matter

Maybe we want our jobs to matter because our lives don't.

And if our lives do, then our jobs will suddenly cease to be so important.

Just a thought I had. Couched in a huge bed of thoughts about my generation, and how we relate to work, and to family, church, community.

We want a simpler life. Unfortunately, we also seem to want all the trappings of a more complicated one.

But we want to be chicken farmers who laugh with friends and run not-for-profit outreach missions. We want not to be enslaved by debt and lifestyle. We want to matter. So we try to find our calling in the workplace, as designed by God--very rarely considering that perhaps the workplace, as we know it, was not designed by God at all.

Also we would like a jacuzzi. Stat.

What do you do, Dear?

A little conversation with myself:

"I'd like to see you focusing more on queue management" she said.. alright. I can do that, right? I mean.. it's just looking at the queue, figuring out what needs done and what the best way to get it, right? Sure! I can focus on that..

{chirp.. chirp.. chirp.. }

How about me going away to a nice older home in the country, with no pointy corners and rolling green lawns where I can feed the ducks. Where my bathrobes have no sleeves. Would you like to maybe see that? 'Cause i'm starting to wonder...

Why is it that so many of us continue to support ourselves, financially, by doing things that make us unhappy, or that we hate?

"Well, John.. people have mortages and other bills to pay, and a certain lifestyle to support. And they don't do what they do because they love it like candy, they do it because they need to. Besides, all that, 'Do what you love and become rich and successful' stuff is just bunk!"

The way I see it, we all split out (roughly) into 4 categories:

1.) I love what I do. Genuinely. Love it!

2.) I do not need to love what I do. My psyche is constructed in such a manner as to completely seperate my work-a-day world from my personal world. I need derive no satisfaction from it.

3.) What I do makes me unhappy, but I am unaware of the source of the problem. I spend all my time being unhappy and blaming it on other people and situations, and looking to prayer, yoga, money, psychoanalysis, drugs, relationships, etc.. to try and alleviate my suffering.

4.) What I do does not make me happy, but I can't seem to figure out how to stop doing it, or how to do something else, or perhaps even what it is that I would really prefer to be doing ...so I'll spend a goodly amount of my time and energy torturing myself and everyone around me with it until we're all so sick of it that .. it like.. makes us sick. Or something.

I don't know where you are in this, but I know where I usually am. And where I'd like to be.

One position: You can do whatever you want to. Whatever you love. Even if it's basket-weaving. In fact, you should do it. You are practically mandated to. To do otherwise would be treason to Self, God, The Universe, The Spirits Of Your Dead Ancestors...

There are plenty of people who subscribe to this and do just fine. Many, in fact, do amazingly well.. better than fine. Crazy-good.

They can just look at the world, their place in it, and totally master their own destiny. To misquote my brilliant friend, Dave...

...for a long time i believed that bad [thing A] was better than no [thing A]. Then I stopped believing that and I'm much happier.

What I noticed was that on Mondays when I [did thing B], I looked forward to it all day. And on Thursdays when I [did thing A], I often wanted to get out of it, or hoped that not enough people would show and we wouldn't.

Finally Stephen Hawking came by and helped me see a solution to this situation.

Something in these folks allows them to see clearly what it is that they want to be doing, and then act decisively in pursuit of that desire.

Another position: You should shut up your whining, get a job, and attend to your responsibilities. Work isn't meant to be enjoyed. It's a part of The Curse, a penance that you're fortunate to be able to pay. The rest of your life is elsewhere. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them all... ignore them, and then someday you die or retire and don't have to worry about it anymore. (Not quite as catchy, eh, Alan Thicke?)

What is it that prevents a person for knowing what they want to do, or, even if they do know what they want to do, not doing it? Why is it that some people gaze through it as if it were transparent, or walk through it untouched, while for others of us it is all smoke and mirrors.. endless misdirection?

Is it that we're weak-willed? Lacking the gumption to pursue something the end of which we cannot see? Little children, afraid of the dark?

Is it that we're selfish and unrealistic? Pouting, petulant children, demanding our way and holding our breath?

Is it that we're different from "most people"? Different strokes for the different folks (more Alan Thicke!)..? The children with special needs.. set apart from our peers?

...Is it just that I haven't done anything constructive musically for weeks and weeks and so my brain is starting to get poisonous buildup?? Quite likely.

