... because we were watching Mark's band play until 1 AM, then it was decided to go to Happy Chef for breakfast. I ate nothing - I think my 39 years of age were catching up to me. I got to bed @ 3 AM and by 8:30, we were up running around. I'm actually sitting in the data center of the hotel at which my kids are swimming. No, they are not unattended - Karen, Mark and his wife, and Karen's folks are all there. It is ungodly hot in the pool area and I don't want to get sick so I'm sitting in some nice air conditioning for a few moments.
In other news, DailyVault.com published my Queensryche review so that is cool.
Mark asked me how his band played. I like them. I think they sound good. I like that the drummer has electronic drums (Yamaha) that mix into the band's total sound. I also liked the bassist's dexterity. I noticed he doesn't play with a pick so his fingers move fast sometimes.
Among the other tidbits from last night, I played pool. There were two tables. I played next to a "Paul" and "Karen" that had been married 18 years. They have two daughters so we were able to exchange notes re: daughters.
Also, one of my best friends, JR came down to watch the band as well. I like talking to JR. We go back to 2nd grade and have shared many, many, experiences over the years. He is a trusted friend and confidant. We even have our taboo subjects and names we aren't allowed to even say to each other, though.
Tonight is Anthony's bachelor party. I am the designated driver. I did that with Travis' wedding a few years ago. I really don't mind that. I think tonight will be fun.
I'd better return to the ungodly hot pool area before I am missed.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Almost there...
I got home @ 5:15 and started to mow my yard. At 6:15, I was almost done with my yard and Megan had softball practice @ 6:30. I dropped her off at practice, then returned home to finish my yard. I finished my yard about 6:40. That meant I had just over an hour to finish the neighbor's yard - the ones that moved to OK - before picking up Megan from practice @ 8.
I finished mowing the neighbor's yard @ 7:50 and bolted over to practice. Practice didn't get over until 8:15.
Alex's team, the Rays, lost by 1 run last night.
Tonight is Megan's double-header and Alex has a game too. I also have to figure out how to get the season finale of "Lost" taped so I can watch it. We don't have a DVR so I rely on VHS tapes. I know I will be home by 9 so I can put in a fresh tape for the last hour but it's making sure the first hour is taped that is the issue. Plus, they're having some sort of special from 7-8.
Work was really good yesterday. I got a lot of stuff done. I am almost ready to finish a couple of projects I was working on concurrently so that is good.
I finished mowing the neighbor's yard @ 7:50 and bolted over to practice. Practice didn't get over until 8:15.
Alex's team, the Rays, lost by 1 run last night.
Tonight is Megan's double-header and Alex has a game too. I also have to figure out how to get the season finale of "Lost" taped so I can watch it. We don't have a DVR so I rely on VHS tapes. I know I will be home by 9 so I can put in a fresh tape for the last hour but it's making sure the first hour is taped that is the issue. Plus, they're having some sort of special from 7-8.
Work was really good yesterday. I got a lot of stuff done. I am almost ready to finish a couple of projects I was working on concurrently so that is good.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Published, Weekend, and the Future
First, the cool news. Two big pieces posted today @ Dailyvault.com & a hint re: my next review.
Third, this week is busy but it doesn't start until Wednesday.
Tomorrow night, unless it's raining, I'll be mowing. It's hard to believe that is the only scheduled activity.
Wednesday, though, is when the fun begins. Alex has a baseball game in Coralville and Megan has 6:30 practice.
Thursday, Megan has a double-header, starting the first game @ 5:30 and Alex has a game as well.
Friday, we leave Cedar Rapids when I get off work @ 5 for Cedar Falls to see my brother-in-law's band play at the Hub. His band is the The HooDads and my brother-in-law is the one with the Fender shirt. Guess what he plays?!?
Saturday AM, we are going to the hotel that my mother-in-law and her sister are staying at so that the kids can go swimming. Then we are leaving for CR to drop off the kids at my parents' house to spend the night. Then we are going to get ready. Ready for what? I am the designated driver for the father of the bride for his future son-in-law's bachelor party. Karen is going out with the girls.
Sunday, I'll grab the kids from CR and prepare for another week of work, baseball games, and who knows what else.
- Death Cab for Cutie review
- Rush in Moline, IL, concert review
- My review of Queensryche's CD of cover songs is coming later this week!
Third, this week is busy but it doesn't start until Wednesday.
Tomorrow night, unless it's raining, I'll be mowing. It's hard to believe that is the only scheduled activity.
Wednesday, though, is when the fun begins. Alex has a baseball game in Coralville and Megan has 6:30 practice.
Thursday, Megan has a double-header, starting the first game @ 5:30 and Alex has a game as well.
Friday, we leave Cedar Rapids when I get off work @ 5 for Cedar Falls to see my brother-in-law's band play at the Hub. His band is the The HooDads and my brother-in-law is the one with the Fender shirt. Guess what he plays?!?
Saturday AM, we are going to the hotel that my mother-in-law and her sister are staying at so that the kids can go swimming. Then we are leaving for CR to drop off the kids at my parents' house to spend the night. Then we are going to get ready. Ready for what? I am the designated driver for the father of the bride for his future son-in-law's bachelor party. Karen is going out with the girls.
Sunday, I'll grab the kids from CR and prepare for another week of work, baseball games, and who knows what else.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Weekend & Raymond... again
As it gets closer to 8 AM, I haven't really solved any problems. I did just find out that there are two houses near where my parents live. House A is my folks and Houses B & C are for sale.
It should be a time for solving things, though. It is, after all, finally the weekend but it doesn't allow me a chance to slow down. Alex's coach added practice this AM @ 10 and that's fine. Alex's team has lost its last 3 games. In his league, it's not really a life or death. I think the coaches want the boys to be successful and to learn the game. There are times when, I'll admit, it is frustrating to see a player struggle, whether it's throwing a ball when the count is full or when a ball that is going directly to a kid doesn't go in the glove. There's nothing, in those situations, a coach can do. The helplessness feeling is what is discouraging. Yet, at the same time, the boys seem to be having fun, which is the number one priority. Practice today will consist of a lot of batting practice as we, as a team, haven't been hitting the ball when we are up to bat. There is a lot second-guessing.
"No."
Well, we now have plants along the fence. We laid down mulch last year but it seems to have not been thick enough. I know we need to put down more and to put it down heavier. Yet, starting June 13-July 13, we won't really be home at all. Between baseball/softball games up until shortly before the first of July and camping all five weekends in Elkader, we won't really be able to enjoy the work we would do. I'm leaning towards putting it down this fall. Yet, I don't want it to look bad so maybe within a week or so, we'll tackle that project.
Another project that I'm sure will get tackled sooner than later is the storage room. When we load the camper, all the camping stuff in that room must come out. You'd think after all these years there would be a system and you'd be wrong. For the most part, things are organized. We ultimately have too much stuff. Ideally, I'd be able to leave my drums set up all the time in this storage room but... there's no way right now. We have never really come up with a system for keeping the room organized. When we purchase something, I ask "where should we keep this?" "Down in the storage room." Hence, we accumulate and accumulate. I used to think that some shelves would make things better, but I'm not convinced of that any more. We need a warehouse like in the final scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The obvious answer, if you don't want to go the warehouse construction route, is to ditch stuff. Believe me, we've had our 'I'm ready to ditch stuff we don't need" cleaning days. I don't know if one is on the horizon. It'll really depend upon whether I can find the things from the camping season that need to be found.
Okay, enough about the messiness of my storage room. How boring.
Work? Oh yes, I went to work yesterday. I think work is really going well. I have a lot to do - which is a recurring theme in this blog - and that is good. I have been converting from a table-based layout to a CSS-based layout. My table-based layout uses qdshelp.css and my non-table layout uses qdshelp_new.css. When all of my files point to qdshelp_new.css, I am going to rename qdshelp.css to qdshelp_tables.css, rename qdshelp_new.css to qdshelp.css, and then do a find qdshelp_new.css and replace it with qdshelp.css in all of my HTML files. Then... I will start the process all over again of deciding what to change in the HTML files. I'm not sure, exactly, what I will change. The awesome thing is that with CSS, I can make a change to a single file and have the changes ripple through to all the HTML files. CSS is very powerful and I don't even understand all of its capabilities. I am learning, though, and that's good.
Outside of a pet project like that, there is a long list of projects that are going to require doc changes to the system. The system has grown very complex over the last 9.5 years and, as I approach a decade of working there, I think it will get even more complex in the next decade. I am one of those fools that don't exist much anymore that really thinks I will spend the rest of my career at a single job. I have no desire to go elsewhere. My (cool) manager is awesome, I like my work, and I enjoy the people with whom I work. It's a good environment for me.
It should be a time for solving things, though. It is, after all, finally the weekend but it doesn't allow me a chance to slow down. Alex's coach added practice this AM @ 10 and that's fine. Alex's team has lost its last 3 games. In his league, it's not really a life or death. I think the coaches want the boys to be successful and to learn the game. There are times when, I'll admit, it is frustrating to see a player struggle, whether it's throwing a ball when the count is full or when a ball that is going directly to a kid doesn't go in the glove. There's nothing, in those situations, a coach can do. The helplessness feeling is what is discouraging. Yet, at the same time, the boys seem to be having fun, which is the number one priority. Practice today will consist of a lot of batting practice as we, as a team, haven't been hitting the ball when we are up to bat. There is a lot second-guessing.
The other major event that is happening this weekend is the printer. I replaced 2 of the 6 cartridges last night and now it still won't print b/c it claims the other 4 are empty. I should have just bought all 6 last night at Best Buy. Now I need to make a stop on the way home from Mass. Of course, Alex has a paper he has to turn in on Tuesday and it has to be typed.
I wrote a review of the new Death Cab for Cutie. I wrote about how I must be living under a rock b/c the buzz on this band is huge and, well, I had never listened to them before. I think the review is running on Monday.
Karen's aunt's funeral is on Monday as well. We are missing graduation party tomorrow to go up to the wake in Dubuque. We'll leave @ 1 and be to Dubuque by 3, stay for the vigil, and then go to Balltown for the night. The next morning, I'll pack the van so that when we leave to attend the funeral, we'll be able to leave from Dubuque to NL. Alex has tutor @ 3:15.
When I went to pick up some vegetables in our former neighborhood, when my former neighbor's mom saw me, she said, "You look like that guy on TV." After some further discussion, she was thinking of Raymond on Everybody Loves Raymond. What's funny is that when I first started dating my wife, my wife's cousin's wife thought I looked like Tom Cruise. I'm no Tom Cruise. I actually am closer to a hybrid of Robert and Raymond. Take Robert's height, not being the favorite child, and not having a good relationship with his mother and melt it with Raymond's love for golf, his desire to be a good father, and the way in which what he does is not exactly what everyone else thinks he should do. My brother-in-law in Cedar Falls thinks I look & act like Raymond as well.
Speaking of jerks... no really, I really like my brothers-in-law. We are going to see Mark's band play next Friday night. We are going to be leaving CR @ 5-ish, u pto Cedar Falls by 6:15-ish, drop the kids off, and then go downtown to The Hub to see the Who-Dads. The Who-Dads used to be called "Drop Everything" but went through a name change. I saw them play before and they are good. They have an insane lead guitarist and a killer rhythm guitarist (Mark). The drummer uses electronic drums so that is good as well. On top of all that, their set list is very good. My personal favorite is when they launched into the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun." Ah... college. One last note, tentatively, one of my best friends and his wife that live in Cedar Falls may be coming down to check it out too. I hope they do.
