The Motivation Project

Pardon me while I write three paragraphs that are seemingly unrelated and then attempt to tie them together at the end.

Those of you who have followed my Listening Project from the beginning know that I have a lot of CDs.  And by a lot of CDs, I mean almost 1200.  I had a friend ask me the other day how much space my collection took up.  The answer is, “Less than you would think.”

First of all, I am sorry for the poor quality of the photo.  This was taken with the daughter’s iPod Touch and I fear the lens was in need of a cleaning.  In my defense, without my reading glasses on, the photo looked OK to me on the iPod Touch’s small screen.  Anyway, each stack has 50 CDs in it (save for one stack).  When I buy a CD, I almost always take out the liner notes and CD and toss the case in the trash.  This saves a ton of space as you can imagine.  I had about 1/2 of my collection in carrying cases that I had picked up from here or there and the other half just sat stacked on a shelf in my bedroom closet or in boxes on the floor.  For this photo I have obviously removed the half of the collection from the carrying cases.  I now have all 1200 CDs on my bedroom shelf save for the few that the son keeps in the wife’s van for when they are out and about.  I will remind you that as I wrote the 46 blogs that comprise the Listening Project, I noted in a column if I would ever listen to a CD again or not.  The “No’s” were 60 in number.  So, one of those stacks in the above picture could represent the CDs in my collection that I will never listen to again.

We just finished a challenge at work.  I think it was called the Wellness Challenge.  They have this every year.  Basically you sign up and join a team (even if it is just a team of 1, which I did do one year).  You then decide how you want to challenge yourself.  You are given the option of counting your steps (you are give a pedometer if you choose this option), keeping track of your weight (as in trying to lose weight) or keeping track of the number of minutes you exercise each day.  You can do just one or any combination you like.  When the challenge starts, you log in each day and record your steps, weight and / or minutes exercised.  If you do this for the entire challenge (somewhere between 8 and 12 weeks depending on the year) then you earn a reward.  In years past the reward was a gift certificate of your choosing.  I think the first year was $25 and the next few years were $50.  I always participated and completed the challenge and then chose an Amazon.com gift certificate and then gave that to my pastor in Kokomo (even after I relocated to Texas).  At the end of the challenge we were sent an email to redeem our reward.  This year however an Amazon.com gift card was not an option and of the gift cards that were listed, none really interested me and in the end I just deleted the email.  This year I was able to get motivated to lose 15 lbs. in 8 weeks.  I liken it to when I got down to 180 lbs. a few summers ago and blogged about it each week.  There was something about recording my results so that others could see them that motivated me.  When I started the challenge for this year at work I weighed in at 215 lbs. and (doing the math) I ended at 200 lbs.  It has been a few weeks since then and I was back up to 206 when I weighed myself this morning.  I still want to get back to 180 and I just need some motivation.

One of my favorite authors is A. J. Jacobs.  I highly recommend his books and I feel a kindred spirit with him as he uses his life as a giant experiment (bringing his wife, and now sons along with him for the ride).  A few examples of my life experiments are the aforementioned Listening Project and also when I Outsourced My Body to my wife for (3) months.  His latest book is about health and in it he tries just about every credible health fad that is out there.  There was one small section in the book that really hit home with me and that was the 2 week timeframe where he tried to give up sugar entirely (even sugar that appeared naturally in food).  He had purchased a dehydrator previously in the book and was addicted to the dried fruit he had made.  He tried hiding the fruit to avoid temptation but that did not work.  He then tried a few other things to get him to avoid the dried fruit but none of them worked either.  Then he remembered a trick that he had read in a book on motivation.  He had to find something unpleasant to associate with giving into temptation.  He got his wife to take out their checkbook and write a $1,000 check to the American Nazi Party (he is Jewish by birth), sign it and put it in a stamped and addressed envelope and gave her strict instructions to mail the check should he eat one more piece of the sugary, dried fruit in the next (2) weeks.  This was just the motivation that he needed in order to avoid the temptation to eat the dried fruit.  When he looked at the dried fruit, he did not see a delicious snack, he saw it as a means for promoting Nazism.

