The Listening Project-Week 18

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I worked 1/2 days this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and had Thursday and Friday off for the US Thanksgiving holiday but I was still able to get through 15 CDs and managed to stay ahead of my 20 per week goal.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
351	MercyMe	Almost There	11/21/2011	Yes
352	Nine Inch Nails	The Downward Spiral	11/21/2011	Maybe
353	Whitney Houston	I'm Your Baby Tonight	11/21/2011	Yes
354	Aaron Benward	Imagine	11/21/2011	Yes
355	Margaret Becker	Immigrant's Daughter	11/21/2011	Yes
356	Steve Bell	In Concert	11/21/2011	Yes
357	Garth Brooks	In Pieces	11/22/2011	Yes
358	Stevie Wonder	In Square Circle	11/22/2011	Yes
359	Winger	In the Heart of the Young	11/22/2011	Yes
360	Whitecross	In the Kingdom	11/23/2011	Yes
361	Various Artists	In the Name of Love	11/23/2011	Yes
362	Red	Innocence & Instinct	11/23/2011	Yes
363	Various Artists	Assorted Hearts	11/23/2011	Yes
364	Beastie Boys	Beastie Boys Anthology- The Sounds of Science Disc 1	11/24/2011	Yes
365	Beastie Boys	Beastie Boys Anthology- The Sounds of Science Disc 2	11/25/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Nine Inch Nails “The Downward Spiral”: The first ever MAYBE for this one.  I like the style of music but the lyrics are a little much for me.  Coincidentally, I separated my music collection on the home theater computer this past week in to SAFE and UNSAFE.  The son is going to miss some of the songs but I still have 3 weeks of music on the SAFE side of the collection.  The wife and I discussed this at length and in the end did the separation.  NIN as you may have guessed is on the UNSAFE side of things.
• Steve Bell “In Concert”: I love Steve’s voice.  I am usually not one for live CDs but this one is a definite exception.
• Steve Wonder “In Square Circle”: For some reason, this CD (and the mp3 rips of it) are lower volume than the rest of my collection.  This annoys me more than it should but it is a pain to have to change the volume in order to listen to this album.
• Various Artists “In The Name Of Love”: Sanctus Real, Jars of Clay, tobyMac, Delirious?, and others all covering U2 songs.  What is not to like about this?  Pillar’s cover of Sunday Bloody Sunday is particularly good.
• Various Artists “Assorted Hearts”: Despite the 54 CD auction package arriving on Monday, I did not get them all ripped and assimilated into my library until late Wednesday.  As such, this album’s title (which starts with an A) finds its way into the list this week.  As I was opening the package, I did not recognize some of the CDs and thought for a moment that the seller did not send me the correct items.  After further review though not only did I get the 54 CDs listed in the auction, I got 6 more as well.  Once I weeded out the duplicates (U2, Bryan Adams) and filtered out the CDs I simply refuse to listen to (50 Cent, Outkast, Eminem) I ended up with exactly 54 more CDs to add to my collection.
• Beastie Boys “Beastie Boys Anthology- The Sounds of Science”: OK, all the talk about lyrical content here but these guys are not too bad.  I did work for about an hour on Thanksgiving day and Friday which allowed me to get through this 2 disc set.  The wife and I had a late lunch date on Wednesday and the song “You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” at the restaurant we went to (and the staff all joined in on the microphone when the chorus came around.

Well I managed NOT to buy any more new music this week.  Last week I was 39.2% of the way to completing this project but due to the eBay auction package arrival, I am now at 38.4%.  This pushes the project’s projected completion date into mid June 2012.

