Recently Overheard

While on the Metro I overheard two interesting characters discussing Shakespeare. The interesting thing wasn't that they were discussing Shakespeare, it was that they were complete strangers who had bumped into each other on the train and were both in different Shakespeare troops and were doing different plays. I found it very random that two Shakespearean actors would happen to be on the same train and somehow, without knowing each other, realize that the other person was a Shakespearean actor. I feel like I'm surrounded by Shakespearean actors! That was a surreal metro ride.

Reunion

Over a month ago something happened that had the potential to change my life. Looking back years from now, I may still find that it impacted me more than I can now realize. It wasn’t as though I hadn’t seen it coming for some time; there were warning signs, frowning faces, failure to communicate, and freezing up. It was painful to say the least.

After restoring things multiple times, it became apparent that I needed to see a specialist. So I bit the bullet, swallowed my pride, and went to a bar. My first trip to the bar was completely unhelpful, and in fact just irritated the problem further. I tried calling a help line for advice, but they just recommended I make an appointment at the bar to see one of the geniuses.

Long story short, last weekend I made it to the store and the genius at the bar said he could offer me a replacement. I took him up on it and I am now the proud owner of a new iPod. Apparently my old one was having hard drive “issues”.

It was very peculiar going from having access to every song I owned whenever I wanted it to not having any kind of portable music player at all for over a month. I helped me to not only appreciate my iPod more, but to also appreciate the atmosphere around me a bit more as well. There's a whole book that could be written on the differences in a society where the majority of the people walk around completely disconnected from the world around them.

One thing I definitely missed was the opportunity to listen to music I wouldn't normally be caught dead listening to. I despise pop music for what it has BECOME. I think it started off great, maybe, but now it is shameless and listening to it seems like a crime. This morning on the way to work though, I listened to Maroon 5 and it was glorious in all of its unadulterated, sickeningly sweet goodness. All the while the people next to me had no idea what was being pumped into my head :)

The most frustrating dialog from the whole broken iPod fiasco is recorded below:

Helpful: “What seems to be the problem.”

Me: “I completely restored my iPod multiple times when prompted to. Then it wouldn't even respond, including restores. This morning though I plugged it in to charge a bit before brining it in, and it turned on fine. Go figure, right?”

Helpful: “Well I guess we can still look at it. Maybe it’s software related. Does it have the latest software on it?”

Me: “Yes, it has the latest firmware/software upgrade. I think it is hard drive related since it won’t even mount in windows anymore.”

Helpful: “Oh. Well, we can’t actually open the case and look at the hard drive you know. Not in the store.”

Me: !!!!????

Me: “Yes, I realize that you can’t OPEN IT UP and LOOK at the hard drive. Don’t you have a diagnostic program you can run that will look for bad sectors on the hard drive or do some other kind of tests?”

Helpful: “Yeah, we can hook it up and see if any looks wrong”.

Me: (feeling oh so comfortable with this person's technoIQ) “Well thank you.”

Low moment for the day

Her - "What are you doing?!"
Him - "Just helping set-up."
Her - "What are you doing?"
Him - "I thought I'd help get the stuff setup for stage since I was here."
Her - "That is soooo nice of you. Thank you."

Me, to myself - "WHAT!? I got here like a half hour ago and set up EVERYTHING on stage except the stupid keyboard and stand that guy is setting up right now."

I felt like a jerk wishing to be recognized for something that while I was doing it just felt like what I should be doing since I got there early. But at the same time, I felt really frustrated with the other guy for taking credit for something that he hadn't really done. Yes he set up the keyboard and stand. No, he didn't set up the music stands, the mic stands, the ear monitor stands, bring out the microphones, bring out the ear monitors, OR BRING OUT THE CABLES.

Her - "Why did you get here so early?"
Him - "Just wanted to help."
Me - Yeah, just ignore me and keep talking to each other.

I felt like a complete jerk.

