Entries Tagged 'News' ↓

This guy has a problem many audiophiles have, including me. A love of music, some nice audio gear and no place sufficient to set it up and enjoy it. He appears to have negotiated a closet and he’s been pretty inventive in assembling components that hopefully work well for him.

Not all audiophiles have this problem. For instance, this fellow seems to have all the space he wants. There are lots of guys like this, but I’m not one of them. And I suspect there are more of us, but we just don’t post pictures of our closets or small spaces. Tricked out Hummer owners post more pics of their rides than those forced to ride around in 1978 Honda Civics. The same is true in audio. Or anything else I suspect.

I’m going a different route. For starters, I’m selling my loudspeakers and the amp designed to run them effectively. The combination is very magical when they’re set up in a room that can be properly configured. But I don’t have a properly, or even improperly, configured space. And the set up represents quite an investment that seems wasted sitting boxed up.

I’ve taken a few steps to remedy my situation. It’s probably an unwise strategy, but it’s the only one I’ve got (for now).

1. I decided to sell the components that need a proper room. This includes a set of speakers and one amp (yes, I have more than one amp). The amp I’m selling is designed to drive single-driver speakers. So, it’s not the most versatile amp out there, but it’s incredible with single-driver speakers that have no crossover.

2. I’m keeping the components that can be engineered to work in a very small space. This includes another amp that will work with most any speaker. It’s a high quality amp that is pretty “speaker friendly.” I’m also keeping my source component, a heavily modified DVD player (used only to play CD’s, DVD-Audio or SACD’s) with a tube output stage, and a buffered-passive preamp (a glorified volume control). I’ve also got a cheap CD changer, for just grins and to use when background music is more the goal.

3. I purchased some mini-monitors to use in a nearfield situation. I may have to play with the placement when the speakers arrive, but I think they’ll be fine. I’m not worried about lack of bass because I’m not a low frequency hound anyway. And there are always subwoofers that can remedy those concerns.

4. But my primary move is the most space saving of all - headphones. I’ve been the longtime owner of a pair of Senns HD600. However, I’ve never owned a headphone amp before. So I bought one. A portable one. Battery powered, or wall wart powered. And it works like a champ! It even makes my iPod or iPod Shuffle sound terrific - and I’m a huge opponent of compressed music.

In the end, that last item may be my final state. I may wind up selling all my audio components knowing that wherever there’s room for my head, I can always slap headphones on and hookup to an iPod or my Mac laptop.

Jimmy Buffett’s “Pirate’s Look at 40″ realized he was “an over 40 victim of fate, arriving too late.” He lamented that there was no longer anything to plunder because he arrived too late on the scene to be a real pirate. I’m an over 40 victim of fate with no space - no room for the music anymore. Except in the car and through my headphones. Thankfully, technology is on my side. The sound is pretty spectacular.

I do miss the days of being able to sit quietly and listen to a great record. But, that’s what happens to audiophiles like me and Pwfletcher. We just go back into the closet to listen to our music.

“I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob,” said Bo Diddley to The New York Times in 2003.

Mr. Diddley died today from heart failure. Last year he suffered a stroke and a heart attack. Perhaps he died from a lack of respect. He considered himself the father of rock and roll. According to the New York Times he was disappointed that he was never able to collect royalties from artists who borrowed his sound.

We’ve heard this before. In fact, quite often. People are bitter that their greatness is unrecognized. They are legendary in their own minds and want to be considered that in the minds of us all. Reality is what it is. Bo Diddley may have been great. Phenomenal even. But the public determines who gets credit. And who doesn’t. They determine who gets paid. And who doesn’t.

Mike Vanderjagt came to Dallas from Indy. The Cowboys have experienced their fair share of egos, but number 13 was by far the greatest of the out-of-control egos! He was 13-18 through 10 games when coach Parcells said, “See ya!” Today, he returns to the Canadian Football League where his talents are appreciated.

