Diane Cluck - Macy's Day Bird Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album Ben Folds - Rockin' The Suburbs Jeff Mangum - Live At Jittery Joe's Beulah The Coast Is never Clear The Frames - For The Birds Microphones - Glow, Pt 2 I Am The World Trade Center - Out of the Loop Ted Leo/Pharmacist - The Tyranny of Distance White Strips - White Blood Cell
Honorably Mention Josh Ritter - Golden age of Radio M. Ward - End of Amnesia
EP Apples in Stereo - Let's Go Belle & Sebastian - Sing Jonathan David Stillwater
A few days ago I posted my best day of 2009. This got me to think about the best days of the '00s. Here is the list that is popping my head.
My wedding day The Phillies Winning the World Series My First date with Kate When I went from A temp to a permanent Employee At TiVo Eric hosting my 30th birthday Party The TiVo Picnic-Open House Asking Kate to marry me on the Burnside Bridge My First Raise at TiVo The Project Review of the 3.2 TiVo Software The first baseball game Kate and I went to together Finishing my First Nanowrimo novel Going to Prague on my own. Sailing Around San Francisco Bay with Bullwinkle Kate meeting my parents Me meeting Kate's parents Going to the Site of the First Olympics with Sean and his family. My first Phillies at Citizens Bank Park When I insisted Kate move in with me The first bonus I got at TiVo Going to the Philadelphia Zoo with Ruth, Charlie, and Kathy Getting the offer from VuDu My Second Date with Abigail Going to the SF Zoo for Kate's Birthday My interview at SlingMedia My Birthday At the Phillies Game/My Last Game at the VET.
A long time ago Jeremy told he tries to remember the best day of the year. He wants to note those things so he lives in the moment. I thought this was a good idea. Now I try to do the same thing
Best day of the year Nominations:
Giants Fan Photo Day
The last day at the Grand Lodge
The Day the Phillies won the NL Pennent
Christmas day
The day in San Diego we went to Hodad's
The day the Eagles Clinched a playoff birth
The Best Day of the year 2009: my wedding day.
My wedding day was the best day of the year. It is an easy call. I morning was calm, the day went well. That moment I saw Kate in her wedding dress for the first time was almost a perfect moment. The day was great. It took months to plan and it all paid off. I cannot think of a better day
I feel like my life is pointing the right direction. I did a lot of work in 2009 on myself. I put into action a lot of plans that I have been working on. I think it is time to set some goals around this.
Resolutions:
Ride my bike more: I want to ride my bike at least 100 days this year. I was thinking at least 2 forty weeks this year. I will have to pick up the other 20 somewhere. I want to ride enough that I fell comfortable riding to other cities in Santa Clara County, that is without having to ride the Light Rail.
Exercise more: I want to accomplish 300 hours of moderate exercise. That is 6 hours a week for 50 weeks. I will give myself some time off for vacation. Even if it is just an hour of walking 6 days a week. I have started doing this, and it really helps.
Build my savings: I have a number in mind, but I am not going to share it with you.
Do more creative projects: I have a number of projects in mind that you will read about in another post. I want to accomplish more than half of them.
Read 12 books this year: I really do not read enough. I want to read more. 12 books is a modest number, it is a great increase over my last couple of years.
Make 100 Sad Salvation posts: I really do not want Sad Salvation to fade away. That is just too easy to do. It is simple to let Twitter and Facebook take over. I want my blog to last another year. Maybe it needs a redesign.
**** ** ******: ** **** ** ** **** * ***** * ****. (This has been redacted. Tell me if you have any guesses what it is)
Make more than $15 from Google AdSense: Yeah, I made a big $15 dollars from google this year. It was all in October on the Costume Checklist blog. I might need to start some more blogs to get it done, but I think it is doable. If you want to help me go click on some of the ads over there... If you want to find great places to find costumes.
10 Most Important Music technologies of this decade
How did you get your music this decade? How did you discover music this decade? How did you consume music this decade? My guess is that these questions are different this decade that they were last decade. This decade really changed the way people thought about much. The music industry was not ready for the chances. Here is the list of the most important technologies in my mind. Let me know if I am missing any. The Tech does not need to be new, just to have an impact.
Peer to Peer Networks (Napster, Bittorrent) MP3s MP3 Players (iPod) DRM iTunes iTunes Music Store Myspace YouTube Blogs PodCasts Pandora
The question is, should the Big Ten add another team. I think the Big Ten has to add another team. I think if they want to be a top football conference in the BCS. Right now the Big Ten is in the second tear of the football conference. I think they need a twelfth to keep up with the SEC and Big 12.
Yes I am a Big Ten fan. I have been a Big Ten fan since Penn State Joined the Big Ten. I was a Penn State fan because my mom went to Penn State. So that frames everything I want to say about a twelfth school joining the Big Ten. I think that Penn State lacks a natural rival in the Big Ten. I thinking Penn State having a natural rival would be great for the Big Ten.
Of course everyone thinks Noter Dame, but it will not happen. Noter Dame does not realize it will never be a power again without a conference. They will not join a conference until they realize that.
Here are my top five schools to join.
5. Syracuse
This is an easy choice. Yes moving from the Big East to the Big 10 would be an upgrade. It would also make it easier on their basketball team.
4. Rutgers
Also the easy choice. It moves the big 10 into the New York City Media market.
3. Pitt
This is the once everyone thinks is Oblivious. I think it would be good for the Big 10, but might hurt Penn State.
2. West Virgina
This would hurt the Big East as a football conference and help the Big Ten. It could make the Mountaineers a national power.
1. Maryland
I think this would help the Big Ten the most. It would give it a bigger spotlight in the south and move Maryland back into better football competition.
96. For The Birds by The Frames 76. The Execution of All Things by Rilo Kiley 59. For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver 47. Vampire Weekend by Vampire Weekend 41. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? by of Montreal 38. The Glow Part 2 by The Microphones 30. Actor by St. Vincent 27. I Am A Bird Now by Antony and the Johnsons 23. The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse 19. Destroyer's Rubies by Destroyer 1. Is This It by The Strokes
This is another uninteresting photo. It is from the upper deck of AT&T Park. Yeah, I sit in the cheap seats. It is hard to get interesting photos from my seats.
Uploaded on May 27, 2007 Taken on May 4, 2007 Viewed 10 times
More of the follow up for my April/May 08 Flickr view posts. This will finish this series. Next I will have the new version of this project. How have these views grown? just check it out.
Back in April of 08 I did an entry showing how many views on flickr some of my photos have. Recently I passed 2 million total photo views on flickr. that made me think about revisiting this idea. If I do this again, I should start by looking at how many views the photos from the April 08 post have now. I think it is going to take me more than one post.
I have really enjoyed the last season of Lost. Even though I have a TiVo, I still tried to watch every episode as it aired. It is just so amazing, I wanted to watch it right away. I wanted to be able to listen to the Lost Podcast with Jay and Jack right after the show aired. It is the best show I have seen in a long time. It is worth watching right away.
Lost is all about questions, puzzles and plot twists. This is part of the show. I have done this a couple times before, now it is time to do it again. It is time for my questions I want Lost to answer.
Note: I wanted to post this so I would have a reasonable change not to spoil my readers. If you are not caught up on Lost, you might not want to read this.
1. How did Richard meet Jacob? 2. Is Jacob's Enemy the Smoke Monster? 3. What is the relationship between Jacob & his enemy? 4. How did Charles Widmore come to the Island? 5. Why is the Island special? 6. Who built the four-toed statue? 7. Who are Adam and Eve? 8. What is the state of the DHARMA Initiative now? 9. How did Ben become leader of the others? 10. Why does Charles Widmore want to come back to the island?
Here are the questions they do not need to answer.
1. What happened to Rose and Bernard? 2. How was the four-toed statue destroyed? 3. What is the deal with the whispers? 4. Why was Danielle Rousseau's Team changed after entering the temple? 5. What did Charles Widmore want Danielle Rousseau and Alex killed? 6. What is the story with the Black Rock? 7. Why did Danielle Rousseau lie to the survivors and tell them that she never saw the Others when they abducted Alex? 8. What caused the problem between the DHARMA Initiative and the Hostiles? 9. How did the DHARMA Initiative find out about the island? 10. Why were people drugged for the trip on the DHARMA Sub?
1. What happened on the island after the Oceaninc 6 left? - Answered 2. Where is Clare? - Unanswered 3. How did Locke die? - Answered 4. What is the Temple? - Part Answer 5. How will the Oceaninc 6 make it back to the island? - Answered 6. Where is the Island now? - Unanswered 7. What is Charles Widmore connection to the DHARMA Initiative? - Answered 8. Who found the island in the first place? - Unanswered 9. Why does Richard not age? - Part answered 10. Why is the wheel to move the Island in a frozen room? - Unanswared 11. What is the story about the Four Toed Statue? - Part Answered
10. Who were the first people on the island? - Unanswered 9. How old is Richard? - Unanswered 8. How many "Log Carriers" are left? - Unanswered Oceaninc Flight 815 assumed 0 Ajira Flight 316 unknown 7. Will we see the Four Toe Statue while the island is bouncing in time? - Yes 6. Where is did "Jughead" end up when flight 815 got to the island? - Answered 5. Did Charles Widmore Use the Frozen Donkey Wheel? - Unanswered 4. What is the Smoke Monster? - Unanswered 3. How does Charles Widmore become an other? - Unanswered 2. How Many Different Ways have people come to the Island? - Unanswered 1. How Many People Died on the Island? - Unanswered
We got up early to hit the road and have the complimentary hotel breakfast. We both just wanted to get home. I had to stop at the Trees of Mystery to take a photo of the huge Paul Bunyen and Babe the Blue Ox Statue. We spent a lot time on the trip home talking about Pelican Bay and Super-Max prisons. We drove down the Avenue of the Giants, but I did not drive through a tree. Kate said that I have to save something for when we have kids. It was a amazing to drive down 101, from the coast, to the great north woods, to wine country. The views were amazing. We stopped for Milkshakes in Santa Rosa, but I could not convince Kate to go to the Warm Puppy Cafe. It took us 45 minutes in traffic to get from Berkley to past the Bay Bridge.
Up early to pack the car, check out of the room and hit the road. That was hard after the beer we drank the night before. We were off for the Oregon coast. We drove down to Lincoln City, Oregon. Out plan was to drive out to the coast and drive 101 All the say south. Our goal was to get far enough to spend the night in California. We stopped at the Outlet Mall at Lincoln City. No Oregon sales tax makes it even better. The drive was beautiful, but it added a few hours to when we would get home. I liked the drive, but it was a little too curvy for Kate. She was happy when we got to Crescent City and found a hotel for the night. Part of me wanted to stop more often, but I was also tired and wanted to just get home.
We were told that we had to visit the Oregon Zoo in Portland. Kate loves animals and I love photography. That makes a zoo great for booth of us. We got to see the new baby elephant, Hippos, Polar Bears, Mandrills, Zebras, and Bats to name a few. We had dinner with our favorite Portlanders, the Dornblasers. We got to meet the newest member of the family. We were sorry that they could name make it for the wedding. We spent our time talking about all kinds of stuff like, weddings, marriage, kids, work, and The Birds. We had dinner at the Lauralwood Public House. I had the Burger which was very good, but I should have had the Mac and Cheese Kate had. It was great Mac and Cheese. I am not sure there are restaurants in San Jose that rate with the Laurelwood. If there is let me know
Slept in. It felt wonderful to wake up on my honeymoon. There was a lot of stress that was now in the pass. After a lazy morning we made our way into Portland. We had some shopping to do. My favorite Camera Store (Pro Photo Supply) and Shoe Store (oddball Shoes) are both in Portland and right around the corner from each other. I bought a new lens and a pair of flip flop. This is the first time I have owned flip flops since I was a little kid. We had lunch at the Byways cafe, as seen on Drive In, Diners and Dives. I had the Roast Beef Melt and Potato Salad. Yes, that was a lunch worthy of a TV show. I ate at the Byways Cafe back when it was Shakers Cafe when I lived in Portland. We spent the rest of the afternoon in Powell's City of Books. We limited ourselves to $100 in books. Kate got lost looking for Lincoln books. You could see where the coffee shop at Powells books took out the power outlets. I guess people were staying there too long. We had dinner at the Cornelius Pass Roadhouse, Imbrie Hall . I had the buffalo meat loaf. This is another McMenamins for my check list. We spent the night at the hotel, in the soaking pool and sitting in front of the fireplace.
March 23 Had the complementary breakfast at the Ashland Springs Hotel. I did my best to not speed too much. I saw two drivers pulled over. I cannot even recount everything that Kate and I talked about. Ate Lunch at the Vintage Inn diner in Cottage Grove Oregon. I have been to Portland enough times since leaving that I do not think about my year living there when I visit. I end up thinking about my other visits. We made it to the Grand Lodge at about 5 PM. We were spending most our honeymoon at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, Oregon. We are staying in the walker brothers suite that includes a sitting room with a fireplace. I had the buffalo burger and tater tots for dinner. The thing about staying at a McMenamins hotel is that they brew their own beer. We had the samplers and a number of pitchers after that. Kate's favorite is the Ruby and mine was the Working Man's Red. We put the fireplace to good use on the night
Most of my family were staying in the hotel I woke up before Kate to have breakfast with, Alice, the Greens, and the Hoffmanns. Kate joined me later to have breakfast with my mom, Kathy, Jed and Janice, and the Prattles, We went back to the apartment, finished packing and opened a few more gifts. We were on the road. It was I-880, I-680, Over the Martinez bridge, I-80, I-505, I-5. We had lunch at Mary's Pizza Shack in Vacaville and had pasta. We were happy to get through the mountain passes without issue. We saw snow, but we did not need chains. I am happy the passes were open. We spent the night in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland was dead because it was Springbreak and there were no plays that week We pulled into the Bard's Inn and asked if they had HBO. We needed HBO to see the finally of Big Love. They called four other hotels looking for one that had HBO. I guess Ashland is a very literate town. More hotels had sharing libraries than HBO. We needed to see the Big Love Finish. The hotel clerk thought it was romantic I was doing this for my wife. Got Takeout hamburgers at munchies We ended up staying at the Ashland Springs Hotel. Kate want to come back to Ashland for the Shakespeare Festival. I think that would be pretty cool.
