moving, for realz. for a long time anyway.
Katy has permission to work remotely for wizards and I had an interview with the state public health lab for their bioterrorism defense unit (federally funded position). So yeah, with at least one job set we are moving. I figure I have a pretty good shot with the state job since it requires BSL-3 experience which I'm going to guess is pretty rare in general and more rare for non-PhD's that might be in AK.
Yes indeed its good to be heading up. Shit seems pretty well worked out except all the work that it takes to get our house sold.
We are going to start working on the land up on birch. If I get the time I'll probably just roam around this fall with a chainsaw doing some clearing. But hopefully we can get builders lined up during the winter and get starting next spring. Not sure what sort of architectural specialty you have Mike, but we have some house plans that we're going to be playing around with a bit to better suit our needs.
Not exactly. The one I had, though cared for pretty well, had some serious planned obsolescence to it. The seal around the pump piston failed, so it wouldn't maintain any sort of pressure. It was cheaper to buy a new one.
The new one we bought, however, was hilarious. It was a different type of sprayer, which rather than being a single, high-pressure hose, it was more like a big vacuum cleaner that just blew in reverse.
Long story short: I put at least three coats of white paint on the walls in my grandmother's basement, far, far back in the back utility room. But the new paint sprayer moved enough air that I pretty much coated the entire floor of her basement (not just the utility room) with a sheen of white paint. And we didn't realize until, like, a day after it had dried and we could see the white speckles.
My grandmother has glasses for both near and distance vision. And her knees bother her, so she can't really bend down to get a close look at anything on the floor. But damned if she didn't see those speckles.
I think I know how I'm burning my time at work today. Laurance family surely has some shit to share once we arrive and tools are only the half of it.
Shiiiit ya'll don't even know that you also have a mini REI coming to town when I get there. I could supply a whole damn boy scout troop with what I got in my garage. I could break the number one rule of war in Europe and invade Russia during the winter.
Well that was fun.
I wont have too much to add tools wise that hasn't already been obtained by most standard homeowners. But I feel my real contribution will come in the form of adventure gear that anyone might want to borrow. I for one fully intend on getting myself out hiking and camping with some frequency and with varying levels of difficulty and adventure. More importantly I intend on dragging some of you with me and my gear supply list can take any unprepared fool and turn them into at least a better prepared fool.
Maybe Erik will read this and dispense with the lawn-mowing bleatings once and for all.
I have a degree in Environmental Design, which is a 4 year Architecture degree. A lot of schools have a five year Bachelor of Architecture program, while A&M has a 4 year ENDS track. The ultimate goal for either type of institution is a Masters of Architecture. For ENDS, it means a 2 year masters degree, for a traditional 5 year BoA it's a 1 year masters degree. The 5 year degree generally covers another Structures and Systems class, and then more design studios. The additional year of graduate school covers the same. But as such, with a 4 year Arch degree, I cannot get licensed to practice Architecture. I would need a graduate degree, or something like 10 additional years of professional practice under a licensed architect.
If I had a masters degree I would have to accumulate my hours (roughly 3 years full time worth, though it typically takes longer) under an architect before I could sit exams (another 3 years worth) before being licensed. Only then could I stamp off on drawings, certifying them as safe structures. And even then, most architects don't know enough to stamp their own drawings, and instead rely on older architects who have much better insurance coverage.
I left grad school (Urban Planning) at the end of 2007 to join Kristen up here. The job market was dogshit, and I found a job at Corvus Design, a landscape architecture firm. A different world, but good design principles are the same. My degree isn't job-training in CAD or Photoshop, but rather spatial awareness and critical thinking. So I worked for Corvus until 2013 designing exterior spaces. Plazas, stairs, rails, plantings. A lot of bread and butter projects we call Title 21 up here, for the muni code that governs landscape design. I.E. A hotel or Walmart or other big, boring projects that make us a lot of money. The more fun, smaller profit margin projects meant designing seating walls, speccing expensive Scandinavian benches, and drawing very specific details.
Regardless, I'm a long way removed from doing floor plans and architectural detailing. I feel comfortable creating concepts that are proportional and spatially satisfying, but when it comes to construction detailing and material choice, I am in the dark.
