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Dolores O’Riordan RIP
Of all the recent musical deaths Dolores O’Riordan hits the hardest for me. At the same time, I didn’t personally know her, so I’m not really mourning at all. She just created some of my favorite music in the 90s. I own all of The Cranberries albums, but really haven’t listened to them in at least a decade. While I loved Dolores and The Cranberries, they weren’t a part of my current life. She was just another chunk of my childhood that is slowing dying off until the day it’s my turn.
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31 Years Ago Today
I’ve been a Denver Broncos fan since the fourth grade. It was 1984 and a then young John Elway was a super exciting quarterback to watch. It was the first year that that I really paid attention to football after watching my first Super Bowl the year before. I also lived in Denver from an infant through kindergarten, so there was other reasons to like the Broncos. I’ve been a Broncos fan ever since.
31 years ago today was one of the most memorable games ever. Football fans know it as just “The Drive”. It was the AFC Championship against the Browns. I remember feeling devastated when the Broncos lost the lead and bobbled ensuing kickoff and got tackled on the two yard line. They had 5 minutes and 32 seconds to go 98 yards just to tie the game. A near impossible feat. Well, they did it! Then they won the game in overtime! My favorite teams was going to the Super Bowl. Little eight year old me went from the lowest of lows, to the highest of highs. I remember like it was yesterday.
Today in #NFLHistory@johnelway defined clutch by engineering #TheDrive. pic.twitter.com/nRBrJ9b0K3
— NFL History (@NFLhistory) January 11, 2018
They then went on to lose three Super Bowls in four years. I was starting to not want them to get to the Super Bowl anymore because of the constant disappointment. Lucky for me they went on a Super Bowl drought and didn’t get back until they won it in 1997 and then won it again in 1998. Then recently they lost another one in 2013, but won another in 2015. I feel pretty lucky to have seen my favorite football team play in seven Super Bowls. I always think about those good time during the rare bad seasons like this past one was.
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2017: Peace Sign Middle Finger
So here I am all caught up on my podcasts for the first time in years. I’m giving some of my favorite albums from 2017 some more listens. I’ve really been listening to a lot less music these last few years. Here are my favorite albums from 2017 in no particular order because I’m horrible at picking favorites:
- Bad Cop/Bad Cop – Warriors
- The Front Bottoms – Going Grey
- All Time Low – Last Young Renegade
- Weezer – Pacific Daydream
- Sincere Engineer – Rhombithian
- Mobina Galore – Feeling Disconnected
- New Found Glory – Makes Me Sick
- The Menzingers – After the Party
In 2018 I want to blog more and listen to more music. We will see how that works.
If you don’t get the reference in the title of this post, it’s from The Front Bottoms song “Peace Sign”. One of my favorites from 2017, and it kind of sums up what most people think about 2017.
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Bah Humbug
So another Christmas is done. I’m not a fan of Christmas, and it’s not because I’m an Atheist either. I just feel uncomfortable with the whole gift giving and mass consumerism. We all have more crap than we need. I hate getting more crap or buying more crap for someones else. I worked this Christmas, and was glad I did. It helps me forget about it a bit, and the extra money is nice too.
Christmas was my Mom’s favorite time of year. The fact that she died on December 20th probable doesn’t help me like Christmas any better either. Cleaning out a parents house when it’s all decorated for Christmas is a horrible thing to do. Finding a new home for all of the decorations that I remember as a child was tough.
I do have some great memories of past Christmases as a child. When my Grandma died our Christmas traditions changed, and now that my Mom is gone—we have no traditions as all. It’s sad, but it’s all over for another year and I’m glad.
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Bitcoin
Like everybody else, I’ve been watching the price of Bitcoin skyrocket. If I would have bought $1000 in Bitcoin back when I first heard about it, it would be worth over 100 million dollars now. Talk about kicking myself. I started buying Bitcoin this spring, and have close to $1000 now. I’m sure it will be worth nothing soon, but who knows. I don’t want to miss out on millions if it keeps going up.
I don’t think Bitcoin is a great investment. The bubble will pop, it’s just a matter of when and how big it will get. I’m just playing around with it with money I can afford to lose. I’m putting way more into my Roth IRA, which is doing alright, but should be better long term. It just kills me knowing how much Bitcoin I would have if I put my Roth money into Bitcoin instead.
It’s so easy to look back at the what if’s. It’s hard to do the smart thing that will payout in the long run.
Also, I’m playing around with the new version of MarsEdit. Let’s see if it gets me blogging more like I always want to do.
