mlk

Home from Alaska.

2009-05-09T21:41:00.000-06:00

I'm home from my trip to Alaska. I won't really give any details now, I still need to unpack, post process my photos (about 1200), and figure out how to best present the trip. Here is some quick info about the trip:

We didn't see a single bear.
We didn't see the northern lights.
The weather was much better than we had prepared for, only a small amount of rain.
Did a decent amount of hiking around.
Walked around on a glacier.
Saw lots of snow.
Saw a humpback whale and some killer whales.

That's it for now. As I get some pictures and trail stuff ready I'll post more!

Mikeocaster: The Grain Filler

2009-04-19T19:56:00.000-06:00

The paint arrived the other day, so I figured I'd have some time to do at least the first step this weekend. That would be to use a grain filler to fill in the grain. It is an oil based filler that you just wipe onto the wood, let dry, clean off the excess and repeat then let dry overnight. Here is a shot of the body prepped. I filled in the areas that don't need any paint with some tape to protect them. The body cavity will eventually be covered in copper shielding, so it has the most blue.

After getting it prepped, I wiped on the first coat of filler, let it sit for about half an hour, then wiped off the excess. Here is what it looks like before applying the second coat:

The purpose of the filler is to make sure all the pores and what not are completely filled in, we don't want the actual paint to fill in and take the shape of the grain. After this is done, I'll apply a coat of sand + sealer, which will smooth it all out and create a nice base for the primer and paint.

The body has arrived

2009-04-14T00:09:00.000-06:00

Just got back from the Warriors game tonight. Don't worry, the Spurs totally embarrassed and destroyed the Warriors.

As I approached our front door, I saw a nice package from Warmoth Custom Guitar Parts. I opened it up and found this:

That is the new body I'll have to paint. Now I just need me some paint.

The Mikeocaster

2009-04-06T22:46:00.001-06:00

I've decided to build my own guitar. No, it's not as hardcore as you think. I'm not going to fashion my own guitar body or anything like that. I am, however, going to paint the body, finish it, pick a neck and electronics and put them all together.

I just ordered the body and some paint.

The body is a light Alder Stratocaster body from Warmoth guitar parts. It'll come completely unfinished. It looks like this:

I got the contoured heel, which will make upper fret access a bit more comfortable. I don't know when it'll get shipped, as they have to do some more woodwork on it before they ship it out.

I also ordered all the finishing supplies I'll need. I've really been digging white strats lately, so I ordered up some Olympic White paint for the whole body. I figured since I'll be doing the paint job, I could also maybe use another color to paint some design into it, so I picked up some surf green for that. I have no designs in mind but I'll start drawing some up soon enough.

I'll keep you all well informed as the project goes forward, and probably backward since this is my first time doing anything like this.

As for the neck, I plan on picking up a good Fender neck. I haven't decided which shape I want. The American Strat I play right now has a thin C shape, but I've heard great things about certain V shape necks. As my usual, I'll probably get one with a rosewood fingerboard.

For the pickups, I'm really tempted to go local. My amp broke down about a month ago and I took it to this repair shot in San Mateo called Torres Engineering. Turns out they also wire up their own pickups. They have a decent selection and the price is pretty good, so I'll probably try some out.

In the end I hope it looks amazing. I plan on taking my time, so it'll probably be at least a couple months before the thing is assembled and playable. Oh yeah, I'll probably go all out and order a custom neck plate so I can really say the thing is mine, but we'll see what happens when I get to that point.

Any advice on painting and finishing is welcome.

About time I get back to this blog

2009-03-22T22:18:00.000-06:00

Yes, I've been rather absent. It's not that there hasn't been anything to post about. I guess it's more that I just felt like taking a good vacation from the blog.

I'm back, but no guarantees as to when I'll post next, so soak it up now.

Here are some quick updates:
- I bought a Nikon D90.
- I bought a nice 70-200mm lens to go with that Nikon.
- I'm studying more classical guitar at my lessons and am starting to like it more, except that I still kinda suck at it.
- We announced iPhone OS 3.0 last Tuesday!
- Alaska is getting really close, down to 5 weeks and 6 days.
- I finally became a Californian, meaning I got my drivers license by barely passing the written test.
- With a couple other people, I've been playing a lot of electric guitar. It's easier when you have somebody playing bass and drums. I subject them to my need for blues. Cindy, you'd love our jam sessions.
- I finished reading The Brothers Karamazov and Into Thin Air, both great books to read.

That's really about all I can think of right now. Life is good, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and feel I made the right decision to move to the Bay even though I'd love to be close to my nieces and nephew in Seattle!

Six Month Review

2009-01-18T23:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it is crazy to think, but I've been living in California for about six months now. Yeah, I know, it has gone by really fast. It started out on July 12th, when I started my drive from Oregon down to Sunnyvale, CA. That is where my corporate apartment was. I lived there for about 30 days. It was a very nice place. Unfortunately it would have been extremely expensive (more than even my first apartment) to live in that same complex so I went searching elsewhere.

Work started on the 14th and I was off in iPhone land. The first couple weeks were pretty blurry. I had a lot to learn. It is kinda funny actually. When I started I felt like I had a lot to learn. After six months I can look back and realize how much I have learned. What is funny is that I still feel way inferior to a majority of my peers at work. I still have an insane amount to learn. I'm pretty sure I'll be stuck with that kind of feeling wherever I go, as long as I'm surrounded by people smarter than I am.

As far as work goes, it has been a very enjoyable six months. I've learned a lot about Apple as a company and a lot about working on the iPhone. I was fortunate to be placed on a great team. All my coworkers are extremely talented and make for a pleasant work environment. I just hope I can contribute as much as possible to the stellar people working on the iPhone.

I did move recently into a house with some friends. It was definitely a good choice on my part. As nice as it was having my own place, it is much nicer to be around people. I did like having my own personal space but I've decided that I'd easily trade that for some friends around (as well as the much reduced rent) instead. I'm still close to work, only about a 15 minute commute.

Let's see, what else....

Oh, I cut my hair really short again and am going through the painful process of growing it back out.

I grew a beard.

Ummm....I enjoy the freedom of not having homework or big tests to study for. I enjoy learning and enjoy doing it on my own time.

I joined a book club. TPBK. We are currently reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky.

I've been taking guitar lessons for the last 4 months or so. We've been focusing on theory mostly, so my playing abilities haven't improved a ton, but my knowledge definitely has.

Still single.

I joined the Emergency Response Team at Apple. I am a certified emergency responder and will be starting my MERT (Medical Emergency Response Team) training in a few weeks. That will be intense.

In my fire extinguisher class, I put out the fire in 2.7 seconds, the best time in the class.

It has been around 70 degrees during the day recently around here, California weather is definitely nice.

Ummmmmmm

I guess that is about it. Things are going good and I feel good about the direction my life is going. Thanks for all your support!

Wow, that was one crazy Christmas

2009-01-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

Normally Christmas vacations for me are pretty simple. I fly home to Portland, spend about a week there and then fly back to wherever I came from. I had envisioned something similar to that.

Instead it started off with a drive to LA and a phone call from my mom. Eliot and I talked with Justin and decided to go to the Vegas Bowl. We were going to drive from the bay to LA and then off to Vegas the next morning. As we were driving there that night I got said phone call from my mom. She was calling to let me know that my Grandpa (my Dad's Dad) was in the hospital and to hope and pray he makes it through the night. He has been struggling with varying health issues lately and apparently couldn't eat. He was checked into the hospital and they notified my family that there wasn't much they could do. He was too weak for surgery and without it he wouldn't last very long. Even though we new he was weak I don't think any of us were expecting him to pass away this soon. The timing wasn't great. Most of the family was starting Christmas break and my Dad was actually in China for work and wouldn't even be able to fly home for a couple days. As Eliot and I kept driving I kept Grandpa on my mind hoping my Uncle Doug would make it there before passed away. Unfortunately my Grandpa passed away about an hour or two after that first phone call.

