Friday, July 31, 2009

Prolegomena, in which Holdinator considers different lines with which to open the story of his evening

1. It usually begins with Jack and Jack.

2. My iPod has a total of five songs.

3. It was from Dan Belnap that the words, "Near East," first struck a chord.

4. It was Jessica's suggestion that I create a book case specifically for biographies.

5. At one point I stopped to read a chapter from The Undertaking.

6. I had planned on not getting much rest.

Which one would most likely cause you to keep reading? Even if there were no pictures and the post went on for many paragraphs?

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Politics, in which Holdinator gets unsolicited email from this guy:

Dear Fred ThompsonPAC,

Holdinator is registered in the state of Utah as "unaffiliated."

I guess that's all. This is as political as I will ever get.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The Social Networking Site for Book Lovers in which Holdinator Discovers something about the Demographics of goodreads.com

The first social networking site I ever joined, before facebook and twitter ... uh, I think those are the only ones I've joined otherwise. And I haven't been back to twitter since the day I first signed up. I go on facebook every few days or so, certainly not multiple times a day, likely largely because I don't have internet access at work.

Back to our regularly scheduled posting:

The first site I ever joined was Goodreads.com, a site where you can list books you've read, are reading, and plan on reading, and rate them. Your friends do the same thing, and you can discuss books, write reviews, and other things.

Today when I got on the site I went to a page I hadn't visited before, it was the "Best Books Ever" page. I discovered something about the demographic of this site from this page. Click on the link above and tell me what group of people likely frequents Goodreads more than any other.

It would appear that I fit the mold of the Goodreads crowd.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Congratulations David Locke in which Holdinator Voices his Support for the new Jazz play-by-play dude

Not that what I think matters, but after reading the comments on this short news story, dude, I had to say something.

So here it is. The voice of Hot Rod Hundley has been synonymous with Utah Jazz basketball for the entire existence of the franchise in Salt Lake City. Back in my Jazz-fanatic days when I played Jr. Jazz, collected basketball cards, and idolized Blue Edwards, Hot Rod was the TV announcer and I loved to listen to him call the games. I had no idea, and still really don't, what "hippity hop the bell hop dribble" means, but it was really cool to listen to anyway.

A couple years ago, when I started following the Jazz closely again, I discovered that Hot Rod still called the games, but just on the radio. As it happens, we don't have cable or satelite TV in our home, so anytime Jazz games are not on KJZZ, the radio is how I followed the action, and it was a pleasure to listen to that familiar voice use the same goofy phrases attached to different names (now it was D-Will hippity hopping the bell hop dribble instead of Stockton). But then one day this past season Hot Rod took the day off for some reason, and his replacement on the radio was David Locke, host of 1320 KFAN's Locked on Sports and an amazing NBA analyst.

Quite honestly, it was one of the most enjoyable radio broadcasts I have ever listened to. Locke has energy, a lot of energy, and passion for the game, and specifically for the Jazz. He is obsessed with statistics and understands the personalities of the players, and brings it all to the table when he calls the games. He is entertaining and really very interesting. His radio show can be intellectually stimulating because he includes in his arguments extensive research in addition to his very strong opinions. Someone on the KSL comment thread mentioned above compared him to ESPN's Colin Cowherd, but nothing could be less accurate. Cowherd thinks a lot of himself, talks about himself all the time, and formulates his arguments using cocktails and hot tubs as analogies. Locke brings thoughtful statistics and articulate analysis.

Oh, and David Locke is already a Jazz fan. He's one of us, who listened to Hot Rod growing up and thought to himself that he wanted to do what Rod Hundley did someday. Locke is a no-apologies Utah Jazz fan, and can express what thousands of other Jazz fans are feeling with unmatched passion (like during the first round of the playoffs this last season when his war cry was simply, "Beat the freakin' Lakers!!").

When I heard that Hot Rod was retiring (by the way, I heard it when he first announced it, and it happened to be on Locked on Sports that he announced it) my thought was that it was appropo that he would announce his retirement on Locke's show, because it was likely that Locke would be the next play-by-play guy.

And that prospect excited me.

Locke was the first to admit, during his show today when someone calling in said something about his replacing Hot Rod, that Hot Rod would not, could not, be replaced. "No one replaces Hot Rod Hundley," he said, "If the Jazz could retire radio play-by-play with Hot Rod, they would." But someone needed to take over, and in my humble, but very strong opinion, the best choice for the job is the man who got the job.

From the comments on KSL, it seems that most people object to Locke's voice. They claim that they won't listen, and in some cases won't support sponsors, because Locke's voice is high-pitched.

Really? You are going to miss out on passionate, well-thought out, extensively researched, articulate game calling because his voice is high?

That's too bad.

I say, You'll do awesome Locke. I look forward to many seasons of Jazz basketball with you as my play-by-play guy.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Baby Names? in which Holdinator finds this list in Jessica's handwriting on their computer desk:

Myke
Rich
Patricia
Denise
Jiri
Sheryl
Ellycia
Wendy
Amy
Penny
Maryann
Tracy
Joe (beard)
Joe
Linda
Jocelyn
Jeffrey
Ugly Frog
Jenn
Kevin
Tim
Christine
Val
Jodi
Karla
Nacho Gomez
Wendy J
Amy T
Dreamer Enchanted
Brenda B
Jeanne
Julia
Candice
Cheab

But here's the thing: she's not pregnant.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

The Inept Homeowner, in which Holdinator breaks the Sprinklers

Bless her.

That's all I can say, really. She puts up with a heck of a lot, and so bless her.

That's not to say she wasn't aware of what she was getting into.

You see, when we were dating/engaged (somewhere in there) her car had a problem. I think there was a cable that came loose from the battery. Her dad spent no less than a half hour on the phone with me trying, very patiently, to describe where I should look under the hood to find this cable and reconnect it.

Total time project should have taken: 30 seconds

Total time project took in my hands: 45 minutes (because it took me 15 minutes to find the latch to release the hood)

So when we had a simple sprinkler repair in our front flower bed, and I decided I would investigate and be the superman I ought to be, I unearthed fifteen feet of sprinkler pipe looking for the place where I could unscrew the pipe from the rest of the pipe and take it to Home Depot to find a replacement.

Except that sprinkler pipe isn't screwed together, it's all glued together with these connector things or whatever ("Duh, dork," you're thinking). So all it took was sawing off a couple inches and gluing a new piece in place. Thanks to her brother, that was taken care of a month ago.

Thanks to me, it still doesn't work, because when I got that fifteen feet out, I broke the pipe somewhere else, and now ... well, I tried to at least bury the pipe so it wouldn't be sticking up out of the ground anymore, but the middle of it won't stay under the dirt.

I LOVE YOU JESSICA!

thanks for putting up with me

Monday, July 6, 2009

The Tale of A Weekend in which Holdinator reads two books

I finished two books this weekend.

No joke.

They were both a part of that LDS fiction club of books that we sell at Seagull.

I won't tell you about them.

But I will tell you about the book I'm reading now!

Actually just this much: it's freaking awesome.