sparkie gets more street cred than I do

more pics / randomness / a little late.

2011-11-09T12:13:00.001-06:00

Jaimee Greenleaf lives in San Francisco and she came to visit me at the hardly strictly bluegrass festival! Awesome!

This is what 45 inputs looks like, minus 2 rackmount DI's.

My friend Bryan and I went to the KenKee restaurant in Chicago's Chinatown. The star of the show was the Chiu Chow Pork intestines. Amazing stuff. Watercress and Garlic. Fried Smelts with Peppers.

Steve Jobs has died. Here is a link to a commencement speech he gave at Stanford. Powerful stuff.

random pictures of Ray's visit.

2011-10-05T17:54:00.000-05:00

Dad, working hard on the house with me.

Ray and Ben Wisdom hanging out

A cup of coffee and some beignets

Sunset over St. Louis Cathedral

Homemade ramen noodles with fish cake and pork tenderloin

Charter fishing with Ray Bloch and Eddie Mapp.

A couple of quick picks

2011-10-05T17:38:00.000-05:00

Today I'm in San Francisco for the hardly strictly bluegrass festival with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury band. 2 weeks ago we went to the Austin City Limits music festival in Austin, Texas.

Yesterday was a looooong day. I got up at 5 CST to go to MSY to catch a united flight from MSY-SFO. Because I'm a frequent flyer with Continental, and Continental and United are merging this year, I received a complimentary first class upgrade, which made the 4 hour flight much more enjoyable.

I was picked up at the airport by the festival staff, we made a quick detour to the festival site to drop off Becky Fradella, of White Oak Productions fame, and we went to the hotel, the Sir Francis Drake.

Luckily, my room was ready at 11 AM (nice!). I dropped off my carryon bag and began the trek to Palo Alto to visit Paul Robichaux. Luckily, google maps told me that the Caltrain depot was only about a mile from the hotel, so I hoofed it, bought a day pass, and hopped on the train for a very enjoyable ride. Paul met me at the station, we walked to a burger joint, and spent a very pleasant 80 minutes catching up and wolfing down antibiotic free, hormone free hamburgers, with crispy fries and onion rings. Paul had to go back to work so we walked back to the train station, he bid me aidieu, and I returned to San Francisco.

After freshening up, I went back outside and found Chinatown! I found a hole in the wall place to order some dim sum, 3 har gao (???) pork dumplings, and a steamed bbq bun, and walked back to the hotel. The dumplings were porky, and delicious. This is the proper use for an oxford comma. The BBQ pork bun was sticky, sweet, savory.

Paul Robichaux

Gig picture dump

2011-08-31T07:51:00.000-05:00

The SSL console at Letterman

Monitor World for the Hippiefest Tour

Charlie Gabriel ties a fancy knot into my tie.

Home for a month, unfortunately, there is no Beth.

Best Ramen I've had since Tokyo.

Back on the Road

2011-08-31T07:40:00.000-05:00

For the past month I've been out on the road with Hippiefest, which is a 5 act bill consisting of Rick Derringer, Dave Mason and his Band, Gary Wright, Felix Cavaliere, and Mark Farner. This is the longest I've continuously worked EVER. I'm having a great time. The guys put on an amazing show, and the audience has been responsive to most of the performers. Adjusting to life inside a tour bus all the time has been different, but not bad for the most part.

I've also been doing more work with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury band. We ended up at several festivals this summer after our tour ended and we've been playing to some really large crowds. Our next festival is going to be for Austin City Limits Music Festival, in Austin, Texas. It's going to be epic. We're headlining one of the smaller stages at the festival, so I'm a little worried about SPL, considering that we're an acoustic band, we'll be playing inside of a tent, and the crowd noise is said to be deafening. In this case the production company is suggesting microphones that I've never used and have no experience with, small diaghram countryman mics. I'm a little leary of using these, just because I haven't EVER, but think that I may try them out for this gig.

So, the house never got painted in July. I wasn't home long enough, and I got distracted. But, I haven't accepted any work in September, my father is coming down to help, and I'm seriously commited to painting the house this month.

See you down the road.

blog has been neglected

2011-06-08T10:45:00.000-05:00

What with facebook and twitter, this blog has been majorly neglected. Poor blog, bloggy-blog.

So what have I been up to?

Professionally:

I've been mixing front of house for the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and the Del McCoury Band. We've done about 12 dates so far in support of their new album: American Legacies. It's a great record, and I'm honored to be working with two talented bands that I actually enjoy listening to!

I did a 2 week run doing monitors for ABBA: The Concert, which is basically a tribute band with members of the original ABBA band. We did a couple of symphony gigs, which was interesting and a new experience for me.

I've of course been doing corporate sales meetings, which have given me a chance to rest up, and also hone my craft on the corporate/ industrial side of things.

Personally:

Beth and I have been working around the house. Well, I should say that mainly Beth has been cleaning and organizing the house., but I've been able to chip in here and there.

We have planted a garden, but its currently a point of contention with our neighbor. Technically, the land is his, but it's literally a two foot strip on the side of our house between our sidewalk and his driveway. I hope we resolve this soon, as he did give us permission when we planted, and we've put a lot of work into the garden.

We're preparing to paint the house in July! Beth and I will paint ourselves, as we have both done house painting before.

Also, we got cable, so as to not miss another episode of David Simon's fine show, Treme.

comment on the blog

2011-01-14T14:10:00.002-06:00

I just figured out that comment notification was turned off on the blog, so I wasn't getting notified when people left a note. In the words of Homer Simpson, DOH!

Pizza Delicious

2011-01-05T15:18:00.000-06:00

Pizza Delicious just got featured in the Gambit, which makes me happy, because the article ensures business for these guys, but I hope it won't be too much. These guys make awesome pizzas and I really like them. I just wish I could eat it more than once a week (they're only open on sundays), and that the store wasn't in the marigny, but mid-city!

On a side note, I've been making homemade sushi, and I can't believe I didn't make this sooner. I love it almost as much as the stuff from the restaurant, but am a little afraid of making sashimi from fish that's not "sushi grade" so have been limiting myself to sushi made from cooked fish, mainly crab sticks and smoked salmon. The sushi doesn't look perfect, but it tastes just fine to me!

a couple of Christmas photos

2011-01-03T08:38:00.000-06:00

Richard and Lee play the famous game "touch Grampy's nose".

Uncle Dan and Adam pose for the camera.

Rigby shows off his Mario plush doll from Kiddyland in Tokyo.

conveyor belt sushi

2010-12-27T08:59:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't heard, Mrs. Bloch and I visited Japan this fall. We had a wonderful time, and I ate my way through the country.

This is a picture of a Kai-ten sushi restaurant. Delicious. Hot water spigots line the counter to fill up mugs of free powdered green tea. Brightly colored plates zip along the line at a speedy 8 centimeters per second. The colors denote the price of the fish on the plate, so the more brightly colored plates increase the price. Touch screens also adorn every other seat. These handy objects serve a purpose. Items like beer, sake, edamame, or specialty sushi can be ordered via the touchscreen.

We stuffed ourselves with fresh, cheap, sushi from these places several times. The better conveyor belt sushi restaurant that we went to was actually fresher than our favorite sushi restaurant at home. This freshness permeates the entire japanese food system. We didn't have a bad meal the whole time we were in Japan. Even chain restaurants had really inexpensive, fresh foods that were prepared with attention to detail. I would love to see more fresh foods in America.

Bacon!!!!

2010-09-24T17:52:00.000-05:00

Beth adopted a stray kitten a couple of months ago. Her name is......... Bacon! She got her name by foolishly getting lured into a cat carrier that we just happened to have stowed in the car with a piece of leftover bacon from Beth's sandwich.

Happy 91st Birthday, Grandma

2010-07-10T08:40:00.001-05:00

My grandma is an amazing person. She is polite and pleasant no matter what situation she finds herself in. I consider myself extraordinarily blessed to have her in my life and to have had such a close relationship to her growing up. She is an example to me on how to be happy.