Woke up early Drove around San Jose, it was very quite and peaceful Had a donut for breakfast Andrew J Thomas came over to my place to get ready Got to the wedding site before any of the guests Ran around like crazy before the wedding started. Spent what felt like a long time on the wedding platform trying not to see Kate before the wedding started. We were waiting for the wedding party to be ready, I was on alone on the stage. All the guests where standing there looking at me. I stood there in front of the guests. I took questions to warm up the crowd. I was asked how we met and if Kate offers a 401k. I am so happy I waited for that moment to see Kate in her wedding dress for the first time. It was almost overwhelming in a good way. I think this is a good tradition. During the ceremony, the whole world faded away except for Kate. I almost cried when Pat read Corinthians 1:13 I could hear people go ahhhh when Kate and I read our vows. It felt like the photos took a long time and that we should have done more. I did not take many photos with my camera. I did not get the time to talk to as many people as I wanted to. The day really did fly by. It rained before we cut the cake. It was amazing to see my friends start grabbing stuff to get it out of the rain. We cut the cake while it was raining. The cupcakes where a big hit. Cupcakes are a great idea for an outdoor wedding. No one had to spend time cutting the cake. Peter and Kelly did the toasts. It started to rain as we decided to do our first dance. We both had a great time with the first dance. Pat was a real ham with his first dance. After the first dance was over, all the guests left to get out of the rain. That was the end of the wedding for the most part. The bridal party decorated the car with Shaving Cream and Tin Cans. The tin cans fell off the car somewhere before the highway. Kate and I snuck out of the hotel for a romantic sushi dinner. After dinner we opened some of the gifts and had some left over cupcakes After dinner we went to the hostility suite to see some family. We were really tired by the time we went to bed.
Hung out while Kate got her nails down Checked Kate into the hotel Got some advice from the impending father-in-law Had the rehearsal for the wedding I got to the rehearsal site and half hour early and relaxed alone. It helped a lot with the stress. Kate was late to the Rehearsal. I made jokes about her heading to Mexico Had the Rehearsal dinner at the Tied House At the Rehearsal dinner the distortion of time field started. It went very quickly. Watched Battlestar Galactica Series Final. Slept in my broken bed alone
Worked from Home Kate and I had Lunch with one of the Brides Maids Mom and My sister Kathy made it to town Met Mom and Kathy at the Hotel Had dinner at Henry's High Life with Kathy and Kate. College roommate came over the the Apartment to hang with Kate and I. Jimmy told a story of something I did in college. I did not remember it, but it sounded like me.
Yeah, I know not ever tweet is useful. Hopefully I am good at removing people from my twitter stream who never have anything interesting to say. That is harder than it seems. I wanted to make a post of sum of the times of tweets I fine useful.
The Blog Promotion: These are tweets where the person posting is trying to bring you back to their blog. Some of these are useful and some are not. I do not have them sent to my mobile device
The Headline: This give the reader the Headline, but they need to search out the story themselves. Helps alert reader to specific details that they might miss or not know to look for.
interrante: GM cancelling Saturn and Pontiac. Hummer and Saab are on the for sale list
The News Joke: Take part of a headline and make a joke out of it. This helps share
wirehead: figures that GM would have a Saab story.
The Share: Teaches us a little about that person. It is the best when it is a simple expression of a thought or idea. It can be like poetry.
nicole: Loving how clean the air is after the rain.
Below is my list of the best albums of 2008. I did not rank them, I just grouped them 11-20 and 1-10. Let me know what you think about my list. I know it is different that the Pitchfork list or any other list I have seen. The Meta Critic list is pretty cool. Let me know what you think of my list.
I live in the bay area and I have a lot of friends who are democrats. I know a handful of republicans, but most of them know better than to speak up in political conversations. We all know it is not going to get us anywhere. I found the best way to go is ask democrats questions and make them explain the way they think.
I have been hearing them talk a lot about Sarah Palin. I find myself often explaining that the democratic party here in California is not the same as the democratic party in other states. I have to remind people that when I was in high school Pennsylvania elected a pro-life democratic governor in Robert Casey. Pennsylvania currently has a pro-life democratic senator in Bob Casey Jr.
In the last week I have heard and read a lot of those California Democrats react to Sarah Palin. When I hear the reaction there is an extra level furor and anger about Sarah Palin. After the convention speech, I feel that there was a much bigger reaction that their would have been if a man would have made this speech.
I think there is something going on here. I want to know what other people think. I want to know if there is more anger because she is a woman. A few people I have asked have admitted that they are angry about that. They feel both that there is a level of pandering on John McCain's part.
Will Democrats be upset if the Republicans beat them to the punch putting a woman in the White House or at least a heartbeat away from the White House?
It appears that Sarah Palin has energized both the Republicans and the Democrats. She has upped the fund raising of both parties. After the speech at the convention this race got more interesting.
Was I the only person who woke up this morning humming John Melloncamp's "Smalltown" after seeing Sarah Palin's speech last night. You might not agree with the content of the speech, but the speech did make it clear why John McCain picked her. After the speech picking Sarah Palin seems like a much smarter pick than it did a week ago
Sarah Palin did a lot to cash in on the idea of being from a small town. Her speech went a long way to say "I am more like you than I am like them." The them being the inside Washington types and the costal media. She went a far way to define who she is. She went very far to say that is who she is and who she will fight for. Many people I know who live in small towns feel very alienated from the major American cities. I can see Sarah Palin playing well in these small towns.
I hear lots of people in the Bay Area use the term "fly over states" and that is exactly who she is trying to appeal to. She went as far as name checking the states that might be in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Minnesota. These are the places where she can make a difference. She is not meant to pick up New York or California Hillary Supporters. She is meant to pick up some of the places where Hillary did well and Obama did poorly. According to the CNN Electoral Map, these are places where
Why did John McCain pick her, because he has a gender gap problem. More women are democrats and John McCain is not going to win without closing that gap. He does not need to close the gap everywhere. The CNN political map points out some of the places Palin can make the difference.
Yes John McCain knew what he was doing when he picked Sarah Palin. I do not think she was his first pick. I do not think he thinks she is the best choose to be President if something happens to him. The VP is not about the best person to be president because they cannot be president if they cannot help win the election.
I have been reading a lot about people hitting McCain for picking Sarah Palin because she is not qualified. I have seen lists of republicans more qualifed than Sarah Palin. When I read these lists again after they remove everyone over 60 off this list. When I saw her on the news her age stood out to me. I think age is playing a big part in this election.
This pick to me said something clear. John McCain is worried about having two white guys running against the Obama-Biden ticket. It would look bad for the idea that John McCain represents the status quo. I think McCain see that he will not win that way. I think that an old white woman might still give that feeling of the status quo.
I also want to see this list without centrist Republican candidates. If McCain picked Christie Todd Whitman he would get killed by the conservative wing of the party. That might be enough to get those voters to stay home.
I know that this leave Condoleezza Rice on the list. While I like Condoleezza Rice. She might be the Smartest person in the current White House. Nothing would say "Third Bush Term" more that Condoleezza Rice for Vice President. John McCain is More of the Same was a major part of the Democratic Primary. I think that message is currently making head way with the voters.
If you look at the Democratic Primary there was the message that experence is not important. People what change more than they want experence. If they do this might be the right pick.
To be honest, I am holding my opinion on Sarah Palin until the Convention and her speech. The left has really gone after her for this pick. I think there was no good pick for VP for McCain. Every door had a tiger behind it for him.
I am not surprised that Warner Brothers does not know what to do with Superman. The Dark Knight made so much money the logical thing to do is get more movies like it out into the market place. That would include a new Superman movie, Justice League, World's Finest Heroes Movie.
The problem is what do you do with Superman. Are you going to say that Batman begins and Superman Returns happen in the same world? Are you going to Reboot Superman all together to give it a new feeling? What kind of movie to you want the next Superman movie to be.
Christopher Nolan's Batman world seems hard to introduce superheros to. So far he has really sold the world as being a real life place. The Dark Knight really seemed like any American city. The world of Bryan Singer's Superman Returns seems to almost be in a different key. It makes me think the two movies would clash if you tired to mix them together.
You do not have to make Metropolis gritty and dark like the Gotham City. In fact the best way to do is for Metropolis to seem like Utopia while Gotham City is dark and gritty. I worry that no one can really fold another movie into the world of Christopher Nolan's Batman. Maybe you could also a Green Arrow movie there, but it would be hard to sell. Maybe the Dark Knight is so good, that Warner Brothers will not be able to cash in as much as they would like.
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.
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 just saw Death Star over San Fransisco. I was impressed at it. I think the use of star wars ships and regular scenes from San Francisco is very cool. The short film seems creative and fresh.
That is not something I can say about the new Star Wars Clone Wars Animated movie. It is hard to review a movie I have not see yet. I will say that the reviews in Slate's Summary Judgment is enough for me to stay away. I am not always someone who trusts critics, but if the movie does not look good to me from the preview and it does not get good reviews. It is a fair bet to stay away. It is besides the point that Gizmodo tells me I will truly hate the movie.
My problem with this movie is simple. They put the movie between episode 2 and 3. This makes me scratch my head a little. Why would I want to see a movie that takes place between episodes 2 and 3. I already have see what happens between episode 2 and 3 with the animated Clone Wars TV show. I do not need more story there. Star Wars fans have not been crying to find out more of this story.
If I want to know about the story, it is about what happens between episode 3 and 4. That is where the new video game Force Unlimited takes place. This is where I want to see a movie. I want a movie about the change from the Republic to the Empire. that is a story that would be cool to me.
The reason Death Star over San Francisco is cool is because people are living their everyday life with this huge ships everywhere. It makes me wonder what would happen if the empire came to earth. Would we fight or just surrender? How would we react after the empire took over? What would everyday life be like.
I really want to see a story where average everyday life is going on under the Empire. I know that you see a little of that under Episode 4, but that is out in the boondocks of Tatooine. What is going on under the Empire on Coruscant or Naboo. Is the Empire jackbooted thugs? Do they have lots of propaganda? Do they turn planets against each other? Do they just have authority from a far? Do they prop up puppet planet governments?
This movie is a real shame to me. There are lots of good stories to be told in this world. George Lucas could have picked a dozen other places to put this movie. I really looks like he made a cheap movie that will be easy to get toys and merchandise out of. I think it is time for George to step aside and put Star Wars in to hands of people who can really make good stories with it.
While in San Diego I went to see The Dark Knight and Hancock
Superhero Movies to Make
Green Lantern
I think there are many ways to make a good Green Lantern movie. I think the best story line would be Hal Jordan is given the ring and saves the world from an Alien Invasion. I think that you could make the setting now, the 60's or the 80's and it world work. The best thing about this movie is that Green Lantern's powers are fantastic and very visual. Modern movie making could do justice to these powers.
The story would also lead to a good trilogy, alien invasion, Sinestro, Green Lantern Corps
Savage Dragon
Savage Dragon can be a cool story because he is both a superhero and a cop. This would be a superhero how is limited not just by how he feels but by the law also. I think that he works well because few people in the general public have read the comic. There are few expectations of what the story would be like. This could give the film maker a lot of leeway. I also think the character could lead to a good violent movie.
Captain Atom
Captain Atom is not know well outside the comic book world. I think he can make for an interesting comic. The story of a soldier who gets turned into a superhero because of an experiment is an interesting one. I think there is a lot of conflict in the idea that he is no longer human, but pure energy. I would use the story where is body is energy and his skin is a condiment suit. This would be great if he had to deal with a relationship
Power Man and Iron Fist
I think that Power Man and Iron Fist would make for a great 70's Blacksploitation/Kung Fu action movie. This would work well as a period piece. I think that it could be really over the top. I could include an over the top villain, corrupt cops, and lots of fighting. It is a good movie because there are no limits what you could do with these characters.
X
I will admit that X is one my favorite comic books of all time. I think he has many of the elements that make Batman, Wolverine, Rorschach, and the Punisher so popular. He is a vigilante who lives in a world with that is corrupted by organized crime. X has no memory of how he is, he is driven to fight crime.
I think that the story can be interesting because he has no memory of who is he or how he got his power. He just knows that he has to fight. You can even make it that he hated uneven odd that happen when criminals prey on the innocent. The story can show him as the ultimate Anti-hero who lives by his own code.
Powers
The Powers story Who Killed Retro Girl would be a great movie. The reason the comic is so good is because it deconstructs comic books. It is about regular people in the superhero world. The story is part police procedural and part superhero story. I think this combination would make a great movie. It would be easy to see the superheros in the story Retro Girl and Triphammer as stand in for other characters that the public already know, Super Girl and Iron Man.
Astro City
Astro City would be a great later superhero movie. The idea is that people who watch this movie do not need to know how heroes came to be or how they got their powers. The filmmaker can assume that the audience accepts the existence of superheros. Astro City is the comic for people who already read comics, The Astro City movie could be the movie for people who have already seen super hero movies.
I think that Tarnished Angel would translate best into a movie. The story is great because it shows the world from the villains side, but the villains are still sympathetic. I think it would be a wonderful movie.
