Shuffle #4

After syncing the Cohen 2008 concert CD added to my collection this week, we’re now shuffling out of 4377 tracks –

1 – Rollin’ and Tumblin’. Bob Dylan. Modern Times. [6:01/6:01] Good one to queue up next bout of insomnia.
2 – Barrytown. Steely Dan. Pretzel Logic. [3:22/9:23] Doing things strange.
3 – Sinner’s Prayer. Ray Charles & B.B. King. Genius Loves Company. [4:25/13:48] I could do with more of B.B. on the Zen.
4 – Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) Bob Dylan. Street Legal. [6:16/20:04] Mediocre.
5 – Charmaine. Jim Reeves. The Unforgettable Jim Reeves. [2:11/22:15] When blue birds are mating?
6 – Villanelle for Our Time. Leonard Cohen. Dear Heather. [5:56/28:11] Lennie recites a villanelle!!
7 – Houston. (unidentified artist and album) [2:57/31:08] A country & western number, from one of the mp3 files Jim sent me, I think. “Here I am in Houston, and I’m one day closer to you.”
8 – Meeting Across the River. Bruce Springsteen. Born to Run. [3:19/34:27] Pure gold from the Boss! One of the best I’ve ever heard for rhyming and keeping form in something that still sounds like it came straight off the street!
9 – Island Girl. Elton John. Greatest Hits 1970-2002 (Disc 1). [3:44/38:11] Not one of my faves from Elton.
10 – Most Anything You Want. Iron Butterfly. In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. [3:42/41:53] One of those never-heard pieces from the flip side.
11 – Sing Another Song Boys. Leonard Cohen. Songs of Love and Hate. [6:15/48:08] “They’ll never, they’ll never ever reach the moon, at least not the one that they’re after.”
12 – Love’s Recovery. Indigo Girls. Artist’s Choice: Sarah McLachlan. [4:22/52:30]
13 – Stories of the Street. Leonard Cohen. The Songs of Leonard Cohen. [4:35/57:05] Curious! – without hitting any of the tracks from the new Lennie concert CD, the Zen still seems to sense that this shuffle belongs to the man born with the gift of a golden voice!
14 – Stagger Lee. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Murder Ballads. [5:15/1:02:20] Let’s just say this one won’t go out to the pool CD player, unless we wish to be exiled from the neighborhood.
15 – 17 Year Locust. Rob Zombie. Educated Horses. [4:06/1:06:26] We’re in that segment of the shuffle, one would gather.
16 – Are You Ready? The Fairfield Four. Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. [2:36/1:09:02] LOL! The previous two tracks in this shuffle had me thinking that I needed maybe George Beverly Shea or one of the praise songs to queue up, to wash my head out. This about does the job.
17 – The Girl from Ipanema. Astrud Gilberto. Classics in the Key of G. [4:03/1:13:05] Still steering clear of the Cave/Zombie mudhole.
18 – Have I Told You Lately That I Love You? Jim Reeves. Golden Hits. [1:29/1:14:34] He keeps forgetting. . .
19 – To the Sons of Man. Killswitch Engage. Alive of Just Breathing. [2:02/1:16:36] Headfirst back into the mudhole. This one will be one of the first to disappear when I get short of space.
20 – From Me to You. The Beatles. 1. [1:56/1:18:32] We’ve had several that were under 2 minutes this shuffle.
21 – Thoughtless Kind. John Cale. Fragments of a Rainy Season. [2:40/1:21:12] So if you get tired of the friends you made?
22 – Love Touch. Rod Stewart. Encore: The Very Best of Rod Stewart, Vol. 2. [4:03/1:25:15] Is this Rod’s first appearance in the shuffles?
23 – Don’t Go Breaking My Heart. Elton John & Kiki Dee. Greatest Hits 1970-2002 (Disc 2). [4:28/1:29:43]
24 – Parlami d’ Amore &etc. The Three Tenors. Best of the Three Tenors. [2:51/1:32:34] Can one get much farther from track #19 of this shuffle? Not just in style, but in quality, in ability, in reality even?
25 – I’m So Blue. Veggie Tales. [3:28/1:36:02] Ditto, although perhaps not at the same hoity toity level as the tenors.
26 – Stairway to Heaven on Glass Harmonica. Peter Bennett. [1:42/1:37:44] Another sub-2min track. We;re headed for a record low with this shuffle’s duration.
27 – Mary Was Pretty. The Kingston Trio. The Capitol Years (Disc 2) [2:04/1:39:46] And another relatively short one. They needed to know more women? Nah, Joanie would’ve thrown a fit.
28 – Angie. The Rolling Stones. Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones 1971-1993. [4:32/1:44:18]
29 – The Island. Barbra Streisand. A Love Like Ours. [4:37/1:48:55] Absent a miracle, we won’t break the 2-hour threshold for this shuffle….
30 – Flute 1. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. Indian Classical Maestros Vol.1. [26:50/2:15:45] …And we get our miracle in the form of one of my Indian music CDs! This shuffle had been aiming for a record low below 1:59, then shot to a record high past 2:11!!

