Stuff About Things

Photo Card

2011-10-08T16:30:00.001-05:00

Initially Girl Baby Announcements

Find hundreds of cute baby birth announcements at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Moving

2010-02-24T13:26:00.002-06:00

I haven't been updating the blog as much as I have been planning. That is something I am hoping to change shortly. Something else I'm going to be changing is that I'm going to move my blog to Wordpress. Blogger has been fine and is probably the simplest way to do a blog, but Wordpress seems to offer a much richer feature set.

So from now on Stuff About Things can be found at its' new home here.

Ava-hontas

2010-01-06T23:12:00.000-06:00

**SPOILER ALERT**
If you haven't seen Avatar yet, and you don't want the plot to potentially be ruined for you, stop reading now.
Still here?
OK, great. Now we can point and laugh at the people who left.

So I went with my friend to see Avatar the other night. I really hadn't been dying to see it, but I decided to go see what all the fuss was about. After seeing it I decided all the fuss was about the special effects, which should surprise no one. It was one of the most visually stunning movies I have ever seen. The 3D was pretty cool, but I have to say after 2 1/2 hours of it I kind of had a headache and my eyes felt like they were trying to cross. I think it would have been equally cool without the 3D. It just felt gimmicky to me. Also, the "Na'vi" looked a little like the illegitimate children of the Smurfs and Thundercats.

Now for the plot. Oh, the plot...where do I even start. It was very obvious that they blew all their money on effects and didn't have any left over for a script. I had the feeling I had watched this movie before. Apparently I am not the only one. I kept waiting for somebody to break into "Colors of the Wind". In all seriousness, if James Cameron doesn't get sued by Disney over this I will be a little surprised. Obviously they were just using the script to give them an excuse to show off their shiny new effects. Honestly, I would have preferred they just left the script off. It would have been better if they had just said, "Here's an hour of some cool looking stuff we came up with after we smoked some opium." No plot, just an hour flying around on the dragon things. Whatever they were called. Don't even get me started on the tree-hugging, hippie crap.

A couple of other things that bugged me about the movie. First, why did "Pandora" look like a black-light putt-putt course at night? That was just ridiculous. Second, whoever the designer was that decided the subtitles should have been in "Papyrus" font should be drug out in the middle of the road and shot. I mean seriously, "Papyrus"? The only font that could have possibly been any worse would have been "Comic Sans". Or "Wingdings". Well, maybe "Wingdings" would have actually been better, because then I wouldn't have been able to read all the stupid, predictable crap they were saying.

Bottom line:
Visual effects- *****
Everything else- *

To Brantley

2009-12-11T12:52:00.002-06:00

Hey Son,

    I know you won’t be able to read this for a long time, and this blog may have gone to the land of wind and ghosts before then, but I just felt like I needed to tell you some things. Right now this is the best way I have to do it.

    I have never been as excited about anything as I am about you. You are supposed to get here on May 1st, and it cannot get here soon enough. At the same time I am so nervous, because I feel completely unqualified to raise a child. I guess everyone feels like that when they have their first kid, and I just have to keep telling myself that people do this all the time. There is so much I don’t know yet. Guess I better learn quick. Sorry you are going to be the guinea pig.

    I pray I can do as good a job raising you as your grandparents did raising me. I pray I can give you everything you need, and that I don’t give you everything you want (just almost everything). I pray that you will be healthy and happy and that you will always think I am the best Dad in the world. I can’t wait to teach you how to ride a bike, how to throw a football, how to swim, and so many other things. I can’t wait to read my favorite books with you. I can’t wait to take you camping, to the zoo, and especially to take you to your first Alabama game. I can’t wait to see you experience everything for the first time.

But mostly, I cannot wait to see you with my own eyes.

I love you,
Daddy

Indulge me once again

2009-09-16T15:14:00.031-05:00

Here is another short story. This is a tangential sequel to my earlier story Habit. Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think, or if you see an grammatical errors. I'll use all of you as my proof-readers.

