The Mega Millions lottery was up to $333 million dollars, which means that, by law, I had to play.
Okay, not really, but that number was large enough to entice me to get a pool together at work and purchase a few tickets.
The odds of winning was 1 in 175 million, but that didn’t dissuade me from plunking down $5 for the chance of winning (after splitting the win and before taxes) $60+ million.
If I ever do win the lottery, I’d like to purchase:
1: The fastest Corvette in existence
2: A trebuchet to hurl pianos and large kitchen appliances at my annoying neighbors
3: My own downtown art house movie theater
*Sigh* I guess I can still dream, can’t I?
Oddly enough, a few week ago my folks won several thousand dollars in the local lottery, so winning is theoretically possible, just not very probable.
With all the hoopla and hullabaloo over the passing of Michael Jackson, this statue housed in the Field Museum in Chicago has been getting a lot of attention lately:
Could Michael Jackson have possessed ancient mystic, arcane knowledge which granted him power over space and time? I contend that the undeniable, unshakable proof has been staring us in the face all this time…
Hope everyone has a great weekend. See you Monday!
A week from today I’ll finally be on the Mt. Whitney trail, heading up to 14,500ft, and most probably in a great deal of pain. My run up Mt. Baldy last week provided some insight as to what to expect, and that expectation is cramps, fatigue, and a slight case of altitude sickness. Can’t wait!
Being a runner for most of my life, and a hard core trail runner for the past fifteen years, I’m confident that I’ll come close to my 8 hour target for the entire 22 miles, but man, I still find myself nervous just thinking about Mt. Whitney. My stomach is doing flip-flops, and my mind races with doubts and uncertainties.
Taking a look for the 100th time at my various Mt. Whitney books, I saw something today that I never really noticed before:
Why are the mile markers in the shape of tombstones? That does not fill me with confidence
Ahhh….I’m just psyching myself out, I know it. It’ll be fine. Won’t it?
So there I was, minding my own business, tearing around the local industrial park in my S2000 yesterday afternoon, running over squirrels, cutting elderly people off, and parking in every handicap spot I could find when my clutch pedal starting feeling a little spongy. I had to push the pedal almost to the floorboards to change gears. Today during lunch I could barely get my car into reverse. I could tell in my heart of hearts that this did not bode well for me or my wallet.
Jamming out of work a bit early, I dropped my car off at the mechanic and picked up a rental. Then, the waiting game for “the call” began. Luckily I didn’t have to wait long to get the bad news. Turns out my master cylinders are shot. Leaking. Dying the slow death. ”Oh, and by the way,” the mechanic said in a whispery, purring tone, “your rear brakes need replacing.”
And so, to make a long story stuffy, that’s how I spent $800 in the course of an hour.
Oh, and the rental car I managed to pick up from Hertz is a Nissan Rogue.
I felt lucky to get this rental. It was the end of the day and this was the last vehicle left. Throwing my computer bag on the passenger seat I buckled in and was immediately overcome with the smell of cigarette smoke. Looking around the car at that first stop light I could see that this car was covered in ash.
Way to keep your cars clean, Hertz.
Pulling into the garage I took a second to reprogram all of the spanish channels to something a bit more appropriate, cut the engine, and resigned myself to the fact that tomorrow I’ll be $800 poorer and smelling like a cigarette.
I’m not not big into “beatboxing”. Whenever I do hear that style of music an indelible image of Biz Markie is instantly formed in my brain. I’ll admit that some of the people who beatbox have a fair amount of talent, but I never thought I’d sink any money into an album that focuses on this form of music…that is until I heard DubFX.
I even can’t begin to describe and do justice to what this guy can do with a microphone. I’ll just ask that you take a few minutes to watch this video:
DubFX incorporates dubstepping, taking beatboxing to a whole new level. Using no instruments he’s able to craft a beautiful song on the spot while standing on an anonymous street corner. I was so impressed I followed the links and purchased a copy of his album Everythinks A Ripple. This thing has been on heavy rotation for a few days now. It reminds me of Recoil and Tweaker, but with a complete lack of any real instruments and possessing more of an urban flair.
Now, I know that Bobby McFerrin has been known to put on a concert or two sans instruments, but he never utilized that talent to the effect that DubFX has. Everythinks A Ripple is one of those rare albums with not one clunker song in the bunch.
Again, I’m amazed at the complexity of this album, given the fact that it’s nothing more than DubFX and his voice. The live videos of DubFX available on the ‘net sound awfully raw, but the studio album EaR (his first!) is genius. It’s rare that I gush so much over an artist, but mark my words, this album will go down as one of the gems from 2009.