Zen Shuffle 3

Shuffle 30 out of 4340 tracks, including 3 episodes of The Writer’s Almanac synced over this past week –
1 – I Can’t Keep from Crying, Sometimes. The Blues Project. Anthology (Disc 2). [4:27] Good Al Kooper to start this shuffle, but one I’ve rarely heard played.
2 – Colorado Trail. The Kingston Trio. The Capitol Years (Disc 2). [2:50/7:17] Not one of the ones on any of the several KT records I had during my childhood, so this one is relatively unknown to me. This shuffle starts with two of my fave groups, but with rare numbers from them.
3 – Spirit on the Water. Bob Dylan. Modern Times. [7:42/14:59] We continue the draft touch of this shuffle: core in terms of singer or group, but with the song itself one of the lesser heard numbers.
4 – All the Way. Brian McKnight (with Kenny G). Paradise. [4:18/19:17] Still not yet touching a number that would be in the top thousand if I ranked them all precisely, although it does still belong on my device.
5 – 4th of July, Adbury Park (Sandy). Bruce Springsteen. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. [5:36/24:53] Ah, there we go, at least into my top 500, maybe even top 250. This is one I enjoy dancing to, singing to, great great Bruce.
6 – Romeo and Juliet. Dire Straits. Alchemy. [8:17/33:10] Another in my top 500! And we’re going to easily break the 2-hour ceiling on this shuffle if we keep pulling down these longer numbers. Not that I mind.
7 – Black Sunshine. Iggy Pop (with Rob Zombie). Past, Present & Future ` “` (Disc 1). [4:49/37:59] Back down to the lower quadrant: still belongs on the Zen, but ain’t up near the top.
8 – Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way, I’ll Go Mine. Bob Dylan. Biograph (Disc 1). [3:29/41:28] Two from Bob out of the first 8? That’s my Zen!
9 – Crow Jane. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Murder Ballads. [4:14/45:42]
10 – Elegy. Michael Maxwell. Elegance of Pachelbel. [7:15/52:57] Here’s an inversion!–a fave number by an artist I’d never even be able to pick out of a multiple choice police line-up!! This is my top fave from this CD we’ve listened to hundreds of times both awake and asleep.
11 – The Pretender. Jackson Browne. The Next Voice You Hear: The Best of Jackson Browne. [5:51/58:48] Used to be the theme song for the sitcom of my life.
12 – Cocks ‘n’ Asses. Nick Cave. B-Sides & Rarities (Disc 1). [5:43/1:04:31] What and what? Let’s just say we won’t be queueing this one up on our poolside CD player. Meanwhile, we’ve crossed the 1-hour mark in record time; I need to pause here and recharge the Zen battery.

