I am a huge “This American Life” fan. Last year, for my birthday, The Leagues’ bought me an iTunes gift card which I promptly spent on TAL episodes. I got into it when I first moved to CA. Not knowing many people, having those stories there late on Saturday night became part of a ritual that helped me transition to living there.

My absolute favorite episode is #74 “Conventions”. The first segment ( or, “act”, according to show host Ira Glass ) introduces John Connors, a man from the midwest who goes to New York City for a weekend to celebrate “Dark Shadows”.

“Dark Shadows” is the Gothic–themed soap opera that showed on ABC in the late– 60’s: it’s pacing is nothing short than glacial, the production value is iffy, and the egregious use of the Theremin might be against the Geneva Conventions.

At the end of the convention, Conners feels “Dark Shadows”–fatigue and seems to be experiencing slight embarrassment while relating a story about a woman who, in the convention hall, before a panel of DS cast, bellowed:

“‘Dark Shadows’ Rules!”

Conners seems to have felt the shame that only a true fan of something cultish can experience. You’re shamed by the action of the other fan, but you’re also a bit shamed because the zeal of that fandom exists in you, although maybe not in dictum–bellowing grandiosity.

In the end, Glass gives Conners a chance to say on the radio “‘Dark Shadows’ rules”. Laughing, with a hint of shame, and very quietly, he says it.

I think this explains the way we all feel about our guilty pleasures that we obsess about.

“Danielle Steel rules!” or “WWE rules” or back in 18^th England: “roman’s rule!”

I have felt this way about my love of Rush for many years. There’s a huge fan-base for the Canadian power-trio but most of our lives we live in the closet, but upon finding one another, there’s the immediate understanding.

How can you explain the voice of Geddy Lee from 1974-1981? How can you explain that dressing in robes was a good idea?

How can you explain the talent that barely makes it possible for Neal Peart to even be classified as a human? How can you explain lyrics about

science,

a black hole,

Ayn Rand’s Anthem re-cast as a rock opera,

the unbelievable bass breakdown to the slapback-effects laden “Free Will”, the poetic allegory of “The Trees”, or the master’s essay in Moog known as the record Signals? Much less to a pretty girl?

In the utterance of “Rush Rules” to end them all, enters the pean by one Stephen Colbert:

Recently I discovered that fellow Leaguer and former resident of the Hall of Justice itself, Nicole, has an aptitude for sythesizer. How totally awesome would it be if sweet, petite, gently sweet-Texlahoma-lilt-voiced Nicole were to get up behind an ersatz wood–paneled Moog and rock the socks out of the synthesizer-solo of “Tom Sawyer”? Equally acceptable would be the synth denouement out of “YYZ ( that’s Why-Why-Zed for the uninitiated )”

Although, playing that synth solo may be the synth crowd’s version of walking into Guitar Center and playing “Stairway”.

Rush fandom is a weird thing, but it’s oddly virulent. Even my Sublime-n-Sunshine SoCal girlfriend, of late, under the sway of the Teutonic Thunder drumming of Neal Peart has confessed that she has the sneaky suspicion that what I’ve known for many years may be true:

<h1>Rush Rules</h1>

Answer: Jon Heder

Zo gingen jaren heen. De kindren werden groot en zagen dat de man die zij hun vader heetten, bewegingloos en zwijgend bij het vuur gezeten, een godvergeten en vervaarlijke aanblik bood.

So went the years past. The children grew and saw the man whom they called their father, seated still and silent by the fire, bode a God-forgotten and dangerous countenance.

—Wm. Elsschot aka J-A de Ridder

I swear, this poem still sticks with me though it’s been ten years since I was on the continent where it was penned.

But, uh, all those people are about to face a whole new level of traffic hell come Monday 30 April 2007. Apparently a tanker fire broke key supports in the MacArthur Maze ( an insane crisscross of overpasses, highways and bridges which abuts the Bay Bridge from San Francisco and which requires navigation for all points in any direction ).

It makes me slightly embarrassed for my 0.9 mile commute.

                    WELCOME TO INTRODUCTORY C++

                 Your Instructor is John R Durrett

                  Section #2 03350 1:00pm

  Who Is Steven G. Harms...

  ...Academically?
          I am a sophomore double major in philosophy and M.I.S.
  ...As a programmer?...
          I programmed with Pascal in high school.
          While in high school, I set up my own web page in HTML.
          I have had a bit of experience with UNIX shell programming.

  Expectations And Plans
          I think that this class will be fun and informative.
          I know C++ is popular and has real world functions.
          I would like to learn Java and how to apply it beyond
          just cool Web pages.
          I would like to be very rich either as a writer, lawyer,
          politician, or in IT.
          If I had my druthers, I'd be a writer/poet/philosopher and
          travel all over.

