Tag: music

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I’ve Got No Strings

Eaddie left early this morning for her orchestra rehearsal and concert. Summer and I got up pretty early as well, and headed to Conway early for a movie, shopping, and food before the concert. We ended up barely getting there in time for Venom: The Last Dance, so I missed a few previews waiting in line for popcorn. I thought the plot was pretty contrived, and they tried to pack a lot into it, but overall it was fun. It was definitely the weakest of the three. We ran to the lube to drop off someone’s jacket, then came back to Bargain Hunt to see what they had. It wasn’t much, so all I got were some dog treats.

We made it across town and ended up at Skinny J’s for lunch. I thought Randy said they were closing down the Conway location, but maybe I was confused. Or maybe I wasn’t, because we were basically the only people in the restaurant. It was a late lunch though. We ate quickly and then made it to the Conway High School to see Eaddie’s concert.

The kids did great, but then Eaddie wanted to race over to UCA to see Eli play in a low brass concert. Summer had to check her out with the teacher though, so I ran Eaddie a few blocks away and then came back for Summer. We eventually got back over to UCA for a charge, and watched the tail end of that concert, which was much less formal anyway.

After all the concerts were over, Eli came with us and we went to Old Navy for some more shopping. The kids wanted ice cream after that, so I took everyone to MarketPlace Grill. They said it would be a 20 minute wait, but it didn’t take nearly that long to get a seat. Our server was super talkative and kept asking the kids questions about stuff, and then talking about her family life.

The food was probably more miss than hit, with super stale chips and cold food. I remembered having the same problem with the chips last time, so it’s probably time for a review. We ate and then headed home in the rain, stopping first in Morrilton for some beer and to plant a promo sign in front of that carwash. Then we dropped the kids off at Eaddie’s car at the high school and headed home. The girls were super pooped and crashed immediately while I played with the dogs a bit and then tried to minimize distractions before bed.

All run and no stop.

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The Definite Articles

I slept in today since I knew I’d be up late. Johnny called with some SCCM questions and woke me up, so I got around to making some coffee to start the day. Summer could tell I was irritated with her, but there was nothing to be done for it. She went out for a run, and after we got cleaned up, we headed out for the day. Our first stop was Arvest to deposit the insurance check we got for the lady that clipped the Model Y. Then we stopped at Arby’s to get some lunch on the way out of town.

I wished we hadn’t eaten so much, because we were still stuffed by the time we got to Van Buren. We met Jesica at The Vault and split an appetizer with some drinks. It was nice getting to visit again after such a long time, but wearing my contacts was a mistake. My vision being cloudy just kind of made the whole room feel small, and it was hard to focus on things.

After a couple hours, we let her go so we could find our way to TempleLive in the old Masonic temple. There was a fence around it, so I found it difficult to spot until we drove around the block. We had enough time before the show that I thought we might try to do some shopping, but we ended up going back to park and just waited in line outside the front door.

We didn’t have to wait long before they let us in. It was a small group of people there, but it filled up quickly. We found the lounge downstairs was empty, so we headed on in to the pit in front of the stage. It was a small area, so we just leaned against the back wall and waited.

The first band up was The Props, and I thought they did an incredible job. The lead singer had some pipes on him, and though the acoustics and my earplugs made it difficult to really hear the lyrics, I thought they were good enough for a follow. They only had 73 subscribers on YouTube, so I felt like I was really getting in on the ground floor.

Between sets, I spotted my old classmate Matt as he passed right in front of us. I stopped him on his way back and we chatted briefly. Evidently he knew I had been at the school district in the past, because he asked if I was still there. We exchanged numbers and then got back to the show.

The Struts came out and put on an excellent show as well. I couldn’t believe how many people in the venue had actually seen them before. Summer and I later ran into our junior high coworker Leslie and her husband on the way out, and she said he had seen them six times, but this was only her fourth time. We loved the venue aside from Summer freezing her butt off. I was worried it would be hot, but they had the air blowing hard.

We had tickets for the “afterparty” in the lounge, but it was noisy, we didn’t love what little we heard of the band they had downstairs, and we were tired. The Props were up by the merch, so we stopped there and they each shook my hand before taking a photo with us. It was really cool to be able to interact with them, and they were all so excited to have driven out from LA just to play the one show.

