The fall garden has been touch and go it seems. Dallas has had a ton of rain, so too much water has been actually a problem. I think its a combination of that and some kinda bug (and aphids) that have killed off just about everything that resembles a winter squash.   Cucumbers and summer squash just seem to be battling the aphids.  I now see why they say you should plant squash on hills now.  Cucurbits hate wet feet

I have one lone cantaloupe. Creatures seem to take them in the night. The basil is going crazy and the green beans are rocking.

I planted several purple beans this time. These are pretty fun to cook because they turn from purple to green when cooked. Its explained here.

Purple bush beans in a pot.

Sliced and ready to cook (with a regular one too)

In under a minute, they turn all green. I usually just cook them enough to be crunchy and then finish them in a pan with a bit of olive oil and black pepper.

Little lettuce….heartbreaking to have to thin them out.

8 ball squash - its ready to eat.

Cantaloupe with bite marks.  Hope this does not get taken by the creatures.  Kinda strange looking fruit huh?

bns

we had our CD release party last weekend and it was blast. Thanks to everybody that came out and thanks to the King Bucks for playing with us at the Sons of Hermann Hall. After hitting the stage, we just found the zone and played until we were told to  stop. None of us realized until the next day that we played a two hour+ set.

The CD is doing pretty well and some of the reviews are coming in.  I never really know what to make of them all the time…but here are a few:

(Special thats to Casey who seems to have gotten zero photo credit!!)

Dallas Quick - ok not a review..more of an interview…but sweet

Subservient Experiment

Dallas Observer link to mp3!

Left of the Dial - cool

Ghost of Blind lemon - HA…..funny thing is that snakebite always does NOT jokes too! Thanks.

Quick Blurb on Quick - another mp3!

I have the fall garden pretty much all planted.  Its still too hot for lettuce and radishes so those go in next month.  Texas has two growing seasons. The summer is so hot that the window to get a good crop smaller than you think. Your fighting between the heat and the impending frost.

This is my first real fall garden.  Usually I have a good start in the spring with a  focus on tomatoes, peppers and basil.   Come around mid July, its just too hot for anything to grow.  I generally leave it alone and if Im lucky, anything that survived yields a little bit in the fall. Mostly its weeds and bermuda though.

JD had a good run last year using the square foot method. Unfortunately, the only real good piece of yard that gets full sun is unsuitable to put even a raised bed on.  Ive tried containers (15 gal totes) but they crack after one season in Texas.

I figured that planters were the way to go. I figured the best way to do this was to just
build one and see how it turned out.  From there, I could adapt the plans to boxes that
I found more suitable. The first one I built was this.

Seemed simple enough.  Just 2×4s and some 2×2.   After getting started I realized it was going to be heavy. Each square is 16.5 inches and its 6 layers deep.  Thats 33 feet of 2×4. Its easily 40 to 50 lbs without the dirt!

But it does look nice.

Next I built a much bigger 3×3 foot planter. I still used 2×4s but only for the framing.
The siding is old fence wood and the bottom was some scrap I found.

I built one more for good measure.  The one in the back is the nice one (heavy).  The one in the front was put together a bit more…um…hastily. They should last several years. I did cut a few corners on the growing medium as far as square foot gardening is concerned. I have TONS of compost. That was free. Instead of spending $12 for 2CU of potting soil, I cut it down with cedar and pine mulch.  it might be too acid..we will see. The beauty of mulch is that its $3 for 2cu.   Il see if that was a good idea.  The vermiculite seemed like a waste.

So the fall crops will be between the new containers…some old pots and the usual beds.

Fall will be

• Green Beans (Contender and pole)
• Tomatoes (natch)
• Beets!  Gonna try it.
• Chard
• Lettuce
• Squash(Patty Pan, Hubbard, Cream of the Crop)
• Cantaloupe (watch out for cantalopracabras!)
• Cucumbers.

This is my first year for  squash and cukes.  I did plant one in the spring but it never grew until July.  Kinda a runt! After I ripped out the radishes and weeds, the poor guy took off!! It actually has a small fruit growing now. I had to perform a little veggie husbandry with a q-tip to get it started.

I hope its a little more productive this time around.

Here are some pics from the Spring.

They look better than they were. Avoid the white ones….too bitter.

Sunflowers were a bit crazy

Kinda surprised the city didn’t call me up on this growth.

The fun suprise was a potato that I just put in a pot. It had sprouted in the kitchen and it
was obvious that it wanted to grow up more than I wanted to eat it.  I just put it in a pot
and in july I had a bunch of baby potatoes Yum.

Best pic of the spring

So its come to my attention that I have not updated things on this site in like…forever.

