Seeing the Idol TONIGHT!!!

I'm going to Riverside Casino tonight to see Billy Idol with Matthew!

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Otherwise - Rebel Yell (Billy Idol cover)

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Embrace the Chaos

Life is sweet for my friend Matthew. Not only is he writing articles and communicating information that, frankly, whooshes over my head - for example, Migrating to the Cloud is Chaotic. Embrace it, it feels like every time I read his writing, I pick up subtle techniques I feel like I should adapt into my writing. For example, there's this blurb that he wrote on LinkedIn:

His first 3 sentences are 3 words each. It's a great hook. Simple sentences. Then he bumps the word count to 7 in the 4th sentence. It goes to 18 words in the 5th. I believe that's the secret sauce to Matthew's writing style. The first 3 sentences suck me in because they are short and setting the stage. Then, comes the 7 words, then the 18. It's like a staircase taking me to his point.

Editor's Note: Matthew also has this article https://www.gremlin.com/blog/avoiding-problems-when-the-clocks-change on the website.

Use a Weak Password

Matthew made me aware of how a voting machine manual tells officials to use weak passwords by posting about it on Facebook, as shown below:

This is the referenced link: Voting machine manual tells officials to reuse weak passwords and a nifty video!

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ATH - 13 Lies Employers Tell About Job Offers

I'm pretty sure I've bemoaned not knowing about Nick Corcodilos during my job search in 2016. I think just reading Corcodilos' perspective would have been really helpful during those days between when I was laid off from Pearson and when my current manager offered my current job to me.

While my job search in 2016 has been on my mind this week - and yes, I know it's only Tuesday! - I've also been thinking about my job search in 2011 because I happened to see a "Technical Communication Specialist" opening at the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa, yesterday. Readers of this blog will recall that the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa company is the label I've given to the company I left Quintrex to join. It's also the company I hated working at. I stayed there for a mere 5 months, 3 weeks, 5 days (177 of the longest days of my E N T I R E  L I F E!!), which is how long it took before I was informed I was not a good fit for the role, which was also called Technical Communication Specialist.

What I noticed in the job ad yesterday were two things:

1. The job description mentions the need to adhere to standards.
• When I was at that company, I asked my co-worker what the standard was for spaces after a period. Her response was "Use one unless it looks funny, then use two." I sincerely hope that isn't a "standard" they are wanting this role to adhere to!
2. The job description mentions that there is a desire to hire a person into this role who has experience with Madcap Software and HTML.
• When I was at that company, my purpose was to write online Help for their budding software products. However, the idea of using another tool, such as Madcap Flare or RoboHelp for that online Help, was off the table because the department used InDesign in the most asinine possible way on the planet. It was interesting to me to see Madcap Software and HTML listed in the job description when those were not options when I was there.

I worked at the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa and I don't regret anything about the experience. While it's been a whopping 7 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, 3 days (2757 days) since I worked there, I went through the following logic in my head.

1. Had I not left Quintrex for the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa, I don't really know if I would have been hired at Pearson. 
1. Had I not been hired at Pearson, I don't really know if I would have had at least two things happen that happened during my time at Pearson. 
1. Professionally, I know that working with Confluence and learning about includes and snippets and variables ignited a passion for my work. I don't know if I would have ever found that renewed passion 
2. Outside of work, I know without a shadow of a doubt that because Pearson sent me to WritersUA 2012 in Memphis, TN, I found the fire within me for playing drums in an Ideal Band was reignited. I don't know if I would have ever met Joe or Matthew, who were in Lou's Classic Ride with me, or if I would have thought to ask Brian Guitar to play guitar in that band with me. It was such a fluke that Brian Guitar's schedule allowed him to be off early on Friday during the summer. Pearson's policy of allowing its employees to work 36 hours M - R and then 4 hours on Fridays  allowed Joe, Matthew, and I to be able to rehearse on Friday afternoons as well.
1. Had I not been laid off at Pearson, I don't really know if I would have been hired here.

As you just read, there is a direct relationship between working at the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa and what I do now. As I just wrote, absolutely NO, I don't regret anything about the experience. A lot of elements fell into place and for all of those elements mentioned above and being removed by my internal editor as I write these words, without the good and the bad in life, I wouldn't be where I am now. This article by Nick Corcodilos - 13 lies employers tell about job offers - was published today and while not directly related to anything I have wrote above, just knowing about his existence has seemed to somehow reinforce how God has blessed me by being able to live the life I lead.

Ain't that the Loose Stool

New Found Glory, Bayside, The Movielife Announce Sick Tour

I don't see any Iowa dates, unfortunately. All I see are two dates in Chicago on a Monday & Tuesday, and one date in St. Louis on a Wednesday - none are feasible.

