About Me - More than anyone cares to know

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? My middle name is Edward, my grandfather's name. He had five kids, all used his name as one of their son's middle names. My youngest son is also named after him (Jordan Edward)

2.WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Last July.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? No.

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Black forest ham.

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Three sons.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I hope that I would, I fear that I wouldn't.

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? All the time.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Nope.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Probably not. I hate heights.

10. NAKED? No, I'm a never nude.

11. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Honey Nut Shredded Wheat or Raisin Bran Crunch.

12. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Yes, what am I? A farmer?

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Chocolate Raspberry Truffle

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Eyes and face.

15. RED OR PINK? Red

16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I have a giant, freakish head.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? I wish my dad was alive to enjoy the follies of my children.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? I don't really care.

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Khaki pants, no shoes.

20. DESCRIBE WHAT IT IS THAT YOU CANNOT RESPECT? I don't like dishonesty.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The air conditioner.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Red or Green.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Peppermint.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Shauna.

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I like them both. :-)

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? I love watching football. It's partially the football, partially that it's fall.

27. HAIR COLOR? Black with lots of grey mixed in.

28. EYES? Green.

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Yes.

30. FAVORITE FOOD? Pizza.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? I like both.

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Fanboys. Pretty funny if you are a Star Wars nerd.

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Blue

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer, though I prefer fall and spring.

35. HUGS OR KISSES? Depends on who it is.

36. YOU ARE MOST COMFORTABLE-WHEN? I have no worries and no one is bugging me.

37. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No idea.

38. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No idea.

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? It's just black.

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? The Empire Strikes Back

42. FAVORITE SOUND(S)? The ocean.

43. MYSPACE OR TWITTER? If I had to choose, I'd say Twitter.

44. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? Mexico

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? Special? Not really. I can sing pretty well, but so can a lot of people. I have a pretty good people sense. I can usually suss people out pretty quickly. I claim 98 percent accuracy, though my wife thinks it's lower (it's not)

46 FAVORITE PLACE VISITED? I love Puerto Rico and the Outer Banks.

47. WHOSE ANSWERS ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING BACK? Anyone

48. TRAITS YOU LOOK FOR IN A PERSON? I like funny, smart people who know who they are.

49. WHAT DO YOU DRIVE? I alternate between a Subaru Legacy Outback and a beat up old minivan.

50. And a message from you: Not me, but Terry Pratchett: The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it. -- Terry Pratchett

Whatcha Gonna Do About It?

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your next answer.
3. You must write that song name down no matter how outrageous it sounds!
4. Tag friends who might enjoy doing the game as well as the person you got the note from
5. Post the last answer as the title of the note.

IF SOMEONE SAYS, “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY?
222 (Paul McCartney)

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Hold Me Tight (The Beatles)

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GIRL/GUY?
The Acid Queen (The Who)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE?
Back Track (Squeeze)

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Stir it Up (Bob Marley and the Wailers)

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
The Bottom Line (Big Audio Dynamite)

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT OFTEN?
I Get Around (The Beach Boys)

WHAT IS 2+2?
Sebrina, Paste and Plato (Jellyfish)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
I Wanna Be Around - Friday Night (The Beach Boys)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LOVE?
Waitress (Live)

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
Misunderstanding (Glenn Tilbrook)

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Stupid Girl (Garbage)

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LOVE?
You Can't Hurt the Girl (Difford & Tilbrook)

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Sex Master (Squeeze) O.K. this one is horrifying, but it proves I'm not cheating on the test.

WHAT WILL YOU/DID YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING?
Sometimes I Make You Sad (Supergrass)

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Ugly Truth Rock (Matthew Sweet)

WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST?
Helen Wheels (Paul McCartney & Wings)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)

WHAT’S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Walk a Mile in My Shoes (Joe Souther)

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
I am the Walrus (The Beatles) I suppose this means I will be murdered by walruses?

