Category Archives: About Me - Page 26

Completion

Today, I purchased the remaining CDs to complete my collection of the entire MCA Master Series catalog: 44 CDs released between 1986 and 1990, including one album with vocals and a rare special issue compilation included with BMW vehicles from that era.

I thought I was done at 42 CDs. I knew about the country/vocal album put out at the very end of the MCA Master Series label’s life and I wanted to purposely disregard it because it has no interest to me. I never had any hope of finding the BMW CD, since it was made so long ago in probably an incredibly small quantity and who would keep something like a promo CD with a new car? However, as fate would have it, the completion of my collection came in a fortunate wave. The two expensive holdouts became available for less than I’d seen before, a search for the rare BMW CD returned a hit, and the vocals album was available for a penny. In a flurry of purchases, I was done, and done more than I even expected. That is the completion of Phase 1 of my music plan.

The status of Phase 2 – the scanning of all CD covers – is pretty sad. I have a LOT of CDs and little free time and even less time where I am motivated to work on them, especially when a batch of scans came out poorly and I have to rescan them. So I think I will reprioritize the scanning to focus on only the MCA Master Series covers so I can move on to Phase 3.

Phase 3 is the printing and framing of the CD artwork. I don’t exactly have a plan for this just yet. More on this to come…

Mai Ties

Posted by anachostic on April 12, 2015 No comments

This is a post about my tie collection. Yeah, another post about collections. No one cares – always remember that when talking about your collections. However, you shouldn’t mistake curiosity for caring. I can imagine that some people would be curious to see someone’s collection of something, even if they don’t share the same enthusiasm.

Anyway, ties to me were always an afterthought. I went to a Catholic high school (which was more like a country club with as little learning that happened there), and we were expected to dress up with button-down shirts and ties. Being teenagers, only about 2% took the dress code seriously. I was part of the population that didn’t really understand the significance of dressing properly, so I just went through the motions.

Back in those days, ultra-skinny leather ties were in fashion, but they didn’t get worn often because of the dreaded “tie-torqueing” personal attack. When yanked by an attacker, the leather ties would knot up so tight, they sometimes had to be cut off. My dad had taught me the full Windsor knot, which proved to be untorqueable, but came with the disadvantage that it was a massive knot. Once I learned the Four-in-Hand knot, I never looked back.

Knit ties were also in fashion then, and recently I have seen a small resurgence of them, but knit ties really aren’t making a permanent comeback. They are more like a novelty tie, which is fine with me. I only have a couple in my collection.

I’ve recently been attracted to ties in non-traditional fabrics, i.e. not silk. Linen, cotton, polyester, and even velvet have made it into my collection. I also like non-traditional shapes, like squared-off ends and I have one that I call a “razor” that has a single-angle end. That one gets compliments when I wear it. A couple of my ties are event-specific, like a red/white/blue/stars tie for July 4th or maybe Memorial Day. The velvet tie just screams Christmas time. My collection is evenly weighted between wide- and narrow-width ties, but most all of my recent purchases have been slim ties.

For me, the why of collecting ties is primarily the recognition. I always used to have four ties, give or take, that were used only for job interviews and funerals. But when some people at my workplace suggested “Tie Tuesday” to balance out the everyday casual attire, I joined in. And that’s when my tie collection started blooming. I’ve mentioned it before. People notice when you are dressed above the norm. But you can’t do it every day, because that then becomes your norm.

As far as cost goes, ties can be a really cheap accessory that adds a lot of style value. I don’t ever pay more than $15 for a tie, and the ones that are usually $30+ at stores are not even the fashion I like. They are more business-suit, power-executive ties. Likewise with tie clips and tacks – you don’t have to spend more than $20 for one. Of course, once you start getting serious, you will need a tie rack. I started with a combo tie/belt rack that had maybe eight posts to hang ties. I’ve since upgraded to a 24-post tie rack for less than $10. In the same way I limit the clothes I own to the number of hangers I have, I will limit myself to the number of ties my rack will hold. It won’t be long before I have to start recycling.

