Sun, Is That You?

I'm feeling better than I have been feeling for a little while, both physically and mentally.  The physical part is no doubt related to just eating better and more regular exercise (and my whopping 40lb shrugs I did yesterday in Fitness class, hoorah).  The mental part is probably related in a good part to that as well but I'm also allowing sunshine to claim a role.  It's nice to peek outside of the fog (I say that both figuratively and literally).

I haven't let myself listen to sad music, or the music that makes me feel sad (because sometimes they are not one in the same) and I am always surprised at the role that music can play in one's mood.  The kiddo and I were talking this morning about music and we thought it would be fun if everyone danced and sang as just a regular part of life...as if we were all in a musical...you may guess that our morning routine has become a scene from our very own musical.  If it's not entertaining, it's at least motivating, and some how keeps us both perked up for the morning and that certainly has a small part in my good mood as well.

Anyway, I keep chugging along and emotionally I know that I'm on a roller coaster and the lows will come with the highs but I'll deal with them when the cart gets there.  I continue to miss my brother, continue to panic at the overwhelming aftermath of his death, continue to worry about my mom and other family members, and I continue to keep myself busy with family, work, teaching, sewing, etc. and it helps.  I'm enjoying this semester's students.  They are good people, ask great questions, and make me laugh.

Why am I even writing this post?  What you can't see is that for this one post I am publishing, is about 10 posts I chose not to publish because they are angry and sad posts written over the course of the past 6 weeks.  And while each one represents, pretty accurately, how I've been feeling about myself and people in general, it's not the message I want to send out in the world.  My last published posts here were all either sad, or me complaining about this or that.  My past few years have been peppered with deaths, chaos, and messy things...but for the bulk of the time, they've been decent and I never write posts that say, "life is decent" and I thought I should.  ESPECIALLY after looking at my 10 unpublished posts...

So, life is decent, even with the peppering of bad stuff that's usually followed up by lots of grief and stress, life is still decent.  So go out and lift some weights, or run/bike a few laps, listen to delightful music, take care of your shit, and do good things.  Sometimes it's foggy, and sometimes it's not.

Math and Breath Noise Music

Preface:  There is a lot of text in this post and not a lot of pictures which will turn away 98% of readers.  Don't be one of those readers.  You want to make it to "breath noise".

 

 

I love math, so naturally when I found the Numberphile videos via a Twitter friend (@somechum), I simply couldn't get enough.  I spent a substantial amount of time watching each one, sometimes more than once!  I love the videos, I love the people in the videos (perhaps a small crush on a few of the guys in them), and I love all the things I've found from the videos which happens to include a book by Alex Bellos titled Here's Looking at Euclid (US).

I have found Here's Looking at Euclid immensely fascinating.  If you enjoy math, history, or both, I highly recommend the book.  Even though I already knew a lot of information in the book there was a lot of information I didn't know (Oh Pythagoras!).  Aside from that, it's a well written book that flows from subject to subject with a Henry Rollinsesqe ease. But I'm not writing today to tell you to read a book. 

I'm continuing on with my journey.  From the book I found an interesting website (this book has led me to some interesting web searches) titled The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS).

I have no doubt that if you were following what I was saying, you are gone now.  That's okay, for the one person that stumbles here and isn't completely annoyed/confused/pondering my sanity I have more to tell.

I did not go to the website to look up any sequences (though admittedly, it's right up my alley, lists of numbers!).  I went to the website because of an excerpt of Bellos' book that tells of music that can be found on the website.  The basic idea is that you take an 88 key piano and you define each key from lowest note to highest with the value of 1-88 respectively and when you reach 89 you simply start back at the beginning.  So take a sequence, play the keys, and you have music.  If you wanted to listen to what the Fibonacci numbers might sound like, there you have it!

The sequence I wanted to listen to in particular was noted in Euclid, the Recamán sequence.  As noted by Bellos, it is an interesting piece of music.

One of the other things I found interesting and fun is that not only can you listen to these sequences, you can even choose different instruments ("Breath Noise" for fuck's sake!!!).  You can guess what I've been listening to while working today!

Anyway, from OEIS I went to Music Algorithms which is fun to play with even when you have no idea what "pitch" is really about.  Music Algorithms took me to NWACC and there I stopped because I was like, "whoa, Northwest Academic Computing Consortium, you look way too official for me to be here".

So anyway, go to those sites, play around and see where the journey takes you.  It's what web surfing is all about and you might learn some cool shit along the way (Oh Pythagoras!).

