Today's Thought

I found this while cleaning out my desk today.

The Seven Deadly Sins
Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, if it becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self-righteous.

  -Ashley Cooper, American columnist

Asiatic Midweek Music Thing

This week's Take Me Back Tuesday from The Music Memoirs:

Name three songs with an Asian theme, or Asian related words in the title.
1. "China Roses" by Enya
2. "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head
3. "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors

Name three artists with Asian themed names or Asian related words in their name.
1. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
2. Chick Corea
...and, of course,
3. Asia

Name three albums with Asian themes or Asian related words in the title.
1. Somewhere Over China by Jimmy Buffett
2. The Good Morning Vietnam Soundtrack
3. Asia by Kitaro

Harsh, but Not Untrue

From yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune sports section, page D2:

The U.S. Olympic Committee is trying to rally more support for its team by auctioning autographed banners on eBay, straight from Turin!

Bidding starts at $100 for banners signed by the likes of Bode Miller and Lindsay Jacobellis.

Make sure they fit your home decor, though. Like so many of the athletes, they don't come in gold.

Three For the Road

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast, 24 February 2006.

Appetizer Choose one: moving to another state, having triplets, or never being able to eat chocolate again.
Having triplets might be more of a challenge than I'm (or, more properly, we're) ready for, and never being able to eat chocolate again would be a travesty. Besides, there's a very real chance I'm moving out of state this summer anyway. So I'll pick that one.

Soup Name a news story that truly shocked you.
"Muslim Fundamentalists Burn Embassies In Protest Over Cartoons". What the...?!?

Salad What was your very first job?
When I was in middle school, the town druggist ("Sully") hired me to steam clean the carpets in the town's one and only drug store. I did it two or three different times, as I recall.

Main Course If you had the chance to read the diary of someone you're really close to, would you? Why or why not?
I would only read something that personal if I were specifically invited to. If that were the case, I'd love to do so, because that would be a sign of great trust and understanding in the relationship.

Dessert What's something you're looking forward to?
My next paycheck. Maybe we can make it two in a row that don't bounce! Yea!

--

Part II: Top Five on Friday
Top Five on Friday from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 "British" Bands and a song by each

» Pet Shop Boys (Notable song: "It's a Sin")

» Marillion (Notable song: "Now She'll Never Know")

» Dire Straits (Notable song: "Industrial Disease")

» Derek and the Dominoes (Notable song: "Layla")

» The Proclaimers (Notable: "Sunshine on Leith")

--

Part III: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast, 17 February 2006.

Yeah, I'm a week late on this one. Sorry.

Appetizer If you were a color, which color would you be, and why?
I would aspire to be forest green: strong but subdued, the color of life.

Soup When was the last time you went to the doctor, and what was your reason for going?
My last doctor's visit was actually to the dentist. I had a crown put on after a root canal. Fun.

Salad What do you collect?
I've started collecting dice. I've picked up four nice sets over the past several weeks:
» Golden Recon (green/black with gold pips)
» Silver Volcano (red/black with silver pips)
» Cobalt (purple/black with sky blue pips)
» Air (sky blue/white with red pips)
I also have an old set of smaller Earth dice (blue/green with white pips). You can see most of these patterns at Chessex, if you're interested.

Main Course What were you like in high school? Name one thing you miss and one thing you don't miss about those days.
I was a geek in high school, but not a typical geek. Sure, I took all the science classes my small high school had to offer. But I also did band (concert, marching, and jazz bands), cross country, track & field, drama, Model UN, and Knowledge Bowl. One thing I miss is my small circle of friends: Derek, Geoff, Mark, David, David, David, and George. One thing I don't miss: pretty much everybody else.

Dessert Pretend you're standing in front of your home, with your back towards your home. Describe the view - what can you see? Trees? Cars? A zoo? Wal-Mart?
Near the house I see my residential neighborhood: mostly houses and duplexes, with an apartment complex and some stores a couple of blocks away. In the middle distance I see the skyscrapers downtown, as well as the general signs of life in the city. On the western horizon I see the Oquirrh mountains and the Kennecott smokestack, 1215 feet (~370 meters) tall and visible even from my side of the valley.

