I remember when my blog (before they were called blogs of course) was very stream of consciousness, so much so that innuendo could sometimes get me in trouble. But it was putting virtual pen to virtual paper and it was good unrelentless emotional outpourings. Am I too old to do that now? In this age of hyper-sharing, do we have to remain guarded with what we reveal about ourselves and our thoughts, our very imagination? After all, the kind folks at Google (who recently put out an interesting image parser/relationship matcher thing) and the Way Back Machine have lengthy memories…who knows we may apply for a job and have an Internet search disqualify us immediately. Will my children’s generation grow up with everyone’s dirty laundry fully accessible 24/7 and documented for eons? Perhaps. And perhaps that is a good thing. Do we really need to put up fronts for one group or another, when honesty at its very raw core is deemed the best policy? I say no. I say let go of it, and to the hell with any of the haters that would dismiss you or yours over mere words and thought patterns shared with anonymous trolls. (That said, I guess my blog post title makes a little more sense now huh?)

Speaking of old, I recently was reminded of my childhood as I watched movies from Hasbro’s heroes, “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” – everyone knows that movies with colons in the title are awesome. Surprisingly I enjoyed both a lot, though nods towards GI Joe in terms of repeat viewing. Also in 2011, apparently “The Smurfs” is coming out. I think it would be great if “The Smurfs” was dark and even more Marxist than the cartoon. I guess Thundercats is up next or something…

People that really believe that the climate change that our world is suffering under was not caused by humans are soiling themselves over the recent hack attack that stole a bunch of private data and conversations from scientists at leading research centers. Of course it’s completely taken out of context and what I’d like to know is what Big corporation hired these hackers to dig up this crap. Hmm, I wonder who has a vested interest in making sure that the public, who overwhelming support the notion that climate change is a result of human pollution, human agriculture practices, etc…

In unrelated news, it’s hilarious that Dave Lombardo totally busted Lars Ulrich’s chops. Literally and figuratively. In other improbable news, sometimes cops and anarchists agree only in Chicago though…

My favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, is coming up. Why is it my favorite? Well it’s the one opportunity every year that I get to see most of my family. While yes it is on my dad’s site of the family, if you count up my family members it’s probably about 90% of them on my side of the family – the wife’s family is huuuuge. This year I plan on bringing a Turnip Gratin, which I stumbled upon a recipe for recently. I think I look forward to showing off my kids almost as much as I do the food/family/conversations.

Are us white collar folks, allowed to be considered to be part of the “working class”? If so, then I think I shall tread lightly on this matter.

Talked to my brother for a long time last night, it was good hearing from him. He’s going to see Skinny Puppy on Sunday – I wish I could but unfortunately it falls under the “inconvenient” time slot. My daughter has been hectic today, not wanting to sleep at all. She usually has two or three naps at least an hour a piece. Well the longest she slept today was about 15 mins, maybe. She has passed out a couple of times in my arms or in her car seat, but really only for about five minutes at a time. She’s currently snoring on my lap right now. Funny in a “oh-my-god-I’m-so-tired-please-go-to-sleep” way.

Top Chef is kicking butt this season. All four of the final chefs are so good, I almost don’t know who to root for. It boggles my mind that these people can a.) cook under such immense pressure, 2.) use the given ingredients to craft a fine dish each and every time using techniques that are rare and intelligent, and iii.) often tell some sort of story or perform a theme with their food. To do all of that in less than a 10 hour period, blows my mind.

Music.

Well where do I start? The new Pelican is astonishing. A lot of the recent stuff I’ve been listening to has been extremely diverse, not that this isn’t somewhat of the norm. Gotta admit the new Weezer is great and, ahem, “Rad”. I really want to write some music soon – I’ve been so inspired lately and have been thinking about interesting effects and recording techniques. It should be a blast whenever I get around to it. I still really want to “build” a recording studio in the part of my unfinished basement. People are surprised when they hear that, thinking of wow that can’t be very big, but it could easily fit a whole band and several other people for that matter. It does need drywalling and other stuff to finish it off, so I guess I’ll have to make a call out to Bob the Builder (joke?…bad?…yes I agree)

Work-wise stuff has been slamming me lately. Balancing tons of projects all at once. It’s good to be busy but I’ve been frustrated lately because many of these I can’t just run with – indeed, the vast majority have other folks who I need deliverables from before I can move forward. Of course their level of participation and urgency is very lacking. Bummer. At least I’m learning a ton and contributing quite a bit at the same time.

