Year: 2005

Can I get a shout out for the crazy guys over at the FDA?!?! Them slick mofos finally got their shiznit together and approved Unigene’s first drug in the US (for those of you not following, I work for Unigene). I won’t go into how long of a process this has been or the frustration of this last leg of waiting because… well, because, quite frankly, I’ve got no clue what I can and can’t say – a quick HOLLA to all those nasty NDAs in the hizzouse!

!@(fdabubbley.jpg popimg: “The Levys pop out the bubbley for our celebration”) Much celebration was enjoyed on Friday, with the champagne flowing effortlessly (out of the bottles and down our throats). It’s quite a feeling to have been apart of this, even if I’m just the IT guy an have only been apart of it for 2 years. Hey, at least I can mooch off someone’s accomplishments around here.

Here’s hoping for insane earnings on the stock over the next few days – I’ve got a wedding to (partially) pay for next year! At leat cover the honeymoon, alright?

I’d also like to take this moment to recommend enjoying the (semi)new look of Unigene’s website. It’s a definite improvement over the filler I had up there for the last year or so, and we won’t even get into the previous look. Amazing what happens when you have real designers do the work instead of a very tired sys admin! With the approval, even more will be going on the site in the coming months. Suddenly it’s very good to be where I am.

P.S.(The reason for the goofy title is the actual fax from the FDA uses wording to the effect of “We have chosen not to withhold approval.” Gee, thanks for th overwhelming confidence there.)

Tap… tap… hey, is this thing on? No, I haven’t become one of the billions to abandon their blogs, but life has a habit of getting in the way of my many adoring fans. So, what has been going on?

Lisa and I are still planning the wedding – as if that would have changed. We’ve moved on to debating types of paper to use for “Save the date” cards and other such pleasantries. But the rest of the “big” things lay somewhere in the future. Still, I’m trying to keep in touch with some real life friends and have gotten together with those from both sides of our fences – even if that meant trekking all the way out to Bumble-you-know-what, Long Island on the hottest day in the history of heat for a BBQ. I much prefer the impromptu gatherings at bars in Hoboken instead.

Work has been hectic, and it seems like good things are on the horizon (more about that tomorrow). Unfortunately, I’m still stuck doing lots of late night work to keep the whole shebang up and running. Something about updating computers while people are running 18 hour long experiments makes my co-workers grumpy. Seriously, I didn’t think it would reboot all on its own! At least I’m making real progress on automating many of my tasks – soon I’ll be able to sleep in my office and ignore the cries for help outside the door knowing full well that some script is taking care of it all… hopefully my boss isn’t reading this.

Oh yeah, I also made it out to the Eagles training camp last Tuesday. As usual, I have well over 200 pictures of the excitement that I will never get around to sorting through and posting… I should at least talk about what an ass T.O. is, right? Eh, that can wait. I want to stay positive looking towards the new season, and not just spew vitriolic drivel towards such an idiotic, spoiled, little brat of an ungrateful… wait, I said I wasn’t going to talk about that, right? Let me recompose…

Coming up on the horizon I have some serious changes for this site. And I’m not just blowing smoke up your collective asses this time. I’ve decided upon a name chage, that reflects the more personal level I’ve wanted for this page. I’ll be working on a redesign as soon as I bring the new domain up live, so once that’s all done I’ll move the blog and announce the new name at the same time (no sneaking a peak). I’m also thinking of launching some other sites for certain interests, but they will all be dealt with in good time.

Tomorrow should be a much better day than this one, afterall, it’s highly unlikely that I could back another car into a gate and puncture a tire again. Sorry, honey. Perhaps I’ll be able to deal with the growing numbers of posts whiling away their time in the drafts section… And perhaps I won’t end those posts with ellipses…

For those of you unfamiliar with CBGBs, it is a rock club in New York City. Wait, that does’t quite do it justice. It is the rock club in New York City. Hmm… still not there.

CBGBs is the birthplace of punk. It’s the place that let crazy mofos like the Ramones play 2 minute anthems like there was no tomorrow. It’s the place that has welcomed the genius of Patti Smith for 30 years. It’s the place where bands like Talking Heads, Blondie, Television, and The Damned redefined what music was all about. A place where the likes of Lou Reed, John Cale, and Andy Warhol would hang. CBGBs was the place.

