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Voter ID

I have been thinking a lot about how I told my friend that voter suppression was a real thing, and he said I was full of shit, then immediately told me how pissed he was at how hard it was for his white son to get his driver’s license and the amount of documentation he needed.

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Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong

The evolution of Billie Joe Armstrong, frontman for Green Day, is quite interesting if you look at it in a historical context.

Early on BJA was the penultimate punk frontman.  Spitting, cussing, insulting the audience, just DGAF about what anyone thought.  Just watch the unedited version of Jaded, the concert GD recorded in Chicago in the mid-90s.  He spends a good portion insulting the audience, and they cheer along in agreement. This was post-Dookie, but pre-Insomniac.

Insomniac was a dark, dark record with lots of songs about drug use, suicidal thoughts, and insults.  He seemed at his darkest...like he lost some of his hatred, but also some of his fire and spark.  If you watch their performance on Saturday Night Live, you can kind of see it.  He is just...there. One performance, for sure, but indicative of the overall light going a bit dark.

Then Nimrod happened...and it seems that the spark returned, as well as a bit of a revelation that he didn’t have to be the East Bay Punk 24x7.  He could put trumpets, saxophones and violins in his music and people would still like it. 

Good Riddance (Time of your Life) might have been the tipping point.  He wrote it during the Insomniac period, but didn’t record it until Nimrod. It was probably terrifying for them to put that song on the record, because it pretty much went against every single thing that they had preached for the previous decade.

But people liked it...Big Time.  So much that he was inspired to write American Idiot (that and George W. Bush).  

I had seen Green Day live 2 times before American Idiot, and the shows were fast, intense, with almost NO stage show. Barely any lights, just Billie, Mike and Tre on stage with their amps and drums. The music was the show.

My sister gave me tickets to see GD for the AI tour, and it was like I was watching a completely different band.  All of a sudden, there were 10 people on stage, and Billie had the crowd completely out of his hand.  Every eye in the building was focused on him.  He had spotlights, toilet paper guns, pyrotechnics, costume changes...everything that goes against that original punk.

It was a little shocking as a long time GD fan, but also completely welcome.  Billie had evolved from an angry youth to one of the best frontmen in the business, seemingly overnight. 

Go watch Jaded and then watch Bullet in a Bible and tell me that you wouldn’t think they are a different band if you didn’t know better.  When Billie does King for a Day and does the “a little bit softer now”, I wonder if his punk soul gets a little bit queasy...but the fans LOVE it.  They completely evolved from a punk trio to a stadium superforce.

In my own mind, I imagine Billie spending his spare time pouring over videos of Freddie Mercury, Cab Calloway, Jim Morrison, and then more Freddie Mercury.  He shamelessly steals from all of them.  But just like Steve Jobs, he owns them and makes them better.  It is really, really fun to watch and if you can separate yourself from the spectacle, even more fun to break down.  I can’t wait to see them again, and will make sure to never miss a show when I can, because it is that much fun to experience.

I just hope they don’t play anything from FOAM. Yikes...

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How we are all feeling

Now that there is a vaccine, but it hasn’t been distributed yet, we all have hope.  But we must all remain vigilant to make sure it doesn’t do any more damage.  We see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We have vaccinioritis. Our grades still matter, but we know the end is in sight. 

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The D and Jack Black’s Brilliance

I was caught thinking about the song Wonderboy by Tenacious D, the duo comprised of Jack Black and Kyle Gass.  It is one of those VERY few examples of a comedy team making funny songs that are actually awesome songs too (The Lonely Island being another example of this mishmash of genres).

In the song Wonderboy, there is a part where JB talks about the rivalry between Wonderboy, our titular hero, and “Nasty Man”, who is Wonderboy’s nemesis.  The description of NastyMan follows as such:

Now it’s time for me to tell you about young Nasty Man, arch-rival and nemesis of Wonderboy, with powers comparable to Wonderboy.

JB then goes on to describe those powers, such as the ability to kill a yak from 200 yards away....with MIND BULLETS (emphasis JB, not me).  What absolutely intrigues me about this little sequence is the way that JB conveys comedy and a story all in one word...comparable.

I imagine Mr. Black writing the lyrics to this song, and he wanted to transmit to the listener how NastyMan and Wonderboy were equals, akin to Batman and the Joker, or Superman and General Zod.  But he wanted it to be funny too, so he simply said that their powers were comparable.  That one word makes the entire song for me, and I applaud JB and KG’s brilliance.

Imagine two friends having a spirited discussion about two new superheroes, and one is describing how they are equal.  How equal? Comparable. 

I love it.  It slays me every time I listen to Wonderboy. 

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Duration

March 14th, 2012 - Dec 2, 2020.  8 years.  That might be too long between posts, but here we are.  2 presidents, a granddaughter and lots of life has passed.  Not sure how much there will be here going forward, but I needed a place to put my thoughts, so here we go!!!

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During the photo session … this happened.

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[via]

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Benjamin?

Today's post can be found at http://explosiveamnesia.blogspot.com

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Daily grind...

Today's post can be found at http://explosiveamnesia.blogspot.com

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Daily Grind...

Had me some Taco Bueno last night.  Good stuff.  The salsa bar was sans jalapenos last night, though.  Personally, I never eat the stuff...but my wife was pretty upset.  But, they came through and put out some pico and jalapenos, and the Hoekstra family was happy again.

I want to live in my house forever. Not because I love it (I do), but because I want my kids to always be able to come back to the house they grew up in and have those memories for the rest of their lives.

I think I am going to move this blog over to Blogger.  It just connects better with the online world that I am in.  If you have an objection, tell me now or forever hold your interweb comments.

I have a very annoying habit.  I pluck the hairs from my face constantly.  It is my tic.  If I find a hair sticking out and I can't get it, I will pick at it all day until I come home from work. Then I make my wife get it with tweezers.  Is that too much?

We made a budget decision last night.  Instead of us limiting how much we go out to eat (my wife loves Mexican food), we decided that we would spend no more than $20 on any meal out, save for special occasions.  I think it might work.

I have reached a twitter standstill. I haven't posted there in weeks.  I just find it hard to believe that people want to know what I am doing every moment of my life.

Yet here I sit, blogging to no one. Hmm....

I always have so many thoughts that I want to put here, but I am really concerned about what people will think, because most of these thoughts are incredibly un-PC or somewhat disgusting.  I will try to think of an example.

I always considered keeping a totally different blog just for those thoughts. Maybe I will do that...But how do you promote it without people knowing who you are?

I think I will give up Tumblr.  It doesn't work well with Chrome, and that is slowly becoming my preferred browser.  If they could just figure out a way to get me my Google Bookmarks, I would switch.  Today.

If you use Outlook, I can save you a ton of time every day:  Hit Ctrl-N to open a new email.  Type the name of the person you are looking for and hit enter.  Tab down to the subject and type it in. Tab to the body and type your message.  Hit Alt-S to send it.  There, you just send an email without touching your mouse.  If you send a lot of email in a day, that will save you a ton of time and you will be more productive.

Oh yeah, if you aren't in email, use Alt-Tab to get to Outlook. You may never use your mouse again!

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Daily Grind...

Texas weather.  Go figure.  I have considered moving to Chicago, just so I can know what the weather is going to do.  Although, I do like waking up on a Saturday in January and throwing on a pair of shorts.

On the workout warpath again.  I WILL workout at a minimum of three times a week.  Striving for every day of the work week.  I just can't continue at this pace and expect to live a healthy remainder of my life.

Did anyone else actually look forward to getting on a normal work schedule?  By the end of the holidays, I am kind of sick of this on-again-off-again work schedule.

The collar of the shirt I am wearing today is too small.  I will have to unbutton the top button and loosen the tie after I work out today.

Sometimes I think that my wife and I argue about petty things because we have such a great life together and we don't have anything real to argue about.  There are couples that wish they were as lucky as we are to have each other.

I wonder if the way that Fallout Boy spells their song titles hurts them in the long run.  I wonder how many people who looked for the song "Thanks for the Memories" couldn't find it on iTunes because they spelled it "Thnks fr th Mmrs".  Their new song is "American Suitehearts".

Oh yeah, I forgot. 90% of America can't spell anyway.

On a blog that I read, a flame war broke out about motorcycles and people dying, and how some people (myself included) wouldn't get on a motorcycle for payment. What is noteable about the flame war was the amazing grammatical errors that spewed forth from the community defending the motorcycle.  Everyone that knows me knows that I am somewhat of a grammar nazi, but these comments were downright hilarious.

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Daily Grind...

