Time to 'Fess Up

It takes a big man to admit he likes this website. It takes an even bigger man to tease that man about it. (2007 update... oops, looks like the site got slightly risque since I last saw it. I'll leave it up but want y'all to know, I linked this because of the CATS, not because of the, um, other stuff)

Semi-truck Horn Choir

On another odd musical note, This is kind of cool; worth a listen.

John Cage Outdone

Can your church choir do this?

Where are all these influential blogs?

Happy New Year! This post has nothing to do with the new year though. I was just reading an article in the opinion page of the newspaper written by a newspaper reporter who is concerned about the threat of the blog revolution to journalism. His (or her) point was that the average blogger is an amateur who does not know what they are talking about, and yet have the ear of the world. I was a bit insulted that the writer mentioned that some bloggers are doctors and lawyers and other professionals who DO know what they are talking about, as though no one else does. Unless he means that doctors are blogging about medicine and lawyers are blogging about law. But if that is the case why didn't he mention computer repair guys blogging about computer issues?

But that is not my point. My point is, this is not the first I've heard of the blog revolution and how it is changing journalism. My question is... where are these influential blogs that are changing journalism? Where are the blogs that have the ear of the world? How do I find them, so they can influence me? Ever since starting a website hosted on blogger.com, I've explored blogs quite a bit, and all the ones I've found are pretty much the same. They drivel about whatever, have no particular purpose or direction, and have 0 comments on most posts and maybe 2 or 3 on a few good posts, usually authored by the same 2 or 3 people. Some blogs are very well written and have caught my attention enough to read them regularly, but even those have not really given me any particular true or false information. (I'm talking about strangers' blogs of course. I read friends' blogs because they're my friends. The posts are meaningful to me just because I know the author). I've run into a few blogs that get as much as 15 comments per post, but notice that these are frequent commenters themselves, and so others are returning the favor, or its comments from people they already know face-to-face. My website is no different. I happen to think its a pretty good one (otherwise I wouldn't have it) but I don't think I'm in danger of having the ear of the world anytime soon. My purpose is to communicate my latest happenings and thoughts with people I already know. It's a way of keeping in touch with people I keep not writing to or not calling. A small handful of new people I didn't know have happened along, which is terrific, but it's been the exception and it is not the main purpose.

So... could someone please tell me? Where are the blogs that are changing the world of journalism, for the better or for the worse? I mean, I can clearly see that blogs are changing the way people use their time, and perhaps the way some people make friends and interact with friends. But changing the opinions of the masses? I don't think my website is doing that to any revolutionary extent. Is yours?

Can anyone fill me in? What am I missing?

Pancake Recipe

Ok, I'm sick and tired of trying to remember where this recipe is. I actually have it memorized but sometimes if I don't make them for a while I can't remember whether 2 teaspoons of baking soda or just one. If I put it here I can throw away my paper copy. Plus, maybe some of you will start using it. Never use a pancake mix... its just not the same and its really no easier than mixing this up. Also, be sure to use real maple syrup, unless you are from the south and insist on molasses (I find this gross but understand its a tradition for some). Aunt Jemima or Vermont Maid (formerly "Vermont Made" until sued because its actually made in New Jersey. Used to contain 2% real maple syrup by the way, and then they quietly removed that to save money). So here it is (these are really yummy by the way, though not quite as yummy as the buttermilk-based kind). I eat these nearly every day:

1TBS brown sugar

1/2 cup oil (I use canola, don't use olive)

3 eggs

2 cups milk

1tsp salt
Blend until frothy (seems like a waste of perfectly clean blender to me, so I just use a whisk, works just as well, if not better)

Hand-mix in:

2cups flour (King Arthur of course. The recipe calls for whole wheat, which is what I use, but you can use white or mix the two.)

2tsp baking soda

Sometimes I'll add a bit of cinnamon too, and maybe some apple chunks (keep them small).

