New location

www.npuhalsky.com

Anything Goes...

We are trained, educated, pressured and bribed to conform.  Our parents remind us to use our manners, teachers use red pens and employers wave a paycheck over our heads. Rules surround the individual like one of those  Snuggi’s broadcast all over television.  Cozy, yes.  Yet eventually if everyone jumps on the Snuggi bandwagon most society would look like members of the Vulcan High Council.
So I’m jumping off the wagon.  The first jump was with writing all the things I want to say out loud and the second is with beginning to perform with an improv comedy troupe.  There are no rules to improv but these which I have just made up (Okay there are some, but I dare you to find three people who say the same thing):
1. Do not censor yourself or attempt to censor anybody – Lenny Bruce and George Carlin come on in!
2. Try on different characters, new voices, walks, twitches – You can recreate yourself in each scene.
3. And as Mike Napier of the Annoyance Theater says “F&*k Your Fear!” – If a scene doesn’t work change it up, move on, don’t live in the past instead be in the moment constantly.
Can you see why I’m hooked?  I can be myself or anybody I choose to be at the moment and just run with it.  Think about everything you ever wanted to say to your boss or in a boardroom or every good alternative ending to a movie that you’ve had.  It’s been a great boost to my material for writing, surrounds me with others who are insanely creative and it allows for a three dimensional show of who I am without restriction.

Vegas baby

Above is my brother Josh who lives in Las Vegas. Seven years ago when I moved back home after leaving out west for four years he stayed on. And why not? Fishing, gambling, concerts and great weather for his toys. It works out great for me too since I always have an inside connection.

Four years ago I made a visit to Vegas. It was just to be a three day weekend. I had by some weird fate gotten a three room suite at Binions for $70 a night. It was in the downtown area and we could see the Fairmont Street experience from our room and the World Series of Poker was next week so the usual sleep atmosphere of the aged casino was alive.

We went to those local spots off the strip sang, danced and were very merry. On the day I was to leave Josh got a phone call. He's a natural people person and very connected through the contacts he makes on his job. He got off the phone and told me he just got two tickets to Depeche Mode's concert that evening at the Hard Rock Casino. OMG!!!!!

He's casual about it and I'm freaking out! I've loved Depeche since high school. I tell him that if I can change my flight I want to go with him. He was giving me a hard time and I had to remind him that he made fun of me in high school for my music, hair, clothes and car (1981 Chevy Chevette). Begging, pleading and bribing as tickets to this show did not exist for anything less than the few grand I surely didn't have. Big heart that he has he gave the two tickets to myself and my friend.

So here's to the brother that cut my hair when I was four (curls were on the floor), woke up to a hermit crab on his nose, was a bmx bandit, who patched a hole in the wall with me before dad got home, who went to Phoenix eleven years ago with only 1 large bag, who listened to Metalilica in high school and lettered in Chess, and got stung by a jellyfish.

Do It Everyday!

Learn something new, what in the hell did you think I was talking about?  For the last couple years I have turned into such a homebody and it really has been to my detriment.  Less time spent in the world around people and adding to my database of experiences, sights and sounds has constrained my intellectual expansion.  As an illustration going to http://treehousecolumbus.com/I had a lesson in science.

The Tree House is a dive and it’s perfect.  Feels a bit like the furnished basement of a friend you would have hung in school to listen to music and play pool in school.  After arriving way too early which is a habit of mine we took our drinks and wondered in the room adjacent to the pool room to listen to the duo that was setting up where there was a tree coming out of the floor and going apparently out into the fresh air above.  Taking a seat on the bench we bullshitted with the duo and when they went off I did the thing I do, take a general inventory of the room.  Thus I looked at all the band stickers plastered on the wall, chalk scribbling on the ceiling and the wear brought by years of musicians adding their own ink to the history of the venue.

