Podle and I have a reservation for two at 9:00PM tonight at The French Laundry.

Can this experience possibly live up to the hype? Can any meal actually be worth the money we will be spending? Is it really the best restaurant in North America?

First off everyone reading this will be familiar with the challenging year the Podle and I have gone through, and by challenging of course I mean *expletive deleted*. I bring this up not to rehash the events, but because in light of everything that has happened I am preparing to make a major life change (going from worker to student). Because of this I am thinking a lot about clearing my head, the apartment, and my spirit (oh, that old thing?) in advance so that I can approach the new path with as much chance of success (and fewest un-examined skeletons in the closet) as possible.

So along comes an opportunity to do something we've wanted to do for years and I grabbed it in the spirit of 'Whatever else happened or will happen we've got to LIVE.' Rather than being giddy, however, I am feeling very thoughtful about the whole thing.

In the end (or at least the middle-end) I think the questions I posed above are not exactly germaine: It can't live up to some people's hype, can't possibly be worth the money, and 'best' is far too subjective a term. What I am coming up with are some thoughts within the context of who I am, where I am, where I've been and what I've done.

I am very impressed by what I have read about Thomas Keller's approach to making not only The French Laundry but his other restaurants institutions rather than being dependent entirely on him, that the approach (outstanding technique, among other things) and attitude (Keller is apparently ridiculously encouraging of his staff) are as important as the individuals currently executing them. A corollary to this idea of continuity is that when someone impressive is coming up through his kitchen it is entirely possible that Keller is going to partner with that someone (providing the time is right, it is a business after all), make an investment to keep them 'in the family.' That is scary smart, and also very worthy of respect in my humble opinion. Food aside we may be on our way to dine in a working environment that sounds like nirvana to me.

Here is a quote out of Tony Bourdain's A Cooks Tour. Thomas Keller when asked about perfection said 'Perfect is something you never actually attain. It's something you search for. Once you reach it, it's not perfect. You've lost it. It's gone.'

Zen motherfucker.

At a time in our lives when almost everything has, at times, been hard or seemed impossible (or worse, pointless) we are going to be sitting down to dinner in a place that many people have elevated to a temple. I am thinking that this may be true, but maybe not for the reasons a lot of folks would put forth: Not the food, the wine, the expense, the exclusivity, the elevation-by-association, the Michelin stars, or the myriad other things people try to quantify.

I think The French Laundry may be a temple because of the dedication to craft, and work, and imagination, and whimsey. Without those all you'll end up with is product, and volume, and attitude, and irony... and as Alton Brown might say (pardon the name dropping) - those aren't Good Eats.

So off we go, and my mind is focused less on the destination than on the journey...

I wonder what the food will be like?

It is now almost exactly nine months since I was laid off from my last job. I have had only one response to the over 100 applications for work I have sent out, and that guy wanted to pay me $750 per month to make 200 cold calls a day ("The commissions are very good,"...sure they are...).

I am now considering going to school of some sort in January if nothing presents itself before then.

My question is this: If I picked up a degree/certificate in, say, "Systems Administration" from Heald or the University of Phoenix or a similar vocational-type school, do any of you technical folk think this would be seen to be worth at least the paper it would be printed on?

In other words, would investing twelve to eighteen months of my (and my wife's) life (and money) in this sort of thing be a reasonable investment, or are these things looked upon with suspicion and/or scorn?

Thanks.

A third post has been made over on My Life on Vinyl.

Also, heading over to Forbidden Island, which automatically makes the world better.

One week later, and there is now actual content at the website My Life on Vinyl.

Now with fancy linkage! Tell your friends!

I made an abortive start to this project some time ago here on Livejournal, but over the holidays I finally took the plunge and invested in a genuine domain name and hosting. There isn't much of anything there at the moment, but later this afternoon I'm going to head to the library and do some reading up on the mysteries of xhtml and get the site going.

