As promised... some pictures.
Angel is a light-colored male and looks like a showshoe siamese. Buffy is a black female with white spots (and feet).
 Angel & Buffy |
 Blurry Angel |
Angel looking away |
Angel preparing to pounce |
 Buffy (and weed) |
 Angel (looking adorable) |
Angel with back arched |
 Angel |
In the grass |
 Buffy checking something out |
I'm finally stealing a few minutes from my packed-full life to log some data on my recent activities and stuff. Otherwise, it'll all just fade away into the netherworld or something.
One reason I've been so busy the last couple of weeks is that we've opened an office! That's right! Iodynamics now has an office in West Valley City.
We're renting some space in a building owned by my dad. There's plenty of room for everyone to work, we have a reasonably fast Internet connection, there is a lot of room to store hardware and work on machines.
Since we started settling in, Adam (our newest hire) brought in a spare microwave oven he wasn't using at home and, just yesterday, Stephen donated an old fridge!
Adam also recommended we get a disco ball.
We'll see.
Two unique personalities seemingly eternally linked by their affection and playfulness, have taken root at our house.
Buffy and Angel, our new kittens, have quickly made themselves at home with our family. These young cats are only a couple months old, love to play and sneak around, and are nothing but adorable.
I'll try to get some pictures up.
Got my car back last week. It looks fantastic. I had to spray some WD-40 on the power-steering pump pulley because it was making a bird-like chirping sound that was loud enough to garner the attention of neighboring motorists on the road. I also had to switch a couple brackets they replaced in the wrong places, but otherwise, it's back to being the old Soob. I took the car back on Monday to get the foglights reinstalled too.
The only thing that still needs to be completed is a repair of the anti-lock brakes. The ABS light has been lit on the dash since I got it back and the body shop's mechanics haven't been able to figure it out. They want me to bring the car back and leave it for a day so they can take it to a dealer and get a diagnosis with their equipment. I'm hoping to do that on Friday.
Last week, I went to a PLUG meeting at which my good friend Derek gave a stunning presentation on Xen. While there, Stuart showed me his Targus USB bluetooth adapter and said that it worked fine with his Linux laptop (he has the same model I do).
So, I ordered one for myself from Amazon.com along with a Perl book James recommended.
The bluetooth adapter came yesterday and this morning I got it plugged into my laptop and used it to create a virtual dial-up connection with my Treo 650 effectively giving me Internet access with my laptop pretty much anywhere I can get a SprintPCS signal.
Awesome!
I still haven't figured out how to sync via bluetooth, though. *sighs*
FC4 is so awesome- why did they have to break the USB Palm sync stuff?
I had a comment to one of my earlier posts that was kind of cool so I thought I'd highlight it here.
Anyone who knows me knows it's been quite a challenge juggling my involvement with the band along with everything else.
As for dealing with the band lifestyle, that part has been relatively easy. I got my partying over with when I was in college and really have no interest in (most) drugs, alcohol, or flings anymore. While there are some really attractive women at some of our shows, nobody seems that interested in hitting on the tech guy. It's not as sexy, I guess, as being the lead-guitarist or the drummer.
While I've never actively sought out the opportunity to strike up a relationship (or a fling) with someone while on the road with the band, I will admit it would be nice, reassuring, ego-building, etc. if some reasonably attractive geek chick paid me some attention just so I'd know it was possible if I chose to pursue it. ;-).
It probably contributes that I find smoking incredibly unattractive. Having been married nearly 11 years to a woman who exercises amazing discipline and control in her daily life and knows very well what she wants out of life, I guess I'm not easily impressed by women who will allow themselves to get "sh*tfaced" and will get involved with men they don't know.
I guess it really comes down to why I'm involved with the band. I do it because I love the music, I love spending time with Thom and the rest of the band, and I love the ongoing challenge of making the show a visual spectacle. I'm not in it for the lifestyle. In fact, that's been a deterent for me. After our run to Glenwood Springs where we stayed in the crappiest rooms ever, I was seriously considering calling it quits.
Here's some followup information on the car accident.
First of all, I called the woman who was in the Suburban that got hit yesterday and left a voice mail message. Her husband called me back about an hour later and said she was sleeping. They had been at a hospital until 1 in the morning and doctors thought she might have some inflamed discs in her neck so she'd be wearing a neck brace for a couple weeks. He said he appreciated my calling and I told him I hoped she got feeling better soon.
Today, I got a call back from the insurance estimator on my car. She said it came real close to being a total loss- like within $100! But, in the end, the owner of the body shop (a friend of my brother and my dad) said he could do the work within the amount they estimated. The repair will involve replacing the hood, the radiator, the condenser, both headlights, both fog lamps, the bumper, the stuff behind the bumper, and repairing and repainting the fenders.
She says I'll probably get the car back Monday, 11 July.
Wednesday - the day the Subaru got smooshed - was also the day Sons Of Nothing was to perform at the Gallivan Center in downtown Salt Lake City as part of their Come Alive summer concert series.
The original plan for our family was that I would go up to the Gallivan Center as early as I could to help get things set up for the show and then Christine would bring the kids up a little later to watch the show. The kids had been talking about going to this concert for a long time.
Not having a car really messed things up and stressed me out. I called Stephen and asked him if he'd be willing to take me and my gear downtown, but by the time he got to my house, I was worried he wouldn't have time to take me up there, go get his girlfriend, and come back to see the show. My stress was rubbing off on Christine and she wasn't sure she wanted to go anymore. Eli had been acting cranky since the car accident.
It just wasn't looking great.
In the end, however, I got Christine to go with me. We didn't get up to the Gallivan Center until after 6:30. Double Helix was supposed to start performing at 7, so I was really short for time. I very, very quickly set up my equipment including the projector. Double Helix's sound check went a bit long- which helped some as well.
Christine wasn't having a lot of fun because the kids were pulling her every which direction. Eli wanted to run around. Lucy went into one of the portable potties without telling anyone and freaked Christine out for a couple of minutes.
After Sons Of Nothing started playing, I went and got Lucy and Maya and led them up to the dance floor in front of the stage where some other kids were dancing and having fun. They loved it! Christine and Eli soon joined them and had some fun too. Whenever there was a gap in between video cues or whatever, I would come out from backstage and hang with them. It was fun!
Christine hadn't seen the band since... probably 2003. She said they're a lot better than they were before. It's no surprise to me, though. The band has had a lot of practice in front of lots of different crowds.
The crowd at the Gallivan Center loved the show and wanted more, but city noise ordinances wouldn't allow for anything past 10 p.m. so the band had to stop playing before the planned set was complete. Thom was really peeved about that, but I think the enthusiasm of the crowd made up for it to some extent.
The all-ages thing was a big hit! In my opinion, we need to seek (or create) more opportunities to play to such crowds. The energy and feedback from the crowd just makes it a better show than when the band is playing to a bunch of "drunk off their ass" folks in a smoke-filled bar.
It was also nice getting home at a semi-decent hour. ;-)
