See Below for Long Title

I have decided to post to the blog before doing anything else tonight, because there is a lot to cover and not a lot of time to cover it. Allow me to dump out the contents of my scrambled brain here. For absolute proof that my brain is scrambled, consider this:

I am doing laundry while still wearing pants and not pajamas. This is not supposed to happen. Pants are supposed to go into the washer immediately before pouring the detergent into the machine. So, I present to you: Mostly A Random Collection of Images, Multiple Shout-Outs, and the Inevitable Plug for my Cousin's Band.

First, a gift from Jodi's son, seen during their family trip to New York this week for his Spring Break:

If you look closely, you can see the two of them in the reflection. Thank you very much for that! 

Speaking of Spring Break, here's what we missed from the Disaster Preparedness Calendar during mine. The calendar stayed here, and I went traipsing around in my home state. 

For supplies, we needed to get sterile gauze pads and first aid tape. For planning, we were supposed to find a place for our families to shelter-in-place. Teachers are of course familiar with sheltering-in-place because occasionally gunmen run around in our neighborhoods and we have to lock down our students. I've inserted a handy hyperlink for you in case you don't know what to do. 

Next, while making our way to our gate at Midway, Miss Gokey and I ran into this image of McGruff the Crime Dog, whose website has some handy games to play to teach children how to defeat society's trendiest scapegoat, the omnipresent bully. I have made the image extra large so that hopefully you can read it. 

I should add "My iTunes Account is Playing with my Head" as an item in the long title of this post. In the immortal words of Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia, "When life seems like easy street, there is danger at your door." 

Speaking of bands (nice transition, huh?), I have noticed that Shiloh has a habit of playing shows a few days before I arrive into town, and then again a few days after I leave. I am therefore launching a campaign to get them to turn one of the frontmen's songs into a song for the band, so that if I ever see them, he can sing it for me. If you're up for it, please join me in my campaign by sending the title DE NADA to their twitter handle at @shilohchicago. 

With that, I must say that it has been nice procrastinating with you this evening. So, for the piece de resistance, I present to you THE CHAIN. You can't see it, because it's right where it is attached to the wall, but tomorrow's link reads, "Almost There!" Indeed. Returning to the immortal words of Jerry Garcia, "...what I want to know is...where does the time go?" 

LITMB, 

geotrix/jane

Today is the Day!!!

It's the first day of the rest of your life.
It is the day to attempt to achieve something worthwhile.
Today is the day to move past your past.
Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!

But none of that is important considering what today REALLY is...

It's the day Shiloh's 2nd album, Mrs., is released!
(Their website is still linked to their first album. I'll link their label later on.)
It's not Shiloh, but there's also this, which is at least a part of Shiloh, and here you can hear a bunch of b-sides from Mrs.

You may not all have been waiting for it, but I have.

To celebrate, I decided to go to a real, live record store. There is one in Vegas. Miss Gokey told me where it is: on Sahara and Arville. It's called Zia Records, and it's been in town for about five years, according to the blonde cashier. In my own defense, I moved away from that part of town about six years ago, so...

Oh, wait. There's also one on Flamingo and Eastern, and that one's been there longer. Oops. There are also two in Tuscon and three in Phoenix. Zia is therefore described, in my opinion, as a regional chain. It's a comfortable chain, anyway: loads of vinyl, CDs and movies, containing most, but not all, of exactly what you want. I spent my time there wandering around saying to myself, "I wonder if they have..." and my searches were successful about 80% of the time. So. If you're in the area and in need of a physical media fix, Zia Records is your store.

It was a good time to visit a record shop, considering that just last week, Carl Azuz of CNN Student News was talking about how digital media has overtaken physical media in various ways. I'll discuss that more soon, when I review a bunch of Netflix films I've been watching on weekends. In the meantime...

Although I'm not sure what happens with Mrs. today (there's the link to the label), and far be it from me to tell you what kind of music you like, if you have ever had a cousin, or a broken heart, or if you've ever awakened wondering how you got where you are, Shiloh's music is for you.

If you think it's not, then it's a good thing Carl Azuz informs us that Tuesday is the day when most new media is released, so hopefully you find something out there in this wide, bright world that makes your toes tap today.