LilBear

Worst Album Covers

Well, it has been a while since I have written anything, but there sure has not been much going on in LilBear world lately. Work, recover, work, recover. Hoping to have a break in the routine soon, but there are things to look forward to. Football (both college and pro) starting back up. Looking at two months until the start of the hockey season. So, even if I am stuck in a bit of routine for a little bit, besides the wonderful people on here at girltime, there will be many things out there to break up the monotony.

But anyway, a week or so ago, through fark.com, a Florida newspaper on its website put together a little slide show of 100 worst album covers. Some of these are a bit scary. Mostly on the unintentional humor scale. Even a few on the oh my god scale. So, let me share you some of my favorites and you can let me know what you think.

Well, there is a small sample. Ok, so thats a large sample. But, you can look at even more here. and here. Now a couple things I have to wonder. Do I have a bit of a twisted mind that like some of the religious album titles sound.....dirty? 4 men singing about "Let Me Touch Him"? A trio of a guy and two girls singing about "The Sounds of His Coming"? Yeah, my mind went to the gutter. And what is it about albums with puppets and ventriloquist dummies? Does it kind of defeat the purpose of the show?

I don't know. These amused me none the less. Well, outside to do some yard work. Wheeee! :)

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July everyone. Be safe, have fun, and enjoy the holiday however you will be celebrating it. I will be heading out this afternoon to hang out with friends, swim, eat, talk, and eventually blow things up.

LilBear's Hats - Part One

So I mentioned I have a milk crate of hats in my hallway closet, which I grab something on my way out when I need one, or just when I want to have one in the car just in case. So, here is the infamous milk crate:

But with this blog I am going to focus on a couple I have laying around in my bedroom, either hanging off of shelves or on dressers.

The first one up is this army boonie hat. I picked one of these ups when I was in Boy Scouts, when I was doing a lot of hiking and camping. Much better than just a ball cap since the bill all the way around give some shade to the sides and neck. Now I wear it fo the same reason when I go golfing.

This hat is from our local minor league baseball team, the Norfolk Tides, the AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. This was for a Memorial Day giveaway a few years back with the team logo done up in red, white, and blue like our flag.

This one is just kind of silly, but it is warm. One of the places I sometimes shop for camping and outdoor gear also has a catalog for military surplus items. This is (if I remember correctly) was a Sweedish winter tanker hat. It was a nice deal of like 3 hats for $9.

Of course, I have a few Virginia Tech hats lying around. This one is a "cat in the hat" style top hat done up in Virginia Tech colors. Myself and a few friends of mine each bought this hat and wore them to every football game our last year at school.

Now this one is just plain silly, but it was kind of cheap and is a cloth and felt hat based on the "Knights Who Say Ni" from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. This hat also lead my mother to say when I showed it to her, "Anytime you feel like spending $20 on something like that, just give it to me instead. I will find a better use for it." My dad's response? "Wow, that is cool." Yeah...so I think I take after my father. :)

So, that is it for this first edition of LilBear's hats. More to come. Unless I get bored and change subjects. :)

Still poking around....

It has been quite a while since I have written anything, but then again, the summer has not really been overly exciting as of yet. Mostly working and hanging out with friends, which means a combination of movies, dinners, bands, and wii competitions has taken over our weekend evenings.

My black beauty, the 79 Porsche 911, of mine has been out of commission for a bit here, but hopefully in the next week or two I will be back to driving it. What started out as some repairs to the brake system has evolved into some brake system repairs, some pedal cluster upgrades, and the start of some interior revisions. When it gets all finished up and the vehicle is road worthy again, I will share some before and after pictures. On the most part it is all cosmetic, but things like leather and carpeting tend to suffer on a 29 year old car. It has been nice to sit down with my mechanic friend and dream a little of what would be nice to do the car mechanically and for looks, and be able to start setting aside a budget for down the road. I can't really complain to much since this is the first significant amount of money I have put into the vehicle in the two and a half years since I have owned it.

