Monday's Music (as promised)

I have been really spending too much time thinking about this music video project. There is so much music that I really love, so many different artists and genres of music. I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Waits, Mala Rodriguez, Sarah Mclachlan, Nirvana, Marco Antonio Solis, Reggae, Top 40 (rock and Latin), indie, bossa nova... a lot of stuff; anything that talks to me when I listen to it... you know the ones. As a general rule, however, I am not a Country Music fan but there are a couple of notable exceptions. I like Greg Brown and even though I think that he is more Folk sounding than anything else he is considered Country. There are a couple of others and while I don't want to make this into a Country Music Monday thing, I do want to add one singer who I think is probably not that well known outside of serious Country fans.
Don Williams is a singer that my father used to listen to and I have loved his music for as long as I can remember. I still think that he leans a little to the folk side of things; his music has more of a lullaby quality than any twang to it.
I still like the idea of two songs, and that may be the way I do this always.

We've Got a Good Fire Going. This song really captures the 'easy to listen to' quality of his voice.


Wow, as I try to decide what video to put up next I am really taken by just how much I really LOVE this guy. I don't listen to him ever (like I said... Country) but I am having a really hard time deciding what to put on for a second song. Here is a short list of must listen to songs of his:

• If You Could Read My Mind
• Another Time, Another Place
• Lord, I Hope This Day is Good
• I Believe In You
  

I don't know what to add, just listen to them all; but here is number two anyway:

Good Ole Boys Like Me


Enjoy
me

And this is why...

Do moms ever get to call it babysitting, when they watch their own kids? A lot of dads do, and always as if it is a special sort of sacrifice. Babysitting is not the same as 'watching your kids'. You can babysit while doing very little watching.

Well, yesterday I was 'babysitting' Gabe. You will agree that it was babysitting - and this is why:

We had this Halloween paint high in a cabinet in the bathroom. He is learning to pee in a toilet (and doing a very good job) and he is at a stage right now where he will go in and try to pee every couple of minutes because he gets a lot of praise for peeing in the potty. So I was letting him go into the bathroom on his own quite a bit. When I went in to check on him he was standing on the counter next to the sink. You can see what a great kid he is, now see if you can count how many surfaces have face paint on them.

On the topic of babysitters not keeping an eye on the kids - When I was a little bit bigger than Gabe is now my dad was remodeling a room in the basement of the house we lived in. I saw him use hammers, saws, nails - everything. He knocked down a wall and was combining two rooms into one. Well, about that time he and my mom went out and left us with a babysitter. I went into my room with a hammer and knocked a single hole in the wall. It was one hole that extended the length of the entire wall around the room at the height of a four year old. When my parents arrived home the babysitter didn't even know I had done it.

I sure do love Gabe, but I am glad that the most we do around the house is decorate for holidays and no major repair work that he could try to replicate on his own. ^_~

me

Oh, and by the way, Gabe was a vampire for Halloween so he had a white face with black around the eyes and red on the mouth. I think that he did a really good job trying to copy that idea. It looks like he is sucking boogers and not blood this time though. LOL.

Four day forecast

Well, these might not be my plans alone:

• Saturday: homework.
• Sunday: the most important event Sunday is the Cardinals game. You didn't know that Arizona has a professional football team, did you? Well, it is something the state has only very recently acquired. Hopefully this new franchise stays there for a while instead of going back to its regular comedy routine.
• Monday: another holiday (and you thought all that was over) - Martin Luther King, Jr Day.
• Tuesday: The Obama Inauguration. If it is an indication of the changes that we all voted for we may have some dark days ahead (no pun intended): Obama's Inauguration will be making history in more than one way - it will be the most expensive ever. It is worth noting however that this does at least follow recent history. For example, this from four years ago: With an estimated price tag of $40m, the three-day celebration that is President Bush's second inauguration will be the most expensive ever. Way to make a change! In case you are making assumptions about my political leanings with this little rant, you are probably wrong. That said, i really don't like this sort of D.C. decadence while the rest of us are all having to tighten our belts.

Go Cardinals!

...please, don't go away...

From Greg Brown's, "Ring Around the Moon":

...Love, she always passes lightly and away,
Or like a lioness gets restless when she comes to stay.
And there's a ring around the moon; long, long time 'til day,
Play me one more tune; please don't go away...

