...I won't have to get my drivers license renewed until 2018.

So, I had to go to the mighty DMV today. I needed to get my license renewed. They let these things go for 8 years now. Nice to know that as long as I don't lose it, I wont have to go back until 2018. I will have to go again to get the bike titled and plated. That's easy stuff.

I'm actually not one to complain about the DMV. They changed how their system works so that it runs MUCH faster. They make you go to an information window first. You tell them why they are there, then they give you ALL the forms you need to fill out and a number. Then, you fill them out and wait for the number to be called.

It's a lot better than 20 years ago when I got my license. I must have been in line for hours just to find out I needed to fill out something and get back in line.

...I am one step closer to the weekend.

I have a lot going on this weekend. Movie and dinner along with a housewarming is tonight. Tomorrow I have house things to work on. Sunday is the yearly cookout at Rob's. And Monday is just a lazy day with my lady.

...I know the one guy I never want to make angry...EVER (Interview with Chris DeMarcus of Stiff Valentine - WTII Minifest II hype #6)

Stiff Valentine

Stiff Valentine from Vancouver is one of the recently signed bands on WTII Records. Their latest release "America Bleeding" is out now. I had a chance to do some correspondence with Chris DeMarcus and ask him about SV, Deathproof, audio engineering and battles with sea creatures and large mammals. If that doesn't make you want to read this interview, you're dead inside.


Falken: Thanks for agreeing to do this, I know we've met in the past. We had a conversation about this a few months ago. You were doing sound for 16 Volt when they were touring with Left Spine Down and Chemlab.

...I didn't fail this semester.

Well, another semester has gone by. The bad: I ended up having to take less than an A for the first time in my college corsework. The good: I didn't fail. This was a bitch of a semester. See that first class there. The one with the B+. I worked harder on that class than anything else I've worked on before and I still managed to squeak out a good grade. I dealt with the following: group work, group members not showing up, getting everyone together, figuring out we needed to use Google docs to collaborate, times and schedules for everyone, work, home, life in general. All of that in a class that decided there was weekly group work and a term group project.

But, I conquered the class. I won. That B+ is nothing to sneeze at. There were other groups that I am sure did not do as well.

...she's found a new home.

Pictures will be up soon, but I have added another motorcycle to the garage.

I stuck with Kawasaki, this time it's a 1979 KZ650D-SR. So, It's a bigger engine and has already started going through the paces of being turned in to a sportier bike.

She's got a fairing on it that needs to be brought back a bit. a really bad multi color paint job, and handlebars that need to go away.

Lucky for me I have a set of clubman z bars at the house ready to go. This Saturday I am picking up the paint for the bike, and it's going to be a very nice matte black all slick and ready to roll. I'm still toying with getting header wrap on it. I'm not sure if I want to do that this weekend. The pipes are already black and the 1:40 minute drive from Oconomowoc to Racine really didn't heat up my legs that much. So it might just stay the way it is for now.

...error PRJ0015 : The NULL device is missing from your system. (Interview with Eric Oehler of Null Device - WTII Minifest II Interview #5)

Null Device Interview (WTII Minifest hype-a-palooza)

It took me a while to get this interview out there as life got in the way. So, today we got this pig finished and published for the people.

Falken: I myself love the work you do. I will come right out and say that I am a complete fan. It's completely different than what I usually listen to, but just amazing melodically. So many different instruments and amazing vocals. It's not something I normally see in "the scene". What led you down this path with Null Device?

...Steve showed me that there is place for guitar in techno...

 

This is just damn amazing. I mean, really. I can't stop watching it. I love the soundtrack already so this is a no brainer for me to watch. 

Kick back, and watch this kid's fingers fly.

...I'm done with that class.

I had a hell of a time this semester with my Information Architecture II class. It's one of the classes that is for the major I am in currently and it is something that I do for a living. So, I thought it should be a snap. Did I ever think wrong. Information Architecture I was all about HTML, so I figured II would be much of the same. I was wrong. It was all about Systems Analysis and Design. Otherwise known in the IT and Business worlds as SDLC. I put the book we used for the class over to the left. I am not selling it back either. It's actually got quite a bit of useful information in it that I can transfer over to the current job.

The worst part about this class was that it was all group work. Weekly group assignments, and a term group project. Getting five people with five different schedules together is not the easiest thing to do. One of our group members missed so many classes he was dropped from the class. He didn't do a whole lot anyway, so it wasn't anything all that major. But it just pissed us off that we were doing all the work at the time while he was just riding along. I will say this, thank god for Google Docs. Without it we would have been dead in the water on all of our assignments. We were able to work miles away from each other and all be editing and collaborating on the documents in real time. The class wanted us to use Visio, we used Google's Draw. There was a learning curve, but in the end it worked out well. We even noticed a couple other groups starting to use Google Docs after we told them that we never actually "meet" up. We just did everything over the internet and that it was working out well for us.

