The more voices, the better?

First, before I get to my main topic, I wanted to start my series on streaming media sites. We're going to start with Pandora.

Pandora is one of the most finely-tuned sites on the web. It is technically internet radio, but it's so much more. First you type in the name of an artist or song. Then, you listen. That's how simple it is. The site creates a radio station for you based on the characteristics of what you typed, allowing you to hear not only the music you like but similar songs and artists as well. You can also get song selections even further tailored to your tastes by clicking thumbs up or down on past plays.

This site is great when you want a variety of music without wasting time creating a playlist, and also for discovering new music. It's easy to use and a great introduction to the world of streaming media.

Now, onto the topic of the day.

So apparently the world is ending. We are in the midst of the Apocalypse. And it's all John McCain's fault. Or is it Nancy Pelosi's? Or maybe Barack Obama? I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Personally, I don't think this is the fourth bowl being poured out; I think there definitely needs to be something done to help ease the impact of this situation, but I'm not sure the best thing for everyone is to hand out $700 billion for making risky business moves. I think they'll come up with and sign a bill by the VP debate, and the market will recover the losses over the next week. But the political damage may be irreparable for McCain. I think he's screwed.

Anyway, that's all beside the point. What I really want to talk about is the proliferation of the comment section on internet news articles. Of the four major networks, three offer comment sections on general news stories, while the most openly-partisan of the four, Fox News, doesn't. And of course there's CNN's dreaded iReports, which I think I've made my feelings abundantly clear on. Even my home town Brainerd Dispatch has a forums section to discuss all their posted articles.

It is my understanding that journalists should write objective news stories unless they're writing an editorial. If they're achieving this goal, presenting all sides of the issue in a rational way, is there any reason to hear what Glen in New Hampshire has to say about the story? What could he possibly add that could be considered relevant to the discussion? And, if it's news, do we even need a discussion? Shouldn't fact be fact and opinion be opinion?

Even allowing comments on the op-ed pieces is a bit of a stretch. The sad thing is the news companies are simply responding to a demand: people want to feel like they matter, like their thoughts are important. This all ties back to that unfounded sense of entitlement that more and more Americans are developing. Why can't people just accept their role, find their place in their environment and fill that void well? Is that such a bad way to live?

But please, feel free to comment...

Only in Nashville...

...Can you go to a charity concert put on by your boss and have Scott Hamilton (yes, THAT Scott Hamilton) introduce the evening. Awesome.

I think I need to take a couple posts here to introduce you all to the wonderful world of internet streaming. I will be doing upcoming posts on the following sites, so here's a link to them so you can prepare yourself:

http://www.pandora.com

http://www.lala.com

http://www.hulu.com

I know you may think that streaming is pretty lame, and I agree it can be at times. But we are getting closer and closer to the day when everyone will have internet-ready phones and the net will always be at your fingertips. When that happens, you'll all thank me for the coming lessons.

Two more days to the new season of The Office...

Running on empty

You may think this post will have some sort of really deep meaning where I discuss depression, struggles, etc.

Nope, this post is about gas and the ridiculous situation that has developed in Nashville over the last 24 hours. Well, the last week really.

After Ike hit, gas prices in Nashville shot up. A station by my house that had been $3.53 last Thursday was $4.59 by Saturday morning. Thankfully I filled up on Thursday and haven't had to refill since.

After a couple days, things settled down a bit, and prices even dipped below $4.

And then something snapped last night.

On Friday morning, AAA reported that at least 85% of gas stations in Nashville were completely dry. People were waiting in line for hours to fill up, and apparently some tempers flared as well.

Two stations that still had supplies today are the two closest to my house. As I attempted to exit the interstate after work this evening, I quickly realized that the line on the ramp was actually the line to get gas. I took about a 20 minute detour to get a quarter mile up the road and on to my house. On this detour, I passed several stations with gas, and the scene was total anarchy.

Small corner stations with two pumps had dozens of cars in the lot, people with stalled cars because they had run out of gas while waiting, and just general craziness. Some of the most ridiculous things I've ever witnessed firsthand.

So tonight we went bowling and get back about midnight and the line is still all the way to the exit! One of the stations had run out of gas, so I apparently live next to one of a handful of stations in town that still has something to sell. Being midnight in the 37207, a collection of police cars had developed at the station in order to try and control the 100 or so cars still trying to fill up. There were people wandering the street, completely oblivious to the traffic coming through. It was the epitome of stupid.

