Top 5 Greatest Albums of all time

This is fact as far as I can tell, though probably just opinion to pretty much everyone else. In fact, I don’t know how I’m really going to get through this list since I can really only think of three artists who deserve to be here, a difficult task for sure.

1. Josh Ritter – Animal Years

2. The Frames – Fitzcarraldo

3. James McMurtry – The Americana Series

4. The Frames – Set List; or Josh Ritter – Hello Starling

5. Brett Dennen – So Much More (I think this is a stretch, but I’ll allow it)

I know having two albums from the same artist in the top five is not really kosher, but I have no other options, they really are THAT good. I should probably throw a Van Morrison in there, but then I have to take one out….and to be fair, I don’t know if one of them can be….given that, I’ll make it a top 6, or 7 since I already have 6 albums in the top 5. So, coming in at number six:

6. Van Morrison – Brown Eyed Girl or Moondance

What Hillary must do to win!!

A friend emailed me this earlier today, I actually think the third place one is the most funny, primarily because it’s true. But seriously, why is she so hell bent on taking this thing all the way to the DNC? She is as likely to win the nomination at this point as I am, and I have zero delegates, pledged or not. In my humble opinion (which is not so humble, because it’s pretty much always right), she’s starting to appear as whiny and totally clueless…..yeah, that’s someone I want running the country. And you didn’t think it could get any worse.

The winners: The best submissions managed to make a concise joke, summarize all of Obama’s vulnerabilities at once, or vividly capture the mind-bending paucity of Clinton’s odds of survival. Here are three that did the job:

3^rd place: Hillary appeals to the Supreme Court, which, based upon a 2000 ruling, decides that the candidate with fewer votes wins the election.—John Kirkbride

2^nd place: Hillary Clinton must parachute into Pakistan while under heavy sniper fire, infiltrate al-Qaida using a fake beard, putty nose, and duct tape, and capture Osama Bin Laden, whilst singing the “Star Spangled Banner” with one hand over her heart and an American flag lapel pin prominently shown on her outfit. She must film all of this in HD and create a montage scored to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Meanwhile, Barack Obama must publicly convert to Islam and change his name to Osama Hafez al-Mohammed Hussein Ayatollah Obama, while burning an American flag in the Crystal Cathedral as he replaces the crucifix with a do-it-yourself Piss Christ, while performing an abortion on the exhumed body of Terri Schiavo. He should also be naked. It should then rain frogs. That ought to do it.—Jason in San Diego

1^st place: One of the lesser-known consequences of quantum physics is an event called “quantum tunneling.” Here’s how it happens: At a campaign stop in West Virginia, completely out of the blue, the aggregate wave functions of all the particles in Barack Obama’s body end up instantaneously transporting him through the entire Earth and leaving him treading water somewhere in the Indian Ocean, or leaving his various particles scattered inside the mantle. The odds of this occurring are such that any macroscopic object tunneling through any barrier is highly unlikely in the lifespan of the universe, but it could occur!—Michael Blessington

My own musings

Been a while since I’ve posted, and due to the constant pleadings of readers and non readers alike, I figure it’s about time. It’s a painful post really, I’m missing out on valuable David Archuleta face time. Apparently he’s signing autographs at the gateway today; I work in the tribune building (gateway tower one) so it’s my perfect opportunity to meet the man (boy), the myth, the legend. Maybe I’ll join the throngs of 12 and 13 year old girls later. Perhaps their moms are hot, maybe?

Anyway, I have this friend who blogs (who doesn’t blog these days), her name is Val. BT and Val have been good friends of mine for some time. A couple weeks ago Val posted a very kind account of me adopting my dog, which happened about 2.5 years ago I guess. She briefly mentioned the quirks of said dog and the “issues” that can arise with bringing an adult dog into your home. Fortunately, I’ve been quite lucky, but Clementine certainly has her share of weirdness. To name a few; when I let her in the car it’s usually through the rear passenger door. I drive a Nissan Pathfinder, yes…a gas guzzling SUV, so she’ll jump up then basically take the whole back area of the car for herself, the seats are down and no one else is back there. Anyway, one day she jumped in, I shut the door and she began yelping as if she was in pain. I have no idea why, I know she wasn’t stuck in the door. No clue what happened, but ever since then when I open that door she does one counterclockwise loop around the car, THEN jumps in. I suppose she thinks that’s going to make whatever happened that day not happen again. Works for me.

Next story, I’ve been riding my bike everywhere lately. Seriously, everywhere, I’ll get to that in a minute. But Clementine is not allowed on the couches. I put a board on each couch when I leave in order to keep her from jumping up, but sometimes she moves them and sits on the couches anyway. The other day I forgot to put the board on the couch upon leaving. I arrived home by bike, not by car, so she couldn’t hear me coming until I opened the door. As soon as said door was opened, I see her very slowly move from the couch to the lovesac, which is her self appointed bed. She lays on the lovesac and gives me this exact look, “What? Am I not supposed to be up there?” She obviously knows she’s not, but I couldn’t really get mad because it was more funny than anything and in the end, I guess I don’t really care that much. They’re leather and can be cleaned quite easily.

