Camina

First Neil Young song I have ever heard covered in a different language. Crazy Notes and "Camina", Neil's "Walk On" from On The Beach.

Beauty And The Beast

Here are some photos taken at a performance of Beauty And The Beast we attended Friday night the 18th, at Zilker Hillside Theater, with some of Samantha's classmates. We saw the show with my brother Dave, Joan, Sydney, and Ben earlier in the summer, but it was enjoyable again. As you can see, Gaston is a sight. Performed outdoors at night, not too hot, a little breezy - good times. Oh, and cold root beers and orange crushes. Girls had fun.

Safe driving?

It isn't in Austin, and it doesn't look good for the rest of Texas either. New York Times has a story on the safest places to drive. There is a separate paragraph with some major Texas cities mentioned.

Drivers in the Texas cities of Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are 24 percent to 28 percent more likely to have accidents compared to national averages.

More info from an AllState link in that story. Austin not mentioned anywhere, but the local radio reports Austin does not have a good record.

And Evan and Tory wonder why I charge them for insurance. Amusing chart in the AllState page shows driving stats for Generation Y, and even for the safest cities, the numbers of years between accidents are remarkably low, meaning greater accidents for the younger drivers.

On the Left

Marginal Revolution presents the political greatness of being left handed. Of those listed I am not so sure I relish sharing left handed kinship with, except for Ronald Reagan.

Simpsons Overanalysis

I am a big fan of the Simpsons, and have the first 9 seasons on dvd. Over the past many years I have often been disappointed in the recent seasons and how the Simpsons aren't funny anymore, not even the Halloween episodes. Whenever I watch now, it will be something off one of my dvd's and not primetime.

Here's a link to link that takes a thorough look at all this. I think Brad Bird was key.

These Are A Few Of My 100 Things

Time Magazine has an article about living with only 100 things. That is a pretty tall order. Depends on what your definition of "thing" is. Does a set of golf clubs, tees, balls, cart, and bag all count as one thing. I sure hope so. One of the participants is quoted addressing this problem.

Cait Simmons, 27, a waitress in Chicago, takes a different approach. Although she has pared down her footwear collection from 35 to 20 pairs, she says, "All my shoes count as one item."

I am pretty partial to my stuff, and probably irrationally attached to several items I hold dear, particularly an afgan knitted for me by my grandmother, and my grandfather's old wooden creaky rocking chair. This article looks and smells like self-loathing freedom haters to me. As long as you are not consumed by possessing things, or them possessing you, I say what's the problem?

Einsteins

Tory has started the summer session here at Austin Community College. His class is a MW evening class from 5:30 pm to 7:10. The campus is fairly close but we want Tory to get home on the bus, its only 50 cents. Yesterday he gets on the wrong bus and ends up at a transit station north of our house and further away than ACC. Plus he had to get off since it was the end of the line, and had no money to get on another to get back home. I had to go get him.

After picking him up I needed to get a few items at Walmart. Tory and I go in and get our needed items. As we're getting ready to check out I discover I don't have my wallet, and can't pay. Luckily I have $19.75 in my pocket. So we put back most of what was in the basket. The final item, a big bag of chips, didn't make the cut. Why, oh why, did we need that aluminum foil?

Dinner was served just after 9 and there were some grumpy diners.

Father's Day and Golf

A pretty good Father's Day this year. Bagels and coffee with friends after church. Back home for a light lunch, a 30 minute nap, a glass of iced tea, and out to Morris Williams GC for a round of golf.

I teed off at 3:15, and the club house thermometer showed 98 degrees. Whew. The heat was somewhat mitigated by light breezes, and I tried to walk a good bit in the shades of trees. Promptly double bogeyed first hole.

I played the first 11 holes as a single, and waited not once to hit. I caught the fellow in front of me at the 12th tee and we played the remaining 7 together waiting occasionally on the twosome in front of us, and they did not appear to be to serious about golf hitting 2 or 3 shots from nearly every place. The entire round was just over 3 hours, a land speed record for me at this course. Overall score was 82 going 42 - 40 on the nines.

