steve-barr.com

Hey World,

So, I haven’t blogged in a while. I have been quite busy, both professionally and personally. But, it is time for a good update. Actually, it is almost time for a good update. I’ll write one up and post it tomorrow, most likely on econsteve.com

-stephen

see my post over at econsteve

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, and as such, my family and I went to watch the Macy’s parade and go shopping in downtown Seattle. It was nice. There were lots of floats and local high school marching bands, and people were generally enjoying themselves.

However, there was a lot of anger in the air at the same time.

The Cougar and Husky bands both marched, and were both booed by alumni of the opposite school. I am all for rooting for your home team at a football game. But when you see people in their 30’s and 40’s glaring at a 20 year old guy with a trumpet and yelling “BOOOOOOOOOO! BOOOOOOOOOO! Cougars suck! Go Huskies! BOOOOOOOOOO!” at the top of their lungs, you really start to question their maturity. Healthy rivalry at sports is one thing. Hatred is another.

Then, the Santa float came by. We were near the Macy’s door, which is where Santa was to exit the float and enter Macy’s. When Santa’s float arrived and stopped most people crowded nearby to get a better look. One lady, lets call her woman.I, was walking towards the doors. Another lady, woman.J, was trying to move in the opposite direction. The interchange went something like:

• woman.I - “What you doing? Trying to push me?”
• woman.J - “I’m trying to get through! move!”
• woman.I - “You move, ****”
• woman.J - “*******”, walks by
• woman.I - “You shut the *********. Go back to your country!”

Mind you, this is in the middle of a crowd, where kids are trying to see Santa. At this point, a bystander, man.K, makes a comment.

• man.K - “Calm down lady”
• woman.I - “You shut the *********.”
• man.K - “Don’t tell me what to do. I’ll do whatever the ******* I want to do.”
• woman.I - “Don’t you *******.”

At some point during this interchange, the doors opened and people rushed into Macy’s, thus dissipating the crowd. Most of the civilized people in the near vicinity just rolled their eyes at the whole thing.

Later that night, I was by myself. I had finished some shopping, and I heard about fireworks, so I went to go check them out. It turns out there was a tree lighting in Westlake Center, so I went to watch it. This time, there was another woman, woman.L. I had the pleasure of talking to this one.

• me: “Is this the best spot to see the tree?”
• woman.L - “Mmmhmm. I’ve been waiting here all day. If I don’t see the tree, someone’s ***** is getting kicked.”
• me: no response
• woman.L to crowd gathering in front of her, to see said tree: “Move along. Move along. I’ve been waiting here. Keep going. Move along!”
• woman.L to me: “Are you with me? Lets block the way so we get the best view.”
• me: no auditory response. Action taken: leave and go somewhere else

In addition to these experiences, there were the random odds and ends. There were people promoting religious ideas, but with signs that were designed to be more provocative (REPENT OR BE DAMNED!!!). For some reason, I think a sign that would induce a soul-changing conversation would have more inviting phrasing. But I digress.

Others had signs that said “Hurry. Buy more stuff!”. That was actually funny, in that it was a sarcastic comment at the frenzy of consumption that was occurring in our midst.

This holiday season will be good. We’ll all buy stuff and eat well, etc. But don’t forget to be nice. Hold doors for people, like Bono does for Oprah.

From dpnash

Weird Al’s Eat It, Japanese style. Where has this been all my life?

This is a Weird-Al classic.

This is a good post over at econsteve.com

In a previous post, I had used a Strong Bad email to generate a list of qualities that every good band should have.

To recap:

• Audience must be 94% hot young females with bangs higher than or equal to that of the band.
• Must have more than 3 people
• Bassist must wear sunglasses
• Must have long hair
• “Somebody must have stolen their costume trailer. They couldn’t wear any of their spandex, or latex, …., or tex mex” - sweet costumes a must
• High leg kicks, choreographed spin moves
• Pyrotechnics
• Songs about girls, Los Angeles, and good times

There is a band that qualifies. And that band is DRAGONFORCE! Yes, all caps becomes obnoxious extremely quickly, but DRAGONFORCE earns the right to be types in said style. Long hair? - Can you say sonic the hedgehog for real? They’ve got the spin moves. The pyrotechnics. Oh, and the lyrics have meaning. Deep, significant meaning. Such as this snipped from Through the Fire and the Flames:

So now we fly ever free
We’re free before the thunderstorm
On towards the wilderness our quest carries on
Far beyond the sundown, far beyond the moonlight
Deep inside our hearts and all our souls

Or perhaps Tom’s favorite from Revolution Deathsquad (one of my favorites)

Ride the wind and fight the demon steel shining bright
Standing together forever onwards flames burning strong
Hot wind in hell of pain and sorrow now and ever onwards
We stare into the dawn of a new world

So, enough with my writing. Watch the video!

… that they get wireless on planes. I saw this article - NC TImes: Alaska Airlines to Test Wireless In-Flight Internet - “Customers with Wi-Fi-enabled devices, such as laptops or smart phones, will connect to the system through wireless hotspots in the aircraft cabin. A dome-shaped device mounted on top of the plane will house the antenna that receives and transmits satellite signals.“ on Dad’s blog.

Finally!

School is back in session, and I am back to blogging. Sometimes longboarding is just too tempting, but now that I am back in school, my blogging should normalize again.

Speaking of longboarding, anyone know how to do this? I have been working on it for a few days.

Run 1 of the Char Broil Santa Fe was a complete success. As you can see in the last post, it had some street cred to live up to. But, it performed. Beautifully. We had rotisserie chicken, and grilled chorizo, fresh grilled corn, delicious salads, and finished off with brownies and apple crisp. The pictures speak for themselves.