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Blog - July 2005 |
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This page stores my blog entries from July 2005. The entries are dated July 8, July 12, July 25, and July 28.
Friday, July 8, 2005 The fireworks for the 4th of July always grab my attention and get me excited. I'm not sure if it's the fire aspect or the cool effects that home fireworks create with their combustion. Either way, I love fireworks. For the last five years or so, my family has entrusted me with buying the fireworks, with Pam assisting me this time around. This year, I made a repeat visit to my local neighborhood TNT Fireworks stand, purchasing the following:
I rather laughed when buying these, since the person helping me seemed to have some sort of sales pitch and offered advice that would have been helpful to a novice. Since I know to consider my audience and age range, I can select them myself. Also, I really couldn't care less what Paul & Phil (morning show hosts on Y92, 92.5FM, for those of you who don't know) think about any fireworks. Despite being a little annoyed with being approached with this information, I found it a bit humorous. When firing these off, I noted a few things about these fireworks. The Night Treasure most certainly receives the "Best of Show". I lost count as to how many different stages it had, but it must have had at least ten or so. The top of the inverted trapezoid is rounded, and the firework starts on one end. Then, it burns from tube to tube, working its way to the other end. From there, it goes back to the other side. Finally, just when you think it's over, it shoots off one final display with the center two tubes, bringing the show to an end. We really loved the show and variety that this piece presented and will certainly buy it again. Of the other good notes, we rather liked the Blue Planet. It lasted quite a long time. I think it would have been a better buy if the side tubes had something that fired off as well, but these tubes must have been for decoration only. The Purple Rain had three or four stages, and the first stage was the only one with any purple in it. Each one of the four I bought seemed fresh when spread out between the other fireworks. They provided a great length of show for the price. The Rustler had some nice colors to it, including, I think, a bright yellow that I do not recall seeing before in a home firework. The Mini Monsters create an amazing height with its display, shooting a flare that must have been seven or nine times the length of the firework itself. The Sunburst continues to be the best bang for the buck. This 9-tube wonder lasted a long time with some very nice colors and one whistle near the beginning or so. In watching that one go off, I felt I was watching a rather good representation of a sun nova or something along those lines. Not all the purchases lived up to expectations, though. The Crackling Cactus, though fun and interesting, seemed to distract one from the main display with the sudden bursts of crackles. Many times I found myself watching the crackles and not really seeing the main fountain in the middle. Crickets had a lot of loud crackles, which didn't seem quite as cool as envisioned. With the Silvery Water Fountain, I expected it to shoot its white/gold fountains of sparks through all four sides at once. The one I had did shoot them through the top, but once it got to the ones on the sides, the top one died. Overall, though, we thoroughly enjoyed this year's fireworks extravaganza.
Poor Cardinal Jaime / Cat Ownership: Keep 'Em Inside / Wal-Mart Movie in the works: My Submitted Slogan Tuesday, July 12, 2005 My parents receive The Catholic Herald for some reason. I don't think they particularly care to read it, since it's not their thing. In the recent edition, a story talks about how a Cardinal Jaime Sin had recently died and will have his memorial service soon. The headline of the story: Memorial Mass held for Cardinal Sin ***** People's perceptions of pet ownership perplexes me. Things like what animals one likes certainly can be understandable since many people fear things that others don't. I doubt too many people would have had a Burmese python living with them like I did when I was a kid. The main bit that baffles me is how people care about their animals. Cats come to mind. There appear to be two separate minds with respect to keeping cats: indoors vs. outdoors. I would be purely an indoor cat owner for many good reasons:
Generally, I get rather irritated when I see someone else's cat in my yard. I can't understand how or why someone would just let their cat roam around, forcing their neighbors to clean up after it. It seems completely irresponsible and lazy, to be perfectly blunt. In some cases, I can see why a person may have to let a cat be an outside cat. Some people don't want the cat to shred their furniture. Some apartment complexes don't allow one to have pets, too. If I see someone else's cat in my yard, I don't try to trap it or do anything much. At most, I'll run after it, barking with my best dog impersonation as possible. I may start using a hose if I can get anywhere near one. No harm, really. To me, owning a cat brings the responsibility of teaching your cat to not shred furniture but to use a scratching post. I see it as having your own kid. One shouldn't just let their kid, at any age, wander aimlessly on their own. You have to teach it what you expect from it and enforce those with lessons and consequences for not following your expectations. Honestly, I know that such a stance is easier to see in theory than reality. Cats present such an independent demeanor and tend to do what they want regardless of your desires. Sometimes, especially depending on how old the cat is when you get it, you cannot get it to do what you need it to do. Maybe that's what leads to cats being outside animals. Well, besides people just believing that cats were meant to be outside animals. *****
