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A Night of Amazing Celtic Music!

Olaf — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:59:13 +0000

My wife and an old high school friend of ours, Colin Blackledge, have put together a most remarkable double-event concert this Friday off the downtown square in Gainesville. Seven Nations and Emerald Rose will be performing in the small pizza bar venue that is the Monkey Barrel. For $15.00, you can get in to see these great acts as they jam Celtic-rock style! If you want to give up some information in advance, you can avoid the line and get priority entry to the event. Just call (770) 287-0970 and let them know you are interested in the Friday concert with Seven Nations and Emerald Rose.

Friday, October 26th
The Monkey Barrel
115 Washington St.
Gainesville, GA 30501

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Seven Nations is a five-man Celtic rock band that features bagpipes and fiddle. Their style is a fusion of traditional and original music. 7N has toured the world playing the Winter Olympics, Irish/Scottish Highland Games and Festivals, as well as traditional concert venues.

Emerald Rose is a four-man Celtic folk-rock band with a rich, traditional world fusion sound with influences randing from the Chieftains to Jethro Tull. Blending amazing vocals and driving guitars and bass, their music ranges from traditional jigs and reels to original folk rock and pop.

Flattery will get you everywhere!

Olaf — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:12:40 +0000

I just noticed that a few of my pictures had been “favorited” in Flickr by a man I didn’t know. It wouldn’t strike me normally, as I don’t know most of the people on Flickr.com, however these pictures seemed to be of a particular theme.

So, yeah. The guy had been favoriting a lot of men’s pictures lately.

Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Olaf — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 21:02:30 +0000

I broke out of my comfort zone in two big ways this weekend; both involving drumming. When it comes to personal challenges, those involving my creative efforts are the most difficult to engage. A failure at something coming from creativity is a personal one, to me. However, I don’t feel that I lost in either of my explorations this weekend.

I’ll start with the last event because I’ve only just sat down from it recently. The wife and I rallied the surrogate siblings (DR Boy and Spazzmanda) to join us in facilitating a drum circle for the United Hospice. The event was held at Tallulah Falls, GA for Camp Cocoon – a bereavement camp for children. Alchemy Drumming & Dance was called to put together a drum circle for children ages 5-17. About 60 of them. So four people made the trip to the Tallulah Gorge with a van full of buckets, beaters, and various percussion instruments. The intense sound of kids with percussion instruments filled every corner of an outdoor gymnasium. My wife and Spazzmanda brought their dance moves to the floor and got everybody hopping to the groove DR Boy and I laid down. I think we found some closet drummers, dancers, and gymnasts! The whole gig was a volunteer effort by the Alchemy crew and I think it was really rewarding to everyone. We got a lot of really great compliments from the camp organizers. Each of us also found a little something in ourselves in the challenge.

I also had a Friday night gig with Christine Zaarour at the Mezza lounge in Decatur. I met Christine at a debke workshop. My wife and her friend were there to learn the dance style and do a couple of performances afterwards. That’s also where I performed my first drum solo, and also the reason Christine was interested in having me out at her performance at Mezza. She’s from Lebanon and doesn’t know any drummers in the area, but “I’m the best drummer she knows” sounds better. It so happened that Mezza was having a private party coming that night and was standing room only. 50 or 60 people showed up to see Christine Zaarour perform her dance routines…and I’d have my ultimate test as a solo drum performer. I think everyone had a really good time – it was really a party by the end of the night, which came quite late. The food at Mezza is really wonderful as well. The nicest people, live entertainment, and delicious Lebanese food – this place has it all! Against the staff’s expectations, I also had some Arabic coffee. It’s not entirely different from the Minas coffee I’ve had from Bosnia.

So a weekend of opportunities taken. Stepping out of my comfort zone; once while performing as a solo drummer for Mezza, and again at Camp Cocoon as a facilitator for children of all ages. I think next weekend I’ll try mowing the lawn. Talk about breaking out of your comfort zone!

