More Progress

There's a direct relationship between "spending time on the CD to MP3 conversion" and "increasing the number of files in the e:\music directory". After spending time in the den this weekend, I have 
55933 File(s) 389,794,369,897 bytes now in e:\music. I aim to reach 56,000 prior to Wednesday, which may mean simply taping WWE Raw instead of watching it.

This week is crazy busy with errands to be run prior to the weekend, baseball scrimmages, and Megan working. A more detailed breakdown would take too much time. Trust.

At work, we are ramping up to the next release. Two weeks from today, every thing needs to be done. I am really excited about what's on my plate.

Even if you play in the world's biggest heavy metal band . . .

"I think a really big help in our situation was the fact that we all had kids more or less around the same time. So when you have no kids — and this is the 'sound bite' version of this — you think primarily of yourself. When you have children, you think primarily of others before yourself. So, I think some of the things about the way you relate to your children and put your children first, you learn to, kind of, put your own needs secondary. And I think the fact that we all had kids at the same time helped instill that in us. And so you try to, sort of, sometimes just put your own needs second and learn to trust that you can go with somebody else's thought and opinion." - Lars Ulrich
From http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=189313,
Being a dad is always a glorious burden, even if you play in the world's biggest heavy metal band.

I Don't Understand

Earlier today, Megan returned from her Florida trip with the West High band. Karen went to pick her up from West High School while Alex and I stayed home. Our assigned task was to put the white mattress pad on her bed. As Alex and I were working on this, he said to me, "I don't understand why everyone is so happy that Megan is coming back."

I looked at him and paused before speaking. I said to him, "It's different for you because you are her brother. She is my daughter. I am very happy that she is home. It will be different someday when you have a child that is gone for awhile and then comes back."

I don't really know if it sunk in or if Alex really, truly, understood my words. I do hope that, someday, he understands that Megan is the only sister he will ever have. Period. I also hope that, someday, he understands that Megan will go through hell to make sure Alex is okay. It is not easy being a brother or a sister. It can be really difficult at times. Look at the relationship between Alan and Charlie Harper on 2 1/2 Men.

I also think that life is full of opportunities to go beyond what we thought we could do and to be more than we expect of ourselves. Being a brother or a sister is just one of many opportunities.

Listen! I am zunibear53!

What an idiot. Like I'm going to believe an e-mail admin has a user ID "zunibear53" ...

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Back to It

For the past few weeks, when I worked on any of the conversion projects, I sat in the living room on the couch and would watch TV but today, I'm starting out with a different strategy as I have come downstairs to the den, where I can have a second monitor and sit in my comfy desk chair as I rip / organize my files. It's peaceful.

Last night, Scary Robots rehearsed. I used Carol's voice recorder to document the rehearsal. I have always tried to document rehearsals. Up until Scary Robots, I used cassette tapes. I think I'd like to invest in a recorder of my own. Carol doesn't mind letting me borrow it but it would still be nice to have my own.

What I hear on the recording is a band making strides. The consensus was that we were sloppy. We had an issue with "Stuck in the Middle" - my example is I hit the snare instead of the hi-hat - and that's a song we've always been nailing. Next week is crazy busy for me so I'm not rehearsing until after that. Hopefully, by that time, the 15 songs I mentioned yesterday will be so ingrained in my head that I can't play them wrong. Matthew has talked about that idea before and I want to get to a point with those songs where I've achieved it.

I'm still optimistic about the August 24th gig and hope by the end of May, I can either accept or reject it. I really want to do it. It's intoxicating to think about playing rock & roll music in front of an audience again. I haven't done that since 1992 with Old Stew at Bonehead's. I think Scary Robots is the group of musicians I want to be on stage with to break that 21 year dry spell!

Scary Robots Tonight!

The ones we’re working on tonight include:

1. Lonely Boy
2. Big River
3. Stuck in the Middle
4. Break Up Song
5. Sunshine of Your Love
6. Key to the Highway
7. Foghat
8. American Girl
9. Rocking in the Free World
10. Cheap Sunglasses
11. What I Like About You
12. Saturday Night
13. Dead Flowers
14. Hey Joe
15. Sweet Jane

Sigh.. LAZERfest 2013

Nope, not going to the Des Moines area on a Friday. The lineup is out - it is a good lineup - but I'm not taking off a day of work. I saw Papa Roach at Memphis in May and saw All That Remains open for Five Finger Death Punch. I am firing up the Sick Puppies on my external hard drive - I would like to see them sometime. Their lyrics are thought-provoking. 

