Rotten Tomatos has a nice list of the best and worst movies of this summer. They also review the movies by how much money they made and how well the studios did.
My Top movies of this summer 1. The Dark Knight 2. Iron Man 3. Wall-e
My Worst Movie of the summer Hancock
I will admit that I might being unfair to Hancock. I was smart enough to stay away from the theaters for the really bad movies
Five reasons that Sports Casters should calm down when it comes to Michael Phelps.
I know Michael Phelps is great and he has the most gold metals ever, both in a single games and overall. I will agree that he had accomplished a task that might never been seen again. I know that nothing can take away from how great of a swimmer.
I ask sportscasters and sportswriters one favor, please stop calling him the greatest Olympian ever. It is hard to compare Olympians over the last 120 years. Many of those athletes did not have the same chances.
1. The professional era of the Olympics is only 20 years old - In the amateur era of the Olympics it would be hard to see any American win ten metals. Paavo Nurmi could have won more, but they pulled his amateur status. What could have Babe Didrikson or Jesse Owens with more than one Olympics to compete in.
2. Swimming gives lots of chances to win metals - A boxer can only win one metal, but has a lot of fights in a single elimination tournament. Team sports only offer the chance for one metal. No matter how good at wrestling you are, you can still only win one metal.
3. More events than ever before - The Olympics have been adding sports every year since it started. Great Olympians of the past might have won more metals if they had more events.
4. Qualification rules have changed - The rules have changed over the years. To say someone is the greatest of all time is saying that everyone is playing under the same rules. This is the reason that baseball is easy to compare over the years. Babe Didrikson qualified for five Olympic events but was only allowed to compete in 3. Phelps did not have this limit.
5. Metal count is a poor measure of greatness - When it comes to the Olympics there are no stats. It is the best in the moment. Metal count is just a number on paper. It goes against why people love the Olympics.
I am not saying that Michael Phelps is not great, just be careful when calling him the greatest of all time. This is a bold claim with no good way to judge.
10. Tom Burke - At the first modern Olympics in 1894 he won the 100 meter and the 400 meter. No one else ever repeated that. I know that only 14 countries took part in the first modern Olympics. It is still cool to be first.
9. Mark Spitz - Seven golds one olympic, nine golds two olympics. This is just cool.
8. Dick Fosbury - Dick Fosbury changed the high jump forever. There are few other athletes who changed their sport all on their own. This is the biggest change to Track and Field in the Olympic era.
7. Bob Beamon - Talk about a historic records. Bob Beamon's long jump world record stood for 23 years. This just blows my mind. This is great.
6. Tommie Smith - There is a lot of ways to see Tommie Smith. Countries are often blamed for bringing politics into the Olympics. It took courage for Tommie Smith to make a statement on the gold metal stand
5. Cassius Clay - The Olympics is a great coming out party for boxers. This might have been the greatest case of that. Cassius Clay had a great public debut at the Olympics. It lead to a great career as Mohammed Ali.
4. Wilma Rudolph - She went from having polio as a child and needing leg braces to walk to winning three gold metals. That is just amazing to me. To me this will always be an amazing feat.
3. Babe Didrikson - The world had no idea what to do with Babe Didrikson. She could have won five metals at her Olympics if she was allowed to compete in that many events. She won two golds and a silver. The silver was just because of the rules being enforced only at the end of the match. She was the first female super-star athlete.
2. Jesse Owens - This is the point where world politics and sports collide. Jesse Ownes was not only a great athlete but he was a great athlete when every eye in the world was on him. He was a great athlete when the 100 meter dash was about more that just a race. It is hard to win when Sports carry deeper meanings. Remember that this was long before Jackie Robinson broke into the big leagues.
1. Jim Thrope - Jim Thrope won the pentathlon and the first decathlon in 1912 Stockholm Olympics. He was the greatest Athlete in the world. After the Olympics he played Football, Baseball, and Basketball. All this and he was striped of his metals after a bogus rules change. It was just a crime.
To match my list of my favorite Gold metal Winners is my list of my list of my favorite Gold Metal teams.
10. 1984 Men's Gymnastics - These guys were instant stars after winning the team metal. It might be because my sisters, but I wanted every minute of Men's Gymnastics. This team made Gymnastics look cool.
9. 1996 Women's Basketball - This Olympic win launched two different Pro leagues. These women where winners. they wanted to prove they were just as good as the Dream teams.
8. 2008 Women's Coxed eights Rowing - I watched this team win the gold. They lead the whole race. Even when other teams made runs at time, they kept their cool. They really wanted to win and they took it.
7. 1992 Men's 4x100 track relay - Michael Marsh, Dennis Mitchell, Leroy Burrell, Carl Lewis, at world record time. This is my favorite track relay race. This team came in over the hill. They still brought it home.
6. 1996 Softball - Softball finally get to the Olympics. The story of people like Dorothy Richardson who took time off from Med School to play in the Olympics. I love that once they got their, they cashed in on it. They did not let the chance get by them.
5. 2008 Men's 4x100 Freestyle Relay - This was a great race for the gold. The US won by catching the French team in the last leg. They won by .08 of a second. That is amazing. I did not think they could do it, but they did.
4. 2004 & 2008 Misty May-Treanor-Kerri Walsh Beach Volleyball - I could not stop watching this team. It is not only because they wear really skimpy outfits. They played great together. When things went against them they picked each other up. When the got ahead of other teams, they closed the door. Not only did they win every match, but also every game in 2008. They are the best Beach Volleyball team of all time.
3. 1996 Woman's Gymnastics - They were the Magnificent Seven, the best team America ever sent, and they were the home team. There is something to be said about winning when you are meant to win. It was not an easy win. They came, competed hard, and brought the gold home.