Most people make the mistake of having the heat too high, keep it fairly low. On my electric stove that goes from 0-9, I set the heat at a bit below 3. They still cook very fast. Enjoy!

On the map for a day

Have you ever found out that something that's part of your local culture turns out not to be part of the culture everywhere else? Just the other day I was mixing up a batch of pancakes and actually read the bag for my flour. Its King Arthur brand... the brand everyone uses, right? Well, it turns out, its made in Vermont, just about an hour away from me. Wow! Made in Vermont! So I told some friends who live in other parts of the country about this. "Guess what! Vermont is on the map after all! King Arthur Flour is made here!"

And they were like "King Arthur Flour? What's that?"

And I was like "oh".....

kthatsallbye:)

Update 5/8/06 -- I was in Cincinnati a few weeks ago and went into a Kroger store (Kroger is a supermarket chain found in much of the Bible belt) and looked in the flour isle... and guess what!?! The foremost name brand found there... KING ARTHUR FLOUR!!! And besides that, King Arthur cookbooks. So there! All you who doubted that Vermont was the nation's flour capital... doubt no more! :-)

Scary Nightmare

I seldom have nightmares, but I just woke up from one of the scariest ones I've ever had. I was alone on a rainy night in a huge parking garage, going down and down and down and down the stairs (I dunno... guess it was a way underground parking garage, because I think I was actually trying to find my car). The stairs were those yellow grated industrial ones. I think it might have doubled as a subway station. My nightmares do often involve subway stations for some reason, even though most or all of my subway experiences have been pleasant.

All of a sudden, my cellphone rang, and it was a Verizon representative. He started in on like a 20 minute schpeel on how I had an outstanding bill again and that I had finally been late one too many times. He said I had to pay quadruple the bill to keep the phone active, and that every time I used it, I would have to wait through a 5-minute recorded lecture on the importance of paying bills on time before I could dial. From now on. I begged and pleaded about how I check my mail regularly and it seems they are always sending me bills that are due like the day after I receive them, but I just heard "click" and then dial tone.

So then I drove home (in the old Toyota pickup I used to have! Ah, nostalgia!) and it turned out home was my parent's house. When I got there, my mom asked me if she could borrow my phone.

That's the last straw. First thing Monday I am going to convert EVERYTHING over to electronic funds transfer.

K. Bye. :)

Spooky

Here is an article from October 2004 National Geographic about the mess in New Orleans. I repeat: October 2004.

Southern Cross

I posted a few days ago on the band Crosby Stills & Nash. About the same time, I found out that David Crosby is an avid sailor and bought a 60-foot wooden schooner named The Mayan a couple of years before Crosby Stills & Nash began, and still sails it today. As a result, a lot of CSN and sometimes Y songs were sailing related. Southern Cross not only mentions sailing, but is nearly about sailing, perhaps more so than any other pop song. Unfortunately the recording is from the 80's and the style is very 80's. Oh well. Not that that's the worst thing in the world, but I wish it was more like their older stuff. It's still a pretty good song. You can listen to a quick snippet of it here if you forget what it sounds like. It plays on the radio sometimes. So I thought it would be fun to post the lyrics and define the boating terms either alongside the term, or with a link:

