Coincidence? I think not.

Late night Christmas Eve, I was driving to our church to pick up Tory. I had my mp3 player plugged in and set on random play. As I was about to exit the freeway, Carry On Wayward Son came on. Merging onto the access road I saw the light up ahead was already red, of course, and so I stopped behind a car already waiting. Then I looked at the license plate of that car and saw it was from Kansas.

Crossword constructor starts a blog

Brendan Emmitt Quigley has begun a blog on crossword puzzles and construction of them. His puzzles are usually fun to work on and are full of modern references. Good insights into his process of putting puzzles together. There is a pledge to post at least 3 puzzles a week, and in pdf so as to make them easy to print.

Snow In Austin

I need to record this somewhere. Snow fell here in Austin on 12/9/8. Late in the evening around 11 PM after a bit of sleeting, flakes of snow began blowing all around the house. A bit wet, and it didn't accumulate whatsoever, except maybe on the roof of the house and cars. But it sure did look nice and peaceful, especially being illuminated by the Christmas lights on the house.

Krackers the cat escaped into the backyard, and ran under the nearby bushes getting fairly muddy. Samantha had to retrieve him.

I can't remember any snow here in Austin this time of year over the past 24 years.

The Bailout

Spencer Tracey is the Congress. Sid Caesar, Jonathan Winters, Mickey Rooney, et al, are the auto industry, big banking, etc wanting the big cash. The big cash in the briefcase belongs to the American taxpayer of course, taken from them but that's a different analogy. The suitcase busting open and the cash being scattered into the wind is the accountability of the bureaucrats in this whole bailout mess. Finally, I liken the firetruck's attempt at the rescue to what's needed eventually get the economy back on sound footing - a few unpleasant things will have to happen and fail, but then the hospilization and curing begins. No pain, no gain.

PS How'd they get away with Rochester landing in Abe Lincoln's lap? And that's Sterling Holloway as the fireman who ascends the ladder. The briefcase full of cash is a great MacGuffin.

Long sleeves

Long sleeved shirts. Who can tolerate them? The cuffs always seem to be getting damp in some way and then feel uncomfortable.

Movie Buzz

Dinner table talk provided the following questions last night. What movies:
A. Might you never watch again and be happy about it?
B. Watch any time it comes on? Not that they are great, but that you'd watch.

There are simply too many A's to list. Any of the Tolkien movies make the list, even tho we own them.

I would watch Raiders Of The Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, Jaws, Dr Strangelove, Planet Of The Apes (with Heston of course), and Yellow Submarine, without fail. Others on the edge - 7 Faces Of Dr Lao, Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), Young Frankenstein, Sean Connery's movies as James Bond, and Rope (cool Hitchcock flick).

There is probably a lot more I couldn't turn away from.

Fred Thompson explains it

Nice going Fred. I wish he or someone had been a little louder when all the bailout mess began.

He may be the only one.

Neil Young Archives

The long fabled archives may finally be ready. $432 bucks for Blue Ray!! I am a fan, but not that big of a fan.

Thanksgiving Turkey Means Breaking A Few Eggs

What a "shock"! If you are going to eat turkey for Thanksgiving, you have to kill a few turkeys. Sarah Palin is interviewed in front of some turkey-farmer preparing a few birds for shipping and hilarity ensues.



My grandfather, who ran a dairy farm for years, raised calves for beef as well. One calf my brothers and I played with when we were kids and affectionately named Bruno. However, one dinner during a visit to my grandparents house my grandfather asked us if we recognized Bruno as he was being served for dinner. Forks collectively dropped and hit plates.

Limerick Day 14

I was enjoying some popcorn last night
When in the middle of one of my bites
A small piece of kernel
Caused problems eternal
Getting wedged between my pearly whites.

Limerick Day 13

This morning I awoke at 6:01
And considered going out and taking a run
My heart wasn't in it
Slept 50 more minutes
Jogging has never seemed that much fun.

Neil Young - Happy Birthday

Neil at his best.

Limerick Day 11

The razor sliced into my lip
From my chin, blood starts to drip
After thirty years
Nicks are real fears
My talent at shaving is zip

Starbucks Fun

Razor is having fun at Starbucks.

