Sad weekend

It was a sad weekend for me and my family. My paternal grandmother (Grandma Baschnagel) passed away on Friday after struggling with illness for a few months. I will miss her very much. I was particularly close to her because I lived with her for 9 years while I went to college and graduate school at the University at Buffalo. She was 80 years old. Though I'm sad that she is gone I know she lived a good life.

Rest in Peace Grandma!

Moving...right along...eventually

Well Jocelyn and I made it to NY. It was quite an effort but we did it. Here's the story. First, we had a moving company (Ultimate Van Lines) hired to move our many boxes. Jocelyn hired them in June and they seemed to be very responsive and helpful at first. We had a nice 3 day road trip planned with some site seeing. Then as we got closer to the move date Jae had a hard time getting ahold of the rep on the phone. Then come the move day (Monday, August 4th) we tried to call and get a time for when the truck would show up. We couldn't get a hold of anyone for half the day and we left messages. Then we finally got hold of customer service and they tell us we are in the system but they don't know where the truck is. About 4pm, we call again, and the customer service rep says they just found out an hour ago that the truck broke down on its way. We ask how long until they can get a truck to us, they say they don't know but maybe 2-3 days, we say that's not going to fly. They tell us they will attempt to find another company to pick up the job. The next day we call, again many times before we actually reach someone, they can't find another truck so we tell them to cancel our pick up. Not a very good company. We understand that trucks break down but we don't appreciate bad customer service or a second rate business. We then go to Budget, rent a 24' truck and pack it (Tuesday, 8/5). Wednesday we finish packing in the morning, pick up the car trailer, and head to NY. Jae was excited to cross the MS state line. We stopped in LaGrange, KY for the night then finished up the next day at Jae's parents house in Lockport,NY about 7pm Thursday 8/7. Then on Friday, 8/8 (jae's birthday, happy 30th Jae!) we drive to the appartment (see pic above) in Rochester to unload the truck. Jae's dad helped us out and after about 6 hours of tedious unloading (unfortunately our apt is on the 2nd floor) we are done. We are ready to return the truck but notice when we go to hitch the car trailer back up to the truck that the trailer's jack is broke (it bent and would not lower the trailer onto the hitch, see pick above). So we spend another hour waiting for a repair truck. Finally we get it fixed (well enough to hitch it back up) and return it to the Budget dealer. Yeah, finally its off our hands!!! Needless to say, it was a pain in the ass to move. Diesel sucks as there are not as many diesel stations and the smaller ones are not 'big truck with a trailer' friendly. We had to do some very creative manuvering to fuel up at one station, after we wasted 30 minutes finding the place. As Jae can attest to I swore alot and don't get me started about the stupid drivers in small cars that match your speed when entering the highway instead of either speeding up or slowing down. One nice thing though is that we had bought a TomTom Go 930 GPS unit which made it so much easier to navigate. Now we're hanging out in Lockport for a little while visiting family before we go back this week to unpack all those freaking boxes and get ready for our new jobs!

Wedding anniversary and surgery

Yesterday was Jae's and my 3rd wedding anniversary. We celebrated like most couples by having a surgery. :) Well maybe not like most couples. We actually went out for a nice dinner the night before because I had surgery on the 23rd. My surgery was to reduce my turbinates, tissue that covers some bones in your nose that fill with blood to warm and moisturize the air you breathe in. In my case mine were a bit too big and would swell too much causing me to not be able to breathe very well through my nose, which lead me to not be able to sleep very well. The surgery went well and now I have a bloody nose for a few days. Nothing like surgery on your third anniversery.

quick updates

Quick updates:
-My brother Andrew just got engaged in the past week with his girlfriend Kathryn.
The wedding's likely to be in may or june after he graduates from med school.
-less than a month before Jae and I move to Rochester.
-band recording is wrapping up, now I have to really focus on mixing and mastering, once the album is done it'll be posted online. Another album from a band I'm in that is released after the band has disbanded!!! ha. Oh, yeah the band played our last show on June 30th, 2008.

ok that's all for right now.

Music Update

A few new albums have come out or are about to that I recommend.
1.)Weezer-The red album just came out and I'm really liking it. Its closer to their original sound. The video for the song 'pork and beans' is pretty cool. You can check it out on youtube.
2.)Mar Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath was recently released and its really good. If you are into modern progressive rock I think you'll like it.
3.) One of my favorite bands, Dameria will release their latest album on the 24th of this month. I've heard the tracks and they're pretty good as well, though in my opinion not quite as good as the bands previous releases.

My own band is still working on recordings. Some of the songs are close to finished but I've been a bit busy and its taking me longer to mix and master the songs we have finished recording. I will finish them though and post them online somewhere once they're completed.

Cheers!

Quick Post- NIN

Hey, if you like Nine Inch Nails, they are giving away a new CD for free. Go to their website, NIN.com and follow the instructions. I downloaded it yesterday and gave it a listen and I like it so far.

Listening to books...

