Picture Update

Pictures are up and mostly contain images from Aidan's second birthday party.

Radio Waves

Well, it looks like the good folks over at NPR saw fit to dismiss the only host that Morning Edition has ever had: Bob Edwards.

I'm not sure what their strategy is, but I have to say that I'm terribly disappointed and I will definitely miss Edwards as the host.

Perhaps in an effort to appease some of their listeners, NPR has put up a page that reflects on Edwards's 30-year career and lists some of his more memorable interviews and stories including his very first and last interviews as host of Morning Edition ...

A Little Baseball

So, during the Major League Baseball offseason, the Boston Red Sox almost signed someone who is largely regarded as one of the more complete baseball players of our generation, Alex Rodriguez.

To make a long story short, it didn't happen. In fact, not only did it not happen, but it fell apart in rather dramatic fashion. And then the pieces were picked up and put back together not by the Red Sox, but their main rival: the New York Yankees.

The Yankees added A-Rod when the Red Sox couldn't. It was chalked up as yet another miserable failure in Red Sox lore. But some people weren't so sure...

Jesse had mused at the time (and I, in deperation, quickly held the belief too) that A-Rod, while a very good player, had some odd affect on teams that he played for: They just didn't win. I call it the Herschel Walker Syndrome (Walker was one of the best football players of all-time, but the teams he was on hardly ever made the playoffs — and when they did, didn't go very far)....

Here is some evidence, found by ESPN.com:

The Texas Rangers, the team that Alex Rodriguez played for last year, a team that found it very difficult to win during A-Rod's tenure, are three games better than the Yankees in the AL standings. A comparison through April 26:

The Rangers are 11-8, while the Yankees are 8-11.

The Rangers are hitting .315 as a team. Last year, they hit .266 with the likes of A-Rod and Rafael Palmeiro in the lineup.

The Yankees are hitting .217 as a team (nearly 100 points behind the Rangers).

Compare this to the 2001 season, A-Rod's first with the Rangers. The Mariners said goodbye to Rodriguez and went 116-46 (a 25-win improvement over the year before with A-Rod).

It took the Rangers 25 games to record 11 wins last year with Rodriguez in the lineup.

It took 37 games for the Yankees to lose 11 games last year without A-Rod in the lineup.

I sure am glad the Red Sox didn't sign A-Rod...

Aidan's Two-Year Check up

Aidan just had his two-year check up today (a few weeks later than he should have because he was in New Jersey for most of the month).

His official weight: 27.5 pounds

Height: 35 inches

Apparently, people are generally half their adult height when they are two years old; this means that Aidan should be about 5 foot 10 inches — a full inch taller than his dad...

Back Home

Aidan and Renee are back home after a 10-day visit to New Jersey. It was a very late night and Aidan was very excited to be back home, so it was very late before he actually went to bed (probably around 12:30, maybe even 1: a.m.).

I met them at the airport and when Aidan saw me he glanced down at the ground in his regular shy kind of way, walked over to me and then put his arms out (as in "pick me up") and then put his head on my shoulder. Heartbreaking stuff.

He then went on to tell me about the "big airplane" and something about his seat. (I didn't really understand that part. Renee took Aidan's car seat with them, which he obviously sat in. Maybe that's all he was trying to say?)

Anyway, they are all safely home, and I'm couldn't be happier.

[click to see pictures from the trip]

How Was Your Weekend?

Jeff (Aidan's godfather) regularly does sound for a club here in Austin and this weekend he needed a little help. Since Aidan and Renee were out of town, I had nothing but time on my hands, and I was happy to volunteer....

Over the last couple of years or so, Jeff has been pretty active in the local music scene, even acting as the road manager for a relatively popular band. As such, Jeff has been able to travel and visit many part of the country and has meet a lot of other people who do the same.

A couple of months ago, someone that Jeff knows called him up, asking for a favor. They were bringing a band out on tour and needed a venue in Austin. They originally tried to get Emo's; however the whole affair was put together too late and Emo's was already booked for the night that they needed. Jeff hooked them up at the Ritz.

It turns out that the band — in this case bands — were out on tour in support of their own albums, but also in support of one of their major sponsors, Look-Look Magazine. The tour was called the Youth Invasion Tour 2004. In addition to the bands, there were support people/items, such as promotional banners, tables full of free t-shirts/magazines, etc. There was also a documentary team. And they all arrived in a 15-passenger van hauling an Airstream trailer.

