The Listening Project–Week 32

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I made record progress and got through 52 CDs.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
804	Peter Gabriel	So	3/3/2012	Yes
805	Bryan Adams	So Far So Good	3/3/2012	Yes
806	Reba McEntire	So Good Together	3/3/2012	Yes
807	Downhere	So Much For Substitutes	3/3/2012	Yes
808	Everclear	So Much For The Afterglow	3/3/2012	Yes
809	Alanis Morissette	So-Called Chaos	3/3/2012	Yes
810	The Aaron Pelsue Band	Solid. Rock Solid Worship	3/3/2012	No
811	Dave Matthews	Some Devil	3/4/2012	Yes
812	Carry Underwood	Some Hearts	3/4/2012	Yes
813	Rich Mullins	Songs	3/4/2012	Yes
814	Maroon 5	Songs About Jane	3/5/2012	Yes
815	Tears for Fears	Songs From The Big Chair	3/5/2012	Yes
816	Depeche Mode	Songs Of Faith And Devotion	3/5/2012	Yes
817	SONICFLOOd	SONICFLOOd	3/5/2012	Yes
818	SONICFLOOd	Sonicpraise	3/5/2012	Yes
819	Margaret Becker	Soul	3/5/2012	Yes
820	Kathy Troccoli	Sounds Of Heaven	3/5/2012	Yes
821	Precious Death	Southpaw	3/5/2012	Yes
822	White Heart	Souvenirs	3/6/2012	Yes
823	Bleach	Space	3/6/2012	Yes
824	Sarah Jahn	Sparkle	3/6/2012	Yes
825	Dogs of Peace	(Speak)	3/6/2012	Yes
826	Various Artists	Special Brew	3/6/2012	Yes
827	Choir	Speckled Bird	3/7/2012	Yes
828	Steven Curtis Chapman	Speechless	3/7/2012	Yes
829	Paula Abdul	Spellbound	3/7/2012	Yes
830	Jewel	Spirit	3/7/2012	Yes
831	The Offspring	Splinter	3/7/2012	Yes
832	Steve Taylor	Squint	3/7/2012	Yes
833	Belly	Star	3/7/2012	Yes
834	Harry Connick Jr	Star Turtle	3/7/2012	Yes
835	Various Artists	Starbucks World Music Volume 1	3/7/2012	Yes
836	Reba McEntire	Starting Over	3/7/2012	Yes
837	Jeremy Camp	Stay	3/8/2012	Yes
838	Jet Circus	Step On It	3/8/2012	Yes
839	KLANK	Still Suffering	3/8/2012	Yes
840	Sometime Sunday	Stone	3/8/2012	Yes
841	Randy Stonehill	Stories	3/9/2012	Yes
842	Charlie Peacock	strangelanguage	3/9/2012	Yes
843	Tori Amos	Strange Little Girls	3/9/2012	Yes
844	Jonah 33	The Strangest Day	3/9/2012	Yes
845	Various Artists	Streams	3/9/2012	Yes
846	Various Artists	Street Beat	3/9/2012	Yes
847	Various Artists	Strong Hand of Love- A Tribute to Mark Heard	3/9/2012	Yes
848	Kutless	Strong Tower	3/9/2012	Yes
849	Clash of Symbols	Sunday is an Altogether Different Proposition	3/9/2012	Yes
850	Tree 63	Sunday!	3/9/2012	Yes
851	dc Talk	Supernatural	3/10/2012	Yes
852	Santana	Supernatural	3/10/2012	Yes
853	Ian	Supersonic Dream Day	3/10/2012	Yes
854	Alanis Morissette	Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie	3/10/2012	Yes
855	The Chemical Brothers	Surrender	3/10/2012	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Peter Gabriel “So”: A great way to start off the week.
• Bryan Adams “So Far So Good”: I may be mistaken but I think I “borrowed” this CD about 5 years ago and just never returned it.  If I remembered who I borrowed it from then I would return it.  If it is yours then let me know.
• Dave Matthews “Some Devil”: I am becoming more and more of a Dave Matthews fan every week.
• Rich Mullins “Songs”: A best of (and my first) CD from Rich.  I have since gathered many of his regular releases.
• Tears for Fears “Songs From The Big Chair”: Only 8 songs on this CD, pity.
• Depeche Mode “Songs Of Faith And Devotion”: I discovered this band too late in their career.
• SONICFLOOd “SONICFLOOd"” & “Sonicpraise”: It had to happen eventually.  This is 2 CDs that are from the artist that appear alphabetically.  Oh there have been others but normally it is a 2 CD set or something like that.  I am less of a fan now than I was originally when I bought these CDs.
• Kathy Troccoli “Sounds Of Heaven”: Was excited and shocked to hear one of Kathy’s songs on American Idol last week (Go Light Your World).
• White Heart “Souvenirs”: So many White Heart best of CDs in my collection.  Still good stuff though.
• Sarah Jahn “Sparkle”: Sadly, this is the only CD that she ever put out.  I first heard her voice on the Petra tribute album.
• Dogs of Peace “(Speak)”: This is the other CD that I mentioned last week that starts with a parenthesis and yet fell into the pile this week.  This is basically 2 guys that have played on or produced tons of other CDs coming together to do their own.  Sadly, this is their only release.
• Various Artists “Special Brew”: This starts out with an 8 minute remix of U2’s “Numb” and just gets cooler from there.
• Harry Connick Jr “Star Turtle”: The music is good but there are 4 tracks mixed in that (I think) are telling a story where Harry is talking to a guy with some kind of computer altered voice.  I don’t get what he is trying to do here.
• Jet Circus “Step On It”: I bought this since the lead singer from Leviticus (well the lead singer from their 3rd release) was the lead singer on this CD.  Basically a drum machine and these guys playing bass and guitar.  So so music but good vocals.
• KLANK “Still Suffering”: The best industrial genre CD that I own.  The wife really dislikes this CD (she says he sounds to angry to be on a Christian label) but I love it.
• Charlie Peacock “strangelanguage”: My favorite CD by Charlie.  Just the right mix of all his other CD’s styles.  The lyrics to “Insult Like The Truth” are spot on.
• Various Artists “Streams”: I saw this on eBay when it first came out.  Jon Anderson (from Yes) sings a duet with the group 4 Him.  This was much touted on eBay and for some reason (even though this was available at any Christian bookstore) it kept selling for >$20.  Eventually everyone caught on.  Basically an album of songs written by Brent Bourgeois (formerly of Bourgeois Tagg).  Michael McDonald, Sixpence, Delirious and others all have standout songs.
• Various Artists “Strong Hand of Love- A Tribute to Mark Heard”: This was how I first hear Mark’s music (except his release under the name “Ideloa”).
• Tree 63 “Sunday!”: Their last release before breaking up as a band.  I miss them.
• dc Talk “Supernatural”: Their last release before breaking up as a band.  I miss them.