Booster Gold
I think that Booster Gold would work well in a world with or without other superheros. The key ideas is that Booster Gold is a glory hound who wants to wants to be a star. On a deeper level he knows he is a fraud. He know that he stole his powersuit. He grew up a loser and is afraid that he will be a loser again. I think this could really make for a good movie.
Superhero Movies to Avoid
Kingdom Come
While Kingdom Come is a great graphic novel, I am worry that much of what makes it great would be lost on a general audience. It is a great movie for the conflict between Bruce Wayne superman. I just think you need too many characters to make this an interesting movie.
Dark Knight Returns
The Dark Knight Returns might be the greatest comic book graphic novel of all times. The reason it is great is because it breaks all the rules of the DC universe. Superman is the bad buy, the Joker kills himself, and Batman fakes his own death. It is good because it conflicts from what people expect from the story. I do not think you could make this and keep it true to the story. I do not think DC/Warner Bros would let you make Superman a bad guy.
Dr. Strange
While the magic, demons, and monsters might sound like a good movie, I doubt it would end up that way. Lots of the things that make Dr. Strange good are arcane and only really work if you see them over a long period of time. I am not a big fan of the surgeon with bad hands story.
Brat Pack
While I love the comic Brat Pack, it would be a horrible movie. I know that it attacks the conventions of superhero comics and is a general thumb to the eye of the Justice League, but that might now be a great movie. I think it would be hard to make the world so dirty and still make the movie sell.
Superhero Movies to Reboot
Daredevil
Daredevil is a great series. There are lots of great things that can be down with this character. The problem is that you cannot do them all at the same time. I think this would be a great movie to give someone else another shot at.
My vacation is just about over now. I did not blog very much while I was on the road. I spent my time, at comic con, with Kate, with my friends, seeing people, seeing movies, eating, and doing other vacation things. When I did have time at my computer I was working on my photos. I was looking through photos, uploading to flickr, or adding tags to the photos.
Comic Con was great. Kate had a good time going with me. It was her first comic con and I am happy that she had a good time. This makes it likely that we will likely back to Comic Con in the future. I am happy she had a good time.
One of the reasons she had a good time is because we got to see lots of friends there. Kate got to meet a lot of people from the first time. I am happy that Kate liked my friends and they liked her.
Top ten thing about comic con
10. Dumbrell Panel 9. Chuck Panel 8. Buying the first copy of Cool Jerk Vol 2. 7. Animation of Peanuts Panel 6. Taking Photos of People in Costume 5. Watching Chris Being a Tonight Show Correspondent 4. Shopping at Scarlett's Corsets 3. Walking around the floor before it was open 2. Watchmen Panel 1. Helping set up the Kids Love Comics booth
Top ten non-Comic Con Specific things
10. Driving down the San Diego with Kate 9. Sunday Brunch with Steve and Kristin 8. Swimming in Steve's Pool 7. Dinner at Pizza Port with Gerry 6. Karen's Birthday Dinner At Fred's Mexican 5. Dinner with the AZ girls at Ocean Beach 4. Dinner with Jimmy, Karen, Harold, Anna and Stella. 3. Staying with Steve and Kristin 2. Seeing people I do not see Often 1. Kate meeting my friends
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 watched the Dark Knight today. It is a wonderful movie, but it has lots of problems. It is not just a great comic-book movie, it is a great crime and action movie also.
I love the characters in this movie. They are well acted and well written. This is amazing to me. For a long time the characters from Batman have seemed silly. I thought that Bruce Wayne was in need of a grief councilor, Two-Face was just random thug, and the Joker was just too broad.
A lot of problems with comic book characters is that they become part of the comic book universe they live in. Most of the cool things that have been done with Superman, Wonder Woman, The Hulk, and Batman are do to the larger story they are part of the other comics. I think this is why the Batman, Justice League and X-Men cartoons work so well. You can build the whole universe with a TV show.
I am impressed with the two new Batman movies because they have been successful without having all this time to set the universe. They are successful in building a world that the viewer understands easily and instantly. I think part of the reason it works is because the way they choose to show the world.
I like to choice to make the world realistic as possible. It is even less stylized than Batman Begins. I think that it makes the drama hit home a little more. Most of the events of the move seem like they could happen here. I think it makes the unbelievable a little easier to take.
I really love what they do with the character of the Joker. Heath Ledger does a great job with this character. I like the idea that the Joker is just an Anarchist. He just wants to see the world burn. This makes the Joker make sense in this world. They also do a good job with the origin of the Joker.
This is the best movie I have seen this year. Yes, it fails a little more that Iron Man, but it also takes more risks. I would tell any movie fan, if they like comics or not, to see this movie.
My TiVo DVD recorder died. I was not using it to burn DVDs or to watch and record TV. I was only using it as a DVD player. This means I need a DVD player.
There are a lot of directions I can go to replace my DVD player. Do I go Blu-Ray? Do I go with a Home Media Center? Do I forget physical media all together and just go with a VOD service? There are lots of things to look at here.
Here is where I am coming from.
I have a DVD collection of about 250 DVDs. I do not watch them all that often, but it would be nice to watch them more often. I rarely buy new DVDs. It has mostly been DVDs at Comic Con or movies that are really special.
We subscribe to Netflix. We have used it to this point for TV shows that we missed before. Shows like Rome and Weeds. We also use it for Movies that are not on VUDU yet.
I use an iPod to watch listen to music in the living room.
1. Home’s multimedia center PC with Blu-Ray
To me this would be the ultimate answer. I could view every kind of Media I want this way. It would make the best use of my internet connection and by HDTV.
Pros
Can watch Content from anywhere. There is a lot of free content from places like, You Tube, Podcast, Website, Hulu, Joost, and ABC.COM.
Good answer for both physical and none physical content.
Not limited by in the ways other products are.
Would have to worry about Microsoft DRM
Con,
Price. PCs with Blu-Ray DVD players start at $750 and go up from there. When I customized on at dell.com it cost $1100 That is a lot of money to throw at something like this. I could get several other of the items on the list for this cost.
2. Media PC with DVD
This answers all my needs except for HD DVDs. I could view every kind of Media I want this way. It would make the best use of my internet connection and by HDTV.
Pros
Can watch Content from anywhere. There is a lot of free content from places like, You Tube, Podcast, Website, Hulu, Joost, and ABC.COM.
Good answer for most physical and none physical content.
Not limited by in the ways other products are.
Easy to upgrade to Blu-ray if I get the right video card.
Con,
Price. PCs start at $450 and go up from there. For this price I can get something else off the list that can do more.
Would not play Blu-ray Disks
Would have to worry about Microsoft DRM
3. Mac Mini
Using a Mac Mini would be like using a media center PC, but with a couple of drawbacks. Many of the services that use Microsoft DRM, like Netflix and Amazon Unbox will not work on Apple.
Over Ideas 4. Blu-ray player 5. PS3 6. X-Box 360 7. Upscaled DVD Player 8. Roku Player 9. All Region DVD player 10. apple tv
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?
I was listening to Philscast and heard about Cot's Baseball Contracts. It is a site that has contract info for all the teams in Major League Baseball. It is pretty cool to see what is in the contracts. Who get paid what. It is sad that Bengie Molina, arguably the Giants best position player, makes less money than Dave Roberts who only has 17 at bats so far this year.
I was reading this story about someone replacing their Apple TV with a Mac Mini. I think this is an interesting idea. I have been thinking about a Home Theater Computer for some time now. I am not looking for something to solve all my problems. I am not going to get rid of my TiVo. I think the standalone DVR is the only way to go. There are somethings that I really want a home theater computer for.
There is a minimal list of things I want a media computer to do:
Podcasts Youtube Hulu Joust Network Websites MP3 Upconvert DVDs Bluray DVDs Play Music Display photos from Flickr
It is a shame that none of the set top boxes out there like VUDU or Apple TV do this. There is a lot of good free content out there. Right now the set top boxes let you get to minimal free content. They are closed platforms limiting the kind of content you can get to. It is a shame that I have to set up a media computer to get to this content.
I understand it will not make any money for them like letting you rent or purchase content would, but it would make the box more useful. It would make it so customers used the boxes more often. If people are using your box you get more chances they might decide to purchase or rent something. It also open up the doorway to advertise to the users.
Above is why I never bought music from Microsoft. Something in the back of my head knew this was coming some day. If Microsoft did not rule the market they were going to leave the market. Microsoft is not really leaving the market, they just shifted to the Zune marketplace. All the MP3s in the Zune Marketplace are DRM free. Microsoft is not doing that bad of a thing here.
I know the people in the music industry do not see this as a problem. To them it is no different than switching from cassette to CD. The difference in the eyes of the customer was that upgrading to CD was getting value with that upgrade. Here the customer is not getting any additional value.
I think this is a good example of the music industry alienating it's customers. It is that alienation that keeps people from paying for your product. The story above is why I currently will not buy any music with DRM. It is all MP3s for me now.
George Kliavkoff, chief digital officer at NBC Universal had a great quote about pirated content and portable media:
If you look at studies about MP3 players, especially leading MP3 players and what portion of that content is pirated, and think about how that content gets onto that device, it has to go through a gatekeeping piece of software, which would be a convenient place to put some antipiracy measures," Kliavkoff said in an onstage interview at the Ad:Tech conference. "One of the big issues for NBC is piracy. We are financially harmed every day by piracy. It results in us not being able to invest as much money in the next generation of film and TV products."
Wow, this one is a little disturbing to me. This guy needs to know a little about technology. I cannot find his education listed on the web. Maybe he a lawyer and not an engineer. From this comment you can tell he has no idea what made the Apple iPod successful. It is successful because it is an open platform. I can put my content on it without having to have that content blessed by Apple. If I needed my content blessed by Apple, I would buy a different device.
I would be afraid of any antipiracy software on my portable media player. How is that player going to tell if the content it pirated? Will I be able to put my own content on my player? If I make the content will I have to have it blessed by someone? Will I not be allowed to put content from third parties on my media player?
Right now I have more than one way to get a TV show to my iPod. Being a TiVo User I can use TiVo Desktop Plus to transfer a show to my computer and from there to my iPod. Is that piracy? I am paying for the program, it has all the adds, NBC has not stopped TiVo for TiVoToGo yet.
I know this comment is not really about this generation of Portable media players. It is about the Media players like the iPod Phone and the iPod Touch. Players that are connected to the web. I know he wants to make sure those players have his approval. I know that he wants media players to be closed systems. Cell Phone companies are making people thing this is possible. I think it is a bad idea for everyone including content company. As you close off avenues to content getting to boxes, you like the reasons for people to buy your content.
The NFL draft was this weekend. You can find no shortage of the people willing to rate every team in the draft. I think this is a little silly. None of the guys that rate the draft ever say anything about how well their grades from the year before hold up. Right now I want to see ratings for the 2005, 2006, and 2007 drafts. That would make me more confident that the 2008 ratings actually mean something. To me none of this means anything until they put on the pads in the fall.
I have been watching Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network lately. These are my kind of places. I want to check out as many of these places as I can. I have already gone to Falafel's Drive-In, Byways Cafe, and Daddypops. The problem is that the official website does not break down these sites on a single list. I have to click on each episode to see them. I was ticked off by this. I wanted to see list in one place.
There is where Wikipedia comes in. I had a feeling they would have and entry for Diners, Drive-ins, and dives and a list of what I wanted to know. This is one of the joys of Wikipedia. I can find information in a format that is useful to me, not just in the format that people want me to see it.
They even have a link to a site that uses Google Maps to show you where the joints in the show are. Now I just need to go out and eat at as many of these places as I can.
I was listening to David McCullough and Tom Hooper on NPR's Talk of the Nation speak about HBO's John Adams. When asked about the differences between the movie and the book David McCullough that the difference between movies and works of biography is like "A simular melody being played by two different instruments." This is just an amazing quote to me.
I have been hard on movies for not understand the source material. Often the problem is with comic book movies is they do not understand comic books. If you are going to play the melody you need to understand the source, but you do not need to play every note the same. That can even be a little boring. As a fan of the source it is important to not get too hung up on the movie being that different.
I watched the latest episode of Now on PBS yesterday. It seemed like the right thing to watch on Tax day. They talked about taxing the poor more than taxing the rich. It was a good show. I think it did good job explaining the issue that Alabama is having with state taxes.
There is one thing that upset me. I was told I could find more information on the website. The show said that there would be state by state information. I was happy to find out how equitable my states policy is. When I got to the site I did not find anything about how equitable my state tax policy was. What I could find is state by state Income Inequality.
I feel this is a bit of a bait and switch. I want to know about my state's tax policy. I want to know what my state is doing poorly. I cannot show my friends something about income inequality. We all work in Silicon Valley, we expect that income inequality is a fact of life. What they do not expect is that the tax policy they enjoy is bad for the poor. It will disarm a lot of there liberal ideas.
In other tax ideas, people should listen to the KQED Forum interview with David Cay Johnston about his book Free Lunch. I think this highlights a lot of tax problems we are having right now. I think it says a lot about how the system needs to be changed.
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
I have been holding onto this for a while. Back in 2007 I was looking for a new job. I was complaining about my resume not being up to date. I asked if any of my friends wanted to write my resume for me. Antwon was the only person to take me up on this challenge. I did not end up using this resume for my current job.
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Objective: To be accepted as god among men, commandeering armies and putting said forces toward my own material ends.
Skills: I wrote “Of Mice and Men”. Was nominated for Peabody award; lost out to Vulcan Hippies who had unique interpretation of Woodstock.
Invented time travel. By using time travel, went back in time; invented bacon bits, toothpaste, Calvinism.
Have discovered no fewer than 1800 shades of the color blue deep within the Amazon Basin, many of which has been assumed to be extinct.
Got honorary doctorate from University of Southeastern Phoenix, Martian Campus.
Have set numerous national records regarding the consumption of tapioca.
