I hope that everyone is doing well. I'm just trying to keep my distance from the Christmas shopping mobs. We're staying in Tulsa for the holidays and are looking forward to a relaxing Christmas without the roadtrips for a change.

The flu has ripped through our household...only I was spared the pain and suffering. Ironically, Griffin was exposed at the clinic while waiting for his FLU SHOT! He graciously passed it over to Amy a few days later. At least we made it back from our Thanksgiving trip to TX before the symptoms really kicked in. Thankfully, they've recovered, and everything's pretty much back to normal now.

I'm still milking the ConocoPhillips job. Looks like it might make it into late January now. They've been letting me work an extra 10 hours a week, so I'm trying to stuff aside the extra OT $$ for the lean months that may be coming behind this project.

I'm doing lots of research on the best way to preserve a bunch of home movies. Looks like I'm probably going to go with a Hauppage PVR-350 card to do my capturing. Although I've not played around with Linux much, I'm getting very excited about setting up a MythTV system that I can use to capture video and TV shows, as well as play my MP3s, play/rip/burn DVD movies and lots more (even runs MAME!)...kinda like a TIVO on steroids. I've heard that it's kind of a pain to get set up and configured, but it such an inticing project, I'm sure I'll have to try it out.

Griffin has finally reached the stage where he is asking about everything, and getting a lot better at identifying things. He absolutely LOVES the snow, which we finally got last week. It's truly amazing to watch him grow and learn. It seems that every week he gets smarter and smarter. I only wish I could spend more time at home with him. I'm so thankful that Amy is up to the challenge while I spent much of my time either working or sleeping.

I gotta get back to work for another hour or so. Have a great season...I'll check back in soon.

80's Music Test

I only scored an 80.95...which really suprised me. After meeting Brent in '85, I spent the next few years catching up on my classic rock, and didn't listen to the radio that much...yeah that's the reason!

See if you can do better!



Let me know how you do. I know that JD and JP are gonna embarrass me with their scores!

New Picture Gallery!
O.K...I stayed up extra late after getting home...just to get some pics posted. It's a pretty good collection from late-June to present. Hope you enjoy!

Click here!

Man, I'm lazy!

I KNOW, I KNOW....it's been forever since I've updated the blog. I've even received threats of hacks if I don't get something posted soon. Fall has come upon us much quicker that I ever expected.


ConocoPhillips is still keeping me busy during the night, and TCC is still getting a piece of me during the days, and on Fridays. The e-mail migration project that was supposed to be completed by Dec. 1 looks like it might be drawn out until around the first of next year. They've put me on five 10 hour shifts, so I'm getting quite a bit of overtime. The checks are nice, but burnout would be inevitable if there wasn't a end in sight.

I've been gettting a few hits on my "real" job search. The most promising is a site manager position with Pinnacle tower in W. TX. I had one (phone) interview with a couple of the regional managers last Friday...we'll see if they were interested enough to take it further.

Griffin's been growing like a weed...he's into everything, keeping Amy plenty busy with all her "free" time. I finally managed to upgrade my digital camera to a Canon S230...so I've still been taking pictures like crazy. I really will get some online soon to amuse and amaze you (or bore you to tears).

Still listening to lots of music. One thing about commuting for 2 hours a day...the car makes a great listening room. I'm anxiously awaiting the new Dream Theater album, Train of Thought. It comes out this Tuesday, 11/11 and is said to be very metal \m/ !! In the meantime, I've been listening to a LOT of new stuff, particularly from Porcupine Tree and Opeth. These are two bands almost unheard of in the states...with lots of originality and talent.

I upgraded to MS Office 2003 last week. It has a nice clean "XP"-type look to all of the programs, which I love...but the changes in Outlook 2003 are the best features to me. I'm sure I'll eventually have time to explore the other features (particularly the XML integration) in more detail.

Guess I better get back to work...still have an hour left before I get to head back to T-town for the night. Again, sorry for the lack of updates.

See ya!