Anyway, enough with this novel. Hope you enjoyed.

Now that my fourth week at my new position at NeuStar is over, I know for certain that I made the right choice. Not only did I join a growing and strong company but I was lucky enough to get a position that was created for my own particular specialties, get a nice pay increase, and enjoy a more reasonable work/life balance. It’s great to hear people wanting to hear your input, valuing it to the Nth degree, and to be challenged on many fronts myself. I continue to find myself learning a lot each and every day. It’s also nice to have my own assumptions challenged time and time again (in a good way). I’m excited about the opportunities that lay ahead and really genuinely excited about the years of experience ahead of me.

So the work thing is working out nicely for me. Recently a colleague of mine accepted an offer to join my team and I’m really excited for what lays ahead for my team. I just wish I could bring so many other great people that I’ve met over the years at my former employer on over; I truly was blessed to meet and work with such superb and intelligent individuals.

I recently bought an amazing recipe book on South Indian cooking and techniques that I’ve found quite fascinating. I already made one semi-traditional Sambar dish. It was divine if I do say so myself.

Over the past couple of weeks, I really feel like I’ve bonded with my beautiful daughter Avery. She seems to take everything in, is extremely chill, and loves to giggle. Each night I have been putting her to bed, rocking her in a rocking chair as I feed her. It’s truly special to have the kind of bond a parent gets with their children. Keegan has been hilarious lately, saying lots of funny stuff. He enjoyed Halloween with his best friend, we went down to Gainesville to their home to do trick-or-treating. Keegan dressed as Buzz Lightyear from the Pixar movie “Toy Story”. He got lots of compliments. A week or so earlier, we went to the “Boo at the Zoo” event at the National Zoo. Him and I took the Metro up and met my wife at her work, then we rode the subway over to the Zoo. He got to get tons of trick or treating in and see a lion, a leopard, gorillas (and a cute baby gorilla!), orangutans, and some other various animals. It was a total blast.

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Madden NFL on Playstation 3. I think it’s due to the fact that sports are essentially over for me. The baseball season ended in a hum-drum fashion (who really wants to see the Yankees win yet another world title?), with my fantasy teams finishing up in disappointing fashion – my Yahoo team finished third, which sounds good but we were only a couple of points out from first all year, and my “pay league” team that I co-run with my dad finishing next to last. The Redskins and Rams are stinking it up yet again. I’m rooting for the Saints to go all the way because I’ve always been a big fan of Drew Brees and could never understand why San Diego ran him out of town, though Philip Rivers is pretty beast. My fantasy football team SHOULD have been unstoppable but due to crappy luck and a few bad picks, they are only one win better than the Redskins at this point. Sigh. There’s always next year…and there’s always Madden to dominate!

Last night I pulled out some old Rage Against the Machine albums. Hadn’t listened to “Bulls on Parade” in who knows how long. I was surprised I remembered some of the words. I can’t believe I tried to rap that song back in the day. Sigh. I miss singing for a band almost more so than playing drums in a band. I always kick around the can and wonder out loud if I should do music again but I always seem to never find the time. There are so many ideas floating around in my head about music I’d love to write or play. I guess things would be different if someone lived close by that I had good musical chemistry with or something.

Disappointed about the Virginia elections for sure. Oh well, Craigh Deeds ran a bad campaign and deserved to lose. I think, generally speaking, I’m disappointed in politics and Barack Obama and all that cliched hope that he had generated for me and thousands of others. I got the blahs big time.

Anyway, I obviously look to cook just as much as I like to eat unique and interesting things. At home I tend to like to cook one-pot meals, so I utilize my Le Crueset dutch oven from Williams Sonoma quite a bit. In fact tonight, I am making an Indian and Iranian flavored curried lentil stoup (stew + soup) with a sesame seed garnish swirled in for additional delight.

