The Amigo's Slippers

There have been requests to see a photo of the slippers in question.

Here you go. This shows the style of the slippers as well as the customization. The synthetic fiber boot laces continue to perform perfectly. Note that the Amigo left the little reinforced tip on one end and cut off the other end and melted it with a match. No unravelling!

A New Year's Eve Gig

Something cool has happened. The Venerable Friendly One has been due, and it appears that Fate has Smiled.

Turns out that a friend of an old college friend lives here in the village. The Amigo's college buddy facilitated an email introduction prior to our arrival. We've had a few chats.  

Well, it also turns out that this friend-of-a-friend is a very good conga player / percussionist / drummer and *he* knows a world-class vibes player who also lives in this little town (when he's not somewhere else playing, recording, etc.). We're talking seriously world-class here. "Shockingly good" is not an exaggeration.

The Amigo has been invited to participate in a pickup gig with these guys on NYE. A fourth musician -- a 20-ish bass player (home from college for the holidays) who possesses significant musical aptitude and excellent attitude will round out the quartet. Note that this material is lots harder than the E Pluribus Blues set list. It's real jazz (not Sears jazz) and the expectation is that we play the changes. We've been rehearsing essentially every day for two to three hours. Very congenial group. Very talented group.

It is the first time the Old Amigo has had the opportunity to play with, learn from, observe a world-class jazz guy on a daily basis. What a rare phenomenon this is. Also amazingly cool is that this vibes player is extremely kind, patient, and supportive. Never critical; never looking down at anyone else. Always positive. He suggests what he'd like us to do and helps us learn the parts and we play. And play.

The clock is ticking. We practiced for three hours today. We'll practice again tomorrow at noon. 

This is the finest of rocks. 

great article / great book

Well, the the Venerable Friendly One just finished Thomas L. Friedman's  Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Read it.  Now.  No excuses.  Yes, you are very busy. It is the holidays and all.  You've got a lot on your plate.  Read the book.  Please!

You will find it alternately incredibly optimistic and downright depressing.  It stitches together threads from many sources and gives you a very good... no, an excellent, base from which to think about what we're facing and how things are likely to play out.

While I'm on this subject, Tex Bravado, recently sent the Amigo a link to an article from the Stanford University News Service.  This article puts the scope of the work we could/should see happening into perspective.  Compare the number of wind turbines we need to begin addressing the current crisis with the number of airplanes we needed to face the crisis of WW II.  It is within our power, our capabilities to do this.  If we do not, it is clear that we have lost our way. 

The article takes but 5 minutes to read.  Can you spare that much time for such an important topic?  One hopes so.  Note the links to other, refereed articles in respected journals.  This is not "fringe thinking" in any sense.

We can do this, but it is difficult to ignore the fact that Americans "didn't want to get involved" in WW II either -- until an attack forced us into action.  We could have been similarly galvanized by the 9/11 attack, but our so-called leaders had other agenda.  Can we motivate ourselves at this juncture?

Customizing Slippers

A while ago, not too long, Angel bought me a pair of slippers.  My previous pair had gone the way of all things.  Angel found a pair "on sale"... at a very reasonable price.  Sort of a cross between penny loafers and moccasins with fuzz inside but with a nice rubber sole that helps to keep the Old Amigo vertical as he shuffles around the abode.

Now the moccasin-like aspect of these slippers was the only part that seemed unsatisfactory.  The "leather" (who knows what the actual material is) thong lacing around the top-front of the left moccasin were apparently not of adequate strength. The thong would break and I'd unthread it to get a little slack in it and tie it off again.  Sometimes it would break again during this process. Eventually I reached a position where the thong was strong enough, but a good third of the top of the moccasin was now flapping in the breeze.  That was both unsightly and sub-optimal in the basic purpose of a slipper.

I requested that Angel look for a pair of boot laces -- something (according to my calculations) pretty long with reinforced tips that I could thread through the holes on the top of the slipper with the bad thong.

Angel & M**2 returned from a shopping trip with a pair of boot laces.  Plenty long. Some kind of synthetic material -- nylon maybe -- so plenty strong too.

Well, last evening I worked on the left slipper and replaced the thong with the boot lace. It's now functioning at maximum slipper-ness. Not only that, it looks really cool... so cool in fact that I felt compelled to make the same mod to the right slipper.  See, the boot laces have this sort of dark brown / light brown woven pattern.  It's really sharp looking.

Customized slippers.  Who'd a thought it.  The Friendly One smiles each time he looks at his toasty warm feet. 

Star Trek Voyager & National Politics

The planets align:

Jeri Ryan's (aka "7 of 9" of STV fame) phaser is always set to Maximum Stun, if you catch the Amigo's drift.  Anyway, "7" divorces hubby Jack Ryan in 1999.  A few years later, during Jack's campaign for the US Senate, it comes out that the (ahem) bone of contention in the marriage had much to do with Jack's pressure to have Jeri do certain things in public that one generally does in the privacy of one's domicile.  Various clubs in New Orleans, Paris, etc, were implicated... cages, harnesses, etc, were allegedly involved. One can only imagine.  Maximum Stun, indeed.

Anyway, the Moral Right becomes Rightly Outraged at these... revelations; although the Amigo cannot of course quote chapter and verse. True Conservatives, after all, mate through immaculate conception, artificial insemination, or sneezing.

Under pressure, Jack withdraws his... tainted... candidacy.

The Right is now in disarray. Wing Nut Alan Keyes leaps into the breech (Ed Note: the breech is defined as the rear part of the bore of a gun, esp the opening and associated mechanism that permits insertion of a projectile).  Wing Nut is handily defeated by relative political newcomer. We, the People, are blessed with a new Junior Senator from Illinois.

The new Senator blasts onto the national scene, captures the imagination and hopes of several generations, and charts a new course for the Ship of State.  The storms have not yet abated, but we may hope for sunnier climes ahead. 

The Amigo is convinced that science fiction is a force to be reckoned with in the world... and in all the quadrants of the galaxy.

More than Annoying

Yesterday the government announced that we Americans lost over a half million jobs in November.  That was the worst job loss in 34 years.

The stock market perked up nicely on the news, with the Dow up about 3% and NASDAQ up just over 4.4%.  

As if you needed it, this provides further evidence that the financial community cares little about the financial health of our country and in fact generally moves in the opposite direction from the fortunes of ordinary American citizens.  

Does anyone besides the Old Amigo find this disgusting?