I still need to get this whole blog thing sorted out and spend some time renovating my website.

I've got a ton of stuff that needs updating (need to add pictures and explanations for just about everything), freshening up the look for several pages, and getting the blogs so they can cross-post (or whatever you call it when you can assign categories to the posts and sort using them).

So far this month: gone to a couple of Brass Quintet concerts, rebuilt a 'dumpster' MacBook Pro for a friend and wound up buying it, bought a new LED-backlit LCD to replace the 21" CRT, almost had my spare-tire rack rebuilt on my Jeep only to scrap the whole thing and start over, and got my taxes filed.

Yup, a total riot... That's me alright.

I actually went through all the comments and discovered that they are pretty much all generic 'thanks for posting,' or 'I agree with your take on the topic,' or 'what kind of tamplate did you use?' (No, I didn't misspell it - they did) comments their spambots used just to get their spam URLs posted.

Oh well - it happens.

I just discovered that there have been some actual comments posted to my blogs. Seems like I've had them turned off to keep spammers from loading up my database, but it looks like there have been a couple of actual comments not dumped in here by the SPAMbots.

I'll try to do a better job of keeping up with the meaningful comments as well as posting some actual content here more often.

Today was about playing around with my 'new' MacBook Pro and catching up on BS things since I had no Brass Band rehearsal this evening. I was supposed to change the oil in my Mom's car, but she never called me so here I sit playing around. No biggie though - I needed an evening of 'down-time' and didn't spend any of it in front of the TV. Not that sitting in front of a computer screen is much better, but at least I'm actually learning something that's somewhat career-related by getting familiar with this machine.

I think I've also discovered the need to put together another work blog for the Jeep. I've been working on it a lot lately and have almost gotten all of the damage repaired that I began to work on back in November. Stay tuned for the new blog.

I might just get crazy and re-vamp the whole site for a more overall 'blog-like' appearance with links to the other stuff instead of the other way around like it is currently.

Looks like I blew it in the 'I'm going to start keeping this thing more current' department. I suppose I'll have to update it when something exciting actually happens.

OK - I finally got this turd working again... sort of. The forums are still down (like who really cares, anyway...) and the EasyPHP Calendar won't work right, causing the PHP version of the front page to not load properly. Whatever... the calendar has never worked right anyway, so no big loss there.

The big thing is that I got the webserver reloaded, PHP and MySQL working somewhat so I can have my blogs back, and we'll go from there.

Thank you Randy, for your advice in dumping the entire 'data' folder back into MySQL, rather than just the folders I thought it needed.

Now, it's a matter of getting all of these blogs to 'cross post' so I can stop having to post the same entry on several blogs when it's pertinent to more than one topic (like this one, for instance). But that's for another day... as long as this pile keeps running and FTP stays up, that is.

Edit: Alright - so I lied... the forums are up. I had them redirected wrongly in the link on the front page. After all the hassle I've had with this stuff, I'll take whatever I can get.

OK - even though a lot has happened in my life since the last time I made an entry, therein lies the problem - I haven't made any entries in what's supposed to be a journal of a sort (which is why I probably received a poor grade in the whole 'keeping a journal' part of English class in middle school). I will most likely backfill the missing months of entries at some point, after I figure out how to do it without causing more problems.

So I will start anew:

Last night was a good night. It was my birthday yesterday (Dec 31st), which had the potential to be one of the worst ones I've ever had because of circumstances occurring since my last entry.

Thanks to a Christmas present I received (a case of assorted Shiner beers), I attempted to rally some support from some friends to help me enjoy it. Some had other plans, some claimed illness, some pussed out, but despite it all I was able recruit the support of my pal Jim and his wife along with my Mom to salvage the evening. Oddly enough, the vast numbers in the fridge remain mostly intact - as only two soldiers from the army of Shiner bottles were killed. Colorado Bulldogs ruled the evening... but that's fine with me anytime.

Watched a movie, played some X-box, had some good conversation with good company... it was a good night indeed.

Today - absolutely nothing significant happened.

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

Zero.

Yok.

Not even worthy of a title, either.

I think I've been on the Computer Gods' Shit List for the past few weeks.

Last Tuesday, I installed a new DVD-RW into a friend's machine, and XP wouldn't recognize it.

Thursday, I received a bunch of new machines to replace the old Dell Optiplex GX620s at work, and of the 12 I attempted to put online, only 4 were successful. I still have a bunch of machines I need to get back up and operational waiting for me at work tomorrow. Joy.

