Blog moved

I've consolidated this blog and our family blog to my domain.

Future updates will be located here:

http://csangos.laplaine.net

See you there...

Wind-up bird completed

I finished The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami this morning before heading to work. These are the kind of books that linger long after you've finished reading, the 253,878 words ended too quickly. I won't attempt to provide an overview of the book, there are plenty out there that do a good job, including one linked below, and I won't do the book justice trying to summarize.

This puts me just over 50% of my goal of reading 6,000 pages for pleasure this year. I'm 40 pages more than this time last year, but no fear, I read more the last quarter of the year then any other time. Theres still hope of hitting the mark.

Interestingly, at least to me, is I haven't decided what to read next. I prefer to let the Wind-up Bird sink in some more before moving on with new characters. It's not often I take a pause before cracking the spine of another novel, but this seems like the right thing to do.

I'll be adding more Murakami to my "to be read" list. Thanks to craque for the suggestion.

A change management perspective on the book: Holger Nauheimer's blog

Radiohead Nude remix

I've been following the musical creations of Adrian Holovaty for sometime now. He's a pretty creative chap and models his playing style after the likes of Django Reinhardt. He entered a Radiohead contest recently and remixed the song called "Nude", its a great bit different from the original and I like what he's done with it. Check it out from the embedded player below and if you like it give him a vote in the contest.

Read a book

Hello there,

In 2007 I set a goal to read a complete book each month, something I'm happy to say, I successfully completed. I've been logging the books I read for pleasure since 1985. (I'm not quite sure what this says about me, but 22 years of doing anything probably has a statement attached to it.)

This year I've set a new goal of reading 1,000 more pages then I did in 2007. So I had to total up the pages from last year: 5382. Since I'm guessing I read roughly a page a minute + or - 10%, this means I spent about 90-100 hours reading in 2007.

Well, if your still reading this post, you might be asking yourself, how close am I to hitting my goal in 2008 now that the first quarter is coming to a close. Glad you asked. I've not finished a single book in 2008. However, I am all but 300 pages through Victor Hugo's Les Miserables which is 1463 pages. This will put me about 23% of my yearly goal, so pretty darn close to on target.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some pages to burn through...

Photo evidence of my encounter with Vai

I put the remaining pictures of my day with Vai up. It's an annual ritual to go see him if he's touring once a year. These pics are all from Sept. 30th at Birchmere in Alexandria, VA.

Should I be worried?

From the September 17, 2007 issue of Fortune magazine.

Virginia
There are no Fastest-Growing Companies in this state.

Letter of Apology

Dear VA plate JPX-2457,

When you passed me a few days ago, heading straight in the right-turn only lane, I thought to myself, "there goes another inconsiderate driver". I remember wondering if you failed to understand what the big white right pointing arrow and the huge lettered "ONLY" markings in the road were for. I can see how one could miss the signs approaching the intersection about the right lane with all of that traffic sitting idle in the straight lane. It must have been distracting as at your speed you would have been trying to avoid hitting the stopped cars in the road.

For thinking these thoughts I want to apologize, I now realize I jumped to a hasty first impression. After witnessing you pass the 15 or so cars all patiently waiting their turn in the straight lane again this morning, and barreling down the right turn only lane, I realized you must have a special license that grants you these privileges. It was so foolish of me to lump you into the same category as other people who have no regard for safety on our roads.

Obviously your important and critical position at work makes it imperative that you arrive promptly, with no time lost waiting in traffic with the "common" folk. I'd like to know how you qualify for the type of license that allows you to disregard the "regular" rules of the road? I'm hoping I might qualify too. I could use the extra few minutes in the office to write my creative blog posts, get an extra cup of coffee, or talk to office mates about some fantasy football.

I'd also like to know what other privileges this special license affords you. I already witnessed the speeding and tailgating that you demonstrated further after rolling through the stop sign. Those are good perks for those cases were you get trapped behind those pesky law abiding citizens. I did notice you used your blinker just before your abrupt lane changes, is this a requirement, or were you going for some style points? I'd think signaling your intentions to others should be well below your stature with this special license.

I'd specifically like to know if this licenses allow you to turn right-on-red even when the intersection is posted against that ability. Or better yet, can you make the right-on-red turn from the center lane? On my way to work I could use that clause to cut out a whole light cycle I think.

I'm prepared to waive my personal safety and the safety of others if that is required on this special license application. I can't wait to hear back from you on how to proceed. In the meantime, I'll be watching for you to see what other perks you have, as I'm sure there must be some other options available to you.

Thank you, and again, sorry for thinking those harsh thoughts the other day.

Csangos