Overconfidence

Every once in a while you read something and then see it firsthand the same day. The other day I was reading about how people are overconfident in their knowledge in this book. Stated another way, they are not objective about their knowledge level.

Think about this:

How do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky: "Loo-ee-ville" or "Loo-iss-ville"?

Now how much would you bet that you know the correct answer? $5? $50? $500?

Most people are pretty confident they know how to pronounce Louisville correctly, but they are answering the wrong question. I asked how you pronounced the capital of Kentucky. What you really need to know is "what is the capital of Kentucky?" This happens all the time. I have a friend who plays Trivial Pursuit with a twist. He answers the question and gives a ranking as to how certain he is in his answer. He found that most people he plays with are overconfident in their knowledge.

Now the way this was concretized to me was over dinner with a group of friends who are all fans of Ayn Rand. We ended up talking about suicide which lead to the question: Does Atlas Shrugged contain a story of a vengeful suicide by a spurned lover motivated solely by the desire to cause the "beloved" pain -- and if so, what is it? See Diana's post for more details.

Since I had JUST read the passage about overconfidence, I was probably more objective about how certain I was and thought to myself that I was only about 50-60% sure of my recollection. (I was 100% wrong.) A few other people at dinner were more confident and lost $5 to their overconfidence.

This dramatized and concretized overconfidence for me. I'm not certain where to take this, but it is definitely interesting.

Print 'em full size

Capital Freedom points out that these versions are much too small for congress to be able to read. Maybe that is the trouble.

Occasional Quote:

Helen Keller
"Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it."

Go Pro

Here is an article from Scuttlebutt on how to become a pro sailor. Basically the same as going pro in anything else--work long and hard for little or nothing for years. If you're any good, you'll get a job... if not... well... lets just hope you're good.

Meme of Fours

Swiped from WitNit and later tagged by Tina and AGAIN by Ian:

(I guess I should have just posted this instead of putting it in queue.)

Four Jobs IÂ’ve Had In My Life:
Conductor on a Steam train (Disney World)
Coffee Schlepper at Starbucks
Lab researcher (Bioresearch in high school, physics research in college)
Real Estate Appraiser

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over and Have:
An Ideal Husband ("To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.")
Better Off Dead ("Go that way really fast. If something gets in your way, turn!")
Gattaca ("You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.")
The Godfather Parts 1 and 2 ("In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.")

Four Places I Have Lived:
Boulder, Colorado
Orlando, Florida
Denver, Colorado
Englewood, Colorado

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel/Firefly (I count these as one since they are all Jossian)
Veronica Mars
Alias
Wire in the Blood

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
London
Barcelona
Osaka Japan
Kauai

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
Only four. I think I'll pass on this one. Don't want to choose among my children.

Four Favorite Foods:
Sushi
Steak
Mexican Food
Haggis (ok, not really a favorite, but I do like haggis)

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
Home
Out looking at properties
Cullera, Spain, eating paella, drinking beer, planning a sail
On a boat, anywhere warm

Occasional Quote:

Ayn Rand
"Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one's values."

Public Speaking

I've worked hard to be a good and sometimes great speaker. Too bad I didn't know this little secret in the beginning. I could have saved myself the trouble.

Link Purge, Part 2: Podcast

Here's some info I found interesting about podcasting.

Jake Ludington's Podcasting Starter Kit

Podcast Solutions Interview: Brian Ibbot of Coverville

Upgrade Your Podcast for Under $200

Roadhouse Blues Pod Cast

Yahoo's how-to

Rip Vinyl for digitizing your records

Happy Birthday Mozart

Today is Mozart's birthday.

ABBA + Coverville = ?

Regular readers know that I'm a reluctant fan of ABBA. I want to hate them, but I can't. It is a sickness I have to endure.

In any case, in trolling the archives I found THIS show of Coverville's podcast. ALL ABBA ALL THE TIME. Or at least ALL ABBA THIS TIME. Check it out.

Occasional Quote:

Sir Robert Chiltern: Do you know, Arthur, I sometimes wish I were you.
Lord Arthur Goring: Do you know, Robert, sometimes I wish you were too. Except that you would probably make something useful out of my life, and that would never do.