Now, back to this bike thing….I bought a fixie a week or so ago. I figure it’s good training, fun to ride around town and honestly, just another bike I can look at in my house. Furthermore, gas has climbed to nearly $3.50 a gallon (and is poised to go much higher throughout the summer) and I refuse to subject myself to that beating…absolutely refuse. This is my statement politically, environmentally and economically. I won’t, repeat WON’T continue to line the pockets of our current (crooked) administration. I know I’m not the only one who finds it ironic that gas prices (and oil) are at all time highs AND Exxon Mobil reported an $11 Billion dollar profit last quarter, which by the way is the most EVER in a quarter for any company, public or private. So…why should I continue to support that, those execs obviously don’t need the money more than I do, or anyone else reading this for that matter. Sure, there are times where I wake up in the morning and think, it would be really nice to drive in today, but then I just think of my hatred for President Bush and my perspective is brought back to reality. Not to mention, I’m doing my small part of alleviating the sewer that is the Salt Lake City air….and of course, saving myself around $150 a month. I’ll take it.

Let’s see…on the racing front, nothing to report. Lots of rain lately, sub par race results. Finally starting to feel a tad bit fit, but still a long way to go. Note to self: put in a few base miles next year.

Val…you asked, it was a little bit ranty, but worthwhile I hope.

I feel so lethargic today that I can barely get the motivation to blog about anything, anything at all. So lethargic in fact, that I’m not even going to name this post. I hate titles anyway, kind of like email subjects. Half the time they’re, “Hi,” or “So….,” I just don’t see the point. You can figure out what it’s about when you read it.

Actually, with it being earth day, I’ll comment around that theme. I can’t understand why everyone in my office is so alarmed when not every single fluorescent light is turned on. It’s actually kind of nice not dealing with the glare and the feeling that I may begin to shrivel any second…and it’s not even cold.

Overheard yesterday from one, “Why are all the lights off?”

Another: “Did you see the Green poster by the door, maybe it’s something to do with that.”

Original Commenter: “Yeah, but it’s like every other light.”

I’m thinking, yes it is every other light, how about making it every single light, makes for a much more pleasant work environment. A separate conversation ensued today regarding energy saving light bulbs.

One guy that was obviously against them (A GW supporter): “Yeah, but you have to recycle them when you’re done, you can’t just throw them away.”

The other guy: “That may be true, but it doesn’t matter. No one has recycled them yet because they haven’t burned out.” (I actually thought that one was pretty clever, and really…isn’t it a good thing to need to recycle them? Why is that bad?)

Anyway, back to the GW supporter, we were talking politics last summer when I expressed my dislike for the current administration, dislike being a soft word, and he said, “Name one thing he’s (GW) done wrong.” Are you kidding me? One thing? How about we start with the number of things he’s done right….the list is a hell of a lot shorter. If his goal was to end the conversation, it worked…I couldn’t argue, not because I had no ammo, but because I saw no point. ANY President has done at least ONE thing wrong, but another 7 months and we should be in the clear (I hope).

Josh Ritter coming to Salt Lake City

Josh Ritter is absolutely my favorite artist of all time, yet for some unknown reason (at least to me) he has never played in Salt Lake City. Actually, I believe he did at one point and had an experience that has kept him away since, at least that’s what I heard from someone who heard it from someone else. I saw him last year in New York, Aspen and Boise and loved every show. So you can imagine my excitement when viewing this:

http://www.joshritter.com/tour.php

and seeing this (July 17):

http://www.slcgov.com/arts/twilight/

If nothing else good happens this summer, that will make it complete. I’m headed to the mile high music festival two days later. He’s playing there as well, I can only hope at least one show is with the full band. In any case, if you don’t know Josh Ritter, get to know him, fantastic music. Either way, put it on the calendar…he and Andrew Bird will put on a great show I’m sure.

Tax day last weekend? I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed in a race for myself. Not so much from physically not having it, but from pulling the plug mentally. I knew what to expect going into the race so why I pulled the plug so early (at least in my head) is beyond me, and incredibly frustrating. Never again.

What is the Marketcap of Botswana?

So I’m on a company wide conference call today and the call leader says, “The market cap the US financial sector has lost in the last year is five or six times of that of the GDP of Botswana.” No way, REALLY? You mean the most wealthy nation in the world, with 5000 times the market cap of Botswana lost a small percentage, which just happens to be five or six times the GDP of Botswana? We must be in trouble. While I agree that we are in a recession, how can you pull some random country and make any comparison at all. Pretty irrelevant if you ask me, but at least I know….I guess.

