Today, for the first time in my life, I had to fire someone. I can't go into the details of who or why, but suffice it to say, the reason was stupid. On the one hand, if it were actually my decision and not a serious matter of corporate policy, I would have let things slide. On the other hand, a lot of people's time was wasted because what happened was entirely preventable, so the irresponsibility of the whole thing makes it hard for me to feel sorry. What angers me the most is that I thought I was done with interviews for a while (I hate interviews with a mad, irrational passion).
The band is supposed to be trying out a drummer and guitarist tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes. A couple weeks ago, we were supposed to try out a different drummer/guitar combo, but that fell through before we even had a chance to get starting. I hate musicians.
In happier news, I am planning a trip to Seattle over Memorial Day weekend (leaving either Friday or Saturday before, and coming back the Wednesday after) to see two of my favorite recent bands, Lacuna Coil and The Gathering. If you know me, and are interested in taking the trip, let me know soon, as time is running short. Other than the show, I would like to take a tour of the wineries in the area, but I don't have any other specific plans.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Illness: Nature's way of telling you to get some damn sleep
Saturday night, a few of us were supposed to see Stephen Lynch at the Marquee. Unfortunately, it got postponed due to illness. Which is amazingly coincidental, because I wasn't feeling all that great that night either. Sunday wasn't any better. Monday was worse. And I hate wasting a sick day on actually being sick.
There was an interesting band development Saturday night. On the good side, we apparently have a drummer. On the bad side, we no longer have a singer. Bear with me here, and don't make any judgments until you've read the whole thing:
Mike has decided to give up lead singing and start playing the drums. He and Aaron decided that, since he does in fact have a pretty damn good sense of timing and rhythm, it would be better for the band if he switched sides. My initial thought was "I thought I was the designated abuser of mind-altering substances in this band", followed quickly with "Maybe these two need to start abusing some mind-altering substances." But I soon saw the rationale behind this, without the help of mind-altering substances: Not only do I not have to deal with a drummer, but, um, I, uh, don't have to ... deal with a drummer. At least, not of the stereotypical, flaky, unemployed, debt-ridden variety.
Walking to Mike's apartment from the Marquee gave me some time to reflect on this proposition, especially as we passed the Tempe Music Festival, and I was able to listen to a good deal of drumming from other bands, and noticing the almost child-like simplicity of it. And I don't mean simple in a "stripped-down, raw, intentionally uncomplicated" sort of way, I mean simple in the sense that the drummers seemed incapable of playing more than one beat between them all, and certainly were at a total loss to put any kind of passion or emotion into it.
The only thing I'm curious about, and what makes me wonder if Mike's really thought this all the way through, is that the drummer is normally at the back of the stage, where he doesn't get quite as much attention as the rest of the band. Maybe he thinks we'll let him set up his kit in front of the singer.
There was an interesting band development Saturday night. On the good side, we apparently have a drummer. On the bad side, we no longer have a singer. Bear with me here, and don't make any judgments until you've read the whole thing:
Mike has decided to give up lead singing and start playing the drums. He and Aaron decided that, since he does in fact have a pretty damn good sense of timing and rhythm, it would be better for the band if he switched sides. My initial thought was "I thought I was the designated abuser of mind-altering substances in this band", followed quickly with "Maybe these two need to start abusing some mind-altering substances." But I soon saw the rationale behind this, without the help of mind-altering substances: Not only do I not have to deal with a drummer, but, um, I, uh, don't have to ... deal with a drummer. At least, not of the stereotypical, flaky, unemployed, debt-ridden variety.
Walking to Mike's apartment from the Marquee gave me some time to reflect on this proposition, especially as we passed the Tempe Music Festival, and I was able to listen to a good deal of drumming from other bands, and noticing the almost child-like simplicity of it. And I don't mean simple in a "stripped-down, raw, intentionally uncomplicated" sort of way, I mean simple in the sense that the drummers seemed incapable of playing more than one beat between them all, and certainly were at a total loss to put any kind of passion or emotion into it.
