iPod and classic albums

I was a bit perplexed this evening when my tween daughter asked me to pull out some of my favorite albums so she could download some of it them onto her iPod. Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Joe Walsh in particular. I was pleased by her interest but perplexed by the word "some" in the preceding sentence.

I gave her the CDs assuming she'd download all of them only to see her first downloading Abbey Road and picking out about 8 of the 17 songs. Personally I'll usually only listen to it when on a road trip or doing a project in the yard because that's the only way I can listen to it all at once. I asked her how she could load Mean Mr. Mustard, not load Polythene Pam, and then load She Came in Through the Bathroom Window. It made no sense to me. I have other examples from other albums but I'll just stop there.

There are pros and cons to being part of the iPod generation. One pro is that they don't have to suffer through some of the bad songs on great albums. A major con is that they miss what it's like to know an album's time and place and how it was part of an artist or group's career. For now I'll try to get her download whole albums and there's nothing to lose because I already paid for them.

Mel Kiper Jr.

If you listen to sports radio even just a little bit you'll eventually hear Mel Kiper Jr. Mel is what is known as the "NFL Draft guru". He knows just about everything no correct that everything there is to know about every NFL team and every Division 1 college football prospect. This time of year leading up to the draft is Mel time and you'll see and hear him seemingly everywhere.

The little I've thought about him in the past is that he's slightly nutty but now I'm starting to think he's a genius. He is so specialized in his knowledge that I think he could translate to almost any medium. I could just hear Mel handicapping the Oscars, the midterms elections, or even the weather with the same passion he does with NFL draft. Joseph Campbell once said "Follow your bliss". Mel Kiper Jr. certainly has.

Here's a video of Mel talking about Tim Tebow. This is a three minute interview. Mel could do this for hours without coming up for air!

an apple a day

One of the first things kids learn about health is "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." It is one of those phrases that becomes ingrained in the psyche. I've never paid much mind to it myself as I only eat them sporadically. I started to take another look at apples recently because of reading about their benefits to the teeth. According to ezinearticles.com,

"In addition to their basic health benefits, they have numerous dental benefits. Apples are a mildly acidic fruit. Because of their slightly astringent quality, they are an ideal food for cleansing and brightening teeth. The acidic nature of an apple is not enough to make a person's teeth pearly white. The acid needs the help of the fiber-rich flesh of the apple."

I've been eating one per day for 10 days and I think my teeth look whiter. I've been fanatical about my teeth since having braces as a teenager and hearing the horror stories about what effect poor habits would have on my teeth. I imagined myself with yellow teeth around the white square that was the brace on each tooth. The only thing I do knowingly that is harmful to my teeth is drink diet pop at lunch and dinner.

I'm planning to keep up the habit and will know for sure if anyone comments on my whiter smile. Even if that doesn't work they have other less vain benefits.

Napoleon Dynamite

For a time back in 2004 one could barely go anywhere without seeing some reference to Napoleon Dynamite or a Vote For Pedro t-shirt. My tendency is to resist being sucked into these trends and just let it ride out. I rarely get to see an "adult" movie and don't know much about modern music. And that's ok. Sooner or later if a movie is good enough I'll check it out. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.

Last night I viewed Napoleon Dynamite for the first time. I could tell within the first five minutes that it was going to be a gem. Like the best comedies, the movie keeps your attention despite a thin plot because you anticipate that something funny is coming often.
Without being a spoiler, I'll just share a list of the top five characters: Napoleon Dynamite, Uncle Rico, Kip Dynamite, Deb, and Pedro. If you enjoy slow-paced movies with nuanced, tongue-in-cheek humor, then check it out. Here's a look at Uncle Rico.

Bossa Nova acai juice

Anything containg the words antioxidants, superfruits, exotic tropical locations, and better health made easy will get my attention. Enter Bossa Nova acai juice.