So, without further adieu, here are the ties:

	“The Razor” Kenneth Cole This one gets a lot of attention. I found it at a discount store and have never seen one like it since.		“Color Flash” Little Black Tie This was a nice gift from the GF. It works well with my black or my aqua shirt. The tie is black, but the end piece is a contrasting color that “flashes” when you move.
	“The 80’s” Sero This one is heavy 80’s with a really big, loose stitch. I think the low clearance price is the only reason I got it.		“Red Velvet” Original Penguin This is red velvet. It’s a bit thick and has limited potential, but it will rock when the holidays come around.
	“They Said I Had To Wear a Tie” Dan Smith This one is a polyester print. The pattern is cool and could probably be used at a youngster party. Definitely “phoning it in” as far as style goes. I use this a lot to practice knots because it’s thin and slick.		“Dark Marble” Unknown Brand This 80’s tie has a nice, tight knit and the red and blue color variations in it match up well with rich, dark shirts.
	“The Southwestern” BDG. (maybe?) This is one of my favorite ties and another gift from the GF. It’s linen, with a nice pattern and shape. It comes undone easier than most ties. Works good with Oxford shirts.		“The Suit” Calvin Klein This blue tie is made of suit jacket material and is part of CK’s Steel series. It’s like wearing a suit jacket when you’re not wearing a jacket.
	“The Distinctive” Original Penguin This tie is a mix of polyester, silk, and cotton. The fabric has a unique look and feel that catches your attention. The color scheme works with a lot of shirts.		“Understated” Buffalo This 100% cotton tie is probably going to be 100% rumpled. But I think that’s its charm. It’s not pompous or power-tie feeling and the neutral color could go with lots of shirts.
	“My Eyes!” T. Edwards This is an old-school tie for me, back when the purpose of wearing a tie was to be obnoxious. It comes out when it needs to.		“New Start” Jerry Garcia This was the first tie I bought when I became re-interested in wearing ties. It started a J. Garcia brand mini-obsession.
	“From the Past” Arrow Some of the ties from my youth I have no idea where they came from or how I acquired them. I keep this around because the color and pattern works with so many shirts.		“Jolly Roger” Merona I found this one at Target on clearance and since I’m into computers and you know, pirates and all… It’s a moderate conversation starter.
	“On Black” Jerry Garcia I wanted this tie to wear with a black shirt for the massive contrast. It did not disappoint. It also got a direct compliment, so, success!		“The Parent’s Tie” KETCH This is another silk tie from my long past. Probably a more traditional (meaning, old person) pattern.
	“Ocean” Jerry Garcia Blue is my first choice in colors, so this tie really called to me. I don’t wear it often enough. This is when I stopped buying J. Garcia ties because it was getting too predictable. I needed more variety.		“Just Silver” Nicole Miller I was really attracted to the shine and smoothness of this tie, but I think I’ve only worn it once. It’s too thick.
	“Old Balls” Ottimo Uomo Who knows how I got this tie. It’s old-school silk and has a design I like a lot: abstract modern. It’s really old, though.		“God Bless Murca” Jerry Garcia Even though I’d stopped buying J. Garcia ties, this one was cheap on clearance and it would be good for American holidays. I have yet to remember to wear it.
	“Oxford” Van Heusen Studio This tie is a super-thin, light cotton tie. Like the Suit Jacket tie, this one is like wearing an Oxford shirt when you are not. It adds a casual feel to a dress shirt, similar to “Understated”.		“Vibrant” Van Heusen Studio Another super-thin tie, this one in silk. It has a bold, deep blue color and modern pattern + accents. Worn against a white shirt, it demands attention. Against a dark shirt, the pattern becomes the focus.
	“The Suit II” Calvin Kline This tie is similar to “The Suit”, although it is not in CK’s Steel series. It’s a silk blend tie with blue/grey/black colors. It has a semi-iridescent sheen to it which makes it “pop”. Bought on clearance with an included tie clip, for less than the cost of a tie clip.

The Firehose

Posted by anachostic on April 10, 2015 No comments

Many yeas ago (geez, it hurts to say years), I had the idea the rework the Microsoft Money application. I got a little ways into it and just kind of stopped. Recently, the idea has been coming back to me, especially with the new Windows Universal apps design.

So, I loaded the code back up and saw that I had a pretty decent base to start with, so I do what I normally do when I have a large, daunting task in front of me. I mad a list of all the steps that need to be done. That usually works for me.

After making a decent high-level list of tasks to be done, I changed gears and started doing mock-ups of screens. I’m probably putting way too much time into the design, because I want it to look as similar to the original as possible.

That kind of design is difficult. If you don’t do it exact, and I mean exact, people will just say it’s a knock-off. But if you do your own thing entirely, people will say it’s nothing like the original. So, it’s really a gamble.

After taking a break from that, I decided I would peek into MS Money’s resource files to see if there were any clues as to what I need to do. Holy shit, bad idea. Microsoft kept all their pop-up forms in the resource file. There are over 600 pop-up forms in MS Money. Just the effort in recreating these forms is entirely overwhelming. Then considering the logic involved as to when they are shown and the processing after they are closed, I can’t process that amount of effort at the moment. Again, if you’re going to copy an application, you sort of have to do the whole thing, or at least have a roadmap as to when it will get done. My list just got a whole lot longer.

