Sleepless in Midlo...

Well kiddies, it is that time again. Yes it is time for me to have that wonderful "shift-rotation" from nights to days. YUK! The last time I did this, I was unable to get good rest for about 2 weeks! I enjoy night shift and will miss my "peeps" that are on it.

Day shift is a lot more hectic with many more engineers and workers running about the Fab with tasks to get done before their deadline is over. It will be hard getting adjusted to getting up at 5.00am and leaving by 5.45 to get to work. Traffic will not be bad in the morning or evening, but that is of no consolation. I will be on "days" for the next 2 months and then rotate back to nights again. The one good thing is that the house they are building 40 feet from my bedroom will be completed and I will not have to put up with hammering and sawing from the workers!! They cut down a lot of trees in the back, but left enough so it would not look bare and it has not appeared to stop the birds from eating from my feeder.

This is just in time for "Spring Break" to occur here as well. We are supposed to go to DC next week and tour The White House. It is very hard to get tickets, but we were able to do it. During this trip, we are also going to tour The Capitol again, but a better tour will be given then the last one we took. I hope to have some good pics to go along with these tours as well. We are supposed to go to one of The Smithsonian Museums also and time permitting, go to The George Washington Masonic National Memorial. Here is another link to the site: http://www.gwmemorial.org/ This also gives details about the memorial. I have wanted to go to it for a while, but we have never made it there due to time constraints. I hope to get there this go around, if not, it is always about 2 hours from our home.

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It is that time of year...

Well folks, it is that time of year again for the pollen to fly and for the weather and temperature to be on a rollercoaster ride. For the last few days, it has been in the 80s, very nice Spring Time Weather. The trees are starting to bud out and the pollen is starting to fly. I can see it on my truck hood...AH Chew!!

Easter is upon us this Sunday. We just got our cold front that generally happens around Easter weekend. I remember as a kid, we would always go camping at Lake Sam Rayburn for that weekend and all of the "family" would circle the wagons so to speak. We had Aunt Dale and Uncle Forestray, Aunt Babe and Uncle Talmadge, and Aunt Jewel and Uncle Don as well as Etha, Pawp and me and other various kids and cousins. We would all go to Mill Creek Park and try to get on "Easter Point" every year. If you go to the map link, the spots are sites 60 and 61. It would always bee nice and warm that week before, but we would set up camp and get "Blue Norther" and nearly blow us off the camping site. It would go from 80 to 30 degrees that night and we would all freeze!! We all had camping trailers with electric, but it would still be cold!! A few of the boats would sink because of the wind straight out of the north would swamp the ends on them because of the waves.

After the maelstrom of the preceding night, we would slowly come out of our campers and I would get a fire started as I was a "fire Bug" back then. I still love fire!! My Aunt Dale was the "camp master" and she would get the breakfast started. All the men would go and survey the boats and get the water out of them if need be to go and catch some fish. At the end of all the camping that weekend, We always had a "Fish Fry" on that Sunday afternoon and then we would break camp and go home.

Aunt Dale, Uncle Forestray, and Uncle Don have all since passed from the world, they are missed by all and it would seam that the title of "Camp Master" has passed to me according to Aunt Dale's Daughter Patrice. She said that I am the only one that can get the family together when I come to visit them in Texas. If that is so, then I have very big foot steps to follow in and I would ware that mantel proudly.

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Test…This is a test using MS Word 2007

So How Much Is Too Much?

# of Drinks	BAC by Body Weight								The Effects on You
	100	120	140	160	180	200	220	240
1	.04	.03	.03	.02	.02	.02	.02	.02	Blue = Not legally intoxicated. Brown = Driving judgment and skill is impaired though you are not legally intoxicated. Red = You're drunk, legally intoxicated and dangerous!
2	.08	.06	.05	.05	.04	.04	.03	.03
3	.11	.09	.08	.07	.06	.06	.05	.05
4	.15	.12	.11	.09	.08	.08	.07	.06
5	.19	.16	.13	.12	.11	.09	.09	.08
6	.23	.19	.16	.14	.13	.11	.10	.09
7	.26	.22	.19	.16	.15	.13	.12	.11
8	.30	.25	.21	.19	.17	.15	.14	.13
9	.34	.28	.24	.21	.19	.17	.15	.14
10	.38	.31	.27	.23	.21	.19	.17	.16

This estimator is only a guide and is not considered accurate enough to use as legal evidence. The figures given are averages. People will vary somewhat in their personal alcohol tolerance. There are also many factors that affect the rate alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream, such as food in the stomach. Other influential factors include medications, health, lean body mass, and psychological conditions.