-"An Ideal Husband" by Oscar Wilde

Link Purge, Part 1

I have a number of links I've been meaning to post on. So I'm going to do a purge fest in a few posts.

Paul has a number of posts I thought were interesting. Topics include:

• The superiority of US troops because of video games
• Strange Drinks in Eastern Europe (Tina, comments?)
• Stackable Cars
• Serenity's possible return
• An essay on Feynman and a related NoodleFood post

A post on the legality of sleeping under the influence at Truth, Justice, and the American Way

WitNit has a not so dumb blonde joke and a more serious one about Sadaam's training of terrorists.

Daniel Drezner has a post about Munich. I have been meaning to post about why I dislike this movie, I just haven't had time. Russell Roberts I think says it best in this post. "He could also have mentioned that killing murderers is not the same as murder."

BusinessPundit has an OLD post on the purpose of business.

Occasional Quote:

Buffy looking at her mother's high school yearbook: "Mom, I've accepted that you've had sex. I am not ready to know that you had Farrah hair."
Joyce: "This is Gidget hair. Don't they teach you anything in history?"

US vs. Google: the porn search

Apparently, the government wants to know who is searching the web for porn sites and has asked Google to hand over its search data. Google has refused and the Government is sueing. What else will "Big Brother" want to know about you?

As David at Truth, Justice, and the American Way puts it:

To hell with phone calls and letters – if there are any secrets about me, my Google accounts hold them. If this is up for grabs without a warrant, what isn’t?

Occasional Quote:

Thanks to Ian for this quote. I just got Mencken's biography. I'm really fascinated by him right now.

Strategic Positioning

This is a picture of Sparky in his favorite spot on chilly days. Notice he is in the direct path of the hot air register!

Occasional Quote:

Claire Cleary: Are you OK?
John Beckwith: Yeah, I'm just swinging the jib for your dad, starboard.
Claire Cleary: But starboard's *this* way.
John Beckwith: That's right. What am I thinking? I'm used to sailing down under with the kiwis so everything's backwards and the toilets when you flush them, the water spins the opposite way. Really freaks you out the first time you see it

-Wedding Crashers

I wonder if WitNit can verify this after his trip to Australia.

What Kind of Coffee am I?

You Are an Iced Coffee

At your best, you are: hyper, modern, and athletic At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you're out with friends Your caffeine addiction level: medium

Who comes up with this stuff?
I thought for sure I'd be a straight up black coffee!

Occasional Quote:

Black Knight: Have at you!
Arthur: You are indeed brave, sir knight, but the fight is mine.
Black Knight: Oh, had enough eh?
Arthur: Look, you stupid bastard. You've got no arms left!
Black Knight: Yes I have.
Arthur: Look!
Black Knight: Just a flesh wound!

-Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Parrot Troubles

Apparently having a parrot for a pet doesn't mix well with cheating on your boyfriend. Details here. I have a series of parrot jokes, but this is funnier because it's true.

Great American Speeches

When I was looking for MLK's I have a dream speech, I found this website. It has all sorts of American speeches both the text and in many cases the audio. I have some issues with their top 100 because they have skipped over everything prior to 1900.

Here is the kicker. They have some of the speeches from movies. Here are my favorites:
(Warning, the connection is slow)

Colonel Drummond Interrogates Mathew Brady on the Scientific Authority of the Bible

Larry the Liquidator's speech in Other People's Money

Aragorn's speech before the battle (LOTR)

And my absolute favorite from the site: Howard Roark Addresses the Jury

Occasional Quote:

Jeff: Do you know what would be the best way to wipe out all of human kind if you were a space alien with a special kind of mind ray..? Make all women telepathic. Because if they suddenly found out about the kind of stuff that goes on in our heads they would kill us all on the spot. Men are not people - we are disgustoids in human form.

From the British TV SHOW-Coupling.

I think this tells you more about Jeff than it does about men. I highly recommend Coupling.

Wilson Pickett Dies

Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack today. Blues has lost a legend.

