Music Monday: My Three Songs, Volume 2

See if you can guess the connection that links the three songs. The answer is at the bottom of this post. Just highlight the text after "Select for answer."

My Three Songs, Volume 2

Song 1 (Mike)


Song 2 (Robbie)


Song 3 (Chip)


That's it. If you need a hint, just let me know.
Select for the answer: Campaign theme songs for the last three unsuccessful Democratic Presidential candidates (Dukakis, Gore, Kerry in order)

Web Stuff Friday: Norris xkcd

Chuck Norris kicks major butt. Don't believe me? Check out these Chuck Norris Facts. Here is a selection of my favorites.

• When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
• There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.
• A Handicapped parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Chuck Norris and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
• When Chuck Norris does a push-up, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.
  

xkcd describes itself as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." In short, it is a geek's online comic. Mouse over each image and you will see a tooltip that adds a comment or another layer of fun to the comic. As I went through looking for a handful of favorites, I found many that made me laugh out loud. Here is a small sampling of some good ones.

• not at all geeky: Delicious
• terrible, non-geeky pun: Organic Fuel
  
• not very geeky: Family Circus
• a bit geeky: Binary Sudoku
• pretty geeky: Centrifugal Force

Soundtrack: Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Armed Forces), Etta James (At Last!)

Tibet: It's Also About Economics

In the Washington Post's Outlook section this past Sunday, I read Abrahm Lustgarten's What They're Really Fighting for in Tibet, which is a really interesting article about the economic side of the problems in Tibet.

Chinese state-run firms have staffed large construction projects such as the railway and even local road building with Han Chinese [instead of Tibetan] contractors and crews, who send their earnings home.

All the expansion and wealth that has streamed into Tibet has benefited Tibetans very little. Even after decades of investment, the illiteracy rate remains four times that of neighboring Sichuan province, and there are one-fourth fewer vocational schools per capita than in the rest of China.

I don't mean to belittle the ongoing religious and political oppression Tibet has suffered at the hands of the Chinese. Rather, I am suggesting that as the Chinese have started using economic imperialism to overwhelm Tibet, they have affected even more people and therefore might strengthen the resistance movement. By decimating the Tibetan culture without allowing the Tibetans to benefit economically, the Chinese are really making lots of economically motivated enemies. When you try to suppress their religion, people can simply go underground to resist you. When you hold them down economically, the result is bound to be more explosive.

Marriage and Your Inner Economist

This post scares me. It could potentially put me into the doghouse for a long, long time. Still, I gotta say what I gotta say.

I heard about ten minutes of an interview with economist Tyler Cowen on the radio today. He has a new book entitled Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist. He contributes to an economics blog here.

One particular quote from the interview really struck me.

Long-term marriage is about commitment and it's also about expectations. Not expecting it will make you happy. It won't always. I don't think we should marry because we think to ourselves "this marriage will make me happy." I think it's very important to say "I'm going to marry because I love this person and I want to commit to this person." And by not thinking about happiness, we'll actually end up a lot happier than if we think "this is a choice that's going to make me happier."

This is an interesting idea. Some couples I know have divorced (or started the process) in the past couple years, which has made me a bit introspective about relationships. Why does my marriage work? What makes our relationship different from theirs?

When we focus on love, commitment, and partnership, happiness seems to flow. As we successfully work as a team, we get positive reinforcement that makes for a happier relationship and thus leads to less stress and more happiness. I love Mrs. Kid and I love our partnership. She makes me happy not because she has to, but just because she does. Does she make me happy 100% of the time? No, but I love her 100% of the time and am happy about the commitment I made.

If you want to be happy, make it happen. Don't blame others because they don't make you happy--it's not anyone else's job. As a matter of fact, when you make other things or people responsible for your happiness, the expectations you have are bound to make sustained happiness unobtainable. It's not your job's fault or your car's fault or your teacher's fault or your spouse's fault that you are not happy. It's your fault. Own your happiness.

Soundtrack: Wayne Shorter (eponymous), War (The World Is a Ghetto), Philip Glass (Powaqqatsi), WFMU and KCSM Radio

Bailing Out of Profit and Loss

The Federal Reserve bailout of Bear Stearns is interesting.

