The Subtle Knife

It was a pretty good weekend for me...

On the training side of things, I got a really nice long run in on Saturday, and then went out and purchased a new bike... I'm pretty stoked about the whole thing, but I'll spare you the details. If you're interested however, I have pics and more details on my other blog.

Saturday night, I finished reading The Subtle Knife, which is the second book in the "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman. It's the one that follows The Golden Compass. It's an excellent read, although each time I read I'm faced with a challenge. Part of me wants to read and re-read each section until I fully grasp what the author is trying to convey, the other part of me wants to keep reading because the story line is so gripping. The parallels between our world and the one in the book are amazing and the devices that Mr. Pullman uses to illustrate his idea's are nothing short of genius. The second part of me is winning right now, but as soon as I finish the last book, I'll be starting over, and reading much more slowly and deliberately.

Finally, it appears that we're down to just a couple of patches of snow in the yard. It's raining currently, but I suspect that too will soon be over. I haven't been this excited for Spring and Summer in a long time. Not that I haven't enjoyed Winter, but the warmer months are just that much more fun.

Bring it on...

This morning, The Amazing Mediocre Gatsby wrote a blog all about what he would do for the love of his life... It's pretty good and has inspired me to try something.

Do you know that after almost a full year of blogging, I'm only on 1 person's blog roll? And that person had me on even before I started the blog itself? The one person who believes in me is Gatsby but I'd like to think there are more...

I want to be on your blog roll!

If fact I am willing to do almost anything to make that happen... Post your idea's as to what it might take, and I'll give it my best shot.

Oh, and I also noticed that I got bumped up 1 notch on Gatsby's list, so I guess he gets to make a request as well! Thanks Gats

Websites - Not as safe as you think...

Hey, Check this website out! It's safe for your computer, and well worth the laugh. It might take a little while to load, but once it does, give it a couple of seconds and see what happens.

http://producten.hema.nl/

Six Things Everyone Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18

I got tagged by someone.... I think this may well be my first. The person initiating the tag was Frank Staheli. The topic is....

Six Things Everyone Should Accomplish Before They Turn 18

1. Hold a Job
   Whether this is just a paper route, summers on a farm or a part time job at the local store. I think you need to learn how the world works, and the value of hard work.


2. Support a Cause
   So you can learn that there is something more important that you out there, but that you can make a difference. It doesn't really matter what the cause it, just that you have a chance to feel a passion for something.


3. Stand up for Something
   It doesn't matter what it is, but you need to stand up for something. Preferably something that gets you out of your comfort zone and teaches you to have a back-bone.


4. Learn to think
   One of my favorite quotes is "I think therefore I am dangerous". If you can think, it'll be more difficult for people to fool you. You'll also experience far more from the world around you if you approach it with an open mind.


5. Have a Pet
   Every kid needs a dog, cat, hamster or some other creature. It'll teach you to love, care for and ultimately learn about the whole circle of life.


6. Enjoy Themselves to the Fullest
   I think few people appreciate the care-free enjoyment that comes with youth, more than those who no longer have it. I wish I had enjoyed it more, and been less concerned with growing up as soon as I could.

So that's my list...

I hereby tag (as prescribed by the originator of this)

Here's the game plan
Ron and Jessica
The Mediocre Gatsby
Esteban (This one could be scary)
The Dancing Mouse
CAW

By being so tagged you are under no obligation to do it, but if you want to...

Sara Bareilles Concert - The Review

So, you might be asking.... Who is Sara Bareilles?

Sara Bareilles is an incredibly talented singer, piano player, song writer from Northern California. I'm not too enlightened about her history, but you could probably found out more about her from her Web Site.

Anyway, there is a DJ on the local radio station (KENZ-FM - 101.9 The End) called Parker who entertains me on the way home from work each day. He does an excellent job. One of his talents seems to be finding new artists. The following video (Click Here - Coz they won't let me embed it.) is actually from a show which I remember hearing as I drove home from work one day. It's Sara hearing Love Song on the radio for the first time.

OK, so with that introduction out the way, let me get to her concert...

Saturday night at the Velour Live Music Club in Provo. It was freakin' cold. We got there at about 6:30 and then found out that the concert didn't start at 7:30, that was when the doors opened. The one payoff was that we got with 2 rows of the front. Standing room only, and it was then that my wife decided she doesn't like concerts where you stand. I pulled rank though, so there we stayed!