Jon

The Listening Project-Week 17

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  Despite taking a 1/2 day vacation on Wednesday I was still able to get through a record 32 CDs this week and for the first time in my project I am ahead of my 20 per week goal.  However, I won an auction on eBay this week that contained 54 CDs so I am actually further away from ending this project than when I started this week.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
319	By The Tree	Hold You High	11/14/2011	Yes
320	Sarah Masen	The Holding	11/14/2011	Yes
321	Various Artists	Holiday In Store Play '95	11/14/2011	Yes
322	Crystal Lewis	Holiday	11/14/2011	Yes
323	The 77s	Holy Ghost Building	11/14/2011	Yes
324	Geoff Moore & The Distance	Home Run	11/14/2011	Yes
325	Adam Again	Homeboys	11/14/2011	Yes
326	Dixie Chicks	Home	11/14/2011	Yes
327	Hoobastank	Hoobastank	11/14/2011	Yes
328	The Glorious Unseen	The Hope That Lies In You	11/14/2011	Yes
329	So	Horseshoe In The Glove	11/15/2011	Yes
330	U2	How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb	11/15/2011	Yes
331	Creed	Human Clay	11/15/2011	Yes
332	Bruce Springsteen	Human Touch	11/15/2011	Yes
333	John Mellencamp	Human Wheels	11/15/2011	Yes
334	Acappella	Hymns For All The World	11/15/2011	No
335	Savior Machine	I	11/15/2011	Yes
336	Michael W. Smith	i 2 (EYE)	11/16/2011	Yes
337	David Payton	I Got Wise	11/16/2011	Yes
338	Tim Miner	I Know You Think You Know	11/16/2011	Yes
339	FFH	I Want To Be Like You	11/16/2011	Yes
340	The Afters	I Wish We All Could Win	11/16/2011	Yes
341	Macy Gray	The Id	11/16/2011	Yes
342	Rebecca St. James	If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something	11/17/2011	Yes
343	Jars Of Clay	If I Left the Zoo	11/17/2011	Yes
344	Foundation Red	If There Were No Songs	11/17/2011	No
345	Precious Death	If You Must	11/18/2011	Yes
346	Reba McEntire	If You See Him	11/18/2011	Yes
347	Savior Machine	II	11/18/2011	Yes
348	The Presidents of the United States of America	II	11/18/2011	Yes
349	Michael W. Smith	I'll Lead You Home	11/18/2011	Yes
350	Emery	I'm Only a Man	11/18/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Crystal Lewis “Holiday”: At least now we are closer to Christmas when this Christmas CD came up on the list.  I love Crystal’s voice and actually own an LP by the band she was originally part of (Wild Blue Yonder).
• The 77s “Holy Ghost Building”: I paid $12.50 for this (part of a 4 for $50 purchase) at a Mike Roe concert.  Good stuff by this underappreciated band.
• Geoff Moore & The Distance “Home Run”: My first real solo during a church service was “Tell Me Again” off of this CD.  Geoff is more known for his cover of Larry Norman’s “Why Should The Devil Have All The Good Music?”  He came to Kokomo once but I found out too late to attend the concert.
• Adam Again “Homeboys”: This is Adam Again’s 3rd release and I remember being disappointed by it since it sounded different than their 2nd (the audacity of a band to grow and not stay the same!).  It has grown on me though.
• So “Horseshoe In The Glove”: This is one of the few CDs that I do not remember purchasing.  This is an 80s band.  This had to be part of a bulk lot of CDs I bought somewhere along the line.  Typical late 80s pop fare and not too bad.
• U2 “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb”: I hit a streak of awesome CDs starting with this one and followed by Creed, Bruce Springsteen and John Mellencamp.  An enjoyable 4 hours of my week.
• Acappella “Hymns For All The World”: And then the streak came to a screeching halt.  The NO for this one stopped a record 42 straight YES entries.  Why oh why did I think I would like a CD of old hymn sung without instruments?
• Savior Machine “I” & “II”: I have one CD titled I and 2 CDs titled II.  I guess that seems about right.  This band did not release a III.  I am not sure what to think about this band.  They are very different than anything else that I own.  Their lyrics focus almost exclusively on end time prophecy from the Bible and are more like gothic metal than anything else.
• Michael W. Smith :i 2 (EYE)”: I think I really became a MWS fan upon hearing side 1 of the cassette copy I used to have of this release.  The song “Secret Ambition” is awesome to me every time that I hear it.  Having Michael Sweet (Stryper) do background vocals on one song gave MWS the street cred he needed to woo me as well.
• The Afters “I Wish We All Could Win”: The wife and I sang “All That I Am” from this album as a special on Sunday.  The daughter and I sang a song off of their 3rd album (I bought that as a digital release so it will not make this blog project).
• Rebecca St. James “If I Had One Chance To Tell You Something”: The only bad thing I have to say about this release is that the long album title really throws off my table above.
• Precious Death “If You Must”: You can probably guess the genre of this band by their name.
• Reba McEntire “If You See Him”: Wow, going from Precious Death to Reba McEntire almost gave me whiplash.  That is quite a genre leap.
• The Presidents of the United States of America “II”: The only bad thing I have to say about this band is that the long band name really throws off my table above.