Ok. Its been a few weeks since I last posted and I want to try to keep this blog updated on a semi-regular basis. So this short post is an update to what I've been doing lately. I've continued to study for my licensing exam and feel I'm much closer to being ready to take it. I'll be glad to get that over with. Jae and I continue to prep our house for the market, and I continue to play soccer on Sundays and play music with my band. One relatively new thing is that I've discovered that the local library has audiobooks for download. I've downloaded a few books and have been listening to them. I never thought I would like listening to books, prefering to read them, but I've found that I quite enjoy listening to the narration. This is partly due to the voice acting which makes it almost like a movie but inside your head. It makes me think of the time before T.V. when people would gather around the radio to hear a story program. I've listened to the first two books of the Prydain Chronicles, which includes the Black Cauldron. Unfortunately the library doesn't have a subscription to the last three books in the series which is a disappointment (audiobooks are expensive $20 compared to a $6 book). So if anyone has access to these audiobooks through their library please let me know. The other books I've been listening to are "His Dark Materials" by Phillip Pullman. There was recently a movie based upon the first book, 'the golden compass'. Needless to say the books are much better than the movie (same goes for the black cauldron). Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately. Well I have to get to work. Later.

A sad day... in my world of music

Its a sad day for me (well sad night) as I just learned that one of my favorite bands, Rescue, disbanded and the drummer from my other favorite band, Moneen, quit the band. The disbanding of Rescue actually happened over a year ago (and the fact that I've just learn about it now is sad in itself). The drummer from Moneen, Peter Krpan, is one of the best drummers out there and he was a major reason why I liked Moneen so much. Hopefully Moneen's new drummer can fill in role Peter played (no pun intended).

sigh...

New Job

Hi all. After going on a couple more interviews I've decided to accept the job at the Rochester Institute of Technology. I will be joining their psychology faculty. I'm looking forward to starting this new part of my career in August. I'm particularly happy to be done with interviewing. I enjoyed visiting all the places I interviewed at but I have a dislike of travelling so often in a short period of time (mainly the fact that flying is very uncomfortable). Now I can focus more on studying for the psychology licensing exam which I plan to take soon and finishing some papers that need to be submitted for publication. Oh, and getting the house ready to sell. The fun never stops.

Portland, OR

I recently was at a conference in Portland, Oregon and had a chance to take a handful of pictures (not as many as I would have liked). You can see the pics at flickr.com here. Portland is a great city. I was able to met my friend from high school and college, Jen Conjerti. We hadn't talked or seen each other in over 10 years so it was great to met and catch-up. The conference was for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. I presented a poster which was well received. After I got back home from Portland I had a couple of days home then I traveled to Cleveland, OH for an interview at CSU. I've been travelling quite a bit lately. I have a job offer from RIT which is good news. Other than that I'm pretty busy with writing multiple manuscripts and studying for my licensure exam. Well enough for now.
-Joe

Been awhile...

Well its been awhile since I've posted to the blog. What have I been doing? Well as many of you know I am a clinical psychologist and I am completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. I've been busy lately interviewing for faculty jobs in the north east. So far I've interviewed at 3 places and have a few more interviews lined up. Unfortunately the traveling takes away the little free time I have to do things like post here. It'll be worth it though when I have a new job.
So what else is new, well my Jocelyn and I bought a webcam and are now in the process of convincing our extended family (and friends) to get one as well so we can video chat. Other than that nothing new is going on.
Later.

Short political rant

OK. Every American should be pissed off about this regardless of which candidate they support.  In America, a country that supposedly is the greatest democracy in the world, we the people no longer get to choose who the candidates are.  The coporations get to choose for us.  What makes me say this, it is the restricted debates that are held by the major media outlets.  The most blatant example happened this past week. NBC a media coporation owned by GE set up rules for being eligible to participate in the democratic primary debate, invited the 4 top candidates, then they rescinded their invitation to the 4th candidate (Dennis Kucinich) only allowing the top 3 candidates participate.  Kucinich took them to court, won the first case, NBC took it to the Nevada supreme court and this court rescinded the first ruling, stating that it was the TV network's 1st ammendment right to exclude Kucinich.  What about fact that they coporation is suppose to use the public airways to promote the public interest? What about Kucinich's right to free speech? Why is this a problem, its a problem because it means the coporations are choosing for us who is the top candidates.  They are the ones who control access to the masses, they are the ones who run the polls.  How is a candidate suppose to get high ratings in the poles if the public can't here his or her message, and how can this candidate get his or her message if they can't participate in the televised debates.  In this particular example, Kucinich is the one candidate out of the 4 that were originally invited that was truly different.  Obama, Clinton and Edwards all have very similar stances on the issues.  They each refrain from giving straight answers to any tough questions and since they're all the same they don't want to push each other to be more specific.  These 3 have all taken money from coporations and special interests and so they get the attention from the media and in turn are afraid to go on record (and likely will instill any real change if elected president) because they owe these special interests.  Kucinich is not afraid to be specific about his stances on the tough issues because he doesn't have to answer to any coporation or special interest, only to the American people.  Now republicans should be just as upset by this as democrats, because the one republican candidate that isn't afraid to stand up to coporations and special interests, Ron Paul, gets shafted in the same way.  So is this a country For the people, By the people, or is it For the coporations By the coporations.  
Here are a couple of links discussing this matter:
Click HERE
and HERE


Here's a link to here Kucinich respond to some of the questions from the debate that he was excluded from: Click HERE
 

And here's an interesting website were you can rank where you stand on the issues and see which presidential candidate best lines up with your views: Click HERE.
 

OK. Enough of the rant.

ALT show this Saturday

My band, Astronaut Love Triangle, has a real gig this Saturday.  We open for a blues rock band at Martin's in Jackson, MS.  For anyone who reads this and are local come see us (10pm).  I'm going to try and get video's posted of it afterward.