tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512Thu, 08 Sep 2016 04:21:48 +0000PerspectiveWorkNaBloPoMoPro AudioFunFaithQuirksBitchingFamilyQuote of the DayHobbiesFictionRelationshipsKidsMusicTree Huggging100 Things ABout MeDIYSmall TownDaddy-Type StuffManhoodRadioFoodHaikuLoveMoneyBlogging About BloggingCommunicationGeezer-isms"Quotes"EnergyIndependantOlympicsSuicidemy wife is the guest-post goddessFor when Sharpie on masking tape just can't say it all.http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)Blogger204125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-8214641078481337212Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:43:00 +00002012-02-20T18:43:21.419-05:00<div style="text-align: justify;">I've been wanting to write lately but after posting every day on one or more blogs it seems like I ran out of stuff to say about child rearing and life-in-general about a year ago.&nbsp; There's a need for me to write stuff pertaining to the art and science of sound and light, but turning out a well thought out document is no easy task and too daunting to even start on most nights.<br /><br />So I started another blog for the purpose of ironing out some ideas.&nbsp; I don't know if any of my former readers will be interested in any of the nerdy stuff, but there's likely to be some interesting back stage type posts as well.&nbsp;&nbsp; Here's the link if you care to check it out.<br /><br /><a href="http://smart2noise.blogspot.com/">Smart to Noise Ratio</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img alt="Subscribe in a reader" src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" style="border: 0pt none; vertical-align: middle;" title="Subscribe in a reader" /></a> <span style="font-size: 85%;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></div></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-blog.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-6639382542664560008Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:45:00 +00002010-05-31T23:53:05.590-04:00<div style="text-align: justify;">Apparently Captcha works pretty well, as spammers have been forced to turn to actual human beings to spread links on blogs. Sweat shops are springing up the world over, although mostly in India and Asia where people sit at computers and post for hours at a time. I got over 300 comments in one day by such a method.<br /><br />On one hand it's gratifying (slightly) to find myself on the radar of a spam network. On the other it's a little depressing to think of some poor (really poor) soul sitting at a terminal, posting link after link on blogs that they may not even be able to read.<br /><br />So if you can read this, dear spam laborer. My hat is off to you and your boss. Congratulations on personalizing spam (slightly) and finding ever new and interesting ways to capitalize on the internet. I hope the few cents you earn posting encouraging messages and spam links are a help to you and your family. Even though I delete them almost instantly (and in most cases before they ever see the light of day) I want you to know that I am touched by your labors.<br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/05/salute-to-professional-commenters.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-1210042970011735460Thu, 18 Feb 2010 03:36:00 +00002010-02-17T22:46:58.430-05:00Olympics<div style="text-align: justify;">Since the big kick off this last weekend we've been gleefully soaking up the Olympic goodness at a steady pace. Most of our viewing time is punctuated by a cute baby who takes it upon himself to push all the buttons on the front of the TV. While this used to create quite a ruckus, now it just creates a small, rectangular message window that announces that the buttons have been disabled. While somewhat annoying, it's a lot better than jumping suddenly to whatever Danielle Steele movie is playing on the next channel. And he <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a very cute baby, that helps.<br /><br />Miss O and I have spent a few quiet hours together while the rest of the house is quiet. The Missus went out to a craft night at church on Monday and me and my girl took in some snowboard cross and of course a healthy dose of figure skating. She's starting to catch on to the spirit of competition that the Olympics embodies. She was actually rooting for the Chinese at one point because they had such a good back story.<br /><br />Tonight we saw the Flying Tomato (or <span style="font-style: italic;">Animal</span> I guess it is now) grab some <span style="font-style: italic;">bur-hur-hur-hurly</span> air on the half pipe. That... was pretty-frickin-sweet dude. Then we watched quite a few of the women down-hillers finish the course in various prone positions. And of course watching Lindsey Vonn take the lead by half a second on a bum leg and scream orgasmically did not suck.<br /><br />We're just getting warmed up but I'm starting to remember the one great pitfall of watching the Olympics night after night. While the commercials are creative, well produced, and often quite touching, nobody has the gumption to make more than one for the duration. So I'm resigning myself to watching Anton Ohno break the ice loose and spin it around twenty times a night (selling God-knows-what... I sure don't) along with a host of other ads that I'm sure I'll be able to re-create in my minds eye in perfect detail as I fall asleep. What any of them are selling will likely remain a mystery.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/olympic-memories-part-two.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-7044149342618183433Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:54:00 +00002010-02-14T22:07:03.084-05:00Olympics<div style="text-align: justify;">You don't have to read this. I'm just writing it down for the purpose of remembering it later. When I went on my honeymoon to London, I thought it would be memorable so I kept a journal. Turns out it was a pretty good idea because now I can only remember the stuff that I wrote down at the time. The rest is a complete blank.<br /><br />So this first few days of the Vancouver Olympics I spent fourteen hours watching, including a glorious four hours soaking up the opening ceremonies. The Parade of Nations that is the athletes entering the arena is always such a nice time. All the hopefulness and excitement on the athletes' faces. Not to mention the occasional chuckle at the sight of some tiny tropical nation that sent one skier and five overweight, middle-aged coaches.<br /><br />Watching Apolo Ohno nearly get his ass handed to him on the short track only to have the Koreans miss out on closing the podium with a spectacular wipe out was pretty sweet. Although you could tell he was holding back with the celebration at being the most decorated winter competitor because he knew he got lucky. The other American, J.R., who placed right behind him was pretty grateful too.<br /><br />All the modifications to the luge event upon the death of the Georgian before things got going don't seem to have done anything. Cutting 600 meters and a good deal of vertical rise out of the course hasn't stopped the sleds from hitting the ninety mile-per-hour mark. <br /><br />Women's mogul had a pretty sweet finish. An eighteen year old Canadian who was the darling of the crowd took the lead for a moment until an American swooped down and clinched the gold with a really spectacular run. There were a lot of spectacular wipe outs as well, and a lot of commentary about knee surgery. Eeeeeuch!<br /><br />Watching the mens Nordic race with the boys was pretty cool. They'd get into it for a few minutes when somebody did some spectacular shooting (or whiffed), but then they'd remember their shows on Qubo and get all agitated. (Speaking of agitated, H-Bomb left a pretty spectacular bite mark on J-Man's shoulder after dinner tonight.)<br /><br />The real killer was watching short program couples skating with all the kids together. It was pretty loud and annoying for the tall people who wanted to hear the commentary, but the commentary from the peanut gallery was priceless. A couple quotes from The Missus' Twitter stream:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;" class="status-body"><span class="entry-content">olympic moments with a 3yo, ice skating edition: i like the girl with the purple underwear.<br /><br /></span></span><span class="status-body"><span class="entry-content"><span style="font-style: italic;">Olympics with kids, 7yo edition: that man is *totally* wearing a onesie.</span><br /><br />Now if our sick, sad baby ever gives up and goes to sleep there's just time to squeeze in a couple more hours of pleasant viewing. <br /></span></span><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/olympic-memories-part-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-71743873682749704Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:39:00 +00002010-02-13T16:14:14.355-05:00Pro Audio<div style="text-align: justify;">Canada has definitely got the lead on televised live events. Throughout the entire three hour performance I never thought once about the sound except ocasionally to marvel a how GOOD it was.<br /><br />When I think back to various Super Bowl half time shows it just makes me shudder. The Stones sounded so bad I actually sent an angry e-mail o the network.The Opening ceremony was just so balanced and even and achingly crystal clear.<br /><br />Maybe I should start looking for work with Canadian production companies?<br /><br />Sent from my iPod<p></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/master-of-ceremonies.