Musings in Search of a Muse

Some of my best writing occurs in the car, in the shower, or some other place that is simply not convenient to jot down my thoughts. I've tried voice recorders and other tools, but they don't seem to be around when inspiration alights. Such was the case tonight. I've been home from work for almost an hour now and it just occurred to me to note something:

That's just one of the thoughts I recall and, yeah, it probably needs work because I sense that it was better in the car. If I wasn't already in my jammies I'd drag the laptop out there and drive around for a bit.

• Halle Berry is hot! Cripes, that hair is fabulous! It finally made me take my eyes off her face. And who was that fox sitting next to her in the audience?
  
• The set was also fabulous. The money they spent to get the imagery on the stage floor had to be outrageous.
• Yay! The Incredibles won Best Animated Film!
• The IMDB updated it's main page with the results seemingly within mere nanoseconds of each award's announcement. Many kudos, mates! It took under 15 seconds by one timing I made. Even the supporting pages, like those for the actors, updated in almost no time.
  
• I kinda liked having the awards for some of the categories (such as Makeup) given out in the audience. It personalized the awards somewhat. I just hope no one felt shorted by not being able to walk on stage. Others like the Art Direction award had all the nominees lined up on stage prior to the announcement. That was rather nice, too. Hopefully these tactics will save some time.
• Scarlett Johansson was also hot, but not very comfortable in her set piece introducing a segment. And she looked even better in the outfit she wore in the videotaped pieces.
• Was that a seat holder I saw next to Leonardo DiCaprio around 9:20 pm (EST)? I could swear there was a much younger and blonder woman next to him earlier in the evening. A red-headed woman was in Scorsese's seat when he presented an award. You'd think they'd try to pick someone that doesn't make it obvious they are a seat holder.
  
• Wow! I might have to go see Sideways just to look at Virginia Madsen. She's always been hot (and I should really get past these thermodynamic references). I'm the same age and I don't look that good. Well, she probably takes care of herself, too. And, it's Hollywood ...
• Nice tribute to Johnny Carson. He truly was the best host ever because he not only brought laughs, but created an air of hospitality that made us welcome in his "house" and made the stars our friends over for a visit.
• Where'd they get those amazonian women who escorted the winners and presenters off stage? Jimminies! They all had to be over 6 feet tall! And hot (okay, I had to sneak that in). Later in the show I saw them stand next to Samuel L. Jackson, who is 6' 3" and the brunette was a bit taller than him. Of course, he probably wasn't wearing heels.
  
• I was on the phone when Sidney Lumet was given his honorary Oscar so I didn't get to see who the overly buxom woman in the balcony was. Must have been someone 'cause they kept showing her. Thank goodness.
• It's a little tough to watch the show, txt with my supervisor about the show, write this blog post about the show, and help a friend deal with issues not at all related to the show at the same time.
• Director Peter Jackson really influenced the styles at this year's awards. More people are casual and frumpy.
• C'mon! Is Yo-Yo Ma the only cellist in the world? Well, he is probably the best and it was clear that he was moved by the piece he played during the memorial clips.
• And people talk about Jennifer Lopez's backside! Did you see Beyonce's booty? Those hips probably made the sequin industry work overtime. But they were fine!
• Cool! I've never seen an acceptance speech sung before, but Jorge Drexler did it!
• Hillary Swank thanked her lawyers? Cripes! I'm glad they tried to play her off the stage. And Imelda Staunton should have won anyway.
• Why wasn't The Passion of the Christ nominated for best Foreign language Film? Greek, Aramaic, and Latin aren't "native" to the US of A, are they? Neither is English, mind you.
• Lots of things could be heard dropping in the background and there were a few open mics that shouldn't have been. I love live TV.
• Some tight competition for Best Actor, but Jamie Foxx was the clear choice for me. He had it down. A very gifted man, really. And a great acceptance speech, too -- the most touching I've ever seen.
• Once again, Martin Scorsese was beaten to the Oscar by a boxing film. In 1976 Taxi Driver lost to Rocky. This goes to show one should never put a transportation movie up against a sports movie.
• Without the benefit of having seen any of the films nominated for Best Motion Picture, I still feel that Ray should have won.

