BIGmog's BIGblog

Change of Address

bigmog — Sun, 16 Apr 2017 15:45:04 GMT

Looking for me?
I'm over at DreamWidth now.

That is all.

LJ 18th anniversary

bigmog — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 18:04:38 GMT

A second chance

bigmog — Wed, 24 Dec 2014 02:31:29 GMT

Last year I attempted to get a promotion at a foreign office my company has. The potential for a great adventure was deep in my mind. Alas it didn't happen. Now however, the chance has presented itself again and I'm still interested. Maybe even more so.

Not knowing how I failed the last time, I decided to reach out to the hiring manager and learn what I could. Based on that conversation, I came away thinking I could have a good shot at this. I shouldn't get my hopes up just yet but I'm certainly excited about it.

An image I try to remember is the old cart before the horse failure. In other words, put first things first and cross bridges when I come to them. I shouldn't concern myself with logistics of moving my life until it's a certainty.

Dog injury

bigmog — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 20:06:54 GMT

Lefty tore a dewclaw on our walk last night and it was bleeding all over. I nearly went to the vet ER but the bleeding stopped after a lot of licking by Lefty. I cleaned and dressed the wound as best I could and went to the vet today. The doctor removed the damaged nail and bandaged his leg. Lefty is doing okay now but he was pretty stressed out. I was stressed too.

Jersey Boys

bigmog — Sun, 14 Dec 2014 22:01:38 GMT

This year I went to fewer concerts but instead saw more musicals. On Saturday, I enjoyed the modern hit "Jersey Boys". Basing a show on the lives of an iconic band ensure that at least the music will be a highlight. "American Idiot" uses Green Day music but isn't about the band itself. In contrast, "Pippin" was fun in all areas except the music.

"Jersey Boys" portrays the life of Frankie Valli and the The Four Seasons. This music was before my time but I still recognize many of their hit songs. I actually saw Frankie Valli perform in D.C. on the Forth of July. Although I didn't have a good view, I can see what I missed on youtube here.

The stage production was better than I expected. A complex plot is of secondary focus. The rags to riches of a music group is common enough premise for a story. Where "Jersey Boys" excels is the song and dance. It feels like you're watching the real band at their best and not just actors. The facsimile is spot on.

There's a new movie based on the show that I'm now interested in seeing.

What a character

bigmog — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 19:35:22 GMT

A few weeks back, I went to see a show at the improv theater as part of a date. The manager recognized me from when I took a beginner class there 1 year ago. That little greeting was enough to push me to enroll for level 2.

I felt the first course was sub-par due in part to an inexperienced teacher. My concerns were logged as feedback but I heard nothing more. Well in this case at least, the level 2 course is taught by the owner of the theater. He's exceptionally knowledgeable about all things improv with decades of practice in elite company. I feel quite honored to be learning from him. So much so that I plan to bring a notebook from now on (most students aren't so serious. There are no tests or failures to worry about.)

The course is all about making characters and I'm enjoying it already. Again my biggest challenge is to NOT think about it. My brain goes into overdrive as I struggle to be funny and this is the worst thing I can do. Improv that is planned is not improv. I should start volunteering right away in each exercise to keep myself from falling into this trap.

Checking in

bigmog — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:51:38 GMT

A month without a post is too long and so I'm writing today despite not having too much to write about. Perhaps that lack of content is itself worth writing. As the end of the year comes to it's final 6 weeks, work seems to slow down. Everyone is made aware that all that time off they earned is about to expire and the office becomes noticeably more vacant. I too will take some days off but have no real plans outside of the usual homebody activities. An adventure may be in order here.

The Twin Cities

bigmog — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 17:07:21 GMT

Through some fortune at work, I was called on to attend a tech conference in St. Paul. As I had never been to the Twin Cities before, I arrived a couple days early for site-seeing. Here are some thoughts on that trip.

I learned a lot of history about that area during a walk around the St. Anthony Falls heritage trail.
Nicollet Island was very pretty with the autumn colors.
The Guthrie Theater is a neat building with great views of the Mississippi River.
The light rail is super cheap and convenient although the green line to St. Paul is a bit slow due to the route.
I got to see A Prairie Home Companion at the Fitzgerald theater. What a treat!
St. Paul Art Crawl is a cool event but I didn't have time to see much.
Lots of establishments have signs explicitly banning firearms. I guess this is to offset the state's gun laws.
Took a riverboat cruise down the Mississippi River. It was at night and very serene.
Visited the St. Paul Capitol building but it was under massive renovations so much of it was closed off.
Also toured the James J. Hill mansion. Railroad tycoons had incredible houses.
Enjoy local specialty "Juicy Lucy" twice.
Went to Mall of America during a cloudy day. I escaped without a single purchase. Take that capitalism.
So many churches. Big ones too.
Snoopy statues a plenty. Charles Schulz was a resident there.
My feet hurt after too much walking so I rented a bicycle through the city Nice Ride system. Quite a lot of bike riders there.

