Apple Of My Eye

Being that I tend to get known as "The Computer Guy" around the office, I usually get asked the question "So, do you like Mac's or PC's better?" For me, I'm a PC guy - though I admit I really do enjoy the Mac vs PC commercials that Apple puts out. I know that there are people who fall on both sides of the spectrum and are very passionate about their choice. I'm not going to get into a big debate, I'll just say that for me to do my job and do it well, I need a PC. I write database-driven apps in ASP.NET, and while there are other technologies that I could use, none of them come close to the power and ease-of-use that the .Net platform provides.

That being said, I will say that Apple has created some of the coolest "toys" on the market. I've got the Photo iPod - 30GB HD with the ability to store digital images. I love how easy it works with iTunes. And now Apple has just revealed that they are entering the cell phone market. While I doubt I'll get one of these anytime soon - retail price of $500-600 - they sure do look sweet!

Great Story

I just found an article about a college basketball player who as a freshmen was told that he wasn't good enough to be a walk-on for the team and now as a senior is LEADING THE NATION in rebounding! It's a great read, even for non-sports fans.

Click here to open the article in a new window.

Jack Is Back!

One of my favorite shows, and quite possibly THE favorite, 24, returned to TV over the last couple of nights. Without giving away any spoilers to those of you who may not have had a chance to watch them yet, these last "4" episodes have been awesome!

My wife and I began watching this show in 2005. A friend of mine from work knew that we were Alias fans and suggested that if we liked Alias, we would LOVE 24. Man was he right! Since he had the first 4 seasons on DVD, he let us borrow them.

We went through Season 1 over the course of a few weeks and then the same thing for Season 2. Season's 3 and 4 only took us the course of a weekend each. We were hooked!

Last year for Season 5 we decided to watch it "live" as the show aired. While we enjoyed it, it wasn't quite the same as being able to watch it on DVD, back to back to back to back to... well, you get the idea.

After watching the first 4 episodes of this season, I have to think that this is going to be one of the best season's yet. Last night's final 10 minutes were as intense as anything they've done. I can't wait till next week!!! It's going to be rough only getting to see one hour after getting four hours the last two nights!

I'm running out of time!

Robots

A co-worker sent this link to the rest of our development team earlier today. You have to see this to believe it! No CGI baby, this is the real deal!!!

Click Here to watch a Robot climb up AND DOWN a set of stairs!!!

Sticking To It

At some point in 1998 I made a switch in the drumsticks that I used. Prior to that, I used Pro Mark 5B sticks. During that year I came across a pair of sticks made by Vic Firth, the American Classic Metal with a Red Nylon Tip.



That became my stick of choice for two reasons. First off, it was the longest stick I could find, 17" in length. Secondly, I loved the look of the Red tip. It matched the color scheme of my band and I thought it looked cool. Those two things aside, I also liked the way it sounded and played.

Fast forward to this year. I've been practicing quite a bit lately. But one thing I've noticed that I was having a harder time with the sticks than I used to have. So I decided to buy a couple of pairs that were in different sizes. I tried out a Vic Firth 5A and 5B, both with nylon tips.



After playing with both pairs I decided on moving to the 5A as my stick of choice. It's not as long as the Metal stick, 16" compared to 17", but it's much lighter. A lot of my old drumming style was more about laying in a solid groove and not adding too many fills. While that is still the case, I'm trying to expand that a bit.

What about you other drummers out there? What sticks do you use?

UK Gets New Practice Facility

The UK Men's AND Women's Basketball teams finally have a practice place to call their own. I'm amazed that a program of UK's stature and recognition didn't already have one, but at least now they do. Other schools such as Florida have had better facilities than us (I know, I know, I'm not really a part of the team but a man can dream can't he?) for a long time, but not any more!

Click here to view the entire article in a new window.

Here are a couple shots for you to enjoy.

Stupid Church Signs

So my wife and I were on the way home the other night and we passed a church sign that said "This is the deal God made." That's all it said. What deal did He make?

I have an idea of what they were trying to say, but what about the person who wasn't raised in church? Knowing how much those signs annoy me (and my wife) I can just imagine how much they annoy the non-Believers. Why do we as Christians have to embarass ourselves so much???

Any one else have some annoying 'sign-age' that they would like to share?

Old Format

Some of you may have noticed that my blog has returned to it's old format. The reason being that I discovered I was able to post the blog to an FTP site. Since I have my own domain name I thought I would take advantage of this fact.

So at some point in the near future I'll modify the format again to the most recent style, as I really liked it, but had to change back to the old template to take advantage of the FTP publishing. I hope to get that done this week, but not sure if that will happen or not. We'll see :-)

- B3

Good Choice Of Words

There is an article in today's edition of The Tennessean (click here to read in a new window) about Christian comedians. On their web site, they allow for users to post comments re: the articles. Here's one that I saw today that caught my eye.

"The F word, while beginning as an acronym for a morals offense, for unlawful carnal knowledge, over time has become an all purpose word, which may be adjective, noun, verb, or adverb, and intended to convey anything from dismay to disgust, insult to ardor. As such, its user's meaning is obscured, and leaves the listener/reader to know only one thing for a certainty- the user has a limited capacity to express actual thought, possessing a bankrupt vocabulary."

Couldn't agree more...

Until next time,
Triple B

The Truth Shall Set You Free

We're in the process of hiring an additional programmer at my job. For the first time in the five years that I've been back in the general work force, I have management in place above me that see the upcoming need for additional staff and have planned accordingly (The first four years were with another company).

During this process, I've been assisting my boss in the interview process. That's been a fun experience for me. We're also requiring the programmers to take a skills test. When I was hired on here I had to take a skills test as well.