US News and World Report gives us a column on What Taxpayers Get from the Bear Stearns "Bailout". It is an interesting assessment of why the bailout is a good idea. I certainly see the upside and am glad that it has the potential to help out with some of our country's financial problems.

On the other hand, NPR has Does the Bear Stearns Bailout Set a Bad Precedent? This article provides a coherent view of my initial thoughts on this issue. I am not an economist, but it seems to me that when you take away the loss side of risks, then you screw things up completely. Here is a quote from Milton Friedman:

The economic miracle that has been the United States was not produced by socialized enterprises, by government-union-industry cartels or by centralized economic planning. It was produced by private enterprises in a profit-and-loss system. And losses were at least as important in weeding out failures as profits in fostering successes.

Take note of that last part: losses are an important part of the capitalist system. If the fed bails out everyone who takes a big risk, then why will people not keep taking bad risks in the future? There is no downside, so why not? Don't get me wrong...I see the upside of the bailout. Many normal folks will be helped by it, but I am concerned about the long-term ramifications on our private enterprise profit-and-loss system.

Soundtrack: Bill Evans (Everybody Digs Bill Evans)

Music Monday: What Is That From?

Music can really make a commercial work. Here are a few of my favorites. See if you can remember the product that was sold. Answers are at the bottom of this post, but you have to select the text to see them.

Royksopp: Remind Me (a light, catchy tune that gets stuck in my head, but I'm ok with that)
(this is a different mix, but the videos with the right mix have the brand in their titles)


Carl Orff: O Fortuna, from the opera Carmina Burana (epic operatic masterpiece)


Nick Drake: Pink Moon (the commercial sold lots of albums for this late, tragic British folksinger)


ELO: Mr. Blue Sky (great rock tune)


Iggy Pop: Lust for Life (one of the great sell-outs of all time)


And the king...
Moby: Find My Baby (all 18 songs from the Play album were licensed for commercial use. This is how Moby got his music heard)


Answers (select the text below to see a partial list of products for the above songs):

Royksopp: GEICO (caveman in airport)
Carl Orff: Guinness beer, Old Spice, Reebok, Pringles, etc.
Nik Drake: VW Cabrio
ELO: Sears, VW Beetle
Iggy Pop: Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines
Moby: American Express (Tiger Woods playing golf in a city)

Web Stuff Friday: Rice Advancement

FreeRice is a vocabulary game with a purpose. For each word you get right, they donate rice to the United Nations World Food Program. My best level is 47, but that was a fluke. I'm more of a high 30's/low 40's kind of a guy.

advanced theory blog is "Your guide to understanding Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and other highly Advanced musicians." If you want to know what it means to be Advanced, read the post So What is Advancement? The ideas are interesting and the blog worth reading.

Video Nuggets: David Lee Roth singing a capella and in Spanish. These are most excellent. Stripping out the music and singing the lyrics in a foreign language are both powerful ways to see an artist.




Soundtrack: Emerson, Lake & Palmer (Trilogy), Depeche Mode (Violator)

Push-Up for Your Health

The New York Times brings us this article about the value of push-ups. The gist of it is that emphasizing cardiovascular health is not sufficient for overall health. As we age, we need to have muscular and skeletal strength for many reasons. For instance, we need to be able to get up and down from chairs, but also need to be able to break our inevitable falls with our hands and arms, and then we need to be able to get up from the ground when we do fall.

...a 40-year-old woman should be able to do 16 push-ups and a man the same age should be able to do 27. By the age of 60, those numbers drop to 17 for men and 6 for women.

If you can't do enough of them, you can start out easy by trying them at an angle. lean against a wall to start out, then try a table. Over time, you should be able to move your angle down so you gradually get closer and closer to being horizontal.

So, how many push-ups can you do?

Parents (Like all of Us) Are Self-Centered

OK. This is going to be one of my more epic rambles. I'll try to keep it short, but a couple really different things have come together in my mind and I feel the need to share the connection.