On the floor was an amplifier with a panel out.  Musicians are poor I know but there was a vacuum tube looking right back at me.  Briefly, vacuum tubes are controllers of electric energy.  Think of them as the great-great-great-great grandfather to the dimming switch for your wall lights.  Before the vacuum tubes it was either on or not.  I’m no genius but damn didn’t these things go the way of the DoDo bird?  Not being sure I asked Jon if they were transistors or vacuum tubes, I could be wrong.  As an electrical engineer he knows this stuff but usually he assumes that it’s only interesting to him.  In fact his ability to patiently have conversations of this nature was always an attraction to me.

Turns out that for most applications when the transistor, a semi-conductor device used to control electricity, came on the scene the new technology was embraced by most.   Not for the audiophiles.  Sound engineers and musicians for the most part agree that the obsolete vacuum tubes are still the way to go:

Tubes Vs. Transistors, from newsletter #47 of The Absolute Sound magazine:
"... if you want to try to break across the border into something approaching realism, I still think you have to use tubes." --Harry Pearson, editor
"...tubes are more realistic. They have more bloom; they have more light; they have more body. They do that thing I call 'action,' which solid-state doesn't... tubes just eat solid-state alive." --Jonathan Valin
"... what you almost never get out of a solid-state piece of equipment is a sense of continuousness..." --Harry Pearson
"... there is a subtle but unmistakable sense of roundedness and solidity that tubes have..." --Paul Seydor
"... [tubes] give you the sense of having much more power. A 60-watt solid-state and a 60-watt tube amp never sound equivalent in terms of power." --Harry Pearson
"... I hear more stuff with tubes..." --Jonathan Valin
"You can tell some things from measurements ... but that tells you nothing about how the amplifier communicates the music. You get that from listening." --Robert Harley

So I learned something new.  Advances in technology will never suit all users and so what is thought of as archaic by some are heralded as exceptional.  As much as I read and watch all the science and physics programming that I can I don’t think such a living example would have been presented to me. 

Happy birthday Ryan!

Knowledge Hogs

Done well technical documentation can reduce calls to the support desk, ease user frustration and empower novices to build their skills with confidence through trial and error.  Not all documentation is equal as I have learned in the last week.  Rather spontaneously I decided that I would build a website of my own to host my WordPress blog.  Why? Because the counter balance to my creativity is my deeply analytical side.  Consequently this week I contemplated a journey to California to air my grievances.
So I register a domain name and find a hosting service as recommended by WordPress in their documentation which assures me that I can mix and match hosting and domain services.  As a novice I should have verified my assumption but ahead instead I charged.  Nothing elaborate, just connect the host to the domain, right? My first two years of college were at DeVry University where I studied programming so I’d like to feel that I had a clue.  The site with my domain name was easy to work with.  There were just two name servers I had to input and the rest was a formality.  Having a good dose of false confidence I proceeded forward.
ARRRRGGHHH!!!!  The hosting site was an example of minimalism.  Anyone knowing me though would know though when choosing the site I went off of three things first that WordPress recommended them, second the super cool name and lastly cool animal logo.  While I was great at programming and even taken to dreaming in code while in school at DeVry I ultimately decided to finish my studies in a school with the humanities and liberal arts, who would have guessed?  At least Indiana Jones had the guy telling him that he chose wisely in the search for the Holy Grail.  I had the technical documentation written by a bitter helpdesk staffer.
Word to the wise, if you’re hosting provider hides its phone number for technical questions DO NOT CLICK THE SHINY BUTTON!  My eagerness proved my downfall.  Choppy sentences referring to other sites greeted me at the FAQ’s.  Troubleshooting tips were absent so were if then statements for first time users.  Emails to the help desk asking for my server IP address were replied to with “We don’t understand what you’re asking for”.  It wasn’t until I found a site online where I could enter my site address and it spit out in a nanosecond what my IP was that I became a bit peeved.  Everything about the provider assured me that they in no uncertain terms hated beginners to this endeavor and sought to crush them with their indifference.
Not being deterred I transferred my site to another provider and it’s near operational now!  Being a beginner I am a lot of things and a hard worker and researcher is a couple of them.  As the internet was used mostly by academics in its founding so that they could share knowledge and keep the phone bills down it surprises me that the transfer of knowledge between a provider and their customer could exist in such a sorry state so many years later.  It’s not just an internet thing.  Knowledge has become a commodity jealously guarded and prices are quickly set.  America is not as innovative a country as it could be as the price and guarding of knowledge create barriers to collaboration.  Taking one man’s idea or as price is set, product, and infusing with it the abilities, insights, experiences and determination of a collective effort can change the world, like the creation of the internet.