Happy Birthday Buzz

Coverville, Podcasting, and Trouble

A big thanks to Kim, who recommended Coverville to me. The podcast is a show of cover songs only. [Except for the show of non-covers-ie the songs you think are covers but aren't.]

Of course, I'm a bit of a curious creature so I dug up some info on Podcasting, and I think I may be in trouble. You see, blogging takes some time, but not a lot. Podcasting would take some more time, but, damnit, I've always wanted a radio show!

Now, to cut off any snickering, chortling, or general hysterical laughing, I am NOT talking about a talk show. I'm talking about a good old fashion radio show, with music interspersed with news, traffic, and sports updates.

I will let you know how this interest progresses, but I may be in trouble. On the positive side, I may be able to use my blues name for this!!!

Occasional Quote:

Individual rights are the means of subordinationg society to moral law.

-- Ayn Rand, "Man's Rights," The Virtue of Selfishness

What Kind of Rock Star Am I?

You Are a Freedom Rocker!

You're stuck in the 70s - for better or worse Crazy hair, pot soaked clothes, and tons of groupies Your kind showed the world how to rock Is that freedom rock?... Well turn it up man!

What Kind of Rocker Are You?

I guess I listen to too much Stones and Led Zeppelin!

Merchant Adventurers by Berton Braley

Merchant Adventurers

Merchant Adventurers sending their galleys

Seaward from Sidon and Tyre,

Freighting their wares over mountains and valleys,

Desert and jungle and mire.

Merchant Adventurers - traders of Venice

Peddling their goods overseas,

Dauntless in face of the terrors that menace;

Merchant Adventurers, these!

Merchant Adventurers -- "English Exploiters"

Sailing the perilous Main,

Threading the haunts where the Buccaneer loiters,

Dodging the galleons of Spain.

Merchant Adventurers -- dealers and jobbers,

German, Italian and Gaul,

Fighting the greedy baronial robbers --

Merchant Adventurers, all!

Merchant Adventurers! All through the ages

Somehow their business was done,

(Seeking their profit and paying their wages)

Everywhere under the sun.

Jasons of trade who were ceaselessly faring

Over new countries and seas,

Shopkeepers canny, courageous and daring,

Merchant Adventurers, these!

Now? Writers damn them as "commonplace Babbits,

Clogging the path of advance,

Middle-class dullards of standardized habits,

Utterly lacking romance!"

If we believe all these critics and censurers

Business is humdrum to-day,

Gone is the spirit of Merchant Adventurers

Crumbled to dust and decay!

Don't you believe it -- that spirit is glowing

Under the Business Man's vest;

Jasons of Trade are still joyously going

Forth on a magical quest.

Gambling with Fate, burning bridges behind them,

Wagering all in the till,

Bucking the world for a profit, you'll find them

Merchant Adventurers still!

Occasional Quote:

John F. Kennedy
"The ancient Greek definition of happiness was the full use of your powers along lines of excellence."

Occasional Quote:

Xander: "I mean, guys'll do anything to impress a girl. I once drank an entire gallon of Gatorade without taking a breath."
Willow: "It was pretty impressive. Although later there was an ick factor."

-From Buffy

Happy Birthday Ben Franklin

His bio.

Second Hand Songs

I love cover songs. For some reason, I like to hear different versions of the same song, different interpretations, different senses of life. When Frank Sinatra sings "My Way" it gives you the feeling of the individualist who stood by his own principles and lived his own life. When Sid Vicious sings it, you know that he has rebeled against the world, that he is a lone wolf, and that if he stands for anything it is that he stands against the normal. Another example is "Personal Jesus". Think about how Depeche Mode originally sung the song, then think about Marylin Manson's version, then think about Johnny Cash's.

I stumbled across a website dedicated to cover songs. It is called SecondHandSongs.com. My favorite section was their statistics. I'll share a few:

Top 5 Most Covered Performer
1. The Beatles
2. Bob Dylan
3. The Ramones (!)
4. The Rolling Stones
5. Fabrizio De André (?)

