What is behind the 2 + 2 = thing? Is this to weed out drunks and crazy people?

This is in relation to the silly math question you have to answer to send me an Ask Orbie question. While I suppose it would weed out the drunk and crazy (and utterly uneducated), its purpose is actually to weed out spam bots wanting to send me tons of disgusting spam.

This is not a question, but more of an observation. Was watching a documentary movie, Festival Express. It featured a number of notables from the Hippie era (link) on a chartered train trip that went from the east side of Canada and terminated on the west side. Janis Joplin was one such artist, and it occurred to me while watching the film that you 2 share a striking resemblance. Is there any chance you and she are blood relatives?

This comes up so often and has since I was a teenager. To the best of my knowledge, no, there’s no relation between us even though we look so much alike. The only real connection is that my grandfather worked in the same career field and for the same company as her dad at about the same time and our families lived in the same area for quite a while. Unless there was some secret hanky-panky going on, I’m guessing it’s just one of those weird instances where two people look too much alike for no reason at all.

Behind the cut, a couples questionaire/meme thing snagged from kitlasha.
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Are you still voraciously reading the news? You haven’t been ranting or linking to news too much lately.

I still keep up with the news every day. I blame the lack of news ranting on a broken outrage meter. I read stories I want to rant about, but by the time I get back to them to do so, I find myself apathetic about it all. It just all seems to smush together to be the same damn stuff every day, and I can’t seem to get worked up about any of it. This usually starts happening right before I decide I need to take a few weeks off from seeing or hearing any news reports at all. I’d imagine I’ll take a break from it entirely very soon, and then I’ll be back to ranting and raving about current events again … after I get my outrage meter fixed.

Oh boy! An Ask Orbie question about music, and a great excuse to babble some more and not get to work on the things I really should get to work on!

By accident I came across an old Sad Cafe album on tape cassette from probably twenty years ago - I listened to it for the first time in many years.

I thought - Wow - there is nothing like this around today in terms the style of the music, the musicianship and the ‘bleeding heartfelt’ vocals.

To my ears, its just a great blend of sound and voice, which to my ears is totally absent in so much popular music today. There seems to be nothing around today as good as any number of bands from that era.

Let’s stop there for a moment. I couldn’t agree more that there is something lacking in popular music today. I’m sure every generation before us has said the exact same thing about the “new” music, but this time, I think it’s true. It’s rare when I hear something on the radio that interests me enough to even care who it is, and almost of it all just sounds the same after a while. That’s not to say there aren’t some rare gems out there, but they aren’t the ones getting radio play. No, for those, you have to know someone who turns you on to them. Niche groups and singers.

Two of my biggest problems with popular music today are the seeming lack of ability for mixers to blend the vocals and instrumentals so that the vocalist can be heard clearly enough to be understood and the seeming lack of singers to enunciate clearly even when they can be heard over the instrumentals. My hearing is fine. I still usually can’t understand what singers are singing about these days. Last night, for example, we caught a few minutes of some fairly popular alternative-folk band on TV. The music was nice, and they were obviously talented, but after listening to the first minute of the first song, I had to ask Lin if the lead singer was speaking English. I knew he had to be, because every so often I would catch a word or two that was obviously English, but he slurred the words together so badly and didn’t enunciate anything at all to the point that whatever it was he was trying to say was just a blur of unintelligible muttering. I expect that from punk bands, but folk music is supposed to be about the message, and this guy’s message wasn’t getting across. He could have been singing about the joys of murdering his sister, and who would have known.

So yeah, I don’t often run across new and/or currently popular music that I like. When I do, it’s usually something someone who knows my tastes suggests to me or sometimes a rare find on iTunes that I run across while looking for something else. Luckily though, I live in the Live Music Capital of the World, Austin, Texas! That means that on any night of the week, good live music by unknowns or aging/out-of-date groups can be found somewhere, and there’s always new groups forming or moving to town, so if the current batch sucks, wait a few weeks and there will be some new voices to listen to for a while. Most of the stuff I hear when we go out, almost all of it by total unknowns, tends to blow the stuffing out of the crap on the radio. More on this further down.

I know you are from a similar era to me. What kind of music do you listen to? Do you ever go back to the music of your youth. Do you listen to different music when you have had a few - than when you are sober?