Apparently help is on the way; I just hope it comes in time for me to fill up. I'm at a quarter tank, and it's not looking good on making it to church on my own Sunday... here's hoping.

Crashing down

OK, so I had this really long post about all the new music that's out this week, but then Firefox froze on me and I lost it. So, in summary:

New Marc Broussard: Very good, not immediately on the same level as Carencro, but I think it will grow on me. Quickly.

New Matt Wertz: First on major label, basically repackaged his last album with a few new songs and a different track order. Still good.

And my find of the week: Raphael Saadiq. Sounds like if John Legend performed during Motown's heyday. Excellent stuff. Check him out here:



And, apparently, the first movie on my list that needs to be crossed off is Almost Famous. I'll hopefully get around to it in the near future. In the meantime, I Redboxed Love Guru tonight and it was passable but featured Jessica Alba, so I can let it slide. Baby Mama was the movie of choice last night, and it was better than Love Guru but not as awesome as it should have been. Still enjoyable though, and worth a rental, especially if you like Tina Fey.

Seriously though, check out Raphael Saadiq. Worth your time.

That's right, I've never seen Ghostbusters

I have a large DVD collection. I enjoy finding a good deal on a movie, and even more so on a season of television; that's just how I roll.

Yet, for all the movies I own and all the ones I've seen, there are dozens of extremely popular films I have never seen. And, whenever this happens, one of my friends is invariably there to say, "What? You've never seen that? But you've seen everything!"

Needless to say, this gets kind of annoying. So, to minimize the occurrence of this phenomenon, I plan on making a concerted effort to see more of these "classic" titles. Here are a few on my current list; if you have any suggestions on which should be a higher priority, let me know and I will take it into consideration.

1. Almost Famous
2. Ghostbusters
3. Casablanca
4. Gone With the Wind
5. Lethal Weapon
6. Terminator
7. What Women Want
8. Top Gun
9. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
10. The Exorcist

Hiding in plain sight

We never had an ice cream truck growing up. It could be that there wasn't a high enough population concentration; could be that 8 months out of the year if we wanted something cold to eat we could just go outside and snap an icicle off the roof. Whatever the reason, the closest thing we had was the Schwan's man, who would deliver once a week (I think).

After living in Nashville for four years and not encountering an ice cream truck, I assumed they were a long forgotten past time, the kind of thing you'd see in a movie about the 60s and wish it was still around, like drive-ins and serial radio shows.

So imagine my delighted surprise when I quickly discovered upon moving in that there is an ice cream truck that runs through my neighborhood!

At first I thought it was going to be awesome, a fun little diversion from the day when I could look out the window and watch the neighborhood kids chase the truck down the street and return to their houses eating fudge-sicles and Drumsticks. I even contemplated going out myself from time to time to get a cool treat on a hot summer day.

And then the truck started just being annoying. It has been known to drive down Edith Ave hourly on some days, blaring Silent Night in the middle of July. Along with all your holiday favorites, the truck plays classical pieces that border on unrecognizable and simple nursery rhymes that on infinite repeat. I think getting stuck behind an ice cream truck may, additionally, be worse than being behind a bus because, with a bus, you can easily anticipate the stops and the bus driver knows these stops as well; an ice cream truck can and will stop at any time, drive 10-15 miles per hour below the speed limit, and will not let you pass.

And now, after 3 and a half months in the neighborhood, I've come to a conclusion: the ice cream truck driver is an undercover cop.

There is no way that person can stay in business with the complete lack of customers I've witnessed. They drive around all day, getting little business and wasting gallon upon gallon of gas, and yet they continue to operate. The only logical explanation is a government operation to catch the various madams, pimps, and dealers in north Nashville.

And if that's the case, I'll put up with a couple more bars of Old MacDonald blaring from that wretched speaker. But if not, someone needs to give that driver a dose of reality. Fast.

It's often the littlest of things...

The last couple of days at work have been...interesting.

I've been learning the ins and outs of a new program that allows us to process product royalties so labels can contract with us to determine who they owe what for the products they've sold. The software is mostly logical, but it involves several levels of information that all tie together in the end.

This software was also designed to work best when you import sales information rather than manually entering it. Our first client had been using the same software previously, but they had been manually entering all the statements.

