While driving around this evening I saw a sign on a building promoting, and I am not making this up, “Delaware Fight Club.” Apparently the first rule of Delaware Fight Club is advertise. I’m really curious about this entire enterprise. What would be the Delaware equivalent of Brad Pitt? Could you form a personality cult in a state that most people do not believe is actually a state? Are there people in Delaware that I could potentially beat up? I really need to know the answers to these questions.
(Did you know that if we didn’t learn how to make states after Delaware (the first state as it is known) we would have 1,500 states and no straight roads in the entire freaking country? Seriously, how tough is it to make a road that doesn’t curve every thirty feet?)
I was appalled by the story out of the White House today. Not that Obama met with Prof. Gates and the cop. No, I’m fine with that. My complaint is that Obama drank a Bud Light. If I knew that Obama would choose such a horrible beer for such an occasion I would have voted differently in November. How can he call himself a Chicagoan and a White Sox fan and drink Bud Light? He should be drinking Falstaff and since Falstaff is no longer being brewed he should either a) be hitting some secret presidential stash of Falstaff or b) ordering the reopening of the brewery even if it requires mobilizing the National Guard. Old Style or Pabst would also be acceptable. But Bud Light? Might as well drink water with a twist of lemon.
Also, I agree in that the most interesting man in the world should also have been invited to the beer summit with as much Dos Equis as he wished to enjoy. I mean, he punched a magician. You heard me, he punched a magician. He once doubted himself just to see what it feels like. When it rains it is because he is thinking about something sad. He is the only person who could solve our dilemmas even if it would most likely require all of us growing beards.
That is about it for the week. Heck, that is about it for July. Talk about a month that went by quickly. Given the insanely cool weather here I don’t know if anyone can say that they have had summer. It will never match the summer of my youth that is for sure. Those summers lasted for five years. Now I’m waiting for college football to start next week. Not that that would be a bad thing it is just that it is a bit of a shame that time speeds up as you get older. I’m finally enjoying my life; it should go slower now.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The war on work
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-udsIV4Hmc
I was sent a link to this a few days ago and I found it rather fascinating and not just for the in depth discussion of lamb castration. For those of you who don’t feel like watching the clip, which is rather long but definitely worth it, it is a speech from Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs discussing our view of work in this country and how we are at war with the very concept of work. It is such an interesting idea that I wanted to explore it further here.
It is interesting in this time where we talk a lot about “shovel ready projects” in order to speed up the economy and reduce unemployment that very few people are willing to pick up shovels. For most people the entire idea of being blue collar is almost appalling. I watched a show on house flipping over the weekend and of the two guys who bought the house to flip one said “I told you I wasn’t going to do any manual labor”, which makes you wonder exactly how he intended to fix the house in order to flip it.
The thing is there is nothing wrong with blue collar work. At its best it is a way to make a solid living and be pretty much assured of always having a job. The world will always need another plumber. They might not need someone selling them ringtones but they will need a plumber. Heck, my grandfather was a bricklayer and he made a decent living from it. From a cultural perspective though we completely downplay those professions and mock them. The only exception I can think of are sitcoms like The King of Queens where the blue collar worker has the inordinately hot wife but even in those he is portrayed as a buffoon. A lucky buffoon but a buffoon nonetheless. So I agree with Mike that the entire image of working hard for a good living needs to be enhanced.
There are two points he didn’t make that I wanted to touch on. The first is that I think one of the problems with our society in general is that we are so focused on excess that we ignore what could be a very good living. To take a job where you can make a decent living and have a relatively comfortable life is not sufficient when you compare your life to what you see in the mirror of pop culture. You feel ashamed if you do not have a fancy car or an amazing house and feel as though life is meaningless without those things. The danger with having such a consumer culture is that it makes people swing for the fences every time in trying to become rich even though in many cases that is really like trying to win the lottery. The goal is to get on base and make your way around as opposed to striking out in a very impressive fashion.
My other point is that there really seems to be a rebellion against work in this country that I have seen just in my work career. Now this is coming from someone who is lucky enough to make his living behind a computer screen where his daily activities involve looking at numbers and making sense of them. It is not physically taxing work but it is work all the same. But has anyone else noticed how people seem to work less now than they did before. How an office will empty before a holiday weekend or a crew of people mysteriously departing to Starbucks or just a sense of not wanting to do something because it is hard. Now I won’t say that I am perfect in this regard because I am most certainly not but things seem to have gotten much more lax from when I started working in the mid-90’s. If there is anything that makes me think that we are losing our edge in this country it is the fact that more and more people aren’t willing it to push themselves that little bit more. Sometimes to compete that is the only way to do it.
Let’s end this with some Men at Work. Seems fitting.
I was sent a link to this a few days ago and I found it rather fascinating and not just for the in depth discussion of lamb castration. For those of you who don’t feel like watching the clip, which is rather long but definitely worth it, it is a speech from Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs discussing our view of work in this country and how we are at war with the very concept of work. It is such an interesting idea that I wanted to explore it further here.
It is interesting in this time where we talk a lot about “shovel ready projects” in order to speed up the economy and reduce unemployment that very few people are willing to pick up shovels. For most people the entire idea of being blue collar is almost appalling. I watched a show on house flipping over the weekend and of the two guys who bought the house to flip one said “I told you I wasn’t going to do any manual labor”, which makes you wonder exactly how he intended to fix the house in order to flip it.
The thing is there is nothing wrong with blue collar work. At its best it is a way to make a solid living and be pretty much assured of always having a job. The world will always need another plumber. They might not need someone selling them ringtones but they will need a plumber. Heck, my grandfather was a bricklayer and he made a decent living from it. From a cultural perspective though we completely downplay those professions and mock them. The only exception I can think of are sitcoms like The King of Queens where the blue collar worker has the inordinately hot wife but even in those he is portrayed as a buffoon. A lucky buffoon but a buffoon nonetheless. So I agree with Mike that the entire image of working hard for a good living needs to be enhanced.
There are two points he didn’t make that I wanted to touch on. The first is that I think one of the problems with our society in general is that we are so focused on excess that we ignore what could be a very good living. To take a job where you can make a decent living and have a relatively comfortable life is not sufficient when you compare your life to what you see in the mirror of pop culture. You feel ashamed if you do not have a fancy car or an amazing house and feel as though life is meaningless without those things. The danger with having such a consumer culture is that it makes people swing for the fences every time in trying to become rich even though in many cases that is really like trying to win the lottery. The goal is to get on base and make your way around as opposed to striking out in a very impressive fashion.
My other point is that there really seems to be a rebellion against work in this country that I have seen just in my work career. Now this is coming from someone who is lucky enough to make his living behind a computer screen where his daily activities involve looking at numbers and making sense of them. It is not physically taxing work but it is work all the same. But has anyone else noticed how people seem to work less now than they did before. How an office will empty before a holiday weekend or a crew of people mysteriously departing to Starbucks or just a sense of not wanting to do something because it is hard. Now I won’t say that I am perfect in this regard because I am most certainly not but things seem to have gotten much more lax from when I started working in the mid-90’s. If there is anything that makes me think that we are losing our edge in this country it is the fact that more and more people aren’t willing it to push themselves that little bit more. Sometimes to compete that is the only way to do it.
Let’s end this with some Men at Work. Seems fitting.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
What is on my mind
At what point do Dippin Dots progress from being “The Ice Cream of the Future” to being proclaimed “The Ice Cream of the Present?” I mean, they have been around for a decade at least.
Would my odds as a defendant improve if I walked into a courtroom wearing a t-shirt that read “Only God can judge me?”
Given the fact that everyone who shops at a Bed, Bath and Beyond is armed with one of those 20% off coupons that are constantly being mailed out doesn’t that imply that everything in the entire store is priced 20% higher than it should be?
If there isn’t a Sergeant Slaughter cameo in the GI Joe movie someone is going to get hurt. I’m just saying.
Can I sue the movie “All Dogs go to Heaven” for false advertising because they cannot prove that all dogs really do go to heaven? What about Cujo? Or Hitler’s dog? (For those wondering, Hitler had a miniature schnauzer named Mr. Piddles.)
Why is it that whenever anyone in an airport is confronted with a motorized walkway they stand on the thing like they are cows being led to the slaughterhouse? Was sitting on a plane for three hours so freaking tiring that you have completely lost the ability to walk?
In addition to being able to take sick days from work shouldn’t you also get an allowance of “hungover days”, “stayed up late watching the game days” and “screw this, I’m just going to sit on the couch and watch Star Wars days?”
How am I going to get through a Tuesday night now that the latest season of Deadliest Catch is ending? How will I ever cope without the gripping drama of whether or not they are going to catch crab this week?
(Seriously, that is an issue. It is one of my favorite shows on television. I’ll probably end up knocking on Sig’s door and asking “Can you tell me about the time you caught some crab?”)
Ever realize that you don’t see too many ninjas around anymore? There are a lot of pirates but very few ninjas. I suppose that the ninjas could be hiding in the shadows though and thus putting a crimp in my whole ninja / pirate census.
If I have to endure a tax increase for health care reform does that mean that I can gain as much weight as I want because, in the end, I'm paying for it anyway? Maybe I'll have that triple hot fudge sundae now that you mention it.
I think all political debates should be resolved via a round of miniature golf. I would love to have a filibuster be resolved by seeing who can get the ball in the clown’s mouth. (Sigh. I miss Haunted Trails. Best freaking place on the planet as a kid. Miniature golf, batting cages, and an arcade.)
Would my odds as a defendant improve if I walked into a courtroom wearing a t-shirt that read “Only God can judge me?”
Given the fact that everyone who shops at a Bed, Bath and Beyond is armed with one of those 20% off coupons that are constantly being mailed out doesn’t that imply that everything in the entire store is priced 20% higher than it should be?
If there isn’t a Sergeant Slaughter cameo in the GI Joe movie someone is going to get hurt. I’m just saying.
Can I sue the movie “All Dogs go to Heaven” for false advertising because they cannot prove that all dogs really do go to heaven? What about Cujo? Or Hitler’s dog? (For those wondering, Hitler had a miniature schnauzer named Mr. Piddles.)
Why is it that whenever anyone in an airport is confronted with a motorized walkway they stand on the thing like they are cows being led to the slaughterhouse? Was sitting on a plane for three hours so freaking tiring that you have completely lost the ability to walk?
In addition to being able to take sick days from work shouldn’t you also get an allowance of “hungover days”, “stayed up late watching the game days” and “screw this, I’m just going to sit on the couch and watch Star Wars days?”
How am I going to get through a Tuesday night now that the latest season of Deadliest Catch is ending? How will I ever cope without the gripping drama of whether or not they are going to catch crab this week?
(Seriously, that is an issue. It is one of my favorite shows on television. I’ll probably end up knocking on Sig’s door and asking “Can you tell me about the time you caught some crab?”)
Ever realize that you don’t see too many ninjas around anymore? There are a lot of pirates but very few ninjas. I suppose that the ninjas could be hiding in the shadows though and thus putting a crimp in my whole ninja / pirate census.
If I have to endure a tax increase for health care reform does that mean that I can gain as much weight as I want because, in the end, I'm paying for it anyway? Maybe I'll have that triple hot fudge sundae now that you mention it.
I think all political debates should be resolved via a round of miniature golf. I would love to have a filibuster be resolved by seeing who can get the ball in the clown’s mouth. (Sigh. I miss Haunted Trails. Best freaking place on the planet as a kid. Miniature golf, batting cages, and an arcade.)
Monday, July 27, 2009
We do rank first in corn related hazing incidents
When you have been online for as long as I have you end up with a large number of email addresses. Some are the official ones that you give to people when they meet and others are for some of the activities that you undertake online that you would rather not be directly linked to your name. Those are the accounts you check occasionally to see what interesting emails come your way.
That was the case yesterday when I checked my email to find that I had received an email from the speed dating people. You all remember my speed dating adventure at the beginning of the year (if not, check the January archive.) Well, seems like they were having another session last week and they were short of men and they wondered if I would be willingly to attend for free. To which I would pleasantly like to reply, “Screw you! I have a girlfriend now! I never want to have to experience that torture again!”
To be honest, I am trying to figure out how you would volunteer to go again. While the first time I paid for the privilege to be rejected by a dozen women in this case I would go through the entire rejection process out of the goodness of my own heart because otherwise there would be empty tables. It’s like “I’m such a nice guy I am going to appear here just so you have another guy to say “Nope, not my type” to.” Because really, that is the entire point of speed dating. I’d much rather stay with the best girlfriend on the planet, thank you very much.
In other news I would like to congratulate Penn State on being named the number one party school in the nation. Yes, they beat out Florida this year followed by Mississippi, Georgia and Ohio (not The Ohio State, just Ohio.) I feel at least a slight sense of pride in that the Big Ten was finally able to defeat the SEC in something. Especially given that we start with a huge disadvantage in terms of bikini weather. However, I have to hang my head a little in terms of the poor showing by my Illini. This is what happens when the pride and joy of your school is the engineering campus.
