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8.2.22
Things are still progressing with the house, but progressing slower than we hoped (which is kind of what we expected). There have been issues with permits and other issues with subcontractor availability that have stopped construction for days or weeks at a time, and although it looks more like a house than it did in the spring, there's still a long way to go before it will be ready for us to occupy.
Our contractor is starting to lean more towards a January finish date than a November one, which in our minds means we'll be lucky if we're able to move in by February. There are also still lots of issues with the insurance company reimbursing us appropriately/on-time, but so far we've been able to find other sources of money for payment so our contractor can keep working.
We're closer every day to being able to move back in and try to make the rebuilt house our home once more, but there's still a long ways to go, and we're already so exhausted that most days it's hard to imagine this nightmare actually ending. But all we can do is keep hoping and keep moving forward, one step at a time, one day at a time.
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8.3.22
I watched the two most recent Star Wars series on Disney+ back to back recently, starting with Obi Wan Kenobi and following that with The Book of Boba Fett. Both were fine, but both had their flaws, and neither of them were as good as the show that kicked off the wave of Star Wars live-action series, The Mandalorian.
Obi Wan was fine, but didn't have anything really revelatory. It was interesting to get a peek into Obi Wan's life as a hermit on Tatooine in the years between the fall of the Jedi Order and when he encounters Luke Skywalker and kicks off the original trilogy, and I didn't mind seeing Leia as a 10 year old (in no small part because of the actress who played the role). The increasingly large presence of Vader in the show was probably what most people liked about it, but I also enjoyed learning more about the lore and structure behind the Empire at this point in the timeline.
Boba Fett had some real potential, but overall it fell flat and didn't serve the character as well as it could. It continues the space western vibe of the first season of The Mandalorian, and the first few episodes got off to a reasonably good start filling in the backstory and lore for what happened to Fett after the events of Return of the Jedi. But the series really got off track once the Mandalorian and Grogu made an appearance in episode five, and their story basically dominated the show from that point forward.
I get that you'd want the two most popular characters in the current Disney Star Wars universe to make an appearance on a show that highlights a cult favorite character from the original series (especially as the former was birthed from the lore of the latter), but the way that Din Djarin and Grogu were brought into the narrative made the overall show feel like it was an incomplete narrative for Fett that essentially served to set up the third season of The Mandalorian more than it gave us any real closure on this chapter of Fett's story.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with the continuous rollout of Star Wars content through television series on Disney+. The movies just have too much weight to carry in too short a time, and there's no space in them to explore the more interesting nooks and crannies of this universe that can be highlighted in the framework of a streaming show. You don't have to agonize over whether three minutes of characters chatting in a bar needs to be cut for time—it's perfectly fine for some inessential but illuminating dialogue to happen a couple of times an episode.
I also feel like the number of shows and the balance is better in the Star Wars universe than in the MCU—there's way too much content in those series that seems vital to understanding the tentpole movies but which just isn't that compelling (like when Marvel started doing crossover series back in the 80s, where they would force you to buy multiple single issues of books you didn't normally read just to be able to read a single story).
It helps that all the Star Wars stories in the Disney canon so far have happened in the limited timeframe between the prequel trilogy and the sequel trilogy, with the Disney+ series taking place in the two interstitial periods between the three movie trilogies. That means we have constant reference points to the movie canon and often have appearances from movie character without having the stories need to twist themselves around specific events we know from the movies.
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8.4.22
I recently watched Hulu's miniseries on the Sex Pistols, Pistol, and it was actually pretty good as these things go (and certainly much better than the streaming network's Pam & Tommy about Motley Crue, which I couldn't even force myself to consider watching). The casting and costumes/design were great, and it told a pretty balanced picture of all the band members and their peripheral circle of supporters.
Two of the best side characters were Helen of Troy, a troubled loner who was obsessive about attending the band's performances, and model/fashionista Pamela Rooke, who was played by Game of Thrones' Masie Williams. Her role was pretty limited, but she stole every scene she was in. Both characters fleshed out the weird carnival of people associated with the band, supplementing the better known band affiliates like Malcom McClaren, Chrissie Hynde, Nancy Spungen, and Vivienne Westwood.
Highly recommended if you have any interest in the band or the 70s London punk scene that they spawned during their fleeting existence.