This is a picture taken on her 91st birthday, at her birthday lunch. The waiter got whip cream on her nose and made her wear a big sombrero. :) Happy Birthday.

Brazil

2010-05-18T20:18:00.000-05:00

Happy Late Birthday Momma!

2010-01-10T10:47:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures from Mom's birthday. We took her to Commander's Palace. We had never been; the service and food were as good as expected. I enjoyed spending time with Mom. She has been taking care of Granny recently, and it was good to take her to do something a little fun and selfish.

picture of Manhattan from Jersey City

interesting things I saw on the internet today

2010-01-09T12:38:00.000-06:00

Blackwater USA (now Xe Services) allows you to train at one of their many facilities.

Quorn is a myco-protein (mold derived meat substitute)

I think I will let google do the linking today instead of linking the articles myself. If you are that interested, google it.

Sarah and Donald "esta en Arequepa"!!!! Good luck to our Peruvian traveling relatives.

Amtrak pictures part 2

2009-12-24T12:13:00.001-06:00

Best Saints article ever

2009-12-22T18:24:00.000-06:00

ESPN ARTICLE

This article sums up the way I feel about my city. More than just an article about our fair football team, this article really delves into what makes New Orleans such a beautiful, unique place. Concerning John Besh, restaurant empresario:

He left in a truck. He came home in a boat, a former combat Marine packing heat. He saw more than disaster. He saw a call to action. If there was going to be a new New Orleans, it would take commitment from the people who loved it. "It was the Wild West," he says. "We were homesteaders in this city. Only the tough are gonna survive. Either you have to roll up your sleeves and get to work, or this isn't the city for you."

"I love you, New Orleans."

A shout out to Ian McNulty, who was quoted briefly in the article, and Shamarr Allen, trumpet player extraordinaire.

train pictures

2009-12-21T22:14:00.001-06:00

inimitable

2009-12-21T18:34:00.000-06:00

liveblogging from Amtrak's Sunset Limited Line

2009-12-21T17:43:00.000-06:00

In case you haven't heard, because we have been talking about it constantly for what seems like months, Beth and I are on an Amtrak train travelling from New Orleans to Los Angeles.

We arrived at the station via the inimitable Donald Keller, who is house/ dog sitting for us while we travel/ visit family for Christmas. The New Orleans Amtrak terminal is shared with Greyhound bus lines. We approached the ticket counter and were promptly issued tickets from our web reservation and a bag claim ticket for our one checked bag.

We then waited in line for 3 minutes and then were allowed to board the train.

To be continued.............many pictures to follow.

This is why you're fat.com

2009-12-10T11:32:00.000-06:00

Firstly, a couple of pictures:

Secondly, the link: thisiswhyyourfat.com

This website make me smile: Thanks for the link, Chris Jeffries-Dowling. I could really eat a poutine right now, which is awesome and terrible to behold.

Link #2: This is a NSFW unicorn chaser site in German

RAINBOWZOMBIESATEMYUNICORN

A unicorn chaser is something sweet and cute that you watch as an antidote to inadvertently clicking on a link that is gross, soul scarring, and nasty. I while not directly supply links to anything that requires a unicorn chaser, but goatse.cx definitely comes to mind.

This video makes me smile deep down in my soul.

2009-12-08T17:12:00.000-06:00

Rigby

2009-12-07T14:35:00.000-06:00

A picture of my cute nephew Rigby.

more pictures from the intercontinental

2009-12-07T14:06:00.000-06:00

one of the many pools

Camelback mountain. This shot was taken in front of the gym.

Random Photos

2009-12-06T18:07:00.000-06:00

The Bathroom in my room at the Intercontinental. Pretty Swanky.

The inimitable Tonia Keller at the Emeril Lagasse Fundraiser

Alison, a stray kitten that Beth rescued and we gave to Chris Cedars. She is named after an Elvis Costello song.

Some dirty cable covers after a really wet festival weekend

my wedding ring

2009-12-06T16:34:00.000-06:00

When I stayed at the Omni Hotel in San Diego last week, I took my wedding ring off at night, my hands were swollen for some reason in the evening time. I woke up one morning, and instead of my usual routine of taking a shower and putting my wardrobe on, I scooted to the gym. This seriously skewed my routine and I forgot to put my ring back on.

Fast forward 9 hours. I realized that the ring isn't on my hand, but clearly remembered taking it off and putting on the bedside table, so I wasn't worried that I had lost the ring. I went back to my room, checked the bedside table, and couldn't find my wedding ring!

I tore the room apart, checked under and behind the bed. I looked in the sink and drain, moved tables around. I called housekeeping, and the nice operator sent someone to help me look. We continued to move things around, crawl on the floor etc. Finally, as we were about to give up, the nice maid pointed it out to me: The ring was on the lamp, around the on / off toggle.

Thanks for helping me find my ring.

San Diego Zoo

2009-12-05T11:09:00.001-06:00

My friend Tom and I just went to the San Diego zoo, and it was so much fun!

Well, the first thing I did was eat a chili bread bowl with onions and cheese, because I hadn't had lunch before we went to the zoo, and I was starving. Second, we saw some reptiles. The reptile house was nice and cool. Most of the snakes were sluggish and didn't move at all.

We walked quite a bit, the San Diego zoo is much larger than the Audubon zoo in New Orleans. I was so tired of walking by the end of the day that I could actually feel my feet throbbing. We rode the cable car 3 times, which was my favorite part, in addition to the aviaries. I felt like I was in a tropical jungle for a bit.

I am leaving for Phoenix today, but we have 24 hours before we have to load in, so I am going to try to find something interesting to do. Good Morning.

2009-12-03T17:58:00.001-06:00

I just got my first comment spam on this blog. I promise I will be better about updating it.

I just donated some money to wikipedia. I never realized how often I use it, I probably read 20 articles today just in the normal course of my surfing, useful stuff. Thanks Wikipedia.

Here's a picture of Chris Cedars and Jack Flynn. Jack is our newest tenant, and also a good friend. (It looks like from this picture that Jack and Chris are special friends, but they are not; both gentleman are straight as a board.)

turned off protected twitter updates.

2009-10-14T09:57:00.000-05:00

Apparently google was consuming them for the blog, and there was an error on the side of the page. not so much.

I am going to get a haircut, as I have a corporate gig tomorrow AM. I fly into Las Vegas tonight, and fly back tomorrow night. I will be gone for 30 hours total, then a load in the next day.

Peaceful buddha spa

2009-08-19T20:33:00.001-05:00

I just had the best massage of my life! Please go visit Peaceful Buddha Spa if you get the chance down here in NOLA. The prices are very reasonable, and Carey delivered great service.

House pictures coming soon.

I fixed the spa tub today. I had ordered a replacement motor and it arrived today. Now I only have a hairline fracture on the return line in the tub, which will probably not get fixed until we remodel the bathroom. (definitely a 2010 proposition, no sooner) The return line is sandwiched between the interior wall which divides the master bath and the efficiency bathroom. I can live with a trickle of water, especially since it looks like the original owner didn't do a great job on the remodel post katrina, and eventually the bathroom will have to get an overhaul anyway.

The plumber is coming on Friday to reconnect the sewer line in bathroom #1, fix the shower in bathroom #2, and possibly fix another cracked drainage line in the laundry room.

it's been too long

2009-08-19T09:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry about the delays in posting, dear readership (by this, I think I mean, my parents and family)

Beth and I bought a house! Pictures will follow soon, but I don't want to have pictures with boxes that haven't been unpacked.

The dogs are sleeping on the couch, and I am about to have a massage at the peaceful buddha day spa. Full report to follow.

538.com

2009-06-16T10:05:00.000-05:00

http://www.538host.com/healthpac2.PNG

This is a list of all the senators in congress, how much money they took from PAC's that lobby for the health care industry, and wether they support a public option for Health Care.