I spent the next day driving to Vegas and watching my beloved Cougs lose to Arizona. I had a flight out of Vegas to PDX the next morning. I had DTM take me to the airport and drop me off. I checked into my flight and was waiting at the gate. My Dad and I were actually supposed to land at pretty much the same time in PDX. He had just landed in San Francisco and was waiting for his flight to Portland. The northwest had been hit by some bad winter storms before this and the snow continued to fall, melt, freeze and repeat. Many, many flights into PDX were canceled including my Dads and both of mine (I still had a ticket that left from San Jose.) So there I was in Vegas without a way to get home and my Dad in San Francisco without a way home. I talked with my family and decided I would try and fly into Seattle before they canceled flights there. I hopped a plane to SLC and waited on the runway for about an hour and a half while the pilot waited for Sea-tac to let us take off. Eventually I made it to Seattle and had my brother pick me up from the airport. My Dad waited and waited in SFO until he finally made it onto a flight into Eugene, OR. Eugene is normally about an hour and a half from my house. That night it took my sister and her friend Kyle a lot longer than that to pick up my Dad. He made it home and I was in Seattle with my brother's family. At least I was somewhere.

I stayed with them for a couple days while we tried to figure out how to get me home. There were no trains, no busses, no flights. The only way was to drive. Since the roads were pretty bad we would have to take a car with 4 wheel drive. The only option was their Pathfinder. Two front seats, 3 in the back. Now let's see, there's my brother John, his wife Larissa, their three kids, and me. Hmmm, that is 7 total. The three kids each had a carseat to sit in, my brother drove, and Larissa sat in the passenger seat. I climbed in the very back with the luggage and Christmas presents and off we went! It was a long, uncomfortable drive, but I am very grateful they were willing to make it! Without it, I wouldn't have been home to see the rest of my family, so thank you!

We made it to Tualatin after 6 or so hours of driving. The last 20 miles or so took forever since none of the side roads were plowed and when they would plow something they would completely shut it down. We eventually made it though, and that is what mattered.

I enjoyed the two days I got to spend at home (as opposed to the original 10 I was planning.) Christmas was very nice and I think everybody enjoyed the gifts we all received. Now we had to figure out how to get to Colorado. My grandparents live in Cortez, CO. It is in the southwest corner of Colorado. Flights to Durango (the nearest "big" airport) were expensive, about $500+ each. My parents decided to drive. At the time we had to leave I-84 through Idaho and Utah was closed. That meant we had to drive south through California and then across Arizona and up into Colorado. It took two days.

The funeral was nice. It was the first funeral I'd ever been to. My Grandpa served in the Army, so he had a military burial. I'm a sucker for patriotic stuff and it was really cool to see the local military personnel perform the 21 gun salute. I enjoyed it and it was great to see my Grandpa honored. As sad an occasion as it was, it was nice to see so much family together to celebrate the life of my Grandpa. I met quite a few people from my Dad's side of the family that I probably wouldn't have met. We spent a lot of time just visiting and talking about Grandpa. After most everybody left, we stayed around to help out my Grandma and just relax a bit and then we had to start the drive back. Since we stayed in Colorado for four days, I missed my flight out of Portland. That meant my parents had to drive through California to drop me off, even thought the roads were all clear through the normal path. I made it back home to CA on Friday and started to actually relax a bit.

Then I discovered the starter in my car died over my trip. Hopefully I'll get that fixed very soon, I don't like being stranded.

All in all, it was a very chaotic, abnormal, frustrating Christmas, but it was a Christmas full of new and different experiences, ones that I wouldn't want to trade away for 10 days of sitting at home playing with the dogs. I got to spend a lot of time with family and I got to really think a lot about life. I got to think about the life after this one and how grateful I am to have faith in an afterlife. Not just any afterlife, but a life in which I'll get to be with family. I still got to play with my nieces and nephew, they are always fun and I'm pretty sure they enjoy having me around to play with. I also bet my brother and sister-in-law enjoy a slight break from constantly entertaining them.

Las Vegas

2008-12-07T23:18:00.001-07:00

awaits me.

Getting back to my roots

2008-11-29T18:26:00.006-07:00

Growing up in Oregon I spent a lot of time in the great outdoors. Lots of camping, hiking and backpacking. When I went off to college in 2001 I had a shift of interests. I started playing more music, I started skiing more, and I started rock climbing more. I realize the last two are very much outdoor activities, just not the same that were my main interests before. I think the last time I had hiked more than a few miles was probably the summer before I went to BYU. Anyway, with a long weekend and a forecast of great weather, I decided to check out some of the close hiking spots. I found a book called "60 Hikes Within 60 Minutes", it has a ton of hikes (you could say about 60) that are really close to the bay area. I picked one that was close to peninsula and off I went. I ended up going to the Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. It was about half an hour from my apartment. I had to drive to Half Moon Bay and then head back into the Santa Cruz mountains. I picked a 7 mile loop that took me up a creek and then around a ridge and back down. It was a decent little hike. I also picked up an app called Trails for my iPhone that recorded my GPS track points along the way. That way I could import them into Google Earth and check out exactly where I was. It worked pretty well. Hiking for about 3 hours drained about half my battery though, so it wasn't super good, but good enough for what I wanted. Here is a pic of my hike as shown in Google Earth from my GPS positions:

I need to do this more often or Alaska is going to own me when we go in May, which is now 5 months away.

Musical Goodness

2008-11-18T23:16:00.004-07:00

In my spare time tonight I was reminiscing about the past couple years. I was thinking about the good times and the bad times and I started listening to my iTunes library on random. Well, this led to me remembering a time last year when I got the opportunity spend a few weeks playing music with some amazingly talented people. Taylor and I have been writing music for the last few years (although not very consistently) and we decided to try and throw together a band for the Guitars Unplugged event at BYU. We grabbed a guy named Tyler on drums, his friend on guitar and a guy from my lib square ward named Brad. All cool guys and very talented musicians. The song: Enjoy the Ride. Taylor and I wrote that when I lived at Jamestown (in the ever cool 61st ward) and I always kinda thought of it as my favorite. It had only been one guitar and vocals at that point. We spend the next 2 or 3 weeks practicing like mad and throwing together a new version of the song with two guitar parts, vocals, background vocals, bass and drums. It was a lot of work and extremely fun. We threw together what I consider to be an awesome song. Unfortunately the Guitars Unplugged judges didn't agree, and we all still feel we got shafted on that one. For the record we went to the show and there were many acts who were of much less talent but catered to the judges. In other words, it was all politics. Anyway, here you have the best recording of our band playing the song. And by best I don't mean good. We had one mic for recording and it wasn't a studio mic, just a mic. This was mostly for our practice purposes so we could listen and learn our parts, it was never meant for public listening. With that in mind, I still think it sounds pretty good, even with the timing sometimes off and the levels being all over the place.

The latest news

2008-11-16T19:23:00.004-07:00

I've fallen a bit behind. Not that a lot has happened, or really anything big. Here is an update into my life at the moment.

