Times Always Lurking in Your Head; Got to Go to Work and Get Fed

Tuesday. I feel like I am about to crash out. I ate a big lunch today, which I'm not accustomed to, and now I am totally ready for a nap. Unfortunately, there isn't too much around here to keep me awake. I put together my weekly pre-website upload spreadsheet earlier, and now I am just trying to clean up end-of-the-month things before I fall comatose.

This morning I chose G. Love and Special Sauce's eponymous album to listen to on the drive into work. I've been trying to mix it up a bit lately to avoid repeats and, oddly, I don't think I've ever reviewed a G. Love album here despite the fact that I pretty much own his whole catalogue. I like this one the best, though, because with each release Mr. Love has progressively moved more mainstream. Special Sauce's first album was anything but mainstream when it first came out. I personally had never heard anything like it at the time. The music is sloppy to the point of stylistic distinction. The beats are loose and G. Love's vocals are so slurred and distorted that half the time you can't even understand what he's saying. There is an extreme blues influence present on the album. I'm not talking about "derivative" of the blues, but straight out blues riffs. This album quickly gained popularity among my friends and I, with Cold Beverage becoming a party standard and My Baby's Got Sauce being a sure-fire sing-a-long if played late in the evening. Although there are plenty other good selections on this album, my favorite track is This Ain't Living. Unfortunately, G. Love for the most part moved away from this Blues-laden style on his subsequent albums. I like his other stuff, but in my opinion this one is the best. I recommend this album for those curious to hear the blues/rap sound and for those who only know G. Love from cheesy Dr. Pepper commercials.

Luxury is Temporary Then it's Gone

Monday. I'm having a somewhat busy day around here. I've been working on spreadsheets, trying to collect money, and I attended some long teleconference on something or other. The action never stops around here.

So, Billy has me about 99.9% convinced to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the upcoming Super Bowl despite the fact that they pretty much pounded my beloved Denver Broncos in the AFC conference game. We've got just under a week if someone wants to step up and make a case for the Seattle Seahawks. This is the third time I've made this call out and so far no one wants to defend the NFC champs. Aren't there any 'Hawks fans out there?

I listened to Three Snakes & One Charm by the Black Crowes on the way into work this morning. I think people can be divided into two camps: one group who thinks that the 'Crowes had a couple of hits like Hard to Handle and She Talks to Angels back in 1990 and then faded away into oblivion, or a large group of die-hard fans who have kept this band touring and putting out albums for the past 16 years or so. I am in the latter group. I love the Black Crowes. As big of a star as Kate Hudson is, if I ran into this fellow Coloradoan with her husband, I would honestly be more excited to meet Chris Robinson (and that's not a knock at Ms. Hudson).

I have seen the Black Crowes a few times in concert, with one of those times being one of the best shows I've ever seen based on sheer music and energy put out by the band. These guys can seriously jam. Unfortunately, like other jam bands this phenomenon sometimes doesn't translate to their studio albums. For the 'Crowes, I think it is hit or miss. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion captures their energy excellently. Perhaps it is the overall somber mood of Three Snakes & One Charm, but the energy of Southern Harmony is gone. However, this album does excellently demonstrate the heartfelt soul that the 'Crowes pour into their craft. This album is underappreciated in the Black Crowes catalogue, but I think it's great. Standout tracks include Good Friday, Blackberry, and the absolutely beautiful Girl from the Pawn Shop. As good as this album is, though, I wouldn't recommend it for starters. For those of you in the camp that thinks the Black Crowes disappeared circa 1992, pick up The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. For those of you in the second camp, I'm sure you already have this album so I'll stop preaching to the choir now.

I Know the Real World Always Gets the Last Word and That’s Why You Gotta Kick Reality

Friday. Yeah! Sorry for the no post yesterday, I ended up having to cut out of work early. On top of that I've been crazy busy here. This has been a good kind of busy because I think I am getting a lot of things cleaned up and taken care of finally. I don't know how good a month January will turn out to be, but February is poised to be pretty sweet as far as collections go.