2. 1988 Men's Volleyball - Because of the 1984 team and the 1988 team Volleyball was the coolest sport when I was growing up. In 1988 not only did they win the gold, no one boycotted the games. They played the best in the gold and still won. I think this might be the coolest Olympic team ever.
1. 1980 Hockey - This is the greatest real life Rocky story. This team was a bunch of American College kids. They were playing a hockey team that was good enough to beat the NHL all-stars. It was amazing that this team won. I was 8 years when this happened. I did not realized how big that moment in was off the ice and in the cold war. It was still a great moment in sports even without the politics.
I have been watching a lot of Olympics lately. Of course I have been watching a lot because in a couple weeks the whole thing is over. At that point I will have to wait for more year to watch it again. This has made me think of my favorite Gold Metal Winners.
Honorable Mention
Andre Ward Mariel Zagunis Cael Sanderson Summer Sanders Janet Evans Bruce Baumgartner Dave Schultz
Top 10
10. Dan O'Brian - Dan O'Brian is the kind of story that I love. Lots of people would have been crushed by what happened in 1992. It was his own fault he did not make the Olympics. He was able to keep himself on track to win the Decathlon in 1996. That is one of the things that make the Olympics great.
9. Karch Kiraly - One of the best players ever Volleyball. He is the King both indoor and on the beach. He won three gold metals in all. He has a cool name, gold metals, and he is a great TV announcer. I think every jock in my high school wanted to be Karch Kiraly.
8. Michael Phelps - Right now I feel like I have Michael Phelps overload. In a few years I will remember seeing every one of his races this year. I will remember seeing the Olympics he made his own. He won every way he could.
7. Mary Lou Retton - Every American gymnastics gold metal since 1984 should give an assist to Mary Lou Retton. She is the face that launched a thousand careers. Everyone loved Mary Lou Retton and every little girl wanted to be her. She is an icon.
6. Kerri Strug - I know the story is cheezy. She had a broken foot and made the vault that won the gold metal. She stuck the landing with a broken foot. This is just amazing to me. I was at a bar when this happened and strangers where hugging each other after this.
5. Carl Lewis - Four Olympics, Nine Gold Metals, Jesse Owens' feat of winning four gold medals at a single Olympic Game, what more do you want? At Atlanta everyone talked about him, wondering if he could win another gold at the Long Jump and he did. On the track, he was electric. That is all you need to say.
4. Joan Benoit - There is something special about winning the first Marathon. She did it at her home country by more than a minute. That is winning when it counts.
3. Bruce Jenner - The Decathlon is the greatest athletic event in the world. The Decathlon Champion is the greatest Athlete in the world. I remember running around my living room yelling, "I Am Bruce Jenner!" As a 4 year old he looked bigger than life.
2. Eric Heiden - I remember rushing to the TV to watch his races. He really caught my imagination as an 8 year old. The feat just seemed amazing to me. He had 5 individual metals. We talked about it forever when I was growing up.
1. Kurt Angle - I have only seen one Gold Metal one live. I will say that watching Kurt Angle win his gold metal live is the best sporting event I have ever seen live. It is the only time that I ever felt my cheering was having a direct impact on the outcome. It is the best ever.
I saw this blog post about Twitter Etiquette linked on Laughing Squid. I think this is pretty good. My three keys to twitter are simple.
1. Remember that people use twitter on different platforms. Some people use it on their phone, some people use it via the web, and some use it IM. Not everyone will be able to follow your links. If every post you make has a URL, you are cutting yourself off from some the the readers.
2. Slow down! If you are sending more that 5 twitter 10 minutes, 10 twitters in an hour, or 20 twitters in a day, you need to find other ways to communicate. Twitter is great for occasional messages. I do not need blow by blow accounts of most things. Remember that.
3. Mix it up! If you are always twittering about the same thing or in the same style it is going to get boring. If you are always talking about tweeting about your blog entries it will be a snooze. I do not only want to know about how campcamp was. If every entry is about some party I am not invited to, it is not so cool.
Just remember, people are really paying attention to your twitter. Just act like they are
Jimmy Gownley did a parody of Meet the Beatles as a tshirt using the characters of Amelia Rules. Talking to him he said that he was thinking about doing a new t-shirt for every show he does. I took it upon myself to make a list of album covers I would like to see as Amelia Rules T-shirts. I hope everyone likes the list
Album Covers that should not be done, but I want to see:
1. Michael Jackson - Thriller 2. MC Hammer - Hammer Time 3. Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan 4. Nirvana - Nevermind 5. The Police - Synchronicity 6. Guns n' Roses - Appetite For Destruction' 7. Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park 8. Moby - 18 (This might work for Earthdog) 9. Crowded House - Crowded House 10. Prince - Purple Rain 11. Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
The New AFI List is 10 top 10. The idea is that they look at different genre of movies. The 10 categories are Animation, Romantic comedy, Westerns, Sports, Mystery, Fantasy, Science fiction, Gangster, Courtroom dramas, Epics. When I first look at this list of genres it is a mess. There are some top level genres here like Westerns, and Science Fiction, and some sub genres like Courtroom drams and romantic comedy. I think it would have been better if every list was a sub genre.
The list are pretty good, but there are some problems here.
When I look at the Animated List I see too much Disney. This list could have had Akira, Iron Giant or the Simpsons Movie on it.
Jerry Maguire does not belong on the Sports list of The Natural is missing.
I hear about a Sports Illustrated Article about the 100 seasons without a title in Philadelphia. I know this heart break well. I was born just before the golden age of Philadelphia Sports. From 1974 to 1983 Philadelphia was a great sports town. They won 4 titles and made bunch of trips to the finals. when I was young I thought it would always be that way. Little did I know that those four titles were more than half the pro sports titles the city had in 100 years of pro sports. Now with another 25 years passing we have not added any titles. I only count the four major sports leagues. Those Indoor lacrosse, arena football, and Minor league hockey titles don't mean anything to me.