Work history: 2004-present Invented nanite delivery system for NASA. Created different flavors (e.g., French vanilla, chipotle) to maximize nanite uptake and astronaut acceptability thereof. Discovered optimal strategy to ensure gray goo problem affected Commies, Cuban sympathizers. Made inroads towards creating exciting laptop version of said nanites. Programming languages used: Perl; Lisp; Tuvalu click-oriented throat clasping.
2001-2004: Herded plantation of cats in Australian Outback, Managed feline teams in excess of 400. Ensured maximum cuddly-wuddliness, minimum hairballs. Created pithy PowerPoint presentations correlating feline throughput to various external factors.
January 18, 2001: Built Rome. Took only one day. Achieved goal through careful foreplanning, copious Mafia contacts, creatively interpreting OSHA standards. (Length that hastily built Rome lasted available upon request.)
1988-2000: Invented novelty banana slug products. Was tougher than you might think.
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.
I asked Kate to marry me in Portland and she said yes. Yes, I asked her on March 17th St. Patrick's Day, but I am getting a head of my self here.
Kate and I started Monday by sleeping in. After breakfast and internet at the Kennedy school we looked for places to get Kate's nails done. We drove around Portland for a little bit before meeting Sean for lunch.
The whole time all of these things happened I was trying to figure out when I was going to ask Kate. Kate knew the proposal was coming soon. She knew that I ordered a ring but I did not have it with me in Portland. Knowing that, Kate has accused me of being kind of "squirrelly". She knew something was up.
I figured my only chance was to make her think I was going to do something at Dinner and ask her earlier. After a couple of text messages with a friend I decided I was going to ask her on the Hawthorne bridge in the late afternoon. I wanted to get my hair cut first. I was just hoping that the weather would hold out.
I had an appointment for get my hair cut and Kate had a nail appointment. My best friend for high school and college, His sister Shannon is a hair stylist in Portland. I had seen her over Christmas. She said she would be happy to cut my hair. We tried to hook it up two years ago, but the timing was all wrong.
It was cool to have my hair cut away from home by a person who knew me. It was a good haircut. I do not have a hair stylist in San Jose I like this much. If I lived in Portland I would go to Shannon at Dirty Little Secret all the time.
I told Kate after the Haircut that I wanted to take some photos of her on the Hawthorne bridge. Earlier in the trip I told her how the Hawrhorne bridge in Portland. Not only did it go between two of my favorite parts of town, it is also a beautiful bridge. Since I take a lot of photos it was not hard to convince Kate that I wanted to take her photo on the bridge.
I knew that I wanted to ask Kate with a photographic months back. I got the idea while we were in Philadelphia after Christmas. I wanted so way to ask Kate that I could later post on Flickr. In February I had Peter Conrad make the sign for me and take the photo of me. The photo of me at the top of the post was taken at the place where Kate and I had our first date, Mission City Coffee.
On Saturday I had Don run out and make a print for me. I knew that I was not going to be able to slip away from Kate for long enough to get it done. This lead to the whole thing with me acting "Squirrelly".
I walked Kate on the bridge and started taking some pictures. After a few pictures I said I had a prop for her. I handed her a bag with the photo in it. The print was 8x10. She looked at the photo and was surprised. She did not expect me to ask her there in this way. I am happy I could surprise her. I told her there were two more signs in the bag, 'Yes' and 'No'. I told her she needed to pick one of them out and hold it up. She held up the 'yes' sign.
We were both floating six feet off the ground when we got off the bridge. We went back to the Kennedy school. It was packed when we got back there. St. Patrick's day attracts a lot of people to the Kennedy School. We used their soaking pool for a little while. It seemed perfect. The water was warm and air was cool. We were as close to weightless as we could be. We floated around each other was we talked about the future.
We headed back to the room to take advantage of the Romance package, which was a bottle of champagne on ice and two chocolate truffles. After a little time in the room we decided to get some dinner in the hotel restaurant. The wait for the restaurant was 90 minutes, but when you are staying at a hotel with its own brewery and six bars, waiting 90 minutes for a table is not too hard.
We had a lot of beer, chicken wings, tater tots while we waited. We mooned at each other over steak and beer for dinner. Steak has become a celebration meal for us. It seemed perfect that night. Lets just say we were pretty free with the drinks that night. Everything that night seemed to make us happy.
We stumbled back to our room after a few hours. When got there I wanted to make sure we finished I wanted to make sure we finished off the bottle of champagne. I paid good money for it and I did not want it to go to waste. It was a little warm and flat for sitting out, but that was fine by me. The only glass clean in the room was a pint glass. We ended up sharing that glass, trading it back and forth. I ended up Twittering "we finished a bottle of flat sparkling wine out of a pint glass. what a perfect day."
After that I had this Idea that we should go out side and look at the stars. We we got outside we found out it was raining. The sky was gray and we could not see any stars. So we ended up dancing outside in the rain. It was still pretty cool. It was the end of a perfect day.
I know this is late, but I thought this was still important for me to publish this
Best of 2007
Phenomena - Akron/Family Can You Feel It? - Apples In Stereo Shine In Exile - Beat the Devil Fiery Crash - Andrew Bird Detlef Schrempf - Band Of Horses Cherbourg - Beirut Worst Trip - Dr. Dog Sad Songs - The Frames Jesus Saves, I Spend - St. Vincent Oh No - Lavender Diamond Let's Duet - Dewey Cox Pink Light - Laura Veirs Florida - Modest Mouse Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse - Of Montreal Our Mouths Were Wet - Oh No! Oh My! The Ruby Ring Man - Page France Section 23: Get Up And Go - The Polyphonic Spree Turn On Me - The Shins The Shadow Government - They Might Be Giants All My Mistakes - The Avett Brothers These Truths - Luddite Machine
2007 SXSW
HeavyMetal - Bisc1 Robin Zander - The Breakup Society Space Mission - Brute Force & Daughter of Force Teenage Crimewave - CPC Gangbangs Patience - Damien Dempsey Love In New Wave - Electrico Eight Arms To Hold You - The Gear Shaking Like A Flame - Glossary Summer of the Evening - Goldenboy Elephant In White - Hot IQs According To Plan - I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness Ozark Empire - Listener Our Eyes Fill Up With Water - Tulsa
2007 New to me
This Is Not The End - Laura Gibson People Get Ready - The Frames Don't Let Me Explode - The Hold Steady Dance For Me - Pony Up! Growin' Old - Pigeon John Borneo - The Fiery Furnaces Postcards from Italy - Beirut Trampoline - Page France Let Me Go Let Me Go Let Me Go - Jason Molina Tangled - The Black Heart Procession Lord Stop The Bar - Our Lady of the Highway Second Option - Caitlin Cary And Thad Cockrell Vervain (Volume 9) - MF Doom Take It Off - Tender Forever funeral face - Suburban Kids With Biblical Names Icebound Stream - Laura Veirs Love And War (11/11/46) - Rilo Kiley New Partner - The Frames Song My Friends Taught Me - Laura Veirs
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 have been an eMusic user since 2002. I left after you stopped offering unlimited downloads, but I came back to you in 2005. You have helped me find new music. There are bands which I am not sure I would have ever found without you like, The Decemberist, Drive-by Truckers, Akron/Family, Jason Anderson, Art Brut, The Hold Steady, Antony and the Johnsons, Kimya Dawson, Avert Brothers, and Josh Ritter, just to name a few. I really love your service. It gives me a relationship to music that is really strong.
All that being said, eMusic has not made any major changes to their website since 2005. You have not given me any new features. I know that some people might thing that this works, but it does not. It is not enough for you to just go out and sign more music. The world of online retail is changing all the time and you are all the same.
My biggest problem that there are a lack of ways for me to have an idea of I will like music before I download it. There is is also a lack of ways for me to find music I might not know to look for. An example of this problem is that eMusic does not have a suggestion engine. You know all the albums I download, but you do not know if I like them or not. I want a good suggestion engine where I can refine the suggestions. This way I can find bands that I might like.
I would also like some kind of last.fm or iLike social feature. A feature that lets me see what other users are like me and what music they like. A way to communicate with these users. I want to see what they like and dislike. Hopefully that will help me make choices about music.
Lately I want easy ways to share the music I find on eMusic with the outside world. I would like good blogging tools. I want a way to a way to share my lists with an RSS feed. I want to be able to show people how cool eMusic is by adding content to my website.
I will keep using eMusic even it if does not ad these tools. i worry that they are leaving customers on the table by not updating. There site has changed very little since 2002. that is forever in internet time. I am just worried in the current age of DRM free music they will be left behind.
It's an Internet Party, Don't let it clog your tube
Laughing Squid linked to this video of an internet party. When I say internet party, I mean the party when you personify the most popular sites on the net. It is pretty funny. I really like Ebay and paypal. I also like that the sites are all college age. It says something about who is important on the web.
I have been thinking about how much free media there is out there right now. Between Podcast, Free video websites, blogs, and YouTube you have thousands of hours free programing out there. This is only staying with legal sources also. I spend a lot of money on media every year. Between cable, emusic, going to movies, and all the rest of media I buy that is a lot of coin.
I have been thinking about just not paying for media anymore. I am thinking about going with all free sources. There are sites that give out free mp3s like Daytrotter. I can attach a computer to my big TV. I can watch podcasts, full TV shows on Hulu, clips from TV shows on Comedy Central's Website. There are even some professional podcasts out there.
I am not sure I could do this. I am not sure I could give up my cable television more than anything else. Having a TiVo Series3 makes having digital cable pretty cool. Without digital cable I only get one digital channel with antenna. It sees like a waste.
Maybe 2009, when I am saving up for something special, I will be able to get rid of all my pay media.
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
Take a photography everyday (Failed) Post at least 200 pre-2005 to Flickr (Failed) 200,000 Views of my flickr Photostream (Failed) Post 2000 photo to flickr (Pass) Spend the night at 12 places outside of San Jose (Pass) Use my text messaging more. (Pass) Use up all 500 of my monthly text messages at least once (Pass) Blog at least 150 photos. (Pass) Be open to the changes that come (Pass) Listen to 120 new albums (Pass)
I got 7 out of 10 passing. I am not sure that is a passing grade because the three hardest are the ones I failed at. I think it is important to keep track of these things.
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
San Jose, CA Andalusia, AL Montgomery, AL Seattle, WA Kennewick, WA Louisville, CO Albuquerque, NM Cambria, CA Navato, CA San Diego, CA Coalinga, CA Scottsdale, AZ Selina, CA Warminster, PA
Airports San Jose, CA - SJC Houston, TX - IAH Montgomery, AL - MGM Sea-Tec, WA - SEA Pacso - PCS Portland, OR - PDX Denver, CO - DIA Albuquerque, NM - ABQ Phoenix, AZ - PHX Las Vegas, NV - LAS Philadelphia, PA - PHL
I have been thinking about Baseball, The Mitchell Report, Barry Bonds, and Roger Clemens. All I can say is lets retire the phrase "Greatest of All Time."
I have been one of the fans that really got down on the steroids era. I see everyone that did steroids as cheating. Even if baseball was not testing for steroids, they were against the rules since 1991.
They are cheaters, but they do not own the fault, not even most of the fault. The League, the office of the commissioner, and the union all have more fault that the individual players. They did not protect the players. In fact they went the other direction and enabled and encouraged this behavior.
I also blame the media. I am not sure why reporters did not dig into this earlier. The word was going around the clubhouse. No one was on the record, but a good reporter could have found some of the truth. It is like the news media thought it was better to keep the clubhouse code of silence.
I do not have a footnote for this story, I remember when Lenny Dykstra, came back from his plagued seasons of 1991 and 1992. In a clubhouse interview he made a comment about eating his vitamins as a joke. Everyone who heard that that clip knew that Dykstra was talking about steroids. Since there was no testing at that time no one did anything. Gary Cobb did a whole show on WIP in Philadelphia about steroids. I wonder why no one covering baseball full time picked up on this.
In light of how many players took steroids, it is truly a whole generation of players who took part of this. The report was full of All Star players. It was at the heart of the game. I am starting to soften on the idea that these players do not deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. I have gone from no not any them to kind of no.
What I would ask of the media and of sports fans, lets retire the title of "Greatest of All Time." I am not saying that we cannot call a player great or amazing. Lets just not crown them the Greatest of all time in any category. Not the greatest hitter, the greatest pitcher, and not the greatest player. I do not care how many stats they rack up, how any MVPs or Cy Young awards they win. No longer can a new player or a player in the game right now be the greatest of all time.
I am not sure what Tim Kurchin is going to do on baseball tonight if he can no longer say a player is the greatest of all time. He might not know what do with himself, but he will find another way to say a player is great.
From here on out I think Willie Mays is the greatest player of all time. He was the best player in the best era of baseball. Lets leave it at that.
This is really a game of chicken. Both Sides think the other side needs them more. Both sides think if they do not need to give in. Both of them think they are better off in control.
They are both wrong is the problem. NBC thinks it can make more money with other online providers. They want to make different bundles because they think it will bring more revenue. What NBC is missing what customers love about iTunes. not needing to buy albums, just cherry picking ones they want. If NBC wants to force customers to buy content they don't want to get what they want, they are making a mistake. They run the risk losing customers to other content.
The mistake that iTunes is making is that they are opening the door to other download providers. NBC, Sci-fi, and USA networks have been the cornerstones of the iTunes Video store. If content is king, other providers will play ball with NBC to get this content. Those providers what a chunk of what iTunes has.
The interesting thing about NBC's decision for me is how a year ago it was a big story how iTunes saved the Office. After being saved by iTunes the Office has become a hit. One of the anchors of NBC's Line up. It is funny to me how this would not be important to NBC.
