My List of the Top Ten Albums of Rock and Roll

Ken put me up to this. Originally the list was supposed to be 15 albums. His list was twenty-five. I have limited mine to just ten. It is a slippery slope from #11 to #50. The truth is adding another five would repeat a couple of the artists. Oddly this list does not include the first couple of albums I ever bought (one of which was Petra - More Power To Ya) which I listened to non-stop for over a year. Nor does it include the album that I have probably listened to more than any other album (U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind). I actually left this one in the CD player of my trucks for two plus years.

1. U2 - The Unforgettable Fire - This one seems to top everyone's list. I walked to Wal-Mart with my buddy Matt Ramon (before we could drive) to buy this one in cassette form. This was also the first CD I ever bought (1987). Every song on the CD is good and the sum is greater than the parts. "Dirt dry bones, sand, and stone."

2. The Choir - Chase the Kangaroo - I was introduced to this one during the summer of 1987. My friend, Preacher-Man John, whom I have know since kindergarten, had just gotten a bass and started a band along with Wade and Jeff. Their original music was definitely influenced by The Choir and U2. Actually The Choir was also influenced by U2. (Thinking about this reminded me of a road trip we made to Atlanta to see U2 and the rocking flying through my windshield on the way home. Also John's little incident at the parking deck, but I digress. Good times!) "November whispers and shakes a fist, leaves fall down with promises." But who rakes the leaves?

3. The Alarm - Strength - Another John (Thrash man) introduced me to this band back when I was flipping burgers at the golden arches. I had a hard time deciding whether Strength or Declaration should fill this slot. Ultimately Strength got it. Barely. "Who will light the fire that I need to survive?"

4. Sting - Dream of the Blue Turtles - This one was introduced by my imaginary friend Mike. Moon Over Bourbon Street and Shadows in the Rain are timeless classics for me. I continually use both to prove to others that I can't sing. And I shall continue to for a long long time. "Woke up in my clothes again this morning. Don't know exactly where I am."

5. Rush - Power Windows - This one comes complements of yet another John, Mr. Leeming. I heard this one for the first time while 'working truck' at McDonald's. This was totally unlike anything I had ever heard. "All the powers that be, and the course of history, would be changed for evermore..."

6. Van Halen - 5150 - I bought this one at Sound Warehouse on the way home from school one day. John Thrash was probably with me as we car-pooled for several years. Unlike may others, I liked Van Haggar. To this day I believe that Eruption from Van Halen I is the reason my hearing is not so good. Can you imagine what that must sound like in of a Chevette with 10 speakers including two 10" subs being pushed by 200 watts (peak :). "Summer nights and my radio, that's all we need, baby, don't cha know."

7. Triumph - Sport of Kings - This one is again courtesy of Mr. Trash. That guy had good tastes in music. "Is it fate, or random chance, how can I decided? Are we victims of circumstance when destinies collide?

8. REM - Document - Mr. Leeming again. John taught me how to play the first few notes of "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" on my electric guitar. For all of you I have tortured with this, he is to blame. Unfortunately I didn't have any inate musical talent. John, John, and I (and maybe John) went to see John's brother's band "My Three Sons" play at a club near TCU. They dedicated Electric Co. to me. "World serves it own needs, regardless of your own needs, feed it up a knock, speed, grunt no, speed no..."

9. Electric Light Orchestra - Time - As a kid, I heard "Out of the Blue" and "Discovery" time and again at Blair's house. I don't recall hearing "Time" back then but it is definitely my favorite ELO album. I will credit David E. with this one. "I met someone who looks a lot like you, she does the things you do, but she is an IBM." "...And she's also a telephone."

10. Boston - Boston - Flashback to the 70's and credit goes to Blair again. I think we nearly wore out his older brother's eight tracks. This was the first CD I listened to when I bought my first brand-new-car. Open up the sun roof and turn it up. "He smoked a big cigar, drove a Cadillac car, and said, boys, I think this band is out of sight."

So how would I fill out the next 40 or so? More U2, definitely The Joshua Tree, and The Alarm, probably Declaration and Eye of the Hurricane. And more Choir, especially the live one specially mixed to listen to in the car with the windows rolled down. Also throw in The Church's "Under the Milkyway", some Everclear, a few Barenaked Ladies, more Sting's Soul Cages (and The Police's Synchronicity) , and Pink Floyd, Green Day, and maybe the Offspring. And more Rush!

Now it is your turn to make a list. Let me know when you get it done so that I may check it out.

Today the local blog critic awarded my blog the most boring blog in the neighborhood award. I guess he missed the geometric proofs from a couple of years back. And the lyrics for 'Oh, Yes Wyoming'. (If your interested, I recently proved the triangle inequality theorem for vectors.)

