Quit School, Don’t Work, Livin’ Out the Music de Punk; If I Could Do it So Could Anyone

Friday. Today has been a relaxing day actually. It is the end of the month, so none of the transactions I put in today will probably make it into the system in time for it to count for my June reports, especially with the holiday coming up next week. For all of my non-US readers, this holiday is for our Independence Day in which we salute our country's greatness by blowing a lot of stuff up. This year my parents are coming in town for the big July 4th week. Actually they get into town Sunday and will stay through Saturday. This is actually a good time for them to come since I will have the 4th off, and then I will be getting my surgery done on Friday. Yep, one week from today. I admit I'm getting nervous. Not nervous in the "chickening out" sort of way, but in the "anxious just get it over with" sort of way. Plus I'm not too keen on the whole recovery bit. But I am totally pumped for the results, so I will just deal with it. Anyway, the parental units will get a good opportunity to spend quality time with their grandkids while I am getting my nose broken so it works out well for everyone.

Since today is Friday and I needed something rockin' I went with NOFX. I know, I rant here from time to time against top-40 pop bands who call themselves "punk" just because they have their ears pierced and a couple of tattoos. However, I don't consider NOFX in that group. Sure, they don't play hardcore thrash punk, but they are still pretty darn good. Plus, their lyrics are hilarious (and if you aren't careful you might catch a social message or two in there as well). I wrote a previous post on NOFX here if you want to check it out. Otherwise I'm checking out for now. Sorry for the short post, but it's Friday and I'm going home...

We’re Just a Million Little Gods Causin’ Rainstorms, Turnin’ Every Good Thing to Rust

Thursday. Today has been another relatively uneventful day. I had to upload the receivables website database today, so that took up most of my morning. I have also been trying to clean up all the loose ends from my vendor database project that I stopped working on about a year ago. I was originally commissioned by the Big Boss Lady almost two years ago to collect all of the financial information, insurance information, past purchase histories, etc, of every vendor we had ever used and compile this data into one huge vendor database/filing system that would hang out with me here in Denver. So, people from all over the country sent me all of their vendor files (some better kept than others) and I began very meticulously working on this project. Let me tell you, working on this thing was so amazingly riveting that out of all of this excitement I decided to create a blog to share just how freakin' bored I was. Much to my relief, the Big Boss Lady asked me to go back into receivables work last August so the vendor database project has been sitting here collecting dust for almost a year now. I have boxes and packages of files just sitting here waiting to be keyed in, but I honestly do not have the time to dedicate to this task (nor do I want to dedicate my time to this task, although I do believe greatly in the value of the finished product). When the Big Boss Lady was in town last she advised that she would be hiring a new assistant for the department and finishing this project and maintaining this database would be one of his/her primary duties. Yeah! I'm definitely down with this development, however it means I have to get everything organized to send off when the new assistant starts. I know that doesn't sound that bad, but since people have been still sending me stuff even though I haven't been working on this project in almost a year, I've just kinda let things build up unfiled. So... I hope the new person doesn't mind a bunch of loose paperwork to have to sift through. We'll just consider it his or her "initiation rites" into the department...

Once again I am a slacker with no new music to discuss. Actually, I did try to have new music for today, but the music fairy only partially delivered so we'll just have to wait on that one. Instead, I listened to Funeral by Arcade Fire. I wanted to see if I would latch onto these guys a little bit more than last time. I gave them a favorable review, but I came away with the feeling that one has to listen to this album multiple times to truly let it sink in. So, this was one of those "multiple times." I have to say, I did enjoy it more, but I'm not up to the level of unabashed praise. Maybe next time.

Sometimes I Speak, Tonight There’s Nothing to Say; Sometimes We Freak and Laugh All Day

Wednesday. Well, I had expected a relaxing day in which I could use to catch up on some things, but I guess I was mistaken. I don't even really know where the day went but I don't think I ended up getting much done. Maybe I got caught up on new things popping up. Maybe things took longer than I had thought. Maybe I just zoned out for the past 7 or 8 hours and I just woke up to find out that I haven't done anything but drool on my desk all day. No matter the reason, I find myself at the end of the day unable to figure out where the day went. I guess that's a good thing if you like to get work done and over with as soon as possible, but I can't help feeling guilty about losing that time. Wishing away time is a dangerous thing. I have the sinking suspicion that at some point in my life I am going to want all of that time that I "killed" back. What will I have to show for all of those hours I spent hoping they would pass away quickly? Even if I am doing something that isn't in my top 63 choices of things to do, I should at least make the best of it so I don't regret it later in life. You know, that sounded a lot deeper than I intended. Anyway, is it Friday afternoon yet?

Still no new music to discuss. I have been slacking lately, I know. I instead listened to an album I haven't heard in a long time, Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. I discussed this album before here, but I hadn't listened to it since. At the time I gave this album a lukewarm review, but upon listening to it with fresh ears I enjoyed it a lot more. These guys aren't that bad. I know, I'm like 10-15 years behind the curve on this one and you all have been listening to Sonic Youth since they were Sonic Infants, etc etc. But hey, I never claimed to be the foremost authority on what's hip and cool. I'm just a guy who likes to listen to music, even if it has already been underground, trendy, popular, overplayed, clichéd, "so '90s", and old school before I even heard it the first time around. Just remember your original feelings when you first heard this album and then assume that's me like 15 years later.

You know, I'm thinking about checking out another group that I've heard was pretty good. They're called The Beatles. Anyone out there familiar with them?

It’s Weeds Pulling Weeds and You’re Blaming Yourself; Ok, We’re All Indifferent in Our Own Ways

Tuesday. Well, today was certainly an uneventful day. I took off part of the morning to take mis hijas to the dentist so I missed out on at least a few hours of the daily fun. Once I got into the office I got bombarded by a bunch of phone calls but things soon died down to their usual levels of boringness. I put together my pre-upload spreadsheet, which took a bit of time, and then I compiled another spreadsheet report by the Big Boss Lady's request. I also had a vendor calling me up again for payment on an incorrect invoice that his company themselves said to hold until they corrected it. Didn't this guy pay attention the last couple of times we went through this? Jeez Louise! And who are these people that spend the day calling up businesses demanding payment for overdue invoices?! How do they sleep at night? Oh wait... I'm one of those people... never mind...

