What a weekend!

The weekend is wrapping up for me so I thought now would be a nice time to have a small recap. Small? I'm too wordy for small.

I had to try and fix my DirecTv DVR for the second time. I got a new unit last week but a similar problem has been creeping in. Watching live TV is fine but when watching a recorded program it starts to skip and glitch. So using the troubleshooting tips given to me from the first time; I went at it with DVR number 2. So far so good.

Later on I get an IM from Brother Dan. We chat a bit and come to the decision that he needs to come pick me up so we can hang out before the show. We head back to his place where he beats my ass in NHL 09. Watched some The Office while we ate and then moved on to Dexter. I just recently started watching and though he would like it too. Good news, he does!

We headed out to the Loft above Barfly. We're going for the live music being performed by DigitalAlchemy, Emancipator and BlueTech. They all hang around in the trip-hop, downbeat, IDM genres. I like that stuff, but never really got hard into it. Brother Dan is the driver of that bus. I'm super glad her brought me along because it was an awesome show. Digital Alchemy was hot. Emancipator was a little too downbeat for me. But BlueTech proved why he was the headliner. Sorry but I'm not a great music reviewer so that's the best you're going to get from me. I also saw my friend Paul (DJ Blaze One) so we chatted with him for a while. Got home around 2:30a. That's a good night time if I've ever heard of one.

Sunday morning brought us some delicious McDonalds breakfast. Mmmmmm...fats. Brother Dan came over again, but this time for H. She thinks he looks like Dexter and wanted to photograph him as such. As that was going on I was working on my KMFDM mix. I finally got it done!

Now I'm sitting here writing up my blog and not doing a thing about my hunger. Also got one eye on C-SPAN for the whole health care thing. Other eye on Cops.

I love my Target, I hate my Target.

Target had its big semi-annual meeting yesterday and I was among the 300 or so “honored guests.” Really, I was part of a project team that got noticed by the upper management so I got to tag along to the meeting. Normally people on the bottom rung of the company don’t get to go. It’s a pretty big deal. They brought in some big names for the entertainment and a couple of other celebrities just say a few words. 3 cheers for big money and contracts!

 

But the sad thing is I’ve been to meetings like this before and it does the same thing to my every time. The purpose of the meeting is to recap the past performance of our company, look ahead and see when we have planned for the future, and a whole bunch of rah-rah-rah. This is where they get me. They do such a good job of building up the brand that I start to believe that I too can be one of these people. That I’m a mover and shaker that’s just stuck in a grunts body. I leave with this sadness that I will never be what I truly want to be. I want to be able to walk down a store isle and tell somebody that “I made that happen.” Or when I tell my parents about the new rewards program the pharmacy has I can say, I did that. But that will never, ever happen. And I know why. I don’t have a piece of paper that says I’m qualified when in most accounts, I can do the job just as good and anybody else. You can’t put life experiences down on paper. And that’s happened to me. No more than six months ago I was looking at this job, but the HR rep said even though I know you can do the job, you don’t have a two-year degree. I mean I do, I have two even. Just not the right two. I guess it’s not fair to the people who did go to school; but this is MY blog and I don’t have to take that into consideration.

 

Just like every other meeting, the feeling goes away and I’m back to being happy doing whatever I have to do to get a paycheck. Quicker than usual this time. Maybe because I’m back on the project team for round two and I really like what I’m doing. Even though this will never been seen by anybody outside of Target, it’s fun.

 

In some weird way this has really started to motivate me and my DJ’ing. With that, I control the message, the output. I can take what I do, and tell people that I did that. Even though most people still don’t fully understand what I’m doing yet.

Posted via email from You Call This Interesting?

For my Grandma

Potthoff, Bonnie J. Age 81, of Circle Pines, on March 2, 2010. Preceded in death by son, Thomas; grandson, Scott. Survived by husband, Kenneth; children, Michael (Cathryn), Peggy Jean Morgen (Mike Shands), Robert (Patty) McArdle; many grandchildren and great grandchildren; sisters, Nancy (Bud) Davis, Mary Taylor; countless other family and friends.