Like thousands of other people who think that their lives are interesting enough that people will read about them on a daily basis, I have made a resolution to blog more often. I am always impressed by the people who seem to blog just because the love it. Some of my favorites are: Tony Pierce's Busblog: I have kept up with this dude for several years now, and even bought his book, "How to Blog". I apparently didn't take many of the lessons to heart, but I still read him faithfully. Liberally Lean from the Land of Dairy Queen: This guy is the DA for Wise County, I believe. Most of his stuff is pretty good, and what makes him good at what he does is how prolific of a blogger he is. Yeah, he "borrows" from other sites from time to time, but most of the stuff he puts down is pretty interesting. If People Were More Like Me, I Would Be A People Person Foul Mouthed Blogger who puts it all out on the page for everyone to see. Also, she is the queen of CVS deals. Don't believe me? Just check out some of her older posts. I hate it when I am listening to "National" sports talk radio, and they have a respected guest on, and the host says "We only have about a minute left...", which insinuates that the guest has to make their answer short. This to me is totally disrespectful, and somewhat disgusting. Another reason to dislike national talk radio. Incidentally, I have never heard anyone on the Ticket do this ever, and I don't think that it is a coincidence that I listen to their station pretty much exclusively (except for during the commercials, of course). I have to agree with Barry Green (the king of Bridgeport) that it must be hard to put an ad on the radio these days. Who do you know that doesn't change the station when the commercials come on? I have a hard time convincing people to use Google Reader, and I can't understand why. It is perhaps the greatest invention (Not Reader, per se, but RSS notification) of the past 5 years. I stay so up to date on things that I find it shocking. I can follow blogs with ZERO effort. I don't know why people aren't on this bandwagon. I know it is kind of a tough concept to follow, but the benefits FAR outweigh the learning curve. Am I wrong on this? Don't you hate describing your job to other people? When people ask what I do for a living, I reply with a generic, "I am an analyst", as if there isn't a more generic term for a job. The Big Bang Theory is the best show on television right now. There has never been a show that makes me consistently laugh out loud. Jim Parsons is brilliant, but I don't know if he has range to step too far outside of his character (Dr. Sheldon Cooper), but I don't care, as long as he performs as brilliantly as he has been for the first two seasons. I fear that this show will jump the shark rather quickly, as they have to keep upping the bar of believability, which has been the real strength of the show so far (that you really believe that these characters would act like this). On a related note, I don't believe that Penny could afford her apartment picking up shifts at the Cheesecake Factory. And, why do Leonard and Sheldon have a HUGE apartment and hers is so tiny, and they are on the same floor? Do they have buildings like this in California? I must know. Jerry Jones says he is going to get tougher on his team. A tiger cannot change his stripes. And I am talking about Wade and Jerry on this one. You can't just "decide" you are going to be a disciplinarian. You either are or you aren't. Howard Walowitz is the funniest character on Big Bang Theory. There, I said it. The actor who plays him was also great on Studio 60, a show that was ended before it had a chance to get going. If I don't blog again for a while, yell at me. I have to keep up with this stuff!!!

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I had a dream...

Ok, so not that kind of dream.  A real, I was sleeping kind of dream.

I was driving my truck down an unidentified highway, and I noticed smoke ahead.  Not fire, smoke, but the kind of smoke that comes out of a car that is having engine problems.  This smoke took up the whole road, though, so it looked like fog, but had the consistency of car smoke.  This made me nervous, as I couldn't see, but I broke through it rather quickly.  Then, out of nowhere, my truck did a wheelie and landed on its back.  Not on its back, like upside down, but on its back standing straight up with just the back bumper on the ground.

I got out of the truck to try to run to safety, and I noticed that several 18 wheelers were making their way towards me, so I tried to make it to the shoulder to get off of the highway.  The first truck swerved and missed me, but the second truck was headed straight at me.  I did that thing that people do in the movies where I lay down, and the truck passed right over me, not harming me in any way.

Then I woke up.  The dream never really scared me, but I was breathing quite hard when I woke up.  I have never been one to interpret dreams, but I wonder if this one meant something.  Or maybe I just had too much ranch on my baked potato at dinner. Who knows?

I helped Chandler with his homework last night.  I don't normally have to do that, because he is a smart kid who pays attention to directions, but he really struggled with this because I think his teacher gave him bad directions.  We looked on the teacher's website and there was a big "DON'T DO THE HOMEWORK" message, which hopefully meant that she realized that she hadn't given the proper instructions.  So, I took it upon myself to teach him how to do it (luckily, he is only in 7th grade algebra, so I could still help him).  It was pretty simple percentage stuff (figuring out the sale price of an item when you know the original cost and the amount of a discount) but what was really interesting is how he obviously saw it as a bonding kind of thing.  You could see it in his eyes that he thought this was real quality time with me.  Weird.  I remember my mom helping me with my homework, and I hated every minute of it because I loathed homework, but he seemed to really cherish it.  Maybe we can expound on that and really get some momentum going (not that we have problems, we are just two VERY different people).

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davemorin:

This is one of my favorite photos ever. It has spent more time as my desktop wallpaper than any other photo since 1999.

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