I've set my status to "Proud to be an American," and a good friend pointed out that I should be proud every day to be an American, because we're very lucky to live in this country.

With no disrespect intended to my esteemed colleague, "pride" is something that needs clarification. Pride doesn't mean "glad." I'm glad to be an American every day. I'm grateful to be an American. But Pride goeth before a fall. Pride is a sin (whether you're a Christian, Muslim, Scientologist, or atheist, it's no less true).

Pride is similar to respect in that it must be continually earned. Pride comes from accomplishment, and this week I'm proud to stand alongside the 64,043,290 Americans who voted for the kid from Kenya with the funny name. We have accomplished something great as a nation this week. We've told the world we're ready to change.

If we walk around proud every day, pride becomes hubris. Most days I'm humble to be an American. I've even made t-shirts and bumper stickers to this effect, but they're not big sellers. To me, it's a given that I live in the greatest country in the world; although greatness is relative and as soon as one says, "I'm great," one automatically becomes somewhat less great. How can I take pride in something that's given to me?[1] I'm grateful to be an American. It's a gift that I feel I must earn every day. This week, as a nation, we earned it.

1.) This is why I disagree with the notion of racial pride in general.

OK for along time I've known that my first name means, basically, "plow blade."

That's pretty metal.

And that my last name comes via Scandinavian "Thorketill" meaning "Thor's cauldron."

That's Totally Metal.


And today I discovered the German word for death is "Tod," and my middle name is "Todd" so that might make my name:

PLOWBLADE DEATH OF THOR'S CAULDRON.


If it's possible for me to be more METAL, I don't know how. So, now that my credentials are firmly established, I'd like to share with you the two most METAL videos of 2008.

They illustrate best the two flavors that METAL comes in today:

1.) Dungeons and Dragons Hilarious Fast



2.) Pee Your Pants Scary



It's unfortunate that there isn't much middle ground anymore. Ever since Metallica died in a tragic 1993 fire (oh, wait, they didn't? well they should have), metal just hasn't been the same. At least we have Dethklok.

Melissa posted this is a bulletin, and I thought I would fill it out using songs for answers. It's kinda long but I took out some questions; I tried to only use songs that are actual favorites of mine and not just random tunes to fit the question. 


Have you dated people who were not good to you?


Talk to any of your exes?


If you could go back in time would you change things to where you could still be with [your] ex?


Did the last boyfriend/girlfriend tell you they love you?


Have you ever liked someone so much that it hurt?


Are you happier single or in a relationship?


What is your favorite thing about the opposite sex?


Have you ever had your heart broken?


Do you believe that you are a good boyfriend or girlfriend?


Have you dated someone older than you?


Do you believe everyone deserves another chance?


Believe in love at first sight?


Do you want to get married?

(I made this one!)

This is a rather ingenious waste of time:

1 - Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Random quotations: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr's "explore the last seven days" http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.


So here's me:
Cohomology Operation
"Will Get the Blame"
click here for album cover art

not bad. i sound like a prog rock band. that fits.

credit where credit is due.

Post your stuff in the comments!

Though I've done this sort of thing once before, that was a whole year ago, and much has changed since then. So, since Jill tagged me, and since I'm saving money by not going out tonight, here we go:

1. I rarely wear sunglasses. In fact, I abhor them. You know how some cultures believe that photographs will steal your soul? I think if I were an aboriginal tribesman I would believe the same thing about sunglasses. However, they are a necessary evil in places without hills and trees like Texas (which I also abhor for the most part, except Austin and Deep Ellum), or when driving East in the morning or West in the evening.

2. I've seen more raccoons in Central Park than in Arkansas. This is only true because yesterday I was reading a book on a park bench when four young raccoons and their mother materialzed from the undergrowth near The Pond and ascended a tree. I felt like Wil Wheaton in Stand by Me when he saw the deer.

3. I've eaten more beef jerky in Los Angeles than Arkansas. This is only because, to my knowledge, I've only eaten beef jerky once in my life. Despite its ubiquitous presence in convenience stores across the South, I've always sort of looked at it and thought, "here's something I don't think I'm going to enjoy." Turns out I wasn't wrong. It's not terrible; just something for which I wouldn't pay money. Incidentally I ate it at Chuck Berry's old house. That feels like it should mean something.

4. I've never read Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I KNOW, it's a serious gap in my minimum basic nerd requirements, but I've just kind of gotten the gist over the years. I started reading it recently, though, but with the new Kevin Brockmeier completed, I also have the new Jeanette Winterson to tear into, and some bargain Coupland books to consume. I'll get it done. Maybe I should save it for old age?

5. I made it halfway through Confederacy of Dunces before giving up.  Everyone loves it, but I just got tired of the character.  He's a fop and I can laugh at his curious exploits, I get it. Do I have ADD or something that I get bored by it after a while? I don't think so, because I've started reading this. It's been called one of the most boring books ever written. We'll see how far I make it.