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Kings Horses (Jet)

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Get it Up (Aerosmith)

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Fair (Ben Folds Five)

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED OR DIVORCED?
Girls on Film (Duran Duran)

WHAT SCARES YOU THE MOST?
No Good Trying (Syd Barrett)

IS ANYONE IN LOVE WITH YOU?
Married with Children (Oasis)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Child is the Father of the Man (Beach Boys)

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Love of My Life (Queen)

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Whatcha Gonna Do About It? (The Small Faces)

Dog Strategies II

So my dog Odin is smarter than any pet I've ever had, bar none. I wrote before about his strategy to take his sister's bone without having to fight for it. He used a new technique just the other day.

The dogs were laying on the bed while my wife was resting. Daisy had a bone which she was happily gnawing on while Odin plotted. Suddenly he perked up and cocked his head as if he heard something he sprang to the edge of the bed. Daisy, realizing she must be missing something, sprang to action and was off the bed and out the bedroom door in a split second. Odin, however, never moved beyond the edge of the bed. He pretended to hear something because he knew she would fall for it! He faked her out. As soon as she jumped off the bed, he very casually walked to her bone and lay down to chew it in peace.

About a minute later, Daisy walked back to the doorway and stared at Odin in seeming disbelief. She had been had. Again.

I nominate Odin for President of all dogs.

24: Day Seven

I've been watching 24 since midway through Season Three. After seeing that, I caught up on DVD and have watched ever since. I admit that the horrific Season Six nearly made me give up on the show, but I had heard this season would be better so I gave it a chance. So far it has been better.

Nevertheless, I have a complaint or two.

One of the things that made 24 such a great show was the fact that anyone was expendable. It makes the viewer feel some of the danger that Jack is in and thus become more invested in the show. Having said that, I think that it's lazy to simply kill characters as an emotional wrench. They have failed to consider what cast chemistry means. A good example of this is Tony Almeida. In Season Six, they unceremoniously killed his wife, the former president and then Tony himself. This seemed to have almost no purpose, particularly the death of Tony. Then through a somewhat contrived plot twist worthy of As the World Turns, Tony is alive.

At first, we were sure Tony was a bad guy, but then we learned he was double crossing the bad guys to uncover their plot. Tony was working with other former CTU operatives and quickly agreed to help Jack. As everyone who has been watching has since learned, Tony seems to be bad again. This will lead to the inevitable showdown which will undoubtedly result in Tony's death.

I'm disappointed in this twist because I think it's a lazy way to create tension. I'm not saying I know what would be better, but I think these writers underestimate the importance of cast chemistry when they decide to knock of a character or make them turn evil. Now I suppose it's possible that Tony is double-double crossing the secret group that apparently is at the head of this plot, but he's already killed one agent directly and blew up a whole bunch on last night's episode.

I just don't see how they will write their way out of this one and make it seem satisfying. If this is the end of Tony as a good guy and a character on the show I'm going to be really pissed. Again.

Don't even get me started on what's wrong with Heroes.

Windy

I know people who live in places like Chicago would smirk, but we get some pretty strong winds here in Lovettsville. When I was a kid, it had snowed several inches and then rained on top of it. The rain froze so that there was about a inch or more of solid ice over the snow. My brother and I nailed our sleds together and added a sail to it. We used the gusts coming off the Blue Ridge Mountains to fly across our fields. It was a blast ... literally.

The past few days have been really windy. I was walking over by the elementary school and saw this:



I really hope no one was inside.

How to Make American Idol Better

Despite it's popularity, American Idol's ratings have waned. Watching it last night, it occurred to me how it could be an interesting show again.

Each week, a random contestant would be given a gun with one bullet. During the feedback from the judges section if the contestant doesn't like what he or she hears, then BANG!

I'm guessing either Randy or Kara would be the first to go.

16 Albums

This has been going around Facebook and I wanted to post it here as well.

Think of 15 - 20 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions.

These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. These are my picks. I tried to limit it to 15, but ended up with 16 so sue me. There are a few more who came close, but these are mine.

