Tiny Bubbles in the Wine, Make Me Happy, Make Me Feel Fine

Everyone knows it as the place just above Waco where you stop and get kolaches and other Czech pastries, but on labor day weekend, it's home to the Westfest. Personally I know the Czech Stop as a place to grab a Red Bull and gas on the way home from concerts in Dallas. Once we had to pick my English buddy Neil up from the Dallas airport, and while driving thru Waco, he said in his British accent 'Holy Shit Mate, this is Waco, is this where the Branch Davidians did their thing.' Indeed it is.

This celebration is just as fun as the Wurstfest, nope, that's not the god bless America red, white and blue in the tent, that's the colors of the Czech Flag.

There were many activities in which i partook for the evening, one of them being an authentic Czech clothing catwalk, in which I actually got to meet Ms. Czech Texas!

Jeannie let 'the husband' go to the event, which was great, considering I drank 5 tall boys of Coors (beer strong enough for a man, made for a woman).

Kyle had an excellent time on the evening, eating cotton candy, checking out the petting zoo, and riding the mini montana rusa, one that I myself would probably be scared to go on!

I enjoyed myself so much, I actually think I'll be heading back next year, situated on gently rolling hills, authentic food and beer and outfits, and don't forget the polkas.

And for the record, my brother Ronnie did make that accordion smoke.

Somewhere beyond the sea, Somewhere waitin’ for Me

Until one of the three pirates call and offer me a job galavanting around the world while the authorities play wack-a-mole with them, the perils of finding an overseas job have left me exhausted. YES, that job does require travel! (by the way, I don't advocate pirating music, but I do love to download a live concert or two every now and then for nostalgias sake, and until the pearl jam system of buying a copy of every live concert they've ever done is available, good luck with the shins releasing the epic performance at the hollywood bowl for retail.)

I'm not looking for a job selling currywurst on the side of the street, I'm looking for a job that can offer a standard of living that allows me to travel once I'm there. Here's some of the challenges I've faced thus far.

1. DOD -- Department of Defense, for a company to run this check to get you 'top secret' clearance, a mere 45,000 USD. You ain't gettin' my a$$ out there for bootcamp, and being trained to see the world, meet people, kill em' type mentality, or even to support such a mentality.
2. Foreign Language -- I have conversational German skill....Ummm, no I can't read a technical contract, no I don't know how to say 'federated identity' in German....ummm, but I'm eager to learn?
3. Visa -- Working for a Germany organization, wish it was as easy to get a work visa as it is to get a Visa / Mastercard, but unfortunately this isn't the case.
4. Skillsets -- I'm a developer, you can write code anywhere, to get user requirements for a system, do project management, or write functional specifications, back to the foreign language thing -- that's the only value added items that require co-location.
5. Resumix -- So many turdbuckets (I'm one of em') apply for these monster and usajobs type postings, that a shitty resume keyword reader scans your keywords and 'matches' you with the job posting. I'm not to the point where I want to have 17 different versions of the resume roaming around.

I suppose if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything, and I still have my mind on it, however my current job makes me happy (If you believe that, you will also believe that Nickelback is the greatest rock band of ALL TIME.)

There's a Soul Out There That's Yours To Find, Set your Spirit Free

Things are boring these days, good boring, but the restless spirit is ready to jump out. The great thing about being single is that I'm getting all my selfishness out.

Little Sister to Sister 7 to Patrice Pike to getting kicked off 'Rockstar Supernova.' Hmmm, I wonder what....wonder what perry farrell would think of dave navarro, tommy lee and metallicock dude don't really count. I remember listening to Little Sister back in college, before the sellout, and yet another sellout to be on rockstar.

Needless to say, none of those wannabe's can match the beautifully bizarre moves of Jane's Addiction, a beautiful freak who has done a lot for music. Damn I just love it when Flea wears a dress!

Taking a page out of the Nixon's book, or Leap of Faith's book, the answer to 'when is it going to rain' question was answered today. Woke up, and holy shit, it was raining, so obviously I avoided the rain.

What's occupying my airwaves is the brilliant ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA, did everyone know he was the 5th Travelling Wilbury, and he (Jeff Lynn) produced the two latest Beatles songs, obviously the ones without John Lennon. Not to mention they made amazing vidoes for the time. Also noteworthy is duke special, charlotte gainsbourg and --- well, that's about it.

This weekend I'm excited for two reasons....

1 ---- The West Fest, a big Czech festival in the town of west, where my brother will be tearing up the accordian....can you tear up an accordian?

2 ---- The doc's engagement part, and plenty of doctails...here's to fat beer bellies all over the world!

September is going to be a very blogworthy month, lots of interesting and exciting events!

Burning Every Bridge that I Cross, To Find Some Beautiful Place to Get Lost

Today I'm finding it difficult to blog about the stuff in life that's actually important. As the Diz and I remembered 'the good ol days,' it inspired me to sit back and write about what it means to be an idealist and an individualist in this world, and how the world needs more of these people. (yea, I'm a self-centered ass blog post)

In the midst of the highs and lows of life, in the middle of typical growing pains, etc, the question I pose to idealists is 'when do you anchor', and accept 'love' as 'love,' and progress as a human being. There are times when life has been shaken and stirred, and it's not the time to run and hide, but rather the time to offer moral support to those in need.

I've come to figure out my definition of true friendship. True friendship means accept Robert as Robert, Billy Bob as Billy Bob, and Betty Sue as Betty Sue, friendship is a two way street, as long as you give and receive support, there isn't anything to criticize a person for, it's just knowing the person, and accepting them for who they are, and understanding that people have flaws, and they shouldn't be judged for these flaws, but rather to be supportive to friends who have flaws and are trying to work thru them.

As it all unfolds, all you fine people, know that I'm there for support, and I applaud the courage and bravery of people who take the hard road.

Drunk on Dreams I'm Glad I Didn't Say Out Loud

The annual 'Keep Austin Weird' festival today, where tons of people run the 5k, and then listen to bands on Auditorium Shores. I don't know about how I feel about the mass commercialization of keeping my town weird. This years festival was brilliant, for as the sun went down, the weather was beautiful. This year the everything was for the benefit of the Austin Music Foundation.

No marquee bands, but still a great time, and the city backdrop was beautiful. It's amazing was a great feeling you have when you are somewhere you haven't been in a long time. Here's 'Mr I can get in anywhere with all these wristbands.'

Austin is getting this flame twirlers in by the dozens it seems, stunning visuals as dusk that no camera can capture to its fullest.

Ashley and her hula hooping friend did their part to keep Austin weird, dressing up as fairy people, or something like that.

Nice to also see Jenny K and Jamie C at the last minute. Yea, Mike D and I were the stinky ones in the Gingerman, and there's no way the 'fine people' at 219 would have let us in the doors.

Laughing Like Children, Living Like Lovers, Rolling Like Thunder Under the Covers

post pending

Who Got the Love, Who Got the Fresh-E-Freshy, Who Got the Only Sweetest Thing in the World

First time for everything and this is the first blog posting coming from a MAC! Yippie, I feel cool just being able to type on one.

There's a few things I REALLY like about the MAC, for one, they have the volume controls figured out, one source controls everything, Itunes, the speakers, the works. Damn can't Gates figure that out yet? Also the 'side click' is a pretty cool feature, and the built in camera is cool. Can't you see I was very enthusiastic at work today?

For the record, our agency website looks like shit in safari.

It's a Major Minor Detail, On a Misty Morning M Train

Get small, think big --

It's fascinating the wealth of knowledge out here on the Internet, and how it is ever so slowly changing how things are done.

Everyone is entitled to the same information, it's really up to you what you decide to digest. I've been reading Mark Cuban's blog and also Seth Godin, both offering a wealth of knowledge and insight and flow of ideas. Amazing, these people aren't scared of people ripping off their ideas, and the next worthless chain of command you have to deal with at your job, seek safety in these courageous types that aren't afraid to let the information flow. Who better to learn from than someone who's 'made it.'

Amazing that you can now watch videos given by speakers at Google, in which I'm sure Google has spent amazing amounts of money to have these experts give speeches, having billions of dollars comes generosity I suppose. It's quite a bit more captivating and convenient than your local public library.

Speaking of other things, Berkeley does webcasts of courses, and Jimmy R shows you all kinds of goodies you can get for free on the web.