Pope Hopes for the Best, Pagan Babies Okay

Olaf — Thu, 31 May 2007 04:03:39 +0000

It’s a bit late getting to my attention, but I was made aware recently of the Pope’s exoneration of pagan babies in limbo. The documentation on this subject is actually quite lengthy; I had to follow a couple of citations to other fascinating topics regarding in vitro fertilization and other immoral acts of life indignities, but I digress.

Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate
– The Meaning of Life, Monty Python

It was an Alaskan cousin that first introduced me to this newsworthy little tidbit while vacationing on the sandy, white beaches of Pensacola Beach, Florida. The topic piqued my interests, so I went right to the source on the communiqué. What the Vatican had to say about it was spread over many a scrollbar’s length upon my millions of light-emitting liquid crystals.

For the past couple of decades or so, the Vatican has been mulling over the question of unbaptized babies’ fates. Back in the day, and I mean waay back in the day, Augustine conveyed in a not-so vague way that unbaptized infants go to Hell.

We do not pray for those who are damned.

However, in the 12th century the Pope accepted limbo as being a good place to put unbaptized babies. There, they would be without pain.

They did not deserve Paradise therefore they did not have happiness either

As recently as 1992, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is referenced as a position for the possibility of hope for the world’s pagan babies.

with regard to children who die without having received Baptism, the Church can only entrust them to the mercy of God

Additional references from the Bible show further suspicions of an omnipotence that supersedes our own pettiness.

Let the children come to me, do not hinder them [Mk 10:14]

With historical debates waging almost two millennium, it was high time that this tirade come to an end.

Our conclusion is that the many factors that we have considered above give serious theological and liturgical grounds for hope that unbaptised infants who die will be saved and enjoy the Beatific Vision. We emphasise that these are reasons for prayerful hope, rather than grounds for sure knowledge.

Okay…so it’s not exactly as clearcut as my fantastic vision of a golden school bus loaded with gilded car seats and babies all headed to the Pearly Gates. They must have installed a massive day care facility. It may very well be a particular kind of Hell for some. But it stands to reason that even more important than the meager position of hope for babies is the Catholic Church’s updates to the Catechism for the times. A natural, albeit doubtful prospect for the future evolution of this doctrine is the inclusion of other modern day paradoxes to Catholicism such as gay marriage and heathen salvation. Stranger things have certainly happened, but is this the latest sign that the Catholic Church is changing to a newer, hipper reflection of itself?

Scientific Study

Olaf — Thu, 24 May 2007 14:28:43 +0000

“AA” battery acid tastes like burning. I had imagined it would be sour. Related posts: Batteries Sold Separately How to Reboot your BlackBerry 7100 Tuesday Marks the Day Related posts:

