Well, if you are reading this you either have me on RSS feeds, have my blog bookmarked, or (and more importantly) you have found the "blog" link on the new Sliptide.com website!!
I am no longer pointing the sliptide.com domain to this blog. I have finally put together a very simple website to present my music. The front page will contain recent songs and uploads to the internet. I also put together a comprehensive discography section, which includes all of my works (even though the older stuff is very garish and unpolished) without any shame ;)
Also, in an effort to ring in the new year with a bang, I have uploaded the recent few tracks I had completed in the fall season.
"On Approach" is a song that I wanted to make for awhile, melding the droning and building elements of late-night techno sessions with some more ambient/floating 'structures'. It came out well, and paired with the next song makes for a decent treat for any late night adventures.
"Striking the Ocean" was actually started before the previous, but wrapped up production after I had transformed the song into a follow up. The two have quite literal and up-front ideas in feeling and thoughts that the names will provoke, and I hope that the tones, forms, sounds, and feelings of the music put forth a multitude of things to the listener.
The other two songs posted are:
"Everything That We Love": An 'indie electronic' song of sorts. I wanted to get into making something with a more organic feel to it, yet retain a lot of the properties of my chillout and downtempo beats. This was the first song that came to light and I have enjoyed the simplicity quite a bit.
"Spying", which as the name suggests, is a somewhat somber and curious song. Using more of the ambient textures as underlying melody and trying to keep a more organic feel again, this song is a bit of my own internal reflection poured out into audio format.
I hope everyone enjoys the new tracks, the new website, and offers up any feedback. As always, word of mouth is a powerful thing, so tell your friends and family about any music of mine that you enjoy! I'm open to questions via the comments on this blog, facebook, ilike, garageband, or you can head over to the new Google Groups Sliptide Fan Club.
As far as my other happenings go: Applied & Computational (Jeff) and myself got together for some awesome jamming last Saturday. We have started a great song that we will hopefully be able to get out the door by the end of January. We are in need of some new equipment to incorporate some live instrumentation, but that should materialize hopefully soon.
Happy New Year everyone!
-Slip
Monday, December 31, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
New Song, "Always"
I started this particular song in June earlier this year. It was really the first hurah back into music after quite a long rut and having my music habit only on the fringe of my brain. After putting myself back in line and stepping into the musical realm again, "Always" takes some of the trance synth-wash sounds from my earlier days and applies them to a more relaxed song. Building and certainly motivated by joy. I hope you dig it.
You can stream the track from iLike, Facebook, or Garageband.
Check out my iLike page right here.
You can stream the track from iLike, Facebook, or Garageband.
Check out my iLike page right here.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
To the Next Big Thing
I'm here at my empty desk listening to my own music, some new some old, pondering the past few years of my career (including a portion of my college career). I am about to move on to learning a whole ton of new geeky IT goodness. I am excited to be moving away from Application Support into a System Administration role. My stress levels will inherently drop as will the amount of hours I spend firefighting in my off-hours. This is a great opportunity I managed to seize for my career skill set, pay, benefits... you name it.. the whole package has been bumped up to a new level.
I'm very fortunate to have been going down the path I am. I still wonder where the next big thing is for me though. Working IT is going to get consistently better the longer I stay in it. I can now see myself moving towards the upper echelon of employees here in the long haul. While I can envision myself having a long term and successful career with my current company, I still have a part of me that is smoldering with desire for turning my hobbies into more lucrative business opportunities. I think with the new position I am moving into I will have a lot more brain power and idle time available to me to work on my (currently hobby status) projects and perhaps set some serious long term goals with my music, my business ideas, etc. I haven't arrived at the next big thing yet, but I am well on my way.
I have completed another trance-like song that I am very fond of. There are a few things to iron out before I make it available to download (not to mention I still have to get my website posted properly on sliptide.com so I can begin promoting the music).
I signed up for a Garageband.com account since they are now putting music onto Facebook. That is an invaluable marketing tool that should come in handy next year.
Alrighty, time to get ready for my last meeting of the day. After that, it's a free lunch in celebration of my departure from this department (and partly in honor of my birthday), then some afternoon beer and pool action at the bar across the street from work... then tonight Matt and I are going to see Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (Roger used to be the front man for The Refreshments).
Latah.
I'm very fortunate to have been going down the path I am. I still wonder where the next big thing is for me though. Working IT is going to get consistently better the longer I stay in it. I can now see myself moving towards the upper echelon of employees here in the long haul. While I can envision myself having a long term and successful career with my current company, I still have a part of me that is smoldering with desire for turning my hobbies into more lucrative business opportunities. I think with the new position I am moving into I will have a lot more brain power and idle time available to me to work on my (currently hobby status) projects and perhaps set some serious long term goals with my music, my business ideas, etc. I haven't arrived at the next big thing yet, but I am well on my way.
I have completed another trance-like song that I am very fond of. There are a few things to iron out before I make it available to download (not to mention I still have to get my website posted properly on sliptide.com so I can begin promoting the music).
I signed up for a Garageband.com account since they are now putting music onto Facebook. That is an invaluable marketing tool that should come in handy next year.
Alrighty, time to get ready for my last meeting of the day. After that, it's a free lunch in celebration of my departure from this department (and partly in honor of my birthday), then some afternoon beer and pool action at the bar across the street from work... then tonight Matt and I are going to see Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers (Roger used to be the front man for The Refreshments).
Latah.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
3 New Tracks, 0 New Websites
I have managed to complete three of the 5 pertinent new songs from this and last month. Unfortunately, I haven't taken the time to get the new website up on the new host ;)
I suppose I should start getting that taken care of while I'm wrapping up 2 more songs and getting the dust off of City Shadows vol.1 and posted on iTunes.
Other aspects of my life are continuing to do well. I've been going to the gym 3 times a week for a few months now and I have to say that I feel *awesome*. Not only am I in better shape and my (already high) endurance is heightened, I'm seeing results from eating well (not dieting) and exercising regularly.. it's great!
Work is going well. All-be-it stressful from the high work load and short staffing and some of the unrealistic expectations placed upon us from the business-- the company put their money where there mouth is.. well.. I guess I should say they put there money where *MY* mouth is and gave me the mid-year equity adjustment I asked for. In the 2.5 years I have been here I have seen a substantial increase in my salary... something I didn't expect to see when I first started working in the IT industry. Putting in the hard work really is rewarding, go figure!
I have opportunities along different avanues now-- we'll see what happens with it all. I apologize for being so vague but I absolutely cannot give details within my blog ^_^ Any of you tech-savvy folk know exactly what I am talking about.
I suppose I should start getting that taken care of while I'm wrapping up 2 more songs and getting the dust off of City Shadows vol.1 and posted on iTunes.