Damnit John Michael Osbourne! Stay SOBER....

CD to MP3 Conversion Update

As I've been writing about, I've been ripping CDs to MP3s for some time. I have a lot of spindles that hold 100 CD-Rs and while watching TV or folding 25 white wash cloths in the living room, I'll put a CD in and let it rip.

The other night, I came across data CDs from Chris and Kevin. Data CDs mean that I have to copy the contents from the CDs to the e:\music directory. The CDs from Chris have a 12/13/2006 date written on them. There are a lot of awesome bands like Godsmack, KISS, Van Halen, and Winger - yeah, I said Winger. For the moment, I am simply copying the entire contents of these CDs to my e:\music directory and not worrying about if they are duplicates of existing songs/albums. The data CDs from Kevin are also being copied to the e:\music directory as well. Again, I've not concerned myself with whether they are duplicates of existing songs/albums. I will clean that up later. I know there are duplicates, as shown below. The MP3 files were existing and the .wma files are from a data CD.

I did have to change my DOS batch file to include *.wma files. I need to look into if I want to convert from the .wma file format to the .mp3 file format - I don't know if .wma is a higher quality format than .mp3 so I need to consult the Internet.

I ran my DOS batch file and think the number is very high:
54629
I fully expect the number to be reduced as I prune out the duplicates.

Brutal Cards!

Alex slept in yesterday. When he finally got up, Karen asked what he wanted for breakfast.

"IHop."

We went to IHop for lunch, then to Fareway to get some food. Karen made her famous Oreo ice cream dessert for later that night. We went to 5:15 Mass. Alex served, Karen sang, I drummed.

After Mass, we went downstairs and played Euchre. There were 28 players (7 tables) and wow. I've rarely seen cards as pitiful as what I was dealt. There were four times when I was dealt 3 9s. What do you do with that? Twice I went alone and got the first four tricks only to lose the last trick with a pitiful card. For example, I went alone in diamonds and had four good diamonds and a queen of spades. I would get the first four tricks and on the last trick, playing my queen of spades, the king of spades would be played and I'd lose. Crap like that.

Today, we have a meeting in Riverside from 4-6, then a social function from 6-8.
Tomorrow, Megan leaves for a week in Florida. Our little girl is going to Disney World with the Iowa City West band.

Ideal Band 3 - Version 2013

Years ago, I wrote Ideal Band and I'm happy to say, I'm in that Ideal Band. We call ourselves Scary Robots. We rehearsed at the studio. It was kind of spur of the moment, meaning Joe asked about this weekend on Thursday, we talked among ourselves, and settled on the next night. We started playing around 7:30, took a break while Brian Guitar replaced a broken string - the first he broke while playing the guitar he bought not long after we started playing together. We went through a few more songs and then, shortly after 10 PM, we called it a night.

We've been talking about playing at a gig. This AM, I took a stab at splitting up the types of songs between what I envision would be three sets. I don’t want to do all the blues songs together and then all the short ‘pop’ ones together. Some of the ones listed below are ones we first talked about last night.

Set 1

1. Lonely Boy
2. Big River
3. Whisper (original)
4. Vicious
5. Cuts Like a Knife
6. Stuck in the Middle
7. Break Up Song
8. Stepping Stone
9. Lonely is the Night
10. Switching  to Glide
11. Sunshine of Your Love
12. Key to the Highway

Set 2

13. No Time
14. I Don’t Apologize (the Otherwise song)
15. Foghat
16. Cinnamon Girl
17. Bucket (original)
18. Rocky Mountain Way
19. For What It’s Worth
20. Dead Flowers
21. Hey Joe
22. Sweet Jane
23. Everybody Wants to be My Baby
24. Mary Had A Little Lamb

