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Blog - March 2005 |
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This page stores my blog entries from March 2005. The entries are dated March 8, March 17, and March 29.
What a Pisser: Bathroom Observations / Jeans Prices / Bolt Thrower site / Conversationally Challenged? / New Monitor Tuesday, March 8, 2005 I cannot understand the mentality of my fellow male segment of the human species. Their actions in the bathroom
are rather puzzling and, at times, thoroughly irritating. A chat with a co-worker revealed another possible explanation: curiosity. Frankly, I'm not sure why someone would be curious to see someone else naked, sitting on the pot. It's just a weird and unusual observation in the world of men's bathrooms. ***** About a day or two after I started working for my current employer, I ran out to Eddie Bauer and bought a pair
of jeans to wear for Casual Fridays. This last Friday, nearly 10 months after I first wore them, I noticed a hole
forming where one wouldn't want one. So, I'm off later this week to find a couple of new pairs of jeans. ***** Back in university, I really liked Bolt Thrower. They had that thrashy feel of Slayer with a heavier, more metal base. Starting with "... For Victory", I gradually grabbed up their albums. Through some channels and contacts, I found out that the Bolt Thrower members had their own site. It didn't have much at the time, but it did give you a link to an e-mail address through which a person could contact the actual band members. I e-mailed them a couple of times but, naturally, didn't have an on-going conversation with them. After a few months, the whole site disappeared, being replaced with "Under Construction" written over a Bolt Thrower logo. As you can see, the site sits as such to this very day. I loved seeing a band put their own site together and personally responding to e-mails, but I'd rather they spent their time writing great music than trying to maintain a band site. Maybe, at some point, the band will find someone to make an official site for the band. Bolt Thrower has persevered without one, and I think it'll probably stay that way. Besides, with cool fan sites like this one, Bolt Thrower may never need to make one of their own. ***** I notice, in all sorts of places, that people do not seem to care to pay much attention. They do seem to care about what I say. The problem comes during conversation. Many, many times I have seen someone interrupt me in mid-explanation for their little anecdote, observation, or comment. I may find their note interesting, but I tend to get annoyed in not being given the chance to make my point before they comment. Maybe people's attention spans truly span less than three seconds. Maybe my manner of discussion doesn't mesh well with theirs. Maybe I confuse them or something else. ***** After six years of devoted service, my Viewsonic E771 17" monitor bit the dust. It worked beautifully until last Wednesday or Thursday evening, when, after moving my mouse to "wake up" the monitor, I found my desktop crammed into the top 1/3 of my screen. No amount of on-screen adjustment helped, and a different monitor hooked up to my computer worked perfectly fine. My mind turned to getting another Viewsonic monitor, only to see that some people could not recommend a current Viewsonic CRT due to reliability issues. Using Anandtech's site as a guide, I ended up buying the Samsung 997DF 19" monitor. I'm reasonably happy with it. Currently, I'm running it at 1024 x 768 resolution. The colors seem to possibly need a slight tweaking. Also, I think it'd look better at a larger resolution (e.g. 1280 x 1024), possibly eliminating any sense of blocky imagery. It might also help if I could position the monitor further away from me than I have it now. I will have to update everyone on how well this monitor has been working for me.
St. Patrick's Day notes / Successful Shoe Shopping / Phishing scheme against eBay users / Black Sabbath "Black Box" issue / Jesus and his Religions Thursday, March 17, 2005 Happy St. Patrick's Day! The one day in the American Calendar where, as some people say, everyone has a bit of Irish in them. If they all drink a little Guinness or Beamish, then that would certainly be true. Outside of the great corned beef, cabbage, soda bread dinner I enjoyed so very much, I made a point of listening to Irish or Irish-inspired music all week. Granted, my "Irish" CDs include Flogging Molly, Dropkick Murphys, and Enya. I played my "Pipes and Drums of Scotland" CD earlier in the week for the heck of it. Hey, if it weren't for the Irish, us Scotsmen wouldn't have bagpipes to play. As a minor secondary enjoyment, I love the holiday logos Google creates. For 2004, they created this one:
They gave it more of a Celtic knot feel, leaving feeling more general to Irish or Gaelic than to St. Patrick's Day. The one for this year looks a wee bit different:
