Monday, December 6th, 2004
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11:20 pm - Rolling Stone's "top 500 songs of all time" list
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http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6596661/500songs
OK, I admit, I'm a sucker for "Rolling Stone top 500 songs list" in the same way that I'm a sucker for AFI top 100 movie lists and the way I used to be a sucker for Sunday morning political talking head shows (before I went cold turkey in 2000 and cured myself of that particular disease).
Unlike the old 102.7 top 500 songs lists, it's not purely classic rock, and Stairway to Heaven doesn't finish first. A few classic rock staples also got the shaft, such as CSNY. But it still follows a lot of the same formulae: too heavy on Beatles with more focus on their pop stuff, failure to scratch beneath the surface on a lot of great bands and picking their best-known "hits" (the Pink Floyd selections are particularly typically numb), and making no effort to introduce the readership to some new stuff that they might not have heard.
There is a very conscious effort to go outside classic rock, with plenty of doo wop, disco and gangsta rap mixed in. However, no jazz. I guess Tupac Shakur counts but Miles Davis doesn't?
Ironically, some of the more influential artists are either absent from the list or have very few placements. Such as CSNY, Patti Smith, Allman Brothers, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, etc.
Alas, the list had no trouble meeting my low expectations. I'm just glad they gave Dylan the top spot. That was class.
current music: Songs of Leonard Cohen
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Thursday, December 2nd, 2004
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6:18 pm - Stefan the Signer
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![[info]](http://library.vu.edu.pk/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi/000100A/http/web.archive.org/web/20041213021832im_/http:/=2fstat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) jessica_420 and I are teaching some basic baby sign language to reasonbaby. Not much, just Mommy, Daddy, milk, more, NO, and a few other things. We started a few weeks ago.
Just now I was feeding Stefan some pumpkin & rice, and he started signing for milk. It was most certainly the sign for milk. Jess said he did it once before when being fed solid food. Sure enough, that's what he wanted.
Very proud moment for Mama and Dada. And did I mention that at 10.5 months, he's not just walking, but RUNNING?!
current mood: proud
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, November 15th, 2004
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10:11 pm - turning 100000
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My 100000th birthday is next week. Buy me presents! My wishlist is at
http://www.amazon.com/o/registry/KBC9QQHW6CIS
We'll be spending next week in northern NJ visiting family and friends. We won't have a car, but if you're in the area and want to get together, drop me a line. We won't have much time, but we'll have a little bit.
I've been renting the Prime Suspect series from Netflix. So far I've seen the first three out of six and they're awesome. Helen Mirren rocks. She may be nearly twice my age, but she's incredible. I also saw Calendar Girls with her last night.
There's plenty going on, but not much that's postworthy. No brilliant ideas, no major victories (or defeats) at work lately, and not a lot of new pictures of Stefan.
But Stefan is now officially a walker. I expect that by next week he'll be a runner. And yes, he continues to get cuter every day.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Saturday, November 6th, 2004
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9:07 pm - Study up on Don Corleone in college...
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...and it's not even Fleeber's class!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3987647.stm
Law students take on the Mafia
Studying the enemy - Law students are flocking to Italy's first Mafia studies course
Coincidentally, as I was reading this article, AMC finished playing Joe Kidd and then I heard the Godfather Theme.
current music: Theme from The Godfather
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004
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11:57 am - Stefan is walking
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Wednesday, October 20th, 2004
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11:17 am - Only one reason why I am amused by post-season baseball
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As all intelligent and rational Americans who hate corporate welfare, I don't watch professional sports like baseball, football of the American flavor, basketball, hockey, or any other sport where dumb jocks have the nerve to go on strike to fight for a living wage.
But I admit that I am amused by one facet of post-season baseball. It's a bit cruel on my part, but I admit that I can't help it.
I love watching hober, hawver, amanda42 and other New Englanders get their hopes up that "This is THE Year" for the Sawx, only to have their lives shattered when the inevitable happens.
Rob Corddry's feature on Monday night's Daily Show was perfect, describing the lengths that some people will go in order to break "The Curse of the Bambino".
So I ask my friends who, for some reason I will never understand, live for the day that the Sawx win a World Series (a day which will never come, because my personal amusement is that important in the grand scheme of things): are you trying to prove that free will does not really exist?
current mood: snickering
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, October 18th, 2004
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4:28 pm - How common are your LJ interests?
