tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50612732024-03-14T07:44:10.569-06:00Third Level Digression<center><b>to depart from the text in endless digression </b><br>
by<br>
Yahmdallah</center>Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486390319031344611noreply@blogger.comBlogger1043125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-25160247040129568032016-11-08T16:56:00.000-07:002016-11-09T05:23:13.724-07:00All-Time High1977 was the greatest year for album releases ever, and the bookend years made it the best 3 years in music in modern times.
What a declaration, eh?
I spent a lot of time combing through release lists, best-of and best-sellers lists to verify, and here it is. 1977. Best year ever. (Just listen to classic rock radio - songs from these albums still dominate.)
I did this because I Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-70964425374834502222016-10-21T13:23:00.004-06:002016-10-21T13:31:27.274-06:00Alive AgainNME excreted an article listing the best live albums ever. (Quick TLD: I started this post the day that article was published; this is how long it's taking me with these posts sometimes.)
It's pretty typical for a list of this sort. It panders to more modern tastes and artists (natch - I imagine someone young wrote it), it includes critical darlings that your typical music lover or casual Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-20260245499184516642016-09-08T11:30:00.002-06:002016-09-08T11:30:23.677-06:00Gene Wilder (1933–2016)
While I'm not usually one to join the mourning sickness that occurs upon a beloved celebrity's death, Gene Wilder was always of particular interest to me, and he had an odd career, to say the least.
By that I mean, here was a goofy-looking dude with a ginger 'fro who was totally believable as a romantic lead in a romcom1, as an action star2, as a cowboy3, as the writer and star of a Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-85757181117186521932016-08-14T09:55:00.006-06:002016-08-14T09:56:55.753-06:00The Movies of 2016 (thus far, of course)After some Storms of LifeTM, things are back to glorious mundanity, thankfully.
I've been writing a lot of posts in the last few months, which of course you haven't seen because they were so damned dark. Re-reading them made me worry about the guy. My gosh. Since there is no cause for concern, they will remain in the unpublished folder.
So here we are, bracing for Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-87651296164660882222015-10-31T12:53:00.001-06:002015-10-31T12:54:59.909-06:00The Ghosts of Tom's DinerHere's an article that gets its geek on by exploring in extensive depth precisely what MP3 compression leaves behind. I poured over this like a scientist who'd been handed a time-travel manual from a disembodied arm extending from a glowing time portal. (Here's another version of it. Don't know why there are two.)
As the article mentions, that particular version of "Tom's Diner" (which is an Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-68723938465070190812015-04-12T19:31:00.000-06:002015-04-12T19:31:18.312-06:00CompassionMy new job comes with the added feature of a longish commute. (Which after a decade of no commute has been one of the biggest adjustments. Driving in traffic has the same boredom/what-am-I-doing-with-my-life factor as waiting in a long line at the DMV, but it comes with the necessity that you have to pay attention at all times so you don't DIE, which makes it one of the most arduous things we Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-11751064313959971792015-02-14T18:41:00.003-07:002015-02-21T09:21:32.882-07:00Movies of 2014So, this is one of those posts where I started with an entirely different premise and in the midst of building that premise I realized I was simply incorrect.
I was going to say this was a meh year for movies, and it kinda was. (Here Time tries to avoid that conclusion, included because it spurred this post.)
But in reviewing this abbreviated list of the top 100 movies by box office (Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-75421490919728039142015-02-02T21:38:00.001-07:002015-02-02T21:38:32.605-07:00Finding Stephanie and fearing uncanny LammilyAfter the passing of the late great Mr. Ebert, I was left with only Peter Travers of Rolling Stone as one of the film critics I can turn to for guidance on films when I'm looking for one to watch. (FWIW, I've always used critics to talk me into watching/reading/listening to something, but almost never to talk me out of it. Only when most of the critic planet is aligned against Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-17169138433252224062015-01-02T20:00:00.000-07:002015-01-04T11:15:57.563-07:00Très 2014<!--[if gte mso 9]> <![endif]-->
<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-60387726586033545682014-11-14T19:49:00.000-07:002014-11-14T22:49:25.249-07:00Head, Heart, and ...It appears that a lot of my thinking these days tends to circle life advice / big knowledge kinda stuff. (Big life changes thrust upon you can spur that. On top of divorce, moving to a tiny apartment with two kids, they reorged my division at work and when the music stopped, there was no chair for me. Starting my new job in December. Plus, my car is dying, so I'm car-shopping, Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-830567775551705082014-06-03T13:40:00.001-06:002014-06-03T13:40:52.572-06:00Frederick in WinterFrederick by Leo Lionni was (and still is) one of my favorite books as a child. The story is about a mouse who the rest of the mouse family thinks is lazy because as they're gathering food for the winter, Frederick seemingly sits there doing nothing. When they get all German on his ass and inquire exactly what in the hell he's up to (paraphrasing here), he says he's gathering words and Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-54439993321044709682013-12-17T15:09:00.000-07:002013-12-18T16:46:58.434-07:00Life...
"Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans."
- usually attributed to John Lennon, but actually first coined by Allen Saunders.
That sure as hell has been true for me this year.
Here it is: my wife asked for a divorce July 1. We are still working out the legal, financial and other stuff, but for all practical purposes, I'm suddenly single again.&Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-78082513041729434542013-08-23T15:54:00.000-06:002013-08-23T15:54:17.770-06:00Omegaman"Life is a screaming orgasm in the wasteland of the endless night," wrote someone on the wall of the bathroom in my favorite bar in college.