So while we were going to get the camper loaded for the beginning of our camping season on Friday, June 13, it doesn't look like that will happen. Additionally, we were going to lay down some mulch in our backyard and it's doubtful that will happen either. The mulch project is kind of interesting. About a year ago, our neighbors down the street rented a sod ripper upper because they were expanding their patio. Karen says to me, "Don't you think we should use it so we can plant some plants along the fence in the backyard?"
"No."
Well, we now have plants along the fence. We laid down mulch last year but it seems to have not been thick enough. I know we need to put down more and to put it down heavier. Yet, starting June 13-July 13, we won't really be home at all. Between baseball/softball games up until shortly before the first of July and camping all five weekends in Elkader, we won't really be able to enjoy the work we would do. I'm leaning towards putting it down this fall. Yet, I don't want it to look bad so maybe within a week or so, we'll tackle that project.
Another project that I'm sure will get tackled sooner than later is the storage room. When we load the camper, all the camping stuff in that room must come out. You'd think after all these years there would be a system and you'd be wrong. For the most part, things are organized. We ultimately have too much stuff. Ideally, I'd be able to leave my drums set up all the time in this storage room but... there's no way right now. We have never really come up with a system for keeping the room organized. When we purchase something, I ask "where should we keep this?" "Down in the storage room." Hence, we accumulate and accumulate. I used to think that some shelves would make things better, but I'm not convinced of that any more. We need a warehouse like in the final scene of "Raiders of the Lost Ark." The obvious answer, if you don't want to go the warehouse construction route, is to ditch stuff. Believe me, we've had our 'I'm ready to ditch stuff we don't need" cleaning days. I don't know if one is on the horizon. It'll really depend upon whether I can find the things from the camping season that need to be found.
Okay, enough about the messiness of my storage room. How boring.
Work? Oh yes, I went to work yesterday. I think work is really going well. I have a lot to do - which is a recurring theme in this blog - and that is good. I have been converting from a table-based layout to a CSS-based layout. My table-based layout uses qdshelp.css and my non-table layout uses qdshelp_new.css. When all of my files point to qdshelp_new.css, I am going to rename qdshelp.css to qdshelp_tables.css, rename qdshelp_new.css to qdshelp.css, and then do a find qdshelp_new.css and replace it with qdshelp.css in all of my HTML files. Then... I will start the process all over again of deciding what to change in the HTML files. I'm not sure, exactly, what I will change. The awesome thing is that with CSS, I can make a change to a single file and have the changes ripple through to all the HTML files. CSS is very powerful and I don't even understand all of its capabilities. I am learning, though, and that's good.
Outside of a pet project like that, there is a long list of projects that are going to require doc changes to the system. The system has grown very complex over the last 9.5 years and, as I approach a decade of working there, I think it will get even more complex in the next decade. I am one of those fools that don't exist much anymore that really thinks I will spend the rest of my career at a single job. I have no desire to go elsewhere. My (cool) manager is awesome, I like my work, and I enjoy the people with whom I work. It's a good environment for me.
Alex just came downstairs and needs help with his tutor homework so maybe I'll write later. He asked if I got the printer working and I said no, it needs more ink. He said that they're just trying to get me to pay more money at Best Buy. Smart kid.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Mission Metallica
I have to say I have a weakness. I have had this weakness since 1989 when I saw Metallica play in concert for the first time, a weakness that has continued to seeing them in November 1991 during Student Teaching when I looked around the arena and wondered why all these kids weren't home doing their schoolwork, and then in January 1993, when bassist Jason Newsted told the Carver Hawkeye Arena that they needed to have a good time even though basketball player Chris Street had died shortly before the concert (like a week earlier) and then... August 2004 when they played "Frantic" and "Dirty Window" from St. Anger. That gig was so good I bought it in MP3 format from http://www.livemetallica.com.
Metallica are the band that I adore. My kids know "Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," and maybe a couple others. I am listening to "Ride the Lightening" now and will probably spin a different Metallica release tomorrow.
I am so stoked to hear new riffs, new ideas, and new images of the band I really like. I find myself feeling like a teeny-bopper getting all giddy and excited. I wish there was a release date for Metallica's next release because I have a Javascript that will count down the number of days until a specific date. I would somehow post that on this blog so that the people that look at this page would immediately know how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until it is released.
I am so excited. I've sat at this PC, looking at the different videos on Youtube and on http://www.missionmetallica.com/. I am stoked!
Dang!
Please hurry time. This Metallica fan wants to hear the new release yesterday, not tomorrow!
YYZ and more Peart
I don't know why, but the animated Neil Peart playing YYZ is now back up on YouTube so if you haven't checked it out, here it is:
video removed="removed"
I can safely tell you that Peart *is* as mechanical and precise as the video. I also found this video that I found interesting:
video removed="removed"
And finally, if you're really bored, watch this. The only redeeming value is the way he looks in the camera is really freaky.
video removed="removed"
One more than I leave you...
video removed="removed
I guess I got all of that out of my system - I don't really want my blog to be a bunch of links to Youtube videos.
Editor's Note: It is totally ironic that these words, in this order, actually exists on this blog: "I don't really want my blog to be a bunch of links to Youtube videos."
video removed="removed"
I can safely tell you that Peart *is* as mechanical and precise as the video. I also found this video that I found interesting:
video removed="removed"
And finally, if you're really bored, watch this. The only redeeming value is the way he looks in the camera is really freaky.
video removed="removed"
One more than I leave you...
video removed="removed
I guess I got all of that out of my system - I don't really want my blog to be a bunch of links to Youtube videos.
Editor's Note: It is totally ironic that these words, in this order, actually exists on this blog: "I don't really want my blog to be a bunch of links to Youtube videos."
Seeing Hurry in Moline, IL, and Memorial Day Weekend Plans
I left Cedar Rapids on Tuesday afternoon @ 4:30. I was eating a #3, no pickles/onions, in the McDonald's in West Branch @ 5:10. I was back on the road @ 5:20. I was at the Walcott exit 20 minutes later and at my brother-in-law's house at 6. I was sitting in my seat in the iWireless Center @ 7. The show was amazing. Excellent musicianship, of course, from Hurry. I submitted my review to Dailyvault.com and will link to it from my blog when it is posted.
This holiday weekend doesn't seem like it will be much of a holiday. Megan is having a friend of hers sleepover on Friday night. On Saturday, I heard a rumor about putting down some mulch in the backyard and cleaning the garage. I am also playing @ 5:15 Mass and Karen is singing. On Sunday, we are either going to a wake in Dubuque on Sunday afternoon and spending the night in Balltown *or* we are going to a former neighbor's graduation party because Karen had told the mother of the graduate that she would help her.
Either way, on Memorial Day, we have Karen's aunt's funeral. Dorothy was a great person. She was filled by the Holy Spirit and lived as a servant of the Lord. She was my father-in-law's sister and very special in the family. She will be missed.
This holiday weekend doesn't seem like it will be much of a holiday. Megan is having a friend of hers sleepover on Friday night. On Saturday, I heard a rumor about putting down some mulch in the backyard and cleaning the garage. I am also playing @ 5:15 Mass and Karen is singing. On Sunday, we are either going to a wake in Dubuque on Sunday afternoon and spending the night in Balltown *or* we are going to a former neighbor's graduation party because Karen had told the mother of the graduate that she would help her.
Either way, on Memorial Day, we have Karen's aunt's funeral. Dorothy was a great person. She was filled by the Holy Spirit and lived as a servant of the Lord. She was my father-in-law's sister and very special in the family. She will be missed.
Monday, May 19, 2008
MASH
I got sucked into watching *again* the MASH 30th Anniversary special that I have seen before from 10-12 last night. Some comments:
- Harry Morgan (Potter) looks old and he looked really old in the series!
- I think it is very touching how the cast came together to do a show no one had ever done before
- Alan Alda sounds like he was as funny off camera as he was on camera
- Frank Burns is dead
- Winchester doesn't have his Boston snobbery accent.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Return to NL
We are home safe and sound in North Liberty. The camper safely rests next to the garage, the F-150 is emptied, the 2 hour season finale of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is on. Alex is playing his baseball Playstation game and Megan is practically begging me to get off the PC so that she can do "webkinz" and "buy stuff," whatever that means.
Eager to please, I'll check in later.
Eager to please, I'll check in later.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
So much too few moments
Where did this week go?
Baseball, softball, ER season finale (just who really was in the ambulance that blew - Pratt or Sam?), Lost, Grey's Anatomy, baseball, softball... where does the time go?
Big news is that I bought tickets for Rush for Tuesday night. I didn't know this, but they have a new live 2 CD release. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_&_Arrows_Tour
In other news, Lamb of God's drummer Chris Adler is going to be writing a monthly column for Modern Drummer. I used to subscribe to MD but it has been years since I bought an issue cover to cover - at least 15 years, closer to 20.
At work, I have been working hard. There is a lot of work to do and I am trying my best to put my head above water. One reason that makes my life difficult is the virtual machine I have been using since late March. It is not working for me. I wrote this email to my cool manager that summarizes my issues and removed references to my company:
The problem is that the Virtual Machine session of my old PC doesn't perform adequately. I discovered yet another issue today: the inability to paste formatted text when it is copied in Internet Explorer (IE) and pasted into Word.
My workflow has been to always write documentation in Dreamweaver (DW), preview the text in Internet Explorer (IE) and then paste into Word. I have used this workflow for nearly 2 years on my Windows 2000 (W2K) PC. This workflow worked without any issues when I was using a non-virtual PC. I developed this workflow because it is faster to work DW ==> IE ==> Word than it is to work Word --> DW. I experimented with both workflows while developing the most efficient way in which to write documentation.
Here's a specific example:
I write this text in my HTML file:TheWord_01 Word_02 system option is available.
I preview the page in IE. I select the above text and press Ctrl+C to copy the text.
I navigate to Word 2003and press Ctrl+V. I get this: The Word_01 Word_02 system option is available.
In other words, my bolded text doesn't carry the formatting from the IE text.
The impact of this issue is that I then have to manually highlight text and format it as bold. There is no macro or automated way to do this. This adds time. For lengthy passages, it might make sense to copy a sentence at a time but this is not a long-term - definitely NOT permanent - solution. It is a [...] standard to bold names of menu options, system options & system values so that they stand out. Not bolding these items would make the documentation confusing to read as all the names would be title case but they wouldn't stand out. Bolding these items is a common and accepted practice among most technical writers.
I tested to see if this could be reproduced on my Vista machine. No, it cannot. I can select formatted text in IE 7, copy it to my clipboard and then paste it into Word 2007. The text will be copied as formatted text, working as I expect.
In conclusion, the inability to paste formatted text is yet another issue with using a virtual machine. This issue joins the list with 1) general slowness of the virtual machine, 2) the inability to scroll in any applications, and 3) the unstable PDF creation. I know that these issues did not exist on my non-virtual PC session. I am confident that they will not exist on my Vista PC. These issues would be resolved if [we] obtained the new versions of the software - RoboHelp, Dreamweaver, SnagIT, Adobe Acrobat - so that I can migrate from the Virtual PC to my non-virtual Vista PC.
To my manager's credit, she is working very very hard to get this squared away so that I can move along.
And... if you got through all that, you should be rewarded so here you go. Def Leppard, Everclear, Night Ranger, Cinderella, Warrant, and 38 Special are playing at the Iowa State Fair this year: http://www.iowastatefair.com/entertainment/mediaPlayer/grandstand.php
I just learned that Disarray is still around and kicking. They are one of my favorite bands. I am hoping to get a review copy of their latest CD to review for DV.