The rest of the four sport cities have one a title since we have. You can checkout The other four sport cities
The story has a list of Philadelphia Sports events that have happened in those 100 seasons.
61. This is the worst free agent signing in the history of sports. 26. Wondered what the NFL was thinking by letting this game be played. 24. Knew 2005 would not be the Eagles year 9. Knew that they were not going to win with Barkley and hoped he would get a title with the Suns 8. Gave up on the Eagles Season 6. Drank silly with my friends Eric and Darcey 5. My heart sank as I knew the Sixers were not going to win. 4. I saw for 15 minutes in a room with 30 eagles fans and no one made a sound. At that end of those 15 minutes I had to keep a man from beating up a person who made fun of us for sitting in the dark. 2. I Cried in my car as I watched in through a bay window and listened on the radio 1. I broke a deck furniture with a friend
With all these heart breaks, you might wonder why I stay loyal to my teams. You might ask why I would keep watching if they are going to break my heart. There are a lot of reasons. One of the reasons is because the good moments are so go, it makes easy to put up with the bad moments.
One of the moments that gives me home is the Willie Burton 53 point game for the Sixers. There is a great write up about the game on the Don't Ever Give Up Basketball blog, You need so scroll down to the bottom. This guy who could kindly be described as a journeyman did something that is reserved for NBA royalty. A guy who is a footnote in NBA history holds the single game scoring record for the Spectrum, a record he took from Michael Jordan. That is one of those moments that keeps me believing.
For the third season in a row, Lost had a great season ending. How do I define great? Not only did it answer my number one question, it also makes me want to seen the next season right now. I will be looking forward to the start of season five. I am amazed how they have been able to take the idea of people being stuck on an island and make it so interesting.
My guess is that next season the present will be about Jack and the Oceaninc 6 and the flash backs will be to what happened on the island after the Oceaninc 6 left.
My top 10 Lost questions
1. What happened on the island after the Oceaninc 6 left? 2. Where is Clare? 3. How did Locke die? 4. What is the Temple? 5. How will the Oceaninc 6 make it back to the island? 6. Where is the Island now? 7. What is Charles Widmore connection to the DHARMA Initiative 8. Who found the island in the first place? 9. Why does Richard not age? 10. Why is the wheel to move the Island in a frozen room? 11. What is the story about the Four Toed Statue?
The list is pretty good. I used to be a huge fan of Sketch comedy. From time to time Sketch Comedy seems dead. It seems like very thing has been done. Every once in a while someone comes back and does something new and shakes everything up again.
Below are some of my favorites that did not make the list. I know that I am leaving a lot out. These are the ones what have really stuck in my memory.
Monty Python - The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights
Chappell Show - Wu Tang Financial
Monty Python Philosophy Football
Saturday Night Live - It
Robot Chicken - Your Brain on Drugs
Saturday Night Live - Adobe
Kids In The Hall - Doors Fan
Saturday Night Live - Video Game Addiction/Columbia House
To say the least, my trip to Portland was great. Kate really loved Portland also. We only went to a fraction of the places that I usually like to go and she still loved it. We talked about the chances that we would move to Portland some day. I told her that there were only a handful of places that I really wanted to live. Portland was near the top of that list.
It was a great trip for a lot of reasons. Kate and I travel well together. I am someone who like to keep plans open when I travel. I see that this did not bother Kate. We spent a lot of time visiting with Don and Jenna. Kate did not mind that we spent a lot of time with someone she had never met before. He instantly clicked with Don and Jenna and we all had a good time. That is also important to me.
Things I meant to show Kate but did not have the time: Powells City of Books The Rose Garden Tom McCall Waterfront Park Pioneer Courthouse Square SW Park blocks Bagdad theater
I have the feeling that Kate and I will make our way back to Portland. It would be cool if I could live there again. Even if we just go visit there it will be cool. I have visited Portland on every even year since I left. I do not see that trend ending because of Kate.
This roadtrip is the first for Kate and I to take together. During the drive I felt like I was in less of a hurry that past trips. I guess that has to do with Kate being with me. The long roadtrip gave us a lot of time to talk. To be honest, I was not bored at all talking with her. I think this is a good sign.
Travel, driving, San Jose, marriage, wedding, kids, houses, tattoos, college, the Decemberists, religion, Philadelphia, mix tapes, snacks, Delaware, "I've Been Everywhere," engagement rings, beer, animal crackers, depression, Michael Stipe, wedding rings, Death Cab for Cutie, Portland, family, sour patch kids, photography, AIDS, Mt. Shasta, mobile homes, rain, place, Iraq war, food, Volcanoes, music, R.E.M., Ashland OR, parents, family vacations, Mt St. Helen, the election, Twitter, Wilco, Circus Peanuts, RVs, Shakespeare festival, homelessness, Comic Con, politics, Son Volt,
I have read a lot about the Death of Gary Gygax and what people loved about D&D. I found something interesting on 1up, 5 things to learn from D&D. Since 1up is a video game site, most of these lessons are about video games and game theory. Here are 5 more things that D&D taught me.
1. Things worth doing are worth investing time into. Any good D&D campaign is an investment in time. The shortest good rol2 playing game I ever played was 8 weeks long. You need to be willing to put in time to really get the story out of it. We live in a time where it cost a lot to invest time in something. Many people are afraid to invest time in something. Playing a role playing game is living in the moment to me. Investing time to live in the moment can be a great lesson.
2. The more creative you are the more fun you will have. The best times I have had playing role playing games is when we unlocked our mind. Let the game come to you and be creative. The DM and the players should describe what they are doing. They should put themselves in the world that they are playing in.