I need health care. As a freelance guy, it is really expensive to get any kind of real coverage. Real healthcare via Beth's job costs approximately $700 / month, which is about what we anticipate our house note to cost. Senators get world class health care, which is payed for at taxpayer expense, I might add.

Superdrives and keyboard covers

2009-06-11T08:26:00.000-05:00

This feels slightly strange, typing through a rubber mat, every push of my keyboard mediated by this soft, spongy material. The translucent blue makes my keyboard look dirty.

I don't know if you are the right decision for me, KB keyboard cover. You cost $30, which is a considerable sum for a piece of gelled plastic. I have pored through your website, attempting to glean any significant information, so that I can know definitively, via a glimpse of your soul, perhaps, if you are the one for me.

Should I purchase the Dvorak layout, confusing my friends and enemies, but leave my keyboard layout in QWERTY, confusing them further? What would make this decision easier? Lately, my keyboard backlight has been turned off, which makes me sad. I enjoyed manipulating the brightness of the keys, even in full daylight.

I bought a cheap cover at frys electronics store last night, thinking that I could replace you with a $10 variant. I know not if I can replace you. The cheap cover slides this way and that, feeling powdery like dried latex.

Your keyboard cover stays firmly in place, sturdy, unmoving. I like you and I think I will buy you KB keyboard cover; I could grow used to you.

In other news, my superdrive quit working briefly, reject every disk inserted into the slot. I called apple care, and they ran me through a list of quick fixes.

1. Zap the P-Ram.

2. Remove the battery and hold down the power button for 15 seconds.

3. Create another user account and try from the account.

4. Schedule an appointment with the genius store.

I ended up going with option 5, however Applecare won't schedule an appointment for more than 5 days out, and I was out of town, so I ended up not scheduling an apointment at all.

The actual fix involved rotating the mac so that the screen was flat against a table, and the superdrive was oriented vertically. After I did this, whatever mechanical problem I had stopped, and I haven't had any problems with inserting or ejecting CDs.

nothing

2009-05-18T16:30:00.000-05:00

I am currently in Indian Wells, California, on a gig for expo productions. I haven't updated the blog in a while so I thought I would just post a quick hello. Tori Amos is playing in the background, Beth is in New Orleans interviewing for jobs, and she has also picked up a stray dog. This would be stray dog number two for us, but I am assured that some of our relatives will take the dog.

Fishing was good, we caught a mess of speckled trout and redfish thanks to the nice guys at Captain Phil Robichaux's charter fishing service. I am peeling from my exposure to the sun!

I am making an Aunt Betty fish face.

My father, grandmother, and Aunt helped me pack up the house.
I didn't download the pictures to the computer so here is a picture of our friend Julian Guillory with a redfish.

The Kellers

2009-04-25T18:58:00.000-05:00

Sarah and Donald got married on April 17, 2009. It was a perfect day overcast, but no rain and nice and cool. Mom must have held it off for us. I'm happy to share our photos of the wedding weekend. We had a blast! It was very magical!

Pictures uploaded to picasa web albums

2009-04-13T11:35:00.000-05:00

This first link is mainly pictures of our nephew Rigby.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/RigbyAtThePierces?feat=directlink

Robichauxs and crawfish at the compound.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/RobichauxsAndCrawfishBoils?feat=directlink

Josh and Heather Nobles Wedding.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/TheWeddingToEndAllWeddings?feat=directlink

Chickens and Plants (Those are Donald Kellers chickens, not mine).
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/ChickensAndPlants?feat=directlink

Peggy Hopkins

2009-03-31T10:30:00.000-05:00

Beth's mom died on January 31st and I have been at a loss on how to breach the subject.

This blog is meant in part to be a personal chronicle and part soap box for items that I find interesting. I thought it would be inappropriate to gloss over this very important event in our family, but lacked the energy to write about it, so I have neglected my posting duties. Here are some pictures.

We will miss you Peggy.

whitehouse.gov/blog/

2009-01-24T13:45:00.000-06:00

Is being updated. I doubt that my letter actually changed their policy, but it seems that they have caught up, and the feed is being updated, along with links to memos and executive orders. Go-Bama!

Proud to be an American

2009-01-23T19:28:00.000-06:00

Well, since Chris opened the dialogue about our new president, I feel the need to express my thoughts and feelings.
Not growing up with segregation and the civil rights movement, seeing Barack Obama sworn in as POTUS is not that surprising to me. Although, I do think there are a lot of people out there who do not see beyond the color of one's skin and who are very uneducated and still believe that black people are inferior because God made them that way. But for me, I do not see President Obama's color. To me he is a smart, well rounded and compassionate individual. He seems to know how to lead, delegate and make his ideas a reality.
Yet at the same time, it is a BIG DEAL that a black man was elected President. It means that others see beyond his color. They believe that there are bigger problems than the color of one's skin and that is what makes me proud to be an American.

For all my Presidential voting history, I have to deal with losers. I have had to deal with voting for the right person, knowing that was the right person, but feeling like I did not belong because some Supreme Court justice did not agree with me. I have voted for third parties because I felt it was time to open the doors to another perspective. I have voted the party line because my pocket book and morale could not take another four more years of negativity, dishonesty and shame. But then I voted because I knew that the person on the ballot held them same beliefs I held. And I won along with our country.

Tuesday felt like Christmas to me when I was little and still believed in Santa Claus and also like the day I met Chris for the second time. So much excitement for being on the winning team, but mostly that the tide was turning towards the common good.

An open letter to the White House blog team

2009-01-23T11:56:00.000-06:00

I would ask that you guys update your blog regularly reflecting the policy decisions that you have made, as a good faith reflection of the Presidents proclamation regarding openness. I understand that this is a busy time for everyone on the White House team, but I feel that you guys can automatically update the content of your RSS feed to include the policy decisions that are coming down everyday. I also feel that including links to streams of press conferences and C-SPAN would be great!

As a side note, Slashdot.org recently posted an article suggesting ways that the White House web site could be streamlined. While I am not a webmaster, I have forwarded the link to you, as it notes several ways to decrease bandwidth usage on this site and thought it may be of interest.

http://dotnetperls.com/Content/whitehouse-gov-Site.aspx

Thanks for your time,
Chris Bloch

I sent this letter to comments@whitehouse.gov and also through a web submission form on the White House Site. With all the media and headlines being produced, I think it should be agreggated in a timely manner, which hasn't happened (yet) hopefully.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/

on a lighter note

2009-01-21T11:52:00.001-06:00

"What's the big deal, just another brothah moving into government housing.". Posted by Chris Rock January 19, 2009 5:41 PM

The Field Negro

Censorship by HBO

2009-01-19T11:25:00.000-06:00

Bishop Gene Robinson was edited out of the HBO broadcast of the concert at the Lincoln Memorial. This make me very, very sad.

The full text of his invocation is in the above link. Now is the time for inclusivity of ALL people, black and white, gay and straight, Christian and Muslim.
UPDATE:

HBO says the Invocation was part of the pre-show, so it's not their fault.

Maybe I am just over-reacting.

Cat and Dog Love

2009-01-18T12:28:00.000-06:00

Check out these awesome pictures Chris took of Pru and Desmondo.

Goooooooaaaallllll!

2009-01-16T12:22:00.000-06:00

So I was reading wikihow.com about how to be positive. Sometimes I forget all the things I learned at New Dominion and most of that I think is due to Katrina. But I was reminded today that setting goals is an important part of daily life. I never got into the whole give it up to God or pray on things to make my thoughts positive. I'm more of a practical person and I need something I can do that is active. Plus, I'm not sure about the whole God thing anyway, too passive and then God or whoever gets blamed. However, setting goals is great. Goals can be measured, expanded, crossed off the list once achieved, practiced, reviewed, I think you get the picture.
Goals also make us grow and I see no reason for being on Earth except to grow. I don't understand people who stay with the status quo or never rock the boat. I know I at times like to hide and remain static but it's really not good for the soul. I also realize that having no goals means never standing up for myself and what I believe. It means never being challenged. And then life gets boring and becomes too much of a routine.
So today my goal is to let my voice be heard in order to be positive and in order to have a goal. I know, kind of vague. But I have an interview today and instead of jumping at what they offer me or nodding my head while they talk, I'm going to contribute to the conversation. I'm going to make sure all my questions are answered and I'm going to be personable and connect with these people. Then when it's over, I'm going to give myself some time to reflect and decide if this is what I want and what is best for Chris and me.
But goals can be simple too. Sometimes just making a goal of, "I will make a grocery list and go shopping today" or "I will clean the house today" are good goals. Sometimes turning the tedious chores of life into a goal can really make you feel accomplished once the chore is done.
Oh and another goal I had today was to post something on our blog. Mission Accomplished!

