A few weeks ago the kids and I were out in the front yard. I was telling Liam to go get me the extension cord so I could blow off the driveway but found myself stammering a bit when I had to explain which side of the cord to bring to me and which to leave up in the garage.
I had told him without thinking to bring me the end with the female connector but then found myself needing to explain why it's called "female" and the fact that normally one doesn't even think about that when the term is used.
He told me as I was hesitatingly explaining that he got it. Yes, I can see him understanding while the prong side is called "male" and the socket end is called "female" but the fact that they connect together kind of lends itself to the "act itself".
It's funny that the terminology never came up before especially when at one point, his life was Thomas track and the connections are a major facet of the whole track experience.
In one year when he's 10, he's getting The Talk
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Once there was a Bug, an Opel, and a Lancia...
I know I never lived up to the promise I made here but I am gong to make it up to you.
Errr... soon.
After I update my Den's site...
and finish tiling the "backsplash".
Errr... soon.
After I update my Den's site...
and finish tiling the "backsplash".
No hurling on the shell, dude.
I am a little amazed at the recent proliferation of the use of "like" to mean "said" or "expressing" as in "When I gave them the price of the PLC upgrade, they were like 'no way' and I was like 'It is what it is, buddy.'" .
It used to be a Valley Girl joke then general teenage mockery but now I'm hearing educated adults using it... the example above is not far from something I overheard at work.
I guess I can see the economy of ideas thing but do are we really nearing the point where we are all going to sound like Crush from Finding Nemo?
It used to be a Valley Girl joke then general teenage mockery but now I'm hearing educated adults using it... the example above is not far from something I overheard at work.
I guess I can see the economy of ideas thing but do are we really nearing the point where we are all going to sound like Crush from Finding Nemo?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
207 row f can't wait
I’ve covered this part but quick synop:
1) I was big into Metallica first four albums, stood outside a sold-out show in Hollywood in 85.
2) Hated their 5th, wrote them off, and jumped headlong into the 120 Minutes world.
3) A few months ago, I heard their latest album hearkened back to the old stuff and that they were doing a lot of their early songs in concert so decided to go see’em.
Judging by the metal tee-shirts, I shared the MARTA heading downtown on the night of Sunday, Oct 4, with a bunch of other like-destinationed folk. The train dumped us outside Phillips Arena and I made my way to the food court at CNN Center which was slammed with a thousand guys 98% of which were wearing Metallic tee shirts and 100% drinking beer from tall plastic cups from the local vendors who heckled customers into buying from their stands. $5 for a tall Yuengling beats $7 for a short Bud Light inside so I settled in for a happy hour of wandering amongst the tables people-watching and beer-sipping while waiting for my brother-in-law to show up. I was missing the first opening act Gojira – an environmentally-minded French new metal band – but I am all about sacrifice…. and cheap(per) beer.
Entranced and supremely happy observing the older fans with the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts as well as the younger crowd with… errr… the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts, I thought back as I often do now that I am firmly enmeshed in 3-kidded domestica and wondered why my friends and I didn’t drink at cool places like airport lounges, hotel bars, and food courts outside of mega-concerts. I mean, we could’ve hopped on the MARTA and hung with a Beastie Boys crowd one night and the SuperCross one the next, not to mention Thursday night with the revelers from the medical supply show from the Georgia World Conference Center next door…. those dudes are outta control! Then reality reminds me that my friends and I generally didn’t have girlfriends so please explain how one gets laid from getting drunk at a food court.
My brother-in-law showed. I went in to meet him.
All stadiums have that same kind of backstage girder and I-beam look when your walking outside of the hall with all the overpriced beer, t-shirt, and pretzel stands but I have to admit, I was pretty impressed when I entered the arena. Like I’ve said, I don’t go to these things much. I think I may have been in Phillips many years once for a hockey game or something but it was all lit up. This thing was like entering that crazy council chamber in the first of the newer Star Wars movies… very, very vertical. It was quite a feat finding my seat (another thing I’ve never dealt with at shows) and after several false leads, the 2nd opening band (Godsmack?) was just finishing up when I finally found Mike. Time to get one last beer before Metallica starts!
