...are any of us really finished? My alter ego
unfinishedperson examines this very question on his blog in a linear fashion: body, mind and soul. Here, however, no such constraints exist for me, with the only rule to keep ramblin', ramblin', ramblin'.
Don't know why this is in my photo collection, except maybe for days like this when I really don't have anything else because you can pull it out and go, "Can you believe this shit?"
Today I applied for a job with a website, whose name I shall not say because I don't want to jeopardize my chances. Instead I shall jeopardize my chances with this entire post.
The site to which I applied has a variety of topics from which a writer can choose, so I scrolled down through them to see if any caught my eye.
4-Wheel Drive/Off-roading Beadwork Black hair Boston Bowling Camcorders Coffee/Tea
Wait a minute, scroll back. Black hair? Really?
I read further in the description and came across black/ethnic.
Needlepoint Nintendo DS Perl Philadelphia Podiatry
Oh, wait a minute, again. Scroll back to that...
Perl?
I think they're misspelling it. Shouldn't it be "p-e-a-r-l" as in the earring this girl was wearing in that famous painting?
Then I read the description, blah blah blah something programming, compare to Java, PHP, Ruby...
...forget it.
Keep scrolling...
Teen Advice Thailand Travel The Young and the Restless U.S. Politics/ Current Events Urology Water Skiing/Wakeboarding
Hey, yes, scroll back slowly...
Water Skiing/Wakeboarding (no, that's not waterboarding or watersports, dammit, either one of them and I'd be in luck) Urology (ewwwww, gross) U.S. Politics/Current Events (booooring) The Young and The Restless...stop right THERE. There it is, I used to watch The Young and The Restless a lot, because this guy was such a bad ass:
And okay, I'll admit it, her (I even watched that Dick Van Dyke medical show for a while with her in it):
Hmmmm. I wonder what's left?
Scroll down. Oh, dammit, there's only one more left.
Web Humor.
How lame, but I guess I'll try for that one, since I know jack-all about any of the other ones.
She is a self-described mother, wife, realtor, writer from Canada. This week's Sunday Shout-Out goes to Mary Moore (no relation to Mary Tyler Moore, I think) of Holy Mackerel. I found her blog through Entrecard which I just recently left and added her to my blogroll this past week to make sure I don't miss out on her stories of Slut(her best friend) or her family or any of her daily ramblings.
In addition to adding Holy Mackerel to my Google Reader this week, I also have added recently the following from Entrecard:
I'd also be remiss if not mentioning Not Always Right, which was recommended by The Wife, who actually had a post up this week.
For other recommendations of blogs that are must-reads, visit my sister at Boondock Ramblings for her own Sunday Shout-Out, and Don Kingery at Beyond Left Field with The Sunday Suck-Up Times. Both blogs that they mention this week are well worth checking out, and already are in my Google reader. I won't steal their thunder and let you read to whom they give their shout-outs.
Me? We don't have cable or satellite (don't worry, we have Netflix, so we're not completely cut off from "reality") so I don't know much about him beyond what I've read online and so far, I'm not impressed.
I do know when I was over at my parents and his commercial came on the telly (no I'm not British, I just watch a lot of British comedies, sometimes the lingo bleeds through), I kept on flipping.
157 channels and nothing's on.
So Happy Birthday, Vince Whatever-The-Hell-Your-Surname-Is-Because-I'm-Too-Lazy-To-Google-Your-Last-Name Shamwow Guy.
After attending my fair share of Christian rock concerts, as a Christian Rock Groupie, through my grade school and high school years, I then went to a Christian liberal arts college where I promptly backslid to "secular" concerts.
My first "secular" concert was in the fall of 1987, I believe, with the band U2 at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia on its Joshua Tree tour. A freshman in college, I hitched a ride with a group I really didn't even know, but since I was into U2, I must be cool (I wasn't).*
From the beginning, I knew this was no Christian concert! At the entrances to the parking lots, scalpers were selling off tickets for hundreds of dollars and bootleg t-shirts, instead of the goodhearted Christian pastors giving away free tickets to the concert. No good hearts here.