In fact, let us look at the two greatest developments in the history of the University of Illinois (not counting the Morrow Plots, the oldest experimental cornfield in existence.) They are 1) Hugh Hefner (who lived in my dorm) and 2) Mosaic/Netscape (developed by guys in my physics class.) Thus Illinois provided the world with not only Playboy and the subsequent proliferation of paper based pornography but we also created the platform for internet pornography. This is what happens when one whole portion of the campus is only ten percent female. You really do not want to know about the developments taking place in the hologram labs. Other than they are truly, truly, truly outrageous.
That was the case yesterday when I checked my email to find that I had received an email from the speed dating people. You all remember my speed dating adventure at the beginning of the year (if not, check the January archive.) Well, seems like they were having another session last week and they were short of men and they wondered if I would be willingly to attend for free. To which I would pleasantly like to reply, “Screw you! I have a girlfriend now! I never want to have to experience that torture again!”
To be honest, I am trying to figure out how you would volunteer to go again. While the first time I paid for the privilege to be rejected by a dozen women in this case I would go through the entire rejection process out of the goodness of my own heart because otherwise there would be empty tables. It’s like “I’m such a nice guy I am going to appear here just so you have another guy to say “Nope, not my type” to.” Because really, that is the entire point of speed dating. I’d much rather stay with the best girlfriend on the planet, thank you very much.
In other news I would like to congratulate Penn State on being named the number one party school in the nation. Yes, they beat out Florida this year followed by Mississippi, Georgia and Ohio (not The Ohio State, just Ohio.) I feel at least a slight sense of pride in that the Big Ten was finally able to defeat the SEC in something. Especially given that we start with a huge disadvantage in terms of bikini weather. However, I have to hang my head a little in terms of the poor showing by my Illini. This is what happens when the pride and joy of your school is the engineering campus.
In fact, let us look at the two greatest developments in the history of the University of Illinois (not counting the Morrow Plots, the oldest experimental cornfield in existence.) They are 1) Hugh Hefner (who lived in my dorm) and 2) Mosaic/Netscape (developed by guys in my physics class.) Thus Illinois provided the world with not only Playboy and the subsequent proliferation of paper based pornography but we also created the platform for internet pornography. This is what happens when one whole portion of the campus is only ten percent female. You really do not want to know about the developments taking place in the hologram labs. Other than they are truly, truly, truly outrageous.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Well, you do eat a lot of cake...
On ABC News tonight they mentioned a study that stated that, and I quote here, “Getting married makes you more likely to become obese.” They talked about some of the proposed reasoning behind it. You spend more time at home, you don’t feel as great of a need to take care of yourself, those sorts of things. They never bothered to mention the one fact that probably shoots down the entire study: Getting married means you are getting older. You’re married years fall after your single years when your body has a metabolism that does not stop. Marriage doesn’t cause obesity; life does. I just love how poorly developed studies like that can make the national news while I still cannot receive funding for my robot army. (The so-called “experts” are too concerned that the robots will become self aware and kill us all. If that is the cost of progress so be it.)
I am making some pretty good progress on the weight loss front myself. My treadmill workouts are going well and are about as interesting as treadmill workouts can be. As in they are painfully dull and excruciatingly boring. No matter what I do to liven up my time on the treadmill (and I am one of those people who never keeps the same speed or incline for more than a few minutes) it is always a slog. Not that I don’t enjoy the challenge and all but I would love to find a way to make it more interesting. True, I could run outside but that would mean I would have to go outside and who wants to do that?
The interesting thing is that I am about a month into my getting back into the workout routine and I am starting to really feel the effects. Last night I did the same workout that I did two weeks ago and instead of feeling like I was about to collapse halfway through like I did last time I enjoyed my run and went farther than I did before. My body seems to be finally understanding that I am getting into workout mode and is acting accordingly. I am hoping to get to the point that I did last year where I really looked forward to going to the gym in the evening and working out. It does mean that I can’t spend all of my waking hours in front of a computer screen but I guess that is not a bad thing overall.
Oh, and your sign of the apocalypse for the week: The number one movie in the country this weekend was G-Force. Yes, more people saw a film featuring talking guinea pigs than any other piece of art (or in case of that Katherine Heigel film, an hour and a half of romantic comedy clichés.) As I mentioned before, that film is a disgrace to the G-Force name and legacy. How did we move from super powered children dressed as birds to talking rodents? This country is going downhill faster than you could ever believe.
Best of 120 Minutes: Let’s start with the week with some Hothouse Flowers. They are one of those bands that never got the break they deserved.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Brunettes “Mars Loves Venus”
2) Whiskeytown “Strangers Almanac”
3) Billy Bragg and Wilco “Mermaid Avenue Volume 2”
4) Richard Buckner “Dents and Shells”
5) Rilo Kiley “Under the Blacklight”
I am making some pretty good progress on the weight loss front myself. My treadmill workouts are going well and are about as interesting as treadmill workouts can be. As in they are painfully dull and excruciatingly boring. No matter what I do to liven up my time on the treadmill (and I am one of those people who never keeps the same speed or incline for more than a few minutes) it is always a slog. Not that I don’t enjoy the challenge and all but I would love to find a way to make it more interesting. True, I could run outside but that would mean I would have to go outside and who wants to do that?
The interesting thing is that I am about a month into my getting back into the workout routine and I am starting to really feel the effects. Last night I did the same workout that I did two weeks ago and instead of feeling like I was about to collapse halfway through like I did last time I enjoyed my run and went farther than I did before. My body seems to be finally understanding that I am getting into workout mode and is acting accordingly. I am hoping to get to the point that I did last year where I really looked forward to going to the gym in the evening and working out. It does mean that I can’t spend all of my waking hours in front of a computer screen but I guess that is not a bad thing overall.
Oh, and your sign of the apocalypse for the week: The number one movie in the country this weekend was G-Force. Yes, more people saw a film featuring talking guinea pigs than any other piece of art (or in case of that Katherine Heigel film, an hour and a half of romantic comedy clichés.) As I mentioned before, that film is a disgrace to the G-Force name and legacy. How did we move from super powered children dressed as birds to talking rodents? This country is going downhill faster than you could ever believe.
Best of 120 Minutes: Let’s start with the week with some Hothouse Flowers. They are one of those bands that never got the break they deserved.
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Brunettes “Mars Loves Venus”
2) Whiskeytown “Strangers Almanac”
3) Billy Bragg and Wilco “Mermaid Avenue Volume 2”
4) Richard Buckner “Dents and Shells”
5) Rilo Kiley “Under the Blacklight”
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Poor out some slime tonight
I would like to start off tonight by taking a moment to remember the passing of a true television icon: Les Lye. Everyone reading this knows who Les Lye is. He was the adult on You Can’t Do That on Television. He passed away on Tuesday and his contributions to television should not be forgotten. It is a shame that his death actually was by firing squad. Either that or he finally ate one of his own Barth Burgers.
Seriously, I lose a piece of my childhood every day. When Walter Cronkite passed away last week that held some pretty significant meaning for me. I grew up in a CBS news household. Every night I would sit in front of the TV and watch Walter Cronkite present the news. Maybe as a six year old I did not understand everything that he was discussing but he was as much a part of my daily existence as Big Bird. Every day we seem to lose someone who was part of my early years and I have to face the fact that I am now most certainly an adult.
(And yes, even as a six year old I watched the news every day. That was just the way my family worked. In the evening we had the news on and there was no debate. I still claim that I learned to count via the Iran hostage drama in which every night they would list how many days the hostages had been held (444 in total, which I remembered because I thought it was a cool number.) We also always had newspapers and National Geographics around for us to read. I will always state that my parents never pushed me to excel in academics; they simply provided me with all of the tools necessary to love information and learning.)
It is tough for me to come to grips with the fact that I am getting older. When simple realizations like a teenager today has no idea what a cassette tape is cross your mind you just feel like sitting down for a while. I still don’t feel old and I definitely don’t look it (distinguished gray hairs notwithstanding.) I can still get carded for alcohol and can confuse people about my age. And it is not as though my life has settled down in some boring, humdrum pattern. In fact, it is more exciting than it has ever been. But with all of that I am constantly reminded that I am aging.
I’m going to fight the good fight against growing old. This doesn’t mean that I am going to start dressing like a teenager. I didn’t dress like a teenager when I was one and by no means am I going to start now. But I will always try to stay on the cutting edge in terms of media and culture and technology. I will try my best to keep my body together as things start to slow down and weight begins to accumulate around my middle. Mainly I will just keep on enjoying life. Do that and age really doesn’t matter.
Seriously, I lose a piece of my childhood every day. When Walter Cronkite passed away last week that held some pretty significant meaning for me. I grew up in a CBS news household. Every night I would sit in front of the TV and watch Walter Cronkite present the news. Maybe as a six year old I did not understand everything that he was discussing but he was as much a part of my daily existence as Big Bird. Every day we seem to lose someone who was part of my early years and I have to face the fact that I am now most certainly an adult.
(And yes, even as a six year old I watched the news every day. That was just the way my family worked. In the evening we had the news on and there was no debate. I still claim that I learned to count via the Iran hostage drama in which every night they would list how many days the hostages had been held (444 in total, which I remembered because I thought it was a cool number.) We also always had newspapers and National Geographics around for us to read. I will always state that my parents never pushed me to excel in academics; they simply provided me with all of the tools necessary to love information and learning.)
It is tough for me to come to grips with the fact that I am getting older. When simple realizations like a teenager today has no idea what a cassette tape is cross your mind you just feel like sitting down for a while. I still don’t feel old and I definitely don’t look it (distinguished gray hairs notwithstanding.) I can still get carded for alcohol and can confuse people about my age. And it is not as though my life has settled down in some boring, humdrum pattern. In fact, it is more exciting than it has ever been. But with all of that I am constantly reminded that I am aging.
I’m going to fight the good fight against growing old. This doesn’t mean that I am going to start dressing like a teenager. I didn’t dress like a teenager when I was one and by no means am I going to start now. But I will always try to stay on the cutting edge in terms of media and culture and technology. I will try my best to keep my body together as things start to slow down and weight begins to accumulate around my middle. Mainly I will just keep on enjoying life. Do that and age really doesn’t matter.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
At least I still have my health
I was requested to write about Obama’s policy stance tonight and since my primetime schedule was once again put into disarray by a news conference I thought that it would be best to discuss my views on the subject. I’m not sure how my views fall amidst the political spectrum but here it goes. Time for all of the health care aficionados out there to get their fill of news.
I will start with the points that I feel everyone agrees on. Health care is too expensive, too many people are uninsured to the point that they create an overall tax on the system, and the fear of losing coverage or being denied for a preexisting condition is overwhelming. All of those are issues that need to be addressed. However, I’m not sure the Obama plan is the right way to go about it.
First off, while he backed off the August deadline for a bill I am still upset with the timeline to begin with. Right now I see the overall health of the economy as the major focus and reforming health care is a priority but not the top priority. If this passed next year it wouldn’t be a big deal given the lead time it will take for any changes to go into effect. Given the size of the deficits that we are currently facing (and the fact that we may need another stimulus bill in the near future) this seems to be a diversion we do not need. Though I will give Obama credit for his point that the only way to get anything done in Washington is to force a deadline.
My main issue is the focus on universal coverage. The point of this version of health care reform is to get everyone insured, via the government if need be, at a rather tremendous expense to the overall system. I’m against that view because once you start down that path of universal coverage you quickly slide down the slope to socialized medicine. Sure, I’m insured via my company but if the government would also insure me what would stop my company (or any company for that matter) to stop my insurance and force me to the government plan. Pretty soon, everyone is insured by the government and we have socialized medicine.
And please do not tell me about the wonders of socialized medicine. I have been in an emergency room in England in so much pain that I blacked out at one point. I have never been through such a hellish experience as I went through that night. Every single step of the process from the waiting room onward made me wonder if the whole thing was just a massive bureaucratic joke. And what was I given for a severely separated shoulder and significant muscle tears throughout my arm? A handful of ibuprofen and a sling suitable for a Revolutionary War reenactor. Add in the year long waits for surgery in Canada for something that would get done in a week in the US and there is no way I want to go to that model.
In a way I really view universal coverage to be un-American. What we truly want is universal access to insurance. No one likes the idea of being forced to do something in this country, which is one of the reasons why we can’t even have standardized identification cards. But we do want a level of fairness for everyone. So what I would like to see is a level of catastrophic care insurance provided by private insurers but government backed that everyone will have the right to purchase. If you choose not that is your own decision and it may work out or it may bankrupt you. But you would be guaranteed an option.
So what would I want to see? Let’s have the universal access to catastrophic care as well as better regulation on what defines a preexisting condition. Make it easier to transfer coverage from employer to employer knowing that one day we will have to scrap the whole employer model anyway and go to a market based approach. Go after the inefficiencies in the current system that were going to pay for the overall changes and just take that cost out of the system to begin with. Reform the malpractice laws to help reduce the costs as well. And take the time to get it right. All government plans go over cost and we are already at an unstable deficit level as it is. We can’t add more deficits into the system so whatever we do can’t add additional cost into the system.
I’d just like to wait until we had the Dow over 9,000 before we tried to undertake such a massive project. I’d be even happier if the Dow was over 10K at which point I would feel safe in saying that the economy was back in the right direction. But right now our main focus should be on the economy and double digit unemployment. Until that comes back under control we have some much more serious issues on the table.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Also, under my medical plan The Polyphonic Spree will be located in every hospital.