I don't know. I don't know the answer to that question, and I'm not sure I'll ever find out. I do know that right now in my life, I'm continuing on a long journey of prioritization. Of figuring out what things are really important to me, and making my life revolve around them. And I think that in that pursuit, I may get an epiphany at some point, and turn the corner to a different way of living.

Maybe it's an issue of putting the first things first, and then letting the mortgages and bills and geography and relationships come after.. or maybe it's an issue of making enough peace that I can hear The Voice calling me in the right direction.

I just hope it happens soon. I'm not getting any younger here, The Voice!

you'll be dead

Something from Randy's sermon on Sunday that I wanted to blog here, so that I could keep it close to my heart.

That's right.. something from Sunday morning is still alive in my heart and mind on Monday evening. I'm as shocked as the rest of you.

"Someday someone else will be living in your house. Because you'll be dead."

Man.. I dig that. I want to cozy up to that on a cold winter night of midlife crisis and let it warm me up to living. Because living is all I've got to do.

I don't need to accomplish much or leave much or really in any way put an impression of myself on this world. I don't need to make sure I've got my accounts paid up or my afairs in order--I just need to get at it. And keep getting at it until .. well.. until it's time for somebody else to live in my house!

I was just saying to Dan-O the other night, while moonlighting as church-painters, "I've been thinking some lately about this retirement, savings stuff, and I think I'm in trouble..."

Okay, okay.. so I am in trouble, in the sense that I haven't done jack, and I'm thirty-five, and pretty soon I'm going to get into the position where--given the expected return on my 401K--my earliest possible retirement age is 413 years old. I realize that. But in the real sense of "trouble".. I'm not in it.

I don't need to put my house in order for the people who are going to live in it next. When I'm dead.

I bought a combed wool jacket

I bought it at Old Navy, for $11.50.

It was on clearance, and they were having a "half-off the clearance price" sale, and I had a gift card for $10.

So it only cost me $11.50. Which is pretty dang cool.

I've got a meeting in a half-hour, and I'm not at all in the right place mentally. Pick up the pace, Klinger!

Yesterday marked three solid weeks of me being caffeine-free. (not that if you drink me, I don't have caffeine content--but that I haven't ingested any caffeinated beverages. or even excedrin.)

They say it takes up to 3 weeks for it to leave your system. And I think it just did.

I have a ton of interesting things to say, but neither time nor energy with which to say them. Don't worry, I'll dredge them up soon.

Thanks for playin', everybody!

Tubes part 4: "The last dance" or "Baby, why'd you have to go an' do me that way?"

Where did I leave off..? Oh, yes! I was still bathed in the afterglow of the Vox, but wondering if I was compelled enough to sell the Pro. It had been a long time since I'd actually played that amp.

In fact, other than a brief stint as my vocal monitor for jam sessions with John Hocking and Tim Combs, it was mostly just serving as a very, very heavy drink holder for John's drum kit. (John, Tim and I were going to be "Mudville 9: Mach II"--until I realized that we were missing the time and motivation critical to that endeavor's success.)

So the next time I was at John's house (New Year's Eve), I snagged to Pro out of the drum room and took her home. Later that week, I would have a little exploratory one-man-jam session. With the tones of the Vox still pretty fresh in my ears, I thought I'd see what I could do with the Delta and the Pro to match the sound.

I started by doing a little tube-swapping, taking the Sovtek 12ax7's out of the Pro and putting them in the Delta. Bad choice. The chinese no-names sounded way better.

I tried taking the JAN 12at7 out of the Pro and putting that into the "distortion" spot on the Delta. Another bad choice.

So then, with all tubes as previously configured, I tried to make the Delta sound like the Vox.

Couldn't do it. I did improve it quite a bit, though, eventually maxing out both the treble and bass controls and only using the mid control to thin or thicken. This sounded very good on all of my guitars. I remember having it set this way a couple of years ago, but I found that there was too much chime and low-end for compatibility with the Church sound system. Or at least with the sound guy.

I can almost imagine that, with new tubes and new speakers, I could get some crazy Vox-y sounds out of it. I'm pretty sure that with a new Yamaha hollow body I could get some awesome stuff. : ]

Delta plumbed, I moved on to the Pro, for what I expected to be our last dance. I expected to be disappointed once again. But I was disappointed by my lack of disappointment. Man! That thing sounded good. So so clean and clear. Like a'ringin' a bell.. go go!

