Live from Our Basement

So, this is what we do with our free time.

RFK

I'm not a very big fan of the Kennedy's (mostly because of Teddy's misdeeds and poor policy), but I love this quote from Bobby Kennedy's address to a group of students at the University of Kansas in 1968:

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

Terry's Gmail

Click to enlarge.











There are a two strange things about this actual screenshot.

1. I just told Mike that I'd sucker punch Paul McCartney.

2. Take a look at the sponsored link right above the inbox. Bed Wetting Diapers? What?

Dear Lenny Kravitz,

You have awesome hair.

Head vs. Heart

If you've ever asked me about how my job is going, you've probably witnessed me straining like crazy to withhold a stream of expletives that would make a sailor wince.

I don't care much for my job, which wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't forced to be there 52 hours a week plus the commute. (40 would be nice...36 would be nicer. This is the only time you'll ever hear me publicly envy the French.) Since I spend a great deal of time at work or going to work or coming home from work it leaves very little time for anything else.

I'm also in a band, (We're kind of a big deal...to about 20 people.) so all of my free time is spent playing music or writing music or listening to other people's music.

I love playing music. I love thinking about music. I love thinking about playing music. I want music to be my life's work. I want to create, not babysit a construction site.

So here's my problem...my job keeps me from pursuing my heart, and my head is keeping me tied to my job. So if you take out the middle man, my head, or my lack of faith in my ability to sustain myself playing music, is keeping me from pursuing the fulfillment of my heart. Thats not ok with me. That's not the man I want to be. I want reckless faith in my clear calling in life. I've been telling myself that if I just wait for the right time, the opportunity will present itself, but it's not going to.

Ok...I'm going to go kick my head into gear. Stupid head...get on board.

What Are Your Overheads?

Fresh Italian Gelato (Pineapple Honey Lime flavored) = Good
$4.50 for roughly 4oz of said frozen delight = Not Good

Dolcezza,

You're good, but not that good.
I'm not even sure why you think your product is worth that much. What could you have possibly put in there to make it worth a dollar an ounce? Hand-picked pineapples from Honduras? Honey from Pooh Bear's honey pot? Limes washed up on the shores of Atlantis? It must be something like that.

Or maybe...maybe you're just overcompensating for the fact that your just a glorified ice-cream shop, or maybe the lifestyle of an ice cream shop owner is more expensive than we all realize.

...or maybe you just like to charge extra for your Italian name.

I'd buy four times as much gelato if you charged half as much.

-Terry

(Seriously, I'm pretty sure it's just water and sugar with pureed pineapple, honey & lime juice. That should cost about a dollar per pint. Plus, that's not even gelato. That's sorbetto.)

So...I got hit by a car yesterday.

Or, more accurately, I got touched by a car yesterday.

I was even in a crosswalk (which is this little path that crosses the street wherein people are supposed to walk when the lighted sign on the far side of the street advises them that it's the appropriate time. There are signs and everything.)

I was standing at the corner of Woodmont and Elm in Bethesda carrying an entire tree's worth of paper in the form of a $1.5 million bill, (I do this every month) and I even waited for the signal to change. (Hailing from the great state of New Jersey, we're supposed to be faith walkers. We just step out into the street believing that the cars will stop.) I start crossing, and this lady in some sort of monstrous champaign-colored sedan starts creeping into the crosswalk, but she stops. I figured she'd noticed that the light was red, and it probably wasn't a great idea to hit the accelerator just yet. So I keep walking. I guess she didn't fully grasp the importance of the bright red lights dangling from the wire strung across the street and while I'm crossing in front of her car, she creeps up a little farther and pushes up against my leg as I'm trying to get out of the way. So now, I have my right foot planted and my left leg swinging forward, but my swing-leg can't get through the space between the car bumper and my plant leg...

so I did what any normal person would do in this situation: Spin move. Just to be cool, I didn't even look back at the lady.

(The New York metro area would be ashamed of me for not throwing my hefty stack o' papers right into the lady's windshield and slamming my fists into her hood while screaming, "Hey, I'm walkin' here!" while employing the thickest of possible accents.)

There are few things worse in architecture than over-design.

Let me tell you about the building we just built.

The premise is awesome: mixed use (residential + retail) building that creates a pedestrian road down the center so as to maximize storefront. (more stores=more money)

The execution, however:














This is Festival Street, the pedestrian road down the middle of the project. The hanging lights are a really cool touch, but what's with the three different wall finishes? Solid red, different red and gray, and yellow and green?

You can't really see them in this picture, but there are some cool paver lights they put in a small access lane. (There should be way more of them covering a much larger area.)








Right above those paver lights, these curvy lights swirl around the ceiling. Is it just me or are the swirls way to normal? I think they should much more random.























More ceiling lights. These ones are under the bridge at the North end of Festival Street. Shouldn't they be curvy like the other ones? (It feels like an airport runway.)
Here is a better view of some of that Yellow and Green I was talking about. Somebody must love the Packers. (At night, the bright blue LEDs that run underneath that grate that goes up the side of the building do not help the color scheme.)


















They put this fountain in one corner of the site. (Who left their dishes in the fountain? I'm blaming David.)
Look closely. Those are fake windows...with fake laundry...hanging out to fake dry. (who comes up with this stuff?)












And the Piece de Resistance
It's a 20 foot tall table lamp from the '60s. (Really?)