Jeff’s Blog

I love to read. I have been an avid reader all my life. I read every day, sometimes for hours, if it is a really good book, or maybe for only 15 minutes when I go to bed. Anytime I am in a waiting room I have a book with me. There have been a couple of times when I stayed up all night reading like the first time I read Heilein’s Time Enough for Love or the first time I read Samuel R Delany’s Dhalgren.

For the last 40 years I have been reading, almost exclusively, Science Fiction, with an occasional technical manual. My earliest memories of reading (and Sci Fi) were Boys Life Magazine, in the mid to late 1950’s. I would each issue them from cover to cover. My favorite stories were about a small mischievous alien. I also remember reading a Robert Heinlein story, Star Lummox, (later on published as Star Beast) in 7th or 8th grade (1959 or 1960) and loved it. The only thing I remember reading in High School was Animal Farm.

In 1968 I went into the Navy and anybody that has been in the military knows that you spend a lot of time doing nothing, so I read. I read all the John D MacDonald Travis McGee books that were available at the time and really enjoyed them. But, my favorites were Isaac Asimov, Robert Heilein, Ray Bradbury, Ben Bova… Science Fiction. Then in January 1970 the Navy sent me to Cubi Point Naval Station in the Philippines for two years. The last year and a half I lived in Olongapo City with a “hostess” (another Blog maybe) and really had nothing to do.  The coolest thing about living in ‘Po City was when Tess took me to a market one day, I found the most marvelous thing, book stalls. There were two of them in this market and they each had thousands of paperbacks. I would pick up 5 books at a time for 2 ½ Pesos, about 35 cents. I was able to read tons of Sci Fi.

My favorite books and authors: Dhalgren by Samuel R Delany; any of the Common Wealth Universe stories by Peter F. Hamilton; Doomsday Book by Connie Willis; The Wander by Fritz Leiber; the Foundation and Robot novels by Isaac Asimov; the Dune novels by Frank Herbert; The Dorsi novels by Gordon R Dickson; the Gateway novels by Frederik Pohl; the Riverworld and Dayworld novels by Philip José Farmer; Robert Sawyer; C. J. Cherryh; Greg Bear; Charles Stross; Robert Charles Wilson; Ray Bradbury; Poul Anderson;  Actually, there are way more than I can list here.

The best place to buy your books, used books stores (unless you just can’t wait for that book or somebody gives you a gift card to a book store). Katreena and I always look for used book stores when we travel. Lately I have been buying most of my books at Bookmans Entertainment Exchange http://www.bookmans.com/ throughout Arizona. My next blog will be on my list of books to buy and to read.

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I love to listen to music. Mostly Rock and Pop, some New Wave, Nature (I have an hour long track of Wind chimes), classical, R & B. No country (although I do have a Shania Twain CD) and no Rap.  There are some things I just can’t imagine doing with music, like when I am in the office or hiking. It is passive listening in the office and active listening while hiking. I also have the radio on while driving (when Katreena doesn’t want to discuss some important idea she has) and over the years it will vary between classic rock stations and NPR.

 There always seems to be a song in my head. Usually it is the last song I heard, but right now it’s Elton John’s Elderberry Wine (not sure when I last heard that!). I have ripped all my CDs to WMA Lossless then converted them to MP3 192 KHz for playing on my desktop and 96 KHz MP3 for my MP3 player. I have over 9,100 tracks for a whopping 27 days and 1.5 hours of listening pleasure. My personal playlist has over 2200 tracks that takes 142 hours to listen to.

 The important playlist though is on my MP3 player. It is a 1 Gig, Sony Sports…. It has 315 songs on it, about 23 hours of all my favorites. We try to go hiking at least 3 times a week usually in Thunderbird Mountain Park. Depending on which side we start on and which mountain we climb it is from 42 minutes and a 550 foot climb to 2 ½ hours and a 630 foot climb (I have a Garmin 350 Forerunner GPS heart rate monitor). Nothing is worse than forgetting my MP3 player or having the battery run out; it makes the hike twice as long and twice as grueling. I call it active listening because you have nothing to do except listen to the words.

I have this theory about music; there is music that has a good tune, music that has good lyrics and music that has both. “Words and Music man, they need each other” as they said in Eddie and the Cruisers. Most of the music I listen to has both good music and good lyrics, with a few exceptions, like anything by Santana, just good music. And there are some that have questionable lyrics. Have you listened to the lyrics in True by Spandau Ballet? Depressing. Or how most of the hits by the Guess Who are down on women, love sucks. Some songs have a line or two that are profound. A lot of Jethro Tull’s music (My words but a whisper — your deafness a SHOUT. I may make you feel but I can’t make you think.) or David Bowie (Ain’t there one damn song that can make me break down and cry?), or even the 5^th Dimension (God knows this heart of mine could use a rest).

