Old guys

Okay, the Rolling Stones just issued a new CD called A Bigger Bang. I don't care how many records Bridges to Babylon sold (it went Platinum!), this one better be a good one.

Have you noticed the commercials for the other antediluvians lately? If you stay up past midnight, you will see advertisements for new CDs by Neil Young, Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton. It is as if the record company has to invest in television advertisement to say "hey, remember that you like these guys..."

Neil Young's commercial shows him singing something that could be on pretty much any of his albums, except Rust Never Sleeps. Eric Clapton is looking long in the tooth singing "you wanna revo-loo-SHUN!"

McCartney might be the biggest disappointment. Rule number one, never hire a producer that is 1/2 your age. Can you imagine Nigel Godrich telling McCartney how much he liked that "Say, say, say" duet with Michael Jackson?! Apparently it was this producer that said something like "play all your instruments yourself, like on that suckish album in the early seventies." What's worse, he allowed McCartney to make up for his fading voice by doubling the vocals. I hate that.

McCartney is my favorite Beatle, though. I got a lot of flack for that because Lennon was supposed to be the cool one, or something. I like John Lennon enough, but he was a poser of sorts. The boys did not make much use of their humble origins when they worked together. That just was not done in the 1960s. However, Lennon tried to push his "Working Class Hero" image in the 1970s with only one problem -- he was the only Beatle that was not working class! I have come to the conclusion that John Lennon did not really experience life, he just looked at it from the outside and wrote songs about it. (Darn good songs, most of them.) Someone would not get away with that today. Either you are "Jenny from the block," or you aren't.

Of course, McCartney's problem was that he wrote escapist lyrics, trying to get you to forget about your world and envision something entirely different, and possibly irrelevant. Imagine Lennon's horror when McCartney wanted to sing about meter maids, being 64 (is he yet?), picking rice up after a wedding, and silver hammers.

Maybe that is why I have now settled on Ringo being my favorite Beatle. He has had more solo top ten hits than Lennon or McCartney (I am not kidding). Also, if you go back and listen to those Beatles recordings, you can hear how much his drums contribute. They are not a backdrop any more than McCartney's bass. (McCartney being the real musical genius of that bunch, some of those bass lines are incredible for the mid-to-late sixties.)

--gh

Wikis

Ah, we have reached the time of the evening that has Sanford and Son followed by Good Times on TV Land.

Oh, and there is a new Strong Bad email. It is a marked improvement of the last 2-3 episodes. It references the fact that Strong Bad makes fun of his "get up" noise when he moves his chair - from episode 95.

Of course, the Homestar Runner Wiki helped me make that connection. Wow, that is an amazing source of information about absolutely nothing. Obviously, this caused me to waste about 10-15 minutes...

I am impressed by the wiki "movement." Sometimes you see crazy stuff on wikipedia (the best example of an open-source database), but for the most part, it is the work of people honestly trying to share information.

I haven't shared anything on a wiki.

--gh

Hot Chicago

Today I ate a stromboli in the Old Chicago restaurant in Columbia, MO. I can't believe they did not offer pepperoni strombolis, or spinach, which are my favorites. I had italian sausage instead. It was cooked very hot, and was spicier than I thought for a chain restaurant.

About half-way through the meal the waitress came out and asked if it was okay. She stammered, and then offered that the cook had asked about it, but offered no details. I told her that it seemed fine. It then occurred to me that I was eating a sandwich that was probably three times spicier as I should expect from a place like that. I bet the cook was adding a some hot flakes or something to it and the lid came off. Rather than start all over, he attempted to scrape it off, but later realized he probably didn't get it all.

I thought about telling her that I figured out what the cook was worried about. I even thought about playing with them and saying that maybe it was a bit salty or something. However, I didn't feel like talking and lying.

--gh

Banking and Best Products

It amazes me how much banking has changed in the last 20 years. I think that is how long I have been consistently using banks. Maybe it's 22 years. It was a necessity for cashing the paychecks of the first couple of jobs that I held, starting in the 11th grade.

I have never stepped inside the bank that I have used this last year. I opened the account using the web and mailed the first checks in. I went through the drive-in window once. All of my banking is done at the ATM (three blocks from my house), or online. In fact, I only mail three bill payments now: water, trash, and my wife's tuition (which will be done this semester). Everything else is electronic.

That reminds me, I mentioned earlier that I should blog about several of the jobs that I had (at least the early ones). So, I will state that my first official job was for Best Products, a general merchandise store that sold jewelry, guns, stereos, and maybe even clothes. I worked in the sporting goods section, with all of the hunting rifles. This was in the fall of 1984, eleventh grade.

I was sixteen, and was able to work without special age documentation that previous summer, but for some reason I did not feel compelled to get a job in my sixteenth summer. Maybe I was lazy, or didn't want to start growing up.

I liked that job. I generally worked after school starting around 3-4pm, and most weekends. By November, I was pushing 30 hours per week, which started to interfere with other activities -- like friends, or school.

I stole a flashlight from that store, and a Sony walkman tape player. I don't think I will ever forget those infractions. The walkman was a return unit, because the case was busted. It was probably going to be sent back to the distributor, or Sony, but it was in this bin in the back for weeks. I figured out how to fix it, and then slipped it in my pocket before leaving one day. I gave it to my brother for a Christmas present. Yeah, I are sucked. The flashlight was even worse -- because it came straight off the floor. I knew it was wrong, and I was so afraid that I would be caught before I got to the parking lot. I'll remember that for the rest of my life. If you are thinking about stealing something, even if it is small, don't. It will haunt you forever. That store chain doesn't even exist anymore!

