Though we don't like to admit it, our lives are mostly shaped by accidents and not by our intentions. I was always surrounded by music, but I never had any interest in music until I was grounded (made to stay home and not allowed to use my own computer) for most of December 1996. (I'm not trying to paint a picture of abuse here; it was my fault). I downloaded a copy of Scream Tracker on my parents' computer (loophole) and spent most of the month writing my first song, which I still have. At the time I didn't play any instruments or understand anything about music. My father gave me a crash course in music theory--showing me the Cmaj key--on the piano at my request. Of course I didn't know at the time that it would change my life so drastically.

I never had any interest in taking photographs until I was about 21. My cousin gave me his Chameleon Largon Mega digital camera that came with his new dell. This was a completely trifling 1mp camera with fixed focal length and fixed focal distance. BUT, it was compact (smaller than a modern iPhone) and completely portable--great for a college student that used a bicycle to get around. I played with that camera for about four years, and I have only owned two cameras since then. Now I am fortunate enough to own "the super camera," and there are very few cameras on the market that I would rather own (with outlandish pricetags much higher than my Canon 40D).

Through a bizarre twist of fate and some longtime friendships of my Grandparents', I found out about an acquaintance of mine that was in need of a roommate where I was going to college. It turned out to be an excellent roommate situation, and our two years living together had a lasting, positive effect on both of us. We spent six months showing each other all of our favorite movies and music, but after that, our interests sort of merged into one. We both got heavily into American Folk Music and finding/collecting bizarre records. I taught him to use buzz and we collaborated on a lot of ambient music. That list could go on and on. We had no internet (not even dialup) and no tv (not even an antenna) for two years that we lived together, so we had very little outside influence.

I met my wife while playing L.O.R.D. via telnet in 2000. She was attending Virginia Tech at the time and I was living with my parents in Georgia. Our relationship slowly grew over AIM, until I was visiting her with more and more frequency and she moved in with me in Georgia for a year. This was all because I messaged her within L.O.R.D. and told her to stop killing my cousin, haha.

That rounds up a lot of the important things in my life, and they were all the result of accidents. My marriage and my son, however, were not the result of accidents =]

Sometime in the first half of April, I made the decision to stop eating beef and pork. More generally, I stopped eating mammals. I had been mulling over the idea for a few years ever since the first time I had heard of pesco-pollo vegetarianism from my highschool buddy Josh. Some of the rationale is that it's a healthier form of vegetarianism, but it still saves mammals, our closest relatives, from being raised purely for slaughter. So far I am enjoying it. It makes me feel like an adult, to be making my own decisions about the food that I eat. It makes me do a little bit of research about basic nutrition in order to find out ways to get the complete proteins I am missing. It only took one small step to start me thinking about the ingredients of everything that I eat, which was nearly unheard of before. That thought process was nonexistent for me.

Pescetarianism is sometimes an intentional stepping-stone to full vegetarianism or veganism, but I do not see myself taking those steps. We shall see. Soy bean and fish are a couple of easy ways to get complete proteins without eating mammals. Beyond that, it gets more complicated. So in response to that, I have been trying to acquire a taste for fish. I just ordered the tilapia and crab at Outback Steakhouse tonight, and it was very good. I got some frozen salmon burgers and breaded flounder today, too. Still waiting to try those out.

It is widely known that babies are extremely needy when they are first born. They have no desires of their own, only needs for survival. In other words, newborns do not want anything that they do not absolutely need. For Stephen, this is changing. He has been able to walk around and cause destruction for a little while now, and his curiosity has been piqued about every little thing.

More recently, however, his attitude has changed. He can finally hold a thought in his head for longer than ten seconds, so he is constantly thinking about what he'd rather be doing--that thing you just prevented him from doing 30 seconds ago. Overnight our house has been converted into tantrum city. With little to no provocation, the child just throws his head straight back into the floor (with a bit thud), starts kicking his legs and screaming until his whole head is red. Tonight he even screamed and threw a fit at the restaurant, which he has never ever done in public.

