Happy Birthday Olivier

The OrangeCoat guys beat me to it but now that I am informed I feel like I own my happy birthday wishes to Olivier as well.  So, Happy Birthday dude!

Olivier is quite a blogger.  Check out The Brand Builder and The New World of oOo!

Other things going on this day?  It is Europe Day throughout the EU.  On this date in 1950 L. Ron Hubbard published “Dianetics: The Modern Science on Mental Health” which is a big part of the whole Scientology belief system (if you’re into that shit and all).  And Sharing a birthday with Olivier we’ve got Mike Wallace, Richard Adams, Albert Finney, James L. Brooks, John Ashcroft, Billy Joel, and Ghostface Killah.

Be A Man! Obtain these skills!

Evan pointed me to Esquire’s list of 75 skills every man should possess this morning.  Pretty good stuff and I am please to say that I think I score well on the list.  I have some more recommended skills which, while not all are vital to manliness, certainly won’t hurt you in the long run.

• The ability to remain calm and take charge in case of a zombie outbreak.
• A deep resentment, if not utter loathing, for self aware robots.
• The ability to remove a beer bottle cap with your wedding ring, belt buckle, and/or eye socket (this one is for you Wes Tucker).
• Besides being able to cook bacon, one should have an undying and unconditional love of the salty pork flesh.  This means even as you go into cardiac arrest due to all the bacon drippings you’ve consumed in your life you still desire to have a greasy bacon cheeseburger.
• The know how to head-butt somebody like you mean it. Think Zinedine Zidane!
• A deep respect for (and secret longing to be) either a cowboy, a ninja, a pirate, a space ranger, or all of the above.
• One secret nerdy obsession that, regardless of how tough and manly you might be, you just can’t help geeking out to every once and awhile (personally I think the fact that I have several nerdy obsessions and most are not all that secret is really affecting my optimal manly performance — that and my damnable lack of awesome facial hair).
• Upholding the grammatical acceptance of irregardless, irregardless of the fact that regardless is the more proper English term.
• Ending an argument by telling somebody that their “face is stupid.”  (Then head-butting them in the chest just for good measure).
• Along the same lines as the last one (but different).  Accepting an honorable defeat.  Sometimes you just can’t win and in such situations don’t be an ass or a poor loser just accept defeat, shake hands, and get on with life.
• Be able to attend a generally unmanly event or activity and don’t let it bother you and or challenge your sense of manliness.  This one should have been a given on the Esquire list.  There are hundreds of places where this can come in handy and, in the long run, really impress the ladies.
• Come to grips with mortality and fear of death.  I say this in all earnestness and not to be morbid or a downer.  Everybody is going to die someday and this can be a very frightful thought.  Every once and awhile, not all too often, remind yourself of your mortality and accept it.  Mortality isn’t something you are going to change.  Don’t let it bring you down.  Just let it be a reality.  Once you’ve done this (I’d say maybe once every week or every other week) go and enjoy life a little bit more knowing that it is what you’ve and it’s finite.

I think that is all I got for now.  Throw me anything y’all out there have too.

Note: I don’t add to the Esquire list or enjoy it because I am a chauvinist in any way.  Some of the things on the list can be considered just general skills for well rounded people regardless (irregardless) of gender.  Women likely also would be able to make up a pretty good list for there own gender.  There is nothing wrong with being either manly or womanly as long as you aren’t a sexist in the process.  Realizing that is part of being a well rounded person.

Moms

An awesome Time Magazine tribute to the worst and best mothers.

Steampunk

Subcultures or fringe styles are nothing new.  You had the beats in the ’50s, hippies in the ’60s and early ’70s, then came punk, and goth, and emo and a whole slew of other self categorization of social commonality.  According to this New Times article today the newest on the list is steampunk a strange style that mixes an Edwardian/Victorian feel with a fascination in technology all decked out in brushed brass.  Strange?  Yes, a bit, but then again what isn’t strange these days?  I read a book a few years ago that I assume would fall into the steampunk genre, it was called “Fitzpatrick’s War” by Theodore Judson.  It was a pretty cool book. I think my favorite thing  about steampunk might be zeppelins and dirigibles.  Honestly, was it just the stupid Hindenburg accident (and the fact that they used super flammable paint and hydrogen gas — idiots) that ruined the whole zeppelin thing?  Fuck that shit!  I want to start The Glorious Society for the Re-Deployment of Airships, Zeppelins, and Dirigibles.  Man it’ll be awesome, we can wear goggles!