Visit

The two-toned pickup bounced and rattled down the gravel drive. The sun was just a sliver of molten gold on the horizon, casting its glow on the edges of the approaching storm clouds. Ted parked his truck and got out. As he headed towards the old farmhouse he looked through the kitchen window at his wife cooking supper. He didn't know why she still bothered cooking every night. It was just the two of them at home now. As he walked through the door the smell of the frying chicken greeted him, followed shortly by Sally's voice.
   "You're late."
He grinned.
   "Make sure you take those filthy boots off." She called, "I just cleaned the floors."
Ted hollered back, "Sorry I'm late Sally. I stopped to give a kid a ride into town."
   "I wish you wouldn't do that. It worries me."
   "Ah, he was OK Sal, just a little lost."
   "All the same you don't need to go pickin' up people like that. The world ain't what it used to be."
   "You're right about that."
   "Hurry and get changed this chicken is just about ready."

Ted headed upstairs, thinking about just how much the world had changed in his lifetime. He remembered growing up farming the 200 acres surrounding the house. Land that had been in his family for four generations. It had mostly been sold off when his old man had died. All that was left was the house Ted and Sally lived in and the acre plot it sat on. Ted had found a job in the steel mill in the next town over. He liked working maintenance just fine, he guessed, but it wasn't the same as getting to spend every day outside, even if the work was easier. He changed out of his dark blue coveralls and got washed up. He walked back down and sat in his usual seat at the small table in the kitchen. As he began filling his plate Sally said,
   "I went by and saw Sam today."
   "Yeah? How was everything?"
   "Just fine."
   "I was planning on riding out that way tomorrow."
   "That would be nice."

There was silence for a while as they both focused on their eating. Ted thought back to when their only son was young. How much he used to love "exploring" the land around the house. Ted wished he had taken more time to go with him. He guessed one good thing about Sam leaving was that he and Sally had been spending a lot more time together. Ted relished that time. Just then Sally broke in on his thoughts.
   "You're never this quiet at supper. Is it that bad?", she said with a grin.
   "You know it's not. I've just got a lot on my mind."
   "Well just try not to look so unhappy."
Ted grins, but Sally can see it's a little forced.

Silence falls in the kitchen as they turn back to supper. The silence was coming more often here lately. It always did this time of year. Ted thought back to all those years when there was never a quiet moment in the house, unless it was when Sam was asleep. At that time he would have given anything for a moments peace. Now, the house seemed empty without the racket. Almost as if on cue the summer squall let go its downpour on the old tin roof. The silence was suddenly filled with a dull roar, but it was a comforting noise to both of them.

The meal finished, Sally begins to clean up the dishes. Ted starts to help, but Sally tells him,
   "Get out of here and go relax. I know you've been on your feet all day."
   "You just want me out of the kitchen so I won't be in your way.", Ted fires back, a true grin on his face now.
He took his coffee, sat in his chair and turned on the TV. As usual nothing was on. Mostly, he just liked the noise. It was a soundtrack to the thoughts flickering through his mind as he channel surfed his memories. Most of them featuring Sam when he was still here at home. Ted sat there, his coffee forgotten and cold, vaguely hearing Sally say she was going up to bed. His head drooped. The memories continued in his dreams.

Sally walking down the aisle towards him.
Standing beside the bed and hearing his son's first cry.
Smiling through the tears as Sam went to his first day of school.
Sam, walking out the front door...

With a start Ted jerked awake, momentarily lost. As he shook off the fog of the dream he realized where he was. Today was more tiring than he thought, he hadn't fallen asleep in his chair in a long time. He picked up his untouched coffee, took it to the kitchen and poured it down the drain. Then he made his way upstairs, hoping his memories wouldn't keep him awake. At least tomorrow was Saturday.

Ted awoke after a fitful night's sleep and tried to get dressed without waking Sally. She loved sleeping in on Saturdays. Ted stepped carefully around the mud puddles in the front yard as he made his way to his truck. It looked like the storms from last night had blown through and today was going to be gorgeous.

Ted pulled up at Sam's place and saw Sam, right where he had been last time. Ted shut off his truck and sat there for a minute staring out the windshield. As if making up his mind he got out and walked slowly up to the gate. As he stepped through the gate and onto the cool grass, he felt all the old emotion coming back. Ted walked up to his son and looked down at the granite stone.