So, fine.. right? It still has no lead channel, and I need one of those. It's always sounded good clean... In the past, I've gotten some pretty decent tones out of it with a tube screamer, so I hooked that up. Sounded awful. So I tried input 2. Sounded better. Went to input 1, channel 1. Input 2, channel 1.. m'eh. Dead-sounding. I used to use a daisy chain to hook channels 1 & 2 together, so I tried that. Much better.

Finally, the winning combo... (here it is, for posterity)

Use a daisy chain to link channels 1 & 2. Link through input 1. Plug into input 2 on channel 2. Set both volumes and tone controls at the same level. Max out the reverb and throw a big wobbly tremolo on it. Fan-freakin-tastic. Unbelievable. Sounds great. Sounds exactly (almost) like the Vox when you use the switch to combine channels 1 and 2. Amazing.

Now.. this is all nice.. but getting the Pro to sound good was not what I'd hoped for. I was hoping to be able to say, "Yeah, this thing is a dog. I'm'a go get me some good amplifier stuff!"

Discouraged and confused by all the brilliance, I shut it all down and went back upstairs.

Two days later, I tried it again. Could_not_recapture it. Could not. Just wasn't there. I have no idea why. I don't know if it's the weather.. maybe I burned up a spider that was adding some key juice to the circuit.. but whatever the case, it's not there. And I'm off the hook. The Pro can go. Still sorta like stabbing myself in the heart.. but I'll get through it.

Now my only problem is deciding how to best spend the cash. Gonna have to do more research on modding the Delta, and gonna have to go back and play that Vox again!

So I still don't have an ultimate decision, friends. But I've at least got a bankroll. Now it's just a matter of adding up the potential cash, and the potential combinations of how to spend it (buy the guitar, mod the delta, then if delta doesn't add up, sell it and buy the vox? buy the vox, sell the delta, buy the guitar? buy the vox, mod the delta, don't buy the guitar? buy the vox AND the guitar AND mod the delta..?? maybe in a couple years... and what vox to buy? celestion 2x12? 1x12? head and cabinet? regular 2x12 and replace the speakers?).

You'll be pleased to know, I'm not going to bother you all with the details of that, but I'll let you know what I come up with. Something, I'm sure.

Bill.. you should probably expect a couple calls from me. ; ]

chilly in the bathroom

60 degrees is not cold if you're at the park, but pretty chilly in the bathroom.

I suppose it's also pretty chilly if you're going to the bathroom in the park.. but i digress.

I'm just sayin'.

reverse that

oh these odd years when reviewed i constantly find
hey when i'm reaching for the light darkness is not far behind
you might think i've learned a thing or two about playing it cool
well you might think that that is so ah but no no the opposite's true

you might think in the storm we've discovered the eye of the calm
but i've yet to find a way to dodge all these sweaty little palms
yeah you might think we've made some enemies but i just can't i recall who
you might think it keeps us up at night but no no the opposite's true

are there any words of wisdom i've picked up along the way
why yes death usually comes dressed up in her finery and lace
hey hasn't everyone in these bars been crying inside their whole life through
well you might think we cease to hear it ah but no no the opposite's true

kings and queens are bankrupt here at the mouth of the nile
they say the pyramids they're all looted pharaoh won't be back for a while
crocodiles are hungry see them polish their top ends with care
i used to understand their language but now i'm just unaware

used to install fire alarms before i ever started to sing
after all these years i find i've been doing the same thing
hey everyone stop check your pulse never mind it's code blue
well you might think to call the doctor but no no the opposite's true

~~Bill Mallonee, Vigilantes of Love "To the roof of the sky"


Well, I'm off for a long weekend tomorrow. I took a vacation day. We are taking the kids to my inlaws and then heading off to the WRCC worship ministry retreat. I'm not sure what all is planned, but it's generally a good time of hanging out with musically-minded folks and, as important, alone with my wife. ("alone" being defined as "without kids")

I didn't want to leave you all without something for these 3 long days, though, so I came up with the following:

I was in a rock and roll band in Nashville in the early to mid-90's.

Contrary to the addage... we weren't country when country was cool.

I'm just sayin'.

Have a nice weekend.

Tubes part 3: "Scott & John go to town" or "You've got a little 'Boogie right there... No. More to the left. Where your face used to be."