Yak!

Have you ever considered that your highest existential calling may be to hold a large tree branch up to your head and run around telling people that you are some type of ungulate?

 

The $15 bottle or $55 bottle?

While wine is undoubtedly the first alcohol I ever consumed it has really only been over the course of this past year that I have taken up drinking it regularly and developing an appreciation for the complex tastes that can come from the bottles (I credit a lot of this to 1). Natalia, who has a much better taste for wine than I do and 2).  Sassafras and it’s half off bottles on Wednesday night — which is tonight btw if anybody is interested).  Still I am no where even remotely close to being a wine expert or even claiming to be any good at distinguishing brand subtleties.  Sure I’ve had some glasses of wine where I just cringe and others that are absolutely pleasing but all and all I have a basic idea of what I like and tend to try and stick with it.  All around a big deciding factor for me when purchasing a bottle of wine is the price tag.  Not being made of tons of money I am more than willing to settle for less expansive bottle such as a Yellow Tail or an Alice White (both Australian brands).  Not having invested in a real pricey bottle (I suppose one of the half off bottles at Sassafras may have been upward of $50 once — full price — but restaurants mark up anyway) I cannot say if the more expensive stuff is really any better than my $12 bottle, and I probably wouldn’t even be able to tell even if presented with an expensive wine.  So that is why Eric Asimov’s article in The New York Times today interests me.  Sure it makes sense that somebody who has made a living of comparing the subtle differences in wine flavors will likely prefer the more expensive bottles (which we can hope are higher priced at least partially due to superior quality) but it is also interesting how cost can actually cause a psychological reaction in which we are bound to assume something is better even if it might be not be any different.  This kind of reminds me of how Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (I’m pretty certain it was he who said something like this) explained why he charged such amounts for his Transcendental Meditation classes.  If we don’t feel like we are paying for something then we are often skeptical about its value and/or quality.  Personally when it comes to wine I am pretty pleased if it doesn’t taste bad and gives me a bit of that heady happiness after a couple of glasses.

When Aquariums Compete . . .

. . . You get more water! 

By the way, I think aquariums are awesome and would love to go check out “The World’s Largest” one in Atlanta someday.  Meg said they have whale-sharks there!

Clouds

How not to handle your child’s inquiry . . .

 

Monotone theme seems pretty cool

After WordPress updated to its most recent version I had a number of complaints.  things like spell check (since fixed), script errors, and file uploads and manipulation.  But all and all I still like the blogging features of WordPress and to cut them a break (mostly in the hope that they — the developers behind WordPress — won’t suddenly decide to destroy my blogs out of spite) I’ve decided to compliment them on the new theme Monotone. I don’t photo blog (though I do sometime upload images) but this seems like a really cool way to display images for those people who are interested in photo blogging.  Good job WordPress, I highly approve of this, keep up the innovations (an please make moving images around while writing a post easier — thanks).

The Brass Section

I was just letting my computer stream some music off of my library this morning (almost all new stuff that I’ve added to my collection from almost all newer artists or at least newly released songs) and was really pleased to hear brass instruments present in a number of the songs.  All around I have felt that there is an unfortunate lack of brass instrumentation in music besides in jazz, and big band, and orchestra.  But rock and indie seem to be a little slow on the uptake (though this could possibly just be a personal opinion in my ignorance).  One band that has been around but is awesome for its choice of brass usage is Bruce Springsteen and the East Street Band.  Old school, I know, but fucking awesome.  But listening to my music this morning gave me some hope that maybe brass and its great sound is coming back in style and will start making a much more regular appearance over the next couple of years.