It's official.
As of today, I've put my 2 weeks notice in at my Houston based job, and am moving up to Boulder to take my first job as an actual Colorado resident!
I've spent my entire post-college career in oil & gas work. Well over 5 years of experience since graduating in 2004. The job I've accepted in Boulder will be doing marketing for a publishing company, which is a pretty drastic 180 from what I've been doing for the last 5 years. And is also a career change LONNNNNG overdue. I reached the point of realizing that I will NEVER EVER be happy in life doing what I've been doing for a living, regardless of what they pay me. I'm finally willing and ready to make drastic financial sacrifices in order to pursue a career that I actually find somewhat inspiring, and hope that this change will help me to finally become more centered in my own self. I feel like I won the lottery practically to have found a company willing to take a chance and give me this opportunity. And of all places, I get to live in BOULDER, COLORADO!
I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! :D
As of today, I've put my 2 weeks notice in at my Houston based job, and am moving up to Boulder to take my first job as an actual Colorado resident!
I've spent my entire post-college career in oil & gas work. Well over 5 years of experience since graduating in 2004. The job I've accepted in Boulder will be doing marketing for a publishing company, which is a pretty drastic 180 from what I've been doing for the last 5 years. And is also a career change LONNNNNG overdue. I reached the point of realizing that I will NEVER EVER be happy in life doing what I've been doing for a living, regardless of what they pay me. I'm finally willing and ready to make drastic financial sacrifices in order to pursue a career that I actually find somewhat inspiring, and hope that this change will help me to finally become more centered in my own self. I feel like I won the lottery practically to have found a company willing to take a chance and give me this opportunity. And of all places, I get to live in BOULDER, COLORADO!
I'm so excited I can hardly contain myself! :D
Labels: Boulder, Colorado, Greatness, work
OH. And the whole point of my trip.... to acquire this baby:
Full-size/88-key weighted hammer-action digital piano. Sounds AND feels amazing. And I usually hate keyboards. Found the package on craigslist, complete with after-market sustaining pedal, folding Z-stand, bench, and hard plastic super cushioned (with wheels and locks) traveling case. Fuckin ROCKS.
It now has a home sitting comfortably 'neath my Helvetica wall. For my own inspiration purposes :)
Full-size/88-key weighted hammer-action digital piano. Sounds AND feels amazing. And I usually hate keyboards. Found the package on craigslist, complete with after-market sustaining pedal, folding Z-stand, bench, and hard plastic super cushioned (with wheels and locks) traveling case. Fuckin ROCKS.
It now has a home sitting comfortably 'neath my Helvetica wall. For my own inspiration purposes :)
Labels: Greatness, Helvetica, piano
I went on a mini road trip this past weekend to get my Korg SP-300. It involved driving through the San Juan mountain range, and then some, so a couple hours of devastatingly gorgeous scenery and very dangerous winding mountain passes to drive through. The kind where you have to totally focus on something else entirely, so that you don't think about how if you accidentally go 2 more inches over to the right, there's no rail, and you are going to fall right off a ridiculously high cliff. And god help us if there's an 18-wheeler coming opposite around the blind corner ahead.
So, prior to leaving, I loaded up my 6-disc CD changer with 6 albums I consider "essential". If I were to drive off a cliff along the way, I at least wanted to die listening to something great. Because my car CD player is a tad finicky, burned cds need not apply. Therefore a lot of albums were excluded from my selections due to not owning them in actual-legit cd format. So this actually kinda turned into a 6-Essential-Albums-of-the-last-decade-that-k!-actually-made-the-effort-to-purchase-in-CD-format. Nothing groundbreaking here. Just 6 albums I'm not sure I ever could have lived without hearing... over and over and over.
In no particular order:
This album had me at the opening line of french horn and flute dancing gleefully in unison. I starkly recall sitting in my college apartment in the middle of the night attempting to teach myself Flash for a project, and putting this on for the first time. Not much Flash learning or sleeping got done that night. Come to think of it, this album may have been the singular distraction responsible for my inability to ever learn Flash, which snowballed in my losing interest in a career in design altogether. Thanks B&S! Regardless-- I honestly had not delved into much B&S until this album, and even as of today, I really can't even focus on most of their stuff before or after this album. Aside from the "Books" EP (<3<3<3). I find myself singing unashamedly loud to every song on this album, everytime it comes on.