Samuel Theodore Tennent
1981-2001
Loving Son

Visit by Andrew Gatlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Sunrise

2009-08-11T23:44:00.002-05:00

Sunrise 8/11/09
Originally uploaded by andrewgatlin

Took this shot on my back porch about 5:45 this morning. If you've gotta be up early this is a pretty good way to start the day.

UNA Football Schedule

2009-08-11T12:43:00.003-05:00

Just a quick note. I added a GCal UNA Football schedule to the sidebar. It is a public calendar, so if you use GCal you should be able to subscribe to it if you would like. The first game is an away game on 29 Aug. I'm really excited about this season. UNA should be fun to watch, Alabama should have a good season, I'm not sure which I'm more excited about. Setting up to be a great year for football. If you want to read some more about UNA check out the official site.

If any of you out there don't like football, it would probably be a good idea to avoid this blog until after January. Just FYI.

Thought this was cool

2009-07-07T12:40:00.005-05:00

Discovered a cool website the other day: Ficly. It's a site designed to let you publish your works of fiction under a Creative Commons license. This isn't terribly unique I suppose, but the twist is that the works can be no longer than 1024 characters. Also, anyone can write prequels or sequels to what you publish. I thought it was a really interesting concept. I've got a couple of stories up there now (one of them will be familiar if you have been reading my blog for a while), and hope to have some more soon. You can see them here.

My Weekend

2009-06-30T15:06:00.001-05:00

This past weekend was exhausting. My original plan was to paint our master bedroom Friday night and all day Saturday so I could get it finished and have time Sunday afternoon to cut grass. That would have been a busy weekend as it was, but right after I got started painting Saturday morning all my plans got derailed.

Marissa's grandfather passed away about 7:30 that morning. He was 89 and had been sick for quite a while so it was not unexpected, but you still hate for someone you love to have to go through that. There wasn't much I could do to help on Saturday so I kept painting for a while, but I didn't get as much done as I had planned. The funeral was Sunday afternoon and I was a pall-bearer, which I was happy to do. However, I wouldn't have minded if it had been a few degrees cooler, 'cause those suits are pretty hot. Needless to say I got nothing done at the house Sunday. So I spent last night finishing most of the painting, and still haven't cut the grass. Tonight I've got to touch up the painting, put the face-plates back on the outlets and put our furniture back in place. Probably still won't get the grass cut tonight. Also, my parents are coming into town this weekend to stay with us, so I've got to make sure I get the house put back together before then. Awesome.

My Earliest Memory

2009-06-25T13:33:00.003-05:00

It's always been strange to me how the most random things can trigger memories. A certain smell or sound or image can bring up something far back in the past. For me, a lot of times the trigger isn't even directly related to the memory. Now I can't even remember what made me even think about this, but it is my earliest memory.

I was 2 years old when my brother was born, but I can remember the day incredibly clearly. Not because I was excited or happy about getting a new brother, (I was, but I can't remember the day he was brought home at all) but because I was so terribly traumatized by what happened. Really my brother's birth is just incidental to this memory, because it indirectly caused the trauma.

Invasion of the Mommy Snatchers

It's March 1984 and I am 2 years old, we are living in a suburb of Nashville, TN. I have a vague recollection of my parents telling me for a while that I am getting a new brother, but I'm sure I have no idea of how exactly that is going to happen. I figure he is just going to show up at the door one day and we'll go run around in the yard or something. I wake up pretty early and, just like any other normal morning, I go into my parents room to lay down with Mom until she is ready to get up and fix my breakfast.

This was not a normal morning.

As I walk up to the bed I notice that Mom's hair appears to have gotten darker during the night. Instead of her usual blond hair on the pillow, I see black hair. I guess this was not terribly concerning to my 2 year old mind, because I continued on. I think I was a strange kid, because I wouldn't just climb in bed. According to my parents I would always just stand by the bed and stare until they woke up and put me in bed. I imagine this was kind of a distrubing way to be woken up until you got used to it. Anyway, I remember doing this same thing on the morning in question. The thing is it was not my mom who turned over and looked at me.

I don't really remember the exact details of what happened next, but I do clearly remember paralyzing fear. I remember thinking that someone had taken my mom. It took a while before I calmed down enough to realize that this was one of my parents' friends. Evidently my brother decided to come in the middle of the night, and he didn't just show up at the door like I thought. Apparently Mom had to go to the hospital to get him, and they didn't want to take me with them. So this nice lady was going to stay with me until my grandparents could come up from Alabama.