As the world changes, ever so slowly, as it right sizes, I can only hope to prepare myself for future opportunities, and perish the thought position little Roberts or little Roberta's with a level or equal playing field in the next generation.

All the information is out there, just gotta know where to look, grab and embrace.

Wild Geese that Fly with the Moon Their Wings

Tonight, a bike ride of monumental proportions. The isolated back roads from Shiner to Sweet Home, in the pitch black wilderness. I would have snapped some pictures, but alas they would have all been black. All totalled about 23 miles, Bob and I plan on the 'extreme' bike rides, so when BASH actually comes along, we are going to go, wow, this is easy.

Here's some of the challenges we encountered...

1. It's the semi same route the locals take while consuming beer, yea, having a few beers and driving home. Therefore our mere flashlight seemed like nothing for trucks coming around the corner in the pitch black on a one lane highway.
2. Yea, we encountered a few dogs, luckily Bob can bark like a mean dog and it scared the other dogs away
3. You can hear coyotes, but Bob says they Coyotes are more afraid of us than we are of them.
4. At one point there was something in the ditch that was following us, but we could see, so we just dropped down a gear and high tailed it out of there.
5. We stumble on a party out in the middle of nowhere, we think about crashing and grabbing a beer for the way home, but opted out.

red cans

Performance, not really my cup of tea, but in one of these little red cans lurks my friend Ashley. I went on the 'pay as you wish day' Thursday, The 'Odd Center' off East 7th, the performance surely does its part to 'keep Austin weird.'

I met the director dudes at an earlier sitting, nice enough folks. In fact, the tall one was at the door greeting everyone, he was looking a mix between homeless and special, and I didn't recognize him because he was wearing a wig. Little did I know his little dog too in fact would be a star of the play.

The physical aspect of this show is noteworthy, these small people stuff themselves into cans, and hop around the stage in the dark, I suppose that in itself is challenging.

Since no words, everything is interpretative, since I'm more analytical than artsy, a lot of times I didn't get it, but many times, as people were laughing in the audience, more often than not, the show 'made me feel bad inside,' that was my interpretation.

Since it's the last weekend, I'm not going to spoil anything by saying that the cans seem to kill each other, and themselves as well. See that big one, it tears the sh*t out of the little ones, it morphs, it wiggles around, it changes ownership, all while the little cans are fighting, killing, and throwing the 'dead' bodies into a tiny cage (4 people stuffed into this thing at the end.)

The little critters even steal shoes from the audience, that was my favorite part of the play, when the cans got in a circle and had a 'shoe dance' or something like this.

What does it all mean? Has society gone to hell and it makes human live in red cans, and the environment can't sustain human life outside the can? Do humans evolve from red cans? Is it survival of the fittest? Who knows? Kudos Ashley, you did good, I enjoyed it --- 7 out of 10.

It's Easy to See, To See Only White Where Colour Should Be

Life and business, and how it applies to programming, specifically two types of programming, structured and service oriented. I used to do structured programming (a life doomed to hell) with dudes named Joe, Jim and Bill (they called me Bob) who were all over age 50, then object / service oriented (still a life doomed to hell). I'm stressing there is a time and a place for both, it all depends on where you fall in the spectrum.

They are vastly different techniques, and I do generalize, but hey let's shoot for a nice balance between attention span, quasi informative post, and perhaps some lame abstractions and analogies that will probably make everyone confused.

Structured Programming / Life -- Sees light at the end of the code. Life as a COBOL programmer consisted of 4 environments, writing a shitload of code to create a report with groupings, it almost felt like writing a book....ever see code like this "write detail line after advancing one line"....well it exists. it's really boring shit, but it gets the job done. There are structured people everywhere fighting the good fight keeping the systems of the world running, they are what make the world go round, however, not very flexible, scalable, interoperable, or efficient.

Service Oriented Programming / Life -- Seeing a broad pallet of color. It says grab some stuff from here, grab some from here, whoeva does it better, let's do it that way. Understanding the true meaning and benefit of inheritance is the key to this style, and surely applies to life. It means taking those tidbits of life that you know are gems, allow them to flow thru you, and the better you get at this, you become more efficient and effective in life, because you serve as a conduit for great ideas. As the ideas pass thru you, stuff sticks, therefore making you a better person as well as all others who use the service. It's fast, effective and efficient.

The American Dream...how does it work, is it better to be structured or service oriented. It depends on your interpretation of what the American Dream is, but its harder to get rich without hard work. The days of a shitty techie getting paid assloads of money to write code are over, and they should be, and I'm glad for society the industry is finally 'right sized' (even though I would have liked to been around a bit earlier to exploit my piece of the pie). The structured approach doesn't lend itself well to creativity and thinking outside the box, but the potential to painfully move up the ladder is there. The service approach, you find very few making things so damn efficient, competition suffers. What it takes (if you don't have a shitload of capital) is a dedicated group of people, usually a few great management types, a few great visionary types, and a few great techie types who trust each other.

The other way is to not have a conscious, don't feel bad about charging extra money for every bit of information that comes thru the pipe. You have to have to have the balance between the gold ol' boy mentality (the boyscout), and the person who has the fuck net neutrality, let's put a meter on it and charge for every data packet on the web. Unfortunately (hahaha), I have 'nice' friends that don't have the exploitative mentality, even if the service provided benefits all parties involved.

Until the next paradigm, the days of getting rich by scaring people that computers will blow up, or trying to confuse them or bullshit them are over......... (damn).

Remember When We Used to Talk About Bustin Out, We' Break Their Hearts, Together, Forever!

A RARE weekend, Robert is in a genuinely good mood, and no it wasn't snowing, far from it as Manuelabor, Lacinator, and Fatboy without the Slim went out to the Ft Worth Stockyards. The highlight of the weekend was the drive to Sherlocks, Dallas, when we had Bon Jovi's 'Never Say Goodbye' jammin on the Monsoon system at the stoplights, you know, cool kids have to jam the f*ck out of their radios. Manuel, were you a bit embarrassed, what do you mean???? You didn't feel COOL?!?!?!

Learned a lot about Ft Worth this weekend, I've always have had respect for the city, its got great aesthetic value to it everywhere you look, but I didn't know it was 'the stock market of the south' when the cattle trades went on, etc.

Manuelabor wants to snap a picture, instead he drops my camera 1 story down on this metal roof. The camera stood there, we looked at it for 5 minutes, and then came up with a plan to get it down. This here picture shows me giving Manuel the 'dammit Manuel' look.

Look at the cowboy and cowgirl, gotta love it, I guess the one in the white is supposed to be the good cowboy and the one in the black hat is supposed to be the bad one.

Manuel trying to pick out the 'perfect hat'.

I think I look good as a bubba, maybe I should trade in my rock and roll lifestyle and become a bubba somewhere out on a farm.

Later Chris and Sheda Riveda came out and we had some brews, the Stella was hurting my belly, so we had to resort to something that was 'less filling and tastes great.' Yea I look sad in that picture, but I was having a great time. O by the way, I travel light these days, and that blue shirt is turning into my 'weekend shirt.'

An interesting scenario here. More often than not, there is a building or two or ten being imploded in Ft. Worth. They are now doing something more extravagant, they are supposed to flood this valley, and make and 'island' in the middle of the city, for the rich people to have condos. GREAT IDEA!!! ---hmmmmm.....

Here's Manuel posing in front of his surname. I'm thinking some dude is going to come out and say in his best gangsta Spanish voice "Look man I'm going to cut you if you don't get off my property."

A Manuel in jail shot, look how sad the poor dude looks, I told him, what you you had to stay there all the time, I'd come visit you every 3 or 4 months, and I'd brink you a cake with a file in it.

Lacy and Manuel, a great couple (for me to poop on --- hahahha)

Last but not least, the 'cow maze', kinda like the ones made of bushes, but this one was made of wood, something in which the cows were be ushered thru, now the human use it for cruel torture, lets pay 5 bucks and get ourselves lost in the 105 degree heat....thanks but no thanks!

DFW times are great, thanks for the great time John, M and L and the gang. Have a lovely week!

Don't Let Them Sell You Impossible Dreams, Don't be a Slave to the Beauty Regime

Songs come along that just 'touch the heart,' that are so real and so true, so positive and inspiring, so genuine and caring, songs that make you think 'the good guy will win', good beats evil, and one day people will be self actualized, and that people are on your side and willing to help.