My guess is that NBC has no way to figure out how many people who viewed the Office on iTunes. They think they could get that many people on their own site when they launch it. The problem is that NBC is trying to be in more control when they do not understand the world they are operating. This is a major problem.
One interesting bit was this.
In addition to the pricing issue, NBC Universal wants iTunes to stiffen anti-piracy provisions so computer users would not have easy access to illegal downloads.
What are they talking about. Do they want Apple computers not to work with bittorrent? Do they want iTunes files harder to crack? Do they want more control over the Mac platform. All three of these are bad ideas. I want to know what they want.
I went to see The Invasion over the weekend. It is the fourth film version of Jack Finney book the Body Snatchers. Most people think of this series of movies as the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. When I was a little kid I heard someone describe Invasion of the Body Snatchers as scary because all you needed to do was fall asleep and the bad guys would get you.
I was excited when I first read about this remake. I think that there is only one reason that movies should be remade, because there is something new or different to be said about the subject. At the speed the world changes, there are often other ways to view a movie. There are subjects today like the power of the government, Nanny Culture, or psychiatrists use of drugs. All of these ideas might have been interesting.
I know this is not always the case. Movies are remade for all sorts of reasons. The biggest reason movies are remade is because studios think they are going to be able to make money. This remade only made $5 Million dollars in its opening weekend. That is not a good sign.
I thought the movie was okay, but it was not great. If asked if it is worth someone else's time I would tell them to wait for video or cable. It is not worth the trip to the theater.
The problem with this movie is that it never really tackles the ideas that it flirts with. It is just an action movie. The ideas behind what it means for the Invasion to happen are really secondary. It is about a woman who the only thing she has is her son and she is willing to do anything to lose her sun. She has very few struggles in the movie. She does not have to make moral choices to save her sun. She does not wonder if she is doing the right thing. All she knows is that she has to save her son. I think this is why the movie falls apart.
There is a theme about government power, the head of the CDC is the first person infected. The problem is that the movie spends very little time exploring what that means. It does not really show you how that could be really scary. How they could have lined things up for months before pushing the full scale infection.
There is a theme about how humans would stop being humans without conflict. This idea only comes up once. You can see how the life on the street drains as the movie goes on. The problem is that this idea is not explored through the actions of characters
There is one line in the movie where a character compares the main character being a psychiatrists who prescribes drugs to the invaders transforming people. This is only touched on for one line. This would have been a great major theme.
I really wanted the main character to struggle with the idea that the invaders might be right. I wanted her to struggle with the choice of trying to save her son. I wanted her to be make a clearer choice between what is the best for the world and what is the best for her son. The movie did not make her struggle that way.
The movie quickly broke down to being an action film. All of that running and chasing kept the movie from exploring ideas. The problem is that it is not a particularly inventive action movie. The way the main character gets out of tight situation does not make her seem smart of inventive. It just showed her determination.
My disappointment is because this movie could have been so much better. They take a few moments where ideas area really dealt with. But those moments are few are far between and have little to do with the actions of the characters. There is very little moral struggle in this movie and that is just want it needed. There are a dozen great ideas you could have made this movie about that are really relevant to the world. This movie could have been about Group think, people not questioning the government, Globalization, the power of Corporations, just to name a few. This movie franchise has always been about ideas. I am sorry to see this movie doing such a poor job exploring ideas.
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
This is my second 1000 view photo. This was taken at Comic Con 2006. Yes my two most viewed photos are from comic con. Fifteen of my twenty most viewed photos are from comic con 2006 or comic con 2005. I do not think any of the photos from this year will make it that high. I think some of my photos got big blog attention in those years.
It is easy to see why this photo had received so much attention. This photo is also my most favorite'd and most commented upon. Lots of people have a reason to love it. The funny thing is that is not all that good of a photo. I guess there are other things more important than technical proficiency.
It will be a while before I have my next photo reach the ranks of 10,000 views. The next closest photo has around 3000 views. When it comes to getting this many views, I have no idea what I can do to impact it. I have to hope that other people promote it. Maybe I need to make a set of photos that are not women in costumes that I want people to look at.
I was reading how it looks like a Hollywood labor stoppage will be in the works. It looks like the two sides are going opposite directions. It could draw television shows to a halt of the writers union goes out. From what I have read, the writers union is setting the stage for the rest of the unions. If they go out, the rest will go out. If the writers sign a deal, there is a good chance the rest of the unions will sign a deal.
Both sides see that there is a lot at stake. The unions want to make sure they get paid for any new kinds of distribution of content. The studios want to make sure they get a better deal on residuals. Both sides are looking at the money that the other is currently getting and wants a better slice in the future. Both sides are far apart and it does not look like they are getting any closer. In this case the fall TV season might come to a grinding halt this November.
I would advise both sides that they need to avoid this at any cost. A strike right now would be a bad thing for both sides. It is worse that either side can imagine. The last strike was some 20 years go. To be honest, I do not remember all that much about the strike. I remember the strike killed the show Moonlighting and lots of jokes on Letterman about how they did not have any writers.
There is one huge difference between the last strike and now, the Internet. The amount of media that the average person can get outside of the studio system has gone way up. Right now the studios and television are still on the top of the heap. This could be an inflection point. It could be a point where people who have never thought about getting media from the internet start getting it from the internet.
If I was making a video podcast right now, I would be ramping up. I would be creating good content. I would be looking for ways to get my product in front of more and more people. If there is a strike and there stops being new television show, I would want to be right there.
The real danger is that people might get used to getting there media without the studio system. It might be a chance to go around the current sent of taste makers. This would be bad for the writers because there would be no collective bargaining. The podcasters who would go around the studios would go around the union too. There might even be some way people might get media that no one has thought of yet.
I am not saying that either side should fold for the other signing a new deal. I just think both sides should know what is at stake. I think it would be a mistake for both sides to not think about outside forces that are at play. Both the studios and the unions could come out as losers if they do not think about outside pressures. People out there have already declared that broadcast television will be dead in 10 years. It would not serve either side if television is replaced right now.
Last night Barry Bonds hit his career 756 home run. This makes him the all time career major league home run record. I think the all time professional record is Sadaharu Oh with 868 home runs in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. (In high school I had a history teacher who would use this as a trick extra credit question.)
The record is his. It is record that will stay his no matter what anyone thinks about his alleged use of steroids, the book Game of Shadows, the Balco Scandal, Victor Conte, or Greg Anderson. No one will take the record away from him. It will have to be beaten on the field. Even with evidence of steroid use that is spelled out in Game of Shadows. The record will belong to Barry Bonds and there will be no asterisk.
This has to be laid at the feet of Major League Baseball, The Major League Baseball Players Association (The players union), and sportswriters. Blind eyes were turned all around. There were whispers about steroid use back in the early 90s. I remember whispers about Lenny Dystra using steroids after he came back from the 1991 car accident with Darren Dalton. People on the radio where talking about it, but no one thought it was worth investigating.
Most of that blame has to go to Major League Baseball. They did not want to do anything to upset the cart. Even if everything going on was not above board, it was important for them to keep labor peace. It did not matter what happened to the game. It did not matter what players were doing to there bodies. It does not matter that Ken Caminiti admitted to Sport Illustrated that he used steroids to win his 1996 NL MVP. That did not get baseball to snap into action. There is a chance if Baseball acted sooner that it might not have ever come to a day where the holder of the home run record has a cloud over his head.
With the truth of the world what it is, I will not write that Barry Bonds does not deserve the record. I will not say that he deserves an asterisk. I will not grit my teeth when people call him the Home Run King. You can say that Barry Bonds is the greatest home run hitter of this era, the greatest player of this era, or even the greatest hitter of this era.
There are some things that I do not want to hear from sports writers, sports talk show hosts, or sports fans.
1. "Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter, home run hitter, or player of all time." The current era has made this a meaningless statement. How can I measure the greatness of a man how did not have modern chemistry helping him v. a man how did what he needed to do to compete with other home run hitters? Barry Bonds and Willie Mays are almost apples and oranges at this point.
Every time I hear this I feel that history gets a little cheaper. I did not get to see Willie Mays or Hank Aaron play, but I respect what they meant to the game. I got to see Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt play in the dead ball era of the 80's. I feel discounting these players disrespects the game. Just call Barry Bonds the Best hitter of his era.
2. There is no drug that can help you hit. There is no drug that could help me hit. No drug would have made me good enough at baseball to get in into the minor leagues. Performance enhancing drugs work without question. The history of sport can show us that. The idea that only weight lifters and offensive linemen benefit from steroids is outdated. Just drop that. One of the key elements of hitting is bat speed. Steroids and Human Growth Hormone can both help with that. The line between Barry Bonds being a first ballet Hall of Famer and the best home run hitter is not that large. Performance enhancing drugs.
3. Fans don't care about steroids. I am tired of hearing this. I might not be so hurt by steroid use that I walk away from the game. I love baseball, but right now I feel like a sap. I feel like I have been taken advantage of by a friend I really love. I am willing to give baseball some slack for now, but I am sad about what I am seeing. I know I am not alone. Every baseball fan might not feel this way, but I know enough do.
In the end, who knows where baseball is going. I would love to think that the young heroes of the game like Ryan Howard and Prince Fielder are clean, but I don't know. I do not know if the next person to break the Home Run record will be clean. We will have to see what the game looks like in 10 years.
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
Today I toured Hearst Castle on the central coast. On my current vacation I have been trying to do things that I have been putting off. The top of the list are Hearst Castle and the Getty museum. I picked Hearst Castle because it is closer, would cost me less to visit it, and there is a much better chance I will go to Los Angeles in the future. I have a hard time seeing myself just happening through San Simeon.
I am happy I have came to see it. It is a pretty cool place. It is in the middle of nowhere on the central coast. It is not the kind of place people come by accident. I can see why it was a good get away in William Randolph Hearst's time. I can see why it was popular with famous people.
I have to file Hearst Castle under crazy California homes of Rich People. Currently the other place in that file is the Winchester Mystery House. They both have a lot in comment. Never ending construction, never finished, owners who kept on changing the plans, and ended up being historic sites.
I know that William Randolph Hearst just called it the Ranch, but a castle is a good name for it. You can see how visiting the castles and residents of Europe influences. It reminded me of the Würzburg Residence. Both building were build to impress the guests who came to visit. I wonder if it was a way for Hearst to remind people who came to visit who he is. No matter what kind of Hollywood star you are, you are not as big as William Randolph Hearst.
Walking though the building I just thought to myself, "of course this place is in California. California is a place of people putting really big dreams into action. You would have to dream really big to build a place like this. It is on the top of a hill that is 1000 feet up. The place has amazing views of the country side and of the ocean. It is just an amazing place.
The building is amazing, but it is also a mis-mash. Both on the inside and on the outside it is a strange combination of styles. The building complex exterior is a combination of Spanish, Italian and Ancient Roman. In my head I can hear an architectural snob declare how the different style clash. You get the feeling that Hearst could not make up his mind. He wanted everything.
On the inside there are a ton of different art styles. I cannot even count how many different countries the art came from. It is almost dizzying. I bet that is what Hearst was going for. I bet it looked better when it was a house and not a museum. Now it is too much to take in. All the different styles were too much.
There is something about the Hearst Castle that made me a feel a little sad. I get the same feeling when I go to the Winchester Mystery House. All of these effort went into making this house, but now it is not a house. If feels like it is a little dead. It would be better is someone was living there. Since it is just a display piece now, it has lost a little of what made it special. Worst of all it was only in use for 29 years. It has been a state park for almost 50 now.
Today I went to the section of the Berlin Wall that is in a parking lot in Mountain View California. I have know about this for years not, but this is the first time actually visited. There are sections of the Berlin Wall in a couple of places in America. There is plaque for the display, but it does not say why it is there.
It is in the back of a business park in the edge of Mountain View. When I talk to people about this they all want to know why it is there. I never have a good answer for them. It makes sense that pieces of the wall are in places like the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum, and Westminster College. People have no clue why this is here.
When I saw the piece of the way, I wondered why these are not all over the place. I wondered why every state in America does not have a piece of the Berlin Wall on displace. You would think that Americans would want to show off more. You would think we would have imported 100s of sections of the wall.
This is a cool piece of history to have close to me. I am glad that I went to see it. This vacation is becoming about doing things I have put off for a while.
-The Seattle Central Library is really cool and worth visiting. -Damn the Space Needle can get windy -The mini donuts at the Market are very good -There is not as much graffiti as I expected -I was disappointed that the Seattle Art Museum was closed. -The new Seattle Art Museum Sculpture Garden is amazing. -I am still not paying $20 for the Music Experience Project. -Cutter Bayhouse is really good. -Like very one expected I took a lot of pictures. -I am the worst kind of picture taking tourist, one that uses flickr.
Time for a little Super Bowl post. I think the Super Bowl will be good this year. I am picking the Colts in win the game. I think they have a stronger offense and I see them going up and down the field on the Bears.
Lets break down the other ways people pick Super Bowl Winners:
Animal v. Animal: Winner Colts Most people think that a Bear would beat a Colt in a straight out fight. This is true, but a cult would not get in a straight fight with a Bear. They would run right past the Bear. I think that will happen in this game.
Best Shopping City: Winner Chicago I have never heard of anyone going to Indianapolis to go shopping before
Best Food: Winner Chicago Chicago Style Pizza, Stock Yards, Chicago style hot dog, Rush Street. I Know nothing about Food from Indianapolis.
Best Uniforms: Winner Colts This is a close one. I like the Bears Colors better, but the Colts have a more classic style.
I would rather visit: Chicago I have been to both cities. Chicago is a world class city. Indianapolis is a little boring
Best Commercials: Winner Colts The Peyton Manning Master Card commercials are great. These are currently the best commercial with any NFL player in it. They are better then Brian Urlacher's Nike or Chunky Soup commercials.