The music I listen to regularly falls into a few genres: Easy Listening, Classical, Latino, Video Game & Movie Soundtracks (a form of modern classical, really), Folk, and Pop/Rock/New Wave from the 80’s and 90’s. There’s a smattering of Blues, Jazz and 70’s rock, and a wee bit of Country as well, but only very select songs or groups. Oh, and Broadway Musicals (though not as often as I used to).

I listen to a lot of small, mostly unknown local acts too. Many of them defy classification or fall into the Latino/Rock genre. Most of those come and go though, except The Coffee Sergeants and Vallejo, which I have loved for ages now.

I listen to the music that was playing on the radio when I was in high school and college ALL the time, mostly, I think, because there are memories attached to it. Also, you can understand the words, understand the “message” … and you can dance to it. I think most people continue to get stuck liking the music from that stage of their life. Lin definitely prefers to listen to the music he was listening to when he was a young adult, and most of my friends are the same. Or maybe, the music really was better back then.

Sober vs. Not Sober: Oh yeah, big difference in what I listen to depending my my intoxication level. I wouldn’t, for example, listen to classical music while popping the tops of wine coolers. The more alcohol in my system, the more upbeat, loud, and “bouncy” the music gets (which leads to dancing) … or psychedelic. Nothing better than catching a buzz and listening to some oozy psych-pop with a groovy light-show. I have even been known to get intoxicated enough to enjoy groups like AC/DC, but that might have been because we were seeing them live and they do put on a great show. Or maybe I had to be drunk to enjoy it.

What do you think of the music from 20 years ago? Or am I just an old bugger, reliving my youth through old music - and bleating a bit like my dad used bleat about modern music?

I always said, growing up, I wasn’t going to become one of those old people complaining about “kids today” and their weird tastes in music, clothing and so on. I’ve done a pretty good job of that, except when it comes to music. I actually do think popular music used to be better. It’s not really the musicians’ fault either. I have seen bands that were full of talent and who had great ideas and wonderful first, self-produced albums go on to sign with a major label and suddenly start sucking. Having watched one group I knew well enough to hear the inside scoop try to make the leap from self-producing to major label, the fault for the amount of crappy music out there lies entirely with the labels and management. They take something great, and then they commercialize it, change it, and force it into the mold of what they think will sell. In the process, they destroy what was great about it. Even worse are the high number of acts that are completely put together by labels out of some notion of what they think will sell.

Music is organic. I would even call it a natural human instinct. It needs to grow organically and find its own form. Once you start forcing it in one direction or another, it tends to fall apart and lose that spark it needs to be good, and by forcing groups to “commercialize” or change what they are doing to be more likely to sell to the masses, all they are really doing is making it all sound the same … and this sound, it is not so good. It’s the lowest common denominator … sell to as many people as possible to make as much money as possible, and who cares if anyone remembers the band five years from now. If I were in a band, I would rather sell 100,000 albums to people who like our unique sound, stick to doing the music we like the way we like it, and have people remember us and our music ten or twenty years from now … rather than be molded into something that will sell a million albums to people who like one song and never think about us again once that song is no longer a hit. But it’s so hard to make a living doing music that way, and so in order to get more popular, they have to play the game, and then they end up being the latest and greatest that sounds just like everyone else and are forgotten when the next latest and greatest makes the charts. It’s sort of sad.

I might have something more to babble about this some other time, but the day is waiting on me to get going with it. Hope that answered your questions!

On June 14th and 15th you posted 2 pictures titled, ‘Orb Dos‘, and ‘Orb Uno‘, but you never described the photos, so exactly what are they? Are they paintings, of photos? Both are great, but the “Orb Dos” is very well done, it is better than great.

They are neither photos or paintings. Both were created with 3D digital graphics software. Uno was created with a program called Bryce, which I had used for many, many years. Dos was created with a program called Vue, which I have only begun to learn how to use the last few months. Both programs are actually designed for creating 3d landscapes, but I find myself rarely using them for that purpose. I tend to create images like these two with curved reflective surfaces and a few well-placed colored lights. I have fallen in love with Orb Dos myself, and I think one of these days I will render it out in a size large enough to have a poster printed. I printed it out in 8″x10″ on glossy photo paper, and it was just awesome. Now I want to see it larger!