OK, so there are my three, unrelated paragraphs and here is where I tie them all together (I hope).  First let me summarize here…

1. I have a lot of CDs and 60 of them I will never listen to again.  The other 1100 or so are CDs that I would like to listen to again.
2. I have gained 26 lbs. compared to 4 summers ago and would like to get back down to 180 lbs.
3. I will only accomplish this via some motivating factor that is painful enough to keep me on the straight and narrow.

So, here is my (random) thought on how to lose weight.  Starting tomorrow, for every day that I weigh in and am over 180 lbs. I will throw away 1 CD.

Here are the basic ground rules…

• I will weigh myself each morning in the same manner that I did 4 summers ago, namely right when I get up each morning.
• I will record my weight in a spreadsheet (you had to know there would be a spreadsheet or two in the challenge and I still have my template from 4 summers ago).
• If I weigh more than 180 lbs., I will select a CD to throw away.  I will do this every day until I weigh in at 180 lbs. (or lower) or until I run out of CDs.  In case you are interested, 1,188 (the number of CDs that I have) days from tomorrow is 11/19/2016.  So this project will have an end date.
• I will not allow myself to buy any more CDs (or digital music) until I have reached 180 lbs. (this might be more painful than throwing away CDs).
• For the first (60) days of the challenge, I will pick one of the CDs in my “would not listen to again” list.
• On day 61, I will have to pick CDs that I had listed as a CD that I would listen to again.
• On day 91, I will let my wife begin picking the CDs (I fear Megadeth and Klank will be the first to go).
• Rather than dig through my pile of CDs on the closet shelf each day, I will just delete the mp3 files from my main computer and at the end of this project I will dig through the pile of CDs on the shelf and throw away the ones that I indicated that I would throw away (or on 11/19/2016 I will throw them all out, should it come to this however I might sell a lot of them on ebay as some are quite rare).
• I will blog once a week with the weigh in results and the names of the CDs that were deleted.

So anyway, I just finished a coke (probably my last for a while) and am ready to begin this challenge tomorrow.  I will keep you posted.

Jon

Deciding Once And For All

I re-read an interesting factoid about Einstein the other day.  The rumor is that he owned 5 identical suits so that he did not have to waste any time deciding what to wear each day.  The little amount of mental effort that was saved could, hypothetically, be used for greater things.  I have a feeling that this is not true (his owning 5 identical suits) but it still got me thinking a bit about the decisions I make on daily basis and if I could adopt this concept into my personal life.  If I were honest with myself, I would confess that I am not doing this to save mental processing time for better things but rather I would be doing this as I really hate deciding.

I am bombarded it seems each day with decisions.  What should I wear?  Should I put cream in my coffee or go with just sugar?  What should I eat for breakfast?  What should I eat for lunch?  Etc., etc., etc.  It is not the deciding so much as it is the feeling that I get with me second guessing myself with my decision.  Was that the best choice?  Would it have been better if I had chosen differently?  Etc., etc., etc.  If I could just pre-decide some basic things then I could put some forethought into them and then just not think about it any more except perhaps once in a while to review new options that were not there when the initial decision was made.

Take choosing whether to have cream in my coffee or not for example.  I have decided (rather jokingly) that I will only have cream in my coffee if it is past 2 PM.  I make the first cups of coffee each morning for the wife and I so I get to (have to) choose if I want cream or not.  I will actually think about this, ponder what my wants are and how I am feeling that morning.  Cream in my coffee is a take it or leave it thing for me so I really have no idea why I even choose (say compared to flipping a coin).  Since the wife is usually still in bed and asleep, I can take as long as I like to decide this.  However, the wife usually makes the second cups of coffee and she will inevitably yell from the kitchen to ask me if I want cream or not.  She usually has the creamer in hand ready to pour so I have to decide fast.  It is too much pressure (like driving up to a drive through at a fast food joint where your car has barely come to a stop before the ask for you order).  For some reason, even though this is just cream, I feel a little pressured.  So, I jokingly said one day that I would only have cream in my coffee if it was after 2 PM (I just pulled that time out of the air).  Now, however, the wife never asks me if I want cream in my coffee since she knows the answer.  I pre-decided it.  I will point out that she still puts cream in my coffee occasionally out of habit but I do not mind really as I didn’t have to decide.

