Singularly Focused On Chewing

Singularly Focused On Chewing
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Few things make a Puggle more content.

Flooding In The Woodlands

Flooding In The Woodlands
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Alternate titles for this post included "When Lake Woodlands Attacks" , "Aquatic Park Benches" , and "I Think My Fountain Has Swine Flu".

Soap

Soap
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

A Fleur De Lis and a W...it just kind of fits.

iPod Closeup

iPod Closeup
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

My old MP3 work horse. A 60GB iPod Color which still serves as my primary daily listening device almost 4 years later.

Twitter Week In Review 2009-04-18 To 2009-04-24

@dudesy916 You must zone out during my new tech demos at work, like the one where I showed TweetDeck...a month ago. ;-)

12:38 PM Apr 18th from TweetDeck in reply to dudesy916

Sat spent working on my Hewitt InfoSec paper & doing a few things around the house; went to the @bjmitts Crawfish Boil in PM...good times!

9:20 AM Apr 19th from TweetDeck

Posted this week's JW/Electronica Classic: Hybrid on One World 2003; amazing live breakbeat performance: http://tinyurl.com/cyelqj

9:58 AM Apr 19th from TweetDeck

Landry's Crawfish Boil = AWESOME. http://twitpic.com/3m1co

2:28 PM Apr 19th from Tweetie

I like to see NOLA getting publicity, even on Twitter. Plus, half the tags in this cloud could be NOLA-centric! http://twitpic.com/3n1wc

10:44 PM Apr 19th from TweetDeck

Didn't get quite as much paper writing done today as hoped, but did have some fun w/Ash & Puggles; family sometimes has to trump school.

10:52 PM Apr 19th from TweetDeck

@dsilverman Heard of any AT&T 3G data outages around Houston? We've had 0 3G all morning in The Woodlands in places I'd normally get 5 bars.

12:05 PM Apr 20th from Tweetie

Downed a mini-pot of coffee; let's see how long I can ride this caffeine wave towards paper-writing progress!

7:30 PM Apr 20th from Tweetie

Calmer Mon @ work actually allowed me to...work. Measurable progress in PM on my Hewitt Info Sec paper; should be able to finalize tomorrow.

11:34 PM Apr 20th from Tweetie

Digging Tweetie for Mac; fits nicely into same Space as Adium; will prob run in parallel to TweetDeck which needs its own space but is great

11:59 PM Apr 20th from Tweetie

@ATTNews Have changes been made to 3G towers around The Woodlands TX (just north of Houston) recently? Our 3G coverage has been poor this wk

1:01 PM Apr 21st from Tweetie

RT @TheEllenShow: Hey Tulane students - I've told you to follow me...and you're gonna find out why tomorrow!

6:18 PM Apr 21st from Tweetie

Knocked out a single, but important task @ work today; home in PM for more Info Sec paper writing...1 more section to go, then iPhone paper.

11:10 PM Apr 21st from Tweetie

RT: @Pogue -BREAKING POGUE TWITTER NEWS- Dear followers: We're about to become a book! Get psyched! Here's the details: http://bit.ly/2b8FQ

11:17 PM Apr 21st from Tweetie

Wow: Oakenfold + Sandra Collins @ Rich's Houston on 5/15; 2 of my wildest NOLA stories involve them @ MardiGras '01 http://twitpic.com/3r67u

11:47 PM Apr 21st from TweetDeck

Speaking of Sandra Collins, #7 on this CD = WIN; reminds me of cruising around uptown NOLA; check the Listen link: http://tinyurl.com/dfllja

12:16 AM Apr 22nd from Tweetie

Man, AT&T's 3G coverage is still completely MIA in The Woodlands,TX. What happened over the weekend?

1:16 PM Apr 22nd from Twinkle

Not a bad Wed; caught up on some projs @ work, then finished my Info Sec paper in PM after watching Fringe w/Puggles. Exam study, then bed.