Wow, what a run-on sentence, but you get the point, this one does it for me. Lyrics as flawless, but if you'd hear it, the general consensus would be "That shit ain't got a beat" --


The Beauty Regime
---------------------
Beat stress and rebalance your life
Make those dreams come true
Impress all your colleagues and friends
With the brand new you
So many lives condemned for no need
'Cause people don't buy the right magazine
Take a look in the mirror and see
Exactly how worthless you are
In a rut? Can't get out? Don't know why?
It's time to make that change
Cover up all the pain in your life
With our new product range
So please don't feel blue - let us show you how
To talk yourself into a good mood right now
Feeling sad is no longer allowed
No matter how worthless you are
And if your life depresses you
Just live it through your favourite movie star
Beat stress and rebalance your life
All you need to do
Is forget all the useless advice
And live your life for you
Don't let them sell you impossible dreams
Don't be a slave to the beauty regime
Look again in the mirror and see
Exactly how perfect you are

Ten Days of Perfect Tunes, The Colors Red and Blue

10 'whatevas' for the blog, random stuff, what's been occupying my thoughts and mind

10 -- Clipmarks.com, my new favorite website, lets you see numerous articles on how vile Dick Cheney is, lets you cross reference by the person who posts, you can see what's 'popular', etc. a great way to organize clippings.

9 -- Reading more of Friedman's stuff about the flat world, seems like more responsibility is falling to individuals. All this 'crazy stuff' going on in the world, if you can derive one good thing from it all is that it is making people aware, in the future, more and more people will be informed, therefore more responsible, conscious minds, possibly making it able to find more lasting solutions, no nukes no nukes!

8 -- what's jammin' in the cd player, Jose Gonzalez, Mando Diao, Divine Comedy, lots of German stuff and ummmm, billy joel and elton john?

7 -- picking your battles -- asimov believes in psycho-history (don't know if I'm spelling right) -- that the movements of one is irrelevant, the movement of masses means everything -- if you look around, and if you don't see a fly in the ointment, then YOU are that fly, find another place to shit, I mean sit.

6 -- backyards and practical life is stellar, like Ms Crow says, the good people of the world are washing their cars on their lunch breaks, hosing and scrubbing the best the can in their skirts and suits (or something like that)

5 -- Kids -- Can't really articulate, but I already understand how wonderful it must be to have 'some' of your own, adorable creatures they are, but not anytime soon.

4 -- Mantra -- It's nice to have people thinking about you, and 'praying' for you, etc -- i acknowledge there are 'good vibrations' that are sent to and fro, just haven't figured out the 'central processing unit'

3 -- Ethics -- what a crock of shit to try to teach someone this, I hate reading about this, some type A will read this shit put out in books, get questions 'right', meaning repeating what is spoon fed to you in a book. You either got it or don't, ain't no teachin' it.

2 -- Politics -- Vote for Kinky, he's great, incumbents could face stiff scrutiny from the populous who are tired of all this bullshit, hopefully that's the new trend, or 'coolness', as the world becomes more aware, as blogs become more and more trustworthy and uncensored than organized media, more and more common sense will be factored in to these brilliant minds running the world, thus retooling and rethinking, eliminating meaningless bickering amongst parties.

1 -- Down in Dallas, the neon light from the building, lets you know you're home -- This weekend going to hang out with manuelabor, haven't seen the chap in a long time, In addition, the lacinator, Erin, Erin, John, John, maybe Chris Riveda. I know the dives, and we are going dive right in.

Sorry folks, can't blog about 'partying' anymore, I'm miles away from the action, so as I just lay boring opinions out on the table, the blog stats are like the slinky going down the stairs. My niece, sister, and numerous friends say, 'Robert your blog is boring now, I don't read it anymore.'

Maybe you'll see some drunk Robert shots this weekend, and maybe sooner or later you'll be able to see some Robert in Deutschland pictures.

Till then, bis spater

Well I'm the Guy Who Never Learned to Dance, Never Even Got One Second Glance

The human element is often amusing and tragic, wicked, and confusing. I suppose the best 'shield' for these events is being aware. For the strong it's irony, for the weak it's cynicism, but however the case, we all in some way shape or form are a victim of circumstance, some can be controlled, some can't.

Mixing studying and blogging, I'm going to examine the human life cycle in parallel to the 5 project management process groups, and as I'm typing, hopefully I'll gain some insight of what can be controlled, and what is harder to control for reasons of, that's where I'm from, or this is who I am, so on and so on.

------------
Initiating
------------

Life begins, you're given the name chosen by your parents, I would have preferably got a one syllable name that rolls off the tongue, but I'm content. You learn how your limbs work, how to talk, how to eat, how to play with blocks, develop your senses, etc, but for the most part you are subject to what 'business objectives' are prescribed by your parents. You're in the world weather you like it or not, I'd say this lasts till around age 5 or 6 until organized education comes along.

-----------
Planning
-----------

Planning takes on many iterations, obviously, and 'executing' (what comes next) go hand and hand in these iterations, while you’re planning something, 'life' is what's being executed. Kinda like that slogan life happens while you are busy making other plans. Here, you work out your communication plan, decide which things YOU are interested in, you process inputs, outputs, tools and techniques and constantly 're-baseline' your life if you 'accept the change.' Re-baselining means adjusting timelines, costs, life scope, quality, risk averse-ness and other things. You figure out your thresholds, understand your strengths, threats, opportunities and weaknesses, and you carry yourself over the horizon into the brave new world, or ....not.

Planning involves breaking shit into small work chunks, WBS in the project world, thin slicing as Tipping Point guy would say. It involves having goals, deliverables, performance measures, and other that other stuff that involves practical vision (which to me is defining 'the work and only the work') needed to be done to get where you need to be.

--------------
Executing
--------------

As you execute your plans, you keep in mind assumptions and constraints. If you need a mate to be by your side to function, factor that in as a constraint, and understand there are ‘opportunity costs’ (can’t do this while I’m doing that). If you're Mr. struggling for motivation, factor in the possibility of opportunities that would facilitate constant brilliance, instead of 'spurts of brilliance.' Our British brothers fought the war for the free modern world back in the day, fighting the good fight, down on their luck (it's tough, yea it's tough), and when 'reinforcement' comes, the 'project win WWII' is able to be fast tracked and crashed, moral is up, and good risk, or opportunities occur. So, if you plan for problems, they don't own you, if good luck and opportunity find you but you weren't expecting it, your challenges are all of a sudden shaking in their Nike's, or Reebox's, or whatever.

Getr' Done, as the stereotypical Texan would say, this doesn't include sleeping on the job, 'gold plating', making excuses....the precursors are simple, have a plan and follow it.

----------------------------
Monitoring and Controlling
----------------------------

This is where you constantly evaluate what's going on in your life, and make corrective measures if your performance measures are swaying too much from your baselines. It also involves accessing risk and opportunity. If the "I'm being a lazy ass" meter is high and in the red, if the 'man this isn't getting me anywhere meter' is high, etc --- figure out corrective measures or follow contingency plans. For me this means, biding my time, like the running back that gets the ball handed to him, he's got to 'wait for the hole to form', same here, why hop to the next lily pad till you have a rock solid plan. Some have scolded me, saying that I’m rotting away at this hell hole, and my simple response is, and I quote "I'm not hopping to the next lily pad, It's more like Neo jumping to the next building," and that takes careful planning, and flawless execution, not to mention a big set of cajones.

---------------
Closing
---------------

Haven't thought about this one, but the inevitable 'closing' is when your worm food or ashes, whatever you wish, or your loved ones wish. If you take consideration for the rest of the process groups, and you somewhat follow this methodology, it really doesn't matter 'when the end comes,' for you've lived a fulfilled life to the extent of what you could do, or dream, working your talents against your weaknesses and constraints.

-------------
Closing statements -- Many 'music philosophers' have talked about 'the dance' and how it represents life. Life's a dance you learn as you go, sometimes you lead sometimes you follow......I could have missed the pain, but I'd a had to miss the dance.......etc.

Personally I don't really like the analogy, I was / am an awkward kid, I don’t dance, but I'm bouncin' thru life pretty good, and the best is yet to come.

And there ain't no nothing we can't Love each other Through

Sorry family and friends for the lame Family Ties reference and double negative, but I do love you guys, and the fact that we are all so different and still get along is, for the lack of a better word, awesome.

