Fundue

Need to convince the wife you need a new computer? Just show her the old one is good for this.

A study you need to see

Now you know. It's all a government plot to control your mind.

This is some HOT sushi... wait, that's just the plate

Wow. This is unreal. I usually don't like sushi, but I'd be willing to try this, and of course my birthday is just around the corner. You think I'm kidding, click to see all the action shots. I hope those leaves are glued down. Must take a lot of focus to just lay there the whole meal. Side note... the picture show goes from this restaraunt to a place called 'Extra Virgin.' I couldn't make this up.

Thirty & Broke

Yikes.... this is really scary stuff. $100,000 in student loan debt.... Yowza.

Pictures of My New Condo

Check 'em out!

One of those days....

So I had one of those day today. Just kind of woke up on the wrong side of bed... Services at PRCC were ok, but something just felt out of step. I came home and got a call from my accompanist, who was sick and couldn't make it to mass later that afternoon. I had a little time to look over the parts for the songs I was doing, and switch out a piano heavy song for an accapella one. Then I got to church and was moving this big black wheeled cabinet that we keep all the micropones equipment in. It's about 6' tall and about 4' wide (did I mention heavy). As I was wheeling it down the ramp of the altar, a wheel came off. I didn't notice until it started to fall over the ramp edge and dumped the 15lb speakers that were on top of it off onto the floor. I was hanging on for dear life to prevent it from falling over. Miraculously there were two people in the church (it was really early usually no one there) who helped me get it upright. Boy was I spooked. So, no accompanist, and I nearly lost all my equipment, and almost got a monitor in the head. Something was just off. Forge ahead. So during practice I couldn't get one of our pieces to work, between spotty attendance and my inability to play piano while simultaneously singing bass, and tenor. So I decided I would do a meditiation piece in it's place. My drummer came, and he's an amazing musician... which was really helping out. We finished rehearsal, and I still had to pick a piece to do. Mass starts, going well. Homily time, I'm looking to see what I have on hand. I'm indecisive. Then I start listening to the homily and Fr. Don is talking about how our lives are gifts from God, to give back, and everything we are is his... And I have the perfect song. 'I'm Yours Lord' Kind of rocking, but it fits. So it's me and my guitar and i start, and then I notice drummer is hanging out and jams with me. It was awesome. Not only didn't we practice it, I hadn't played it in months. It just rocked. He's a great musician. Then we went into an amazing version of Deep Within, and my new clarinet player was awesome. The choir was singing with a lot of feeling, and then we did the last refrain accapella (I just decided to do it on the spot) but the drummer was filling space. It was awesome. Tight harmony, beautiful singing. Then we really rocked 'Freedom is Coming.' Here's the thing, in the middle of me being unsettled, i listened a little and found the right piece of music. Then some angels came and played and sang with me. They carried me, and God carried us all. Sometimes great music comes from chaos. And you never know what can happen in God.

Think Secret - Updated Mac minis arriving, details revealed [updated]

It's like they don't want me to by a mac mini.

Slow Wireless Network? Get some of this

Wi-Fi Speed Spray DramaticalIy Increase Data Throughput

Selling the house

So... I'm in the process of selling my condo. And of course all that goes with it. Painting, cleaning, de-cluttering, fixing little things I've been meaning to get around to. The place looks so nice, I don't want to leave it.

So I've been interviewing three agents. Two of them essentially came up with the same asking price. The third, who lives in the neighborhood (so I assumed she'd be very familar with the pricing etc) suggested a price.... wait for it. $100,000 higher than the other two realtors. Which would be great, but it would mean that my humble garden unit would sell for almost $35k more than the penthouse, and $130,000 more than the other garden that sold last year. I wish. Yikes. small mistake? good thing I did my homework.

Sex Retreat

No, seriously. The Jesuit group I work with, Charis, is sponsoring a weekend retreat on sexuality, 'Sex in the City of God'. I've worked with this group on several occasions, and highly reccommend them. This is their first attempt at this particular topic however.

I arrived late to a recognition dinner for the group, and Jenene asked me if I had plans for the summer. I should have suspected something right away. I have some plans, but nothing grandiose, no month long escapes to Italy. So when Jenene asked if I'd do music for the summer retreat, I agreed. Not making the connection that I'd be doing music from 70's porn flicks....

