The New Band Site

We kicked out our drummer because he just couldn't the songs right. He was a nice guy but never remembered when to start and when to end. he'd also change the beat every time he'd play a song. He had been with us for a year and there was no improvement. He was maintaining the band site so now I need to do it. Luckily, class # 9 of 10 ended so I have more time to do it.

Still Haven't Quite Lost It

There are certain advantages to turning the decade including moving up an age group in half marathons. I was reasonably pleased with my result as I was still under 1:50. If the race had been held a month earlier, though, I would have been in a younger group and finished 50th. But since I was older, I finished 20th in my age group, or top 10%. I was about a minute slower than #19 and two minutes faster than #21, so stopping to tie my shoe didn't really affect my finish. I think I am running about as fast as I ever will, unless I decide that I want to hire a trainer. There are certainly good and not so good ways to run a race, which a trainer would no doubt help with.  I just usually run at a comfortable pace and don't pay attention to my watch. Anytime I race, I see runners glancing at their wrists during races to see how they are doing . I prefer the "enjoyment" of just running. I also never turn it on at the end, since I read about a New England Journal of Medicine study on runners. It found that most heart attacks after races occur in men, (and it's usually men,) who over exert themselves at the end of a race. I figure that I am not setting any records or trying for a prize so the extra few seconds I take off my time are not worth the risk.

George Best video

Here's a cool video of Manchester United hero from the 60's, George Best. I was very unfamiliar with him until he died when we were in London in November, 2005. The papers were plastered with his obituary and tributes. I guess he led a very dissolute life after his career but while he was on top, he was supposed to have been amazing. He did come over to the US to play in the North American Soccer League in the 70s. Pele and Beckenbauer, stars who were a little past their primes, also played then. This clip reminds me a bit of the documentary done on Zidane, which followed him for an entire game. Unlike that film, Best did not get a red card for rough play.

Morrissey

I wish he would have done this song but there were not that many Smiths' songs in his set.

Reel Around the Fountain

Nice Summer so far

Very pleasant weather although a little rainy. But none of the hot humid stuff we usually get. Great for running too. If I was a climate change denier, I would offer this as evidence but of course I am not. Good upcoming concert: a great double bill. I am also very excited that Kraftwerk will be in town on my birthday. I hope I am not traveling then.

I am not as enthused about Elvis' song selection though.

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Pixies with Robert Plant

This was an odd double bill as most of the crowd was unaware of who the Pixies are, even though they probably had as much influence on modern rock music as Led Zeppelin did.

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Plant was good. He re-imagined the Zeppelin songs which is admirable. I give him credit for still turning out new music and not turning into a parody of his old self like the Rolling Stones.

My new Toy

I got a FitBit Surge as a Father's Day present, which I am really enjoying. It tracks all activity throughout the day, but I especially like using it as I run. I was never much into monitoring my pace during a run so don't use it for that. But I like looking when I am finished.  It  records the route with its GPS so I can look at  all of the data points below at specific points in the route.

Merle Haggard

He missed some of my favorites like I Take a Lot of Pride in What I am, Always Wanting You and I am a Lonesome Fugitive. Still a very good show by an artist on my list of people I needed to see before they die.

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What a relief!

Done and submitted. 35 total pages. Probably half of that if I stripped out the quotes. It was a few days late but thankfully, I had a very understanding professor.

The request to change grade from IN to A for student  for course 56:512:698:01(IND STUDY HISTORY), Spring 2015, has been approved.

My Bank of the United States Collection

24 Titles so far: Bank of the United States Collection

AHHHH!

What a chore this project has been! Reading through 400 pages of congressional testimony from 1811 and trying to extract the essence of the arguments is very challenging. I have been spending most of my non-working hours trying to complete it with only sleep and meal breaks. (A little bit of TV too: Wolf Hall, Veep and Silicon Valley when I need respite.)  My goal is done by May 18th.

Researching digitally

I feel a little lazy but I am doing much of my research for a project on the Bank of the United States by searching digitized libraries like the Hathi Trust and America's Historical Newspapers. It is amazing that I can see a book referenced and just search Hathi Trust to find a copy from a university library, which Google has digitized. My advisor says there is a disadvantage to doing a key word in a newspapers database in that you miss the historical context you'd get by paging through a bound volume or scrolling on microfilm. That is true I think that you can also find material you might have missed otherwise as you are casting the net wider than you would by sitting in the library stacks. Also, you can still read the rest of the newspaper for the context if you find something of interest by a key word search.

Long time , no post

I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post in September 2013. I need to revise the page because the Takeaways are no longer a going concern, at least as they used to be. There were artistic differences as I didn't want to dress up in period garb and just didn't like the sorts of material we were playing. So we split with the guitarist and I moving on to form another band. So I will delete the Twitter feed for the Takeaways from the blog template. Blogging is actually kind of old now: more of a 2005 activity. Twitter and Tumblr are probably what people use. I mostly retweet and repost on both those sites. I don't feel like sharing my opinions on things. Besides I only have 25 or so followers, most of whom are companies who want to sell me something. My Klout score is abysmally low. Anyway, lots of changes since my last post, but this isn't the place to elaborate on them. Life is pretty good: health, professional and personal life are in order. I still like Obama and am glad he is putting it to the Republicans. I am disappointed that David Carr died and that Stephen Colbert left the Report and that Jon Stewart is leaving the Daily Show. Deeply immersed in the rechartering of the First Bank of the United States having struck out on gradual abolition in New Jersey.

I am just glad that no one hijacked this blog to transform it into spam.