Expect to see more of the same sort of stuff in the future. I don’t have as much time as I once did to just sit at the computer for hours puttering around with graphics programs, but I’m going to try to squeeze in more of that, because it is soooo relaxing to me, and sometimes the end results are pleasing to the eye.

I received a fantastic Ask Orbie question a few days ago. I tried to get to it this weekend, but … well … laziness got in the way. It’s not one of those I can just dash off an answer to. Nope. I actually might have to engage the old brain this time.

OK, I have been on and off your blog for something like over 4 years…well 3 for sure, and the things that keeps me coming back, and you never disappoint, is your sense of sanity, the openness you share about yourself with your readers, and the manner in-which you write. Which brings me to my question(s).

How/where did you learn to express yourself? Where do you find time to write, and how long does it take you to write your daily blog? Where do you get your ideas, and what makes you settle on that one idea? Seriously how can you take a subject like winding yarn into a ball, and make it interesting to read? Do you write for your readers, yourself or a combination of the two? You do write well!

See what I mean? Not one to just be zipped through quickly!

2,406 words later … I think I better put this monster of a post behind the cut.
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What’s your drug of choice?

Tough call. Different drugs of choice for different occasions, you know?

In the process of answering this question, I discovered my drug of choice. Margaritas. Nope, really … it even beat out caffeine, which we all know I love too. Why it even out absinthe, and I really love that stuff. When I say here thinking about which mind altering substance I would most like to have right now, it ended up being a nice, large, cold frozen margarita made with loads of fresh lime juice and a thick crust of salt on the glass edge with a huge chunk of lime tossed in for good measure. Margaritas make me relaxed and happy. I have never had a bad experience while drinking margaritas, though the same cannot be said for any other mind altering substance.

What’s odd is I have never made a margarita at home. Not once … ever. There’s something wrong with that, isn’t there? I just don’t drink much, or really at all, at home. If Lin is having a beer or has some schnapps, I might take a sip or two. Every rare once in a while I’ll have a glass of wine. Margaritas though are that thing I drink when I am out and playing. Same with Cuba Libre (rum and coke with lime), except the only reason I drink those sometimes when I am out is because bottle shelf rum doesn’t bother me, and it’s a cheap drink to buy everywhere … and it’s really hard to make a bad one too. Actually, I think I order those more often when I don’t really want to drink, because I know I can nurse it forever if I want to. I don’t nurse margaritas, and I only order them when I really want a drink and plan to have fun. Thus, it looks like the lowly margarita is my drug of choice.

Oh, you meant illegal drug of choice? I don’t have one. That’s not to say I am some sort of saint as far as illegal substances go, but I really don’t have a illegal drug of choice. I can’t think of one that ranks higher than any form of booze, which is saying something, because I am not really all that into booze in all it’s forms either. All the illegal drugs I have encountered are all sort of nasty, and I don’t like the way they make me feel, which is usually just like a brainless lump. I’m brainless enough without help, thank you.

Though there is one semi-illegal drug I am especially fond of, but I’m not going to tell you what it is. All I will say is … don’t leave me alone with a can of pressurized whipped cream. Some of you will know immediately what I am talking about, and some of you may have to do some research.

And I missed this question the other day because I hadn’t been checking that email account the last few days:

Should we go swimming or ice skating tomorrow afternoon?

A little late, but for future reference when deciding whether to go swimming or ice skating, always go ice skating. Trust me. Swimming is over-rated.

How could you possibly do the shopping for only $100? Is that like a week’s shopping or what? Is food really cheap in Texas, or did you just score a case of Dr. Pepper and a frozen pizza? Nah, we know when you cook, you cook, so how can it be so cheap?

To begin with, I am the most frugal of shoppers. Sales are my best friends. Really, I’m serious. That’s what it takes me so long to do the shopping. I am reading, comparing and deciding every step of the way. Also, a lot of fresh fruits and veggies are rather cheap in Texas since they are grown here or just over the border in Mexico. Meats aren’t so cheap, but there’s always something on sale, and if I’m lucky, there will be things that are coming up on their sell-by date, which I have no problem buying and freezing, which I always consider a huge score since it’s usually marked down to about half-price. Also, my grocery store often has deals where you buy one thing (usually a meat) and you get a bunch of other stuff to go with it for free. When it’s stuff I need or would use anyway, I usually go with that if it looks like a bargain. It’s a rare, RARE day when I buy a top cut of cow (way too expensive — might as well go out and let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up). Also, buy whole chickens and cut them up yourself. I know it’s gross, but the savings are amazing. So, we eat what is in season and on sale, and I buy larger cuts if cheaper meats to cut up myself. Stay away from the process insta-foods if you want to save money.

