Drums in the distance

So, I've been hard at work on this 1968 Ludwig kit. I thought, in the absence of any meaningful posts, that I might put some pics up showing the rack and floor toms. Anyway, here you go ... I'm off to North Carolina to mountain bike for the weekend, so I'll be back next week, hopefully with a completed kit. Wish me luck.

12" rack tom and 16" floor tom
16" floor tom

The finish is Psychedelic Red, if you're wondering. Pretty cool stuff.

A threshold for Justice ...

Apparently, justice does know some bounds. Last month I got a ticket that I think was unwarranted. I went to the courthouse today to turn in my notice of my plea (not guilty) and saw the line for the actual court I would eventually have to go to should I turn in this plea and immediately decided to ask the clerk just how much I would have to pay if my plea was guilty. Sixty-six dollars? No, I think I'll go ahead and take my court date. Thanks. That being said, if she had said forty dollars, I probably would have paid and gotten the hell out of there.

It's funny that there's about a twenty-six dollar difference between my wanting what I feel is justice and me not wanting to deal with a bloated system that will, probably in the near future, destroy a whole day of my life as I stand in line with a bunch of strangers who were also stupid enough to plead not guilty or to have done something that didn't give them the option to bribe their way out of this mess.

What have I done ...

Classic Cool

So, I've not been posting as much as I would like. Even though the blog challenge that sparked my flurry of activity is over, I was still hoping it'd be an every-other-day type thing.

It's not going to get any easier now that I have a pretty sweet vintage Ludwig drumset to fix up. The original hardware has some pitting in the chrome and, ideally, I would replace it all. However, I wonder if it wouldn't give the drums a little character to leave the original stuff on there and just clean it up as much as possible. New heads, tension rods and a few missing pieces later, I might just have a drumset resembling these:

Needless to say, I'm a little exicted about how they'll look. I'll post pics of the drums once I have the finished product assembled.

Glory Road, and every other sports movie for that matter

Sports movies are ridiculous. I'm about to go to sleep, but the movie Glory Road is on TNT right now. I'm sure this is a very touching story and it is based on a true one, so maybe the argument that I'm about to put forth is completely out of line, but here goes.

It's absolutely ridiculous to me what just happened on my television screen. They're playing basketball and ... oh wait ... so this movie is about the first NCAA team with an all-black lineup to win the national title. Anyway, they're out there playing #4 Iowa and getting blown out. All of the sudden they start playing *their* game. Now, I know what this really means, but in the movie it meant actually making the layups they tried instead of getting blocked, getting a few steals and, in general doing things that are everyone's game. It's ridiculous to exemplify some *different* style of basketball with what is essentially basketball. Making your shots and playing defense isn't some special brand of the sport that no one saw before 1966. It's just basketball.

All sports movies are like this. They're all absolutely ridiculous and all follow somewhat of the same story line. This is my judgement of this movie after watching all of five minutes of it. I'm sure it's spot on. I'm not being sarcastic.

I'm a little sarcastic.

Credit: Because it's so damn current-eventsy right now

Or ... honesty as a best policy or the only term or condition.

Okay, admittedly some portion of my credit debt is due to my own overspending. Youth is not without its pitfalls. Most of it is due to the fact that I only made 16k a year for a while when I was trying to sneak my way in to the music industry. So be it. Let me tell you a quick story ...

One day, about five years ago, I got a credit card from Suntrust Bank through FIA. It was an 8.99% fixed rate Visa - a good card to start on, for sure. During this five-year span, I paid this credit card on time on all but four occasions with no penalty assessed for my lateness (it was usually only by a day anyway) until the very last time, this past January, when they saw fit to triple my APR. It's in my terms of service. It's in all of our terms of service.

Apparently, they don't really care to get their money back. You could carry a balance your whole life and never get it paid off. You would then, in death, drop that debt on your survivors who could then drop that in to another card and never pay that off either. It's meaningless to the banks to a large extent and certainly less meaningful to them than it is to you. You get penalized for doing the wrong thing. They, on the other hand make all the rules and penalties and are never taken to task for all of the rotten, evil things they do.

The fact of the matter is that now I'm in a better financial position and I don't need their card. I can also afford to pay my bills to them and know that one day I will be paid out of their scheme. There are millions of people in this world who don't have that option. They're stuck with this system unless someone changes it. Unless someone makes them, the credit card companies and all those other financial institutions complicit in this oppression of consumers, play nice.

Forever ... old?

Star Trek: The Next Generation reruns are all over television lately. I'm pretty sure I've seen every episode of this show, and I was always a big fan of Captain Picard ... well, who wasn't. What strikes me at this hour of the night is that Patrick Stewart, who portrays the captain, has looked just about the same for the last 25 years or so. Check it out ...

1984

early 1990s

2009

I swear I can't tell the difference. There may have been a time that people thought he looked a little old beyond his years, but those years have caught up to him. The man is almost 70 and looks like he did in his forties ... oh, and he dates women less than half his age. What else can I really say ...

160 txt characters, ftw

If you've ever wondered why there's a limit on the length of your text messages and where that magic number of *160* originated, just read this article from the LA Times.

More assumptions from the food services industry...

I've already touched on some of the assumptions the good people at your local purveyors of average food make about you. Here's another one:

If you ask for water, they will give you the smallest cup ever because they assume that you like to exercise and, as an extension of this, like to get up every three minutes to refill your glass of water.

Seriously. I know this is some half-ass attempt to make sure I don't steal soda from you, but can I please just get a normal cup? I promise not to steal your Mountain Dew and, if I do happen to steal a tasty beverage from you, it'll only cost you about nineteen cents.

Robot Roll Call

I sincerely believe that Mystery Science Theater 3000 was one of the funniest shows on television during its run. Amazing stuff. And the best part? The killer theme song, a prerequisite for any good television show.

Oh, and if you ever wondered what happened to the original host, Joel Hodgson, he went back to doing this.