My wife and I just kind of looked at each other and said "Our time has finally come. We knew it couldn't last forever." We keep hoping it's a [short] phase and maybe he's unhappy about some teeth coming in, but it's probably a longer phase and due to the fact that our son is no longer an infant. Stephen was a really good newborn and infant because he was good at the things that a lot of babies have trouble with: eating and sleeping. But now we have moved on from those being the main issues. Now our child is old enough and willful enough to act completely bratty--and intentionally so.

The battle of wills has already begun. When I am trying to put him to bed, he goes through a couple of phases to try to get out of it. First, he just tries a brute force escape tactic while he's drinking his bottle. When that doesn't work, he turns to flattery. Oh, Dad. You are so funny that I can't help but laugh every time you look at me. (Try preventing a smile during that: not easy). Then, as he starts to wind down, he starts pulling my fingers off the bottle one at a time, as if he is going to be able to loosen my grip and get the bottle out of his mouth. Eventually I always win. Part of my job is to be stubborn, and I am overqualified in that area.

Sports media is the worst.

Roger Federer lost in the quarterfinals at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year. There has literally been hours and hours of talk about the "decline" of Roger Federer. He'll never reach number 1 ranking again, blah blah.

Look... he'll be 29 years old this August, and he already holds virtually every major Tennis record. In the three major tournaments so far this year, he a) won the Australian Open b) got to Quarterfinals at French Open, and c) got to Quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

He is having a great year--probably the second-best season among all male tennis players this year--but since it is not perfection, it is the biggest story in Tennis. I think it's partially due to the fact that there are a bunch of nobodies left in the tournament, particularly on the women's side. They (like me) having nothing else to talk about.

Give it a rest, guys.

I'm sorry folks, but I just can not get into the Winter Olympics. I should preface this [rant] by saying I grew up outside of Atlanta, so ice and snow are quite foreign to me. It was rare that I even met someone who had ever been skiing (water skiing doesn't count).

The Winter Games feature far too many competitions that are either a) boring, b) not sports or c) determined by judges.

Am I really supposed to believe that bobsledders are brilliant athletes because they lean into turns to shave 0.02 seconds off their time? It's like having a competition to see who can get down the playground slide the fastest. What's next? Log flume races? A roller coaster competition?

Then there's curling, another non-sport. Look, if you can excel at something while elderly or inebriated, it is not a sport (that goes for you too, Bowling). I understand that it is a game of millimeters and it requires precision and whatnot, but so does Billiards. Billiards has not made it to the summer games because the summer games are full of real sports and do not need all of this filler to draw fans.

Then there is the biathlon, which is the equivalent of the marathon race in the Summer Olympics, except with firearms(?). Involving firearms in an athletic competition is like NASCAR--the car/gun does all the work! I've heard the argument that race car drivers are athletes because they "have to train a lot" and "go on a special diet." You know who else has to go on a special diet? Supermodels! Marksmen can't even claim that. I'm sure there is at least one severely overweight, unathletic marksman in the world.

But, at least the above events are not decided by judges.

If you win something because you received the highest score(s) from a panel of judges, you do not deserve a medal; you deserve a blue ribbon. And up next on the winter games, the science fair qualifying event! I realize that the summer Olympics has its share of events determined by judges (diving, gymnastics), but the Winter Olympics seems to have a lot more of these events. Figure skating and gymnastics fall under the same category for me. It's a high-end dance competition determined by judges. I don't care what anyone says, judges are biased (and they can be paid off). If you have a difficult routine, and you don't make any mistakes, who is to judge who actually won the competition? Does it really come down to who pointed their toes? Up next here on NBC, it's Ice Dancing With the Stars--Olympic Edition! I'm Tom Bergeron; don't touch that dial.. I'm not disparaging the competitors in this case (because gymnasts, snowboarders, aerial skiers, and divers are all athletes, unlike curlers), but I don't think an Olympic competition should be decided by judges.

Why is it that snowboarding has made it into the Winter Olympics, but skateboarding has not made it into the Summer Games? Again, it is because the Summer Olympics does not need all of this filler to draw viewers/interest. They can afford to be "choosy" when it comes to allowing new sports. Don't get me wrong, I think Shaun White is nothing short of a badass. I think he would win no matter how the competition was set up.