Midweek Traveling Music

This week's Take Me Back Tuesday from The Music Memoirs:

Name three songs with transportation related words in the title.
1. "Drive" by Singularity
2. "1970 Monte Carlo" by Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash
3. "Red Barchetta" by Rush

Name three artists with transportation related words in their name.
1. Jefferson Airplane
2. Jefferson Starship
3. Starship

...oh yeah, they're all the same band. So,

2. Rocket Scientists
3. Micky and the Motorcars

Name three albums with transportation related words in the title.
1. Flying in a Blue Dream by Joe Satriani
2. On Every Street by Dire Straits
3. Garage by Cross Canadian Ragweed

Yeah, Me Too

"I do not like it, and I am sorry I ever had anything to do with it."
-Erwin Schrödinger, speaking of quantum mechanics

Two For the Road

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast, 10 February 2006.

Appetizer What was a class or course you took while in school that you realize now was a total waste of time?
Actually, I realized then that it was a total waste of time: 8th grade Math. It was exactly the same thing as 7th grade Math. I didn't learn anything new, and I completely lost interest in the class. That's probably why I got a D.

Soup Who is the tallest person you know?
Honestly, I don't know many people who are taller than I am. At 190 cm (6'3" for you non-metric types), I tend to stand out. But we hired someone at work last week who's taller than me. She's got a good 2-3 cm on me.

Salad What's your favorite midnight snack?
Leftover pizza. Seeing that I don't usually have leftover pizza in the fridge, I generally just get a glass of water and head back to bed.

Main Course Have you ever found money somewhere? If so, where did you find it, and how much was it?
One summer, when I was working as a yard monkey for a local apartment complex, I found that someone had left about $5.00 in an elevator—in pennies. I cleaned it up, took the money to the office, and when nobody claimed it, I got to take it home. Yippee!

Dessert Where would you like to retire?
I'd like to get a real job before I even think about retiring. Ask me again in a year.

--

Part II: Top Five on Friday
Top Five on Friday from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 "Heart" Songs"

» "When the Heart Rules the Mind" by GTR (from GTR)
» "Cold Hearted Woman" by Cross Canadian Ragweed (from Soul Gravy)
» "Don't Chain My Heart" by Toto (from Kingdom of Desire)
» "Be Still My Beating Heart" by Sting (from Nothing Like the Sun)
» "Heart of Lothian" by Marillion (from Misplaced Childhood)

It's Alive!

I just got done replacing the starter in the Dreadnought.

That's right, I did it. I had some help from my roommate in getting the old starter out, but I installed the new one all by me onesies. And it works just fine, thank you.

I'm so proud, I can hardly stand myself.

Unpleasantness Revisited

I went into the bank to cash my most recent paycheck this morning. The teller told me the account did not have sufficient funds. Here we go again.

After a call to our HR person, I was finally able to cash the check, after which I took the money over to my credit union and made a deposit. It's a good thing I decided not to deposit my check directly. I think I'll be following this procedure for the foreseeable future.

I got home from that excursion and wrote a letter to the owner and president of the company. I'm not sure yet whether I'll send it in its present form, or maybe do a little editing and tone it down a bit.
--

Dear Mr. Xxxxxxx:

I am writing today to express my extreme displeasure and grave concerns about the ongoing payroll difficulties the company has experienced in recent months.

On Thursday, January 26th, I received a phone call from my credit union stating that my paycheck had bounced. As a result, $70.00 in fees had been assessed and my account was more than $200.00 overdrawn. I spent more than two hours the following day gathering information, getting a new check, cashing that check, and depositing the money into my account. Not having access to a car at the time, I did all of this either by riding public transportation or walking. It should be mentioned here that it was snowing heavily that morning. This was not a small inconvenience for me.

I received my most recent paycheck last night at the call center. I took it into the bank this morning to cash it, only to be told that there were not sufficient funds in the account. I had to call [the HR person] from [the lobby of] the bank to get the issue resolved. That makes twice in less than three weeks that I have had problems with my paycheck.