Other aspects of my life are continuing to do well. I've been going to the gym 3 times a week for a few months now and I have to say that I feel *awesome*. Not only am I in better shape and my (already high) endurance is heightened, I'm seeing results from eating well (not dieting) and exercising regularly.. it's great!
Work is going well. All-be-it stressful from the high work load and short staffing and some of the unrealistic expectations placed upon us from the business-- the company put their money where there mouth is.. well.. I guess I should say they put there money where *MY* mouth is and gave me the mid-year equity adjustment I asked for. In the 2.5 years I have been here I have seen a substantial increase in my salary... something I didn't expect to see when I first started working in the IT industry. Putting in the hard work really is rewarding, go figure!
I have opportunities along different avanues now-- we'll see what happens with it all. I apologize for being so vague but I absolutely cannot give details within my blog ^_^ Any of you tech-savvy folk know exactly what I am talking about.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Moving Right Along.
It looks like I will be getting some decent web hosting again. That means a new site is on the way.. this blog will take a back seat again and www.sliptide.com will be home to everything involving my music.
Apple announced the price drop for the iPhone. I have to say.. there was only a little buzz around the office today-- but we can imagine that all of those poor AT&T customers who scrambled to pay top dollar (retail or above) are now extremely pissed that they are out $200. Ouch! That would really make me bitter after spending my hard earned bones for a piece of technology that apparently doesn't hold its value. *thumbs up* Thanks, Apple! With T-Mobile signing deals for iPhone in Germany, it's only a matter of time before it is available for T-Mobile in the states (don't get me wrong though: I'm not excited, and I'm not about to retire my Pearl 8100).
I've been on a World of WarCraft kick again.. amongst diving head long into other glorious games such as Sim City 4, finishing up games like F.E.A.R. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R... it had been so long since I really sat down to play a game that I forgot how much I <3 video games! I think I'm going to be back on my quest to pick a few things up like a Sega Saturn (so I can play my copy of Guardian Heroes!) and hook up the Dreamcast.. mmm... yea.. it's going to be a vidiot's winter for sure.
Apple announced the price drop for the iPhone. I have to say.. there was only a little buzz around the office today-- but we can imagine that all of those poor AT&T customers who scrambled to pay top dollar (retail or above) are now extremely pissed that they are out $200. Ouch! That would really make me bitter after spending my hard earned bones for a piece of technology that apparently doesn't hold its value. *thumbs up* Thanks, Apple! With T-Mobile signing deals for iPhone in Germany, it's only a matter of time before it is available for T-Mobile in the states (don't get me wrong though: I'm not excited, and I'm not about to retire my Pearl 8100).
I've been on a World of WarCraft kick again.. amongst diving head long into other glorious games such as Sim City 4, finishing up games like F.E.A.R. and S.T.A.L.K.E.R... it had been so long since I really sat down to play a game that I forgot how much I <3 video games! I think I'm going to be back on my quest to pick a few things up like a Sega Saturn (so I can play my copy of Guardian Heroes!) and hook up the Dreamcast.. mmm... yea.. it's going to be a vidiot's winter for sure.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Mt. Rainier - Paradise Day Hike
Words can barely describe the incredible beauty, awe-struck feeling, and intimate nature of the day hike we went on earlier this month.
Paradise is an area that has quite a few trails stemming from the trail head. Going through the pictures I have posted on Picasa you can get a small taste of what it looked like on that day, where we went, etc..
All I can really add is that we are going back in September (and maybe with Stephan-- a co-worker and friend) before the weather gets too cold. I am excited at the prospect of seeing the mountains and the trails on a clear day. The cloud cover we had on our way up was a real treat of course. You couldn't see anyone around (occasionally hikers caught up to us, or we caught up to other hikers.. but very very few) so it felt as if we were the only ones on the trail most of the time.
I have never seen anything like the glacial snows or the landscapes that exist there. It was my first real taste of hiking too.. and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
These are only a few of the pictures taken. Expect more to be added to a new album after the trip in September =D
Paradise is an area that has quite a few trails stemming from the trail head. Going through the pictures I have posted on Picasa you can get a small taste of what it looked like on that day, where we went, etc..
All I can really add is that we are going back in September (and maybe with Stephan-- a co-worker and friend) before the weather gets too cold. I am excited at the prospect of seeing the mountains and the trails on a clear day. The cloud cover we had on our way up was a real treat of course. You couldn't see anyone around (occasionally hikers caught up to us, or we caught up to other hikers.. but very very few) so it felt as if we were the only ones on the trail most of the time.
I have never seen anything like the glacial snows or the landscapes that exist there. It was my first real taste of hiking too.. and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
These are only a few of the pictures taken. Expect more to be added to a new album after the trip in September =D
Monday, August 20, 2007
Taking a Breather
Where to begin?
I ended up taking last Wednesday off (sorta.. I was still available by phone) in order to sleep in and attempt to avoid getting more sick and jeopardizing the hike Amy and I had planned for Thursday. To my surprise, Wednesday worked out beautifully. With plenty of rest, good food, and some last minute shopping for items to take on the day hike, I felt freaking phenomenal.
Wednesday night was a late night. We had to wake up at about 4 AM Thursday morning but neither of us got much sleep. Fortunately, after we got going in the early AM (by way of a home made breakfast sandwich and a stop to Sbux) we made excellent time up to the Paradise trail head. I'm not going to get into TOO much detail right now-- expect a full post with a new Picasa album. I'd be doing it right now, but work decided to fix the firewall rules to block remote desktop and all of my photos are already on the computer at home.
In other news.. I had my free 1 hour intro training with Brian at 24 Hour Fitness. The guy was great and showed me a lot of basic exercises to increase my core strength (which is terrible right now). The exercises I did on the previous Monday really kicked my ass, but I didn't feel the soreness until 2 days later. It wasn't a bad soreness of coruse, but holy crap he really showed me just how out of shape my mid-section is compared to the rest of me (legs are solid, and my upper-body strength isn't anything to laugh at =D ). I now have some fitness goals for overall strength and shedding a few lbs. I've laid some groundwork for eating healthier, so now it's just a matter of getting on track to meet the rest of my goals. Getting in shape will also help with more excursions up and around mountains, through parks, etc. in the future. Exciting!
A 5 day weekend full of adventure, relaxation, lunch with my Dad, some video games, some movies, plenty of sleep.. it was great times, and I look forward to my next 4 day stint in September. ^_^
Back to the grind though. Let's get this on call week out of the way!
I ended up taking last Wednesday off (sorta.. I was still available by phone) in order to sleep in and attempt to avoid getting more sick and jeopardizing the hike Amy and I had planned for Thursday. To my surprise, Wednesday worked out beautifully. With plenty of rest, good food, and some last minute shopping for items to take on the day hike, I felt freaking phenomenal.