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-9108482002927634477Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:49:00 +00002010-02-08T21:19:41.561-05:00Pro Audio<div style="text-align: justify;">My ears are ringing. That's been a true statement since before I knew what it meant. When I was little I used to ask my folks if they could hear it too. The closest approximation I could come up with was that it sounded like the crystal in my Dad's Timex only higher.<br /><br />Later on in life I deduced that I have tinitus (Pronounced tin-<span style="font-weight: bold;">eye</span>-tus or sometimes tin-<span style="font-weight: bold;">i</span>-tis). It's not hearing loss caused by loud noises, although that can make it worse, it's something wrong with your brain that affects the way you hear certain frequencies and makes you hear some that you don't.<br /><br />There have been articles popping up now and then that say you can take supplements to fight it, but somehow I'm a little doubtful. That, and it's pretty hard to find lipoflavanoid at your local pharmacy. The really interesting articles say that scientists are doing studies that involve playing back white or pink noise, or music that's been modified that are having some good results.<br /><br />The frustrating thing is that these articles never say exactly what it is that they're playing for these people. Well, the Times finally let it slip that the secret is notching the material at the frequency that the sufferer is "hearing". Listening for a couple hours a day to material with that frequency missing get's the brain to relax whatever kink it's got that's causing the problem.<br /><br />So with an app on my iPod I located the frequency my ears ring at (9.2 kilohertz or a super high C#). While playing it back in headphones I actually knocked the ringing out for a few seconds. It just stopped. It was the first few seconds off total quiet I had ever experienced. Then I downloaded some pink noise, notched it, looped it, and now I have some pleasant bedtime listening material for the next few months. I'm going to record my current condition here and check in periodically to see if it's working.<br /><br />Since there's no way to meter the ringing in my ears I'll just use my finely honed sense of loudness that my years as a sound engineer have provided me with.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Quiet Room: </span></span>The ringing has an apparent volume of about 85dB.<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br />Watching TV:</span> The ringing is down about 6dB from the program material at normal volume, slightly higher when the set is turned up.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Listening to speech:</span> It's difficult to interpret speech if there is any background noise. Running the faucet or the microwave partially or mostly obscures intelligibility. Power tools or other machinery totally obscure it. (As a result I'm pretty good at reading lips.)<br /><br />I plan to listen to pink noise, notched at 9.2kHz for two hours each night on earbud headphones at low volume. Part of the time I'll be awake and the rest I'll be sleeping. I'll bring this back for an evaluation after a week, two weeks, a month and two months to see if it's helping.<br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/ringing-in-ears-part-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-910633958222222353Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:28:00 +00002010-02-07T13:52:27.209-05:00EnergyTree Huggging<div style="text-align: justify;">I'm sure I've written about this before, but not with such interest as I have today. Electric vehicles seem to finally be gaining some traction. It may just be that since I started reading <a href="http://www.wired.com/">Wired </a>again I'm a little more aware of it, but even in other media streams the electric car is everywhere.<br /><br />Of course to try and look good the government has to meddle in all sorts of ways. Tax breaks and grants are one thing. Promising to have a certain percentage of green vehicles by a certain date is another, somewhat questionable, way. The thing is, no legislation was required to phase out the horse and buggy.<br /><br />Early adopters got stares and heaps of negative input. But pretty soon internal combustion started looking viable and more and more investors started getting on board. It seems like the EV is right at that point. There's an ever growing segment of tinkerers out there, hacking away at designs and modifications. But there's also an increasing number of options for people who want to get on board with an off-the-shelf vehicle.<br /><br />We're still at the stage where if you buy one you're labeled a bit, but not in such a laughing way as a few years ago. It <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a little odd to buy a vehicle that even with breaks and subsidies costs more that what you'll save using it. And you'll basically be beta testing a bunch of new systems. And even with all the different options out there you're still pretty much guaranteed to be in an urban subset of somewhat wealthy people that just drive a few miles to work and stop off at Fourbucks.<br /><br />For guys like <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/S28L02OnwAI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/eFcIuSCIVSM/s1600-h/elecvan.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 79px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/S28L02OnwAI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/eFcIuSCIVSM/s320/elecvan.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5435576277797421058" border="0" /></a>me it's a bit of a different story. I'm interested, but not until somebody comes out with an electric three quarter ton van with a 5000 pound towing capacity, a 400 mile range and a price tag that won't break the bank. The days are numbered for my Chevy V-8 though with a lot of heavy hitters starting to get into things like battery and motor design.<br /><br />One cool thing to think about is the ultimate source of the "killer app" that tips the EV industry over the edge. MP3 players were just geek toys until Apple came out with the iPod, now they're the pinnacle. It's fun to wonder what scrappy start-up will finally crack the battery dilemma or solve the charging issue and so on. (Not that my hopes are up too high but I'd be perfectly all right with driving an Apple truck. Service vans are already white and chrome. Can you <span style="font-style: italic;">imagine</span> the sex appeal?!)<br /><br />At any rate, time is compressing. As an avid reader of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science when I was a kid I'd read these articles about coming technologies and wonder what it would be like in twenty years when they finally got developed and caught on (or not). Now it seems like the number of issues between futuristic idea and product advertisement wouldn't supply bathroom reading for a week.<br /><br />Anyway, I'm sitting back to ponder it all and dream of a not-too-distant day when I'll wave at you as I go humming by.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-electric.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-5871460310213168707Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:17:00 +00002010-02-01T10:41:32.373-05:00Perspective<div style="text-align: justify;">A while ago I was writing about a favorite song of mine that goes, "We who grew up tall and proud, in the shadow of the mushroom cloud." For some reason there's been all kinds of mentions of Hiroshima in the media lately, I haven't had time to see why but it's been prickling the back of my mind.<br /><br />It seems like there's a tendency to periodically dredge up tragedies so we people can grieve some more. Hiroshima, Pearl Harbor, Attica. Even as the number of people still around who were actually there dwindles we still bring this stuff up. It seems kind of lame and even counter productive but there is some value to it I think.<br /><br />Back in the early Eighties when I was a wee school boy classes were still watching civil defense films from the Sixties. The school did have one Betamax rig but the majority of our moving media was viewed by threading 16mm film stock through the old Ektar projectors. (In second grade I was the one doing the threading.) While these movies are the stuff of folly nowadays, picked over when people need quaint/disturbing footage for video montages, they were actually still pretty relevant back then.