The Little Soul and The Sun

I don't know if I'm allowed to post this link or what, but here it is:
http://www.sapphyr.net/largegems/littlesoul-thesun.htm

This is a quick read and a gentle introduction to the Conversations with God material as well as a primer for A Course in Miracles.

When someone pisses me off (and you know who you are!) I remind myself that we had a pre-existing agreement to be here together and to interact with one another and to present ourselves with Forgiveness Opportunities. Thank you to the people in my life who are teaching me to love unconditionally. I may not show it all the time, but I really do love you all.

More on music

Well I could've edited my last blog but instead I will just amend it here. As my friend RG says, there are rules and there are exceptions. Obviously I like some bands whose lead singers' voices are not all that pleasing to me. Without intending to hurt Robbie Taylor's feelings, I don't particularly care for his voice. I was describing Gilmour's Breakfast to a colleague who asked me if the lead singer sounds more like Roger Waters or David Gilmour. I had to be honest and tell him Rob sounds like neither. He does a very very good job with the music, his passion is intense, his stage presence is right on, and he almost always gets all the words right (I'm still mad that he f*cked up Goodbye Cruel World at Lazy Dog after charging me 8 bucks to get in there - the song is short enough to begin with and he chopped a bunch of it out) but he really doesn't have the angelic quality of David Gilmour or the mean sounding sharp edge of Roger Waters.
I would've liked to go see them on New Year's Eve, but the weather and driving conditions, combined with the fact that I did not purchase my ticket in advance, along with my general lack of desire to be out on New Year's, kept me home. I was just checking out their tour dates and I am going to have lots more opportunities to see them. Hopefully for cheap or for free. If this bullshit with the rising cover charges persists, I will content myself to just catch them on YouTube/MySpace, their Charter cable appearance and their own website.

Edit: I really don't want to hurt Rob's feelings and I don't want him to think I don't like his singing because I do like it. But I stand by my statement that he doesn't sound like David Gilmour or Roger Waters. He does an awesome job though and I really enjoy their music. And I'm looking forward to the show at the Lucky Dog this Friday night!

Edit #2: They played Goodbye Cruel World again last night and now I realize it wasn't Robbie's fault that part of it got cut out, it's the whole band! I think they need to listen to it again.

Edit #3: He may not sound like Roger Waters or David Gilmour, but he's a pretty close match wtih Roy Harper, I realized the other day listening to Have a Cigar on the radio.

My thoughts on Music

I really need to like the lead singer's voice in order to like the band. There are very few exceptions. I like a smooth timbre in a lead singer's voice. I adore the studio version of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters because James Hetfield's voice is so smooth, yet powerful at the same time. It's beautiful.
I spend a lot of time listening to Aerosmith wondering what the heck Steven Tyler is saying. Similarly, I listen to a lot of Pink Floyd and Roger Waters music, also wondering, what the hell are they saying, only figuratively, not literally. In the case of Steven Tyler, I literally can't understand the words a lot of the time. With Roger Waters, I love to try to decipher the meaning. Roger Waters is one singer I can bear to listen to who doesn't exactly have the highest quality singing voice (in my humble opinion). I can stand to listen to him sing because I find his words so profound. In fact I genuinely love to hear him sing, and the Final Cut along with his solo albums definitely rank among the topmost layer of my favorites. I am in heaven listening to him, or watching him sing on YouTube.

Edit: Roger Waters claims to be tone deaf. When I listen to him sing the albums The Final Cut or Pros and Cons, I wonder, how can this be so? I don't know, but I thank God there is so much recorded material from both him and David Gilmour, the band as a whole especially now that Rick Wright is dead, and other artists I love. Am I foolish for feeling gratitude for so many things other people don't even give a second thought to or worse, take for granted?

Pink Floyd music abounds on the internet :)

Ever since I got FIOS, I've been spending a lot of time on the computer. It seems the videos I select from YouTube often are set to the music of my all-time favorite rock band, Pink Floyd. For example, I selected one out of hundreds of available Money and Abundance visualization videos off YouTube and it was set to the tune of Money. I marked it as a favorite and intended to watch it daily until it was removed a couple days later for terms of use violation.
Then I discovered a conspiracy theory video set to the tune of Sheep. And just now I was watching another conspiracy video, about "chemtrails" in the sky, and it was set to Goodbye Blue Sky which I think might actually be entitled "The Frightened Ones"? I don't know, I will need to go look at the songs from the Wall to be sure. Anyway it just delights me that so much Pink Floyd is coming my way. It reminds me of how sometimes I will put off going out, until it feels just right, and the moment I get in the car either a Pink Floyd or Aerosmith song comes on the radio. Almost confirming that I made the right choice to wait.