It was a quick getaway with the crowd that would fit in such a small venue. I let the Model Y drive the whole way, city and all. It took us to Ozark to charge, and then all the way to the house. Full Self Driving loves empty roads. Eaddie was up just long enough to take a shower, and then the girls were out. I fought droopy eyelids to complete my evening, and then I went to bed as well.

I’m caught up with your acrobatics.

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Not My Band

I was the first one up this morning, but Summer was right behind me. I made some coffee for us, and then we cleaned up a bit more while Eaddie left for church with Eli. She wanted us to go to a Tech Symphonic Wind Ensemble concert in the afternoon, and we had some other errands to run as well, so Summer and I got ready to go by the time she got back.

Our first stop was Diana’s for the open house. We met her realtor, who knew us by name, and we got to show Eaddie the house. There wasn’t anyone else around, and we weren’t sure it was going to be very popular based on the location. Diana saw us on camera and made a comment about my Eagles shirt, and then we were off to Tech for the concert.

It was a long, but good show. I enjoyed the songs more than I typically do, but at this point I hate going to high school band concerts. It’s always way better going to the competitive ones that Eaddie is a part of. She had to stay for practice in the youth ensemble afterward, so Summer and I left her to go get dinner at Mulan’s. Then we went to Walmart for a few more things, Zaxby’s to get some food for Eaddie, and finally Casey’s for free coffee day before making it back home.

The sun was going down quickly, so I left the girls to go get gas while I ran the dogs. We went a bit backwards from our usual route, ending up at my parents’ house to visit with Dad briefly before coming back home. We settled in quickly, and it’s back to working sleep deprivation for me.

Imagine complaining about communism at a Chinese buffet.

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Gas in the Clouds

I needed the break today. I didn’t sleep in terribly late, but I didn’t have anywhere to be either. Eaddie had service hours and did some yard work with some other classmates. Summer made her some eggs when she got back, and then I had an egg with one of my frozen grilled cheese sandwiches. Eaddie went back out to do some shopping with friends, and Summer and I gave the dogs a much-needed brushing. Then we spent a little time setting up her new watch, and I eventually took a shower.

Tech band had a “Brass in the Clouds” event that Eaddie and Eli wanted to go watch, so we loaded up some camp chairs and headed up to Nebo for that. It was late, and I realized on the way through Dardanelle that I hadn’t really eaten anything else all day, and we wouldn’t be done until late, so I stopped at Taco Bell for some food.

We got up the mountain and the others went to find a place to sit while I ate in the car. I was late to the show, but I didn’t think it was very good anyway. It seemed a bit unpracticed, but at least it was short. I was surprised by the number of people there, and it took us a slow ride down the mountain to get back home.

I made the kids take the dogs for a walk since Eaddie was vehemently against me taking them with us to the “concert.” Summer didn’t feel great, so she went to bed, and I wound down pretty quickly.

Crunchwrap Supremes are more tortilla and lettuce than I remember.

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To Hale With It

I was kind of surprised at how many people were at work first thing this morning, since I kept hearing that everyone had to work late for the open house. They didn’t have breakfast, but I had some tucked away in my office fridge. I kept getting calls for support unimportant things, and I really only spent any time cleaning up my own things to leave. I took almost everything home, except for my coffee supplies, so I could still have that for the remainder of my time there.

Kim was late, kept getting lost, and even then was super proud of the whole two work orders she completed after I left. I could tell because she texted me while I was on the road that she completed them after. I took off around 1:30 to get Eaddie, and then we picked up her friend Autumn to take Summer’s place at the concert.

We stopped briefly at the Ozark charger before making it to Chuy’s by the Amp. We didn’t quite make it to the first opener, but we didn’t love the music anyway. We were also disappointed in the shirts, so we didn’t get any merch. Fit for a King wasn’t really for us. Hollywood Undead was pretty good. I think I Prevail was Autumn’s favorite, and they had a big mosh pit going with a bit of overproduction on the stage. Hailstorm was slower than the last time we saw them, and it sounded like Lizzy was recovering from a strained voice. They still put on a good show, but there was no encore.

We stopped to charge in Lowell, and then made it all the way home with Autumn for the night. I made them listen to 8-bit covers of pop songs for the first half of the trip, and I think they actually enjoyed trying to sing along.

They’re so angry!

