Lunacy!

Check out the astronomy picture of the day for a too-cool time-lapse animation of a complete lunation (full lunar cycle). Just last night I was marveling at the waxing-so-very-near-full Moon through binoculars, and once again had my mind blown by the fact that men have stood on its surface. It was incredibly bright last night, and it took a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust to the point that I was able to make out the Lunar landmarks. It is raining tonight, so the full Moon is obscured, but if you have clear skies, go look at the Moon. It is good for you.

Also, have you noticed Venus burning like a laser? Last week I saw it cut through fog that obscured the lights of Downtown Minneapolis on my way to work, and it freaked me out for a minute.

preggers

Speaking of Pending Arrivals...

In my last post, I congratulated Jaq on the pending arrival of "Kid Number Two." Well...

It may not look like much now, but come March, watch out!

The Nerve! Oh, and Congratulations.

It seems that Jaquandor has decided to take a bit of a break from posting regularly to Byzantium's Shores. I would never leave you, my adoring hordes of readers, wanting. But I suppose his reasons are good enough. Now that he has mentioned it at least three times, I suppose that it is about time that I get with the program and offer my congratulations on the pending arrival of "Kid Number Two." Best wishes to you and Deb!

Mad Props and Much Love...

To Murphy, Shawn, and the 'Rents for the help demolishing and removing the old fence, and putting up the new one.

We finished it this afternoon, and it feels great to actually have a project finished. Next up, the garage, the kitchen, the entry, the bathroom, the attic, the bedroom...

A Month? That's Funny, doesn't seem more than 31 Days...

Well, I've been quite busy lately, quite a bit of overtime at work, some projects around the house, trying to become more proficient at Final Cut Pro, and it seems like so many other things. That is the explanation for that bit of dead air. That and I haven't had much to say, and when I have had a bit of free time, I have spent it pedaling around the lakes. But things may pick up around here again. But I am not promising anything, that is the rule here.

I Could Really Go For A Double Bread With Meat

Thank you Kim Jong Il. I wonder when we might start seeing 'em here.

The Return of Starship Stacy and the Vector Kings

We will be playing Friday July 9th, again at Camden Coffee Company, from 7-9pm. We will be performing songs from Daniel Guitarra's (God rest his soul) "Here lies Daniel Guitarra" CD. It's free, so come on out.

Some quick linkage from Space-Dot-Com

Cassini has started sending back snapshots. More here.

Going up...

Super-Super Massive.

Bit and Pieces

Here I am, once again, following up on one of Sean's posts nearly a week later. He linked to THE 50 COOLEST SONG PARTS. For what it's worth, here are some of my thoughts. Rather than commenting on each entry, I am listing the ones I like, and offering a few of my own. The ones I offer are just a few of many, many that I love, and I am not sure I could choose a top 50. The ones I offer are just the ones that came to me off the top of my head, and are not necessarily even my favorites.

From the list:

#45 "Blister in the Sun"
#43 "Let's Go Crazy" Yes, the Purple One can play.
#38 "All Night Long" OK, I admit it.
#37 "Flash Gordon"
#36 "You Can Call Me Al"
#34 "La Bamba"
#25 "Purple Haze"
#19 "Baba O Riley"
#16 "One Step Beyond"
#11 "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"
#6 "Immigrant Song" and you gotta love the Viking Kittens
#4 "Bohemian Rhapsody"
#5 "A Boy Named Sue"

And I'll throw #9 "Hot for Teacher" in for purely nostalgic reasons. Ask Jaquandor if you want more details.

#31 "Come Together" is good, but from Abbey Road I would rather see "The End" with Paul, George and John trading two bar guitar solos. Also from Abbey Road, The guitar, bass, drum and cricket intro to "Sun King."

Others:

Another Beatles- Ringo never gets props he deserves. His drumming on "She Said She Said" is brilliant.

The Beatles- I could list Beatle songs forever, so this is the last one. Lennon's scream on "Revolution."

Tori Amos- "Spark" The middle bit:
"How many fates turn around in the overtime
Ballerinas that have fins that you'll never find
You thought that you were the bomb, yeah, well so did I."
Especially the piano.

Björk- Anything she sings

I agree with Sean on "Hey Ya."

Weezer- "Say it ain't So" Cuomo sings "Flip on the telly, wrestle with Jimmy."

Elvis Costello- "Allison, I know this world is killing you. Oh Allison, my aim is true."

Beck- The organ at the beginning of "Where it's at."

George Harrison- Intro to "Wah-Wah."

Dave Matthews Band- The chorus to "Satellite."

Sublime- Jon Blondell's trombone on "Wrong Way."

Paul Simon- The drums on "Obvious Child, " but I love the whole song. Listen to it and not feel better, I dare you.

Title?

What book are you?