First, parenthood. When Boy Kid was about three weeks old, Mrs. Kid and I were exhausted, constantly stressed out by not knowing what the heck we were doing, and struggling to keep ourselves together emotionally and physically. Mrs. Kid was in physical pain and we both were seriously sleep-deprived. A friend who had a three year-old kid said "and it gets so much worse when they are two or three years old." At the time, I doubted her (I used colorful language at the time, but this is a family blog), but not having had a two or three year old kid, I couldn't doubt her with confidence.

Now that I have had a couple kids in the first few weeks and then later in the two to three year range, I can say with confidence that in my experience, those first weeks were far more brutal. Anyone who doubts this either had angel babies (who slept through the night and breast fed like champs and never defecated all over a bedroom wall at 2:00 AM) or has really forgotten what those first weeks are like. The latter is pretty likely. Sleep deprivation, frustration, and fear of screwing up are incredibly powerful in those first weeks. Later trials and tribulations as children become more independent and willful are tough, but at least you generally get to deal with them on a good night's rest. Don't get me wrong: losing control as the kid gets older is not easy, but eating and sleeping in shifts, thrush, blocked ducts, poo on the walls, evening fussy time, teething, bilirubin tests, scheduling around naps, and other issues add up to a pretty tough few weeks.

When you are going through tough times, it's easy to forget how others could not have your problems, but still have problems of their own. It's easy for someone with an infant to think that having more sleep and a kid who can use words to say what the heck is the matter would solve all their problems. It's easy for someone with a rebellious three year-old to think that having a kid who doesn't constantly play emotional and control games would be easy. We are all self-centered and it is hard to imagine that having our particular problems taken away would not make for an easier life.

Now for the other seemingly unrelated item: Barack Obama's Reverend Wright, who said:

Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run!

My point here is that when you are a victim of racism, it's easy to imagine that it is the strongest negative force there is. Similarly, when you have been on the wrong side of sexism or classism or religious discrimination or affirmative action, or any other bias, it's easy to imagine that what you experienced is the strongest negative force out there. Just read Gloria Steinem's Op Ed about who is at a greater disadvantage in the democratic race. I'm not saying that we aren't sexist any more than I'm saying we aren't racist, but focusing on one bias to the exclusion of others is just another example of our self-centered reality.

Whether black, white, asian, hispanic, male, female, young, or old, each of us can be a self-centered beast who sees our own adversity as the greatest societal issue. Empathy isn't easy, but it is the pathway to a society that can transcend our problems. We can't simply ignore our problems. Biases are real. Adversity is real. Once we accept the reality of our own challenges while accepting those of people who are different from us, we can make real progress.

Since I drafted this post a day or two ago, Obama has made an impassioned, but reasoned speech about race in America. His speech is worth an entire post on its own, but first everyone should read or listen to the whole thing.

Soundtrack: The Beatles (Revolver), John Coltrane (Giant Steps), Lee Morgan (The Sidewinder), Beastie Boys (Ill Communication)

The Black Mail Server

When anyone sends email to me at work, it takes a while for it to get to me--even if the sender is sitting 10 feet away. Others in the office get their email quickly (as you would expect), but my stuff takes the scenic route.

I'm not usually big on conspiracy theories, but in this case, it's clear that my email is going through the "black" mail server. I figure all the white folks have their email going through some jacked up thing that looks like it's from Minority Report or some other futuristic movie. As a couple people in my office have noted, they think the black server is sitting at the back of the bus. Only the geekiest among you will appreciate the technical play on words there.

The white email server,

• is powered by 7 GHz quad core CPUs
• has terabyte RAM
• has 300 teraflop computational power
• can beat Deep Blue in chess, checkers, and backgammon all at the same time
  
• has a wall of LCD monitors
  
• connects to the Internet using a fiber T3 line to a dedicated Tier 1 provider.

The black email server,

• was recently upgraded from a 286 to a 386 processor
• has 16 MB RAM
• takes 5 minutes to deal a hand of solitaire
  
• has a 9 inch diagonal amber CRT monitor that weighs as much as a 5th grader
• connects to the Internet using a 14.4k baud modem

Am I bitter than our servers are separate and clearly unequal? A bit, but I am patient. No, I'm not being patient waiting for an upgrade to a 486, I'm just patient enough that I don't need my email right away. An extra five or ten minutes gives me time to get other things done.