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Three Blind Eyes

Today was a short day at work. I got in and immediately started tinkering with the router’s VLAN settings. I thought I had some of it figured out, and connected to a guest network, and even got the captive portal working for guests. That was when things started to break. For some reason, all of the access points dropped off of management, and a couple of the custodians came in to harass me about the wireless being broken. I was able to get everything back to “normal” again, and then sent a long email to the superintendents informing them of some changes and the fact that I was leaving after lunch.

Summer got home before I did so she could get ready, and once I got home we loaded up for a trip to Rogers. We stopped for a snack and charge in Ozark, and then got to the Walmart Amp where we had dinner at Chuy’s just down the block. This ended up being perfect parking for the concert. It wasn’t much more of a walk than we usually make, but there weren’t any hills or stairs to climb.

Arizona was an odd band. I thought I might like them, but the more they played, the less I was into it. Yellowcard was my favorite. I got one of their shirts. The girls both got Third Eye Blind shirts. Eaddie really liked their part of the concert. They put on a great show, but I didn’t know most of their songs.

After the show, we actually got out super quickly and hit the interstate without stopping in any traffic at all. We did have to stop and charge in Lowell and again in Ozark because I misunderstood what the app was trying to to tell me, but we got home without any trouble. The dogs were sad and staring in the back door when we walked in, so I fed them but had to get to sleep.

Smile big for everyone, even though you know what they done.

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The Grapes of Wrath ft. Johnny Cougar

It was a bit rainy again today, and I ran a little behind in the morning, so I just got to work. It wasn’t long before I had people calling and things breaking. Several of my switches and my Unifi controller went down again for no apparent reason. Then the Google Cloud Directory Sync hadn’t run in a while, again for no apparently reason. I spent all day trying to figure that stuff out. I finally got GCDS going by clearing some files out of storage.

After lunch, I had a call with Robert from DIS about my network outage. He peeked at the server logs I found, but didn’t have much to say other than that I was on the right track. He got to close his ticket, and I get to figure out what the hell happened on my own.

I left just a couple minutes early and made good time back home. I fed the fish and grabbed some stuff for my contacts, and then headed home to pick up Summer. We stopped by my parents’ house to try and see Mom, but she was working late and we had to get moving to Little Rock.

We stopped in Conway for a quick dinner at Golden Corral, and then made it to the Robinson Center in plenty of time to find our seats. The concert started with several short clips from old black and white movies, which had pretty much everyone looking around with “wtf” looks on their faces. In all, I’ve seen better concerts for free, but the performance wasn’t bad. They were just old. Older than the crowd, which was much older than us. It was full of woo-women who couldn’t hold their liquor and wouldn’t shut the hell up. It was a mild performance, mostly of songs we didn’t know, but it was a fair time. I wouldn’t pay that much again though.

It rained pretty hard on the drive home, but we made it through the weather without having to stop and charge. Eaddie was well asleep by the time we got there, so it was off to bed quickly.

What if we gave little pink houses to all of these homeless?

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Pause and Refreshes

The car made it to work today, so whatever popped yesterday didn’t seem to be a problem. Testing was a bit quieter, though I was called out to investigate a test-side problem a couple of times. Only one student was affected, on multiple days, with multiple devices. Let support figure it out.

I spent all day playing around in PRTG, and ended up pausing every single sensor and then unpausing just what I wanted. As I would go down the list doing that, it would take a little while to refresh the sensor limit, and new ones would constantly “wake up” that I would have to continue pausing. With a limit of 100 for the free version, I basically only have a bunch of pings to be useful, but now the HUD makes sense, and is much more glanceable.

After work, I went home for fish and some CD towers to take home. I’ve been listening to Mae again for a couple days, and the “artist radio” has been bringing back memories. I stopped by the wash to see Summer frantically running around with just one employee to cover all of the bases, so I didn’t stay long. I got home early enough to ride over to my parents’ house to check on the cat food, and bring some more leftovers home.

Eaddie and I ate the ground pork omelet egg foo young stuff with some fresh rice that I made. I got to sign some permission slips for her, which is always fun for me. Then I decided to treat her to some Dairy Queen. I guess they had a regional manager, or possibly a new store manager on deck, so the ice cream was good. It had been pretty melty in recent years, but his assertive nature seemed to have things in order.

