World of Rock

Girl Cooties - Don't Let Them Keep You From Engaging Your Audience

2012-01-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

There are some men who, when they speak to a mixed sex crowd, never make eye contact with the women in the audience. For instance, I was one of ten people on a committee which had a meeting last week and there was this guy giving a presentation to us and never once in the enire hour did he ever make eye contact with me. I think this is not unusual, this failure to be comfortable with conversing with women on the same level as the men. I don't mean to be a profiler here, but I truly think that this is more common in men from some cultures than others. I think they are raised to not be comfortable talking with women. No worries. I know what it feels like to be afraid of something, to think you are going to catch cooties. Things like that use to frustrate me. Now they are a source of distraction from a boring talk. No worries.

How much would you pay for a glass of water?

2011-09-12T18:42:00.000-07:00

How much would you pay for a glass of water? I wish I had a more subtle way to say this, but people put no value on water. There is just a belief that knobs will be turned and water will run magically run from the tap. “Sure we pay for water.” In reality to say that we pay for water is a joke. Rates charged for water in Travis County are based on usage. I know what you are thinking “the more water people use the higher the price”. Well that would be the sane way to price a commodity that is in incredible demand wouldn’t it. However, it is all relative to the starting point right.

This glass of water costs the average person about a 1/10th of a cent.

The first 2000 gallons of water a household in Travis County uses costs 0.735 cents a gallon. Yep you heard me right. Not 73 cents per gallon, but zero point seven three five cents a gallon. Not even one penny per gallon. That’s ok, we get you on the next 43,000 gallons, cause the next 43,000 gallons you use will cost you 0.42 cents per gallon. Not even half a penny a gallon. Man! I can hear those sprinklers being turned off right now. The rest of this sad tale runs something like this:

The next 15,000 gallons – 0.51 cents per gallon

The next 15,000 gallons after that – 0.62 cents per gallon

The next 25,000 gallons after that – 0.752 cents per gallon

Then finally if you really think you need more it’s gonna really cost you, 0.921 cents per every gallon you use over 100,000. Because if you need more than 100,000 gallons of water a month then we feel you should have to pay darn close to a penny a gallon.
So I repeat my question. How much would you pay for a glass of water? Now how much would you pay if you were standing at your front door facing a raging brush fire. Probably more than 0.921 cents.
Until we treat water like the precious commodity it is and stop thinking that we deserve to have lush golf course like lawns in central Texas we will continue to use the resource in an uncontrolled fashion. If water costs were able to fluctuate on the open market according to demand, much like oil and gas, we would see these prices more reflective of the value that water possesses. Water would likely jump to several dollars a gallon. In times of extreme drought, such as what Texas is experiencing today, water would be costly. Too costly to water your lawn.

"The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men.....

2011-07-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Team Ride Red Mouse
(image from istockphoto.com)

"I gotta warn you. There is a mouse in the Rider RV." Thus the warning of Dolores after spending three days driving the RV out to Oceanside for the start of RAAM 2011. Pete and Dolores had endured tire blow outs, forest fires, and apparently rodents to take the RV out to RAAM. I didn't worry to much about the rodent. I figured it would ride out in the RV, arrive in sunny California, find a nice condo to occupy on the beach at Oceanside, bless itself for having the common sense to move from Austin in the summer to California in the summer and it would do all right. If I had known what was coming, I would have made sure it got out in California, as the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals might have gotten me on the way to Annapolis.

In 1785 Scots poet Robert Burns wrote the poem ""To a Mouse, on Turning Her Up in Her Nest with the Plough" Probably the best known part of that poem is as follows.....

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft agley,

An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!
Our team did an immense amount of planning for the RAAM. Every event, anticipation attempted - every contingency planned for, an every solution readied. However, it is impossible to plan for every scenario that life will throw at you. You will always run into something that you could not have anticipated happening. With an event the magnitude of RAAM, it will happen. The ability to handle issues as they arise, and not as they were planned for calls for flexibility of character, measured thought, a willingness to consider multiple options, to problem solve without thinking about the process of problem solving. All of these characteristics change with changing amounts of sleep, food and rest, some people simply find it hard to make decisions, and decisions must be made, actions taken - sometimes with limited opportunity to evaluate the situation.

No one gets on their bike and thinks. "OK, I'm going to put one foot on the peddle and push down and forward with enough force to clip in my cleat, then I am going to push down on that peddle to get myself rolling at 2 mph, or at least enough speed to stay upright while I put the other foot on the other peddle and push down and forward with enough force to clip in my other cleat, then I am going to push down on that peddle with enough force to keep my momentum up and building to maybe 10mph..... etc. etc. ad nausem." You just get on your bike and ride. If you stop and think each step out you will fall over. What if your cleat doesn't clip in? Well you problem solve that as it happens.

RAAM requires that you solve problems as they come at you. If you stop or hesitate at every unforeseen event, you will stall and not move forward. This is tough for people who need to think things through completely before acting. It is a very uncomfortable place to be. You can see the pain in their faces. You can hear the frustration in their voice.