But what sparked my imagination today and over the last few months were homemade hot sauces. I absolutely love heat. Ironic noting that I really don’t dig summer heat very much. I’ve done a couple of my own. The first was really a hot mustard containing habaneros, jalapenos, garlic, vinegar, mustard seed, and ground mustard all blended up. The second was a lot more successful – a true hot-as-hell habanero hot sauce with tons of the hot chili pepper (probably a dozen or so), white vinegar, a touch of chopped garlic, and that’s it. You know it’s good when it burns your nostrils and numbs your lips with just a small taste. Even a baby can eat a habanero. (Ok so I read somewhere that babies actually don’t develop their sense of ‘hot’ taste until they’re older, but who knows. I know I wouldn’t guinea pig up my kids!) – Of course girls can do this too and have a contest and look silly!

Of course I need to man up and try one of these (bhut jolokia) on for size. I highly doubt I could make this into a hot sauce though!

Hot sauce is probably my only real reason to go to California Tortilla where they have a ton of varied hot sauces that you can try.

See more here.

My wife’s 31st birthday is tomorrow. Yikes, she’s as old and curmudgeony as me! Ha!

Today I found a great Tiesto podcast, that includes cuts off of his latest album, “Kaleidoscope” – a perfect showcase of where trance/dance music has progressed to these days. My personal fave is “Here on Earth” featuring the Cary Brothers.

Good clean mix with dynamic melodies and superb clubby-oriented synths. Niiice to the T.

At the wide receiver position I was fortunate enough to get the chip-on-his-shoulder Terrell Owens who will no doubt haul in his annual allotment of 10 TDs with a thousand-plus yards. My back-up runningbacks are Marshawn Lynch (suspended for the first three games) and Willie Parker (not suspended) as well as my fourth option, Dallas’ Felix Jones who is going to be a helluva receiver. I have Baltimore at defense with the Jets as my backup (they play Oakland during the Ravens bye week). My tight end Dallas Clark is due for a monster season as essentially the #2 receiver in Indy. I also have Dallas’ kicker Nick Folk who should get plenty of extra points and field goal attempts.

DeSean Jackson (Eagles) will be doing some Wildcat stuff for Philly this year and Donald Driver will be hauling in a ton of TDs and yards from Aaron Rodgers. Backup Isaac Bruce is more of a “let’s just see” kind of a pick. I doubt I ever play him except for a bye week play. Brent Celek is Philly’s starting TE and should be good. My backup QB is Matt Hasselbeck who is a top-tier QB.

Turning to baseball, my Yahoo team, Drools McGoo is having a good year.  I should finish 2nd or 3rd this year. I did not pay nearly enough attention to it, often not making moves or adjustments for a week or two. So boo on that. My pay team, in the West End League, Mr. Yuk and the Jolly Rogers is not as fortunate. We were devastated by injuries all year: Grady Sizemore, Josh Hamilton, Ian Kinsler, Scott Kazmir, Joey Devine (a terrible pick up, and poor research on my part!), Nelson Cruz, Andruw Jones, Gil Meche, Troy Percival, Jeremy Bonderman, Kelvim Escobar, and several others were just downright awful. We had many bright spots though such as the aforementioned Cruz and Kinsler (sans BA of course) as well as a great trade for Jeff Niemann of Tampa for a throw-away reliever from Seattle, as well as great waiver wire pickups such as Luke Hochevar, Scott Feldman (won 12 games for us!), and Jered Weaver & Jarod Washburn’’s fantastic pitching season. We’ll place second to last because of the injury bug but it was a good season none-the-less. Our outlook for next year is pretty bright.

Whoa geek alert!

Some of these Lego creations were just totally nuts. You can see some of the pics in my flickr feed. Everything from the Apocalypse to Gettysburg to Trains were seen. Lots of helicopters and art too. Keegan hated going but after an hour or so it was definitely time to go. This made all of my post-modern Lego art look just silly.

Got some kababs afterwards from a local place, I’ll be stopping by there more often fo’ sure.