The Drones Club is the fabled gentleman’s club of P.G. Wodehouse’s stories where the seemingly foolish heirs of vast fortunes gathered to share in revelry. They didn’t work for their fortunes; rather their wealth came from of benefactors and inheritances. The complete freedom from the labors of the working classes gave them the opportunity to drink deeply from both the brandy casks as well as from the friendship of fellow drones. Their inheritance gave them the freedom for celebration. So they sang, played, had their corporate stories, and actually loved each other.

What does this have to do with Christianity?

Like the drones, we are heirs to a fortune. We neither worked, nor deserved the vast wealth heaped upon us in our salvation. We were picked to be royal heirs, adopted into the wealthiest of all families, before our birth, before we’d done anything that could possibly make sense of why we might deserve it. And after receiving our inheritance, we’ve still never done anything to justify why we deserve it. The beautiful excesses of God’s grace have been lavished upon us. Our response to this outlandish and supremely undeserved generosity is celebration. We revel because the work has already been done. We enjoy God and His creation as our thanksgiving. In fact, our one main goal is to simply enjoy God, forever.

We Christians are further similar to the drones in that none of us are of much account to the world around. As Jeeves says of Bertie, we are “mentally negligible”. Very few of us are important or wise. We are weak and frail, given to ignorance and spitefulness. We continually misrepresent and misunderstand our Father’s wishes. We are foolish children that have been given everything. Our story too, is supreme foolishness and worthy of profound disgust from the strong and smart.

The Initiation

If you want to be a drone, here is the gauntlet you must pass through:
Accept the supreme ridiculousness of the gospel. Realize its folly and love it for its own sake. Quit the pride and self-justification of those who believe that the quality of life (both in this world and beyond) is contingent upon our efforts. Realize that God created a reality full of drama and beauty just because it was His good pleasure, and for no other reason. And accept that if God can be frivolous with all of the universe, we can be frivolous in thanking Him for it.

Need help with the initiation?

We can turn to our story to help us with this initiation. Read a couple of excerpts from one of the foolish, weak, and most flawed drones: Paul from Tarsus.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
“ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.”

Click button to download file (2.9 MB, 128kbps mp3)

Marc Wetherington

I recorded the song above as a tribute to the passing of my friend, Marc Wetherington. The song, “Will I Live On”, is an instrumental cover of one of the lesser known songs by the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Marc and I became friends when we met each other in what is known as The Last Waltz in the South. The Last Waltz was the retirement concert for Ronnie Hammond, the lead singer of ARS, who was going to give his last concert. Several of the more hardcore fans known as the “Champagne Jammers” flew in from all parts of the country down to Georgia to see Ronnie’s last show. Heck, we even had people fly in from Austria! (Of course, that would be Southern George.)

Marc was the first person I saw as soon as I stepped off the plane. We got along instantly from that point on. His luggage didn’t make it over on the flight, but apparently that was not unusual for him (it had happened five times before!). Later on, we stopped by Walmart where he picked up some replacement supplies and I helped myself to some long underwear. We also met Patti and Kellen at the airport for the first time. Patti is just about the nicest person in the world. She is a lifelong friend. She really made that whole weekend a special experience with her enthusiasm and stories. Patti grew up around all of our favorite music from that area, and being around her was a real treat. Even a couple of years later, Marc and Patti came to a restaurant in San Diego to watch me play some jazz with my band.

I wish nothing but the best for Marc’s family and friends. He was truly a good guy. Just ask anyone from the Last Waltz.