As Burns said in his poem, something unforeseen is going to happen no matter how much you plan for it. Your ability to decide how much analysis is warranted before you act is part of how rapidly you can move across the U.S. during RAAM.

The mouse stayed in the RV. It went to ground, building a quick but comfortable nest out of TP paper (2 ply I'm sure), stocking a few power bars, and watching the drama unfold around it. It came back out last night while the RV was parked in our drive way. Probably wishing it had avoided the heat and gotten off in California, but unwilling to miss the drama of RAAM unfolding before it. I felt the same way.

It really wasn't this bad, but it could have been.

HOA Nazis

2011-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

Do HOAs really work? Can you rule a subdivision by fear?

I have new neighbors who moved and built next to me because my Homestead has a very limited, and informal HOA. We like it that way. They were basically "driven" from south Austin by HOA fears, and into the arms of the anarchists in Bee Cave. Welcome you refugees of the Lawn Nazis!

Do these types of set ups really help sell homes? I do understand the need for some regulation. Lawns can get out of control. Patios can be a blight. If we don't edge the lawns what will the yard workers do for a job. I had a friend get in trouble in Katy because he didn't have curtains up on his windows. So he hung up seismic lines. No one seemed to care that the neighbor had a wooden cut out of some bent over woman's butt with her drawers showing, or another with a water hose coming out of some unspeakable portion of the wooden painted overalls crotch. Apparently such things are considered "cute yard art". But I guess the thought that Gerald (my friend in Katy) would run around and do his daily functions in a Glass House so to speak, was just too much.

It is good that I don't live in a lawn nazi area. I would drive both myself and them crazy.

In addition, Home Owners usually PAY for the privilage of being harassed.

“First they came for the failed lawn waterers, but I was a lawn waterer so I did not care. Then they came for the failed lawn edgers, but my lawn was edged so I did not care. Finally, they came for the landscape code violaters and there was no one left to help me.”

Food in a Bag - Just like the Astronauts

2011-06-30T20:14:00.000-07:00

RAAM food is food in a bag. We generated an immense amount of FIBs, as I call them, for the RAAM. Sweet potatoes with cinnamon, butter, sugar; Crack peas (sauted onions and butter, mash potatoes, frozen peas, organic meat; pasta and sauce packets; rice and eggs. Gotta love it. Clip the end, put it to your lips
and squeeze it like yo mama.

In addition to FIBs, we produced about 257 burritos. They are "dinner in your hand". Anything you can wrap in a tortilla you can function with. Burritos are mobile, whether you are driving the get away car or running across the border or swimming a river. You can move with a burrito. It ain't pretty but it is functional.

Duct Tapers

2011-06-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Duct tape has always been around, since the dawn of time - like fire, like the wheel. But it took man a bit to learn how to USE duct tape.

It takes a certain type of person to survive on a RAAM Crew. To survive RAAM you gotta have a duct tape kind of attitude. When things begin to crater, no time to whip out the welder or the soldering gun. No time to wait for the drying of the glue, just pull that "duct tape" attitude out of the hoister and fire away. When you get finished, it is never pretty, but it is working, functional. Some people hate duct tape. They think it is messy, it is ugly, it is cheap looking. It might be all of those things, but those who have a duct tape attitude will be sitting on the East Coast enjoying a scotch when others are trying to stitch, glue and solder their way across West Virginia.

A DEATH IN CORTEZ - NOT A DEATH IN TUBA CITY

2011-06-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

We made our way across Arizona, through Monument Valley, up into southern Utah, then over to southwestern Colorado where our Soccer Mom van promptly died. Really, completely died in Cortez. Apparently the van decided that 48 hours of continual abuse was enough and it preferred death over the prospect of being abused for 7 more days. I can relate. If dying were an option, I might go there. But with RAAM dying is not an option.

Take for example our fellow cyclist with another team who apparently was hit by a semi in Tuba City, Arizona, suffered broken bones but, thank god, is alive. Cycling is dangerous no matter how you cut it. I am always amazing about people who "got hit by a semi". I mean give me a break! Cyclists must be like Superman. A semi whacks a person on 20 pounds of bike and the person comes away with few broken bones. I think that is amazing. You should have seen the semi!

I'm Talkin' Traffic

2011-06-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

I mean how can these Californian's talk about green this and green that and justify all these cars on the road. Every time I have come here I have been struck by the incredible amount of people here. This is my first view of San Diego/Oceanside.

RAAM - The Topographic Profile of America

2011-06-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

RAAM is officially underway. Our Crew Mate Kevin headed off on his pre-ride with his partner. They are team Texas Flyboys and their race finishes in Durango, Colorado, probably on Friday and then he will fly down to Arizona with his wife and he will go with us BACK up to Durango and finish with the team in Annapolis, MD. Animal.

