Recently in General Blather Category

I visited my first haberdashery on Sunday, an honest to God haberdashery. I've been wanting to go to The Hatbox (billed as a Modern Haberdashery, not sure why "modern" is emphasized) for quite some time, and since I've also had an itch to update my image before Life On Loan goes out giggin' again, I figured that there was no time like the present to visit the Hatbox. I've also been wanting to get more headwear besides baseball caps, but wasn't really sure what to get and what looks good. A couple of cohorts who wanted to go with was all I needed to make the trek down to 6th Street.

The Hatbox is a really cool place. I tried on all sorts of hats, from bowlers to balaclavas to top hats, but ended up settling on three - a driver cap and two small-brimmed fedoras in slightly different styles for every day wear and also for dressin' up a little bit. Both my compadres and the folks at the store gave me the thumbs up on the hats I chose, so I'm reasonably confident that I don't look like a complete dork wearing them around. I think the fedoras are going to be primarily gig wear, though, because I don't think the world at large is really ready to head back to the time when men always wore hats and trenchcoats. Then again, I could be the herald of a new age in style. Stranger things have happened, you know.

The other cool thing was that I had a little brush with fame (not mine). It would seem that The Swell Season was in town to play a show, and Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova stopped in to buy a hat for a friend. They starred in the movie Once and also composed the soundtrack which won an Oscar. Anyway, I had no idea who they were and was just making polite chit-chat when the clerk at the Hatbox asked me for ID to go with my check card. Glen, in his Irish accent, was caught a little off guard and says, "Oh, my...ID might be a bit of a problem. Perhaps I can borrow yours, yeah?", to which I promptly replied, "sure, as long as you haven't done anything nefarious back in Ireland." It was at that point that Ballenger pipes up and says, "I think I know who you are. You're Glen Hansard, right?" Glen brightened up and responded, "See? There now, I don't need any ID - this guy'll vouch for me!" Scott asked him where they were playing, we bantered for a few minutes, and then they went on their way and we went on ours. Man, I love this town.

I also had to get some new jeans now that it's getting colder (I was down to two pair) and also needed to continue the image update, so I went out tonight to get some and also picked up some button-down long-sleeved shirts in gray and black for cheap, which will also be used for giggin', church, and times when I want to dress up a little bit. I think the wardrobe update is nearly complete for this year after this trip - all I need now is a couple of club/bowling shirts (or maybe cabana shirts? Not sure what you call them) and I think I'll be good. Fewer tees and polos, more button downs and collars, I think.

The only thing left to do is to drop off the other clothes that I'm no longer wearing at Salvation Army so that someone else can get some use out of them and as I said, it's getting cold outside so there's no better time.

Well, the first week back at work is in the bag. After a day or two of logistical issues, I am back in the Big Blue fold and it's almost like I never left. My new team is going to be an interesting one, and I received my first actual work assignment on Wednesday. I'll be working on the Business Infrastructure and Tools Services team of the ITD group within IBM. Basically that means that we provide tools and services for use by internal IBMers - either for the IBM Intranet or for field personnel out on customer sites. My current project is to help with the conversion of an old Lotus-based application to a WebSphere/DB2 application that is a little more efficient and user-friendly.

The new team seems to be pretty cool, although I find myself being in a situation that I did not want to be in - that of coming into this position on a project that is already somewhat under the gun because my predecessor couldn't do the job. So now I feel that I not only have something to prove (e.g. that I can actually do the job where the previous guy failed) but also that I need to be able to ramp up super quickly and get some production going. I don't really have a benchmark for how long a ramp-up operation should take in my particular case: on the one I hand, I already know the IBM system and don't have to mess around with learning Notes or the ins and outs of the internal machinations; on the other hand, I'm not familiar with the base technology that the site design is using and therefore am having to learn a lot of new terms and systems in order to make my part of the project actually do something.

I'm also still trying to get a feel for the level of work that is expected, and how much overtime people actually put in. My team is almost 100% remote - not necessarily all outside of Austin, but definitely outside the office - and so far I've only met two of the eleven team members in person. It's hard to get to know somebody remotely, and it can be especially hard to find out someone's legitimate work habits because it's easy to appear working when you can just leave yourself online and answer emails in a timely fashion. It's a cultural thing but with the culture removed from the picture, it becomes something that is ridiculously hard to define. Just because someone is online at 11pm, does that mean that they've been working 12-hour days? Probably not. Or maybe so. I can't tell.