Notables:
"Step Into My Office, Baby"
"If She Wants Me"
"You Don't Send Me"
"If You Find Yourself Caught in Love"
I first heard this near the end of high school. My parents had AOL on the home computer, and had my userid regulated to KIDS ONLY. I couldn't even access John Tesh's website under this restriction (don't ask me how I know this..), much less anything else. Luckly I had computer smarts, and had managed to download NetZero (back when it was still free) one day when my mom accidentally left herself signed in to her account, and used that for all my downloading needs. I was familiar with a few older tracks of Spoon's at this point, but this just blew anything I'd known out of the water. This album cemented my obsessive and long love affair with Spoon. To that point in my life, I'd never heard an album so cohesive and solid, not to mention catchy as hell, and to this day, I'm pretty sure this is still one of the greatest albums ever made. Ever.
Notables:
This is one of those rare instances where every single fucking track here stands up on it's own, and as a whole, work together to build a phenomenal album. I have no doubt any single track from this album will blow your mind.
The first actual conversation I ever had with my later-turned best friend Rob happened over coffee at Poor Yorick's at the Texas A&M library shortly before I graduated. Madvillainy had *just* been released. We basically sat there and obsessed over this album. For HOURS. Rob's a lyric whore. I'm a total production whore. Madvillainy marries these two elements in the most amazing of ways. Madlib's beats are off the fucking wall, crazy old jazz shit, heavy bass, and they flow like none other. MF Doom sputters brilliant inanities at a relaxed pace. At least every other line on this album is quotable. As a whole, the album is laid back and chill, and if you're just skipping through the tracks, you're not going to get anything out of it. But I dare you to take 46 minutes one night, and sit in the dark and listen to this album, and I guarantee you will emerge from this experience with a new appreciation for all things great.
Notables:
slip like Freudian; your first and last step to playin' yourself like "accordion"
"Great Day"
"Meat Grinder"
"Strange Ways"
"All Caps"
I'm just going to come right out and say this-- I actually ponder (a lot!) if these guys had ANY fucking clue the level of magnificence this album achieves when they were putting it together, or if this shit was just dumb luck. I find it really hard to believe that were totally clueless about what they were doing, but based on the lackluster of most of all their other albums, I can't help but wonder...
"Burn, Piano Island, Burn" is the definition of a modern symphonic masterpiece to me. From the raucous opener that sets the tone for the work, to the melodic/thematic consistencies throughout the album, to the distinct movement intervals that flow seamlessly into one another, the whole album just screams brilliance. Literally.
Notables:
"God Bless You, Blood Thirsty Zeppelins"
"Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon"
"The Salesman, Denver Max"
"Ambulance Vs. Ambulance"
July 13, 2002, the Shins played a show in the basement of Stubbs in Austin. The basement of Stubbs is TINY. Ridiculously small. I arrived early to get my place in the front, and suffered through a Beachwood Sparks set as the crowd filled in. By the time the Shins played, you could not move in this venue. There were people packed on every single stair of the staircase, standing around the top part of the restaurant, and packed in and hanging from every window from outside. The show was unbelievably amazing, regardless of being extremely claustrophobic. I really felt they could not possibly improve at all from that point in their career, as when you are that damn good, it's easy to disappoint. Over a year later, this gem was dropped. An upgrade in production from "Oh, Inverted World", and miles beyond 2007's post-garden-state-over-hyped "Wincing the Night Away", "Chutes" goes above and beyond any sort of the usual sophomoric expectations, and is a delicate mix of overwhelmingly complicated vocal and musical arrangements that for me tend to verge on near-incomprehensibility as to how something can be both so amazingly well written AND expertly performed. The layering of instruments and choral composition on this record is just mind blowing, the lyrical content will catch you off guard with its depth. This album contains one of my all-time favorite songs ever, "Saint Simon".
Notables:
"Young Pilgrims"
"Saint Simon"
"Gone for Good" ("A Call to Apathy")
It's no secret that I am a whore for Ted Leo. I pretty much own every CD and DVD that man has ever put out or been featured on, from his mid-90's band Chisel on forward. I kind of feel like the album's existence on this list is pretty DUHR. Lyrically inspiring, musically astounding. I really feel this is Ted's crowning achievement. My only complaint being that "Timorous Me" doesn't so much fit the landscape of the album, but the kids like it. "St. John the Divine" is one of my all-time favorite songs ever, as well. I've considered having the song tattooed somewhere on my body, but have yet to figure out how to tattoo amazing guitar playing...
Notables:
"St John the Divine"
"The Great Communicator"
"Biomusicology"
"Stove by a Whale"
"Parallel or Together?"
