The Jack Noodle Journal

I declare a bah humbug to Halloween this year! Who cares. Didn’t everybody already celebrate Halloween last weekend?
There are definitely those of you out there that really enjoy that dress up stuff huh?
I don’t get it. I guess it’s fun.

I have to revel in my poo pooing of holidays this year. This will be last holiday season that I will be able to be a grump for many years to come. Once baby gets here it will all be cute Halloween costumes, pumpkin carvings, Thanksgiving bibs, oh and don’t even start on the childhood Christmas.

How’s the week been?
It’s been pretty chill so far around these parts. I keep feeling an attempt of a cold trying to catch me. I’m feeling awfully stuffy right now.

I was thinking about it yesterday and I’ve actually got a pretty good gig at work. I know I have been bitching about it quite a bit lately but I think if the office plays ball like I would like then it could be pretty helpful once construction (we’ll see) and baby gets here. If the powers that be can muster up the coolness, I have the kind of job that could have flexible hours and be telecommutable. I don’t have any clients to meet with. My physical presence isn’t required in the office for me to get my work done. I probably wouldn’t be able to find a new place to work in the next 6 months that could match the leeway potential.

I have to work hard, play the game, keep my head down and lip zipped.

One of the things giving a couple of my coworkers a hint that there was a baby coming before we announced it was that I started to talk about remodeling the Noodle compound. Thinking back now it was a pretty big tell. I had never spoke word one about remodeling or home improvement up until that point.

I think it’s a bit of the nesting instinct kicking in. I have been contemplating schemes on making this place an appropriate nest for baby. We’ve been trying to figure out where baby’s room will be and where the stuff that will be displaced by baby’s room will go. I’m feeling a tad nutty about it but I feel like we need more space for our expanding family. We need a bigger house!

We went and had dinner with aunt Gina and uncle Mark last weekend and had a good discussion about our home ideas. They have done a number of remodeling projects over the years so we were interested in getting their ideas and suggestions. They brought up quite few points that we hadn’t considered.

In laying out the options the one corner of the spectrum that requires some consideration is we should sell this house and buy a bigger one. With the good years of the Portland real-estate market (yes, on a downturn currently like everywhere else) our property has increased in value quite a bit. We could probably sell (although not a seller’s market) and move comfortably into a larger place.

One of the problems with the sell and move option is that we probably wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a larger place in this neighborhood. We would have to move further out of town to a bigger house. We really like our location.

K loves the house and doesn’t want to sell it. I think it’s great as well but wouldn’t mind selling it.

This brings us to an option that aunt and uncle suggested. Refinance the house, buy another house with help from the refinance funds and rent the first house out. Yeah, I don’t know about that one. We almost instantly agreed that we didn’t want the extra work of having a rental house. Sounds like a hassle wrapped in a burden.

Now we get to the remodel option. What we are leaning towards now is popping the top of the house and adding another floor in the attic space. There’s some space up there. There is a small ceiling access hole now in the closet that so far only I have been up through.

We have been thinking that a master bedroom, another bedroom and bathroom would be cool up there. K would like a deck off of the back for early morning coffee in the sunshine sitting.

To make the proper space available we would need two new dormers on opposite sides of the house. There would probably need to be some roof restructuring and supporting. Before any of this though we would need to figure out if the house could even support a new floor.

We also have to figure out how the stairs between the two floors would work. My idea for the stairs was that they would go up through the closet space off of our bedroom and our current bedroom would be then converted into a half study, library like room.

Aunt and uncle had an even better idea for the stair construction that we hadn’t even thought of. The suggestion they gave us was to build the stairs onto the back of the house up through where our laundry room add-on is now. That’s great! You could go up and do your building without cutting through the existing living area, reducing your life living interruptions.

There are some thoughts about needing to take the furnace chimney out and getting an out of the side of the basement venting gas furnace.

While we’re at it K and I are thinking we might as well get new windows installed, put new wood floors in, install a new front door and get a new paint job.

Of course if one really goes to town like this, it turns into a major project. This is something we are going to have to hire some real people, contractors and such to do the work for us. I wouldn’t even begin to attempt any of the building myself.

I think first off I am going to have to bring an architect in to figure this all out and bring us back down to Earth. If only I knew one I could hire. Maybe one that had recently moved to New York who wouldn’t mind working on the project remotely over the internets. Hmmm…

That’s pretty much all of the nesting ideas to date. Perhaps we will come up with more ideas.

The plan so far for the funding of this endeavor was going to be from a home improvement refinance. This is also banking on the hope that there won’t be any Noodle layoffs in the near future. Aunt and uncle’s guess on the cost and time required for our remodel was less than K and I had been imagining. Of course K and I have no concept of time or costs for anything. Whatever the figure turns out to be we can bet it will increase over the course of the building.