 

Stages of Intoxication

BAC	STAGE	CLINICAL SYMPTOMS
0.01-0.05	Subclinical	Behavior nearly normal by ordinary observation
0.03-0.12	Euphoria	Mild euphoria, sociability, talkativeness, increased self-confidence; decreased inhibitions, diminution of attention, judgment and control. Beginning of sensory-motor impairment. Loss of efficiency in finer performance tests
0.09-0.25	Excitement	Emotional instability; loss of critical judgment. Impairment of perception, memory and comprehension. Decreased sensory response; decreased reaction time. Reduced visual acuity; peripheral vision and glare recovery. Sensory-motor incoordination; impaired balance. Drowsiness.
0.18-0.30	Confusion	Disorientation, mental confusion; dizziness. Exaggerated emotional states. Disturbances of vision and of perception of color, form, motion and dimensions. Increased pain threshold. Increased muscular incoordination; staggering gait; slurred speech. Apathy, lethargy.
0.25-0.40	Stupor	General inertia; approaching loss of motor functions. Markedly decreased response to stimuli. Marked muscular incoordination; inability to stand or walk. Vomiting; incontinence. Impaired consciousness; sleep or stupor.
0.35-0.50	Coma	Complete unconsciousness. Depressed or abolished reflexes. Subnormal body temperature. Incontinence. Impairment of circulation and respiration. Possible death
0.45 +	DEATH	Death from respiratory arrest.

 

New Videos...

I posted 3 new vids to that section of my BLOG.
Enjoy!!!


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Guility Pleasure...Type-O-Negative

Members
Peter Steele – Lead vocals, bass guitar, guitar, and keyboards
Josh Silver – Keyboards, synth, effects, programming, backing vocals
Kenny Hickey – Lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Johnny Kelly – Drums, percussion, backing vocals

With a career going from 1991 until 2007 as a band with little or no radio play, they are very under rated as artists. The style can be described as Gothic Metal. The deal with topics of humanities dark side or the depths of despair and human suffering that no band can put so eloquently or bring forth like they can.

The started out as a goth/punk act in 1991with Slow,Deep, and Hard where the songs were stripped down to the core with total rocking out riffs and dirge lyrics. Some of them clocked in between 8 and 14 minuets, Much too long for any radio play or music videos.

In 1992, The Origin of the Feces was released. It was a live remake of the 1st album. It had new arrangements of the tracks with the "live" part dubbed over as it was recorded in their basement. With some tracks clocking in at over 14 minuets and a very good cover of Paranoid by Black Sabbath.

1993 with the release of Bloody Kisses, their sophomore effort the band saw stardom and airplay with several tracks and heavy rotation on MTV. The thrash metal and ranting from the first album was all but gone, and the band had made huge strides in the progression of their musical style. Bloody Kisses mostly addressed loneliness and heartbreak, with songs like “Too Late: Frozen”, “Blood & Fire”, and “Cant Lose You” all being tributes to long lost loves. The organ-driven “Set me on Fire” is vintage sixties garage rock, showcasing the band’s keen sense of melody. The title track is a Romeo & Juliet retelling of a love/suicide pact. The two singles, “Christian Woman” and “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)” were more radio friendly and accessible, after having been edited down to more radio-friendly lengths (the album versions of these songs were 8½ and 11 minutes long, respectively), with heavy guitars and bass combining with ethereal keyboards and gloomy melodies. They also did a cover of Seals&Croft - Summer Breeze. It was a very good cover.

In 1997, October Rust was released. It can be compared to an epic Pink Floyd album in style and layering or instrumentation. With songs about love, loss, death, and vampires, all the bases were covered. The keys were very lush and layered giving way to Peter Steels deep bass voice. Songs such as “Love You to Death”, “Be My Druidess”, “Green Man”, “Die With Me”, and “Haunted” all combined goth, rock, and new wave styles. Several other tracks that stand out are: Wolf Moon [Including Zoanthropic Paranoia], and Red Water (Christmas Mourning). The also, once again, did a cover song on this album. This time covering Neal Young - "Cinnamon Girl". They also had a few songs go to MTV videos.