And will take the opportunity to sync 10 additional tracks: a few more episodes of The Writer’s Almanac, along with some recent episodes of Wait Wait. So when I pick it back up, the final 18 will be shuffled up out of 4350 tracks –
13 – Don’t Cry Blue. Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards. [2:44/1:07:15] Good song (although not my fave) from a great CD. (Dont you cry either, Cuddles.)
14 – Natasha. Rufus Wainwright. Want One. [3:28/1:10:43] Relaxing, maybe. But I never have gotten all that much into Wainwright, so this one might even rank in the lowest several hundred.
15 – Henry Lee. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. Murder Ballads. [3:58/1:14:41] Not one of my top faves from Nick Cave, but shows how little emotion I feel toward Wainwright’s to call this one at least a thousand higher than that one stood. And as for randomization?-Note this is the second from Cave’s Murder Ballads CD.
16 – High Water. Bob Dylan. The Bootleg Series, Vol.8: Tell Tale Signs (Disc 1). [6:46/1:21:27] Still plugging away quite steadily toward a new record for shuffle duration.
17 – I’m a Changed Man. Otis Redding. Dreams to Remember: The Otis Redding Anthology (Disc 2). [2:22/1:23:49] Cutting down the average track time for this shuffle set, but not a bad track for rounding out the diversity.
18 – Easy Does It. Al Kooper. Easy Does It. [5:28/1:29:17] Belt it on out, Al! Blast from my 12th grade past! And “when I grew a little older….”
19 – How Beautiful are the Feet of Them. London Philharmonic Choir. Handel’s Messiah (Disc 2). [3:07/1:32:24] Another good one for rounding out the shuffle set’s diversity.
20 – By the Time I Get to Phoenix. Glen Campbell. The Very Best of Glen Campbell. [2:47/1:35:11] Ah yes, reaching back even further into high school day memories!
21 – On Again, Off Again. Sean Lennon. Friendly Fire. [3:18/1:38:29] Another mild diversity-widening track – as with Wainwright, I’ve never quite clicked with John’s kid the way I have done with Bob’s.
22 – I Shall Be Released. Bob Dylan. The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3. [2:10/1:40:39] My Zen has this mis-labeled (as is the case on several dozen scattered tracks, the source of the problem unknown) – the track being played is from the same CD, but is Santa Fé.
23 – She Belongs To Me. North Country. North Country: Pickin’ Bob Dylan. [3:26/1:44:05] And I don’t even know what they’re trying to pick here, but it sure doesn’t sound like She Belongs To Me. I suppose maybe it is, but . . .
24 – The Writer’s Almanac for 8/19/2009. [5:16/1:49:21] Ah cute! Only this past week did I begin downloading podcasts of The Writer’s Almanac, and already it’s creeping into my shuffles.
25 – O Caritas. Cat Stevens. Catch Bull at Four. [3:42/1:53:03] He should make sure to sing this one at any current concerts, especially if they ever let him set foot in the U.S. again.
26 – All Heaven Declares. Jack Hayford. Men in Worship. [2:28/1:55:31] Another good diversity-widening track.
27 – Coast of California. The Kingston Trio. The Capitol Years (Disc 2). [2:38/1:58:09] Now creeping toward that 2-hour mark.
28 – Across the Universe. The Beatles. Let It Be…Naked (Disc 1). [3:38/2:01:47] Finally passing the 2-hour threshold. We were originally stretching for a record on this shuffle, but then slowed down. We had reached the 2-hour mark on the 27th track for shuffle set #2 last week.
29 – People Ain’t No Good. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The Boatman’s Call. [5:41/2:06:28] Nick gets the prize this shuffle, claiming three of the thirty slots.
30 – Don’t Fence Me In. Mitch Miller. Sing Along with Mitch. [2:05/2:08:33] And we come in slightly more than three minutes under last week’s duration record. Even so, a familiar one to close out this shuffle, fitting nicely with earlier selections from The Kingston Trio and Glen Campbell.

Hospital Within Walking Distance

Had Susan not had a doctor’s appointment elsewhere at about the same time as my appointment for a CT chest scan today, she probably would have driven me. But with two good days of walking to the park with her behind me, I felt challenged to leave the Blue Bug parked home, and walked the 1.45 miles to (blue line) then the 1.55 miles back from (red line) my appointment. Which was scheduled for 1pm, but I wasn’t called back for what was then a quick 10-minute procedure until almost 2pm.

And I forgot to take my cap and a bottle of water (although I did get a free bottle of water at the hospital for the return walk), so just about died in 98° (before heat index) sun with few clouds and almost no breeze. But I survived! And I look forward to our walk to the park again this evening.