Please, don't go away....

me

Something new

I know that this blog is painfully devoid of images and I imagine that the text blitz can be a little hard to deal with at times. The truth be told, I blog to write. So there. But, I have been thinking about doing a couple of small things to help with that. Here is what I have come up with: I am going to start featuring a music video (maybe every Monday) ala Youtube of some of the music that I dig or that moves me. Hopefully music is a universal enough language to work for everybody because many of the songs that I will feature are not in English.
How about a double feature to start?
Greg Brown
The Greg Brown song that I wanted to share is "Ring Around the Moon." I couldn't find it in a format I can share. Here is a different song, not quite as good, but still a great artist:

Hey Baby, Hey


Blue Car


Good night. If I love you, I love you (and it's on you to know).
me

Another Resolution

I realize that I have been blogging a lot lately. I have been under a little stress and this is a great distraction. Also, just the act of writing helps me find some organization in my mind. I woke up this morning thinking that I have been too nostalgic and too philosophical lately. I have my reasons for that but I want to avoid that. I don't want to lose what I have in my life in the present because I focused too much energy on nostalgia or the past.
I love the past and I try hard to be grateful for it but I live in the present and living in the present is my new resolution. Memories are valuable; when we are old and most of our life is behind us, memories are all that will substantiate us. Unfortunately, so often what we remember and what is real are two different things and unless we actually stay in touch or at least keep tabs on other people we end up remembering something that only exists in the present like a dream. Memories can turn into labels; the problem with labels is that they tend to misrepresent everything that they are attached to by reducing dynamic, 3D, living, changing objects to what is on the label. How surprised are parents when they find out that their child's recalled toys are more than what is just on the labels? The same can happen in our dealings with people when those dealings are built on past realities and often misguided assumptions.
It is a much more sure path to live unassumingly in the present with neither the neglect that comes from procrastination nor the neglect that comes from always brooding over or memorializing what used to be. This is part of my reason for blogging, you see, I am terrible at staying in touch and this helps me feel a little more in touch some of the time.

So, what is going on now?

• I went to the Grizzlies/Cavaliers game last night with my friend and roommate from my semester in Costa Rica, Gary. I had a really good time. My wife dropped me off and went shopping for a few hours and afterwards we couldn't find each other so I had to stand around outside for several very cold minutes but it all worked out in the end.
• My son is sick. I took him to the doctor yesterday and then found myself rushing to get to some meetings that I had to be at for work so I left quite a bit of the stuff that I needed to take home. The doctor said that it is nothing serious and that he can still go to daycare this week.
• I go back to school tomorrow. I am not really looking forward to it at all. Let me repeat that: not ... at all! I think that it has been causing me a little bit of stress. I start teaching at the University on Friday. I really need to look over some things to get more prepared.

Well, I need to go. I have a lot of work to do.

me

Bad Sleep Habits...

Keep me awake until 2:09 am on my blog.
me

A poem in English

Becky asked for English. I think that this captures one part of the meaning from Rima XXX.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

--Robert Frost

poemas

Con cada vez que te veo
nueva admiración me das,
y cuando te miro más
aun más mirarte deseo.
Ojos hidrópicos creo
que mis ojos deben ser;
pues cuando es muerte el beber,
beben más, y desta suerte,
viendo que el ver me da muerte,
estoy muriendo por ver.
Pero véate yo y muera;
que no sé, rendido ya,
si el verte muerte me da,
el no verte qué me diera.
--Segismundo en La vida es sueño escrito por Pedro Calderón de la Barca

RIMA XXX
Asomaba a sus ojos una lágrima
y a mis labios una frase de perdón...
habló el orgullo y se enjugó su llanto,
y la frase en mis labios expiró.
Yo voy por un camino, ella por otro;
pero al pensar en nuestro mutuo amor,
yo digo aún: "¿Por qué callé aquél día?"
y ella dirá. "¿Por qué no lloré yo?"
--Gustavo Adolfo Becquer

I love it!

Okay, I looked at a lot of 'Single Ladies' parodies and I decided that it is a VERY good thing that I am not doing this. It would be quite an accomplishment, perhaps a lot of fun, but I would cease being a man. Really. But Justin does a GREAT job.

