Archives by Month - September 2006
I woke up with a huge headache this morning, which seemed to get worse as I got out of bed to wake up. I tried to go back to sleep, but my head hurt too much for even that. Of course we were all out of Tylenol, so I had no way for quick relief. I don't think I've ever had a headache as severe as this before. I drank a bunch of water and tried to relax in bed, but my head just hurt too much to relax. Eventually Asuka got me some Tylenol from the store and I was able to fall back asleep. When I woke up again around lunch I felt 100% better. That was a pretty rocky start to my weekend, but now I'm feeling great!
I saw Justin and Davin spin at the bar last night, which was great fun. Their set was full of good music as usual, and I came home pretty sweaty from all the dancing. Today I'm just taking it easy, recovering from my headache this morning and enjoying a relaxing break from all the work I did last week.
I've been quite busy with stuff lately. I had to work some extra hours at my side contract job this week, and I've been a bit stressed and tired from that. Things at my main job are getting very interesting though, and one of the clients my team works with has some fun new projects coming up. I always find it really motivating when the projects I'm working on involve new ideas and theories that we need to create and work out. Sometimes things get a bit monotonous when I'm just working on bug fixes or style tweaks, but right now I'm really enjoying the creative process of designing a large, complicated and important system for our client. Of course after this development phase we'll get to implement this new system and that will also be a lot of fun. I'm really happy with the company and work I get to do these days.
In other news, that new jazzy deep house set I was working on has hit a delay. My mixer has developped some leaks both in the main fader and with one of the volume switches. This makes mixing seamless sets very hard, and I sometimes get crackling artifacts in my recording. I need to open up my mixer and do some tests. Hopefully I can just replace the broken pieces, but I might end up needing a whole new mixer. So I'm not sure when I'll be getting that done, but it shouldn't be too long - I hope.
I figured out that I can hook up my ipod to the Xbox 360. You can pretty much connect anything to the 360 via USB. So now I can use my own ipod music in place of any game's music, and all I need to do is plug it in to the system. This is great because the new poker game I got has horrible music. So now I'm off to play some poker online with the 360 and listen to some relaxing jazz.
I promised to catch everyone up with what I've been up to this past year. Last spring this website went offline and I only brought it back online this month. So, rather than write a huge novel of everything that happened in the past 15 months, I've put together a series of photos that should better illustrate what I've been up to.
So, without further ado, here is a seven part photo series of what I've been up to for the last year:
Chris of course stole the show with his trumpet playing, and the crowd loved it. He has really mastered that performer and audience connection. What a great show. Afterwards he came right out to sign autographs for everyone. So I got to meet him and his band, and get all their autographs. That includes his pianist Billy Childs, guitarist Mark Whitfield, drummer Billy Kilson and vocalist Jeane Jolly. The bass player didn't come out so I didn't get to meet him. I got autographs for Asuka too since she couldn't make the show.
I'm only disappointed that I didn't bring my camera. UVIC told me no cameras would be allowed, so I left mine at home. Of course in the end people everywhere had cameras and were using them. I wish I could have gotten some photos of the band during and after the performance. Next time I will for sure. I took a couple snaps with my camera phone, but their quality is crappy at best.
I'm definitely going to see them live again whenever I can. They are on a big North American tour right now, and then Europe, so I don't think it will be anytime soon. But I won't miss it when they come back. I plan to pick up their new DVD too, which has their recent live performance in Los Angeles. This was my first live jazz show and I don't know if another one will ever top it. There is nothing like live jazz music with such talented performers.
Anyways, I've gushed enough about this show. It's time to come back down to earth and get my chores done. I will, however, put on some Chris Botti music while I do my cleaning.
Can you guess who I'm going to see perform? My previous three blog entries all have titles that are names of this person's songs. A little archive searching and Googling should get you the artist's name. If you figure it out, post a comment.
Since the return of this blog is fairly recent and I haven't really told anyone it is back, I don't think I have many readers yet. So I'm not expecting anyone to post answers to this little game in my comments. At least not yet. Maybe sometime down the line someone will be looking through my old archives and come across this entry. If they're bored, well, they can enjoy this little hunt.
