L found this little guy hopping across our living room floor. He was too small to physically pick up. After a brief modeling session, I set him free on the porch. Bye Froggy friend.

My Froggy Friend - On a Magazine

My Froggy Friend sitting in my hand

Technorati Tags: Photo, Frog

I just came back from a week in the Yucatan Peninsula on Saturday; L and I finally had the mutually agreeable “off-time” to take our honeymoon. I’ll take some time soon and write about the adventures and what-not we had post pictures soon, but I just wanted to make note that A) due to this, there was no podcast last week, despite my intended plan to get one out EVERY week (But I did NO work while I was gone, so meh…) and B) This week’s podcast MIGHT be a day or two late, while I catch up with everything that needed my attention whilst I was away. But rest assured, I’m working hard to keep the steam behind my intentions and designs. How is everyone else doing? (PLEASE feel free to comment, cause I can see visitors in my log, but hardly anyone ever comments. Grumble.)

Technorati Tags: honeymoon, podcast

Podcast #3 (still lacking a title) is about 95% finished. I had the intent of doing the final edit today while at the office, but in my only vague-lucidity as I left the house this morning, I left my external HD @ home; without which I can do nothing of substance as it holds my music collection.

Then again, it seems the day has quickly tightened its reigns on me, as I spent the better half of my morning pawing through security footage to determine which employee of the restaurant walked out of the building last night with several hundred dollars worth of someone else’s stuff. Festive, I tell you.

And my previously scheduled morning appointment has since been time shifted to 3 PM, thus timeshifting the rest of my day.

And I still need to go to the grocery…

Be that as it may, expect a new podcast later tonight or in the very wee hours of tomorrow morning.

And in no way related, but a little something to tide you over until the podcast… DJ Lobsterdust: Jenny’s Superstitious [Stevie Wonder vs. The Killers]

 

 DJ Lobsterdust -- Jenny's Superstitious [Stevie Wonder vs. The Killers] [4:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (62)

Technorati Tags: Podcast, music, DJ Lobsterdust

It seems, that much like the road to hell, this blog is becoming paved with good intentions. Be that as it may, work is being done.

Podcast #3 is largely complete and I’m toying with the idea of both doing a weekly ShoutCAST stream, as well getting a proper microphone and a small mixer and actually APPEARING on my own damn podcast (Novel, I know…)

I’m also trying to objectively look at my time commitments before I consider adding a tLog to Living in Blue Shift [dot] com. My rational being:

1. I have an unhealthy fascination with Micro-blogging and this seems like an interesting adaptation of it.
2. It would allow me to post more regularly than I do currently, do to the nature of the system.
3. Generating more content would, in turn, present me with the possibility of higher visibility on “the grid” (aka: the internet).

But, my hang up is, I struggle to maintain this site as much as I’d like due to equal parts exhaustion, more pressing responsibilities, lack of inspiration/motivation, and of course laziness. I’d rather not take the time to create a framework for more content only to let it collect dust.

With all of this, I’m also looking at diddling around with Yahoo! Pipes [wiki description]service to effectively lifestream my online activities. While it might be of some interest to others, I feel that largely this is for my own academic gratification (Which I then question, why the hell I’d need a lifestream, I’m the one living it… But I digress). Somehow the idea of a long string of aggregated RSS entries being my lasting scrawl seems fitting.

This all leads up to a series of entries I’ve been semi-writing for months now regarding the integration of so-called Web2.0 technologies into our lifestyles on and off the grid. If I get my ass in gear, part one could actually be up soon, assuming I don’t get distracted as usual.

Technorati Tags: podcast, tLog, Micro-blogging, Yahoo! Pipes, Web2.0, Aggregation, technology, blogging, procrastination

So being stuck in an interminable limbo while my main computer is down (and even then, I’ll have to reload the entire damn thing), and using my office laptop as my interim system, I have reached an epiphany.

I need a desk. More specifically, I need an office. I’ve been working on the couch rather than my usual chair w/ laptop desk, and it has taken it’s toll on my lower back. No position is comfortable. No lighting is adequate. And more so than any of the rest, working in the family room, while practical as a father/husband, is absolutely the worst thing a person could do who is trying to “force the muse.” I have been trying to get back to write for a long time now, and I have things that I desperately want to get out but I aways seem to find an excuse; and the slight change of position has made me realize that this environment is the most dreadful thing I could do for that.

This came in part with the realization that my next computer will be a desktop. I will keep my laptop for the portability and it is still a reasonably good system, but going forward, I’m getting a 24″ iMac so that:

• I am forced to sit at said desk to work it, thus encouraging me to devote real time to writing.
• I can easily and hopefully more productively, continue to pursue some of my other projects with a greater ease (i.e.: Short film animation, digital video editing, more podcasts, etc.)

I know that I’ll have to work hard to achieve a precarious balance to devote enough time to my wife and daughter WHILE working to focus on writing again. It’ll be hard work, but I know it’s worth doing.

As someone who has prided himself on being above-average in regards to productivity and productivity tools, I can’t believe that it took an ergonomic shift for me to realize what a bad idea a laptop as a main workstation for me is…

Technorati Tags: desk, laptop, distraction, workspace, productivity

Well, for those of you who might think a plumbers pipes never leak, I can assure you with all certainty that they do. And when they do, it often floods. What I am eluding to is my recent string of bad luck with electronics (i.e.: A dead iPod) and now compounded with failed sectors in my companion laptop, meaning my laptop is dead until I can get a new hard drive in it and reload EVERYTHING [Grumble]. While I am relatively sure that the majority of the data will be recoverable, and luckily my music collection was spared on an external hard drive, I am still too fucking frustrated for words. At least it happened AFTER the wedding. I am trying hard not to take this as a life sign that I ought to be doing other things.