The 54 CD auction that I mentioned contains a few CDs that I already have and a few that I will likely throw away due to lyrical content so the number added to my collection might be closer to 45.  I have not received them in the mail yet.  Not counting those CDs, I am 39.2% done with this project.

Jon

Piling On

I would like to take time today to describe an argument that the wife and I have had multiple times (and will likely continue to have since we both feel we are right).  I will do my best to be fair and present both sides of this dispute.  Here is a typical instance of this argument.

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INT. DIETERMAN FAMILY ROOM – NIGHT

CHRIS and JON DIETERMAN are sitting on a couch watching a show on the TV.  The DIETERMAN CHILDREN have retired for the night.  JON gets up from the couch and heads toward the kitchen and proceeds to get himself something to drink.

CHRIS
(upon realizing that JON is getting a drink)
”Can you get me something too?”

JON
(leaving the kitchen with a single glass in his hand)
”Here, just have this glass that I have just poured.”

CHRIS
”I do not want to take yours.  Can you not pour 2 glasses and bring me 1?”

JON
”You wish to have a beverage.  You asked me for a beverage.  I am giving you a beverage.  You are getting exactly what you asked for!”

CHRIS
(frustrated)
”I want us both to have beverages.  Please pour another glass.”

END SCENE

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The scene does not end here (ever!) but this gives you a decent overview of this argument.  Here is what is going through each of our minds (I am guessing for the most part what is going through the wife’s head).

JON’S HEAD

Most things that I do in life involve a calculation of the work/pain/effort to pleasure ratio.  I think all of this do this to some extent but I have managed to make this into an art.  A good example is last night.  We went out to dinner at our favorite pizza place (Brooklyn’s) and placed our usual order.  The lady behind the counter asked us what we wanted to drink.  Like most places, Brooklyn’s charges an incredible price for soft drinks compared to their cost.  Syrup, carbonated water, and the price of washing a cup still leaves space for 1000% profit.  I like soft drinks as much as the next guy but I do not think that it will bring me $2 worth of pleasure compared to the pain of being separated from my $2.  The real cost here is $6 since the wife and son would complain if I only bought a drink for myself (the daughter’s meal comes with a drink already) and $4 worth of pain is definitely worth the pleasure of not having to listen to them complain every time that I take a drink.  Since the pleasure I would get from the soft drink is less than the pain of spending $6, we all get water.  A few weeks ago while in the cafeteria at the office I spotted some donuts for $0.70 each.  They looked good and so I bought one.  I can tell you now that it did not bring me $0.70 worth of pleasure since is it was sort of bland so I will not be buying donuts from there again.  These examples both involve money but sometimes money is not involved.  This brings us back to the argument.  What the wife does not realize is that before I ever get up to get myself something to drink, I have done the math.  Specifically, I have calculated the amount of effort it will take to get up off the couch (I am confortable and cozy there), walk to the kitchen, get down a glass, get ice, pour the drink, return to the couch and (possibly) fight off a dog or two that has stolen my spot.  I have then compared that to the pleasure of drinking the beverage.  If pleasure > pain (in this case effort) then I get up and head to the kitchen.  If effort > pleasure then I do not.  Simple math.  When the wife asks me to get her something to drink then that throws off the equation.  I had not calculated the extra effort of pouring and carrying 2 glasses.  Also, at times there is only enough left for one glass (if we are almost out of sweet tea).  What do do then?  Do I give the wife the tea and I get by with water?  That would definitely throw off the math since now I have the pain side of the equation going up (more work) and the pleasure side going down (pleasure from drinking water < pleasure from drinking tea).  Also, now there is the effort of doing the math again.  In the end I am now doing 2 calculations.  First I have to determine if telling the wife “No, get your own.” is worth it.  Will the pleasure of my drink be greater than the sum of the effort to pour it and the pain of having her upset at me?  If I do give her the drink I have already poured (as in the scene above) then I need to calculate if pouring a glass of water (after already being up and in the kitchen) is worth the pleasure of drinking it.  In the end, I decide that it is NOT worth it to tell the wife to get her own drink and also that is is NOT worth it to pour myself an additional drink hence I do not get myself anything to drink.

