Oct 17

Is it worth it?

I really, really hate feeling like this.


Sep 13

3 months is a long time…

Summer was a blur and it’s hard to believe it’s over. I’ve definitely made a transition in life. I used to be a die hard car guy, always ordering the next part to put on to my car but lately djing has taken over my life. I figured that it was time to sit down and take a little time to perform some maintenance on the site.

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…


Jun 9

sleeping sucks

I hate it when I can’t sleep. When something gets drilled into my head and I roll around trying to sleep. I’ve had problems falling asleep my entire life, at least when I’m not burning the candle at both ends. Nights like last night though really kill me. I’ve had too many things on my mind as of late and they started to apex last night.

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.


Jun 7

The argument for drinking

As most people that read my site know, I’m a non-drinker. I’m not really against it, hell I won’t even say I’ll never drink, but for the time being, I’m happy saving my money on the weekend. The other day I was out to eat with Christian and he asked my why I don’t drink.
For those that don’t know, the thought of drinking has never really appealed to me. I’m a fan of being completely in control of myself. So with that said, here’s the quick and dirty list of reasons I’m not a drinker.

  • 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.


Jun 6

and on a more positive note…

Posted in:Old Posts | 1 Comment »

nobody reads my page anymore. i’ve finally accomplished my goal!

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?


Jun 5

i skipped prom to write code and drink mountain dew

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It’s kind of sad isn’t it? I guess I really didn’t have any girls pining for me to ask them out. Hell I could say I skipped high school to write code and drink mountain dew. True you’ve read me talk about bringing back the geek. Claiming the geek in me is dead. It may be dormant, but it’ll be here forever.

[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.


Apr 27

Thanks

Posted in:Old Posts | 1 Comment »

I hate stress so much. It seems like at the beginning of every summer it builds and builds until it apexes and I’m ready to explode on some poor soul. Generally this leads to several pissed off posts here but I’ve been trying hard to curb that. It ends up making me come off much angrier than what I like to think I am.

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.


Apr 5

What’s up?

Posted in:Old Posts | 1 Comment »

This phrase is uttered so much in aol im speak it’s almost as if it were habit. There are lots of ruts people get into. I try to avoid them. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that I’m just as guilty as the next person. A typical conversation with a long lost friend usually goes like this…

[friend]: Whats up?
[Me]: Nada, working and djing
[Me]: What’s new with you?
[friend]: same stuff

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard Brandon mention his distaste for small talk but I finally realize it. Although I’m guilty of the same thing. I don’t know how many times I open up a dialog with someone with a simple “y0″. If I have done this to you in the past, I apologize. Although I’d be lying if I said I’ll stop doing it. I have a few friend that don’t use instant messenger programs. It’s quite amazing, I used to think these people were those that were afraid of computers. Perhaps they just didn’t trust them. I now come to realize that in general, if I’m going to talk to someone for more than a couple short things, I’d rather make my cell phone bill go up.

In a way, this very much reminds me of people that don’t answer their phone but always text message. Do you fear direct human interaction that much? Sure there’s a time and a place. Perhaps you just want to know a short answer. Entire coversations? I’d hope you’re at work or doing something where a phone isn’t acceptable.

Maybe it’s because I feel like I grew up using the internet as a medium for social communication so much that I’m revolting on my own now.

Anyways, (there’s another thing I like to add to posts here and in forums) I’m going to try to start updating this page more. Ever since I pointed out to Brandon that he needs to update, he’s been posting like a mad man. I should at least try to keep up.


Mar 19

it makes the people come together.

Music. It’s always been a huge part of my life. I remember back when Damon had a party when we were 14 and I brought my cd player. I was intent to dj. Also another childhood friend of mine always wanted to start our own mobile dj company, Starlight DJs. We had a logo and everything. If a new song came out, one of us had it.

One thing I regret about my past is never taking music lessons. I signed up for piano lessons once. I was supposed to show up but never told anyone about it and forgot about it. I sometimes wonder if I had gone to my lessons how it would have changed my life. Would I have played for 6 weeks and dropped it? Perhaps I would have started to dj earlier in my life. Perhaps I never would have gotten into djing and did something else, who knows.

Either way, I know in 1999 I saw an ad in the newspaper that forever changed my life. It read “Looking for DJs. Great pay, will train!”. Attached to it as a number I called. I had just graduated high school, was working 2 jobs at McDonalds and the Board of Education. I could use some extra weekend pay though. From the first show where I watched drunken cops sing 8 different karaoke renditions of Ring of FIre to the last time I spun for a crowd, I know I made the right choice.
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Feb 1

i don’t update this nearly enough

Posted in:Old Posts | 1 Comment »

January was pretty good for dj gigs. All told I’ve had somewhere to spin every weekend for the past 4 weeks but that comes to an end here. A friend of mine from Green Bay, Elvis came to visit for last weekend. We spent both nights downtown. The first night hitting up clubs, the 2nd night was all about dirty funky beats. It seems as if every time I touch the turntables, I’m spinning a little better than the previous time. I wish I could express how much I love djing, it’s just one of those things that sets me free.

The past few nights I’ve gone to bed and woke up with what felt like the aftermath of a migraine. I hope it’s nothing serious but it’s kept me out of work the past couple days. I felt like I had the flu along with it yesterday. Gotta love cold chills and feeling like I’m going to toss on top of all this. Hopefully I’ll be better off tomorrow.

Im still trying to decide what i want to do for content here. Then once I decide, I’ll actually have to put something together. Perhaps I’ll start writing essays or something of the sort to actually make it worth someone’s time to drop by. Until then, hasta.


HEY! Did you eat my pickle... or did I?
-Kyle Berg

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