Acai berries are purplish and come from the Amazon jungle in Brazil. People native to that area are allegedly healthier than most. Bossa Nova is a California-based company markets acai juice in a 10 oz. bottle for $2.99. I've been drinking 3-4 ounces every day and it tastes pretty good if you drink it like a shot.

There are several superfruit juice products like this. You may have seen juices with pomengranate, goji berry, or mangosteen. According to Consumer Reports none of them can really claim anything but that won't stop me from buying it. I guess it's just part of being human. People have been concocting elixirs, panaceas, and magic potions for centuries. If they at least make people think they feel better then perhaps they serve a purpose.

Daytona Beach, FL

This weekend I went to Daytona Beach for the first time. It's a well-known destination for spring breakers, NASCAR fans, and cars on beaches. The little I got to see of it made it seem like a slow-paced, sleepy beach town which didn't jibe with its reputation.

To begin with, the airport is small and easy to get in and out of. I had a friendly cabbie named Pierre that took me to the Hilton which is right on the beach. Pierre left Haiti in 1980 and spent 24 years in Miami. He speaks French, Creole, Spanish, and English (decently).

I'm definitely looking forward to going back there sometime in a non-Spring Break week.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daytona_Beach

St. Patrick's Day & being American

Today is the day when many people suddenly become proud of their Irish heritage whether they're Irish or not. Others use St. Patrick's Day as a reason to go drinking or to pull something hideously off-green out of the closet.

Over the years I've become a bit ambivalent identifying myself as Irish-American. Sure, I wore a green shirt to work today and said "probably" when people asked me if I was going to drink beer today (although I had no intention of doing so). My policy has been just to acknowledge it if asked. There are some people that make a big deal about it but who really cares if you consider yourself Italian, Irish, Polish, etc.

There are two things that caused me to think about this: one to do with Theodore Roosevelt and the other Christoper Walken. Interesting pair, eh? Roosevelt said:

"There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. When I refer to hyphenated Americans, I do not refer to naturalized Americans. Some of the very best Americans I have ever known were naturalized Americans, Americans born abroad. But a hyphenated American is not an American at all."

"This is just as true of the man who puts “native” before the hyphen as of the man who puts German or Irish or English or French before the hyphen. Americanism is a matter of the spirit and of the soul. Our allegiance must be purely to the United States. We must unsparingly condemn any man who holds any other allegiance."

"But if he is heartily and singly loyal to this Republic, then no matter where he was born, he is just as good an American as any one else."

Finally there was a scene in The Deer Hunter where Christopher Walken was being questioned by a doctor after being rescued as a POW in Vietnam. He was asked if his name was Russian and he said in an proud, certain tone that it was American.

Harrumph!

to health care to not health care

If you haven't taken a side in the health care debate, ask yourself these two questions and it may clear it up for you:

1) Is health care a right that should be provided to you by the government?

If yes, move to #2. If no, call your congressperson and ask them to vote no on the deem and pass vote coming soon.

2) Should a country already $12 trillion in debt tax or borrow another $950 billion to provide health care coverage to the populace?
If you say yes again, call your congressperson and ask them to vote yes.

If you're still confused, the tiebreaker is whether the picture above scares you.

March Madness

Every March real and casual college basketball fans take part in what is called March Madness. The madness is that there are 64 teams and after 63 games there will be one champion. There are typically upsets and dramatic finishes.

What I think people tune into is to see the emotion. Unlike football, one can see basketball players clearly from a closer vantage point. I have no idea whether I'll fill out a bracket tomorrow or even see many games as I have nothing invested in any of the teams. It makes a big difference if you have someone to pull for.

I hope you have a fave team and have fun with it. Also it's always great to see the One Shining Moment video at the end. Here's the 2009 version.

31 down 19 to go

This weekend I made a short business trip to Baltimore, Maryland and I'm debating whether this even counts as a visit to the state. I was only there 15 hours, it was overcast and raining, and all I did was go from the airport to a downtown hotel and back.