All that said, I would absolutely love to help you draw up plans for a home. I would encourage you to not just take cookie-cutter floor plans from a builder, but rather spend a little more money by having an architect review your ultimate goals. They can see things a builder will likely not consider. A few examples:
Building Orientation: The simple act of considering the sun when orienting your house can take you from liking your house to loving it. A sun-angle calculator can determine the appropriate depth of eaves to keep you from baking inside during a hot summer, as well as soaking up the sun on a cold winter day. You might consider where your spaces are located based on the time of day. The master bedroom probably shouldn't face west, as long summer days will mean going to bed with direct sunlight. We generally like to rise with the sun, so your kitchen and breakfast area should be towards the east south-east. Your deck and patio shouldn't be on the north facade - you will end up not using it.
Procession: How we use and move through space is important. So many homes I've seen up here don't consider the use. They were built in the 80's during a building boom when anyone and everyone was into construction. Spaces are awkwardly sized and the use ill considered. If you're into Feng Shui, there are simple concepts off "flow of energy", such as not having your exit at the end of stairs or hallways. The invisible energy aspect may be superstitious horse shit, but the concept of procession is sound, in my opinion. It is comfortable to enter a space through a suitable transition (when necessary), such as the entryway of your home, or between semi-public to private space. For instance, one thing about my house that is weird is that our master bedroom is directly off the living room. Though we are often asleep when everyone else in the house is abed, it never-the-less creates an awkward transition between deeply private space and shared space. The same principles apply to guest bathrooms, storage, etc.
Spatial Proportions: Builders like to recreate styles that don't make sense for the arctic. Large entryways with spacious ceilings can be awkward and uninviting (as well as costly to heat). Grand rooms with 25' ceilings don't make a lot of sense unless you're moving hot, humid air out (or if you're entertaining a large crowd). Columns and Tudor style homes are bizarre (to me) up here. There are more elegant solutions that will make more sense for the local vernacular and climate. Some of these decision come down to material choice (Which can get expensive), but pure spatial or volume design can save you money on heating AND make a better space to live in.
Use: Appliances can be afterthoughts. Why are the washer and dryer so far from the bedrooms? Plan ahead with an overflow pan and drainage and there is no reason your laundry is needlessly hauled up and down stairs. Add a utility sink (or at least the hookups) in your garage and cleaning filthy outdoors shit becomes so much easier (particularly in winter).
All these ideas apply to the exterior of your house as well. How and why you use the space can take you from a disjointed piece of property to well planned uses. The cool thing about both the architecture and landscape is that much of it can be phased in. Finishes and details can be planned ahead of time and completed over time as you desire. For instance, if you want a big shed or workshop or greenhouse, grade the property for it. Might want a nice patio later? Moving dirt will be one of the biggest upfront costs to development. If you design those things at the outset, you'll save yourself so much headache down the road.
Well fuck. Now I remember why I fell in love with design and architecture. Let me know how I can help you guys when the time comes.
Oh man, Mike this post rocks my socks. There are many things I am excited about in moving back to AK, but now I'm especially excited about talking to you about our building ideas.
Right now, we're looking at cribbing off this plan: http://www.concepthome.com/house-plans/small-house-ch62-house-plan/32/ (www.concepthome.com)
Nice. That's a fun place to start. I particularly like the wood stove.
I'm not going to stop thinking about this until you guys are laying a foundation. What does the site look like? I know I've walked by, but I can't quite remember which portion of the wooded area it is. How flat (or not flat) is it? How big overall?
Looking at that floor plan, I'm guessing you're wanting roughly 1600-2000 sq ft? 3 bedroom + office, 2.5 bath. Attached garage? If I know JD, I'd suggest thinking about a work space within the garage for storage & tinkering with that REI Outlet equipment.
Any other particulars? Shoot me an email if you'd like. I'm going to churn this in my mind-brain like Josh does when I ask him something seemingly innocuous.
Yep, looking at about 1600 sf (roughly what we have now), with 3 bedrooms plus a craft room/guest room.
We want an attached 2 car garage with a shop space, as well as a mother in law apartment above (we're struggling with how to integrate this with the house without it looking like one long rectangular box). Maybe a butler's cottage?
The lot is more than 1 acre, but less than two, and mostly flat with at least one hill (JD, do I have this right?)
We are also trying to figure out how to make this as energy efficient as possible, and build in smart storage and utility (read: between stud shelving, laundry chutes, kitchen to garage garbage transfer chutes, etc). I have lots of ideas, some of which you can see here: www.pinterest.com/klaurance/dream-house/ (www.pinterest.com).
