I Love My State...

Look, I am the guy who has given HEAVY consideration to getting three stars tattooed on his body in the shape of a pyramid, b/c I love this state oh so very much. However, I don't think this survey holds a lick of water.

Album Title of the Day

The winner of today's album title of the day goes to Snowing (ex-Street Smart Cyclist). What makes their album title truly awesome is that they sound like Braid (and I mean that as a compliment). Not so much the early Frankie Well Fare Boy Age 5stuff, but the later Frames and Canvas stuff. I like both versions of bread.

And the name is, drum roll please...: Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit Demo

Song title of the day

And the winner comes in from Carissa's Weird* The winning title: Sophisticated Fuck Princes Please Leave me alone

It has the advantage of being a low-fi electric diddy sung by a couple of girls. I have heard some other songs by this band and always enjoy them. Sadly I have not found a distro that I use who sells their records.


*Though I hear she can explain it all.

Where should our anger be?

I have recently decided to start reading the news again. I had to give it up many years ago b/c I was feeling oh so sad and angry all the time. I suppose the ole adage about, "If your not outraged then your not paying attention", holds true.

However, now it seems somehow different. Maybe it's b/c I am older and a tad less wound up*, but I just don't seem to get as angry about my government failing me. I am certainly pissed that there isn't going to be a public option/single payer system for health care, but I am also pretty damn excited if we can somehow get more coverage for people. I am also excited if we can get rid of the completely idiotic preexisting condition b.s. I am also giddy at the idea of passing legislation that says a health care company can't simply cap the amount of health care you receive in your lifetime or per year.

Now I am far from an economist, so there could be horrible fallout from these things. I am still bleeding heart. Don't you occasional have to take a win where you can? I would love to see an omnibus bill for health care reformed passed, however, don't we have to start somewhere? I dunno maybe I have lost the faith after all...



*Some will find this idea to be the height of high comedy

Break out your tin foil hats

So I was checking out PhoneDog this morning when I came across this story. Now, in general terms I don't buy into most conspiricies, but I may begin to start making exceptions if the above is true. The amount of data that Google and Verizon have on me is staggering...

Where And Means Or and Or means And.

Have you ever found yourself sitting around wondering what exactly it is I do all day at work when not giving you this lovely typo ridden blogs? No? You have haven't...well I gotta say that hurts. Lucky for you I don't care. I am going to tell you any ways. Here is a stark lesson in something I learned long ago and that bit me and a co-worker in the ass yesterday.

So we all know the words And and Or. And means these two things in conjunction. Or means this thing or this other thing. For the most part this logic holds true in computers as well. Save for the situation I am about to show you. Now you need not know a lot about SQL to get this lesson. The part you want to pay attention to is in Italics.

SELECT COUNT(*) AS rowCount
FROM StudentCourse r,
(SELECT StuCrs_Student, StuCrs_Course, StuCrs_LicenseCourse, StuCrs_Completion, MAX(StuCrs_Created) AS maxTimestamp
FROM StudentCourse
WHERE StuCrs_LicenseCourse = 'Course'
AND StuCrs_LicenseCompletion = '1974-10-17'
AND StuCrs_LicenseStudent = 'Student'
AND (StuCrs_Course <> StuCrs_LicenseCourse
AND StuCrs_Completion <> StuCrs_LicenseCompletion
AND StuCrs_Student <> StuCrs_LicenseStudent)
GROUP BY StuCrs_Student, StuCrs_Course, StuCrs_Completion) rh
WHERE r.StuCrs_Student = rh.StuCrs_Student
AND r.StuCrs_Course = rh.StuCrs_Course
AND r.StuCrs_Completion = rh.StuCrs_Completion
AND r.StuCrs_Created = rh.maxTimestamp

See that inner Select statement is how I am getting a ton of items out of our database. Now the symbole which you are likely not familiar with is "<>". That simply means not equal. Why did SQL chose that over != like every other reasonable language? Fuck if I know.

So here is where my cohort and I got into trouble, see if your saying this does not equal this and this does not equal this, and you only need one of them not to be equal you actually want to say OR. Basically this happens b/c I am mixing negative statements (not equal) with positive statements (equals) I know this sounds obvious, but I promise you this trips up more developers then you know. So remember kids, sometimes when you mean And you really mean Or.

Band Names

Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) wins today's band name of the day. However I am no way wild about the music, I am somewhat wild about puns.

An Homage if you will

Safeguy use to do this thing called inflamitory fridays on his site. I believe the tradition has died, and while I don't plan to make this a weekly thing*, I felt this would be fun. So in his honor I point out how dumb this head line is.

"Eliminate Violence Against Women? Get the Boys on Board"

Here's a grand idea...how about we just end violence ok?


*Hell I barely write some weeks.

A Telling Stat

"The AL MVP Award has been won by a first baseman 15 times. No other position has had as many MVP winners. Right fielders are next with 22, 11 in each league."

I want to be very clear about this, Albert Pujols was CLEARLY the MVP. Hanley Rameriz was the only other player I even considered. Now please read on.

I lifted that from the offical BBWRA....err BBWAA* website. I think this may show a pattern that after all these years that voters are still awarding hitting stats over defense, or maybe I just have an axe to grind. Your call.

*Baseball Writers Association of America

Palin

I stole this from my friend Nick. I find most of this to be truly amazing. It isn't Michael Moore unfair, but it is probably a bad sample size of her base, or worse it's an accurate sample of her base.

Facebook vs Myspace

I know this debate was settled long ago for most, but I actually do prefer MySpace for some reason. Today though I decided that it might be officially dead. As the well wishing for the earth making it another 365 days pours in through my Facebook, I have not heard even a peep from the MySpace.

Photos

I have been a huge slacker in the photography department this summer. I think the biking obsession got in the way a bit. Plus at my core I can only have so many hobbies that I am really pursuing, and since I will continue to play guitar constantly, either the biking or the photography will suffer.

Well this past Saturday, there were some Cyclocross races down in Harbor Town. I figured it would be a nice chance to take some photos. I was a bit suprised to see so many of my friends competing. My friend Charlie was sporting his new team colors.

Anyways, here some photos from that day.