Sunday Shuffle 2

30 Shuffle 2: 30 “random” selections from 4332 tracks on my Zen Vision:M –
1 – Have a Talk with God. Stevie Wonder. Songs in the Key of Life (Disc 1). [2:42]
2 – Parker’s Band. Steely Dan. Pretzel Logic. [2:45/5:27]
3 – Too Much of Nothing. Bob Dylan. The Basement Tapes (Disc 2) [3:03/8:30] This shuffle has started out just a step or two off the beaten track – not all that unusual to my main tastes, but not the most commonly heard of tunes.
4 – Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You. Bob Dylan. Nashville Skyline. [3:23/11:53] Ah, that’s a little closer to center. I sing along on this one, even think of scooting it back to replay it again before shuffling along.
5 – Alone. Kenny G. Breathless. [5:28/17:21]
6 – All I Taste Today is What’s Her Name. From Autumn to Ashes. The Fiction We Live. [3:41/21:02] Odd bit of shuffle, this one is so far.
7 – Worried Life Blues. John Cephas. Homemade. [3:18/24:20] And the oddness continues. All these do belong on my Zen, but they do a job at showing off some of the odd corners I listen to.
8 – Slow Train. Bob Dylan. Slow Train Coming. [5:58/30:18] Even when it does try to get to the center of the room, it’s somewhat off in another building altogether. Again, belongs; but again, not one you’d see listed among the most common to come to mind during any typical stray open moment.
9 – Spirit on the Water. Bob Dylan. Modern Times. [7:42/38:00] The shuffle maintains its rep.
10 – For Lovin’ Me / Did She Mention My Name. [3:29/41:29] A week of traffic since track 29 on the first shuffle, but this still comes soon enough to lend more emphasis to the off-beaten-track feel of the rest of the rest of this shuffle.
11 – Dink’s Song (Minneapolis Hotel Version). Bob Dylan. No Direction Home. [5:02/46:31] And speaking of mixing the norm (doesn’t get any more so than for another Bob to come up) with the unusal (this is as much so as if it were brand new).
12 – Nobody Does It Better. Carly Simon. Reflections: Carly Simon’s Greatest Hits. [3:44/50:15] Makes one feel sad for the rest.
13 – Pressing On. Chicago Mass Choir. Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. [6:07/56:22] Ditto the mixture of norm with abnorm.
14 – Tempus Vernum. Enya. A Day Without Rain. [2:24/58:46]
15 – Bridge Over Troubled Water. Johnny Cash. [3:55/1:02:41] LOL, it really doesn’t mix up much better than this classic cover!
16 – I Shall Be Released. Bob Dylan. The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991 (Disc 2). [3:56/1:06:37] The parenthetical in the CD title says it well: although this particular song is one of my Dylan faves, this shuffle can’t even manage to key up the usual version.
17 – Bunch of Lonesome Heroes. Leonard Cohen. Songs From a Room. [3:12/1:09:49] But for me, this is dead center: from the first Lennie album I had, sung for the crickets even.
18 – Lonesome Suzie. The Band. Music from Big Pink. [4:04/1:13:53] Coincidence of this shuffle: two songs in a row about the lonesome ones.
19 – Blue Boy. Jim Reeves. The Unforgettable Jim Reeves. [2:12/1:16:05] And we can call this a moderate extension of that coincidence: Jim doesn’t sing “lonesome,” but he does sing of being “lonely” and the song does fit well enough with the previous two to give us a shuffle trifecta.
20 – Moments to Remember. Barry Manilow. The Greatest Songs of the Fifties. [3:34/1:19:39] How to wreck to beautiful classic: it’s “we’ll,” Barry.
21 – Beethoven. [7:06/1:26:45] Identified on the Zen as “track 4,” one of many tracks I’ve not got clearly enough marked to know for sure exactly which Beethoven this is.
22 – Sonata for Flute & Piano: Cantilena. Poulenc: Chamber Music. [4:10/1:36:55] Sweetly melancholic.
23 – All Things New Again. The Wallflowers. Rebel, Sweetheart. [3:44/1:40:39]
24 – Barges. Ralph McTell. From Clare to Here: The Songs of Ralph McTell. [4:03/1:44:42] One of Ralph’s best.
25 – This Dream of You. Bob Dylan. Together Through Life. [5:54/1:50:36] From his most recent CD!
26 – Ballad of Ira Hayes. Peter Lafarge. [3:26/1:54:02] And sorely regretting not having Dylan’s cover of this on my Zen.
27 – Racing in the Streets. Bruce Springsteen. Darkness on the Edge of Town. [6:54/2:00:56] Yes, and it’s about time: the Boss finally puts in an appearance on the shuffles.
28 – The Mountains of Mourne. The Kingston Trio. The Capitol Years (Disc 2) [2:51/2:03:47] Not one of the Kingston Trio tunes I recall from my childhood.
29 – You’ve Got a Friend. James Taylor. The Best of James Taylor. [4:29/2:08:16]
30 – If We Try. Don McLean. American Pie & Other Hits. [3:32/2:11:46]

Sync – Michael Jackson: Number Ones

Picked up at Kroger today for $9.99, today we synced up Michael Jackson’s Number Ones –

1. Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough (2003 Edit) [3:56]
2. Rock With You (Single Version) [3:40]
3. Billie Jean (Single Version) [4:53]
4. Beat It (Single Version) [4:18]
5. Thriller (2003 Edit) [5:11]
6. I Just Can’t Stop Loving You [4:11]
7. Bad [4:06]
8. Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit) [4:17]
9. The Way You Make Me Feel [4:56]
10. Man In The Mirror (2003 Edit) [5:04]
11. Dirty Diana [4:40]
12. Black Or White (Single Version) [3:18]
13. You Are Not Alone (Radio Edit) [4:34]
14. Earth Song (Radio Edit) [5:01]
15. You Rock My World (Radio Edit) [4:25]
16. Break Of Dawn [5:29]
17. One More Chance [3:49]
18. Ben (2003 Live Edit) 2:58]

