Emily Joins The Junior Honor Society

The induction ceremony was postponed from last week because of the ice storm so that meant rather than getting to use the luxurious digs of the Moore-Norman Vo Tech Pennsylvania Avenue Campus we had to crowd into the gym at Brink Junior High. Fortunately we got there early - Clara, Rachel, me, Grandma and Grandpa - because it was SRO before long.

Emily tried to pooh-pooh the whole thing off, saying it was no big deal, that there was only she and 150 others who were joining:

She was wrong: there were 165.

I handled the video chores and since we're using a Sony and Sony's program is proprietary, I can't upload anything. (That and the fact I, um, lost the disc with the software that might've allowed for converting the Sony video to an uploadable form.) Clara handled the still camera and managed to squeeze off a shot of Emily headed towards her seat:


The speeches began and everyone listened like the good citizens they are. I used my Blackberry to get Emily hanging on every word:

See? Emily's about fifth in from the far end, second to the last row, near the balloons. No? Let me try to zoom in closer:

Ah. There. Between the zoom and some Picasa photo-shopping, I did a not bad job, ya think?

Finally, finally, they called Emily's name, and she got her certificate and signed in and it was official. Clara accidentally switched the still camera to video - I have no problem uploading video from the still camera, if that makes sense - so we have a 2 second clip of Emily returning to her seat:



Afterwards, there was time for mingling and cake and punch. Emily posed for an official photograph:



Bustin' proud? You bet. Emily's the only one of Grandma and Grandpa's grandchildren to make it in. She worked hard for the honor and I'm glad to see it paid off. I think she was, too.

I'm Number 4!

Look who's number 4 on a Google search for saratoga springs disney pictures.

Obama Dozed, People Froze

Victoria over at Sundries spares Obama little in her take-downof his handling of the ice storm in Kentucky - hundreds of thousands are without power and, nationwide, 55 deaths have been blamed on the storm.

Of course, the media's coverage is largely favorable but there's no point in complaining. It's no secret that Obama can do no wrong and, in this case, I'd defend his actions as I would've Bush's in the Katrina disaster: a President, and his government, can only do so much in the face of a natural disaster and there are always going to be people who think something more could've been done.

The ice storm was a bad thing but bad things happen and the government can't do it all. It's too bad the media wasn't as generous with Bush as they have been, so far, with Obama.

Warrant Issued for 'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Joe Francis' Arrest

Wasn't Joe Francis, the skeezy founder of Girls Gone Wild, complaining just the other day about his tax attorney? Why, yes he was! Stupid tax attorneys. If it wasn't for them. . .

So, how're things working out for Mr. Francis now that he's tax-attorney-free? Uh, not so well:

A federal judge in California has issued an arrest warrant for Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis because he failed to appear at a hearing in his tax evasion case.

U.S. attorney's office spokesman Thom Mrozek said U.S. District Judge S. James Otero issued the warrant Monday in Los Angeles.

Some obvious tax advice: don't miss your court hearings. It only makes judges mad when you do.

OKCBiz Wins Society of Professional Journalists’ Award

Congratulations to OKCBiz winning some big time journalistic type awards. (Articles like this
one no doubt helped clinch the deal. Photographer Mark Hancock, who took the stunning picture that accompanies the print article but not the online article, also won big, probably because of that very same photo.)

The Daily Oklahoman won, too, but, unfortunately, my good friend Paul Burkes was overlooked. The link takes you to a list of her articles so you can see for yourself the injustice in all this.

iTunes Genius Playlists

I switched on the iTunes genius feature and had the program put together a playlist based on Hem's Half Acre. Here's what it came up with:

1. Hem Half Acre
2. Gary Jules Falling Awake
3. Brandi Carlile Turpentine
4. Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris This is Us
5. Ben Folds Landed
6. Jackson Browne These Days
7. Annie Lennox Dark Road
8. Dido Don't Leave Home
9. Barenaked Ladies Call and Answer
10. Hem Radiation Vibe
11. Bruce Springsteen One Step Up
12. Joni Mitchell Free Man In Paris
13. Phish Farmhouse
14. Dave Matthews Band Grace Is Gone
15. Wilco I'm The Man Who Loves You
16. Paul Simon The Obvious Child
17. Shawn Colvin I Don't Know Why
18. Steve Winwood The Finer Things
19. Hem Betting On Trains
20. Ben Folds Late
21. Jeff Buckley Lover, You Should Have Come Over
22. Joni Mitchell River
23. Dido Sand In My Shoes
24. Rogue Wave Lake Michigan
25. Cat Power Wild Is the Wind

Other than magic, I have no idea how the program works, but it puts together a fine playlist, finer than I can go on my own.