As I said I have no real memory of my brother coming home from the hospital. In fact, I don't have any clear memories at all until several years later. I'm sure the only reason I have any memory of this day is that I don't think I have ever been as scared as I was that morning.

Sea Monster

2009-06-02T07:45:00.007-05:00

Sea Monster
Originally uploaded by andrewgatlin

Scarier than Jaws...

A Three Hour Tour...

2009-05-29T12:21:00.007-05:00

Here's the final journal entry from the cruise.

19 May 2009, 1430 GMT-5
N 25° 4.810'
W 077° 20.407'

Nassau, Bahamas

Well, it wasn't raining when we got up this morning, but it was very cloudy and windy. We went down to disembark and meet up for our snorkeling excursion. When we got down there the people running the excursion told us that the sea was going to be rough and we could get a refund if we didn't want to go. We decided to go. To get out there we rode a catamaran. We've been on this type of boat a couple of times and they are always very stable. Unfortunately they don't have a lot of covered deck area. Marissa and I were sitting on the front of the boat with no cover, and about the time we cleared the harbor the bottom fell out. It wasn't just kind of raining, it was raining big ol' fat raindrops. The kind that hurt when they hit you. Luckily I had thought to bring our wind-breakers so we were better off than most people. When we got to the island (which looked disturbingly like Gilligan's) and reef where we would be snorkeling the rain broke, and the sunlight got a little brighter. That worked out good because I brought an underwater camera to take pictures, and I really needed the light. So we swam around looking at the coral reef and taking pictures for about an hour, then loaded up to head back to the dock. This time almost everyone crammed into the tiny cabin, which was a good thing because it started pouring down again on the way back.

Once we got back we went up to dry off and change, then went out into Nassau to do some shopping and see the sights. About the time we stepped off the boat the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. Wish that could have happened a few hours before.

We spent most of our time in the Straw Market, bought a few gifts and some stuff for ourselves, then spent the rest of the time just walking around the area around the cruise terminal. The traffic in Nassau is crazy (from what I've heard it's the same everywhere in the Carribbean). Lane markers are really just suggestions, traffic lights are mostly ignored, and I'm pretty sure people were blowing their horns in some kind of code. I'm very glad I had no need to drive down there.

We got back on the boat about an hour ago, got a snack, and now we are sitting out in the sun killing time 'til supper. Tomorrow will be a day at sea on the way back to Jacksonville, hopefully the weather will be better than it has been these past couple of days.

The Weather is Here...

2009-05-29T08:10:00.011-05:00

Third journal entry from the cruise

18 May 2009, 0845 GMT-5
N 24° 34.693'
W 075° 57.149'

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

Just got settled here on the beach at Half Moon Cay. It is absolutely beautiful. It's partly cloudy and looks like we may get some rain later, but right now it's awesome.

Half Moon Cay is what they call a "tender port". Most ports have docks that the ship can pull up to and you disembark on a gangway. At a tender port, the ships anchors a ways off-shore and they pull ferrys (tenders) alongside, then the ferrys take you ashore. I wouldn't want to get off a ship like this that way very often, cause it took a while.

The beach here is pretty amazing. Our ship is the only one here, so the beach is not very crowded. The water is that clear Carribbean blue, and there is a great breeze blowing. Right now the day is perfect, but it seems like the clouds are slowly getting darker.

Update
1300 GMT-5

Yeah, so those clouds kept getting darker all day and now it's pouring down rain. The bad part is that we were supposed to do some horseback riding this afternoon, but it got cancelled. The worst part is that we are still on the island and have to ride the tenders through the storm back to the ship. I sure hope this clears off by tomorrow at Nassau, because we are supposed to go snorkeling in the morning. At least we had several hours of good weather this morning.

Float On

2009-05-27T08:38:00.008-05:00

Here's the second journal entry from the cruise

17 May 2009, 1030 GMT-5
N 27° 18.412'
W 079° 22.600'

Atlantic Ocean NE of West Palm Beach, FL

The ship got moving about 1630 GMT-5 yesterday. We had a great supper last night. Turns out one of the couples at our table is from Huntsville, so that was kind of cool. After supper we went to a late show. It was...interesting. Kind of a variety show with singers who were not as good as they thought they were. Marissa enjoys them, but they are a little too corny for me.