Band Names

And the winner of best band name of the day goes to: Fall of Efrafa. Many I love me some cute cuddle rabbits.

A Truce

I have been thinking a good bit about marketing lately and I have come to realization, while the iDon't and the "There's a map for that campaigns" coming out of Verizon have been fun, they don' do a good job of selling to the right market. Look 16 year old kids are going to buy the iPhone. It makes to much sense for them. Who need to flag down are the tech nerds and the business users. That is how you truly compete. Once you have all of those people in your hip pocket, you go after the other companies market. First build your own then steal theirs. Rinse repeat.

Verizon Droid

Let me start of by saying that I am 100% in love with my droid. I feel it was the perfect phone for me, and my needs. I do not think it is the perfect phone for everyone. I feel that for the non-power user the iPhone might still be the best phone out there.

Some things that I think the iPhone has over the Droid.

1) The camera on the iPhone is a million times better. The camera on the droid so far has given me terrible results. However I couldn't care less about this. I'll explain why later.

2) I am willing to bet that searching the iPhone app store from the phone and web is actually a bit better then from android. Not a huge deal, but there is room for improvement. Like say being able to filter out pay or free apps after a search like "Terminal"


My expeirence with iPhone is pretty limited since I have never owned one and only used my friends phones, but some things I am in love with about the droid where the iPhone comes up short.

1) I don't really do much on Facebook, but the Facebook integration into contact is the win. I only wish you could add a face book account to someone in the case where there Facebook name is different from what you call them.* Due to this feature I don't really need the camera to work very well b/c It will simply use my friends Google or Facebook profile photo. No real need for me to have the camera.

2) If you are one the desciples of Google, the integrated Google Contacts, Calendar, and Email is 100% the win. There is another Google app that deserves it's very own bullet point.

3) Google Voice for the win. I can't say this strongly enough. While Google voice is still only in BETA and invite only, it has changed the way in which I view my phone. It allows me to have it take over all of my SMS and Voice Calling. To put this in perspective, you can in theory use zero minutes and zero SMS messages if you use a Google Voice number. FOR THE WIN.

4) VPN support out of the box. Well kind of anyways. I have yet to figure out how to get this working with CISCO VPN. I will have it solved before to long though.

5) It runs Linux. Look...this matters to me. Deal with it.


Overall for the non IT/Software Developer set, the iPhone is most likely still the phone for you. If your a youngster not super interested in technology or extreme control over your device, get the iPhone. There is nothing wrong with it. It's a VERY solid device. However if your the type who wants to be able to admin a server remotely and deal with your corprate life as well as your social life all from one phone, then the droid is the win.

*I am looking at you Alissa

I am actually this sad.

I love watching and reading about baseball. Except today. The idea that the Yankees just won their 27th World Series pains me so much that I am avoiding all baseball websites so far today. I know it won't last through the day, but for now it must. Congrats to Doug's God Damn Team.


p.s.
They didn't buy the championship people. Half the freaking team is home grown. They just find the best free agent they can and sign them. You wish your team could do the same. Stop hating.

It all comes back around

Note: I would like to see some of my more graphic design oriented friends tackle this topic in a more in depth manner*, but I have been pondering how aesthetics move in cycles.

When the iPhone first came out, I was blown away by how pretty it is. All those beautiful rounded edges. How it's so damn minimal. Just the one button on the front. It was so sleek and clean. It was truly something to behold. So what happened? Everyone ripped off that look**.

Now the Droid is coming out friday***, and the design of this phone (while similar to the iPhone) is kind of a throw back. I have seen all kinds of people talk about how the Droid isn't "sexy". I have no idea when we decided inanimate objects that are suppose to be utilitarian became "sexy", but it seems that it happened. Well maybe it's my clear (and rampant fanboydom) but I can't help but enjoy how the Droid looks. I love it's through back to more rigid and boxy shape. It doesn't look like every other phone, with their smooth and clean lines. It's rigid and terse. It looks like technology use to look like.

Is that a good thing or a bad thing? My bet is that people will start ripping off this look and my pendulum will swing back the other way.


*I'm looking at you David and Patrick

**No blame here. If I was running a company, I would have done the same.

***I promise to stop talking about this damn phone soon.

Web Comic

Might I hip you kids to a new web comic? This one is drawn by Paul Southworth of Ugly Hill and written by Bill Barns. While Ugly Hill is sadly no more*, the new comic they are working on together called Not Invented Here is great. It's somewhat like Dilbert, but with a better fastball. In today's strip, just be aware that every electronic device I own is named after some sort of band. I am not even slightly making that up. If it's on the network, it's named after a band.

*Read it from start to finish, it's worth it.

Song Lyric of the Day

"But sing not for their final outcome; sing a song of how they tried.
We live amidst a violent storm; leaves us unsatisfied at best,
So fill your heart with what's important, and be done with all the rest."

Courtesy of La Dispute from the album Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River

Breaking The Rules

Throughout my life I have always been a rather rigid and steadfast kind of guy. This has worked both for and against me to varying degrees. One of the rules that I have always stuck to since the Cyrix Computer Chip fiasco is to never be an early adopter of technology. Always wait a period of time and let the bug reports start rolling in and then make a better decision.

Well, over the next two weeks, I am going to break that rule not once but twice. I am going to be the first person I know* to get AT&T U-Verse. I am simply bored and feed up with the lack of HD content on Comcast.

Well, before my U-Verse gets installed on the 7th, I will be spending the 6th at a Verizon store getting myself a Verizon/Motorola/Google Droid. Will this signal a new more care free me?

Of course it won't. It's simply a phone and a cable provider. Calm down people.


* In Memphis anyways

Maybe I am OCD

I can't seem to stop thinking about the new Android phone from Verizon. I am constantly pondering it's abilities, what calendar support it will have, how it will sync with my Linux boxes, and oh so many other things. The thing I have probably spent the most time thinking about however is the ad campaign.

I am far from a marketing guy. I find lots of things about the field to be somewhat evil, but on occasion people make what I would consider art, or at a minimum something that is very interesting and is worth of critique.