So, below are the songs I listened to on my last 5 hikes. One thing about my MP3 player is that is resets to the beginning when I charge it, which is Silver Wheels/Crazy On You by Heart. I always use shuffle play and the player is pretty good about the randomness of the playlist. There are a few exceptions to the shuffle play, some albums are meant to be played in order like Days of Future Past, by the Moody Blues and for me the Beatles White Album. It was the only 8-track I had while driving back and forth from Lemoore Naval Air Station to Leona Valley CA, about 200 miles, 4 hours of driving. I expect to hear the songs on that album in a specific order.

A note on the Beatles Abbey Road medley, I created it with all the songs on the second side of the album so it is: Here Comes the Sun; Because; You Never Give Me Your Money; Sun King; Mean Mr. Mustard; Polythene Pam; She Came in Through the Bathroom Window; Golden Slumbers; Carry That Weight; The End; Her Majesty.

#1
Silver Wheels/Crazy On You – Heart
Hold on Loosely - .38 Special
If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
Someone Saved My Life Tonight – Elton John
Scarborough Fair – Simon and Grafunkel
Black Magic Women – Santana
Thick As a Brick – Jethro Tull
Born To Be Wild – Steppenwolf
Desert Rose – Sting
Sweet Emotion – Aerosmith
Come Together – Beatles

#2
Do You Feel Like I Do – Peter Frampton
Freedom – Richie Havens
California Dreaming – Mamas and Papas
I’m Your Captain – Grand Funk
The Sound of Silence – Simon and Garfunkel
Revolution 1 – Beatles
Beginnings – Chicago
Questions 67 & 68 – Chicago

#3 Reset after a charge
Magic Carpet Ride – Steppenwolf
Owner of a Lonely Heart - Yes
A  Whiter Shade of Pale – Procol Harem
Rocket Man – Elton John
Spill the Wine – Eric Burdon and War
The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
Bring it On – Seal
Back in the USSR – Beatles
Don’t Pass Me By – Beatles
Taken it to the Street – Doobie Brothers
Iris – Goo Goo Dolls
If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot
Feelin’ Alright – Joe Cocker

#4
Summertime – Janice Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company
The power of love – Huey Lewis
True – Spandau Ballet
Who will save your soul – Jewel
D’yer Mak’r – Led Zeppelin
Lonely Ol’ Night  - John Mellencamp
We Built This City – Jefferson Starship
Martha My Dear – Beatles
The Sky is Crying – Stevie Ray Vaughen
Abbey Road Medley (just started)

#5
Abbey Road Medley
Young Americans – David Bowie
Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) – Styx
Magic Man – Heart
Spirit In the Night – Manferd Mann’s Earth Band
Mandolin Wind – Rod Stewart
Soul Sacrifice – Santana
#9 Dream – John Lennon
One More Night – Phil Collins

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I have been a fan of the Phoenix Suns basketball team for over 25 years and a session ticket holder for 19 years. I share the tickets with three others so we each get 11 games each season.  We went from the highest row in the upper level to row 10 in the lower level behind the Suns bench. They are really nice seats. And I hate to say it, but the game is much more fun from the lower level, you feel more involved with what is happening, you can actually hear the players.

We have been through some really good times like the Finals with the Bulls (Barkley vs. Jordan) in 93 and some not so good times. Generally the Suns have had a winning season, 16 of the last 20 and made it to the playoffs 18 of the last 20 years. The playoffs are always fun but not the main reason I go to the Suns games. The main reason is entertainment, for the fun of it. When they win it is more fun and when they lose it isn’t so much fun. But winning and losing is not all of it. The attitude of the team while they are playing also adds to the fun or to a boring game.

When the Suns brought in Mike D’Antoni in 2003 he made the game much more fun to watch. We had fast paced, high scoring games. Yeah they didn’t make it to the finals, but it was a lot more entertaining. Then the Suns brought in Steve Kerr as the general manager and things have gone downhill since then. He did bring in Shaq and he is definitely an entertaining player. D’Antnoi left for New York and we have Terry Porter who is going to make us a defensive team. The games have been boring, low scoring and the players sometimes looked like they were out there only because they had to be, not because they wanted to be.

Then the day after the All Star game they fired Porter, made Alvin Gentry the interim coach and went on a three game streak of scoring 140 or more and bet the pants off their opponents. Yes, they weren’t the best teams in the NBA, the Paperclips twice and Okie Thunderless. They haven’t done so well since then either. They did lose Amar’e, who has been the leading scorer on the team. Very hard to get around losing a player like Amar’e.

