Gary Godfrey

So, Kris and I were chatting with onefishclappin  and krikwennavd  last night and they mentioned that they were thinking of dumping their cable service.  Like them, I'm currently using the bundled TW service (cable TV, internet, phone) and I'm really thinking the phone (in particular) is a Bad Deal.

Right now, they're charging $40/month (really $48 after taxes and misc. fees) for unlimited calling anywhere in the US.  I suspect that Kris and I seldom go over 1000 minutes a month, so that comes out to $0.05/minute for calling.  I suspect we're closer to about 200-300 minutes a month which puts us at $0.16 to $0.25 a minute - VERY expensive.  Also, I tried to log on the TW site to view my usage, and it only works with IE or Safari, so I can't even use it!

So, I think it's time to go unbundled VOIP.  I ordered a VOIP adapter from Amazon and created an account with CallCentric. I was even able to do a couple of test calls with twinkle  (though the sound was a little funny).  We'll see what happens - if it seems to work reasonably well with the real adapter, I'll transfer our existing phone number to the service and drop TW.

So, my ears are ringing.  I forgot to bring my ear plugs and the bands were a bit louder than we usually have in Austin.  I could actually feel the air move across the hair on my arm when the drums hit.

The first band, Demonica and the Darklings, were OK.  I liked their vocalist, bass player and drummer and I really liked that they had a belly dancer in the background as part of the act.  But they had a violinist in the role of the lead guitar, which isn't fundamentally a bad thing, but for some reason she was only playing very simple phrases.  I'm not sure if she was a beginner (from some of the (mild) tuning issues I wouldn't be surprised), or if they simply decided to give her a simple role.   But it rubbed me the long way - there were many places that screamed "insert guitar/violin solo here" and I got whole notes.

Igor Spector was pretty neat, but the sound guy had them way too loud for me.  Musically, they tend to sound a lot like the B52s - a very intense strumming guitar, driving drums, and fun lyrics.  I eventually had to move out of the line of fire and then it became almost impossible to understand what the singer was saying.  I wouldn't mind listening to them again in a quieter context or with earplugs.

Voltaire was fun (as usual).  He ended up playing a fairly short set - I suspect it was only about 8-10 songs.  I'm not sure if it was because it was a week night or if something else happened.  There were about two songs that I didn't recognize and the ordering of the set was a bit "funny" (for instance, he did an instrumental for the second song).

Observations of the Hollywood audience vs. the Austin/Elysium audience:

1.  The crowds were about the same size - about 120-150 people.   Voltaire mentioned that they actually had to move to the larger hall at The Knitting Factory due to the number of people.

2.  There's more (and better) dancers in Austin.

3.  Austin audiences tend to sing more in key.

4.  About the same percent of people seemed to know Voltaire's songs and music.

5.  There were many more obvious couples in the Hollywood audience.  In some cases it was _very_ obvious (XPDA).

6.  This was definitely a goth audience, same as Austin.  Austin tends a little more towards the Victorian/velvet than Hollywood.  Also, Austin seemed to have more burgundy and reds where Hollywood was almost all black and white.

Oh, and Kris and my Mom decided that they would drop me off and then figure out something to do while I was at the concert.  Evidently, they first went to Pink's (waited an hour to get a hot dogs which they ate in 5 minutes), then they went back to Hollywood Blvd and wandered around looking at the footprints and stars.  Then they decided to get some dessert and the only restaurant open was Hooters, which is where I found them when I got out of the concert at midnight.  They evidently just got through singing and demonstrating YMCA to the staff there.

I'm almost sorry I missed it.  Almost.

It were a fun evening.

Kris and I are planning on a Southern CA trip sometime this spring, so I rang my parents to see if it was OK if we stay with them.  There wasn't an answer at their house or on their cell phones earlier today, but I did get an answer later on.  The male voice said 'hello'. It wasn't my dad, but sounded oddly familiar.  I paused for a moment, before saying 'hello'.   "How's it goin',", he said, a little bit of amusement creeping into his voice.  Pause.  "Pretty good.".  I finally recognized the voice, "how are you, dude?"

So, my brother, Scott, who lives in N California was down South for some legal stuff and had stopped by my parent's house to stay the night.  It turns out that my parents are in Hawaii.  I can never keep track of them.  Scott and I talked for a while - he's looking for a job now since his old company went under and is currently looking at some biofuel companies.  So, while we're talking, I hear another voice in the background on his side.  My sister (who lives about 45 mins from my parents) stopped by to pick up her dog (long story).  So I talked to her for a bit, then Scott for a little more and then hung up to them to catch up.

