Routine.



Creative 002.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Tom is not happy unless he is able to get outside first thing in the morning after he has chewed six to eight pieces of kibble and spit one or two of them into his waterbowl. At nearly 15 years old, I suppose he’s allowed to do that sort of thing. He has a routine and he likes to stick to it. If his routine is broken, or it’s the weekend, he will yowl loudly at the top of the stairs as if to do a reenactment of a stabbing scene and he will awake all that choose to sleep beyond 5:30. He even compensates for Daylight Saving Time. He’s smart like that.

I guess Tom is like his Daddy in some ways, because I’m pretty rigid in my morning routine as well. Not being a morning person, the only way that I can guarantee that I will be dressed when arrive at work is if I follow my routine to the letter, which involves acknowledgement that I am actually wearing pants, a shirt and shoes. I figure the underwear and socks don’t show so while I remember to wear them 99% of the time, there is always the risk that I won’t because they don’t go under the acknowledgment check before leaving for the day.

Earl tiptoes around the house in the morning during his routine because he doesn’t know what my mood is going to be like so he opts for the “live grenade” approach. I don’t think that I’m that unreasonable in the morning as long as I’m on my routine. I will give him credit that like Tom, who is smart enough to figure out Daylight Saving Time, Earl is smart enough to figure out my sleep walking in my actual sleep versus my sleep walking through the day up until about 10:00 a.m. or so.

That last sentence makes you nervous about yesterday’s picture of me driving on Thruway on my way to work, doesn’t it.

Creative Every Day.

My first photo taken during my endeavour to be creative in some way every day. This is a mundane shot, but it is what I see every morning. Part of my commute, this shot was taken just east of the Herkimer Interchange on Interstate 90 (New York State Thruway) eastbound.

In just a few miles from this location, I will pass a Suburu with an HRC bumper sticker and a bearded ginger cub in the driver’s seat. He nods at me, I nod at him. It’s what we do every morning. I haven’t figured out how to take his photo yet.

From Creative Every Day.

Monday.

So here it is Monday afternoon already and I am basking in air conditioned comfort in the Acura in a parking lot in the J-town (the cute name for the city in which I work). My life is good, albeit rather quiet these days, though it’s moving along at a staggering pace. I don’t have a lot to bitch about these days; the job is a glorious thing and I have a settled down into a manageable routine. The social life is wonderful, though I’m not blogging and sharing as many pictures as I’d like to.

This past weekend was a long one for us, as we took a needed vacation day on Friday. The day was spent at Southwick Beach State Park with our friend scott. Southwick Beach State Park might be in Upstate New York but to me that stretch of beach along Lake Ontario is damn near heaven, whether it’s in the middle of July or in the middle of January. There is beauty to be found there and that beauty lies in the scenery, the attitude and the simplicity of it all.

I took a photo this morning on my commute to work that I plan on sharing when I get home tonight. I find it a little awkward to try to maneuver cameras and flash chips and computers whilst balancing my laptop on my belly in the Acura. I hope to take at least one picture everyday of something interesting in a mundane way. It’s part of the creative challenge I have given myself to celebrate being 42. I just need to find a better way to share it if I’m going to continue to do this internet in the Acura thing at lunch time.

Many of my contemporaries are abandoning their blogs and opting to go with the Twitter and Facebook updates instead. I have been tempted to do the same, but I don’t feel that my brain is exercised adequately when I have to express myself in less than 140 characters. It’s almost as if casual blogging has become the penmanship of the latest step of the internet age. And you know what, I have always been proud of my penmanship.

Southwick Beach State Park.



Southwick Beach State Park., originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl, Jamie and I took (or had) a day off from work today. Our friend Scott joined us for a day at Southwick Beach State Park. It was a very good day.

Quandry Technologically.

I may have mentioned a couple of thousand times on here that I am a geek through and through. I have been using computers since 1983, where I was introduced to the Apple ][+ in high school (interestingly, for French class) and promptly convinced my mother that I needed a VIC-20 for the next gift giving holiday. I have been online with an active e-mail address since 1985. I used Windows even before I was using Windows-Windows-Windows/386 (props to the person that gets that obscure Windows marketing reference).

I am a lucky man in that I have a few computers in the house. Okay, we have eleven, including the two servers and the media controllers. We are mostly a Mac shop, but I also have my two Lenovo computers, a desktop and a laptop. Both have served me well and I feel I made the right decision in buying these, however, I have alternated between running Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux on these computers because I haven’t really found the combination for the perfect fit. The geek in me says that I should be running Ubuntu Linux because real geeks run Linux and I will lose major points if I don’t follow that trend. Admittedly, my livelihood is doing the Linux (and Solaris) thing for the phone company but I still use Windows XP on my desk at work to get to the Linux servers. Though remarkable progress has been made in a very short time, I have to say that Ubuntu Linux is just not ready for the desktop for the average user. Case in point: Ubuntu Linux’s version of iTunes is called “Ubuntu One”, which debuted earlier this year. I believe they tie in with Digital 7 in the UK. The program of choice to do all this is called Rhythmbox. This combination downloads your purchases into the “cloud” so that you can access them from several computers instead of just one. Cool enough. However, because of the territorial squabbling that is going on, you can’t really sync your iPod to Rhythmbox, you definitely can’t sync a Zune to Rhythmbox and with a little bit of coaxing you might be able to sync your Droid with Rhythmbox. It should be plug and play with the most popular devices. I don’t want to go to Staples, get led into a dark room to buy the Wombat Audio Terminator Three with six LEDs and flashing earbuds in order to sync with Rhythmbox.

Another thing that drove me crazy about the Ubuntu One store is that it took three days to download one album. Three days. I could have driven to Kylie herself and had her sing into the webcam or something faster than that.

So now I’m putting Windows back on the Lenovos in an attempt to maintain a relaxed sanity when it comes to using computers outside of work hours. For the curious, I’m always relaxed at work because that’s what I do.

Now, it’s time to click NEXT.

DJ SuperCub.

I knew the chair (see previous entry) inspired me to be creative again. Last night I mixed up my first DJ SuperCub mix since the beginning of the year. I need to add a few touches to the mix and then it’ll be ready for public consumption.

In the meantime, here’s one of the songs in the mix. It’s from 2008. This is Kendi with “Connected”.

The Chair.

Earl and I are just back from a nice dinner out and a stop at Staples. My work schedule just kicked into overdrive with the onset of tonight; as the big project I was mentioning before has relegated me to the midnight shift for the rest of the week. To get my head into the right place, I have tomorrow during the day off from work, aside from a mandatory conference call.

I have mentioned before that I have a recording/creative studio in my office here at the house. This is where I make my DJ SuperCub mixes, record a commercial or two here and there and work on various other projects. One of the issues that I have had with the studio over the years is the fact that I have a stool that is too tall for the counter instead of an adjustable chair designed for the type of setup I actually have.

Tonight we bought the chair I need to bring all of it together.

IMG_1101.jpg

I have already made a video using the studio computer whilst sitting in the chair and I can already tell you that this has opened up a world of possibilities in my creativity. Sitting in a chair that is the proper height without the fear of spinning off the thing and spilling over onto the counter has helped me find my creative mojo again. The iMac is a dream to use when you’re not hunched over like you’re just back from Notre Dame. People, I feel the ergonomics!

Now, let’s see what I do with my free time tomorrow!