3. Know when to follow the rules and when to break them. Often the hard thing with D&D is knowing when the rules are a good frame work and when they are getting in the way. Let the rule guide you through the world, but do not let them be the only reason you are playing. Role Playing games are not really about dice. They are about being opening up to a world you cannot live in. If it is just about rolling dice you might as well play craps.
4. Spend time with people. The best thing about role playing games to me is that gave me time to spend with friends. We are doing something together, but it mostly was about enjoying each other. It was about telling stories, telling jokes, making people laugh, and having fun.
5. Play should be a learning experence. When I was young I heard "Play is the job of childhood." I insistently understood this. I can see how what we learn should inform who we become. I can see how we should play things that teach us things. Role Playing games taught me things about communication, teamwork, working with others, and setting goals. It taught me how to deal with random events and how to make things go my way. These are all important things to learn.
One last thing I learned was to not be too cool to play.
Note: I have been holding onto this list for too long. I am really late publishing this. Even the Village Voice has already published the Pazz & Jop results. This means I am really late. I know the I have to public this tonight. Even if I do not write about every album, I am still going to public this entry tonight.
Top Albums of 2007
I know this list goes up to 11. That is because it is one higher than ten and sometimes you need to rock that much harder.
I will admit that part of 2007 was really rough for me. Around my May and June were pretty rough for me. Some times just when you need it you find an album to help you through those times. The Avett Brothers Emotionalism was that album for me at that time. The album is incredibility personal and emotional.
The Avett Brothers straddles the country side of Alt. Country, but that is nothing to be afraid of. Any fan of well written songs will enjoy this album. The Weight of Lies and
All My Mistakes has become one of Kate and I songs. It is shows the optimism that comes out even in the darkest moments. The song makes me smile and tear up at the same time.
the Shins - Wincing the Night Away
If there ever is an album to sing to your thinking about a past love, this is it. While this is not as good as the last Shins album, they still give me the feeling that they are getting better.
It is great to hear a band mature right in front of your ears. I listen to Dr. Dog because Peter Conrad cannot shut up about them. Last year he kept on talking about their EP Takers and Leavers EP. If it were not for him, I would not given them a chance. This album is much better than last years EP. This album creates an interesting sound environment. Dr. Dog's has a strong 70's influence without getting lost in the past. Their songs have strong arrangement and simple vocals in just the right combonation. Check out the songs Worst Trip, Old News, Keep a friend, and Ain't It Strange to see what I mean.
From the first note of this album I was gripped hard and not let go. This album is full of pop structures and joyful guitar licks. The opening track, Can You Feel It? is the kind of song that makes me want to put down the windows and drive very quickly. It also gives me one of my favorite lyrics of the year, "Turn Up Your Stereo, Drown out the bullshit on the FM Radio." I know that some people this this record is excessive because its 24 tracks, and some of them are just interludes and connectors. I think that songs like Same Old Drag, Joanie Don't U Worry, Sundial, and Energy totally make it work it.
This album is just full of earwigs. I most have listed to this album ten times the week I got it. Suffer For Fashion, The Past Is A Grotesque Animal, and She's A Rejecter all made me not want to put my head phones down. Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse is the kind of song that makes me want to sing at the top of my lung.
Of Montreal is past the point of being "just one of those other Elephant 6 bands" to being a great band on their own right. they are so good I just want to hear more and more of what they are doing. I doubt they will ever gt the credit they deserve.
The Frames - The Cost
I want to say that The Frames are the most underrated band in the world right now. This was before the song from Once won the Oscar. This means that they might get more attention now. You should still check out The Cost.
They Might Be Giants - The Else
It has been years since I have really liked a They Might Be Giants album. I gave up on them awhile ago thinking my tastes and their tastes no longer matched. I guess that was not true. I do not want to say that these songs sound like their debut album or Lincoln, but you can hear the musical history. I'm Impressed, Take Out the Trash, Climbing the Walls, The Shadow Government, Countrecoup, and Feign Amnesia, are all first class songs. The Mesopotamians is a strange combination of musician frustration and history lesson. Yes, They Might Be Giants is a little smarter than their fans and they are willing to let us know.
Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank St. Vincent - Marry Me
Honorable Mention: Page France - ....And the Family Telephone The Fratellis - Costello Music Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis
Special Mention Tim Kite - Over the Counter Culture
This album was not enjoyable, but it was the most challenging. Challenging in the way art that asks the listener to look at them selves should be.
I started writing the State of My Heart Addresses back when I was in college. That goes back over 10 years now. The only old State of My Heart Address on line are the ones since I started to keep a blog. Here is your chance to see my old collected State of my Heart Addresses. This is a good reason for me to keep this blog going. Tomorrow you will see my State of my Heart Address for 2008.
Here is a good reason to use eMusic, 12 of Rolling Stone's top 50 albums of 2007 are on eMusic. I know that means that you need to go else where to get the other 38, but the price you will get those 12 albums on eMusic will not be beat.
I want to focus on traveling on inside of California. There are lots of places in the state that I have not gone yet. I need to start knocking some of these places off this list. I made a list of 20 places that I have not gone before. I hope to go to 10 of these this year. I know lots of these are baseball themed, but I am a baseball fan.
Getty Museum Santa Clara University Baseball Game Joe DiMaggio's Grave Joe DiMaggio's Boat Lake Tahoe Disneyland Sacramento AAA Baseball Game Modesto Nuts Game San Francisco Zoo Yosemite Golden Gate Fields Chabot Space & Science Center Humboldt State University Natural History Museum USS Hornet Museum U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology Naval Air Weapons Station, China Lake Dodger Stadium Asian Art Museum of San Francisco san francisco academy of sciences lenny dykstra's car wash Castle Rock State Park
I am getting ready to post my top ten of 2007 list and my best of 2007 CD mix. When I see these lists from other people, I wonder what they had listened to during the year. This is the list of everything released in 2007 that I listened to in 2007. I hope it helps when you see the other posts.