The rest of the trip was spent at the conference so I won't go into details there. Both Minneapolis and St. Paul are great places to visit. Thanks Twin Cities!

Bad caps

bigmog — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:45:28 GMT

My TV started to fail last week when it wouldn't power on at first. After a few minutes or so, eventually it would turn on. I learned this is a common problem so much that a class action lawsuit was filed against the manufacturer for the defect. They settled and offer to fix all the broken TVs. Unfortunately that offer expired last year so I was out of support.

A local TV repair shop quoted me $150 to fix it but as the issue is well known and well documented, I felt I could fix it myself. There are even kits sold specifically for this job. Capacitors on the power board had faulted and started to bulge and leak. I swapped these for 2 new ones and that solved the issue. The hardest part was taking apart the TV to get to the innards. Not because it's complicated, just big and heavy.

Modern TVs are made to be replaced more frequently than before. For a bit I considered just buying a new set. My current TV is 8 years old now which is is nearing a replacement anyway. Something I use almost daily might be worth upgrading soon. Well, it's working again now so I can continue to watch movies and play games.

The top right two capacitors are faulty as indicated by the bulge on top and the brown ooze.

The Greatest Show on Earth

bigmog — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 16:25:03 GMT

Having recently finished a novel that takes place in a circus (Water for Elephants), my curiosity for circus history was peaked. All of the various mergers were barely enough to keep the circus business alive and today we're pretty much left with one show: Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey.

So that's how I found myself at the Pepsi Center on a Saturday afternoon to see "The Greatest Show on Earth". I last saw this show back in 2009 and enjoyed it more than I expected then. The show has stayed mostly the same with typical circus acts: trapeze, acrobats, clowns, elephants, big cats, and the more modern motorcycles racing inside a metal sphere. Thankfully absent are the tight wire and human cannonball acts.

I guess due to all the consolidations, there is a lot of bloat. Let me give you some examples. One: they still have a full live band performing. Most people probably don't even recognize this. Recorded music would work just fine I think. Next, each troop of performers is twice as big as it needs to be. I seem to remember that a trapeze act used to be 2, maybe 3 brothers. Then they bring in their sisters and then add the cousins. Now such an act has 10+ performers. This applies to the Chinese acrobats and clowns too. I only need to see one guy do a triple back-flip with twist to be impressed. 9 more guys doing the same thing just cheapens it. Then there's 10 big cats, 6 elephants, 8 horses, plus the menagerie: goats, lamas, dogs, donkeys, pigs, and even kangaroos. Many of these are only on stage for a few minutes to do one trick. It's a wonder they can feed all these animals.

Well, I'm no circus manager so who am I to say this is all a waste? I guess the excess is part of the appeal. Us "rubes" don't want to see a scaled back show.

Beatles on Bass

bigmog — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 01:44:22 GMT

My endeavors in expanding my horizons have been weak this year. I'm sure I could think up some excuses but I'll just recognize this and try harder.

As to be expected, I haven't played bass in too long so I used that to get back into studies. I stopped taking classes last fall which is about the last time I played at all. It is clear to say that I am a bit rusty.

An interesting class is being offered this term that is all Beatles songs. I learned a couple songs in my previous studies: "Come Together" and "Day Tripper". Through these I gained a greater appreciate for Paul McCartney. Now I'm learning a song that's been on my wishlist for a while; "With a Little Help From my Friends". I always considered this tune to be above my skill level but it's nearly perfect for me. Just don't expect me to post a youtube video of me playing it.

I can already see a future very soon that I put down the bass again and follow some other interest instead. That's okay. It's all just for fun.

Pain in the Neck

bigmog — Sat, 27 Sep 2014 14:46:28 GMT

This summer, I made a donation to charity and was rewarded to a free back examination from a chiropractor. A marketing effort I saw as an obvious attempt to gain new patients. Still, after my lumbar injury, maybe I should at least take the complimentary exam.