Soundtrack: Funkadelic, Cannonball Adderley

Music Monday: My Three Songs, Volume 1

Local radio station WHFS used to have something called My Three Songs (I think) in which the DJ would play three songs that had a connection and listeners had to guess what the connection was. The connection might have been a common theme (e.g., love, days of the week, etc.), common artist (e.g., same drummer or singer or even producer), or anything else.

Every once in a while (as an homage to the spirit of WHFS in the 70's and 80's), I will post my own version of My Three Songs. See if you can guess the connection that links the three songs. Email me or post a comment with your answer. I will post my answer and credit anyone who got the connection I thought of.

My Three Songs, Volume 1

Song One (Mike)


Song Two (Robbie)


Song Three (Chip)


That's it. If you need a hint, just let me know.

Web Stuff Friday: More Laziness

You might recall that I blogged about Lazy Sunday a bit ago. It's a fun rap that has inspired some responses.

Lazy Monday: This west coast response is OK, but I haven't lived in LA before so I probably don't appreciate enough of the references.


Lazy Muncie: An old friend who now lives in the midwest sent me a link to this midwest response to Lazy Sunday and Lazy Monday. He tells me that this one nails the midwest vibe pretty well. I really liked it. Particularly amusing was the cameo by Jim Davis of Garfield (with Garfield) fame. I had to pause the video while I laughed at that part.


There are other Lazy spoofs, but most are pretty lame.

Soundtrack: Yes (Fragile)

Geraldine's Race and Gender Comments

Was Geraldine Ferraro being honest, stupid, racist, or some combination of these when she talked to the Daily Breeze?

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.

Slate has a commentary by Mickey Kaus that defends Ferraro and Huffington Post has a commentary by Eric Deggans that is critical of her.

Hillary is both helped and hurt by being a woman just as Barrack is both helped and hurt by being black. At some point in his life, Obama was probably helped by the color of his skin, but he was probably hindered by it at least as often. Same goes for Clinton. She has benefited at times and been hurt at times by being a woman. That's just the way it is. Anyone who pretends to think that race and gender are not factors in this election is really not living in the real world. Anyone who thinks that either candidate is only being successful because of gender or race is insulting the candidates and the electorate.

I have heard this argument from a few women: our country is more sexist than it is racist. It's interesting to me that as their candidate is in a fight, they turn away from the candidates' messages and positions and straight to prejudice. It seems the ultimate denial and arrogance to say that if you disagree with me, you must be prejudiced. I don't assume that anyone who dislikes me only hates me because I'm black, but some of Clinton's supporters seem to be following that sort of logic.

From a more practical perspective, Ferraro's comments were just plain stupid, but not because they are so contrary to the truth. Her comments were so stupid because they represent yet another example of the Democrats eating their own. They just don't know how to behave like a coherent political party. This sort of attitude had better evaporate from the Dems or they will grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. A good, spirited dialog is a great thing. Divisive, insensitive attacks will weaken the party. If things turn nasty, then some of those who supported the losing candidate could become disillusioned and could stay home in November.

Paying Respects

Here is a quick entry about my sister's funeral that was last Saturday.

The funeral was really moving. It was great seeing family and friends gathering to celebrate my sister's life. People came from far and wide to pay their respects on a rainy Saturday in Reston. My sister's friends from elementary school, college, grad school, business, and various neighborhoods were there as well as lots of family friends. Her friends are really a diverse and amazing bunch. They have been incredible through it all.

Some friends of mine including a few friends from work were able to make it. Their presence was really touching. These are people who have rarely if ever met the woman being celebrated, but their support for me was really great. One of these friends is Jewish, so his impressions of the Episcopalian service were pretty amusing. For instance, he liked "snack time" (communion) and thought the cannibalistic song was interesting. I don't recall what the hymn was, but it was certainly all about how eating Jesus' flesh and drinking his blood were good things.

She is now interred in a location that has a view of the football field on which she received her homecoming princess sash. I really like that from her grave there is a connection to her young, vibrant life.