First pic, Brad, Josh and Corey and Mr Army shorts. Amazing how better it feels playing baseball when you didn't have 22 bud lights the night before. Tomorrow my back will hurt, not to mention this big throbbing blister on my hand from swinging the bat with the boys.

Then there's the Tran Clan, Alissa, Ayden, Krysi and Al. These little ones are yes, my great niece and nephew. Thru the day Al told me of the dangers of going to Baghdad and probably said it wasn't in my best interest, no matter what the money was. But it seems anywhere I went that has a TCP/IP internet connection I'd be just fine.

The men of the family had the traditional polka fest outside, while my brothas played trumpets and accordian. The 'crowd favorite' is always, 'In Heaven there is no beer.'

Gavin, who plays around in the dirt all day is always ready to pose for the camera. There's a lot of dirt around, considering our reunion is where the FFA has their livestock show every year.

Strange, this year the 'insiders' (people who hang out on the inside) play Bunko instead of Bingo, and Grant, the little dude at the far end is playing, and 'bless his heart', the dude starts losing and starts weeping, it was a trip, 'homeboy' takes his Bunko seriously I suppose.

Other items of note, brotha Derwin's 72 corvette is fully restored, and now he's got a 69 camaro, damn what a man!

Painting my Room in a Colorful Way, and When My Mind is Wandering, There I will Go

Fixing a Hole is right. The 'main event' for the day for Bob wasn't the 20 miles on the bike, but the adventure after the bike ride.

Since in many ways I'm 'Princess Robert', I ask, 'Bob, can you dig this hole for my mailbox?'. Bob says, sure, it'll only take 30 minutes. So here's Bob slavin' away with a post hole digger while I offer moral support.

All fine and dandy until Bob hits the unmarked shit pipe, and contrary to popular movies, shit didn't fly up everywhere, but we could smell it.

Shit happens, In the course of it all I got a nice tan on my bald head.

Later that evening, I eat with the family, drink a few beers while geeking out at Antiques, Art, Beer, and then retire on the couch watching Tango and Cash. Brother in law asks what I did the next day, I tell him, and his rebuttal is, "Damn, that's pathetic." ---whateva

Every Dog Must Have His Every Day, Every Drunk Must Have His Drink

Pre-family reunion weekend brings the 'partying' faction of the family to Howard's place in Shiner. Here are my second cousins (John, Justin, Jamie) and I. Nevermind all those beer bottles, must have been someone elses....?

Then there's the uncles from 'that part' of the family, Douglas and Donnie, lots of fun hanging out with these folks, I tried to get them wound up, and see where the conversation goes, I usually succeed and the conversation goes to some interesting and wonderful places, I suppose it's what makes the world go round.

Hats off to Justin (Wheelo) with his new $45,000 pick em up truck.....ummm, damn Wheelo, does that thing give head for that much???? --hahahaha

The Stars that we Follow Can Lead Us Astray...I'll Plough my own Furrow, I'll Go my own Way

A sign of age is the 'advice' you give to people. Nowadays the only advice I give to people can be summed up in one sure fire sentence. Be honest with yourself, and do whatever truly makes you happy in life, but make decisions for yourself, for only you have to wake up and be yourself in the morning. Bad George Bush grammar and Mike Brady preaching aside, its gonna be one of those wordy pointless blog entries.

I'm rockin the suburbs, they say wherever you go, there you are, and these burbs aren't bad. Sure I'd love to be a downtown boy right now, and for the long haul, but until I find a sugar mamma, or at least become a DINK, that ain't gonna happen. There's some cool stuff out here, cept my running trail right now is along Gattis School Road, feels like I'm about to get run over every second of my trek. I enjoy watering the grass, and my whole life I've wanted one of these sprinklers, just so I could watch it crawl across the yard. I've been eating some strange shit lately since the family is in Florida. Last night I made a big ass tuna patty, with some crumbled crackers, ketsup, and a few eggs to keep all that shit together. It sounds nasty but is actually pretty good.

Suburban friends are different from urban friends in refreshing ways. No they're not as 'cool', but they are cool in a different sort of way, better priorities, and they seem to have a much clearer mind (and strangely enough, not because they are turned off), most being settled.

That's enough defense on the burbs, don't get me wrong, when I start making some bucks....Inner city shanty with great local....here I come.

I've had plenty time to jam the guitar lately, been learning a lot of Shins tunes, Billy Bragg, Chris Isaak (as if I don't play that shit enough), and others, just browse the directory and see where it stops. Spin the bottle Internet tab searching style. Catching up with the overhead of life too, the VDub is squeaky clean, its refreshing to look at NADA, and even with 60k on it, its valued at about 20k. Word of advice, get a car with some bling, and it doesn't depreciate as fast.

Landing contracts to do work, and then collaboration with a group to get the work done. I think this is what I'm going to be doing in the future, my 'where do I want to be in 5 years' plan. Hard work, people you know (or the other word that rhymes with know) will get you 20% of the contract if it lands in 'the system.' Then all you have to do is do the work. Sounds like not too hard, and a win win model, the key is trust. It's amazing the lack of trust in the modern world, and I'm confident with trust it will all work.

PMP Shizzz -- yea the studying will commence again next week, hardcore. Books that I don't like reading are a pain in the a$$. I suppose this time I should actually READ the PMBOK instead of looking at the pictures.

Stay tuned for another fun and adventure filled weekend in Shinertown. I'm going to post some pictures of Bob and I Saturday, as we break the 15 mile mark again, look for sunburnt bald head and pasty white legs! Damn, with that combo, just can't keep the birds (british slang for chicks) off me! ---hahaha

Hottie Burns Hair Off Robert's Chest

Sittin' in at my hair appointment is always interesting, I always seem to make a new friend. This time is was, man I can't think of her name, but another 'hot' one, as she prods me with the laser for an hour in a half, we talk about all sorts of stuff, and at the end she goes, 'wow you're a fun person.'

Typical questions include ----

....ummm, So, seen any movies lately?
....ummm, Did you watch Oprah yesterday?
....ummm, Are you a beach person or a mountain person?
....ummm, Do you believe in miracles?

Always so bubbly and happy, I can't seem to break it to them that I'm the one of the more cynical f*cks on the planet, so I just go with the easy topics, don't bring up anything that someone doesn't understand, and it will keep conversation flowing freely and win friends, not great friends, just friends.

When the Lights Go Down in the City, and The Sun Shines on the Bay

I'm white trash rich today, but after the bills are paid, the carriage turns back to a pumpkin. A night out on the town with my cousin the football coach was great, as downtown was riddled with 'Welcome Coaches' signs everywhere.

You see, my cuz Donnie loves this girl to no end, and she seems to be interested in him, and its a very....ummm,......for lack of a better word 'cute' thing to see, for I know him as being football coach and teaching meatheads how to tackle people and things like that.

Donnie was telling me about the Def Leppard / Journey concert he went to a few weeks back, how Journey is on their 3rd lead singer, and how the show kicked a$$. I recall the first time I heard "Lights," riding around with my brother as a young kid, going f*ck me -- these dudes are amazing! While I was 8ish, I then had my ears tuned to Wheel in the Sky, Faithfully, Open Arms....the hits go on, and I even bought the Journey Escape video game for the Atari, which was 26 bucks, a lot of money back in the day, but I 'played it till my fingers bled' -- dodging the falling guitars, drums and pianos, etc.

Well the Stella was right on track for Don, we had a great night catching up with family gossip, Mike D probably was hanging out going "Huh" half the time as we talked about the cool people, the weird people, and all the others.

This weekend I have a family reunion, and to keep the blogs flowing, I'll blog in detail about funny family stuff later, It's not too hard to come up with content! ---hahaha

As Dreamers We'd Scream All the Songs, Break in the Windows, Burn All the Documents

A blog a day keeps the demons away. A free form blog today, we'll see where it goes.

Lots of Ed Harcourt references today, he's surfaced amongst my friends, as the Joshmeister asks me where I can get a copy of the Snug album. I said damn that's a tough one, I got it from a friend who's friends with the bass player's brother.

30 -- I'll be turning the big 30 in September, and I insist we do something meaningful and off the beaten path for my 30 year old balls. So Ashley suggests camping out, and I'm like, that sounds like a great idea, and I also have to paint a picture of how I feel at age 30, Ash is gonna hook that up. I got to pick where we camp and it's looking like this place Apache Pass is home to a biker get together on my birthday weekend, with a performance from Rick Derringer. That's some entertainment! hahaha -- If you look at the venue, you will be standing in the water in front of the stage, should be interesting.

