brykmantra.com

… Is a very very very fine house,
With two dogs in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is better
Coz of you …

It’s hard to realize it’s been so long, but we’ve been in this house for 10 years now. In fact, in was ten years ago tonight that we were frantically loading up the last of our possessions from our old house, driving it the two miles to this house, throwing it into the garage, and hurrying back for more. At about this time that night (around 10), our neighbors were helping us pile things in my truck and unload it over here — a favor for which we repaid three of them, Kim, Ann, and Stacy, by taking them out to dinner a couple of weeks later.

As I recall, we finally finished up about 3:30 AM and got to bed about 4, but didn’t get much sleep before we had to get up and go to work.

I wasn’t really sleepy the next day, exactly. I was just so exhausted I was numb … which was kind of a rush in itself.

We had spent the whole month of August making repairs, since the place was a HUD foreclosure and a fixer-upper, and needed all new carpeting. We got just enough work done to put the carpeting in just in time to move in the furniture, then it was a mad dash to transfer the goods.

It was too late that year, but the next spring I got to work on the yard, which had been horribly neglected. Fully half of the front yard was bare (except for ugly weed grass) and riddled with huge cracks. It took a lot of top soil, mulch and sod, but I got those bare expanses filled in, and our across-the-street neighbor later expressed appreciation for my efforts, since he said we probably improved property values by fixing that place up!

Anyway, it’s been ten years, and we still love our little house, with its roofed-over patio and nice shade trees and sloped living room ceiling …

Here’s to another 10 or more!

I’ve mentioned that I’ve been dabbling in Second Life in recent months, and have even been in job discussions with a potential employer smart enough to see Second Life (and the other social networking sites I belong to) as an asset.

What I haven’t mentioned is something that I’ve been angling to do in Second Life, but have encountered lots of foot-dragging and excuse-making.

This past weekend, however, I began getting more aggressive about my endeavors, and finally achieved my goal:

I’m an online DJ!

On Sunday, I was supposed to have a quick test of my connection at one of the many virtual dance clubs in Second Life (an Irish-themed club, at that!), but the scheduled DJ didn’t show up, so I ended up spinning tunes (figure of speech) for about an hour and a half. (Good thing I had already compiled a sizable playlist.)

And they liked me so much they decided to keep me!

Keira, the club manager, offered me the 5-7 (Pacific Time) slot on Thursdays, so I snapped it up. And today she messaged me that she wants me to do a special theme night on the 27th (we’re going to do a hippie night, but with more than just 60s music).

My playlist on Sunday, and pretty much every time I go on, will be a good mix of new music (the more accessible new alternative and indie music, like Panda Bear, LCD Soundsystem, Portishead, Foxboro Hot Tubs, Hem, and one of my personal favorites, The Go! Team), classic rock (mostly album cuts, not the singles that everybody’s sick of), and a few dance floor crowd-pleasers (like “Brick House” and “Jump Around” — I’m certainly not above pandering).

And of course, Weird Al. You can’t DJ in Second Life without Weird Al.

Anyway, it was exciting on Sunday to get back to my college roots, going back to playing DJ. I always enjoyed to take the graveyard shifts during finals week, when I could ignore the formats and play what I wanted. Usually I could count on the Spook to tap on the window about 3 a.m. and help me get the records on. We’d sit around drinking Cokes out of glass bottles and take calls from the few listeners up at those wee hours.

This feels a lot like that, except with technologies the way they are, I can chat with several listeners at once, get instant feedback, and they can shout out comments about the songs and discuss among each other. As a bonus, I can have listeners in all parts of the world.

Of course, this isn’t anything like having a real radio show. For starters, I’ll be DJing for audiences for about 20 or 30 people tops, and sometimes as small as three or four. Also, this job doesn’t pay, except in micro-tips — although at this particular club, all tips go to a charity, Project Children. (I like the donation aspect; I actually feel productive doing something as frivolous as playing music.)

Oh, and another bonus: I have a fan club!

Okay, okay, it’s just a mailing list group, but I’ve got 20 members so far, and they’ll have my DJ tag over their names while they’re dancing to the music I play.

Hey, I’m out of work; I’ll take my ego-boosts where I can find them.

Oh, and I get to play and promote my own original music!

So seriously, if you’re already on Second Life, come by on Thursday. Again, it’ll be at 5-7 Pacific Time (7-9 Texas time), and the name of the club is Nancy Blake’s West of Ireland.

I could use the attendance boost on my first time in my regular slot.

And tell the host you showed up because you heard the DJ is HOT …

Couldn’t hurt …

First off, thanks to everybody for the birthday greetings! Kim, Pam and Renny were the first to check in, even though I had given them a pass on having to remember anything this week. Then Todn8r commented, then The Spook, 2 days fashionably late, then Gigglechick.

The gang’s all here!