Ok I admit, that part was my idea, but it could be an interesting retreat, and we'll have some fun with the music for sure. And I can't wait to see what kind of a crowd it draws.

That one's going on my resume.

Brain Fart Theater

Well, I pretty much packed a year's worth of brain farts into one Mass. I forgot to tell the priest that there was no Gloria, accidentally banged the strings during the gospel, forgot to turn the guitar on for another song, and after reminding the cantor to announce the number of the mass parts I played over the top of her.

Wow. Just not my day. Couldn't seem to get the brain and body working together today. God was teaching me humility.

Good vs. Great Marketing

Good marketing: I found a locksmith's business card tucked into the window seal of my car.

Great marketing: If I had found it inside my car.

Free m4pia

It was only a matter of time.... Not before someone broke the copy protection, but before I stumbled onto it. hymn -- decrypt iTunes and iPod music / unprotect AAC files (m4p --> m4a)

Isn't that just normal pay then?

"Under the terms of Mr. Zander’s signing agreement, he’s entitled to a base salary of $1.5 million, a bonus of at least $2 million and incentive pay worth at least $3.8 million.":

A bonus of at least $2 million? Umm... if he has to receive at least $2million is it still a bonus? I'd be willing to give up my salary if I had to receive a bonus of $2 million.

Hold 'Em Poker Pub Crawl

You won't lose as much money as Vegas, and you will be inebriated. Festa Hold 'Em Poker Pub Crawl.

Brian, you coming to town?

Timely Dilbert

Half the people in our room our moving out of their cubes into a
different department. Hopefully Scott Adams can see my future.

Proving once again Dilbert is not a fictional series but, a documentary.

The Most Useless Tech Support Response Ever

Automated responses are one thing, but for goodness sake, at least answer the question. Here's my original email:

Why can't I use the home media features with TiVo?
I want to use these features and will not continue
subscribing to DirecTv when I move later this summer if I can't
have them.  When will they be enabled?

And here's DirecTV's response:

Dear John,

Thanks for writing. I'm sorry to hear that you are having
trouble with your DIRECTV System. You may be able to answer
your question by referring to your owner's manual. If you
don't have an owner's manual, you can find a copy on our web
site at DIRECTV.com/manuals.

If you can't find the answer to your question in the
manual, please call 1-800-531-5000 and select the option for
technical assistance.

Sincerely,

Frederick
DIRECTV Customer Service

How useless is that? Suddenly I think the folks 'stealing' the satellite service might have something.

Pope Joke

As in the Pope made a good joke. And if you've ever visited or traveled via Train in Italy and Germany, you'll enjoy it.

The Pope also shared a joke after apologising for arriving late. "The Germans are used to punctuality," he said. "I have become a bit of an Italian."

Full article here

Konfabulous?

While reading an article on Mac's upcoming Tiger release in Time, I noticed a link to Konfabulator! Not saying who pimped who here, but some of these widgets look kind of cool. Check them out, let me know what you think.

Swingers

Yeah baby! I still got it. After answering the call from John Predny, and filling in as a lead at the last two Swing I classes at Old Town School, I went to their graduation night at the Green Dolphin. I admit to being a bit rusty, but picked up a lot of new moves, and actually helped the ladies practice a bit.

All in all, it was a blast. I forgot how much fun that could be. My favorite part was learning a bunch of closing moves with dips. Soooo much fun. Now I just need more chances to use these moves.... Too bad life isn't more like a musical. You know, the kind with happy endings, pretty girls, and me getting both at the end.

Mr. Lucky is Back

Making me want to come back. Brian stops to tie his shoe. I notice an open slot machine perfectly named 'Little green men.' That title matched a PR flyer I used in my Glee Club days. Back then it got the highest attendance at a GC concert ever. This time I put ten dollars in the machine. First bet was 3.75 and with one pull made 137.50. Sweet action. Brian nearly tackles me going for the cash out button.

Don't worry buddy. I'm taking this money and running.

The Road to Redemption

My 1st winning ticket from the sports book at Mandalay Bay. Bet the bulls over magic giving 8.5 points. Final score 117 77 bulls.

