Harry Potter Prediction

With the release of the new title for the seventh Harry Potter book, I was thinking about the sixth, where Harry went off in search of the Horcruxes of Lord Voldemort. I think Harry's scar (or Harry himself) might be one of the Horcruxes. I'm not sure, and I am probably wrong, but this would explain Voldemort's inability (or reluctance) to kill Harry given the number of chances he's had. Also if a Horcrux is supposed to be something that is important or significant to Lord Voldemort, what would be more significant than the boy prophesied to kill him?

What do you think?

Wireless Solution for an old Powermac G4

I needed to get my Mac online so I could stream music to it from a server upstairs to the living room, where I have the Mac hooked up. I wanted 802.11g but the G4 only supports the old AirPort cards (802.11b and about $100 on eBay). I found a Belkin Wireless PCI card, model F5D7000 version 4 on eBay for $30 shipped. I plugged it in and the OS 10.4 detected it as an AirPort card! Version 5, the one currently sold in stores, does NOT work (tried that one first). So, for those looking for a cheaper solution to get an old Mac on a wireless network (and at faster speeds than the AirPort card), this is it... (make sure it is version 4 though... I am not sure about versions 1-3 although I have heard that they may work OK).

Power Ballads

Today at lab we had a discussion about the genre of popular music known as the Power Ballad. A couple members of the lab (one in particular) argued the the Power Ballad is still a viable musical entity and that it should get the props it deserves. He cited such classic bands as Cinderella, Journey and Warrant to prove his point. My argument is that the Power Ballad genre reached its zenith in the mid to late 1980's since there do not seem to be any recent smash-hit Power Ballads. However, I could be very wrong about this... (Seriously though, can you name the last recent Power Ballad? I can't. The most recent one we came up with was Guns n Roses' November Rain).

We then searched Amazon.com for "power ballad" and found, to our surprise, 12 different compilations of Power Ballads. Some were better than others, but they got us thinking, what actually comprises a Power Ballad? There were several selections that none of us would classify as Power Ballads. "Nothing Compares 2 U" is a Power Ballad? And who is the "McAuley Schenker Group" featured on "Feelin' Like Makin' Love: Romantic Power Ballads"? One co-worker thought that R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion was one, to which I disagreed because it prominently features mandolin.

I thought about it a bit, and there are certain characteristics that I think automatically puts a song into Power Ballad territory. Most have to do with lyrics, but musically, I would say most, if not all, Power Ballads use Power Chords and are a bit down-tempo. Late in the song, there will be a dramatic key-change-for-effect, which will be immediately preceeded by a small bit of silence. Lyrically, it helps to write a song about flowers or plants that can hurt you (thorns on roses are most popular, but I think a Power Ballad about a Venus Flytrap would be pretty cool) or about birds soaring high and then falling. Basically, nice images gone awry. The word "love" is usually in the title, or some statement about how I (the singer) was dumb and should have known you were spiffy while we were an item.

What does everyone think about Power Ballads? Can anyone name some more characteristics of them? I'm doing this quickly so I'm sure I forgot many. Can anyone name a recent one?

My First Mac

Recently I was given a Power Mac G4 (one of the graphite boxes). It's a 400 mHz computer. It is my first real experience with a Macintosh computer. I got some RAM off of eBay and put in an old hard drive and optical drive and I was good to go. I have to admit, I really like it. It's a bit difficult to get set up (the printer setup was a bit annoying), but now I have a pretty kick-butt little media center. I can play all my mp3's, record from vinyl or cassette tape and it'll even play DVD's with surround sound. My main problem was that I wanted to put it downstairs, while the internet hookup is upstairs. The only wireless solution I could use was the Apple Airport which was really expensive (about $100.. way too much for a "free" computer. I ended up buying an ethernet bridge designed for XBox. It was $19.99 on Amazon and it works perfectly! Right now I am recording the old Thompson Twins album "Into the Gap" to mp3. Ken of "Ken's Blog" will be happy with me because I am using an open source solution to do this. The program is called Audacity and it is really powerful and useful once you figure it out.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews - the Da Vinci Code

On Friday night we went to see the Da Vinci code. It was bad. End of review.