The problem with playing solo is no one sees your greatness. My greatness this day was off the tee. I was hitting some of my best drives ever. Unfortunately this greatness was offset by poor play from the fairway and on the green. The main theme of the day seemed to be having the ball below my feet on a thin lie. Also many times I'd be a full to half wedge away from the green and fail to get the ball on the green, often missing badly. Putting is also very unreliable. I hit all four par 3's in regulation, and had 11 putts. I did finally get on the birdie quest on the 11th hole, a par 5 sinking a 2 footer.

After teeing off at #5, I saw very bright blue bluebird. The feral parrots appear to have been run off as I neither saw nor heard any all day.

Later that night a family game of Scrabble. Tory passed off "nuke", which scored him about 6 points. "Thugs" and "jail" were in the same line together, and "ozone" made everyone giddy. Sean won this tense competition.

Popcorn bargain

Going to the movies? Consider the medium sized popcorn in a bag. (from Portfolio.com)

JK Rowling at Harvard

JK Rowling gave the commencement address at Harvard today. Our family has enjoyed her books so I was interested in what she had to say, and Jo (all her friends call her Jo) did not disappoint.

The site might add video of her address later.

Walking, Part 2

Its quickly getting too hot for some lunchtime walks of 40 to 45 minutes as summer approaches. On a recent walk, among all the other trash that is along the roadside was a Scratch-off lottery ticket. Of course it was a loser, and yes I checked, but I had to ask myself what if it had been a winner. And what if it had been a big winner. When is someone obligated to find the owner of a lost, but valuable item?

People find money occasionally here and there of nominal amounts to their good fortune. There are stories of cab drivers finding jewelry or huge amounts of cash left behind in their cars and ultimately finding the owner.

So, would I need to find the owner of a lost winning lottery ticket? And its a big winner. How would I do that? Perhaps a CraigsList ad - "If you've lost a $25 million dollar lottery ticket, please email me with the date and numbers, and where you lost it, and its yours."

Or perhaps I decide to cash it in. I can't find a scenario where I could be in trouble (my greatest fear in all this, accused of theft of some sort!) and would then be the winner. Clear conscious? Nothing a few hundred rounds of golf couldn't cure I hope.

The Bible has the parable of a man out walking who finds a great treasure in a field. He hides the treasure, sells all his property, then buys the field and acquires the great treasure for himself. The walking man does not tell the original owner of the treasure - maybe it was property owned by a corrupt government that acquired it threw some corrupt means, but we're not told that part of the story.

I am not sure what would happen, but I will keep searching.

Walking Part 1

Since I haven't been getting much exercise at home, I decided to spend most of my lunches at work walking. I have been getting about 40 to 45 minutes in about 4 times a week. The weather has been good so far but will be too hot soon enough. I have learned a few things.

Walking near where I work is no picnic. Many of the roads have no sidewalks, and the roads turn out to be highways. I am constantly on the look out at traffic. Often I have to walk in a dried out ditch to avoid being too close to the road.

There is trash everywhere. Even where you think there might not be trash, there's trash. I have seen just about everything in the most unusual places except for the stereotypical fish skeleton. People are pigs!

Out walking by yourself is like mowing the lawn. There isn't much to do except walk and think about stuff. When I return I don't remember much of what I thought about either, much like my dreams at night.

Sea To Shining Sea - By Bike!

A high school buddy of mine is riding from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic by bicycle. The trip involves 25 days of riding of about 100+ miles each day. They started with 7 straight days and then had a rest day; then 8 days more before a rest day and then finally 10 days straight to the Atlantic.

He is blogging about his ride experience and posting a few photos. The ride organizer also is posting entries and photos here.

Sounds like a great way to see the country, but as Eric writes there have been serious accidents and injuries and three riders have had heart attacks that have taken them out of the tour. Tragically one man dies in his sleep.