The Southworths come to visit

Last weekend Brian and Marcie Southworth came to visit San Francisco. Of course they called me so they could stay somewhere for free. I'm not sure if they came to visit me or if they came to infect me with a nasty cold virus. Anyway, they rolled into town Thursday evening and we all just relaxed and watched some football that night. The following day was a day in the city. I took half the day off and we went to Alcatraz for a tour. It was actually really fun. My first thought going into it was that it would be relatively boring, and just a quick tour of the place and then some ploy to buy stuff from the gift shop. There was definitely an overpriced gift shop. The tour itself was pretty cool. Once you get to the island they take you up into the prison where you get a nice set of headphones for the audio tour. It then leads you all around the prison, telling stories of inmates, guards, and all kinds of stuff that went on in the prison. It was very interesting and not boring at all. If you live in the area and haven't gone, I'd recommend it.

After the tour we rode the trolley back to Union Square to find someplace to eat before we went to the Warfield to see Jim Gaffigan. We found a nice grill pretty close and had some good food and were off to the show. It was funny, and even though we were all kinda tired from walking around all afternoon, he kept us awake (except for Marcie who still managed to doze a bit.)

Saturday was their day in the city. I opted to stay home and watch football. That night we all went to Cheesecake Factory for some dinner and the next day they took off.

The aftermath

After they left, I quickly developed a nasty cold. I later found out that they were the ones responsible. It's ok, I don't hate you guys, you are still welcome to come back anytime. I was pretty miserable all week. I didn't feel bad enough to not go into work, and I had a lot of stuff to do at work so if I missed it would have probably made my week worse. I didn't do much at all other than go to work, come home from work and sleep. I did however go back up to the city Thursday night with some friends to see Ben Folds play. It was a quality show. He played a great setlist and most of his new material, including a song titled "Way to Normal" that he didn't put on his album which is titled "Way to Normal". He talked about how the band spent one day recording a bunch of fake songs that they would leak on the internet before the album's release. He then mentioned how people actually liked the fake songs so he included a bunch of them in his set. All in all it was a good show.

Oh yeah, I also had a birthday. It snuck up on me. I have been busy with work, I have been sick, and because of this I basically forgot my own birthday until it happened. I know, sad. It was still a good birthday. Thanks to everybody who called, texted, facebooked, or g-video-chatted with me. I'll have to admit, probably the best happy birthday I got was when most of my friends in Utah got together (for a football game) and video chatted with me through gmail. They sang happy birthday and chatted for a bit. It was cool, so thanks for that guys!

And that brings me to today. Still sort of sick and ready to get back to the grind at Apple. These iPhones don't make themselves you know.

Just a note

2008-11-15T13:59:00.002-07:00

I am officially closer to 30 than 20.

Another serious California issue

2008-10-23T22:04:00.003-06:00

Now I bring your attention to an issue which really bothers me. As an implant to California I've always heard the rumors about how Californians drive. All fast and out of control.

At least here in Silicon Valley this is not the case.

The most frustrating 4.7 mile stretch of my life lies on Highway 85 and I-280. The speed limit is most definitely 65mph, believe me, I've checked like 50 times.

Problem one is the on-ramp. Some people feel like merging at 35 is reasonable. I don't think it is, since the speed limit is 65.

Problem two is going the speed limit. You should know I live opposite the San Francisco commute. Meaning my direction is relatively empty while the other side is packed. There is plenty of room on my side. For some unknown reason many people still feel the need to drive 50. That is right, 50 in a 65 zone. It drives me insane. Good thing it is only for 5 minutes or so each way, if it wasn't I might be in jail already.

My thoughts on Prop 8

2008-10-21T23:14:00.003-06:00

I'm going to venture someplace my blog has never ventured. I'll be discussing my thoughts on California's Proposition 8.

First off, I need to clarify that I in no way hate or discriminate against gay people. Their lifestyle is their choice, as is mine. I do not agree with homosexuality due to the morals I believe in and I can still respect individuals who practice that lifestyle.

WIth that out of the way, here is my opinion. Proposition 8 will add to the California state constitution this statement, "Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid and recognized in California." This means that gay marriage will not be legal. A yes vote on Prop 8 means you support traditional marriage, a no vote means you support gay marriage.

Although I disagree with homosexuality and gay marriage, the real problem with proposition 8 is how it can eliminate the separation of church and state. Our government tries it's best to keep religion out of public places. If proposition 8 fails, it will allow schools to begin teaching the lack of religion and morals. Enforcing a lack of morals is the same as a religion that holds no morals. It will take away the right of parents to teach what they believe to their children without being contradicted by the educational system. Before any supporters of gay marriage start attacking me, I'll gladly admit that there are flaws in my logic. It isn't a perfect system, and I don't know how to fix it so all parties can be happy.

Remember back in middle school or whenever it was, when we had the sex talk in health class? Our parents were notified of that in advance and they had the opportunity to pull us out of class if they didn't want us learning about that in school. Recent experiences from a couple in Massachusetts found out that the teaching of gay marriage and homosexual relationships would enter all aspects of learning and that there would be no warning to them when it would happen. This takes away the option of letting parents choose and that is where I think the system is flawed.

I apologize to anybody that may be offended by efforts to protect traditional marriage. Remember, there are two sides to everything. I can understand how gay people feel oppressed and not equal when discussing marriage. People who disagree with homosexuality are now labeled as ignorant, as bigots. Gone are the opinions that something can be morally wrong. I believe that homosexuality is morally wrong. I also believe that premarital sex is morally wrong. I also believe that crime is morally wrong, that cheating is morally wrong and that lying is morally wrong. Can't I hold onto my morals and opinions?

I recommend everybody visit www.protectmarriage.com for more info on Proposition 8. I also recommend California residents register to vote and have their voice heard.

It all started as a joke...

2008-10-13T19:48:00.006-06:00

No really, it did. It started last Tuesday. The guys were sending emails out to try and organize a football game for Saturday morning. I sarcastically responded saying if somebody paid half I would fly out. That got Seth thinking that he could pitch in, and others could pitch in, and then I'd end up flying to Utah for the weekend. At that point it became real. I then told Eliot that I was thinking about going to Utah for the weekend. He sarcastically said, "Road trip?" and I agreed. That all happened Tuesday afternoon. With that we made arrangements to miss Friday and drive to Utah. What followed was a great weekend.

I got into work a little early on Thursday so I could take off by 5:00 and drive to Berkeley and meet up with Eliot. Two hours later I finally made it to his apartment and packed my stuff in his car. I made sure my car was empty (with the exception of the 72 hour emergency backpack I always left in the back, more on that later.) After some quick food and shopping we were off to Utah. Our friends had convinced us to drive through the night so we could make it for "pre-game", a weekly ritual they had started where they all go to lunch together on Fridays and discuss the game coming up on Saturday. Well, we made it. It took us a little over 10 hours from Berkeley. We arrived at about 7:15 AM MST. We were tired, but alive. We took a quick nap and went to lunch with the guys. It was fun. Most everybody was able to go so we all got to catch up and hang out for a couple hours.

After that Eliot and I went to BYU. It was weird being there and not being a student anymore.

We kinda hung around for a while and just took it easy. I had plans to hang out with my friends Ashlee and Becki since Saturday was going to be all day with the guys. After Ash got off of work we went to Cafe Rio and then spent the rest of the night reminiscing of old times. Becki showed up after dinner since she had homework (lame) and joined us in the fun. It was a night of laughs, stories and just hanging out together like old times. Here are some shots of the night:

Saturday was a day centered around football. I woke up around 10:00 to go play a game of touch football. It was really fun and I had an amazing day. Something like 4 touchdown receptions. It was fun. Of course, I am really out of shape since I haven't been doing a whole lot of physical activity since I moved to California. Needless to say, I am now sore.

