Oorgo

It's extra money 'cause we say so

I keep seeing this ad, you've probably seen it too, the ad from Centrum, (the multivitamin people) claiming that (in my own words) "all of these ingredients {a guy standing in back of a dumptruck unloading stuff} won't match up to the science of Centrum". And then he goes along to explain that this vitamin goes with this one and this mineral goes with this hokey pokey and then you turn yourself around and voila you have health and vitality...

Who in hell would believe this shite? OK, I see 2 bottles of multivitamins, one has EXACTLY the same f@#$ing ingredients as the other, to the f@#$ing MILLIGRAM, but costs 6-8 dollars less. Am I to believe that the lesser priced bottle which also has about 80 more tablets (ok I may be exagerating) is not as valid even though it's EXACTLY THE SAME, because of the "Science of Centrum"? Who would swallow this absolute tripe? And is it just me or does this smack of falsity?

I think my 1st grade teacher would have something to say about your mathematics, Centrum. 1 + 1 = 2, but of course you would need a particular brand of science to prove the validity of that right?

I know this man

I read every post this fellow writes, and many times I feel as if I read my own words, but coming from a more affluent setting and eloquent mouth. His picture obviously isn't real and there's no mention of who he is but I know this man. We even share similar ex-neighbours, perhaps this is some similarity all neighbourhoods have: the stooped man, the hugely obese demanding woman, the destined failure of their relationship and family.

You should also read him and get to know him. Always well written and thoughtful and even sometimes funny.

Ear training, Theory and 12 tone oh my!

For all of you with no interest in learning music, you may want to skip this post. Ok so sometimes I'm a music geek, but I see no issue with reinforcing fundamentals if you feel they are lacking, or just for the sheer fun of it. I recently found a couple of great ear training / theory sites, one called Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net and the other called Good-ear.com. Worthwhile references if you are looking to sharpen your ear and expand your aural vocabulary.

The epiphany of free and open, Ricci Adams' Musictheory.net actually has a link to download the entire site and run it offline. That's the coolest thing I've seen so far, and the lessons/trainers/utilities are all in friendly easy to use flash programs (if your Firefox will run Flash, mine doesn't right now for some effing reason). I did find the ear training lacked any advanced chords, scales etc., but it sounds pretty good and keeps a running tally w/ scoring.

Good-ear is a nice site, I ran across it about 2 weeks ago, it's only focused on ear training, but it goes much farther than Ricci's, into Jazz chords and funky scales etc. It's powered by quicktime and ads, so it tends to be a little slow sometimes, and I noticed the clickthru on the ads almost never works. I was in contact with the developer and he was quick to respond which was pretty refreshing. I like the fact there's a section in the Chord recognition that I will have to work at for awhile before I can get it: it merely says "All", meaning you have to specify what is being played based on every chord in the site, and that's pretty extensive.

I studied all of this stuff back back in college and university, but memory wanes and wax builds up in the cornes of the ear that used to be finely tuned instruments.

Like a duck on a frozen pond

Ok that's not the greatest analogy, but that's pretty much my opinion of GM these days. They're like this giant duck that has migrated to the same pond it's gone for years and years, but over last couple it was frozen, or freezing but it still kept coming back. Sooner or later that duck will die, frozen and chattering, stuck to the pond, not because it was old, but because it couldn't see what was going on. GM is about to close 9 Facilities and eliminate 30,000 jobs, partly because the car market is a tough one these days, and partly because it's too blind to see the train speeding at them called End of Oil.

Instead of spending the past 10 or more years looking into vehicles that conserve gas, and are easier on Mother Earth, they've focused on the almighty SUV and researched ways to make them bigger and more powerful. It makes sense in the monetary short term because hey! SUV's are popular, expensive and somehow a sign of affluence!. Pretty friggin' short sighted, even for a car company, especially one that used to be fighting for top slot. Recent reports have even estimated a 30 - 40 % chance that within the next 2 years GM will file for bankruptcy.

I suppose a positive side to them tanking would be the fire it would light under competitions asses to rethink and retool their organization. This planet really can't sustain us in our current consumptive addiction, and the air will soon no longer sustain our poisonous exhaust. This isn't a choice, it's a reality no matter who you are, where you live, no barrier for rich and poor in gas prices or availability, other than I'm sure some people are hoarding stockpiles underground somewhere, such is our nature. You also have to breathe the same air as I do, as there isn't some fancy barrier seperating the rich air from the poor air. A quick turnaround is the only thing that will save the affluent from paying for oxygen on the street from little black boxes, while the poor folk's blackened spittle is coughed up onto the sidewalk.

