The first time I started thinking about how the brain and thoughts work was early on in school. I was told by my music teacher that the human mind can only handle seven independent things/thoughts at one time. If you add an eighth in the mix, one of the other seven will no longer be available to you.

The way this applies to music and my drumming, he told me, was that when you are drumming you are using all four of your limbs behind the drum kit. Your arms and legs. Each one is doing something independent of the other. That is four things your mind is tracking. You are also keeping time in your head and anticipating what is coming next. That is six things. The seventh thing I find myself doing while I am playing music is just either looking around and being observant of the other musicians. Sometimes I’m thinking about random things such as what I am going to make for dinner or what is on the agenda for work tomorrow. That’s my seven things at once. The brain can’t handle anymore than that. This point gets proven over and over again with me during band practice whenever anyone hits a note that is not correct, or plays something different. This by default makes me drop whatever extra thing I am thinking at the time to focus on the change in the music. Sometimes I won’t be as lucky and forget what I was thinking. Sometimes one of my legs or arms will quit working and the drum beat I will be playing will sound wrong. So a lot of discipline goes into being focused and prepared for something unexpected when I am playing music with my band.

In the past I have talked about how much I like, and use, the Getting Things Done (GTD) work methodology developed by David Allen. It’s great for keeping tasks and projects, both work and personal, organised in a way that allows you to get things completed quickly and efficiently. But the thing that makes GTD so great is the fact that it frees up your mind to allow you to have ideas. Unlike remembering things, having ideas is something the mind is great at doing.

“Your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them.” – David Allen

By being able to put your tasks down in a system that you trust allows you to focus on your next action rather than spending your time worried about the overall project. It really is a life changing way to work and get things done. If you have not looked into before, I highly recommend that you do so.

The latest thing I have been learning about almost contradicts GTD in a way. The Memory Palace is an ancient way of remembering anything. By having a house for all your thoughts that are triggered by distinct locations within the house of your minds eye you can recall any kind of information. See the videos below to better understand what I am talking about.

I have such a strong love for the original G1 Transformers. It saddens me to see what has happened to them. It’s a sad time in history to be a Transformers fan. Shame on you Michael Bay.

As I said, I don’t have it in me any more to write about how bad this film was. I did find that Mr. Chris Sims, a senior writer For Comics Alliance, was able to put into words the disappointment I felt in a post titled: ‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ Is Not a Very Good Movie. Below are a few of highlights that I felt hit home.

• At its heart, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a movie that makes no sense about a bunch of asshole robots and their asshole friend.
• Optimus Prime brings his predecessor, Sentinel Prime, back to life. Sentinel Prime, incidentally, is a firetruck played by Leonard Nimoy in a role that allows him to quote himself from Star Trek II, which was the exact moment I took the Lord’s name in vain out loud in the theater.
• …the entire second half of the movie is just one mind-numbing explosion after another with no real reason to care about any of it as they’re just toppling buildings and tearing up streets. They even chase people down and shoot them with guns that make them pop like party balloons, a series of bloodless explosions designed so that this movie can show wholesale slaughter and still keep its PG-13 rating.
• You can make every allowance for it, you can talk about how it’s about giant robots so it doesn’t have to have logic or how it’s for kids and they’re dumb anyway, and you’re still left with the core problem. Nothing makes sense, even from one scene to the next, and everyone’s an asshole, so there’s no reason to be interested or to care who lives or who dies

Read More At: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/06/transformers-3-review/#ixzz1RLNJi8a5

Roger Ebert said it was “a visually ugly film with an incoherent plot, wooden characters and inane dialog. It provided me with one of the more unpleasant experiences I’ve had at the movies.”

Richard Roeper likewise panned the film, giving it a D and saying that “rarely has a movie had less of a soul and less interesting characters.”

• Finish Writing Book (so close)
• Have the book sent to an editor to be edited
• Have a cover designed
• Consult with a PR firm
• Have an audio book made
• Have a physical copy of the book made
• Have Review copies of the book to give out.
• Contact as many book review blogs as possible to review my book (currently have a list of 300 and growing)

So what do you think? Am I leaving anything out? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think I should add or do differently.

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his intellectual prowess, and is renowned for his skillful use of “deductive reasoning” while using abductive reasoning and astute observation to solve difficult cases.

