But...uh...

I've Moved!

2005-08-02T20:55:00.000-05:00

I've abandoned blogger for WordPress.

Check out the new home of but...uh...

I've got Rhythm

2005-01-25T17:49:00.000-06:00

If you've ever found yourself bored with the bulletproof accuracy and scientific rigor of horoscopes, I suggest you give biorhythms a shot.

Biorhythms. I haven't thought about these things once since learning to plot and compare them at some point in middle school. They're one of those peculiar things buried deep enough in the grey matter to avoid recall, but always at the ready to be recognized when least expected. Like yesterday, when searching for Konfabulator widgets and finding one designed to track the emotional, physical, and mental cycles that were started on the day of my birth.

Interest piqued, some reading and Googling refreshed my memory. A biorhythm is based on the idea that your body undergoes a natural, predictable cycle that can foretell the highs and lows among 3 different axis. The complication is that each factor is a sine wave running at it's own speed. 23 days for the physical, 28 for the emotional and 33 for the intellectual. The times when your cycles are all high, you're firing on all cylinders and life is good. When low, the doldrums are at hand. In between you get all sorts of complicated variations based on the addition of sine waves that only repeat as a group every 58 years or so.

The site I went to for my free biorhythm reading also offers the option to check your biorhythmic compatibility with a number of celebrities as well as with non-celebrities, if you happen to know their birthday. While I'm sure that Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Garner will be sad to know that I think our 94% matches are pure bunk, the idea behind this feature got me thinking about the idea of compatibility and what that really means.

At this site, they compare how often the 2 biorhythms line up in each of the 3 categories. Since the overall length of each person's cycle is the same, there is no variation over time when comparing one factor. For example, if your physical lines are completely out of alignment, they will match only the very small percentage of time when passing each other on the way from top to bottom and never come into alignment. This would be considered a bad match. The idea here is that the more often your rhythms are aligned, the more often you will be experiencing highs and lows of yourself and the relationship at the same time and will thus be more compatible.

At first blush this seems to make perfect sense. It would seem to be bad news if every time one person was feeling frisky the other had a headache or something like that. However, further examination of the composite curves leads me to another conclusion.

When the 2 cycles are most matched, this leads to wild combined swings in the composite curve. The highs are really high and the lows are really low. That may make for some excitement but what does it mean at the low points? If both people are feeling angry or distant, what keeps it all together? Where is the steady, guiding hand?

When the cycles are offset, the combined waves dampen each other and minimize the wild swings from high to low. When one person is perhaps least able to find emotional fortitude, the other has an excess in that area to draw from and cross that distance. Sort of the metaphysical equivalent of the cheesy Jesus "Footprints" poem. In this scenario, only one person is going crazy at a time and there is always someone manning the wheel. Each person takes turns keeping it all together.

I don't know. While I have about as much faith in biorhythms predicting a successful relationship as numerology, it does make one examine which sorts of things should be valued in a partner.

Then again, maybe I'm just rationalizing.

Fun new Blog feature

2005-01-24T16:25:00.000-06:00

I know I've been really bad about posting lately, OK - always, but I do have a few really nice posts waiting to be completed in the drafts section of blogger. That should count for something.

In the meantime, I did come across a really nifty plugin for iTunes that will post what I'm currently listening to. It even puts up the album art and nifty links so you can purchase the song yourself.

Perhaps this will cause me to cast a more critical eye on my playlist so as to not be embarrassed by the information revealed here. I'm sure Abby hopes so.

Merry Christmas

2004-12-25T12:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Just taking a quick minute to send along holiday wishes from my dad's house in Florida to all of you and yours wherever you may be.

The travels to Memphis, California and Florida in the last couple of weeks have meant that consistent internet access has been a challenge. I do vow to spend more time spewing forth here in the future so don't delete your bloglines subscriptions just yet. I've got lots of fun stories about man bags and lost luggage, gift cards and holiday celebrations.

More bon mots to come...

I'm still here

2004-12-14T10:59:00.000-06:00

No, I haven't died. I'm still here but working like crazy to finish things before the holidays. I have lots of things I plan to write about here but I'll get to those when I have more time. For now I've got just a few minutes while projects are rendering so I'll do a brief bit of catching up.

I was busy before last week started but, in the interest of seeing if the candle has more than just 2 ends to burn, I decided to take on 2 new projects last Tuesday evening. Both were smallish and should have easily been completed before Saturday. Of course, both projects have now become bigger, more involved, complicated and just will not die!