11:39 PM Apr 22nd from Tweetie

This wk is draining me; AM spent @ office, PM working @ home waiting for Comcast tech who didn't show; studied in evening for Fri's final.

10:26 PM Apr 23rd from Tweetie

@JustonWestern 's #followfriday @ashleyzw @MattWestern @nojf @TulaneNews @voodooexp2009 NOLA fun next weekend! #jazzfest

5:52 AM Apr 24th from Tweetie

RT @Pogue 13 yr old downloads 1 billionth iPhone app. Wins $10K gift card, laptop, iPod, Time Capsule, & universal envy. http://bit.ly/pmP5l

10:40 AM Apr 24th from Tweetie

Just had a Which Wich sandwich over at the new location here in The Woodlands; super busy, but great food!

1:06 PM Apr 24th from Tweetie

Listening to the #JazzFest broadcast on www.wwoz.org; can't wait to be there next Sat & Sun!

1:14 PM Apr 24th from Tweetie

InfoSec exam in AM; uninterrupted work @ office; lunch out @ Which Wich, then iPhone dev proj outline in PM; lots-o-ground to cover Sat/Sun.

11:24 PM Apr 24th from Tweetie

Just wanted to make another plug for @nojf; it's an aggregator acct that RT's any tweet w/JazzFest or #jazzfest in it; interesting to watch!

11:27 PM Apr 24th from Tweetie

JW / Electronica Classics 012: Sasha's NYE 1999 Mix At Ally Pally

I've been doing a lot of writing this week for school, and for some reason late 90's trance music helps get me in a focused frame of mind. In that spirit, I offer up this classic set from Sasha recorded on New Year's Eve 1999 at Alexandra Palace in London.

It's notable that during the years of 1998 & 1999, you'd be hard pressed to differentiate a Sasha set from a Paul Oakenfold or Paul Van Dyk set. There seemed to be a convergence in the style of music during those years from many of the famous European DJs. By 2000 or 2001, each of those guys were pursuing noticeably distinct sounds.

As you listen to this performance, it's easy to remember the kind of pre-millenial, chaotic but hopeful exuberance that trance music really seemed to embody. This was at the height of popularity for super clubs in the United Kingdom, and truly for the trance genre as a whole. I think this set really captures that spirit.

Sasha - Essential Mix 1999-01-01 NYE Live at Alexandra Palace, London
Megaupload Link / Rapidshare Link

01. Nuclear Hyde - Contact
02. Orkidea - Unity
03. Libra Presents Taylor - Anomaly (Calling Your Name) (Albion Mix)
04. Tilt - Whats This? (Tilts Tunnel Mix)
05. Caspar Pound - Pioneers Of The Warped Groove (Starecase Mix)
06. Jan Driver - Drive By (Timo Maas Mix)
07. Robert Junior & Danny Polanco - See The Light
08. Silhouette - Silhouette Of Our Love (Dark Matter Mix)
09. Space Manoeuvres - Stage One (Space Manoeuvres Separation Mix)
10. Lucid - Crazy (Nalin & Kane's Down On A Sit Mix)
11. Ecano - Run (Z2 Mix)
12. Mono Culture - Free
13. Danny Tenaglia - Turn Me On (Bedrock Mix)
14. Red Devil - Gamelan
15. Humate - Love Stimulation (Paul Van Dyk`s Love Mix)
16. Armin - Virgo
17. Breeder - Twilo Thunder (Stoked Up Mix)
18. Laguna Seca - The Flow (Nalin & Kane Mix)
19. Arrakis - Aira Force
20. Nuclear Hyde - Contact
21. JX - Close To Your Heart (Immortals Mix)

Getting My Money's Worth Out Of My MacBook Pro

Getting My Money's Worth Out Of My MacBook Pro
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Today was the kind of day I planned for when I purchased my MacBook Pro 15 months ago: 20 applications open, 3 Firefox windows totaling 62 tabs, Photoshop, Xcode, every MS Office application, & Google Earth. I love technology. :-)

Dual Skulls

Dual Skulls
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

It just so happened this skull-themed wallpaper rotated through Desktoptopia as I was looking at my Skullcandy headphones.