After that I grabbed a quick bite of lunch with Ashlee and the pictures from the previous night and then was off to Lavell Edwards Stadium. We tailgated and it was a great tailgate. Check out this slideshow from BYU photographers. The second picture is from our tailgate. You can see me on the left side drinking a Dr Pepper. The media loves us. After the tailgate we went to the game where BYU won 21-3. A solid victory.

After the game we all hung out at the Noni Mansion and watched more football and played Rockband. It was a fun day.

Sunday was a day of driving. All day it seemed. And when we finally got to Berkeley I was welcomed with a surprise...

Somebody had broken the rear cargo window on my car and stolen the one thing I had left in it. My 72 hour emergency backpack.

Considering how the trip ended, I would still say it was worth it. I realized how much I miss all my Utah friends and it was very good to see them all again.

Alaska Preview: Part 1

2008-10-05T14:51:00.003-06:00

I am well aware of how excited we all are to go on this trip. Probably way too excited, especially considering it is 7 months away. I'd say I am worried about over-hyping it but I don't think I can, it's Alaska! I spent plenty of time hitting up the googles and gathering information about where we are going and also trying to find some pictures. So here I give you my Alaska Preview: Part 1.

The Tongass National Forest.

Deemed "America's Last Great Rainforest", the Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States, covering approximately 17 million acres. Here is a map showing the area where the Tongass is found:

We are departing our respective locations on Friday, May 1st 2009. The Bennion and I are leaving from San Jose International Airport around 5:00 PM. We will meet up with Justin and others (I only know for sure that Justin will be there) in Seattle to continue on the same flight to Juneau, AK. Our plan is to all arrive Friday night and leave Saturday morning to one of our locations. We plan on splitting up the week at two different locations. We haven't decided the timeline or which locations exactly. Reed, our Juneau native friend, told me he was thinking about three locations: Dan Moller, Peterson Lake and Windfall Lake. Those sites don't have too many good quality pictures of what we will be looking at, so I dug around and found some.

May 1st can't come soon enough.

Alaska, prepare yourself

2008-09-29T22:36:00.006-06:00

It is official. I'm going to Alaska.

I booked my flight tonight for May 1st 2009. It is a long ways off, but at least now a few of us are committed. It'll be a weeklong trip of manliness. A few days on a beach and a few more up in a mountain somewhere. We will probably fight bears, eat fish, and live in the snow. It'll be awesome.

Happenings

2008-09-10T20:53:00.006-06:00

This post is going to cover a lot of ground, I'll just tell you that up front.

First off, I was in Seattle this weekend to visit my brother and his family and also to go to the BYU vs. UW football game.

Eliot and Seth joined me on this trip. We all flew in Friday night and my brother picked us up in his new awesome mini-van. Saturday was the big game day, we were woken up around 8:30-9:00 by my niece and nephew who wanted to play and have some fun. I couldn't say no to that. For most the morning we just hung around slowly getting ready to head off to the game. My parents also drove up from Portland to visit, so I saw them briefly before we left for the game. What followed were 3 hours of joy mixed with bits of pain and fear. Could we actually lose to the Huskies? How did we fumble on the goal line? Did Jan Jorgensen seriously just bust that line and block that extra point?! As many of you probably know, BYU won the game, but just barely. We blocked an extra point with 2 seconds on the clock to win the game 28-27. Too close for comfort. Jake Locker ran all over us. Luckily between him and his receivers they didn't have much of a passing game. What matters is that in the end we game through and made on final play. Quinn Gooch, a former BYU defensive player, has lots of good commentary on the whole game and also about BYU football in general. Check it out @ http://deepshadesofblue.com/

Anyway, the rest of the weekend consisted of playing with the kids who have started calling me "The Park" because I essentially play the role of the park while I am there. We also roamed around Seattle checking out some of the sights and enjoying being in the city. I didn't take too many pictures while I was there, but I did get this one of my niece, she is probably the happiest baby I've ever seen. She can't help but always smile.

So I have a knack for finding great deals on guitars I want to get. Enter the Taylor GS-6. I have been thinking about this guitar for quite a few months. It is a little outside my price range so naturally I have waited. Last week I managed to find an amazing deal for this guitar from a guitar store out in Wisconsin. I couldn't resist.

Maybe I'll do some recordings in a bit and post them.

Caution: This will be nerdy

2008-09-01T21:31:00.003-06:00

So I have a love for physics. When other people were taking bowling classes at school for fun, I ended up taking classes like Modern Physics or Light and Optics. No, I was not a physics major but I still really enjoyed these classes. In the last physics class I took at BYU I learned a minor amount about particle physics. It got pretty crazy. Learning about all the particles smaller than an electron were very interesting and it lead to many discussions about particle accelerators and Super String theory. I know, I'm a nerd. Anyway, I was cruising around on the internets and I found this gem of a video on youtube. Enjoy.

My Apartment. Finished.

2008-08-31T19:54:00.004-06:00

Here it is, the post you've all been waiting for. My apartment is finished! Well, 99% finished anyway. I still have a few things here or there that I'll pickup but that'll come over time. Here you go!

As a side note, Mountain View is a pretty cool place to live. Last night I went and strolled Castro Street in Downtown Mountain View with some friends. We had dinner at our pick of restaurants and then ended up catching a street band playing some blues. Anybody who knows me well enough knows that if I hear blues music, I seek it out immediately, and we did. It was awesome!

USA Basketball wins gold! In HD!

2008-08-24T02:19:00.004-06:00

I'm posting this before Adam.

I know most of you probably didn't stay up late to watch the USA vs. Spain gold medal game. I did. I got my Directv installed earlier in the day and I was enjoying HD just too much. It all just looks so dang good. Anyway, I did stay up to watch the game, and it was pretty awesome. Spain definitely showed up to the game. They played a lot better than I expected but still, the USA team really came through in the end and won the game.

With all the HD goodness that is my new tv I still noticed something:

Pao Gasol is ugly, even uglier in HD.

I'm glad the US won. I wasn't here for the last Summer Games, I was still in Brazil, so I missed our loss in 2004 but it was still awesome to see the "Redeem Team" finish strong. It was great to see a lot of the all-star players be unselfish and really dish the ball all around for the good of the team. Way to go guys, you deserve it.

Ikea, you got nothin' on me

2008-08-21T21:59:00.002-06:00

I made one more trip to the furniture demon we know as Ikea. My books were getting uncomfortable on the floor next to my couch, so I decided I better give them a home. Considering that this was going to be in my living room, I wanted something that wasn't just a bookcase. So I got this:

I built that all by myself. I think it'll do nicely. I can put my books on it, as well as my newly acquired plant. Any bets on how long it'll take for the thing to die? I've got my money on it not seeing October.

Sunday posts are becoming habitual

2008-08-17T21:35:00.004-06:00

At least I've been consistent, right?

Here is the latest update on my life as an Apple employee living in California. Last week you saw my new place in it's worst state. All my stuff was in the living room, nothing was unpacked, I didn't have a lot of furniture. It really was a disaster. Well here is my apartment version 1.1:

In this picture you can see my new IKEA coffee table, a little bit more of the carpet, and even the pile of cardboard boxes left over from my unpacking wrath. The walls are still naked, which is a problem. The bigger problem is that my ability to pick out good pictures or whatever is, how can I put it, lacking? Anyway, it'll take me some time to actually put stuff on the walls.