Friends and coworkers are still offering condolences for the loss of my sister. The down side is that the pain doesn't really get far away. The up sides are that I get to hear other people's tales of perseverance and I get an excuse to talk about my sister.

Oh, Paula

I watched the first season of American Idol, but then lost track of the show for a while.

I haven't watched the show more than a handful of times in the past few years, but Tony Kornheiser talks about Idol pretty often, so I know about it through him. It's an odd lens through which to view a show, but it's not that different from listening to talk radio about a sport you never watch. Still, I should check out the show every once in a while, but when I have plenty of PTI, MXC, and The Soup to watch, as well as lots of work to do, there really isn't time.

The New Yorker has an article about what Paula Abdul does to the English language. It's a must-read for anyone who watches Idol or is a Paula fan or anti-fan.

Soundtrack

• Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

Music Monday: A Jones by any Other Name

Some musicians have pseudonyms that are so subtle that many people don't even realize they are stage names. Here are a few of my favorite real names of famous musicians.

Declan McManus


David Jones


Okay, this next one is not a subtle pseudonyn, but I like it anyway.

Faroukh Bulsara

Web Stuff Friday: Braid Few Stuffy

Internet Anagram Server is good, clean word fun. Just plug in any phrase and it cranks out anagrams galore.
A Reston Kid Rambles = A Bad Timer Snorkels

Untangle is a pretty darn cool game, but hard as heck.

The voice actors from Spongebob do Casablanca, Singing in the Rain

Half Right Obama on SNL

When Saturday Night Live had Fred Armisen (a white actor) portray Barack Obama in a recent sketch, they took quite a bit of heat. Here are some brief ramblings on this:

First of all, Obama is half white and half african-american. It seems to me that anyone who is at least half white would be just as good a match as anyone who is at least half african-american or black (see this post for a discussion about the distinction between "black" and "african-american.") I suspect that black people who are irate about this are folks who are trying to associate themselves with Obama because he is hot. They want Obama to be one of them.

If SNL had Kenan Thompson (the only black man on the cast) play Obama, that would be the height of affirmative action. He'd only have gotten the job because he is black. He does not seem to have anything close to the right look for the role. Isn't Maya Rudolph still in the cast? She has the advantage of being half black and half white. Maybe she could have done it. Regardless, racial match is less important than finding the person who does the best job of portraying the character. My black brothers need to get irate about stuff that actually matters, and not the casting decisions of a satirical comedy show.

Anyway, it's interesting that this skit has the media thinking harder about how they treat the candidates. It also has us talking more about race. All fun stuff.

Quite the Scare

A few days ago, my brother-in-law-in-law (Mrs. Kid's sister's husband) woke up with chest pains that didn't go away as quickly as heartburn should. When he and his wife (my sister-in-law) went to the nearby hospital, a blood test revealed elevated enzyme levels that indicate he had had a heart attack. He is 33.

The same day, they did an angiogram and found a major (over 90%) blockage in a major vessel (the circumflex coronary artery.) They installed an arterial stent and all is well. He will be on meds for the rest of his life, but he's ok. The cool part is that he watched most of the procedures while they were happening. Whacky.

I know SIL, so I asked her to not turn BILIL into a tofu-eating vegan (she's vegetarian while he is pretty carnivorous.) She replied that he should at least not eat so much sauteed foi gras. Apparently, he:

1. often skips breakfast and/or lunch, and then has a massive dinner at a restaurant,
   
2. doesn't exercise enough,
   
3. smokes a half pack of cigarettes a day.

I know he works way too hard at his high-powered job, so the first two didn't surprise me. As a matter of fact, I used to do that sort of thing all the time when I was in grad school, then every once in a while as an adult. The last part really surprised me. I knew he used to smoke when he was in college, but didn't know that he still smoked so much.

Anyway, I really feel for BILIL. Not just because of the pain he has endured or because of the scare he just had, but mostly because of the big pile of grief his wife will give him for the rest of his life. His lifestyle is going to have to change and she is going to beat him until he makes these changes happen. I'm glad he's fine (he was working again four days later), but I'll miss the man who could put away massive amounts of food in a single sitting.

