Where will it end?

I don't really have a comment on this other than I think the whole phenomenon is pretty stupid. But if you had to choose... I think Jesus or Mary would prefer a door, toast or anything else other than this...

The personal MBA

Though we can have discussions about the total effectiveness of a traditional MBA program until the sun comes up, its always a personal opinion and choice. There are some obvious advantages to a traditional program. No matter how beneficial you think its going to be, in the long run, there is no escaping the fact that your bank account will take a hit.

There is no right or wrong way to approach this next step in your career but this could offer up an alternative. As Josh Kaufman puts it,

"If you care more about increasing your effectiveness at work than a diploma and a few lines on your resume, the Personal MBA is for you."

Give the theory a read and see if its anything that you'd be interested in. For the sake of just a "knowledge quest" I'm going to give it a try and see where the adventure takes me. Knowledge is never a bad thing and who knows maybe I'll learn something along the way...

New Music Monday

Psapp

Psapp is an experimental electronica band. The band, a duo consisting of members Carim Clasmann and Galia Durant, are sometimes credited with inventing a musical style known as toytronica, a form of electronica made with toys and toy instruments (the band uses toy guitars, flutes and a chicken they named Brunhilda). They have released three albums (Northdown, Tiger, My Friend and newly released The Only Thing I Ever Wanted) and four EPs (Do Something Wrong, Rear Moth, Buttons and War and the iTunes exclusive Early Cats and Tracks). They composed the main theme on the hit medical-drama TV series Grey's Anatomy and some of their songs have been used in other hit American TV shows such as The OC and Nip/Tuck as well as the critically acclaimed Channel 4 TV show Sugar Rush.

History

Galia Durant's story began in a household running amok with records, art and books. Galia's mum collected protest songs while her dad is a professorial art historian with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Indian classical music. Galia "loved it all," finding no real distinction between Woody Guthrie peacenik anthems, Sarangi etudes and her elder brother's acid jazz albums. After struggling to learn violin and piano (she preferred her 1988 vintage Casio SK-8 sampling keyboard, which the band still use), at 8, Galia graduated from a more-ideas-than-action 'band', "GO", formed with her brother.

Carim Clasmann's musical youth was spent in German recording studios learning the alchemical business of faders, compressors and microphones. A self-professed failure at the school recorder and a frustrated guitarist, he dabbled in music-making while cutting demos for other people. Quickly rising through the Cologne studio ranks, Carim learned his chops recording bands like Einstürzende Neubauten and Die Toten Hosen and even worked at Can's famous Inner Space studio, always dallying with music of his own on the side. He moved to London at the close of the '90s, working and then taking up residence at the King's Cross studio/house he and Psapp currently call home.

Carim met Galia through mutual, musically-inclined friends who would often gather at the studio. For a year or so the duo experimented, united by an eclectic taste for Tom Waits, the Cure, Erik Satie, Duke Ellington and “anything that’s silly and uses stupid noises.” Their own ‘silly noises’ married to Galia’s sultry vocals and perspicacious lyrics produced recordings of shimmering originality and nascent charm - an opinion shared by the handful of labels to which Psapp, as they’d by now christened themselves, sent demos toward the end of 2002. A litany of recordings duly followed.

If you're after more information you can also visit their myspace site

Debt Consolidation

I may be a geek at heart but I love this type of article - 101 Ways to cut your daily costs

Its a girl

Its official folks, Karen and I are getting a niece. And so, to the amusement of the family at large, my cousin Mark is the only one, so far, to have a boy... With our self imposed deadline looming in the horizon, Karen and I are making the last mad dash to an uncertain finish line. So in a few months we'll either be giving my "niece to be" a cousin or buying a vacation property in Mammoth - only time will tell...

Off Topic

So, its been a while and I just realized it. Work is steadily chipping away at my free time and the change is not pleasant. Over the past couple of weeks things seems to be breaking or needing to be fixed. Though its fun to tinker and I'm learning a lot because of it the added stress isn't fun. So as things go, its been status quo, not a lot to dwell on.