The big news from the weekend is this:

That is my new TV. After much discussion with Rodney, Seth and Russ, I decided to buy a Samsung LCD. I was 99% sold on a Panasonic plasma and almost got one. While I was there looking at them though, something about this LCD just made it rise above the Panasonic. Don't worry sports fans, this is one of the LCDs with a 120Hz refresh rate. That means no motion blur. It is full 1080p, which is awesome. I bought an upconverting DVD player to go along with it. Normal DVDs look pretty sweet on it. I am happy with my purchase. Coming up next is the installation of DirecTV so I can watch some actual TV and BYU football games when the season starts. I am really excited for football to start. No really, if there was no college football, I don't know what I would do from September until January, especially considering that January through August I really just wait for it to start up again.

Anyway, next weekend should be a good weekend. My apartment should be completely clean and ready for display. Be prepared for a slideshow.

Home, sweet home

2008-08-10T22:03:00.005-06:00

Good news everybody, I now live in my own apartment. The bad news, it is a disaster. There were a few mishaps along the way. First off, the moving company that had all my stuff refused to move in on Friday the 8th. I tried and tried to get them to do it but they were "booked solid" through Tuesday the 12th. So I signed my lease to start on Saturday, so I could start moving some of my clothes over and what not. On Friday, however, I was eating lunch at Café Macs with some co-workers and I kept getting phone calls. The manager of my apartment called me a couple times, then my mom kept calling me. I decided to listen to my voicemails at that point and found out that the moving company was at my apartment and wanted to move stuff in. My lease didn't start until Saturday. So I had to leave work early to go meet them, sign a new lease and get my stuff in my apartment. Friday also happened to be a day where I had a few things I absolutely needed to do at work. This little shenanigan with the movers made me stay late at work, missing my friend Sondra's wedding reception in Oakley. Sorry Sondra! Except for that, everything worked out alright.

Saturday I went to Santa Cruz with Veronika and her roommate. They were both in town for Sondra's wedding, and like good friends, they actually went. Santa Cruz was fun. We were only there for a few hours and then had to come back. But we swam for a while in the ocean, which in case you forgot, is pretty cold out here. Good times were had by all.
The rest of Saturday was spent at Ikea and trying to get the rest of my stuff in order to move to my new apartment. I can now say that I am entirely moved in. Of course, it is a mess as you can see.
I do now have a coffee table and some lamps. Something about no overhead lighting that I just don't understand. Anyway, it's been a long weekend and I am ready to call it a night. Stay tuned for more later this week when my apartment looks respectable.

From Mountain View, California with love.

Why don't they just use a gun?

2008-07-30T21:49:00.003-06:00

So today I had the chance to go on my rental tour of the area. I filled out some paperwork last week and this relocation agency found some places I might be interested in and took me around to see them today.

Ouch.

Sure, they were nice for the most part. But the average price was five times as much as my rent in Provo. I know I know, it is more expensive to live here. It is a nice area, and I'm not looking to live in a total dump, so I guess I have to pay a little more to live nicely. I'm just struggling with the fact that I have to give that much of my salary just for a one-bedroom apartment.

California: Week Two

2008-07-27T19:02:00.005-06:00

I'm sure you are all wondering what happened during my second week in California.

Work was good. I was still working with another guy on the team most of the time, but it sounds like I'll be on my own for the most part starting this week. I signed up to take my Objective-C / Cocoa class in a couple weeks, once I learn some of that I'll be able to dig in and understand more code. I'll essentially be in class from 9:00 to 5:30 that entire week. We also spent most of Thursday in San Francisco at AT&T Park, watching the Giants play the Nationals. The Giants won, but it was a quick, sort of boring game. It was still fun to go with the team though.

The weekend was fun. Eliot and Seth came down to hang out and go to a concert Saturday night. John Mayer was in town and we bought tickets to see the show about a month and a half ago. Ross, before you judge us, watch the video below and see why it was an awesome show. That guy can play guitar. He did a lot of covers during the show, which included: Crossroads, originally by Robert Johnson but made popular by Eric Clapton during the cream era, Stitched up, which I guess isn't a cover, but a song he co-wrote with Herbie Hancock, a modern master at jazz piano, Free Fallin' by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a slow blues called Mercy and other great tunes. Mercy was a blues masterpiece. He was up there just teaching us all a lesson in musical mastery. I mean really, he can play the guitar like a madman. One thing we weren't expecting was the stand up routine. John Mayer was on one the whole night just crackin' joke after joke and he was actually pretty funny. It was a sweet show, check out this video clip of Crossroads, the quality sucks but it gives you a sense of how awesome it was.

After that we grabbed some Dennys and then the party was over.

It was a pretty good weekend.

My first week at Apple

2008-07-19T21:11:00.008-06:00

I have now been in California for an entire week. As I noted in my last post, I started work at Apple on Monday. The good news is that I survived my first week. I learned a lot, watched a lot, and towards the end I felt like I began contributing to the team a little bit. Here are some highlights from my first week:

I got two free t-shirts! This first one is from my welcome box. It included the shirt and some announcements, like graduation announcements or wedding announcements, but for starting at Apple. Maybe when I get some business cards printed I will send some out.

This second shirt is from the iPhone Beer Bash. Every few weeks or so, they throw a party on campus called a Beer Bash. Normally they coincide with some sort of product announcement. The iPhone 3G was just released recently, so the iPhone team put this one on. Because of that, I got a free t-shirt to wear at the bash. They do serve quite a bit of beer at these things, but also a lot of soda, water and food. So even though I don't drink, it was still a chance at free food and also a chance to mingle and get to know some other people at Apple.

The coolest part of the week has been using my new iPhone. It is really cool. I'm sure you are all sick of hearing me talk about it already so I'll leave this part brief. I really like my new phone.

I also had a chance to go see the new Batman movie last night with my cousin Emily and some people she knows up in Palo Alto. I recommend you go see it if you haven't yet.

Anyway, I feel really good about the new job. The team I work on is cool. Everybody has a mindset of helping each other out so it is really easy to ask questions or get help when I need it. I love being surround by Macs. Everywhere I look there are tons of them. I should mention on that note that I am currently using my new MacBook Pro to write this post. It is great.

Hmmm, California! Beautiful!

2008-07-16T22:13:00.003-06:00

Finally, the post you've all been waiting for:

I am now living in California.

Sunnyvale, CA to be exact. I am living in a temporary corporate apartment for the next 30 days. It is a nice one-bedroom apartment that is fully furnished and, as of yesterday, has actual internet access. I arrived on Saturday. After making a quick stop in Berkeley and picking up The Bennion, or El Bennión, I continued to drive down to my apartment and get in and move my stuff in. Then we grabbed some P.F. Changs for dinner, which was amazing, and then I took him back and went to bed. Sunday wasn't super exciting. I woke up late and went to the Stanford 1st singles ward in Palo Alto and then came home and organized my stuff so I could find clothes to wear in the morning for my first day at Apple.