Well yes of course there is the one option that I haven’t mentioned yet and that is the option of holding off on the remodeling and just making due with what we already have when baby arrives. Millions of other families on globe have raised the kids in far smaller dwellings than our house.

Once again, a deep breath and a bit of relaxing brings me back from the brink of freak out with the baby stuff.

The weekend can’t get here soon enough my friends!
It has truly been a stinker of a work week hasn’t it?

An “oh yeah” (actually it was probably a “Oh my gosh. Duh! How could I be so stupid!”) was brought to my attention this week which leads me in the direction of stating that “no comment” is my public response to matters concerning the office this week.

A coworker turned me on to an excellent podcast that I have been enjoying. Check out WNYC’s show Radio Lab. The audio special effects alone are worth the price of admission.

I found some old links the other day while playing around with some search engines. Check this puppy out. Also, remember the Presidents Show? Those links are like a hundred years old. I like the voice of the written descriptions. I’ll have to try to tap into that again when updating portfolios and resumes.

So yes, hooray for the weekend!

Do you guys and gals have anything planned?

I’m going to try to not work any overtime this weekend, but I’ll have to wait and see about that.

The Shelton twins are coming down to spend a night or two. That will be fun.

I have not been studying my Spanish like I should be!
Class number 4 is tonight. I think it’s the 4th class. Almost half finished with the course.
I was going to study yesterday but didn’t get around to it.

It has been going alright though even without the studying.
Well, I don’t know. I’m not picking too much up. Maybe I am?

It seems a bit easier than my German language learning last year.
I kind of wish that the Spanish class was a bit more structured like the German class.
It’s a little floaty.

I’ll listen to my learn Spanish CDs and podcasts today to prepare a tiny bit before class.
The best way to learn to speak Spanish I am beginning to realize, will be to pick up my whole family and move down to Mexico.

Alright.
I need to buckle down now people.
There’s a strange climate in the office today.

Hey there. It’s Sunday. I’m at the office.
Working some more overtime. Woo hoo.
Actually it kind of stinks. I don’t want to be here working this morning.
I should have told them I was going to work my overtime at home.

I’m brewing some coffee.
Maybe that will help me cheer up. Hold on one second. I think it’s finished.
I have a bit of a headache. I think my caffeine levels are dangerously low.
mmm that’s some good coffee.

Come on Noodle, wake up.

Yeah, should really be doing this work from home.
I’m not coming in tomorrow.

I was reading in a pregnancy book for daddies yesterday and feel a bit better about myself. It seems what I have been suffering from these last few days has been pregnancy symptoms! The books are saying that it’s normal at these weeks in the pregnancy for the father to be worried about money, and if the place he is working at is going to have a job for him once the baby is born. It’s also normal to think that your house is way too small and in need of a major remodel to make it fit for a baby. I believe that my fantasies about bank robbing are also pregnancy related.

The pregnancy symptom of job security worry is really starting to concern, bother, annoy, and frustrate me. I’m not just contemplating my current employment situation, but also the history of my employment in general. I need to find something that is more layoff resistant. Production artists are easy to let go it seems. Nobody really respects the production people. I need to get into a better position some how. I don’t have any hand. I need more hand.

I need a scheme.

I haven’t really gotten into adding photos to the journal yet have I?
Here is a photo of my two most favorite people in the World.
One who I haven’t met yet.

I don’t know. A photo in a post?
It’s so weird. Journal entries are supposed to be for text.

I’m definitely going to have to figure out the sizing and styling.
(OOp there. Figured it out)

Good morning.
I swear I almost fell asleep twice while driving here this morning!
Hold on. Coffee is a must. Be right back. Or as the kids say: BRB.

A tad stormy out there.

I saw the other day that metacritic has it’s Radiohead “In Rainbows” reviews up. I think the score is a bit high. I scanned over them briefly but stopped so I could come back here and write my own review of the album before the academics and critics could confuse me, spin me around, inform me and give me a different view than I already have with my gut reaction.

First off of course, I think the way they delivered the album over the internet themselves without the aid of the music industry is pretty cool. They got people to pay for something that was going to be leaked anyway. I paid 2.50 pounds which is like 134.00 dollars US right?

I think “In Rainbows” is a pretty decent album. It’s great being able to listen to the next chapter in the Radiohead universe. It’s crazy how quickly people blurt out “Oh, it’s no OK computer!” or “It’s not nearly as inventive as Kid A”. Well of course not! It’s a new album. It must be strange for the band to always have the demand and pressure of creating the next world changing sound or movement. I wonder if the Beatles got that sort of grief when they released “Abbey Road”.
“Oh, it’s no Sgt. Pepper’s!” or “It’s not nearly as inventive as the White Album!”

Yes, I was just speaking of the Beatles.