A bit tired today…actually really tired today. Last night’s RMR combined with too many late night in house music festivals don’t work too well for me, but they sure are fun. The race went pretty well for me though, was able to mix it up at the front, at least a little, and still finish the race. Those two activities (mixing it up at the front AND finishing) have not been mutually exclusive the last year or so.

In any case, I still have a lot of fitness to gain, but we’re still in early April. It’s now, however, that I regret the fact that I didn’t train as much as I should have throughout the winter. I guess there is always next year, not to mention the rest of this year.

I have to say, I’m not really very interested in blogging today. Being tired and at work is kind of a double negative, but not the kind that turns into a positive. However, despite my lack of interest in doing anything, I’ll post…just for the sake of the 8 people that read this everyday.

On a separate note, vibes to the girl who reportedly broke her pelvis in the B flite at the RMR last night, really unfortunate incident (obviously). The thing I don’t understand, especially on the oval, is why the race continues in that scenario. While trying to get someone on a stretcher it just doesn’t seem terribly safe to have that many people on bikes continue riding/racing. I suppose I can understand the other group, in this case the A flite, continuing as the crash was in the inside lane and the A’s were on the two outside lanes. At the same time though, no other race stops for a crash, so why would the Tuesday Night World Championships.

Really though, hope the recovery goes well and to everyone else…keep the rubber side down and watch that crack on the last corner in the third lane on the oval.

5×5x5

Given my weak ass RMR attempt on Tuesday (although in the end I felt good, that last effort was a confidence builder), I decided to do the dreaded 5×5x5 at lunch today, inspired by Piotrek. As he mentioned, pretty brutal workout, my first two efforts were right at threshold, which made me feel like a little girl, so the last three were way above…pretty much maxed out for a minute effort. Looking back, I always feel like I could’ve gone harder, but I don’t actually think so, at least not on the last three.

Oddly enough, I kind of enjoyed myself.

Falling in love all over again

But with myself this time…..didn’t get a chance to ride outside yesterday, was too cold anyway. I’ve definitely become a fair weather cyclist, not a huge fan of riding if it’s colder than 50. Makes winter here tough. Anyway, got on the rollers last night for 1:15, but forgot to open any doors or windows before I started so it was really really warm with extra stagnant air which only means lots and lots of sweat. However, upon weighing myself this morning I came in a full two pounds less than the previous day. I’m hoping an interval workout at lunch today will keep that momentum going.

But to the title of the blog, I’ve been using this new hair product (I’m still straight, much to the chagrin of some and surprise of others) that smells fantastic. Whenever I sweat a lot, the smell permeates the room, or maybe it’s just dripping down my face. Either way, it makes me feel so great about myself to think that I may actually smell THAT good.

Back to racing, did the RMR on Tuesday. Typically I love racing on the oval, but not that night. A two inch wide crack on one of the corners made for some pretty treacherous racing. Blown tires, one guy actually got both wheels stuck in it at the same time, but miraculously and thankfully recovered (especially since I was directly behind him). With about five to go I was directed to move to the front, which I didn’t think I had the gas to do…but oddly enough I did it and actually felt quite good. I was pretty much cooked after that and let the two teammates I had just towed try to finish things off…plus I was feeling a bit sketched from all the near spills. Fun race, and even though I called it quits at that point it was a confidence builder.

On a separate note, it’s funny the testosterone that goes on in the A-flite. After pulling out and watching, I’ve never heard so much yelling and cursing in a bike race. It was pretty amusing, I left wondering why the RMR is THAT important, but I suppose I’ve been there too.

Heading to the city by the bay this weekend, super excited, it’s been a while. Will be nice to get in a few LONG rides in a new setting, one that is at least slightly warmer.

Sad day in the SLC!!

I’m sure pretty much everyone is already aware of the events occurring over the last two days, but I’m feeling a bit more attached to this one than other local tragedies in the same genre. Perhaps that is in part due to my interest in refugees and reading many related books, some fiction, some not…but all leave me with the same feeling; A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier , Kite Runner, 1,000 Splendid Suns and The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur.

Anyway, Hser Nay Moo was found last night in her apartment complex, apparently in an apartment that was not her own, but relatively close. Who knows the events that took place beforehand or why they took place, but that’s not for me to speculate, just a really sad story. I can’t help but feel tremendous sadness for the parents, they came here from a Burmese refugee camp obviously in search of a better place. Sadly it didn’t turn out that way….hopefully they’ll find some comfort through this, somehow.

Elevator Etiquette

To the guy who I rode up the elevator with after lunch today:

Please don’t sprint to the elevator and stick your arm in, ever so trying to make it on that one car. There are three others, you can make one of them.

That, however, is forgivable. BUT, if you do that and actually make it onto the elevator, do NOT stop at a floor below mine. I was there first, you can wait.

Thirdly, get your wit about you before hitting your floor so you don’t accidentally hit another button making me stop at yet a second floor before I reach my own.

And last, lets not have casual conversation trying to diffuse the awkward situation that you just created. I would rather just revel in it.