whoami

Curious software developer, like to play music, listen to tons too. Wife and I have 4 little ones, most of my time goes there.

recent Software:

  • Orchestrating Docker containers in Azure to perform batch processing.
  • Migrating a legacy .Net WCF “monolithic” app to Azure, with all that comes with that
  • Dabbling in Rails, Angular, Vue for some other front end assets
  • Learning “hardware” things via Arduino, with the goal of automated sprinkling in backyard, and a robotic guitar player.
  • Occasionally updating some iPhone apps in Objective C

recent Music:

  • Banjo! Faster, more, better. I’ve been able to play rhythm for a long time, but have dedicated myself to being able to play Scruggs style, at a fast rhythm. Mighty Dark for Me To Travel is an example of a song I’ve been trying to get faster with.

  • Fingerpicking Blues - I’ve been trying to hone some of these chops. This guy is a really good teacher.

  • Spotify Discover Weekly - While not an artist/album, this is worth special mention. I’m a big fan of Spotify, and have found tons of new music on there. This new feature will compile a playlist each week of music it “thinks” you will like, based on past listening preferences. I feel like my new music discovery has gone into overdrive - so much good stuff out there!

  • Deer Tick - The Black Dirt Sessions - I’ve heard of these guys in the past, but the little I listened to didn’t really grab me. This album came up in the Spotify Discover Playlist (song: “Choir of Angels”), and after a few times of it playing in the background, the song grabbed me, and then the whole album grabbed me. Great stuff, and hard to classify. Maybe “grungy, with some hat tips to 50’s and 60’s rock”? I’ve started to delve into other albums, and these guys rock.

  • The Hold Steady - I’ve been digging these guys, they kind of remind me of Springsteen. Mouthfuls of lyrics spit forcefully into the microphone, with steady driving music pushing it along. This is one of those bands where I’ll start at the top on Spotify, and listen to several albums throughout the course of the day. Some highlights - “You Can Make Him Like You” and “One For the Cutters”.

  • Richmond Fontaine - The High Country - A haunting concept album, it’s like the Drive-By Truckers did their own Red Headed Stranger. Different voices singing different parts of the story, “a Gothic love story between a mechanic and an auto parts store counter girl, whose secret love inspires an effort to escape the darkness of the world that surrounds them – drugs, violence, madness, loneliness, and desperation set against a backdrop of endless logging roads and the remains of a forest brutalized by logging”. Love it.

  • Pierce Edens - Good, gravelly, growly, Americana (?). Discovered this one today (5/5/2016), and have listened to his latest album straight through several times on repeat. Looking forward to digging deeper…

  • Golden Smog - yet another Spotify discovery, this is a “Supergroup” with members from Soul Asylum, The Replacements, Wilco, The Jayhawks, Run Westy Run, The Honeydogs and Big Star. No idea this existed, but some really good songs here. I’m a big Tweedy fanboy, so anything he touches is usually….golden</a>

  • My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall - I’ve listened to these guys in the past, and while I dug them well enough, they never crossed the threshold into a band I LOVED. The guy’s voice is a little different, and that seemed to trouble me. However, their latest album (The Waterfall) came up on Spotify the other day, and it’s hooked me. Sounds kind of like their older stuff, but also has like a Marvin Gaye/Ween feel (falsetto?) that sticks in my brain. I recommend a listen or two.

  • The War On Drugs - my appreciation for this band has been coming in bigger and bigger waves over the past year. Kind of remind me of Lindsay Buckingham/Fleetwood Mac in ways, with obvious lyrical nods to Dylan. It sounded “lite” to me at first, but more and more I’m noticing the intricate, wailing guitar solos. I just keep cycling through their albums.

  • Fiery Furnaces - Spotify just recommended them today, they blew my mind, and I had no idea they existed - apparently been around since 2000. Listened to Widow City, which I almost skipped over because the cover looked so generic. Looking forward to working my way through this catalog.

  • Fly Golden Eagle - there are songs where singer reminds me of Andrew Wood, but other songs the sound is their own. Newest album is a double album, and I’m loving it.

  • Sturgill Simpson - Sturgill is the man, and his new album is about to come out. Cannot wait.

  • Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly is musically incredible, the lyrics entertain, educate, and challenge me. Like a modern day Funkadelic album.

recent Books:

  • Greg Sestero - The Disaster Artist - I saw the movie first, loved it, and wanted to read the book. The book is hilarious, found myself laughing out loud throughout. Wife and kids kept asking me what was so funny.

  • Stephen King - The Outsider - it’s been years since I’ve read any Stephen King. I’ve probably read all his older books, but he’s probably written 5-10 in recent years that I haven’t even thought about. My wife picked this one up at the libary, and I swallowed it whole. Now I’m going back and reading all his books I’ve neglected over the years. He doesn’t get much credit from “literary types”, but his books are always a pleasure to me.

  • Paula McLain - The Paris Wife - continuing my Ernest Hemingway journey, this is a “historical fiction” book written from the point of view of Papa’s first wife, Hadley. While there certainly has to be some “creative license” in some of the dialogue and events, it feels very real and accurate. Great insight and portal into Hemingway’s early/formative years as an author.

  • Neal Stephenson - Seveneves - good sci-fi book about the end of the world, and new beginnings. A bit cumbersome when he gets too deeply into the details, still enough awe-inspiring descriptions of things at massive scale to make it well worth the read. I remember when I read Cryptonomicon, I had a few false starts, because he’s kind of all over the place in his stories. But once you get your teeth in his story, you don’t want to let go.

  • Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises - reading Papa Hemingway made me want to dive deep into Ernest, and this is the first book I chose. It was good, and after reading Papa Hemingway, it was hard to not visualize the main character as the man himself. I tend to speed read, and I think I need to temper that when reading Hemingway. His sparse and direct writing style give the impression of simplicity, then he’ll drop an observation on human behavior in the middle of it all that you can miss if you move too quickly. Looking forward to reading more!

  • Domain Driven Design - Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software - This book is all about designing software (specifically, the “Model”) to match the actual business process/workflow. The “Model” here can represent a data model within a database, or the contracts defined in code; however, it also extends to how the “business” people describe their operations. By using universal terminology, cohesion is introduced to the overall design and implementation, and end of day, the code is more likely to do what it should. I’m enjoying the book, although I have to take it in bite sized chunks - my attention starts to drift if I read it for too long.

  • Only the Paranoid Survive - Andy Grove was one of the founders and CEO of Intel, and this book appears on almost every “how to succeed at business” reading lists. In it he describes “Strategic Inflection Points”, where a fundamental change can disrupt a business or industry. When it does, it can lead either to the demise or triumph of the people and companies caught in the middle. I’m trying to build up my business/management chops a little, and am a tech geek, so this is a very engrossing read for me.

  • Autobiography of a Yogi - tried this out because of the Steve Jobs connection, and have really enjoyed it. I’ve been meditating with Headspace lately, and the book came along at an opportune time. Love his descriptions of profound experiences, there’s a passage here that blew my mind (starting with “My body became immovably rooted”)

  • Papa Hemingway - read a few Hemingways in the past, so-so, but this book has made me super curious about the guy. Want to read his books, want to read more books about him.

Contact me

marty.mavis@gmail.com