Take Away this Ball and Chain

Friday. Yeah! Not only is it Friday, it's also the last work day before xmas. This means that there will probably be very little done today workwise. I'm personally crossing my fingers that we get let go early, but we'll see...

I am dead tired today. I pulled another late night working on my final paper. That pretty much makes it every night this week, and the cumulative effects are really starting to get to me. The good news is... I AM DONE! At this point in time I have completed all of my necessary school work in my final required classed to graduate. I'm just a few formalities away from (finally) receiving my Master's of Science in Organization Management. I honestly can't believe I have actually finished. You see, I've been going to school forever. I know people say things like that, but I mean it. It has not been an easy road, my friends. For those of you just tuning in, I will give you a brief academic history of darthjohn42:

Sometime in early 1993: Senior year in high school. Big fight with parents over me not applying to college. I advise parents that going to college would be a waste of time and money. Parents strongly disagree. I lose argument, apply to schools Spring 1993.
Summer 1993. Graduate high school. Declined, accepted, declined, then re-accepted at the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire.
Fall 1993. Begin classes at UWEC. As predicted, do not take school seriously, follow other non-academic pursuits.
Winter 1994. After three sub-par semesters at UWEC, kicked out for poor academic progress. I appeal decision and I am allowed to return on probationary status. With a slight modicum of effort, better class load, and actual class attendance, I earn a 3.0 or higher for the next three semesters and avoid getting kicked out again. Still pursue plenty of non-academic pursuits.
Early 1996. In a bout of winter depression, girlfriend and I decide we will just pick up and move somewhere new to break downward spiral and start somewhere fresh.
March 1996. Visit Fort Collins, CO. Decide this is the place.
June 1996. Girlfriend and I drop out of school and move to small studio apartment in Fort Collins, CO. I work in a factory for next year and a half. Of all things listed, this was the most educational experience of my life.
Summer 1997. Marry girlfriend. Decide to get serious, get back into school, and move on with life.
January 1998. Accepted at Colorado State University to finish undergrad as an English major. Registrar at last minute decides to not grant me residency. Due to month-long fight I cannot get financial aid, books, or other necessary items for academic success. Needless to say, first semester did not go well.
Fall 1998. Realize being English major means having to read Jane Austen books. Change majors to History. Begin "Golden Age" of darthjohn's academic history. Decide I find my academic calling. During time as history major, I only made less than an A once in history courses, I made the dean's list three times, I earned a small scholarship, and served as a for-credit teaching assistant. Loved every class in my major I took.
Thanksgiving 1998. Wife and I discover that we are nine months away from being parents to our first child. I start a new full-time job while still attending classes.
August 1999. Daughter is born. Amazing wife attended classes throughout pregnancy.
March 2001. Economic recession in full swing. Laid off from job but luckily get new one since baby no. 2 is on its way. Consider career as History professor, make plans to attend graduate school.
May 2001. Take GRE to get into History grad school. Make acceptable score for admission.
September 2001. Buy house to make room for baby no. 2. Graduation nears.
December 2001. Second daughter is born. Amazing wife delivers child, then takes finals two weeks later and graduates with a degree in Psychology. I graduate with a degree in History. I am accepted into graduate school at Colorado State to study History.
Spring 2002. History grad school begins. Reading lots and lots of history books. Recession hitting Colorado hard. I have to take wage cut at job. Layoffs begin.
Summer 2002. Scared to death of losing job, I make one of the biggest decisions in my life: Continue grad school and follow dream and calling of studying history, or completely sell-out, drop out of grad school and seek second bachelor's in business instead. With a young family and a mortgage, I chose the latter. Apply to business school at CSU as Finance major. Take twelve credits of business courses over summer with moderate success. Wife declines acceptance to psychology grad school to also pursue second bachelor's in Finance.
December 2002. Wife laid off two weeks before Christmas.
Spring 2003. Employer declares wage freeze five days before my anniversary date. More layoffs. See the end is nearing. Unsuccessfully try to find other employment. Half of the houses on my street are for sale.
Summer 2003. Make another huge decision. Wife and I decide to leave our beloved Colorado and relocate close to family in Twin Cities area. Effects of recession are much lighter, and I am able to land job in the Accounts Receivable department of a wholesale supplier. Since purpose of second bachelor's was to land job, and I did so, I drop out with only six months left. Consider finishing at the University of Minnesota. Recruiter calls me and tells me I should consider applying to their #9 ranked MBA program. I laugh. She says that all I need is a certain score on the GMAT and they will let me in. I take GMAT, get the necessary score. I am accepted as a MBA learner in the U of M Carlson School of Business.
December 2003. House in Colorado still hasn't sold. We are renting a two bedroom apartment while still paying mortgage on empty house in Colorado. Job is going well but everything else is terrible. Reminded by Minnesota winter why we moved away. Wife and I decide over Christmas to move back to Colorado ASAP.
Spring 2004. Announce to work and family we are moving back to Colorado. In surprising twist, work takes it well and family reacts angrily. Employer advises they have branch in Denver and they will try to transfer me. Since recession is still going strong in CO, I take them up on this offer.
Summer 2004. Drop out of MBA program at U of M after two semesters and move back into our house in beautiful Fort Collins, CO. Still no business degree. Colorado State will not take any transfer credits into their MBA program. Seek alternative solution. Accepted by Capella University into their MBA program. Begin job in Denver branch.
Fall 2004. Decide Capella's Master's of Science in Organization Management is better fit, so I change programs. Big Boss Lady invites me to join her corporate receivables group running unpaid receivables website and compiling vendor database. I accept. Employer picks up percentage of my tuition and I get a raise. Things are looking up.
Summer 2005. Amazing wife graduates from Capella with a MBA. With still six months to go, I am very jealous.
August 2005. Big Boss Lady asks me to go back into collections to help clean up the oldest, nastiest accounts. I accept since the path to the next level lay in proven receivables results.
This week 2005. Finish last two term papers in last courses needed to graduate. Wait for grades and diploma.