I will start with the points that I feel everyone agrees on. Health care is too expensive, too many people are uninsured to the point that they create an overall tax on the system, and the fear of losing coverage or being denied for a preexisting condition is overwhelming. All of those are issues that need to be addressed. However, I’m not sure the Obama plan is the right way to go about it.
First off, while he backed off the August deadline for a bill I am still upset with the timeline to begin with. Right now I see the overall health of the economy as the major focus and reforming health care is a priority but not the top priority. If this passed next year it wouldn’t be a big deal given the lead time it will take for any changes to go into effect. Given the size of the deficits that we are currently facing (and the fact that we may need another stimulus bill in the near future) this seems to be a diversion we do not need. Though I will give Obama credit for his point that the only way to get anything done in Washington is to force a deadline.
My main issue is the focus on universal coverage. The point of this version of health care reform is to get everyone insured, via the government if need be, at a rather tremendous expense to the overall system. I’m against that view because once you start down that path of universal coverage you quickly slide down the slope to socialized medicine. Sure, I’m insured via my company but if the government would also insure me what would stop my company (or any company for that matter) to stop my insurance and force me to the government plan. Pretty soon, everyone is insured by the government and we have socialized medicine.
And please do not tell me about the wonders of socialized medicine. I have been in an emergency room in England in so much pain that I blacked out at one point. I have never been through such a hellish experience as I went through that night. Every single step of the process from the waiting room onward made me wonder if the whole thing was just a massive bureaucratic joke. And what was I given for a severely separated shoulder and significant muscle tears throughout my arm? A handful of ibuprofen and a sling suitable for a Revolutionary War reenactor. Add in the year long waits for surgery in Canada for something that would get done in a week in the US and there is no way I want to go to that model.
In a way I really view universal coverage to be un-American. What we truly want is universal access to insurance. No one likes the idea of being forced to do something in this country, which is one of the reasons why we can’t even have standardized identification cards. But we do want a level of fairness for everyone. So what I would like to see is a level of catastrophic care insurance provided by private insurers but government backed that everyone will have the right to purchase. If you choose not that is your own decision and it may work out or it may bankrupt you. But you would be guaranteed an option.
So what would I want to see? Let’s have the universal access to catastrophic care as well as better regulation on what defines a preexisting condition. Make it easier to transfer coverage from employer to employer knowing that one day we will have to scrap the whole employer model anyway and go to a market based approach. Go after the inefficiencies in the current system that were going to pay for the overall changes and just take that cost out of the system to begin with. Reform the malpractice laws to help reduce the costs as well. And take the time to get it right. All government plans go over cost and we are already at an unstable deficit level as it is. We can’t add more deficits into the system so whatever we do can’t add additional cost into the system.
I’d just like to wait until we had the Dow over 9,000 before we tried to undertake such a massive project. I’d be even happier if the Dow was over 10K at which point I would feel safe in saying that the economy was back in the right direction. But right now our main focus should be on the economy and double digit unemployment. Until that comes back under control we have some much more serious issues on the table.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Also, under my medical plan The Polyphonic Spree will be located in every hospital.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
The buglight of internet media
Not sure if people enjoyed my post last night but I sure had a blast writing it. Sometimes I write for my own enjoyment and that post, which probably required footnotes given all of the references that I made, is a prime example. Let’s face it no matter how hard I try I will always be a science fiction geek.
It is nice to know that I have found someone who will allow me to embrace the geekiness inside of me. Here is my latest example of how I have the best girlfriend in the world. Not only did we go out and buy a Nintendo Wii over the weekend but we also made sure to purchase the lightsaber attachments so that we can more accurately portray the battle between the Jedi. How awesome is that? Like I’ve said before, I’m the luckiest guy on the planet.
In more serious news, we get yet another presidential news conference on Wednesday night. Yes, this is about number forty this year in terms of prime time news conferences. I will at least give the president credit in that he has chosen a much better date this time than in previous news cycles. He avoids postponing the season premiere of Hells Kitchen tonight as well as the eviction episode of Big Brother on Thursday and will not interfere with my watching of Top Chef Masters. Forget about policy discussions, I will not have my reality tv watching disturbed.
Speaking of Big Brother (rather poor segue here but I will work on it) I need to discuss the whole Erin Andrews situation. Now most people know by now that someone secretly filmed Erin Andrews (ESPN’s favorite sideline journalist) undressing in her hotel room and uploaded the video to the internet. I found out about it through Deadspin on Friday afternoon and have since been following the fallout and reaction. And let me make it perfectly clear I have not watched the video because the entire idea of it makes me want to take a shower to wash off the dirt that just doesn’t want to come off. How anyone can be interested in watching footage taken by a guy who most likely drilled a hole into an adjoining hotel room and filmed through the hole is beyond me. It is horrible beyond words.
What is interesting in the blogosphere is that there is a great argument over how this should be viewed. Most people are appalled. A few truly wonder what the big deal is as she is just naked and not doing anything illegal or wrong. I’ve read more than a few comments to that effect. Obviously, I disagree completely. Even as someone who spends most of his free time analyzing the pop culture landscape there is a line drawn. We can make fun of Paris and Brittany and My Beloved Lindsay because they put themselves out there in these situations. If they want to get out of a car legs akimbo when they happened to forget to wear underwear that evening then commenting on the situation is allowable. (I feel better joking about it than being the guy with the telephoto lens who is apparently lying on the ground to get those shots.) But here is a situation where not only did she not know she was being filmed but the act of filming her was in itself a crime. This wasn’t an invasion of privacy it was a complete theft of it.
Should this story be covered online? Yes, because it is a news story. However, it isn’t a case of “Dude, check out this link I just found.” We’ve become such a voyeuristic society that an act of true voyeurism doesn’t even seem shocking anymore.
That is all for tonight. Enjoy Pi Approximation day.
It is nice to know that I have found someone who will allow me to embrace the geekiness inside of me. Here is my latest example of how I have the best girlfriend in the world. Not only did we go out and buy a Nintendo Wii over the weekend but we also made sure to purchase the lightsaber attachments so that we can more accurately portray the battle between the Jedi. How awesome is that? Like I’ve said before, I’m the luckiest guy on the planet.
In more serious news, we get yet another presidential news conference on Wednesday night. Yes, this is about number forty this year in terms of prime time news conferences. I will at least give the president credit in that he has chosen a much better date this time than in previous news cycles. He avoids postponing the season premiere of Hells Kitchen tonight as well as the eviction episode of Big Brother on Thursday and will not interfere with my watching of Top Chef Masters. Forget about policy discussions, I will not have my reality tv watching disturbed.
Speaking of Big Brother (rather poor segue here but I will work on it) I need to discuss the whole Erin Andrews situation. Now most people know by now that someone secretly filmed Erin Andrews (ESPN’s favorite sideline journalist) undressing in her hotel room and uploaded the video to the internet. I found out about it through Deadspin on Friday afternoon and have since been following the fallout and reaction. And let me make it perfectly clear I have not watched the video because the entire idea of it makes me want to take a shower to wash off the dirt that just doesn’t want to come off. How anyone can be interested in watching footage taken by a guy who most likely drilled a hole into an adjoining hotel room and filmed through the hole is beyond me. It is horrible beyond words.
What is interesting in the blogosphere is that there is a great argument over how this should be viewed. Most people are appalled. A few truly wonder what the big deal is as she is just naked and not doing anything illegal or wrong. I’ve read more than a few comments to that effect. Obviously, I disagree completely. Even as someone who spends most of his free time analyzing the pop culture landscape there is a line drawn. We can make fun of Paris and Brittany and My Beloved Lindsay because they put themselves out there in these situations. If they want to get out of a car legs akimbo when they happened to forget to wear underwear that evening then commenting on the situation is allowable. (I feel better joking about it than being the guy with the telephoto lens who is apparently lying on the ground to get those shots.) But here is a situation where not only did she not know she was being filmed but the act of filming her was in itself a crime. This wasn’t an invasion of privacy it was a complete theft of it.
Should this story be covered online? Yes, because it is a news story. However, it isn’t a case of “Dude, check out this link I just found.” We’ve become such a voyeuristic society that an act of true voyeurism doesn’t even seem shocking anymore.
That is all for tonight. Enjoy Pi Approximation day.
Monday, July 20, 2009
We're on the moon!
Given that tonight is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing I decided that it would be fitting if I went back, way back, into the Battling the Current archives and reprinted my live blog from that night. So join me friends as we harken back to that wonderful time.
8:58 P.M.: And we are coming to you live from Battling the Current science headquarters for full coverage of men walking on the moon. Holy shit! We’re on the freaking moon! I need to sit down for a moment. And I’m already sitting down.
9:00 P.M.: As usual I will set the ground rules for tonight. I will watch the coverage tonight, along with my partner Robby the Robot, and comment on what I see. The beverage of choice is of course Tang. Remember folks, it is perfectly proper to walk into any grocery store in this great nation of ours and loudly proclaim, “Hey, does anyone know where a guy could get some Tang in this place?”
9:06 P.M.: For those wondering at the moment we have Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (dude, all astronauts should be required to be named Buzz) on the moon in the lunar module while Michael Collins is orbiting the moon in the command module thus making Michael Collins the biggest footnote in history as the guy who didn’t walk on the moon. I assume that right now he is doing a crossword puzzle wondering how often his name will appear in the future.
9:10 P.M.: Why yes Robby, I also hope that the evil Dr. Smith has not hidden himself onboard the spacecraft in an attempt to sabotage the mission. And no, it doesn’t make sense to me why Dr. Smith would spend so much time with young Will Robinson as opposed to Penny or Judy. It troubles me greatly.
9:19 P.M.: We’re at a lull in the coverage here so I just want to mention that I am on the fence about going to Woodstock this year. I would love to see Sha Na Na (how awesome is Bowser. I mean, you could make an entire sitcom about the antics of a guy wearing a leather jacket and acting cool and having a catchphrase like “Hey…”) but not sure if the rest of the bill is worth it. I’ll probably just go to Altamont instead. Things will be a lot more peaceful out in sunny California.
9:21 P.M.: Dude, the summer of ’69 is going to be so epic. I hope someone writes a song about it. I just had a funny thought. Imagine of the song that memorializes this year the best is written by some loser Canadian guy.
9:25 P.M.: Ok, we just have word that they are about to step out of the capsule. Let’s switch this over to live moon coverage.
9:26 P.M.: Wait a minute. How can we have a live camera on the moon when they haven’t actually stepped foot on the moon yet? Did they climb out, set up the camera, climb back in again and then act like nothing happened?
9:28 P.M.: Here we go. The entire world is focused on a man walking down a ladder. And he’s done it! Neil Armstrong is walking on the moon. Remind me, walking on the moon would be a great title for a modified reggae song by a band whose lead singer would be named Bite or Prick or something.
9:31 P.M.: Correct me if I am wrong here but did Neil just blow his big line? “That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” That statement doesn’t make any sense. In that context man and mankind are equivalent so he basically said “That is one small step for man, one giant leap for man.” He should have said, “That is one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” Jeez, we can put a man on the moon but we can’t formulate a sentence correctly.
9:33 P.M.: Think about all of the people out there who have ever said, “I’ll do that when a man walks on the moon.” I have a feeling a few bets are being called in tonight.
9:35 P.M.: Here comes Buzz. Though I can’t see it through his helmet I assume that he is wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette throughout this entire process as all guys named Buzz naturally do. Also, mission control reports that Michael Collins requests assistance on 24 Down.
9:36 P.M.: Is it me or does the moon look surprisingly like Arizona? I swear I can see Phoenix in the background.
9:45 P.M.: I’m just stunned at what I am seeing right now. Just go outside and look at the sky. See the moon? There are two people walking around up there right now. Just think about that for a moment. We put a person from here to there. People think that it is amazing that we can scale Mt. Everest or fly across an ocean. This is just beyond words.
9:50 P.M.: I can’t wait to see where we are in forty years. Flying cars and hoverboards to be sure. Vacations on the moon. Trips to Mars. The possibilities are seemingly endless. It would be a shame if the only major advance in that time period was the creation of a computer network used primarily to look at porn and inform your friends what Peanuts character you most resemble.
9:55 P.M.: Thinking about all of this has given me a great idea for a movie script. How about you have a young farmboy who discover these two robots who lead him to this old hermit who is really this famous warrior. They go off on a journey to save a princess (who is really the farmboy’s sister but I’m not sure if we reveal that right away. Better to have some very strange sexual tension first) aided by a space pirate and his rather large dog. To save the princess they have to battle this evil Man-Bot who in reality is the farmboy’s father but you don’t know that either. In the end they have this huge space battle with amazing sound effects even though space is a vacuum so there wouldn’t be any noises. What do you think?
10:00 P.M.: Ok, I’m calling it a night here. Right now Neil and Buzz are hopping away on the surface and I assume that they will come home to wonderful careers as Bears head coach and surfing instructor respectively. Tomorrow we will discuss the chances for the Cubs to make the World Series this year as they are 24 games over 500 at the moment. I mean, what are the odds that they will collapse and take at least another forty years to go to a World Series? If we can put a man on the moon we could certainly put the Cubs in the Series, right?
