Ephedra

CNN is reporting that the government will be taking steps to ban Ephedra. With obesity reaching epidemic portions in the US one would think that the government would start giving away the drug to its citizens.

Brandon came over last night. He was bummed out because his brother just got disfellowshipped. That wave of problems among the youth in my congregation was pretty widespread. Most of the congregations in our circuit were touched by it. Some lost quite a few teens. The odd thing was that all the problems were unrelated. I guess when one kid tells on themselves it sets off a weird chain-reaction where they all start telling on themselves and their friends. I felt bad for Brandon but I don't know how to be compassionate. I really didn't know what to say so I let Rebekah do the talking. She's my sensitive side.

The good news is that the MicroKorg worked great! I bought a midi cable and linked it to the drum machine. I hit a button and watched as new song miraculously appeared out of the circuits. Wild! The new combo-organ still needs to be tweaked. It's in great cosmetic shape but it has its problems. I'm going to drop by Radioshack and buy a soldering iron and some capacitors and see what I do. I'm nervous about it....

Organ

I was just thinking about how once we went a funeral and the parlor organ player was given a Kingdom Song Book. It was weird to hear these epic hammond renditions of the songs. They were familiar yet eerily foreign. It's too bad we don't do organs at the Kingdom Hall--perhaps it is too much like other churches.

I've got organs on my mind. I just bought an Elka Panther 300 from some guy in St. Louis and am heading out to pick it up.

all in

Rebekah and I made it to the winner's table at the poker tournament; however, our stay there was relatively short. In truth she lasted longer than me. I went "all-in" on a pocket-aces with a potential flush and lost to Nathan on the draw to a three-of-a-kind. It was a fun night and the food was plentiful and delicious.

Christmas day we lounged about the house recovering from the previous all-nighter. Eventually we woke, fired up iCal and began plotting our Walt Disney World vacation hour by hour. Because to get the most out of your Disney trip you have to attack in army style. At 1400 hours we'll meet at Space Mountain. At 1445 we should be crossing over into Fronteirland.

I made Rebekah talk to her Mom about one small issue for the trip. There shall be absolutely, positively NO fanny-packs of any kind. I heard that she took the news well enough but I still consider stealing hers just in case.

In other news my search for a Yamaha YC-45D organ is puttering along. I got a couple responses but unfortunately they were in far-off places where shipping would kill me; Fresno, CA and somewhere in Canada above Seattle. I'm hoping now that Christmas is out of the way I'll get some more leads. Until then I'm stuck using the "cheesy organ" setting on the Alpha Juno.

Keyboard Failure

We killed our second Mac keyboard last night. Unfortunately there is not a "no food or drink by the keyboard" rule that I can make that Mina can't break. Our caps lock key has been on the blink (literally) for a few months but Rebekah drove the nail into the coffin.

She has been harping on me for my soda drinking for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday I'm sitting at the computer enjoying a Pepsi when she grabs my head and begins pouring the Pepsi down my throat. "Ha ha! You like soda? Well drink up! drink up!" Eventually I reach the point where I'm having trouble swallowing it all and my mouth can't hold anymore and erupts in a shower of sticky sugar water and saliva. My keyboard got drenched.

We tried to save it, even going so far as to pop off all the keys and clean everything, but to no avail. When I tried to plug the keyboard back into the USB port it sparked and shut off the computer. I was relieved when I was able to turn the computer back on but the keyboard was dead. Rebekah had to go out and buy an emergency butt ugly Logitech keyboard at Wal-Mart so I could answer my e-mail.

Aragorn

I woke up quoting Aragorn. "I see in your eyes, the same fear that would take the heart of me ! A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day, this day we FIGHT !"

Last night Brandon came over with a new song that we worked on. It's another break-up song but he writes them so well I can't complain. I got so wrapped up in that I missed my sniper bid on a Yamaha YC-25D organ by one minute. That kind of bummed me out. So my search for a cheesy organ continues. I e-mailed every studio that listed a Yamaha YC-45D in their possession to see if I can find someone to sell it to me.

Even though I don't celebrate I'm looking forward to the Holiday. Nothing feels as good as a day off.

Jeans

For full effect of this blog entry download Ladytron's song "Blue Jeans" and play in the background as you read this.

Today Rebekah and I went shopping again. I've been needing a pair of jeans and Mina some dresses. Express was having a $20 off sale on jeans so I grabbed every affordable style they had there in attempt to find something suitable and headed to the changing rooms.

Much to my dissapointment it just wasn't working. The jeans were either too wide in the legs or loose in the seat or just plain ugly. We left and were walking through the crowded mall and I was lamenting how I can never find decent looking jeans when this guy passes with a great looking pair that caught both of our eyes. Rebekah said, "I wonder where he got them." I suggested they were probably from some boutique shop for $300.00 a pair. Rebekah said she would go ask him.

