As cigarette smoke circled around me it reaffirmed my career decision as a software engineer where I work in a smoke-free cube. Also mastering musical instruments takes time and practice and does not pay very well.

Many of today’s aspiring artists create music in isolation in their basements. But music used to be a community activity. People used to gather on porches and in parlors to sing and play music together. For all of the collaborative power of the Internet nobody has mastered a system that allows people to easily make good music together.

At times we got to be quite loud. We got attention from folks walking and driving by. At one point a neighbor walked in. I thought for sure he was going to tell us to keep it down. “I have a drum set,” he said. “Next time you get together let me know. I’ll bring it by if you’d like me to join you.” The spirit of social music lives indeed.

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I think back to my youth. I remember lying in bed reading a book. In the other room my father was practicing guitar. He was tackling the song ‘Riders in the Sky’. As I listened I could hear him start and stop the song as he made mistakes. Subconsciously I learned disappointment happens when you try to accomplish new things.

The cowboy in ‘Riders’ is asked to change his ways or be damned to an eternity of chasing ‘the Devil’s herd across the endless skies’. I believe in order to get people to change you must present them with a future which compels them to escape the emotional gravity of the present. Unfortunately, we don’t often have anything as powerful as eternal doom to compel change. I certainly didn’t.

Eventually my dad mastered the song and played it through entirely. I’d like to think he gave me the value of being persistent in the face of frustration. Friends, I will try again to introduce innovative change. But for now I’ll wait until the sound of the ‘steel-hooved cattle’ is closer.

photo credit: eye of einstein

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• Why can’t I get motivated to participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo?
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• Should I go see the Stevie Ray Vaughn tribute show? By myself?
• Why don’t I play guitar more?
• Why is it I forget what I needed when I get to the store?

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1. In Mozilla Firefox (you’re using Firefox, right?!) open Firebug
2. Now point your browser to wordpress.com
3. Look for the X-hacker response header in HTML Headers section on the Net tab. It reads: “X-hacker: If you’re reading this, you should visit automattic.com/jobs and apply to join the fun, mention this header.”

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Once, you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things. At the end, you choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

1. I’ve done this meme before (see previous note) but have been tagged a couple more times since I wrote the note. So here goes. Again I’m not tagging anybody even though I love reading friend’s random things.
2. I’m not what you call a morning person.
3. I wish I could play the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughn.
4. I wonder what life would be like marooned in space aboard a spaceship with a hologram of my best buddy, a life form evolved from a cat, an android and a hyper-intelligent computer that runs the ship.
5. I took remedial reading in grade school; there I discovered my talent for computers.
6. I once met a guy whose legal name was Tiger Love. He freaked me out.
7. Books that contain over 400 pages intimidate me.
8. My favorite author is Ray Bradbury.
9. I refuse to watch movies in which Bruce Willis stars.
10. I’ve held the Daredevil’s and the Kingpin’s prop canes.
11. I’ve pushed the button at the Milwaukee convention center that reads “Push to play Polka”.
12. I know the secret phrase to enter the Safe House in Milwaukee.
13. Tony Dungy signed my Gen Con Indy badge one year.
14. I have a profile on an online dating website.
15. My father loved “The Screwtape Letters”; it’s on my book list.
16. I have so many unfinished video games that if I completed one a week, I wouldn’t finish until July.
17. I don’t understand the appeal of televised poker.
18. It seems like I spent a majority of my 20s working inside a cubicle.
19. It’s almost 2010. Where’s my rocketpack?
20. I had a high school crush on a couple Facebook friends. Of course if you’re wondering, then yes, it was totally you, darling!
21. I have a propane grill and intend one day to master the art of the BBQ.
22. I like chili esp Cincinnati-style chili.
23. I ask people about the jewelry they wear; there’s always a story there.
24. I’ve been to the Chicago Blues Festival three times; ran into the guys who run the Creepy Crawl in St Louis there one year.
25. My mailbox has 121 Mb worth of messages; just 1% of what Google mail has allocated.

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Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you. Please play along!

1. I don’t usually participate in these things. I’m going to respond but not tag anybody new.
2. I wrote three live action role playing (LARP) games: Kobolds on a Plane, Black Tie Affair and Tabriz School of Magic.
3. My high school mascot was the Orphans.
4. I have a twin brother.
5. I have two computers and two laptops.
6. Growing up we did not have a television in my house.
7. I play the guitar but need more practice.
8. In video games I collect the shiny things.
9. I like the sounds that trains make.
10. I taught myself to play chess when I was eight.
11. I like toast without jelly and butter.
12. I hate needles.
13. I want to visit Europe, maybe parts of Ireland that were once divided as recently as 20 years ago.
14. I want to learn another foreign language, maybe Russian.
15. Televised baseball puts me to sleep.
16. I used to sing in a choir.
17. I work on my social skills.
18. Beets make me sick.
19. I think global warming is a hoax designed to prey on our fears.
20. I like Mary Ann but when I was younger I was seduced by Ginger’s shiny dress.
21. I don’t have any tattoos or piercings. Why mess with perfection?
22. I was in a church play in high school, the beginning and end of my acting career.
23. I have learned to walk around my house without the lights on.
24. In the summer between high school and college I taught nature classes at a Boy Scout camp.
25. I am a Christian who once thought the little fish that folks stick on their cars meant they bought it from a Christian car dealer.

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At one point he discusses why he chooses to play the blues. He rightly points out that the Psalms is the largest book in the Bible and that a full 57 of the 150 psalms are laments. Christians, like all people of faith, are subjected to indignities, temptations and sufferings. He asks, “Why aren’t there more people of integrity writing, singing and playing real music that deals with real life as we all know it?” Amen, brother, amen.

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