Speaking of hours, the whole contracting/hourly thing is kind of a new idea. It would seem that I don't get paid for lunch time and that means in order to get my 40 hours in I am going to need to put in an extra hour somewhere. This isn't a new idea where hourly work is concerned, but it's definitely a different feel for me because that means that if I have a 9-5 core time, let's say, that means I either have to work through lunch or come in at 8 or stay until 6 just to get in an 8-hour day. This is a lot different than my salaried existence, and it is going to take a pretty significant adjustment to my line of thinking. As I have mentioned before, I'm really wary of immediately jumping back into the "I'm so busy I can't even think straight" mentality going from work straight into the evening's activities and then to bed and then right back to repeat the next day, so this idea of thinking about what (to me) seems to be an "extra" hour already is going to take some work.

But, overall, I'm glad to be back working and having a daily purpose. I'm learning quite a bit already and I'm sure I'll learn a ton more in the next couple of weeks and months, so it will definitely be a positive experience in the long run.

Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's edition of my random, non sequitur-ial, and somewhat unrelated stream of questions that are bouncing about within my grey matter! Are you ready to play? Well, buckle up, buttercup...cuz the thought train's leavin' the station and we don't brook no whiners.

1. If human beings were the first beings created by God with free will, the assumption being that angels do not have free will, then how did Lucifer ever get uppity enough to think he was better than God and rebel?
2. I'm not a details-oriented person - not a knob-twiddler or a bit-flipper. I am, however, a creative individual. How am I going to do in my new development job with this mindset since I am not anal enough to closely monitor and resolve the tiny details?
3. Ampache is setup and working like a charm from the coffee house down the street from my pad sans wi-fi. Looks like EVDO and a clear cell signal will do the trick after all.
4. If I claim to be a Christian and yet my practical day-to-day actions would place my philosophy more in the materialist, dualist, or deist camps, how would I ever know unless someone tells me?
5. Assuming the above question is true, where is the balance between trusting God for nothing and trusting God for absolutely everything (e.g. the whole "so heavenly minded they're no earthly good" mindset)?
6. Prius owners all look alike to me.
7. My new job scares me insofar as I'm afraid that I won't be able to find the middle ground between having nothing to do (i.e. being unemployed) and becoming a "good employee" (i.e. workaholic). I don't want to go back to the cavalcade of busyness that I was locked into before I got laid off.
8. Sound-isolating headphones with active noise cancellation are great things to have and allow me to hear things in music I've never heard before. If you don't have a pair, I'd strongly recommend that you make the investment in a good set - your ears will thank you.
9. Is it rude to stop at a fast food restaurant and just take your kids to the bathroom without buying anything? The woman in the white minivan at the Sonic next door looks like she's trying to hide the fact that she and her kids are using the facilities without buying anything. Perhaps she thinks the carhops will grab bats and lead pipes and assault her if the figure out what she's doing. Perhaps I've just seen too many movies.
10. Sweet baby ray, I love my Pre!
11. Jega is excellent coding/blogging/digitally ambient music.

Feel free to chime in on any answers to questions, although feel free to keep your "you should do this..." instructional posts to yourself.

In the "what's God up to?" file, my start date with IBM has been delayed by a week. I talked with my new employers, CDI IT Staffing, today to find out what was happening with my new gig at IBM and it turns out that I will be starting on the 12th rather than the 5th. IBM's cutting back on hours for employees and their current plan is to tell all the contractors that they need to take 6 unpaid days off between now and the end of the year. So, rather than have me start on the 5th and then have to take 6 days spread out throughout the year (which would be fine with me, actually), they just decided to have me start 5 days later and get it all out of the way up front.

Going on this scenario, it sounds like I would get an extra day that some others won't get (only having to delay five days instead of six), but Five Dollar Friend has asked me to play a show with them in Houston on the 16th. Thus, on my first day of work, I will be asking for that Friday off. CDI thinks that they shouldn't have any problem with that (seeing as I'll have just started and also have - technically - one more day that IBM wants me to take off), but you never know and I hate to tell FDF that I'm in and then have to shank them the week of saying I can't get off work in time to get over to Houston for the gig.