Then inside the stadium were…
Holy F***!**
100,000 PEOPLE unlike the couple hundred people, if they were lucky, that showed up for Christian rock bands at a high school auditorium or church. ***
And it was a party before the concert even began. No small groups of teens reading their Bibles quietly or praying in a corner (at least, that's what they said they were doing).
During the pre-show, The Beatles' "Twist and Shout" by The Beatles played on the speakers, as the crowd on the ground writhed and screamed and tossed beach balls in the air.
As day became night, a haze settled over the crowd. Hmmm. What was this? Oh, people are smoking, I see. Wait, that doesn't smell like the cigarette smoke that comes from my grandfather’s Camels. Hmmmm. I wonder what that is.
The opening song was the first song from the album, "Where The Streets Have No Name," with people holding lighters (not cell phones) over their heads before one note was even played.
From there, it was all a blur, because it was one of the most electrifying experiences I had ever attended to that point in my life and definitely since then. I just remember the sound of the Edge's guitar cutting through the night fall air and almost knocking us out of the stadium as we sat on the top row.
For the encore, Bruce Springsteen, The Boss, came out on stage to join Bono for a rendition of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me." I'm sad to say at the age of 18, I didn't know who Springsteen was; I probably didn't even know who King was. The only King I knew was Elvis or Jesus, and yes, in that order. When people were shouting "Bruuuuuce," at first, I thought they were booing which I thought was just rude.
* This was a trend that continued throughout my college career as I hitchhiked from concert to concert with people I really didn’t know, as I will recount over the next few weeks in a Flashback Friday Series called "Secular" Concert Hitchhiker that begins today.
** That's "Fork" if my mother and father are reading this.
*** Actually, according to numbers I've found online, the concert had 86,145 people there, but for a country rube such as myself, it sure seemed like 100,000 people, but found at least one fan, who like me, thought 100,000 were there that late September night.
A close second, though, was "Quick everybody! The baby flying baby is getting away and we need him for our circus!" was Bee from Bee's Musings, except that was a caption and not a title for a painting. Both receive FREE links to their blogs, courtesy of yours truly.
One year ago today, I began this blog, my fourth blog or something like that. I've had so many blogs that sometimes it's hard to keep track.
First, I had a running blog, Just A (Running) Fool, started in 2005, where I'd track my goal to reach a marathon by the time I was 40. Not 40 yet, but I'm not going to reach the marathon. I got addicted to Facebook, Twitter and blip.fm instead.
Fail.
Second, I had a reading blog, Just A (Reading) Fool (which has since been resurrected) to keep track of my reading. Then I got addicted to Facebook, Twitter and blip.fm.
Fail.
Third, I had a blog, Journeying with the Saints, to keep track of my spiritual life. Then I got addicted to Facebook, Twitter and blip.fm.
Fail.
Fourth, I had a blog, an unfinished person (in an unfinished universe) - which also is still in operation - to keep track of my first three pursuits: running, reading and devotions. Then I got addicted to Facebook, Twitter and blip.fm.
Fail.
Fifth, I started this blog, originally at WordPress.com (ironically, in light of yesterday's post, switched here to Blogger because needed javascript capability for Blogger) to keep track of my rambling, but while I was still addicted to Facebook, Twitter and blip.fm, this one, at least, has had a steady heartbeat -- if not erratic at times.
Semi-success.
What has made this blog a semi-success? Readers-- some of you semi-readers, that's why I include the graphics and the Youtube videos-- like yourself, of course. Whereas on my other blogs, with the exception of Just A (Reading) Fool, which did have a larger following when it was fully operational, I had virtually none.
