Down time

Thanksgiving + 80's party + Camping + Running = Sick PlaysByEar. I spent all of Monday in bed recuperating.

In the Garage

Now I know what it feels like to become a non-so-frequent blogger. It's not that you don't intend to write, it's just that you just never seem to get around to it. And when you do, you can't think of anything to write about.

I suppose I could write about this week, and Thanksgiving. I haven't written much about work but I may start doing so, now that I am confident no one I work with knows about this blog. It's really one of the only safe topics of conversation in that respect.

Speaking of work, I am going to show up at an 80's themed party someone from work is hosting tonight. She wanted us to bring pictures from the 80's and wear 80's clothes. I thought I'd be able to find some pictures but have to skip the clothes part, and it turned out being completely opposite. It seems I don't really have any pictures people took of me, and I didn't start taking pictures until 1989 or so and then very infrequently. I did find my middle school and high school yearbooks, which contain a few pictures of me, but they were all in the garage and are soaking wet from a washer leak. They reak, so they're staying here.

Clothes was a complete success. Since I never throw anything away, I still have some clothes I wore in high school. Most of the clothes, however, aren't obviously identifiable as 80's garb. But, I did find a concert t-shirt I was looking for (which has the year "1989" on it as proof), and while I was looking through other stuff I found a nice surprise--a levi's jean jacket, which I probably wore every day for years. The clothes were smelling pretty bad having been untouched in the garage for so long, so I through them in the washer/dryer. I hope they fit when I take them out.

Wow I didn't write about anything I intended to. More for later, I guess.

I'm not dead

As a matter of fact, I posted an entry yesterday, but I backdated it (to match the event date) so it's tucked below somewhere. I probably won't backdate anymore.

I went to enjoy my music and wings last night and was caught off guard. They had ESPN turned up instead of music. So I had to listen to everyone comment on the Pacers and Pistons instead. Argh!

Signs and Stickers

Uhoh, it's time for another political (but not really) post!

The other day in the Daily Texan I read some letters to the editor about a campaign sign recycling effort. I also happened to read the article the letters were in response to when it appeared last week, and what I remember about glancing at the picture was how recycling the signs was a positive activity for the Democrats. The election is over and uncontested, so the best thing to do now is not linger on it and look toward the future. I really didn't realize until reading the headline and article that it was a immature gloating stunt by the YCT.

I initially thought it was Democrats cleaning up their own stuff because I wanted to believe what a nice thing it was that they were taking responsibility to get all their campaign litter cleaned up so soon, as every campaign should. After the election is over, it all needs to go away. There are three reasons it stays out there:
1. gloating (if your candidate won)
2. martyrdom (if your candidate lost), or
3. lazy/forgot.

Campaign signs seem to stick around for a month or so, but the worst offenders are the bumper stickers. You know you're going to see both Bush and Kerry bumper stickers on cars YEARS from now, just like you still see bumper stickers from campaigns past. I'd like to be able to go up to them and say "hey, the election's over, you can remove your bumper sticker now," but I can't, because even if it is still there because of reason #3, I can't risk spinning them into a rant if either reasons #1 or #2 are the case.

Last week driving to work I saw a car with a "Wellstone!" bumper sticker. What's the point? I don't think too many Texans are even going to remember who that is, which voids any effect reason #2 would have. But I'm sure I'd get quite a mouthful if I let them know and reason #2 is why it's there.

Don't Talk to Strangers

I know you're all thinking I forgot my weekly song commentary, but I didn't, I'm just running a little late! Last week's song was "Don't Talk to Strangers." It's nice that there are songs out there built around motherly advice such as "Don't Do Drugs" or "Look Both Ways before Crossing the Street." Hmm--I think that last phrase has top 40 hit written all over it! Time to put my composition hat on.

I didn't realize until after I looked it up that this one is by that 80's icon Rick Springfield. Remember kids, don't talk to strangers, especially if they are speaking French. "je t’aime donne moi ton coeur ce soir" I'm begging you!

Blood Donation

I've given blood for many years, starting with the inter-service ROTC blood drive competitions in college, continuing through my Naval caeer, and for several years afterwards. After awhile I got in the habit of making my appointment for the next day I was allowed to give blood. However, I've only given once since I've moved to Texas, and I have a poor excuse. I've grown used to the procedure the Red Cross uses, and was uncomfortable the first time I used a different service in Minneapolis (this was before Minneapolis has a Red Cross chapter). The time I donated down here in Texas was for a blood drive held in our work parking lot. Now I'm on their list and will probably give more consistently.

