Trapper Markelz

I miss my techno

It has been over five years now since I was living and breathing electronic dance music. When I wasn't listening to music, I was at record stores listening to new releases and buying stuff... when I wasn't in the store I was online doing it... when I wasn't listening I was practicing beat-matching on my turn tables... I was selecting songs... drawing up set lists... and spending lots of fun time with my other techno junky buddies throwing parties and putting together DJ events.

It was awesome.

For Father's Day, I put my turn tables up in the basement... and I have been going through a small selection of my hundreds of records listening to them again. The songs are a snap shot from that moment in time... and so every song comes with a memory of why I bought it, when I first played it, and who was there to hear it.

This evening I put together a small 42 minute set of some music selected from my house records.

1. Wax Poetic - Angels (Morgan Page Remix)
2. Sidechained - Cityscape (Dub mix) 
3. Synthetic Funk - Ice Dragon 
4. Trisco - Ultra (Stompa Phunk Remix)
5. Morel - Dreaming of LA  
6. 21st Century Fux - Thinking of You  
7. John Silver - Come on Over (Flatline mix)

Listen now (mp3) 

I had a bit of a problem mixing into track #5... you will hear me rest after the train wreck starts... ah well... a little rusty after all these years :) But I come back with a solid mix into Thinking of You that worked great. Good times.

Summer is here

Spy Pond Splashes
Originally uploaded by Markelz Family

I love summer in Boston. Last year we had just moved in... the job was new... things were pretty crazy so we didn't really get to "enjoy" the New England Summer. Our plans are much different this time around. We have some familiarity with the area... have a good group of friends... which should make for some good exploring.

We also have a pretty solid stream of people coming through. Maureen's parents were here for a week. My sister came through... Maureen's brother and wife are headed this way in a few weeks... Maureen's sister after that... all kinds of good fun.

June is a great baby... so that is helping out a ton. Moving from two kids to three has been quite a jump... given that you are always outnumbered where ever you go. But June has been sleeping well... eating well... doesn't spit up much... doesn't cry much... pretty much a model new born. We can't complain about that.

Things at gamerDNA continue to rocket a long at warp speed. Each month I give a board presentation and the sheer list of awesome keeps getting longer and longer... our press has been great... our product progress is on track for an awesome end of summer revamp... all kinds of great things that continue to make it exciting to be at work each and every day.

We are in a pretty good grove here in Boston. Although every time I say that, something crazy happens... so I guess we will see what happens next!

The Last Colony by John Scalzi

What a brilliant ending to a three book series. The Last Colony was everything I wanted it to be and more. It takes all of the characters set up in Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades and uses all of those introductions, political machinations, and introduced alien cultures and brings it all to a fantastic climax.

Not only was the story good, but the solution that the main character (John Perry) use to more-or-less save the day is an idea that I have often had when thinking about international politics, which made me appreciate the ending that much more.

Turns out there is one more book that takes place in the Old Man's War universe called Zoe's Tale which I plan to pick up Monday... so I don't quite have to leave the characters yet. :)

Running across a writer like John Scalzi makes me excited to know that there are so many undiscovered writers out there that I have yet to stumble upon. I am the kind of reader that likes to keep a small number of authors close to my heart... because it isn't realistic to follow the works of everyone... and I like always having some names I can look for when I go into old used book stores and such. That said, it is obvious there are so many good stories to read out there (not even counting the sci-fi classics which I never find myself motivated to tackle). I also have a new found respect for multi-arch paperbacks... you can just crank through them and because they are told over multiple books, the universes get to be so rich and fulfilling.

So, now I am on a search for the next thing... after Zoe's Tale of course. Any suggestions?

 

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

The sequel to Old Man's War... awesome as ever. I am now 100% hooked by this series... reading The Last Colony as I type this.

The Ghost Brigades is awesome because it takes an entire class of characters introduced mysteriously in Old Man's War and gives you an origin story (with a twist of course!). Lots of fun stuff in this one as you get a picture of Scalzi's world from the perspective of yet another super soldier.

Besides the new scenery, layers of political intrigue are introduced and piled on... plenty of action... plenty of moral dilemmas. It was a fast and interesting read.

I don't think I will be sick of Scalzi's universe any time soon. I also discovered there is another book after Lost Colony which isn't a direct sequel but takes place in the world called Zoe's Tale. Consider it purchased!

Two weeks of beard growth

Two weeks of beard
Originally uploaded by Markelz Family

It has been a tradition with my other two kids that I grow a beard for two weeks after they are born. It started with Hannah... in that I took two weeks off of work and decided to not shave.

With Lucy, I figured I would continue the tradition. I didn't take as much time off of work, but I did get some nice growth.

So this picture is the result for June. Looking back in Flickr at all my other attempts, they all look pretty much the same. For some reason it felt like I got some better growth this time... but it doesn't look that much different. I guess I am at the peak of my growing abilities. :)