Our Outdoor Kitty

We have a cute kitty that comes by and meows. We call him "little cat" and "outdoor cat". He has a yellow bell and collar on him, and lives at various houses and backyards in the neighborhood. He also likes to torment our cats, Zina and Monty, through the glass of our storm doors.

I saw this on a port-a-potty in Washington DC this past weekend. I have to say I think it's the best slogan I have seen in a while. 

My New Used Car

Hi there everybody! I finally am getting around to posting pics of my new used car. It is a 1996 Honda Ac cord, and I think it's pretty spiffy. Check it out.

 

Boing Boing: How to paint anything the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge

This is a cute story about a person trying to paint something the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge. I don't know why I think it's cute, but I do.

Boing Boing: How to paint anything the same color as the Golden Gate Bridge

Kitchen Countertop

I'm just full of all the new stuff this week, huh? Last week a friend gave us a dishwasher since they upgraded. We decided to install it, but found out that the countertop was about 2 inches too short. Therefore, since we already tore out the cabinet and made a mess, we decided to put in a new countertop. I think we did a pretty good job, it looks pretty professional! It feels good that we upgraded our 70's looking kitchen to looking like the mid 90's. At least 1994, maybe summer of '95.
 

Netflix Frequent Renter Throttling

You have probably read about the tactics of Netflix to "Throttle" frequent renters by now. If you haven't, it has been discovered that Netflix slows down the turnaround time for DVDs for customers that watch a certain number of movies. Well, I believe that I have been throttled. It takes on average 2 days longer for them to receive and send me out a new movie. Plus, recently about 20% of the movies I've received have been damaged or otherwise unwatchable due to scratches or big gouges in the disc. I'm not going to quit yet, but this is definitely a disturbing trend. Does this happen to anyone else?

Bye Bye Geo

I sold my car this morning, the black one to the left. The people came, drove the car and loved it. Then they went to the bank to get the money. When they went to the bank, I washed the car so it looked pretty. About 20 minutes later, I get a phone call from them saying that they got into an accident on the way home from the bank! They ran into a parked car while trying to avoid a semi or something. Now... (in a Cosby style) I had told them that there was a problem with the sunroof leaking and I had fixed it. It hadn't leaked since Christmas. So I get in the car to go pick them up, and whaddya know?? the sunroof leaks all over me and the car so the inside of the car is all wet when I pick her up from the accident. She gave me the check and then the car started leaking again on the check. Great. However, she still wanted the car, gave me the check and was really happy about everything. eep.

The Jam of the Year

Our jam from Trader Joe's recently ran out, and since we don't have a TJ's here, we thought we'd go to the local store to find a good jam. Nope. All had these crazy ingredients like FRUCTOSE (he he to Dave Quinn). No, seriously, all jam needs is berries, pectin, sugar and lemon juice. The jams with only those ingredients were like $4.50 for a small bottle. To make a long story short, we decided to make our own jam. Simple recipe... 1 3/4 cup sugar, 10-12 oz berries, 3 oz liquid fruit pectin and 1 tbs of lemon juice. Then cook for an hour. The tricky part is putting it in the jars. You have to sterilize them by boiling, then put the jam inside. Then you cap them and invert for 5 minutes. Then you let them cool in their normal upright state. You hear a "pop" which means the the lid is airtight and it is ready for storage. Our first jam was blackberry. Mmmmm... it was sooo good.

So, a not so interesting post, but it's what's on my mind today.

Birds on a Wire

On "Ken's blog" there was a post that overhead power lines were unsightly.. This picture is so pretty, the birds look like music notes on a staff. One point for overhead power lines! This picture was taken in San Diego, CA by Vladimir Jevtic.