So I opened up my list and started analyzing again. I have about 45 top-level screens and most have multiple pop-ups. And I’m not even done analyzing the application yet. One good thing (relatively) is that my original scope was for the personal version and now I’m running the business version, which more than doubles the capabilities of the application. So, I can certainly lower my expectations for a first release if and when it comes to that.

As far as releases go, it would definitely have to be incremental. There’s so much to do.

Checkpoint II

Posted by anachostic on April 2, 2015 No comments

My hair stylist is observant. The last time I went in to get my hair cut, she asked, “Are you losing weight? You’re looking skinny.” I hesitated and said, yes, I was. Then she asked something peculiar: “On purpose?” And I paused again and decided to be honest. “Not really.”

I don’t talk about my health much at all, because no one wants to be around someone who’s going to depress them. I’m explained before that I am an uncontrolled diabetic by choice, just living out my life and facing the repercussions. I am fortunate enough to be around people who respect my choice and don’t badger me or try to have me committed.

Looks like I last discussed this about a year and a half ago. So what’s life been like since then? Well, I had plateaued on weight loss for quite some time, but that seems to have had a breakout recently. Not much fat on me at all, so it’s starting to eat some muscle. That makes a pretty obvious physical change, I guess.

If I had to describe the overall experience, it’s just like aging faster. My hair is getting a little thinner, but who knows if that’s just hereditary? I’m losing weight, like an old person does. I’m slowing down. But, I am still enjoying life, or rather, I’m appreciating it more. Choice between working extra hard to please the boss and get a promotion or getting out of work right on time and relaxing with a book at home? No-brainer. So, in some ways, I’m acting older, too.

It doesn’t mean I’m just kicking back and waiting to die. I still fund my retirement accounts. I still save money. And I’m still learning new things to help me in my career. My curiosity and quest for understanding is not diminishing. I believe when you stop being useful, that is when life is over. You hear it many times from people, when they don’t feel useful, they don’t care about life. So, become knowledgeable. Be the most informed about anything and keep yourself relevant. It doesn’t even matter if you become homeless. Be the best trash, can, and bottle recycler in your area. Take pride in what you know.

I’ve read plenty of warnings about diabetes being a slow and painful death. Pain-wise, I guess it’s ramping up a little since my last report. I get random sharp pains here and there, which certainly wouldn’t be normal. It’s usually at night and usually in my legs or feet, but I’ve had it in my forearms, hands, and even my dick. Yuuuup.

Despite pain, how’s life? It’s pretty darn good. I’m not immobile. I can get around with all but the most active. Stamina is a little lower, but then again, I’m not getting out and hiking like I used to either. I don’t really let myself get depressed for very long. It comes and goes. And so does everything. I guess it’s probably a tell-tale symptom, having peaks and valleys of energy, clarity, and mood. But I’m ok with it. One thing that seems a bit persistent is my disconnected-ness. I get lost in thought a lot lately. It seems I would be pretty ok with being alone all the time.

At one time, I considered creating a more detailed blog or journal of my symptoms and condition for anyone curious about living uncontrolled. Maybe it would be used as a warning for those who were unsure of what to do. I decided against it. Mostly because it would cause me to have to focus on the minor setbacks or troubles that I face each week instead of just living my life and doing the best that I can. You won’t hear me complain (much) and I won’t regret my choices. I certainly am not going to blame anyone else for the results of my choices.

And life goes on.

Gonna Be One Of Them Old People

Posted by anachostic on March 23, 2015 No comments

… with the leased telephone.

Verizon nags me non-stop about upgrading my Internet service so I can get faster speeds and a new router. The thing is, I know why they want this. They need to move on to a new standard for routers and until everyone switches, they’re pretty much stuck.

There’s an easy way to resolve it though. Just offer me a hardware trade. You want to get rid of the old router, so just give me a new router and we’ll call it even. I have little need for more speed. I got 60/60 in a speed test just now, but for $10 more a month, I can get 75/75. Sorry, V, you gotta try harder than that. I figure they’ll make the offer eventually.

I have mixed emotions about Verizon. FIOS has been rock-solid and a dream come true. I can’t complain about my bill either. The first time, the contract was under my ex wife’s name for 2 years, then I changed it to my name and got another new user bonus for another 2-yr contract. Then I worried about losing that special pricing in the next contract renewal. You wouldn’t believe it. My price went down. Not a lot, maybe $5, but still. Who ever heard of a utility bill going down?