I’m a little curious about the deciphering of the story line of In Rainbows. Where has the protest of “Hail to the Thief” gone? Maybe it’s there only more hidden this time? It seems a tad defeatist in the John Mayer “Waiting on the World to Change” vein. Could that be? Maybe it’s more of a moving on and accepting the doom direction. I like to think that In Rainbows is a click your ruby slippers together and say, “There is no place like home” album. I think I like the sinister panic and claustrophobia of Yorke’s “The Eraser” more.

I am digging the new Radiohead and have been listening to it over and over again. I’m listening to it right now as a matter of fact. K’s favorite song on the album is “All I Need”. Mine is “Videotape”.

The new Underworld album, “Oblivion With Bells” is thunderously magnificent! It scores higher than In Rainbows in my book. Goood lord it’s tasty!

I am very aware that Underworld’s brand of electronica is an acquired taste.
It’s not everybody’s cup of tea. If you have a history of gagging on electronics during your musical supper, then this still won’t help you.
Oh my dear though, I could eat electronic experimentals for breakfast lunch and dinner.

Oblivion with Bells gives me the foot tappers and leg shakes while at my desk at work, the loud steering wheel drummings and drive dancing while in the car, and the cocoa sippings and under blankets next to fires with loved ones while at home.

The song “Faxed Invitation” is easily one of my favorites for the year. Something about it really hit me. I had the standing hair on the arms going and started to get a little teary. It’s that happy sigh with a touch of longing feeling that I like so much.

Dare I say that this is Underworld at the top of their game?

There’s the Noodle two cents. Go ahead and read the mainstream reviews.
I feel like listening to Abbey Road now.

Peoples I can’t afford to mess around!
I have the little Noodle arriving and an expanding family to think of.

There are some high powered, upper level meetings going on behind closed doors here at the office.
High powered.

Today I am annoyed.
I don’t have the patience for this shit any longer.
Nothing is officially going on. There are just murmurs.
and closed doors.

I just want to work at a grown up company.

I have made a history of attaching my wagon to a lot of wobbly stars haven’t I? Wait. Would that be attaching my star to wobbly wagons?

I think it stinks that when something goes down it’s people further down the chain that pay for it. I don’t really have a say in the direction of things around these parts. I just work on the items that are put in front of me. I’m not in charge of going out and getting the items. Shouldn’t the person who’s job it is to acquire these items be the one in trouble when they don’t perform?

Perhaps I should speak up next time I notice a poor decision being made? Yeah that’s not a good idea.

I have got to get to a spot of more control over my own destiny.
I’m relying to heavily on other monkeys.

Again, nothing’s going on with me and employment. Just others murmuring.
I thought I would do my murmuring in the journal.

I just want to sit here at my computer with my headphones on and work hard all day.

Oh yeah, there’s lots of overtime this week.
Makes sense.

Annoyed.

One of my chums was asking me about a month ago what percentage of the albums I acquire over the year were actual purchases.

I hadn’t thought of it until then. I figure I probably bought about 50 percent of the albums I’ve listened to this year. I always buy the big releases that I am eagerly anticipating. I tend to borrow the music from unfamiliar bands I’m curious about checking out. I haven’t trolled the internets for stolen music since the glory days of Napster.

I was listening to a CD that I bought earlier this year and realized that I had probably only heard it all the way through twice. It was a really good CD and I was annoyed that I hadn’t been listening to it more. That got me to thinking that I probably have enough music to last me for the rest of 2007. I’m done acquiring music now until next year.

Well actually…

The new Radiohead was going to be my last album for the year before I realized that the new Underworld album, “Oblivion With Bells” is coming out tomorrow! Oh man. I am pumped for some new Underworld. Okay so the new Underworld will be the last album I get this year.

Although…

I hear there’s a new Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero remix album coming out in November. Hmmm. No I’ll hold off on that for now.

Well actually…

Oh my goodness!

It’s Monday and I’m at work. Sucks.

I gave up my Monday off to shoot up 10 quick overtime hours. Don’t worry. this isn’t a slippery slope. I am definitely not going to give up my Mondays.
Papa’s got to bring home more money for the little Noodle.

I did some work on the design of the journal as you can well see.
I don’t think I like it yet. A little too sterile. I need to funk it up a bit. I need to figure out something to do with the type style. I don’t think the column widths are figured out yet either.

We watched “Run Lola Run” again last night. Boy oh boy is that a good one. It still holds up pretty well. We had the music cranked.
It was interesting to realize that I was spotting lower quality digital video on some of the cuts. Our eyes are now trying for a high quality signal. When I first watched Run Lola Run I wasn’t aware of the lower quality image because my brain hadn’t seen a higher quality yet. Probably like the same feeling of sea sickness we get when seeing a TV video image from the 70’s.

Okay. Well I better get to work.
The Journal has been totally distracting me here while at the office. Last week with everything down it was hard to work on the paying gig and be a good employee.
I need to try to focus better this week.