At 8pm. Javier Dunn came on stage. He got a pretty good reception, and we just assumed he was local, and obviously a favorite of the crowd. It turns out he is actually the lead guitarist for Sara's Band. He played for about 45 minutes, and it was excellent. He was funny and an absolutely incredible guitar player. I'm trying to learn right now, so I really appreciate that side of things. I'll include a video of his from YouTube at the end of this post. It's not the best video, but it's not bad. We ended up buying one of his CD's as well after the show.

At 9pm Sara came on stage. My first thoughts were that she has no idea just how big she is. This isn't a bad thing. She looked genuinely grateful to have everyone there, and even looked a tad nervous for the first song or two. Her performance was excellent. She interacted well with the crowd, cracked a couple of good jokes and I think that about covers it. Well except for the fact that she is real and genuine, something most other stars seem to be lacking. My favorite part of the night was her telling the story behind Love Song. I mentioned it in my post yesterday, but it really got me thinking about my life, and how I let other people affect me. I appreciated her sharing it.

The only negative from the night is, that it would have been nice to meet her after the show, but I suspect that line might well have taken all night.

If she comes back to Utah again, we're committed to buying tickets. She made the comment that they don't normally headline shows, but I seriously think they could and at a much larger venue as well. Maybe next time we'll get to see her at The Depot. It's bigger but still small enough to be personal.

Excellent, Excellent show.

As a final note... When you sign up on her mailing list, you get to download Love Song - not only is she talented, but she's grateful for fans, something Britany and the other stars could do well to learn from, although, I'm not sure if they're even in the same league as Sara. She definitely has one up, if not more on Brit and the other Studio produced artists out there.

And here's the YouTube clip of Javier, as promised.

A Grand Prize and Mild Schizophrenia

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know the range of topics is pretty broad. I share everything from interesting life events to my opinions of religion and politics.

I've found that my opinions, while a passionate topic for me, are probably not often read or appreciated by others - not a bad thing, there just seems to be a surplus of angry white men with opinions out there, and I have yet to find a niche I can uniquely fill.

So with that in mind, so changes are under way in the world of the Urban Koda...

Change #1 - I purchased the urbankoda.com domain a year or 2 ago, intending to use it as a different brand for my home business. That didn't work so well, and first client I had on it ended up screwing me (Well not literally, and being a somewhat older lady, I'm just grateful that wasn't the case!) Anyway, I have repositioned that domain and intend doing more with it in the future. Right now it just points to this blog.

Change #2 - I've added 2 other blogs.

Koda Fit is going to be devoted to my escapades into increased physical fitness. Something got tweaked in my brain last year, and somehow now I enjoy undergoing intense physical pain. If you want to keep track of my triathlons, marathons, yoga and other stuff, you might enjoy it. Check it later today for a review of the new Yoga DVD I tried last night.

Koda Think Tank is going to be the blog where I hide all my political and religious rantings and ravings. I'm not expecting much traffic, but the big benefit is I will now have an outlet other than my wife to spew my opinions on.

Change #3 - I'm going to work on marketing my blog a little more. Sometime in the next week on Koda Fit, I'm going to have a chance for a reader to win a 6 month gym membership at the University of Utah Rec Center. Please let me know if you would like to be considered for that... I'm also planning on offering incentives for people to trade links with me and a few other things still in the process. If you want to consider putting a link on your blog to mine, let me know your price - I don't have much money but will consider interesting trades!

Anyway, so hopefully with those changes in place, or coming, you can read this blog with out being offended or wondering why I have yet to slit my wrists, and it you want to see either the dark side of my mind which is religion and politics, or the wacky fitness side, you know where to go as well.

Spiritual Experience

I had an interesting experience on Saturday night. As you may have noticed, I've kind of had a wee chip on my shoulder this week - OK, so it was a big chip, but never-the-less, there was still a chip.

For Christmas, I got the missus, tickets to the Sara Bareillis concert in Provo, Saturday night. I'm going to do another blog later today or tomorrow about the concert itself, but there was something she said that rang a chord with me, and got rid of that wee little chip!

Sara is a singer/songwriter and immensely talented. Midway through the concert she stopped to introduce a song and shared the story of how the song come into being. For some time, she'd been turning songs into her record company, only to have them reject them. It got to the point where she was pretty depressed and just not enjoying the whole process any more. Part that then struck me, was that she then got upset with herself, and I quote, "For giving a shit what other people thought about what she was doing."

She decided to sit down and write the most honest song she could and hopefully use that as a springboard to get back to who she really was and what she enjoyed doing.