BTW - the time below is when I started the post. I finished it at 11:53 PM.

Generally, the movie Independence Day (1994) is pretty good, but the best part is the speech given by President Whitmore before the final battle with the alien invaders. And that's to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), I have a copy of it:

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!" We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

What a great speech! I'd like to know how many takes were needed to get the final cut. It is as well delivered as it is written, and that means superbly.

Durst: Sex Tape Unrelated to Paris Hacking: "'Somebody that was repairing my computer was smart enough to go through anything he could [and found the movie]. What can I say? I'm not proud of it,' the 33-year-old told MTV News late Friday."

Wait a minute. If he's not proud of it, then why did he save it? I can't say there isn't anything in my house that I'm not proud of ... or at least easily disposable on a moment's notice.

The vendor that stocks the Pepsi product machines at my workplace finally started putting in bottles with the iTunes caps. Well, it might have started last week, but I didn't notice until today. The good news is that I bought three bottles and got three winning caps. Even better news is that two of my co-workers learned that I collect the caps and promised to give me theirs. And lucky news is that I found a cap in the trash!

I picked up two tracks from Sly & the Family Stone: "Dance to the Music" and "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)," both from The Essential Sly & The Family Stone. As I write this I wonder how I've gotten this far in my music collection without adding these Soul classics. None of the CDs have these tracks, either. Strange. But I'm glad I have them and I plan on putting them into heavy rotation for a while.

Yesterday I picked up "Boogie On" from Ten Years After: The Anthology (1967-1971) by (obviously) Ten Years After. This one hung out in my Wish List for a while because (1) I hesitate loading up my collection with tracks that play for more than 10 minutes and (2) hitherto this the only track I remember from the group was on the Woodstock soundtrack album. Its been pretty good. A nice, classic Blues rhythm with some stunning guitar work. It may not be a staple of my listening stock, but it will be great when I'm in Bluesy mood. I may need to have the Hammond organ explained to me, though.

An unexpected acquisition was "Under Your Spell" by Amber Benson & Orchestra on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, With Feeling soundtrack. I wasn't aware that the show's producers had released an album of the music in this really weird episode from one of my favorite TV shows. Some sort of curse was upon the town of Sunnydale that made residents break out in song. Like a Broadway musical this device furthered the plot, but it also was the plot. Most of the songs were at least clever and a good many were both clever and funny, but this one was actually beautiful. Everytime I heard it I thought to myself "Gee, wouldn't it be nice if they released the song for sale?" And they did. All the songs and then some are available on iTunes (and maybe elsewhere, though I didn't check).

It's just a teensy scary that I can listen to the music on my iPod for over two days without a repeat. And I'm still collecting caps.

Joan of Arcadia (CBS, Fridays) just had the best product placement I've ever seen. Most TV shows or movies are content to simply show a billboard, a poster, or a product container. But tonight's episode of Joan worked a bag of Bugles into the script. It was so much like real life. Man it was cool! Later they did a couple almost-as-nice references to Apple's iPod. Yeah, I know there are better things to get excited about and I'll be back to my old jaded self soon. But it was cool.

If you've been even a mild newshound you've probably heard that commercial advertising as we know it is dying and that product placement is seen as the salvation of advertisers. People cut their ad-boycotting teeth with the VCR by using the remote to zip through TV adverts. Now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) is letting them go full-chomp and is causing an upheaval in the advertising industry.

But the revolution is birthing its own backlash. The New York Times reports that an "organization, Commercial Alert, in Portland, Ore., called on the [FTC] in September 2003 to require that placements be prominently identified with a superimposed message like 'advertisement' as they occur during programming."