Today's music selection was a repeat. At least I think it is, I haven't gone back through the archives to check. But it was Sad Sappy Sucker by Modest Mouse and I've done MM so many times on this site that I would find it quite odd if this album had managed to slip through. I hadn't listened to any Mouse in awhile, though, so I started getting a jones for some a few days ago. Well, I've been cranking the Mouse ever since. I'm on a total kick right now, which is cool since I am totally down with Modest Mouse. However, you guys will probably get bored of me raving about MM any more than I already have over the life of this blog, so I'll just stop now. I will say, though, that the songs Broke, Lives and Interstate 8 have been totally in my head lately. If you want three good reasons to dig the Mouse, there you have it. Go start listening to those tracks now and when you are finished I'll give you about 150 more reasons to consider...

Wind-up Anger with the Endless View of the Ground's Colorful Patchwork

Monday. Not too much going on here today and my music selection is a repeat so I decided that instead of giving you all the same old boring account of my day I would share with you some scenic images brought to you courtesy of beautiful Colorado in the summertime. Enjoy!-

I Prefer Peace, Wouldn’t Have to Have One Worldly Possession; But Essentially I’m an Animal, So Just What Do I Do With All the Aggression?

Thursday. Sorry about the no post yesterday. Man, I'm getting really sloppy lately. Yesterday, though, I couldn't post because I was busy all afternoon meeting with the Big Boss Lady. She was in town yesterday. I had my annual performance review, then we went out to lunch, and then we spent the afternoon going over my accounts. The review in itself went pretty well. She had no complaints about my past year of service (at least none that will be entered into my permanent record...) and she recognized me for a lot of things that I have done. Most of the time we spent talking about my goals for the upcoming year and what the future holds for me in my new position. But who cares about all that? All anyone wants to know about performance review, whether it's theirs or someone else's, is the bottom line. Did you get a raise and if so, how big?

Well, faithful readers, what I feared would happen happened. She low-balled me. And when I say "low-balled" I mean I estimated the lowest number that she would possibly offer me and she managed to go significantly under it. Put it this way, this promotion is pretty much going to be in title only. Even though I supposedly jumped two pay grades, my actual pay didn't jump any more than what I would have received in a standard annual increase. I tried to counter with a few of those nifty tricks I read about on the internet, but it didn't work. She advised since I would be eligible for the managerial incentive bonus, that was my increase. Um, last time I checked a "bonus" wasn't guaranteed. Base salary is. I asked her what the median pay was in the salary range for that grade (knowing full well what it was ahead of time and knowing that I was well below it). She said that she didn't have the numbers in front of her (yeah, right) but she would take a look at it again when she got back to her office today. She said that if there was any leeway then we could revisit the subject in January and perhaps she could do something then.

I have to admit I am a little disappointed. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am super pumped to get the new title and promotion, but I was really hoping for at least some extra cash, especially for jumping two pay grades. I'm still trying to pay off some debt that the Mrs. and I racked up as a result of both of our respective layoffs a few years back, and that little extra income each month would have sure helped speed the payback period up. But you can't really bring up any personal finance issues while trying to buck for a promotion or during salary negotiations. "Baby needs a new pair of shoes" doesn't really get much sympathy in the corporate world, I guess. In fact, as much as I don't like it, what the Big Boss Lady did was perfectly fair by the company rules. She took a look at the salary range for the position. Then, according to company policy she is mandated to give a certain percentage of annual increase in relation to how an employee's performance review is rated. So, she rated my performance review accordingly and gave me the mandated percentage. My old pay plus that percentage increase just squeaked me into the bottom end of the pay range for the new position. Voila! I am now officially within the pay grade range without having to give me any significant increases in pay (a 10% increase per pay grade is the "traditional" amount for a promotion). If I complain? Hey, the reason why I told her I needed a promotion to this level was so I could operate my job function at the higher level she expected without having my hands tied behind my back because I didn't have the authorization to access and/or approve certain documents, etc. Now I can. I got what I asked for. What am I whining about, then?

Pretty crafty if you step back and look at it from an objective view. I guess that's how you get to be one of the big bosses in the corporate world. On the flip side, I did get the title I've been after for a long time now, which just increased the value of my resume by several hundred times so if I do deem it necessary to re-enter the labor pool I have a much greater fighting chance than I did last time when I was up against everybody else who got laid off here a few years back in tech industry-heavy Colorado. That's definitely a big plus, for sure.

I have new music today to discuss (yeah!). Actually, I had new music yesterday, but since I didn't get a chance to discuss it, I listened to it again this morning so I could talk about it today. There's this song out that is getting a ton of play on the radio right now (yes, I admit it, I was listening to commercial radio) called Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. I'm sure you've heard it. Clear Channel is making sure of it. Anyway, this song is incredibly infectious and wouldn't leave my head so I decided I would check out the rest of the album.

Gnarls Barkley is a duo made up of rapper Cee-Lo and DJ/producer Danger Mouse. Apparently this Danger Mouse guy is really big in the UK. To me, Danger Mouse was a sweet cartoon I used to watch in my younger years (and by "younger years" I mean I currently have some episodes on tape at home). Then again, I haven't been on top of what is hip and cool in the music world since, well, ok - I've never been on top of what is hip and cool in the music world but I'm tryin'...

I guess the big thing to mention about Crazy is that it's the first song to ever go number one in the UK solely on downloads alone. That's actually pretty sweet (dinosaur record execs beware bwahahahahaahaha!). Overall St. Elsewhere (the album on which Crazy appears, not the '80s Ed Begley, Jr. hospital show) is pretty good. The stand out tracks for me were Just a Thought and Who Cares? These songs are what decent hip-hop tunes should be: good beats, soulful vocals, and smart lyrics. Unfortunately these tracks were mixed in with a couple of misses. I could have done without Necromancer and The Boogie Monster was one of the corniest tunes I've heard since DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince did Nightmare on My Street. The worst for me was a hip-hop remake of the Violent Femmes' Gone Daddy Gone. This song was about a hundred times better than Femme's version, but since the Violent Femmes currently have a negative rank on my enjoyablelisteningometer and we all know that anything times a negative number only increases its negative value, this song didn't stand a chance with me. The rest of the tunes were listenable enough though to give this album a positive review. Check it out for the few really good tracks. I think it's worth it.