Twitter

2009-01-15T10:36:00.000-06:00

I just read a great article by Matt Haughey, telling me why I should only check twitter from the web site. Apparently it's a time suck. I will let the article tell you why NOT to have a twitter client always running.

I am hitting command - Q as I write this sentence, exiting my twitter client. Matt is the brains behind metafilter.com, my favorite website to get credible answers from folks about a wide range of issues.

http://a.wholelottanothing.org/2009/01/matt-whats-your-favorite-desktop-twitter-client.html

Kindle Problems

2009-01-08T13:37:00.001-06:00

Lecompte is still nice and quiet. The next door neighbors have started on an ambitious construction project. They are building a house. Beth and I left New Orleans to the sound of construction and now it seems we are in the midst of the sounds of buzz saws and caterpillar earth movers again. The view is much better.
I have been having serious issues with my kindle. Whenever I downloaded content over the wireless, poor kindle crashed. The last image displayed would stay on the screen, immoveable. This is the kind of behaviour that I would expect if the battery died, because the kindle only uses power to refresh the screen, not to keep the image displayed.
I would use a hard reset to get the kindle to come back to life, but this was seriously annoying. The only way to circumvent said problem was to keep the kindle plugged in. This had nothing to do with the battery life. For some reason, after several calls to the fine folks at Kindle support, we reflashed the firmware (which had the side effect of removing my library, but no biggie) and the problem has been solved! Kindle support seems to think that something I downloaded corrupted the firmware, which caused the error. They have been seriously helpful, even offering to replace my kindle if we didn't get the issue resolved, and always answering the phone within 3 minutes. Yay Kindle tech support.

Bacon

2008-12-30T09:46:00.000-06:00

My (soon to be) brother-in-law Donald gave me and Beth some bacon he purchased from the farmer's market this Christmas. The bacon comes in a regular cryo-vac bag, but it was very different from any bacon I had ever had. The bacon possessed sharp tones of salt and fat, with a nice crispy rind, reminiscent of crackling.

The Church of Bacon.

We got a new camera!!!

2008-12-27T17:18:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T10:47:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas! Beth and I are in New Orleans visiting Peggy, eating her good food, and drinking her good liquor. :) We will catch up on the blog soon. I think we are going to see prospect.1 which is an art exhibit in New Orleans. There is a new widget on the side of this blog showing items from my feed reader. Check em out.

Christmas Decor 2008

2008-12-18T21:06:00.000-06:00

This Christmas Chris had the great idea of getting a live tree so we can plant it in our yard after January 6. So we placed it on the side table near the window tonight. Chris helped string the lights on the tree and I placed about a dozen ornanments on the evergreen. I decorated the rest of the house with the remaining lights and hung the stockings. Even the pups and the cat get a stocking this year. (Let's hope Desmond can resist the dangling objects and crinkly paper. My old cat, Martha, used to chew the ribbon on my presents.) Yep, it's definitely Christmas time.

I haz Force of Darksidez!!! You will give all me Cheezburgez!!!

2008-12-17T18:20:00.000-06:00

I am the Gingerbread Egg Man.

2008-12-16T22:27:00.000-06:00

GooGoo Ga Chew!

I still think the bailout's a good idea, but this is hysterical, and true.

2008-12-16T08:47:00.000-06:00

Cheese Straws

2008-12-16T07:54:00.000-06:00

Last night I made Cheese Straws, which Aunt Betty taught me how to make. Recipe is found on page 223 of River Road, the most famous cookbook of all time. :)

Take 2 cups of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 2/3 cups regular old flour
a little salt
1 cup of butter
cayenne pepper to taste ( I like a lot)

Dump all of this in a mixmaster. If the butter isn't soft, prepare for a mess because the flour won't incorporate into the mixture. Use a dough hook if you have one. Turn the mixmaster on low and incorporate all ingredients. Take the newly formed dough and roll on a floured surface. Cut into strips and place strips onto an ungreased cookie sheet (or 3 ungreased cookie sheets ). Place aforementioned cookie sheet into an oven preheated to 275 ゜and cook until lightly golden brown. Place on a cooling rack; optionally dust cheese straws with more cayenne pepper. Makes: 3 dozenish.

Less than I want, I don't get tired of eating these things. Excuse the picture. I was too lazy this morning to break out the real camera and used the built in camera on my laptop.

:(

2008-12-12T15:28:00.001-06:00

I can't believe I missed the snow. :(

Snow!!!

2008-12-11T08:22:00.001-06:00

Here's a picture of our house in the snow. I hope it stays around for a day or two.

Crescent City Changing of the Guard

2008-12-07T16:33:00.000-06:00

I wanted to say I am very proud that New Orleans did not reelect "Dollar" Bill Jefferson back to congress. (Almost proud enough to think one day Chris and I could move back but only if they fix the streets.) I think Louisiana may be moving in a better direction without him and his embarrassment. (Now all we have to do is get rid of David "I like hookers that have the same name as my wife" Vitter.) I have always thought that Louisiana was a great state. We have mild winters, the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets, lots of fishing, great trails, awesome food and some of the best music that the Northern Hemisphere has created. I think we deserve politicians who believe all of this and are not full of hubris.

Now, I'm not sure if the newly and firstly elected Vietnamese-born Congressman-elect Cao is perfect. I'm sure he's not and he is a Republican (that in itself is a little foreboding) which means many hungry right-wing lobbyists and congressmen will try to lure him into being another extreme conservative just to keep a Republican seat in the house. Which in turn means, that the Republicans will not care that Louisiana or rather New Orleans wants change and that is why Cao was elected. Hopefully, he will rise above it and realize that it is better to save one of the best cities on earth than to follow the leader.

As for Jefferson. He should have known better. He came from Lake Providence one of the poorest towns in Louisiana but also one of the prettiest. I think he forgot about his upbringing and his childhood after too many sazercas and good cooking from Galatoire’s. Or maybe his poor upbringing made him believe that he deserved power even if it was illegal and did nothing to help others. "I have to stay on top because I got here and I'm never going back to Lake Providence." That is what I imagine him saying.

So cheers to New Orleans for taking a step in the right direction and let's hope that if things don't work out they will once again ask for change.

Mac Fanboys

2008-11-24T20:38:00.000-06:00

Every person on the production I was just on in San Diego used a mac, with exception to the powerpoint operators. Here is a picture of us showing off our mac bling.

I took a 3 hour nap before supper, then had some chicken livers. Talk about good!

Airport

2008-11-24T11:59:00.001-06:00

I just got back from my lovely trip to San Diego, my father dropped me off and picked me up; Beth came with me but she flew out of New Orleans because we found a cheaper flight. The Alexandria International airport really doesn't require the same kind of "early preparation" that let's say flying in and out of Vegas or Orlando, or even MSY requires.
I arrived at the ticket counter about 90 minutes before my flight. I was the only person at the ticket counter. The ticketing agent wasn't even there! TSA didnt open the clearance area until 20 minutes before my flight was to leave! There were only
4 people on my inbound flight to IAH. I had plenty of time once at IAH to catch my connecting flight to San Diego, where I got a SECOND EXIT ROW SEAT WITH A POWER OUTLET! I didn't have to use the power outlet, as my laptop gets about 3 hours on a charge, but it was nice to know that an outlet was there if I needed it.

more to come.