Also communities like Humor-Blogs.com, Humor Bloggers dot com and BlogStorm all have been extremely supportive of me, and I've tried to be (semi?) supportive of them and many of the blogs that participate in all three communities. I would be remiss if I didn't give thanks to my wife, Kim, who has her own blog, Dispatches from the Northern Outpost, and my sister, who also has a blog, Boondock Ramblings.
So what I'm trying to say, bottom line, is I want to thank you all, especially those who have commented so far on my last post, because you didn't have to follow me like you did, but you did and, I'll let ZZ Top say it for me (well, sort of)...
******
And since it's required under International Blogging Convention Laws, I also will bring you my top 10 most popular and favorite posts.
For the most part, these aren't in any particular order, except for the first two, which are probably my most most popular posts and also my two favorites:
*Springtime For Hitler In South Korea written after Joe, a friend in South Korea, sent me information about a Hitler-themed restaurant in South Korea
One year ago today, I began this blog at about this time noon EST. In honor of that occasion, I've decided to give you all virtual donuts and coffee. Enjoy!
Or grab a virtual donut. Unfortunately, you only can grab the cruller. Sorry.
I'll be back later today with a "best of" post from the past year as required under International Blogging Law, Code 323.981, Section 32.5, Paragraph 14.
Ditto to everything, including meeting a number of really good bloggers through the network that I wouldn't have met otherwise through networks like Humor-Blogs.com, Humor Bloggers, or BlogStorm. I hope we still can
Last Day: April 30, 2009 to finish out the non-paid ads, then get a fresh start with May. As always for bonus materials (yep, like DVDs, only without the annoying director's commentary), click on the photos.
I know I skipped No. 13, but I don't think my next recipient of a shout-out will really mind, do you? I mean, would you want to be saddled with the No. 13? Well, would you, Walt of WaltSense Journal?
He is funny, but this week what caught my eye from him was a tribute to Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster, Harry Kalas, who died earlier this week, that even a..ahem, should I mention this after the shellacking they got yesterday?...Yankees fan. Plus Walt's from Pennsylvania, the fine Commonwealth in which I live, so Walt can't be all that bad, right? If you say wrong, you can just leave. Now. ;-)
In addition to Walt's blog, other blogs that I added to my Google Reader this week were the following, in alphabetical order:
Poobomber @ The Other Side of Normal with Pirates.
Kathy @ The Junk Drawer who announced I'm dropping Entrecard and whom I'll be joining by week's end by dropping the site myself (more on this tomorrow).
Rafaan @ The Doghouse Diaries with the cartoon The Photoshop Argument. Ray and Will are also cartoonists there.
Joel Klebanoff @ Shalampax Speaks with Traffic Light Debate that took place in that fair (?) country.
On the weekends and summers when I wasn't playing piano or pretending to play an instrument in band, I was a Christian rock groupie. The only difference betweeen a Christian rock groupie and a "secular" rock groupie is that we didn't get "to know" band members in a Biblical sense (at least I didn't, I can't speak for all of the Christian rock groupies) and we drank grape juice out of tiny plastic cups instead of wine.
I began by following Mylon Lefevre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mylon_LeFevre and Brokenheart. Lefevre was an ex-"secular" rock and roller (his band Holy Smoke Doo Dah: My oh my what an awful day Plenty of hellfire headed your way -- if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and personal savior) who returned to his religious roots in the 1980s. The album that put him on the radar in Christian rock music circles was Sheep in Wolves Clothing and that was the tour I, along with my parents, followed him to a number of concerts in the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania and the Southern Tier of New York.
Start at about 1:30 here for "Trains Up in The Sky" video:
Second part of video on here (don't ask me why was done this way, but was):
One of the greatest thrills (at the time, not now, because I'm totally over him ;) was actually being able to talk to him and members of his band up front in an auditorium at Susquehanna High School in Susquehanna, Pa. Do I remember what they said? No. It probably was something about that guy Jesus, but I don't recall exactly because as a Christian rock groupie just being able to meet my Christian rock idol was enough to set my heterosexual heart atwitter.