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About Las Vegas
Another day, another mass shooting. The same shit repeats every time. Everything is so predictable now. I’ve come to the realization that Americans are okay with mass shootings. That maybe Americans like them. There is no simple solution, but you got to think to do something would be better than doing nothing. Our elected officials have no interest in changing anything, and as long as we keep voting them in. I don’t ever see anything changing.
It’s interesting watching people’s reactions in the hours after each shooting before the facts get out.
A co-worker thought it was a “left-wing” nut that hated country music. That made me think, has there ever been a left-wing shooter? I don’t remember any. I did a little research and there hasn’t been much left-wing terrorism since the 70s.
My Sister-in-law was convinced the guy converted to Islam.
People don’t want to be part of the group of the shooter. The guy can’t be a conservative to my conservative co-worker. The guy can’t be Christian to my Christian sister-in-law.
I haven’t read much about the shooter because I don’t really care. His actions speak for himself alone. It doesn’t matter if he is a liberal or conservative, Muslum or Christian.
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My Thoughts…
It’s been hard, but I’ve been trying to stay less political on social media lately. I’m sure everybody’s timelines are full of political posts like mine. You probably don’t need me adding to the clutter. For the most part that means that I’ve been rather quiet on social media lately. So I’ll just vent here instead, where nobody has to read it, because who blogs anymore?
Like every Sunday, I watched the NFL games this past weekend. I thought it was great how players were kneeling and standing united. Players on both sides of the issue supporting each other. Our country needs more of this.
Since when has kneeling been disrespectful anyway? I think it’s a reasonably peaceful way to bring awareness to some of the injustices going on in our country. It’s not meant as an insult to our military.
If you don’t agree with the kneeling, then don’t kneel and move on with your life. Allowing someone to use their constitutional rights isn’t going to hurt you.
Patriotism is almost like a religion. Everybody has their own ways to show their patriotism. Some are more private other more public. Kneeling or standing doesn’t really matter. It’s what’s in your head and your hart at that time. Are you thinking of the people that fought for our country, or are you thinking about buying your next beer? That’s what really matters.
I myself would probably stand, but I’m white. I can’t know what it’s like to be black. It’s not possible. I can only try to understand, listen, and support them. It really annoys me when a white person complains about BLM. You have no right to complain because you have no idea what their lives are like.
And FUCK the blues lives matter people. NOBODY is against the cops. I can only assume these people think all black people should be shot dead in the streets right? Fuck them.
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Weekend Camping and Concert
This past weekend we went to Grand Rocktember V, with a couple of friends. It was fun hanging with our friends without their kids for a change. They recently got a new camper, so I could see a few camping trips with them next year.
As for the concert, it was so-so. Mostly because I’m not a huge fan of classic rock. Saturdays lineup was:
- Iron Maidens
- Bang Tango
- Faster Pussycat
- Scrap Metal
- Great White
- Warrant
- Skid Row
- Queensryche
- Styx
The only bands I really knew were Warrant and Skid Row. They were both pretty good, but it was odd seeing them with different lead singers. We skipped the first three bands and the last two. None of us were fans of Queensryche and Styx, so we went for super instead.
It was a little different crowd than I am use to. Most concerts I feel like I’m the oldest one in the pit, and everybody is there for the music. There may be a bunch of pushing and shoving, but believe it or not, people are usually pretty courteous. This was obviously an older crowd. It’s seems like people were there more to get drunk than to watch the music. The people around us got so drunk and were ignoring the security guard by just standing in the isles. It didn’t really bother me, but everybody else was getting pissed. The worst was when someone yelled at a black women telling her to go back to her country. That caused a big fight. People were kicked out including her boyfriend who did nothing wrong. It’s just a shame how adults act. Also, too many Trump, and Kid Rock for Senate shirts for my liking.
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It’s Almost Here
It’s almost here! Tomorrow morning we are heading off to Wyoming for the eclipse. I’ve been planning this trip for at least five years. I was originally just going to drive down to Kansas for a day, but hotels booked up so fast. I should probably start getting mine booked for the next one in seven years. Luckily my Wife’s cousin lives in Wyoming right in the path. We are going to go hang with them for the weekend and watch the eclipse together on Monday. Then we are going to spend the rest of the week at the Tetons and Yellowstone.
It should be a fun week experiencing the beauty of a solar eclipse and the beauty of our national parks. It will be nice to mostly get away from the internet and the ugliness of our current political climate. I think my brain and heart need a vacation from all the hate.
Maybe I’ll tweet, maybe I’ll instagram. I don’t know. I tend to live in the moment when I’m on vacation and ignore social media. I am hoping to find some Pokémon Go players in Yellowstone to help take down some raids, but we’ll see.
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I have nothing to say
Sometimes music says it all.