Artist - Album Yeasayer - All Hour Cymbals Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism The Earlies - The Enemy Chorus Hal Hartley - FAY GRIM Original Soundtrack Beirut - The Flying Club Cup Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter The White Stripes - Icky Thump Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War St. Vincent - Marry Me A.R.E. Weapons - Modern Mayhem The Go! Team - Proof of Youth Blonde Redhead - 23 Pela - Anytown Graffiti My Morning Jacket - At Dawn & Tennesse Fire Demos Package Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin The New Pornographers - Challengers They Might Be Giants - The Else Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love Akron/Family - Love Is Simple Bruce Springsteen - Magic Paul McCartney - Memory Almost Full Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls Tim Fite - Over The Counter Culture Panda Bear - Person Pitch Architecture In Helsinki - Places Like This Mirah and Spectratone International - Share This Place: Stories and Observations Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog Rilo Kiley - Under The Blacklight Luddite Machine - We Build The Destroyer CocoRosie - The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha Calvin Johnson - Calvin Johnson and the Sons of the Soil The Frames - The Cost Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity The Good, The Bad & The Queen - The Good, The Bad & The Queen Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall 1971 Ted Leo / Pharmacists - Living With The Living Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder Laura Veirs - Saltbreakers Son Volt - The Search (Deluxe Version) Dr. Dog - We All Belong Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank Bloc Party - A Weekend in the City The Shins - Wincing The Night Away Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone Page France - ...and the Family Telephone Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond The Fratellis - Costello Music Christian Kiefer - Dogs & Donkeys Richard Swift - Dressed Up For The Letdown The Sea And Cake - Everybody The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns, Fifteen Winters The Polyphonic Spree - The Fragile Army The Clientele - God Save the Clientele The Broken West - I Can't Go On I'll Go On Art Brut - It's A Bit Complicated Jarvis Cocker - Jarvis Wilco - Sky Blue Sky The Comas - Spells The State Champs - The State Champs The Rakes - Ten New Messages Crowded House - Time On Earth The Ponys - Turn The Lights Out
EPs
Gomez - Live at Austin City Limits Music Festival 2006: Gomez M. Ward - To Go Home EP Joanna Newsom - Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band EP The Decemberists - Live from SoHo (iTunes Exclusive) - EP Oh No! Oh My! - Between The Devil And The Sea
I am happy that my company did not come up in the PC World list of the 15 biggest disappointments of Tech. To be honest, some of the things on this list are pretty odd. I am not sure how many people are really disappointed at Unbox. I am not sure anyone is expecting anything out of Unbox. This is an interesting article, but I think it is missing the point a little. Nothing blew off my socks in the world of tech. That is the big disappointment. I do not see anything in 2008 that will be life changing either.
I have been thinking about what I would do If I started a super hero comics right now.
-No costumed characters without powers -No long standing secret identities -Lots of villain vs. villain feuds. Heroes would spend a lot of time breaking up these feuds -Lots of hero vs. hero feuds. These would be less public but source of a lot of rumors -Heroes would be part of celebrity culture -Lots of hero and villain sexual and romantic relationship. -Lots of Post traumatic stress disorder -Lots of Hero identities being passed from one hero to another -Super Hero groups would be like rock bands -Super heroes would get caught in politics -Paparazzi would follow superheroes -Some Superheroes would get old and their powers would fade, while others would not -Some Heroes would have a negative public persona. This would be the Barry Bonds effect.
Right now DC comics and Marvel comics are consistent with their past. They have created the world like it has always been for them. I think if you started a new superhero comic you could make some real changes. I am not sure anyone would ever get this chance.
The New York Times travel section did a story about the 53 places to visit in 2008. I would like to be able to visit all of them. Right now San Francisco and San Diego are the only two places on the list that I will likely travel to next year. In San Diego I doubt I will get a chance to stay in the new Hard Rock Hotel. If you want to hire me for some kind of job that will send me to all these places, I will be happy to go.
There is a good chance I will go to Portland sometime next year. My guess is that I will do a lot less travel next year. I doubt I will get to as many places as I did this year.
For the fifth year in a row I have done National Novel Writing Month. That is the challenge where people write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. For all five years I have completed the challenge. That means that in all five years I have written 50,000 words. If I had to testify in court, I would not say that every year my 50,000 words would add up to a novel. Only one year has the story come to a nice neat conclusion in close to 50,000. Most years the novel is no where near being complete. It is usually a mess of text that would take major work before it could be as a novel.
Every year I track to see how long it takes me to write. I track to see how many hours the novel takes me and how many words per hour I write. This year it took me 57.75 hours to write a total of 50200 words. That means I averaged over 850 words an hour. Some of those hours were total clunkers that I wrote a total of 77 hours. I also know that I rounded down some of the time. For Argument sake, lets say it took me 60 hours to write 50000 words or 830 words an hour.
When I go to a write in I try to write 1000 words an hour. I can do this with minimal distraction. Back in college I was told that 1000 words an hour is what the average person can compose and write. That is a good 50 minute hour of writing. I have noticed that I can usually keep this pace up for about 4 hours at most. More things creep in that really pull me away from writing. Simple things like eating and using the bathroom can really put me away from working on my novel.
I think that if it takes someone more than 80 hours to write the novel they will never do it. That means you need to write for 3.2 hours a day. I will admit that I have never written from 30 days in month. I have never written for more than 25 days in a month. Between work and having to interact with other human beings, writing 25 days in a month is really hard. At writing 15 days, that is writing 3.2 hours a day. That is where it starts to get hard. If you set the goal of 2000 words a day, that give you five days free during the month.
