I also recently made the decision to buy Robbie’s 99 Jeep Wrangler. Last year this time I never would have dreamed I’d own a Jeep. It’s weird, the statement “It’s a jeep thing, you wouldn’t understand” makes sense now. At least until the Focus runs again but thats a whole different story.

On the personal aspect of things, it was great to get away and live life like it was before Justin Styles was created. Three and a half days of being with old friends and family made me awful nostalgic. I met some new people, a few I’d like to get to know better, and a few I’m glad I will never know better. Thankfully the latter can serve as a reason why I’m glad I left Superior so it wasn’t for nothing.

I could type out the whole trip, and maybe I’ll do this in the future. But it’s late and I felt it necessary I say something because this past weekend had a huge impact on my life (and partially because Dave said I need to update). I did lots of thinking about things that were and where I’m going with my life. I definitely see myself aging, watching friends get married and separate. Soon my friends will be having kids, all the meanwhile my mom will be asking me when she gets grandchildren. The answer is still the same though, when I have my 911.

Ever since I turned 16 (this is the part where I tell a story of my past in an attempt to give the reader insight into my life) I’ve been a bit of a workaholic. 1 job has just never seemed like enough. At 17 I was working at the Board of Education in Superior and Mcdonalds. My record is 4 jobs, working at 2 McDonalds restaurants, the Board of Education, and also djing schools and weddings. What was I thinking? I was slightly depressed at the time, probably for about a month or so. When I wasn’t working, I was unleashing my zerglings and hydralisks upon unsuspecting foes.

Fast forward to today, I’m tired of working. For a while I worked 1 job, just here in my cubical, helping fix the fingerprints of the world. At some point I decided to start djing weekly in a club again, then decided to help out at the record store. Oh wait, I already had 2 online radio shows I was doing. For added spice, I’ve now added 2 more nights at a local lounge. Holy schnikes, I’m working over 60 hours a week now. Granted, lots of this time I enjoy and I’m not entirely commited to being at the new place twice a week, but still, it adds up. I have to admit that there’s a bit of comfort going from one work place to the next. On the other hand, sometimes you just want to sleep. We’ll all be dead in the blink of an eye anyways right? Well it’s a blink of an eye if you consider how long the earth has been around.

I’d like to say I’ll get this website going some day. Perhaps if I buy a digital camera I’ll have more things to post. Maybe bits of code? I’ve decided eventually I’ll shed this Nucleus CMS and go to wordpress. Things have changed so much, in the past I’d only use something I had written. It’s funny how so many things change, yet a few stay the exact same. Perhaps you’re one of the people that checks this website once a week, only to not be surprised there is no updated post. There’s the chance you haven’t checked this page for months (and I don’t blame you), or perhaps you just stopped by because I told you my email address and you wanted to see what was here. Either way, thanks for stopping by. and say something in the shoutbox.

Before I fill you in on the geekier details, I’ll fill you in on the dj details. The DJing has gone extremely well, I’m currently the Friday resident at one of the best clubs downtown. While there are some things going on that I think will be resulting in me leaving, it’s a good feeling that I’ve actually been there for a short while. I’ve also been getting more and more gigs which are either out of town, or high profile local gigs. Last week I made a trip to Milwaukee to open for JJ Flores and Steve Smooth which was a blast. I’m somewhat worried I’ll hit a ceiling of how far I can grow as a DJ in Minneapolis so I’ve begun other ventures to try to keep my options open. One of these things is starting a digital record label. I’ve been working mostly with a local producer by the name of Jake Encinas and a producer out of Chicago named ZXX. Our first two releases are scheduled for release on 10/10 and both sound great.

On the geek side, I’ve been working on a Myspace friend’s manager. Yeah I know, Myspace is the spawn of satan but you’d be amazed at how much networking one can actually do on there. I hate updating my page so the php utility I’ve been writing is meant to make it easier. I’ve made lots of progress and I might even open it up for the public to use. I’ve also gone through deleting the 1700+ spam comments that were here and fixed the shout box. Hell maybe I’ll even work on the buttons and make those work.

Anyways, off to keep working. Until next time…

On the dj side of things, last Wednesday on my show on AfterhoursDJs.org I did a tribute to Kaskade. Kaskade is to deep house as Hatiras is to funky house. At least in my eyes. It’s a 57 minute long set that Christian joined up with me to tag team on. He laid down the first 5 tracks and I finished off with the remaining 8. So on that note, I recommend you download it now.