The Cube Tree

The Cube Tree
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

It's like entering the jungle every time I walk to or from my desk.

The Mind Of A Puggle

The Mind Of A Puggle
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

It runs wild with the visual stimulation provided by life on the other side of the window.

Stuffed Longhorn

Stuffed Longhorn
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Adorning my manager's desk. Yes, he's a UT grad.

Sights Of The Season

Sights Of The Season
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

It's the end of April, so that means...paper writing time! So much paper writing...

More Bars In More Places?

More Bars In More Places?
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Or a dead zone? *cue scary piano sound*

Landry's 13th Annual Crawfish Boil

Landry's 13th Annual Crawfish Boil
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

Beautiful weather, cold beer, and all-you-can-eat crawfish...not a bad Sunday lunch.

More pictures from the boil here.

Twitter Week In Review 2009-04-12 To 2009-04-17

Great Sat; up early for Crescent City Classic, drinks in City Park post-race, then crawfish & Abita @ Bulldog on Magazine with Freddie/Kadee

7:46 AM Apr 12th from Tweetie

Stuck in traffic on I-10 West around exit 810. These 2 hr delays really put a damper on otherwise pleasant travel. :-/

6:56 PM Apr 12th from Tweetie

Posted this week's JW/Electronica Classic: JGriffin Live on WTUL New Orleans 2005; house makes me smile. :-) http://tinyurl.com/cdrxmr

10:56 PM Apr 12th from TweetDeck

Easter mass in NOLA @ St Louis Cathedral in AM; amazing champagne brunch @ Royal Sonesta on Bourbon St; then 6.5 hr drive back to TX in PM.

11:29 PM Apr 12th from TweetDeck

Standard Mon in '09: fixing what went wrong @ work over the weekend; overly ambitious evening agenda didn't reach 100%, but made progress.

10:18 PM Apr 13th from TweetDeck

Digging the new "Strictly Erick Morillo" album.

12:25 PM Apr 14th from TweetDeck

Eeesh, definitely not feeling this new Sharam "Get Wild" album. Makes me long for the days of their Yoshitoshi compilations & GU021 Moscow.

4:55 PM Apr 14th from TweetDeck

Another busy/late day @ the office; PM spent on class videos & research paper prep for Wed interview of Hewitt IS/IT guru; e-mails, then bed

11:41 PM Apr 14th from TweetDeck

@rgremill Gah, did Idol encroach upon Fringe again? I had to watch the last 10 mins on Fox.com last wk since my TiVo recorded as scheduled.

11:43 PM Apr 14th from TweetDeck in reply to rgremill

Kaskade's albums were much better when he was w/Om Records instead of Ultra; alas, his recent comps are forgettable trance-ish house mixes.

11:51 PM Apr 14th from TweetDeck

@dudesy916 What's wrong, man?

12:26 PM Apr 15th from Tweetie in reply to dudesy916

Got a pre-release copy of the GV Mobile iPhone app for Google Voice today from the app's developer; very slick! http://tinyurl.com/d2ftsq

3:41 PM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

Longest day @ office since last fall; evening spent transcribing InfoSec Interview recording + sorting articles for research paper...school.

10:24 PM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

Deep thoughts by Puggles: http://tinyurl.com/d4sycr

11:37 PM Apr 15th from TweetDeck

Lots-o-calls @ work today, nearly all superfluous; broke away for lunch @ Goose's Acre; spent all of PM working on Info Sec research paper.

11:25 PM Apr 16th from TweetDeck

JustonWestern #followfriday @PugglesTXRanger @shayman @DJJohnDigweed @googlevoice @NOLABrewingCo ; a nice smattering of my interests. :-)

12:11 AM Apr 17th from TweetDeck

@shayman Good luck w/the iPhone Under The Hood demo @ Auburn; I'm a current MBA student there, but caught your demo @ U of Houston on 4/1.