See, we tend to talk to each other about once a year or so.  Usually, we try and at least call on birthdays, but if the calls don't make it through, a message is left and there's usually not a retry.  I don't know why we don't talk more - I always like talking to them, but it never seems to happen.

What's also funny, is that I had earlier talked to my aunt Georgia to let her know about our trip and she and I talked for an hour or so.  Then another hour with my siblings.  All interesting people that just happen to be family.  I need to do that a little more often.

But it just seemed strange and wonderful to have an unanticipated reunion on a random January day.  I guess those phone things really work!

• Grab the nearest book.
• Open it to page 56.
• Find the fifth sentence.
• Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
• Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

From Handel's Messiah edited by Watkins Shaw.

It's really a mess with the different voice parts. And we really don't get 5 sentences in one page, so I guess I'll pick the 5th phrase. Hey! It's the hardest line I have in Messiah (bass, choral). "For un-to us a child is born.". The only issue is that the "o" in born continues for 56 notes at high speed.

Fun

The interesting part is that I tried to find the origins of the posting and it came from August 5th! Yup - a month and a half ago - well before the current financial crisis[*]. It's almost like... magic.

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So, I've been singing at St. David's Episcopal Church for the past two weekends.  Let's see: that makes 4 services, so it roughly doubles the number of ordinary Sunday services I've attended in my life (I've been to a lot of funerals, weddings, baptisms, etc., but I'm not counting them).  So what makes an avowed atheist go to church?  The music.

At  fairydust1 's suggestion, I had an audition ("voice lesson") with David Stevens, the musical director at St. David's.  He's going to be conducting Handel's Messiah with the Austin Symphony this year, which really sounded like an incredible experience.  I was slightly uncomfortable in that he was bringing in some very talented singers, and I was definitely at the "low end" of his talent pool.  So, singing with the church is giving me more experience with his conducting style and more experience just sight singing a bunch of pieces.  Plus it's really wonderful music (though, the choir is a little too sparse right now to achieve a truly spectacular sound).

So, I could tell that onefishclappin was a little uncomfortable with the idea of an atheist singing in the choir.  I pointed out that a bassoon player blows all kinds of things through their instrument and doesn't expect the instrument to believe any of it.  I don't think she was convinced :-).

I've always thought of a choral ensemble as a single instrument that the conductor 'plays'.  It's a temperamental instrument: one that can frustrate one minute and thrill the next.  But the point is that the ensemble is there to amplify and enhance the conductor's 'vision'.  For my part, I'm trying to contribute to that vision, and that requires me to fall into the meaning of the song.  For the duration of a piece, part of my mind falls in love with Mary Lou, cries at Jeanie's loss, or is awestruck at the risen Christ.  In certain way, these are all the same.  It is a performance - it's there to move the listener.  And, of course, it's moving me at the same time.  In St. David's case, I mainly hope that my voice can enhance the congregation's experience.

But, of course, I'm not coming at this from a theist point of view.  How do other folks feel?

Dang!  If I asked a few weeks ago, I could have gotten Sarah's theist perspective :-).

[*] OK, so we had one back then as well. But it's fun to forget sometimes.


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So, I know that as you get older that some things don't tend to work the way they used to.  Right now it seems to be my brain.

  A couple of nights ago, Kris and I were Barnes and Noble and I found out that Robert Asprin started writing Myth books again (actually, it was in 2001).  He'd had some run-ins with the IRS and stopped writing until the situation was resolved.  So I bought the next book in the series.

So, I'm home sick today (something strange in my stomach and heavy fatigue) and I start reading the book.  About half way through (only 100 pages - the book is < 200 pages) the story begins to seem familiar.  So, I go upstairs and check the bookshelf.  And find the same book.

I don't know how long ago I bought it, but it evidently didn't stick too much in my head.

So, anybody want a copy of Myth-ion Improbable?

It's still a fun little read.  I wonder how it ends?

So, Kris and I are back in Williamsburg. Just got back from spending a week down in Corolla, NC with her parents and her brother/sister in law/pair of children. I wasn't much in the mood for spending time at the beach, so spent the time relaxing and catching up on my reading.  Other than that, not too eventful.


