Icepocalypse ’09

The week of January 26, 2009, Northwest Arkansas (and a lot of the rest of the upper South) was hit with a massive ice storm. People called it a “category 5″ or “generational” storm. It did millions of dollars in damage to the area, which has been declared a state and federal disaster area.

Personally, it was a VERY disturbing and motivating experience. We were out of power for 6.5 days (early Tuesday through the next Monday afternoon). We lost a number of large limbs from our lovely trees (we live in an old neighborhood with large mature trees), our electrical service was ripped off the house by a fallen limb, and our back porch cover was partially smashed. We’re still cleaning up the yard (and waiting for the crew our insurance company hired to remove the porch cover).
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New Year’s Resolutions 2009: Sleep More

My second New Year’s resolution for 2009 is to get more sleep. Studies show that people who don’t get adequate sleep have all sorts of problems: higher rates of heart disease, anxiety, auto accidents; are less productive at work; and myriad other problems. I probably average around 6 hours a night most nights. My goal is to get AT LEAST seven and to try to get eight hours of sleep a night. For the few nights I’ve done it so far this year, I’ve really noticed that I’ve felt better the following days.

Pre-New Year’s Resolutions 1: Document My Life Better

Seems like every year — even in the blogging near-blackout of the last few — one of the handful of posts I manage to make consistently is the New Year’s Resolutions post. This year, I’m going to start early, and do them one at a time. First up: Document My Life Better.

I used to blog (we’ve already sorta touched on that one). I used to write in a private journal (still do, but sporadically). I used to take LOTS of photos, especially of my kid. Not so much anymore, and I intend to make that the main plank in my platform, and here’s why…

Over Thanksgiving, we went to visit my parents. Now that The Boy’s almost 6, he’s moderately interested in the other people in his life, and he wanted to see pictures of me when I was his age. So, I pulled out the old family albums and discovered something: if you removed one year’s high school prom pics (I went both years I was allowed to, though) and my high school graduation pics, a causual observer might think I died when I was about 11 or 12.

Now, I’m fairly naturally camera-shy (if you’ve seen me, you know why), but there are NO pictures of me from junior high and high school. I’m glad I have a handful of high school yearbooks still. Of course, I grew up before digital cameras and camera phones and Facebook and all, but, still. It was a little disturbing.

In addition to my not having any pictures taken of me during the later years at home, my parents have managed to lose or throw away even stuff like the official class pictures and t-ball league photos from my youth, not to mention the baseball trophies and Cub Scout badges and other detritus of the life of an American boy in the 70s and 80s. It’s a little weird to have no physical evidence (other than, you know, ME) that I existed then.

I also noticed while helping The Wife put together one of those slick iPhoto calendars from Apple for my mother-in-law that every year we take fewer photos of The Boy, despite our being a multiple-camera family these days.

So, I’m going to encourage photographs and video at every opportunity. At least one Christmas List item (a Flip Mino HD video recorder) should help that somewhat.

Next up: I dunno, but it’ll be up in a few days.

A long hot dry summer comes to an end

It has been an exceptionally wet summer in real life here what with the remnants of several hurricanes dumping on us here lately and all, but other than the occasional post, it’s a been a long, hot, dry summer here. That’s par for the course around here, though. I abandoned anything like regular posting years ago, despite all intentions and pronouncements (private and public).

Also, since I work in the internets business (sortof), I try not to spend too much time doing internetsy stuff when I’m not working. I fail miserably, of course. My name is Steven, and I am an internet addict. I mean, hell, I’m typing this at 11:05 p.m. on a Sunday night when I should be in bed sleeping or reading a good novel.

Though I started the thinking process long before I read it, this piece by Mr. Merlin Mann sums up a lot of my problems with life in the internets, too.

I’m going to unplug a significant portion of my life. The personal part, anyway. I’m on the internets hook for the forseeable future when it comes to my professional life, but that doesn’t mean I have to abuse it, right? Riiiight. We’ll see how it goes.

It feels like fall’s about to start here, and I plan to do these things this Fall and Winter:

• work in my yard
• get better at an acoustic instrument (hopefully the banjo again)
• eat better, cook more
• pay better (not necessarily more, cause God knows I spend a lot of time on ‘em) but better attention to my family
• go fishing
• read novels (not just books, but novels)
• get outside, get a little exercise
• unplug

Daptone Records: Soul Kings

Despite my forays into all sorts of music (both playing/recording and listening), I always come back to two WILDLY disparate genres: 80s jangle pop and dirty, greasy soul music. It’s okay. I’m used to being a man of contradictions. Just ask my therapist.

As far as Soul music goes, I’m generally old school: mostly Stax (Booker T. and the MGs, etc.) with a heaping helping of Al Green (before he found the Lord), a splash of Mr. Brown, and a scattering of 70s funk. I thought REAL funk and soul had died a horrible, horrible death some time in the late 70s. But, so much good Soul music was recorded in the 60s and 70s, I figured I had enough to get me by.

Then I stumbled upon Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Holy. Crap. REAL SOUL MUSIC. Made in the 00s! And it was GOOD, too! I then learned that Daptone Records puts out all sorts of great greasy Soul, just like I like it, and the Dap-Kings are the Daptone house band. Think Booker T. and the MGs with Stax only move to Brooklyn instead of Memphis.

Musicianship-wise, I started on drums in school band (I actually started on alto sax, but that didn’t last but a few weeks), but the first non-schoolband instrument I played was bass. I later switched to guitar, though never got very good at it. Still, playing bass is where my heart is, and Duck Dunn my hero. Duck’s going to have to share the podium now, though, because the playing Dap-Kings’ bandleader and producer and bass player, Gabriel “Bosco Mann” Roth, is just exquisite.

If you’re new to Daptone, start with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (any album will do, but I’m a big fan of 100 Days, 100 Nights, which is their latest). Then hit the Mighty Imperials, and THEN pick up the two collections of singles, which are greasy, greasy, GREASY!