The Day the Music Died... or at least was never heard.

Time for another rant…

My MP3 player went missing last time I was in Miami. I’m sure I probably left it in the hotel room but shockingly they were unable to find it when I called. It was not a huge loss because it was only a little key drive that happened to play mp3’s. Not many features but it got the job done. But since it was gone it needed to be replaced. So after doing a lot of research and settled on the iPod. Yeah, it surprised me too. Those that know me know that I will usually go out of my way to not be main stream but just like my attitude on Microsoft there is a reason they are wildly successful. The sound is very good and the features and accessories are ample. But what pisses me off (you knew there would be something) is that with everyone trying to do the right and legal thing with music downloads is screwing the little guy. Over at the The Lucky Word I blogged about The Departures and really wanted to listen to some of their music to see if they worth a damn but the only media on their site was either streaming snippets or must be downloaded via iTues UK and not available in the US. So how is this benefiting this group? Here is a guy sitting in Fort Worth Texas wanting to listen to their music and even willing to buy a song but can’t because they have it too restricted. I’m sure it is probably not their doing. I’m sure they turned over their eBusiness to some company that said they can take them to new levels. But all it is doing is preventing someone from hearing what they want the world to hear. If it were my band I would stomp my feet and cry like a baby until someone did something about it. I would at least insist that my web site had songs in MP3 format ready for download by any and everyone so that they can get a sample of my music and I wouldn’t listen to some suit telling them how it should be done.

Arrrrghhhh.

The Lucky Word

I have always been intrigued by randomness. I know, a weird thing to be intriguing but even the debate on the mere existence of randomness is fantastic. Randomness as a concept is easy to understand and define. It is simply something that is without order. However most of us use the word random to mean things that are not really random. Example: “I just picked a color at random.” We may think we picked a color at random but most likely we have a bias towards or away from certain colors. I for one tend to avoid maroon or dark reds mainly because they are the colors of Texas A&M and OU, but I digress. Another, albeit darker, misuse of the word random is the “random killing”. We just had a very gruesome murder in Dallas in which a man can be seen on a video monitor seemingly picking a woman at random and then following her to the street and shooting her at point blank range. On the surface it seems that is was just rotten luck that the poor woman was chosen and that the man selected her at random, but in the video we see that the man watches several people pass before selecting her. This indicates to me that he was looking for a type of person to kill and therefore introduces a trace or order in his thought. Still unlucky for the poor woman but not truly random.

So, in the human mind randomness is not really random, but I think most of us understand that. So what about math and computers? Mathematically speaking is it possible to truly be random. Of course it is, it is just not easy to get the results. We can, however, get really darn close which for most things is perfectly fine. Take for example the practice of drawing names from a hat. Everyone throws a piece of paper into a hat with their name on it and then the host will shake up the pieces of paper and reach in and grab one. Random right? Not really, most people will either draw the first piece they touch or they will draw from the bottom, either way there is an order to the piece of paper that is chosen because of the way they are written, the size and weight of the paper and even the shape of the container. That makes some sense, but what about the computer… surly the random number generator is truly random, right? Wrong. Every computer has a build in random number generator. It is used for things like randomizing your play list or choosing the photo to display on your screen saver, but it is not really random either. It needs a “seed” in which to start. It then uses a fixed algorithm using that seed as the start to select a random number. This means that if you use the same seed you will get the same set of “random” numbers each time, hardly random.

So back to the common use of the random concept and why I’m ranting about this. I had an idea for a new blog in which I will use a “random” word and plug into Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” process and then blog about the web site that comes up. If you are not familiar with Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” it is a function that takes a word you supply and then takes you to the highest ranked site. In order to get my “random” word I am using “The Random Word Generator” to get the word. I will try to do this at least two or three times a week. Should be interesting and fun, hope you like it. Check it out at http://luckyword.blogspot.com/.

The Oldest Newspaper In Texas

Some friends of mine, Kyle and Marita Beth, have a little project going in which they each take a photo a day and publish it on their blog The Daily KRuMB.

One of MB’s (far left) latest photos was of the old Galveston News building in Galveston, Texas and it made me think of something I heard growing up on the beaches of Galveston County. That is that the Galveston Daily News (now the Galveston County Daily News) is the oldest newspaper in Texas. So I thought I would provide you with a few facts that I managed to find. Oh, and I found an old photo of the same building. Interesting how it has changed. Probably all those hurricanes.

