This morning….

Yesterday were the Iraqi elections. So, this morning I’m driving to work… And I have Sirius Satellite Radio. My normal morning fare is the Tony Snow show on 142 Sirius Right. Tony is a little bit goofy, a lot big Boy Scout. So I can relate to him more than most people, I guess. Tony spent the first 15 minutes of his show absolutely giddy. Proud of our country. Proud that the Iraqi people got to experience the privilege we take for granted far too often. I listened to his whole first segment, and couldn’t help but smile.

Then I flipped over to Sirius 144 Air America, just because I was feeling particularly evil. I came in at the beginning of the second segment of this show. I’m not sure what the name of the show was, but it was two women, talking back and forth. In that whole segment, they talked about the Iraqi election for about 15 seconds. It was pretty much dismissed as “what-EVER. That was so last week, and we’re bored with it.” They didn’t actually say those words, but that accurately describes the tone. Instead, the topic of conversation was Condi Rice’s hair. Apparently, she changed it recently, and it looks like a “helmet” now (their words, not mine). They spent about 7 or 8 minutes on Condi’s freaking hair. I don’t know what to say. Vapid. Ignorant. Morons. I actually felt myself getting dumber sitting there listening to these people have a serious discussion about how America is going to hell because they didn’t like the Secretary of State’s hair style.

Nothing like a serious discussion of the issues. And I mean, this was nothing like a serious discussion of the issues.

Also in the news today… A woman on unemployment in Germany is about to have her benefits suspended because there is an employer willing to offer her a job. The only problem is that this new employer just happens to be a brothel. The job just happens to be that of prostitute. I can’t find the original link I read this morning, but this one sums it up nicely.
Just remember, a liberal is a person who sees an underage girl performing sex acts live on stage, and wonders if she is getting paid minimum wage.

Brew log

While not actually brewed, I started a cider Friday night. 6 gallons of local apple cider, 1 qt. of honey from Nathan’s dad’s apiary, and White Labs WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast. Original Gravity of the cider was 1.060. That was before I added the honey. Didn’t check it afterwards, but I can’t imagine 1 qt. of honey upping the gravity of 6 gallons of cider very much. Also added 1 tsp. of Wyeast yeast nutrient.

Looks like it hit high krausen yesterday/last night. Nasty sulphury smell now, but I’ve heard that is normal. Eww.

America's response to the tsunami. . .

Michelle Malkin's article today was very good. Read it, and it will help to remind you of how good it is to be an American. It will also remind you of how great the people who wear our uniform are. I wonder if I could have T-Shirts printed that say in white on a black background: “Jingoist”

Those would be good next to the ones I've wanted to have done for over a year now: “American Capitalist Infidel” and “American Imperialist Pig.”

Back in the day. . .

Every time I go back home to south Mobile county for any length of time, it has the same result. No matter how the place changes,I go all pensive and introspective. Really, how could you not? I get to visit with family and old friends, see the old sites, andmore or less relive or revive old memories. Not all of them good, but none of them (at this point) really terrible.

For me, highschool wasn’t really that great. I was bored out of my skull for very much of the time, and this had the result of causing me to do some stupid things. This entry will not be a recounting of those stupid things, as there are still many of those that I’m still rather too embarrassed about to actually put down into a permanent record. In fact, over the years I’ve come to realize that for (at least male) members of my family, to not be mentally engaged often has dangerous consequences. That being said, it wasn’t that I couldn’t make friends in highschool. I really didn’t fit in, but that was mostly fine with me. There were a few bullies that harrassed me at the time, and if I could go back, I’d certainly beat the hell out of more than a few of them, knowing what I know today. There were a few people that I now know were pretty obvious bad influences on me. Looking back, I can honestly see Chester Sprinkle in a devil costume sitting on my left shoulder. I find that imagery quite entertaining. On the
whole, there were many small events that I don’t even remember now, that made life lasting impressions, and changed the way I think and act. I suspect that is part of “growing up,” but I’ll have none of that.

The few close friends I did make while there, I am thankful, are there for life too. Nathan, Stephen, Brandon(my cousin), and Shannon specifically. Of course, we don’t always agree on everything, and I personally think that we are all clinically insane. After graduation, we all went different ways, but still I think the connection was (and is) there. I think that for the most part, we all wanted to get away from Bayou la Batre, as quickly as we could, and I’m not really sure any of us knew exactly why. I know that at this point, I can’t make a correct analysis of every reason each of us had for going, nor would I attempt to. For me, at the time, I thought: “There is nothing here for me.” Now, I don’t believe that was completely accurate. Sure, there was no work for me, particularly doing what I was going to be trying to make a career of. Now I realize that I’m more connected to the place itself than I ever knew I was. And then, there is my family who still live there.