I am 83.7% done and I managed not to buy any more CDs this week.  I have 167 CDs to go according to my master spreadsheet.

.Jon

Outsourcing My Body–Week 9

Well, It has been nine weeks since I outsourced my body.  On to this week’s summary…

Diet

I went out to eat a few times this week and we ordered pizza when the daughter had a friend sleep over on Friday night.  Tuesday night, two co-workers and I went out to a BBQ place and I tried to keep it as healthy as possible given the choices on the menu.  I ended up having a turkey sandwich, beans and corn…

It was very good and I ate it all and was not overly full at the end of it all.

Saturday morning the girls (remember the daughter had a friend over) wanted donuts.  I knew that donuts would not be what I was allowed to I took the son out to breakfast.  We ended up at the Café Brazil down the road.  My breakfast (though costly) was awesome…

The scrambled eggs were nothing to write home about but everything else was awesome.  I brought home enough as leftovers for the wife to have a 2nd breakfast before she headed out to her part time job as a rep for a gourmet dog food.

Since I did all this eating out, I was not looking forward to the scales this morning for this week’s weight reading.

Exercise

I did not test me right knee out this week but continued with my walking the dog / riding a bike routine (other than Tuesday morning when I had a 6:30 AM meeting with a co-worker in Slovakia).  I feel like I am letting the wife down in that I think she had big plans for me as we enter the 3rd month of this project.  Sorry dear.

Weight

This part of this project is going a little too well.  Don’t get me wrong, I am happy that I am making progress but other than the hiccup 2 weeks ago where I gained 1/2 lb., I have made steady progress even if my exercise or diet is not what I would like it to be.  The only thing that I have been consistent with is no sweets.  Not one cookie or soda has touched my lips since January 1.  This has been the key to all my previous diets as well so I do not know why this shocks me so much.