<br /><br />Little Tony wouldn't have survived an Eighties-era multi-megaton blast under his checkered picnic blanket, but the awareness those movies generated was of a high level. Of course now, schools are too timid to show students anything like that, and nuclear blasts are the stuff of video games. It's apparently much more important to educate kindergartners about lesbians and make sure that no one keeps score at the soccer game. <br /><br />I'm not really sure what it was that I wanted to say here. I guess it's just that I hope somehow people manage to see something meaningful in the media these days. Footage of 9-11 is so censored in the media that if you didn't see it when it happened you will never know what it looked like. And that was something malicious that was done to us. The mushroom cloud footage is one of the most iconic images on the planet, and that was something malicious <span style="font-style: italic;">we did</span>. It's a different era. <br /><br />I guess it's up to us as parents to educate our little ones on some of this stuff. Don't worry, they can handle it. We did. It's up to us to make sure that the significance of major events around us registers with them. Otherwise, world changing events like Hiroshima will be nothing but video snippets grabbed to generate irony in music videos. I don't know about you but the image of a mushroom cloud is one of the most hideous, bone chilling things I've ever seen. That's why twenty years ago it was such an effective image for Megadeth to incorporate into their videos. Now, does it mean anything? Black Sabbath using an air raid siren in a song chilled the Brits to their very cores. Now it's just a sample. <br /><br />Generating a culture of fear isn't the idea here. There was a good deal of that doing on when I was in school. Thanks to popular culture I have an irrational fear of Russians. The Commie Menace in reality can barely keep body and soul together. Perspective is important. Anyway, enough doom and gloom. I'm off to try and balance some of this out with a cup of coffee and a pleasant viewing of my section of America the Beautiful. Made even more so by the fact that it is at present unmarred by destruction.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-shadow-of-mushroom-cloud.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-2794915028142361701Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:13:00 +00002010-01-27T18:13:00.184-05:00Hobbies<div style="text-align: justify;">My paternal grandfather did a lot to make his mark around town. In addition to being a crack math teacher and beloved superintendent of the local school he just did everything. He was a master vegetable gardener, an athlete well into his eighties, contributed to nearly everything going on around him in some way or another and read voraciously, constantly.<br /><br />He, and others, sometimes referred to a time not so long ago when a person really could <span style="font-style: italic;">know it all</span>. The body of knowledge possessed by the human race has only in the last couple hundred years gotten so large that being fluent in all areas of study has become an impossibility. Once upon a time you really <span style="font-style: italic;">could</span> be a know-it-all.<br /><br />My grandfather was now and then referred to as "the worst kind of know-it-all... he really <span style="font-style: italic;">does</span> know it all!" Not that it was true, but he had an uncanny ability to put forth some sort of factoid about nearly anything at all you wanted to discuss. I pride myself in following in his footsteps to some small degree. Although my friends are a lot younger than his friends were so they in comparison obviously don't know as much.<br /><br />But it brings me around to my point, and that is: You really should be a know-it-all.<br /><br />There's something eminently desirable about being a Renaissance Man. A guy who knows about classical art and how to gap a spark plug. A person who grasps the subtleties of timeless musical works, and knows how to get your computer going again after a crash. Someone with an inkling about French cuisine, who also knows how to cook a rockin' good beer brat. You get the idea.<br /><br />I'm off to read some more...<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/01/mr-know-it-all.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-8160261407457248808Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:03:00 +00002010-01-26T18:03:00.274-05:00FunPerspective<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/S15pwrGXrqI/AAAAAAAAAXA/MqEUdO1fIic/s1600-h/rembrandt-self-portrait.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 277px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/S15pwrGXrqI/AAAAAAAAAXA/MqEUdO1fIic/s320/rembrandt-self-portrait.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430894485579476642" border="0" /></a><br />When I was in college studying theatrical lighting design I was faced with a minimum course requirement that put me officially on overload. I think it was if you were over 18 credit hours per semester. That left me looking for the easy way out on my liberal arts credits. I fount it right off the bat in a prof that taught art history, specifically baroque art. <br /><br />It served me quite well. The classes were an absolute breeze. All you had to do was show up reasonably often, look at slides of paintings without falling asleep, and remember something about them come test time. I took every class she offered. And if not for her I would never have known about Caravaggio, which was quite the boon to the young student of lighting design. (That Bernini ain't no slouch neither.)<br /><br />At any rate, one morning while peering up at the screen I got smacked in the face with this particular beauty of a sketch. It's a self portrait of Rembrandt, done when he was a similar age to myself at the time. And there I sat, looking at one of the most highly regarded of the Classical Masters... in a funny hat with a silly look on his face.<br /><br />Now <span style="font-style: italic;">that</span> is something I can identify with!<br /><br />I don't think I need to go on at length about taking yourself too seriously. Just get out the silly hat and make a face. Go ahead and post the results here, I'd love to see em. <br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-rembrandt.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-134991564450986874Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:52:00 +00002010-01-25T22:11:44.503-05:00Work<div style="text-align: justify;">After a prolonged burst of creativity I just sort of ran out of stuff to say. Over the course of a year and a half I put myself out there in four different blogs, nearly five hundred posts. And then one day the stress of job and home just got to be too much and sitting at the keyboard merely produced an hour or so of listless clicking before bed instead of any sort of cathartic experience.<br /><br />After all that time building an audience and cementing some profound friendships through the aether I just, stopped. Twiddling with Effbook and mindless clicking were all I could muster. Then I took an idle poke at Twitter the other day and realized I cared again to put it simply. I had a couple exchanges with some old friends, one of whom had been on a similar hiatus. And the fire was back.<br /><br />A few weeks ago someone leaned across the table at a production meeting for a musical I was mixing and said that they missed my posts here. It's high time I dusted off nine months of cobwebs and putting my thoughts into type once again. I wrote about some sort of mystical rejuvenation on my <a href="http://missusdaytonsmister.blogspot.com/2010/01/holding.html">family-stuff</a> blog the other day. That has something to do with it. But now on to the thought of the day.<br /><br />I'm a little unhappy with my job. Grateful to have it but the more I look at my situation the worse it gets. People love me there and I make myself useful which goes a long way toward job satisfaction. But I looked at my finances and my future prospects and continuing to make the same money while everything else gets ever more expensive can only go on so long. And while a very short commute is a real bonus, putting some more miles on the truck would be an easy trade off if it meant not having to strain with every muscle to get those elusive ends to meet.<br /><br />The problem is this: not many people have a use for a jack of all trades.<br /><br />I grew up in a construction family. I built houses with my Dad for seventeen years and I learned how to do everything that goes on between digging the hole and laying out the doormat. I could likely find another small town builder who could use a man of many talents. But it's quite likely I'll spend a good deal of time laid off every year and while that works out for some, being out of work isn't an option for us.<br /><br />The other option is to go into the trades for one of the big dogs. The problem in that arena is that I'm not a big dog. While I'm a pretty good electrician, wiring five houses a year isn't the same experience as pulling wires every single day. Same goes for framing, drywall, and so on. If I'm real lucky I can hone my skills in one particular area and maybe hit if off with a company, but that's just a wait and see game. Nothing's certain.<br /><br />With all that said I do have one thing that I plan on using as my lead off when I finally do start sending out the resumes. Every place I've worked since I left the family biz has put me in charge after six months. In the IT department as a college intern, wound up in charge of projects right out of the box. Later on the Student Activities director tried for a year to get me to hire on after I graduated. The last construction company I worked for had me running jobs and slated to be the next foreman. And at my latest gig, I wind up sort of loosely in charge of keeping all the construction running smoothly. A ton of responsibility, a smidgen of extra pay, and absolutely no authority whatsoever. <br /><br />So chew on that future prospective employer. I've got a largely unspecified skill set, dick for a resume and I'm somewhat shaggy-looking to boot. But gosh darn it... people like me.<br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2010/01/back-in-saddle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-7881362650246045331Tue, 21 Apr 2009 03:42:00 +00002009-04-20T23:43:50.867-04:00<div style="text-align: justify;">Here's a list of all the films ever nominated for best picture. I've seen 97 of 'em.