Terrible Analogies

I love music.

It wasn’t until I started attending high school that I really fell in love with music.  When I was a kid I listend to the radio and spun a few Kiss albums.  That was about it.  I was a sheltered child, I know.  When I started high school I abandoned the bus in favor of a daily car ride from an older friend of the family who was in his final year of high school. 

This friend had a healthy collection of cassette tapes in his car, and every day I was exposed to music I had never heard of before; music by bands such as The Cramps, Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Bauhaus, The Jam, The Damned, Operation Ivy, Yello, Agent Orange, Talking Heads, The Stranglers, Violent Femmes, The Replacements, and Sisters Of Mercy flowed over me and  through me.  I was absorbed, entranced, and joyfully enraptured by it.  These artists (and many, many more) helped me to define myself in a way that nobody and nothing else could.

Into the trash went the radio, and in its stead stood a larger dual-cassette tape deck with 8″ speakers.  I finished high school and started college.  Around that time I began to collect compact discs.  This was the era of Nine Inch Nails, Pop Will Eat Itself, Ministry, Nitzer Ebb, Elvis Costello, and Jane’s Addiction.  I finished my first year of college but somehow felt as if I was missing…something. 

I was unsure whether or not to join the priesthood, team up with the Peace Corp, or become a circus carnie.  I looked at all of my options then decided to enlist in the Air Force, hoping to find some direction in life.  It was during time this that I purchased a huge component stereo system with giant Infinity floor-standing speakers through which I blasted Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Descendents, Smashing Pumpkins, Jesus Jones, STP, Live, The Pursuit Of Happiness, and Primus.  Needless to say, the military didn’t completely destroy my soul nor my love of music.

A lifetime of music in one location

Four years later I found myself back in the real world and involved in computers.  I picked up a Macintosh G4 and began to digitize my now extensive CD collection.  I got into mobile DJing, playing gigs around town for a year before running out of time, patience, and energy.  I sold my gear and picked up my first iPod, then finished college (I guess it was a case of “music first, education second”).  And now, here I am, years older and more than a bit wiser, yet still in love with music. 

Some will say that the music of today doesn’t compare to music from our younger days, but I have to disagree.  Those who say such things really don’t put any effort into finding the great bands that exist right here, right now.  If you haven’t heard any good music lately, then may I suggest you give a listen to Underworld, Muse, Death Cab For Cutie, Eels, The Avett Brothers (a bit of country/folk never hurt anyone), Wax Tailor, As Cities Burn, Wilco, Vampire Weekend, The Shins, Andrew Bird, The Whitest Boy Alive, Rotersand, Decemberists, and The Editors?  Go on…just give ‘em a shot.

And now that I think about it, the evolution in the way we consume music has dramatically changed.  For me it began with a small radio, then a boom box, a full-fledged stereo system, then finally on to a quad-speaker DJ system.  Eventually the whole kit shrunk down to a tiny iPod, with my entire collection housed on a hard drive connected to a computer based system with powered speakers.  Music started with the LP, then the cassette (I skipped the 8-Track on purpose because, frankly, I never owned one), then the CD, then the physical media disappeared completely, replaced by digital code.  Record stores are now few and far between, replaced with WalMarts and online services.  I wonder how my kids will listen to their music.  Personally I’m hoping for data crystals and in-ear bone speakers.

It’s amazing how drastically things can change, yet the music keeps playing on.  

There’s a commercial that’s been airing recently touting the benefits of the Tempurpedic bed.  This magical space-age memory foam apparently “contours” to your body, negating the need for a spring mattress and, supposedly, providing a more comfortable night’s sleep.

Then they hit you with a shocking statistic.  From what I’m led to believe apparently Tempurpedic sells “one mattress every sixty seconds.”

Woah, hold on there partner.  One mattress every sixty seconds?  Is the woman included in the sales price?  Let me run some numbers here…

Breaking out the calculator and figuring that Tempurpedic sells 60 mattresses per hour, that comes out to 720 every twelve hours.  That’s 262,800 mattresses sold every year.  My God, that’s (*button mash* *calculate* *carry the two…*) 10,249,200 mattresses since 1970.