Constant Cognition -- I'm reading about this sh*t and I think its something I'm 'blessed' with. Means basically you can't turn your mind off, you think a lot of random stuff, and you're not able to really excel at any one thing. Well the mind is alway churnin', but its like Timmy's big 4x4 truck in 4-Low spinnin' in a big hole. Inspiration will eventually pull all this randomness together I think.

Lots of friends are getting Married these days, congrats to all you folks. I'll take a piece from Love Actually, my favorite chick flick of all time, that says, love doesn't really make the headlines, but it's everywhere all the time, and its significant to those who are living it. I've decided to find a bride here, that one chick on the left looks really hot.

The pickle says it best in the picture in my inbox this morning. I'd put a link to his blog, but he's lazy and doesn't blog anymore. Turdboy didn't even call me from the Flaming Lips / Ween show on Saturday to give me a listen to Baby Bitch or Mr Would You Please Help My Pony. O well. Just send Condi over to take care of it tweedle dee and tweedle dumb say.

Quotes, about the two things most searched for on the Internet, sex and UFO's --- and the words that generate most ad revenue......college loans...


“Don't have sex man. It leads to kissing and pretty soon you have to start talking to them.”
--Steve Martin

“That's an act, that's a frying pan, that's a stove, you're an alcoholic! Dude, I'm tripping right now, and I still see that that's a fucking egg, alright? I see the UFO's around it, but that's a goddamn egg in the middle. There's a hobbit eating it, but goddammit that hobbit's eating a fucking egg! He's on a unicorn. But, no, th-th-th-that's a fucking egg. How dare you have a wino tell me not to do drugs!”
--Bill Hicks

“Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant”
-- PT Barnum

-----------------------------------
As dreamers we'd scream all the songs
That we'd known all our lives off the roofs of the city bankers
Break in the windows, burn all the documents
Rich daddy's boys...
Rich daddy's boys!

Excerpt from 'You Only Call Me When You're Drunk' -- Ed H.

See Jim Light His Management, And Watch Dan Lose His Tournament

The morning of what just happened here turned into a day of sleeping till 6pm, whew haven't done that in a long while.

Body can't handle hanging out with youngsters anymore, someone said that when you're around 30 you can't take being 'hardcore' anymore, I'm going to have to tend to agree, however this old pops can outlast most of these young souls on a night of 'partying.'

Problem is, you don't get too much out of it, if you hang out with people who speak their mind, conversation is free flow already, but I can see how the booze gets the typical happy hour crews going.....this never ceases to blow my mind.

Yea, I got loaded, no I got more loaded, man I drank this this and this....O yea, well I drank this and this too!

It gets you in trouble too, crazy things happen ...as AJ would say 'Under the Influence,' things that you can't take back, things that aren't status quo (more often than not a bad connotation), and sometimes you just have a look around and if you in the 'right place' and go golly, it's not what the world has come to, but rather, I'm too old for this sh*t.

Enough rambling about booze, the typical pub, good people good banter is where it's at, but drinking for the sake of drinking and getting drunk, damn it's pretty passe.

Now Every Once In a While, There's a Crack in my Smile, Dark Voices are Talkin' to me, Dark Voices they Tell me the Way

A strange evening, started with watching Permanent Record, A Violent Femmes concert and music video collection, pick it up if you have some extra money laying around and you won't be disappointed! I remember Bevis and Butthead loved the 'Breakin' Up' video, and I'm right there lovin' it with them.

Beast, Neeka, Crystal and I stay up hardcore boozin' till the wee morning hours. You see these days with trips to Germany and 600 dollar tests, I'm broke, I'm drinkin' what's available, so this means kegorator beer with the nephew, then to mixed drinks with friends, then to wine with some oldies, then back to some beast Captain Morgan.

Somewhere in there we went to Moulton Jamboree, saw some crazy redneck sh*t, I recall dancing and getting too dizy and had to quit, then back to beasts place. Nights ends somewhere in the vicinity of 5am, beast passes out on the floor, Neeka in the recliner, and I left and forgot to bring my shoes, beast would wake up the next morning and say "What the hell happenend last night....I remember watching Ben Folds, and that was it" --- whew

Not for the weak at heart, a video of 'Country Death Song', by them Femmes.

One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This

A nice evening downtown Austin, first in a long time, Rolando comes from LA, and we meet up with Ashley and the crew.

Ashley and her friend, doing their part to keep Austin weird, by hula hooping in the middle of the street and wearing some crazy stuff.

Roland is now becoming a steady here in Austin it seems, as his tradition is to land at the airport, send a text that says 'whateva austin' --- and then on his departure the text is 'whateva austin -- lata.'

You Tube surfing continues, listen to this man's voice, simply amazing.

Use Every Chance You've Been Given

Round One goes to PMI --- Yea, no ego crusher, I just underestimated the difficulty of the test. What's another 400 bucks to retake in a few months, in the perspective of it all.

Worse part about failing a test like that is everything in the past few years that has troubled you comes bubbling up to the surface, bad friend episodes, bad love episodes, bad decisions you've made in life, you know, all that sorta stuff.

Head back to the house, sis and are are GLUED to the TV, as 'The Notebook' (Google search link #1), a chick flick some teeny bopper told me to check out a few years back, and I scoffed at the idea, but the premise of the movie is spectacular, especially if you've ever dealt with similiar circumstances.

Anyway, heavy rotation of Sondre Lerche and the faces down quartet, no use crying over spilled milk, the new album is wonderful, its jazzy, but not that jazzy, more like pop jazz or something like that, that's what I expect out of jazz until I'm old and mature enough to appreciate more of the 'real thing'.

Just Talk and Make Plans in the Dark, Or Make Haste with Ideas that Can't Help But Creep Good People Out

Hopefully I'll get a nod or wink from the Gods. If I don't pass, I'll know why, I know what I'm weak on, If I pass, I'll be at Crown and Anchor tomorrow night getting blitzed.

Let's talk about what's conventional....Study for months and months, a balanced concerted effort, phased learning and all that jazz. Let's talk about Robert study methods, f*ck off for the six months during class, slackin' not putting in the due diligence, taking two 4 hour practice tests back to back two days before the test, and not a day of rest before the test, but rather giving the first good look at the ITTO's for the nine knowledge areas. You see, there's about 1,200 ITTO's, well I remember the cliff notes version eloquently knowns as 'Ritas Process Chart.' So we'll see if that will work. If I'm to pass, its due to my skill in calculating earned value, standard deviation, cost and schedule variances (I'm good at that sh*t).

So I'm sitting here, watching Armageddon with my sis, (who's seen it about a thousand times and quoting what Steve Buschemi says before he says it), my 'down time.' It's like the athlete before the 'big game,' I've got a puckered b*tthole, nervous as all hell, etc....but hey when it all comes down to it, its a mere 400 bucks to retest.

Tomorrow, 10.30 AM I'll be sitting in some crusty testing center, probably with some crusty headphones on, Red Bull and Skor bar, and hopefully when the battle is over and the dust settles, I'll click the 'finish' button, it'll say I pass and I'm certified, and I can be a happy dude and then focus efforts on finding the job of my dreams.

No guts no glory, balls to the wall, Carpe Diem, however you want to see it.......or...tomorrow is another day. Regardless, send good vibes my way, the entropy may help me get a question or two more right.

my predictions
65% -- Pass
35% -- Fail

-------------------------------------
"Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!"

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe Dimaggio

Acronym overload, can't memorize anymore, my feeble little brain is about to explode. All you pray'ers out there, let the praying begin.

One of those boring pictureless posts, but hey, everything lately has been slipping by the wayside in preparation for the test Thursday. I covered my bad points this weekend and worked on my 'brain dump,' which is the material you frantically write down during your brief tutorial on how to take the test. As it stands in my head now, I feel there is a 70% chance I'll pass it, a 30% chance I'll be pissed off and go back to the drawing board.

There has been a lot of interesting stuff going on as of late, just don't know how to present it on the blogosphere, but rest assured, if I pass the test on Thursday, I'll be posting pictures of me blitzed in some pub with buddies in celebration.

As I drove back to Austin today, I realize I have the hillbilly / slop-och gene in me, as I walked into the convenient store with dress shoes on, no socks, swimming trunks, and some crusty old shirt I'd worn the majority of the weekend. Call me Mr. Casual I suppose.