I have been wondering what else I can decide once and for all in my life.  I was researching (ok, googling) if there were 3 meals that you could each each day, every day, forever, that were healthy.  I could not find any site that could help me out.  I also think about my hair style.  If you know me at all, dear reader, you know I have had many hair styles.  From long, “80’s hair band” type hair to (recently) shaved to 1/8” hair.  If I could decide on a hair style then I would not have to think about it.  Perhaps I could shave my head down to 1/8” on the first Saturday of each month.  My hair grows about a 1/2” per month so the longest it would get would be 5/8” give or take.  There is virtually no grooming needed and it does save time in the shower not to mention some financial savings on shampoo, conditioner and water heating.

So I think I will take some time and pre-decide a few things in my life.  I will try to keep you up to date on how it goes.  I wonder if I could get a deal on suits if I buy 5 at a time?

Jon

The Listening Project–Supplemental Blog 9

It has been a bit since a Listening Project blog and as you can see from the healthy list below I have not slowed down in my (seeming) quest to own every CD.  I got a few of these for 4 / $1 at the resale shop closest to us and the rest are from the clearance racks at various Half Priced Book Stores.

#	Artist	Album	Date Listened	Again?
1160	Tree 63	The Answer To The Question Expanded Edition	6/23/2013	Yes
1161	Ginny Owens	Beautiful	6/23/2013	Yes
1162	Carrie Underwood	Carnival Ride	6/23/2013	Yes
1163	Various Artists	Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Soundtrack	6/24/2013	Yes
1164	Various Artists	Chicago Soundtrack	6/25/2013	Yes
1165	Various Artists	The Classic Spielberg Scores	6/26/2013	Yes
1166	Rob Thomas	Cradlesong	6/28/2013	Yes
1167	Decemberadio	Decemberadio	6/28/2013	Yes
1168	Eric Clapton	From The Cradle	6/28/2013	Yes
1169	Fireflight	The Healing Of Harms	6/29/2013	Yes
1170	Various Artists	Batman Forever Soundtrack	6/29/2013	Yes
1171	Barry Manilow	Because It's Christmas	6/29/2013	Yes
1172	Carman	The Best Of The Early Years	6/30/2013	Yes
1173	George Winston	December	7/1/2013	Yes
1174	Kenny G	Faith, A Holiday Album	7/1/2013	Yes
1175	Various Artists	I Know What You Did Last Summer Soundtrack	7/2/2013	Yes
1176	Various Artists	In The Name Of Love - Africa Celebrates U2	7/2/2013	Yes
1177	John Mayer	Inside Wants Out	7/3/2013	Yes
1178	KJ-52	It's Pronounced Five Two	7/3/2013	Yes
1179	Delirious	Live & In The Can	7/4/2013	Yes
1180	Kenny G	Miracles, The Holiday Album	7/5/2013	Yes
1181	Various Artists	Now That's What I Call Country	7/5/2013	Yes
1182	Various Artists	Now That's What I Call Country 2	7/5/2013	Yes
1183	ZZ Top	Recycler	7/6/2013	Yes
1184	Various Artists	Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves Soundtrack	7/6/2013	Yes
1185	Roberta Flack	Softly With These Songs - The Best Of Roberta Flack	7/6/2013	Yes
1186	The Smashing Pumpkins	Thirty-Three	7/7/2013	Yes
1187	The Swift	Today	7/7/2013	No
1188	Tony Bennett	The Ultimate Tony Bennett	7/8/2013	Yes

• Tree 63 “The Answer To The Question Expanded Edition”: I have the non expanded version of this album and the expanded version has 5 more songs (though 3 are just acoustic versions of other songs on the CD).  I miss this band.  Their lead singer went back to South Africa and now his lyrics are more political in nature (which is fine if only I cared about South African politics).
• Various Artists “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Soundtrack”: I bought this for $0.25 solely for the WIlly Wonka theme song (this is from the Tim Burton version of this film).
• Various Artists “Chicago”: I bought this solely for the Cell Block Tango (and then he ran into my knife, he ran into my knife 10 times).
• Carman “The Best Of The Early Years”:  I used to have Carman’s first 2 albums on cassette but they are long since gone.  They were both live albums and it was good to hear those songs again.
• George Winston “December”: I only bought this as it was on the Windam Hill label.  I remember hearing about this when an artist on that label named Pierce Pettis covered a Randy Stonehill song that I liked.  When you are only spending $0.25, it does not take much to get into my basket.  This is instrument keyboard music and I like it.
• Kenny G “Faith, A Holiday Album” & “Miracles, The Holiday Album”: This along with the Barry Manilow Christmas CD should make our holiday music list just about complete come December.
• Various Artists “In The Name Of Love - Africa Celebrates U2”: You cannot even recognize some of these songs (and I know every U2 song by heart).  Still worth the listen though and since my music player on my main computer in the living room connects to Wikipedia, I had fun reading about all the artists on this album.
• Roberta Flack “Softly With These Songs - The Best Of Roberta Flack”: I am still amazed at the quality of music I can get for $1 (and how something like this makes it to the clearance rack).
• Tony Bennett “The Ultimate Tony Bennett”: Awesome.