Now that end credits are being formatted for the other trend of running spots at the end of a program I don't mind the tactic as much as I used to when it first began. But the idea of "branding" a product placement would be truly annoying. I think it's bad enough that we have the network identifiers barely hidden in the corner of each program. Worse are the TV networks like FX that steal the bottom of the screen after coming back from an advert break to splash color and sound banners for their other programs.

by John Cleese

To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair, MP for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour'; skipping the letter 'U' is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter 'Z' (pronounced 'zed' not 'zee') and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix 'burgh' is pronounced 'burra' e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as 'Pittsberg' if you can't cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up "vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more 'bleeps' in the Jerry Springer show. If you're not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn't have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won't have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u' and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn't that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents --- Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we're talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can't cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There is only one kind of football. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2005.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the 'World Series' for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls' game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don't believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. July 4th is no longer a public holiday. November 2nd will be a new national holiday, but only in England. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call 'French fries' are not real chips. Fries aren't even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager. From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From November 10th the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until April 1st 2005) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly $6/US gallon -- get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.

There is some doubt as to whether this was really written by John Cleese or not, but you know how these Internet rumours are all bollocksed up anyway.

Thanks to a promotion from Pepsi, February was a banner month for acquiring music from iTunes. Nearly all of the following songs were free so I was a bit experimental with my choices. Ordinarily I might not have spent the money on them.

“Rock Me” by Muddy Waters from I’m Ready
The name Muddy Waters almost guarantees good blues. Add a tight harmonica as this track does and you have a classic. The rhythm will be familiar to those not accustomed to the Blues so this is a good song to begin a first-timer’s collection.

“E5150” by Black Sabbath from Mob Rules
The music is as enigmatic as the title. This is one of the few tracks I have that changes its character depending on the volume at which it is played. But trust me; the slow, methodical melody is best at full volume. Black Sabbath achieves with this track the stuff that much of Electronica strives to be. Partly because the track ends so abruptly I would guess that this is an intro piece, though I’m not sure because I haven’t heard the whole album and the iTunes samples were of no help. I can easily imagine “E5150” opening a concert and a thrashing guitar riff or a pounding drum tattoo following on. Its place in my Purchased Music play list makes it a strange though entirely natural sounding intro piece for the next song.

“Everyday People” by Nicole C. Mullen from Everyday People
This track opens with a quiet giggle and the sounds of children. Following “E5150” the transition is rather surreal, not just because they are very different tunes (Duh!), but because the combination is hauntingly familiar. It is rather Pink Floyd-like, giving a message about the dark grittiness beneath a cheerful facade. On the whole, though, the track is a joy. Excellent mixing compliments the classic tune and gives it a fresh perspective. iTunes classifies it in the Inspirational genre but I’m not sure I would put it there. It has more in common with Three Dog Night’s “Joy to the World” and “Black and White” than it does tracks you’ll find in contemporary worship albums. This puts it in a special group with the likes of Superchick and P.O.D. – well-crafted music that stresses positive social and moral values. Overall, its a brilliant cover of the already stellar Sly & the Family Stone original.

“Across the Universe,” a special track featuring Alicia Keys, Alison Krauss, Billie Joe Armstrong, Bono, Brian Wilson, Norah Jones, Steven Tyler, Stevie Wonder, Tim McGraw & Velvet Revolver from the Grammy collection on iTunes.
This one I bought. Ninety-nine cents isn’t much to give for a song and some of the proceeds went to charity. While I didn’t watch the Grammys I’m sure this gang-jam was a hit. The 30-second sample on iTunes was pretty good and I figured it would be hard to butcher the Beatles (though it’s been done), so I dropped a buck and went for it. While it may not make my regular rotation, I’m sure it will be a track that gets at least average play time among the nearly 800 tracks now on the machine.

“Love Song” by Tesla from Standing Room Only
Okay, admit that you have some hair-band tracks, too, and be done with it. As much as I really didn’t like the general ilk of 80s rock, Tesla was probably one of the best. And the first minute-thirty has to be one of the best guitar intros in Rock. Period. Surprisingly, the live track I have didn’t stretch out the intro riffs as often happens in concerts. Too bad, as that would only enhance a great tune.