I stayed behind but their conversation went something like this.

Rebekah: "Excuse me."
Dood: "Yes."
Rebekah: "Can I ask you where you got those jeans?"
Dood: "Gap."
Rebekah: "Really, which style are they?"
Dood: "Well actually they're from Gap Women."

Now, this is kind of funny because mere minutes earlier Rebekah had just been telling me that I should get girl jeans and I laughed at her. But then this guy validates her thought completely. So I'm desperate and game so we head to the lady's Gap and then lady's Express.

Flash-forward to a couple awkward changing room experiences and I learn something new about myself. I'm a Gap Size 6-Ankle and a Express Size 8-Short. And oh yes, I did find a great pair of jeans.

Appliances

Rebekah and I stopped at a couple of places to browse kitchen appliances. Our mismatched refrigerator (with broken handle barely hanging on) and stove (with only two out of five knobs present) may be departing for... well wherever old used appliances end up.

The problem with appliances in the United States is that there is just not that much variety. You have two basic colors: white and black. (Steel can be chucked in for a couple hundred dollars more.) I contrast this with the UK where a refrigerator buyer can choose from any number of colors to match any conceivable color scheme.

The style also suffers. Smeg in the UK has really sweet looking units, both contemporary models and 50's throwbacks. However, the nearest North American supplier is Ontario Canada. Needless to say the shipping costs would be astronomical.

Rebekah prods me to just get a "normal" refrigerator and stove. The problem is that if I don't want to drop that kind of money on something I'm not really in love with. I want to smile everytime I walk through the kitchen door. I want to cherish each time I fire up a burner.

Perhaps, the old stove and Frigidaire aren't quite ready to be put to pasture?

live

Sunday I went with Brandon over to Cicero's to see a couple of bands. My interest was to check out the venue and inquire about the possability of us playing there. The place is mainly for Phish type jam bands or the token punk-rock. That's the biggest problem with St. Louis is that the local clubs only book these punk-rock bands. We don't really have a progressive music scene where an electroclash band would be welcomed. I keep telling Brandon we need to get a laundromat tour going. We'll just go to the area laundromats and rock out.

Brandon's coming over tonight and we are going to work on our live set. We really need to take a recording break as our creativity is strained.

Self-Mutilation

I'm staring at my ring shaped blister that is decorating my right thumb. Last night in a fit a of extreme genius I touched my thumb to the cherry-red car cigarette lighter. Why? It seemed like a good idea at the time. (Just like it once seemed reasonable to try to excise a mole on my chest with a Chinese kitchen cleaver.)

The smell of burning flesh was nauseating and the pain was intense. Score one for idiocy!

I'm also wondering why Blogger can tell you when you screwed up your HTML but can't do a simple spell-check? I've become overly dependent on Microsoft Words F7 and have regressed to the spelling prowess of a circus chimp.

This kid in my hall came up to me and gave me his review of "The Last Samurai". He prefaced it by saying, "I wouldn't tell anybody I saw this movie but..." At first I was flattered that I was privy to such clandestine information. But then I started wondering about whether or not his telling me about a rated-R movie he saw was indicative of anything. Why me? Do I give the image that I'm someone who is OK with that sort of thing?

It's snowing

last night

At the meeting last night three of our youths got publicly reproved. It was a painfully long announcement as one by one the names were read along with their accompanying restrictions.

And you sit there kind of shocked and metally running through all these mental guesses as to how they sinned. Ultimately you conclude sex because it is always the most likely. You are hurt because you care for them. Then you wise up and are relieved that they showed repentance and stuck it out as you consider all the youths you have seen leave over the years. Then you reflect on your own lesser moments and for a minute or two you feel the pain all over again.

Fear-Mongering

From the US media that brought you the great health scares West Nile and SARS comes an all new terror just in time for the holiday season -- THE FLU!!!! You can run, you can hide but you can't get a flu shot because supplies are running low.

**yawn**

2% or Whole?

I spent last night adding two electric outlets to the band room in preperation for the addition of more amplifiers. It seemed simple enough on the onset but I had to deal with the legacy left behind by the last homeowner who I refer sarcastically to as "Super Electrician".

The house is wired like a maze. If you turn off one circuit it'll shut off the bedroom clock, the kitchen refrigerator, the north wall of the living room, and the bathroom light. It really needs to be ripped at started from scratch but I know it'll cost a fortune so I continue to put it off.

Needless to say it was a major hassle but something that I needed to get done in preparation for band practice tomororow. Brandon's sister Erin has moved back in town and she wants to come over and work on some songs for her band. (I'm adamantly not joining another band. I'll run the mixer and Adobe Audition but that's it. I will not pick up my guitar.)