In 1999, World Coming Down was released. It was a more stripped down album then October Rust with less instrumentation and more guitar. The overall vibe of the album was a significant change from the pop inflected and airy nature of October Rust: this time the band revisited the more doom and dirge oriented sounds from Slow Deep & Hard, and the result was an honest (if difficult) tone, where the band seemed to wallow in their misery. This time around, instead of sex, the lyrics focused on death, drug addiction, depression, and suicide. Songs such as “Everyone I Love is Dead,” “Everything Dies,” “World Coming Down,” and “All Hallows Eve” were not meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but rather, real life reflections of the mindset affecting Steele at the time. It was a hard album to get into, but if you like Type O, then it is a must.

In 2000, The Least Worst of Type O Negative was released as a Best Of album going back 10 years with unreleased tracks and some remixed ones as well. Also available is the band's cover of "Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath, and a cleaner officially studio version of "Hey Pete", which was originally released on the mock live album "Origin of the Feces".

The year 2003 saw an album called Life Is Killing Me. A humorous cover of the song "Angry Inch" from the film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, detailing a sex change operation gone terribly wrong, marks the band's return to its trademark humor that had been absent on their previous album. The album conveyed the band's style or music and lyrics in their usually style.

Now 2007, Dead Again. The bands 7th studio album. IT is a rocking album in the Type O style with several tracks clocked at 14 minuets!! The have the same style as the last 2 but with a little more keys and some heavy bass elements included if you have a system that can produce that low of a frequency!! They are back after 4 years, still under recognized, but as always rocking the goth scene. Some stand out tracks are: The Profit of Doom, and Halloween in Heaven (with Lycia's Tara VanFlower)

They also have 2 DVD titles out. One in 2006 called Symphony For The Devil, is the first Live DVD of the legendary Type O Negative, featuring Pete Steele. The Live DVD features a concert filmed at the Bizarre Festival in Germany 1999, with an awe-inspiring 5.1 sound mix. Bonus features include an audio CDS with a Santana medley, behind the scenes footage, interviews with band members, photo history of the band, commentary with band members, bios and more.

The other DVD came out in 1998 and it is called After Dark. it is a collection of their music videos off of three of their albums. Here is the track listing for the video:

Tracks:

1. Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)

2. Christian Woman

3. My Girlfriend's Girlfriend

4. Love You To Death

5. Cinnamon Girl

6. Christian Woman (Naildriver Version)

7. Everything Dies (bonus video)

Yes, they are one of my favorite bands and the are kept on my Creative Zen mp3 player all the time. They are leaders in their style of music even if they are under rated and under played in main stream media. I for one, will always support them...

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A friend of Bill W’s…Part 2

Here is part 2 of my story...
It is difficule to tell this story because I go back and forth to Illustrate how things and issues fit together, so bare with me.

Well, I had admitted that I was powerless and that my life was unmanageable. That much was apparent. I was at that stage in my addiction, going on binges and staying gone for several days and cleaning out my bank account. So, I went to Rehab.

While I was in LAHA, we went to meetings and group secessions. Chris Raymer in his morning “Town Hall” meeting drove the point home to us that this is a 3-fold disease: Mind, Body,Spirit. You have to treat all 3 parts or it will fail. See, about 10% of the population are genetically different than the rest of society in that we process “mind altering” substances different. If a “normal” person drinks/drugs, they may like it and abuse it, but given sufficient reason to STOP, they can. Take for instance, a normie gets a DWI and looses his license. That would/should be reason enough for ANYONE to stop. For an addict, it will be, but only for a time period, days, weeks, etc. This disease makes him/her forget about the consequences that have just happened and he/she will go out and do it again. Addicts will try to blame everything on “External” reasons for their problems. I got in a fight with my g/f, I had a crappy day at work, those were all external reasons. The problem was with us, an internal problem.

I liked to drink and drug. It was fun in the beginning. I could handle it. I needed it to feel normal or what I thought was normal. I, in the beginning, did not know what cravings were, but I did no when it was time to get “fixed up” and feel on an even keel so to speak. I knew this as early as 1990, my second years of college. I partied a long time and I was able to control it. I was a very functional addict through those times. I was a Coke/Crack addict from 1993-2001. That is a very long time. In that time, I saw people spend entire fortunes, loose houses, cars and wives. It was total carnage and I was going through the middle of it.

