UltraNormal: Kevin's Entries

Best Album of the Year: Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-25T17:03:57-05:00

I don't say this lightly, because there have been some fantastic albums this year already, but David Byrne and Brian Eno's brand new joint effort Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is unbelievably good. It's rich, gorgeous and the songs are beautiful. I can't stop listening to it.

Don't believe me? Listen for yourself (especially Everything That Happens, Life Is Long and One Fine Day):

It really is amazing. The ethereal music behind David Byrne's fantastic vocals are transportive in the best sense of the word. I don't even know how else to express it... it's just beautiful.

Oh, and who did they beat out? Here are the rest of my favorite albums that have come out this year:

The Constantines - Kensington Heights
Sigur Ros - Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust
Sloan - Parallel Play
REM - Accelerate
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue

That's some good company to beat out, especially The Constantines best album ever...

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Dolphin Tour!

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-18T08:37:08-05:00

My mom came down this weekend and we went on a dolphin tour (Captain Mike's Dolphin Tour to be exact)! I don't have time to tell the whole story now, but it was great. It was the perfect length - the boys were just starting to get antsy at the end of it and we saw lots of dolphins. The rest of the photos are here. I haven't gone through all of them (we took a ton - I took 235 with the big camera, Max took almost fifty and Brian took a dozen or so), so I'll probably add some more to the set this week.

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It's the Little Things

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-17T09:36:30-05:00

We finally got DirecTV hooked up at the house, which means the Tivo is back and ready to record. Unfortunately, now I have to go through all the network shows, delete them and add them back (if it can find them). So, this morning as I groggily recover from an allergic reaction to last night's scallops (the doctor didn't say to avoid them and I've had them before without them doing anything, but for some reason, last night's got me good), I'm going through the Season Pass Manager and fixing things while everyone else is at church.

First, I wrote down all the shows, and I thought this would be an interesting list to post. A lot of these shows are Jen's, but here are our network shows in "priority" order according to Tivo:

Heroes (shared)
Supernatural (Jen's)
Numb3rs (Jen's)
The Office (shared)
Without a Trace (Jen's)
Lost (mine)
How I Met Your Mother (Jen's)
Big Bang Theory (shared)
Bones (Jen's)
My Name Is Earl (mine)
Chuck (shared)
30 Rock (shared)
Pushing Daisies (shared)
Dirty Sexy Money (Jen's)
Friday Night Lights (shared)
Criminal Minds (Jen's)
Life (shared)
Reaper (shared)
American Dad (mine)
The View (so Jen's)
Family Guy (mine)
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (shared)
Welcome to the Captain (Jen's)
Swingtown (Jen's)
Secret Life of the American Teenager (so so so Jen's)
Flashpoint (Jen's)

The other 34 shows on the Tivo are all non-network shows spread out over the TV-viewing spectrum. I've been so busy, and we're been in the middle of the summer TV doldrums, I almost haven't missed having TV at all, other than Pardon the Interruption, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

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Tybee Island Photo Safari

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-10T21:03:11-05:00

I took the boys to Tybee Island today, nominally, to go a photo safari. I had my lovely Nikon D80. Max was sporting the Powershot and Brian had the backup Samsung. Of course, I knew we wouldn't be taking pictures for long after they saw the water. I got a bunch of shots in, though, since I wasn't going to near the water.

Here are a couple of my other favorites from the set:

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Passing the Commute

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-06T17:36:04-05:00

I have a commute now. It's not long or even unpleasant. I get to see some nice scenery, and it's only about fifteen minutes. I've realized that now I have thirty minutes a day to listen to something I wouldn't listen to other than the radio or music (which I listen to all day anyway).

Before I get to the list, I have to say, I love iTunesU. It's such a great resource for interesting stuff from public broadcasting and universities all over the country, and all for free.

So, here are a few of the things in the queue for the iPod to listen to for the drive:

The Bugle - Hilarious "audio newspaper for a visual world" podcast from John Oliver (from The Daily Show) and Andy Zaltzman. I look forward to this every week.
Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams - I've heard about this from all corners of the web, so it's in the queue, and free from iTunesU.
Funny People: George Carlin - I just found this one while wandering around... it's on the list.
This American Life
TED Talks - TED is amazing, and they're putting all the talks online for free.

Seriously, spend some time wandering around iTunesU and see the amazing amount of content. It's a ton of fun to wander around and see what's there and grab stuff.

Obviously, now I need a longer commute.

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Epic iFail: AT&T and the Circular Phone Tree from Hell

Kevin Lawver — 2008-08-01T15:46:58-05:00

When I left AOL, I gave them back my Blackberry, and have since been either without a phone completely or using Jen's bright pink Razr. I want a new iPhone, but waited a little while to get past the initial rush. Well, this afternoon was supposed to be the day. I called up the local AT&T store to see if they had any, and got a menu. Here's what happened:

I pressed 2 to order new wireless service or hardware. Waited six minutes to talk to someone
Asked the guy who picked up if the Savannah AT&T store had any in stock. He asked me my zip code and then asked me to hold. I spent three minutes on hold (there's a timer on the phone... handy).
He told me he could transfer me to the store. I then spent 8 minutes on hold.
I ended up at the original phone menu and pressed 2 again just for fun. I waited for 5 minutes before my head exploded and I hung up.

That was twenty-three minutes to go basically in a big circle. AT&T, you suck. I mean, you're a phone company and I can't dial a local number and talk to the local AT&T store? How stupid is that?

Thank you, AT&T, for wasting almost half an hour of my life. You're the balls.