Enron = Ethics

This weekend I watched the documentary "Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room" and needless to say, it made me rather grumpy. I remember what it was like in California with skyrocketing electricity prices and roling blackouts. Now to see what it possibly was like there, and the mentality of the people responsible for it, it is just disgusting to me. So much money was flying around and so little thought as to what was going on. Granted, the documentary was biased, but if even a little of it was true, it would still be disheartening to say the least.

Today the head honchos of the company (the smartest guys in the room) are starting their trial. Should be interesting. Comically, the website The Smoking Gun published the "Enron Code of Ethics." To see it click here.

There is no Spoon

I am not a spoon. Honest. I'm really a fork. Or maybe a threek.

Holiday Nuts

4 nuts during the holidays.

Yaspan's Movie Reviews #3 - Annie

We recently came across the musical Annie on television. It was the scene where Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) sings the showstopper song called Little Girls. A movie review was written on Netflix through my account by Apricot, writing from a female perspective. We put her initials on the Netflix review but, apparently they didn't like the idea... here is how the review reads:

"--Brian Yaspan--

Over twenty years later since I was a little girl, Miss Hannigan's stellar performance of "Little Girls" still mezmerizes me! Miss Hannigan (played by Carol Burnett) is indeed "an ordinary woman with feelings" who exhibits a parade of personas and emotions during this one song -- from drunkard and loony to a working-class gal workin' hard for the weekend. Hardened but fragile, tough but vunerable -- this is Carol Burnett at her best until the Rooster ruins the party!"

It does sound a bit like the Rooster is quite the character! In fact, the Rooster is played by none other than a slim Tim Curry!

I've Taken Back My Inbox

For as long as I've had email, I've used Eudora from Qualcomm. I just liked it so much better than Outlook or anything else that was out there. Now that I am at Vanderbilt, their preferred email client is called Mulberry. Besides having a cool logo (see right) it has absolutely nothing going for it and it is probably the most frustrating piece of software ever written. Basically, I was sick of it and decided to find out what else was out there. Fortunately, there is the Mozilla foundation who have the Thunderbird email client. First off, I have to say it has a much cooler logo than Mulberry (see left). Second, I just wanted to say (and this is the point of this post) that this email client is just great! The interface is intuitive, I can get RSS feeds, and it is very customizable. I have to give it to the open source software movement. So far, Firefox and Thunderbird are two of the best programs I've used in a while. You can get them here.

Snow! And Penguins! In Nashville!

It finally really snowed here last night, and we had a penguin visit! So cute...

Candy Bars

For a long time, if I wanted a candy bar, I would choose one of the ones with all the stuffings... nougat, caramel, nuts, tunnels of fudge, etc... My favorites here were 3 Musketeers and Twix. The Mars company triumvirate has always facinated me. You start with 3 Musketeers, just chocolate and nougat. Then when you add caramel, it becomes a Milky Way. Finally with the addition of some type of nut (peanuts or almonds), you have a Snickers. Offshoots of this include Twix and Mars Bar. I've never eaten a Mars bar so I don't know what differentiates them.

Recently though, I have been getting the simple chocolate bars and really enjoying them. I think it has to do with seeing the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, because I started doing this this summer. I just finished eating a Hershey's Special Dark, and found it quite good. It is still nothing compared to European chocolate bars, but it is still a nice, simple treat.

Anyway, this is just a message to remember to get out and enjoy a candy bar every once in a while. It's good and it will help brighten your day.

Belated New Year's Post

This year for New Year's, my cousin Matt and his girlfriend Sarah came out here to visit. It was a great time. We actually planned ahead for New Year's eve and got tickets to see the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Del McCroury (sp?) Band play. We got all dressed up and went to the gig. However, there was noone there! It was 10 minutes before the gig was supposed to start, and the entire street was empty!

Getting closer to the place, we see a handtaped sign up on the door saying "The show has been cancelled, Sorry for the inconvenince."

After a good laugh, we went to another show in town which was average at best, but was in an old movie theater with a full bar. Not too shabby.

Also the venue refunded our money for the first show and as a consolation gave us 2 tickets to another show in February.

Happy New Year!