These two songs brought back two memories
I have Sirius satellite radio in my new car and since Sirius merged with XM (I was a customer before the XM merger btw) and I'm starting to actually find a few channels I really like. The most recent example of this the Sirius channel called "The Boneyard" on channel 19. Today I heard two songs and they brought back two very distinct, very different memories of my youth. Thw two songs were Eddie Money - Gimme Me Some Water, and Jimi Hendrix - "All Along the Watchtower".
Eddie Money - Gimme Me Some Water
Just in case you wanted to re-live the memory with me:
Back in the late 1980's, I was in high school and luckily I had some friends with incredible taste in music. At the time, First Avenue (still one of the great music venue in the country) had what they they called "Teen Dance Party" on Sunday nights during the summer. They had two music halls. One was the "Main Stage" room and during the night they would play techno music. In the smaller "7th Street Entry" room, they would have local and national punk bands play. The funny part was in between the punk sets, the punks would invade the techno dance floor, and for about 10 minutes ,would start a huge slam dance pit and drive all the dancers off the floor till the punk band started playing their second set. It was a pretty funny thing to watch.
One night, my friend and I drove down to First Avenue, It was always a fun thing since we were suburban kids, it was a mild culture shock for me and I always had a hard time trying to find something to wear in order to fit in. Most of the time, it was pretty obvious we weren't "real" punks. Back then skateboarding and punk rockers were pretty synonymous with each other. I was getting back into skateboarding, so I just threw on some skate clothes and I was good to go. My friend Jeremy picked me up in his silver Honda Accord and we started our journey into the big city. The sun was going down as we parked in adjacent lot and you could see the last rays of a cool August night fading in between the buildings . Now there are some things you need to understand about the 7th Street Entry. First of all, it's a SMALL venue. I would say the capacity is no more than 50 people. Think about 50 punks, skinheads and metalheads, all cramming into the pit, tossing each other around. The body oder, sweat and music filled the room quickly. It made for a very unique atmosphere.
SNFU, 1989, and Chi-Pig
That night there were three bands who were playing. I don't remember the first band, but the second was "Test Monkey" which is a funny name for a punk band. They had a white sheet behind their drummer which had a monkey body and skull for the head, with blood dripping out of the head. I'm pretty sure they were going for the shock value. It certainly didn't make their music sound very good. Jeremy and I spent the majority of the time in the main stage area, waiting for the "headliner" SNFU. As 10:00pm approached, we saw the punks moving back into the 7th Street Entry, and we knew the show was about to kick off. My friend Jeremey had just bought some brand new Vison Street Wear shoes and was dying to try them out in the pit. He bragged about doing some crowd surfing and mixing it up with the punks in the pit.
The show was a blast. I never ventured into the pit, opting instead to bang my head with the other people on the outside of the pit. Jeremy was in the pit most of the time, mixing it up, just like he said, getting several body surfing rides during the band's first set. The skinheads were doing their part, staying on the outside like some band roadie, keeping order and making sure if someone fell down in the pit, they would pull them up by their shirts and deflect any flying fists or feet being hurled in their direction, until they could get to safety. As their second set was winding down, and after several aerial maneuvers on the ceiling truss (I told you it was small!) by Chi-Pig, the lead singer of SNFU announced they only had a few more songs, and then launched into a very familiar song.
Gimme Some Water
When the band launched right into the famous Eddie Money song, "Gimme Some Water". It was incredible. Chi-Pig was grabbing huge buckets of water and dousing the pit in water as he sang. The crowd sang along and it was great way to put a stamp on the show. They played a few more songs, but I couldn't get over hearing that song, by a punk band, in a tiny venue and all the punks ate it up. It left me with such a great feeling. On the way out, I grabbed a t-shirt and I was still singing the song as we walked back to the car.
Fast forward some 20+ years later, the song comes on the radio as I'm leaving work and I can't help but singing the song as loud as I could in my car, remembering that night and nearly every detail. It was a great feeling, and I barely noticed the horrible traffic.
And oh yeah, you'd never think that shirt lasted too long. I mean, a punk show, a cheap $8 silk screened t-shirt - right?
Um yeah, it's still with me. Through all those years of wear and tear. I wore it under my jersey every soccer game I had in college. Nowadays I wear it under my hockey equipment every so ofter, or just to bed. And yes, it's a little tighter, but if I suck my stomach in just a little, it still feels like it did that cool August night back in 1989.