So, as you can see, this has been a long, wild ride. And this was just the (somewhat) abbreviated version. You would expect that I would have slept well last night knowing this was all finally over. However, I tossed and turned all night dreaming about failing my paper or Capella making a last minute decision not to let me graduate. Or it could have been the distress of watching CSU lose to Navy 51-30 in the Poinsettia Bowl last night. Eeek! Oh, I listened to Social Distortion this morning on the way to work. It definitely seemed like a Social D day.

I won't be around next week because I am taking a much needed vacation. I'm not going anywhere, but with no work and no school it will be just perfect. Happy holidays everybody!

Finally I Don't Mind Worthless Tries at Finding Something Else

Thursday. Sorry about the no post yesterday. You all have to please forgive me. I have been working hard and staying up late pretty much every night this week trying to finish up my last grad school papers. I finally finished one last night (whew!) and I have one more I have to get done by Friday. That one should be a bit easier, and I have a good start already done, so hopefully I can get that one finished up as soon as possible. It has been a lot of hard work, but as soon as I am done, I AM DONE! No more school!

Well, I better get cracking. Oh, I uploaded the receivables website today and I listened to Built to Spill's Keep it Like a Secret this morning. Good stuff.

Language is For Liquid That We're All Dissolved In

Tuesday. Sorry, short post today. I am using all of my spare time to work on one of my final grad school papers (I have two to get done). I have a feeling I am going to be up pretty late tonight cranking this one out, so the more I can get done here, the less I have to worry about at midnight.

I listened to more Modest Mouse today. First, I woke up with Ocean Breathes Salty from Good News for People who Love Bad News in my head and as a general rule I don't deny my brain's music requests out of fear of mutiny. Second, like yesterday, I am hitting a rough spell with just about every stressor you can imagine crushing down on me at once so I just really needed some MM to help me through. Most wonderful time of the year my left foot!

Everything That Keeps Me Together is Falling Apart

Monday. I'm back from Ohio despite all odds. I won't go into details, but I'm sure you all can figure out what happens when you mix airports with snowstorms. It is almost surreal being back at work. A co-worker's dog apparently died yesterday, so there was a lot of hugging and shed tears over that this morning. I was gone for three days on bereavement leave for my grandmother's funeral, and no one has even said a word to me about it. Honestly, I rather they didn't, so I can just carry on and get back into my normal groove, but I can't help but notice when three grown women will cry over the loss of a dog two feet from my desk yet not even offer me a "welcome back."