You're Cat's Cradle!

by Kurt Vonnegut

You believe quite firmly that free will deserted you long ago and far
away. As a result, it's hard to take responsibility for anything. Even though you show
great potential as a leader of a small 3rd world country, the choices are all made ahead
of time. You're rather fond of games involving string. Your fear of nuclear weaponry is
trumped only by your fear of ice.

Or, if I change one of my answers from odd to even...

You're The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

by Douglas Adams

Considered by many to be one of the funniest people around, you are
quite an entertainer. You've also traveled to the far reaches of what you deem possible,
often confused and unsure of yourself. Life continues to jostle you around like a marble,
but it's shown you so much of the world that you don't care. Wacky adventures continue to
lie ahead. Your favorite number is 42.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Via Jason

Ha! Ha, ha ha!

I wonder what that Buffalo Blogger thinks about this search that brought someone to ABOHO.

Check Back in About Eight Years...

Well, nothing went my way for the transit yesterday. Monday I called the company that was sending the filters for my cameras to see if I could get a tracking number and verify that they were on the truck, en-route to my house. I was informed the they had shipped on Wednesday of last week, and per my request were being shipped second day air. Hmmm. Second day air, shipped Wednesday, it is now Monday, no filters. We checked the tracking number. Now the problem becomes apparent. The shipping company (which I will not name, but it rhymes with UPS) misrouted the package. It was in Minneapolis on Thursday night, scanned at about 9:30 pm. The next scan, five hours later, placed my package in Michigan, where it is identified as having been misrouted early Friday morning. It is now about 5 pm Monday night, and the last scan was in Milwaukee. Not looking promising. The package arrived Tuesday afternoon, about ten hours after the transit.

Now I understand that mistakes happen, but the way UPS handled it after it was discovered is unacceptable. Notice that my package mistakenly made it from Minneapolis to Michigan in about five hours, but took four and a half days to purposely make it back? I realize that UPS doesn't deliver on Saturday or Sunday, but still. It seems to me that it should be policy that if a mistake such as this is found, as it was, it should be corrected as quickly as possible. I know that "Brown" does offer next day air, so I know that it would have been possible for the package to be at my house on Monday. Their customer service has yet to offer resolution that I find acceptable. I will be calling again today.

With no filter, I took my binoculars to work with me hoping to view the transit by using the binoculars to project the image into a white surface, similar to the pinhole method. The clouds offered no help. So, even if UPS had come through, I would have been out of luck. But that's not the point.

Maybe I will take some photos next time there is good sunspot activity.

A Walk on the Sun

Ready for tomorrow's transit? Here is everything you need to know. I will be viewing, photographing, and videotaping the event. That is if everything clicks into place. Hopefully the weather and parcel delivery gods will be on my side. Remember when I told you to get ready for the transit? FOUR MONTHS AGO? Well I hope you did as I said, and not as I did. Being the procrastinator that I am, I waited until last week to try and order solar filters for my cameras. Well, no dice, but the company that makes the filters was able to ship some of the raw materials used for the filters. Hopefully it will arrive today, and the skies will be clear tomorrow morning. I will try to get some photos up here within the week (to a year), or if you are in the Twin Cities tune into Five Eyewitness News Morning and you may see some of the video in the 6:30 half hour.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Into baseball a bit more than me? Well Mark has started a new LiveJornal, Stat Ninja, where he will focus specifically on baseball, and more specifically the Royals.

ROCK AND ROLL!!!

A few days ago, ok almost a week, Sean linked this list of Fifty Moments that Shaped Pop History. He posted his thoughts, and solicited comments from others. So, here are my thoughts on the list.

The list starts with Elvis in 1954. However, it is noteworthy that in 1953 (a year after they ditched their country image and changed their moniker from the Sadlemen to the Comets) Bill Haley and Co. recorded the first Rock and Roll song to make the Billboard Top 20. The song was "Crazy Man Crazy" (penned by Haley himself, the same cannot be said for The King). Elvis is an obvious and necessary choice for the list, but Haley deserves a mention in the birth of Rock and Roll.

Jaq mentions "The Day the Music Died." More important, in the shaping of pop music, than the death of Holly and Valens was the INCREDIBLE career of Holly. Made even more incredible by the fact that his recording career lasted about a year and a half. While Haley did it first, Holly was the first to primarily rely on his own material. Buddy Holly was Rock and Roll's first singer/songwriter, and this set the stage, of course, for...

"Ladies and gentlemen, THE BEATLES!" Need something to watch this weekend? Check out the two disk set containing all four appearances by the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Compare the Fab Four with what was passing for entertainment on US television at the time. You can't.

