Finding Nemo

The other night I made my first voyage into the pool at the gym and I must say it exceeded expectations.  It was a fantastic and oddly calming workout.  I absolutely knew that I had done something my arms, shoulders, chest etc were on fire and my heart was going a 100 miles an hour, but it was almost enjoyable unlike lifting and running (not quite at the point where I find running "enjoyable", it's more a necessity considering my love of good food and good beer).  Anyway, swam laps for 30 min and by the end was finally starting to get the rhythm back so I didn't either swallow half the pool or pass out from lack of breath during my freestyle laps.  I will be adding swimming 2 - 3 times a week to my weekly routine hopefully it'll change things up a bit and it will for sure be a good thing to do come July.  I do need to figure out flip turns and get a different set of trunks so I look a bit more legit out there.  Gotta at least look like I know what I'm doing.

30 Day Music Challenge

Day 13: Song from Your Favorite Album

I've covered this one 100 times... my favorite album (at least to date) is Eminem's Recovery.  Picking just one song from it is the challenge.  I'll go with Cinderella Man, but really I feel like the whole album is one song.

Megamind

Today perhaps the greatest and most diabolic political scandal of all time has been resolved.

A bit of back story...  This plot began August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii.  Convinced that her unborn child would once be in a position to lead the USA as president, the mother and doctor of one Barack Hussein Obama II drafted a Hawaiian birth certificate; thus ensuring that his rise to power 5 decades later would not be thwarted by something as trivial as citizenship questions about eligibility for office.

Fast forward to April 27, 2011.  After much posturing by both sides the rumored and mysterious "long form" birth certificate was presented to the public.

My reaction:  So what.  Who cares.  How much time was wasted on this while the country flounders in nearly all areas that, I don't know, "matter."

As I've said before, I'm not pro Red or pro Blue, I'm pro common sense, so lets go with Purple since colors seem to be way to go these days.  But this whole "Birther" thing is/was an embarrassment to the country.  In this day of 24/7 media and everyone knocking their own grandmother to the ground for the chance at their 15 min. is it really plausible to believe that humanity in general is capable of the type of massive cover up that would be needed to fake a president's citizenship status/eligibility for the office of the president?  I mean think about... this plan would have had to have been hatched 5 decades ago, how many people would have had to have been paid off?  Politicians and celebrities can't hide anything... at all, no matter how personal.  Affairs, drug use, slips of the tongue, slips of the nipple, you name it it is a headline 5 seconds after it happens.  For that reason I never gave much traction to the whole thing, if there was evidence to prove he wasn't eligible someone would a have rolled over long long ago.  Plus if he was declared ineligible, that leaves us with Biden and who really thinks that would be a better option at this point?  

I just sincerely hope that this thing is now put to bed and the government can begin work on things that are actually important.  I hope they stop the petty bickering and fighting and do their job, which contrary to many of their beliefs is not to rile people into a frenzy and play partisan only games.  Both sides are at fault and these past years have been an absolute train wreck of uncooperative behavior that should have all politicians on both sides of the aisle embarrassed.  

As an aside, with this all important issue now seemingly resolved potential presidential candidate Donald Trump has now moved to questioning the president's college records... come 2012 is Trump is given any legitimate consideration whatsoever I seriously may move to another country for a while. 

30 Day Music Challenge

Day 12: A Song That Relaxes You/Puts You to Sleep

For this one I went instrumental.  While there's lots of songs out there that are pretty relaxing, few things are more soothing and relaxing than a well played piano.  I love the piano and wish I could play.  When it comes to piano there are too many greats to even begin sorting through them, but for me my favorite piano solo comes from a punk band... which is very odd but it just further proves that even though their "main" form of music may not sound "talented" to some, most are very musically talented.  For example Corey Taylor can scream with the best of them while belting out most of Slipknot's heavy hits, however switch gears and check out Vermilion Pt. 2 and his smooth vocals, you'll never believe it's the same guy.  Anyway, I digress, for my favorite piano solo I'm going with the hidden track on Pennywise song Bro Hymn Tribute.  The song is buried a few minutes after the last track.  I actually bought the Full Circle album in college just for this song, but lost it... and I don't think you can download just the piano solo on iTunes.  It's very long, but very good.

Things I Learned This Weekend...

• My new KC church gets EXTREMELY full on Sundays of note and thus minimally early arrival will result in standing room only.
• After: 3 weeks with no caffeine (detox), a general cut back in coffee intake, a sacrifice of soda and energy drinks (lent), downing a Rockstar will result in jitters and a trembling of the hands.  NEVER had that happen before, I guess that means that my blood is actually blood and not Taurine and Caffeine 
• Game of Thrones on HBO continues to get better.  Pretty sure next week's episode is going to be amazing.
• If you aren't wearing a mini-dress in P&L you're just going to feel out of place... even if you're a dude.
• The new Rockstar Energy/Juice drinks are not good... Monster is still the king of energy drinks.

30 Day Music Challenge

The weekend was full of errands and cooking so no posts, so to make up for it I put a couple on this one and they both have to do with the radio.  Radio has been dead to me for awhile now, mainly because I'm pretty sure most stations have a standard 12 song play list and anyone that listens longer than 40-60 min is just S.O.L.  With the invention of Pandora and it's gloriously customizable bounty of musical awesomeness I have little use for the radio, with the exception of AM radio which gives me my sports talk for a few hours a day.

Day 10:  A Song You Hear Often on the Radio

It seems like every time I turn on the radio this song is on, it's catchy and I used to actually kind of like it.  But now I find it annoying and even hearing just a few bars of it gets the hook stuck in my head for hours.  Rihanna, S&M

Day 11: A Song You Wish You Heard on the Radio

I'm going independent on this one, Borrow Tomorrow's, Wake Up.  Great song from a band I had the privilege to see many times in Chicago, I also hung out many a night with the lead singer Chris Jerles.  Anywho, I've written about these guys and I like their sound a lot.  This is a live version of one of my favorites, if you like it, you should absolutely check them out on iTunes.

30 Day Music Challenge

Bonus Day 8b (Day 9): A Song That Reminds You of a Certain Event

Sticking with my High School days, easily one of my favorite things about High School was camping and this song was one that got a lot of air time at our camp sites.  Not sure why, I mean it is a great and lessor known Smashing Pumpkins tune, probably because it was buried on the soundtrack to a failed move, Lost Highway.  Anyway, the song is really good and we hit repeat and just let it go... so much so that I haven't heard it for probably 10 years and I still knew most all of the words.  So if you like the Pumpkins this is one that is absolutely worth downloading.

30 Day Music Challenge

Day 8: Song You Know All the Words To

It was the High School ski trip to Keystone when I first hear this song on the radio and from that moment on it was nonstop.  I think in the year that followed I probably heard this tune roughly 7,543 times and after that much air time trust me when I tell you... a song sticks with you.  The video is also hilarious, but point of order... old man crashing through a sky light like that would have shattered both hips, and elbow, and possibly his coccyx.  Kryptonite, by 3 Doors Down. 

30 Day Music Challenge

Day 7: Guilty Pleasure

No contest this one goes to Taylor Swift.  Much like yesterday's song and the one before, my love for Taylor's music may come as a surprise.  But it's there and I like it.  A lot.  She's just a good singer, no bones about it.  And you can really feel what she's singing about, she sounds like she cares.  Anyway, my go too guilty pleasure song of hers is December.

GoT

Link above has some scribbles on Episode 1.