Anyway, I am trying to catch up on work stuff today from being out. Most of my order approvals had been forwarded to my back-ups, so I am ok there, but apparently the website did not upload correctly while I was gone (and this is after they called me two times the morning of the funeral to have me walk them through the steps once again). Seriously, since joining this division a little over a year ago I've taken off two Thursdays and both times they have called me on my cell phone because the website didn't run correctly. Maybe I can use this as a bargaining chip during my next review.

Other than that, I am starting to freak out about grad school. I only have two papers left to write and then I will be done with grad school forever. I am way behind, and even with the extensions that my professors so kindly gave me due to my circumstances, I have a lot of work to get done. Anyone out there freelance?

I listened to that Modest Mousterpiece The Moon & Antarctica on the way in to work today. I really needed some MM after the past few days. Since I've reviewed Moon about a hundred times on this blog before, and I've pretty much depressed anyone who has stuck with this post up to this point, I will end now.

No Wind or Waterfall Could Stop Me, and Then Came the Rush of the Flood

Tuesday. Not much going on today work-wise. Right now I am getting spreadsheets ready for this week's website upload. I'm not running the upload this week since I will be out of town, but I am getting things ready to help out my back up (who has never actually had to back me up before). If you missed yesterday's post, I am leaving out of town tomorrow to attend my grandmother's funeral. Posts for the next three days are highly unlikely, but check back on Monday.

Loyal readers of this blog know that I have a general disdain for commercial radio, especially stations owned and operated by that evil empire, Clear Channel. So, instead of hearing the same old U2 song played on 5 different stations (seriously, how can With or Without You be classic rock, alternative rock, contemporary rock, and top-40 all at the same time? All they need is a hip-hop remix and they can be heard on every outlet in town, I swear...) I often turn to alternative means to gain exposure to new and upcoming musical acts. One of these outlets is the local college radio station, on which I first heard many artists in my collection. One of these artists includes today's music selection, Cat Power. I heard The Greatest on the college station the other day and it piqued my interest. So, in my quest to keep the musical reviews on this site fresh, I magically found the album of the same name on my iPod this morning ready for a good listen.

First, the name Cat Power is either one of the worst monikers ever, or completely brilliant. I still haven't come to a ruling on that one yet. What I do know (since I knew very little before this morning) is that Cat Power is an alias for Chan (pronounced "Shawn") Marshall, a female vocalists who channels southern blues and soul into mellow, ambient compositions. According to several Internet sites Cat Power is renowned for her incredibly loose structure on stage, which is either praised as innovative and spontaneous by some or criticized as disorganized and disorienting by others. I've never seen her live (heck, I've only known of her for a couple of days) so I can't really comment on that, though. While The Greatest really didn't blow me away or anything, I did enjoy listening to it. It is very mellow and relaxing. I would maybe like to hear more from Ms. Power.

You Blame Me and I’ll Blame You, and We’re Both Right

Monday. I'm trying to hang in there today at work, but I have to be honest with you all, it is kind of hard. I received a message yesterday letting me know that my grandmother passed away. She had been dealing with some major health issues for some time now, so this was not unexpected, although it still is hard nonetheless. I won't delve into too many details or go into any emotional outpourings, but I will apologize in advance for any terseness or lack of levity in this and the next few posts. Also, I will be traveling to Ohio for her funeral this week, so just as a head's up there most likely will not be any posts on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

I listened to Sharpen Your Teeth by Ugly Casanova this morning on the way to work. Ugly Casanova is the side project of Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock. I briefly touched on how an Ugly Casanova song was my first introduction to my love of Modest Mouse here. I still consider Cat Faces one of my favorite songs. I really like Ugly Casanova, however, despite the reverse being true for me, I would recommend listening to some Modest Mouse first if you are unfamiliar with both. If you are already a fan of MM, then by all means rush out and get this album. It is worth it for Cat Faces and Hotcha Girls alone.

