23 posts tagged “qotd”
What's one of your favorite quotes?
Submitted by Georgie-boy.
If you're after gettin' the honey
Then you don't go killin' all the bees
- Joe Strummer
What was the worst job you ever had?
Submitted by salaryman.
Selling coupon books on the phone. Oh, man it sucked.
I was 18 and my band and a few associated friends had moved from Ft. Worth to Austin to be where the action was. Three of us stumbled on this job and if you could read the script and stay awake, you were hired. It was strictly commission. No hourly wage. I felt bad enough doing phone sales (our shift started around dinner time to make sure we got people at home), but to compound it, I didn't even really think the coupon book was that good a deal. I guess if you ate at fast food joints indiscriminately, and your primary criterion for choice was the price of the food, then maybe. But I sucked at it. I think I worked there for a month and maybe made $150. This was 1982, so that wasn't that bad a deal. The three of us working there also shared a one bedroom apartment that rented for $300/mo, so that job did get us through the first lurch of being on our own, but I got a job bussing tables as soon as I could. At least I didn't have to sell anything.
Do you listen to podcasts? Are there any you'd recommend?
Inspired by Alex.
Most of my interest in podcasts has to do with replacing the radio when I don't want to listen to music or my local public radio station is playing something I'm not interested in, so I'm usually looking for stuff on the long-ish side.
So with that in mind:
- The Slate daily podcast in general, even though they're awfully short Monday through Thursday (5-10 minutes). But every Friday they do a 30 minute-ish thing called the Gabfest where three people (host John Dickerson plus Emily Bazelon and David Plotz usually, although Emily and David occasionally have subs) sit around and talk about the week's political news. I have a somewhat embarssing crush on Emily Bazelon's voice.
- The great radio show This American Life just started podcasting for free through iTunes, which is GREAT news. It comes on at kind an odd time for us (6:00 PM on Sundays) and we frequently miss it. (They'd been making their shows available for download through Audible for a fee, but I never really got up the gumption to actually pay Audible.)
- WARNING: NERDINESS AHEAD. I also just recently subscribed to the Around Comics podcast. I haven't totally bought into it yet, because it usually runs over two hours, and that's a lot of comic chatter, even for someone who reads comics regularly. It's very much like sitting in the comic shop listening to the employees talk shit.
What are your top 25 most played songs?
Submitted by Cooxie.
- Fatigue Chic - 4:51 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Superthruster - 3:57 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Into Battle - 9:45 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Bonde - 5:28 - Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Talking Timbuktu
- High Voltage Syndrome - 5:55 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Dictaphone's Lament - 5:08 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- PBS / KAE - 4:39 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Phoenix Cylinder - 1:24 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Psionce Merge - 4:28 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Sunrise Projector - 3:02 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Soukora - 6:05 - Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Talking Timbuktu
- Gomni - 7:01 - Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Talking Timbuktu
- Ballistic Squeeze - 7:50 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Drilling for Oil - 8:50 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Softcore Surge - 3:08 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- A Circular Reeducation - 5:20 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Sega - 3:10 - Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Talking Timbuktu
- Amandrai - 9:22 - Ry Cooder & Ali Farka Toure - Talking Timbuktu
- Exodub Implosion - 6:12 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Send And Recieve - 4:48 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Major Magic - 5:34 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Zen Concrete - 5:48 - Sly & Robbie - Drum & Bass Strip to the Bone By Howie B
- Lapse - 5:22 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- Past Is Prologue - 5:47 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
- You Should Be More Like Your Brother - 1:45 - Tycho - Sunrise Projector
There are two things that jump out about this list:
- I still listen to "albums".
- I listen to the same "albums" a LOT.
Most of the times that I play music on my computer are when I'm working, so what I listen to tends to be instrumental and fairly laid back.
Which cartoon character best represents you?
Submitted by Know It All.
It varies, of course, but the character I've always identified with the most strongly is the very first versions of Daffy Duck. The scatalogical, bouncing-off-the-scenery lunatic screwball. I think I wanted to be that funny and crazy. As his character evolved into the hair-trigger rage machine, I think the similarities between us became more pronounced. I don't fly off the handle outwardly like that anymore (much), but it's only because of conscious efforts on my part. I still get that urge, but I know that ultimately it's not very productive.
What was your very first job?
Submitted by Laurel.
Making and selling snow cones and cotton candy at the Ft. Worth zoo on weekends, starting when I was 14. I worked at the zoo for two years eventually worked my way up to the vaunted position of "supervisor" where I got to drive around a little golf cart taking supplies to all the consession stands and make sure all the other teenage boys were doing what they should. At the end of the business day I'd drive around and pick up all the cash boxes and take them to the main office. I was able to buy my first stereo and my first guitar and amp with money from that job.
I have occasional physical reactions to the Joe Walsh song "Life's Been Good to Me So Far", which was a big hit during that first summer. When it comes on the radio, I can smell the syrup and the bag of sugar we kept in the stand for the cotton candy. We were constantly surrounded by bees, and it was there that I learned that if you leave them alone, they'll leave you alone.
How did you meet your best friend(s)?
I'm defining "best" as a combination of intimacy and longevity.
My oldest friend is someone I threatened to beat up in 7th grade. By the middle of 9th grade, we realized that we should really be friends and still are (going on thirty years now, I guess).
My next oldest friend I met through that previous friend (pushing twenty-five years). We were in a band together.
After that I met another "best" friend when we were both dating the same girl. After a few months we decided that our new friendship wasn't worth arguing over the girl, so we both broke up with her (about twenty years). We tried to start a band, but it kind of foundered.
Somewhere in my early 20s, I met another one at the store where I was working and we bonded through relentless pranking of both our employer and their (our) customers. Successfully started a band with this one.
The most recent friend that rates the adjective "best" is someone I met in art school (at least fifteen, maybe sixteen or seventeen years). No band, but we have worked together frequently on art and design projects.
I went quite a few years without meeting anyone that I would rate as "best", but in the last three or four years, I've met a lot of people that I feel very close to, and expect several of them to achieve "best" status as the years go by.
What's your musical horoscope? (Put your music player on shuffle and write down the first 10 songs that come up.) Inspired by Stephanie.
Minor Swing - Django Reinhardt
Sometimes I'm Happy - Benny Goodman
Boys Wanna Fight - Garbage
Skip Steps 1&3 - Superchunk
Tabazan - Killing Joke
Make The Night A Little Longer - Palisades
Du Riechst So Gut - Rammstein
Insight - Joy Division
Heart And Soul - Joy Division
Blood On Your Hands - Killing Joke
I can make a pretty interesting story out of those songs, but not right now.
How many languages can you speak? Which languages can you read or understand?
I speak German fluently, although I'm probably a little rusty at this point. I can read it, but I'm pretty slow.
Every once in a while I make a half-hearted effort to really learn Spanish. I know some phrases and I've successfully negotiated the price of a room in a B&B for the night, but I can't really hold a conversation in it.
I would love to learn Chinese.
What's your middle name? Is there a story or history behind it?
William. I'm named after my father: David William McCreath, and we both share our middle name with his father, Raymond William McCreath. I don't know if the name goes back farther than that.