We are going out of town this weekend so don't bother checking this site again until Sunday PM - and even then, it'll depend upon how tired I am. We are going to pick up our camper tomorrow night, then driving to Balltown. On Saturday, we're going to 4 PM Mass and then to the casino in Dubuque. On Sunday is a birthday party for my niece and nephew. Then we return home to North Liberty and park the camper next to the house - hopefully before the finale of Extreme Makeover and Desperate Housewives!
Take it easy or any way you can get it.
Baseball, softball, ER season finale (just who really was in the ambulance that blew - Pratt or Sam?), Lost, Grey's Anatomy, baseball, softball... where does the time go?
Big news is that I bought tickets for Rush for Tuesday night. I didn't know this, but they have a new live 2 CD release. Read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_&_Arrows_Tour
In other news, Lamb of God's drummer Chris Adler is going to be writing a monthly column for Modern Drummer. I used to subscribe to MD but it has been years since I bought an issue cover to cover - at least 15 years, closer to 20.
At work, I have been working hard. There is a lot of work to do and I am trying my best to put my head above water. One reason that makes my life difficult is the virtual machine I have been using since late March. It is not working for me. I wrote this email to my cool manager that summarizes my issues and removed references to my company:
The problem is that the Virtual Machine session of my old PC doesn't perform adequately. I discovered yet another issue today: the inability to paste formatted text when it is copied in Internet Explorer (IE) and pasted into Word.
My workflow has been to always write documentation in Dreamweaver (DW), preview the text in Internet Explorer (IE) and then paste into Word. I have used this workflow for nearly 2 years on my Windows 2000 (W2K) PC. This workflow worked without any issues when I was using a non-virtual PC. I developed this workflow because it is faster to work DW ==> IE ==> Word than it is to work Word --> DW. I experimented with both workflows while developing the most efficient way in which to write documentation.
Here's a specific example:
I write this text in my HTML file:The
I preview the page in IE. I select the above text and press Ctrl+C to copy the text.
I navigate to Word 2003
In other words, my bolded text doesn't carry the formatting from the IE text.
The impact of this issue is that I then have to manually highlight text and format it as bold. There is no macro or automated way to do this. This adds time. For lengthy passages, it might make sense to copy a sentence at a time but this is not a long-term - definitely NOT permanent - solution. It is a [...] standard to bold names of menu options, system options & system values so that they stand out. Not bolding these items would make the documentation confusing to read as all the names would be title case but they wouldn't stand out. Bolding these items is a common and accepted practice among most technical writers.
I tested to see if this could be reproduced on my Vista machine. No, it cannot. I can select formatted text in IE 7, copy it to my clipboard and then paste it into Word 2007. The text will be copied as formatted text, working as I expect.
In conclusion, the inability to paste formatted text is yet another issue with using a virtual machine. This issue joins the list with 1) general slowness of the virtual machine, 2) the inability to scroll in any applications, and 3) the unstable PDF creation. I know that these issues did not exist on my non-virtual PC session. I am confident that they will not exist on my Vista PC. These issues would be resolved if [we] obtained the new versions of the software - RoboHelp, Dreamweaver, SnagIT, Adobe Acrobat - so that I can migrate from the Virtual PC to my non-virtual Vista PC.
To my manager's credit, she is working very very hard to get this squared away so that I can move along.
And... if you got through all that, you should be rewarded so here you go. Def Leppard, Everclear, Night Ranger, Cinderella, Warrant, and 38 Special are playing at the Iowa State Fair this year: http://www.iowastatefair.com/entertainment/mediaPlayer/grandstand.php
I just learned that Disarray is still around and kicking. They are one of my favorite bands. I am hoping to get a review copy of their latest CD to review for DV.
We are going out of town this weekend so don't bother checking this site again until Sunday PM - and even then, it'll depend upon how tired I am. We are going to pick up our camper tomorrow night, then driving to Balltown. On Saturday, we're going to 4 PM Mass and then to the casino in Dubuque. On Sunday is a birthday party for my niece and nephew. Then we return home to North Liberty and park the camper next to the house - hopefully before the finale of Extreme Makeover and Desperate Housewives!
Take it easy or any way you can get it.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Rushing to Get there
I talked to my brother-in-law tonight and we decided we are going to go see Rush @ the iWireless Center in Moline, IL, next Tuesday night. I am going to pick up our tickets tomorrow.
I saw Rush in Ames in 2002. They were amazing. Without looking at each other, they picked up the different changes in the songs they were playing. It was phenomenal to watch a band as polished as Rush play. Of course, Neil Peart nailed all of his fills and sounded perfect. I am looking forward to the concert. I haven't been to a concert since the Temptations and that was in the ballroom in the Riverside Casino. Before that, was Memphis in May 2007. This is going to be awesome. I am spending the night at my brother-in-law's house in Blue Grass and then driving straight to Cedar Rapids to work on Wednesday AM.
I saw Rush in Ames in 2002. They were amazing. Without looking at each other, they picked up the different changes in the songs they were playing. It was phenomenal to watch a band as polished as Rush play. Of course, Neil Peart nailed all of his fills and sounded perfect. I am looking forward to the concert. I haven't been to a concert since the Temptations and that was in the ballroom in the Riverside Casino. Before that, was Memphis in May 2007. This is going to be awesome. I am spending the night at my brother-in-law's house in Blue Grass and then driving straight to Cedar Rapids to work on Wednesday AM.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Growing Up
My daughter is growing up in front of my eyes. It is going fast and as a friend of mine told me today, "Pretty soon it'll be prom." He said that in context of talking about how his daughter wanted to stay up and make breakfast after prom.
Prom. What a joke. I have faint memories of what prom was really like. I like to romanticize it and say that it was fun and that I had a good time. I remember that my date and I went as friends. I remember that I didn't get home until 3-ish AM, which was a big deal for me. I also remember that I had to work the next morning at the restaurant. I didn't drink in high school so it wasn't being hung over that made that Sunday difficult - it was, authentically, getting up after only 3 hours of sleep.
Back to Megan. We left around 6:30 AM and went to McDonald's to have an Egg McMuffin. I think that was a time I won't forget. After breakfast, I drove her to school so that she could go on the school's bands' bus trip to Adventureland, in Des Moines. The parking lot was full of kids, 5th grade through 12th grade. I think that next year, if possible, I'd like to chaperone on this trip. I think it'd be fun.
It's now 9:40 AM and because my in-laws are in town, I doubt I will see this PC until Monday AM. That's okay - I really, authentically, like being around my in-laws. My father-in-law and I get along well and I like being around my favorite mother-in-law.
One last note: I think work is going to be very fun over the next months. There is a lot of initiatives I want to work on and even more that I probably don't know about.
Prom. What a joke. I have faint memories of what prom was really like. I like to romanticize it and say that it was fun and that I had a good time. I remember that my date and I went as friends. I remember that I didn't get home until 3-ish AM, which was a big deal for me. I also remember that I had to work the next morning at the restaurant. I didn't drink in high school so it wasn't being hung over that made that Sunday difficult - it was, authentically, getting up after only 3 hours of sleep.
Back to Megan. We left around 6:30 AM and went to McDonald's to have an Egg McMuffin. I think that was a time I won't forget. After breakfast, I drove her to school so that she could go on the school's bands' bus trip to Adventureland, in Des Moines. The parking lot was full of kids, 5th grade through 12th grade. I think that next year, if possible, I'd like to chaperone on this trip. I think it'd be fun.
It's now 9:40 AM and because my in-laws are in town, I doubt I will see this PC until Monday AM. That's okay - I really, authentically, like being around my in-laws. My father-in-law and I get along well and I like being around my favorite mother-in-law.
One last note: I think work is going to be very fun over the next months. There is a lot of initiatives I want to work on and even more that I probably don't know about.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Not Hard Enough
I heard about my 20 year high school reunion in the paper. They're having a dinner/dance on a Saturday night in August. I don't plan to go because I will be on our annual college campout with 4 other couples and a bunch of kids. I don't have anything but regrets about high school. I didn't work hard enough academically. I got decent grades but I didn't attempt AP English even though I knew in high school I wanted to be an English teacher. I didn't work hard enough socially. I didn't have a lot of friends and I pretty much only dated one girl. I didn't work hard enough when I was out for the swim team. I improved year-to-year but I never, ever, gave myself the authority to go the next step. I never went more than 100% in practice. I didn't give when I had nothing to give. And, perhaps the one area I regret the most is that I didn't work hard enough to get into my high school's music scene. There was a guitarist and a bassist and a singer who needed me to play drums with them, but I never approached them. The guitarist and bassist eventually went out to form an original band I liked in 1993, but because I had never approached either of them with the idea of jamming or had never approached the school paper about writing for them, people didn't really know I was about music, which has become a lot of what I'm about these days.
So hearing about a high school reunion doesn't really trip my trigger. I'm not harboring animosity towards anyone I went to high school with. It's, well, I have grown since high school. I have, hopefully, matured into the father and husband I was meant to be. I mean, why do I want to go back and see people that still think of me as I was 20 years ago when I am so not that person? It doesn't make sense to me, when I think about it, to go back and surround myself with people - even if it is only for one night - that haven't really made an effort to stay in touch with me. I can count on two fingers - and these two know who they are - the number of friends that I have remained close with over the last 20 years. These two were in my wedding ~15 years ago and I know that I can call them anytime I need them and, hopefully, they know the inverse is true as well. So for the other 440 people in my class...I hope you all have a great time.
So hearing about a high school reunion doesn't really trip my trigger. I'm not harboring animosity towards anyone I went to high school with. It's, well, I have grown since high school. I have, hopefully, matured into the father and husband I was meant to be. I mean, why do I want to go back and see people that still think of me as I was 20 years ago when I am so not that person? It doesn't make sense to me, when I think about it, to go back and surround myself with people - even if it is only for one night - that haven't really made an effort to stay in touch with me. I can count on two fingers - and these two know who they are - the number of friends that I have remained close with over the last 20 years. These two were in my wedding ~15 years ago and I know that I can call them anytime I need them and, hopefully, they know the inverse is true as well. So for the other 440 people in my class...
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Sick
I have been fighting a cold and it sucks. I hate feeling under the weather. I have a tickle in the back of my throat and I constantly blow my nose like a faucet. My stomach is in knots and I just don't feel good. I am tired and disgusted and sick. Period. I am turning off the PC, despite the fact that I should be writing reviews tonight as my wife's birthday is tomorrow and I will not be on the PC @ night. I would like to wake up tomorrow to a brighter day and a better day so I'm not even going to turn on the TV to watch a rerun of Justice League Unlimited - a show for which I have a weakness. I'm not going to even look for a MASH rerun or an episode of Home Improvement. Even Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor is not getting my attention tonight.
I am going to bed.
I am going to bed.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Slave to the Grind or Grinding to the Slave
I'm looking at my S CDs and I see Skid Row's "Slave to the Grind." I really wish that band would have stuck around longer in that SttG mentality. SttG is not hair metal - it is heavy metal. It is authoritative and mind-blowing, even today. There's the radio hit "Monkey Business" but that's probably the least best track. The best track is the ballad "Wasted Time" - the lyrics are potent. I will need to address this CD on http://www.dailyvault.com in the near future.
In other news, the Confirmation Mass was yesterday. Not to be egotistical, but I received many compliments on my drums. Every one thought the music sounded great. I played conservatively in the first few songs and then played more adventurous during the last song. The music ministry person gave me $20 so I guess I'm a pro. I am going to buy a new pair of "Hot Rod" brush/sticks because the ones I've been using for years have been whittled to useless.
Alex was my roadie and helped carry drums out to the car. I have a 4 door Achieva and I fit my 24" bass drum, 16" floor tom, 13" mounted tom, 14" snare, 18" ride, 14" crash, 14" hihats, a snare stand, two cymbal stands, and a hihat stand in my car, plus Alex. I used to have a 4 door Honda Accord and all of that equipment fit in that car as well. I like fitting all of my drums in a small car - it's my thing.