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I'm usually not a slave to the meme, but this saves me the effort of looking up each one to see how common they are.
( Read more... )
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(comment on this)
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Friday, October 15th, 2004
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9:53 pm - MUST SEE - Jon Stewart goes on Crossfire and rips Carlson a new one
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Friday, October 1st, 2004
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8:12 am - The Bush-Kerry debate? The winners are...
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WINNERS: George W. Bush and John F. Kerry and their cronies and lackeys.
LOSERS: The 40 million suckers who watched it thinking that they were actually going to learn something.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, September 25th, 2004
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7:59 am - Stefan update
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Finding time to update the pictures is quite difficult, since whoever is home with Stefan usually has hands full with him. But check back in a couple of days to see the photoalbum:
http://photos.yahoo.com/jessicaann_420
On Monday he started saying "da-da-da-da-da", and this morning he said "da-da-daddy!" Truly a happy moment.
Still not walking, but his balance is getting a little better each day.
Probably because we're not letting him out of our sight long enough, we have managed to get this far without letting him break or ruin any of our stuff. I'm sure this won't last forever, but you never know, it's lasted this long.
We still can't get him to sleep by himself, but one time Jessica managed to get him to fall asleep in her arms and then he stayed asleep when put down in his little co-sleeper. Then we ate dinner and he slept for 20 minutes before waking up from the nap. Well, that was 20 minutes that we got to eat dinner together, totally undisturbed. A first.
Still has not reached full cuteness - keeps getting cuter every day.
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(6 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, September 21st, 2004
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1:03 pm - Yet another reason not to eat at TGIFriday's
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I don't usually eat at Friday's, mostly because of the Chatch-kees (sp?) atmosphere. Sure it helps that the staff does not wear pieces of flare (sp?) but the food is still below mediocre and I'm just not into chain restaurant food.
But now I'm convinced that the staff's collective IQ is below my shoe size.
I was meeting some people last Saturday at the Friday's on East Broadway, and a few days later I notice that my black leather folder is missing. The folder contains my calendar, which is not as big a loss since I remember everything anyway, and also my bitchin pen that parilous and sleepvoid gave me.
I checked everywhere for this folder. I tore my house and my office upside down. Couldn't find it. I thought that it might be at Friday's, but if it was there someone would have called me. After all, my business card is in the window of the folder on the inside, and there are another 20 of my cards in the folder too. Anyone who found the folder should easily deduce that it belongs to me.
So I call them yesterday afternoon and mention that I think I left my black leather folder there. The person who answers the phone asks me "Are you an attorney?" Given the circumstances, it is safe to say that the question was spurred by the fact that the business cards in the folder said "Attorney at Law".
I just went to pick it up, and when they handed it to me I showed them the card in the window on the inside, and noted for them that this means the folder belongs to me. The look I got was one of pure cluelessness.
So don't leave anything at Friday's, and if you do, take the initiative to call them to find your item.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, September 19th, 2004
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7:20 am - Hurricane in Tucson?
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Tucson is getting hit by Hurricane Javier this weekend! It's fantastic, as we were drastically below average rainfall for the summer until now.
Floridians may flame me now...
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(5 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, September 13th, 2004
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9:16 pm - dead PC
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Wednesday night I came home and my PC was on but I couldn't get the monitor out of power-save. I was left with no choice but a reset. A few resets later, still no change with the display.
Swapped out monitors and still no change. Now, the PC doesn't even beep as it starts out. mccalix couldn't figure it out either. Prolly the motherboard.
Oh well. I said I was going to get a new PC this year anyway.
Anyone have a recommendation for a PC? If I'm going to buy a name brand I'll go with Dell, but if there are any good clone-shops in Tucson then I'll throw some business toward them.
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, September 11th, 2004
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9:52 am - Not exactly a SLAVE to the meme...
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but it's a good meme so I'll run with it.
I want anyone and EVERYONE who reads this to post in here something they would like to do with me someday.