The only thing I'm curious about, and what makes me wonder if Mike's really thought this all the way through, is that the drummer is normally at the back of the stage, where he doesn't get quite as much attention as the rest of the band. Maybe he thinks we'll let him set up his kit in front of the singer.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Night: The perfect time for dark thoughts
The dead are those with great wisdom,
we can put words in their mouths, and the living cannot argue with them
The dead are those who've done great deeds,
and no one is left to remember their humanity
The dead are those who were greatly wronged,
they cannot forgive, and no penance paid will ever be enough
The dead are those who we cannot bear
to accept that we will never see again
So we give them a home among the gods
and pray so that we may join them soon.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
No more road trips
Today I made my first flight as a private pilot, taking Debby up to Show Low to visit our cousin Shannon. After lunch we only had about an hour before heading back to return the plane, so she gave us a quick tour of some houses in the area, including a few in the 7-figure range. It's amazing how much people will pay to have a house that they will live in for no more than two weeks a year. I wouldn't mind having a vacation home up there, of course, but even the small ones would run about $300k.
The trip up there was uneventful, but the trip down started around 3:30, just in time to catch the hottest part of the day, so (jargon alert) not only did we have plenty of turbulence and wind shear, but it turns out that the density altitude was about 1700 ft above actual, and since this plane has a service ceiling of 11,000 ft, I was fighting to keep this plane at 8500 ft. Of course, every once in a while I'd catch an updraft, and within a few seconds I'd be about 300 ft higher than I wanted to be. Next time I head up that way on a warm day, I think I'd prefer a plane with more than 160 hp available.
So, who's up for lunch in Sedona in a couple weeks?
I also have a Public Service Announcement:
April is Alcohol Awareness Month. For those of you who are not aware of alcohol, it is a marvelous liquid that can make you happy and self-confident, promotes morality by acting as a truth serum, and allows you to see the inner beauty of others and become much, much less concerned with superficial physical beauty. I know that I myself will become very aware of alcohol about 10 minutes after I've paid by taxes.
The trip up there was uneventful, but the trip down started around 3:30, just in time to catch the hottest part of the day, so (jargon alert) not only did we have plenty of turbulence and wind shear, but it turns out that the density altitude was about 1700 ft above actual, and since this plane has a service ceiling of 11,000 ft, I was fighting to keep this plane at 8500 ft. Of course, every once in a while I'd catch an updraft, and within a few seconds I'd be about 300 ft higher than I wanted to be. Next time I head up that way on a warm day, I think I'd prefer a plane with more than 160 hp available.
So, who's up for lunch in Sedona in a couple weeks?
I also have a Public Service Announcement:
April is Alcohol Awareness Month. For those of you who are not aware of alcohol, it is a marvelous liquid that can make you happy and self-confident, promotes morality by acting as a truth serum, and allows you to see the inner beauty of others and become much, much less concerned with superficial physical beauty. I know that I myself will become very aware of alcohol about 10 minutes after I've paid by taxes.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Guess what I did today?
If you said "woke up, went to work, had dinner, went to gym, had some drinks, went to bed", you'd be absolutely right (except you'd need to add "wrote a completely inane blog" between "drinks" and "went to bed").
Maybe you're curious what I do while having drinks. Then again, maybe you're a stroke victim. Tonight I had some drinks @ TGI Friday's with my friend Jay. We mostly talked about upcoming movies, music, and vacation plans that will probably never happen.
Movies: "300" will kick ass. It's also coming out in IMAX, which just sounds ridiculous. Also, I almost cried when I heard about the new Fantastic 4 movie, "The Rise of the Silver Surfer", because the Silver Surfer rules, and the Fantastic 4 was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Music: Drummers suck. The only reason to deal with them is because you need one to stop playing acoustic. For the moment, I really want to get back on stage, so I'm going to get together with Mike, who has completed his Bar exams, and try to get a few acoustic gigs underway.
Vacation plans: I really want to go to Japan. My main reasons: sake, sushi, and the culture. By "the culture", I of course mean that I'm very attracted to Japanese ladies.
To reward anyone who may have made it this far, I want to leave you with the following thought:
The more confident a person is in their knowledge of a subject, the less they actually know. This is largely because a more knowledgeable person has a much better concept of just how much they don't know. In fact, a good rule to live by is that the only people who are completely confident are the completely ignorant. This is not the actual thought, and hopefully isn't something that you are unaware of, it simply a lead-in to the important thought: The human masses are attracted to, and will always follow, the most confident available leader.
Maybe you're curious what I do while having drinks. Then again, maybe you're a stroke victim. Tonight I had some drinks @ TGI Friday's with my friend Jay. We mostly talked about upcoming movies, music, and vacation plans that will probably never happen.