---

• Galveston Daily News first published April 11, 1842


• Changed its name to Galveston County Daily News in 1993


• It is the oldest newspaper still in circulation in Texas


• It is the 18^th oldest newspaper still in circulation in the USA


• It is the 80^th oldest newspaper still in circulation in the world


• At the time of the first publication, Texas was an independent republic and not part of the United States


• The population of Galveston in 1842 was about 4,000 people


• In 1902 the newspaper was the first business in Texas to install a telephone


• The newspaper founded the Dallas Morning News in 1885

sources:
http://www.wan-press.org/article2823.html

http://galvestondailynews.com/history.lasso

Money to the blind and the racist

Two quick hits today

A federal district judge ruled that our paper money discriminates against the blind because they are all the same shape. He ordered the Treasury to look at ways to distinguish the bills. I’m all for making it easier, but we don’t have a good history for doing so. How may times have we tried to introduce the dollar coin only to fail because the people don’t want change (pun intended). But if the TD can figure out a way to distinguish the bills while making them harder to counterfeit but not costing a fortune to do so, I’m all in favor. While their at it they need to see if they can embed a chip that will make stupid people not spend money on stupid things. Now that would be great!

The other quick hit was that Michael Irvin apologized for joking that Tony Romo’s grandmother must have got it on with a black man for him to be that good athletically. I agree that he should apologize and I’m glad he did but then I listen to The Ticket (all “sports” stations here in DFW) and the afternoon boys go off on the world saying he shouldn’t have to apologize because he is black and can say what he wants. They recognize that this is a double standard (as if doing so takes that problem off the table) but say that it should be. I believe that is exactly what racism is, when one thing is ok or expected of one race but not another. Like it is ok for white people to drink from a water fountain but it is not ok for black people. It is NEVER ok to be racist, regardless of who is the racist. It is not ok for Irvin to be a racist any more than it is ok for Michael Richards. Now before you go off saying it was just a joke, imagine if I said in an interview on Sunday morning “Barack Obama’s granddad must have snuck into Hyde Park and got it on with a white woman because he is just too smart to be a black man.” I doubt those on the set with me would be laughing.

Advancing the cause

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Back to my ranting roots

Greetings from 32,000 feet over Indiana, on my way to Chicago. It’s been a while since I have been off on a rant and since the name of the blog is Delusional Rants from Inside the Beautiful Tornado (which I still need to explain) I guess it is that time to rant, delusional or not. (That was a really long sentence… I’m sure my professors would not have approved, but since they are most likely members of those in which I am about to rant, screw ‘em.)

It has been a full week since elections and we now know that the Democrats now have control of Congress. I have been wrestling with the decision if that is a good thing or a bad thing. Now before you go off thinking I have abandoned my conservative roots hear me out, or in this case read me out.

I was asked last night by a friend what I thought the voters wanted. This was a good question because for the most part I don’t believe half the idiots that have the birth right of voting in this country deserve it. It is only by the graciousness of Darwinism that most of them have no clue that there was even an election and the less than 30% turn out proves that. So those that did have a clue or was brainwashed into voting one way verses the other wanted something. Most of the talking heads on the tube that think we are too stupid to think for ourselves (and for at least 70% of us they are right) think it was a referendum on the war. Paluse (I need to check the spelling of her name, but I’m not sure she is worth it) (OK, that was a shot, but it felt good) (OK, she will be the Speaker and deserves the respect of the peoples and I should at least give her the courtesy that she does not give the President) (But I won’t ) and her gang seem to think that way too and will end up doing something stupid that will just end up loosing all the progress we have made over there and get even more of our men and women killed before we get them out. I need to go more into the war in another rant, but for now I don’t really think that is what motivated most voters. Don’t send me emails and tell me that is what motivated you, I said MOST voters, I know there are plenty of liberals out there that can only consider one issue at a time and that was the one that decided their vote.

On the other side of the dial the talking heads of the conservative radio seem to think it was a message to the Republican party saying they are too liberal right now and that the conservative base either stayed home (doubtful) or that the actual smart folks out there that vote what the believe and don’t worry about parties or labels voted for the conservative democrats. They point out that most of the freshman dems just elected are of the right side of the left. This seems plausible, but I don’t think it is a message that the Pubs are too liberal. If this were the case why on earth would they vote for anyone left of center, even if they are just barely left?