Best Sports Karma: Winner Colts Indianapolis has never won a pro championship. Chicago has a championship this Decade. They both have one Super Bowl win, but the Bears are more recent. Both head coaches are African-American and will be the first to win a Super Bowl. Peyton Manning is the best player in the NFL without a Super Bowl win.
There is it the Indianapolis Colts win the Alt Picks 4-3. Tell me if there is anything else I should think about.
I listened to about 65 new albums in 2006. That means two things, I spent a lot of time listening to music that came out last year and I listened to a fraction of all the music that came out last year. When I say these are the best albums, I mean they are my favorite.
Magnolia Electric Co - Fading Trails
This album was short and concise. With 9 songs at 29 minutes this album is slim, but powerful. With every new album Jason Molina shows his increasing skill in song writing. I think this is the best Magnolia Electric Co album to date.
I will admit that I have other reasons to love Fading Trails also. This album came out slight after a breakup. It was the ex-girlfriend who got me into Magnolia Electric company. This was a great breakup album.
Build to Spill - You In Reverse
This album is full of songs that are ear worms. I hear this album and the tunes do not get out of my head for days. The songs really rock. It is a great album to drive very fast to.
Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
With each new album I am more impressed with Belle and Sebastian. They have grown more than any other band in the last 10 years. Compare Tiger Milk to The Life Pursuit and you will find a band that is writing totally different songs. I am amazed at the way they have been able to change and stay good. This album is good because of how it is different and the same as the other albums.
Cat Power - The Greatest
There are those albums where from the first time you hear it, you cannot put it down. It seems to always in your CD player. One of those albums you listen to for weeks and still do not get enough of it. This is one of those albums.
Josh Ritter - The Animal Years
This album surprised me. I had never heard of Josh Ritter before hearing him on the SXSW 2006 Bittorrent. The album is very complex. I know Peter would say that he is just a whiny guy with a guitar. I love the well written songs and the emotions that he sings them with.
But you need faith for the same reasons that it’s so hard to find
Gnarles Barkley - St. Elsewhere
This album is tricky and simple all at the same time. I love it becuase it makes me want to dance. It also surprises me. They take simple pop tunes and get every ounce of goodness out of them.
Islands - Return To The Sea
Everyone loves Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over The Sea. For the past two years I have been wondering where all the albums that are influenced by In the Aeroplane Over The Sea. If everyone loves this album why has it made so little impact on other music? The Islands - Return to the Sea is the album I have been waiting for. Any Neutral Milk Hotel fan should check out this album.
Mecca Normal - The Observer
The Observer is like a great movie or a good book. It is a challenging. It is not an album that you put on and rock out too. It is an album you listen to and think about. I know that people do not want to think, but that is that is their problem. This is an album that people should listen to. I think it is challenging and hard to listen to at time, but sometimes that is a really good thing. This is one of those times.
The song writing on this album just amazes me. It is insightful and interesting. The album is about relationships. It seems real in a way other albums do not. For the way the songs describe relationships it is worth listening to. I really get the idea that I understand the woman as being single about about my age.
Kimya Dawson - Remember That I Love You
I know lots of people who will not like this album. Like all K Records bands, you either dig the lo-fi, high emotion, indie ethic or you do not. This album has the feeling of someone grabbing a guitar and pooring their heart out to a microphone. Of the 12 songs on this album, about half of them make the hair on the back of neck stand up. Each time I hear this album I hear something else. Kimya Dawson is an impressive songwriter.
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
This is one of those albums once I hear it, I need to listen to it three or four times in a row. The songs get stuck in my head. I sing them for days at a time. They haunt me like an opportunity I did not act on or a woman I ruined my chance with.
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies
This is the kind of album that sneaks up behind you, grabs a hold of you while you are not paying attention, and does not let go. I already love the New Pornographers. This album has just enough elements of the New Pornographers for it to be familiar and just few enough for it to be new.
Mates Of State - Bring It Back
This is the best Mates of States album to date. The song writing has caught up to match their unique sound. The songs work really well as an album.
Karl Blau - Beneath Waves
This album was a surprise to me. There is no song that really stands out. The whole album is just relentless and strong. It has a good combination of pop structures and low-fi production.
Special Mention Joanna Newsom - Ys
I have a hard time saying this is one of the best albums of the year. I want to say it is not really an album, at least in the sense of rock and roll. This is a collection of 5 songs. The shortest song is almost 10 minutes long. It is not like old prog rock albums either. There are no long musical sections. It is a collection of songs trying to be short stories. I am not sure I get this album, but I have been listening to it a lot. It is worth taking a listen to see if it is for you.
Battlestar Galactica started season three this week. It lived up to the hype. I was interested on how they would pick up after that year's finally and I was pleased. I am not going to give anything away in case it is still waiting on your TiVo DVR to watch.
I just want to point out the Battlestar Galactica webisodes. If you have not watched them yet, go watch them. There is a nice story line that covers the time between season 2 and season 3. It answers some of the questions you might have when you watch the premiere.
Here is a list of shows that I am excitied about this season:
Battlestar Galatica Lost The Nine Grey's Anatomy Jericho The Wire Doctor Who
Other Shows I watch:
Cold Case CSI Law and Order: Criminal Intent Simpsons Family Guy Metalocalypse Venture Brothers
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.
It is the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It feels like we are still in that moment in time. September 11th was the start of something and we are still in that event. It does not feel like I am really looking back at those events. There is so much going on that is still connected with these attacks. I feel like I cannot really look back, because there are so many things that are not over.
I cannot remember the last week that I have not heard about 9/11. I think it has to get to this state before it becomes the past. It is hard to get to a place where you are not thinking about it all the time but it is not forgotten either. I am worried that is going to take us a long time, longer than is healthy.
I am not sure when these things will feel like the past and not the present. I am not sure if it is the Iraq War, Middle East Conflict, al-qaeda, or the general feeling of conflict between Islam and the West that keeps this feeling going. Maybe the feeling will change once we have a new President.
For now I am looking back, but it does not feel like the past. I will let everyone know when it feels like the past to me.
I went to see Invincible. As soon as I heard about this movie I knew that I had to go see it. A feel good story about the Philadelphia Eagles, I was a mark for this movie from the very start. I have had a trend lately if I am not willing to see a movie the first weekend it is out, I am not willing to see the movie.
If you have not heard of the movie, it is the story of Vince Papale a thirty year old Philadelphia Eagles fan who made the team as part of an open try out in 1976. He ends up becoming one of the NFLs oldest rookie.
I was surprised at how good this movie was. The movie was wonderfully acted and amazing shot. The script was a little weak, but the way the movie was put together more than made up for it. There is a lot to like about this movie.
Working as both the director and the cinematographer Ericson Core created a wonderful set of worlds for this movie to take place in. Every setting in this movie has its own distinct look to it. The scenes in South Philadephia are dark and depressed. While all the scenes at football camp are bright. They shot the street scenes in Philadelphia. They really capture the tight cramped felling of South Philadelphia.
I was amazed then they showed the first actually NFL game Vince Papale played in. The depth of focus was very short. With all of the action in the shots it was every anxious. It was great that it looked so much different than the other scenes.
I was impressed by the acting. Vince's Friends were perfectly cast. They seem like guys really from South Philadelphia. Max's bar seems just right for South Philadelphia. All of the people around Vince seem to be falling apart under the economic problems of the time. Vince's life is not on stable ground also. I like the way the actors expressed this.
I love the acting of Kevin Conway as Frank Papale, Vince's father. It rung as very true to me. The guy who is close and distant from his son all at the same time. I feel like I know that guy. I love the scene when the father comes into the bar with his group of friends.
Since the movie is based on a true story, they do not over state how good Vince Papale is. He is just a special teams player. He did not need to be the Natural. He did not need to win the Super Bowl for the team. He just scored a touchdown to get Dick Vermeil his first win.
I was looking forward to it for months now. I saw an interview about the movie a few months ago. Mark Wahlberg, who plays Vince Papale, said that movie was passion for him. I think Mark Wahlberg is perfect for this movie. His journey to stardom is no less unbelievable than this movie.
Even if you don't like sports movies you might like this movie.
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
Every year I make a best of the year mix. This year I have been focused on listening to music from 2006. I want to hear as much new music as I can stand. We are half way through the year. I realized that I could make a first draft of my best of 2006 mix right now.
I am not saying this is going to be the mix at the end of the year or that these songs will make the cut. I am just saying this is a pretty good place to start. Tell me what you are listening to this year.
2006 so far:
Belle & Sebastian - To Be Myself Completely - The Life Pursuit Built To Spill - The Wait - You In Reverse Drive By Truckers - Gravity's Gone -A Blessing and a Curse Gnarls Barkley - Just A Thought - St. Elsewhere Mac Lethal - Walkin' On Nails - SXSW 2006 Showcasing Artist Calexico - Deep Down - Garden Ruin Gnarls Barkley - Just A Thought - St. Elsewhere The Minus 5 - My Life as a Creep - The Gun Album Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood Cat Power - The Greatest - The Greatest Jenny Lewis - You Are What You Love - Rabbit Fur Coat Cities - Writing on the Wall - Cities Jon Langford - Gold Brick - Gold Brick The Pixies - Debaser (Norfolk, VA - 12/6/2004) -Hey - Live Pixies Love of Diagrams - No Way Out - SXSW 2006 Showcasing Artist Josh Ritter - Girl in the War - The Animal Years
I just found out that Aaron Spelling passed away at 83. He had a pretty good life. I hope he enjoyed his time here. He was known for being controlling and demanding, but that is what you need to do in Hollywood.
I think he had a huge impact on my TV viewing. Lets just look at the list of some of the shows he produced. Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Mod Squad, Starsky and Hutch, T.J. Hooker, Matt Houston, Hart to Hart, and Charmed just to name a few. He made a huge impact on pop culture television. Just think about these shows. They are not great drama, but enjoyable television. I know that lots of people say that Aaron Spelling made the kind of TV shows that made television a wasteland. Whatever you think of him, you can not deny his impact.
-Antown is going to use a sock puppet to run for Senate in North Dakota -Ealasiad is organizing her books via the Library of Congress system -We love when they dropped the steam powered atomic bomb in the movie Gettysburg -Elkit wants me to make topics up. -The guy from London said "I'm Speechless" -Antown "54'40" or fight" -Elkit: We are going to take over the internet. Next week it will all be in German." -"I have a box full of Antown.com Merchandise" -We want an Alf cake at the Ealasiad & Antown House warming -Elkit thinks I should hire Tori Spelling to check my Spelling -Ealasiad said that no one has a good national anthem -Ealasiad said that she likes her job at TiVo -Static in my attic -Silvia gets a lot of searches for "Broken beetle Back Light" -We are waiting for the McDLPowerBook from Apple -Screw making sense -Why did Larry Walker never get traded to the Texas Rangers -Everything I need to know I learned from South Park or the Simpsons -Real Estate is really cheap on Neptune -I got outsourcing backwards and sent all my extra space someplace more expensive. -What does STFU stand for? -You know what will get that page to load? Hate the internet harder. -We want to see Ealasiad use the Courtney Number to sort her books. -I am trying to avoid the Wikipedia demons -What songs have Paul Anka sing about Wikipedia? -David uses our tax dollars to watch the San Jose City Council -I hear the answer to the Da Vinci Code is the sled -Jack Black would play Antown in the movie of his life -Marianne Faithful would play Elkit in the movie of her life -Selma Blair would play Elkit in the remake of that movie -Reese Witherspoon would play Ealasiad in the movie of her life -Tobey Maguire would play David in the movie of his life -Silvia left before she could answer this question. -Frank Black would play me in the movie of my life -Tom Hanks would narrate the documentary of our lives -George Clooney would smugly direct the movie of the South Bay Blogger -Antown said something really funny while I was spell checking -Antown says I should change Sad Salvation to Sad Wiki Salvation
Here are my nonsense notes from the Silicon Valley/South Bay Blogger meetup. If you were at the blog meetup you would get more info about what these notes are about. I am going to write longer entries about some of these topics. If you leave a specific comment about one of these lines, I will write more about it.
-Sometimes Mike reminds me of the unabomber -Everyone was talking about taxes -David used Yelp.com to find his CPA -The internet is broken, here at least -What makes Blog Entries Popular -I want my blog to pay for a new camera. -Mike is wondering if it is "Mob log" or is it "Mo Blog"? -Are Amazon reviews in danger? -Google as resume/Googleism as resume -find yourself on Slutometer -I Know David Kadavy stickers -I will blog for blog redesign -in high school Mike got detention for playing with Fire -Fake Photos with famous people -David wants to learn how to camp -the Furniture problem in a nomad culture
I am a little bitter about Wonder Con after losing my memory card. It has not turned up yet. My guess is that it is gone for good. I will have to just get over it.
I had a good time a Wonder Con. It is a big comic book show, but it is tiny compared to Comic Con in San Diego. Wonder Con is much more like a comic book convention. Comic Con is much more like a geek culture convention with comics being the belle of the ball. The floor at Wonder Con was walkable. I was not there to spend money, that made the floor less fun.
I was there to take pictures of people in costumes. I was a little disappointed at the number of people here in costume. I would never go in costume, but I am happy to take photos of them. I feel that is giving them the attenion they crave. This is why I am pissed about lossing my memory card. My Favorite costumes were Slacker Green Latern, Sherlock Homes Stromtrooper, Buddy Christ, and Alien. I hope the Alien guy won a prize. I was not sure what to make of this guy.
