100 Greatest Songs Ever - Part 3

Everybody Hurts - R.E.M.
Everybody Wants Some - Van Halen
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor
Feels So Good - Chuck Mangione
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
Free Falling - Tom Petty
Funky Town - Lipps Inc.
Gett Off - Prince
Green Onions - Booker T. & The MG's
Heroes - David Bowie

100 Greatest Songs Ever - Part 2

Caravan - The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
China Girl - David Bowie
Come Away With Me - Norah Jones
Crash Into Me - Dave Matthews Band
Crying - Roy Orbison
Disco Inferno - The Tramps
Don't Fear the Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult (More Cow Bell!)
Don't Stop - Fleetwood Mac
Erotic City - Prince
Every Breath You Take - The Police

100 Greatest Songs Ever - Part 1

This was a fun project. Over the course of the last two months I'v put together a list of my 100 favorite songs. The only stipulation is that the songs must be at least 5 years old. They gotta stand the test of time after all! As 100 songs is rather a lot, I'll post them in 10 song chunks.

Let's get to it...in alphabetical order:

A Day in the Life - The Beatles
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis Presley
Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love - Van Halen
Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing - Chris Isaak
Bang a Gong - T Rex
Barracuda - Heart
Beautiful Day - U2
Billy Jean - Michael Jackson
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel

How many people did you have to ask?

Far and away the most effective marriage equality ad I've seen. Give it a watch, and think about it.

Swimming Pool Renovation!

We bought our new home in October last year. One of the benefits of the home was that the previous owner had already done a great deal of renovations. New kitchen, great new guest bathroom, etc...The swimming pool, though had not been worked on in quite some time. They kept it working and clean, but it hadn't been resurfaced in nearly 30 years, had no heater, and was leaking. Since winter was coming, and it'd be far too cold to swim without a heater, we let the pool go until now. It got ugly, but spring is here (and with it our income tax refunds!) and the time has come to get the pool renovated! Resurfaced (PebbleTek), replacing the non-working light, adding a heater, new tile. Pretty much a new pool!I'll keep adding photos as the process continues!

Just click on "View All Images" to see the progress!

Our Garden

Scrabble Dictionary

I just had my first "fight" with a good friend of mine.  She's upset.  I'm upset.  Sucks.  It was over Scrabble.  I was mean.  She was (in my opinion) overly competitive.  

Thinking it over (and it literarly just happened moments ago) it comes down to the mindset of winning taking precedent over anything else.  When I grew up we played Scrabble, and if someone put a word down on the board 9 times out of 10, he or she could tell you it's meaning.  If they had a grin on their face, you knew they didn't know the meaning, and likely no one else at the table did either.  I sounded like a word.  Doesn't that count?

In those cases we'd grab the dictionary.  A REAL dictionary.  This was before the days of Scrabble "dictionaries".  If it wasn't in Merriam-Webster, it wasn't a word.  The real fun was when you tried pulling a fast one with a word you didn't know, and it turned out that it was a word!  Not only did you score some points, but you learned a new word.   The challenge of Scrabble was to see who had the best vocabulary, and skill at unscrambling words from all those letters.  The person who was best at that won.  The entire concept of a Scrabble "dictionary" is so wrong to me I don't even think in those terms.  The idea behind a Scrabble "dictionary" is to allow as many questionable words be allowed in play.  But the rub is, there's no back up...a Scrabble "dictionary" has no definitions.  It's like the word of God...you just have to accept it without question.  This idea goes against everything I believe in...not just in games, but in life in general.  As was pointed out, I could very well have asked to play with a "real" dictionary when play began, but the "style" of play which would require the use of a Scrabble "dictionary" is so foreign to me, I honestly didn't even think to argue about it.  

These days it's all about winning.  Now, regardless of what game you're playing, it's not about who's best at that particular game, it's about who's best at winning.  Now 9 times out of 10 a person playing Scrabble has no idea if the letters they've put down are a word.  They just lay 'em down, and grab the Scrabble "dictionary" if anyone complains.  Even if your "word" is in the so-called "dictionary", you still have no idea what the hell it means.  What happened to plain old curiosity?  The desire to win prevails above all else...even a basic thirst for knowledge?

What happened?  I know I sound like an grumpy old fart, but what the hell has happened?  This isn't a phenomenon limited to Scrabble!  Businesses are started with the sole intention of making money...not a product.  Not offering a service.  Simply making money.  It's this exact mentality that has created the worst economic situation in the past 100 years!    

When did winning become the means, rather then the ends?  If the only part of the game that is fun is the winning, why bother playing?  Just declare yourself the winner from the start and save everyone else the pain of "playing".  

So...there you have it.  All of that frustration was layed out in a not so friendly manner towards a friend.  Not cool.  I'm sorry...hopefully you'll have at least some idea where I was coming from now.