I've added and additional artist to my Music of the Moment playlist on the right. The band is called Sanctus Real, and I think they're really talented. I've mixed em up in the playlist, so you don't have to listen to just all of the same band one song after another.
(That's of course assuming you're spending quality time here on my blog listening to music :-P )
Enjoy! (and tell me what you think). Additionally, y'all can offer suggestions as well.
To the right you'll see a posted playlist of music. I'm happy to add this feature, because music is one of my great passions. My hope is that, A) you'll enjoy the same music I enjoy, B) it might spur conversation, and C) if you really like the stuff I post, you'll end up buying the albums, which of course supports the artists I love, and then they keep making good music.
Regardless, I hope you at least enjoy it, and it will be a great way for you to see the music that is currently inspiring me. (It's not a "live" playlist, so i build it when I have new stuff to share and it stays... but it's not music I am currently physically listening to).
Anyway, I'm starting with a band called Tenth Avenue North. They are absolutely awesome! I love their music, and I just bought their album on iTunes today.
It's funny. We were just in Phoenix, AZ, and I heard them on the radio in the car. I was surprised that I vaguely recognized the song (By your side), and I fell in love. Well, now that I've purchased the album (it comes with a music video), I realize I've actually seen them in concert before!
They opened for Mercy Me at the Orange County Fairgrounds, along with David Crowder Band. Anyway, I remember I liked them then, but I wasn't blown away. Perhaps it was the venue, or the anticipation for Mercy Me to appear. Perhaps it was the noisy uninterested crowds as they filtered into the ampletheater. Whatever the reason, I missed it. Now however, I'm thoroughly hooked.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!
My mom understands that the quickest way to a man's heart... is to make one for him!
Every year my mom gives me a valentine. Every year. And Every year it is this same, awesome little heavenly ooie-gooie brownie. Some years it's a big pie, others a large heart... this year, multiple dessert portioned hearts.
You must understand, this is no ordinary brownie. This is pure love in the form of a brownie. It is the most decedent, delicious thing you'll ever witness. That's right, you just get to witness it, because I ain't sharin' with you! Hands off, punk!
Today, this brownie a little ray of sunlight, in an otherwise gloomy, rainy day.
Thanks Mom! I Love You!
This is our only office "award". You get it for doing something stupid in your code... generally it requires that you break something, but sometimes you can get it for general retardedness. When you get the Mark of Shame, you must display it boldly on your desk until someone else "earns" it... in which case you transfer ownership.
I received this "award" last Friday. It was a "bad" day, and had it actually been possible, I would have earned it twice. It actually was very sad, because I got it awhile back, and haven't had the opportunity to get rid of it. Then, I found out that last Wed. there had been a discovery (from a produced error) of a really really really bad bug that Mike (my boss) wrote quite a long time ago. So Thurs. night, I proudly handed over the award right before I left for the night.
Sadly, the next morning, I was handed it back. Apparently, Mike did a code release to Swell, and it turns out I had accidentally copied identically named images from one client project to another... effectively updating Swell's site with horrible looking images that did not go with their site.
There was another error though (a worse error), and Mike was concerned it was a bug of his. He came in later to gloat when he had discovered the problem, and that it was also mine.
Note to self: When you add debugging code into your project which breaks processes, be sure to remove it before you release it to production.
I guess this old guy's gonna keep me company for a bit longer :(
Apparently it's not that uncommon that right before someone passes away, they have a moment of awakening. A short period of time, when their bodies rally, and their ailments seem to subside or disappear, or their minds clear up and they appear attentive and focused - sometimes hours or days before their rapid decline and passing.
Wendy and I were watching our TiVo'd ER episode the other night, and there was an experience of that on the show. An old man (who incidentally was responsible for the building and development of the ER program "way back when") showed up at the ER, suffering from physical weakness, and -it turned out- dementia. Ultimately, he dies at the end, but before he does, he seems to focus in and have a moment of clarity... long enough to acknowledge the presence of a loved one, and additionally use some of his old-school doctor wizardry to save the life of a dying lady. While this is just one incident... one show... there are others, and Hollywood, it appears, is aware of this "moment of awakening".
