Here's a good rule of thumb for living in the midwest: when you buy a snowblower, always get one that's bigger than you think you need. You'll be glad you did when the $%&@*! snowplow dumps 4 feet of ice in your driveway! I know I was, anyway.

I usually hate talking politics, but I can't help it this one time. Feel free to ignore this post if you don't want to hear it.

One sentiment I hear a lot is the idea of the "liberal mainstream media". But if that's true, why is this story not the front page topic on all of the news sites? I stumbled across it last night on Yahoo news, but this morning it was nowhere to be found until I googled it. If you go to the CNN or MSNBS home pages, there are no links to it at all. You have to search specifically for it. (I searched "Palin travel children" to find it).

Why is this not front page news? She charged the state of Alaska $17,000 in per diems for days where she stayed in her own home, and expensed $21, 012 for plane tickets for her children and claimed they were on official business. And then, just before she was selected to be the VP nominee and after Alaska reporters asked for the records, Palin ordered changes to previously filed expense reports for her daughters' travel. So, she stuck the state will the bill to take her kids along with her on 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights, then altered the documents after the fact to lie about it and cover her ass. And she and McCain have spent the last 2 months talking about how moral they are, and how un-patriotic, un-American and un-Christian Obama is, and in fact how un-patriotic, un-American and un-Christian you are if you support Obama.

If this came out that Obama or Biden had done this, I have to believe it would be in screaming headlines everywhere. But at the time of this writing, there is no reference to it on the home page of cnn.com or msnbc.com. (To be fair, at the bottom of abcnews.go.com there is a text-only link for it in the "Other stories" box. It is between the "When in Kenya, trust the locals" link and the "Britney Spears' Driving Case Dismissed" link.) What is the main focus on CNN? "McCain in Sit Room: He's behind with less than 2 weeks to go, so what's McCain's strategy for the homestretch? He joins Wolf in "The Situation Room".

Hmmm. Liberal bias, eh?

Suspenders

For years we have had a car top carrier that is constantly in the way in our garage when it's not attached to the van. So when I do put it on the van for a trip, I tend to leave it attached for several weeks afterward, so I don't have to have it underfoot all the time. But that looks pretty dorky, and messes with the gas mileage, so eventually I take it off and try to figure out where to put it in the garage.

But no more! I went to the hardware store a few weeks ago and bought some rope, a few pulleys and some eye bolts, and now it lives safely on the ceiling of the garage.

I'll let you know and post some pictures if (when?) the whole thing crashes down onto the car some night!

I acknowledge and accept...

That I am a geek. Because I like this.

And on the plus side, if the earth, the solar system and possibly the entire Milky Way do get swallowed by a black hole created in Switzerland in the next few months, at least the scientists won't have to hear "I told you so!"

Can't stop the lame-ness

So, I want to blog. I really do. And sometimes I even think of things to blog about, but of course I'm never in a place I can do anything about it when that happens. I have to admit I've been highly unmotivated in life in the last few months, so when I go out and read my friends' blogs (yes, I do follow your blogs closely) I always think I should contribute something. But then when I sit down to enter something, I got nothin'. And then even when I think I do have something to say, I sit down in front of the computer and think, oh that's crap, no one wants to read about that!

Well, I decided today to shun this weird mental block. How? Not sure yet. I tried to figure out why I'm so apathetic lately, but I don't know. Am I sad or depressed? No. Mad at something? No. Sick? Still nope. Just some weird phase, I guess. Kind of like Chuck in Night Shift, when he answers the phone at the morgue with "Somebody died? Who cares?". But I'm tired of it, so it stops now. OK, now. Maybe....now?

Anyways, thanks for checking in once in a while, and I'll try to improve on two things: 1. Post more and 2. No more whining, for crap's sake!

Lame-ass!

Sorry I've been so lame about posting lately. I'm neither dead, nor injured; just distracted. But I will try to get better!

With one breath, with one flow, you will know...

Synchronicity.