I have always found write-ins key to getting nano done. It is hard to explain why this is. Most people see writing as a solitary experience that you have to do for yourself. Somehow write-ins change that expense. I find that there is something special about writing around other people. It inspires me to get past blocks. If I need help with something other people are right around me. It gets me past all the the distractions of life.
In some ways write-ins help me compete with people. I am not really interested things like word wars and the kind of on line things people have come up with. Being around people who are either in front or behind me helps me. I want to catch the people in front of me and I look down my nose at people who are behind me.
One of the keys it to use your time well. It can take me 10-20 minutes to get to a write in. I have been asked in the past if it would be better for me to stay home and have that extra 20-40 minutes of round trip minutes to write. For me I have to say no. There are ways t use that time well. If I am leaving from work to go to a write in, that time is useful for me to switch from a work context to a writing context. If I bring all the ideas from work to writing I will be distracted.
If I do not have to come down from work, I can use this time to think about my novel. The key to writing quickly is to have already thought about where you want to go. Have some ideas in your mind. be ready to hit the keys once you are in front of your computer. I do not totally know what is going to happen until I sit down to write, but it is good to think about what might happen.
*Be careful of days where you get nothing done. If you are writing very slowly, it might server you better to close up for the day and put things aside.
*Keep your per hour average writing high. It does not work to write a lot of hours and get little done. If you are not getting things done, stop, and plan for the next time you can write.
*Set up what you are going to write before getting to write ins. If I have a little time watching TV before or after a write in, I plan for the next write in. I jut down some notes setting up what I will write next.
*Have more than one plot line going at the same time. This structure makes it easier to get the writing done. I find when I hit a block with one plot line, I can switch to the other plotline. I will admit that sometimes I have to write something to make the story work, but I am not interested in writing it. This is when having another storyline comes in helpful.
*Don't be afraid where the story might take you. I know that everyone might think they know where they want the story to go, but it is good to go with it sometimes.
Going to comic con made me get off my ass an finish this blog entry There is a lot of love about comics, even if I feel disconnected to comics currently.
Favorite Comic Book...
Heroes Capitan America Colossus Blue Beetle Hawkeye Starbrand Doctor Pym
Villains Sebastian Shaw (The Black King) Jack O' Lantern Tarantula Two-Face Starro Kang the Conqueror Surgeon General
Teams Justice Machine Avengers West Coast Avangers Suicide Squad Doom Patrol DP7
Comics No One Remembers Go Man elementals Brat Pack DP 7 Justice Machine Next Men
Favorite Spiderman Plotlines Who is the hobgoblin Black Spiderman Costume Death of Aunt May Spiderman is really the clone Spiderman and Black Cat dating
Graphic Novels Watchmen The Dark Knight Returns Powers Vol 8 Ledgens Astro City: Tarnished Angel It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken By Seth Amelia Rules!: Superheroes
Ten other things I love about comics Man of Steel by John Byrne Neal Adam's Batman and Green Lantern Peter David's The Hulk Marv Wolfman and George Pérez's New Teen Titans Post-Crisis Flash Wally West Frank Miller's Give Me Liberty Chris Claremont's 15 years of Uncanny X-Men John Byrne's first 28 issues of Alpha Flight First 100 issues of Fantastic Four The Tick Comic Superdickery
1. Mary Marvel 2. One of the Cast of Heroes 3. a Leia I have not taken a photo of yet 4. a padme I have not taken a photo of yet 5. a Transformer 6. New crossover costume
I was reading Money Advice for Grads and I could hear the first thing come out of a lot of my friends mouth. How will I have a social life if I do these things? I think there are a lot of things you can do to save money here.
- Use websites like Upcoming to find free events. -- Some are free to attend and some have open bars. A little reading can go a long way.
- Socialize with people from work -- I hear lots of people say that do not want to be friends with people they work with. This is an immature way to look work interactions. When you are looking for a future job, people like you is important.
- Don't buy all the gear the moment you start a new hobby -- In a lot of social circles hobbies are viral. I knows lots of people with scuba gear the never really used.
- Never shop when you are depressed -- I cannot tell you how many people I know who use retail therapy and ended up putting thousands of dollars on their credit cards.
- Make your own lunch -- You work 260 days a year. You can see how to do that math on that.
- Don't become a snob. Drink the coffee they have in the office if it is free, learn how to drink cheap beer, and never turn down a free sandwich.
- Don't smoke or quit smoking -- Taxes and addiction are not a good combination.
- Have your friends over to your place -- I know that being young people want to go out. If you are going to a bar to just hang with your friends, think about having them over you place. The beer is much cheaper at home.
I love this. I am not sure how some comes up with the idea to crochet an Atari 2600, two joy sticks, and a TV with Pitfall on the screen. I would have never come up with this idea. I know it was a great marketing idea. It got a lot of people to come up to this table and see what else was there.
I do think this is pretty cool. Pit Fall was one of my favorite games of all time. Seeing this made me come up with my list of my favorite Atari 2600 games:
Top Atari 2600 games of all time
1. Pit Fall 2. Enduro 3. River Raid 4. Combat 5. Breakout 6. Atlantis 7. Circus Atari 8. Barnstomering 9. Yars' Revenge 10. Space Invaders
Take a look at this post, this is what nostalgia looks like for people born in the late 60's and early 70's
I have been going to music stories like Best Buy and Virgin music and seeing displays of the 200 essential albums that every music fan must have. I know they are doing it as just a way to sell catalog music. Seeing this displays have made me think about the idea of an essential 200. I wondered what would be on my list and what would be on my friends lists.