Pam and I heard something on Air America about someone making a movie against Wal-Mart. Given that I have no love for the corrupt company and, so far, have not seen them as having any truly good deals at all, I had to visit. The person making the film has conducted a poll for a fitting catch-phrase for their Evil Smilie. I decided the join in the fray with the following:
Random Bits / Cat's lack of a Sweettooth Monday, July 25, 2005 A sampling of some random parts of my life:
***** I figured, every once in a while, I'll bring up something I've read somewhere for some no-aim-necessary chatter. The article/story that caught my attention today was, "Genetic Flaw Leaves Felines Without Sweettooth". On the surface, this appeared to be a rather strange discovery. I even heard people wonder why scientists "wasted" money on such endeavors. How short-sighted people can be when they don't hear the whole story or understand the potential ramifications. To summarize, apparently cats lack the production capability of a protein that is needed to create the receptors for sweet tastes. A flawed gene created this situation. This discovery has two possible benefits: a path towards creating better tasting cat food and in better understanding and treating various human diseases and conditions (diabetes is mentioned in the article). I got a little concerned about the phrasing of this article. In one spot, the article claims that "the gene in question does not produce one of the two vital proteins needed to form the receptors", yet it later states, "most mammals' sweet receptors are created by two proteins, one of which cats are missing." The latter statement implies that there are some mammals out there whose sweet receptors are created by a different protein than used by most mammals. This article doesn't seem to address this point (oversight? poor phrasing?), though I assume that they intend to mean that cats are among the "most mammals" and not of the exception. The implication of help towards understanding and treating diabetes seems interesting. I suppose it would help to better understand how the body uses nutrients and, possibly, what factors truly cause a person to become overweight. Maybe nutritionists and organic chemists could work on creating food that appeases the sweet tooth but doesn't affect one's blood sugar. I don't know if such things are already out in the market for diabetics, though.
Reflection on Music in My Life: Part I / Winner of Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Thursday, July 28, 2005
By '90 or '91, I had cable and the influence of Video Jukebox, MTV, and VH-1, along with 93 Rock, to fuel my independent assessment of music. I think I still was fairly open about what caught my ear and sounded good. Guns N' Roses, Metallica, Def Leppard, Megadeth, and many other bands (Tesla, Hardline, etc.) dominated 93 Rock. As a result, that line of music became such a solid foundation upon which I built my music collection. Metallica was the biggest band out there, and I had to get my hands on whatever studio tracks and albums I could find. Finding a copy of "Garage Days Re-Revisited" seemed like such an awesome discovery for me. Sadly, "alternative" (probably better described as "modern rock") started hitting it big, and, despite me liking Nirvana quite a bit, the music industry lost me here. Although I probably would credit my descent from being mentally healthy towards something darker as a major influence towards my attitude towards newer music, I think the industry's change towards a lighter-hearted music style kind of killed a lot of my interest in popular music. I wanted more that was similar to what I heard in the beginning of the '90s, and the industry just wasn't creating it. Fortunately, I could dig deeper. I began seeing radio as a stepping stone to better things. At the time, I considered the radio to be "beginner's music", but I'd rather look at it as my beginning. KDVS in Davis, CA carried all sorts of underground music on its airwaves. That led me to a few bands, including Opeth, Lard, Iced Earth, Pressure Point, Dropkick Murphys, and a few others. I took whatever gaps in new music I had towards getting stuff from old bands that I like. I followed a couple of local bands and saw them at shows numerous times. After a while, that enjoyment just didn't feel genuine, so I left the scene. For many years through college and afterwards, I still could not find anything in the popular realm that interested me. That changed last year. Two or three years ago, I kept on hearing that Slash, Matt, and Duff got together a few times to jam. Being a decent GNR fan, I loved this prospect. With the eventual formation of Velvet Revolver, I found myself coming nearly full-circle. My first rock cassette was Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction", bought in 1990 or so alongside Digital Underground's "Sex Packets". Fourteen years later, Pam gives me VR's debut album. I rather like a few songs on the album, and I think hearing those tracks on the radio have enhanced my enjoyment of it. I do not know how the radio has that affect with me with regards to songs I already like, but it does. Today, I still do not listen to rock radio. I do listen to the local R & B and Hip-hop stations and harking back to my middle school years when FM102 was my main and only station. Rarely, I'll turn on 98 Rock and hear a song I like. Unfortunately, I tend to find that many of the albums seem ... inconsistent. Maybe they're too varied in song types or something. Maybe I'm just not patient enough with them. Or, maybe I just found things I really like in the underground music scene and can't find enjoyment in the albums bands like Sevendust create. A few months ago, I mentioned that I was going to try to listen to 98 Rock for a whole week and not listen to anything else. I have yet to do that. However, I may try to do that in the near-ish future. ***** The winner of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest was announced recently. I rather like this contest, named after Edward George Earl Bulwer-Lytton, the author of "Paul Clifford". Although people would not necessarily recognize his name or book, everyone is familiar with his infamous opening line of, "It was a dark and stormy night." |
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