J.P.

Talent.

So there has been some really big news today. Yes, two Americans were released from North Korea and there story is quite important, yes yes yes, but the big news today is more in the history making, monumental category.

Paula Abdul twittered that she is not returning to American Idol for it’s 9th season and Fox confirmed the breakdown in contract negotiations.

Sacré bleu!

Naturally, the failed contract negotiations are all about the money, with Ryan Seacrest reportedly making $45 million over the next three years while Paula was asking for around $12 million per year. News flash for Fox: I find Paula Abdul infinitely more entertaining than Ryan Seacrest and quite frankly, I think a lot of people agree with me.

There is the misconception that American Idol is about the talent and the next big superstar. Please. For much of the show’s run the talk around the water bubbler has been about Ms. Abdul and her erratic ways. While Ryan is doing his best to look butch…

Ryan Seacrest
Please note stubble. This is always a sign of a butch man.

… Paula always beat him to the punch, by looking like a Klingon.

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While I love me some Paula Abdul (I still play “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow” off my iPod), we have to admit that there is a sizable portion of the audience that doesn’t give two hoots about who sings the best and who is pitchy, what we want to see is some Paula meltdown with the hopes that Ryan will announce what number to dial on our AT&T phone to get some of what Paula is taking.

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Randy “the Mad Dog Dawg Dawg baby Dawg Dawg” Jackson goes on and on and on and on and ON about how this is a talent show and how every year the talent is getting better and it’s all about the star quality yadda yadda yadda (when in fact the winner will be turned into a record company’s bitch for a year and be subjected to more auto-tune than should be legally allowed) but we know what it’s about. Yes, we agree with Simon most of the time and snicker at his staff written zingers. And we wonder where this Kara DioGuardi came from and really wish that she would take her poorly written songs home with her but in reality American Idol is the train wreck, the car accident, the scene that we can’t turn away from.

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I mean the only way to distract yourself from what Ms. Abdul is up to is to play that fun game of “Remember Who They Used To Be Before They Went Plastic!”

priscilla20060509
An now-defunct blog, “Rotten Ryan”, once commented that Priscilla wouldn’t be identified as human in the middle of “It’s A Small World” at WDW. If I ever meet you Rotten Ryan, I will bow to you.

So while there will always be people that claim that American Idol is the showcase for what Old Glory has in the way of talent (hello? Carmen Rasmussen? Chicken Little Kevin Covais? Scott Savol?), many will claim that American Idol is just pure, trailer trash entertainment at it’s very best (and remember, I grew up in a trailer so I can say that), and much of that was because of Paula Abdul.

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Paula, we will miss you and I’m sure Fox will see a good-sized decrease in ratings. Let’s hope you continue to dance like there’s no tomorrow.

5 August 2009 by Everyone's A Critic. 3

Peace.



185.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I did something I have not done in 2009 to date. I rode my bike for the second day in a row. Today I clocked nearly 21 miles on the “hilly route”, which ended in a two mile stretch at about 40 MPH. Riding after work is doing wonders to get me back to center. I feel the best I have felt in a long while.

I look forward to a ride again tomorrow, and I know I can do it.

I decided to take my daily photo in the woods tonight, because it is in the woods where I feel very connected to the universe. The winds are blowing gently, the moon is full yet somewhat obscured by the summer haze and the temperature is just perfect. Barefooted, I made my way across the creek in the darkness and found a tree to sit by for a few moments, meditate, then snap a photo.

Life is good. Don’t ever let anyone convince you otherwise.

4 August 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 1

Energy.

I have to admit that I felt like crap most of the day today. The effects of my allergy over the weekend were lingering, I didn’t have much sleep last night as I always get worked up on Sunday nights for some reason and I am working the early shift this week.

To sum it up nicely: my ass was draggin’.

Usually if I get into this sort of state I come home from work and take a nap. This is not necessarily a good thing. When I nap so late in the day I perpetuate the vicious cycle of not being able to sleep at night and my body complains when the alarm clock rings the next morning because I haven’t fallen asleep until midnight. So instead of taking a nap after work I decided to psych my body out and go for the bike ride mentioned in the previous blog entry.

I feel wonderful.

My allergies have subsided substantially, my mood is livelier and I feel great.

I think I’m going to do the same thing tomorrow, without the lethargy at work. It might be a kick.