1. The Beatles (White Album) - The Beatles
My aunt was a cool hippie, but in her late 20s became born again. She gave me all of her old albums. Among them was the White Album. This was not the Beatles I was used to hearing and stylistically it opened up a whole new musical world for me.

2. Rock and Roll Music - The Beatles
This isn't a real release, but rather a compilation released by Capitol Records in the mid 70s. When the Beatles broke up, they still had a contractual obligation to Capitol which was fulfilled via the release of several of these compilation discs. My parents got this for me before it was actually available to the general public because they donated money to NPR here in D.C. This double album focused on the rock and roll side of the Beatles catalog. For me, it marked my first time hearing songs like Taxman and Hey Bulldog.

3. Live at Folsom Prison - Johnny Cash
My dad was into country music more than anything. For the most part, I hated it. Johnny Cash was the exception. His voice and his stories spoke to me in a way other other country artists never did. He seemed like part of our family.

4. Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy - Elton John
While Goodbye Yellow Brick Road gets most of the attention from his fans, Captain Fantastic is more or less a sequel. This is pretty much perfect pop music. Incredible melodies, brilliant lyrics. I can't here this without thinking of muggy summers in Virginia.

5. Destroyer - KISS
Destroyer was when KISS became bigger than life. Purists might say this is when they sold out and truth be told, it's not really a favorite anymore, but it was huge for me when I was 13. It was a perfect mix of music and comic books. What more would any boy want?

6. Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex Pistols - The Sex Pistols
Hearing the Sex Pistols for the first time felt like an audio assault. Everything about it seemed wrong, yet I couldn't turn it off.

7. The Clash - The Clash
The Clash, even on their first album, showed that there was more more to punk rock than anarchy and screaming. They took what the Sex Pistols did and went a step further.




8. Live at Budokan - Cheap Trick
I never heard Cheap Trick until I heard the live version of I Want You to Want Me on the radio. It was heavy like KISS, but melodic like The Beatles.

9. Get the Knack - The Knack
Sneer if you must, but this is a perfect album. The Knack took everything that made power pop fun and crammed it into every song. Forget the skinny ties and short hair and wanna-be Beatles vibe, The Knack were the real deal ... for exactly one album. Sadly, they put everything they had into the one album and never even came close again.

10. Armed Forces - Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello took the anger of punk rock, but added a more pop sensibility to it.

11. Are You Experienced? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Jimi blended the blues with rock, pop and folk. This album made me want to hear what influenced him.

12. East Side Story - Squeeze
I didn't want to give Squeeze a chance because everything I ever read about them included the notion that they were the "New Lennon and McCartney." I knew that couldn't be true so I blew them off. Fortunately for me, I accidentally heard them on MTV and was hooked. East Side Story is probably the best example of their particular blend of melody and storytelling. When I started writing songs, I spent years trying to write lyrics like these.

13. Spilt Milk - Jellyfish
Jellyfish was kind of overlooked amidst the 90s alt-rock explosion, but this is a perfect pop album in the absolute best sense of the term.

14. Nevermind - Nirvana
It's easy to take Nirvana for granted after all the hype and deification of Kurt Cobain. But this album was like the second coming of punk. Only this time, they took the best elements of punk, rock, metal and pop and mixed it into this amazing hybrid that sounded the death knell for 80s hair metal. I watched with amazement as overnight as BAM magazine stopped featuring ads for hair extensions and replaced them with ads for flannel shirts (as if the look alone gives a band credibility). Nirvana changed music formats and shattered conventions. The result was that bands no one ever would have given a chance made it onto the radio. What a lot of people miss about Nirvana is how poppy they were. Most don't get past the grinding guitar and primal scream of Cobain. Break down the songs and you'll hear real melodies there.

15. O.K. Computer - Radiohead
I think this may be one of the top five albums of all time. The last one before Radiohead descended into self-indulgence and pretension.

16. Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
An amazing power pop album. Intelligent lyrics, great melodies and harmonies. You can tell they are influenced by all of the best bands.