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I am officially a myspace whore.  I did not.  Well.... I signed up a few months ago and largely ignored it.  But I started waxing nostalgic, and feeling out of touch with old co-workers, friends from high school, and college.  So I pimped my profile with a nice layout... hacked it up a bit, but kept a link to the designers.  I'm ethical.

I picked out a grace song for a background, and started reaching out to other folks.

Maybe last week's Dar Williams show in Boardinghouse park got to me.  It was a  good show, although I've never seen a professional performer stop in the middle of so many songs because of distractions (1 for her cold, 1 she forgot the lyrics, and the other was for a fire truck).  I still enjoyed it.  She bantered for a bit about how there used to me a sea of lighters at shows, but they've gone by the wayside and have been replaced by little blue squares.  She called them symbols of our interconnectivity, and I felt a bit more accepting of the omnipresent branded cell phones.

Now I find myself using the over hyped, excessively popular networking site.  "Networking" is such an awful term.  It's for computers.   Why can't we be honest and refer to networking as mutual alignment of self-interest, or greed.  Yes, its crass and potentially offensive but I find the openness comforting.

Anyway myspace is http://www.myspace.com/bensbrewingagain

I can't believe how many "popular" people from high school, who must have thought I was a complete dork for having a campaign website when I ran for Class President*, are on this thing...  Yes, the big chested sluts and all.

*This was also the year I got into some serious trouble for an affiliation with an Anti-Alvirne website.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 2:59 PM

 
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals at Red Rocks (Stop The Bus)

Now this is music.... at red rocks.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 7:04 AM

 
The first two weeks of my new job have gone very well.  I like the environment of a smaller biopharmaceutical company.  The 10 minute commute is too short.  Moving to Watertown will definitely extend it, but I still hope to bike to and from work.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to do that much.  I drove the first few days, so that I could case the layout, culture and habits of Altus employees without showing up smelling like a gym sock on my first day

When I tried to bike in, my tire went flat and I had to call for Kate to bike over with her pump.  Of course, we didn't have any replacement tubes in the proper size.  then she broke my shifter, trying to change the cables on my bike.  Of course she claims that it was already misaligned, and faulty.  It could be.  I spent $100 on the bike, and received a spare set of tires, as well as side bags to carry things to work.  Maybe the prior owner botched his last cable swap.   I won't argue as long as Kate keeps managing my bike repair.  (Ultimately, I imagine that I'll manage her car repair so it's not like I'm getting off easily).

Back to the work topic.  I really like my boss, he's a laid back, pleasant Japanese guy who can really hold his own at the company happy hours.  Yes.  My new company buys us beer on a weekly basis.  It doesn't require us to sit through a boring seminar, or an hour of doublespeak about progress, transformative change, and excuses about missed deadlines for announcing a poorly realized re-organization.  All you have to do is show up for work.  Arrival anytime prior to 5, and possibly some time there after, guarantees admission.

The job's also pretty cool too.  I'm learning a lot.  The company seems to enjoy meeting, planning experiments, and avoiding waste.  Some experiments can be very expensive, and that attitude of planning to minimize waste trickles down to the cheapies too.

Kate and I saw Grace last Friday in Durham, NH at the Mill Pond Center for the Arts. It was a nice relaxed show that felt like a private party on someone's porch.  She and the band did an excellent job mixing quieter and raucous material.

edit: Holy Crap! I used the email entry thingee from work, and they attached a confidentiality notice to my blog post.
posted by Ben at (1) comments 11:33 AM

 
Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (episode 1)

From Madison, WI this video is hilarious. I wish youtube was around when I was in college. I can only imagine the hilarity my fraternity bros and I would post.
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:18 AM

 
Chad Vader - Day Shift Manager (episode 2)

Episode 2 - It's funny
posted by Ben at (0) comments 11:16 AM