The first band that was to go on, Hawnay Troof, consisted of one small little guy, very petite and for the most part he seemed pretty laid back. Neither Jeff nor I really knew what kind of music he played and we were both oddly impressed when, after his sound check, he sounded both more mature and interesting than his apperance first let on.

The second band, and the headliners for the evening, a band called Electocute and consists of two 18-20 year old grrls (I'm not too hip to that term, but that's that's about as accurate a description as there is), did their sound check and it, too, seemed fairly compelling. And then, of course, there was a local band to round out the evening; the drummer was good friends with Jeff, so we were already looking forward to their performance. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty fun evening...

At around 11:30, Hawnay Troof went on. Suddenly, he transformed from a small, very petite little "boy" into a scrawny, anxiety-filled, spastic ball of energy. His voice went up about two octaves as he screamed his vocals through the microphone and jumped around the stage — and off the stage, dancing around the few people in the audience that were brave enough to approach.

The new MC Scrawny jumped up and hit the lights that dangled low from the 50-foot ceilings. Then he jumped up on pool tables and anything else that was available to him.

This was enough to get the Ritz management a little concerned. The manager calmly walked over to Jeff and told him that he needed to get Crazy Boy under control. Jeff, in turn, informed the bands' tour manager, Casey. For the duration of the next song, Casey could be seen following MC Scrawny/Crazy Boy trying to set things right. But there was no way that Casey could whisper in his ear "hey, calm down a little." That would be like trying to whisper sweet nothings into the ear of a bucking bronco.

Instead, an employee of the Ritz approached the stage in an effort to instill some sort of civility by his mere presence. Hawny Troof probably saw it as an opportunity to get the crowd involved. Crazy Boy (who will now be known as Really Crazy Boy) put his arm around Machismo Man and said something to him in a very fast and high pitched voice. Machismo Man, which is arms folded in front of him, looked at Really Crazy Boy and then said into the mic, "get the f**k away from me. Right now."

Really Crazy Boy understood the moment — but for only a moment. He got up on stage and said that it was all cool. He loved everyone there and that it was alright. And he continued to talk about it for the next minute or so. But as he continued on, his voice almost seemed to drip with sarcasm. Perhaps. I honestly don't know. There was no doubt, however, that he could have let it drop after a couple of mentions and that every mention of their "confrontation" thereafter was becoming increasingly uncomfortable for people, myself included.

And that's when the manager of the Ritz came over to Jeff and motioned for the sound to be shut down. This "band" was done. One of the grrls from Electrocute came over to the soundboard where Jeff and I were (the Ritz manager had by this time gone back to other things) and was deeply disturbed about Hawnay Troof being shut down. "We won't go on if he can't continue," she threatened. That was fine by me and I think Jeff felt the same...

Anyway, after some introspection, Electrocute decided to go on. And the very first thing that they did? "I can't belive you don't like our friend," one Electocute said into the mic. "He loves everybody. You all have small dicks."

Jeff and I pretty much knew what was going to happen next. In fact, if Electrocute stopped right there, everything would have been fine ... but that's not what happened. In between every song (and sometimes during a song), they continually harassed the audience in that same taunting way.

During one song, one Electrocute got into a sort of "cat-pounce" stance, did a little Uma Thurman type glance with her eyes, licked one of her fingers and then jumped up to very gently tap one of the lights — the very lights that Really Crazy Boy had been messing with just a few moments before.

Both Electrocute grrls then began to climb on stuff, most notably a pool table and the back bar, which was closed. Oh, did I mention they were wearing spike-heeled shoes? And what happend next (like you don't know).... The manager of the Ritz comes on over, tells Jeff to shut them down, and just as it happens, both grrls jump up and down and hoot and holler like they just won a prize....

And then ... that's right, the story's not finished yet ... the management decides that neither of these road bands can stay. They both have to leave. Now. So, as the soundman's sidekick, I do my best to help out. I get my car, drive it down the back alley and help them load their stuff and drive it off to their Airstream, which is a good half-mile or more away.

Upon my return to the Ritz, I ask Jeff if I missed anything, fully expecting that the local band would have behaved very well, especially with the understanding of all that happened that night.

"They threw all the chairs; broke a couple I think," was Jeff's reply. I thought he was kidding; however, as I started to look around, I noticed that virtually every chair in the Ritz was turned over in front of the stage.

The manager came over at this point, not quite ready to pull the plug on yet another band, but waiting patiently for another slip up.

That's when the singer from the band tried to wear the chairs as boots; he put his legs through the rungs of the legs and walked around with the chairs on. That was enough, and the plug was pulled; a perfect 3-for-3!

