Two weekends ago we played at Twiggs. We apparently gave the booking agent a near-heart attack when we showed up ready to fully rock instead of being an acuostic group, but we DID get to play, even though earlier in the day the booking agent had forgotten he'd booked us back in August for that night.
We played fine and the small crowd consisting of our friends was appreciative and we were happy.
We played last night at Dreamstreet in Ocean Beach. The only people there were Cash's wife and the journalism intern who is writing a story about various bands in San Diego and has followed us aroud a little bit and two of her friends. I played like crap and wa unhgappy afterwards.
Playing original music sucks.
On a lighter note I'm getting ready to remodel and upgrade my kitchen.
Friday, October 28, 2005
Sunday, October 2, 2005
Band Stuff
I spent most of the Saturday of Labor Day weekend in a recording studio putting down basic tracks for three new songs Cash has written. The following Sunday (September 11) we played a gig with remnants of the Motorola band with Kevin on drums that ended up being a pretty nice gig.
The next day I left for Italy.
Upon my return last Sunday I had a few days off and then went into the studio again to re-do some bass lines (since the drums had been Beat Doctored) for four hours on Wednesday night.
Rehearsal today for our gig this Wednesday, Oct 5.
The next day I left for Italy.
Upon my return last Sunday I had a few days off and then went into the studio again to re-do some bass lines (since the drums had been Beat Doctored) for four hours on Wednesday night.
Rehearsal today for our gig this Wednesday, Oct 5.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Hot Monkey Love Cafe
Christopher Cash played at the Hot Monkey Love Cafe Friday night. We played really well but there was little to no crowd there, unfortunately.
Afterwards we went to Denny's to talk about the band. We made some guidelines about gigging and rehearsing and everyoen was satisfied, I think.
In other news it turs out my art.com gallery has been reasonably popular; I have sold over two dozen images out of it; "Colosseum at Dusk" is th most popular followed closely by one of the B&W surfer shots.
Afterwards we went to Denny's to talk about the band. We made some guidelines about gigging and rehearsing and everyoen was satisfied, I think.
In other news it turs out my art.com gallery has been reasonably popular; I have sold over two dozen images out of it; "Colosseum at Dusk" is th most popular followed closely by one of the B&W surfer shots.
Sunday, August 7, 2005
Two Gigs in One Night
Last night both of my bands played. Christopher Cash played for an hour from 8 to 9 roughly and then Spurious Emissions played from 9 to 11. Roughly. Very roughly.
A few weeks earlier two of the Spurious guys called the "production company" to get the scoop on the stage set up and to get an idea of what to expect and what we'd need to bring. It sounded very good on paper - 3500 W sound system, lots of monitors and a light show. They had a sound guy and a stage hand and so we figured that'd be great.
Both bands tend to have a lot of gear; Cash switches off between acoustic and electric guitar regularly and we have two keyboards and 4 vocal mikes. Spurious has a similar set up plus we wanted all the amps mic'ed. The sound guys were swamped with work and their gear wasn't reliable; we had to delay a long time. Spurious went on 45 minutes after our scheduled time due to technical problems at their end and our monitor system was very hit and miss.
It was also very hot; I soaked through both shirts I wore and I'll need to get them into dry cleaning first thing Monday morning.
Both bands played OK but I'd like to get that night back.
A few weeks earlier two of the Spurious guys called the "production company" to get the scoop on the stage set up and to get an idea of what to expect and what we'd need to bring. It sounded very good on paper - 3500 W sound system, lots of monitors and a light show. They had a sound guy and a stage hand and so we figured that'd be great.
Both bands tend to have a lot of gear; Cash switches off between acoustic and electric guitar regularly and we have two keyboards and 4 vocal mikes. Spurious has a similar set up plus we wanted all the amps mic'ed. The sound guys were swamped with work and their gear wasn't reliable; we had to delay a long time. Spurious went on 45 minutes after our scheduled time due to technical problems at their end and our monitor system was very hit and miss.
It was also very hot; I soaked through both shirts I wore and I'll need to get them into dry cleaning first thing Monday morning.
Both bands played OK but I'd like to get that night back.
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and Me
I was 8 years old, sitting in front of my family's black and white Zenith TV in our little pre-War era SoCal bungalow 36 years ago, watching an event that would set the course for my life. I was watching Neil Armstrong bunny hop down those few rungs on that spindly-legged LEM and then screw up his line, "That's one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind."