But, today was better because I turned in our final group project for L&I Sci 340... and because I'm done with that class.

...I was reminded of some fun I had many years back.

On the way to work, I got sick of the usual blabber on the radio that I have been listening to for many years. I plugged in the iPod as I am known to do from time to time and let it go to shuffle mode. I have a lot of music, it's a 120 gig iPod and it's over half full. I can go for quite a while without hearing the same song twice.

Tony, Terry, and Cal

This morning I was reminded of a time that was a lot of fun for me when a song called "Over my dead body" happened to play. A few years back, a local band out of Racine called "Snooky" needed a guitar player. They were committed to 3 or four shows still and didn't want to have to pull out of them and let their fans down. I knew these guys for years. Opened up for them when I was still in Lithic for MANY shows and the guys became good friends of mine. So, when Tony, Cal, and Terry were down on their luck and needed someone to step in... I did. I learned a set of about 8 or 9 songs and helped them out. In the end, Bill (amazing guitar player) ended up taking over and they kept on rolling.

While they are not playing together anymore, I still consider their music some of the most influential on my playing in am.psych. John has mentioned that he can still hear it in things I play from time to time.

...I got a gift in the mail.

A while back, I re-upped my XBOX Live Gold Subscription so I can play all my fun games online and watch Netflix on my giant television in HD.

People always ask me, "Why do you pay for that crap?" Well, anyone else see PSN go down for a couple weeks and not be able to do jack on it? Microsoft uses money to help keep that shiz secure people. Keep hackers out, keep cheaters out, bring content to you like ESPN3 live events, Netflix in HD first, Hulu+, DLC exclusives before other systems. That's what my $60 a year is going to and I don't mind it one bit.

This year, they gave me a gift for subscribing at just the right time. I got 13 months for the price of 12 and a copy of Halo:Reach. It just showed up at my doorstep today. I think of it like this, I bought Halo:Reach.. they gave me free 13 months of XBOX. I would have bought this game at some point.

...I got to talk am.psych today. (Interview with John Verbos of am.psych - WTII Minifest II Interview #4)

am.psych live

In doing all these interviews, I toyed with interviewing John because of the fact that I am in the band as well. So, for this one, it's a little more relaxed and yet I do try to get some info out of him for everyone reading.

Falken: Here we go. Let's start this thing off right.

Talking with John of am.psych about life, music, and anything else we decide to talk about. I talk with him on a very normal basis (I am in the band as well) and know him quite well. We're going to dive right in and start asking some questions.

...his beard makes him look like Cthulu (Interview with Dan Clark of The Dark Clan - WTII Minifest interview #3)

Dan Clark is the front man for The Dark Clan. With the WTII Minifest II coming up, I decided to ask him a few questions to help gain interest in the fest, his band, and maybe his production work for those looking to get some studio work done. The following is what transpired:

Falken: Dan, thanks for taking the time to work on this with me.

Let's start things off right and give the readers a little bit of a history lesson on Dark Clan. Who's in it? where did the idea come from? That kind of thing.

...Blogger is back up.

Sorry that I didn't post yesterday, it was not my fault. Blogger was down for emergency maintenance for almost 24 hours.

But, it's back up and that means I can post again. That makes me happy. There should be at least one more today.

...my jacket arrived.

Yup, I finally got me a riding jacket. I needed one. Yes, that's the same color I got too. I want to be seen when I'm on the road. My helmet is black, so I needed something bright to offset it.

Happy camper, I am. The bike will come home soon and I'll be up on two in no time.

I just realized this is the third post today. Guess a lot was good today.

...Semonik happily answered some questions (WTII Minifest Interview #2 - Jim Semonic of Rein[Forced])

Seems Harmless enough.

 After doing the Caustic interview, David Shock of WTII Records liked what I had going on with my style of questioning. So, after interviewing him as well, the idea of talking to some of the bands that are playing at the WTII Records Minifest sprouted. Today, we have Jim Semonik. Front man of Rein[Forced].

...I found some awesome vegan pizza.

After my last class of the semester, I was a bit hungry. Classic Slice just opened up their East Side location on North Ave. not too long ago, so I thought it would be a good time to see how this location was compared to Bay View.

To my surprise, they have soy cheese at this location. I have been to the one in Bay View many times, and they have never had this!! I haven't had a decent pizza in ages. They completely nailed it. So good.

...Feuer Frei!