The first was to make a simple 3 minute football video highlight package for my neighbor, Vanderbilt University, to show potential recruits how wonderful and hard hitting 2 win football team can be. Seems easy enough. But as these things tend to do, the ideas changed, more people got involved and it just got out of control. It's now an effects filled extravaganza with hundreds of edits distilling about 100 hours of football into 181 seconds. If all goes well, I'll be delivering the final DVDs this afternoon.

The other was a far more boring HTML image search application. At least it was. It's now become a full fledged fuzzy-logic search engine for multiple databases (including ones that are decades old and malformed) that also happens to displays pictures.

At least I'm getting paid by the hour.

Internet Update...

2004-12-05T10:12:00.000-06:00

At 3 days we definitely need some sort of CNN news crisis theme music. Something heroic enough to give us hope but mournful enough so as not to betray the gravity of the situation.

As you can see, I didn't leave for Nashville yesterday but I will today. I swear. For now, I'm catching up on my bloglines (which I HIGHLY recommend) at Otherlands and I came across this article on Wired which comforted me. It's nice to know you're not alone.

Tradeoffs

2004-12-04T13:10:00.000-06:00

"Damned is the world that exchanges the possibility of dying of starvation for the certainty of dying of boredom."

I saw this written on the bathroom wall of the musty, Memphis used book store, Burke's Book. While not usually in the habit of snapping photographs in public restrooms, I really liked this sentiment. There is just something so insidious about the ease at which people in the world, and particularly this country, are willing to trade away everything they have for a little "security" and "safety."

They might as well be trading for Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. At least for those two you don't need to rely on terrifying people to make them seem desirable.

The Dark Ages

2004-12-03T11:22:00.000-06:00

As we move into hour 27 of no cable modem, or what I like to call "America's National Crisis," the sense of loss is palpable.

I've always been fascinated by competing cliches and no more than this pair:

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.

When it comes to broadband access, or internet access of any kind for that matter, #1 is clearly the winner here. When easy, pervasive access isn't there I realize how much I thrive on instant access to the resources provided by distant servers. The luddites in the world who feel that the internet is primarily for porn and bomb making instructions will never understand. I'm not sure I can even explain it.

I can't seem to have a thought enter my brain that doesn't finally exit with some sort of action that would normally be accomplished on the internet.

Hey! Is that the actress from that other movie?
I need to get that used book for 1/2 off.
What's the number for customer service?
Is that new movie getting good reviews?
Can I really afford to go to the movies?
Is it a new Arrested Development this week?
No crushed tomatoes? I wish I had a recipe for a good pasta sauce without tomatoes.
Is there a nearby place to get an oil change?
How do you spell onomatopoeia?

I know there are lots of archaic ways to accomplish these feats (phone books, newspapers, Ken Jennings) but when you aren't set up to use them, it's more hassle than it's worth. It becomes much easier to sit in front of the television and do nothing. Maybe it is just rationalizing being lazy but I don't think so.

Last night by 9pm or so I found myself contemplating going to bed. For a night owl like me it is ridiculous but what else can I do? It was sort of like Little House on the Prairie. There is only so long you can study by candlelight so you turn in early just like Pa and Half-Pint. In fact, I'd rather not have electricity and be warmed by the glow of my battery operated, broadband connected monitor.

I know it seems silly to be sounding off on this considering I am sitting at Otherlands using their free WiFi while sucking down a latte but when comforts become necessities it hurts when they are removed.

Is this thing on?

2004-12-01T21:32:00.000-06:00

OK, so I've been putting off making an actual post for months now. It's not that I don't have things to say. If you know me you know that is rarely the case. In an attempt to procrastinate, and a right successful one at that, I came up with the idea that I needed some big, glorious, history changing post to get things started.

Sure, that's all crap, but it's quite a handy way to avoid doing something. But times, they are a changing...

Tonight, Abby and I went to the Memphis "Blogger Bash" and in talking over my lack of posting with Peggy and Len I've decided I need to just jump in. A few posts from now, this less earth shattering post will have moved into the archives and I can join the world of the "blogosphere."

Wait a minute. Blogosphere? That's such a dumb ass term. Blogosphere. Who the hell came up with that? What do you know? Turns out it was William Click. I don't care if he does share the same name as my step father, it's stupid and I refuse to have any part of it. Forget I said anything at all.

Nonetheless, it's great to be here.

This may not be the sort of post to move the hearts and minds of the world but it's a start anyway. I'd like to send out a heart felt thanks to everyone at Cafe Francisco for all of their inspiration and encouragement to actually get the dust off this site.

And a special thanks to Mick for the nifty yo-yo parting gift.

More to come. I swear.

Here it is

2004-08-15T21:58:00.000-05:00

Test post to test the template