On Blogging

I came across the following from Iggy's via Wil:

Somebody was once asked to define blogs. They refused and said:

I don’t care. There is no need to define “blog.” I doubt there ever was such a call to define “newspaper” or “television” or “radio” or “book” — or, for that matter, “telephone” or “instant messenger.” A blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list. People will use it however they wish. And it is way too soon in the invention of uses for this tool to limit it with a set definition. That’s why I resist even calling it a medium; it is a means of sharing information and also of interacting: It’s more about conversation than content… so far. I think it is equally tiresome and useless to argue about whether blogs are journalism, for journalism is not limited by the tool or medium or person used in the act. Blogs are whatever they want to be. Blogs are whatever we make them. Defining “blog” is a fool’s errand.

I agree with the sentiment, and just want to point out that I recently came across the two most brilliant blogs on the planet:

Blog 1

Blog 2

Ve Vant Zee Money, Lebowski!

These commercials have three things I like: Volkswagens (although sadly these aren't vintage aircooled), Peter Stomare, and stuff gettin' smashed.

Cleansing Waters of Lake Minnetonka

...so after my previous post mocking people who abuse sick leave, I get a butt-kicking case of the flu. Okay, ha ha, I can appreciate the irony. Well, after I got over that, I was healthy for approximately 48 hours before getting hit with a head cold that would bring down a bull elephant. I felt so bad all week I was seriously expecting Dustin Hoffman in a hazmat suit to come busting through my door. Remind me not to make anymore blog postings that tempt fate, okay?

We had a beautiful day on Thursday when it almost made it to 60 degrees, then BAM, we're right back in the twenties. I hate this time of year - you know the weather is about to break, you can feel it, you're ready, and Mother Nature puts the smack down on you. Regardless, I think I'll swing by the dealer this week and get the supplies to give the bike an oil change for when we turn the corner.

The title of this post is in reference to a confession I have to make that I hope won't damage my metalhead credentials too much: I am a huge Prince fan. This is probably due to the influence of my sisters, who are both huge fans. I forced my Mom to take me to see Purple Rain in the theater when I was ten (And yes, there are few things as awkward as being a ten-year-old boy, sitting next to your mother in a movie theater, watching a graphic sex scene starring Prince and Apollonia). Granted, his newer stuff has kinda gone off in a direction that I'm not following, but I think everything from Diamonds & Pearls and earlier is amazing. Unfortunately, the man lets his freak flag fly so high that most people never realize how talented of a musician he is. What got me thinking about this? Well, since I've been mostly in a 'guitar' state of mind lately, I was browsing one of the guitar forums and someone pointed me in the direction of this video from the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. It's an all-star rendition of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Prince is onstage with Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Dhani Harrison (who looks so much like his father it's eerie), and he absolutely destroys the place. It's some of the most amazing playing I've heard, which is saying something, seeing as I consider the original version to be one of Eric Clapton's finest moments. Shortly after this video was making the rounds on the Internet, Prince appeared as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live and tore it up again. I've never been fortunate enough to see him live, but I've heard he can do it with just about any instrument - he picks up a guitar and he's Hendrix. He goes to the drum kit and he's Keith Moon. Put him in from of a keyboard and he's Rick Wakeman. Not bad for a guy who's entirely self-taught. I find it funny that after the crash-and-burn of hair metal, one of the few people turning out quality guitar-driven rock is a guy who spent the better part of the hair-metal decade named after a squiggly symbol.

...and for some hilarious insight into the mind of His Royal Badness, I highly recommend checking out Kevin Smith's account of his brief time spent working for Prince at Paisley Park on the Evening With Kevin Smith DVD. (Someone has transcribed it here, but it's a much funnier to watch than to read).

The Sun Is The Same In A Relative Way

...so I went directly from work Friday to take a mid-term, immediately followed by a three-hour lecture. I then came home and slept for two hours, got up and went to my godson's first birthday party. Came home and slept a few more hours, then woke up and went to Mom's to check on her and wound up playing "pry-apart-the-cranky-4-year-olds" for ten hours.

I need to go back to work so I can get some rest.

Living in Twilight

...So the Steelers won, although the downright lousy officiating left a bad taste in my mouth (I don't think it changed the outcome of the game, the Seahawks dropping 4 passes and missing 2 field goals took care of that). I was watching the game at a friend's house with him & his Bengals posse, I was seriously tired of the whining by the end of the night.

Glad to report that Mom is back home and doing okay, it will be a long recovery but in some ways she already seems to have improved from her pre-surgery condition - we were sitting in her hospital room talking while waiting for her discharge paperwork, and I noticed she was sitting with her legs crossed - she hasn't been able to do that in about six months. They should be taking her staples out sometime in the next few days, I'm going to drop by this weekend to check on her.

Unfortunately, absolutely nothing interesting on the internal combustion front. I've been jonesin' for a ride on the bike, and then we get a cold snap that makes that a total impossibility. I found out my stepdad will be going to bike week this year, but haven't had a chance to talk to him about it yet.

The only other news of interest is what the UPS man brought me:

Hamer Archtop in Bullion Gold.