CHRIS’ HEAD

The desire to have something to drink is something she would have been thinking about for several minutes before I got up to get myself something.  She too is doing her own calculation and the price of moving off the couch is more than the pleasure of having a drink.  This is understandable as in her equation she has the added warmth of at least one dog keeping her warm (likely Oreo on her lap) and the pain (removal of pleasure / warmth) if she got up.  I can respect her math here.  However, when I get up, she quickly recalculates.  Now the the pain side of the equation has been significantly reduced since she can “pile on” to the pain side of my equation and get the same amount of pleasure (or maybe slightly less depending on the relative value of having to deal with asking me to do this for her or perhaps dealing with an improper ice to liquid ratio due to my lack of beverage preparation skills).  At any rate, the pleasure to pain ratio for her has swung and she asks me (since I am already up) to pour her a drink as well.  When I do my recalculation and offer her my drink and then she notes that I will NOT be getting a drink, this lowers the pleasure side of her equation (or perhaps increases the pain, either way, it doesn’t matter).  The best solution (remember that we are in her head now) is for me to ignore my math and just do what she wants (keeping her equation clean and leaning toward pleasure).  She knows of course that I cannot do this (silly girl).

OUT OF OUR HEADS AND BACK TO THE BLOG

When she is forced to decide if the enjoyment of her drink is worth the pain of knowing that I have no beverage, we then have this argument where each of us describe basically what is going on in our heads.  We have two equations that cannot be solved.  The glass that I have already poured for myself is now not worth it.  The pain of having the wife upset with me is not worth the pleasure of drinking it and the wife’s pleasure of drinking it is not more than the pain of knowing that I have nothing.  This is the mathematical equivalent of dividing by 0 or calculating the value of the square root of –1.

In my defense, I am not upset at her asking me to get her a drink.  She is my wife, I do a lot of things for her.  What upsets me is the phenomenal lack of respect for math (math like she is doing in her head before asking me to do this chore).  Enjoy the drink.  I want you to have this drink.  It is ok.  Respect the math.
This argument has began to happen with the daughter as well (usually over a beverage though normally at the lunch or dinner table).  Her response is about like her mother’s.  The son, he just takes the drink and thanks me (he is good at math – but he is also not that great at empathizing with other’s feelings so that might be it).  Either way, I am almost certain that this blog is not the end of this discussion.

Jon

The Listening Project-Week 16

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  Despite taking a 1/2 day vacation on Wednesday I was still able to get through 23 CDs this week but that still keeps me 2 CDs behind my 20 per week goal.  I lost ground this week though as I purchased nearly 30 CDs.  I picked up a large pile a the local 1/2 Priced Books store and hit a 75% - 90% sale at Mardel’s on Wednesday.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
296	John Mellencamp	The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988	11/7/2011	Yes
297	The Wallflowers	Breach	11/7/2011	Yes
298	Various Artists	Classic Crooners Volume II	11/7/2011	Yes
299	Various Artists	Classic Crooners Volume III	11/7/2011	Yes
300	Various Artists	Common Thread - The Songs of the Eagles	11/7/2011	Yes
301	ZOEgirl	Different Kind of Free	11/8/2011	Yes
302	Tears For Fears	Elemental	11/8/2011	Yes
303	Norah Jones	Feels Like Home	11/8/2011	Yes
304	Amy Grant	Heart In Motion	11/9/2011	Yes
305	Mainstay	Become Who You Are	11/9/2011	Yes
306	Red	End of Silence	11/9/2011	Yes
307	Scott Wenzel	Heart Like Thunder	11/10/2011	Yes
308	Twila Paris	A Heart That Knows You	11/10/2011	Yes
309	Kutless	Hearts of the Innocent	11/10/2011	Yes
310	Steven Curtis Chapman	Heaven In The Real World	11/10/2011	Yes
311	Jaci Velasquez	Heavenly Place	11/10/2011	Yes
312	John Mayer	Heavier Things	11/10/2011	Yes
313	Various Artists	Heck On Wheels	11/11/2011	Yes
314	Gretchen Wilson	Here For The Party	11/11/2011	Yes
315	Skillet	Hey You, I Love Your Soul	11/11/2011	Yes
316	Whitecross	High Gear	11/11/2011	Yes
317	White Heart	Highlands	11/11/2011	Yes
318	Garth Brooks	The Hits	11/11/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• John Mellencamp “The Best That I Could Do 1978-1988”: As I do each time I buy more CDs, I have to put them in alphabetical order and listen to those that begin with letters that I have already completed.  The first eight on this week’s list fit that category.  At my one experience at a karaoke bar (in Romania) I chose Small Town (on this CD) when I signed up to sing.  Despite being on the playlist, the DJ did not have this song.
• The Wallflowers “Bleach”: If you don’t own any music by The Wallflowers, you should.
• Various Artists “Classic Crooners Volume II” & “Classic Crooners Volume III”: A little brutal to listen to this much 50’s big band music all in a row, but good nonetheless.
• Various Artists “Common Thread - The Songs of the Eagles”: Modern country artists singing the songs of the Eagles (which, let’s be honest here, sound kind of country when you listen to them now anyway).
• Mainstay “Become Who You Are”: The label on this CD said that they toured with other bands I like.  At 90% off, that is enough of an incentive for me to purchase it.
• Red “End Of Silence”: I got 2 CDs by Red this week.  The 2nd one will likely be in a blog entry a few weeks from now.  Pretty good band.
• Scott Wenzel “Heart Like Thunder”: Scott is the lead singer of Whitecross and has a very unique voice.  This CD sounds more like a softer Whitecross album.
• Twila Paris “A Heart That Knows You”: OK, I am scaring myself now.  Last week I gave a PFR CD a YES and now I give a YES to Twila Paris.  Something ain’t right here.
• Kutless “Hearts of the Innocent”: Love Kutless!
• John Mayer “Heavier Things”: I look hard for more John Mayer CDs every time I dig through the bargain racks.  So far this is the only one that I have found.
• Various Artists “Heck on Wheels”: From what I can tell, this CD was meant to be played in retail stores as background music.  It has songs from groups like Ministry, The Flaming Lips, Faith No More, etc, but “clean” (no bad words).  I paid 50 cents for it as I recall.
• Gretchen Wilson “Here For the Party”: “When it rains…I pour…another round…” – you have to love country music lyrics.
• Skillet “Hey You, I Love Your Soul”: Skillet’s sound has changed a little over the years.  This is an early release.  I think I like their newer stuff better but this is still good.