Last night I am watching baseball with a close friend, and we starting talking about the various adds we have seen a 1000 times now.* So during one of the breaks my friend and I get to talking about the android phone. We start ripping into the details of a 45 second add spot.**



Now my friend contends that the add doesn't actually tell you what the phone does. However, I have to disagree with him. I am the first to admit that I drank the open source Kool-Aid a long long time ago, but I don't think this is my blinding love of all things Open Source effecting me here. Can we go to list form for a minute? I want to just rattle of some points about why this add is amazing.

1) In the first part it nails the entire asthetic that Apple has been using for their branding.

2) It uses that branding to mock apple at the same time.

3) Then out of no where they take that entire look, and turn it on it's head.

It's awesome. I couldn't be happier with the add.*** They tell you several things the phone does by pointing out the short comings of it's supposed competitor. It's genius.

Now, here is the REALLY REALLY cool thing that the fine folks at Verizon did to promote the phone to the media.



That's right, the gave out some R2D2's. That's just sweet marketing. Sure you should give out some C3PO's so that his feelings don't hurt****, but I can live with this.

Now, look I have no belief that this will hurt apple. Their brand is so powerful right now that it's scary. There is a HUGE culture of people who buy into it and all it's trappings. That's a great job by them. I will however say that the fine folks about RIM should be really worried.
*When you watch every playoff baseball game you get beaten down by the same products over and over and over again. I'M LOOKING AT YOU FRANK TV!


**You'll be shocked to hear this, but we don't have girlfriends and not a single girl hit on us during the game.

***Here I will admit to a bit of fanboydom. Though the add is good.

****He is rather sensitive after all

Second Best

I shall not refer directly to the Pedro the Lion song, but please know that it's a great song on a truly amazing album.

No today I am second best because I am lazy and didn't bother to write down or talk about a thought I had the other day.

During this years post season baseball games on Fox I noticed something that I had never really thought about before. Fox has been showing the speed at which the ball leaves the pitchers hand the speed at which it crosses the plate. Now, without every thinking about this I knew that there was no way the ball was the same velocity out of the hand as it crossed the plate.* However, I never went to the next logical point. Which pitchers lose the least velocity on their pitches when they leave their hand? Which pitchers lose the most velocity when the pitch leaves the pitchers hand.

I think we can all agree that a fastball that stays as close to it's peak speed as possible when coming out of the hand is the better fast ball.** However, what about breaking ball that loses a ton of speed? Is that why Knuckle ball can be so hard to hit? Is that why a really good 12-6 curve will make you look silly?

What I would love to see is a list of pitchers who's fastballs hold their velocity best from release to home plate, and the start and end speeds of all their breaking pitches. Maybe we could learn something here. Sure I could do this research myself and become a baseball research rock star, but frankly I am to lazy to do such a thing. Someone please get on this.



* In case anyone didn't know the velocity of a pitcher is judged by how fast the ball is moving when it leaves his hand. Not when it crosses the plate.

**provided the fastball isn't to true

Your computer lesson of the day

So let's say you finally bothered to get your VPN connection to work going after a year or so of not caring. Let's say you finally get it working. Let's say you can't figure out why your remote desktop software won't work. Let's say over the course of a day or so, and very little effort mind you, that still don't get it working. Let's say you realize it's most likely a port issue. Let's say you look up what port your rdesktop client is listening on. Let's say you decide to try and ssh to your home box and then connect work via VPN. Let's say you do this. Let's say that you forget that by doing this none of your proxy's are set at home and more over this now breaks your ssh session. Let's say that your VPN connection will never disconnect b/c it's a LINUX box and does VPN the right way. Let's say all of these things just happened and that you are now unable to connect to your home machine. I'm just sayin that some of that stuff my or may not have just happened.

I do think about other things

So it seems I talk about bikes a lot lately. I promise other things are on my mind as well. However, this video should be seen. This is anything but the type of bike riding I wish to do, but the old skateboarder side of me couldn't respect this more if he tried. Also the music ain't half bad.

A Thought For The Weekend.

Over the course of the last year or so I have really started to take my bike riding a bit more serious. I don't have any plans to race or anything of that ilk, but I am spending a good amount of time on top of a bicycle lately. It has gotten to the point that I don't like riding my road bike when I am out with friends, because I think it's over kill. I mean lets not kid ourselves, Memphis is a very flat town. You don't really have to have a ton of gears to get around.

These thoughts and various other motivations* are leading me down a path to get a second bike. Now I am certain the new bike will be a single speed. there is no doubt about that at all. However the only question left is whether or not it will be a fixed gear. I have friends on both sides of this, but everyday I lean more and more towards a single speed. I don't really see the point in fix gears. I mean there cool, but I don't really see them as all that practical. If I was to get into doing tricks and such mayhaps, but I don't really see that happening either.

Is there something I am missing as to why fix gear bikes are so cool? Is it because you can run them without traditional brakes thus creating a much cleaner looking headset? If so I get that, but I just don't think it's worth it. I dunno maybe I am over thinking this whole thing.


*Frankly I just love pretty bikes. What Can I say.

One Question

All I really want to know is one thing. Who called whom?

Inspiration

What inspires us is such an odd little thing. I can never completely figure out my own motivations let alone my friends. For me it tends to be the smallest things. The biggest events of my life rarely tend to inspire much in way of thought or action on my part. I tend to expeirnce them as if they are happening to someone else. It is usually some incredibly small and banial detail that I notice that causes me to really want to do something.

All of this is a long way of saying that the band Damezumari are just fucking brilliant and doing the exact kind of music that I think we need more of. The music is honest, self aware, rocking, pretty, slow, complex, simple, and oh so many more adjectives and adverbs that I don't have at the tips of my fingers.

The only thing that I know for sure is that, I must step up my playing.

Taxes and the like

I have been wondering about something lately. It seems more and more people who I know are for the tax on soda. Usually they say something rather mean about the people who drink it and how they are just fat and lazy and should be taxed. Here's the thing though, almost everyone one of these people were outraged when the state of TN increased the so called "Sin Tax" a few years ago. Exactly why is it ok for us to tax people more heavily for drinking soda then it is for us to get taxed because we like to abuse our livers? My gut says it's because we object to the term "Sin Tax". However I think we should simply object to all takes on unprepared food and drink. The government should not tell me what I should and should not eat, and the food police simply need to calm down. Here's an idea, let's see the government float the idea that we should add a tax on sushi because of the negative environmental effects all the fishing boats are having on the environment. Oh right...that's fucking dumb that's right.