Slept in this morning. Then headed up to the top deck, which is where I'm writing this from. There is something incredibly relaxing to me about being able to look in any direction and see only ocean. It makes it hard to worry about much of anything.

Of course right after I write that I look up and see a speck of land on the horizon. I think it must be Grand Bahama Island.

I'm looking forward to the stop tomorrow, it's a private island owned by the cruise line. Should be a good day at the beach.

Uhh...It's Not Mine I Swear

2009-05-26T11:22:00.012-05:00

Here is the first entry from the journal I kept during my cruise last week. Enjoy.

16 May 2009, 1230 GMT-5
N 30° 24.448'
W 081° 34.870'

Port of Jacksonville

Just got on board the ship, the "Fascination". Wonderfully cheesy name right? Anyway, spent last night in Albany, GA. Got up this early this morning and drove the last 3 1/2 hours to Jacksonville. For me the highlight of the drive was going through a wide spot in the road called Ty Ty, GA. Yes, Ty Ty. Apparently they are proud of that name, because all 3 businesses in town used it in their name. I can't believe someone would name a place Ty Ty, or that people would want to live there.

Found the port no problem, but had one minor hiccup at check-in. After my bag went through the x-ray machine the security guy asks if that is my bag. I nod. He then asks me to show him my knife. At this point I break out in a slight cold sweat. I tell him I don't think I have a knife. He assures me that I do. Cold sweat increases. He tells me where he saw it in my bag. I dig around in it for a second and pull out one of my Case pocket-knives. Evidently I had left it in my backpack and forgot about it being there. The security people tend to frown on that type of thing. I made it out without the full cavity search though, so that was good. What was kind of odd was that they let me keep the knife. You can take knives on board as long as the blade is less than 4". That was kind of disturbing to me given the quantities of alcohol people tend to consume on these things, but I guess we'll see how it goes.

(Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge, Jacksonville, FL)

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

2009-05-14T13:53:00.007-05:00

Saturday afternoon (16 May) I'm going to be headed out on a cruise for vacation. We are leaving from Jacksonville, FL and making two stops in the Bahamas, then heading back to Jacksonville. One stop is a private island owned by the cruise line, the other is Nassau. I'm really looking forward to it. The last cruise I went on was four years ago, and we had a blast.

That said, I'm not going to have internet access pretty much all next week, unless somewhere in Nassau has wireless. So, I won't be around the usual places. I'm planning on keeping a little travelogue of the trip, which I will post here if I like how it turns out. Hopefully I'll get some good photos too.

Talk to ya'll in a week.

Twitter Two Cents

2009-04-21T08:22:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed an increasing number of people on Twitter saying that Twitter has gotten lame, gone mainstream, or that it has "jumped the shark". There was a dramatic rise in these type of posts last week with Ashton Kutcher/CNN's race to 1 million followers, and also with Oprah beginning to actively use the service. Honestly, I have been a little confused by all these tweets. To me, the beauty of Twitter is that you don't have to read things written by or about people you have no interest in. As of now you have complete control over what shows up in your feed. If you don't care what the Big O had for breakfast, don't follow her. If reading about what Kelso did over the weekend bores you, don't follow him. That's the beauty of the service. Each user can essentially customize it to be whatever they want it to be. If you are one of these people that want to know every detail of celebrities' lives, you can find out probably as much as you want. If you just want to talk to people you know in real life, you can do that too. You can see as much or as little as you want. If you are seeing too much info about stuff you don't care about, it doesn't mean that Twitter has suddenly become lame, it probably means you suck at choosing who to follow. That is not Twitter's fault.

So, following this logic, if I see people in my feed talking about Twitter being too mainstream, be warned you will probably be unfollowed.

In which I talk to the leader of the human resistance

2009-04-01T08:47:00.010-05:00

I had an encounter today on Twitter which kind of blew my mind.

It began with the following tweet about Google's April Fool's Day prank "CADIE".

andrewgatlin: Where's John Connor when you need him. » link to CADIE: Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity

A couple of minutes later I received the following response:

johnconnor: @andrewgatlin I'm right here. And cadie poses no threat.