I got on the scales and discovered that I had my best week since week 1.  I am down another 3 1/6 lbs. this week brining my overall total to 23 1/2 lbs. 

Other

I have only 4 weeks to go and I have my momentum back from a few weeks ago.  I have been thinking about what kind of sustainable lifestyle I can ease into once this is over.  One that will allow me to keep on the straight and narrow and not back to the life that led to the need for this whole project.  No sweets / soda might just be it.  It seems I can indulge on non dessert food (or soda).  As I head toward my mid 40’s I know I need to do something.  I can’t keep up this cycle every few years as eventually it will not be this easy to drop the weight I fear.  Plus there is that challenge from my mother to keep this weight off for 18 months.  That might be all the short term motivation that I need.

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 31

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I made good progress and got through 46 CDs.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
758	Charlie Peacock	The Secret of Time	2/25/2012	Yes
759	Nicki French	Secrets	2/25/2012	Yes
760	Out Of The Grey	(See Inside)	2/25/2012	Yes
761	Chris Tomlin	See The Morning	2/25/2012	Yes
762	Tears for Fears	The Seeds of Love	2/25/2012	Yes
763	Send The Beggar	Send The Beggar	2/26/2012	Yes
764	Thousand Foot Krutch	Set it Off	2/26/2012	Yes
765	Seven Day Jesus	Seven Day Jesus	2/26/2012	Yes
766	Garth Brooks	Sevens	2/26/2012	Yes
767	Yngwie Malmsteen	The Seventh Sign	2/26/2012	Yes
768	Shaded Red	Shaded Red	2/26/2012	Yes
769	Choir	Shades Of Gray	2/26/2012	Yes
770	John Schlitt	Shake	2/26/2012	Yes
771	Peter Gabriel	Shaking the Tree- Sixteen Golden Greats	2/27/2012	Yes
772	Santana	Shaman	2/27/2012	Yes
773	Out Of The Grey	The Shape of Grace	2/27/2012	Yes
774	Gary Chapman	Shelter	2/28/2012	Yes
775	Enya	Shepherd Moons	2/28/2012	Yes
776	Sheryl Crow	Sheryl Crow	2/28/2012	Yes
777	Bond	Shine	2/28/2012	Yes
778	Newsboys	Shine- The Hits	2/28/2012	Yes
779	Main Line Riders	Shot In The Dark	2/29/2012	No
780	Various Artists	Shut Down	2/29/2012	Yes
781	Blindside	Silence	2/29/2012	Yes
782	Mike Stand	Simple Expression	2/29/2012	Yes
783	Margaret Becker	Simple House	2/29/2012	Yes
784	Bobby McFerrin	Simple Pleasures	2/29/2012	Yes
785	Sheila Walsh	Simple Truth	2/29/2012	No
786	Frank Sinatra	Sinatra 80th - All The Best Disc 1	2/29/2012	Yes
787	Frank Sinatra	Sinatra 80th - All The Best Disc 2	3/1/2012	Yes
788	Corey Hart	The Singles	3/1/2012	Yes
789	Depeche Mode	The The Singles 86-98 Disc 1	3/1/2012	Yes
790	Depeche Mode	The The Singles 86-98 Disc 2	3/1/2012	Yes
791	Sixpence None The Richer	Sixpence None The Richer	3/1/2012	Yes
792	Sixteen Cities	Sixteen Cities	3/1/2012	Yes
793	Bush	Sixteen Stone	3/1/2012	Yes
794	The Insyderz	Skalleluia!	3/1/2012	No
795	Melissa Etheridge	Skin	3/2/2012	Yes
796	Randy Stonehill	The Sky Is Falling	3/2/2012	Yes
797	Common Children	Skywire	3/2/2012	Yes
798	Smalltown Poets	Smalltown Poets	3/2/2012	Yes
799	Guardian	Smashes - The Best of Guardian	3/2/2012	Yes
800	Chris Rice	Smell the Color 9	3/2/2012	Yes
801	Hawk Nelson	Smile, It's the End of the World	3/2/2012	Yes
802	Bride	Snakes In The Playground	3/3/2012	Yes
803	Hokus Pick	Snappy	3/3/2012	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Charlie Peacock.”The Secret of Time”: After a few years without a record deal, Charlie released this CD.  I had bought his independently released “West Coast Diaries” trilogy (of course) so I had my Peacock fix to get me by.  Those CDs (which another label re-released {and I bought on CD]) will be later in this project.  The daughter and I performed an acoustic version of “Dear Friend” in church one Sunday morning with the help of an awesome guitarist.
• Nicki French “Secrets”: I got this solely for her version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” and that is the lone highlight.
• Out Of The Grey “(See Inside)”: One of 2 CDs that I own that start with a parenthesis (the other one should be on next week’s list).  I am not sure why Windows Media Player ignores this character and sorts by “See” whereas other characters like [ are not ignored.  No matter, I eventually got to this one.  I like everything by this husband / wife duo group.
