Sitting here with no ability to feel sleepy I thought I would share a few random thoughts that are just popping around in my mind…

1) WHY don’t the site archive links work!?!  I’m not sure if this an error with the template or something else with the DB.  I need to get around to fixing that.

2) I don’t have many friends but the ones I do are genuine.  I don’t need to talk to them for months, even years, and things feel natural… normal… and we have the ability to still sense what the other is feeling and know how to suppor them.  That’s a wonderful thing to have.

3) I’m so backed up on email it’s not even funny.

4) I’ve been progamming a lot for the past few days.  I really enjoy it (again). It’s funny because I HATED it when I was doing it for a career.  Now it’s enjoyable once again.

5) Love the Venture Bros.

6) On the topic of friends – I don’t care for people who claim to be your friend but do not extend you respect.

7) What seems to be with the whole “shaven head” thing celebs are doing these days?
I really, really like the current Dodge Challenger.  Sweet looking car (from the outside) but it’s a Dodge so you know there is bound to be mechanical issues.

9) I miss cooking.  Haven’t had the time and/or motivation.  I also miss yeswecook.

10) The week is dragging on and on and on.

11) I’m going to stop music production.  Time to sell the studio.  While I did a number of sweet tracking in the last 6 months I just feel like it’s run a course and time to move on….

Sleep well.

Today is Memorial Day, an touching holiday in the U.S.  Here is a little did you know – the holiday was originally started in order to honor Union soldiers who died during the Civil War.  I never knew!  Nothing like having a friend who is a college professor who’s background includes U.S. History.

Since everyone had the day off, the folks in my condo building had a BBQ.  Sure, it is raining and it is cold, but getting together was a good time. I wish that it didn’t feel like a damp fall day, but it did. The food was good (as usual) and the company was quite nice as well. It’s interesting how so many people, with such diverse backgrounds, manage to enjoy the time they spend together.  

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the concept of a media center once again. I’m thinking that a Mac Mini running Plex may be in order. 

Why Mac?

Well, Plex is a rather flexible option for individuals who wish to develop a media center because of the open source aspect.  It is true that XP/Vista have open source options, but they are not as well developed for my taste. Plus, I don’t want to use the Microsoft created Media center simply due to the freakish desire for control issues Microsoft has.  

There are also Linux open source options, but there is a wide range of issues I would need to overcome with Linux as well. Mind you, I’m not saying Linux is a bad option – I have one system running it now – but the Apple option seems to be the right fit. 

I need to do a bit more investigation into the system before I make that jump.

Speaking of media…

I still cannot believe how slow The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is.  Beautiful movie, absolute shit from an execution perspective. The performances are Oscar caliber, but the constant talking… slow as slow can be pace just kills the movie for me.

Oh.  

So, I’m working on my final track of the “Enhanced” series and everything is coming together better than I had expected.  Thus far the track is 2:30 in length and I haven’t even formed the core of the song yet. 

This an “epic” type of track in the making.  It just has the sound and feel of something that I can look back on and be very proud of.

Anyway, I’m off.

Driving in today, during the first snow of any substance here in Chicago, I really had an “ah ha” moment as I watched the wind blow the flakes over the river with the cities buildings as a backdrop.

I know this is going to sound lame, because that is exactly the reaction I had when the thought came into mind this morning, but I realized just how life and snow are alike.

A snowflake is delicate, unique, and beautiful.  From the second of its birth, said snowflake has a limited amount of time, predetermined to return to its original form.  The influences of other elements, such as the wind, provide a reminder that the snowflake has no control of the final destination; it’s simply along for the ride.  The flake can act in concert with others to become a drift or make a valiant stand on its own against the world, and either can make a significant impact.  

Snow comes, sometimes unexpectedly, and can leave just as quickly. The same can be said for the life…

Yesterday I was asked why I blog. What was my motivation to simply start documenting my thoughts? Was I attempting to monetize my blogging experience, was I trying to seek attention, was I doing it for fun or was there some other master plan I secretly had in mind but was not yet ready to unleash on the world?

Frankly, there is no hidden motive.

It started out by me simply wanting to document my state of mind as time moves on. I have found that, for some reason, the act of blogging gives me a release… much like an escape from stress. If there a topic is on my mind I have the ability to simply get it out.