If you run a 100m footrace, then you have a chance of breaking the world record, but if you ride down the super halfpipe on a snowboard while doing flips, you can only win for that day. There is no universal standard you can hold someone up to. You can't call Guinness after receiving a high score on a judged event, because you haven't really accomplished anything definite.

So here's what the Winter Olympics have that I'll watch: speed skating, hockey, and the different ski races. Pretty sad list.

Wow. Way to go, NFL. Worst playoffs ever. There were so many blowouts and boring games, I don't even know where to begin. Despite there being some upsets along the way, the two teams with the best records made it through to the Superbowl. How boring. We could have predicted three months ago that these would be the two teams that made it to the Superbowl, and we would have been right. Where's the drama? Where is this "parity in the NFL" that we hear so much about?

The playoffs ended on a pretty deflating note last night. Brett Favre, after coming out of retirement again and exceeding everyone's expectations, proved he is still Brett Favre (and that is not a good thing). With his team in field goal range, he decided to make a risky throw on 3rd & 15 that was intercepted. Keep in mind that it was a tie game with fifteen seconds left in the 4th quarter. The reckless gunslinger had to take one more shot--had to throw away yet another season trying to be a hero. All he had to do was hold onto the ball and run a couple of open yards and the Vikings would have been able to kick a field goal and win the game in the final seconds. Instead the Saints marched down the field in overtime and won the game 31-28 because Favre had to try to win the game all by himself. It was all too similar to the NFC championship game in the 2007 season, where Favre was an interception machine and single-handedly lost the game for his team.

What a letdown.

Every weekend is more and more busy.

On Saturday at 11:10am, we saw Avatar in digital 3d. I have to say, I was not expecting much when we walked into the theater. I am not a fan of action movies, fantasy movies, or most any movie that cost over $50million to make. Having said that, I liked it more than I thought I would. There was definitely some poor acting by the main character and Michelle Rodriguez, but it wasn't horrible. And also, the mineral that they are mining is called "unobtainium." Really, James Cameron? Unobtainium? I understand that the term is sort of tongue-in-cheek, but it just sounds so awful when the actors try to say it with a straight face. The political and human rights side of it kind of bashed you over the head. I've heard James Cameron say that his pro-earth messages are subtle. Far from it. This is the non-cartoon version of FernGully.

Visually, it was definitely a step-up from anything I've ever seen. The first major motion picture to use CGI extensively was Jurassic Park, and to be honest, CGI characters haven't gotten that much better since Jurassic Park in my opinion. Every time Jurassic Park is on TV, I always marvel that the CGI in 1993 looked about 80% as good as most effects today. But Avatar was a step up. All the scenes where they were wandering around at night were phenomenal looking. This must be what it felt like when Star Wars came out.

Most people told me that it was not worth seeing unless you saw it in 3d. I guess 3d is the new trend to get people to go to the movies. This is marketed as some "new kind" of 3d, but this technology has been around about as long as I have. I saw 3d just as good as that (using the same technology of different polarization in each lens) in Disney World when I was six years old (Captain EO ftw). Fake 3d is more of a distraction for me than anything else. On one hand it's kind of cool, but on the other hand it's just not quite right and I'm always looking at the background instead of the foreground. Everything is just a little "off."

Then we ate at California Pizza Kitchen before picking up Stephen. Avocado egg rolls. Barbecue chicken pizza. Couple beers.

Yesterday was chores all day. I cut my hair, did four loads of laundry, and installed our new baby gate that can accommodate the weird angles and banisters at the top of our stairs. Installing that thing was no easy task. Seems like I still need to make a few adjustments, but it is going to work. We also went grocery shopping, cleaned up the house a little, and watched football.

Every NFL game this weekend turned out the way I wanted except for the Cowboys winning. That kind of pissed me off, actually. And of course, we were grocery shopping for the second half (and overtime) of the Cardinals/Packers game--the only good, exciting game all weekend. I think the Cardinals are my favorite team in the playoffs. Kurt Warner is an absolute machine in the post-season. When I was young, my family watched Joe Montana tear it up in the playoffs nearly every year, but I think Kurt Warner is just as good. He is every bit as calm as Joe Montana was, and more athletic. Warner's problem is that he will not run for yards... ever (and sometimes he likes to throw five interceptions in a game, but not in the post-season). Yesterday he completed 29 passes with a nearly 90% completion rate, and he threw more touchdowns than incompletions. Pretty staggering to throw five touchdowns and only four incomplete passes all day. The Cardinals were so efficient on offense that they only had five 3rd downs in the entire game.