Too Zune to Tell

Olaf — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 03:55:29 +0000

I got a Zune for Christmas – a wonderful gift, really. I really wanted to get into the iPod/Zen/etc. scene, but I wasn’t that interested in the whole iTunes thing. I also want video to be a comfortable size and 4:3 aspect ratio. The Zune has that, and is still pocket size and relatively inexpensive. The device does exactly what it’s supposed to do, so no one can really complain about features and capabilities. They all play MP3′s, many play AAC’s, many play WMA’s…whatever. I chose a Microsoft product because I know they have to put a lot on this to compete in the iPod space. The Zune Marketplace is also pretty hip for local/unknown bands. They seem to have put a lot into the Marketplace right up front, which is a good deliverable. I’m anxious to see how it grows before investing in the subscription just yet. If they can help me justify the price by providing things like audio books, movies, TV shows, and other little tidbits beyond just DRM’d audio, I will probably bite. The only real want I have for the Zune is software type of stuff. It would be nice to have usable wireless for synchronization and/or Marketplace downloading, but it’s not a requirement at this point. The software could be a little more robust. I’m used to MediaMonkey, so I have the desire for more ID3 tagging glory and I like MediaMonkey’s Amazon.com tagging. Zune does a good job of this through the MediaPlayer API’s, but it lacks in real innovation. The whole Zune hardware and software modus operandi seems to be around intuitive interaction and simplicity. That’s a good thing, I just wish there was an advanced button hidden somewhere to give me the technical stuff I like for certain functions. Another software nicety would be to link EQ settings to wherever you set them. That is, add the ability to EQ a song specifically and memorize that setting. Regardless of the wish or want, the Zune is said to be very software upgradeable. I’m holding out final judgment to see how some of the first “service packs” go for the device. I expect to see some new functionality coming out for the device within the first quarter or so – whether by Microsoft or others. I won’t be putting Linux on the device just yet, but seeing what people can do leaves me hope. Oh – and there is no built-in FM transmitter in case there’s still some confusion around that. There’s an FM tuner, but the transmitter is supplied by a third-party and probably sucks unless you get it hard-wired into your car. I bought a cheap one ($50!), though I didn’t realize I was going to have to spend in excess of this to get the functionality I desire. Where I live, the stations seem to come and go throughout town and I can’t lock onto a single station and expect it work for more than a couple of minutes while driving. It takes on too much interference too, and I hate that. I realize I could probably make it work most of the time, but the random interruption of static or another radio station will drive me insane. I’m resorting to a hard-wired FM transmitter for the car, which I already own but don’t have installed in the Mazda3.

When I’ve gotten more use out of this device, complete with car integration, I will write again on my more broken-in device and its associated software.

The Red Tent

Olaf — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 14:48:33 +0000

I’ve just recently finished “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant. The book was very enjoyable, though tedious for me at first. It was actually when I could compare the story of Jacob and his family from the Bible that the story became most interesting. I enjoyed hearing the comparisons and contrasts between the two books in their retelling of this ancient tale. One of the more notable differences between the stories was that of the religious context. The Bible presents (or so my Bible-knowing friend, Marc conveys to me) that the family of Joseph (from Isaac and Abraham, I presume) were all celebrants of God. It’s Old Testament stuff, so Judaism is appropriate here. In “The Red Tent,” the mood is decidedly pagan in nature. I believe that things would have been more pagan as Diamant has presented them. I don’t know the specific timeframe that this story is said to have occured, but God could not have been well-known throughout the regions yet. The story also speaks greatly of the near-magical powers of midwives – especially in those medically inept times. My mom is a midwife, so I can respect any empowerment her kind receive.

This isn’t the kind of book I’d typically read, but having read it I might seek out other titles by Anita Diamant. I picked it out in a hurry to pacify Balthazar at the library. As such, the hurried selection did me some good. I would definitely recommend the book to enlightened souls out there. Men and women alike, though many men may find it uncomfortable at times.

Celebrating our Decade Together

Olaf — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 03:34:31 +0000

We had a good array of friends, both old and new, join us this weekend for our 10th anniversary celebration. I thank all of you that were able to come, and all of you that attempted but were lost (sorry, Marc).

I especially enjoyed the myriad of entertainment friends could offer. Joshua Adrian performed some mesmerizing pieces, not the least of which was his famous swords balanced on his feet trick. Cynthia, one of Amy’s belly-dancing students did a number she’s been working on for a while. I found out I can drum to C&C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat ‘Till You Bleed” song on the doumbek. Despite your reluctance to accept this, I think it sounded great! Most everyone turned up in costume and Kendra and her husband, Tracey, picked up $40.00 in Outback gift certificates for first prize.

It’s been a number of years now since we last hosted a party. I really enjoy them when they’re here, but it’s stressful putting them together. I must say that it was my wife who put forth the greatest effort up front for the party planning. I tend to be her muscle in these things. But having lived through another one, I can’t understand why we don’t do it more often. Maybe next time we can throw an entertainer’s party and have all of our friends come out and do what they love to do – show off!

