I'm in Austin - let the music begin. (3:53pm)

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The weekend was good - we went home so that Leigh could go to her sister Connie's wedding shower, and I could see my Mom and step-dad for my birthday. Lot's of quality family time, good food, and just general laziness ensued.

I also made myself getup just before 6am on saturday and drove to Charlotte to run a half-marathon. I did pretty good (1:40), and it felt nice to have that as the start of the weekend. You know it is starting to get warmer when there are 5ks, 10ks, 20ks, every weekend.

Right now it is cram time and I try and get everything in the world done both at home and at work before I head to Austin tomorrow morning for SXSW. It will definitely be nice to get away from the work stress for a couple days and just hang out in the warm weather with lots of free music, drinks, and food. (12:00pm)

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Birthday present to myself - I answered the 308 emails in my personal Inbox and now have 0 messages, and a good 250 of the 275 in my work Inbox. You have no idea how good this feels. (10:32pm)

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At a recent dinner with new co-workers one of them asked me what my father did. I told him he was an engineer and the co-worker said that made sense, that I seemed like my dad would be an engineer. I was really perplexed about the statement and got a little defensive saying that my dad was also a farmer. Growing up I didn't interact with Dad "the engineer" (that was kept at the office), I interacted with Dad "the farmer" and would think those are the traits I would reflect.

I think I take a lot of pride in the fact that I worked my ass off as a kid on the farm and have a really strong work ethic now because of it. Something about him saying I was the son of an engineer and that fit my personality bothered me. The reality of it was he was trying to compliment me and say that I was very analytical and approached problems thoughtfully and systematically as an engineer would. I guess the reality is I do have a lot of the same traits that makes an engineer successful, but also have the traits of a farm kid who hauled dead turkeys around by the 100s (or even 1,000s toward the end) all summer and on the weekends. (9:36am)

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Did anyone else participate in the Future Problem Solvers program when they were younger? I just found a pin from one of the conferences I went to and remembered how fun all this was as a kid. My team placed in the state competition every year and we won it one year so we got to go to the International competition where I remeber hanging out with a bunch of cool Aussies. Oh yeah, this was all middle school too, wow, good times. (2:24pm)

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This Saturday I decided at the last minute to run the WakeMed Cary Distance Festival 10K. I figured since I was planning to run 6 miles that day anyway I might as well go support a charity and get some free food after my run.

Trent always picks on me and asks if I won after I run these things. While obviously I am in no way in shape enough to ever win something like this, I will say that I did place 5th in my age group and 35th overall at this 10K (which basically means there weren't a lot of really good runners). I don't run to win, but it is nice being at the front of the pack instead of the back. (8:05am)

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And here I am back in Charlotte...I am getting ready to go home though, and I plan to take tomorrow off so all is well.

I went to Panera last night with Robbie and Amy and it was good stuff. We then went CD shopping and I got the new Sondre Lerche which I have beenr eally imrpessed with so far.

No big plans this weekend. Hope to hang out with Leigh some, get a couple things done around the house, and just chill some as well. Should be nice. (1:12pm)

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Updating your website can be hard at times when life gets really busy. The problem is I think of all these things to say to everyone, but then by the time I sit down I forget. Classic story really.

So what has been going on? Nothing new on the work front (still busy), on the personal front: Leigh is all healthy now and I somehow managed to fight it off, I have been going to Charlotte a lot lately, and am getting a little tired of running back and forth, our dog rocks, we are finally going to get our stove hooked up (6 months later) this week.

Six hours later I will attempt to finish this post by saying I need a vacation! (5:31pm)

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I ran the Cuach Bubba 20k in Durham this weekend and was pretty happy with how I did. I am glad I made myself craw out of bed at 6:30am Saturday to drive down to Durham for the run. One thing I did notice though is that unlike a marathon where you have lots of people running it for the first time with the goal of simply finishing it, random people don't seem to show up for a 20k in Durham in February. I think 90% of the 500 people running were very in shape seasoned runners and it was amazing seeing how little you could tell about how well a person could run from looking at them. I mean overweight, young, old, male, female, many many people were doing great and you would never look at them and think they were a runner.  (5:38pm)

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While trying to go to sleep last night I was thinking about my trip to India for some reason and what an amazing experience it was. Everything from seeing a completely different culture to all the little day-to-day things that happened - wow, what a trip.