I've been waiting for this show for since 1998. The last time I got to see them was when they toured on the first Family Values tour. I was a doing street work promotion for TVT Records at the time and they had me handing out cassettes with the latest songs from Sevendust, Gravity Kills and others on there. As a thank you for doing that bit of work, they gave me two tickets to the Family Values show here in my town and I took one of my good friends to the show.  He'll be there with his wife and our former room mate as well (he didn't get to see them last time).

...I'm finally in my last week of school.

That's right kids, I'm nearing the end of this semester of higher education. That brings me smack dab in the middle of my second year of classes. It's been a silly ride so far, and one that I know I would have not done so well on if it were not for the fact that I have experience in this field.

Work has really prepared me for these classes in ways I can not explain. But, with that being the case, I feel bad for businesses in the future. There are some people who are taking these classes that have no idea what they are in for. No clue what corporate culture is like. Most of them have either only worked at a fast food or retail environment... or they have never had to work at all. That's probably the scariest part to me. I've worked for the last 21 years now, raised kids, played in bands, and worked my way up the corporate ladder. Most of these kids have just ... gone to school. No leadership skills, no customer service qualities. No putting in the extra effort and not caring if they get rewarded for it because it's something they love to do.

But, today was better because I'm finally in my last week of school for the semester... and that means I won't have to deal with it until Labor Day again.

...ROAD TRIP

It was road trip weekend out to Madison. We headed out to Inferno with a good friend of ours and went to the monthly Leather and Lace outing that they have there. It was quite packed. Lots of people just being themselves. It was a good time.

All I know is that I had just a tad too much last night. When we woke up this morning, I feel really bad for the cleaning staff today. They might not want us back.

...my doctor made a mistake he'll regret.

I recently posted about a doctor's appointment I had about a month back. I hadn't been to one in a few years. So, with everything that went on I decided to get some blood work done and make sure everything was in check. Well, it wasn't.

Here is the kicker about it. At the visit, I had to insist on getting these labs done. Not only that, but I had to call for the results, the Rx for what is ailing me due to these results, and call back SEVERAL times because nobody was calling me back even though I kept getting told I would be getting a call.

So, yesterday, I called the managing director of the facility. I left a voice mail for him and let him know that I was very displeased with the lack of care I was getting from the facility. I had explained how I visited on April 6th, but had to call back two weeks later to get my lab results. Then when told that a Rx was going out for my vitamin D deficiency, I went to Walgreens later that day... nothing. So I called back when I remembered a week later and talked to another gentleman who told me he'd get in contact with a nurse who would call me to get it taken care of. No call was ever received. I let him know I was quite concerned over this and was thinking of switching health care providers due to the lack of service I was getting from the facility overall.

Today, I got a voice mail from him. Seems he wasnt too happy about the service I was getting as well. He's looking in to getting me in to a different doctor and will be working with the one who WAS seeing me. As for my Rx, a nurse called me almost immediately after that to let me know that she called the Walgreens here near my house and that it was indeed there and filled last night at 5:30 (glad they let me know last night when they faxed it in!).

So today, I get home, there was a piece of mail from my doctor's office. It was a survey. About my visit.

I'm so going to have fun with it.

Today was better because my doctor made a mistake he'll regret... and I get to do the right thing by voicing my concern about a healthcare system that *I* have to pay for out of my own pocket. So, if this sounds a little bit mean... I really don't care. I expect to get top notch service if I am the one paying for it. It's my body, my health, and I'm going to make sure it's taken care of.

...I saw a flower.

No, I wasn't actively looking for them at a florist. I just happened to be coming back from class today and there they were.

It lets me know that spring in and of itself IS going to show up one of these days. There were white and yellow daffs all along the streets. I didn't notice them until today.

I had just been thinking this morning on my way in that the trees are not green yet. That has been depressing me a bit. I want my trees to be swaying in the wind while I lay on my bed with the window open and the sun shining on my face as I take a nap. It's a great sound. I mean, wind itself doesn't make noise. But, when air goes through all the leaves it makes me sleepy and brings me back to a time where I would put on my headphones and just listen to music. Not a care in the world back then.

So, today was better because I saw a flower. And it made me remember.

...when she makes herself crack up...

She snorts and looks like this picture. I tend to start laughing too.

I love her.

She's going to kill me for this post, but it's true. Love this girl.

...It's time to start pimpin' the WTII Records Minifest 2 : Interview with Dave Shock of WTII Records

Falken: I'd like to start off by saying "thank you" for agreeing to do the interview. I had a lot of fun interviewing Matt and hopefully getting him some new people listening and buying his music.

So, I am sure there are people reading this asking themselves "who is this Dave Shock guy?", "what is WTII?", and "That guy runs a record label?"

Give me some background on you, the label and what it takes to run one. Because I'll admit, I've known you for a while and *I* don't even know the whole story.