Wednesday night was a late night. We had to wake up at about 4 AM Thursday morning but neither of us got much sleep. Fortunately, after we got going in the early AM (by way of a home made breakfast sandwich and a stop to Sbux) we made excellent time up to the Paradise trail head. I'm not going to get into TOO much detail right now-- expect a full post with a new Picasa album. I'd be doing it right now, but work decided to fix the firewall rules to block remote desktop and all of my photos are already on the computer at home.
In other news.. I had my free 1 hour intro training with Brian at 24 Hour Fitness. The guy was great and showed me a lot of basic exercises to increase my core strength (which is terrible right now). The exercises I did on the previous Monday really kicked my ass, but I didn't feel the soreness until 2 days later. It wasn't a bad soreness of coruse, but holy crap he really showed me just how out of shape my mid-section is compared to the rest of me (legs are solid, and my upper-body strength isn't anything to laugh at =D ). I now have some fitness goals for overall strength and shedding a few lbs. I've laid some groundwork for eating healthier, so now it's just a matter of getting on track to meet the rest of my goals. Getting in shape will also help with more excursions up and around mountains, through parks, etc. in the future. Exciting!
A 5 day weekend full of adventure, relaxation, lunch with my Dad, some video games, some movies, plenty of sleep.. it was great times, and I look forward to my next 4 day stint in September. ^_^
Back to the grind though. Let's get this on call week out of the way!
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Warning.. This is TMI
I really dislike it when I have to use the toilet at work.
I especially dislike it when I'm in there doing my business.. trying to finish brewing my mondo poo and some guy gets into the stall next to me and executes a Splatterhouse 5 situation on the John.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Double Bonus
This last weekend Amy and I were able to find some awesome hiking boots for the trip we planned this week. Famous Footwear had a "buy one get one half-off" sale for everything in their store. We ended up walking out of there with a good pair of Timberland boots for me and a killer pair of Hi-Tec boots for her at $120.. This saved us a TON of cash compared to buying shoes/boots at REI-- we don't need anything crazy like that until we are in much better shape AND are doing more difficult trails or overnight adventures.
Do you ever have that 'sick' feeling in the back of your throat? That kinda raw-ness of drainage or sickness onset that alarms you that you may fall ill soon? Unfortunately for me that happened last night and this morning.. but I'm going to do everything I can to hopefully stay healthy so I can still do the day trip on Thursday. *Crosses fingers*
I have 2 songs almost complete, and another 3 on the back burner, plus a few other ideas in my head. The music ramp-up has begun and I'm happy to say I hope to have some form of demo/EP out by fall. As far as the City Shadows release on CD-Baby and iTunes, keep checking back here for more information on that... I'm looking for some affordable printing for the CD artwork and CD duplication, so we shall see how that turns out.
Alrighty.. much to do during my 3 day week at work.
Later.
Do you ever have that 'sick' feeling in the back of your throat? That kinda raw-ness of drainage or sickness onset that alarms you that you may fall ill soon? Unfortunately for me that happened last night and this morning.. but I'm going to do everything I can to hopefully stay healthy so I can still do the day trip on Thursday. *Crosses fingers*
I have 2 songs almost complete, and another 3 on the back burner, plus a few other ideas in my head. The music ramp-up has begun and I'm happy to say I hope to have some form of demo/EP out by fall. As far as the City Shadows release on CD-Baby and iTunes, keep checking back here for more information on that... I'm looking for some affordable printing for the CD artwork and CD duplication, so we shall see how that turns out.
Alrighty.. much to do during my 3 day week at work.
Later.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Enjoying the Rain
Well I wouldn't call it rain and neither would most people around here or otherwise. Seattle sometimes gets this gray misty cloud spit (yes, cloud spit) going on. It's refreshing after some of the sunny days up here. Growing up in the desert really put me off as far as heat goes. While it's nice that I have built up quite a tolerance to hot weather, I certainly don't enjoy having to be in it. It's always somewhat.. exciting I suppose.. to wake up on a perfectly gray filtered-light day and see some rain or cloud spit.
Last weekend ended up being a bit disjointed. I was primary on call last week and we were still fighting off some nasties from a launch-gone-bad at work. I ended up having to help staff a 24x7 war room effort (much like the one I was in on the previous post). Saturday I woke up to a call about a system issue, and ended up working right up until I had to get going to our Factoria offices (where I usually work). I ended up pulling a 12 hour day that day.. not out of the ordinary on something as big as this when being primary. It was pretty low key for me.. mostly metric and KPI reporting since my applications were stable.. they wanted warm bodies and extra eyes if they needed them I suppose.
On the music front, I'm still working the plans to get my stuff out to iTunes and Rhapsody. Currently I am shopping around for printing services for the City Shadows CD artwork and tray cards. Once I am able to get a small run going I will be in a position to ship them off to CDBaby and other fronts.
Quite a few starts to songs have been made and I'm beginning to get a clear direction on most of the pieces I'm enjoying. From house, to ambient, to more down-tempo beats and audiological infections-- I hope to have enough content for a mini-release to hold over until the new(er) stuff really takes form and is ready for release. I have a back-log of about 2 years worth of music that has been on MySpace, UBER, and other places (including some people's gmail inboxes) that needs to see the light of day.
Alright.. back to work I go. My non-fat, 1-pump raspberry, white mocha with whipped is singing the sirens' song.
Last weekend ended up being a bit disjointed. I was primary on call last week and we were still fighting off some nasties from a launch-gone-bad at work. I ended up having to help staff a 24x7 war room effort (much like the one I was in on the previous post). Saturday I woke up to a call about a system issue, and ended up working right up until I had to get going to our Factoria offices (where I usually work). I ended up pulling a 12 hour day that day.. not out of the ordinary on something as big as this when being primary. It was pretty low key for me.. mostly metric and KPI reporting since my applications were stable.. they wanted warm bodies and extra eyes if they needed them I suppose.
On the music front, I'm still working the plans to get my stuff out to iTunes and Rhapsody. Currently I am shopping around for printing services for the City Shadows CD artwork and tray cards. Once I am able to get a small run going I will be in a position to ship them off to CDBaby and other fronts.
Quite a few starts to songs have been made and I'm beginning to get a clear direction on most of the pieces I'm enjoying. From house, to ambient, to more down-tempo beats and audiological infections-- I hope to have enough content for a mini-release to hold over until the new(er) stuff really takes form and is ready for release. I have a back-log of about 2 years worth of music that has been on MySpace, UBER, and other places (including some people's gmail inboxes) that needs to see the light of day.
Alright.. back to work I go. My non-fat, 1-pump raspberry, white mocha with whipped is singing the sirens' song.
Friday, July 27, 2007
A Fresh Sense of Things
I was at work from 3pm to midnight last night. I had brought Amy's laptop, my Korg drum pad, my headphones, and an expectation that I would be able to dink around for a few hours and make some music.. I was sorely mistaken.
