'Weird' Al Part 2.

Ok, I have listened to 'Weird' Al again. I've noticed how clearly he sings. It is much easier to understand the words in a 'Weird' Al song than in the original. This is subversive-- the next time you hear the original, the 'Weird' Al words pop into your head.

But he doesn't age well...

Ok, so I did enjoy all the Weird 'Al' albums. But, I have no urge to listen to them again.

Straight Outta Lynwood.

I now have a Zune Pass. I've downloaded dozens of albums. Mostly I'll listen to half of the album and then delete it.

I have downloaded every 'Weird' Al Yankovic album. I am impressed. I am surprised how impressed I am. Most of his songs are the straight on spoofs that he is so well known for. There are also some genuinely creative songs in there. I laughed out loud as I listened to "Weasel Stomping Day."

'Weird' Al a suprizingly talented singer. While his voice is not beautiful, it is well trained and versitile. When he parodies a song, his vocal style is spot on and his voice is every bit as strong as the original. This is not discount comedy. This is not some guy making fun of popular songs. He clearly puts much thought, professionalism and polish into it.

Super Capitalism.

I'm trying to go through "Super Capitalism" by Robert B. Reich.

I am dissapointed that I find it slow going. I always enjoy listening to Robert B. Reich when he is on NPR. So, I'm supprized at my less than positive reaction to his book.

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World

The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan.

Half memoir, half economic overview, this book is good.

Mr Greenspan has had quite the life. He was friends with Ayn Ran. He was a professional musician. He dated Barber Walters.

He also is an unapologetic lassie faire capitalist and he makes a very good argument for it. I am now less ambivalent about lassie faire capitalism than I once was.

I have to admit that capitalism works for me and I take full advantage of it. I work hard and I take what I think are smart business risks. My ambivalence stems from capitalism's more ruthless side-- in a meritocracy not everyone will have merit. The market prices for necessities may be above what some people earn. What do you do with those people?

The response to that is essentially "Your concern is valid, but not as bad as you'd think. You don't have to work that hard to earn enough for room and board. Other types of economies and governments have not solved that problem either. Finally, capitalism is responsible for most of today's prosperity. Not socialism. Not capitalism with a socialist safety net. And certainly not Communism."

Agree with him or not, he is certainly a smart man.

"I like you"

"I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence" by Amy Sedaris.

I have mixed feelings for anything by Amy Sedaris. On one level, she is smart and observant. She has creative ideas. I want to say she's eloquent, but that's not the right word. Instead I have to say always gets the right meaning across even if her character is a simpleton.

But, she rarely makes me laugh. I smile at times, but the laughs are sparse. That's deadly if you are comedienne. Perhaps her comedy is too niche for me.

This book is no different.

The "Getting Things Done" experiement isn't going well. The problem is developing daily habits and getting the preorganization done. My life is so full right now that I just collapse and do nothing when I do have free time. Finding the time to organize is hard.

I know, I know. Once I do the initial organization, I will be happy.

There's Nothing in This Book That I Meant to Say. By Paula Poundstone.

Things book is a humorus confessional. Paul Poundstone. She discuses foster parenting, alcoholism. She uses history as a spring board to talk about herself.

It's worth a read.

Assination Vacation & The Partly Cloudy Patriat.

As a Candian living the the U.S. I've always felt ambivalent about Americanism. Many Americans are my best friends. Yet I don't think of them as Americans. I think of them as people. They are not the obnoxius insulare folk that much of the world associates with being American.

Assination Vacation & The Partly Cloudy Patriat by Sarah Vowell are the first books that made me realize that being American trancends the stero types. After all, you are always a human first and a citizen of a country second. Not that Sarah Vowell is humanist-- she loves America. It's just that she tackels the thorny issues in American histrory-- slavery, assinations, the war against the American Natives, head on with out glossing over it or ending the narative with "And that's why America is the best country in the whole world!"

In short, Sarah Vowell has produced a definition of America that I can't ignore and that I comprehend and accept.

The Architecture of Happiness

This is a fairly good book. It's fairly deep. Definitly not light reading. Ideas I want to remember from the book...

• Yes beauty affects us, but sometimes nothing but an asprin and a nap will make us feel good.
• Have high standards. Uglness doesn't happen because it's cheaper or easier. It happens because we don't act like we deserve beauty and because we don't have loftier goals.

I've reread this in 2017. A few more things stick out to me.

First, this book is kind of an antidote to Stoicism. If we can be happy with a Spartan life, then why does beauty delight us so?

Second, De Botton's language is very pretty. Only he can describe why a building could push us to be good, or evil, or more religious, or less.

Third, again, have high standards. Have lofty goals.

What's this all about...

The point of this blog is to make sure I don't get stuck in a rut. I want to perform little experiements with my life and see how they go.

Once a month, I will make somekind of change in my life. I will use this blog to record the change, to write down ideas for future changes, and more generally, write down things I want to remember.

Project #1 Try out the "Getting Things Done." workflow. The idea behind getting things done is that you should make how you portion out your daily work, mechanical, so that you can spend all your time on doing work, and not worring about what you forgot, or what you have to do next. So far I am still sorting through my paper work-- deciding what is reference, what needs to be dealt with and what is garbage. I'm suprized how much work it takes to get organized.

I fortunatly have a driver for this. I got a noticed from the IRS that there is a discrepency in my 2005 tax statement, so I need to sort through all my paperwork from two years ago. sigh.