The ocean is great, but it is cold and overcast, lookin' perfect compared to 105. I was down at the start to RAAM and there was this team from German and they were talking in a animated fashion to a couple from Ohio who were here on vacation I think. The couple had stumbled into this bizarre scene of cyclists, crews, people from all over the world who where doing something, but the couple could not figure out what was going on – an international convention of some type. Anyway, there guys were so friendly with this couple and the man said “where are you from” and it was apparent that Rolf, Gunter and his buddy were German. Anyway, these guys had rolled out on the pavement about a 20 foot by 12 inch roll of paper that showed the profile of America, all the sections of the race laid end to end. I gotta tell you the Appalachian Mountains look minute compared to the mighty Rockies, and basically it is downhill all the way from Trinidad Colorado to Ohio – really. I found it fascinating. I am a geologist, but I don’t think that I have ever seen the Profile of America quite laid out that way. The Rocky Mountains are impressive, the Sierras are impressive. The east coast looks --- old and worn down. I'm sure it will look more impressive when we get there.

One Ply Toilet Paper

2011-05-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

May 21, 2011

What is the rationale behind one ply toilet paper? I mean if you own say a bed and breakfast and you want to convey luxury to your guests do you think that one ply toilet paper is the way to go. Even if you want to convey “green”, “conservation”, “earth health”, etc. why do you need one ply toilet paper to do that?

Everyone knows that you use twice as much one ply toilet paper to finish the job as you do two ply toilet paper. In actuality, and I’m sure that your government dollars have gone to a similar study, I’ll bet government funded studies show that you actually use THREE times as much toilet paper when faced with the tissue thin one ply options. As soon as your hands hit the one ply roll you immediately get visions of damp, thin, toilet paper fragements stuck to your hands, to your neither regions, etc. and a sort of Pavlov’s response to cleanliness ensues. You really just want to grab the entire roll. Take it off the holder and wipe your ass with the entire roll.

So listen to me you cheap bed and breakfast owners, you restauranteers spending your money on fry oil instead of two ply TP, you budget cutting public institutions, you dorms from hell buying one ply toilet paper is almost as transparent as the paper itself. It tells me that you are too cheap to provide people even the materials necessary to wipe their ass.
Think about it.

U.S. Impoverished? The New Weatlthy.

2011-03-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

India gives poverty a whole new meaning. As I drive across the Gurgaon landscape, I find that I have a hard time dismissing the absolute abject poverty, swill of living conditions, trash, dirt, paleness of humanity in this place. It is epitomized by the various lone individuals you see squatting in the middle of fields richly “planted” in trash bags, while the dirty wind blows around them, stray dogs strut around and pigs happily wave their tails eating…..well whatever they can find to survive.

I told a guy today who had lived here for 2.5 years that you probably get hardened to the absolute poverty around you. He told me about his sense that society was bettering itself. Farmer’s children were having jobs, their grandchildren were going to college. I guess, but it is hard to see. Really hard to see. I know that living here probably dulls the senses somewhat.

I drive by it every day and I see it. He drives by it for three years and he no longer sees it. It is interesting. What traveling worldwide does is give you an entirely different perspective on the definition of poverty. Let me tell you, it makes it hard to hear the cries of poverty in the U.S. when you see people who do not know where their next meal is coming from. I mean, not from war or famine, but from a famine of society. A lack of jobs, shelter, food, simple health, clean water. When people talk about being poor in America, they talk of things like not being able to even afford a cell phone! Not being able to afford to send their kids to college. “I have not had a vacation in five years.” kind of stuff. You have to be joking. Americans don’t know the meaning of poverty. I don’t know of anyone in the U.S. who doesn’t have drinking water, who has to draw their morning coffee water from a toxic pipe, boil it on a small cow dung fueled fire, set on the ground in front of their shack built with some scrap boards and plastic bags. The later is standard for probably half the Indian population. Now THAT is poverty. I know it hardens me to the plight of the average American poor. I can’t help it. India gives poor a whole new meaning.

Globally speaking, U.S. Poverty is the New Wealthy.

INDIA.....an acquired smell

2011-03-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

India is basically an assault. The smell of millions of people dumping their garbage, deficating in the streets, cooking along the roadside, or apparently in Indira Ghandi Airport, as the image below attests to.

This sign says "No Smoking", "Do Not Spit", "No Drinking Alcohol", and finally, "No Cooking". This sign only needs to add "No Urinating" to entirely encompass Indian society. The thought that these four (plus one, five) functions would have to be contained on the same "Don't do it!" sign might shock some, but it is standard fare for India. Clearly the government plan that was all the rage 1.5 years ago when I was here to eliminate public urination did not succeed. People are peeing in all place, field, alleys, against walls, in the gutter, you name it. The smell mingles with the smell of curry cooking in pots on small roadside fires, fueled by burning cow dung patties. Mix in diesel fumes from about 1000 cars; just the ones in your immediate vicinity, add rain, mud, sewers running in the streets, burning trash and incense and you have it - the aroma that is India. Now I ain't saying this characterizes all of India, but it certainly captured the drive to work for me each morning.

The people are very nice.

