The Omnigeek

Facebook people are at it again. There are several “lists” of things you’ve done, read, etc. floating around and you “tag” others to do their own list and continue the tagging. Its the modern-day chain letter. But these are fun and don’t cost you a first class postage stamp or add too much to your e-mail inbox.

I was recently tagged in a new pass-the-list game called “15 Books”:

Share fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Send yours!

The problem is I’m not an avid reader and frankly I don’t know if I could name 15 books. Also, its just a list and as it said books “that will always stick with you”, I thought there should be some explanin’ to do.

1. ??? — Sadly I don’t remember the title. It was something like “Dogfight”. I read it in the 8th grade. It was about a USAF combat pilot and his USSR nemisis and their run-ins over Alaskan airspace. Its importance in this list is that it was the first book I enjoyed reading.
2. The Holy Bible — Those that know me know I’m not the religious type. I used to be and this book for all its issues does have good life lessons in it. If you can get past the bad science and taking things out of context or taking it literally, it can do you good.
3. The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien — This was the first fantasy work I read. Its vivid descriptions of this fantasy world along with the battle of good and evil and greed make it an all time best list. Of course this includes the three books that follow in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.
4. Foundation, Issac Asimov — I read 5 of the books in this series. Each on as captivating as its predecessor. Sci-Fi at its best.
5. Neuromancer, William Gibson — This was the book that defined Cyberpunk. A portrayal of a not to far distant future where man and computers become one and a massive network interconnects us all. Gibson is a hard read, but worth it. Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive complete this trilogy.
6. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe, Douglas Adams — Sci-Fi and humor rolled into one. Its a perfect match for my whacked sense of humor.
7. The TRS-80 Intro to Programming book, Radio Shack — This small “Learn BASIC” book that Tandy produced to go along with its early personal computers was my self-taught guide to becoming the Super-Programmer that I am (er. was… old age… new fangled stuff…)
8. Harry Potter Series, J. K. Rowling — Seven books, seven intriguing and fun reads. They were children’s books relative to William Gibson when it comes to ease of read and while they were intended for a youthful audience, myself like many adults were whisked to this fantasy world.
9. The Cat and the Hat, Dr. Seuss — Read them as a kid, read them as an adult. This book along with most of the Dr. Seuss books never gets old.
10. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, G. Gary Gygax — What can I say. I’m a geek. This includes the hundreds of related role playing books.
11. Core Web Programming 1st Ed., Hall and Brown — This book was my bible in learning web development back in the late ’90′s.
12. ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography, ASMP — This is the bible for the photography business, can’t live without it.
13. Astrophotography for the Amateur, Michael Covington — A fantastic primer on photographing the night sky.
14. The Unix “man” command — not so much a book, but it is the Unix manual pages, which contains all the wisdom of the Unix platform.
15. Some NASA book about Man Space Flight from the early 70′s.

So there you have it!

2 Clicks.

Okay it was a few more.  I had to click the link on my start page to connect to this blog.  Then I had to click on the login link, then the Okay button to login.  But when connecting to a blog under WordPress 2.7 you get a link at the top “WordPress 2.8 is available! Please update now.”  The ensuing screen has a confirmation click, then sit back.

A couple of minutes later you have a shiny new <a href=”http://www.wordpress.com”>Wordpress 2.8</a> setup.  Now I was bad.  I didn’t backup my database before updating.  And you pretty much have to login afterwards to see the new setup.

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I try to walk a mile at lunch each day giving me a chance to ponder things other than work. I frequently pack my iPod with me. Usually I’m listening to current music: something about girls kissing, a badonkadonk or a black parade. But some times I’ll play the entire album

This album, released in 1973, has sold over 15,000,000 copies in the US alone and is notorious for having practically lived in the Billboard Top 200 charts since its release. It was absent for a few years after some accounting changes, but found its way back in and remains a presence today.

The album itself is a work of genius that any geek or geek-wanna-be should appreciate. Its complex movements between the instruments, its haunting melodies and the albums study of greed, life, death and mental health has made this an album of the ages and is high on almost every rock album list.

Personally for me, I’ve loved this album since I discovered it in 1979. I’ve burned through two or three vinyl copies, numerous cassette copies. When my wife and I bought our first CD player, we each picked out an album to buy. Mine was Dark Side. I’ve even tracked the album while watching The Wizard of Oz. Yes, it does indeed work!

But this isn’t so much about the album or the music, but the little philosophical nuggets buried within the lyrics. Many times they are simple. Which gets back to my daily walk and my philosophy time.

“And all you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be!” — Breathe, Roger Waters

I had never particularly paid attention to those lyrics before but today during my walk, I landed on them and it got me thinking.

I claim to be omniscient or “All Knowing”. My proof: I know all that I know. Therefore I know everything in my universe. When something “new” comes into my universe I know about it until then its not in my universe and doesn’t exist. Of course its all part of an attempt to be funny and clearly falls in the “Baffle them with your Bull” category.

But in a way its real. Beyond our protein and water body, who we are is defined by what we’ve experienced. What we have touched and what we have seen (along with smelled, heard and tasted) clearly defines us from an intellectual standpoint. Our personality, our job, our friends that surround us are all driven by “All you know”. And to some point, your physical being falls into this as well. Your eating and exercise experiences and your fashion experiences have a lot to do with your physical presence as well.