Today I listened to Sublime's 40oz to Freedom on the way into work. I picked this one because my 311 post the other day had me jones'n to listen to it plus it is a perfect album to get a Friday started. I said the other day that I consider this to be one of the greatest albums of all time and I completely meant it. I love this album. I have already reviewed it here, so I won't bother repeating myself in this post. I did dig up an old Ween album yesterday for something different to review, but since I didn't post I guess I'll have to bring it in another time.

Stranger Flowers Yet; There Will Never Come a Day that I Will Ever Regret

Wednesday. Man I'm bored. Of course, that's nothing new since I am always bored. Today I am enduring the endless monotony of putting together a complete list of all outstanding items for my biggest customer and including notes for each line item to help discern why they have yet to be paid. I mean we're talking $1.8 million in aged receivables here. Once this thing is completed, I should have a strong tool to help collect said $1.8 mil, but until then I think my brain might just go completely numb. That may not be a bad thing working around here.

Billydwilson wants me to root for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the upcoming Super Bowl. He makes a good case. They were ranked sixth seed and beat the no. 1, 2, and 3 teams on the road to get there. It would be the first time a no. 6 seed ever won the big game. However, this will be the first time the Seahawks have been to the Super Bowl in their 30-year history, as opposed to the Steelers who have already won four of them. So... whom should I root for? I'm leaning towards Pittsburgh, but if anyone wants to lobby Seattle's cause to sway me, please comment below.

I listened to 311's Grassroots on the way into work today. I was trying to think of bands I haven't heard in a long time, and 311 came up. Some who've known me a long time might find it strange that I can't remember the last time I put in a 311 album since I was pretty much 311 obsessed for most of the '90s. I mean, this Modest Mouse thing lately has been puppy love compared to how much 311 I listened to back then. For a good stretch of time my CD player was loaded with only 311 albums set to constant rotation. I saw them five times in concert, three of those times with lampsidebriefcase (billy, were you at the Cypress Hill show?). While I'm not near as cool as lampsidebriefcase who once met guitarist Tim Mahoney, footage from one of the Red Rocks shows I saw did end up on the Enlarged to Show Detail video (I'm the guy about two-thirds up in the crowd yelling "311!").

So, what happened? I don't know. I would say I burned myself out on them, but I still listen to other bands that I've been that obsessed over. Maybe it was because I was listening to a lot of rap, reggae and rock at the time and they just provided a convenient mix of all of those genres. Maybe I related to the lyrics a lot more then than I do now. I don't really have an answer. I still like 311. I just don't have the urge to listen to them that much any more. I chose Grassroots because that used to be my favorite (I now say the underrated Transistor is their tightest musically). I still think there are some good songs on this album. 8:16am is in particular a great track, and Lucky, Applied Science and Lose stand out as well. I find it hard to recommend this album, though. The lyrics aren't necessarily profound. The dual lead vocal is pretty cool, but that's nothing new. Other bands like the Grateful Dead did that decades before. 311 is good don't get me wrong, but if you are into the punk/rap/reggae hybrid thing go pick up one of the best albums of all time, Sublime's 40oz to Freedom instead.

8:16am

Stranger flowers yet
There will never come a day that I will ever regret
The hours days years and the minutes
The joy the pain the sunshine and rain in it

Excerpt from Kerouac’s On the Road
Stranger flowers yet--for as the Negro alto mused over everyone's head with dignity, the young, tall, slender, blond kid from Curtis Street, Denver, jeans and studded belt, sucked on his mouthpiece while waiting for the others to finish; and when they did he started, and you had to look around to see where the solo was coming from, for it came from angelical smiling lips upon the mouthpiece and it was a soft, sweet, fairy-tale solo on an alto. Lonely as America, a throatpierced sound in the night.

Now, that's cool.

It was like so hush hush...They were so quiet about it... And then the next thing you know...

Tuesday. I've had a busy day today. I had my usual pre-upload spreadsheet report that I usually do on Tuesdays plus all of these other little things coming in that had to be done. On top of that, I am getting more responsibility in the accounts payable area so my workload has increased. Of course, I don't get any extra pay or elevated title for this, I just get the extra work.

