The Bis Key Chronicles

It was announced this week that we are moving to another building on the same campus we are currently working at. So I grabbed my cell phone and took some pictures. The first picture is of the park north of our buildings. This is the view I will be giving up for a view of the side of an office building:

I’ve also included a picture of my desk and the door to my office. Yes, that is a Saxophone calendar above my desk. We were in the Marvel theme’d building. I’ll have to change my ‘privacy’ poster to something else for this move. Maybe I’ll move back to the film noir theme.

You get used to a space after spending time there. Let’s see we will have been in this building for around 18 months. Moving is just one of the things you get used to when working at Microsoft. In 18 years I’ve moved over 20 times. Some times it just seemed everyone was moving one office over. But team change, re-orgs happen, and life moves on. And I do have a great job with many, many friends, and very cool projects and products.

Sometimes there is beauty in unexpected places. Musical Transformations is but one example of this. Click on the picture above for the blog.

Painter of robots Brian Despain’s new paintings can be viewed tonight, November 13, at Seattle's Roq La Rue Gallery. Above, "The Prodigal Son" (oil on panel, 15" x 19").Also showing is John Brophy, whose paintings mixes up iconography from various cultures and religions in a bowl of consumer culture.

“Brian Despain works with imaginary yet recognizable modern landscapes, but populates his world with seemingly self aware and melancholy robots in a seemingly endless quest for the numinous. His work blends the natural world with technology and usually has a slightly morbid slant. Archetype-loaded imagery such as skulls, gears, fish, and birds provide the forefront for a seemingly arcane number system the artist employs in all his work. His rich and somber color palettes of post apocalyptic ochres, deep blues, and steel greys belie and hidden warmth and dark humor within his work. This show will feature 8 new paintings.”

Read more…

Today is the birthday of the inventor of this instrument. Can you name him?

Here are some clues:

“His childhood was tragic. Hardly able to stand, Antoine-Joseph fell from a height of three floors, seriously bumping his head against a stone: he was believed dead. At the age of three, he swallowed a bowl of vitriolized water, and then a pin. Later, he was seriously burned in a gunpowder explosion; he fell onto a cast iron frying pan and burned himself on one side. Three times he escaped poisoning and asphyxiation in his bedroom, where varnished items were lying about during the night. Another time, he was hit on the head by a cobblestone; he fell into a river and was saved by the skin of his teeth..

"He's a child condemned to misfortune; he won't live," his mother said. In the district, they called him the ghost".

These initial serious incidents were, alas, but the prelude to an eventful existence such as only a few have known. In 1858, he was miraculously saved from a cancer of the lip by a black doctor who knew the properties of certain Indian plants. What would the future have been but for this intervention?” - Albert Rémy

He was the inventor of many instrument improvements as well as the inventor of what was to become a very popular instrument world-wide.

Okay, looking at this picture, which one is blonde? If you can’t pass this test, I’m not talkin’ to you anymore.  ;o)

Well, what say yea puzzle meisters?

Last week the local drug dealer aka vintage instrument seller stopped by my desk a work with a little ‘something’ for me to look at. It was a gorgeous Conn F-mezzo soprano sax from the late 1920’s. Darn the temptation, but this time I went for it.

I immediately made an offer on the instrument, some what lower than what he was asking. Knowing full well that he could sell if for more, we haggled and he gave in about halfway between our best prices. Heck, I have purchased more than a couple of instruments from Matt. I then pinged Merlin who was penning ‘Santa Baby’ as a quartet for me to ask if he could include a sop replacement copy for the f-mezzo.

For those of you wanting to know more about the Conn f-mezzo soprano saxes start here. You can also view a truly well-preserved copy of an original Conn full page ad for this instrument.

Playing this I found the intonation to be very good except on the palm keys. Suzy noted the key heights were way off and something that one of my fav techs could handle rather quickly. When she held the key down to a normal key height, the intonation was immediately better. So after a minor annoyance to take it to a tech we will see how it sounds in ensemble with the rest of the sax quartet. Even more interesting will be how many people will notice it is something special. I’d be surprised if 1 person out of a thousand would think it was something other than an alto sax.

After six weeks of effort our new renters are in the house and we’ve received our first rent check ahead of time and in full. And we don’t have to cover electric and water bills. After we’d had the house painted our last renters moved out and we found new ones.