Post Script: You could go Numberphile→Brady Haran→Variety of Channels  (Very cool stuff...)

Post Post Script: Breath Noises wasn't as cool as I hoped it would be, but it was still a fun discovery.  If you find a good sequence with breath noises, please share with me!

Peter Tork, John Denver, and the Accordion

The following quote is from one of the books I'm currently reading called Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

"[...], every ounce of the Monkees' artistic merit left with Peter Tork"

I wondered as I wrote that if I had ever shared my love of Peter Tork with you, faithful reader...

Once I was intoxicated and told the world how I love Peter Tork. As a kid, he was my favorite Monkee.

I also love John Denver. Sure, he's a bit too hippie like for me, but really, I do have an affinity for him.

One day, when I had time to think and waste, I realized that both Peter Tork and John Denver where a lot alike! [I think it's the blonde hair style]

To steer the subject a bit off course, I saw a tweet about a polka band that played a version of a popular song. I replied to the tweet about my jealousy of those who can play the accordion. Yes, I agreed with @ibificus that my love of the accordion could be considered odd. I suppose that my searching for songs played by accordion makes me that much more odd. But, if you are reading this...you know I'm odd, and now even more odd because I love Peter Tork, John Denver, and accordions!

John Denver's Country Roads accordion style
John Denver's Annie's Song accordion style
John Denver's Annie's Song piano The O'Neill Brothers
Mario Brothers Theme accordion
They Might Be Giants' How Can I Sing Like A Girl (with accordion)

One day I can tell you about the time Eva and I had our photo posted on the front page of the entertainment section of the St. Louis Post Dispatch...we were polkaing!

My Daily Food?

I was asked what "My Daily Food" means. I think the question spurred because of the lack of content about food on my blog. I'm not a foodie (baker perhaps), I rarely cook. In fact yesterday I contemplated this for dinner...



My Daily Food is a ska song by Toots and the Maytals. I'd give you the lyrics but I only know a few. "I earn my daily food", "it's my daily food", "something something something" that sounds like "take a banana peel", and then some other words that sound like mother and father and let go. I sometimes make words up to my music. For example, to this song I often say "Happens all day, happens all day; spendin' my time lookin' like a, like a crazy fool"! [For those of you that have/know the song, I'll give you a moment to play it and wait for the moment that you can totally understand what I mean]!

I make words up in songs all the time. Sebadoh has a song called Ocean whose lyrics go like this, "somethin' 'bout the middle of the ocean, somethin', somethin', somethin', somethin' else, and that's all I know".

I'm just classy that way!

Word...

bid: A prison sentence.

Quotes, Stories, and Other Things

Some quotes and stories, perhaps for your amusement!

• "Well, if you take that away, it's gone"-nameless engineer
  [Really?]

• Person 1: "...decontam?"
  Person 2: "Deacon Dam? What's this?"
  Person 1: "No no, DEE-CON-TAM..."
  Person 1: "Hmm, Deacon Dam, I don't know where this is."

• One fine summer day, Eva and I ate lunch at a place called Johnny Rocket's [or something of the sort], where they have really cool jukeboxes sitting on every table. Place a nickel in and choose a lovely 50's-60's genre tune with lunch!
  
  As it always goes with the two of us together, a small child was drawn to our power. [It happens often that children are drawn to staring at us, creeping over seats or under tables to look closer, have a chat, or even steal some food. We've grown accustomed to this behavior, so this incident here was no big deal]. A small boy, maybe 3-4 years old decided he wanted to play music. Of all the tables in the diner, empty or not, the boy chose to venture towards us with his nickel. He braced himself against our table doing a slight heaving motion to reach the box. He was literally hovering over our food and drinks struggling with all his might to get to play a song. His mother finally notices and gathers him up with much effort. He was determined to play a song, and not on any jukebox, our jukebox! I do not recall if he ever got to play a tune!

• Eva and I were eating dinner at a lovely place called Noodles & Co. one fine afternoon before catching the English Beat show. As we are minding our own business having a conversation Eva notices a small child creeping ever closer to us. We both began doing the side glances by the time he was sitting next to us staring. I turned to say hello to find the boy, Damien, very chatty. It didn't take any time to jump onto the "oddity" boat by asking me, "why is your head so small?", to which I could only laugh and cry a little!