It's back to work. I have 26 projects that I think are going to be on the next update. It is going to be crazy at work until... well, probably September 1. There are many initiatives my manager and I have set up (that I won't discuss here in any great depth - too specific to the company to be relevant) that are in the works. Some are really exciting - like the conversion of 1200+ HTML files to a new CSS file - and some are not so much. I do love my job. I think that I was meant to be a Technical Writer. I have been with my employer since 10/1/98 and sometimes it's like I was born to be working at this company. The people are fantastic, the work is always challenging, and I have the audacity to think I can make a difference. Not bad for someone who begged their college professor to not fail my Student Teaching experience in the fall of 1991.
It's 7:10 AM and I need to progress.
In other news, the Confirmation Mass was yesterday. Not to be egotistical, but I received many compliments on my drums. Every one thought the music sounded great. I played conservatively in the first few songs and then played more adventurous during the last song. The music ministry person gave me $20 so I guess I'm a pro. I am going to buy a new pair of "Hot Rod" brush/sticks because the ones I've been using for years have been whittled to useless.
Alex was my roadie and helped carry drums out to the car. I have a 4 door Achieva and I fit my 24" bass drum, 16" floor tom, 13" mounted tom, 14" snare, 18" ride, 14" crash, 14" hihats, a snare stand, two cymbal stands, and a hihat stand in my car, plus Alex. I used to have a 4 door Honda Accord and all of that equipment fit in that car as well. I like fitting all of my drums in a small car - it's my thing.
It's back to work. I have 26 projects that I think are going to be on the next update. It is going to be crazy at work until... well, probably September 1. There are many initiatives my manager and I have set up (that I won't discuss here in any great depth - too specific to the company to be relevant) that are in the works. Some are really exciting - like the conversion of 1200+ HTML files to a new CSS file - and some are not so much. I do love my job. I think that I was meant to be a Technical Writer. I have been with my employer since 10/1/98 and sometimes it's like I was born to be working at this company. The people are fantastic, the work is always challenging, and I have the audacity to think I can make a difference. Not bad for someone who begged their college professor to not fail my Student Teaching experience in the fall of 1991.
It's 7:10 AM and I need to progress.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Can't we catch the Sun ... just once?
With each Saturday baseball practice, it seems like the weather never cooperates. Last week, it was cold and windy. Today is no different. It doesn't feel like baseball season. Yet, in about 15 minutes, I'll go up to Alex's room, wake him up, we'll get in the car and go.
It also rained in Memphis. I talked to my friend Phi ~11 PM last night. He said they got drenched. That's par for the Memphis in May course - it has to rain at least once. The forecast is better for today through Sunday but I'd imagine the mud people will emerge on the grounds. They're the crazy ones who frolic in the mud that is caused by the rain. Hair, clothes, & shoes all become caked in mud when the Mud People emerge. They are entertaining to watch.
Alex's coach just called. No practice today. Instead, we're getting together @ 2. That's for the better, I think, so that the kids don't get sick. Don't need sick kids going into the season.
It also rained in Memphis. I talked to my friend Phi ~11 PM last night. He said they got drenched. That's par for the Memphis in May course - it has to rain at least once. The forecast is better for today through Sunday but I'd imagine the mud people will emerge on the grounds. They're the crazy ones who frolic in the mud that is caused by the rain. Hair, clothes, & shoes all become caked in mud when the Mud People emerge. They are entertaining to watch.
Alex's coach just called. No practice today. Instead, we're getting together @ 2. That's for the better, I think, so that the kids don't get sick. Don't need sick kids going into the season.
Friday, May 2, 2008
The Rainy Friday Superstition [was:Tired]
Both my wife and I are tired. Our kids are tired. Everyone walks around in a constant fluid state, consistently wondering, "When can I go back to sleep?"
It's been a busy week. On Wednesday, I mowed our neighbor's yard. They moved to Oklahoma and my wife volunteered me. It was the first cut of the spring and the grass was long. Normally, I can whip through cutting grass. Wednesday, because it was so long, it took 2 hours to do his yard. I still had our yard to mow and it was ~8 PM!
I started in on our yard and did maybe 3/4ths of the front when the mower let out its last gasp and died. I couldn't pull the string to restart it. I had just filled the gas tank so that couldn't be the issue.
The next AM, I went to the local repair guy. The first thing he did was look in the place where oil is supposed to go. Had I put oil in the mower? Not for a couple of years. He says, "Lots of sludge, not much oil. I think it's dead" I left it there in his cemetery of mowers that don't work.
So, yesterday was a lot of calling around to find a replacement. Found one. Another Lawn Boy. Sharp. After $391.14, it's in our garage. My wife finished the front yard and then did the back. I'm confident the novelty of 'new lawn mower' will wear off by the time it's time to mow next week.
I had rehearsal for Confirmation Mass last night. Alex was my roadie and helped me carry my drums in. I admit we sounded pretty good. I've always been able to just start playing with someone and I didn't really mess up.
We returned home in time to see my Main Man Erik win immunity on Survivor - I have Natalie and Erik in our office pool so it's looking pretty good of winning if Erik can consistently win challenges! - before I left to go pick up Megan from softball practice. Got the kids into bed, watched Lost, taped ER, saw a little bit of TNA Wrestling, then went to bed. Tired. But I couldn't sleep.
Maybe tonight. It's rainy and dreary, http://www.kcrg.com/weather probably doesn't show a lot of sunshine today, 7:07 AM on Friday, 5/2/8, so maybe that's a good thing.
Want to read something weird? For as long as I can remember, I've been superstitious about rainy Fridays. In junior high, maybe even elementary, something 'great' happened on a rainy Friday. I believe great things happen on a rainy Friday. Sometimes it's getting a project completed at work, sometimes it's been doing well in student teaching, back in 1991. Sometimes it's being able to finish a coherent thought.
It's been a busy week. On Wednesday, I mowed our neighbor's yard. They moved to Oklahoma and my wife volunteered me. It was the first cut of the spring and the grass was long. Normally, I can whip through cutting grass. Wednesday, because it was so long, it took 2 hours to do his yard. I still had our yard to mow and it was ~8 PM!
I started in on our yard and did maybe 3/4ths of the front when the mower let out its last gasp and died. I couldn't pull the string to restart it. I had just filled the gas tank so that couldn't be the issue.
The next AM, I went to the local repair guy. The first thing he did was look in the place where oil is supposed to go. Had I put oil in the mower? Not for a couple of years. He says, "Lots of sludge, not much oil. I think it's dead" I left it there in his cemetery of mowers that don't work.
So, yesterday was a lot of calling around to find a replacement. Found one. Another Lawn Boy. Sharp. After $391.14, it's in our garage. My wife finished the front yard and then did the back. I'm confident the novelty of 'new lawn mower' will wear off by the time it's time to mow next week.
I had rehearsal for Confirmation Mass last night. Alex was my roadie and helped me carry my drums in. I admit we sounded pretty good. I've always been able to just start playing with someone and I didn't really mess up.
We returned home in time to see my Main Man Erik win immunity on Survivor - I have Natalie and Erik in our office pool so it's looking pretty good of winning if Erik can consistently win challenges! - before I left to go pick up Megan from softball practice. Got the kids into bed, watched Lost, taped ER, saw a little bit of TNA Wrestling, then went to bed. Tired. But I couldn't sleep.
Maybe tonight. It's rainy and dreary, http://www.kcrg.com/weather probably doesn't show a lot of sunshine today, 7:07 AM on Friday, 5/2/8, so maybe that's a good thing.
Want to read something weird? For as long as I can remember, I've been superstitious about rainy Fridays. In junior high, maybe even elementary, something 'great' happened on a rainy Friday. I believe great things happen on a rainy Friday. Sometimes it's getting a project completed at work, sometimes it's been doing well in student teaching, back in 1991. Sometimes it's being able to finish a coherent thought.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
More of the same...
Even though, as I look out the window in the den I see sunshine, Megan's pitching clinic is cancelled. It alleviates the schedule a little bit, but with a full slate of practice, clean-up day, a birthday party, Acolyte training @ church, and another birthday party tonight, it is a full slate. It is 7:00 AM and I have, roughly, until 8:00 to mess around on the PC.
Of course, that means I had to go to the About.com pro wrestling site and read about Backlash, the PPV this Sunday.
Late yesterday, I was approached by our sys admin and... well, here is the email I sent:
I am being asked if the Word 2007 add-in "Save as PDF & XPS" can replace Adobe Acrobat. In the past, I used the "Convert cross-references and table of contents to links" option in my Distiller settings to make my TOC clickable. I downloaded the add-in, it installed fine, but I can't find an option that is the equivalent of what Adobe Acrobat allowed me to do.
I googled for "Convert cross-references and table of contents to links" "Word 2007" and got 3 hits - none of them helpful.
Am I just missing a simple setting somewhere?
Initial responses indicate no, I'm not missing a simple setting somewhere. Rats.
The full story is that I am migrating from my virtual W2K PC to Vista. I have a grocery list of software I need - RoboHelp 7, Dreamweaver, Paint Shop Pro - in order to duplicate my W2K setup on the Vista PC. I'm not interested in asking my employer to spend buttloads of money so not needing Acrobat would be ~$50 less bucks they need to spend.
In other news, I've been listening to Metallica's St. Anger release in light of reading about their upcoming 9th studio release. I'm starting to get excited about it, even if the new CD doesn't end up sounding like SA.
Of course, that means I had to go to the About.com pro wrestling site and read about Backlash, the PPV this Sunday.
Late yesterday, I was approached by our sys admin and... well, here is the email I sent:
I am being asked if the Word 2007 add-in "Save as PDF & XPS" can replace Adobe Acrobat. In the past, I used the "Convert cross-references and table of contents to links" option in my Distiller settings to make my TOC clickable. I downloaded the add-in, it installed fine, but I can't find an option that is the equivalent of what Adobe Acrobat allowed me to do.
I googled for "Convert cross-references and table of contents to links" "Word 2007" and got 3 hits - none of them helpful.
Am I just missing a simple setting somewhere?
Initial responses indicate no, I'm not missing a simple setting somewhere. Rats.
The full story is that I am migrating from my virtual W2K PC to Vista. I have a grocery list of software I need - RoboHelp 7, Dreamweaver, Paint Shop Pro - in order to duplicate my W2K setup on the Vista PC. I'm not interested in asking my employer to spend buttloads of money so not needing Acrobat would be ~$50 less bucks they need to spend.
In other news, I've been listening to Metallica's St. Anger release in light of reading about their upcoming 9th studio release. I'm starting to get excited about it, even if the new CD doesn't end up sounding like SA.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Pickles and the MiM schedule
Here's some shameless self-promotion - my review of the new Whitesnake CD is now published on Daily Vault.com.
In addition to having a review published - always a good day in my mind - I woke up today. That's better than not waking up in my book.
Second of all, the Pickles cartoon in the newspaper today was hilarious:
I think there are a lot of husbands in the world who read that and think, "Wow. How'd they get the hidden camera set up!"
Third, the Memphis in May 2008 time schedule was released. I think the lineup looks pretty good but, honestly, not as good as last year and not as good as 2004. I think the main gist of my opinion comes from my musical tastes.
I think it would be a good time - the two times I went were a lot of fun - and I admit to liking to being with the guys in a strange city. The weather has cooperated about 75% of the time - there has been rain both times I was in Memphis - but the people are great. I think that there is something to be said very positively for the city of Memphis. There are a lot of attractions and walking down Beale Street and absorbing the history of this avenue is inspiring. The food is outstanding and as long as you don't go to a busy restaurant, you're fine.
