weekend exploits

Just came off a Thanksgiving weekend that was fulfilling and tiring. We had Uberjam's parents out to Austin for Thanksgiving dinner, which was fun, but it meant lots of cleaning & cooking. We did a big vegetarian feast (a first for the 'rents, which was very brave of them) and everything came off perfectly. Well, my home made pie crusts were a little, um, unprofessional looking. But they did the job. My Hokkaido squash with curry and apple cider was also a hit (thanks, Mr. Berley).

Uberjam and I spent the balance of the weekend watching movies (3 and counting ...) and going for runs. It was great to have some non-work time together.

On Sunday, I jammed with a band called Proteus. They're a prog rock band, and their music was so complicated they were seeking a second keyboard player. Rad. We hit it off, so I will play with them some more.

Now heading into a 4 day stretch in Houston - recording session with Orange Is In, a day in the cube farm, and a rad gig with JFJO. Should be a fun time, though I think all this uninterrupted time in Austin has made me soft on driving ...

Ex Em El

It was pointed out to me by a friend that although I had espoused the virtues of ye olde Google Reader, I didn't actually have an XML link on my own blog. So now I've got one.

BTW, one nice feature of Google Reader is that you can export & import your reading list. So I did. Check it out. You could import this and have all the same stuff I have.

(Except you probably don't want to do that, because some of mine are just folks I know personally, and they wouldn't be of much interested to you unless you know them too. Etc.)

Chuck Norris is Awesome

Don't believe me? Read this.

Whole movements

Interesting article from the blog of John Mackey, the semi-libertarian CEO of Whole Foods. He talks about the ethos of Whole Foods as a company, while touching on a little politics as well.

Mackey (and whole foods) seems perched at the intersection of several philosophies, taking the most sensible parts from each - the virtue of freedom as an end (as valued by libertarians), the power of business to make a meaningful positive impact on the world (as valued by capitalists), the primacy of things besides the bottom line - things like community, health, environment, sensible choices (as valued by the left). It's not a random collage of beliefs, though; it's a thoughtful critique of the ways each "movement" we're familiar with fails by being too rigid and idealogical. Echoing what I've been hearing from several corners, he says:

I believe we need a new social/political/economical/environmental movement in the world today and I've got some definite ideas what this movement should look like.

An interesting read.

Googlereader!

Sometimes, when you find something cool, you gotta share it with your friends. Right? Right. So I present to you: Google Reader.

What is it? It's a web-based newsreader. You just enter in the feeds you want to keep up with, and it shows you all new posts in one view, with easy keyboard navigation. You can also do Google searches of feeds, and subscribe with a single click. It's still in Beta, but so far I've not found much I don't like about it.

And did I mention how much I love my verizon wireless card? I'm at the beach visitng with Jill's folks right now, but I've been online the whole time. Woot! So it is good for something besides letting G-trick play poker while we're on tour.