Digital Wilderness

I’m a Hall of Famer! Last weekend, my rock band – The Dumples (um, yeah, that’s all Patrick) – was inducted into the Rock Band Hall of Fame in Moscow. With Patrick on lead vocals, Steve on guitar, me on bass and Brandon on drums (with Ben, L.T., Sara, Sabrina, Doug and Buzz each playing at other tour stops), we rocked out Moscow to a massively long 8 song set, wowing the crowd and solidifying our play in the Hall of Fame and rock history.

In video game land at Patrick’s condo, at least…

I’m talking about the Rock Band video game. Over the past three weekends, we’ve had “band practice” on Saturday night, touring the world in an effort to gain fans and be inducted into the hall of fame (which is essentially beating the game). Last Saturday night, we accomplished this, though not with out some booing… Now it’s time to step up the difficulty and see what we’re really made of.

We were joking about versions of Guitar Hero/Rock Band that we wouldn’t be surprised to see someday, such as a Disney or High School Musical version (apparently, there’s already a High Musical version of DDR and/or a karaoke game.

So I’ve been thinking about some versions of the games that would be funny to see. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:

Boy Band
Could you be the next member of an up and coming N’Sync, Backstreet Boys or Hanson? Find out with Boy Band! Rock band, minus the rock, meets DDR in this high energy, singing and dancing game. Travel the world and see how many young female fans you can woo with your grooves. Beat the game by successfully alienating yourself from the “band,” and start a solo career. Comes with wireless head microphones, a dance mat and a wardrobe wardrobe malfunction kit, should you want to play as Justin Timberlake.

Concert Band
Bring back those fond memories of high school! Practicing on your own and annoy your siblings by butchering classic TV theme songs to build up your noise power level, then blast away the audience at your holiday band concert. Play louder than the rest of the band, play out of tune and don’t hit too many notes in a row right to score points. The worse you play, the more lavish praise and comments will be heaped on you by your relatives at the end of the night. Graduate by playing in four concerts without stepping on and ruining your instrument. Band kit comes with badly out of tune instruments that look well used, even if they haven’t been.

Marching Band
Now’s your chance to try your hand at the ultimate sport! You think playing an instrument while sitting is hard? Try marching in rhythm while playing! Survive hazing and hundred degree heat at band camp to build up your stamina. March an entire 10 minute show without hyper ventilating, collapsing on the field or running over the guard to reach section leader status, then take your turn torturing the rookies to reach the ultimate goal of field commander. Kit comes with a pair of black Dickies, hat with plume and your own set of band moms.

Praise Band
Ever get jealous of those super cool praise band leaders? Now’s your chance to fly to the top of the charts and become a star yourself! Practice at youth services and college campuses, then wow huge crowds at church services. Score more points if you can stretch choruses to 10, 15 or 20 minutes long! Turn classic, dearly loved hymns into modern day rock choruses for extra cool points. Kit comes with a crowder and a throng of fans with hands and voices raised to your skills.

OK, before I get myself in too much trouble, I better stop…

I was a little ticked (and it was all I could do to keep it at the “little” level) at the upper management of my company this week.

First, some background. I work at PPD Global Central Labs (PPD GCL), which, along with our sister lab in Brussels, Belgium was formerly MRL International. We were bought by PPD a few years ago, so now we’re one of the many, many different divisions within PPD. I’m a business-minded sort of person, so I try to keep up with the corporate press releases and such. A majority of the news involves corporate PPD and other divisions, but occasionally GCL will be mentioned. If the press release is important enough, all employees of PPD will receive an email about the upcoming news, usually the day before it’s released to the press.

Imagine my surprise when I see the following article on Yahoo Wednesday night:
PPD Expands Global Central Lab Services into China

What really got me was this sentence (emphasis mine):
“PPD to begin immediately providing biopharmaceutical clients with its full range of highly customized central lab services in China.”

Why did this get me? Because I, and most of my co-workers (I checked around), had no knowledge of this. There had been a brief mention at a town hall meeting last summer that management was thinking about and working on setting up a lab in China, which isn’t the easiest thing to accomplish…and that’s the last we heard about it.