Yesterday, I finally got my 'new' machine (TopDawg) back up and running on Windows 7 RC. So far, so good.

Now, I just need to get this DVD-RW squared away, get the machines at work working again, and then I can start back to working on the Science Fair website again for the upcoming competition season.

OK - been awhile. Pretty sad when you ignore your own blog.

Just got done playing at the Pops Concert a few hours ago - man it was hot. This was my 4th one so far (I joined the Community Band the week after the 2005 concert). This one had a new twist - I played Tuba this time, instead of my Euphonium. It was a lot of fun, and I've gotten pretty well accustomed to playing 'Ugly Bessie.'

Bought the new clutch for the Honda and will take a stab at swapping it out this Friday/Saturday.

On the way home, I got 'smoked' by some Chica in a de-badged black car - it looked like a newer Neon or something - couldn't tell by all the Ricer parts and aftermarket JDM parts hanging off it. It looked like a fairly nice car, except for the fact they must've driven by AutoZone with the crap-magnet turned on.

We were pretty much side-by-side all the way down Knickerbocker (probably because there was a cop 2 cars ahead of us). She's rolling thinking she's all bad and stuff, but I made it through the last light before the on-ramp to the Loop before she did, so I hopped on the ramp and took off like I normally do (I don't like to waste time on the on-ramp - especially with all the Hero-Trucks flying down the Loop to run over my little hatch. I guess she was in a bigger hurry because she flew by me once we cleared the ramp onto the Loop. Of course, her car had some kind of boost going on (supercharger or NOS - who knows) and I got nuthin' but 92 horsepower and a K&N air filter (but I guess my car looks race-worthy or something...).

Had I known she wanted to race... well, then - she still would've smoked me (who am I kidding... my car's a wimpy little econo-box). But Hey - at least I would've been 'losing a race' as opposed to 'just watching her go by.'

So my friend Doug want's some help with his computers at his office. I show up and he's got a new machine on his desk, and wants some files transferred from his old machine. He wondered how big of a disk or how many CDs he would need to burn to move the files.

"No biggee" I tell him, "All your machines are networked, so all we need to do is let them talk to each other." I proceed to set up a central folder on his old machine and transferred all of the stuff he wanted on the new machine into it. Then I shared it out.

Went over to the new machine and changed the workgroup name on that machine to match his other one and Bang - we're talkin'. After transferring all of his files from the shared folder to the new machine, I imported his e-mail and address book information into his new copy of Outlook Express... and it worked the first time through. He was elated.

OK - it might not seem like a big deal (and it's really not), and it might even sound like I'm astounded that I was able to do something so simple as share some files between machines in the same workgroup. Here's the rub - whenever I do things like this for friends, it winds up taking 3-4 hours because of some stupid little thing that isn't quite right on one of the machines, or because I forgot to 'flip a switch' somewhere to make it all happen.

Not tonight. It all went off without a hitch. I was in and out of there in less than 45 minutes. That's what's so amazing to me.

I felt like Superman.

Found out by e-mail that I did not pass the CISSP test. I scored a 691 and needed a 700 tp pass. Crap! 2 questions I missed it by. Dammit. I guess I gotta knuckle under, study me arse off, and retake it hopefully sooner than later.

I guess that means those $300/apiece (ISC)2 Number 2 pencils are holding their value after all.

Seriously, everybody I know has been incredibly supportive. My pals have offered their notes to me to help study. Another friend has offered up his Transcender study aids, and 'both' of my bosses have offered to pay for the re-test. If I didn't feel so crappy about not passing the test in the first place, I'd have to say that life is pretty good right now.

I don't think anybody I'm referring to will ever read this, but "Thanks Guys - it really means a lot to have the support and encouragement of great friends such as yourselves."

She's still not feeling well, so I went back to the Auto Hobby Shop and rewired the cheese-mo 'eBay' fog light kit I bought for the Honda last year. Both lights died sometime last September and I haven't felt much like figuring it out. I took a stab at it about a month ago on a nice Saturday - no dice. Today, I pulled the nose off the car and troubleshot the whole system down to a melted 'El Cheapo' Chinese relay. Swapped out the relay and rewired the 'hinky' parts and now they're working great.

Helped some kid who lowered his Nissan 300ZX too far (over 2" drop) pull the car off the lift because it was high-centered. Then later, had to stuff a floor jack under the rear end to get it over the 1"x1" gate channel so he could leave the Auto Hobby Shop. Cracks me up every time.

Of course, since they installed some nice above-ground tire rippers across the outbound lanes at both gates, I'm thinking that guy's not even going to be able to get his car off the base.