I did a lot of sitting around at the beginning of my shift. The upper echelon of managers, senior managers, directors, and even our CIO were in the room calling all of the shots and making all of the support plans. It was really interesting when our CIO got involved.. he's a wicked smart guy and has brought a sense of true large-scale corporation IT to the mom & pop shop mentality we are still driving here at work.
At one point I had to do a few things for getting a change through our change board process and ensure it was ready to go for our primary on call to do at 7 AM today.. That was kinda fun, in a strange way.. and so was being in the war room.. even when I was doing some simple tasks for enabling features of our website and monitoring our logs from our database.
Dare I say it, but I caught a glimpse of what made this job fun for me in the first place. The IT support aspect really let me catch a breath of fresh air.. I'm excited to be doing some training, learning some new technologies (to me), and improving my skills as an IT analyst. The project work, the bullshit that the business hands us, and the lack of solid management have been getting me down-- I think I'm in the clear as far as the affects of my job on me and my personal well being (and by proxy, my personal life outside of work).
Getting back into the game of life after this stint of madness, work-depression, and general shit we've been flipped from the business should be easy from here on out.
That being said, I'm going to take care of a few things around here in the office, sit back, and relax as I work on my hobbies, my passions, learn a few things today, then go home and have a freaking blast of a weekend.
"so drop the bass and set the needle,
spin the records and make them move,
spill the music into the street,
and make the masses move their feet."
I did a lot of sitting around at the beginning of my shift. The upper echelon of managers, senior managers, directors, and even our CIO were in the room calling all of the shots and making all of the support plans. It was really interesting when our CIO got involved.. he's a wicked smart guy and has brought a sense of true large-scale corporation IT to the mom & pop shop mentality we are still driving here at work.
At one point I had to do a few things for getting a change through our change board process and ensure it was ready to go for our primary on call to do at 7 AM today.. That was kinda fun, in a strange way.. and so was being in the war room.. even when I was doing some simple tasks for enabling features of our website and monitoring our logs from our database.
Dare I say it, but I caught a glimpse of what made this job fun for me in the first place. The IT support aspect really let me catch a breath of fresh air.. I'm excited to be doing some training, learning some new technologies (to me), and improving my skills as an IT analyst. The project work, the bullshit that the business hands us, and the lack of solid management have been getting me down-- I think I'm in the clear as far as the affects of my job on me and my personal well being (and by proxy, my personal life outside of work).
Getting back into the game of life after this stint of madness, work-depression, and general shit we've been flipped from the business should be easy from here on out.
That being said, I'm going to take care of a few things around here in the office, sit back, and relax as I work on my hobbies, my passions, learn a few things today, then go home and have a freaking blast of a weekend.
"so drop the bass and set the needle,
spin the records and make them move,
spill the music into the street,
and make the masses move their feet."
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Ohhhh, Alright..
Yea. I admit I was in a somber mood yesterday. It's unfortunate work has been getting inside my head and really affecting me. I've been a whole lot better lately about that, though, and I aim to get back to how it was when I was enjoying my job here and not worrying about work outside of work.. not letting it infiltrate my personal life to the point of annoyance and constant anguish.
"Funk 'dat!"
My mind has been in the 'thinking about music' mode now for 2 weeks straight. I have yet to act on the urges to sit down and do some hard core production, but I'm getting closer to the point of having the correct mental capacity and state of being to crank out the tunes again. It's been a long time coming, a lot of up-and-down motion (hmm.. I just realized that could be taken in a very dirty way.. *grin*), and after the dust settles and I can breathe freely again I will have all of the clarity in the world.
/me let's out a smile and a tiny sigh.
From a conversation with Nick:
"Funk 'dat!"
My mind has been in the 'thinking about music' mode now for 2 weeks straight. I have yet to act on the urges to sit down and do some hard core production, but I'm getting closer to the point of having the correct mental capacity and state of being to crank out the tunes again. It's been a long time coming, a lot of up-and-down motion (hmm.. I just realized that could be taken in a very dirty way.. *grin*), and after the dust settles and I can breathe freely again I will have all of the clarity in the world.
/me let's out a smile and a tiny sigh.
From a conversation with Nick:
Sean: "headphones.. check. starbucks almond mocha.. check. slacker tools in a browser.. check. gmail chat window with my bro.. check. engage slacking."
Yes, it's time to get back to doing less work here at work. ;) Some people might find it odd that I feel a need to 'slack' at work.. but if you look at it objectively (maybe.. just maybe) you'll see that it's more along the lines of "working less" or "less effort" than "slacking". It's only taken as slacking if you hold my high productivity and kick-ass-ness as my zero point for minimum performance level. 'Ya catch my drift?
I have my feelers out for a few hosting options, but until then I am going to point www.sliptide.com to this blog via mydns.com. I had used them way back in the day, and they will serve as a means of at least pointing my web traffic to here such that people know I have not faded from this universe. Once I get proper hosting I will have a music-centric website back up with a new streamlined design, some more things for the music fans out there, and.. well.. I might as well say it now: CDs for sale via hardcopy and music you may purchase over iTunes and Rhapsody.
Yes.. I will be publishing materials proper. That's not to say you won't be able to download some free music from sliptide.com, or download boot leg performances, DJ mixes, and remixes from my web space. Most new songs and albums, however, will be published and available for download via online music retailers. Some albums will be made available for purchase online. Good times ahead!
I look over at my Picasa web album and realize that I need to do a lot of work on it and get some more photos up there. I have a ton of stuff to share with the world.. maybe I should spend some time working on music and web projects tonight rather than dabbling around in DiRT or World of WarCraft.
Welp.. I'm off to the coal mines.. cept I'll be the guy near the back with an oil lamp, respirator, some water, and a magazine.
Yes, it's time to get back to doing less work here at work. ;) Some people might find it odd that I feel a need to 'slack' at work.. but if you look at it objectively (maybe.. just maybe) you'll see that it's more along the lines of "working less" or "less effort" than "slacking". It's only taken as slacking if you hold my high productivity and kick-ass-ness as my zero point for minimum performance level. 'Ya catch my drift?
I have my feelers out for a few hosting options, but until then I am going to point www.sliptide.com to this blog via mydns.com. I had used them way back in the day, and they will serve as a means of at least pointing my web traffic to here such that people know I have not faded from this universe. Once I get proper hosting I will have a music-centric website back up with a new streamlined design, some more things for the music fans out there, and.. well.. I might as well say it now: CDs for sale via hardcopy and music you may purchase over iTunes and Rhapsody.
Yes.. I will be publishing materials proper. That's not to say you won't be able to download some free music from sliptide.com, or download boot leg performances, DJ mixes, and remixes from my web space. Most new songs and albums, however, will be published and available for download via online music retailers. Some albums will be made available for purchase online. Good times ahead!