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My Least Favorite Time

Kevin Lawver — 2008-07-01T06:40:00-05:00

It's already begun, and I hate it. You know what I'm talking about, the primaries are over, we know who the candidates are going to be, and they're taking their first ham-handed swipes at each other like boxers who've never met during the first round. There are jabs, feints and dodges, but the things you originally loved about your candidate get compromised. That punishing left uppercut is muted and turned in a jab.

OK, forget the metaphors. The race to the middle has begun. The compromises and purely political tricks to try to woo the middle (who aren't paying attention anyway) have started, and I hate it. The operatives, salivating for months, are now pouncing - pulling out all manner of diversions to show that the opposition is really a fan of terrorists, a tax cheat, a Bad Guy™ or gasp, an elitist.

Can it please be November already? I'm tired of politics. I'm truly tired of playing political games and scorekeeping when our country is in a deep deep hole created by stupid and evil men. We need big solutions, not petty bickering. We need real change, not compromise. For Senator Obama, I believe in your because you believe in change. Don't compromise that now. You're not going to attract the middle by pandering to them. You got us all excited because you passionately shared your vision. Don't dilute it by playing games and compromising that vision (your FISA stance is disgraceful). And Senator McCain, I loved you. In 2000, I crossed over to vote for you in the Virginia primaries. You were an honest man. What happened? Stop listening to Karl Rove and the idiots that got us into the mess we're in now and take back the fire and honesty you had eight years ago.

Please, let's make this race about the future and taking our country back. I'm afraid it's going to be about inspiration versus fear, and I don't want any part in that. Let's make it grand vision versus grand vision, not who paid their taxes and "terrorist fist jabs" (come on, that's the stupidest damn thing I've ever heard).

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Three Weeks In, A Look Back

Kevin Lawver — 2008-06-29T06:58:56-05:00

I know I've been rather quiet since leaving AOL and joining up with Music Intelligence Solutions, but as you can see from Jen's entries, we've been busy. I've been going back and forth to Savannah, trying to both get to know the team, the vision and the plans we have for launching, and at the same time, designing architecture, doing training and helping folks get up to speed on scrum and other stuff. It's been a lot of late night, long conversations, whiteboard sessions (note to self, get a bigger whiteboard), and late-night epiphanies while trying to get to sleep.

I keep thinking about what I learned over thirteen years, and the people who took their time to mentor me, and the excellent managers I had who showed me how to deal with both pressure and conflict. I keep thinking about one of the first technical meetings I had way back in 1999 about AOL Search. We were just getting started with the project, and I was the front-end guy, and one of the only people involved who knew AOLserver and Tcl. So, there I was in a room with two PhD's, with them asking me what I wanted the API to look like. Joe Dzikiewicz and Tom Donaldson sat there and asked lots of questions, we drew on the whiteboard, and I was freaked the hell out...

There are hundreds of people I should thank for helping me over the years. I tried to count up all the people I worked with at AOL, and it's easily over a hundred and I got close to two before I stopped. But, the person I keep coming back to is Joe. He was one of the first computer scientists who took me under his wing. I don't have a degree - everything I know about technology is either self-taught or through experience and others helping me out. I'll never forget an IM Joe sent me while we were working on AOL Search. It went something like:

Joe: Hey, things are looking good, but it seems kind of slow. Are you threading the requests?
Me: Am I what?
Joe: ... I'll call

I think I scared him; but, he very patiently explained it to me, and then sent me off to figure out how to implement it.

I learned so much from Joe, and from the hundreds of other people I worked with at AOL - from my first manager, Judy Winger, who "saved" me from getting fired from a really stupid e-mail I sent to the wrong manager (well, that manager was the intended target, but...), Priscilla Serling for encouraging me to take the job in Virginia, to Robin Vinopal and Mark Robinson who taught me so much about how to treat the people who work for you, and to Bert Arians and Alan Keister for giving me all the room I needed to try new things. And all the nerds, geeks and smartasses I worked with.

It's only now that I'm gone and have a couple weeks away that I see how lucky I was to work with all the people I did.

I'm having a blast at MIS trying to implement all the stuff I learned over the years at AOL, and all the stuff I wanted to try but couldn't, either because of upper management (I can only say that I learned a whole lot about what not to do from AOL's upper management over the years) or because I wasn't in a place to do it. It's been a lot of fun seeing my new team embrace all the things I'm throwing at them (and I'm throwing a bunch, everything from The Cluetrain to web standards).

It's going to be an adventure, and before I get too far along in it, I have to say "thank you" to everyone I worked with at AOL. Without you, I wouldn't be here, and I'll be forever grateful.

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And I'm Out!

Kevin Lawver — 2008-06-07T10:29:42-05:00

They (big thanks to Shawn for organizing it and Andy, Bert and Frank for picking up the tab!) threw an awesome going away party for me Thursday afternoon, which was a great idea, because yesterday I was super sick and just barely made it in to turn in my badge, laptop, blackberry, etc and grab my boxes and mini-fridge.

I love the people at AOL, always have. I've worked with, literally, hundreds of people in my thirteen years there, and I'm sad that I won't see them every day now. But, it was definitely time to go. Now, I'm unemployed for two whole days before starting my new job down in Savannah. If I weren't so sick, I might actually enjoy it!

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Building Rails and Standards Tribes in Savannah

Kevin Lawver — 2008-05-30T14:25:49-05:00

I was thinking this morning about moving to Savannah, since the new job's down there, and what I wanted to do to find a tribe. I have several great non-geospecific tribes already, my W3C scattered around the globe, my SxSW tribe and then my AOL tribe also spread around the globe, but mostly local to Northern Virginia (this includes "escapees" at various startups and places around the area). But, I'll be moving to a new city, and I like having a local tribe.

I went looking this morning before heading over to the conference, and there's no Refresh Savannah or Ruby Users Group that I could find through Google. So... it looks like we need to start them! I've got the domain names registered. Who wants to help?

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