Topics I've not blogged about because I don't have time to really think them thru, but have been the topic of conversation with friends lately is.....How selfish and lazy people are these days, especially the youth, seems as if parents have raised kids good, now they are lazy in return, the topic of socialized and privatized medicine has come up many times on the basketball court while playing horse in the burbs......of course the Iraq stuff I think about a lot, and how it seems very hard to find identity in this country, democrats don't seem to have the figurative 'balls' to stand up for anything, Newt could be the next PUSA (President of the USA)>> --- Maybe its good that I don't blog about heavy stuff, just keep that shit light and fluffy.

Job hunting will hopefully aggressively commence Friday with the passing of the exam. My inner self is still telling me something big and bold is on the horizon, and I'm looking forward to a change of pace whatever it is. I believe that to be the motivating factor in my life. I've always wanted to learn German, if I move over there, fall in love with a German chick, that's the ultimate motivating factor for learning the language I suppose.

If I do get a fat raise at a new job, I've vouched to send my mamma and brother on a cruise of some sorts. I really don't want to go, for I'd be sitting in the 'boat Internet cafe' the entire time. Man but if they party below deck, as depicted in the Titanic, shit I'd be game for that.

Hometown stuff.....well our new high school looks like a showbarn for livestock, I saw back to back beautiful sunsets, Bob and I rode about 13 miles on the bikes (we are planning on doing the BASH next year if our big asses can get into shape.

The Austin Family, Jeannie Rob Collin and Kyle head to Disney (the one in Florida) and I'm going to have a checklist of things to do, and I'm nervous about it. Nothing hard, but just logistical / overhead of life type stuff that I'm horrible at...... i.e. watering plants, watering grass, feeding cat, paying house cleaning woman, ummm, making sure the place doesn't burn down, etc. Hopefully I can keep things together! I recall the the last time we went for a family gathering in Cali Disney, what an experience with the other reproducing faction of the family. A 15 passenger van full of people and the 5 in Los Angeles traffic, WHEW!.

In the meantime, tomorrow I'm using any and every study method possible, and a light day of studying on Wednesday. I'm a retard, I even recorded myself and made a CD of myself spurtin out sigma rules, risk mitigation strategies, cost performance index formulas, and other general shit that I have down in a common sensical way, too bad it HAS to be proven on paper. It's amazing how lisp-y I am when I talk, and amazing that no one has ever really pointed that out to me, damn I must sound drunk the majority the time I'm talking to people.

There you have it, nothing of substance, nothing really thought out, nothing really cohesive. I promise to be back to my normal perky writing style next week, If I pass, If I don't pass, I'll be pissed off for a few weeks, memorize a few hundred more ITTO's and take that bizzo again.

Hanging in the small town lately makes me think about the gradual decline of the small town, and a Radiohead song 'Banana Co,' a song about a love / hate relationship with the local factory. I suppose this rings true with Shiner, too.

Have a lovely day everyone, look forward to rejoining the ranks of 'normal' life soon.

---------------------------
Oh, banana co.
We really love you and we need you
And oh, banana co.
We'd really love to believe you, but
Everything's underground
We gotta dig it up somehow
Yeah yeah

Oh, she said no go
She said she'd like to
She's seen you
But no, no-ho go
She says if you die then we all do
Everything's burning down
We gotta dig it up somehow
Yeah yeah

Everything's burning down
We gotta put it out somehow
Yeah yeah

I Try to Focus, I'm Starin' At the Screen, Pretending what I know what All These Little Flashing Lights Mean

A bit disheartening when you sit there for 4+ hours taking a practice test and all you can muster is a 60.57, you need 61 to pass, wonder if they round up? The questions are intimidating, misleading, and downright shitty at times.

Reading all this project manager is omnipotent jazz and trying to figure out all this stuff makes me think that I'm going to live a life doomed to hell if I actually do this 'correctly' in the working world, I better get a gold plated Ferrari! -- hahaha

The last 8 or so months has equated into what can be comperable to your hardest college class. However, the benefit is not that you just memorize a bunch of shit to be forgotten, but some practical life skills in organization and management can be derived from these 'knowledge areas.'

No use spending 600 bones to take the test until I can consistently score in the 70's on this biatch. Two more practice tests, if I score over 70, I'll take GOSH DARN (politically correct way of saying something far more potent) test next Thursday, if not, I'm going to postpone a few weeks in order to have MORE 'brown bag lunches' with more 'SME's.'

As Dr. Smith from Lost in Space would say "O the Pain, O the Pain."

Knowledge Area No	Knowledge Area	% Correct
1	Project Management Framework (15 questions)	73 %
2	Project Integration Management (14 questions)	42 %
3	Project Scope Management (19 questions)	68 %
4	Project Time Management (23 questions)	65 %
5	Project Cost Management (17 questions)	47 %
6	Project Quality Management (17 questions)	64 %
7	Project Human Resource Management (15 questions)	46 %
8	Project Communications Management (13 questions)	69 %
9	Project Risk Management (15 questions)	46 %
10	Project Procurement Management (14 questions)	57 %
11	Project Professional Responsibility (13 questions)	84 %

To Find Your Heart I Had to Lose My Mind

Phil Morris used to live right next to me, no, not the Phil Morris who sells sticks, Miller Light and cheese noodles, but the lively bass player in the 'Ricky Stein Band,' or something like this. The have a gig every Saturday night at The Hole in the Wall.

For the last 6 months, Mr. Phil has texted me every Sunday, and I FINALLY made it out to a gig. Well the music was pretty good, and the PMan plays some very tasty basslines. There's a good chance I'll head back one of these days, wheneva I'm in the area.

Black Joe Lewis opened, and he was a treat too --

Workin' Double Time on The Seduction Line, She Was One of a Kind, She's Just Mine All Mine

Trainwreck, a cover band that plays out in the burbs was the tunes we listened to at the venue 'The Roadhouse', a place that has the same atmosphere as my hometown. The brothers in law and I 'painted the town,' so to say. It's crazy, I used to have Crown and Anchor as my local pub, now I have the Roadhouse, not a step down, rather a step off the cliff. Regardless, a fellow accountant of my brother in law 'Big Rob' was the drummer, and his brother was the guitar / singer who was rippin' that strat up all night.

Shannon, my other brother in law would yell, 'Give it up for the Train Wreck dancers!' at the top of his lungs after dancing to 'Play that funky music white boy' (video) . Highlight of the evening is when the band sang 'the beer song,' in which the lyrics were simple 'Beer, Yea, Yea, Yea,' and they did that in about 5 different languages, it rocked!

My brother in law Shannon is in rare form on the evening, as him and Ashley do 'the pretzel', a move he does with his daughter, who is about as tall as Ashley. It was funny, Ashley is the shortest in the club, and Shannon by far is the tallest in the building. Check out the hysterical video, Ashley couldn't stop laughing, as she was getting jerked all over the place. Here's the country version of you shook me all night long.

Finally its great to have a local pub where you can see denim like this! Two lovely ladies even let us watch a 'butt wiggling' contest!

Just don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it'd understand and if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, he might blow up and kill this man.

Ooo

Here They Come Again and They Got You On The Ground, Tastin' Blood Again, At Least It's Your Own

Blogging is fun, and a nice with Mike P always gives me inspiration to write something up, even though he's one sick and twisted individual. hahaha

I'm still coming off cloud 9 from the gig at the Hollywood Bowl. Often I call people in the middle of gigs, when a song reminds me of someone, I'll ring them up, and give them a listen, when Belle and Sebastian played Lord Anthony (Video) , I couldn't help think about Mike P.

You see, Lord Anthony is a song about a smart kid, a smart kid that got beat up by jocks, he was misunderstood growing up, and due to this damage as a young lad, he grows up to be a transvestite, or cross dresser, or something like this. Mahon says he relates to this song, a smart kid, perhaps misunderstood as a kid, but thank God he didn't do what Anthony did, he's still relatively 'sane.'

I woke up one morning, and this was in my inbox. It was funny as hell, he's a whiz with photoshop, he had to take about 3 different pictures of me to make my eyes appear as they were looking at his a$$. Well I got a laugh out of it, even the names have changed.