I look over at my Picasa web album and realize that I need to do a lot of work on it and get some more photos up there. I have a ton of stuff to share with the world.. maybe I should spend some time working on music and web projects tonight rather than dabbling around in DiRT or World of WarCraft.
Welp.. I'm off to the coal mines.. cept I'll be the guy near the back with an oil lamp, respirator, some water, and a magazine.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Division
177 / 8 = ?
With the exception of college physics courses, math has never irritated me so much as it does in that simple division problem above. The answer is 22.125. The units of measurement is (hours) / (hours/work day), which yields work days. I have 22.125 work days accrued in my Paid Time Off bucket. Wow!
Sure, I see that as a positive in most respects but after I popped open my calendar to mentally track the weeks in which I am neither primary or secondary on-call only to be met with the reminder that we are currently so short staffed that I only have 1 free week out of every three... and that's not alright with me.
My patience grows thin. I have already started to filter out work from my personal life and am leaving work at work unless I am on call. It's going to really piss off some people around here, but I am not a robot corporate whore like majority of the management here.
/endvent
With the exception of college physics courses, math has never irritated me so much as it does in that simple division problem above. The answer is 22.125. The units of measurement is (hours) / (hours/work day), which yields work days. I have 22.125 work days accrued in my Paid Time Off bucket. Wow!
Sure, I see that as a positive in most respects but after I popped open my calendar to mentally track the weeks in which I am neither primary or secondary on-call only to be met with the reminder that we are currently so short staffed that I only have 1 free week out of every three... and that's not alright with me.
My patience grows thin. I have already started to filter out work from my personal life and am leaving work at work unless I am on call. It's going to really piss off some people around here, but I am not a robot corporate whore like majority of the management here.
/endvent
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
From a Conversation
From a conversation with Nick:
"so i'm going to undertake a new direction of music and producing. i'm going to get away from the overly drippy synth-based music and move towards a sound that is more organic. i will readily admit.. influenced by DJ Shadow, Wax Tailor.. and especially groups like Bonobo.. I want to have a very organic, pathos-infused sound that I can present in a live format.. a sound that isn't just music.. but akin to the idea of an "Original Life Sound Track""
and another quote, "I did well with the City Shadows sounds and I'd be retarded not to retain some of that." (rough quote, really.. but that was the gist of it)
I spent a total of 4-5 hours over the weekend tinkering with music only to come up with: jack and shiz.
I've been completely sunk in the gutter and unable to produce anything fluid. Much like Ron Jeremy's recycling bin, the thoughts in my head have been trashy, messy, and raw. Amy sat on the stairs and helped pick apart some of the fundamentals that I have been grasping entirely too firmly.
At the core of my sound for the past while (or attempted sound) has been a very gritty synth-washed feel that is growing tired with me.. because it's not where I'm fitting. I diverted a lot of my time and energy away from producing tracks akin to the collection found on City Shadows and found myself in the same rut I was in when I started producing: very repetative open-beat tracks with hard synth-patterned lines.. and while some good songs came out of it ("Lady Gray" and "Lush" to name a few), my adventure in sound has always led me down a path of experimentation and organic (yet electronic-produced) sounds.
While I'm thinking about it (I'm at work, so I'll have to write this down or read my blog when I get home.. yes.. I read my own blog.. don't you sometimes?), I need to take inventory of my music equipment that I do not have hooked up. There are various interfaces, break-out boxes, recording devices, I/O, instruments.. that I'm not using right now. In order to accomplish my goal I am going to need some specific tools.. two of which I know that I do not have on hand: A sound recorder (like a digital recorder to take with me for environment sounds) and a microphone for vocals or guitar.. HMMMmmmm... Time to make a budget.
--
As far as work is concerned.. I have been doing a lot of thinking (and talking with Amy). My job has not earned the right to come home with me when I am not on call (or secondary on call).
If you read a previous post I made I quoted a letter-- er-- email.. (it sure as hell felt like a letter: sidenote.. is there a connotation of saying you wrote a letter vs. email.. is one more professional than the other or has that been washed out by the advance of the internet into big business?).. which stated that we as IT Analysts felt the business and or organization did not have confidence in our ability to do our job.
In light of recent events I have come to the conclusion that work has been getting the best of me and it has to change. My line if work isn't important enough such that it should drastically effect my work-life balance and take a toll on me or others around me outside of work. The hardest thing to do when you are being compressed by the weight of your organization (as it collapses around you) is to keep your spirits and attitude in check and not lose focus of your work life, your personal life, the line between them, and most importantly: not lose focus of yourself!
Don't get me wrong.. I certainly enjoy where I work. I'm excited for the products we sell, the customer service we provide, the applications and systems I support, the tools and technologies I'm learning and using to do my job, the career path I have chosen: all of those things congealed for me quite a long (1.5 years) time ago. There just exists some major issues with the way things are going (the direction) and the lack of organization that is making our job entirely more difficult than it should be. Though, this is where I have to step in and say "Alright.. I have to maintain this mantra and this way of work life myself.. I have to truly look out for my own balance, find my own center point, and work from there."
It may seem convoluted what I am thinking.. but at least this is somewhat therapeutic in getting it out there in writing. ;P I haven't been writing enough as it is. What better way to keep the blogs going, ya?
and another quote, "I did well with the City Shadows sounds and I'd be retarded not to retain some of that." (rough quote, really.. but that was the gist of it)
I spent a total of 4-5 hours over the weekend tinkering with music only to come up with: jack and shiz.
I've been completely sunk in the gutter and unable to produce anything fluid. Much like Ron Jeremy's recycling bin, the thoughts in my head have been trashy, messy, and raw. Amy sat on the stairs and helped pick apart some of the fundamentals that I have been grasping entirely too firmly.
At the core of my sound for the past while (or attempted sound) has been a very gritty synth-washed feel that is growing tired with me.. because it's not where I'm fitting. I diverted a lot of my time and energy away from producing tracks akin to the collection found on City Shadows and found myself in the same rut I was in when I started producing: very repetative open-beat tracks with hard synth-patterned lines.. and while some good songs came out of it ("Lady Gray" and "Lush" to name a few), my adventure in sound has always led me down a path of experimentation and organic (yet electronic-produced) sounds.
While I'm thinking about it (I'm at work, so I'll have to write this down or read my blog when I get home.. yes.. I read my own blog.. don't you sometimes?), I need to take inventory of my music equipment that I do not have hooked up. There are various interfaces, break-out boxes, recording devices, I/O, instruments.. that I'm not using right now. In order to accomplish my goal I am going to need some specific tools.. two of which I know that I do not have on hand: A sound recorder (like a digital recorder to take with me for environment sounds) and a microphone for vocals or guitar.. HMMMmmmm... Time to make a budget.