On to the first day. I woke up at 6:30 to give myself plenty of time to get ready and get to Apple, I didn't want to be late and I ended up showing up about 15 minutes early, before the lobby opened. When I did go inside, all the new employees had to go get pictures taken and show ID so we could get our ID badges. Apple, like any big company, relies on magnetic cards to get you in and out of buildings so we, as new employees, needed those badges to get into work. After that I had to wait about 10 minutes then we were led into a room for New Employee Orientation. This took about 3 and a half hours. Many people spoke to us about working for Apple, about security, and about most things you need to know as an employee. It was fun, there were some group activities and they really focused on building employee interaction. Anyway, after that I went to lunch with my team, the iPhone Power and Performance team. Before that though, I had to sign a second NDA for working on the iPhone team, so really, I can't tell you anything so don't ask :)

The rest is still kind of blurry for me. I've been shadowing a guy on the team and trying to say things that make me sound smart. I don't know if it is working or not. I'd show you pictures if I could. Apple has a no photo policy on campus so you won't be seeing anything from there. Here are some pictures from my temporary apartment though! Oh one more thing, I now have an iPhone! It is pretty cool.

Ugh, no SD Card reader

2008-07-13T17:59:00.002-06:00

Well, it is Sunday afternoon and I am in Sunnyvale, CA. This is my home for the next 30 days or so. I sat down to make a nice post about my new apartment and stuff and I tried to find my SD card reader so I could take pictures off of my camera and put them on here and...I can't find it anywhere. So the post will wait until tomorrow, when I can get a new card reader. Sorry!

It's Official

2008-06-10T20:18:00.004-06:00

I did it. I made my decision. I made my decision based on the outcome of the poll. Not really, but it did end up that way.

Mike is going to work on the iPhone.

I set my start date for the 14th of July. That gives me some time to finish up my life here in Provo and get myself down to Cupertino to start. I am really excited to begin my adult life. It was a blessing to have two options to choose from. As I pondered where I wanted to be in life and where would make me the happiest, I decided I would go to Apple. I am sure I won't regret my decision. The position I am taking is the perfect blend of engineering and software. I also get some fat discounts on cool Apple stuff.

Thanks to everybody for a great 5 years in Provo. I made some friends. I made some enemies. I made some really good friends.

My Final Blues Jam

2008-06-08T15:48:00.004-06:00

As some of you know, for the past year I have been going to the monthly Blues Jam out in Spanish Fork. It started last summer after I bought my Stratocaster. I went once and had an awesome time. It was a chance for me to get out and play with some other crazy-good musicians, and occasionally some not-so-good musicians. I learned a lot about performing. I learned about playing songs I had never played before. I even learned about just rolling with the punches of a bad performance. It was great. Through the jams I was able to release the building blues machine inside of me and learn a lot about the blues in general. My thanks go out to Curt for hosting and providing the wonderful facilities at the Boothe Bros. Theater in Spanish Fork.

Unfortunately my ultimate best performance ever at the jam wasn't recorded. Cindy and Taylor know what I am talking about. I did have some other quality performances. Here are a couple of them:

And finally, a picture of those who were good enough friends to come enjoy my final performance.

Apple or Microsoft?

2008-06-05T11:00:00.005-06:00

I am being faced with a tough decision. I was recruited by Apple and by Microsoft and they are now both offering me positions. I know, it is pretty cool that I have offers with both but I am having a hard time deciding which to go with.

Apple is located in California, down by San Jose. I would be working on the iPhone, which is pretty dang cool. The offer they gave me was good. I would be living rather well, even considering the cost of living down there. Microsoft is located in Seattle, also an awesome city. I would be working on the Windows Kernel and Virtualization team which would also be some pretty awesome work. In certain aspects, the offer from Microsoft is better than the offer from Apple. I mean that in terms of compensation and benefits. For me it has always been a dream to work at Apple. They make cool products and I generally use most of their stuff. Microsoft makes products which millions and millions of people use so you could argue my impact there would be greater.

I now have 6 days to decide.

I'm trying not to think about money in this case but more about the actual work because that is what will make me happier in the end. The only problem is that the money is definitely a factor.

Alright, I'm back in Utah...for now.

2008-06-01T13:36:00.009-06:00

I just returned from a rather long trip. Including my family reunion last weekend I have spent 7 of my last 8 nights in hotel rooms.

I was recruited by a few places to go interview for full-time jobs after I actually graduate. One being Apple and another being Microsoft. I survived the phone interviews and made it to the on-site visits. On Tuesday I flew out to San Jose California to go to Apple, which is located in Cupertino. I arrived there around noon Pacific Time and picked up my rental car:

It was a nice Toyota Camry. I made sure it had GPS so I wouldn't get lost as I roamed around the countryside. That was definitely a good choice on my part. I drove to Cupertino and checked into my hotel:

I stayed at the Cypress Hotel for a couple nights, and with the exception of no swimming pool, it was quite nice. I spent the afternoon checking out the surrounding area. Here are some pics:

After that Seth and Eliot both came down to visit. We got some food at a respectable restaurant and then watched the new Rambo movie in my room. Rambo is one tough mother.

Anyway, on Wednesday I interviewed all day at Apple. I met with 16 or so individuals on the iPhone team. How was it you ask? Really awesome. The guys were way cool and really excited about what they were doing. That, for me, made me more excited and a lot more laid back during the interview process. All in all it went well, and we are working through the offer process right now. So I guess it looks pretty good.

That night I went to dinner by myself and then went back to my hotel, packed up my stuff and got ready to wake up at 3:15 to drive to the airport for my 6:00 AM flight. Ugh. Here is what I saw when I arrived at the gate:

Yeah, not too busy. Anyway, then I flew back to Salt Lake to await my flight to Seattle. While there I received a couple phone calls from Apple to discuss the next steps and then I just kinda hung around until my flight at 3:00.

I made it to Seattle and got my rental car. They gave me a Ford Escape so I felt at home driving around:

I checked into my hotel, The Hilton in Bellevue, and bummed around, I was really tired. I had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early since I had another day of interviews on Friday with Microsoft.

I woke up and went to the interviews which started at 9:00. The interview process was a little less intimidating then others I have had. Instead of a million people, I met with 5. I can't forget to mention that when I first got there and was waiting to meet with my recruiter I was playing rockband. That was pretty cool.

It was a good day. There were some problems I got lost on, but all in all I felt ok about the day. The team was cool and the project was very interesting and right down my alley.

If I get offers from both it will be a tough decision to make. Both jobs have their benefits. Both projects are awesome. Both locations are awesome. In any case, I'll be busy thinking about that for the next few days.

Cupertino: A brief overview

2008-05-28T18:45:00.002-06:00

For those of you who didn't know, I was recently interviewing with Apple. My phone interviews went well enough and I was flown out to Cupertino for a campus visit and interviews. I am staying in the Cypress Hotel just a few blocks from 1 Infinite Loop, where Apple is headquartered. I have a rental car and two queen beds. The interview was long, from 9:30 to 4:30 and I think it went well. I don't want to psych myself up too much but I really do think it went well. Non-stop questions were thrown at me and I hopefully responded to them the best way possible. Tomorrow I fly from San Jose back to SLC, and then a few hours later I take off to Seattle for another day of fun. When I'm back from it all you can expect a much more detailed post with pictures!

New Feature on mlk

2008-05-22T10:41:00.003-06:00

I am trying something new. I know it has been done a million times on other blogs but this is a first for mine. I added a poll to the right. Please vote and add your comments to this post.

Ode to my Powerbook

2008-05-19T14:17:00.005-06:00

Seth, let me start by saying I am sorry that your laptop died.

When I returned from my mission in August of 2004 I was eager to start school again. I was in need of a computer. I needed something that would help me get through my education. Something small. Something powerful. Something elegant. That something was Apple's 12" Powerbook G4.

It started when I discovered my student discount with Apple. I could get a decent deal on a new Powerbook. About $300 off and a free iPod. I went for it and I became the proud owner of a 1.33 GHz 12" Powerbook G4 and a 20 gig 4G iPod.