Here are some of the things we, well mostly Suzy, did to prepare the house for the new renters.

• New carpets in living room, hallway, and two of three bedrooms
• New Kitchen counters installed
• All locks changed and damaged sliding door latch replaced
• Electric Panel box door fixed
• Spot painting on front of house
• Extraneous antennas moved off the roof
• Garage door hole fixed
• Weed and feed spread on yard
• Two  6” to 11” metal posts with concrete dug  out of the yard
• House entry closet doors hung
• Front door weather stripping, kick plate, and action fixed
• Wood removed from property
• Dead tree roots dug out and removed from front yard
• Dining room and kitchen floor replaced
• Downstairs fireplace mantle hung
• Garage decorative exterior lights hung

We finished these items in the last week rush to be done in time for the new renters:

• New dishwasher installed
• Kitchen sink hooked back up
• Master bedroom closet doors hung
• Dining room and kitchen floor trim replaced
• 3 Door/drawer panels in kitchen replaced (if they come in time)
• Downstairs fireplace tiling done
• Top part of upstairs fireplace mantle finished with missing trim pieces added
• Floors vacuumed
• Trash and junk cleaned out of garage
• Wall holes filled, wall plates installed
• Guest bathtub re-caulked

Rumor is the new tenants love the house which is so good to hear.

Some killer pumpkins to get you an early start on the festive ghoulish holiday that is Halloween. I especially send this out for my son and his wife who are exceptional pumpkin carvers:

Enjoy.

A ‘not too’ deep read from WebMC.com:

“I was in the ninth grade when I learned a vital lesson about love. My girlfriend at the time, Amy, was stunningly cute, frighteningly smart and armed with a seemingly endless supply of form-fitting angora sweaters. And me? Let's just say I was an adolescent Chris Robinson to her budding Kate Hudson -- and well aware of my good fortune.

Then one day, as we stood in line for a movie at the mall, Simone Shaw, junior high prom queen, sauntered by. Suddenly Amy turned to me. "Were you looking at her?" she asked. "Do you think she's pretty?"

My mind reeled. Of course I was looking at her! Of course she was pretty! My God, she was Simone Shaw! I paused for a second, then decided to play it straight.

"Well, yeah," I chortled.

Five days later our breakup hit the tabloids (a.k.a. the lunchroom).”

Read more…

I luv Secret #11 – Give us an inch and we’ll give you a lifetime. But I think most of these ‘secrets’ cut both ways. Especially in a successful marriage.

For the most part I can’t relate to the problems many couples have. I suspect that is true because I was fortunate (read lucky) enough to pick a very laid-back, hard-working, and rich girl. (I can say girl because I met her when she was 15 years young.) Suzy is so low maintenance that sometimes I take her for granted. But not often. Especially when I meet some of my friends’ wives and ex’s. ;o)

I purchased a new phone a couple of weeks ago and have been using it ever since. Since it runs Microsoft Window Moble apps which my Blackberry didn’t, within a day I’d set it up, loaded my 200+ contacts from Outlook, and sinc’d my calendar with both Outlook (work) and Microsoft Live (home).

PCmag.com sez:

The HTC Imagio is Verizon's best smartphone in a long time. It's Verizon's first device to come with Windows Mobile 6.5 out of the box. It's also the first smartphone to feature genuine broadcast mobile TV. Overall, the Imagio is a powerful touchscreen device for business-minded globetrotters who value multimedia performance, as well as compatibility with Microsoft's Exchange and Office-based ecosystem.

Read the HTC Imagio (Verizon) full review

But here are the basics:

• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
• Operating System: Windows Mobile Professional
• Screen Size: 3.6 inches
• Screen Details: 480-by-800, 262K-color TFT LCD resistive touch screen
• Camera: Yes
• Megapixels: 5 MP
• 802.11x: No
• Bluetooth: Yes
• Web Browser: Yes
• Network: GSM, CDMA
• Bands: 800, 850, 900, 1800, 1900, 2100
• High-Speed Data: 1xRTT, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, EVDO Rev A
• Processor Speed: 528 MHz

I don’t plan on on using the TV capabilities. But that still is very cool.  :o)