edlib

Home again. Last day of vacation. Back to the grind tomorrow. On the bright side: Only 50 more weeks of sheer working-life brutality to suffer before I can (maybe...) get another couple of weeks off! It should go by in a jiffy!

Posting from the beach in Provincetown. Not the sunniest, warmest day ever, but it still beats work, so it's awesome! I'll post pics at some point (though there are already a few on my FB). I haven't been on my computer for more than a minute or two since I've been here, and I've hardly looked at the phone at all. I have the beach, my guitar, my lady, and her cats, with a fridge stocked with noms, including done freshly caught lobster, and no schedule to keep. Swam for several hours the other day. Walked around a bit today. Otherwise, just chilling and letting several years of stress and tension wash away with the tides. Life is pretty good right now.

I'm on vacation. But yes, it is a day to remember. Thanks for taking care of the yearly bumpage.

(This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

Vacation starts today. Hooray. I might be too exhausted to truly appreciate it yet... Gotta do some laundry, have my car looked at, then pack for a week on the Cape. Also, I have to make sure my mom can fend for herself while I'm away. So... relaxation hasn't really started yet. In fact... vacation planning seems pretty stressful...

Management bought us lunch and a trip to the aquarium today. Looking at fish... It sure beats working. I have a new computer at work: a sexy little Macbook Air. It's pretty sweet.

Those were at Boston City Hall recently... but I missed it. They are supposed to go on permanent display in Salem though... so maybe I can still see one in person.

Longest day of my life at work today. What a complete nightmare. An absolute horror show. I start my vacation in less than 5 days. Nowhere near fast enough.

Nope. That there is bon'a'fied Inna'webs shortcut speak fer: Pain In The Arseicles.

Been there. Tried that. Jiggled the handle too...

Never trust anyone with the middle name Wayne. When I was on tour, the bus driver was David "Wayne"... and boy howdy did that man freak me out. (Of course, our 2nd driver was a Maurice, and he was a weirdo in a whole 'nother set of ways... so maybe it's just long-distance tour-bus drivers you have to be wary of. Hmmm...) Put a new screen in the console today. It solved nothing. Sunday's giant PITA concert is looming and approaching fast. It would be nice to have a fully-functioning mixing board by then. Until then, it looks like this:

It's been a week of tired so far. Can't get my sorry carcass out of it's own way. Vacation is very much needed. All my power reserves are on full discharge. Fortunately, I'll be taking one after Labor Day. If I live that long to see it that is... Putting a new screen in the mixing board tomorrow. Should be... scary.

Kind of a blah weekend. The weather just sucked around here, and both myself and my girlfriend were exhausted and feeling like crud. I did manage to take apart her PS1 and get it to work again... but that was about the highlight of the entire weekend. Other than that, it was a lot of sleeping late and vegging out on the couch eating delivery Chinese food, watching re-runs of Mythbusters.

Except, of course, when the screen stops working. Which actually happened on our touch-screen-centered mixing board this week. First the image flickered, then scrambled like a cable station you don't pay for, then turned bright white, then all purple, then black. Since 90% of the console's operations are handled on the screen, this made things more than a bit awkward to get through a busy week of concerts. Fortunately, the iPads we had sync'ed still worked, but they only handle about 60% of the functions. However, we have an editor computer connected to the console as well... and that duplicates 99% of of the functions... but requires mixing on a keyboard and trackpad. Still... I managed to get through it. But it wasn't exactly the most relaxed week at work I've ever had. It would have been a simple, easy week otherwise. Funny thing is, the touchscreen still works. I was scrolling through channels on a totally black screen the other day just by tapping the correct corner of the screen. But with no visual clues, it's best not to push your luck. We've had the desk open 4 or 5 times now on the request of tech support. We've pretty much poked and prodded every cable and chipset connected to the video output with no luck. They finally realized what I knew on Sunday... the screen is blown, or the video card has melted down for some reason. In theory, new parts are on the way. Next week we get to do major surgery. That should be fun...

I think you mean more AWESOME!!! Especially if they are fire sharks with frikken' laser beams attached to their heads!!!

I also play guitar (and bass, a little)... though it's actually probably a bit more accurate these days to say that I own guitars, seeing how work and life rarely give me the time to sit down and play anymore, and I'm so out of practice that I sound like suck when I do. But, I do have enough instruments to play a different one each day for a over month and never repeat. I just gave away 11 guitars... which brings me down to only 40-something. So when the day comes where I can shred again... I am prepared!

I do believe so... But I didn't take a super close look, as I only noticed it on my co-worker's desk as I was on my way passing through go go mix one of the 50 or so bands I had to mix in the last 4 days.

If it helps morale: There's a fresh copy of Vectorworks in my office. Berklee is doing our part to keep you in whiskey for another year. But sleep... yeah. I remember that... I think I liked it. I wonder if I'll get a chance to do that again someday. There's something else I sometimes do in bed I rather enjoy as well... but thanks to the 6 and 7 day work weeks that have been dropped on me, I haven't managed to find time to see my girlfriend much for several weeks, and it might be another week before I see her again. I hope I don't forget about that as well...

no no no... That would be IHE... We are looking for FTW... Doesn't quite work. I can tell you this: there's nothing like working at a music college during final performance week for about 2,000 high-school aged musicians to REALLY MAKE YOU HATE MUSIC!!! Unfortunately, I can now only visualize you thusly:

Free Tiny Weasels. Floppy-Tushed Waitresses. Flowbee Time, Wallace. Farting, Tarting, Wiping.

Dismissed at 11:30. Yay... I can work tonight. Hopefully I can get at least an hour or two nap before I have to go mix 11 back to back unrelated high-school bands. Somebody better poke me when the show is over. I'll probably be passed out, slumped over, and drooling on the console by then.

Sleep... Who needs it? 8am jury duty on a week of late nights FTW!

The clog is still there, the disposal is toast, and I have to leave for work today by noon. I told mom to find a plumber who can unclog the pipes, remove the disposal, and install a new drain in that side of the sink. I don't think we'll bother replacing the disposal. It's really been nothing but problems.

Of course, ****ty things tend to clump together, so I got home after a long and merciless day at work, where I never got a break to eat at all, to find that mom has hopelessly clogged the kitchen sink, and filthy water is gushing out into the cabinet below it through the garbage disposal. Because, if life is going to suck for edlib... it's REALLY going to suck.

My week from hell begins today. Worst week of the year at work, and that is saying a lot. 6 full days of shows, all involving dozens of bands on our stage, none of which are related in any way to one another, all made up of teenaged musicians, and led by some of the most stressy and picky professors the college can wrangle. Plus: Jury duty! At 8am. On Wednesday. After working until midnight the night before. And working until midnight that night as well. Somehow this week, I have to find time to report to jury duty, spend all day in a courthouse... then rush to work and spend all night mixing bands. Like 11 of them. A big band. A gospel choir. A classical choir. A metal guitar band. African pop band... Of course, I did ask for the day off, because that would be, y'know, the sane thing to do... but that was before two of my co-workers chose THE BUSIEST WEEK OF THE YEAR to leave the country on vacation. So at that point it was "Dear Ed, **** you very much. Love, the Management." Seems fair.