Set 3

25. American Girl
26. I Think You Know What I Mean
27. Iowa’s Rising (original)
28. Have You Ever Seen the Rain
29. Saturday Night
30. Rocking in the Free World
31. Cheap Sunglasses
32. Hoochie-Coochie Man
33. Love Stinks
34. I’ve Done Everything for You
35. Jefferson’s Theme / Sanford theme
36. What I Like About You
Encore:
37. Something “fun” here, like teases of songs we’ve jammed on, in alpha order for now:
    Blister in the Sun
    Brown-Eyed Girl
    Doctor Doctor
    Come Together
    Dream On
    Enter Sandman
    Everybody Wants You
    Joe’s Garage
    Round and Round
    Taking Care of Business
    Time After Time
    Unchained
    You’ve Got Another Thing Coming 
38. Rock and Roll All Night

Ripping Along

This week, I renewed focus on the CD to MP3 conversion and found some true gems that had not been converted. Skid Row's "Slave to the Grind" is now present as is Shine Down's "Leave a Whisper" release. I converted several others and can now report I'm at:
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53402 File(s) 367,886,652,044 bytes
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This is significant because my stated goal was to be at 52356 by May 27, 2013.

Wrong

I used to tell Karen that I didn't like going to the (now closed) Old Country Buffet at the Coral Ridge Mall. I would often say that there were too many people there with their ass in front of them.

Ship It!

I have tears in my eyes from laughter...

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Star Wars VII

Boston Bombing

There was a terrible event on Monday, a short two days ago, towards the end of the Boston Marathon, near the finish line of the race, two explosions rocked the air, causing death, injuries, and confusion. At this moment in time, there are a lot of unknowns - who did this, why they did it, and what they thought they would accomplish by hurting people in or near the race.

To me, it doesn't make sense. If you have a problem with someone, you go talk to them. You figure it out. Think about the way a war is ended. The two sides sit down at a table and they negotiate peace.

What did the bomb maker think this would accomplish? What twisted asshole / lower than pond scum cretin believes that death is a solution to an issue? I don't believe it is a solution. In fact, I would argue it is a fool's journey to believe that taking an innocent life. One of the many stories coming out of this tragedy is that of the 8 year-old boy who died. His dad was running in the race and the boy was a spectator. The boy ran out, hugged his dad, and then returned to where his mother and sister were watching the race. Then the explosion. The boy was killed instantly. The sister lost a limb. The mother is having brain surgery. What purpose was achieved?

I don't have an answer and I may never, ever, have an answer. All I can really do is pray.

Now, before you go read the following link, you should know that there are pictures of people injured and bloodied. View at your own risk. There you go.

Empty Promise

Bayside play in Milwaukee, WI, on Saturday, 6/1, and in St. Louis, MO, on Sunday, 6/2. Whatever happened to “We’ll see you again real soon!”

Empty promises by my favorite band do not impress me.

No dates in Iowa, per their Facebook page.

Lots of WWE Reactions

I consistently read on the Internet about Randy Orton making a heel turn. I thought the match of Sheamus / Orton v. Big Show was going to be the opportunity for it to happen. But it didn't. By reading Orton's body language, he is either really building up the face persona to make the heel turn that much more of a shock or he is enjoying the role of face / good guy. There's another opportunity for the heel turn on Smackdown as Mark Henry / Big Show are teaming against Sheamus / Orton, which was set up by Mark Henry attacking Sheamus. What kind of confuses me is that if Sheamus / Orton are going to be an authentic tag team, they need to be in a match against Team Hell No (Kane / Daniel Bryan), who are also faces. What I see happening, at some point, is Ryback joining forces with the Shield - despite the 6 times the Shield attacked him - and making it 4 v. 4. However, next week, the Undertaker is teaming with Team Hell No against the Shield (why it wasn't last night is probably due to the Undertaker making limited appearances). I know I'll tune in next week.

No Elvis Yet

We've decided to cut "Little Sister" from the list of songs, but went through other new songs that I had not really prepared to go through at rehearsal. We added one song that made me recall my youth. If we polish it and play it when we have a gig, it is sure to make a lot of people smile. Time will tell whether it makes our final set list. It seems like we are still shooting for the August 24th gig. Brian talked about dynamics and I am on board with that - I've been playing like Lars Ulrich with only glimpses into playing music the way I know it should be played.

Speaking of Lars, it seems like after every rehearsal I'll say to myself, or write here, that I need to go spend some serious time on the Yamaha electronic set in the basement with the songs we are playing as well as the five Metallica songs on my MP3 player. After last night, I can think the same thoughts. I've picked the following five songs not so I play them exactly like Lars Ulrich plays them. Instead, they were picked to increase my stamina.