Good going, Neil. Without the (a) your quote makes no sense.
Anyway, it was right then I decided I really did like science and math and doing cool stuff with my chemistry set; I wasn't sure before then. Watching that incredible feat I knew that I'd like to be a part of that, too, someday. So, I ended up going to university and getting two engineering degrees eventually. I've applied my interest in science, math and engineering to problems of aircraft flight, satellite control, radio communications and network design as well as software and circuit design.
And then, later, I applied my incredible brainpower to pointing and laughing at conservatives.
Back in the early/mid 90's I went to Orlando, FL for a business trip and ended up staying the weekend. I killed a day visiting KSC at the Cape. I took the tour of the facility; we were in one of those moon buggy-looking busses. At one point we went into a large hangar building and witnessed a semi-silly recreation of the Apollo 11 launch, complete with Mission Control consoles. As we heard the Flight Controller tick off the subsystems and get the response from the engineer in charge of those ("Flight controls?" "Go!" "Fuel?" Go!") the lights on the consoles would light up green. The video projected on the screen showed the Saturn V with a tiny little Command Module on top with three guys in it waiting to light the candle and go to the moon.
The countdown continued and then off it went, as I knew it would.
"Lift off, we have lift off of Apollo 11!"
The room lights came up and everyone shuffled out. Except me; I stood against the rail looking at everything for a while. The moon buggy bus driver finally came up to me (a good ol' boy from Florida) and said, "Whadja think o that?"
I looked at him for moment and said slowly, "That was great!" "That is why I am who I am."
"Yeah, I hear that a lot," was his thoughtful reply.
I followed him out to the buggy, got back on, and finished the tour, but I didn't really pay much attention to what was said. I was back in the living room of that little house we lived in, sitting on the floor watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
Good going, Neil. Without the (a) your quote makes no sense.
Anyway, it was right then I decided I really did like science and math and doing cool stuff with my chemistry set; I wasn't sure before then. Watching that incredible feat I knew that I'd like to be a part of that, too, someday. So, I ended up going to university and getting two engineering degrees eventually. I've applied my interest in science, math and engineering to problems of aircraft flight, satellite control, radio communications and network design as well as software and circuit design.
And then, later, I applied my incredible brainpower to pointing and laughing at conservatives.
Back in the early/mid 90's I went to Orlando, FL for a business trip and ended up staying the weekend. I killed a day visiting KSC at the Cape. I took the tour of the facility; we were in one of those moon buggy-looking busses. At one point we went into a large hangar building and witnessed a semi-silly recreation of the Apollo 11 launch, complete with Mission Control consoles. As we heard the Flight Controller tick off the subsystems and get the response from the engineer in charge of those ("Flight controls?" "Go!" "Fuel?" Go!") the lights on the consoles would light up green. The video projected on the screen showed the Saturn V with a tiny little Command Module on top with three guys in it waiting to light the candle and go to the moon.
The countdown continued and then off it went, as I knew it would.
"Lift off, we have lift off of Apollo 11!"
The room lights came up and everyone shuffled out. Except me; I stood against the rail looking at everything for a while. The moon buggy bus driver finally came up to me (a good ol' boy from Florida) and said, "Whadja think o that?"
I looked at him for moment and said slowly, "That was great!" "That is why I am who I am."
"Yeah, I hear that a lot," was his thoughtful reply.
I followed him out to the buggy, got back on, and finished the tour, but I didn't really pay much attention to what was said. I was back in the living room of that little house we lived in, sitting on the floor watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The Four Types of People
Some of you may not believe this, but I have, in the past and maybe someday in the future, actually been responsible for other people, budget and schedule for product development. As a result of that Apocalyptic situation, I have become very wise in the ways of managing people and so I will pass some of this wisdom on to you. Casting pearls before swine, as it were.
And remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Think about it.
Today's lesson is "The Four Kinds of People."
There are four kinds of people in this world. Yes, there are. Just four. Everyone you knew, know and will possibly know in the future can be categorized into one of these four types. Normally I'd draw this as a matrix but since I can't really do that with this medium we call "the internets" ((c) 2004 George W Bush) I'll just 'splain it to you using "words."
The four kinds of people are:
1) Smart-Smart
b) Smart-Stupid
iii) Stupid-Stupid
4) Stupid-Smart
It breaks down like this: people who are smart and know they are smart are smart-smart, people who are smart but think they are stupid are smart-stupid, people who are stupid and know they are stupid are stupid stupid and people who think they are smart but are actually stupid are, you guessed it, stupid smart.