<br /><br />1928- The Racket, 7th Heaven, Wings<br /><br />1929- Alibi, In Old Arizona, The Broadway Melody, Hollywood Revue, The Patriot<br /><br />1930- <span style="font-weight: bold;">All Quiet on the Western Front</span>, The Big House, Disraeli, The Divorcee, The Love Parade<br /><br />1931- Cimarron, East Lynne, The Front Page, Skippy, Trader Horn<br /><br />1932- Arrowsmith, Bad Girl, The Champ, Five Star Final, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Grand Hotel</span>, One Hour with You, Shanghai Express, The Smiling Lieutenant<br /><br />1933- Cavalcade, A Farewell to Arms, 42nd Street, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Lady for a Day, Little Women, The Private Life of Henry VIII, She Done Him Wrong, Smilin' Through, State Fair<br /><br />1934- The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Cleopatra, Flirtation Walk, The Gay Divorcee, Here Comes the Navy, The House of Rothschild, Imitation of Life, It Happened One Night, One Night of Love, The Thin Man, Viva Villa!, The White Parade<br /><br />1935- Alice Adams, Broadway Melody of 1936, Captain Blood, David Copperfield, The Informer, Les Miserables, The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mutiny on the Bounty, Naughty Marietta, Ruggles of Red Gap, Top Hat<br /><br />1936- Anthony Adverse, Dodsworth, The Great Ziegfeld, Libeled Lady, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Romeo and Juliet, San Francisco, The Story of Louis Pasteur, A Tale of Two Cities, Three Smart Girls<br /><br />1937- The Awful Truth, Captains Courageous, Dead End, The Good Earth, In Old Chicago, The Life of Emile Zola, Lost Horizon, One Hundred Men and a Girl, Stage Door, A Star Is Born<br /><br />1938- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Adventures of Robin Hood</span>, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Boys Town, The Citadel, Four Daughters, Grand Illusion, Jezebel, Pygmalion, Test Pilot, You Can't Take It with You<br /><br />1939- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gone With The Wind</span>, Dark Victory, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Love Affair, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mr. Smith Goes to Washington</span>, Ninotchka, Of Mice and Men, Stagecoach, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Wizard of Oz</span>, Wuthering Heights<br /><br />1940- Rebecca, All This and Heaven Too, The Foreign Correspondent, The Grapes of Wrath, The Great Dictator, Kitty Foyle, The Letter, The Long Voyage Home, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Our Town, The Philadelphia Story</span><br /><br />1941- How Green Was My Valley, Blossom in the Dust, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Citizen Kane</span>, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Maltese Falcon</span>, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Suspicion</span><br /><br />1942- Mrs. Miniver , 49th Parallel, Kings Row, The Magnificent Ambersons, The Pied Piper, The Pride of the Yankees, Random Harvest, The Talk of the Town, Wake Island, Yankee Doodle Dandy<br /><br />1943- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Casablanca</span>, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Heaven Can Wait, The Human Comedy, In Which We Serve, Madame Curie, The More the Merrier, The Ox-Bow Incident, The Song of Bernadette, Watch on the Rhine<br /><br />1944- Going My Way, Double Indemnity, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gaslight</span>, Since You Went Away, Wilson<br /><br />1945- The Lost Weekend, Anchors Aweigh, The Bells of St. Mary's, Mildred Pierce, Spellbound<br /><br />1946- The Best Years of Our Lives, The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (Henry V), <span style="font-weight: bold;">It's a Wonderful Life</span>, The Razor's Edge, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Yearling</span><br /><br />1947- Gentleman's Agreement, The Bishop's Wife, Crossfire, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Great Expectations, Miracle on 34th Street</span><br /><br />1948- Hamlet, Johnny Belinda, The Red Shoes, The Snake Pit, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre<br /><br />1949- All the King's Men, Battleground, The Heiress, A Letter to Three Wives, Twelve O'Clock High<br /><br />1950- All About Eve, Born Yesterday, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines,<br />Sunset Blvd<br /><br />1951- An American in Paris, Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun*, Quo Vadis, <span style="font-weight: bold;">A Streetcar Named Desire</span><br /><br />1952- The Greatest Show on Earth, High Noon, Ivanhoe, Moulin Rouge, The Quiet Man<br /><br />1953- From Here to Eternity, Julius Caesar, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Robe</span>, Roman Holiday, Shane<br /><br />1954- <span style="font-weight: bold;">On the Waterfront</span>, The Caine Mutiny, The Country Girl, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Three Coins in the Fountain<br /><br />1955- Marty, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing, Mister Roberts, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Picnic</span>, The Rose Tattoo<br /><br />1956- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Around the World in Eighty Days</span>, Friendly Persuasion, Giant<span style="font-weight: bold;">, The King and I, The Ten Commandments</span><br /><br />1957- The Bridge on the River Kwai, <span style="font-weight: bold;">12 Angry Men</span>, Peyton Place, Sayonara, Witness for the Prosecution<br /><br />1958- Gigi, Auntie Mame, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cat on a Hot Tin Roof</span>, The Defiant Ones, Separate Tables<br /><br />1959- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ben-Hur</span>, Anatomy of a Murder, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Diary of Anne Frank</span>, The Nun's Story, Room at the Top<br /><br />1960- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Apartment</span>, The Alamo, Elmer Gantry, Sons and Lovers, The Sundowners<br /><br />1961- <span style="font-weight: bold;">West Side Story</span>, Fanny, The Guns of Navarone, The Hustler, Judgment at Nuremberg<br /><br />1962- Lawrence of Arabia, The Longest Day, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Music Man</span>, Mutiny on the Bounty, To Kill a Mockingbird<br /><br />1963- Tom Jones, America, America, Cleopatra, How the West Was Won, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lilies of the Field</span><br /><br />1964- <span style="font-weight: bold;">My Fair Lady</span>, Alexis Zorbas, Becket, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mary Poppins</span><br /><br />1965- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Sound of Music</span>, Darling, Doctor Zhivago , Ship of Fools, A Thousand Clowns<br /><br />1966- A Man for All Seasons, Alfie, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, The Sand Pebbles, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?<br /><br />1967- In the Heat of the Night, Bonnie and Clyde, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Doctor Dolittle</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Graduate</span>, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner<br /><br />1968- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Oliver!</span>, Funny Girl, The Lion in Winter, Rachel, Rachel, Romeo and Juliet<br /><br />1969- Midnight Cowboy, Anne of the Thousand Days, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid</span>, Hello, Dolly! , Z<br /><br />1970- Patton, Airport, Five Easy Pieces, Love Story, <span style="font-weight: bold;">MASH</span><br /><br />1971- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The French Connection</span>, A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra<br /><br />1972- The Godfather, Cabaret, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Deliverance</span>, Sounder, The Emigrants<br /><br />1973- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Sting, American Graffiti, The Exorcist</span>, A Touch of Class, Cries and Whispers<br /><br />1974- The Godfather: Part II, Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Towering Inferno<br /><br />1975- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jaws</span>, Nashville<br /><br />1976- <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rocky</span>, All The President's Men, Bound for Glory, Network, Taxi Driver<br /><br />1977- Annie Hall, The Goodbye Girl, Julia, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Star Wars</span>, The Turning Point<br /><br />1978- <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Deer Hunter</span>, Coming Home, Heaven Can Wait, Midnight, An Unmarried Woman<br /><br />1979- Kramer vs. Kramer, All That Jazz, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Apocalypse Now</span>, Breaking Away, Norma Rae<br /><br />1980. Ordinary People, Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Raging Bull, Tess<br /><br />1981. Chariots of Fire, Reds, Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Raiders of the Lost Ark</span><br /><br />1982. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gandhi, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial</span>, Missing, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tootsie</span>, The Verdict<br /><br />1983. Terms of Endearment, The Big Chill, The Dresser, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Right Stuff</span>, Tender Mercies<br /><br />1984. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Amadeus</span>, The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, A Soldier’s Story<br /><br />1985. Out of Africa, The Color Purple, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi’s Honor, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Witness</span><br /><br />1986. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Platoon, Children of a Lesser God</span>, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission, A Room with a View<br /><br />1987. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Last Emperor</span>, Broadcast News, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fatal Attraction</span>, Hope and Glory, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Moonstruck</span><br /><br />1988. Rain Man, The Accidental Tourist, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning</span>, Working Girl<br /><br />1989. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Driving Miss Daisy</span>, Born on the Fourth of July, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams</span>, My Left Foot<br /><br />1990. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Dances with Wolves</span>, Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III, Goodfellas<br /><br />1991. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast</span>, Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides<br /><br />1992. Unforgiven, The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howards End, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scent of a Woman</span><br /><br />1993. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Schindler’s List</span>, The Fugitive, In the Name of the Father, The Piano, The Remains of the Day<br /><br />1994. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction</span>, Quiz Show, The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Shawshank Redemption</span><br /><br />1995. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Braveheart, Apollo 13, Babe</span>, Il Postino (The Postman), <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sense and Sensibility</span><br /><br />1996. The English Patient, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Fargo, Jerry Maguire</span>, Secrets &amp; Lies, Shine<br /><br />1997. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Titanic</span>, As Good as It Gets, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential</span><br /><br />1998. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Shakespeare in Love</span>, Elizabeth, Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella), Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line<br /><br />1999. <span style="font-weight: bold;">American Beauty</span>, The Cider House Rules, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Green Mile</span>, The Insider, The Sixth Sense<br /><br />2000. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gladiator, Chocolat,</span> Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Erin Brockovich, Traffic</span><br /><br />2001. <span style="font-weight: bold;">A Beautiful Mind</span>, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, </span>Moulin Rouge!<br /><br />2002. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chicago, Gangs of New York, </span>The Hours,<span style="font-weight: bold;"> The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers</span>, The Pianist<br /><br />2003. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King</span>, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit<br /><br />2004. Million Dollar Baby, The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways<br /><br />2005. Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Capote, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Good Night and Good Luck</span>, Munich<br /><br />2006. The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen<br /><br />2007. No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood<br /><br />2008. Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/obnoxiously-long-meme-oscars.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-8632477576843415448Mon, 20 Apr 2009 01:44:00 +00002009-04-19T21:53:42.033-04:00FaithPerspectiveRelationships<div style="text-align: justify;">This weekend was a real pisser. A lot of good stuff happened too but mostly it was just one kick in the pants after another. I realized something while I was home today recovering. Three friends of mine stuck it out at a very long, drawn out event that they didn't really have to be at. And not only that but they went <span style="font-style: italic;">way</span> out of their way to help me out.<br /><br />These guys drove all over the North Country to pick stuff up for me. They worked like dogs to get my sound system set up. They prayed for me when I was about to throw up from the stress of working a big, fupped duck gig and having my newborn baby in the hospital at the same time. They worked the kinks out of my neck. They poured me drinks and sat up late with me. They refused to let me pay for dinner.<br /><br />Mack, Anth, Amanda... You guys are the real deal. There aren't words to describe it. I'd walk on razor blades for you. Because church events are nice, and theology is all good, but people who love God and their neighbor for real burn so brightly that they make everything else look like a dingy photograph.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/so-that-happened.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-1669086717071323197Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:59:00 +00002009-04-12T22:05:53.441-04:00FaithPro Audio<div style="text-align: justify;">Things at work are starting to look a little dire. Management is... well... let's not talk about management. The thing that worries me is that yet another rat is about to jump ship and I'll likely be the one to get his duties dumped on me. I'm not the least bit interested in that. But, there's no better time to look for a job than when you're still employed. I'm just biding my time to see what comes down the pike.<br /><br />I've been peeking around the pro audio scene to see what might come up. Nothing has been offered yet but it looks like a short tour and a pretty sweet festival stage could possibly be in the works. From there it's just a matter of networking. Not that I'm super excited about becoming self employed again, but if those types of gigs start coming along it could be a pretty sweet existence.<br /><br />Mostly though I'm just praying and waiting. Anybody who was reading me back toward the end of the summer will remember how I was desperately praying for a new job in August and got hired at my current position on September 16. Yay God! It's that kind of thing that is making me go into this with very little worry about the mortgage, health insurance and all that other stuff. God knows my family needs to eat and go to the doctor and whatnot. He also knows I'd be a much happier guy if I was mixing for a living.<br /><br />I haven't been thinking about this seriously for very long. I've been praying seriously about it for an even shorter time. The thing that keeps popping into my head is "July". You heard it here first. Stay tuned and see what shakes out.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/changin-it-up-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-1219471785371932760Sat, 11 Apr 2009 01:49:00 +00002009-04-10T22:21:14.637-04:00Geezer-ismsPerspectiveSmall Town<div style="text-align: justify;">I read a post over at <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/IrishGumbo/%7E3/c5M8L7McEQQ/old-man-look-at-my-life-i-pick-my-nose.html">Irish Gumbo</a> by cIII from <a href="http://goatandturtle.blogspot.com/">Goat and Tater</a> today about an old timer he remembered from his childhood. It got me to remembering one from my own. Not my Grandfather, who is far and away the most prominent in the pantheon of old timers in my book. And not our old plumber George who is responsible for about 90% of the geezer-isms that I collect. My thoughts turn tonight toward an old farmer I worked a couple summers for. A man affectionately referred to as, "The Boss".<br /><br />The Boss was a wizened old farmer type, as twisted and dried up as an old corn stalk and twice as tough. He held a particular charm in that he had lost an arm at the elbow in a corn picker years back and wore a prosthetic in its place. My best friend at the time and I were too old to be freaked out, even when he wore the one that had a hay hook on the end. Most of the time he wore the one with pincers and every so often you'd see him in his best coat with his Sunday Go To Meetin' hand on, the one that really looked like a hand. (He gave me his old Sunday Go To Meetin hand, we used to slam it in the hatch back of my Chevette and one guy would work the cables while the rest peed their pants at the looks on passing motorists faces.)<br /><br />There really wasn't that much that was charming about him though. He worked us like dogs. We'd hay for him after school until the sun went down and when the hay was all in there was plenty else to do. I learned how to drive a tractor and how to fix one. I learned how stupid and skittish cows really are and how to get them in and out of a barn. Mostly what I remember learning was was tough really was. (Funny side note: he had a silo that was continuously on fire. It was one of the air tight glass lined jobs and it caught from too much moisture making the silage self ignite in the bottom. Everything they did just made it worse so they sealed it back up and just let it simmer. The outside of it was a constant 200 degrees Fahrenheit for years.)