And that was my Saturday night. By the time Jeff and I cleaned up, packed up all of the equipment and made it back home, it was about 4:00 a.m.

I haven't done anything like that in years. Not sure when I'll be going out on the town again, but whenever it is, I'm pretty sure it won't be quite as exciting...

A New Look

Well, I finally decided to push it across. The new site design is now up and fairly functional. I'm still trying to put a few new features into the archives section (the date archives mostly work properly — although I want to be able to make the calendar reflect the month of the displayed entries and I'll be adding some additional navigation to that area, also).

Other things that need to be addressed (and will be, some day):

• the category archives (they still link to the old site design)


• the images page needs ... images; doesn't get any more basic than that (and it doesn't get much more time consuming, either)

There are a couple of other bell and whistles that I want to add, but to be honest, I can't think of them at the moment; the plan was to go to bed early tonight ... instead I find myself publishing the redesign in the wee hours of the morn.

That's OK, though. I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't fun (and somewhat addicting)... :)

Fun With Drums

This morning on my way to work, I heard this fun story on NPR.

NPR commentator Miles Hoffman went to Carroll Musical Instrument Rentals in New York City in search of ... a cow bell. With a clapper. The set up to the story is kind of fun and strange, but as they were giving the audience a sort of audio tour of the warehouse, it just struck me as how incredibly fun and powerful music can be. Here I am, sitting in my car, listening to a whole lot of instruments that are being played "out of context" (once you hear the story, that will make more sense, I think) and I was getting happy and excited.

Listening to stories like this make me want to unpack my drums and start playing them again.... (in a related note, the site redesign is coming along and is pretty much taking up all of my evenings; I've been working on it pretty much as soon as I get home to about 10 or 10:30 at night; hopefully it will be up and activated over the weekend).

Garmont Vegan is Here!!

To follow up on a previous entry (about the lack of vegetarian hiking boots), the Garmont Vegan is now being sold by REI. I am putting in my order as we speak. I'm quite excited, as we have a planned camping trip at the end of this month, so hopefully my new hiking boots will get here soon...

Trip to NJ; Site Redesign

Renee and Aidan have arrived safely in New Jersey and will be spending the next week or so visiting the family back east. Renee has the camera with her, so hopefully we'll have some pictures to share when they get back.

I have tons of things planned for myself while they are away. The things on my list that you may notice (when complete) include finishing archiving all the old entries from the old site into this new format and I'm also working on a brand new look-and-feel for the site as well....

Thus, there may not be many new entries going up soon. However, if you're looking for something to read, there will be plenty of entries from the last year or so for you to read, including some never before read entries (some of them only kept on paper journals up to this point)...

And, as I mentioned, hopefully by next weekend there will be a brand new look to the Web site (and I'll clean up all the old broken links and make everything look "cohesive").

Until then... you'll just have to endure lame entries like this one.

Invisible Cities

It's been far too long since I've done a book review here, so I've dug up one that I did a few years ago... I just don't have the time to get through books as quickly as I used to. Anyway, here's a really good one:

Invisible Cities is an extrordinary book. Italo Calvino has constructed a book so rare and impressive as to be virtually indescribable. As Gore Vidal said about this book in the New York Review of Books, "Of all tasks, describing the contents of a book is the most difficult and in the case of a marvelous invention like Invisible Cities, perfectly irrelevant."

Yet, my task, as I have defined it, will be to take on this nearly impossible task... so please forgive my lack of skill.

Invisible Cities is a collection of tales that Marco Polo is sharing with Kublai Khan and sometimes vice versa. The tales are almost wholly about the cities that Polo has visted, except that they are not. At first glance, it seems that the tales are just exquisitley tailored descriptions of real cities with fake names. While this is still theoretically possible, after a few pages, I became aware that this probably isn't the case.

I soon began to read the passages as fantasitcal prose decsribing cities that existed in Polo's mind. But this too, seemed like a rather superficial reason for the existence of such prose. It also became a less plausible theory once I began to notice that many of the cities contained modern appliances, elevators, airports, etc. How could Polo know about such things and why wasn't the Khan frightened, upset, or excited about these revelations?

The answer? I was reading the book with too simple a mind. Finally, I came across a section that made it all clear to me: The descriptions were not about the cities, but about people.

Those who arrive at Theka can see little of the city, beyond the plank fences, the sackcloth screens, the scaffoldings, the metal armatures, the wooden catwalks hanging from ropes or supported by sawhorses.