6. I have 21 fucking guitars. Somebody shoot me already, like Jon Gries in Monster Squad.

7. I have a comprehensive knowledge of late 80's hip-hop. Not enough people know that about me. Kool Moe Dee, Eric B. and Rakim, Slick Rick, 3rd Bass...I have dozens of VHS tapes of Yo! MTV Raps. Go ahead, step to me.

8. I don't actively dislike any musician, band or musical genre. There is only what I enjoy and what I have no use for.

9. My new motto is: expect nothing and everything becomes a gift. Expectations are often the cause of the most insidious self-inflicted wounds.

10. Whenever I get a soda from a fast-food restaurant, I always pop in the little dome in the lid marked "other." It's a compulsion I've had since childhood.

(cross-posted from the other blog)

Reading through my new favorite site, DamnInteresting.com, I came across some things for which I've been searching a couple of years now: the collected recordings of the Conet Project, an out-of-print assemblage of numbers station broadcasts.

Numbers stations are repeated, anonymous, apparently encoded shortwave broadcasts emanating from various points across the world in various languages. The most likely explanation for them is that they carry encoded messages for use in espionage. Given the permanently looped nature of many of the transmissions, it's likely that they've been abandoned and are still running only because they haven't lost power. Prior to today I've only heard a few examples, but thanks to DamnInteresting.com, a link to mp3's of all four discs of the Conet Project was provided at the end of their article on the subject.

Disc 1
Disc 2
Disc 3
Disc 4

So I downloaded all of them and have been listening to them for an hour now. Spooky stuff. It's fun to wonder about their sources, who set them up, what they mean, and who receives them. And, given that I'm the type of person who tends to have sympathy for inanimate objects, I find a certain romance in the idea of a small transmitter, sitting in the middle of nowhere, lost forever, constantly sending out its odd little signal. 

Also, as an FYI, Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" was named for one of these numbers stations. Apparently Jeff Tweedy is as big a dork as I am.

The next frontier in dumb surveys: picture answers. I stole this from Kristin. She used Photobucket; I'm using Flickr.

My life history via photos

1) Answer the questions below
2) Take each answer and type it into Photobucket (or Flickr)
3) Take any picture from the first page of results and post. (click on the picture and copy the HTML code - Flickr doesn't offer this, but you can use Firefox to right-click and select "copy image location" and use MySpace's Image button to paste into)
4) You can't copy the persons answers who posted this before you!

1. The age you will be on your next birthday?




2. A place you'd like to travel?



3. Your favorite place?



4. Your favorite object?



5. Your favorite food?


6. Your favorite animal?



7. Your favorite color?


8. The town in which you were born?



9. The town in which you live?


10. The name of a past pet?



11. The first name of a past love?


12. Your nickname/screen name?


13. Your middle name?

15. A bad habit of yours?


16. Your first job?

Hey! I'm in Los Angeles! I've just driven 1,381 miles since Monday alone. Here are the details in words, and here are the details in pictures.

For those who don't know, tomorrow is my last day of work. After that I'm taking a week off to pack most of my stuff into my garage and help my brother move in to my house, then I'm going to go off on a very long road trip across America. I should be back by Thanksgiving.

After that, a leisurely road trip east to New York City, where I'll most likely stay. Yes I'm moving to New York, unless of course one of my other destinations turns out to be more appealing - you never know. And I may be back after a year or two, who knows?

I'm going to avoid a large going-away gathering, but if you want to hang out before I go, I think I'm going to install myself all next week at Pizza D, or Heather's porch on Pearl St, weather permitting. Just drop me a line. Of course, I'd never leave MySpace, and I will be blogging regularly from the road so y'all can keep tabs on me. It should be an adventure.

Years ago I worked in a music store in Maumelle. When the store was going out of business, I bought a lot of CDs from them, two of which were "Hot Buttered Soul" by Isaac Hayes and "A New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular" by Hooverphonic.

As I took both discs on a road trip to Texas, I discovered that Hooverphonic's track "2Wicky" samples its groove from Isaac's "Walk On By." What a peculiar coincidence that I bought these two discs at the same time.

That was about 2002 or so. Over the weekend I was talking to my friend Chris, who is tour manager for Isaac Hayes (because his life is far, far weirder than mine). I ripped him an mp3 of "2Wicky" and he played it for Isaac, who had NEVER HEARD IT.  He liked it, though. Chris tells me that Ike has very little control over his back catalog, so he likely does not receive any notice or compensation when he is sampled. "2Wicky" was a big hit for Hooverphonic back in 1996. It just seems really strange to me that Isaac Hayes's music gave Hooverphonic a career and he has no idea.

Ike:

Hooverphonic: