Thursday, May 31, 2012

Week 1 - GCC

After a week of the GCC, here's where I am.
So this shows that Memorial Day was a personal best. I walked 16,000 steps. Since then, back to where I was before. With camping next week and being on vacation, I expect my step count to go up quite a bit. I plan to get up early on Friday, Saturday, and even Sunday and to go for a walk.

This graphic shows that I am above the step average for my team but below the average of "my organization" which I would like to match. It means less sitting on the couch at night and more going for a walk. The route I take is about 5 miles roundtrip and shown below. I need to make it more of a habit to show myself that I am serious.
I have a lot of things that I am getting serious about in my life. I want to walk more, I want to drink less Pepsi (somedays, I am more successful than other days, and I want to drop 20 lbs before the end of summer. I am getting a gut and I do not like it. At all. I've always been "too skinny" in the eyes of some and I'm seeing my 40-ish body start to betray me a bit. It's more work than it used to be to get up in the AM, to do simple things. I feel sore.
So that's why I am so serious about this GCC and about walking and about doing more than I think I can. This walking 10,000 steps a day is a serious effort on my part. I am energized by it. I want to do well. I want to exceed the organization's average. I want to top 16,000 steps at least one more time in the next few weeks. I want to drink less Pepsi and drink more water.

All of these are important to me. And it is up to me to not be a lazy oaf. No one is going to tell me to walk more. Just me. It's up to me. The question becomes: what is important to me.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Forgot

I now have 42875 files as part of the CD to MP3/cassette to MP3 project. I have not been splitting up 90 minute tapes into multiple MP3 files. For example, I converted a 90 minute cassette that had a Faster Pussycat concert from 3/9/88 on side A and David Lee Roth's "Eat 'em and Smile" release on side B. Guess who was opening for the David Lee Roth concert I saw? Yep, Faster Pussycat. So it seemed fitting to keep them together. I converted a cassette called Heavy Metal Managery XII: Writing Voices. It's a 90 minute cassette and I left it as a single MP3 file.

Based upon the above, I am expecting my count to only go up marginally as I convert cassettes. When I return to converting CDs, then I will expect my count to go up a lot more drastically.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Foiled by Rain

I left the house @ 7:15 AM and walked about 20 minutes before it started to rain. So I returned home. I will have to get my steps in later today for the GCC.

Now I'm converting a cassette of James, Stoff, Shoebox, and some silent listeners getting drunk and playing a bunch of songs, including the Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go", Iron Maiden's "The Number Of The Beast", Lynard Skynnard's "Sweet Home Alabama" and a bunch of originals.

I wasn't there. There were two parallels in the formation of Old Stew, the band I played in at the Mount Mercy College talent show. On one parallel, there was James, Stoff, and Shoebox, and on the other parallel, there was Ken and I. And then... and then the parallel lines crossed.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

GCC- Day 4

I'm busting my a$$ to get my 10,000 steps in and am averaging above the 10,000 step mark. BUT, it's not enough. Here's my team's stats:
So I'm not even at my team's average! By 891 steps, I'm below average. I need to step up, as it were.

Friday, May 25, 2012

More Trips Down the Memory Garden

Converted a few more cassettes today. Some in a series called "Life Tape" featured bands I had not listened to the last time I listened to the tape. My "Life Tape" series came as the successor to the "College Tape" series. I used to have an answering machine that used cassettes. I would transfer messages from the answering machine tape to a separate cassette and then fill in the rest of the tape with the songs I listened to at the time. In hindsight, it was like an audio diary. I can hear voices of people I haven't seen or thought about for over 20 years.

But today it was listening to Life Tapes from 1995, 1996, and 1998. I'm sure there are others. The difference between a College Tape and a Life Tape is that a Life Tape has no answering machine messages because that machine was replaced with a micro cassette machine and after then a machine with no external storage like a cassette. You press the Play button and the message plays. Like those College Tapes, the Life Tapes are an audio diary of what music and what bands I liked at the time. A lot of the bands are no longer together and that's too bad.

