Sir Alan's Blog: Infinite Recursion and Intelligent Design

The logic on this was inescapable.

Sir Alan's Blog: Infinite Recursion and Intelligent Design

Sir Alan's Blog: Infinite Recursion and Intelligent Design

What kind of coffee are you?

Given the entry earlier today on the Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee, it's rather synchronicitous that this should turn up now. Although I'm surprised that there's no milk in the coffee--I don't like it black. Ah, well, black coffee's better than none at all.

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

What kind of coffee are you?

Barbershopping!

On Valentine's Day, the Babe had one of her staff serenaded at the office by a barbershop quartet. The Babe thought that this was something I might like to do--after all, I've been playing the banjo for 35 years now and banjo and barbershop just seem to go together. The Babe got a card and some info from the guys. It turned out to be a quartet from the Cascade Chorus, a chapter of SPEBSQSA, the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America.

Tuesday, I went to the Cascade Chorus rehearsal. It was wonderful! The chorus is a friendly group of guys who're always glad to see a new singer. As a newcomer, they lent me a book of the music that they keep for guests. We did some warm-up exercises and few songs to get into the flow, then spent a few hours working on singing and choreography for the two pieces the group's doing for the upcoming barbershop competition in Tualatin, OR. I was quite pleased with how fast I was able to pick this up, but I figured it was all the banjo music. I had a grand time and I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. Meanwhile, the Babe is looking into the Sweet Adelines. My youngest sister has been a Sweet Adeline in the past and enjoyed it.

My one sorrow about this is that the Babe and I can't do this together: ne'er the twain shall harmonize, it seems. However, the Babe observed "You can't have too much music in your life," and down the road we might do something like this together with a couple other people to do mixed-voice barbershop.

Barbershopping!

The Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee

JeanC posted something today on her blog, JeanC's Cat House and Shooting Society, about the Chocolate Ritual. I have always liked the Chocolate Ritual myself, although I prefer the Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee, which I learned back in 1982 at a gathering. The Ritual of Coffee is a simple ritual of thanksgiving to the Gods and goes like this:

Pour a cup of the sacred liquid in the ritual morning chalice*.

Inhale the sweet fragrance, then raise the chalice to the heavens in adoration for a moment.

Bring the chalice to your lips and take a loud, ceremonial sip.

Raise it to the heavens again and shout the invocation:

"Oh, Gods!"

"I NEEDED that!!"


* There are multiple divergent sectarian differences about the nature of the sacred liquid used, including the Path of Delectable Darkness, the Way of Sweetness and Light, and a semi-heretical sect known as the Tea-osophists. Do whatever seems best to you.

The Thanksgiving Ritual of Coffee

What was your hit song?

Just a fun little thing for Friday. Check out the Billboard #1 hit song on the day you were born.

Mine's "Poor People of Paris" by Les Baxter. (It's a tune I've always enjoyed.)

What was your hit song?

There's no joke like an old joke...

Yet another fun variation on a theme here: check out Quail Hunting School.

There's no joke like an old joke...

Just a little more fun with Dick Cheney

I think we may have mined most of the pleasure out of Dick Cheney's little accident, but there's at least one more goodie, and this is it: here's a deck chair made with Dick Cheney in mind.

Just a little more fun with Dick Cheney

Something from our wedding

I'm wallowing in having all this space on the website for files and downloads.  Here's a Quicktime movie file from our wedding a few years ago.  It's the only fragment of us dancing.  I wish there was more. 

There are, however, lots of wedding pictures if you'd like to see them.  At some point after we've moved and can unpack everything, I can eventually scan the rest of the photos--shots of guests in the reception line and so on. 

Something from our wedding