Always the summers are slipping away - Porcupine Tree

Summer is miles and miles away - Opeth

But those days are gone now
Changed like a leaf on a tree
Blown away forever
into the cool autumn breeze - Dream Theater

Job Update

The new job at ConocoPhillips is going quite well. I've pretty much finished my training, and I'm running full-steam with the rest of the team members. In fact, I'm finding myself occasionally helping out several of the people who've had 4 weeks or more experience than myself. I've already created and submitted two procedures to help them troubleshoot and correct possible problems. I'm starting to feel pretty confident, particularly compared to last week, when I was still somewhat overwhelmed. Tomorrow, I start my first overnight shift, which is why I'm up so late tonight (I'm usually crashed by Midnight). Next week, starting Monday night will be my first full week of graveyard shifts. I found today that my schedule will initially be from 6:00pm-4:00am...so I'll actually get home by 5:00 each morning. Hopefully, that'll give me enough time to sleep a bit, get up, eat and head to TCC for a few hours each day before my shift starts again. I'll still probably have to put in some hours on Fri/Sat to catch up at TCC for the week.

I'm still applying for some full-time positions that have been opening up at TCC (FT Computer Lab Paraprofessional, Telecom Technician). I'd still prefer to work a "normal" permanent job over this contract project...but at least it's something to keep a paycheck coming in while I continue to search and apply for other jobs.

I'll keep updating as often as possible....I'll try to get some new pics online soon too.

Cool Photography

Although I have spent far more time behind a digital camera than a 35mm, I have always been interested in true photography. A few months back, I spent many hours looking at pictures and reading about the experiences of a special group of photographers. These folks are obsessed with night photography. They use extended exposures under the light of a full moon (give or take a day) along with flashes using colored gels to come up with some of the most unique photos you'll ever see. You could make similar art using Photoshop...but these are capturing a moment in time with NO post-processing. Very haunting and beautiful.

The first site I found featuring this unusual art was Lost America. This is run by an individual who spent many hours driving around the deserts of Southwest America, capturing nighttime photos of abandoned buildings, vehicles and other things that we probably wouldn't look twice at while driving through, say, Nevada. He does a great job of narrating some of his experiences, which makes for a great read. In fact, his art and words have been recently published as a book by the same name. Since this guy started his website, another one called (imaginatively) Night Photographer was also started. They also have a gallery of very similar type photos by many other groups of people....although these are more varied in their subject matter than Lost America (but less interesting narrative).

If you are at all interested in photography or interesting art, you owe it to yourself to check these sites out. Very inspiring. It'll make you want to drag out your old SLR and take a midnight roadtrip under the full moon.

New Job!

Well, I started a new contract job today. It's with ConocoPhillips in Bartlesville, about 45 miles north of Tulsa. It's about an hour commute from my house. I'll be working with a Exchange Migration Team, who are converting thousands of Lotus Notes users over to Microsoft Exchange. Unlike my project with OneOK, where I installed Outlook on the end users' computers, this time it's strictly on the server side, doing the actual conversions. It's supposed to last at least 6 months until December (maybe longer...if I'm lucky). Today was my first day of training, where I had my brain overloaded with procedures and my notebook filled with scribblings. We are converting e-mail accounts all over the world...today we worked on users in Norway (where names have optional vowels and consonants, like Soorlig Kystvannymfe). The good news about this project is that I'll be working 10 hour shifts for only 4 days a week (yeah!...three day weekends)...the bad news (besides the 2 hour a day commute) is that after my training period ends next Wednesday, I'll start working graveyard shifts from 7pm-5am. This ought to be fun, trying to juggle this new full-time job, the part-time TCC gig, and my family! I've sure enjoyed these past weeks, spending extra time with Amy and Griffin...but I have to make enough to pay the bills...so Heigh-ho, heigh-ho...

We had a wonderful party for my parent's 40th wedding anniversary on Sunday night. I took a few pics...not near enough...but haven't got them uploaded yet. I'll try not to slack too much, and keep updating the blog at least semi-regularly.

Water Playground Pictures!

I only have a minute before I need to head out to work at TCC...but I wanted to get these pics posted up from Sunday.

I'm sure that a lot of cities are going to these new "water playgrounds" or "splash parks", instead of running full-fledge swimming pools. They make sense, since they don't require lifeguards or chemical maintenance. I know that due to budget problems, Tulsa has only opened 4 of their pools this year, but they are running all of the water playgrounds that they installed at parks over the past few years. They consist of various "sculptures" (for lack of better word) that have sprayers and such imbedded in them. They don't all spray at once, rather they rotate around. As one sprayer slowly shuts down, another fires up, and everyone goes running over to the active part of the park. There are fountain nozzles in the concrete pad that squirt up occasionally. They have buckets that fill with water, then dump out as they get full, spray tunnels, and fixed water guns. Kids of all ages seem to be enjoying them, and I have to admit the spray felt pretty good as hot as it was on Sunday. The first few pics are from a playground train, as we tried to let Griffin heat up a bit, before he got blasted with cold water! He wasn't the least bit bothered by all the people around, as he contantly ran around the pad checking everything and everyone out. He fell a few times, but luckily the concrete was pretty smooth, and didn't hurt him. He just got back up and kept on going...shrieking with delight!