Gotta love the home team. We met Brian's Uncle, Aunt, and cousin for a comped dinner at the buffet and then Brian and I got a free look at Shark's Reef. Very cool, thanks to the Nevada Dauernheims.

Vegas is a cruel mistress

I picked a bad time to stop betting conservatively. Usually I put aside some of my winnings but not tonight. Up a grand. Lost it. Bet 500 on one hand. Lost. Climbed back to 250 down. Then lost that. Now down 400. On the positive side played for over six hours. Brian tried valiantly to stop me from the big bets.

But we had both been on such a great run, and had a couple or three or four or five drinks, that I couldn't lose. Plus I can be a little stubborn, and the numbers were on my side.

I'm getting too old for this...

Took a bunch of the Motorola team out on the town tonight. Great dinner at Cafe 28, then on to Justin's. Was surprised to find out how many people had never taken the 'L' before. Then on to the Hange Uppe (the only place I'll go in the area of Rush and Division). Now, maybe I'm getting old, but there was no room to dance, the staff was incredibly rude on several occasions, and honestly I just wasn't digging it.

One of my colleague's husband and I were talking about it, and we'd rather kick back and chill with some friends than hit the clubs. Cheaper too. Even the hotties were a bit questionable. Don't get me wrong, there were some fine looking ladies, but some not so fine ones too. And even the hot ones just seemed too young, or like they were trying to hard. Every time you try to dance you get bumped around. Ack... I paid money for this?

Give me Wrigleyville, Lakeview or Bucktown. No more Gold Coast for me. I'm getting too old for this.

Tivo on PSP

According to this BBC NEWS article, people are already hacking the PSP. IRC and web browsers of course. But also transferring TIVO files to your PSP. Cool.

Cool New iPod Accessories

Check out Griffin's newest iPod accessories!

First up is the Smart Deck! This nifty device uses the mechanical motion of the tapedeck to control the iPod. So you can use the steering wheel or radio controls to change to the next or last song. Plus it will automatically pause the iPod if the tape deck stops spinning. So no need to pause the iPod when you switch over to check traffic, anytime the tape deck stops spinning, the smart deck pauses the iPod.

Up next is the Air Click. It's an RF remote control for the iPod or alternatively your music player on Mac or PC. There's a pass through for the headset output. Useful stuff if you're in another room, or in the car. Handy with the Mac Airtunes devices too!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Spartan Style

I would have thought MSU would get no respect in the final polls, but in today's ESPN Coaches Poll MSU is 4th, following UNC, Illinois, and Louivlle. Kentucky rounds out the top five.

Big jump of 9 spots from 15th to 4th. Hell of a run from the Spartans. Let's go State! Recruit some talent.

And go Lady Spartans.... Check out the team tonight. Best big man at MSU may be a woman.

Oral sex 'is best'

But don't take my word for it, listen to US teenagers.

I can't make these things up. Here's a study done by a UC San Francisco professor and published in the April issue of 'Pediatrics' that proves it.

What ever happened to making out behind school?

La Scala in Milan 

Here's a shot I took after touring Milan's famous 'La Scala.' Pretty amazing. I didn't think it would be such a big deal... I mean sure I sing opera, and I love the music, but c'mon, it's a building right?

Well the museum attached to it was amazing, with portraits and busts of lots of composers and singers. Plus I got to see the actual painting that graces the covers of the Ricordi scores. Pretty awesome really. The theater itself was amazing, and I performed in a mini version of that theater in Urbania, Italy while studying with La Musica Lirica .

VEGAS BOUND

That's right.... counting down to a wholesome trip to Vegas with my buddy Brian. Lucky April 13th. Any suggestions?

Where'd they go????

After appearing to be in control with a five point lead at the half, the Spartans absolutely collapsed in the second half against UNC. Who would've thought they could miss any more dunks? And where were the refs. Oh well... I picked them to lose to ODU, so being in the final four is a pretty good improvement on that.


The big question now is.... Where do they end up in the final poll?

Note to self: buy the cheaper one

So, after yet another beratement from my dentist, I decided to check out electrice toothbrushes. They sell them at the dentist office for $118. Found it here on amazon for $114 or $129.