I claim that of the four types, the first three are desirable. You can get useful work out of all three of those. Smart-Smart types are a handful but they ARE smart after all and you want some smart guys around. Smart-Stupid are the types who you have to encourage and bring along but they always come through for you. Stupid stupid people can also be trusted to execute on their tasks.
It's the stupid-smart types that do all the damage in a group or, God forbid they move up the ladder, to a division or an entire company. As a manager you will spend 75% of your time trying to keep the stupid-smarts from causing anything more than the minimal damage. You want to lay off stupid-smarts even though your upper management thinks you should lay off the stupid-stupids. Good luck with that one. Hell, good luck with all of it.
To help you identify the four types, I'll give some examples. Steve Jobs is a Smart-Smart. So is Bill Gates. Carly Fiorina is stupid-smart. Paris Hilton I'm thinking is a stupid-stupid. Most celebrities, though, are stupid-smart.
I'd like you to look around your office, store, neighborhood and decide who fits into which category.
And remember, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. Think about it.
Today's lesson is "The Four Kinds of People."
There are four kinds of people in this world. Yes, there are. Just four. Everyone you knew, know and will possibly know in the future can be categorized into one of these four types. Normally I'd draw this as a matrix but since I can't really do that with this medium we call "the internets" ((c) 2004 George W Bush) I'll just 'splain it to you using "words."
The four kinds of people are:
1) Smart-Smart
b) Smart-Stupid
iii) Stupid-Stupid
4) Stupid-Smart
It breaks down like this: people who are smart and know they are smart are smart-smart, people who are smart but think they are stupid are smart-stupid, people who are stupid and know they are stupid are stupid stupid and people who think they are smart but are actually stupid are, you guessed it, stupid smart.
I claim that of the four types, the first three are desirable. You can get useful work out of all three of those. Smart-Smart types are a handful but they ARE smart after all and you want some smart guys around. Smart-Stupid are the types who you have to encourage and bring along but they always come through for you. Stupid stupid people can also be trusted to execute on their tasks.
It's the stupid-smart types that do all the damage in a group or, God forbid they move up the ladder, to a division or an entire company. As a manager you will spend 75% of your time trying to keep the stupid-smarts from causing anything more than the minimal damage. You want to lay off stupid-smarts even though your upper management thinks you should lay off the stupid-stupids. Good luck with that one. Hell, good luck with all of it.
To help you identify the four types, I'll give some examples. Steve Jobs is a Smart-Smart. So is Bill Gates. Carly Fiorina is stupid-smart. Paris Hilton I'm thinking is a stupid-stupid. Most celebrities, though, are stupid-smart.
I'd like you to look around your office, store, neighborhood and decide who fits into which category.
Thursday, June 9, 2005
Laundramat Encounters
Laudromat Encounters
(Note: This is something I wrote for the amuselment of the folks I hang around with at a politics and culture web discussion board.)
Saturday I had to venture out and do something I hate to do; interact with the public. This is because, as most of you know, I hate people.
This time it was to launder my duvet. I have a large capacity washer that allows me to launder everything else (note to environmental chicks; it's one of those high efficiency washers that uses less water and electricity. Note to Republican chicks; it cost a LOT more than a regular washer). It can handle my king-size sheets easily, but the duvet is just too much.
So, I reluctantly left my heavily fortified hill-top compound, being careful to avoid eye-contact with my neighbors as I left and drove to the local coin laundry, where they have those big giant machines that will do a heavy-duty load for $3.25 (which is 1 Euro dollar or 579025341 Canuckistani rupees).
I was in luck; there were only a few people there when I arrived and none of the big machines (located in the back of the place) were being used. I loaded my duvet into one and then went to one of the side-by-side the change machines, located in the from of the store. Where all the people were.
The first dollar bill (also called a "note" by you Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans and Canadians) was being a little reluctant in its desire to be shoved into the changer slot; this gave one of the other customers there an opportunity to interact with me.
Crap.
This guy was wearing shorts, a t shirt, a trucker cap and wrap-around "American Chopper" label dark mirrored lens sunglasses. He commented, "Yeah, I hate it when the machine won't take my money."
Fair enough, a reasonable "small talk" type of comment.
"Oh, it'll go in a second..." I responded and sure enough, my "l337 haxor sk1llz" managed to make the bill ("note") get shoved into the machine and four quarters drop out the bottom. Like magic. Fuckin' magic.