And even if he wanted to try and unf00k everything he did to his car, he most likely won't be able to get it back into the Auto Hobby Shop, let alone onto a lift again either.

Bummer... for him. I re-discovered exactly why I have no intention of ever lowering my junk.

Well, not actually "new..."

Finally got a chance today to install some of the junk laying around in my garage into the Honda to boost the low-end of the sound system.

I had a Fast & Furious 150.2 (150w x 2-channel) amp and 2 Pyramid Super Pro 10" subs (in some nice ported truck boxes) laying around collecting dust. The Auto Hobby Shop is now open, and I used the afternoon to make the installation. About 15 minutes of tweaking the output settings of the head unit in my driveway, and the Honda's JVC Digifine AM/FM/CD/WMA/MP3 stereo is pounding hard with the best of 'em.

It's amazing just adding the low-end boosts the overall output of a system. Before today, I had the stereo's EQ settings backed off a little to save the slightly better than OEM speakers the PO had installed. Now, using the head unit to segregate the lows and mids/highs, then pushing the lows through the amp, I'm able to bump the output levels up a little. What used to be just about the limit for both me and the speakers (around 28 or 29 on a volume range that goes to 35), is now pretty much all I can stand around 22 on the dial with a much larger presence - the mirrors are actually vibrating when the bass hits now (that's how I like it in my other rides).

Total cost: $20 for stall time, since I've had all this junk laying around after collecting it from others when they upgrade their systems.

Wonder how long it'll take for someone to break in and steal it.

OK - where to begin.

It's been awhile, but I've been busy studying for the CISSP Exam that's become a requirement for my position as Information Assurance Manager.

This past weekend, I drove up to Dallas for the purpose of taking the exam on Saturday. I was taking no chances of being stressed out or missing the exam, so upon discovering it was being administered in the North Dallas Embassy Suites, I booked a room. This way, I wouldn't have to fight traffic or worry about getting lost on the way to the exam. All I had to do was wake up, head downstairs, eat some complimentary Embassy Suites breakfast, and walk over to the testing are. Piece o' cake.

All of that worked out perfectly, except that the maintenance folks at the hotel were having issues with the A/C in the ballroom where the test took place. It was nice muggy 85+ in that room throughout the test. As if the test wasn't bad enough (250 questions in 6 hours covering tons of stuff that nobody really needs to know to do their job), add in 55 people who were stressed about the taking the test, and you could cut the anxiety with a knife... provided it didn't melt into a puddle on the floor first.

Got through the test after about 4 hours, feeling like I totally blew it (I've heard that's typical... but I'm still not optimistic), I went back to my room, sat down on the couch, turned on the TV, and woke up something like 2.5 hours later. Called my friends Chris and Shelly, and we went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner... good call.

Drove back home today - uneventful. In addition to booking a room in the same hotel as the test, I also rented a car to drive to Dallas. I usually get stuck in some crappy little Toyota Matrix or something equally sucky through my travels for Uncle Sam, so this time I took an upgrade. I thought I would be getting a Pontiac G6 (like the one I had last time I went to Dallas), but no, they were all out. Avis stuck me with a Hyundai Santa Fe - a wanna-be mini-SUV. Yeah - thanks... not even. I got in the car and wasn't pleased at all. Part of not being stressed means not being physically in pain either. I went back in and asked for something else... they offered a Chevy Trailblazer, but nah - I didn't want one of those either. I asked about the Dodge Charger, and it was a whole $2/day more, so I went with it. Seems like a big car, ran fine, quite comfortable, but did kinda blah for gas mileage. $40 for gas both ways of roughly 603 miles - works out to something like 26.8 mpg... not too bad for a big car with a V6 that's essentially an aerodynamic brick.

Just got off the phone with my pal Bob - whom I haven't talked to in forever. Good to hear from him [finally] and if he reads this, I invite him to comment and/or make sure he drops me a note more often.

So, I have this annoying habit of naming my horns.

My first Euphonium (a Selman - which is a cheap, knock-off of the Selmer brand, and most likely a Chinese horn) was aptly named: 'El Cheapo.'

The one I currently have and enjoy, the Jupiter 470L, I named 'Nacho Horn.' Those who know me might remember my 'Nacho this, Nacho that' phase where everything I owned that was in plain site at work was labled 'Nacho (insert item here).' It made good conversation, and helped me track down the crap other people made off with. My pal Steve came up with that name, and it stuck.

