iTunes - Striving Hard to Underwhelm and Confuse...and Succeeding!

It was a close call tonight. I almost had a heart attack, or might have spontaneously combusted, if what I had seen were true. Fortunately for me, it was merely a head fake by the King of Head Fakes, Apple.  I've always hated ripping my CDs to iTunes.  Not because it's hard to do - insert, rip, done.

The problem is the aftermath that remains.   iTunes often has problems finding artists and artwork, a problem which only seems to happen when one rips one's own CDs to iTunes rather than downloading.  So, I often have to select all, type in the artist name, then all the track names, then copy in the artwork (I suppose I should just rip the metadata from AWS or a similar source, but on principle I don't want to give in, and implicitly endorse iTunes' mediocrity).

To be fair to Apple, and let you know just how anal I am about my music, I don't have a single track out of over 10,000 that is entitled "Track __", nor do I have any songs named "Unknown Track" or any bands named "Unknown Artist." I also don't let iTunes find song titles for me, because I've discovered over time that some people actually upload to discog and other services, as source material, all words in lower case, as well as misspellings, unneeded abbreviations, incorrect labels, etc.  Not coincidentally, the aforementioned are all very high on the list of things that annoy the hell out of me. So I keep it organized myself.

California Über Alles - Redux

California - History Repeats Itself

You don't really get a video, you just get a picture of the cover of the Dead Kennedys' seminal 1980 album Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables, and the audio for  California Über Alles, the band's first single from the same album (the single was actually released 19 months before the album, and with a slower time signature; most fans consider the album version to be the "correct" one, and if you've ever heard the song, it was most likely the album version).  In an unexpected but splendid bit of random chance (or proof that the Flying Spaghetti Monster thinks history is fun and funny), the California electorate, in crisis mode, chose to re-elect career politician Jerry Brown as California's governor, about 30 years after he originally served in that office.  And despite some lyrical references to the time period when the song was written, does raw anger at politicians ever truly go out of style?  It was the first single by The Dead Kennedys, and it's steeped in anarchy, individual rights and an acute (and valid, in  my opinion) mistrust of anyone in authority.  It just happens, in this particular case, to be Jerry Brown.

Solving the Healthcare "Crisis"

Let's skip the wordy preamble, shall we?  I've thrown these ideas out countless times to those who should understand, and I'm always told that I'm impractical.  Then again, I worked with people for several years who thought that new business ideas comprised dredging up the same vomit they spewed two years earlier, and pretending like it was something new under the sun.  So maybe I'm not the impractical one:

My Solution to Our Nation's Education "Dilemma"

This one might actually be short.  Because the solutions are so damn simple.  Here we go (not to be confused with a beer-fetching dog):

1. Abolish the Department of Education.  Seriously, would you want anyone in Washington teaching your children?  And what could they possibly teach them?  Bribery, embezzlement, clandestine sexual relations, blackmail, genocide, chicanery, fraud, misappropriation of funds, whoring, pimping, lying, cheating?  Well, I think you get the idea.

This is from the U.S. Department of Education's homepage:

"ED currently administers a budget of $68.1 billion in discretionary appropriations (including discretionary Pell Grant funding) and operates programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department's elementary and secondary programs annually serve nearly 16,000 school districts and approximately 49 million students attending more than 98,000 public schools and 28,000 private schools. Department programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to more than 15 million postsecondary students.

That said, it is important to point out that education in America is primarily a State and local responsibility, and ED's budget is only a small part of both total national education spending and the overall Federal budget [....]."

A Brief Lesson in Economics

Bloomberg Reports that Housing Is Rocketing Skyward!!!

Hey, hey, housing starts are up!  That means housing has turned the corner, right?  Not so fast, Panama Red.

I have no problem with reporting the data, but I do have a problem with the way it's reported.  Every time I see these headlines, the heady writing always includes something like "this shows that demand for homes is picking up."  In fact, that is a blatant lie, or a misunderstanding of the simplest concept of Econ 101.

The Reason Why I Don't Find the Choice Between Politicians to be a "Choice" in the First Place

http://www.scribd.com/doc/110073567/The-2012-Debates-Memorandum-of-Understanding-Between-the-Obama-and-Romney-Campaigns

A Shameless Plug for Nationwide Insurance....

Since I have no problem bashing corporate titans at every turn, it seems only fair to give some props when due.

My neighbor backed into my car a few weeks ago.  No big deal, but as you might know, even at 5 mph, the damage can be pretty expensive.  This is doubly so if you happen to own a German-made car with a 5 in the model name.  I called Nationwide, set up an appointment with the adjuster last Thursday, and he came out this morning.  He checked out my car, then went back to his car, searched online for parts and all of the repair times and codes, and came back with an 11-page written estimate, and a check for the entire repair amount.  It should be noted that the total was almost identical to the amount that my body shop (which is not on their approved list) wanted to repair the car.  All this within an hour.  

I have Mercury as my insurance company, but I will not hesitate to consider Nationwide the next time I'm shopping carriers.  

Why Not Me? It's Not Like the Chargers Have Any Qualified Management Right Now....

Hey Spanos, give me a call, I've got some ideas for you.  First, you may want to fire your GM and your coach.  But hey, I'm flexible on these things.

Gray Flicker of Perfect Confusion (Ode to the Watcher-over-er)

I dedicate the following haiku* to the Man/Woman/Child who's "Them that createth the words and definitions in dictionaries:"

                                                Monosyllabic

                                                Five syllables
                                                What the fuck.

Sir/Madam/Rugrat, I salute you!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Flexible-form Western style, not traditional Japanese 17-on structure, in 

   case you wondered.  I'm sure my high school English teachers would be

   appalled (considering their extensive experience with Eastern poetic 

   forms - as if I have any).

   Though an on is not strictly a syllable, it seems to work for most
   Americans.  So, if our dictionary-writing friend had simply matched the
   word to the meaning, rather than being a mischievous little prankster,
   with the "salute" becoming the fourth line...voila.

   Though I must concede, it would make the ditty above rather irrelevant.
   A haiku can also be a song!  Go ahead, sing it to yourself or those around
   you.

Brent Tharp

Soul on Fire

    And so it came to pass in those days, that a famine had set upon the earth.  Feeding on the general malaise of the people, a power arose from the East, and gradually enlisted the populace to its armies.  Several men rose to power, mostly through cunning, but some through brute force.  One of these was particularly gifted in both areas, and became the man that many looked up to, or at least feared.  In most quarters, the men and women of knowledge and privilege called him Charles, or the Conqueror.  But amongst the serfs, he was known as The General, the Slayer, or Lucifer (often shortened to Luke when speaking in the open).
    The General's power had become so great, in fact, that many considered him the supreme ruler, and were ready to lay down their weapons for him at any pass.  Because of this, many men of independent beliefs had subjugated their lives to serve a person whose motives they truly didn't know, but preferred that to the uncertainty of what would happen to the first person to openly rebel against his power.
    The Great One, looking down from above, was told of The General's great power, and of his stranglehold on the lives of the people.  Believing this was wrong, not so much because it was wrong to control the people, but because he was not the one doing it, The Great One sent an avenging angel to earth to smote The General.  And so it was to be.