Google Reader

2008-10-29T12:27:00.000-05:00

I switched from bloglines to google reader, because the feeds weren't updating properly. Just saying. It took about 60 seconds to export my feeds and import in the google-borg and I am loving some RSS now.

Brisket, bonfires, and the cotton festival

2008-10-29T11:47:00.000-05:00

So Beth and I have been pretty busy. I have been working really steadily since we have moved, since August, I haven't spent any consecutive five day period at home, which is a little hairy.
The top picture is my monitor position at the Texas music festival, in houston, Texas.

Beth and I went to the Cotton Festival Jousting Tournament in Ville Platte, LA. We feasted on boudin, tasso, and really great hog's head cheese made with green onions. We arrived in Ville Platte and spent about an hour trying to find the jousting tournament site.

Mistake #1:
We assumed that there would be clear directions to the venue from the main streets of Ville Platte or the web site. This was a totally incorrect assumption and was only rectified by the map application on the trusty iphone, which got us close enough to follow a line of pickup trucks to a totally unmarked site by the national guard armory outside of ville platte, in someone's field.

Mistake #2: We assumed that there would be an ATM on site. After all, most festivals provide an easy way for patrons to give money to vendors on site. Actually, there were only about three vendors at the site, and they were all selling $2 hamburgers, and $2 beer, so we were actually ok with the money that we had brought.
Mistake #3:
We didn't bring our pickup truck. Everyone else brought a pickup truck, which made it easy to park around the jousting track. We parked at the entrance to the track and walked to a clear spot to see the festivities, but we didn't bring our folding chairs, so we pretty much just stood for 3 hours watching the horses whip around the track.

Now we know. We had a lot of fun. Much clapping and shouting ensued when a rider would race past trying to spear a small ring on his lance, and everyone was really nice, even though we were clearly out of towners.

We had Uncle Dan, Grandma, Aunt Ann, Melissa, Ashley, and my father over last night for chili and a bonfire we had made from storm debris. The flames were at least 25 feet high for 15 minutes, and the fire raged for at least 45 minutes. Hopefully Aunt Ann will send me some pictures.

I leave you with a picture of my first brisket, made with Uncle Dan's explicit instructions. Please go out and vote, regardless of your party affiliation. I know who I chose, but I would just like everyone to exercise their right.

More pictures in a picasa web album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/bloch.chris/Brisket?pli=1&gsessionid=C23RXvec7KDKR556A-Ihtw#

12 pound brisket.
I didn't trim the fat, just slathered tony's, garlic powder, and some brown sugar on top and bottom, placed the brisket fat side up on top of aluminum foil support since I don't have a meat rack, sliced an onion on top, and then covered in aluminum foil. I put the brisket in the oven at about 9:30 pm, and Beth took it out at 9 am ish this morning. 300 degrees for 11.5 hours. I let the brisket rest for an hour, then started peeling little chunks off the side to "taste". Goodness.
Hopefully will have some more relatives over soon to help me eat this.

Work, work, more work

2008-10-21T10:45:00.000-05:00

I have been pretty slack in updating the blog lately. Twitter has allowed me to "micro-blog", and I have been working hard. No excuses, anyway, so what's been going on with the Bloch's?

Grandma had a stroke. She is still very happy, but unable to match words and letters. She speaks in tongues, just a little bit, but mainly can't identify objects, and people. She is always delighted to see her acquaintances and friends, always greeting them with a signature "Hello, how are you?" and a "fine, thank you." Even with the loss of language, Grandma hasn't lost her manners.

I have been gigging like no one's business. Since Beth and I have moved to Lecompte, I haven't spent a full week at home. I would prefer to be at home all the time, but I like being in demand.

Beth's volunteering. She mainly works for Habitat for Humanity right now, but is open to do whatever is useful and productive.

Going to do early voting today, leaving for Nueva Orleans again tomorrow.
The next post will be about the Ville Platte jousting tournament at the Cotton Festival.

Sarah Palin

2008-09-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

Need I say more?

Molly at Lake Kincaid

2008-09-26T17:07:00.000-05:00

Here's a great picture of Molly that I took yesterday out at Kincaid Lake. We went for a hike, but got in the woods about a mile and then the mosquitos chased us off. I even doused myself in OFF. But it was worth the trouble just to get this picture of Molly in a post-hike cool down. Her expression just says it all!!!

Aunt Ann

2008-09-26T16:47:00.001-05:00

said that I was to publish in my blog more often. For all you folks out there in bloggery blog land my Aunt Ann hates twitter, because she says that the younger generation (me, Paul, Tim) fails to update our blogs as regularly.

So here I am. I think Aunt Ann should get a twitter account, and start following her relatives so she can broadcast some of her own data to the world!

Worked at the office a little bit today. It's slow, but I feel like if I get just one thing done every time I go in, it will work out.

Some articles that I am reading right now:
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/09/voter_registration
http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/09/video-chevrolet.html
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Run_Mac_OS_X_on_an_Eee_PC

It sure is quiet out here in Lecompte.

If anyone runs into a problem at the polls, the number to call is :

866.MYVOTE1

alltel vs att

2008-09-11T17:48:00.000-05:00

Beth and I moved to the sticks and were unable to get DSL or cable internet access. Paul Robichaux recommended that we check with the guys over at 3ginfo.com. We did and they suggested that we go with Alltel wireless.

We didn't on first try: we went with ATT, because Beth and I have service with ATT and we just thought it would be easier. After going to the store and being assured by Robert, our friendly salesperson that ATT would in fact work, we jumped on it. NOT SO MUCH.

After about 2 weeks of constantly having to click refresh inside a browser window and waiting for whatever we were loading to time out, we had had enough! Beth suggested that we go back to Alltel and try out their service. We met up with Darryl, our friendly salesperson, and we were off and running.

Alltel's service is fast! I can stream standard def video content from hulu.com with very little delay usually. The websites that Beth wants to load eg. boingboing.net and facebook.com load quickly, which was NOT the case with ATT.

Beth and I are just about moved in. We cooked our first chicken and sausage gumbo. The washer and dryer are working, just about, and life is good. I leave you with the funniest SNL clip I have seen in a while.

wax lips

2008-08-25T17:59:00.000-05:00

49

2008-08-25T17:50:00.000-05:00

This is reprinted in its entirety from a certain blog, without any permission whatsoever. Read it, or not.

Hawaii is the 50th state, and the only one my favorite aunt never visited. She'd made a project of bagging all 50, visiting some several times because she loved them — Colorado for its mountains, Maine for its rocky coast — and dipping into others just once for the sake of completion. A cruise with my grandparents gave her the elusive Alaska, and my last trip with her, the end of a long string that began when I finished high school, covered Minnesota and North Dakota, numbers 48 and 49.

For my aunt's 60th birthday in 2005, my mother and I planned to pool our frequent flyer miles and credit card points to give her number 50. And then Katrina swept New Orleans, displacing my aunt for several months. And then heart surgery. And bowel surgery. And so on, where partial convalescences were followed by infections, then by more procedures, then, finally, by a diagnosis of congestive heart failure and emphysema.

It's not accurate to say her death last Monday was sudden, or her decline fast. It was long and slow. We just didn't recognize it as such. We knew she wouldn't get better, but we thought, with the unquenchable optimism that is hard-coded into my family's genes, she might manage to hold her own. When her pulmonologist said there was nothing more he could do, we thought there was nothing more he could do, not that no more could be done.

But no more could be done, and finally we were told so in terms even we couldn't twist. Wait, that's not true; my grandmother, Pollyanna nonpareil, could. "She's not going to get any better" is how my grandmother told it. My mother, who heard the doctor say the very same words my grandmother heard, corrected her: "She's only going to get worse."

The palliative care doctor visited. My family looked into hospice care. But without any idea how long she had, without asking because we didn't want to know, the plan was for her to spend some time at my grandparents' house, which had become her home. We talked about a hospital bed for the house, a BiPAP machine, a night nurse. But my aunt died before any of it would become necessary.