Mom,
With all said and done, I will always be so proud of you. You have made me the person I am today. I will miss you my love. Until we meet again. Love, Peggy Jean.

-----

This was the obituary and one of many comments left on online version of our major newspaper. The comment is from my mother, but could easily be from me, since it is very true for myself too. I have since left my own. http://bit.ly/dri3yp

For me it started on February 17. I was in a meeting at work when I felt my phone buzzing in my pocket. Thinking it was just my wife calling on her break or something I didn't think much of it. Turns out it was a text from her telling me to call my mom A.S.A.P. Not sure why she called my wife to get me, she has my number. I called my mom and she tells me that Grandma is in the hospital. That right there isn't anything too alarming, she's 81 years old and isn't a stranger to the place. But then she told me that the doctors are giving her a week or two to live. I was o.k. with that, I thought. About ten minutes after I hung up it hit me. I'm going to be losing my grandmother soon. I thought I could keep it together but I just broke down right there at work. I was able to find a quite place to hang out and let the tears run wild.

After that I was able to keep it together. I keep in daily contact with my mom, getting updates on Grandma, and Grandpa too. It was just a few days later that it was decided that he needed to be placed in a nursing home. Not long after that Grandma was moved into hospice care.

On February 27th or 28th my mom told me that it won't be long and asked if I wanted to be called when the hospice people knew she only had a very short time left. I said no, just let me know when she has passed in the morning. Well, nobody got that call, she went too fast. 

She passed away on Tuesday, March 2nd at 8:25a. I got the email at work from my brother. I took it better than I though. Mostly because I was ready for it. I still choked up a bit, but was able to continue on with my work day. I took the rest of the week off so I could ready myself for the memorial service and funeral.

Her funeral was yesterday, March 5th. It was a nice service. Her son Mike (my uncle) did most of the talking. Well him, and the pastor. I learned things about Grandma that I never knew. I did my best to keep the tears away because I knew if I let one slip, I wouldn't be able to stop. So when the sadness crept in I started to sing songs in my head. But when I saw the casket being rolled away, and my brother leave with the other pallbearers is when I knew it was really over. I had a wet face from that time until I made it outside. I was happy to see a full church. I was in the front row so I hadn't realized just how many people had come. 

I'm still not sure how much Grandpa knows. He kind of slips in and out. As my mom said; "He may know that Grandma passed away today,but not tomorrow." I still can't get a good read on my mother. She spent most of the day helping with Grandpa. I spoke to her last night and she told me it really hasn't sunk in yet. This must be so hard for her. I can't imagine what I'm going to be like when she goes. But it's o.k. We made a deal that she's never going to die so I'm safe from that.

I have had my chance to cry. The left eye for happiness, the right eye for sorrow. I'm glad that she's no longer in pain. She has been battling various illnesses ever since I can remember, but she never let that stop her from doing anything she put her mind too. I will greatly miss the great times I shared with her. From camping and canoeing with her, my mom and brother to all the Christmas's we had. I will remember all the cookies she pulled from behind my ear (cute magic trick she knew) and the wonderful goodies she would prepare for the holidays.

Saying goodbye is so fucking hard, but I don't regret not visiting her in her last days. I needed a healthy last image to remember, not sick, hospital Grandma. I spent a little time with her this last Christmas. She was in pants! I think I've only seen that once before as she lived most of her time in a dress. I wish I could have stayed longer but I had a wife stricken with H1N1 I wanted to tend too. Because really, you never think your last visit will be your last visit.

I'm still deeply sad, but I'm looking forward to getting back to work. I need normalcy to kick in. My wife H has been great. I know she's sad too, but she's doing a great job trying to keep my spirits up. 

Posted via email from supertoy

formspring.me

You just commissioned your very own personalized hot air balloon. What does it look like?

