Song of the When I Get To It #1

My great buddy Justin started doing this thing song of the day. He posts one song that he feels is appropriate for the day and a link to somewhere online like songza.com that followers can listen. I love it.

From what he's told me it sounds insightful and witty and something I'd like to be a part of. But I can't. It's a facebook group. I'm not a facebooker. I like to think I'm not because I'm above it. I grew out of MySpace before Facebook caught steam and now I don't have the extra time to waste thinking about myself. But let's be honest - maintaining a blog is just about as self-aggrandizing. So I guess I haven't joined in because I value my relationship too much. What's that you say? My girlfriend has a secret facebook life? Well look at that. Excuse me a sec while I set up my profile....

Ok. I'm not concerned. But I am inspired to start a song of the day subsidiary. It will be more of a "song of the when I get to it." But open to the public.

Today is March 17: St. Patrick's day.
Though a bar enthusiast, I am home right now (9:16PM) and pretty sober. I am wearing emerald green Mardi Gras beads but other than that, there's not much Paddy's day spirit around here. For Lent I gave up bars and it has been two things. Difficult and profitable. I have saved about $3,000 over the last 3 weeks just by coming straight home after work. Tonight I left the office with my friend and fellow bar dweller Ryan, both heading home in separate directions on what should be our most romantic night together; St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure he's somewhere feeling just as unIrish as I so today's song has nothing to do with the holiday. I am picking Crawl by Two Tongues.

Check out crawl on the right of this link

The lead singers of two very successful but, in my opinion, conflicting bands, have collaborated on a side project called Two Tongues; Max Bemis (along with Coby Linder) of Say Anything, and Chris Conley (along with Dave Soloway) of Saves the Day. Both great bands with their own separate sounds collaborate making this new venture. The name two tongues I believe comes from the way they both sing often with tongues fully extended. If you ever see them live you will know what I mean.

enjoy.

A Crash Course in Defensive Driving

Recently I took a defensive driving class to knock a couple points off my license. There were only 3 of us in the class so our instructor condensed the 6 hours down to about 16 minutes. Among the mountains and mountains of new information i obtained was a ditto roughly describing how to properly adjust your mirrors. Apparently what we were taught back in drivers ed is now wrong. (It's one of those things that got changed but there was no press release. Also on that list are brushing up and down instead of back and forth and it is now safe to look into a microwave while it is running.)

This new method sets it so your side-view mirrors are almost completely straight out. With your rear-view you can see all cars behind and next to you. As a car leaves your rear-view you just begin picking it up in your side-view. As it leaves your side-view you can see the car next to you. You have eliminated the blind spot.

I love it. It's like a game. I watch cars as they approach from behind enter my rear-view, leave my rear-view, enter my side-view, leave my side-view and enter my peripheral vision. I am so distracted by this new game, I am surely now a worse driver. Fortunately, I now have room for a couple points on my license.