The song she wrote was "Love Song". It has been her biggest hit to date. The crowd went wild.

Some people made some mistakes last week. Whether they were right or not, is not up to me, and when it comes down to it, I really shouldn't give a crap what they think of me, or I think of them.

I've been feeling much better since!

Right back at you...

I'm a little ticked off... I saw a news headline as I went to bed last night, heard a little bit of the story, and as I was up with a screaming kid at 2am this morning I thought about it some more.

Let me give some background. Mexico has a corrupt government and limited opportunities for it's citizens. Their government actually encourages illegal immigration across the US Border. The US government has taken a policy of allowing this to take place and actually gone as far as providing protection to these people from law enforcement and even offering welfare benefits and free medical care. It doesn't remove the fact however that the people who choose to cross the border do it illegally and are classified as illegal immigrants. Being illegal means that there is a law and you have broken it. The immigration system is broken and needs to be fixed, but that is a separate issue.

I am an immigrant too. I however came in legally, have spent thousands of dollars becoming naturalized and am doing my best to contribute to the economy. I don't want welfare handouts, and I don't take welfare hand outs.

In recent years, the Utah legislature passed a law that would give illegal aliens the ability to apply for a driving card. This way they could drive legally and apply for insurance. Currently they are considering revoking this program.

From what I understand, the new First Presidency of the LDS Church sent a representative up to Capital Hill to make the statement that the Church urged legislators to consider the lives of those that would be affected by the change in this law, in effect putting their considerable weight behind the cause of illegal immigrants, and with a number of legislators being LDS too, this is a HUGE DEAL.

Lets look at the role the LDS Church has played in Illegal Immigration. Despite an Article of Faith which ends in "obeying, honoring and sustaining the law", they have no problem welcoming in new members and giving them full fellowship despite them being illegal immigrants. They have even set up Spanish only congregations so that these people have no reason to assimilate into the American culture, which is a huge problem too, but a separate issue.

With this last decision of theirs, it looks to me like the Church is just giving illegal immigrants the biggest of thumbs up, which I guess means that someone like me, who has done it the legal way is simply getting the good old middle finger from them.

Thanks guys! Right back at you!

Valentines Day and the Hollow Man

This will be my second post for the day... Kind of sad when it's Valentines day I guess...

Many of you know the religion which with I generally associate myself. I won't mention it again, because I think this may be a problem amongst religions in general, although it is pretty pronounced in mine. I used to be pretty devout, but the more I see, the less I am inclined to align myself perfectly with it. That's not to say I'm not committed to the principles, but the organization surrounding those principles has some serious problems.

I have a friend who's having a problem with his localized leader. Basically this guy was told by the guy above him that their area would be requiring a higher standard of obedience than other parts of the church. Apparently this standard doesn't apply to pride, because doing this has the effect of making them better than everyone else (And that's almost a direct quote!) I won't go into specifics, but his wife made a comment after meeting with the local leader this past weekend. She described him as a hollow man, not having any soul, just deferring to the guy above him and repeating that things would not change, and this is just the way it is.

I guess you can't blame the guy, the entire organization seems to be under the mistaken impression that it is evil to question anything that comes down from the top, or anywhere between you and the top.

I have another associate who is involved in handling cases where there has been abuse and other misconduct committed by leaders within this same organization.

So with that I sit watching a documentary on PBS last night about the religion. One of the top guys comes on and makes this comment. "It is wrong to question the leaders of this Church. Even is that leader is wrong."

If you'll pardon my language, but that my friends, is 100% Bullshit. When there are any number of perverted, sexual deviants who have used their positions of authority to victimize kids and other people, the idea that you still shouldn't question authority is dead wrong.

I've mentioned in the past the problems with Religion. This is perhaps the biggest.

The Golden Compass Reviewed

I've made mention of the Golden Compass before. My story of not seeing the movie yet has been long and sad. I did just however finish the book and was very, very impressed.

I find myself surround with overly zealous and closed minded family and associates, all of which felt it necessary to warn me about the evils of this literary work. A few responded to my reply email by asking to what I thought of the book. Below is the review that will be going out the them today. I expect at least one reply telling me that I am on a steady course straight to hell - it won't be the first from this particular person... As long as they aren't there when I get there, I think I'll score it a win!!


When the Golden Compass was released as a movie last year, I received a number of emails from people warning me about the dangers of this movie and cautioning me to avoid it at all costs and especially to protect my children from it.