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
Some songs stick with you for various reasons. Maybe it was some cool event, maybe it was the people you were with. For whatever reason a song sparks a memory, it's unique to you and a period in your life. Most people I know associate most Hendrix songs with drugs (go figure) or some drug experience. I can't blame them, but in 7th grade, drugs were the last thing on my mind. My life was basically soccer, hockey and girls (when they'd actually talk to me). I was just entering into my classic rock phase. I couldn't get enough Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Doors, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, CCR, The Stones, Cream and of course Jimi Hendrix.
I was just getting into Hendrix and everybody, EVERYBODY had the standard Jimi Hendrix album:
This was the one Hendrix album I had and fell in love with it the first time I listened to it. It was smokey, it was blusey and it was like nothing I had heard before. When you heard people say Hendrix was a pretty great guitarist, you had a pretty good idea on this album what they were talking about. But Bob Clements was about to change all that.
When you're in junior high listening to this songs and this amazing artists from the 60's, it makes you want to start a band, play the guitar, play the drums and try and achieve those incredible talents. My friend Bob Clements was that guy. He bought his first guitar a few months back and was learning to play. I was always the drum guy so learning how to play guitar never really did much for me. Neil Peart, Keith Moon and John Bonham were my idols.
Like all good music that's out there, you never know about it until someone exposes you to it. After digesting "Are You Experienced" I like Hendrix, but it wasn't like his music had changed my life. Not like The Who - "My Generation" did. But that was about to change.
It was a Friday night. Friday night usually meant hanging out a football game, walking to the nearby Perkins afterwards to get some grub, and then heading home. It was October and pretty cold. There was a group of us guys huddling up in the stands, talking about the usual stuff you talk about at 17. Girls, sports and of course music. Bob had brought along his walkman and in between football plays and conversation, he would slap his headphones and tune out. After asking him what he was listening to, he simply replied, "Hendrix" and then mentioned he had a new favorite song. I thought he was going to say it was "Hey Joe" or "Foxy Lady", the usual response from people who were Hendrix fans, but only owned "Are You Experienced?", but then he said, "Have you heard "All Along the Watch Tower?", it really kicks ass, the guitar parts are impossible." I had no idea what he was talking about and I had never heard of the song, so I told him to let me listen. Before handing the headphones over to me, he warned me, "The first riffs are going to blow your mind."
I slide phones over my ears and to say I was blown away was an understatement. Even in the cold October night, the wind whipping through my ears, me straining to hear those first chords, and I knew it was a special song. The first chords, the drums, that Hendrix sound. So distinctive, so special. I told him I had to hear the whole song myself and he vowed to make me a copy that weekend. Monday rolled around and I couldn't stop thinking about that song. Then when I got my hands on it and could listen to the song, hear that guitar wailing away, the pulse of the drums and those lyrics. Oh man, the lyrics just completed the song:
"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
"There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth."
"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
"There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late."
All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance a wildcat did growl,
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl
The images this song generated in my head was crazy. I was reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy so you can imagine some of the dreams I had after a few chapters of those books, then listening to this before heading off to bed. This instantly became one of my favorite Hendrix tunes, It was just an amazing, amazing song.
Once again I was driving into work and this song comes on as I'm strolling through the channels and it took me right back to that same October night, huddling together, straining to hear this incredible song. Then to hear it in all its glory again was a great experience. I was singing this as loud as I could and then had it in my head all day long. I just keep reciting, "Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl." to myself and hearing Jimi launching into one of the greatest guitar solos EVER:
I will always maintain some my richest memories are directly related to music. I always seem to remember the scene. The sights, the sounds, the smells. All like they just happened yesterday.
Today was a great day. I got to relive two great memories I had, with two great songs. For me, music will never be too far away.
The Tradition Continues
As has been my tradition, I post a link to all the happenings in the year and point out a few of my favorite stories.I almost forgot the World Cup was this year. Probably because I really wanted Netherlands to win, and when they didn't I was pretty bummed. Oh yeah and there was that little oil spill thing in the gulf. Then some crazy woman named Lady Gaga just exploded on the music scene. Her music is ok, but Jesus lady, do we seriously need this??
I didn't think so either. Let the merit of your music stand on its own, not on your bizarre outfits. Apparently she won't have sex either. Giving rise to more conspiracy theories that Lady Gaga may have started out as Larry RahRah if you know what I mean.
Anyways, here's the link to the Yahoo year in review:
What the hell happened in 2010?Enough time has passed, here's the facts
I've been told several people are waiting for me to post about my old job at FindLaw. I have a lot to say, and will make come comparisons to my current job at Best Buy.