Rush Concert

The band Rush was here in Austin and Tory, Justin (one of Tory's buddies), Evan, and I were in the crowd for the show. Tory and Justin were in the lower floor seating, and Evan and I were in the upper arena seating, but I was pleased with our view.

Rush put on a good show. Somehow these three guys have managed to avoid getting frozen in time over the past 30 years of playing together. I can imagine that having to play "Spirit Of Radio" or "Tom Sawyer" every show for, well, ever might get stale. But I believe the very talented trio manages to keep their music fresh because they love the music, they love performing it, they aren't afraid to try anything new, and they keep moving forward by composing new music.

I have to admit that when Rush launched into some of their newer songs of the most recent "Snakes and Arrows" most of the crowd had blank faces. Tory told me he wasn't exactly taken with the new music on the cd, but hearing it live was much better. I like the songs and material, but didn't find it memorable ( a bit like a Simon Cowell might say ).

Rush did not stay away from their old hits tho. They launched the show with "Limelight", a great start, and dropped in "Freewill", "Red Barchetta", "Tom Sawyer" through out. Those are the titles I remember. I am not a devoted fan of theirs and don't carry around a Rush rolodex in my head. The guy sitting next to me was sending text messages of the set list out on his cell phone all night.

A very impressive presentation of a light show, videos, pyrotechnics, and terrific musicianship made for an enjoyable night. I will admit that I slipped in some ear plugs midway through the show and didn't miss a note. Thankfully they helped me avoid that Popsicle headache that often accompany a night after a concert. I was able to sleep without any ear ringing at all.

Chupa Chups

Here is a little tune that has been stuck in my head off and on over the past week. It comes from the Chupa Chups website. What is a Chupa Chup? It looks like a Tootsie Pop except it's fabrique en Mexico. I got two of them from a hotel lobby recently - a chocolate ice cream flavored and and orange cream flavored pop. The chocolate one wasn't bad, and I've been too afraid to try the orange.

The website features some flash animation depicting various pop culture scenes from recent decades. Stick around to the end, if not just to have the tune burn into your subconscious.

Golf 2008 Underway

The ribbon was cut on calendar year 2008 golf season yesterday as I headed out to Morris Williams GC for a round. I went straight from the parking lot, to the pro shop, to the first tee, and promptly parred the first hole. Not a pretty par - missed green about 5 yards off the front but then chipped up to a foot of hole and tapped in for par. Promptly bogeyed the next hole missing a 3 footer for par, and double bogey on next also missing 4 footer after dumping tee shot in water. Putting was an adventure all day - since I had no warm up the club felt like a lead pipe in my hands. Lots of good shots along the way, plenty enough to inspire me to get back out. I closed with a par on 18 going 43 + 40 for an 83.

The birdie quest is still in the starting gait however and I really only had 1 good chance but missed a flat 8 footer at least 3 inches left.

At public courses, as a single golfer, I wonder about who I'll be paired with. Are they any good, or will it be a long day of looking for someone else's shot. Yesterday was good. Two guys in a cart played a scramble explaining neither of them were good enough to play alone. The other fellow was oriental, or as Hank Hill might ask "Chinese or Japanese?" He and I both walked. He tended to be extremely deliberate, ie before most every swing - feet together, club down, feet apart, practice swing, repeat each step, then move up to ball feet together, club down, feet apart, and take shot. What a time kill. I had to keep moving to prevent going unconscious at times. Thankfully he was a decent player.

Rush tickets

This morning we won some tickets from a local radio startion to see Rush in Austin next week on the 23rd.