She slept a lot those last few days, eased into rest by morphine. When she was awake, she wasn't always lucid. These weren't her last words, but they were the last that were reported to me: "I want to go home." And, "I want Ben's Social Security number."

...

That last may need explaining. Unmarried and childless, knowing she was on her own financially, she was practical about money. She spent carefully, and tried to teach us, her nieces and nephews, to do the same. Several years ago, to encourage us to save, she opened a bank account for every one of us under the age of 13. At Christmas and on birthdays, she made a celebratory deposit. A few days before she died, she wanted to do the same for Ben.

Charlie knew her, a little, but not as well as I'd wished. He won't remember the things she did for him — the book she made of family photos so he'd remember his faraway relatives, the monkey shoes she couldn't resist even though they were full price, the way she held him on her chest while he slept, humped round "like a bowling ball." And the baby shower! Before Charlie was born, she asked all her friends, whose kids she'd feted for years and who'd known me since I was a child, to attend a party at her house. Bring an unwrapped baby gift, she instructed them. At the party, she took pictures of each guest and gift. Then they wrapped the presents and she sent them, along with the photos, to me. (She included, naturally, a list of names and addresses, so that I could write thank-you notes. Dear J., Thank you for the adorable fleece suit, and for including the flask of vodka.) Charlie won't remember much, but I will. She loved him for himself, I know, but she also loved him for me.

And Ben. She would have loved him, too. The day before he was born, she entered the hospital for the last time. I called her from my room while Ben slept by my side. "My hospital sucks more than yours does," I said instead of hello, grouchy that my doctor had restricted my menu. "Doubt it," she said with a snort, with more serious things to resent. And then promptly instructed my mother to get me some flowers, "outrageous ones."

It was the last time I talked to her. Every other time I called she was sleeping. But then I didn't have much I wanted to say except You're not going to believe what Charlie said this morning — oh, my God, it was funny. And Ben is so soft that when I put my hand on his back it feels like my fingers are melting into him. And I wish my kids could know you. And Thank you so much. I've loved you.

...

I no longer thought we'd get to her 50th state, not after the last year and more. She was on oxygen full time, making air travel impossible. We'd thought of a cruise, but getting to the West Coast seemed an insurmountable problem. I did, however, think I'd see her again, and wanted to visit with Ben and Charlie as early as December. I even thought I'd go as recently as last week, when we knew she was dying but thought she could go home. When we didn't know how short a time was left.

Yet I didn't go to the memorial service. My mother told me firmly on the phone, "Don't even try to come," and her words felt like a blessing. I could have stood it, of course, the punishing three-leg trip with a newborn, the stress of a house full of people, the same black dress that I've worn too much in the space of barely a year. But I was relieved, indecently, not to, and grateful that the two people whose opinions matter most, my mother and my grandmother, understand.

This bereavement thing is messy. I've spent the last week trying not to think too much about it because I can't really afford to fall apart at the moment. So the grief leaks out around the edges, an ooze that escapes only while the children are asleep. The ongoing hilarity of Charlie and the unfolding wonder of Ben are enough to distract me during waking hours, mostly, but I don't know how long that will hold.

What I know from the last year is that the first few weeks are comparatively easy. When someone you love dies, the shock of it, the awfulness of a funeral, and the resulting scramble for equilibrium are all diverting in their own way. It's after that that things get really hard, the months where you don't have anything to do but figure out what life is going to look like without that person in it.

...

But I started this post wanting to talk about the trips. The coast of Maine. Rocky Mountain National Park. The Mall of America. The Carolinas and the Dakotas, North and South. Cheyenne, Wymoning. Walla Walla, Washington. The Columbia River Gorge. So many and not enough.

She'd call and say, for example, "So how about Oregon?" It was fine with me — it always was — so we'd choose a date and meet at the airport. For ten days or so we'd drive through whichever state we'd chosen, spending the days seeing the sights and the evenings lying on our hotel room beds watching television. (Like millions of Americans, I can tell you exactly where I was on September 11, 2001: the Tillamook cheese factory.)

For the first several years we traveled cheaply, taking an electric skillet and an ice chest along, shopping for groceries along the way and cooking them in our mom-and-pop motel room at night. Although in later years we opted for more luxurious digs, it is thanks to this early training that I can now steam a lobster almost anywhere. My apologies to the chambermaids all along the coast of Maine. Yes, that was tomalley on the sheets. If you didn't want your guests to cook crustaceans on the premises, you should have put up a sign.

I've been trying to write this for days but I am having trouble making those trips sound special enough. But I am realizing that I don't have to write about where we went or what we did, because in the end it doesn't matter. All those trips were — ha, all — was time spent with someone who always made me laugh, who thought I was funny, who would swerve as readily as I would to the side of the road, turning in where the sign said DUNE BUGGY RIDES. I chipped a tooth on the safety rail and had sand in my hair for days. It was years ago but I'm smiling as I type.

And crying. I mean, we weren't finished yet. I wasn't finished knowing her. My children hadn't even started. And even given everything we did, everywhere we went — Dollywood, Graceland, Heritage USA — as good as it all was, it feels so sadly incomplete.

2008-08-23T09:43:00.000-05:00

This morning I popped out of bed, decided to back up my computer, because I have been putting off this action for well over two weeks, and sync my phone, which I have also put off for a while now.

Time machine (Apple's backup utility) says that I have 21.6 GB's of new data to write to the back up drive. This doesn't even come close to Tim Robichaux who said he had something like 696 GB to back up. I think I would go crazy.

My phone is a pain to sync but I can't decide whether the cable is just flimsy and apt to break the connection or the pins in the bottom of the treo are. The treo has to have special software to connect to a mac, which I gladly bought for $40, and it works, but only kind of. I can get my phone to serve as a connection for internet, but only via bluetooth, which is slow like Christmas. Bluetooth however won't sync my phone for some reason. I have only gotten it to work once.
Having said all of this, I am almost driven to buy an iphone, but I am not allowed to tether an iphone to a laptop which is pretty useful sometimes.

Paul suggested I get an evdo modem and router combination and I have contacted these guys to make it happen. They run the forums at evdoinfo.com

Enough about my poor IT choices. Molly puked this morning in Peggy's house, on the carpet.

Molly is sitting in the middle of an abandoned golf course in New Orleans City Park.

Molly went swimming with this alligator, which lives in a lagoon in the same golf course. Actually, I know of at least two gators loose in city park.

I leave you with a picture that I took at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Clementine Hunter : My grandmother paints very convincing reproductions.

The Baptism

A couple of other things Aunt Betty taught me:

2008-08-22T23:31:00.000-05:00

Onomatopoeia is spelled correctly by singing the letters contained inside the word onomatopoeia to the tune of old McDonald had a farm. O-N-O-M-A-T-O-P-O-E-I-A.

The difference between can and may. Can means "Am I physically capable of doing this action?" May means "Do I have permission for this action?"

The difference between definite and indefinite articles. The is a definite article, being used in a specific instance, ie. The well has run dry. The indefinite article a is used when referred to one of a numbers of items.

The service was nice. Plenty of people stopped by before the service to say hi and give their condolences and we had so many people attend the service that there was spillover in the church. Uncle Dan and Arlene put out a good spread, provided by the good folk who had come by earlier in the week. I ate myself silly and enjoyed seeing all the friends and relatives.

The southern contingent of Aunt Betty's friends, hereto referred to as Bettyites, showed up with red wax lips affixed to their faces. They made me smile.

Beth and I are really just about moved in now, except for unpacking clothes.

This is the view from the back porch.

the back porch

UPDATE:
Beth and I drove back to New Orleans and made the old house mop-clean. We are staying at Peggy's while Beth finishes her last week of work and I pull a show for Pyramid. Texas Music Fest here I come.