------------------------
"Tony, you're a bit of a mess;
Melted Tolberone under your dress
If the kids could see you they would pass you right by
Blue mascara running over your eye"

It Was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times, The Age of Wisdom, The Age of Foolishness

Wow --- sometimes life just knocks the wind out of you. A hero of mine would say, "it's hard to know right from wrong, when all objectivity's gone, but you still carry on," man and it's really tricky for an identity blogger to blog about things that vexes them, especially when it comes to 'protecting' the innocent and bashing the 'guilty.' Everyone has reasons for self preservation and self actualization, but isn't it strange that the people who are truly closer to this in life are the ones that often can't sleep at night (yea I'm an idealist, shoot me).

But --- why complain? Most things are great, living out in the burbs is great. I'm just waiting for my nephew to pop his head up one day and say "Why is my loser uncle sleeping in my bed." hahaha, o wait, that's not funny.

Another perk of the burbs is reconnecting with friends that live in the area. My great high school buddy Brandon come to find out lives about a mile down the road from me, and tonight we shot some hoops. Back in college we used to play with some good basketball players, and Brandon was actually good, they called him 'Bird.'

Well I had the pleasure to be in 'Bird's' wedding some time back, and here's a picture of Bird and his lovely wife Becky.

Tomorrow is my information dump session for the PMP exam, I've taken a practice test, It was VERY f'in hard, I didn't pass, but after I take two more hopefully I'll get that average up.

This weekend is Collin T's birthday, and we got the dual party thing going on, first with all the kids on Saturday, which I'll try to avoid, for as the Grinch would say, "O the Noise, Noise, Noise." Sunday is the family party, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, giving people massive bear hugs, and maybe a dog pile or two is in order.

This weekend I'm also sending out about 1,000,000,000 resumes, does anyone want to buy me this?

I'm Lookin' In On the Good Life I Might Be Doomed Never to Find

The Shins, Belle and Sebastian with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, an AMAZING evening. I arrive in LA around noon on Thursday, and would be leaving at 6.30 am the next morning, the slingshot trip proved to be worth it and then some, as expected.

Hollywood Bowl, well the game has changed for me in terms of live music venues. It's got a natural slope, the weather is (or was) amazing, you could see the Hollywood sign from the venue, everyone (all sold out 18,000+) had a seat, and the acoustics in the amphitheatre were amazing!

Everyone has eaten some shitty nachos and drank an 8 dollar Miller Light plastic bottle at your local Amphitheatre, not at the bowl. I had a 25 Dollar bottle of Merlot (despite the thoughts of that dude on Sideways), and the chick beside me was eating some tasty lookin' shrimp, and the people in front of me had sushi, all bought at the 'market' inside the venue. That's pretty classy shit.

Now on to the show, The Shins, automatically I'm a bit biased as they are a band I go back to all the time, a solid 4 piece outfit, wonderful lyrics, great sound. If I could have seen the Playtones stuff in the 60's, I would see The Shins as something much like this, something like on 'That Thing You Do,' a very tight, clean band. The band came out in matching green shirts, straps on their respective instruments, and rocks the house as the sun goes down. They start out with the classics, they added about 4 new song amazing songs, they played some 'dark' stuff towards the end, and by the time they were warmed up, it was time for them to make way for Belle and Sebastian. The performance was stellar!

Well since my puter is still dead, I had to rip some pictures off from flickr. We were on the other side, but you can see the amazing aesthetics of this venue, once my puter is back online, I'll post some stellar videos.

Belle and Sebastian played to the biggest crowd in the history of the band. For the opener, Stevie Jackson came out and played his harmonica piece 'Fuck this Shit' with the full backing of the 72 piece orchestra. The minute that orchestra struck, an amazing sound vibrated from the venue, and we all knew we were in for a treat. Later Stevie would say it was the best night in his professional career.

Stuart Murdoch came out next, in my opinion noticeably nervous (considering you are playing for a musically refined packed house, it would be hard to find Hoobastank fans in this mix), and played 'I Fought in a War', and for those of you who know the studio cut, the live version was dead on! I've never been off fighting in a war, but I would like to think that this song captures the essence of war better than most songs of that nature.

I'm Waking Up to Us was played, and Stuart expressed some angst for an ex member of the band, but was sure to clarify that the band has no ill will, etc. Great banter through the evening, a perfect mix between old and new, and the most 'orchestrated' songs were obviously chosen. The back to back treat of 'If She Wants Me' and 'Lord Anthony' were, ummm, for lack of better terminology...... heavenly (or maybe that was that 25 dollar bottle of wine that I had almost downed was at that point), or a combination of both.

I could go on forever and ever, but the crowd was certainly into the show, thru the last songs, I would say at least 100's, maybe 1,000 or so people were jumping down to the bottom levels where the rich fucks were eating in VIP and started dancing in front of stage. The last song, The Boy with the Arab Strap, the band experienced a stage rush, at least 50 people hopped on stage and was just goin' to town with the band. The coolest scene of the night was this chick giving Stevie a massive hug.

This picture captures the literally out of control crowd during The Boy with the Arab Strap, as many people told me there is usually a very conservative crowd at the bowl.

To sum it up, I sat at some VERY SHITTY SOLD OUT CONCERTS while working at my local amphitheatre, and thinking, this sucks. I'm usually hanging out at small indie bands, up to 2,000 people, with true music fans, with people whom music still matters. Point is, it was refreshing to see a sold out venue that huge, with a 'musical' audience, which made the event magical.

Thanks for the experience Belle and Sebastian and friends, I'm enlightened.

setlist was .....

‘Fuck This Shit’
‘I Fought In A War’
‘La Pastie De La Bourgeoisie’
‘The Model’
‘Sukie In The Graveyard’
‘Don’t Leave The Light On Baby’
‘I’m Waking Up To Us’
‘Jonathan David’
‘If She Wants Me’
‘Lord Anthony’
‘Dear Catastrophe Waitress’
‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’
‘You’re Cover’s Blown’
‘Dirty Dream Number Two’
‘I’m A Cuckoo’
‘The Wrong Girl’
‘If You Find Yourself Caught In Love’
‘Sleep The Clock Around’
‘The State I Am In’
‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’

bill maher, Amazon Fishbowl

We attended an Amazon Fishbowl recording on July 6th with Bill Maher, my bosses favorite person on the planet!

I haven't rewatched the July 6th episode, but I could potentially be on TV, it was a great experience, Rolando you are the ambassador, thanks for the experience, I know it must have been hard sitting thru that for you.

Over the Ramparts You Tossed, The Scent of Your Skin and Some Foreign Flowers

A quick trip up to Los Angeles to see the Shins open for Belle and Sebastian and the L.A. Philharmonic (or however you spell that). Thanks for the generosity Rolando and Mike D.

Full writeup on Saturday ---

Some People Looked Strange, Some People Looked Deranged, Some People are Just Looking Through You

What can you say about Apples in Stereo, I love em' -- hooked on them all weekend. Well here's this weeks installment of content for a pretty effin' weak blog. Nothing much, and everything much going on in life these days, here's some content for the page.

I paid for (well my Visa Card paid for) and scheduled my PMP exam, 27th of July somewhere off Ben White in south Austin. I'm pretty confident I'll at least pass. Currently I'm memorizing 'Rita's Chart', which is page 39 of a book, I don't know why, but Rita said to memorize it for the test. Also I'm memorizing the 44 high level 'PMBOK Process.' The 44 processes have over 1,200 ITTO's (Inputs Tools Techniques and Outputs), If I have to memorize all those, I'm f*cked.

What's in the cd player, well I'm hovering with My Morning Jacket, Sondre Lerche, Mando Diao, and The Sadies' 'Favorite Colors' Album (which is amazing.) Also making the list, I am Kloot, Gods and Monsters (an album that is big time growing on me), and Phantom Planet, don't ask me why.

Tomorrow I watch Deutschland play world cup, and head back to the big city and probably catch a fireworks display or something like that.

Have a nice day internet friends!

Between the Idea and The Reality, Between the Motion and the Act, Falls the Shadow

July 4th weekend brings me to where else?..... Good Ol Shiner Texas for the Half Moon Holidays festivities. Pretty status quo when it comes to 'hometown festivals.' Here's a bunch of random stuff, getting sloppy with cataloging this stuff, but hopefully my 'blog second wind' will come soon.

First there's Dave, my cousin who's 'Mr. BBQ.' This year he took the prize for 3rd place brisket, out of about 40 entries.