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Insiders “Fate in Action”
2) The Flaming Lips “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”
3) The New Pornographers “Twin Cinema”
4) They Might Be Giants “Flood”
5) Monte Warden “A Stranger to me Now”
8:58 P.M.: And we are coming to you live from Battling the Current science headquarters for full coverage of men walking on the moon. Holy shit! We’re on the freaking moon! I need to sit down for a moment. And I’m already sitting down.
9:00 P.M.: As usual I will set the ground rules for tonight. I will watch the coverage tonight, along with my partner Robby the Robot, and comment on what I see. The beverage of choice is of course Tang. Remember folks, it is perfectly proper to walk into any grocery store in this great nation of ours and loudly proclaim, “Hey, does anyone know where a guy could get some Tang in this place?”
9:06 P.M.: For those wondering at the moment we have Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (dude, all astronauts should be required to be named Buzz) on the moon in the lunar module while Michael Collins is orbiting the moon in the command module thus making Michael Collins the biggest footnote in history as the guy who didn’t walk on the moon. I assume that right now he is doing a crossword puzzle wondering how often his name will appear in the future.
9:10 P.M.: Why yes Robby, I also hope that the evil Dr. Smith has not hidden himself onboard the spacecraft in an attempt to sabotage the mission. And no, it doesn’t make sense to me why Dr. Smith would spend so much time with young Will Robinson as opposed to Penny or Judy. It troubles me greatly.
9:19 P.M.: We’re at a lull in the coverage here so I just want to mention that I am on the fence about going to Woodstock this year. I would love to see Sha Na Na (how awesome is Bowser. I mean, you could make an entire sitcom about the antics of a guy wearing a leather jacket and acting cool and having a catchphrase like “Hey…”) but not sure if the rest of the bill is worth it. I’ll probably just go to Altamont instead. Things will be a lot more peaceful out in sunny California.
9:21 P.M.: Dude, the summer of ’69 is going to be so epic. I hope someone writes a song about it. I just had a funny thought. Imagine of the song that memorializes this year the best is written by some loser Canadian guy.
9:25 P.M.: Ok, we just have word that they are about to step out of the capsule. Let’s switch this over to live moon coverage.
9:26 P.M.: Wait a minute. How can we have a live camera on the moon when they haven’t actually stepped foot on the moon yet? Did they climb out, set up the camera, climb back in again and then act like nothing happened?
9:28 P.M.: Here we go. The entire world is focused on a man walking down a ladder. And he’s done it! Neil Armstrong is walking on the moon. Remind me, walking on the moon would be a great title for a modified reggae song by a band whose lead singer would be named Bite or Prick or something.
9:31 P.M.: Correct me if I am wrong here but did Neil just blow his big line? “That is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” That statement doesn’t make any sense. In that context man and mankind are equivalent so he basically said “That is one small step for man, one giant leap for man.” He should have said, “That is one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” Jeez, we can put a man on the moon but we can’t formulate a sentence correctly.
9:33 P.M.: Think about all of the people out there who have ever said, “I’ll do that when a man walks on the moon.” I have a feeling a few bets are being called in tonight.
9:35 P.M.: Here comes Buzz. Though I can’t see it through his helmet I assume that he is wearing sunglasses and smoking a cigarette throughout this entire process as all guys named Buzz naturally do. Also, mission control reports that Michael Collins requests assistance on 24 Down.
9:36 P.M.: Is it me or does the moon look surprisingly like Arizona? I swear I can see Phoenix in the background.
9:45 P.M.: I’m just stunned at what I am seeing right now. Just go outside and look at the sky. See the moon? There are two people walking around up there right now. Just think about that for a moment. We put a person from here to there. People think that it is amazing that we can scale Mt. Everest or fly across an ocean. This is just beyond words.
9:50 P.M.: I can’t wait to see where we are in forty years. Flying cars and hoverboards to be sure. Vacations on the moon. Trips to Mars. The possibilities are seemingly endless. It would be a shame if the only major advance in that time period was the creation of a computer network used primarily to look at porn and inform your friends what Peanuts character you most resemble.
9:55 P.M.: Thinking about all of this has given me a great idea for a movie script. How about you have a young farmboy who discover these two robots who lead him to this old hermit who is really this famous warrior. They go off on a journey to save a princess (who is really the farmboy’s sister but I’m not sure if we reveal that right away. Better to have some very strange sexual tension first) aided by a space pirate and his rather large dog. To save the princess they have to battle this evil Man-Bot who in reality is the farmboy’s father but you don’t know that either. In the end they have this huge space battle with amazing sound effects even though space is a vacuum so there wouldn’t be any noises. What do you think?
10:00 P.M.: Ok, I’m calling it a night here. Right now Neil and Buzz are hopping away on the surface and I assume that they will come home to wonderful careers as Bears head coach and surfing instructor respectively. Tomorrow we will discuss the chances for the Cubs to make the World Series this year as they are 24 games over 500 at the moment. I mean, what are the odds that they will collapse and take at least another forty years to go to a World Series? If we can put a man on the moon we could certainly put the Cubs in the Series, right?
The five random CDs for the week:
1) The Insiders “Fate in Action”
2) The Flaming Lips “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots”
3) The New Pornographers “Twin Cinema”
4) They Might Be Giants “Flood”
5) Monte Warden “A Stranger to me Now”
Sunday, July 19, 2009
All just to get to you
I spend a lot of time in airports. That seems to be the nature of my life at the moment. What is strange is that I am not one of those road warrior corporate employees who are never in the same city for more than two days at a time. While I travel for work occassionaly it has never been the focus of my travel stories. Nope, it is just that the nature of my life has me flying a lot to get anywhere interesting. That is just what happens when you live in such exotic locales as Kansas City and Delaware.
I do have to say that as someone who has flown into and out of numerous airports I have never found one that is as mind boggilingly frustrating as the Philadelphia airport. It was apparently designed by Ben Franklin when he was under the impression that we would all travel by zeppelin. There isn't a single thing about that airport that makes a lick of sense. You know it is bad that when you step out of the garage and into the terminal that the carpet splashes due to some unseen leak but that is the least of my issues.
First off, the terminals lack that wonder of the world: the moving walkways. I know this doesn't sound like much and I appreciate the fact that I can get a workout in while getting to my gate but the typical American is not accustomed to walking. Add the fact that the concourses seem incredibly narrow with kiosks selling Rosetta Stone software and buttons from various countries attacking you at all moments and you have efficient traveler me constantly stuck behind people who are moving as slowly as possible. To the point that even I want to bean them with my backpack just to get them to move.
Once I get to the gate my problems still aren't solved. There never seems to be enough seats and I don't believe that they have ever figured out the concept of temperature control. Heating and cooling seem non-existent and when they do exist it is the opposite of the one you want. I also have encountered the gate next to the employee only elevator. Do you know how an elevator beeps when it comes to your floor. Well, instead of a beep this one had a ten second long ear piercing whail. Now have that happen roughly once every four minutes as you wait to board the plane. And boarding the plane always seems to have a whole eastern european flair to it as you tend to end up in numerous lines with people waving tickets in the air and bellowing in about five languages.
Eventually you get on a plane and you want to breathe a sigh of relief that you are now going to be on your way. You pull out of the gate and then you wait. And wait. And wait. A 40 minute wait to get airborne is typical and a two hour wait is not unheard of. All of this during that time period where cel phones and iPods are prohibited from use. They just book so many flights to take off into the northeast corridor that any inconvenience (a drop of rain, a slight gust of wind, a butterfly flapping its wings in Argentina) will cause the airport to go into a complete standstill. It is just maddening.
Still, I know who is waiting for me on the other end of these nightmare flights. And when I finally arrive and see her it makes all the annoyances and petty grievances worthwhile. Because at the end of the day I will go through anything just to see her.
I do have to say that as someone who has flown into and out of numerous airports I have never found one that is as mind boggilingly frustrating as the Philadelphia airport. It was apparently designed by Ben Franklin when he was under the impression that we would all travel by zeppelin. There isn't a single thing about that airport that makes a lick of sense. You know it is bad that when you step out of the garage and into the terminal that the carpet splashes due to some unseen leak but that is the least of my issues.
First off, the terminals lack that wonder of the world: the moving walkways. I know this doesn't sound like much and I appreciate the fact that I can get a workout in while getting to my gate but the typical American is not accustomed to walking. Add the fact that the concourses seem incredibly narrow with kiosks selling Rosetta Stone software and buttons from various countries attacking you at all moments and you have efficient traveler me constantly stuck behind people who are moving as slowly as possible. To the point that even I want to bean them with my backpack just to get them to move.
Once I get to the gate my problems still aren't solved. There never seems to be enough seats and I don't believe that they have ever figured out the concept of temperature control. Heating and cooling seem non-existent and when they do exist it is the opposite of the one you want. I also have encountered the gate next to the employee only elevator. Do you know how an elevator beeps when it comes to your floor. Well, instead of a beep this one had a ten second long ear piercing whail. Now have that happen roughly once every four minutes as you wait to board the plane. And boarding the plane always seems to have a whole eastern european flair to it as you tend to end up in numerous lines with people waving tickets in the air and bellowing in about five languages.
Eventually you get on a plane and you want to breathe a sigh of relief that you are now going to be on your way. You pull out of the gate and then you wait. And wait. And wait. A 40 minute wait to get airborne is typical and a two hour wait is not unheard of. All of this during that time period where cel phones and iPods are prohibited from use. They just book so many flights to take off into the northeast corridor that any inconvenience (a drop of rain, a slight gust of wind, a butterfly flapping its wings in Argentina) will cause the airport to go into a complete standstill. It is just maddening.
Still, I know who is waiting for me on the other end of these nightmare flights. And when I finally arrive and see her it makes all the annoyances and petty grievances worthwhile. Because at the end of the day I will go through anything just to see her.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Well, it is on Arnold Jackson Street
I have always stated that I am from Chicago but that is in reality not true. It is close to the truth but I have to admit that I have never had a Chicago address. Growing up I did have a 312 area code before getting shunted to the 708 area code and losing a lot of coolness in the process and then moving to 630 land, which is pretty much wagon train country. But even though I am really from Berwyn I always felt that I had the right to claim my heritage as a Chicago native because I could see the Sears Tower from my bedroom. I always felt like that was the rule: as long as you could still see the Sears Tower you are still in Chicago.
Even though I have moved and haven’t even lived in Illinois for almost eight years now the Sears Tower holds a special place in my heart. It shouldn’t surprise you that I was extremely upset that they had changed the name of the building this morning. Yes, now the tallest building in the world (screw what Guinness tells you, ornamental structures do not count as height) is to be referred to as the Willis Tower. As in the “Whatcha talkin bout” Tower. Or the Todd Bridges Memorial Building. Skidmore, Owings and / or Merrill must be rolling over in their graves.
Yes, I know that no one from Sears has worked in that building for more than fifteen years. The fact that Sears, a company that is barely still in business, has been able to keep its name on the tallest building in the nation’s architectural heartland is amazing in and of itself. But even so no one wants to see a name change. It doesn’t matter that the naming rights will raise money for the city. As Chicagoans we will continue to call things by their proper names. The United Center is still referred to by many as “The New Stadium”, US Cellular Field is “New Commiskey” and Willis Tower will remain the Sears Tower for a long time.
Here is my favorite Sears Tower memory. Back when I was a kid, maybe seven or eight, a guy climbed up the side of the building all the way to the top. Now if you look at the building you see that it is very boxy and broad shouldered and there is actually only one side of the building from which you can reach the top. (I still remember my dad telling me about that as a kid and every time I see it I look to find that side.) This guy, who happened to be named Dan, did the climb dressed in a Spider Man costume and as a result was referred to as Spider Dan. The Chicago fire department did their best to bring him down, including using fire hoses at one point which I felt was totally unfair, but he made it to the top and was promptly arrested.
Personally I always loved that story. I never understood why the cops tried to arrest him. Sure, I understand that you can’t have people randomly climbing up the sides of buildings at all times but the sheer challenge of going 103 stories with nothing to help you other than the equipment you made yourself makes you want to see if it can be done. Plus, he did it in a Spider Man costume. Maybe it was the first news story I ever saw where I could look at where it took place and not even comprehend how someone could do such a thing. I still look at that building and go how in the world did he pull that off. It might not be the prettiest building in the world but it creates that sense of awe that few buildings can attain.
Even though I have moved and haven’t even lived in Illinois for almost eight years now the Sears Tower holds a special place in my heart. It shouldn’t surprise you that I was extremely upset that they had changed the name of the building this morning. Yes, now the tallest building in the world (screw what Guinness tells you, ornamental structures do not count as height) is to be referred to as the Willis Tower. As in the “Whatcha talkin bout” Tower. Or the Todd Bridges Memorial Building. Skidmore, Owings and / or Merrill must be rolling over in their graves.
Yes, I know that no one from Sears has worked in that building for more than fifteen years. The fact that Sears, a company that is barely still in business, has been able to keep its name on the tallest building in the nation’s architectural heartland is amazing in and of itself. But even so no one wants to see a name change. It doesn’t matter that the naming rights will raise money for the city. As Chicagoans we will continue to call things by their proper names. The United Center is still referred to by many as “The New Stadium”, US Cellular Field is “New Commiskey” and Willis Tower will remain the Sears Tower for a long time.