Ok… here’s the setup… after playing my Metallica LP’s over and over in high school and early college, I basically knew each song by heart. Twenty years later, although I can’t remember where I left my keys, the number of my Blackberry, nor my daughter’s exact age, I can remember every note of Master of Puppets. Before I broke down and bought an Ipod while I was training for a marathon, I would actually run through most of the first four albums in my head to try to keep from getting bored. For three or four months before the show when I bought the tickets, everytime I worked out or cleaned up the kitchen, my ipod was playing not only the old album but the newest as well… which is actually pretty great.
The setlist was basically from my ipod.
That Was Just Your Life
The first song of the new album (Death Magnetic) and a great one.
The End Of The Line
A good song off of DM
Ride The Lightning
Fantastic song off of the same-named 2nd album. Likely one of the first Metallica songs I ever heard.
No Remorse
They actually ended up playing three songs from the first album (Kill’Em All) which is great and it’s a great album but two of the three they played are in the bottom half of songs from KEA.
One
This was their breakthrough song, their first video although they originally said they’d never make one. An epic song.
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Off DM. Ok.
Cyanide
Although the biggest hit off of DM, I don’t see the reason.
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
A classic off of Puppets. This is the sequel of their first song to get radioplay, Fade to Black, which is one of their few early songs still heard occasionally on the radio.
All Nightmare Long
One of my favorites off of DM, although at times sounding like they’re playing fast just to impress, there is an unbelievably cool part in the beginning. Lar’s drumming cannot be denied as a major component of what makes Metallica Metallica.
The Day That Never Comes
DM again. I was underwhelmed by this at first but definitely it grew on me.
Master Of Puppets
The number one metal song of all time. The song before it on the album (Battery) is a close second.
Blackened
The opener on And Justice for All proving their 4th would not disappoint.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
I guess this song is listenable (if it wasn't so overplayed) off of Black but the whole “hush, don’t say a word” thing killed it for me along with the rest of that album.
Encore:
Last Caress (Misfits cover)
Of course it as one of Metallica’s draws in their early days that they claimed punk influences and the other covers off the EP this came from are amazing but Misfits does Misfits better.
Hit The Lights
The first song they ever recorded
Seek & Destroy
One of the best off KEA and their usual crowd-pleasing encore from KEA.
On the crowd, there was a pretty typical mosh pit… moshers of note were a very buff Rocky-type from the 80’s with a red bandana and a guy in a full suit and tie. The guy next to me was very into the show and very supportive of my air guitar interpretation of it. My neck hurt for three days.
Of the banter from the band, I don’t know how James can have been doing this for 25 years and not sound like everything he says he’s said a thousand times but he doesn’t. At the end when the lights came up, Lars told everyone that we were the best Sunday crowd he'd played for in a long time. And like their passion for doing what they do, it rang true.
1) I was big into Metallica first four albums, stood outside a sold-out show in Hollywood in 85.
2) Hated their 5th, wrote them off, and jumped headlong into the 120 Minutes world.
3) A few months ago, I heard their latest album hearkened back to the old stuff and that they were doing a lot of their early songs in concert so decided to go see’em.
Judging by the metal tee-shirts, I shared the MARTA heading downtown on the night of Sunday, Oct 4, with a bunch of other like-destinationed folk. The train dumped us outside Phillips Arena and I made my way to the food court at CNN Center which was slammed with a thousand guys 98% of which were wearing Metallic tee shirts and 100% drinking beer from tall plastic cups from the local vendors who heckled customers into buying from their stands. $5 for a tall Yuengling beats $7 for a short Bud Light inside so I settled in for a happy hour of wandering amongst the tables people-watching and beer-sipping while waiting for my brother-in-law to show up. I was missing the first opening act Gojira – an environmentally-minded French new metal band – but I am all about sacrifice…. and cheap(per) beer.