This year, though, instead of being in Memphis, I'll be in Iowa. The last time I missed 'the next year' after a Memphis trip, my family went to Disney World in Orlando.
As a side note, in 2008, there's actually no big vacation planned. We are going to not go on a major family vacation. Instead, we're going to go to the Grand Canyon next summer and fly down instead of driving. My parents are taking the kids to Mackinac Island in MI so that's their vacation and my vacation is 5 weeks of camping in Elkader. We will park our camper in our spot on Friday, June 13th (oh how I do not want to have bad weather or issues that day!) and not move it until Sunday, July 13th. Do not expect a lot of updates during that month!
Fourth and finally, there's a lot of good information about Metallica's ninth studio album @ Wikipedia. I have been a Metallica fan since 1988. Shortly after I graduated from high school, it seems, I started getting into their music. In college, prior to the Black release, I was ridiculed for liking Metallica. "That's not music," I remember a friend of mine telling me. That same friend thought "Enter Sandman" was awesome when it was released. Radio stations never wanted anything to do with Metallica's Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightening, or Master of Puppets releases when they were new. Yet, now, the two local rock stations, KRNA & Rock 108, now proudly play vintage Metallica. I've heard "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Fade to Black," "Seek and Destroy," "One," "Harvester of Sorrow," and, just yesterday, Rock 108's "6 Pack at 5" show started out with "Blackened." I saw the band in August 2004 and they were excellent. I even bought that gig from http://www.livemetallica.com because it was so stellar. I don't really care when the 9th studio CD is released - it could be Christmas for all I care. I just want it to be a good release and for the band to fully integrate Robert Trujillo's bass into their sound. That's the key - incorporate the bass into the next generation of Metallica.
In addition to having a review published - always a good day in my mind - I woke up today. That's better than not waking up in my book.
Second of all, the Pickles cartoon in the newspaper today was hilarious:
I think there are a lot of husbands in the world who read that and think, "Wow. How'd they get the hidden camera set up!"
Third, the Memphis in May 2008 time schedule was released. I think the lineup looks pretty good but, honestly, not as good as last year and not as good as 2004. I think the main gist of my opinion comes from my musical tastes.I think it would be a good time - the two times I went were a lot of fun - and I admit to liking to being with the guys in a strange city. The weather has cooperated about 75% of the time - there has been rain both times I was in Memphis - but the people are great. I think that there is something to be said very positively for the city of Memphis. There are a lot of attractions and walking down Beale Street and absorbing the history of this avenue is inspiring. The food is outstanding and as long as you don't go to a busy restaurant, you're fine.
This year, though, instead of being in Memphis, I'll be in Iowa. The last time I missed 'the next year' after a Memphis trip, my family went to Disney World in Orlando.
As a side note, in 2008, there's actually no big vacation planned. We are going to not go on a major family vacation. Instead, we're going to go to the Grand Canyon next summer and fly down instead of driving. My parents are taking the kids to Mackinac Island in MI so that's their vacation and my vacation is 5 weeks of camping in Elkader. We will park our camper in our spot on Friday, June 13th (oh how I do not want to have bad weather or issues that day!) and not move it until Sunday, July 13th. Do not expect a lot of updates during that month!
Fourth and finally, there's a lot of good information about Metallica's ninth studio album @ Wikipedia. I have been a Metallica fan since 1988. Shortly after I graduated from high school, it seems, I started getting into their music. In college, prior to the Black release, I was ridiculed for liking Metallica. "That's not music," I remember a friend of mine telling me. That same friend thought "Enter Sandman" was awesome when it was released. Radio stations never wanted anything to do with Metallica's Kill 'em All, Ride the Lightening, or Master of Puppets releases when they were new. Yet, now, the two local rock stations, KRNA & Rock 108, now proudly play vintage Metallica. I've heard "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Fade to Black," "Seek and Destroy," "One," "Harvester of Sorrow," and, just yesterday, Rock 108's "6 Pack at 5" show started out with "Blackened." I saw the band in August 2004 and they were excellent. I even bought that gig from http://www.livemetallica.com because it was so stellar. I don't really care when the 9th studio CD is released - it could be Christmas for all I care. I just want it to be a good release and for the band to fully integrate Robert Trujillo's bass into their sound. That's the key - incorporate the bass into the next generation of Metallica.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
6:50
Oh my...
I sat in my neighbors' driveway and drank beer. It was totally awesome. I may not accomplish a single thing from now on. This night.
Me.
I sat in my neighbors' driveway and drank beer. It was totally awesome. I may not accomplish a single thing from now on. This night.
Me.
Filmstrip
This post is dedicated to a teacher I had in high school. I kept track of the number of films, filmstrips, and slides he showed during a semester. There were 59 days of school and he showed 65 films, filmstrips, and slides.
A day of rest? Hardly!
Today is already shaping up to be a very busy day. On our way home from Cedar Falls last night, all I could really do was think about the tasks I need to complete in the immediate future.
On top of all of that, it is a typical 'spring' week.
Jeff Foxworthy, the redneck comedian, talks about how he loves his life and wouldn't change any of it (before he launches into his routine about being single) and I agree with what he says. My life is busy but that's okay. In the big picture, I understand the hectic schedule I'm immersed within is only going to last another decade.
At the end of that decade, Alex will be graduating high school and the list of the above tasks will be nearing the end of the tunnel. Megan will be in college and life will be a lot different than it is now. It is already a lot different in 2008 than it was in 1998 than it was in 1988.
In 1988, I was a senior in high school. I had not met my wife and wanted to be an English teacher.
In 1998, I was married for 6 years, Megan was born and Alex was on the way.
In 2008, I have been married for nearly 15 years (August), Megan and Alex are talking and walking and a joy to be around.
In 2018, Karen and I will be approaching 25 years of marriage, the kids will be nearly out of the house, and who can guess what other challenges and exciting things will happen. That's what I like about my life - there is never a dull moment.
The challenge is to stay focused. Where am I now? What am I doing now? I find it easy to focus on the future. Even though it takes place in a galaxy far far away, Yoda criticizes Luke Skywalker for thinking like that - Luke focuses on the future and craves excitement.
I feel like I need to consciously check the balance in my mind between the future and the present. I don't want to miss anything while I am consumed by thoughts about the future but I don't want to be unprepared for the future.
Speaking of the future, it's time to prepare for Mass.
- Now that Sharp is sending us a replacement microwave, I need to go to Lampe Appliances and retrieve our old microwave so it can be sent back to Sharp.
- Purchase a birthday present for my godson Daniel.
- Complete my reorganization of the den. I was up at 7 AM and made a good dent but there is much work to complete. I'm unsure if I will have time to accomplish this task today or if it will be after Desperate Housewives tonight before I can take it on.
- Organize the stuff that is to be taken to the dump on Saturday and get it loaded into the truck.
- Retrieve any clothes that were put in the storage room so they can be taken to the local Stuff store this Friday.
On top of all of that, it is a typical 'spring' week.
- Monday
- Megan has softball
- Tuesday
- Hard to believe but NOTHING
- Wednesday
- Megan has piano
- Alex has baseball. Mark, the head coach is gone so I am running practice with the Assistant Coach.
- Thursday
- Megan has softball
- Survivor, new Grey's Anatomy, new Lost, new ER
- Friday
- Prepare for the weekend & my father's birthday
- Saturday
- Alex has baseball practice, Megan has a pitching clinic, Spring Clean-Up Day in the AM; Godson's birthday party in the PM in Ely
- Sunday
- Godson's First Communion in Davenport
Jeff Foxworthy, the redneck comedian, talks about how he loves his life and wouldn't change any of it (before he launches into his routine about being single) and I agree with what he says. My life is busy but that's okay. In the big picture, I understand the hectic schedule I'm immersed within is only going to last another decade.
At the end of that decade, Alex will be graduating high school and the list of the above tasks will be nearing the end of the tunnel. Megan will be in college and life will be a lot different than it is now. It is already a lot different in 2008 than it was in 1998 than it was in 1988.
In 1988, I was a senior in high school. I had not met my wife and wanted to be an English teacher.
In 1998, I was married for 6 years, Megan was born and Alex was on the way.
In 2008, I have been married for nearly 15 years (August), Megan and Alex are talking and walking and a joy to be around.
In 2018, Karen and I will be approaching 25 years of marriage, the kids will be nearly out of the house, and who can guess what other challenges and exciting things will happen. That's what I like about my life - there is never a dull moment.
The challenge is to stay focused. Where am I now? What am I doing now? I find it easy to focus on the future. Even though it takes place in a galaxy far far away, Yoda criticizes Luke Skywalker for thinking like that - Luke focuses on the future and craves excitement.
I feel like I need to consciously check the balance in my mind between the future and the present. I don't want to miss anything while I am consumed by thoughts about the future but I don't want to be unprepared for the future.
Speaking of the future, it's time to prepare for Mass.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Almost a day of Rest...
I played in the Euchre tournament last night with my co-workers. I played 6 games. I started out really good, winning the first two games. Then the cards started to be poor. I lost the next 2 games. All in all, it was a good time and fun to be with the people I only know as co-workers to see what they are like outside of work.
I got a note from the singer of Angel Blake, thanking me for my review of their CD. Their new CD comes out soon but there is no US release date.
I put in a couple of press pass requests to some shows - Rush in Moline, IL, & a Motley Crue Fest tour stop in Milwaukee - so I'm hoping one or both works out. Getting a press pass to a show can be a frustrating thing. I always seem to run into issues and when I do, it's never fun.
The first time I ever had a press pass for a show was in January 1994. I had interviewed VoiVod's drummer on the phone and then was told I could go to their gig opening for Fight in Cedar Rapids. What a great show Fight put on! I still remember Rob Halford looking around 3Rd Street Live, smiling, and remarking, "I like this place. Maybe I should buy it." Wouldn't that have been amazing?!? Of course, I bought into his remarks hook, line, and sinker.
I remember going to see Everclear & Filter at the IMU in Iowa City. I thought I had two press passes but b/c the tickets were so cheap <$10?>, my friend had to buy a ticket. Actually, the ticket person went 2 for 1 on a ticket because there was someone else there who was supposed to be getting in for free as well. Everclear rocked the house. I saw the lead singer but was star struck and didn't approach him.
The worst time was in August 1998. A publicist called me and asked me if I wanted to interview Slaughter's Dana Strum in person prior to their gig in Des Moines, IA, at the Iowa State Fair. I remember jumping through all sorts of personal hoops to make that happen. Megan was 2 so I had to make sure she was 'covered,' find someone to go with. It ended up that I drove our (then) new van to Des Moines. I had promised my wife that since it was our new van, I would not drink and drive - which no one should ever do. There was a group of 6 of us (I think) and the other 4 had tickets to the show. My friend and I were going to go to the ticket office and pick up two press passes. When I got to the will call window, my name wasn't on the list. As show time came and went, I was forgotten. I had driven nearly 2 hours to interview and see a band and the best I could do was to stand outside the grandstand and hear the bands. Sober and upset, my friend and I walked around. It seemed surreal but every one had big glasses of beer. We ended up seeing the country singer that sings "Butterfly Kisses" in a tent and the world's largest reptiles.
Things like this have happened since - not the reptiles - but showing up for a concert and not having a ticket. The Poison show in Des Moines, IA, on Father's Day weekend a couple of years ago was like this. I wasn't on the list but I told the lady I was supposed to be so she gave me a press pass and one for my friend. I was supposed to see Nickelback and that pass fell through. Even at a small venue, my name seems to never be on the list. I was supposed to see my beloved Bigwig play at Gabe's Oasis (now called the Picador) and I wasn't on the list. In that case, $6 was worth the excellent show.