I'd like to go back sometime for a couple of days, catch a baseball game, and go outside the city too. The word to describe this affliction is wanderlust. I always thought the word had Irish roots but it actually comes from Germany.

Here's the proof from dictionary.com which proves again that Wikipedia is right:

wan·der·lust   /ˈwɒndərˌlʌst/ Show Spelled[won-der-luhst]
–noun
a strong, innate desire to rove or travel about.

Origin:
1850–55; < G, equiv. to wander(n) to wander + Lust desire; see lust

Today my wife was trying to cull books from our bookshelf. I have many travel books of places I've never been and for languages I've never even attempted to learn. A person that doesn't care to travel would think I'm slightly mad but another like-minded individual would understand completely. Needless to say, I wouldn't allow her to remove any of them.

muscle memory

About a month ago I read about an Olympic figure skater whose mother passed away shortly before her competition. She was out of sorts mentally so she was going to do her routine on muscle memory. I don't know but it turned out but this interested me because I've heard the term before but didn't really grasp it. I've been training for a 25K race in May and have noticed that even if I'm tired or unmotivated that my legs will carry where I need to go. Muscle memory also explains why I'm no longer good at basketball or golf. My muscles don't remember all the motions that I'd done so often when I was young.

Wikipedia says "When an active person repeatedly trains movement, often of the same activity, in an effort to stimulate the mind’s adaptation process, the outcome is to induce physiological changes which attain increased levels of accuracy through repetition. Even though the process is really brain-muscle memory or motor memory, the colloquial expression "muscle memory" is commonly used.[1]"

Now I understand better what I need to do to improve in one activity and also not to get so down on myself now when I do dabble in basketball, golf, or another sport. Since the brain is also a muscle it seems like it would make sense that we can improve our minds through repetition too. I'll leave that to the Tony Robbins of the world.

RIP Merlin Olsen

Just wanted to share some IMing I did on news of the death of Merlin Olsen.
What do you think?

Michael Corcora... Merlin Olsen died
Tom Cathey/Sal... heard that at lunch. used to like him as an announcer.
Michael Corcora... yeah I liked him too. He just sort of disappeared 20 yrs. ago
Tom Cathey/Sal... i think the ftd ads killed him
Michael Corcora... actually it was asbestos
Michael Corcora... you should be a media advisor. You could tell ex-jocks which endorsments to do.
Tom Cathey/Sal... not a good idea for a lineman to do flower commercials and little house. you lose the respect of who made you famous in the first place. no self-respecting man was gonna take him seriously after that, hence end of career.
Michael Corcora... that's the genius of Merlin Olsen. He didn't play to his type.
Tom Cathey/Sal... carved out his own niche......nice.

self analysis

I think it's good for everyone to analyze themselves from time to time.
I decided to look at this blog and I noticed I tend to write about the same topics: observational humor, human behavior, food, music, movies, traveling, and shopping. I've tried to keep it away from being directly about me, or contemporary news or pop culture because I think we all get enough of that in our daily lives. Part of this blogging experiment has shown me that most people probably have a defined realm of thought, and I'm going to try move beyond that.

I'll still do some of the above but I'm going to try to introduce some new subjects and ideas. It may be quasi-journalism, or biographical information about someone you or I don't even know yet, or who knows what.

from one side to the other

A slender middle-aged man paces leisurely in front of the Grand Hyatt Irvine lobby on an occasionally breezy Saturday afternoon. Nobody really notices him. There are millions of unremarkable men like him. When the wind picks up he deftly pulls his hand over his head. The first time he did it his sleight-of-hand was so good I didn't notice. But inevitably the wind picked up again I got to watch him do it again from start to finish. And then another time. By then I noticed the man had a combover. Men with combovers loathe windy days.

According to Wikipedia (believe it) a comb over or combover is a hairstyle worn by bald or balding men in which the hair on one side of the head is grown long and then combed over the bald area to minimize the display of baldness.