The diagnosis was no major issues but they always want to find something wrong so they can sell you a treatment. Mine was an ailment called "Forward head posture", meaning my head doesn't sit perfectly on my back. Apparently more and more common in modern life as we spend hours looking down at books, phones, computer screens, etc. It results in tense neck muscles which have to work to keep your head upright. All of those could be resolved for $600. As I was in no pain, I passed.

Now months later, I hurt my neck somehow. Probably slept on it wrong as it started when I was doing my morning stretches. I couldn't move my head to the left easily without pain. Also, I would have a sharp but quick pain every hour or so. At this point I considered taking up the chiropractor offer but decided to take some ibuprofen and wait it out. 2 weeks later, my neck feels much better. The pain is mostly gone with just a bit of soreness. The worst is over and I'm re-thinking my neck health. Perhaps this information will be of some use to future me.

NDK & Pippin

bigmog — Sat, 20 Sep 2014 18:56:05 GMT

Last weekend was our local annual anime convention and I went for a while despite my minimal interest in anime itself. Instead, it was a nice chance to hang out with some friends and people watch. Being surrounded by many young geeks is uplifting in some way. I went to a panel on preserving old video games too which was only slightly educational to me.

Later in the week, I went downtown to see the musical "Pippin". A promotional mailer gained my interest with the description: A prince's life journey through his existential crisis set to a circus-like background. In addition to the expected song and dance, the show included acrobatics and even a bit of magic. Perhaps my only criticism was that the music itself was only average.

Geeks Who Drink

bigmog — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:15:40 GMT

I have a bit of a penchant for trivia so it is that some friends and I attended a "Geeks Who Drink" bar trivia night. The first few categories could have been written specifically for already too-smart Doug. Later categories proved to be more challenging however and we lost our lead in the final round. Still, a grand time was had by all. With a new understanding of the few intricacies of the game, we have a revised strategy going forward. Now we just need to round out the team with another geek or two to cover our weak areas. (Humans need not apply)

Oddball Comedy Festival

bigmog — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:59:16 GMT

Perhaps my favorite new service is a local FM radio station that only plays bits from stand-up comics. Before I tune to NPR or music, I start with comedy. By listening to this station, I've expanded my comedian horizons greatly. New favorites include Jimmy Carr, Maria Bamford, and Ron White (among many others).

On Sunday I went to famous Red Rocks Amphitheater for the OddBall Comedy festival. The show packs in numerous top-notch comics each doing a 20 minute act. The line-up was fantastic and any one of them would be a headliner at a comedy club. Some of the comics played it safe and used their proven jokes. Others were more risky and improvised their allocated time.

Whitney Cummings, Chris Hardwick, Hannibal Burress, Dmitry Martin, Mark Maron, Sarah Silverman, Aziz Ansari, and Louis C.K. as the closer. I was particularly starstruck to see Louis C.K. perform. His self-degradation and storytelling are perfectly tuned.

It was strange to see comedy in an outdoor amphitheater. I’m used to stand-up being more up-close and personal. Still, it was incredibly fun. the line-up varies at each stop so I recommend the show if it comes to your area.

Summer hikes

bigmog — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 16:02:36 GMT

Trips to the mountains have been limited this season so I made up for that over Labor Day weekend. 3 days, 3 hikes. Nothing too strenuous however: Cherry Creek State, Elk Meadows, and Deer Creek Canyon. Still, Lefty seemed exhausted and wouldn't even go for a morning walk after all that. Would like to go camping and climb a mountain this year yet. It had better be soon I think.

The Greenhouse Effect

bigmog — Mon, 18 Aug 2014 17:49:54 GMT

Want to see the greenhouse effect and ruin your lawn at the same time? Leave a clear plastic drop sheet on your grass on a sunny day to dry out. Oops.

Mini Family reunion

bigmog — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:46:50 GMT

Recently a number of family members gather to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday plus my step-brother's marriage. My brother was away at his in-laws reunion making ours a bit less complete. Still, it was a nice surprise to see my aunt and uncle and my nephew. I suppose that makes me the weird single uncle that most every family has. Tells corny jokes, plays video games, trains dogs to do tricks, and drives a sports car (someday).

With my brother taking a trip, he asked me to dog sit his corgi and I was happy to. Having two dogs around the house was an experience. They got along just fine except at feeding times. I fed them in separate rooms to prevent any misunderstanding over meals. After they had both finished, they would go check out the other's bowl for leftovers. Each was disappointed to find the other bowl just as empty as their own.