I wasn't the only Christian rock groupie. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were millions of us, well at least hundreds of thousands of us, and we followed Mylon and other bands, such as Petra, Resurrection Band, Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, dc Talk, the Newsboys everywhere, including to the highlights of the Christian rock groupie's year: Christian rock festivals such as Creation and for the hardcore, Cornerstone, which featured bands such as Rez and Stryper.
At Creation, you got to see many of the more popular bands together in one place over one weekend. Oh, yeah, speakers such as Tony Campolo and Josh McDowell were there too, but only the parents who chaperoned mostly church youth groups really went to Creation for them. The rest of we Christian rock groupies went for the kick-ass music, although at the time that was probably censored to kick-butt music and this was before the festival (now in locations) had a "Fringe Stage," where heavier bands played.
Two of the performances I probably remember most were Kerry Livgren A.D. (I believe I saw him in 1984 before the band became known as just A.D.) performing this one as a thunderstorm came up over the stage:
And Newsboys performing this one with a great multimedia show that on a serious note, probably moved the crowd to tears:
Newsboys also performed a version of this song, which surprised me because the song is ostensibly about heroin addiction, but nonetheless is a beautiful song and seems like a good place to end this rambling post:
Author's Note: This is part three of a four-part Spring Concert series here at Unfinished Rambler on Flashback Fridays throughout the month of April. Part IV next Friday, April 24: "Secular" Rock Groupie during my one year bloggiversary week (April 21 is when I first started this blog last year).
This was from a mural on a Knights of Columbus building in the Town of Niagara, New York.
It seemed innocuous enough until I noticed the charioteer looked sort of like George W. Bush...
...and the young woman with her boob exposed...
...and the young black woman holding hands with the white woman in front of her, seeming to promote not only racial unity, but also perhaps what some on the Christian Right (not me, because I love gay music such as Queen and The Village People, and even disco) call a "homosexual agenda"?
So if you were to title this mural, what would you title it?
On unscheduled business trip to and from Niagara Falls Good Friday with The Wife:
* Mentioned to The Wife that we should stop in Buffalo for buffalo wings, but she reminded me that it was Good Friday.
She asked if we should get a dispensation from the priest to the church in Niagara, where we were going since "we're only in Buffalo this one time." I told her no, because by the time we were heading back it would be after 5 and Good Friday would be almost over.
* Mentioned to her that it would be not Good Friday already by that time somewhere in the world. So she said, "It'd be like Jimmy Buffett Catholicism in that 'it's 5 o'clock somewhere.' So it'd be a magisterial Margaritaville." I said, "Right."
* We stopped at rest area on Route 17 West between exit 41 and 42 for photo of rattlesnake sign:
and Generals Clinton-Sullivan/Iroquois sign at parking area (noting someone etched word "stolen" that should have been put in for "were made available" after describing destruction of Iroquois power by said generals):
* Was told by wife that I was brought along to engage in life, not write a blog post.
* Was told by wife when I said that I was getting a new card from our supermarket that this was the reason we need to get out more.
* After I informed her that "we" had the opportunity to "use the bathroom" at the portajohn at the rattlesnake rest area, she informed me that maybe "we" didn't want to use a pissbox in Rattlesnake Land.
* "So you went to Niagara Falls and what did you see?" "We saw one of the country's largest, surviving wooden freight depots. It was depotilicious" (after seeing billboard for railroad museum in Medina, N.Y.).
* Learned I never heard Lou Rawls' "You're Going To Miss My Love," and that The Wife's mom saw him live! (Sorry to all you hordes of Lou Rawls fans out there, I couldn't find aforementioned song on Youtube.)
* Heard from The Wife that the reason N.Y. state troopers pull over motorists frequently because of the state budget deficit and that New York is a police state. "I hope no troopers read my blog," I said. "F--- them if they do. Last I looked, it's still a free country," she said.