So, prior to leaving, I loaded up my 6-disc CD changer with 6 albums I consider "essential". If I were to drive off a cliff along the way, I at least wanted to die listening to something great. Because my car CD player is a tad finicky, burned cds need not apply. Therefore a lot of albums were excluded from my selections due to not owning them in actual-legit cd format. So this actually kinda turned into a 6-Essential-Albums-of-the-last-decade-that-k!-actually-made-the-effort-to-purchase-in-CD-format. Nothing groundbreaking here. Just 6 albums I'm not sure I ever could have lived without hearing... over and over and over.
In no particular order:
This album had me at the opening line of french horn and flute dancing gleefully in unison. I starkly recall sitting in my college apartment in the middle of the night attempting to teach myself Flash for a project, and putting this on for the first time. Not much Flash learning or sleeping got done that night. Come to think of it, this album may have been the singular distraction responsible for my inability to ever learn Flash, which snowballed in my losing interest in a career in design altogether. Thanks B&S! Regardless-- I honestly had not delved into much B&S until this album, and even as of today, I really can't even focus on most of their stuff before or after this album. Aside from the "Books" EP (<3<3<3). I find myself singing unashamedly loud to every song on this album, everytime it comes on.
Notables:
"Step Into My Office, Baby"
"If She Wants Me"
"You Don't Send Me"
"If You Find Yourself Caught in Love"
I first heard this near the end of high school. My parents had AOL on the home computer, and had my userid regulated to KIDS ONLY. I couldn't even access John Tesh's website under this restriction (don't ask me how I know this..), much less anything else. Luckly I had computer smarts, and had managed to download NetZero (back when it was still free) one day when my mom accidentally left herself signed in to her account, and used that for all my downloading needs. I was familiar with a few older tracks of Spoon's at this point, but this just blew anything I'd known out of the water. This album cemented my obsessive and long love affair with Spoon. To that point in my life, I'd never heard an album so cohesive and solid, not to mention catchy as hell, and to this day, I'm pretty sure this is still one of the greatest albums ever made. Ever.
Notables:
This is one of those rare instances where every single fucking track here stands up on it's own, and as a whole, work together to build a phenomenal album. I have no doubt any single track from this album will blow your mind.
The first actual conversation I ever had with my later-turned best friend Rob happened over coffee at Poor Yorick's at the Texas A&M library shortly before I graduated. Madvillainy had *just* been released. We basically sat there and obsessed over this album. For HOURS. Rob's a lyric whore. I'm a total production whore. Madvillainy marries these two elements in the most amazing of ways. Madlib's beats are off the fucking wall, crazy old jazz shit, heavy bass, and they flow like none other. MF Doom sputters brilliant inanities at a relaxed pace. At least every other line on this album is quotable. As a whole, the album is laid back and chill, and if you're just skipping through the tracks, you're not going to get anything out of it. But I dare you to take 46 minutes one night, and sit in the dark and listen to this album, and I guarantee you will emerge from this experience with a new appreciation for all things great.
Notables:
slip like Freudian; your first and last step to playin' yourself like "accordion"
"Great Day"
"Meat Grinder"
"Strange Ways"
"All Caps"
I'm just going to come right out and say this-- I actually ponder (a lot!) if these guys had ANY fucking clue the level of magnificence this album achieves when they were putting it together, or if this shit was just dumb luck. I find it really hard to believe that were totally clueless about what they were doing, but based on the lackluster of most of all their other albums, I can't help but wonder...
"Burn, Piano Island, Burn" is the definition of a modern symphonic masterpiece to me. From the raucous opener that sets the tone for the work, to the melodic/thematic consistencies throughout the album, to the distinct movement intervals that flow seamlessly into one another, the whole album just screams brilliance. Literally.
Notables:
"God Bless You, Blood Thirsty Zeppelins"
"Cecilia and the Silhouette Saloon"
"The Salesman, Denver Max"
"Ambulance Vs. Ambulance"
July 13, 2002, the Shins played a show in the basement of Stubbs in Austin. The basement of Stubbs is TINY. Ridiculously small. I arrived early to get my place in the front, and suffered through a Beachwood Sparks set as the crowd filled in. By the time the Shins played, you could not move in this venue. There were people packed on every single stair of the staircase, standing around the top part of the restaurant, and packed in and hanging from every window from outside. The show was unbelievably amazing, regardless of being extremely claustrophobic. I really felt they could not possibly improve at all from that point in their career, as when you are that damn good, it's easy to disappoint. Over a year later, this gem was dropped. An upgrade in production from "Oh, Inverted World", and miles beyond 2007's post-garden-state-over-hyped "Wincing the Night Away", "Chutes" goes above and beyond any sort of the usual sophomoric expectations, and is a delicate mix of overwhelmingly complicated vocal and musical arrangements that for me tend to verge on near-incomprehensibility as to how something can be both so amazingly well written AND expertly performed. The layering of instruments and choral composition on this record is just mind blowing, the lyrical content will catch you off guard with its depth. This album contains one of my all-time favorite songs ever, "Saint Simon".
