Preemptive Good News Friday

It's (gonna be) FRIDAY (by the time you read this).

Here are some things to be happy about.

1) MUSIC. It speaks to me. I ache to be better at playing it, singing it - whatever. I am a true frustrated musician. I hear it in my head but I was not blessed with the ability to put it into the world. Alright, fine. I have other talents. I do a great anterior veneer case. I give a painless injection of Novocaine. I do nice root canals. Those are all as good as music, right?

This guy has got it. (Aside - "Disabling embedding upon request." NOT Good News)

2) Cool nights. Great for sleeping. It's getting near Labor Day which is the official end of summer. Sad - but it means we're entering my favorite time of year. I call it, That Time Between Summer and Fall. The days are warm and breezy. The sky is always blue. And most importantly, the nights are cool. So open your window and get some rest.

3) Magazines. I like to get my news from the Internet, but I like to get my magazines in the mail. From J. Crew to Men's Health. Newsweek to Entertainment Weekly. Nothing is better than coming home from a long day of work and finding a magazine in your mailbox. Pick one up, find a comfortable place to sit, and take not of the fact that as you're reading your lap isn't getting uncomfortably warm.

4) Friends. The people and the sitcom. I know, Lisa, it's "The One With Too Much Laughtrack." But let me have this one. It is completely unrealistic to real life (A HUGE Manhattan apartment without actually having a real job? Nah) but that's what I like. Then there are friends - the real people. Always good to get a phone call and reconnect. Even better to hear that they think the real world stinks just as much as you do. Solidarity.

5) Home. Rod Serling (Bingo native. . . w00t w00t!) summed it up just right:

"Everyone has a hometown. Binghamton's mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat, or kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that's familiar because that's where you grew up. When I dig back through my memory cells, I get one particularly distinctive feeling and that's one of warmth, comfort and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost, or will find, I've still got a hometown. This, nobody's gonna take away from me." - Rod Serling

Happy Friday.

A Beautiful Crazy

Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear. Crazy. But he created life using paint.

Beethoven had syphillis Yeah, you don't get that by going to church. But he made some great symphonies.

Michael Jackson. I can't help but feel something every time I hear one of his songs. Believe in something when I watch one of his videos. You can't help but think about him every now and then - mainstream media won't let you not. I believe it's necessary to separate the man from the art.

The whole world is crazy. In the end, it's all beautiful.

God is Great. Beer is Good. People are Crazy.

Just For Laughs

Help or Hindrance?

Here's something scary to watch. Hollywood makes movies that tell us Robots are evil. Union workers cry foul at the use of robotics to assemble cars and pack boxes. Still, I'm not convinced artificial intelligence is going to take over the world, but this does make the hairs on my arm stand up a little. . .