Movies: "300" will kick ass. It's also coming out in IMAX, which just sounds ridiculous. Also, I almost cried when I heard about the new Fantastic 4 movie, "The Rise of the Silver Surfer", because the Silver Surfer rules, and the Fantastic 4 was one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
Music: Drummers suck. The only reason to deal with them is because you need one to stop playing acoustic. For the moment, I really want to get back on stage, so I'm going to get together with Mike, who has completed his Bar exams, and try to get a few acoustic gigs underway.
Vacation plans: I really want to go to Japan. My main reasons: sake, sushi, and the culture. By "the culture", I of course mean that I'm very attracted to Japanese ladies.
To reward anyone who may have made it this far, I want to leave you with the following thought:
The more confident a person is in their knowledge of a subject, the less they actually know. This is largely because a more knowledgeable person has a much better concept of just how much they don't know. In fact, a good rule to live by is that the only people who are completely confident are the completely ignorant. This is not the actual thought, and hopefully isn't something that you are unaware of, it simply a lead-in to the important thought: The human masses are attracted to, and will always follow, the most confident available leader.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
A scary realization
The past 6 months are a complete blur for me. I really don't remember most of what I did in that time. I know that significant things did occur. For example, I achieved a Private Pilot's license. I saw a few movies, went to see a few shows. But the months of September and October are a complete loss to me. The only thing that I remember in October was staying home on Halloween.
November isn't much clearer. I remember going to my friend's birthday party and having a lot to drink, and that's about it for the month. Now that I think about it, I remember the times that I've had a lot to drink more than I remember the sober times.
I definitely remember things that have happened, but I'm having a hell of a time remembering when they happened, or what order they happened in.
The past month has been a little better. At least I remember spending a lot of time at work. I even remember coming across some code that someone had written, and trying to figure out who wrote it, only to find, based on the change logs, that I had written it a couple days beforehand.
So I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. One possibility is that I've lost my mind (not such a stretch, really). Another possibility is that my life, with a few exceptional circumstances, was so incredibly mundane that there's nothing to remember. The explanation I'm leaning towards, though, involves a combination of those two factors, with the fact that learning to fly a plane takes a lot of waking up at 6 in the morning (and consequently a lot of lost sleep for a night owl like me).
So what can I do? I've noticed that my blogging, which has never really been very prolific to start with, was nearly nonexistent in that time period. The couple of entries that I had in that time have helped a little bit in reconstructing the events of the past half-year, as have a few entries in my friend's blog that involve me. We'll see if committing myself to more posts will help me reconstruct the soon-to-be past. Now I just need to find something better that "woke up, went to work, had dinner, went to gym, had some drinks, went to bed" ad nauseam.
I really need to get out of town. At this point, all I need is a destination and a couple days free.
November isn't much clearer. I remember going to my friend's birthday party and having a lot to drink, and that's about it for the month. Now that I think about it, I remember the times that I've had a lot to drink more than I remember the sober times.
I definitely remember things that have happened, but I'm having a hell of a time remembering when they happened, or what order they happened in.
The past month has been a little better. At least I remember spending a lot of time at work. I even remember coming across some code that someone had written, and trying to figure out who wrote it, only to find, based on the change logs, that I had written it a couple days beforehand.
So I'm still trying to figure out what's going on. One possibility is that I've lost my mind (not such a stretch, really). Another possibility is that my life, with a few exceptional circumstances, was so incredibly mundane that there's nothing to remember. The explanation I'm leaning towards, though, involves a combination of those two factors, with the fact that learning to fly a plane takes a lot of waking up at 6 in the morning (and consequently a lot of lost sleep for a night owl like me).
So what can I do? I've noticed that my blogging, which has never really been very prolific to start with, was nearly nonexistent in that time period. The couple of entries that I had in that time have helped a little bit in reconstructing the events of the past half-year, as have a few entries in my friend's blog that involve me. We'll see if committing myself to more posts will help me reconstruct the soon-to-be past. Now I just need to find something better that "woke up, went to work, had dinner, went to gym, had some drinks, went to bed" ad nauseam.
I really need to get out of town. At this point, all I need is a destination and a couple days free.
Friday, February 16, 2007
A confession
I have something I need to get off my chest.
I'm the real father of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter.
That is all.
I'm the real father of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter.
That is all.
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