Notables:
"Young Pilgrims"
"Saint Simon"
"Gone for Good" ("A Call to Apathy")
It's no secret that I am a whore for Ted Leo. I pretty much own every CD and DVD that man has ever put out or been featured on, from his mid-90's band Chisel on forward. I kind of feel like the album's existence on this list is pretty DUHR. Lyrically inspiring, musically astounding. I really feel this is Ted's crowning achievement. My only complaint being that "Timorous Me" doesn't so much fit the landscape of the album, but the kids like it. "St. John the Divine" is one of my all-time favorite songs ever, as well. I've considered having the song tattooed somewhere on my body, but have yet to figure out how to tattoo amazing guitar playing...
Notables:
"St John the Divine"
"The Great Communicator"
"Biomusicology"
"Stove by a Whale"
"Parallel or Together?"
Labels: belle and sebastian, blood brothers, Colorado, Greatness, madvillain, spoon, Ted Leo, the shins
Just got back. Didn't take as many pics as I should have. I blame it on having too much fun :)
Labels: 2009 FUCKERS, Chicago
that makes me PISSED OFF that I didn't continue on with music and become the high school band director I always secretly wanted to be.
I would totally be the evil director who picked out lesser known Stevie Wonder tracks, re-arranged them, and forced my kids to perform them. My life would be so fulfilling.
I would totally be the evil director who picked out lesser known Stevie Wonder tracks, re-arranged them, and forced my kids to perform them. My life would be so fulfilling.
Labels: Greatness, Stevie Wonder
Well, we made it. We've actually been here right at 3 weeks now. I'm sitting on the front porch right now, enjoying a declining temperature from what was a gorgeous sunny 70 degree with NO HUMIDITY day, watching the sunset over the mountains behind the early-mid century era houses across the street. We bought a smoker and are straight up texas bbq-ing some chicken legs for dinner in the front yard.
Some updates. Had to get a new car. The volvo is just a mess and was in no shape to travel 1240 miles to Colordao. I got a letter today saying the city feels they were not responsible for their garbage truck ramming into my parked car and denied my whole claim. I have no idea how this is possible considering the accident report by the police states that the city of Houston garbage truck driver admitted all responsibility and he was required to go through all sorts of probation and safety training and whatnot. And I spoke to the woman who sent the letter about 2.5 weeks ago, and she said everything looked good and in my favor, all they needed was for me to send back some tax/proof of identity forms for them to process. Of course, I got this letter at 5:30 Colorado time when I got home this beautiful friday evening, so calling up to ask WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK was a bit of a failure.
Regardless. I bought an AWD 2000 Lexus RX300. Real nice car, in great shape and shit. Having the SUV has already proven quite handy living here. I commute 30 minutes each way to work in New Mexico. There are deer everywhere. And I got to maneuver through a heavy early (5am??) morning snow-and-wind storm on top of a mesa in the dark the 2nd week I was here. Work is at a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, and parking is on a mix of red mud, rocks, and cow patties. My commute home in the afternoons with the sun shining from behind over the Colorado mountains ahead of me is like a 30 minute insanely gorgeous post card. Maybe some day I'll stop and take pictures. If I can figure out where I packed the camera.....
Anyways. Hadn't visited here in a while so I thought I'd drop an update. As the locals say... lata, brahhhhh.
pfffffffffft
Some updates. Had to get a new car. The volvo is just a mess and was in no shape to travel 1240 miles to Colordao. I got a letter today saying the city feels they were not responsible for their garbage truck ramming into my parked car and denied my whole claim. I have no idea how this is possible considering the accident report by the police states that the city of Houston garbage truck driver admitted all responsibility and he was required to go through all sorts of probation and safety training and whatnot. And I spoke to the woman who sent the letter about 2.5 weeks ago, and she said everything looked good and in my favor, all they needed was for me to send back some tax/proof of identity forms for them to process. Of course, I got this letter at 5:30 Colorado time when I got home this beautiful friday evening, so calling up to ask WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK was a bit of a failure.
