Started coffee upon reaching the office
Ran some production summaries
Cleaned the mess on my desk that I left yesterday
Reviewed the sorry state of product flow
Brought in some scrap material to be shipped
Delivered and put away some parts
Held scheduling meeting
Conferred with shop electrician
Made sure some electrical parts are being shipped
Wrote and distributed schedules
Brought in more scrap material
Cleaned up desk
Set up three outbound shipments
Lunched
Sorted out material delivery notes
Updated PODelivery tracker
Suffered through a sales call
Updated all my lists
Reviewed parts needed with maintenance department
Shipped stuff
Lost track of stuff for this list

Sinus medicine wore off in hour and a half and headache returned Started cleaning coffee pot and was dragged into schedule discussion Discussed materials with another guy in break room
Reviewed forklift repairs
Ran production reports
Reviewed how hot tires are moving through process
Helped receiving do their job
Was told of two new tire sizes that are ready to go into production Discussed staffing due to improved curing process
Printed production summaries
Ran out of paper
Walked the floor and got harassed for tooling changes and green tire inventories Had long discussion with a long-time employee about current state of staff Attended conference call
Visited with wife
Analyzed production
Found new queries to use to do so
Took forever to figure out queries
Agonized over writing the schedule
Finally wrote it and distributed it
Went to pick up supplies in town
Called IT guy about some SAP issues
Can’t remember anymore
Gave up, went home

Woke up with headache
Read Bible for about twenty minutes
Visited with family
Went to work
One department was out of necessary blades
Showed them where my stash was
Ran production reports
Computer was sluggish
Walked the floor – no emergencies yet
Updated material usage numbers
Conferred with local supplier and deferred some tire shipments Entered steel braided hose requisitions
Held scheduling meeting
Wrote schedules
Met with production team leader to discuss delivery
Distributed schedules
Analyzed month’s production versus plan
Set up some return deliveries for our raw mat containers
Also set up delivery for some scrap material
Continued production analysis
Ordered some parts
Reviewed task/project list
Followed up on some orders
Went to lunch

Shipped a part out for calibration
Created several POs
Updated task/project list
Missed final balance meeting
Surveyed forklift damage
Conferred with shipping department on the best way to fix the lifts Ended up going to Napa for a radiator hose
Ordered an ignition switch online
Sent shipping info to a vendor
Sent an order in for a “stash” of blades
Added to my task list
Updated a vendor profile in our system
Update PO pricing
Entered requisitions

Signed in
Bought a breakfast sandwich
Cleaned coffee pot
Ate sandwich
Ran production reports while doing the above
Walked the floor
Analyzed one department’s schedule
Updated delivery analysis
Held scheduling meeting with shipping department
Produced schedules
Helped a guy with his iPhone
Talked to a few people
Cleaned up production schedule folder
Distributed schedules
Looked up blue book value of company truck
Got a request for door seal
Took trip into town
Grabbed some food, visited my wife
Checked up on POs
Distributed supplies
Updated tasks
Left

Sent from my iPad

Held production scheduling meeting
Attended conference call
Had thirty minute informal production review
Met with vendor for monthly supply order
Had to take some spacers to local machine shop
Wrote schedules – after a painstakingly long time
Distributed schedules
Went to lunch
Managed to understand some goal-reaching issues
Spoke to Fed Ex about some package
Obsessed more over schedules
Began reviewing purchasing punch list
Requisitioned a few things
Had one of our trailers moved
Placed a few orders
Researched depth gauges
Updated task lists
Waited to get picked up
Experienced Excel issues, probably lost some work

Sent from my iPad

In contrasting the physical and digital Banks uses his own experience as a running metaphor throughout the book. He got a suitcase full of old photographs from his grandfather. These are physical things. He doesn’t know the whole story behind some of the photos, so now he must either research family history or revel in family mystery. By way of contrast, some of his own digital pictures have so much information automatically embedded in them it may be virtually impossible to not know the context of each picture.