He once described his accomplishments to Dallas media as “mind blowing.” He said if he hadn’t gotten on with Dallas when he did it wouldn’t be a problem, because he’d just go to Canada and be the highest paid kicker ever. He took some crap in Indy because he was such a lousy teammate. He took crap here in Dallas for the same reason, coupled with his ineptness. But his greatness isn’t fully appreciated. Just ask him.

It’s very common to read of some famous person who resents not being fully appreciated for how great they are. They try to demand their rightful place in history. Authors, painters, musicians, athletes, scientists, politicians - few, if any endeavors, are exempt. Every industry is full of under-appreciated greatness. None have been able to sway the masses with their complaints.

Whining is ineffective in selling others on our greatness. Few people are swayed toward more highly regarding a whiner. Dead or alive, greatness is bestowed on people by others. Greatness cannot be self-appointed. If it could, we’d all be great. And sadly, we aren’t.

When people refuse to recognize your greatness you have but two choices:

Accept it.

Whine about it.

Well, maybe there is a third option. Be so great that everybody sees it!

Postscript - Humility helps. The Dallas Star’s captain is a perfect example. Read more here.

Go big or go home! I guess that goes for lying, too. Just ask Carrollton, Texas Mayor Becky Miller. She’s doing an excellent job of lying big. And why not. If you’re gonna lie - you might as well make it compelling. She has done that.

Here are just three of the doosies she’s telling. She lost a brother in the Vietnam War. Her father says that’s not true. She sang backup for Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. Both deny knowing her. She was engaged to Eagles member, Don Henley. He denies even knowing her.

She’s a politician. It’s difficult for any of us to understand these lies given her occupation.

Who needs or wants the truth when we can make it up as we go along - making life so much more exciting? I’m just thrilled at the thought of such an exciting past culminating into a political office in a Dallas suburb. Just just never know what greatness lurks among us.

Read what the Dallas Morning News writes about her.

I miss Howard K. Smith. I miss a number of old newsmen. They were vastly better than today’s newsmen, in my judgment. I think of Mr. Smith often, mainly because of something I read about him when I was a college student.

He declared that he had his children write one clear sentence every day. I remember thinking how novel and brilliant that was. Of course, back when I read that I had dreams and aspirations of joining the likes of Faulkner, Sinclair and Irving. I still rather like the notion of a dad having his children write one clear sentence before retiring each day.

Perhaps you don’t remember Howard K. Smith - or maybe you’re too young to have known of him. Here’s an AP story that appeared on February 18, 2002 announcing the death of the 87 year old newsman who was among the classiest of all-time.

__________________________

Howard K. Smith, whose career as a newscaster ranged from World War II as one of “Murrow’s Boys” at CBS to roles as co-anchor and analyst for ABC, is dead at age 87.

Smith died of pneumonia aggravated by congestive heart failure on Friday evening at his home in Bethesda, Md., his son, Jack, said Monday.

Although out of the public eye for nearly a quarter-century, Smith was a broadcasting pioneer and, from television’s infancy, a presence on the air.

Along the way, he made at least two appearances of lasting impact even beyond the journalistic.

In 1960, he served as the moderator of the first Kennedy-Nixon presidential debate, a seminal TV event generally thought to have played a decisive role in Kennedy’s election.

Smith also is memorialized in Robert Altman’s 1975 political satire “Nashville,” in which Smith portrayed himself as a broadcast commentator covering the presidential campaign of the never-glimpsed candidate Hal Phillip Walker.

Howard Kingsbury Smith was born May 12, 1914, in Ferriday, La., and, after attending Tulane University, began his years as a foreign correspondent working for United Press in Copenhagen and Berlin.

In 1941 he joined CBS News as a member of the team assembled by the legendary Edward R. Murrow during World War II, and in 1946 succeeded Murrow as CBS’s London correspondent. He covered Europe and the Middle East for CBS until 1957, when he came to Washington, D.C., as a correspondent and commentator on the network’s nightly TV newscast.

