I’ve worked as a consultant now for many years. I’ve walked into a lot of businesses. There are businesses you walk into and people smile. They have photos on their desks, perhaps even company trophies and awards. They are genuinely interested in greeting you, as if they are extending their pride or pleasure in being an employee at that company.

Than there are the others. Desks are often sterile as if that person feels they are only there temporarily, marking time, and wanting as little connection between their person and the environment they work in as possible.

Some environments resound with laughter, and lighthearted conversation among friends as tasks are performed. People move about the office with a lightness of foot. Others are tense and leaden.

In some environments when the boss approaches, people primp and sit up straight – but only in pride of their association with the company and a desire to be seen at their best.

In other environments when the boss approaches a perceptible fear sets in. Color flushes from the face. People try to look busy and focused as adrenlin courses through their veins and they count the seconds until the threat passes.

In the best environments, the boss is respected and geniuinely liked as well. The employees seek his approval with determination.

In the worst environments, the boss is feared. People have become subject to an intimidation. Whether the boss just yells, throws things, demeans others, or slams doors – he is genuinely feared and his sheer presence strikes terror in the hearts of those who work for him.

One of the reasons I wanted to have my own business was so that I’d never again be forced into a situation where I felt intimidated, disrespected or disliked.

As a child I was easily intimidated. As an adult I am not, however I do get very angry with people who try to manipulate me this way.

I’ve known all kinds of people. Nobody, short of having a weapon pointed at me or a threat to my family, intimidates me the way I was intimidated as a child. No person will ever hold that kind of power over me.

At 46 I’m firmly committed to never again being subject to any human being I dislike, or anyone who tries to manipulate or abuse me.

That is a sense of freedom.

Map: 124 Main Street Centerbrook, CT 06409

One can argue, or find common ground.

One thing I know is the survival of groups – be it from a scientific and evolutionary perspective, social or religious perspective; Groups only survive when their members learn how to take care of and look out for each other.

Who’s got your back today?

I went to an outdoor music festival with my son. I saw myself at 18, standing there among the crowds. I heard myself at 18 singing along to the music. I felt my awkwardness at 18 trying to meet a pretty girl dancing beside me.

Like one of Dickens’ ghosts I watched it all before me, my life at 18.

I think I might have even caught my own eye, looking and wondering what that grey haired man was doing there.

Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstances
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of change
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the year
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Here’s my latest version – http://www.socci.com/jitterbug06.mp3

And for a recording of the master Fats Waller, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1R0vWC9PzM

The effects were created in Audacity.

Trip and enjoy.

I bought a full size Yamaha upright piano a few summers ago and I’ve been wanting to record it – just for fun, and also to analyze what I’m playing so I can get better. My wife Kristin bought me a pair of CAD GXL-1200 mics for my birthday.

Its a great sounding piano, at least I think so. I have it tuned every season, but its really tough this time of year. Even with the humidifier, the temp and humidity are all over the place and it doesn’t stay in tune for long. But it isn’t bad.

The mics were about $100 for the pair! Including cables!

If I were mic-ing the piano for real, I’d take the case apart and expose the strings. But I can’t leave my piano like that with two dogs and a cat… and I wanted to mic inside the case so I could just sit down and record it when I feel like it.

So I ended up mounting the mics inside the kick panel on two pieces of styrofoam about a foot in from each edge and halfway up from the the bottom, with the mics pointed in toward the strings and soundboard at about a 45 degree angle. It actually sounds ok – the levels were a few db’s too hot – so there is a bit of distortion on some of the peaks. listen to my new CAD gxl1200 Mics and Yamaha 52\" upright piano… Kind of unbelievable what $100 can buy in terms of audio quality today…