This can not continue.

The company's employees deserve to be compensated fairly, promptly, and reliably for the work they do. When any employee deposits a paycheck, we need to know that we can pay our rent and buy our groceries. Most of us live paycheck to paycheck. We can't afford to wait a week to start paying our bills, just to be sure that our paycheck clears. We need to know that the money will be there.

The continuing failure of the company to address this issue seems indicative of a systematic problem in the process. I don't know who is responsible for executing or overseeing the process. I don't know what procedures or guidelines may be in place. I simply know that if an employee at the call center were screwing something this important up this badly for this long, we would have fired them by now.

The failure of the company to provide reliable compensation has already begun to cost the company employees. I am aware of an incident in recent months in which two new and promising young interviewers both resigned their jobs after their very first paycheck bounced. Our level of turnover is already high; we cannot afford to lose more employees because they feel the company doesn't care enough about them to pay them for their efforts.

In writing this letter, I am not interested in explanations, justifications, or excuses. I simply want to know that someone in the company knows what is going on and is genuinely concerned about fixing the problem. When interviewers come to me saying that they can't cash their checks, I want to feel like I can honestly tell them that someone is really trying to make things right.

In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that I hold no ill will toward you personally, nor toward any member of the [company] management team. But the company's failure to rectify this ongoing problem is intolerable. If the company is serious about recruiting and retaining quality employees, this issue cannot be allowed to go unresolved any further.

Sincerely yours,
[insert signature here]
--

Well, any suggestions?

The Big Game

Here are some of my thoughts and observations about Super Bowl XL:

Seattle got to the Super Bowl with two double-digit home playoff wins. They didn't lose a game at home all year, which is more than any other team in the NFL can say. They were the clear favorites in the NFC, and they made the best of their home field advantage.

Pittsburgh got to the Super Bowl by winning three playoff games on the road. They're only the second team in NFL history to do that. They're the first #6 seed to make it to the big game. They had to beat the three AFC teams with the best records to get there.

Pittsburgh is favored to win by four points.

Had this game been played ten years ago, when the NFC was in the midst of a thirteen-year Super Bowl winning streak, the Seahawks would have been favored by at least two touchdowns.

I guess the fact that the AFC has won six of the last eight Super Bowls (two by the Broncos, one by the Ravens, and three by the Patriots) makes a difference.

--

I love the bit that SportsCenter did about Dan Marino's call to Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. They didn't talk about the call itself, just the coincidences between the two young quarterbacks.

Marino went to college at Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger went to Miami (Ohio).

Marino played for Miami.
Roethlisberger plays for Pittsburgh.

Marino wore number 13 (unlucky).
Roethlisberger wears number 7 (lucky).

Oh, and for the curious, Marino lost his one and only Super Bowl. An omen, perhaps?

--

Some media wit reported last week that Cleveland is the only NFL city that has never hosted the Super Bowl or sent a team to the big game.

Nice try, but wrong.

As it turns out, Indianapolis joins Cleveland in that dubious honor. True, the Colts have been to the Super Bowl. More than once, as I recall. But they were in Baltimore at the time.

So, no points awarded for that answer. Thanks for playing anyway.

Journalists. ::shakes head:: At least now we know that political reporters aren't the only ones who neglect to check their facts.

--

Speaking of Indy, I saw an interesting advertisement in the grocery store a week or so ago. It said something like, "Spend the Super Bowl with the Mannings". And it featured pictures of Archie, Peyton, and Eli living it up with chips and dip and such.

I love all the hype this family gets. If you believe the people who get paid to opine on such things, The Mannings are a 'quarterback dynasty'. Three great quarterbacks, a father and two sons.

Who have won exactly ZERO titles between them.

It's hard for me to get hyped about such a 'dynasty' when I know that they're all going to be doing exactly what I'm doing tonight: watching the Super Bowl on television.