I was in heaven.

My new Powerbook was awesome. My new iPod was even sweeter. I could fit all of my music on it and take it whereever I wanted.

4 years later, two harddrive upgrades, an extra stick of memory and a new iPod and I am still kickin' it with the Powerbook. I couldn't be happier. It has been there through all of my programming assignments, my presentations, late night Citrix sessions and also home to my own creative genius. Sure at times it wasn't "compatible" with some of the things I had to do but that didn't matter to me because everything else I did in style.

And to any of you who think I am a bandwagon Apple fan, I've been using Macs since the Mac Plus. Check wikipedia, you'll see how hardcore I am.

Tubes!!

2008-05-14T16:41:00.005-06:00

I have been pretty busy lately but that won't stop me from bloggin'. My tubes arrived yesterday in the afternoon. I had opted out of work for the day so I could study up on some iphone yonke and be there when my package arrived. It did and I plugged the tubes in. Unfortunately I didn't have a whole lof of time to check out the new sound. I did today and I am extremely happy. My strat sounds more strat-ish. The high end isn't so high and harsh but blends in smoothly with the rest. Low end is still there but crunches up a little nicer. I know that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to most of you so I included some videos for you to watch. I know, I make weird faces sometimes.

This first one is clean with a pick rocking a dorian-esque scale with a bluesy feel. Switch position 4 (Neck and Middle.)

This second one is clean, no pick and just straight blues. Switch position 4. You can hear the tone get a little dirty playing some of the chords, just the way I like it.

This last one is a bit of John Mayer cover. For this one I switched on my TS-808 wannabe Sparkle Drive and switched to position 5 (Neck only.)

I am pretty happy with the results. My guitar really sounds a little clearer and more like the guitar I want it to be.

Tube Update: Hodgkins, IL

2008-05-08T10:08:00.004-06:00

I love buying things online. You can find anything you need at the best prices. The only problem is waiting. I am rather impatient when it comes to things I buy. I figure that if I am paying for something, there is no reason it can't be at my door the second I buy it. Anyway, shipping sucks. If you ever have something shipped UPS and it ends up in Hodgkins, IL, you can expect no update until it is "Out for delivery". It is the Black Hole of UPS tracking. Anyway, my tubes are there and I want them now.

New Power Tubes for Mike

2008-05-05T23:53:00.004-06:00

So when most people think of vacuum tubes, they think old school 1940s style electronics. When guitarists or audiophiles think vacuum tubes, they think amazing sound. I fall into the latter category. I am the proud owner of a Fender Blues Jr. Amplifier. It has 5 tubes. 2 EL84s and 3 12AX7s. I just ordered a matched pair of JJ EL84s to replace the Groove Tube EL84s I have right now. I am excited.

Riding the Subway

2008-05-05T11:51:00.008-06:00

This weekend Jeris, Justin, Dan, Ricks and I all set out to hike "The Subway" at Zion National Park. Originally Jeris had wanted to go do some rock climbing down there but we got the invite to do The Subway with Ricks and his friend Patrick. I had always heard awesome things about the hike but I had never made an effort to go do it. You have to get a permit from the visitor's center to do the hike and during the summer, that permit is based on a lottery system. Right now it is too cold and not as popular meaning that if you sign up you go. Jeris, Justin, Dan and I drove down Friday night and stayed with Jeris' in-laws. We got in late so we just hit up the community hot tub for a bit and then tried to get some sleep. We woke up and met Ricks and his friend in Virgin and then drove to the parking lots and started our descent down the canyon and into The Subway. Wetsuits were needed due to the cold water. And yes, it was very cold and we were all happy we had wetsuits. Here are some photos:

It was pretty awesome. Next up: Keyhole Canyon

Back in the Blogosphere

2008-05-01T11:04:00.010-06:00

It's been a while since I last posted. With graduation and family in town I just didn't have as much time as I wanted this past weekend, so I missed a few opportunities to blog. I'll try and make it up.

I got a new camera!
When I was in D.C. (by the way I didn't get any offers from the company) my camera started to act weird. The selector knob started to select whatever it wanted without my consent. Since the Nelsons had just bought a new camera and I was already in the mood to get a new one, that was all the motivation I needed. I hit the Internets and started my search.

I decided that I wanted to get a decent camera. Not a cheap point-and-shoot piece of junk but also not a DSLR, I am not ready for that kind of power, and expense. I ended up looking at the "SLR-like" class of cameras. While technically point-and-shoot cameras, they offer a lot of advanced features that help bridge the gap between low-end and high-end cameras. I decided I was done with Sony and eventually found the Nikon p5100. It is a great camera that takes awesome pictures. It also gives me the flexibility I need to start experimenting with photography. I shot all the following images myself using entirely manual control. I took over 200 pictures in the first 3 days as I learned about exposure time, aperture control and different focus modes. Here they are:

Macro w/ Flash

Macro wo/ Flash

On campus, Distant Focus

American Fork Canyon, Panorama

I am very happy with the camera. I am taking a lot more pictures than I have been now that I have a good camera to take them with. Look for my work in the next edition of "BYU 181st Ward: A Picture Menu."

Album Review: Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock

2008-04-19T19:48:00.008-06:00

For most of my readers this one will be a little out there. As a guitarist I tend to find as much cool guitar music as I can and way back in my childhood my brother introduced me to an artist named Joe Satriani.

He is an amazing musician and has a knack for writing some good guitar tunes. His latest album is called "Professor Satchafunkilus And The Musterion Of Rock" and it has some of his best work on it.

There are lots of guitarists out there who are really good technical players. That means they can move incredibly fast around the neck and wow and amaze people. What most of them lack is emotion. Joe Satriani combines the best of technical skill with a special skill of speaking through his music. It isn't just blistering fast riffs, each song has meaning and conveys some message. And he accomplishes this without words, just music.

Here are my favorites so far:

Track 6. Come On Baby:
This song rocks. It is smooth and has that classic Satch tone. The intro is a muffled guitar riff that breaks into a duet of piano and guitar. This song teaches me that you don't have to play fast to really speak through your instrument. Good use of harmony too.

Track 10. Andalusia:
New age rock guitar with a Spanish influence. Starts with a nice clapping beat and then adds some classical guitar to the mix then he busts out the electric and shows you what he can do. Solid tune.

Track 5. Revelation:
Classic Satch style. Starts out with some extra heavy and thick chords nailing the perfect 4th and moves on to tell a story. Makes great use of harmonics and very subtle pitch hits with the whammy bar.

Mike and The District of Columbia

2008-04-16T14:49:00.005-06:00

Be prepared; This could be a long one.

I made it this time. No flight cancelations or anything craxy like that. I left my humble apartment at 6:25 Sunday morning to drive up to the airport. I made it there pretty quick, parked in the economy lot and was off to check in. Last week when I tried to check in, there were some problems. Consequently I was a little nervous as I walked up to the kiosk and slid my credit card in.

It asked me for my flight number. I typed it in. My reservations came up and I felt a lot better. That meant that I was actually going to D.C. which made my day. After the issues I had last week I began to question the whole ordeal but now I was happy to be going. After a quick stop in Cincinnati I arrived at Ronald Reagan National Airport at about 5:00 PM EST. I called the hotel using the courtesy phone at baggage claim and a shuttle was on its way to pick me up. Smooth so far. The shuttle guy was pretty cool. It was just me heading to the Sheraton so I made some conversation with the guy. He was from Nigeria and had been living in D.C. for about 9 years. His kids like to play soccer and he thought skiing was insane. Just as soon as I felt a bond forming between my driver and I, we arrived at the hotel.