Well, I’m a Freaky Streaker Like Winnie the Pooh, T-Shirt and No Pants and I Dance the Bugaloo

Friday. Yeah! I'm getting a decent amount of things accomplished today. I spent the morning working on collections, then burned through some order approvals, and now I am putting together my post-upload spreadsheet report. Not exactly a goldmine of fun, but, hey, it's what they are paying me to do.

I am probably going to work on the tree lot tonight. Pretty hoppin' way to spend a Friday night, but I skipped out on working the past couple of nights since it was so freaking cold out (below zero temps during the day even) and I need to put in some hours so I make some xmas cash. Friday nights are supposed to be pretty busy, and it has warmed up a bit outside so hopefully I can make some good tips. We'll see, I guess.

As loyal readers know, I like to kick off my Fridays right by listening to something upbeat. I hadn't jammed out on some Beastie Boys in awhile so I grabbed their latest album To the 5 Boroughs. I mentioned this album before here, but it was pretty much a smart aleck review. That was back in the beginning of this blog when I tried to write fresh, absurdist witticisms instead of the same repetitious, boring journal entries that this website has evolved into (for those just tuning in, check back into the archives to see what I mean). I am still holding true to my pledge that radical changes will come once I finally wrap up grad school and can devote more time to designing a new layout. I only have two weeks and two giant papers left and I am done for good! Well, unless I decide to go for my doctorate someday, but I don't even want to think about that right now.

Wasn't I talking about the Beastie Boys? I think I went off on some weird tangent there. Anyway, B-boys great, album good, work ok. Have a good weekend.

You May Say I'm a Dreamer, But I'm Not the Only One

Thursday. It has been a typical Thursday so far. I'm running the website upload and so far so good. I don't know what the weather's like in your part of the world, but here it is FREEZING! It has been below zero the past couple of days with snow to match. No, thank you. I am definitely a "summer" person. The good news is that we should be back up into the 50's by the weekend; so working those long shifts at the tree lot won't be near as bad.

I listened to a collection of John Lennon tunes on the drive in to work this morning. In case you didn't hear on the radio, today marks the 25th anniversary of his untimely death. This day hits me particularly hard. I have been a Beatles fan since I was, oh, about 11 years old. Sure, I listened to music before then, but the Beatles were the first band I really connected with, in fact probably to the point of obsession. By the time I was in about 7th grade I had read probably every book the local library carried on the Beatles, including the controversial Goldman biography. I could list every ”Paul is Dead” clue, name the band Ringo originally played drums for, and I knew the relevancy of Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe, Pete Shotten, Brian Epstein and George Martin in Beatles history. My junior high friends did not fail to point out the apparent conflict of interest of me listening to, say, The Misfits and Dead Kennedys while still maintaining allegiance to the fab four. Eventually my obsession subsided and made way for other fanatical devotions, but I have always remained a fan. Heck, I named my daughter Abbey Road. What does that say?

Anyway, on this day John Lennon died from four gunshot wounds administered by a fan whom Lennon signed an autograph for just a few hours earlier. Mark David Chapman gave two reasons why he conducted pre-meditated murder on Mr. Lennon: First, since he considered himself a "nobody" he wanted to become "somebody." Chapman later admitted that his plan backfired since he actually became somebody everyone hated, instead of a nobody everybody ignored. To this day, Chapman has to be held out of the general prison population for his own safety. Even hardened criminals find his act despicable.

The second reason Chapman gave for murdering John Lennon was because of the alleged anti-religion lyrics in Imagine. Like many deluded souls with extremely low self-esteem, Chapman turned to religious extremism to find his identity. Like other extremists, Chapman believed he would be viewed as a hero for what he planned to do (please see above for actual popular reaction). While it is true, Lennon sang "imagine there's no Heaven," Chapman failed to hear another important line of the song "nothing to kill or die for." The message in Imagine is not anti-religion. The message Lennon tried to convey is that if you reduce the whole world's population to its least common denominator, we are all the same. We are all humans. Everything else such as religion, nationalities, class, etc., is just an abstract concept that we have created ourselves and has been distorted to enforce divisiveness and oppression. If you look past all of these things we are all the same, a "brotherhood of man" as Lennon put it. Recognition of this fact is the cornerstone to building peace and understanding between all peoples. Chapman (and many others) failed to listen past the first line of the song to hear the whole message. In his confusion, he killed the messenger without fully understanding the message. In bitter irony, Lennon died from the very thing he had warned us about.

