Sunday, April 27, 2008

I hate Mears shuttles

I'm in Orlando to speak at the spring Windows Connections conference. The conference has been here in the spring for several years, so you'd think I'd learn by now to never take the Mears hotel shuttle. Once again, thriftiness won over convenience. So, once again, I wait for an HOUR for a shuttle to the Grand Hyatt. And seven of us are crammed sideways in a shuttle with what seems like no functioning seatbelts. You'd think I'd learn.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Forget the Energizer Bunny. This is still kicking butt 135 years later.

I'm listening to Brahms Symphony No. 1 while I work. Terrific, moving piece, in a much more dignified way than the "heart on your sleeve I'm crazy" of Tchaikovsky.

Brahms was 40 years old when he wrote his first symphony (of only 4). It took him over fourteen years to complete. He was terrified of being compared to that guy who came before him, uh, what was his name? Oh yeah...Beethoven. And yet in my opinion every one is a masterpiece, not a note wrong. They're extremely well-thought out compositions of formal symphonic structure. And yet, the  melodies just stick in your head for the day after you've heard the concert.

His symphonies aren't Grand like a Mahler symphony (whom many would call overly emotional and drawn out) or wildly romantic like Rachmaninoff (whom many would call too romantic). Don't get me wrong - I'm a big fan of both Mahler and Rachmaninoff; I probably listen to them more than I do Brahms. But my wife is preparing for a performance of Brahms 1, though, so it's floating through the house. What got me to writing this is the main theme of the fourth movement; I don't know what it is - it's just the strings, no brass or percussion, no fireworks, no explosions or kung fu - but it gives me chills every time. The beginning of the movement is introduction and it sets you up for the main theme; you'll know it when you hear it.

I think you should listen to this free performance of the last movement by the Columbia University Orchestra while you work today. The entire symphony is here.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Legs

I'm waiting for my flight to board at SeaTac airport, watching the people parade as I listen to Earth, Wind & Fire's "Getaway". Amazing how often people's gaits match the music.

If people had three legs instead of two, do you think more music would be in triple meter?

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Jeremy's Karaoke at the EMP

Last night for the MVP party, Microsoft rented out the entire Experience Music Project in downtown Seattle. Part of the EMP's mission is to involve people in the music, and to that end they have a karaoke stage with a real (and solid) backup band, not just some machine. A procession of would-be rock stars tried their 4 minutes of fame (at least among other MVPs). Most were really horrible, but my friend Jeremy was an exception. i was warned by someone that he was actually quite good, so I scrambled over to the stage in time and shot this video:

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

MVP Summit 2008

I and many of my fellow MVPs are up in Seattle this week for the 2008 MVP summit. It's split between the Washington State Convention Center Center, and the Microsoft campus. This year most of our time has been spent on campus with the various product groups, Directory Services in our case.

It's been a good week so far, though a new cold knocked me down hard for the first few days. I literally snuck out to my car in the parking structure and took a short nap to get me through the day! (And no, I hadn't had a drop to drink the night before.) Nothing like feeling bad to make you appreciate feeling good.

This morning's session is on the design planning for the AD implementation of PowerShell. AD missed the boat on PowerShell for the release of Windows 2008, to the chagrin of AD administrators around the world. The good news is that Dushyant Gill is running through their ideas before the MVPs now and getting great feedback...and they're apparently early enough in the design cycle to incorporate a lot of our feedback into their design. So some of the flexibility of the final AD PowerShell implementation will be as a result of MVPs like Joe, Dean, and Joe Kaplan.

My friend Nick Whittome called me last night to tell me he just passed both the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu. Knowing Nick and how much he likes his drink (and the fact he said he'd had a few), I was initially skeptical, but it turns out they were both in town for (a different!) conference. I was disappointed that NIck hadn't charged up and done the old "arm's length photo" op, like he'd done with Steve Ballmer.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

A Beautiful Part Of Vegas

I was experimenting with photo uploads to Flickr the other day, and came across this photo of mine from DEC (Directory Experts Conference) from spring of '07. It's a photomerge of the mountains around Red Rock Canyon State Park, taken from my hotel room at the Red Rock Casino. Just beautiful! Yet another reason why we all encourage the conference organizers to get us back there...