Here is my favorite Sears Tower memory. Back when I was a kid, maybe seven or eight, a guy climbed up the side of the building all the way to the top. Now if you look at the building you see that it is very boxy and broad shouldered and there is actually only one side of the building from which you can reach the top. (I still remember my dad telling me about that as a kid and every time I see it I look to find that side.) This guy, who happened to be named Dan, did the climb dressed in a Spider Man costume and as a result was referred to as Spider Dan. The Chicago fire department did their best to bring him down, including using fire hoses at one point which I felt was totally unfair, but he made it to the top and was promptly arrested.
Personally I always loved that story. I never understood why the cops tried to arrest him. Sure, I understand that you can’t have people randomly climbing up the sides of buildings at all times but the sheer challenge of going 103 stories with nothing to help you other than the equipment you made yourself makes you want to see if it can be done. Plus, he did it in a Spider Man costume. Maybe it was the first news story I ever saw where I could look at where it took place and not even comprehend how someone could do such a thing. I still look at that building and go how in the world did he pull that off. It might not be the prettiest building in the world but it creates that sense of awe that few buildings can attain.
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A window onto Delaware
Last bit on the music comments: I completely agree about the revamping of Borders. For several years they were one of the best places to find music. They had an eclectic selection and while it was expensive you could certainly find what you were looking for. Over the past year or so I saw the quality and the care of the section decrease massively (the special displays seemed to go from highlighting artists to housing whatever CDs they had extras of.) Now they have removed most of the section completely and replaced it with absolutely nothing. Which is strange because I don’t think they have a clue what to do with that square footage and that has to be really troubling for the company. Still, that was the last straw on big box stores where you could find good music.
I’ve got a little bit of an apartment rant to go on at the moment. As I’ve mentioned before I live in a high rise apartment with massive windows. Well, on these massive windows have collected an amazing group of spiders. I say amazing because I am really high up in the air. Seriously, I’ve had birds smack into my windows up here. Yet I still have these spiders building intricate webs and capturing numerous insects. And these aren’t small spiders. These guys have some pretty serious length to them.
The good news is that they are on the outside of windows that cannot open so I don’t have to worry about them invading my apartment. However it is still rather creepy to look up and see a spider going flying past your field of view as it picks off whatever just hit its web. Right now I can see five of them and I can’t do anything about them. It does give me a bit of the heebie jeebies. My only solution is to pull down the shades but that would ruin the view of downtown Wilmington, which I admit isn’t much but it is really the only thing I have going for me here in Wilmington.
And Wilmington does have a skyline even though it consists mainly of bank buildings. Which was fun during the financial meltdown as I would wonder how they could even afford to keep the lights on. (Seriously, Chase and ING keep every single light on at all times. If I didn’t get paid by electricity usage I would have an issue.) I still don’t have a sense of this town though. Maybe my years out in Kansas have spoiled me as I got used to the sprawl. Big empty spaces filled up with strip malls. Now I am in the land of winding roads and no straight lines and I am never quite sure how to get from one place to another. Maybe I will get used to it eventually.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Since I’ve mentioned Carbon Leaf a lot this week I thought I would put in a live clip of them. This is from a record store appearance and shows how they caught my eye.
I’ve got a little bit of an apartment rant to go on at the moment. As I’ve mentioned before I live in a high rise apartment with massive windows. Well, on these massive windows have collected an amazing group of spiders. I say amazing because I am really high up in the air. Seriously, I’ve had birds smack into my windows up here. Yet I still have these spiders building intricate webs and capturing numerous insects. And these aren’t small spiders. These guys have some pretty serious length to them.
The good news is that they are on the outside of windows that cannot open so I don’t have to worry about them invading my apartment. However it is still rather creepy to look up and see a spider going flying past your field of view as it picks off whatever just hit its web. Right now I can see five of them and I can’t do anything about them. It does give me a bit of the heebie jeebies. My only solution is to pull down the shades but that would ruin the view of downtown Wilmington, which I admit isn’t much but it is really the only thing I have going for me here in Wilmington.
And Wilmington does have a skyline even though it consists mainly of bank buildings. Which was fun during the financial meltdown as I would wonder how they could even afford to keep the lights on. (Seriously, Chase and ING keep every single light on at all times. If I didn’t get paid by electricity usage I would have an issue.) I still don’t have a sense of this town though. Maybe my years out in Kansas have spoiled me as I got used to the sprawl. Big empty spaces filled up with strip malls. Now I am in the land of winding roads and no straight lines and I am never quite sure how to get from one place to another. Maybe I will get used to it eventually.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Since I’ve mentioned Carbon Leaf a lot this week I thought I would put in a live clip of them. This is from a record store appearance and shows how they caught my eye.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
The slow decline of my music fandom
Some interesting comments on my last post regarding my evolution as a music fan. First off, I would never list Belly as obscure and lame. I still have a crush on a red-haired Tanya Donnelly from the Feed the Tree video. And looking back at my 25 songs I would say that they fall mainly in the category of obscure but really good though I will have to admit that Freakwater has been described by music critics as sounding like cats being tortured and I completely see their point. But all in all I like the music on my Zune.
What is interesting though was the idea that my taste in music would grow more mainstream now that I am not in clubs any more. Well, I was never in dance clubs but I am out a lot less often and haven’t gone to a concert in a year and that has brought up an interesting point with me. I wouldn’t say that my taste in music has grown more mainstream in the past year. What in has become is very stagnant to the point that I am simply not buying much new music. For example, I still haven’t picked up the latest Wilco and Son Volt releases despite the fact that they are two of my favorite bands of all time and I do not go a week without listening to one of them.
Part of the reason that my music tastes have grown stagnant is entirely because I am not going to concerts and as a result am not exposed to opening acts. For every awful opening act that I have seen in my life (up to and including Tom Brosseau who I still wish I would have thrown a beer bottle at even though that sentiment has resulted in physical threats made against me the last time I mentioned it on the blog) I have encountered some amazing acts who I become huge fans of. From my 25 songs Carbon Leaf, The Frames, Anders Osborne and Richard Buckner were all opening acts on bills that I saw over the years and they all became some of my favorite artists. If it wasn’t for going to concerts I would never have heard of Carbon Leaf but they are now my best example of a young band with huge potential. Without stepping out into the live music scene you lose those discoveries.
(As to why I haven’t explored the music scene here it basically isn’t anywhere near as convenient as it was in KC. There half the shows I went to were within ten minutes of my apartment and the others were about an hour’s drive away in Lawrence, where it helped that I didn’t really care about the impression I gave when I came into work late the next morning after spending the previous night hanging out with college students. Now I do care and pretty much every band I like plays an hour (and a few states) away and it makes it a lot tougher. Plus, I am just getting too old to do forty concerts a year. My ears need a break.)
But concerts aren’t the only reason my musical tastes have stagnated. The traditional ways of finding out about new music have disappeared for me. We already knew that MTV and VH1 are useless in terms of discovering new music though I will give VH1 props for providing us with The Pick Up Artist and Daisy of Love. My biggest problem is that I am someone who also found bands by reading music magazines and they pretty much no longer exist. No Depression folded and Paste is barely surviving to the point that they had to ask their subscribers for donations. I own CDs from bands just because I liked their ad much less those that had a good writeup. It really was one of my entry points: read a review, maybe see the band or just take a flier on a disc.
That is another reason behind my music purchase slowdown: the death of the record store. Even Borders is doing away with the majority of its music section. There was nothing better than spending part of my day just roaming the aisles of a record store and looking to see if I found anything interesting. It was just how I spent my lazy afternoons. Now I don’t even know where an independent store is relative to where I live (compared to being able to walk to a few in KC) and that entire experience has disappeared.
Now I know that most people would just say “Well, why don’t you just buy your music online like everyone else?” But the strange thing is I really don’t like getting my music that way. Heck, I don’t even like reading the music mags online even though that is where they have all repositioned themselves. For me there just needs to be a physical component to the entire process. Music is something that you can hold in your hand; it is not something that is just bits sent across the ether. Plus, when you have access to a nearly infinite amount of music you have to wade through an awful lot of crap to find the good stuff. That is why I always talk about the curse of The Long Tail. We now have access to every single song ever recorded and as a result of infinite choice we buy nothing.
I doubt that my tastes will ever become mainstream. I just hope that I am able to recreate my niche as a discerning music consumer.
What is interesting though was the idea that my taste in music would grow more mainstream now that I am not in clubs any more. Well, I was never in dance clubs but I am out a lot less often and haven’t gone to a concert in a year and that has brought up an interesting point with me. I wouldn’t say that my taste in music has grown more mainstream in the past year. What in has become is very stagnant to the point that I am simply not buying much new music. For example, I still haven’t picked up the latest Wilco and Son Volt releases despite the fact that they are two of my favorite bands of all time and I do not go a week without listening to one of them.
Part of the reason that my music tastes have grown stagnant is entirely because I am not going to concerts and as a result am not exposed to opening acts. For every awful opening act that I have seen in my life (up to and including Tom Brosseau who I still wish I would have thrown a beer bottle at even though that sentiment has resulted in physical threats made against me the last time I mentioned it on the blog) I have encountered some amazing acts who I become huge fans of. From my 25 songs Carbon Leaf, The Frames, Anders Osborne and Richard Buckner were all opening acts on bills that I saw over the years and they all became some of my favorite artists. If it wasn’t for going to concerts I would never have heard of Carbon Leaf but they are now my best example of a young band with huge potential. Without stepping out into the live music scene you lose those discoveries.
(As to why I haven’t explored the music scene here it basically isn’t anywhere near as convenient as it was in KC. There half the shows I went to were within ten minutes of my apartment and the others were about an hour’s drive away in Lawrence, where it helped that I didn’t really care about the impression I gave when I came into work late the next morning after spending the previous night hanging out with college students. Now I do care and pretty much every band I like plays an hour (and a few states) away and it makes it a lot tougher. Plus, I am just getting too old to do forty concerts a year. My ears need a break.)
But concerts aren’t the only reason my musical tastes have stagnated. The traditional ways of finding out about new music have disappeared for me. We already knew that MTV and VH1 are useless in terms of discovering new music though I will give VH1 props for providing us with The Pick Up Artist and Daisy of Love. My biggest problem is that I am someone who also found bands by reading music magazines and they pretty much no longer exist. No Depression folded and Paste is barely surviving to the point that they had to ask their subscribers for donations. I own CDs from bands just because I liked their ad much less those that had a good writeup. It really was one of my entry points: read a review, maybe see the band or just take a flier on a disc.
That is another reason behind my music purchase slowdown: the death of the record store. Even Borders is doing away with the majority of its music section. There was nothing better than spending part of my day just roaming the aisles of a record store and looking to see if I found anything interesting. It was just how I spent my lazy afternoons. Now I don’t even know where an independent store is relative to where I live (compared to being able to walk to a few in KC) and that entire experience has disappeared.
Now I know that most people would just say “Well, why don’t you just buy your music online like everyone else?” But the strange thing is I really don’t like getting my music that way. Heck, I don’t even like reading the music mags online even though that is where they have all repositioned themselves. For me there just needs to be a physical component to the entire process. Music is something that you can hold in your hand; it is not something that is just bits sent across the ether. Plus, when you have access to a nearly infinite amount of music you have to wade through an awful lot of crap to find the good stuff. That is why I always talk about the curse of The Long Tail. We now have access to every single song ever recorded and as a result of infinite choice we buy nothing.
I doubt that my tastes will ever become mainstream. I just hope that I am able to recreate my niche as a discerning music consumer.
Monday, July 13, 2009
25 songs
A friend of mine on Facebook posted this idea and it was the first useful thing I have seen on Facebook in ages. For the last time: I don’t care about your Mafia Wars game! No one cares about your Mafia Wars game! Nor do I care about what fictional character you most resemble. But this one was a bit more interesting.
Simple idea. Put your iPod on shuffle and write down the first twenty five songs that come out. No cheating and not listing a song that you are embarrassed that you have. Just a list of the first 25 songs you hear. Now admittedly I do not have an iPod but I do have a Zune, which is the size of a small tackle box but does have a shuffle feature. It is twelve menus down but you can do it. So here is my 25.
