The following post was actually

The following post was actually written on Thursday, July 11.

While I don’t really feel the need to justify my obsession with Iggy (okay I probably do), at times I feel the need to justify my obsession (however flagging) with David Sylvian. I became a fan of Japan in what must have been late 1981. Basically they were finished by then, but along with Simple Minds, they were the most original band out there, whether it was punk or new wave, new romantic, or whatever. Hell, I was a fan of it all. Anyway, Japan died, with an incredibly influential body of work and led to vocalist David Sylvian’s solo career.

Tonight the power went out at about 5:00 pm. Of course I was working on a late project, with a two-hour video render (the third time) five minutes from finishing and a major storm blew through. The power went out. We went from bourbon marinated salmon to lemon pepper chicken at Eats (not a bad situation).

We came back home, lit candles, broke out the bourbon and the iPod. Very relaxing with the crickets and the droplets. After an hour or so of mellow tunes, Joyce had had enough and I was on my own. On the iPod I found the first three Sylvian solo albums (Joyce refers to him as “The Bastard” but that’s another story).

I listened to “Secrets of the Beehive.” What a fucking masterpiece. Perfect. People got obsessed with his output of an album every ten years, but listening to his output recently, it’s worth the wait. I think I’ll sneak an all Sylvian week on Radio Free Darby.

A toast to the Ozboys.

Inspiring, calming, perfect.

11:00 pm – no power.

12:00 midnight – we flicked on the AM radio to hear that less than a mile from our house, a mother and her two children were killed by a 100 year old oak tree less that fell on their SUV. The mother and children were in the back seat. The father survived unscathed.

8:00 am – the power came back on.

Listening: The Daily Show with

Listening:
The Daily Show with Claire Kember (totallyradio)

I’ve never been much of a workout person, although I was a very good competitive swimmer and a fairly decent hockey and tennis player when I was much younger. Unfortunately, my love of food, beer, etc., and my career sitting in front of a computer has led me to weigh as much as 260 pounds! I knew something had to be done and in 2001, my girlfriend Joyce started cooking most of my meals, and I dropped 35 pounds in about 9 months. This was all too late, and I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in October of 2002. Although I found out that it runs in my family, I’m sure that my lifestyle brought this condition on at least 10 years early. I was able to get the diabetes under control very easily, but in order to minimize my elevated risk for all kinds of negative cardiovascular events, I need to get down to a normal weight. I’ve been sitting at just over 230 for the last year, and it’s clear that I’ve maxed out my potential weight loss using diet, and light walking. It’s time to head back to the gym!

The first step was to get some new running shoes. In the past I’ve just headed over to Galyan’s or the like, and just never got the attention that I thought I needed. I’ve been aware of a running store in nearby Ansley Mall called Phidippides, so I headed over there this morning. What an excellent place! It is a wonderful experience to buy shoes from a place that has plenty of salespeople – and they know what they’re doing! I was greeted by someone immediately, who got my shoe size (11.5 Wide) and had me put on a pair of “neutral” shoes. He told me to run toward the door while he watched my gait. He told me I had a slight pronation, and out came at least six pairs of shoes, all of which were in wide sizes (hard to find at a retail store). I tried and compared all of them until I narrowed them down to one – the Saucony Grid Omni 3 Moderate Stability. I was told to try them out on a treadmill and if they weren’t right to bring them back and I could get a different shoe! On top of that, I paid with a check, which earned me an additional 10% off of the price! Awesome! If you’re in Atlanta, I highly recommend Phidippides!

What’s also interesting is that when I got home I went to the Saucony web site to look up my shoe. I found it and on a whim I tried their “Shoe Advisor” – to my suprise, it recommended the exact shoe that I had just bought! Pretty cool. I went to the Phidippides website and found that the store is owned by so-and-so. I went to his site, which is pretty informative. I’m ready for the gym tomorrow!

Did I ever mention how bad Windows Media Player for OS X sucks?

Chipmunks are cooler than squirrels.

Listening: BBC World Service (XM)

Listening:
BBC World Service (XM)
XMU (XM)

So Fulton County has approved benefits for “domestic partners.” Great! Now hopefully this will set the example for many companies in the corporate world that have not adopted such a policy. Now Joyce and I, who have lived in a “committed domestic partnership” for at least 15 years can finally share health and other benefits if either of us ever works for Fulton County. Oh wait – it’s only for Gay partners! Oh, I’m sorry. I guess since we don’t want to participate in heterosexual marriage, then we don’t count. We’ve dropped to number three behind married heterosexuals and committed domestic homosexuals. What a crock of shit.

My sister Lisa called yesterday and wanted to drop by to give me a present. Guess what it was? A WWJJD T-Shirt! Talk about a coincidence.

Speaking coincidences, I loved that Johnny Cash photo so much, I wanted to try to find one that was frameable. I searched Yahoo for johnny cash finger. About halfway down on the first page I found a link to a fiction piece called “Lend Me a Hand, Johnny Cash” by one Paul A. Toth. I linked and lo and behold – long lost fellow mayhem creator from Flint, Paul Toth! He seems to be quite prolific in his output, with a new novel and film coming out called Fizz. Good on ya Paul!

Now I’ve seen it all!

Now I’ve seen it all! Coming to the Chamber in Atlanta on July 3rd – Mini-Kiss!

(stolen from here) Listening:

(stolen from here)

Listening:
Morning Edition (NPR streaming)
The Daily Show with Claire Kember (totallyradio)

Saw two very good documentaries on PBS last night.

On Nova, it was “Super Bridge”. I had seen it before, quite a while ago, but it’s about the building of a suspension bridge across the Missisippi River. Maybe it’s me being a geek, but if this doesn’t inspire someone to be an engineer, nothing will. It was an incredible feat.

After this was POV and a documentary called “Larry v. Lockney”. The school board in Lockney, Texas instituted a mandatory drug testing policy for junior and senior high school students. Only one parent, Larry Tannahill, objected and he paid a great price in bringing this to the U.S. Discrict Court. The issue here is the Fourth Amendment, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure. There is an interesting comment by a woman in this documentary about how in America the majority rules. This is not true, and this is what the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are trying to prevent. I believe this point is missed by most Americans, including Senator Bill Frist, who seems to want to have a Constitutional Amendment to ban same sex marriages. They’re calling it the FMA – Federal Marriage Amendment – what next?

I was very exited about a DVD project, but it seems to have been given the axe. The budget went from $3600, to $1500, to $500. Ever get the feeling you’re being jerked around?

On the good side, I just got a 40 hour project converting streaming PowerPoint presentation/conference call to Flash using Camtasia. Camtasia has a very nifty scheme to convert grabbed screen action to Flash.

Posted a couple of galleries for Natalie Rose on The Doll Squad site.