* Learned on radio that Sinbad and Dionne Warwick are in the top 10 of the top 250 delinquent taxpayers in the state of California: $2.5 million in back taxes for Sinbad and $2.2 million for Dionne.
* Learned that Nikola Tesla wore robes and read a newspaper while on the toilet, courtesy of statue presented to U.S. by the government of Yugoslavia.
* Learned four feet of snow on Goat Island in April blocks people from seeing Horseshoe Falls from American side.
* Learned the best way to take birth certificates across the border are in a Bible. God Bless the U.S.A. a la Lee Greenwood (blech!).
* Learned that if you stop to take photos of windmills on way back from Niagara Falls:
you may get stuck behind car carrier for 20 miles on two-lane road:
Above is a photo of the writing pad in which I took notes on the unscheduled trip to Niagara Falls on Friday with my wife.
Like a dumb ass, I took that pad to my parents yesterday for Easter...I guess thinking that I would find blog fodder at my parents. While four horses appeared outside in their yard while we were eating Easter dinner, I didn't write a thing about it and even if I had, it wouldn't matter, because I left the pad there. My sister, though, has pictures, some of which I'm sure she'll have on her blog, Boondock Ramblings.
So not only do you not get what potentially could have been a hilarious post about four horses (minus apocalyptic horsemen) today, but also you do not get what will be a funny post (thanks mostly to comments from my wife) about our trip to Niagara Falls. After I go to get the writing pad tomorrow morning, that post will come tomorrow afternoon in another one-time only edition of Tuesday Travel Diary, in the tradition of Takeback Tuesday.
In the meantime, here's a video I took of my wife on our way back from Niagara Falls, asking if her she liked the band Tool that was playing on the radio:
If you're wondering why my wife has a My Little Pony on the dashboard of the company van she drives, and even if you don't, the whole story can be found here from an earlier WTF Worldless Wednesday.
For last week's Flashback Friday, I regaled you with the story of being a pianoboy in my youth; this week, I hopefully will regale you even more with tales of my transformation into Bandboy (yet another variation of Tenacious D's "Wonderboy").
In elementary school, in addition to playing piano, I also pretended to play another instrument: the trombone.
Since my best friend and next-door neighbor, Ed, played, I had to follow suit and have my own very own trombone in its case to lug up the stairs to our bus each morning:
Five years ago, I even wrote a poem with the trombone cases in it:
Waiting For The School Bus
Sometimes it is as heavy as the bookbags we tote, the trombone cases Ed and I lug up the stairs.
Other times words fill the spaces between us until a passing tractor-trailer cuts off our sentences, and we fall back into it.
Twenty or more years later, I shut off the radio on my way to work and listen to that sweet absence: it is a burden I gladly bear.
To be honest, though, it wasn't that much fun lugging the case up those stairs and is probably one of the reasons I ended up quitting playing the trombone. That, and the spit.
From what I remember, the trombone had a spit valve on it for you to clean out your own spit. I guess it reminded me of a great-grandmother who used to have a snuff pot sitting beside her couch, where she'd spit her tobacco. Gross.
So instead, I decided to play percussion. It wasn't drums at the time. It was percussion, mainly because while you needed drumsticks, you didn't need a drum to play. In fact, I started in sixth grade on something like this:
Then in seventh grade, when I went to "the high school" (ours was a junior-senior high school combined), I graduated to something like this:
I think at one concert, I got to crash the cymbals together!!! And, yes, chagrined to say it, I even may have plinked a triangle:
although I didn't bare my chest as much as that, which at that age didn't matter as much since I had no chest hair.
Then in eighth grade, I moved on up to the Big Boy: the bass drum:
That's when I called it quits on playing drums, because between wearing the gay band uniform (apologies to the homosexuals for co-opting the term for my own purposes and to my wife who was a band geek) and strapping on (now doesn't that sound gay?) the equipment needed to play the bass drum, it was just too much.
