Clairvoyency Watch - 2007

i want to update my estimation of being 1 in 100 in the history of mankind to pull this stunt (see post immediately below). i submit i am roughly 1 in 1, i.e., the only person alive or dead. that's if you narrow it down from "predicting what song is playing on the radio" to "predicting 'Feels Like The First Time' by Foreigner is playing on the radio". however, when you get down to that level of specificity, it becomes less special. like, you may be the only person ever to watch an episode of "Cop Rock" while eating a hot pocket and drinking strawberry Yoo-Hoo. you get the idea.

oh, on my way to work this morning i flipped to 100.7 again and Harry Chapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" was playing. but "Feels Like the First Time" came on immediately after. no lie. i hope they're not in the middle of some Foreigner contest, like a ticket give-away and they play that song 100 times a day. while detracting slightly from my sense of accomplishment/achievement, i would still feel the need to talk about how awesome it was every now and again.

Classic Rock

real quick: Andrea and i pretty much keep it locked into 91.5FM, which is the local NPR station. it's #1 on my radio. #2 is 100.7 "The New River". i liked "The Old River" better, which used to be a pretty good station that played classic rock, but not the cheesy rotation consisting of only Boston, Frampton and The Eagles. they had a much deeper rotation. until a year or so ago when they went totally cheesy. the other cheesy classic rock station went country and the "new rock" station (96.1, #3 on my saved list) now plays "everything that rocks", which means all the crappiest songs you can think of from the past 25 years. i have the NC State station all the way over on #6, but i never listen to it. i'm too old for college radio. give me my news and the occasional rockin' 70's or 80's tune and i'm happy.

so, we were coming back from Cary last night listening to NPR and i blurted out "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME - FOREIGNER!!" and hit #2 on my radio. and what song was playing? on my mothers eyes, it was "Feels Like The First Time" by Foreigner. i about went off the road. it was awesome.

it's not like i've done that same trick every day for a year or anything. even if i had, the chances of catching it at the exact moment the song was on would be low percentage. truth be told, i've only ever tried that one other time: yesterday. i said "FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME: FOREIGNER!!!" and hit #2, but it was The Cars, i think. so i'm 50%. not too shabby.

i figure that exact occurrence has happened maybe 100 times in the history of mankind. but the radio didn't get big until the 1900's, so it's not that big a deal, right? wrong!! it's not my fault humans were too dumb to invent it sooner! so yeah, i'm one of maybe 100 people in the world to do that. not counting the time a radio station was changing its format from country to classic rock and played "Stairway To Heaven" for 24 hours straight, back to back. i imagine plenty of people could guess what song was playing on that station at any given time, but were probably not as excited as i was to be correct.

please don't leave a comment telling me how you "thought of a song" and then turned on the radio, only to hear it. no witnesses = it didn't happen. i'm talking about pulling a Babe Ruth, in radio form.

you just don't know how excited i was when i heard Foreigner playing my song. hehe, "my song". like i love that song or something. i do now, i can tell you that much!

it doesn't take a whole lot to get me excited.

The Onion

the content filter at work blocks The Onion, YouTube...all the good sites. but that's OK b/c i have The Onion headlines on my personalized Google start page. my "iGoogle Page", if you will. and even though i can't follow the links, i enjoy reading them...imagining how much more funny they would be if i could go there and read/listen to them. but another part of me (the part that adjusts to things that don't work properly, i.e., a burnt out light bulb, a squeaky hinge, improperly functioning brakes, etc) just enjoys them as is: stand-alone funny headlines that make us laugh:

Cult Leader Pretty Cool, Actually
Bar Skanks Announce Plans To Kiss
[audio] Area Man Mows Around Dead Body

that's good stuff. i also like the "American Voices" section.