1. "Enter Sandman" is probably the easiest Metallica song to play and at a decent mid-tempo. 
2. "All Nightmare Long" is a step up in both length and complexity. 
3. "Sad But True" is a bit of a breather in terms of tempo and complexity. 
4. "Broken Beat and Scarred" is a bit faster and longer. 
5. "My Apocalypse" is a hold onto the sticks and don't lose tempo as it is balls-out fast.

Perhaps if I got serious about playing for 30 minutes a night, I would be able to play longer and better at rehearsals. When we tried "Saturday Night" at the end of last night's rehearsal, I knew before we even started that my arms were cashed in and begging for mercy.

Agenda for Today

I was really exhausted yesterday. I normally do not take naps, but I did yesterday afternoon prior to 5:15 Mass. I was still tired after Mass and while we did our shopping at Fareway. When we finally got home, I was not confident I would make it through "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" which we started at 9 PM. I did, though. I slept until 10 AM today and, believe it or not, I'm not as tired as I was.

As I sit here on the living room couch ripping CDs, Karen is at a jewelry party, Megan is napping on the other couch, and Alex is seeking his riches through his baseball cards. It's kind of a lazy day.

Scary Robots rehearsal is at 6-ish. I've been listening to the 5 that are on the agenda for tonight:

1. Saturday Night
2. Vicious
3. Little Sister
4. Cinnamon Girl
5. Switching to Glide

I think I'm ready to rock!

I'll Go Alone in Spades

After losing the first two games, I found a partner in a guy named Bernie. We played the last three games of the night together and we won all three. I started at table 3, where I lost two games and won one, then moved to table 2, where I won one, then moved to table 1, where I won two. I tied for 3rd and won $15. Bernie and I split the "set" pot and also took $5 each. It cost $10 to get in and I got set 3 times ($1.50) so, in all, I came out ahead.

The retreat this AM was inspiring.

Alex's game was cancelled because of the condition of the field.

Simply the Best Ever...

At this point, I think this weekend could be one of the highlights of 2013.

1. Friday
• Playing euchre at Gus' at 7
2. Saturday
• 8:30 - noon
• Mini-retreat at STM from 8:30-noon
• Noon - ?
• Alex's first baseball game of the season
• 4:30ish - 6:30ish
• play drums at 5:15 Mass
3. Sunday
• early AM
• nothing
• 10:30ish - noonish
• play drums at 11 Mass
• nothing in the afternoon
• MP3 conversion
• write music reviews for DV
• catch up on the "200 Days" project
• 5:30ish - 8:30ish
• Scary Robots rehearsal, where we are going to work on:
1. Saturday Night
2. Vicious
3. Cinnamon Girl
4. Little Sister
5. Switching to Glide

I also plan to prepare for next week, which will be very busy at work. We are going to move into high gear with the changes to the documentation / help text that are required to document the changes to the software that are being released in the next version. At the moment, if the software change has an impact on all clients, the change is made in each client's version of the user guide. I hope to cease working like that prior to the first release of 2014. At the moment, though, it is what needs to be done. We are working on some changes to the processes of how we do our job and I am very excited to implement what we have been discussing. When it comes to fruition, it will truly be more awesome than awesome, to paraphrase Rob Zombie's "More Human than Human" song.

Does Good Writing Matter?

This article asks and answers the question in an easy-to-read essay. It is worth spending a few minutes reading.

One of the highlights is this section:

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8. What is your personal pet peeve?
I think the error that irks me more than any other is Gratuitous Capitalization of Words.

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Look what I just came across. Was there really a need to capitalize the noun "User Guides" in this sentence?

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Cell Phone Issues

Last night when I asked Alex to put his phone on the kitchen island, it was like I was asking for a limb. It seems like a no-brainer to me - do what you're told - but it's been pointed out to me that I probably didn't listen to my parents as well as I think I did when I was growing up. Alex feels it is unfair for him to put his phone on the kitchen island when we routinely do not ask Megan to do the same. He finds that very unfair. I said to him that he really didn't want me to treat him like I treat Megan - that you have different personalities. His response is one that will haunt him forever. His defense?

"We're both human and we both have phones - we're the same."

His job on Wednesdays is to take the garbage to the street. I told him last night to do that while we were gone at a parent's meeting. He did not. I woke him up at 6:10 this AM. I said, "You wanted me to treat you like Megan." He made me chuckle when he responded, "I was just kidding."