Other than that not too much going on today. I listened to the Pixies Surfer Rosa on the way in to work today. Faithful readers will remember I was on a total Pixies kick a couple of months ago, so I think I pretty much covered everything then. I will say that even after this hiatus, I can still reaffirm my affinity for this genius of a band.

You know, come to think about it, I've been doing a lot of repeats lately. Although I am constantly seeking new and fresh bands/albums/tunes to listen to, I sometimes find myself limited to the channels of new music exposure. If anyone out there has any recommendations for me to review, please leave a comment and I will do what I can. Please, no Madonna.

They Say Every Man Needs Protection; They Say Every Man Must Fall

Monday. Well, the Broncos lost the big AFC game. I am a bit disappointed, but hey, it was a good run and they had a good season. I don't blame Plummer for losing the game. The Steelers just outplayed the Broncos at every position and on all levels of the game. Plummer had a great season, and I don't think that one bad game should be a cause to completely dog him like some around here are doing. Even the mighty Tom Brady can throw a handful of picks in a big play off game. Just look at how he did against Denver last week. Anyway, thanks, Broncos, for a good season regardless. It's been fun.

Of course, billydwilson, being a big Steelers fan, did what all good friends do for each other in their time of despair. He called to rub it in. Hey, what are friends for? I would like to think I would be there for him in the same capacity had the situation been reversed. Seriously, though, it was good talking to ya billy. I hope all is well.

Other than that, not much is going on here at work today. I am trying to research a bunch of correspondence to track down various proofs that we should be paid for a bunch of outstanding items on my biggest account group. Not exactly the most exciting endeavor, but if it gets these things paid then it will all be worth it I guess.

I listened to some Bob Dylan on the way in to work today. I heard Ben Harper's Diamonds on the Inside last night and I picked up on what I considered to be a strange resemblance to Dylan's I Shall Be Released. I didn't know if it was just my post-Broncos-loss brain not processing things correctly, so I popped in some Bobby Dylan this morning to see if Ben Harper was an "Innocent Criminal" or not. The jury is still out on this one, but I think there could be a case made regarding their similarities.

By the way, I recommend both Bob Dylan and Ben Harper, regardless of any perceived semblance. They are both awesome.

Twistin’ with Lucy, Doin’ the Watusi

Friday. Yeah! Well, Broncomania is starting to hit critical mass here in the Denver office. We now have a full-blown Bronco shrine in the break room, and at least half the people here are wearing some kind of orange/blue apparel. Considering that both the Governor of Colorado and the Mayor of Denver came out this week to proclaim today statewide Orange Friday, who were we to question our elected leaders mandate? All of this hoopla is just for the AFC title game. If they win, this whole place is going to go nuts. I remember all of the hysteria around here back when Elway won those Super Bowls in the late '90s.

Other than that, not much going on work-wise. I had an account review with the Big Boss Lady that went well and now I am putting together the post-website upload spreadsheet report. Fun times.

I was listening to the radio on the way home last night when they announced that R&B/soul singer Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack at age 64. I knew then that my music selection would be a tribute to this great legend. You may think that you don't know Wilson Pickett, but I guarantee you know some of his songs. Some of Pickett's biggest hits include Mustang Sally, In the Midnight Hour and Land of 10,000 Dances. Pickett was known for his strained, gritty vocals and always gave it all he had. It's his trademark scream that always gets me when I listen to him. This guy was good. Do your music collection a favor and at least pick up a copy of his Very Best of. No party playlist is complete without Land of 10,000 Dances and I don't know if a song can get much cooler than Mustang Sally. He will be sorely missed.

Think about Something that Ya Never Thought and If You’re Gonna Give, Give Everything You Got

Thursday. Not much going on today at work. I uploaded the website, finished my treasury reports, and I put together a spreadsheet listing all of the outstanding items on one of my way overdue accounts and then sent it out requesting action. This prompted an angry response from at least one of my fellow co-workers on the sales side. Hey, and I said yesterday that no one ever reads these things...