1: Veruca Salt “Number One Blind” from “American Thighs”
2: Kasey Chambers “Hollywood” from “Wayward Angel”
3: Carbon Leaf “Mary Mac” from “5 Alive”
4: Lucinda Williams “Get Right with God” from “Essence”
5: Waco Brothers “Lake of the Vinegar” from “To the Last Dead Cowboy”
6: Scott Miller and the Commonwealth “Loving that Girl” from “Thus Always to Tyrants”
7: Mary Lou Lord “The Lucky One” from “Got No Shadow”
8: The Frames “God Bless Mom” from “Set List”
9: Emmylou Harris “Little Bird” from “Stumble Into Grace”
10: Iris Dement “Near the Cross” from “Lifeline”
11: U2 “Can’t Help Fallin’ in Love with You” from “The Eye of the Fly” (1992 concert bootleg)
12: Anders Osborne “Don’t Pray for Me” from “Live at Tipitinas”
13: Ryan Adams “Two” from “Easy Tiger”
14: The Sundays “Blood on my Hands” from “Blind”
15: Old 97s “Making Love with You” from “Down to the Promised Land”
16: U2 “I Fall Down” from “October”
17: The Sundays “Cry” from “Static and Silence”
18: Freakwater “Flat Hand” from “Springtime”
19: Black 47 “Walk All the Days” from “Live in New York City”
20: Richard Buckner “Stutterstep” from “Impasse”
21: Kelly Willis “Get Real” from “Kelly Willis”
22: Iris Dement “Calling for You” from “My Life”
23: Lucinda Williams “Steal Your Love” from “Essence”
24: Cowboy Junkies “Escape is so Simple” from “Open Road”
25: Arcade Fire “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” from “Funeral”
So what does this tell us? First off, it shows that the shuffle feature on my Zune is rather crappy as I got two songs from the same album and repeats of four different artists (I’m not going to sit around and calculate the odds of that happening but it was more than it should.) Pretty even mix of male versus female vocalists (12 male versus 13 female.) I have seen fourteen of the acts in concert and that is not including Scott Miller (who I saw when he headed up the V-Roys) and Iris Dement (who I drank with before her daughter in law (Pieta Brown)’s concert but never actually got to see her perform.)
Other than U2 you are really stretching in terms of popular acts. Arcade Fire definitely is known and Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris are common names to music fans. Veruca Salt, Black 47 and Cowboy Junkies all had a hit or two in their day and Glen from The Frames has an Oscar but I figure that most people would look at this list and not have any of the discs. It also shows my usual songs from collections that no one has ever heard of (I have more U2 bootlegs lying around than I would like to admit.) That is what most people will point to when they talk about my music snobbery. Even my U2 songs are relatively unknown.
Anyone else have some thoughts here? Am I a music snob who will never admit to liking anyone popular? What does it say that when I choose 25 songs at random from my Zune that I have had a beer with several of the acts? Is there any reasoning behind the surprising number of religious songs that appeared? Help me out.
Simple idea. Put your iPod on shuffle and write down the first twenty five songs that come out. No cheating and not listing a song that you are embarrassed that you have. Just a list of the first 25 songs you hear. Now admittedly I do not have an iPod but I do have a Zune, which is the size of a small tackle box but does have a shuffle feature. It is twelve menus down but you can do it. So here is my 25.
1: Veruca Salt “Number One Blind” from “American Thighs”
2: Kasey Chambers “Hollywood” from “Wayward Angel”
3: Carbon Leaf “Mary Mac” from “5 Alive”
4: Lucinda Williams “Get Right with God” from “Essence”
5: Waco Brothers “Lake of the Vinegar” from “To the Last Dead Cowboy”
6: Scott Miller and the Commonwealth “Loving that Girl” from “Thus Always to Tyrants”
7: Mary Lou Lord “The Lucky One” from “Got No Shadow”
8: The Frames “God Bless Mom” from “Set List”
9: Emmylou Harris “Little Bird” from “Stumble Into Grace”
10: Iris Dement “Near the Cross” from “Lifeline”
11: U2 “Can’t Help Fallin’ in Love with You” from “The Eye of the Fly” (1992 concert bootleg)
12: Anders Osborne “Don’t Pray for Me” from “Live at Tipitinas”
13: Ryan Adams “Two” from “Easy Tiger”
14: The Sundays “Blood on my Hands” from “Blind”
15: Old 97s “Making Love with You” from “Down to the Promised Land”
16: U2 “I Fall Down” from “October”
17: The Sundays “Cry” from “Static and Silence”
18: Freakwater “Flat Hand” from “Springtime”
19: Black 47 “Walk All the Days” from “Live in New York City”
20: Richard Buckner “Stutterstep” from “Impasse”
21: Kelly Willis “Get Real” from “Kelly Willis”
22: Iris Dement “Calling for You” from “My Life”
23: Lucinda Williams “Steal Your Love” from “Essence”
24: Cowboy Junkies “Escape is so Simple” from “Open Road”
25: Arcade Fire “Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)” from “Funeral”
So what does this tell us? First off, it shows that the shuffle feature on my Zune is rather crappy as I got two songs from the same album and repeats of four different artists (I’m not going to sit around and calculate the odds of that happening but it was more than it should.) Pretty even mix of male versus female vocalists (12 male versus 13 female.) I have seen fourteen of the acts in concert and that is not including Scott Miller (who I saw when he headed up the V-Roys) and Iris Dement (who I drank with before her daughter in law (Pieta Brown)’s concert but never actually got to see her perform.)
Other than U2 you are really stretching in terms of popular acts. Arcade Fire definitely is known and Lucinda Williams and Emmylou Harris are common names to music fans. Veruca Salt, Black 47 and Cowboy Junkies all had a hit or two in their day and Glen from The Frames has an Oscar but I figure that most people would look at this list and not have any of the discs. It also shows my usual songs from collections that no one has ever heard of (I have more U2 bootlegs lying around than I would like to admit.) That is what most people will point to when they talk about my music snobbery. Even my U2 songs are relatively unknown.
Anyone else have some thoughts here? Am I a music snob who will never admit to liking anyone popular? What does it say that when I choose 25 songs at random from my Zune that I have had a beer with several of the acts? Is there any reasoning behind the surprising number of religious songs that appeared? Help me out.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Age is a state of mind, right?
I was carded while buying beer this weekend. This is a rather astounding development and while I would like to thank my youthful good looks it is somewhat disconcerting. While I am happy to know that I still can carry off the look of a nineteen year old trying to sneak out a six pack you have to wonder a) why a nineteen year old would be buying good beer and b) how many nineteen year olds have hair that has tinges of gray in it? It is a dignified gray, don’t get me wrong, but it doesn’t scream college kid.
The thing is this now bothers me as I have now reached a certain age at which changes in my body are becoming very apparent. No, this does not mean that I am going through puberty though some people would question whether or not I have ever completed it. Though it does have the whole “hair in places there was no hair before” moments in common it doesn’t have the same thrill as it did as a teenager. I know that some people remember those times with fear but my reaction was always more like, “Sweet. That wasn’t there yesterday.” However, you just don’t do that with nose hair.
Yes, I now have nose hair situations. Actually, I have had those on and off for several years now and own a pair of electric nose hair trimmers as a result. (I know that for many of you this will fall under the category: Too Much Information. If so, just scan down until the Best of 120 Minutes section.) It is annoying but controllable and something that I knew that I would have to deal with. Hell, even Queer Eye for the Straight Guy mentioned it years ago so I expected to have to address it as part of my daily grooming habits. It is the next part that concerns me.
Much like a sixty year old man, I occasionally get ear hair. Now I don’t get the ear forests like you see on some people but there are times when I look at the mirror and go, “That is not good.” Because there is nothing that tells you that you are old and should start wearing sensible trousers than having ear hair. It is totally not fair given the fact that I still can’t grow a moustache or a goatee to save my life but I get hair in places I have no desire for it to be. Yes, I break out the trimmers so no one notices (well, other than the people who read the blog. Probably should have thought about that beforehand) but it is one of those signs that I have reached a certain point in my life. I already knew that my body doesn’t recover from workouts or late nights the same way that it used to. Now I just have a more visual example that my careless days of youth are behind me.
Best of 120 Minutes: Let’s all go back to the dorm and listen to the Pixies. Break out the black t-shirts!
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago”
2) Kathleen Edwards “Live from the Bowery Ballroom”
3) Rufus Wainwright “Want Two”
4) Matthew Sweet “Girlfriend”
5) Garrison Starr “Fans Greatest Hits Volume One”
The thing is this now bothers me as I have now reached a certain age at which changes in my body are becoming very apparent. No, this does not mean that I am going through puberty though some people would question whether or not I have ever completed it. Though it does have the whole “hair in places there was no hair before” moments in common it doesn’t have the same thrill as it did as a teenager. I know that some people remember those times with fear but my reaction was always more like, “Sweet. That wasn’t there yesterday.” However, you just don’t do that with nose hair.
Yes, I now have nose hair situations. Actually, I have had those on and off for several years now and own a pair of electric nose hair trimmers as a result. (I know that for many of you this will fall under the category: Too Much Information. If so, just scan down until the Best of 120 Minutes section.) It is annoying but controllable and something that I knew that I would have to deal with. Hell, even Queer Eye for the Straight Guy mentioned it years ago so I expected to have to address it as part of my daily grooming habits. It is the next part that concerns me.
Much like a sixty year old man, I occasionally get ear hair. Now I don’t get the ear forests like you see on some people but there are times when I look at the mirror and go, “That is not good.” Because there is nothing that tells you that you are old and should start wearing sensible trousers than having ear hair. It is totally not fair given the fact that I still can’t grow a moustache or a goatee to save my life but I get hair in places I have no desire for it to be. Yes, I break out the trimmers so no one notices (well, other than the people who read the blog. Probably should have thought about that beforehand) but it is one of those signs that I have reached a certain point in my life. I already knew that my body doesn’t recover from workouts or late nights the same way that it used to. Now I just have a more visual example that my careless days of youth are behind me.
Best of 120 Minutes: Let’s all go back to the dorm and listen to the Pixies. Break out the black t-shirts!
The five random CDs for the week:
1) Bon Iver “For Emma, Forever Ago”
2) Kathleen Edwards “Live from the Bowery Ballroom”
3) Rufus Wainwright “Want Two”
4) Matthew Sweet “Girlfriend”
5) Garrison Starr “Fans Greatest Hits Volume One”
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Making friends with time
For those wondering how my weight loss program is going I have to say that it is well underway. Worked out again tonight which makes for three straight nights on the treadmill. I have finally found a treadmill workout that is quick, challenging and keeps me interested as I am on the road to nowhere. Basically it is five minutes at no incline followed by two minute intervals of 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5 degree inclines followed by five more minutes at 5 degrees and then a five minute cooldown. 35 minutes in all and even though I am only going at 3.6 miles an hour (which is damn slow) it is still a good beginning workout. As the speed increases I will feel better.
I’ll start adding in some weight training this weekend and bring that into the routine. I just feel better when I get started to just focus on the treadmill because I know how that should feel and I know that I will end my workout a sweaty mess and I still believe that as long as I am sweating that I am doing something right. I know that I will never be an athlete but I would at least like to be in better shape than I am now.
I am happier that I seem to have found a way to fit working out into my schedule. I know that working out at night isn’t optimal (everything I read tells me that I should do it in the morning except a) I am not a morning person and b) I do have a job to go to) but it works for me. I’ve figured out how to fit working out, writing, having dinner, reading and the rest of my real life into my evening routine. Mainly this is by banning Facebook chat sessions. I am sorry but from now on to talk to me you are most likely going to, you know, actually talk to me. I really have been shying away from Facebook these past few months because it is such a time vacuum and I really don’t have the time to deal with it anymore.
It is interesting though that as we near the weekend I am trying to figure out just what to do these next few days. One of the things about being in a long distance relationship is that when you are together that is what you are and you spend basically every moment together. When you are apart for the weekend you are really on your own and I typically struggle to figure out what to do with myself. Errands make up part of it as I can always do laundry or clean the apartment for part of the time. It is the evenings that become a little more challenging.
See, I can’t remember the last time I went out by myself to a bar in Delaware. It has to be months now. My typical reasoning to go to bars is to a) drink and b) meet people, hopefully of the female persuasion. However, now that I am with the best girlfriend ever I look at these reasons and determine a) I would typically have to drive to a bar here and that takes much of the fun out of drinking and b) while meeting new people is cool I would rather talk on the phone than waste my night in a bar. (I know some people would say, “Why don’t you go out with friends?” to which I reply that in my year out here I still don’t really know anyone. Take that for what you will.) So I will still have to struggle to figure out what to do this weekend. I might just go out for the sake of going out. Or I’ll watch a few movies. I’ll figure something out.
I’ll start adding in some weight training this weekend and bring that into the routine. I just feel better when I get started to just focus on the treadmill because I know how that should feel and I know that I will end my workout a sweaty mess and I still believe that as long as I am sweating that I am doing something right. I know that I will never be an athlete but I would at least like to be in better shape than I am now.
I am happier that I seem to have found a way to fit working out into my schedule. I know that working out at night isn’t optimal (everything I read tells me that I should do it in the morning except a) I am not a morning person and b) I do have a job to go to) but it works for me. I’ve figured out how to fit working out, writing, having dinner, reading and the rest of my real life into my evening routine. Mainly this is by banning Facebook chat sessions. I am sorry but from now on to talk to me you are most likely going to, you know, actually talk to me. I really have been shying away from Facebook these past few months because it is such a time vacuum and I really don’t have the time to deal with it anymore.
It is interesting though that as we near the weekend I am trying to figure out just what to do these next few days. One of the things about being in a long distance relationship is that when you are together that is what you are and you spend basically every moment together. When you are apart for the weekend you are really on your own and I typically struggle to figure out what to do with myself. Errands make up part of it as I can always do laundry or clean the apartment for part of the time. It is the evenings that become a little more challenging.