No, John Lennon was not a perfect man. Yes, he had a history of substance abuse and he engaged in extra-marital affairs. However, he was a vessel of a message that is as relevant today as it was 25 years ago. Mr. Lennon, I am deeply saddened by your death, but today I will rejoice that you had lived. Thank you, sir.

You Thought the Leaden Winter Would Bring You Down Forever

Wednesday. Some people mark the beginning of winter when the temperatures first dip below freezing. Some people go by the first snowfall. Officially it is the winter solstice, which usually lands on Dec. 21st or so. I, however, go by the first time it takes me over an hour and a half to get to work due to a slight dusting of snow on the roads. A couple of months from now, these conditions would be nothing, maybe even a reprieve. However, since summer has completely erased people's minds of how to drive in snow, I had the pleasure of getting stuck behind drivers doing 30mph in the left lane and fender-benders from people who think slamming on their brakes while driving on ice is a good idea. Coincidently, I mark the end of winter with the huge, unexpected late snowfall that causes an equal amount of accidents due to drivers' overconfidence; i.e.: "I've been driving in the snow for 5 months straight now... I'm an expert on how to turn corners on ice doing 75mph..."

Once I got into work things got a little better, but I have been quite busy. There is a huge push to clean up all of our old receivables by the end of the year, so I've been working on those all day. I was finally able to get payment on one really old order today. It was only $6K, but it was such a pain to get it collected that it felt like a major victory. I got kudos from the Big Boss Lady, so I guess that's cool.

Today is Pearl Harbor Day. This "day of infamy" is widely seen as the US's entrance into WWII (although we had been secretly engaged in naval battles with the Germans and loaning troops and supplies to Great Britain long before). On this day in history, thousands of US Naval troops were attacked unaware and killed, many of them while they slept. Please take time today to remember this dark day in American history. On a similar note, please join me in trying to forget this disaster.

Update on an ongoing story: The Denver Post reports Gary Barnett will be fired within the next couple of days. The front headline of The Rocky Mountain News sports page says Barnett deserves to stay. If you have been following along the past couple of days, I'm sure you can guess which media outlet I agree with on this one.

I listened to Cream on the drive in to work today. For those unfamiliar, anytime you hear those popular music buzzwords "power trio" or "super group" please remember that those terms were first coined to describe Cream. Cream was comprised of Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker. Although the were only together for a few years, they produced many long-lasting rock classics, such as Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, and I Feel Free. For those who want to hear a true Clapton jam, check out the guitar work on Crossroads. I particularly like Tales of Brave Ulysses as well. Heck, they're all good. With Clapton you just can't go wrong. Very, very highly recommended to anyone who has even a modicum of affinity for rock and roll. Good stuff.

You Can’t Find Nothing at All If There Was Nothing There All Along

Tuesday. It is snowing like crazy here today. We are also supposed to have a high today of like 14 degrees, so that's a pretty nice winter combo. That is, if you like winter, which I don't. So, right now I am glad to be inside even if it means working on monotonous spreadsheet reports all day.

I forgot to recap the football games yesterday, but here is what you need to know: I not only predicted a Texas blowout over Colorado, but my wishes just may come true. According to the radio this morning, after an embarrassing 70-3 clobbering, the University of Colorado is not only considering to not renew Gary Barnett's contract, but according to the Boulder Daily Camera (sorry you have to subscribe online to link), there may possibly be a new coach in place by their next bowl game (which would be in about 3 weeks). Yee haw! My elation is mildly tempered by the sad fact that this slime ball can be implicated in a recruiting scandal, be involved in six (known) 5exual assaults, found out to be running a slush fund from his football camp, and be tied to several other scandals, and that is ok, but doggone it, when he loses the big game that's the reason he finally gets canned. Don't get me wrong, I love college football, but no one is above the law, including winning football coaches. Good riddance.

Oh, and the Broncos lost a tough one to Kansas City. Unfortunately I missed the game since I was working at the tree lot, but apparently there was at least one play of note. Former Colorado State quarterback and current Denver Broncos backup QB, Bradlee Van Pelt scored a touchdown on his very first NFL play. Way to go BVP!