Ok, it's time for an update on the whole HTML-learning thing. While I am nowhere near fluent, I am making progress. In fact, it is time for me to come clean. I'm working on another blog (it's this blog I really love, baby, that other one means nothing to me...). I don't think it's too bad for amateur work. Although I didn't write it completely from scratch, it at least has the appearance of originality. I would link you to it, but I don't want to disrupt the controlled environment of my experiment. Part of this experiment is to test the actual potential of weblogging, and so I am attempting to appeal to a wide demographic by posting news articles regarding two pop singer sisters whom in reality I couldn't care less about. I included an ad banner to this other site as part of this experiment, and here it is, about a week later and I've raked in a cool twelve cents. Sweet!

So anyway, I hope that explains why I've been saying for the past month or so that I'm learning HTML yet this site has shown no discernable improvement in layout. I have a couple more tweaks to do on my other site, but then I plan to implement some changes here. So, be on the lookout for that.

I listened to Donovan Frankenreiter's self-titled album on the way into work this morning. I was looking for something I hadn't heard in a while and I thought the generally happy mood on this album might lift me up from the funk I was in yesterday. The tropical island sound of ukuleles and bongos made quite an odd juxtaposition to the snow that is currently falling here in Colorado. However, I think it might have worked since today seems to be going a lot better than yesterday. I reviewed and recommended this album back in September so I won't repeat myself except to say that I still think it is a decent album even after the long hiatus between listenings.

You Don’t Need No Gypsy to Tell You Why You Can’t Let One Precious Day Slip By

Wednesday. It is days like this one that make me seriously question the futility of my work existence. I would much rather write, learn, travel, experience life, etc. than waste another day appeasing disgruntled co-workers, listening to condescending phone calls, and putting together yet another spreadsheet that no one will ever read. I dream of dropping out of society, moving to an isolated cabin in the mountains and becoming one with the marmots. I will continue pre-occupying my brain with this dream until I feel the cold, hard slap of my debt reality and remember that Friday is one of the 26 reminders a year of why I work here.

On the plus side, I got payment confirmations today for about $370K of aged receivables. Since that will clear two old accounts, that is two less treasury reports I'll have to do next month...

I listened to The Allman Brothers' Eat a Peach this morning on the way in to work. I didn't wake up with anything in particular in mind so instead of picking an old standby that I've reviewed a million times, I tried to find an album yet to be mentioned on this site. I must have been in a rush, because I didn't get farther than letter A in picking one out.

For those who don't know, The Allman Brothers are a southern rock jam band that have stood the test of time despite losing one of the brothers (Duane) and kicking out another integral member (Dicky Betts) allegedly for too much substance abuse (really, you must have a serious problem if other rock stars think you have a problem). Eat a Peach came out shortly after Duane Allman's death in a motorcycle accident, and features such classics as Ain't Wastin' Time No More, One Way Out, and the awesome Melissa. Dicky Betts really lets his presence be known on the beautiful Blue Sky and the guitar solo Little Martha. The album also features the 34-minute Mountain Jam in an attempt to capture the band's improvisational talent on stage (I once saw the Allman Bros. in concert, and man, where they awesome live). This album is recommended for those who like classic rock, southern rock, jam band rock, or any type of rock at all. Sure, 34 minutes of Mountain Jam may not be your thing, but Melissa and Blue Sky definitely make picking it up worth it. The rest of the album isn't too bad, either.

Everyone Wants a Double Feature, They Wanna Be Their Own D___ Teacher

Tuesday. I have been busy today. I was out yesterday, so I not only had to get my spreadsheet ready for this week's website upload, but also finish up a huge report that I usually do on Monday. I am finished with those two now, with about 40 minutes of the day left to spare, so of course I am going go spend it getting all of the other important things done, like posting to my blog.

Since I didn't post yesterday, I didn't get a chance to congratulate the Denver Broncos on their huge win over the Patriots on Saturday, or marvel at the crazy finish of that Steelers/Colts game. No one picked the Broncos to win over the Patriots, despite the fact they were 13-3 in the regular season, clinched their division, and had home field advantage. Now everyone is talking about the Broncos winning the Super Bowl. What a bunch of bandwagoneers. I've believed all year long that the Broncos could go to the Super Bowl, but then again, I live in Colorado, so I may be a bit biased...