I was at the Oklahoma game and the next game with Boston and I can tell you that as entertainment it was a whole lot better. The players seemed to be really enjoying the game now and the audience certainly enjoyed it more. Even the loose to Boston was a good game. I was also at the March 1 game against the Lakers where we kicked their butt. That was sweet, way too many Laker Gold and Blue in attendance. Nothing nicer than the quite from the opposing teams fan’s at the end of a game.

The Suns are number two in the Pacific division, 17 games behind the Lakers! They are number 9 in the Western Conference and it looks like they are not going to make it to the playoffs this year. Bummer, but the couple of games I have left look to be more entertaining than those during the first half of the year. I expect the Suns will come back way different next year. And a losing season every once in awhile is good for fans like me. It is the only way I am going to improve my seats and that still may not happen. Most of the people around us are long time, 20 years or more, fans. If I could move it would be maybe 1 or at the most 2 rows down and maybe a little more to the left toward the center. Like the aisle seats, 7 to the left.

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If  you are a Beatles fan, or a Cirque Du Soleil fan then you are going to love (pun intended) the Cirque Du Soleil Beatles LOVE show at the Mirage in Las Vegas. I am a fan of both and couldn’t think of a better way to see the Beatles.

The remix of the music by Sir George Martin and his son Giles is awesome. Every time I listen to the songs I here something new.

We were if Las Vegas for a convention and at the last minute decided to go to the show. We checked for tickets on line and there were sets available, being a Thursday night we decided to see what we could get at the box office. Good move, one of the things that impresses me most about my wife is her ability to connect with people. After she talked to the lady at the box office we had $150.00 seats for half price. This is a like theater in the round. There are really no bad seats. Some of the really cheap seats way at the top have a slightly obstructed view. The seats all have speakers behind your head for a complete surround sound experience.

If you are going to Vegas you have to see this show, but, before you do, go to the About the Show on the Cirque Du Soleil web and read it, especially the Directors Vision and the Characters. Even if you are and avid Beatles fan it will help you understand some of what you are seeing. As with all Cirque Du Soleil shows there are a whole lot of things going on all over the stage. Amazing acrobatics, people flying all over the place, very strange things walking across the stage. Cool.

One thing about where you decide to sit. During the Within You, Without You song they pull a very large sheet off the bed that rises up in the middle of the stage and pull it up over the  lower half of the audience, then flap it up and down.  We were in the lower half so we were “part of the show” pushing the sheet up off us when it came down. Kinda cool. I think it would be awesome to see from the upper half also, like a big cloud with a bed in the middle.

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Last week we were in Las Vegas for a conference, NINAETC or the National Indian and Native American Employment and Training Conference. Katreena’s (my wife)  business is providing employability training. This was one of the most relaxing trips to Vegas we have had.

The main reason was we stayed in a timeshare just off the strip instead of a casino. The Desert Rose Resort is just behind the Tropicana, next to Hooters Casino. We had a one bedroom unit with a small kitchenette. They look like they were apartments at one time that have been converted to studio, one bedroom and two bedroom units. They are a little old but still comfortable. We were able to make breakfast in the room every morning and even had a relaxing dinner in the room one night. 

It’s not like we didn’t do any gambling. The conference was in the Hilton so we feed the machines.  It was nice to get away from it all in the timeshare. And we were a short walk from the strip and Hooter’s was right next door.

The most enjoyable thing we did though was go to a Moroccan restaurant, Marrekech, for a 6-course dinner and entertainment. It is located on Paradise midway between Desert Inn Road and Flamingo Road (map). It is $40 per person and worth it. The food was great, you ate everything, except the couscous, with your hands. The Shrimp Scampi and Beef Kabobs were the best. By the time the main course arrived, Cornish Game Hens and Couscous, we were full. There was a whole game hen for each person (there were eight of us) and nobody could eat more than half a hen. We did have to save room for desert. It was called B’stilla and was fillo dough filled with nuts and fruits and covered with a ton of powder sugar and cinnamon.

The best part of the evening though was the belly dancer. The dancer that night was Estela and she was good. She came out twice and danced for about ten minutes each time. She made an very good evening even better.

The following night as just as memorable, we went to Cirque Du Solae’s Beatles Love. That will be another blog.

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Welcome to my first attempt at blogging.

Writing in not my favorite thing to do, but, if I am going to be a web developer and give my customers (and the rest of the World I guess) confidence in my abilities having a blog is issential. I also need to know how they work so I can help my customers.

Cool!

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