• "..For the rest of us who generally live vicariously through the interactions of our 72 dpi avatars..." -@FrankieP

• "Gramma was hot....but that baby...uh, well not so much" -Amanda

• ...the past few years I had to tone down because of sexual harassment issues, but I used to be the kind of guy that would flirt with every female I worked with except for one. One day she called me on it and said that she'd use the excuse 'not my type' except usually 'not my type' means I think the husband looks like the kind of guy that would shoot a naked guy in the back if he saw him running away..." -anon

• "Yesterday we were talking about MPR calculations for a person taking a drug therapy. Basically its to measure a person’s adherence to their medication. Well the calculation is a rolling calc and is constantly moving.
  
  So we were talking about the Depression Medication Adherence and how the calculation is always moving. So Bobby is trying to explain how “the window for it is always moving”; Pete looks at me and says “that’s so they can’t jump out of it!”...-anon
  

• In reference to my loading diagram plans..."your work is pretty, but it tells me absolutely nothing" -Jim [thanks buddy, gave me a good laugh]

• A doodle...

--------
word...
Dirty Third: A synonym for the Dirty South; derived from the terms "Dirty South" and "Third Coast".

Still Alive ... My Dreams Encourage Otherwise

I had a [sadly] pleasant dream about the suicide rates of engineers and exam takers. I also have a vicious canker sore. I think these are both signs of severe stress. [Those are among other stressors I shall fail to mention here.] The good news though, is that with this level of stress, mosquitoes will leave my ass alone.

Now, on the note of asses I would like to mention to you that my language is part of me; as are my topics. I realize these may be inappropriate at times. If you find this to be the case, don't read anything I write. Simple answer! If you think your mom doesn't want you reading it, then you are probably too young to be on the computer.

Despite what you may believe, I am in a decent mood today, music is helping [as we speak, a little Sunday Girl by Blondie]. I think I'll recap how my week has been going thus far though...

...Monday, a day of meetings and an impromptu conference call...

Webex...woo...	Excitement!

...that led to the following...

Reminder Doodle	Random Phone Doodle
What??

-------
Yesterday I sat in meetings from noon until when I left and didn't get to pee at all, mind you this was after drinking loads of tea all morning! It produced the following kind of doodle...

------
So now here we are on Wednesday and my brain is sucked dry so I wear the funkiest thing I can find, completely by accident...


-----
It's okay though. I've made it through some very rough days lately. Lots of crying, lots of anger, lots of stress. If I can get through this alive, I'm sure I'll have plenty more stories to tell.

I plan on blogging later to include some quotes of late; perhaps a story about me, eva, and odd children.

Please comment and leave me a link of some good comic, some interesting story, or even a video (music or show).

Thanks!

Word...
peace easy: A lovely combination of "peace out" and "take it easy" for those too lazy or too busy to say both. Double the meaning, half the time.

You're The Last Thing That's On My Mind

Driving home to be with you ... the highway's dividing, the city's in view ... As usual, I'm almost on time ... You're the last thing that's on my mind ... Wish I could tell you, the way that I feel ... but tonight is the night I fell asleep at the wheel ...

Those are the lyrics from a Barenaked Ladies song called "Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep At the Wheel". In replacing my Zune (and thusly losing all music so refinding all music), I found this song that I had not heard in ages. I've always loved it because the song itself means something. "You're the last thing on my mind" is something I want someone to think of me in their few last moments. To know I had a wonderful and loving effect on someone so dearly that they want me in their last thoughts is just endearing! The second reason I like the song is because it has this soft melodic music that makes you think the song is about something other than dying in a car wreck ... ha, not funny, but really funny!

Anyway...Yesterday I met Amanda at the gym at SIUE and the deer were out in forces. In fact, at SIUE, they've gotten so used to the humans, they just hang out in the open with the humans. I have a picture of one the fawns that was hanging out in the grass! I saw two others hanging out in the open on my out as well!



I am yet again consuming the breakfast of champions! Yum-um-um!

- Which yields this fine looking superhero to your right -

Now, if you were paying attention, you'll see my really cool friends at work in that picture. Didn't see them? Okay, well here, I'll point them out!


One more thing, today is Canada Day. As you likely know, my blog crush Justin is in Canada! So to him I say, "Happy Canada Day", may it be a merry day. Do whatever it is you do today with great joy! [Ed. Note: I suggest doing whatever it is you do everyday with great joy!] Be sure to check out his blog post, The Story of Canada Day.

Word-
on chill: Having a relaxed state of mind. In chill mode.

I Made a Silly Movie!

Yea, go ahead and watch, it's a pretty silly video. No making fun of me though!

Stephysite.Blogspot.com

No Luck!