I fully realize that we only have a few more years of him at home. In 2015, Megan will graduate from high school. If Alex thinks he does a lot of chores now, wait until Megan isn't in the house! 

Quickly, A Status

52171 File(s) 344,206,121,182 bytes

Wrestlemania XXIX Results

Randy Orton didn't turn into a bad guy. After all the Internet hype that he would, nope. Instead, Big Show hit Orton and Sheamus after the match. Big Show remains a bad guy. Results.

Changed from "not invisible" to "visible"

Consider this:
When the application starts up, the checkbox was not invisible. Changed the application to make the checkbox visible.
Technical writers are cursed with the glorious burden of being able to read poor writing and realize it is poor writing and then write a pithy blog post about poor writing. 

4 years, 3 weeks

I happened upon some old posts - one from 4 years, 3 weeks ago and one from 4 years, 1 day ago. The company I worked for when I wrote those posts was purchased by another company after I left. I'm not quite sure why, but I started thinking about all the work I would have been doing, had I stayed. I would have spent my days: 

• keeping the the documentation / help text up-to-date with the changes that were made by Development for the release. The ratio at the time was challenging about 15 developers to me.
• Side note: If documentation / help text is not up-to-date with the information the user needs to do their task, why even allow the software to access the documentation? Why allow a user to even access obsolete information? Because you want to frustrate the user? Because you want to teach the user not to trust the documentation? It was hard work - damn hard work - to get the users to trust and then nurture their trust of the work I did. After all, if the documentation I wrote had to be not accessible to the users and time / energy because I couldn't keep up or whatever, and the decision was made to remove access from the software to the help text . . . I'd be speechless about the terrible disservice to the users! The time and energy wasted by the Developers to hopefully just hide (comment out) the code and to do that for all the software applications I documented! I would have felt lower than low. All that work, never seen by the users And then, when I had gotten through busting my a$$ to get it updated and ready to be redistributed to the users, the Developers would have to make their code unhidden. And *then* the time spent retesting each application to make sure the documentation / help text was accessed correctly. 
• replacing the feedback@(old_company_name.com) with the feedback@(new_company_name.com). That sounds simple but, really, when my mind starts processing.... Wow.
• Off the top of my head, I'd first change, then test :
• all the hundreds of HTML files.
• I had multiple RoboHelp projects. For each one, I would have to:
• change the text in "Design" view in Dreamweaver
• change the text in the "Code" view in Dreamweaver.
• I'd have to do both! I'd be 100% wrong to only change the documentation@(new_company_name.com) text that the user would be clicking. If I did that, the underlying (unchanged HTML) would mean the actual email would be sent to the wrong address - documentation@(old_company_name.com) address!
• all the 15ish JavaScript files (.js) files
• those files included references to documentation@(old_company_name.com) - especially the one that was used to create the Documentation Feedback section at the bottom of each and every HTML page! 
• all the 200+ Word docs that were converted to PDF, then distributed to clients. 
• The last page prior to the Index was a "Contacting Documentation Team" page.
• replacing all the references to the previous software version with the new version in the footer of the HTML files.
• Side notes:
• Vividly, I remember taking the time to do this to my source files prior to each release. It had to be done before the documentation I wrote was bundled with the software for distribution. 
• I remember using (and loving) how powerful FAR and / or Dreamweaver were for this type of work!
• trying any strategy I would have conceived to make the release notes not look like multiple people added entries.
• Instead of still seeing:
• Modified the program to...
• Changed the program to...
• The program was changed to...
• Program changes were made to...
• I would have suggested again and again if necessary
• Changed the program to...
• Changed the program to...
• Changed the program to...
• Changed the program to...
• Side note: There is absolutely no feasible or sensible reason for consistency when conveying "technical information" about the way users are going to do their job with the changes in the software that the release notes describe. After all, when technical documentation is inconsistent, all you really do is make the reader guess whether there's a difference between "changing a program" and "modifying a program." All that happens when you are inconsistent is you change the focus from "what" is written to "how" it is written. Focus on the content. Inconsistency screams with all the force of the Metallica / Lou Reed collaboration, "Are you kidding me? Who thought inconsistency was "okay" for the audience?
• replacing all text references to the (old company_name) with the (new_company_name) in all source files
• HTML files
• JavaScript files
• Word docs (the ones converted to PDF prior to distribution)
• keeping up with the user interface changes I was responsible for. The work to do that would be similar to the documentation changes. Off the top of my head, I'd be changing the references on the screens, in the title bar, and (probably) the logo that used to be accessed through the "About" link on the Help menu as well as what used to be in the corner of the screen. And that wouldn't be all! Any one of those UI changes could impact the documentation, I'd have to review all of the existing screen captures in the aforementioned documentation / help text and decide either I needed to replace the screen capture because it helped the user or remove the screen capture because it didn't help the user. Sincerely, based upon the work I do now on a daily basis, I would be slicing and dicing the screen captures out. I am not anti-screen captures - I am anti-fluffy screen captures. 
• Side note:
• Just the other day, I was editing a user guide. I came to a section in the user guide where I saw a small cropped graphic of just the button the user clicks to complete the task. There was no context on this graphic for where the button is actually located on the screen. I think that would help the user find it and be useful.  But this little "Add New User" button. Really? It looked like this:
• Click Add New User.
  <graphic>
• replacing all the references to the previous software version with the new version in the footer of the HTML files.
• I remember doing this in my source files prior to the documentation being bundled with the software for distribution. I really loved FAR and / or Dreamweaver, for this type of work!