   FYI
          I have obsessions for Bach, Beethoven, Pagannini, and Wagner.
          I've seen `Pulp Fiction', `Clockwork Orange'
          `Reservoir Dogs' and `Apocalypse Now' more than 25 times each.
          I also like reading, biking, and seeing live music.

I then thought, what would I say if I could add a comment back to these lines, many years later, for that it be…

WELCOME TO INTRODUCTORY C++

               Your Instructor is John R Durrett

                Section #2 03350 1:00pm

Who Is Steven G. Harms...

Someone who knows to put a space after a full-stop.

...Academically?
        I am a sophomore double major in philosophy and M.I.S.

You should see my About/Education page, at that time I had no vanity site.

...As a programmer?...
        I programmed with Pascal in high school.
        While in high school, I set up my own web page in HTML.
        I have had a bit of experience with UNIX shell programming.

In the intervening years I’ve expanded my experience with C++ and am entirely comfortable in the Unix shell. I’ve programmed extensively in the and BASH shell. I have also become quite proficient in Perl, tending to use it instead of most shell-scripting languages. I’ve designed a number of CGI scripts in Perl ( and, by my blog, PHP ). I have some Java experience and have set up my own web sites using XHTML and CSS standard.

Expectations And Plans
        I think that this class will be fun and informative.
        I know C++ is popular and has real world functions.
        I would like to learn Java and how to apply it beyond
        just cool Web pages.
        I would like to be very rich either as a writer, lawyer,
        politician, or in IT.
        If I had my druthers, I'd be a writer/poet/philosopher and
        travel all over.

This class would wind out to barely scratch the surface of intelligent programming habits. C++ is popular, but has largely been replaced by Java. Java has many other applications beyond simply ‘writing cool web pages’ but I find it such a bore of a language and it’s, usually, far overpowered for the solutions I need to implement quickly, cheaply, and ( generally ) solo.

I’d still like to become fabulously wealthy, but I’d never stop working, I’d just stop worrying about the bills.

I’ve become a writer, in that Harry Chapin sort of way of acting-happy in a happy-home and / or flying-high-in-a-Taxi sense. I have this web site that I pour a lot of energy into. I write enough, I suppose to be happy intrinsically. I’d like to write a book, oddly, non-fiction, I think I can do it. We’ll see.

I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to be a lawyer. In Leiden, on Rijnsburgerweg, in the Nieuweroord building, at a party, in a kitchen, a young law student named Antonio told me about the actual work of the law and law school and I decided that I, in no way, would like to be a lawyer.

And if the feeling of being a lawyer could be amplified any, it’d be my attitude to politics. If one could still truly become a maverick politician ( shame John McCain ), I might think about it, but it’s clearly not something I have an aspiration towards, it’s something that I might choose to do for the good of the polis.

I’d still love to travel all over, that hasn’t changed. Lauren was talking about Scandinavia and I was talking East-Central Europe. Either way, I’m ready.

 FYI
        I have obsessions for Bach, Beethoven, Pagannini, and Wagner.
        I've seen `Pulp Fiction', `Clockwork Orange'
        `Reservoir Dogs' and `Apocalypse Now' more than 25 times each.
        I also like reading, biking, and seeing live music.

I still love the classics and Pagannini or B&B are still where it’s at. I don’t watch movies obsessively trying to milk out every hômage buried within the medium anymore, but I do like serious movies. I no longer own a bike, I rarely have time for pleasure reading, and I still love to go to the shows but sometimes it strikes me that the band is “too loud” or that “this is just a bunch of derivative crap, let’s go home”.

Alfredo Garcia and Nicole Garcia née Morales.

This weekend Lauren and I attended the wedding of this lovely couple. Alfredo and I had lost contact of one another when I moved to CA, but, upon returning to Austin, he found me via a comment I left at another blog.

Through this past 10 months (!?!), we’ve had occasion to see each other with some regularity and were blessed to be invited to this beautiful wedding. The wedding took place at the lovely San José Catholic Church hidden in the heart of beautiful South Austin. I had only been to one other Catholic wedding ( being of Anglo - Germanic stock myself ) so the ceremony and ritual was again a bit of a foreign, although beautiful, experience for me. The mass was very interesting and the couple had included some of the best, and most mystical, parts about man / woman / creation of woman / miracles at the wedding in Cana / etc. It was very rich and very much crafted so as to provide magic into the fabric of existence.

But what more could I say? I think this picture says it a thousand times over. The bride was beautiful, the groom was elated, the parents were proud.

After the ceremony there was a short intermission and several of us repaired to the Enotecca at Vespaio with some new friends and some recently-relocated friend and had an inter-activity glass of wine and some light repast before heading to the hotel.

The reception facilities were of the highest grandeur and the food was great as well. A real bonus was to see all of those folks with whom I croquet-ed a lot in my senior year again. Most are married, moved elsewhere, having fantastic lives doing interesting things and adjusting, in many cases, to that mantle called parenthood.