I’m Working Today and Yesterday, Still Got Some Time and I Can Have Something I’d Live For

Tuesday. It has been a regular workday so far. The official announcement for my promotion doesn't take place until tomorrow, so today I am still doing the same old stuff. Of course, I'll still be doing a lot of the same old stuff after the announcement, but I will also have new stuff to do, too. That will be pretty cool. Although only a handful of people know yet, I am able to access a bunch of new things in the system that I previously wasn't privy to since they re-did my permission rights on Friday. That has been very informative, let me tell you. Just a quick breeze through the internal documents gives you a pretty good idea of what information they feel must be withheld from the general employee base. I'm still blocked out of a lot of documents, though. That must be the really good stuff. The ability to read those docs is motivation enough to keep going up that ladder...

I am anxious for tomorrow's lunch and review session with the Big Boss Lady. Typically I do not enjoy the whole performance review process. Sometimes they go better than others, but they usually are fairly lame. This time, though, the pressure is off. I was all ready to come out guns'a'blazin' on why she needed to promote me, etc., but now I already know ahead of time. I don't need to freak out and lose sleep over it tonight, I can just go and have a relaxing lunch and enjoy myself. Of course, the salary numbers are still up in the air, which has got me concerned that she is going to low-ball me, but for the most part everything should be stress-free. That is very cool.

On a side note, the branch here in Denver is celebrating over-budget sales numbers the past two months by having a barbeque on Friday. The memo also stated (I kid you not) that Friday is Hawaiian Shirt Day as well. Is this a joke? I swear, the longer I work here, the more Office Space is becoming my reality. They better not try to take my stapler. Swingline is WAY better than Boston for sure.

I listened to Telephono by Spoon today on the ride into work. I know, I Spoon-fed you all last week but I didn't have any other new music to review and I still had a couple of Spoon albums left to hear. Since the albums I listened to last week seemed to improve as I moved backwards through their discography, I decided today I should listen to one of their earliest albums to see if I noticed a significant difference between their earlier and later sounds. I could definitely tell a difference, but nothing radical. Still sounded like Spoon to me. Just for kicks, I pulled up some listener reviews on Amazon to hear what the fans were saying. Oddly, there were a lot of people complaining that this album was a Pixies rip-off. Ok, man, I love the Pixies, but I didn't think once during this listen that they were ripping them off. I did think that the song Nefarious sounded a bit Lou Reed-ish, but the Pixies never came to mind. I don't know what they are talking about. In fact, I probably would have enjoyed this album more if it sounded like the Pixies, but alas, it sounded like the other Spoon albums I've heard over the past week or so. Definitely not bad, but it didn't blow me away, either. I still don't get the hype. I think I'm missing something.

Taking All that He Can Take, Gambling with the Odds of Fate Tryin’ ta Get Over

Monday. Well, faithful readers, I have a story for you. I came in Friday morning to find out as soon as I logged in that my computer had to run an automatic company-wide system upgrade. This upgrade was supposed to run the week before but since there were so many problems with it they had to bump it back. So after my computer updated I logged in again to find out that I no longer had access to several of my system transaction codes, including the one that allows me to approve and release sales orders out of financial suspension. Every time I would try to go into it, it kept telling me I wasn't authorized. Hey, I've been using this transaction code for three years and now all of sudden I'm not authorized? I figured it had to be some kind of after effect from the upgrade, so I called Useless Support to log a system help ticket and then asked another financial rep if she could release my orders for me until the problem was resolved. After that I left a message with the Big Boss Lady to fill her in on the situation and then I carried on with my day slightly annoyed by screens looking funny and the inability to drop orders when requested. Later that afternoon, the Big Boss Lady called me back to discuss my system issues. I proceeded to go over the situation and the steps I had taken to remedy the issue until my help ticket was resolved. She told me that she was sorry that I was experiencing so many problems and it appeared that it was her fault, not the upgrade’s, that I was having system access issues. I was confused. I'm guessing that the Big Boss Lady picked up on this confused pause on my part because she continued to inform me that the reason I was having system troubles was because she was having my permissions reset. It was supposed to be a surprise for when she would be in town on Wednesday, but she wanted to let me know before some IT person unsuspectingly broke the news: I was getting promoted!!!!!!

I couldn't believe it, readers. I was in shock. I know most of you don't know me or my work habits personally, but I assure you (apart from the occasional blogger postings) that I have been busting my rear end off trying to attain this position. I had expressed my intentions to the Big Boss Lady several times in the past, and as a result I had been receiving exponentially greater responsibilities and workloads. I literally flew around the country to attend meetings and seminars, to make presentations, and to network with the higher-ups. I have been bringing in significant past-due dollars and I have designed and implemented processes that have greatly improved the receivables turnover in my region. I thought everything was on the up-and-up and the Big Boss Lady had continually dropped hints that I had no reason not to think that way. That was until last month when she came into town and we had a long sit-down talk in which she told me that she had decided not to fill the open position and that her priorities were not with the financial managers at the moment. She had decided that to better address the department's needs she would hire another lower-level assistant to take up the slack. She didn't foresee any major departmental changes beyond that at least until the fall, etc etc etc, which I pretty much took as "John, don't expect a promotion any time soon." So, even though I still wore my super awesome smile everyday to work, inside I was a boiling ball of fury. I used this website as my release valve, and poured out all of my anger and frustration into several posts on this blog. In hindsight, I don't regret anything I said during that rough week or so. Those posts captured my true emotion at the time and I don't think I was in the wrong to feel that way. In fact, I used that force of emotion to compose in my pre-review paperwork a statement listing many detailed and supported reasons why I believed I should be promoted. I took it home over the weekend to have it read over and to make sure that I softened any heated rhetoric. I then submitted it that following Monday with fingers crossed. I hadn't heard anything either way about this statement until the Big Boss Lady broke the news about the promotion this past Friday.

