I know I’ve only had this blog for a year, but I’m putting it to rest. Fear not, though. I have a new blog over at my new .Mac address. So, check my blog out at http://web.mac.com/jameslynnmiller.

Honestly, I really liked this blog and don’t necessarily feel a need to find a new blog home. However, I recently got a job with Apple which gives me a free .Mac membership. I figure that A) I might as well use it since I got it and B) it’ll help me know my product better if I use my product.

So, enjoy the new blog.

The Austin Chronicles
Beloved Blog Home
(2007-2008)
R.I.P.

Hey, check out my review of Moby’s new album Last Night over at Stereo Subversion.

What a brilliant freaking commercial. I can’t believe this is the company for which I work. I think Apple has some pretty incredible advertisements, but this is my favorite.

So, I link to everything else I write for Stereo Subversion. I thought I’d alert you to the fact that we now have staff bios/pics on there complete with a list of all our reviews below. Here’s mine.

Well, I first found out that I had a job at Sam’s Club at the end of August of last year. I’ve spent the last nine months clocking in and pulling a check from Wal-Mart Stores, Incorporated. It’s been a slight burden at times. There’s been parts of it that were really enjoyable. For the most part, it’s been a weight that I’ve carried around. There was always of the question of “Who is the father?” Of course, in my case, it was more like “Do you know who his father is?”

Today, I gave birth to a new freedom. I turned in my badge, I cleared out my desk, I gave out some hugs, I said some goodbyes, and I walked away. Sam’s Club is a legacy that I will never want. My father has worked there 23 years, and it seems like everyone in the company knows who he is. My sisters both work at Sam’s–as does my brother-in-law, some uncles, and a few cousins. To walk into work and to always know that you’re Mike’s son, Larry’s nephew, Kristina’s brother, or whoever else is a burden that I was unfit to carry. Sure, there were plenty that just know me for me, but there was always another manager or another big wig that would walk through the club and remind me that I will always be the youngest Miller there.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m proud to be Mike’s son and so on. My father has done more for this company than he will ever be credited, and it is certainly nothing of which I should be ashamed. Nonetheless, it’s hard to walk into a job that doesn’t excite you and for which you have no passion and to have everyone expect of you that you should aspire to be your father. It’s also hard to know that there are those that honestly believe that you’ve got your job because your “daddy” helped you out, even though you know you had to earn everything you had.

Tomorrow, I walk into the doors of a company that doesn’t know me from anyone else. Not one member of my family has ever worked for Apple. The only thing that got me my job was my experience, my degree, and recommendations from those who have seen my work. There’s no footsteps to follow, there’s no family history, and I like that. So, here’s to creating your own legacy.

So, there’s a few new updates to The Austin Chronicles (not to be confused with the similarly titled local free paper). First, there’s a new header to replace the really crappy one that previously adorned my site. It’s a picture of the downtown skyline reflecting off Town Lake (or Lady Bird Lake if you’re a news anchor). Second, I updated my About Me section for the first time since this site began (2 months before moving to Austin). Third, I got rid of the Gear section and the never-even-once-used Videoblog section. Finally, I added a section titled My Favorite Things, which should be self-explanatory.

Enjoy.

So, I’ve decided that Greg and Sean were incredibly lucky to find a pair of guys like Adam and me on Craigslist (note: this is meant to be a joke with a little bit of truth). I pretty much scour the musician ads on Craigslist daily to see if there is anything interesting. There usually isn’t. It seems like everyone is a guitarist looking for a bassist or a drummer or a keyboard player. If they are looking for a guitarist, the person(s) in the ad is either a) into crappy metal music, b) 45 and still thinking he’s the next George Strait, or c) really bad/derivative.

In the weeks that I’ve been looking at ads, I’ve sent one e-mail–to a singer/songwriter into indie pop stuff. There was one band that I found mildly interesting, but they just seemed not quite what I was looking for (and they looked like they were all total chotches on MySpace). Another band sounded like a bad Interpol cover band. It’s just harder than you’d think. I love the idea of hopping into a project that’s going already or that someone else has done some of the legwork on. I’m just not sure it will happen.

So, last night, I went to Austin Shakespeare’s final performance of Much Ado About Nothing at the Beverly S. Sheffield Hillside Theater at Zilker Park. The performance was a decently faithful telling of the play with a few modern twists– a lot of leather clothing for the soldiers, a few modern songs done on instruments from the period, and the soldiers riding in on Yellow Bikes. All-in-all, it was pretty enjoyable.

Well, friends, family, fans, I got a new job. I have one week left at El Club de Sam, as I have officially been emancipated from the Wal-Mart Family (this would be funnier if you’d ever read the Wal-Mart Daily News). The great divorce occurred over a week ago, when I put in my slightly-over-two weeks notice.

In looking at the way the first two weeks of working at Austin Bible had gone, we (as a team) realized that it wasn’t working properly. It wasn’t that I wasn’t a right fit, and it wasn’t that we didn’t make a great team. The problem was that I wasn’t able to show up for practice–meaning I worked 40 hours a week at Sam’s making it impossible to be at meetings. I wanted to dedicate more time to Austin Bible, and they asked if I’d be willing to up my responsibilities and commitment–asking for a full day of office hours each week. I liked the idea.

Well, to make this new commitment to my job at Austin Bible a reality, I had to exit my full-time job at Sam’s. I looked into part-time jobs. Sam’s offered a part-time opportunity (an admittedly good one), but I decided to go a different direction. This won’t make sense to everyone (especially my father and siblings), but I’m just not the right guy for Sam’s Club. I didn’t believe in the product I was selling, and I knew that I wouldn’t even have a Sam’s membership if it wasn’t free. That makes it hard to sell their memberships for a living. It was time for me to get out of there (yeah, I know I’ve only been there nine months), and now is my chance.

So, to bring this to my point, I accepted a new job on Friday afternoon. I filled out the paperwork this morning. I start training next Saturday. As of today, I am an employee of Apple Inc., as a Specialist (the artists formerly known as Mac Specialists) at the Apple Store at the Domain in North Austin. I now work less than three miles from my house (aka within biking distance) and have a job that I’ll actually enjoy telling people I have.

Hey, my newest review has been posted over at Stereo Subversion.