An Open Letter to Cycling.TV and Roku

Dear Roku and Cycling.tv if I have been monitoring your product for the last few months, and I have come to the conclusion that what your offering is exactly what people have been wanting forever. In short you have the ability to offer ala carte TV viewing. This is brilliant. Why clutter your house with tons of movies, most of which you will only watch once or twice, when you can simply stream them on demand from the internet. This is truly brilliant. You then went a step further and offered your services to MLB. I have been an MLB.tv subscriber for the past 4 years. I love the product and I think it gets better ever year. My only complaint has been that I am stuck watching the game on my computer instead of my TV. You came along and fixed that problem.

Now here is what I think you need to do next. You need to go after Cycling.tv. and possible hockey (I leave the hockey to someone else). See bicycle racing is a wildly popular sport, but has terrible coverage here in a America. If you want to see anything other then the Tour De France or perhaps a thirty minute recap of a race you have to get Cycling.tv. Now Cycling.tv is a great product, but it suffers the same problem as MLB.tv. Unless I am willing to get a TV tuner card, or do some other such gyrations, I am forced to watch on my computer.

The merger of your two products makes far to much since. The cycling community is generally speaking a somewhat affluent group of individuals with disposable income. This is your exact demographic.

You could even partner with Cycling.tv to create interactive content that goes with the races. People could have their training regime become part of the race watching experience. There are endless possibilities here.

thanks for your time

Pyrrhic Victorys

One of my all time passions is the classics. Not classical literature mind you, but the study of the two great classical civilizations (Rome and Greece). My all time favorite story/historical account from this time is Thucydides. The way my boy Alcibiades comes off in the story is just straight up pimp. If you ever see me out sometime I can recount the story.

However, we are not here to talk about my favorite story or even my second, or really even my third. No we are here to talk about the war Carthaginian War. If me memory serves* we get the phrase Pyrrhic Victory from that war. I have often believed that there is no such thing as a Victory where you still lose. I tend to look at winning and losing as binary situations. They are states that can not exist at the exact same time. Now sure you can lose and still do something that feels awesome, but at the end of the day you still lost.

Well this weekend I witnessed a few things that made me wonder about this concept. My college football team lost, but they didn't lose nearly as bad as expected. Is that really a win? I don't think so, but I some how felt more ok that we didn't get blown out by fifty.

Then my pro-football team went out and pissed away another victory because we apperently forgot how to do the thing we are best at, but on the bright side our second year running back had a carrier game.

And now...we have this...one of the most beautiful shot shows I have ever seen, wins an Emmy right after it's canceled. Fuck the world is all I can say.**




*To lazy to do the research to confirm this morning

**Odds are this video will get pulled. When that happens I'll find another.

Giving Up To Soon

Often times in life I find we give up to soon on people. I am far more guilty of this then most people we know. When the phrase "Oh ye oh little faith..." is uttered, they are talking about me. I am a skeptic at best and a complete disbeliever at worst.*

For years now I have been told that Clay Buchholz would end up being a stud pitcher. I read some of the scouting reports. I listened as writers I respect crowed over his stats and his bad luck. I saw as he was clearly just trying to be to fine and strike everyone out. I watched with joy as he no hit the Baltimore Orioles.** I watched with abject horror as he walked batter after batter after batter. I gazed at the screen with sheer terror as he threw 100 pitches by seemingly the third inning. I lived the emotional roller coaster ride of this young mans carer first hand.

Now, I should I have known better. I went through the exact same thing with Jon Lester. I know in my mind that sometimes it takes young pitchers a while to get it together. I know this at the core of my very being. I also know that more often then not young pitchers simply don't work out due to a myriad of reasons.

So what does this all have to do with Clay Buchholz? Well, I had given up on him. I knew he was in the minors destroying people, but I didn't care. I didn't think we needed him after all we had John Smoltz and Brady Penny.*** I thought how the team didn't need to put their faith in this roller coaster of a pitcher. Of course it turned out I was way wrong and the old adage about you can never have to much starting pitching turned out to be true. So all I can say is that I think I was wrong about Buchholz and that his last few games are finally starting to show that pitcher that I think everyone thinks he can be. I leave you with some of his numbers from his last few starts.

September 13th vs The Tampa Bay (Devil)Rays
7.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 5/3 K/BB, 12/8 GB/FB, he got a ND but pitched more then well enough to win.

September 8th vs The Baltimore Oriels
7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 5/1 K/BB, 12/7 GB/FB, Took the win.

September 8th vs The Tampa Bay (Devil)Ray (on the road)
6.0 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3/1 K/BB, 10/11 GB/FB, Took the win

August 29th vs Toronto
8.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 9/2 K/BB, 11/7 GB/FB, Took the win.

Now these are not exactly the numbers of a number one starter (I'd like more strike outs), but if this is your third starter, you got a real chance to be good. Let's hope he can keep it going.



*Note: This isn't about religion. I promise.

**Yes they are a real team Doug


***That sound you hear is me slamming my head into my desk. Those guys were terrible with the Red Sox and now look like GODS in the N.L.

On Cell Phones

Maybe it's because I really like the idea of many business competing for our dollars, but this warms the cockles of my heart. Whatever the reason may be, this is a good thing.

Random Thought

Is Aaron Eckhart the new Matthew Modine?

I think I Might be better then Ice Cube

See, he thought today was a good day in the looking back sorta sense. He was reflecting on the day if you will. I am better then him because I already know today WILL be a good day.

How do I know this you ask? Why it's elementary my dear. On the way in to work I heard 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins and now I am listening to the song The Rising Tide by Sunny Day Real Estate. How can I lose?

Google Reader

Odds are I should use google reader since it would save me the time of writing blog posts about things that I enjoy, but well...yeah...see pretty much every other post on similar type things.*

With that said, check out this great entry by David Millar on cycling news about the crash during stage 4 of Vuelta.

