Way Too Long

posted on: 2007-07-26 at 5:51:00 PM

Hey guys. Sorry for my lack of posts recently.

So many things have happened lately .. and I kept telling myself "Wow... I just had an awesome experience .. I should really write about it!" Then a few days pass and the newness of it fades -- and frankly, it's hard to write something witty and blogger-y about something that isn't fresh on my mind. So .. no witty banter for you today, just the lame versions:

First -- Oliver. He's great! He's growing like a weed and is proving to be a super well-behaved little boy! However, he is entering a phase where he likes to cry VERY LOUDLY. The ratio of happy to cry is still about the same (I'd say .. 20:1) -- but the severity of the cry bit has become quite overwhelming. I think he's teething for real this time. Also, he really is looking more and more like a little man and less like a bulbous flesh mutant - thing. He is growing tall and his facial expressions are more acute. AWWW CUTE. Get it?

My job has been pretty annoying lately -- although my complaining isn't very well founded. I've been at the new store for a few months now as a "Manager in Training," which is nice in that I get to dabble in all of the facets of the the store's operations. But the past month has been strictly one facet: Merchandise Management. t('.'t)

In one of my training meetings, I was told the following line .. and it was enunciated in a way that gave emphasis on the positive:

"This is the one and only job in retail where, if you do you job perfectly, nobody will bother you."

WHAT THE CRAP IS THIS? No one bother me? GAAAHHH!! I want to be bothered! I don't like working alone. I don't like repetition! I don't like things that require my focus for long periods of time!

All day every day I open boxes. Scan product. Count pieces. Compare shipped counts to packing lists. Fill out RA's (receiving authorizations .. I think). Enter numbers in the computer. Over and over and over and fucking over again. The most human interaction I get is in the few times I day I get to crawl out of the coal mine that is the receiving area and mingle with the sales staff and cashiers at the front of the store. I'm sure I look like a goon when I do because I have so much pent-up energy. BLAHABLAHAUGHPHLAUGHZ!

That being said, I am grateful that I have a good (solid?) job and that I do enjoy working for the company. Also, I know that what I'm doing now is giving me much-needed experience. If the path I choose is retail management, this is a required hurdle. WEE, HURDLE!

In other news: After seven long years, my good friends Alex and Shannon got married! The wedding was held at a nearby park on a beautiful Portland summer day. The setting was wonderful-- completely casual and free-flowing. Lots of sugary treats were served in the forms of candy, cupcakes, and alcohol. It was great to finally see them tie the knot.

I've known Alex since 1993 and Shannon since 1998, and being ones of the "old guard," there were many invited to the wedding that I haven't seen in years -- and it was quite a shock to be reunited with so many familiar faces. OH, DO I FEEL OLD NOW.

That evening, a few wedding attendees came over for a little reunion at my place. We busted out the Wii and played some Wii Sports bowling. Everything was great except for my dear friend Kalina accidentally bowled a heaping cup of sugary coffee into the 57" High-Def DLP television. Wii have a problem.

The impact caused massive damage to the screen, as well as sprayed sticky coffee all over the electronic devices situated in the shelves below. The coffee made its way inside the TV where it spread up into the screen and caused a giant dark splotch, which we all jokingly referred to as "The Whale." I must admit -- I think that night was a true test of everyone's maturity. I didn't blow my top, Kalina didn't break-down. Angie kept her cool and provided (much needed) levity to the situation. Mike intelligently remained sidelined through the entire ordeal.

After the dust settled, I took apart the screen on the TV and attempted to clean the coffee from between the lens and the outer screen. My good friend Chris and his wife Jaime showed up later that night helped out. It took a good part of the weekend, but I was able to completely fix the problem (well -- mostly).

As I said to Kalina in an email the next day:

"What happened last night was an accident. Shit happens. It's all a
part of life. If you invest in an expensive TV and a video game
system that involves flailing about crazily, whether you want to or
not, you also invest in imaginary insurance which is not paid in cash,
but in large amounts of forgiveness."

I FORGIVE YOU KALINA.

So .. other than Oliver's awesomeness, work's annoyances, Alex and Shannon's commitment, my television's close encounters with coffee -- there is only one other chunk of news that I feel fitting to blog about: I FINALLY TRADED IN MY DRUM SET!

I held on to those bastards thinking I would learn to drum well and maybe do something other than drunkenly beat at them -- but I finally faced reality and took them in to the local Trade-Up Music and got some freakin' COOL TOYS. Specifically, I got a MicroKORG and a homemade Theremin. The MicroKORG is perfect for my tastes, and I frankly, I was lucky to find one in such good shape at the price it was. I've been spending the past few days learning to create patches from scratch:

Dual layered Square Wave + LFO oscillation mapped to the Pulse Width married to 50% white-noise filter w/ resonance and variable cut-off MAKES CARL HAPPY.

The Theremin on the other hand -- that's the opposite of the MicroKORG. The Korg syntch = a gazillion ways to make it sound cool. The Theremin = two: Pitch and Amplitude. Dichotomy. Juxtaposition. Happy times.



I made a quick semi-inebriated video capture of me playing with my new Theremin the first night I got it. He is well loved in this house. I think I will name him "Olaf."

Labels: microkorg, theremin, wii, work

posted by Carl | 4 Comments | Leave a comment

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Happy New Year!

posted on: 2007-01-02 at 8:09:00 PM

Wow... it's 2007 already. Holy shit!