<br /><br />When we took a break he'd sit us down at the picnic table in the shade of an ancient maple tree and bring us instant coffee in plastic mugs. We'd sit and he'd start in on spinning yarns whether we wanted him to or not. He'd tell us about how he used to run a garage when he was young. I never saw a photo but I can clearly picture him as a young man with a head of hair, slick with grease in a blue coverall, grinning in front of a lift with a wrench in his hand.<br /><br />Mostly though he'd talk about farm life. A few good times but mostly hard times. Simple logic would make one think that the people who grow our food would do all right, but that's far from the case. He talked about failed crops, broken machinery, sick cows, sick kids, bad loans, lost land, lightning strikes, fires, and a million other tragedies.<br /><br />I won't bore you with all the details. They're just details. They're probably totally meaningless to anyone and really not all that meaningful to me. But those stories are just one more of the things that make me feel tied to this place. Every time my mind roams over the hills to the South they linger on a little farm. A little forty head dairy barn whose old beams watched a man live and toil and die, working the land and scraping by. People talk about Americana. Chevy commercials churn it out in stylized thirty second chunks. I actually worked there for two summers. I heard the stories of that little parcel that every once in a while will creep up from the depths of my mind like August heat rising from a field of Timothy hay.<br /><br />Some kids grow up in the city and the concrete and steel become a part of who they are. Some kids grow up in the country and spend all their time trying to be like the city kids, slick and hard. There's absolutely no escape, no real departure from the location that made you. That's how you end up with Black No. 1 goths with studded faces that unconsciously lip synch to <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweet Home Alabama</span> (they still know all the words, of course). And that's how you end up with me, the ever running, ever technical sound guy slash electrician who still stops once in a while and thinks back to what an old timer taught him about Jersey cows and alfalfa and hard work.<br /><br />God rest ya, Boss. And thanks.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/old-timers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-5877716240142046964Thu, 09 Apr 2009 02:13:00 +00002009-04-08T22:34:09.384-04:00BitchingWork<div style="text-align: justify;">Ugh. Why is it that no matter where I go I get nominated to be in charge? Can't I just go to work, do some work and go home? WTF?!<br /><br />Mere moments after completing a remodeling project that took five of the six months of my current employment as a maintenance mechanic at the hospital I got made the liaison between the hospital and (at last count) five companies taking care of various elements of a whopping great project on our other building.<br /><br />Back in 2000 the two hospitals in town merged and started operating mostly at our North St facility. The Bank St building had a big do-up to house a lot of out patient stuff, and there's a drug rehabilitation facility on the second floor, but the other five floors are basically a shit mess. Soooooooo, in comes the cavalry to abate all the asbestos, turn the top four floors into senior living apartments and rehab the second floor. Without disturbing (too much) the current inhabitants.<br /><br />This is my headache for at <span style="font-style: italic;">least</span> the next six months. And that's just the first two floors! That's <span style="font-style: italic;">just</span> to get all the asbestos out, patch, paint, get the druggies re-situated and leave the first floor still a hulking wreck. The developer for the top four floors hasn't even gotten started yet. That'll be another architect firm, another general contractor, and half a dozen trades companies.<br /><br />At least I'm far away from my bosses and only have to speak to them occasionally. The only discernable benefit of working with all these companies is that they're really good at what they do. I like working with people who are good at what they do.<br /><br />And I'm very nearly over (probably not) the fact that the hospital has secured for themselves a full blown (I have my own company <span style="font-style: italic;">cell phone</span>!) project manager at mechanic's rate. Yeah, the guy juggling all this crap is making the exact same as the dude changing light bulbs. At least it's a resume builder. I may not even make out an actual resume (because my ass is <span style="font-style: italic;">definately</span> in the market for a new job) I may just submit a piece of paper that says this on it:<br /><br />Hire me, because everywhere else I've worked they have decided to put me in charge of stuff after the first twenty minutes.<br /><br />I'm really going to try and bite my tongue about all this. I could easily fill a page with bile on a nightly basis. I was ready to punch my one boss in his fat, stupid mouth the other day. Oh! Funny story about that. I was walking down the deserted first floor hall at Bank St (the one about to be torn apart), bitching to a couple guys about punching my boss in the mouth. This floor is <span style="font-style: italic;">deserted</span>. Not even the ghost goes there. And after shooting my big fat mouth off the whole length of the hallway and punching the elevator button who should come strolling out of a room at the other end? The CEO. That is seriously fupped duck. He likes me though so I'm pretty sure it won't mean my job or anything. There is cause to worry slightly though. The other day said boss encouraged a guy to say what was bothering him and when the guy exploded about what a shit mess our department is the boss wrote him up for bad attitude.<br /><br />Done writing. Picture your humble host with a very Ward Cleaver expression on his face as he says to you, "I'm going to get in<span style="font-style: italic;">tox</span>icated now."<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-must-i-be-in-charge.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-5379823783699592736Sun, 05 Apr 2009 17:18:00 +00002009-04-05T13:59:41.529-04:00DIYEnergyTree Huggging<div style="text-align: justify;">We do a lot of things the Crunchy Granola way at our house. It's not so much that we're a bunch of tree hugging hippies but that we're professional cheapskates. As it turns out, buying local produce and meat is super affordable and the fact that it's <span style="font-style: italic;">way</span> healthier for your is a nice bonus. So we've got freezers full of free range, organic meat; bags and bags of locally grown, organic produce; and a host of other goodies that save the planet <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> the pocket book.<br /><br />All of this is in pursuit of lowering the bottom line. With <a href="http://daytontime.blogspot.com">The Missus</a> staying home with the Short People bringing home the bacon falls on me. We're still a two income family, I just happen to be both of those incomes. So we've done a lot of things like replace most of our lights with compact fluorescent bulbs, significantly lowered our thermostat, and even gone as far as to make the majority of our food on site. Now we're looking for additional ways to cut back.<br /><br />Getting "off the grid" is often associated with the type of folks you find living in desert compounds with large stocks of automatic weapons and possibly an affinity for Kool Aid. That's not us, we're just pinching pennies. We're definitely not at the point of trying to power the whole house with wind or solar, it's just not economical. But with a few windfalls and the available (cheap) technology I'm thinking I might be able to get a partial solution going.<br /><br />Working at the hospital I come across all sorts of gear that's getting thrown out because the law mandates it. Of particular interest are the UPS systems that back up critical gear in the event of a power outage. Most are tiny little things that are just meant to run a computer for a few minutes until the generator kicks in but some of them run machines that are the size of a Volkswagon. So now I'm at the point of saving $300 to $500 on an expensive controller and inverter because I'm actually doing the hospital a favor and saving them the disposal fee.<br /><br />The problem with most alternative energy solutions for homes is that they just cost too darn much. It's an economy of scale issue as well. Taking one small load off the grid can easily cost hundreds of dollars. Dollars that you will never make back in savings before the equipment ages out. Doing a larger project makes the ratios more favorable but you're still just a hobbyist playing around with batteries and expensive electronics and not a frugal homeowner saving money. Free stuff put me ahead in the game, scrounging is what it takes at this point in the evolution of alternative energy.<br /><br />So... now that I've got a self contained box that is ready, willing and able to run the entire second floor of my house all I need is a method to charge the batteries and some switching and monitoring equipment. Anyone looking for the technical jargon has probably already clicked on to something else by now but here I go anyway. The following is not something that you want to undertake unless you have a <span style="font-style: italic;">very</span> good understanding of both AC and DC power. If you don't and you still feel like tinkering you should invite an electrician and an auto mechanic over for a barbecue and get the free advice going that way.