There is another friend of mine that thinks he liberal (he really isn’t, and he hates when I tell him that) that says it was a vote against incumbents. He is not the only one I have heard that from, but I don’t really think that is what it is either. As I said I think that the majority of the people that actually vote have enough intelligence to see through the argument that we should just vote people out just to freshen up the place. If you actually vote for people to represent your area and therefore your interest you want them in power as long as possible so that they gain more power in Congress, sitting or chairing the important committees, and give more stuff to your area which in turns improves your life. The only reason you would vote them out is if they stop representing your interest…

Holy crap Mr. Smith, did you catch that. People would actually vote someone out not because they are conservative or liberal, for or against one single issue, or just because they are there, but because they actually stopped or never did the things that they said they would. This is not my original idea, if it were it would not be the reason most of the smart people voted out the folks in Washington. It is however common sense and I wonder why I don’t hear many of the talking heads saying it. OK, I don’t really wonder that, they are idiots. But it is really that simple and I hope the newly elected folks realize this. You will be fired if you are hired to do a job and don’t do it. Strange… that is exactly the way it is supposed to work. Amazing.

Dog days of Business in Portland

Live from McMenamins’ Tavern in Portland Oregon it Terrill’s blog. Ok, the only reason I’m doing this is because we are at a really cool pub in Portland with wifi and Kyle, whom I just hired, was reading a blog from his wife in which she took a picture of her dogs saying they missed him. So I took a picture of him looking at his dogs missing them and I’m here to say that he too misses them. So without further adieu…

An Irish, Belgian and a German….

OK, this is not a “walks into a bar joke” but it is what I ended up drinking this week. It started when I was on my way to Brussels once again and had a 4 hour delay at DFW on the Frankfurt leg of my trip. So I stopped in at the very nice Irish pub near gate D20 at DFW and proceeded to drink way too many Guinness’. But I couldn’t help it because I found a bartender that actually knew how to poor a Guinness. Once on the flight I switched to Scotch… which was a real mistake because I felt like crap the next day, but when in First….

Once I finally got to Brussels I was so damn tired and late that I was not able to make my usual trip downtown to enjoy the many café’s and great beer so I opted to just enjoy a local bar near the hotel. Once again the beer was wonderful and I actually ate a Belgium hamburger. Not bad, but not American.

Went to my meeting the next day and then to the airport for my trip back to Frankfurt to overnight there before my trip home. The hotel I was assigned in Frankfurt was in the middle of nowhere so my only option was the hotel bar. But it was crowded and fun and had some good choices of beer. I actually drank a wheat beer which I never like, but this one was actually tolerable.

Short trip and not much to tell.

Once last question, why do they only allow women who eat tennis balls to go to the restroom at the BRU airport?

Clinton vs. Bush - The Rumble in the Jungle

OK, so I had another one of those bar discussions where my liberal friend issued some statements that quite frankly I could not refute because I did not know the data. So I looked it up. I love the internet.

The very typical liberal statement made by my friend was name 1 thing that is good about the Bush years.

I quickly responded that despite what the media would have you believe that the economy is doing quite well. He scoffed and pointed to the recent recession which he was correct there was a short recession that the U.S. economy recovered from very quickly. Now I know that broad policy is the only affect the President has on the economy but you canÂ’t tell liberals that. Regardless, he stuck to his guns and said that the economy was MUCH better under Clinton than it is under Bush. I decided to do a little research and find some pretty pictures that he could understand (just kidding, he is a very smart man, ignorant at times, but smart)

Statement 1: Unemployment is worse, people can't find jobs.
Fact: Unemployment did get worse during and right after the recession and 9/11. But it has made a very nice recovery.



Statement 2: If they can find a job it is at minimum wage and you can't support a family on that.
Fact: Wages are up... way up.



Statement 3: Even if they do make money, everything is so expensive.
Fact: Sort of true.. especially if you consider energy cost. But the cost of goods and services have remained steady over the last 10 years.

End of the World?

This made me laugh! I often feel this way after reading the paper or watching the news but it is good to know that I have a group of friends that will never allow me to enter the "End of the World" box without beer.

Saludos de Miami

You know I bitch every time I have to come here then I get here and remember why I love this city. Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty to not like about Miami but like some of my other favorite cities the good out weighs the bad.

