Music Could Set You Free

Today I find myself sitting around in my office listing to some new music.  Despite the fact that we are feeling the pinch economically, Kel was nice enough to buy me a gift card to Best Buy.  While buying CDs is a bit archaic, I still do it.  It seems like a safer way to store your music.  If your computer crashes, at least you have everything on disc.  Sure I back everything up on other hard drives but you never know when you're gonna lose it all.

With that in mind, I just loaded three new CDs in iTunes and am getting a chance to grace my ears with new music.  Music is a bit of a craving for me so new music is like a trip to church for a good Christian, its good for my soul.  I find that music opens up my creativity and is a bit like pushing the mental reset button.  It just makes everything feel a little better and the world seem a little less hectic.

I purchased John Mayer's new CD, "Where the Light Is", Jason Mraz's newest, "We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things." and O.A.R's newest, "All Sides."  All in all I'm pretty pleased with my purchases but find the new O.A.R. disc to be the big surprise of the group.  The first five to seven songs are exactly what I love: up beat, catchy, fun music.  The first song, "This Town," is just awesome!  I love it and could play it over and over again.

Mraz's disc was a bit of a let-down.  I really loved his stuff when he first came out.  I had been listening to bootlegs of his stuff for at least a few months and just really loved his extra-verbal upbeat funky stuff.  Instead, he has moved into a very introspective and more enlightened direction.  I guess that I tend to like more upbeat fun music than introspective moodiness.  Its not that his CD is bad its just not my favorite daily listening stuff.

You can never go wrong with John Mayer.  As a musician I'm always impressed with his guitar prowess and find his songs to be well written and usually pop-e enough for my liking.  This offering is all live and involves three different incarnations of Mayer's music.  Live stuff, JMT music and full band Mayer stuff all mixed together.  No surprise that as a guitarist I tend to love the JMT (John Mayer Trio) stuff the best but really I can't find fault with any of it.  

I guess I would tell the average person go with Mayer, you can't go wrong.  But, if you crave something a  little less known and a little more fun, go with the new O.A.R. stuff.  "All Sides" is new, fresh and fun which sets it apart from most new music I've picked up in the last year or so.  Of course, I'll always direct anyone who asks in a fun direction, its just who I am.  The Mraz disc is good but slow.  Its good music to sleep to or listen to when feeling mellow, but stay away from it if you want fun, upbeat and uplifting.

Well, enough music posturing for now.  Hope everyone out there in reader land is having a wonderful day.  

Where have we been

Yeah, so this blog thing really only works out if you actually take the time to write something and post it.  I guess this is probably the downfall of many people who attempt to blog.  Everyone starts these things with the best of intentions but then gets side tracked by life's meaningless struggles and forgets to actually sit down and put pen to paper (electronically speaking)!

So what has kept me busy the last few days?  Well, after our last post, 2 plus weeks ago, we decided to explore multiple life-paths.  I contacted a local business broker to no avail.  Turns out that despite the economy's problems that there is very little available in the Richmond area.  There are actually more buyers than sellers right now.  Who would thunk that, huh?

With me getting more and more desperate and more and more depressed by the idea that I would have to enter the pit of despair that is corporate America, Kel and I had a bit of an epiphany: It seems that Richmond is holding us back.  The more we talked, the more we realized that being here is SOOO comfortable.  Its so easy.  We won't make any big breaks as long as we sit in easy land.  Nothing will ever be different for us.  

We made a mutual decision to try and find good reasons to move.  Moving is never easy, so it is smart to ensure you have a good reason before you commit yourself to a huge undertaking.  After a bit of research and brainstorming we decided that grad school was a legitimate reason to go.