Things like this intrigue me, because it seemed that those initiating the email campaign had no idea what the book was about, but never-the-less felt obligated to warn the world about it. I had also seen the trailer for the movie and was very impressed with the animation and was planning on seeing it when it came out.

Ultimately I decided to investigate further and went and purchased the book. Not only did I buy The Golden Compass, but I bought the entire Trilogy by Pullman, entitled, His Dark Materials.

Before I begin this review, let me say that I highly recommend reading the book. It is incredibly well written, and while a work of fiction, I think it identifies many problems that society faces today. My review will likely reveal some of the plot, so if you plan on reading it, you probably don't want to read the rest of this.

It's hard to know where to start, but I think I'll go through the story briefly, explaining as I go and discussing what I took from the it.

The first book is based around a character called Lyra Belacqua and her daemon called Pantalaimon. This may be where most people freak out. Let me just state for your peace of mind that a daemon is not the same thing as a demon.

Lyra is not from our world. In her world, which is parallel with ours, a person's soul or spirit exists outside their bodies, and takes the form of an animal companion. I think the use of this by the author is incredible, because he is then able to provide a way to show how people interact at different levels in a conversation. For instance, at a point midway through the book, an older lady is trying to manipulate Lyra into giving her something. While on a person to person level the conversation comes across as cordial and caring, the interaction of Lyra's daemon and the daemon of the older lady allow us to observe the manipulation on a spiritual level.

Something else about the daemons is that in children, they are able to change form, while as a person approaches adulthood, their daemons settle into a constant form. Depending on the situation and how Lyra reacts to it, her daemon switches from a moth to a wild cat to a hawk and many other forms. I think this shows how a childs spirit has incredible potential and is very adaptable, but as we get older we settle into a belief system and hold to that for the rest of our lives.

As the story progresses, it becomes apparent that Lyra has a mission to accomplish. Her mission has been prophesied for some time and is well know to those important positions around her. Interestingly enough, Lyra can not be told about her mission, she has to determine her life's course for herself.

At the beginning of her mission, Lyra is given an alethiometer. An alethiometer is a device for determining truth and resembles a golden compass, hence the name of the book and movie. Lyra learns how to use this device and it becomes invaluable to her in knowing what is going on around her. In our world where we are surrounded by people with hidden agenda's, evil intent, or other nefarious intentions, I think we have all been given an alethiometer of sorts to determine the truth. It might be called different things, but ultimately each of us can find the truth within ourselves.

Now lets look at the plot itself. At the time Lyra starts her mission, children are being abducted and rumor has it that they are being taken to the North, basically from England to what I think might be a northern European country, Greenland or somewhere else inside the Arctic Circle.

Meanwhile, there is a conflict developing between the Catholic Church and Scientists. The Church are attempting to control science and Scientists are starting to come out in open rebellion against the Church for hiding the truth. This seems to bear a lot of resemblances to what happened in the Dark Ages, but I think a lot of this goes on today as well. I'll spare you my thoughts on that though, as I don't want to detract from the book.

Through various events, Lyra finds herself headed North with a group of rescuers to find the abducted children. It turns out that the children where abducted by the General Oblations Board (The Gobblers), a council of the Church and that experiments are being conducted where the child's spiritual connections to their daemons are being severed and the results (death, often painful and extremely dramatic) are observed and studied. While it seems extreme, I think in many cases today, religions seek to exercise control over the individuals soul, rather than supporting the individual to discover their true potential and freedom of choice.

I personally feel that every human on earth has a divine potential greater than any of us currently realize. Our mission, as is Lyra's is to discover the truth and follow it. Our best tools to do this, lie within ourselves.

That is the essence of the story in a nutshell, as I finished the first book, I was tempted to go back and read it again. There are references made to Adam and Eve and the creation of the earth as it concluded, and I think there is a good deal more to those those comments that I initially understand when reading through them. However as I then started reading the second book, a whole new world emerged... literally and figuratively. I'm definitely going to be rereading the trilogy once I get done, but for now, I think I'm taking a straight shot through to the end.

Some side notes in conclusion of things that impressed me about the book and the author...

The author is an atheist. Atheist's are believed to be the religious group most discriminated against in the United States. I am not an atheist myself, but I know many who have chosen this path. They are good people, and just because I don't agree with them on some issues, does not mean I can't learn from them on others. Mr. Pullman used to be a high school teacher. He developed a habit of making outrageous comments to his students to get them to think outside the box, and not to accept what he told them without considering the truth and value of it. It would seem he has continued to do this in interviews about his book and the movie, and unfortunately these are the sound bites that closed minded zealots use to discredit an otherwise excellent book.