I will try the "Gretzky" alias my next trip.

Limericks Day 10

Who would think that at the end of the day
Fairly unique phrases don't get that much play
With all due respect
I personally object
Its a nightmare finding pleasing things to say.

Will Shortz on The Simpsons

Will Shortz and Merl Reagle will be on The Simpsons next week. I haven't been watching the new episodes for a long time but will check this one out. Reagle has constructed Simpson packed puzzles for next Sunday as well.

Limerick Day 6

What is the best way to go
Many of us really don't know
Inner peace is a snap
Visit Google Maps
And get from Pflugerville to Waco

Limerick Day 5

The national election has closed
The ballot boxes disposed
Obama has won
(His experience be none)
Republicans collectively got hosed.

Limerick Day 4

A limerick a day is quite daunting
In my brain the task is haunting
I know that I'm not
Writing a lot
Its worthy ideas I am wanting.



A bit of a stretch. Writing about writing. But I don't have any mulligans.

Limerick Day 3

Gas prices are finally abating
Its something we've all been awaiting
A solution was needed
Cause our pressure receded
The car's tires simply needed inflating.

Limerick Day 2

In the Express checkout line I stand
With 10 items or less in hand
Ahead of me I see
A lady with twenty
Hey! "Go to the other lines," I demand!


I wish I could do this, but I never do.

Limerick Day 1

On the day after Halloween
Samantha will then be fourteen
A wonderful daughter
and joy to her father
Happy Birthday to the silly-ness queen.

Limericks

Somehow last night limericks came up in casual conversation. A "brief statement of faith" is required as part of my officer training to the church session. I told Tory I should serve mine up in the form of a limerick. It probably hasn't been done before so I might be seen as an innovator or a visionary.

November is National Write A Novel In A Month month. I don't think I can do that. But I bet I can write a limerick each day of November. I shall give it a go. I put the over under a about 5 days.

It won't be enough to write limericks though. Much like Chopin reinvented the scherzo, prelude, and etude, I shall attempt to elevate the limerick to a new poetic artform. Limericks have typically been on the bawdy, off color side - I will have none of that! IE the following will not appear ....

The once was a man named Glass
Whose [insert male reproductive organs here] were made of brass
If he rubbed them together
During bad weather
Lightning would shoot out of his arse.

None of that!

I may slip in a haiku or two.

The Times They Are A Changing

The New York Times has been rated as an extremely risky debtor. Maybe the government should step in and take ownership of this and like newspapers in a bailout effort. Aren't we all in favor of a state run news agency, well, outside of NPR? As long as WILLz keeps the crosswords coming.

A Big Government is going to need a big press.

Re-Obama-fication

I can see by the Big Board we've got a Negative Nelly in Sector 2. Prepare for some re-Obama-fication.

Poor Joe The Plumber. Ask a simple question and find yourself a candidate for the Gulag.

Thankfully we have another Joe. The Biden. Both Joes have a knack for telling the truth about the Democrats and Obama. Can't have that tho.

Apparently The Biden has been pulled back into the tall grass and is probably getting some needed re-Obama-fication himself.

Senator Government

McCain refers to Obama tonight in the debate as Senator Government! How screamingly accurate. He should call him that at every chance until the election.

I thought McCain brought great eloquence and passion with his remarks about being adoptive parents himself with his wife Cindy. He followed with the defense of the unborn. Very well spoken and honest. Obama just filibustered and spun - nowhere near the middle ground - not to be trusted, especially with the Supreme Court.

A good job by McCain.

Librarian's Patron Saint

My mom, being a retired librarian, might appreciate knowing who the patron saint of librarians is. I didn't know, but I am not a librarian. But as an avid user of libraries anywhere I wouldn't mind an invite to a feast for St. Jerome.

Spirit Of AggieLand

Samantha and I went over to College Station for the A and M v. Army football game on the last weekend of September. It was an 11:30 a.m. kickoff so we had to leave Austin early. We got our tickets from some friends here and met them at Rudy's BBQ in Round Rock. After a few breakfast tacos we drove over to AggieLand.