I am excited to say that today, I posted my application to the Masters of Engineering Management program and the University of Colorado in Boulder.  I almost hate to write those words down because, due to my rather large ego, I fear to tell the world only to get turned down.  I think its probably a 50/50 shot that I'll get in and get a chance to delve back into the world of academia again.  I won't bore you with all the reasons it could or could not work but will, at the present moment, leave you to your own suppositions as to why I worry.  Maybe you'll be lucky and I'll tell you later why I feel the way I do...or maybe I won't!

Well, I'll end today's post with a promise to write more regularly.  I won't commit to daily, but more regularly would be better than the present.   

The Fun Begins...

Its tough to know where to begin this blog.  You know next to nothing about me, or us for that matter, and therefore, starting almost anywhere is difficult.  But, since I decided to write this blog for me as much as you, I will start where I want to, right here, right now.

We recently, in the last seven months, got home from a trip all over the world.  Sounds like fun don't it, well it was.  If you want to know about it check it out here: TravelBlog  So, we recently returned and are now going through the fun of figuring out what the future holds in store for us.  

While this sounds like it should be easy, its really rather the opposite.  Sure, we could both go back to sucking on the corporate breast and live happy, if dull, lives again like we did before we left, but that seems like a step back.  Once you've tasted adventure, its tough to give it up.  How could two adventurous and fun people like us just go back to doing the 9-5 thing.  But herein lies the problem, that (being corporate America) is all we know.

This brings us back around to now, today.  I sit here writing a blog while my beautiful wife (who you will hear gobs more about in the future) is slaving away at a local law firm doing finance.  They treat her well but they can't get close to making her job as much fun as staying home being a bum like me.  Thus, we have been having a touch of difficulty betwixt ourselves as Kel tries to be nice about the fact that she hates going to work while I get to stay home.

The solution...

Well, what is the solution?  That is the million dollar question and that is the focus of our fourth of July weekend.  While the rest of the world does the standard cook-out, bar-b-que, drink beer till we pass out thing, we will be brainstorming solutions for our future.  We will certainly do this Team Turner Style which is a conglomerate of our personalities and more than a touch of our Capital One training (that's what life was pre-trip).  This will most likely involve lots of writing, lots of brainstorming, lots of kel being uber creative while I act uber skeptical and hopefully, if our brains work right, the stars align and we catch a little bit of luck, we will be able to report out to you, the world, what Team Turner will be doing with the next five years. 

So with that said, wish us luck on our brainstorming adventure.  Hopefully it will be fruitful and painless.

Have a happy 4th of July!!

A Chance to Share

Why write a blog?  In today's world, it seems that everyone is doing it to greater or lesser success. With everyone and their grandmother writing about their daily interactions and lives of their families, it takes a lot to stand out.  But maybe I don't care if I stand out?  Maybe this blog is all about me and what I want.  Sure, I'd love to find out that a year down the road I have hundreds of followers, but, for now at least, I'm comfortable with expressing myself in some sort of cathartic way.

So, with that said, Reader Beware, What will follow on a daily or weekly, probably,  irregular pattern will be nothing more than the rantings of someone who feels the need to share.  Sometimes what I write will be personal and therefore matter little to you, the general public.  Other times it may be hilariously funny socio-political commentary, who knows?  But what I can tell you, is that, if you choose to read what I write then you do so at your own risk and therefore take full responsibility for how you spend your time.

Since I've now lightened my conscience by giving you the full caveat emptor treatment, I will add that I've always been a bit hungry for attention.  This blog is probably an extension of that need to show off.  Instead of my desire being fulfilled on a stage with a bass guitar in my hand, I'm just choosing to do this the easy way from an arm chair with the internet as a backdrop.  This means, in short, that I'd love to have you read what I write if for no other reason than it's cool.  

Please enjoy and feel free to come back whenever you want.  Consider this an open invitation to waste your valuable time seeing the world through my eyes (and maybe my wife's if I can convince her to write once in a while).  But remember that if you laugh or cry, find enjoyment or pain, are entertained or bored, you made the choice to spend your time with us and thus have only yourself to blame. :)

Michael Turner

Team Turner