What I'm converting now is a 60 minute cassette called "Assume's Greatest Moments Vol. I" and what a trip. There's the first song I ever *EVER* played with James, the first time James and I *EVER* played with Ken and, unfortunately, the last time Assume rehearsed, which was late August 1989 when it was just James, Ken, and I butchering Whitesnake's "Slide It In" with desparately out of tune guitars. James' guitar string breaks towards the end and it's up to Ken and I (yes, the same Ken from the other day) to bring the song home.

There's also the hilarious time James and I tried to play "The Shortest Straw." It was, at the time, the fastest I had ever tried to play. I stopped and complained that it was too fast and that it hurt to play. The always sympathetic James snarls, "Well play it any way! No pain no gain!"

Isn't that the way it is in life? No pain, no gain.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

You Kids? You have it SOOOOO Rough...

This is one of those chain letters. Yep, one of *those* chain letters.

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were when they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning … uphill BOTH ways .. yadda, yadda, yadda.
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in hell I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they’ve got it!
But now that I’m over the ripe old age of thirty, I can’t help but look around and notice the youth of today. You’ve got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a damn Utopia!
And I hate to say it but you kids today you don’t know how good you’ve got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn’t have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!
There was no email! We had to actually write somebody a letter … with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
There were no MP3′s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself! Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio (that is the truth) and the DJ’d usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! Man I hated when that happening. It always mixed up my mix tapes.
We didn’t have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that’s it!
And we didn’t have fancy Caller ID Boxes either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your bookie, a collections agent, you just didn’t know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn’t have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like “Space Invaders” and “Asteroids” and the graphics sucked ass! Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! … Just like LIFE!
When you went to the movie theater there no such thing as stadium seating! All the seats were the same height! If a tall guy or some old broad with a hat sat in front of you and you couldn’t see, you were just screwed!
Sure, we had cable television, but back then that was only like 15 channels and there was no onscreen menu and no remote control! You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel and there was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I’m saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rat-bastards!
And we didn’t have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up, we had to use the stove or go build a frigging fire … imagine that! If we wanted popcorn, we had to use that stupid Jiffy Pop thing and shake it over the stove forever like an idiot.
That’s exactly what I’m talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You’re spoiled!
You guys wouldn’t have lasted five minutes back in 1980.

Stay True

From here

Monday, May 21, 2012

Ken + I - Volume II

When I think about the guitarists I've played with, there are two that come to mind. One is James and one is Ken. If you dig around this blog enough, you'll read about both of them. I mention this because one of the joys of converting my cassettes to MP3 is I can revisit the hours I played with each of them separately and together as I convert. I converted a 90 minute tape called "Ken + I - Volume II" last night. What a trip. There is some really good jazzy-bluesy guitar riffing along with some decent drums.

Total Files Listed: 42613 File(s)
I haven't spoken to Ken for nearly 20 years. I drove through the town where his parents live yesterday and it made me compelled to convert this specific cassette last night. I sincerely hope he is doing okay and that, sometimes, he thinks about the magic we made at 3904 Studios.

 

Friday, May 18, 2012

Me Behind Mike Mangini's Drumset

And just because I still like this video:

Thursday, May 17, 2012

GO PACERS!!!!!

Us Indiana Pacer fans haven't had a lot to cheer about in a while...


But here's hoping LeBron James is sitting on a couch watching the NBA Finals on TV instead of playing in them...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Liking this...

This is a band that was on the Real World San Diego season in 2012.



Monday, May 14, 2012

Would you get here already?!?