We arrived in plenty of time. In fact I had to walk back to the car twice forgetting once the camera and then our notepaper with phone numbers and such of the people we were to meet over the day. Our seats were 3 rows up from the field, behind the north end zone. Actually a great place to see all the events of the day, but most of the football we saw on the jumbo-tron.

We were in our seats in plenty of time for the National Anthem, Texas Our Texas, The Spirit of AggieLand, and the Aggie War Hymm. Sam and I sawed the horns off with 80,000 plus other Aggies there. It was awesome to see the entire statium, and it was nearly full, all sawing and singing.

It was "Armed Forces Appreciation Day" so there was a helicopter flyover and four paratroopers dropped into Kyle Field before the start. The Aggie band played all of the military marches from each branch of service, and the Singing Cadets sang America.

After the game we went and took our pictures on the 50 yard line and in the end zones. Next we walked across the campus visiting some old favorites of mine, my old dorm, the All Faiths Chapel where my parents were married 50 years ago. Then we met some fraternity buddies I haven't seen in over 25 years and they were cooking fajitas, so we had a few bites to eat and visited. Next we walked thru the Bonfire Memorial and the headed back to our car and left campus.

We headed into Bryan to visit my cousin Susan and her dad my uncle Bubba. A nice visit of about 30 minutes and then we started our drive back to Austin.

Sam and I had a grand time.

Banana skin usefullness

Next time you slip up on a banana skin, you might want to hesitate before picking it up. You never know where its been.

Apparently, hockey announcers don't have much to do in the off season.

Razor - go guest host on the Hardline or something. Geesh.

An old fable in a new bottle

Michelle Malkin spins a nifty yarn.

"Barack Cicada" had me laughing. I see cicada shells all over the back yard, the bugs shedding their skin, talking of change, but still the same old pests they were before.

I need early voting to get here asap so I can cast my ballot and be done with it.

Alkali Ike

Looks like Hurricane Ike may blow through Austin TX, and may be a CAT 2 when it arrives. It is predicted to get into town Saturday morning (9/13/8). I don't think we've had a storm system like this in my time here, almost 25 years. I can remember working long ago at the City Services oil refinery in Sulphur LA over 2 summers and having to prepare for approaching hurricanes - tying down scaffolding, moving barrels of stuff into storage, and other securing of loose items. All of that work usually meant spending the next week untying all those things.

So far in Austin, football games are being rescheduled, including the game between UT and Arkansas (not official yet, but likely). Gas prices are creeping up in anticipation of people on the Texas coast evacuating here.

The hurricane should make for an interesting weekend.

Obama voted YES on Bridge To Nowhere, Biden too

Barack Obama is trying to make hay about Sarah Palin being for the Bridge To Nowhere before being against it. Apparently he and Joe Biden were for the Bridge instead of diverting those funds to hurricane relief in New Orleans. Hilarity ensued.

I think I am going to side with Alaska's Governor Palin on this one. As a fellow blogger asks, where is the bridge now, and who is responsible for stopping it. Palin.

Sarah Palin

What a relief. I think I now look forward to voting for John McCain instead of having to vote for him. Sarah Palin is actually giving me hope McCain can win.

As an added bonus, Sarah Palin will be groomed for the presidential job when McCain's run is over.

A very nice choice for veep.

Ice, Ice baby

Here is someone blogging about a hot topic at our house. Ice cubes to drink ratio in a glass.

Here are the comments I left there ...

Ice to drink ratio is dependent on 3 variables: the temperature of the drink being cooled, the size of the ice cubes, and the drink glass size. As an example - freshly brewed tea is hot, but I need a drink. I have a large glass. If my wife has made ice (we use trays) the ice will be small, a whole tray will be used, and the ice will melt almost completely away, and I'll have no more left to cool it down further. If I filled the ice tray the cubes will likely be twice the size and I will use half as much initially. After melting I will still have some ice left to cool the drink to the desired temp, and a much more pleasing drink, provided I use the right amount of sweetener.

I also recommend using a straw. You can put the end in the drink right next to or in between the ice cubes and the drink will be colder. Its also easier to drink ice tea from a straw while in the car.

The straw is a key component as well. Potential drink stirrer, and it helps identify your glass from among similar drinks.

Theft!