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8.9.22
I've had one barber for the entirety of my 10+ years of living in Atlanta, but when I went to see him last month, he told me his landlord was raising his rent an unconscionable amount while also neglecting maintenance and security on the property (both of which are unfortunately pretty common in Atlanta right now), so he was making the decision to close the shop and move to Fort Lauderdale at the end of August.
I'm pretty bummed about this—he's by far the best barber I've ever had, and he also built a good roster of other barbers for the shop. On the rare occasions when he wasn't available when I needed a haircut, the other barbers in the shop were always good (although not quite as good as him).
Yesterday was my last haircut with him, and I don't really know where I'm going to go now. He suggested a couple of other shops/barbers to me, so I'll start with those and hope I find a decent match, but even if I find someone I like, I'm pretty sure they won't be as good as he was. He was also just a pretty nice guy, and we had a bit in common—he also grew up in North Carolina, and he had a lot of good insights into how Atlanta has changed in the past couple of decades.
I don't have a complicated haircut or anything—I know exactly how to describe what I want in barber-speak, and my haircuts usually only take about 15 minutes (minus any chitchat)—but he was much gentler than most barbers, and also had a good feel for how to deal with my natural cowlick in the back so it didn't stand up for the first week after the haircut.
It's not a huge deal compared to so much else that has happened in the past couple of years, but it is another loss stacking on top of so many other losses from the pandemic and the fire. So it hurts more than it might during more normal times.
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8.10.22
My friend Clint had an extra ticket for one of his favorite bands, Rise Against, a couple of weeks ago, so even though I'm not into the band, I went along so I could hang out with him. They were playing at the Tabernacle, and were supported by two similar bands, Senses Fail and the Used.
I've heard of these bands before, but never really listened to them, and certainly down' own anything from them. But I was impressed by the size and fervor of their audiences, who enthusiastically packed the Tabernacle and had mosh pits going for all three sets.
None of them really won me over, but it is always interesting to see professional touring bands play—not only does their musicianship have to be on point, but they also have to have solid stagecraft. It's also fun to see the little tricks band use to win over audiences, and the little inside jokes and coded messages the band signals to their diehard fans. Even though I likely won't ever listen to a song by any of the bands the rest of my life, I still enjoyed hanging out with Clint and getting to see these groups in a live setting.
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8.11.22
Will started 7th grade this week, and although everyone knows how awful middle school is (especially here in Atlanta), I'm really worried about his struggles in this school. Even though he made some friends last year and tried to get involved with different extracurriculars (notably jazz band and theater), nothing really stuck in terms of activities, and he also has too much drama with his circle of friends to have a solid core of two or three people who are always there for him and who aren't wrapped up in the daily drama.
It doesn't help that he also doesn't have great advocates among the teachers, and the school in general seems to be somewhat dismissive of the 504 accommodations in place for him due to his learning issues (which are exacerbated when he's dealing with friend drama). I hope he continues to try new things and look for new people; the school is large enough that most people should be able to find a solid social niche, and this is also largely the same cohort that he will be with through high school.
After all he's been through with the fire, I was really hoping this would be a more positive experience for him, even in the context of how much middle school sucks generally. Year one wasn't great, but he made it through, and I'm hoping he can build on that have a better second year.
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8.16.22
Julie and I went to see Pinegrove at the Eastern a few days ago. It was Julie's first time seeing them live, but I saw them once before at the Masquerade back in 2019.
I like their recorded output pretty well (although their most recent, 11:11, hasn't grown on me the way their previous releases have), but they are becoming one of those bands that I'll see live regardless of the quality of their most recent album.
Frontman Evan Stephens Hall has low-key but magnetic charisma, and he's the natural focal point for the crowd's adoration, but the rest of band also contributes a strong family vibe that diffuses into the audience. I felt the same thing the first time I saw them (and I'm convinced that that show was the inspiration for a song that appeared on their next album, although I'm not sure the timing works), and it was nice to have that vibe recreated during this concert.
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8.17.22
This is a big month for concerts for me—I've already been out to four shows, and between now and the end of the month, I'll attend two more. Pre-pandemic, I would usually go out once or twice a month, but I've gone on a little bit of a binge since live music came back full force in fall 2021, and it's not at all unusual for me to have 2-4 shows on the calendar in a given month.
After seeing Rise Against with my friend Clint at the beginning of the month and Pinegrove with Julie last week, my next show was Echo and the Bunnymen at the Tabernacle. Julie also came along on this one—this was my third time seeing them this century, and my fourth overall, but it was her first time seeing them ever.