Top 5 Most Covering Performer
1. Frank Sinatra
2. Elvis Prestley
3. Tony Bennett
4. Rod Stewert
5. John Hammond (?)

Top 5 Most Covered Songs
Song/ Artist /Number of Covers

1	Eleanor Rigby	The Beatles	112
2	Cry Me a River	Julie London	109
3	(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction	The Rolling Stones	81
4	Blackbird	The Beatles	79
5	And I Love Her	The Beatles	78

I'm going to spend some time and figure out which blues songs my future band is going to borrow. Hopefully I can pick some tunes that haven't been covered before.

Occasional Quote:

Spanish Proverb
"Drink nothing without seeing it; sign nothing without reading it."

Occasional Quote:

Lady Astor: Winston, if I were married to you, I'd put poison in your coffee.

Sir Winston Churchill: Nancy, if you were my wife, I'd drink it.

MLK Quote:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

--from Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech.

For the whole speech go here and for the audio go here.

Curious Sparky

Denver in 2000, Everywhere else today

AssetAllocator has this cartoon talking about today's housing markets. Well, today's housing markets everywhere but Denver.

the 69 meme

I stole this from Stephanie Klein. The intro is hers, but the answers are mine.

Welcome to the new 2006 edition of getting to know your friends. What you are supposed to do is copy (not forward) this entire e-mail and paste it onto a new e-mail that you'll send. Change all the answers so they apply to you, and then send this to a whole bunch of people including the person who sent it to you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little things about your friends.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
5:30

2. Diamonds or pearls?
Gold... preferably coins or bars.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Munich--hated it.

4. What is your favorite TV show?
Veronica Mars

5. What did you have for breakfast?
Breakfast Burrito

6. What is your middle name?
Alan

7. What is your favorite food?
Sushi

8. What foods do you dislike?
Erm... there was this thing I age once in Japan made from fermented soybeans.

9. Your favorite Potato chip?
Pringles.

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment?
The Best of John Lee Hooker

11. What kind of car do you drive?
Toyota

14 Favorite drink?
Alcoholic: Scotch. Non-alcoholic: Diet Coke

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would it be?
Sydney, AUS

16.What color is your bathroom?
Dark Green

17. Favorite brand of clothing?
If you knew me, you wouldn't ask this question

18.Where would you retire?
I like Stephanie's answer: Somewhere with a view of the ocean. Perhaps abroad, but I want to be buried in America.

I'll add that I would need to have a sailboat!

19 Favorite time of day?
Morning after I'm fully awake.

21. Favorite sport to watch?
Boxing or collegiat wrestling

22. Who do you least expect to send this back?

I'm not sending this out.

23. Person you expect to send it back first?
See 22.

24. What laundry detergent do you use?
Tide

25. Coke or Pepsi?
Coke, Diet.

26. Are you a morning person or night owl?
Morning person, but I hate to admit it.

27. What size shoe do you wear?
11

28. Do you have pets?
A foster cat named Sparky

29. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with your friends?
They already know.

30. What (who) did you want to be when you were little?
Talented and Brilliant

31. Favorite Candy Bar?
Almond Joy

33. What are the different jobs you have had in your life?
Primarily an appraiser. I worked at Walt Disney World as a conductor on the steam trains and I brewed coffee at Starbucks.

34. Favorite season?
Spring

35. Nicknames you've had?
J, Jason, Monekyboy (don't know where that came from)

36. Piercings:
My left ear piercing closed up

37. Eye color:
Hazel

38. Ever been to Africa?
No

39. Ever been toilet papering?
Yes

40. Love someone so much it made you cry?
Not during, but after.

41. Been in a car accident?
Yes. Stupid girl ran a stop sign.

42. What's a question no one has ever asked you? (I added this since #42 was missing)
Are you pregnant?

43. Favorite day of the week?
Sunday, if I don't have the blues.

44. Favorite restaurant?
Fontana if I'm buying. Morton's if someone else is.

45. Favorite flower?
I don't play favorites

46. Favorite ice cream?
Mine, because I made it

47. Disney or Warner Brothers?
Why, why must I choose?

48. Favorite fast food restaurant?
Chipotle... fast casual counts right?

49. What color is your bedroom carpet?
Light grey

50. How many times did you fail your driver's test?
Zero

51. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail?
My accountant

52. Which store would you choose to Max out your Credit Card?
I wouldn't max out my credit card. If I was given $30,000 to spend though.... el corte ingles. They literally sell EVERYTHING, except men's clothes that fit me... but that's not what I'd be buying