I listened to The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse on the drive into work today. I picked this album because I woke up with The Stars are Projectors in my head and I fear mental mutiny if I don't comply with my brain's musical requests. I've reviewed The Moon & Antarctica about a million times on this blog, so I won't bore you all again, but I will re-assert my love for this fantastic album. Pure genius.

The Lights are Flashing, My Mind is Spinning, I Feel Like it is Always the Beginning

Friday. A somewhat busy day. I had a long teleconference this morning regarding new procedures that have been put in place by our customer that will greatly affect how we do business. I won't disclose who the customer is, but let's just say an oversight sub-committee implemented these rules after another vendor was caught price gouging. Fun times. Other than that, I've been working on collections and putting together a big post-upload spreadsheet report.

I'm still teaching myself HTML. I've came up with a pretty good idea for my website focus and I have been planning the design for it. I know this site is still the same old drab template with tweaks, but I just haven't got there yet. I promise, a new layout is in the works.

I got out of the house a little late this morning, plus I had to get gas, which made me a little pressed for time in getting to work. Plus I was in a pretty blah mood for a Friday morning, so I pulled out the big guns and chose Paul's Boutique for my listening enjoyment. I have mentioned the power of the Beastie Boys several times on this site, but it bears repeating. This album never fails to turn my mood around, no matter the situation. Only Sublime's 40oz. to Freedom even comes close to that kind of power. Even though traffic was bad the whole way down due to the big stock show in town, I nevertheless found myself singing and dancing along to this pure genius of an album. I think I've also mentioned that I think that the little known Car Thief is one of my favorite Beastie Boys songs, but I just wanted to repeat that again, too. Definitely good stuff.

Beautiful Lie, You Can Pray You Can Pay 'Til You're Buried Alive

Thusday. Somewhat busy today. The Big Boss Lady is in town. We had a sit-down meeting in which we went over all of my accounts, and that went fairly well. She congratulated me on a pretty good December, but had a couple more accounts for me to target this month. She did acknowledge that I was making some good headway on some of these old and nasty accounts, so I was pleased to hear that. Later we went out to lunch together for a graduation celebration meal, so that was pretty cool. I can't complain about free food. While eating though, I asked her for a promotion since I now have a master's degree, I have collected millions of dollars for her a month, my account base is bigger than other managers plus I run the website, etc., but I was shot down. She gave me the "it is forseeable in the future but not right now" line. I didn't tell her this, but it is "foreseeable in the future" that I will be seeking employment elsewhere if I don't start getting paid what I'm worth around here.

Sorry, I'm still a bit disappointed right now that I didn't even get an idea of when "the future" is. So far, all that grad school work is not paying off.

I listened to Blues for Allah by the Grateful Dead today on the way to work. I know, I have been listening to a lot of Dead lately but I just re-acquired a few albums that I haven't heard in awhile and I was eager to listen to them. I was going to do a full review of Blues for Allah, but my work day is coming to a close. I'm sure I'll have a chance to review it another time. This album is pretty good.

Sometimes We Live No Particular Way But Our Own

Monday. Not much going on today at all. I made adjustments to the database for tomorrow's website upload and now I am going through my accounts and working on collections. The branch here bought everyone bagel sandwiches for breakfast this morning for coming in under budget during the month of December. Although I'm not a branch employee (I work for corporate and just hang out here), I was invited to enjoy one of these tasty bagel sandwiches and I took up the offer. Of course, now it is over four hours later and I am still feeling it in my belly. I'm more accustomed to eating an apple in the morning, so my stomach doesn't really know what to think of this all-of-a-sudden substantial sustenance. Hopefully I'll be able to eat again by the time dinner rolls around.

Since I didn't eat any lunch, I instead drove over to Borders bookstore to cash in a gift card I received for xmas but couldn't use since there are no Borders bookstores in Fort Collins. I was able to pick up a couple of good books (or what I hope will be good books since I haven't read them yet) for $15, so I thought that was pretty cool. It seems nowadays you can plan on spending $25-30 for a single title. No wonder no one reads anymore.