See, I could not remember that my girlfriend at that time, now my wife, told me if I go out again, she would leave me. My disease told me to go get high, but only enough to satisfy the cravings that I was having. That final spree was horrible. I was going to fill out applications at a place in Austin, but the cravings were just too strong for me to deal with. I had to get my soul quiet and fill the void that was devouring me a little at a time. So I did…but I only planned to do a little, but that turned to about 3 days

I drove around Austin Texas getting high and was on a psychotic episode. I saw my family in every car that was on the road, or at least a member of my family. They would look at me and be sad or mad depending on what I was doing at that moment. I heard police sirens the whole time I was out and I thought that every other car was a cop. I got a speeding ticket during that time and you know what I did to calm my nerves? I went and bought more crack. WOW, how insane is that? It is only by the Grace of God that I did not go to jail or die from an overdose. As you can see, I was not in control of my life in the least bit, my addiction was in FULL SWING and I had hit “Rock Bottom” I knew that I needed help and that I could not make it on my own anymore.

While I was in LAHA, we worked on steps, but hammered on Step 1 & 2. Step one along with the drugs got me there, then I had to work on Step 2. I had to believe that a Power Greater than my self could restore me to sanity. This would seem to be an easy task; to believe in something bigger than my self and ego. Well Try it...

in·sane -/in seyn/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[in-seyn]
–adjective
1. not sane; not of sound mind; mentally deranged.
2. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a person who is mentally deranged: insane actions; an insane asylum.
3. utterly senseless: an insane plan.

Let’s look at this word. Insane. Another definition is and it applies to addicts is “doing the same thing and expecting different outcome” See every time I went out to drug it up, I expected a different outcome!! I was insane!! IT is like hitting your hand with a hammer repeatedly and not expecting it to hurt the next time. The “power” could have been a tree if you did not believe in God, Jesus or something like that, it did not matter! The only thing was to believe in something more powerful than yourself. Because under your power, your best foot forward; Your power got you to rehab!! My power got me nowhere except broke, tired and addicted. Thank God I got to rehab…to get some help where all else had failed, all of my best intentions and promises failed.

SO, I believed that “power” greater than myself could and would restore me to a better way of think. It was apparent that my thinking was off, so I had to try it by learning a better way or a different way. This was the essence of Step 2 which i will get into more soon.

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My Dad...

Years ago, my Dad owned one of these planes. I was about 5 years old and I remember going flying with him on Sunday afternoons all over East Texas. I would sometimes fall asleep while he would be doing "Take-Offs" and "Landings" at the different regional airstrips around Southeast Texas in the balmy summer air...

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Verizon Wireless... Bunkgrades!!

Well folks, we decided to go totally wireless in our home. We are going to turn of the home phone in a few days to save money. We all have cell phones and now all have local Richmond numbers. It is also time to upgrade our cells...

SO this morning at 8.30am, after I got home from work, we went to the Verizon Wireless store. We got our numbers changed and we were looking at new cells. We thought that when it was time for us to change phones out that we had a $100 credit per phone...WRONG!!!! We are on a family plan. Only the main phone gets the $100 credit and the other people have to pay $FULL$ PRICE for their "new" phone. That really sucked a big one!! Here we all had found new, better, bigger, stronger, faster cells and what a letdown...

They got you by the balls on this one. The fam plan will save money, but not on hardware costs. So choose wisely when trying to decide on what plan to get when making that decision.

This was the phone that I was going to get. It is the LG VX8600.

Wewill see what happens...

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The Shield Season 5....Conscience is a killer!!!

Vic Mackey owns you...

Nuff Said on this topic...

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Candlebox...1993 "Change"

How many of you remember the "Grung" era? Alice In Chains were sill big as well as Pearl Jam, but a new style of music was starting to take hold as well. Candlebox was one of those bands. The had a hard rocking style as well as a pop infulence that was very radio friendly. This one song was a very good one, perhaps the best on their intro album aptly titled "Candlebox"