When it rains, it pours, I guess. But it's good to know that I'll be back working soon - I hope. That would kind of suck if a succession of delays ends up just being a non-starter. It seems I'll have to file yet one more unemployment request before I get regular employment. Then again, what fun would a rollercoaster be without ups, downs, AND corkscrews, eh?

And just like that, I'm back in to the Big Blue Borg Collective. This time, however, I think things are going to be different. I'll be doing strictly development work and will finally be able to hone some skills and really learn a lot about some of the technical things that I didn't really get to concentrate on in my previous position. This is a bit of a junior position as well which will provide me a little leeway to flex my skills. While I have a lot of experience, a good chunk of it is in post-release sustainment, which tends to make the new development skills a little rusty. So, I'm kind of excited about this new opportunity and I could be back to work as early as next week.

When I was informed that they wanted me for the position, I will admit that I did sort of hesitate out of a question of pride - is agreeing to come back to a company at a lower pay rate AND who was the one that laid you off to begin with akin to failure? Kind of like a kid who leaves home for college only to return after a couple of years to move back in with the parents? I thought about it, and I really think that was personal hubris and a whole lot of pride.

Instead, I have chosen to view it as God giving me the sabbatical that I wanted and also having IBM foot the bill for a good portion of it rather than me having to do it all myself. Plus, I'll be able to do what I wanted to do and will also be able to learn more of my craft. In the time that I was unemployed, I didn't receive any clear indication of a different call on my life - I do know that engineering is somewhat contrary to my innate skillset, but I also know that I can do well at it and I enjoy it when it is challenging. I do not think that it is a coincidence that after all this time, the one position that would move quickly and decisively (also contrary to it's nature) would be one at IBM, and that has a huge God stamp of approval on it in my mind.

Honey, I'm home. At least I don't have to plan out a whole new route to a new place of work. ;)

I've actually seriously been searching for a job for the last two months now, and things haven't gone quite as well as I would have expected. However, about a week and a half ago I got a bite on one of the jobs that I applied for via the WorkInTexas.com site, which is Texas' unemployment job site. It's a contract position for the State of Texas on behalf of...wait for it....IBM! I have an interview tomorrow and if they like what they hear, I could be working for Big Blue again by next week. That's right, the same company that laid me off will now bring me back into the fold as a contractor (assuming all goes well).

I had wanted to move into a development position in another group when I was employed by IBM before, but couldn't get there for various reasons. This contracting opportunity will allow me to do just that - a full-on development position that doesn't involve direct customer support, weekends, or off-hour availability if the job description is to be believed. While being a contractor to a big company like IBM has some disadvantages (no benefits, having to manage my tax deductions myself, being hourly), I believe that the advantages of being paid time and a half for weekend work or having hours strictly monitored and counted will work in my favor. Sure I don't get paid for holidays or days off, but on the flipside I can use those same conditions to ensure that I'm correctly compensated for the actual work that I put in. When you're salaried, it's a lot easier for the company to take advantage of "flex time" than it is when a contract is involved. A salary is based on a 40-hour work week but where I was in IBM before, the average employee worked a lot more than 40 hours a week - which meant that they were not getting actual compensation for hours worked.

I just find the irony of me going back to work for the company that laid me off to be too much. I'm not sure whether it's sad or insanely humorous, but I figure if God wants me back there, this has to be the right place for me. Nothing else has really come along, so even if this is an interim place, apparently it seems like God has plans for me with the Big Blue Crew.

Jehova Ha-ha indeed.

Well, thanks to a combination of 3RedLightFix.com and Llamma's Xbox 360 RROD X-Clamp Fix, my XBox 360 is now back up and running again. I did end up ordering parts from Llamma - some bolts and washers to anchor the heatsinks (and replace the faulty X-Clamps) and a new GPU heatsink that is supposedly the one that Microsoft is now putting in the 360 Elite units as a solution to this problem. The new heatsink has a cooling pipe which the old one doesn't have, and it bleeds heat right in line with the CPU heatsink now, so hopefully that will keep the GPU cool enough to not overheat again.