--
As far as work is concerned.. I have been doing a lot of thinking (and talking with Amy). My job has not earned the right to come home with me when I am not on call (or secondary on call).
If you read a previous post I made I quoted a letter-- er-- email.. (it sure as hell felt like a letter: sidenote.. is there a connotation of saying you wrote a letter vs. email.. is one more professional than the other or has that been washed out by the advance of the internet into big business?).. which stated that we as IT Analysts felt the business and or organization did not have confidence in our ability to do our job.
In light of recent events I have come to the conclusion that work has been getting the best of me and it has to change. My line if work isn't important enough such that it should drastically effect my work-life balance and take a toll on me or others around me outside of work. The hardest thing to do when you are being compressed by the weight of your organization (as it collapses around you) is to keep your spirits and attitude in check and not lose focus of your work life, your personal life, the line between them, and most importantly: not lose focus of yourself!
Don't get me wrong.. I certainly enjoy where I work. I'm excited for the products we sell, the customer service we provide, the applications and systems I support, the tools and technologies I'm learning and using to do my job, the career path I have chosen: all of those things congealed for me quite a long (1.5 years) time ago. There just exists some major issues with the way things are going (the direction) and the lack of organization that is making our job entirely more difficult than it should be. Though, this is where I have to step in and say "Alright.. I have to maintain this mantra and this way of work life myself.. I have to truly look out for my own balance, find my own center point, and work from there."
It may seem convoluted what I am thinking.. but at least this is somewhat therapeutic in getting it out there in writing. ;P I haven't been writing enough as it is. What better way to keep the blogs going, ya?
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Forward.
I have started a new song that has really set me off in creativity and musical production. I'm getting back into the swing of things in the face of the work-monster (that has been getting me down lately) and I can't be more excited.
Looking at my creative outlets in life.. I realize I need to get hoppin' and get my ish out there to the world.
Pz.
Looking at my creative outlets in life.. I realize I need to get hoppin' and get my ish out there to the world.
Pz.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Burning that Midnight Oil
Perhaps I should refer to it as 'all night' oil.. as it seems that whenever we have one of these after hours deployments it happens to go ALL FREAKING NIGHT!!!!!
Right now I'm waiting on the vendor to respond with some code that will fix a situation that could totally knock this deployment out of the park. While the issue at hand is not something that would cause us to rollback, it's rather annoying that we couldn't slam this one down and be home by 1AM or earlier.
Tomorrow I had plans to drop Amy off at her volunteer position at SAM, then work from Starbucks until about 1:30 PM in the afternoon. Even if I get home really late I might do it anyway because it sounds like a lot of fun and I want to spend some time downtown with her after she's done volunteering. I don't really even care what we do.. just being downtown with her sounds like a lot of fun =D
Anywho.. work is work... and I've definitely gained anew perspective on things in relation to my job, my career, and my placement in the working world. I have new goals to work towards, and it will be very interesting to see how things progress over the next while.
Right now I'm waiting on the vendor to respond with some code that will fix a situation that could totally knock this deployment out of the park. While the issue at hand is not something that would cause us to rollback, it's rather annoying that we couldn't slam this one down and be home by 1AM or earlier.
Tomorrow I had plans to drop Amy off at her volunteer position at SAM, then work from Starbucks until about 1:30 PM in the afternoon. Even if I get home really late I might do it anyway because it sounds like a lot of fun and I want to spend some time downtown with her after she's done volunteering. I don't really even care what we do.. just being downtown with her sounds like a lot of fun =D
Anywho.. work is work... and I've definitely gained anew perspective on things in relation to my job, my career, and my placement in the working world. I have new goals to work towards, and it will be very interesting to see how things progress over the next while.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Locked Down
Yesterday I had set up my computer to host a Remote Desktop service so I could log into it from work. It's something I have done ever since I had my job in college, and has proven to be very useful to me.
Whether I slack and spend time working on other projects not related to my job, or I set up a stream of music to listen to while I work, having the ability to get into my computer from work was a great luxury. It even came in handy a few times troubleshooting issues in which we needed to have a computer with a connection that is external to our corporate network.
No more. I was unable to connect remotely today. I remembered awhile back they were going to be blocking the standard RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) ports at the external firewall, but I realize now that they weren't just blocking the ports.. they were blocking the actual protocol. Oh well.. I guess this means I can keep my nose to the grindstone more often than I have in the past year.
I'm now signed up for an Oracle taught Oracle administration class. I will be taking it for an entire week in July-- not really a break from work, per-se, but at least I'll be in different surroundings for that week and not have to do any of my jobby job tasks.
--
The music is brooding in my head now. Including, but not limited to, distribution of City Shadows, new songs, new songs I'm working on, cdbaby.net, live performances.... I really want to make my hobby into something bigger. I'm not going to quit my day job for awhile (if ever), but I definitely want to be heard.
Good times.. good times.
Whether I slack and spend time working on other projects not related to my job, or I set up a stream of music to listen to while I work, having the ability to get into my computer from work was a great luxury. It even came in handy a few times troubleshooting issues in which we needed to have a computer with a connection that is external to our corporate network.
No more. I was unable to connect remotely today. I remembered awhile back they were going to be blocking the standard RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) ports at the external firewall, but I realize now that they weren't just blocking the ports.. they were blocking the actual protocol. Oh well.. I guess this means I can keep my nose to the grindstone more often than I have in the past year.
I'm now signed up for an Oracle taught Oracle administration class. I will be taking it for an entire week in July-- not really a break from work, per-se, but at least I'll be in different surroundings for that week and not have to do any of my jobby job tasks.
--
The music is brooding in my head now. Including, but not limited to, distribution of City Shadows, new songs, new songs I'm working on, cdbaby.net, live performances.... I really want to make my hobby into something bigger. I'm not going to quit my day job for awhile (if ever), but I definitely want to be heard.
Good times.. good times.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Blowing Off the Dust
There was a massive amount of dust on the 'ol brain. Work hasn't been too terribly kind to me lately, but I realize that I have to make the best of it.
I became, and admittedly still am, burnt out on IT. A few incidents at work really took the wind out of my sails and left me feeling a bit stranded not too far from shore. I'm slowly gaining the momentum back and getting excited about my job and the prospects it brings.
Along side that I am finding myself more and more in the music composing mind-set. I'm having moments of clarity when I sit down in front of my computer to do music. It sorta came out at a decent time yesterday when my buddy Jeff came over to make music. We ended up with a pretty sweet take of a collaboration that we will wrap up and throw out on the internet soon (I'm guessing).
My mind is all over the place as far as objectives for music go. Part of me says I need to get back to my days of City Shadows-esque music.. while I am also pulled in the tech/trance direction at times as well. I seem to have multiple hands in multiple pots of creativity, to a point where it's not really working towards anything.. just a bunch of lateral shifts. Did that make any sense?