Regardless. I bought an AWD 2000 Lexus RX300. Real nice car, in great shape and shit. Having the SUV has already proven quite handy living here. I commute 30 minutes each way to work in New Mexico. There are deer everywhere. And I got to maneuver through a heavy early (5am??) morning snow-and-wind storm on top of a mesa in the dark the 2nd week I was here. Work is at a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, and parking is on a mix of red mud, rocks, and cow patties. My commute home in the afternoons with the sun shining from behind over the Colorado mountains ahead of me is like a 30 minute insanely gorgeous post card. Maybe some day I'll stop and take pictures. If I can figure out where I packed the camera.....
Anyways. Hadn't visited here in a while so I thought I'd drop an update. As the locals say... lata, brahhhhh.
pfffffffffft
Labels: Colorado, Greatness, work
It's been in speculation for a while now.
But as of today, I've got official signage on a contract that puts me working out in Durango, Colorado for at least the next year. Actually, I'll be living in Durango. Working in New Mexico. But it's really not that far apart.
I leave next week. I start Monday after next. Talk about short notice.
It's time for a new adventure! Add this to the list of crazy 2009 shit.
SAYONARA, HOUSTON.
But as of today, I've got official signage on a contract that puts me working out in Durango, Colorado for at least the next year. Actually, I'll be living in Durango. Working in New Mexico. But it's really not that far apart.
I leave next week. I start Monday after next. Talk about short notice.
It's time for a new adventure! Add this to the list of crazy 2009 shit.
SAYONARA, HOUSTON.
Labels: 2009 FUCKERS, Colorado, Greatness, H-Town
I've been back in Houston for a day or so now. It took about 30 minutes after the plane landed for my anxiety to shoot through the roof again, and realize just how stressful this city really is for me. I think I'm much more suited for a more relaxed pace of life.
ANYWAYS. Some end-of trip pics.
We drove out to Mancos, Colorado en route to the Mesa Verde National Park to see indian ruins. We stopped for gas in this little one-horse-town [map link here, just so you can get a sense of just how out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere this place is]. They had a natural foods store there (one of the few shops on the main strip of highway through the town), which we found kind of weird, and we decided to stop in and check it out.
Lo and behold, I found THIS:
I LOVE quinoa. LOVE. And while you can find it at most grocery stores these days prepackaged and overpriced, i've been hoping and praying for Central Market or Whole Foods or ANYBODY in Houston to put in a freaking quinoa bin so I don't have to buy a huge bag of it (a little goes a LONG WAY).
Mancos, Colorado has a quinoa bin. The store it was in looked like and was about the size of an old gas station store.
This 0.6 sq. mile city of 1,119 people has a quinoa bin.
I've never found one at any big city health food store.
WTF.
A few other random things-- Our beer pitcher at Cuckoos Chicken House & Waterin' Hole:
The view out the window of the conference room that we lived in for 2 weeks working our asses off, during a snow storm:
Bye bye Durango :(
ANYWAYS. Some end-of trip pics.
We drove out to Mancos, Colorado en route to the Mesa Verde National Park to see indian ruins. We stopped for gas in this little one-horse-town [map link here, just so you can get a sense of just how out-in-the-middle-of-nowhere this place is]. They had a natural foods store there (one of the few shops on the main strip of highway through the town), which we found kind of weird, and we decided to stop in and check it out.
Lo and behold, I found THIS:
I LOVE quinoa. LOVE. And while you can find it at most grocery stores these days prepackaged and overpriced, i've been hoping and praying for Central Market or Whole Foods or ANYBODY in Houston to put in a freaking quinoa bin so I don't have to buy a huge bag of it (a little goes a LONG WAY).
Mancos, Colorado has a quinoa bin. The store it was in looked like and was about the size of an old gas station store.
This 0.6 sq. mile city of 1,119 people has a quinoa bin.
I've never found one at any big city health food store.
WTF.
A few other random things-- Our beer pitcher at Cuckoos Chicken House & Waterin' Hole:
The view out the window of the conference room that we lived in for 2 weeks working our asses off, during a snow storm:
Bye bye Durango :(
Labels: 2009 FUCKERS, Colorado, work
We took a break from 12-14 hour work days today and headed north into the Rockies.
[more pics]
[more pics]
Labels: Colorado, Greatness, snow, work