I have also in the last week posted two pictures of new hats I have picked up recently, and I may post a blog sharing some of the ones I have collected over the years. I know some people collect shot glasses of their travels, others collect shells, some even collect little stuffed animals when they travel.....oh wait. I do that too. Anyway, hats. I have a milk crate full of them in my hall closet and in the fall and winter when I go out to hockey games, I reach in and grab one, to wear or when I work in the yard, I grab one to wear. Some do have meaning, some don't, some I wear a lot more than others. So, maybe a future blog post I will share some of those.

Well, I guess that is about it for now. It is almost the 4th of July, which means the office is closed, and the tummy gets full of burgers and hot dogs. Go America! :)

Thriller Kitties

While watching Dancing With The Stars and kind of a poor "Thriller Tribute", a few of us got talking about better renditions of Thriller then what we saw, and I got thinking, there has to be better cats doing Thriller then those dancers.

So here is what I found:

In Honor Of My Birthday....(a state of the bear address)

...I figured I would share some pictures of me in my bear birthday suit.

What were you people expecting? :P

So, here I am, 4,900 miles and 33 years from where I started. I was a Navy brat, starting off in this little pink hospital in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and bounced around a few places as the Navy sent us places, with the family eventually ending up in Virginia, now in our 25th year on the east coast.

So, what else to share about me? Well, I spent most of my younger years once we got settled in Virginia playing soccer and doing a lot of camping and hiking in the Boy Scouts. Everything from beach camping in North Carolina to the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, and a few spots in between. Somewhere in that time my inner geek showed up and I got interested in science fiction, fantasy, comic books, computers, and gaming. Spent a bunch of my high school years hanging out at a comic book shop where some friends of mine worked, spending many late friday and saturday nights with friends being gaming geeks. Even now every once in a while I stop in and chat with the owner of the store and his wife, being one of the "kids" that grew up with them in the store along with their own children.

Through college I started getting involved in music, beyond just listening to it. Started learning some guitar and bass from friends, and found myself helping out with the sound systems for the student group I was involved in. After school and moving back home, I spent time running the sound system for a church I was going to, and helping run the sound system for bands playing at a local coffee shop. After a while I spent a few years playing bass guitar in the worship band, which I dearly miss but it was loads of fun. After a while the time required for practice during the week and performing on sundays became to much and I had to stop.

So, what am I up to now? Well, the short answer is work and sleep. :P If I'm not working hopefully I am either outside doing something, catching a movie, or out seeing a band. There are a few local bands I have gotten to know, they mostly do cover songs, but they are good, and they are fun to listen to.

But overall, I don't think I have any complaints with things right now. Life could be better in some ways, but things could be worse. But I think I can also say for the first time in a while things look brighter and better ahead of me. Time to hop on the trail and see where things go.

One year later.....

Today is April 16th, 2008.

A year ago today I was sitting at my desk at work, when I got an IM message from a friend mid morning. "They think there has been a shooting on Virginia Tech's campus." My first thought was not again.

You see, earlier that school year, in fall of 2006, on the first day of classes, a man escaped from police custody, shot a police officer and a hospital security guard and ended up hiding out near campus for most of the day. This resulted in classes being canceled, dorms locked down, a mess of the area in general.

So, like I said, my first though was not again. Turning on the radio, and the news, keeping an eye on what was going across the net and in IM's from friends and family, this was something much worse. In the end 32 students and professors of Virginia Tech were killed, many more wounded, and it still doesn't make any sense thinking about it a year later. I know it is just me, but I do not understand the mind set if you are mad at the world, or mad at "people", why you have to impact yourself on innocents. If you are going to take yourself and your life down in flames, what goes through your head to think I am going to take other people with me? What point are you trying to make?

Anyways.

Even though I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1998, it is still a place I hold close to my heart. I have been back to see friends, I have gone back for football games, it was a time and place I enjoyed very much. So I think for Hokies around the country, it certainly hit us hard. It saddened me and I can certainly see I was in a bit of a haze for the day or two afterwards. I was working, I was going about life, but I don't think I was completely there. I can't imagine what those that were injured that day, or the families of those that were killed were going through. I guess it also hit close to home just from knowing that campus, knowing that building, knowing those classrooms. In thinking back about it now I am guessing I might have had a class every semester I was there in that building. It just feels odd to picture those rooms in my head now.