Two of the tall vertical panels will be peach color so it looks like a giant ass mooning everybody as I fly by. The rest of it will be a red brick pattern so it looks like the ass has busted through, just to get you to look at it.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Oreo, Chip A-hoy, or those sandwich cookies with the smiley faces cut out from back in the day?

Oh what I wouldn't do for a smiley face cookie again. But with today's current cookie, I'd have to say Oreo's. I like the option to eat the cookie and cream all together, or each part on it's own.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

Do you agree or disagree with Dwight's decision to cut the face off the CPR dummy and wear it?

In all honesty, I do agree with it. Dwight had a curiosity about wearing a mans face as Hannibal Lecter did. No better way than with a dummy's face, rather than a real humans. I say go for it!

Ask me anything

formspring.me

How do you kill zombies?

How do I kill zombies? Or how does one in kill zombies in general? From what I know, you take off their head. Right? I don't think I could kill a zombie. I don't like weapons too much, so I think my method would be to find a big Ving Rhames type a fella and let him do all the dirty work.

Would you rather be a 16-wheeler or a telephone switch?

I'm not sure what a phone switch is. As in the button you press when you hang the phone up? I'd like to be a 16-wheeler for the travel and mobility. But being a phone switch would satisfy my fly-on-the-wall curiosity. So...um...phone switch is my answer.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

If you had a couple of lemon-sized tomors growing off of each cheek, would you try to cover them up with mutton chop sideburns, or just let them hang out loud and proud? Or what?

I would paint them yellow and try to sell myself as a walking advertisement for Lemon Head candies.

Ask me anything

formspring.me

WTF is that on the face in your avatar? If indeed that's your face. On second thought, just explain it all...!

This was taken from a scene in The Office (US) where Dwight cuts off the face of a CPR dummy after showing the team how to harvest the organs. Always creeped me out, and now you too!

Ask me anything

Water, Ice and a cup.

The new ice and water machine at work is a joke. Old machine had an optical sensor for both the water and ice. Just hold your cup up, and out it came. The ice was a nice fine crush and flowed at a decent rate. The ice funnel was small enough that just about any cup or water bottle could capture the ice. And the water, well, nothing to brag about there. Just a metal straw that put the water in the cup. The new machine rains down ice CUBES like there were a couple monkey’s up in the machine throwing down the ice, intentionally trying to miss your cup. The funnel is so large that you need a big gulp cup to catch anything. And the water seems like there is something obstructing that flow. It’s not a nice steady stream but like somebody has their finger up the nozzle and it’s just splashing wherever.

 

The old one was nice and to the best of my knowledge worked just fine. Maybe they just needed to replace it so it matched all the other new chrome items that were just installed.

 

So You Think You Can DJ? – Track 4

So I've had some time to play around with my SL3 and I've been having some great fun with it. But with it I've been able to see that one of my turntables is fast. I set both turntables to pitch 0. Loaded the same song in the software and let it play. Beats were matched perfectly in the beginning but then I quickly see that something is wrong. I kept a mini-log of my findings.

:43 can hear a difference
4:00 beats near perfect opposite of eachother
6:30 near beat matching, but deck 2 is off but one full beat
10:21 deck 2 is off by almost two full beats.

So turntable one is fast. Bummer. So I just adjust the pitch to correct it right? So I though. I started to really think about this. I've been trying to mix records that were part of the Great Record Recording of 2009. If my turntables were messed up then (and they were I assume) then anything I recorded will be off too. So I started mixing songs that were straight up .mp3. Songs that I've either downloaded, or ripped from a CD. And guess what? Things are going much better.

So it's sort of a drag that I got all my records transfered to my computer, and mostly for this purpose, and I can't use them. I guess it's ok though. I can still load them on my iPod.

[O][][O]

Crazy 2012 is at it again.