See, I can’t remember the last time I went out by myself to a bar in Delaware. It has to be months now. My typical reasoning to go to bars is to a) drink and b) meet people, hopefully of the female persuasion. However, now that I am with the best girlfriend ever I look at these reasons and determine a) I would typically have to drive to a bar here and that takes much of the fun out of drinking and b) while meeting new people is cool I would rather talk on the phone than waste my night in a bar. (I know some people would say, “Why don’t you go out with friends?” to which I reply that in my year out here I still don’t really know anyone. Take that for what you will.) So I will still have to struggle to figure out what to do this weekend. I might just go out for the sake of going out. Or I’ll watch a few movies. I’ll figure something out.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Could have used a talking pie
The older I get the more life disappoints me. Over the weekend I saw a sign on a movie theater that promoted the film “G Force” and my first reaction was, logically, “Cool! They are making a live action version of Battle of the Planets!” Oh, how mistaken I was.
First I should explain how I got from G Force to Battle of the Planets. See, they both trace their existence to this anime series Gatchaman. Essentially this show was Voltron except that instead of lions they were birds. The series was brought over to the US on two separate occasions: once as Battle of the Planets and once as G-Force. This made things incredibly confusing as they were technically the same shows; just edited and presented differently. I prefer the Battle of the Planets version which had Tiny and the Princess. Actually, let me speak for a moment here on the Princess.
It is a rule of all science fiction / fantasy series to have one female character and that character is always royalty. In Voltron and Battle of the Planets the female member of our team of five was a princess. In the entire Star Wars series Padme and Leia are the only two female characters who are memorable and they both are royalty (and no, Mon Motha doesn’t count as significant.) It is never explained where all of the other women are as they are completely non-existent in these universes. Nor is it ever explained that in a society where bloodlines are the key to the ruling class that the heirs to the throne are allowed to put themselves in great danger at all times. This has always bothered me.
Anyway, G Force / Battle of the Planets was one of my favorite shows as a kid. It had your typical cast of characters that mirrored Voltron: Not only did you have your token female but all teams were required to have one fat guy and one little kid who always made you wonder why the safety of the planet was placed in the hands of a ten year old. You had monsters and spaceships and alien attacks and laser beams and all of the things that made life great. So you could see that I had high hopes in learning that there would be a G Force movie in a few weeks.
Until I found out that it is about gerbils. Jive talking, secret agent gerbils. Or possibly hamsters. I doubt that it really matters.
Even though I worked in marketing and made my living by doing the opposite I really feel there needs to be truth in advertising laws. At a time when every single childhood memory of mine is being prepackaged into fun size portions and presented at my local multiplex when I see the words G Force I was to see kids in bird costumes fighting aliens and not talking rodents! Is that too much to freaking ask? If they are making an Asteroids movie (seriously, based on the video game. I shit you not) can’t I get a G-Force movie without hip hamsters?
Screw this. I’m going back to watch my Voltron DVDs in peace.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Take it home Gorillaz…
First I should explain how I got from G Force to Battle of the Planets. See, they both trace their existence to this anime series Gatchaman. Essentially this show was Voltron except that instead of lions they were birds. The series was brought over to the US on two separate occasions: once as Battle of the Planets and once as G-Force. This made things incredibly confusing as they were technically the same shows; just edited and presented differently. I prefer the Battle of the Planets version which had Tiny and the Princess. Actually, let me speak for a moment here on the Princess.
It is a rule of all science fiction / fantasy series to have one female character and that character is always royalty. In Voltron and Battle of the Planets the female member of our team of five was a princess. In the entire Star Wars series Padme and Leia are the only two female characters who are memorable and they both are royalty (and no, Mon Motha doesn’t count as significant.) It is never explained where all of the other women are as they are completely non-existent in these universes. Nor is it ever explained that in a society where bloodlines are the key to the ruling class that the heirs to the throne are allowed to put themselves in great danger at all times. This has always bothered me.
Anyway, G Force / Battle of the Planets was one of my favorite shows as a kid. It had your typical cast of characters that mirrored Voltron: Not only did you have your token female but all teams were required to have one fat guy and one little kid who always made you wonder why the safety of the planet was placed in the hands of a ten year old. You had monsters and spaceships and alien attacks and laser beams and all of the things that made life great. So you could see that I had high hopes in learning that there would be a G Force movie in a few weeks.
Until I found out that it is about gerbils. Jive talking, secret agent gerbils. Or possibly hamsters. I doubt that it really matters.
Even though I worked in marketing and made my living by doing the opposite I really feel there needs to be truth in advertising laws. At a time when every single childhood memory of mine is being prepackaged into fun size portions and presented at my local multiplex when I see the words G Force I was to see kids in bird costumes fighting aliens and not talking rodents! Is that too much to freaking ask? If they are making an Asteroids movie (seriously, based on the video game. I shit you not) can’t I get a G-Force movie without hip hamsters?
Screw this. I’m going back to watch my Voltron DVDs in peace.
Wednesday Night Music Club: Take it home Gorillaz…
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
All pallbearers should wear spangled gloves
Today marks the 81st anniversary of the creation of sliced bread also known as “The Greatest Day Ever.” Very seldom has an inventor had the chance to look down upon his creation and go, “There has never been anything greater than this in all of existence.” Only thing I can think of is the first guy who marketed hotcakes who got to say “These sales are unprecedented.”
I did watch a bit of the Michael Jackson memorial service at work. I was tempted to live blog it but the thought of losing my job because I live blogged Michael Jackson’s funeral was something that I didn’t want to tempt. Somehow I could not figure out a way to spin that one in future job interviews. “Why were you let go from your previous position?” “Apparently my company and I did not see eye to eye on how to act during the most critical cultural event of my lifetime.”
I also lost money on my bet that at some point during the ceremony that the casket would open and Michael would step out wearing his Thriller jacket and makeup and perform with a cast of zombies. It would have made wonderful television for the entire thing to be shown to be a promotional ploy for his concerts in London. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me that people in the crowd were prepared for the appearance of a zombie Michael Jackson. I have said it before and I will say it again, no matter where you find yourself you should always be able to answer the question “What would I do if there was an uprising of the living dead?”
The other topic that I have been requested to discuss is the whole Sarah Palin situation. In a way I have to give her credit for doing something that I have never seen a politician do before; especially one who seems to feel that she has a future in politics. Essentially she destroyed any possibility of running for higher office in the future by this move. All anyone would have to do to counter her campaign is run an ad stating “She quit on the people of Alaska when things got tough. What makes you think she would not do the same again?” Instant campaign killer. And no matter how she tries to spin it she is quitting. She is resigning from office with years left on her tenure for a rather poorly explained reason.
So why did she quit? I don’t buy into the whole rumor mill that she is resigning ahead of a scandal because given all of the investigations into her already you would think that it would have come up by now. I also don’t think that it was to run for president in 2012 because as I said, I can’t see how in the world she would win a campaign with half a term of governor as her history. My theory is this. I don’t think she liked being governor of Alaska and preferred being famous in her own right. Politics is nasty, dirty work and it sucks when you are on the wrong end of the stick as she is. So instead of being stuck in Juneau she has decided to leave office. Maybe we can give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she truly wants to spend time with her young child and grandchild. I also think she sees the fact that she can have a book deal and television show in nothing flat and make a lot more money for a lot less heartache.
It is going to be a great what if of history as to what her career would have been like if John McCain hadn’t called. My guess is that she would have been a successful multi-term governor working in obscurity. No one in the mainstream would ever have known that she existed. Maybe that would be better, maybe it would be worse.
The five random CDs for the week (which I have been forgetting to post):
1) The Neville Brothers “Live on Planet Earth”
2) Josh Ritter “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter”
3) Freakwater “Springtime”
4) Sarah McLachlan “I Will Remember You”
5) Jump, Little Children “Vertigo”
I did watch a bit of the Michael Jackson memorial service at work. I was tempted to live blog it but the thought of losing my job because I live blogged Michael Jackson’s funeral was something that I didn’t want to tempt. Somehow I could not figure out a way to spin that one in future job interviews. “Why were you let go from your previous position?” “Apparently my company and I did not see eye to eye on how to act during the most critical cultural event of my lifetime.”
I also lost money on my bet that at some point during the ceremony that the casket would open and Michael would step out wearing his Thriller jacket and makeup and perform with a cast of zombies. It would have made wonderful television for the entire thing to be shown to be a promotional ploy for his concerts in London. That said, it wouldn’t surprise me that people in the crowd were prepared for the appearance of a zombie Michael Jackson. I have said it before and I will say it again, no matter where you find yourself you should always be able to answer the question “What would I do if there was an uprising of the living dead?”
The other topic that I have been requested to discuss is the whole Sarah Palin situation. In a way I have to give her credit for doing something that I have never seen a politician do before; especially one who seems to feel that she has a future in politics. Essentially she destroyed any possibility of running for higher office in the future by this move. All anyone would have to do to counter her campaign is run an ad stating “She quit on the people of Alaska when things got tough. What makes you think she would not do the same again?” Instant campaign killer. And no matter how she tries to spin it she is quitting. She is resigning from office with years left on her tenure for a rather poorly explained reason.
So why did she quit? I don’t buy into the whole rumor mill that she is resigning ahead of a scandal because given all of the investigations into her already you would think that it would have come up by now. I also don’t think that it was to run for president in 2012 because as I said, I can’t see how in the world she would win a campaign with half a term of governor as her history. My theory is this. I don’t think she liked being governor of Alaska and preferred being famous in her own right. Politics is nasty, dirty work and it sucks when you are on the wrong end of the stick as she is. So instead of being stuck in Juneau she has decided to leave office. Maybe we can give her the benefit of the doubt and say that she truly wants to spend time with her young child and grandchild. I also think she sees the fact that she can have a book deal and television show in nothing flat and make a lot more money for a lot less heartache.
It is going to be a great what if of history as to what her career would have been like if John McCain hadn’t called. My guess is that she would have been a successful multi-term governor working in obscurity. No one in the mainstream would ever have known that she existed. Maybe that would be better, maybe it would be worse.
The five random CDs for the week (which I have been forgetting to post):
1) The Neville Brothers “Live on Planet Earth”
2) Josh Ritter “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter”
3) Freakwater “Springtime”
4) Sarah McLachlan “I Will Remember You”
5) Jump, Little Children “Vertigo”
Monday, July 06, 2009
Video cliches volume one
I am going to start a new semi-regular feature tonight. As we all know I am a connoisseur of the art form that is the music video. Sadly, the days of the video are now long departed but I feel that we have a great need to remember some of the wonderful clichés of the early music videos. Tonight I present to you two of my favorites.
Plastic horn playing guy: Back in the early 80’s all videos with even a vague sense of a party vibe had their videos placed in a pool side setting regardless if the song had anything to do with pools, water or parties in general. The pool allowed for a cast of wild and eccentric characters that are at every pool party such as the out of date hippie and the preppie guys in plaid pants. My favorite was the inexplicable horn playing guy.
Every single video that involved a pool had one guy in the crowd playing a horn regardless of whether the band had a horn section or even if the song had one. Typically this was done via one guy seemingly playing a plastic saxophone as part of the song. He, and it was always a he, would be found wearing a white sport coat and a mullet. No one else was dressed formally, all had better hair and no one ever bothered to explain why he decided that he would certainly get the chicks with a plastic saxophone. Maybe Mystery could explain that one to me.
I’ll use this video of “Magic” by the Cars. It lacks mullet boy but does have a guy playing two trumpets for no rational reason.
The Student Strippers: Ah, those wonderful days back before the invention of internet porn. See kids, in my day we didn’t have access to everything one would ever imagine seeing (and a thousand things that you would wish to your higher power that you could unsee.) Instead, we had to make do with music videos.
If a song ever implied that it took place in a classroom the women in the video would then be portrayed as having come to class having completed the night shift at the Harry’s House O’Nudes. Typically it was the teacher (Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” being the prime example of this) but often it was the students. If there was a classroom, someone would be scantily clad. Hell, even in “Jeremy” the kid has his shirt off.
I’ll highlight the epitome of this with J. Geils Band’s classic “Centerfold.” I’ll quell the urban legend and repeat that no Martha Quinn is not one of the students. Does this song need a number of dancing women to portray its meaning? Probably no more than it needs the drum being filled with paint but it is a wonderful example of early 80’s video mastery.
Plastic horn playing guy: Back in the early 80’s all videos with even a vague sense of a party vibe had their videos placed in a pool side setting regardless if the song had anything to do with pools, water or parties in general. The pool allowed for a cast of wild and eccentric characters that are at every pool party such as the out of date hippie and the preppie guys in plaid pants. My favorite was the inexplicable horn playing guy.
Every single video that involved a pool had one guy in the crowd playing a horn regardless of whether the band had a horn section or even if the song had one. Typically this was done via one guy seemingly playing a plastic saxophone as part of the song. He, and it was always a he, would be found wearing a white sport coat and a mullet. No one else was dressed formally, all had better hair and no one ever bothered to explain why he decided that he would certainly get the chicks with a plastic saxophone. Maybe Mystery could explain that one to me.
I’ll use this video of “Magic” by the Cars. It lacks mullet boy but does have a guy playing two trumpets for no rational reason.