Three tracks from Roy Buchanan: “Five String Blues” and “Dual Soliloquy” from Sweet Dreams: The Anthology and “Roy’s Bluz” from 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Roy Buchanan.
Usually I don’t jump into collecting tracks from artists I’m not familiar with. For example, I’ve bought three tracks from Joe Sample but I have a few more wallowing in my Wish List. But the 30-second samples of Buchanan's work sold me and I took advantage of the Pepsi promotion to pay for two of them. Buchanan knows Blues. Each is reminiscent of, but not quite in the style of traditional Blues (and one day I’ll learn the subtleties between Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, and Memphis Blues, so bear with my vague descriptions) nor are they the more modern Rock-influenced blues. They seem to have a niche of their own with the true, gutsy feeling of an impromptu jam session. Actually, “Dual Soliloquy” may have been recorded during some studio downtime if the dialogue at the start is to be believed (the rough quality of the recording adds an air of authenticity, but since the Kiss Alive album scandal I tend to be of the Missouri sort – show me). If I wind up with more promotional credits there are a few more Buchanan tracks I might pick up.

“All Right Now” by Free from 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Free
Why didn’t I nab this one earlier? “All Right Now” is a must for any Rock fan. The melody (you can’t help but bob your head in synch), vocals (full-throated character without being too rough), drum line (especially the awesome bridges), and lyrics are pure examples of late-60s – early-70s 4-piece band Rock. Highly skilled guitar work means the solos are as much art pieces as they are anything else in the whole structure.

“Psyché Rock (Fatboy Slim Malpaso Mix)” by Fatboy Slim, Norman Cook & Pierre Henry from The Fatboy Slim/Norman Cook Collection.
Yes, I finally bought it, thank you, Pepsi. I’m either hot or cold on Fatboy Slim so I thought about this one for a long time, especially since the sample tune was not very insightful. Look elsewhere in my posts for more about this tune. I’m rather pleased I got it.

“Holy is the Lord” and “Whole World in His Hands” by Passion Band from the Passion 05 (Live) EP. Accompanied by “Waking Up to the Whole Gospel.”
Chris Tomlin’s rendition of “Holy is the Lord” already lives in my library so picking up a duplicate was not an easy decision. But the whole EP was just $2.50 and included a mid-concert sermon nearly an hour long, all apparently recorded at a revival meeting in Nashville, TN. I’ve only heard bits of it so far (I keep forgetting to listen), but I’m sure I have my money’s worth. One day I’ll get around to putting some of these “audio tracts” on the iPod, like the ones I got from LivingWaters.com recently. Both of the music tracks are good, though I think they are better in a play list with other songs rather than being tunes I’d fire up the computer just to hear.

When I bought my new laptop I was tickled to get a 15.4" wide screen with 800x1280 resolution (photographers will tell you it's "height x width"). But there weren't any wallpapers with this aspect ratio loaded onto the machine. Searching the Web for same turned up the equivalent of crickets in the night -- nothing going on.

So I was off to create my own. And seeing how much I like pretty women (nudity not necessary), I went to town. Here's a Picasa2 collage of some of my work:

MS PictureIt! 2001 is still my mainstay program for image manipulation, partly because it's paid for and partly because it can create some really nice textures rather easily (like it does most things). It's not much on inspiration, though, and it's ease of use can make working with it rather slow.

This whole collage, as I mentioned, was created with Picasa2, but so was the image in the top-right corner. This is more than a photo album program because it's image manipulation tools are limited, but still pretty good.

The latter two images on the bottom were inspired by some Vaio wallpapers I found on the Sony Website. I found some nice flower pics branded by Level04Studio at their site and one day I'll get a Webshots membership. The pics at MiniUSA are adaptable to the needed ratio and it's worth the effort to peek at the various international sites if you love the car (and I do). My Web search turned up a few images that don't lose a significant amount of quality when s t r e t c h e d to fit the screen, but not many.