--

Who do I want to win? I'm actually okay with either team winning. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't have a solid attachment to (or dislike of) either team. Like they say in the South, I don't have a dog in this fight.

On the one hand, it'd be nice to see Seattle win. They've struggled in the playoffs for so long—worse than the Donkeys ever did. And I always have a soft spot for underdogs. Plus, Curtis likes them.

On the other hand, a Pittsburgh victory would be okay too. Their improbable playoff run is the kind of story we could see in a Disney sports movie one day. And Jerome Bettis seems like a genuinely nice and decent human being, not something for which football players are often noted. It'd be cool to see him retire with a Super Bowl victory. Plus, I typically root for the AFC, unless it's the Raiders.

So I don't know. I guess rather than cheering for either team, I'll just be hoping for a good game. I'd hate for this to turn into a blowout.

--

Here's a quote of which I was reminded earlier:

"Football incorporates the two worst elements of American society: violence punctuated by committee meetings." -George Will

--

All right, already, my pick for the game:

Steelers 35, Seahawks 31.

Sorry, Curtis.

Thank You, Captain Obvious

I saw an editorial the other day. I don't remember where it was or who wrote it, but the point was something like this:

When cartoons parody Jesus, the major news outlets say, "Go with it. Freedom of speech and all that."

When cartoons parody Mohammed, the major news outlets say, "We won't print this, it's offensive."

He then goes on to suggest some sort of anti-Christian bias in the media. I don't think that's necessarily the case.

I think the media are just smart enough to know that Christian fundamentalists are a lot less likely to start torching embassies.

Bartlett Pair

Part I: Friday's Feast
Friday's Feast, 3 February 2006.

Appetizer On a scale of 1 to 10 (10=highest), how sociable are you?
On my own, probably 5-6.
Under the influence of Nancy, probably 8-9.

Soup Name 3 DVDs you currently own.
Much Ado About Nothing
Murder by Death
The Great Escape

Salad If you were to win a superlative award now (such as most talented, class clown, most likely to succeed), what would it be?
Most likely to say something that everyone around him finds completely incomprehensible.

Main Course What is your favorite radio station?
I really don't listen to the radio that much. So I'll recommend an Internet 'radio station' I find interesting. It's called The Music Genome Project. You identify up to five songs or artists you like, and it will seek out other music that fits the style. It's worked really well for me so far. Give it a shot.
(Thanks to Curtis for the recommendation.)

Dessert Complete this sentence: I believe __________ because __________.
I believe true friendship can overcome any obstacle, because my friends have always been there for me.

--

Part II: Top Five on Friday
Top Five on Friday from The Music Memoirs:

Top 5 "Super" songs...As always interpret this as you see fit. Go ahead be creative!

» "Superfreak" by Rick James
» "Superman (It's Not Easy)" by Five For Fighting
» "Super Trouper" by ABBA
» "Superconductor" by Rush
» "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" by Harry Connick Jr.

Midweek Music Meme Thing

This week's Take Me Back Tuesday from The Music Memoirs:

Grammy Awards are coming.

This took a little research and a lot of head-scratching, but here it is:

Name three grammy winning artists that are on your playlists.
1. The Beatles (Best New Artist, 1965)
2. Norah Jones ("Don't Know Why", Best Pop Vocal Performance - Female, 2003)
3. Dire Straits ("Brothers in Arms", Best Music Video - Short Form, 1987)

Name three grammy winning songs that are on your playlist.
1. "Smooth" by Santana featuring Rob Thomas (Record of the Year, 2000)
2. "A Boy Named Sue" written by Shel Silverstein, performed by Johnny Cash (Best Country Song, 1970)
3. "Cinema" by Yes (Best Rock Instrumental Performance, 1985)

Name three grammy winning albums that are included on your playlists.
1. Genius Loves Company, Ray Charles (Album of the Year, 2005)
2. Toto IV, Toto (Album of the Year, 1983)
3. 1712 Overture and Other Musical Assaults, Peter Schickele, a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach (Best Comedy Recording, 1990)

...all of which are probably better than anything we'll see at this year's Grammys, I fear.