I met my first real girlfriend at that job. She was in the 10th grade and had the most awesome name: Shawnalyn Disney. I saw her at school a few times, and visited her house about five times. I don't even think I took her to eat out, or even to a movie. I think I kissed her only once. She met a guy (college dude!) at the store and broke up with me New Years Eve, on the phone. I cried for hours that night. Man, I was a loser.

Best Products let me go around that same time because the Christmas rush was over. That was probably their plan the whole time.

The salary was $3.45/hour, which was a dime above minimum wage!

I only had one incident where I got in trouble. Every night we cleaned the glass counters, and one of the sales associates was talking with a customer. The store had technically closed, so I was annoyed that the customer was hanging around. I cleaned the counter very close to where they were standing, and I shielded the spray of cleaner with my arm, making it obvious that I was cleaning, and "protecting" them from getting sprayed. I must have made too much of a show of it because the guy found a manager and said that I was "insolent." The manager talked to me the next day and said that it was the only complaint I had received and it surprised him. So, I got off on that okay and watched my attitude and demeanor in every job since then.

Insolent. No doubt about it, that was probably a nice way to describe my attitude.

--gh

Weird domain names

Have you typed blogspot wrong yet? (blogpsot).

So what is the technical term for getting domains with mispelted words trying to attract sloppy (or drunk) typists?

UPDATE: the term I was looking for was typosquatting. It is sort of a form of cybersquatting, except that it doesn't use up the useable domain name. It is not as nefarious as pharming, which is really fooling the user with a fake web page intended to look like the real one.
--gh

PigeonKam!

I really want to buy flash. When I look at something like the Pidgeon Kam, ...it inspires me.



It is brought to us by the fine makers of those bunnies movies in 30 seconds. (Of which, Pulp Fiction is the best.)



--gh

How to lie with architecture...

Okay, the big flap about the Flight 93 memorial is about to hit talk radio, fox news, msnbc, and consblogs across the US. If you haven't seen it yet, this is what the architect has proposed, and jury panel has accepted.


Of course the Park Service has to sign off on it. When I first saw the picture above, I did not see the loving embrace of an Islamic crescent. Instead, I thought I was supposed to see something more subtle, and I saw a shadow. The first thing that I thought of was the cover of Mark Monmonier's book, How to Lie with Maps. On that cover, we see the shadow of a Pinocchio moving across the landscape.


I saw the shadow of Pinnochio in the bottom of the architectural image. In fact, he has taken off his hat in approval of the design. Then, I realized that not everyone is a geographer and would immediately recognize the cover of that book.

You don't hear much from me regarding political issues on this blog. 90% of the blogs out there are authored by people who are trying to make you think just like them, or are trying to make you like the things they like. I prefer to provide amusement (in the real sense of the word, a+muse means to not think). But I am pretty confident in suggesting that the design is not appropriate. It is also not a coincidence, unless the architect is feckless and incompetent. Architecture is about symbolism (luckily we have engineers that figure out how to actually build structures safely). This guy knew what he was doing.

It is also inappropriate from a Muslim's perspective as well. Basically, it looks like it says "uh, we did this to you" on the Pennsylvania landscape. I propose re-shaping the downtown of Fallujah and making the central part of the street networks look like a big cross from aerial photography. Now do you get it? It's what marketing folk call branding.

--gh

Multicultural Revolution

Okay, I was joking with my colleagues about implementing a Che Guevara-like image. The I remembered that Fairly had no problem doing so and gave it a try. I already had access to the martial shot:



I cannot really discuss the full meaning of this, though. At least not now.
--gh

L337 HURR1C4N3 N4M3Z

I have always been intrigued with the names given to tropical cyclonic storms in the Atlantic Ocean. My earliest memory of such names is Hurricane Agnes, in 1972. I was four years old, and the tiny creek near our back yard grew to a mighty river.

Check out this NOAA site for interesting facts about how such storms are named. I did not know half the stuff I read there, and on related links.

For instance, did you know...

• There is a six-year plan for the names -- the most of the 2004 names will reappear in 2010
  
• if a storm is significant, its name is retired (you won't see Andrew repeated, and not Katrina either)
  
• if you missed the storms between Katrina and Ophelia, they were named Lee, Maria, and Nate. (Yeah, I hope to hear more from Nate in 2011, or at least 2017, stay tuned to this blog in 6-12 years for more on that)
  
• The name "Hortense" was capriciously retired 2002 (that are sucked!)
  
• Male names weren't used until 1979 (I remember that, people had the attitude that it was offensive to women since the names we remember are ones that cause damage, like Camille.)
  
• Hurricanes names will not begin with Q, U, X, Y, and Z because of the "scarcity of names beginning with those letters."

Okay, what is up with the last one? I think that is particularly insensitive culturally. With Rap artists, I think there is plenty of room for Hurricanes named Usher, Queen Latifah, Xzibit, Yukmouth and Zevlove. Shoot, these rapper names can even broaden the Hurricane naming system with numbers (2Pac, 50cent, André 3000). Did you know that Suzuki Ichiro's name (the Ichiro part) comes from the fact that he is the first born?

--gh (Saburo)