Wordless Wednesday

Now don't get too excited. This was played on Hard and too be honest, I don't think I danced any better than for the first score. I'm sure anyone who wants to can beat this too.

I mean, hey, I only hit 97% of the moves... :)

EDIT: Trying out Groovesharks music widget, rather than using youtube.

I'm tellin' ya....Peril....as in danger

Why do I still get surprised?

I keep telling myself that I don't expect her to change, but maybe I do? A parent expects their kids to grow up, but if they don't, don't they usually stop at some point? Stop being surprised and stop trying to force them to grow up.

I know she's under some financial stress, but....

..but it's not all my fault.

She insists that it's all my fault.

No, I'm not exaggerating. All. As in everything. Everything from her current financial state, to the fact that she quit her "only good job", to the $6,000 in bills she's accrued over the last 4 months..

Take a wild guess as to what that "only good job" was.

Yes, the used car sales job. The one where she owed money when she quit.

No, I'm not joking.

And how do you accrue $6,000 in past due bills over 4 months, when you got almost that same amount from me and your monthly bills barely add up to that?!! And you have a job!!

I've never met anyone who was so adamantly opposed to taking responsibility for anything. It's kind of amazing. And sad.

It's the conversations that really get to me. Remember that age old saying, "You get more flies with honey than with vinegar." What about shit? Flies like that. Maybe that's what she's going for. Her statements to me are riddled with accusations, off the wall rants, and just plain irrelevance. How can she expect anyone to want to talk to her when she does that? I've mentioned before that she goes through friends like trashbags. Why do I think that will change?

I still hope she does change. For her and our girls' sake. She insisted on having this latest 'conversation' with the girls there. I know I was a captive audience because I was waiting for something, but that doesn't make it right.

In my mind, it's a glaring neon bright sign saying that sooner or later, the girls are going to see her petty, unforgiving, and just plain mean attitude. And they aren't going to like her for it.

I'm climbing an uphill battle here folks. That battle is making sure my girls don't continue the same cycle that their mom is continuing from her mom and probably her grandma.

I know God heals all. I've been praying for a miracle for a long time now. Which ever way it goes will be according to His plan, but that doesn't mean I have to be patient about it or like it...



I considered closing this crap post to comments, but if anyone wants to rant with me, have at it.

A weekly dose of musical culture - Trance

Ready for your next new music experience?

Trance.

Trance is an electronic form of music. When it first became popular, it was generally created with a combination of drum machines, synthesizers, and mixers. You wouldn't see that at a show, as it's DJ'd with turntables and all that but any more it's computer generated or at least computer controlled.

There is a huge representation of trance DJ's in North America, but the Netherlands probably has the highest concentration of famous DJ's, at least in names I recognize, like Armin Van Buuren, Tiesto, Afrojack, and Headhunterz, to name a few.

Trance is a large genre, containing a lot of sub-types, with hard trance and acid trance on one end and ambient trance on the other. There is a lot of cross-over between other genres, like pop, indie, and rock. Some people might not associate vocals with trance but that's not really the case. There is a lot of trance that does not have vocals, but there is a lot with vocals too.

In my experience, trance is very open ended. Wikipedia says it's "generally characterized by a tempo of between 120 and 145 bpm" which may be it's only cohesive characteristic.

Hard Trance is probably what most people think of when they hear of trance. Fast, with a lot of drums, and no vocals. Not my favorite, but something I'd listen to when I want to drive fast.

On the other end of the spectrum is one of my favorites called "In and Out of Love" by Armin Van Buuren. A lot more like pop music. Something I think a lot of you will enjoy too. I really like it when professional DJ's have female singers do the vocal work. Sexy.

Trance DJ's do a lot of remixing too. Pick your favorite song and there is probably a remixed version somewhere.

If you like this, check youtube for artists like Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk, ATB, or Paul Oakenfold (he's got a fun one called Ready Steady Go, featured in The Bourne Identity. Weird video.)

Enjoy. Hope you learned something new today.