"What site?" I hear you asking yourselves...

www.mylifeonvinyl.com

...and yes, I know I didn't even bother to post that as a hyperlink. That's how limited my abilities are for constructing thing on the webertubes, but I hope to change that situation presently.

The project is going to be a review of all the albums in my collection, along with notes about where I was when I bought them and what they mean to me. In addition I hope to add a little shameless commerce (google ads, Amazon & iTunes affilliate links, etc.) eventually.

I think regular writing (and the discipline it requires) will be good for me. It might even be fun.

When: Thursday, December 11, 2008 1:00 PM-2:00 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada).

Where: Loading Dock Test Lab
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
We will be shutting down the company after this meeting today.

I tried declining the meeting, but that was of little help.

On the way home last night I came across a a "Yes on 8" demonstration at Webster & Atlantic. Since I had to stop at Walgreens for cat meds, I decided to pick up some foamcore & a sharpie and killed an hour being a one-man counter-rally with an improvised "No on 8" sign.

That's the first time I've done something like that. Podle joined me after a nice young lady let me borrow her cel to call home so the wife wouldn't worry.

I sigh due to the number of honking horns there were, but got a few waves & honks for my slapped together sign myself. I got one woman in a car to stop swearing at the "yes" people, since I didn't think that was appropriate (and I was outnumbered 30 to 1 or so). None of the demonstrators were antagonistic toward my impromptu dissension, and one even checked with me to make sure none of his peeps were being out of line with me.

It's a sad to consider the number of people that the revisions of attitude of the late 20th century have left untouched. I didn't think there were quite so many on our island, but I guess you can never tell when you will get your eyes opened.

Quick notes:

Success! Rogue gland found and excised about as quickly as possible, no need for exploratory poking aroung.

Bloodwork began improving almost immediately.

Into and out of the recovery room without incident.

Now home, received an icepack and one dose of painkiller, ensconced in bed... probably to sleep until morning.

Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts. I was going to post this in Podle's journal, but I think she gave me the wrong password in her haziness. If anyone wants to post this info in their journal please go ahead and spread the word.

Phew, I think I need a nap myself.

Coming back from the DMV (having to get a replacement DL and all), I'm walking back to the apartment, pass a guy along the way, nod hey, etc.

I happen to notice he is carrying in his hand some folded up papers. When I get to the apartment I realize why these papers look familiar: they were folded up just the same way our mail gets folded when placed in the apartment mailboxes. Sure enough, a bunch of people's mail (bills) are lying on the ground. Dude has probably just rifled a bunch of people's mail boxes.

So now I am waiting to talk to cops for the second time in less than 14 hours.

Really, what the hell?

Managed to get through 42 years, 9 months, and 2 days before I ended up having a gun pointed at my head. It turns out that experience is a lot less fun than you would think.

Podle has already covered the basics of our armed robery experience but let me just add this:

It should be a common courtesy that if you have stuck up someone at gunpoint, taken their money and wallet, forced your way into a building, threatened and haphazardly robbed the business and people therein (leaving behind wallets, purses, backpacks, cel phones, laptops, flat-screen monitors and jewelry, among other things)... the least you could do is return the smokers FUCKING 79 CENT LIGHTER so he can gun a stick when you have left.

Seriously 'thug-life', what the fuck?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080228/ts_afp/japanspaceastronomy

I don't think the ramifications of this theoretical, potential discovery by Japanese scientists needs much explaining.

It does mean my vote this November will probably go to whichever candidate has a well developed Giant Monster Defense Initiative.

I'm just saying...

Recording Date: 1983
Date of Purchase: 1984
Place of Purchase: Licorice Pizza, West Covina
Price: $6.99 (?)

Mmmm, hard rock.

I had been shot down when asking out a girl from the Mt. Sac (Mount San Antonio Junior College, for the vast throng who didn't grow up in the San Gabriel Valley) Drama Department over whom I was inordinately crushy. In my own defense, at least she wasn't one of the female Drama-types who saw Liza Minelli's character from Cabaret as a role model. I wouldn't make THAT mistake for several more years.