Implied in much of the book, at least it seemed so to me, is the idea that the digital things are cheaper than the physical. While we are connected more and have access to far more information than other generations we are a “throw away” society. Stories and emotions are invested in those physical inheritances we receive whereas this does not seem to be the case with digital inheritances. Perhaps it is just the sheer amount of information. It is daunting to sort through the folders on a PC. It would be much easier to thumb through a picture album.

In addition to drawing these contrasts, Banks also poses design questions at the end of each of his chapters. He want computer engineers and software designers and their ilk to brainstorm better ways of preserving memories and legacy in digital form. He also mentions various inventions and services that already exist to aid digital preservation.

For instance, he points out a Twitter box that one writer used. This writer saved tweets for a year, printed them, and put them in a hardwood box for posterity. Banks mentions a service called the Wayback Machine which lets you look at web pages the service has archived over the years. (It even has some archived pages from my old blog, A Hand In The Act of Writing – I was shocked). You can see how a website has evolved over time. Sometime the book does feel like a commercial for Microsoft.

Banks raises some good questions about how we should deal with our digital domain. The book will make you consider what things in your life you may want to pass on, what things are really important. Therefore, it seems to be a book worth reading.

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According to the liner notes this music is a combination of charanga and jazz. Charanga is is Cuban dance music; obviously this makes the hummingbird appropriate. It was fun to seek the musical equivalent of the bird in the songs. And yes, it was Weinstein’s flute flitting around all he arrangements.

This CD just wasn’t as engaging his previous works. I have been listening to various Ltin jaz stations on Pandora and have found the Cuban music to be the most energetic, the most animated. But that wasn’t the case here. The arrangements, the compositions, thelaying is impeccable. It just lacked a certain verve that previous Weinstein CD’s had.

Careless is: Walt Kosar, James Collins and Nolan Ayres.  They started playing in the 80′s and were fans of Rush and Iron Maiden.  They wrote a few songs together and then disbanded.  Kosar caught up with the guys in 2008 and they started jamming again, adding some new songs to their old material.  I don’t remember these guys at all but they definitely capture the sound of 80s hard rock.  They seem to enjoy what they’re doing. There’s no point to prove, no business, marketing, etc. It’s just the energy and joy of a garage band playing what they love, raw and pure.

The singer, Collins (who is also the drummer, ala Phil Collins) is hoarse and strained in the vein of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson, or Tesla’s Jeff Keith.  Some of the influences or similarities I could detect in the guitar of Walt Kosar were Dokken, early Hall of the Mountain King-era Savatage, and a little Kirk Hammett now and then.  Lyrically there were reminders of Boston, Kansas, a little Survivor – only harder versions of them. This was apparent on “D.F.M”, which is a “Wayward Son” type of song. Then there was “As Time Passes …”, which seemed to be a Zeppelin inspired instrumental.

But it was “The Gods Themselves” that stood out to me. As soon as I heard it, I went from being interested to being a fan. I can’t get that chorus out of my head for days. The intro reminds me of Savatage’s “Strange Wings”. It’s got the lip-snarling, head banging soul that music lost in the 90s.  “Contend In Vein” is a hard hitter, too, featuring some aggressive vocals.  “5ive” is an instrumental and features a superb drum solo.  Metal needs more of that.

The only concern is that I hear so many other bands in here I’m not sure if I’ve discerned Careless’ own voice or sound. But, whatever, these guys can rock.  Therefore, I shall listen to Coalition until I stop.

So I’m listening to my Pandora station (Sixx A.M.) and “Stupify” comes on.  At first I didn’t recognize it, but only because I was at work and surrounded by colleagues in the midst of conversation so the volume is a little low.  But at last I discern the quasi-hymnal chant of Dave Draiman and the precision of Dan Donegan‘s guitar and in an instant I knew who it was and the volume went up.

