"Christmas comes but once a year, to every girl and boy." I can't hear that song without thinking of Pink Floyd, The Wall, even though it is only in the background for a few seconds.
Christmas is great for kids. I don't remember any individual Christmas or Christmas presents. What I do remember is anticipating the coming Christmas. With a decorated tree, presents under it, wood fire in the fireplace, etc. I'm sure kids today still have that same thrill. We celebrated the gift-giving part of Christmas on Christmas Eve. And with the exception of a few trinkets that came in the stockings on Christmas morning, Christmas day was reserved more for going to church, going to relatives house etc.
Approaching old-manhood, things are different. For weeks now we've been bombarded with ads about what to buy. As Christmas approaches, even the news is dominated by Christmas presents and the hoards at the mall. Frankly, it is sad, an abomination as one manager at work said. What I don't understand is why the season needs to be stressful. We see people on tv, at work, at the grocery store, agonizing about what to 'get' someone for Christmas. If it is that hard to find, they probably don't need it. The last thing most of us need is a sweater we did not pick out for ourselves or, heaven forbid, some crap nick-nack to sit on a shelf and collect dust. Christmas presents should be reserved for children or the rare occasion where something meaningful can be shared. By creating an atmosphere of forced participation, the entire thing is cheapened, an annual trading of gift cards.
Frankly, I like Christmas now. No decorations. No tree. No presents. No music in the background. No malls. It is a few extra free days off to relax when work doesn't pile up at the office. More time for long dog walks. I used to hate them, but I do like writing and reading the updates that sometimes come in Christmas cards as long as they are interesting and concise; absolutely no more than one page. I'm not sure my model will work for everyone, but it eliminates the artificial stress that is rampant between Thanksgiving and New Years.
So Merry Christmas. Or, Happy Solstice - presents are for Christmas, so there is a way out.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Vehicles I've Owned
Vehicles I've owned in approximately chronological order. Only vehicles with titles and registration in my name.
Four-Wheeled Vehicles:
1969 MG Midget, red, sold to some guy. Probably the best investment I ever made. Last I saw it had a bad head gasket but was going to be repaired by the owner.
19?? Chev Chevette, cream, basic high school transportation with possibly the noisiest manual transmission I've ever heard. Many broken parts, sold to a friend whose family had a salvage yard.
1977 MGB, white, Still have but will probably never run under its own power but I can't get rid of it.
1975 Dodge Dart Swinger, Primer Grey, sold back to the person I bought it from for the same price.
1974/2 MGB, turquoise, Semi-permanent hard top. Great winter beater B. Sold to a kid I worked with who crashed it.
19?? Buick k-car. Brown. Sold it several times before it actually sold.
19?? Chev S-10. Probably the most underpowered truck I every owned. Sold to some guy who wanted to put a V-8 in it.
19?? ??, small Japanese car I only had for a few weeks. Smoked like crazy on start up. Sold to some guy who wanted to flip it.
19?? Nissan Truck, white, very old, drum/drum brakes. Neat looking truck, only had for one year. Traded in on F-150
19?? Ford F-150, brown. Had piston knock but I fixed it. Great college truck. Bullet-proof 4WD. Traded in on blue F-150.
1972 MGB, blue. Bought crashed and rebuilt on a college budget. Still have.
1994 Ford F-150 4x4, blue. College graduation present to myself. Probably my favorite truck. I crashed it.
19?? Chev C-1500 2x4. Blue stepside truck. Liked the way it looked but not much else about it. Traded it in on the Dakota.
1994 Dodge Dakota 2x4. Green. Great truck, traded in on grey F-150.
2002 Ford F-150 4x4. Grey, OK truck, but had lots of problems with it. Traded it in on the Tacoma.
1956 MGA. Green, fun car, but didn't drive it much. Got it from the guy after building an engine for it. Sold it to a guy in Austria.
1962 MGB, Iris Blue. Second owner after being off the road for a long time. Neat car, but didn't drive it much. Sold it to a guy in New York.
2009 Toyota Tacoma 4x4. Blue, decent truck, basic 4x4, but nothing more.
Two-wheeled vehicles:
19?? Yamaha Chappy. Yellow, registered as a moped, drove at age of 15. Gave to friend after turned 16.
1976 Honda CJ360T. Red, First real bike. Great fun, wrecked and gave to a guy when I moved after college. It was put back on the road.
1997 Harley Sportster Sport. Black, good fun bike. Traded it in on the Dyna to do more long riding.
2001 Harley Dyna Superglide T-Sport, Grey, then blue after crashing into deer. Good touring bike. Traded in on electraglide.