The Student Strippers: Ah, those wonderful days back before the invention of internet porn. See kids, in my day we didn’t have access to everything one would ever imagine seeing (and a thousand things that you would wish to your higher power that you could unsee.) Instead, we had to make do with music videos.
If a song ever implied that it took place in a classroom the women in the video would then be portrayed as having come to class having completed the night shift at the Harry’s House O’Nudes. Typically it was the teacher (Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” being the prime example of this) but often it was the students. If there was a classroom, someone would be scantily clad. Hell, even in “Jeremy” the kid has his shirt off.
I’ll highlight the epitome of this with J. Geils Band’s classic “Centerfold.” I’ll quell the urban legend and repeat that no Martha Quinn is not one of the students. Does this song need a number of dancing women to portray its meaning? Probably no more than it needs the drum being filled with paint but it is a wonderful example of early 80’s video mastery.
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Things that make you go Boom
"Today is the fourth of July. Another June has gone by. And when they light up our town all I think is what a waste of gunpowder and sky." Aimee Mann
There are a couple of those things that little boys due or are fascinated with that I just never got into. Whether this says something about me as a person that I was more interested in reading a book that collecting frogs I am not sure. I usually just leave it that I am not your typical person. That doesn't mean that I am better or worse. I just don't think that I am average.
One of those things that I never got into was firecrackers. Sure, I enjoyed going to see the big professional shows and have some wonderful childhood memories of sitting with my family and watching the fireworks. What I am talking about are those people who go to the roadside stands and buy box after box of firecrackers of dubious origin. In KC I knew that we were nearing the fourth when this one stand would mysteriously appear overnight in a parking lot with poorly worded signs amongst the plywood walls. I never could grasp the legality of it all but every year it would be there for a week or so before disappearing into the night.
As you can probably fathom I was never one of the people who would go in there to purchase fireworks. To be honest I don't believe that I have ever lit a firecracker in my life. I may have held a sparkler at one point but that might have been it. I've just never seen the point of the whole enterprise. You pay money to light something and it goes boom. That is it. Sure it my fly into the air and go boom or let off some additional colors but that is it. All you are doing is paying for something to go boom and I could never quite grasp the importance of this. Yes, as a guy I understand the awesomeness of things going boom and a large majority of my mass entertainment budget is dedicated to such an event. But in my own backyard I never saw the need to risk my fingers to vaguely celebrate the nation's birthday.
But at least I got a long weekend out of the holiday even if I have to deal with the pomp and circumstance in the process. In response to those wondering about my tenth resolution I guess from my comment that I was a little vague as to whether or not I had fully accomplished the resolution. Let's just say that I am two thirds of the way through it. No, I'm not married or engaged. Just in a relationship that has resulted in a new persona that I am slowly growing accustomed to: Happy Chris. Every day I look in the mirror and smile thinking about how lucky I am. I don't want that ever to change.
Best of 120 Minutes: This world needs more Freedy Johnston
There are a couple of those things that little boys due or are fascinated with that I just never got into. Whether this says something about me as a person that I was more interested in reading a book that collecting frogs I am not sure. I usually just leave it that I am not your typical person. That doesn't mean that I am better or worse. I just don't think that I am average.
One of those things that I never got into was firecrackers. Sure, I enjoyed going to see the big professional shows and have some wonderful childhood memories of sitting with my family and watching the fireworks. What I am talking about are those people who go to the roadside stands and buy box after box of firecrackers of dubious origin. In KC I knew that we were nearing the fourth when this one stand would mysteriously appear overnight in a parking lot with poorly worded signs amongst the plywood walls. I never could grasp the legality of it all but every year it would be there for a week or so before disappearing into the night.
As you can probably fathom I was never one of the people who would go in there to purchase fireworks. To be honest I don't believe that I have ever lit a firecracker in my life. I may have held a sparkler at one point but that might have been it. I've just never seen the point of the whole enterprise. You pay money to light something and it goes boom. That is it. Sure it my fly into the air and go boom or let off some additional colors but that is it. All you are doing is paying for something to go boom and I could never quite grasp the importance of this. Yes, as a guy I understand the awesomeness of things going boom and a large majority of my mass entertainment budget is dedicated to such an event. But in my own backyard I never saw the need to risk my fingers to vaguely celebrate the nation's birthday.
But at least I got a long weekend out of the holiday even if I have to deal with the pomp and circumstance in the process. In response to those wondering about my tenth resolution I guess from my comment that I was a little vague as to whether or not I had fully accomplished the resolution. Let's just say that I am two thirds of the way through it. No, I'm not married or engaged. Just in a relationship that has resulted in a new persona that I am slowly growing accustomed to: Happy Chris. Every day I look in the mirror and smile thinking about how lucky I am. I don't want that ever to change.
Best of 120 Minutes: This world needs more Freedy Johnston
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Resolution review
Well, we are now officially halfway through the year. Time for me to dust off my New Year’s Resolutions and see how I am doing. This is the exact list that I posted on January 1st for those who are thinking that I am making this up as I go along.
Resolution # 1: Learn how to juggle: I can juggle one bean bag very well. Two bean bags are more of a struggle but I can make a passable effort. Three is a pain and a half. I swear one rainy weekend I am going to sit down (ok, more like stand up) and just force myself to practice and practice until I can juggle. Once I perfect this skill then I can move on to learning the unicycle.
Resolution # 2: Get my weight under 190 pounds: Sigh. At the start of the year I weighed 200 pounds. Two weeks ago I found that I was up to 213. When Kim went through my closets we decided to toss out much of my wardrobe: partly because it is hideously out of style but mainly because none of it fits anymore. While I am more than happy to look at my closets and see clothes that I actually want to wear I am making losing weight the number one priority for the rest of the year. Just over the past few weeks I have restarted the workout program and am eating healthier and as a result I’ve already lost a few pounds. I really need to get fit and get to a healthy weight and stay there.
Resolution # 3: Learn how to actually cook: Haven’t made as much progress on this as I would like but I am happy to say that the majority of my meals do not require a microwave. That is an improvement over past years. This is another one of those items that I should really dedicate an hour or two every weekend to addressing. Just try once or twice a week to make an actual meal from a recipe. If it comes out well, awesome. If not, I’ll put in a pizza. I can say that while I haven’t accomplished this goal my fear of the kitchen has been reduced to a more acceptable level.
Resolution # 4: Increase blog readership: Initially I didn’t think I would do this one but I’ve already hit my goal for the year. My hope was to have a 50 reader day and I had a 90 reader day and a few others in the sixties. My average for the year so far is 21 a day with the past few months being in the 19 a day range. I still need to work on it and would like to increase the focus a bit (and I would kill to break 100 on a day) but it is nice to know that I have cultivated a rather significant worldwide readership base. I’m huge in Europe.
Resolution # 5: Focus on the positive in my life: Hmmm…tough to say where I stand on this one. On one hand I am happier than I have ever been and am satisfied with pretty much every aspect of my life at the moment. On the other hand I am still a cynical bastard at times. I’m one of the few people who can love their job but come in grumbling every morning that they have to spend another eight hours looking at computer screens. I’ll just say that I am improving in this area (especially when compared to some of my darker days in Kansas City) but there is still a lot of runway ahead of me.
Resolution # 6: Get back into the concert going scene: Haven’t gone to a single concert this year. I’m not sure I am entirely happy about that but my social life has been filled in other ways. My biggest problem is that a) a lot of my favorite acts (meaning the incredibly unknown alt country acts) don’t play around here and b) when they do they are either an hour drive away or at one of the beach resorts and I just don’t feel like making the trip. Maybe it is a good thing to give my ears a bit of a break.
Resolution # 7: Complete the Best of the Blog: Wow, this one just hasn’t gotten off the ground this year. I still want to do a major writing project. Hell, I really want to write a novel and have for years and have a plot and characters waiting to go. The problem is simply a matter of time. I only have so many hours to work on everything I feel like working on and some things get tossed to the side for a moment and this is sadly one of them. While I might be far behind on being a novelist after 1,200+ blog posts at least I can call myself a writer.
Resolution # 8: Reader’s Choice: Thanks to my good friend DJ this became “take a yoga class.” I still haven’t taken a class but I have located a yoga studio near my home that offers beginners classes. Maybe I can tie this into my weight loss goal. If anything, my experience in a yoga studio would have enough embedded humor in it to make the entire experience worthwhile
Resolution # 9: Take a real vacation: I’ve already gone to New Orleans this year. I’m planning on heading to San Antonio for the Notre Dame game. But I have one real vacation that is still in the planning stages that when I go on it will put all other trips to shame. It is just so out of the ordinary, so unexpected, that I don’t want to ruin the surprise by discussing it before I go. But it will be legen…wait for it…dary.
Resolution # 10: Meet the woman of my dreams, fall in love, and get married: When I wrote this list I threw this item in at the end to make for a nice even ten resolutions. I didn’t think that it would actually happen. To my surprise and amazement and joy it has. The past few months with Kim have been better than I could have ever dreamed. My life has become a movie script and I couldn’t be happier about it.
Wednesday Night Music Club: If you want me to sum up the first half of this year in a song I am going to go with Josh Ritter’s “Me and Jiggs.” A bar with a jukebox and you on my arm. Heaven and earth seem pretty much the same.
Resolution # 1: Learn how to juggle: I can juggle one bean bag very well. Two bean bags are more of a struggle but I can make a passable effort. Three is a pain and a half. I swear one rainy weekend I am going to sit down (ok, more like stand up) and just force myself to practice and practice until I can juggle. Once I perfect this skill then I can move on to learning the unicycle.
Resolution # 2: Get my weight under 190 pounds: Sigh. At the start of the year I weighed 200 pounds. Two weeks ago I found that I was up to 213. When Kim went through my closets we decided to toss out much of my wardrobe: partly because it is hideously out of style but mainly because none of it fits anymore. While I am more than happy to look at my closets and see clothes that I actually want to wear I am making losing weight the number one priority for the rest of the year. Just over the past few weeks I have restarted the workout program and am eating healthier and as a result I’ve already lost a few pounds. I really need to get fit and get to a healthy weight and stay there.
Resolution # 3: Learn how to actually cook: Haven’t made as much progress on this as I would like but I am happy to say that the majority of my meals do not require a microwave. That is an improvement over past years. This is another one of those items that I should really dedicate an hour or two every weekend to addressing. Just try once or twice a week to make an actual meal from a recipe. If it comes out well, awesome. If not, I’ll put in a pizza. I can say that while I haven’t accomplished this goal my fear of the kitchen has been reduced to a more acceptable level.
Resolution # 4: Increase blog readership: Initially I didn’t think I would do this one but I’ve already hit my goal for the year. My hope was to have a 50 reader day and I had a 90 reader day and a few others in the sixties. My average for the year so far is 21 a day with the past few months being in the 19 a day range. I still need to work on it and would like to increase the focus a bit (and I would kill to break 100 on a day) but it is nice to know that I have cultivated a rather significant worldwide readership base. I’m huge in Europe.
Resolution # 5: Focus on the positive in my life: Hmmm…tough to say where I stand on this one. On one hand I am happier than I have ever been and am satisfied with pretty much every aspect of my life at the moment. On the other hand I am still a cynical bastard at times. I’m one of the few people who can love their job but come in grumbling every morning that they have to spend another eight hours looking at computer screens. I’ll just say that I am improving in this area (especially when compared to some of my darker days in Kansas City) but there is still a lot of runway ahead of me.
Resolution # 6: Get back into the concert going scene: Haven’t gone to a single concert this year. I’m not sure I am entirely happy about that but my social life has been filled in other ways. My biggest problem is that a) a lot of my favorite acts (meaning the incredibly unknown alt country acts) don’t play around here and b) when they do they are either an hour drive away or at one of the beach resorts and I just don’t feel like making the trip. Maybe it is a good thing to give my ears a bit of a break.
Resolution # 7: Complete the Best of the Blog: Wow, this one just hasn’t gotten off the ground this year. I still want to do a major writing project. Hell, I really want to write a novel and have for years and have a plot and characters waiting to go. The problem is simply a matter of time. I only have so many hours to work on everything I feel like working on and some things get tossed to the side for a moment and this is sadly one of them. While I might be far behind on being a novelist after 1,200+ blog posts at least I can call myself a writer.
Resolution # 8: Reader’s Choice: Thanks to my good friend DJ this became “take a yoga class.” I still haven’t taken a class but I have located a yoga studio near my home that offers beginners classes. Maybe I can tie this into my weight loss goal. If anything, my experience in a yoga studio would have enough embedded humor in it to make the entire experience worthwhile
Resolution # 9: Take a real vacation: I’ve already gone to New Orleans this year. I’m planning on heading to San Antonio for the Notre Dame game. But I have one real vacation that is still in the planning stages that when I go on it will put all other trips to shame. It is just so out of the ordinary, so unexpected, that I don’t want to ruin the surprise by discussing it before I go. But it will be legen…wait for it…dary.
Resolution # 10: Meet the woman of my dreams, fall in love, and get married:
Wednesday Night Music Club: If you want me to sum up the first half of this year in a song I am going to go with Josh Ritter’s “Me and Jiggs.” A bar with a jukebox and you on my arm. Heaven and earth seem pretty much the same.
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