I mean I had to get a co-worker who passed out cold on the Tāj Mahal from heat exhaustion back to our hotel (6 hours away). The Tāj security guards with automatic rifles were yelling at me in Hindi to get her off the monument, crowds were gathered to see the crazy Americans, they were trying to pour water on her and 'help', etc. I ended up somehow finding a person to get a wheelchair and we got her out of there and onto a bus for the long trip back. We had a big block of ice on her neck, got her conscious long enough to make her drink tons and tons of water, etc. As crazy and scary as it was at the time, it made the amazing trip to the Tāj Mahal even more unforgettable. (3:11pm)

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Leigh has been really sick for 3 days now. She has hardly gotten out of bed/off the couch and feels horrible with congestion, overall body acheness, a slight fever, and general ick. I feel so bad for her and wish I could do something to help make her better. She never gets sick, much less sick enough to miss work for several days. Please send her your warm fuzzy feel-better-soon thoughts. (11:43am)

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Robbie should be feeling old today, the big man turned 28. Happy Birthday Robbie! (7:31pm)

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It turns out the place where we have been having the Silent Uproar Royal Flush parties is being demolished to make way for a new parking deck. Bummer. Hopefully the venue will re-open in a new location but it looks like the March party will be the last one at the current spot as well as one of the last shows there period. The good news is a lot of bands seem interested in playing this time around. (10:02pm)

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Oh my goodness I randomly came across this tonight. Who knew my friends were on the internet doing such funny things? (10:01pm)

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The next Silent Uproar Royal Flush will be March 30th. Mark your calendars. (9:36am)

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Tonight is the night for Royal Flush 2 so if you are in Raleigh or the surrounding area, you better be there! We have high expectations for tonights event because of all the work we have been doing plus the love we have gotten from local radio, print, and music community.

Party time! (2:32pm)

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I'm beat. Work has gotten insanely busy and not only that but just really frustrating. I am up to 7 different merger projects that I am the lead technology project manager for and they keep getting messier and messier. The biggest problem is the same old problem - the business doesn't know what they want or the implications of changing their mind mid-stream. This is a typical issue (ie. scope change), but what makes it worse is the speed at which they are requiring everything happens and the number of different directions the same resources are getting pulled in. Again, typical project management issues, but times 10. Boy, mergers are fun.

Trent and I have been working pretty hard to promote our Royal Flush party on Friday as well. We have covered the streets of Raleigh twice already with flyers and are hitting them again tonight. We also put out flyers in Chapel Hill Monday night after the Annuals/Dears show (which was great) and will be on the radio Thursday and possibly Friday as well to talk about the show. Should be a good time, but man these things are a lot of work. Many thanks to Trent for helping to make it all happen. (9:24am)

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The Coachella Line-up looks pretty amazing. All day concerts outside in the hot hot heat are exactly the best way to experience a band live, but holly crap there are a ton of bands I would love to see all at that one show. When you look at the price ($200 pre-sale) it really isn't that bad at all considering the tickets for Red Hot Chili Peppers alone here in town cost upwards of $75. And Rage Against the Machine reunion? Holly crap batman! I have to admit that is probably what is most exciting to me. (1:55pm)

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Busy week. My personal Inbox has just crossed the 200 mark of un-read emails, which really bothers me. I am a freak about keeping a clean Inbox and don't like having more emails to answer than can fit on one screen without scrolling - just helps me feel organized. Anyway, major email cleanup this weekend.

Today is the last day at work for another one of my friends here. This marks the second person in two weeks that has left and they have actually both gone to the same company/group - somewhere I might end up going if the right opportunity presents itself. I am happy for them both, but it sucks losing friends at work since most of the people I work with are closer to my parents age than mine.

I hope to get some things done around the house this weekend, but Amy you will be happy to know that I also plan to sit around and relax some including watching Liverpool vs. Chelsea on Saturday Arsenal vs Man U on Sunday. (That's soccer folks) (5:30pm)

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Wowsers, what a weekend. We have had our cats at Leigh's office since Thursday night and have had to go in every 4 hours to check on them and make sure their IVs are ok, etc. Needles to say it wasn't a very restful weekend. The good news is everyone seems to be OK for the most part.

I did manage to get some stuff done including installing curtains, packing 200 Stemage promo CDs, getting a 250lb treadmill up the stairs and setup, shaving off what had become a pretty wooly beard, and various other odds and ends. Of course it helped that yesterday was a bank holiday so I had an additional day to get things done.

Nothing big going on this weekend. Just trying to cruise through the week for now. (10:31am)

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These flowers look really pretty, right? No harm of discomfort could come from the sweet act of me getting Leigh these flowers on the way home the other night, right? Well, considering we were at the Vet Hospital at 1am shooting liquid charcoal down the throat of both our cats, I'd say the answer is NO, they are EVIL.

Turns out, these flowers are lilies. Furthermore, lilies are toxic to cats. Very toxic. While Leigh is aware of such things and thus kept the flowers in the bedroom during the day (which stays shut), it seems one of our cats is sneaky and got into the room and ate the leaves. We discovered this as we were getting in bed about 11:30 and so it began...