At one point in time I listened to Kenny G (Faith, A Holiday Album) then Type O Negative (I Know What You Did Last Summer Soundtrack) then Waldemar Bastos (In The Name Of Love - Africa Celebrates U2).  I would dare to say that I might be the only person on the planet or who ever lived who listened to those 3 artists back to back to back.

Jon

Embracement Nullification

So a few months have gone by since I last started up Live Writer and pounded out a few paragraphs and called it a blog entry.  My last blog talked about moving to a new role at work and that is going well.  I mentioned that things would look different in 3 months and that prediction did come true.  I like the new job and think that I will do well at it.  I think it would go better if I didn’t have a lot of the responsibilities of my old job still on my plate.  But I am told that there is a person who has accepted an offer to take over my old position.  I do not know how long it will be until I am truly rid of my old responsibilities as I will still need to train them.  At any rate, due to the dual roles, coming home at night and staring at the computer screen and writing a blog is close to last on my list of things that I want to do.

I did want to talk about a phenomenon that I experience from time to time as I leave the house to head to work.  As I get ready to leave for the day, I have to give each person a goodbye hug.  The kids are typically still in bed sleeping in (something they took to over the summer quite naturally).  Due to this, hugging them is quite easy as they are in a semi-state of awake-ness.  They are barely phased by my embrace and fall quickly back onto their respective pillows.  Not even McKinney (our poodle) can convince them it is time to get up and get going (by then McKinney has been awake for 2 hours).  Anyway, the last hug is for the wife and she hugs me like we are still newlyweds (we do a lot of things that make us look like newlyweds much to the discomfort of our teenage son).  So, my hug is quite the event to her (though it cannot rival the tail wagging that I get from McKinney when I arrive home each night).

If for some reason I forget something as I am heading out the door (post newlywed style hug from the wife) then the wife requires another hug.  It is as if the first hug did not occur, like it was annulled.  For instance, this morning I began to head out the door (post hug) when I realized that I had not brushed my teeth.  I set down my backpack and headed to the bathroom to take care of the chore and announced (quite emphatically) that the hug that was just administered was to remain in tact and would serve the purpose of “final morning hug”.  This was met with a “Ha!” from around the corner.  It was not a “that’s funny” kind of “Ha!”, it was more of a “yeah, right” kind of “Ha!”.  So anyway, as I attempted to sneak past her (which, given the layout of the house, I knew was not likely to succeed) she intercepted me and I had to go through the hug ritual again.

As a man I cannot understand this concept.    Some of you may remember my blog about Insufficient Affection Funds.  I think this idea applies here as well (I only have so many goodbye hugs to spend each day).  I think that the initial final hug should still count and should not be able to be nullified (even for bad breath).  My wife insists (with a slight head cock [guys, you  know what I am talking about]) that this is a completely logical concept and questions my qualification as a human being for not concurring with her.  At any rate, until the layout of the house changes (or I forget something that happens to be close to the front door), I fear that I will have to endure this.

Jon

The Awkwardness of Abandoning

Fair warning; this is another one of those blogs where I try to make sense of a recent dream that I had.  As with other posts, I will begin with denying that I put any faith in dreams or the interpretation of dreams in the modern sense (“mene, mene, tekel, parsin” aside).  But when a dream comes along that is so interesting that I think about it for a day or two, well I feel that I need to share.