That means that over 3.5% of the U.S. population owns a Tempurpedic mattress.

To put this into perspective, 25% of the U.S. considers themselves Catholic, 15% of the population is Hispanic, 12% are living at the poverty level, and 12% are 65 years old or older.

Again, 3.5% of the population owns (or owned at one time) one of these mattresses?  Can this be right? Personally, I don’t know of anybody who owns a Tempurpedic product.  Now, I’m sure my numbers here aren’t bombproof, but if I’m even close to the ballpark, it’s a stunning figure.

Tooling down the freeway on my way home this afternoon I noticed a car in the left lane in front of me with it’s blinkers on, hoping to merge into my lane, and getting the short shrift from the other drivers in front of me.  My one rule while driving is ‘use your blinkers’.  I have no sympathy for someone who’s weaving in and out of traffic and not using turn their turn indicators.

Anyway….this person was hoping to merge in and wasn’t having much luck.  As they neared me I slowed down to allow a gap into which they could merge.  They did so, and waved “thanks”.  That, I think, is a wonderful thing to do when someone cuts you a break, doesn’t act like a jerk, and actually shares the road.  That “wave” that perhaps only one in ten people do is akin to when truckers flash their brake lights at you because you flashed your headlights to let them know that they can merge into traffic in front of you.  It’s a reward for the just and an impetus to keep on doing the right thing.

I personally don’t think enough people do the “wave”.  Perhaps it’s a sense of entitlement, that some people believe they actually own the road, and that somehow forbids them from thanking a helpful stranger.  Perhaps today’s society has just become cold and crass, and waving a quick “thanks” doesn’t even enter into the equation.  Or perhaps it’s a combination of ignorance and self-centeredness that certain people just don’t believe in a friendly wave when it’s due.  

Whatever the cause, a quick wave certainly makes that long daily drive home a far more tolerable experience.

The “wave”.  Do it today.  Make someone feel good.

I saw this and just had to share.  Not being a big Coldplay fan, I still appreciate the amount of talent, sweat, and tears that must have gone into the making of this video:

When I was a kid I think I might have drawn a few crude figures on the neighbor’s driveway, but my chalk drawing abilities end there.  To the folks who made this video…*golf clap*.

I was messing around with my new 4×4 Rubik’s Cube a few days ago when it locked up on me, then suddenly (and quite unexpectedly) exploded / disintegrated in my hands.  Colorful cubes of plastic poured from my hands and on to the faux wood of the kitchen floor.  It was a tragedy to be sure, but nothing I couldn’t recover from.

With wallet in hand I raced upstairs to purchase a replacement.  My first stop was Cube4You, but their funky site just didn’t want to play nice with Safari or Firefox.  Here’s what Cube4You sent me when I signed up:

Note: our system don’t accept Firefox now , when you pay , you shall use Internet Explorer , we’ll fix this soon.

“You shall use Internet Explorer.”  Frak that.  I hate any company that tells me what to do.

Willing to give them the benefit of a doubt that they just haven’t quite grasped the intricacies of the english language, I sent a quick e-mail to them asking an innocuous question about their cubes.  A whole day passed and I never received a response (heck, four days later as of this writing and still no response), which didn’t fill me with happy fuzzies.  Okay, I guess Cube4You doesn’t get my business (and it shouldn’t get yours either with their lousy customer support).

My next stop was Cubefans. Taking a chance I placed my order.  Minutes later I received a confirmation number.  Ten minutes later I received another e-mail stating that my order had been shipped.  This e-mail also included a UPS tracking number, and there was my order, ready to be processed.

Three days later and I’m now the proud owner of a new Eastsheen cube.  If you need a new 4×4 cube, I’d definitely recommend Cubefans.  They’ve got my business from now on!

Inside the shipping envelope was a sturdy box protecting my valuable cargo

My replacement stickers and new cube. This Eastsheen A4 has great action for a 4x4. Single digit control, no lockups...great cube!