Dave, Thrashers, Flash, Politics

You may notice that I’ve been blog-crastinating again. Several times I’ve had thoughts or events that I wanted to write about and I just kept putting it off.

Best friend Dave came into town a couple of weekends ago and I must say that we had a very good time.

After his arrival on Friday we headed to The Local for some drinks and then headed, with Joyce and Blottner in tow, to the Thrashers vs Panthers game. The first two periods were the well known lackluster Thashers, the third was probably the second best playing I’ve seen all season. Thrashers won of course. More partying/morning hangovers ensued.

Saturday we just hung out all day. The weather was beautiful. Dave watched March Madness basketball and we haggled over politics – he’s Democratic and fiercely anti-Bush, I’m nothing and fiercely anti-Politician, with a strong distrust of Michael Moore. Later we headed off for dinner at MF Sushi Bar which was incredible as usual. Very expensive, especially with my personal taste for sashimi over sushi.

Sunday I decided to make some barbecue so I had four slabs, and two chickens going all day. Our newish neighbors Simms and Kelly came over as did old friend Carole and her kids. The barbecue came out very good.

Dave left on Monday afternoon, so I spent the rest of the week getting caught up on work. Last Thursday Joyce went up to Michigan to be with her Dad who was undergoing some surgery. Everything came out okay, but as our parents get older these sorts of things get riskier. Of course it was my excuse to go out a couple of times and go see a hockey game with my old work partner Rob Mathea who just took a job a Creative Digital Group. The hockey game really sucked. Still I’m excited about trying to go see the last home game of the season on Friday.

I delivered a couple of projects last week with two more due over the next week or so, so the pressure is off a bit. I’ve also relinquished the DollSquad site to the much more design and Flash capable Chris Hays. This will make my life MUCH easier on the freebie website and domestic happiness front.

Spoke with former partner Harry about a project that is just screaming to be done with Macromedia Central. This has gotten me rehyped about getting my chops in Flash even more choppier. This week working on getting data connections and binding worked out.

Oh, on the Flash front, Macromedia has released Flex. As far as I can tell, it’s Flash without the Flash IDE – more of a traditional development system intended for enterprise front-end development. Of course unless they come up with a developer version, the $12,000 price tag will keep most Flash developers at bay. It’s sorta like the Breeze licensing, which I’ve heard is a $1000/month minimum fee.

What else…I’ve been kinda slack in the music department – way behind on my totallyradio listening – but I did manage to see The Fog of War last Saturday at Midtown Art Cinema. Very interesting. You know, it doesn’t matter which party is in charge, there will always be Hawks present. It also reminded me that with all of this political football tossing regarding Iraq, in thirty years we will know much more about things than we do now. I still think it was a mistake to go to Iraq, but don’t be getting your panties into such a wad – there’s no way that average Joe is getting the entire picture, which makes things all the more distorted with Democrats and Republicans going at it.

Oh, and I still don’t get why people have such a problem with homosexuals in general. Are they secretly unsure of their own sexuality? What else could it be? Don’t homophobe people and legislators have anything better to waste their time on? How about helping someone? Of course not. You’ll just legistlate an anti-abortion license plate and decline the AIDS awarness license plate. You’ll just make it illegal for adult women to have thier genitals pierced. It’s perfectly legal for men though of course. Let’s amend the Constitution of the United States over the fear of gay marriage. I hope you all don’t wonder why I distrust politicians.

Had an “introductory meeting” with a personal trainer named Stephen Smith at Urban Body Fitness this morning. He set me up with a “prescription” for the next two weeks. What was funny was his voice…I swear if I closed my eyes I could have been getting advice from Paul Stanley! I’m trying to get going again – I’d love to play in a hockey league next fall, but I’ve got a long way to go!