3 August 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 1

Back On The Saddle.

3 August 2009 by Fitness. 0

Three Guys, Three Girls and an Enchilada.

One of the most humourous things about the Universe is that you can make the best of plans for any random thing: a get together, a night out on the town, a list of errands or something as simple as making supper, but when push comes to shove, we all know who the winner is. It’s the Universe.

This weekend I got together with our friends Greg and Dave in Connecticut. Well, Dave was visiting from Toronto and it’s Greg that actually lives in Connecticut, but we decided to get together in Connecticut for a number of reasons, one of them being that our birthdays are really close together (July 13, 16 and 8, respectively) and we thought we would use this weekend to celebrate.

Getting there was the usual drill: Dave would fly in from Toronto on whatever airplane had an empty seat to wherever that plane happened to be going. He gets to fly the fun way, being a flight attendant and all. This landed him in Albany this time; simple enough, I’d pick him up at the airport. Step one done.

In the meantime, Greg was kind enough to plan out a nice dinner at his house for the three of us. Here’s where it gets a little weird. While I was picking up Dave at the airport, a storm blew through New Haven, knocking the power out. Greg couldn’t cook without power so he decided to take a nap with the flashlight until the power came back on.

Earl gave me a call to tell me that he wasn’t feeling well and thought he should go to the emergency room. After repeatedly being told “no” after telling him that I was going to turn around and come home, I continued the drive to Connecticut. It turns out that Earl was just fine aside from the fact that he just ate too much at Pizzeria Uno and his blood pressure was a little high. I kept telling him I would come home and he kept telling me there was no need as Jamie was in town finalising his college paperwork (he got lots of grants) and he would be there with him. Thank god for technology as I was getting updates whilst on the road.

We arrived in New Haven we found Greg just waking up but still in the dark. Unable to cook, we opted to go out to dinner. Since it was almost 11:00 at night the options were limited so we ended up going to a Mexican restaurant. The name of the place escapes me at the moment.

Our server was Leslie. If she squinted and I squinted she might resemble Jennifer Aniston in a way and Dave was quick to comment on this. She was flattered. Greg turned on his charm as well and then I started talking quite a bit as I’m wont to do and before you know it Leslie has a glass of wine and is joining us at the table. Shortly thereafter her friend Lisa is at the table as well, soon to be followed by the well-intended JulieAnne who has a really weird fear of thunderstorms. Since the storms had blown through that evening she seemed to be spooked still and got a little rambly.

So there we were with Leslie, Lisa and JulieAnne chatting it up when the DJ started playing some song called “Crazy Bitch”. That’s when some crazy bitch got up on the bar and started dancing in a rather nasty way, which made Leslie angry. She did look skanky (the one on the bar, not Leslie) Dave, Greg and I decided we had had enough of the place and split. When we got back to Greg’s the power was on.

I continued to check in with Earl throughout the night and into the morning. All was well and he continued to tell me not to come home. It was that night that Greg’s new cats decided to come out of hiding after two weeks of lying in the closet and began yowling like they were on fire. This added to the atmosphere.

Saturday we headed into the city. Life has been hectic for the three of us lately so we decided to relax by getting haircuts (or in my case, a head shave) and a shave (at least around my beard) at a barber, so I found the shop that Glennalicious had talked about a while back. We felt better after that experience. From there we were going to head to Bear Hill in Central Park but I can never remember where to find it and had neglected to ask Joe about it’s location when I asked if Bear Hill would be in session this weekend (it was, I just don’t know where) so we ended up going to the claustrophobically packed Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. From there we jumped on a train, found the car where we left it in the village and headed back to Connecticut.

Upon arrival to Greg’s the power was still on but my allergies decided to make their yearly appearance. Barely able to breathe and with watery eyes, I took a couple of Benadryl which mingled with the beers I had had earlier and promptly fell asleep. So much for a fun filled Saturday night on the town.

This morning we were up and to the diner that in Milford that I call “Hello Nice People” because that’s what people call it. The wait was rather long and a very large woman in 80s neon pink bulled her way ahead of us in line so she could wedge herself into a booth before we got to it, but otherwise all was well. The rest of the day was uneventful; Greg took Dave to Bradley Airport in Hartford and I headed home. Oddly enough, I remember very little of the drive. I think I was daydreaming and contemplating the entire ride. I hope I didn’t hit anyone. There are no dents in the car or anything.