53. What do you do most often when you are bored?
Play guitar.

54. Bedtime:
10ish

56. Last person you went to dinner with?
The Columbian.

57. Ford or Chevy?
Toyota

58. What are you listening to right now?
The humm of the radiator in my office.

59. What is your favorite color?
I won't play favorites here.

60. Lake, Ocean or River?
Lake. All the space of the ocean and none of the sale.

61. How many tattoos do you have?
None

62. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
I don't know, I've never ordered both at a restaurant before.

63. How many people are you sending this email to?
The world--this is Steph's answer, but I guess it is accurate because I'm posting it on my blog too.

64. Favorite Cocktail?
Gin Martini w/a twist

65. Red or White wine?
Red

66. Where would you go for a girls or boys weekend get-a-way?
Heart of Gold... sorry, a bit of firefly humor. I guess I'd want to rent a sailboat and sail from anywhere to anywhere.

67. What do you want to be?
Rich

68. Republican or Democrat?
Independant.

69. Favorite Family Vacation?
Hawaii.

Winter Park

So I took the weekend to hang out in Winter Park. My folks have a place up there, so I occasionally come up here to hang out, mountain bike, hike, snowshoe, etc.

Some of the other owners were up here with their daughter, Amy, and son in law, Tim. They invited me over for a pot roast dinner last night and ended up staying up late drinking and chatting with Amy, Tim and their friend. It is kind of interesting because Amy was always such a little kid and it wasn't until recently that I was able to get to know her.

In any case, I have so many memories from up here. Some of them are good and some of them are bad. The last memory I have from up here is actually pretty bad, so I'm glad that I'm smoothing over that.

I went snowshoeing this morning and tonight I'll probably watch the Broncos game with the Amy et familia.

Occasional Quote:

The difference between journalism and literature is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

-Oscar Wilde

Second Sight

Tina sent me an email about what they are doing to restore sight in blind people. Amazing! I'm excerpting her email. Unfortunately, she didn't send the link, only the paragraphs she thought were important. (And I'm only giving you the one's I found important!)

Eye Chip For The Blind Likely In Next 10 Years

Advances in technology may enable scientists to develop an implantable eye "chip" to treat some types of blindness within the next 10 to 20 years, Johns Hopkins researchers said a Baltimore press conference on December 8. The briefing was spurred by recent media reports that musician Stevie Wonder was considering getting the "eye chip" to restore his sight. The researcher explained that the device works by stimulating a small area of the retina electrically by passing electric current into the eye, kind of like the way a pacemaker would stimulate the heart to beat. The brain then interprets that neural activity of the retina as vision, as light sensation.

There is significant proof of concept in the sense of patients being able to see at least in short periods of time things like letters and forms like boxes. We think that what we have to do now is solve the problem of putting it in the eye over a long period of time. Candidates for the chip include those with diseases of the retina, such as macular degeneration or retinal pigmentosa. This would include 2 million people in the US. To date, the longest a chip has been implanted in a patient is about 45 minutes to one hour. The obstacles to overcome include the development of heat and avoiding damage to the computer chip from salts in the eye fluids. Researchers know that on a temporary basis that they can stimulate the retina, but they don't know over a long period of time if the amount of energy that will be required or if they will be able to be tolerated in a patient's eye.

Strangest Search to find my Blog

Searching MSN with "flirting with truckers" gets you to my blog.

Ritual Feeding

Every morning I have a ritual for feeding Sparky. I will vary from it occasionally, but he hates it when I do. So here it is...

First, I get out of bed and walk out of my bedroom. Sparky will immediately head to the kitchen. Instead of going directly into the kitchen, I go to the office to logon to the net. Sparky ALWAYS thinks I'm going directly to the kitchen and when I don't, he backtracks and waits with a bit of annoyance.

