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IJG Review

Sep. 11th, 2008 10:05 am
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
There's an awesome review of The Industrial Jazz Group's Portland Gig. Check it out here.

Oh, and the John McCain song that he mentions is available on YouTube, though I can't get the exact link right now (blocked at work). Just do a search for "Industrial Jazz Group" and "McCain" and I'm sure it will come up.
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (squishing_my_head)
Having a fairly productive morning. Already installed some memory, fixed a problem for one of the Help Desk folks (thanks to my coworker Jeff), noted that the solution might work for another problem, fixed that problem, and now I'm off to install more memory. I needed a productive morning to follow last night's foul up. I managed to erase every picture in my phone - including a bunch that hadn't been backed up. I found it terribly upsetting, but at least I learned some things. I'm using Bitpim and I was mucking around with the file structure of my phone. Live and learn I guess. 

And from the stupid people file: 
(What follows is a rough approximation of a small part of my day - Dilbert Style) 

Their Guy: "Quick Matt! We need to fix this problem right away! The people involved are only free for another 15 minutes! We're on the bridge - join us as quick as possible." 

Now I'm a pretty bright dude so I figure out fairly quickly that the 'bridge' being referenced is a conference call, not a physical structure. As the people involved don't even work for Da-bank, I have no knowledge of their conference call technologies whatsoever. 

Me: "Forgive me for this - but I don't know how to access the bridge." 

Their Guy: "Oh - no problem - just call this 800 number, then enter this 7 digit passcode when prompted."

I call.

And get muzak.

For longer than it took me to type this all out. Good thing that they were in such a hurry. 

Update: Finally Their Guy came on the line and said "Oh hey - I'm going to give you two phone numbers to call Our Other Guy directly." 

He does. 

I try both numbers and get voice mail on both. I reply all to everyone involved giving my direct line (for the second time) and ask Their Other Guy to call me directly. 

I'm still waiting for that call. 

Think that I will write a new song while I'm waiting - it goes like this: "Stuuuupid peeeeeeeeople - they irritate my
braaaaaaain." 


Update 2.0:
I finally got a call from Their Other Guy. I walked him through the 5 minutes worth of work that needed doing. He's going to reboot, test, and call me back.

All I can think is "Did it really need to be that hard?" I'm in a pretty good mood though, so I'm snickering rather than pull out my few remaining precious hairs.
 
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
Wow. What an awesome weekend.

For any of you who managed to not catch [personal profile] xtingu 's weekend summary post...

Friday September 7th, 2007:
I worked a little late. Ok - maybe not worked so much. A co-worker sold me a motherboard and cpu to update my sorely antiquated home PC. It took a little work, some prayers in long dead languages and a couple of virgin sacrifices, but we got it working. The power supply, in fact, wasn't the right pin out, but my handy pocket knife explained the situation to the cabling, and now it sees the error of its ways. Now I'm able to do things like play music AND browse the web at the same time. What a concept.

After that, I swung by my place, dropped the pc off, got packed up for the weekend and headed over to see [personal profile] xtingu for a nice relaxing evening of 'chill with my girlfriend' - which is not a euphemism - it's just really good.

Saturday September 8th, 2007:
We headed up to my folks' place to celebrate my brother and my birthdays. Our middle brother and his lovely wife came down to join in the festivities. Brunch at Pickles (more on that later) and then we lost Josh, Ben, and Trina to other plans. My folks, [personal profile] xtingu , and myself headed back to the house to drop off crap and consolidate vehicles, then it was off to the Allentown Art Museum to see the Looney Tunes Exhibit.

After a delightful time at the museum (which included sitting and watching cartoons with my Mom and Pop in the 'kids section' and getting bemused looks from security guards) we headed to lunch and to do a little shopping. I needed to update a couple things in my wardrobe pretty badly and I annoyed Llij and my Mom with my efficiency in that department. To illustrate:

Step 1: Walk into the shoe store.
Step 2: Grab the first pair of shoes that I like after a quick glance.
Step 3: Try on one other size in the same 'model' shoe.
Step 4: Pay for shoes.
Step 5: There is no Step 5. Nor is there any spoon.