Now, all of a sudden, there’s a lab in China that is IMMEDIATELY ready to begin operating, and this is news that directly affects PPD GCL – and my department specifically. All the data managers that deliver data to the clients are based in the US; other employees in the Belgium lab will provide support for China. You would think that sharing updates with employees about this lab as it gets up to speed would be an important thing to do, considering the data isn’t going anywhere if we don’t know about it.

To wrap up the story, I emailed my manager (who was at a conference in Florida with upper management) and told him to ask the senior VP, while he had his ear, why we had to read about this on the internet and why we weren’t informed about this on any level beforehand. I’m assuming something was said, because an hour later, the press release was emailed from corporate to all PPD employees.

This didn’t do anything to ease my mind, especially since this is becoming more and more of a trend lately. There have been several other similar situations, just over the past six months, where key people have completely been left out of the loop, left out of the discussions and implementations of things that directly affect them. I’m sure many of you know what this is like, when non-tech people make tech decisions, when managers of completely separate departments make decisions that affect your department, but don’t include any of your department members in the decisions. It’s pretty clear to me that upper management wants control of everything, and isn’t willing to relinquish this control in the least. It started with micro-managing, now this it’s not letting people know what’s going on…

Maybe I’m making a bigger deal of this than I should. Maybe this is just the way larger corporations work, and as we (PPD GCL) become more and more ingrained in the larger corporate entity that is PPD, we’re starting to be treated increasing as a large corporation, with communication woes and secrets that are common elsewhere. Maybe I need to get used to it…or maybe do something about.

Ready or not, I’m committed now – I just registered for the Flying Pig 10K!

As I mentioned in my goals, I wanted to do three 5Ks or one 10K this year. I decided there’s no time like the present to start reaching for that goal, and I might as well shoot for the moon while I’m at it! While I have been playing some sports over the winter (and Rock Band – hey, it’s a form of exercise, at least the way I play! ), I haven’t had a good multi-mile run since last fall (I hate running in the cold), so I’m a bit out of shape and will need to get on the training if I’m going to run the distance. The good thing is that I’ve maintained my weight since last year, so I’ll be able to pick right back up where I left off. The extra incentive of now being financially invested should help motivate me to start running sooner rather than later… I’m still working on the specific goals for the 10K, such as time to finish, how much I’m going to allow myself to walk, etc., but the big step of signing up for it is now done at least.

I have two marathoner-friends that may stoop down to my level and run it with me…anyone else care to join us?

Oink, oink!

If treadmills were always this much fun, I might actually enjoy them.

Watch the music video for Here It Goes Again by OK Go.

Zig Ziglar has said “Economists have rightly predicted 36 out of the last 2 recessions.”

I love it!

[Disclaimer: I can't confirm the authenticity of this quote and I've seen several versions of it (media instead of economists and different numbers), but it's still funny and insightful, so I posted it anyway. ]

I’m a big fan of the Discovery Channel. Mythbusters, Survivorman and Planet Earth are all great shows. I’ve heard Dirty Jobs and Deadliest Catch are pretty good, too.

Discovery debuted several new shows around the start of the year – Fight Quest, Smash Lab, Some Assembly Required and Weapon Masters. Considering how good most of their shows are, I couldn’t wait to check out these four.

First, the disappointment – Smash Lab. It’s similar to Mythbusters, with a team of four “maverick engineers” testing various things…only this team is not nearly as funny and engaging as good ol’ Adam and Jamie and the things they test aren’t as satisfying as myths.

From the website:

“[T]hey take on everyday technology and apply it in revolutionary new ways. First they break down the technology to see how it works and then use their know-how to see how it could be used in a different, supersized way.”

It seems forced, as if they’re trying to much to be like Mythbusters, rather than being their own show. Hopefully it will get better as the season goes on, as the team members get more comfortable with each other and the camera. It has potential.