No, my big beef with Verizon is their bundling. I don’t watch TV, I don’t need a land line. I have (and rent) one base-model cable box because I think I have to. Nope, I just need Internet, but it’s more expensive to not get the 3-way bundle. Still, how can I complain when my rate is dropping?

The Efficiency Of Procrastination

Posted by anachostic on March 23, 2015 No comments

Today is a Monday, both literally and figuratively. I left on Friday with something on my work plate and a clear plan as to what was needed when I came back in today. Nothing went as planned.

The project I was working on was a final push on a task that had been dragging out for months and months. It was an integration with another company. The dev on the other side and I were really dragging our feet on it. But management was having no more of that, so we both got told to make it happen in a week. I knew I didn’t have much to do in this, so I agreed right away. That’s when I made my plan of what I needed to do.

I arrived this morning and got to work. Preparing to do my initial smoke test, I fumbled around, because I hadn’t looked at the code in well over a month and wasn’t sure what steps needed performed for a successful service call. After half an hour of research, I figured it out. That is, I figured out it wasn’t complete. In fact, it was fairly incomplete. All the testing I’d done up to that point was manually faked.

So, I did what I normally do when I’m put up against the wall – I made a list of what must be done. The list was short, but wasn’t pretty. I had to get other people involved with some steps, so my “oversight” might be noticed. And some was just some tedious coding.

Then, I wasted no time and got to work. Within an hour, I had everything done that I could get done and now had to wait on someone else to do something for me. And as I wait, I write this entry… (this isn’t procrastinating, btw)

I read a quote recently that was something like, “Procrastinators can make a 15 minute task last 8 hours and can do 8 hours of work in 15 minutes.” Precisely. I just did it. Why didn’t I do it earlier? It might have been the feeling that came over me today when I realized I wasn’t done. Before I made the bullet list of work to do, I started thinking of what needed done and started second-guessing myself, wondering if that was really the best course of action.

It’s a problem I face regularly. When you know so many different ways to accomplish something, you can have trouble choosing which one to do. Everything has pros and cons, so you can talk yourself into (or out of) any choice you make. So you enter what is termed analysis paralysis. And you procrastinate, because if you make no decision, you haven’t made the wrong decision.

But, when it comes down to the wire, you have to make a choice and run with it. And usually, you will find it is a workable solution. If anything is horribly wrong with it, you can fix it then.

The Same And Different

Posted by anachostic on March 21, 2015 No comments

Last night, I got the strange urge to play the keyboard. Although my posts make me sound like it’s something I do all the time or it’s something that I’m constantly re-inspiring myself to do, the truth is, I don’t play all that much.

So, when I sat down, I kind of bopped around wondering what I should play and if there was anything I could still remember. Then it started coming back to me again. And I played and I kept on playing. As would be expected, my stamina wasn’t all that great and my accuracy on the notes was a little faulty, but for the most part, my hands went where they should have.

Today, I played a little more. I guess my hands got a little sore from the workout last night because I couldn’t play as much. But while I was playing, I did my little daydreaming about being a rock star (or some kind of star). I thought about how my technique was crap and how I may get criticism for how “poorly” I play.

But then the realization dawned on me that some of the most innovative players were not formally trained and had a style of playing that was unconventional. Why should I be any different. In fact, I might say that it would require a personal technique in order to play in an unheard fashion. And it would make it harder for someone to imitate you. You would have your unique sound because it’s done with a playing style only you know.

And that naturally made me think outside the world of music at how having your own style for everything is important. It’s not good to be exactly like the crowd, but you do need to have some “accessibility.” I’ve heard a lot of music that doesn’t sit right with me and I’ve seen a lot of people that just don’t sit right with me as well. Maybe people should strive to be unique and accessible. Although lately, I think that some people are taking the individualism stuff a little too far.

And, as an off-topic aside, playing keyboards yesterday and today made a significant change in my typing: faster and more accurate. I had been lamenting lately how bad my typing was becoming because I could barely type a sentence without having a typo. I’d be constantly stopping and correcting things and it was slowing me down drastically. I think I may have just found a solution for this. That’s a happy discovery.

Time and Money and Pots and Trees

Posted by anachostic on March 18, 2015 No comments

So the last few months have been spent in what I’ve been calling “austerity.” The trick is, you give something a somewhat clever name and you will get more enticed to see it succeed.

But the end result has been positive. Prior to starting this exercise, I was blowing my budget on my credit card spending. Usually, that’s not bad because the budget isn’t the full amount I have available. Then I started blowing through that buffer and had to start drawing from savings. That wasn’t as bad as it could be because I had some silent transfers into the savings account. But it was bad. My savings account balance was about cut in half and I began to get worried.