Then there's the college roommates / great buddies Marty and Ryan. We sat there on the bank of Boggy (sp?) Creek and watched the fireworks while Lee Greenwood says how proud he is to be American. I'm proud but one day I'm going to find that PA system unplug it and throw it in the creek. Playing Lee Greenwood every 4th of July is like that 'dude' on the wedding singer singing 'Do you Really Want to Hurt Me' over and over.

This contraption is what I believe is called a 'kegorator,' where there's a beer tap on the fridge itself, and a keg inside, and the beer is constantly fresh and ice cold. This is my nephew Timmy's doing. Notice the Japanese below the tap, courtesy of Yasu, it reads something like 'Timmy's Beer Factory.'

That's a horrible picture of yours truly, yea, it looks pretty gay.

Yasu has his one beer of the day, in the backwoods of Shiner.

It literally 'rained on the parade' today, ''play drum slap'' -- Everyone took shelter under the porch, but I braved the elements and watched the chicks do the parade wave up close and personal.

Finally how many times are we going to go to this shithole bar to realize its an unusual form of torture. Well there's shorty Ashley in the bottom left, me in the middle, and big Bob on the end, he's nice to have around, especially when rednecks start getting feisty.

Foundation and Empire

Foundation and Empire, Isaac Asimov's tale of a struggling empire and a new foundation, started with a bang and ended with a whimper. A book that had tremendous potential to be an epic portrayal of an outer space battle between 'new ideas' and 'old established ideas' all of a sudden became a 'let's talk about what a bada$$ 'the mule' is the rest of the book'

The empire attacks the foundation, then the foundation is met with 'civil war' as a mutant called the mule dominates the rest of the book. Not good closure, not good transitions into the rest of the books or previous books, therefore I'm not inspired to pick up the sequel or prequel.

High point of the book I can bring to real life is bel riose's strategies on fortification. Basically he's a bada$$ general for the empire, all of his people love him, and he's skilled in the tactics of war and can do a tremendous amount with little resources, with the fortification of 'key' points. In the book he had about 10 ships and he used them to fortify ten points, even though he was spread thin, he was able to cover the ground he needed to cover. When I think business ventures, I think of the 10 places that need covered, the 'keys' that need to be fortified in order to make anything successful and then cover them, no matter how spread thin you are.

Now on to Crime and Punishment, we'll see how that one's gonna stack up.

---------------------------------

New Divine Comedy album came out Juneteenth, here's an excerpt from Victory for the Comic Muse, go out and buy it, it's good!

Her -- "If there's a war I'll sleep with you before you get killed, that's what maidens do in books, and I'm a maiden"

Him -- "You keep carrying on about your virginity, virginity is nothing, you can lose it riding a bicycle"

Her -- "I didn't know that, I must be careful, I'm going to be getting a bicycle in London."

And It's Hard to Hold a Candle in the Cold November Rain

Random tidbit, did you know Slash made them carry that church out in the middle of the desert, for the Video November Rain, just so he could JAM in front of it? That's some excessive sh*t.

In visiting Houston this weekend, I always go to my sister's church. I've been to many 'wrong' churches, and that's why I more often than not opt to sleep in. I get more out of sleeping in than going to hear a message. Well this church is progressive, the community is involved, there's lots of interesting people, and it's not 'preachy', wish I could explain it better. It's worthwhile to get up for this on Sunday morning, you can get something out of it, instead of just loafing about all Sunday.

I'm always excited for friends going overseas, especially friends that are going to see mutual friends and such. My friend Meghan from Canada is visiting London then Japan, potentially seeing Neil (a buddy of mine from 'the motherland') and of course Toshi in Japan. I'm all sorts of hyped about that, gives me something to daydream about. Like Red going to see Andy in Mexico -- I want to see my friend, my friend Toshi, my friend Neil. Hopefully they will drink a beer or two or twenty five.

Speaking of absence, I'm not going to be able to make the Belle and Sebastian with The Shins in Los Angeles as planned, the pocketbook just doesn't all for any sorts of adventures at the moment. Hopefully I'll get some phone calls at 'key' moments of the gig, and it would be stellar to check it out, but there will be other gigs.

Mr Steve, my buddy from San Antonio will be in town this week, and I look forward to spending some time with him catching up on the latest news and gigs at the amphitheatre.

PMP study lunches are still commencing at Denny's on Monday and Wednesday, still most of the day class on Friday, and yet another study session has been added for the weekend. I'm going to be taking my test sometime during the week of July 17th, to get it over with, no guts no glory.

A word HAS to be said about family, I love mine to death, all of them are amazing supportive people, sometimes I feel as if I wouldn't have them, I'd be out on the street somewhere, or working at the local convenient store in Shiner. A big thanks for everything family, I owe all of y'all one.

Stayed tuned for another dull week of postings, but I found my camera so I'll start adding pictures again. This week is studying, studying, studying, but I'm sure me and Steve will stir up something at least one night this week.

Out of Bed at 8am, Out My Head at Half Past 10, Out with Mates and Dates and Friends, That's what I Do at Weekends

Jamie was my 8th grade graduation dance 'date', and it's wonderful that we still are great friends. She travels all over the place, was in Calgary last week, has a potential trip to Moscow on the horizon, and the continental US is like my average trip to San Marcos.

Highway 6 (something in itself that is blogworthy one of these days) is home to a Casa Ole with $1.39 margaritas all day everyday. Guess where I'm heading after I'm done with this blog posting!

Oh, What a World This Life Would Be, Forget All Your Technicolour Dreams

Grant is a cool little dude, today I taught him about the Green Lantern. I said whenever there is trouble you can hit the 'red button' on the Thinkpad, and the Green Lantern will come to the rescue!

I told him to not abuse the 'red button' though, and only use it when there is trouble. So Grants rebuttal was, 'So when I want to see this guy, I have to set the house on fire?'

When visiting Houston, A trip to Little Willies is always on the agenda. Meghan, Grant and friends were amused with the little duck I have on my dashboard, when I would take turns at vicious speeds, the duck would fly around the car, much to the amusement of the little dudes and dudettes.

Don't Give Me No Sh*t about Blood, Sweat, Tears and Toil

I'm officially hooked on YouTube, I'm usually not a quick adopter of trends, but this one is here to stay. I've browsed videos for a few hours, making 'my favorites' list, and here are a few. The creator was yet another panelists at SXSW this year.

Billy Bragg, singing its all about the price of oil, yea, my right wing nut jobs friends would scoff at the thought of me liking the banter from this bloody englishman, but what makes sense makes sense, he's got SERIOUS BALLS for singing this, especially in America, and getting applause. The song starts out slow, at the end it's pure venom! Great stuff! For Billy, the shit doesn't add up, as the lyrics portray.

Next is a singalong is some kinda strange place by Pete Doherty. Mr Boehm, I know you hate this dude, but damn this is some pretty down to earth shit, who cares if he's drunk or stoned or both.

Anyway, check out YouTube, its a great time waster, and you can see some great stuff.

Streets, Buildings and Cars, Far Away Stars, My Fingers Move Over the Borderline

It's that time, time to procrastinate about putting my resume together. Right now life is one big pile of uncertainty. I've been doing plenty research on the job market and potential places to move, even though Austin seems to be on the top 10's of many lists in terms of places to live, as it pertains to 'bang for your buck' and other intangibles that make the place unique. It sucks thinking about moving, considering I take advantage of a lot of the intangibles.

Resumes are kinda stupid, who tells the truth on them anyway, and it sucks you have to spend a lot of time prepping the resume in order to land face time. I have no idea how I landed the job I currently have back in the day, I chalk it up to 'interviewing skills.'

Weird how places are now asking you if you have a myspace account or a blog in the inquiry process. Lots of crazy social things happening on myspace these days....i.e. the video portion. It's mildly sick to see which 'videos' crawl to the top of the most watched list, even though they preach that if you upload porn, your account will be deleted.

I guess this means I search for a liberal place to work, or quit blogging, or sugar coat words to make things irrevalent, to the point where the next time I blog I will say, well here's what I ate for lunch.

I've checked out jobs in Baghdad, for a business / IT dude, the salaries are up in the 140's, sure would be nice to make that bank, ummmm, revolver, bulletproof vest, and a fast pair of tennis shoes please. Why the flipidy flip don't the troops wear some sort of gps units, and if they do, how can they get lost?

Well there's the random update, I'm tasked with getting draft one of my resume finished this evening, and one night this week creating a new face to this crusty blog.