12:16 AM Apr 17th from web in reply to shayman

@laurenramsey Pretty slick!

8:43 AM Apr 17th from Tweetie in reply to laurenramsey

The new Wynton Marsalis "He & She" album is providing a proper soundtrack to this rainy Friday in The Woodlands.

2:31 PM Apr 17th from TweetDeck

Took a break to order my birthday present: http://tinyurl.com/b5r42h I've been eyeing it since Feb, & it released just in time for Jazz Fest

4:05 PM Apr 17th from TweetDeck

Short day @ the office; spent the afternoon on school stuff, mostly on an Info Sec research paper; also tweaked prefs in Nambu & added grps.

11:05 PM Apr 17th from Nambu

JW / Electronica Classics 011: Hybrid On One World 2003

This week's choice is the first breakbeat mix in the series and a true musical gem. I first learned about Hybrid back in the fall of 2000. This production team out of the UK was known for its fresh approach to breakbeat music, and represented a noticeable departure from the traditional breakbeat sounds popularized by DJs in Florida in the late 1990s. They gained international fame in the early 2000s when they were the opening act during Moby's tour.

The set was recorded on Radio 1's Maida Vale Live Session back during the summer of 2003 while promoting their then soon-to-be-released Morning Sci-Fi album. A year later, during July of 2004, I was able to conduct a phone interview with Chris Healings of Hybrid and asked him about this performance. Here is an excerpt from that interview.

Originally published in the August 2004 issue of the New Orleans Electronica Digest:

Juston: Your Maida Vale Live Session on One World that was broadcast on Radio 1 in July 2003 still generates buzz on dance music boards around the world. Were you guys aware of the set’s immense popularity amongst your fans?

Chris: We were actually, and you know what? For myself, as well, I think I actually prefer it to “Morning Sci-Fi”.

Juston: Really?

Chris: Yeah, I think it’s a much better set of tracks, mix of tracks. It’s got some of the older stuff in there and it’s got that “live” feel to it. It’s actually going to get released. We’re just releasing a Y4K DJ compilation, but after that there’s going to be another “Remixed & Additional Production” album that we did, which of course we’ve done before. It’s basically a set of all our favorite remixes that we’ve done for other people. We’re currently doing some remixes for Hans Zimmer, the composer. We’ve already gotten a hold of some of the parts from “Hannibal”, the film. So we’re currently remixing some film scores just because it’s rather interesting. So that album of “Remixes & Additional Productions” will be all of our remixes, but the second CD will be that live show from the BBC. Hopefully there will be some footage on there, too. Let’s see, what all did we have there that day? I think it was something like 40 classical players, we had Peter Hook from New Order there, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and then we had our 5 or 6 piece live act. So there were a lot of people in there that day.

Juston: Yeah, it sounded like quite the full studio that day.

But I’ll tell you what, my god was I stressed. (laughs) Pulling that one together was a bit tricky. But it came out really well. So that’s gonna get released, a proper release, because it really deserves it.

If that doesn't pique your interest, I fear little else will. Enjoy!

Hybrid - Live Session On One World Radio 1 2003-07-25
Megaupload Link / Rapidshare Link

1 - Visible Noise / Theme From Wide Angle
2 - Kill City (Live Mix)
3 - If I Survive (Adam's Vocal Cover)
4 - I'm Still Awake
5 - Know Your Enemy
6 - Higher Than A Skyscraper
7 - True To Form
8 - Blackout

Rainy Day Puggles

Rainy Day Puggles
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

The little guy zonked out, listening to the rain hit the window.

Friday Night Research

Friday Night Research
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

All my notes spread out in Puggles' room as I try to logically correlate the gathered information. And a little Longboard Island Lager by the baseboard to quench my thirst.

Garbage Receptacle

Garbage Receptacle
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

This is where the trash goes in Hewitt's cafeteria.

Waterway Square

Waterway Square
Originally uploaded by Juston Western

As seen on my walk to The Goose's Acre for lunch this afternoon. Perfect weather for patio dining by the waterway.