Afterward, we dropped leftover ice cream off for Summer at the wash, since she had a late staff meeting before she would be come. Then I reminisced over Mae, Deas Vail, and The Hollywood Kills CDs. I was surprised to see Mae is touring again, and it’ll be interesting if I get to go see them again.

DAVE ROCK!!!

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“Cheer Up,” My Friends All Say

Today was my first drive in to work straight from the new house. I wasn’t quite early enough to make it to the old house first to feed the fish, so I figured I could take care of them after work. I was fairly productive until lunch time when kids started screaming at the tops of their lungs right outside my door. I really have no idea how I’m expected to get any work done in there, and it made me furious. On top of that, I was constantly up and down at my desk to let visitors in for Denice. Productivity was down in an already ailing department.

I left just a little bit early to get home to change before the concert. Eaddie was wishy-washy about going because her band teacher made an announcement that anybody who didn’t show up to practice couldn’t march at the homecoming game. I told her there was no way they would keep their star performer from marching, and she finally agreed to go with me.

We headed out of town later than I wanted, and stopped in Ozark to charge and get some food. We ran into Alisha and Joshua there, who were also on their way across the state for the concert. They wanted to make it for the gate opening, but we didn’t arrive until The Get Up Kids were near the end of their set. After that, I knew one song by Motion City Soundtrack. I knew the most songs from New Found Glory. The lead singer from The All-American Rejects was super weird, but he kind of made me think of what I might be like if I had lived in the spotlight as long as he had.

Overall, everyone was entertaining. It was a packed house, but we managed to get out in a reasonable amount of time. We stopped in Lowell for a quick charge just long enough to use the restroom and get a drink, and then continued to Ozark where I charged enough to get me to work the next morning. Eaddie slept the whole way home and never got out of the car. I wrapped up quickly once I got home, so I shouldn’t be much shorter on sleep than a typical late night.

There’s a place, somewhere that’s between dream and awake.

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I’ll Try to Think About the Last Time I Had a Good Time

Eaddie and I had a concert in Little Rock in the evening, so I had to get home to charge up. I grabbed some hot wings on the way home since I’d be there for a little while. I actually didn’t feel great for most of the morning, but it was better once we were in the car.

I picked her up and we headed straight to The Fold: Botanas & Bar in Little Rock. Mitch had taken me there when he was in town, and I thought the girls would really like it. We got the big appetizer to try all the salsas, cheese, and guacamole, and then both got assorted taco plates. I didn’t think it was quite as good as last time, but it was a cute place and we still really enjoyed it.

We had a little bit of time to kill before the concert, so we went by Franklin’s Charging Hub for a little juice and to use the restrooms. Then we headed to the Simmons Bank Arena and parked on the south side parking lot. It didn’t seem like a very big crowd, and we got into the building really quickly. We found our seats, and then went back up for some shirts.

They had the upper bowl completely closed off, and there were still empty seats left. I was surprised, especially for $25 tickets. Simple Plan was up first, and I felt kind of bad about how low-energy the crowd was behaving. I’m not one to get up and dance, and I prefer to sit in the seats I paid for, but you could just tell that people were there for different bands. On the other hand, there was a group of girls across the aisle from us that appeared to leave after Sum 41.

We were surprised by how many small children were in attendance. There was a pretty big family with several small children seated right in front of us, and when before The Offspring came on, they had a blimp with a camera and then several other cameras taking videos of the crowd. After a kiss cam, they had a bird cam, and several of the kids were being encouraged by their parents to flip off the cameras, much to the delight of the crowd.

Overall we had mixed feelings about the concert. All three bands struggled with low vocals, and it was difficult to hear what any of them were singing. The rest of the music was just blaring, which didn’t help. We did get to witness some crowd surfing and a mosh pit, as well as The Offspring stopping for a moment due to an injury in the crowd.

After the concert, we made the quickest getaway we’ve ever had at the arena. There was no waiting at all to get out of the parking lot, and then the roads were clear right by us, all the way out of town. We decided to stop at Waffle House in Conway for a late night dinner, since Eaddie hadn’t been to one recently enough to remember. The staff was loud, friendly, and attentive until they started getting really busy with other concert-goers. We both really enjoyed our food, and then we made it home in good time to go straight to bed.

I’m sick of always hearing “act your age!”