...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.