Unjust Thoughts

I cannot describe how horrific and hilarious this is

2008-08-09T13:54:42Z

Make sure you take a look at the photos towards the bottom.

http://www.indy.com/events/view/75129?end_date=2008-08-09&start_date=2008-08-09

Command line coolness

2008-06-03T00:46:22Z

This has got to be the coolest thing I've seen on the web in a long time:

http://goosh.org

Cool new band

2008-05-16T23:59:10Z

I just stumbled across a cool band called Glass Hammer last night. Some pretty damn good Prog Rock. Like a combo of Yes, Rush and Kings X.

Sveet.

A Poll: Pornified

2008-04-19T01:02:29Z

To all interested, I have a question:

How would you define how ‘pornified’ something is?

Another one of these annoying quizes . . .

2007-09-13T14:44:01Z

To every thing turn, turn turn . . .

2007-09-12T22:14:17Z

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Why didn't I realize this sooner???

2007-08-29T00:35:19Z

Rush rocks!

Ok, I know that just about everyone who reads my blog is rolling their eyes. But I am continually amazed that there is so much good music out there that I have passed by.

As many of you know, I an a HUGE Yes fan. Yes, is of course, the consummate Progressive Rock band. And I also love many other Prog Rock bands . Prog Rock is one of my "things", as the kids say. But for a long while Rush, another of the Prog Rock legends, has not really been a part of my listening spectrum. The reason is that many years ago when I was in middle school, when all my friends and I were just getting into Classic Rock, there was a little falling out. I discovered Yes. One of my other friends, Jeff, discovered Rush. We brought our discoveries to the group, and there was some dissension. The mainline of the group seemed to reject both, keeping with the party line of Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin. Jeff and I however, continued to pound the drums of Rush and Yes. And because of that a resentment of Rush took root withing my musical tastes.

Since then I have pretty much not paid Rush much attention. Oh how wrong I was! In recent years I have opened up to Rush a bit more, realizing the bullheadedness of my youth was completely unfounded. Last weekend hilhas1 and I went to a Rush concert here in Indy. WOW! It was freakin' awesome! Why, oh why, Lord God did I not realize this before?

So Yes, now I am also a die hard Rush fan. Jeff, if you are out there, you were right as well.

Calling all Java Programmers

2007-08-24T13:15:41Z

Does anyone out there know of any really good Java programmers in the Indianapolis area that have Spring and Hibernate experience that are looking for a job? I have a big hole in my team right now, and man, is it hard to find experienced programmers in Indy . . .

Take some time this week to get naked!

2007-07-10T03:28:22Z

This week, July 9th-15th, is Nude Recreation Week! No, it is not anything dirty, it's a week long celebration to encourage people to sit back, relax, and try life naked! Try doing something nude, from Telecommuting to work to Nude Gardening.

To find out more about Nude Recreation Week, try out the American Association for Nude Recreation or The Naturist Society websites.

Or if you are in the Chicago/Indiana area and want to go somewhere nice to relax in the sun au natural, try out the Lake O' the Woods Club.

I loved my Mac Plus . . .

2007-05-31T19:28:00Z

Just thought I'd pass on a cool article:

AMD Dual Core vs Mac Plus

It seeks to put metrics around a fact that many of us realize in the backs of our minds but don't want to admit: All the bells and whistles and coolest, latest tech hasn't really improved a damn thing. It just made everything more complicated.

Stereotypin'

2007-04-03T00:18:35Z

There is a big fat, Indiana farm bread, Basketball-talking, slack face lookin', Mormon-on-a-mission-like-dressing, buzz-cut wearing, thinking he is a wheeling-and-dealing salesman young guy sitting at the table over, trying to sell god knows what to this older guy. I've seen so many guys like him. I don't know if it is a Indiana specific breed or what, but it annoys the hell out of me.

I apologize if I have offended anyone, but the insincerity in this guy's voice is nauseating. It is as if this guy embodies the weasily salesman stereotype, but in a pure-as-manure farm-boy package.

Why is he even here? BRBP is NOT the place I'd expect his breed to go to. Eh.

Being judgmental is fun sometimes. I hate myself for it, but it is fun.