A Day Aquatic

bigmog — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 21:25:10 GMT

With summer ticking away, and a day off, I seized the chance and went the local water park. I felt it wouldn't be as fun to go solo but if I wait for someone to go with, it'll never happen.

I had been to this water park twice as a kid and made fond memories. Much of the current adventure gave me strong nostalgia. The rides that I enjoyed so much before were still there but felt much safer now. Now that I'm big, I was brave enough to go on the more daring attractions. Those generally involve a steep slide and a few seconds of thrills. I saw how such rides are efficient in their ability to process a large number of riders quickly. That explains why there are quite a few like this.

More complex rides are also available but those are fewer. The wait is considerably longer and I thought twice if I really wanted to wait that long. The choice was made for me however as they do not have a system to accommodate single riders. Such riders would slow down the queue even more so. Just one ride had a "single riders" line which I could enter. Obvious abusers abound but the attendant was strict and only accepted 1 rider at a time at the single riders line. Cheaters could not go together but they still made the line longer than it should have been.

After 4 hours in the park, I had gone on nearly every ride minus the kids and group rides. Crowds were reasonable for a weekday. With that, I left quite early.

Journey

bigmog — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:26:56 GMT

The rags to riches story of Arnel Pineda revived my interest in classic rock band "Journey". It's rare for a band to get a second or even third comeback like they did.

Steve Miller opened and like many other bands of that era, Steve's voice has degraded through the years of singing. He too employs a backup singer to help cover up his vocal shortcomings. Curiously, this backup singer stole the show with his dancing antics.

Journey put on a well-produced show just as you might expect. Their songs are quite taxing to sing and Arnel has learned from his predecessors. Every couple of songs, he takes a break and one of the other band members does a solo. The rest of the band is also very talented so this doesn't subtract from the show. I believe this is the first concert I've seen that had credits at the end. It's a nice touch to recognize all the behind the scenes work. Still, it just goes to show just how coordinated and structured a modern concert is.

Also, in a rare act of bravery, I jumped in to stop a couple's fight in front of me. He was getting a bit too physical with her and some buried chivalry induced me to intervene. All of this in the middle of an 80's love ballad. Go figure.

DC Miscellany

bigmog — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:44:01 GMT

Some more personal thoughts about my trip to Washington D.C.

I thought Coloradans were fit and active but the residents in D.C. earn their ranking as fittest city. Even on humid summer days I saw many sweat-soaked joggers around the national mall.

Carpet on the trains is disgustingly dirty. How did such a design ever get approved? Turns out they're finally correcting this mistake now.

Otherwise the train system is quite good. Their cashless system uses a NFC plastic card. This is miles better than the magnetic strip, flimsy, paper cards they use in New York City and Boston.

Seems like the term "Gift Shop" must be regulated somehow because every museum instead has a "Book store" (which is full of souvenir gifts).

I also noticed that fair number of these "book stores" include a section for Presidential pets although no such exhibit exists. No doubt it's a sly way to sell plush toys to kids. I admit defeat here when I found a plush beagle (LBJ owned several).

There are no sprinklers in the lawn at the national mall. It's wet enough there to not need them I suppose. Humidity sometimes has benefits. One more of these is fireflies.

"The Burger Joint" is a rapidly expanding new chain in the area. It's not cheap but it ranks as one of the best burgers I can remember.

Some of the major museums stay open extra hours during the peak tourist season. Very accommodating.

T-Mobile has lousy reception in the area. My phone battery couldn't last a single day because it was constantly searching for a signal.

Out in the suburbs, there are a lot of wooded areas / forests complete with deer and other wildlife.

Large crowds of tourists and endless federal buildings means there is security all over the place. I may have seen more flashing lights than fireworks. Perhaps because of the volume of people, the security checks are rarely deep. Bags are the biggest concern and even then they just take a cursory glance.

I'm not the type of tourist that needs to take photos of everything I see. Still, I took some selfies for my own personal memories.