• Control. I’ve heard so many stories about people doing something when their drunk from cheating on significant others to crashing their car while driving. Not to say that I would do this, but as it is if I completely avoid alcohol, I’ll never have this happen. I’m in control of any and all mistakes I may make

• Cost. I’ve watched friends spend over $100 easily in one night. I spend enough money on other things in my life where I don’t need another expense.
• Addiction. Again, not that I would, but alcoholism runs in my past. My biological father is a severe alcoholic. The last time I spent a week with him, there wasn’t one time over the period that he wasn’t drinking something non-alcoholic.

Anyways, Christian for the first time ever actually made a very valid argument about drinking and why he thinks I’m cheating myself by not drinking. Essentially it breaks down to missing out on experiences I could have while under the influence. While I do maintain a bit of reservation normally, drinking would cut some of those inhibitions loose. Obviously, I’ve known about the power of liquid courage for years, but I’ve almost prided myself in approaching these situations sober. If I can perform the same without alcohol, does that not make me a stronger person?

Anyways, I’m not going to start drinking anytime soon. (At least I don’t plan to) The conversation was probably the best argument I’ve been given for drinking and I wanted to bring it up. I’ll admit my curiousity is piqued, but it just makes me want to try harder in situations where I think drinking would assist me.

anyways, i’ve been pretty happy lately with my life. i always like to rant and rave on this page. then i started ranting and raving about my ranting and raving. so take that for what it is, and for once, put up with me talking about the good things. While I grow more tired of my tier 1 job every day, I still enjoy the company of most of the people I work with. I’m glad for where I’m at (location wise) but hopefully Identix will see the light and give me a damn promotion so I quite trouble shooting paper jams. Here I go ranting again, sorry it’s a reflex.

DJing has been going exceptionally well for me lately. Even though I told myself I wouldn’t I started doing top 40 / hip hop gigs to help a few friends of mine. No worries, you’ll only find me at the Lone Tree / Annex where the girl to guy ratio has to be at least 5:1. Seriously, it’s unlike any club I’ve ever seen in my life. On the electronic side, I’ve been busy as hell. Our guests this month for Axis Radio have never been better. Tenshi last week, Leon J tomorrow, Jack Trash, Strangelove, then finishing off with 34 and Big Mama J. Seriously, if you don’t download the show, I recommend you keep up this month. It’s hot. I’ve also been doing a weekly show on afterhoursdjs.org called “The House of Styles”. It gives me an opportunity to do something separate from Nascent Numen which I like.

I recently took place in the Sound In Motion DJ contest and was declared one of the 2 winners. This means in the near future I’ll be opening up for a national headliner. This means my goal of opening for a headliner this year is going to be realized. Christian is also bringing ZXX, one of the regulars over at FunkyHouseMusic.com to town and I’ll be opening for him. Seriously, djing is going amazingly well and I dont feel like I show any signs of slowing down.

As far as other things going on in my life and why I’ve been happier, you’ll have to ask me in real life. The internet can’t be my only means of communication to you right?

[geek] I learned this today while dialing into a site in Idaho. I was given the task to dial into a remote system, update a tcl script and then manually edit 10 different files to change a value in them. One thing I’ve *always* done my entire life is look at the efficiency of a given process. For example, when I started here, everyone used the Kermit Protocol to transferr files to remote systems. Granted the documentation to transfer files was written back in 1999, but back in 1995 I was using Xmodem/CRC. Yes that’s write folks, error correction! [/geek]

I think it all comes down to me being a natural problem solver. I love looking at a problem and saying “this should be done this way”. I’ve done it my entire life. When I was younger I was pulling apart my Transformers to see how they worked. When I started working, I reorganized the way ingredients were laid out in a more efficient manner. While reading procedures at work now, I question why they’re not done a certain way. Granted this has lead me to butting heads with supervisors. Sometimes there’s something to be said about the work needed to be more efficient vs. leaving a process as it is.

Thus I’ve decided what my answer will be in the future during interviews when I’m asked why I’m a better candidant than the others. I’m a geek. Regardless of what I might do outside of work, I’m still a geek at work. From reading all of the sites I’ve read for years, to using my past experience to redesign a process. It’s a certain quality you can’t learn in school. They can’t teach you how to think the way that I do along with the thousands of other geeks. It’s impossible to learn certain things, methods of problem solving in school and on the job.

Anyways, instead I’d like to take the time to thank the friends and family that have been there for me when I’m stumbling emotionally. I like to think it doesn’t happen often but when it does, I know the people I can count on for advice or to just listen to me rant on and on about it. Then again, if you’re one of those people, don’t be surprised if I start bugging you in the very near future.