Not a lot of progress on the conversion of CDs to MP3s. As of today @ 8 AM, it's this:

42622 File(s)
I was going to rededicate my efforts to converting cassettes instead of CDs for the month of May, but that has been pushed off until June. As of now, the first weekend of June is wide open - no ballgame and no definitive plans. I know that since the Sigwarth campout is the following week, we will need to get the camper packed up, but beyond that, I don't see a long agenda. Of course that is 19 days away and plans are always in flux around here.
I don't have time, at the moment, to run down my week. I'd like to think that I will be watching WWE in the basement in 12 hours. While relaxing a bit, I'll try to run down my week ahead. Today I can say I am looking forward to getting stuff done!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Sometimes, I Pause

First of all, this is one of the coolest drumming things I've seen in a while:


Teodor in the studio

Project Arcadia | Myspace Music Videos


There once was a time when I was more concerned about last year than about next year. I thought that dwelling upon my past meant that I would not repeat it. Time has shown me, though, that is not the case. By focusing on where I had been, I merely dwelled upon the mistakes. What I wanted to really do, though, was look forward. And I try to do that. Really. But, after rereading what I wrote yesterday, maybe I could do a better job of focusing on my future.

My future does seem pretty bright. Aside from Bayside in 5 short weeks and the drum clinic on 5/17, the camping season is nearly upon us. Weather permitting, we will pick up the camper on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, probably load it up on Memorial Day itself, and then go on the Sigwarth campout two weeks later. Once summer hits, this blog will take a hit as there is not Internet access in our campsite. You have to go to the office, which isn't worth it, or downtown Elkader, which isn't worth it. It's kind of nice, in a way, to be offline. Since I will be wearing a pedometer with a goal of 10000 steps a day, I anticipate walking from the camper to downtown and back multiple times over the summer.

But I have to dwell for a moment on customer service. Sometimes, I think businesses are really stupid. First, in early April, I went to a store. I asked if they had a product and they said no, but they could order it. A couple of weeks went by and I heard nothing. I called and asked if they had gotten the product in. No, they did not. They had, basically, forgotten me. I went in the following Monday and they said that they had ordered the product. That was 2-3 weeks ago. I have heard nothing. The product I want to buy is over $100. Do they not want my business? I can easily walk into another establishment. I do not need to purchase them from the first business.

Another example. A different business messed up and sent a package to the wrong place. I called and asked what they were going to do about it. I was told the owner would talk to her business partner and get back to me. It's been over a week.

People have to take care of their customers. These two businesses are not getting my future business. Their products/services are not unique.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

It's Done...

I purchased my Bayside tickets for Dave (my former neighbor), Megan, and I. I cannot wait for the next 5 weeks (36 days!) to blister past me. The concert is something I am really looking forward to in my life. There are, of course, lots of things that are more important, but the idea of seeing this band in concert in an intimate club (Gabe's Oasis) is really exciting to me. Next to Metallica, Bayside is right up there. In fact, if I were to be stranded on a desert island, I would want Bayside releases with me. I would want Count the Stars and probably, maybe, the Twits (need to review their release for DV soon) with me. I'd also like Ten Foot Pole.

Actually, I wouldn't want any CDs. I would want my 1 TB external hard drive with 42527 songs on it!!

Today should be a good day except for my eye doctor appointment. My eyes water during a Visine commercial. I haven't been able to get drops in my eyes. Okay, my eyes, literally, are watering now. Enough. Alex has to mow tonight and, frankly, our grass needs to be mowed again too. We have a new lawn dude and the fertilizer he put on has really thickened up our grass. There's a noticeable difference between those that have the new lawn dude and those that don't.