But, here we are a year later, and it is a day to remember what happened, but not dwell on it. Lift up those that were killed and injured, and honor them by continuing to go forward.

And if we ever needed something to remind us of who we are as a school, Virginia Tech Professor Nikki Giovanni gave a wonderful address about grief, hope, and the future that still to this day brings a few tears to my eyes when I read it.

Transcript of Nikki Giovanni's Convocation address

Delivered April 17, 2007

We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech.

Music - Concert and Other Thoughts

So this past Thursday April 10th I got out to one of my favorite places to see live music, The Norva. It is an older downtown building renovated into a concert hall. Over the years I have been to a fair amount of concerts there, but they have something almost every night, ranging across all kinds of styles.

The show Thursday night was Michelle Branch, who some may remember for her songs "Are You Happy Now", "All You Wanted", and her duet with Carlos Santana, "The Game of Love". Another one of her songs is "Everything", which this clip I like because it is from the show Thursday night. This was how she opened up the show, and by midnight after the show, this clip was up on youtube. Damn things move fast now days don't they?

The show was very enjoyable and the band played very well. Her earlier cd's had more of a folk-rock acoustic kind of feel, but it does sound like her living in Nashville now and spending a year or two as part of a country rock duo called The Wreckers has rubbed off some country feel to her music, both new and old. And that really isn't a bad thing based on what I heard Thursday night.

Which I think a few of my friends would find very funny since I have had a pretty good dislike of "country" music for a very long time. It used to be the running joke I would not listen to country music at all in the car, except at the request of a few friends of the attractive female variety. So I guess you could say I am not quite a fan of what may be considered "old country", the things that used to be on Hee Haw and Grand Old Opry when I was younger. But in the last few years it seems that the line between country and rock is being smudged quite heavily. With rock artists that I like such as Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow, ZZ Top, Jack White, Frank Black. and John Mayer bringing in a bit of the country sound to their music, I have to think you know, this isn't too bad. And from these bands and friends learning more about country music artists such as Brad Paisley (hell of an amazing guitarist) who are bringing in a bit of rock into their music, I slowly feel myself slipping to the dark site, country music.

No, I have not bought a country cd yet, but at least I don't go leaping to turn the station anymore.

***********************************

As a side note, I must admit something to you readers. Yes, all three of you. I initially started writing this with the intent of talking about some of my favorite female singers and musicians after Michelle Branch, but I guess the blog kind of took on a mind of it's own. Well, I guess I have a subject for later on then.

First Spring Drive - 08

You can tell it is springtime in Virginia. On Friday April 4th it started to rain. Today, April 10th, was the first day without rain since then.

And boy was it a beautiful day. Bright blue sky, temperature in the low 70s. And lucky me I had to go run some errands for work in the middle of the afternoon.

So of course, I grabbed the camera. Let me show you around a little bit.

Here I am heading up the road from the office. Such a clear blue sky isn't it?

Ah driving down the interstate, heading to downtown Norfolk.          

There is the Spirit of Norfolk, and other ships tied up to Waterside.

There is our battleship in downtown, The Wisconsin.    

And how about some random downtown pictures?

Now this hopefully you can see clearly, and needs some explanation. The City of Norfolk has a "mermaid" program I guess you can call it, where they have adopted a mermaid as a symbol of the city. So scattered throughout the city are mermaid statues, all the same statue, but each decorated uniquely by local artists, community groups, and various businesses. So as I was driving back to the office, I saw this banner hanging on a fence next to a construction site. It has the Norfolk mermaid logo, and its holding a hammer. The upper left corner says "It's hammer time", and the opposite has a note about downtown redevelopment and construction. I didn't get that good of a look at it.

So, there is a little bit from today's drive. Hopefully as the summer progresses, the weather stays nice, and I make more little road trips I will share pictures of the places I go.

Springtime...

Wow, such a beautiful day out here. About 80 degrees out most of the afternoon. Sitting at work with my window open feeling the nice breeze blowing through my office. Ah, how that made me wish I was home on my living room couch with the windows open, breeze blowing through, sleeping.

Of course that also does mean spring flowers start popping up around the yard. Some near my tree in the front yard. Some out near the base of my mail box. Those little purple bunches popping up all over the yard.