The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas gave me a call today urgently asking for my donation. Apparently supplies of my blood type (B negative) are very low and they needed donations for surgery TODAY. So, I had a relatively healthy (Subway) lunch and proceeded on in. I've given blood after having a grease-loaded lunch before and won't do that again--you can actually see the grease separate from the blood in the bag as you're giving blood. Yech...

I've always been confused about what blood types mean and which are compatible with eachother and found that wikipedia had a nice explanation. I thought that I had the worst blood type (for those who need some blood) as I have a rare type (B negative, 2%) and can only receive blood of my type or the universal donor type (O-). However, maybe its the universal donor type that is really getting screwed... they make up 7%, that's the ONLY type they can receive and everyone else can also use their type--so I imagine it could be in shorter supply than mine. Not really fair, huh! Maybe someone I know with an MPH (I think I know two now who read my blog) can tell me who gets screwed over the most?

Lunchtime Conversation

Not a conversation of mine this time, but someone else's. I sat at a table by myself with a copy of the alternative weekly with a booth of four people on one side and a table with six people on the other side. The group of six behaved relatively normally but the group of four really started to freak me out. They were like professional conversationalists. Their dialogue almost sounded scripted. It was if they were in an episode of Seinfeld--or maybe a better description is that it sounded like they were doing a morning radio show. Each person interjected a comment at the appropriate moment, people would laugh too loudly if they had been silent for too long, and there was absolutely no dead air at all. I'm not sure how they managed to eat their lunch with all that talking. It was creepy. Annoying too--considering someone from BOTH tables would stop occasionally and start singing along (rather loudly) to the music being played, especially during "Piano Man." That's fine if we've been drinking, but it drove me nuts during lunch.

Brief Thoughts

My boss starts the majority of her sentences with a coordinating conjunction. It's very annoying.

I am losing combs at an alarming rate.

Everything in my wallet has been wet for over two days now. I've emptied it and its contents are drying throughout my cubicle.

Wing Enz

It sounds like they're back to playing strictly 80's again. Is this good? Is this bad? I guess it doesn't matter, just as long as they continue to include the more obscure songs that I enjoy so much.

Its an easy pick this time since it was a song I meant to write about already. I heard it there a month or so ago, probably the week before I started making these entires. "I Got You" / Split Enz. Now the interesting thing about this group is that I don't know how to classify them. They certainly have the name of an 80's band. But, surprisingly enough, they had been around since the early 70's, and didn't last too long into the 80's. They're also from New Zealand and some of them went on to form Crowded House. Interesting. As for the song, its pop, its catchy, and has a few rhythmic tricks (half measures) which I enjoy. I have probably only heard it on the radio a handful of times since it came out in the early 80's, but now its in heavy rotation on my mp3 jukebox.

Most Precarious Moment of the Weekend

Unexpectedly backstroking* across the Coloardo River and collapsing from exhaustion on the south bank.

*backstroking is not a very accurate term as it implies that my arms were being used to propel myself across the river. Instead, they were desperately holding a GPS receiver and a cellphone above the water.

My life would be so boring without my car

Yeah! A little excitement on the way to work. And when I say "a little," I mean "a little." Not really exciting, but I did have to roll my car out of the street on the way to work today. My negative battery connection is loose, and it decides to come off occasionally when I start the car. So this morning in the driveway I had to pop the hood and jam it back on to get the car started. I still have the idle trouble, but the car is trying to fix itself and was doing fine until halfway to work where it died. You guessed it, I tried to start 'er up and the battery disconnected itself again--causing me to have to roll the car off the street and out of the way, pop the hood, and get 'er going again. Also, since my radio also resets when power is disconnected, every time I started up the car the music would start again at the beginning of the CD. It felt like it was part of a movie soundtrack, playing the same music each time I got going down the street.

Election

I went to bed fairly early last night. I'm probably the least political of my group of friends, so I was perfectly fine with going to bed and getting up in the morning to get the results of the election. I did find myself waking up at 3 am wondering how it came out, so maybe I care more than my conscious self realizes. And I did have a dream the night before involving John Kerry, a cane, and luggage, strangely enough. Anyway, I wasn't curious enough to actually get out of bed and turn on the news--that must be my conscious self taking over again.

When I got the news this morning, I was not surprised by the result. I see Kerry has conceded now, so let's just get on with the next four years already.

Wing-Time

Last night I got the wings. Initially I was excited cause the first song I heard was Lesley Gore, and the next was the Beatles. They've finally gotten off the 80's mix and went back to oldies, I thought! But then they played Huey Lewis, then oldies again, then disco. Oh no! Don't tell me they've gone BOB! After awhile I realized I could live with what they were playing since they were still dipping into the lesser-known songs (of all decades now) that I hardly ever hear, which is what spurred these music entries in the first place.