• Send The Beggar “Send The Beggar”: The lead vocalist’s voice is just strange enough to make me like this CD.  Very similar in that sense to the group According to John.
• Thousand Foot Krutch “Set If Off”: Sometimes when you really like a group and you discover them a few CDs into their career, you should NOT go back and find their earlier stuff.  I think I would like this more if I heard it before all their other (awesome) releases.  Still good though.
• Yngwie Malmsteen “The Seventh Sign”: I had only just heard of this artist before I found this on the $1 rack.  Awesome guitar.
• Choir “Shades Of Gray”: Technically this is an EP and technically I only have it as 5 bonus tracks off the CD re-release of the Choir’s “Chase The Kangaroo” album.  I split it off in my music collection so it appears separately here as well.  This is an good bridge between their 1st release (as “The Choir”) and the rest of their releases.
• Gary Chapman “Shelter”: Gary is better known as Amy Grant’s ex-husband.  This CD (which has a nice duet with Amy) is pretty good.  Sorta country, sorta not, but good overall.
• Bond “Shine”: These 4 ladies are supposed to be good at the violin but this CD is so overproduced with drums and dance beats that their talent is kind of hidden.
• Main Line Riders “Shot In The Dark”: A 90% off find at Mardel’s that I should have left on the rack.  Mediocre vocals with mediocre music.
• Blindeside “Silence”: Simply awesome.  I saw them on tour in support of this release.  Just enough singing / screaming mix.  I just bought their new CD as a mp3 download.
• Mike Stand “Simple Expression”: Former Altar Boys lead singer showing a more acoustic rock side.
• Bobby McFerrin “Simple Pleasures”: Don’t judge me (and don’t worry, be happy).
• Sheila Walsh “Simple Truth”: This is my only CD by this artist but I have 5 LPs.  They are all better than this one.
• Frank Sinatra “Sinatra 80th - All The Best Disc 1 and Disc 2”: Can’t believe that I got this for $1.  Tons of great songs from the 50’s.
• Depeche Mode “The The Singles 86-98 Disc 1 & Disc 2”: I discovered this band way too late, like when I wanted to know the original artist when Johnny Cash covered “Personal Jesus” in 2002.
• Sixpence None The Richer “Sixpence None The Richer”: This is the one that put this band on the map with their hit “Kiss Me”.
• Sixteen Cities “Sixteen Cities”: These guys sound very similar to The Afters.  I was looking up information about them and found out that they are leading the worship service in a nearby church the next 2 Sundays.
• The Insyderz “Skalleluia!”: 794 CDs into this project and this is the worst CD that I have listened to yet.  Ironically this is their best selling CD.  I am not much of a ska genre fan anyway but these ska versions of classic praise and worship songs are unforgivable. 
• Randy Stonehill “The Sky Is Falling”: I have had this on LP for 25 years but still bought this re-release (with bonus tracks) anyway.  I remember talking to someone who was a Stonehill fan in the 70s that was very disappointed in this release seeing as how it was 4 years after his great first LP.
• Bride “Snakes In The Playground”: This band is still trying (25 years later) to release another CD as good as this one.  Their website touts many of their later releases as “Snakes In The Playground 2” but it hasn’t happened yet.
• Hokus Pick “Snappy”: Finishing this CD up as I finish this blog.

I am 78.6% done and I managed not to buy any more CDs this week.  I have 219 CDs to go according to my master spreadsheet.

.Jon

Outsourcing My Body–Week 8

Well, It has been eight weeks since I outsourced my body.  On to this week’s summary…

Diet

I got back on the horse this week, well after Sunday night that is.  My mother and grandmother were in town last weekend (if you remember I partially blamed my mother for my 1/2 lb. gain last week).  They had the kids on Sunday afternoon and night.  This allowed the wife and I to enjoy another night out.

