I’ve been noticing a change in the programming in many cable TV channels. I am therefore proposing the following name changes:
I’m sure I missed a whole bunch of others. What do you think should be the real name of your favorite cable TV channel?
-TimK
I don’t think I’ve ever written before about playing bass, which is kind of strange, because I’ve been playing bass ever since I just picked up a friend’s on a whim back in 1986-ish and started jamming. (I’ve been playing other instruments for much longer than that, since the 1970’s.) Today, I play most Sundays at CPC Newton, where we have the rockingest praise & worship band on the east coast. (Probably not, but allow me a little hyperbole.) And half of the Saturdays, I also play bass at Ruach Israel.
[Update: I’m no longer at CPC Newton.]
Music for me is a labor of love and passion, as I have only earned a penny or two at most from my music, and that I’m sure is because someone felt guilty for enjoying what I have to offer. I’ve also recorded songs for fun, like my semi-unplugged rendition of “Amazing Grace.” (I’m doing everything in that recording, by the way, even though my brother and I originally performed it together, him on guitar, me on bass.)
Several weeks ago, Mario called me in a non-obvious semi-panic, wondering if I could play bass for In the Deep, because most of their other musicians had to cancel at the last minute. When I describe In the Deep, I say it’s candlelight ambience, loud worship music. I agreed to play. That was a fun, fun gig. Almost made me want to start another band again… But that’s a different story.
Afterward, I received a number of complements on my rockin’ bass playing. At first, I attributed them to two facts: 1. Mario had actually introduced me publicly to the group as the stand-in bassist, and 2. Dan the drummer and I have been playing together for years on Sunday mornings. We groove together, almost without thinking, so much so that sometimes I wonder if we’ve gotten into a rut. So when I subbed in at In the Deep, opposite Dan, we naturally provided all the backing needed. Yeah, that could be it.
But after thinking about it more, I’m thinking there’s more to it than that. Continue reading “7 Reasons More Worship Bassists Should Listen to WSRS”
My daughter has been bugging me to write this book ever since I shared the idea with her. I’d like to get your opinion, though, whether you think it would be worth reading.
This book might appeal to you if you enjoy deep characters that challenge your preconceptions, if you are fascinated by the human psyche, if you believe in happy endings, if you prefer stories that are easy to read (rather than those that are literary masterpieces), if you accept people the way they are but wish they wouldn’t be so dysfunctional.
The working title is People Stories: An eclectic collection of short stories and other works. I’m still throwing together ideas for the book, but the contents would probably include: Continue reading “I Want Your Opinion on a Potential New Book: People Stories”
From NETTUTS, a humorous summary of 10 bizarre programming languages, namely:
The conclusion one draws from this list is unmistakable and undeniable: There are programmers in the world who have far too much free time on their hands!
-TimK
Ran across this site, thanks to StumbleUpon. The title says it all. Cats in sinks. Yup. Pictures of cats in sinks.
This site delighted me not only for the off-kilter humor of the concept, but also because it’s genius from a marketing perspective. It appeals directly to cat-lovers, but with a twist that just makes you want to click through. Ha!
-TimK
Commander Data, the android– er, artificial life-form– from Star Trek: The Next Generation once asked, “What is funny?” He was answered with blank stares and um‘s and uh‘s. But I think I know what it is.
Funny is an incongruity that makes backwards sense.
Here are a set of incongruities that made me guffaw, all voiced by real, live comedians. And in some cases, dead ones, too. I can’t even really explain why some of these made me laugh, but they all did.
Enjoy!
-TimK Continue reading “Funny Comedian Quotes”
Penn & Teller haven’t yet done an episode on lie detecting for their Emmy-nominated series Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (which you can get on DVD
Well, here’s an idea they haven’t done yet, but which they ought to do, because it’s tailor-made for this show:
(UPDATE: They did an episode about polygraphs shortly after I wrote this post. Their research team, I’m sure, had already been hammering out the details when this post went live. Interestingly, they never got to most of the points I mention here. I guess lie detecting really is a huge load of bullshit.)
Continue reading “Lie Detecting: A Bullshit Episode Penn & Teller Should Do”
I’m helping out with a project I used to work on, one in an organization that uses SourceSafe to manage its source code. Fortunately, this time, I don’t have to deal with SourceSafe this time. All I have to do is to submit my diffs against a baseline, and someone else will have to deal with merging them into the repository.
On a more recent project, we’ve been using git. There’s no comparison. It’s pretty cool how git effortlessly handles situations that SourceSafe can’t even fathom. (Another good alternative is svn, but using svnmerge on all branches.)
Over 2 years ago, I posted a list of reasons to abandon SourceSafe. Now, since I’m hacking with Microsoft Visual Studio again on this project, I happened to run across another web page listing even more reasons why you should abandon SourceSafe as quickly as possible.
Chuckle, chuckle. Thank God that I don’t need to touch it.
-TimK