Four Facts and One Lie

As seen recently in such exciting blogs as A Spider’s Web in Thornton Park and I Deal With It, and the movie Breach, here’s a fun little meme to pass the time. Guess which of the following statements is the lie. Answers will follow soon.

1) Patrick and I have been together for almost 10 years.
2) My drum major outfit in high school consisted of a vaguely US Civil War-ish general’s outfit complete with a sword!
3) I once played the sax naked on stage in front of a restaurant full of people.
4) I’m a life-long Democrat that believes in the vast power of government to help its citizens lead richer lives.
5) I waited in line in front of Target for almost 12 hours to buy the new Nintendo Wii.

Gee’s Bend

As many of you know, when Patrick isn’t waist deep in bleeding all over his students’ tragic essays, he and his aunt Nancy spend countless hours designing, cutting, sewing, and piecing together quilts. Recently, their quilts were entered into the Cabin Fever Quilt Fair.

Though they did not win any competitions, Patrick’s quilts were noticed by members of Gee’s Bend, a quilting guild of African American women from rural Alabama known for their historic and innovative quilt designs. One in particular, Come Fly with Me (pictured to the right) was selected by Cabin Fever and Gee’s Bend to be featured as part of the Gee’s Bend exhibition at the Orlando Museum of Art during the month of March.

If you can’t make it out to the exhibit, you can also check out Patrick’s quilts on flickr here and here. You can also occasionally catch him helping out or teaching quilting at Cornerstone Quilt Shop.

Please join me in celebrating Patrick’s creativity and dedication to this traditional and quintessentially American craft.

Who’s Side Should I Be On?

Now stop me if you’ve heard this one. An outspokenly anti-gay Baptist pastor walks into a bar. He tries to pickup a guy for some of the ol’ nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more. Hijinks (by way of the police, a nosy public prosecutor, and the ACLU) ensue.

I’m conflicted between my want to see hypocrisy punished and my need to protect every adult citizen’s right to engage in lewd, consensual acts with each other. I can only imagine how conflicted a parishioner of this man’s must feel…oh wait, I forgot about that whole “hate the sin, persecute the sinner” routine. Yeah, they’re probably ready to just run him out of town on a rail.

Top Ten Songs (for the moment)

As I have done before, I would like to share below the top ten songs that I’ve had floating around my iPod over the last few weeks. Post your own top ten on your blog and send me a link to it by posting a comment. Spread the meme, save the world!

Come Here Boy - Imogen Heap
Welcome To the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
Sleeping Lessons - The Shins
Preparing for War (from Battlestar Galactica Season 2 OST) - Bear McCreary
Doomsday (from Doctor Who Series 1&2 OST) - Murray Gold
Let It Will Be (from Confessions Tour) - Madonna
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
James K Polk - They Might Be Giants
All That Makes Us Human Continues - BT
Life on Mars - David Bowie

And the Beat Goes On

This Valentine’s past was very special for at least one reason - I spent part of it at the cardiologist. For the past week, I had been experiencing what I later found out were called heart flutters, that is, noticeable, momentary fluctuations of my heart beat. They started the day after our small, fraternal alumni gathering for the Super Bowl and persisted throughout that week, culminating in a mild panic attack at my office that following Friday.

Panic began spreading when, after a short but eventful meeting with our auditors, I started to feel as if the left side of my face was slightly numb. Thankfully, I brought myself back from the brink of having a full-blown attack, and after lunch felt much less panicked. On Patrick’s urging, though, I decided to get checked out by a doctor before the weekend. At Centra Care, they gave me an EKG, which the doctor determined was almost completely normal. Based on the information I gave him, he determined that I should cut way back on my caffeine consumption and try to let go of the stress I had been gathering that week. Much relieved that I wasn’t having a heart attack, I went home, collapsed in the bathtub (as I like to do), and played some Hotel Dusk: Room 215 on my Nintendo DS.

The following Monday, I got in to see a cardiologist, who determined that I should have several tests run. The first started right away as I was fitted with a Holter monitor in a chest halter. The technician who fitted me encouraged me to eat a full dinner, complete with a cold dessert, drink several beers, and consume more caffeine that I normally would - all in the name of science! While I completely understand what she wanted to see with these requests, I could only humor her in part - I didn’t consume as much caffeine as I probably could have. Otherwise, I went through my normal nightly routines (sans bath, which sucked), logging each time I moved about or did anything that might cause my heart to react.

And now we’re back to Valentine’s, when I returned the Holter-in-a-halter and had a echo cardiogram. The technician assured me that, though he could not interpret the results, nothing seemed to serious to keep me there for immediate further testing or treatment. I will, unfortunately, have to go back this Friday for a stress test. While I’m not worried about getting my heart rate up by using the treadmill, I am not looking forward to hanging out at the cardiologist’s office for the better part of my Friday. Oh well, such occasions do allow me to burn through my backlog of podcasts. Thank God for the almighty iPod!

Otherwise, Valentine’s Day was quiet. I picked up food from the restaurant at which Patrick and I had our very first date. We ate it at home and caught up on some television, a very homebody Valentine’s (which was quite right, thank you). The audit has come and gone at work, resulting in only my lab getting a finished (and positive) evaluation. God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world (well, at home anyway).

As a special treat (and hopefully a start to a semi-routine new feature), I have decided to start down a path of doing some audio recordings. I’ve been taken with all of the podcast excitement lately, and having been a long time listener (first time caller) to talk radio, I want to start doing my own dabbling. I don’t expect to turn out anything amazing, but if I can at least try a few things, perhaps even starting a regular podcast or three, I’ll be happy to have spent the time.

So to start us out, here’s a poem by on of my favorite authors. Its called Strange Music by G.K. Chesterton and is read here by me. Enjoy!

Dr. Kawashima Says

One should not try to do their daily Brain Age training while under the effects of several Yuengling’s. Feeling a little tipsy today, are we?

Toys

Casey always finds these fun little blog toys, and given that I am a Lego-building, gadget-whore, I feel compelled to spread the meme like English turkeys spreading H5N1. I promise to post a more meaningful contribution to the blogger’s canon sometime later tonight, though quite honestly anything would satisfy that (compared to this post).

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Terrorists

Truly, these men are a threat to our very way of life. They hate freedom! Just look at the way they flaunt their extremist hairstyles in the face of an unquestioning, lazy, and over-reactionary media. It was with that very extremist mindset that they brazenly planted those bombs-disguised-as-Lite-Brites in the very heart of union - Boston, Massachusetts. Now watch, and check yo’self before you wreck yo’self.

The Terrorists Are Winning…

…and this proves it! We’re wound up so tight as a culture around the idea that terrorists can strike anywhere, at any moment, that a silly, guerrilla marketing gimmick like the one pulled in Boston can be so quickly overreacted to. Thanks, George. I’m sure Osama and his ilk thank Allah daily for your administration. They even freakin’ arrested the guy. Sigh. I hope that someday our country will collectively awaken from this nightmarish world of fear and loathing. Maybe then can we actually relate to the rest of the world and interact accordingly. But not today.

UPDATE - Wil Wheaton says the above in a much less efficient (and thus much more entertaining) way.