My, how time flies. I like reflecting about my professional career. Comparing "now" and "then" while thinking about where I am now v. where I was, I can't help but grin ear to ear.

Can't Escape the Past

Prior to starting to write this blog, Steve Alford was the Iowa men's basketball coach. He was here for 8 years. The other day, he was hired as the UCLA basketball coach. At his first press conference, he was asked about Pierre Pierce. Pierce was an Iowa Hawkeye that was ensnared by off-court issues. A lot of fans criticized Alford for the way he handled the situation. Some argue it was a factor in his decision to leave the U of I for New Mexico, which is the school he left.

I never met Alford. I have heard a lot of whispers and gossip about him being an ass.

That said, I hope he is successful at UCLA.

Giggles

I like this dialogue between Amy and Hilary on the Word-PC list:

It's Just Wrong. There's no other appropriate adjective except "wrong"

Apparently, I was under a rock this week when a Planned Parenthood representative testified in Florida.

Splash / Louie Anderson / Bob Nelson

Last night, I watched the ABC show "Splash." I had seen comedian Louie Anderson was on the show. It made me think back to 1984, when Rodney Dangerfield's "9th Annual Young Comedians Special" was on HBO.

Editor's Note - the video in question was removed from youtube.com so it is no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

Then I thought about Bob Nelson, who was on the same show. (Warning: f-bomb!)
Editor's Note - the video in question was removed from youtube.com so it is no longer available for your viewing pleasure.

Jefferson Choir

Last week, I read about the Jefferson principal denying a request for the Jefferson show choir to perform in Chicago. The principal cited scheduling conflicts as the competition is on the same weekend as "the high school’s prom, Drake Relays and the United States Academic Decathlon Nationals Competition." There was outcry from the parents and students.

Today, per this article, the choir will rehearse and then the director will decide if they can compete in Chicago. Sorry, but if the choir director says, "No, we're not going" I will be very surprised. Per the same article, "On March 29, an email statement from the Cedar Rapids Community School District announced that Superintendent Dave Benson would review Jefferson administrators’ action." Very interesting. Someone got into Benson's ear and either made a compelling case or whined to the point that Benson said, "Fine. I'll do my job and investigate."

Set List

1. I Just Wanna Make Love to You (That Foghat song)
2. Lonely Boy
3. American Girl
4. Stuck in the Middle
5. Big River
6. Cheap Sunglasses
7. What I like about you
8. Dead Flowers
9. Rocking in the Free World
10. Key to the Highway
11. Switching to Glide
12. Stepping Stone
13. Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
14. Breakup Song
15. Sunshine of Your Love

TNA

Not too long ago, on TNA, there was a major swerve that Bully Ray was the President of Aces & 8's. A while back, it was Bully Ray *and* D'Lo Brown coming out to fight the Aces & 8's off. D'Lo Brown even has joined the group. I don't know how TNA can make this heel stable stick around.