Also, my wonderful ex-co-worker Misty sent me an email and an Amazon gift card, and my former supervisor (Elma, the good one — not Daffy, the blithering idiot) sent me a birthday card AND called me.

As the family goes, I got cards from my mom, my wife’s mom, and my Aunt Lucille.

And then there’s the automated emails I got from the various message boards and other organizations I’m registered with: KDGE-FM, FileFront Network, My Coke Rewards, BuddyTV Forums, SlickDeals.net, Family Tree DNA, Tech Support Guy Forums, and Ubuntu Forums (those Linux folk were the first I heard from).

Of course, it could be said that the robo-greetings don’t mean as much as the personal ones, but seeing them all at once makes for an interesting portrait of my interests.

Plus, it’s better than no greeting at all, which what I got from a lot of the humans I know, almost a whole week after announcing it.

But it was a good birthday, my wife always works hard to make sure of that. We went to see Iron Man (excellent movie, more about that later), and took some pictures of the promotional stuff in the lobby (my wife is seen here with her new special friend), then we went to the Outback Steakhouse (overpriced, but we had a gift card that someone had given her a couple of years ago, and that we wanted to use before it unexpectedly expired, as those things tend to do).

The only downer to the birthday was that I had a bit of a sunburn from our two-day pre-birthday yard sale (pictures of that some other time) that we had with our friends Stephen and Deb. Even my scalp was sunburned, and I hadn’t sunburned in years.

But on the up side of the yard sale: You know how when you have a yard sale with other people, you always end up with each other’s stuff? Well, we mostly refrained from that, with one notable exception. Stephen was getting rid of a slightly defective bike, and since nobody expressed interest, they gave it to me as an early birthday present (don’t worry, we’ll make it up to them).

So: Instead of my nightly power walks, I’ve been cutting my time in half by biking around the neighborhood. Of course, having not been on a bike in something like 18 years, I’ve got a minor case of bike-seat butt, but the bike is easier on my tendonitis.

And lastly, on my birthday night some of my Second Life acquaintances came up with a simulated birthday cake on the dance floor, and the let me win two best-dressed contests, so that was a nice end to the day. I think I’ve got screenshots of that somewhere too.

Anyway, that was this year’s birthday, and thanks to everyone for your wishes!

It’s my birthday!

More later, but for now, I gotta crash …

There once was a time — it seems a million years ago — I was having to drive in downtown Dallas all the time, finding this office or that, navigating the maze of busy, narrow one-way streets and somehow getting where I needed to be. Visiting friends and relatives would marvel at my calm ability to pilot a car through the urban labyrinth while at the same time avoiding the violent death of everyone in the car.

But, as I said, that was another lifetime, and since then I have enjoyed a peaceful, sheltered existence in the far suburbs. The hazards of the asphalt gauntlet have become but a distant, hazy dream — until today.

Today I found it necessary to brave the city’s gaping maw once more, as I was tasked with one of the seven Holy Quests: Interview for the Job.

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But seriously: Recently a corporate H.R. specialist that we know, the daughter of my wife’s co-worker, was giving me some pointers on how to polish my resume in order to better get a job, or at least an interview.

Her chief recommendation: Make no mention, ever, that I have a blog. If the word “blog” comes up in conversation, I’m supposed to say, “What’s a blog?”

She said something along the lines that not only have blogs never helped anyone get a job, but that merely bringing up the subject of blogs would cause most Human Resources people to accuse me of being a witch or some other kind of creature with unsavory ties to the supernatural.

Okay, maybe that’s not quite what she said, but that’s how I remember it.

I usually try to downplay my blogging on my resume anyway, unless communications skills are somehow part of the job requirement, but either way it hasn’t seemed to help.

The reason I bring this up is because my interview today was for a job in which not only did I not have to hide my five-year track record of blogging, but it was actually an integral part of why they wanted me!

Even more interesting is the fact that the interview was not for a blogging or writing job, but for a corporate job in which social networking played an integral part.

Suddenly all these years of rattling on about trivial stuff, of posting pictures of mundane things, of posting on forums about Lost and Survivor and Elder Scrolls, of playing a wood elf druid, and, more recently, churning out quirky videos and music and dog pictures, have finally reached a critical mass and are considered to be a web presence.

‘Bout freaking time.

As for the interview itself, it was exhilarating to be, for once, elaborating on my blogging techniques and on web theory as it applies to social networks. This was the first time ever in my life that a boss or potential boss was listening to what I knew on the subject and actually understood the words coming out of my mouth.

I’m not sure a work authority figure has ever actually achieved the listening part of that equation with me before, much less tried for understanding.

Whether I actually impressed the interviewer to a sufficient degree is still to be seen, but I’m just thrilled that we were able to have that particular conversation without him looking at me like I just flew in from Mars and said, “Must kill all humans!”

Sometimes the little victories are the sweetest.