So it seems like every time I have high hopes for seeing a show on a press pass, it falls through. I'm not even at 50/50 of thinking I have a press pass / total times I've thought I've had one. I'm prbably at 15% of the time that the press pass works for me. The most recent time it did was seeing Godsmack, Breaking Benjamin, and Hour Cast in Moline, IL I went up to the will call window, showed my driver's license to prove who I was, and wham! an envelope with two tickets were handed to me. Perfect seats too!
As you might expect, there are a lot of good concerts coming around the Midwest. Rock 108 does a decent job of keeping their concert calendar up-to-date but what I don't understand is why Rush isn't on that calendar. And, if you go to the Lazer 103.3 website, they don't list Rush in Moline, IL, either. Lazer 103.3 and Rock 108 serve the same audience in two different markets. KRNA, based in Cedar Rapids, serves the same audience and directly competes with Rock 108, based in Cedar Falls..That's why Tantric in Cedar Falls @ the Reverb in Cedar Falls, isn't on the KRNA concert calendar, even though KRNA plays Tantric - I've heard them on KRNA.
Not only do I wish press passes would materialize when the publicist tells me they will, I wish there was a single site for all concerts in IA, MO, WI, IL, NE, and MN. Maybe I need to use this blog as the perfect concert calendar!
In the meantime, Megan's pitching clinic was cancelled due to the weather but Alex still has practice so I'd better go.
I got a note from the singer of Angel Blake, thanking me for my review of their CD. Their new CD comes out soon but there is no US release date.
I put in a couple of press pass requests to some shows - Rush in Moline, IL, & a Motley Crue Fest tour stop in Milwaukee - so I'm hoping one or both works out. Getting a press pass to a show can be a frustrating thing. I always seem to run into issues and when I do, it's never fun.
The first time I ever had a press pass for a show was in January 1994. I had interviewed VoiVod's drummer on the phone and then was told I could go to their gig opening for Fight in Cedar Rapids. What a great show Fight put on! I still remember Rob Halford looking around 3Rd Street Live, smiling, and remarking, "I like this place. Maybe I should buy it." Wouldn't that have been amazing?!? Of course, I bought into his remarks hook, line, and sinker.
I remember going to see Everclear & Filter at the IMU in Iowa City. I thought I had two press passes but b/c the tickets were so cheap <$10?>, my friend had to buy a ticket. Actually, the ticket person went 2 for 1 on a ticket because there was someone else there who was supposed to be getting in for free as well. Everclear rocked the house. I saw the lead singer but was star struck and didn't approach him.
The worst time was in August 1998. A publicist called me and asked me if I wanted to interview Slaughter's Dana Strum in person prior to their gig in Des Moines, IA, at the Iowa State Fair. I remember jumping through all sorts of personal hoops to make that happen. Megan was 2 so I had to make sure she was 'covered,' find someone to go with. It ended up that I drove our (then) new van to Des Moines. I had promised my wife that since it was our new van, I would not drink and drive - which no one should ever do. There was a group of 6 of us (I think) and the other 4 had tickets to the show. My friend and I were going to go to the ticket office and pick up two press passes. When I got to the will call window, my name wasn't on the list. As show time came and went, I was forgotten. I had driven nearly 2 hours to interview and see a band and the best I could do was to stand outside the grandstand and hear the bands. Sober and upset, my friend and I walked around. It seemed surreal but every one had big glasses of beer. We ended up seeing the country singer that sings "Butterfly Kisses" in a tent and the world's largest reptiles.
Things like this have happened since - not the reptiles - but showing up for a concert and not having a ticket. The Poison show in Des Moines, IA, on Father's Day weekend a couple of years ago was like this. I wasn't on the list but I told the lady I was supposed to be so she gave me a press pass and one for my friend. I was supposed to see Nickelback and that pass fell through. Even at a small venue, my name seems to never be on the list. I was supposed to see my beloved Bigwig play at Gabe's Oasis (now called the Picador) and I wasn't on the list. In that case, $6 was worth the excellent show.
So it seems like every time I have high hopes for seeing a show on a press pass, it falls through. I'm not even at 50/50 of thinking I have a press pass / total times I've thought I've had one. I'm prbably at 15% of the time that the press pass works for me. The most recent time it did was seeing Godsmack, Breaking Benjamin, and Hour Cast in Moline, IL I went up to the will call window, showed my driver's license to prove who I was, and wham! an envelope with two tickets were handed to me. Perfect seats too!
As you might expect, there are a lot of good concerts coming around the Midwest. Rock 108 does a decent job of keeping their concert calendar up-to-date but what I don't understand is why Rush isn't on that calendar. And, if you go to the Lazer 103.3 website, they don't list Rush in Moline, IL, either. Lazer 103.3 and Rock 108 serve the same audience in two different markets. KRNA, based in Cedar Rapids, serves the same audience and directly competes with Rock 108, based in Cedar Falls..That's why Tantric in Cedar Falls @ the Reverb in Cedar Falls, isn't on the KRNA concert calendar, even though KRNA plays Tantric - I've heard them on KRNA.
Not only do I wish press passes would materialize when the publicist tells me they will, I wish there was a single site for all concerts in IA, MO, WI, IL, NE, and MN. Maybe I need to use this blog as the perfect concert calendar!
In the meantime, Megan's pitching clinic was cancelled due to the weather but Alex still has practice so I'd better go.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Taking out the Trash
Sometimes, I write pieces for myself. My review of the Marshalltown, IA, band Modern Life is War is one such piece. This band is awful. I have been writing music reviews for many years - since 8th grade if you wanted to count my review of Grim Reaper's "See You in Hell" in 8th grade back in 1983-ish - and MLIW is enough to make me cringe. I've heard bad bands before - Juggernaut in the Twin Cities was awful as was Dokken's "Shadowlife" and a few in my "30 in 30" effort like D.O.A. Modern Life is War tops all of those bands as being the absolute worst. Mindless drivel that deserves to never be heard again. Of course, me writing about it deserves to be read.
A couple of other housekeeping notes:
A couple of other housekeeping notes:
- I work as a Technical Writer @ a software company in Cedar Rapids. I've been with the company since 10/1/98. I have a fantastic cool manager who lets me get up on a soapbox every so often. I didn't think it was clear what I do to earn a paycheck.
- I love my life. I have an excellent family who makes my world complete. My wife continually shows me what life can be like. My kids are the best in the world and make my life complete.
- I think there is a lot of political nonsense going on in the world. I think there's a lot of rhetoric from both sides of the aisle about changing Washington. I think that has been talked about and talked about and nothing ever gets done. We feel your pain says the candidate to the poor, but I'm looking out for myself first. Gas prices are outrageously high, oil companies have huge profits, and... oh wait. I don't want this to turn into the Daily Koos website or the O'Reilly Factor page on the FoxNews.com site. I wish gas would go back to $1.50/gallon but I think it's going to be up to $4.00/gallon before long.
- Finally, it's 12:15 AM on Friday and I have a long day ahead of me.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
MC, Life, and a Pitty Den
This week has been exciting.
First of all, Motley Crue has announced their own Crue Fest tour. According to the information I have:
How awesome is that tour? I'm not making the trek to Memphis in May this year so a one day trip to Milwaukee may be in the cards. I'll have to see how that works out.
Secondly, this week flew by with softball on Monday, a trip to Pizza Hut on Tuesday, the rescheduled kids' Spring Musical (last week was the tornado warning), and tonight was supposed to be softball, but the heavens opened up a downpout so I had to watch "Survivor," TNA Wrestling, and ER.
Third and finally, tonight is the first night I've been in the den for more than a minute since Sunday. When I was tearing the room apart to locate the tax info, I made a mess. I did not finish putting it all away or even going through the mound of paper on Sunday. That means it surrounds me now as I write this.
Big weekend this weekend. Tomorrow night, there is a Euchre tournament for my co-workers. It's starts @ 6 and gets over ~10 or so. I imagine I'll get home ~10:30. Saturday is Alex's baseball practice @ 9 and I'm taking Megan to a pitching clinic. She is supposed to be from 10:45-12 but I'm taking her to the early one so that we can leave @ 10:30 to go up to Cedar Falls for my nephew's birthday party. I know we're coming home Saturday evening. Sunday AM will be 11 AM Mass. I need to find out what condition the drums behind the altar are in so I know what to bring for the Confirmation Mass.
Next week is even busier with baseball and softball practice, a new Lost, a new ER, and lots of other stuff. On Saturday is North Liberty Spring Clean Up Day so there will be some prep work for that. After that is our friends' son's birthday party. Sunday AM is my nephew/godson's 1st Communion in Davenport so we'll be there on Sunday. Then we're already into May.
Life is moving very quickly, but I enjoy it.
First of all, Motley Crue has announced their own Crue Fest tour. According to the information I have:
Produced by Live Nation, Crüe Fest, a touring rock festival featuring thehottest names in rock and alternative, kicks off on July 1st, and will hitover 40 major North American cities by the end of August. As if fansgetting to see a Mötley Crüe show were not enough, there is an impressiveline-up for the first year of the tour which includes Buckcherry, PapaRoach, breakout rock artist Sixx:A.M., and alternative rock band Trapt. Tickets will go on sale via www.LiveNation.com beginning Friday or Saturday, depending on the market. Fans that can’t wait for the onsale can get their tickets immediately by going to TheRockvine.com.
How awesome is that tour? I'm not making the trek to Memphis in May this year so a one day trip to Milwaukee may be in the cards. I'll have to see how that works out.
Secondly, this week flew by with softball on Monday, a trip to Pizza Hut on Tuesday, the rescheduled kids' Spring Musical (last week was the tornado warning), and tonight was supposed to be softball, but the heavens opened up a downpout so I had to watch "Survivor," TNA Wrestling, and ER.
Third and finally, tonight is the first night I've been in the den for more than a minute since Sunday. When I was tearing the room apart to locate the tax info, I made a mess. I did not finish putting it all away or even going through the mound of paper on Sunday. That means it surrounds me now as I write this.
Big weekend this weekend. Tomorrow night, there is a Euchre tournament for my co-workers. It's starts @ 6 and gets over ~10 or so. I imagine I'll get home ~10:30. Saturday is Alex's baseball practice @ 9 and I'm taking Megan to a pitching clinic. She is supposed to be from 10:45-12 but I'm taking her to the early one so that we can leave @ 10:30 to go up to Cedar Falls for my nephew's birthday party. I know we're coming home Saturday evening. Sunday AM will be 11 AM Mass. I need to find out what condition the drums behind the altar are in so I know what to bring for the Confirmation Mass.
Next week is even busier with baseball and softball practice, a new Lost, a new ER, and lots of other stuff. On Saturday is North Liberty Spring Clean Up Day so there will be some prep work for that. After that is our friends' son's birthday party. Sunday AM is my nephew/godson's 1st Communion in Davenport so we'll be there on Sunday. Then we're already into May.
Life is moving very quickly, but I enjoy it.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Confessions, Old Stew, and those darn Tentacles
I filled 19 spiral notebooks with songs and poetry from 1989 to 1996. I wrote some good stuff and some not so good stuff. I refuse to post every single piece I wrote because that'd be embarrassing and too self-indulgent for my tastes. Instead, as I see fit, I may share something. I confess to writing very painfully bad pieces. The worst pieces forced a ABABCDCD rhyme scheme and relied upon cliches instead of imagery.
