Entries from July 2008 ↓
July 31st, 2008 — Music and lyrics
After I reformatted my Web site, I misplaced this recording of my song “River.”
I recording the piano in my dining room, using my Yamaha digital piano and an Apple GarageBand Steinway sample. The vocals were recorded at my friend Tim Bushong’s studio.
If you’ve never seen this style of audio player before, just click the arrow below to listen.
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July 29th, 2008 — Church and theology, City and culture
July 29th, 2008 — Church and theology, City and culture
How much is your happiness dependent on what country you live in?
That’s tough to say, but by and large, Americans are pretty happy; in fact, we’re ranked 16th in the world. From Science Daily:
Denmark tops the list of surveyed nations, along with Puerto Rico and Colombia. A dozen other countries, including Ireland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and Sweden also rank above the United States, which maintains about the same relative position as it did in WVS’s 2000 survey.
“Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the U.S. looks pretty good,” says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the university, who directs the study. “The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom.”
And Richard Florida correctly points out the money quote, by Inglehart: “Ultimately, the most important determinant of happiness is the extent to which people have free choice in how to live their lives.”
Read the article here. HT: Richard Florida
July 26th, 2008 — History and heritage
This photo was posted to Flickr quite a while ago, but I just realized I never posted it here.
Seated is Mary’s grandfather, Giovani “John” Maltese, on her mother’s side. The photo was likely taken in Wheeling, W.Va. Man standing is also unknown. This was printed on a postcard.
The date is unknown, but someone over on the Flickr page has a good guess:
The calf skin, hard cap toed shoes and ankle laces plus the “barbershoppe” stripe shirt and bow tie place the time square in the mid ’20s. These two were rather “dapper” at that. Very well dressed for the time. Pre-depression.
You can find a few more historic photos in our Flickr account’s Our Heritage set.
July 26th, 2008 — Story and design
Note to Chris Carter, director of “The X-Files: I Want To Believe”:
If you want us to believe your movie is really happening in West Virginia, you should probably visit it once, or maybe look it up on Google. The Appalachian Mountains in West Virginia look nothing like The Rockies in British Columbia, where you filmed your movie. Thank you.
Billy Connolly (pictured) plays convicted pedophile and psychic Father Joseph Crissman. Behind Connolly are mountains that are obviously not West Virginia.
Maybe Carter figures pedophiles live only in Appalachia?
July 24th, 2008 — Music and lyrics
Here it is! It’s a video recording of my concert in Angola earlier this year. Once I figure out how to copy it and pop it into iMovie, I’ll get at least a snippet online.
July 23rd, 2008 — Friends and family
We took some photos in and around Wheeling:
Cherry Hill Road
I think that power plant in the distance is in Brilliant, Ohio.
From Wheeling Hill
Here’s an old abandoned railroad bridge that goes into an old abandoned train tunnel that, on the other side, crossed the river in to Martins Ferry, Ohio. We’re looking down the hill from McCullough’s LEap.
This photo is taken from about the same location, looking out into the valley where the Fulton area of Wheeling lies.
Pogues Run Road
This is Pogues Run itself, right beside the “back road” to Oglebay Park.
Wild turkeys!
Seen from Pogues Run Road, on the way to Oglebay Park.
See all of the photos on Flickr.
July 23rd, 2008 — Odds and ends
July 22nd, 2008 — Odds and ends
Yes, there is!
The term is grawlix, and it looks to have been coined by Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker around 1964. Though it’s yet to gain admission to the Oxford English Dictionary, OED Editor-at-Large Jesse Sheidlower describes it as “undeniably useful, certainly a word, and one that I’d love to see used more.”
– From typography.com
July 22nd, 2008 — Odds and ends
Whenever you hear a scary story about some common food or ingredient being toxic, remember this fundamental principle of toxicology:
It’s the size of the dose that makes something poisonous.
I’m quoting from StatsBlog, which is run by the Statistical Assessment Service at George Mason University.
A recent sad story about a British woman illustrates the point about toxins.
Tragically, Dawn Page, who is now 52, was persuaded by a nutritionist to go on a detox diet that required consuming an extra four pints of water per day and reducing her salt intake. Within days, she began vomiting. Her nutritionist advised her to increase her water intake to six pints and cut back further on salt. Before a week had passed, Page suffered a massive epileptic fit because too much water and too little sodium in her blood (hyponatremia) caused her brain to swell. She now has permanent brain damage.
The point is not that drinking water will kill you. The point is that it’s the dose that counts.
– Photo by obo-bobolina on Flickr