We ended up at Macaroni Grill (notice the crayons in the top left of the picture) and I ordered the above wonderful ravioli dish and a nice glass of wine.  I also ate a little bread dipped in olive oil.  I sampled a little of the wife’s dish and a little of her salad.  Since that night though I have been on the straight and narrow (that is until last night when I had a slice of Costco pizza for dinner).

Exercise

My right knee continues to be sore so I did not exercise with the videos this week.  Last Saturday’s attempt at level 2 of Jillian was the last time I tried anything strenuous.  This week consisted solely of walking Nina (our Doberman) between 1 and 2 miles and a few bike rides.  I am not sure if much will change this week.  The wife is convinced I am simply doing an exercise or two incorrectly.  Perhaps.

Other

I need a hair cut.  The sides are getting a little flippy and hair gel only partially masks this.  I put it before the wife to decide and so far the flips continue.

Weight

Due to the eating out on Sunday, last week’s less than stellar weight report and last night’s pizza, I was once again concerned as I stepped onto the scales this morning.  My fears subsided when I saw that I had lost 1 5/6 lbs. and am now down a total of 20 1/3 lbs.  I have often thought that diet moreso than exercise helped in the weight loss area anyway and this week can be used as exhibit A.

I have only 5 weeks to go and the wife has not brought up the subject of extending this project in a few weeks.  My mother bought me a big bag of M&M’s.  It remains unopened despite the kids asking me daily when I am going to open it (and I guess share).  I think I will need to set a weight goal and allow myself some M&M’s when I reach it.  Since I have about 18 lbs. to go on my personal weigh goal, maybe 8 more lbs. is a good place for that.  This way the kids will root me on (at least for 8 more lbs.).

Jon

The Listening Project–Week 30

Well another week has passed by and I was able to get through a few more CDs in my listening project.  I made good progress and got through 40 CDs.  This is not too bad seeing as how I had Monday off of work.  You can reference this blog entry for details about this project.  Here are the CDs I knocked off of my list this week.

#	Artist	Album	Date	Again?
718	Harry Connick Jr	25	2/18/2012	No
719	Neil Diamond	Beautiful Noise	2/18/2012	Yes
720	Michael Kamen	Don Juan DeMarco Soundtrack	2/19/2012	Yes
721	Neil Diamond	Hot August Night - Disc 2	2/19/2012	Yes
722	Bruce Hornsby	Hot House	2/19/2012	Yes
723	Leann Rimes	I Need You	2/20/2012	Yes
724	Leann Rimes	Leann Rimes	2/20/2012	Yes
725	Soul Asylum	Let Your Dim Light Shine	2/20/2012	Yes
726	Michael W. Smith	Live The Life	2/21/2012	Yes
727	Caedmon's Call	Long Line Of Leavers	2/21/2012	Yes
728	Los Lonely Boys	Los Lonely Boys	2/21/2012	Yes
729	Marc Anthony	Marc Anthony	2/21/2012	Yes
730	Hall & Oates	Marigold Sky	2/21/2012	Yes
731	Bruce Hornsby & The Range	A Night On The Town	2/22/2012	Yes
732	Sam Phillips	Omnipop (It's Only A Flesh Wound Lambchop)	2/22/2012	Yes
733	AC/DC	The Razor's Edge	2/22/2012	Yes
734	By The Tree	Root	2/22/2012	Yes
735	route 43	route 43	2/22/2012	Yes
736	Reba McEntire	Rumor Has It	2/22/2012	Yes
737	Chris Rice	Run The Earth, Watch The Sky	2/22/2012	Yes
738	Jackson Browne	Running on Empty	2/22/2012	Yes
739	Weird Al Yankovic	Running With Scissors	2/22/2012	Yes
740	Rush Of Fools	Rush Of Fools	2/22/2012	Yes
741	Richard Marx	Rush Street	2/23/2012	Yes
742	Megadeth	Rust in Peace	2/23/2012	Yes
743	Various Artists	Sabrina The Teenage Witch	2/23/2012	Yes
744	The Killers	Sam's Town	2/23/2012	Yes
745	Sarah Masen	Sarah Masen	2/23/2012	Yes
746	P.O.D	Satellite	2/23/2012	Yes
747	Satellite Soul	Satellite Soul	2/23/2012	Yes
748	Various Artists	Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack	2/23/2012	Yes
749	Savage Garden	Savage Garden	2/24/2012	Yes
750	John Cougar Mellencamp	Scarecrow	2/24/2012	Yes
751	Bruce Hornsby & The Range	Scenes From The Southside	2/24/2012	Yes
752	EMF	Schubert Dip	2/24/2012	Yes
753	Enigma	The Screen Behind The Mirror	2/24/2012	Yes
754	Kutless	Sea Of Faces	2/24/2012	Yes
755	Philadelphia	Search And Destroy	2/24/2012	Yes
756	Mad At The World	Seasons of Love	2/24/2012	Yes
757	Michael W. Smith	The Second Decade (1993-2003)	2/25/2012	Yes