Wrong Way Wedding

Whenever the word wedding or marriage is uttered word associations and expectations run wild.  Oddly enough as a woman I am pretty immune to all of the expectations of a cultural with David’s Bridal around the corner and bride magazines flaunting the thousands that could be spent on the dress alone.  Doing it your own way, on a budget and throwing all convention out the window is sure to leave everybody in your family cheated of the ideal wedding they planned since birth.  However treating it more like a picnic and less like the Queens coronation lets a girl enjoy the process.
Dress, you need a dress or something of the sort.  Forget the bridal stores and keep it real and pick out a dress that you could, gasp, wear again!   Best friend and I went to the massive mall between her house and mine.  Three hours later, counting the lunch, we had a dress.  Found at Macy’s for a total cost of forty dollars.  Dress of my dreams was a white dress with a full tea length skirt empire waist with an intricate black embroidered piece at the waist.  Dress done.
Sentiments lead me wanting to be married in one of the two locations of our first date.  He said no to the dive dinner/bar where we finally met after weeks of talking and then Indie Theater was also ruled out.  Friends of ours suggested a park near their house it was secluded, small and had intricate little garden areas throughout.  No cost so long as our party was less than twenty five.  We didn’t even book the site as our ceremony was to be about ten minutes’ tops and then a few pictures.
The Honorable Ann B. Long, ordained earlier that month online, performed our ceremony.  Friend of both of ours she wasn’t a hired gun doing it only for money nor was she a church official from let’s be honest, a church we do not attend.  Payment for services, adopted a sea turtle at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in her name.  They sent her “adoption” papers and immediately she claimed ownership rights but that really is another story.
Pictures and video were purchased with pleading and a flask.  Both artist traveled from Cleveland and brought each another friend.  Our video could be entered in Scandinavian film festivals I’m sure.  There is one segment in which the videographer is being “chased” downhill by his camera on its death tripod on wheels.  Pictures were taken with stealth.  So we crashed the ceremony site at the park and were met by the park ranger who wished us luck and informed us that pictures could only be taken on the site of the ceremony and no where else.  In Benny Hill fashion we ran around the park and took posed pictures while someone was always looking out for Ranger Danger.  Word to the wise, golf carts are amazingly quiet these days.
Champagne in mini bottles for toasting was brought in the iced down saddle bag of a Harley.  Ranger was on to us but we were quicker moved by the whole adventure of the thing.  Comfest was the site of our reception in Victorian Village.  Setting up a blanket for the music as base camp we then took off in small groups to secure food and beverage.  No cake, table linens, centerpieces, dance floor, gifts or open bar.  Barefoot in the grass with my love nothing else mattered.

Both Mom’s are still feeling somewhat robbed of the wedding they wanted for us.  Keep in mind that from the beginning we knew that we were going to be footing the bill entirely ourselves.  His Mom saw it coming and doesn’t dwell on it.  My Mom was hoping that traditional middle in the road sort of thing would be brought out in me.  Wedding cost less than five hundred dollars including our wedding night hotel room.  There was a very loose plan and everything else was spontaneous and without any time constraints.  Looking back it was perfect and everything I wanted but was unable to articulate.  Enjoy your wedding the devil really is in the details.
Some pictures…http://picasaweb.google.com/annbrownlong/20090628PuhalskyMarriage609?authkey=Gv1sRgCK3c87rVs4i5wQE&feat=email#

View from the front porch

Colossal Chimes

Greeting all passers by, children, mailmen and anyone with an eye for detail from a moving car are the wind chimes my Mom gave us as a housewarming gift. Nothing too unusual right? Neighbors all around us have chimes either wood or metal with some decorative frame. Their chimes are maybe a foot or two long at the very most and while quite pleasant lack the distinction of being wrapped, packed and shipped from my Mom's home in Florida.