The Last Waltz in the South

The Last Waltz was one of those rare times in life where you instantly make a group of new friends from all over the world because you all share a common, in this case the music of ARS. I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time. We had plenty of drama, plenty of excitement, plenty of good music, and we got to spend quality time with the band members and their families. Marc diligently carried a notebook with him throughout the trip and recorded what happened. He eventually made a special website for the Last Waltz after returning home, and I was surprised to find that it was still up. This was in 2002, before it was so easy to make websites, so I give him major props for putting in all that time and effort. At the website, you can find his much more eloquent and unabridged account of what happened during our special weekend. Just in case the website ever goes down, I’ve saved the contents in a PDF file, which you can find below:

Click button to download Marc’s website (0.5 MB, pdf)

Farshad (aka Q-Ball)

Before I finish, I feel compelled to just point out some of the more, shall I say, “interesting” events that happened that weekend. I am ashamed (or proud?) that much of the drama was provided by my college friend, Farshad. Of course, to the Jammers he is known as “Q-Ball”. Farshad did not have the slightest interest in ARS music, but when he found out I was going, he wanted in. He brought a bunch of newly purchased equipment with him to document the whole thing. The works. He maxed out his credit cards and ATM cards. Seriously. He didn’t even have money to pay the cab driver who dropped him off in front of the hotel. One of the CJ’ers had to pay, but I forgot who. So there he is with his new laptop, professional audio recording equipment, portable digital recorder, video camera, and no money or common sense. One of things I was very grateful for was that Farshad was going to record everything that was going on and preserve the history of it all. The crazy bastard was enthusiastic, I have to hand it to him for that.

So, things are going pretty smoothly, everyone is having a good time with each other. Everyone was so friendly. Farshad was behaving for the most part. He was recording everything. He recorded on his audio device an interview with Kevin Dockrell. He videotaped most of the pre-party. I specifically remember a segment devoted to all of Southern George’s tattoos. Most importantly, he recorded the concert. Now, keep in mind that the concert was being professionally recorded by Bill Wendt also. However, I’ve only seen a couple of songs from that video on the DVD that everyone probably has now. What happened to the rest of that?

Anyway, towards the end of the concert, Farshad’s crazy side started coming out. He had this intense desire to get really unique and strange angles on his video. He would give the camera to strangers in the audience and have them record. They would pass it along like a beach ball at a baseball game. Well, at the end of the concert, Ronnie comes out and performs “My Song” as his final number. It was beautiful and touching, and special because he hadn’t performed it for decades. After Ronnie finishes and leaves the stage, the audience is applauding and buzzing. Farshad decides that this is the perfect moment to get on the stage and capture the audience from the stage’s perspective on his camera. So he runs top speed across the stage with his one eye in the viewfinder. He can’t see where he’s running. He crashes into Ronnie’s chair and guitar (left on the stage) and almost breaks his neck as he crashes to the ground. His camera goes flying out, and his audio recorder hits the ground and splits into pieces. There goes that interview with Kevin.

Unfortunately, that video was never found. Why? When Farshad returned home, he gave it to someone to transfer to the computer. After years of searching, I found out his name was Jeremy Cash. After hounding Jeremy for a while in 2005, he told me he didn’t know where the video was. So that video is probably lost forever. It’s unfortunate. There was a lot of good stuff on there. All that behind the scenes action.

Some other memorable moments

The Proposal
Farshad proposed to Patti at the gas station using lipstick instead of a ring (since he had no money). I don’t remember why, but it was weird.

The Bloody Tub

Farshad said, “Steal my stuff and beat me up. Put me in the bath tub with fake blood and video it.”

Farshad begged Marc, Patti, Sheri, Jim, George (I don’t know if I’m getting all the people right) to beat him unconscious, steal his valuables, and leave him in the tub. Why? I don’t remember exactly, but to prove some strange point about something. I don’t even ask anymore. But the point is, Farshad said, “Steal my stuff and beat me up. Put me in the bath tub with fake blood and video it.”