2004 Harley Electraglide Classic. Blue, great bike but a bit slow. Sold to a guy after posting at work.
2005 Honda VFR800. Red, fun bike, always going fast. Traded in on the ST1300.
2006 Honda ST1300. Black, awesome bike. Love it. Still have it.
2007 Honda Goldwing. Blue, great 2-up touring bike. Love it. Still have it.
Four-Wheeled Vehicles:
1969 MG Midget, red, sold to some guy. Probably the best investment I ever made. Last I saw it had a bad head gasket but was going to be repaired by the owner.
19?? Chev Chevette, cream, basic high school transportation with possibly the noisiest manual transmission I've ever heard. Many broken parts, sold to a friend whose family had a salvage yard.
1977 MGB, white, Still have but will probably never run under its own power but I can't get rid of it.
1975 Dodge Dart Swinger, Primer Grey, sold back to the person I bought it from for the same price.
1974/2 MGB, turquoise, Semi-permanent hard top. Great winter beater B. Sold to a kid I worked with who crashed it.
19?? Buick k-car. Brown. Sold it several times before it actually sold.
19?? Chev S-10. Probably the most underpowered truck I every owned. Sold to some guy who wanted to put a V-8 in it.
19?? ??, small Japanese car I only had for a few weeks. Smoked like crazy on start up. Sold to some guy who wanted to flip it.
19?? Nissan Truck, white, very old, drum/drum brakes. Neat looking truck, only had for one year. Traded in on F-150
19?? Ford F-150, brown. Had piston knock but I fixed it. Great college truck. Bullet-proof 4WD. Traded in on blue F-150.
1972 MGB, blue. Bought crashed and rebuilt on a college budget. Still have.
1994 Ford F-150 4x4, blue. College graduation present to myself. Probably my favorite truck. I crashed it.
19?? Chev C-1500 2x4. Blue stepside truck. Liked the way it looked but not much else about it. Traded it in on the Dakota.
1994 Dodge Dakota 2x4. Green. Great truck, traded in on grey F-150.
2002 Ford F-150 4x4. Grey, OK truck, but had lots of problems with it. Traded it in on the Tacoma.
1956 MGA. Green, fun car, but didn't drive it much. Got it from the guy after building an engine for it. Sold it to a guy in Austria.
1962 MGB, Iris Blue. Second owner after being off the road for a long time. Neat car, but didn't drive it much. Sold it to a guy in New York.
2009 Toyota Tacoma 4x4. Blue, decent truck, basic 4x4, but nothing more.
Two-wheeled vehicles:
19?? Yamaha Chappy. Yellow, registered as a moped, drove at age of 15. Gave to friend after turned 16.
1976 Honda CJ360T. Red, First real bike. Great fun, wrecked and gave to a guy when I moved after college. It was put back on the road.
1997 Harley Sportster Sport. Black, good fun bike. Traded it in on the Dyna to do more long riding.
2001 Harley Dyna Superglide T-Sport, Grey, then blue after crashing into deer. Good touring bike. Traded in on electraglide.
2004 Harley Electraglide Classic. Blue, great bike but a bit slow. Sold to a guy after posting at work.
2005 Honda VFR800. Red, fun bike, always going fast. Traded in on the ST1300.
2006 Honda ST1300. Black, awesome bike. Love it. Still have it.
2007 Honda Goldwing. Blue, great 2-up touring bike. Love it. Still have it.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
GnR
They announced that Guns & Roses will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.
I was 16 or 17 when GnR busted through the sod out of a dank hole somewhere and onto the MTV scene. My friend Larry, who was more into music than I was, saw their video and said how awesome it was. We watched MTV at his house until it came on. I always liked metal music, but was never really into it. GnR changed that. I bought Appetite for Destruction as a cassette and almost wore it out. I don't know how many plastic cases I broke as they slid around in my car with a copy of that in the tape deck. Axl and Slash were awesome. There was a lip sync contest at school that year (a private Christian school) and a bunch of guys did Welcome to the Jungle (with one guy doing nothing but holding a GnR banner - odd). It was allowed by the "censors" but apparently there were discussions afterwords that it was inappropriate. Appetite was unapologetically sex, drugs and rock and roll with not even the thinnest veil.
GnR Lies came out about a year later, although it felt a lot longer. I bought the cassette at a local record store the first day it was out and almost wore that cassette out too. One side electric, the other acoustic. The songs were funny, irreverent. Appetite was still played a lot. After GnR Lies, there was a big dry spell. I bought a vinyl bootlegged LP of some of their early music, with a naked lady on the cover of it. Some of their music on it I've never heard anywhere else. I still have it, but no way to play it. I still own the cassettes of Appetite and Lies, but only have the CD of Appetite. Several of their songs are on my MP3 player and phone as well.
I had a GnR poster in my room. The band ssitting there and a couple bottles of booze. If there was any doubt about whether Rock could be a bad influence, I'm sure I drank Jim Beam and Jack Daniels because the band was frequently seen with them. In reality, that only influenced what I drank, not if or when.
My first year in college, Use your Illusion I & II came out. I dutifully bought them. There was some OK stuff on them, but I doubt I've listened to the entire cassettes more than a handful of times. It was lacking the rawness of the real stuff. Chinese Democracy was a tragedy. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a political statement or not, but it shouldn't have been, on at least two levels (at least).
When I heard GnR was going to be in the Hall of Fame, I felt a little old, and wondered if Slash and Axl would get back together for a reunion, but I really didn't care. The other day I watched the Welcome to the Jungle video on youtube; it is still pretty cool. I also grabbed my Appetite CD and listened to it front to back for the fist time in a long while. This time, I was listening with 40 year old ears, not 16 and while sitting at my desk at the Fortune 500, something impossible to contemplate to 16 year old ears. I still like the music and know all the words, but there is no doubt I've changed along with my overall music tastes. The classic rock stations I listen to now routinely play Guns & Roses. And in reality, with only one member still in the band, it is more of a brand than a band. I guess we've all gotten older in the 20 years it takes to get into the Hall of Fame.
I was 16 or 17 when GnR busted through the sod out of a dank hole somewhere and onto the MTV scene. My friend Larry, who was more into music than I was, saw their video and said how awesome it was. We watched MTV at his house until it came on. I always liked metal music, but was never really into it. GnR changed that. I bought Appetite for Destruction as a cassette and almost wore it out. I don't know how many plastic cases I broke as they slid around in my car with a copy of that in the tape deck. Axl and Slash were awesome. There was a lip sync contest at school that year (a private Christian school) and a bunch of guys did Welcome to the Jungle (with one guy doing nothing but holding a GnR banner - odd). It was allowed by the "censors" but apparently there were discussions afterwords that it was inappropriate. Appetite was unapologetically sex, drugs and rock and roll with not even the thinnest veil.
GnR Lies came out about a year later, although it felt a lot longer. I bought the cassette at a local record store the first day it was out and almost wore that cassette out too. One side electric, the other acoustic. The songs were funny, irreverent. Appetite was still played a lot. After GnR Lies, there was a big dry spell. I bought a vinyl bootlegged LP of some of their early music, with a naked lady on the cover of it. Some of their music on it I've never heard anywhere else. I still have it, but no way to play it. I still own the cassettes of Appetite and Lies, but only have the CD of Appetite. Several of their songs are on my MP3 player and phone as well.
I had a GnR poster in my room. The band ssitting there and a couple bottles of booze. If there was any doubt about whether Rock could be a bad influence, I'm sure I drank Jim Beam and Jack Daniels because the band was frequently seen with them. In reality, that only influenced what I drank, not if or when.
My first year in college, Use your Illusion I & II came out. I dutifully bought them. There was some OK stuff on them, but I doubt I've listened to the entire cassettes more than a handful of times. It was lacking the rawness of the real stuff. Chinese Democracy was a tragedy. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a political statement or not, but it shouldn't have been, on at least two levels (at least).
When I heard GnR was going to be in the Hall of Fame, I felt a little old, and wondered if Slash and Axl would get back together for a reunion, but I really didn't care. The other day I watched the Welcome to the Jungle video on youtube; it is still pretty cool. I also grabbed my Appetite CD and listened to it front to back for the fist time in a long while. This time, I was listening with 40 year old ears, not 16 and while sitting at my desk at the Fortune 500, something impossible to contemplate to 16 year old ears. I still like the music and know all the words, but there is no doubt I've changed along with my overall music tastes. The classic rock stations I listen to now routinely play Guns & Roses. And in reality, with only one member still in the band, it is more of a brand than a band. I guess we've all gotten older in the 20 years it takes to get into the Hall of Fame.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Occupy X
Back to the Occupy (insert place) movement.
The Occupy X movement has been plagued by a lack of meaning. Protesting has become a fashionable badge that people like to wear at a certain age, mostly since the 60s. It didn't change anything then, and it won't now. Older adults often participate in the desperate hope that they really aren't older, and because it was fun when in college.