Anyway, "Fastway" is a great example of hard rock that would soon be disappearing from the public consciousness, beaten into irrelevance by changing tastes, lack of worthy practitioners, and engineers bound and determined that real drums should sound more and more like synthetic drums (a pox on those bastards, by the way). "Fast" Eddie Clark (guitar, just our of Motorhead) got together with Pete Way (bass, just out of UFO) and Jerry Shirley (drums, ex-Humble Pie), and discovered and 18 year old Irish lad by the name of Dave King who had a fantastic set of pipes perfectly suited to the bluesy material they would put together for their first album.

Pete Way quit the band just after they recorded this album and the band would never hit very big, though they did have a decent sized hit in their first single "Say What You Will." Everyt track, however, is tight as a drum and filled with tasty lead work and outstanding riffs from Fast Eddie. This is a fierce slab of wax, in the same way that early ZZ Top or mid-existance Humble Pie was fierce. No need to go fiddling about with strange time signatures or exotic scales... the rythm section is tight and just groovy enough, spit out the riffs, let Dave King wail and growl in the way that only a testosterone-laden youth can and you are in for a rocking good time.

I think Dave King is the only one of the original members who is still working regularly, fronting a band I'm curious about but have never heard: Flogging Molly. Pete Way may be back with UFO working the festival and nostalgia circuit in Europe, I'm not sure. Fast Eddie, a remarkably influential figure from his work on the first six Motorhead albums, never did much after Fastway, which is a real loss for fans of rock guitar the world over. Jerry Shirley? Heck, I just don't know.

But boy, this is still a damn good album.

Let me start with the buttering up: you folks are in possession of some of the finest brains, and I'm lucky enough to know you and maybe ask your assitance.

I could use some feedback on my new resume. I haven't had to make one of these in earnest for about 12 years, and I have no idea if this thing is up to snuff in this modern workaday world. Please leave me some feedback before I make a fool of myself. Note that formating will obviously get prettier, but feel free to point out typos.

Names of companies have obviously been changed:

Annoying High Tech VAR March 2006 – August 2007

Sales Manager (2/07 through 8/07)
Oversaw daily operations of six member sales team covering both new and legacy enterprise equipment.
Coordinated professional services and engineering support for customer projects.
Developed ongoing sales education program in conjunction with manufacturing partners.
Created integrated sales program geared to reinvigorating customer base.
Acted as liason between sales team and our counterparts at manufacturing partners.
Increased gross margin on new equipment sales, as well as increasing overall sales of new equipment.

Sales Representative (3/06 through 1/07)
Responsible for outcall campaigns and fielding inquiries for new and legacy enterprise storage equipment.
Designed integrated storage solutions based on customers’ unique requirements in conjunction with Sales Engineer.
Created sales materials for presentation in both correspondence and live demonstrations.
Set pricing on unique legacy equipment.
Exceeded sales goal in 3rd and 4th quarter of 2006 by over 80%.

Really Big Retail Entertainment Distributor September 1999 – February 2007

Sales Manager (4/06 through 2/07)
Oversaw daily operations of five member sales team in two locations, covering the Western US and Pacific Rim.
Responsible for negotiating payment plans with problem accounts.
Designated target products for additional attention by sales team.
Collated monthly reports on company-wide marketing initiatives.
Coordinated all necessary Operations and IT tasks for remote sales office, including successful office move.
Actively participated in monthly strategy meetings with VP of Sales, EVP, and VP of Customer Service.

Sales Representative (6/01 through 3/06)
Responsible for all orders, pre-orders, returns, and general customer service for 105 independent retailers in US, Japan, and Europe.
Represented company at industry trade shows and internal open houses.
Grew sales territory through active outcall campaign to independent retailers throughout United States.
Coordinated with Operations department to meet customers’ unique logistical needs.