Related: Shadowcliffe House https://placesjourn...re-of-harry-weese/ (placesjournal.org)
Lots of variations on spelling it depending how smarmy you need to be.
John switches between being really excited about moving to being all pre-teeny and acting like nothing is cool. It's hard to ever get a read on what is exciting to him, unless he's telling us about something.
In general he's got all of his close cousins up there and he is always talking about fun stuff he wants to do with them. I think he'll be ok. He will be going to goldenview this fall for 7th grade, that hillside ghetto is a rough place so I'm sure he'll have a tough time.
Pertinent to this thread. We will be changing wireless carriers to something where we actually get data in AK as well as taking over home internet as part of our staying with Katy's dad.
So who do you have for cell service, do you like it, is it expensive as all hell.
Who's the best game in town for home internet?
Everything is expensive. And everything sucks.
That said, I've had fairly good luck with AT&T around town. However, the hillside is sort of another story, particularly that side of the hill. Last I knew anything about it, AT&T has their one tower up near Bear Valley, and a lot of your coverage is determined by line of sight from there. Alternatives are GCI (who recently acquired ACS's wireless service) or Verizon. Verizon is relatively new.
GCI tends to have the best in terms of speed, but their bandwidth caps are ridiculous. Not sure what you guys are used to in terms of streaming, etc., but most of GCI's plans have it where the speed of the cable modem can exhaust your monthly transfer cap within 2-3 days (running at full speed).
ACS is the alternative, and is uncapped, but tends to be relatively slow.
There is also Borealis Broadband, but they tend to cater to businesses and more exotic setups. However, I haven't done any research into if they've been getting into residential Internet since I dealt with them last.
We use GCI's new No Worries plan at 134/mo for 300gb downloads. Last fall we had 3 people streaming their netflix, MLB, HBO, and etc and only got close to the cap once out of four months. Even then, that was during baseball playoffs.
J-Rho just hasn't updated his GCI plan in a while. Even though the same cost plan would get him more benefits and data without increasing his monthly cost.
I think M&K got around the AT&T problem by getting a microcell.
AT&T works really well along the road system. If you start looking at rural Alaska, GCI is the only cell provider worth using.
Hahaha I'm glad I'm not the only one giving Josh shit about that ;)
Although- it would cost $15 more per month for the most similar to what he's got (so, $85 a month I think?). But on a per unit basis it is far superior. I hate paying money to GCI, but it's really the only option if you want quality streaming. As for running out of bandwidth, that only happened to me when I decided to download and install EVERY game I owned on steam on the new computer. If you only stream, you don't have to go all the way to $134, the $85 should cut it. Plus you can always upgrade or buy additional bandwidth if you need it - they actually are nice about informing you of your caps rather than just straight charging you (FUCK YOU AT&T).
Kris and I are in a little hole here off Birch, and had to buy a Microcell (www.att.com) to use our phones. Before we would get intermittent coverage - 4G one moment, Edge the next, nothing at all a minute later. Lots of frustrating dropped calls. But as soon as you walk out of the neighborhood it's back to 4G, so your piece of land might be alright. Coverage around town and on the road system is great.
We use ACS, for 4mb down and unlimited bandwidth at $105/month (after fees and all that). I think their new minimum is 10mb down, but they haven't upgraded the switch or internet-dumptruck-machine in my area yet. I can stream in 720, but can't have multiple tasks going. If Kristen decides to watch netflix while I'm trying to play a game, one of us has to give it up at 4mb down. Downloads of large content obviously take longer.
The plus is that I don't give a shit about data caps. Do I want to download a TB of disgusting deep web filth (www.youtube.com)? Put it in the old queue. Do I worry about running out of juice on the 25th and being unable to stream delicious content? No friendly GCI texts for me.
So for the next year, at least until a habitable portion of our house is built, we will be staying up at Katy's dads place by goldenview. So I have to see what internet is even available for him as we are taking over the internet bill. Katy will be working remotely and plus her and the boys watch a fair bit of netflix and the like so we will need some serious dataz each month for that. I don't think I'll be traveling around the deep parts of the state much but I might and it would be great to maintain cell coverage.