New Year’s Resolutions

• Things that I will try to accomplish:
  
  
  • I want to complete the Memphis Runners Track Club 2009 Road Race Series. A note about this: already my right ankle is starting to hurt just thinking about this. I think of myself as a runner more than anything else and after all that other debate in my earlier post about what phys. ed. class to take I signed up for a running class that was offered at the same time as the swimming class. (I know, what could be more boring, right? But it fits better with my schedule and with my goals this year.)
    
  • More greens in the garden.
    
  • Fewer tubers.
    
  • More legumes.
    
  • Lots of peppers.
    
• Things that I will not try to accomplish:
  
  
  • I will not try to climb Mt. Everest or any of the other giant mountains. If I do this and later blog about it, you all have permission to call me on this.
    
  • I will not personally study Mars. I will make no attempts to travel there and I will not try to map the surface of the Red Planet with robots or anything else. The same goes for all the other planets as well.
    
  • I will not hunt any penguins. If I do, I will do it in their element, mano a mano. You can't really call hunting penguins 'hunting' if you do it on the land. If (not when) I try this, it will be in the water with nothing but the tools God gave me. Penguins, you are safe. But if God is reading this and decides to equip me with the tools of a seal or an orca, watch out. You have been warned and your cute won't count at that point.
    
  • I don't plan on selling my art. Yep, I have art. Another, perhaps more accurate way of framing this "Thou shall not" goal is: I don't plan on selling my one and only piece of art. Just one. It is very nicely framed and it adorns a wall in my kitchen. Sorry people, not this year, but don't give up hope. When that pear goes up for auction, I will let you all know. And, just in case there is any doubt, you do want it. It is not 'very good'; it is perfect.
    
  • And despite how much others have begged me on this, I will not bring to pass world peace this year. Or end world hunger. Or save the whales. I will work on ending my own hunger this year and I hope for peace in my marriage (so far, so good). But you whales, I got nothing for you but this advice: duck and weave – in that order. If that doesn't work you might want to have your will already written. Sorry.
    
• Things that I would like to see others accomplish:
  
  
• Becky is trying to leave me, and I wish her luck. (Lucky thing for proof reading, because I accidentally wrote "I wish her lick." That is for a different list altogether, not here by any means. Luck, Becky, I wish you lick... I mean luck. Doh, I did again. Dang it!) She wants to move to Oakland. She has been looking for work there and she has started filling out applications for work there. If she gets a job she will take Gabe and Rosco and live in a box in a Bay Area back alley. All those homeless people in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are all public school teachers from the area.
  
• Becky is planning on taking a group of students to Italy and Spain this summer.
• President Elect Obama said he is planning on closing Guantanamo Bay when he is in office because of allegations of torture there. I say, why stop there? What I would like to see is the closing of all of west Texas. Anybody who has driven through there know that that whole place is torture. I would quote local residents, but nobody actually lives in west Texas. B.O., do us all this favor, please.
• Talking about Texas brings me to this point: Texas, California, China, and Russia are all too big. I would like to see California split into three states: Northern California starting at Fresno and going north, the obvious Southern California would include Bakersfield and stretch to the border with Mexico, and in a move that is inspired by Michigan with its Upper Peninsula I think that LA and the Bay Area would be a good third state. Texas should be split into as many other states as possible with the only stipulations being that these new states are no bigger than Ohio and no smaller than Virginia. The only notable exception should be the area of the King Ranch which should become an autonomous nation. China and Russia should work on plans similar to the Texas plan. I don't know who can do these but, boy, would that bring change.
  
• Things that I think would be SUPER cool to do… if I was somebody else.
  
  
  • I floated the idea around of mastering Beyonce's Single Ladies dance. There are things that I would love to do – be able to dance is one of them. You see, I am not a dancer. I can confidently answer The Killers "Are we human, or are we dancer?" question with a loud HUMAN. I love wiggling to the music but none of what I am capable of really qualifies as dancing by any stretch of the imagination. I started to think about the number of hours I would have to spend to learn this, and then when would I show anybody what I had accomplished? Sorry, I am leaving this one for Napoleon Dynamite, or maybe my friend Eve. Are you listening Eve? Now you know.
    

And now you know.

