Category: Life

The Meme Meme

Chip Camden tagged me in a meme that asks the very relevant question, “why do you respond to memes?”  Before I went off the grid for a while, there was some debate about the merit of memes, with some people defending them and others comparing them to chain letters and similar annoyances.  I’ll resist the temptation to wonder how anyone who has a blog could conclude that memes are a waste of their time and just answer the question.

Here are the requested 5 reasons why I respond to most memes:

1) Memes are conversation starters, and conversation is the reason I write a blog and the reason I subscribe to blogs.

2) Memes allow us to find out more about each other in an efficient manner.  Since most of the people who converse cross-blog will never meet in the real world, memes are a good way to find out how the guy who writes about one topic feels about others.  I was at a closing dinner the other night and one of the hosts asked everyone at the table to name his or her favorite movie.  I was happily surprised at how many other people picked a goofy movie (my choice was, of course, The Holy Grail).  Memes are a way to do that sort of thing on a distributed basis.

3) I am appreciative that someone cares enough to ask what I think about something.  So many people are great talkers and bad listeners.  A meme is, at least to some extent, a way to listen.  It’s handing over the microphone to someone else- to let them have their turn.

4) I suspect that memes probably piss off those who take themselves too seriously.  That makes me want to go all meme all the time.  Life is too often hard and serious.  Blogging should be silly and fun.

5) I had to do some thinking to come up with a 5th reason, but upon reflection I realized that I like to see if I can predict who will respond to a meme and who won’t.  Someone who ignores the offered meme is often telling you more than the person who answers.  I have always been (to a fault some people say) a student of human nature.  Memes serve as little human nature experiments.

So here are my five (with a brief note as to why they were selected).  Name five reasons why you do (or do not) respond to memes.

Amy Gahran (a lot of my conversational approach to blogging originated from reading her blogs)
Scot Karp (we started blogging around the same time, and I am impressed with how he turned his blog into a must-read)
Hugh MacLeod (he’s a long time A-Lister who has always struck me as a regular guy (in a good way))
Rockstar Mommy (I don’t know her, but it’s one of my favorite recent blog discoveries)
Ian Delaney (just because he’s a smart guy and a great writer)

My prediction (see number 5 above): 3 out of 5.

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Catching Up on the Reading List

I’ve been off the grid for a couple of months, working hard, resting a little and trying to figure out how important this blogging business is to me.  During this time I read a few books.  Here’s a quick take on each:

theroadCormac McCarthy – The Road: Anything that combines my favorite southern literature writer and science fiction has got to be good.  And it was.  My only complaint is that is wasn’t Stand-like in length as well as tone.

Tom Franklin – Smonk: I really liked Hell at the Breech, but this was too over the top for me.  I thought parts of it were amusing, but on the whole I was disappointed.

Michael Lewis – Blind Side: A buddy of mine gave me this book.  I hadn’t read any of Lewis’s books since Liar’s Poker.  It is a very good read.  I learned a lot about college football recruiting.  The part where Lou Saban and Phil Fulmer go to the kid’s house is worth the price all by itself.

William Gay – Twilight: I love all of Gay’s books, including this one.  It’s not quite on par with Provinces of Night, but average William Gay is still better than the best work of almost anyone else.

I’m looking for something new to read.  Recommendations appreciated via Comment.

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Must-See Concert Film

I was channel surfing tonight and came across a 2005 concert film by The Cure, one of my favorite bands.

It’s playing on channel 95 on DirecTV and, I believe, on another non-HD channel.

Robert Smith has always been an absolutely amazing songwriter and performer, and unlike some of my old favorites, The Cure looks and sounds as good in 2005 as they did back in the 80’s when records like Faith, Pornography (<– the Cure record, for the benefit of Google caches), The Head on the Door and Disintegration blew my mind for the first time.

I highly recommend this film for any fans of great music.

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Calling All Photographers

photoshopI have reluctantly concluded that in order to take my new passion for photography to the desired level, I am going to have to learn Photoshop.  I can’t adequately describe the dread inherent in that phrase.