Throughout my life I've pendulumed between optimism and cynicism, and this quote always fits either mood, which is why I like it.
This post is going to be all over the road like that, because that's been my mood this summer. One day the world is Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-60233321488999219022013-06-10T15:54:00.002-06:002013-06-10T16:13:08.804-06:00Summer Movie Season with no EbertHere we are, solidly into the summer movie season and nothing but crickets on this blog thus far.
TLD: Here's my note, teacher. I've been sick since the start of April. I've had 4 to 5 different viruses and other bugs, 2 of them requiring antibiotics. I'm even home sick today - I can't tell if all the other things have just worn me down or if I have yet again something new. &Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486390319031344611noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-8191773086617320082013-03-30T10:09:00.000-06:002013-03-30T10:09:24.438-06:00Robot and FrankI've been a robot fiction devotee since I read Asimov's I, Robot as a kid. His Robots of Dawn is still in my top 5 novels evar. Thus, I will see about any movie that has robots in it.
TLD: For example, I tried to watch the Jean Claude Van Dammit flick Cyborg recently, and just couldn't hang with it past 15 minutes. Oh well.
Finally carved out the hour and a half to see Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-62221541786612483212013-03-23T23:51:00.001-06:002013-03-23T23:52:52.507-06:00Forking DonglesAs an IT guy, the first time I heard the word "dongle" my very first question was: "Is that really what it's called?"
Many things in IT are a euphemism or a verbalization of an acronym. For example, about a decade or so ago, you'd hear sober women and men say the term "wizzy wig" out loud in meetings with completely straight faces and with not just a little gravity. &Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04486390319031344611noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-59307810455097449482013-03-23T12:41:00.002-06:002013-03-24T11:43:41.998-06:00Bios and Babes Read Rod Stewart's Rod: The Autobiography and Peter Criss' Makeup to Breakup: My Life In and Out of Kiss.
I've gleaned that my interest in rock bios spawns from a deep curiosity to know what is was like to be the center of a universe, where your songs are absorbed into lives across the globe, (nearly) everyone loves you, everything is free, and obtaining sex with whomever is effortless as a Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-60423610100184391302012-12-24T22:30:00.002-07:002012-12-24T22:33:47.310-07:00Merry ChristmasTake it Russ:
Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-72130204227254820062012-12-19T16:59:00.002-07:002012-12-19T16:59:31.715-07:00Three PearsI've been pecking away on this post so long that my original opening was, "Ah the post-election relief, with only the warbling cries to secede echoing in the distance to encroach upon the relative calm." And since, there's been another slaughter at a school, this time involving little children. You can find the names of the innocents here. I imagine most parents like myself haveYahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-41977144172384552872012-10-19T20:11:00.003-06:002013-03-23T13:56:33.077-06:00What Scares You?Let's get this clear quickly: this is NOT a political post, even though the title sets it up for that. No, the genesis of this post was the night I discovered that if I ever have a heart attack, it won't be induced by fear. More on that later.
A hilarious thread on the intertubes recently explored things that frightened the contributors as a child - specifically something that wasYahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-20163893054789290892012-09-27T17:04:00.001-06:002012-09-27T17:15:40.147-06:00Happy Birthday, Barbara90 Days, 90 Reasons to Re-elect President Obama
I wasn't going to post anything political outside of a single link (the one above) this election season, because any and all subtlety or humor I try to bring to my posts here abandons me like passengers of the Hindenburg when I wax political. Truly, a good half of the essays on that site are wonderful.
But Samuel Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-61167360744183665062012-08-25T10:26:00.001-06:002012-08-25T11:15:42.368-06:00Stay Frosty"[I'll post] Sooner than a month, at least" I
wrote 5 months ago. So much for that goal, eh?
As usual, I've been grinding on a post about this summer's
movies, and often didn't get past a list or a half-hearted comment on
each. The short version is my favorite
movies this year were 21 Jump Street and
The Cabin in the Woods. The new kid flick (just barely), ParaNorman, had a Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-7884588006469173302012-04-01T14:07:00.004-06:002012-08-25T15:08:07.766-06:00Ok, Fine
(Found on http://robotindisguise.tumblr.com/)
So, a good friend who reads this blog said to me about a month ago, emphatically, that I needed to post. I was touched, and it obviously prompted me to write something. (Been working on this post for over a month now.)I don't know if it's what you'd call writer's block, apathy, or what, but I just haven't been motivated to slide Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-24997036599327524452011-12-29T16:16:00.000-07:002011-12-30T09:02:06.995-07:00At the end of 2011
As we head into the final year of the Mayan calendar, I think we find the world somewhat adrift. Protests foam in many countries including the USA, dictators are being dispatched to the void with welcome regularity, the middle east looks like it might give representational government a try, media companies continue to implode because the market has shifted (again) to personalYahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5061273.post-58128718224900955792011-11-17T08:36:00.002-07:002011-11-17T09:28:49.424-07:00ROFLMAOSo, I was looking for inspiration yesterday, something to break some thought blockage (like writer's block but slightly larger scale) and cycling through random images has almost always worked to jar things loose; then I come across this:I was in my cube at work and had anyone seen me, they might have thought I was having convulsions. I couldn't contain some of my sniggers and tears were Yahmdallahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05545827690728295373noreply@blogger.com0