The dream takes place back in Indiana at a church that we used to attend.  The normal folks are there that you would expect (if you had been an attendee at this church at the time that we attended) with one except, my current manager who currently lives in the state of Idaho.  We were having a carry-in dinner (side note: if you are ever thinking of joining a new church, you have to vet the carry-in dinner quality first).  I was seated at a large table and sitting next to my manager.  Other than him being there, you would not think of this dream as anything abnormal but let me explain how I think this all ties together.

Recently we had what was called an “Employee Development Day” for the parent organization that I work for.  It ran for most of the day and was pretty fun.  Breakfast and lunch was served, a friend of mine was on a panel of 3 discussion various things they had done over their career to develop it and they even bussed in a group of 2nd graders (I think that you call that a gaggle) for a special reading of “The Lorax” (I had never read the book actually and since most of the kids had seen the recent movie based on the book, I was more on the edge of my seat then they were).  Anyway, a good time was had by all.  The speakers really kept hitting on a few main points and one of them was that since our company (and organization within the company) was so huge, then you have plenty of opportunity to try something new or chase your interest; in other words, to develop yourself as an employee.

Ever since I was hired into this company (almost 13 years ago), I have pretty much done the same thing.  I have had 12 managers and been part of plenty of different organizations but I have pretty much done the same thing since late in the year 2000.  I must do it pretty well since I have survived countless cutbacks and reductions in the workforce.  I have never really thought that much about doing anything else but the employee development day really got me to thinking.  I thought about been typecast in a certain position and being passed over for things due to this so the first chance that I got when I returned to my desk I looked at the open jobs listing within my organization and started talking to the hiring managers for those positions.  I let my manager know so that he did not get blindsided if one of the managers contacted him.  Long story short, I found a position, applied for it, interviewed for it and was offered it.  Then came the awkwardness part.  How to tell your manager that you want to leave.

On paper this was a no brainer.  The position is sort of a promotion and it is doing something different in an area that has tons of possibilities.  However, I have not had a true back up, for anything that I do, for a few years now.  If you list out my responsibilities, it covers over a dozen systems that are not all related.  No one person has the background to cover for everything that I do.  Not only does this make taking vacations hard, but it makes replacing me quickly very hard as well.  The timing could not be worse for my manager (and his manager as well) as they have a few key people retiring in a few months.  They will have a hard enough time replacing them (even with an 11 month warning from each of them since they are leaving as part of an early retirement offering we had a while back) and then I would throw this on them as well.  This was the only thing holding me back from just accepting the offer.  I think this is why I had the dream.

If you look at all the things in the dream, you will see that they have one thing in common; namely that I have left them.  I certainly left Indiana (though I do not think that Indiana will miss me).  As for the setting of the carry-in dinner, well I had left that church as well (even before leaving Indiana).  When the wife and I left that particular church, we were serving in a few key areas.  It was going to be tough to find people who could take over for us on short notice (and going forward since we were not returning).  We really struggled with leaving that church (and I think that is one reason I am hesitant to get too involved in a church down here in Texas).  In the end we did leave (as you might have guessed).  The church obviously survived as did the areas where we served.  This is where my current manager comes in I think and why he was at the carry-in dinner.  I feel like I am abandoning him as well.  Part of me thinks I am irreplaceable but most of me knows this is not the case.  I do know that there will be a period of time when whoever takes on my responsibilities will do a worse job than I did (terribly unfair of course what with a 12 year head start in experience that I have).  But, when I would think about taking the position (a no brainer of a decision), this is the part that would hold me back.  I knew that the people that I support (there are thousands of people that use the systems that I support) and my manager would have to work harder and deal with this all because of me “abandoning” them.

I know that in 3 months this will be a non issue (or at least I hope it will be).  I know that part of me hopes that it is not (the part that thinks that I am irreplaceable).  As a co-worker said to me when I was sharing my struggle with my decision, “Your leaving will create an opportunity for someone else.”  To that person (or persons) I say “You’re welcome”.  I know if you do a good job, it will make me feel better.

Jon

Just Put The Pizza In The Trunk

If you asked me 5 years ago, I would have said that I do not think that dogs can tell time or determine what day of the week it is.  Time and the marking time probably have no directly translation into the doggie brain.  That being said, my dogs know something is up at certain times.  Yesterday morning is a good example.