This particular one captures the festive feel a little better. The colors come out crisper. ***** Shoe shopping. I despise that pair of words more than most anything else. If you had people trying to fit you into 13 M shoes when, with New Balance, you wear a 14 EEEE, you get a little frustrated. When you have a salesman at Redwing Shoes say, "I can take 9 or 10 people off the street and these shoes will fit them", you get a little irritated (actually, I got ticked off and refuse to patronize them ever again). When you try on shoes that should fit or try a size that fit before (e.g. 14 EEEE) with the same manufacturer and find it doesn't fit, you get a wee bit miffed. I think I last shopped for athletic shoes three or more years ago. I found a pair of New Balance, 14 EEEE, at a local big and tall store. Since one pair fit, I bought two of the same shoe. Now, after seeing them get dirty and have holes and cracks in the leather, not to mention growing uncomfortable, I broke down and bought new shoes. It wasn't easy, either. For many years, it seemed that I couldn't get anything to fit better than New Balance. Not too many shoe companies made wide shoes many years ago. Old Nike high-tops gave way to a wonderfully comfortable pair of white with black New Balance. Eventually, a tan pair accompanied the old New Balance, replacing them grudgingly. After many struggles and searches, I inevitably find something that fits. Oddly enough, my string of New Balance purchases ends. A salesman told me that New Balance shoes tend to run narrow, which could explain why I would need such a wide width in their shoes. Unfortunately, every EEEE-width shoe I tried on at Famous Footwear proved to not be wide enough. Part of it hinged on the way the toe of the shoes were cut; many of them turned quickly to a point and sloped up too sharply. One pair that I tried this past weekend seemed to fit well. Arch support in the correct spot. Ample toe room. But, my big toe rubbed against the side of the shoe, leading me to leave them in search of something better. Even comparing the width of the new New Balance shoes to my old ones showed that they did not really have the same widths. In the end, I bought two pair: one pair of 14 EEEE Nike's and a pair of 13 EEEE Reebok. I haven't owned a pair of Nike's since my old Nike high tops (which, actually, I still own somewhere around here) from numerous years ago. I had at least a couple of pair of Air Jordans around the late '80s, too. I never owned a pair of Reebok before, as far as I know. The former fit wonderfully, providing ample toe space and great heel cushioning. The arch support sits right in my arch, something I currently lack in my worn-out New Balance. The latter pair fit similarly to a glove, providing just enough space for my feet and fitting rather nicely. ***** Although many of you may already know about this, a phishing scheme using eBay's name has shown up in e-mails lately. You can see the e-mail I received by clicking on this sentence. I rather enjoyed this e-mail, since I have never opened an account with eBay. Given that, I knew from the beginning that this was a hoax. ***** For my birthday, Pam bought me "Black Box", the Ozzy-era Discography of eight Black Sabbath albums. This came as a total surprise, since I never thought she would spend this much on me in one go. Each disc sounded great, except for the last track of "Master of Reality", a song called, "Into the Void." Around 1:50 into the song, the left channel very briefly cuts out. It lasts for less than a second, but I hear it clearly. After two exchanges, I find that each copy is the same. Finding myself aggravated by the situation, someone suggested that the error might exist as it was originally recorded. Although the only "original" recording I have is on cassette, a different remastered CD has the same flaw. So, I think it might actually be in the original recording. I may contact Rhino Records to see if they know about this issue and whether they can do anything about it. I doubt it, especially if the original master tapes have this glitch. ***** At times, people may have read or heard me rail against religion. Overall, I have no problems with organized religions. My problem lies in the people who hide behind religion to spout their hateful or harmful viewpoints, hypocritical actions, or other things that fly in the face of what religion should do: make people happy and allow them to live better lives, both for themselves and with other people. Too many people dutifully attend church, only to run down their fellow parishioners in the parking lot. Hateful stances against people, be it other religions or sexual orientation, should never occur. I told Pam that, if he truly had been a real person and was as written in the Bible, Jesus would never approve of any of the organized religions in existence. Granted, for some religions, that may seem to go without saying. If all religions truly did worship and admire the same general Great Being, as I sometimes believe and wonder, dabbling in relative details in how one worships would seem silly. The aforementioned intolerance and hatred would never be approved, and many other shenanigans would meet the wrath similar to the segment where Jesus tears apart the synagogue for selling stuff in it. If Jesus, as a human, were real, what would he approve? I think if people followed in his steps as many priests expressed and explained about his life, Jesus would approve. A sincerity of faith full of love for all creatures, regardless of how different that person may be. Certainly, humans make mistakes, but knowing that one would be forgiven if truly repentant, anyone can follow any true teachings of Jesus. Never in this have I said that people like this don't exist or that all people in all religions do not do this. I believe that many people out there serve as ideal examples of how one should act towards others in life. Others may not do so, but they may learn when they desire that change and open themselves to it.