My dump for the night

I checked in, took my stuff up to my room and just chilled for a few. My room was on the third floor so I didn't get any awesome views out the window. Nice room though. After a while I started to get bored so I took off to get some food. I talked to the front desk and they told me to check out 23rd street. I was off. The weather was nice, probably about 6o degrees and slightly overcast. I strolled down to 23rd and started checking places out. The first dump I saw was a Chilis. I figured, I'm not paying for this meal so I might as well try something I wouldn't normally try. I kept walking around and eventually found an upscale looking Thai restaurant. Apparently it was also the Thai New Year so I figured it would be a good idea. It looked like one of those places where you feel like you don't have enough money to be inside. I ordered up some Panang Curry and some rare Thai fruit for desert. Check this stuff out.

Rare Thai Fruit

I went back to the hotel, it was getting dark and I didn't want to get mugged. I got on the internets and started chatting with Justin and Dan and then went to bed early.

My alarm went off at 6:30 (4:30 MST) and I rolled out of my double bed and into the shower. Got myself ready and went down to breakfast. Probably the best continental breakfast I've had. I checked out and dropped my bags with the dudes at the front desk then was off to the recruiting center. Once there I had a bunch of interviews and security meetings and got back to the hotel at 12:00. My flight wasn't until 6:00 so I decided to check out the area.

The Metro

I hopped on the Metro and wound up right in front of the Smithsonian. From there I just wandered around for a few hours. I checked out some museums. I took pictures. Eventually I got hungry, but needing an itemized receipt I couldn't grab a hot dog from a stand out in front of the Capitol. I was walking for a while. For any future travelers, there aren't any sit down restaurants around that area. There are some cafes in the museums but that is about it. Eventually I found a sandwich place.

I ordered up a meatball sandwich and a cup of chili. It was pretty good.

With about 45 minutes left to spare I decided to get myself a paddleboat and check out the Potomac. So there I was, in West Potomac Park, by myself, on a paddleboat, listening to my iPod and enjoying the sites of our nations capital.

Poddin' on the Potomac

I hopped back on the metro and stopped at the hotel, grabbed my bags and hopped a shuttle to the airport. Checking in took literally 5 minutes between getting my tickets and going through security. I showed up two hours early. Good thing I charged my iPod.

DENVER

2008-04-14T20:40:00.002-06:00

Here I sit at the Denver International Airport. Waiting for my last flight. I am bored. I've already watched a lot of Seinfeld today, my flight from D.C. to Denver was decent. The plus about being in Denver is that they have free wireless! When I was in Cincinnati on way over I had nothing to entertain me. Of course I was only there for about 20 minutes, not quite the 2 hours I have here in Denver. I don't know how people traveled before iPods existed, it has saved me many times now.

Mike got Punk'd

2008-04-07T11:07:00.002-06:00

So my trip to D.C. ended up not happening. I woke up and had my roommate drive me to the airport, drop me off and then leave. I waited in line for a good half hour until I made it up to the counter. I then found out that the travel agency used for making my trip plans had "voided" my flight. I had no ticket to board the airplane. After making some phone calls and trying to get in touch with the recruiter I gave up and called my roommate back to the airport to pick me up. I still don't know what happened but I am being rescheduled for this coming weekend. This time I'll call first.

Am I a D.C. kinda guy?

2008-04-02T11:32:00.004-06:00

Washington D.C. is quite the place. So much history and cool places to see. I've been there once and thought it was cool to see all the landmarks and historic places. That was about 10 years ago. I don't remember it all that well but now I may be faced with the question: Do I want to live there? I'll be flying out this Sunday for a second interview with a company and if they offer me a job, which I hope they will, I will end up living out there for at least a couple years. So how would an Oregonian implanted into Utah fare out on the east coast?

Album Review: Saturday Night & Sunday Mornings

2008-04-01T14:47:00.004-06:00

I recently bought a new CD. A CD so new it hasn't even been available for an entire week. One of my favorite bands, Counting Crows, just released their newest CD on March 25th and as a loyal fan I purchased it without thinking twice and without listening.

Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings is a great mix of their best talent. The CD is naturally split between the high energy and eventful feelings of a Saturday night and the relaxation and thoughts of a Sunday Morning, so it is not just a clever title. Let me describe my favorites so far:

Track 7: Washington Square
This song draws me in by starting with a crisp acoustic guitar and adding some piano to the mix right from the get go. Slowly they build up the song and develop that special flavor of music only they produce. I have had this album since Sunday the 30th and my iTunes says the play count is 14.

Track 1: 1492
They introduce the album with an aggressive song that jumps right out with a very melodic verse. The guitars in this song have a distinct clanky tone to them that also is something I fall for quite easily. In the days where the guitar solo is gone it makes a comeback in this song. Play count: 7.

Track 6: Cowboys
The piano in this song is awesome. It is hard to hear sometimes but it is there and adds so much to the song. As the chorus approaches you can hear the song picking up into a quick hitting vocal attack that will have you singing along in no time. Play count: 6.

If any of you are Counting Crows fans I would highly recommend this new album. It has been dominating my iPod since Sunday.

A night with Frank and Collective Soul

2008-03-20T10:55:00.006-06:00

Many of you may remember my brief stint with Novell this last summer. I interned there and was laid off in October. Anyway, I still have some friends that work there and got a last minute invite to Brainshare. It was a wild night of comedy and music.

First up was the one and only Frank Caliendo doing his wacky impersonations. I have to say that his George Bush is getting a little old but when he does John Madden it is hilarious. He had some good moments and was pretty entertaining. One word of warning: if you have seen tons of his clips on youtube, you will not be seeing anything new.

Next was Collective Soul. I had actually seen them in concert just last October with BBZ and they played a good show. I was expecting pretty much the same deal and well, I wasn't really surprised. They played pretty much the same set but they changed it up a bit on some songs. When they played "She said" it was pretty much amazing. An encore performance of "Shine" left me wanting more. Good show, good band.

And it was all free. I didn't even have to drive.

From all of us to Jaime Hill: Thank you

2008-03-17T18:54:00.004-06:00

For FHE tonight we had to prepare some refreshments. For us single guys that meant we had to go buy something. We had a quick stop off at Wendys to fill up on cheap mediocre Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers and then we were off to the BYU creamery on 9th to pick something up. As we entered, Justin tossed a box of questionable objects at Dan and we proceeded to the cookie section. When we found the cookies we also found BYU's current Defensive Coordinator Jaime Hill. Justin and I tried to muster up the courage to thank him for all he has done but we ended up leaving with just some Little Debbie snacks. I wanted to thank Mr. Hill for the great work he has done with our secondary and tell him that I look forward to the great things he will do as Defensive Coordinator. Jaime Hill, I thank you.

Bloggin' from Seattle

2008-03-14T23:38:00.003-06:00

I love the northwest. Sure, it does rain a lot but that only makes the air fresh and clean. You walk outside and it really does feel good to take a deep breath of that cold wet air. Anyway, I had a full day of hanging out with my niece and nephew. It all started around 8:30 when I heard a loud "Wake up Mike!" from my nephew. Apparently it was time to play, and play we did.

First Post

2008-03-10T15:13:00.002-06:00

It took a really boring day at work to get me to do it. I finally created a blog so that all of you out there on the internets can read about my life. Hopefully I'll post something interesting soon, I have quite a bit going on with graduation coming up so within the next few weeks I'll get something good on here!