Autism Resources
July 31st, 2008 
Just a note to let you know that I added some updates to my page Autism Resources. Now included are:
Today’s Power Thought
July 30th, 2008
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale has been one of my favorite mentors and I have found many golden nuggets in his writings over the years. Here is today’s power thought, courtesy of Guideposts
Give Thanks:
Do not always ask when you pray, but instead affirm that God’s blessings are being given, and spend most of your prayers giving thanks.
No. 12 in a series of 100 Power Thoughts from The Power of Positive Thinking , the All-Time inspirational Best-Selling Book by Norman Vincent Peale.
Courtesy of PealeCenterforPositiveThinking.com
Dave Barry’s Colonoscopy Journal
July 29th, 2008
A friend sent me this today in an attempt to cheer me up and break my nervousness over my impending colonoscopy. BUT, I almost don’t need a colonoscopy NOW…..I think I just had one reading this. ROFLMAO!! OH, I CAN BARELY BREATHE NOW!!
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This is from newshound Dave Barry’s colonoscopy journal:
…….I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenteritis, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy. A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis .
Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner. I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn’t really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, ‘HE’S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!’
I left Andy’s office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called ‘MoviPrep,’ which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven. I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America ’s enemies.
I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous. Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation. In accordance with my instructions, I didn’t eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor. Then, in the evening, I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons.) Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.
The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, ‘a loose watery bowel movement may result.’ This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.
MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don’t want to be too graphic, here, but: Have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and star t eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.
After an action -packed evening, I finally got to sleep. The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, ‘What if I spurt on Andy?’ How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.
At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts, the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.
Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep. At first I was ticked off that I hadn’t thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.
W hen everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point. Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand. There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was ‘Dancing Queen’ by ABBA I remarked to Andy that, of a ll the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, ‘Dancing Queen’ has to be the least appropriate.
‘You want me to turn it up?’ said Andy, from somewhere behind me. ‘Ha ha, ‘ I said. And then it was time, the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.
I have no idea. Really. I slept through it. One moment, ABBA was yelling ‘Dancing Queen, Feel the beat of the tambourine,’ and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.
Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Dave Barry is a Pulitzer Prize-winning humor columnist for the Miami Herald.
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To Love Someone
July 29th, 2008
“To love somebody is not just a strong feeling – it is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise.
If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever.”
Eric Fromm
Expanding Creative Commons
July 23rd, 2008
I continue to explore the lonely frontiers of the open source movement. Today I opened an account at the Internet Archive and there along with tons of other fascinating stuff, like free live concert archives of the Grateful Dead…I was never a deadhead, but thought you might like to know….you can also find my wonderous new creation - Wild Man From Tennessee. You might want to pay a visit to the library and browse around. It looks like fun.
Musing Mana 6 - Wild Man From Tennessee
July 22nd, 2008
In my list of songwriting things to do, I have wanted to write about the influential people in my life - especially in my growing up years. I have already completed my song dedicated to mom song, Always There. So, when I began this song, there were several very colorful characters from my past that immediately came to mind. And one of the most interesting and colorful of all these people was beyond a doubt, “Granddaddy”, Lee M. Hill. Founder of Hill’s Meat Market in Fort Wayne, Indiana. If you are from Fort Wayne, then you will know that it is actually known as “Waynedale”. Waynedale is within the Fort Wayne city limits as the residents voted in 1957 to allow themselves to be annexed by the city.
The Hill’s Market history as I remember hearing it was that Lee was originally from Paris – Paris, Tennessee that is. Times were hard everywhere during the Great Depression, but especially so in small towns like Paris. As I remember it, for a period of time Lee worked as a truck driver and I suppose his travels brought him as far north as Fort Wayne…this was probably thought of as a considerable distance in that day and age. I don’t know all of the details or reasons behind it, but at some point Lee settled in Fort Wayne and opened his own grocery store, “Hill’s Market”, on Lower Huntington Road in Waynedale and even lived in the back room for a while. Perhaps this was simply to try to establish a better life and earn a better living than he could in Tennessee. All I know is that Waynedale gained a bit of southern hospitality thanks to the Hills. I also have to confess that I fudged on Lee’s age…in the song I said he was 95, but you will notice his obituary says “91″….95 fit my rhyme scheme!
In my family’s world, some things happened, or actually didn’t happen in my parents reproductive years, such that the time span separating me from my brothers was so great that either one of them was old enough to be my father. Needless to say, I first saw the light of day rather late in my parents’ lives and
both my maternal and paternal grandfathers had died young…5 or 6 years before my birth. So, I never had a grandpa that I got to know and learn from as a kid. That’s okay…it’s just the way it was. But this is where granddaddy Hill came into the picture, and he probably didn’t even know it at the time. (but, maybe he did)
So, Lee was the closest thing I had to a grandfather and in fact, he never hesitated to offer advice either, even when I wasn’t asking. I first got to know Lee when I was around 9 or 10. I was best friends with Lee’s grandson, Rick Hill, who lived across the street from me in the “Indian Village” subdivision. Before I ever even met Lee, he was already a folk legend in my mind as Rick talked about the exploits of “granddaddy” constantly and I knew Lee must have been a big influence on Rick too. I would eventually get a job at Hill’s Market, but before I did, I was already coming under the influence of granddaddy.
