Off Topic: Take Me Out

All wrongful conviction work and no play makes Jack a jaded and bitter boy. Though I'm buried much of my time studying and writing of crime, tragedy, and injustice, I try to not lose sight of all that is wonderful.  Part of the wonder is that people are endlessly inventive. I am really impressed by people who can do things well.

This is a staged bit by the group Atomic Tom. The skeptical among you can just smile at the opening text explaining that their instruments were stolen and they were forced to improvise. The result is nonetheless wonderous. I appreciate the video as much for what it implies as for the music.

Think about it. The group is just a few iPhones away from being a true cyborg band. It won't be long before such a performance will be possible without the external devices.

For those who wish to view it on YouTube, please feel free. Others of you who just can't bear to separate from this blog, the embed follows.

Off Topic: 2 June 2010

I can't help myself on this one. I have to post it. The entire video is great, the last scene is spectacular.

By my calculation, they achieved 0.0007 miles per gallon. Assuming they can do as well when they shoot for the moon (a dubious assumption), they will need somewhat over 600 million bottles of Coke Zero and around 3.7 billion Mentos.

Original YouTube video here.

Failure is The First Option

In the movie Apollo13, Ed Harris portrayed Gene Kranz and uttered these (unfortunately) unforgettable words:

We've never lost an American in space, we're sure as hell not gonna lose one on my watch! Failure is not an option.

I have no idea whether Ed Kranz actually said those words at that time. No matter now. While the words may have been inspirational at the time, they have become mental pablum for people who want something to happen but are unable or unwilling accomplish the task themselves. Instead, the mental pablumists simply delegate the work to others, then demonstrate their leadership ability by saying something along the line of "Failure is not an option."

I don't know from which planet these people hearken, but on this planet, in this universe, failure is the most likely outcome. Unadulterated success, on the other hand, is the least likely option. Success results not from platitudes, but from the cleverness and hard work of talented people struggling against harsh reality.

There is another platitude that sets me off. It is some variation of:

You can do anything you put your mind to. You just have to believe in yourself.

This too is crappola. If you disagree, I ask you to help out and put your mind to going back in time and preventing the holocaust. Please put your mind to stopping the spread of terrorism, or AIDS, or malaria. Put your mind to stopping the oil now gushing into Gulf. Balance the federal budget. Levitate six feet off the ground. Get Charlie Sheen off television. Go ahead. Give it a try. If the going gets too tough, you can just quit and say "I guess I didn't believe in myself."

That brings us to my YouTube clip of the day. The gentleman below is going to prove that you can do anything you put your mind to. He's going to do that by breaking a board over his head. I'll point out beforehand that breaking a board over one's head is considerably easier than, for example, solving our energy crisis, freeing a single innocent person from prison, or getting Alec Baldwin to give it a rest. Nonetheless, it's worth a shot.

Now without further ado (and I apologize for the prior ado), watch and find out if the young man proves me wrong.

UPDATE:

It seems as if the video is no longer available due to claims of a copyright violation. Imagine that. You publish a video on YouTube, and you provide an embed code so others may embed the video in their blog or elsewhere, and then people go and do that very thing. Imagine that.

Sorry if you missed the video. It was pretty funny to see the young man attempt to break a board over his head twenty times or so to prove that you can do anything you put your mind to. It was really funny to see him stop about half way through and say "This is harder than I thought."  I'm still laughing.  He did, however, finally break a board over his head, so I guess he proved his point.

Off Topic: 9 Apr 2010

Writing a post such as Robert Nelson Drew or Now for Another Cosmic Moment takes me a couple hours, what with researching, sourcing, fact checking, spell checking. And that doesn't count the five or six hours required to create the Actual Innocence Scorecard that prompted the Drew post. Mostly though, I write slowly because I struggle to transform thoughts so clear in my head into pixelated text. I'm already ten minutes into this post. Only occasionally, when the muse hits, do I write quickly and to my satisfaction.

Given that I maintain this blog (in theory) only after earning a living elsewhere, trying to publish a series of books, directly assisting someone wrongfully convicted, and having a private life, hours are a precious commodity. I'm not complaining by any means. I've mentioned multiple times that I consider myself  to be among the most fortunate of people. I would simply like more hours in each day, and more days ahead of me, then I won't ask for anything else. For now.

When I go Off Topic, however, I can finish a post in a few minutes, if I don't get too philosophical. That's one reason I post on such topics as kittens riding the Roomba and puggles. (The Skeptical Spouse described the picture as The Black Hole of Cuteness.)

There's another reason, however, for going Off Topic. At the same time life can be ugly, it can be beautiful.  I must not lose sight of that.

I want to help correct a serious problem we have in our society, that of wrongful convictions.  That effort has placed me waiting anxiously in a courthouse to see if they will take the belt and shoelaces from a good and decent (and innocent) man as they march him away from his family, probably forever. It has caused me to stuggle for the right words, as if there are any, when I first speak to someone serving two life sentences for a crime he did not commit. It has caused me to stay up through the night slowly composing a farewell post to someone with less than a day to live, someone who took a substantial portion of his final days to write to me, and to educate me.

I didn't expect this to be so personal, so potentially overwhelming.

So that I can continue, I try not to lose sight of all that is beautiful in this world. That is why I go Off Topic.

With that brief introduction out of the way, I now (finally) present:

A woman suing over defective clown shoes.

A patent for a beer keg hat. (Scroll down once you get there to see the cool picture.)

And finally, wavy beans.  It's merely an illusion. Focus on one bean to make them all stop. Alternatively, lean back from the screen and blur your vision a bit. Do something, or you will go mad.

Off Topic: 3 Apr 2010

Chick-fil-A is a chicken-base fast-food chain second in the U.S. only to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Though of Southern origins, Chick-fil-A stores can now be found in most of our 57 50 states. (Our condolances to those of you living in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, the Dakotas, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations, Alaska, and Hawaii.)

The chain's founder is a devout Christian and he runs his business accordingly. All Chick-fil-A locations are closed on Sunday. For devoted fans, and there does seem to be a fair number of them, this is a matter of woe. The Urban Dictionary defines the term pollo domingo  as "An inexplicable and almost singular craving for Chik-fil-A on a Sunday afternoon, the one day a week Chick-fil-A is closed."

Comedy song writer Tim Hawkins has picked up on this. Try the embedded YouTube clip. It you like what he has to offer, check out his his web site for other samples. Try the one called "Short Songs.