With the civil rights struggle heating up, Smith narrated a 1961 documentary, “Who Speaks for Birmingham?,” in which he quoted Edmund Burke’s observation that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” When the quote was deemed “editorializing” by his bosses and cut from the program, Smith resigned from the network.

Joining ABC News soon after, Smith served as a correspondent and anchored several series, including the respected mid-1960s documentary program “Scope,” which focused on the Vietnam War.

In 1969 he became co-anchor with Frank Reynolds of “The ABC Evening News,” then two years later was joined at the ABC anchor desk by his former CBS colleague Harry Reasoner.

In l975 Smith gave up his co-anchor role but continued as a political commentator. Four years later, after denouncing a flashy four-anchor evening-news format that uncomfortably married Reynolds, Peter Jennings, Barbara Walters and Max Robinson, Smith retired.

His several books include the 1942 bestseller “Last Train from Berlin,” which describes Hitler’s rise to power and his own experiences as the last American correspondent to leave Berlin after war was declared, and his 1966 memoir, “Events Leading Up to My Death: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter.”

His numerous awards include a Peabody and an Emmy.

Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Benedicte Traberg Smith, and one daughter and one son and three grandchildren.

__________________________

Still don’t remember him? Maybe this will help. In 1996 he appeared on The Charlie Rose Show.

Then there’s this newcast from May 15, 1973.

Lastly, there’s this commentary from June 5, 1968 about guns
You’ll notice right away that this is LIVE television.

On April 1st I read an op-ed piece in the NY Times on discipline. Even though the piece relates to baseball - a sport that is among my least favorite - I found it insightful for many areas of life. Discipline applies to all of us, not just MLB pitchers.

Parents discipline their children. It takes parents to get a child on track. Otherwise, they’re likely to lose their way. Teachers, coaches and other adult influences affect our kids - hopefully in a positive way. The collective teaching given to children provides them the understanding and discipline to behave properly.

The discipline we provide our kids is instructional - and sometimes it’s corrective. We teach them. Then sometimes we must correct them. Corrective discipline can involve some form of punishment so they learn the concept of negative consequences.

Discipline has many meanings. The meaning of the op-ed piece dealt primarily with the discipline needed to elevate performance.

Self-management is an ongoing challenge for most of us. We struggle with to-do-lists, distractions, dreams, goals, obstacles and all the stuff that everyday life throws at us. Many of us strive to find an improved level of discipline so we can better reach whatever potential we have. Some of us have no idea what our potential may be.

I’ve met very few people who have mastered the art of discipline. I used to subscribe to the notion of multi-tasking, but some years ago I abandoned that idea because I found it false. Multi-tasking is highly over-rated, the way most people use the phrase. What seems to be more appropriate is this mono-maniac on a mission (a Tom Peters-ism) idea. A person pursues something with single-minded purpose and finds a way to succeed. It’s true, they may then move on to a new thing thus making it appear they’re multi-tasking. In reality, they’re chasing one thing at a time. Perhaps THAT is discipline.

Focus. Discipline. I’m uncertain the difference. I do know it’s learned, which means it’s taught. Which is why I read. And read some more. And read some more. I know what I know. What I don’t know, is what YOU know. Yet knowledge is only part of the equation.

Where knowledge and action meet is where accomplishment takes place. I struggle with putting what I already know into action. I tend to strive for more learning. I realize that I’d likely propel my learning and accomplishment to the next level if I’d improve my doing. By acting, I could learn from my own doing while still learning more from others. It’s a two-for-one bargain. It’s a discipline I need to improve.

I suspect most people have the discipline to do something well. Some have the discipline to do many things well. Part of the effort is deciding where to focus your learning and energy. The desire to do everything ends up being the desire to do nothing. It’s that age old problem of, “If everything is important, then nothing is important.” There are many times that I just have too much on my plate - too many “I want to be able to” items. I need to get on track toward something, then stay there long enough to win.