Click the title above, or here for the pics.

Finally...new Photos!

Better late than never...I finally got off my butt and finished up a new photo gallery. Check it out HERE. I tried to change things a bit this time, using a different format that includes short captions. I hope you like it.

Hacked!!!

I've been hacked!! Heheh...serves me right for waiting nearly 2 months to update my blog. For the past 7-8 weeks, I've been working a full-time contract job with an architectural firm in downtown Tulsa. On top of that, I've continued to work at TCC, including teaching a "Home Network" class last week. Needless to say, by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit down at my computer...I'm much more interested in spending a little time with Griffin and Amy.

My project ends tomorrow, though, and I'll have a couple of weeks before I (hopefully) start another one. I'll get off my butt and post up some new pictures, as well as filling in the details of what's been going.

Let's Talk about Music

If you typically check this blog to get updates on Griffin, you may want to skip this entry. I’m sure it will wind up quite the lengthy one, with no mention of the G-man.

As most of you know, I'm really into music...and not always the "radio-friendly" stuff. However, since I’ve moved back to a city with several decent hard rock stations, I’ve actually been listening to the radio again. It may be all controlled by mega-corporations now, but some of the new music coming out these days isn’t too bad. I thought I’d mention some of the singles and albums that I’ve been listening to lately, with comments where appropriate. This isn't all music played on the radio, but it's what got this entry started in my head...so go with it.

First of all...For those of you who have still not heard of Kazaa Lite, you need to go to their website now, and download the latest version (www.k-lite.tk). Get the English K++ version, for all the bells and whistles. This is a “neutered” version of Kazaa (a client that normally installs spy/ad-ware on your system). This runs on the same P2P (peer to peer) network with Grokster and Morpheus. With this program, you can easily find and download any of the songs mentioned in the following text. I know that people out there argue that WinMX or AudioGalaxy is better…but when I get online with K++, there is always more than 4 million people connected and sharing files. I’ve been using this for quite a while now, trying to complete a collection of all the songs from the 60s/70s/80s that I remember from my youth (it helps to have lists like this one). It’s great for finding songs from albums that have long been out of print (such as some Pat Travers and Thin Lizzy). You can’t just go to the store and buy those songs…but someone has probably encoded it into a MP3. You will want to pay close attention to file names, quality and sizes, since there is a lot of garbage out there…but you can find almost anything you want, even movies and TV shows. I’ve been downloading all of the new episodes of South Park and burning them to VCD so I can watch them with my DVD player on my TV (Trey and Matt said it was O.K…although Comedy Central might not be too happy about it).

ANYWAY!!....I told you this would be a long-winded entry…here a small sampling of the stuff that I’ve been listening to lately.


Trapt – Headstrong : I’m sure that these guys have no chance of any long-term success…but the single sure is catchy. Great bass-driven verses!

Evanescense – Bring Me to Life : Picture Tori Amos fronting Linkin Park, and you have a hint of idea of what this song is like. It’s a decent gimmick...pretty female vocals over metal riffs. Haven’t heard anything else by them yet, and the reviews I’ve read have been mixed…so I haven’t tried to find any others.

Johnny Cash – Hurt : I actually liked the original NIN version of this song, despite its slow pace. This version is every bit as powerful, with a slightly different perspective coming from The Man in Black. I’m not sure I’m ready to listen to him do Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus” yet, though.

(hed) Planet Earth – Blackout : My old roommate, Joe, tried to introduce me to this band back in Colorado…but they were still doing mostly “cookie monster” vocals. I like this single, now that they are a little more melodic. The verses sound occasionally like Jonathan Davis of Korn. Pretty good all the same.