Odd things have been happening lately. Or actually I'm pretty sure they always do, I just have been noticing them more as of late. It seems to cycle like that. Little things that you only notice if you pay attention. Some examples:

1. Yesterday I was driving to lunch, and I was in a bad mood. I don't know why I was in a mood, maybe I was just tired. I flipped through all the radio stations and got either commercials or crap. Which is no surprise for Omaha radio stations. My last stop was the local college radio station which plays about 75% thrash metal and 25% good, cutting edge, listenable (to my tender 42-year-old ears) rock. They were playing those little recorded snippets from movies, which usually means they are about to play a song. I said out loud (I talk to myself all the time. I know it's weird, but at least I know I have an interested audience!) "I can't imagine what song they could possibly play to get me out of my shitty mood." Instantly the group Rage Against the Machine popped into my head. I don't know why, it's not like I'm a huge fan, but I really like a few of their tunes, and for some reason songs like Renegades of Funk and their great cover of Springsteen's Ghost of Tom Joad always put me right. Anyway, 10 seconds later the next song started, and guess what, it was Renegades of Funk! Haven't heard that song on the radio in months, maybe years, but there it was. And you know, it worked; I was happy again. Coincidence? Hmmmm.

2. One day this weekend I was minding my own business, working in the basement. When I am on my own my brain alternates between snippets of music, movie quotes and odd phrases. So the phrase "I'm not an actor, but I play one on tv." popped into my head and rattled around in there for a while. I have no idea why it did, it was totally random. At the time it seemed like kind of a funny phrase. Now today on my way to work I listened to the start of This American Life, and one of the segments was about John Hodgman. And Ira Glass's intro to this segment was: "Act 1: I’m not a tv star but I play one on tv”". Pretty weird, eh?

When I pay attention, I notice that this kind of thing happens all the time. Is it synchronicity? Coincidence? God? Kismet?

The poet Sting describes Synchronicity as...

A connecting principle
Linked to the invisible
Almost imperceptible
Something inexpressible
Science insusceptible
Logic so inflexible
Causally connectable.

But why? Is there somebody watching me, poking me once in a while to see if I'm awake? It's nice to think so, anyway.

Clowns = yipes

Click here to read the truth about clowns.

I knew it!! I've always known it!!!

The Obligatory Year End List, Part 2

I was going through my music catalog and realized my last post I missed some gems from last year. Iron & Wine - The Shepard's Dog is another disc I found myself playing over and over this year. If you don't know them, check it out. I can't find a song I don't like on it. Eddie Vedder released the soundtrack to Into The Wild, and if you like the melodic side of Pearljam, you'll like this disk. The radio hit Hard Sun is the best, but it's solid throughout.

I learned about Spoon this year with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, and I'm hooked. My favorites are The Underdog, You Got Yr Cherry Bomb and Don't Make Me a Target.

Best album-I've-heard-multiple-great-songs-from-and-yet-for-no-good-reason-I-have-not-yet-bought: The White Stripes - Icky Thump, with the loud and raucous title track and the typically cool You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You're Told). It's on my shopping list.

Best album-I-don't-know-much-about-yet-but-will-probably-buy-on-principle: Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand.

The Obligatory Year End List

This year we spent New Year’s Eve with good friends, and we spent time playing around with my friend Dan’s new stereo, which is maybe the most amazing setup I’ve ever seen. It got me thinking about music, and some of the new music I’ve stumbled upon in 2007. My favorite album of 2007: Bright Eyes – Cassadaga. I’ve been following Bright Eyes for several albums now, ever since Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground and it seems like it all comes together with this latest release. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. The main single from it is Four Winds, but I Must Belong Somewhere is just as accessible, and somehow I can’t stop listening to Make A Plan To Love Me.

Another find I came across this year was Regina Spektor – Begin To Hope. A few radio-friendly songs (Fidelity and On the Radio) caught my attention, but once I listened to the whole album I was hooked. Some other highlights are the haunting Sampson and the quirky That Time which somehow seems to stick in my head.