Some of the pieces I wrote were either for or about the band Old Stew. The name Old Stew is not one I can utter without bringing a smile to my face. I've told the story of how the band came together to many people over the years. This is what I would call the official story. Because there are references to illegal drug use, I'm changing the names of those that participated in those activities.
My friend Ken was a guitarist. We were the same age. He and I had been playing together since the summer of 1989. We mostly worked on covers of metal songs like Dokken's "In My Dreams" and the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane." There was another guitarist, James, and he was younger and wilder than either of us. He would show up to rehearsal late. He had a cool vibe about him and I loved to listen to him speak. Even though he was younger than me, I felt cool that he would actually want to be around me.
In the fall of 1990, James was a senior in high school and wanted to put together a performance for his high school's talent show. He wanted to play Hendrix's "Purple Haze" as an instrumental. We started rehearsing at his house and actually pulled off a good set. He had recruited a teacher that played bass and the three of us played well. I have an audio tape of us and Jonesy smoked on the guitar. His guitar playing was outrageously good.
I was a junior in college and Mount Mercy was going to have a talent show. I wanted to have Jonesy and the bassist play in the talent show with me. I also wanted a singer so I recruited Ken. Our set list was "Purple Haze," "Tush," and then a drum solo to end the set.
That show was panned in the Mount Mercy Minstrel. Something about the music was too loud, the vocalist wasn't very good, and how we gave a bad association to the phrase "garage band." A few weeks later, a letter to the editor appeared in the same paper which I came across this letter today while I was looking for my 2007 tax information:
The last issue of the Minstrel included a review of Standing Room Only, the talent show held during interim. As MC of the show and vice president of the Drama Club, I appreciate the recognition given to our first production of what will hopefully become an annual event. However, I was disappointed that your comments about the band Prophesy did not include reference to the one member who is a student here at MMC. Paul Hanson's talent was evident as he entertained us all on the drums; his energized solo received an enthusiastic response from the audience. I was sorry that this was seemingly overlooked in your article.
Thank you again for your critical comments. Hopefully, practice will make perfect and the show will get better every year.
Desire Steigauf
During the summer of 1991, I was determined to put together an even better winter 1992 talent show performance than I had in 1991. I still wanted to work with Ken and James but I didn't know exactly what to do. It happened that Ken came over one day after learning the riff to Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Wow, I thought. That would be an awesome song to play in the talent show.
At the same time that that was happening, James had hooked up with Catfish and Shoebox. The three of them had started working on tunes. Catfish was James' age and I knew of him. Shoebox was an unknown. I had never heard him sing until he was in my apartment and James and Catfish played the Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels" while I played along on my Yamaha drum machine. It was magic. We sounded good. We talked about maybe doing the talent show.
Through some negotiations, we came up with a set list. We would play "Enter Sandman," I'd do a brief drum solo, then we'd play an original song that Catfish had written called "Bullfrog Blues." Ken would play lead guitar, James would play bass for "Enter Sandman" and then they would switch instruments to play "Bullfrog Blues."
The talent show that year was two nights. The first night, the nerves struck. I watch the video of us and all of us looked scared. Shoebox walked in front of Ken during "Sandman" and unplugged his guitar by tripping over it. Then during Ken's solo, he walked in front of Ken. My solo was uninteresting and "Bullfrog Blues" had some mistakes.
I remember walking down to my on-campus apartment that night and watching the video with the band. "Don't walk in front of Ken during the guitar solo," I told Shoebox. Shoebox nodded.
The next night, though, was magic. I was pumped, ready to play better than the night before. In the audience were my best friend and my parents. The house was packed. The show went off better. Shoebox jumped off the stage and ran up and down the center aisle of the auditorium during Ken's guitar solo. I played more interestingly than the previous night. We even threw in an impromptu blues stomp at the end. If you were to see the video, you'd see Ken looking confused as it was unrehearsed and unplanned.
That night, I went to a party with the other band members. It was a great time. I drank a lot of beer and, frankly, I don't remember much else about the night except that Old Stew was alive and well and ready to take on the music scene in CR.
And for awhile, that's what we seemed to do. We started rehearsing twice a week. Ken left because he didn't want to play bass - he had always played guitar and since Catfish wasn't going to play bass and James didn't want to play bass, we suddenly had three guitarists and no bassist. No one gave in so Ken left.
I remember that Shoebox disappeared for a week or so. He had a daughter named Mackenzie Rose who lived in Waterloo so he went up to visit her. We all met up again at a downtown bar, now called Brick's, but it used to be called Kurtz. We went to the house that Shoebox was living in and, literally, played music all night. I played a set of bongos and we did not sleep. We drank beer and enjoyed each other's company. It was the kick in the butt we needed.
The four of us started rehearsing at Catfish's dad's house. We started putting together a set list. We learned BTO's "Takin' Care of Business," Clapton's "Cocaine" and arranged "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with influences from Axl and Clapton. We got a Sunday night gig at a bar called Bonehead's. We were never paid a cent but we got free beer. Around Easter 1992, the gigs stopped. It was okay, I guess, because during the 2-a-week rehearsals, my academics had started to slide. I had senioritius.
Our last gig was on a Sunday in May. We set up and played at Mount Mercy as part of the Spring Fling weekend and then played at Bonehead's later that night.
The band took a break for most of the summer of 1992. James went away to Paris on a school trip. I had graduated from college and had proposed to my wife. I also was intensifying my job search as I did not want to continue working at the restaurant I wrote about earlier in this blog after I became a husband.
We regrouped in the fall and started rehearsing again. Catfish had written more songs and wow! they were good. We would go into long jams at rehearsal and I'd walk out with sore arms. It was also around this time that a bassist named Dave joined us. No one really liked him but he helped shape a couple of the songs we had been working on and helped round out our sound. The problem with Dave was that he played his bass like it was a guitar and kept trying to play melodies. That didn't really fit into the songs that Catfish was writing.
By this time, there was a definite pecking order in the band. Catfish was the leader. Shoebox was the wildcard and would sometimes skip rehearsals for weeks at a time. When he was there, he helped Dave, Catfish, and James smoke pot. It drove me nuts. This was unacceptable to me. I was old enough to know better - college educated and all - and there I was with 4/5ths of the band I had put together, watching them smoke pot. I tolerated it longer than I should have.
Eventually, Shoebox, Catfish, and James got a gig at Open Mic night at a bar called the Mill in Iowa City on a Monday night. I told them to pick me up - that I wanted to watch them. They didn't pick me up. I have a cassette of their performance. I really wish I had seen them play. They played a song I wrote, that we had been working on, called "Sunshine Summer." That song was a love song I had written to my wife and Shoebox sang it beautifully. Catfish and James had come up with some ferociously awesome acoustic guitar melodies and ... it was magic.
A couple of years later, long after I had left the band and moved on in life with marriage and moving to Coralville, I wrote a piece called "Tentacles." At the time, I hadn't seen Shoebox in a couple of years. It's actually been over a decade since I saw him. I asked James about him the other week and was told that he isn't doing well, apparently living in a commune in Colorado and that he'd had a mental breakdown. I've added Shoebox to my daily prayers.
The epilogue to the Old Stew story isn't very interesting. James and I have had lunch. Ironically, he plays bass now. In February 2008, a guitarist I know came over to jam. I asked James to bring his bass over. James couldn't make it as one of his twin boys had an earache and the other had strep throat. I haven't seen Catfish in years. James did tell me that Catfish moved into a loft in Marion and that he had gone up there to jam with him. James said something about a reunion and while the idea has merit, I'd have to say it wouldn't be the same unless Shoebox was there. Shoebox always had a great smile. He appeared to have a good heart. I can only imagine what he's going through nowadays and I hope he is okay. "Tentacles" is the song I wrote about him on 02/03/94. In the song below, "Johnny" is "Shoebox" because what parent would name their child "Shoebox" after all. His real name was John.
I made music with Johnny
During the wildest daze of my life
We'd set up and play
Songs he wrote from his soul
When we had enough songs together
Sunday night was our night
We'd set up at a bar
You know, we never wanted to go too far
When the tentacles are around
They crush the life from your soul
Like a burned cigarette
Dance the mystic rhythms as you fall . . . falling
When the tentacles are around
You must beware
The giant octupi strips away dreams
Replaces them all . . . with screams
I haven't seen Johnny since he left town
Don't know where he is, whether he's high or down
Been thinking about soul brothers
And what they really mean
Drifting is the life Johnny knows
He follows the flight of the crow
I think about the music we made
And wish that bird could've stayed
We sat on the front stoop of the house
Taking a smoke break from the jams inside
Johnny held his cigarette tight
Smiled as he told me I'd be the one smoking one day
So I look at me now, the burning in my hand
Wondering why I started remembering this band
And it seemed so painless when I started
Then I reach the memory when I departed
Some of the pieces I wrote were either for or about the band Old Stew. The name Old Stew is not one I can utter without bringing a smile to my face. I've told the story of how the band came together to many people over the years. This is what I would call the official story. Because there are references to illegal drug use, I'm changing the names of those that participated in those activities.
My friend Ken was a guitarist. We were the same age. He and I had been playing together since the summer of 1989. We mostly worked on covers of metal songs like Dokken's "In My Dreams" and the Scorpions' "Rock You Like a Hurricane." There was another guitarist, James, and he was younger and wilder than either of us. He would show up to rehearsal late. He had a cool vibe about him and I loved to listen to him speak. Even though he was younger than me, I felt cool that he would actually want to be around me.
In the fall of 1990, James was a senior in high school and wanted to put together a performance for his high school's talent show. He wanted to play Hendrix's "Purple Haze" as an instrumental. We started rehearsing at his house and actually pulled off a good set. He had recruited a teacher that played bass and the three of us played well. I have an audio tape of us and Jonesy smoked on the guitar. His guitar playing was outrageously good.
I was a junior in college and Mount Mercy was going to have a talent show. I wanted to have Jonesy and the bassist play in the talent show with me. I also wanted a singer so I recruited Ken. Our set list was "Purple Haze," "Tush," and then a drum solo to end the set.
That show was panned in the Mount Mercy Minstrel. Something about the music was too loud, the vocalist wasn't very good, and how we gave a bad association to the phrase "garage band." A few weeks later, a letter to the editor appeared in the same paper which I came across this letter today while I was looking for my 2007 tax information:
The last issue of the Minstrel included a review of Standing Room Only, the talent show held during interim. As MC of the show and vice president of the Drama Club, I appreciate the recognition given to our first production of what will hopefully become an annual event. However, I was disappointed that your comments about the band Prophesy did not include reference to the one member who is a student here at MMC. Paul Hanson's talent was evident as he entertained us all on the drums; his energized solo received an enthusiastic response from the audience. I was sorry that this was seemingly overlooked in your article.
Thank you again for your critical comments. Hopefully, practice will make perfect and the show will get better every year.
Desire Steigauf
During the summer of 1991, I was determined to put together an even better winter 1992 talent show performance than I had in 1991. I still wanted to work with Ken and James but I didn't know exactly what to do. It happened that Ken came over one day after learning the riff to Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Wow, I thought. That would be an awesome song to play in the talent show.
At the same time that that was happening, James had hooked up with Catfish and Shoebox. The three of them had started working on tunes. Catfish was James' age and I knew of him. Shoebox was an unknown. I had never heard him sing until he was in my apartment and James and Catfish played the Black Crowes' "She Talks to Angels" while I played along on my Yamaha drum machine. It was magic. We sounded good. We talked about maybe doing the talent show.
Through some negotiations, we came up with a set list. We would play "Enter Sandman," I'd do a brief drum solo, then we'd play an original song that Catfish had written called "Bullfrog Blues." Ken would play lead guitar, James would play bass for "Enter Sandman" and then they would switch instruments to play "Bullfrog Blues."
