Saw these guys up the road on a bike ride today.  Go Horns!

Well, a knock off.  Animals don’t know what to make of it.  So far, pretty cool, though.

Check out what I found in my closet.

I just recently learned that Margaritaville was based on the margaritas at Matt’s El Rancho, but had no idea that Austin was almost in the title of the song.  Good article, even for non-fans.

Jimmy Buffett almost wasted away in ‘Austin, Texasville’

Another one from the local free arts paper, the Austin Chronicle:

How Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” Became the Most Valuable Song of All Time

Buffett began composing the song after visiting a local Mexican restaurant

We spent Summer 2006 at the University of Aizu in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Japan.  We have an old blog from that summer, but here are my favorite photos.

Great time last night at Bob Schneider’s Valentine’s Day Show at ACL.  Two years in a row.  This could get to be a habit.

Just went to play some music in the office on my PC.  I head the news of Vic Damone’s passing and had the urge to hear “On the Street Where You Live”.  It started playing low, so I turned it up loud.  But it was still too low, and sounded like it was coming from the other room.  In fact, it was.  Somehow my PC had decided to play it through the Amazon Echo downstairs, at high volume.  Scared the cats, the dog and my family.  Below is a good list of old 1950s songs from Spotify, more of my parent’s generation, but good stuff.

I haven’t been very technical lately, but I ran across this blog post from The unpublished notebooks of J. M. Korhonen.  Covers my sentiments on Blockchain / Cryptocurrencies exactly.  When I was asked I used to joke that bitcoin combines all the disadvantages of a credit card with all the disadvantages of cash.  A good short read:

My professional opinion as a blockchain researcher: I don’t see the point (yet)

Cold rainy Sunday morning watching a cooking show on PBS.  Leah Chase is cooking Sheepshead, which they called Gaspergou, a word I have never heard.  Just above freezing here, 33F and raining with thunder.  A group of 20 or 30 small birds piled into the birdbath, perhaps frightened by the thunder.  Now Leah Chase is making Turtle Soup, something I could really go for on this cold day.  Maybe a little cognac in my coffee, the next best thing to sherry in some turtle soup.

I have always enjoyed Michael Lewis’ writing.  One of the most interesting things I have read in a long time.

Has Anyone Seen the President?

Michael Lewis goes to Washington in search of Trump and winds up watching the State of the Union with Steve Bannon.