We randomly started receiving Rolling Stone magazine addressed to my wife a while back. I'm not sure if someone bought us a subscription as a cruel joke or what. This month's edition features two massive articles about global warming. They do a big spread on the "earth's biggest enemies" and trash McCain and a lot of big oil executives and such. Just when I thought Rolling Stone couldn't get any worse. I know they have always focused on some things other than music, but how can you claim to be a voice of the counter-culture when you espouse the views of a major political party and Lady Gaga is on every other page?

My wife volunteered to walk the dogs for me this morning because we slept in and she didn't have time to do her normal morning routine. I said thanks and went back to sleep. Turns out it was nine degrees outside. Oops. Now she will never volunteer to do that again.

I was doing very well at making at least one post per day, but over the past 15 days I have fallen off. Things are back to normal now and hopefully I can continue.

As a complete aside, here is an old video that makes me laugh and cringe at the same time.

On the night of September 12, 2009, a women's Semifinal match was being played at the U.S. Open. Serena Williams was down match point to Kim Clijsters when she (S. Williams) was called for a foot fault. She retaliated with a tirade and threatened bodily harm to the lines person responsible for making the call. She was penalized one point for the outburst, which cost her the match since it was match point. She was immediately fined $10,000. The incident can be seen here. Her post-match interview was unapologetic and flippant. I do not feel the need to go into the details of the actual events, because they were heavily reported at the time.

The ITF recently handed down an additional fine of $82,500 for the incident. She has not been suspended. Two days ago, she gave a somewhat official response, with a blog post hosted on globalgrind.com. Here are a few excerpts from the post:

Also for all those that don't know, I felt incredibly bad, and miserable for losing my cool, and most importantly not representing the person I really am spiritually and the role model I want to be to my young fans. [...] The fact is every professional athlete gets wronged in one way or another. And every athlete gets upset. We have been working, sacrificing, missing out on numerous things, things we will never get back or experience for the sake of our careers. [...] Well this is what happened to me, and to be honest I believe I reached my boiling point. After yet ANOTHER wrong call I began to wonder- Was I being "overlooked" or wrongly judged on purpose!??? [...] Answer this: Why is it another player who also lost HIS cool not to a line judge - like I did - but to the main officiating judge- using the same "f word" why was HE only fined 10 thousand dollars. Was what I did 10 times worse than what he did?! [...] What about the famous HE who made arguing with officials "cool". Cool for "MEN" I guess. Is it because they are all HE's and not a SHE like me?

First of all, Serena acts like this is her only transgression. She seems completely oblivious to the fact that her reputation is that of a petty, self-centered athlete who can not relate to others. When she was dismissed by Justine Henin in the quarterfinals of the 2007 U.S. Open, she pouted in the post-match press interview. "I really don’t feel like talking about it [the loss], to be honest. It’s like I don’t want to get fined. That’s the only reason I came [to the post-match interview]. I can’t afford to pay the fines because I keep losing." She also refused to admit she was outplayed by the number one player in the world, citing her own mistakes as the reason for the loss. "I think that’s usually the case with me... that it’s for me to win or lose." Face it, Serena, you got smoked by Justine Henin. She was far-and-away the best player in the world at the time. (Since Justine Henin has left the sport, there has been no clear number-one ranked tennis player on the women's side. The title of "number one player" seems to change every month).

It seems that Serena is often involved in disgraceful behavior. Smashing racquets, showing contempt for the press, and openly mocking the ratings system (and people ranked above her in this system)... none of this is uncommon. Her blog post makes it sound like she is the victim.