Sean is right. Forget the Stones. The Who are it. Are you a Mod or a Rocker? Or a Mocker?*

More Beatles. Revolver is often sited as a transformation album, and Sgt. Pepper as a landmark in Rock and Roll history. While the importance of Sgt. Pepper was long overplayed, it seems to be too often dismissed lately. Sgt. Pepper was (and is) important, but Revolver is where its at (it is my favorite pop album, and contains my favorite song, "And Your Bird Can Sing"). And while not full blown psycedellica, Rubber Soul hints at the transformation. "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a masterpiece.

Pet Sounds. Overrated.

1969. No mention of Tommy?

Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On?" Gorgeous. I think this is still in my top five non-Beatles pop albums. Hmmmm, I smell another list.

Video Killed the Radio Star. Again Sean is right MTV, good and bad.

Another item that maybe should be listed (from Sean's comments) Run DMC and Aerosmith. This helped move Hip-Hop to the mainstream. Hey Ya!

*The first person to correctly identify the "mocker" reference wins a prize. Dan is not eligible.

I Could Have Just Gone Home and Watched a Movie...

But I didn't. I worked a full eight hour shift yesterday (overtime) and got off at 10:30 p.m.. Krista was out of town, and I didn't feel like just going home and sitting around the house by myself. What to do. Well, I felt like playing some poker, so why not. I headed out to the Card Club at Canterbury Downs. The place was packed, but I had driven out, so I decided to get on the list, hang out and wait for a spot at a table.

At about midnight, I got a spot at a 3-6 hold'em table and started sizing up the competition. This was a much better game than the 2-4 I had played at Canterbury in the past, or as my brother calls it, "no fold'em hold'em.". No getting rivered by some dink that should have folded before the flop. For the first hour or so, things were going OK. I would win a bit here and there, but paying my blinds, and a number of hands that didn't improve on the flop were starting to diminish my funds.

Then it happened. I was in late position, just to the right of the button, and was dealt 8,9 suited. There were many callers, but no raises, and I called. Here comes the flop. 9, 9, Jack. Very nice. Everyone ahead of me checked. By this time I was able to tell what the guy sitting to my left was going to do when the action came to him. He would always have chips in hand if he was going to call or raise. He had chips in hand, so I checked as well. He bet, and this chased a couple of people out, and when the action came to me again, I raised. Right away I was wishing I hadn't. I was sure that I had given my hand away, and that everyone would fold. I should have waited for the turn card, and the higher bets. But everyone still in stayed in. Wow. Now I was worried that there were some pocket pairs out there that were waiting for a third card. Time for the turn. Another 9! I had four of a kind. Everyone checks, and it comes to me. Mr. easy-read to my left has his chips in hand, so I check, and he bets. Two callers, and it is to me. I raise. Easy-read calls, one more caller, and a fold. Down to three of us. Last card, the river. Queen. Doesn't matter, I still have the best possible hand. First guy checks, easy read has his hands on his cards. He won't be betting this time, so I will. He folds. The last player says he wants to see my Jack, and calls. Jack? He thought I had two pair when I check raised. He flips his cards, before I can. He has Queen, Jack. I flip my 8, and he smiles, I flip my 9, and his jaw drops. Nice pot. Just in time too. I would have had to leave if I hadn't won soon.

But that was just the beginning. Three hands later I flopped a full house. Next hand, flopped two pair, that turned into a full house on the turn. Next hand, flopped my third full house in a row. I was able to bet the hell out of that one since no one thought I had great cards for the third hand in a row. Next hand, I flopped a pair of aces that held up to the end. Again bet like crazy.

The rest of the night was a little more even, but the chips kept slowly piling up in front of me. When I left, I had made more in six hours of poker than I did with my eight hours of overtime.

No clue what I just said here? Check this out.

Foo Fighters South of the Border

And I'm not talking Dave Grohl and Co. A group of UFOs were spotted and captured on tape by a Mexican Air Force plane. Seeing the video, it seems clear that this was not some sort of natural phenomenon. The objects were in formation, and at one point came around to surround the plane. They were first picked up by radar, and then on tape when the plane switched on its infrared camera. The objects were not visible to the naked eye.

This sort of sighting that really, really, really piques my interest. Well, all sightings do, but particularly those that are clearly not natural phenomena. What is frustrating is that those are the ones that are never explained. I am still waiting for a better explanation for the Phoenix Lights. The "A-10 Warthog decoy flares" story just doesn't cut it.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little (er, big) Extrasolar Planet

We know that there are planets out there, around other stars. We even know where some of them are. But we have never seen one, or have we...

It Could Give a Guy Tendonitis...

The always interesting and educational John Hardy teaches us how a few different cultures count (and have counted) on their fingers.

Oh How Time Flies.

Well, It was just about one year, one hour, 18 minutes and 11 seconds ago that I succumbed to the incredible pressure. I think I have done a good job of keeping my original promise. What can you expect for the coming year? More of the same. Although I may actually get around to making those changes to the look of it all at some point.