All posts by Jonathan

Summerfest, reggae and diversity

It’s the middle of Summerfest (one the the world’s biggest music festivals) and I’ve already been to some excellent concerts. The two that stand out so far are Peter Gabriel (as you would expect, his show was good both theatrically and musically) and Lucky Dube (a reggae singer from South Africa).

At Lucky Dube’s concert last night, a thought struck me in the middle of the show. Whenever I’m at a reggae show the audience is always the most diverse of all the concerts I go to. You seem to see all ages, races and if I may be presumptuous, even income classes. When you’re grooving to the music with such a diverse crowd, you begin to wonder why it is so difficult for all of us in this world to get along with one another.

Old Rusty or Old Faithful?

It’s now officially summer here at my house. That means warm and muggy air. But, my condo is cool! That’s right, my 16 year old central air conditioner with a rusty grill, still works! But perhaps I should start at the beginning of this story…

Before I signed the papers to become thirty years in debt, the home inspector was here and he told me the air conditioning unit was manufactured in 1987 (about the same time my condo was built). Unfortunately he was not able to test it because the weather at that time was too cool. Ever since then I was convinced as soon as temperatures got hot, I would find out Old Rusty was ready for the scrap yard and I would have to spend thousands of dollars on a new air conditioner. When I got home from work today it was pretty warm in my place. So I crossed my fingers, set the thermostat and moved the switch to cool. Cool is what I got.

Hopefully I won’t jinx Old Rusty and put him in an early grave by posting this.

Dances With Wolves

I recently picked up the special edition DVD of my favorite movie, Dances with Wolves, which was just released a few weeks ago.

Why is it my favorite? Well, first there’s the American Indian aspect of the story. There is an air of authenticity to the way the movie portrays the Lakota People (although there was some criticism regarding the way the Lakota language was spoken in the film). I also enjoyed the theme of the main character (John Dunbar, a.k.a. Dances With Wolves). He seems to be struggling with the question that so many of us also wonder about: to find out who he really is. His discovery begins when he starts to encounter the Indian People. Through that discovery, he does seem to get his question answered.

What’s so special about the new special edition DVD? It includes scenes originally cut from the theatrical release. The movie now clocks in at about four hours. Yes it’s a long movie, but the formerly deleted scenes do bring essential background and character development that I think is critical to the story. The two disc set also includes a few extra features, including a documentary on the making of this Academy Award winning film.

Do yourself a favor and check out Dances With Wolves.

Wildcat Mountain camping trip

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Yesterday I returned home from a camping trip to Wildcat Mountain State Park. Because I was so involved with moving to my condo last fall, I haven’t been camping since last August. It was great to finally spend some time in out in nature recharging my batteries.

Wildcat Mountain State Park

I ended up doing a lot of hiking. Saw quite a few animals (including deer, wild turkeys, hawks and a lot of migrating songbirds) and some pretty nice scenic vistas.

One interesting thing I discovered is there are a lot of Amish people living in the area surrounding the park. After I saw a number of their horse and buggies driving along the rural highway, I really started to think about modern life. Here I am going to the country to recharge my batteries and get away from it all, while they’re living the simple life there all the time. Oh, I’m sure the Amish have their difficult and stressful times, but I doubt any of them are complaining about not having enough time for things.

Time may change me

Lately I’ve been very aware of the passage of time — both in small and large amounts. In this age of modern conveniences, why do we often run out of time? Not enough time to get the house chores done before bedtime, not enough time to write a blog entry (wink), not enough time to finish reading that magazine before next month’s issue arrives…

As I get older, time seems to move much faster for me than it did when I was younger. Is your perception of the passage of time inversely related to the amount of memories in your brain? I remember summers when I was a kid that seemed to go on forever. Now the seasons (summer especially) seem to just fly by.

As David Bowie once sang, “Time may change me, but I can’t change time.”

Those obnoxious starlings

By now you’ve probably figured out that I enjoy nature and the outdoors. Because of that I also like having a couple of bird feeders on my deck and watching them. About a month ago I was happy that goldfinches (one of my favorite birds) discovered my feeders and were regularly coming over to have snacks. Recently I’ve been getting some new visitors. Starlings have figured out how to perch themselves on the finch feeders (which are designed to feed the smaller birds) so they can eat. Being the bigger and more aggressive bird, the starlings chase all of the other birds away and end up hogging all of the food. For those of you that don’t know, starlings are an invasive species from Europe. Mother Nature never intended for them to be in North America.

This morning I found about ten starlings all perched on my deck rail, waiting for their turn to eat all of the finches’ food. “This means war,” I thought to myself. Tomorrow I’m planning a trip to the garden center to purchase a starling proof bird feeder. Stay tuned…

Update: After talking with a very helpful person at Wild Birds Unlimited (a great place to buy bird stuff by the way), I changed the feed I was putting out to safflower seeds, which the starlings don’t like. So far it seems to be doing the trick. Keep your fingers crossed.

Closing time dream

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I had the “closing time dream” again last night.

I’m at work (in the library) and it’s closing time. So we lock all the doors, but somehow people are still able to come in. They keep walking through the locked doors in droves. We tell them that the library is closed and they have to leave but they don’t. Of course since all the library patrons keep coming in, that means I am unable to go home (and getting a bit irritated about the whole situation).

Around 14 years ago I had earned my masters degree and was searching for a job in the library field for several months. I was working in a retail store at the time and every so often I would have a dream similar to the one above. It was closing time. They doors of the store were locked. I wanted to leave, but customers kept coming in.

About a year ago I started having the same dream every couple of months or so. The only difference is, it takes place in the library. When I thought about the dream today an important question that I had not considered before, popped into my head. Why don’t I just leave?

Bloy Designs, Couch Commander

Couch Commander screenshot

I’ve got a pretty good excuse why I haven’t posted anything here in a while. I’ve been busy working on a couple of web sites, which were just unveiled over the past few days. The first, www.BloyDesigns.com, is a site I set up to showcase my web design work. I created the other site, CouchCommander.com, for a stand up comedian I know.

In other news, today is Earth Day. Remember Mother Earth as you go about your life. Please do everything you can to keep her healthy and beautiful.

Update: February 9, 2007
As of today, the domain BloyDesigns.com no longer exists.
Information about my web development work can be found on my resume.

The Last Broadcast

Last December I listed what I considered the best albums of 2002, but I definately missed one. I recently discovered a delicious CD that was released last year: The Last Broadcast by Doves.

The album starts with guitars ringing like a carillon of bells and follows with the band’s beautiful harmonies. Song after song the music continues to sweep you off your feet with haunting melodies, soulful rhythms and musical textures that have almost an epic quality reminiscent of U2 or Radiohead. After listening to The Last Broadcast, the musical soundscapes will hang around in your head making you want to play it over immediately.

An excellent CD and one which will help you get your mind off of any nasty April snow storms you might be experiencing (like I did here in Wisconsin today).

Shades of grey

Like many others, my thoughts have been with the people in Iraq lately (with the innocent civilians and the soldiers that are there). During a lunchtime discussion at work one of my coworkers raised an excellent point. Why must most things that are said or reported on be cast in such absolutes? Issues are not all black and white. Just because someone is against the war, does not make them anti-American or against the troops. I might disagree with someone’s opinion on the war, but does that automatically mean their reasons are invalid?

A person who blatantly disregards someone’s ideas just because they don’t happen to share that opinion can tell me a lot more about them than what their opinions actually are. I only hope our leaders share this philosophy and can see the many shades of grey.