So, is that enough for my "American Chopper" shaded friend? No. Not by a long shot. He then proceeded to tell me all about how "pretty soon" we'll all be using credit cards for everything "and the government will be tracking every move we make!" OK, you know what? That's actually a reasonable comment, too and something we all discussed back when the "Real ID" law passed here in the US and everyone was all afraid that having an actual ID to, you know, ID yourself was "bad."
So, I decided to engage this obviously deeply intellekshul individual to see just how far I could take this conversation.
"Yeah, you'll have one card for ID, passport, credit and debit cards."
He lit up. He'd found a kindred soul, someone who had thought about this nearly as much as he had.
"Oh yeah. And then they're gonna put a chip in your neck, man. The Indians (Alan's note: this confused me. The Cleveland Indians?) in Silicon Valley (I lived in Silicon Valley, I don't recall a lot of Native Americans there) are developing a chip that tracks you man. The government's gonna put it in every immigrant and track them and then it'll explode and kill them if they stay too l0ong. They're doing this, man!"
Seriously. That guy actually was saying this to me. I thought, "Dude, you've confused Escape From New York with real life. Who the fuck do you think you are, Snake Pliskin?"
So, I quickly but politely (because Snake Pliskin carried a big assed knife and so maybe this guy did, too) excused myself to go back to my $3.25 (1 Euro dollar or 579025341 Canuckistani rupees) machine and launder my duvet.
Later, I saw my new friend leave; he packed up his laundry and put it in his car - a beat up old compact station wagon emblazoned with "Bush/Cheney 2004" and "W 04" stickers.
So, Bushbots, this guy? He's all yours.
(Note: This is something I wrote for the amuselment of the folks I hang around with at a politics and culture web discussion board.)
Saturday I had to venture out and do something I hate to do; interact with the public. This is because, as most of you know, I hate people.
This time it was to launder my duvet. I have a large capacity washer that allows me to launder everything else (note to environmental chicks; it's one of those high efficiency washers that uses less water and electricity. Note to Republican chicks; it cost a LOT more than a regular washer). It can handle my king-size sheets easily, but the duvet is just too much.
So, I reluctantly left my heavily fortified hill-top compound, being careful to avoid eye-contact with my neighbors as I left and drove to the local coin laundry, where they have those big giant machines that will do a heavy-duty load for $3.25 (which is 1 Euro dollar or 579025341 Canuckistani rupees).
I was in luck; there were only a few people there when I arrived and none of the big machines (located in the back of the place) were being used. I loaded my duvet into one and then went to one of the side-by-side the change machines, located in the from of the store. Where all the people were.
The first dollar bill (also called a "note" by you Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, South Africans and Canadians) was being a little reluctant in its desire to be shoved into the changer slot; this gave one of the other customers there an opportunity to interact with me.
Crap.
This guy was wearing shorts, a t shirt, a trucker cap and wrap-around "American Chopper" label dark mirrored lens sunglasses. He commented, "Yeah, I hate it when the machine won't take my money."
Fair enough, a reasonable "small talk" type of comment.
"Oh, it'll go in a second..." I responded and sure enough, my "l337 haxor sk1llz" managed to make the bill ("note") get shoved into the machine and four quarters drop out the bottom. Like magic. Fuckin' magic.
So, is that enough for my "American Chopper" shaded friend? No. Not by a long shot. He then proceeded to tell me all about how "pretty soon" we'll all be using credit cards for everything "and the government will be tracking every move we make!" OK, you know what? That's actually a reasonable comment, too and something we all discussed back when the "Real ID" law passed here in the US and everyone was all afraid that having an actual ID to, you know, ID yourself was "bad."
So, I decided to engage this obviously deeply intellekshul individual to see just how far I could take this conversation.
"Yeah, you'll have one card for ID, passport, credit and debit cards."
He lit up. He'd found a kindred soul, someone who had thought about this nearly as much as he had.
"Oh yeah. And then they're gonna put a chip in your neck, man. The Indians (Alan's note: this confused me. The Cleveland Indians?) in Silicon Valley (I lived in Silicon Valley, I don't recall a lot of Native Americans there) are developing a chip that tracks you man. The government's gonna put it in every immigrant and track them and then it'll explode and kill them if they stay too l0ong. They're doing this, man!"
Seriously. That guy actually was saying this to me. I thought, "Dude, you've confused Escape From New York with real life. Who the fuck do you think you are, Snake Pliskin?"