I had pretty well decided to try the modifications to my Delta, but like I said, I wanted to give these other amps a shot. So the day of our family Christmas (the 27th), when the kids went down for naps, Scott and I hooked up and headed for C.V. Lloyds.

It's been quite a while since I spent any quality time in a music store, and Lloyds is just the kind of place that, even when I was in the store-frequenting habit, I avoided. They have this nasty tendency to talk to you, and try to sell you stuff. But they were the place with the goods, so that's where I had to go. Still, I felt better having Scott with me, since it's kind of his guitar hangout, and especially because he'd done lots of twiddling with the Mesa/Boogies, which I knew were rife with one of my other top gear phobias--knobs and switches.

So Scott and I hit the door and it hadn't even closed when we got company in the form of a sales lady. She asked if there was anything I was wanting to play, and I said yes, I wanted to play that little Mesa/Boogie right there (it was about the first thing--other than her--that we ran into when we walked in).

"Little"? You betcha. The picture top/right is practically actual size. I mean, Fender and Marshall both make amps this size with belt-clips on them!

Okay, so not that little, but certainly not big, by any standard. My Delta practically dwarfs this amp. The fact that it was on castors only served to make it look more ridiculous (though I do love the standard coco/bronco finish!). But, when I got plugged in and wheeled it around on the tile floor to face me, I was actually glad it had the wheels! This thing was heavy!

It's density should've clued me in as to what kind of territory I was headed into, but I didn't catch on. With the help of Sales Lady, we powered it up on the 30w setting (it has 3--30w, 15w, & an oh-so-groovy 5w) and I set the gain somewhere near where I normally run for church or in the basement studio. I plugged into the slumbering neutron star, barely touched the strings and POW! It was like being shot in the face! Wowee-wow-wow! I don't know if you've ever been hooked to a Mesa/Boogie, but it's the kind of power that makes you aware that you are not really in control. You could do more sonic damage with this little toaster-oven than you could with an entire WALL of Deltas.

After some tweaking and a crash course on Mesa/Boogie channel settings from Scott, I managed to get it subdued to a non-face-blasting volume ("Subdued" being the only way to describe it. If you want to make a Mesa/Boogie quiet, you better bring some tie-down straps and be feeling healthy when you start, 'cause it'll kick the snot out of you.) and also managed to get it sounding pretty good! I mostly hung out at 5 and 15 watts, though. 30 was a'way too scary in a confined space.

So what did I think of it, all in all? I think it's a good amp. Really good. Crazy-good, in fact.
Bill says it's the best-sounding amp he's ever played, and I might have to agree with him, overall. It'll do just about anything you want, so long as what you want is not a.) screaming leads, or b.) sounding like an AC30. It doesn't do either of those. Unfortunately, as we know, "b." is what I want to do. Is it still on my "buy one of these when you've got an inexhaustible cash flow" list? Oh, yeah! But I don't. And it doesn't do what I want.

Now, I've failed to mention that the whole time I'm trying not to make a fool of myself with the 'Boogie, there are some punks over on the other side of the store playing an Orange "rocker 30" through a 4x12 cab. At scull-splitting volume and with appropriate ice-pick lead tone, of course. So instead of heading that way next, I went in the opposite one, which happily was also in the direction of the AC30.

A little more thunking around with dropcords, and Sales Lady had us powered up. She was completely clueless as to the workings of a Vox, so I took that one on. I plugged into what seemed to be the correct channel, threw a couple of the chicken head knobs around into a semi-recognizable configuration, and let fly with the first 3 chords to Tom Petty's "You wreck me" from the Wildflowers album.

Viola! Sweet Jesus! And Great Day In The Morning! Glory hallelujah and welcome to the sound of Vox, Baby! It was sweet, sweet magic at first touch.

For some reason, the completely non-intuitive (not to mention upside-down) controls of the Vox seemed to turn effortlessly under my hands. I couldn't hardly buy a bad sound from it. All pickups. All configurations. All channels, verbs, eq's, tremolos and combinations thereof. And this isn't the one with the celestions in it, either! Obviously, I liked it. The plain ol' clean channel left me a little flat, but that top-boost channel... Glory, glory... It was like finding yourself without having realized you were ever lost. Like how you get to the end of one of those underwater suspense/action movies and suddenly realize you've been holding your breath for the whole 110. I came to the surface and sucked in a lungfull of sweet Vox-ygen. Mmm.. that's good! Yeah!