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5/17 - Orlando, FL - House of Blues
5/18 - Atlanta, GA - The Masquerade (Heaven)
5/19 - Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
5/20 - Norfolk, VA - The NorVa
5/22 - Silver Spring, MD - The Fillmore
5/23 - Philadelphia, PA - The Electric Factory
5/25 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE
5/26 - Toronto, ON - The Phoenix Concert Theatre
5/27 - Asbury Park, NJ - Stone Pony Summer Stage
5/29 - New York, NY - Playstation Theater
5/30 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
6/1  - Pontiac, MI - The Crofoot
6/2  - Cincinnati, OH - Bogart's
6/4  - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
6/5  - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
6/6  - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant6/8  - Denver, CO - Ogden Theatre
6/9  - Salt Lake City, UT - The Complex
6/11 - Seattle, WA - Showbox SoDo
6/12 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
6/14 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom
6/15 - Las Vegas, NV - Brooklyn Bowl
6/16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
6/17 - Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
6/19 - Tempe, AZ - The Marquee
6/21 - Austin, TX - Emo's Austin
6/22 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues

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Damn! I wanted to hear "The Ghost" live!

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Coming out of the PIT

Not a mosh pit, a pit of chaos.

We moved into our house in December 2004. We have two storage rooms. The larger of the two has our furnace (and my drums) in it; the smaller of the two has our sump pump (and my journals dating from 1989 - the mid-2000s) in it. Neither storage room has EVER been a model to follow when it comes to 'organization' in my eyes. Sure, there have been times when they looked good but that was usually after a major organization effort due to not being able to find something. Fast-forward to 2017. Even before taking that organization class at Kirkwood, I had the drive to tackle our furnace room in an effort to find a way to make it 'permanently' organized. Knowing that Karen would be on her Women's Weekend Away in Wisconsin this weekend - she left on Friday - I felt it was the right time to do this project. Thus, here is how I worked on it:

• On Friday, when I got home from work, I went to the furnace storage room and started taking our stuff out. I started to figure out how to take down the wood cabinets I had hung in the storage room, but went to bed without getting them down.
• On Saturday, when I got up, a lot happened. 
• I asked Tom, my neighbor, if he could help me with the cabinets. He said "yes" and in the time between asking him to help me and when he actually got over to my house after eating breakfast, I had managed to get the cabinets down. It was almost like asking for someone to help me was a kick in the ass I needed to figure out how to proceed. 
• When Tom came over, we ended up talking in a wide-ranging conversation about life, religion, politics, writing, organizing our stuff, and external hard drive crashes - I have found a kindred spirit in Tom. 
• After Tom left and before the Iowa v. Wisconsin football game at 2:30, I went to Lowe's and purchased 2 x 5 shelf metal shelves. Each shelf set weighed 104 pounds. I assure you I cannot lift 104 pounds for an extended period of time but I managed to get them down the stairs by myself. 
• I also went to Wal-Mart to purchase Speed Stick & a LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer to fulfill the idea I mentioned the other day about ripping CDs to MP3 faster. 
• When I got home from my shopping trip, and with Iowa losing to Wisconsin in the background on TV (they eventually did lose the game, with the defense scoring their only 2 touchdowns!), I began putting the shelves together. I got stuck and sent a picture of what the box said I could do to Matthew, who then offered to come over and help me through my trouble spot, which without Matthew's help, I'd still be staring at the picture on the box so I am indebted to Matthew for his help. Instead of two five shelf structures, he helped me configure the shelves into a 3 shelf and a 2 shelf configuration. 
• I also hooked up the LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer to the Toshiba laptop and set Windows 7 to look at it as the default CD drive. I began ripping CDs with the Toshiba as well as with the Windows 10 tower. 
• I played drums at 5:15 Mass - there were three baptisms!
• After Mass, I went to Falbo's and purchased a double pepperoni / Italian sausage Calzone, which I then ate when I got home.
• After eating, I resumed working on putting our stuff back into the furnace room. As I began putting the stuff back in, it became apparent I needed to have 2 x 5 shelf structures. I had too many existing boxes that putting on a shelf was not the right choice.
• On Sunday, when I got up, I started putting more of our stuff back in the furnace room. 
• Quick update on the CD ripping. I have ripped enough CDs to create 325 files on the Toshiba and enough CDs on the Windows 10 tower to create 170 files. Obviously, the Toshiba & the LG Ultra Slim Portable DVD Writer are kicking ass!
• I took a break to write this post, but I need to get back to it. It's 9:49 AM now and there is still a lot of work to be done prior to Karen returning home later this afternoon.