And then I recall first hearing this song ten or eleven years ago and thinking, yes, someone has arrived to save metal.  Since then, Disturbed have always been reliable musicians; I can’t think of any of their songs that have been a real let down in any way.  Sure, some are better than others, but they always strike the right chords, they always find the right beat.  Disturbed has now been around long enough to accumulate sixteen (and probably more) B-sides.  These songs have been gathered together on The Lost Children (which is kind of cool title – these songs weren’t discarded because they lack quality; they were created and they just went their own way and have finally been congregated together again by the band).

The sixty minute tour through the history of Disturbed’s brand of metal begins with “Hell”, which is portends a descent into the bowels of the band, but the song felt like a slow burn, if you will.  It never really took off, and that was a little disheartening.   But, things picked up from there.  The fifth track, “Monster,” was a delight – the drums and guitar get into such a beautiful rhythm towards the end of the song.  Moments like that really show off why Disturbed is such a good metal band, the precision in their defiance.  “Run” which is number six had a little more verve to it, some good guitar work by Dan Donegan.  “Two Worlds” is a little slow, but around the two and a half minute mark Mike Wengren has the spotlight as he puts his drum kit through some paces.  He’s got a heavy, tribal sound.

“God of the Mind” sounds like it belongs very early in the Disturbed canon and it was easily my favorite.   It’s tight from the intro, has a Draiman growl/speech thingy going on and then continues with his early syncopated chanting vocals that has perfect cadence with the guitar.  It was a good song to build up to.  “Mine” is number eleven and starts with pretty eerie electronics then throws in some bass and drum action.  “Dehumanized” has another killer guitar riff.  It’s not overpowering, just a heavy, heavy groove.  Add Draiman’s meditative vocals and this is a powerful song.  “Midlife Crisis” had a very different vocal sound and an acerbic message for any going through the titular situation.

Disturbed does a great job on covers.  Asylum featured a good version of “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” from U2.  Ten Thousand Fists featured “Land of Confusion” which was a brilliant interpretation and update of that Genesis classic.  The Disturbed take on Judas Priest’s “Living After Midnight” is collected with the other lost children on this CD.  It’s not quite as fabulous as the other two covers, but it’s still better than the original.  It’s cool to hear real metal guitar applied to this early, early 80s classic.

These songs uphold the standard of Disturbed’s music.  They are consistent, well written, well recorded.  These songs would have been slow spots on any earlier releases, I think, but they’re fun as one-off songs.  This could be great filler material between Asylum and whatever their next new album will be or it could be a satisfying wrap-up to a solid and renowned career depending on how their alleged hiatus turns out.

Honestly, that’s just cool.  And the name is fun to say.

The band now consists of:  Chris Lotesto, guitars; Scott Featherstone, vocals; Rob Such, bass; Chuck White, drums.  Having not heard any of their previous music I cannot state how well this new CD/EP fits in with their extant catalog of sound.  So, I’ll just mention a few thoughts regarding this special DR that is introducing the new lineup, specifically singer Scott Featherstone.   Sometimes he sounds like Dio, sometimes like Eddie Vedder, sometimes just like a standard gravelly vocalist.  Many of the vocal harmonies on display are right out of a page of the liner notes for any given Spinal Tap song.  In other words, it wasn’t that impressive.  The lyrics he had to work with were rather standard as well.  I hope any future full length production will remedy these two items.

However, while I was not impressed by the vocal showing I did enjoy Lotesto’s guitar, especially in the intro’s of each song.  It sounded very articulate and reminiscent of early thrash.  Chuck White’s drumming, though, is what really kept me interested in these three songs.  He has a good tone on his kit, heavy and a bit flat.  He’s very consistent with some nice kick drum hammering and some fast fills.  It was fun to hear.

As I was listening to Ion Vein I was also reading up on some sci-fi television and movie rumors over at io9.  Inevitably that throws up the name J.J. Abrams.  Like his projects, the songs of Ion Vein start off promising great things, contain some decent elements of their chosen genre and in the end left me feeling that it was kind of fun, but nothing spectacular.

Head over to the Ion Vein website for information on downloading IV V1.0.