It all started well
When I first started at FindLaw, life was pretty good. Our monthly goals were pretty low, the process was very straight forward and in general, all the developers I knew were pretty happy. Then starting in June of 2009, every month suddenly became a "production push". This continued for 7 straight months. I started looking for another job in January. A lot was going on, and I knew several things. First, I would probably never be considered for a "specialized" role (these were all the rage at the time and will be explained in more detail later). My best bet would be to move up the management ladder into a lead role, then manager, then director. Unfortunately, once you set out on the management path, your days as a developer were over. Since I had just started in web development, I had already decided management was not for me. It was then I knew there wasn't much else for me to do, but to sit around and do my job (for a LOT less than the industry standard) and continue to be unhappy. It was at this point I started looking around, getting in contact with recruiters and seeing if I really could find a job outside of FindLaw.
The bad and ugly
At the time, the country's economy was not doing well. The housing bubble had burst, companies were cutting jobs and losing their homes. The vibe I continued to get from management was, "You should be happy you have a job." and thinking at some point just having a job isn't good enough. Shouldn't you enjoy the work you do and like to come to work everyday? As the months turned over, I continued to have conversations with people who were extremely unhappy with their jobs, unhappy with management and flat out frustrated. It wasn't just a few people on our team, it across the whole company. Designers, content writers, SEO people, the sickeness was everywhere. People were burned out and if management knew it, they were doing little to help subside people's resentment. 1 on 1 meetings become an exercise in counseling. And yet, goals continued to go up.
Jailbreak and reflection
In one week I had several interviews with companies. I knew if I was going to get a job at a different company, I needed to be honest. I told myself not to BS anybody. Tell the interviewers you know CSS, HTML and some basic Javascript. Nothing more. Focus on your strengths.
It worked. I had two offers and accepted a job at a company in Minneapolis called Reside. They were a salesforce.com partner and built applications and websites on their platform. It was a short stint (why will be covered at a different time and day) only about 6 months, but I realized a few things when I get there.
This is what I learned while I as at FindLaw - the BAD
- They have a flat hierarchy. There's no where for developers to go who want to advance and do anything beyond being in management.
- All the developers are very underpaid for what they do and what they have to put up with on a daily basis. All of my job offers were 10-13K MORE than what I was making at FindLaw, and I didn't get a raise two of the three years I was there!!
- It's very process oriented. Once you've learned how to develop and integrate 20 sites a month, you pretty much know everything you're going to know. In the end, I really felt like a Ford plant employee putting hubcaps on cars as they came down the line.
- Lack of originality. Even at Reside I was able to try new things and think outside the box to get stuff done. Not the case at FindLaw. The majority of their sites all look the same. then again, you can't be original when your goal is put out 4,000 sites a year.
- Lack of collaboration within departments. Developers were kept isolated from the designers. For me, there's a HUGE opportunity to create some really unique stuff with designers and it's just not happening when you keep those people separate. It was a delight working at Reside where the designers would ask me if I wanted to try something new, and vice versa.
- Hiring outside candidates unfamiliar with the culture at FindLaw. This was a biggie when I was leaving. There were several high profile hires of people into high positions. They were external candidates and all came in and wanted to make seismic waves in the company on the backs of the people who work there. They ruffled a LOT of people's feathers and lost a lot of respect and buy in from the employees. As a result, a lot of people left.
You might be thinking why would anybody work at FindLaw after reading those points, but fret not people, there are some good things I realized after I left.
This is what I learned after I left FindLaw - the GOOD
- The code their sites use is straight forward and rock solid. They taught me to be a code snob. No sissy hacks, no crazy stuff. Standards compliant, clean, fast code.
- You learn to code fast and code well. The one site I used in my interview as a recent example of my work impressed everybody who saw it. You should have seen the eyes when I told them I whipped it out in about 2 hours. Hard to imagine someone could code so well, so fast.
- No bugs. Since the code is so good, there's rarely bugs you have spend time trying to figure out. Having to code for IE6, you'd think this would be a nightmare, but it wasn't. The developers knew all the tricks and after a few hundred sites, you knew them all. This was not the case with the salesforce.com platform. The salesforce.com code sucked so back, most of my time was spent trying to figure out what the hell they were thinking when they laid out their CSS.