My Most Prized Possessions

My memory is not the greatest. Oh sure, I can impress people by remembering their birthdays, and yes, the license plates of all of my colleagues are now stuck in my head and inextricably associated with their owners, and ok, I can remember the names of people I went to school with and haven't seen in 25 years or played poker with briefly two years ago, but that's just names and numbers. When it comes to events, occurrences and conversations, my memory is the pits.
I have two prized possessions, and they both have to do with keeping my memories for me. My first prized possession is the Aerosmith concert t-shirt I've had autographed by 4 out of 5 members of the band. I haven't met Joey Kramer yet. But the t-shirt helps me remember my encounters with Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton (that's the order in which they signed it). I never wear it because I am afraid to wash it, but the one time I did wear it was very memorable as well, it was the dress rehearsal on the Esplanade for the Fourth of July concert that Steven and Joe headlined with the Boston Pops and the day my Saturn was broken into and all they took was the registration. Eventually I really need to get Joey's signature to make the shirt complete, but I don't see the giant hurry in that.
My other prized possession is my digital camera, given to me by my friend and colleague David Werlin. David bought a new camera because his old one had a dot. The dot is somewhere inside the guts of the camera, it is not on the lens and they couldn't get rid of it so David and his wife were going to throw the camera away. He and I were chatting one day and I said I wanted a digital camera but I only wanted to pay twenty dollars for it. That was when he said he could give me his old one for free. I cracked David up when I said, "I already have floaters, I don't need a dot!" Not only did David bring the camera in for me (right before Thanksgiving break, 2007), he showed me how to download pictures, hooked up the docking station to my work computer, showed me where the battery goes and told me which memory card to buy and where to buy it that would be the most inexpensive and convenient way to purchase it, and even took the first few pictures for me.
Without meaning to sound hyperbolic, this digital camera has CHANGED MY LIFE! I never have to buy film anymore! I never have to pay for developing anymore! And it is so compact and lightweight, I can carry it around with me everywhere I go. I always have it on me. I never have to buy another disposable camera again. And I can easily download all of my pictures to my computer or the web. It's been thirteen months and the novelty still hasn't worn off. I am in love with this camera and still feel very high from the fact that I own it. I've thanked David a thousand times over the thirteen months, so hopefully he knows how much this means to me.
Just in case you're reading this, Dave, thanks again!

Two days of Aahhh...

Tonight is Christmas Eve and tomorrow is Christmas. It's nice to stay in where it's warm and just lounge around in my PJs. My boss told me I don't have to come in to the office on Friday if I don't want to, so I'm thinking I will work from home for a few hours in the morning, then go hit the after Christmas sales, and work from home again for a few hours in the afternoon. Most of my calls on Friday have been cancelled, but I did tell the boys I would probably be in. It was frightening yesterday morning when the doors wouldn't respond to my keycard, but my boss reassured me I have nothing to worry about. I hope he is right!
Paul and I don't exchange gifts at the holidays or on each other's birthdays. He just had his fiftieth and I didn't even do anything special for him. I suppose it's never too late to start, but usually we would just rather hang on to our money and use it for necessities rather than luxuries. But maybe we will start giving each other presents next year, I think that would be nice. I will suggest it to him. Happy Holidays to anyone who is reading this and I will speak to you soon.

Edit February 10th, 2009: "my boss reassured me I have nothing to worry about. I hope he is right! " heh.

Let it snow...

Yesterday in preparation for the storm I spent about a hundred dollars or more on groceries, far more than I usually spend. I bought American cheese and bologna for Paul, two kinds of cheddar cheese (pre-sliced and brick) as well as cream cheese and onion bagels, honey maple turkey, pumpernickel bread and the most delicious sweet and sour brisket I've tasted since my mom was alive. The brisket was $12.99 a pound but I've been jonesing for it ever since the first time I purchased some, in response to the free samples they were cleverly giving away, about a month or so ago. I kept checking back for it, miserably not finding it, until I was inspired to ask the man behind the hot food counter if he knew anything about when it would be back. He assured me it would be back for Chanukah so I've patiently waited and now it's in my fridge just waiting for me to be ready for it. I have both mashed potatoes and soft white bread with which to soak up the juice, it will be a struggle deciding which first.
In addition I bought marshmallow pinwheels, fudge-filled Oreos, Ben & Jerry's cinnamon buns ice cream and Ritz crackers. We should be all set for a while.
I'm listening to Roger Waters Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking on YouTube whilst Pauley naps and Mikey watches sports in the living room. I am marvelling at the fact that Roger Waters ended up so good-looking when it was David Gilmour who started out that way. I'm delighted at the fact that there is so much footage available for me to view, and all for free! With high quality options available and instantaneous load times! So far I've watched outtakes from Friends, old episodes of Soap, videos of rainbow clouds, rainbows, the Aurora Borealis, Abraham and Desteni channelled material, and interviews with Neale Donald Walsch, Mike Dooley and Sonia Choquette. I am in heaven!