Am I a reactionary? I don't think so. Back in 1988 I read Whitley Striebers "Nature's End", a fictional story about the inevitable collapse of our ecosystem. Every day I see one or two things out of the book come to life: in the news, in the world around me, in the air. I originally didn't want to have kids because of the bleak future I thought think we have, but my wife said to me "What if this child found the key to save millions?". You never do know, but god damn does it make me mad when I see companies with their heads up their asses and so distant from reality.

Ok, so I strayed from the topic a bit, it's late.

Dear Dick

The Mighty Middle has posted a great letter and strong response to Dick Cheney's recent speech . I try not to get too political around here for many reasons, but you should check this out, and spread the word.

I found this via Random Fate

It's a biggun'

So Amber went in for another ultrasound today, the baby looks good but it's big: 6 lbs 8 ounces! Nuts! The kid is that big at 35 weeks, what would happen if she actually went to full term, 10 lbs? Oh lordy. Probably gonna happen next week or for sure the week after, because of the amnio that'll be performed, it apparently brings on contractions most of the time.

Baby is very active, even though it's big and doesn't have a lot of room to move, it is trying to make more room (not a pleasant feeling apparently). Here's an idea on size, we thought it was pushing it's foot against her ribs, no, it was apparently it's knee!

{off-topic}
Here's a weird thing, there was a comment on this post (spam) that was something like 500 characters or more long, it was not deleted by fluffy, but it was also not added to the blog or emailed to me. Wacky eh?

Amazing discovery

The Sneeze has discovered something amazingTHe Wonder Twins may have invented the knuckle dap.(The knocking of fists together as a greeting, or form of respect.)

Sony's Anti-customer Technology

Boing Boing today is showing a neatly organized timeline of Sony and the DRM rootkit saga. I wasn't going to buy Sony electronics ever again after my dealings with their Net MD Sonicstage software, well now I am going to extend this loathing to their Music CDs.

Boing Boing: Sony anti-customer technology roundup and time-line

Arrange the arranger

So I just finished watching Napoleon Dynamite, what, am I the last person n this planet to have watched it? Well it was funny enough, the beer I had consumed pushed it over the edge of fucked up to funny.

Well that's not the point of this post, on this of my 2 weekends off from gigs I finally got around to workjing on some old original songs that I made back in ... oh... a while back... and it was inspiring, it really was. I am working at getting a few (probably 3) songs arranged for sextet, trumpet alto sax, trombone, and getting them recorded so I can finish my ill fated degree (well Ok I don't know if it' s entirely ill-fated, it hasn't been completely killed yet).

I realized a couple of things while working on this old stuff. I'm rusty at it, which is to be imagined, and there were mistakes in the originals which I apparently overlooked at the time. It also kept me up late Saturday night, well into 3 am. This in itself greatly reminded me of the old days, when I did these late night creative things, and the juices flowed, and I thought deep thoughts. I had a great time.

I've also come to enlightenment in the last while that I'm not really a writer per se, because I can't take the time to doublecheck all my facts, or check whether that was the correct word to say in that instance, or sometimes whether my grammar checks out. I don't think I will ever be that guy, I just don't have the focus or background in writing. I'm also the type to start many many things but never fin

February funhouse

So now it appears that 3 of the big loser (non-ruling) parties in Canada are raving and frothing at the mouth for an election in February of next year. Why? Oh, because the "Liberals are corrupt, they have to be taken down", or "I don't trust them".

Let me let you guys in on some secrets that maybe you don't know, but the rest of the general public does:

1. We don't want to get out of our heated cars in -28 C weather in February to cast a ballot in an election that no one wants
2. There is no choice for government, because not one of the parties up there has shown itself to be completely reliable and trustworthy or held themselves up to the mirror they are suddenly holding the current government up to.
3. Not one of the loser party leaders should be a party leader, a party leader should have charisma, charm and leadership skills. Perhaps they should go back to being the attourneys that they were before (I have no backing on this, I would more likely guess they were accountants). Maybe go into denying insurance claim money to injured women and children. Only perhaps Jack Layton seems trustworthy, but even he seems to be a bit of a crackpot these days.