Here are my thoughts on a few of these CDs that I have listened to over the past week…

• Harry Connick Jr “25”: Not a good way to start the week.  The first 16 CDs on this week’s list are a carry over from my purchase from the previous week.  In general I really like Harry’s stuff.  This CD is mostly him and his piano.  Several are instrumentals.  As my kids have been taught to say when eating a food they do not like, “It’s not my favorite.”
• Neil Diamond “Beautiful Noise” & “Hot August Night - Disc 2”: I will admit to being ignorant of most of Neil’s career save for his hits in the mid 80’s when I was a teenager.  These are both from the 70’s and I think I could be becoming a Diamond fan.  I was disappointed when I realized that the Hot August Night CD that I picked up was only disc 2 of a 2 CD set.
• Michael Kamen “Don Juan DeMarco Soundtrack”: We have this movie and this CD (save for the Bryan Adams “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman”) is all instrumental, Spanish guitar laden music.  Very relaxing though I will admit buying it mainly for the Bryan Adams song.
• Bruce Hornsby “Hot House” & “Scenes From The Southside”: I really am becoming a Hornsby fan.  I picked up 2 CDs by him and his band last week in my 23 CD haul.  This brings my total to 4 CDs by him.
• Leann Rimes “I Need You” & “Leann Rimes”: I bought these on a whim since the daughter has Leann’s first CD and she likes it.  Leann does have an awesome voice so these are pleasant to listen to from time to time.
• Michael W. Smith “Live The Life” & “The Second Decade (1993-2003)”: Live the Life has a great song called “Missing Person”.  This is also on his 2nd best of CD, The Second Decade. So, in short, I got to hear that song twice this week.
• AC/DC “The Razor's Edge”: I do not think I ever gave this band a fair shake.  This is my only CD from them and I think I like it.
• Megadeth “Rust in Peace”: I think I became a Megadeth fan AFTER this CD.  This one though is before they changed their sound to be more commercial (the CDs that I like).  Still a good listen when you want to hear someone sing who is obviously angry about something.
• route 43 “route 43”: When we moved to Texas the first time we set out to find a church down here.  The first church we visited happen to have this trio in concert on Sunday morning.  The were very good and I picked up their EP.  Try as I might, I cannot find these guys anywhere using google.  You will just have to trust me when I say I am not making them up.
• Various Artists “Sabrina The Teenage Witch”: This came in the eBay auction I won a while back.  I had not listened to it until this week.  It has some good tunes on it including a remake of “Abracadabra” and “I Know What Boys Like”.
• P.O.D. “Satellite”: Payable on Death at the top of their game.  These guys are still around but their genre has come and gone.
• Various Artists “Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack”: Did you know that the Bee Gees did not even start on the music for this movie until all the dance scenes were already filmed?  The 10 minute version of “Disco Inferno” is a nice touch at the end of the CD as well.
• Philadelphia “Search And Destroy”: This 80’s Christian metal band I remember from my teen years.  I never had any of their albums but I found this one on the bargain rack and snagged it up.  Pretty good given they probably had zero budget for production.

I am 74.1% done now.  Somebody asked me last week what I would do when I am done with this project.  I froze.  I have no idea what I will do when I get to pick what CD to listen to whenever I want.  This project has relieved me of any decisions of that type.  I am still thinking about the answer to that question.  Currently I have 265 CDs to go.  At 40 / week that is only 7 more weeks until I have to come up with an answer.