About 8 or so years ago, I took a deep breath and bought Photoshop.  At the time, I found it to be about 65,000 times more complicated than I thought it needed to be.  I gave up and decided to learn Pascal, Latin and Chinese instead.  At the same time.  While jumping rope.  It was much easier.

But having seen so much of Thomas Hawk‘s great photography and having read a few tutorials on the various photography sites, I have to jump back into that great ball of confusion.

What are the best books to read to learn Photoshop?  Are there better ways to learn it?

I need something that is easy to follow, but comprehensive enough to allow me to know what can be done with photos, as well as how to do it.

Suggestions will be appreciated!

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Great Music Film – Festival Express

festivalexpress

I watched one of, and perhaps the, best music films I have ever seen tonight.

Festival Express.  It’s available at Amazon, and via Netflix.

In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying some of the world’s greatest rock bands. The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, The Band, Buddy Guy, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, Ian & Sylvia and others traveled, partied and played great music together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts.

It was all filmed.

The concert footage is great- the first number by The Band is worth the rental all by itself.  But the best parts are the impromptu jam sessions that occurred on the train between concerts.

I love this film, and recommend it highly to any fan of great music.

Where Does the Fulcrum Lie?

Hugh has a funny drawing and an interesting post about the work vs leisure schism.

The real question in my mind is whether, taken as a whole, technology has been used to create more work time or more leisure time- or maybe both.

I have thought a lot (don’t ask me why this keeps popping into my head, but it does) about how much easier it is to get things done at night now than it was 125 years ago.  Back then, most of the work around these parts was done outside.  After the sun went down, it was pretty hard to work the fields, manage livestock, build fences, etc.

Then comes the engine and electricity, and all of the sudden lighting things up- houses, cars, tractors, etc. became much easier.  The efficient work day was expanded by hours.  At the same time, however, technology was making the work easier and faster.

Other technological advancements- typewriters, telephones, airplanes, computers, word processing, fax machines and the internet added to this effect. 

So you had a longer period of time to do what took less time to do.

And leisure time was born.

Some took advantage of this extra time to work less, and some used it to work more.  Over a hundred or so years, different philosophies about work and leisure (which includes not only playing golf and goofing off, but also family related activities) evolved.

Some believe that devoting much of this extra time to work will have a proportionate effect on their income and place on the corporate ladder.  That’s probably true to a point- I have certainly devoted a good chunk of my technology-created extra time to work.

But where’s the sweet spot?  At what point does the return from another hour at the office diminish to the point it is no longer efficient?  At what point does an extra dollar become less important than an extra hour with your kids- who grow up so fast?

This is a hard equation for people like me – and I suspect Hugh also- who have a hard time really relaxing.  I know that if I don’t have a project at home to work on, I get very fidgety.

But sometimes, you simply have to- or at least need to- slow down a little.

I don’t like new age semantics any more than Hugh does, but I think balance is the right word for this.

I’m not sure where the fulcrum lies, but I know it’s very hard in this technological world to hold up both ends of life all the time.

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Games People Play: Newsome Family Games

I’ve really enjoyed Mike Miller’s Be a Good Dad blog.  It keeps me thinking about my most important job- being a good dad to my kids.

One of my great joys is playing games with my kids.  Here are a few of the games we play.

The Game

This car game is a Newsome family original, though I bet many families have made up similar games.  Luke is too little to play, so we divide up into two teams.  One parent and one kid on each. Each team counts the following things (only the first team to point it out gets to count it): Volkswagon Beetles, police cars, school buses, taxis, planes, helicopters, water towers, cats, dogs, mommy cars and daddy cars (being the same make, model and color, but not necessarily the same year).

This is our most long-standing game, and is simply called “The Game.”

The Alphabet Game

This car game is the same one played by generations of families.  In our version, it’s each player for himself (no teams).  Only one letter per sign can be counted, so if one person gets a letter from a big sign first, the other players can’t get any letters from that sign.  Pylon signs, even those with multiple panels, are considered a single sign.  The kids can use license plate letters (very helpful for the X’s and Z’s), but the grown-ups can’t.