Lake Tahoe Memories: Past and Future / Eve of Destruction an Oddball in the List / What is a "Children's Table"? A table made out of tiny humans? Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Pam and I have our two-year anniversary coming up in a couple of months. We talked about bounding off
for a weekend, possibly to San Francisco. In thinking about it more, a trip to SF seemed too pricey for us
at the moment, so we pondered other options. With Pam's lack of time spent in Lake Tahoe and my absence from
it for some years, we decided that Lake Tahoe will be our destination. My parents and I enjoyed much food outside of Tahoe Cedars Lodge. I remember Clementine's, a restaurant not too far away from Tahoma that served some very good mud pie. My first experience with it there helped forge my broadening horizons of chocolate one step further. I had my first piece of swordfish at a restaurant right across the street from the Lodge. Somewhere in Tahoe City or somewhere like that, a building that used to house a rather good hamburger joint sits. We went to that hamburger place once, and I remember it being rather good. Hiking provides me with most of my non-aquatic memories of Lake Tahoe. We hiked all around the Lodge, looking at all the houses and wonderful wooded lots on which they sat. We hiked to the little store down the street and to "El Pomme de Pin", a little coffeehouse across the street from the store that had countertops made from small rounds of wood and seemed to be covered in a thick, hardened, plastic substance. We hiked through Sugar Pine Point State Park as well, seeing the assorted undergrowth and smelling the various Jefferson pines. We visited the mansion on one end of the lake and hiked around that as well. Although I have visited places that gave me great feelings of awe and love (e.g. the redwood groves near Ft. Bragg), nothing will ever compare to the overall experience one can have in Lake Tahoe. Although Tahoe Cedars Lodge appears to be permanently closed (as I recently learned), I will forge new and wonderful memories that will forever fill my life with great happiness for experiencing such a great and majestic place. ***** Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
On Tower's web site, I ran across a Billboard Top 10 CD for 1965. The idea to put out CDs with the Top 10 from many years ago looks really cool. In this instance, it created a rather unusual collection. The list contains many (and mostly) rather light-hearted, catchy tunes that fit rather well with the continuation from the early '60s. "The Name Game", a song that spurred various versions and modes for kids of all generations, starts their list. "This Diamond Ring", a song about finding the right person for marriage, shows up on that list along with the Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda." The Righteous Brothers' classic "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", Sam the Sham and the Pharaoh's "Wooly Bully", and Sonny & Cher's "I Got You Babe" top off the light stuff. Then, oddly, at the end of the list sits Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction." A song about war, social struggles, and all sorts of other wrongs in the world, "Eve of Destruction" stands as a truly timeless song whose message can be applied during any time in history. That a song of protest, a song that signifies the rough beginning of the countercultural late '60s, would sit in with those other songs seems rather funny. None of the other songs really has as much staying power, except for maybe "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." Finding a song that captured the mood and emotion of an era that is still applicable today cannot be easily found. So, when you listen to the radio or download MP3s of the top 20 list of your favorite radio station (even ones who have been given human names), think about the songs you hear. Which ones actually tell a lot about this generation? Which ones will win the test of time and be timeless hits? As a side note: does any of this really matter? For general enjoyment purposes, it doesn't. But, if you're like me and love the history of music, you may find it entertaining to see what songs actually do withstand the test of time. ***** Pam's family does things quite different from mine. Rarely do I meet any strong challenges to my sense of family or "how things should be". I seem to fit in fairly well overall, regardless of how many family members show up or how difficult some people might get. This comfort level changes when it comes to large family dinners. As a young lad and only child, I had no other children around within the family. The closest fellow children lived at least 300 miles away or so. Pretty much from the beginning, I ate with the rest of the family. I listened to the conversations my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles would have with each other. My participation in these discussions grew as I got older, but I credit some of my understanding of things and my vocabulary with being around adults during this time. At least on an eating level, though, all of us were on the same level. Pam's family operates a little differently. Due to the size of their family, segregation occurs. One table is noted as "adults", while the other is noted as "children." As per notes, the "adults" sit at the "adult table", while the "children" sit at the "children's table". They make such arrangements regardless of the ages of the people attending. Having to deal with this bizarre and unnecessary distribution hasn't always been easy. However, I have seen the potential importance of such an arrangement towards the social growth of youths. Certainly, being around kids one's own age at younger ages helps one to learn to socialize and carry on conversations. Certainly, in some situations, one tends to find conversational topics from one's own generation more interesting. On the other hand, one loses the chance to learn from one's adult role models when one cannot participate in conversations with the previous generations. The view points, challenges to view points, thought processes, and discussion methods can all be learned by the younger generations during these mealtime conversations. The segregation of old and young at certain advanced ages can only harm future growth and mental perceptions. By separating the generations as such, one tells their children that, regardless of their age, they will never really be "adults". Since "children" are the only people who sit at the "children's table", people who would otherwise be "adults" continue to be treated, at least on this level, as children. |
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