And now they are in trouble. Like so many other fine venues in NYC, they’ve hit hard times and their landlords are trying to screw them. As a result, bands are coming out of the woodwork to SAVE CBGBs. Tonight’s a big benefit show including a lot of my local buddies:

TONIGHT @ CBGB’S…UpstartStudios.com in Association with JerseyBeat.com, BlowupRadio.com, & ArtKore.org Presents — A Benefit Concert To Save CBGB
Doors @ 7pm…$10

7:30-7:50 Ya-Ne-Zniyoo (Acoustic)
8:00-8:20 Kukurudu
8:30-8:50 End Of October
9:00-9:20 Jim Testa of Jersey Beat (Acoustic)
9:30-9:50 Arty Shepherd of Instruction (Acoustic)
10:00-10:20 Pale Horse
10:30-10:50 Heterogene
11:00-11:20 Crewman Number Six
11:30-11:50 High Speed Chase
12:00-12:20 Downshallow
12:30-12:50 Diesel Theory

I plan on being there with Lisa. Anyone who can make it, they could really use the support.

I don’t remember when I first clicked on onepotmeal or even where I found the link. I certainly don’t recall how it ended up nestled amongst other links on this site. There seems to be a real question as to what bizarre circumstance led me there, or whether the feed just found its way to me. But when I read a story like After the flood, there’s no doubt why I continue tolerating its presence in my aggregator. Heck, I might even go so far as saying that I enjoy it…

No, I didn’t win the lottery. But I did manage to buy two tickets to paradise… wait, no… two tickets to see Pearl Jam. The 5 against 1 crowd is doing a one off show in Philly this October (full scale tour won’t be until next year after their 8th studio album is released) and decided to do a limited pre-sale for fan club members yesterday morning – afternoon for us East Coasters. For the first time ever, I would actually get to use my fan club membership in an attempt to get awesome tickets (I forgot to even try for their shows in Atlantic City this September). Unfortunately, it almost was never to be.

A few minutes before the sale started, I was already struggling with the login system. The website kept disappearing, and it looked like I wouldn’t even get a chance before they sold out. But everybody was having the same problems, and very few were getting through at all. The timeouts were coming fast and furious, so two more windows were popped open for firewall and proxy reconfigurations. Sure, I was at work and this might cause problems for the other users, but that’s why us sys admins are gods! Even still, I screwed up the numbers multiple times and couldn’t find a way around the cache fast enough. Time was ticking off the clock faster than my mind could deal with – I was certain the show would be sold out by quarter after the hour.

But the system just couldn’t handle it. Half an hour into the spectacle I had managed to not only log in, but put a pair of tickets into my cart. Now I was battling the timeouts from the secure server as it continually ignored my shipping address confirmation. I PRESSED THE DAMN BUTTON, SO DO SOMETHING. Alas, I would either get blank stares from some inaccessible error message or a nonstop swirling icon in the upper right teasing me as if something was actually working.

And then there was the occasional back button panic – you mean I have to start all over?!?!

Nevertheless, patience paid off. I stared down at the beast, and the beast blinked. When it asked for my credit card numbers, I gave them willingly. And then I just said, “You do your thing. I’ll be over in this other tab, so you just take your pretty little time processing that order of mine.” And after 40 minutes, the website conceded defeat. There was mild concern as my confirmation e-mail took longer than expected, but the server had already acquiesced – there would be no victory in denying me now.

The whining and gnashing of teeth followed from all corners. Perhaps I would have felt the other fans’ outrage more had I not procured a pair, but that didn’t change the fact of the matter. I could confidentally call anyone complaining a spoiled brat, because I still managed to get mine! Whose fault is it if you didn’t get yours?

Seriously, though, Pearl Jam is the best live show I’ve ever been to. This will be my 8th time seeing them, and definitely not my last. Tickets for the October 3rd show will go on sale at Ticketmaster Saturday, August 6th at 10am EDT. Trust me, they’re worth the hassle.

With little to no fanfare, Star Wars, Episode III – Revenge of the Sith has passed Return of the King as the number 7 grossing film of all time. The $180,209 it made on Sunday was more than enough to push it past the final installment of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Although its current total of $377,080,716 leaves little chance for it to move any higher on the list (#6 is Spider-Man with over $400 million) unless Lucas reconsiders an IMAX release. Nevertheless, that puts 3 Star Wars films in the top 7 with all 6 being found in the top 25 – not too shabby.