Betty Barton Bloch

2008-08-19T10:50:00.000-05:00

My aunt Betty passed into the sweet bosom of Jesus yesterday. She had a big heart. She was always first to call and offer her laundry services, use of her car, to take me to eat for fun. We drove around for hours in metro New Orleans deciding where our appetites would best be satiated. She gave me my first taste of KD Lang, Paul Simon, the soundtrack from Dirty Dancing, and the soundtrack to Stand By Me. She was an inverterate road tripper, picking me up and taking me to visit New Orleans and to many, many, camp Blochs. She loved Marlboro Light 100's and Stolichnaya Vodka, served straight from the freezer.
I loved listening to stories of her living in the French Quarter, visiting manhattan during the summer, and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. She taught me the terms "King's X", "gentle reminder", "Church of the Holy Comforter", and "Values Clarification". She will be sorely missed by all.

moving

2008-08-17T22:22:00.000-05:00

So Beth and I finally loaded a truck, and headed our butts back to central louisiana. We will be living in Lecompte, pronounced le-count, which is about 15 miles from Alexandria. Pictures to follow soon.

NOLA Potholes

2008-08-14T20:03:00.000-05:00

Thought I should post this pothole narrative I wrote and sent to the Times-Picayune today. Thanks to Sarah and Donald and their hard work making paper boats last night!

3 things

2008-07-17T09:10:00.001-05:00

I read on cousin Tim's blog that we had an adventure when I visited Seattle. So we did! I told you guys about the market and meeting Julie and the touristy food that was actually pretty good. I didn't tell you about the car and me having to run to work from 8 blocks away, uphill, because the battery died on us. A couple of things struck me as odd. 1) I had to ask 4 or 5 people to help us jump the car before anyone would help. Everyone seemed very busy, even the kids I asked. 2) The parking lot attendants didn't seem concerned either.
Luckily Tim and Julie had AAA, so help was only a phone call away. By the time that we realized the car wasn't going to start, I had about 20 minutes to get to work, so I hoofed it. It really wasn't that big a deal for me to walk, I needed the exercise anyway after all the food I stuffed down my gullet, just wished I could have spent more time with Tim and Julie.

I received a kindle in the mail yesterday from Amazon, and I like it a lot. I think that it's a game-changing device. Being able to automatically download something from the internet to the device is pretty awesome. I am still learning how to get around, and a couple of things are non-intuitive.

The back button on the right hand side has a different meaning than the previous page button; there are two "next page" buttons, but only one "previous page" button. I was confused a little bit by this.

The text documents that I have gotten from project Gutenberg have some formatting issues, the lines wrap around even with the smallest font size so that less text fits on a screen. I also have had trouble navigating back to a particular spot in a document. The kindle doesn't seem to use page numbers, but locations, which is different.

The kindle has the feel of a 1st generation device, but I still think that it's good value for the money and I am happy that I bought one.

UPDATE:
I have used my kindle for 5 or 6 days with no need to recharge! Project Gutenberg texts can be downloaded from http://manybooks.net/ and converted from the web site to Kindle format, so no formatting issues anymore.

Loving my kindle.

My stage plot for Chrissette Michelle

2008-07-08T11:23:00.000-05:00

I worked the Essence Festival this weekend, and I had a good time. One of our acts on Sunday night showed up without an accurate stage plot and they had a reasonably large setup, so I endeavored to make them a stage plot. Here it is for your viewing enjoyment. I would welcome any suggestions to improve my stage plot drawing skills, and I want to make the information presented as clear as possible, that way no technical support personnel have to go through what I went through.

Chris
bloch.chris@gmail.com

So much

2008-07-03T20:19:00.001-05:00

Beth and I have been super busy!
The garden is huge. The okra, corn, and greens are all at least 40 inches tall.
I went to Seattle, worked an amazing amount of hours in just a few day, got to hang out with Tim and Julie (pronounced joo-lee) We went to eat at, drum roll please, a tourist restaurant! Actually, the food was quite good. I had a dozen west coast oysters which had insane amounts of flavor. That was just the appetizer, then I had half of a dungeness crab, Tim had Salmon sliders with crab soup, and Julie had crab cakes.

We then went to the market, where there were all manner of nice things to look at. I personally wanted to purchase all the dried fruits and vegetables and also beef jerky. Julie bought the fruits, and I ended up with the beef jerky. The beef jerky was delicious.

I trucked back to work in time for....Jay Leno, who was much funnier in front of my audience than I have ever seen him on TV.

Now, I am working at the Essence festival, which is one of the biggest shows in New Orleans. Essence is held in the superdome, and thankfully, I am only working in the small room.

Going to run, but trying to make a concerted effort to blog.

Clayton Rigby Bloch

2008-06-17T17:54:00.000-05:00

Clayton and Laura just had a baby boy! He was born at 2:04 PM on June 16, 2008. Clayton is a dad, and I am an uncle. I can't wait to take the boy out for video games and pizza (or the fast food of his choice).
Now my parents are Grandparents, which should feel slightly odd, I can't really imagine my parents as being grandparents, but they are, so more power to them. I can't wait to meet the newest Bloch.

John McCain identifies Vladimir Putin as President of Germany

2008-06-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

Mother In Law Peggy Hopkins

2008-06-08T11:52:00.000-05:00

Camping movie

2008-05-28T14:08:00.000-05:00

.
This is a movie of our recent camping trip. The music is a piece I composed called "The Pirate's Overture". Enjoy.

Camping with the Pups and the new Bloch

2008-05-26T22:45:00.001-05:00

Camping with Molly went really well. We had her on the stake while we hiked the gear in from the car. She stayed near us the whole time while we were at Kisatachie except for one or two trips to the Boy Scout's, who were camping near us, grease pit. She and Stanley, her springer-spaniel-mix cousin, swam in the bayou and enjoyed lounging in the lime-stone sand. It was a wonderful weekend with low temps and lots of gourmet food. It pays off to have two men who like to eat well camping with you.

The newest Bloch is Eve. She is Chris' MacBookPro. (I'm assuming Apple writes the names of their products like so.) Chris loves her which is fine because I don't have to hear how much his computer sucks anymore. Although, he is turning into an iJerk. Next it will be the iPhone. Nevertheless we have a deal. If he gets an iPhone, I get his Treo or a BlackBerrry.

I have vacation in two weeks! We are planning on taking Ray Bloch fishing in the Gulf. I just want to be able to swim and hopefully take Molly where ever we go. We've talked about going to Avery Island before we settle on a place to fish. That should be fun as Chris and I have never been to the birthplace of Tabasco.

Anyway, Chris and I would like you to enjoy this picture of Molly looking pretty. Ciao!

Stuff

2008-05-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

Beth and I are going camping today, so my main job is to pack up the car, and go to the pet store (Molly needs food, and we need a "doggie stake" so that we can have Molly at the campsite without fear of her wandering off)

I finished the BTE input list for these two weekend gigs we are doing, but now I have to translate my show file to work on a PM5D

I finally broke down and bought a macbook pro. I wrestled with this decision for quite a while, but my Dell laptop started to make funny noises when I connected it to my audio interface, and apparently it only stops making them when I disconnect the mains power supply and run off of battery power. I think I will like having a mac, like a lot, and am excited to have a new machine. Beth tells me she is tired of hearing me moan about whether or not to purchase a mac, and that she is happy I came to some decision.

Our friend, Eddie Mapp, got picked up by Stone Temple Pilots for their tour. I know he's excited about this, and I am proud of him. A Google Search querying his name now shows him in the top 3 or 4 spots. Way to go Eddie! It's a long way from Princess Hattie (the band we played in together in high school).

Beth and I planted another garden bed. We have okra, watermelon, collards, flowers, corn, pole beans, and beets started, and I have quite a few extra seed pots germinating in the wings. I hope to have pictures up soon.

Kris Wotipka

2008-05-09T13:23:00.001-05:00

Kris Wotipka gives a shout out to me!

Thanks for the shoutout. I am glad that you are convinced of the need for high bit rate encoding.

