Interesting bit of history on the Senate and how/why it was formed and how it looks today. I’m not opposed the idea of the Senate, I think there is something to the idea that each state in the union should have an aspect of equal representation. On the other hand, nowhere is it more glaringly obvious that the distribution of representation is more skewed than in the Senate. Admittedly, it’s a small and restricted sample size, the deviations far more apparent.
Month: May 2021
So Daniel Granot III graduates this next weekend, 5/30/21, at 6pm. We plan to hold a BBQ and general get together around 2:30 pm prior to the big event. I apologize for the short notice, all friends and family are welcome, we just weren’t sure how things were going to turn out with Covid and whatnot. Now that there are relaxed restrictions, attending the graduation and celebration are certainly much easier! If you’d like to drop by, please DM myself or Ariel Granot, and we will plan on having you over for a bite to eat and a bit of conversation with the grad. We might even be able to convince him to play a tune or two on the piano!
So back around the beginning of 2018 my son Daniel decided to start studying under a piano teacher. 3 years and a few months later, this would be only his second recital thanks to Covid-19. In this time he has actually graduated from the teacher you see here to a new one. In the ~33 years of teaching piano, Daniel is only the 2nd student she has considered graduated from the program. In her own words, “Daniel has moved beyond what I can teach him.”
I can’t really describe how cool it is to watch somebody progress musically they way he has. I don’t take pride in it, this is all him, but it’s been fascinating, inspiring, and if I’m being honest, I’m also a bit envious. Below are links to the two pieces he performed. At this point he’s been working on them for about two months.
The perfect companion to my Telecaster…
I wasn’t introduced to the concept of toxic masculinity until much later in my life, but I intrinsically understood the concept. It’s something that I’ve fought against my entire life. The idea of masculinity, as defined by American tradition, is fundamentally flawed. I’m among the 4%, if you know what I’m talking about, but that doesn’t make me a man. My children were definitely not raised with those values in mind, but everyone that has met them has remarked at how awesome they are. I don’t believe that is a reflection on myself so much as it is on them, but the idea remains. There are stereotypes that must be destroyed in order to recognize what an amazing future we hold, if only we should embrace it.
The examples below are dead, there’s no reason to perpetuate them. Ever. And if you think that’s a bad thing, you’ll never see the response coming.
“Take me now, sub-creature.”
The difference between a good movie and a great one is in the little details, most often dialogue.
Ghostbusters was a great movie.
Ayn Rand pretty much wrote the manual for modern Conservative policy and thought. Did nobody consider that they might become the villains rather than the heroes of her story? Or that her heroes in the story make far better villains?
There is a certain amount of irony today, that to achieve the ideas of Objectivism, the machinery of the accused Collectivist government/society is being used to achieve their Capitalist Utopia. In other words, a modern Conservative/Libertarian has effectively become the very thing they claim to be against.
The defense is inexorably – “The end justifies the means.”
Perhaps it’s not so surprising that we’re seeing the rise of extremism and radicalization in modern Conservative circles. Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged is pretty much a thesis romanticizing exactly that.
What Rosa Parks did was amazing for the time, then and now. I remember learning about her in school and we definitely go the sanitized version. History is written by those in power.