Audioslave – Like a Stone / Cochise : I was really excited to hear about this “supergroup” consisting of Rage Against the Machine minus vocalist Zach, plus Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell on vocals. It’s exactly what you’d expect it to sound like. Like a Stone is one of those slower songs that shows off Chris’ talent for coming up with unique vocal melodies, while Cochise just simply rocks out like a good RAtM song. The rest of the album is pretty good, too…although I haven’t really listened to it much.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Can’t Stop : I really like this 3rd single off of their By the Way album. I also enjoyed the first two (title track and Zephyr Song). In fact, this whole album is just fantastic. I love the way that they have continued to highlight strong melodies, and great backing vocals. Very “West Coast” sounding. “This life is more than just a read-through” indeed.

Chevelle : Their single “The Red” is what reeled me in first, before it was played out on the radio, and “Send the Pain Below” is pretty decent…but “Family System” is the song that gets my blood flowing. Just try to listen to it without moving. I’ve been playing a lot of their MP3s for a while now, and really like their sound. Other favorite tracks are “Closure” and “Comfortable Liar”. Sometimes encroaching heavily on Tool and Deftones territory, but also leaning towards Radiohead upon occasion. Lots of hard/soft dynamics with very crunchy guitars (mmmm!…crunchy guitars!).

Leon Russell – Lady Blue / Tightrope : I know…this is actually old music (1970s era). After a 15 absence from Tulsa, I come back to hear KMOD (formerly “the Rainbow Station”…wonder why they changed?!) playing almost the same playlist that they did throughout my high school years. Included in that lineup is a Tulsa hometown legend, Leon Russell. Great old piano-based blues music.

Of course, you didn’t think that I could list music that I was listening to, and not have something related to Dream Theater in there…

Office of Strategic Influence – OSI : This is a new project made up of Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Jim Mateos (Fates Warning) and Sean Malone (Gordian Knot). If you’ve ever heard any of Kevin Moore’s Chromakey work, you won’t be caught off guard. If you expect anything resembling DT’s sound, with over-the-top musicianship, you’ll probably be disappointed. Although it has lots of hard guitar and drums in it, much of it’s atmospheric, almost reminiscent of Animals-era Pink Floyd. Kevin Moore sings on all but two tracks. This automatically makes a lot of this sound similar to Kevin’s solo work (Chromakey). He experiments with the vocals a lot, using various multi-layering, sampling and processing. I happen to like his style a lot. It’s very mellow, and occasionally reminds me of some of the vocoder work done on classic Alan Parson’s Project albums. Mike Portnoy allowed Kevin to do most of the direction as far as drums go. He’s a control freak, and admits that it was hard to let Kevin “tell him what to play”. But he went with it, and they are explored some different areas that were foreign to him. He also allowed Kevin to sample, edit and loop his drum tracks in ProTools, making for some very interesting sounds throughout the album. You should download the title track, “OSI” for a good overall example of the band’s sound. I also REALLY like “Hello Helicopter”, “Standby (Looks like Rain)” and “Head”. One of the bonus tracks is a cover of Neil Young’s “New Mama”, which I had never heard before. I’m sure that Neil’s version doesn’t sound anything like this. Incredible, melodic, short song. In fact, many of these songs are rather short in duration, concentrating on the song, rather than endless noodling and repetition. Unfortunately, some songs are strong enough, you wish they were a little longer (particularly with “Standby…”). Of all the tracks, I like “The New Math” the least, only because it seems somewhat out of place, sounding more like a somewhat repetitive Liquid Tension Experiment track. The bass line in the last 3rd of the song almost redeems it, though! The bass playing throughout is very up-front and melodic. Almost reminds me of PT’s Mars Cowling occasionally. This album is actually doing pretty well, sales-wise. It hit #1 seller for a week or so at CD Universe, when it was first released. I’d be very interested in hearing anyone else’s opinion of the music, since I kinda live in a bubble here in Tulsa, with no friends close by.

Chromakey – dead air for radios / You Go Now : Since I started listening to OSI recently, it put me in the mood to listen to my Chromakey some more. These are the two solo albums from Kevin Moore, former keyboardist for Dream Theater. He was more of the “artsy” type, rather than the “Prog-metal” guy, so he created Chromakey. The first album is a unique collection of very atmospheric music. Beginning to end, this is a fantastic album. His vocals are often processed, and mellow…making for a dreamy feeling to the songs. Some of my favorites are “Colorblind”, “Undertow”, “Even the Waves” and “On the Page”. Kevin wrote most of these songs while attending video/art school in Santa Fe, NM after leaving Dream Theater. There are lots of references to video/photography in the lyrics, which makes for some interesting metaphors. He uses a lot of great samples from interviews with people he met there, including some of his instructors. Get it, burn it, and take a nighttime drive. The second album, You Go Now, flows right behind dead air with even more incredible mood-setting music and obscure lyrics. (* Donnie, if JC doesn’t know about the first Chromakey album, make sure he checks it out….I really think he’d dig it).