Not long after I finished reading all the Homes books I found The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes tv series on the A&E Network. My mom and brother would sit with me and watch it. I don’t know why, but not long after I moved to Juneau I started poking around the internet looking for the DVD’s of this great show. I was able to find a few disks on Amazon.com, but never the complete series. Then a couple of years ago I found myself walking through the DVD section of Costco when I spotted Sherlock Home: The Complete Granada Television Series. I picked it up, No questions asked.

The actor who plays the master detective in this series is Jeremy Brett, who many consider to be the definitive screen version of Sherlock Homes. His story is quite sad actually if you read up on him. His acting though, is masterful.

I would love to hear what you think of Sherlock Holmes and how you feel Jeremy Brett’s version stacks up with Robert Downey, Jr’s version.

Bettas come from tropical areas in Asia. Like Thailand and Malaysia.  Two male bettas should never be placed in the same tank unless you have a divider. The male Bettas tend to have the large colorful fins whereas the females will have smaller fins.

If two male Bettas share one aquarium they may very well fight to the death. In the wild however, bettas do not fight to the death. They will fight till there is a winner for the territory. The loser will go off and hide, or jump to another area to find safety (which is why bettas should always be in covered tanks, but still have access to air). In small tanks, there is no where to hide, thus leading to deaths.

Like lots of other people I have been told through friends and pet store employee’s that Betta fish like and flourish in small aquariums or fish bowls. It turns out that this could not be further from the truth! Bettas, especially those kept in smaller bowls need to have 25% of their water changes twice a week along with full bowl changes weekly. This was my biggest reason for getting a larger aquarium with an adjustable flow water filter. You want a slow flow filter so that the water current produced by the filter does not over power your Betta.

When you first get your Aquarium you want to clean it out, along with anything else you plan to put into it (rocks, plants, or ornaments) with warm to hot water. There seems to be some debate on the internet about how you should go about cleaning aquariums and the items you put into it, but I have found warm to hot water does the job for my single male Betta.

Feeding Bettas can also start a debate online it seems. I would like to share with you what I have found that works. Bettas have a lot of personality and they will beg for food. I feed my Betta fish twice a day. Two pellets of Betta fish food. Once or twice a week I will substitue the pellet food with bloodworms. You can get bloodworms at your pet store. Just thaw them out in something like a shot glass with water. I use tweezers to pick out two bloodworms (one at a time) and feed them to my Betta. It seems Betta fish like a variety of food and my Betta enjoys his bloodworm meals.

I hope you find this information useful. Have you discovered any tips or tricks to take care of your Betta? Please leave a comment and let me know!

I enjoy a good cigar. There is nothing like it. I thought I would share with you a couple of my favorite cigars that I always have in my humidor.

Arturo Fuente creates a cigar known as the Hemingway Classic. It’s a mild to medium strength cigar in a medium brown colored wrapper. My brother, Abe turned me on to this guy and I have always had one close by ever since. It is probably my favorite cigar that I smoke. The box these cigars comes in too is really quite nice as well and I think could be repurposed into a great many things.

Romeo y Juliet is another brand I really enjoy and discovered early on when I first picked up cigar smoking. I was actually attracted to the logo first. It just worked out that I liked the cigar too. The 1875, or the Reserve are both great options under the Remeo y Juliet brand. The 1875 is the more mild of the two and I tend to smoke them more than because of that. Just depends on my mood.

Because I smoke cigars I get asked how I like to cut my cigars and what do I use to light them with. I don’t think this matters. I don’t think the cigars you choose to smoke matters either. Just smoke what you enjoy and cut and light them the way you want. But, to answer the question I use a punch to cut my cigars and a Zippo lighter to light them.

I think it’s a good idea because it’s people trading music. It has nothing to do with industry or finance, it’s just people that want music and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s the same as someone turning on the fucking radio, it’s the same as someone putting a cassette in a cassette deck when the BBC plays a special radio session. I don’t think it’s a crime, it’s been going on for years. It’s the same as people making tapes for each other. The industry is more threatened by it because it’s the worldwide web and it’s a broader scope of trading, but I don’t think it’s such a fucking horrible thing. The first thing we should do is get all the fucking millionaires to shut their mouths, and stop bitching about the 25 cents a time they’re losing. – Dave Grohl

Betta Delta Tail- Male Also known as Siamese Fighting Fish, Combattant (Canada), Trey kroem phloek (Cambodia), or C lia thia (Vietnam). The Male Betta is well known for its jewel-bright colors and spectacular finnage. Unlike most fish, they breathe from the water’s surface with their labyrinth organ instead of through their gills. Delta Tails have a distinctly triangular-shaped tail with crisp edges and sharp angles. The tail of a Delta is symmetrical, and although the angle is generally wide they are generally 130ø or less in tail span. Anything more than 130ø but less than 170ø is considered a Super Delta Tail Betta. Bettas will “flare” their fins when disturbed or threatened. The male Betta will attack another Betta and have been known to attack similar-looking fish. It is recommended that only one male Betta is housed in an aquarium with plants and very little current.