I should say that some of the various pluses of living down south is cheap internet and phone service. I pay $60 a month for pretty solid comcast internet, and $30 a month for pre-paid cell. Granted T mobile while cheap has the shittiest coverage imaginable and I get no data in AK otherwise I sure as shit would keep that plan.
I love the cheapness and ease of prepaid plans and would consider one of the GCI prepaids. If you guys have any experience with that let me know, like I didn't know Tmobile prepaid wouldn't give me data up there since they don't readily admit that service is different between their contract and prepaid customers.
Cheap fruits, vegetables and internet are the few things I have to give up to move back.
Have a GCI prepaid phone I activate for rural Alaska trips. Even in Anchorage, pre-trip, data sucks balls. EDGE and 3G, both spotty, outside Anchorage. Text and voice phone calls were the only reliable things in all locations.
On the road system, ATT is far superior to GCI. GCI's only benefit is that in rural Alaska communities, they're the only presence. If you're headed into the backcountry, no one has service, unless it's near the TAPS right of way.
Oh my... I'm laughing so that I don't cry. I was raised by STP (and a cup of coffee (www.homestarrunner.com)).
My yearly shout out for biking to work. Looks like Anchorage is pretty dry so hopefully there won't be too much of an impediment to to cycling for the riders up there. Get to it guys. Make some teams, get the word out.
This year I'm going for a 1000 mile month, which is going to be pretty tough with only 19 work days for me to do it in. Not sure what adventures this year holds for me as compared to last year, but I think I'm ready to get started.
I've been working back and forth between Roi and Kwajalein, and I park the cart on Roi in the same spot each time to simplify things. The first time I came up, I drove around and then noticed a bunch of broken eggs in the back of the cart... because the pseudo-feral chickens had been using it as a nest! I felt kind of bad, but washed out the egg gunk and didn't think too much about it.
Flash forward to the next time I come up, about a week later. Driving around again, and look back: MORE EGGS. These chickens apparently like the METAL bed, which has to get like 100+F in direct sunlight. Oh well, minor chicken murder.
Flash forward to today, I'm cruising around the island doing the WWII battle tour (pretty interesting). I stop near the radars to read a sign and see this PACK of chickens hauling ass towards me (note: chickens running is just terrifying and hilarious). The gather around me, assuming I'm going to feed them - no payback, luckily. But the juveniles start looking at my sandled feet... and then start pecking. I little have to run away from juvenile chickens, it was hilarious and a little bit of karma I suppose.
They're definitely my favorite non-indigenous animal out here. I may feed them and get a video, because it's gonna be like feeding the sharks I imagine.
Well whatever still applying for jobs up there, in fact Dave there's a neat looking job with the Alaska native Tribal Health Consortium that it looks like I might get an interview for. (they at least want to run a background check on me so I'm hopeful)
I recall your aunt/(some other relative) works for ANMC. Does she like it there?
SPDCA: Garmin Vivosmart Smartwatch
A few years ago, I had an impulse buy on a watch that looked to be sorta sporty. And by "sorta sporty," I mean it had the ability to take your pulse. Other than that, it was just an electronic wristwatch.
I liked it. It wasn't fancy. But it gave me someting to look at, and something to do with my hands when I didn't know what to do with my hands. It got me out of the habit of whipping out my phone ever so often to check the time, and having time on my wrist worked out really well for biking.
Then the battery on the thing ran out. And in replacing it, I destroyed its capability to take my pulse (though, I didn't really miss it that much).
Then the plastic band started to wear. And then it eventually broke. And now it just sits on the small shelf in my bathroom, reminding me that I have 10 minutes to dress, eat breakfast, and brush my teeth after my shower.
This last December, Someone was being bad about the control of sensitive information, and let leak their Christmas gift idea for their spouse. It was the Garmin Vivosmart, which I thought was intriguing. It wasn't the gaudy, wrist-calculator smartwatches I'd seen before, but instead a smart band that didn't have an interface except for when you interacted with it. About a month later, the giftee demoed their band at a party and I was still pretty interested as someone who is a fan of subtlety and obscure human-computer interfaces.