I like my job. It's 3 weeks to my starting day (the Tuesday after Memorial Day) but my actual anniversary day is 5/31/2012, which is a Thursday. Do I miss my former employer? No, not really. Would I love to do some contract work just because I know the online Help system I created and maintained for 12 years hasn't been touched in over a year and the thoughts of my work flushing down the drain along with whatever credibility there was with Customer Support saying "Let's look at the online Help to see if there's an answer" is going with it. After a year of the help not being updated, I cannot begin to imagine the amount of fun I would have digging through the changes to the system. There must be 100s of changes. Literally. There was about a 17:1 developer to me ratio when I was there. I've heard rumblings that the company is moving to a new location. That must be exciting. The bottomline is that I enjoyed my 12 years there. I learned so much. I worked with really good people that have a vested interest in their job - not that that doesn't exist where I am now - and that passion... I loved it. At the same time, my opportunities where I am at are too fantastic to refuse.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Do not Give up on this

Sometimes I think musicians release material just to test us.

Progress!

Walking Away

In a few short weeks, my employer begins the Global Corporate Challenge. This is companies all over the world divided into teams of 7 and wearing pedometers. I am on a team of my co-workers and have begun the pre-GCC prep, which is taking walks twice a day. Last night was the most I think I've ever walked in a day. After a long walk @ work, I got home and was watching our neighbor's son, Riley. Riley and I went for a walk, me pushing him in his stroller. We were gone for 1 hour. Then, as it was getting dark, the decision was made to mow our yard. Megan mowed the back and I did the front. The grass has really thickened up this year - we are using a different lawn care dude - and we are going to have to find time to mow more than once a week. The point of all this is that I walked 12515 steps yesterday. The prescribed amount of steps to take a day is 10000. If I had not mowed, I would have barely been over 10000. Today, remarkably, I feel good. I feel like I am taking steps (no pun intended) in the right direction. I have not been able to say this before but I consider myself overweight. Look at this. I weigh 240 and I'm 6'4" so look @ this:


My challenge, then, is to get down to within my "normal weight range for the height" range. Obviously, that means losing at least 34 lbs.

I already haven't drank alcohol for 1 year, 4 months, 4 days so that is at least one thing that I could put in my body that I will not have to worry about. The next target is smaller portions. Not eating more calories than I can burn off through my walking. I know the easiest target would be ... drinking Pepsi. I have kept track of my consumption at work. I track what I drink, how many calories, the total ounces, and the $ I spent. The numbers are enough to want to change this habit. I should prepare a chart that shows what I do. Roughly, and without the stats in front of me, I average 4 12 ounce pops at work with at least 150 calories per pop. Mountain Dew is more; Coke is less. What I really need to do is, simply, drink water.

And I was doing well for awhile. A few years ago, a different employer had a Wellness Coach come in and we talked a lot about my weight. I talked about how I wanted to be able to go shirtless during the camping season and not be self-conscious. Roughly 4 years later, I have the same goal. I also remember talking about how I rarely want to put in the effort to do what I want. I want easy.

That attitude has been changing over the years and, maybe, with this upcoming GCC season, I will finally get into the habits I want to be in and end the habits I do not want as part of who and what I am.

In other unrelated news, I bought tickets to see a Mike Mangini drum clinic in Davenport. I am taking Alex and Adam. It will rock!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

There will be no parades...

I really REALLY like this ...


I would like to know if the attitude in this ad gets a response from the Democrats. Only 187 days until the election.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Update on Life

It's somewhat odd. The CD to MP3 project doesn't have as high of a priority as it used to have in my life. There are more important things happening in my life. That said, this is the most recent count.
Total Files Listed:
41649 File(s) 220,946,203,573 bytes
0 Dir(s) 596,410,871,808 bytes free

I am going to restart the cassette portion of this project tonight (5/1) and focus on cassettes for the month of May. I think that will be easier. I do not expect my total count to increase very much between 5/1 and 6/1, mainly b/c I plan to work on the cassettes that are, essentially, a 90 minute album, like the Old Stew compilation. I like having it as a 90 minute MP3 file. It works for my purposes.
This is a busy week. I have a dentist appointment today @ 3, tomorrow is a baseball game, Thursday is meeting with our financial advisor, Friday is... I'm sure something will present itself, and Saturday is another game, this time in Riverside. Alex's team is 2-2.