Now I’m trying to keep cool (it’s rather warm in the house) and get to sleep so I can get up for the early shift tomorrow. I feel like the odd vibe of the weekend is dissipating a little bit; I think I’m ready for the what the week holds. I know I’m looking forward to another bike ride tomorrow after work.

When I got home I wrote a few phrases on my whiteboard in my studio to keep me focused. I think they are a result from my contemplation time during my drive:

Healthy Approach = Healthy Result
Clear Mind = Clear Connection
Positive Thinking Brings Positive Existence
Give Respect to Receive Respect
Blessed Be.

2 August 2009 by Fun and Games Dept Ponderings and Musings Spiritual Stuff. 0

Retro?

Getting in the vibe for the weekend, I decided to crank up a rare Human League track from 2001. This single was from their latest album on a record label that went belly-up shortly from the release, hence, not many people in the states have heard this song before.

Here’s “All I Ever Wanted” by The Human League.

31 July 2009 by DJ 2

Restoration.



Standard Electric Time., originally uploaded by iMachias.

This morning I finished the project of restoring one of my school clocks for my collection. This particular clock came from the elementary school I went to, more specifically, it came out of my sixth grade classroom.

The case and glass has several layers of paint splatter on it. I opted to paint the rim black to match the numbers and hands.

This clock was made and installed in 1955 by the Standard Electric Time Company of Springfield, Massachusetts. The hands on this clock are original, however, are not the style usually found on this style clock. As this clock was intended for a classroom in an addition to the school, I believe these hands were chosen to match the art deco stylings of the older clocks in the original part of the building, which was built in 1939.

Originally ran by a pendulum master clock (like a grandfather’s clock) in the principal’s office, the clocks in the house operate as originally intended with the click-click every minute, but are run by the Linux server in the basement. They click in unison and are synchronized to the atomic clock via the internet. I think it’s pretty nifty that a 55 year old clock (and it’s older siblings scattered throughout the house) are synchronized through modern technology.

This is the second newest clock I have in the collection. The oldest is from 1917.

30 July 2009 by Fun and Games Dept 3

Determination.

“I’m so sick of being hungry.” So be honest, if you’re watching your weight, how many times has that thought crossed your mind on any given day? It usually passes through on it’s way to the next thought, “My gods that ice cream sundae looks delicious” or “I’ll skip the pepperoni on these four slices of pizza so I can stick to my diet.”

I think I have figured out that if you’re hungry all the time your body is going to rebel against your dieting and start storing food because it’s kicked into survival mode. Go too far in the other direction and you’re quickly popping buttons all over the cubicle.

Where’s the balance?

As I grow older I find that I have to be more and more attentive to what I eat. The metabolism that burned two Big Macs, a large fries and a big pop during a trip for a McRib rusted out long ago. Now it’s all about celery, lettuce and Trader Joe’s rice noodles.

Let’s face it, dehydrated mushrooms are not sexy.

Long ago I lost a bunch of weight and I really don’t want to get back in that direction. It’s no secret that I enjoy beefy guys, after all I really love me some bear, but for some reason I have this self-image of me back when I weighed 160 and when I look in the mirror it can be a sobering reality check.

I know I’m not alone in all this. I try not to whine about it that often, but counting calories and balancing fat grams and multiplying, dividing and doing basic algebra with carb counts is becoming quite tedious.

Tonight I jumped on my bike for maybe the second or third time of the season. It was my first time using my new cycling shoes and pedals. The ride was awesome, the shoes and pedals are excellent and my body feels really good after the 1 1/2 hour ride. Cycling gives me such a rush that I can not duplicate in the gym doing cardio, lifting weights or jumping on a trampoline.

I need to stay determined to cycle and to balance it all out, I need to keep doing the calorie mathematics.

Sigh.

A picture using the Linux computer. I feel good tonight. I hope it looks it.
180.365

30 July 2009 by Fitness. Food. 3

Fear.

I posted this quote from another blog last week in reference to the anniversary of the moon landing back in 1969.

Some people say that September 11, 2001 was the moment America best defined itself. I respectfully disagree. On the evening of July 20, 1969 we defined ourselves not by our fear of what could happen, but our dreams of what would happen, if we only dared to dream.