The band is black, and the display is an array of white LEDs that shine through the band's surface. You "double-tap" the band if you want it to wake up, lighting up the LEDs to display one of the display mades it has. By default, it will show you the time, but if you "swipe" the current screen left or right it will cycle through your current step count, how far you are in your step goals for the day, and if you have any notifications on your phone. Other than the step counter, most everything on the interface is read-only. You can start/stop/play music from your phone, but after accidentally trigger it at home, and almost doing it again at work, I turned that shit off right quick. It doesn't do the Johnny Quest microphone thing, but I don't feel bad about that. It sort of just makes you look like a tool.
I haven't quite figured out how the step counter feature is implemented. I've been walking outright with the step counter up and it hasn't been counting, and I've been running full speed on my treadmill and it's been counting by twos. It definitely knows that I'm at the computer, not doing anything, because it will vibrate and flash briefly at you if you need to move. I like this, and I don't like this. It makes me want to figure out a better way of getting up and moving around at work. However, if I'm in all-day workshops or whatever, most times I've been notified I have to just ignore it. I can even tell the difference in vibrations between the "Move!" notification and the other normal notifications. So I know when I'm being lazy without even looking at it.
Notifications from your phone work quite well. If you get a text, email, or really any notification that you can subscribe to using the Android notification system, the band will buzz and it will light up with a short summary of the notification. If you keep tapping on it, it will slowly scroll through the contents of the notification message.
The application on my phone is functional, and provides a pretty nice way to subscribe / unsubscribe from notifications (which I've made good use of). I haven't been making super great use of it for exercise, so I haven't gone back to look extensively at the exercise data it collects. I like that it does, and I get a weird pat-on-the-back feeling when it puts up a "GOAL ACHIEVED" in front of a fireworks display. Usually this happens when I don't expect it, and I laugh.
Battery life has so far been awesome. It's supposed to last for seven days, but I don't have any clear indication on whether it needs charged or not. It's been running without complaining for about four days, so we'll assume we can get this far.
The real test will come when I start biking. The "double tap to wake" thing may be a problem, given that I have to keep my hands on the handlebars. However, I'm slowly learning that I don't necessary have to double-tap with my other hand, as I can just tap on any hard surface to get the same effect. Also, about half the time I can flick my wrist twice and get it to trigger. Aaaand as I tried it again just now, it took me, like, 5 tries. Sometimes it's a little consistent. However, I have the feeling that it's because I wear it upside down. Not that it should really matter with an accelerometer, but here we are.
So far, I am enjoying my first foray into "smart wear." I hope I don't wear through this watch band like I did my last.
In my experience with the Misfit stepcounter on my Pebble, and inferring some of what E's done with her Vsmart, it sounds like it's algorithmic and analyzes motion after the fact. I think the stepcounter does what it can to keep up in real time, but at least on the Misfit it will adjust the stepcounter after an active spell.
Clearly I'm the spouse. ;) I've had mine since Christmas and I still really like it. Random thoughts after reading your thoughts:
Battery life comes in consistently at about 6 days for me. I don't like that it doesn't give you an easier way to check that, but eventually it will show a low battery symbol on the home screen. If it shows that at 8:05am right after I get to work, it will die by 5:25pm, 10 minutes before I get home. A decent amount of warning depending on how many notifications you get. YMMV
I really need to deactivate the music controls. I accidentally triggered my music during church. Fortunately it was only Elton John that started playing.
Water resistancy is great. I've showered, swum, done dishes, and bathed the baby in it. No issues.
If I leave my phone in my office while I"m on the reference desk, the bluetooth is almost in range. So it will continually connect and disconnect which causes lots of vibrating and notifying and probably drains my battery.
When I'm walking through Fred Meyer or Costco and pushing the cart, it doesn't count my steps. My old fitbit used to give me almost 2 miles of credit if I did both of those in a row. It makes me irrationally angry not to get that credit. So I do this thing where I try to push the cart one handed. Also I should probably work out more efficient routes through the stores.
I love the firework goal achieved and I'm enjoying letting it set goals for me, pushing me more each day. And then I fail many days in a row and it back pedals on the goals. It's fun. I like to imagine its tiny robot brain saying, FINE, you won't walk 7,000 steps, can you please just leave your office today?
Also my baby has learned to hit the band until it wakes up which amuses me.
This is one of the best metal EPs I have ever heard. I came in with some expectations due to high praise for this band across the interwebs, but the songs still managed to impress me. Both softer and more brutal than I expected, all of the disparate styles (of metal, plus prog rock) flow pretty seamlessly as each song progresses. An incredible independent debut. Great use of 8-string guitars as well!
