salience

It's been a great couple of months for the musicians I follow.

Radiohead released In Rainbows, a compilation of songs they've been performing live for years. MJK (Maynard James Keenan) released his first album with Puscifer, and surprise surprise, it sounds nothing like Tool or APC (A Perfect Circle). Nothing artsy or calculated. MJK has said he thinks cathartic metal is on its way out, and wanted to create more of a laid back listen and groove kind of album. Marc Anthony released his Hector Lavoe remakes, and Alicia Keys releases her next album tomorrow. Oh music, how I adore you.

In other news, I have been working a good amount, to say the least. There is a saying in finance that you hardest period is between Labor Day and Christmas. With all of our product launches, I can second and third that statement. It's an exciting time sure, but oh so draining. My CFA I retake is coming up in a couple of weeks and Lord knows if I am even close to being ready. To make matters worse, it is not looking like I'm going to be able to take time off beforehand to focus and take practice tests. So, it's time to amend the schedule a little bit so I can make it a priority.

To catch everyone up to speed: Anthony's funeral was... Nice. I had a very hard time keeping it together when the Long Island church doors first opened to Paul, Matt and A1 carrying the casket. For some reason, in my mind, in the days leading up to the service, I did not once think about there even being a casket. But our friend was dead, it just makes sense, right? BCMB folks reunited to take up an entire side of the church. Dave, the BCMB director, even came down for the service. It was great to see everyone again, just tough that it had to be under those circumstances. I still get teary every now and again thinking about it, but siempre adelante. I am heading back to Boston the Friday after Thanksgiving for the Class of 08 phase out, so hopefully I will be able to see some 05 bandnicks then.

I've also been visited/gone down to see Ryan a couple of times. It's crazy how time can drag and yet fly by so quickly simultaneously. He will be up here at the end of this week again to spend some time with Sphinaco and I. Many fun things are planned, including but not limited to: Christmas tree shopping and cooking a mini Thanksgiving dinner. :)

My blackberry has crapped out, so if anyone has called/texted I will hopefully get your messages soon, my replacement device is supposedly already on its way to me. This is the second time my USB port has decided to give up and detach itself from the rest of the device, a "known issue" according to T-Mobile. Sigh.

I may be making a trip to Brasil/Argentina/Peru in January with some folks from work. We are working on getting a package deal set up around the time of the MLK holiday. I really want to travel next year (outside the continental United States folks, not my normal state-hopping), so hopefully everything will fall into place. Shell and I are still maybe talking about going to Spain in March/April, but that may morph into a Las Vegas trip with Flora and Kelly for a semi mod 18A reunion. Vamos a ver.

What else? I was able to make it out to Houston/San Antonio/Lubbock/Dallas to see the cuatas at Texas Tech. And to get royally sunburned on the right side of my face in the process. It's kind of sad that I spend so much time on the 25th floor of a skyscraper only to become part vampire: the sun and I are not friends. It was great to see the girls though. After all, I hadn't seen them since they graduated from Alpharetta in May. Same goes for my dad and my aunt and uncle.

I think that's about it, going to be uploading some pictures in a bit as well, so just hang tight...