The programming at the convention was kind of light this year. Last year they seemed to have more panels. This year it seemed to be almost all Spotlights on Saturday. Every year there seems to be more and more movie promtion at comic book convetions. I wonder if it is a cheap way to market a movie. I know I am going to see Mission Impossible 3 after seeing J.J. Abrams speak. I can only spend about two hours watching people speak at a convetion.
referendum on comics
When I go to a comic book convention I feel like it is a referendum on what I want comics to be. I should only pick up comics that I would be willing to buy. I should only buy comics that are good. I want to encourge the good parts of comics. This sounds simple, but it is not.
There is so much crap out there. Most of it is unreadable. At these shows you get to see a lot of different things. Some times I want to tell some people to just stop. I want to tell them that their comics are not any good. I want them to learn something about storytelling. I hate when I pick up an ugly black and white comic because the person does not know how to shade.
I love stuff like Ask Miss Anthropy or The Stereos. These are the kind of books that I want to read. These books prove to me that there is something worth reading out there. It gives me hope that I should pick up books and give them a chance.
My least favorite thing are comics like Bumper. Whenever I see Bumper I feel that the person just created it to sell dolls. I do not want icons for icons sake. I want real content. I do not want to get something that is just meant for a hipster to lust after. I want something that speaks to me.
This year's Wonder Con was good enough that I am planing on going again in 2007. Hopefully I will not lose my memory card next year. Just remember, nerd is the new black.
I was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic schools almost exclusively from grade school through college. One time when I was young, I was in church with my mother and sister and a wooden cross display sitting on a window sill above me suddenly fell off and hit me on the shoulder. My mom joked that this was a sign that I would become a priest. At least I think it was a joke.
I know my mom is disappointed that I am not a Catholic today. She may feel a bit like she failed in her duty as a Catholic mother to raise a good Catholic child. She’s baffled by my agnosticism. It makes no sense to her. I don’t believe in God. That’s not to say that I believe that there’s no God. I just don’t see how any human could know one way or the other
In Catholic school, I was taught that this is why God sent Jesus, so that we might know and understand God better. Jesus said as much: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.” (John 14:9-11) Jesus clearly believed in God.
Over the past 5 years, we’ve been living under the leadership of an Evangelical Christian president. George W. Bush’s religious beliefs, and his demonstrated favor for those who share his beliefs, have helped bring the Evangelical Christian world view into the mainstream of American life. The election of an Evangelical Christian president is the result of a revelation within the Evangelical community: that one’s beliefs can and should affect each decision one makes. Particularly, one’s beliefs should influence one’s decisions about politics, parenting, education, marriage, opportunity, and beginning and end of life issues. That is to say, most of the pressing issues of American culture.
What good are your beliefs, your values, if you don’t put them into action?
As the fervor of faith swelled in American culture, a serious clash of values arose between my mother and me (civil liberties, the war, abortion, etc.) This totally shocked me. It baffled me that we didn’t share the same values. After all, it was she who took me to the church and sent me to the schools from which my values derive. She had raised me with Catholic values—her values—certified by actual Catholic educators (Jesuits, you understand—the real deal), and yet she seemed disappointed with the results, like I got it wrong. Did I learn the wrong lessons?
My Catholic education did not succeed in convincing me that God was real, or that Jesus was God. That makes me a heretic, I suppose. My grandmother would be horrified to hear me say something like that—which produces guilt. Welcome to Catholicism, where questioning authority is simply not tolerated! But Catholicism did teach me about ethics. Even if Jesus wasn’t God, he was one stand-up ethical guy. This is the notion of Jesus as a revolutionary, the social justice Jesus. I started to think about what Christianity looks like if you peel away the theology.
The problem with Catholicism is that it’s theology is largely invented by humans who lived centuries after Christianity’s founder died. It’s just ideas and rules made up mostly by men—regular humans who don’t know any more than any of us do about the nature of God. They even invented a concept to cover their theological asses—Papal Infallibility. Can’t argue with that! Most Catholics accept the Church’s rules and ideas about God simply because those ideas are ancient. They’ve been codified for so long, they create their own reverence. Catholics will not tolerate deviations from the Catechism. The Jesuits tortured and killed people en masse for such deviations. (So much for ethics.)
The Protestant reformation happened in part because the Catholic Church maintained a stranglehold on ideas about God—to the point of torture and murder. In a sense, Evangelical Christianity is a revolutionary movement, born out of the Protestant Reformation. One of the key ideas of this revolutionary movement was that you didn’t need a priest to mediate between you and God—to explain God’s message to you.
Evangelicals believe that a person can read the word of God, aka the Bible, and decide for him- or herself what God’s message is. Where the Evangelicals run off course is they take everything they read literally. This literalism absolves the reader from having to develop the critical and interpretive thinking that was once the sole provenance of the priest. If you state that the Bible must be taken literally, then there is no interpretation, no room for God to speak to ”me”. The fundamentalism itself becomes the mediator between me and God. This seems like replacing one priest with another.
It seems to me that true Christian fundamentalism would seek to strip away ALL mediation between human and God, especially with regard to the word of God. Since we know that the Bible was written centuries ago by other humans, each of whom had his own agenda and purpose for writing what he did, seeking the true “word of God” would naturally focus on what Jesus actually said. That would seem to me to be more fundamental to Christian faith than say, the letters of Paul. After all, who is Paul to interpret the meaning and significance of Jesus’ words and work? Just another priest.
Many early Christian writings were simply collections of sayings of Jesus (see the Gospel of Thomas). We know from non-Biblical historical references that Jesus was a real human, and he said things that people took to be important, and eventually many of the things he said were written down. I suppose the accuracy of these sayings is a matter of, um, faith. But I think you can set aside the question of whether the historical Jesus actually said all of these things and focus on the wisdom that these ancient texts display. If you want to get to the heart of Christianity, the truly fundamental essence of following Christ, I think you have to look at the actual words attributed to Jesus and disregard the theological designs created by humans who followed centuries later.
Jesus spoke mainly on two topics: social justice and ethics, and the nature of the divine. Now since I understand Jesus to be human, I generally take his statements about divinity as mysterious poetry, intended to reveal parts of a world beyond human understanding. This is why many of the sayings of Jesus are so inscrutable, and seem to align themselves with ideas found in other world religions. These theological sayings point toward some universal experience that is beyond human. We tend to refer to this experience as God.
But while this divinity talk is interesting, cosmic, and to some even life-affirming and emotionally satisfying, to me it seems ultimately of little use in our daily lives. Maybe something magical happens after we die, maybe something magical can happen while we’re still alive (mushrooms? voodoo? yoga?), but I am more interested in social justice and ethical issues that affect the way people live right now.
Evangelical Christians talk a lot about moral values, explaining that these values are derived from Jesus, who has personally saved each and every one of them. “What would Jesus do?” is the bumper-sticker distillation of this concept. Now that the Evangelicals have a strong voice in American culture, they relish in their opportunity to introduce Jesus’ values into the American mainstream. So why are we not seeing the results of their efforts in the form of a more just and ethical society? Is it because the atheists, homosexuals, and feminists are working so hard against the faithful?
Based on the text of the Gospels alone, the ethical and social justice values of Jesus (as opposed to the theological values), are radically inclusive. They work for faithful Christians as well as they do for non-believers. Love your neighbor, turn the other cheek, help the poor, forgive those who trespass against you. Most people will say that trying to adhere to principles like these is absurd and unrealistic. These values seem simplistic, and Jesus delivers the message with such grace and confidence, they almost seem easy.
The trouble is, these values are INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT TO LIVE BY, especially in the abundance of modern America. That is the true challenge of Christianity. Jesus himself said that if you follow his teachings, you will be persecuted, you will be poor, you will be tempted endlessly, and you will suffer at the hands of those in power. The reward is supposed to be the satisfaction of living ethically, even if it means you’ll be lynched like a Jew trying to help black Southerners vote.
Jesus never said that following him would be easy. In fact, it’s so difficult that in my observation, almost nobody does it. If every Christian in America took the words of Jesus seriously (as opposed to literally) and acted accordingly, this country would be transformed. That America might actually have a chance of becoming the beacon of freedom, the light in the darkness, that George W. Bush says it is. All it would require from Christians is sincerity.
For example, take the economy. American capitalism encourages and rewards greed. Greed is the engine that drives our nation. Anyone who participates in this greed engine cannot call himself or herself a Christian, can they? Greed is not a Christian value. Yet America depends upon it. Accumulation of wealth and social status is the prime incentive for people to create products and services for the American marketplace. But wealth accumulation is not a valid incentive for a Christian, is it? A Christian would be motivated by, say, working to ensure medical coverage for all American children. Jesus viewed wealth with distrust at best. He regarded greed as a sin. How can a Christian work to support an engine of greed that infects every aspect of American life with money?
Over the last five years or so, I have often loudly lamented the “invasion” of the public forum by self-righteous Evangelical Christians. For a while, it seemed to me that the Christians had taken over, or even that they had always been in control. Having re-examined my own Catholic roots by focusing on Jesus’ advice for an ethical life, I now understand that the Christians have not taken over America. In fact, I don’t think there are any Christians in America at all.
Tonight we had the South Bay Blogger Best of 2005 CD swap tonight. Buzz, Courtney, Elkit, Fling93, and Andrew are all here. We talked more about Chuck Norris than music. It was still a good night.
Here are my best of 2005 mixes. I would like to know what people think.
You never know what can happen - Best of 2005
1. Since U Been Gone – Ted Leo & The Pharmacists 2. I Predict A Riot – Kaiser Chiefs 3. Requiem for O.M.M.2 – Of Montreal 4. The Infanta – The Decemberist 5. The Dark Don’t Hide It – Magnolia Electric Co 6. Trucker’s Atlas – Sun Kil Moon 7. Dance Music – The Mountain Goats 8. Evil and A Heathen – Franz Ferdinand 9. Deliverance – Calvin Johnson 10. Hardcore Days & Softcore Nights - Aqueduct 11. A Phoenix and Doves – Diane Cluck 12. Marching Bands of Manhattan – Death Cab For Cutie 13. Merchants of Soul - Spoon 14. 6 String Belief – Son Volt 15. Cream and Basterd Rise – Harvey Danger 16. Sing Me Spanish Techno – The New Pornographers 17. Noah’s Ark - CocoRosie 18. Smells Like Content – The Books 19. Don’t Let Me Explode – The Hold Steady 20. On Automatic – Michael Penn 21. Pencil Rot – Stephen Makmus 22. Madeline and Nine – Mike Doughty
The Second Best of 2005
1. (What is) Pop Music – No Luck Club 2. High Fidelity – Bob Mould 3. Let It Blow – Richard Thompson 4. Moon River – Petra Haden & Bill Frisell 5. Blue Orchid – The White Stripes 6. The Late Greats (Live) - Wilco 7. Sunday Bloody Sunday – Richard Cheese 8. Heard Somebody Say – Devendra Banhart 9. Little Bird – Little Wings 10. Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll – The Killers 11. Holland, 1945 – Christian Kiefer 12. Very – Moby 13. I Can See for Miles – Petra Haden 14. Come On! Feel The Illinoise! – Sufjan Stephens 15. Radio Campaign – M. Ward 16. TV Riot – The Adored 17. Landed – Ben Folds 18. The World If Full of Crashing Bores – Morrissey 19. Modern Music – Black Mountain
What is this World - New To Me 2005
1. 27 Jennifers – Mike Doughty 2. Jesus Chrst Was An Only Child – Modest Mouse 3. Young Pilgrams – The Shins 4. 3rd Planet – Modest Mouse 5. Source Decay – The Mountain Goats 6. Short Cut – Built To Spill 7. Sister I’m A Poet – Colin Meloy 8. 1952 Vincent Black Lightning – Mary Lou Lord 9. Gene Autry - Beylah 10. Courtyard – The Olivia Tremor Control 11. Almost Was Good Enough - Songs Ohia 12. Wreck On The Highway – Roy Acuff 13. Tangled Up In Blue – Robyn Hitchcock 14. Human Behavior - Decemberist 15. Hand of Kindness – Richard Thompson 16. Oh! September – Mirah/Ginger Takahashi 17. Division St. Girl – Jason Molina 18. Rules Broken – All Time Quarterback 19. Fire truck – Mike Doughty 20. Tidal Wave – Apples In Stereo 21. Inside – Patty Rothberg
That is right, this is my best of 2004 listing. I noticed that I never put my best of 2004 mixes up on the web last year. I just wanted to do this while I worked on my best of 2005 mix. I hope you enjoy these year old best of mix. Thanks
Chemical No 4 (and other Ingredients of life) Best of 2004
1. Somebody Told Me – The Killers 2. The Good Times Are Killing Me – Modest Mouse 3. The Rat – The Walkmen 4. C’mere – Interpol 5. Company In My Back – Wilco 6. Miracle Drug – A.C. Newman 7. Wonderful – Beta Band 8. Autumn’s Child – Devendra Banhart 9. German Test Drive - Spymob 10. Blinded By The Lights – The Streets 11. Barfly Blues – The Hold Steady 12. Cassiopia – Joanna Newsome 13. Yr Million Sweetnesses – Diane Cluck 14. Dear Landlord – Mirah with the Black Cat Orchestra 15. Terrible Angels - CocoRosie 16. Against All Odds – The Postal Service 17. Mad World – Gary Jules 18. Where Is The Line - Bjork 19. High Speed Train – R.E.M. 20. Another Day - AIR 21. Range Life (L.A.’s Desert Origins) – Pavement
I did not expect to hear that - New To Me 2004
1. Ink & Needles – Diane Cluck 2. So Much Water – M. Ward 3. Let A Good Thing Go – Gemma Hayes 4. Mass Romantic – The New Pornographers 5. Please – Apples In Stereo 6. Venus Stop The Train - Wilco 7. 405 – Death Cab For Cutie 8. Central Reservation – Beth Orton 9. Denver – The Beauty Shop 10. Already Dead – Beck 11. Symbolistic White Walls – Matthew Good Band 12. Slob - Weezer 13. I Wouldn’t Go Out With Me Either - Viewfinder 14. Love Athena – Olivia Tremor Control 15. Just Like Henry – Dressy Bessy 16. Brainwashed – George Harrison 17. Happiness – Whistler 18. The Aristocratic Swells – Beulah 19. Battlefield Nurse – Diane Cluck
“What? You're looking for a barging at 7-11. Are you stupid? Stop joking and pay up."