To be honest, I know that I could not get many of my friends to sit down and make a list of 200 albums they think everyone should have. What I would like to do is have a number of my friends make a list of their essential 20 albums. If I can get 10 people to play along, I could have a whole list. If you want to play along send me your list. Let see what us normal people think are essential albums
I have not thought about gender and work in a while. In the Merc news today there is a story about how jobs are divided by gender. This is pretty interesting. I wonder if this has anything to do with women settling for less in salary negations. I wonder if this might pull a whole profession down.
I also wonder if it is something else all together different. This stat really stood out to me.
About 42 percent of the nation's working women are employed in just 20 occupations out of 450 on the government's standardized roster of jobs, including preschool and kindergarten teachers (98 percent female), secretaries and administrative assistants (97 percent female), receptionists (93 percent female), registered nurses (91 percent female) and maids and house cleaners (88 percent female).
It makes me wonder about the labor supply and demand in these fields. I wonder if this is more than just labor the difference. Is there a difference in the competitive nature of these fields? Is like fields for a men more dangerous or dirty. I think looking at the top five might give us some insights.
1. Logging workers 2. Automotive body and related repairers 3. Cement masons, concrete finishers, terrazzo workers 4. Bus and truck mechanics, diesel engine specialists 5. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
To be honest I do not hear feminists yelling for more women to be in these fields. I think you need to see longer lists to see what is happening. I am not sure that these things are going to change any time soon. I am not saying that sexism is not at work here, but there are forces more powerful than just regular men being sexists here. Unless those forces are understood nothing with change.
It seems like this is the year to rank Super Bowl teams. The NFL and NFL films has been doing in NFL Network with the America's Game Series. I would like to that website, but it is one of the worst websites I have ever seen. The page never stopped loading and it froze up my browser. I am surprised that the NFL does not know how to write a web page. I cannot find the results anywhere else on the web.
ESPN.com has also ranked all the teams to be in the Super Bowl from 80 to 1. I do not agree with their list all that much. ESPN looks at the whole season the team had. I think they are putting too much weight on the whole career the players had. I would not put the 1989 49ers as the greatest Super Bowl team of all time.
I put the 85 Bears at the top of the list because no and I mean no one was going to beat them. You could have lined up anyone against them in the Super Bowl and they were going to win.
I like the 84 49ers because it is harder define greatness. I think this is the point where the 94ers went from a team to the team of the 80s.
The 66 Packers make my list because they were first. This might not have been the best Packers team of that 60's, but they had no road map. If they did not win this game they would not have been the team of the 60s. That is a big weight.
I put the 78 Steelers on this list because it is the first Super Bowl I remember watching. This team is mythic in my mind. There is no other way to put it
The 68 Jets is on this list because they were the underdog and still won. If they would have lost that game it would have been not shame. There is something to be said for winning when everyone else is betting against you.
Some times someone needs to tell you the Signs it is time to quit your job. This list makes sense to me. I think the most important items are No. 2: The environment is toxic and No. 10: You feel stifled. I find that these are two things that will cause to hate a job.
Five more signs that are missing from this list:
1 - No path for advancement - The keys to a career is job trajectory. What you are doing this year will lead you to what you are doing next year. You can stay at a job that has no path for advancement for a while, but you will need to advance sometime. In a job where you cannot advance, there is a clock on how long you can stay there.
2 - No personal growth in the job - You have to be learning things at your job. If you are not it can get boring fast. It is way to easy to become a clock puncher if you are not growing in your job.
3 - Unrealistic requirements - Everyone has a line. For some people it is 30 hours a week and others it is 60 hours a week. Whatever your line is, there are other people who are jobs that will always ask for more. If the job is crossing the line for you, it is time to leave. If you are doing the work of two or three people a company will not correct that if the job is getting done. I understand time to market and budget constraints, but the nature of work is to keep on pressing until people break. Sometimes the only way to correct this is to find a new job.
4 - No sense of accomplishment in your work - At the end of the day or at the end of a project everyone wants to feel like they are doing something worth doing. We do not want to feel like we are getting paid to be Sisyphus. Your performance will suffer if you do not believe in what you are doing.
5 - Personal agendas get in the way of business agendas - I hear about this all the time. I know companies where the VPs rate their importance by how many people are in their org or how big their budget is. That can cause a lot of bad work to be done to protect empires. That is a company you want to leave.
This list is odd because it combines signs that a work place is not right for the individual with signs that the workplace is dysfunctional. Often when a workplace is not right for worker they should look to fix the situation right away. Few good things come from a workplace where you do not fit in.
Dysfunctional work places are kind of funny. Sometimes people can thrive in a dysfunctional work place. You can get a head if you understand the dysfunction. You can get opportunities you might not get other places, but you are taking a risk. At any moment the dysfunction can turn on you. A worker always needs an escape plan from a dysfunctional work place.
As of today I have been writing and publishing Sad Salvation for five years. I am not sure if publishing is the right word for it, but I do not have a better word for it. It is hard for me to get my mind around the idea that I have been doing this for five years. It has become such a big part of my life while I have lived in San Jose. It is hard to remember living in San Jose and not writing Sad Salvation.
The funny thing is that much of my social scene is connected to Sad Salvation in one way or another. I have a whole collection of friends I have meet because of blogs and the internet. I think that is why Sad Salvation has lasted this long. I keep on doing it because it is easy for me to see the rewards.
A few things you may or may not know connected to Sad Salvation
- Invisible City had the first blog I ever read. - Sad Salvation started as a result of the 9/11 attacks - The End Of Summer Party was a blog my friends started to keep in touch with each other. It is long past gone. - The Zines I helped publish were, Senseless Banter, Read Our Minds, and Baggage. I was also published in a few other zines. - Super Karate Monkey Fist, Is my backup blog that I keep doing different things with. - Jeremy designed my current Sad Salvation look. - Vox, and LiveJournal are my other blog
If you want to know what is different now than five years ago you can read the archive. I know it has changed over that time. I should go back and read those entries to see who I have been over the last five years. It is not always easy to keep track of while you are living your life.