The wife and I (well mostly the wife) have been looking forward to the beginning of April all winter and spring as it marks the opening weekend of the farmer’s market in McKinney.  Our routine involves heading out around 8:00 am (to get a good parking spot) and arriving as early as we can (it starts around 8).  We hit the Chestnut Square (the host of the farmer’s market) tent first as they have a bottomless cup of coffee for only $1.  We then head down the row to a place that sells croissants and similar bakery items and then we find a bench to enjoy our breakfast, sip our coffee and people watch.  McKinney, our standard poodle, always joins us on these trips.  She is a big hit as we walk around and we are often stopped by people asking about her or wanting to pet her.  Most of the regular vendors know her by name (she is named after the town so she has a slight unfair advantage over other dogs).  McKinney (the dog, not the town) KNOWS that it is Saturday morning way before we call her to head out the door of our house.  She somehow picks up on clues in our behavior and puts 2 and 2 together and is very excited.  She refuses to eat her breakfast even for fear of her being distracted and missing our exit.  She is too funny.  The clincher is when the other dogs are put in their cages and she is not.  The tail really goes into high gear at that point in time.  She does not get this way if I put the dogs in their cages just to take her for a walk on any other morning.  She somehow knows that there is something different about Saturdays in mid spring and all summer.

In a sense, Nina (the Doberman) can tell time as well.  For some reason, whenever I put my shoes on and stand next to the fireplace mantle (where I keep my car keys), Nina starts acting crazy.  She starts to make these unworldly sounds, sounds that no Doberman should make (I often accuse her of being an embarrassment to her breed).  She stays very near me or heads toward the front door and walks in small, quick circles as she does so.  She is very insistent that she is going with me, wherever that may be.  I usually cave but the few times I have not, the wife claims that Nina just sits near the door and whines until I return.  This whole thing started years ago as during the summer months in Indiana I would make a run down the road to get frozen cokes for the family.  She would insist on coming with me.  I joked about leaving the car running with large amounts of money laying on the dash of the car and daring anyone to attempt to take the cash or the car (truth be told, Nina is probably worth more than my Buick anyway so she would be the thing worth stealing, not the cash or the car).  Anyway, she got accustomed to going with me and somehow figured out my patterns.  She does NOT typically act this way if I am making a run in the morning however.  So, she has to have some sense of time.

A few weeks ago, some friends of ours invited us over.  They wanted me to bring my guitar and see if I could help out their daughter with a song that she was going to perform in an upcoming church talent show.  I had only been playing for maybe 2 months (and I explained that) but they wanted my help anyway.  I was actually able to help (she was using the wrong fingering on the D chord) but in the end she decided to find a new song.  Well, last night was the night of the talent show and the wife had mentioned that we might be able to come to give her support.  I had long forgotten about this but when the wife arrived home from her 4 hour shift working as a consultant for Fromm, she reminded me that it was that night and that she had talked to our friend yesterday and again committed to possibly coming.  She did not seem overly excited about it so I knew that a bargain could be had here.  In the end, I promised to get pizza from Durkin’s if she agreed not to go.  Since the son should not be eating gluten, I had to make a run to the store to get a gluten free pizza crust and various toppings so he could have pizza with us.  I did not tell him about where we were going or the bargain that I had struck so that we all did not have to sit through 2 hours of “talent” at a church but once we were at the store he began to put 2 and 2 together.  As we exited the parking lot, I headed toward home.  He asked me why I was not turning the other way to head to Little Ceasars to get our pizza.  I tried to explain to him how marriage works when I asked, “Do you honestly think that I got us out of going to the talent show by offering a $6 pizza and some crazy bread?”  For the 5 minute drive home, I explained how things in a marriage really work and informed him that I would be ordering pizza from my wife’s favorite pizza place and going to get it.