I recently purchased a guitar - not to become another Eric Clapton, but to stretch my aging brain. I knew guys in high school who spent every waking moment playing guitar. They were very accomplished. I know guys today who have played for years. And they too are very good. I never had the single-minded focus to play the guitar, or any other instrument. So, I never learned. Now, life is full of even more distractions. How often do you think I practice? You’re right - not often.

It mattered enough that I researched a purchase. It mattered enough that I spent good money on it (almost $600). But I lack discipline. Why?

Maybe because it’s so hard - it’s completely different than anything I’ve ever attempted (which, oddly enough, was the very reason I bought it - to stretch my brain). Maybe because I’m busy. Aren’t we all? But not too busy to do other things I like - like watch playoff hockey! No, I’m just making excuses. And there are no good ones.

One thing at a time. Want to play the guitar? Then practice until you learn. Don’t move on to anything else. Want to write a book? Write. Don’t move on until you’ve written it. Want to learn to race cars? Then take courses and race. Don’t move on until you’ve done it.

Can you do it all? No. And I’ve concluded that this is the real quandary - and reason why we like to claim we’re multi-tasking. By conning ourselves into thinking we’re great at juggling many things - we convince ourselves that we can have it all. Sure, we realize we’ll be less accomplished at some things than others, but we’re okay with that. But at the end of the day, we indeed are a jack of all trades and master of NONE. And when we finally review our accomplishments - if we’ve not been passionate enough to pursue one thing (at least, at a time) - then we’ve not done much at all.

Name the accomplished person. Pick the field. I’ll wager they’re a mono-maniac on a mission. I’ll also wager they’re disciplined in their pursuit of that mission.

“I don’t think just because a guy makes a guarded shot with 2.1 seconds left makes me any different than if he hadn’t made the shot.” That’s what Kansas basketball coach Bill Self said this morning in a press conference at San Antonio’s Alamo-dome.

Self is wrong. The shot did make a difference. A big difference.

Oklahoma State, where Self once played, has made overtures of paying him millions and millions. Boone Pickens gives OSU options many schools don’t have. OSU appears to want Self. They leaked their interest before the championship game last night, but winning that game did not hurt Self’s career.

Millions of dollars will come his way thanks to a 3-point shot with 2.1 seconds left in regulation play. In overtime his Jayhawks played with all the momentum of a winner while Memphis played knowing they had let the championship slip away.

Is Self a better coach for having won?

Yes. I could argue that he’s now been there and done that. That alone forces the “yes” answer. He is a different coach, a different man - all because his player made the shot. Calipari is less of a coach for having lost, too. His team didn’t sink free throws. They didn’t manage the clock well with 16 seconds remaining. They didn’t defend the final inbound pass in regulation. They didn’t defend that final shot taken with 2.1 second remaining. Their failure is Calipari’s failure, while the Jayhawk’s success is Self’s success. That’s just how it works.

Self’s destiny will be different because of 2.1 seconds. Oddly enough, OSU once had a famed basketball coach in Eddie Sutton. Coach Sutton’s destiny changed when he was seen drunk. I don’t know how long it took him to get drunk, but it only took moments for his career to come crashing down around his drunken head. His son, unable to live in the shadow of his famous father, resigned. Now, Self is the golden boy of coaching at the ripe old age of 45.

Bill Self could go to OSU and perhaps coach there until he’s old. Or he might be able to stay at Kansas and coach until he’s old. Either way, a few zeros are added to his salary because his player hit a shot with 2.1 second remaining.

Sometimes fortunes and lives rise and fall by the slimmest of margins.

These pictures are from The Mood Swinger website.

The following things have altered my mood recently:

• A speeding ticket
• A social event
• Visitors
• Clutter
• Family
• A phone call
• An email
• A song
• A news story
• A work-related problem

Mood altering drugs were commonplace when I was young. I knew too many kids who took pills, smoked pot and dropped acid. I knew even more who made alcohol a weekly element of entertainment. There were lots of mood swings in my junior high and high school years. Not so much any more. At least not the result of substance use, or abuse. Most of the mood swings I see today are the result of an external happening.