Amazon.com: All Products Search Results: Sonicare 7500

Becoming Unaware

We spend so much of our time becoming aware. Be focused on what you do, don't make mistakes. Practice, practice, practice. But the real athleticism comes when you're in the zone. When interviewing several basketball players who frequently get in the zone, many described it as not even feeling the basketball, their whole motion being instinctive.

Music can be the same way. I can count in my head, or think about the next chord. But the magic happens when I just do it. When I let go of the worry and the concious decisions and just let my body move where the music takes it. I listened to a recording of a group I played with and noticed a really cool rhythm. I couldn't tell where it was coming from. There were two guitarists and a percussionist, and I hadn't remembered hearing that rhythm. The next time we played that song, I realized I was the one playing that rhythm. I had been in 'the zone.' Completely unaware, not making concious choices, but filling the musical space.

So here's the question, how do you get there? With music I've found part of it is letting go of the technique and just feeling it, but it took a long time to get to where I had enough technique to do that. Never was much of a runner, but when I tried it, the one time I rememer finding 'the zone' I was doing math in my head and then suddenly I had run for miles. Don't know if this counts, but I've found myself lost in thought in the car, usually when listening for a traffic report, suddenly realize I was so absorbed in thought that I missed three traffic reports. How about when you think you're not paying attention to driving and then a brake light ahead wakes you up?

Don't worry I re-checked the Class name....

Yoda Dilbert 

Hey Booboo, I don't bend like that

Last night I decided to try a yoga class at the cheetah gym. It was advertised as Hatha Yoga, this is the class you should take if you've never done yoga before. A good introduction. Wow. They should call it 'Your body as a pretzel.'

It was tough, glad I didn't go to the advance class. I thought it would be a little bit of stretching, but it was more. Balancing on one hand and knee while pulling your other leg behind your head with the other hand... tough. Then we were instructed to do a shoulder stand, starting from on your back, roll your legs over your head so that your feet are on the floor above your head. I was having issues, so the instructor tried to help me. She asked, 'Is your neck ok?' As she pushed my legs further over my head than I thought possible. Miraculously I finally got into the shoulder stand position. It was actually pretty cool, once I found it and got past the inital fear of snapping my neck and spine in twain. The class ended with a couple minutes of meditation and the instructor giving a mini-massage to everyone, followed by chanting of 'Om.'

I know it sounds a little hokey. But it was actually very relaxing, and I can see a lot of flexibility, balance, and strength eventually coming out of it. But trust me that it's not worth going to class just to 'look at bendy women,' as Wally suggests in Dilbert. In my class there was lots of falling down by the men and the women, though I managed to avoid it. Think I'll try and go for a month see how it turns out.

Are we nuts?

Upon returning from the ol' grocery store last night I noticed a note on the prepackaged almonds I bought. 'This product contains nuts and was processed in a plant with nuts and peanuts.' What?!?! Almonds are nuts? I smell a litigious society behind this...

Cold Day in Chicago

Just when I thought we were over the hump. 10 below the average. C'mon spring!

Stupid People

Do you ever feel like stupidity is a contagious disease? For example, a person who replies to the entire company and kisses the ass of an executive who is leaving with phrases like 'walk the talk.' Why didn't she just include her resume?

Or my neighbors, who while providing food, water, a towel to sleep in and even a freaking scratching post for a stray cat who has wandered into our common hallway neglected to provide a litter box. Never mind that the cat is now relieving itself in the hallway outside my front door and the entire common area smells of cat urine.

For some reason they think this is an OK situation. Frankly, the cat was abandoned. All the 'no-kill' shelters are full (I called 6) so at this point either adopt the cat yourself, or it's bye-bye Mr. Bigglesworth.

And before you sick the ASPCA on me, yes, I would rather the cat lived. But if it's gonna live in the hall and use my door way as a bathroom then it's gotta go.

My gripe here is really with the stupid neighbors and the cat's former owner, not the cat. It's never the animal's fault. It's the stupid people who can't commit to properly caring for or training it.

Now I don't want to get off on a rant here but how is it the same people that coddle this cat and insist on it's right to piss on my floor the same ones chomping down on a sausage, wearing alligator shoes, an Italian leather belt, and a floor length mink with a rabbit's foot in the pocket while feeding their dog horsemeat?

And so it begins....

Alright. Here we go. The first blog post. Inspired by Brian's mad blog at "www.the-ds.com" I decided to try my own.