Twitter

I have gone on record several times saying how I don't really have any interest in Twitter. I can see why some people do find some value in it, but it has simply never been for me. Now I have a few reasons for this that may or may not put me in the company of old men screaming for kids to get off of their lawn*, but it's a risk I am willing to take.

1) Most of the "famous" people who tweet that I have interest in re-post all of their tweets on their websites or write columns about the more interesting ones. I don't really see a reason to go out of my way to get content through yet another medium that I am possible going to get anyways.

2) I don't want to follow my friends on Twitter because I want to have something to talk to them about when I actually see them. Now I am aware that people don't tweet every single thought they have or event they have, but I would much rather just get the info from them while drinking a cold beverage. Also I have like maybe 4 topics I am willing to talk about or even know anything about.

3) When not at work I am just not that into using a computer. I enjoy feeling slightly detached from them as if my life does not have to completely revolve around them. Not saying being plugged in and connected is bad, but it just isn't for me.

Now, there are actually was something that made me think about all of these silly thoughts. It wasn't more proof of my secret desire to be Luddite. Far from it in fact. I was listening to a podcast featuring one of my favorite writers Jonah Keri. He and the shows host Dan Levy were talking about how Twitter can impact writers and various other public personalities. I will never make any bones about that. Twitter is a great way for one to reach out to their fans and to grow their audience. However what caught my attention is something that was said and then re-iterated in the blog below the cast.

Dan said, "I follow more than 1000 people. One of them is Casey. But I’m not reading his tweets. I can’t tell you the last time something he wrote even caught my attention in the stream."

Now the Casey he mentions is this guy. Whether or not what he is doing is valid or not is a whole other conversation. What I want to bring up is the idea of subscribing to that many people on Twitter if your not even going to see most of it? I mean at some point it's all just noise right? I don't get the benefit of any of it. What's the point in following all these people if you are never actually reading anything they say? I mean I am one of the biggest suckers for brand loyalty you are ever going to meet. I pretty much only buy Steve Madden shoes. I would kill for a Cervelo bike, but at the end of the day I make an effort to seek out these things. Maybe I am strange, but I would rather spend time going through a bunch of websites about this stuff that leads me to even more info. I dunno...maybe I am just an old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn, but can't we find a better way?


*I mean I am sure that they just put down new Bermuda grass and lord knows it's hard for that stuff to grow.

Song of the Day

Today's song comes from Native Nod, Today Puberty, Tomorrow the World.

The Math Rock

For as much as I love the harsh sounds of bands like Reversal of Man, Celeste, Isis, Mihai Edrisch, Torches to Rome, and other bands of that ilk, my true passion has always been for the more math rock oriented bands.

I feel a huge part of this has always had to do with their ability to change tempos and time signatures on dime, but all the while holding a grove and hook that can move you. So with that said, might I suggest the band What Price Wonderland? They are fast becoming one of my favorites. Their songs are catchy without being overly poppy. The songs are rocking without being over the top hardcore. The vocals are urgent without being shrill. In short they combine all the best elements of math rock.

Song of the Day

Gravity is a Choice by Damezumari. I have yet to actually track down any records by this band, but everything I have heard by them on last.fm is great. Really good math rock. Nice and tech. The shouted not screamed vocals that I love all so much, but with a hint of singing and spoken words. They are absolutely bringing it.

A link

Safeguy just passed this article along to me. I find it odd that I feel this urgent need to run off and post a blog about something that certainly is encourging us to all take a moment and slow down. However, I know me and I know my life as it is today. If I do not do this now, there is a good chance I won't do this at all.

I often talk about my distain for technology. That is of course a tounge and check sort of way of saying how we should be careful of annointing false gods, or even worse losing any sort of physical connection to those around us.

A Communique From Safeguy

When I arrived at work today Safeguy gave me some really great news. The other day in my post on copyright laws I mentioned that the reason I don't listen to much major label music that most of the bands on majors that I like are broken up.

Well fear not kids we are getting a Cranberries tour and album. We can all sleep soundly.

There is actually a back to story to why he would tell me about this, but it's not all that funny and mostly involves me getting somewhat humiliated, so I think it best we not rehash it here.

Things I didn't know.

Appearently the MacPro's at the store will often times call the Mother Board of a computer a logic board? Why in the holy fuck stick would they do this? Why re-name something that is already well named and has been called what it is for so long?

Are these the same asshats who changed Constantanople to Istanbul?

On bikes

This article is by no means the end all be all authority on the topic, but I want to use it as a launching point for a larger discussion.

How hard would it really be for the city of Memphis to add bike lanes to a few of the more used routes bikes travel on. I am not saying they must be added to Poplar and Union, but why not Madison, Peabody, Central, and Vance?

Oh and while we're at it, Making the trolley's run faster and expanding the routes through more of midtown wouldn't exactly be the worst thing in the world.

My point isn't to start a campaign that try's to change the culture of the city all at once, but more to simply give the city something that is good that a portion of the culture already wants. Why not embrace that?

On Copyrights

I stopped by one of my favorite blogs (The Dish) today, and noticed a fairly interesting discussion going on about copyright laws. The issues being discussed seem to stem mostly around the idea of fair use, and the duplication of media.

I have for the last ten years or so been on the side of more strict protection of copyright laws. A long time ago a friend got me to switch all of my computers over to Linux with this very compelling argument. "Do you really want to keep stealing software?"* Now it isn't that I was unaware of this concept, but it was something I had been doing for so long that I didn't even think about it anymore. It was simply part of my process. I started doing it when I was 12 (and certainly not thinking about fair use or copyright), and just continued doing it without a second thought.

My friends point really struck home, and got me to change the way in which I approached several other things. Most notable the way in which I consume music. Now I got out of the stealing MP3 game back when you had to long onto someone's BBS to get anything. I have never used Napster, Kaza, torrents, or any other form to get music.**

Now with that said I have long been a huge fan of making tapes/cd's/play lists for people of music they have not heard. I have gotten into countless band because of this practice. If not for a bus ride to school in 1994 when a friend let me hear Sky Scrapper by Bad Religion my taste in music could have easily gone a different way.

I suppose what I wonder about is where do others draw the line. If I had to guess I am a bit more draconian in my beliefs about these types of things then most of the people I know, but it's really hard to say.

