Month: November 2003

For some time I’ve maintained a quotes page, where I’ve kept things I’ve read, heard (or written) that I thought were
especially worth remembering and sharing. I just realized that I left two of my most favorite ones off. The first is from the book of Micah, chapter 6, verse
8:

And what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

The second is from a speech that Winston Churchill made at Harrow on October 29, 1941:
Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honour
and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

The whole thing can be heard here (and I hope to convert it to QuickTime soon).

One of the things I like about bicycling is that it gives me time to just let my mind wander. Not too much, or else I’d end up the new hood ornament on a Chevy
Blazer, but I get to reflect on things.

Today, I went biking for the first time in a couple of months, and, boy, did it feel good. While going through Memorial Park, I heard a siren behind me, and
looked back to see a motorcycle cop leading a funeral procession. I pulled off to the side and took off my helmet until the procession was passed, because that
is the thing to do. I remember growing up in Beaumont and every time a funeral procession came by, all the other cars would pull over and wait for it to pass.
Today, though, I was the only vehicle to do so. The rest of the traffic just kept flying by.

That really bugged me. Are our lives so busy that we can’t wait thirty seconds to show respect? Am I just the product of a different culture?

By the way, when I die, I want the memorial service to be held at Astroworld. Everybody has to ride the Texas Cyclone, and I want Weird Al Yankovic’s “I’ll Be
Mellow When I’m Dead” played on the park loudspeakers.

I am serious.

Alexis pointed out that I had neglected to include “Joe@” on my list of nicknames on my survey page (it seems like I get sent another batch of these every six months or so, so I just merged a bunch of them
together and answered on the webpage, and direct folks to that when they send me a new one). That omission has now been rectified (thanks for pointing it out,
Alexis, and those McVities’ chocolate caramel biscuits sound awesome…they only have the Digestives and High Tea at Spec’s, but I love them both).

It occurs to me, though, that most folks don’t know the stories of the various nicknames, so here they are:


Joe Carl
Don’t know if that really counts as a nickname, since it is my legitimate name (for more on, see my name
page. First usage that I recall was by Gordon Baxter on a very sentimental radio program on KVLU after I graduated from Rice; currently used by one of my
clients.
Joe C
Another obvious one, used primarily by Greg Kahn
Joe@
A bunch of Rice folks invited me to play Mafia with their group in 2001. There was already a Joe playing, and it got a bit confusing, so someone
(anyone recall?) dubbed me Joe@, since I had my own domain. Used pretty much exclusively by the RLOS bunch.
Capn
The summer after my freshman year in college, I was a counselor at a church camp. One night the inspiration struck me to don a helmet made of
watermelon rind, a cape made of a beach towel, and a hockey stick, and I dubbed myself Captain Idiot. The rest of the week all the kids referred to me as the
Cap’n. When I came back to school that fall, I had my first exposure to what we now call IMing. The ‘nick’ I selected was Capn. Used to this day by Luigi Bai
MacDaddy
Based upon my love of the Macintosh computers. Used mainly by Eb Keshavarz and John Tran.

Usually after a show is done, I go into a bit of a funk, but so far I haven’t. Not sure why. Managed to cantor for the evensong service at St. John’s this
afternoon through the gunk that is still plaguing me by going a bit nasal and really pushing through the breath (thanks, Kitty!). Now that I’m almost better,
and have most evenings free once again, I’ve got lots of clients to get caught up with. And also the hovercraft and MacMAME cabinet projects to address.