So, the primary reason for this trip was to celebrate Kris'  parents' 50th anniversary.  Done.  We decided to also use this as an excuse to pick up a few pieces of furniture that Kris has been wanting from her parents.  So, we're picking up a truck tomorrow and heading off Tuesday morning for the trip back to Austin.   Then we need to figure out what to do on the 4th.

Sometimes I really like getting in the middle of a large crowd, elbow to elbow with people I don't know, all focused on something larger than ourselves. I've felt that wonderful energy in the Capitol 10k race, with 25k people. The same at the barbershop international convention, with 12,000 people all singing 'My Wild Irish Rose' in 4 part harmony.

I feel the urge coming on again. And like the Capitol 10k and barbershop singing, this one needs some Training and Preparation. I bring you Thrill the World. Yes, I want to be dead.

Don't know if I'll make it after barbershop rehearsal Tuesday, but I might try and sneak out a little early. It's going to be hard since we're in final rehearsal for Valentine's Day.

But I want to dance! I want to growl. I want to die! I want... I want... Brains!

So, this article in the Statesman is the type that upsets me.  The headline, "Study: Texas same-sex couples who have kids earn less than married couples with children" takes some questionable numbers from the study and puts them on the top.  My first thought when I saw the headline was, "I wonder if they controlled for age."  Answer:  not found in the article.

Luckily, they did provide a pointer to the original .pdf.  Real answer: No.  The average age of same-sex couples was 38.6 and the average age of married couples was 45.8.

Now in some cases, you can blame the reporter for cherry picking sensational data, but not in this case.  The glossy study has very neat tables which compare couples and don't control for any other variables.  Bad Researchers!

So I actually did that social dysfunction quiz a few days ago, but I don't like actually posting the results in the blog.  That's what they want you to do.  I'll just say that I ended up somewhere in the upper left hand corner.

So got back from contest this afternoon. We did OK, but (like usual) our best run through was in the practice room before going on stage. The first song wasn't too bad - it just lacked some dynamics. The second song went way too fast, and I couldn't tell whether we rushed Jimmy or if he gave us a fast tempo at the beginning. But it was _very_ fast and that made it choppy, so I suspect our scores suffered a bit because of it.

But I knew that I wanted to do Maker Fair tomorrow, so I wasn't able to stay for the fun shows this evening. Ah, well - at least I managed to catch HOT's new set. It's pretty jaw dropping.

I got a new toy in the mail today. Basically, I'm trying to reduce the amount of power that we're using around the house, so the first is thing to find out is just how much power we're using.  So, the first thing to check was the clock radio which (ahem) clocked in at 5 watts. Since my marginal rate for power is $0.0782 / KWH, this comes out to $0.28 a month. Not too much.

My computer with the monitor and stereo that I leave on all the time, clocks in at about 220W when it's actively calculating, about 130W when I'm just surfing. Oddly, running mythtv in a window only adds a couple of watts. In low power mode (screen off), it drops to about 85 watts. So, if I average about 100 watts, it comes out to be ~$5.60 a month. So, Kris' machine is likely to be about this same (if not worse - it has a Sempron and doesn't throttle) and I have a mythtv system running, so it's about $15-20 a month just for the three computers on all the time.

I also need to measure the "wiring closet" which is in the family room. That's got the cable modem, wireless router, Tivo, Cable box, sterero receiver (if the TV is on, sound goes through it; it's on a lot).

The other toy that I ordered hasn't come in yet. I found out in my old house that there was a small section behind the master bedroom mirror that wasn't insulated. I added some as best I could when I was rewiring some lights. I suspect the new place has some similar 'holes' in it. We'll see.

So, Maker Fair tomorrow. I'm debating whether to bring a camera or not. Probably best to just bring a note pad.

So went to see Voltaire Friday night. He was pretty spectacular, as always, and it was a really cool show. But I showed up at about 9:30 and there were two other bands before Voltaire went on. One was Iris, which wasn't too bad - at least I could pick out some of the words and the guitar wasn't too bad, even if the singer only had a 6 note range. The second band, Stromkern, I could have done without. It was sort of a rappy grind sort of a sound and I couldn't understand a word of it. As in no words. At all. So I spent the time wandering around and watching people and daydreaming.

One odd note. During Stromkern, I went over to the table where Voltaire was sitting, hawking his CDs. I bought Ookie Spookie and he asked if I wanted him to sign it. I said 'Sure'. "Who should I say it's to". For some reason I was slightly embarrassed, but I said "Gary.". He signed the CD, handed it back to me and I wondered off into the smoke.

