What's The Frequency Kenneth??

I like to think of myself as someone who appreciates music for what it is. I have a specifc taste that I've devloped over the years and am able to confidently say what I like and what I don't like.

I really enjoy driving to and from work. Thanks to Apple, I can carry some of my favorite music and listen over the car radio by cassette tape. Yes, old school I know but hey, it keeps me happy. By the time I get to work I'm happy and when I get home the stress from the work day has left.

Often, I'll take the company car from the office in Springivlle to go to our manufacturing facilities in Salem. Most of the time, I'll have a CD at my desk that I take with me and pop it in for the ride but today no CD's on the desk--darn! On the way over to Salem I decide to turn on the radio. There has to be something that I like on, right? Wrong, dead wrong. It's been a good while since I've listened to the radio and what suprised me the most was not matter what station I turned to they all touted, "New music coming your way", "the best hits of the today", etc. I wasn't impressed at all.

Just about every station I listened to had the exact same playlist: Greenday, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, REM. Same stuff. No variety whatsoever. I thought to myself, "These are the exact same songs that were on the radio when I used to listen religously five years ago!!" Wow. Just wow.

I don't mean to offend anybody but honestly, how can anyone enjoy the radio anymore? Same stuff all the time, recycling years and YEARS of the same stuff. Thankfully, when I got to back to the office in Springivlle I whipped out my trusty iBook, plugged in the headphones and turned up The Knife, Cat Power, The Wrens and much more. Never have they sounded so good! It was as if I came home and was greeted by good friends.

Greatfully, I have a good friend that opened my eyes and helped me see that great music exists. I'd like to take a moment and thank him publicly. Thanks man! You know who you are.

Happy New Year

For any of you that did not receive a Christmas Card from the Simmons family, we're sorry. We can't believe at how many friends and family that we do have. So, to share with everyone, here are the pics that we had taken last month. These were taken by a good friend of mine, Deven, who loves taking photos.

Happy Birthday!!

I've been meaning to post this for awhile now but have not yet set aside enough time to do it.

Being a parent now, I realize how fast time goes. It's crazy. Once you get on the parenting train it seems like everything is just a time warp. Everything else in your life gets sucked away it seems and all your attention becomes focused on your kids. Wow, our little guy is one year old! It really does go by fast.

We had a little birhtday bash here out our place. Edward didn't know what to think at first with all the people crammed in our little place but once we started to sing 'Happy Birthday' he realized all attention was focused on him and he did't even mind. He caught onto opening presents fairly quickly.