Greetings from what can only be called one of the most sporadic newsletters on the internet — although I've seemed to settle into releasing issues on a near-quarterly frequency.
Our family has settled into something of a routine after our move to the Midwest and we've dug ourselves out from under a thick blanket of snow. So this seemed like a fine time to dust off the old newsletter, just in time for the spring season — though right now, winter is having a hard time letting go.
Ugliest Color in the World
Sure, we all love nice colors. But if, for some reason, you want the opposite, then Pantone 448C has you covered. It's best described as a drab, dark brown that resembles a trickle of dirty sludge flowing through a dank sewer.
Its ugliness is so renowned, in fact, researchers in Australia recommended it for use on tobacco and cigarette packaging (in conjunction with some truly revolting smoking-related images) to dissuade people from buying smokes.
If you want to incorporate a little ugliness into your life, Pantone 448C is roughly equivalent to hex code #4A412A or RGB code 64/65/42.
Favorite Hex Color
In start contrast to Pantone 448C, Colorvote is on a mission to find the most appealing color in the world. Well, most appealing hex color, anyway.
Using the model of the timeless card game war, Corlorvote presents you with two colors. Choose your favorite. Keep going.
Each click is counted and tabulated. Like the site explains, "You click. We aggregate. repeat."
If you click the word "ranks" in the lower left corner, you'll see the current color standings. As of this writing (and for some time previously), after ranking just 0.18393397331237793% of presented colors, the most preferred hex color on the internet is #1061bc.
500 Songs
I'm currently enjoying Andrew Hickey's podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs. I've listened to the first 150 so far and I'm really enjoying the ride.
Hickey started his history in 1938 with "Fly Away Home" by the Benny Goodman Orchestra and plans to end with an as-yet-to-be revealed song from 1999. The latest episode is No. 164 featuring "White Light/White Heat" by The Velvet Underground.
Initially Hickey released the episodes every week (making this a ten-year project!), but he's recently slowed down due to some personal challenges and the fact that he's entering a period in rock history where the stories take a little longer to tell. Some of the recent episodes have bumped up to two hours or more — significantly longer than the 30-45 minutes of the first 50 or so.
Hickey really does his research, and each episode is packed with information about the song, its history, and the musicians who played on it. Additionally, Hickey talks about the other colorful (and often recurring) characters responsible in some way for bringing each song to market. He also includes snippets from other songs that inspired or are somehow related to the featured song. I often find I enjoy these supporting songs a bit more than the main tune.
I've learned quite a bit about the early days of rock and roll and have come to appreciate some performers and songs that I've been dismissive of in the past. The biggest example of this is probably "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets.
I've often disregarded the song primarily (I suspect) because it was the theme song for Happy Days, the 1970s Milwaukee-based sitcom glorifying the 1950s. But under Mr. Hickey's instruction, I've picked up a few bits of knowledge about this overplayed anthem.
Bill Haley was the Indiana State Yodeling Champion and started his music career as a Jimmie Rodgers sound-a-like. Of course most people (at least of a certain age) have heard of Bill Haley and his Comets. But prior to cementing themselves in rock and roll legend, they were known for playing western swing tunes as Bill Haley and his Saddlemen.
Haley's version of "Rock Around the Clock" was released as the B-side to "Thirteen Women" in 1954, but it didn't get popular until 1955 when it was featured as the opening song in the film Blackboard Jungle. This popularity made it the first rock song to hit the pop charts and inspired the next generation of rock and roll stars, including Frank Zappa and Pete Townshend.
I still don't have any desire to listen to "Rock Around the Clock," but I do have a greater appreciation for its place in rock history.
Some other episodes that I particularly enjoyed include "How High the Moon" (No. 9) featuring Wisconsin native son Les Paul and his wife Mary Ford; "Hound Dog" (No. 15) by Big Mama Thornton; "Stagger Lee" by Lloyd Price (no. 76); "House of the Rising Sun" (No. 115) by the Animals; and "Good Vibrations" (no. 146), a long episode that's as much about the history of the theremin as it is about the biggest hit the Beach Boys ever had.
Hickey is turning every 50 episodes into a book. Volume 1: From Savoy Stompers to Clock Rockers and Volume 2: From the Million Dollar Quartet to the Fab Four are available now.
If music history is of any interest to you, A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs is worth your time. it's available anywhere podcasts are podcasted.
My Best-Ever Dad Joke (Is About Dogs)
In a recent article for Associated Press, Jennifer Peltz reported that, according to the venerable American Kennel Club, French bulldogs have knocked Labrador retrievers out of the top spot as America's Favorite Dog (a distinction they held for 31 years).
That reminds me of a joke ...
While sitting in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower in Paris during our family's Trip Around the World, we saw a French bulldog strolling across the green grass of the Champ de Mars.
I found humor in seeing a French Bulldog in France. So I asked my kids, "What do they call a French Bulldog in Paris?"
They looked at me with suspicion. They knew a joke was coming, but they weren't hip to that old standard about nuts from Brazil. So they replied with, "No, dad. Tell us what they call a French Bulldog in Paris."
The answer, of course, is "A bulldog."
An Alien Experience
Some of you know that I'm a habitual player of Pathfinder, the tabletop role-playing game published by Paizo. These days I play mostly virtually with a regular group of folks, and mostly on Roll 20 (though we've started experimenting with Foundry).
Recently we ran into a few scheduling conflicts (which may or may not involve submarines), so our recurring games were put on pause. Instead, while we waited for said conflicts to resolve, we decided to try a few new games. And one of those was the Alien RPG from Free League Publishing.