Sunday Shuffle 1

Shuffle 30 [4314] –
1 – The Ground Folds. Senses Fail. From the Depths of Dreams. (4:30) [3497] Can’t recall ever hearing this, but finding it worth returning to for more of a listen.
2 – Like a Rolling Stone. Bob Dylan. Before the Flood (Disc 2). (7:10/11:40) [2001] From the concert series during which I attended the one Dylan concert I’ve been to. Almost the entire final minute of this track is simply applause.
3 – Yodeling Veteranarian of the Alps (Track 5). Veggie Tales. (4:17/15:57) Every shuffle 30 does benefit from at least one Veggie Tale smile.
4 – Watermark. Enya. Paint the Sky with Stars: The Best of Enya. (2:26/18:23) [4056] Relaxing instrumental, one of my personal faves of Enya.
5 – It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry. Al Kooper. Super Session. (3:30/21:53) [1776] I’ll always prefer Dylan’s own H61R version, but his session pianoman doesn’t do it any injustice on this version with Steven Stills helping to push it through.
6 – Concerto No. 2 in G Minor/G-Moll “Summer.” Salzburguer Kammerorcherter – Dir. Alexander von Pitamic. The Four Seasons. (5:39/27:32) [705] If we’re going to have one of the four seasons keyed up for this morning’s shuffle 30, of course it would have to be summer.
* 7 – Tombstone Blues. Tim O’Brien. Red on Blonde. (3:42/31:14) [3762] From a great album consisting entirely of Dylan covers by O’Brien. Cute: three of the past 6 songs in this shuffle have been versions of songs from my favorite album of all time, Highway 61 Revisited, but without actually playing H61R itself!
8 – Harvester of Hearts. Rufus Wainwright. Want One. (3:35/34:49) [1314]
9 – Million Miles. Bob Dylan. Million Miles Recordings 1997-1999. (4:40/39:29) [2244] And a million miles away from H61R, too.
10 – With God on Our Side. Manfred Mann. A Tribute to Bob Dylan (Vol. 1). (4:25/43:54) [4192] Pretty standard shuffle so far: out of 10 songs, 2 Dylans and 3 Dylan covers. Background music on this version feels somewhat mindless (the singing too, in places), as though perhaps not grasping the point of the song.
11 – On That Day. Leonard Cohen. Dear Heather. (2:06/46:00) [2506] Lennie does a 9/11 tribute song!
12 – Won’t Last Long. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Echo. (4:22/50:22) [4205] Mediocre, Tom, and it lasted a minute or two longer than it really deserved.
13 – Angel Below. UnderOath. The Changing of the Times. (3:27/53:49) [278] Yes, even with all the Dylan & friends, a good shuffle is bound to come around to one of these frequently enough to stake its own claim to sound time.
* 14 – Toe Hold. Al Kooper. I Stand Alone. (3:53/57:32) [3757] Al Kooper grabs second asterisk for the shuffle by pulling in his second slot.
15 – Passages. Kenny G. The Moment. (5:57/1:03:29) [2611] Kenny closes out this shuffle’s first hour of play.
16 – What’s Good. Lou Reed. Magic and Loss. (3:22/1:06:51) And here the shuffle took itself a battery recharge break.
17 – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door. North Country. North Country: Pickin’ on Bob Dylan. (4:12/1:11:03) [1896] Yet another Dylan cover, apparently this shuffle’s theme.
18 – Tom Dooley. The Kingston Trio. The Capitol Years (Disc 1). (3:03/1:14:06) [3760] Recalling one of the first records I had, reaching back about 45 years into my early childhood.
19 – Daydream. John Denver. Greatest Hits. (2:54/1:17:00) [777]
20 – Wake Me, Shake Me. The Blues Project. Anthology (Disc 2). (5:20/1:22:20) [4033] Of course, this gets recognized as Al Kooper’s 3rd slot grabbed in this shuffle. Go Al!
21 – Moonlight at Cove Castle. Mannheim Steamroller. Romantic Melodies. (3:19/1:25:39) [2277] A rarity: MS playing something other than Christmas music!
22 – Take This Waltz. Leonard Cohen. More Best of Leonard Cohen. (5:58/1:31:37) [3342]
23 – The Ballad of John and Yoko. The Beatles. 1967-1970 (Disc 2). (2:59/1:34:36) [3418]
24 – Les Soirées de Nazelles, for piano, No. 1-4 complete: Le coeur sur la main. Olivier Cazal. Poulenc: Piano Music, Vol. 2. (2:25/1:37:01) [1947]
25 – Here Comes the Sun. The Beatles. Abbey Road. (3:05/1:40:06) [1376] As this came up in this morning’s shuffle, the sun here was disappearing behind approaching thunderclouds…and here came the son, Kelly.
26 – The Sign of Love. Mannheim Steamroller. Romantic Melodies. (3:58/1:44:04) [3607] This shuffle set’s best illustration of my suspicions that my Zen’s shuffle mode is not entirely random.
27 – My Back Pages. Bob Dylan. Another Side of Bob Dylan. (4:22/1:48:26) [2327] As if sensing that the easy listening category might be gaining the upper hand in the shuffle, along comes a Dylan classic.
28 – Just One More Day. Otis Redding. Dreams to Remember: The Otis Redding Anthology (Disc 1). (3:30/1:51:56) [1870]
* 29 – For Lovin’ Me / Did She Mention My Name. Gordon Lightfoot. Gord’s Gold. (3:29/1:55:25) [1093] This gets its aserisk for an odd coincidence: out of the 30 in this shuffle set, this is the 2nd (after the John Denver song) to echo the three CDs that happen to currently sit in our pool CD player.
30 – Tombstone Blues. Tim O’Brien. Red on Blonde. (3:42/1:59:07) [3762] How’s that for pseudo-shuffle: repeating the 7th selection of this same shuffle set. Yes, even with complete randomness, there is a chance that a number could be repeated even back-to-back. Even so, things like this seem to happen more often than I would expect. Oh well, if we were going to repeat anything, Tombstone Blues ain’t a bad one to do it on.