Crazy 2012 stopped me in the hallway and said it would be really nice if I would talk to Twitchy Rick a little, he would really like that. What the fuck? Am I his distant father who never spends enough time with him or something? I’m not at work to make friends, or make people feel better. I'm getting close to just walking away the next time she starts spouting of more crazy at me. And I'm not that won't be too long from now, once she gets word that I have said a word to Twitchy Rick.

The ladies on the bus.

I’m not sure what’s been going on, but it’s been interesting to watch. About two years ago when I started taking the bus I noticed this weird relationship between the four Target ladies, and the one Qwest lady. As with any group there is the group leader. Target leader lady didn’t like the Qwest lady which means the other Target ladies couldn’t like her either. I’m not sure why. Just like in school; somebody doesn’t like somebody else without any reason at all. Maybe something went down in the days before I started with the bus. I don’t know and I don’t care. A year later Target leader lady stops taking that bus (switched to another route); leaving the three other Target ladies lost. As time goes by I see them starting to talk at the bus stop. Then they started talking on the bus. Not long after that Qwest lady starts sitting with the remaining Target ladies on the bus. And now, it seems to be reversing. The past week I’ve seen the Qwest lady all by herself on the bus, with the Target ladies staying in their own group. Who know where this is going to end up…the excitement, the suspense! The fact that this is really dumb and boring for everybody. Yes, this is my entertainment in the morning on the way to work. Metallica said it best…Sad but true. Chucga-chuga (my guitar sounds).

So You Think You Can DJ? – Track 3

My DJ toy arrived yesterday! Stupid UPS gave me the really specific time of 8a – 7p for a delivery time. So I sat at home all day waiting and waiting until finally at 5:07p, it came.

It was packed so tight it took me about five minutes to get the thing out of the box, but once I got it out it was such a marvelous site to see.

It’s going to take some getting used to. I’m so used to looking at the record to see where the song is at.  And when the song is over picking up the record and changing it out with the next one. I still have some audio tweaking to do too. I have to turn the gain switches on the software to zero as to not blow out my headphones with the super heavy distortion. Not sure if that’s normal so I’m going to get with my friend who’s been using this for a while now and should know what’s going on.

It’s going to be fun to spin anything I want now. I don’t know why, but I’m super excited to play The Dead Kennedy’s on a record.

My tiny view on the Apple Tablet, and a nice timeline.

I have no interest for the rumored Apple tablet computer. Other than it might be a game changer in the computer industry. But because I have my head in so many technology blogs and podcasts it’s really hard not to read or hear about it at every turn. And because of my lack of interest, I haven’t really paid much attention to the who, what and when of all this. But I read this timeline on The Week of all of the important events regarding the Apple tablet. I think it’s fun to know how a potential game changer made its way to market. Found on the Linkpost 1.15.2010 article by trusted tech-head Dwight Silverman at The Houston Chronicle. (I’m linking to the article rather than posting it here so that I’m not sucking ad dollars from the original source. I’m kind like that.)

Crazy 2012

Crazy 2012 spoke to me today. I believe it was her effort to dispel the rumor that she’s crazy, when in fact, it just confirmed it. I’ve known of her for years; as in I knew her name and face, that’s it. Then I was relocated to a new desk that’s just kiddie-corner to hers. My new neighbors filled me in on Crazy 2012. First of all, she’s a firm believer that the world is ending in 2012, hence my name for her. Out of the blue during a one-on-one with her supervisor (who happens to me mine as well) just spouts off "You know that the price off eggs in Alabama are 2 cents cheaper now." And you just get this nutty vibe when you're around her.

So this afternoon I'm walking down the hallway with all the microwaves for heating up your lunch near the cafeteria. I have my headphones in so that people DON'T talk to me, but that didn't stop her. She stops me and just wanted to introduce herself. O.k., that's was nice. I said my nice to meet you's and whatever and I thought that would have ended it. Nope. "I just wanted you to know that Rick (he shares the two person desk with her, and is also weird, but with reason) and I are good people. We've been here over ten years and we're good people no matter what any one else says." I nod and tell her "Of course you are" and head on my way.