*sigh*... I got my Vox on for awhile, and then decided I'd better pull up out of the religious experience and try the Orange before our meter ran out. I toddled over that way and hooked up to the behemoth all by my widdy self. It took a bit of work, but I finally got it around to something that sounded pretty good. The story on the Orange is pretty short. Basically, if I'm ever ever in the position of needing to rock out in a chest-pounding manner.. like, on a big stage... with a band that sounds like it might just hurt someone before it's done... I'm gettin' me an Orange. Those things ROCK. And that's all there is to it. That's all they do. Period. They are a "one big knob" kind of amp, and I respect and admire them for it. Also, for being orange. Very. Unavoidably. Orange.

After that, I noticed there was an Ibanez AFS75t hanging on the wall right beside me. For those not familiar, the AFS75t is a full hollowbody thinline with a bigsby-style trem. I've seen a lot of good reviews of them, and I love the hollowbody vibe, so I decided that it and I needed to take a trip back over to Vox-land and get to know each other. : ] Then, once I got that out of my system (review: "m'eh..") we tried to sell Sales Lady on my Yamaha AES800 (guess I didn't mention, I brought it along) because she was looking for an electric that could do a nice acoustic impersonation, which it can.

And that was it. We left. But what a way to spend a couple hours! I'm pretty happy with the whole deal, I gotta say. Enough that I've written a book about it here... So what was left to do? Did I love the Vox? Yessir. Was I ready to sell the Pro and buy it? hmm... Sure has been a long time since I actually played that thing...

Next time: "The last dance" or "Baby, why'd you have to go an' do me that way?"

desperate tearings at the truth

Sometimes we make desperate tearings at the truth
because we think we need to conquer it, when in reality
we only need to live through it.

I'm just sayin'.

Tubes part 2: "life in a vacuum" or "Kirk throws a curve"

So it was time to talk amps. Fortunately, I've got more than one friend who likes to do that. My brother-in-law, Scott, and my long-time musical crony Bill Lewis were both more than happy to dish on their latest encounters of the amplified kind (since I had none of my own).

This was a good time, but unfortunately they were a little too full of information--I started out going from zero new-amp interest to the AC30, and by the time Scott & Bill finished, I was also hot to try out new gear from both Mesa/Boogie (the Lone Star Special) and Orange!

Then, just when I thought I was all ready for some test driving (Scott and I had even made a plan to go to C. V. Lloyd's over Christmas break), Kirk threw a curve.

With his "sweetness" post, Kirk re-awakened my awareness of the great mystical vacuum tube. The heart and soul of little egg-frying AC amps like my Delta. He also re-awakened my memories of seeing my amp referred to by internet forum-posting rockers as "the poor man's vox"--so I started digging again.

What if I could have the best of both worlds? The great AC30 sound plus $1500 smackers with which to play musical gear roulette? If I could modify the Delta to do what I thought the AC30 could do, then that would leave me with a lot of liquid capital! (Can anyone here say "Yamaha AES1500B?" Uh huh.)

Sure enough, I found a wealth of information on mod-ing a Delta 2x10" into Vox-y goodness. From the sounds of things, a new set of JJ tubes and a mismatched pair of Weber replacement speakers (silver and blue alnico) would set me back around $250 and leave me wallowing in lush, chimey, overdriven faux Vox vibe. For an extra kick, I could even build myself a small closed-back extension cab for the Peavey stock speakers in the Delta (Eminence, I believe), and give myself a little more low-end punch. Nothing like 30 watts AC coming through four 10" speakers, two open-back, two closed!

Just to test those waters, I sent an email shout-out to Bob at Eurotubes, to see what he had to say (if anything) about the kind of mods I wanted to make. Lo and behold, he actually responded to me! And was helpful! (Not to mention cheap. Which is pretty important to me, I'm sure most of you know.) Having had luck with Bob, I also emailed Ted Weber at Weber Speakers, Kokomo, IN. (that's right...)

Ted was a lii-ttle less helpful, getting the speaker wiring config for my amplifier wrong, but I'm going to cut him slack because A) he even bothered to email me back, which he certainly didn't have to, and B) he actually tried to look up the specs on my amp and then chose the correct ohmage and wattage, which shows more initiative than I could be bothered to take, myself, even though it's my amp.

