Musings From New York

Stuff I've been listening to ...

So one of the ways I've been coping with the stress of the new job is by buying 3-4 tracks every week from iTunes Music Store ... I figure I can afford 5 bucks a week towards a stressbuster! Here's what I've picked up recently ... (I think it's in reverse order of purchase date, so most recent first)

1. I Walk The Line & Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash ... this was a result of watching "Walk The Line" on Thanksgiving :) ... the two good songs I could remember. I realize to my horror that my music collection now contains its first 2 country music tracks. Georgia is turning me into a redneck! Aaargh! ... Anyway, more on the movie later.
2. Twisted Transistor by Korn ... I've always wanted to see what Korn's music was like ... the videos are rather bizarre, and frankly I'm tired of Nu-Metal. This happens to be the first song I've listened to ... and it's not too bad. I'm going to be reading up on AllMusic to figure what else I can listen to.
3. Block Rockin' Beats by Chemical Brothers ... damn, these guys know how to get people dancing!
4. Give It Away by Red Hot Chilli Peppers ... believe it or not, I've never had this song in my collection. The purchase was meant to correct the oversight.
5. Green Onions by Booker T. & The M.G.'s ... damn, this is sweet sweet ... jazz? (Woohoo! I'm listening to Jazz!) Whatever it is, I wonder how much of a direct influence it was on The Doors (Mike, any thoughts on this?). When this song started playing I had to check the playlist, as I didn't recognize it as a Doors song!
6. Stormy Monday Blues by T-Bone Walker ... I love them guitar blues. 'Nuff said.
7. (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party) by Beastie Boys ... curiousity killed the cat :p ... why is this song so famous again?
8. Destroy Everything You Touch & Sugar by Ladytron ... I can never keep up with the ever-burgeoning sub-genres of Electronica, but this belongs to a sub- (sub-sub-?) called Electroclash. Apparently, it's steeped in the New York Chic culture. Kartik introduced me to the band some years ago, with 2 tracks called Seventeen & Playgirl. Ladytron sounds like ... a mellow-er, electronica-based My Bloody Valentine ... I know I'm kinda insulting MBV by referring to them and electronica in the same sentence, but thats the only way I can describe Ladytron. Regardless, these 2 tracks totally kick ass. Totally.
9. I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones ... continuing the New York/ Punk streak ...
10. Jesus Walks by Kanye West ... a result of watching Jarhead, and the trailer to Jarhead one time too many :) ... more on the movie later.
11. Raining Blood by Slayer ... ooh yeah, I remember listening to this track and getting a headache back in the day when I experimented with music tastes. The reason I bought this track to was a conversation I had with a WoW guildmate (Fizgig, Level 60 Gnome Mage ... he lives in Boston ... beyond that, I know nothing about him). I asked him what music he listened to when raiding The Molten Core, which is our Saturday night 5-hour funfest. He mentioned Seasons in the Abyss as one of the albums of the night (a very ironic/apt title, we are raiding a version of Hell, after all). I decided to check out the band's most famous track. All I can say is ... Where's the Tylenol? :) ... but seriously, its a sweet metal track.
12. Sexy Boy by Air ... another smoky/ sexy female vocal on techno. Very mellow & relaxing. Again, I think of it like My Bloody Valentine with more of a techno feel.
13. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing (Live) by Aerosmith ... one for the collection, really. No special reason for it.
14. Rosenrot (the album) by Rammstein ... Hell yeah, what an album! German operatic prog metal heaven!! There are a couple of bummed tracks on the album, but in general, it is totally AWESOME!! I highly recommend it to anyone who can get their hands on a copy ... as I don't think its being released in the US for some reason.

Phew ... the only thing left to write about now is the movies I've watched over the last month! But that's definitely going to be in the morning!

Tired & Loving it!

There's a reason I haven't blogged for so long you know ... it's called a tiring job, and it sucks to an extent! FYI, I'm a Senior Consultant, which is one step short on Manager. I'm a Team Lead/ Lead Designer in the project in Atlanta (lthough I'd hoped for a local project, I've been assigned to a telecoms project in the South.) It's a pretty big engagement - I think there are about 100 people from BearingPoint (employees & subcontracters). And Gods know how many are staffed from Accenture, Cap Gemini & Wipro (that I know of!)

My typical week, for those wondering goes like this:

- Mondays to Wednesdays: Wake at 6:30 ... OK, 7:30, get to the office by 8:30 ... meetings and work, etc. go on till about 6 or so, at which point I go back to the hotel and try to get any free/complimentary grub. At 7:30 I'm back in the hotel room, where I log on, check mail, etc. ... and try to get some more work done ... "try" being the keyword. I usually end up watching some TV to relax and crash by around 11. Believe it or not, I have no desire to open my laptop in the evenings. This is a disturbing new feeling for me. That's why some of you haven't even seen me on IM clients lately.

- Thursdays, I fly back. I've been catching the 7:30pm flight out of Atlanta, which invariably gets delayed by an hour, if not more. Which means that the earliest I land in LGA is 10pm, and the earliest I get back to my apartment is 11. I've gotten in as late as 1am.

- Fridays, I work out of the NYC office. Its a chance to meet some of the other folks in the practice, as well the other guys who started with me. These others are mainly Management Analysts or Senior Management Analysts - the lowest 2 rungs on the corporate ladder (I think ... although Interns are probably even lower!). Friday evenings I normally watch a movie or something (more on that later), and crash out by midnight or so.

- Saturday is the only day I have to do my chores and such, which means I pretty much stay in my apartment. That suits me fine, actually, as Saturday night is my WoW night ... 5 hours of raiding Molten Core, woohoo! Note: these 5 hours are pretty much the only WoW-time I have now. That sucks more than anything else about my schedule. I've even considered buying a new laptop that's WoW-capable and taking it with me on the road, but getting through TSA & X-Ray screenings is enough of a pain without adding a second laptop to the mix.

- Sunday is the day I leave for Atlanta. I've been taking the 4pm flight - for which I leave home at 2:30 and arrive at the hotel around 8pm, if the flight's on time. As I end up leaving early afternoon, I don't really get much time to do anything constructive around the house (and hence, Saturday's the day to get everything done!).

Now, I could travel Monday mornings ... get up at 5am and take a 7am flight kind of thing. The problem is that there are several deliverables and status meetings that I need to be a part of ... and to make it to the 8:30am meeting on Monday morning, I need to be there Sunday night. Hopefully, after the critical deliverables have been met, this pressure will ease off, and allow me the luxury of a Sunday at home! ... Besides, I don't think I could do anything if I woke up at 5am, no matter how many hours of sleep I have!

Anyway, now that you know my week, hopefully it'll be easier for you to understand why I haven't posted anything recently!

More tomorrow!

Testing a new browser

I've read about Flock on a few websites, and decided to give it a try! I'm attempting to blog this from within the browser!

Note: Flock is in pre-release version 0.4.x at the moment. If you enjoyed Firefox back in the days when it was an underground buzz, I suggest you check out Flock. There are some very nice features here that ... well, quite frankly, make you ask yourself why they weren't a part of Firefox!

Update: Wow, it worked! Also, it appears to be marginally faster than Firefox. However, that could be my Firefox extensions slowing things down a tad.