Jon

Interpreting A Sign

I think I have mentioned in my Outsourcing My Body blog entries that I am drinking about a gallon of water per day.  While this has some good, healthy side effects it also causes me to visit the men’s room at work more frequently than in the past.  These visits are becoming habitual and I have developed several techniques to get in and out as quick as possible.  For example, there are 2 towel dispensers that are activated by waving your hand in front of them.  These hands free devices go well with the time saving, hands free / self flushing urinals.  Anyway, I wave my hands in front of both towel dispensers before I begin washing my hands so that the towels are already there for me when I need them.  This saves all of 2 seconds I am sure.  But my bathroom time saving techniques are not why I am writing this blog.

As I entered the men’s room one of my many, many trips there today, there was a guy I know stepping away from the urinals just as I was entering.  He was walking toward the sink area and then gave me a double thumbs up sign.  I nodded at him and then made my way toward the area he just left.

I had some free time for the next few moments and my mind began to ponder what just happened.  What could this person (who was actually my manager for a short period of time a few years back) have meant with the thumbs up sign?  Was that some sort of rating for what had occurred just before I entered the room?  Perhaps he was having difficulties in this area of his bodily health and he felt the need to tell me that everything was working fine.  Maybe he had heard a rumor that I was having difficulty in this are of my life and he was offering some pre-encouragement to urge me on as I stepped up to the area that he just vacated.  Or, maybe he assumed I saw which urinal he just vacated (there are 3) and he was giving that urinal a thumbs up rating for whatever criteria should be used in measuring such things.  The fourth and most likely scenario is that he was just giving me a greeting and waving seemed out of place (as if thumbs up is any less awkward).  No matter the reason, it struck me as quite odd.  I might need to switch the bathroom that I visit to avoid future signs.

Jon

Tengo Dos Avisos

I do not like being told I am doing something wrong.  I do not like being told that I am breaking a rule (or a law).  I really do not like being told this if I do not know the rule that I am breaking.  This is why I was upset when the wife and I discovered a large orange sign pounded in our front yard…

I guess you can tell we are having a good laugh about this now but not so when we first saw the sign.  We are in violation of two rules according to the orange sign.  We are watering our lawn on a day other than our trash pick up day and the watering is causing a run off onto the street.  This is the first I have heard of these rules.

I know that we (or is it still they) here in Texas are in somewhat of a drought.  I know that in a drought there are restrictions.  However, according to the sign, there is some sort of rule that prohibits watering on any day other than your trash pick up day.  Since the bill for water usage and trash / recycle bin pick up is one and the same I suppose that this makes sense but for the life of me I am not sure how I am supposed to know this.  I guess you are supposed to wait until you get the city’s equivalent of The Scarlet Letter pounded into your front yard for all to see.

According to the sign, this rule has been in place since November 1, 2011.  The warning was signed and dated at 2:10 AM.  This means that someone has the unfortunate job of driving up and down residential streets in the wee hours of the morning to catch evil violators like us in the act.  I can tell you that I have not touched the sprinkler system control that is in the garage since we moved in last September so that means that we were just lucky to have gotten by so long without getting caught.  I do not even have a manual for it so I guess I will have to just figure it out myself.  I can tell you that we had the ONLY sign and there were many other folks within eyesight that had wet driveways (suggesting that they, too, had their sprinklers set on a non trash pick up day).

Anyway, the wife and I stewed about it a bit and then calmed down and started laughing at it.  That is until we got our second warning of the day in (of all places) our mailbox.

My mother and grandmother are here for a short visit.  My grandmother is 85 and this is probably her last big trip anywhere.  They divided their time here between us and my cousin (who has the slight advantage of having a new [newer] baby).  Since my grandmother has a little trouble walking around (and since our van was hogging the space in our driveway) my mother parked right in front of our driveway so my grandma did not have to walk as far.  Unfortunately parking there is in violation of some sort of US Postal Service rule of parking too close to our mailbox.  This warning did not call as much attention to us as the other warning sign but since nerves were a little high in the “warning sign” department we still got a little riled up about it.  Unlike the water sign, this carried no monetary penalty (we could not tell if the water sign was a warning or a penalty, I guess time will tell).

Anyway, I will tackle the sprinkler system today and be mindful of the mailbox when folks come to my house and park.  Hopefully we can get through the day today without any more warnings.

Jon Dieterman