One of my favorite albums of all time is “Cosmic Thing” by The B-52s. This song (“The Deadbeat Club”) has been on repeat in my head since late last night. Here’s your chance to enjoy it as well.
While most folks think “Love Shack” when it comes to The B52s, that track is probably my least favorite on the album. My favorite track is “Follow Your Bliss”, with the album version of “Roam” coming in a close second.
I was but a young gay when I first heard “Channel Z” at a gay club called The 1270 in Boston.
Oh, and here’s the official video for “Roam”. The choruses are truncated for the radio release (as seen here) when compared to the album. The album version gives the song the room it deserves.
I went hiking yesterday. This is something I’ve been trying to do on Saturday mornings. With the recent rain, there was a lot of water coming over the falls at Bridal Wreath Falls, and when all was said and done, I hiked 7.75 miles and climbed around 1500 feet to see all the beauty Mother Nature has to offer in these parts.
A nice couple offered to take my photo.
I often choose to take the lesser traveled trails when hiking. I enjoy being alone and I like to get lost in my thoughts without having to worry about entertaining others or being part of a conversation while I’m trying to catch my breath as we climb up switchbacks to get to the top of that next ridge. Occasionally I’ll talk to myself under my breath; it’s a habit I’ve had since I was a kid and it helps me work out whatever is churning in my mind at any given moment. As I was making my way back to the trailhead I think I startled a woman making her way up the trail alone. She said to me, “I’m sorry, I was talking to myself.”. I simply replied, “Oh, don’t worry, I didn’t hear you and honestly, the reason I’m usually on the back trails is so I can talk to myself without startling people”.
We had a bonding moment.
As I sorted my head out while reveling in my solitude, I realized that my approach to life changed a bit when both my father and my father-in-law both passed within a week of each other in late 2011. Shortly after the services, an acquaintance said to me, “we’re not really men until our fathers are no longer around”. I think I really took that statement to heart and went to “adulting” mode in high gear. I mentioned this to my husband later in the day yesterday and he said “you definitely changed after our dads passed”. He quickly followed up that the changes weren’t for the worse or anything, I just didn’t seem to have as much as fun as I did when we first met.
I always attributed that to just getting old.
While I was hiking I got to thinking about the videos I used to make and the photos I used to take and all the crazy little things I would post here on this little bloggy thing and I started to realize I missed that frivolity.
Always looking for the “why”, I started to wonder if my change in attitude had something to do with the changes in society in general. Social media was a lot more fun in the early ’10s. While politics have always been annoying, people weren’t quite so incredibly nuts back then. All of this (gesturing wildly) felt a lot less chaotic in general and as life in the United States became, for lack of a better word, darker as the ’10s wore on, I just felt less inclined to be giddy and frivolous in my creative pursuits. I was adulting because it seemed like the necessary thing to do.
I feel like we all take ourselves way too seriously these days.
Every once in a while I’ll meet a random person who just has the most awesome energy. It’s a vibe that is so full of light. I remember that feeling. And I need to find that, and more importantly, share that vibe again.
When I started this blog over 20 years ago I just rambled about life. I hoped to make people smile. Sharing the smile vibe makes me smile. Smiling is good.
So, right then and there on the way down from Bridal Wreath Falls, I made a short snippet of a video.
It’s less than 10 seconds and it’s just a statement. But wow, it felt amazing.
To celebrate the Chinese New Year, Apple posted a video on their Youtube channel. It’s a well done 15 minute short that tugs at the heartstrings a bit. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I really didn’t enjoy “Wonder Woman 1984” back when it came out a few years ago. I thought it was all over the place. The best part was the Lynda Carter cameo in the post credits scene.
However, I stumbled upon this fan made intro based on the ’70s series but for the movie and it is awesome! Enjoy!
We have finally made it to the last day of January and wow, has it been a long month. I have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that we started this month with the usual New Year’s Day festivities and that we had a couple of days off for holiday and it still felt like a very long month.
Is it because of a focus on goals for the New Year? Is it because in other parts of the Northern Hemisphere it’s colder and darker than most people enjoy? Even here in the Sonoran Desert I’m wearing pants, though the weather has been surprisingly warm this week.
Please pay attention to this pre-takeoff safety checklist, courtesy of Pam Ann. It was nice of Boeing to just modify the 737 instead of coming up with a new design; this safety checklist works for the MAX too!
I get spam email all the time. Once in a very great while one of them will be convincing, but decades of being online has taught me a thing or two and I usually don’t fall for these things.
But, if you’re going to send me spam, at least put some effort into it. I particularly enjoy the section I have highlighted in bold print below.
Hey,
I hope this email finds you well! It’s been a while since we last caught up, and I thought I’d drop you a quick note to see how you’ve been doing.
Life has been keeping me busy lately, but I’ve been thinking about our last conversation and wanted to check in on you. How have things been on your end? Any exciting updates or news you’d like to share?
On my end, I’ve been [briefly mention what you’ve been up to, such as work, hobbies, or personal projects]. It’s been keeping me on my toes, but I’m grateful for the opportunities that have come my way.
Let’s definitely schedule a time to catch up soon, whether it’s over a cup of coffee or a video call. I miss our chats and would love to hear about what’s been going on in your life.
The other night I wrote a rambly post about good memories from the past and it made me smile in the moment. This morning I came across a social media post about nostalgia and the 21st century.
I don’t know a lot of people nostalgic about the 2000s.
Now, it’s been long enough, nearly a quarter of a century since the beginning of the 2000s so there’s certainly room to be nostalgic about those times. But I don’t know many people that look upon the 21st century with a lot of nostalgia. We often hear, “the ’80’s were awesome” and “I loved the ’90s!” but when it comes to 2000s, not much. Maybe I”m not hanging around the right people.
Well, for one thing, did we ever settle on what we were to call the 2000s? It’s easy to say and type the ’60s and the ’70s and such, but the ’00s? Are they the “oh”s? Are they the zeroes or the naughties? Or do we just say the “2000s”? It’s funny, as I’m composing this blog entry that decade seems so long ago.
The 2000s pretty much kicked off with 9/11 and from my seat it appears like the United States completely lost its mind as a result of that day. Insane amounts of security theater in the airports, forced us to give up a lot of personal freedoms with the Patriot Act, and the like were gained steam in a time when we had the first modern President we didn’t actually elect, and things just got weird. Then there was the Great Recession at the back half of the ’00s and that was a hoot and a half. At the very end of the ’00s the Tea Party was kicking into high gear and after enduring eight years of “W”, we decided that stupid was really chic and embraced Sarah Palin.
No, there’s not much to be nostalgic about when it comes to the first decade of the 21st century. Things calmed down a little bit when President Obama was elected into office and that got us through the first half of the ’10s, but even that decade doesn’t seem like it’s going to lead us old folks into the same wistful gaze our parents had when they got nostalgic about jukeboxes, drive-in movies, and poodle skirts. As much as I enjoy technology, I’m not wistful about out first flat panel TV.
Perhaps many of the ills of this century have to do with all this (arms gesturing wildly) being nothing to be nostalgic about. Good memories? Of course, I hope everyone has good memories, but while I often read about people claiming the likes of the ’80s and ’90s being “the good old days”, I really don’t think in 20 years we’re going to be saying the ’10s or the ’20s were the good old days.
Maybe we need to all nudge society into a direction that will change our feelings about this era when we look back. There’s also a chance I didn’t get enough sleep last night and I’m starting to feel a little loopy as I finish up the little missive.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
