, yes, but don't deny you love "Love Song". I am a straight man and I love that song. And I was an early adopter, way back in 10/07. Seriously! Heard that song on the Mountain and did some research. 2 hours later, she was on my hard drive. The entire CD is fantastic and, though she's not from Boston (NorCal, I think), she's great. I keep telling a friend of mine she'd love Sara, but I'm not sure if she's hooked it up yet. D- if you're reading, get this CD. You'll love it.

Anyway, that's it. If it wasn't 11:50pm, I'd dig out the camera and take pix of the CDs I own and make this post even more self-indulgent. As it is, you're left with just my favorite 15 CDs. So, take that!

Armando: happy now???

Things I need, in no particular order

2009-02-16T20:52:00.000-08:00

a haircut. It's been since early December since I cut my hair and right now, it's a stinkin' mess. But, haircut = $$$ and, therefore, it's not a big priority right now.
children who mind. It's not always, but almost every night, and right at bedtime. Riley has been really bratty right at bed. He pretty much does anything he can to stay awake. He'll come out of his room. He'll stall going potty and then go when he's about to pass out. He'll talk and then come tell us he can't sleep. Parents know what I'm talking about. We have his lock on his door so we can lock him in, but if/when we do that, he goes nuts and it's just a huge pain.
some customers. Work has been really slow of late and cashflow is very tight. Customers are cinching their belts tight and not spending like they used to. I'd like to do some advertising/marketing, but to do that, I need some $$, and $$ is what I don't have. Though I did have some ideas today that I'll try out tomorrow. Stay tuned.
patience. See above.
mad skills. We recently replaced our digital camera (somehow the LCD broke. I replaced that and the display is still shot. Bad video component, I think) and I've spent a lot of time taking pictures, reading books and really learning how to use it. It's not terribly fancy (not a DSLR), but it's nicer than the one we had. The pix I've taken are nothing special, but it is a lot of fun trying to give some thought to the photos, instead of just clicking away aimlessly.
better discipline. I started the year off working out again. The past two weeks? Not so much. I was going to tonight, but, alas, got sidetracked. Marci and I will tomorrow night. Yesterday morning, she was going for a walk, but it was too cold so she did a TV workout with Trainer Bob. I was so proud! So, we're gonna try it together tomorrow.
some perspective. As tricky as it has been at work recently, I still have it ok, I suppose. I get to wondering what to do when my creditors are calling and asking for money I don't have. Then I start thinking about people who have it worse than I do. I suppose their bad luck makes me feel lucky? Is that bad?
a time machine. That way, I could go into the future and see what the hell happens. All this talk of another year of crappy, or "horrific", as I saw in the paper this weekend, economy is kind of frightening. It is bad, no doubt, but it's going to get worse? Shoot me now.

There you have it. An update. I was going to write about how I'm still here, but just taking a blog break, and then this happened. It's profound, I know. I guess I just couldn't stay away for too long.

I think I hear Riley goofing around. I'm going to go kick his ass.

Figuratively, that is.

How I ended up at the Comet with more Eastsiders than you can shake a stick at

2009-02-08T20:52:00.001-08:00

Turns out there's a band playing made up of a bunch of highschoolers. From my alma mater, no less.

It just looks weird, being in this dive with these kids and their parents.

I am so confused.

Last Friday at the New Frontier

2009-02-04T20:20:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a year since we last played Tacoma, so we figured, why the heck not? There's a new club there, cleverly named the New Frontier, and it was our CD release party. Plus, we hadn't gigged out since mid-October, so we were overdue for a show.

Sean had checked out the New Frontier and mentioned to me that it had much the same vibe of the Skylark in West Seattle. I will agree with him on that. It's a nice little place, with a stage on one end and a bar along the side of the space. The bathrooms are by the entrance, though, so if you gotta hit the head, the whole club doesn't have to see/know about it like they do at the Skylark, where the bathrooms are literally stage left.

Chris had set up this show and had gotten Girl Trouble on the bill. Way back when, GT kind of took us under their wing and got us in with some of the more established bands in town (see Unsmashable crew), so it was cool for them to want to play our CD show. Unfortunately, we had a hard time coming up with a third and went with a band suggested by GT, called the Drug Purse.

The DP was a 4 piece and they took the stage first. They had a real 60's/garage rock thing going, complete with snake lights on the drumset and a mood-setting rotating light thing on the bass rig. They were pretty loose and, well, garagey, and sadly, not too memorable except for the fact that the guitarist changed a string during the set. He sat on the floor and made it happen.

GT followed DP and they were a fun time. Their surf rock thing was energetic and KP was just great as the frontman... until he took off his shirt. Ugh. But, it was rock and roll after all, so no one minded. At one point, he put his mic in his mouth and barked like a dog. I mention this because one of us was going to have to sing into that mic later that night. Yikes.