WM XXIX

Last night, the last WWE Raw prior to Sunday's Wrestlemania aired. The show ended in a controversial scene with CM Punk, a bad guy, covering his opponent on Sunday, the Undertaker, in the ashes of his former manager Paul Bearer, who recently died. That's not a "storyline" death - that's real life death. There's buzz all over the Internet about whether the scene was tasteless, awesome, or somewhere in-between. I'm not sure where I land on the scene, but that's not what I wanted to focus on.

I really like the Sheamus / Big Show / Randy Orton v. The Shield match. One website believes that Randy Orton will cause the team to lose. The Shield came out last night and talked about how the three of them are not a team. I want to believe that the three of them do emerge with the victory. The same website has predictions for each match on Sunday.

Crazy Train

This guitarist *butchers* my favorite guitar solo of all time.

CRIFILMS CDs

While looking for something else, I came across a Word doc with this. In 2003, I was asked by a friend of mine, Lisa, to gather music for the The Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival. I got in touch with the following artists and submitted two CDs with these songs. How many of these bands are still around?!?

CD 1

1.      Bye Bye Bye – Starch Martins – http://www.starchmartins.com

2.      Head Out – BoomChasers – http://www.theboomchasers.com

3.      Devil was a Drag Racer – Sherman Hillside Stranglers – http://www.shermanhillsidestranglers.com

4.      I Was a Teenage Frankenstein – Jim Testa – http://www.jerseybeat.com/jimtesta.htm

5.      They Took Off – Brother Trucker – http://www.trailer-records.com

6.      Without You – Pieta Brown – http://www.trailer-records.com

7.      Blues – Jon Southwood – http://www.gamutstudio.com

8.      Summer Rain – James Kennedy & Friends – http://www.heartconsortmusic.com

9.      The Philippians 1:21 Paradox – Dark Spectacle – http://www.angelfire.com/band/darkspec

10.   If I were Able – 30 Seconds of Shame – http://www.30sos.com

11.   Force Feed – Fear of Falling – http://www.fearoffalling.com

12.   Why do Say That – Greg Brown – http://www.trailer-records.com

13.   Absence of Circumstance – Leven – http://www.levenmusic.com

14.   Tipple Time – Oblivious Minnow (this song reunites Pearls 4 Swine!!) – http://www.ominnow.com

15.   Driftwood from Carrie – David Zollo – http://www.trailer-records.com

16.   FNR Funky – Jon Southwood – http://www.gamutstudio.com

17.   Fukuro – James Kennedy & Friends – http://www.heartconsortmusic.com

CD 2

1.      Lament – Leven – http://www.levenmusic.com

2.      Enemy – Conspire – http://www.conspireonline.com

3.      Eye of the Needle – David Zollo – http://www.trailer-records.com

4.      Without the Sin – The Boomchasers – http://www.theboomchasers.com

5.      Mended Hearts – James Kennedy & Friends – http://www.heartconsortmusic.com

6.      Song with No Maracas – Sherman Hillside Stranglers – http://www.shermanhillsidestranglers.com

7.      Tell Me How – Pieta Brown – http://www.trailer-records.com

8.      Happy – The Starch Martins – http://www.starchmartins.com

9.      Bought and Sold – Brother Trucker – http://www.trailer-records.com

10.   Child – Jon Southwood – http://www.gamutstudio.com

11.   Reason to Hate – 30 Seconds of Shame – http://www.30sos.com

12.   Soul to Even – Leven – http://www.levenmusic.com

13.   Healthy Brain Pills – http://www.ominnow.com

14.   Incident at the Harrington – Sherman Hillside Stranglers – http://www.shermanhillsidestranglers.com

15.   Beyond the Sunset – Greg Brown – http://www.trailer-records.com

16.   San Franciso Peaks – James Kennedy & Friends – http://www.heartconsortmusic.com

17.   Sundown – Sherman Hillside Stranglers – http://www.shermanhillsidestranglers.com

18.   Complete (Charger’s Ether Remix) – 30 Seconds of Shame – http://www.30sos.com

19.   Sunshine Came – The Starch Martins – http://www.starchmartins.com

Quick Update

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April Fool's Day

So.... the United States government is $16 trillion in debt. Per this website, I captured this graphic. This is what each person owes.

Given this information, I was disappointed to see this news story on this page:

I really, truly, wish this was an April Fool's Day joke, but it's not.