Weapon Masters involves two guys exploring how weapons are made. The one episode I saw had the guys traveling to Japan to see how the kitana, the samurai’s sword, is traditionally made. The “weapon master” then tried to recreate the sword with today’s technology and tested it against the traditionally made sword. Unfortunately, it seems the preview episode of the show didn’t get many viewers or good reviews, because it isn’t listed on Discovery’s website any longer. A DVD of episodes is available in the Discovery store, though.

Fight Quest is an interesting show where two guys travel the world learning native fight styles.

“A blend of cultural immersion and good old-fashioned smackdown, the series follows seasoned mixed martial arts fighter Jimmy Smith and 25-year-old rookie Doug Anderson as they travel the globe, adding fight styles from Kali to kickboxing to their repertoire.”

It’s a pretty interesting show, and though I’m not really a fan of Doug, Jimmy is engaging and easy to root for in his various fights. It’s cool learning about the different fighting styles and the culture surrounding them.

My favorite new show is Some Assembly Required. Of all the “how things are made” type shows (How It’s Made, Made in America,etc), I think this one is the best. Very engaging, funny and informative. So far, they’ve looked at Jelly Belly, moonbounce, Zamboni and Gibson guitars to name a few.

[T]hey explore the manufacturing process of everything from cheddar cheese to Gibson guitars. Some Assembly Required will give you a new appreciation of everyday items and the people who build them.

Be sure to check out these, and the other Discovery Channel shows, if you have the chance!

The break is over…I start back to school this Monday for semester number two. Four classes are on tap for the semester – two economic classes and two accounting classes, one each the first half of the semester and one each the second half. Thankfully, they shouldn’t be too tough. I already have accounting homework, and what I’ve do so far really hasn’t been bad at all. I did have both accounting and econ in undergrad, so like my statistics class, the material should be familiar to me, at least at the start of the class. The tough part of these classes is that so much is crammed into so short a time.

It’s an exciting time to have an economics class, though, with the decline in the value of the dollar, the sub-prime mortgage “crisis” and a possible recession as the current hot topics. I’m hoping I have a good teacher and there’s a lot of discussion about current events. That’s one reason I loved econ so much in undergrad and started pursuing a business minor – the material we were learning was remarkably relevant and applied directly to everyday events and news.

In a weird sort of way, I’ve kinda enjoyed reading and listening to all these analysts and so-called experts lately, with their doomsday scenarios and screams that the sky is falling. I usually laugh at what I hear. Then you have all the political candidates who are taking advantage of the fear and tout their schemes to fix the economy, redo the tax system, etc. Like Washington can really do anything for the common folk. When’s the last time the government has lived within their means, that they have stuck to a budget and spent less than they made? Don’t expect a political candidate to fix your financial life. Even if taxes are lowered now, the spending in Washington won’t change and they’ll have to raise them later or figure some other way to pay for their spending habits.

Don’t buy into all the hype you’re hearing from the “experts.” For every one expert that predicts doom and gloom, you can find one that says things will be fine. In the end, do they really have any more of a clue what’s going on than we do? What’s probably going to happen is that enough people will believe the fear mongering coming from the main-stream media and financial writers seeking a byline and attention, and what you have then is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Stick to a budget, spend less than you make, understand in what you’re investing, don’t sell fear and buy hype and invest for the long term and you’ll be fine, no matter what the markets are doing right now or who is leading the country.

Hmm, guess I got on a little soapbox there. This is good stuff, though!

Here’s a classic from Riley Armstrong that I heard again for the first time in several years – Sleep. Good song! Some of my favorite lyrics from the song are below. Wish I could find the video for it…

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One thing is certain in life and that is that today I’m going to eat cereal
I mean come on let’s get our priorities straight

And by 9 a.m. my brain and my body finally decide to meet
and we come to the same conclusion as yesterday – that I never get enough sleep

Here’s a good way to procrastinate today:

Hand Bell Hero.

It’ll give you somewhat a taste of what Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. are like if you haven’t played them.

(Via Dan’s blog)

These look like so much fun!

The World’s Highest, Fastest, Steepest, and Longest Zip Line – Sun City , South Africa

Haiti’s Amazing Zipline Shoots You Out Over the Ocean – Labadee, Haiti