Now one last thing I want to address real quick. I saw a few people trying to make the argument that the reason people pirate so often is the price. While I feel that is true with really expensive pieces of software and DVD box sets, I don't feel it's true with music. I am not sure what the average cost of a CD is anymore, but the average LP tends to run me about 12 bucks for a single LP and around 15-18 bucks for a double LP.*** Does anyone really believe these prices are super out of line. Is 99 cents really to much to pay for a single song? How much do people think these things should cost? They sure as hell shouldn't be free. That was someone's hard work and time that went into making that record. If people want to give it away for free, good on them, but I think your nuts if you expect it to be free.


*Note there a ton of technical reasons I also use Linux. It isn't a 100% altruistic love of not stealing. I am a fan of it as a technical platform first and foremost.

**I do have some music on my iPod that I have gotten off of friends computers. This was only done in cases where I was unable to buy the music on the format of my choosing. This isn't right. I just felt like full disclouser was in order.

***I talking about indie labels here. I don't really buy to much stuff on major labels. Not that it can't be good but that I simply don't know of any bands on major labels that I enjoy that are still together.

Just a question

I have been wondering a good bit lately about the place of social networking and blogs in our current culture. It seems to me that more and more everyone is becoming more self involved. Though I don't really think self involved is the best way to put it. It seems like people feel this weird compulsion to document nearly everything they do in one place or another, as if everything we do is important and some how urgent.

Now I am not arguing against the poetry of day to day life or how beauty can be found in the smallest thing. Far from it. In fact I am not exactly arguing against anything per se. What I am wondering about is whether all of this documentation of every single moment of ones life is really a good thing. I mean see people constantly breaking out their smart phones and checking face book for status updates. Stuff like this has really kind of been an on going problem since mobile communication came along. I call it the, "Always looking for the better party syndrome." In the past you were just out with who you were out with and that was kind of it. I mean you may run into your friends out somewhere and forum a larger group or switch to a different group, but I just believe that had to be more rare then it is now.

I dunno...maybe I am crazy. After what is a blog if not a rambling of my thoughts as if they are important.*

I'll save you the time. They are not important in the slightest

Was in which I am idiot

That 3 miles into a semi long bike I realize that I have forgotten my water bottle at home and that it is in fact 96 degrees outside and that the thermometer in the car was not lying.

Quote of the day/Quick review

Today's funny emotive quote comes from La Dispute off the album Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair. Might I just say this a great record that I have been enjoying a great deal. It gets a bit close to metal at times, but it doesn't bother me. The vocal style is pretty unique (think Me With Out You), but rocking way harder. The lyrics are over all pretty good. They are filled with a bit more hope then the stuff I tend to go for, but I enjoy them.

However let's focus on what brings us here today. There is one part in the album on the song Sad Prayers For Guilty Bodies
"Now, I am thinking of the past and how we both said vows and lied and
I am wondering how we trust ourselves to say a second time:
To have and to hold,
From this day and onward,
For better and for worse,
For richer and for poorer,
In sickness or in health,
To love and to cherish
Till death do us part? "

I mean that is comedy. Imagine that screamed in a very serious manner. It was great. Check out the album. It truly is a great listen. Really tech instrumentation throughout the whole record with lots of great tempo and time shifts.

Quote of the day

And the over the top emotive quote of the day that for some reason like goes to Lemuria for the line, "When I lost everything, you offered Jesus. Didn't seem like a fair trade at all."

Thoughts on Cultivating A Sports Fan

Every so often when I allow myself I wonder what it would be like to have kids. I have no real interest in having them, but it's fun to think about sometimes. I think about what books I would like them to read, what films would be interesting, how it would feel when they achieve something that they care about and worked for. This are simple harmless idle thoughts. The thought that seems to come up the most to me though is what sports and teams would I try and convince them to watch and enjoy.*

I have always felt like my sports fandom was missing something because I never had a team that my family carried about. Both my dad and my brother are sports polygamist. I find this idea to be disgusting. I have long said that you pick a team and that's it. You root for that team forever not matter what.**

Most kids inherit their teams from their parents, or at least that is how it has always seemed to me. But, I often wonder about the kids who grew up in families that didn't really watch sports or who were fans of the ilk of my dad and brother. How do these kids go about connecting with a sport or a team?

I remember when I was growing up that Wimbledon use to be on HBO. My parents both worked and so I had tons and tons of free time during the days of summer to myself. Wimbledon became appointment viewing for the majority of my youth. Even today I can't help but watch if Wimbledon is on, and I don't mean watch a few minutes, I mean watch hours of it.

How do you get that sort of brand loyalty out of someone exactly? I often hear about how baseball is not getting new fans and such. I think there are a TON of reasons for this, but maybe one of them is that it isn't on enough. I know that sounds a bit crazy. You have the ESPN Monday night game, the ESPN Wednesday Night Game, The MLB Network Thursday Night Game, The Fox Saturday Day Game**, The MLB Nework Saturday Night Game, The TBS Sunday Day Game, and last (but certainly not least) The ESPN Sunday night baseball game. And of course you have whatever game is on your local RSN, possible a cubs or white sox game on WGN, and in the past a Braves game on TBS.***

However I really don't think that's enough games on. I mean it's a TON of games, there is no doubt about it, but half of the games are fairly uninteresting and b/c of national start times tend to lead to an East Coast bias of what games are shown. I have found that with baseball the announcers do a fairly poor job of actually explaining the game. I mean not the high level stuff of throw ball, hit ball, catch ball. I mean the more subtle stuff of why a pitcher choose to throw which pitch there, why the defense is aligned the way it is. More of the game with in a game stuff. I think to do that and to really drive it home you need to show more games.

Now, I know there is a ZERO chance of what I am suggesting happening, but why not have more day games? I know the big money for the teams is games at night, but if you truly want the sport to grow, why not show the games during the day and really suck in the younger audience who is at home doing nothing all summer? I think if baseball could some how get that demographic then they would be set. The younger you suck a fan in the better.