Thin White Cord

If you want to read about my evening tonight, read my other post. If you would rather read an interesting news article and leave comments in my comment box, read on.

An article on the Forbes magazine site, posted here, talks about the origins and fate of the album. I just typed an entire blog post beneath this one, so I'll keep this short.

The album format is great in the same way that the novel is great.

There are artists who complain that customers logging on and purchasing a single track off their album is like only buying a corner of a Chagal painting. TAKE YOURSELF LESS SERIOUSLY. Honestly, if you, as a rapper think millions of people buying a single track off of your album instead of the whole thing is going to ruin you financially, then by all means keep droning on like a spoiled 2 year old; I will simply exercise my right to ignore you. If however, you as an artist are truly concerned that people are only viewing a portion of your creative work and are therefore not getting the whole messge, then I have a message for you, MAKE A WHOLE ALBUM THAT DOESN'T SUCK. Do you want to know why people buy an entire Chagal (or a copy of a Chagal...hmm, how is that parallel to music, file sharing perhaps)? I will tell you why, because the Chagal painting is freaking genius: it is pretty, and witty and gay.

The artists that make serious music that I happen to like, I buy their whole albums: Josh Ritter, Cat Power, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, James Taylor, The Decemberists, to name a few recent purchase. People I would not be very likely to buy a whole album from: any rapper (with the exception of actual hip-hop), any pop group, any American Idol (it's a matter of principal). When you admit that your whole industry is about making money I have no inclination to feel sorry for you. Is it possible that I will break down and buy a song here or there? Yes. Is it remotely possible that sometime in the future I might feel bad for the poor pop/rap artist and buy an album just to see what their vision is? NO!

In Summary: Albums will continue to live on so long as their are true musicians and artists looking to string songs together into albums in the way that writers string plot lines together to weave a nove. When there are no more of these artists left, it will be a single track free for all to control the thin white cord that for so many of today's population forms the link between the real world and the canned emotions that are just a scroll wheel away, held tightly in that light weight metalic case.

End of Rant.

Night at Home

Willie Nelson's Greatest Hits, Cat Power's The Greatest, Carol King - records I listened to tonight, one side at a time, all the way though.

Sigh. This will be the longest I've gone without seeing Amon since we got engaged. She went to Michigan for two wedding showers this weekend. I couldn't take the time off work so I'm here in DC. Fortunately, Jen is out of town for the weekend which means I have the place to my self.

I decided to take advantage of this now rare down time by just being at my apartment. I came home from work and climbed in bed to watch an episode of Northern Exposure on my laptop while I snoozed a bit. After resting I got up and cooked coconut rissoto and chicken. I tried to make a spicy peanut butter sauce from scratch, with no recipe, but to no avail. Oh well, the chicken and rissoto were excellent. I used a stainless steel pan instead of non-stick for the chicken so that it would really brown, then deglazed the pan with a bit of cooking sherry and left over chicken stock from the rissoto. I let the deglazing liquid swirl around in the pan until the brown bits were all dissolved and the sherry had cooked off. Then I added this liquid to the rissoto and served with the chicken over the top. Ooooh so delicious.

Then I indulged in a bit of That 70's Show, which I just googled and found out that, yes, it is the definition of mindless entertainment. I use to enjoy it, and still do when in the right mood, but wansn't really hooked tonight. I decided my best bet was to start some laundry, listen to the other side of the Cat Power album, and head to bed.

Maybe I'll get a haircut tomorrow. Guys, have you ever gone to get your hair cut at a place where they wash your hair first (in the process massaging your scalp)? If not, then you should go sometime and you'll understand why women are willing to pay more for a haircut then men typically are. If you could put feeling that in a pill you'd be rich.

That is all. No more mindless self indulgent drivel for tonight. If you want more you have to read through my archives to find more.

In the mean time go check out directions for how to deglaze a pan or maybe check out my friend patti's blog.