Tonight I stayed at the Crown Plaza and walked over to the “Catch of the Day” bar and grill on LeJune. I had a great meal (King Fish) and good beer (Key West Ale) and even better conversation with the bar maid, Kathy. Actually her name is Katina and she is from Columbia. It didn’t hurt that she was Miami hot. There is nothing like Miami hot. She was nice, a good bar maid and hot! It was a nice evening.

Live from ATL

Granbury in the morning, Atlanta for lunch, Miami for dinner. Currently sitting at Gate T11 at ATL. Sounds sexy and exciting huh???? Guess it could be if I was taking more than a few hours per stop. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not hating life (mostly because the Atlanta trip was to visit a vendor so it included a beer lunch). But I really don’t want to get on another plane. Oh and it looks like I’m not going to get upgraded so I better go get 1 more beer.

More from MIA… maybe.

Wi Fi Beer

Bars with Wi Fi.... how great is that. I can sit here on a Tuesday afternoon with my desk phone forwarded to my cell and my lap top monitoring my email and oh yeah, a cold Shiner Bock. Now I know a lot of you geeks out there have offices that have happy hours and kegs right there in the office and at any given time you can get up and go grab a beer. I worked for a company like that… until it went under. And no I don’t think it was because I was drinking beer all day. I suspect that most companies that supply beer to their employees will also fold or get rid of the beer. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a wonderful thing, but last thing I want to do when I need a beer is sit there and worry about my boss walking up and asking me something and me telling him in my drunken stupor to fuck off. (Sorry about the language, but I am at a bar)

Coverville USA

I was flying to somewhere (I think it was to D.C.) listening to my MP3 player when an episode of Coverville (http://www.coverville.com) came on. A friend suggested I throw a few in my playlist and I guess it finally got around to it. It was fantastic! I went to the web site and subscribed and began downloading the old episodes and have been playing catch up during my commute. Coverville, as its title would indicate, is a podcast that focuses on music covers. Most people would think that is a somewhat limiting topic, but 250 plus episodes shows that there is plenty of material out there. When you think about it, garage bands cover big artists, big artists cover other big artists, and big artists cover obscure artists and make their songs huge. Coverville plays them all, and gives you the stories behind it.

Coverville is produced and hosted by Brian Ibbott, whose passion and vast music knowledge is obvious, or at least he has enough passion and knows where to look the stuff up. He has a smooth voice and rarely rambles off subject. He stammers a bit too much with huh’s and hum’s but it somehow endures him to the listener. I think it gives off just enough of an unpolished feel to let you know that this is not some big time radio production. According to some interviews, Ibbott is somewhat of a pioneer in the individual music podcast realm choosing to do things the right way by working with licensing authorities to ensure Coverville is legal, or at least as legal as possible.

I highly suggest you check it out a few episodes.

Why do they want to kill him?

The recent threats from radical Islam have me wondering why they want to kill this little boy? I know why our press and some of our politicians say they want to, but I would love to hear from one of them as to how they could hate a group of people so much that they would want to kill this child.

I am not the father of Britney Spears’ baby…

OK, so once again I didn’t hold true to my writing and it’s been a few weeks. But that is just going to have to be my pattern, until it’s not.

But today I’m in a tirade about a bar conversation. This should come as no surprise to those of you that know me but I usually let it go by the next morning. This time I just couldn’t. I don’t know if it is because I’m just getting fed up or if I’m getting tired of “not caring” but this discussion really hit home.

Before I go into the subject at hand I must explain that I hold no animosity towards the opponent in this argument. He knows that but it is important to me to point that out. In fact, I respect him and his opinion profoundly. So much so that he has altered my opinion on matters in the past, something that is not easy to do.

So here is the story we were told by a third party. A young man of about 20 walks on a crowded plane wearing a tee shirt that reads:

“I am not the father of Britney Spears’ baby… I came on her tits.”

Funny! Very funny actually. But then I started thinking that my 6 year old son is in the phase now where he reads any thing with short simple words. Outside of “Britney, Spears, and tits” he know every word that was written on the shirt. And do to the greatness of phonics, “tits” is a word he could easily read even if he doesn’t know what it means. This is where the problem is… he would proudly read it and promptly and loudly ask what does “I came on her tits” means? Again, very funny and I can appreciate that… right up to the point where I would have really explain it to him. And this is where the debate comes in.

I often hear from my liberal friends something like:

I have a right to watch anything on TV. Parents should control what their children watch and allow me to see tits on TV.

Or in the case of the bar discussion:

It is his right to wear that shirt. You can’t be the moral police of everyone.