We sometimes let the slightest thing derail our mood, or sense of happiness. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all felt it. Few of us can explain it or even understand it. We’re in pretty good spirits, and then a phone call changes everything. Not a phone call of a death, or serious illness, or injury. Just a phone call that we didn’t expect. It could be anything. It breaks our good mood up into a thousand pieces. Our countenance changes almost immediately.

It seems odd to me that my mood can be so quickly altered by things, or happenings. I feel weak for allowing it. Few things in the list above are life-changing. I mean, the speeding ticket wasn’t fun. It sure wasn’t fun when I found out how much it would cost - just moments ago. But, I have the money. It won’t negatively affect my lifestyle. Yes, I begrudge the money. Yes, I doubt I was going as fast as the officer claimed. I admit I was speeding though. I know it’s a useless expense because it solves nothing, proves nothing and prevents nothing. So that puts me into a bit of a funk. But it’s not that serious. So why bother to let it alter my mood?

Family is important and most often they put me in a good mood. Just being with family is nice. Thinking of family is nice. Family is life-changing because of their importance!

I’m most disgusted with allowing ridiculous things to negatively alter my mood. A phone call? An email? Why allow those things to affect me? When I consciously consider these things I’m able to change my mood yet again. I can get back to a prior mood if I try. I fear I try too infrequently. I need to practice the art of mood management more.

Add that to the long list of skills I must master in order to be a better person - and find a happier life.

Photo: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

“Ten seconds to go, we’re thinking we’re national champs, all of a sudden a kid makes a shot, and we’re not,” Calipari said.

Coaches tell players to play until they hear the whistle. There’s a simple reason - the play isn’t over until the whistle. As long as the play is alive, anything can happen. It’s why Yogi Berra said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

Memphis’ coach Calipari didn’t tell his team that. Given the quote above, it’s clear he was thinking the same thing the players were thinking. “We’ve got this.” Not so fast.

The Tigers lost for many reasons. Missed free throws. Failure to run some clock with 16 second left. Failure to finish possessions with points. Failure to defend. It was their championship to lose - and they found a way to give Kansas repeated opportunities. Kansas, to their credit, took advantage and now they’re the champions.

Months of preparation. Months of competing. Lots of hard work. And Memphis comes up short all because they quit too soon.

Seth Godin’s “The Dip” speaks of this phenomenon. Many people struggle and toil, but give up too soon. If they’d just keep pressing forward through the dip they’d find themselves reaching the shores of greater success.

Why do people (and teams) stop too soon?

Perhaps primarily because they don’t really know how far or close they really are. Memphis thought they were closer than they really were. Instead, they found they had further to go than they first thought.

We know where we want to go. We can see the success of the far, yonder shore. We dive in and begin to swim. None of us know how far it really is. Some stop swimming too soon.

It’s difficult to know how close we are to reaching the shore. It’s also difficult to know if our continued swimming will propel us to the shore of choice. We see the shore and think we’re close. Thoughts of having landed run through our mind, but we’re not to the shore yet. Swim until you can put your feet on the shore. Don’t quit swimming too soon or you may drown.

Eggs need time to hatch. You never know when the chicks will emerge, or if they’ll emerge. Don’t count them too soon. The men’s basketball team from Memphis is merely the latest example of the very high price paid for quitting too soon.

On 7/5/05 this was posted on leathernecks.com, a Marine Corp community for USMC veterans:

Department of the Navy Announces the Death of Retired Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale

Retired Navy Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, Medal of Honor recipient, former Viet Nam prisoner of war (POW), naval aviator and test pilot, academic, and American hero died today, July 5, 2005, at his home in Coronado, Calif. He was 81 years old and had been battling Alzheimer’s disease.

