The Bear Necessities

Random Observation:

for some reason all of the thermal guys at work (you know, the ones who do the thermal analysis of things to make sure that everything stays inside of its thermal tolerances) are asian. And by all, i mean like the 6 guys i have met. I have no idea why this would be… there didnt seem to be the same correlation at school, but hey, what can ya do.
hmmmm. iiiinterseting.

you know, talking online with people, i think that everyone develops their own IM style. some people like to use smileys of all different varieties (for example and its permutations, which looks normal, albeit sideways, and then there’s o_o, or O_o, which never looks normal because it is never actually smiling so its really pretty impossible to tell what emotion they are trying to convey, but anyways…), everyone has their own word abbreviations they like to use, and still others do the random capitalization thing (this seems to have gone out of style now that i think about it).
Now, I like to slur out the word that i want to emphasiiiiize in a sentance (you see, just like that). Sometimes i start with a hellooooooo. or say time for fooooooooooooood. Now i got to thinking - what if i actually change my name to Miiiiiike. You know, right Miiiiiike on all my forms n stuff. Conveniantly, i wouldnt have to learn to respond to a new name, except now when people first meet me by reading my name off of a list (or name tag) they will be like: “hello, uh, miiiiiiiike” (you know, reeeeeal slooow like… it would be really funny cause everyone will look dyslexic (not that being dyslexic is funny… but you know what i mean)). Can you imagine it???
hilarious if you ask me.

Ever talked to someone and been completely unable to understand a word they said?

Well, this seems to be a rather frequent occurance for me. for some reason ill be talking to someone (actually, it usually happens over the phone) and everything they say for like a sentance or two will be completely unintelligeable. Once, this happened with Jon’s dad (this was back in the haus mitt days). he asked me a question, and i didnt understand so i asked him to repeat. he did. i still had no clue. so i said “yeah!” (always a good answer!). he was kinda silent for a second and then i realized that his question was definately not answerable by yes or no… we moved on, but i dont think he has ever quite looked at me the same…

In all of my excitement to post my favorite classical tunes i forgot all about my favorite jazz charts!

So, here are a couple:
Ellington’s arrangement of Nutcracker and Peer Gynt. Yes, the Duke is the man.
Stan Kenton’s Malaguena. An absolutely incredible brass sound. I would easily join a jazz band just to play this song.
And of course, the two songs that always make me want to dance (conveniantly, one fast and one slow): Sing Sing Sing, and Mack the Knife.

I was browsing amazon.com today (just bought a trombone quartet cd - four of a kind - ive wanted it for like 6 years so i finally decided to just buy it…) and i saw that robert jordan is releasing the penultimate book in the wheel of time series in october! Im not sure how it can possibly be the penultimate book seeing as the last 10 books have done nothing but make the story arc larger and larger. either he is going to spend this entire book closing down plot lines or he has A LOT of characters to kill off…

maybe he has learned something from george rr martin?

So, I was listening to sibelius 5 today (ok, not really today, but last thursday when i wrote this thought down in an email to myself) and for some reason the mp3 I have of it has a skip in it about 15 sec from the end of the finale! It definitely had to be one of the most upsetting moments of my day. Now, I was just thinking, “hey, this is a real cool piece, id like to play it!” and then sitting there soaking in the big brass sound when suddenly crack! And silence… oh man I was sooooo flumoxed. I felt like I just been battleaxed between the eyes or something it was horrible…

Don’t let it happen to you.

Trivia of the day: what was the reason for the first “Houston, we have a problem” transmission? No fair googling!

Id really like to play some richard strauss sometime. Vielleicht eine alpine sinfonie (!!!), oder Till eulenspiegel (!), oder don juan, oder tod und verklarung

This post is gonna be on pop. Or perhaps more accurately, the containers that pop comes in. You see pop can be had in a variety of different forms. These being, the can, the small bottle (plastic here, glass i feel is little different then the can in disguise), the 2 liter jug and direct from the fountain.

I think we would all agree that pop from the fountain is easily the worst. Either too syrupy or too bubbly, fountain drinks never seem to come out quite right. The jug comes in 2nd to last place - while good for parties, the jug lacks flexibility due to its propensity to always go flat.

This leaves the can and the bottle. Both are sized for one person, but there the similarity ends. Cans always have the right amount of carbonation, but are only good for one go. Bottles, on the other hand, are resealable. It is my professional opinion that pop, right out of the bottle, tends to be slightly more carbonated than a can. This provides the bottle both staying power (in that it goes flat less quickly) and that extra bit of zing on the first gulp that always leaves the drinker feeling refreshed.

I would have to say that i prefer the bottle.

Now, you may be wondering what this has to do with not writing things down. Well, as it so happens, this topic was something that jon and i were discussing as a possible topic that i might blog about before the blog actually came into existence. I decided that i would write something on the topic, and then promptly forgot all about it. well, in any case, here it is, dredged from the back of mind for your reading pleasure (or not, as the case may be).

i was listening to the radio today (its a beeeautiful day by the way) and i randomly heard Stray Cat Strut!! it was pretty crazy cause its a song i actually like a lot but have never heard on the radio. totally unexpected.

and if you have no idea what im talking about then you obviously dont dance enough.

sometimes it would be pretty handy to be ambidextrous.

for example, my left arm is definately the brute force arm. my right, more a finesse event. Most of the time this works out pretty well for me. groceries, however, are a big disaster. you see, it always seems pretty natural to load up my left hand with the bulk of the groceries. After all, this leaves my right hand free to do things like close my trunk.

right. so whats the problem you ask? well, you see, the one thing that my left hand does do is unlock doors. i always (ALWAYS) put my keys in my left pocket. Inevitably, i get to my front door and realize that i cant reach my keys due to the web of plastic bags entangling my left hand. Have you ever tried to stick your right hand into your left pocket?? not a comfortable proposition in any outfit. i always end up dancin around like a monkey.

Guess this is one of those mysteries of life kinda things.

the fact that all of these entries are in reverse-chronological order is really confusing. you kinda have to read from top to bottom to follow my thoughts.

maybe i should try to fix that.