100 Greatest Singers

Every so often Rollingstone puts out a best of list, whether it be the best albums, songwriters, guitarist or whatever else they can come up with. I love and hate to read these lists; I love to read them to see what other musicians and recording industry folk have to say about the matter but I hate to read them because I always think they've got it wrong. Well in the latest Rollingstone they have compiled their list of the 100 Greatest Singers ever. They really stick their necks out each time these lists are published and I'm sure that they receive hundreds of emails letting them know who they forgot or "this person is better then this person". Well to keep with the standard here are my high points of how I think they got it wrong.

1. Elvis Presley is #3, really?
   
2. Bob Dylan even breaking into the top ten is a travesty. Even when you can understand what he's saying you don't want to hear it.
3. Karen Carpenter is buried way too deep back at #94
4. There are only 8 singers on the list that started getting recognition after the 1990's
5. I could probably make a list of 100 more singers that were left out
   

A good singer should make your soul ache and cause you to take pause of everything that you are doing or thinking and give all your attention to the song. The quote from Rollingstone that I do like is "a vocal is a kind of audible kiss."

Who do you think was forgotten, misplaced or accidentally made the list?

Man, my iPod's dead and all I have is some Gatorade and an onion.

Making Sports More Fun

Watching sports would be even more fun if the commentators were more like this.



Refs also need to lighten up, they could learn a few things from Ron Cherry.

Denton Turkey Roll

This last weekend was our last bike rally for the year; it was the Denton Turkey Roll. We haven't done many bike rallies this year but have thoroughly enjoyed the ones that we have participated in, with the Hotter N' Hell Hundred being our main one for the year and our first century ride. During the training for the HHH we had done a number of 50+ mile rides and one 75 mile ride along with all the training we were doing for the US Open triathlon, so we felt pretty prepared for the ride and as it turns out we fared pretty well in the end. So it would be reasonable to think that having done a century ride and now at the beginning of the training for a 70.3 that we would be able to hack a 75 mile ride at the drop of a hat, that is where you would be wrong my friend. Whatever endurance we had after the HHH has long gone the way of the Dodo. We started out strong and feeling good through the first 40-45 miles, the cold wasn't much of a factor after the first 10 miles and even wanted to shed layers a couple of times but then somewhere in there I got my first flat and so we got a little rest without having to show weakness and ask for one. Also around 45 miles we decided to take the optional 100K turn when it came because "Kati had to get to a baby shower", I swear that was the real reason. The 100K turn never showed it's ugly face and when we asked someone at one of the rest stations they knew nothing about it, it was all or nothing. So we continued on giving each other words of encouragement along the way until we reached our final destination.

There are two rather embarrassing things about this ride. The first one is that the HHH took Kati and I 5:30 of actual pedal time to complete, this 75 mile ride took us 5:08. Stop laughing! The first embarrassing thing I could handle accept except for the fact that we were doing this ride with my triathlon coach, who tried to talk me out of riding this distance this early in the training and who has done a number of Ironman races and has been on IR from running for the past three months so all he has been doing in cycling. Can you say skunked?

Write Ins

I have always wondered how many people actually write in a name on the ballot during the elections and who they write; so below is a list of write ins from Duval County, Florida. The one thing that I can't figure out is why four people wrote in Obama.

234 Hilary Clinton
174 Ron Paul
23 None of the above
23 Jesus
21 Mike Huckabee
14 Mitt Romney
8 Colin Powell
6 God
4 Obama
4 Rudy Giulliani
4 Steven Colbert
3 Donald Duck
3 Donald Foy
3 Mickey Mouse
3 T. Boone Pickens
2 Bill Cosby
2 Chuck Norris
2 Condoleeza Rice
2 Lou Dobbs
2 Pago Possum
2 Sarah Palin
2 Senator Brownback
1 Bill Clinton
1 Bobby Bowden (Florida State football coach)
1 Oprah
1 Joe The Plummer
1 Willie Nelson
1 "Me"

There aren't many healthy cereals that i enjoy, to be perfectly honest i could sit down to a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch 3 meals a day and be perfectly happy for the remainder of my days. The one healthy cereal that i do like is Frosted Mini Wheats but there is a certain way that they must be eaten and that is without milk. Milk tends to wash off the frosting after a while and ultimately turns the bowl into a big pile of mush. My favorite time of the week is when i am down to the last bowl and i get the dregs of the box, this is all the little tid bits that fell off the main morsels and settle at the bottom. This is my favorite part of the box because the frosting to wheat ratio sky rockets making each spoon full bliss. There is a moral dilema that i face each time i need another box though, do i buy the name brand box and get to the dregs faster or do i buy the bigger off brand bag, it takes longer to get to the dregs but there are alot more when you get there. i guess we all have to face our trials.

Attention Starved

Through my short life there have been a few people that have gotten some kind of undue, short term media attention and once it was over have been grasping for every straw to try and get back into America's heart. Cindy Sheehan is a perfect example of this, she came out of no where, stayed longer then she was welcome, made waves and faded away only to turn up every once in a while at rallies across America where she can get her face on camera people's civil liberties are being challenged. The latest person to add to this honored list is Joe The Plumber who has started up a website in support of his upcoming book Fighting For The American Dream. There isn't alot that you can do on the website yet but you can become a member at either the free "We Are Joe" level or the "Freedom Membership" level for a fee of $14.95. All proceeds go to a vague unestablished non-profit organization, whatever that means.

In the immortal words of Fred "Don't just go away, go away mad."

Bail Me Out

Want to get in on the bail outs? Well here is the form that institutions must fill out in order to get some cash from Uncle Sam. Yes, that's the entire form, only two pages; I had to fill out more paper work when I went to the dentist this week. Wasn't one of the causes of this whole mess lending to people without checking their credit, employment status and salary? And yet you can get piles of money from the government for less paperwork then it takes to get a car loan.

So don't delay, applications are due by 5:00pm November 15th, and there's still $125 billion out there in the Treasury's Capital Purchase Program fro some lucky applicants.

XM-Sirius Merger

Well the day is finally here, or it will be tomorrow. In less than 24 hours the merger between XM and Sirius radio will be in full swing. Here is the new channel listing; there are some channels that are being moved over from Sirius and there are stations that are being dropped completely.

There is also new subscription plans. I'm not sure how XM worked but on Sirius there was one monthly fee that got you every channel that they had. Now there are A La Carte subscriptions where the base is $6.99 for 50 channels of your choice with additional channels at $0.25 each with the total price never going above $12.95. In the end I guess that isn't too bad considering that Sirius was $144 a year, this would be $155 if you wanted every channel.

The biggest travesty of all is that my punk channel is now AC/DC radio. Oh the humanity!

Northern Exposure

To the lower 48 Alaska is kind of like the bass player in a band, you kind of need them but they never talk in interviews, they don't write any of the lyrics or music, they're never in the fore front in promo photographs and they're a little off up stairs. This election Alaska seems a bit off upstairs for sure.There is actually a battle for the senate seat even considering that Ted Stevens was convicted on 7 counts of making false statements and now this.

Come On Oakland!

I have never been a big fan of the Oakland Raiders, it always has seemed that Oakland was the place to go to either end your career or you ended up there because you were a problem child and nobody else wanted you. But lately things have been getting out of control. First there was the Kiffen debacle where Al Davis pulled a Jerry Jones and tried to bring in an inexperienced coach on the cheap and expected him to make a difference, but Al still ran the team and selected JaMarcus Russell in the first round of the 2007 draft who turned out to be a lemon. Now Big Al releases DeAngelo Hall just 8 days after signing him to a $70 million contract. Interim coach Tom Cable is quoted as saying he hopes the move sends the message that no ones job is safe. How about Al's, is his job safe?

Here's what Raider fans need to do. Go get this guy.


If he can't rally the troop he can at least get a mob together by intimidation alone. Now they need to storm the Raiders offices and form a coup, but don't take Al as a hostage, people will only meet your demands for things that they hold dear to them and that's not Al. Once you have something of value you need to make a list of demands, this is what I suggest:

1. Al Davis retires and is banished to Elba Island
2. The year is already in the tank so the team has to lose the remaining games so they can get a first round draft pick (this demand depends on the Lions actually winning a game this season)
3. No more metal detectors at the entry gates to McAfee Stadium, it takes forever to take off our spiked football pads and helmets just to walk through the sensors
4. You might as well ask for a helicopter too, everybody asks for a helicopter
   

Come on Raider fans you guys are the rowdiest bunch of fans in the NFL why have you not taken control of this situation yet?

Candy Hierarchy

According to The World's Fair here is the 2008 breakdown of Halloween candy hierarchy.

TOP TIER (caramel, chewy, oh my classy) Caramellos --- Milky Way --- Snickers --- Rolos* --- Twix
POST-TERTIARY (not surprisingly, exclusively chocolate-based) Hershey's Kissables --- Peanut M&M's --- Regular M&Ms --- Junior Mints --- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups --- Three Musketeers --- regular old Hershey Bars -- Reggie Jackson Bar
SECOND TIER (also exclusively chocolate, after fending off a few intruders) Kit-Kat --- Nestle Crunch --- Mounds --- Tootsie Rolls --- Whoppers** --- Dark Chocolate Hershey Bars --- Fair Trade Chocolate --- Butterfinger --- Pay Day --- Baby Ruth
THIRD TIER (also referred to as the chewy range or, in some circles, the Upper Chewy or Upper Devonian) Milk Duds --- Benzedrine -- Jolly Ranchers (if a good flavor) --- 100 Grand Bar
Almond Joy --- Candy Corn*** --- Starburst
BOTTOM TIER (the Lower Chewy and Gummy-Based, also the Middle Crunchy Tart Layer) Dots --- Lollipops --- Nerds --- Runts --- Trail Mix ---Swedish Fish --- Mary Janes --- Gummy Bears straight up --- White Bread --- Licorice -- Anything from Brach's**** --- Hard Candy --- Spree --- Bubble Gum --- Including the Chiclets (but not the erasers) --- Black Jacks --- LemonHeads --- LaffyTaffy --- Good N' Plenty --- Jolly Ranchers (if a bad flavor)***** --- Bottle Caps --- Smarties --- "those odd marshmallow circus peanut things" -- gum from baseball cards
Tier so low it does not register on our equipment Healthy Fruit ---Pencils --- Lapel Pins --- Extra Strength Tylenol --- "anonymous brown globs that come in black and orange wrappers" --- Now'n'Laters --- Hugs (actual physical hugs) --- Whole Wheat anything

*These may be rolled to a friend.

** Whoppers blow.

*** Still no unanimous decision on the placement of Candy Corn, which as of 2006 remained unclassified, but as of 2007 had been tentatively placed in the Upper Chewy/Upper Devonian. 2008: no sighting.

**** Unless its something caramel, pronounced "caramel."

*****Remains an outlier, since it is in no way "chewy." Further studies have not resolved this inconsistency.

I Guess I've Been Tagged

I guess that I have been tagged by Jill to answer the questions below.

4 Random things I love about Kati Lynn Stoddard
1. She can make one scoop from Baskin Robbins last a week
2. She would prefer vegetables over anything
3. If she doesn't get to workout she goes stir crazy
4. She knows what she believes in and sticks to it

4 Jobs I've had:
1. Candy store
2. Endocrinology Lab Tech
3. Laser tag arena
4. Construction

4 Movies I have seen more than once:
1. 300
2. Bottle Rockets
3. Across The Universe
4. Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy

4 TV Shows I watch:
1. Iron Chef
2. The Office
3. The Daily Show
4. Jim Rome is Burning

4 Places I've Been:
1. Leavenworth, WA
2. Berlin, Germany
3. Mesa, AZ
4. SLC, UT

4 places I've lived:
1. Twin Falls, ID
2. Arlington, TX
3. College Station, TX
4. Lewisville, TX

4 Favorite Foods:
1. Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
2. Dad's Spaghetti
3. Central Market's eclairs
4. Mom's Teriaki Chicken Wings (only 271 more days)

4 Places I'd Like to Visit:
1. Egypt
2. Somewhere northeast
3. Caribbean
4. Ireland/Scotland

4 People I tag:
1. Fred - you're the only other person that hasn't been tagged that I know has a blog, sorry.

Electoral College

Above is a chart showing how much your vote is worth in the state that you live. (click to enlarge)

I have something to admit that for most of you will come as no surprise but I am a registered Democrat in Texas, I have to whisper that so when I leave work today I still have a car with functioning tires.This fact puts me at odds every 4 years as to whether I should brave the lines at the nearest voting station to cast a vote that makes no difference at all. I am a firm believer that if you don't vote then you have no reason to complain when your candidate of choice isn't elected but this is a mental battle I fight each time.

The all-or-nothing Electoral College system used by most states to assign electoral votes to a particular candidate can make for some absurd outcomes. For example, say all of the 213 million eligible voters cast a ballot, either McCain or Obama could win enough states to capture the White House with only 47.8 million strategically positioned votes. The presidency could be won with only 22% of the electorate's support which is only 16% of the population.

Each election cycle you get to hear from the media about the disgustingly low percentage of voter turnout at the polls and then you get compared to Australia which has 95% turnout, but they don't use the Electoral College and they can get fined for not voting so this is not a fair comparison. As a matter of fact there are no comparisons because the U.S. is the only country that still uses the Electoral College. I guarantee that if we did away with the all-or-nothing Electoral College system and awarded votes to candidates based on percentages that are won in each state you would see a dramatic spike in voter turnout.

I'm Patrick Stoddard and I approve this message.

Wanda Sykes on the $700 billion Bailout

I'm not a big fan of Wanda Sykes, her voice drives me nuts but she has some good ideas on how to handle the bailout.