Evan's car was broken into overnight. His stereo was taken and there's a bit of damage to the rear passenger door and window. Also an acoustic guitar was taken out of the trunk - the one Uncle John had a long time ago - sorry about that J. The car was parked on the street which is probably a mistake but its been parked there often with no incident. I guess we played those odds too long.

Not much to do at this point except call the police and have the car repaired.The back passenger window was broken in. Once inside all doors can be unlocked and there is a trunk release just inside front driver door. It is ironic the very day I wax poetic about the neighbors not getting vandalized, we get hit instead.

I blame it on fake hurricane Eduordo. We got nothing here - except a serious allergy headache. If maybe some serious rain had blown in our car might've been left alone.

I told Evan to try Homer's strategy by claiming there was a Picasso in the back seat too.

Documentary recommendations

Bob Sturm over at The Ticket and Bob's Blog likes documentaries. He has embedded trailers for most of his recommendations.

Bad Radio's host tends to like a bit of quirkiness in documentaries. I am not a big fan of SuperSize Me or any of Michael Moore's work. I tend to favor those films that are well edited, and are good humored. I don't like films that are out to make fun of the people they portray.

I'm thinking King Of Kong is next on the radar screen. Thanks Bob.

Salmon

Our neighbors across the street had to take down an ash tree in their front yard. Instead of cutting the tree all the way to ground level, they decided to have some salmon cut out of the trunk. After leaving about 8 feet of trunk above ground, a chainsaw artist came and over 2 and a half days cut the fish out of the wood.

Every car passing by stops to take a look or take pictures. I hope it doesn't get vandalized.

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.

For Once Please Keep Talking

At work one morning I was a bit hungry and remembered there was some good thick French bread leftover from the previous day's lunch of BBQ. I heated it up and piled some peanut butter on it nice and thick, then headed back to my desk. I sat down, took a big bite, started to chew, and the phone rang. Without thinking I picked up the phone and discovered I couldn't open my mouth due to the peanut butter. I think I mumbled something and feverishly began chewing. Luckily for me, it was a sales call from a temp/staffing agency and she was telling me how great her company was. All I could think of was - Please Keep Talking - and she did.

It was Jerry Lewis all over again.

High Speed Wheelie

On the way home from work as I am driving on interstate 35 I glance over to my right to the access road and see a motorcycle. At that moment the motorcyclist lifts the front wheel off the pavement and rides a wheelie. He keeps that front wheel up for quite a while. I look quickly at my speedometer and I am at 65 mph - the motorcycle is even with me and holds that speed, even passing a car or two in other lanes while on one wheel. It looks crazy to me to risk falling but he maintains it for about 15 seconds, over a quarter mile, before setting down to slow due to an approaching red light.

Not good for anyone's blood pressure.

Wisdom teeth

Evan had his wisdom teeth pulled this past Leap Day. All four came out. I took off the morning from work to take him in and he was in for the procedure a little after 8:30 a.m. Sean showed up from her office about an hour later before Evan was put in recovery. When we first saw him he was in a recliner and looked to be completely out. But he came to briefly and asked us if his teeth had been pulled yet. After we indicated yes his teeth were out, he went back to sleep for about 20 minutes. I brought him home and he promptly took some meds and hit the sack.

I remembered two things from the past from this. First was a doctor's visit I took Evan to when he was about a year old. It was to have his ears drained. He was crying and miserable from the pain, and I was there only as a substitute because the more qualified pediatric nurse mom was working. The doctor explained briefly what was to happen with me and started to take Evan to the back rooms to work on him. I was told to stay in the waiting room. As I handed Evan over he began to reach back to me and ratcheted up the crying a few notches. He looked horrified. I don't like that memory much. But he was put in a "papoose board", they drained his ears and he was happy on the way home and that night.