"CHANGE"
As I stand here
I ponder greater things
You're no longer a part of
A part of your lover's dreams
So much for your Common complications
So much for your Constant desperation
For what's to comeIt's all been written
Down, written down
But I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
I said I feel so alive nowAnd you know I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
As I sit here I'll tell you greater things
You're no longer a part of
A part of someone else's dreams
So much for yourCommon escalations
So much for your Constant fabrications
For what's to come
It's all been written down, down, down
I said for what's to come
For what's to come your way
It's all been written
Down, written down
But I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
I said I feel so alive now
And you know I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
Keep on time
Keep on time
You run along
Keep on child
Keep on child
You push it on
Keep on my time
I run around for you
Keep on time
Keep on time
You run along
Keep on child
Keep on child
You push it on
Keep on my time now
I run around for you
Run around for you
But you've gotta keep on, keep it on
You don't know yet
You don't know yet
You don't know yet
But you'll feel it in your soul
You don't know yet
You don't know yet
You don't know yet
But you feel it in your soul
Feel it in your soul now
Do you feel that a change is gonna come?
Do you feel that a change is gonna come?
No
As I lay hereI wanna fall asleep
No longer, No longer a part of
A part of your TV screen
A part of your TV dreams
I said so much for your
So much for your
So much for your
Your common complications
So much for your
Constant desperation
For what's to come it's all been written
Down, written down
But I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
I said I feel so alive now
And you know I feel that a change is
A change is gonna come
Do you feel that a change is gonna come?...


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Moutain Bike Stuff...

I had to go today at Agee's and get my daughters bike fixed. I had to buy a new front wheel skewer as hers toe up and lost all the parts to it. I also had to purchase as adapter for my tire air stems. They were a totally different style and i FREAKED out about them on a Sunday morning as my air pump would not fit them. I cant get them change out either. They had the adapter for them. It only cost 2.99, so not to bad. I Hope to go riding soon, but i work all this weekend...

CIAO

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A Friend Of Bill W’s…Part 1, My Journey Begins.

I am going to do a series of posts over the next weeks on Addiction and Recovery using the 12 Steps or Alcoholics Anonymous. There are many 12 Step programs that can be chosen. I am breaking my Anonymity by doing so, although, I have never hidden the fact from anyone if they asked me about it. If I have one wish for this series it is not to alienate someone from reading my BLOG, but to help an addict or alcoholic out there still suffering and let them know that there is help out there for them.

Many of you don't know, but May 15 will be my 4 year Sober mark. No drinking or drugging. I can’t say that it has been easy or that it has been fun because it has not. Living life on Life’s terms is a very hard thing to do. They say that your stunt your emotional self the first time that you took you first drink or drug. So, if you started when you were 16, then when you finally got sober, you were of the maturity of a 16 year old. If you were 30 when you got sober, then you will have a lot of maturing to do.

I went into treatment in the year 2002 during that summer to La Hacienda (LAHA) in Hunt Texas for 30 days in-house where I met Chris Raymer (Alumni Director LAHA). I will get into him later in this series. I also met some very interesting people, Lawyers, Doctors, Preachers, Housewives; the list can go on and on. It was a hard time of being separated from my house and personal belongings except for my MiniDisc player and CD player to have some comfort from. I went to group meetings, group therapy; We had a family week where my then girlfriend, Mother, and grandmother came to stay. If you did well, you got to go off campus to eat and go to outside meetings, if not, you stayed there. I saw many people fail or get kicked out. Why I was able to “do the deal” so to speak; I guess that it was in God’s plan for me to make it.

Every Sunday was a big meeting in the center where your family could come and visit and you saw people come back to get their chips for being sober for different time periods. 30 days, 60 days,90 days, 6 months, 1 year and so on. They also had different speakers and someone lead the meetings.

For you to “recover” you need to have a total psychic make over. This can happen by the “burning bush” type of the “educational” type. I had the burning bush type. That place gave me a set of tools that enabled me to be able to recover from a “hopeless state of mind and body.” I did not do it alone. My journey was a spiritual one also, because Addiction is a disease of the mind, body, and the spirit. I am not talking church or anything like that. Don't get the two confused, they are not the same. You can be spiritual and go to church, or go to church and never get the whole spiritual aspect of the deal. I tried the church way several years before that and it did not work for me.

For me to start the journey, I had to be totally beat down from the disease! I could not do it on my own, that was evident! Church did not do it and going to meetings but not buying whole heartedly into the program did not work either. I had to do it all or none! No "Half Steps".Finally Step One of the Big Book was easy for me to admit. “We admitted that we were powerless over drugs/alcohol-that our lives had become unmanageable” It took a while living as a functional addict to finally admit that. When I did, it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and my way to recovery could begin. I learned that I did not have power over anything! Whatever power that I had, it had been given to me from God!

Don't get overly stressed with the God thing, I will explain this later. Just remember that for a person to “recover”, they have to treat the whole illness; The Mind, The Body, The Spirit. I also will use and interchange Alcohol and Drugs for one in the same during this series because they are the same. It is a disease the is progressive and terminal whose outcomes are Death or Institutions (Mental/Jail).