Where the hell are my headphones? No not those, and not those either! This is annoying! I want the pink guys with the soft pink marshmallowy buds that get stuck in my ear so that when I'm "running" they don't fall or get jostled out! THOSE headphones! Damn. No luck!

Anyway, news today:
-Amanda is the Worst Winner Ever! Congrats to her!
-Bought a new book yesterday called Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson.
-I've decided that I frequent book stores like some people frequent bars and pubs.
-I found my vitamins that have been missing for a month or more (in my purse, no not that one, the other one).

disposable cameras

You can never fool your mother! She always knows when something is up! Enough said there.

Mom brought some Easter candy over for me and Chris, it was tasty, I ate a little bit of it and encouraged Chris to consume most of it. I of course took the sweet tarts candy for myself. It shall be noted that I did share the candy!

Now, onto a couple of other subjects. First I wanted to say that I am looking for recommendations for skiffle. It's a type of music that is not as easy to find as I might have suspected. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way!

Second topic is something I read about in Janet's blog. It's called the disposable memory project. Some people dropped disposable cameras off in cities around the world. People took the cameras, took photos, and ultimately the pictures ended up back with the project organizers. I love this idea. It's so awesome to see this stuff. I know that there are a million smart asses out there taking a picture of their not-so-smart ass, but, I hope for the most part, a lot of interesting stuff will show up. It's very exciting and I want to be a part, I want to find a camera! There was one in O'Fallon, Missouri. Only 3 cameras have been returned as of today. I'm very hopeful! Please go check it out and encourage others to look for cameras!

Word of the day-
barsexual: A college-age girl who kisses other girls in bars and clubs, usually for attention and the approval of men.

The Gospel According to Biff

It's Monday. I can't say if I'm glad or sad about this. On one hand, it gets me back to my routine, on the other hand it gets me back to my routine! In either case, my hands are full of routine!

Anyway hi-lights from the weekend and road trip to Kansas City:

Boca di Boppi (actually Buca di Beppo, but Eva and I took it to extremes and had a whole conversation that no one else understood! In fact, I am sure we didn't understand either!)

Matt and Erika Herring have an adorable child (looks like a baby). It, I mean she, cries a lot. I have a soothing effect on the child for some reason. Eva has a similar effect. I believe this is for two reasons. The child loved our plump bosoms, and we sang Rancid to her. Who wouldn't love to be serenaded by Rancid?!?! Her name is Molly and she's a cool little thing. For the record, they are good parents.

There were weird rabbits located around the Plaza in KC. Don't ask me where the Plaza is, all I know is that it was south of our hotel. Anyway, weird rabbits all over. Giant human sized weird rabbits.

Eva and I bought boots. Larry's boots. Pretty sweet if you ask me!

Free hugs were being given out at the Plaza. Free hugs guy restored my faith in humanity, but as usual, that quickly flew right out the door. What happened? Oh nothing really, just a accumulation of annoyances. I have a very very tiny list of people that are allowed on my planet (free hugs guy is one of them). Sorry, but there isn't enough room on my awesome planet for people that make me mad or annoyed. (Holly & Drew, you are both good, you are family that I like, you get to stay so don't get paranoid).

I think I drank sour milk, still alive though.

My newest Madness album showed up in the mail!

The English Beat were awesome. Eva and I almost didn't even go. The local KC crap radio station was holding a Prom Theme for the show. Eva and I showed up in our cowboy boots, jeans, and regular tops. Everyone else (except for maybe 3 other people) were in prom gear. Tuxedos, dresses, gowns, etc. We did however go in and skanked our happy little hearts to soreness! An adorable boy standing next to us (in a stylish and dapper hat (drool)) skanked with us. The girl he was with was not too happy about this. Oh well, we had a great time!! Great, and I mean great show!

My blog crush Justin Z. made the Toronto Star (local paper). You should read the article and blog!

I, as usual, bought a new book to read even though I am reading two books (and a third for work) as I write! Looks good though. A book by Christopher Moore called A Dirty Job. Very few people could vie for favorite author in comparison to Douglas Adams, but Moore is one of them! He wrote a book called Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal that I really enjoyed. I'm excited to read Moore (yes, pun intended)!

Well, this is where I need to stop and move forward with my routine! So now, the words, you know what I'm talking about:

Friday - bardcore: A pornographic movie with a Shakespearean plot.
Weekend - C and E: People who show up at church only on Christmas and Easter.
Today - girlfriend button: The button on the controller of an Xbox, Playstation, or Wii you have to press to pause the game when your girlfriend wants to talk.

Oooh, 2 of My Favorites!