I don't know if that form made the difference or if the BBL had this in mind all along. Perhaps I will find out on Wednesday when she is in town. She didn't disclose many details over the phone, saying that we would go over everything during my review session. We didn't discuss numbers over the phone, either, but she did verify the pay grade. You see, readers, one of the biggest perks of finally reaching this pay grade level is that I will now be eligible for the annual managerial incentive bonus. This promotion will put me to a level in which (if all budgetary and profit criteria are met) I will receive a bonus comprised of 20% of my annual salary plus a bonus percentage determined by the profitability of my assigned branch/district. So, that could be a nice little perk each spring. As of right now, though, the actual compensation that I will receive is still an unknown. This will also be discussed on Wednesday. I am hoping for somewhere around the median of the range, but who knows what I'll end up with. As long as I don't get completely low-balled I'll be ok. I'm going to brush up on my negotiation skills just in case that happens, though. I don't want to get taken.

This whole promotion thing is more than about money, though (although more money would DEFINITELY help out right now). To me it is finally getting validation that all of my hard work has paid off. Up until this point it has not been an easy climb for me. You hear all of the time that hard work pays off and that virtue is its own reward, but until now it seemed that everything that my family and I have gone through and all of cumulative effort I've put forward to get ahead has gone for naught. Others were succeeding while I was seemingly falling farther and farther behind. But now, however, I have been able to take a significant step forward. I have finally broken through the ceiling into the upper half of the organizational hierarchy (admittedly on the lowest level of that hierarchy, but still...). Since my beginnings at this company I have put it as my objective to reach this position, and now that I have finally achieved this goal I feel overcome with a sense of accomplishment. The payoff is finally here.

So what now? Well, time to set the reset the sights and aim higher. I can't stand stagnation. Without something to work towards, what motivation does one have to work? I still have more than plenty of room between me and the top, so there should always be something to shoot for. However, for now I am just going to savor this moment and hope that Wednesday's lunch with the Big Boss Lady goes well. Now that the pressure's off, I'm sure it will.

Ok, readers, that's enough of this novel. I'm going to wrap it up now. Oh, I listened to Superfly by Curtis Mayfield today. I did a previous discussion on that album here if you are interested, otherwise I am signing off for now.

We Go Through All The Same Lines Or Sell Out To Appease

Thursday. Not too much going on today. Today is website upload day, so I have kept myself busy this morning doing that. Right now I am working on some collections stuff and still trying to clean up my headache account. The branch financial manager here recently had her 25th anniversary working for the company, so her boss and her big boss have been in town to take her and her department out to dinner to celebrate (I don't work for the branch, I'm a corporate employee who just hangs out here, and in a peculiar situation my boss and my big boss are the same person). I had teased her yesterday about behaving herself and not partying too hard, but sure enough there were a few glossy eyes and hung heads as the group filtered in this morning. Her assistant told me that they didn't get in until 4:30 this morning. So that whole situation has provided a bit of entertainment and levity around here today. Hey, if she's been around this place for 25 years I'm sure she's seen worse days than this one (and not necessarily caused by a hangover, either...).

So, the other day when I was putting together the brief history of this blog, I quickly referenced an email conversation in which my friend Lampsidebriefcase and I were goofing around instead of working. I had pulled that conversation up out of my email archive (I'm such a pack rat, I never delete anything) so I could piece the events surrounding the blog's foundation back together and I got a good chuckle out of the aforementioned emails that preceded the suggestion that we publish our own blogs. I had forgotten all about this conversation and I am still chuckling two days later, so I thought I would post it to share. There really isn't a set up to this, all you need to know is that Lampside likes to send me completely random emails out of the blue just to keep me on my toes. The following begins with just such an email:

Lampside: WAKE UP and join a karate school!

Me: I joined up with a karate school once, you know, just for kicks, but I quit when I found out I just didn't have the chops for it.

Lampside: Have you ever worked at a hardware store?

Me: Yes, actually I did. People thought I was nuts, but I was in it for the free screws. However, I was getting hammered too often after the daily grind, so I bolted.
Lampside: Wow with that experience you probably could work anywhere... I am sure you made dough at a pizza place, how about a record shop?

Me: You are correct; I worked at a pizza shop because I kneaded the dough, but it didn't deliver. So I tried to give the record shop a spin because it sounded good, but they threw me out when I skipped.

Lampside: Talking about skipping... I bet you spent some time skipping school.

Me: Correct again. I did have troubles in school. I pictured myself a good art student, but apparently the teacher thought I had drawn the wrong conclusion. Gym class never worked out for me, math never added up, and I had to repeat history. Luckily, I had a music class where the instructor initially sung my praises, however, she changed her tune after I missed some notes for my absences.

Lampside: Nice.


I listened to more Spoon this morning. I know it seemed like I came to a conclusion about Spoon in yesterday's post, but I still had a few more albums left in their discography and my choice was to either do a repeat or push on. I figured, hey, why not push on. So, today I listened to Girls Can Tell. I am wondering if I should just keep listening to more Spoon albums, because admittedly each one is getting better. I liked Girls Can Tell better than the other ones I've heard so far. I read a Pitchfork Media article about this album because I really wanted an answer to yesterday's question regarding what the big deal was about this band. I got this insightful answer: "...I don't think I've ever really captured in writing what it is about Spoon that I like so much." Hmmm... well, that's not helping. The article did mention however, that this album (and the other two discussed yesterday) came after a three-year hiatus and label change. Apparently these albums sound radically different than the albums from the previous Spoon era. I guess I have been doing things backwards by listening to the more recent albums first. I didn't know, I was just randomly picking them (looking at the release dates might have helped...). So, perhaps next time I pick out a Spoon album I'll start from the beginning where I should have started in the first place. At least this way, I've managed to save the best (hopefully) for last...