I always thought she was kind of off, but now I think she's full on nuts. Who just stops you like that to tell you that I'm good, not matter what other people think. Wack jobs, that's who.

So You Think You Can DJ - Track 2

From Brother Dan I got two new sets of slip mats for my turntables. I was in desperate need of new ones because the current pair were leaving marks on my records. So once I got home I of course had to try them out. The new slip mats have less friction the my old ones so that’s going to take some getting used to. But with the great vinyl transfer of 09 I now have all my vinyl correctly coded with an accurate BMP. This is what I’ve been missing all this time. I was rocking records back and forth with the greatest of ease. My gosh I’ve never had this much fun with my turntables. I also started using the faders (volume levels) to mix the records and keep the cross fader at center. This helped me keep thing organized in the headphones. I only stopped because I had to walk the dog and go to bed. If this is a sign of times to come, I can’t wait for my SL3. Oh, and because of my mom and grandma, I’m $540 closer.

So You Think You Can DJ? – Track 1

The Past:

I’ve always been fascinated with DJ’s for as long as I can remember. Well, I guess it can be traced back to 1991 or so when I first heard some techno that really grabbed me. I was at favorite store; Junk Yard. It was like if Hot Topic was cool, and had crushed cars in the store and chain link fencing on the walls. They were playing The Lords of Acid’s - Voo-Doo U. It was a few years later that I bout my first Technique 1200 and a mixer. Not sure what I was mixing with just one turntable. Oh right, I had the plan to get a second one, which I did a little while later. Over the next few years I started building my record collection.

Unfortunately I’ve never had a good job; or real good access to a record shop so I have a pitiful collection. And I was never very smart about my music choices. I have about 5 records of each genre. Some drum-n-bass, hardcore, trance, acid trance, dance and some other just weird stuff. I tired mixing them together but just couldn’t get it together. I did manager to pull out one hour long mix that sounds pretty good for the first 20 minutes, then I start to loose it with the rest of the set. If you really want to hear it, let me know and I’ll up load it. Years past and I sort of lost touch with my equipment, only playing with the records when I got really board and wanted to frustrate myself.

The Now:

Thanks to the power of Facebook I was able to reconnect with an old friend of mine. And get this, he’s a DJ. And an even bigger get this, he credits me for getting him into techno back in the day; thus spawning his love for music and DJ’ing. Those were some good days too. Staying up late and listening to DJ JT on Rev.105 FM and Big Daddy Greg Comstock on 93X FM.

Anyway, I’ve been picking his brain about his work and have gone to a couple of his shows and now I’ve got the love again.

I have no clue how this slipped past me, but he, and a million other DJ’s are spinning mp3’s instead of real vinyl. This is so my thing. I have so many mp3’s that I’ve all ready got a good start. But not many of them are DJ mp3’s, with nice long intros and outros for mixing. So at this moment I’m starting to save money so I can start buy DJ mp3’s. And better yet, this will be current music. The last time I bought a record was about five years ago or so. By mid January I’ll have enough money to buy the hardware necessary to connect my laptop to my turntables.

The Future:

My goal is to really get myself into DJ’ing. This will be the easy part. The hard part will to book one show. That is my goal. In one year, I want to book one show. I know I’ll be the opening and playing for a room of about 10 people while the rest of the people trickle in waiting for the next DJ or the headliner to start. And that’s fine. This is my I-don’t-want-to-go-through-life-wishing-I-had-done-something resolution.

I’ll try to throw up updates as I gain my new music, equipment and any other “ground breaking” events I encounter.

From the easy grind to the boring.