Lesli

QATAR

2011-02-25T08:56:00.000-08:00

What is today? I think it is Friday April 25. I flew from DC, leaving Dulles on Qatar Airlines at 9:50 p.m. and I have arrived at the Doha Airport in Qatar and it is Friday night here at 7:30 pm. I leave at 9 pm for New Delhi and will arrive around 3:30 am on Saturday morning. I will highly recommend Qatar. They are reported to have the best Business Class in the business and I admit it was pretty good. I missed dinner, went to sleep in my flat bed and pajamas (yep, they give you pajamas) and slept a good 6-7 hours. Probably snored, but no one poking me or telling me to turn over. (I miss that by the way.) Anyway, I am currently sitting in the lounge of Qatar Airlines. It is like a big expensive hotel lobby, but with all the food and drink you want, good stuff like dried apricots and dates, along with more traditional western fare.

Qatar is a small island nation that sits just off the eastern (?) shores of Saudi Arabia. Stable monarchy I think. Nobody marching in the streets, yet. People are very nice. I want to say that Qatar has escaped the sort of suppression of women’s rights that exist in Saudi and some other smaller Emirate nations, but I speak from very little real experience. Just the impression that I got from the very….very talkative lady from Canada who sat, or slept next to me on the flight. She was very friendly. Husband was an accountant and they had lived in Doha for 13 years. I will post a pic with this if I get a chance.

Now it is off to India where the people are many, the services are few and life swirls around inspite of the dramatic differences in social class. Ah the Hindu’s you gotta love em.

The Evil Shopping Cart

2011-02-19T13:08:00.000-08:00

February 18, 2011

The Evil Shopping Cart
I was shopping at HEB the other day watching people pile these shopping carts that will hold 4.5 cubic feet (176 lbs) of stuff with tons chips and sodas and meat and bread and super sized boxes of sugary cereal and 5 pounds of potatoes, and I thought “The evolution of the shopping cart was the downfall of the health of the American society.” Prior to the invention of the shopping cart we would not have dreamed of hauling 5 lbs of potatoes home on our back. We would not lug a weeks worth of groceries home to a family of four. We would not carry liter bottles of soda pop home to the house, one in each hand. It is a twist on the classic, but “If you buy it they will come and eat it.” It is clear. Shopping carts are obviously a terrorist plot to destroy the health of American society.
Let’s look at the scientific data. It is believed, according to Wikipedia (source of all knowledge) that the shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma in 1936. One night, the owner of Piggly Wiggly’s grocery, Mr. Goldman “…sat in his office wondering how customers might move more groceries.” Now Oklahoma is one of sixth fattest states in the union. Shopping carts!

It is undeniable that the average weight of American’s is going up, up, up this century. Although I can find no data pre-1936, in 2002, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the findings of a study that charted the changes in the American body since 1960. It found that Men aged 20 to 74 weighed 191 pounds on average. In 1960 the average was just 166.3 pounds. So the average weight has risen nearly 30 pounds. The Shopping Cart!

Don't you see?!?!? The shopping cart was a uniquely American phenomena. If you travel to most European neighborhoods, groceries are carried in small bags from 90% of the stores around the world. People often stop by the neighborhood markets and grab small loads of groceries on the way walking home from work. Yes, I said walking. It is this thing that lots of people do around the world, and you don’t see them hauling a sack of potatoes on their back and a liter of soda pop in each hand when they walk out on the street. But I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until we improve everyone else’s lifestyle as we have improved ours.

Egypt

2011-02-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is a shout out to every Egyptian who is fighting for a true democracy in Egypt.   Free from fear or reprisal from a government who think they can hang onto power by fear and through abusive behavior. Those people have risked their lives, their families, their possessions to try and force change.

The U.S. has supported Mubarak for decades because they decided the devil that they knew was better than the devil that they didn't know.   He is an 82 year old dictator that has ruled Egypt with an iron fist, emplacing secret police who have run wild for decades, arresting people, imprisioning people, torturing and abusing the Egyptian people. It is wrong and it simply has to stop. For the U.S. to support the emplacement of another of Mubarak's cronies as VP is insulting to the people of Egypt. I don't blame the protestors one bit for feeling insulted by the gesture and even more insulted and angry that the U.S. who has funded Mubarak's reign for all these years would be so haughty as to say "Here, why don't you take this instead. This is better than what you have now." Sometimes it insults me to think my government behaves the way it does.

I guess time has long since passed when we felt like we actually had some semblance of control over what government does.   We see in the Egyptian people what it takes to cause change.

Is the North the new South?!?!?

2011-02-05T18:11:00.000-08:00

I have been struck by the number of chicks from northern states who are Tea Partyin' bad ass broads who sling guns, drive big trucks, tell the world to kiss off, etc. I mean look at Sarah P. She has been setting herself outside the norm for years. Now she is the darling of the Tea Party jet set. She can bring home the conservative bacon and gut the caribou. I'm surprised we have not see her chewing the hide to make a nice leather jacket for 2012. She is stealthy, I mean what male politician can sidestep a pregnant, unwed teenage daughter in a political campaign. I thought that was pretty impressive.