Then I remembered my blog wasn't really meant to be entertaining, it was intended to document my current obsession, whatever that might be, for example a Miata, a 1925 Chevrolet,rebuilding a 1972 GMC pickup, hoping to acquire an unspecified year Corvette or Volkswagen Beetle, building Furniture, hot tubing, auto body repair, camping, hiking, biking, welding, metal-meet, camping, Dodge Chargers, low carb dieting, school, procrastination, hypermiling, building a foundry, melting aluminium, state quarters, container gardening, MDF, STL, model railroading (n gauge), tenth scale RC cars, RC airplanes, Vertigo, slot car racing, Formula One, the US Grand Prix, attending car shows, Mini Coopers, ping pong, foos ball, chocolate chip cookies, fembots with a penchant for evil, cast iron skillets or even fried okra. Whatever. I feel so validated now.

Mmmm, fried okra.

iMike and Terry did not even get an honorable mention because their blogs are too interesting. Sorry guys.

Hello, Hello, Hola!

The First Day Is The Hardest

At least I hope so. Having unsweetened tea with lunch was no big deal, but water throughout the day is boring. Sometimes you just want something with a little umph, the Jim Beam burn that you can only get from an ice cold Coca Cola. Unfortunately I don't really recall what that is like. It has been several years since I had a regular cola, and on that occasional is was a little flat. (I don't think you can actually get the Jim Beam burn from Jim Beam.)

Mike mentioned in a comment that he has been hitting the juice bottle. Don't do it man! Fruit juice has more calories per ounce than soda. Sure it is supposed to be good for you too, but if you strictly swap 12 oz. of DP for 12 oz. of juice, you net savings is no good. Now if you swap 6 cans of DP for 5 glasses of water and one bottle of juice your doing OK, but why would anyone want to do that? {End of rhetorical Question}

Back to the water torture. And it's raining today to. That makes my Miata sad.

Summary For iMike

I am home again. The camping trip went well though the weather tried not to co-operate.

For Fridays hike it, we had temperatures in the low 60s. Almost perfect. The hike in was uneventful, except for a broken bottle of pepper sauce at the parking lot.

Friday evenings meal was the traditional ribeye. That was 5 pounds we were definitely willing to hike in.

Saturday we had a thunderstorm. At one point I heard a thunder clap that lasted no less than 30 continous seconds.

A couple guys (David and Alan) went for a hike Saturday morning. They were out when the bottom fell out. Even with parkas, they were totally drenched. The rest of us (myself, Billy, and Chad) hung around camp and kept the fire burning. This was a bit of a challenge at times.

Saturday during the rain storm I had a drip in the tent and a small puddle accumlated. This was resolved by simply tensioning up the rain fly. This is a rookie mistake, so I had no excuse. Chad had a drip problem also. His sleeping bag ended up getting wet. I think he came pretty close to burning the tent instead of packing it out.

Sunday mornings was cold. How cold? Don't know. But it warmed up some before the snow started to fall. The snow changed to sleet and then back to a very heavy wet snow. The view over the gorge was pretty awesome with the heavy snow.

Sunday morning we heard a wild Turkey call. Didn't see it though. Actually other than a few ants, we didn't see any creatures.

We saw one other group of campers. They were hiking in Saturday afternoon during the rain. They were headed for one of the other primitive camp sites. Their destination had been undersireable to us. It did not allow campfires. What is camping without a campfire?

The oven got put to good use. We baked bread, muffins, CC cookies, and brownies. Saturday night we had Jambo and red beans and rice.

The cold weather from this morning stuck with me all day. This evening I was still chilled when we went out for dinner, even though it was a warmer 55 degrees outside.

I had a good weekend and I am glad to be home. I enjoyed a warm shower and a nice nap this afternoon. I bet I will sleep good tonight also.

The Peanut Gallery Has Spoken
On Friday I went to the store to buy a couple of calculator batteries. The calcuator is a TI-83+. The required battery is a CR1616 or a CR2016. Either will do.

A friend, let's call him David, has the same calculator and needed to replace his battery also so I volunteered to pick up a spare.

Before going to the store, I wrote down the battery number so that I would not have to be concerned with forgetting it. Actually I wrote down both numbers. At the store, Wal-Mart, I looked over the battery selection and found the CR1620. Wait a minute, I thought it was a CR2016. Did I transpose those two numbers when I wrote it down?

I decided to call David and have him verify the battery number for me. No answer at this office. No answer on his cell phone.

I went ahead and bought the batteries which I discovered upon arriving home were definitely the wrong ones. I had not transposed the digits. Doh! "Oh well, I thought, I guess I will return them and get the right ones tomorrow."

As is the usual case, tomorrow rolled around the next day and while I was out I swung by Wal-Mart to get the correct battery. Only I forgot to bring the wrong batteries with me.

One this trip I did get the correct batteries. Why did I not spot these the first time? On the first trip I went to electronics (where the calculators live). On the second trip, an associate recommended I check in the jewelry department (where the calculators don't live).

What was the point of this story? Nothing, but iMike complained about there being no new posts in a while so I had to come up with some filler. Hope you liked it.

And the top was up on the Miata. I am still waiting on a warm breeze to blow through.

And I did my taxes last Saturday so that is one less thing. What are you waiting for?

And for the record, the whole elbow kissing thing was not my idea. Some other creative soul created that mischief. I simply got blamed 30 years later.

And the snow. I didn't even mention the snow last week.

I think I am all caught up now.