Monthly Archive for May, 2007

Page 3 of 14

I Gots a Theme Song, I Gots a Theme Song


Dude, dude, so listen up dog, I got a theme song (opens .pdf) check this out. I found cello (!) music for a song called “Going Like Sixty”

Unfortunately, as Simon Cowell would say, “it’s dreadful.”  If you want to listen to a 60 second sample there is a link below.  About at :55 it sounds like it has possiblities.  I would order it, but it’s on backorder. It’s a track on the David Gunn Somewhere East of Topeka CD. I doubt that they will be going back into production soon so I didn’t order it.

3. Going like sixty Real AudioReal Audio Windows MediaWindows Media
Composer David Gunn
Ensemble Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble
Country USA

Mushy if you stop by, maybe you have the blues version :-)

I wish it was by this David Gunn.

Until you make it to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, at 108 Orchard St. (below Delancey), console yourself with the museum’s new CD, Folk Songs for the Five Points, a collection of experimental music capturing the sounds, and the spirit, of one of New York’s oldest and most culturally diverse neighborhoods. The album was created from audio fragments caught on location in the Lower East Side and remixed by cross-disciplinary artist David Gunn.

from Ambience Chasers (love that post title) at Impractical Proposals.

Back to the cello part of “Going Like Sixty” I always loved the parts where you get to rest the first ten bars. You can always let pick up the count from some other player if you aren’t paying strict attention when the downbeat starts.  Plus I only can read bass clef, and it’s cool that cellos are bass clef.  Didn’t know that.

I  played the baritone in high school because the band director needed baritones.  I should have played something cool like the trumpet or trombone.  Didn’t matter because when marching season came, I tried out and was made the drum major so I didn’t have to play a damn thing – just a whistle.

Gas is Higher, Let’s Run All Over Using Coupons

I forgot in my previous post, that I also am one of those guys that can’t resist coupons for free stuff. Not BOGO, but totally FREE.

About that headline on my post? Chalk this up to entertainment expense, not saving money.

Today I cashed out my stash of coupons for free stuff.

Here’s my haul:

  • 24 twenty oz bottles of Coke
  • 3 two liter bottler of 7up
  • 1 1.5 bottle of Lipton diet tea

Kroger charged me tax (OK because it says so on the coupon.)  USA Today on Friday had a coupon for Free Regular Coke AND Free Coke Zero.  After twice having to explain that it wasn’t BOGO, I started mentioning it before they rang it up wrong.  The coupons expire in December, so I also invested in an inventory of Friday, May 25, 2007 USA Today.

On Saturday mornings, my time is worth nothing, the USAT’s cost 75 cents to get Cokes worth $2.60.

Of course I didn’t count the lebenty leben dollars in gas running all over this end of town!

As an aside? I don’t think Coke Zero is gonna make it. 1. have to give two products away to get people to try one, and 2. three of the four convenience stores I went into didn’t carry it (only one refused the coupon, the others substituted.)

Are You One of Those People

I have turned into one of those people.

  • …can’t instantly recall a common fact or name.
  • …grunts when getting up from a chair.
  • …takes ibuprofen before golf and at the turn.
  • …often repeats himself
  • …believes that married people are generally happier.
  • …walks with a slight limp.
  • …doesn’t really understand or like today’s music.
  • …sometimes goes to bed at 9 p.m.
  • …can’t remember where he read or heard a fact.
  • …often repeats himself

If man is to attain the happiness and rationality which philosphers and reformers have been constantly dreaming there must algo be an understanding of the laws which govern man himself, laws quite as constant as those of physics and chemistry.

I Hate CAPTCHAS, but This Use Sounds Great

Did you know that CAPTCHA actually is an acronymn and not just a clever name for those stupid letters and numbers you have to type to be verified that you are human-like?


I personally hate those things. I can’t tell the difference between O/0 and 1/ l and others. So I end up getting an error, which usually clears my password, and I enter the new CAPTCHA and forget the password, so it takes me three times to post.

BUT, this is cool. The nerd that thought up CAPTCHAS wants to make amends. He wants to capture the time we all waste and use it to digitize books! Now how cool is that? Somebody actually thought about that and realized that perhaps something good could come from something irritating.

Researchers estimate that about 60 million of those nonsensical jumbles are solved everyday around the world, taking an average of about 10 seconds each to decipher and type in.

Instead of wasting time typing in random letters and numbers, Carnegie Mellon researchers have come up with a way for people to type in snippets of books to put their time to good use, confirm they’re not machines and help speed up the process of getting searchable texts online.

“Humanity is wasting 150,000 hours every day on these,” said Luis von Ahn, an assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon.

Yeah, I’m up for that! Instead of an irritant, it would be my contribution to the gentrification of the blogosphere.

A Fake Newspaper Will Get Me Everytime

I’m a sucker for the stuff on the web where you can personalize it and a story is made up – in this case a fake newspaper front page.  I got one today who thoughtfully didn’t use any real names.

One of the stories:

Renowned physiotherapist, Sandy Pants, has just published a must read how-to book. The book is called “Hey Ladies, Relax!” and is full of tips and tricks to help the busy woman of today slow down the pace. Juggling the role expectations of career, motherhood, wife, companion, leather-clad dominatrix can be exhausting. Many of the calming activities revolve around deep breathing and bathing because of water’s therapeutic properties. Pants suggests soaking in the tub with a yellow rubber ducky or any other warm, comfortable toy.

the rest… 

Of course it’s got some links so you can make one yourself

I’m so easy to entertain, aren’t I?