REQUEST: Amy wants me to pull together a bunch of “story songs” for a CD. I’ve got a few Jim Croce / Harry Chapin / Ray Stevens songs…but I’m trying to remember some of the other ones. She even had me download Garth Brooks’ “Mama's In The Graveyard, Papa's In The Pen” (is that made up?…that sounds made up!). She doesn’t really want any rap songs, or 50’s stuff…but anything you can think of would be appreciated.

I keep checking the new dates added for the Dream Theater / Queensryche co-headlining tour this Summer. They’ve added Denver, but they still haven’t posted a Dallas date.

Join me at www.friendlyforums.com for a music discussion thread in their General forum.

If you’ve made it this far…I’m really surprised. Thanks for reading. As you were.

Changes
This is another period of change for us. First of all, yesterday Griffin decided that he would start walking. He's had the balance for it awhile now, but he wouldn't do much with it. Now, he's walking all over this tiny apartment. We just thought he could get into things when he was crawling everywhere! Earlier last month, he had several great birthday parties and ate WAY too much frosted cake! He's off the baby foods completely now, and now eats whatever we do. Needless to say, our diets don't consist of all fast food like they once did. Here's a few new pictures of GT from his birthday on 3/11 up to a couple of days ago.

After having one of the snowiest Winters on record here in Tulsa...things are finally starting to warm up. The trees are budding/flowering like crazy, bringing back some much needed color. Even the grass is finally starting to turn green. Hopefully, most of the next batch of pics will have outdoor scenery!! We are ready to enjoy some decent Spring-like weather!

I'm still searching and applying for new jobs. I had an interview Monday with SiteMaster for a Project Manager position, which would be a very challenging and stable job...but would require that I stay at a desk for 8 hours every day working on the phone with tower contractors all over the U.S. Unfortunately, I was the first person they interviewed, so I won't hear anything back for as much as a 30 days. I can't wait that long, so I'm probably going to start a new contract job on Monday that will be simply scanning and organizing large documents (blueprints, etc.) for a large architecture/engineering firm. It doesn't pay much...but rent's due again in less than a month...and it's full time hours. I'm still working at Tulsa Community College part-time whenever I can. Luckily, the hours are very flexible.

My 20 year High School reunion is next month. Although I really don't have much of an urge to go to my Tulsa Union HS reunion, I have recently been in contact with some of my old classmates from Brandon, MS. It's amazing how we spread out across the U.S...after starting in that little town outside Jackson. It's been great chatting with some friends...many that I haven't spoken to in over 23 years (I moved at the end of my Freshman year, May '80).

I have to go do my orientation/interview with that engineering firm...so I'll be back soon.

Griffin's 1 Year Old!! (tomorrow)
It's absolutely impossible for me to believe that it's already been a year since Griffin was born (3/11/02). Our lives have changed so much in the past year, mostly for the better. I left the Geek Rescue position a month back to take a contract job with OneOK, owners of Oklahoma Natural Gas. I worked with them on an e-mail migration project throughout eastern OK. This project finishes up tomorrow, so I'm back to one job (TCC) for the time being...and back to sending out more resume's.

My poor digital camera...batteries were dead for BOTH of the "cake everywhere" birthday parties that Griffin had in Wichita Falls and Tulsa. We got the first on video, though, and the second on 35mm...so I'm sure I'll have some pics from those soon.

Here's a small gallery of pictures from New Years to present: PICTURES

Sorry I've done such a lousy job of writing...as usual, I'll promise to do better...and not.

Spring is right around the corner...I can feel it in the air! Have a great March, everyone!

Bi-monthly Update

Well, as usual, I've not kept the blog updated as much as I should. As you can see, I started an entry several days before Christmas, but was interrupted, and never got back to it. It's late, and I need to get to bed...but before I go, I present you with this new picture gallery from the past 2 months.