The Shins’ Wincing the Night Away has really grown on me lately. The radio hit is Phantom Limb, but after I listened several times I found I like Black Wave and A Comet Appears every bit as much.

I have to go now, but I’ll be back soon with more tunes. I promise. Really!

And note to certain people who just last week did not believe I would really post a new blog message within a week. I did it with one day to spare! Maybe this means I can get past this writer’s block and start posting again? We’ll see!

A real shitstorm

Some people talk about how much their job stinks, but last week I had them all beat. (Beaten? Whatever.) Ever since we moved into our new office building in June things have mostly been great, except that the bathrooms have been out of commission for a day or so every few weeks because they haven't been able to fully unclog the drains. So last week they replaced the pumps that clear these things out. Problem solved, they said.

Shortly after this I was working away on my computer and heard a load splashing sound. When I looked up, I saw that water was cascading out of one of the light fixtures and onto the floor. A lot of water. Maybe 12 feet from me. The entire 2' by 4' light panel was gushing. Then the smell hit. Both my neighbor Sparky and I yelled at the same time, "Crap, that's crap!" If only I had the words to describe that smell. Well, it's better if I don't. Not good.

After about 30 seconds the water was pouring out of the next ceiling panel over from the light. The one closer to us. Still onto the open floor though. So far anyway. We shut down our computer equipment and rushed over to the computers directly in the path and grabbed them as quickly as possible. Fortunately this tragic rain stopped before it actually landed on anyone or any computers. It turns out the new pumps were too powerful for the old pipes, or maybe there was a clog that got loosened, so a 4 inch drain pipe in the ceiling had burst. It took us about 15 minutes to get all of the computer equipment out of the way of the workers (who were now trying to figure out how much more shit would rain down on them/us when they cut the pipe section for the repair), then I was out of there for the day. Thank God for an internet VPN connection, I can work from home and crap hardly ever falls on my head!

Tried, denied.

I just tried and failed to get Bright Eyes tickets. Damn! They are doing a show at a 200-seat bar here in Omaha. They went on sale at 10 AM today, and not surprisingly, they were sold out by 10:01. Oh well, maybe next time.

Music Performance Anxiety

My mp3 player folds under pressure. I try not to follow the crowds, so I avoided getting an IPod way back when. Mine's a Rio Carbon that I've had for several years now, and it never gives me any trouble. Mostly. I use it probably 4 times a week, and the whole time I've had it, it's locked up on me about 5 times. And 4 of those times have been when I was either in a huge hurry or was demoing it to a group of people. We took 3 trips this summer, and the night before 2 of them and the morning of the 3rd trip it seized up as I was trying to load it up with traveling music, This American Life podcasts, etc. So each time I'm farting around pressing buttons, sticking pins in the reset button hole, powering it up and down, and Momster is walking by with armloads of stuff to be packed thinking "Hello!?! Packing! Remember we are supposed to be packing???" And I am no help at all, just sitting around cursing at this little device. Eventually I got it to work, because if you cuss at and threaten computers and electronic devices enough, and cycle the power the right number of times, you can almost always fix them. So the trips were saved, and eventually we got packed. But seriously, it never ever breaks when I am not in a hurry.

Today was the 5th inexplicable mp3 collapse. I got some cool noise-canceling headphones to bring to work because I don't like to wear the ear buds for hours at a time, and I gathered up a few work-buddies to show them my new toy. Sure enough, just when I was showing them off the damn thing locked up. Yeesh. "Ahhh, never mind, you can all go back to work now. Nothing to see here, folks. The headphones work great, it's the Rio that sucks. But it usually works too. Really!"

Of course, after everyone went back to work I got it working just fine. I guess the new IPods are looking better all the time.

I'm awake!

Hey, I'm back. For what that's worth anyway. I kind of took the summer off blog-wise and now I will try to get back to it. Sorry about the wait! Please note the new quotes feature. There are so many great musical quotes I'll try to keep that as an ongoing feature. We'll see, I guess.