In the past baseball was able to do this with stuff like baseball cards, but those have essentially gone the way of the Dodo. So I am wondering if MLB could work out some sort of deal to have all day games televised in all every market. It would be costly and odds are they would lose some money, but it could create some life long fans. I dunno, the idea is pretty damn pie in the sky, but all I know is that I still watch tennis, and I am not even what you would call a tennis fan.

*And by try I mean force.

**Baring them moving or doing something truly unforgivable like signing A-Roid

***Not really sure if they do that anymore or not. My gut says no, but I wonder if they are on a different channel b/c I live in their "region"...

Lemuria: Get Better

Lemuria's Get Better is a great pop record. It is a no frills power pop record. This is the type of record I don't spend nearly enough time with. It's the kind of record that when one of the songs comes up on shuffle you can't help but think, "Why don't I listen to this all the time?" I think the main reason I don't spend enough time with records of this ilk is simply because so much of it seems boring, but this band is anything but boring. Almost all the songs are up beat and catchy with very simple lyrics*. If your looking for a fun sing along record, then I highly suggest Lemuria's 2008 release Get Better.*


*When I say simple i don't mean simplistic. I mean often repeated. The lyrics deal with the usual themes. Love, Love Lost, Friends, Day to Day life, and so forth.

*Don't worry by the way, a slew of emo and hardcore reviews are coming. I have by no means forgotten my roots.

Owen: At Home With Own

Let's try something new. See I have not bothered to write words at all in so long that I fear that I may lose the skill. So, with that crippling fear driving us forward, how about some record reviews? I have recently gotten into buying and listening to music again* So the first batch of new records arrived on my door Saturday. First up Owen - At Home With Owen

Some quick background on the Owen. Owen is a group out of Chicago IL. The members have done a zillion other bands that they would probably prefer people not to mention in reviews.* Plus framing bands in the context of all their former bands often times give you the wrong impression and sets expectations in the wrong direction.

Owen play soft indie twee pop. The songs usually center around intricate acoustic guitar playing. There are occasional elements of rock, but over all the band is a soothing listen. The vocals have that classic mid west somewhat off key and yet right in there feel that so many bands from the region have mastered. The lyrical content is great. If you are older guy who has spent anytime on tour, you will be able to relate to a great many songs. Some of my personal favorite lyrics include:

"The free beer and basement shows don't mean what they did.
It's what you do, not who you were,
What you wear, where you've been.
So do something."
This one sums up so many people I have known through the years who are attempting trading on their past glory in bands that almost no one has ever heard of. Trust me, I get how they feel. I sure as hell miss basement shows with bands rocking and screaming. Instead I live in a world where because I have a job where I get up in the morning it means I can't go to rock shows. It sucks and it's painful, but living in the past isn't the answer.

Bad backs and hardwood floors.
I'm so sick of waking up sore and not knowing where I am.
And this was a lot more fun when the music meant something to someone.
And I didn't have a girlfriend.
Basically this one makes me miss everything about tour. Mostly because I have not been touring constantly for a decade plus like the singer.


Over all At Home With Owen is a solid B+ album. It will be in heavy rotation on long night drives for a good while.


And might I just say, that I had no idea how much I missed it.

Let's just say they were in some supper influential indie bands and just move on.

Continuing The Love Fest

I have no real opinion on news papers. I would say that 85% of the news papers I have bought were because I need something to wrap glasses and dishes in. I have never been the type of person to derive a great deal of pleasure from their crisp smell, their crinkling sounds as I turn their pages, or the way in you can flip back and forth b/w the various sections any way you want. I have simply never been that guy.

I find it regretable that so many papers are folding and laying off tons of workers, mostly b/c I am in constant fear for one of my friends job. With all that said, the wonderful Joe Posnanski has created another great blog. This on is all about the down fall of news papers.

For a primer on this blog I suggest you check out these two posts from his normal blog.

Check!?! Check!?!

Been lazy and have not been writing all. Actually, the strange part is I tend to write more when I am lazy. I have actually just been doing stuff lately. However let's move past all of that and talk about the best baseball writer going. His name is Joe Posnanski He writes for Kansas City Star and has hands down one the best and most engaging blogs going. I rarely believe in people who I don't know. In fact you might say it's a rule I developed as a kid.

I grew up loving sports. I played baseball, basketball, did karate*, and skateboarded. I never had hero's in any of these arena's though. There were people who I thought were really good, and seemed to excel above all others, but I never thought, man I wanna be like that guy. My parents were plenty of inspiration.** I never felt like I need to look up to anyone else. Their story was plenty good enough to dream about (and still is). However when I read Posnankski he makes me think about things I normally don't.

See when it comes to baseball, I am stats guy. I am not great or brilliant at this by any means, but I understand them for the most part. I see the game through them, and use them as my baseline for figuring out how good I think a player is***. However, I have a healthy love for talent evaluation, and the more subtle parts of the game. Every spring I love reading the stories about the "Greenest grass you'll ever see" and stories about, "The Crack of the bat as the first pitch is thrown."
That stuff is amazing and does what sports are suppose to do. They are suppose to make you forget about everything else, and just enjoy the game. Not sit there and calculate the chances of X, Y and Z happening, and that's what Posnanski brings to the table.

For the last few years it seems like 75% of the baseball stories are about steroids. I find this maddening because I couldn't care less who did what when and where. I am fine with the testing that is done now, but I believe we should really be doing blood testing. All I really want to do is sit back and marvel and watch players doing amazing and extraoridnarie things that I can not do. I think Posnanski nails a bit of that them in this column. Even if you don't care a lick about baseball, it's a great read.

Oh and check out his blog. There is TONS of none baseball stuff there that is just fun.


*I have never figured out a good way to say that I use to do karate. I mean trained for like 8 or 9 years. I can't remember exactly at this point. To say I trained isn't even slightly accurate, but to over play it is even more annoying. There needs to be a word for something that was truly meaningful and life changing that you were really good at but don't want talk about. I am sure the word exists, but I just don't know it.


**That's right a kind word about my parents. Take a deep breathe.

***Most likely it's a hold over from collecting baseball cards.

Fuck Richard Florida

We have this list to be proud of. I am certain my friend Fearlessvk is very proud today.

Who Knew...

I was unaware that I am a form of cancer.