This is so true. Our society seems to be so fear driven these days and I really think it’s been full-tilt in that direction since 9/11. While eating lunch at the mall today the electricity briefly blinked on and off. This outage lasted no more than five seconds. This is not an uncommon thing; it’s hot outside, there are way too many air conditioners on and we are putting a lot of demands on the power supply. Sometimes there is just not enough juice to go around. I just went on eating my lunch but when it happened, more than one person near me gasped in horror and there was one middle aged woman who screamed like she had just been shot.

I found her reaction to be a little over-the-top. What is really sad about the situation is that it’s not the first time that I have heard someone react that way to a power outage in the past five years ago. My god, what would she do if there was something life threatening going on?

I think here in the states we really have this whole fear thing going on and quite frankly it’s become quite tedious. For example, Every. Single. Thunderstorm. is a severe thunderstorm. There are no regular thunderstorms anymore. Last week we had several “Severe Thunderstorm Warnings”, accompanied by an alert of the Emergency Alert System. Not one storm passed through the area and being on-call last week I was well aware of who was getting hit with storms and who wasn’t. No one within 75 miles got hit with a severe thunderstorm. A few scattered storms here and there, yes, but nothing that would be considered “severe”. A bolt of lightning and a clap of thunder is not severe. It’s just the way it is.

By the way, back in the day the Emergency Broadcast System was reserved for really important things like nuclear bombs, catastrophic floods, tornados and hurricanes. If the two-tones of the EBS were heard without the preceding “This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System…” message then you were headed for the basement. Something bad was going to happen. With technology upgrades, the dire sounding two-tones of the days of yore have been replaced by something akin to “duck farts” and they fire the damn thing off every time someone has bad gas. No one takes it seriously anymore.

Now I know that really bad news gets really good ratings in the news business, especially when you have to fill 24 hours of a dozen all-news stations simultaneously, but we really don’t have to have a panic attack every time the power goes out or there’s a lightning strike. I won’t get into the whole “we are in Central New York and we get snow in the winter” thing that people get hysterical about.

Many have subscribed to the training(?) of living in fear, especially since 9/11. Small wonder people are stress eating, drinking and taking all manners of medicines to cope with it.

How about we start living in hope. And for goodness’ sake, stop sweating the small stuff.

By the way, I thought I’d share a picture of me smiling from the Apple Store at Eastview Mall in Rochester. Do I look hopeful or just mischievous.
178a.365

28 July 2009 by Why. 4

Accomplishment.

With the combination of a bachelor weekend and on-call weekend hitting all at once, one would think that I would get a lot accomplished around the house. And you know what? I did!

I did a lot of work on the computer today; I redesigned two websites, moved everything over to the new server on MacHighway (this blog should be quicker now) and overall I am quite pleased with everything that I did.

The Mac fan in my kicked into high gear as I’m finally connecting with my MacBook Pro the way I did with my old PowerBook G4. It’s taken a while but I can cozy up to it now. While I think that Windows 7 is the best version of Windows to come out yet, I still prefer Mac OS X. Windows 7 is good for what it does, but like the folks that prefer Pepsi or Coke, I prefer a Mac over a Windows-based computer. It’s just my preference.

That being said, I finally did something with the imachias.com domain that I have had parked for a while. Feel free to to take a look at the beginnings of what I have over there, all created on iWeb ’09. I had never used iWeb before, it’s a good little program for those looking to start their own website. I have a couple of ideas on how to contribute to the technology community, and imachias.com is one of them. I hope that someday it will grow into a valuable resource and be able to help someone somewhere.

I got a tweet from a secret admirer asking why I had moved over to MacHighway for webhosting. There are numerous choices out there that offer basically the same thing. The definitive factor for me in choosing Machighway was that they 100% powered by wind. That’s right, they buy their energy from a wind farm. While they offer local technical support, great hosting plans for the money and are based on Mac hardware, it was the use of wind power that was the deciding vote. Moving my various sites to my new plan has been a breeze (pun intended!) and I’m quite pleased.

I also worked on a couple of other websites… all to be revealed in good time.

And to think I also fixed the last plumbing concern in the house today too!

Life is good. That is something that needs to be said more often.

26 July 2009 by Ponderings and Musings 1

About J.P.

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.

Weird? Eccentric!

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