So, 3/4 of the way into his set, he was thanking the management, Elysium and a few other folks and then he said 'And I wanted to thank Gary for coming out here'. And he look over in my general direction. Now, understand that I'm in complete wallflower mode at this time. The only words I said all evening were the few with Voltaire and the 'Bass' that I yelled at the barkeep. I froze, but people were looking my way and cheering, so I smiled, raised my hands acknowledging the crowd, then slunk back against the wall. Voltaire was barely smirking. It was.. interesting. I'm still not sure what that was about.

So, the house is ready. I'm still likely to do a few more things over the next few days (things that people probably won't see but will need to be fixed for Inspection), but it's ready for people to look through it. Waiting on a call back from the agent.

Final note. One of the blogs that I subscribe to has a donor challenge under the Donor's Choose organization.
onefishclappin has mentioned it a couple of times, but I'd not done anything with it.  This time I decided to help fund a teacher in NY who was gathering forestry tools so he could teach students about land management and biology.  We'll see how it goes.  I really like the idea that I can see the details about what I'm doing with it.

So, House not yet ready.  I guess no big surprise - I just have a few too many things still left undone.  Luckily, quijax came by today and helped with the electrical stuff, so that's just more that I don't have to do (and would do a worse job at more slowerer).

But, I forgot how hard it was to move 6 yards of mulch.  Again, I like the work, but it really seems to be hard on my body and brain.  Kept not being able to find those word things today.  Words like 'sheers' (white curtain like thingies).  Finding it hard to move to other house now.  Sentence fragments.

It's not all spread out yet, but at least it no longer looks like a Jungle out there.  Should be able to finish that tomorrow morning with relative ease.  I'm going back over there tonight to find out how long it will take to put the screens in their frames.

Soon, soon.  I keep telling myself, soon.

So, in the end, I ended up hiring Convict Hill to do the kitchen & family room tile. It's probably a good thing, too. One of the tilers walked into the family room, glanced around and said, "we'll have to fill in the middle here". After they left, I got a 2.5' level and checked the cement. No gap. Then I got a 4' edge and found a 3/16" gap to the cement. He was able to see it by just glancing in the room. I would have never seen that and with the shiny tile that we picked it would have been really obvious that there was a dip there.

So, carpet goes in Friday. I mainly need to get the touch-up paint and the molding done by then. Might take off tomorrow depending on how this evening goes.

Todo List:

• Replace kitchen arch window
• Install powder room toilet
• Install mirrors
• Add frame to guest bath mirror
• Install the new lights
• Finish the mbath peel & stick (center areas all done, just need to do edges).
• Replace mbath toilet.
• Replace screens (I have no idea how long this will take.  I should do a sample 5 or so to get an approximate time)
• Mulch and add a few plants outside.
• Clean toxic waste out of shed.
• Clean out garage.
• Remove all tools and build stuff.
• Add blinds (I think we can do this after it's on the market; I need to talk Wife into it).

Sigh.  Maybe it's more than a couple of days.  I probably should try and find a day worker to do the bed weeding and mulching.  That's probably almost a day by itself.

Wow - I've not updated in a while. So, I put down my first tile floor yesterday. It was easier and more fun than I expected. I really like figuring out the offsets to try and minimize the small cuts and make things look right. I did have a minute of panic. The powder room is 5'1" long, so I figured that 5 12"x12" tiles + 1/4" grout would work fine, right? Nope - 12" tile is really 11 3/4" tile. So I put it down anyway and set it up so that the extra grout at the end is under quarter round molding. It should be fine.

But it went quick (done cutting and laying the tile by noon yesterday), so I bought the tile for the laundry room. The powder room was ~18 ft² and the laundry is ~40 ft². I did all the laundry room cutting but two tiles yesterday in about an hour and a half. If I like the way things go, and the grout comes out nice, I'm going to to be tempted to do the kitchen / family room (~400 ft²). It's fun!

But the (currently migrating) goal is to get the thing on the market soon. We'll see.

Funny, I don't feel smarter.

So just got back from the RCPopening night. It's *really* a good show. The longer rehearsal period seemed to make some of the dancer's moves a bit smoother than I remember in past shows. I had fun with the follow spot as usual. For me, it's just a video game - you wait for the right input and you shoot. Sometimes you hit. And sometimes you miss by a little. At least I didn't see anyone turn around and scowl at me (except the one time when I dropped a page of my notes down into the audience. Luckily it was a page that was already done!).