Here is a reprint of my first Sad Salvation entry. I hope you enjoy it.
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Welcome to Sad Salvation
I looked at my life a few years ago and thought about something. I was sitting at a coffee house thinking about starting a new zine. I was trying to rack my brain trying to figure out what I could personally publish that would be interesting for people to read. I was thinking of the zines that I had read recently. There was nothing that I was reading at the time that really excited me. Most of it was pretty meaning less.
I had read a decent number of zines. I have even published about a half dozen issues. I looked at what other people were writing. I found something incredibly personal in zines. They were a place where people could try to construct some kind of story about their lives. The zines I was reading at the time where unlike any of the other stories I was finding in the rest of the world.
Being 23 years old there was something really empowering about zines. I was right out of college and I seemed to be going nowhere in the world. All of my friends were facing the same situations. We were working at bookstores and restaurants. We were clerks and temps. We spent our time watching clocks and find ways to slack off. Zines seemed to be the best way to work out our artistic frustrations. Using the office copy machine to cut the cost of a zine was a natural thing to do.
I was sitting at this coffee shop and I was not 23 years any more. I was 27 years old and my friends were starting to find their way into careers. They were becoming teachers, designers, and engineers. It was my day off from a dot.com start up. The way my life was happening was slowly sinking in for me.
For most of my life, my friends have been the artist type. Growing up we would tell stories, dream up comic books, and talk about the kinds of movies we wanted to make. We were all writers at heart. As I went through my life, these were always the kinds of people that I became friends with. We were people who dreamt about making our impression on the world. We thought about big ideas and big ways to express them. The problem was that we were becoming regular people.
There is a whole generation of people that are just like me. People that in their heart see themselves as writers and artists, but their job does not reflect that. We are sitting around playing in bands for recreation. We write zines and web sites as an artist outlet. We keep on thinking that someday we will be able to break out and become a true artist.
In this light, writing a zine is Sad Salvation. It is not only our artistic salvation, but it is also salvation because it is what we value most in this world. I am not speaking about everyone. I am just talking about a type of person I seem to be close with. We are not starting families, we are not growing roots in a community, we are not working toward building specific lives for ourselves. I wonder if we will ever find that Salvation we are looking for.
I know why school shootings get so much attention. It is because school is supposed to be a safe place. It is almost like going onto an airplane. The student and the parents put their faith in the school to take custody of the student. We are willing to give up some of our control for the good of our student and all students at the school. We have faith that the system will work and school will benefit the students and society.
School is something that almost every American has in common. We all have some sort of experience at school. I might have hated school at times. There were years were I was tormented by other students. I tried to avoid them in the halls as much as I could, but I never thought my tormentor would kill me. I never thought I would kill them either.
I saw an article, 10 Myths about school shooters. Two of the myths really caught my eye.
Myth No. 1. He didn't fit the profile.
In fact, there is no profile. There is no accurate or useful profile of students who engaged in targeted school violence, the researchers found.
The stereotypes of teens in Goth makeup or other types of dress are not useful in preventing attacks. Just as in other areas of security -- workplace violence, airplane hijacking, even presidential assassination -- too many innocent students will fit any profile you can come up with, and too many attackers will not.
The demographic, personality, school history, and social characteristics of the attackers varied substantially, the report said. Attackers were of all races and family situations, with academic achievement ranging from failing to excellent.
Myth No. 10. School violence is rampant.
It may seem so, with media attention focused on a spate of school shootings. In fact, school shootings are extremely rare. Even including the more common violence that is gang-related or dispute-related, only 12 to 20 homicides a year occur in the 100,000 schools in the U.S. In general, school assaults and other violence have dropped by nearly half in the past decade.
I came upon this 12 Rules for Marriage. Not be married I cannot say if these rules are any good or not. They seem to make sense to me. When I see marriages that work the couple is almost always working as a team. The marriages that do not work when the people are usually pulling in different directions. This is all easier said than done. All I know is that I really do not need to worry about these things any time soon.
Top 10 Musical Acts who I would pay to see live After seeing Death Cab for Cutie live I figure that it is time to update my list of Bands that I would pay to see who I have not seen yet list. Bands are getting added to this list faster than they are being dropped. That means either I am not true to my word or bands are not touring enough.
Belle & Sebastian Postal Service Mountain Goats Art Brut Ben Folds New Pornographers Cat Power Modest Mouse The Shins Calvin Johnson Joanna Newsom M. Ward Devendra Banhardt
Musical acts I would pay to see again:
The Decemberists Diane Cluck Mike Doughty CocoRosie Wilco
Dream Reunions:
Replacements Pavement Neutral Milk Hotel The Smiths
On the news I saw a story about the National Review writing the list of the 50 best consertative rock songs. I read the list and I am not sure what they were going for. Some songs should be on this list like Taxman and Sweet Home Alabama. I am just not too sure about Sympathy for the Devil or Gloria. I think they are reaching some of the time.
Lets look at a song like I Fought The Law. The average conservative I know is pretty much the law and order time. They are not fighting the law most of the time.
The list is pretty cute, but I think there are better songs that could have made it. Then again I am long looking toward rock stars for the most balanced political thought.
My beloved camera has gone missing. I am quite heart broken over this. I no longer have my Olympus Stylus 400. I loved that camera. It is the fifth digital camera that I owned. It was the best one by far. If took okay pictures, but it fitted my needs perfectly. I am very sad about it going AWOL.
The Godfather of cross over characters