Of course, that's why later I chose to wear a uniform much more sensible (and a mustache that didn't make me look like Freddie Mercury or anything at the age of 16):
Even though they may kick out after reading this post for my plinking on the triangle, for the time being, I am a proud member of these following groups:
Author's Notes: 1. This is part two of a four-part Spring Concert series here at Unfinished Rambler on Flashback Fridays throughout the month of April. Part III next Friday, April 17: ChristianRockboy/teen. 2. The reason this post today was delayed until Saturday is because as mentioned yesterday, The Wife and I were on an unscheduled trip to Niagara Falls. A post on that trip will be up for this week's Meandering Monday, complete with photos and witty remarks from The Wife. 3. For added bonus materials, yep like on DVDs, click on many of the photos for Youtube videos which I found which related...well, somewhat to the photos.
Today's scheduled Flashback Friday post (Part II of a Spring Concert Series) will be delayed until tomorrow because I am accompanying the wife on a business trip to...
Unfortunately we won't have time to take a trip on the Maid of the Mist:
but we will have time to take our own photos and return with either blog posts from each of us, (her blog), or at least one from me.
In the meantime, check out some of my other Flashback Friday posts and/or visit funny and engaging blogs at the following sites:
And of course, if you're going to the Dollar Store already, you might need to pick up a copy of this:
Luckily, you still have the money and while you're there, of course, you might want to pick up a copy of these other two books from the Socrates series (so wise that they put their products in a dollar store, Socratic irony? methinks maybe):
Because I'm sure if you're in the Dollar Store, you're in the market for a franchise...
...or perhaps this for your kids:
What? Does the gold lamé vest frighten you? Click on the photo for something that is even more scary...Wolverine in gold lamé (well, at least to me as a heterosexual male, it's scary to think of him without the metal claws).
Previously I have discussed my getting beat up by girls in elementary school in Talking About The Bad Girls, Yeah. Today, I'm going to talk about the bad boys, both in elementary school and high school that harassed me.
I say, harassed, because as odd as it may sound for the most part, the boys didn't actually beat me up like the girls. Mostly they just verbally abused me.
In elementary school, the most frequent place I was bullied by boys was on the bus, with recess being a close second. With recess, though, mostly it was the girls as I already have recounted. On the bus to school, though, it was the boys, which in high school when we had an hour ride to school gave the bullies plenty of time not only to polish their brass knuckles, but also to practice with them.
Okay, not really.
If they polished anything, it was spit just before they hurled a loogie at you. Most of the time, it was just words, which of course we know isn't true (see this great clip from the movie 25th Hour which illustrates my point -- um, NSFW).
They hurled words like "Pianoboy" or "Bandboy" (okay, again, not really that's just a cheap ploy by me for you to read one of my most recent posts, Pianoboy, and to plug an upcoming post called Bandboy this Friday, right here on this very blog, don't miss it).
But you know how you can fight back? According to this site, you just need six words: bully, prejudice, confidence, stereotype, hurt, and courage. By the time I got to high school, I knew all six of these words and I'm here to tell you they didn't help me worth a tinker's dam(n?). I dare you to go up to a bully and say:
"I have the confidence to tell you that you are exhibiting prejudice against me and I'm glad I have the courage to tell you this before you kick my ass and make it hurt like it's never hurt before, you stereotype of a bully."
Even if you use three of the words twice like that, I am confident you're still in for a world of hurt.
The site also tells you How To Take Care Of Bullies with my favorite No. 1: Look the bully in the eye and firmly tell them to stop. Um, yeah.
Okay, moving on, so what did I do when bullies came after me? Well, most of the time, I just stood there, or in the case of the bus sat there, and took the abuse except for that one time...
[Fade out music a la Wayne's World.]
...during gym in high school in ninth or 10th grade when I fought back.
Every gym class this one upperclassman would pick on me mercilessly. He either flicked me with his towel or whatever bullies did in those days. He also liked to call me names. I don't remember the names. I guess I've blocked them out from all the trauma.