Acoustic Rancid!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Y4N89oaxE

Happy Birthday Fella

How could I forget!? Today is:

Stubby's birthday!

Happy Birthday fella, sorry to make you!

........
Now onto the other things I wanted to talk about but got interrupted by work!

Dream

I can barely recall what my dream was about last night, except for one clip. My dogs had red irritated skin with bites all over them; I had decided we had bed begs.

........
My Sleeping Arrangements

Last night I tried to lay down in bed. I had Riley's butt resting on me, and Bella literally sitting on my shoulder. I told them to move, they would fidget and come right back. I wanted to have room, I wanted to sleep alone! I took my two pillows (one for sleeping and the other for snuggling) and went to the couch. Bella seemed to think that I was leaving her so she followed and climbed up on the couch. She couldn't curl up at my feet, she instead had to trudge her way along between me and the back of the couch where she proceeded to snore for the rest of the night! Therefore I did not sleep well. Riley was at my feet not allowing me to pull the afghan up over my shoulders. So there I was freezing, awake, and not alone on the couch. I think I'm supposed to be appreciative of this!

........
25 Things

I was inspired today to write 25 things after reading Kelly's blog. Kelly wrote about 25 food things; I happen to think food is gross so I will write 25 of my favorite non-sappy lyrics to occupy my time, as this will take all day. I'm sticking to only songs on my Zune, so covers will be listed by the person on my Zune. (Give me some credit, I'm at work with headphones on, it's just what popped into my head)


1. "I don't believe in cool, I went to summer school" Creeper Lagoon, Chance of a Lifetime

2. "I'm wearing fur pajamas" Talking Heads, Wild Wild Life

3. "You're gonna make me spill my beer if you don't learn how to steer" Wilco, Passenger Side

4. "I won't tell a soul except the people in the night club where I sing" Old 97's, Designs On You

5. "You're so cool you could have put out Vietnam" Shane Macgowan, Haunted

6. "They were guzzling marshmallows and then jumping off the Empire State" Robyn Hitchcock, Balloon man

7. "The KKK took my baby away" Ramones, The KKK Took My Baby Away

8. "Everybody can do the ska, it's a new dance you can't resist" I have no idea

9. "Blame it on being a girl" Old 97's, No Baby I

10. "From the embryonic whale to the monkey with no tail" They Might Be Giants, Mammal

11. "All the times when we were close, I'll remember these things the most" The Clash, Train in Vain

12. "Just because you're better than me doesn't mean I'm lazy" Lars Frederiksen And The Bastards, To Have And To Have Not

13. "I said I like your 2tone clothes, she said I like your broken nose" Bad Manners, Skinhead Love Affiar

14. "I got embarrased and I decked the sale's clerk, stole the wig and ran like hell" Kevin Devine, Haircut

15. " I promise these last years of loving you will be the best years of them all" Mike Ness, If You Leave Before Me (okay a sappy one got in!)

16. "If you were a TV show baby you would've been cancelled" Screeching Weasel, Crying in My Beer

17. "Looks like somebody forgot about us, standing on the corner, waiting for the bus" Violent Femmes, Waiting for the Bus

18. "Mrs. Ewe and Mr. Ram, where did you get that lovely lamb?" The Specials, Stupid Marriage (I like sheep)

19. "Got a light? smoke it up, Zig Zag, Roll it up" Tim Armstrong, Take This City

20. "If I fall back down, you're gonna be my friend" Rancid, Fall Back Down

21. "The way that you sleep is the image I'll keep, always on the edge of my mind" Old 97's, Bird in a Cage

22. "Casino Queen, my lord you're mean" Wilco, Casino Queen

23. "I gotta check for nothing, all made out to someone" Old 97's, The One

24. "It is time for to realize, and try and be your little size" Madness, Taller Than You Are

25. "I walk into the bar and I put in twenty buck because I know people's taste in music sucks" Bouncing Souls, Bullying the Jukebox

Pop-up Books

I woke up in a really good mood today. I laid down at about quarter to eight, and don't remember a thing until about the time my alarm was going off this morning. I was having a great dream so I just continued to smack the alarm for about an hour to keep him quiet so I could keep dreaming. I finally realized that I actually had to get out of bed at some point, but I'm glad I did.

I read a good blog today about books. One of those books was about pop-up porn! Now, I won't post that link because I feel that it is adult content, and I don't want any unnecessary eyes looking in, but if you want the link, e-mail me and I'll send it!