- The work is straight forward. You sit down, hammer out a few sites and go home. It's not rocket science. You basically work by yourself and you don't need to have a lot of contact with other departments like the project managers or designers. One thing I found out when I was at Reside was there were a LOT of meetings I didn't need to go to, but since I was the "front end" guy, I needed to be there. At FindLaw, you could "blend in" and do your work, whereas in a project setting, you were constantly being asked to do things other than code.
Not what you expected?
Yeah, the last few months I was at FindLaw sucked pretty bad. Am I glad I got out? Completely happy. I've learned a lot (both good and bad) now that I'm no longer working at FindLaw. With my new position at Best Buy, I'm drawing on all of my experiences and processes which were used at FindLaw. Best Buy is currently in the process of moving a lot of their development back in house and as such, do not have a lot of processes in place. There's a lot of opportunity to have input, and many of the ideas I've spoken to my manager about are already being considered. I had a six month hiccup at Reside and now am back in my comfort zone. I do miss FindLaw for what it;s worth, but I'm also glad I was able to move on. I'm making a LOT more money now (almost 30K more than what I was making at FindaLaw) and my stress levels have dropped considerably.
Amazing German architecture, left dormant for years
Recently caught a Nat Geo show about the underground bunkers and buildings in Berlin. It was a pretty crazy prgram which highlighted several places in Berlin and documented the well preserved fall out shelters and command centers hidden deep underneath Berlin. It was fascinating to see how well preserved these places were. Some with images and slogans about enjoying life and showed images of people laughing and drinking. The guides explained it was a way for the people to think about better times while the allied bombers pounded the city day and night.
Here's a short video from the Nat Geo site which gives you a quick overview of the program. You should try and watch it when it's on again.
Check the Nat Geo site - it's playing again on Thursday December 16th.
Back in the big corporate world. .
After leaving FindLaw I then joined a small cloud services company in Minneapolis called Reside. Everything was going fine, then like a clipboard holding backup QB, I got a call from a recruiter I had spoken to shortly before taking my position at Reside. They needed an FED (front end developer) and the project which was put on hold, was now, back on. They sent me an offer and I quickly rejected it. I had a full time job, this was a contract position, and although the rate would have been a nice increase, I couldn't see myself leaving the security and stability of a full time for something that could last three months or a year. After I got off the phone, I thought that was the end of itThe second offer
the second time around, the rate went up another $6 per hour. Still a ton of money for doing some coding work, but still contract work. I politely told the recruiter, "no" and thought this would finally be it. They gave me their best offer, and I turned them down. I had a nice project I was working on, was happy, and didn't think too much more about it. Then things started to get really interesting.The offer I couldn't refuse
Then came the "final" offer. A full time position, benefits and another $15K on top of what I was already making. This is when I needed to break out the matrix, start writing down pros and cons and completely over analyze this offer. I looked at everything, benefits, what I was doing now (cloud services) as opposed to what I loved doing (front end development). I felt like my HTML/CSS skills were starting to get rusty working on the salesforce.com platform and trying to deal with their marginal code. I also didn't like working with Eclipse and I really missed Dreamweaver with all my plugins. My speed came from utilizing Dreamweaver's auto-complete feature and several other plugins. I could cut and code a site in about 3 hours. Here I was toiling away on someone else's code, feeling like a hack getting it to work. Although this wasn't the deciding factor, it certainly weighed heavy on my mind. But there were other considerations.Reside was in the process of completely taking off. The last three projects were HUGE ($400K plus). They were adding people at an astounding rate (15 people in the last month) and everybody was at full capacity for the rest of the year. In terms of potential, in terms of growing, and having a great spot in the company, Reside had it all. If you ever wanted to be in a company right when it was taking off like a rocket, well, Reside was it.
And now?
I exited Reside as gracefully as possible. It was tough to leave the company. I know they're going to be incredibly successful, it was hard to leave such a great situation. I started at Best Buy (usually referred to as "The Empire" in certain development circles) on Monday and after a couple days, I'm pretty happy already. Even though I don't have a laptop, monitor or a cubicle, I've found out some pretty cool things. First of all, the projects I'll be working on will play to my strengths (coding HTML and CSS quickly). I was told, we're going to be completely revamping all the best practices for coding, of which I will have a lot of input. One of the cool things is the developers have been fooling around with Zing Chart and have put together a pretty cool application to track the work we're doing. Lastly, the campus is stunning. The cafeteria is amazing, and there are several areas where you can relax and hang out, including an area with a pool table, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. For our first week, the team was divided up and we were given a task as a competition. We'll see how our presentation goes on Friday, but I think we're going to win pretty easily. In any case, I'm pretty happy and look forward to how the project is going to go the rest of the year.Turn the page. .