Anywho.. summer brings great weather, more desires to travel (within and outside of Washington), and I'm itching to have all my debts paid later this summer and the savings to start kicking into high gear. I'm starting to get home-ownership on the brain =X
It's almost 3. Time to kill an hour on more documentation and quarterly goals to get a phatter bonus. Yay!
I became, and admittedly still am, burnt out on IT. A few incidents at work really took the wind out of my sails and left me feeling a bit stranded not too far from shore. I'm slowly gaining the momentum back and getting excited about my job and the prospects it brings.
Along side that I am finding myself more and more in the music composing mind-set. I'm having moments of clarity when I sit down in front of my computer to do music. It sorta came out at a decent time yesterday when my buddy Jeff came over to make music. We ended up with a pretty sweet take of a collaboration that we will wrap up and throw out on the internet soon (I'm guessing).
My mind is all over the place as far as objectives for music go. Part of me says I need to get back to my days of City Shadows-esque music.. while I am also pulled in the tech/trance direction at times as well. I seem to have multiple hands in multiple pots of creativity, to a point where it's not really working towards anything.. just a bunch of lateral shifts. Did that make any sense?
Anywho.. summer brings great weather, more desires to travel (within and outside of Washington), and I'm itching to have all my debts paid later this summer and the savings to start kicking into high gear. I'm starting to get home-ownership on the brain =X
It's almost 3. Time to kill an hour on more documentation and quarterly goals to get a phatter bonus. Yay!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Check Baby, Check Baby, Check One-Two..
Attitudes are contagious.
A major problem I now have with my work environment is the bitter and negative attitudes of many people that work within my organization. I can't let their candor and demeanor affect my overtly sharp wit. What can be perceived as "the best" in me for a quick wit and sharp tongue can easily be taken as "the worst" in me by many other folks. I have to be very careful and selective of how I present myself to others that I work with as to not hinder my career and working relationship with my company and sub-organization.
-----
Keeping myself in check at work, I have also kept myself in check outside of my work life as well. I am starting to get excited for the things I used to be excited about (hobby-wise mostly): Computers, web development and technology, some video gaming, and most of all-- creative output in the form of anything audio/visual.
Nick and I are still host-less as of June 10th. Our friend is departing from the hosting scene since he had a few bad experiences with overbearing customers, and what started as a hobby has become a pain in the ass for our friend. I can't blame him for retiring the hobby. Thankfully I have another friend who may be able to host a few of our small sites. It will be nice to have SNN-Core, Sliptide, Angel Assassin, and our new project hosted online for development. I'm excited to take our back-seat hobbies and move them into new directions and on the forefront of our creative processes.
-----
I have started building Titan, the latest piece of my technological arsenal. Amy's laptop broke (again) and we really needed to have two functional PCs. Being 5 years old, I figured it was time to do the last upgrades to Euclid and build a new box.
Euclid is running an AMD Athlon XP (Barton) 2.0ghz, 2gb DDR400 (was upgraded from 1gb of DDR333-- huge difference!), BFG Tech GeForce 7600 GS 512mb (AGP), A-bit AN7, and all of the other bells an whistles (HDDs, etc..). It performs fine and has plenty of life left in it for day to day and creative projects (Photoshop still screams enough, even with 8 mega-pixel images), and games don't look half bad with some of the options limited in texture and object quality/detail.
Sidenote: Yes, I name my computers. I have named my computers since my first Micron p166 machine back in the day. It's like naming anything else if you ask me. Cars, boats, satellites. A geekish habit, but a mark that expresses how proud I am of what I build.
Titan: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2, SAPPHIRE 100185L Radeon X1950XT 512MB, Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ,
I'm looking forward to getting it all set up this weekend. I'll drop a post when I'm done burning my eyes out with a few games, oh, and making some phat music ;)
A major problem I now have with my work environment is the bitter and negative attitudes of many people that work within my organization. I can't let their candor and demeanor affect my overtly sharp wit. What can be perceived as "the best" in me for a quick wit and sharp tongue can easily be taken as "the worst" in me by many other folks. I have to be very careful and selective of how I present myself to others that I work with as to not hinder my career and working relationship with my company and sub-organization.
-----
Keeping myself in check at work, I have also kept myself in check outside of my work life as well. I am starting to get excited for the things I used to be excited about (hobby-wise mostly): Computers, web development and technology, some video gaming, and most of all-- creative output in the form of anything audio/visual.
Nick and I are still host-less as of June 10th. Our friend is departing from the hosting scene since he had a few bad experiences with overbearing customers, and what started as a hobby has become a pain in the ass for our friend. I can't blame him for retiring the hobby. Thankfully I have another friend who may be able to host a few of our small sites. It will be nice to have SNN-Core, Sliptide, Angel Assassin, and our new project hosted online for development. I'm excited to take our back-seat hobbies and move them into new directions and on the forefront of our creative processes.
-----
I have started building Titan, the latest piece of my technological arsenal. Amy's laptop broke (again) and we really needed to have two functional PCs. Being 5 years old, I figured it was time to do the last upgrades to Euclid and build a new box.
Euclid is running an AMD Athlon XP (Barton) 2.0ghz, 2gb DDR400 (was upgraded from 1gb of DDR333-- huge difference!), BFG Tech GeForce 7600 GS 512mb (AGP), A-bit AN7, and all of the other bells an whistles (HDDs, etc..). It performs fine and has plenty of life left in it for day to day and creative projects (Photoshop still screams enough, even with 8 mega-pixel images), and games don't look half bad with some of the options limited in texture and object quality/detail.
Sidenote: Yes, I name my computers. I have named my computers since my first Micron p166 machine back in the day. It's like naming anything else if you ask me. Cars, boats, satellites. A geekish habit, but a mark that expresses how proud I am of what I build.
Titan: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2, SAPPHIRE 100185L Radeon X1950XT 512MB, Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ,
| | nMEDIAPC Mute Power MP-500 ATX12V, To name a few things. Oh, and I can't forget the: ZALMAN VF900 - CU LED 2 Ball VGA Cooling Fan/Heatsink. This computer will last me quite awhile.. sure.. it's not DX10 right now, and I'm not going to bother installing Vista on it, but I really don't have any motivation to use Vista-- and there aren't any DX10 games out yet.. I'm fine with DX9 for quite awhile, so I'm going to milk it for all it's worth ;) Hell, I got this far with AGP, right? |
I'm looking forward to getting it all set up this weekend. I'll drop a post when I'm done burning my eyes out with a few games, oh, and making some phat music ;)
Friday, May 18, 2007
A Little Less Faith, and the Return of the Slacker
We've had some recent company policies implemented surrounding the "accountability" for individuals and teams in application support. There have been a few situations that prompted an over-exaggerated (yes, that's an intentional redundancy) in due-diligence that has left a very bitter taste in my mouth.