You Got the Weight of the World Coming Down Like a Mother’s Eye

Wednesday. Today has been a weird hodgepodge of minor tasks and events that have in their collective totality kept me quite occupied today. I've been mostly dealing with supplier payments and trying to resolve vendor discrepancies. You would think that doing payables would be fairly straight forward, but you get odd situations such as the vendor who wanted to know why his company hasn't been paid yet for services performed in April. We told him that it was because he never sent us an invoice. He advised that he considered as a payable invoice a personal letter that he sent to the sales rep that stated within it that they finished the job. Um... ok... Other than that, I have been trying to work on collections and fix a headache account that is quickly becoming a migraine account. You know, the usual fun.

This past weekend I engaged myself in the usual scouring of the internet for new tunes to check out. Since I enjoyed the Beulah-a-thon last week, I went to Live Plasma and typed in Beulah to see what would come up. One of the bands that it connected Beulah to was Spoon. I had heard of Spoon before and I am vaguely aware that they have somewhat of a loyal underground following, so I decided to check them out. Luckily for me the music fairy was able to deliver the whole Spoon discography, so I was more than prepared to have a Spoon week to follow up the Beulah week. That is of course, if I liked them having never heard any of their stuff previously. Forcing myself to listen to more albums if I didn't like the first one would have been literally like gagging myself with a Spoon...

Anyway, as all of you faithful readers who hang on every Inaction-in-Action post know, there was no post on Monday and no music discussion yesterday. So, there really wasn't much of a start to Spoon week. However, I did listen to Spoon's Kill the Moonlight those two mornings and found it fairly enjoyable. I even recognized one of the songs. It was no Beulah, though, that's for sure. In fact, I'm kind of confused by the very close link that Live Plasma gave the two bands. Of course, that's not the first time I've questioned a connection, but hey, I guess it's more important if I actually like the band being referred vs. how I was referred to them so I guess we'll just move on...

I listened to Spoon's Gimme Fiction this morning to see if a different album would leave a deeper impression on me. Again, I found the listen fairly enjoyable, but it didn't rock my musical foundations or anything. I liked this album better than Kill the Moonlight, though. After listening to both albums, I began to ask myself what the big deal was. I didn't think they were bad by any means, but usually when an indy band has a big following I expect something fairly unique and/or distinctive that sets them apart from field. I didn't hear anything like that with Spoon. Perhaps there is some kind of subtle intricacy with how they write their music or something, but on the surface I didn't hear anything new. Again, I enjoyed both albums, but I guess I just expected more. If someone knows what I'm overlooking, please let me know. Until then I am going to give them a half-hearted recommendation. They're good, but nothing to get all crazy about. Pick 'em up if you're curious, otherwise I don't think you'll miss out on the next new revolution in music or anything like that.

It Feels Alright, Keeps Your Mind on the Page

Tuesday. Sorry everyone for the no post yesterday. I had fully intended to have one out there. I even had one half-written. However, I was having another incredibly busy day and never finished it up. I had counted on getting it done at the end of the day, but sure enough as luck would have it, we had a power failure in the building so I couldn't bring it back up to complete it. So, today I have finished this super long post that I started yesterday (no wonder I didn't finish it) and I will just post it today instead. Here it goes:

I didn't get a chance to mention this on Friday, but that day marked the unofficial anniversary of this blog. Why "unofficial?" Well, I first created this blog 18 months ago because I was incredibly bored at work one day and I thought it would be the hip, cool thing to do to help me pass the time. Unfortunately, though, I quickly found that I had nothing hip nor cool to say so I ended up just letting it alone after just one lame introductory post. About six months later, my good friend Lampsidebriefcase and I were emailing each other back and forth and goofing around (as we have been prone to do from time to time), and Lampside came up with the idea that we should create our own blogs so we could goof around via that medium vs. the email. The conversation went pretty much like this:

Lampside: ...someone sent me their journal so I went in and made one. It's kind of cool to be published to the web that fast. Make one it is free.

Me: I made one a couple of months ago, did an introductory posting and then never followed up. I think I am too boring to keep a blog.

Lampside: Come on, what is the link?

Me: (gave link) I had forgotten. I had to look it up. Don't expect much. It is pretty bleak.

Lampside: I posted to your blog. I started one for myself... I am done with the other one. Blogger is way better.

And so it began. Right after that we recruited our mutual friend Billydwilson to join the fun and for a few weeks we used our blogs as kind of a forum between friends putting down random thoughts and goofing on each other's posts. The novelty must have worn off after that, or Lampside and Billy actually had jobs that kept them busy (at the time I was working on an extremely monotonous vendor database project), because the frequency of their postings eventually dropped off. However, I found that I actually really enjoyed making daily entries on the blog even if I had nothing to say and no one was reading. Since I lacked the creativity to keep up the fresh, absurdist humor that I wanted this blog to contain, I ended up making daily journal entries of what I was doing that day (usually nothing) and what music I listened to on the long drive in to work. It didn't take long to realize that this format was becoming incredibly repetitive and dreadfully boring. I seriously brainstormed many times about how to put together a more interesting and original format, but I always came up empty. Meanwhile, I still kept following the formula and making my daily postings. Eventually I began to embrace the boringness. It occurred to me that I had been searching all over for an original idea when I had one in front of me all along. There are thousands of blogs out there covering politics, popular music, celebrities, bad amateur poetry, etc, but how many blogs out there are proudly and purposely chronicling boredom? I decided to ironically achieve originality by becoming decidedly unoriginal. Recharged by this epiphany, I have continued on in the same basic format since that time. I discuss whatever projects, tasks, or issues I am dealing with at work that day that is causing my boredom. Then, as an antithesis, I discuss something that interests me greatly: music. I sometimes refer to these discussions as "reviews" but they're not really reviews. They are usually just my first impressions on new music, or nostalgic reflections about older releases. In the fall, I added in college football picks just for my own amusement, a feature that I am looking forward to returning to again when my beloved sports season starts back up again this autumn.

Is this structure a cheat? I'm sure most creative writers would be of that opinion. However, I feel that this tight structure actually helps fuel my creativity by providing me with an outlet in which I can write. Perhaps it is a crutch, but I fear that if it weren’t for this daily launch pad I would again be staring at a blank screen with nothing to say. At least this way I can be prolific, if I can't be profound.