After noticing this man I noticed three more combovers at the LAX airport later that day. One was a man that couldn't have been more than 35. Men with hair can't fathom why others do that. They say "I would never do that, I'd just accept my baldness." Judging by all the combovers my guess is that it's easier said than done.

Next time you see a combover instead of grunting some condescending comment please just try not to stare and change the subject in your mind. The combover man will appreciate your indifference. It's 2010 and he's still far from the endangered list so just let it be.

IHOP could be dangerous to your health

If the professional bureaucrats at the FDA are making fast joints print their nutritional information for consumers then surely IHOP should have a bright neon light on their menu to alert their customers about how much they're about to ingest.

I'm not in favor of any disclosure requirements but if you're going to do it for the supposed good of others then please include restaurants like IHOP too. When I travel I much prefer IHOP to Denny's and I'm always amazed by the breakfast menu.
I used to think that there were two basic choices: go the eggs, meat, toast, and o.j. route OR with pancakes or french toast and chocolate milk. At IHOP you get both! And you have to work hard to avoid it with little incentive. If you read the pancakes as an entree description you'll notice you also get eggs and meat. If you look at eggs or omelletes and meat, you also get three buttermilk pancakes. I was able to find the quick two-egg breakfast that excluded the pancakes and it cost almost the same as the others that with 100s more calories.

Until people at IHOP and fast food places have to pay according to how many calories they consume you'll see stories about how America is too heavy.

Going to California

On my list of favorite states California is second only to my native Michigan. Friday I'm headed out to sunny southern California for a short weekend trip. Some travelers are more attracted to the known and others to the unknown. For me it's both. I like knowing my way around the John Wayne airport and all the intersecting highways near there. It's also nice to know I'll see something new or meet someone new while I'm out there.

It's always fun to sample the local cuisine. I asked a friend where the best tacos are in that area and was told to go to the Fashion Island mall in Newport Beach and/or La Salsa in Irvine. Something valuable I've learned while on these business trips is to have a little fun by catching up with old friends or at the very least eat a good meal.

I hope to have good things to report from the road. Until then, enjoy this quintessential California video and song.

odd jobs - part 2

In the summer of 1992 I worked at a cemetary for $5 an hour. It was a mostly solitary job where I spent most of my time on a riding grass mower trying not to hit the headstones and their accompanying adornments. Other duties included sweeping the mausoleum and an occasional cremation. Once in awhile when I was lucky I got to ride on the big combine and try to steer and while changing gears.

Like most of my odd jobs the most interesting part was the people I met along the way. It was an opportunity for a young greenhorn like me to see and hear how adults were in the real world. The two men I worked with were both drug burnouts but they had a dignity about them. Paul was the smarter and more charismatic one, who loved to do a hearty smile and laugh where he forced himself to show his teeth. Dave was quieter, reserved, and slower, but would occasionally say something funny. They were like a Midwestern version of Jay and Silent Bob. Dave also had a half-brother Carl who was on some form of disability (although I think he was just lazy) who would visit us daily in the garage. His stories were forgettable but he had a way of telling them that kept me hanging on his every word.

Occasionally I get nostalgic about these old jobs and the people. Perhaps it was just my age and inexperience but I found these people much more interesting and entertaining than the people I work with in the white collar world. The slow pace, the unpretentious conversation, and one sunny day after another made this one of the better odd jobs I had.

On Demand - Blame It On Rio

Today I had the occasion to speak to one of my "followers". He or she was critical of the blog and didn't really understand what it was about.
That will be dealt with in good time.
Tonight, in the spirit of not taking oneself too seriously, I want to inform you Comcast customers that the 1984 classic Blame It On Rio is now available free on demand.
It's hard to describe its greatness to someone who hasn't seen it. Is it the comedic timing, the music, cinematograpy, dialogue, or the Michael Caine/Joseph Bologna combo? You just have to see it for yourself. If you don't like it at first you just need to keep watching it and it will conquer you.
Instead of being a critic, just say "Blame It On Rio".
For a taste of the fun I've included the trailer.  The closing credits are fun, too.