Greetings from Raleigh, NC

I am in Raleigh,NC working on a technical manual. It's surprising that my boss even let me take a leave of absence considering how things are going back home, what with people leaving left and right. Today is my 3rd day and I'm starting to get used to the area and work climate somewhat. My 1st day was a bit of culture shock at the massive IBM building at RTP, where a lot of research and development happens. As my dad says, I'm in tall cotton and yes, it is overwhelming.
At lunch on the 1st day, I found myself sitting at a table with 3 men, one from Russia, the other from Australia, and the other from South Africa! We had BBQ from Danny's, pretty decent.
I am also seemingly surrounded by British accents and may be talking in one soon out of osmosis!

Speaking of overwhelming, the task at hand of writing 3 chapters in a 5 chapter book dealing with Features on Demand, a licensing key that offers system upgrades versus having to buy an extra piece of hardware. And I have to learn how to use Adobe Framemaker in the process. My coworker Michael has done 2 of these before so at least he has some experience that I can call upon.
This is all new to me and will be an experience in time management also since I'm so used to a structured environment.

I have been able two find a few bike trails so far so that has been good. Sleeping and eating well. Missing Renee and the girls. Can't wait to see them soon.

Day 3 and 4

Day 3 - hunger relatively in control. alcohol cravings declining Day 4 - thought of grain/cereal making me slightly sick at breakfast. thought about fasting until 3pm today but Renee made a delicious quiche for bfast. full after chicken salad.

Solar Eclipse 2017

The solar eclipse just happened and it has me feeling cosmic and appreciative of our wondrous universe. It makes me feel pretty small and realize that most of my concerns are really trivial. I was amazed at how the quality of light changed and how the crickets began to chirp. Not to mention the crescent-shaped lights on the ground beneath the trees. We had a colander out viewing crescents on the patio because we had no solar glasses. Briefly, a cloud covered the sun and we looked up for a few seconds at the eclipse. Then some neighbors let us borrow their glasses. They are neighbors who for some reason we have never even spoken to, but people realize this is a rare event, so it makes us more human, more kind. This is an amazing time to be alive, with my daughter just turning 1 year old and now this truly inspiring event of nature. One can't help but feel gratitude and a sense of contentment. One of my favorite Carl Sagan quotes: “The surface of the Ea...

Bassline of the week!

I heard this song on a run today and realized what a great bass part it has. That's Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads' playing on "Born Under Punches." Tina, in my opinion, is a consistently underrated bassist. She really has such a minimalist style. This bassline does exactly what it needs to and nothing more, simple and effective. It definitely gets bonus points for being in such a quirky time signature as well! She also uses space and air between notes to provide extra, er, punch. It's such a strange song frankly, with typical Talking Heads bizarre lyrics, seemingly random guitar licks and synth for that matter. Tina's part could've fallen through the cracks and her slap-and-pop style on the track helps the bass break through the mix a bit. This song is a great example of bass parts that just groove and are perfect in their simplicity. Enjoy and thanks for reading!

Mountain Bikes, Bass Guitar, and other stuff I like

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