I will update periodically as I come up with other goals. Your suggestions are welcome here.

Thanks,

me

Becky's New Hair

Okay, sorry for the little dry spell. I know that I owe a few posts that I have mentioned in here and I promise that they are already in the works in my drafts. I just wanted to follow up on two blog posts that Becky made on her blog. Her first post is "Great Stylist" and her second post is "My Hair." Feel free to check both of those out, the first tells how I cut her hair and the second has some pictures of the haircut. As I wrote in the comments on her blog - I was super nervous and shaking. But to save the money that she spends on a haircut, I figured that I would go forward with it. It is not the first time that ever cut hair (I cut my own hair and I have cut my brothers' and Dad's hair in the past as well as several room mates) but it is the first girl's haircut I have ever done. I was super nervous but she has received tons of praise.

She wants it shorter but i really like it right now. I will post again if I change it. I am going to copy the images that she put on her blog and below I will put the pictures (all of hot Pink) that I used as the inspiration for the haircut. (She let me cut it AND let me find the pictures to inspire the cut).

Her haircut (I took the photos really early this morning. I know that you were thinking they were professionally done... ;)

And my inspiration for her haircut:

Do you like the do?

I do.

me

This is how much I suffer

For weeks I have been struggling with this decision - Should I take Yoga, swimming, or weight lifting this semester?
I signed up for all three of these as soon as I could register in October. As a graduate student, I can sign up for classes before anybody else on campus can. I don't really understand the need for this because there is not really that much demand for graduate courses. You have to be a graduate student in the department (whatever department it may be) to even sign up for the graduate courses offered. So anyway, as a Graduate Assistant, I am required to take twelve credit hours each semester (nine is full time) but graduate students can take up to fifteen hours without applying for an overload waiver. To me that means that I can take one free course (okay, technically the University pays for all my courses as a GA, but you know what I mean). This is where the phys. ed. classes that I signed up for come in. I only have room in my schedule for one of them but these classes always fill up so I signed up for three so that I could have some options. I wanted to see what materials were going to be required, would there be a fee, and how any of these classes fit with my schedule.
Honestly, this has been a tough decision for me to make because I would be happy to take all of them.

The pros of each class:

• Yoga: I just got done with a Yoga class and I own the book already.
• Weight Lifting: Let's just say that I get along just fine with the free weights. Of the three options, this would be my favorite.
• Swimming: This poses the least amount of possible conflict with the other courses that I actually need to take. Also, I really dig any activity that can (justifiably) be done almost naked. (And trust me, I am really good at justifying.)

The cons:

• Y: While I really enjoy Yoga, this class has the most inconvenient schedule of these three.
• WL: Not as problematic as the Yoga class, but still not an ideal schedule. Also, I would have to buy two books. What class is this?
• S: This has the best schedule, but I have not spent serious time swimming in years. I won medals on a swim team as a kid (not that many, but still...) but I have not done much lap swimming since then. This class seems like the most daunting of the three possibilities because it is not something that I am already in at least half way decent shape for. But did I mention that it has the best schedule?

So what would you do in my place?

Help,

me

31 F and raining all day

I know that I just blogged about this, but I just want to complain some more. For those who know me, I am -NOT- okay with the cold. I believe that I have an allergy to it; sometimes when it gets really cold (to me really cold is anything under 50 degrees) I get red, bumpy, and shaky. Doesn't that sound like a severe allergic reaction?
So, I just wanted to say that the F in 31 F is not like the the F in BFF or anything remotely related to it. No, this F is more like the F in fridge, freezer, or OMFG I am freezing.

Posts that are coming soon:

• This little pig cried Wii, Wii, Wii all the way home.
• New Year's Resolutions
• Blue's Clues, Blue's Clues... (You might think that a three year old human not in possession of any dog's paws of his very own would want to use his hands to make 'a clue, a clue' - butt not if you know my son. Feel free to use your imagination... his obsession continues.)

me

FF-F-f-ff-Fff-ff-F-FF-ff-FfFn FREEZING

Two days ago I was in shorts, a tee shirt, and sandals OUTSIDE. It was in the low 70's here.

Today the high is 31 F.

My new year's resolution: Get somewhere warm. Stay there. (This may be more of a two year resolution because I still have 3 semesters left in my grad program.)

me