So today is my last day with the Guest Data Security team at Target. I joined them on a temporary assignment back in March of 2009. It was hush hush type of work. But I can tell you I was working to keep you, the Target consumer and your data with us safe from the bad guys. It was a nice change of pace for me and the four other co-workers who joined me. We all came from Guest Relations and were used to a very strict schedule. All breaks are decided for you, you have to get your vacation time approved at least a week in advance and you’re tied to your desk when not on breaks because your job is to answer phone calls. With Guest Data Security it’s a very relaxed environment. Come and go as you please, break whenever. Need some vacation time? Just tell your boss and it’s done. Get the work done, and you’re free to be you. I’m happy that my first day back in Guest Relations will be next Monday. Meaning I miss out on working Black Friday, my first in six years.

While I was with the GDS team, my desk has been move in GR. I’m not happy about this. The people I’ll be sitting next to are nice, but they all feel that I care about their problems and that I’m their free tech support. I don’t mind helping, but it’s the same problem over and over again. And since I’m about 50 years ahead of them when it comes to using all the available benefits of a computer, they’ll be looking over my shoulder asking about the various tools I have and wanting me to explain how they work. I’ll have to keep my Twitter app secret because that’s not a conversation I want to get into. These are the type of people that buy a computer so they can forward email and play Solitaire. Sorry, didn’t mean to get on a rant about that, but it’s coming, I know it.

The work I do in GR isn’t hard, just boring. I’ve been at it for just over six years now so I’ve pretty much mastered all the skills I need to work the job in my sleep. Answer the phone, resolve the issue. Not hard stuff. Once and a while you get what I call “The Principles.” These are the people who will argue over $.50 (that really happened too). It’s not about the money, it’s the principle. Ugh, shoot me now.

I hear there’s a small, small change that I might be able to go back to GDS and finish up the work I was doing. I’m not going back to GR because I was done, but because it’s the holidays and GR needs everybody than can get to work. This will be an untrue statement, much like it has been in other years. When I first started this time of years was b-u-s-y and it was really fun. But as the department grew in size, and shoppers started spending less, the holiday season and just been a bore. They will be sending people home early and calls volume will be low.

 

On a nothing related note, I’m going with my brother to a big DJ bash tonight. 20 performers on three stages. Going to see my friend DJ Blaze One rock some dub step. I hope it’s dub step, a new genre that I’ve only heard about until recently when I saw him spin a few weeks back. Hot shit I tell ya.

 

Well, it’s near 8:00a and I guess I should get to it.

 

And crap crap blogger.com is acting a fool with craptastic IE6. I’m just going to email this post in a not give a damn about the formatting.

 

I recorded records.

Wow, it's been a while since I thought I had something to say. And it will be much longer too because I never have much to say about anything. I finished up my record recording project. I took about 50 of my best trance, acid trace, house, drum-n-bass, dance and hardcore records and transferred them to my computer. The Process: 1. Played the record and used the simple sound recorder app on my Linux machine. 2. As that was recording, I was taking photos of each side of the record so I could pair them up later to the finished .mp3. I never used my cell phone camera so much. 3. Also, while the record was recording I was transferring the raw audio from the Linux machine to my Windows laptop. Once it was transferred I loaded it up in my audio editor to remove the level check and the little clicks where I was dropping the needle. I had to do the Linux to Windows transfer because my laptop does not have the correct sound card for quality recording. 4. Once I had all the photos cropped, and the audio trimmed I loaded the .mp3's into my tag editor. From there I could get all the ID3's created and attach the photos to each song. 5. When all the tags were correct, I uniformly renamed all the files to match the record as best possible. Artist - Side. As in Busta Rhymes - A. I don't care about the name of the song, just what side of the record I was listening to. I did this so I could listen to my records on my iPod. I want to know these records like I know most songs on my computer. I've been trying to play DJ for years but was always getting frustrated because I could never get the mix right. Mainly because I didn't know the song well enough. And if all things work in my favor, I won't need the records anymore. I'm looking into buying hardware that will allow me to control my .mp3's using my turntables. (Let it be known I still hate the WYSIWYG editor for blogger)