This blog has gone through many changes over the past year. The layout began as a no-frills, standard Blogger template. The page used to be simply titled "Darthjohn42" and had a completely different URL address. As I became more comfortable with this whole newfangled blogging thing, I began to experiment more with HTML. I already knew my basic tags, but I wanted to learn how to change the look of the site itself. I did the usual newbie things like adding links, counters, and the changing the background colors. After awhile I got bored with that and wanted to learn more. So, I bought a manual and began teaching myself some more advanced HTML skills. Finally, after several months of promising changes, in January of 2006 I completely re-launched the blog under a new URL, a new name and with a brand new layout scheme that I designed mostly by myself (with a little help from the Blogger template as a reference). At this time I also changed my user name. I had several reasons for wanting to do this, but I had trouble coming up with a new alias. I kicked around a couple of names, and even ended up using one of them for a few weeks before finally deciding (with input from Billy and Light Strikes a Deal) on just plain old "john." As LSD said, “It's so boring that it has come full circle and is interesting again.” Perfect.

So, what does the future hold for Inaction-in-Action? Well, after finishing up the HTML book I got a manual on JavaScript so I could continue to improve my web design skills. Unfortunately I am a bit behind right now on that project since I haven't had much time in my private life lately to sit down and work my way through it. Trust me, though, I am still plenty excited to learn JavaScript, and as soon as I get a little more breathing room I will be starting that endeavor back up. Other than that, my only plan is to keep on keepin' on as Dylan would say. Of course, I'm always open to suggestions and feedback, so please feel free to comment any time.

Finally, I would like to thank everybody who has stopped by over the past year, especially those of you who didn't get bored enough the first time around to want to actually come back. I really appreciate all of the discussions and music recommendations, and I admit it is kind of cool to know that you aren't all alone in this big ol' blogiverse. Thanks again, readers, and here's looking forward to another year of boredom...

I had a new music discussion all ready to go today, but judging from the length of this post it will be next June before you all finish if I don't stop now. I know I've been slacking in the music department lately, but things (hopefully) should be back to normal tomorrow. Until then-

I Want to Find Some Laughter, When You Laugh They Can’t Kill You

Friday. I would give the usual "Yeah!" but this Friday has felt like a Monday. A bad Monday. A bad Monday under a full moon. A bad Monday under a full moon in which I walked under a ladder and by thirteen black cats as I came into the office today. Things have just gone wrong from the start and I am getting the feeling that I shouldn't have even bothered getting out of bed. I won't give you all the whole laundry list of everything I've had to deal with today, but I will share one item that has particularly irked me to the full extent:

About a month ago I got a non-approved supplier purchase request in the tune of around $84k. Since the vendor is unapproved (meaning that we have no pre-existing sales deals set up with them), there is a bunch of bureaucratic hoops we in the financial department have to jump through before we can approve these orders. So, I called the vendor at the time and told their Director of Sales that in order for us to place this order we would need to negotiate better payment terms and that we would need to get a copy of their product liability insurance naming us as additionally insured to cover our risk as a reseller. The guy said no problem and I faxed over our credit packet and insurance request, respectively. Well, almost a month later I still hadn't heard back from the guy. Over the past few weeks I have been leaving messages but getting no calls back. So, today, feeling bad that I am holding up some poor sales rep's $84k order, I call the vendor up in an attempt to strong-arm him into getting me the documentation that I need. I told him that without the proper documentation that we weren't going to place the order. He told me (quite rudely) that there was no way he was going to meet my requests and even if he was going to it didn't matter because my company already dropped the purchase order 2-3 weeks ago. With my ultimatum rendered completely impotent, I had no choice but to put my tail between my legs and hang up. Now, besides that completely embarrassing phone call, here is what really has my blood boiling. I never approved this non-stock request. I never approved the vendor terms. We never received the proper insurance coverage. Since the order is over $25k, the requisite large order form was never approved. I never released the sales order itself from financial hold in our system. How did this order get dropped??? Well, it appears that the customer service rep who dropped the PO decided that he would completely circumvent me, violate a whole basket full of procedures including (but not limited to) making a non-stock purchase without financial approval, without a large order form approval, without insurance coverage, and with COD vendor terms on an $84k(!) order. He did this by taking advantage of a day last month when I left early. He got another financial rep to release the hold by saying that I had already approved everything but didn't release the hold before I left. I am seriously ticked. The Big Boss Lady has been in meetings all day, but I did get a few minutes to give her the brief rundown. She is equally as upset because the large order forms go through her workflow and that particular one is still sitting in her inbox unapproved. So, this guy didn't just cross me, he crossed the higher ups. If this guy doesn't get a serious reprimand for this, I don't know what I am going to do. Personally I would fire him on the spot, but knowing how shady these sales deals get sometimes I am sure he got high-fives instead.

Since I mentioned it yesterday, I have to tell you all that I didn't get a call at 7:05am this morning. She waited until 7:20. Not to let it slip, she called literally the very second I got back from lunch. I hadn't even sat down yet before the phone started ringing. The guy who sits at the next desk looked over at me still holding my book, sunglasses and car keys and laughed saying, "They just don't cut you a break, do they?" No, apparently not.

So here it is 15 minutes left until the end of the day on a Friday and I am on the phone trying to resolve another vendor issue because the supplier has put us on hold for not paying two invoices in which they billed us incorrectly and we are awaiting debit memos back on. Ok, let me get this straight... you are punishing us for not paying the invoices that you admit to being incorrect and owe us debits on?! I swear... just when you think you've heard it all...

Well, I was going to do a review on Porno for Pyro's self-titled first album, but this post has already gone on far too long due to my ranting and frankly my head hurts so I am going to sign off for now. Sorry everyone. I'll try to have some fresh music-related stuff on Monday.

How often do you hope that the following Monday goes better than your Friday? Ugh.

I tremble With the Nervous Thought of Having Been at Last Forgot

Thursday. I am not a morning person despite the fact that I get up early every morning. I have to be in the office by 7am, which means that with the hour drive I have to be on the road by 6am at the very latest. In order to be out the door before six, I have to get up at around 5am (give or take an extra snooze). I do this because I have to, not because I enjoy it. My mother gets up that early every morning even on the weekends. That's just masochistic. Of course, this clash of preference made it very difficult to explain during my teen years that sleeping until noon isn't necessarily sleeping the day away if you didn't go to bed until six in the morning. I prefer nights and for a long time I worked the night shift. I remember the first time I worked a full-time day shift and had a 6:30am start. It must have been obvious that I was totally dragging, because someone advised me that after a few weeks that I would get used to it. I worked at that job almost three years. I never got used to it.