After I get my computer dialing*, I head to the kitchen. Sparky then runs quickly to the kitchen and circles around his food dish. When I catch up to him he meows once or twice to tell me that he's hungry. I pick up his dish, walk over to the fridge, get his wet food and continue to the sink.

It is at this point that Sparky is possessed or has another personality take over. Every morning at this very moment, he attacks my leg. He usually doesn't break the skin. He will either bat both sides of my leg with his paws or wrap his paws around my leg and take a little bite. I always ask "what possessed you to do that?" He never answers.

Now I make his breakfast. It is a very precise thing for him. He needs to have a tablespoon of food and about an ounce of water mixed together. He likes to have the gravy diluted, you see. I walk the food over to his eating area and he stands on his hind legs to try to get a bite in early.

Once I've set the food down, Sparky's ritual begins. Standing up, he smells the food, then backs up and approaches it from another angle to smell it again. If he likes the smell, he will taste it. If he likes the taste, he will slowly sit down and then, in the tradition of the Roman feast, pig out.

There are times that he doesn't like the food. Instead of sitting down, he will walk away from it and sit at the doorway to the kitchen.

He will then look at me and with his eyes say "I, your god, am displeased with the offering you have given me. You have not followed the ritual to the letter and have given me an offering which is unacceptable. You have no standing with me. Go away." I think this is his high and mighty way of saying he wanted Chicken flavor instead of Fish, but that is just my guess.

*Yes, I have dial up at home. Yes, I know I'm a cheapskate.

Happy Birthday Horatio

Alger, not Hornblower. Horatio Alger wrote rags to riches stories in the late 1800s. His characters were always hard working, ambitious, and gumption. His works are true American classics.

Happy Birthday John Hancock

Merchant, smuggler, governor, founding father, patriot.

Australian Toilets

No this isn't a post about the direction of the swirl when your down under. WitNit recently visited Australia and apparently they have a common sense answer to conserving water with out entirely reducing the effectiveness of a toilet's flush.

NoodlePress/GeekFood roundup

I refer to NoodleFood, Diana Hseih's blog, often enough for me to officially recommend it to my three readers. Her husband, Paul, has an interesting blog called GeekPress. I like both of their blogs because they have great senses of humor, they post often, and the posts are often though provoking.

So, to avoid over-referring to the NoodlePress (or GeekFood, if you prefer) duo of blogs, I'll just point out several posts I like.

Diana's series of posts on her break with TOC is very interesting.

Paul's recent post of a Joss Whedon article.

Aristotle in Verse is well worth reading.

The strange "I am a God Warrior" video post.

Diana's post on how to blog.

Paul's post on a food experiment.

Silly Puddy.

Sudoku's math.

In short, check out their blogs for some interesting, um, well, noodle food.

Dee's Last First

I've written about Dee Caffari before. She is the woman who is sailing alone around the world the wrong way. This is the first time a woman has performed this feat and according to this article, this is the last "first time" for maritime challenges.

I love that we live in an age when I read about her exploits on a daily basis. She keeps a diary of her journey that you can read as it is happening. Imagine if Columbus or Magellan or Cook had kept a blog that their sponsors could read daily.

Smelling the Crazy

A year or so ago, I heard this expression from Martin, an aquaintance. He said "you can just smell the crazy on that guy." I laughed my ass of when I heard that. Imagine how nuts you have to be to have other people smell it on you!

Occasional Quote:

There are only two things I dislike about her--her face.
-Anonymous

WitNit's Witty Signs

Check out his post "Signs of the Times". My favorite sign was on a door in an industrial area. It said "Mother Truckers: Association of Women Truck Drivers".

A man in a woman's world

I went to a real estate investor's fix and flip group tonight. The catch was it was technically a women's business group. They say the memebership is open to all women and the men who love them. The "women power" thing was a little overboard for my manly taste, but the basic premise was good--bring people together to get them out and investing in real estate.