Got out of town on a boat (Boat: A large hole in the water into which you throw money)
Goin' to Southern islands. (I need help with this one... anyone know which Islands this would be referring to?)
Sailing a reach (Reaching is when the sail is to one side, with the wind coming from the other side. This is one of 3 positions (points) of sailing. The others are sailing against the wind ("beating to windward" or "close hauled") and with the wind (Running)).
Before a followin' sea. (Following sea basically means a sea that is perfect for sailing: Plenty of wind, but the swells are small enough as not to swamp you.)
She was makin' for the trades (The tradewinds are so called, of course, because commercial ocean sailing vessels used to take advantage of them to make the best time to their destination)
On the outside, (I haven't been able to figure out what "on the outside" means. Anyone know?)
And the downhill run (as mentioned above, this is one of the three points of sail. A run is when sailing with the wind. I assume he means that when he gets to the trade winds, he'll sail with them to his destination. Sailors sometimes refer to sailing with the wind as sailing "downhill" and against the wind as "uphill". Therefore, saying "downhill run" is technically redundant, but its often said that way in sailing "slang")
To Papeete.
Off the wind on this heading
Lie the Marquesas.
We got eighty feet of the waterline. (Waterline is the length of the hull where it touches the surface of the water. The overall length of the boat (LOA) is usually longer than the length of the waterline (LOW). A classic wooden vessel with 80 feet of waterline could easily be 100 feet overall, with the overhang of the bowsprit in front, and the main boom behind).
Nicely making way. (Way = movement of a vessel through the water, or potential movement. Giving yourself leeway means you've left room on the downwind side, in case a maneuver is required. If the vessel is pointed high (beating to windward) then maneuvering to the lee side may be the only option in a tight space, since sailboats can only point so high).
In a noisy bar in Avalon
I tried to call you.
But on a midnight watch I realized
Why twice you ran away.

Chorus
Think about how many times
I have fallen
Spirits are using me
larger voices callin'.
What heaven brought you and me
Cannot be forgotten.
I have been around the world,
Lookin' for that woman/girl,
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it will.
And you know it will.

When you see the Southern Cross
For the first time
You understand now
Why you came this way
'Cause the truth you might be runnin' from
Is so small.
But it's as big as the promise
The promise of a comin' day.
So I'm sailing for tomorrow
My dreams are a dyin'.
And my love is an anchor tied to you
Tied with a silver chain.
I have my ship
And all her flags are a flyin'
She is all that I have left
And music is her name.

Chorus
Think about how many times
I have fallen
Spirits are using me
larger voices callin'.
What heaven brought you and me
Cannot be forgotten.
I have been around the world,
Lookin' for that woman/girl,
Who knows love can endure.
And you know it will.
And you know it will.

So we cheated and we lied
And we tested
And we never failed to fail
It was the easiest thing to do.
You will survive being bested.
Somebody fine
Will come along
Make me forget about loving you.
At the Southern Cross.

Is God in Control?

Malone said no. I said yes in my comment to his post. Was I too harsh?

Ray

I just watched Ray (about the life of Ray Charles) with some friends following a hard but productive and fun church work day. Wow. A++++ Very real. Not knowing Ray personally (obviously) I can't vouch for its accuracy, but I really appreciated that it did not try to glorify the life he was living. It made the affairs and the drug dependence look just as ugly as it should.

The movie hit me hard, because I can relate a little bit. Ray was living two lives. It got me thinking about my life. Am I living only one? Am I trying to hide anything? As Ray found out, people are smart. They can figure out if I'm hiding something. I don't have a substance problem(that isn't ice-cream related). But I've got secrets. Watching the filth of his secrets and what they were doing to him really got me squirming because I felt like I was watching the filth of my own secrets.

Laters. I've got some praying to do.

tOdd's Weird Date

tOdd has the best weird date story I've ever heard. He even claims that its true, and I think I believe him.

Blues Traveler "Four"

Have you ever wondered where this album got its name? I just figured it out. There are 4 good songs on it. Can you guess which four I mean? Fortunately, they are four very good songs. Plus, wow, look how cheap you can buy used copies for now! (The Real sound samples didn't work for me for some reason, but the Windows Media ones did). As an added selling point, John Popper even made the Nine Ugliest Rock Stars Alive list on someone's blog, though the choices are rather questionable.

True Happiness

Until recently, I thought true happiness was buying a PhotoShare Kodak cheapo digital camera, pointing-and-clicking a bunch of random pictures, posting them on the web, and receiving comments on a couple of them from hobbyists asking what kind of camera and film did I use. But I was wrong. True happiness is when your company has a "morale" event with a putting contest, and even though you have never golfed even one hole, and several guys in the department are big-time golfers, and yet you co-win the event and get to go home early with pay for that day. THAT is what life is all about. :-P

Spotlight on Crosby Stills & Nash (and Young?)

