Amusements on the "A" Train

Posted on by luken7

But first the “J” train. We get on at Norwood Ave, and what do we have? A foul mouthed rapper rapping for money. With our departure at Broadway, we doubt he would be raising any money for his efforts. So next we get on the “A” train at Broadway. As soon as we hit Manhattan, two guys, two stools and three congas appear. It figures they would sit right in front of me. Good rhythms but no dollar from me. Now, my aunt, who’s one of those Canadians coughs up a dollar for them.

Now on the way back to Brooklyn and on the “A” train. Right around 149th street, some guy starts giving out food to homeless folks, and is asking for donations for his organization. He gives a food package to a homeless guy sitting near me. Never mind that everyone on the train forgot that they both got on at 168th street, but at different ends of the train car, or maybe people did notice. Now back at Broadway where we pick up the “J” train. For money, you can hear about your salvation and your personal relationship with Christ.

There’s always fun on the “A” train…

Nice Custom

Posted on by luken7

Baptist Cowboy A cowboy walks into a bar in Texas, orders three mugs of Bud and sits in the back room, drinking a sip out ofeach one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, “You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it, it would taste better if you bought one at a time.” The cowboy replies, “Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I’m in Texas. When we all left home, we promised that we’d drink this way to remember the days we drank together. So I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself.” The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.

The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.” The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns and he laughs. “Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explains, “It’s just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church in Sweetwater and I had to quit drinking. Hasn’t affected my brothers though.”

Is Hell exothermic or endothermic ?

Posted on by luken7

The following is supposedly an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term. The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well.

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat)or endothermic(absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are eaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different Religions that exist in the world today. Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it? If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you, and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number 2 must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct…leaving only Heaven thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED THE ONLY “A”

Consolidating WordPress Blogs

Posted on by luken7

Well, I’m now down to one WordPress blog. Just collapsed my media blog into this one. It really didn’t make sense to run multiple blogs, especially since there’s a category feature in WordPress. My next endeavour is stylesheets, add some character to the site, while not losing the focus on the content.

David Sanborn and Bob James – True Double Vision

Posted on by luken7

Still one of my favorite albums from the 80’s. It has a fine blend of calming Sax playing, without sounding like corporate Smooth Jazz. The “ivory” has a very melodic arrangement and having Marcus Miller on bass only adds to the complexity of the first three tracks. You can find it @ Jazz/set3/Collaborations. You can find their highly smooth at relaxing sounds at http://davidsanborn.com and also at http://www.bobjames.com.

THE Bassist – Victor Lamont Wooten

Posted on by luken7

Oh my gosh….what else can be said. I never knew a bass could be played the way he plays it. I finally saw him at the Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill, NC. in Sept., 2002. What a concert. And with Branford Marsalis making a guest appearance and jamming for over an hour, this concert has been placed in my all time top three performances. Much thanks to Cliff for introducing me to Victor’s music. You can hear some tracks @ Jazz/set2/ and please check out his website at http://www.victorwooten.com.

Dana Owens Matures, with Standards

Posted on by luken7

Ms. Dana Owens (a.k.a. Queen Latifah) has released a standards Jazz compilation. Wow, this woman is versitle and her talent is really showing. What can she not do? I heard her today on NPR in an interview and they played some bites. Wow, this is a long way from “All Hail The Queen”.

All I can say is, I’ll be making a trip to the music shop this weekend to get my CD. She does a rendition of “I Put a Spell On You” that was recorded by Screaming Jay Hawkins around 1956. Somehow, I don’t think she was drunk like Jay was when recording this track. But who cannot love the Jay version.

The Christian Right – The Twentieth Century – Divining America: Religion and the National Culture

Posted on by luken7

A good introduction on the four cornerstones that define the Christian Right, their motivations and “fears”. Being a Chritsian myself (but not subscribing to dark age theolgy), I find the motivations to be quite accurate.

The Christian Right – The Twentieth Century – Divining America: Religion and the National Culture