So, I spent much of my time in college trying to distance myself from the place and the people. With the exception of my family, I rarely had any contact with anyone I knew from there. For too long a time, this included the close friends from my list above. I made new friends. Tony, Robb, Chris, and Johnny are the only few from college that I still really know and keep up with. These ones are here for life as well. Again, we don’t agree on everything, and with the possible exceptions of Tony and Johnny, we are still all insane. It isn’t that I didn’t make others, but I know that the ones on those two lists have my back when ever and where ever I need. And I hope that they all know that I have their backs as well.

Most of the people who have known me for any length of time know that I make up my mind about people very quickly. Usually, my opinion of them never changes. If I take a dismissive attitude toward someone, I usually stay dismissive of them, even if I give them the benefit of the doubt (and the opportunity to prove me wrong about them) many times. But this also makes the opposite true. It makes me fiercely loyal to the people I have decided to let into my life. In Bill O’Reilly’s book Who’s Looking Out for You?, Bill talks mostly about building up a “support structure” of people in your life that are going to “look out for you.” Now, that syrupy prose is too too cloying and makes me want to punch someone. However, Bill broke it down like this:

“If you can’t name at least five people who are willing to bleed for you, you’re doing something
wrong.”

I’ll do him one better, and say that if you can’t name at least five people in your life that you’re
willing to bleed for, then you’re doing something wrong.

In evaluating my life, here is where my thoughts have been leading to: The worst thing that I can ever imagine in my life is that whatever I did in highschool was the “best years of my life.” I didn’t play highschool football, but I can’t imagine that being the highlight of my life! I get the feeling that most of the people I went to highschool with PEAKED in highschool. I went to college too. I had some great times at college. However, college wasn’t the best time of my life! I met the woman who would become my wife there, and I would not trade that time for anything, but it wasn’t the best time of my life. I think most of the people on my list probably think the same way, and perhaps that is part of the reason we get along so well.

To-date, I think the best time of my life has been between the years of 1998 and early to mid 2001. I was learning a lot about my trade then, and really starting to make a little money at it. I moved out of my dad’s house into the big bad world. I established myself. I traveled some with work, and was even sent to England and Switzerland. I married the woman of my dreams. I took her to Europe for our honeymoon. We moved away from home for me to take a job working with NASA, a life-long dream. This was a great time of my life.

I hope to God, that this was not the best time of my life. What I mean is that I hope I haven’t HAD the best years of my life yet, and that when it is over, I can look back and say: “Yeah, there were a few peaks and valleys, but overall it just kept getting BETTER and BETTER all the time!” Speaking only for myself here, I can say that a large part of my happiness in life is that I am never satisfied with myself. I never feel like I know enough, or can do enough, so I try to learn and do more. There is always something new to learn.

I really hope that the people that I have named here know how much I appreciate having them around. Even if we don’t get to talk or hang out a lot. This is not normal for me. Though it was very easy for me to write, I have been struggling uncomfortably for over a week with posting it. Normally, I prefer to keep my guard up about personal things like this. But ultimately, it is more important to me to swallow my pride and thank my friends for being my friends. I hope you all have a great 2005.

What is that NOISE?!

So, who would have thought that I'd have gone out and purchased a book entitled “Progressive Independence?” The whole progressive agenda makes my stomach turn! Ah, but as it turns out, this book is not about politics, but in fact, jazz drumming. I brought my kit out of mothballs at my dad's house, and have found just enough space to set it up in the computer room at home. The book focuses on working yourself up to a point that you can be playing four completely different rhythms at the same time: one on each limb. Really, that is all about muscular memorization. I also had a hard time with this in the 1990's, when I was learning to
stick triplets as paradiddles. I practiced those for a LONG time, and those are one of the few things that I can apparently still
do.

I went to two different music stores here in town: Railroad Bazaar and A. B. Stephens. Stephens is more out-of-the-way, in a part of town I almost am never in. That being said, the people at Stephens seemed to be much friendlier and more knowledgeable. Not to mention that they have their drum-stick display set up so that the customer can walk right up to it and dig for the pair they want. I cannot abide a music store with the sticks put behind the counter.

It has been since 1998 that I last played drums at all. That is right around 6 – 7 years. I was never really “good” on the drum
set in the first place, though for a (short) time, I was reasonably accomplished on the snare drum in that I could play a couple of
the easier pieces by John S. Pratt. I really wish I could find a recording of some of those solos. It would help me tremendously to be able to hear what they are supposed to sound like. There is a song by DJ Shadow, called “Six Days” which has an extended snare solo in the background at one point, that I would swear is a recording of a Pratt piece, but I can't be sure.

At any rate my drum kit is still as crappy as it was when I put it up in 1998. I have some decent cymbals, though I would really
like an “earthier” ride. I'll probably watch a few pawn shops for an old ride cymbal in the 22″ – 24″ range. Worse than the drums
though, I can't keep time any more. It will all come back to me eventually, but what a pain. I also have never been good at solo
drumming in the first place. Since no one in my house plays guitar or anything, it is kind of hard for me to get back into the
groove.

I have never had any kind of training at playing the drum kit. That doesn't bother me too much, as my band director for most
of high school basically hated drummers. Many times, he threatened to put on a snare drum, and play it himself. After I left, I
attended several football games where he did just that.

