Positive Day

Let me begin by saying that I had a much better, much longer post drafted for today. But since I’m sitting in a hotel room on my way to our first real vacation in a few years, and the post in question is on a computer hard drive back at work, this will have to suffice.

That being said, it also reminds me of just how much I have to be thankful for.

Today is Positive Day in the Blogosphere. It is also Systems Administrator Appreciation Day. But most importantly to me, today is my eleventh wedding anniversary. And I can honestly say that I am still schoolboy smitten with my beautiful wife. I love her more today than I did the day we were married. As corny as it sounds, I married my best friend.

I am truly blessed!

Random iPod Shuffle

I’m bored. I shouldn’t be bored but I am. I guess knowing that you’re leaving on vacation in about 26 hours makes the days seem that much longer. Regardless, I’m bored.

Let’s do a random iPod Shuffle, shall we?

1. I Forgot to Remember to Forget – Elvis Presley
2. Sacred Vision – Iron & Wine
3. Think About It – Flight of the Conchords
4. Broke – Todd Snider
5. All That You Have Is Your Soul – Emmylou Harris
6. Insider – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
7. The First Cut is the Deepest – Cat Stevens
8. Brand New Cadillac – The Clash
9. Fingertips (Reprise) – They Might Be Giants
10. Bisbee Blue – Calexico
11. Moon Song (bonus track) – Norah Jones
12. In Your Eyes – Sarah Kelly
13. Miracle Man – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
14. Birds & Ships – Billy Bragg & Wilco
15. Walking the Dog – Rufus Thomas

Hmmm – began & ended with Memphis legends. Interesting.

Ok – I’m still bored.

Advice from the Nerd

Regardless of how functional or handy Bluetooth headsets are for those few fleeting seconds a day that you actually need them, to walk around in public wearing one 24/7 is just plain ridiculous. Sure they can help you out if you need to talk while driving or typing, but what good are they doing you in the mall or at a ballgame? You may think that it makes you look tech savvy or like a highly evolved cyborg. But trust me – it does not. It just makes you look like a douchebag.

Circumvolution is Salubrious

One of my stranger collections is made up entirely of tops. People often ask me why one would collect so many tops, and I really can’t offer much of an answer except that I just really like them. I like the idea of simple yet fascinating toys; toys that require no electrical cords, no batteries, no complicated instructions, no assembly; toys that don’t necessarily inspire competition or winners and losers. A chunk of wood with a sharpened stick through the middle and a little wrist action is all you need.

I guess if I think about it through the lens of my mechanical engineering background, I would like the fact that the design is simple but requires precision in order for it to work more effectively. The top must be perfectly balanced for each spin to last longer. The axis must be exactly centered and perpendicular to the outer disk in order to achieve this level of balance. Every aspect of the design can affect its overall performance; the length and position of the axis, the diameter and thickness of the disk, the weight distribution of the two parts, the surface that it is spun on and so much more.

Historically, according to Wikipedia, “the top is one of the oldest recognizable toys found on archaeological sites. Spinning tops originated independently in cultures all over the world.” Which fascinates that Discovery Channel part of my brain.

It’s been said that a top only exhibits the illusion of spinning. In reality it is always falling, but turns too quickly to actually fall. I’m not sure that I buy that explanation as I tend to lean more towards descriptions of gravity, angular momentum, and gyroscopic effect. But it does make for an interesting analogy. It’s not a perfect analogy (as Judge Sotomayor said during her confirmation hearings, all analogies are imperfect), but it’s an analogy just the same.

As a Christian and as a human, I am always falling in a billion different directions. I am an imperfect being and cannot possibly even dream to be able to continue spinning on my axis or standing upright under my own power for very long. Life is hard. The forces of the world are continually pulling me in every direction, trying to disrupt my life. I require something or someone bigger and infinitely more powerful than myself in order to keep going or to pick myself up and start spinning again. Which is why I, as the hymn says, turn my eyes upon Jesus.

A Cat Called Magic

I think we’ve been conned by a small yellow cat.

Oh, he knew what he was doing when he climbed the front steps of the church on Sunday morning as services were starting, being careful not to use one of his back legs as if it was somehow mysteriously hurt. I’m not sure how, but he must’ve also known that my wife & niece were in the sanctuary, neither of them being able to pass a hurt animal without welling up with tears and uncontrollably wanting to help the poor thing out. You should see them when those ASPCA or Humane Society commercials come on the air! It’s truly sad.

Well done young cat. You managed to play the Tiny Tim/Little Match Girl/Oliver Twist card to perfection. And now we are your unwitting host family; buying you food, providing you shelter & affection, nursing your supposed wound. Oh yeah. You’re good. We surrender to your overt cuteness.

The niece is so obsessed with “taking care” of him that she woke up well before my alarm went off at 5:20am to “check on him”. A fact even more impressive knowing that this little girl doesn’t usually stir before 10:00 during the Summer months.

She named him “Magic” because when we first brought him to the house we placed him in a critter crate from which he managed to escape multiple times. This prompted the wife (of course) to call him Houdini, which she had to explain to the inquisitive seven-year-old. But Magic is easier to remember.

the face of an evil genius

The Big Three?

Music critic and CBS Sunday Morning contributor Bill Flanagan stated last Sunday that Michael Jackson was the third and final “Big Bang” in popular music.

“The first explosion was Elvis. That was about sexual liberation and racial integration, and that blast lasted about ten years.

The second explosion was the Beatles – and everything they issued in. Suddenly pop music was about long hair and experimental sounds, progressive politics and outlaw rhetoric. Rock was about a counter-culture. That blast reverberated for 20 years, right through Springsteen, Prince and U2.

The third explosion was “Thriller,” Michael Jackson’s 1982 album – the best selling record of all time, and an album that invented the pop world we are still living in 25 years later.”

While I will agree that Thriller was one of the major turning points in popular music, I can’t concede that it was bigger or more important than Elvis or the Beatles.

First of all, the effects of the first two are still influencing popular music and culture as we speak. In fact without either one of them, the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson would never have existed. So to say that Elvis’ explosion only lasted ten years or that the Beatles’ only twenty is to greatly under value exactly what they did.

Second, neither Elvis nor the Beatles imagined the success and influence they sparked. They basically came out of nowhere and unwittingly changed the course of music and popular culture forever. MJ’s rise was measured and planned. There’s no denying that the man had more than his share of talent and charisma. But he only really did exactly what he was groomed to do. Thriller was his sixth studio album and had been in the spotlight for ten years before his explosion. So it was less meteor and more slow-burning forest fire in my opinion, not realizing that it was as big as it was until suddenly it was impossible to escape. (Did you try to watch MTV the day the Thriller video was released? It was impossible!)

I know that both the Beatles and Elvis had their share of scandal and tabloid-worthy personal storylines, but no one has ever been more of a freak show by design than Michael Jackson. As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing was part of his master plan; to stay in the spotlight as long as possible regardless of the headline. He made a conscious effort to seem bigger, more mysterious, and enigmatic than he ever actually was. And it worked. Packaged and marketed perfectly for that specific time in history.

But bigger or more influential than Elvis & the Beatles? I don’t think so.

New Slang Terms

based on recent headlines:

1. A secret adulterous love affair will forever be known as “hiking the Appalachian Trail”.
2. Being surprised by someone’s talent is being “Boyled Over”.
3. “Going back to Neverland Ranch” will be when someone famous dies causing the media to blow every minute detail of their life & death out of proportion for an undetermined amount of time.
4. Yelling derogatory slurs at people in an effort to offend, while actually just degrading yourself, is “Pulling a Perez”.

Anybody have any more?