She brings up John McEnroe (among others) without mentioning his name. In 1987, John McEnroe was fined $17,500 and suspended for two months for misconduct and verbal abuse. Taking inflation into account (usinflationcalculator.com), this fine amounts to over $33,000 by today's standards. Saying her fine was "ten times worse" is quite a stretch. Additionaly, McEnroe was suspended for two months, while Serena received no suspension for her actions. Why isn't John McEnroe crying sexism that SHE received no suspension? How is she comparing herself to infractions that are over 20 years old? Things have changed. We don't have anyone to compare her to in recent times (except maybe Marat Safin, who never threatened anyone), so how is she able to label these punishments "sexist?"

Serena Williams seems to miss the point: While John McEnroe taunted, cursed at, and argued with officials, she threatened bodily harm to a lines person. This was more than "losing your cool." Tennis is supposed to be above this sort of thing. These aren't football players who celebrate Super Bowl wins by going out to a club and stabbing someone. There was no argument in her on-court statements. She was not trying to get the call reversed, and she was not debating any points. She was simply intimidating and threatening someone for doing their job and adhering to the rules.

A foot fault is a very cut-and-dry call. It is a very easy call to make. There are no camera angles that show for certain if there was actually a foot fault, but I believe the lines person. Her entire job during a serve is to watch the line to see if the server's foot touches the line. Unless there really is a conspiracy involved, I have to believe the call was correct. There is also the point of view that you should not let officiating determine the outcome of a sporting event. Basketball referees should not call minor fouls late in the game if the game is tied; football referees should not make calls for minor interference infractions on 4th down late in a game. I agree with this philosophy. I think the lines person was taking her job too seriously--calling a foot fault on match point. Though I believe the line judge should have "let it go," I also realize that a badly-timed call does not deserve the reaction that Serena dished out. Threatening an official in any sport is an unforgivable no-no.

She is quick to point out that $92,500 is a large amount of money ("92 thousand dollars! This is more than most people make in a year."), but nowhere does she say that 92 thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket for her. Over the course of her career, she has earned over $28million in prize money alone. That does not count her endorsements and the countless commercials she has done. I do not see her complaining about the amount of money she is making compared to the average citizen. Because of inflation (among other things), she has earned more than double the prize money that John McEnroe earned in his entire career. Look at it this way: as prize money increases, so does the amount for fines. Tennis has been good to her. You have to take the good with the bad, particularly when you brought the bad stuff on yourself.

I think the fine should have been more. I think she should have been suspended. And I assure you that my opinion has nothing to do with gender.

The following are not reviews (and definitely not spoilers), just opinions and announcements of the shows I watch.

Nip/Tuck is sort of 'back.' It has been dark, and slightly more realistic than the previous two (three? four?) seasons. That show jumped the shark a long time ago, but we still [stupidly] watch it.

Dexter may be in its best season (4th) yet. I disagree with most people; I think season 2 was awful, and season 3 was sort of a redemption. Most people seem to think it was starting to lose them in season 3. Regardless, Dexter is probably the best show on TV right now. All the characters are great, most of the side-stories are good, and the dialogue is extremely witty without being unrealistic.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is excellent, as always. Irreverent and impractical as ever.

Modern Family has been getting a lot of praise, but it deserves more. It's more than just a comedy; it has touching moments that are really effective. It's nice to see Ed O'Neill in a meaningful role. I may end up liking this more than I liked Arrested Development (something I thought I would never say about a network comedy).

As always, I enjoy my documentary shows: NOVA, Frontline, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours Mystery have all been solid.

I am really getting sick of both Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen is just so fixed... it's the same show every season/week. Top Chef is pompous, particularly the judges. IT'S JUST A PLATE OF FOOD, GUYS. Someone sends out a "bad" dish and the judges act like the chef just killed their cat. I think it is completely lost on them that the show has an audience of standard U.S. citizens who know virtually nothing about food.

Cake Boss is a good show. Several cake-bakery-type-shows have emerged in the past 24 months, but this is the only one worth watching. The shop is a great atmosphere; the cast members are all very entertaining. It's a large Italian family from Jersey, how can you go wrong? Also, they make much better cakes than the other shows. Amazing cakes. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these custom cakes go for over $3,000.