I never have been good at jazz drumming, even when I played often. I've always had trouble producing a convincing “swing” beat. Most of the stuff I have played in the past has been more “straight-ahead.” That is why I bought the jazz book: I've always been interested in it, and thus far it has escaped me. So far, I have not been able to master the first exercise, mostly because I am
so out of practice. I think that once I've had a few hours on my own to work through it, I'll be ok.

I'm thinking about buying a small electronic drum pad like the Yamaha DD-55 with a MIDI controller to plug into my G5, and feed Garageband.

Also, I noticed a book on Amazon called something like “Drumstick Spinology.” Apparently some quack is getting rich by teaching people to twirl drumsticks as some sort of psychological therapy. This stinker isn't going on my wish list any time soon.

Test

This is a test

So this is the new year? (Hat-tip: "Death Cab for Cutie")

I don’t do New Year Resolutions. So, this year will be no exception. However, it is not all that uncommon for me to set a few goals from time to time. So this year, I think that I’m going to dig up some books by and about the founding fathers of our country. The goal being mostly to remind myself that the people who founded this country were all right-wing-kook-extremists, just like me. As the post-election left-wing meltdown continues, with liberals screeching about how “Red State” people are ignorant morons, it will be nice to read the words of these intelligent men, and to remember that they are largely responsible for me
thinking the way I do. I am a conservative, I do believe in God, I am patriotic. I am not an uneducated simpleton fool. I sense that I’ll probably write two or three screeds about this in the coming year.

Specifically, I want to look through the Federalist Papers, some Washington, some Jefferson, some Ben Franklin (particularly, I’d like to reread his autobiography), and revise on some of the minor/obscure founding documents like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Also, I intend to finish the 9/11 commission report.

Also, for career development this year, I’d really like to learn to write useful code in C. Really, as a full-time UNIX systems administrator, I am often ashamed of that fact that I can’t program in C. Perl is great, and as a rule has gotten me out of (also in to) many sticky situations, but really I should learn C.

Finally, I’m really going to try to write more. I will probably use this LiveJournal thing as the medium, since it is easy enough. Nobody but Chris will read it anyway, and the only reason that he will is that he gets all of my posts emailed to him automagically. Chris, read-on. I promise it will be hella boring.

Some things I want to write about:

• Chapter 8 in the new Ann Coulter book, and how she isn’t quite right.
• Good/Bad points in the new Bill O’Reilly book.
• Dr. Strangeconserviative, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the US.
• The current un-official charter of the United Nations
• Canada: Frozen Bombing Range of the North
• Linux Hippies are ruining it for the rest of us
• My favorite line to use at parties: “I’m slightly to the right of Rush Limbaugh.” That one always gets GREAT responses.
• My prediction that the “Half-Blood Prince” in J.K. Rowling’s new book is . . . Haggrid.
• The real American Idiots, Anna Nichole, Paris Hilton, Reality TV, MTV, etc.
• My life-change from Linux+Windows on PC to OS X on Apple G5, how I have adjusted, and if it was worth it.
• Several other topics I can’t remember right now.

I had no champagne for the new year, I’m afraid. I had a nice bottle of Chimay Grand Reserve (a.k.a. Chimay Blue) that I was going to enjoy, but decided to save it. At $9 per bottle, it is packaged like champagne (750 ml, cork finished, wire bale), but tastes better than any champagne I’ve ever had, and is WAY less expensive. Vouve Clicot is probably the best tasting champagne I’ve ever had. It is currently at about $45 for the same 750 ml bottle. Also, I have one bottle of Left Hand Imperial Stout that I am saving for a cold night. I am worried that winter may be over though. We had those two days, just before Christmas where the high
was in the 20’s. Right now, we’re having upper 60’s. Happy January in North Alabama.

I got several new books for Christmas, including the Bill O’Reilly book, Who’s Looking Out for You? Anyone who thinks that O’Reilly is a conservative after reading this book should go have a mental exam or perhaps go look at a dictionary. This book was closer to a “Self Help” book than anything I have ever read before. As it turns out, I like Bill’s writing style much better than his interviewing/commentating style on his TV show (I’ve never listened to his radio show). Perhaps it is because he’s not interrupting someone else’s every third word. I’ll talk more about the book in another entry later because I thought it was actually good and made some points I hadn’t thought about.

Oh, and I swore off Slashdot just over a month ago. Haven’t found a good replacement for it yet, we’ll see how long it lasts… Annoying pratts. So far, I have done well. Been there less than 3 times in the last month. Haven’t missed it, per se. But I do miss having a good source of computer geek news updated several times per day. If not for their agenda of left-wing politics and slamming any company out there that has the nerve to actually try to (gasp) make money, I’d still be a (many-times-a-day) daily visitor.

In summary, happy new year to you all. Really, I plan to live 2005 just like I lived 2004. Keep moving forward, doing what I do, brewing a few beers, fixing a couple of computers, and generally enjoying life in North Alabama with my wife.