My Blessing M300 Marching Baritone is named: 'Not-So-Wee.' My buddy Dave told a joke about a T-shirt salesman in Scotland explaining the differences in sizes. (in his best Scottish accent) "In Scotland, we dinna hae Small, Medium, an' Large. We hae 'Wee,' 'Not-so-Wee,' and 'F00kin' Huge!' For the sake of possibly referring to the horn in public, I went with 'Not-so-Wee.'

The Jupiter 468 Baritone - I haven't actually come up with one yet. Wow - gotta work on that one.

My 1922 Conn Constellation Valve-Trombone, I've referred to as 'Old Fart' and 'Old Faithful,' but can't really settle on something that really fits it yet.

But, not even 5 minutes of pulling the tuba out of the case and I had it: Ugly Bessie. The tuba is a Besson 600, and my wife keeps commenting on how ugly it is (because of all the dings, dents, and other damage). But it sounds great and the valves work very well, considering its age and apparent state of being.

So, there it is. Today's ramblings. Enjoy.

I got my tuba today. Man, is the bell messed up. Of course, I was expecting that - but wow... just wow. They really beat the crap out of the poor thing.

Oh well - I spent about 10 minutes manually bending the bell back into the rough shape. I mean, really... it only took ten minutes to straighten it by hand into something a whole lot closer to 'normal' - WTF is wrong with people?! Have a little pride - it's a Besson after all (they're not cheap OR inexpensive, by any means).

There's all sorts of other damage on the horn, but none of it looks like anything critical. There are some dings just about everywhere on the horn, but the slides pull, the valves cycle (will need some cleaning and oil), and need to score a mouthpiece before I can even play it.

Bottom line: a great buy. I've already spent ten minutes repairing the horn and it looks a ton better (I'll get "before" pics when I get serious about rolling out the dents). Just gotta get a mouthpiece then... game on.

I just bought one - and for only $322 (including shipping). It's a Besson 600 Concert Tuba (upright) with some significant damage (creasing) to the bell, but that shouldn't affect the sound. I also wanted to take on 'rolling out the dents' as well, so it'll be fun learning how to repair as well as play tuba.

Should be here sometime either next week or shortly after the first of the new year. Of course, now I need to actually make room for it - our back room is starting to resemble the storage area of a middle-school band room.

Link: http://www.tubachristmas.com/index.html

Had an absolute blast today playing the 3rd Annual Merry TubaChristmas of San Angelo.

Doug Clark (who first brought TubaChristmas to San Angelo) put together another fine event. We had almost 30 low brass players performing for over 150 people this year - which means it's definitely growing in popularity.

My first TubaChristmas-style event was playing at the bottom of an atrium in Crossroads Mall in Salt Lake City, Utah while I was in high school. We rehearsed at Abravanel Hall, home of the Utah Symphony (so I can technically say I've played a major venue ) around 9:00AM and played at the Mall around Noon. I don't think it was an official TubaChristmas event since some of my buddies who played Trombones and Trumpets came along as well.

TubaChristmas is unique in the way that just Euphoniums and Tubas are performing - which is an interesting twist on many of the tunes people are familiar with. Last year, I played 2nd Euphonium (because I was sick as a dog), but this year I went with 1st Euphonium and man was that a workout. I'm just glad that I don't have any more gigs scheduled for the next few weeks - otherwise, my face might actually fall off.

One of the local video production companies recorded the concert, so I should have my own copy soon.

Link: http://www.icehousebrass.org

We had a great season - although, it didn't seem as hectic as last year. Which oddly enough, only had 2 more dates than we did this season.

Tonight we played at The Historic Stables at Fort Concho. Usually, we play in the Officer's Quarters for the Sons of the Confederacy, but this year they decided to get all of the groups together and hold a combined event. I'm not entirely sure which groups were in attendance, but one of the groups brought their own entertainment to add to the show - a Scottish Bag-Piper in full regalia (yes, kilt and all - didn't ask about undergarments). The guy was awesome - plain and simple. Unfortunately, also a tough act to follow.

Donna kinda messed up and told us to be there at 5:30PM, which was about an hour too early - but we used that time to rehearse a little and goof off with a couple of other tunes we didn't work out this year.

There was a photographer on-site this year, so we actually got a decent group shot this time. I'm the tall guy in the back.

Click for the bigger picture

I think we need to be a little more proactive with our next gigs and have more music ready - there's too much dead-space between tunes, and we have nothing "ready" if anybody wants an encore. There are plenty of tunes in our library, and I honestly feel we should be ready to play just about all of them if asked - just my opinion though.