I also wanted to use the site as a method of keeping in touch with my family and friends. While the rest of the world may or may not have a strong desire to know what is going on in my world, there are a few people who do. What better what to keep them informed than simply pointing them over here?

A major unintended benefit to the experience has been the ability to log things that are of interest to me, above and beyond the thoughts that seem to be rolling around in my head. I find a good track, I post it. Cool video, post it. A news article that catches my interest, you got it… post it. This affords me the ability to simply head over to the blog when I am looking for something and easily find it. I think of it almost like the “bookmarking” function within a browser.

Ultimately, the experience is for me and my needs but If someone along the way happens to gain enjoyment, all the better!

One of my long held views in life can summed up by this simple saying “Right and wrong are just words, what matters is what you do”. This saying has implications that would challenge the beliefs and views of people.

There will be a highly charged group of people that, without a doubt, right and wrong is the truth, the highest priority. Right and wrong tell this set of people what do to in their view of life. How to act and it also sets the tone for how they view other people.

The next set of individuals would say the action doesn’t matter; the result does not matter, as long as the person performing the “right” action, the person is “right”

Personally, I believe the action an individual undertakes could be the “right” thing to do even though the action(s) the individual does is seen universally as “bad”. Going against your family for what you stand for, for what you believe in… to live your life for yourself would be right (for you) but piss off a whole host of other people.

During the great depression, people faced this question all the time. Grab milk from a cow while the farmer wasn’t watching, take an extra bread roll from the soup line, and lie about your ability in order to get a job. Where they right or wrong?

All these actions were wrong by society’s standard, but I view them to be right as they were trying protecting their families in situations of few to no means.

Ok, let’s take a hard one – was Hitler wrong?

I think most people will flat out say “yes”, he was wrong for the horrors of WW2 and the pain he inflicted on the Jewish people.

I can’t honestly answer this question when I view it from the perspective of “what is really important is what you do”. Why? I was not apart of that culture; I did not share the beliefs of the time. Maybe they were doing the “right” thing in that situation.

Having 30 years of knowledge and a number of family members in the military during that point, I can – in my view of reality as it is today – what he / they did was wrong.

Finally – can a good person switch to become a  bad person (and vice versa) because of the influence of another? To me, this all comes down to the concept of free will. I have the ability to make decisions for myself and, as such, I am accountable for my actions. Some people may try to avoid the accountability that comes with their actions, but it is still there.

Basically put, a human can be the most loving animal or the most dangerous animal in a matter of seconds.

2008 is moving by with a speed unlike any other year previous for me. 

In just nine short months so many events have taken place, much to the surprise of about everyone involved.  I switched jobs, I found my best friend from high school, I married my best friend – not once but twice – I have been experiencing a lasting and annoying medical issue that never seems to leave. I witnessed the birth of a beautiful child and a true emotional response of a new father. I hit 31 but still desire to be 21 and I saw special members of my family but not the entire east coast clan.

I sit here, realizing it’s the first day of October, I wonder what the next three months will bring…More constant action which leads to stress or a low-keyed, easy going, three month? 

With the holiday season just around the corner I have a feel I know which possibility it will be.  Regardless of which, I just hope the health issue gets better, not worse. 

I took a nap this evening because I wasn’t feeling too well. It was a simple matter of needing to sleep it off, not that it totally worked in my favor. Anyway, a number of things…

1. Due to a four hour nap I didn’t get to working on the things I wanted to this evening, more specifically, working on the studio
2. I really don’t want to sit in a 5 hour meeting tomorrow
3. My Dell Laptop, the one that is the workhorse of my studio, seems to have suffered a major crash. This is not a good thing for countless reasons.
4. My cat Bender is on my bad side right now – I cannot stand him

All that said, I have the Venture Brothers to keep my company for another 20 minutes. Thank god for that.

UPDATE

For the love of all thing holy, it looks like there is an error on the boot sector of the laptop. This is not going to be fun to fix.

UPDATE 2

I am sleepy but I’ve managed to get past the boot error and into safe mode. It looks a system restore of some type will be an option.

UPDATE 3

Woo hoo, it’s back!