I did much the same thing with some other clothes, a new tie, and so forth. Since I was going to a wedding reception with [personal profile] xtingu and I both seem to really just enjoy the hell out of  'farting around' with my folks, and this was some good time with them that we don't get nearly often enough. My brothers and their significant others were sorely missed, but Ben and Trina were at a good friend's wedding and Josh doesn't get to see enough of Angie these days, so he was visiting her, so I guess we can forgive them.

Later, [personal profile] xtingu and I caught up with [profile] kar0na at The Starlite Diner (which - as a side note - is INcorrectly located on Google Maps) for some munchies. We called it a fairly early night because my Rock Star Girlfriend had a date with a recording studio on Sunday. I won't point out that I'm getting to be an old man and really like to get to sleep at a decent hour myself or anything.

Sunday September 9th, 2007:
We got up and spent a little time just nibbling muffins, drinking freshly brewed coffee, and chillin with the fam. Again - good times. The folks even brought out the photo album of my < one year old baby butt. [Insert 'Awwws' here.]

After Llij took off for her studio time, I got ready for the reception with [profile] kar0na and then headed out. We got some good hang time with good peeps at the party (which was at the Sheraton Jetport). First a couple drinks at the bar with munchies - then to the banquet hall where people with much more nimble feet than my own danced after we ate a delightful meal. And had a couple more drinks. (Don't worry kids - Yours Truly was exceedingly well behaved since I knew that I had a lot of driving ahead of me.) [profile] kar0na looked lovely, I got to meet some new folks as well as see old familiar faces, and I even got to snap a couple pics/vids. All in all? I had a pretty damn fine time.

Headed down to Delaware and more or less collapsed - only to get up entirely too soon for work since I'm 'the early guy' this week.

Ugh. Can't we go back to the weekend?
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
The weekend thus far (rather than the weekend in review- for a change):

Friday:
Immediately following work, I rode to drop off a movie and pick up (rent) the DVD collection of Brisco County Jr.. I remember it being a fun series and Bruce Campbell s kinda a personal hero. What's more, it makes better sense than full blown movies for 'workout entertainment' as they're only one hour shows each episode, so I'm not working out for a half hour or an hour and then sitting for another hour to an hour and a half.

After picking up Bruce's misadventures, I headed back to the house where I met up with [profile] lotusanddragon  . We headed over to [personal profile] shellefly  's place to pick her up and than to Philly to assist in the celebrating of [personal profile] jeremym  's birthday at North Bowl. The place rocks - there's just no two ways about it. Great music, the drinks flow, and the lanes are clean and well maintained. That's one hell of a combination.

After bowling, the rest of the gang which included [personal profile] ms_violet  , [personal profile] boutell  , and many more (whose lj names I can't recall because I suck) headed somewhere for a drink, but [profile] lotusanddragon   and I headed back to the house since he still had to pack for his trip to Japan. We did that (I kept him company while he did it really) and got a chance for the first time in a long time to just shoot the shit. It was a grand time. We even had a mini-adventure taking a quick trip to his office for some forgotten info while K-T (who doesn't have LJ) read some of the end of the last Harry Potter book to us via my cell phone's speakerphone function. Then a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee, a moment where I broke his world a little by introducing him to the 'omg shoes' video, some chill time up on the deck, and the limo service was there to take him to the airport. It really kinda felt like the perfect way to send my bro off to another country. I sacked out afterward to some long overdue sleep.

Saturday:
Saturday morning I woke late (figured I earned it) and headed to [profile] jafosmite  's concert with X-Fusion at the 100th Annual Arden Fair. I took the Yamaha, and it was a damn good thing - the place was mobbed. I managed to find a completely illegal convenient parking space, locked up the scoot, and headed straight for where I hear the boys getting ready. The show rocked hard, though there's little surprise there. It was fun watching an all new batch of folks rockin out to X-Fusion's music. I was a little disappointed by the fact that the fair closed supah early, so I only had time to do a quick 'fly through' after the show, but I'm betting that's a good thing in the long run as I need to keep all the cash I can these days.