I've often wondered how I did but was kinda scared to find out. So during the last week, my boss and I have had discussions regarding these skills tests so we both decided to take one. Hers was going to be Project Management while mine would be in ASP.NET, the same test that we're asking the other applicants to take.

I was scared to take it because I was afraid that I may not score as well as the other people. One reason I was feeling a sense of doubt before I took the test was because I had seen the resumes of the other applicants. I knew that both of them had more education than I did in this area, as well as more real-world experience. But really, I had nothing to fear. My job was safe and not dependent upon how I performed, after all, I had already passed a test earlier to get the job.

Nonetheless, there was a part of me, probably more pride than fear, that was hesitant. But I went ahead and took the test. I got the results and immediately felt a sense of relief, as well as encouragement. I had scored higher than any of the other applicants we had tested! It was a great feeling, not because I had done better than the other contests, well OK, maybe a little bit. I am pretty competitive after all :-)

But I think it was more because I had done well period. It just felt good knowing that I took a skills test and performed at a high level. And my boss was right... the truth will set you free...

Until next time,
Big Blue Barry

2006 Year In Review

I figured I would do a Year In Review for last year. I'm sure I could just go back through my blog and see what happened in each month but I think it would be nice to have a quick summary all contained in one post. So let's get this going...

January
I made the switch from guitar back to drums in the band (Dying Man) that I started.

I purchased my "Dream Kit" - a DW Collector's Series 6-pc kit with a Red Lacuer Finish and Black Chrome Hardware.

February
Was informed that my job would be changing, that I would report to the IT manager in Wisconsin and would also have to forgo .Net and instead learn Java.

March
Recorded a song ("No Time For Long Goodbyes") I wrote for my band that was placed on a compilation CD of local Nashville rock bands.

Watched UK lose to UConn in the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament.

April
Won the office pool for the NCAA tourney.

Had to pull out of our first show for Dying Man due to a death in the family of our bassist.

May
Celebrated my 10 year anniversary with my wife. We went to Knoxville to visit the places we had went to on our first anniversary.

Extended our anniversary by taking a trip to the Cherokee Indian reservation that I used to visit when I was kid with my family.

June
Had our second "first show" for Dying Man cancelled due to the venue closing down.

Left my job of 4+ years at Brentwood-Benson to start working for CCM Magazine. This was an answer to prayer.

July
Took a trip to Virginia for the new job.

Dying Man played what turned out to be its first and last 2 shows, one in Murfreesboro at Sweetwater and the final show being the next night at The End in Nashville.

August
Not much happened this month

September
Officially put my band Dying Man to rest.

Celebrated my 33rd birthday.

October
Went to Rupp Arena to be part of the Big Blue Madness for UK Basketball.

Saw Aerosmith live in concert. Motley Crue opened for them but due to traffic wasn't able to make it there in time for their show.

Celebrated my wife's 31st birthday.

November
Started attending New Song Spring Hill Church.

Went to KY to spend Thanksgiving with my family.

December
My family came down here to spend Christmas with us.

Back To Work

Well, my Christmas vacation is almost over. Tomorrow morning I have to get up at 5:30 and get ready for a couple of days of work. This is the first year since 1998 that I haven't had at least 2 weeks of vacation time during the Christmas holiday season.

In 1999, my wife and I started our own company, Eternal Designs. We built web sites for small to medium sized companies. So during the holidays that year, we were able to set our own hours, so we took the last half of December off. We did this again for 2000 and 2001.

Then in 2002 I returned back to the work force at Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing. At BBMP we would get an entire week off for the Christmas season. In addition to that, I was able to take another week off with my vacation time. So from 2002 - 2005 that's what I did.

Well this year things are different. I started a new job at Salem Publishing at the end of June. For our holiday schedule we only get Christmas day off. Also, you can only take off days if you've worked enough hours to accumulate them. So since I've only been here for about 6 months, I haven't had a chance to earn many more days.

So for the first time in a long time, I'm only getting a few days off for Christmas. But I can say that so far, it's been a pretty good holiday break. My parents and my brother came down to visit earlier this week. Probably one of the best visits we've ever had with all of us here.

They left yesterday so I've at least had one day off to enjoy. I spent some time setting my drums back up and getting some good practice in. Tomorrow my wife is heading up to Ohio to see her parents. Can't say that I'm too disappointed that I'm not making that trip :-)

Then on Friday after work I'm stopping off in the 'Boro (aka Murfreesboro) to pick up one of my good ole friends from yesteryear, Derek. He's visiting from Texas. It's been a couple of years since I've seen him. I've talked to him a couple of times on the phone this week to get our plans arranged. It's been great chatting with him and I'm looking forward to getting to hang out with him on Friday and Saturday.

Derek was one of the kids in the youth group at one of our old churches. I got to know him really well when my wife and I were helping out with the youth. I enjoyed getting to know several of the youth but Derek was my favorite. We had quite a bit in common though our upbringing was quite different.

For starters, D is African-American. Also, his parents are divorced. But despite the differences we had in that regard, we both shared a love for God, basketball and music. It was those things that really brought us together.

Before I started working at BBMP, I would take Derek to the Rec Center and we would shoot some hoops during the week. We'd also go over to the church and jam. I'd play my guitar while he would play the drums. We would stay up late and talk. We had many late night conversations sitting in my car outside of his mom's apartment.

Eventually, D would graduate and move to Texas to be part of Teen Mania. It was a big step for him to move away from home. We were able to drive down to Texas with his mom to be there for his graduation ceremony. I couldn't have been more proud of him.

The next time I saw him was a couple of years ago, right around this time of year. He wasn't the little kid from the youth group anymore. No, little D had grown up and became a man. He's still living in Texas, so for now, there are 2 Big D's in that state, Dallas... and Derek.