An observation about people

Something I've noticed over the past few years in the Operating System ecosystem that is, is that people are funny about what's on their computer Vs what's on their phone. Think about it. You have your hardcore Windows, Mac, Linux users for the most part. And they bash the hell out of each other. But then you look at what smartphone they use. Windows users love iPhones, Mac users love Android, Linux on Windows Phones, or any combination of the bunch. The love doesn't seem to survive the jump into the world of phones.

Linux users I can see being torn. Afterall many of us look to the various flavors of Linux to escape the proprietary garbage of Microsoft and Mac to a point. But with Google's Darth Vader like chokehold on Android, it's not really any different in a lot of respects. Still it's easier to swallow a Linux user on Android because of the relationship between Google and Ubuntu, and the accessibility that is there for that OS.

Microsoft has done pretty good with Windows Phone in recent incarnations, but with a bit of stumbling. Their future is still uncertain. Then you look at Mac. Steve Jobs was a great salesman, I'll give him that. But as predicted Mac is struggling since he died. Combined I recently read an article which points to the iPhone as being the main culprit in the virus and malware problem that smartphones are seeing now.

Maybe this is part of the reason Blackberry has survived when the likes of Palm and Symbian have been written off. Now we're looking at Samsung, Ubuntu, and others wanting to get their own flavors out there as well. Competition can bring better things, and having a bigger selection to chose from isn't neccessarily a bad thing.

Thar she blows!

Well last night got fun in a hurry. The wind was kicking like Jean Claude Van Damme sparring with Chuck Norris. Come about 5pm got a call from the neighbor asking if the dogs were okay because their tree was blown over. Needless to say, I left work and hauled ass home. Dogs were shaking like leaves but fine. Power was knocked out, and the cinder block wall took a hell of a hit. It shifted a few degrees. Not bad in all. So we all hopped on our cellphones and called the the power company. 5.5 hours later they FINALLY showed up. Took them about an hour to get the power back up and poof, gone. Now is the clean up stage. My neighbor brought over his chainsaw today and started cutting. On the plus side we'll have plenty of fire wood.

Grand Theft 80's

Holy crap kids! I was treated to a horror tonight. It was yet another piece of evidence to add to why I can't stand a lot of modern music. Originality didn't just go out the window here. It committed seppuku.

So I'm on my way home, channel surfing the radio and for a brief moment I get a blast from the 1980's so I stop and listen. That's when things went south. And by south, I mean screaming down the Hades Highway. I'm talking about Pitbull's Feel This Moment featuring Christina Aguilera. A-ha should be on the phone lawyering up right now, screaming that Pitbull give back their only hit or pony up a huge settlement. Normally I could care less for this guy, he's neither here nor there. But this one song got to me.

Hey Pitbull, the 80's called and want its song back! Yes, I heard the lyrics. Brilliant and genius are two of the things you called yourself. Afraid not pal. You're far from the first to take part of a song. I'll stay to your brand and remind you of the Vanilla Ice/ Queen issue. I hope you're old enough to grasp what I'm getting at. But I'll give you kudos for realizing that people do like some retro in their tunes.

Then their Christina Aguilera. Holy crap, you are no Whitney Houston or Celine Dion. Just in this one "song" I heard your voice crack more than once. Thank the producers for that screw up. I swear her voice is more and more like a dog with razor wire being run over its nuts.

This is a far scream from even a minute acknowledgement. If you really want to honor someone with a tribute, take note from how others have done it in the past. Or even currently. In the past few years we've seen Disturbed put their spin on Land of Confusion of course done by the wonderful Genesis. Then you have Five Finger Death Punch doing Bad Company which of course was made famous by Bad Company.

Now I know what you're saying, that's all rock. So I'll refer you to the awesome Harry Connick Jr doing his own spin of Danny Boy in the movie Memphis Belle. I'll tell you now, if I ever hear someone takes a dump on the likes of the Rat Pack, Mills Brothers, Andrew Sisters, etc you'll see a rant that would make Dennis Leary blush.

Road Trips and Past Memories

Took a little road trip with my brother last week. Primarily it was a business related trip, still working on settling my dad's estate, but it was good to see the old stomping grounds down in Silver City, NM for the few hours we were there. Man has that town changed since I left back in 1998. Just going down town and not seeing my dad's bookstore there anymore feels weird. Even the old Gila Theater is a ghost of itself. A old fashioned single screen built back in the 1950's. I can remember seeing many movies there once upon a time ago like Her Alibi, and The Land Before Time just to name a couple. These days it's closed with crappy displays up in the windows. Even the landscape of WNMU has changed. But there are old standby's that have stood the test of time such as "W" mountain, Kneeling Nun, the Drifter, Buffalo Bar are still there in what's left of their glory. I really need to take more pictures when I get down there.

But the weather was perfect. Had some down time while our lawyer was doing his job before we had to leave town. A bonus of small town living. He was able to get things drawn up, get it to the courthouse for signatures, the works before the end of business. Good stuff.

So here's where their will be some pics for a change.

First I'll start with Big Ditch Park. Basically it's a walkway with benches that runs next to a big ditch. The ditch is the result of runoff that literally washed away the original main street back in the day.

  Now here's a pic of "W" mountain. The first is a shot from a distance driving into town from neighboring Tyrone, NM.

Here's from the middle of town. You can see exactly where it is from the Lube & Wash which was built long after I moved away.

Look just to the left of the sign. It helps to enlarge the picture.