One day after playing sideline basketball, during which he pushed me and taunted me, as we were going back into the lockerroom, I kicked him in the crotch -- hard. He bent over from the pain, looked up at me and asked, "Why did you do that?"
Hmmm. I don't know. Could it be that you were an asshat?
I remember thinking he would kick my ass later that day or the next day, but he never did. In fact, he didn't bother me again.
[Cue fade in music.]
Am I advocating that if you're a teenager and you have a male bully, you kick him in the gonads and it will work? Not necessarily...
...but then again, the hurt you put to the groin area of the bully with courage and confidence might make said bully think twice about the prejudice he's exhibited to you in the past and reconsider the stereotype of him as the bully and you as the victim. You never know.
I leave you with a scene from one of my favorite movies about bullies, My Bodyguard (skip to about 3:15 to see where the fun really begins, starting with the victim, Clifford, saying to the bully, Moody: "Damn you, Moody!" Then the fun begins).
For more fun, including some bullies but mostly victims like myself, visit the following sites:
This week's Sunday Shout-Out goes to a blogger whom I haven't seen in a while, but returned over the last couple of weeks. His name is Thaddeus and he runs The Army of Epiphenomenon.
I encourage you to scroll back through his archives, because he has a lot of funny gems and I think is among many bloggers whose blog goes underappreciated. Of course, that's why I'm featuring him here this week, hopefully to bring him a little more exposure than he has had previously.
Favorite posts this week:
1. Yahoo! where Diesel @ The Mattress Police reveals that Humor-Blogs.com and BlogStorm has been purchased by Yahoo.
3. Tiggy @ Tiggyblog celebrates her blog birthday with a look back at her first year with Tiggyblog is One.
4. Dave @ Out of the Mouth of Dave also celebrates the first birthday of his blog with Happy Birthday to me and a look back at his favorite posts.
5. Can You Hear The Angels Singing? Vic @ What Were You Thinking? thinks she can as she just completed her's master's degree.
6. Rickey Henderson @ Riding with Rickey, not that Rickey Henderson but his online persona and still a fan of the Mets, presents DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD: In Which Rickey Noshes with Joe Girardi, skipper of the Yankees. Even as a Yankees fan myself, I found this one a good post.
8. Jeff @ View From The Cloud announces that the CD by the band The Receders, of which he is a member, is done in Wrapping Up and will be available at an album release party April 25.
9. Matt @ Review Spew presents a post of mine from last week: Tröegs Mad Elf Beer Review. Thanks, Matt and the other members of The Review Spew team for accepting my post onto your great blog.
10. Me here: I present Pianoboy, the first of a four-part Spring Concert Series during Flashback Fridays throughout the month of April. This coming Friday's post: Bandboy.
And last but not least, vote for Harris Bloom from Why Me? The Life and Times of Harris Bloom to be one of the featured comedians at this year's Staten Island Comedy Festival by clicking here. You can vote everyday until April 15.
For those of you just confused, period, visit Humor Bloggers where they'll confuse you even more. At least, they confuse me sometimes, but at least it's in a funny way.
After much thought and looking closely at the numbers of an unfinished person and Just A (Reading) Fool, I have decided starting tomorrow I will be resurrecting Just A (Reading) Fool. Even since I consolidated the three blogs, the number of visitors at Just A (Reading) Fool has remained steady at 2,000-plus views a month throughout that period.
So I will now have four blogs:
An Unfinished Person Rambles on tumblr, which will have feeds from those of you who would like to keep up with all three:
an unfinished person on WordPress.com
Unfinished Rambler on Blogger
and starting tomorrow Just A (Reading) Fool also on WordPress.com.
At an unfinished person (in an unfinished person), the days on which I will post will be:
Monday: Motivation Monday, with the focus on running, specifically with quotes from George Sheehan books,
Wednesday: Midweek Review, with the focus on reading, in the form of a brief review of my reading for the week,
Friday: Flashback Friday, using the Examen of St. Ignatius of Loyola to look back at my week and look ahead to the next week.