Witches play an important role in the story as well. There are various clans of witches, with different beliefs and cultures. At one point in the book, a witch is guiding Lyra and her party through a terrible snow storm, whilst wearing only a tattered silk dress. Lyra asks her about cold, and the witch responds that although she feels the cold, that it won't kill her. She doesn't enjoy being cold, but if she were to bundle up in furs and other warm clothing, she would miss out on the touch of starlight and other sensations on her skin. I think sometimes we protect ourselves against something to such an extent that not only is the offending element repelled, but many other wonderful and noteworthy things are missed as well.

I guess that sums this book up. There may be parts that you might not agree with, but you don't have to agree with them to enjoy the book. From what I understand of the author, he would consider himself a failure if people read the book and blindly accepted his view point. Rather I think he seeks to entertain his audience and more importantly to get them to think about the world around them.

I still haven't seen the movie but that's another long and sad story that I won't bore you with. I do however plan on purchasing it when it comes out on DVD and am planning on sharing both the movie and the book with my children as they get older.

Better than Seinfeld

I forget how, it may well have been through a comment on the dilbert blog, but I ran across a blog by a bloke in the UK last week, and today he came out with an absolute gem... Sure he didn't come up with it, if fact it may well have been a fellow american, but the fact remains, it is absolutely hilrious...

Click here to read it.

The Weekend Report

Alright, I'm reporting back on the Valium and other drug experiments of the weekend. This also includes a full report on my TV and movie watching as well.

I ended up taking the Valium at 8:15 and then driving - well, being driven up to Ogden to see the doctor. All things considered it wasn't a bad experience. I was expecting a little more kick from the Valium, but all I got was that cotton ball feeling in my head, like I was sitting in a sauna or something. I was sent home an hour later with a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine. I had a couple on Friday, 2 on Saturday and then decided that they just made me feel worse, so I guess I'll keep the rest for a special occasion... Which will most likely be a drug flushing ceremony 5 years after they expire.

Friday saw me finish up Season 1 of Arrested Development and start on season 2. We purchased a Media PC for the bedroom a few weeks back, and discovered the beta test for Internet TV through Media Center... It has three seasons of Arrested Development included. The viewing was interrupted by the wife who wanted to watch Ghost Whisperer, but that wasn't a bad break.

Saturday saw continued viewing of Arrested Development, while my 5 year old daughter snuggled up to me in the bed. I also begun the day with plan to do a juice fast, but that ended as soon as the wife's friend brought over subways and cheetos. I did resist the cup cakes though, at least until right before they left.

That night I finished Season 3 of Arrested Development - which was when the show was cancelled, and then at around 11:30pm, I started on "The Brave One". I should probably mention that I took a 5 hour nap in the afternoon. I would give this movie 4 and a half stars out of 5. I thought the acting was good, and the story line was sufficient to keep me awake until 2 am. It's a wee bit bloody, but nothing too bad.

Sunday saw my first trip out of the house, and an attempt to teach a Sunday School class about Freedom of Choice and Obedience - I just can't do that anymore, since I think the two principles are in opposition - The kids didn't mind since they talked about everything from fashion to "Shredding on some sweet verts"

Sunday afternoon I watched SWAT, punctuated by a delicious dinner and then finished reading The Golden Compass. I'm still trying to gather my thoughts on that. I'm tempted to read it again, but then I also want to start on the next book and find out what happens. I intend writing a full report on the book later this week. Excellent, excellent read. Sadly I think I share more beliefs with an atheist, than those with whom I attend religious services with.

So in looking back... I accomplished very little this weekend, but feel pretty rested today. I also watched an entire online broadcast of a Gomez concert from Chicago. If you haven't heard of them, I'd recommend giving them a listen.

In lieu of todays' mashup I'm including the following clip. The song is See the World by Gomez, the video was made by someone else, but it's not too bad.

Drug Experimentation

I have a Valium at home. It was one of the drugs found in Heath Ledger's system, and so partially to blame for his accidental over-dose. It's supposed to make you relaxed. I think it might be an anti-depressant or something.

Generally I'm opposed to taking drugs... I use Ibuprofen a lot with running, and I think I take about 45-50 capsules of various supplements and amino acids a day, but they're all natural - I promise!

Tomorrow morning though, I shall be taking a wee trip on the Valium express. It's a small blue pill and only contains 10mg of the drug. It's scheduled to go down the hatch at 8am. I am not planning on operating any motor vehicles there-after.

