I just got the email about the 2008 ACL Festival lineup (full list available here).

Things that standout to me:

Big names include: Foo Fighters, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Beck, John Fogerty, and The Raconteurs.

Smaller, but cool names include: The Mars Volta, Gnarles Barkley, Robert Early Keen, Patty Griffin, Iron & Wine, Neko Case, Silversun Pickups, The Black Keys, Against Me, and G. Love.

Pleasant surprises: Jakob Dylan is touring (and I can understand his words); also What Made Milwakee Famous, MGMT, and Joe Bonamassa will all be here.

It all kicks off September 26th.

I have my ticket, but Al’s Bash is that same weekend… Decisions decisions.

Don’t forget Weekend At Mookie’s in just over two weeks. I got Friday off, so I am ready to go. I should have taken Monday off as well…

Test post to see how the WordPress upgrade went.

The blog is now on the new 2.5 version. 2.5 has a hugely different admin UI but all of my plugins still seem to be working.

Here is a new feature list for those interested.

Despite me not posting anything for weeks, I have been updating the running record on my blog. The overall spreadsheet has also been updated frequently.

Recently my good friend Brian asked me to run the Cap 10k with him here in Austin. 6.2 miles is a long way for a clydesdale such as myself, but I agreed anyway. This morning we ran the “Fun Run” which started at 9am. I finished the course in 1:02:45. Not too shabby if I say so myself. Especially considering it rained during most of the race.

I’m glad I did the race but next time I am doing the timed version rather than the fun run. The fun run has a lot of walkers and a ton more people. It makes it pretty hard to run when you are jumping onto the curb or have to cross several lanes of traffic to get around a group.

My running goal is doing quite well. I am a fair bit past 25% and we are just under a quarter of the way though the year. Looks good.

Now it is time to dry off and get something to eat.

I bought a roll of stamps today thinking I was getting forever stamps. The reasoning is that I only use a few a month and this would last me, well, forever.

After I get back to the office I notice they are actually printed with the “41c” pricing.

My question is, are these actually forever stamps, or do I need to go buy a sheet of 1c stamps to cover my future use? Anyone know?

Indeed.

I ran 3.24 miles this lunchtime and passed 10% of my running goal for 2008. In reality I am about a week behind a projected average but that is because I took a bunch of rest days and also took a little while to ramp up to the 3 mile range. The plugin on the side there has also been updated with required average and current average. I expect to catch up to the required average in about two weeks.

As for the news I noted yesterday, I have yet to digest it. So far it looks promising. I just hope the actual close date is past my one year anniversary here so I get some of the cash-for-stock deal rather than some sort of converstion for my options (the conversion is unknown at this time). But, hey, 401k matching will be nice 🙂

It was announced today that Dell is buying my company.

Press Release

That is two acquisitions in two years. Both of small (under 150 employees) to huge Top 50 companies.

So last Saturday night I got the opportunity to see a fantastic guitarist as he joined up with Keller Williams and the WMD’s. I first caught Gibb Droll back during college at a small local haunt in Blacksburg, VA. He just brought the place down with his wicked riffs. Back then he had his own band, the Gibb Droll Band and had some great musicians playing with him. My buddy AT got permission to record the concert from the sound board and a bunch of CDs were made from that. I still enjoy listening to that set.

Periodically I would check out his tour schedule and vowed if he ever made it to Austin I would go see him. I, of course, missed a solo show at the Parish about a year ago. I checked the schedule two weeks late. Earlier this year I saw he would be playing lead guitar for the WMDs at La Zona Rosa. I made sure my day was clear.

The WMD’s are a kind of bluegrass jam band. The bassist played with String Cheese and the drummer with Trey Anastasio among others. I suppose I should not have been surprised. Very interesting, but not what I was expecting. The show was *long*. Like 4 hours long. They went on just after 8 and the first intermission was near 10. We left when it was getting close to midnight and they were still playing. It was a lot of fun and I did enjoy myself. Even though Austin is non-smoking town there was plenty of, errrr, “smoke” in the air. I went to see Gibb Droll and not the rest of the band. Gibb was on- really on; The band was also on- there are some great musicians The band was having a blast and the crowd was hopping.

If you get the chance to see them I highly recommend it. Be prepared for a long, jam band kind of show and go with it. You should have a great time.

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Roof is done on the house. It looked pretty good this morning. I have not had a chance to check out the back side of my roof yet- but it rained this morning and no leaks that I saw.

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Super Bowl is Sunday and then my 28 day sabbatical begins. I’m really looking forward to it.

A while back Scott Adams, of Dilbert fame, asked his readers to submit random lyrics that could be strung together to see if a pop-culture song could just appear from basically noise. Well it can. A song was created, the band RIVO DREI put it to music, and Jem8472 put it into a video.

Check it out here:

Seems like good social science there.

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Went bowling last night for the first time in years. Bowled four games: 102, 106, 108, 122. Not bad. I did get a turkey in the 4th game, then promptly pooched the next two balls.

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They delivered the shingles for my new roof this morning. The roofers may very well be up there now doing their thing. I’m getting the fancy architectural shingles because it only cost $300 more total. They look better and should add value to the house.

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My new corner desk is near complete. I’ll take some photos and do a post about the construction and cost when it in place. It is going to work really well for me.

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Running took a small break. Sunday I spent 13 hours installing TVs and didn’t get the chance to go run. Monday I was so sore from the work on Sunday I could not fathom running. I’m going to try and get out this afternoon.

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Work beckons. It is going to be a really busy week. Thanks for reading.