However, at the same time, I paid off the car loan and did a refinance on my second mortgage, so that was two monthly payments that immediately went into savings. Then I went hard-core and eliminated all extra spending except for food and gas. That has been very productive. I’ve been slowly draining my savings account for probably a couple of years now, and even with the replenishment I’ve been doing lately, it’s still at only 50% of its peak value.

Right now, I can see the future balance forecasts and they look great. I look at the amounts being deposited and I think, “I could be buying (this gadget) every paycheck with that money.” And somehow, that really puts things in a sad perspective. Every paycheck, I could be buying some neat new toy. One thing, for all that money. That makes it seem like I’m not saving that much at all. Then you all all those together and it’s like, “that’s really not a lot of money at all.”

Wait a minute. I had a spending problem where I persuaded myself that I wasn’t spending a lot of money, now I have a savings problem where I feel like I’m not saving a lot of money. What a mental mess this is. So let’s look at it from another perspective.

They say you should have 6 (used to be 1, then 3, now 6) months worth of income saved for emergencies. So right now, I’m at almost 3 months. To get to 6 months savings, it’s going to take maybe another 4-5 months of my current effort. What’s that say? I’m saving 33% of my pay by “hiding money” and another 14% in voluntary savings. My fixed expenses are about 25% of my net pay a month. Almost half my pay is being saved. I shouldn’t feel bad about that at all.

So why do I feel bad? Is it the watched pot never boiling? Is it a case where I can’t see the forest for the trees? Is it a psychosis like washing your hands over and over and never believing they’re clean? That’s what I’m worried about. I have to keep reminding myself things are good and I’m on track. But does that mean I can give myself permission to spend? And then what? Will I fall back into my over-spending habits? I have a big list of things I want. I don’t need any of them.

We’ll revisit this in a couple of months.

Revamp

Posted by anachostic on March 12, 2015 No comments

In the continuing theme of rebuild and reinvent this year, I took the sledgehammer to my website. It’s something that has been needing torn down for many years. The idea of a website going without an update for… 10 years (?!) is unheard of. Unless the site is truly dead.

But I’m not dead yet. And I decided to redo the website in a much simplified version. Gone is the whole “About Us” page, making me seem like some big firm of developers. Gone are the Software and Support sections that really only had a couple of items in them. Who was I trying to impress?

Back when I started, there was this pressure to always seem like a consummate professional and always like a huge organization, because no one would take you seriously otherwise. As time and experience went on, I realized, I didn’t need any of that validation.

Now I’m down to two whole pages, but I have links to other whole websites I’m doing, so that makes my site more what it should be: a portal to my other work.

And part of that website is another blog, so maybe that will get revived as well. Let’s see last post was…October 2012. Sigh.

Get To The Point

Posted by anachostic on March 4, 2015 No comments

It’s somewhat shocking to me to see the way I’ve changed as I’ve aged. One thing that recently struck me is the way I write. I wandered onto another person’s blog and this person fancied himself a writer. Every sentence had a level of pomposity that even the word pomposity doesn’t even express. By that, I mean his writing was excessively flowery. I thought, geez, I used to write like that.

I have no idea why I used to do it or why I stopped. I must assume, like with many things as I got older, the question became, “Who am I trying to impress, here?” The answer most every time was, it doesn’t matter.

But, I could still write like that if I wanted to. But when I read stuff like that after writing, it sounds overdone. If you can’t get the point across in normal language, advanced vocabulary isn’t going to help you. Maybe it’s because I now write much more factual content and less fiction. Fiction is a place where descriptive, verbose, and picturesque language should be used – to transport the reader. When you are writing instructions, you don’t want to transport the reader anywhere. You want to get shit done.

Ah, romance. That fleeting, etheric sensation that compels a man to remove himself from his left-brained, analytical prison and dash madly to the fountain of life. To drink deeply of the youth and vigor that had previously been tucked away in the recesses of his being, like a book scorned and discarded as too childish and fantastical for the adult he wished to be. Unhand that child, villain!

That’s how it reads to me. A bunch of independent words that each strike an emotional note and end up as a cacophonic disaster. Sure, some people do it better than others, and some even do it worse than that contrived mish-mash I spit up.

And the reason I wrote this is because I found an old archive disk with documents – old documents – on it and I’m deathly afraid to open them. On the other hand, maybe writing a story parodying that style would be good for me. The whole, “so bad, it’s good” could be something I excel at. I mean, what the hell, Fifty Shades of Grey exists, right?

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