I listened to Wake of the Flood by the Grateful Dead on the way in to work this morning. For those unfamiliar with the history of the Dead, the band changed labels from Warner Bros. to Arista in the 1970's. While the albums from the Arista era are generally lesser known to non-deadheads than the Warner releases, I personally feel that some of the Dead's best work was done during this time. Wake of the Flood is no exception, as it contains several of my all-time favorite Dead tunes: Eyes of the World, Stella Blue, Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleoo and The Weather Report Suite. Of course, these songs are all better in their live versions when time allowed for improvisation and extrapolation, but that should go without saying. Although I really enjoy this album, I don't think I would recommend this as an introductory album to the Dead. Go with Workingman's Dead or American Beauty instead. For those who already have those two albums and want to know of other good Dead releases to try, pick this one up. Then listen to the live versions and hear these songs as they were meant to be heard. Good stuff.

Some Folks Trust to Reason, Others Trust to Might; I Don’t Trust to Nothing, But I Know it Come Out Right

Tuesday. I'm enjoying more spreadsheet fun today. I've finished one report, I'm working on another, and I fielded a long call this morning in which I walked a financial manager through how to put together a third. If this keeps up I'm going to start having nightmares of Excel in my sleep.

Today marks the quasi-anniversary of this blog. I say "quasi-anniversary" because even though it has been one year since my first post on this site, I really didn't become a regular submitter until around June of last year. One day when I was bored at work (imagine that) I created this blog on a whim. However, after creating it and leaving a horribly lame post I never really went back and followed up on it. Then, five months later lampsidebriefcase and I were emailing each other back and forth one day instead of working (as we have been known to do from time to time) and lampside came up with the idea that we create our own blogs. Much to his surprise, I told him that I already had one. Well, lampside created his and got our mutual friend billydwilson on board, and for a few weeks we had fun posting and commenting back and forth on each other's sites. While billy and lampside's posting frequency has since slackened, I found that I actually enjoyed maintaining a personal weblog and this site eventually evolved into more of a day-to-day journal of my boredom here at work, what music I listened to on my long morning commute, and whatever else is on my mind that day. I've given up hope that anyone else besides me would find this site interesting, since by design it discusses fairly uninteresting things, but I still keep up with it just for that odd comfort of consistency it brings.

On the way to work this morning I listened to Bob Weir's solo album Ace. For those unfamiliar, Mr. Weir was a member of that venerable jam bad The Grateful Dead. Recorded while the Dead was still in their heyday, Ace contains many songs already familiar to Dead fans, including the perennial favorites Playing in the Band and One More Saturday Night. Two other bright spots on this album include Black-Throated Wind and the beautiful love song Looks Like Rain. Some readers might remember that I named my daughter Cassidy, a track that also appears on this album. It is weird (Weir-d?) to hear Cassidy in this arrangement, especially when one is used to hearing it in versions similar to how it was recorded on Reckoning and Without a Net, however it still remains a phenomenal tune and one close to my heart. You don't have to be a Dead fan to enjoy Ace, but it probably helps. While it should go without saying that all of these tracks sound better in their live form, Ace is a great studio release and comes highly recommended.

It’s a Luscious Mix of Words and Tricks

Monday. Yikes what a busy day! First, sorry for the no-post on Friday. My daughter was (and still is) pretty ill, so I took off to stay home with her. So, today I have been trying to catch up on my work from Friday plus my work for today which has included a number of time-consuming spreadsheet reports. I also got a call from the Big Boss Lady who advised that she would be in town Thursday and that she would take me out to lunch to congratulate me on earning my Master's degree. So, I thought that was pretty cool of her.

So far so good on my quest to learn HTML. I know that there isn't any evidence of that as of yet on this site, but I've read about 50 pages or so in my HTML manual and I am going over a lot of the basics and introductory stuff right now. I am somewhat familiar with some of the stuff covered, but most of that has been from mimicking other codes. Right now I am learning the whys not just the hows. I'm also kicking around some ideas for a new website to put together, you know one that people will actually want to read and leave comments on (as opposed to this one).

