Now that I have closed on a house, what am I going to do?
I’m going to Disney Land!
Back Home
Based on the last posting, some of you have figured out that I’m back from my vacation in The Big Sandboxâ„¢. Next up is a real vacation to Mexico with The Wife and some fun in the sun.
Where the sand has OCEAN to go with it. Makes a huge difference, I tell ya.
Bizarre Vendors
I got up around 9 a.m. today. After puttering around a bit, I collected up some AAFES pogs and headed over to the Green Beans. A bazaar was going on in the middle of the “mini mall” area. The vendors started calling as I walked through the place. “Mista!  Mista!” I resisted the catcalls and the urge to blurt out rude Arabic. Instead, I went into the Green Beans coffee shop.
Head Games
“So how are you?†asked the email. “Haven’t heard from you in a while.â€
It’s one of the inevitably simple things that takes you by surprise, much like a grenade. Very simple. Heat applied to combustible material . Too easy. But the ramifications of pulling the pin, well, that’s not so simple.
Social Computing
Once upon a time, I had a plug-in for Winamp that did something I thought was insanely cool. While I listened to the music, it would make a webpage of the last bunch of songs that I had finished listening to that was nice and neat. Periodically, I could update my website with this page, and had a link that said something to the effect of “click here to check out what I am listening to.” Once the user clicked, they were taken to the oh-so-cute page of music listings. It was one little way that I could say to the world, or whomever was at my site, “hey, check out some of what I have! Maybe some of it will be interesting to you!”
Homophily and Serendipity
By way of Language Log, I came across the UnSuggester at LibraryThings. I now have a new way to waste away hours of my life on the internet.
The idea is that the user enters in the title of a book, and the UnSuggester will offer up anti-books, which are the polar opposite books. Interesting idea: not just the Amazon suggestions of “hey, other people spent their money on these titles, too,†but “hey, you should really avoid these.†But why bother with that? Well, homophily, that’s why.
The Spirits of Rava and Abaye
A few weeks ago, right after Purim, we had the parsha of Ki Tisa, which I particularly enjoy. This parsha was supposed to be my oldest daughter’s since this is the weekend that we originally scheduled for her Bat Mitzvah. However, deployment came, we changed plans, extension came, we changed plans again, and here we still are. In a sense, life parallels the parsha: while I have the orders, everyone has to pay a price, some price, as a result. And it isn’t fair to say I or any of my family bears the burden heavier, since in the end we all pay the same price of separation, daily difficulties, and interruption of our lives. We get a subtle reminder of that with the prohibition with directly counting the members of the tribe: to start with one point or another might lead to the mistake of thinking that one is more important than another. That is simply not the case, all are equal in merit and all will be noted in time.
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Four More
Four more years! Four more years! Wait, wrong slogan. Sorry about that. I mean, four more months! Four more months!
Well, it looks like we have extended period of fun and will be going into extra innings. Our unit is one of the ones that are being extended in theater, so we get to stay another 125 days here in country. Of all the brigades in theater, ours is the only National Guard brigade, and the only full brigade extended. There are some are some Marine battalions that are also extended, but they are only looking at 60 to 90 days of extra time. Not us. We’re in it to win it. In for the long haul.
Actually, if we are here any longer, it will be a permanent change of station for us. I should start looking into housing costs for the local villages. Something nice I could move my family into. It seems like that is the only way I am going to see them again. That or wait for Representative Rangel’s proposed bill to draft men and women up to the age of 42 pass the legislature, have my wife drafted, and maybe see if she can be sent here for a tour. Work with me, folks; we’re going to have to get creative with this.
So, leaving aside any discussion about whether or not the surge will work, I’ll stick to how we came to find out. The same way as the rest of the world: by Yahoo News.
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Six More Months Of Extension
Today, on Groundhog Day, the commander came out and saw his shadow this morning. This will mean six more months of deployment in Iraq.
In Which I Have My Cake
And I was wandering the Interweb and tripped across this particular post from the blog Freelance Genius. I forget what I was looking for, but the irony (and motivation for this writing) is that I was listening to Cake at the time.
Now, to cut to the chase, I disagree with the author’s premise, which is a sarcastic send up that sums to Cake sucks and always sounds the same. Taking a sample from different albums, can that really be said about “Comfort Eagle,” “Jolene,” “Stickshifts and Safetybelts,” “Pretty Pink Ribbon,” and “Sheep Go To Heaven”? Oh, wait, your perception came from what is played on commercial radio? I’m sorry, but I refuse to take that seriously.
There is a development that happens across the albums from Cake, from first to last. Is there repetition? Just enough to make up what is a voice, not a tired shrill gnash like the rest of the Freelance Genius blog is. We all have that characteristic trait, or constellation of traits, that gives identity. That alone does not make for regurgitative nonsense, unlike the critic in question. There is enough to give comfort and familiarity, and more than enough playful diversity to give a refreshing awakening to the music.
Personally, I happen to like Cake. There is a question of personal memories which I associate with that music. I remember Number One in the On-Air Studio doing a show and dedicating “Comfort Eagle” to me, this being an inside joke on us both overusing the word dude. There is Number Two playing “Sheep Go To Heaven” over and over in the living room after we picked up that particular album at a Goodwill store shopping for clothes. And I even remember getting the first album, having it played in the car and me playing Name That Tune, or at least Guess The Artist, with songs that I had never heard until “The Distance” was played.
So I like Cake. Freelance Genius does not. And that difference is what makes the world go around.