You know it's nearly time to quit working in the yard when your muscles are all aching and sore, and things are nearly done except to cut down that old stump.
You know it's definitely time to quit working in the yard when the chain saw rips holes in your jeans (leaving the skin underneath miraculously intact).
You know you picked a good time to quit working in the yard when you drop the axe head (blunt side, fortunately) on your little toe while putting the tools away.
And, on a day like this, you know that you made the right decision, choosing computer programming over landscaping.
I'm not Irish, but I suspect that my Viking ancestors probably left their mark on the Emerald Isle many years ago, so I'm gonna celebrate St. Patrick's Day here. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything tacky, like insert shamrock icons everywhere or change the color scheme to a green hue. Nope, gonna do this classy, with the beloved song "Danny Boy":
You'd think we'd learn not togotoSaskatoon. Went to town yesterday, unexpectedly ended up having the front brakes on the van replaced - and apparently Kia parts aren't cheap. At least I got some exercise walking from the brake shop to the mall (where I had dropped off the family to go have lunch, see a movie) and back again - I can't wait for things to warm up enough that I can get back to regular walks and using my bike again. I'm very tired of winter.
Isn't this interesting - now that I've decided not to regularly update my blog, I find myself updating it more often. Go figure - must be something freeing about not feeling obligated to update it or something like that. Will this continue? Who knows? Stay tuned, faithful viewers!
No video for tonight, just a little nerd-bragging. I'm making this entry on an Asus Eee PC, a very cool (or very cute, depending on who you ask) "ultraportable" computer - one of my client's is considering using them for a mobile sales team, and so I'm evaluating one for them. So far, I like it - the keyboard is actually fairly easy to use (although the tiny right-shift key is a bit of a pain), the screen is nice and bright (although a lot of sites need scrolling at 800 x 480). I think this could be what my client is looking for - I'll be whipping up a small database app for them that will allow them to take (parts of) the customer database with them on sales calls, and to synchronize the data when they have a chance to go online.
My biggest concern so far is battery life - may have to recommend the extended battery for them - but other than that, it's a sweet little machine.
"Where've you been?" is a question you could be asking me. I haven't posted anything to the blog so far in 2008... and quite frankly, I've been seriously considering quitting. According to Google Analytics, I'm getting maybe a half dozen vistors per day, and half of them are looking for Quick Logger Plus (which, I'm sorry to say, is pretty much abandonware at this point, but that's a topic for another post). I don't feel like I've got much of an audience for Music Video Thursday (aside from my youngest daughter who is completely nuts for Queen), which makes it kinda hard to keep the motivation up for it. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to can it, but chances are that we've seen the end of regular posts here for the time being.
Having said all that, I've got some motivation for posting today. It's Valentine's Day, and I've been thinking back to the past - about 14 years ago, I was dating a girl who I was crazy about, and when Valentine's Day came around, I wanted to get her something special. I was at university at the time, in the middle of my comp. sci. degree, didn't have much spare cash, and didn't have much self-confidence. I agonized over what to get her, and finally ended up buying a cheap little "bouquet" of plastic flowers (with a little mylar balloon and, if memory serves me correctly, a small teddy bear) in a little basket or pot from a seller who had set up a table in the tunnel between Arts and Place Riel (at the U of S). Within minutes of buying it, I began to suffer from an acute case of "buyer's remorse" - I began to worry about how it looked, if it looked cheap, and most of all, if my girlfriend would like it or not. By the time I got home and got ready to go out, my stomach was churning, and I had convinced myself that my relationship with her was as good as over - what kind of stupid lunk buys something like this for someone special?
I don't remember much about that evening with her, except this: I gave it to her, I think I nearly broke down crying over how nervous I was feeling, she loved it (not because it was fancy or classy or anything like that, but because I gave it to her), and suddenly all my fears dissolved into thin air. Not too long after this, I proposed, she said "yes", we were married, and the rest (as they say) is history.
So, tonight's music video goes out to Kristen, who has been there for me, helped me believe in myself, tolerated my neuroses, calmed my fears, and loved me. This is one of her favorite songs, "Where've You Been" by Kathy Mattea. I'm not normally a country fan (as you may have noticed by the selection of music that's been posted here), but this is for her:
Happy Valentine's Day, Kristen. I love you very much. I may not have many other visitors to my blog, but you're the one visitor who truly matters to me. And I'm just not myself when you're away.
