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Thursday, January 2, 2025

Sanctuary Pub has closed, with building's owner seeking new tenant - Little Village

Funniest moments of 2024: WWE Playlist

Steve Jordan Plays Drums

I am going to be completely honest about Steve Jordan. Until I listened to this video, I do not think I had ever listened to Steve Jordan play drums. I've been aware of him for at least a couple of decades, possibly 4 decades and the only reason I can't narrow down how many decades I've been aware of him is that I don't recall the month/year of the Modern Drummer issue with his cover story. I want to say it was 1985 - it could have been 1986 or 1987 or 1988 (those were the years I subscribed to Modern Drummer magazine.
I typically have nothing but love for Drumeo. However, I have to say that I wish that Steve Jordan had talked about the actual part he composed and how he had came up with it - was it that brilliant pattern on Take One? Did it evolve? Did he have other patterns that were discarded? That's the kind of in-depth question I wish the video below answered. It's interesting that the lyrics were
https://youtu.be/ dGGja0SeYAs
- Steve Jordan Plays "The Piña Colada Song" | Rupert Holmes


Update on being in an IB

I haven't posted a lot lately about playing drums in Bad Rumor and I want to write more about what it's like "now" in these moments where I am the drummer in the band. After posting 150 times on this blog about my desire to play drums in an Ideal Band, I believe I am as close to being in one that I will ever be, meaning, finally, I have arrived.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1a3FKGGAwbajEJWT3Fjk_2_XGwlH4hxH&si=qiXEF8evzQa9HJMO - 2024-12-27-BR-Checkers

What If

With a mere 18 days until Trump returns to the White House in Washington, DC, I wanted to mark the occasion by documenting that Trump had a swagger in his 2024 campaign that, to me, didn't exist in 2020. He was more self-assured and, perhaps because President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris made it so easy, all he really had to do was point out their policies and their statements and when Joe Biden decided to not run for a 2nd term after his disastrous debate against Trump, Harris replaced Biden without any sort of primary challenge. Then the narrative was that Harris was not Biden and when softball questions should have been transformed into easy home runs struck out, her disastrous performances on stage at campaign rallies sunk her campaign.
https://youtu.be/ 7tVE_9R6U1I - Trump Plays Brutal Clip-Reels To Take Down Kamala Harris, Democrats On The Jumbotron

Editor's Note: Today is the first time I used the "Kamala Harris" label on this blog.

Daily Doug and Dream Theater


https://youtu.be/ OqsvuBSh36A - Classical Composer Reacts to The Dance of Eternity (Dream Theater) | The Daily Doug - Episode 57

A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future


https://apnews.com/article/kenya-butterfly-collection-smithsonian-6ca8df8a67f70497f92ad5cedfc69711?utm_source=interact&utm_medium=email&ipid=1253 - A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

R-TRUTH Rolling

Flashback: Approval for UIHC in North Liberty

Remember this?

Rapid Reaction: Iowa collapses in 2nd half in Music City Bowl

Sigh. 

I was really REALLY hoping that Nashville and the Music City Bowl would be an exclamation point for the 2024 Iowa Hawkeyes. Given the chance to end the season with 10 wins was a great opportunity and they fell short. 

I'm not one of those Facebook "fans" who wants Kirk Ferentz fired or for him to be kicked out the door, never to coach in Kinnick Stadium again. Am I "satisfied" with the loss? Of course not! However, I have to say there's a reality to football games, which is "two teams can't win." 

It's that simple. 

Someone has to win and someone has to lose. Unfortunately, Iowa was the team that lost in Nashville, TN, on 12-30-2024. 

Was it a game that Iowa could have won if one or two plays not played out the way that they did? 

Absolutely! 

Iowa committed a terrible penalty (supposedly) which allowed Missouri to go from a 3rd and 24 to a 1st and 10. Had Iowa not done that? Well, Missouri was on the ropes at that point in the game. If Iowa had gone for a 1st down on a 4th and 2 instead of punting and successfully went 2 yards, the game outcome might not have been the same. As it turned out, Missouri went 3 and out and kicked it back to Iowa. Iowa started marching down the field until it got to be 4th and 1, and, with time running out, Sullivan's QB sneak was stuffed prior to gaining the necessary yardage to get a 1st down and that was how the game ended, with the football returning to Missouri with a 27-24 lead and Iowa not having the football to score. Missouri did two snaps of the football in what is called the "Victory" formation and that ate up the last minute of the clock.

For the next 242 days (7 months, 4 weeks, 2 days), which is when Iowa will take the field at Kinnick Stadium against Ualbany (per https://hawkeyesports.com/sports/football/schedule/season/2025-26) for the first time in the 2025 season, there will be a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as fans complain about Coach Kirk Ferentz and the direction of the program. A lot of armchair quarterbacks will proclaim that they could have coached the team better than Coach KF did last night - I actually read that comment on Facebook after the game. Coach Kirk Ferentz has been the coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes for as long as my son Alex has been alive as Coach Kirk Ferentz took over the program in 1998 and that's the year Alex was born which means that the 2026 season will be the 26th season for Coach Kirk Ferentz. 

As far as whether Coach Kirk Ferentz should retire - he is 70 years old as I write this - I am going to say, "Yes, he should retire" but not because of yesterday's loss or anything to do with his coaching record.

I think Coach Kirk Ferentz should retire because life doesn't have a known expiration date and I want Coach Kirk Ferentz to be able to sit down on a Saturday afternoon in his home and watch a NCAA football game on TV, perhaps with a cold beer or some other beverage in his hand. I think Coach Kirk Ferentz should enjoy life before he is pushed up against his mortality.

And I'm typically the person that openly says I want to work until I turn 66 in December of 2035 and still work until Friday, March 28, 2036, just so I can reach 20 years in my current role as a Senior Technical Writer. I say that because I'm not the person that typically thinks about the calm after a career that I am encouraging Coach Kirk Ferentz to enjoy.

I wrote all of this post without watching any of the video embedded below.


https://youtu.be/ X3RwTLCavJQ - Rapid Reaction: Iowa collapses in 2nd half in Music City Bowl

Metallica - The Shortest Straw - Los Angeles, CA - December 13, 2024

This tune is the perfect way to begin 2025!
https://youtu.be/ c2gU6XIJ9Ts - Metallica - The Shortest Straw - Los Angeles, CA - December 13, 2024