Dragon*Con 2006: Day 2

Olaf — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 04:30:12 +0000

Saturday morning marked two firsts for us. One was that we were in Atlanta for DragonCon early enough to actually see the parade. The second was that we were actually in the parade! Not only that, we were part of the debut of drumming and dancing in the parade’s attendance. We got up at 7:00am to get ready – Jeff and I had an ultra-expensive breakfast in the hotel – and get out the door by 9:00am to walk to the parade starting point. It was an awesome expanse of Star Wars characters, pirates, anime, superheroes, and things I couldn’t quite explain. For 7 blocks, Atlanta became a nightmarish spectacle of everything good and evil about science fiction, fantasy, and the geeks that love it. We headed up the parade with loud drumming and louder costumes (the dancers) like a high school marching band. Good times – I hope to do this again next year.

Later that morning we arrived at MARTA to pick up Balthazar and treat him to day at DragonCon as well. He had to nap almost immediately upon arriving, so he and Amy took care of that while Jeff and I (he as Boba Fett) strolled around the con. We met up with Bob (Vader Painter) and his wife, Kristen (Sith Vixen). They took us on a celebrity strole to meet David Prowse and others before Boba Fett and I split. By the time Balthazar woke up, Jeff was Willy Wonka and I was Superman. We gathered up the family and took them down for some costume walking. Balthazar really wanted to see the monsters and he got a good eye-full. He was so excited to point them all out to me. Everyone was very kid-friendly too, so we were able to reinforce that “monsters are our friends.” That’s something we tell him to help push away the in-grained childhood fears of monsters in the dark.

We stayed in costume long enough to get some pictures made, meet and greet, and sweat a healthy bit. After that, it was off to dinner in the hotel – a bad choice. We thought it would be convenient and quick. We were dead wrong! It took us nearly three hours to get fed and of course it cost an arm and a leg. Three hours is waaaay to long to expect a 3-year-old to be patient. By the end, I was tempted to just allow Balthazar to do whatever he wanted to do in the restaraunt. Joshua had joined us for dinner, though he didn’t eat anything they had. We had good conversation between the four of us, and we taught Balthazar some tricks he could play on his friends. He had a pretty good time playing them on all of us, including Joshua whom he had just met.

We are crashing relatively early tonight because we have the boy and because we’re just plain tired. Tomorrow, we take Balthazar back out to MARTA to join with the grandparents again and we’ll be childless parents for our last day at DragonCon.

Tuesday Marks the Day

Olaf — Mon, 29 May 2006 05:28:27 +0000

On Tuesday we really, really start the dog food experiment. We’ve delayed long enough and the energy that persuaded us to get into this was starting to wane. Now that discussions have brought us back to the project, we’re both very excited about it again. I’m going tomorrow to pick up my bag of food. Because of the specialty formula of the dog food chosen, I’m having to drive about 40 minutes to find it. I’m not prepared to release my brand choice publicly; I’ll probably do that at the end and after I’ve talked with the manufacturer – assuming that everything goes okay. However, I will release the ingredients for anyone that may worry about this seemingly ludicrous idea:

Chicken Meal, Brown Rice, White Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Flax Seed, Sun Cured Alfalfa Meal, Sunflower Oil, Chicken, Lecithin, Monocalcium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Chloride, Linoleic Acid, Rosemary Extract, Sage Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Mixed Tocopherols (source of Vitamin E), Zinc Amino Acid Chelate, Manganese Amino Acid Chelate, Iron Amino Acid Chelate, Copper Amino Acid Chelate, Cobalt Amino Acid Chelate, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Riboflavin (source of B2), Beta Carotene, Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Calcium Iodate, Folic Acid, D-Biotin, Sodium Selenite, Dried Papaya, Vitamin B12 Supplement

Amy took a picture of me the other day in the lake and I think it’s a perfect picture to use as a comparison later. I don’t anticipate this picture changing much seeing as my metabolism seems to annihilate anything I put in my pie hole. My last diet change was an “eat everything you can” for 8 weeks. I gained a whopping 4 pounds. On the positive side of that (for me), I kept it.