I am going to close this part for now…Rest assured, more will come. Part 2 Next week.

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Nothing to post about now...

You know when you have lots of things going on in your life and you are under lots of stress, well that is me at the moment. It appears that we are getting closer to finding out what is going to happen with our contracts here at Qimonda. I also found out that 3 of the employes are on different contracts than us, and if our contracts are ended, they will still be working. Yeah, Joy Joy!!

I have been very busy the last 2 weeks. I worked on Saturday night which really blew my weekend all to hell. I was off on Friday, slept that night, had to sleep all day Saturday for work, off Sunday with about 3 hours sleep that day and then my normal shift started today! - There are things that i need to get done around the house, but time is very precious at the moment. I turned the sprinklers on Sunday and tested them, no broken heads!!

I still need to get some fertiliazer and lime as well as snake and bud poision. We need to trim the hedges and once again, reseat the paver stones around the flowerbeds. I think that we are going to place a few steaks and string to keep people from walking in our yrar, mainly kids, to help the seed that was placed last year take hold and grow. These are just a few things that must get done to take care of our house as well as the inside stuff...

Well, i hope to have some interesting stuff to post about later tonight.

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Bombay Dub Orchestra...A Review...

As many of you know, I am a big music collector. The other day on the KLF List, there was a thread about a group called Bombay Dub Orchestra. They sounded interesting to me, so I checked them out. In my opinion, they fall under the Genre of Downtempo.

Now, I am not a big fan of Dub, on a whole. It is a sub-genre of reggae. Most of the dub I have heard was bass laden with slow drums and scattered vocals and sparse instrumentation.

BDO has a different approach to this genre. They have a lot of Trance elements as well as a 28 piece orchestra in the mix and Trip-Hop elements as well. The sounds capes are very lush to the point of being very atmospheric and experimental. The vocals are very tribal with a Mid-Eastern accent. You can hear very neat keyboard sequences and very lush layering of the instrumentation. Some of the songs are very familiar in sound with some ripe for film scoring with a 60s tint to the music. I can totally hear the different elements in the music and the have captured them in a style that works amazingly well in today's music scene. You can hear the dub elements in the bassline and the reverb-drenched, proto-psychedelic sounds of Jamaican dub.

They have a sound similar to Air, but with a 28 piece Indian String section. Their sound is more refined than that of Air's. Another band in this genre would be Thievery Corporation based out of Washington DC. Other significant acts include: Bonobo, Zero 7, Fila Brazillia, The Dining Rooms, Funki Porcini, Tosca, Kristallin, Pressure Drop, Urban Myth Club, Gotan Project, Sofa Surfers, Amon Tobin, Sundae Club, Glideascope, Saru, Röyksopp, dZihan & Kamien and Peace Orchestra.

If you like music to "chill" to in the late evening or listen to during the night, then I suggest Bombay Dub Orchestra as a good album to purchase and support. Lots of this music is produced and never gets to The States or is ever heard of by the general masses of the purchasing public. This is a great album by the U.K.-based duo of Garry Hughes (Björk, Sly & Robbie) and Andrew T. Mackay (VAST, Annie Leibovitz)

It is a shinning star in the sea of music that is today.

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Federal agency bans Microsoft Vista...

Well I for one knew that this was going to happen!!! No one wants to have to go to the new Vista Operating System. The American people are speaking out and are tired of being bullied by Microsoft. Most people are "happy" with their home computers and have way more power to do what they need to be able to do at home. Think about it, New MOBO, MORE RAM, NEW VIDEO CARD, NEW MONITOR...About $1200 for a baseline system.

Where as Xp with 2 gigs of ram will work wonderfully, Vista requires a minimum of 2 gigs to start with and if you go with the Vista 64 bit version, expect to need about 4 gigs of ram to start with. The only reason to upgrade to Vista is if your are a total gamer. The next version of Direct X being DX10 will only run on Vista, but if you are not a gamer and like your computer which uses Direct X 9.0c, then do not upgrade until you truly have to. I, for one, am not switching to Vista until I have to, or when they stop supporting Xp. They have plans to stop supporting Windows 2000 by 2008 and that will hurt a lot of companies. Our company uses 2000 for most of its applications...