A rare week with no NOs in the last column (though weeks 8 and 14 were that way as well).  I am still on pace to finish this project in June 2012.  A few more weeks like this though where I buy more than I listen to and that date will obviously change.  According to my calculations, I am at 35.7% complete now.

Jon

The Listening Project-Week 15

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  Despite taking a 1/2 day vacation on Wednesday and not listening to any CDs on Thursday when I worked from the office, I was still able to get through 19 CDs this week but that still keeps me 5 CDs behind my 20 per week goal.  I managed to avoid buying any more CDs this week.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
277	C+C Music Factory	Gonna Make You Sweat	10/31/2011	Yes
278	Various Artists	Grease Soundtrack	10/31/2011	Yes
279	Steven Curtis Chapman	The Great Adventure	10/31/2011	No
280	Rod Stewart	The Great American Songbook Volume II	10/31/2011	Yes
281	Rod Stewart	The Great American Songbook Volume IV	11/1/2011	Yes
282	Blindside	The Great Depression	11/1/2011	Yes
283	Scott Stapp	The Great Divide	11/1/2011	Yes
284	PFR	Great Lengths	11/1/2011	Yes
285	Ministry	Greatest Fits	11/1/2011	Yes
286	Queen	Greatest Hits	11/2/2011	Yes
287	Michael Bolton	Greatest Hits 1985-1995	11/2/2011	Yes
288	The Goo Goo Dolls	Greatest Hits Volume One The Singles	11/4/2011	Yes
289	Mylon LeFevre & Broken Heart	Greatest Hits	11/4/2011	Yes
290	Whitecross	Hammer And Nail	11/4/2011	Yes
291	Spooky Tuesday	Happy Dissonance	11/4/2011	No
292	Dead Artist Syndrome	Happy Hour	11/4/2011	Yes
293	Hawk Nelson	Hawk Nelson Is My Friend	11/4/2011	Yes
294	Michael W. Smith	Healing Rain	11/4/2011	Yes
295	Queensrÿche	Hear In The Now Frontier	11/4/2011	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• C+C Music Factory “Gonna Make You Sweat”: Everybody Dance Now!  Nuff said.
• Various Artists “Grease Soundtrack”: My mom and dad had this on 8 track when I was young.  I think we wore it out when driving in our custom van.  I remember thinking it was poor planning to have the title song repeated as the last track as when you switched automatically from program 4 to program 1, the song repeated.  But hey, is there such a thing as too much Frankie Valli?
• Steven Curtis Chapman “The Great Adventure”: Another NO for SCC.
• Rod Stewart “The Great American Songbook Volume II” & “The Great American Songbook Volume IV”: I think I grabbed these off the bargain rack after Rod Stewart was on American Idol one year.  Good stuff really.
• Blindside “The Great Depression”: I hope this band releases a new CD soon.
• Scott Stapp “The Great Divide”: Scott is the (former) lead singer of Creed and this sounds about like other Creed albums.
• PFR “Great Lengths”: I was surprised to give this a YES.  I thought all PFRs would fall in that other category.
• Ministry “Greatest Fits”: The first of (5) “best of” CDs in a row.  Ministry started as a techno / new wave band but somewhere along the line transformed into industrial.  The drum machine used for this 2 piece band is obvious on some tracks.
• Queen “Greatest Hits”: I am not sure if it is even legal to release a Queen best of CD and NOT include Bohemian Rhapsody but they did it anyway.  Fortunately it is on the sound track to Wayne’s World (which I also own).
• Michael Bolton “Greatest Hits 1985-1995”: Don’t judge me!
• Whitecross “Hammer And Nail”: Old school 80’s metal.  Ahhhhhhh.
• Dead Artist Syndrome “Happy Hour”: I saw this group in concert at the Cornerstone 91 festival.  Cornerstone is this 3 or 4 day festival where you camp out and take in tons of artists.  As I recall, the folks camping across the way from us bootlegged the concert and the lead singer ended up coming over to listen to it.