Born Dec. 23, 1923 in Abingdon, Ill., and a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1947, he is best remembered for his extraordinary leadership as the senior naval officer held in captivity during the Vietnam War. As commanding officer of Carrier Air Group Sixteen flying from the aircraft carrier the USS Oriskany, he was shot down while leading a mission Sept. 9, 1965.

During his 7½-year imprisonment, he was tortured numerous times, forced to wear vise-like heavy leg irons for two years and spent four years in solitary confinement. While imprisoned, he organized the prisoner culture in defiance of regulations forbidding prisoner communication and improvised a cohesive set of rules governing prisoner behavior. Codified in the acronym, BACK U.S. (Unity over Self), these rules gave prisoners a sense of hope, which many credited with giving them the strength to endure their ordeal.

Upon his release in 1973, Stockdale’s extraordinary heroism became widely known and he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1976. A portion of his citation reads:

“Stockdale…deliberately inflicted a near mortal wound to his person in order to convince his captors of his willingness to give up his life rather than capitulate. He was subsequently discovered and revived by the North Vietnamese who, convinced of his indomitable spirit, abated their employment of excessive harassment and torture of all prisoners of war.”

“Vice Adm. Jim Stockdale’s legendary leadership and heroic service to the cause of freedom has been an inspiration to our nation,” said Secretary of the Navy Gordon England. “His courage and life stand as timeless examples of the power of faith and the strength of the human spirit. Our thoughts are with his devoted family. America and our Navy are eternally grateful and will always remember him.”

Upon his retirement from naval service, the secretary of the Navy established the Vice Admiral Stockdale Award for Inspirational Leadership presented annually in both Pacific and Atlantic Fleets. Stockdale held 26 combat awards including two Distinguished Flying Crosses, three Distinguished Service Medals, two Purple Hearts and four Silver Star Medals. He is a member of the Navy’s Carrier Hall of Fame, The National Aviation Hall of Fame and an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He held 11 honorary doctoral degrees.

“Our Navy is saddened by the loss of Vice Adm. James B. Stockdale, a giant among heroes and a patriarch of ethical leadership,” said Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark. “Adm. Stockdale challenged the human limits of moral courage, physical endurance and intellectual bravery, emerging victorious as a legendary beacon for all to follow. Our thoughts and prayers are with Sybil, his devoted partner in love and life, and the rest of the Stockdale family.”

Stockdale will be honored at a memorial service on board the USS Ronald Reagan in his hometown of Coronado, Calif. The service will take place Saturday, July 16. He will be buried with full honors at the U.S. Naval Academy Saturday, July 23. He is survived by his beloved wife Sybil of Coronado, Calif., and his four sons: James of Beaver, Pa.; Sidney of Albuquerque, N.M.; Stanford of Denver, Colo.; Taylor of Claremont, Calif.; and eight grandchildren.

Stockdale’s biography and additional photos are located on the following Web site: http://www.admiralstockdale.com .

Jim Collins wrote a business book, “Good to Great.” In it he interviewed Admiral Stockdale about his POW experience. Collins called the man’s philosophy the Stockdale Paradox: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

Sadly, this picture more depicts the public notion of the man more than the other photos. During the vice-presidential candidate debates he stumbled and appeared quite stupid. He wasn’t stupid. But with his hearing aid turned off he remarked during one debate, “Who am I? And why am I here?” From there his legacy - among those who didn’t know better - grew into a Saturday Night Live skit and water cooler jokes. He was perceived as the dunce of dunces. Of course, he was not a dunce at all. But few knew. Presidential politics was hard at work again - creating notions that may not be honest or correct.

That is why I bring up James Stockdale today. He died almost 3 years ago and still few realize the history of the Admiral. This election year is full of similar perceptions. I don’t claim to know what’s right. Or what is true. And I’m not politically motivated. I do however know - and better understand (thanks to what happened to Admiral Stockdale) - that what we see and hear is not always true or correct. Indeed, during Presidential elections (and all the campaigning) - things are not always as they appear. People aren’t always as they seem.