So, as a result, I get to do one of my favorite things at work: create an efficiency! I know this sounds lame and all, but I've been able to take the statements I was given, develop a formula in Excel that translates this information into an importable form, and have everything come together in the program. And the fact that it works isn't my favorite part about it; the best part will be next quarter when I go to enter the statements and it takes me 6 minutes instead of 2 hours.

And it is that knowledge that makes the last three days of navigating between programs and forms completely fulfilling.

Partridge? No thanks.

There's a tree in my front yard, right next to the driveway. When I bought the place it had small objects growing on it that I thought were some sort of nut. As the summer grew on, so did the "nuts", and it soon became apparent that I had, not a nut tree, but an actual, bonafide fruit tree.



Eventually the fruit gained distinct color and shape, and, behold, I had a tree full of pears.



I've actually thought at times about how fun it would be to have a
fruit tree. In my imagination, however, it was apples. Maybe oranges.
But not pears.

As summer became late summer, and late summer became September, I started noticing a certain odor in the front of my house. For the longest time I assumed it was emanating from the giant dumpster full of molded and rotten building materials.

And then it came to me: it wasn't the dumpster, it was the stench of pears.

Rotten pears!

Now I'm not a big fruit person; I'll eat apples and grapes, an occasional orange, and I enjoy the flavor but not the texture of most others. But pear is right up there with the most disgusting flavors in the world. Possibly behind pickles, but not by much. When I see a green Jelly Belly with dark green spots, I cringe.

And now I have one of the most fruitful fruit trees I've ever seen. There are pears littering my lawn and driveway; I can clean them up one day and the next another dozen have fallen to the ground. One of two things happen to a pear once it falls in my yard:
1. It gets run over by my car.
2. It rots and gets eaten by ants.

Or, in some cases, both:


It can't freeze fast enough around here.

My project for the evening

No more exposed green sheetrock in my living room!



As I turned into my driveway today, I noticed a little something different: my dumpster is gone! I was told when I rented it I could keep it as long as I needed to, but apparently my need has an expiration date. I'll be calling the company tomorrow to try and figure out a plan where I can get a smaller one back on the property to cover the shingles and the removal of the back garage...

Wish me luck!

Pancakes and Packers

I'm not sure I need to mention again how much I like football, so it should also go without saying that tonight was important night of any true Minnesota football fan: Vikings season opener. And not just the opener; it was against the Packers.

Well done, NFL schedule makers.

Tonight was so momentous I decided to make buttermilk chocolate chip pancakes. And they were dang good too.

The Vikings, however, didn't always measure up to the pancakes. There were moments of greatness on both sides of the ball, and I think in the next couple of weeks we'll see some great improvement, but they just didn't have enough to get past the Pack.

We'll get our chance at redemption later in the season, and I think we'll win that game. But, for now, I can take solace in those brief glimpses of awesomeness and hope they come more frequently in the coming weeks.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm watching Phantom Menace right now and I still can't decide if it's bad or tolerable. Maybe it fluctuates between the two. Some of the worst child acting ever by Jake Lloyd though. Seriously, rough.

Will you still need me when I'm 64?

Yes, it's that time of year. Time for cocoa, sweaters, leaf piles, and my birthday.

Turning 23 is, as expected, much like turning 22. One difference is, with the new house, I asked for different gifts than normal from my family. So, for example, where I got a bunch of DVDs and CDs last year from my parents, I got this:



And this:


The really weird thing for me is that I actually wanted this stuff and am excited to have it! I always remember thinking it was weird to get dishes or pots or anything practical for your birthday or Christmas. I always thought these occasions were times to get the things you wanted but didn't necessarily need. And I still feel that way, I guess I'm more surprised that these items fit that category for me now.

Maybe I have gotten older than I thought...

A HUGE thank you to the NFL for coming back into my life. And Tom Brady better not be out for the season or I am royally screwed in my Fantasy League. Just one more reason to love this time of year!

Another reason to go to McDonalds besides a McGriddle

Allow me to extol the greatness of Redbox.



Redbox is one of the greatest innovations of the last 5 years. Here's how it typically works:

1. Find a Redbox location. You can search for one on their website, but they're typically at McDonalds and some Wal-Marts.