So far, my two repair projects have gone pretty well - the XBox is back in commission and the hole in the crash cymbal seems to have stopped the crack without changing the tone noticeably. This whole "repair before you replace" thing is quite the novel idea...funny what you can do when you get the idea that just because something is broken doesn't mean it can't be fixed and must automatically be replaced.

Now I guess I need to get on and finish my F-14 model so's I can finally check that little project off of my list as well. It's not exactly a repair, but it is sort of a building project...a handcraft, if you will. Plus it'll be good to reclaim my desk space from the encroachment of paints, plastic, and newspaper that is the airplane construction zone.

Being jobless, I've been compelled to try and salvage things that break rather than just indiscriminately replacing them and around here lately, there have been several things to fix. A couple of weeks ago my XBox crashed with the Red Ring Of Death (RROD), my most expensive crash cymbal cracked significantly, and of course, there's my shoulder which is still healing up.

Let's start with the cymbal - it's an 18" Zildjian K Custom fast crash, and it's the most valuable platter I own. I had two cymbals that got cracked at the same time, indicating that the case got dropped at a gig or something got dropped on it. I replaced the one because it was kind of basic and I got an A Custom instead. But the K is expensive...like $300 to replace, and right now I ain't got that kind of cash. Guitar Center won't take cracked cymbals in trade, Zildjian doesn't repair them, and so I was left with an option to use epoxy and try to bake it back together or I could try to drill a hole at the head of the crack, try to stop it from continuing, and hope that the sound didn't become too trashy. So, on Tuesday I drilled a 1/4" hole in my beautiful cymbal in an effort to help it limp along until I can come into some fundage to replace it. It sounds okay, but I don't think I'm going to record with it; it should stand up okay for a live show, though, at least for a little while longer.

On to the XBox. If you've been following my tweets, you'll know that my 360 is pretty much gutted and laying on my kitchen table. I'm currently waiting on some parts to fix it (odd sized screws, nylon washers, and a new heat sink to help keep it from happening again) and so my 360 is pretty much out of commission. It's still cheaper than either sending it back to Microsoft to have them fix or buying a new one. It's been interesting to take apart, though, and this might come in handy in case some friends happen to have a 360 RROD on them - at least I'll know what to do. And, if this doesn't work, I can buy just a refurbed console without all the extras for cheap to replace the broken bits. All this could have been avoided if I had the receipt, but alas - I bought the console from a third party and don't have it. So, DIY salvation is my aim here. I should have the parts first part of next week and should hopefully have it up and running by Wednesday or so.

And finally, I started on physical therapy for the shoulder today. No strength exercises yet, just range of motion...once a week for now, but probably twice a week once the strength training starts (they have to get their copays out of me somehow, I guess). But, the rebuilding has started and hopefully soon it will be back to normal. Just so long as I can drum what I gotta drum for the EP recording, I'm good.

So, lots of rebuilding and salvaging going on over here at casa de Drew. Now if I could just salvage my career or a steady source of income that doesn't involve sponging off of the state, I'll be totally in bidness!

I realized today that one of the ways in which I've been squandering my time of unemployment has been that I haven't taken advantage of my free days and visited any of the "must-see and -do things in Austin". So, I decided that I would do just that and start my tour of Austin by going downtown to the Austin Museum of Art to see what it was like and spend some time looking at artwork. They're currently featuring artwork by Chuck Close, who does some amazing things with old school photographs and such. For example, what looks like a giant poster-size self-portrait photograph:

is actually a large jacquard tapestry, as seen from the back:

Absolutely amazing! And, it only cost me $5 (plus $1.50 for meter parking on the street). So, I'm thinking that maybe tomorrow I'll hit the Blanton Museum of Art or maybe go down to the Dell Children's Museum to check that out. However, I'm also looking for some suggestions from you, my readers. What are some things I should do during the weekday? My goal is to keep it as cheap as possible, with free being best (obviously) and an upper cap of $15 for the entire experience (which cuts out the Bob Bullock Museum).

So what uniquely (and cheap) Austin "must-see"s do you think I should do next?

As promised, here's a look at my newest toy, the drum kit that I'll be taking into the studio for the EP and on every subsequent show. Check this baby out:

Don't turn green with envy, now....hey, maybe perhaps that's how I'll start referring to the kit. Envy. Poison Ivy. Mr. Greenjeans. Swamp Thing. The possibilities are endless.