The subject of pop-up books made me recall a book I want. It is called the Pop-up Book of Phobias! Emily's roommate had this book, and I made a note that I wanted to get it, well gift it to a couple of people at least (can't say any names, it takes the surprise out). I'm glad I recalled this because it gave me the opportunity to get the link somewhere that I'll remember! You should check it out. It rocks!

What is awesome about having looked this book up is that I see the author also has a Pop-up Book of Nightmares! I wonder if he has a page for dead bodies, like most of my nightmares involve?

Well, I have to get some stuff done before Andrew comes in and finds me slacking! Ha, me slack, never! But before I go I want to thank Drew and Holly for agreeing on the meaning of "you were so cool you could have put out Vietnam". Thanks to Eva for catching the phrase's song which was in no way part of the challenge. Thanks to Janet for her blogs, they rock!

Word of the day:
Alabama chrome: Duct tape.

In Use: Dude, you need to fix your car; some Alabama chrome will fix you up right.

Just Pining

I walked to my desk, hit the button on my computer that makes him think, replenished my water and sat down for a busy day of organizing paper! As the morning usually goes, I skipped past the news and went straight for my blogs. It was here, on this day, March 26 of 2009 at 7:40AM that I saw my soul mate. You might be giggling to yourself thinking that I am having yet another delusional morning, but no, this is not the case. I really did see him in a YouTube video. Are you dying to see him too? Okay, well here he is, Matt Harding in his video "Where the Hell is Matt?".

Have you watched it yet? Did you see that he is both travelling and dancing? How awesome is that? Did you see the elephants?

I am in a better mood this morning, so I will write as quickly as my fingers can type so that I can get a couple of stories in and then quickly get to work on those stacks of paper that are just pining to be organized!

English Beat Tix...Kansas City radio station has tickets to this show. It is the only way to get tickets to this show. I e-mail the radio DJ who tells me that I can have tickets but that I must call the morning show on Wednesday morning to get them. I do this, and she tells me she changed her mind. Really?? I was in no mood yesterday to handle anything like that. I think she heard my heart drop because she apologized profusely and told me that it should be a KC thing, and we were St. Louisans! Really?? So long story short....I begged, literally begged for them; she made me say things like "I hate St. Louis radio" and "I hate Cornbread". Oddly enough, both statements are true! But then she tells me that I have to wear a scarlet letter the entire night. Really?? I don't even know what that means! Oh well, we'll see what happens between now and then!

Dub Kitchen...I work with an awesome girl named Jen R. here at my cult called HOK. She is in a dub reggae band called Dub Kitchen. I got to see her perform for the first time, and she totally rocks! Her voice is perfect for this style of music, and she was adorable on stage as well! I got to dance too! I've already briefly blogged about the event, so I won't dwell, but my complaints are about Missouri bars, smoking, and hippies. Ugh, hippies! I went to the show alone, but knew a couple of people there to hang out with, though, I did little hanging 'cept between bands. Fellow cult member Seth was one of these people. He told me that on very rare occasions, he goes to the Pub, yes, the one and only O'Connell's Pub! He likes the jukebox! So do I!

Okay, so seriously, I need to get to these papers. They are giving me some looks that say, "Touch me all over and shove me in that binder. Scan me baby, scan me!". I really can't deny them of their due treats!

A few other notes before I get to it; 1)How did I get this bruise on my arm?, 2) How many times do I say "I'm sorry" in a day?, 3)Am I allowed to say "stop asking me that or I WILL punch you in the face"?, 4)Elephants are cool, so are seals, 5)I really need to not drink alcohol, I am failing miserably at this task!

Word of the day(I so like this one):
cheeky monkey: Originally used to define someone who gives lots of lip and is a smart-ass, but now refers to anyone talking or behaving audaciously.

Pee-ohhh-Teee

Quick Notes from a show:

1. Dub Kitchen totally rocked! Jen has THE PERFECT voice for this act. The rest of the band, awesome as well. They even had a ska number!

2. Band two, called DubConscience, not as good. Well to me anyway, they were way to jam-session for me. Notes from the show: every other instrument guy awesome!;slide trombone guy totally rocked THAT instrument, he had a really high pitched voice!; bassist was totally jammin' and had a tongue like that of Gene Simmons or the Meyer Clan!

Now I smell like patchouli and PEE-ohh-TEE! Ugh, shower soon, will help...must sleep! Oh yea, Beetle Bob was there!

Morrow gents and ladies!

Steph

You Can Call Me Nanerpus

For those of you that may have had the opportunity to see the commercial, you might know who Nanerpus is; for those of you like me, it's on YouTube.