The overall direction of the protesting appears to be about inequality. This seems noble; a peasant revolt against the kings; the proletariat against the oligarchy. The problem is, that is exactly what it is. Inequality has always exist, and will always. Inequality is what allows each one of use to strive to improve, to better the self in some way. It is unfortunate that there isn't a clear message as that might allow some root to take hold and have a real, albeit small effect. The revolution started by Ross Perot played a real role nationwide for a few years. It was not as held back by youthful idealism and poverty as the Occupy X movement, but eventually did itself in. Jesse Ventura brought it screaming front and center, and then let it die as the idealism collided with reality. Occupy X will probably host a few candidates in 2012 for office. Few will be elected and reality will affect the rest in a predictable manner. Witness the Tea Party.
The bigger issue is that most of us are in the center. We aren't 99% vs 1%. We aren't red vs. blue. We are the middle two purple standard deviations. We are going to work, paying taxes, walking dogs, raising kids (some of us) and voting. Occasionally we do join the national conversation by joining together in meaningful ways to make a difference in something we believe in, then this is labeled as "special interest." But, I'm digressing into a future blog. The point is, there are two ways to influence the system. Money and violence. Money works, and violence is thankfully usually quashed by money (in this Country - mostly) at the same time the means marginalizes the message. Since Occupy X doesn't have money, violence is the unavoidable option if they really do want to have an effect.
There was the case recently of the police officer using pepper spray against Occupy X protesters (somewhere) in California. Pepper spray is a tool that should be used against people who are actively resisting. The protesters were passively resisting. However, once the police give the order to leave, there are two options, and only two. One, follow the order and hopefully find a way to get arrested in the process (Occupy X thinks the courts are a good venue for free speech). Two, the police force the order. If they don't, then the police orders in general will only be suggestions, and the situation will escalate. The policeman in question should not have used pepper spray, and he certainly appeared to enjoy it. But, once the order was ignored, it had to be enforced. The police would have been just as demonized if they had forcefully ripped the protesters apart and paddy-wagoned them off to jail. It was a no win situation. No sympathy for the protesters, they got their voice. Sympathy for the police? Not really, but they had no choice.
So where does this leave us? I guess money is still driving the system. Unless Lenin was right, it is the past, present and (slightly depressing? or less idealistic?) future.
The Occupy X movement has been plagued by a lack of meaning. Protesting has become a fashionable badge that people like to wear at a certain age, mostly since the 60s. It didn't change anything then, and it won't now. Older adults often participate in the desperate hope that they really aren't older, and because it was fun when in college.
The overall direction of the protesting appears to be about inequality. This seems noble; a peasant revolt against the kings; the proletariat against the oligarchy. The problem is, that is exactly what it is. Inequality has always exist, and will always. Inequality is what allows each one of use to strive to improve, to better the self in some way. It is unfortunate that there isn't a clear message as that might allow some root to take hold and have a real, albeit small effect. The revolution started by Ross Perot played a real role nationwide for a few years. It was not as held back by youthful idealism and poverty as the Occupy X movement, but eventually did itself in. Jesse Ventura brought it screaming front and center, and then let it die as the idealism collided with reality. Occupy X will probably host a few candidates in 2012 for office. Few will be elected and reality will affect the rest in a predictable manner. Witness the Tea Party.
The bigger issue is that most of us are in the center. We aren't 99% vs 1%. We aren't red vs. blue. We are the middle two purple standard deviations. We are going to work, paying taxes, walking dogs, raising kids (some of us) and voting. Occasionally we do join the national conversation by joining together in meaningful ways to make a difference in something we believe in, then this is labeled as "special interest." But, I'm digressing into a future blog. The point is, there are two ways to influence the system. Money and violence. Money works, and violence is thankfully usually quashed by money (in this Country - mostly) at the same time the means marginalizes the message. Since Occupy X doesn't have money, violence is the unavoidable option if they really do want to have an effect.
There was the case recently of the police officer using pepper spray against Occupy X protesters (somewhere) in California. Pepper spray is a tool that should be used against people who are actively resisting. The protesters were passively resisting. However, once the police give the order to leave, there are two options, and only two. One, follow the order and hopefully find a way to get arrested in the process (Occupy X thinks the courts are a good venue for free speech). Two, the police force the order. If they don't, then the police orders in general will only be suggestions, and the situation will escalate. The policeman in question should not have used pepper spray, and he certainly appeared to enjoy it. But, once the order was ignored, it had to be enforced. The police would have been just as demonized if they had forcefully ripped the protesters apart and paddy-wagoned them off to jail. It was a no win situation. No sympathy for the protesters, they got their voice. Sympathy for the police? Not really, but they had no choice.
So where does this leave us? I guess money is still driving the system. Unless Lenin was right, it is the past, present and (slightly depressing? or less idealistic?) future.
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