And last but not least, if you're still reading you're probably worthy to go see my flickr photos. Meager fare so far, but you have to start somewhere.

Family and Friends Plan

Thought it would be cool to send some shouts out to some people that just visited me in town. Grant was here two weekends ago and I got to hang out with him. It's been awhile and was very cool to see him, discuss religion and theology, and play pool.

LAST weekend my parents came into town and I got to spend a lot of time with them. It's always wonderful to see your parents, but is especially great to see them when something dramatic like a motorcycle accident has made you appreciate things more.

My sister came out with my parents but doesn't go back until this Sunday so I get to hang out with her the rest of the weekend!

So thank you so much to Grant, my parents and my sister for all coming out to see DC and spend some time hanging out with me. Let me know if you want to come hang out some time, although from here on out after July is probably better. If you come after July I'll have a spare bed room to offer you :)

Love you all and please keep in touch.

Mike

How to for the Day

How to Be Invited to Art Gallery/Exhibit Openings in NYC.

Read. Laugh. Enjoy. Go to the nearest gallery and just enjoy the art. Repeat.
---This "How To..." was brought to you by "WikiHow"

Mmmmmm

I’ve spent more money in DC on eating than I ever did anywhere else I’ve lived. In defense of that, DC is also the first place I’ve ever lived and had a full time job. So take that with a grain of salt. Having said that, I’ve also eaten some really good, really cheap food as well; the falafel at Amsterdam Falafel House is worth the pain of having to sit outside on the steps eating it. Actually, I guess that’s sort of the charm.

I like eating good food and I’ve realized why so many nice restaurants have smaller servings. When you have a nice meal, it isn’t always about getting a huge serving of one entrée, but about getting lots of smaller servings of various flavors that are all coordinated together.

The following are some of the restaurants I’ve enjoyed most, recently…

Jackies (Silver Spring):

Dinner for 2: 1 drink, 1 appetizer, 2 entrees, 1 desert, about $95.00 with tax and tip.
We left satisfied, and with good tastes lingering in our mouth.

I took Amon to Jackies for sort of a last hurrah as we get set for the upcoming wedding expenses. It was one of (was it THE) first restaurants I went to with Amon. We started off with mini burgers, called Elvis Burgers, that had a pimento cheese topping. I loved them, Amon took the cheese off and thought they were all right. I stuck with water, alas, but Amon had a cocktail called Jackies something or other, that was a raspberry flavored concoction with a frothy raspberry finish.

For our meal, I had rockfish that was seared and served with potato puree and spinach. Amon had a pork chop that came with sweet potato puree and apple sauce, I think there was something else on her plate. Amon was very pleased with the pork chop, though I preferred the flavor of the fish. It seemed odd to me that the pork chop should have a more subtle flavor than a white fish. For desert we had gingerbread cheese cake ice cream that was really tasty.

Matchbox (Gallery Place):
Dinner for 3: 3 drinks, 9 mini burgers, large pizza, about $60.00 with tax and tip.
We left stuffed, carrying leftover pizza home, and with a few neat matchboxes (one with cute matches in it and one with a notepad in it).

After Church Saturday Amon, Malcolm, and I went to one of our favorite pizza bars. Matchbox is a neat little brick oven pizza place sandwiched in one of those narrow little store fronts in Gallery Place. They have recently expanded and are open on Sunday, but they still have between a 30minute and 1 hour wait depending on when you show up.

They still hand us the menus but we never really look at them. The waiter (or more likely waitress) goes through the specials while we politely listen at which point we order the mini burgers and pepperoni pizza.

When you order the mini burgers make sure you are clear that you want them well done, unless you are ok with having pink ground beef in the middle of your burgers. Otherwise, the mini burgers are just this side of perfection. The buns are just crisp enough on the outside without being crunchy (for a bun that small I think that’s impressive). The meat is flavored very well, and the fact that you can eat the whole thing in 2 or 3 bites (come on, we’re trying to be polite here!) is fun. The mini burgers come with a heaping mound of fried onion strings that you can eat separately or put on your burgers.