My own wisdom teeth came out in 1979 during the summer. I was working as unskilled labor in an oil refinery in Sulphur, LA and developed a blue ribbon toothache in my right lower jaw. I couldn't work and I had the feeling our supervisor thought I was faking. X-rays were taken - and the doctor tells me I have a serious bacterial abscess under my wisdom tooth on the right, but he can't understand why the left side does not hurt because it is worse. The surgery was scheduled, but the night before the pain was so bad that my mother took me to an ER for the pain. I got my first shot of demerol, but being in the ER with a toothache is little embarrassing. I remember seeing a fellow that had rammed a screwdriver into his hand, and one or two other real looking ER victims so that I felt silly with my toothache. Surgery was routine - for the doctor anyway - all 4 wisdom teeth were removed and I went home to spend the next few days having the abscesses cured. A good friend of mine came over while I was recovering and wanted to play gin rummy - penny a point.

Crossword Diety Gather

Its no secret we are crossword geeks in my family. Mom and Dad, all my brothers, myself and Sean, my paternal grandparents, all have a thing for crosswords. But as good as we might think we are either individually or collectively, we are still on the human level of solving - or in golf terms we might break 80 every once in a while, otherwise bogey golf.

Our routine here in Austin is pretty simple. I work the Friday Wall Street Journal puzzle, and then the Sunday NY Times, and if I get through those the Sunday LA Times, and maybe a few dailies from the NY Times. Speed is not of the essence. I choose to solve at my own pace. Piecing together themes, wordplay, and puns is its own reward.

The crossword deity are gathering this weekend, Feb 29- March 2, for their annual competition. Its all about speed and accuracy there. Check out the movie "Word Play" for the 2005 competition caught on film. Its time for Al Sanders to break thru and win this thing. He is the Susan Lucci of this event. C'mon Al - Get 'er done.

Another Night of Theater

Saturday the 23rd was the final night for Sam and her 7th grade classmates to perform their play. A correction to earlier post - the title of the play is actually "Final Dress Rehearsal." Another cheery performance by the cast.

Not being a regular live theater goer, I can imagine that it may be a bit difficult to watch the same play on consecutive nights, and some families there may have seen this four times as there were two classes performing the same play. This being light comedy some of the punchlines were not getting the crowd reaction comparable to the previous night, especially during the fourth performance. But the cast did not notice and put full energy into their act.

Afterwards another round of high fives for all, and then the cast and crew headed out to IHOP for a post play get together. Samantha says she asked their waiter for the wine list while ordering. That's a pretty short list at IHOP.

Sean pulled up sick Saturday right as the play was ending. On the way we had to pick up Tory who had been baby sitting for some friends we know from our church. After getting him we got Sean and Tory (ever hungry) a Panda Express bowl, and evidently Sean's had some chicken in it setting off major allergic reaction. We hustle back to the house and she downs a benadryl. We watch a movie, Aragon, I pick up Sam at IHOP near 11:30 and go home.

Sean looks as if she's recovered by the time I get back from church Sunday a.m., but it seems she gets an aftershock or two periodically over the day.

I Love Legitimate Theater

Sam's 7th grade class performed their play tonight (2/22) titled "Curtain Call." In short, it was a play within a play, the trials and tribulations of putting on a dramatic production. The inside play was "Cinderella", and Sam's character played the Fairy Godmother. Her big moment comes when she appears to do magic for Cinderella, but couldn't find her wand, and instead is forced to use a gaudy yellow pinwheel that looks like a big sunflower. Sam makes easy light work of her part, dancing around a bit at one point during her incantations.

Sam and her classmates look to be having a good time. No one seemed nervous and no gaffes occurred, that I could tell. Although at one point the Authoress is on stage speaking and it looked like her pearls came loose from around her neck and began to clatter on the microphone. It reminded me of a scene from the movie "Singing In The Rain". The actress gathered the loose strand into her hand without missing a beat.

High fives for everyone after it was over tonight, big smiles. One more performance tomorrow afternoon and the final curtain falls.

Lunar eclipse in Austin

Another lunar eclipse here in Austin TX this past Feb 20. Fortunately the powers that be scheduled this one at a decent hour and not at 3:30 am.

I was talking to my dad on the phone at the time so I walked outside and looked for the moon. Unfortunately we had a very low ceiling and I couldn't even find a single star. Horizon to horizon the sky was total mist and cloud.

Very disappointing. Celestial events are rare and awesome, and I feel deprived of a lifetime experience.

Kasey our border collie - my moon-gazing soul mate - once again failed to notice.

Don't talk to me, I have headphones on.

