Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time

I was listening to Alice Cooper’s radio program tonight and he was complaining that Led Zeppelin wouldn’t be touring because Robert Plant would rather do his folk tour with Allison Krauss. He felt that Plant owed it to his fans to tour with Led Zeppelin. That is an interesting concept. Do musicians owe anything to their fans? If I go see Tom Petty in concert but all he does are Tupac covers certainly I would be pissed since there would be the expectation that he would be playing mainly his songs, specifically his hits. Similarly if an artist plays only B-sides and unknown songs, even if they are originals, the expectation of the concert would be broken. Generally concert goers are not only going to see the band, but to hear the band play specific songs. And that is unfortunate for the musician.

I can imagine that after 30 years you might want to do something different. I’ve been at my current place of employment for just under seven years and already my job is vastly different from what it was when I started. I could only imagine the frustration that goes along with doing the same thing, playing the same songs, over and over again. Don’t you want to hear the new stuff I’ve been writing? No way! Now play Stairway to Heaven again! The closest thing I could relate musically is when Cheese Log had a ‘hit’ song and we left it on the set list long after we would have liked to take it off. Why, because that was an expectation our fans had. They wanted to hear that song, so we played it. So yes an artist has a certain responsibility to live up to their fans expectations.

However, an artist should also have the right to move on and grow. By refusing to tour with Led Zeppelin and instead do something different Robert Plant is making a conscious choice to tell his fans he wants to do something different. At least he’s up front about it. It’s not like he’s selling tickets to a Zeppelin concert and then doing nothing but folk and bluegrass. That would be breaking expectations and people would rightly be angry. But he’s not doing that and I salute his decision as well as his right to do it. He does not have a responsibility to tour again with Led Zeppelin if that is not what he wants to do. So sorry Alice, I think you are way off base on that one.

I have been a strong supporter and denfender of Windows Vista since I first installed it so hearing about the Mohave experiment made me smile.

Basically, what Microsoft did was take a bunch of people who had never used Vista but hated it anyway and offer to let them use the next Windows codenamed Mohave. After loving the Mohave the participants were told that they were in fact using Vista. That is just full of Win!

The Vista blog post about it. (link)

The Mohave fact-sheet. (link)

The Mohave videos. (link)

As I run out of working days before the start of the semester I start to get nervous. Will I get everything done? Will everything work? I am sure I and it will respectively. However it is a stressful time of year. So if I don’t blog much it might because I am too stressed. Or maybe I’ll blog more, since it is an outlet. The days are counting down and fortunately so far things are running smoothly and on schedule. Let’s hope they stay that way.

This past Saturday Karen and I attended the wedding and reception of my friend Ryan and his new wife Dawn. I’ve known Ryan for 11 years now, it’s hard to believe he’s two years older than I was when Karen and I got married. It’s funny how you can not realize how time goes by.
I personally was honored to have been invited since as with many friends we don’t see each other very often anymore. I wish them the very best as they start their new life together!
I didn’t get many good pictures, but I’ll put them up when I find the camera….

Update: Found the camera, pics below:

So the problem with being offline for the entire weekend is all the little things I thought about that I thought would make for amusing or anecdotal blog posts have completely slipped my very tired mind. I suppose I could have done mobile updates to Twitter, but even though I did sign up for an account to see what it was all about I refuse to pay the extortion data rates that text messages cost. So I will only update from the web, which I couldn’t do. We had a nice weekend, went to an old friend’s wedding which I will blog about as soon as I get the pictures uploaded even though I didn’t get any really good shots. But right now I am too tired to think of anything coherent to write….

Well it’s the last Friday in July. That means it is System Administrator Appreciation Day.

So cheers to all of us who keep their respective systems up and running!

I never read the package the coffee comes in. I know what coffee is. I know how to make coffee. So I never really pay attention to the package. Tonight, as I was scooping out some coffee to get the pot ready for tomorrow, I noticed that near the Brewing Instructions there was a title that indicated Unbrewed Coffee. Is it really necessary to indicate that?  Shouldn’t the fact that it is not a liquid be enough of an indication that it is unbrewed coffee? Or even the fact that there are brewing instructions, doesn’t that sort of imply that what you have is unbrewed if it needs brewing instructions? Like having the warning May Contain Nuts on a jar of peanuts, this is just ridiculously unnecessary. When did common sense become uncommon?

http://www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/mediareleases_10605.htm

One of Merriam-Websters definitions for satire is:

trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly

As such the often talked about Obama New Yorker cover is a perfect example of satire. It is using sarcasm to expose and discredit the folly of the Republican smear campaign to convince people that Obama is a Muslim and his wife hates America. I was surprised to hear the uproar over the cover.

It is hilarious, because it is so ludicrous to see what the Republicans are saying actually put down in art. To hear someone claim that Obama is a Muslim could be believable. To hear someone claim his wife is militantly anti-American could be believable. To see him fist bumping, oh sorry “terrorist fist jabbing”, his Black Panther wife while dressed in African garb as the American flag burns in the fireplace below the portrait of Osama bin Laden is just too far out. It should be obvious that when taken to this extreme the Republican claims are ridiculous and unbelievable.

Unfortunately there are apparently many many people who just don’t get it. It is inappropriate. It is not politically correct. It is racist. And so on these people claim. But there is also the real fear that somewhere someone is going to look at that and say “Yup, there’s that Muslim fella that wants to be runnin’ our fine Nation. Just look at that, can you believe he had a flag burning while they took his picture?”

moar funny pictures