So I don't mind them using my space. I just have to keep drinks stocked. Which got me thinking about something. You know when you go over to someone's house and they offer you something to drink? You reply, "Yes, what have you got?" And then they list, "Diet Soda, Water, Iced Tea, Milk". Everyone always lists milk but when does anyone take them up on it? "I would love a nice tall glass of 2%" doesn't not come out of your mouth. You are not Beaver Cleaver.

Force Feed

There is guy in another congregation who has turned his basement into a guy's playroom. Big screen TV for the football games, pool and poker tables, and a refrigerator full of beer. When a new guy comes over the joke is to get him to try this beer called Alpha King. Since it is really heavy on the hops it'll work over the typical Bud Light drinker who despises aftertaste and craves smoothness. So one time I went over there and it was my turn to be iniated and handed a bottle of Alpha King. I drank it and was fine with it and enjoyed the grapefruit notes and creamy mouthfeel.

So I was sitting here and finding it odd that I can drink beer that will turn a normal person green but I struggle with diet soda. I really need to develop a taste for diet soda. Half my calorie intake each day is soda. I drop the soda, I drop the weight. It would seem simple but I just can't. It seems odd to cry addiction about soda but I can't think about any food or drink that I need, NEED everyday.

I used to despise pickles. Then I gradually started leaving them on my burgers instead of picking them off. Now I'm slowly starting to get in the habit to eat them out of the jar. (I'm retching at I type this.) But they are 0 calories a pop so I need to like them. So I choke them down and wait for the day where I start to love them.

I used to loathe coffee. But now I down a half-a-pot a day as soda substitute while at work. I'm getting more caffeine (My right eye is twitching as I write ths.) but hardly any of the calories.

People think there is a big magic bullet to losing weight. Adkins. South Beach. It's all a load of crap. The trick (if you can even call it that) to losing weight can be distilled down to "eat less, excercise more". And if health is your concern as well as being trim you can add, "eat right." It's so simple, yet so hard sometimes.

It really requires a psyche out. That's why anorectics succeed where so many others fail. They totally work over their minds where what is hard becomes a way of life. If you can brainwash yourself like that then you'll have little problem losing the weight. But then you are kind of stuck in that mode for the rest of your life. Once you lose the weight it isn't about staying at a healthy weight you've gotta keep cutting and trimming and slicing.

I just want to fit into the shirts at Express and have a thinner face. That's all.

I was also thinking about eating meat and how it is contrary to nature. God didn't originally give humans animals to eat. He gave them fruits and nuts. And even when they sinned he didn't give them animals. He told them to eat the vegetation of the field. But somewhere between the time of Adam and the day of Noah humans started eating flesh. Note this is the time that humans started getting really wicked. Some unsupported sources speculate that the Nephilim started the whole meat eating thing and even began eating humans.

But didn't God give Noah animals to eat after the flood? Yes. But perhaps this is something he tolerates instead of something he enjoys. Kind of like he used to allow such things as polygamy which now he condemns.

It's really nothing to be overly concerned about but just something I was considering. I'm not ready to jump on the vegan boat just yet.

Babel-gone

Our world grows multi-cultural by the day but the language barriers exist the same as always. The plan? Invent a new common language.

Really it can't be that hard to create a new, better language from scratch. We already have examples like Star Trek's Klingon and Tolkien's Elvish. I'm sure some think-tank with linguistics majors could get together and churn out something.

To be fair to all nations this new language (heretofore referred to as 'Basic') shouldn't be based on any existing language (however it would make sense that the written form utilize some variation of the roman alphabet). Basic should be made relatively easy to learn. Grammatical and spelling rules shall remain consistant. Letters will only represent one 'sound' (For instance 'c' as in 'cat' and not as in 'cent'). No homnyms will be allowed.

Basic will be taught in school starting from Grade-1 through High School as an extension of the existing curriculum. All existing foreign language course (i.e., spanish, french, english) will be not be allowed. At the university level foreign language courses are exceptable; but, the emphasis will not be on communicating with others. These classes should focus on these languages as they relate to classical literature, historical studies, and etymology.

10 years from the time Basic studies are started in elementary school a phase out of preexisting languages will begin. Television broadcasts will be required to contain mandatory Basic subtitles to begin to allow for a familiarity to develop among the populace. 20 years in, all classes at the high school and university level will be taught in Basic. Next all official government documentation and business shall be conducted in Basic. Magazines, news journals, and Internet portals will be encouraged to move toward using Basic. Popular literature (pulp-fiction, romance, mystery) will be printed in Basic. (Other forms of literature will be allowed to be written in preexisting languages to retain cultural heritage.) TV and movies will move to basic only. (Hollywood should jump at this as a cost cutting measure that will allow them to export their wares without costly overdubs.)

Of course all of the above is simply a dream. National pride and fear of cultural loss would prevent this from happening. I still remember the dismal failure of the metric system in the US.