If you ask, "Why is Thekla's construction taking such a long time?" the inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, lowering leaded strings, moving long brushes up and down, as they answer, "So that its destruction cannot begin." And if asked whether they fear that, once the scaffoldings are removed, the city may begin to crumble and fall to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, "Not only the city."

Finally! I understood what Calvino was trying to say. Yet, somehow, I wasn't sure. As I read on, it seemed bigger, more encompasing than just descriptions of people. All good art is multi-faceted and can be understood on several levels. I was only just begining to understand the simple complexity of this work...

"From now on, I'll describe the cities to you," the Khan had said, "in your journeys you will see if they exist."

But the cities visited by Marco Polo were always different from those thought of by the emperor.

"And yet I have constructed in my mind a model city from which all possible cities can be duduced," Kublai said. "It contains everything corresponding to the norm. Since cities that exist differ in varying degree from the norm, I need only foresee the exceptions to the norm and calculate the most probable combinations."

"I have also thought of a model city from wich I deduce all the others," Marco answered. "It is a city made only of exceptions, exclusions, incongruities, contradictions. If such a city is the most imporobable, by reducing the number of abnormal elements, we increase the probability that the city really exists. But
I cannot force my operation beyond a certain limit: I would achieve cities too probable to be real."

And that's when I understood that I may never fully understand this book. It is about everything and anything. It is about thinking and not thinking. It is full of every contradiction and exception. It is about the universe and the molecules that make up the universe. It is about the construction and deconstruction of worlds. It is about looking deep into your soul with genuine introspection to discover who you are, only to realize that you should also consult with the extroverted world to find the answers that lie within.

This is a really good book.

Grade: A+

Thinnest People Eat a Lot of This Food

[from Netscape news]

A four-nation study of more than 4,000 men and women ages 40 to 59 has produced a stunning conclusion in our Atkins diet-fueled society: The thinnest people on Earth eat the most carbohydrates. Even more alarming, the people who eat the most protein are actually the heaviest.

"Without exception, a high-complex-carbohydrate, high-vegetable-protein diet is associated with low body mass," study leader Linda Van Horn of Northwestern University said in a news conference reported by Reuters. "High-protein diets were associated with higher body weight."

Before you reach for the nearest doughnut, realize that the carbs that do a body good aren't from french fries and white bread that contain lots of sugar. They are complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

In the Northwestern study, more than 4,000 people from the United States, Great Britain, Japan, and China wrote in a food diary everything they had eaten during two 24-hour periods. "Lo and behold, what we did find is that without exception, a high complex-carbohydrate, high-fiber, high vegetable-protein diet was associated with low body mass index Van Horn explained. A low body mass index or BMI is a standard measure of healthy weight.

But also notable is this finding: The more animal protein that was consumed, the higher the person's weight. And the greater risk to his or her health. "I think any diet that recommends increasing the amount of saturated fat poses a risk," said Randal J. Thomas of the Mayo Clinic. "There may be good things about the diet...but any diet that recommends increases in saturated fat could be increasing the risk in the population."

So Much To Do

We've been neglecting to update the Web site, but that doesn't mean that things haven't been happening... Aidan had his second birthday on April 3. We had it at our house with about 25 people (10 of them were about 2 years old), which made Renee and I a little anxious. However, in the end, it all worked out really well. I think all the kids had a lot of fun. We took a lot of pictures and I hope to have them uploaded to the site soon.

To that end, I am also in the midst of building a new computer for the house, so all manner of computer actions (e.g., uploading pictures to the Web site) have come to a complete halt, at least for the moment.

Renee has just started her sabbatical and is mostly enjoying her time off (she says that it doesn't yet feel like a vacation). She and Aidan will be leaving for New Jersey next Thursday, which will hopefully help with the "vacation" feeling...

While they are gone, I will be here in Austin, working. Not everyone gets 8 weeks of vacation :)

To that end, I hope to get some much-needed changes done to this Web site, as well as upload and re-organize the pictures, etc. while they are in New Jersey.

Anyway, that's a quick update of what's going on here in Austin, TX. Pictures coming soon....

Off for two months

My sabbatical has started! I am off for the entire months of April and May. What a treat. Today, Aidan and I had a playdate with the triplets, tomorrow we are going walking with Angie and on Saturday we'll be having a birthday party with 10 two-year olds. Whew, it is busy already.

No really, I plan on spending the time enjoying Aidan. We'll practice our numbers and letters and hopefully get in some swimming. During naptime each day I'll be sure to take some time for myself. I've already started my first book of the break. Now I am off to read it.