Holidays

So I hope everyone's holidays have been going well. I had a great time down in Florida with my family. Drank some great wine with Dad & Jo and even got a round of golf in with my mom, which was fun (we tied). I will have new pics of Baby Evan to post as soon as my pop emails them. He really is insanely cute. He does this shy little smile when I play with him.

For New Years I'll be up in New York hanging with some of my best friends and the lovely Kathryn and her friends. She's been stressing out. Her friends are all just a little too laid back to get NYE plans in order so it's fallen to her. She's not the logistical superfreak that I am so planning a new years night for 15 people is not her cup of tea. It's amazing how much pressure we put on ourselves to achieve the archetype, isn't it? New Year's eve is always supposed to be super fun and exciting - a thrill a minute. Valentines Day is always supposed to be tender and romantic. Christmas is the hardest. You have family that you don't see all year, but on Christmas everyone is supposed to be smiles and sunshine and family and carols and what not. All this effort to achieve our ideal version of a night almost always ends in cringing frustration or just plain old disappointment.

So why do we do it? Well, I think I do it because the ideal, no matter how unrealistic, is pretty darn awesome. Who doesn't want to sing songs and tell stories by the fire with a family that loves them? Who doesn't want to party like the world is going to end? Who doesn't want to share that moment with their special someone where their love is the only thing in the world that matters? I think the holidays are like gambling. The chances of it turning out right are very low, but we're all so wrapped up in the dream of what it COULD be like, that we keep playing. We roll the dice every holiday and hope that the club will be fun, that we'll be loved, that the turkey won't be dry, and that Santa will bring us all good cheer and tolerance. This year, let's all try to have a good time and just worry about breaking even.

Why can't life be more like The A-Team?

Remember how cool The A-Team was? I've found that real life, even when it reminds me of the A-team is just not the same. For example, remember when Hannibal would say "I love it when a plan comes together."?

Today, I was emailing with a colleague and he responded to my email saying:
"Many thanks for the quick determination on this issue. This outcome simplifies the funding transmittal process."

Somehow, it's just not the same. Also, I never get to drug my colleagues in order to get them on a plane.

Good Music

So, in juxtaposition to Sunday's concert, Tom, Pat and I saw We Are Scientists at Black Cat last night. There were no special effects, no wacky skits, just really good music. This was my first time seeing these guys and I have to say that (with one exception) their live show is even better than their CD. I love bands that are better live than produced. When I like a bands album but find that they stink live, I can never really appreciate the album in the same way.

So, what was the one exception? Their tempo was all over the place! The entire band was slowing down and then speeding back up (very noticeably) all night. Got on my nerves. That said, We Are Scientists is a great new band that you should check out. They're post-new wave rock if that means anything to you. They use a lot of squealing guitars and syncopated drumming.

What other new music am I listening to? Well, the albums I'm listening to most right now come from the following bands. Check them out if you get the chance.
Art Brut - British post-punk stuff
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - low-fi art rock
Morningwood - chick-led pop-rock
Flyleaf - chick-led hard rock
O.K. Go - Poppy-rocky fun stuff. You should definitely check out this band.
Tenacious D - the soundtrack to The Pick of Destiny is out

Hey, if you know a cool new band that I should listen to, post their name here. Also, if you're looking for a really cool way to find new music you like, visit www.pandora.com. Put in a couple bands you like and this website will create a streaming radio station with other bands you might like based on your preferences. You can also give positive and negative feedback on each song you hear to help the site refine its selections for you. Rock on.

GWAR!!!

Is it stupid and juvenile to go see a speed metal band dressed up in rubber demon costumes where they execute people on stage and spray the crowd with fake blood (and other bodily fluids)? Judging by the rest of the audience at last nights GWAR show, I would have to call that a resounding yes. Indeed, I felt no shame at having paid $20 to listen to songs about hell while watching Satan battling a 15 foot T-rex or even being narrowly missed by the spray from Hitler’s recently exposed carotid artery. These things in no way indicated that I was wasting time or money. After all – it was a show! What told me I was being silly, was the evidence all around me – a mass of awkwardly drunk teens and be-mulletted rednecks that seemed to equivocate the coming of GWAR with the only true release in their otherwise meaningless lives. The demon rockers were funny. The crowd was the only thing evoking fear or disgust. Oh well – I guess I’ll see ‘em again next year! Oh, and for you GWAR fans out there – no, they did not play Fistful of Teeth (major disappointment) but they did play a particularly brutal version of Meat Sandwich.

today's highlight

I just got off the most hilarious phone call. This old English dude named John Fallon called me looking to track down a colleague of mine. He just kept going on and on about how he got my number and who he was looking for and why it was important. Even after I gave him the number he was seeking, he just wanted to chat on and on about the background of his project. Apparently, he’s promoting burning alcohol in small turbine generators and he heard that NREL has just such a generator sitting around in Golden, Colorado. He is trying to link DOE, NREL, and some utility in a town with a silly name to do a pilot. Frankly, I couldn’t care less about his project, but he had this amazing way of speaking that just kept me entranced. I was literally on the phone with this guy for 20 minutes. He said things like “of course, of course, all is forgiven,” “I suppose that depends on whose ox is being gored you see,” and “like the gentleman said in eight B.C., we’re all organized until we’re reorganized, you understand.” Oh and he would talk really fast except when he would say people’s names, a which point he would say them really really slowly like “so of course I asked the man his name and he told me D A N F O G E L and after speaking with him he directed me to J A C K D E M P S Y who sent me to your man C A L V I N F E R K who I rang at the number I’d been given which has clearly led me do you, you see.” The man was wasting my time but he was so enchanting that I consider his call the highlight of my day. How strange.

Death by Meeting

So, given my first three days on the job and my outlook for the rest of this week it seems that I will be averaging between three and four hours of meetings each day. This is insane! See, our group is currently dealing with a LOT of different projects for DOE and our philosophy is that incorporating more brainpower into the planning process for each project will make it more successful. The result is that I am going to lots of meetings and accomplishing very little in the way of work.

I used to work with a guy who said that companies should eliminate all chairs from conference rooms and that would make meetings shorter. I think that would just make everyone resent their coworkers that much more for making them stand around. Personally, I think we should develop a computer program that calculates the per-minute salary of everyone attending a meeting and then displays a running tally of meeting cost on an electronic banner in each conference room.

Meanwhile, I just pushed back for the first time and informed my boss that I will NOT be going to DOE's staff update meeting tomorrow. I don't need more information - I need time to put what information I've been able to assimilate to good use. Once I've produced a some value, then maybe I'll consider heaping more meetings onto my plate. For now, I'm gonna keep my head down and try to eek out some productivity. Wish me luck.

Life at NREL

So, I'm closing in on the end of my second day here at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. So far everyone here has been really fantastic about welcoming me and making time to answer all of my questions. This job is going to be different from everything I've done before. In the past my job has always been about getting an assignment and determining the best way to get it done. Now I'm going to be focusing more on determining what the assignments should be and ensure that those doing the work are doing it well. Nuts. Oh well, it'll be fine.

Meanwhile, my friend Jihan has invited me to be her date to the SENTECH holiday party. That'll be fun. If anyone tries to give me any sht^t about having left I'll just ignore it. I'm going to have fun with Jihan, Bryan, Phil, Shawn, Bill, Tyrone, Jo & everyone else that I like there - not to talk business. It's sad enough that so many cool folks have left.