Despite being pretty good with a camera (particularly the technical aspects), originality is not my strong suit. Even with writing I'm a better editor than creator. But I enjoyed creating these wallpapers and you can be sure I'll create more.

Entropy is decay. Evolution is renewal.

That thought struck me as I was reading an earlier post on the subject.

Entropy, left alone, would lead to complete destruction or dissolution. My kitchen and living room are good examples. To balance entropy (here's the Zen part), evolution molds the resulting detritus to create a new paradigm. Yin-Yang. Dark-Light. Entropy-Evolution.

The Lord, our Father, created Eden without entropy. Forever fresh, new, and delightful. What better way to destroy it than by adding entropy?

Genesis 3:17-19 - ¹⁷"Then to Adam He said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, "You shall not eat of it':

"Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
¹⁸Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
¹⁹In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return."

But Eden also had no evolution -- "Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name" (Genesis 2:19). Death was to be unknown in the perfect paradise. But Adam and Eve were driven out so it stands to reason that the flora and fauna escaped into an entropy-filled world to which they were ill-fit. How better to survive than to adapt?


Having partaken of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the couple was equipped with reason (well, better reason than they had hitherto shown, apparently) to adapt. But not the other lives. Hence, evolution.

Like most of my posts I'm sure this sounds better in my head than when I first write it. If I do any revising of this post I'll try to mark the changes. But I rather do like the idea that evolution is one of God's tools in creating His universe.

Tomorrow I'll know the real name of Twinkeltoes, the baby that my friends will be delivering. For some reason they are keeping the potential names secret, though at one time they did mention a few. And I'll be proven right or wrong on the gender. I've insisted boy! while the mom's sister-in-law (another person who "is never wrong") insists girl!, but I wasn't confident enough to make any of the presents I bought gender-oriented.

Just buying the gifts was tough enough. The high chair and the bouncy seat last December were easy. Tonight I headed out to get a stuffed animal of some sort or another more personal gift. Walking into the baby section of Toys 'R' Us wasn't easy and the longer I spent there the harder it was to move and think. It's tough to believe that nearly 7 years after my Lydia Rose passed I would still have trouble with such shopping. After I made it to the car I had to sit for a while, breathing heavy and praying to God (as in "Help Me Out God" by Superchick). Boy, did I need a hug.

While skimming through my files for something I ran across these quotes that seemed timely in light of my recent relationship:

"Ah, yes, divorce, from the Latin word meaning to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet." - Robin Williams

"There's very little advice in men's magazines, because men think, 'I know what I'm doing. Just show me somebody naked'." - Jerry Seinfield

"Women might be able to fake orgasms. But men can fake whole relationships." - Sharon Stone

"When things go wrong, don't go with them." - Anonymous

"Good judgement comes from experience; and experience, well, that comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous

"You can't have everything. Where would you put it?" - Steven Wright

Now don't go inferring anything from these. Now if you saw the ones I left out ...

A Free Plug for a Fine Cause

The latest experiment in dating seems to be over after about two weeks. Par for the course, I'd say. Maybe we'll get back together again, perhaps with the original intent of something a bit more than camaraderie and something a bit less than it was working out to be.

Not for lack of trying (and a gentleman won't say on whose part), mind you. It just didn't work out. Maybe it was God or the meds I'm on, but that wasn't the point anyway. The simple intimacy of holding hands, little kisses, and caring caresses were enough for me. For these things I will always be grateful and have fond memories. And I will miss them. Perhaps I should be sadder. Between my meds, and God, and the hope that we can be together again I'm pretty mellow.

What makes me sad, though, is that we didn't get to talk about her salvation. The kid in me was enjoying the candy store a bit too much to think about important things. I had a prime chance to be a servant of God and I became a patron of selfishness.

For the last few days I've had trouble publishing posts. I keep getting some sort of "known error" message. A bunch of posts are missing. I'll try to get them up soon.

My intentions were pure and honest. I had meant to blog yesterday about the wonderful date that I had. But some 27 hours after it started I finally managed to get home. We had fun at Hershey's Chocolate World, had lunch, saw a pretty good movie, and then snuggled until the next afternoon. If I had remembered that dating could be that much fun I would have gotten back to it much earlier than this.