All in all, I had a good time. I learned a few little financing tidbits; I met a few people with some real estate investment leads; and I got to flex my flirting muscles. (I am shameless, I suppose, but what am I supposed to do in a room composed of 90% women.)

Occasional Quote:

What he lacks in intelligence, he more than makes up for in stupidity.
-Anonymous

Blues Name

At the most recent Blues Jam session at Swallow Hill, one of the guys sang an original song called "Blues Name". Ironically, his name was something like Lemony Snicket or Lemon Merangue Pie. Anyhow, it got me to thinking about my blues name. If you're going to play blues and really make it hot you have to have a good name to go along with it. Think about it: John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Stevie Ray Vaughn, George Thorogood.

So the general rule for coming up with a good blues name is Gerund, Boring First Name, President's Name.

Let me 'splain that for ya. If you remember any grammar, you know that a gernund is a verbal noun. (ie "Running is good for you." Where running is the noun of the sentence.) So the first part of your name is a gerund. Running, Sliding, Smoking, Choking, etc. It is always advisable to drop the "g" and add an apostrophe. It just looks better!

The second name, is any boring common name. It CANNOT be one of these messed up new '90s names. There is a caveat. You can have an unusual first blues name, like Joaquin; however, instead of the standard last name, you have to choose a boring last name, like Smith, Jones, etc.

The last name is any president's last name. You got it... Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson...Cleveland...Kennedy...Clinton. I would recommend staying away from Bush. It is only one syllable, he is currently in office, and well, frankly there is too much baggage that goes along with the name.

So I came up with two using this method: Rollin' Joe Adams and Smokin' Roy Madison.

There are a couple of sites that will help you come up with a blues name. These sites came up with: Slim Sigmund Brown, Boney Bones Parker and Drooping Gums Truman, Respectively.

I haven't chosen my blues name, yet. But as my playing improves, I'm going to give it some serious thought!

Occasional Quote:

I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.

-Mae West

Dating is Fun

*Devilish grin*

Bagpipes

It is interesting that people develop shorthand in their relationships. I was playing a game called "catch phrase" which required one person to make the others guess a word or phrase without saying the word. My friend said to his wife "it is the sound Minerva hates." And his wife said "bagpipes."

I know someone I can say "Two Waffles Please" and she will instantly understand I mean "English White Trash". I can say to my dad that "Sammy Davis died" and he will know that I haven't been watching the news.

This isn't the essence of a relationship, but it is important. It shows a visibility between the two people. It is an ability to communicate and to know that you are on the same page.

Boots

The Jason, he has purchased the kickers of the s**t. He hopes the Manolo would think they are super fantastic. And if this is not possible, the Jason hopes the Manolo would believe these are the step up from the nasty old worker shoe the Jason once had.

How to Order Wine in a Restaraunt

This article is a funny rant by a waiter who wants to improve your wine ettiquite. From GeekPress.

Great Coffeehouses

I've posted before about the blog "A Though Over Coffee". He has a post, which references another post, about the traits of great coffee houses. I recommend it.

H. L. Mencken

After reading this and this, I'm intrigued about H.L. Mencken. I did a quick google search and found a website dedicated to him. His creed is listed below. I've put his biography on my to read list.

Mencken's Creed

I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind - that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking.
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty...
I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect.
I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech...
I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run.
I believe in the reality of progress.
I - But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

James Madison on Federal Aid

Apparently James Madison vetoed the first public works project. This is good reading for anyone who thinks that building roads is an essential function of government.

Hat Tip to WitNit.

Connections

Ian over at Banana Oil posted awhile back about a TV show called connections. I've never seen the show, but I've put it in my Queue for Netflix. I have heard so many great things about it and I really get off on this type of program. (Yes, I'm waving my nerd flag proudly.)

Sparky 1, Leather Jacket 0

This is my foster cat, Sparky. I've written about him before.

As the title indicates, Sparky had a little go at my leather jacket, and the jacket came out worse than he did in the scuffle. The jacket is reparable; in fact, it won't take much to repair it. I do have to be a little more careful where I hang it from now on.

Occasional Quote:

J. K. Rowling

"You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."