Hannah really could not have picked out a better gift.

Together the two of us went to the local pet store where I picked out a tank and Hannah picked out some red Gravel, a plant, and an Easter Island looking statue.

Today I added a d20 to the tank. Hannah says I am projecting on Betta Max. I just feel like he wants to be able to play games from his tank. Who am I to stop him?

For months my wife has been working on her second entry into the Wearable Art event. Inspired by her nursing career, she started sketching out designs for a dress made entirely from materials found in a hospital operating room. I watch as she slowly brought the dress to life. It really is amazing how her mind works and how she is able to put things like this together.

This past weekend was the annual Wearable Art show and My wife, along with her model showed off all the hard work that had gone into her dress. Below I would like to share with you some photos from the event.

Being a child of the eighties, I grew up and felt privileged to be exposed to what I think are some pretty awesome toys and cartoons. Some of them just off the top of my head are…

• Transformers
• G.I. Joe
• He-Man
• Looney Toons
• Tom & Jerry
• Thundercats
• Scooby Doo
• Dino Riders
• Smurfs
• Batman The Animated Series
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Flintstones
• The Yogi Bear Show
• The Jetsons
• Jonny Quest
• Superfriends

I have some really good childhood memories of watching these cartoons and playing with these toys. Toys and cartoons that, to this day, I still enjoy and collect. I am really looking forward to the day that my children and I can enjoy them together.

When I turn on the TV nowadays, I am embarrassed by the cartoons (which all seem to be computer animated now and not hand drawn) that networks broadcast to children. What the hell is Sponge Bob Square Pants anyway? I don’t even recognize the Transformers anymore and their toys just look scary to me.

I am going to go on a Transformers side rant here. So bare with me.

Anyone who has been following my blog knows that I am a die hard, old school, Transformers fan. (TILL ALL ARE ONE!) Something about that cartoon and the toys just clicked with me on an emotional level when I was growing up and I think that is why I am such a fan of them to this day. It might be because it was one of the first toys my older brother ever got me. It might be because when you see an old school Transformer cartoon or toy transforming it makes sense. Just by looking at the thing you can get an idea of which pieces need to move where and when to transform it. I never needed an instruction booklet to transform a Transformer. Because of that the toys made me feel smart. Like I was teaching myself and learning something at the same time. But nowadays you open up one of these “newer” Transformers toys or watch one of the movies or cartoons your head just hurts. Nothing about it makes sense.

Whenever I go to the store, I always check out the toy sections (because I am a kid at heart) and I am applied by what I see. Isles of action figures that don’t look fun or easy to play with. I have also noticed that they have not moved from their shelf from one week to the next. No one is buying this crap. I find myself spending the most time looking at Hot Wheels toys because they are about the only thing in the toy section of stores that I used to play with when I was a kid.

One of the few stores that still carries old school Transformers products is Hot Topic. Whenever I travel down south from Alaska, I make time to go into a Hot Topic and I ask the clerk every time “Do you sell more old school Transformers Products or the newer Transformers Products. Each time for years the answer has been the same “Oh we sell way more old school Transformers. It’s hard for us to keep them in stock.”

Now if that is not telling about the current state of Cartoons and Toys I don’t know what is. I have also noticed this with Transformer cartoon DVDs. The local stores can’t keep the old school stuff on the shelves, but every week, I still see the same new school DVDs on the self right where they where last time. I said it before and I will say it again. No one is buying this crap.

Even Legos have changed over the years. How the hell do you screw up interlocking plastic bricks? Well somehow they did to the point where they are not recognizable anymore. It used to be that kids had buckets of legos from which they could build anything they could imagine.

• Cities
• Planes
• Spaceships
• Cars
• Trucks
• Boats