Sitting in a hockey game over the weekend, I glanced about at the crowd around me and noticed half a dozen folks in my end of the arena with earbuds in their ears. What could they possibly be listening to at a hockey game, and how could they possibly enjoy the music with all the crowd noise? And how could they possibly be good company to the people they were with?

I decided to venture out into public with earbuds in my own ears after this. I had to make a quick trip after work to WalMart for a few necessities and took my mp3 player with me. Threading the cord into my pocket and buds into my ears, I push PLAY and head into the store.

First up - I'll Follow The Sun (Beatles). Earlier I had built a playlist of tracks in the player of music that were greater than 1:30 but less than 2:00 in length, about 175 tracks or slightly more than 5 hours of music. I want to avoid what Tory calls "mp3ADD". If I don't like something I don't have to wait long for changes. MP3ADD is a disease that causes you to continually cycle through the music on your player trying to find something to listen to. The Beatles are a good inoculation against this ailment. Head to the grocery side of the store.

The lady inside the front door greets me welcoming me to Wal Mart. I turn taking the basket and say thanks. Mental note: turn down voice volume at once.

Next - Circus Clown Calliope. Wow, is that still in there? I am probably the only person in the world listening to calliope music.

I notice that people see me, and the headphones. Its probably my paranoia but it looks like they are thinking "What is that old dude doing with headphones on?" I did see a few others wearing earphones, and I tried to give them that knowing nod that says "yeah we're shopping and listening to tunes," but they were teens and they looked back at me with typical indifference. How disappointing. I thought I could fit in finally.

There is a sheet metal worker where I work who I have never seen without earphones in his ears. Even at our company Christmas party this year he had them in.

Ah, a Neverhood game song (titled "Jose Feliciano" by Terry Taylor). The Neverhood was probably the only computer game I have enjoyed playing, and the sound track is fun as well.

Sometime before leaving I also hear some Danny Elfman music from the movie Big Fish, a Chopin Prelude, and some brass ensemble music amoung others. Again, I will wager of all the folks wearing headphones right then, I am the only one listening to that kind of music.

At checkout I pull out the left earbud and hear the first live voice since I came in. I wouldn't say I learned why some like having music in their head constantly. Or why I would take my mp3 player into a movie theater. But having that little mp3 player with me has become more pleasant.

At least it has a pop top lid

Is this something we really need? A cheeseburger in a can. I hope that they come without onions or tomatoes.

Chess on TV or In Movies

A recent casual conversation brought up how chess appears in movies or TV shows to portray a character's traits while playing the game. The one discussed the opening scenes of Casablanca in which Rick (Bogart) is playing chess with Peter Lorre. What does chess say about Rick? and why at the beginning of the movie. It turns out Bogart was a big fan of chess and was a fairly strong player.

What movies come to mind that I have seen in which chess featured? Searching For Bobby Fischer immediately pops up. Chess was used a device to illustrate a child's gift and the changes this gift brings to his family. Lots of chess action, and players are not necessarily made fun of. Next is 2001 A Space Odyssey in which the computer HAL plays chess with the astronauts. Nice use of chess here to convey the computer's precision in planning and strategies to defeat mere frail humans. The first Harry Potter movie uses chess as a protective obstacle for the Sorcerer's Stone, and here demonstrates one of the character's willingness to sacrifice himself for the good of the others (altho in the end he survives of course). Finally from my memory comes Stalag 17 where one of the chess pieces is used to inform Nazi prison camp guards of allied POW plans for escapes. I think a James Bond movie has chess but a can't find it in my memory.

I can only think of three TV shows that had chess anywhere in them. The first was Star Trek. For some reason Capt Kirk is able to defeat Spock on a fairly routine basis, probably to show that Kirk relies on a fusion of logic, emotion, and intellect to strategize while Spock is logic bound. However in one episode Spock is able to defeat the ship's computer in three straight games when he should only be able to draw - this clues Spock to conclude that the computer is malfunctioning and therefore some intruder is aboard. Genius. The TV mystery series Columbo had an excellent episode in which two chess grandmasters are competing in a match and one ends up murdering the other, or else Columbo wouldn't have anything to do. I recall an interesting restaurant scene in which the two players begin playing a game using items found on the tables for pieces (olives, salt shakers etc) and the gingham table cloth as the board, and I believe the outcome of that game provided the final straw for one GM to kill the other. Lastly is the Cosby Show but since I rarely watched it I don't remember why it was used. Probably so Cliff could talk a big game only to be defeated by Rudy.