M-3 Ammo

Delivered the first work-related presentation I’ve done in a while today. And in several respects, this one was unique from most of the presentations I’ve recently done or might normally expect to be doing these days –

• Audience – Instead of speaking to actuaries, or even pension lawyers or other pension professionals, my audience was IRS agents who generally had zero knowledge of pensions or employee benefits.
   
• Topic – My basic topic was the difference between the accounting applicable to pensions under U.S. standards versus international standards. That topic would not have been odd at all while I was at Milliman – in fact, I wrote two separate pension accounting articles for the Enrolled Actuaries Report within my final 18 months there. But at the IRS, accounting issues have been as distant from my work as some distant galaxy light years away, so far off that I have felt completely comfortable keeping my spreadsheet “hobby” separate from official work.
   
• Geography – Do I get “travel comp” time for the commute up the Gulf Freeway? This speech was delivered at the IRS building in downtown Houston. At least I didn’t need to struggle with GovTrip paperwork!
   
• Prep Time – Rhonda phoned me about doing this speech less than 2 weeks ago. Although of course I’ve had enough background on the topic to feel comfortable with the material, the absence of focus on accounting issues during my IRS tenure did mean that I needed to dust off some rust and double-check for any updates during the past two years; so I did not finish my preparations sufficiently to actually prepare my slides until this morning!

All in all, I think it went well. As usual for my presentations, I instantly knew there were some things I will be changing if and when I deliver this presentation again (which might actually happen, given emerging developments in pension accounting). Notably, I think the presentation would do well to center around a structure building a reconciliation between the two standards that would focus specifically on the six components of pension cost under the U.S. standard (including the different places in a financial statement that those items can land, since the profit statement won’t always be the target any longer).

And perhaps some actual M-3 illustrations. Since the Schedule M-3 was the premise for the 2-day meeting of which my 30-minute presentation today was part. That corporate income tax return schedule giving rise to a concern I afterward expressed to my own manager: that I worried that many of our own pension actuaries might think an M-3 to be some type of rifle, thereby failing to be in any position to provide any support to our agents on any pension-related M-3 questions. My manager responded by saying that I was “it” – another sign that this is unlikely to be the last I see of this topic (and leaving me scratching my head as to why it took them until less than 2 weeks ago to let me know this was all coming up).

on visits back

back visiting high school, all th old teachers gone except mr mauger, who was standing outside his classroom while students in halls coming in. walked around, knowing nobody else, passed th office but then came back around to mauger’s room just as they were settling, asked if he remembered me, he did. small classrooms like office cubicles, each teacher with only 5-6 students sitting at an L-shaped around th teacher. mauger asked me to introduce myself, my statement that i was an actuary felt very distant as i was saying it, my followup comments about th math i’d taken in high school felt even more distant. th students watched me like i was as foreign as if i’d come from an unknown country

i was with a group of actuarial students discussing th actuarial exams. i recalled that i had never managed to pass th final exam, but knew from what they were planning for th next round that i would again fall one short

i headed down some winding empty skyscraper canyons, very dark. near th end, a long curved bus making turns in tightly enclosed spaces, only able to navigate th final turn because of th curvature of th vehicle

i went to purchase a bus ticket. inside th bus terminal were seats at kiosks. i sat down at one to make my purchase, then realized i did not recall my code for my credit card, so stood back up

i wanted to phone susan to remind me of my forgotten credit card code, but forgot th code to unlock my cell phone. th phone did give me a courtesy 5-minute call, i got through to susan, she looked up my credit card code, which was 11, but could not find my cell phone code before before i noticed a spider web had been spun on my bicycle

i got distracted from th phone call and lost it as i kicked away th web, then looked for where th spider itself might be. it was still there hanging just below th handlebars, angry that i had destroyed its webwork. its body was almost as big as my head, and with long thick legs it spread out almost as big as half my own entire size. i tried to kick at it to keep it away from me. people who lived in th house near th bus terminal came to see what th commotion was, worried that th neighborhood spider they called some friendly nickname might be getting in trouble