<br /><br />I'm going to start by disabling the circuit that charges the battery bank from utility power. I'm going to substitute a small solar panel and charging circuit. That will have to be purchased and it looks like about $150. With the UPS installed in the basement and the charger hooked up I can then route the AC output to the circuit that runs my second floor.<br /><br />Side note: most modern homes would have a separate circuit for each room and likely a general lighting circuit for a similar area. My home was re-wired in the 1970s when there wasn't so much electrical draw, a light and a couple outlets to run very light loads were all that was expected. A single twenty amp circuit covers three bedrooms, a hallway and a bathroom and never trips because the load for that area is still very low. (Unless someone is running the hair dryer) This makes it an easy way to take a large area of my house off the grid as an experiment, one circuit, one wire, small load.<br /><br />Back to the action. With just those three things done I'll be ready to manually switch over to making AC power from the batteries and feeding it to all my second floor lights and outlets. The UPS is designed for a large load over a short time. Using it for a small load over a long time will make much better use of the batteries. A few lights and alarm clocks, the odd humidifier or music device, that's it. I'll have to do some load testing to find out how long I can go and that will involve simply spending some time switching and watching.<br /><br />The next step will be to make it automatic. If the batteries finally get tired in the middle of the night and our alarm clocks all go dead it's going to close down the operation in a hurry. Same goes if The Missus plugs in the hair dryer and draws down the batteries quickly. The solution is automatic switching back to utility power. A simple three-way switch is all it will take for manual change over so to automate things will take a relay. <br /><br />The UPS already has a battery monitoring circuit. If I'm able to tap in to that, I can use it to signal the relay to trip when the batteries are tired and the solar charger can do it's thing. When the batteries are full, it can automatically switch back. If that's not possible I can build a circuit very cheaply that will do the job. Total cost for this part I estimate to be under $50 including the relay. There are a lot of variables involved here though. How fast will the batteries run down and how fast can they be recharged. <br /><br />It may be that I can run all night and charge all day and have that load disappear completely from my electric bill. It could also easily be that it will take a week of sunny days to keep the bedrooms lit for a single evening. If that's the case then more batteries and larger chargers will be in order. If that's the case then the challenge will be to look for other crafty ways to recharge. <br /><br />A small wind turbine would work day and night, but they're even more expensive per watt than solar chargers. I'll likely be looking into DIY versions though. Water flow meters generate a small current from water passing through pipes. One of those just after the water meter would make a small amount of current every time we ran a faucet or a load of wash. Again though, it's a case of wanting to be a frugal homeowner and not a hobbyist playing with expensive gadgets.<br /><br />This has gotten pretty wordy but it was mostly to help me map out the project. Once I start to actually get this stuff installed I'll be posting more articles, hopefully more concise, as I iron out the kinks and hopefully pinch some pennies. <br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/solar-project.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-4982339412115739703Sun, 05 Apr 2009 01:48:00 +00002009-04-04T21:48:00.796-04:00FunWork<div style="text-align: justify;">Yesterday at lunch the Big Boss asked myself and the other electrician if we would head over and support the drug rehabilitation clinic folks during an emergency preparedness drill. Sure, we said... whatever the hell that means.<br /><br />We went over there and watched the nurses line them all up and evacuate them. Six minutes till the all clear, not bad. Then I got an interesting phone call. It was the Big Big Boss telling me to go meet with the Disaster Assessment Team and tell them what the situation was. He then related to me how the imaginary situation included a floor collapse, burst waterlines, severed electrical lines, but no fire at that time.<br /><br />So we met up with the lady in the area where the pretend incident had taken place and began relaying the "situation" over our radios. It started getting really good when we were asked about investigating the possibility of shutting off a water main. My cohort asked the disaster lady if he could throw a wrench in the works to which she just grinned and nodded.<br /><br />We could hear the irritation coming back in the radio responses as we told them that the utilities area in the basement was inaccessible. We were also having radio reception problems (just like a real emergency!). For every new twist and turn that we thought up we'd pause and sort out how we, ourselves, would deal with it and toss that information into the mix. This was intensely amusing for me in particular because while I have been through two <span style="font-style: italic;">actual</span> emergencies at the hospital, this was my first drill.<br /><br />We wound up pretending to partially shut down the electrical system from an auxiliary switching station and getting a pretend DPW crew to turn off the water at the street. This lead to more theorizing about how to keep the steam boilers from exploding due to a lack of supply. After most of the afternoon went by in a post game wrap-up meeting the maintenance crew realized that even those who have been there for two decades don't really have a good understanding of all the stuff that in some cases has been going into these buildings for nearly one hundred hears.<br /><br />Anyway, said all that to say this: If you ever wind up living through an emergency, have patience for the people dealing with it. Because no matter how many drills have been done, no matter how many manuals have been written, it's still just men and women on the ground figuring it out as they go along.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-is-only-test.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-994536458633481567Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:26:00 +00002009-04-01T14:39:16.797-04:00FaithPro Audio<div style="text-align: justify;">I've been furtively wishing for about a month for some way to pursue a career in pro audio and yet not have my family starve to death in the street. Most guys that do it spend their mid-twenties honing their skills and developing contacts that lead to tours and the like. I spent that era of my life doing little shows in my home town and making babies. Not that I'm the least bit dissatisfied with how that played out, but I'm a little bit off the beaten path as far as advancing my career.<br /><br />If I were to get a touring career going it could easily keep the family afloat. It has the sizable downside though of the feast-or-famine element. It's not so bad to think about being gone for six weeks at a stretch, but being gone for 300 days out of the year is probably a bit much for the Short People. Be home and starve or be gone and pay off the mortgage. It's a tough one.<br /><br />After a little prayer a couple things (in typical fashion) have dropped into my lap. One is the Cornerstone festival. Last year I got an offer to work on one of the better independent stages there. It's pretty much the who's who of Christian music and a guy who gave away 1000 business cards could conceivably quit his day job shortly thereafter.<br /><br />The other thing started off innocently enough, with a band asking me to guest engineer at a club. I made a favorable impression and the owner shortly asked me to cover a date for the house guy. That didn't work out, but after a second time mixing there and the house guy getting an unexpected promotion at his day job, I've suddenly been offered about as much work as I care to take. Small pay, but much easier in that I don't have to haul all my gear in. I just show up and mix. Despite being a small club they host national acts fairly regularly. This could be <span style="font-style: italic;">real</span> good for a certain small town sound guy. It's already lead to one really good industry contact.<br /><br />The thought of being on the road most of the time would be a lot easier to deal with if I was still twenty-five and living with my folks. The current situation with the mortgage and the Shorties who need lots of daddy-type attention makes things a little trickier. I'm not hanging my hopes on anything yet, but the daydream of getting phone calls to go do big bucks one offs for famous people is starting to take shape in the ol' noggin.<br /><br />As with anything, God provides. He knows the deepest desires of my heart and has provided for their satisfaction in ways far better than I could ever imagine. If there's a way to do sound for a living and keep my peeps happy, I'm sure to find it.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/04/pro-audio-here-i-come.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-1393905938851403769Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:52:00 +00002009-03-27T21:57:26.249-04:00Daddy-Type Stuff<p style="text-align: justify;" class="mobile-photo"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/Sc2DGKAbcXI/AAAAAAAAATU/6HqarGJLjAA/s1600-h/Photo_03-708290.jpg"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/Sc2DGKAbcXI/AAAAAAAAATU/6HqarGJLjAA/s320/Photo_03-708290.