Don’t ask me why I’m posting this at 2 am…

Wow, what a night. Last night was Duran Duran at the PNC Bank Arts Center, and what a performance. It was actually my second time seeing them, as Lisa and I had caught their first big reunion show in NYC about 2 years ago. For Lisa, it was her fourth time (although only the second time with the original lineup). It’s tough to say which show was better, as this one was far more bombastic and the last one was a rather intimate setting. I guess I’ll just have to settle for saying I’ve seen two great shows by them!

We headed over to Jeff and Sara’s house in the afternoon and grabbed some sandwiches for the road. Fortunately we actually played it smart, and headed over early enough to avoid traffic and parking difficulties. That left us plenty of time to eat and people watch – and let’s face it, 80s revival concerts are the best times to people watch. Oh the fashion atrocities and shirtless wonders that we beheld! Never again shall I gaze upon plastic skirts in such horror and amazement! Nicole and her parents arrived for some tailgating (that’s right, her parents were tailgating for a Duran Duran concert – pretty damn cool).

As for the show, the opening act was fairly forgettable, but that’s the best we could hope for. At 9 the main act took the stage. Simon LeBon was far more energetic this time around, and did high kicks, spins, and lept over equipment. Not bad for a middle aged guy! More importantly, however, his voice is still in prime condition. I’m amazed at how well he sings after all these years. The song selection was fantastic, and covered most of their hits as well as some of their newer material. We were ecstatic to hear “Reflex” as they had omitted that track at the last show, so it was definitely my top priority song. Aside from that I most wanted to hear “Ordinary World” and figured enough other hits would be played to satisfy me.

“A View to a Kill,” “Wild Boys,” “Notorious,” and “Hungry Like the Wolf” were all amazing and lively performances. They also did some great numbers from their latest “Astronaut,” which means that I need to listen to that album some more. The encore included a 15 minute version of “Girls on Film” featuring the band introductions (Simon pulled a woman on stage to introduce himself) and an out-of-nowhere segment of “Groove is in the Heart” and concluded with a rousing rendition of “Rio.” They had done more of their 80s hits when we saw them in NYC, since that was before this latest release, so this show definitely left off some great ones (notably “Is There Something I Should Know?”). But that just means we’ll be sure to get tickets again next time their in town.

The whole concert left us with this semi-drunk, overwhelmed feeling. The night was late enough that I find myself still sitting in bed in my underwear at 1:30 in the afternoon. Time to start the rest of our weekend!

Last week Lisa and I officially booked a place for our wedding. It’ll be July 29, 2006 at the English Manor. That’s right, at this time next year I will be Mr. Thomas Bernstein… wait, no, I mean Mr. Thomas Slattery… but, that’s already my… oh I give up. At this time next year I’ll be hitched.

I held off on the Internet announcement to make sure my family heard first. It’s no big deal for them to get regular ol’ updates thru this site, but it’s a little embarassing if they have to find out WEDDING details online. Especially from this site… which reminds me, I guess I have to do the tradional geek thing now and register a domain name for us (that way you know it’s forever – in one year increments).

The only other decision we’ve made is on the band – but Slippery was an obvious decision, unless you can name another band that can do Apache!

For those of you who still bother to go into NYC, Flex Your Rights has a nice right up on what to do if you don’t want police officers to grope you in the subway. The basic premise: you have every right to refuse to search and leave the subway, but don’t be an ass about it. Good stuff to know.

(thanks to Boing Boing)

Sheppard Software has some cool flash games to help kids learn geography. They even do multiple levels of difficulty to test your ability with capitols, shape recognition, and placement. Level 5 for the US kept me busy this morning:

Trial Score %Correct Avg. Error Time
1 42/50 84% 28 miles 409 sec.
2 46/50 92% 15 miles 311 sec.
3 46/50 92% 8 miles 286 sec.
4 48/50 96% 3 miles 298 sec.

On this level the states disappear if you get them correct, but stay if you were wrong. Unfortunately that means that the difficulty can really depend on the order you get the states. In other words, there’s no way I can place Colorado on a completely blank map, but by getting it wrong early, I can use the image to place a lot of the other states around it. I won’t even get into how poorly I did on the European map even on the easy level (hey, do you know where Andorra and Monaco are?). Apparantly the really high levels make you rotate and resize the states/countries, too – that ought to cause some serious mental anguish.

(thanks to MeFi)