A little research, a couple emails to some industry leaders, and a short conversation about ohmage with my bass-playing-demigod of a brother-in-law (Mike, Deb's brother--not be be confused with my knob-tweaking, lead-guitar-playing, Mesa-wielding brother-in-law, Scott, my sister's husband)... and I was pretty sure that not only did I have a good solid "sell the Pro, buy a Vox" angle to work from, but also a pretty good "forget the Vox, mod the delta, get groovy bonus gear" angle, as well!

But there was still the plan to visit C.V. Lloyd's with Scott, and it didn't seem prudent for me to launch off in some other direction without following that through. I needed to plug in and see what some of these amps could do. In person.

(Next time: "Scott & John go to town" or "You've got a little 'Boogie right there... No. More to the left. Where your face used to be."

Tubes part 1: John wants an AC30?

It started with a sound.

I kept hearing this guitar sound.. on the radio, on albums, on television shows.. and it was a good sound. "Crazy-good", even. Kind of this clean-yet-melty, gritty-but-smooth tone. It sounded good with rock drums. It sounded good with slide players. It sounded good with jazz bass. mmm...

Invariably, the camera would pan across the stage, and there it would be--the Vox AC30.

I also noticed that a lot of the guitarists were playing Gibson guitars. Ones with "Classic '57" pickups in them.

Now, I'm perfectly happy with my amplifier. At least, mostly perfectly. I'm playing a Peavey Delta Blues with two 10" speakers in it, and it's a really nice sounding little amp. Pretty versatile while at the same time retaining a distinct tone of its own. And I'm perfectly happy with my guitars. (although I would like to add my dream guitar--a Yamaha AES1500B--to the stable)

Suddenly, though, it occured to me. "Hey! Maybe I should be looking at a different amp/guitar combo!" You know, because if this is the sound I want, and I'm not getting it, and this is the way to get it... then...

I try to be a pragmatist when it comes to musical equipment. I'm not one. But I try to be. Mostly because of my severely limitted cash flow. So when I decide that I need some new piece of gear, that usually means I have to sell off whatever piece it is "replacing." ("Replacing" in quotes, because to me, gear is like children. You can get new ones, but they can never really replace an older one.)

So now I had to drop into "scheme" mode, and figure out a way that this might actually be possible. No point in wasting precious emotional and mental energy deciding to make a purchase and then not being able to!

But at this point in my personal gear game, the scheme is getting pretty complex. Especially when I'm trying to come up with at least $1,000 (the price of the cheapest AC30)! I've got 5 guitars, and only one of them is even remotely negociable, in my mind. It'd bring about $300, but I don't think I can part with it unless it's replaced by the aforementioned dream guitar. Then I've got a small fender amp that's worth about $150. That doesn't bring us up to a grand now, does it? What to do?

Then it hit me. I've got another amp! It was my grandfather's, and has been with me for years--both before and after his death. It's a "blackface" Fender Pro Reverb, circa 1967, and is worth about $1,500. I don't play the amp, because it and I don't really get along too well. I want it to do one thing, it wants to do another, and that's where we sit.

Grandpa was a country/western and bluegrass picker back in the day, travelling around calling squaredances--his old epiphone archtop plugged into channel 2, and an EV microphone plugged into channel 1. After his playing days were behind him, and I began my own, the amp came to live with me. I've always kind of hated it, but beggars can't be choosers, and eventually, like we do with so many things family-related, I became emotionally attached to it. I didn't play it, but I sure wasn't going to sell it. Or was I.. ?

Now we had the means. (for both the AC30 and the '57 classics, if I so desired!) Time to see if the prize was worth the price. Time to play some amps!

(Coming up: Kirk throws me a curve, and Scott & John go to town.)

ouch. ouch. ouch.

I'm supposed to be in the office today, but I'm not.

I was crazy sick the last couple of days. The kind of sick that makes you pray the rosary even though you are not, and never have been, catholic. So today I am trying to build the system back up for going into the office tomorrow. 11:35 a.m.? Time for a nap, I think..

Thought I'd better get a post on here, though, since I know that other people will be getting back into the office, and I don't want to disappoint by not having something new here to distract you from your actual responsibilities.

Best wishes for a great new year, everybody!