I just had a weird moment where I discovered a band I've known about for a couple of decades for the first time. I've always been a little bit enchanted by CS&N songs when they come on the radio (especially Carry On/Questions), but somehow, in all these years, I never did catch the name of the band. Sometimes I also confused the songs with other artists, like Simon and Garfunkle. The other night at work someone was playing CS&N on the boom box at their workstation. I was too chicken to ask the name of the band because I figured everyone is supposed to know that, as though I were asking him who the president of the United States was. But then suddenly I heard someone solo out, and I thought holy smokes, is that Neil Young in there? It blew me away. No... it can't be... but who else could sound like Neil Young? Just now I remembered that and did a little googling, and sure enough, there is a connection between Neil Young and Crosby Stills Nash, but I'm still slightly confused as to what it is, since its not Crosby Stills Nash Young. If someone can fill me in, please do.

Meanwhile, check em out on Amazon and give them a listen, and take a moment to realize what a great band they were/are. This might soon become the newest member of my CD collection... even if Suite: Judy Blue Eyes is #2 on Strong Bad's Bottom 10.

Their look is also drastically different than I imagined, although really its what I should have expected. I guess one thing that confused me there is that CS&N's signiture harmony is not unlike the harmonies of Chicago sometimes, a band with a very different look, image, and overall sound. I hadn't pictured CS&N as a Woodstock-type band, but totally see it now. Sort of a paradigm-shift I guess, a-la Thomas Kuhn.

I think this (re)discovery may help me on my road to my goal of learning to appreciate country music, a quest that began after seeing the movie "Oh Brother Where Art Thou". CS&N isn't country, but there are some elements (even some steel guitar here and there). (Ok, I need to cut down on my use of parentheses(don't you think?)!).

Update: Here's a website that answered many of my questions: (click) To everyone thinking "well, duh"... go easy on me. :) I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't know all this already.

The End of the World

Ok, I'm not hugely into fishing myself (kinda boring, well, unless you catch something), but I still say if these lunatics get their way, it is officially the end of the world as we know it.

These people need a hobby.

Internet Craziness

I had the craziest internet phenomenon I've ever experienced happen the other day. I need an arrangement of a certain tune to play in church later this summer. So at noon on Monday I emailed an organ listserve/chatlist to ask if anyone knows of an arrangement of the tune. At 1PM the same day, I got an email from a guy from England with an attached PDF of the score. He wrote it himself after receiving my email!!! How crazy is that? (Bear in mind it was evening in England, that makes it slightly less crazy, but still).

The Meme at Long Last

Here, finally, is the meme I was invited to do by BennyK. Thanks Benny! I now tag Wabiworld.

If I could be a musician, I'd be a church organist. Ok, I know, I already am that... but not really. I dabble in it, and do the best I can. But I'd be a REAL church organist. I could play anything. I'd make the organ do all the things I know it could do if only I could play it well. I'd play the classics, like Bach. I'd play with the praise band. I'd play after-church recitals, and teach kids how to play. People would say "I didn't like Bach until now". True, they say that now, but my 3 Bach pieces I know how to play only go so far with one congregation. I'd also play the pipe organ version of Simon and Garfunckle's "Slow Down, Your Moving Too Fast" which I have written in my head, but most likely will never put to music because at my skill level, it would just take longer than can be justified. Oh, I'd do jazz too. And of course I'd play the guitar in the praise band when the organ wasn't playing. Or maybe the drums.

If I could be a writer... My blog is a good glimpse at what I would be as a writer, except I'd write in a forum where people might actually read it, or at least happen upon it. I mean, that stands to reason, since the underlying but unspoken theme here is that I'd be doing it for a living. I'd like to write like Peter Egan in CycleWorld's "Leanings" or Road&Track's "Sideglances". I read "Sideglances" regularly as a kid, and it was very influential to forming my writing style. I might like to write for one of these magazines. I'd like to write like Dave Barry too, but I'm less good at that. His influence is evident in some of my work though. I'd be less raunchy than Dave Barry; it would be like his newspaper work, not like his books. For the blog, I have a bit of tOdd influence mixed in for good measure, but if I was writing for a magazine or whatever I'd can that.