The point of this story (there's a point?) is that when I drag my half-dead body up the stairs and slump into my desk chair after fighting off another round of bad Denver traffic, I don't want to hear my phone ring the exact minute after the network shows me logged in. I can understand if it is an emergency, but I can count on my phone ringing by 7:05am by the exact same person just about every single morning. It wouldn't be as bad if it were at least someone I enjoyed talking to, but unfortunately this is not the case and even if it were, PLEASE give me a chance to get settled and for the coffee to kick in. Some "experts" say that the best time to make business calls are first thing in the morning and late in the afternoon because that is when your contact is most likely to be there. Ok, I'm seeing the logic, however, I'm personally inclined to believe that those are actually the two WORST times to call because first thing in the morning people are settling in, planning the day, doing odd paperwork and other miscellaneous tasks that they can't get taken care of during the more busy hours of the day. Late in the afternoon people are usually trying to wrap up projects, meet deadlines, and have their head focused on going home. While it is true that your contact most likely will be there, what is the point if that is when he or she is least responsive to proposals?

Anyway, sorry for that little rant there, but I started writing this just after I got off the phone with another pleasant 7:05am phone call. It must be paternally genetic. My dad has a rule at his place of business that no one can bother him until after he finishes his first cup of coffee. I've seen this rule in action, and trust me, it is strictly observed. If I ever get to be Big Boss Johnny I am for sure going to implement a similar rule for myself. And I will be sipping that cup of joe verrrrrry slowly...

* * * * * *

Ok, it's the afternoon now. I spent the morning uploading the receivables website and as far as I can tell that went ok. You never really know until the next day and see it live. After that I have been trying to help a sales friend of mine out in CA fix one of her orders. This thing was completely screwed up literally from the supplier purchase to the customer billing. No wonder these things have hung out since last November. These things are supposed to be fixed by the operations department, but their involvement has only made things worse. So, I volunteered my services to try to get this all figured out and resolved. You could say I'm a team player, but I have my own selfish interests involved. I want to make these 7-month old invoices go away. Plus, I believe in business karma. Who knows when I'll be the one who needs bailed out. This way I will already have points stored up.

Since I covered all the Beulah albums earlier this week and I didn't have any new music to discuss, it was time for a repeat. I pulled out Sufjan Stevens because I haven't had a chance to listen to Come on Feel the Illinois since I first discussed it a little while back. I really liked the album at the time, but with all of the new stuff coming in I just haven't had a chance to give it another listen. Well, readers, I am still sticking by my previously favorable review. Very good stuff. I'm just going to leave it at that, though, because this post is getting pretty long and I'll just end up repeating myself from before. So until tomorrow...

Too Many Knives and Not Enough Signs

Wednesday. Today hasn't been a busy day, per se, but I sure have been busy. I know that doesn't make much sense, so let me clarify. I wasn't slammed with a bunch of tasks today, but the task that I was doing occupied me for pretty much the whole day. I am trying to clean up my biggest, ugliest account group and the more I dig into it, the bigger and uglier it gets. The good news is that I have been making good progress. However, I still have a whole lot more to go and unfortunately unless we can get a better process in place today's current items will just be next year's past dues. I've been trying to get something in place, but haven't gotten much cooperation. Everyone wants me to approve their orders, but no one wants to help me collect them. What about the give-and-take people? Last I checked we all worked for the same company.

Today is the third and final Beulah review of the week. Today's selection was Yoko, Beulah's last album before the band broke up. Lampsidebriefcase asked me why the album was named Yoko. He thought it was because he thought Beulah sounded a bit Beatle-ish. I told him that I read on Wkipedia the other day that during the recording of this album the lead singer broke up with his longtime girlfriend and three of the other band members went through divorces. I proposed that perhaps the title is in reference to the women who eventually broke up the band. Lampside pointed out that Yoko could just be an acronym for You're Only King Once, a track on the album. I'm guessing Lampside is probably right on this one. But I kind of liked my theory...

The feel of this album definitely reflects these turbulent times the band was going through. Instead of the happy, feel-good sound reflected on the previous two albums, this one is much more melancholy. A quick read through the lyrics reveal words that are depressive and sometimes downright angry and scornful. This album is good, but I would have to be in a much different mood to listen to it than I would be in when listening to When Your Heartstrings Break or The Coast is Never Clear. If you liked the other two albums, then I would recommend picking this one up just to round out the catalogue. Otherwise, I would say to pick up the other two first, especially The Coast is Never Clear. I think that one's a little more accessible to the first-time Beulah listener.

The Last Stop on this Line was Cooler Guy Station; It’s as Far as I’ll Get Tonight

Tuesday. I'm having another busy day here today. I was trying to get some of my pre-website upload work done that I have to do today, but due to technical issues beyond my control, I could not access the information I need. According to IS, they couldn't give me my report until they fix a corrupted job file in Massachusetts. Apparently, this problem was holding up the rest of the reports. Why they didn't just cancel the job so the other ones will complete, I don't know (I guess that's what they pay the IS staff the big bucks for...). Anyway, five hours later they finally ran the job so I am now trying to speed through putting this report together so I can get it out by the end of the day. Awesome.

As promised, I have more Beulah today. Today's album is entitled The Coast is Never Clear. Now, I really liked yesterday's selection When Your Heartstrings Break but I liked this one even more. Apparently (and I'm getting my information from Wikipedia now) after the band finished touring from their first album, the lead singer took time off and lived in Japan. From there he would send demos back to the other members of the band, who would in turn re-interpret and/or add onto the snippets and send them back. Since various band members each heard different things, the tracks soon became a juxtaposition of several interpretations of the same song. Another interesting quirk is that the lead singer became diagnosed with bi-polar disorder during this time, so while the songs sound happy and cheerful on the surface musically, the lyrics actually display quite a different message.

