av8rmike

So, what's been going on the past month? Lots of the same uninteresting stuff, like trying to organize stuff around the house and get things unpacked. The PHP/MySQL project for work for which I've been up to my eyeballs finally seems to be clearing, so I may actually have time to start doing things like updating and Support again. It's been really interesting, and I've learned a lot about server-side programming, but probably not enough to help out significantly with DW/LJ because I still find Perl pretty impenetrable, and I didn't have to consider a lot of scalability problems for the work site.

For Thanksgiving Jamie and I flew back to see her family in Wisconsin. I found it amusing that the question nearly everyone asked was, "How was the security?" or "Did you get [frisked]?". What people who have been following the stories only loosely may not have understood is that not everyone is required to get scanned. At BWI and Milwaukee, for instance, I only went through the same metal detectors I always go through. The millimeter-wave scanners were there, and some people were going through them, but I couldn't see a pattern to it, nor was I asked to step through. So, you do still have a choice, and it's not exhibitionism vs. groping vs. arrest.

Anyway. Off to a full week of rehearsals for 3 separate concerts!

There's been so much going on in the last few days, I've hardly had time to log in and check my Friends page, let alone write an actual update. So, if I've missed anyone getting married or buried or any other life changes, feel free to comment. Where to begin?

• We had the house walk-through and closed on Wednesday, kicking off four days of constant freak-out.


• Thursday was lots of packing, because Friday the movers were showing up. The move itself went smoothly and quickly, which happens when you hire pros. Of course, the move butting up against Yom Kippur didn't help for getting stuff done on Friday night and Saturday.


• My office is also in the middle of moving to a new location, which also occurred Friday. Thankfully, a professional crew was handling that as well, meaning I was only responsible for packing my office. Of course, it hasn't been all smooth sailing, as my keycard didn't work, my desk chair was missing, and I still have to arrange the furniture properly.


• Speaking of the office, I don't like the new building itself because it's like a giant Faraday cage. I can barely pick up any radio stations.


• I'm grateful that Jamie's been here to help with things and to keep me calm because it's been very stressful for both of us. My mom came in yesterday afternoon to help with organizing and unpacking. Yesterday, they completely unpacked the kitchen stuff, which is a big help. We haven't gone to a grocery store in days, so there's very little to cook anyway.


• The other reason my mom is in town is because I'm playing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra tonight. OK, so it's not a "real" gig, it's just a reprise of what they are calling the "Rusty Musicians" concert, where regular Joe amateurs can have the opportunity to play a few pieces with the professionals. Right now I'm too worn out to be overly excited, but I'll be prepared for it.


• Oh yeah, Support. I should probably check in there, too.

I'm sure I've forgotten lots of stuff, but that's a lot of update there.

It's amazing what turns up when you're cleaning up for a move. We just found (in the office) a book from 1978 that explains how to program in FORTRAN, on PUNCH CARDS.

Stolen from coffeechica and dawna. There's no way I'll be able to keep this up for 30 whole days, especially because I don't listen to enough popular music or "songs" to fill out the list. Instead, I'll just pick & choose or skip where necessary.

Day 1: Your Favorite Song

There is no way I could pick out one song or piece of music as my absolute favoritest ever, but if I had to, it would almost certainly be something by Richard Strauss. I think he's viewed as something of an egotist in the classical music world, especially for writing at least two musical tributes to himself (Symfonia Domestica and Ein Heldenleben, "A Hero's Life"). Still, the man could write some beautifully lush music. This clip is taken from his orchestral suite to Der Rosenkavalier and is the instrumental version of the final trio from the end of the opera. The first time I ever heard this suite, I was transfixed through this entire section.

Also, what is mayerman doing in the oboe section? O_o


And if you're going to insist that to be part of this meme, there has to be vocals, here you go:


( All 30 Days )

If you ever feel the need to practice your signature, I recommend buying a house, especially the mortgage application. 60+ pages, only about 10 of which are actual things to fill out; the rest is acknowledging that things have been disclosed to you.

On the positive side, though, the inspection yesterday went very well. The roof is asphalt/tar and needs touching up soon, but that's probably the most urgent thing. I may even be able to talk the sellers into covering it. Now I just have to worry about cleaning and packing up my apartment.

After putting in an offer on a house, going back and forth with the seller over crap about closing assistance and his profit margin, the seller has finally decided that he's going to rent the house instead. To a couple who supposedly are going to buy after a year of renting and despite "going through bankruptcy" still managed to put a $5,000 deposit on the place. The realtor and both of my finance guys think something doesn't add up here. I wonder if the couple isn't just friends of the owner to whom he made some kind of promise and the actual marketing of the house was just for show. Also, it supposedly needs a new roof. 9_9

It's a little disappointing, but it also wasn't a place we were really in love with, so not that much is lost in the deal.

Also, had a pretty good birthday yesterday. We went with my dad & stepmother to a barbecue place in Bowie that we'd never been before. For a few different reasons, I doubt we'll be going back there.

So, a little while ago I put an offer on a house. We should find out tomorrow if the seller accepts or has a counter-offer.

It's scary, this growing up thing.

...but lately (like, the last few months), it has been. Chalk it up to having very little downtime through a combination of doing actual work at the office, Support, practicing, going to rehearsals, and basically, trying to live life rather than just document it. That's one of the reasons I don't use Facebook much; another being that their privacy practices should scare the crap out of anyone.

Dreamwidth is doing this "3 Weeks for Dreamwidth" thing, which has something to do with severing itself from LJ by asking people not to cross-post. Well, screw that, I'll post where I want and people can not read it on either site. Although, if anyone is still reading, there's this meme that's floating around, so I'll post if you want to comment:

'What kind of topics/entries would you like to see me posting about? Any particular questions you've always wanted to ask me but have resisted because the answer would be a huge essay? Ever want to wind me up and watch me go on a particular topic? Anything you've heard me say "I should write that entry about $foo I've been meaning to write" and have been patiently waiting for?'

One of my co-workers, who is Catholic and likes to play music over his iPod dock, just mentioned something to me about needing to turn off the music between 12 and 3, because of Good Friday. He said "yep, no music, no TV" for these hours today.

I've been on this Earth for over 30 years and had plenty of Catholic friends, so why am I just hearing about this now? Do all the Catholics do this?

And people say we Jews have weird traditions...

Wow, I can't believe it's been like a month since I posted anything to LJ (or DW). Not really for any particular reason, I just haven't felt like anyone would be interested in anything going on.

I've been spending a lot of time at work teaching myself object-oriented programming techniques in C++, which I find really interesting, even if it's time-consuming.