Sure the Liberals were corrupt, EVERY government is corrupt as long there are men and women sitting in positions of power. Corruption breeds in backslapping handshaking environments where people get paid 6 digit figures for working 20ish days a year. Deal with it.

The best motions and programs came from minority governments, let's see how the current gov't pans out, get the fucking power crazy look out of your eyes and sit the fuck back down.

I'm ... Batman

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause. Batman, the Dark Knight 100% Neo, the "One" 88% Captain Jack Sparrow 83% Maximus 79% The Amazing Spider-Man 79% Lara Croft 75% James Bond, Agent 007 67% The Terminator 67% El Zorro 50% William Wallace 46% Indiana Jones 42% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

As seen on Rocket Jones

7 hrs in the RAH

I must have some sort of sixth sense for things happening, as I had almost no sleep Saturday night, for no reason that was apparent at that time. At 7 everything became apparent, Amber woke me up saying we would have to go to the hospital for non-stress tests, as she was feeling contractions, strong pains wrapping around her side timed about 2 minutes apart, when she laid on her side. I suggested she sit on the exercise ball that we have, which lessened the pains quite a bit, but at around 10 we went to the hospital to make sure everything was ok.

Baby was very active the whole time, no issues there, and after 2 or more hours on the monitors they said they were definitely contractions, but nothing else was advancing. We stayed for a handful more hours, as they were reducing in strength and they wanted to make sure everything was continuing to calm down. Basically this all resulted from a tour of the department we took on Saturday, which existed of a little over an hour of walking and standing, 2 things that previously brought on contractions in past pregnancies.

Xavier was amazingly good, we were there for 7 hours and he only really cried once, and that was when he slipped off the visitors lounge couch onto the floor. Oh, and he almost did when he thought we were leaving mommy behind in the hospital, we weren't though, just feeding the ridiculously expensive underground parking machine.

Amber is on strict no stress, no exercise, no exertion orders for the next while so we can extend the time until the baby comes. It's 33 weeks right now so that's good, everything is developed the baby just needs to gain more weight and grow some. Even if it came in the next couple weeks it wouldn't be bad, although we're really not ready for it quite yet, tonnes of stuff to do.

Sitting Spraying and Steaming

Last night was one I don't wish to re-live any time soon. After work I drove to the Safeway near my home, went in, got various comestibles, came out, as usual, to my car. What wasn't usual was that there was steam coming out from around the hood. I'm thinking "Ok, that's not cool", so I opened the hood, no steam, cloesd the hood, steam. I noticed that the inside of the hood was wet, and I know the car has been leaking a little antifreeze, so I looked underneath and sure enough, a puddle.

I drove to a nearby gas station to fill up, and noticed the steam was getting worse and upon closer observation the dripping was quite obvious. Then as I was leaving the station the "LOW COOLANT" light came on. "Oh fiddle" I said (yeah, ok, right), and headed off to the unfortunately only place open that time of night, Canadian Tire. After 1 1/2 hours of hanging around waiting they tell me my water pump needs replacing, to the tune of $356!! The f@#$ing pump itself only costs $70, but the work involved was over $200, thank you Pontiac for making such an easy to get to water pump.

The first thing that came into my mind was that I couldn't get home, and how was I going to get to work tomorrow, etc. Luckily the guy at the counter lives up by me and offered a ride home, saving me a $15 cab ride. The other positives to this is Amber had a migraine and really needed the extra sleep she got with me taking care of Xavier, and he enjoyed having me home. A negative (other than the $356) is that I still need to fork out money for 2 tires to replace the bald ones on the car. I'm not going for anything extravagant anymore, no sir, gimme used ones for $40 a piece installed and balanced, that'll be fine thank you.

The car was fixed relatively fast and I got to work at 12 just in time for the phones to stop ringing off the hook.

Feedwheel burning

Hey so I put feedburner on the left-hand side over there... yeah, riiiight .... THERE, no go back, yeah, there. Mostly because I love to bask in the glow of the 3 or 4 subscribers to my RSS feed :) If you wish you could use that feed then I can bask even further right on my homepage ... and be ultra excited when I get more readers.

Oh and anyone who can guess where the title for this post comes from you have my props. (yeah, ok I can't say that word) Ok, maybe respect? Better?

You are Scary

You Are Scary

You even scare scary people sometimes!

I think it was because I made someone cry in the last week. I found this through Your Moosey Fate