Fast forward to the time to pick up the pizza.  It is evening and I am heading toward the fireplace mantle so you know who (Nina) is going into her pre “I am going” quick circle mode.  I do not mind taking her when I have places to put things so that she does not destroy them on the ride home.  Frozen cokes fit nicely into the cup holders for instance.  However, a large, pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, meatball pizza from Durkin’s cannot be easily put somewhere in the car where the 70lbs of dog won’t destroy it if I have to make a sudden stop or turn.  I was explaining this to Nina (she was listening intently) when the wife jokingly suggested that I could just put the pizza in the trunk and still bring Nina.  Nina, sensing this was her only shot, gave me a “Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaassssssssseeeeeeeeee?” look and off we went.  It was a good thing the pizza was safely in the trunk as I did have to make a sudden stop on the way home and Nina ended up on the floor of the front seat (right were I had planned to put the pizza).  The pizza, Nina and I arrived home safe and sound and we enjoyed pizza while watching the latest episode of Survivor.

In the end, all I think I can say is that our dogs know us better than we think they do and that in some way, I think they have a basic concept of time.

Jon

The Listening Project–Supplemental Blog 8

Last weekend we were looking for something to do so we headed toward the Half Priced Bookstore in Plano and I plopped down toward the floor and spent another hour of my life digging through the clearance section.  Using my wife’s 10% off educator card (that she gets for being a home school mom), I was able to pick up the below CDs for $0.90 each.

#	Artist	Album	Date Listened	Again?
1148	Melissa Etheridge	Melissa Etheridge	4/1/2013	Yes
1149	Various Artists	Mission Impossible Soundtrack	4/1/2013	Yes
1150	James Taylor	Never Die Young	4/1/2013	Yes
1151	Rod Stewart	Out Of Order	4/1/2013	Yes
1152	UB40	Promises And Lies	4/2/2013	Yes
1153	Jimmy Buffett	Songs You Know by Heart	4/2/2013	Yes
1154	Basia	The Sweetest Illusion	4/2/2013	Yes
1155	The Fold	This Too Shall Pass	4/2/2013	Yes
1156	Rod Stewart	Vagabond Heart	4/3/2013	Yes
1157	Leann Rimes	What A Wonderful World Disc 1	4/4/2013	Yes
1158	Leann Rimes	What A Wonderful World Disc 2	4/4/2013	No
1159	KJ-52	The Yearbook	4/4/2013	Yes

• Melissa Etheridge “Melissa Etheridge”: With this purchase, I now have Melissa Etheridge’s first 6 CDs.  Excellent stuff.
• Various Artists “Mission Impossible Soundtrack”: I bought this solely on the fact that the bass player and drummer for U2 are the artists that perform the Mission Impossible theme.  I did notice that Bjork also had a track on this disc so that was a bonus.
• Rod Stewart “Out of Order” & “Vagabond Heart”: It is amazing how many songs that I know off these 2 CDs.  The only other Rod Stewart CDs I have are from his Great American Songbook series.
• UB40 “Promises And Lies”: I can see myself becoming a UB40 fan.  They are still putting CDs out I guess and this is only my 2nd one that I have found on the clearance racks.  This one has their big hit “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You” (an Elvis Presley song originally).
• Jimmy Buffet “Songs You Know by Heart”: I am not sure what universe you have to be in where a best of Jimmy Buffet CD finds its way to the dollar rack but I am happy and sad at the same time to be in it.
• Basia “The Sweetest Illusion”: I will admit to have never heard of this artist before (or I thought it might be a band).  I bought it solely on the album cover art and release date (mid 90’s).  It turns out that Basia is a Polish jazz singer and this CD contains her only big hit for the US (ironically a dance song).  I actually deal with co-workers from Poland on a semi-regular basis so I will need to remember to ask them if she is still popular there.
• LeAnn Rimes “What A Wonderful World”: This 2 CD release has a lot of Japanese (I think) writing on the back of it.  I can find no existence of a 2 CD version of this album by LeAnn Rimes so this has to be some sort of bootleg / pirated thing.  Disc 1 has the 11 songs from the normal release of this CD and then 10 or so more songs from Miss Rimes that I recognize from other releases (You Light Up My Life- Inspirational Songs, Unchained Melody - The Early Years and I Need You) so this disc was worth the purchase price.  The 2nd disc contains 20+ Christmas songs that are definitely NOT by Miss Rimes.  Some are in Japanese (I think) and others are sung in English by Japanese (I think) artists (I suppose it could be another accent from the east).  Hearing Frosty The Snowman and others in Japanese (I think) was a novelty that I will not likely want to hear again.

As I crawl towards my 1200th CD I think most of these are good additions to my collection.

Jon