Five bamboo shoots with an angled cut at the bottom. Oh yeah, its also six feet long. UPS has brought some unusual boxes to our door. Jon likes to buy things online for the car so it's been an envelope of stickers for his wagon or a transmission on pallets for the Focus. This one took the UPS guy and me both by surprise.

Huge brown box in the front living room was a surprise from Mom. Opening the box were all sorts of things. Books, toys for kids, clothes for me, purses and a whole collection of the thrift store finds that I love so much. Popcorn Styrofoam tossed in all directions revealed the behemoth wind chime. It was out of control and a present to Jon.

After coming home to find his gift he jumped back for a minute, smiled wildly and went to hang it from the front porch. As the weather warmed even the front porch was not big enough for the chimes. Anyone using the two chairs situation near the chimes to the left of the front door was risking a bamboo beating. Now they are hanging from the large dogwood to the right of the front door.

Who has the biggest chimes in the neighborhood? Jon does. Who is a gift giving genius? Mom.

Confront Your Closet

My closet was out of control. Ties were laying askew atop a pair of jeans while some shoes were visible underneath the coax cable, socks and discarded jeans in which I could still not yet fit. Between you and I, I have not moved seriously to clean it since we moved into the house in February. It’s a shame as it started so well.

At one point my closet had order. Beautiful with short sleeve shirts seperated from full sleeves and collarless shirts having a place all of their own. Shoes neat and distinguishable from the scarves and belts. Aunt Linda slaved for hours putting my closet together from the collection of boxes hurled in the master bedroom. Twenty years in the Navy endowed her with an organizational prowess and ability to delegate that ensures that with each visit to your home she leaves it better.

She hasn’t seen the closet. Mortification would be instantaneous. So I did laundry all day yesterday and now I am finally done. In between loads of laundry I worked on the order of the closet. I realize why I hadn’t touched it. Bad clothing choices starred at me while an army of profesional clothes I haven’t been able to hoist myself into were casting accusational glares.

I am Nikita and I have a lot of clothes. Three more pounds and everything will fit. Really, there are more than two pair of jeans and a collection of hoodies and t-shirts. Lord grant me the patience to clean this closet and accept that I really, really seriously do not need any more shoes.

Columbus Art

Do your own thing by r.bitner

Why cancer research isn't a priority

Thought that this one was obvious but no, researchers actually were funded to study this rare occurrence.

Overdoes of Perspective

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2009/10/01/james-fine-really/

Okay for those of you who don’t know Top Gear regularly tortures James May and keeps us viewers coming back guilty asking for more. Its like some Saturday morning science show where they do insane experiments in the studio while all the adults were looking the other way. Like Tom Green crossbred with Bill Nye the Science Guy! So I was a week early for the final if James can move on with tea and biscuits so can I!

Its the real deal

Last week I showed up for my Thursday night class prepared for the final. I had my presentation PowerPoint submitted, research paper polished and my game face on. Part of the preparation was also having a caffeinated smoothie on the way to school. Preparation is everything.

Research paper is the product of twenty hours work, peer reviewed scholarly sources and statistical evidence provided by the Census Bureau and the White House Budget 2009. So focused while doing this that the house nearly fell down around me. Furthermore the PowerPoint rocked.

Caffeine coursing through me I arrived at school two hours early to prep for final exam. Fidgeting in the computer lab like a rabid otter. Wanting only for the night to be over and to detail the pantry with a cotton swab. Truly the outcome would be superb.

The patience of the students filling in was annoying the hell out of me. Moreover was the Professors ease with the questions and request for assistance. The final is today it’s the first thing on the agenda before presentations where is the urgency at getting this show on the road. Clamping my chair I am sitting down, must not let go. Making eye contact with the Professor I blurt out “When is the final starting?”. She replied “Next week”.

Next three hours were spent caffeinated out of my mind proofreading and editing. Something akin to Jack Nicholson in the shinning. So focus on the work that I neglected the obvious check of my school calendar. Economics is that interesting to me and adding research to that and the exploration of capitalism was lethal. Leaving the class I felt an ass.