With out going into too much detail, it's one of those situations where a new policy implemented has left myself and others feeling like that company that we work for has no faith in our ability to do our jobs. We are being somewhat "punished" for the lack of actions in other teams and other areas of application support that have track records notorious for dropping the ball. It's a very unfortunate situation, and today I had to draft an email response in a threaded discussion about this very situation to express my own views and disappointments on the subject.
At least I can approach my peers on the teams closest to me and my direct manager to let them know how I feel. I can say, with some certainty, that I know I'm not the only one who feels like that.
I've decreased my overall productivity with work, which is very unfortunate. I've been somewhat of a star player here for the past (almost) 2 years. With some of the uncertainties that lie in the changes going forward for our company and my role within (I am not in jeopardy of losing my job, it's just uneasy to know exactly what's going to come down the pipeline for re-org, job role, etc..), and the seemingly lacking appreciation and confidence from the company in what we do--- the slacker within has reared his ugly head.
I've spent a decent amount of time outside of my usual duties to blog, work on web projects, research new computer technologies, read news websites, dream about new computers and music equipment.. granted I'm still getting my job done and done well, I'm not going beyond as much as I did before. It's really hard to keep that up sometimes, ya know?
---
The rental house that Amy and I have moved into is freaking awesome now. They replaced the carpet in our lower den area after we had left-over problems from the previous tenants' animals' bad habits. With new carpet in the lower den (which acts as our computer/general chillout room), all of the space in the rest of the place (big kitchen, a living room, and 3br/2br, garage, big yard..), and nearing the complete restoration of the deck in back-- I'm loving the move back to suburbanite living.
I grew up in the suburbs of Reno and I realize now that I missed the neighborhoods, the families, the people waving as you walk by on an evening outing, the quietness, the space, the BBQ's... it's awesome =D
Should I get back to work? Yea.. probably. Maybe I will dink around on the 'net for a bit. Yay internet!
With out going into too much detail, it's one of those situations where a new policy implemented has left myself and others feeling like that company that we work for has no faith in our ability to do our jobs. We are being somewhat "punished" for the lack of actions in other teams and other areas of application support that have track records notorious for dropping the ball. It's a very unfortunate situation, and today I had to draft an email response in a threaded discussion about this very situation to express my own views and disappointments on the subject.
"I feel almost as if my organization (and company) does not have faith in my abilities as a Systems Analyst. That doesn't make a best place to work let alone a place I want to reciprocate a feeling of teamwork or dedication."
At least I can approach my peers on the teams closest to me and my direct manager to let them know how I feel. I can say, with some certainty, that I know I'm not the only one who feels like that.
I've decreased my overall productivity with work, which is very unfortunate. I've been somewhat of a star player here for the past (almost) 2 years. With some of the uncertainties that lie in the changes going forward for our company and my role within (I am not in jeopardy of losing my job, it's just uneasy to know exactly what's going to come down the pipeline for re-org, job role, etc..), and the seemingly lacking appreciation and confidence from the company in what we do--- the slacker within has reared his ugly head.
I've spent a decent amount of time outside of my usual duties to blog, work on web projects, research new computer technologies, read news websites, dream about new computers and music equipment.. granted I'm still getting my job done and done well, I'm not going beyond as much as I did before. It's really hard to keep that up sometimes, ya know?
---
The rental house that Amy and I have moved into is freaking awesome now. They replaced the carpet in our lower den area after we had left-over problems from the previous tenants' animals' bad habits. With new carpet in the lower den (which acts as our computer/general chillout room), all of the space in the rest of the place (big kitchen, a living room, and 3br/2br, garage, big yard..), and nearing the complete restoration of the deck in back-- I'm loving the move back to suburbanite living.
I grew up in the suburbs of Reno and I realize now that I missed the neighborhoods, the families, the people waving as you walk by on an evening outing, the quietness, the space, the BBQ's... it's awesome =D
Should I get back to work? Yea.. probably. Maybe I will dink around on the 'net for a bit. Yay internet!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Trimming the Fat
Way back in the day (not really, 2001 to be honest) I wanted to start an online journal. I happened to stumble upon Blogger.com, and was excited by the idea of having a free online space where I could write and easily maintain my posts..
Sure enough, fast forward through the end of that senior year of high school, my 4.5 year stint at the University of Washington, and zoom on up to present day where I am a full time Systems Analyst for a major service industry (read: cellular provider) near Seattle-- I look back to see that some of the people I turned on to blogging still dabble in it, but the majority have dropped it in favor of less-sophisticated juggernaut pop-tart communities like MySpace and Facebook (dear God; please wipe Facebook from the planet). Sure, I have a MySpace account I use for personal gain and following of my music (which I under-utilize right now), but it still sucks. =)
Two to three years before my time, it seemed, as nobody was blogging around me until we were somewhat deep into college. It's all good though.
I find myself staring at the now Google owned Blogger editing interface which is miles beyond the old Blogger in functionality, quality, and.. wow-factor.
I have purged my entire history of posts from 2001 through 2005, and it seems the database that sat on Sliptide.com holding my WordPress posts was purged when our server crashed-- so my entire catalog has been nuked to make way for a new book of topics, thoughts, projects, hobbies, discussions, stories, blabbing... Reverting to Blogger.com and using the mobile tools provided ensures I have accessibility to work on my personal space wherever I am. I'm leaving my main website (sliptide.com) to be music-centric, and everything else that is me-centric can be found here and in other portions of Google's awesome-ness.
^_^ Enjoy.
Sure enough, fast forward through the end of that senior year of high school, my 4.5 year stint at the University of Washington, and zoom on up to present day where I am a full time Systems Analyst for a major service industry (read: cellular provider) near Seattle-- I look back to see that some of the people I turned on to blogging still dabble in it, but the majority have dropped it in favor of less-sophisticated juggernaut pop-tart communities like MySpace and Facebook (dear God; please wipe Facebook from the planet). Sure, I have a MySpace account I use for personal gain and following of my music (which I under-utilize right now), but it still sucks. =)
Two to three years before my time, it seemed, as nobody was blogging around me until we were somewhat deep into college. It's all good though.
I find myself staring at the now Google owned Blogger editing interface which is miles beyond the old Blogger in functionality, quality, and.. wow-factor.
I have purged my entire history of posts from 2001 through 2005, and it seems the database that sat on Sliptide.com holding my WordPress posts was purged when our server crashed-- so my entire catalog has been nuked to make way for a new book of topics, thoughts, projects, hobbies, discussions, stories, blabbing... Reverting to Blogger.com and using the mobile tools provided ensures I have accessibility to work on my personal space wherever I am. I'm leaving my main website (sliptide.com) to be music-centric, and everything else that is me-centric can be found here and in other portions of Google's awesome-ness.
^_^ Enjoy.
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