I listened to Plans, Death Cab for Cutie's new album on the way to work this morning. I've reviewed it before here, so I won't do a repeat. However, I do have to say that the more I listen to this album, the more I like it. It's not bad.

I Guess I Gotta Crawl Out, But It Sure Beats the Alternative

Monday. I worked on my weekly report tracking the items dropped from the website this morning, and now I am trying to work on order approvals. I have a bunch of other stuff to get done (like collections), but I keep getting hung up on other things that keep popping up. Fun times.

I am super tired today. I worked 7 hours on Saturday and 9 hours yesterday on the tree lot and I am totally wiped out. However, for some reason, despite my complete exhaustion, I had trouble sleeping. Is it possible to be too exhausted to sleep? I made some decent tips, though, so that was pretty cool. I am starting to get the hang of this whole tree thing. I can pretty much recognize my tree varieties by sight, and I am getting pretty good at answering the wacky tree questions that people throw out at me. The downside is that it is freakin' cold out there, and supposedly getting even colder this week. However, despite the elements and the brutally physical demands I've actually found myself having some fun out there. Not enough to quit my desk job; mind you, but enough to make it to the end of the season.

This morning I listened to Footprints by Jistoray. Who is Jistoray? Well, I'm glad I asked for you. Jistoray is an up-and-coming band native to the Minnesota Twin Cities area. Their sound is hard to pin down. I would say that they are an acoustic group, but that sounds like a bunch of wussy guys sitting on stools and strumming while Jistoray rocks out. I would say that they are similar to the DMB, but they really aren't at all and plus I don't really care for the DMB (yes, I know I just angered millions of females out there). I tell you what. Why don't you just visit their home page and pick up one of their albums? You can buy one online, that's how I got mine. My favorite song is the title track, but they're all good. For more Jistoray info beyond their website, check out some of the pics lampsidebriefcase has here (scroll down a bit)and here of the Music Midtown show in Atlanta.

Give Me Everything I Need to Feed My Body and My Soul and I’ll Grow a Little Bigger, Maybe That Can Be My Goal

Friday. Wow. Talk about an unforeseen busy day. I expected things to be relatively low-key today, but instead I have been pretty busy. Nothing crazy, but I've definitely kept active. After answering a far-too-busy phone line for an early Friday morning, I had a teleconference on our strategy for now until the end of the year. Two of my accounts have been targeted, and I have been presented with the challenge of bringing in $760K of old receivables on these two accounts by the end of the month/year. I'll keep you posted on how that goes. Right after that I was asked to put together a report that will be seen by a couple of the company VPs (actually, I am pretty sure someone else was asked to put together the report, but the buck just got passed to me). That would have been no problem except that I was given a pretty tight deadline, little instruction, and then the person requesting the spreadsheet took off for lunch. I whipped something together and shot it off, so I sure hope it was ok. Now that's done I can finally get back to working on far more important and pressing things, like updating this blog.

I know I didn't do football picks yesterday so I'll do a quick rundown since there are pretty much only conference championships this week. Tennessee (who is not going to a bowl for the first time in like 17 years) is busy this week firing their offensive staff and hopefully recruiting a more capable QB than Eric Ainge. Colorado State has already locked up their Poinsettia Bowl bid. Georgia and LSU face off for the SEC conference championship. Hmmm. … Well, if it can’t be Tennessee, let’s go with Georgia so at least the east will be represented.

#1 USC takes on #11 UCLA. UCLA is ok, but they have a porous run defense that will have to work pretty hard to stop Heisman hopeful Reggie Bush. #2 Texas takes on an unranked Colorado team who should consider themselves extremely lucky to even be in this game. I not only predict a Texas blow-out, but I will be openly routing for a whoopin' so bad that CU finally sends Gary Barnett packing for good. This goes deeper than just a Rams/Buffs rivalry to me. Gary Barnett is a complete scumbag and blight to the whole state of Colorado. I love football, but no one, not even a football coach for a division I-A program should be above the law or allowed to keep his/her job after the kind of scandals this guy has been involved in. Sorry to go off, but if you are unfamiliar with what has transpired please read this. Or this. Or how about this. And that doesn't even include the recruiting scandals and the soft money laundering from his summer football camp (which he doesn't even bother to show up for).