We went through a little comedy on the way. I originally made the call to the radio station and got through. I was telling Sean that I was going to get to play for the tickets when Tory walked in and overheard. He comes up to me and says "gimme the phone!" He was right - he's knows Rush better than I do, but we have to leave for school. So we pile into the car, turn off the radio, wait for the ads, and then the person ahead of us is up. All this is going on while we're driving to school, and I am fretting that the cell will give out or that we'll lose connection like on of the ads on TV. Tory hears the song clip and says "Freewill!" a split second later. After the first caller fails, I hear Tory connect and go on the air. He says, "I don't need to hear the clip, its 'Freewill'!" He wins. High fives all around in the car. Lots of banter with the radio guys ensues.

Tory is a big Rush fan, several DVD's of concerts, so we know what to expect, but he's never seen them live.

We roll up at the school just as he's finishing. His birthday was yesterday and the call screener saying to him "you should've said something!" I think he may have barely avoided a tardy today, but it was worth it.

Good times. BTW I won a Valentine Day package a little over a year ago from the same station identifying "Love Hurts" on the radio.

Now to decide who uses the tickets. Since we had 2 already, purchased as a present for Tory's birthday, Evan, Sean, and I will be stabbing each other in the back to go.

Happy Birthday Tory!

Here's Tory pictured in Boot Canyon at Big Bend National Park. He'll be going to see a Rush concert next week here in Austin as part of his birthday.

This birthday is going to cost me tho because he is now 17, and no longer can be used on the Child Credit for tax purposes. I am considering billing him for the difference this year.

Expelled

EXPELLED - This looks to be a good effort from Ben Stein. I heard him interviewed on the radio yesterday about this new documentary. Its about "Intelligent Design" vs "Darwinism" and how these ideas are taught in schools. Or not taught as teachers who mention Intelligent Design are summarily expelled from their jobs. The film debuts on 1100 screens this Friday the 18th, but not in Austin. I will have to wait.

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/home.php

April 15

"Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15."

- Ronald Reagan

I love this quote from the Great Ronald Reagan.

Not Tiger

What could make me waste 2 spectacular weekend days in Austin, TX? The Masters golf tourney of course. I have wasted April days in years past and will again in the future. US Open dates too. The Masters, a tradition unlike any other.

Not Tiger. Not Tiger. That's what I've been saying like a mantra nearly this whole weekend - Not Tiger. Tiger Woods that is. I didn't want him to win. I am not a Tiger hater, and I'll explain what I like about Tiger before I am done. I will readily admit he's the best ever, and there will never be another as good as Tiger- ever, but I don't want him to just pile up a bunch of major titles all at once. I estimate Tiger will likely finish his career with 8 or 9 Masters alone.

What bothers me most is the nauseating gush the media, mainly the TV coverage lays on Tiger. The commentators can't help themselves fawning over his greatness. Whenever there's an opportunity to show Tiger on the scoreboard, he will be as high as possible. Usually the number of holes played determines where on the board a player is placed when he is tied with others, but Tiger will always be on top of a list of players he's tied with. After the fourth rounds on Sunday, how many golfers were interviewed on air? Two. Who? Tiger, somewhere near the scorer's tent, and Trevor Immelman the winner right before he got his jacket.

Its also very irritating to watch everyone else in the field self-destruct. After Saturday's round this year there were 5 golfers ahead of Tiger, by as many as 5 shots - and all but 1 failed to keep himself together. Four golfers, and more crumbled out on the slopes of Augusta ( which this year looked especially frightening, and the wind was unsolvable as well ). Can't any of these guys hang with Tiger? Mickelson was horrible, as was Flesch, my brothers in left-handedness. You can count on the field to be painfully undependable when it comes to battling Tiger.

What do I like about Tiger? I will keep this short. He is all business out on the golf course, every shot gets 100% effort and he doesn't like or accept a poor performance - while he is on the course. Is there any shot of his you don't expect to see go in - miracles from him are routine. When Tiger "self-destructs", he finished second.