I have misjudged George W Bush

I used to believe that Mr. Bush was heartless and possibly soulless, but recent events have changed my mind. Just imagine the boundless compassion a person would have to have to allow Alberto Gonzales to keep his job. I mean, to have and keep someone on your staff with such an amazing lack of credibility, accountability and knowledge about what the Attorney General role should be totally proves what a humanitarian our President truly is. And the forgiveness that W. displayed when Mr. Gonzales was crapping all over his subordinates right and left to save his own skin is truly astounding. Bravo, Mr. Bush, keep up the good work! And keep that chin up. There are undoubtedly a (scant) few countries left in the world that still respect us!

Where am I? (part 2)

It's spring and I am tired of looking at pictures of snow. This mystery location may be harder to pinpoint, so I'll accept more general answers. Keep in mind, answers like "somewhere on earth" are probably too general and will be rejected.

Know your internet, storm tracker edition

Spring is here in the midwest, and that can only mean one thing...tornadoes! (OK, it actually means a lot more than that, but whatever.) Anyway, there are lots of weather sites out there; I like this one because it shows the radar loop in motion. So it not only shows any approaching storms but you can actually tell where the storm is headed. The link hones in on Omaha, but you can just put your city and state in at the top and see weather for your area.

And its from the government, so you KNOW you can trust it!

Hint...if it's hailing and dark and you hear an unusually loud roar, you probably don't need to consult this site. Otherwise, check it out.

Here I am, and here's where I've been

I am trying to figure out how to have Blogger add an automatic first line to every one of my posts. Something like "Man, I can't believe I've gone this long without posting!". That I won't have to keep typing it myself.

I went to Summit County Colorado last week for a Ski Trip with The Guys, where I met with some of my grade-school buddies and a few others for our (mostly) annual trip. A few of the guys are way better at skiing than I am (no names, you know who you are!) so it's fun to push myself once in a while trying to keep up. And I didn't die, even on the double blacks, so maybe that means I'm stronger for it. Anyway, we skiied at Vail, Beaver Creek and some of the group also went to Keystone. I took my snowshoes so I spent a couple days trudging through the forest as well.

On Saturday we found out that the 4 of us from Omaha all had our Sunday morning flights cancelled because of snow, and the earliest flights we could get on were on Monday afternoon. The good news is that the house we were staying at is owned by the parents of one of the guys, so it was no big deal to stay another day. If you have to be stranded, that's a good way to do it!

Where am I? (part 1)

OK, it's time to play Where am I? The banner photo at the top of the blog is today's mystery location. Where is the location of the photo? Be specific, if possible.

Yay for you if you can also say where I was when I took the photo.

Man, time does fly anymore, whether or not you're having fun it seems. I can't believe I haven't blogged for a month! Oh well, I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. Things are finally starting to quiet down after the holidays, and we finally had a weekend where we were in town, there were no Christmas decorations to put away, I didn't have to log into work even one time, and life was relatively quiet. So in the middle of my quiet Saturday I decided to fix the bathroom sink drains, both of which had been slow to drain since last fall. And plenty of times since last fall I thought "Hmm, I should fix that. It can't possibly take more than 10 minutes, I just need to plunge it out, right? It's only plumbing, how hard could it be?". But I was busy, or lazy, and put it off. But Saturday, I was ready. And I figured even if it takes a half hour, it's time well spent.

Well, crap. Plumbing bites!!!!!!!!

I won't bore you with all the details, but the final count was something like 1 visible bump on my head, 3 bloody knuckles, 1 broken water input flexible pipe (I still don't know how I did that, I wasn't even messing with the water input!), 1 trip to Home Depot, 1 bucketful of hideous black goo with hair sticking out, 1 near vomit from the smell of said goo, 2 bathrooms with black goo splattered all over, 1 face with black goo on it, countless new cuss words for the girls to try out, 2 cleared drains and 4 hours of my life I'll never get back.

I really hate plumbing.