Lend me your ear while I call you a Fool

2007-03-26T01:11:12Z

The subject is a quote from a Jethro Tull song that I've had in my head for what seems like forever now. No real meaning, just think it's cool.

So ya, I havn't been posting for a while. This is primarily because of two things. One, the fact that hilhas1 very nastily broke her leg while we were in Austria and since then my primary job has been making sure she gets better, and also because all the interesting stuff I've had to say other than stuff about Austria has been about work, and as a Manager, I don't feel particularly comfortable talking about those things in a public forum where co-workers could read them.

So in this post, I'd like to expound about the work stuff. Austria has been covered by Hilary already, though I will give you my impression later. So on to work.

For me, managing people has been different. VERY different. This last year I have learned a lot, but I have so much more to learn. In my field, Enterprise Programming, I can pick up new technologies/languages/frameworks/patterns/whatever very quickly. Quicker than most people in this field apparently. I can go home, mess around on my computer with them, and go back into work an expert. The situation is VERY different with management stuff. I can't mock-manage a team of people at home. I have to make all my mistakes LIVE. On the job. UCK!!!

The short end of the stick is that I've found it takes time to learn these things. More time than I am used to. I've had a pretty intense year of Manager learning, hirings, firings, process improvements, great employees, crappy employees, pregnant employees, meetings galore and business plans to develop and be graded against. But I feel like I have only read the first chapter.

I am enjoying this. It's leaning, it's a challenge, and truthfully, it's a scary. But any learning that is scary and is a challenge is worth leaning. It means that I am pushing my borders. But I can't say it's fun. Right now there is a distinct lack of fun in my life.

Maybe it's the 'stage' of life I'm in. I'm 30, just getting into the meat of my career. I've gone through the crap of entry-level jobs. I've pursued a path upwards and have reached the next step. Stepping up is never fun. But you do it, because at least for me, being content with where I am is not an option. The day I say "I'm content with what I know now" is the day that I die. I'm just not sure what I am learning is what I really want to learn.

But the other half of my life is great! I am going to be marrying hilhas1! This doesn't scare me at all. In fact, it makes me very, very, very happy. I am enjoying living with her, planning things and just sharing my life with her. We butt heads every once and a while, but that is part of the fun. Yes, fun. The fun that I do have is at home. Wow, I guess that has gotta say something. You know, what that says now is that I need to go home.

Later.

Stylin'

2007-01-12T14:05:39Z

I'm still getting used to the short hair and trying to find a style that I like. I don't like the part down the middle, which my hair does naturally b/c of how long it was. So, I'm trying a bunch of things. Did something a bit different today and hilhas1 liked it. She took this picture and thought I should post it:

Snip, Snip

2007-01-11T13:52:38Z

gonj @ 2006-11-01T22:37:00

2006-11-01T22:37:22Z

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Northeast
The South
The Midland
Philadelphia
North Central
The West
Boston
What American accent do you have?

Self Transforming Machine Elves

2006-10-25T13:12:56Z

It's amazing the things you can learn from web comics such as Goats.com. For example, I never knew that reality as we preceive it is created by the constant dance of Machine Elves. How did I go through life for 30 years so far and never hear about this? There MUST be some sort of Government/Illuminati/Mason coverup going on here!

Manager == Cat Herder

2006-08-16T18:51:55Z

Sometimes I feel like my days are filled with herding cats. All I seem to do is go from one person to the next asking about XYZ, is XYZ done yet, if not, when is XYZ expected. The people respond with Oh XYZ isn't done yet because I've had to spend my time on EFG. And then I have to say no, no, no, we need XYZ. Of course the reason I ask people about XYZ is because there are other people asking me about XYZ, ABC, and 123. I guess Business is really just Hierarchical Cat Herding. The Fat Cat at the top herds the next group of cats below, which then herds the cats below them . . .

Getting re-addicted to LJ

2006-08-16T17:07:32Z

I think I'm getting re-addicted to LJ now. I keep on thinking "Oh! I should post that!" and so forth. We'll see how long it lasts.