And to close, a piece of childhood memory. The park in Tyrone where my grandpa taught me how to play basket ball. A bit run down these days, but still in use. Yes, it's all metal, and the slides are pretty high.

The pill box to the right is a new construct.

Another rant about music.

Back to the music kids. It amazes me how today's pop culture will feed until the point of purging on the media mainstream. Kids today will know everything you can find on the likes of Nicki Minaj, Beyonce, etc, but don't go beyond that. The music underground has essentially become independents that haven't broken through into the mainstream yet, or are members that refuse to sign with major labels for fear of corporate media forcing them to sellout their gimmick for something else.

What brings me to this? Easy, recently I've tried talking to some people about their music and have gotten an overwhelming similar response every time. "Oh you wouldn't like it," or "Oh, it's new so you wouldn't know it." As those who truly know me, know I listen to a bit of everything, so I'm well versed in different areas of music. Hell, it's hard not to be when you grew up with your dad jamming in the living room at 3 in the morning on a school night, like it was no big thing.

One main area is with people who "think" they know what the rave scene, and tech is all about. I love the assumption that I don't know anything because of my age. One college kid made that assumption clear just a few days ago when I asked about a song. The first thing that came to mind was, "I was listening to Orbital, The Shamen, Praga Kahn, KLF, and a plethora of others when you were just being conceived!" No really, this is someone that was literally just being born when Traci Lords was cutting her first music album, and they think I don't understand. So I name off a few groups, and they are clueless as to who I'm speaking about.

Today's raver's are increasingly only familiar with what's in the mainstream. Part of it I blame on the DJ's, and part on the fact that kids are not encouraged to look beyond the MTV hype of today. And it's in all areas of music. You mention Black Flag, and immediately Henry Rollins is the association. You mention Metallica and  Cliff Burton is an unknown. AC/DC and Bon Scott who? Belinda Carlisle is in Purgatory apparently because nobody under 30 has a clue who she or the Go-Go's are. And Bananarama is confused for a name game played in pre-school and early grade school.

It's sad and funny all at the same time. It's a testament to an earlier rant that what passes for music today is a joke, and a bad one at that. We really need a new surge in music badassery that gets people interested in it, and the bands again.

So for those about to rock, I salute you.

Water Bottle Randomness.

In a bit of randomness here, I love my blender bottle. Actually, more the springy thing that's in it. What kills me is that everyone always asks, "Are you drinking a protein shake?" NO! Even my own kids, who should know what I'm drinking do this. But that's alright.

Usually it's just water. But fairly often I'll put a small packet of some sort of juice mix in. The spring ball thing mixes it up nice, and I don't have to worry about pesky clumps getting stuck in there robbing me of the awesomeness I'm paying for. On the rare occasion I put a lemon wedge or something in my water, that same ball is great a pummeling that wedge for me too. Sometimes it gets stuck in there, but most of the time I don't have to worry about that. Yes, I like to have some pulp in there.

The other reason I like it is, it's not stylish. It's just a plain jane bottle. So I don't have to worry about anyone wanting to misappropriate it at work. It's plastic, so I don't have to worry about dropping and breaking it, and of course the top seals nicely so I'm not having to deal with spills at my desk unless I'm being a slob. Finally, it can get tossed into a bugout bag quickly for plenty of other uses down the line.

And that's my water bottle randomness.

Tattoo

Hey there kids! Tattoos. Some people love em, some hate em. Some get them, later regret them, and later try various procedures like laser removal to get rid of them (to varying degrees of success). Either way, it is a personal choice. And now here's my thoughts on them.

Tattoo's should always have some sort of meaning. Not a name of a boy/girl friend as they can come and go. In the people I've met these are the most commonly regretted, covered, or attempted to be removed. And they shouldn't be, "oh that's cool, I'll put that in my skin." Also later regretted by many. The hand or foot prints of your new born child, for instance, are something that have deep meaning for every parent. Music notes, sheet music, or an instrument for a musician or in memory of a loved one who played music. A common theme among military members, including this one, are military based tattoos. Branch, occupation specialty, quotes, motto's, meat tags, etc.

You see, for me, a tattoo is a visual representation of who you are, where you've been, and what matters to you. So when I come across someone wanting a tat, or sporting new ink, just because it looks cool, the first thing that comes to my mind is, "what an idiot". And this is something that many tattoo artists agree with. However, they also have to take the stance of #1) ink is their livelihood, so they can't very well turn someone away unless it's a matter of ethics or conscience, and #2) if it's something that someone really wants to put in their skin, it's on them.

So before you go and get some fresh ink, or even your FIRST, sleep on it for a while. Is it really what you want? How likely are you to regret it later? What does it mean to you? Is it something you would be okay with your own child seeing or getting one day?

The next thing that I'll go into is location. Location, location, location. Where should your ink be. Well it's a personal choice as well. But in general I would recommend keeping future employment opportunities in mind.  While tats are art, not everyone views them that way. In fact, some people down right loathe them and will disqualify you for that alone whether they'll say it out loud or not. So make sure that where you get them is easily concealable. Personally I think anywhere is okay as long as you can cover them when needed.  Places like hands, anywhere above the neckline, especially the face should be avoided. Even below short sleeves should be avoided if possible. Forearms can be easily covered for interviews, but you should keep in mind that it can get hot in the summer, and some employers will have you cover up regardless of time of year.

Tats are becoming more acceptable, but it's better safe than sorry in my book. But the bottom line is, do what's comfortable for you. It's your skin. Just do everything you can to ensure that you won't regret it later in life.

~Crypt Keeper Burt