I listened to The Shins' Oh! Inverted World today on the way into work. I heard New Slang on the radio over the weekend and it just kinda stuck in my head. This is a good album, but since I’ve already reviewed it several times and it is almost time for me to leave for the day, I will end now.

I Gotta Admit That I’m a Little Bit Confused, Sometimes it Seems to Me as if I’m Just Being Used

Thursday. I am still trying to fight off this sinus drainage thing, but so far I have been unsuccessful. I had another rough night of no sleep last night despite a dose of Nyquil and a couple Advil. I've tried all varieties of medicines and nothing seems to make much of a difference. However, I have found that combining loopy sinus medicine and sleep deprivation leads to a very surreal form of consciousness. If it wasn't for this killer sore throat or the stapler on my desk singing Camptown Races, I think I might actually enjoy this.

Other than that, not much going on here at work. I uploaded the website this morning and now I am trying to work on some more collections. I have a tough act to follow up from last month, but hopefully I can stay on my current upswing. So far since I've come back into collections every month's numbers have progressively got better. Are you paying attention Big Boss Lady?

Since I didn't really have anything specific in mind to listen to this morning, I decided to just make this "Pink Floyd Week" and selected Animals. Despite being quadruple platinum in the US alone, this album is often overlooked and underappreciated in the Pink Floyd catalogue. One of the reasons for this is the overall feel of the album and its lack of assessable radio singles. On this album you can really sense Roger Waters asserting his creative control over the rest of the band (which eventually led to a huge fight with the other members and Waters' eventual departure down the line). Waters is a big fan of the concept album (for reference please see The Wall, The Final Cut, every one of his solo albums, etc) and here each track designates one of the categories of animals into which we as humans fall: dogs, pigs, or sheep. "Dogs" are the backstabbing string-pullers of the world, "pigs" are the politicians, and the "sheep" comprise everybody else who blindly follows the dogs and the pigs. Waters' inner angst begins to surface on Animals, and later fully reveals itself on The Wall and especially The Final Cut. This album is also famous for its album cover depicting a flying pig over an industrial factory. After the release of this album, the flying pig was a mainstay at Floyd concerts often seen hovering over the crowd.

While I personally enjoy listening to this album, I find it hard to recommend to others. Unless you are fan of the Roger Waters socio-political Pink Floyd era works, you probably wouldn't care too much for Animals. If you are a big fan of The Final Cut or any of Waters' solo albums you probably already own this one so it is useless to recommend it. However, if you like what you've heard on other PF albums and are interested in hearing more of what this band has to offer, pick this one up. It's not bad (especially when taking sinus meds on no sleep...).

And When at Last the Work is Done, Don’t Sit Down it’s Time to Dig Another One

Wednesday. I am a little under the weather today. I have come down with some kind of weird sickness in which I don't feel congested or feverish, yet my sinuses are draining like crazy resulting in coughing fits and a nice complementary sore throat. I didn't have much medicine in the ol' medicine cabinet so I am pretty much fighting this one au naturel. It probably wouldn't be that bad as far as sicknesses go, but I didn't get a wink of sleep last night because every time I tried to lay my head down my sinuses would start acting up and keep me from achieving that plane of nocturnal bliss. I even tried sleeping sitting up, but to no avail. Oh well, it could be worse I guess. Maybe tonight I'll look up some of those horrific medical pics on the Internet and be grateful for my slight case of the sniffles. Or continue to complain incessantly. One or the other, I haven't decided yet.

I had a busy morning at work. I had to get my final treasury report out for December as well as getting my spreadsheets ready for the website upload tomorrow. I usually get those done on Tuesdays, but since we were out Monday I am a day behind. I have finished both of those items now, so this afternoon I am working on job approvals and catching up from my time off.