In other news, the good TV shows are now back in rotation. However, I missed the first episode of The Office season 3 last night. I was out for dinner with some old friends from school. I downloaded the episode though, so I will be watching it this evening. I've been looking forward to seeing what happens after last season's big ending. I did manage to see the new CSI though. Man, I thought last season's ending was eventful, but now they're really throwing some interesting character developments into the mix. The nice summer weather is almost gone, but at least fall brings good television with it.
I've been pretty bored with cooking lately. It's about that time where I need some new meals inserted into my rotation. Something easy to make, tasty and different. I usually cook chicken or stir frys, pasta, burritos, rice dishes, or the occasional steak or salmon meal. I've got a few cook books sitting around, so I should probably dig into those. If I could I would have something different everyday. But that is expensive, and I'm too lazy to put that much effort into dinner every night.
I've got some work to complete before poker tonight. I've also got to figure out what to do for dinner - go figure. I'll probably just make chicken and rice again.
Tomorrow I'll probably do some contract work, play a bit of online poker and do some other little chores around my place. It's not often that I have a weekend without many responsibilities looming, but I'll enjoy this one - even if I still have some work to do. I'll especially like sleeping in.
I may even spin some music tonight. I've got a new set I've been preparing, marinating if you will, but I still need to tweak a few song selections first. Actually, I just bought season two of The Office (USA version), so I don't know why I'm not watching that yet. Here's to relaxing weekends, cheers.
I think there were a few thousand people there, but it wasn't so crowded to be annoying. The initial line for tokens was fairly large, but it always is. The actual beer lines were short enough that you wouldn't finish your last beer before being at the front of the line for your next. The weather started off cloudy but turned bright and sunny fairly quickly. I had no complaints.
Best of all, I got served beer by the rock-paper-scissors Regional Champion: good old Graham Scott. It's pretty funny that he won such a weird competition - he himself said it was the most random thing ever. He was serving us beer in his Regional Champion jacket, and told us about how he gets a free trip to Toronto for the Nationals, and spending money. Listening to that story with many-a-beer in me was probably the funniest part of my day.
I had a long day at work today, only just getting home now. I'm currently just relaxing, sipping on some wine, listening to some jazz by Chris Botti and contemplating what to make for dinner. I've got some work to do for my side contract job tonight, but right now I'm just enjoying some good music and watching the sun set.
1. Taxi - People Come Runnin'
2. Physics - 7a.m. Session
3. Kaskade - I Feel Like (Extended)
4. Russ Grabriel - Spirit of Corea
5. Amy Helm - Own Way Home
6. Q-Burns Abstract Message - Innocent (Joey Negro Mix)
7. Groove Junkies - Deeper
8. Sam & Gigi - Come and Dance
9. Stealth Jazz - So Many Times
10. Ananda Project - Can You Find the Heart (Rui Da Silva Saffron Vocal Mix)
11. Incognito - Morning Sun (Ski Oakenfull Dub)
12. Irini - 24/7 Love (Tus Yellow Jelly Mix)
13. The Beard - Someday (Original Mix)
Vibe: Deep and Soulful House
Date Recorded: May 15 2006
Length: 77:07 min
Download: (Right-click and Save As)
• CD Cover
• Tracklist
• 320 kbps MP3 (180 Mb) | 128 kbps MP3 (72 Mb)
I'm still working out some of the kinks of the new design, layout and code. The general look and navigation should be fairly final though. If you notice a bug or if the layout of the site is broken in your browser, send me a comment.
Tomorrow promises to be some good times followed by a period of recovery time. I know a fair number of people who will be attending the festival, so things should be interesting. I'm still debating whether I want to take my camera and carry it around all day, or if I should just leave it at home. More free hands for beer is probably a better idea.
Now that the new site is up, expect some fairly regular updates. Later this week I'll write up a brief description of what I've been up to this last year without a blog. For now, the new site's maiden voyage is under way.