If I could be a professor, I'd become a professor of philosophy. I've only ever taken one philosophy class, and quite recently (like, a year ago). I really liked it and on my final paper the professor wrote "due to your performance in this class, it seems advisable that you study philosophy at some point." Sounds threatening, huh? Like something bad will happen to me if I don't. Well, it might have to wait for another lifetime, but I think I could have been a decent professor of philosophy if I had started a bit sooner. The most important thing I learned about philosophy is, it seems you don't really have to know anything, you just have to have an opinion or be able to form one. In other words, you can do well being completely wrong, if you know how to be wrong correctly. This is quite an exciting revelation to this engineering student. Its what led to this website, in a roundabout sort of way. Five of the papers I wrote for the class are on my site, under "theories of science and technology"

We've Got Tomorrow

I heard that song from the famous theologian, Bob Seger, the other day. "We've got tonight... who needs tomorrow". Its the song that attempts, and to an alarming degree succeeds, to make a one-night stand sound like a glorious and beautiful thing. The song has always made me a little sad, but never more than this time. I've always known that its all wrong from a moral standpoint. But this time around, I got to thinking about what lies below.

Today's society, particularly in America, has become very "now" oriented. Being "now" oriented is a product of being "me" oriented I think. Take Japan, for example, where Toyota is developing a 50-year plan to take over the United States small airplane market. 50 years! Many engineers and others working on the project will be dead before the project ever reaches fruition, and yet they work diligently. Why? The culture is "we" oriented, not "me" oriented, and as a result, its not "now" oriented either, or less so than America anyway.

God's desire is for us to be Christ-oriented, which means being "we" oriented ("we" being the church), and "later" oriented. Instead we, Christians included, want the now. We want to be successful, drive nice cars, have nice houses and children, or maybe pursue degrees or see the world (pick your passion -- mine is the pursuit of various hobbies). We want to do all the things and have all the things everyone else does, and try to squeeze Christianity in there somewhere too. Then we wonder why we burn out. Christian burnout happens when we try to do the Lord's work without sacrificing any worldly pursuits. There just isn't enough time for everything, so which will it be? (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of the above; only that we tend to let them distract us from the important thing).

Bob Seger in his song makes life seem hopeless, and without Christ, he's absolutely right. There is no hope, and you might as well make the night last and live it up. So SO sad.

But as believers in Jesus, we've got tomorrow... who needs today? Let's do something that lasts... let's find a way. Give today to God. Its His anyway. (All rhyming unintentional, but kinda cool it worked out that way, huh?). :)

Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! Pick me!

So the other day I was at the drivethru at Wendy's, ordering my favorite Wendy's combo, a chili and frosty. (No, I haven't won the "prize" yet... the piece of finger). At the pickup window, there was one guy putting the orders together and handing them to a guy in the window, who was handing them to the customers. These two guys, right in front of me, were arguing about what I ordered for a drink! The guy in the window was insisting it was a lemonade. The other guy saying, no, a small frosty. So I raised my hand, thinking maybe they'd ask me to settle the debate, but no, they never even looked at me. You'd think I'd know the answer, wouldn't you? So then they closed the window, got it sorted out (it does say right on the computer screen what I ordered), and the guy in the window opened the window again and handed me the bag. So I said (not sure at this point which drink they were giving me), "Yes, I did order the frosty", thinking he might like some reassurance of what the correct order was. But no, he just looked at me like "who are you to tell me what belongs in this bag". So I just checked the contents of the bag, said "thank you", and went on my way, not too insulted but quite amused.

