SwimFinsSF

Remodel Reality

Is it just me or are there WAY too many of those reality shows on the air these days where a group of people come in, kick out the people who live in a house, and make their house nice (or often nasty actually). Seem to be the Queer Eye / Trading spaces wave is getting way too crowded and the quality sucks.

Kevin and I watched some LAME show last night called Clean Sweep or some such thing – essentially a group of folks come in, force people to empty their house and sell or pitch a portion of their stuff and in the mean time people re-model their house. So yea – the house was a PIT when they got there (though who’s to say they didn’t run around and muss it up before hand) and it wasn’t a whole lot better when they left. They just had a new hodge podge of tacky ‘restored’ furniture (they took their old stuff painted it and put new drawer pulls on it) bright colors, and tacky art and called it done.

Just sayin.. enough is enough..

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming! 🙂

People SUCK

What kind of person thinks its OK to steal our Christmas Wreath right of our front Door?

That bums me out… No.. I mean REALLY bums me out…

*sigh*

Music in my Life

Another tid-bit about me. Music has always been a huge part of my life – whether performing or enjoying – and every so often I stumble into something that really touches me for whatever reason. You know – one of those songs that sparks an emotion or a memory every time you hear it. Mind you I’m not talking about the feeling you get when you hear ANY music – if you’re paying attention you should have a response to every song or the performer isn’t doing their job. I’m talking about that small selection of pieces that mean something to you personally. Some of ’em I don’t remember until I hear them – some of them I can always pick out. Here’s a few

• The Way it is – Bruce Hornsby and the Range: My high school English teacher made us listen this in class one day. Most of the class kind of rolled their eyes with this ‘what is that old man forcing on us’ but it caught my attention. It was probably the beginning of my starting to question and analyze what I saw in my life and was told rather than just accepting things. Read the lyrics if you haven’t – not super deep but at the time they struck me as pretty important.
  
• Somebody – Depeche Mode: I heard this for the first time in college and it probably got to me the same way it does most people. The song just seems to quantify a kind of deep desire that most everyone has in one form or another in a very nice way.. Still like it even now. (lyrics)
  
• Bolèro – Ravel: Bolero was one of my first examples of the nuances of classical music. This piece, performed well, shows all of the range and emotion that can go into well performed classical music and the talent required to deliver it. Done correctly you can barely tell the transition from intrument to instrument – all you notice is the building of layer upon layer until, before you know it, the orchestra is blowing your hair back.
  A Night on Bald Mountain – Moussorgsky: This is another piece that made me REALLY appreciate classical music – this time for the ability it has to tell a story. With this piece you can sit back, close your eyes, and listen as the composer tells you a story and the beautiful part is every person that hears it comes up with a slightly different image. Check out Fantasia if you want to see a visualization of Disney’s version of that story. STILL Love it!
  
• Beautiful – Christina Aguilera: When I first heard this song I kinda wrote it off as a nice and fun circuit song (yes – I heard it late one night at Club Universe).. But later I saw the video and listened to the words and got a lump in my throat. The message – as simple as it is – is something everyone should keep in mind. And the video with the anorexic girl, the two gay boys, the young kid, the transsexual, and the high school girls was FANTASTIC. (lyrics)
  

Y’all got any?

Quotes

Just found a new favorite quote:

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
        – Oscar Wilde

Who are you?

Can anyone tell me why they don’t ask for SOME form of ID to prove you are who you say you are when you vote? I walked in to vote today and told them my name, they had me sign next to my name, and then handed me a ballot.. no ID no nothing.. that seems bad..

i’m just sayin..

Social Networking

So I gotta admit that I’m one of the many that has been sucked in to the whole ‘computer aided social networking’ thing… Ya know.. Things like Friendster. I don’t know what it is about it that fascinates me but I find myself poking around all the time.. Seeing who knows who, who I know that has appeared on there, who I would like to know, who has bookmarked me. Its totally addictive. And the cool thing is that its something ALL my friends can do (where some of the other online ‘social’ things are.. er.. um.. inappropriate for a wider audience)

And it seems I’m not the only one. These sites are popping up like weeds. So far I’ve found three that are all pretty much functionally the same (though their creators would probably disagree) – or at least they serve the same purpose

• Friendster
• Tribe.net
• Connexion.org

Friendster was my first. Tribe seems to be the most interesting. And connexion seems to be complete knock off of friendster (but with a more well done interface, servers that can handle the load, etc.). Now if i could just transfer all of my connections from friendster directly over to the rest – cuz I can’t, in good conscience, pester all of my friends again to join the other two. So I guess friendster it is..

Anyway – just a diversion for a tuesday morning

(BTW – if you live in San Francisco go VOTE today)