What was mind-blowing about this is that before my original tweet, I wasn't following him, and he wasn't following me. From my perspective this response came out of nowhere. It kind of freaked me out for a second. Then I just decided to go with it. Here is the rest of the exchange.

andrewgatlin: @johnconnor Can you explain this to me? » link to io9 - A Whiteboard That Explains Terminators Entire History - terminator

johnconnor: @andrewgatlin looks right to me but there are more details and convolution that aren't detailed.

johnconnor: @andrewgatlin and you have to remember, anytime someone goes back they went back because they had to otherwise the timeline would change

johnconnor: @andrewgatlin and events that need to happen wouldn't

andrewgatlin: @johnconnor You're not really clearing any of this up...

johnconnor: @andrewgatlin what is there to clear up? Time travel occurred, people died, machines are crazy, humans must stop the machines. Simple to me :)

Read This Book

2009-03-11T10:25:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading another awesome book, The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's a post-apocalyptic story about a father and son traveling across a burnt-out USA. It's ~~depressing~~ heavy and disturbing, but man is it good. It's not very long (I read it in about 2 days), and it moves really quickly. I highly recommend it.

On an unrelated note, I am working on another short story. ~~I hope to have it finished in the next week or so.~~ Obviously I failed at this goal...

Kinda nervous about this one

2009-03-02T19:43:00.005-06:00

OK, this is my first shot at any kind of fictional story. Pretty much I just want to see how bad it sucks. So let me know what you think. It’s short, but it was supposed to be.

Habit

The suitcase was older than he was. It was hard-sided and heavy, but he liked using it for times like now. He had been walking for most of the day, hoping someone would stop and give him a ride to...somewhere.

No one had, and he had gotten tired of walking. Now he was sitting on the shoulder, using the suitcase for a seat. He sat, staring at the worn-out highway, watching the summer sun send heat waves rippling off the faded blacktop. The suitcase wasn't very comfortable, but it was better than the baking hot, hard packed dirt on the shoulder of the road. At least he had been able to find some shade.

He sees a car coming up in the distance. His thumb goes out, but it's more from habit than hope. The car roars by him, throwing up debris from the chewed-up highway. He was so tired of being covered with that grit. It was in his clothes, his hair, and he thought he would never get it all out of his teeth. Maybe he could get to somewhere tonight where he could get a shower. It has been a while.

He has a brief moment of relief as a breeze picks up, rustling the branches of the tree overhead. It has the faint scent of rain, and he hopes he can find shelter before the storm gets here tonight. Almost as quickly as the breeze starts it's gone. The summer heat rolls over him again, and he feels the sweat trickling down his spine.

He has been sitting, resting for about an hour now, and it's time he started walking again. His legs ache with stiffness as he stands. He lifts his battered suitcase, and starts heading into the falling sun. He feels every rock underfoot through the worn-slick soles of his thrift store sneakers. They are a little better than going barefoot he supposes.

He has started to lose track of the days since he left. They have all blurred one into the other in his mind. He hears a car approach again from behind. Again, his thumb goes out. This time the car slows. He hears the tires crunching on the gravel of the shoulder. He turns and sees the truck roll to a stop. The driver sticks his head out,

"You need a ride son?"

The young man nods.

"Well, hop in."

The young man throws the suitcase in the bed of the truck as he opens the door and gets in. He feels the welcome blast of the air conditioner, and the sweat cools instantly on his skin.

"I can take you to the next town up." says the driver.

"Thanks."

"Where ya headed anyway?"

“West." the young man answers. The driver nods.

The old highway hums under the truck tires. Mile markers roll by in silence.

The driver looks at his new passenger.

"You runnin' to somethin' or away from somethin' son?"

The young man opens his mouth, hesitates.

"I don't know anymore."

He looks back out the window, watching the mile markers pass. The sun drops towards the horizon, and this day begins to blur into the last.

Habit by Andrew Gatlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Just?

2009-03-02T09:08:00.006-06:00

I found this cool website the other day. It's called Wordle. It lets you upload a bunch of text, or link to your blog, and it will generate an image of the words you use. The bigger the word in the image, the more you use the word. You can customize the layout, font and color scheme to make it look however you want. Pretty cool, I thought.
So, apparently I use "just" a lot...