I shall give a full report, once I escape the effects of it and some other drugs this weekend.

US Political Cliff Notes

This is the Wise Wednesday piece, but I forgot to do it yesterday, even though I thought it up Tuesday, but I'll save you that boring side of it...

I think I've figured out US Politics. Before I came over here I didn't know what a Republican or a Democrat was... For those overseas, or who are over here and not sure, this is what I've figured out...

By definition and tradition:

Republicans are typically conservative. Their philosophy is that old laws can apply to new circumstances through correct interpretation.

Democrats are typically progressive or liberal. Their philosophy is that you should just keep writing new laws.

I watched a documentary on JFK's assisination a while back. He was a democrat. It talked a little about the conspiracy theories and aluded that Nixon, a republican, changed how Republicans did things when he took office.

It would seem that Republican leadership started doing more under the board to manipulate the country. They started being sneaky.

Democrats meanwhile became Socialist, wanting to tax the people more, but offer more government benefits.

There has been some cross over recently, with current administration spending money like a crack whore and offering more and more welfare programs, and democrats becoming more and more devious.

So my summary of the two parties is this, and bear in mind there is a lot of cross over.

Neither party trusts you to live responsibly.

Republicans just do whatever they think is best and tell you it in your best interest.

Democrats want to control your money, and then use welfare programs to manipulate you into living the life they want you to.

Both parties use fear and slander to make you think the other party is the enemy. Once you step back from the crap though, you realize that we're all in this together, and the politicians are just a bunch of scum sucking, bottom feeding, turd for brains arseholes you wouldn't trust to sit the right way on a toilet seat.

Bring it on Secret Service, I'm not the one reporting to a monkey!

Almost feels like Spring

Well after I wrote that wee blog this morning, I went and did some research online about the SPP - the thing that people are calling the North American Union. I'm not sure if I know exactly what it is yet, but one thing is for sure... There is way too much BS flying around about it, from both sides of the aisle. Lying scumbags!

When I did a Linus certification some years ago (Yes, I have never denied being a geek) we looked at Microsofts response to Linux and it involved a FUD approach - Fear, Uncertainty and Death. Never a good approach, but it seems to work with brain dead people. Looks like that's what the conservative right are doing with this. Guess I've changed a lot in recent years.

Anyway, so feeling bummed out by that, I have since found that I wasted the 100th post on this blog talking about it - double bummer!

The day did get better though. In Salt Lake today, it is sunny with blue skies. According to The Weather Channel it is 25 degrees (or 4 below for those used to Celcius). I suspect it may be a little warmer, since the snow is melting pretty quickly.

I ended up running up the City Creek Canyon with someone from work. I haven't run in over a week, and the person I went with is pretty slow. That said, it was a beautiful run. The snow is still bright and clean, and you can see deer tracks traversing the mountains. The air is clear, the sky is deep blue, and I got so hot, that I was almost tempted to remove the gloves. We did 4 miles at a leisurely pace. I feel fan-freaking-tastic.

I am really, really excited for spring.

North American Union

I along with many Americans are concerned with the sneaky partnership being forged by our government and those of Canada and Mexico. A blog I often read had an excellent article on this today, and on something being done to combat it. I applaud the Utah Representatives for taking the initiative.

Click here for the article.

Games People Play

I had kind of a ho-hum weekend. The highlights were watching the Giants win the Superbowl last night, and parts of taking some of my kids sledding on Saturday. The downside was the whiny side of taking kids sledding, and then a bunch of other crap.

It got me thinking about a song that I used to have by Inner Circle. It was called "Games People Play" I'm not sure how much the song relates to what I was thinking, but it was a pretty cool song. Actually it brought back the memory I had to teach a bunch of teenagers how to do the foxtrot, and the only song I could find with the right beat was this one. There was also the 'La la la la la long' song by the same group, but it was a church group I was teaching and I wasn't sure how appropriate that song was.

My day did start well though - sure I spent most of the night consoling a wee child who is learning to sleep by himself, had to shovel a couple of inches of snow before I left home, and my commute to an extra hour, but then they played Amber by 311 on the radio and it made everything seem bright.

Being monday, you get my weekly pick for the Monday Mash-up... Due to an complete absense of comments on this feature, it may be phased out in the next few weeks. Today's pick is a popular one - I've heard a few versions, but it's Green Day and Oasis. One of the first mashups I'd heard...