Now this other woman, Michelle Bachmann, has come along from Minnesota no less, who is definitely pushing all the liberal buttons she can find. I mean is there something about the long dark winters that is breeding the type of woman who we are seeing in Palin and Bachmann, these huntin', fishin', deer guttin', scarey sort of supremicist types ? All lipsticked up and lookin' ready to take on the entire money spending establishment. Is it too much time in the evening to watch reality TV and Facebook? Is it marketing gone wild for the benefit of the all might buck.

It's like these people are trying to take over the image of the southern, kkk-lovin' good ol' boy, who drives a swamp stomper pickup and tells the entire world to just "kiss my red neck ass". Is the North the new South? Have we in the South so failed in our mission to look stupid and say stupid things that this role must be taken over by the matriarchs of the North? Maybe global warming will tone things down.

And by the way, why have all the Republicans been showing up on Dancing with the Stars? First Bristol Palin and then Tom Delay. It's like the elephant's grave yard.

Underwear Along Texas Highways – Don’t get your panties in a Y.

2010-12-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

I have been cycling along Texas highways for nigh on 10 years now. I am always in awe with the beauty of the Texas landscape, the friendliness of some people and the unfortunate attitude of others. However, that is another story. Enjoying my weekend rides along the backroads of the Texas hill country and lowlands, I have seen many things. Wildflowers carpeting the roadsides, thick as fleas on a dog’s back. Wild turkeys strutting their irridescent colors, deer high-jumping fences and dogs – plenty of dogs of every shape, size and disposition. There is, however one thing that I am amazed by in my rides and that is the quantity of underwear along the Texas highways.

My comment to the existence of this phenomena was recently met with skepticism by my cycling friends. Now mind you these are the same friends who are serious as Sunday School about riding, who would not see a pink elephant dance across their path during a “training ride”. I myself, being the more casual cyclist notice the stark pattern of tighty whiteys against black pavement, and it is with confidence in the existence of this phenomena that I come to you. I will give my friends credit for at least feigning a sense of interest. “What kind of underwear?, they ask.” “All kinds!..” I reply, now enthusiastic that someone is humoring me, “…panties, bras, briefs. Mind you I don’t count socks or T-shirts ‘cause those are always worn on the outside”, as I try to put an actual sense of scientific process to the assessment to sound more professional. My partner, who as all good partners should do if they love you, tries to help me out by acting interested. She says “Are they all in a small area or broadly distributed? Say only on certain highways?” I jump to the opportunity to quantify my observations. “I would say there is about an article every three miles, but I need more data.” Then with my 5 minutes of fame all used up, their conversation quickly goes back to what is the best combination of chain rings to climb the hills of Bastrop.

The phenomena of these “underwear along Texas Highways” is not a regional issue. I’ve seen underwear along all highways both east and west of Austin. I have even seem a pair of panties on a ride out of Katy, Texas despite the claim to propriety of some of our eastern neighbors. This proves that the phenomena is not confined to “those liberal Austin people”. Firm in my belief that there are many social patterns hiding in this issue, I began assessing the frequency and nature of those underwear that I saw. Although I continued to report sighting, my observations were still met with skepticism (Galileo had similar problems with the Italian “establishment”.). “What brand of underwear is it?” I was asked. Now, I am all for good scientific observation, but to actually pick up an article of underwear that had been discarded along the highway was a level of scientific sampling commitment that I was not sure I was ready to make. However, the gauntlet had been thrown and I began to build my courage toward such an event.

Late May of last year, I was out on a ride with the Austin Cycle Association heading toward Buda, Texas on Old San Antonio Road when I passed a bra in the middle of the road. I stared at it, and it stared at me. I vowed that, if it was still there on my return back toward Austin, that I would examine it more closely. Sure enough, on my ride back north, as if daring me to make a move, there it was. I stopped alongside the bra, unclipped and got off my bike. I casually picked up a thin stick about a foot long and gripped it with determination. I looked both ways, north – no one, south – no one, walked casually over to the bra, stuck the stick beneath one cup and lifted it to eye level. Then, timed on a dime, a group of four cyclists came barreling north up the road. As I stood in the road with a bra on a stick, they divided around me, blasting with air as they sped past. The one guy said quizzically, “You alright??”. I replied, as serious as one possibly can while standing in the middle of a road, holding a bra on a stick, wearing a large diaper-like pair of lycra shorts and “tap” shoes, “Fine and dandy, just lookin’ at this bra!”. I never saw them again. Thank God. And the answer to the bra’s origins – Victoria Secrets! Now, these are not cheap underwear! This ain’t some Big Lots, Five-for-a-Dollar set of cups. These babies were expensive! Somethin’ you might go back lookin’ for if you “dropped it”.