After his round on Sunday he is being interviewed by CBS reporter Bill McAtee about his "terribly frustrating day." At the time Immelman had double bogeyed 16 and was only 3 shots in front. McAtee's last question for Tiger was, " What do you plan to do now?", of course meaning Immelman is real shakey right now and might falter on 17 and 18 and Tiger you might end up in a playoff. Tiger's answer - "I plan to go get something to eat. I am really hungry"; Tiger knew what the question wanted, an answer saying something like " well I plan to go hit some balls and stay fresh because Trevor might fail and I could still win this thing." No, Tiger paused for effect and finished by saying ' Trevor had a bad hole, but he's solid and will bring this into the clubhouse. ' Tiger knew he did all he could do and was bested - and like the rest of us wanted to eat something and let Immelman enjoy his win. I liked that - Tiger has class - especially the way he toyed with TV.

Good work Trevor Immelman. Thanks for not falling totally to pieces down the stretch, tho you tried to give a lot of it back. And thanks Tiger - you're great, the greatest. Please pardon me if I enjoy seeing the TV guys have a bad day at your expense.

Adventures in grocery stores

Last night, pushing my cart along in an HEB at MoPac and Hwy 183, I looked up to see something flutter overhead. I didn't get a good look but whatever it was circled back and flew right over me again. This time I had no doubt, it was a bat. I watched it's random flying for a minute or so, and then saw one of the male employees there chasing after it with a large plastic milk carton. I warned him that he might want to be careful not to harm or kill that bat or HEB would probably get in a bunch of trouble. He ran off and I suspect was successful in catching the bat as I heard loud proud exclamations later. Something you don't normally see on a grocery run.

I wasn't really too worried about that bat flying into my hair and getting all tangled up in there.

Google street maps

I received an email from my brother John late today telling me that the old car we recently sold is shown in front of our house on Austin street maps. My response - what are Austin street maps. After he replied telling me it is part of google maps, I looked up my address, and holy cow, there is my house. Two cars in front. Christmas lights are still up. So this was done over Christmas. The view can be maneuvered with the mouse. Wow. Its really good.

I have to wonder if this is a good thing tho. There have got to be a lot of creeps out there that could use these views for nefarious deeds. I don't really know what could happen to us personally but it bothers me in the back of my mind.

PS The basketball goal is gone - it fell on the Honda during a heavy storm over the Christmas holidays.

Unplugged

I was listening to Laura Ingraham's radio show yesterday as I took the end of the week off for Spring Break. She was talking about "unplugging" from the electronic connected world, if not for a short a period of time to cleanse and rejuvenate the brain. She also spoke with Jon Mattleman (link from Technorati) about programs he uses with middle schoolers and why unplugging is a good thing.

This topic is constantly lurking about our house. As our kids use the internet more for email, chatting, and stuff, we are battling to limit the time spent online. But our kids don't come close to the hundreds of minutes a day online either - but on occaission they can come close.

How difficult is it for us to unplug? In my opinion we're not in too deep. Only one computer in the house, well except for Evan's and nobody wants to go into his room and he doesn't want to come out, and as a result demand far outstrips supply as far as online time goes. Only one family cell phone with no text messaging and I have a business cell phone - no texting. Cable TV is only the basic of basics. We get 12 channels maybe and several are the community access stations which are jokes. Everyone now has a personal mp3 player too, except Evan recently had his stolen and is using Sam's. Beyond that we're relatively free of technology, and yet we feel its tidal pull. Email must be checked, Facebook page maintained, mp3 players managed, research for school (something actually productive!), and checking the blog reader. Homework on the computer is accompanied by Instant Messages, and other chatter and distractions.

Unplugging is a conscious effort, hard work most of the time met with resistence. We took a trip last October to Big Bend National Park as part of unplugging, but an mp3 player or 2 went along, and all the pre-trip planning happened online. It was successful but we were swept back into the tech current as we returned home.

I can't argue against a regular respite from the information superhighway, on a family basis too, but its a planned, announced event.

Happy Pi Day (3.14)

Happy Pi Day. Here's to hoping that last decimal place will never be calculated.

Pi are not squared, pi are round.