I've been trying to get out on the bike at least once a week through winter and it looks like I'll be there - just barely. It's almost time to start ramping up to 3-4 times a week. I've got a pot belly to start getting rid of.

Lesse - houses have been somewhat stagnant for the past month. Just don't seem to have the time to make it to the old place to work on the darn thing. Ah, well - will get to it one of these centuries.

So, I figured I'd try and put up a picture as well since everyone else is doing it.  This is a close-up of one of the trees in front of our house.



This can't be good for the poor little limbs.

So, my wrist has been pretty good for a while.  I'd gotten to the point where I just plain didn't notice any pain or problems with it.  Until Kris and I unpacked the book boxes upstairs.

See, they were really "media" boxes - books, CDs, VCR tapes.  And video games.  So, I finally unpacked Guitar Hero and found out that my wrist is still not back in shape.  I can play for about 20-30 minutes, then I really have to stop.

The frustrating thing is that most of the problems I've been having (currently trying to get 4 stars on all medium songs) are really due to my right hand.  For some reason, I just can't seem to stroke up/down in time with long sequences.  I do much better with arpeggios than I do with the same note repeated over and over.  I suspect it has something to do with not really having any sense of rhythm.  If I hear a melody, I can do it in proper time.  With the same note, I have to more or less use internal rhythm sense to keep on time.  Therein is the problem.

Oh, well.  Practice makes perfect.

Oh, and Sunday evening I started having a scratchy throat and now I've got a full-fledged cold.  I think this is the 3rd bug I've had in the past two months.  It's getting old.  Or I am.

So, a couple of days ago (I think it was Saturday), Kris and I were going over to Pat's place to pick him up for a Fry's run. Just as we pulled out of our street, we saw an oldish (50s) looking man walking down the street somewhat hurriedly, looking anxious. We kept driving a little further and then a big black dog (labradorish looking) ran right out in front of the car. I managed to stop in time (I think Kris had yelled a warning before I saw the dog). We were getting close to Escarpment (busy road), so Kris jumped out to see if she could snag the beast. No luck - it was fun to play tag!

It turns out that the man going down the street was feeding said beast for a neighbor, and that the dog ran right out when he opened the door. He was in quite a panic, especially because he needed to make a plane flight in a couple hours. So Kris and I decided to help.

The dog managed to cross Escarpment without getting squished, and then he proceeded down among the houses, having a gay old time. Kris and the man continued trying to round up the dog to no avail. I kept jumping in the car and driving towards our quarry. At one point, there were a bunch of kids in front of a house and I yelled at them to grab the dog. No dice.

So at one point while I was driving the car forward, an idea occurred to me. I pulled up along a house where the dog was leaving a mark, and opened up the passenger door with a 'come on boy'. The dog jumped right in and I closed the door.

So, aside for a slightly slimy passenger door, we got the dog back with no harm done. And were only about 20 mins late to Pat's house.

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So Kris and I eneded up helping onefishclappin and krikwennavd put up and decorate their tree for Christmas Eve. Note that at our own house, Kris and I only got so far as to pull our tree from the box and stand it up. But helping C&D out was more fun. And then we had a busy Christmas morning at their house again (more funner with kids around), then we were at fairydust1's place for Christmas dinner. Then Christmas was over and it didn't seem too important to actually decorate the tree that evening.

So we finally got around decorating the tree today so we can get pictures. Mind you, we only did "one side" and the whole process was about 15 minutes. And then we finally exchanged our gifts for each other. I'm trying to think now. The progression goes: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day. Then what? Ex Post Boxing comes to mind, but lacks panache. Need another name for procrastinators everywhere. I guess it would be best to come up with a name before next year. I'll get around to it.

So, updated specifications have been released from Christi and David:

Official time: 08:30
Name: Scott Alexander (to be called Alex).

I wish to thank Chrsti and David for providing an excellent way for Kris and I to keep track of how long we've been in our new house: so, how old is Alex?

So, David and Christi seem to have produced an offspring external to Christi's belly. B-Sample specifications:

Weight 6lb 13oz (3090 gm).
Length 19.5 (495300 um).

Designation to follow; mother and child are doing fine, except that they're fighting over his curfew.