All of this research got me to thinking. What set of circumstances could I POSSIBLY imagine where MY underwear would end up along a highway? Multiple hypotheses came to mind and some were quickly dispelled. 1) Maybe someone lost the underwear from their laundry. On the surface, this might seem reasonable, since many people use laundramats to launder their Victoria Secrets and other more mentionable unmentionables. However, any college student or apartment dweller knows that when laundering your clothes and transporting them to and from the laundramat you always put your underwear on the bottom of the basket so people won’t be gaulking at it as you walk by them. You bury it – undies on the bottom, then towels, then T-shirts on top. However, in the course of riding you never see these lost top sets. You are never riding down a highway and see T-shirts, then another 20 yards – towels, then finally the undies. No unroofing of the basket so to speak – just undies. 2) Maybe someone lost the underwear from the boat coming back from the lake. Towels maybe. T-shirts absolutely, but frilly underwear?? That must have been some boating trip. 3) Teenagers. This cause was submitted by NUMEROUS parents that I spoke with, who obviously think that teenagers are to blame for everything no matter what it is or where. Texas Legislature – teenagers. Global warming – teenagers. Underwear along Texas Highways – teenagers. 4.) The Dare. Now this option is closely associated with the Teenagers causal theory, but having witnessed significant loss of hibition following the consumption of alcohol by older Texan’s, I would say this theory might be the most widely applicable. In the event that one is “dared” to remove their underwear then “throw it out the window”, alcohol definitely helps. And finally, 5) Throwing away the evidence. Now this dog might hunt, especially if I could determine a significant increase in underwear numbers correlated to times the Texas State Legislature is in session. In the event of an overenthusiastic paramour who forgets to take all their things with them upon exiting ones vehicle, a “person” could easily find themselves in possession of articles of clothing difficult to explain to their significant other or the Texas press corp. The simple answer, fling them from the car.

I think if forced to choose one of the above, I would have to go with number five, Throwing Away the Evidence, or maybe number 4, The Dare. I mean after all we are in Texas. I think we need more data. Thank God Rick Perry is considering another Texas State Legislative special session. We may have the answer by the Fall.

Hook Em Horn! or is that Horns as Hookers?

2010-12-12T18:19:00.000-08:00

I went to see the Texas Women, ranked 21st nationally, play bball today against the Tennesee Women, raked 7th nationally. Things went..... ok. They played well the first half, then got just a bit too tired the second half and with only seven people playing today (several people were sick) the entire things was just to darn much for them and they gave up the ghost about seven minutes from the end.

The most distracting thing in the entire game was the pom-pom chicks. They have new uniforms and they all looked like strippers from the local Yellow Rose.

These chicks are wearing burnt orange chaps, but that is not the really distracting thing. The most disturbing piece of the costume is the black ass cover with the white piping. From the front view, the white piping leads one's gaze right into "the danger zone". It is about as trashy a thing as I have seen in a while.

The way these chicks shake their ass, they should not have a white piping road map to their nether regions. I am not sure why we have Pom girls anyway. They are dancing a bit raunchously and bustin moves that would probably be illegal in Odessa.

I would rethink the whole white-piping, black-ass shakin', chaps wearin' piece of the family entertainment event. But that is just my opinion.

Oh Mexico, sounds so simple with the sun sinkin' low......

2010-11-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

I went to Mexico.

I know. Call me INSANE, call me Crazy. There is all this mass killings and murders and all kinds of what not. I flew down to Veracruz to give a talk, stayed overnight and flew back, but I gotta admit when my flight was touching down in Monterrey on a transfer to my Houston connection, I felt a little panic like Mikhail Baryshnikov in that movie White Nights. Where they are suddenly landing in Russia, a country he had previously fled and he panics. Anyway, we stopped over in Monterrey. People were gracious in the airport and then back to Houston, which feels as foreign to me sometimes as Mexico, before arriving home at 12 a.m.

The mexican situation is very similar in my mind to what we saw in the 80's with gang wars in specific areas of the U.S.. Lots of good people trying to live with the bad press. Lots of bad happening in a few specific areas. I still admit that I don't feel comfortable driving out from the city in Mexico into small villages, which is the big loss for me, since that is where you really bond with the people and the culture.

You can still see some beautiful sites. As we were flying home, we left about 6 p.m. (scheduled for 5 pm departure so a 6 pm departure is about right in my experience) and we flew past Pico de Orizaba, the third highest mountain in North America and the highest peak in Mexico. It is a stratovolcano that hosts year around snow fields and glaciers. A beautiful peak, a spectacular site. I got to see it in the mid day with the sun and snow on it and this shot was at dusk with it rising up above this super cool layer of cumulus clouds.
The picture does not do it justice.

Go see some of the sites of Mexico sometime even is you have to do it from air. Stay away from the borders. I find border towns way overrated anyway. May as well leave them to the narcos.

Up on the Right Side of the Morning

2010-10-07T18:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to the gym at 6 am but by 7 am I was showered, wearing my best worn pair of berks and sitting down at Threadgill's South with a breakfast taco and coffee waiting for Ruby Jane to take the stage. After Ruby's two song set, two songs from T-Bird and the Breaks, the two songs from Del Castillo. What a great sample of Austin music. A 15 yr old fiddler, a bunch of white guys doin' rock-blues fronted by four spectacular women singers, and a family of latin rockers. My guilt got the best of me at about 9 am and I headed out to work. Actually I headed over to FedEx to send CDBaby a set of my new CD Larger Than Life, which I began selling to friends about two days ago. Seeing these guys in the morning got me moving on all the things I needed to do to push it out.