All I've Got Is Your Photograph

2009-02-27T12:24:00.005-06:00

Here's some of what I like to do in my free time. Not great, but some of it turned out OK. Enjoy.
Click the picture to see some more.

Random Photos

PLEASE HELP WHAT DO I DO NOW????

2009-02-19T08:26:00.004-06:00

I was actually asked the following question yesterday at work.

"On these new keyboards, how do you know if the Caps Lock is on?"

Instead of taking the easy approach to answering this question and just, you know, type and see if ALL THE LETTERS ARE CAPITALIZED!!! This mental titan decided the correct course of action was to completely stop what he was doing, walk across the hall into my cube farm, interrupt my work, and ask me a question that he could have found the answer to himself in approx. 1.5 seconds. I understand not knowing the answer to something, but I do not understand being too lazy to try and figure it out yourself before you go and disrupt somebody else.

Some people just have no business owning/using computers. If you are not going to put in a little effort to learn how to use the thing, get a typewriter. I'm not saying you have to be an expert, just get some basic knowledge. Like, how to tell if your Caps Lock is on...

Who's Gonna Fill Those Shoes?

2009-02-13T13:11:00.006-06:00

WOW, I don't even know where to begin.

My expectations for the BB King/Buddy Guy show last night were very high, which can be dangerous. Going in with high expectations can set you up for disappointment. This time, my expectations were nowhere near high enough.

Let me first say a little about the venue: The Ryman Auditorium. Even though I spent my first 15 years living in Nashville, I had never been inside the Ryman. Just being inside the place is an experience. When you look on the walls and see the autographed concert posters of all the people who have performed there, just in recent years it's an impressive list: Springsteen, Van Morrison, The Pretenders, etc. That's not to mention all the country music stars that roll through there on a regular basis.

A talk with one of the security guards gave me a little history of the place. It was built in 1892, and was originally a church. The concert seating is the original pews. They have been refinished, but otherwise completely original. That was pretty amazing to me. There are no bad seats anywhere in the place. It only holds around 2000, so even if you are at the back you are still pretty close. The acoustics are incredible. If you ever get a chance to see a show there I highly recommend it. Just a cool place to see a show.

Now about the show itself. One of the coolest things about this show to me was that it showcased two different styles of blues. Buddy Guy played more of the raw, gritty, what I would call Texas Blues. BB's style of blues is much more polished, but no less powerful. What gave BB's music that polish for me was his killer horn section, those guys were incredible. So, Buddy started the show off, and showed the energy and chops of someone half of his 72 years. He ripped through classic blues standards and some of his new stuff, and it was all mind-blowing. For me what was the most memorable part of his set was a cover of Muddy Waters' Hoochie Coochie Man. You can't beat that with a stick.

If I had only gotten to hear Buddy it would have been worth the price of admission without a doubt, but it just got better. BB King is blues. Nobody does it like him. Stevie Ray Vaughan once said something to the effect that he could play the baddest solo in the world, and BB could play one note and have him beat. BB's set was unique. He didn't just go through the songs like all the other concerts I've been to. He wove them into stories that he would tell about how things were when he was young, or how to treat your lady. It was like sitting in your living room listening to your grandaddy tell you stories...If your grandaddy was a legendary guitar player. BB may have lost a step in terms of vocal range, but his playing is still right on. When he hit the opening riff of The Thrill Is Gone I got chills. That was the highlight of the night for me.

Watching these two legends play was an unbelieveable experience. It was watching living history. These guys shaped blues music, and influenced, countless other artists from numerous other genres. Seeing them you realize how bubblegum, and vanilla most of today's music really is. I said most, not all. When I think of what the future of blues music (or music in general) will be when these guys are gone, I guess I have to ask the same question Buddy asked to start off the night.

Who's gonna fill those shoes?

I've Been Down-hearted Baby...

2009-02-12T10:36:00.013-06:00

Just a quick note. I'm going to see BB King and Buddy Guy tonight at the Ryman Auditorium. I'm really excited not only because of who it is, but because this will be the first real concert I've been to in a while. My plan is when I get back to post a review of the concert, probably Friday or Saturday.

Should be a fun night.