Before Delaney could identify letters, we played a derivative of this game called the sign game, similar to “I Spy,” in which we took turns pointing out a sign (“I see a Wendy’s sign”).  If someone sees it before it’s out of view, it becomes that person’s turn.

I Spy

“I spy with my little eye…a lizard.”

This classic game is a restaurant favorite of ours.  Players can ask for the following hints: high, low or medium; in this room (since you can often see outside or into other rooms at restaurants); statue or not (since many of the restaurants we go to have little ceramic, concrete or plastic animals, etc. scattered about).

Who’s Missing

This is our current favorite.  I like it because it teaches concentration and memory.  One of the kids will assemble 10-15 of their little plastic animals.  Most of them are dogs, cats or other small mammals and they are 1 to 2 inches tall.  My kids name all their toy animals, and so most of them have permanent names.  The kids will teach me the names of the animals, and then remove one or two of them while I close my eyes.  I have to figure out which ones are missing and tell them by name.  Then I do the same to them.  It’s a lot more fun than it sounds, and the kids really get into it.

The secret is to move some of the ones you don’t remove around to mess up the pattern.

Family Soccer

I’ve talked about this family staple before.  We have a small soccer field in the yard.  Either I play one of the kids one on one, or we have two teams, with one kid and one grown-up on each.  There are trees at roughly the 40 yard line that grown-ups cannot go beyond.  In other words, an adult can’t get too close to the other team’s goal, so their kicks have to be from pretty far away.  The kids can go anywhere thay want, including right to the opponent’s goal.

These rules make it surprisingly fun and competitive, though the rules will have to be adjusted soon to give me a chance, since my kids are getting bigger, faster and better at soccer.

We have lots of other games we play, including board games like Sorry, Trouble and Clue.

What are some of your favorite family games we should try?

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Jericho- Looks Very Promising

 

jericho

I just watched the series premiere of Jericho, and so far I’d say it is shaping up to be a great show.  Lots of good stuff in the first episode- that was an intense moment when they realized that Atlanta had been blown up too.

Most shows I like (Surface, Invasion, Threshold, etc.) get canceled almost immediately, so I hope I’m not cursing this show, but I am looking forward to it.

TVSquad has a mixed, but mostly positive review.

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Portraits are Expensive in Cali

Thomas Hawk writes about his recent experience having a family portrait done.

His wife won/bought an allegedly free 8×10 portrait at a charity auction and afterwards, Thomas and his family had a ton of pictures taken. They got their “free” 8×10 and paid two large for 11 other 5×7 photos.

First, getting hit up for more money is, in my experience, par for the course when you “win” something like this at a charity function. I have been in the same situation, and while it will be an ice cold day in you know where when I pay almost $200 a piece for some 5x7s, I have certainly spent more money on “free” things my wife “won” via a charity than I would have had we not bought said item in the name of good deeds.

Maybe Thomas is a zillionaire and this is chump change to him, but I think $200 a pop for a bunch of 5x7s is an absurd price. And to then try to get him to pay “thousands of dollars” for a wall sized print?

I wish I had skipped high school, college and graduate school and learned how to take good pictures.

Maybe I have lived a poor, sheltered life, but I think the portraits we got at JC Penney look just fine. And the ones we got for a couple of hundred bucks (for multiple copies of a set of photos) from a photographer friend our ours look even better. Plus, we have a big, artsy portrait of the girls on our wall that we got, also at a charity auction, for a couple hundred dollars (I thought that was too much at the time).

In sum, I would have to win the powerball 2 or 3 times in a row before the idea of paying thousands of dollars for one big photograph could pass my ears without invoking laughter or violence.

Then, after Thomas pays $2,000 for those prints, the photographer tells him (at least twice) that he better not scan them to view on his media center computer.

I don’t know whether fair use doctrine applies to portraits or not, but I know that for $200 a pop, Thomas ought to be able to wallpaper his house with those pictures without complaint from the photographer.

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