Amateur Musician Saves a Bundle

Since I finally got my guitar rehabed I needed to figure out a way to play it without disturbing Joyce too much. When I was younger I used to just crank up the stereo and amp and play away. With today’s technology I new there should be a way to do this using my computer. Initially I found the Line 6 Pod XT. This handy device combines amp modeling (simulation of tons of classic amplifier/cabinet combinations) with effects. Looked like a really cool device plus it had a USB out to connect to my Mac. Caveat: $399 price tag. Ouch. I can see that thing gathering dust along with my guitar in 1 month (I know myself fairly well). On Saturday I ran out to the Apple Store at Lenox and picked up iLife, which includes a piece of music sequencing software called Garage Band. For $50 bucks I got some cool software which includes modeling for about 8 different amplifier types. Picked up the quarter inch to mini plug conveniently available at the Apple Store and me, Thin Lizzy, Garage Band, and iTunes we’re on our way!

Last time I skied, snowboards didn’t exist

It’s true. I’ve skied since I was probably 6 years old up until I was 17 or so. Had to quit because my high school hockey coach didn’t approve. And yes the town was small enough that he would find out. Anyway, skiing in Southeastern Michigan always sucked. I always wanted to ski out West.

Last week we went to visit my brother in Fort Collins, Colorado and then headed to Winter Park for some spring skiing. In addition to me, Joyce, and my brother, Brian, there was his wife Sandra (pregnant again!), new son Javier, sister-in-law Carolina, my sister Lisa and my niece Aja. We rented a condo in Winter Park and had a great time!

I wasn’t sure if I could pick it up again, but other than being really out of shape everything came back within a few runs. I guess it’s like riding a bike or playing the guitar or something. When you do it as a kid, you it just becomes second nature. We were up between 11,000 and 12,000 feet just over the continental divide and the views were indescribable. It was primarily me, Brian, and Lisa skiing together and it was great to have just the three of us up on the mountain. Joyce didn’t ski, but she just HAD to see what it was like on top, so on the last day we took the snowcat tour up the mountain.

Turns out that Brian and Sandra are buying a condo there, so I WILL be returning!

What is Barbecue?

Someone puhleez tell me…You take spare ribs and boil them, slap them on a fire, make some sauce with liquid smoke – and call it barbecue. Does this really qualify? I suppose you can call it whatever you want, but I have learned over the last few years that if it ain’t smoked, it ain’t barbecue.

Case in point: Maddy’s Barbecue in Decatur. The guy is pretty nice. He’s “Fat’ Matt Harper’s brother-in-law and he used to work at Fat Matt’s for years and he’s taken the exact same (lame) techniques and applied it to his new, slightly cleaner restaurant. Highly inedible. What really made me sad is that they took the original pit (there were several other barbecue joints in the same building) and tore everything out except for the vent! Sad, very sad.

I must say though that I owe a debt to Fat Matt’s. They were the one’s that put me on my quest for barbecue truth.

Macromedia Central

After being informed at the ATLMMUG meeting last week, I’ve been investigating Macromedia Central. I think it’s a pretty cool idea in search of a killer app. I’ve got some ideas but I definitely need to start using AS2 on a full-time basis. The BlogReader app that Central installs has been showing posts about the Australian Flash meeting featuring Macromedia’s new Flex application. I’ll check that out soon.

Tomorrow we’re heading out to Colorado to visit my brother and his family. We’re going to spend a couple of days at his house in Fort Collins and then head up to Winter Park for five days. The last time I skied was probably 1980, so it should be interesting. I’ve always wanted to ski out west so I’m very excited.

Went to a last minute engagement/Oscar party at Brett Mason and Amy Binkert’s loft apartment last night. It was a lot of fun. They always have cool people at their parties, mostly Turner-ites. I’m glad Lost in Translation got something (Screenplay). There was a girl there that sorta looked like Scarlett Johanssen. She spent a lot of time trying to say she didn’t.

Doing a couple of reviews with Claire today. It’ll be the first time since they moved to their new studios.