For whatever reason, I stopped watching The Soup when Stephen was born. It was a 3 year run of watching it every week, but I was getting sick of it. It makes me know too much about celebrity news and the like, and the inside jokes are built in such a way that you have to watch it every week or you don't get the jokes.

I would just like to state, for the record, that Quizno's is the worst, most overpriced establishment I've ever set foot in. We ran out of food (except ramen) before our usual weekly grocery cycle. We took a 50minute walk last night, dropped the dogs off at the house, and continued walking to Quizno's. Our son was a champ. We ordered 2 "regular" sandwiches. First of all, the sandwich sizes are for idiots. Small, regular, and large? Are you kidding me? Is it honestly too complicated to state the length of the sub? Are people really not able to grasp this concept? We got some chips and one drink. $17.17. Seriously? I thought I was on candid camera. When we walked out of there, Jaime said "we could have gone to Don Pablo's for three more dollars than that," and it's true! We often get a bill that's less than 20 bucks from Logan's Roadhouse or Don Pablo's. Then the Quizno's employees have the audacity to put a tip jar by the register. The kicker, for me, is that we are looking up pizza prices today, since we are still out of food. We can get two medium pizzas delivered from Pizza Hut for sixteen dollars. Up to three toppings each.

Here's a great business model: take a Subway sandwich. Age the bread until it's half stale. Throw the sandwich in a toaster oven and charge 60% more. Oh, also rename the sizes in such a way that no one actually knows what they are getting. It's brilliant! It's the Ruth's Chris Steak House of sandwich shops.

An aside... my blog went down for a few hours today because someone tried to hack my server. The internet sucks sometimes.

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with savant syndrome (savantism). Some savants can do difficult calculations in their head (I hear they are also excellent drivers... excellent drivers), while some can remember every song they have ever heard and play it back on a piano. Derek Paravicini (born 1979) is more than that--he has been called the "super savant." He not only can play back every song he's ever heard (over 10,000), but he can improvise among the best in the world.

Derek Paravicini was born quite prematurely, at 25 weeks. He is blind and severely autistic. He does not know his birthday and he can barely tell his left from his right. He can only dress/feed himself with a great deal of assistance. But let me tell you, sit him down at a piano and the boy can play. It seems that most of his brain is dedicated to music. It is not known whether his brain was born functioning this way, or if his neuron paths have slowly reconfigured (a feat thought impossible until recently) throughout his life. Here is an excerpt from his Wikipedia article:

Though autism is thought to be the source of Derek's extraordinary musical ability, his blindness may contribute. Because Derek is blind, the part of his brain that would normally be used for sight and light detection could be used for extra auditory ability. Derek is able to, with a great deal of precision and accuracy, detect and recognise not just one but multiple notes played at once (so far he can distinguish over 20 notes).

Most "normal" people, even the ones with an extremely keen musical sense (ie, perfect pitch), can only distinguish 2 or 3 notes at once. Being able to distinguish over 20 notes is way off the charts. Incredible.

I first saw a little 20 minute piece about Derek on NOVA as part of a larger episode about music and the brain. A search on YouTube brought up video about Derek put together by Ben Gooder. This TV special is phenomenal. It is 47 minutes, so it has to be split up into five parts on YouTube. The video goes into a lot more than just Derek's history and talent. A little bit of neurology and related information spread throughout. The piano playing itself isn't what makes it interesting, it's the whole picture. The portrait of a man who can not cross the street or open a bag of chips, but when he sits down at a piano, he has a level of understanding that can't be fathomed.

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 1

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 2

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 3

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 4

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 5

His only short-coming (and I feel like an ass for even saying that) is that he doesn't quite have a handle on all the emotions of music, though he is much better than other savants in this area. He more than makes up for it. He's the best improv musician I've ever seen. The musical limitations of his mind have yet to be discovered. You don't have to believe me; Jools Holland says the same sorts of things in the video (his opinion regarding piano expertise is worth 20 of my opinions). The icing on the cake for me is that Derek's favorite piano pieces are from the early 20th century.

"Even though it's hard to believe, I think music is an inherent part of the universe."
--David Pinto, founder of Academy of Music for the Blind

I couldn't agree more.