Del Castillo
http://www.delcastillomusic.com/music.htm

TBird and the Breaks

http://tbirdandthebreaks.com/

There is never enough time for music. I always have more things planned than I can do every day. That is a hold over from my dad. ("Daddy always said 'Plan more than you can do!'" I never really understood that.) I can easily find a reason to go to work, but it is never easy to find a reason NOT to go to work. This morning I did. We all need an excuse not to go to work. It is just the way things are. So you should just plan that 2-3 times a year you will just wake up and find an excuse NOT to go to work. Work will go much better after that.

Tomorrow morning, I might go down to Threadgill's and listen to three other bands, eat a taco and IMMEIDATELY just NOT go to work. God, I love Austin, Texas.

Have a great weekend!

You Gotta Get Out More

2010-09-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

When people vacation they usually head to some airport somewhere or drive toward a specific destination in search of some specific feature of the landscape, urbanscape, seascape, etc. There is usually a plan - head toward Aunt Edith's house, stop along the way at the largest ball of twine in the world, take pictures as we cross into each new state. Next time you head off on vacation, try abandoning all sense of direction. Head out and get lost in some set of mountains. Drive off the freeway into some beautifully desolate landscape. Listen to....well, listen to the silence. Turn the kids out to run and relieve themselves in the world and listen to the nothingness.

I renewed my relationship with the solitude of the landscape last week. I drove into the Book Cliffs and watched the falcons fly off the red slabs of the Castlegate Sandstone. I marveled at the quite studio presented to the ancients who painted images of "ghost men" on the rock walls. I drove into the gray, yellow and white landscape of the Mancos Shale and marveled at the "quiet desolation" to coin a phrase. I headed up to the top of the San Juan Mountains and listened to the wind blow through the aspen leaves as they shed themselves in a golden carpet on the ground.

Aspen on a gravel road.

Next time you plan where you want to go...don't. Try losing yourself in the alleys of nature. Take some pictures, sit beside a stream, let the wind blow through the trees and be reminded of all the things you can find when you don't go looking for anything in particular. As Thoreau said "Simplify, simplify."

Just tell her to sit down and take a number.....

2010-09-07T19:06:00.000-07:00

The concept people and governments have that they can somehow control nature always gives me pause. I think it is the whole thing about how man is destroying earth. Let me say this about that. The concept that man can destroy earth means that man is somehow more powerful than the earth itself. The audacity of that opinion is caused by not just a little self inflation by man likely driven by a false sense of importance bouyed most likely by our religion. Man's dominion over the earth and all its creatures and all that bunk. The reality is the earth is an amazingly resilient and powerful force. You will be born, live and die in what, to the earth is the blink of an eye, and the earth and its creatures will still be here. Man will go extinct. It is the way of nature. Species go extinct and they go extinct for so many reasons. The Earth will always be here. If you pollute the earth, your water, your air you are poking yourself in the eye. The Earth could care less. In the blink of an eye, man will be gone and the Earth will sweep up and go on. So all this crying for Mother Earth is a bit overdone in my opinion. Cry for yourselves. Now that is time much better spent.

I sit tonight about 40 km east of the eye of hurricane Hermine. Awesome. Gusting winds. Sheets of rain. Thunder. The power of nature is amazing. Sounds to me like the Earth can take care of itself tonight.

Who loves ya baby?

2010-08-30T18:03:00.000-07:00

Did you know that only three animals in the world actually care what other animals are thinking? Man, apes and pigs. Apes probably really care what you are thinking because it is important to them that you feel heard, but man and pigs only care what you are thinking so they can figure out how it might benefit them to know it. I think that is interesting. So when a man is being killed by another man, the victim might say "Why are you doing this?" When pigs are being held in slop houses and then to slaughter they are actually wondering something similar. "Why is that person doing what they are doing? How can I get them to change what they are doing?" I think I am going to have to stop eating pork, ape and human flesh. Damn.

Bartley, is a smart little porker. He tests out your response to his actions and proceeds gradually, assessing along the way your response before he proceeds with each step. If you look like you might not be taking things so well, then he stops what he is doing and might back off and walk away. Take the trash can for instance. It is a thing to be lusted after. Food, trash, for a pig a euphoria of smells. He will first nibble the plastic bag, stop, check, assess, then proceed. He will next nudge it with his nose, stop, check, assess, then proceed. Finally, it gets the old "overturning" which is usually followed by banging, running and squeeling, mostly by Sue and myself, but it gets the job done.

I think I will have to stop eating pork. Go for the chickens or the religious right. Neither could not care less what you are thinking.

An Inconvenient Truth Regarding Marriage

2010-08-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

Di d you know that up until the early 1980's married women in Louisiana were still considered property of their husbands. Similar to a good acre of land, probably some women were good property, high dollar, lots of great extras and had a good re-sale value and some were probably the opposite, but they were all property of their husband. I can think of no better reason NOT to get married. That law is no more.

Hundreds of years ago marriage was simply a design of the wealthy class, the political class to create contracts between families/countries to hopefully reduce conflict between families/countries in matters of property, boundaries, trade, etc. Apparently the guys would get together talk, smoke and drink, pull each others fingers and come to some rousing agreement, then trade wives on it.   Not unlike what is done today.