That's all :)

Coming soon: I've been tagged by Benny K to do a meme. I don't know exactly what a meme is, but from what I hear knowing what one is isn't necessarily a prerequisite for doing one (I also started blogging before I knew what blogging was). So... stay tuned.

The Philosophy of Blogging

Here's someone else's good post that I left a substantial comment on.

Thinking of Razvon

This is a great post from the blog of tOdd. My only question is... where were the Christians during all this???? Shame on us!!!! Do the Metalheads have more love than us? I hope not!

Tourist Towns

I grew up in Grafton, Vermont (pop. +-600). Grafton is one of those touristy towns. A place that is quaint and quiet, and tourists come and get bored and ask "what do people do?". My mom used to work in the inn and got that question more than any. It wasn't always that way of course. When my Dad was a kid, it was a mecca for motocross racing, back when off-road motorcycles were a relatively new thing. In fact, Grafton is where the first race called "motocross" ever happened in 1959. Vermont Life magazine actually had a major article in the 1960's about motocross racing in Grafton. Oh, man, not anymore. You would not see an article like that in that magazine today. NO way. Too real. Not fake enough. Not high-brow enough, or crunchy enough. Anything in a tourist town must be fake at all costs. I used to fly gas-powered radio-controlled airplanes as a teenager, and helped start a club that flew in a large field in Grafton. But not for long. Here's the letter I wrote to the Grafton News at the time:

"To the editor: To those who enjoyed watching us fly our radio-controlled aircraft at Grafton Ponds, I regrettably announce that we will no longer be flying at that location. Since we formed our club last July, we have had numerous complaints about noise and flights over houses and across the road. We resolved not to fly too early in the morning, but otherwise the noise problem is not possible to solve. As for avoiding flight across the road it is simply impossible with the current location of the runway. The problem could be solved only by moving the runway toward the stone wall which would allow flying over the ski trails instead, but the Windham Foundation would not grant permission. It became increasingly clear that the Ponds was not a suitable location, so as of July 4th we set up in a new field at Townshend Dam."

And the part I really wanted to you to see... a great letter (in reply to mine) from a resident in the following issue:

"To the editor: You know, we wondered what happened to the airplanes. In fact, while walking with visitors at The Ponds the other evening, we pointed out the now overgrown little airstrip and wondered why no one was using it anymore. Our friends "jokingly" said, "Perhaps someone complained!"

"We can imagine that the Foundation switchboard must have lit up like a Christmas tree with hundreds of complaints every time one of these handcrafted, three-foot-long giants lofted into the sky. Really!"

"We do not know Andy, but can sense the frustration in his letter in the August News, as well as his desire to be a little more sarcastic as he tactfully penned his words. We are the closest full-time residents to Grafton Ponds and had no problem at all with the planes. It was nice to see someone actually "doing" something."

"So next time we are approached by one of these Levi Dockered, L.L. Bean boatshoed, Polo-collar-shirted creatures [tourists] who "quietly" wander the streets at night and ask: "What do people who live here do??" We can tell them for sure that we do not make any noise, and we do not have any fun."

Funny Sayings

I saw a funny bumper sticker just a few minutes ago that I've never seen. I haven't laughed so hard at a bumper sticker since the first time I saw "Earth first -- I'll log the other planets later". It was, "If the world didn't suck -- we'd all fall off!" Optimistic cynics are a rare breed. In fact, I never thought about their existence until just now. The author of this sticker must be one. I think I must be one too; that's why it struck me so funny. Amazing what you can learn in 5 minutes from a bumper sticker.

So I was thinking we should turn this into an ongoing funny-sayings blog. (Go there.) (Open it with a new window.) You know, like, "There are 10 kinds of people in the world -- those who understand binary numbers and those who don't", or like, "Hug a logger -- you'll never go back to trees!". So post your funny sayings as a comment, and if I like it I'll put it into the blog. And if I don't... I'll, well, I'll probably still add it.

Oh, original quotes are allowed too. Old sayings that you just made up.

Ok, laters!