2. Pick a movie. They only carry the most recent releases, typically about 100 titles or so.

3. Rent the movie. All titles are $1.00 to rent for a day, and $1 for every day after. They only accept credit cards, so make sure you have one with you.

4. Enjoy your movie!

5. Return the movie to any Redbox location, even if it's not the one you rented from.

However, there is a step 1A that should be listed on here: find a promo code. There are websites (like this one) that list promo codes you can type in and get a free rental! You still have to swipe your credit card in case you're late returning it, but they won't charge your card if you keep it for a day. You can use each code once per credit card, but for someone like me who has 2 credit cards and a debit card, that means three rentals per code. It's great!

AND, it allows you to rent movies you would never actually pay money to see, like Doomsday:


If you've ever thought that someone could make a great movie if they combined 28 Days Later, Lord of the Rings, Mad Max, Fast and the Furious, and I Am Legend, this movie would prove you wrong. Sorry to burst your bubble.

But it was free!

Marching, frolicking, and football

My friend Claire works as a physical trainer at Sycamore High School in Pleasantview, about 30 minutes north of my house. As part of her job, she has to be on the sideline at all War Eagle football games, leaving her fall Friday nights completely booked. Kind of a sucky way to spend the greatest season of the year, right?

So, I've decided that I'm going to be a SHS super fan this year. I've gone to both home games so far this season, and it has been quite the experience getting back to high school athletics.

Now I love watching football, and there have been some great plays made in those two games; but my favorite part, as with all amateur skirmishes, is all the extra little things that make a sporting event an event.

There's the fans, obviously, including the over-invested parents, students who are just there because there's nothing else to do in Pleasantview on a Friday night, and the people you're not sure why they're even there (like me). Each of these groups serve a distinct purpose in creating the classic small town high school atmosphere.

Next are the cheerleaders. Over time I have become somewhat of a connoisseur of high school cheerleaders, and the War Eagle Cheer Team is actually quite effective in today's terms. They have energy, they can do a bit of tumbling and gymnastics, and they've got rhythm. That's all I ask for at this point, as my standards have become progressively lower as more and more of the best cheerleaders are choosing sports and dance instead. Not that that's a bad thing, just an observation.

And finally, my favorite piece of the puzzle: the marching band. Maybe it's because I had three sisters and dozens of friends who participated in the band, but I think the band can make or break the whole experience. Needless to say, the Sycamore band is something to behold.

They have performed the same disco medley at both half times, and I have to give them credit for having the guts to go out there for how obviously unprepared they were last week. I think my favorite part is when the flag girls twirl replica Civil War muskets while playing "Play That Funky Music". This week, the band was much better musically, but their flag girls were probably the worst I have ever seen. So incredibly awful it can't be described, so I won't even try.

This week's halftime show also featured the opposing team's band, a school I never did catch the name of. These guys were more of a frolicking band than a marching band, playing music that featured multiple solos and movements. Their presentation included some of the best flag twirling I have ever seen, switching between brightly colored banners and sequined batons like pros.

All in all, it was one of the starkest contrasts I've ever seen. And the other school went first. It was like U2 opening for Milli Vanilli. Definitely worth the drive out there, and definitely a fun enough experience to keep me coming back.

And it's finally looking like it's going to cool down in Tennessee, and you know what that means: sweatshirts and stocking caps. Yay!

Is this really necessary?

It is becoming easier and easier to achieve your 15 minutes of fame these days, or at least to get the sensation of those 15 minutes without actually making any real impact.

Enter the iReporters. CNN.com began a project at some point in the last year that allows every day people to report the news as they see it. This has led to some "awesome" "stories", like the video of the online astrologer in a tanktop during the California earthquake a couple months ago.

And apparently now it's no longer good enough to get a poll to find out how the public is reacting to politics; the poll is augmented by and sometimes foregone for the personal views of anyone who thinks their opinion is worthy of the internet. This results in a bunch of extremist crazies submitting back-and-forth attacks and going nowhere.

Is all this self-expression really necessary? Really?

Then again, I'm writing my opinion in the same medium...

Since when did Penn Jillette's opinion matter?

This was the first thought that ran through my head when I saw this article on cnn.com this evening:

Penn Jillette: U.S. doesn't need a great leader

And then I read the article and, surprisingly, he had some good things to say. He presents his point in a very self-deprecating way, the gist of it being candidates are all talking about how much they're going to do for us and how that's not what makes a good president.