instead of th bus, i boarded a ship like th old sailing ships from over two centuries ago. th captain had only a first mate and two crewmen, those three in th water intending to head for shore leave. th captain gave them last warning that we were set to sail, but they ignored him, figuring he could not sail th ship on his own without them. when it became clear he intended to try, th first mate swam after th ship and struggled to climb up th stern side, but th other two crewmen just treaded water and watched th boat depart. which it did lurching side to side into th piers, since they were at least correct that th captain could not manage th ship on his own without assistance

i arrived at th lc auditorium, which only had half a dozen people although it was time for th evening service to begin. i rode my bicycle down th aisle, then around to th right. i sat in th middle of a pew near th side doors, then moved over in th pew so th row could fill as more people came. after moving over enough, i was over on th left side of th room. a woman came through th pew in front of us, handing out attendance cards. i was handed one, th woman saying, “we need your signature on this, mister labombard” (yes, pronounced as used to be back when i attended lc). surprised that anyone had recognized me, i asked th two young women next to me who that woman was. those two had never met me but had heard stories of me and were pleased to have th opportunity to meet me, told me th name of th woman who had handed out th attendance cards [that name forgotten as i woke from th dream, but i think it was th woman who had been jean’s best friend during high school and bju years]

on wayne’s tennis game

on a tennis court at college with wayne. every time i would serve to him, i would cringe back as he prepared to smash it back at me as hard as he could. but he always wound up hitting th balls wildly outside th fencing, ball after ball after ball, over fifty spread out over th grass and in th lake

What Rhymes with Weird?

Last month, Suzi needed half the morning and a barrage of increasingly obvious hints before realizing that I had shaved off something rather major.

But then instantly recognized what is weird with this studied snapshot.

She explained that the difference had to do with how annoying she had been finding the previous version of the study.  Which means that she had not found the previous version of my face too annoying?  Hmmmm. . . . .

on my final day

we were well into the afternoon before i realized it was our final day, that i needed to clean everything up, pack up my own things to go and organize th files and things that belonged to my employer. there seemed at first too much to clean up, but it went well, th messy-looking collection of papers and stuff quickly dissolving into a few minor things at th edge of th wall

although i was bothered a little that i might not have adequately completed all of my assignments, we had all graduated successfully

as i organized th remaining items that needed to be left behind, i realized that there was very little if anything that i’d not completed. all that was left was some old equipment that hadn’t worked for a long time and would probably get thrown out by th next person to sit at my desk, but i boxed it up right all th same

i phoned my father to arrange to be picked up with my belongings. although this trip ought to have been long expected and high on his priority list, he was preoccupied talking with jim about some other uncertain distraction he was thinking of attending to first

i rode with some classmates in a very full car to some pre-graduation events. did anyone know when th graduation ceremony would actually be held, i wondered aloud. nobody seemed to know, except that it would be held about a week or two from now

back near our campus, other students were still milling around, celebrating th close of th school year. with my father still occupied, i thought of hitching a ride home with my belongings with th people i’d been riding around with. with th car already quite stuffed with all of us in, it seemed odd to think that all of us might also manage to get all of our luggage in too, but i could picture it being done without too much trouble

it was brought to my attention that our professor had already lined up some of th key cases to be settled th next term, had assigned them to my protege, was hoping that i might also be willing to add a word or two of advice, but hadn’t wanted to impose on me by asking. my protege was excited to be looking forward to th opportunity of filling my position th following year, encouraged me to feel free to help out. i felt like it was still morning of our final day, so that maybe we could look over th scheduled cases now and share some initial thoughts before th close of th school day, but was told it had already been 5pm when we were dismissed earlier, so that it must be at least 5pm. i shrugged and suggested that we could still at least get some early work done on overtime, before th closed up th place for th night. but i did ask again if anyone actually knew when graduation day would be. and made it clear that i would not spend th intervening time on these cases, that i was planning to go on a total holiday, nothing planned, nowhere special to go, and that i would be accepting no new assignments or duties or even diversions during that period

my protege’s intense interest in taking my mantle concerned me a little. i advised him that while i had been good at my math, my peak had been at or around age 14, back in 9th grade, that all my math since then had been a struggle to learn and a hardship to apply. that although i had been blessed to have work that i enjoyed, and that i had in fact done well with pensions, it was not really what i would have wanted to do, that i would have rather have written poetry for a living

[side note: suziq and i may have switched dreams last night. today will be her final day performing regular babysitting services. whereas her dreams were of a fat nekkid man]

Catching the Wave

This morning gave me some of the wildest bedhead ever. Some of the best of it coming not at that crazy top or the sides, but those crazy single strands crossing over my forehead.

Susan treated Nat, Jenny, Brandon, and me to a pancake breakfast. Thank you!!