Karen and I have been spending time catching up on some television shows that we couldn't squeak in last season. Despite our DVR there's only so much time in the day and there always seemed to be scheduling conflicts. This season we're glad to be done with Alias and Everwood, though I will miss Everwood its always nice to alleviate some time during the week for other things. Of course, with the DVR its easy to reschedule things and Karen and I find ourselves catching up on shows Sunday morning over some Illy coffee and breakfast - the best part being, that we don't have to watch the lamer commercials...

So after investing some catch up time, we're now ready for the season openers of Grey's Anatomy and Smallville. Though we try not to add too many things to our self imposed list of 9 with Alias and Everwood dropping off we're Even/Steven again. With the aid of DVD releases of TV Series, we've seen 3 seasons worth of each, over the past couple of months. I can't recommend it enough - it definitely is the best way to watch a show - quit when you want, no waiting a week for each episode and no commercial interruptions... Did I mention that I hate commercials?

Hollywoodland

For whatever reason, horses and I don't seem to get along all that well. As far back as my Pine Springs Ranch days, I've had my disagreements with the equine kind. Of course, as most young women do, my niece loves horses... Well, you know how it goes - My niece loves horses, I love my niece, I wind up on a horse - Go figure.



Since I didn't get too many chances to spend a lot of time with her this summer I decided to take her horseback riding the week before she left. I did a little homework and found out that we could take a ride up in Hollywood at the Sunset Stables. In spite of the fact that I could probably have taken her somewhere near me (possibly Irvine Park), I always make things a little more complicated than they have to be, but a lot of times it winds up working out.



So off we drove to Hollywood, for a horseback ride that would take us to the hill opposite the Hollywood sign. It was a gorgeous day, though it was a tad hot, and the horses were, for the most part agreeable. Just my luck though, I would have to get another horse that had tendencies for rolling around in the sand. It seems that I always wind up with these creatures, maybe they can smell the hearty sense of respect I have for them or maybe its just dumb luck. In any case I wasn't about to get a repeat of my last ride.



We wound up spending 2 hours on the horses and Karen and Brit had some fun looking at the houses at the base of the mountain nestled in a quaint community known as Hollywoodland. Who knew that you could have your neighborhood dubbed with such a prestigious name... From what we could tell, the "town" consisted of a realtor, a massage parlor, a talent agency and a market... in spite of its size, it did make up for things with plenty of charm and celebrity domiciles.



Afterwards, we found our way over to Boss Sushi and had some great tasting Sushi. After what seemed a very long day we took Brit home and got ourselves back to the house to feed Daisy a rather late dinner. We had a great day and I had a lot of fun. If you're in the market for a nice and leisurely horseback adventure I would recommend it highly...

Being Republican

Just in case you missed the handing out of the pamphlet, here's the synopsis...

Farewell Friend

There are times when we, as a collective, lose someone who's passing leaves a vacuum of space that is felt by everyone. Bad things always seem to happen to the wrong people and great tragedies always involve people making a difference. Today, I mourn the loss of Steve Irwin. By now, I'm sure that everyone knows the details of his death and the worst part about it is that it seems so senseless. In the light of humanity being such poor stewards of this planet, Steve was a person who's life continued to reflect his beliefs in conservationism, animal rights and the protection of this planet. We need more people like him. It is wonderful to see such an outpouring of well wishes from the various ends of this planet, I just hope that his life will spur people on to get involved and make a difference for whatever cause they find important in their heart. As for me, I would like to send his wife and children my sincere condolences for their loss. I know that words won't make up for their loss in any meaningful way but I hope that they can find some comfort in the love that this global community felt for Steve. He will be missed.



Cheers Mate - I hope that wherever you go, you have found peace and the paradise you worked so diligently to bring to us here...