Anyway, hilhas1 and I are hooked on a very, very cool BBC show that somebodystrange told us about. It's called Life On Mars. It's about a modern day Manchester cop who gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. It's got this cool "Learning from the past and the past learning from the future" thing going on. The head-cop guy and the main character go back and forth on the ethical way to police vs getting things done a lot. They also hint that the main character is actually in a coma and imagining the whole thing, which leads to some interesting internal strife. Every once and a while they mix in this creepy girl with a doll that comes out of the TV and seems to want the main character to give up fighting. Overall, a refreshing twist applied to a generally good crime show.

Oh! Another really cool thing that goes on is that the crimes that they solve always have something to do with the main character's life in modern times, so you get this sense that there is some reason he is in the past, like he's supposed to be solving these crimes to understand the present. And that of course links in to the comma thing and his own mind working his life out.

I never thought I'd ever ask for Lowes Gift cards for my birthday.

2006-08-16T16:09:18Z

hilhas1 asked me for a birthday gift list and all I said was Lowes Gift cards. Stupid house, making me wish for perfectly usefullish things for my birthday instead of things like XBox 360s or new fangled PDA phones!

Ahhhh! I am turning 30, have a house to keep up, have a career I care about, I'm saving up for a very small but very important piece of jewelry . . . Damn, I guess I'm an adult now. When did that happen?!?!?!

Playing with Style

2006-08-15T21:27:12Z

After cetan_feed pointed out something that bugged me too about "The Boxer" layout, I decided to play around with some of the other styles. Don't know if I like this one or not yet, though it's nice to see LJ added some more since I last looked. I know you can really get technical with these styles and all, and I might look into that too, but for now, I'm going to use out of the box.

ICHY ICHY ICHY

2006-08-15T19:14:07Z

So somehow I've gotten a pretty nasty case of poison ivy. I've never really had it, but I can tell you now it is not very nice. Little bits of me ich really, REALLY badly. I've actually wimpered as I've desperatly tried not scratching my skin off. So I went to the doctor, he looked at things, and gave me a perscription for Prednisone. From what I've read, it can be pretty nasty stuff too. I took my first dose this morning, and so far I've fell very on-edge and jumpy, and now I'm getting hot flashes. The hot flashes are aparently because Prednisone can increase your blood suger, and in some cases, bring on diabetes. Not to mention a whole host of other major and minor side effects. How Fun!

To be fair, the doctor did explain that things like this could happen, and that there was some risk, and did give me other options, but recommended the Prednisone. If things get worse I might have perfered the iching.

. . . then again (ich . .. ich . . . ICH), maybe not . . .

Computers in everything means BSOD could really mean death

2006-08-10T12:49:29Z

For the past couple days, every morning I've had to restart the coffee maker.

It's a fancy 'Flava' gourmet-coffee-in-a-packet coffee maker with all sorts of buttons and such, and every so often now, it crashes and needs to be restarted. This sorta freaks me out. If the coffee maker is crashing now, what else will be in the future? What other things will have embeded computers in them to make our lives easier, only to crash and have us take as much or more time to fix them as it would to do it the 'old' way?

The American Dream Of Home Ownership

2006-06-13T12:42:29Z

So hilhas1 and I will be purchasing a free-standing condo. No more renting, now those monthly payments will be going towards owning small bits of our own place each month. That's how I like to see mortgage payments anyway, that each month you can look at a floor board or a corner of a room and say 'Hey! That bit is mine now!'.

You can see some fuzzy realtor pics of the place here. Better pics should soon follow.

These things are stupid, but fun . . .

2006-05-16T13:40:17Z

gonj @ 2006-04-07T13:30:00

2006-04-07T17:46:30Z

Ganked from hannibalv:

Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death. Post this in your journal.

A brief history of September 4th:

Events
476 - Romulus Augustus, the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire, is deposed when Odoacer proclaims himself King of Italy.
1781 - Los Angeles, California, is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula (the City of Our Lady, the Queen of the Angels of the Little Portion) by a group of 44 Spanish settlers.
1957 - The Ford Motor Company introduces the Edsel

Births
1918 - Paul Harvey, American radio broadcaster
1981 - Beyoncé Knowles, American singer

Deaths
1965 - Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician and missionary, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1875