Just for fun, I had the program put another list together, starting with Laura Veirs' Pink Light. Here's what it came up with:

1. Laur Veirs Pink Light
2. Sonic Youth Reena
3. Hem All That I'm Good For
4. The Decemberists The Gymnast High Above The Ground
5. Cat Power Wild Is The Wind
6. Beck Ramshackle
7. Billy Bragg Must I Paint You a Picture?
8. The White Stripes Little Ghost
9. Rogue Wave Lake Michigan
10. Dave Matthews Band Captain
11. The Band This Wheel's On Fire
12. Sonic Youth Jams Run Free
13. Bonnie Raitt One Belief Away
14. Jeff Buckley Lover You Should Have Come Over
15. Phish Gotta Jibboo
16. Santana Do You Like The Way
17. Joni Mitchell Down To You
18. Jackson Browne For Everyman
19. Jack Johnson F-Stop Blues
20. The Decemberists The Bachelor and The Bride
21. Shawn Colvin I Don't Know Why
22. Hem Leave Me Here
23. Noisettes Scratch Your Name
24. Wilco Radio Cure
25. Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris Rollin' On

Different starting points with some intersections and similar themes yet distinctly different tones. Wonderful.

Rachel's OYO Rehearsal

I'm at the Wanda L. Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University waiting on Rachel while she rehearses with the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra. A nice artsy vibe going on, with all the music students - both instrumental and vocal - coming and going to their rehearsals. They're all so serious! And talented! They're practically incandescent with talent.

The link takes you to the the School's webpage, of course. Here's a look at the outside of the building:



(It only looks like the video will play though I guess I could've embedded it if I'd wanted. But that's not what I wanted: all I want is a picture of the outside and that's the best I can do, without getting up from my seat.)

Here's what it looks like, live, as it were, from the inside, and from where I'm sitting:

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I'm not allowed into the rehearsal hall, of course. That would be too lame. I can wait, though. Their concert's in a few weeks and it's bound to be great. It always is. Especially the flutes.

Will Beatles' Tunes Ever Make It Online?

Doesn't sound like it:

It’s impossible to say, since no one involved will make a definitive statement on the topic. The Beatles’ business entity, Apple Corps, has to agree to anything done by EMI, which owns the group’s recordings. And the two sides have yet to cut a deal. In the interim, every once in a while there is a rumor that the Beatles’ catalog is finally set to arrive online, sometimes with special extras, such as a “Yellow Submarine” iPod. Neither EMI, Apple Corps or iTunes would comment.

My feelings about this are mixed. I already own all of the digital Beatles' catalog so what do I care? And if I were missing anything, it's not that hard to fill in the missing pieces; Beatles' music is available just about anywhere. So really, there's no need to put their music on iTunes, is there?

Money's certainly not a reason, though money's always nice, isn't it? (To quote David Mamet, that's why they call it money.) No, I hold with those who say if you're going to make music and put it out there for consumption, you have to put it out there online and if you put it out there online, the only place to put it is on iTunes. Oh, sure, there are lots of places to purchase digital music online; at best, those places are only pale imitations of the iTunes model. The Beatles, once cutting edge in the music industry, risk turning into dinosaurs. If they fail to make their music available online, it'd be the same as if they only made their music available on vinyl.

' puter troubles

I'd tried to create a home wireless network and connect the Emily's laptop and mine with the desktop. Alas, my mad tech skillz were lacking and I only managed to futz up the Internet connections on the laptops. I was able to finally restore the settings as they were and save the day but it burned up lots of 'puter time.

Thus, the reason for the light blogging over the last couple of days.

The 100 Greatest Romantic Albums of All Time

Of course, this is only one person's opinion, but I'm glad to see that numbers 14, 19, and 23 are on my iPod. After that, things fall apart fairly quickly.

Like all lists, it's not definitive, and yours will differ. But why quibble?