But You Don't Have To Take My Word For It...

2009-02-06T14:41:00.013-06:00

OK, so I'm back home and in a much better frame of mind now. Not having to work 12 hour days anymore will do wonders for your mood. However, I still have not gotten over the fact that I had to break up a dog fight in the hallway outside my hotel room. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go back and read the previous post.) Every time I think about that I have to convince myself that it was not a hallucination. I spent quite a bit of time after it happened on Google trying to find any mention of a similar situation. I completely struck out. If anyone else has better google-fu and can find something, I would love to hear about it. As of now, to the best of my knowledge, I am the only person this has happened to.

Now on to something completely unrelated.

I am just about caught up on all my reading, so I need some book suggestions. Since I am a good capitalist, and do not expect to recieve something for nothing, I offer you a few of my more obscure favorites as barter.

*Wind, Sand and Stars~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
This is a great non-fiction. It's a collection of personal stories from the author who was a mail-plane pilot and also flew for France during WWI. Very well-written, and has some great stories.

*The Songlines~ Bruce Chatwin
Travelogue of a trip Chatwin took to Australia. Has some interesting historical elements, as well as a look at Aboriginal culture and traditions.

*The Land Where Blues Began~ Alan Lomax
History of the origins of blues music. Written by a guy who traveled throughout the south recording old blues musicians for the Library of Congress. If you like history and/or blues, you will love this book.

*The Andromeda Strain~ Michael Crichton
Probably the least obscure of this list. This was one of Crichton's earliest works, and I think it got overshadowed by his later stuff. This book is one of those that gives you that weird creepy-crawly feeling up and down your spine. It has been adapted for TV/Movies a couple of times. Those attempts should be disregarded.

Alright, this post has gone on long enough. Hope you enjoy my book suggestions, and look forward to hearing yours.

You Will Never Guess What I Just Did

2009-02-03T19:40:00.004-06:00

There is no way anyone would ever be able to guess what I just had to do.

Break up a dog fight. In the hallway of my hotel.

Read that again. Let it sink in. I hope your brain doesn't melt.

I had to pull a pit bull off of some sort of terrier. The pit bull had the terrier's head in its' mouth. Its' entire head.

Honestly, when you are sitting in your hotel room about to go to sleep, the last thing you expect to hear is dogs snarling and someone screaming at someone else to get their dog off of his dog. Unfortunately the terrier owners were older, and the owner of the pit bulls (plural) was trying to hold them back in addition to her rather small baby.

Now there is no way I will be going to sleep any time soon. At least until the adrenaline wears off. That was pretty much the most surreal experience I have ever had.

Too Much Sand

2009-02-01T18:53:00.001-06:00

Well, I have suddenly found myself having an excess amount of time. Ordinarily this wouldn't be a negative thing. However this extra time I have on hand lately has involved me sitting in a hotel room by myself watching reruns of House. I have been doing an unusual amount of work-related travel the past couple of months, thus leading to the afore-mentioned alone time. I said all that to say that in order to kill some of this otherwise mind-numbing boredom, I would start this blog. Probably this will just involve whatever random thoughts are running through my head whenever I've got some time to sit down and write something.

I always thought I would enjoy doing a little business travel, but it's not as much fun as I had imagined. Some trips I take are pretty fun. For instance when I go to Chattanooga I can hang out with a couple of friends from school that live there. Now, I'm in Knoxville. Working 12 hour shifts. And I don't know a soul who lives here, except the other people who work up here. Most of them are about 15-20 years older than me. This translates to me being bored out of my mind in a hotel room. It's Super Bowl Sunday, and I can't even enjoy the game because it's not much fun to watch by yourself.

OK, so that last paragraph was a little emo, but I'm going to leave it in. I'm feeling a little depressed right now so please don't hold the emo against me. I promise I won't start wearing all black and eyeliner.

One good thing about this trip is that I tried Thai food for the first time. It was awesome. I'm going to have to have it again before I go home. I'm pretty sure there isn't anywhere in Florence to get Thai.

If anyone is wondering why I'm in Knoxville, I'm doing some support for the Kingston Ash Slide recovery effort. The experience will probably good in the long run, but right now it's not much fun at all.

Enough rambling, I meant to keep this short. Screwed that up huh?