Entranced and supremely happy observing the older fans with the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts as well as the younger crowd with… errr… the bloody hammer and electric chair t-shirts, I thought back as I often do now that I am firmly enmeshed in 3-kidded domestica and wondered why my friends and I didn’t drink at cool places like airport lounges, hotel bars, and food courts outside of mega-concerts. I mean, we could’ve hopped on the MARTA and hung with a Beastie Boys crowd one night and the SuperCross one the next, not to mention Thursday night with the revelers from the medical supply show from the Georgia World Conference Center next door…. those dudes are outta control! Then reality reminds me that my friends and I generally didn’t have girlfriends so please explain how one gets laid from getting drunk at a food court.
My brother-in-law showed. I went in to meet him.
All stadiums have that same kind of backstage girder and I-beam look when your walking outside of the hall with all the overpriced beer, t-shirt, and pretzel stands but I have to admit, I was pretty impressed when I entered the arena. Like I’ve said, I don’t go to these things much. I think I may have been in Phillips many years once for a hockey game or something but it was all lit up. This thing was like entering that crazy council chamber in the first of the newer Star Wars movies… very, very vertical. It was quite a feat finding my seat (another thing I’ve never dealt with at shows) and after several false leads, the 2nd opening band (Godsmack?) was just finishing up when I finally found Mike. Time to get one last beer before Metallica starts!
Ok… here’s the setup… after playing my Metallica LP’s over and over in high school and early college, I basically knew each song by heart. Twenty years later, although I can’t remember where I left my keys, the number of my Blackberry, nor my daughter’s exact age, I can remember every note of Master of Puppets. Before I broke down and bought an Ipod while I was training for a marathon, I would actually run through most of the first four albums in my head to try to keep from getting bored. For three or four months before the show when I bought the tickets, everytime I worked out or cleaned up the kitchen, my ipod was playing not only the old album but the newest as well… which is actually pretty great.
The setlist was basically from my ipod.
That Was Just Your Life
The first song of the new album (Death Magnetic) and a great one.
The End Of The Line
A good song off of DM
Ride The Lightning
Fantastic song off of the same-named 2nd album. Likely one of the first Metallica songs I ever heard.
No Remorse
They actually ended up playing three songs from the first album (Kill’Em All) which is great and it’s a great album but two of the three they played are in the bottom half of songs from KEA.
One
This was their breakthrough song, their first video although they originally said they’d never make one. An epic song.
Broken, Beat And Scarred
Off DM. Ok.
Cyanide
Although the biggest hit off of DM, I don’t see the reason.
Sad But True
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
A classic off of Puppets. This is the sequel of their first song to get radioplay, Fade to Black, which is one of their few early songs still heard occasionally on the radio.
All Nightmare Long
One of my favorites off of DM, although at times sounding like they’re playing fast just to impress, there is an unbelievably cool part in the beginning. Lar’s drumming cannot be denied as a major component of what makes Metallica Metallica.
The Day That Never Comes
DM again. I was underwhelmed by this at first but definitely it grew on me.
Master Of Puppets
The number one metal song of all time. The song before it on the album (Battery) is a close second.
Blackened
The opener on And Justice for All proving their 4th would not disappoint.
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
I guess this song is listenable (if it wasn't so overplayed) off of Black but the whole “hush, don’t say a word” thing killed it for me along with the rest of that album.
Encore:
Last Caress (Misfits cover)
Of course it as one of Metallica’s draws in their early days that they claimed punk influences and the other covers off the EP this came from are amazing but Misfits does Misfits better.
Hit The Lights
The first song they ever recorded
Seek & Destroy
One of the best off KEA and their usual crowd-pleasing encore from KEA.
On the crowd, there was a pretty typical mosh pit… moshers of note were a very buff Rocky-type from the 80’s with a red bandana and a guy in a full suit and tie. The guy next to me was very into the show and very supportive of my air guitar interpretation of it. My neck hurt for three days.
Of the banter from the band, I don’t know how James can have been doing this for 25 years and not sound like everything he says he’s said a thousand times but he doesn’t. At the end when the lights came up, Lars told everyone that we were the best Sunday crowd he'd played for in a long time. And like their passion for doing what they do, it rang true.
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