If you'd like a certain type of music featured, just let me know. If I don't know what it is, I'm sure I'll have fun researching it!


disclaimer - I am in no way shape or form an expert on trance. Or any type of music for that matter. I just listen to it some times. Feel free to correct me if necessary.

C'mon N' Ride It

Aight you Dance Central Playa's.

C'mon N' Ride It - I scored 549,708 points on easy. How 'bout you?



This is not me:

They did it on Hard.

This Kinect is fun. We're having some trouble with the face recognition for E (my 4 yr old.) I think we can take care of that with more front lighting. Otherwise it's working good. Cooperation is certainly something we'll have to work on. A (my 6 yr old) gets pretty frustrated with anyone she's playing with if they don't do it right. Good place to practice.

I've been a good boy and worked out 4 times this week with Your Shape Fitness Evolved. It says I burned 572 calories this week. A gamer friend mention that the calorie counts don't compare to some other methods, but I suppose it doesn't matter much. This is my first week back into exercising in about 10 years. The main goal is to get the intensity worked back up and then I'll start adding weights.

Blogfrog review - rewind

So after my less than stellar review of blogfrog, I didn't follow through on my threat to back out. I was curious about the release of their new site and it was kind of cool to join in on the chat. After some very unsuccessful searching for men-like people, a very nice lady opened a thread just to welcome me.

Thank you RedheadRiter, and all those that commented in that thread, for that fantastic welcome.

A few other guys raised their hands there too. 4DAUTRZ, Diplo_Daddy, and Chris.

So now my reader has a fairly respectful group of guy bloggers.

AlienCG - the first blog I ever read
dmarks - I'm a lurker over here
ChopperPapa - motorcycles are cool
SydandDensDad - new to his blog
PapaK - new to his blog
JDB - very new to his blog

I kinda hate to do this, but my reading list is probably going to have to get cleaned up a bit. There are a few blogs in there that I rarely read and never comment at. A couple who haven't posted for months (sorry auntie), and a few that have never been here, so...

So all this means that I have 100 unread posts in my reader now. In a very small way it's kind of nice that we're not super busy at work right now. I'm totally destroying our 'no personal internet usage' policy though.

probably not


not yet anyway

Rant - peril to all ye who enter here

I am so very annoyed right now.

Very frustrated.

With these half-assed processes and programs we have at work.

We can't even properly handle a single friggin purchase order.

By the time we're done processing an order, that order number will have been retyped at least 7 times!!

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! *ripshairout*








*putshairbackin*

Our stupid design software can't even stack windows right! WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THE PRINT WINDOW BEHIND EVERYTHING ELSE!!!!!

*poundsthecrapoutofkeyboard*



NO I DON'T TO RESTART MY COMPUTER EVERY TIME THERE'S A PROBLEM YOU IDIOT HELP DESK PERSON!!!!



*sleep*

Ok. I wrote all of that yesterday. Rereading it is just reminding me how mad I was. I know, I know, I'm the architect of 80% of these problems. When you don't have any money to spend on a comprehensive order processing program, and have the skills to build decent spreadsheets, that's what you do. Build spreadsheets. Spreadsheet after spreadsheet. The thing about spreadsheets is that they're usually only good for doing one thing. Or a few things, at the most. So at the moment, I have 6 major spreadsheets to handle different order processing functions.

We're getting the job done, but it can be a huge pain sometimes.


So there's my rant for the day. Not too positive so I'll replace it with something better soon.

What's Flamenco?

I was chatting with someone yesterday who asked me what kind of music I like, mentioned Flamenco music, and got a whahuh? There is probably a past post or two mentioning it, but never an example.

I described it as fast Spanish guitar music, but it's just as much a type of dance. If you've seen Mission Impossible II, there's a whole scene that works around a Flamenco dancing troupe. This is that song:

Here is another very nice example:

Very sexy. *spanishaccent*

So there's your daily cultural experience. Enjoy.

The fellow chatter asked if I like Creed. What's Creed?





just kidding