Designed by Tomas Härenstam, co-founder and CEO of Free League, the Alien RPG uses a slightly modified version of his Year Zero game engine. The main focus in Alien is more on storytelling and role playing than dice rolling, although to complete any sort of task you will eventually need to roll some dice.
To succeed at a task (hacking a computer, using a motion detector, shooting a pulse rifle), you roll a number of six-sided dice that's dependent upon your skill level. A result of a single six is a success, but more sixes give you the ability to perform additional tasks or stunts. No sixes mean you fail what you're trying to do.
Eventually, though, creeping around a derelict spaceship or an abandoned colony settlement is going to expose your character (and maybe you, the player, too) to a level of stress. And stress is where things begin to go off the rails.
Once stress enters into the game, in addition to rolling your standard number of dice, you also need to roll Panic dice. This is both a gift and a curse. Panic gives you and edge that can help you succeed (because of the chance for an extra six). But it also open you up to catastrophic failure (which happens when you roll a one). This failure has any number of negative consequences, but usually includes more stress, which means more Panic Dice ...
The game really evokes that sense of nervous terror you get while watching a group of colonial marines walk down a hallway that you (the viewer) know is infested with xenomorphs. And the Panic Dice mechanic takes that feeling and dials it right up to the max. If you're not careful (and we sure weren't), the Panic levels quickly go off the charts and the whole scenario spirals quickly out of control. Game over, man.
If you are a fan of the Alien franchise and enjoy role-playing games, then consider giving the Alien RPG a shot. If you're lucky you'll have the chance to blast a xenomorph with a pulse rifle, an action I found to be quite satisfying.
Trade Coffee: This Week's Brew
This morning I just popped open a new bag of coffee, an event that is always a highlight of any week.
A few years back, my kid got me a subscription to Trade Coffee as a holiday gift. I enjoyed receiving a new fantastic bag of coffee every few weeks. But when the gift subscription term ended, I decided not to renew the service.
At the time I was living in Los Angeles, where I had ready access to countless local roasters offering a wide variety of interesting, fresh-roasted coffees. Name drop: Kindness and Mischief's Ethiopia Kayon Mountain and Woodcat's Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (both natural process).
But now in the wilds of rural Wisconsin, my local coffee choices are not quite as robust. Although there are a few places to get great beans (Wonderstate always provides), but the overall variety can be quite limited. And I really like trying new roasts.
So, to keep my morning ritual interesting, a few months back I doubled down and re-upped my Trade Coffee subscription. I have no regrets.
If you're looking for great beans from interesting roasters, give Trade a try. If you use this link — http://s.trdcfe.me/6mQJMN — you'll get a free bag (and I'll get a $15 credit toward a future bag of coffee, which will make me happy).
PowerLix Sleeping Pad
Speaking of life in rural Wisconsin, my kid had to do some camping this past January. Now, as a family we're seasoned campers. But our most recent outdoor experiences have been in California. And although it can get a little chilly in the California mountains, we've never camped outside in temperatures as cold as the Wisconsin woods get in mid-January.
One of the biggest concerns with winter camping is having adequate insulation under your sleeping bag. Many winter camping experts advise using two sleeping pads — one of closed-cell foam and one air mattress. This technique effectively boosts the warmth-enhancing R-value (it's not just for houses!).
The problem was, I had no idea into which of our many moving boxes I'd stashed the sleeping pads. After a little frantic unboxing, I managed to find a closed-cell foam pad, but my Thermarest NeoAir remained elusive.
We were running out of time, so I ordered a PowerLix Sleeping Pad. And it was fantastic.
As much as I like the Thermarest NeoAir (it kept me company on many an adventure, including my 13 day trek on the John Muir Trail), blowing it up, especially after a day of walking up and down mountains, was no fun. PowerLix, however, makes this job a lot easier.
The sleeping pad comes with an included air scoop bag which allows you to inflate the pad by swinging it through the air a few times. I thought this process would take awhile, but we managed the job with only five or six sweeping swipes. And when the bag is not scooping air, it can serves as a waterproof stuff sack or (when filled with clothing) an adequate pillow.
I do think the NeoAir is a better pad. But it's also famously noisy, crinkling loudly every time the sleeper rolls over in the night. By contrast, the PowerLix, with its series of interlocking hexagon-shaped cells, manages to provide decent padding (and R-value) with significantly less noise. And at a fraction of the cost.
So ... What's the Deal With AI Anyway?
Today you can't visit the internet without someone talking about AI. usually how it's going to destroy humanity as we know it — or just be employed to endlessly write malware). Italy, for instance, is so scared of the future that AI technology promises, the Italian data-protection authority has completely banned ChatGPT. On the other hand, some people really put the AI through its paces, like teaching it how to play something a lot like The Sims or using it to assist people through those awkward first dates and job interviews.
But what's really happening with AI programs like ChatGPT and should we be worried? If you're wondering how the current generation of AI bots work, check out Stephan Wolfram's highly detailed breakdown of just what's going on under the hood of ChatGPT.
And if this sort of deep analysis is to your liking, Wolfram has a written a number of other articles about ChatGPT and AI, all linked on his site, that are worth reading.
Serious Questions
Who wants the last egg?
You decide to make yourself some eggs for breakfast. When you open the egg carton, you see three eggs inside. You only want two. Do you make three instead? Or do you leave a single egg for the next person to come along?
Is there a cell phone mount for your car that doesn't suck?
Really. I'd love to know.