As they have done with all of their other recent shows, they stuck to their classic catalogue—they only played two songs that weren't from their 80s albums, and one of those was from 1997 and the other from 2001. So nothing that was more recent than 20 years ago, with of the bulk of songs being between 30-40 years old.
It was a relatively short set—it was clear that singer Ian McCulloch wasn't feeling well, as the crew tried various methods to keep him cool after he shed his trademark black trenchcoat because he was so overheated. He left the stage abruptly a couple of times, and from our elevated view on the balcony, I could see on one of those exits that he immediately threw up before he was even really backstage.
He pushed through as best he could, but it was clear by the end of the show that he just didn't have anything left to give, as his voice was also giving out and he could barely stand. The setlist notes say that four additional songs were on the printed setlist, so they were definitely planning a longer show, but I appreciate the effort Ian gave given that he clearly should have been in bed recuperating and not on stage.
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8.18.22
The night after seeing Echo and the Bunnymen at the Tabernacle, I joined my friend Steve at the Variety Playhouse to see Peter Hook's latest tour with his band the Light (which includes his son Jack on bass for the songs where Hooky decides to focus fully on the vocals).
I've only seen Peter Hook and the Light once before back in 2019 (also at the Variety). Hook's approach with this band is to play two albums from Joy Division and/or New Order in full, followed by an encore of the best-known tracks from each band. The last time I saw him, the two albums were New Order's Technique and Republic, the last two albums from the tail-end of the classic lineup that included Hook, and my two least favorite New Order albums from that era.
It was still a great show—Hooky brings a ton of energy to the performance, and the Light does a great job of recreating the songs in a live context—but I was really looking forward to this show, where the two centerpiece albums were Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and Closer. The set started with six New Order songs, but then moved into the Joy Division albums. This performance was head and shoulders above the last show, not just because of the higher quality of the source material, but also because Hooky is much better at imitating Ian Curtis than he is Bernard Sumner, especially after Bernard started really singing and started to understand how to match his vocal key to the music.
The set closed with four more classic songs—three from Joy Division and one from New Order (although the New Order track was one of their earliest songs from the period where the band was still transitioning from being Joy Division and becoming New Order in the wake of Ian Curtis' suicide). One of the best live shows I've ever been to, but I hope not the last one. I'll be curious to see what records he focuses on the band's next outing.
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8.23.22
My next concert was two nights after Peter Hook, marking my fifth evening out in a two week period. This one was Lyle Lovett and His Large Band, and not only did Julie come with me, but we also brought Will and Julie's mom with us.
Lyle Lovett is an amazing live performer, and this was the third time we've seen him since moving to Atlanta (Will and Julie also came to the two previous shows). His opener this evening was Chris Isaak, who you might remember from his big hit "Wicked Game" in 1990 after it was featured in the David Lynch film Wild at Heart. He was great—I'm not really familiar with much of his work beyond the album that featured "Wicked Game", Heart Shaped World, but he and his backing group were every bit as good as Lovett's Large Band, and he had a great stage presence, with lots of wry observations and self-deprecating humor.
Lyle was great as always, but since he allowed Isaak to play pretty much a full set, he didn't take the stage until well after 9:30, and as the evening wore on, it became clear that he wasn't planning to shorten his set to compensate for the extra time that Isaak's opening set had lasted. I almost never leave concerts early, but as we approached 11:30, we had to leave—Will had school the next day and both Julie and her mom were fading because they don't usually stay up that late.
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8.24.22
We have a relatively new employee who seems to think that, instead of doing the job he was hired to do, his real job is to constantly come up with hair-brained ideas that he has no idea how to fund or execute that he loses interest in after a week or two anyway, even if there might be some merit to the idea. The job he was hired to do is actually a pretty critical function that involves learning how our systems work (which is pretty easy, as the user-facing design and controls are pretty intuitive), but it's been over six months now, and he still doesn't know how to do what I would have expected him to master within the first week or two, much less the more complex functions.
One of his little projects was pushing for an AI-powered chatbot to be added to our website, a project that is the triple-header for stupid projects for me: costly, unnecessary (I just don't think our visitors will use it), and with no one willing to do the hard work of configuring it and doing daily/weekly maintenance to improve its performance. He seems to believe the vendor's sales pitch (which is always very different from the actual implementation/daily use experience for any piece of software) that, because it's powered by an AI that can scan our site and produce automated responses on its own, no one will have to do anything—all we'll need to do is add a line of code to the site and let it do its thing.