I couldn't agree more. The presidential race seems more and more about what the candidates are going to do for you, how they're going to make your life better, how they're going to put more money in your pocket. All these promises sound great, even if we all know that very few of them will actually come true. Who wouldn't want universal healthcare? Lower gas prices? Increased governemtn aid programs? Etc, etc, etc...

But is a system of handouts and free passes really best for the future of the country? Will universal healthcare really improve the health of the country, or will it just create a greater gap between the haves and the have-nots, with long waits and poor care at government facilities juxtaposed against the sterile, segregated, private hospitals?

I'm not saying that is how universal healthcare would end up, but it is just one example of the kind of issue that I think people can get blindly excited about without thinking past the immediate benefit. And it is these voters who can't see past the present, acting on what sounds good and will benefit them now rather what is best for the future of this nation, that scare me the most in this election. They will get distracted by flashy smiles, puffed-up rhetoric, and reformation-era plans from both parties and will miss the issues that matter most to our long-term survival.

I generally think picking a candidate is going to come down to the lesser of two (or three) evils; there will always be things to disagree on. I just hope I can decide this election's lesser evil before November rolls around.

I could write pages and pages on how I think the current generation is spoon-fed too much, how we are being babied by our parents well into our 20s, how we are given such a false sense of entitlement to the luxuries of life that we can't comprehend what it means to sacrifice. And it's becoming more and more apparent to me the older I get. But that'd be a book in and of itself, so I'll leave that alone. For now.

Stryker's Most Wanted

Can I just say how much I'm looking forward to fall? I've decided it is far and away my favorite season (especially when it's in MN, but that's another story). I can't wait to start layering. Granted I try to get away with this during the dog days of summer too, but it's just not the same. Not even close. Bring on the 40s, I say!

I am beginning to see the fruits of my labor more and more at work. One important aspect of my job is to kind of a perpetual audit of every use of our songs, whether that's comparing album sales units to what the label has paid, making sure we get paid the right rate on a ringtone sale, or contacting people who use our songs without paying in order to collect what the money that rightfully belongs to our clients.

This is generally a long process, and it can take months and years to resolve a single issue. While I have seen these issues come and go over the last year, I am starting to find a groove in the whole process and, in turn, am resolving issues more consistently and efficiently. It's one of my favorite feelings at work when I get a check for one of our writers they wouldn't have seen if not for my efforts.

In order to spur this process along and keep the outstanding issues fresh in my mind, I have created a list and taped it to my office door titled "Stryker's Most Wanted" (Yes, my work nickname is Stryker... long story, but it's on my business cards now so it's gonna stick). And today I got to cross an item off for the first time. Hopefully by the end of the week I can get another one off. Just one of the little things that make it all worth while.


Apparently some of my friends have banded together for a birthday present for me. I have no idea what it is, but I'm more than mildly intrigued by what it is. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Enough chatting about nothing; I'm going to get back to one of the greatest films ever made, The Godfather Part II. Soo good....

Putting the "Labor" in Labor Day Weekend

Ah, what a weekend.

A couple days after I bought my house, my dad and I realized I was going to need to do some siding work. Well, three months later, it's finally done.

I spent most of the last three days working on my house (and, consequently, my tan). With a lot of help from my friends (I owe Lee more than the free food from this weekend), we were able to replace the siding on the front and right sides of the house. Here's a bit of before and after fun:

Before


Between


After


Before



After (I've got one more piece to put in above the french doors, that's what that line is)


Before


After


Before


Between

After




So, as you can see, we've made quite a bit of progress. On tap for this week is renting a power washer and cleaning off the whole house so I can paint it next weekend. Current color of choice is going to be something in the olive green family, likely a shade lighter than my kitchen and with white trim. I can't imagine what it's going to look like when I'm done with that... crazy.

Additionally, I had a fun little discovery this weekend too. I was taking the exterior insulation off of the interior of my family room (if you don't know what I'm taking about, look back at the pictures of the interior siding that came with the house), fully expecting to find plywood behind it. Instead, I found this:



They're vertical planks that look like they are original with the house. The picture doesn't really do justice to the potential this wall has. Where I had planned on putting sheetrock, I will now be at least trying to stain and preserve the wall as a fun little diversion from the rest of the house.

And finally, nature is now enjoying the fruits of my labor:



Precious.