The talent show that year was two nights. The first night, the nerves struck. I watch the video of us and all of us looked scared. Shoebox walked in front of Ken during "Sandman" and unplugged his guitar by tripping over it. Then during Ken's solo, he walked in front of Ken. My solo was uninteresting and "Bullfrog Blues" had some mistakes.
I remember walking down to my on-campus apartment that night and watching the video with the band. "Don't walk in front of Ken during the guitar solo," I told Shoebox. Shoebox nodded.
The next night, though, was magic. I was pumped, ready to play better than the night before. In the audience were my best friend and my parents. The house was packed. The show went off better. Shoebox jumped off the stage and ran up and down the center aisle of the auditorium during Ken's guitar solo. I played more interestingly than the previous night. We even threw in an impromptu blues stomp at the end. If you were to see the video, you'd see Ken looking confused as it was unrehearsed and unplanned.
That night, I went to a party with the other band members. It was a great time. I drank a lot of beer and, frankly, I don't remember much else about the night except that Old Stew was alive and well and ready to take on the music scene in CR.
And for awhile, that's what we seemed to do. We started rehearsing twice a week. Ken left because he didn't want to play bass - he had always played guitar and since Catfish wasn't going to play bass and James didn't want to play bass, we suddenly had three guitarists and no bassist. No one gave in so Ken left.
I remember that Shoebox disappeared for a week or so. He had a daughter named Mackenzie Rose who lived in Waterloo so he went up to visit her. We all met up again at a downtown bar, now called Brick's, but it used to be called Kurtz. We went to the house that Shoebox was living in and, literally, played music all night. I played a set of bongos and we did not sleep. We drank beer and enjoyed each other's company. It was the kick in the butt we needed.
The four of us started rehearsing at Catfish's dad's house. We started putting together a set list. We learned BTO's "Takin' Care of Business," Clapton's "Cocaine" and arranged "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" with influences from Axl and Clapton. We got a Sunday night gig at a bar called Bonehead's. We were never paid a cent but we got free beer. Around Easter 1992, the gigs stopped. It was okay, I guess, because during the 2-a-week rehearsals, my academics had started to slide. I had senioritius.
Our last gig was on a Sunday in May. We set up and played at Mount Mercy as part of the Spring Fling weekend and then played at Bonehead's later that night.
The band took a break for most of the summer of 1992. James went away to Paris on a school trip. I had graduated from college and had proposed to my wife. I also was intensifying my job search as I did not want to continue working at the restaurant I wrote about earlier in this blog after I became a husband.
We regrouped in the fall and started rehearsing again. Catfish had written more songs and wow! they were good. We would go into long jams at rehearsal and I'd walk out with sore arms. It was also around this time that a bassist named Dave joined us. No one really liked him but he helped shape a couple of the songs we had been working on and helped round out our sound. The problem with Dave was that he played his bass like it was a guitar and kept trying to play melodies. That didn't really fit into the songs that Catfish was writing.
By this time, there was a definite pecking order in the band. Catfish was the leader. Shoebox was the wildcard and would sometimes skip rehearsals for weeks at a time. When he was there, he helped Dave, Catfish, and James smoke pot. It drove me nuts. This was unacceptable to me. I was old enough to know better - college educated and all - and there I was with 4/5ths of the band I had put together, watching them smoke pot. I tolerated it longer than I should have.
Eventually, Shoebox, Catfish, and James got a gig at Open Mic night at a bar called the Mill in Iowa City on a Monday night. I told them to pick me up - that I wanted to watch them. They didn't pick me up. I have a cassette of their performance. I really wish I had seen them play. They played a song I wrote, that we had been working on, called "Sunshine Summer." That song was a love song I had written to my wife and Shoebox sang it beautifully. Catfish and James had come up with some ferociously awesome acoustic guitar melodies and ... it was magic.
A couple of years later, long after I had left the band and moved on in life with marriage and moving to Coralville, I wrote a piece called "Tentacles." At the time, I hadn't seen Shoebox in a couple of years. It's actually been over a decade since I saw him. I asked James about him the other week and was told that he isn't doing well, apparently living in a commune in Colorado and that he'd had a mental breakdown. I've added Shoebox to my daily prayers.
The epilogue to the Old Stew story isn't very interesting. James and I have had lunch. Ironically, he plays bass now. In February 2008, a guitarist I know came over to jam. I asked James to bring his bass over. James couldn't make it as one of his twin boys had an earache and the other had strep throat. I haven't seen Catfish in years. James did tell me that Catfish moved into a loft in Marion and that he had gone up there to jam with him. James said something about a reunion and while the idea has merit, I'd have to say it wouldn't be the same unless Shoebox was there. Shoebox always had a great smile. He appeared to have a good heart. I can only imagine what he's going through nowadays and I hope he is okay. "Tentacles" is the song I wrote about him on 02/03/94. In the song below, "Johnny" is "Shoebox" because what parent would name their child "Shoebox" after all. His real name was John.
I made music with Johnny
During the wildest daze of my life
We'd set up and play
Songs he wrote from his soul
When we had enough songs together
Sunday night was our night
We'd set up at a bar
You know, we never wanted to go too far
When the tentacles are around
They crush the life from your soul
Like a burned cigarette
Dance the mystic rhythms as you fall . . . falling
When the tentacles are around
You must beware
The giant octupi strips away dreams
Replaces them all . . . with screams
I haven't seen Johnny since he left town
Don't know where he is, whether he's high or down
Been thinking about soul brothers
And what they really mean
Drifting is the life Johnny knows
He follows the flight of the crow
I think about the music we made
And wish that bird could've stayed
We sat on the front stoop of the house
Taking a smoke break from the jams inside
Johnny held his cigarette tight
Smiled as he told me I'd be the one smoking one day
So I look at me now, the burning in my hand
Wondering why I started remembering this band
And it seemed so painless when I started
Then I reach the memory when I departed
Hey, wanna start a Rock Band?!? Why? You know a good Drummer?
Our neighbors across the street have a PS 2 and the game called "Rock Band." I went over to pick up the kids and it was my first time seeing this game. WOW! Is that ever fun! Alex tried the guitar, I got the drums, and Megan sang. We tried the Clash's "Should I Stay or Go." What's funny is that when the drums were set to 'easy,' I consistently failed the song. I could hear the hi-hat, but it wasn't telling me to play it. So we changed the drums to "Expert" and I did better.
As it turns out, I may have a gig playing for the upcoming Confirmation Mass in early May. The parish music directory, Judy, wants to have a drummer so I'm going to do it. There is an old set back behind the altar so next Saturday I'm going to stay after Mass and try setting it up to hear what it sounds like. Then I'll also know what I need to bring to be comfortable. I'm assuming I'll bring my own snare and hi-hat and maybe my bass drum pedal. Of course, sticks too and maybe a crash cymbal. I'm not sure exactly what that set has with it. I think it's a fairly old kit - maybe from the 70s, judging by the finish.
As it turns out, I may have a gig playing for the upcoming Confirmation Mass in early May. The parish music directory, Judy, wants to have a drummer so I'm going to do it. There is an old set back behind the altar so next Saturday I'm going to stay after Mass and try setting it up to hear what it sounds like. Then I'll also know what I need to bring to be comfortable. I'm assuming I'll bring my own snare and hi-hat and maybe my bass drum pedal. Of course, sticks too and maybe a crash cymbal. I'm not sure exactly what that set has with it. I think it's a fairly old kit - maybe from the 70s, judging by the finish.
And then...
First, if you want results of TNA's Lockdown PPV, go here. Pretty entertaining PPV from the results and, actually, it's kind of refreshing that the faces won. Joe won, Christian's team won, and Jesse James (can't remember his name from his DX days) beat the wrestler I grew up calling "Billy Gunn."
Second, I admit that, as a father of a daughter, watching "Father of the Bride" and "Father of the Bride 2" makes me cry. In "Father of the Bride," after Steve Martin's character has a meltdown about pricing and the wedding, he comes across his daughter reading a bridal magazine article about "how to have a cheap wedding." He reads part of the article that says 'hire a friend to take pictures' and 'bake your own wedding cake.' It is at that moment that he decides he needs to shut up and be a father of the bride. The actual wedding reception at the house is sad as well when he is trying to be in the same room as his daughter and it just doesn't work. In "Father of the Bride 2," there's sadness when Steve Martin just loses it with his wife and making bad choices about selling the house to "Abib." It's crazy that life takes over and he makes decisions without checking with his wife. It's insanity! Marriage is a commitment to work together. The touching scene in that movie is when he agrees to sleep on the floor b/c the dogs are laying (or lying?) on the bed and won't let him in.
Second, I admit that, as a father of a daughter, watching "Father of the Bride" and "Father of the Bride 2" makes me cry. In "Father of the Bride," after Steve Martin's character has a meltdown about pricing and the wedding, he comes across his daughter reading a bridal magazine article about "how to have a cheap wedding." He reads part of the article that says 'hire a friend to take pictures' and 'bake your own wedding cake.' It is at that moment that he decides he needs to shut up and be a father of the bride. The actual wedding reception at the house is sad as well when he is trying to be in the same room as his daughter and it just doesn't work. In "Father of the Bride 2," there's sadness when Steve Martin just loses it with his wife and making bad choices about selling the house to "Abib." It's crazy that life takes over and he makes decisions without checking with his wife. It's insanity! Marriage is a commitment to work together. The touching scene in that movie is when he agrees to sleep on the floor b/c the dogs are laying (or lying?) on the bed and won't let him in.
A Breath of Fresh Air
So, now, with 8 minutes until I need to go upstairs and get ready for our meeting, I can celebrate because I found the tax information and life is good. The den is still a pit - papers strewn everywhere and the two black boxes are full but there are more piles to be sorted and evaluated. I will probably tackle putting that stuff all away after the new "Desperate Housewives" episode tonight.
That fits into my grand plan for tonight. The TNA PPV is tonight and while I never buy pro wrestling PPVs, I know from watching Thursday's edition of TNA that Sting, Kevin Nash, Christian, Rhyno, and Matt Morgan are fighting Team 3-D, AJ Styles, Tomko, and someone else (I don't remember their 5th.)
Editor's Note: Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockdown_(2008), the "someone else" is James Storm.
Also, in the other main event, Kurt Angle fights Somoa Joe with the stipulation that if Joe loses, he gives up wrestling, not just TNA wrestling, but the sport of pro wrestling. I don't see how they would allow that to happen so I'm predicting Joe wins. Otherwise, the bookers will have to come up with a slick way around to allow Joe to continue to wrestle without losing all basis in reality.
I'm spinning one of my Top 200-175 CDs now before going upstairs - Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." It's perfect timing, in a way, because I'm up to the instrumental "Rat Salad" and when this song is over, it'll be time to go upstairs. The funny thing about this release is that it was a fluke I ever bought the cassette years ago. I think it was in the bargain bin for $1.99. The original cassette I bought has no liner notes and no indication that it is a guy named Ozzy Osbourne singing, Bill Ward on drums, etc. It took many years before I actually understood that Ozzy was in Black Sabbath before he sang "Bark at the Moon." My exploration of Ozzy's BS days has never led me in very deep. I've dabbled with their other songs but Paranoid does every thing I need. The instrumental interlude before beginning "Fairies Wear Boots" features my favorite structure where the guitars play and then drop out allowing the drummer to do a fill. The riff of "Fairies" is cool too.
It's 3:01 and I am leaving.
Watch the PPV
Editor's Note: Here are the results for the TNA PPV on Sunday, April 13, 2008: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockdown_(2008)#Results
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