I spend about $100 a week, but because of the way I rotate through stocking my kitchen by what’s on sale, I can actually skip up to two weeks of shopping if I have to (or want to) and still have more than enough food in the house to fix full meals. The only things I really need to get weekly are the salad veggies, because I like them super fresh, and my fridge has a tendency to freeze tomatoes and such if I have too much in the cooler drawer at any time anyway. This week is the week to restock meat, so that’s about the only thing I will spend my budget on … meat and fresh veggies. If I could break Lin of his sweets habit, I could save even more.

The only time I spend more than $100 a week is when I have to buy paper goods, household cleaners and the like. That stuff is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. And if I should happen to wander into the pre-packaged frozen foods aisle (I do try not to), that’ll bump it up too. Fresh food, though requiring a whole lot more work, is far cheaper than anything that comes in a box or bag … better for you too. Not that I don’t keep at least one or two insta-foods around, because you never know when you won’t have the time or energy to spend hours in the kitchen. Sometimes dinnertime rolls around, and I just don’t feel like cooking … or there’s something good on TV I don’t want to only hear from the kitchen.

All this talk of groceries has reminded me that I needed to go back to the store to get fresh veggies last Friday but being flat on my back in bed, I didn’t. Hmmm … maybe I should go do that today. Or not. No sense dragging my just-out-of-the-sickbed self to the store to catch some new nasty germ before my body is better. I guess we’ll just have to survive on canned veggies for a day or two.

Are you the famous hair designer who invented colored hair wax and if so where can I buy some?

Um, no. I’m not a famous hair designer, and until I read this question, I had never even heard of colored hair wax. I wouldn’t even begin to know where to buy it, but I think looking for one of the edgy hair salons in your town and asking them might be a good place to start. At least you might be able to find out a brand name, which would make finding it on line easier.

What about the boat? Do you still have it, will you ever get it into a lake? Okay, will you if you buy yourself a girl fitted life jacket (recommended)?

We still have the little Hobie. The biggest obstacle to getting it in the water has been getting sails and battens for it. My words, those things are FAR too expensive. I’m thinking of sewing some myself, which would be quite the project, but it would save a TON of cash. I’d have to sit out in the yard to do the work. I can’t imagine having that much fabric anywhere in the house. For the most part though, we have sadly been ignoring the boat.

We haven’t been ignoring boats and boating in general though. I think we are going to take sailing lessons at the lake this summer. The end result of that will be either I will love it and demand we work on our boat, or I will hate it and never want to do it again. I really can’t say how that will turn out. I think it will depend on how close to near death I feel being out on the water.

And Lin still wants to build a sea-worthy boat and sail off into the sunset in the direction of New Zealand. With two cats and a non-swimming spouse, that could be QUITE the little adventure.

Any plans for a garden this year?

There are always plans for a garden. I feel confident in saying, there will never actually be a garden, at least not this year. The dirt in our yard needs serious rehabilitation before anything other than weedy grasses and hardy trees can thrive in it, and there are so many other things to do before we worry about the state of our dirt. Though if I have to keep eating the flavorless things they call vegetables at my local produce department, I may snap one day and plow up a good bit of the back yard. I’d have to get over my laziness first. That’s always the biggest struggle on any major and on-going project like gardening. Maybe now that I can drive the truck to Home Depot myself I’ll go crazy and rent a plow attachment for that crazy huge lawn tractor we own.

For the last few years my mother has had some great success with Earthboxes and bush-type veggies, so I am considering getting one myself this year to see how that would work for me. It won’t give me enough produce to can anything and put up for later, which is why I really want a garden in the first place, but at least we might occasionally have a nice plump tomato that tastes like I remember tomatoes tasting.

And as far as the front flower bed goes, I am currently looking at it as an example of native Texas plant growth. I got tired of fighting the slugs, snails, cat poo, weeds and other obnoxious gardening issues. Nothing but one iris plant and one wild rose bush ever grew well in it anyway … aside from the DAMN WEEDS!

Want to ask me something? Well now you can!