I'm going to pretend to be a guy for a moment: Long story short, Rachel named her baby Nanerpus.

Now back to being a girl: Following delivery of their baby, Randy looked and saw "it" was a boy. The doctor said, "what do you want to call him"? Rachel, in a drugged state of existance said, "you can call him Nanerpus"!

So yea, Miles was born on Friday the 13th. Randy calls the baby Miles. Rachel still calls him her little Nanerpus. It's actually rather sweet.

Since Miles was born early, Rachel and Randy never got the opportunity to get the things they needed for bringing home a baby. Eva and I went shopping this weekend for some of the items they needed. No one carried anything we seemed to go there for, but we got them plenty anyway. I got them a Serta Sheep changing matress. Are you surprised? Didn't think so!

Anyway, when I wasn't looking for things that appear to not exist, I spent a lot of time YouTubing this weekend, which is what happens when I have time to spend on the Internets. I watch old shows, good commercials, and lots of music. It's always worth the time I spend.

I rode my bike on Sunday because the weather was nice. I was worn out, and took a nap. Well then I woke up absolutley stir crazy. So I decided to start cleaning the basement of stuff I do not need. Seriously, I am a packrat so I save everything. Well, there's lots of stuff that I wanted to save all these years, but I don't want to drag it with me everywhere I go in life. So, I just started going through it and cleaning out stuff I didn't need. There was a lot that I decided to keep though. I at least consolidated. I might take pictures of some of it, and I might scan some photos when I get time. Some of it is too classic to trash and needs to be shared with the world!

Quick shout out to Ben and Ashley, who are now engaged, I'll spare you my ideas on being married. A quick shout out to Steph for reaching her 100th Mobile Blog post (oh wait, that's me).

Well, I need to move on to something more productive, so here are your words of the weekend and today:

pi day: March 14. A "holiday" celebrated by math geeks everyhwere. Pi is approximately 3.14, and March 14 is 3/14.

de-loosify: Loosen.

In Use: He made the big switch to Tropicana from Minute Maid orange juice because he was unable to de-loosify the lid.

Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer

...I hit it, the sweet spot!

I got up out of bed, dressed myself, hopped into the car with as much enthusiasm as I could muster, and drove. I got there, walked in, swiped my card and hit the locker room. In there, I could hear her voice. It was usually much more mellow in yoga, but Maggie was teaching a step aerobics class at this time of day. I locked up and plugged the buds into my ears. A couple deep breaths and I walked out into the open gym. I glanced around and saw my destination. Most people choose equipment they enjoy to use, is easy to use, or is at least open. Not me, I chose this one because I find it easiest for testing theories [...but whatcha gonna do when everyone goes on without you...]. I headed straight for the treadmill, the one next to the guy who seemed less abrasive as a human being [...he said this is a Mecca, I said: "This ain't no mecca, man, this place is fucked"...]. I stepped up and hit "Quick Start", and increased the volume [mmhhhmmmm mhhmmm ...]. I started warming up first, it's difficult to go straight to the testing without at least getting my heart rate up [almost heaven, west Jamaica...]. I people watched while I warmed up, stepping with the beat of Country Roads by Toots and the Maytals [..son you remind me of my home far away...]. I must have smelled bad, the guy next to me left, good, less adjacent footfalls to mess with my experiment! Good, Monkey Man is on, lets kick this puppy up a notch [...tell you baby, huggin up the big monkey man...]!

It's at this point that I chuckle to myself. I am probably the only person in this gym to try and estimate the footfalls required to match the harmonic frequency of a treadmill! I changed my step and pace a few times. Heavier, further apart footfalls seemed good [...black coat, white shoes, blackhat, cadillac...]. It was time to up the pace to a jog, after all Rancid was in full effect, my body needed to move faster! One click of the up button at a time, I used my heaviest allowable footfall with no luck [...the boy's a time bomb...]. Ah, I hit it, the sweet spot. The treadmill quivered with excitement, I was at 4.9 miles per hour. I decreased my heavy footfall to a lighter one and it stopped; so back to the heavy footfall I thought [...dying to see the light, and when they see it, they see it's not bright...]. I slowed the machine back down and increased my footfalls with a lighter step. I messed with various speeds between 2.5 and 3.5 miles per hour, she was a stable machine! I kept her here while I people watched and saw a man torturing a woman, and continued to fall in love with Tim Armstrong [...on the outside looking in wit the freaks and the thugs and all the punk rockers...]. I lost myself in thought thinking of boys like Tim Armstrong, laughing a little bit out loud so that I got a few looks [...then one day Matt says let's get the band together let's do this one more time...]. Oh well, enough of boys in hats and braces, back to work sister (good timing the song changed, my body needed to move, and I needed to get the drool off my face)!