That being said, maybe I ought to be doing other things; like writing a damn article about the end of the labor union strike on Broadway for the company webpage that the boss wanted me to write (For those of you just tuning in, I am the IT Director, not a Public Relation Manager or a Journalist…) Then again, maybe I should take that as a sign that I should also be blogging more over here…

Photo by me, taken some time back. There are more pictures over at my flickr page.

Technorati Tags: Frustration, laptop, hard drive, writing, career

My iPod fell from my pocket and will boot no more. After a quick disassembly it is clear that the hard drive spindle is no longer functional. In other words, it’s fucked. Damn it. I shall by a new one soon. In the meantime, work is long as all my music is at home. but it’s still quiet around here from the holiday, so I’m just quietly working on my other website (which I will not link here as to keep my real name away from this site for privacy purposes). But I’m happy to share the link with anyone if you drop me a note.

I could should be working right now. But I really just have no motivation to. I’d rather go sit outside with a cocktail and a book that I could feign reading before drifting off to sleep. Right now it’s a gorgeous “Fall” day in Houston [No comments on REAL seasons from The Other Professor Middents]. After the typical humid summer, I’m definitively enjoy this.

Two weeks from tomorrow L & I will be married in Santa Fe, NM. I’m a mix of nervous, excited, and exhausted. I didn’t think I’d get nervous; hell I’ve done this before, right? But I strangely am. It’s not cold feet, or question whether this is right, it’s just nervousness over taking that step. And obviously the excitement needs no real explanation. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to spend the rest of my life with this woman. And as for exhausted… Fuck, I am so tired of wedding planning and minutia-level details. I just want it to be done, and get back to pre-wedding planning life. I look forward to getting back to things like trying to make something interesting out of this site, the podcast and all my other stupid projects that are simmering somewhere in the back of my brain.

I’ve been working [albeit at a snails pace] on a handful of things

• Blog research/review on mobile computing platforms
• Blog research/review on Post WEB 2.0 gateway services and productivity enhancement
• A handful of Steampunk design projects [both graphic, decor, and "invention"]
• New [And regularly posted] Podcasts
• Music Reviews
• Redesign of the wedding-soon-to-be-married web site.
• Stuff…

I’m just want to try to get back to whatever it was I use to call normal.

Anyway, I suppose I should think about building a mass email that needs to go out Wednesday for the office. Blarf.

 

 Glasvegas: Flowers and Football Tops: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (71)

Technorati Tags: Fall, wedding, WEB 2.0, Steampunk

Holy hell, I am a truly negligent blogger/podcaster.  Work and parenting have either wholly taken over my life or exhausted me to the point that words on a screen are an insurmountable undertaking.   That being said, I’ve got a great many things I intend on getting up here ASAP.  More podcasts, an entry or two.  And more importantly, the intent for more regular updates.

But not tonight.  Tonight, it’s gin and tonic and start fresh tomorrow.

I don’t really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.

And damn you too, Mr Franklin for even the notion.

Anyhow, last week was filled with last minute preparations for this decade’s Y2K of computer shenanigans, and as expected, Daylight Saving Time came around with not so much as a fart from any computer system under my authority.

That aside life has been quiet and busy.  I’d like to say that I’ve been working on the next podcast, but right now it’s just a note in my widget notepad.  but rest assured it will be coming soon enough [Though I GUARANTY it will not be this week, for reasons I'll discuss in a minute].

I did Houston’s Annual AIDS Walk again on Sunday and had a great time as always.  And the after party at my friend/former boss’ house never disappoint either.  After that is was on to see Snow Patrol @ The Verizon Wireless Theater.  I managed to finagle tickets to said sold out show with my new Live Nation connections here at the office.  Sadly, I missed 90% of the first opening band, whom I really enjoy, the Silversun Pickups.  Ok Go, was, well ok as usual.  I saw them open for Death Cab for Cutie here at my own Theater back in February, and I tried to give them a fair shot, but they’re just kind of lack luster I suppose.  Though I:

1. Have to give them points for doing a great cover of Electric Light Orchestra’s Don’t Bring me Down
2. Give credit to the fact that these guys get the whole [Noun] 2.0 aesthetic, and know how to market themselves to their audience.  Not content to be held be the reigns of traditional, you can only see/hear us on MTV/Radio bullshit, they release their stuff themselves and make it easily available.

And Snow Patrol, were, simple awesome.  Great stage presence, lots of energy; you could really tell they ENJOY doing this.  I had my lingering fear of the "Grey’s Anatomy/One Tree Hill, I’ve only heard Chasing Cars" bullshit, and don’t get me wrong, there were a fair share of those folk there.  But, to the bands credit they played a pretty even mix of older songs vs. newer songs, not content to just play the "hits".  My only [meager] complaints:

• Too much strobe.  I had to turn away and close my eyes to avoid educing a seizure more than a few times.
• The crowd SUCKED.  I pogo.  A LOT.  And the crowd just wasn’t moving AT ALL.  LAME.  Dance, bitches; enjoy yourself.

Oh well, those tiny gripes aside, I had a great time.

Now I just have to sit here and not climb through my skin for the next hour waiting for L’s plane to arrive from Florida.  She’s been gone since the end of December, and I miss her something awful.  Sadly she will only be home for about six days before heading off yet again, this time to North Carolina for another gig, but I will take the time I get.  That being said, I’m going to be largely "Off-the-Grid" this week, making the most of the time we have together this week.  Back in a few days…

Technorati Tags: time, Daylight Saving Time, AIDS Walk, Snow Patrol, Silversun Pickups, Ok Go, work, music, concert