Coast v. Coast
When I was talking to aunt about living in San Jose she asked me how I liked it. I told her that I love my job, the weather is never too cold or too hot, and that I have a good circle of friends. Then she asked me if I liked it more then here, the Philadelphia area. Of course she asked me this question while other people were around. I answered her by telling her that both areas have good and bad points.
My answer was a bit of a dodge, but it is true. There are things big and small that like about California. It is everything from Dreamgirl and my job to how many good coffee shops there are and my real life Flickr community. It has taken me awhile, but I have really built a life in San Jose. Even if I do not like it as much as Philadelphia, it is not something I can just walk away.
There are a lot of things that I miss about the Philadelphia area. It would be nice to love close enough to my family that I do not have to take vacation to get home for Thanksgiving. I am jealous of my sisters being able to see each other so often. I might not want to shovel snow, but I miss that the snow.
The suburbs have chanced a lot in just the last seven years since I left. There is still something here that I remember. It means something to be here and live here. It is hard to describe, but I see it whenever I come back. It has something to do with the way people interact. It is not the same in San Jose. I miss that undesirable thing.
Whenever I go to any city I wonder if I could live there. It is just the way I look at the world when I travel. I feel that I could live here again. There are a lot of things here that still appeal to me. I feel that I could put a good life together for myself. I am just not in a rush to leave San Jose.
Do I like San Jose more than I like Philadelphia? When it comes purely to the conflict of place, I think that Philadelphia has an edge. There are lots of things here I miss. The difference is that I like the life I have in San Jose. That will keep in San Jose for a good while yet.
Time once again to play "Greatest Sad Salvation Post of All-Time." I get more comments about e-mails about one post then any other post. It is the only post more then a month on that I regularly get comments about. From time to time I feel that I have to repost the comments.
This all started with this entry with the picture below and this entry about the picture have received the most comments.
Date/Time: July 10 2002, 05:46 pm
Poster: Bonni
I feel that I am violating her just by looking at her picture. Just her eyes are so expressive.
1. This muslim woman( who fully covers herself) puts her picture up for everyone's eyes to see. It is attracting men to her eyes. As a Muslim she cannot do this....
2. Because of her picture Rich she's got you thinking about her, making you think about whats underneth..etc. This is almost as worse as her taking her hijab and niqaab off. But I cannot judge this woman. Maybe she posted her pic wth different intentions.
When a woman covers herself she is respected, and the eyes of men are lowered out of respect.
Thank you for you comment on my web page. I think you added something to the ideas there. I would like to ask you a question.
You Wrote:
2. Because of her picture Rich she's got you thinking about her, making you think about whats underneth..etc. This is almost as worse as her taking her hijab and niqaab off. But I cannot judge this woman. Maybe she posted her pic wth different intentions.
It did not get to think of her in a sexual way. I was think thinking about her body. I was thinking about how she views the world and what kind of person she is. Is that also wrong? I have heard that one of the reason Muslim women cover themselves is so they can be thought of as a person and not as a sexual object. Am I misunderstanding this?
I wanted to send this as an e-mail, but it got bounced back to me.
Like you I have a web site, but mine is on the reason why We [Muslim women] dress the way we do. I have pics of fully veiled women, ONLY for the sole purpose to show people the different styles of dress, and what is in acordance with the ISlamic Law [Sahri'ah]. But just to have a pic of a veiled woman on a site for no reason doesn't sit right with me. But this is my own opnion.
I want to start by thanking you for stopping and thinking about the fact that you were USING her. I know most people don't think of the image of a person as USING them, but in a way, that is what is going on.
I have two point of view, which counter each other, in some ways.
1- any image, male or female, covered or uncovered is NOT public property. It is that persons. We steal something from them when we use them without permission, for it is their "copyright" of their face/body.
2- Images of individual styles of dress help explain and educate others. As the saying goes, Picture is worth a thousand words.
So how do we use, but not abuse? That is the real question. So, I give you permission to use my images of my veiled face (with eyes exposed) or covered from my webpage, ok Rich?
It did not get to think of her in a sexual way. I was think thinking about her body. I was thinking about how she views the world and what kind of person she is. Is that also wrong? I have heard that one of the reason Muslim women cover themselves is so they can be thought of as a person and not as a sexual object. Am I misunderstanding this?
Amongst the soul reasons a woman wears the covering, is to be respected and honoured of her right as a person who has the potential of any other woman. But that beautiful gem is hidden to the eyes of the world and with that comes great respect. I have to agree with your comment there abt that yes. But I also strongly agree with my fellow Muslim sisters above. By protraying that Muslim woman's pciture, you ARE using her as an ad (maybe not intentially) to your website...(for that is how I got here in the first place). I'm curoius to see your viewpoint on that.
When I feel that one of my sisters in Islam, no matter what nationality she is, or even if she has done any wrong to me, is being treated with direspect, I am obligated to stand up for her when she cannot. The rest of what I have to say has been said by my sisters above.
That really is an amazing photo!!! I think I know where she's coming from, as a Muslim woman(I dont wear niqab, only hijab, but I am thinking of wearing it) The women I know who wear it have an increased sense of self-value than other women I've known. very strong, and self-respecting women, and in a way it's a bit of a 'feminist' thing if you will, that they don't want to be looked at as sex objects or get advances from men. There's a sense of liberation from all of that. Looking at the photo, you can tell she's a stunning woman, even if she wears only the hijab, she will get so much attention from others;)
I have been thinking about place a lot lately. On Saturday one of my sisters asked if I was ever planning to move back to the area. The first thing out of my Mother's mouth was "he does not want to live here." Up to this point of the day I had been talking to my mother about my life and my friends in San Jose. This must have been the impression she got from me. The conversation changed to another topic quickly, but that comment stuck in my head.
Last night a friend asked me if I would move back. I know she wants me to move back. She said that when she got back to Philly, she missed some of her old friends. She keeps on telling me that she would love to see me move back to Philadelphia. I told here there are three things she could do to get me to move back to Philadelphia.
1. Find me a job that I cannot refuse. 2. Set me up a woman for me to fall in love with. 3. Give me the winning lottery numbers.
There is a very high standard for number one. I really like my company. I worry that I would not be able to find a job I like in Philadelphia. I know that I never had a job as good as my job now when I lived back here. That was more then six years ago.
I think that number 3 might be easier then number 2. My friend did not say that she would be up to any of the three. I am not holding my breath.
I know I have lots of friends who have plans to escape Silicon Valley. They talk that they want to live someplace else. There are things about Silicon Valley, like the housing market, that drive my friends crazy. I have said for a long time that once my friends start leaving San Jose I might have to think about my plans.
Right now I do not know what I feel about here v. there. There is something I just love about Philadelphia. My family is here, I still have friends here, and the area is special to me. The problem is that the area might be special because I do not live here all the time.
On the other hand I like the life I have build for myself in San Jose. I work for a company I love. I have a nice circle of friends. I have met lots of new people out there. It might not be perfect, but it is something I build. That means something to me.
I am not sure how these ideas change with my father being sick. I do not know how things change going forward with his recovery. I am not sure if the draw of my family will grow because of that. I guess I will find out as time passes.
In JFK airport, terminal 6 there is not gate 13. There is a gate 12, 12A, and 14.
Food
I always eat a lot while I am home. This trip I ate two cheese steaks, one chicken cheese steak, one hoagie, Peanut Kandycakes, and a little water ice. I washed that down with a little yuengling lager. Going home is always about food. There are so many foods that I cannot get in San Jose. That is what I really miss about home.
Back
I am somewhere over America, in an airplane, flying back to the city that is now my home. I am tried, uncomfortable, sore, barn sour, and bored. I am flipping through the channels on the DirecTV feed they have on JetBlue. I feel good because I gave my Mom a great surprise. I feel bad because there will be a lot of work on my desk when I get back. I feel revealed because I know how I am going to handle things when I get back.
What I really know is that I am going to land in Oakland at 1:30 AM tomorrow, get out of the airport around 2:00 AM, get to my apartment around 3:00 AM. All of those things add up to me wanting to do nothing but sleep tomorrow. I will figure out the rest of my life from there.
I flew Jet Blue back to the East Coast. They do not fly into Philadelphia, so I needed my sisters to pick me up at JFK. The fare was really cheap for being so last minute. It made it worth all the extra time.
This is the first time I have taken Jet Blue. One of their big marketing points is that it had DIRECTV on all its flights. The planes are Airbus A320’s. They have LCD screens in the back of the seats. There are about 20-some channels to choose from. I flew out here on the red-eye so there was not too much to watch. The choice of channels were pretty interesting, ESPN, Food Network, WNBC from New York, Headline News, and Discovery. I was surprised there was no TNN, HBO, TNT, USA, or FX. I wonder how they picked the channels.
One of the channels you can watch your plan on a map of the US. You can see how far across the country you are. This is one of the best things ever. You have some idea how much longer you will be in the air. I like the fact that I can say that I was thinking about Jeremy as I was over Chicago.
JFK
I landed at JFK airport in New York. This is one of the airports that you could not build now. It was built in the middle of wetlands. You could see all the water around it as we landed. There is something funny about the smell about JFK. I guess that is what you get when you mix swampland, body odor and jet fuel. This is what many people are greated by when they come to America.
I keep on thinking about its old name, Idyllwild. There is something special about names that are no longer used. It is like you are invoking something by using that name. The name was changed in the Sixties. I was told for a long time no one used the new name. People started to call it JFK when the FAA changed the Airport code to JFK. I wonder if the airport would be any different if they kept the old name.
When I got on the street outside of JFK, I knew I was no longer no longer on the East Coast. The air was thick and humid. It felt like I was swimming in the air. It was only 5:45 in the morning and it already felt like this. That is the East Coast that I remember.
Surprise
The whole idea was to surprise as many people as I could. Most of my sibling did not know I was coming. They were surprised to see me, but a little annoyed that they were not let in on it. They said they would have changed their plans if they knew. I know it might have been good to tell people, but I liked the idea of the surprise.
My mother was very surprised. My sister said she wanted to stand behind my mom so she did not fall over. I thought my sister was being over dramatic. That was until my mom walked in the door. My sister had to catch her. Mom loved the surprised. She was so happy to see me. It really made her day. She admitted that she was a little sad that I was not going to be there for her birthday.
Firsts
Today was the first time I have gotten to meet my niece Emily and my niece Rosemary. Emily is four years old and this is the first time I have gotten to meet her. It makes me think of how little I get to see my family. I have not seen my brother’s children in five years. That is what happens when you are halfway around the world from each other.
I am traveling back to Philadelphia. My goal is to surprise my Mother for her birthday. I talked to her on the phone last Wednesday. She sounded sad that I was not going to be there for her birthday. Everyone else is going to be there, even my brother who lives in Germany. I know that my mom really wanted to see all of her children and grandchildren together.
Now I am going to catch a flight that will arrive in New York at 5:30 in the morning. I will hang with the family for a few days. I will spend all the time with them. I will be back to San Jose before the weekend. Thank goodness for low dollar fares and red-eye flights. I just hope that nothing will screw this up.
Airport
Airport is a very American word. Airport has that ring of a word that was on a list and the marketing department chose the best one. It just seems like the kind of word an American would come up with. It is the kind of word that people in other languages just adopt.
I wonder what other worlds competed with Airport when that world started. It is the same idea as jeans and dungarees. What other terms did people come up with? The British called it an aerodrome until after World War II. I wonder if there is any way to figure this out. I wonder if there are any words better then airport out there.
High Speed
It cost $7 to access the wireless broadband at the Oakland Airport. It is really not worth it. I am only going to be here for the next 45 minutes. It looks like I will have to wait a while before I publish this.
Flight Mix
Wilco - Dash 7 Netural Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea Pavement - Hit the Plane Down Microphone - I'll Be In The Air Dead Milkmen - Air Crash Museum R.E.M - You're In The Air Richard Thompson - Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair Talvin Singh - Flight IC408 Jets To Brazil - Air Traffic Control Ben Folds Five - Air This Flight Tonight - Joni Mitchell Meryn Cadell - Flight Attendant
I have already taken my baseball roadtrip for this year. Back in May I saw games in San Diego and Phoenix. I got to see the Phillies in both cities. At least the Phillies won one of those games. It was one of the highlights of my trip.
Many people know that baseball is my favorite sport. I love taking these little trips every year. There is almost a pilgrimage factor to baseball. I cannot think of any other sport were people talk about how many stadiums they have been to. They do not talk about the stadiums they want to see. I think there is something about baseball parks.
I have to think about what parks I want to see next year. By then the new park in Philadelphia will be done. That would be a trip worth taking. I wonder if I will get a chance to get back home next season.
Veterans Stadium (Philadelphia) Comiskey Park II (Chicago) Skydome (Toronto) Tiger Stadium (Detroit) Fenway Park (Boston) Camden Yards (Baltimore) Kingdome (Seattle) Oakland Coliseum Pacific Bell Park (San Francisco) Edison International (Anaheim) Quacom Stadium (Old Jack Murphy San Diego) Bank One Ballpark (Arizona)
Baseball Teams Seen
Phillies Pirates Cubs Braves Mets Cardinals Expos Giants Dodgers Padres Reds Astros Brewers Rockies Diamond Backs White Sox Tigers Blue Jays Yankees Red Sox A's Mariners Rangers Indians Angels Twins