Marketing Manager (Local distributor gobbled up by RBRED 9/99 through 5/01)
Produced monthly advance order guides and quarterly catalogues including all writing and layout.
Researched and recommended new product lines from new and existing manufacturing partners.
Created all marketing materials and outside advertising campaigns.
Responsible for sales analysis and inventory management of 70 lines of product.
Designed and maintained database to track details, release, receipt, and stock status of all products offered for sale.
Represented company at industry trade shows.

Pigf*cker's Distribution FKA Really Nice Distributors January 1997 - September 1999

Marketing Manager (4/98 through 9/99)
Oversaw the daily operations of two member marketing staff.
Produced monthly advance order guides and annual catalogues including writing and all layout.
Sold advertising space in company publications to manufacturing partners.
Coordinated logistics for and designed company presence at industry trade shows.
Designed company’s direct marketing and outside advertising materials
Researched and recommended new product lines from new and existing manufacturing partners.
Worked with Sales department to track and allocate all advance orders.
Produced annual company open house along with Sales and Operations staff.

Purchasing Assistant / Warehouse Staff (1/97 through 3/98)
Responsible for sales analysis and inventory management of over 100 lines of product.
Processed daily receiving of new goods.
Coordinated credits and returns for damaged & defective goods with Operations and Accounting.
Picked, packed, and shipped daily orders for over 450 national and international customers.

Comic Sub-distributor July 1993 through December 1996

Customer Service Representative / Retail Operations
Processed daily orders from independent retail customers, including returns and advance orders.
Received, checked, and processed weekly new product releases.
Performed weekly inventory and sales analysis of new product for distribution operation.
Assisted six subsidiary retail stores with inventory and sales analysis, working with store managers to maintain proper inventory levels.
Prepared for and staffed companies presence at local consumer conventions and San Diego ComicCon, the second largest show of it’s kind in the world.

Other Work Experience:
Convenience store parent company (1991-1993): Accounts Payable Assistant
Commercial finace company II (1989-1991): Account Processor
commecial Finance company I: (1987-1989): Account Processor, Office Staff
PBM Company (1985-1987): Order Processing, Creative Staff

Professional references:

Former boss I
Former Minion I
Former boss II
Former minion II

So it's my next to last day, and I am going about cleaning up my desk, cleaning out e-mail, and so forth when it occurs to me to do the following calculation:

Time worked: 17 Months, equalling ~362 working days, thus equalling 2,896 hours or 173,760 minutes.

E-mails in Outlook: 4,606 sent (after deleting personal e-mails), 28,155 retained, ~18,010 deleted (assuming ~50 per day... some days are better, some significantly worse), totalling 50,771 e-mails.

This means that every day at work for the last 17 months I have been dealing with an e-mail every 3.42 minutes.

This figure does not include UPS tracking, or the thousands of e-bay listings and so forth that I avoided dealing with through the magic of filters.

No wonder I couldn't fix everything.

Tiny undead japanese girl chokeslams wrestlers...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEBeQ0pYLog

So I gave notice today.

Kaboom.

The only footage of LADDER I could find quickly was this comp that someone put together. Comedy matches rule, though this is probably best if watched without sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSrygU00wY4

Also, Podle will probably explode when she sees who actually ended LADDER's title reign...

Podle insists that Sushispook needs to see this:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5O5y2iVqCfw

I figured others might be interested in the glory that is MECHA Mummy. Oh how I love the wrasslin'.

Apparently there is such a thing as an 'Excessive Heat Warning' that is occasionally used in Las Vegas.

Let that one roll around in your head for a second, I'll wait...

As is will apparantly be 115 degrees farenheit today (or higher), the good folks on the local news have relayed one of these unusual warnings. I am officially less worried about losing money at the tables than I am spontaneously combusting if I go to the pool.

Eesh!

If your vocal stylings make Morrisey sound like Ted Nugent you have probably crossed some sort of hideous Emo Event Horizon. Abort the mission and consider getting some red meat in your diet, or at least cooking your vegatables in cast iron.

I'm looking at you Coldplay...