I learned all of this trivia after I heard the album this morning, so it just adds onto my already strong first impression. This album kind of reminded me of The Thrill's So Much For the City, but since it was released several years before that album, it should actually be the other way around. However, I heard The Thrills first, so I have to use that as my point of reference. Anyway, they reminded me of The Thrills because they kind of have this happy California sound to them (the Wikipedia write-up called it a "breezy, summery feel"). The music here is much more rich than the Thrills, and again utilizes a horn section and other instruments to add texture.

The whole album is good, but I really enjoyed the track A Good Man is Easy to Kill. If you are interested in checking out the Beulah sound, I think that tune is a good place to start. I am again recommending an album solely on its strong first impression, but I am pretty confident on this one. Definitely good stuff.

‘Cause Even Though We Don’t Mean What We Say, We Throw Our Words Like Bombs and Hand Grenades

Monday. Today has been a crazy day so far. Right away this morning I got a call from one of my co-workers asking me if I was aware that one of my biggest accounts had been blocked and that all of the new orders were billing out to one of her accounts. I advised her that I was unaware of this change. Apparently, everyone in the finance department was unaware of this change, including the Big Boss Lady. There are a multitude of issues here, the least not being a complete circumvention of, if not a complete disregard for, company policy and procedures. On a more selfish level, if these receivables stop billing to my account, it will cut out a significant chunk of my receivables base (and overall workload). I discussed my concerns with the Big Boss Lady and she said that she would get some answers for us, and if this account does end up being shut down that she will make sure there is an account reassignment so I will have enough to keep me busy. Trust me, readers, it all sounds nice and good to wish that you were getting paid to literally do nothing for 8 hours, but it really isn't all it's cracked up to be. I've been there (see the first 3-4 months of this blog...), and believe me, it is a whole lot harder to spend the day doing no work than it is having more work than you can handle.

After all of the ruckus this morning over this whole thing, the Big Boss Lady called a meeting this afternoon for those in the finance department affected and our counterparts on the sales side. We spent about an hour discussing this issue, and after hanging up the phone I still don't think anything was resolved. Hopefully something will get figured out soon. I'll keep you all posted.

I have some new music to discuss today (yeah!). I'm actually excited about this one because it has taken me forever to finally land some of this group's albums. However, the music fairy was very gracious towards me over the weekend, and I am now in possession of three Beulah albums. Who is Beulah? Well, I'm glad you asked...

Beulah is a lo-fi indy band out of San Francisco that got their start in the late 1990s. I first came across them when I was searching for new bands to check out. I typed in "Built to Spill" and out spit "Beulah." I heard a few samples and I was hooked. However, I couldn't ever seem to secure one of their albums (see previous paragraph). Now I have three (again, see previous paragraph. Then you can move on, otherwise you will end up in an unending vicious circle re-reading both of these paragraphs until finally you pass out or your eyes bug out, whichever comes first). Anyway, after finally getting to hear a Beulah album in its entirety, I am very happy to announce that I was not disappointed in the least. I derived a lot of pleasure listening to When Your Heartstrings Break this morning. The band does exhibit a lot of the 90s lo-fi indy band qualities, but yet still come off with a really rich, textured sound. The fact that several tracks are backed up by a string and horns section only adds to the complexity. I can see the comparisons to Built to Spill, yet Beulah sounds a lot different. The greatest difference to me is in how the vocals are presented. It's hard to explain, but the best way to say it is that Beulah sounds more optimistic and cheerful than BtS's often whiny and cynical presentation. That sounds like I'm knocking BtS, which is definitely not the case since they totally rock, but I don't know how to say it. Beulah's songs are just more happy and fun (at least on this album).

I have two more Beulah albums that I will be discussing this week. Just as a warning, this may go down as "The Week of Beulah" here on Inaction-in-Action. I may even get a hankering to visit Beulah, Colorado. I'm pretty excited. Please stay tuned for more Beulah in the next coming days. In the meantime, pick up When Your Heartstrings Break. After just one listen, I'm already giving it a strong recommendation. Good stuff.

Look Me in the Mouth, Tell Me What You See; No Matter Who I am, I am You as You See Me

Friday. Yeah! And make that a double "Yeah!" because I need a weekend in the worst way. This week (and last) has been pretty rough on johnny both inside and outside of work, so I am more than welcoming a few days off so I can decompress. At least the website uploaded ok after giving me a bunch of trouble lately, including a down FTP tool yesterday. Today has been relatively better. I had to update my large aged balance treasury reports due to end-of-month, and after that I have been researching old discrepancies. Today is also the anniversary of my hire date (hmm... it seems like it was just a year ago that I was celebrating my last anniversary...), but that has gone by with little fanfare since I don't actually work for the branch here and the Big Boss Lady won't be back in town for a few more weeks. That's ok, my free lunch can wait. However, I am anxious for the review.

The branch financial manager here just passed her 25-year anniversary with the company and got a pretty nice wall clock. I wonder if I am up to the "disposable pen with the company's logo on it" level yet? I might have to wait a few years for that one...

After mentioning Chali 2na of the Jurassic 5 a few days ago in my Ozomatli review, I started to get a hankerin' for some J5. So, I listened to the Jurassic 5 EP first and then about half of Power in Numbers. I really dig the Jurassic 5. I already did a discussion of them here, but I will again state my affinity for this group. These guys are cool. I've said it about a bajillion times here on this blog, but I'll say it again. I'm bored of gangsta rap. It seriously hasn't changed since the late 1980s. It's refreshing to hear groups like the J5 who are actually looking beyond those static boundaries and doing something new lyrically and otherwise. Too bad more of these groups don't make it on the airwaves (come to think of it, when was the last time you heard Jurassic 5 on the radio? The only place I hear them is on the local college station). That's why casual rap fans assume that there is a dichotomy in the genre. They assume you have to either listen to "gangsta" or the lame, squeaky-clean stuff like Will Smith. I guess that's what the evil combination of Clear Channel and major label marketers want. They want to dictate what you hear and what you buy. Don't be a slave!

Sorry for going off on a tangent there. Anyway, check out the J5. I recommend 'em.