After the fair, I headed to good ol' Barnes and Noble for some time to do some writing, screw around, and browse the newest batch of 'how to draw' books and magazines. This is something that I haven't done in a while, and I missed it. It's something that I enjoy both with friends or alone. When I'm by myself, it's almost like meditation. I can people watch, get my thoughts in order, and often be inspired. I was impressed by my ability to not buy any of the new art books/magazines. Almost, but I managed to put them back. Really, it's not like I would use them - not in any real way. Most art books are great, but they wind up being more or less inspiration sources and that's about it. While I was sitting and parusing my latest batch of books and magazines, I got a phone call from [personal profile] xtingu  . Being a spaz, I went instantly into high alert mode - she was supposed to be out on the playa, and that would mean without cell phone reception of any kind at all. She assured me that nothing was wrong but that she 'just wasn't feeling it' this year and that she was homeward bound and would keep me posted on her travel plans. She said she missed me. I'm a lucky bastard like that. I stayed at B&N pretty late and went home. Once back at the house, I started working on one of the images that I got stuck in my head while at the bookstore and when I realized that it was almost 2am I hit the sack - I had a big day coming up.

Sunday:
Woke up fairly early, but not early enough. I had planned to ride with [profile] burningkirby  , Lee (sans lj), and Ballz (also sans lj). However, as I am the planning master, I didn't have any of their phone numbers and I was having net connectivity issues (I had Ballz's street address in my email account). I did finally get connected, but the whole process delayed me enough that I got to Ballz's place about 15 minutes later than planned and I hate being the limiting factor. We made our way via back roads to [profile] burningkirby  's compound where we gathered up [profile] burningkirby   and Lee and after some very minor repairs to [profile] burningkirby  's bike, we headed out. It was the perfect morning for a ride. Cool but not cold. Bright and sunny and just... frickin... gorgeous. miles melted past under our wheels as we rolled west into PA. If I can convince Ballz to send me a copy of our route, maybe I'll post it later. What a great run. I broke the 600 mile mark since buying the Yamaha with ease.

After our ride we stopped back at [profile] burningkirby  's place and had some snackages. Then off to Lee's and then I headed back to B&N. Yes, back to B&N. I've decided that I'm a creature of habit. Once I find something I like, I tend to stick with it until I find the next thing that I like. While there I got some more stuff done both in the writing and the creativity departments.

While I was at B&N, [personal profile] xtingu   called to let me know that she had landed and asked if I could meet her at her apartment. I said sure, packed up my gear, and headed over. We arrived at almost identical times, and commenced a good old fashioned 're-connect' kind of night. We were visited albeit briefly by [profile] theseitz   who showed us his supah sexy new iPhone. We sacked out shortly thereafter.

Monday:
We woke up a bit late and had some more really amazing reconnect time. It had been a while since [personal profile] xtingu   and I had the chance to talk more than "Hi - how's the weather?" Okay - I'm exagerating, but you get the point. We'd let our 'life stuff' kinda keep us so focussed that we hadn't spent much time just talking. We'd both missed it terribly and this time (Sunday night and Monday morning) really scratched that itch.

Next, we hopped on the bike and headed up to [personal profile] swingchickie  's place for the afternoon and got some more hang time with the good peeps. [personal profile] swingchickie   and Jack, [personal profile] jeremym   (and the always awesome JD), [personal profile] boutell   and Jenny, [profile] opadit   and Steve, [personal profile] ms_violet   and Vince, and of course [personal profile] xtingu   and myself. Jack manned the grill and [personal profile] xtingu   brought some corn salsa that was muy muy yummy.

Then, of course, there were donuts.

Now, [personal profile] xtingu   and I have come back to her place, she's on the phone with her folks and I'm wrapping up what was started as a "weekend up to this post" but has become a "weekend in review".

Hope you had a weekend as awesome as mine!
mrlich: Photo with great thanks to Joe del Tufo - http://www.deltufophotography.com (Default)
The "golden hour" with live music on the Riverfront along with good friends, good food, and good drink. Not a bad Sunday night.

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