DOT executive wary of software and labor costs, compatibility issues.
"WASHINGTON - At least two federal government agencies are refusing to upgrade their computers with Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, citing concern over costs and compatibility issues.In a Jan. 19 memo to staff, Dan Mintz, the Transportation Department's chief information officer, imposed an "indefinite moratorium" on upgrading desktop and laptop computers with the new operating system, Office 2007 and Internet Explorer 7."

Vista will bring most "current" machines to a crawl due to the new graphical interface and RAM requirements. Let’s take my machine for example. I have an AMD 3000+ Processor(2.12ghz) and 1.2gigs of RAM(366fsb) GeForce 6200(128 VRAM 8xAGP) I am VISTA compatible, but I would not be able to run the "FULL" Vista Media version because my video card will not support DX10. SO, why go to the "Next Best Thing" when I would reap none of the benefits? I did however upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, and Office 2007 which both I like. IE7 has some good new features as well as Office 2007. IE7 is a free upgrade, Office 2007 is not. It is well worth the money for the Office 2007 upgrade.

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Geology and stuff...

For many years I have been a rock collector. I have many Geodes and crystals that are very pretty. I bought a crystal from Africa one year that is brown and very large. I also bought a crystal structure while we were on vacation in Arkansas. It is over 1 foot long and about 8 inches wide with many crystal growths coming off of it. I would love to go and to be able to see these caves.

Now, while I was on the net last night, I saw a story that just blew me away!!It is called: Crystal Cave of the Giants - Discovery of the Largest Crystals on Earth They are from a mine called Penoles-Naica Mine of Chihuahua Mexico.

Here are some of the pics from that story:





This looks like something from out of a SCI/FI movie!! It remeindes me of a movie called The Core with Hilary Swank as one of the main characters. The forces that it took to creat these formations are just incredible.

Quote:

"These crystals are probably stable, as the temperature in the cave is over 150 degrees Fahrenheit with 100% humidity. In other words, these structures are enveloped in steam. A human can only function in this environment for six to ten minutes before severe loss of mental functions occurs. Found deep in a mine in southern Chihuahua Mexico, these crystals were formed in a natural cave totally enclosed in bedrock. When I first stepped into the cavern it was like walking into the Land of the Giants. I have often admired crystal geodes held in my hand, but when photographing these unique natural structures it was almost impossible to get any sense of scale. This is a geode full of spectacular crystals as tall as pine trees, and in some cases greater in circumference. They have formed beautiful crystals that are a translucent gold and silver in color, and come in many incredible forms and shapes. Some of the largest are essentially columnar in shape and stand thirty to fifty feet high and three to four feet in diameter. Many of the smaller examples are four to six feet in circumference, have many incredible geometrical shapes, and probably weigh in excess of ten tons. The columnar pillars are at first the most striking shape, but later I noticed there were thousands of "sharks teeth" up to three feet high placed row upon row and dispersed at odd angles throughout the caverns. While some of the crystals are attached to the ceiling walls and floors of the cave as might be expected, some exist in great masses of spikes and almost float in air. These crystals seem to defy gravity, as they must weigh several tons."

I also found some other pics from another site called The Cellar to demonstrate just how big this place really is.

My many thanks goes to Richard D. Fisher Photographer/Explorer of The Crystal Cave of the Giants and Brothers, Juan and Pedro Sanchez for having the foresight to not drill any farther into the caves and for bringing the amazing pictures and wonder to the rest of the world.

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Tonight...

It has been a bla night. I have a lot on my mind and not much to talk about. I am stressed about work and contracts, or the lack of them soon. We just dont know about what is going to happen here at Qimonda...

I hope to have some stuff to post about Tonight...



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Photos and Stuff

I just organized the pics to different sets on FilckR.

GO and Check them out!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmstringer/sets/


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AudioVisual Institute Of America...

The Audiovisual Institute Of America

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This week...

This week will be a very busy one. I will be in Culpeper VA from Monday till Tuesday night working on the Audio Visual Institute Of America Project that is on 522 and 3 intersections. I hope to have some pics of the building as it is being built into the side of a mountain. I will post some pics on Wednesday night.

This pic is an artist's rendering of what it will look like. I will post a few shots of it as it looks now. I have been working on and off at the project for the last 9 months for Sun Control Systems in Rockville Maryland. We have been installing Mechoshades and controllers for the front of the building.

I will return to work here at Qimonda on Wednesday night and Thursday night for my normal shifts. It is going to be very tiring this week.






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