4.5/5 - Exceptional metal EP, although not quite perfect (the second song, The Mountain Top, does interesting things with screaming vox but doesn't necessarily improve the listening experience IMHO). So much promise. They've since released a full length, can't wait to give it a listen.
I got this album for free from Google. All in all, not a bad album, there are some catchy tunes, but man the album falls apart after the first four songs (which are all excellent, and, yes, singles). I would compare this album to eating a lot of mass produced candy: it tastes great at the onset, but you realize too late you've eaten 4 servings and have a stomach ache. Also, much like Hershey's, they use weird ingredients to make the chocolate smooth in the form of samples and whatnot... which make many of the tunes catchier but do not hold up on repeated listens.
2.5/5 - OK, nothing special elevates this from normal radio music. No better, no worse. At least it's not Nickelback.
To clue anyone in: we managed to get people together to play Counter-striike 1.6. Like it was 2001 again.
Will post here if people are interested in if / when we play next.
(Also, we haven't only been playing CS, but it is one of the few games that most of our computers can play, and supports greater than 4 players)
This was a tough album to digest. Although titled Language, the lyrics were (ironically) not included with the CD and are pretty symbolic. But, after researching them online and listening to the album a bazillion times, I finally understand the concept and my mind was kind of blown. It's summarized in spoken word (apparently by a man named Allan Waits) at the end of the album:
"In other words, the so-called involuntary circulation of your blood is one continuous process with the stars shining. If you find out it's YOU who circulates your blood, you will at the same moment find out that you are shining the sun. Because your physical organism is one continuous process with everything else that's going on. Just as the waves are continuous with the ocean. Your body is continuous with the total energy system of the cosmos, and it's all you. Only you're playing the game that you're only this bit of it."
You are the language... OF THE COSMOS, trying to understand itself. Being a materialistic in denial (because it's just too depressing), this concept is fascinating to me.
But besides the lyrical content, what about the music? Here the album falls a little short, because I feel like it doesn't completely match the concept. The idea of ebb and flow is persistent in the lyrics, but doesn't translate well to the music because nothing repeats, like, ever. On the entire album. I feel like some sort of ebb and flow in musical motifs would have been helpful to convey the message a bit better. That being said... the compositions are amazing, if altogether a bit too meandering. It also contributes to making this album pretty impenetrable until at least half a dozen listens.
3.5/5 - Very good. Love the lyrical concept, wished the music matched it a bit better. The compositions are amazing in a vacuum, but are too meandering too completely stick with you. Wanted to rate this one higher, but here we are; I think back to The Ocean's Pelagial - there is a concept album where the music really conveys the message as well as the lyrics.
I fell in love with El-P and Killer Mike because of Run the Jewels, which is far and away my most beloved hip hop group. RTJ and RTJ2 are just both SO GOOD. Because of this, I wanted to go back and see each of these artists prior to their collaboration. I found out that they had met each other while doing El-P's Cancer 4 Cure album (and also because El-P produced Killer Mike's R.A.P. Music, which I also own). So of course I went and got it.
This is a pretty dark album. Apparently El-P described it as "fight music abstracted"... and it certainly does have a sort of slow burning anger surrounding it, like there is a mob just on the outside of the soundstage ready to burst in. It was also apparently recorded as an homage to a friend of his who died of cancer a few years prior to the recording. In any case, whatever sad muse it might be, this album is pretty awesome, and a solid precursor to Run the Jewels. In fact, many of the songs have proto-beats found on RTJ and RTJ2.
3.5/5 - Very good hip hop album. Nowhere near RTJ or RTJ2, but still a solid listen from front to back.
This is one of those albums that is kind of hard to judge. It's certainly well done for the subgenre (orchestral melodic blackened death metal, since I love playing the metal subgenre game), but it brings absolutely nothing new to the table. It's the perfect blend of Dimmu Borgir, Old Man's Child, and a more modern metal approach, but it is not as accomplished as any of those individual elements. The lyrics are definitely grim enough, but each song ends up kind of sounding the same, there is just very little variety to the approach. The upside is that I got this album for super cheap in some bundle... I'm such a music junky, that's how I roll son!
2.5/5 - Just OK. While I enjoyed it to a certain extent, and the production is generally pretty good, I just don't see any reason to really come back to this album. Solid but forgettable.
