Graham Glass, etc.

September Rain

Recorded using old equipment, but still one of my favorite compositions:

Play SeptemberRain.mp3

Remember.
Remember.
Remember.
Remembering the rain...

I remember walking in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
Brown autumn leaves were falling softly to the ground,
(Fall to the ground)
Just like the dreams of a life as they slip away.

How many people do you know,
Who spend their lives just walking under storm clouds?
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

I remember standing in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
Dancing shadows all around me filled my mind,
(They fill my mind)
I felt the fear take control of my destiny.

How many feelings do you hide,
And spend your life just walking under storm clouds?
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

Thunder and lightning,
Fill the sky and make it seem
There's nothing worth fighting for.
The answer is in your hands,
Love yourself again,
(Yourself again)
Say goodbye to the rain.

Remember love in the rain.
Goodbye.
Remember the rain...

I remember crying in the rain,
On a cold and dark September.
And as my teardrops hit the ground I lost the pain.
(I lost the pain)
Tears of joy, love of life, filled my heart again.

The storm clouds passed me by.
I opened up my eyes and saw a rainbow.
In September rain, oh in that September rain.

Thunder and lightning,
Fill the sky and make it seem
There's nothing worth fighting for.
The answer is in your hands,
Love yourself again,
(Yourself again)
Say goodbye to the rain.

Remember love in the rain.
Goodbye.
Remember the rain...

I remember dying in the rain,
And being born in summer.

Remember.
Remember.
Remember and forget...

Losing my (Airline) Virginity

I travel to the UK about once a year to visit my parents. In the past I have tended to fly British Airways, but this year I've decided to pay a little extra to fly Virgin Airlines.

Why?

Because I've heard consistently good things about their level of service. I'm traveling to London in March and will blog about my experience.

Body Wiring

This is fascinating, and reveals something about the way our brain is wired:

Ron Paul and Education

As any reader of this blog knows, I'm a huge fan of Ron Paul because he supports the vision of the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution. In addition, I'm of course a big fan of improving the education system and the founder of edu 2.0.

So why do I support Ron Paul's view that there should be no Department of Education?

To understand my position, it's important to understand US history. When the US constitution was created, the individual states wanted autonomy . They didn't want, say, New York telling Connecticut how to spend their tax dollars.

So they crafted a constitution that allowed the Federal government to raise tax dollars for things like wars that involved all the states and left individual states to raise tax dollars for their own initiatives, including education.

To prove this, here's a quote from James Madison, the principal author of the Constitution and the fourth president of the United States:

If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare, and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare, they may take the care of religion into their own hands; they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parish and pay them out of their public treasury; they may take into their own hands the education of children, establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor; they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for, it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America. - James Madison

So to clarify matters, Ron Paul is not against government funding of education, he's against federal funding of education. He believes that individual states should have the freedom to provide education according to their own principles, and let the people of each state vote with their feet.

My new Desktop Background

Star Trek fans will love this one:

Machinima

One of my friends suggested that I take the Machinima approach for making my Destiny movie. The idea is to leverage the technology behind video games and apply it to more traditional media. So I did a little research and found some fantastic examples. Here is one, called The Dumb Man:

The Dumb Man from Lainy Voom on Vimeo.

Update: many thanks to my friend Peter Yared for pointing me to aniboom:

Desk Bling

Here's a picture of my latest desk bling, a gift from one of my best friends:

Organ Donation: Opt-in vs. Opt-out?

This article describes the debate that's brewing in the UK related to organ donation. Currently, organ donation is an opt-in system and there is not enough supply to satisfy the demand. So people are dying while organs that could have saved them are destroyed.

The best solution I ever heard to this problem was as follows:

If an organ becomes available and more than one person can benefit from it, priority is given to the people that volunteered to donate their own organs.

This scheme provides a tangible benefit for volunteering to donate your organ if you die, and also seems quite fair.

Ron Paul: Modern day Thomas Jefferson

Here's a nice video clip of Ron Paul explaining why he is the only real Republican in the race:

In addition, anyone who is concerned about the allegations that Ron Paul is a racist should read this blog entry by someone who actually worked for Ron Paul.

Close encounters of the Furry kind

Pet lovers might enjoy this: