I had so much fun with the one quiz that I thought I’d try a few more:
32%
Mingle2 – Free Online Dating
55% GeekMingle2 – Free Online Dating
Mingle2 – Free Online Dating
THE MORTAL SIN of blogging
…is to blog about blogging.
Mingle2 – Online Dating
This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
* dead (6x) * gay (3x) * death (1x)
There’s a guy I know who was wondering about whether he should start a second blog, one for his librarian side and another for his more frivolous self; evidently, he went the dual route. He said the latter blog would be the one that he might show to a prospective employer. I noted that said prospective employer could easily find his other blog as well.
I’ve found articles that indicate that many blogs are temporarily or permanently abandoned. But I was curious how many folks have multiple blogs. I know Greg has his main site and his daughters’ site. Some others as well. When I toyed with having my blog hosted with, as someone might say, the evil Hearst Times Union, the guy in charge of the blogs said I had two blogs in my blog, one with Lydia, and one with everything else; I disagree. For me, it’s all one life continuum. Yet, Greg’s division works for him, and me.
Or I always think I have the one blog. There’s also the one where I post articles that interest me, but that’s just to fuel the main blog; oh, the picture I posted there I did by following these directions. And I don’t have time to do another real blog, though I contribute to my work blog. I had so much factoid stuff that I helped set up the New York State Data Center Affiliate blog. And I started the Friends of the Albany Public Library blog, but that’s pretty topic-specific.
So, I only have the one blog. Or two. Or five. All active, i.e. updated within the last week.
Which reminds me of a reference question I had last month. The guy asked, among several other questions, how many blogs there would be in five years. How the heck would I know? I noted that, hey, maybe people will get off blogging by then. He wrote back and asked why I thought so:
“It’s not that I have any special insight that blogs will go away. It’s that by the time I embrace a technology, it’s usually a sign that the technology is on its last legs. That’s slightly cheeky, but not entirely. I’m not what you would call an early adopter, so I figure if *I* can do it, it’s on its way out. Sort of how Marvel Comics came out with a character called the Disco Dazzler around 1980 (to their credit, they DID drop the Disco just before its release.)”
My mantra: when everyone else has moved onto podcasts and videocasts and whatever the next technological breakthrough will be, I’ll probably be one of the dinosaurs still blogging.
***
Alan David Doane is BACK! After poking his head out on Groundhog’s Day, he started writing a bit in April and May, but in June, he’s posted with a vengeance (sometimes literally). He even cited, ahem, me. Welcome back, ADD. Those 75 historic e-mails were kind of interesting – except for the weird one about time zones – but I’m glad they’ve stopped.
***
Oh, and I seemed to have inspired Mr. Hembeck, who, in his June 20 post managed to evoke Brian Wilson and a fairly obscure former member of the New York Mets. It even makes sense, in that Hembeckian sort of way. Here’s Fred’s rating:
Mingle2 – Online Dating
No bad words were found.
ROG
Nik Experiences the New Zealand Winter
One of the great things about knowing people who live in other places is that you get perspectives from those other people. For instance, I’d be inclined to say, today is the first day of summer. Or not. But Nik, who I should note I’ve never met personally, only through his writings, is an expat American about to experience winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
Which is a roundabout way of saying: it’s time for my summer/winter solstice edition of (drum roll, please)… Ask Roger Anything, in which you can, well, query myself, er, about any topic. Ask me about the two times I got to shake Nelson Rockefeller’s hand or how many Supreme Court justices I’ve met, or anything about sports or race or politics or religion or music or television or being a librarian. Well, anything except the Dewey Decimal System; that’s as deep dark secret.
You may ask a maximum of 16 questions apiece, except for Gordon, who can ask as many as he wants; bring ’em on, Piscean!
But DON’T ask me bizarro trivia questions, such as the one I saw on Ken Jennings’ blog this month:
Consider the universe of baseball statistics. Forget about ones that are averages, and thus a player’s score can go up or down over time — batting average, ERA, slugging percentage, and the like. Focus on the ones that accumulate. Also, forget about statistics that nobody tracks, like ground rule doubles in extra innings under a full moon on astroturf. Stay with statistics that people have actually heard of.
Now consider that among such statistics there’s the concept of one category being a special case of another. If you do one, you necessarily do the other, but not vice versa (otherwise two statistics would be called “synonyms”). A perfect game is a special case of a no-hitter. A double is a special case of a hit. An at-bat is a special case of a plate appearance. A save is a special case of a game played, but a hit is not because you can have any number of hits in a game.
At last, the question. There are two statistics, one of which is a special case of the other. The career leaders in the two categories — the guys who did each the most times — are different men with the same first and middle names. Who are they?
Oy. I barely understood the QUESTION, let alone had any idea what the answer was.
Anyway,
the
answer
is
Henry Louis (Hank) Aaron holds the record for career home runs (755) and Henry Louis (Lou) Gehrig holds the record for career grand slam home runs (23).
Of course, Barry Bonds is in a well-publicized pursuit of Aaron’s record (currently at 748), and Manny Ramirez, last I checked, stood at 20 Grand Slams. Bonds, BTW, is the career leader of a statistic with his initials: Bases on Balls.
So don’t ask me questions like that.
Underplayed Vinyl: Beach Boys
My first Beach Boys album was Pet Sounds, followed by some of those other late 1960s/early 1970s albums, such as Smiley Smile, Surf’s Up and Holland, plus the pairing of Wild Honey and 20/20. I never owned any of those early beach/surf/cars tunes until I bought those wildly successful double LP compilations, Endless Summer and Spirit of America.
So, when 15 Big Ones came out, complete with the “Brian is back!” mantra, it didn’t have the same meaning to me as it might have for a more faithful BB fan.
1. “Rock And Roll Music” (Chuck Berry) – 2:29
2. “It’s OK” (Brian Wilson/Mike Love) – 2:12
3. “Had To Phone Ya” (Brian Wilson/Mike Love/Diane Rovell) – 1:43
4. “Chapel Of Love” (Jeff Barry/Ellie Greenwich/Phil Spector) – 2:34
5. “Everyone’s In Love With You” (Mike Love) – 2:42
6. “Talk To Me” (J. Seneca) – 2:14
7. “That Same Song” (Brian Wilson/Mike Love) – 2:16
8. “TM Song” (Brian Wilson) – 1:34
9. “Palisades Park” (C. Barris) – 2:27
10. “Susie Cincinnati” (Al Jardine) – 2:57
11. “A Casual Look” (E. Wells) – 2:45
12. “Blueberry Hill” (A. Lewis/L. Stock/V. Rose) – 3:01
13. “Back Home” (Brian Wilson/Bob Norberg) – 2:49
14. “In The Still Of The Night” (F. Parris) – 3:03
15. “Just Once In My Life” (Gerry Goffin/Carole King/Phil Spector) – 3:47
The album begins with the Chuck Berry song. Most critics hate this rendition, even though it went to #5 in the charts. I thought it was OK. More than OK, though was “It’s OK”, which to my ears, was vintage Beach Boys. “Had to Phone Ya” was charming. “That Same Song” I loved, as well as “Back Home”, which apparently Brian had around for over a decade. “Susie Cincinnati”, which had been cut from the Sunflower album, I learned from that album’s CD liner notes, was a fun little song. “Talk to Me” was a strange little tune, with weak vocals, but I sorta liked it anyway.
The rest is rather hit or miss. The remaining covers seldom distinguish themselves from the originals, or are far lesser versions, though I appreciated “Palisades Park” for the near slavish imitation it was.
Yet, as I recall, I played the album. Played it a lot, actually. It had enough songs that I liked that I largely ignored the ones I didn’t. I barely remembered the uninspired, but short, “TM Song”, e.g. And it wasn’t that I hated the rest; it was more that it wasn’t as good as it might have been.
15 Big Ones is now available on CD, paired with Love You, the follow-up Beach Boys album, that received far better reviews, at least that I’ve read. I own it, but don’t remember it nearly that well. 15 Big Ones sold better, fueled by that Top 10 single, getting to #8 and going gold, while Love You peaked at #53.
Guess I know what Underplayed Vinyl will be next year. Brian Wilson turns 65 today; who woulda thunk it?
ROG
Why I Own Three (count ’em, 3) Paula Abdul Albums
I was at the Olin family reunion; the Olins are my wife’s mother’s people. They were having their international family event, which they have every lustrum. In 2001, the event was held in my hometown of Binghamton, NY. (The 1996 event was in Fargo, ND; the 2006 in eastern Washington state; 2011, somewhere in Ontario.)
One event was an auction. Many of the items were handmade items, or family treasures; I know Carol got a much-coveted family cookbook with typed or hand-written recipes from various members of the tribe. One lot, though, was for a bunch of mostly classical CDs, maybe 10 or 12 of them. I bid on them, but I was outbid by one of Carol’s cousins in her late teens. Truth is I probably could have put in a pre-emptive bid, but it didn’t seem sporting to overbid a poor high school student. She was really happy to get a dozen classical albums for $20, but what the heck was she going to do with three Paula Abdul CDs? She looked SO pained, so apoplectic, that I bought them from her, for $8 or $10, which she appreciated at a couple levels: she was rid of the albatross AND the albums she REALLY want were even cheaper.
I was recalling this as I finished my annual playing of my entire collection of Paula Abdul albums – Forever Your Girl, Shut Up and Dance (The Dance Remixes), and Spellbound, in anticipation of today, Paula’s 45th birthday. I don’t care what you say: I really like Straight Up. The rest of it: eh, not so much. I didn’t really go through a phase of eighties divas – Paula, Taylor, Madonna, Expose, and Gloria – like some people I know.
***
I’ve had a long-standing affection for the Traveling Wilburys and have Volumes 1 and 3, now out of print. I’m having a hard time thinking about buying the re-release, despite Nik’s appealing review. So, I decided to go to You Tube and watch a couple videos, including the star-laden Wilbury Twist, at lunchtime yesterday. But by 9 p.m. EDT yesterday, the Twist video that I saw only hours earlier was “no longer available due to a copyright claim by Warner Music Group”; it’s part of the new collection. However, what remains on You Tube is the 2007 version, with more George, Bob, Tom, and Jeff. No Wonder Years kids, Milli Vanilli, Cheech Marin, Whoopi Goldberg, or Woody Harrelson, but the John Candy/Eric Idle intro remains.
***
A link to reviews of Paul McCartney’s new album, Memory Almost Full. A couple of them have links to the music and/or videos from the album.
ROG