But that does mean warmer weather. Which I celebrated this evening by washing my black beauty. Getting all that winter and spring pollen and dust off of it. Making it look all nice and shiny like it deserves.

Now for those nice days and warm mornings, I will be ready to take the top off and drive. Even if it does mean driving into work, it will still be fun.

Music - IPod Update

I realized this evening while sorting through some new cds, I had not updated the ipod listing I have on my bio page. So, here, let me show you some things I have added recently. Well, as long as you consider recently the last 6 weeks since that appears to be when I last did an update to my list:

• Michelle Branch - Hotel Paper
• Michelle Branch - The Spirit Room
• One Republic - Dreaming Out Loud
• Nickelback - All The Right Reasons
• Elvis Costello - The Best Of - The First 10 Years
• Robert Plant & Allison Krauss -Raising Sand
• KT Tunstall - Drastic Fantastic
• Colbie Caillat - Coco
• Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Under The Covers, Volume 1
• Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - Once
• Cake - B-Sides & Rarities

A handful of these are purchased at your typical stores, Walmart, Best Buy, etc. But on the most part I have been a member of one of the big cd clubs which is where I tend to get alot of stuff that I may not have typically bought from the store. Stores cost you about $15 a cd (on average), and with the cd club I get deals and coupons that get me down to about $5 a cd. Sheesh, for $5 I will buy a cd where I may know only one or two songs.

So, here is just a random music post. :)

Music - Brian Setzer

Well, I guess for my first use of LiveWriter, I will do a little music post. Share some youtube videos of one of my favorite musicians Brian Setzer. Lead singer for The Stray Cats, leader of the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and a hell of a rock and roll guitarist.

Starting off with just a little clip of Brian goofing around during the making of an instructional video he did many years ago:

                          Brian Setzer - Goofing Off

We can follow that up with one of my favorite Stray Cats songs, Bring It Back Again:

                          Stray Cats - Bring It Back Again

From there he kind of popped back into the mainstream with the Brian Setzer Orchestra with his version of the old swing song Jump, Jive, and Wail, which was featured in either Gap or Old Navy Commercials:

                                       Brian Setzer Orchestra - Jump Jive and Wail

During his concerts with the orchestra, he tends to take a break and goes back to a short set of songs with a three piece (him on guitar, drums, and stand up bass). When I saw him a few years ago, this song Mystery Train, was my favorite that he did:

And then, back to the orchestra to wrap this post up with the Stray Cats song Stray Cat Strut:

                                       Brian Setzer Orchestra - Stray Cat Strut

So, if you like some good old fashioned rockabilly, enjoy.

St. Patricks Day - Music

Well, one of my favorite bands right now is Flogging Molly. And for St. Patricks Day, and the weekend, they are quite appropriate. So, let me share with you some videos of theirs off of youtube.

Laura - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lyuuv0Yygo

Drunken Lullabies - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JePJNCrxpcY

What's Left of the Flag - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qlym4eLWHFA

If I Ever Leave This World Alive - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHT2xOpBHN0

Seven Deadly Sins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqewyGMTZzc

Selfish Man - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f6GKi5hpxQ

The Likes Of You Again - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxKWF37OFMw

 Enjoy the music and have a few drinks.

St Patrick Day Cards

So, I would consider myself a regular reader of www.cracked.com, checking out their humor stories every day. Today is a bit odd since it is "If St. Patricks Day Had Greeting Cards", which it does now days. Like when did that become a greeting card holiday?

So anyways, I guess you could call this honset St.Patrick Days Cards. Go on over here to see the full article and more than just the ones I show here.

Any favorites anyone else has found?

OMG!!!! WTF???? ZOMBIES!!!!!

Ok, in my perusing the intertubes looking at movie trailers, I came across two upcoming movies that are zombie-centric, but a bit odd.

First off, ZOMBIE STRIPPERS:

http://filmdrunk.com/post.phtml?pk=1294

Yeah.....its zombies, at a strip club, that become zombie strippers. This couldn't possible be straight to dvd could it? :P

Secondly, DANCE OF THE DEAD:

http://danceofthedeadmovie.com/