I am so glad to be off of work for a while. Now, I am just trying to make the new fly input list for BTE so that we can go do festivals without fear. I am, a little worried, to be truthful.

There are new pictures of the garden up on our picasa web albums page.

Here they are.

Pictures of the Garden

2008-04-13T09:27:00.000-05:00

Ray and Gretchen

2008-04-13T09:23:00.000-05:00

Blather

2008-04-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

Twitter is now embedded in this blog. I met a gentleman from Germany over Skype who plays music, really good music, link here.
The funniest thing is that he knows who Jon Cleary is, and is apparently touring Europe this summer. Another link, Dumpstaphunk

Really Good bands all.

I have cutworms in the garden. They are chewing great big holes throught a couple of plants, but most of the garden is unscathed thus far.

I am thinking about purchasing a macbook pro, but they are really expensive. I mean like "Chris, you could have bought a slightly junky used car for the amount of money that you spent on this laptop." I can't help it! I just want one! Beth is having none of it. She says I need to work for it, and she's right. I am not helping myself by poring over every single review of the machine, comparisons of the different models Apple offers, justification for what I would use it for, me telling myself I really WOULD back up my computer if I had one. It goes on and on in my head. I guess I have fallen into Steve Job's "reality distortion field".

2008-04-01T09:54:00.001-05:00

best clip EVER.

Travelling Man

2008-03-13T11:41:00.000-05:00

I have been gone for almost a week now from New Orleans, and I am starting to miss that wet, dreary place. More so, I miss spending time with my wife, but alas, my job requires travel, and lots of it.
I have been using a couple of new toys on the intertubes (I'm a late early adopter, well behind the extreme edge of the bell curve)

1. Facebook

It seems like facebook is like myspace for adults, except with embeddable apps, and it is a lot cleaner. (cleaner as in design, not dirt) I think that I like it, a lot, even though I don't know that many people on it, but I can see why its a big deal.

2. Twitter

Yet again, well behind the bell curve, and the funny part is that I don't subscribe to anyones feeds, and no one follows me. I think it may take a while for me to really get this.

3. Bloglines

Bloglines is an RSS agregattor (spelling?) It's almost more media than I can consume, and I can look at all the blogs / web sites that I read in one spot.

I might like this web 2.0 thingie yet.

I have been reading this blog called so very alone. It's utterly fascinating.

a list of random stuff

2008-02-29T05:48:00.001-06:00

A lots been going on:

I just woke up from a bad dread about Aunt Betty. I have been having them for two nights in a row, and it just scares the bejesus out of me. I hope she is really ok. If you are reading this, know I am thinking about you. A LOT. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, like run the New York City Marathon.

Clayton is having a boy named Clayton Rigby Bloch. He says that he really likes his new job, working as a computer tech. I think he is learning a lot of new info. Congrats to Clayton!

I got a new gig working for BTE (Better Than Ezra, for those of you not in the know). I have been only been hired for a few shows at this time, but here's to hoping that this relationship will work out. I am super-excited to be working for such a group of talented musicians, working with people that I know and like, and doing something that I love.

Beth and I are taking our Buddy (TM) Ben Wisdom camping this weekend. We are hopefully going to Tickfaw state park, but we have been unable to reserve a campsite, because the state of Louisiana is retooling their reservations system, so campsites can only be reserved day of check in right now.

I went to the ENT yesterday, and also the audiologist. The ENT said that I had some sort of serious infection. I have fluid behind my ears, and apparently I have had it for quite a while, and it has negatively affected my hearing. Before I even left the doctors office, I subjected myself to two shots in the hip. The doctor said that if I wasn't better in ten to fourteen days then I would need to get tubes put in my ears. SCARY, but if it improves my hearing at all, and makes me feel any better, I am game.

I went to pick up prescriptions drugs, then I went to the audiologist. An audiologist tests hearing and makes fittings for hearing aids. I am not getting hearing aids exactly, but I am getting custom sleeves for my fancy in ear monitors, so that they fit the contours of my ear canal exactly.

Sister Maggie is leaving for Tokyo tomorrow with Amelia and Vivi. We will miss them, but I guess now we just have to suck it up and take a 15 hour plane ride to visit and eat good sushi!

This is really funny

2008-02-15T09:51:00.000-06:00

The snuggly security bear

is a piece with a snuggly bear explaining retroactice immunity for telecoms. Great job Mark Fiore!
The house votes today on FISA, which as the Senate passed it includes retroactive immunity for telecoms who knowingly broke the law to help the government spy on Americans. I hope they do the right thing.

All on Mardi Gras Day!

2008-02-05T16:13:00.000-06:00

Here's a picture of our friend Donald dressed to kill on Mardi Gras Day.

Mardi Gras

2008-02-04T08:53:00.000-06:00

Most people do not really understand Mardi Gras. They think it is about drinking to excess and watching girls reveal their breasts. But it is not about that. At least not for us locals. We actually celebrate Mardi Gras like it is Christmas. Family from far away come home, we take off of work, we cook huge family meals. This is what Mardi Gras is about. On that note, I thought I should share some pictures from the Friday before Mardi Gras. Hope you enjoy.

2008-01-15T22:00:00.000-06:00

Brian and Chris gave us a cookbook for Christmas named Cooking Light. We take the hint guys....This is the first of many (hopefully) recipes. This is a turkey burger with avocado, havarti and tomato with a spinach salad. It actually tasted really yummy. Thanks, guys.

ATL

2008-01-05T21:28:00.000-06:00

This week I am in Atlanta, working for expo productions, who is contracted to Allergan. It's really cold, like 30 degrees! Anyway, I am able to get a wireless signal by placing my laptop on the window sill from the 12th floor of the Hyatt.
Shout out to Clayton, who got a job!

PBF

2007-12-27T18:38:00.000-06:00

The peanut butter fudge came out very well.

Pictures from RCA Studio B

2007-12-27T16:38:00.000-06:00

Beth and I recently visited Nashville on our way to Washington, D.C., and Virginia. While we passed through, we saw Jared Lawrie, who works as a shop tech for Clair bros., and also got to go see RCA studio B, which is where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and many others recorded many records. Here are some pictures from the visit.

This is some sort of impedance switching device (?). I really like the way the knobs look.

These are microphone stands. Notice how thick the bases are, and all of the stands have articulated booms, to position mics in out of the way places.

This is a two way crossover which belongs to the speaker underneath. The speaker is really cool because it has the look of something that was handmade, not factory produced.

The Lion and the Lamb

2007-12-27T13:51:00.000-06:00

Desmond and Molly actually lying down together! This is a first, and I hope there is more of their interspecies cooperation in the future.

Things I did today:

Made Peanut Butter Fudge
Dropped off Aunt Betty's Car
Drop shipped Clayton some really excellent ramen from the Hong Kong grocery store.

Hong Kong grocery has different brands of Ramen that us westerners just don't know about. I hope he likes them, because they are my absolute favorite. Some examples of ramen flavors would be:
Kim Chi (fermented spicy cabbage)
onion chicken
Vegetable curry
Tom Yum (shrimp)
and many, many others.

I made Peanut Butter Fudge today, from my grandfather's recipe, which my Aunt Ann gave me, along with the peanut butter, candy thermometer, and cooling pan

PBF

2 cups of sugar
1 small jar of Peanut Butter (I took this to mean about 4 large hunks from a big jar)
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/4 stick of butter
2/3 cup liquid

Mix and cook Peanut Butter, sugar, liquid, and salt until soft ball (which means 240 degrees)

Take the pot off the fire.

Beat until almost cool.

Add butter, keep beating!

When the mixtures start to lose its shine, add vanilla.

Pour into a pan.

We'll see how well this recipeworks out. I have a good feeling (plus I tasted the mixture.)

sarah and donald's room of sin.

2007-12-13T00:31:00.001-06:00

S and D are staying at the Tropicana, and they have the best mirror over the bed.

Multimedia message

2007-12-12T23:42:00.001-06:00

Molly

2007-12-08T22:31:00.001-06:00