Some ladies at work had me reminiscing about my departed daughter, Lydia Rose. So at home I was poking through my computer and kept coming up with files regarding her while looking for other things. Here's information I gathered about her name a year or so before she passed away:
Lydia
Lydia, a 3-syllable girl's name of Greek origin, means: A cultured woman from Lydia. Lydia's ethnic backgrounds include * German . It's religious association is biblical (see * Ac 16:14). It has religious backgrounds in * Biblical .
Nicknames for Lydia are * Liddy
Other names associated with Lydia are * Lidia * Lydie
Groucho Marx used to sing a song called "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady," which these days tends to make it sound more hip than it was meant to sound then. A very early place-name, Lydia was an area of Asia Minor whose inhabitants are credited with the invention of coinage and great musical talent. Although mentioned as a first name in the New Testament (Lydia was the first European convert of St. Paul), it did not really emerge as a Christian name until the seventeenth century, gaining notoriety through the character Lydia Languish in Sheridan?s 1775 play, The Rivals, and the youngest of the Bennet girls in Pride and Prejudice. Today, Lydia is quietly fashionable with an offbeat sort of appeal, a kindred spirit to names like Natalie, Olivia, Madeleine, Louisa. Heiress and ex-fugitive Patty Hearst used it for one of her daughters, as did the fictional Mrs. Doubtfire. And don't forget erstwhile New Wave singer Lydia Lunch.
This name is in the following categories:

• Century Names
• Celebrity: Biblical Names
• Brit Lit
• Fitting In/Standing Out
• Greek Names
• Colonial Period and Eighteenth Century

Rose
Rose, a 1-syllable girl's name of Greek/Latin origin, means: Of Mary; a rose; love. Rose's ethnic backgrounds include * Irish * French . Entertainers with this name include * Rose Marie (Television) . Rose is also a name in the category of * Flowers . It has religious backgrounds in * Saints .
Nicknames for Rose are * Rhody * Rhollia * Rosalee * Rosel * Rosena * Rosene * Rosie * Rozalia * Rozalie * Roze * Rozele * Rozelle * Rozina
Other names associated with Rose are * Zita * Rasia * Rhoda * Rois * Rosa * Rosaleen * Rosalia * Rosalie * Rosaline * Rosella * Roselle * Rosetta * Rosina * Rosita * Rosy
Variations: RAIZEL, ROSA, ROSALBA, ROSALIA, ROSALIE, ROSANNA, ROSEANNE, ROSELLE, ROSELLEN, ROSETTA, ROSIE, ROSITA, SUEROSE. After five centuries of being associated with the fragrant flower, Rose has suddenly become an overnight success ? as a middle name. Parents (such as Michelle Pfeiffer, who named her daughter Claudia Rose; Jeff Bridges, who has a Hayley Rose; Jon Bon Jovi with his Stephanie Rose; Rickie Lee Jones with Charlotte Rose, and Olivia Newton-John with Chloe Rose) across the country are finding this the perfect connective between first and last names, with much more color and charm than old standbys like Lynn, SUE, and Ann. It was popular as a first name all through the nineteenth century, as reflected in the dozens of songs it inspired ? "Honeysuckle Rose," "Rose of Washington Square," "Second Hand Rose," "My Wild Irish Rose," "Rambling Rose" et al., and it has been well used in other languages too ? RAIZEL in Yiddish, ROSA in Spanish and Italian, and is found in countless combination and pet forms, including ROSALIA, ROSALIE, ROSALBA, ROSANNA, ROSELLE, ROSELLEN, ROSETTA, ROSITA, and, in a class by itself for obvious reasons, ROSEANNE. And some cool, pioneering parents, particularly Brits, are calling their kids ROSIE, a name currently on movie marquees followed by O?Donnell and Perez.
This name is in the following categories:

• Century Names
• Names in Bloom
• No-Nonsense Names
• Fitting In/Standing Out
• Yuppie Names
• Celebrity: Nature Names
• Royal Names
• No-Frills Names

From: http://www.parenting.com/parenting/tools/babynamer/index.html

Not sure where I got this from, but I've been thinking along these lines lately:

RULE 1 - Life is not fair - get used to it.

