One good thing about music: when it hits you feel no pain

So hit me with music

HooAhh!

George Clinton here i come!

That’s right, folks.  All I gotta do is finish three papers before Friday, and then I am going to play all weekend!

Frizbee golf friday, George Clinton on saturday, hopefully followed  by an awesome house party!

Get on your feet and do the Funky Alphonso!

So I was totally prepared for today to suck. I have been wallowing beneath a million final projects that are currently pending in the very near future, and was not looking forward to spending this beautiful day cloistered at the library composing. Also, it feels like it’s been ages since spring was last here, and it feels like spring. So I spent some time jacking around before i got to work sketching out my next research paper, and when I got to the end, i had written 4 pages! That’s like 40% of that work–done! Next I have to go through and apply all my source material to the references I made, and hopefully by then I’ll be at 10 pages. otherwise it could turn ugly. I hate completing a paper and having to stretch it out to meet a length requirement, I feel like I am only detracting from the glory of this finished work by adding “stuff” merely for the sake of lengthening it.

But enough of that. I just need to get home and finish this damn paper. Anyway, right now I’m totally euphoric. It is sunny, and totally warm. The tires on my bike are adequately pressurized, so I’m not totally winded when i get to the top of the hill. And the research paper I spoke of used to be due today, but now it’s not due until Monday, which means I can actually write a solid paper without having to beat myself up about it, because it took me until today to recover from the research paper I wrote last week. And I can’t wait for Sunday, it’s going to be a “good” time.

I am also dying to start a new beer. Dear God, please influence Rick to buy a new beer kit. Tell him I’ll pay.

Also Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe always cheers me.

Errant Feces, much?

Sometimes i have to scoop the cigarette butts out of the ashtray at work. We use a kitty litter scoop that has been burnt and melted from being carelessly left in the pot while there were smokers about.

So I was thinking, “Here I am, scooping the errant feces of society. It’s not like people don’t know what littering is, i think, it’s more that they don’t see it as a big deal, just like animals pooping in the wilderness.” Okay, maybe I’m the only one who would think of the poop analogy, but it’s made all the more poignant by the fact that they use actual cat litter in the ashtray instead of sand. I’ve told them about how it always turns into a brick when it rains, and that they should use sand instead, but I digress.

Judging Debate

I don’t mind doing it, but I really loathe it (as an activity). In a best-case scenario, you see a well-structured debate where the teams pay attention and make reasonable, well-informed judgments about the resolution. In reality, large numbers of debaters are apathetic–either to the topic or to debate in general. Additionally, if one or more debaters do not take the debate seriously, it is a quick, sharp decline from a structured discussion to an episode from the peanut gallery.

Public Forum Debate (PFD, aka Ted Turner Debate), to put it bluntly, FUCKIN SUCKS! None of the speeches are long enough to really make any strong case. Sides (affirmative/positive) are decided by a coin flip, and cross-examination is replaced by “cross-fire.” This, to me, makes debate more of a fox news event. The choosing of sides is reminiscent of a football game, and crossfire is like one of those “fair and balanced” “no-spin” news shows on the fox network. I thought judging policy debate was the worst, i was wrong.

Judging LD debate makes me feel important, relevant, and smart. Judging PFD (which reminds me of personal floatation devices from boy scout camp) makes me feel irrelevant, inconsequential, and dumb. The only factors keeping me here are respect for Naylor and my wife, and the fact that i’m getting paid for this. And, I guess, the fact that i’m not the type of person to just walk out of a tough or unfulfilling situation. Generally, my philosophy includes the avoidance of these types of activities, but if i am unlucky or unwise enough to find myself in just such a situation, I’m going to stick it out because that’s why I’m here. I just wish for it to be over soon.

Networking

It’d really be nice if “networking sites” like facebook and myspace really fostered meaningful networks.  Maybe I’m missing it (it could be there), but it seems to me like these sites really only make it more convenient for advertisers.

Whatever.  That really wasn’t the point i was trying to make, anyway.

The real point is, I met another Lawrence homebrewer!  And it seems like our minds are tuned to the same frequency.  First, he hangs out at my coffeeshop, so clearly we have convergent tastes in coffee, he likes making his own beer, and is full of big ideas (creating a brew supply co-op, or like a Lawrence Brewer’s Guild or homebrew club).  We had some good brainstorming time this morning, having a receptive, open-minded person to bounce ideas off of really helped me conceptualize the types of infrastructure necessary to realize my vision of a Lawrence Homebrew Society.