The song from this visit is "The Rapper" by the Jaggerz. This song comes from a time when rapping didn't mean rapping, but meant hitting on someone. The only part of the song I remembered from before was the snippet of the chorus that they'd use in the k-tel compilation commercials. Therefore what grabbed my ear were the verses, which featured 70's style harmony and chords that didn't change for a long time, four measures at a time maybe, as opposed to the usual one or two. And dig those lyrics... "he wants someone to sock it to"

Honorable mention goes to a 70's instrumental that I don't know the name of. Its so much harder to find the names of songs when you don't have any lyrics to start with. There are some that have been stumping me for years. You've heard this one before. The melody is carried by two saxophones with guitar riffs filling in the breaks. That doesn't really help, so let me hum it to you. Da-da-da-da da-da-da-da da-da-da-DAA da-da-da DAA da-da-da. There, got it now?

Voting Accomplished!

Bad idea #1: Show up to vote when the elementary school kids are being dropped off.
Bad idea #2: Wear a t-shirt, shorts, and sandals in 55 degree weather while waiting outside for 45 minutes.
I'm not really complaining, cause the wait didn't seem annoying long, it didn't make me really late for work, and I haven't caught a cold (yet). But I could've made it easier on myself.

I left the polling place thinking the same thing I did the last time I voted, which isn't anything like "I did my civic duty," or "I'm proud I participated in the democratic process," but more like "I should be an election volunteer next time so I can help to make the voting process as painless as possible for everyone." There isn't anything terribly bad about how it went, but there are simple things they could do to make it run smoother. For instance, if the line is splitting A-M and N-Z, of course have that posted at the tables where they look up your name, but if the lines actually separate farther back (where you can't see the tables), post some signs there so people know why its splitting and which line they're supposed to be in. By the time I left, an election volunteer was guiding people to the right line, but if he just put up a sign there he could spend his time helping in more meaningful ways.

Also, have someone work the line telling people things like what they need to vote, or if they're at the right place to vote. This one poor woman waited in line an hour before finding out she was at the wrong place. Someone shouting "Make sure your card says voting precinct #xxx. If you're not sure, ask me." could have saved her some grief. They could also hand out the paper ballots for people to review, so they could possibly save time when they get to the booth (they are available near the voting booths, but people don't know that until they get that far up in the line). And, if they could find some reliable way to figure out how long the wait in line is taking, that would be nice. I guess all of these suggestions are really only relevant when its busy, but that is when people will get the most annoyed if things aren't running smoothly. Again, I'm not complaining, things went fine... but they could go better.

I can't do anything about this as a volunteer, but I don't like the computer tablet voting format. Its just not intuitive enough to use a rotating dial to navigate and select. These proprietary computer systems just complicate matters. I can understand why they wouldn't want to use a windows or mac platform, but why must there be a proprietary user interface as well? Why not choose a UI that at least *someone* is familiar with? Like a mouse and pointer. Or a touch screen. We used optical scan the last time I voted in Minneapolis, and that's an okay system, too. I think everyone understands how to mark a box with a pen. But I can see how the dial could confound some people, though.

Another problem with the computer system is that the summary screens (where you check your work) show who you voted for and for what, but don't show the party affiliation. This makes it hard to check your ballot if you weren't familiar enough with some candidates and voted by party on some races.

Pardon my ramble. I voted. I voted successfully.

Those of you who know me know I don't talk politics much, but I'm really close to writing an entry on why I voted the way I did. We'll see!

PS Go vote!

Another great weekend

I'm writing this right before I go to bed and its taken a lot of effort to get this entry started. Its so much easier to write entries when I'm trying to waste time at work! So here's a short update on some previous entries.

My car is in okay shape but still not inspection ready due to the bad idle. I got anxious friday night and replaced the spark plug wires. The procedure ended successfully, but not without a few moments of panic where I thought I killed the car for good. It turned out the negative terminal of the battery liked to disconnect itself whenever I tried to start the car.

I went with my original idea for a costume Saturday night--a yip yip from Sesame Street. The costume wasn't that great and had I came up with the idea a week earlier I might've done a better job. Nevertheless, some people did recognize what I was trying to be, so I guess the costume was a success. Some people thought I was Elmo, which I could understand since it had the same color and furriness and similar eyeballs. But some others thought I was a tweedlebug, and that doesn't look much like a yip-yip. Tweedlebugs lived in Ernie's flower garden in a milk carton, and looked more like lizards with antenna. Ah, I guess that's an alien look too so I can understand the confusion.

Sunday was a big-time recovery day for me, and, I assume, many others. I hope no one really expected to get anything done...