The Tipping Point

Watch this video. It is by far the best explanation I've ever seen of the climate issue and how close we really are to potentially reaching a "tipping point" beyond which we won't be able to recover.

Sorry, I couldn't embed it on this post. Apparently Blogger doesn't understand that particular code.

Six strings, four fingers, and a pick

It seems so easy in theory. Six strings, four fingers, and a pick. The easy songs have what, maybe three, four different repetitive notes in them? It can't be that hard.

But it is. I just can't seem to learn to play this damn guitar. I can put my fingers on the notes just fine. Hell, I've even got most of the common notes memorized. Shouldn't be that hard.

But when one actually tries to play, he finds that it's not as simple as just grabbing some notes and strumming. You have to switch notes in time, find the right strumming pattern and maintain it, and really get confused when you're only supposed to hit three or four strings with the pick instead of all six.

Down, down, up...Up, down, up. Em, G, D, A. Simple.

Grab the first note, strum. Next note. Damn. Missed a beat. Pause. Keep that finger there, this one goes up one string, grab the bottom string with that finger. Got it. Strum some more. Next note. Shit. Missed a beat again. Pick up all three fingers, move them down to the bottom three strings. Strum...

Screw it. Grab another beer and blog about it.

Things that annoy me, chapter IV

Head injuries. Especially the ones that require stitches.

It's my own damn fault I know. But in a way, I'm proud of it - sort of a battle scar or red badge of courage type thing. Except that this was more of a red badge of drunken idiocy.

I started a mosh pit. At a Buckcherry concert. There would have been a mosh pit at this show anyway had the headliner band, Avenged Sevenfold, not come down with 'vocal strain' and cancelled a month of shows per a doctor's orders. But as it was, I was doubtful that there would be a pit at all. Buckcherry, Shinedown, and Saving Abel aren't exactly mosh-pit-inducing bands.

But, as with most rock shows I attend, I came to mosh and I was going to mosh. This was made certain when my 16 year old cousin, Kayleigh, offered to help me start a pit.

So a few minutes before Buckcherry took the stage, we worked our way to the front and in my drunken deafness, I yelled at everyone I thought looked like a fellow mosher and told them I was starting a pit and they better join in. I also insisted the pit-squelchers move away, much to the chagrin of the security people between me and the stage.

A few minutes later the band took stage and the shoving began. It was a clean pit - nobody was throwing elbows or fists and if you fell, you were picked up instantly. At some point, I must have fallen into someone's knee or elbow or head - something hard. I wouldn't have even taken note of it had I not felt something warm and wet running over my eye. When I touched my face, I realized I was bleeding - profusely. Someone in the crowd noticed too and immediately helped me through the pit's perimeter, through the crowd and into the waiting attention of an event staffer. I was rushed to the curtained-off room stage right where the paramedics were waiting to treat the all-too-common injuries of mosh-pitters.

They said it was a pretty decent gash and told me I need to see a doctor. Intent on seeing the rest of the show, I asked if I could stay for a bit and swing by an emergency room later. They figured I'd be fine for an hour or so and wrapped me up in an Arab-looking headress while the security lady asked if my injury was inflicted by anyone intentionally. After assuring her it was indeed a clean pit, they led me back out into the crowd where I was met with many shaking heads and finally rejoined my friends who proceeded to tell me what a dumbass I was.

In my drunken stupor I decided to wait until morning to get stitched up. After five stitches and a berating by the jackass doctor for waiting so long, I was on my way with a great story to tell the folks at work. It was stupid, I know; but dammit, I earned this inch-long scar above my eyebrow and I'll wear it with pride as a testament to the days when I still young enough to do stupid shit like start a mosh pit at a Buckcherry concert.

I wonder if I made Youtube.

At first it was a letter

When Sarah Palin first popped front and center onto the stage of American politics, I came across a rather lengthy letter that talked about her...and not much of it was positive. I posted links to it here simply in an effort to show people (okay, the two people that read this blog) what other folks (supposedly from Alaska) think of this power-mongering governor and potential VP (see "And more Palin goodness" post below).

But as time went on, many of the claims in that letter were fact-checked by the media and the letter started to carry some credence. Upon last check, the site that initially posted the letter had added quite a few links that verify much of the information. Now, this scary letter is really starting to pack a punch.

Then I came across this article on Grist which referenced a NY Times report that outlined how shrewd and secretive Palin has been as governor. For a woman that touts administrative transparency and claims to be a "Maverick" in rooting out corruption, I'm sensing a bit of hypocrisy.

Fish apparently Palin comparison to Industry

"...the greatest threat to Bristol Bay’s salmon fishery will have come from bad decisions made by homegrown politicians."

That homegrown politician who (maybe illegally) signed the death warrant for a body of water that provides 1/2 of America's seafood is none other than Sarah Palin.

Green Recovery Plan

See a discussion about it here.

Even if global warming, climate change, and/or the impending doom to the human species is just a matter of "global fear mongering," there is no denying that the economy sucks. Why not support the solutions to climate change when the benefits to doing so are so huge?

I just don't get why some people are so ardently opposed to the topic of climate change.

What?! I shouldn't trust the media?! No way!

Grist just posted a great article titled, "All the news fit to omit". It's a great little piece that highlights a study [PDF] done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research that reveals how the media has played a major role in pumping (pardon the pun) the domestic oil drilling idea as a way to lower gas prices. It states:

This paper examines television news coverage of proposed drilling for oil in environmentally sensitive zones in the United States. It finds that these broadcasts almost completely ignored data, and conclusions, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA). The EIA finds that the benefits from such drilling would be too small to have a significant effect on the price of oil. There is no legitimate reason for this omission in the media. Just as economic reporting regularly uses data (unemployment, inflation, GDP, trade) from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, or Bureau of Labor Statistics, reporting on energy relies on data from the EIA.

The omission of the relevant data from this recent reporting may have contributed to the widespread public misunderstanding of this issue, with polls showing 51 percent of respondents believing that "federal laws that prohibit increased drilling for oil offshore or in wilderness areas" were a "major cause of the recent increase in gasoline prices."

Can I throw the irony flag at all those people at the RNC that ripped so hard on the main stream media, only to turn around and chant, "Drill, drill, drill"?