I woke up (more like "got up" since I didn't really sleep) still in a Pink Floyd mood this morning, so I chose the masterpiece Dark Side of the Moon as my musical selection on the way to work. This album has been widely acknowledged as one of the best of all time, usually floating around in the top 3 along with Sgt. Pepper's and Thriller. While my affinity for the Beatles should be well known to faithful readers, I have to say that Dark Side has the upper hand (Thriller? Puleeez...). On the surface, this album is easily assessable to music listeners of all stripes. The overall feel is mellow, jazzy and unobtrusive. Each track flows effortlessly into the next, sometimes bringing up reprises of previous tracks or glimpses of refrains to come. The song lyrics are extremely intelligent while remaining non-confrontational. Witness how Breathe profoundly addresses the tedium of existence and the genius of how the band juxtaposes the class warfare message of Us and Them with a beautifully tranquil saxophone solo. I'm sure everyone has heard Time, but have they really listened to it? These lyrics perfectly capture the tragedy of the human life cycle. This song becomes more relevant with every listen and every year that flies by. For example, consider these lyrics:

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time/ Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines

Now read my post from yesterday regarding my New Year's resolution to finish up my writing project or follow through on my plans to learn HTML and design my own web layout. Crazy. Anyway, there is a good reason why Dark Side of the Moon ends up on the top of all of these "Best Albums" lists (no discernable reason can explain why Thriller is up there...). This album is very highly recommended. You should already have this album, but just in case you don't, go buy it right now. I mean it.

We’re Just Two Lost Souls Swimming in a Fish Bowl Year After Year

Tuesday. Well everybody, I'm back from vacation all rested up and excited to get back to work (yeah, right). I had a good time off. I got to spend some quality time with the fam, caught a couple of movies, and pretty much cleaned out the whole house including the garage. Not bad. What did I not do on my time off? Schoolwork!

Today I am catching up on all of the paperwork that I missed out on the past week or so that I was out. Fun times. I did have a little bit of good news awaiting me on my return. At the beginning of last month the Big Boss Lady had set a goal for me to bring in $760K on two accounts as part of an effort to reduce our overall yearly DSO to less than 50 days (I know 50 days isn't that good, but that's down 15 days from this point last year). After tallying up the receivables for those two accounts this morning, I brought in just under $1.2 million so I pretty much smashed that benchmark (and that's with me being out almost 2 weeks last month). So, I was pretty happy to hear that. Unfortunately, though, according to the Big Boss Lady sales were down in December, which threw off the DSO and brought us in at 50.4. Still, not too shabby. We're getting there.

So, this is a new year (2006 for those not paying attention) and as tradition dictates, I must come up with some resolutions for the upcoming year. However, resolutions tend to imply curbing a negative behavior such as quitting smoking, losing weight, stop huffing paint thinner, etc. Since I am a non-smoker and I'm not ready to give up my paint thinner habit quite yet, I decided to set goals for myself instead. First, as I have been saying for over a month now, I plan to learn HTML to the point I can design my own website from scratch. I bought a HTML book awhile back, and now that school is over I plan to devote my brain cells to this project instead of letting them go completely dormant. In the behavioral department I am going to start seeing some of these ideas and projects that I come up with through. Two of those projects in particular are the aforementioned website design project, and my writing project that I got about 50 pages done on before I stalled out. By the end of the year I would like to have my website up and running, and my writing project done. The writing may be a tough one since it will be competing with the website design for my free time, but stretch goals are supposed to be out of reach by nature. Realistically, I would like to get over 100 pages down on paper but we'll see. I am telling you all this because after studying personal performance goals extensively in grad school, I've actually become to believe in their effectiveness. One of the key steps to goal achievement is to share your goals with others. In theory this is so you can build up a peer support network that will help you obtain your objective. Personally, I think by letting everyone know your intentions you are much more likely to work towards achieving your goal so you aren't publicly embarrassed when you fall flat on your face with failure. Either way, that is what I plan to accomplish in 2006. Well, that and cutting down my paint thinner habit to only weekends...

This morning I listened to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here on the drive into work. I had planned to discuss the merits of this phenomenal album along with some personal testimonials about the two times I saw Pink Floyd in concert, but this post has already exceeded its recommended length for reading ease so I will end it now. Happy New Year everyone and best of luck to you all in 2006.