Towards the end of the evening Alfredo insisted that maximally funky dancitude be seen and was simply not denied. As the evening closed, the Alfredo produced soundtrack ended and we headed out. Upon seeing the bride I casually remarked to her “Ah! Mrs. Garcia” and I saw a strange expression of realization pass over her face and she said, dare I say proudly, that she realized that was her name now. I guess when the priest says it you must be thinking “What is this guy saying, what am I doing up here” - when some guest says it to you, the “Oh, wow this is real” might just hit you anew.

She has a wonderful heart and the good Mr. Garcia has found a wonderful partner in her.

Another pair of guests, the Cortese family of Colorado and their family, invited us to a Sunday brunch-party at a house they had rented for the week in the heart of Travis Heights. I thought this was a great idea - to rent a house and enjoy it for a week versus cramming into a hotel.

It was the usual South austin shotgun-style house that had been tastefully outfitted with the modern effects ( hardwood floor, stainless steel, etc. ). It made a very cozy and wonderful spot for wedding guests to talk to one another on a more causal plane. The weather threatened once or twice to turn rainy, thankfully it were but mostly sprinkles that fell.

After a pretty consistent cycle of sleep and matrimonially-induced excitement, we headed back up to North Austin, indulged in a cold stone, and then took a nice-long nap!

The weeks of light commitment to househould duties as I undertook the site redesign had mounted up, so we exited our cloud and returned to quotidian reality courtesy of thrilling items like doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen.

In all, we felt exceedingly thankful to have been part of this beautiful wedding experience. The beautiful couple are headed off to Italy to enjoy of the Italian springtime ( good timing! ). I can’t wait ‘til they get back so that we can host them chez nous and they can regale us of their adventures and first blissful steps into the great unknown of the mystical union between man and woman.

It was definitely good to see Mr. Al and to meet his lovely fiancée. Interestingly enough, a found a lost blogger as well. The authoress of OsakaToMeBaby was at my very table. It just so happened that Al and I were tracing our e-connection via the brothers Steans via the now-absent-from-the-blogosphere (or is he secretly penning somewhere else? Let the conspiracy theory begin), James Dedman. Upon hearing this, the authoress noted that she, too, was tied to our network as she was the authoress, as I said above, of Osakatomebaby.

Now this was one of my most favorite blogs linked off of Jim’s site: it was funny, had good layout and the musings of any American on Japan / Japanese-ness / Fish-out-of-water-ness are inherently interesting. So I had to ask, what happened, why did you stop writing, suddenly, quickly, permanently? Well it turns out that the turning of the wheel of life in Osaka had her move (which interrupted the flow of internet access to the home) and she met a strapping Aussie lad to whom she was now wed (and across from whom she was seated).

Now our gaming continued until the final round when none other than Mayor Will Wynn popped in to deliver the last round of questions. Now how cool is that? Besides getting to work in the very cool city hall on Town Lake, Will takes time to mingle with the common folk down at the Irish bar.

In the end we tied for 4th, another night perhaps.

Well, we’re about 4 days away from taking off on our grande adventure. Here’s the CALIFORNIA leg.

• Sunnyvale to Willits, CA to visit my dad’s cousin and his wife (1.5 days)
• Willits back down the coast to San Luis Obispo (1 day)
• SLO to Vegas

So that’s the start of things, I’ll be updating this site with pictures as things happen.

We’ve managed to clear out one bedroom and we’re keeping all the “finished” boxes in there. It’s really fortunate because it allows us to see “how much is left” - a steadily decreasing amount - while keeping the boxes somewhere safe. We’ve got the kitchen, 1 bedroom, the patio, and the storage unit all cleaned out.

We’re just plugging away at it. I’m shooting for being done on Wednesday, so that the day before is just taking it easy, but we’ll see. I don’t want to be packing late the night before — I’ve had enough of that!

In any case, the recipe for “E”asy Cheezy Pretzels was often consulted during the long, sweltering summer days that she and I were indoors hiding from the fearsome Texas sun.

For you, the Internet, I would like to share the recipe, in the extended entry

EASY “Che-e-e-sy” Pretzels 1 1/1 c flour 2/3 c milk ½ c shredded cheddar cheese (2 oz.) 2 T soft margarine 2 t baking powder 1 t sugar 1 t salt 1 egg 1 c flour for rolling Wax paper Non-stick spray Directions: 1. Heat oven to 400. Spray cookie sheet with spray. 2. Mix together flour, milk, cheese, margarine, baking powder, sugar, salt. 3. Smooth dough into ball and knead 10 times. 4. Make 1” balls, put flour onto hands and roll balls into “snake” shape on wax paper. Shape into “e” and place on cookie sheet. 5. Beat egg and brush onto pretzels. 6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes. 7. Remove from cookie sheets and cool on rack.