Well, that turned quickly from a nice talk about college football into a big rant. Let's change gears and discuss professional ball. The Mighty Denver Broncos can possibly wrap up the division with a win over Kansas City this weekend. The boys in orange have their work cut out for them, though, since KC is like 12-0 in December home games, with Denver losing 6 out of 8 of their last games at Arrowhead Stadium. Plus the Chiefs are fighting to stay alive in the playoff race, so I highly doubt they will lay down easy. The good news for the Broncos is that they have the #1 run defense in the league, making it pretty difficult for a running team like KC to gain ground on them. If the Chiefs take it to the air, Eddie Kennison will try to make some big plays on AFC defensive player of the month Champ Bailey. I have plenty to say about that traitor Kennison, but I think one rant per post is enough.

Ok, I listened to Queen on the way into work today. I had a couple of Queen songs in my head and I figured hey, why not. I like Queen, but I've never really considered myself a huge fan or anything. However, since I've started tracking my listening selections on this blog, I've noticed they've come up a couple of times now. Interesting.

Well I’m Convinced the Whole Day Long That All I Learn is Always Wrong

Thursday. Today is website upload day. I didn't get to enjoy the pleasure of uploading the website last week due to the holiday, so it seems that today I'm getting paid back double-time. First, I haven't received a receivables file from our Puerto Rico branch in several weeks, so I shot over an email to find out why. Well, I found out why. The person responsible for that is no longer with the company and I guess that news just never made it back to me. I also guess that no one else is taking over her duties, either, since I haven't gotten their report in about a month. Who's in charge over there, anyway? After that little snag, I tried to access another group of reports from our customer's website and found out that their website is down. Not much I can do about that since it isn't on our side, but I'm sure I'll hear complaints from them when they see all of their information is over two weeks old. Oh well, grin and bear it I guess.

I woke up again this morning with no particular songs or music in mind, so I just tried to pick something I hadn't heard in awhile. I came up with Billy Breathes by Phish. I think I said this before in my last Phish review, but it is worth recapping: Yes, I like Phish. No, I don't consider myself a hippie. Yes, I shower regularly. No, I do not have dreadlocks or a scraggly beard. Yes, I have a steady, full-time job. No, it is not selling veggie burritos out of the back of my VW bus. Like a lot of people I know, I did not like Phish the first time I heard them (or many times after). However, once I really listened to them I realized that they were actually pretty good musicians. I like Phish for the same reason I like jazz, the Grateful Dead, and other acts that showcase their talent through improvisation. It's one thing to get up and lip-sync to a thoroughly rehearsed set list of 3-minute pop songs that someone else wrote, but to play a completely different set of tunes every night and to just play to whatever vibe you're feeling at that moment is pure genius. As a music lover, you just have to appreciate that (or at least respect it).

Anyway, Billy Breathes is a departure from the early experimentation of Junta and the exuberance of Hoist. It is a very mellow album, and maybe one of their most accessible. Each track flows effortlessly into each other, especially on the second-half of the album, which is almost transcendental in nature. I would like to mention, however, that there is a track on the album entitled Prince Caspian. Now, even though there is no direct mention in the song of the book of the same name, I have to assume that there is a connection since a coincidence is highly improbable. Oh, for those who don't know, Price Caspian is the second book in the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, a serious of books that as a young boy I loved dearly and is soon to be known to a whole new generation as "that one lion movie." I really hope Disney does The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe justice, because I don't know if I can take it if they ruin the story. You never really know with these things. The Lord of the Rings was awesome and I was ok with most of the changes to Hitchhiker's Guide but sometimes Hollywood can change up a movie so much that the only resemblance to the original book is the title (such as the case of one of my favorite books, Less that Zero).

I think I just went off on a tangent there that had nothing to do with Phish. Oh, yeah. Billy Breathes is a great album and I think even non-Phish fans could appreciate this one for it's beautiful melodies, reflective and thought-provoking lyrics, and possible references to children's fantasy literature.