That's all I can conjure up. I know there are others. Give me time to remember. Chess is usually a metaphor for stuffy, nerdy, or other diminutive characterizations, but the above shows used it quite effectively and in a good chess light.

Unfinished posts

Blogger really does me no favors by allowing a post to be saved without publishing. I am able to leave some things in there like leftovers in our refrigerator, eventually they turn bad and are thrown away.

Here's to starting something that gets finished, or rather the other way around.

Not another New Year Resolution post!

Not exactly. Philo recommends taking up something you once loved to do but have quit doing for some reason.

I’m struck, too, that one can still take up paths long neglected, and that doing so is surprisingly rewarding. I took up playing the bass again after thirty years; in fact, my main Christmas present was a Crate BX100 bass amp. I’ve started composing music, something I hadn’t done since college. Dymphna has taken up ice skating. If you’re in search of a New Year’s resolution, I recommend thinking back and taking up again something you used to love but gave up along the way.

I've given up so many things in the past that picking one is going to be difficult. I think I'll look over a few.

In the not too distant past I was serious about learning to play the piano. At my 33rd birthday I showed up at my first lesson with a book of Scott Joplin's rags under my arm and told my teacher that was what I wanted to play. She kindly took the book away from me a gave me the basic Piano 101 books that every beginner must start from. Before beginning lessons I drafted 10 goals I wanted to accomplish. After receiving much encouragement from an AOL online group of teachers I dove in. Five years later I stopped taking lessons. I estimate I made about 2 years worth of progress, and probably met only about 2 to 3 of my stated goals. Sounds disappointing, but not really. Having elementary and preschool age children made practice time difficult. Plus I am not a natural - everything learned was through hard work. I still can play bits of the music I did learn, and at the time listened to much music I wouldn't have otherwise heard or cared about. I went to the Scott Joplin Music Festivals in Missouri, met performers there, became a distant friend to one of them. I could go on. Piano was good to me.

Before starting high school I was bitten by the chess bug. Bobby Fischer was playing for the world championship against the hated Russians, and I followed that match closely. I received a chess set and clock for Christmas 1973, of which I still have the pieces, lots of books and began playing competitively. I actually would get into trouble for staying out too late at night going to chess meeting held at the local university. I got better through study and practice, to a point, and then hit a snag. At some point I realized that chess is a really difficult game that would take some major studying in order to get beyond the average competitive levels. I wasn't ready to give up my golf game for chess.

For some odd reason hockey is a family favorite. My two boys played quite a bit of roller blade hockey growing up. It always looked like fun. A few years back I tried it playing in an adult league in Round Rock Texas. It was a blast. I can't remember a team sport being that much fun. Hockey was fun, frustrating, physically demanding, and exciting - and that's from the adult slow motion league. In my final season I scored the 2 goals in the championship game.

Of the 3 listed, hockey ain't gonna happen. My skates have been cannibalized by Evan and Tory for wheels and bearing and the hardware is missing. Plus I am so badly out of shape I wouldn't last 30 seconds on a shift, and I haven't skated since that last game.

Piano - I like it. Still play occasionally. I am all for playing more but I won't be taking lessons anymore. I will play simpler music and practice reading music as much as possible, and try to enjoy the music. At times when I was learning, I tended to get angry and frustrated at my progress or lack thereof and wouldn't be able to hear what I was doing as a whole. Playing for my own enjoyment sounds like a worthy goal.

Chess is the likely winner here. Tory has shown great interest in learning the game in the past few months, going as far as helping start a club and ladder group at his school. He has managed to beat me once so far, but other than that I have had the upper hand. The bad news for Tory, as I have told him, is that I am not very good meaning he has a long way to go. Looking at chess books and playing through instructional games does not seem so onerous anymore. I think I am more patient and able to take in the intended information, maybe even pass it on to Tory in a way he will absorb it as well.