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I am now with the times. I took Genna to see Eposide III yesterday. I am embarrased to admit this to my friends on this blog site…but…I have never seen Eposide I or II. I remember seeing 4, 5, & 6 but that was a million years ago. So I went out and bought the first two. They were pretty good but I got lost in the first one.

The third one was really really good. I was impressed. This one is going to make the last 3 seem like nothing. Of course, now I am going to go out and buy the last three so it will make more sense to Genna.

She got a little scared in the big scene at the end with Anakin and Obe One. But she loved it.

The Beastie Boys’ “To The 5 Boroughs” album was released last year and I still don’t like the album. I’ve tried listening to it over and over, giving it the chance to grow on me. But it’s not happening.

Here’s why this is such a big deal:

In 1992, while driving around college campus, one of my UMBC hockey teammates was pumping tunes in his car. It turned out to be a track from “Paul’s Boutique”, the Beastie Boys second album and first album release to follow their mega-popular “License To Ill.” This is significant because “Paul’s Boutique” then went onto become a driving force in my life. Actually, the album became a religion. It was played 24-7 and every line on the album was memorized by Weed. In fact, we still speak about the album to this day with reverence. I would argue that “Paul’s Boutique” is the greatest album ever recorded in the history of popular music.

Subsequent to “Paul’s Boutique” were other popular BBoy albums that all were wonderful creations of sound and rhyme. Some of the albums didn’t initially take, but the more I listened, the more I loved. Each time I listened, there were new things to discover.

It’s not that way with “To The 5 Boroughs”. I can’t get into the individual tracks, the flow of the tracks, any motif in the rhyme cadence, no identiable sounds…nothing. It’s a dud. You think that six years in between albums would result in another sonic masterpiece?

So tonight, Christy and I got talking about neighbors. You know, the usual scuttlebut you discuss at 2 in the morning when hanging out at a friend’s house.

Anyway, we came upon the fact that our new neighbor 2 doors down is a convicted sex offender. He’s guilty of Sexual Abuse of a Child.

He’s apparently got a wife, no kids, and I haven’t really talked to him yet. I ran into this situation a couple of years ago, when I discovered that a former co-worker of mine, whom I liked and respected, was convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor. The difference with “aggravated” is that the person is in a position of trust with the child, and abused it (or was a stranger who made friends for the purpose of sexual abuse); in his case, it was his stepdaughter.

How do you deal with convicted sex offenders in your neighborhood? I mean, caution dictates you probably shouldn’t hire the guy as a babysitter. You may want to be careful about your children playing near his house. But do you avoid him, ostracize him? Or try to make friends?

I just really haven’t thought about this much, and they live so close. I’m interested in your take.

(Yes, I really did post this at 2:44 AM. I am switching to night shift, and like to take a night or two to get into it before reporting for work.)

We’ve been in drought here in Utah for about seven years, the entire time we’ve lived in our house. Greatfully the weather patterns have changed this year. We’ve had lots of precipitation. It’s so wonderful.

But the storms coming through have kept the weather rather cool. Please understand, I’m not complaining, I love it! Yesterday was a high of 63 degrees. Normally this time of year we’re in the 90’s and too hot with more dry heat on its way. The one drawback is I’m nervous about camping because it rains all the time now.

What kind of weather patterns have you all had in your corners of our wonderful world? Are you having odd weather? Or is it normal?

• Utah leads the nation in cases of rape per capita. A woman is more likely to be raped in Utah than in any other state of the Union. And Utah is one of the few states which does not count any teenagers in rape statistics, so the statistic is actually lower than the reality.
• Utah has more teen pregnancies per capita than any other state.
• Utah is ninth in the nation for suicide.
• Utah is the 3rd-poorest state per capita.
• Utah’s
  

Okay, we’ve got Matt, ben, Sam, Arthur, and God knows who else here who will have an opinion.. and I want them all..

I want to buy a (non digital) 88 key upright piano, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money. I know I can walk into a store and pay 3K for an OK piano.. and I’m not looking for perfection.

I also know I can go on Ebay, and pay 400 dollars.. but I’m not looking for something that will suck.

What I am looking for is something inbetween, and I need anecdotes, “where to start”s, opinions and advice.. (and boyoboy is this the place for opinions and advice).

So, c’mon people.. where DO I start?

So AOL’s running the Greatest American contest. Nominations have been ongoing for weeks, and it’s down to the last twenty-five. Click the “read more” link to see who I voted for 🙂

Albert Einstein. Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think it’s slightly skewed due to these only being famous great Americans. I chose

• Albert Einstein for his lasting contribution to scientific understanding,
• Rosa Parks for standing up for herself by refusing to give up her seat, and lighting the flame that swept the nation to rid us of a great injustice,
• And Martin Luther King, Jr. for showing us how we can bring about massive, relatively peaceful changes. Without revolution. Without violence. And today, we are a nation without institutionalized racism.

On the other hand, I was appalled to see Oprah Winfrey, Billy Graham, and Bill Gates on there as possible nominees. Television talk show host, populist charlatan televangelist, and billionaire who’s fortune was founded by theft of the CP/M code? No thanks.

Should women be allowed to drive?

It was only eight-five years go, in 1920, when the 19th amendment was passed, allowing women in the US to vote. At least one right-wing extremist politician from Kansas thinks that allowing women to vote was a mistake, and the amendment should be repealed.

Ironic to see a modern country, with modern amenities, fighting over something as basic as driving a car. And then I realize we were in the same place not long ago, and but for the efforts of left-wing extremist groups to balance out the right-wingers, we’d be there today.

Can anyone recommend a cool podcaster?

I’ve been hearing about the new podcasting rage but have been unsuccessful at finding a quality podcaster (or two). The providers I’ve located have ended up being too amateur for my tastes. Most podcasters I’ve found tend to follow the conflicting-personalities format, which quickly becomes stale.

I bought my Mom an iPod two years ago so she could tote around the latest in audio entertainment gear. My Mom reveled in having a superior gadget than her senior friends. However, when it came time to buy an mp3 player for the fiancee, I decided an iPod wasn’t worth it. Instead I picked up a Creative Muvo TX, which was 1/3 of the iPod price, has replaceable batteries, has no moving parts (so you can workout while listening), offers a radio, and contains enough capacity to put on the equivalent of 6 albums. Although the iPod offers more storage space, the size of the Muvo was fine. Size has never been an issue in our household (ba da BING!!!).

I was intriqued once I realized that Podcasting was player-agnostic. Originally, I was under the impression that pocasting only worked with an actual iPod player. So I started searching but uncovered lamecasters.

Help a brother out.

Allow me to add myself to the list of people who have themselves listed as the creator of a theorem/rule/postulate. Knowing all along that the theorem/rule/postulate is nothing but a bit o’common sense.

Anyways, here goes:

Weed’s Postuleom
It takes less talent & effort to critique than to create

So that’s it. That’s my epiphany!

Please remember to use my name accordingly when stating my postuleom. I’d hate to have my lawyers need to contact you…

My $.02
Weed