My Top 25 Songs of the 2011...so far (June)

See? Not a lot of change since last month. I assume that next month will be different as I am listening to a great summer mix. I have also discovered the greatest summer song ever.

1. See America Right - The Mountain Goats
2. Down By The Water - The Decemberists
3. Southwood Plantation Road - The Mountain Goats
4. Circles - Bob Mould
5. America - Simon & Garfunkel
6. Dry the Rain - The Beta Band
7. Falling to Pieces - Faith No More
8. Choose Drugs - Juliana Hatfield
9. Jump In the River - Sinéad O'Connor
10. Queen Of Apology - The Sounds
11. O Girlfriend - Weezer
12. Running With The Night - Lionel Richie
13. Sax And Violins - Talking Heads
14. Gaper's Delay - Holy Roman Empire
15. Brass In Pocket - The Pretenders
16. Ready To Start - Arcade Fire
17. Modern Man - Arcade Fire
18. No Children - The Mountain Goats
19. When Doves Cry - Prince
20. Rikki Don't Lose That Number - Steely Dan
21. The Hurdy Gurdy Man - Butthole Surfers
22. Oceanographer's Choice - The Mountain Goats
23. (Nothing But) Flowers - Talking Heads
24. Punk Rock Girl - The Dead Milkmen
25. Green Mind - Dinosaur Jr

Nothing to see here...nothing to say

Yesterday in a nutshell

Breakfast at Spill'n the Beans

Then dropping off 3000 lbs of metal at the scrap yard.

Then...the highlight of the day...removing a 600 lbs 1926 South Bend Lathe from a basement. It is heavier than anything but it is a beautiful piece of machinery.

After that, Teacher Dave and I deserved a treat so...milk shakes at Frank's (which some of my readers actually worked at back in the day. Right, Fish?)!

After Habitat for Humanity, I went to McGeary's for an after volunteering beer (or a couple) and then headed home. My brother and I ordered pizza from DaVinci's which was so good.* (We did stop so I could pick up lots of corn on the cob for the weekend and the BBQs/Cookouts that I am attending.)

Then Dan did something evil. He made me watch True Blood. From the beginning. This is not a good show. For a number of reasons, but...

I have to watch. Mostly because I am developing a thing for Anna Paquin. That may be justification enough to continue to watch this show.

* The Pizza DaVinci check in awarded me another badge on Foursquare. The Pizzaiolo badge. I wonder is that will help with my Klout score? If you aren't using location based social networking, you should be. Why aren't you?

(By the way, if any of you care, my top songs so far has not changed at all this month, I will get around to making a post about it.)

Good News!

I love me some coffee and the best part of this...now I am taking my "medicine".

The Body Odd - Coffee buzz protects brain from Alzheimer's:

"For years we’ve been told that caffeinated coffee was bad for us. It’s unhealthy and addictive, doctors warned. But as vindication for all who stuck by their energizing elixir, a new study shows that guzzling caffeinated coffee may actually be good for our brains. In fact, it may help keep Alzheimer’s at bay."

Keywords

This week has some great search terms that brought people to AFM. Some of them made me laugh, some of them made me smile, and one or two of them made me think that people working for various state agencies need to figure more productive uses of their time.

Here is the list:

• "I for one welcome our robot overlords"
• "sky bully"
• "thatcher street pub" b-ball
• "eggs poached diner"
• "what does search term mean"

I do enjoy all the traffic that is still coming in thanks to Hermon Raju as well as people looking for things to do in Albany and wondering about the great beer walk.

A Summer Reading Suggestion

If you have been reading me for a while, or know me in real life, you know that I am a huge fan of apocalyptic fiction. Maybe it is because so many of my favorite novels as a child were based on the end of the world, or what came after, or maybe it was watching The Day After at too impressionable an age. Maybe, just maybe, it is some narcissistic belief that when the end of the world comes, I will be spared and I will help in the rebuilding process. Yes, I know...someone like me in charge is much more terrifying than the end of the world...

But, that is an unnecessary digression. Apologies.

Last summer, I picked up an anthology of end of the world short stories called Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Now, I mention that I picked this up last year because yesterday, I also picked it up for my Nook. (Buying too many books at the same time and not reading them Fail?)

It is a wonderful collection.

I had read a number of these before, like Cory Doctorow's When SysAdmin Ruled the World (which...come on...feeding into my erroneous belief that I would be of any value at the end of the world...well...maybe I could help with uptime), however, a number of them were foreign to me.

If you like the short story, and want some short stories that are perfect to give you chills as the sun is beating down on you while the beer you are sipping on perspires, I must make this suggestion. Support your local book seller as well. (You know that you can buy your e-books through your local book seller, right?)

Keeping what in public schools?

There is a cause related group that I support.

It is called "Keep the Arts in Public Schools" and it is something that I do really believe in. Even though I have no artistic talent to speak of, it is something that is important. Too much math and science has turned people into automatons (or worse, cogs in a machine that eats talented people and spits out husks) without any sense of wonder or appreciation for beauty.

Now, I really support this and the teachers that dedicate their time and effort to making Arts education a priority.

Last night, I received this e-mail with the subject header "Integrat".

The subject was about this excellent program in York, PA.

However, when you are arguing for keeping arts education in public schools, and promoting an integrated platform to do this, shouldn't you make sure that you spell check the subject of the e-mail? Integrat? Really?

*shakes head*

Birthday Wishes!

Happy *cough* 59th *cough* Birthday to my wonderful mother.

She is a wonderful mother, a great grandmother, and a good friend and teacher.

I am lucky to have her in my life!

Songs that remind me of summer

As is my wont, I have been spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the weather and ubiquitous connectivity, and I put together a playlist of music that makes me think of summer.

I will be sharing these every so often, as it suits my mood, and I am going to start off with one that is not obviously a summer song, but it is classic...and the video, the keyboards, and the sax all put it in the mid-80s, which is perfect weather (pun intended).

Modern Love by David Bowie

Things to Remember

• Peanut Butter is a food group.
• Nothing beats cold beer and good BBQ with friends.
• If someone is a friend, talk to them.  If you are content just reading their musings, you are a voyeur.
• If you are going to be embarrassed explaining your behavior to your friends, don't engage in it.
• The book is always better than the movie.
• If your body is telling you that you are too old to do something, listen to it.
• If all your friends are "crazy", chances are...you are too.
• Sitting outside by water with a dog is a great way to spend an afternoon. (And something I miss)
• When you get bored, you can always swing:

The Silent Majority Should No Longer Stay Silent

This past Friday, as you already know, SSM passed the NYS Senate and was signed into law by Governor Cuomo. This was an issue that I was (and continue to be) passionate about, and it is not over in the least. (Read some of the "Religious" Carve outs and if any of them are declared to be discriminatory by a court, the law is nullified as well as things like the Federal DoMA and the majority of states that have discrimination written into their State Constitutions.) I worked on this issue, attending lobby days, writing letters, holding signs at protests and compelling people to look at this rationally as opposed to passionately. I am not saying that I did anything that a large number of people failed to do. One of the reasons this bill passed was because a lot of people were passionate about the issue and worked hard.

That being said...

There were a lot of people who are celebrating who did nothing. They supported the idea of marriage equality but they were not willing to let their voices be heard, and this is one of the issues that I have with the totality of the body politic.

Too many people are content to accept the labor of the few in order to celebrate the victory of the many. Too many people are either disconnected from the process or "too busy" to care, to have their voice heard.

Nixon had his "Silent Majority" and in this case the Silent Majority ruled the day again, but...it is a different time now. The mechanisms for having your voice heard are much easier. Become involved in your issue, if it is hydrofracking (and there are a lot of issues related to that), global climate change (Got Flooding?), immigration reform (Are your fields unharvested?) or whatever gets your dander yup.

No longer stay silent. Fight for what you believe in.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead

Happy Monday!

I had another fabulous weekend.

Time with family and friends (old and new) and enjoying Troy Night Out. We ended up at Daisy Baker's to dance but...I can't, and because I am old and stupid, couldn't. It was a great, albeit odd (with social conventions being challenged), night. For some of the friends, it was a continuation of old dynamics, and with others, it was an attempt to return to normalcy, and then there was the cool factor of running into someone you did not expect to.

Saturday and Sunday were not nearly as exciting but just as fun.

There was a frantic point yesterday where I was configuring a bunch of technological devices on deadline. Yes, frantic was the best way to describe it.

And then there was a birthday party with great BBQ from Capitol Q. Had it happened on Saturday (as it was supposed to), the BBQ would have been from the Pig Pit.

Finally, if you are using Orbitz or Expedia to book flights, make sure you confirm. Or use better travel services. This is not about blame, because it was their fault, but...travel smart and sometimes that does not mean using the least expensive option.

Worth the read

The story about his own relationship with his father is compelling.


The Same-Sex Marriage Battle Blurs Political and Ideological Lines. - NYTimes.com:

"As The Times’s Michael Barbaro and Nicholas Confessore have reported, the biggest and most influential donors to the New York campaign were Republicans. A New York City mayor without any huge strategic stake in the matter devoted considerable money and muscle to it. And public-service announcements in favor of it were recorded not just by actors and artists but also by athletes like the hockey player Sean Avery, and by the city’s former police commissioner William J. Bratton.

Why such widespread backing, from such surprising quarters? One major reason is that the wish and push to be married cast gay men and lesbians in the most benign, conservative light imaginable, not as enemies of tradition but as aspirants to it. In the quest for integration and validation, saying “I do” to “I do” is much more effective — not to mention more reflective of the way most gay people live — than strutting in leather on a parade float. We’re not trying to undermine the institution of marriage, a task ably handled by the likes of Tiger Woods, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards and too many other onetime role models to mention. We’re paying it an enormous compliment."

Six Word Memoirs

I love the Six Word Memoir project that the Smith does.

I have written a number of them, with some gaining a little bit of notoriety, but I have never dreamed about them.

Last night, the only thing I remember from my dreams is that I wrote one.

"Sorry, we weren't worth the effort."

I have no clue who the "we" is, nor do I remember anything else from the dream.

What is your Six Word Memoir?