The pizza is excellent. Good flat crust (traditional brick oven pizza), great sauce, magnificent pepperoni. It is spicy enough that I enjoy it, but not so much that Amon minds. As far as I can tell it’s her favorite pizza in DC.

Open Mic Night and Wireless

So the coolest part about tonight was that while I was running sound at open mic night, I was able to cruise the web because I brought my laptop. That is all :)

Mike

Again, and One More Time

It's been a long time with no significant updates, so here we go, over and over, again and one more time.

Marriage:
Plans continue to progress in a start and stop manner. We'll have several good days where decisions are made, registries are developed, and things are great. Then we'll have bad days where we realize something is going to require more money than we had planned. It's the same thing anyone who's gotten married has gone through, but that doesn't really help when it's you.

For anyone that hasn't gotten the update, we're going with the a tourmobile model. The actual ceremony and first reception will be in DC, then we'll have a reception in Michigan and a reception in Missouri. That means that hopefully some people who won't be able to travel to DC will still be able to celebrate with us at one of the closer receptions.

Work:
Things are certainly interesting. The project I'm on continues to be the topic of the town as lawmakers discuss the delays that keep coming up on the project. My favorite quote is from the below article where one critic states, “It's like they're playing with Monopoly money.” In standard government operating procedures the responsibilities for one task are delegated to many committees that seem to have no other purpose than to question the other committees. The direct impact on me comes when, for instance, the Department of Defense wants to switch spaces with the Speaker's office. No big deal right? Well the space that they WERE each planning for had very specific needs, desk outlets for voice and data, floor boxes that are cast into the concrete when the floor is poured, and audiovisual infrastructure specific to their needs (ceiling speakers, projectors and projection screens, wall outlets, etc.). When they decide to switch places, before the center even opens, it means that we have to trench up the floor slab (read: taking a jack hammer and gouging out large amounts of the floor slab), cut open walls and add conduit, and relocate thousands of feet of cabling in ceilings.

And people ask why the opening has been delayed.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/08/AR2007030802235.html

Family:
My Dad was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident recently. It was bad enough that the doctors said he was “lucky” to only have a broken ankle, broken collar bone, slight bleeding in his head, and scrapes and bruises distributed over his body. If that's lucky, it must have been pretty bad. He is back at home now though, and through God's grace and the marvels of modern drugs he's doing things like sitting outside reading and I've gotten to talk to him on the phone many times. My Mom seems to be taking it all well as is my sister. Thanks for all the prayers for those that prayed for us.

Things:
Yup actually about THINGS. I've placed my dream to have a digital SLR on the back burner. I had an episode where I was close to throwing my iPod across the mall at the Apple store because I was so frustrated with it being broken and so upset with Apple customer service. This was shortly after I had gone back on a promise to myself NOT to by a digital SLR when the first mention of a used Nikon D70 came up. I came to my senses before spending the money but the fact that my desire for someTHING material like that was so strong combined with how easily I lost it over my iPod difficulties was a real eye opener.

Did I Catch a Niner in There???

I’ve been looking for phones recently (cell) and have been really dismayed by the number of really expensive cool looking phones that do about 4 million things when I just want to make a phone call. And maybe text occasionally. I don’t need a 4 megapixel camera, or a qwerty keyboard, WiFi access, video games, streaming TV, walkie talkies (did I catch a niner in there?), holographic projectors or touch screens. At the same time I don’t want my basic phone to look like something from 1990.

Why can’t someone make a sleek phone that has really good reception, good battery life, and uhm…yeah, just looks slick? If they can cram all the above into it (ok, minus the holographic projector), why can’t they make it sound excellent and still be a simple phone that looks sleek?