Entertainment Update

our friend Seth called us up to see if we wanted to see "Knocked Up" with him last night. Andrea had some cheap movie tickets she got through work (good for movies that have been out for 2 weeks or more) so we decided to do it. it's kind of a big deal for us to go anywhere or do anything on a weeknight, but i'm glad we did. it was hilarious. we laughed and laughed and laughed.

without spoiling it for you, she dies at the end. j/k. it's a filthy movie, from a language perspective. but if you can get past that and just enjoy it for what it is, you won't be disappointed.

here is my ratings analysis:

acting: 7 out of 10
plot: 6 out of 10 (it ain't "Gone With The Wind"...it ain't even "A Mighty Wind")
script: 9 out of 10 (very well written. dialog is what makes this movie a masterpiece)
hilarity: 12 out of 10
Overall: 9 out of 10

stop what you're doing and go watch this movie right now. unless you don't like foul language, in which case you should steer clear.

Operation Goatee: Mission Aborted

i shaved it off this morning. it wasn't working out for me OR Andrea. i gave her a kiss last night and she yelled for no apparent reason. turned out one of my chin hairs poked her in the follicle. ouch!

not much else going on. i'm still playing ukulele all the time and getting more familiar with the chords. i taught myself Stairway to Heaven the other day! it's pretty easy. come to think of it, most stuff is "easy" on a ukulele which is probly why i like it so much. me and Seth jammed on a little A-D-E thing Monday night, as well as a few classics. he was on 6 string, of course. he's good! he's gonna teach me "Big Love" by Lindsay Buckingham, which rocks...AND ROLLS.

i want to get some pickups for the uke so i can plug in and share it with the world. or at least the neighbors. Andrea has a set that fit in her old acoustic, but i'm scared to put them in. not only would it involve rendering them useless for future use in a guitar, i don't want to render the uke useless, too! i'm not the handiest dude on the ranch.

in summation: my Lanikai LU-11 is best Christmas gift in a long time. thanks Schuster's! (and Baby for suggesting it)

i'm "in the band"

as in, my wedding band is here! it's a little tight on my fat finger. guess i need to get it bumped up to a 10.75 or go on a finger diet. but snug or not, i'm glad it's here. i've been stoked about the prospect of finally getting to wear jewelry without anyone being able to give me a hard time. who knows? maybe i'll really like it and this will be but the first step in a journey of 1,000 rings.

Slight Topic Change
i have the stubble of a 13 year old, except now instead of being reddish-blond, it's coming in gray. that's awesome. anyway, i took advantage of the weekends worth of growth to try my hand at growing a goatee. it's a big step for me to actually leave the house with facial hair, as can be seen by my 1st and only attempt at growing a full beard a couple years ago:



before that, i went for the "Shaggy" look:


wow. i haven't aged at all in the 10 years between those photos.

anyway, here's what i'd look like if i could grow a mustache like Matt Wood:



that's Matt's actual mustache, which he donated and we had surgically grafted onto my face early last year. it turned out great. sadly, my face rejected it and i'm back to looking like i'm 13.

Long-as-there's-a-record-deal-we'll-always-be-friends!

"friendship is rare. do you know what i'm sayin' to you? friendship is rare."
- The D

screw that. i have the "burden" of trying to keep in touch with a lot of friends spanning the entire country (and the past 20 years of my life). it's awesome! i love my friends. if it's true you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep, i'm the most squared away person around. all thanks to my friends!

speaking of which: i was an engineering student at Auburn University, as were most my friends at the time. "birds of a feather", and what not. back then, Chemical Engineering was the hot major in terms of salary for grads. that being the case, we all couldn't wait to get out and start making that money!! it was also considered one of the more difficult majors b/c of all the math and chemistry. i figured since i was in such a hard program, i was entitled to act superior to folks in other majors. looking back, i can see what a jerk i was. my ego got the best of me. i didn't respect liberal arts majors b/c their curriculum wasn't "hard enough". i'm ashamed! especially considering those same people are now my closest friends and the ones whose talents i respect the most! not to mention i wouldn't last a semester majoring in philosophy, any kind of art, sociology, etc. screw all you chemical engineers! (except Hao. he's alright).

most of my Raleigh friends are exceptionally talented folks in things other than math and chemistry, thank God. it's awesome having artistic friends! lucky for me, they don't judge based on my artistic talent the way i judged their ilk when i was in engineering. which, by the way, i gave up on after 1 year in the real world.

in conclusion: everybody stop being arrogant jerks and get to know people for who they are and what they have to offer the world.