After GT finished, we took the stage. We had a good amount of people, but I can tell you the amount of people who came down for little old me was zero! I wasn't expecting much, as it was in T-Town and not up here, so it was no big deal. I just hope the representation is better in Seattle next week.

As it was, Chris and Sean's friends filled the place. What was cool about it was they all seemed to know each other since high school days. They all grew up together and got married, etc, and it was just peachy! It made me a little green with envy; I have close friends from those days, but for whatever reason, the music connection wasn't there. Chris and Sean's friends are all into the tunes and have watched them perform for years.

Anyway, we got up there and played and, I gotta say, I think we played pretty well. I had to share a monitor speaker with Chris and the sound guy, Alex, had us dialed in really nicely. I could hear everything and sang with reckless abandon!

I also tried playing a little differently. I had my stage volume pretty high and tried to dial back the finger pressure. So often, when playing my beloved SB-2, especially on the bridge p/u, where the string is tighter, I get big ol' blisters. This time, being conscious about what I was doing, plus the louder stage volume, seemed to help that. In addition, I mixed up some of my basslines and tried to sprinkle some noodling in here and there. It kept me on my toes and hopefully was cool to listen to as well.

We played an extra long set, with some songs we hadn't played in many months, including 2 songs (Feel and New Horizons) which we hadn't even rehearsed. People got up and danced towards the end of the set and kept us entertained on stage.

It was really good to get out again and see the peeps and play some rock. 2.5 months between rock shows has got to stop. Luckily we have another show next Friday at the Mars Bar, once again for our new CD. I'm gettin' the word out to clubs for other shows, so hopefully we can play out more than 7 times this year (what we did last year!).

Up next: Mars Bar 2/13. Be there! It's the return of LLAMA!!

Weekend update

2009-02-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie. A show review is forthcoming; I just have to sit down and write it.

Saturday was a "glasses" day, as in I wore my glasses all day after getting to bed after 3am in the morning. We looked for ways to clean puke from the Pilot.

Sunday I went to church and got my God rock on with Rob. That was nice. It's always a pleasure to play with him and even playing God rock is no exception. We spent the afternoon looking for more ways to clean puke from the Pilot, as well as a new digital camera. Our screen broke and the replacement I got for it didn't work. Boo.

Today I came to work and was promptly called by the love of my life. She had taken Rye to Children's for a follow-up to his surgery. So not only did he get checked out, but she did as well, after accidentally getting boiling hot (literally!) water on her right hand. A few moments of agony and a couple of drugs later, Marci's second degree burn is doing as well as it can.

Whoopee doo! Look at us!

Behold! The Pukeapocaplyse may be upon us!

2009-01-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

Uh oh.

Yesterday, Riley decided to get up early so he could take Haley to school with Marci. He held his friend, Erin's, hand the whole time.

We got a call last night saying Erin had the stomach flu and hadn't puked yet... oh wait, she did right when we were on the phone.

Today seemed ok. Until Marci just called me and said that her friend's daughter, who went to Seattle with Marci, Haley, and Riley, for Marci's doctor's appointment (still with me?)

Just

Puked

In

The

Car.

I am at home, leisurely blogging and anxiously awaiting the arrival of the puke filled Pilot. I guess if Riley didn't have the stomach flu, he (and everyone else) is bound to get it now.

I have a cold or something

2009-01-28T11:26:00.000-08:00

I get about one cold a year. I think it decided to strike early this year. My nose is stuffy and congested. I've been sneezing a whole bunch today. Otherwise, I feel fine.

I've been drinking tea and blowing my nose. I've sneezed about 20 times today.

/rant over.

25 Random Things About Me

2009-01-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

This was forwarded to me via Facebook. I thought it might be fun to do. Plus, FB copies my blogs over there so I figured I'd do it here.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

Though I generally hate these self-promotion things, I do love to blog and love to think that people find me interesting enough to check back on my blog once in a while. Is that passive/aggressive?
I LOVE LOVE LOVE music, though my knowledge about such (trivia, band histories, etc) pales in comparison to the amount of which I love it. This makes for awkward conversations when I'm with people I feel like I need to impress (but really don't). I'm such a poser :(.
Speaking of music, my first instrument I ever played was piano. I followed that up with clarinet in elementary school. Why? Because the girls played clarinet and I liked girls! Why else?
In that 4th grade class, I also took needlepoint (is that when you have the metal circle holding your cloth pattern?) because the girl I crushed on was in it too.
Speaking of girls, I didn't marry my high school sweetheart (wait, what?), but I did marry my first real girlfriend.
I wish I could make a living playing music. Since that's probably impossible, I sure hope I can continue making a living running the family business.
I think I'm a pretty good dad, but everyday I realize that I'm not nearly as good as I think I am. I am a constant work in progress.
I take "Ignorance is bliss" way too seriously. Ignorance is not an excuse, dude!
I want to be one of those guys that when people talk about me, they say that I'm the salt of the earth. You know. That guy.
When someone is uncomfortable with me, it makes me uncomfortable with them. It just makes it that much cooler when you do meet someone who is at ease, which makes such a big difference!
I peruse For Sale ads online for basses almost daily. I don't have funds to get any, but I love to look, and if the opportunity presents itself, I may trade one of mine away to get what I want.
In 2001, I decided I needed a new car. For some reason, I liked how the VW GTI/Golf headlights looked, so I checked one out. Once I sat in the GTI and closed the door, I was sold. That door shut like the door to a vault and it made quite an impression. That's when my love affair with German cars began.
I have a minor obsession with 3 female singers. For whatever reason, they're all from the Boston area. Juliana Hatfield, Aimee Mann and Damone (featuring Noelle LeBlanc on lead vox). It's a coincidence, but there you go.
I taught myself how to play bass after borrowing my 7th grade band teacher's Fender Jazz one summer. He told me the notes of the strings and off I went.
In high school jazz band, which met every morning at about 6:20am (is that right?), there were 2 vintage Fender Jazz (70s era?) basses. They were pretty beat up, but if I knew then what I knew now, I'd have two vintage Fender Jazz basses hidden in my house somewhere. Shhh...
I went to college for 4.5 years or so and, outside of a few people I met, thought it was a complete waste of time. Of course, it didn't help that whenever a professor opened his or her mouth, I'd just fall asleep. Very weird.
I'm a decent skier, but haven't been for years. Hate the hassle of getting ready and going. But I might have to get Haley up there sometime.
I'd like to travel more, but don't have the funds to do so. I know Marci would love to do it more, too.
I cannot cook. But I'm great at laundry and dishes. I keep threatening to take some cooking courses. Then I'll be a triple threat!
I can build a computer from scratch. My own is about 4 years old and I'll run it into the ground.
In second grade, I won a poster contest. My prize was a helicopter ride in the 710 traffic copter. Unbeknownst to me, the "door" to the passenger side of the copter was basically an open window. Thankfully, I didn't fall out and die, as evidenced by this super interesting list.
Heights suck. I can't even watch something perilous on TV without my hands and feet sweating.
Speaking of feet, Marci bought me a PedEgg last summer. My feet were so soft!
Speaking of soft, what is it about the skin of the opposite sex? It's so soft and nice and all I want to do is touch it!
Stuff will happen and it's all about how you interpret it. It might be horrible and bad, but eventually, something good will rise, and that's how I like to look at it.

Still with me? Good for you. Now it's time for a snack.

I love TV

2009-01-23T23:13:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, American Idol (don't hate!).
Wednesday, American Idol and Lost.
Thursday, 30 Rock, The Office.
Friday, Friday Night Lights.

Thank God for DVR/Tivo and 30 second skip.

BTW, that awesome song you heard on Friday Night Lights tonight?

Just Lust, by Juliana Hatfield. Two of my favorite things, at the same time.

Awesome!

Gigs gigs and more gigs

2009-01-21T20:28:00.000-08:00

What's with the once a week posts? I don't know! I guess I've been busy. Lame excuse, but true, I suppose.

I wanted to throw down a music update. You wanted gigs? I got your gigs right here:

1. Jan 30 at the New Frontier in Tacoma. Lund Bros releasing our brand spankin' new CD, Songbook IV, with our old friends, Girl Trouble.

2. Feb 8 at the Comet on Capitol Hill. It's the Scheme and some other bands on a Sunday night.

3. Feb 13 at the Mars Bar on Eastlake. Lund Bros, Llama, Guns n Rossetti and the Riffbrokers doing our big Seattle CD release. That should be a whole bunch of funs!

4. Feb 21 at the Mars Bar on Eastlake. It's the Scheme again and I have no idea with whom.

I have rehearsals in between and it's all good. I also had a huge inspiration for a cover for the Lunds and I to do. I think we could totally pull it off, and even ask a guest to play rhythm guitar for us. All the bands we play with do covers and they're killer. Small Change > Faces "Stay With Me", Sgt. Major > Cheap Trick "Hello There", I Love Myselfs > Uriah Heep "Stealin'" (I think). Could Lund Bros. be in there with this song I'm thinking of? I think so. We'll see what happens.

Thanks again to Byron for the quick posters. He's the best!