Then post this in your journal (or don't, if you truly detest these memes) to find out what people want to do with you.
current mood:  peaceful
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(14 comments | comment on this)
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Saturday, July 31st, 2004
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3:12 pm - movie recommendations
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I haven't updated in a long time, and I've seen a bunch of movies lately, so I wanted to pass along some recommendations:
Your life is incomplete until you see the following films:
Limbo
Return of the Secaucus Seven
MASH
City of God
In America
Big Fish
Secondhand Lions
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Believer
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
American Splendor
I recommend the following but your lives don't depend on it:
Clockers
Anger Management
25th Hour
The Englishman who went up a Hill but came down a Mountain
Little Big Man
The Italian Job
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
The Good Thief
Blow Up
Harry Potter movies
Lord of the Rings
These were OK movies but overrated
Mystic River
21 Grams
These were crap
Thirteen
Three Kings
The Score
Amores Perros
Windtalkers
And a special award for making the Ten Worst Films Ever Made goes to Tarantino for Kill Bill: Volume 1. I understand why some of you recommended this movie, but from now on these people will have to qualify their movie recommendations with "and you can believe me because this movie does not have kung fu hot chicks."
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(3 comments | comment on this)
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Friday, June 25th, 2004
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6:38 pm - Baby's first TV appearance
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KVOA news wouldn't let me do an interview last month holding reasonbaby, but today Stefan got to be on KGUN evening news for the press conference we did announcing the beginnings of the recall drive on half the city council.
Way to go Babeeeee!
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Monday, June 21st, 2004
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9:15 pm - Arizona libertarians having fun at SpaceShipOne flight
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Michael Kielsky posted a bunch of pics from the space launch - Ernie Hancock just called and the Arizona libertarian crew is back home in Phoenix now. Needless to say, they had quite an enjoyable day today.
The WLA website www.westernlibertarian.org has not been updated yet, but photos below have been uploaded.
Michael's messages from just now:
---
Photos:
New Astronaut Mike Melvill holding Powell Gammill's & Ernest Hancock's sign:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/spaceshipone/success.jpg
The following are extremely large (about 1 MB, still have to be resized for the web, click link at your own peril).
( Read more... )
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10:16 am - Happy Fathers Day to me
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Yesterday was a great first Father's Day for me.
reasonbaby slept away much of the morning while I watched The Return of the King. Then my parents came over, and they helped me trim the dead branches off our boganvilla bush. And Stefan slept in grandma's arms for almost 2 hours while I took a dip in the pool and relaxed to watch the rest of Band of Brothers on the history channel.
My mother cooked scallops for dinner. I love scallops, but because I live in the desert and they are expensive here I don't eat them too often. The last time I had scallops was in New England last winter/spring.
Stefan was five months old yesterday. He is maturing quite nicely. He can still be quite difficult at night, but he's quite happy throughout the day. He's almost crawling, but he has no problem sitting up and entertaining himself with his toys. And as Uncle Kevin says, he continues to get cuter every day.
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(comment on this)
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Friday, June 4th, 2004
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6:56 am - Good Morning WHAT?!?
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It's 6:52 AM Arizona time. I look at the local morning news on KGUN-9 (ABC affiliate) and they sent a roving reporter to the Big Apple to catch the premiere of the Harry Potter movie. If that alone isn't mistake enough (no reflection on the film - this station doesn't have an unlimited budget for travel junkets), the starstruck reporter flags down Daniel whatshisname who plays Harry for a 20 second interview.
REPORTER: "We first met when the first Harry Potter movie came out."
DANIEL: [blank look]
REPORTER: "Can you say Good Morning Tucson Arizona?"
DANIEL: "Say Good Morning WHAT?!?"
Hopefully that will serve to pop a few ego bubbles.
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(comment on this)
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Tuesday, May 25th, 2004
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10:13 am - going to Atlanta for a week
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I'll be getting on the red-eye tonight and heading to Atlanta for 6 days. Will return Monday night. Looking forward to seeing some of you there.
This will be my first time away from reasonbaby, even for one night, much less six nights. I hope he doesn't miss me too much - I know I'll miss him. And Jess too - but we've been apart for a week in the past and we can handle it a lot better than a baby can.
It's sad to know that I'll probably miss at least one developmental milestone while I'm gone. Jess said that yesterday Stefan was looking in the bathroom mirror, and he put his hand on the mirror and realized it was his reflection. And then he put his hand around the side of the mirror, trying to figure out where the image was being generated. I'll have to try that out with him today while I'm home and see if he will do it for me too.
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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bouncy
amused