Except that we didn’t do very much … she was tired after work, and we hate fighting the Valentine’s night crowds, so I just went out and got some food from Mi Casa Tex-Mex …

The important thing is that Valentine’s Day always signals the beginning of …

The St. Patrick’s Day season! Woo-hoo!

So, listen to some nice Irish music, and let’s all start getting into the Blarney spirit!

We’ve only got another 32 days to get ready, ya know!

They’ve been showing this stuff on Attack of the Show lately: CringeVideo has taken some video tapes that were originally on Dallas public access TV and posted them to YouTube — and the ones they posted are pretty bad, like for instance:

The reason I bring this up is because I’m wondering when these shows were originally done — or, more importantly, what date range do these Cringe Video guys have access to?

This matters to me personally because exactly ten years ago, I was doing a segment on a show at that same public access station, and now I’m scared to death that some of those segments will reach the worldwide Internet audience.

Don’t worry, it’s nothing scandalous that would sink a Supreme Court nomination (hey, I have to keep my options open), but I know I was nervous and having to read a lot of my material, because sometimes we didn’t get much notice on what they wanted us to talk about, so there’s plenty for people to make fun of.

Hey, our only thought was that it was good enough for public access, since “nobody would see us”. And it worked for a while: I’ve only personally known one person who actually saw me. A guy that I barely knew, who worked in our production department and had seen me around, stopped me one day and asked me if I had a brother (I don’t), because he had seen either me or my brother on TV.

Ha! That was a truly bizarre, uplifting moment for me, being recognized that went out over the airwaves.

That was, of course, back before I had a blog that was being read in places as remote as Egypt and the Philippines; having my work “out in the wild” was new for me then.

And this same work might soon be “in the wild” once more.

Oh well, at least I wasn’t singing the Numa Numa song …

I didn’t post last night because I was busy cramming for a job interview that I had today.

Yes, I’m such a nerd I study for interviews.

Anyway, I won’t go into detail at this point, but it was actually an enjoyable interview, because they seemed to really be impressed with my wide variety of experience.

It’s good to have your abilities respected every now and then, especially when I’m job hunting, and especially after I was having to do all this random stuff that had nothing to do with my skills for my last two years at my previous job.

Also, it’s a great little company with smart, friendly people, and I learned a lot of fascinating things about the business they’re in. Bonus points: The owners love dogs, and often have their poodle at the office. Unfortunately, they don’t have a health plan, so I don’t know if we would be able to work out enough to pay compensate, but it would be a chance to use both my creative abilities and my office skills.

Anyway, there’s my obligatory post, and now I’ve got to get back to working on the music thing …

… or rather TRYING to be musicking, and failing miserably.

But still I need to post, so here’s a picture I took yesterday of my exercise buddy, Gracie:

Gracie is a sweet little doggie on my walking route, a couple of blocks south of my street. I met her just less than two years ago when I had to start my walks to rebuild my lung power, and now she usually runs to the fence when she sees me coming, so I can pet her through the links (she’s too short for me to reach her over the fence).

I got to see her again today, since it was extra-warm again (record heat for this date! 84F!) and it might be the last warm day for a walk for a while. This time when I stood up after I petted her, she stood up too, and whined for more petting, and leaned against the fence so I could scratch behind her ears.

Yeah, I’m a sucker for puppies. But look at those beautiful brown eyes! Isn’t she sweet?

(BTW, I’ve talked to her owner a couple of times, that’s how I know Gracie’s name. I’m not going pet psychic or Dr. Doolittle or anything.)

Anyway, that oughta hold ya; now I’m going back to not being any good at doing music.

UPDATE: Welcome, new visitors from Pam’s Carnival of the Canines! Please bookmark the main page here and keep coming back!

It was almost 80 freaking degrees today!

Okay, okay, that’s not the announcement. But it was unseasonably warm for a February 3 (thus the word “unseasonably”), so I had to point that out now.

Seriously, it was warm. I went on my lung-walk without having to wait for it to warm up first, and afterward I got out in the back yard, put on a Cherish the Ladies CD, and trimmed the rose bushes for probably the first time since before my surgery (2 years ago next month!).

But I digress once again.

Here’s the major point here:

Even though it was probably inevitable, it feels like an announcement is in order:

I’ve decided to do the RPM Challenge that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

And after three days of noodling around on my Cakewalk software, I have come to an inescapable conclusion:

I am so over my head.

What have I gotten myself into??

I blame you, Yay-Kim! You got me into this!

No, but seriously: Everything I’ve ever accomplished seemed hopeless at one point or another: My karate test, my first time onstage doing comedy, my A+ Certification — Those things all looked totally out of reach, after I committed to them, but I pulled them all off.

How?

By panicking like an idiot.

Seriously. Panicking like an idiot is highly underrated.

I’ll just learn the program better, and study a little music theory, and practice writing tons of music of which I’ll only use ten percent, and when it’s all over, I feel confident that I will have risen to acceptable mediocrity, with minimal worldwide humiliation.

Let’s hope.