At Unfinished Rambler, the days on which I will post will be:
Monday: Meandering Monday, with primarily memories from my childhood,
Wednesday: WTF Wordless Wednesday, with a photo that I take of something that makes me and probably you go "What the f***?"
Friday: Flashback Friday, with memories involving music, often with Youtube videos,
Sunday: Sunday Shout-Out, with a shout-out to a different humor blogger each week and a wrap-up of my favorite posts in the humor blogging community, primarily from Humor-Blogs.com and Humor Bloggers dot com, from that week.
At Just A (Reading) Fool, the days on which I will post will be:
Sunday: The Sunday Salon, when I participate in the book group The Sunday Salon,
Tuesday: Tuesday's Meme Things, when I participate in a number of meme-related groups, starting with Weekly Geeks,
Thursday: Thursday Review, when I will post a book review or book reviews for the week.
I hope to see you at one, two, three or maybe all four in the future. Thanks for continuing to follow my ongoing journey to become a finished person. As ever, like I am myself, my blogs are a work in progress.
I also will be posting this as a page on some of the blogs as "About this blog" for reference for readers in the future.
On the bookshelf in our living room sits this trophy, the only trophy I still have out of the four or five trophies I ever received in my life (and yes, amazingly, it looks exactly as pictured with an "Unfinished Rambler" tag over it just like that).
For what great honor did I receive this and the other trophies, you may well ask? Piano lessons and completing a piano recital each year, I may, and will, well reply.
That's right. In my youth, I was Pianoboy (a variation of Tenacious D's "Wonderboy"):
High above the mucky-muck, castle made of clouds, There sits Pianoboy, sitting oh so proudly. Not much to say when you're high above the mucky-muck. Yeah, yeah. Pianoboy, what is the secret of your power? Pianoboy, won't you take me far away from the mucky-muck man?
Yes, at these recitals I played the three B's: Beethoven, Bach and Brahms, but the pieces for which I was most well-known and to which I still can play by ear to this day are three classics in their own right. Of course, I speak of the three classic politically-incorrect (and, in one case, potentially ribald) tunes of most piano-playing youths:
1. Chopsticks: which belittled people of Chinese (whom were called in my day by the now known as politically-correct, Oriental, making it doubly worse by association) origin, just by its very title.
2. Three Blind Mice: which belittled the blind, not only by its title, but also by its lyrics. Is that any way to treat the blind, you may well ask? And I may well, and will, answer: No, because while none of my friends are blind, some of my favorite singers are: Blind Willie Johnson, Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder and Ronnie Milsap.
3. Mary Had A Little Lamb: which condoned bestiality. "Why, Mary loves the lamb you know." Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
At least, that's the way I see the now not-so-subtle nuances of the songs as an adult.
What? What'd I say? You know you always thought similar things about those songs too. Well, if you didn't, you now will.
This is part one of a four-part Spring Concert series here at Unfinished Rambler on Flashback Fridays throughout the month of April. Part II next Friday, April 10: Bandboy.
Tonight I was sitting on the couch, reading an Agatha Christie murder mystery, when suddenly I heard this buzzing sound.
I stopped reading for a moment and then didn't hear it.
About 20 seconds later, I heard it again. I stopped reading but again, nothing.
I was about to go back to reading when I remembered another time when we had a problem with our furnace. Uh-oh, I thought and went to the basement.
Hmmm. Everything looked all right, and after standing there for a few minutes, I didn't hear the sound.
So I went over to a sump pump our landlord has installed in our basement to see if maybe that was making the noise.
Hmmm. Nothing there.
Then suddenly I had a revelation!
Earlier I had gone to the store and put my phone on vibrate in my pocket. Sure enough, I found it on the arm of the couch with a message from a friend who had just called.
Suddenly my WTF moment had turned into a D'oh moment.