Another page has turned and I'm pretty stoked about the future.Train roll on, on down the line,
Won't you please take me far away?
Now I feel the wind blow outside my door,
Means I'm leaving my job behind.
Tuesday's gone with the wind.
My job's gone with the wind.
ok, so I changed the lyrics a little, but I think you get the message.
It was a good idea to start with
After playing so much hockey recently, I was looking for way to improve my game, even at 40. I started looking on the internet and came across this little diddy:
Then I started to find out where in Minneapolis it would be possible to get some time on one of these machines. I quickly realized there wasn't anywhere in Minneapolis who actually had one of these machines. Then I started working out from there. Then I actually found two places who had the machines:
Acceleration North they have several locations, but the Rapid Shot is only in certain locations. The other is on Rochester at a Play-it-Again Sports shop in Rochester. To be honest, I don't get down to Rochester too much.
I was pretty shocked. The "State of Hockey" could only muster two locations where I could use this cutting edge hockey technology? I couldn't believe it. Then I started thinking what the possibilities would be of having a place where players could come and use the machines and not have to buy some $500 hockey training program to use the machines? Then I started getting stars in my eyes and thought about opening my own place with several Rapid Sot machines. Maybe a small front end retail space? I needed more information, so I called Rapid Shot to inquire about cost of the machines and the full lot of questions I had in order to get a better idea of how possible this might be. I also had a call in to a friend who does commercial real estate to see how viable a two or three lease would be and how much space I would need to house the business I was thinking of.
Discovery
Now it was time to get some numbers and run some numbers. Then I needed to put together a business plan, think of marketing plan, etc, etc. I took a while, but I got the numbers from Rapid Shot. It was a bit overwhelming, but I had to see the bigger picture. Here are those numbers:
Cost of machines with delivery and set-up: approx. 50K. Essentially it's a package deal. They sell the machines, install and set up the PC's which record the information. They send out a crew to set up the machines. They also include the cards that the players use to keep track of their information. As soon as they buy their card and get registered, they can go online and see how they measure up to the rest of the country. It's pretty cool.
When I first came up with the idea, I was thinking 3 machines and then a few "analog" slots with pucks and a tarp so if there's people waiting, they can get warmed up first. The cost for those would be minimal and I'd keep the cost less than the Rapid Shot machines.
Verdict
At 100K+ for the machines, with a 3 year commercial lease, and the cost of the rest of the details (employees, hockey sticks, point of sale equipment) I was looking at a 5+ year run before I would start to see a profit. It would be manageable, but I'd really be all in, every single day I got up. I'd have to promote the hell out of it (easy), market the hell out of it (slightly easier, I'm a web developer!) and then there's the money and employees and all the other hassles of running the business.
The Deal Breaker
Time. Time it would take to get it up and running. Time to market and promote. Worst of all? time away from my family. Doing this business would most likely cost me a lot of the next five years watching my daughter grow up. As much as I think this would be insanely successful, the last thing I want to miss is watching my daughter grow up. One of the stories which always haunts me is when I heard Joe Gibbs (the famous football coach) talking about how he was so obsessed with making his team better, he would sleep at the stadium and send audio tapes home to his wife so they could keep in contact. He said he knew it was time to give up coaching when he went into his son's bedroom one night and his 10 year old son was now an 18 year old 6'5" 230lb lineman. He had missed his son growing up and was very, very regretful. I've already got plenty of regret in my life, I don't need anymore with my daughter.
Leo's are supposed to like Red, right?
I'm a Leo, born in August and was told multiple times from women since I'm a Leo, my primary "power" color is red. I should look good in Red, and for a while I even bought into the hype and started buying and wearing a lot of red stuff.
My girlfriend and the time (you know, the one who won't accept my friend request on Facebook?) had a thing for the color blue. Of course she had some great blue eyes, which I'm sure had something to do with it. When I used to keep stuff at her place, she would always get something other than color blue for my stuff so we could tell whose toothbrush was whose. After some time, I gave up on the color red and started getting stuff that had blue in it. Even after we broke up, I continued to use blue as my primary color for all my toiletries. It was an easy way for me to keep track of my stuff. Don't know why it stuck, but it did. I kind of came around to seeing blue as a cooling, calming color so I've just stuck with it.
I know it was short, but it's still something interesting about me, one of my stranger quirks if you will.