He somehow got someone to sign off on the contract for this, and he's already moving on to other shiny objects now that the actual work is starting. And of course there's work: not only do you have to do that basic site integration, but you need to have people test the chatbot by asking it common questions and making sure that it's producing accurate responses. Which of course it isn't, at least not without a lot of massaging (for instance: it is repeatedly insisting that we offer a certain type of admission plan, including given a deadline for applying via that plan, that we do not now nor have we ever offered).
It's pretty frustrating—even if this gets implemented and there's someone who gets assigned to do daily monitoring/maintenance (I have made it 100% clear that this won't be my team), I don't know that it will really improve the experience of finding information on our website. And while this project is being implemented by other people even though he's constantly crowing about being the project lead, he'll be off onto other similar schemes.
Best case scenario, he'll waste only his own time instead of doing the job he's actually supposed to be doing, but worst case is that, like the chatbot, he'll drag several other people's resources into a task that isn't the best use of their time and that they end up doing the bulk of the work on even though they want nothing to do with it.
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8.25.22
In other office news, we're still pretty understaffed overall compared to pre-pandemic levels, which is a combination of a soft hiring freeze still being in effect, which means several open positions are not being quickly filled, and people continuing to leave at an accelerated rate as the post-pandemic job market opens up and people start leaving to take the next steps in their careers.
The latest casualty for my team specifically is the loss of our only current data analyst, who just told me last week that he's leaving at the end of the month to take a consulting job that pays a lot more than we're able to pay him. We actually have two data analyst positions on my team, but my other analyst left in fall 2020 and we haven't been able to fill that position due to both the changing market and our internal hiring issues.
This will be the first time since we hired our first data analyst in 2013, about a year after I started working for this institution. I don't have any immediate prospects to fill either of these roles, and that leaves us in a little bit of a vulnerable position, because while I and my systems/operations guys can handle basic data requests, we don't have the skills and training to do modeling and other advance analysis, and we've become dependent on those skills internally since we started building out our own data team and severed ties with the external vendors we used to work with.
There are some other institutional resources we could use if we had to, but I'm hoping we can get at least one of these roles filled sooner than later. Now that we don't have any data analysts, we've been given the go-ahead to start actively recruiting in a way that we haven't been for the past several months due to the soft hiring freeze. The odds of finding a perfect fit in this market are slim, but I'm hoping we might be able to get someone in the early part of their career who can immediately take over the most critical modeling tasks and grow into more complex work over time.
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8.30.22
My last concert of the month happened a couple of days ago, my sixth show since the beginning of August. This time it was the Decemberists, one of my wife's favorite bands (and loved by me as well). This was our tenth time seeing them since 2004, meaning they are the band that I've seen in concert more than any other artist in my life.
While my wife and I have seen them many teams, we also brought my son for the first time (not his first concert by a long shot, but his first time seeing the Decemberists). As they have often done in recent tours, the band offered a VIP preshow experience where they soundcheck a few songs that won't be on that evening's setlist and also take questions from the participants, and as we have often done, we signed up for that as well.
They don't release new music that much anymore—they put out five albums and a couple of EPs in the first decade of their existence, but in the past ten years they've only released two subsequent records, and the most recent of those came out in 2018—but they are consummate performers, and we almost never miss a chance to see them live. They were great as usual, and since they weren't touring behind a specific album, the setlist ranged across their entire catalogue.
The encore was a lot of fun—not only did we get to hear a new unreleased song, "William Fitzwilliam", they also played "Ben Franklin's Song", which is a ton of fun (the chorus is "Do you know who the fuck I am?/I am Poor-Richard’s-Almanack-writing/Benjamin Fuckin’ Franklin"). The lyrics were written by Lin-Manuel Miranda for his hit musical Hamilton, but he couldn't find a good place to include it in that show, so he passed the words on to Colin Meloy and asked him to write music for it.
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8.31.22
As has become necessary in many recent months, I'm taking a day of vacation today just so I don't go over my workplace's cap and lose accrual for next month. It kind of sucks to have to take a random day in the middle of the week, especially because I'll still check in on work email a few times throughout the day, but I'd rather to that than lose it entirely.
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