A Capitol Fourth

bigmog — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 17:01:33 GMT

Washington D.C. is busy during the Independence Day holiday but they are mostly well prepared to handle the crowds. A summary of places I went to with some thoughts sprinkled in:

US Marine Corps Memorial (Iwo Jima) - Much larger than I imagined. The flag is a real flag and not metal like the rest of the sculpture.
US Capitol building - Grand! My tour guide was from Colorado so he gave me a lot of tips and extra trivia.
Library of Congress - The exhibit on history through maps was neat.
Supreme Court - Not very busy. Ate lunch at the cafeteria here.
Union Station - Disappointing. Was expecting something like Grand Central Station.
Postal Museum - Much better than expected. Recommended.
Smithsonian American History Museum - Excellent all-around. Must see.
Washington Monument - Did not go to the top.
World War 2 Memorial - Honor war heroes by soaking your feet in the pool (guilty).
Lincoln Memorial - Very impressive but the loud crowds take away from the majesty.
Bureau of Engraving and Printing - Much better than the mint tour.
Jefferson Memorial - Fewer crowds and also amazing. How do they keep birds out of there I wonder?
FDR and MLK memorials - I only passed through these and didn't stay long.
White House - My tour request was rejected but I still stopped by. You can't get very close.
National Archives - The longest wait was here and it was only about 30 minutes. Amazing to see the actual Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights.
Smithsonian Art Museum - I just spent about an hour here before it closed that day. There's only so many paintings of old European men that I need to see.
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - Full of kids. Some pretty good exhibits.
Ben's Chili Bowl - D.C. iconic eatery. Pretty good chili dog.
Mt. Vernon - Re-enactors, brass band, fireworks, naturalization ceremony, and cake! They go all out for the Fourth of July. Also, dogs are allowed!
Smithsonian Sculpture Garden - A nice place for a break.
Smithsonian Institution Building (The Castle) - If you only have a short time, you can get the quick tour here.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival - Why celebrate China and Kenya on our Independence day?
Smithsonian Natural History Museum - packed with kids running wild. I only went because I had some spare time before the fireworks.
Fireworks at the US Capitol - If you don't arrive early, it's hard to get a good view. Still, I saw Kermit and Piggy and Fozzy in the PBS live special filmed there. I also sorta saw Frankie Valli and a some other artists I'm too old to recognize. Fireworks themselves are excellent but only about 15 minutes long. You can hear the boom as it echoes from the capitol building behind.
Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center - Bigger and better than the one on the mall. The space shuttle Discovery is very well presented. Plenty of other historic aircraft here too.

Missed:
Spy Museum
Building Museum
Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
Holocaust museum

A Tale of Zoo Cities (Part 2)

bigmog — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 02:55:25 GMT

My plans to visit the National Zoo fell through. Hurricane Arthur made for particularly muggy weather in the D.C. area so I opted to spend my days inside air conditioned museums instead. Anyway, the National Zoo doesn't have penguins which is quite surprising. While the Denver zoo may rank low, it wins by default here.

A Tale of Zoo Cities (Part 1)

bigmog — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 16:10:26 GMT

This year, my company held their sometimes annual summer party at the Denver Zoo. Since I hadn't been to this local zoo in about 20 years, I attended despite my experience at the previous summer party.

The Denver Zoo isn't world class by any means. In fact, it's fairly mediocre based on my limited knowledge of other zoos. Still, they have some penguins and giraffes which are my favorite animals. Too bad those the exhibits themselves are quite mundane.

I didn't leave completely disappointed however. I rode the carousel out of a sense of nostalgia for an era I never lived in. During the ride, I found that every carousel may actually be a time machine to the past. Go for a ride on your next opportunity.

Also, I learned much about the "bongo". Not the preferred drum for 60's hipsters but the large antelope species. A baby bongo was born just two weeks ago and so I watched the new family for a good while. At the gift shop, I was looking for a little souvenir to remember this but there were none. In fact the staff were clueless to what a bongo was or even that the baby was just born. What lousy marketing.

After the lackluster time, I felt that I should now see what a top grade zoo could offer. My trip to Washing D.C. soon provides this great chance and while it wasn't in my itinerary before, it is now. Expect another review then.

Story time

bigmog — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 20:12:38 GMT

Just yesterday I managed to "finish" Final Fantasy 14 A Realm Reborn. That is, I beat the last boss and watched the ending and credits. To keep players subscribed, there are many, many hours worth of "end game" content but I really have no interest.

Even playing the main scenario, it was tough to stay engaged. The story is nonsense and I skipped most of it. At first I felt guilty for this but I just couldn't force myself to read all that text. Imagine reading a book and every other page, you are required to stop and complete some chore before proceeding. How long would you read that book?

I enjoy reading and I enjoy video games but games with story are often a poor mix. There are a few exceptions to this rule: Yakuza 2, Earthbound, FF Tactics.

Instead, games should use the strengths of the medium to tell the story. Visuals and music; not countless dialog boxes of text. Create an interesting world with neat characters and that will speak for itself. A game should show you the story and not tell it to you.

With that in mind, I show you my ending here: