New Music: Exiting

Okay, so I know I can't compose for piano to save my life... and I surely can't play it with the grace I would like... but here's a little direct expression for you.

Exiting.mp3

All comments welcome, though this one is more for me than for anyone else.

New Site & Financial Advice

First things first, I wanted to note that a lot of my time and effort recently has gone into my new site: RatchetHead.net - A new community for those of the engineering profession in World of Warcraft.

Secondly, I wanted to share a bit of financial advice one of my company's executives gave us at our quarterly meeting:

If, five years ago, you invested 1000 dollars in Delta Airlines, today you would have about 50 bucks.

If you invested 1000 dollars in AIG, today you'd have nothing whatsoever.

If you invested 1000 dollars in beer, drank it all and recycled the cans, you'd have about 200 bucks in refunds.

So the moral of this story is "Drink heavily... and recycle!"

How good is it?

IT'S DAMN GOOD! (Click through if you can't see the text in the circle clearly)



Sure, I could have posted this and the previous amusing image together, but hey, I'm lazy.

Construction Brilliance

This one is short and sweet:



You'd think they would know these things in Vermont by now...

The Ride Home

Commuting an hour to work every day has its upsides and downsides. I have plenty of time in the morning to let my brain get warmed up for the day, especially after finishing off a travel mug of tea during the trip. I have the luxury of knowing exactly when I'll need gas, so I can plan to stop at the cheapest gas station on the entire trip (there is currently a 25¢ difference from the best to the worst).

Now, the downsides are pretty obvious. I spend as much as $100 a week in gas, I lose two hours of leisure (or sleep...) time, and my air conditioning is broken, so I arrive home looking like I was running for an hour rather than driving.

All of that aside, there is one aspect to the trip that easily makes it worthwhile: The scenery. Yes, I know I've lived in New Hampshire for my entire life (sans-college), but there are some things you appreciate more when you have two hours a day to look at them. The above Flickr set (click the picture!) consists of just the few sights I managed to capture that did justice to the real thing. Hopefully I'll be able to slowly add to that, but these are a nice start.

Job & New Music

I think I'll finally be getting a job offer today, so it seems only fitting that I update with a new track by this title.

Music: Moving On (New Track in Progress)
This is my latest track in progress. So far I'm pleased with how it is working out, though I'm a little concerned that part of it is a little too inspired by some trance I've listened to recently, so I'll have to go listen to every bit of music I own to find out why it sounds so familiar. I'm thinking it is straight out of some Tiesto, PVD, Ian Van Dahl, or someone like that.

I still need to do a lot of work on the transitions, but I think it will come out pretty nicely. Let me know what you think!

UPDATE: I tweaked the drums and the arrangement a little bit.

UPDATE: I took the job, and I start Monday. Yay!

Pork!

Now that I'm living at home while I sort out this whole "real job" situation, I've been trying to cook a little more in the hope that the excellent skills of my parents might rub off on me a little bit. Now, for those of you who haven't met them, cooking is serious business to my parents. They'll often spend hours making dinner, and for every birthday or other gift-giving holiday, they give each other cookware or other culinary tools.

On to the meat! Last night my father brought home some country style pork ribs, which have a lot more meat than spareribs or back ribs, and are more marbled with fat. Much like my father, I'm a big fan of the grill. I seasoned these suckers up with some salt, pepper, chili powder, and Italian seasoning, and then seared them for a minute or two on each side. After about five or six minutes of indirect heat (I just turned off the middle burner) they were ready to go.

In honor of my delightful meal, I decided to start a new Flickr set for pictures of my culinary exploits: Food.

Hopefully I'll have more good stuff on its way soon!