The church assimulated marriage as another way to provide God yet one more thing that he has to ok before the world will recognize it. I am sure God would be happy to delegate this authority as he seems to have plenty to do.   So there we have it, marriage is a religious ceremony between two people and the church has decided that they will make their marriages more meaningful by getting God to ok it.

There is a tremendous amount of time, money and energy today being spent "in defense of marriage". I am not sure people even know what they are defending. Still yet I am not sure why anyone other than someone who cares what the church thinks would want to GET married. Well the reason is the "state" has provided special privaleges to people who get married. We have, in effect created a society of Sneetches with stars on their bellys and Sneetches with no stars on their bellys. In addition, we have apparently created a means to remove stars very easily if necessary. Apparently Dr. Suess hit the nail right on the head.

Divorce rates are soaring and states have created small businesses around easy divorce. Domestic violence is incredibly high. Infidelity is rampant. It would seem to me that all those concerned with "defending marriage" and "focusing on the family" might want to go after these other items as well as gays desiring marriage.

Society changes their ideas of right and wrong over time. Interracial marriages, polygamy and underaged marriages have all seen their acceptance change over time and it is likely that the concept of marriage will also evolve (Oops, I should not have brought evolution into this. That is another topic, for another time.). The concept that laws defending marriage as between a man and a women are somehow protecting children, preserving the reproductive needs of the earth are tragic. If every household that wants to protect children would take in just ONE foster child then we would have something. If we could just STOP reproducing then we would not have the gross strain on our earth resources that will eventually send us to hell.

Five states have approved gay marriage. Countries all over the world have approved gay marriage. Gay marriage is eventually going to happen. The real problem of the intersection and paralleling of church and state that created the desire among the unwashed, same sexes to get married in the first place will probably go unaddressed. No worries.

The Perils of Travel to and from Suriname

2010-08-07T13:40:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't expect too much from some places in the world. If the people are friendly it can make up for not having a lot of amenities (however, nothing can make up for not having toilet paper in the toilets, but that is another issue). All that I would really like is that it not take me longer to get to and from someplace than I actually am staying in the place. Asking that, is apparently asking too much of Suriname.

To get to Suriname you have to change planes unless you live in Port of Spain, Trinidad or maybe Miami as best as I can tell, but who wants to live in Miami. There are no airlines flying out of Suriname on Wednesdays or Fridays as best as I can tell. The only way to get home through POS is to make a ridiculously tight connection in POS, including going through Trinidadian customs for what? I can not say. It is seldom made and as is my situation today, you find yourself staying at the only hotel within like 20 miles of Piarco Airport overnight for $200 to connect in the morning. Otherwise you pay something like $220 a night, plus $70 in taxi cab fees to drive 45 minutes into POS. When this works it is great - (although nothing you can do about needing to wake up at 2 a.m. to make it to the Paramaribo Suriname airport for the 6 a.m. desperation flight out of Suriname) you get into Ausitn at 3 p.m., but as we see it can go to hell in a handbasket. You could connect in POS to American Airlines into Miami I guess on the 1 p.m. getting you into Austin at like 10 p.m. or fly up to LaGuardia then back to Austin, those connections might be a bit less tight, but the flights are gonna coast you more and you arrive in Austin 8 hours later. So you take a chance, roll the dice and see what comes up. Today it was craps. So in summary, basically the whole "getting to the backwater of Suriname" think sucks. If I can now get home tomorrow (Sunday) then that will give me a whole one evening with my partner.

She is very patient.

A storm coming toward Piarco from the Northern Ranges of Trinidad.

Temptation - the Devil's Handmaiden

2010-08-04T16:16:00.000-07:00

It is raining in Suriname. This place is a complete white elephant sale. There are --- chinese, indonesians, indians, caribs, africans and dutch, and few others thrown in. The chinese apparently own all the businesses, except for a few really large businesses? You see everyone involved with everyone. No problem. At least not on the surface.

Thanks to the Federal Judge who struck down Prop 8 in California. He said moral disapproval was not grounds to discriminate against someone. Good for him. This country needs to get a grip. It will never be civil until people stop using religion as a license to tell other people what to do. There is too much temptation to run other people's lives. Don't they realize that the Devil is at the root of temptation?

Suriname River, lookin' out my back door.

Suriname

2010-08-03T17:58:00.000-07:00

It is 9:57 pm in Suriname. Raining like crazy and yes more humid than Houston. I am sitting along the Suriname River. It is about 450 km long and draining the highlands. Wide where I am at - down well within the tidal influenced portion of the stream. River is about 1 km wide here probably and the color of milk chocolate.

They innaugurate a new president on next Thursday. Chavez is coming to help celebrate. Apparently the guy is accused of something called the December 14, the murder of 14 people back in December of 1980. So the newly elected president is actually on trial for murdering 14 people like 30 years ago. You can say what you will about what a joke our political system is but at least our elected officials aren't accused of murdering 14 people.