Our family has experienced this. Roger's mother had this similar moment, where hours before she passed, her body recovered, and her health seemed to greatly "improve". A few hours later, she passed away as her body crashed. Sherri too had this same experience very recently with her mother.
I find it odd that the body does this. That right before it lets go, it struggles (and seems to succeed) so desperately for survival. Why not do this long before - way before the last decline - when the rally might actually do some good? Why does it wait until the end?
Is it merely a mechanism that God created to have a single last moment with loved ones, or at least appear to go "more comfortably" so that it becomes easier for the surviving loved ones to let go?
I only started to think more about this because I'm having a similar (while less severe) experience, personally... with myself.
I've been working non-stop now for a very very long time. It's not all bad, and I'm not complaining... it just is fact. I've gone home from "Work", only to pick up different work. I even spent the entire weekend working. It's been necessary, but still, it's exhausting.
I've been tired. I started out well, but following this last Friday night, I've hit this wall. Oh, I've gotten plenty accomplished over the weekend (A Ton actually), but my body and mind are completely wiped. Sleep has never been so welcomed, and so hard to let go. I am wasted and lethargic...
...That is, until today. Waking up was difficult, but I hit this second wind, my "moment of awakening", in much the same manner as those I've described above. My body is energetic, and my mind is completely sharp. It's as if the fog of my brain blew away in the wind we had yesterday, along with all the rain clouds. I'm functioning very well. I've rallied.
... but deep down, I can feel the exhaustion slowly eating me inside-out, consuming me in spite of my valorous efforts to feel refreshed. It's strange, but it just feels like it "settled" on my mind and muscles like dust, and if I shake to much, it will all stir up again.
So I'm bracing for the crash... but it doesn't change that I still have a lot of work left to do, and so there's no end in sight at this time.
What's my point? Not pity, no... it's all my doing anyway. No, in my clarity, I just realized the analogy fit so well with what I'm experiencing - heck, they very well might be born from the same mechanism within us - and I thought I'd share my enlightened thoughts :-P.
Regardless, I'm not looking forward to the crash... not in the least.
Mark and I had a date night last night. Yeah, we were pretty cute, wandering around Irvine Spectrum together. He was a great date. He bought me a ticket to the movies, and bought me ice cream. He didn't open my car door for me though, so that will need some work... :-P
Seriously though, we went to see Gran Turino... the movie by Clint Eastwood, starring Clint Eastwood. It was a decent enough good vs. bad guy drama. The story line, while completely predictable, was actually your average fun plot. It was made better by some of the quite humorous (and totally racist, non-pc) comments by Clint. I did actually laugh out loud at many of them.
However, while he's definitely NOTICEABLY old, and his acting wouldn't nominate him for any awards (nope... not a one), his performance was STELLAR, relative to the Acting Class 201 students that made up the entire remainder of the cast.
You read that right... the ENTIRE rest of the cast. I'm not kidding, the other acting was pathetic. Seriously. I really felt like I was watching actors in a school play who were in their first or second year of classes.
All that said though, the plot was entertaining enough to enjoy it, in spite of the pathetic cast. Additionally, Clint's grumpy old man one liners were entertaining enough, purely because grumpy old men spitting out bigoted comments is rather entertaining to me.
Anyway, save your bucks kiddo's. This is a wait for DVD (or perhaps even wait for HBO) movie.
We went down to San Diego to celebrate our friend, Daniel Arellano, who just turned 30. In the midst of our conversations, he said, "Age is just a state of mind." A comment to which I promptly replied, "That's not true."
Don't be fooled ladies and gentlemen! No matter what anyone tries to tell you to make you feel better, age is not a state of mind... as my body was so rudely made aware of 2 Friday's ago.
Age is, in fact, a state of Health.