ANSWER ME MOTOROLA AND LG!!!!

p.s. Incase Motorola or LG aren't "eSavvy", the capitol letters mean I'm yelling.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Myrinda :)

GUESTS!!!

Missy and Patti are coming into town this week, which means I get another opportunity to prove myself as a tour guide and host.

On a related, but separate note, I will be really glad when my year drinking water is up and I can have a pint. I also miss drinking wine with a nice dinner, having tea in the morning or a cold afternoon, or sipping coffee while talking with good friends. Pop I don't miss as much. Oh, I miss juice as well.

So, I'll have two people to show precisely where to sample the most delicious food and drink but only be able to enjoy 1/2 the experience. At any rate, more details to follow on the Adventures of Patti and Missy in DC!

Mike

TGIF

In honor of Myrinda's inquizitivness, I am posting this question. What did you do Friday? As soon as I get some answers I'll post what I did.

I don't care if you think it is incredibly boring or mundane, or if you went to the freakin moon. I just want to know what people did Friday.

That is all :)

House Chamber

This afternoon was an interesting day at the jobsite. I got to sit in the House of Representatives chamber while they were in session as part of my walk throughs today. Rather fun. Not very exciting, but rather fun.

Thank You

I simply want to say thank you to a friend who shall remain anonymous. This friend gave me a wonderful present Saturday evening that cost him hours of inconvenience and comfort.

I don't want to go into too many details, so that he can remain anonymous, but I did want, very very much, to say thank you.

And the Winner Is...

My parents have to be in the running for the best parents award:
1) They love each other very much.
2) They love their children very much.
3) They have encouraged my sister and I in everything we’ve done.
4) They’ve made many sacrifices along the way, I’m sure.
5) My Dad makes the best road trip partner, book loaner, and movie buddy.
6) My Mom sends me the best home made cards.
7) Did I mention they were supportive and loved each other and us?

Anyway, that about sums it up. Oh, and I’m typing this from my “new-to-me” laptop that my parents got me to replace the one the TSA lost.

So great.

Epitome: Mellow

Listening to Sufjan Stevens on Vinyl after a long day. Sipping water out of a coffe cup. Sitting on a leather couch stairing at the courtyard.

Miscellaneous Musings...

I got to go on a West Wing tour Friday night. Thanks to Katherine. Katherine’s a wonderful person I met at the C.S. Lewis small group. She works at the White House as a switch board operator (is that the correct phraseology?). As we were going through security the radiation level jumped up, and we had to wait around for 5 or 10 minutes while the security personnel verified that nothing was going on, which was sort of creepy.

After going through security we got to see where all the “action” happens in the West Wing. This made me wish that I had watched that T.V. show more. Included in the tour we got to stand outside the Oval Office and look in, past a velvet rope, at the President’s office. The fact that I was on a tour of the West Wing of the White House, something that very few people get a chance to do, and even Katherine hadn’t been in the Oval Office made me realize just how cool it is that I got to work in their one day.

In completely different news, it is looking more and more like Amon and I are going to get married in DC instead of Michigan. We haven’t completely solidified plans yet, but things are “in the works”. You will all hopefully be getting save the date cards soon.

If you haven’t sent me your updated address recently, please do so that I can make sure and at least have the pleasure of sending you an announcement. I understand that traveling half way across the country to celebrate is difficult, but Amon and I are exploring alternatives.

Anyone up for 3 receptions/parties? We’re talking about having a SMALL wedding in DC, followed by a larger reception that day. After the honeymoon we would go to Michigan for a party/reception and Missouri (or Kansas) for a reception. This way, we could see you all and not everyone would have to fly out to DC.

Hope you all are doing well!
Mike

Wanted...

Missing:
(1) iPod - Full Size 60 Gb video iPod
(1) IBM T30 Laptop

Will give starburst or celery for information leading to the recovery of either of these two items.

***UPDATE***
The iPod has been found and I have submitted a claim to the TSA for my Laptop.
***END UPDATE***

:(

Mike