Last year has been undoubtedly the single most bizarre year of my life to date -- and in saying that, I hope to sweet Jesus that I do not have another year that is even MORE bizarre.
The holidays were a whirlwind. At work, Christmas time equaled ANGRY MOM time.

"Thanks for calling Game____ where you can trade in games to reserve Wario Ware Smooth Moves, This is Carl, how can I help you? I'm sorry, we do not have any Wiis in stock."

I've already gone over that one on my last blog .. but let me say it one more time... It's not the supply of the Wii that is low .. it is the demand that is high.

Christmas with the family was nice. I spent time on Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's with Emily and Paul. We exchanged gifts and had a pleasant time. Mom and dad decided that this year was the year they used real candles on the tree -- which was awesome except that the tree was DARK until we lit the candles. There is something programmed deep within my subconscious that has a problem with Christmas trees that are not brightly lit during the time when one opens presents... but I digress.

Christmas day was spent with Angie's family, which was nice. Her mom and dad seem to be doing quite well (given their situations). Her brother is as nice as ever and it was a very heartwarming experience to spend the actual day of Christmas with the in-laws.

Angie and I decided to treat ourselves to a present this year .. which is something that we've wanted for years and years and years (and have also wasted many dozens of trips to Fry's chicken-ing out on) .. an HDTV. In reality this was Angie's purchase, but I supported it 100%, and ... OH MY HOLY GOD IS IT NICE.

The story is a long one, but I will keep it simple: We shopped around for one that was within our price range, and ended up running into an old friend (and coworker) of mine who we haven't seen in many years. His name is Mike, and he now runs his own home-electronics store. After catching up on each other's lives, he offered to sell me any TV at cost -- which obviously changed our budget a little, and allowed for us to look into some televisions that we hadn't originally researched.

We ended up getting the Mitsubishi 57" 1080p rear-projection HDTV (6-color wheel, 2x HDMI inputs, freakin' amazing picture quality). Subsequently, we also got an upscaling DVD player (Phillips), and the newest digital-cable package w/ HDMI.

Let me just say that .. this is the future! True 1080p HDTV is absolutely beautiful. It shows a much more realistic picture which I have personally never fully experienced. I went to the trouble of locating a 50' DVI cable to attached my computer to the TV .. which is a sight to behold. World of Warcraft can play in life-size. That's right... LIFE SIZE. Wow wow wow wow.

So yeah... 1 more week for baby (see Oliver's blog). I'm all crazy-nervous and excited.

Labels: christmas, hdtv, oliver, wii

posted by Carl | 0 Comments | Leave a comment

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Wii

posted on: 2006-05-11 at 4:59:00 PM

Nintendo announced yesterday that they have come out with the official name for their newest video game console (formerly called "Revolution"). The new name:

Wii

My stance on the Wii is pretty firm. First of all, I love the name... I don't get what people's problem with the name "Wii" is! I swear, the majority of the response from that name is negative:

"I LIKED REVOLUTION BETTER"

Really? So I suppose all you neigh-sayers also liked "Game Cube" over "Dolphin?" The name "Game Cube" was void of anything creative - except for the fact that the machine did, in fact, look a little like a cube with a handle. But didn't the X-Box also look like ... A BOX? And the Playstation / Playstation 2 look like ... A STATION FOR PLAYING?

Come on people!!! GET CREATIVE! I'm sick of things having to be the result of a focus group (which is invariably the source of the current generation of home video game console names). Even though the Nintendo Gamecube was successful, it missed the mark that it was aiming for. First of all: attachments. How many attachments does your Gamecube have? If you're like me - all of them! But if you're like the majority of Americans, NONE. You didn't have the GameBoy Player, nor the GameBoy Advance Link Cable or E-Reader. You certainly didn't have the Broadband Adapter! The Gamecube didn't do as well as it could have because it tried to compete with the main-stream-ness of the Playstation and X-Box. It was cool that EA Sports brought some freshness to the Gamecube by throwing in the "Mario All-Stars" to their NBA Street series - there was a little show of support there, but face it, people: Nintendo is successful because they're DIFFERENT.

That being said, let's re-address their direction for the Wii. First of all .. "Wii." WHAT A COOL NAME! It's immediately recognizable, and phonetically capable in most languages worldwide. That is a plus. Secondly, it has a meaning other than the obvious "I am a [enter shape here] that plays games." Wii (pronounced "We") sounds fun! The fact that it has two "I"s is symbolic for the type of gameplay that can be expected, multiplayer!

The accessories for the Wii are different, out of the gate. The controller is wireless and position-sensitive. This means that if you move the controller 1 meter from left to right, the machine (and the game) reads this input and moves the character the equivalent space within the game. The controller (or as I like to call it, the "Wii-mote") is revolutionary. It is not an "air-joystick." It's a real-deal three-dimensional positional controller that is accurate down to the millimeter! You move the controller very gingerly, the game responds with the character moving very gingerly.

It looks like there are going to be a lot of accessories available for the Wii (I was reading about a web-cam type accessory that will possibly use elements in its field of view as props in video games ... how cool is that!?).

Nintendo could have taken the easy road once again, and made a machine that caters to generic gamer - but Nintendo has never been well placed there. The Wii will be successful - thanks to innovation and uniqueness.

Labels: video games, wii

posted by Carl | 0 Comments | Leave a comment

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