Homebrew club:  (you can’t technically sell homebrew) payment of club dues generates an invite to the bi-weekly meeting where lawrence brewers offer a free sampling of their intoxicating imbiberies.  brewers are also invited, and can substitute a contribution of homebrew for the cost of the dues.  the idea is to eventually have enough participants that i, as the organizer of this event, could primarily serve in an executive function (manging lists, securing receptive locations, counting money)

These events could easily be expanded to more than just a drinking party.  Art could be displayed, music could be played, it could easily become a whole to-do!  If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

Crazy crazy tons of work

Man, i’ve been having at least four or five good blog ideas per day, but don’t have enough time to post them because i’m so bogged down with compositions for school.  I just (almost) finished the one that’s due for my night class tomorrow, I just have to edit/revise it and hand it in.  that’s pretty gratifying, especially when i turn it in along with the two papers that i am (was) currently (recently) behind on.  That makes one class down (for this round), and then all i have to do is continue to keep up on my daily reading & writing, as well as compose another research paper for next wednesday, and another critical essay for the following wednesday.  That same week, I need to present my sample lesson plans for my advanced comp class, lesson plan modifications for my exceptional learners class, a book report and research paper for foundations of Ed, and my technology final, and i’m good to go!  (All this in roughly a month–don’t tell me about busy.)

Championship!

Well, KU is off to face the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. As for UNC, I knew it was going to be big from the tip. I had previously watched the Memphis/UCLA game, and it took Memphis a couple tries to get the first points, but KU was rainin on them from the beginning. That 18-0 run really sealed the deal, when our players kept stealing the ball, and they kept missing long-3’s…we scored 18 points before they were able to answer back.

Mass street was a mob scene. It was like a mini-festival of drunkenness, and someone actually fired up a joint on the stairs waiting to get upstairs after the game. What a time we live in. I ended up making $85 in tips, which really saves my ass, because i spent the last of my cash on steaks for grillin today–Oh man it was good. First let me point out that round steaks were on sale for $3 a pound if you bought the economy packs. So for 8 bucks I got a shit ton of steak. We diced up some onions, peppers, fresh pineapple, and chicken, and marinated our kabobs, and they were the shiznit! And there was so much, that we ended up grilling a second time, in between games.

This was the first KU game i have watched all season. It’s fun watching a clearly superior team kick ass every week, but I’m from Kansas City. We have the Royals and the Chiefs, neither of which has been good for a long time. Plus we don’t have cable, so we just don’t watch tv. The only real reason i watched today was (a) it was the Final Four and (b) for lack of a better thing to do. Maybe I’d be more into KU sports if I was more content with “pounding beers” and being a jackass, but I consider myself above that, I’d prefer to have a drink or two at home with my wife. It’s just a matter of priorities.

Tonight we were very busy for a long time. I had a line for over an hour, and that is unheard of. I was holding a pee the whole time, but I didn’t want to leave and have a line waiting, plus I really wanted the money. Everyone said they were sorry that i had to work, i even had someone thank me for working when i was sweeping the porch, whatever, i said. i like being busy, even if i’m just giving out free water. I got lots of tips for just water. plus there were some drunkys who would feel generous or not realize what they’re doing, etc. It was like money was just appearing out of nowhere.

Awesome.

Look out for S****ucks!

So they’ve devised a way to use a mass spectrometer to anticipate the sensory profile of an espresso shot.  At first I was intrigued, learning that each individual flavor tone present in the bouquet of espresso was due to the presence and relative proportion of certain chemical compounds found in the coffee.  And with the spectrometer, the measurement of these chem’s was compared with the consensus of a panel of extreme coffee snobs (probably from italy), and a striking correlation was discovered.

This is all from an article I read back in February, and I was excited and interested, until just now, when i realized the possible outcomes if Starbucks got their hands on this technology.  Currently, aside from political concerns, the main factor keeping local coffeeshops alive is the fact that, although Starbucks is on every corner and college campus, literally everyplace YOU are, they serve shit for coffee.  In a pinch, i will sometimes be brave enough to get some drip coffee, but that sucks, too.  If they were to integrate the machine that measures the quality of coffee into their current mechanized, automatic espresso “dispensers,” then our competitive edge will be eliminated!  At least we can still undercut their prices and still have the reputation of being the hot cultural nexus of town.  I just hope that’s enough to keep food on the table!

Musings -or- Why I Am Right

I would have to say that my reaction to the “musical confrontation” yesterday was true-to-form, to use the parlance of our times. I played a reserved defense, then composed several snappy, cutting remarks with which to come back, but never actually plan on saying any of these things to him.

My latest, and most concise, criticizes him for his assumptions about society in a college town like this. It seems to me… that he lives here in Lawrence because he feels like he can walk around in his “Borg Invasion” hat, and that somehow makes him fit in. He uses his past endeavors as indicative of his present relevance, which simply does not cut the mustard, so to speak. He assumes that his “talent at identifying good music” and his “experience promoting the best bands in the country and inventing progressive rock” makes him a worthy critic with a voice that is echoed by the opinions of the masses, but the truth is that this is not the way clout is generated in college towns.

From my 5 years of experience living and working in lawrence, I have found that the best way to generate a good reputation is to be yourself, do YOUR thing, let other people make their own choices, and above all, BE NICE! This town is run by hippies, which, in turn, attracts more hippies, and makes this the kind of place where people don’t value the opinions of those who think they know best.

I feel like i’m digressing here. The point is, every reason he cited for why his opinion was relevant was counteracted by the fact that he was an asshole. And the fact that I did not overstep my boundaries by trying to tell HIM why HE was wrong is the REASON I am right. I mean, these are opinions, matters of taste. The only rule that governs them is that everyone generates them for themselves. So poo poo to you, old man.