Up the speed, back to my 4.9 [...she asked me if I would stand at her side, like glue that I would 'til the end of the night...]. Excitement everywhere [...she put her head on my shoulder, I started to hold her, swingin' and swayin', the mornin' began...]!

It was my experiment, so I changed footfalls a few times and dropped to 4.7 and up to 5.3. With lighter steps I needed to be up near 5.1, if I went back to heavy I could keep her at 4.9! It was a good experiment, going exactly as I had suspected [...rollin' deep, coming up, not asleep, waking up, got a light? smoke it up, Zig Zag, roll it up...]!

I was starting to get tired and was at least halfway through my 30 minute experiment. I felt parched, as though sand were going to pour out of my mouth at any minute. I'm sure I looked silly in my attire, but I didn't care, I was here with a purpose! I tried a couple more times [...reggae got soul...]...[give 'em the boot, the roots the radicals]...laughing, radicals, math, me, harmonic frequencies, stares! I was beat, I hit stop, stepped off, grabbed the goo to wipe her down and wobbled back to my stuff. My experiment was over. Thank God, my experiment was over!

A True Love Affair

I just got back from my midday walk. It was cold outside, but felt good. I like the way the cold encompasses one's face and numbs the extremities. My eyes even watered a little.

I walked to my bench. It's a nice seat located in the grassy area between the Old Courthouse and Interstate. My bench is the Northeastern one! I like that it faces the Old Courthouse. I could have chosen the bench across from it and faced the Arch; but I just love the way the Old Courthouse proudly sits on its well groomed piece of land with something of a modern city sprouted up around it.

I particularly like to go to this location because no one is there. Sometimes its nice to people watch, for which I have alternate locations. For getting away from reality, this bench is the only bench that will do! In fact yesterday, I was forced by grounds crews to go somewhere else. I walked to the Arch and sat, rather laid back and rested my head on some steps behind me. Fortunately the weather is cold enough that there were no tourists! I have to admit that watching the river was a bit calming.

So back to my original story: I sat at my bench today with wind lightly whisping my hair around. I just sat there quietly singing along to my music, which was a mixture due to the fact my Zune was on shuffle where I skipped anything classical because I wanted to sing along. I had a brief fleeting thought that I should write down a note on things that make me happy. I can think of at least three: coldness on face, light winds that whisp my hair just right so I can smell it and feel it brush against my face, and quietly singing aloud to music. Considering my lack of finding much enjoyment with anything lately, it was nice to have that 'happy' thought; fleeting as it may have been.

But seriously back to my original story: As I got up to walk back to my office building, my Zune stopped working. It just stopped. This of course made me freeze in place, reach into my pocket, and gently caress and hold my Zune. I turned her little power button on, and she started up but had forgotten what she was doing. It's okay though, I far too often lose my train of thought! I think she may have been cold, so I held her the rest of the way back to my desk.

The whole ordeal made me laugh to myself, and perhaps even out loud! Point is: I always have music playing. It's either piped to my ears through headphones, or played on speakers, or in the car. The few times I don't listen to music would be when I sleep or watch TV/YouTube/etc. BUT, sometimes I still have my headphones on when I fall asleep, so there's something to be said about that! I know there are times when I don't listen to music, but they are far and few between! I do not know how people get through the days without music. If I don't have music, I sing! It may not be good, in fact it may be terrible, but it's music I like none the less! Very often, I dance too! I have silly sort of dances that I do like a hybrid skank-twist, or my shuffle-skanking! I also waltz, but I do the real thing with my imaginary partner, I didn't make that one up!! I'd make someone really waltz with me, but none of the boys I hang around with know how to waltz! Besides, they are all way too concerned about what people think that they'd be too embarrassed to dance with me!

Back to the original story: I have to say that on this walk back, I did not do any dancing, but a lot of little head tilts. I walked the long way back just to maximize my away time. I got back, and here I am, blogging. I'm extremely sleepy and I need to clean my desk up while waiting for "things" to happen. I also need to make a shopping list of pie ingredients!

You might be wondering where the story went. It started as a story and then just stopped being anything of consequence. I guess I never had a story. I just wanted to say I love music. And as I leave you now, I'm skanking in my desk chair to the Specials (a true love affair)!