Its all we will ever be.

In 2002 when I spoke at my father’s funeral, I said you make your own Heaven and Hell based on your actions. You will be remembered as a good person or you will be forgotten or remembered in a bad way. Those memories are based completely on you and your experiences. Not only do your actions define you that define others because what you touch, say and do become part of others experience. Its partially a butterfly effect where a remote action can have global implications.

So live your life to the fullest. See all you can see. Learn all you can learn. Share what you learn.

Okay, my wife likes reality TV and I respect that. With there being less and less hockey on to watch as the season winds down and a complete lack of creativity from the writers there are fewer and fewer non-reality choices to choose from.

Normally, I surf the interwebs while casually paying attention to the TV. I can count the shows I care about on one hand (and maybe a toe or two) and even then, I try to take it in and cruise the other “tubes”.

Shows that Matter to me!

• Big Bang Theory
• Criminal Minds
• Numb3rs
• Hockey of any kind
• NASCAR Sprint Cup and IndyCar Races
• The Mentalist
• Nurse Jackie — could be interesting, willing to give it a chance.

This week, NBC started airing a new TV series called “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here”. It’s a Survivor meets Big Brother meets Fear Factor show where “D List” celebrities get dropped in the jungle of Costa Rica, do stupid, gross stuff in teams and one of the losers gets voted off by the viewers all in the name of charity.

Fail point 1. I’m not sure you could call all these celebs even “D List”. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s wife, Patti? Though I have to admit, she’s actually one of the better people on the show!

NBC and its lack of any real TV is running four episodes this week, Monday thru Thursday. Come on NBC your “Inside the West Wing” news program last night was excellent, “I’m a Celebrity” not so much. Thru three episodes, no one has been voted off. Of course two people “left” the show (multiple times) and NBC replaced them with another person and the two quitters are trying to come back so they are getting more people than they are kicking off. Oh, thats Fail point 2.

Fail point 3 has to do with the two quitter celeb’s from “The Hills”, another stupid reality show. Spencer and Heidi Pratt quit, left the show. The others split up their stuff. They came back and a screaming match that would outpace The Apprentice” kicked up. Does NBC operate like the Apprentice’s Boardroom with people screaming at each other until stupid decisions come out? Reality check — thats not the way the real world works. At this point, the cast has voted against allowing the couple to come back after they have quit several times, but highlights indicate they are coming back.

These two characters are pure turn-offs. I’m not sure how someone like Spencer Pratt ever got to a point where he got a TV show on the air. I’m personally thankful that I’ve never waisted a single brain-cell on “The Hills”.

Fail point 4 is the Baldwins. NBC has something good with Alec Baldwin. Between some of the best Saturday Night Live hosting skits and 30 Rock, Alec is doing well for himself and doing well for NBC. But come one how many celeb reality TV shows can brother Steven Baldwin possibly be on? Someone in Hollywood give him some real work already. To that, brother Daniel is the “New” cast member, clearly to push Steven’s buttons.

Fail point 5: Eating gross Stuff. The show is on at 8pm in the Eastern and Mountain time zones which means 7pm in the Central and Pacific time zones. Thats dinner time for most people. We don’t need to see people eating disgusting body parts from gross animals. Folks, this is NOT entertaining.

Fail point 6. Sticking body parts into boxes with creepy animals in it. Okay, this is a game we all played as kids at our Halloween parties. You build a box, call it “Brains” and put in Jello and challenge your friends to stick their hand in the box. We’ve seen shows like Fear Factor do this, lay in a box while we pour hundreds of snakes on you….. Well last nights episode went to a new level. Lou Diamond Phillips (one of the actual celebs on the show) who has a reoccurring roll on “Numb3rs” had to stick his hand into a hole full of rats in an attempt to unscrew a “star” shaped nut from a bolt.

Okay, putting your hands in to an aquarium bowl of fish to do this, or a wad of dirt and earthworms is one thing. Okay maybe even a box with a couple of venom drained tarantulas is another. But for Phillips, the rats were hungry and he was food. Despite having his hand ravaged by dozens of bites, he hung in there until he got the prize. The person he was going up against, Torrie Wilson, a former WWE wrestler, pulled her hand out after one bite. Phillips determination earned him a trip to the set doctor (who we actually got to see) getting cleaned and stitched up from the dozens of bites. Did NBC really need to go there?

Fail point 7. The show is based on a British TV series by the same name. One of the hosts is the winner of the British version. She’s very attractive, but you can’t understand her. Her accent is too thick. Maybe I shouldn’t go there, but can we stop importing their garbage shows? American Idol was a winner, but please enough is enough. Why can’t we create garbage shows to export to other countries?

I’ve been informed we will be watching this while trying to watch Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Usually we flip away during the gross parts only to land on some other reality TV series. One night we were flipping between “I’m a Celebrity” and the Bachelorette. Sadly, “I’m a Celebrity” makes “The Bachelorette” look like rocket science. Could this be part of NBC’s grand plan? To lower the intelligence of their shows in an attempt to make their other shows look better?

Gag me with a “Reality Show”!