The fact is that I agree with both statements. But it is a matter of right shirt, wrong place. The kid was wearing this shirt on an airplane. Walking down the aisle where anyone and everyone could and did read it, including (if he were there) my six year old. I do control what my child watches on TV. by 1. limiting his TV. time, 2 checking to see what he watches, and 3. using the V chip which allows me to require a pass code to be entered before a show with a rating that I deem inappropriate can be viewed. The ass wipe walking down the aisle on the plane didn’t have a place to type the password, which is why I have a big problem with it. I’m fine with his right to wear the shirt and if I saw it in a bar or late night spot where kids have no right to be, then I would laugh. But the plane is full of kids and I as a parent listening to the advice of my liberal friends had no ability to control what my kid sees. This is a hypocritical and beyond anything else in this world I can’t stand hypocrisy. So yes, the airline should have denied boarding of that passenger unless he changed his shirt and it is perfectly with in their and right and in fact is their duty to do so. My right to protect my child from explicit material out ways his right to free speech! I want him to wear the shirt, just wear it in appropriate places.

The Sweet Muse Travel

June 11, 2006 – DFW Airport.

OK, I know I keep saying I’m going to update this thing more often, but this time I mean it. (Yeah right) Well, at least I’m going to do it today.

Today I am going to address the self induced and sometimes forced insanity of travel. What’s worse is that I actually work for an airline. Those of you that work for an airline probably know where I’m going with this.

Airlines are in the business of moving people and packages and I understand that, but one of the things that attract people to work for the airline is the reduced rate travel. I bet you thought I was going to say the money. If you did, you have never worked for the airline industry. No, most of us are attracted to the industry because of the sweet muse Travel. Working for an airline allows you to “Non Revenue” travel or “Non-rev” when there is space available on a flight. But this process is not what I want to address today, I will talk more on it later.

Today I’m traveling on company business. However, once again the airline employee is the bottom of the pack when it comes to being a passenger. Even when the company wants/needs to you travel. I’m here to tell you that I go through hell every time THEY want me to go somewhere. First of all I have to book in a class that is just below earthworm. For you non airline folks, that means that you could find a coupon in a cereal box and have more of a chance getting a reservation that I do. That also means that even though I am compelled to be somewhere by my company, I can’t make any plans to get there. Instead I must go and wait at the airport and hope that some poor smuck can’t get his car started or over slept so that I can get on the airplane in his seat. It is very stressful and not in the least bit glamorous. In addition, if your company wanted you to go overseas, most likely you are allowed to book in business class. I’m allowed to book in the one seat next to the toilet between the twelve screaming infants that NEVER go to sleep.

The only saving grace…. Airport bars. And since I’m probable going to be sitting at one all day, I’m sure I’ll some more to write. If I don’t slur my typing.

I Wish I Had More Time...

... to post to this site. I really want to, I do. But for some reason I just don't. To be fair I have a lot of crap going on. I know, I know, so do you and yet here you are reading this. But then again, I'm writing this so I guess we both need to stop bitching and do what we are supposed to be doing. Which is not writing (or reading) this blog.

Until next time. (If there is one :-)

If Barry Gibb were only a priest

I was flying to Washington DC this week and after take-off I do what I usually do and crank up the MP3 player and drown out those around me. We were barely off the ground when the plane experienced what the captain called “light to moderate” turbulence. I’m an experienced flyer and I have had worse turbulence in my day, but there wasn’t much light or moderate about this particular case. So while hanging on to my seat with the Vulcan Death Grip and trying keep what was in my stomach actually there, the Bee Gee’s began blaring in my ear. I thought “holey crap, is this going to be the last song I ever hear”. Granted, it was the somewhat fitting song “Tragedy” but the thought of Barry Gibb screaming like a little girl in my ear as we crash into the Oklahoma country side (which is disturbing enough) just sent a shiver down my spine.

So I start frantically searching through my play list in hopes that I downloaded something, anything that would be a comforting song. Although I had over a hundred songs none of them fit the billing for a fiery plummet from thirty thousand feet. So I started thinking what would I want my last song to be? The usual suspects entered my mind like Amazing Grace, O’ Brother Where Art Thou… wait, that was a movie… and so forth. But I couldn’t really come up with any one song… so after we safely landed in DC I made it my quest to find my death song and ensure that it is always on my player. So if you see me driving down a icy road in DFW frantically searching for my MP3 player, get out of the way… I have given up.