Good news is that I have a job. I recently was hired with a company called Interlegis.  We do eDiscovery. I was hired on to work on the next generation User Interface.  Its been extremely interesting for me. I really do like GUI work, and the challenges that they have put me against have been keeping  my brain running at 110% since I started. Speed is always a factor in any application, but its even more in this case since it is used by lawyers….who do not come cheap!  These are the things I’ve been working on.

This is my first time working downtown too. That has been interesting.  Im not a big fan of the commute, but at least half of the folks in the company seem to live within a few miles of me (in Plano). We are all in the same boat.  The Dart drops me off right in front of the building.

Its been fun exploring downtown during lunch too.  Im in th West End, so its easy to walk to
the tunnels under the bank building or pop in to House of Blues to say hi to Snakebite.

Finally, it is nice to be part of a team.  During my years at Nortel, I rarely felt like I  was on a “mission critical” team.  My last project at Nortel had a good team feeling. My manager felt it
was important and he was right…still, when Nortel was going wheels off, there was a sense that there was nothing I could about it.

With this new job, the whole company is in one office, and I feel not only that I can make a difference, but that things are hinging as much on my performance as the rest of the team. Sounds cool to me. I can deliver.

So that’s that. If anybody reading this is in the downtown area, let me know. I hope to chronicle my observations on downtown a bit.  So far, its been mostly wandering around the tunnels.  There are plenty of unique food experiences to be had (Treebirds was a neat find).

More to come.

As I was driving back from New Orleans, I located NPR and figured I would see what was up in the world. LSU has several stations throughout Louisiana so as soon as one fades out, you just find the next.

It was all gloom and doom about the economy and such, but I found one segment to be REALLY interesting.

They were interviewing Tina Brown on her article about the “Gig Economy“. You can listen to it here.

Basically, with the internet making things easy to find consultants/freelancers and the cost of healthcare being so high, many firms are seeking out part time workers. She says that more and more often, when you ask somebody what they do for a living, it becomes a 10 minute explanation as opposed to just something simple like “Im a banker”. Apparently 1/3 of the US workforce is like this. She sees the workforce as a collection of hustlers drumming up work and struggling to “make the nut“.

It was a bit serendipitous to come across this piece as the whole point of my trip was to clear my head and maybe formalize some strategies on how to make some money. Im beginning to realize that my chances of landing a regular 9-5 job within 20-30 minutes of my house with benefits is getting pretty slim in the short term.

My newer options include a 45-60 minute commute (ack), taking really low bids for contract jobs (Ive seen some ridiculous ads for jobs that even head hunters discouraged me from pursuing) or looking into the telecommuting market.

To be a successful free agent, you need a good list of contacts. I’ve started going back to Geekmeet and joined up with the Dallas Java Users group. Already, that has opened the list of possibilities. The thought of not being a wage slave to 9-5 is actually kinda appealing, but Im still at the edge of a generation that feels that folks need a full time job. The Christian Work Ethic. Ill admit that the biggest thing getting me down is not the lack of a paycheck, but the lack of a job.  I really did take a lot of pride in having a job with Nortel. I liked the collegiality of the workplace and it did play into a large part of my identity.

Additionally, in the interview, they mentioned that more people are finding that they are falling back onto other hobbies and skills for work. I do make a little coin from time to time with the Boys Named Sue. Actually, I spend more time doing taxes for the music than my actual work income. This year was kinda weak though. I had considered giving violin lessons.

I do like circuit bending and have considered making things to sell on eBay.

After the segment, I still had 300 miles left to get home and came up with the following strategies.

1. Although the Certifications for Java have helped, there is no point in me getting another one for EJB or web services. To be honest, this is the point where I think the real work tends to branch out with its own solutions (Spring, Hibernate, struts). Im going to spend my ‘learning time’ making a fully blown, feature rich website. A workout one because I need some help in the gym too. When its ready, I’ll let friends use it. I only ask that it get beta tested if you use it.

2. I need a secondary resume. One with all my oddball skills on it. Circuit bending, silkscreening, guerilla marketing….gardening?

3. Im going to have to stop relying on Job boards for jobs. Headhunters can find me.

4. If I grow out my goatee, maybe I can be a Starbucks barista.

I had a blast in New Orleans, even if it was a short trip. Thats ok because Ill be back before the weather gets too hot. I missed out on the Garden District, as well as the arts district and probably several other things that I will research.

Over the course of my 40 hours in the town, I had 4 different gumbos. The best by far was at a place called the Magazine Po Boy shop.

Magazine is a fun street to drive down from the French quarter to the end of Garden District. It felt like Austin. I was having fun just going into the markets and seeing what people buy. This place just yelled out from blocks away…”eat here”.

I guess what that is on the left is a muffaletta po-boy?? The Gumbo was perfect.

After eating, I got a large Chickory Coffee and headed home so I could get my tooth looked at. Good news is thats its ok. Dunno why it was bugging, but its better now and the dentist felt that there was nothing needed to be done immediately except keep an eye (tooth) on it.