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318050876783030642" border="0" /></a></p><div style="text-align: justify;">Here we are. All piled on to the big bed. Worn out from the Spring weather and all the activitiy. People keep telling me I'm nuts for adding another kid to the equation. They ask how could I deal with it.<br /><br />How could I not?<br /><br /></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/check-out-this-crew.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-3611192582252103758Fri, 27 Mar 2009 03:55:00 +00002009-03-27T00:01:24.893-04:00Daddy-Type StuffPerspective<div style="text-align: justify;">And that would not be breach birth for anyone who's curious. I'm just sitting around at my ordinary, average bedtime, thinking about tomorrow. I've got a week's worth of hospital work behind me, a gig in the morning, and quite likely... the birth of my fourth child.<br /><br />Freaking out? Nah. We don't do that here. There's a distinct possibility that I will pile my contracting <a href="http://daytontime.blogspot.com/">Missus</a> into the truck at 5 am, drop her off at the hospital and go load in a show. Or I may have to leave in the middle or just miss it completely. That's kinda fupped duck. But whatever.<br /><br />God's big enough for all of it and I've never found myself in a situation where everything wasn't provided for. So tomorrow's like any other day. There's nothing for it but to rub my eyes, slam a coffee, jam a hat on my head and charge.<br /><br />See you on the other end.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/once-more-into-breach.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-5090238651850999896Wed, 25 Mar 2009 22:07:00 +00002009-03-25T18:10:49.642-04:00Quote of the Day<div style="text-align: justify;">Holy crap were the good ever forthcoming over at the <a href="http://goatandturtle.blogspot.com/">Goat and Tater</a>. I've only got a second so I'm going to direct you to the post that ends with:<br /><blockquote>I will protect you. Always. Tomorrow is a New day. And if you need, I’ll sleep under you bed. And I will be Armed. To the fucking Teeth.</blockquote><br />Yeah...<br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/jackpot.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-3694224875548233432Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:10:00 +00002009-03-22T22:10:00.231-04:00Quirks<div style="text-align: justify;">I was home sick with the Short People during church today. I got out my old sketch book to doodle around a bit during the second showing of <span style="font-style: italic;">Hoodwinked</span>. The topic was zombies, of course. Apparently <a href="http://myembellishedtruth.blogspot.com/">ChurchPunkMom </a>has so thoroughly inundated me with zombie imagery that it's all I can think of. Here's the result.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/ScZ_dR2waZI/AAAAAAAAATM/HGy_ovuTmok/s1600-h/zombie+ipods.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 217px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gDuX6vlGV9c/ScZ_dR2waZI/AAAAAAAAATM/HGy_ovuTmok/s320/zombie+ipods.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316076551143451026" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/here-they-come.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-4294526370395078262Sun, 22 Mar 2009 17:17:00 +00002009-03-22T13:22:08.586-04:00FunQuirks<div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, I'm still inserting Primus lyrics into the status line on Effbook. And my friends are still responding, so the beatings will continue until morale improves. Here's the latest crop of calls and responses. And if you're lucky, I'll be sharing my zombie collection with you later tonight.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />March 12 at 1:01am </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jon Dayton is incredibly hot in here today</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Matt at 1:25am March 12</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">If you've studied your Floyd properly, you'd know that pigs could fly</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">March 14 at 1:10am </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jon Dayton got himself a big brown beaver and he stuck 'im up in the air...</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sean at 10:30pm March 13 via Facebook Mobile</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Did you say I sure do love this big brown beaver and I wish I did have a pair?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jon Dayton at 11:42pm March 13</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yes! And did I mention that he once slept for seven days and he gave us all an awful fright?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Matt at 1:49am March 14</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Did you prick your finger one day and did it occurred to you that you might have a porcupine?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jon Dayton at 9:17am March 14</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dude! How you gonna skip right tithe end like that?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Thu 11:58pm </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Jon Dayton is going to make. You. All. Just a bit. Like. Me!</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Matthew at 9:15pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">what if we already like you?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Robb at 10:22pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">you. sliiiip. iiiiiiiiiiit! in..........</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jon Dayton at 10:35pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">You're sweet Matt. It's Primus lyrics again.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Robb at 10:39pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">oh thank god. i thought we had moved on to dixie chicks.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">http://www.metrolyrics.com/just-a-bit-like-me-lyrics-dixie-chicks.html</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jon Dayton at 10:41pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">I said RIGHT... LEFT... RIGHT... LEFT... Foreward HAAaaaaarch!!!</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Michael at 11:21pm March 19</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dude I need a favor. Someone told me you could teach me how to play the game of warfare.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Brett at 10:08am March 20</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">i more than like you. I think I am a little in love with you</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Jon Dayton at 2:57pm March 20</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">YES SIR! YES SIR!</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/more-tales-from-punchbowl.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20602512.post-748855261769982358Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:18:00 +00002009-03-19T20:28:55.580-04:00BitchingWork<div style="text-align: justify;">As a token of my appreciation of the downtrodden (read this post about a big dose of suck for a reward that <a href="http://http//myembellishedtruth.blogspot.com/2009/03/and-they-kick-you-when-youre-down.html" target="_blank">ChurchPunkMom</a> wrote) I would like to offer up my own similar story. It's a story of going the extra mile, putting others first, and keeping your word. It's also a story kind of like <span style="font-style: italic;">Office Space</span> where there are too many bosses, and kind of like <span style="font-style: italic;">The Office</span> where the big cheese is just <s>totally effing</s> a trifle out of touch.<br /><br />The whole crew at work has been killing themselves for the last five months. Big remodeling project, lots of extra hours, not much time with the family. But at least there was the overtime pay. That is, until a month ago when that got yanked out from under us. Then it was the same routine of flogging us to go faster while constantly making revisions and moving up the deadline.<br /><br />That made things a little harder to swallow. Small paycheck. Meh. But to make things all better we got a couple really nice perks. The first was that were were invited to attend (off the clock of course) the opening celebration of the completed project. All the cheese and crackers you want boys. Yeah, except that it wasn't really, totally done, so we were back in there the next day.<br /><br />The crowning glory of it all though, the thing that really makes it all worth it was the grand gesture on the part of my big boss to really let us guys know that we were appreciated. We all got hand signed gift certificates... to the hospital snack shop... for three dollars. <br /><br />Hells<br /><br />Effing<br /><br />Yeah...<br /><br /><br /><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/feed-icon16x16.png" alt="Subscribe in a reader" title="Subscribe in a reader" style="border: 0pt none ; vertical-align: middle;" /></a> <span style="font-size:85%;"><a style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/SimpleTerms" rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml">Subscribe in a reader</a></span></p></div>http://simpleterms.blogspot.com/2009/03/token-of-our-appreciation.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Jon Dayton)2