I crossed over the 1/3 mark and am 34.1% of the way through,  At this rate it will be early June of 2012 when this project is completed.

Jon

Same Problem Only Reversed

I have really enjoyed not wearing glasses.  As you may remember, about 2 years ago I had Lasik surgery done.  This allowed me to say goodbye to glasses which I have warn ever since I was a wee lad of 3 years.  Lately though I have had to resort to reading glasses when enjoying a book or reading directions.

I don’t mind this really.  I imagine that if I had not had the Lasik surgery then I would be looking at bifocals at this point in time anyway.  I even had fun picking out my reading glasses (sort of like picking out sunglasses).  I think that I like the idea that I can take them off when I am done needing them more than any other part of resorting to using them.  They really are only good for reading things up close though.

At the end of some work days when I have stared at the computer screen intensely for the better part of the day, my eyes are a bit tired.  I am using a 19” monitor that my work purchased for me 4 or 5 years ago so I am thinking it is about time for a new monitor.  I could probably go to my manager and make a case for a newer, bigger monitor but most folks that perform similar roles as I do seem to be satisfied with a monitor this size.  Also, I plan to return back into a routine of going into the office as soon as my Buick arrives down here in Texas in a few weeks.  Any monitor purchased by my work would be expected to remain in the office and that will leave me with no monitor to use when I work from home (although I am sure I would be able to keep this one for that purpose).  Either way, asking my work to provide me with a new monitor will only fix the problem part of the time.

I remember almost 15 years ago when I first had a job where I was assigned my own computer (and thus my own monitor).  I worked for a business that used CAD software to design items for manufacturing.  The company spent some serious money on the CAD software and also on big monitors.  I seem to recall the high end, 21” CRT monitors that the engineers were assigned ran about $2,500 each.  I was given a 19” monitor (which was huge to my eyes) and was very happy.  My manager however preferred to keep using a 17” monitor.  His logic behind this was that he did not want to have a bigger monitor at work than he could afford to purchase for home.  Evidently the cost of a 17” monitor was the price point he was willing to spend on his home computer and as such he used a much smaller screen than our company was willing to provide him.

At this point in my life I have the exact opposite problem.  I am sure that If I asked for a newer, bigger monitor that my manager would approve the purchase of it.  However, since monitors have come down in price so much in the last 15 years, I can afford a much bigger monitor than I could get approved for at work given my current role.

So, what size monitor should I get to use when I work from home?  I did a little research and the best answer I could find made me chuckle a little.  Basically given the relief of strain on your eyes that higher quality monitors provide and the relative cost of monitors nowadays the answer I liked best was, “How big of a monitor can your desk hold?”  So, I have been pricing really big monitors lately.  And by really big I mean 25” or 27”.  I regularly see 25” monitors for $200 and 27” monitors can be found for about $70 more but there is still the problem of having a smaller monitor when working at the office than when I work from home.  Decisions, decisions.

As I mentioned before, I will probably start working in the office more after the Buick arrives.  I guess I will wait and see what size of monitor I can convince my manager to get for me before I make any decisions.

Jon