We got clothes on and went to Leigh's office where we then took both of our cats (we don't know which one ate it) for some charcoal. The scene itself was pretty funny, if you can step back from the seriousness of the fact that one of our cats just ate something that can kill them, Leigh didn't warn me how messy charcoal was, so I had worn decent clothes which I quickly decided would be ruined. So I stripped down to my boxers, a scrub top, and put some hairnets over my shoes. Luckily no one was at the office since it was after midnight. We did our best to burrito wrap the cats and I held the cats down while Leigh took a massive syringe and shot this awful stuff down their throats and then we ran an IV to give them some fluid.

Luckily, Leigh is able to keep the cats at her office today and keep check on them while she attempts to actually get work done including several surgeries, despite her fragile mental state. Here's hoping everything works out and this little scare goes away, but needless to say we are both pretty worried and things will be tense for a couple days as the cats stay on IVs and we just wait and see if they start having a reaction.

Leigh and I have agreed that I will no longer buy her flowers. (9:06am)

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As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I think what intrigues so much about the iPhone isn't the phone part of it, but the smoothness of the navigation, the full-screen tough-bad, etc. Even if this thing is a flop (because we all know Cingular sucks), the interface and navigation will no doubt carry over to the next generation iPods. Make no mistake, this is a great new technology.

 (12:44pm)

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I know I won't be the only one posting about this today, but man that Apple phone is pretty amazing. There has been a lot of hype about the phone over the last couple years actually, but I think it pretty much surpases anything people dreamed up. Now I just want to get some hands on with it.

Speaking of Apple, I bought some shares the day before yesterday because I figued today would be big, and despite only buying 6 shares (hey, it was still $500 worth) I have made $42 today thanks to these announcements. Nice. (5:25pm)

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Comments cleaned up as requested. (11:56am)

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Robbie, Michael, and I just has an hour and a half conversation about the future of Silent Uproar. I am glad to say that the end decision is not to put and end to the site (which was a real possibility), but is instead a pretty clear vision about what the site will become over the next couple months.

I am actually excited about the site for the first time in years. (9:57pm)

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Wake-Up Internet, I am tired of talking to myself.... (1:25pm)

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As 2006 comes to a close, I look back and have to admit that it was a pretty awesome year. Leigh and I got a new house that we really like; I traveled not only all over the country, but across the world; I saw a lot of great bands and heard a lot of great new music; I ran a marathon; Leigh and I started to settle into life without the stress of graduate school, and I became an uncle. I am not sure what all is in store for next year, but I hope it includes some quality time with friends and family across the country. I hope you all have a Happy New Year's Eve and below is a couple lists of mine for 2006:

2006 Travel Log
Here is a list of the places I traveled to in 2006: Snowshoe Moutain, WV; Nashville, TN; San Diego, CA; La Jolla, CA; Austin, TX; Atlanta, GA; Amsterdam, Holland; Delhi, India; Tijuana, Mexico; Aruba; Wilmington, Charlote, Winston-Salem, and Greensboro, NC; New York City, NY; Washington, DC; Las Vegas, NV.

2006 Album Purchases
Here are the albums I bought in 2006 (thanks to Michael for the layout).

2006 Show Log
The bands I saw live in 2006 include: Tiger Thief(7); Far-Less(5); We Are Scientists(5); Capulets(3); Malajube(3); Arctic Monkeys(2); Cities(2); Head Automatica(2); He Is Legend(2); Islands(2); Men, Women, and Children(2); Nine Black Alps (2); American Princes; Annuals; Apollo Up; Archie Bronson Outfit; Art Brut; Benjy Ferree; Be Your Own Pet; Birdmonster; Bitzen Trapper; Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Charlatans UK; Cold War Kids; Dirty Pretty Things; Division Day; Dr. Dog; Dredg; Editors; Electric Soft Parade; Elefant; Emery; Fields; Ferraby Lionheart; Film School; Forward Russia; Gomez; Heavens; Heavy Trash; Holy Fuck!; Irving; IV Thieves; Metric Nicole Atkins; Nicolai Dunger; Peaches; Ra Ra Riot; Rakes; Ryan Adams; Sam Champion; Scissors For Lefty; Snowden;Spinto Band; Tapes N' Tapes; The Boy Least Likely To; The Carter Administration; The Duke Spirt; The Horrors; The Lovely Feathers; The Old Soul; The Sun; The Thermals; Voxtrot; We are the Fury; Vaux;  (12:35pm)

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This article states that almost half of children under 5 are minorities, with a large percent being Hispanic. This marks a pretty huge cultural shift and it wil be interesting to see how it impacts our society here in the US. The article also makes the point that Hispanics are having more kids so the growth rate conitnues to increase rapidly, while the growth rate for non-Hispanic whites actually decreased for two years in the last decade.

Again, I can't say this bothers me or troubles me, but it is definitely interesting to me to think that in my lifetime, the previous majority will probably become the minority in the US - even in the face of whatever border control laws the government dreams up. (8:39am)

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