RULE 2 - The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something before you feel good about yourself.

RULE 3 - You will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone, until you earn both.

RULE 4 - If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

RULE 5 - Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping - they called it opportunity.

RULE 6 - If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7 - Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8 - Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as many times as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to anything in real life.

RULE 9 - Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off, and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself; do that on your own time.

RULE 10 - Television is not real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

RULE 11 - Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

And I like to remind my students of these once in a while, too.

BBC News reports that the Number 53 brings relief to Italy: "The elusive number 53, blamed for several deaths and bankruptcies, has finally popped up in the Venice lottery after a two-year wait."

The whole story is worth reading so I won't reprint excerpts here. I would like to comment that this just goes to show the passion that Italians bring to everything. Stories like this almost make be want to put it ahead of the United Kingdom on my countries-to-visit list.

N.Korea Says It Has Nuclear Arms, Spurns Talks: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice played down the dramatic announcement, saying the United States had assumed since the mid-1990s that North Korea could make nuclear weapons."

And so we attacked Iraq, whom we suspected on some fabricated evidence. We bombed an aspirin factory in Libya for a similar reason. We are suspected of wanting to attack Iran for much the same thing. North Korea, of course, we let go despite the hardest proof we had since we documented pre-WWII Germany's heavy water experiments.

Someone, please, take a few moments and explain this to me.

Not me, of course, but checkout this excerpt from a story at Yahoo! News: "A year after the FCC logged more than 500,000 complaints over Jackson's exposed breast at the Super Bowl halftime show, the governmental watchdog had received exactly two complaints by Monday afternoon over McCartney's fully clothed set. In both cases, viewers complained of being 'bored' by McCartney's 12-minute, four-song showcase of Beatles and Wings classics, including 'Hey, Jude,' FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball said Monday."

Well, I guess you can't please everybody. The only thing I was slightly miffed about was Mr. McCartney's apparent bias toward the Philadelphia Eagles. That's his perogative, to be certain, but regardless he put on a fine peformance. The art direction was bangin'.

The Ameriquest "Don't Judge" commercials, particularly the one with the cat and the marinara sauce, were the best overall. The GoDaddy commercial that got to air wasn't that different than the one that didn't.

Top notch notable: The Anheuser-Busch salute to returning troops. Class at it's finest.

Cheney Won't Run for President, Not Even if Begged: "Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday categorically ruled out a run for the White House in 2008, even if asked by the Republican president who recruited him back into government."

He may be brilliant at what he does, but I don't like what he does. I firmly believe he's one of the reasons we have boys and girls dying in Iraq.

As I was writing the previous post I started watching Best Darn Super Bowl Road Show Period on Fox (it's a spin off of a show called Best Damn Sports Show when it's on cable) and someone just realized that the talent said damn instead of darn a few times while live. So they killed the talent mics but left other mics live while producers explained to the talent about the problem -- Can't say damn on broadcast TV.

That was hilarious! It took a while for the director to notice some mics were still live and the discussion was on the air while someone managed to say "damn damn damn damn" while the crowd moaned in protest. Quick like a bunny, they cut (not faded) to black and then hastily started a commercial.*

Maybe we are being too politically correct since last year's so-called "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl. This has been a major part of pre-game news coverage. National Public Radio, for example, covered the controversy over some adverts that are not allowed to air during the game because of the content -- "Anheuser-Busch pulled this Budweiser ad, entitled "Wardrobe Malfunction," from the Super Bowl, choosing to feature it online instead" (link added by me).

Can't we all just get along?

* I guess the article posted today at Yahoo! News was wrong: "Damn is out and darn is in at Fox Sports Net's Best Damn Sports Show Period, making an appearance on the parent network."