Then Susan and I went for an afternoon of lazy bobbing on inner tubes in the near-100º Texas sun at the Wave Pool in La Porte. Very relaxing! Let’s do this again soon!!

on a nomic moment

walking along a sidewalk [like on upper main street of royersford] with a young woman who was attempting to take over a woman’s club which i had helped to found [in th dream, me seeming to be a respected elderly woman, but with no apparent sexual or gender implications seeming to be attached to that switch other than th association to having helped found th organization in question]

th younger woman was advising me of a rule change to th organization’s bylaws, which would require that all charter members who had been granted membership prior to a particular date [that date specifically stated within th dream, but not remembered upon waking] would lose their membership

i strongly protested, objecting that while charter members had th power to enact such a rule, non-charter members such as this woman and her allies had no such power

[within th dream itself, i thought about how similar this felt to nomic, an intriguing game based on amendment of th game itself, which i myself once played in real life in late 1982 under th original ruleset]

[during half-sleep while waking to go to th bathroom – th time being around 4am – i felt th situation and its nomic parallel to be an allusion to gene kalwarski and his fight with th powers that be at milliman and among other large actuarial firms]

Off Clonidine

At my most recent doctor’s appointment this past week, I was advised to phase off clonidine in favor of lisinopril, which is said to be better relative to a very minor heart abnormality they found on my stress test.

My BP has bumped around a little getting used to the switch, but does seem to be settling back down to what have generally been typical figures for me.

Both the lisinopril and the amlodipine – which they started me on about a month or so ago – cause dizziness. Which for me has meant brief bouts of near narcolepsy, when the dizziness has been abrupt enough to drop me straight over a cliff, if only for a few seconds. But which does seem to have been tapering off.

(Oh, and yes I do have that dry cough they told me the lisinopril might bring along for the ride.)

Bloomberg’s Fake Magic

Same way as CNBC’s corporate policy requiring rudeness eventually turned me off, now Bloomberg’s done them one better. Already the Magic Jack commercials had been unbearably obnoxious. But this morning they hit the level of inhumane insanity: two Magic Jack commercials per commercial break!

At first I joked about it, thinking they’d blundered in their programming. After four successive commercial breaks with the same waterboarding technique, it became sadly clear how low Bloomberg’s standards had dug below the cesspoll they’d already been swimming in.

Any TV station – but particularly a station broadcasting what purports to be informational, educational programming – must accept responsibility for all of its content, including whether or not the commercials alienate its viewers. Either Bloomberg doesn’t give a damn, or else it’s worse: this Magic Jack blitz is not really all that different from the quality of any of the rest of Bloomberg’s content.

So let’s lighten up our TV news favorites listing and send Bloomberg off to join Fox, wandering out there talking to themselves. There are better places one can go to get financial news without putting up with such junk. Bloomburg’s no longer on my TV because it no longer cares about what matters.

on borrowed dreaming

into a locker room bathroom in th back corner of th tlr house, having difficulty aiming trying to use th bathroom, shutting th door after wayne passed on his way to th usual bathroom

[at this point, within th dream and without leaving sleep, i decided that everything that preceded – which i could still recall fully at that point – was not my dream, but had rather been given to me by mistake: none of it – even tlr, even wayne – was connecting up with anything me. so like one might turn in one book at a library and check out another, without even putting th dream on pause, i closed out that dream and called up another]

hours of walking far distances outdoors. vividly sensing that what i was walking on was not th grass i was meant to walk on, but rather just a very large stiff piece of discarded cardboard on which someone had scribbled a very poor drawing of what was supposed to be grass

chipping a fingernail, picking at it without getting it even, filing it down until th cut in th nail became more evident against th smooth filed edge, picking at that cut until i’d opened up a huge gap in th nail, clipping down either side around that and trying to file it smooth again, on and on without ever getting it to look or feel right

vertigo in an elevator not well connected up to th high floor i needed to reach

[all of which felt detached from me as though th scene – not me, but the scene itself – were heavily medicated. waking somewhat irritated over feeling i’d wasted a night of dreaming, first on large segments that still did not feel as though they had been my own dreaming, then on dreaming that felt as if it had been only marginally coherent]

NASA Nada

Would it have been too much trouble to advise everyone who woke up at this ungodly hour for the scheduled shuttle launch that they could go back to sleep?

Bad enough that one of the local stations briefly flashed a live video of the shuttle on the launch pad, but made no comment about that brief glimpse as they raced off to a batch of worthless commercials, then ignored the launch completely upon finally returning to the morning news. Or that what passes as “Headline News” didn’t appear to have any about the shuttle at any point during the entire past hour.

What’s unforgiveable is that the NASA channel was broadcasting stale history programming, without so much as a ticker or text message on the screen informing viewers that a hydrogen leak had forced the launch to be cancelled.

Why bother the expense of broadcasting a NASA channel if NASA’s key event of the morning goes completely ignored?

For that matter, why should I care to continue to have so useless a channel cluttering up any of our TV’s favorites listings?