Lee would come by Rick’s house from time to time usually in the course of working…either going to the store, coming back or driving off somewhere in quest of some great deal on a load of produce. On one trip, at a tender 12 years old, I got to tag along on a trip through Parrot’s meat packing/slaughter house and boy, did I get an eyeful. I still can remember seeing the entire slaughter and butchering process for the cattle and hogs going through. It was one bloody place let me tell you. On another memorable excursion, granddaddy again stopped by Rick’s house to see if he wanted to go on a drive in the truck to pick up a load of lettuce, and Rick wanted me to come along. So, my mom gladly gave her permission. What none of us, except Lee, knew was that we were actually going on a trip to the other end of the state! By the time we got back home 6 hours later, my mom was a bit beside her self, but very relieved to see that we were okay. Can you believe there were no cell phones back then?!
Eventually, I got a regular job at Hill’s market and ended up working with Lee quite a bit. Whether he knew it or not, I was learning a lot from him, besides being able to say “yonder” and “hnnnuh, boy”. Lee always encouraged me to work smart, to work hard, to “use both hands”, and it impressed me a lot when I saw him put extra free groceries in a struggling customer’s bag after they had paid. Lee was known by a variety of affectionate names: Granddaddy, Dad, “wild man”, the Duke….but I just called him Lee. So, here’s to you Lee, The Wild Man From Tennessee. Thanks for the memories.
Here’s the song: Wild Man From Tennessee
It’s Gonna Be a Mac
July 21st, 2008
Well, I think I have reached a next-computer decision (PC vs. Mac?) that both my wallet and my mind will be happy with.
I am definitely switching to a Mac!
I have absolutely had it with the constant trouble I have with PC’s and Windows. I want to spend my time creating and not troubleshooting and my research has convinced me that is what a Mac will do for me. Since this computer will not need to function in my day job network environment, I can get by without MS Office….I might not even waste space running Bootcamp and installing Windows. I am expecting I will go to a full time Mac life on this computer. My primary uses for the Mac will be music recording, mixing and mastering along with some graphics work and web browsing/email.
That decision was easy….then came the paying for it part. My first choice was a 17” MacBook Pro…..but at a base price of $2799 it kind of pushes it out of my budget. Then I discovered that I can obtain equivalent hardware power to my current PC for a very attractive $599 in the Mac Mini. An initial hybrid setup of the Mini along with my existing monitor, keyboard and mouse will allow me to get my toes wet in the Mac world for a comfortable outlay. To avoid the need to hassle with Bootcamp and Windows in order to run Cakewalk Sonar, I think I will save for a few months longer and by a $499 copy of Logic Studio, designed by Apple and ranked just as high in capabilities by reviewers as Sonar.
What is Folk Music? Opening Up Creativity.
July 18th, 2008
There is a great discussion on New Hampshire public radio (NPR) on “What is folk music?”. My comment is that I think there as many answers to “What is folk music?” as there are people to answer the question. I prefer to not debate which instrumentation is or is not appropriate as many others have already debated this to death. The thread that I found very captivating in the NPR discussion was the idea of public domain as mentioned by jimgiddings:
>>The core of folk music is anonymity and the public domain.<<
And further:
>>I would add that the music needs to be part of a community, although the community can now be a worldwide-web community as easily as a geographically-based community. True folk music will always be the mortal enemy of intellectual property rights: i.e. it can only thrive when people are free to build on the work of others. Pop music and country music (though maybe not jazz) all treat musicians and songwriters as islands whose creative “product” is inviolable. To make a living in folk music performers need to be constantly interacting with fans and other musicians in ways that labels and established pop musicians would find dangerous.<<
This is an awesome statement and it is exactly what the Creative Commons movement, founded by Lawrence Lessig, is all about. We need to lower barriers and increase creativity and interaction. The internet and especially Web 2.0 has provided a tremendous opportunity to independent artists and those in the folk music movement to interact with their fans and other musicians in a meaningful, fundamentally different way than has ever been possible. Big Brother is no longer in control. We have the means to restart the engines of creativity. Besides professor Lessig, another internet collaboration pioneer and favorite of mine is Jonathon Coulton. And of course, if you are reading my site, you already know that I have also thrown my hat into the ring and established my own web site with the desire to expand the circle of collaboration and creativity even more.
Bill of Musical Rights
July 17th, 2008
I sometimes need to remind myself why I am doing this. It is not about primarily “getting airplay” or “a hit” or stardom or whatever. It is more about self expression and promoting the idea of “people’s music” like it used to be before there was electricity….if you wanted entertainment everyone gathered around the piano and just sang the best you could. Like I said before, In Hawaiian it is kanikapila. There is a group of people over at a place called “Music For People” that seem to get this. They even published a Bill of Musical Rights. Cool.
Attention Creative People
July 17th, 2008
I forgot to mention last time that if anyone has the inclination or inspiration and/or extra time and you would like to contribute something to the last song, such as some vocal harmony, or an additional instrumental part, or whatever, comment here and let me know. What I put up here is free for everyone to use (hopefully not abuse), experiment with and extend the creative envelope. Don’t be shy.