Musician's Friend was closing these out for $199 and I don't have anything with dual humbuckers, so I thought I would give it a shot. It was backordered for two weeks and I think it came directly from the factory to me (it was still covered in sawdust). I took it in for a professional setup and it plays like a dream, the guys at the shop were very impressed with it and blown away when I told them the price I got it for ("That's gotta be way below cost!"). I've also got a compressor pedal & a mini-amp on the way, I'll post some pics when they arrive. Oh yeah, I forgot - I also got in on a deal from 357 Customs - this is a chopper builder that has an association with several musicians, most notably Zakk Wylde and Toby Keith. They had a deal where if you ordered a $150 MP3 player from their merchandise section (no, I don't know why a motorcycle builder is selling MP3 players), you allegedly get a free Zakk Wylde signature Epiphone guitar, which sells for $800. (They did a similar promotion about a month ago, but it was if you bought gift certificates & die-cast models). Needless to say, there was much discussion in the guitar forums about whether or not the deal was legit - after clarification from the company and Wylde's camp it appears that it is, but the guitars aren't scheduled to ship until March, so we'll see. (I was looking for an MP3 player for a Luddite friend of mine who has a birthday coming up anyways.) After that, I'm swearing off any gear purchases (at least until my tax return arrives - there's a Washburn hollow body I've had my eye on...)

Go Steelers

As I've mentioned here before, my family is originally from Pittsburgh (they moved west in '73, I came along in '75). Being born & raised in the Steel City, Dad was a Pittsburgh superfan of the highest order - this was a man who would go on three-hour car rides on a clear summer night, since he could usually pick up KDKA on the car radio and listen to the Pirates broadcast from his hometown. This will be the first Superbowl he won't be around for, and it's a shame he won't be here to see his beloved Steelers play. We miss you Dad, we'll cheer extra loud for you.

Xmas 1977

The Morphine Dialogues

Spent most of the last couple of days at the hospital with my Mom. Some interesting snippets of conversation with her after they administered painkillers:

Me: So I ran into the Stephensons the other night...
Mom: Bicycles!
Me: What?
Mom: ...bicycles don't have anything to do with the Stephensons, do they?
Me: No.
Mom: Okay.

Mom: I'm kind of surprised my Mom didn't call me.
Me: Mom, she's been dead for twenty years.
Mom: Oh yeah, that's right.

Me: Well Mom, I think I'm going to head out for the night.
Mom: Okay. Do you have all your guns?
Me: Sure do, right here. (at this point it's easier just to humor her).
Mom: Okay, bye!

Sweet Irony...

So of course after my last post I get a killer cold (my first in 3 or 4 years) and feel like crap. Still haven't missed work, though. On top of that, meine Mutter is in the hospital recovering from back surgery, so I'll be spending the lion's share of my time at the hospital this week (maybe I can get them to pump me full of some antibiotics while I'm there).

Had some excitement last night - I was low on groceries, so I went to McDonalds for dinner (I'm not proud, I was hungry). The register monkeys at McD's are their usual brilliant selves, so nothing was ready - after I paid, they asked me to pull forward and they would bring it out to me (no biggie). This particular McDonalds is set up kind of strange, and there's a "loop" around the building since cars have to enter on the opposite side of the building from where the drive through is and circle around. I can't pull up too far, or I'll be in the middle of the loop. Some guy In a full-size truck pulls up behind me and pays for his food, and apparently I'm not pulled up far enough for him to get out. Now, my natural reaction in this situation would be to give my horn a short *beep* to let the person know I needed out, and then give them a friendly wave as I left. Not this guy - he goes absolutely apeshit. Lays on the horn and starts screaming at the top of his lungs "GET YOUR MOTHERF*CKING CAR OUT OF THE WAY, YOU @$$HOLE!!!" I thought he was overeacting a tad, to say the least. I pulled forward to let him out, and I'll admit to giving him a few not-so-friendly hand gestures as he left. About five whole seconds later, the McDonalds employee hands me my food and I pull into traffic - right behind Mr. Hypertension. As I'm driving down the road, I realize that we're both probably going to the same development, since there aren't many residential areas in my neck of the woods. Right after we pull into the development, he whips his car into a parking spot, leaps out, and hurls his soda on my car. I can't see anything, so I stop and get out of the car. He runs up on me and says "WHY THE F*CK ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?!?" I calmly tell him "I live here too". This confuses him a bit, and he says, I... I... I DON'T CARE! WHY WERE YOU RIDING MY ASS?!?" Again, I calmly tell him that at no time was I inappropriately close to his car. He yells,"BULL$H!T! I'VE GOT MY 7-MONTH-OLD DAUGHTER IN THE CAR, @$$HOLE!" My first thought was "Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you started yelling "motherf*cker" at complete strangers" - I was just going to give him a piece of my mind, but there's a lot of crazy SOB's out there that wouldn't hesitate to take more drastic measures. I kept my mouth shut, though, because at this point there were about 7 or 8 guys running up the middle of the road at me - he must have been calling everyone he knew in a two-mile radius from his cell phone on the way home. One of the guys said "Just get in your car and drive away, man" - it honestly didn't sound like a threat, I think he realized as well as I did that I wasn't going to be able to reason with the guy, and the longer I stayed the better the chances were of me being on the receiving end of a world-class ass kicking. I sighed, threw up my arms in frustration, and got in the car and drove off. I called the police when I got home and they sent some officers out to hear my complaint, they said they would look for the truck and run the tags to see if the owner had any outstanding warrants, but beyond that there wasn't too much I could do - just call them back if I have any trouble. Luckily for me 1.) I don't think they saw where I live, and I park in a communal lot that doesn't really give any clues as to which unit is mine, 2.) I work odd hours, so the chance of running into the guy are slim, 3.) my next-door-neighbor is a cop, and 4.) I have pretty obvious surveillance cameras & motion detectors at the front & back of my house (what self-respecting computer nerd doesn't have a box full of X10 stuff?) Seriously, though, why do people have to be such assholes?