So, I quickly but politely (because Snake Pliskin carried a big assed knife and so maybe this guy did, too) excused myself to go back to my $3.25 (1 Euro dollar or 579025341 Canuckistani rupees) machine and launder my duvet.
Later, I saw my new friend leave; he packed up his laundry and put it in his car - a beat up old compact station wagon emblazoned with "Bush/Cheney 2004" and "W 04" stickers.
So, Bushbots, this guy? He's all yours.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Lots of Gigs This Summer
We have at least a gig a month from May to October. Should be fun!
May 13 - Poway Summer Festival
June - Mot BCS Backyard BBQ
July 23 - Olivenhain party
August 6 - Ramona Street fair
September 11 - Poway Athletic Assocition Opening Day Ceremonies
October - User Conference show (maybe)
Wedge the Lake Arrowhead Beatles Night thing August 27 plus vacation after the September Poway show and it's a full summer!
May 13 - Poway Summer Festival
June - Mot BCS Backyard BBQ
July 23 - Olivenhain party
August 6 - Ramona Street fair
September 11 - Poway Athletic Assocition Opening Day Ceremonies
October - User Conference show (maybe)
Wedge the Lake Arrowhead Beatles Night thing August 27 plus vacation after the September Poway show and it's a full summer!
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
My brother and I are unhappy with the escrow company our RE agent likes to use.
They suffer from Junk Fee Syndrome in our opinion and they are not very organized. Also, today, they announced that we have to pay them with a cashier's check "drawn on a California bank" (whatever that is). This, quite frankly, is bullshit. We felt perfectly justified in writing a check out of our LLC account.
As I put it to Paul, we are planning on doing regular business with all of these folks (agent, mortgage broker, insurance, escrow) and I expect a little consideration.
Some examples:
The escrow people send things out in dribs and drabs; a report approval here, a few days later another approval. FOr a while they were sending a form both of us had to sign to both of us at my address. We had to complain to our RE agent about that and then they sent things to both of us.
They refunded me $5K with the idea that I turn it right around and give it back to them (it's complicated). So, what did they do? They put it in the mail on Thursday, it arrived at my house on Friday, but they were closed Sat, closed Sun, closed Monday and we are scheduled to go in there tomorrow (Thursday) at noon to sign off. So, what was accomplished with that? Nada.
So, tomorrow we are putting our collective foot down and telling them that all future transactions will be with APK Properties LLC exclusively; no more "Alan and Paul" except as officers of APK. And we expect that a check from our company is acceptable just as we are supposed to accept a check from them.
We're in business. If I wanted to do things as private individuals we wouldn't have spent the $$ to LLC and open a business account, etc.
I came home tonight and put together a "bill" to the escrow company to present to them to make my point (as a joke). It has things like "report processing fee" and "report coordination fee" and "report delivery fee" plus I charge them $500 for a "non-standard payment method."
They suffer from Junk Fee Syndrome in our opinion and they are not very organized. Also, today, they announced that we have to pay them with a cashier's check "drawn on a California bank" (whatever that is). This, quite frankly, is bullshit. We felt perfectly justified in writing a check out of our LLC account.
As I put it to Paul, we are planning on doing regular business with all of these folks (agent, mortgage broker, insurance, escrow) and I expect a little consideration.
Some examples:
The escrow people send things out in dribs and drabs; a report approval here, a few days later another approval. FOr a while they were sending a form both of us had to sign to both of us at my address. We had to complain to our RE agent about that and then they sent things to both of us.
They refunded me $5K with the idea that I turn it right around and give it back to them (it's complicated). So, what did they do? They put it in the mail on Thursday, it arrived at my house on Friday, but they were closed Sat, closed Sun, closed Monday and we are scheduled to go in there tomorrow (Thursday) at noon to sign off. So, what was accomplished with that? Nada.
So, tomorrow we are putting our collective foot down and telling them that all future transactions will be with APK Properties LLC exclusively; no more "Alan and Paul" except as officers of APK. And we expect that a check from our company is acceptable just as we are supposed to accept a check from them.
We're in business. If I wanted to do things as private individuals we wouldn't have spent the $$ to LLC and open a business account, etc.
I came home tonight and put together a "bill" to the escrow company to present to them to make my point (as a joke). It has things like "report processing fee" and "report coordination fee" and "report delivery fee" plus I charge them $500 for a "non-standard payment method."
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