Friday Fives

1 You're making a CD mix titled, "The Soundtrack of My Life." Which songs would you include, and why? I'll skip the why, and we'll try to go chronologically. One more thing, I'll do this not by songs, but by albums. We'll start with the first cassette I owned. Van Halen - 1984, The Police - Synchronicity, Ratt - Out of the Cellar, Metallica - Master of Puppets, Anthrax - Among the Living, Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan, Neil Young - After the Gold Rush, Guns & Roses - Appetite for Destruction, Grateful Dead - In the Dark, U2 - The Joshua Tree, Joe Myers - House with nine rooms, Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream, Pearl Jam - Ten, Dave Matthews Band - Under the Table and Dreaming, Tom Waits - Rain Dogs, Bruce Springsteen - The Rising, Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy 2. What is your favorite song right now? Two years ago? In college? now? I guess it would be Johnny Cash & Willie Nelson - Me and Paul, from VH1 Storytellers. Two years ago? about every song from U2's 'All that you can't leave behind' 3. You're feeling down, sad, lonely, frustrated, angry ... which songs do you play to help yourself feel better? well, I have a special song that I play specifically for grieving, Samba pa ti from Santana. As for mood swings, I tend to do early Dylan and George Harrison's 'All things must pass' in constant rotation for about two weeks and then don't touch them for a year or so. I have a feeling the recently discovered Warren Zevon record 'Excitable Boy' will always be a strange and trusty companion as well. 4. Do you watch any of the competitive reality TV shows Why/why not? Do you have a favorite to win any one of the competitions? not really. I used to be a Survivor nut, but my schedule the last couple of years has made it too much trouble to keep up with. My favorite protagonist will always be Rupert 5. Do most of your friends generally share your taste in music? to some degree. I guess I would say they share my taste in music in that they complement it. Like personalities or political beliefs, everyone brings something different to the table. That said, I prefer to hang out with like minded people... it saves me time having to explain what a complete failure our president is. As always, thanks to go to Roy for this week's questions.

I voted today

guess what, they can do anything they want to me now, I have voted. I did it at lunch at the local grocery chain, and it was a delightful experience. I don't much like lines, or people really... so I paid a homeless fellow $5 to handle my ballot and voting for me while I read Cosmo articles on sex. Don't worry, I gave him a run down of my belief system... so I am sure I will be represented. I thought a lot about whether I wanted to vote early or not. I wondered, what would be the easiest way for the Administration to discount and lose my vote. I decided I can't worry about it like that. Now they can bring in Bin Laden, or whatever 'October Surprise' they have planned and it won't impact my vote. Without fail, in about ten days they are going to raise the alert level to the tippy top. I promise it, you read it here (well, and about everywhere else too). They can cover the polls with police to scare away minorities (20,000 disenfranchised in Florida pulling this stuff folks... do your homework). I believe, and hope, that we will see Senator Kerry in a landslide! He will win handily because millions of new voters are registering every week. They aren't voting for Bush, and as first time voters... they aren't being polled. Cell Phone folks aren't being polled. You aren't being polled either. People who work for a living at 40-60 hours a week don't get polled either. You know who gets polled? Old people. Seriously, it is a fact... and in the fine print of every good poll result. The reason is because old people are home and have plenty of time to talk. Old people vote Republican, I think it is a tax thing. one last thing, the paper today reported that 25% of registered voters don't vote. Lookie here, genius. You can spend that Tuesday at work, or at the polls. You are Federally allocated 3 hours of paid time to vote if your shift falls into hours that keep you away from the polls. Your paycheck is the same, and your boss won't be at the polls. Who should you vote for? Anyone but that nutjob Nader will be ok. Bush is no good either. To me, it's pretty much down to John Kerry or Jerry Garcia.

I wonder about this

If you are traveling in the Concord, for the bulk of the trip you are travling faster than the speed of sound. For reference, the speed of sound is 770 mph, and the Concord went twice that. So, how is it possible to have a conversation with someone in the seat next to you? Technically, things you would say would not be heard until well after that fact, right? So, then I thought about this: I call it the 'capsule theory'. Don't worry, this won't get mathy... I have a degree in English, barely. So then I thought, maybe if the two people are both traveling twice the speed of sound... then somehow the stuff coming out of their mouths is also at twice the speed of sound and the person who is listening's ears are traveling at twice the speed of sound... so there is some kind of constant, right? If that is the case, how could the pilot talk to anyone on the ground in real time? What if you were on that super expensive phone on the headrest that no one ever used? Would you be able to talk to people on the ground... or only other people in other Concordes? These are things I sometimes wonder about. * ed note: I am keenly aware there is no such word as 'mathy'. That is the fault of the poindexters over at Websters. I mean, you understood what I meant, right?