And now to see if I can keep it together long enough to surprise you with this. Hopefully I can make it through supper without you wondering why I'm so nervous. Some things never change. :-)
And yet another "something completely different" - here's something I'm going to call "Riffed Off", where we explore how the songs change, but the riff stays the same... causing endless flamewars about who ripped off whom. Tonight we present a battle royale with Nirvana, Killing Joke, and the Damned. We'll start with Nirvana, with "Come as You Are" in 1992:
Listen carefully to the guitar riff underlying the verse, and then take a listen to "Eighties" by Killing Joke in 1984:
Sound familiar? Killing Joke certainly thought so, accusing Nirvana of copyright infringement (although they stopped short of legal action). But is this the pot calling the kettle black? Check out "Life Goes On" by The Damned (originally from 1982, this concert footage from 2007):
Hmmmm... very familiar. Just goes to show that there's nothing new under the sun, as the saying goes - and that imitation may well be the sincerest form of flattery.
And yet again, something a little bit different tonight - same band, same song, two different videos. The band is OK Go (of treadmillinfamy), the song is "Do What You Want", and here we go...
First take: standard rock "party" video, except for what I can only call "visual whiplash":
Second take: starring the wallpaper from the first take, with dancers, acrobats, etc. dressed to match:
This past weekend I took my older daughters to the symphony, along with my parents, where we got to see Angela Cheng perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3 in C minor (op 37) with the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. It's been a long time since I've been to the symphony, and the first time for the girls, and was a wonderful experience, and I thought I'd take a break from the usual goofy crap that I post here, and try to get classy. Here's the 3rd movement of that concerto, as performed by Alfred Brendel with Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra:
I really enjoy reading the comments on YouTube for classical music - just like any other music videos, the conversation quickly devolves into a flame-war, albeit much more polite and well-articulated.
For those of you not following current events here in Flatland, we had an election yesterday, and I was in it. While I didn't win, I think I did pretty well, especially considering that I didn't have any budget for campaigning. The new premier has announced that the next election will be held on November 7, 2011, and I've already found myself thinking about "next time". The Green Party did pretty good this time, but just keep your eye on us - you ain't seen nothin' yet:
On one of our family trips this summer, we dropped the soundtrack for "A Knight's Tale" into the CD player, which starts of with Queen's classic stomp-stomp-clap:
Little did I know just how much our kids would take to that song:
My mother would be rolling in her grave right now, except that she's still alive.
What have I gotten myself into? I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, but excited, but tired... it would be nice to just be able to close my eyes, lean back, and just sail away...
Tonight's video is courtesy of Warner Brothers - it's a welcome change to see a media company embracing YouTube instead of fighting them. Nicely done, Yakko, Wakko, and Dot.
I'm exhausted - spent most of last night fighting with replication between a couple database servers, gave up and went to bed at 5 this morning, got up at 7:30, fought for another hour, back to bed, up again at 10:30, think I finally won around noon... am I sounding incoherent yet?
And speaking of incoherent, how about some classic Ozzy?
Once again, Scandinavia provides tonight's music video mayhem, courtesy of Sweden's Familjen and director Johan Söderberg. The video fits the music well - Familjen's loop-based electronic music is matched with loops of film footage from an early tent revival, cleverly spliced and speed-matched to fit the tempo of the music - and in some cases, it even looks like the preacher is the one singing. Pretty neat stuff:
Hey, this is my 100th post to my blog! Happy... ummm... blog-iversary? I dunno... just seemed worth mentioning.
Some classic Pink Floyd for you tonight, with a twist of contemplation on the side:
I remember singing the chorus when I was a kid, thinking how cool it was, how defiant and rebellious it was to declare that I didn't "need no education". When I was in university, I saw "The Wall" at a midnight showing at the campus movie theater, and thought it was very cool, very interesting, but didn't really have a lasting impact on me. But now, this song holds new meaning for me, after discovering John Taylor Gatto.
Shortly after being named New York State's "Teacher of the Year" in 1991, Gatto quit, saying that he didn't want to "have to hurt kids to make a living", and has now become one of the most outspokencritics of the entire modern institution of education. As the faceless children in "Another Brick In The Wall" shuffle mindlessly into the meat grinder, I remember Gatto's contention that modern schools exist for two purposes - to create "human resources" for the industrial machine, and to create bored, easily influenced consumers to fuel the economy.
Gatto is not without critics, but I think he is right . We're currently homeschooling our son (kindergarten), planning on homeschooling our youngest daughter when she gets old enough, and have told our two oldest daughters that they'll have one year of homeschooling when they get to grade six - and hope that they'll want to continue after that. But it's going to be their decision in the end - yes, as parents, we have a lot of influence on that decision, but it will be their decision.
I can't begin to do justice to Gatto in a blog posting like this, so I encourage you to read hiswork for yourself - and keep an open mind while you do. As for Pink Floyd - I don't know if Roger Waters' views on education are in complete agreement with Gatto, but I can't imagine that they would be in complete disagreement either. Hey, teacher - leave those kids alone...