The Day

• Workout: crunches and push-ups
  
• Music: Sierra Leone's Refugee All-Stars, Etta James, Elvis Costello, Royksopp
  

After an Epic Battle, Peace

This is the most difficult post I have ever written, but not for the reason you might think after you read the next four words: My sister died yesterday.

So, why is this difficult for me to write about? It isn't because writing brings up memories and pain that I'd rather not stir. On the contrary, I find writing to be a helpful exercise, so this is really quite therapeutic. The difficulty comes when I try to abide by one of her requests. As I was talking with my sister about her ability to make doom-saying doctors look silly (by living years longer than they expected), she admonished me to not make her girls think she was some sort of super woman. This puts a major constraint on my natural tendency to tell her story as I saw it. As a matter of fact, the first draft of this post was titled "My Sister Kicked Butt," but I shelved that version in favor of this.

My sister was a cheerleader and homecoming princess in high school, then an economics major and president of the student body at Wellesley College. She then went on to get an MBA at Harvard and then put her financial skills to work as a corporate financier, then as President and COO of a health services company. In this first act of her life, she kicked major butt. Along the way, she ran in the NYC Marathon, had two beautiful daughters, and impressed everyone she knew with her intelligence, work ethic, and personal strength.

Act 2 begins when she is diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992 (when her girls were 3 and 1.5.) I won't go into all the details of her treatments, but suffice it to say that she endured numerous treatments including chemo, radiation, and surgery, but also highly experimental treatments (such as 3 times with a gamma knife and a very experimental trial with autologous bone marrow transplant). On more than one occasion, doctors gave her a short time to live, but she outlived these dire predictions over and over again. Anyone who knew her only after 1993 knew she was a good person, a great mother, and a determined fighter.

Anyway, she was an incredible woman and my first evidence for this is the number and quality of her friends from college, grad school, business, and neighborhoods who have been absolutely devoted to helping her and her girls. The support her friends have provided is absolutely amazing and speaks to the quality of my sister's character over the years. The other evidence is her girls. Their mother was very unhealthy for most of their lives, but they have come through it. They are both smart, kind kids who are headed in the right direction. They were the reason for her perseverance over these past years. Everything she did from the treatments to making doctor after doctor look silly was for her girls. I am so proud of them and of her.

My Girl Kid got her middle name from my sister and I am hopeful that along with the name comes some of my sister's brains, strength, and determination. I hope that Girl Kid is a better driver (my sister was a weapon behind the wheel), but aside from that I hope Girl Kid can channel my sister's spirit.

OK. That's it. I could go on and on and on about her, but will keep it short. This post is so incredibly inadequate, but it's all I can do in a short space and without making her out to be a super woman. She is finally enjoying well-deserved rest after an incredible battle and I am happy for her. Her legacy lives on in all of us who knew her, but especially in her girls.

The Day

• Workout: short run
  
• Music: Led Zep, Michael Jackson, Booker T. & The MG's, Vince Guaraldi Trio
  

Music Monday: Cheesy Ukulele All Stars

I love when a musical artist covers a song in a different mode than the original. Weird Al is great, but I am talking about the complete opposite. Al keeps the music the same, but changes the lyrics. I prefer keeping the lyrics the same and changing the style of the music. Richard Cheese and Easy Star All Stars have been favorites of mine for a while, but I recently found Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Here are descriptions of their shticks and a video for each.

Richard Cheese: He does pop songs in a cheesy, Vegas lounge lizard mode. One of the fun parts is that you can actually hear the lyrics clearly. He is really funny. I have a few of his albums.

Baby Got Back


Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain: Needless to say, it's all about the ukes. They do some really creative, fun stuff. Other songs include a fun medley and the theme to Shaft.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


Easy Star All-Stars: This is dub style reggae version of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. It syncs up with the original (and thus with The Wizard of Oz) perfectly.

Money


Note: My sister passed away today after a long battle with cancer. I will write about Marla at some point this week, but don't want to rush some junk out there.

The Day

• Workout: crunches and push-ups
• Music: Led Zep