My World is crumbling

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame has directed a film, that actually looks really good. Everything I have ever known or believed is caving in around me... I need to start drinking asap.

Naming Conventions

I don't really care what method of naming conventions people use, but I do have one favor to ask. Please stick with your naming convention. If you just break it all "willy nilly" style, then it's almost impossible for me to know what your talking about.

A quick thing on music

I am often at a complete loss to explain my views on music. I have spent God only knows how many hours in cars and vans traveling to see a band play in a basement, VFW halls, clubs, bars, and once a gazebo to see rock and roll. I love it. There is nothing like it. I miss it more then I can possible describe.

Now that we have dispensed with the nostalgia section, I want to tout lastFm. I know everyone else got on this band wagon FOREVER ago, but what can I tell ya, I am a luddite. The fact that I can go in and type Yaphet Kotto and listen to bands that sound like wait for it...Yaphet Kotto. I am very mad at all you internet types who never told me about this.


By the way, the photo site should be up consistantly now. There is some weird problem with X, but I simply leave X off now. I know you all needed to know that.

It's not my wheel house

I won't even pretend to understand the inner workings of basketball. I like the game a lot, but I simply do not follow it the way I follow baseball. I of course love my Grizzlies. Sure they tend to be horrible, but their my team damn it. I support them no matter what. With that said, I don't understand why we fired the coach yesterday. I mean I understand why a coaching change needed to happen, but the timing makes almost no sense. Sure you want to fire the coach on a road trip to avoid the press*, but I don't see what firing this coach gains us.

I have to use baseball as my example b/c I just understand it so much better then basketball*. In baseball, it's silly to fire the coach mid season and then appoint the next coach a few days later. It makes more sense to go with an interim guy until the end of the season. If you do that, you can conduct a much better interview process and give the interim guy a chance to prove whether or not the situation can be handled internally. This is especially true on a team who never had a chance at the playoffs in the first place. I dunno, maybe there is something I am missing, but who knows.


*I have never believed this really works.

*I am by no means an expert on either.

Round 2

So SafeGuy (aka Patrick) decided to respond to my post yesterday. Patrick is a good friend and we kick it all the time. In fact, I sold him his camera that he is currently using. With all that said, the punk ass is misguided*.

He and I both agree that happy accident photos are a ton of fun. Some of my favorite shots are in fact happy accidents. However I think what we are trying to do with photography is vastly different. I don't consider any of my endevours to be art, not high, low, or middle brow. Almost nothing I have ever done, whether it be playing guitar, taking photos, or writing terrible lyrics, has ever (at anytime) been art. At least not in my eyes.

I view all of these things as a way of documenting a moment, an idea, or a feeling. I want to try and get that as close to what is actually happening in front of me, without going back later and touching it up. If I miss it slightly, that's fine. I miss amazing things happening in the world all the time. I see no reason why photography should be any different.

There are also a few personality differences between us when it comes to digitally altering a photo. We both work in front of computers all damn day, but yet he some how has the will to go home and use a computer. I do not. Once I leave my office I have almost zero interest in being in front of my computers*.

The other thing that seperates our photos is what we are going for. See, he digitally alters his light sources after the fact. I would rather use the natural light, or create my own lighting scenes. Below are photos I have taken. None are especially interesting. I have no clue why I do them. I just do.

Amp
More Amp
Even More Amp
Doug in Chicago
Chicago Cook Out on 4th of July
More Cookout
Heber
Nick being awsome
Boscos

See all of these photos have there own little thing that is different about them b/c of the natural lighting in the room*. I find it far more fun to try and take the lighting that is there and use that then to go back later and alter the lighting. It isn't better or worse*, it's just different.




*Ok no he isn't but he said, "Bitch called me out", so I felt like I had to do something similar.

*I own three real computers and few other random gadgets

*The last one I did that thing where I cover a portion of my pop up flash to get that effect.

*Actually my photos are worse, but that doesn't mean my ideas on aesthetic are wrong.

Photos

Sorry been very busy slinging the code as of late so I have not had time to write much of anything. However, I just want to draw the your attention (all four of you) to a few things.

1) A Softer World is a kind of weird mash up of photography and poetry website. Not really sure what to call it, but you should check it out.

2) While checking it out the other day I stumbled across this, this, and of course this. It is a three part series on the year in photos and is nothing short of amazing. Some of the photos are VERY graphic, but all are work safe (at least IMHO). The Obama picture in the rain is amazing. I had seen it before but forgot how much I loved it. Also, I am 99% sure none of this photos are digitally altered. See below for what I thought was going to be a quick thought that turned into something more.

Quick tangent on Photos. Safeguy and I have a bit of a disagreement on the topic of digital modification of photos. While, I don't think there is anything wrong with it, I am more a fan of trying to get the exact look and feel of what I want while actually taking the photo. I will of course create my own custom color balances and do really weird stuff like block off my pop flash with my finger to achieve different lighting effects. He tends to do more the digital altering stuff. I don't really know which is the right side of this debate to come down on, but for some reason I love the doing it on the fly as oppose to touching it up later idea. Of course I also take crappy photos, so there is that.

Oh and of course there is no real reason why anyone must choose a side of this debate, for everything must not have answer. Or at least that's what I keep trying to tell myself.


p.s. Photo site back up.

The President

I watched his farewell address last night, and while he didn't say anything that really bothered me, he did do something I found rather perplexing. The people he choose to honor were all Black. While I love seeing Black people in positive situation, all I could think was,"WOW HEY THE PRESIDENT KNOWS BLACK PEOPLE!!! SWEET!!!"




By the way, the really will be a reasonable big post on TV shows. Part of it is even written, but I have been busy with work and unable to finish it up.

Even if you hate sports...

This is great

Paul Lukas is a great writer. His Uni Watch blog is a must read for anyone who cares about design and or aesthetic.

Bless my friends

Reason #927719472329 why I love my friends.




Courtesy of Behind The Box

By the way

The photo's are still down. I have taken some new shots that are pretty ok. I may get frisky today or tomorrow and put together some computer equipment. We shall see.

TV Show Post coming soon

But first I just wanted to mention the top 2 records of the year.

Verse En Comma Rialto

Sinaloa Oceans Of Islands