Farshad disappears…for months
Farshad ran off in the middle of the night in a taxi, the night before we were to fly back home. With no money, not even plastic. He missed his flight the next day. In fact, he didn’t make it back home for a few weeks. That was the beginning of a crazy year for him. To get money for his trip back, he had to sell all his new equipment, including his $2000 laptop which someone bought for $200. When he came back home, his apartment utilities had been shut off. When I went to see him for the first time since Georgia (months later), his apartment door was wide open with no light or running water. He came back later that night, and we sat in the dark eating crackers and peanuts while I caught up with his story. He explained how he made it back to Calilfornia. More interestingly, he had recently been arrested for causing a bomb threat at his local DMV. Why? You see, while walking to the DMV to get a truck driver’s license (he wanted to drive across the country and gain experiences) he came across one of thos buttons that pedestrians press to cross the crosswalk. It was on the ground or in the trash or something. He thought it would be an interesting to study or analyze. So he carried it with him into the DMV. When his turn came up in the line, he asked the lady next to him to watch his stuff. The lady sees these wires sticking out of this metal thing, and she flips out (it’s fresh after 9/11, mind you). Everyone evacuates the DMV. Farshad is arrested by the police. Later on, he is interrogated by an FBI agent. They search his house and confiscate his phone, which is why I couldn’t get in touch with him for a long time. You can read about it in the article that appeared in the Orange County Register newspaper (below):

Click button to download article (15 KB, pdf)

For those interested, you can also hear the entire account in Farshad’s own words in the recording below. Click to play, or download from the link below:

Download audio file (Farshad_bombing-incident.mp3)

Download audio (17 MB, 128kbps mp3, 18:38)

Farshad’s current status
Farshad has recently moved to an ashram (spelling?) in a remote area of India. He will be there indefinitely. There is no electricity and no communication there. So I don’t what the hell that crazy bastard is up to. Poor Indians. How can we warn them?

The Rose Hill Gang

“Well, any friend of Skynyrd is a friend of ours.”

This is not Farshad related, but I also remember the visit to the cemetery where Duane Allman was buried. When Patti stepped over the chains around the Allman grave, we heard a whistle blow from up top on the hill. Because of recent vandalism problems, there was a guard watching the Allman grave. His name was Buford. He came down to talk to us. After Patti mentioned that she was once married to Ed King and knew all those guys, Buford was very pleased and I distinctly remember him saying (in a thick southern accent), “Well, any friend of Skynyrd is a friend of ours.” He then proceeded to give us a private tour of the cemetery. We saw the gravestone for Little Martha, and we saw a few places where the Allman Brothers took pictures for their album art. It was special. The group of us that took that tour eventually were called the “Rose Hill Gang”. I love that name.

Lois…will show you a time
Anyone else remember the hooker that was knocking on our hotel doors in the middle of the night? It was like 20 degrees outside and she was wearing practically nothing! What was the name we gave her again? Lois? Evileen? I forgot…

Georgia Music Hall of Fame
One of the highlights for all of us was when Ronnie took us all to the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. We first had a soul food lunch with him at H&H, which was great. I also saw a display for one of my favorite blues artists, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, at the Hall. Incidentally, I also remember walking out of there and picking up a newspaper, where I learned that the Lakers defeated Dallas in the biggest comeback in NBA history.

First, I am shockingly disappointed at the lack of interesting articles written about all of this. I diligently searched all the online news articles for a couple of weeks to read what has been written about this rare accomplishment. Most of the articles carefully question whether Federer is now the greatest tennis player of all time. They are all mildly opinionated, politically correct, and quite boring. I sense that everyone is very afraid to say that Federer is better than Sampras, or Borg, or whoever they think is the GOAT. I get the same feeling when reading articles about Kobe and Jordan. Except, in this case, the statistics are much more favorable towards Federer, and he is generally better perceived than Kobe to the public. Anyway, the articles are all boring. That leaves it up to me to actually say something interesting.

OK, on to my first “I told you so” point. If you read my previous article:
Roger Federer & Rafael Nadal in the Epic 2009 Australian Open Final
You will find this quote:

If I had to make a prediction, it is this: Roger is going to change something in his game and training and will return even stronger and smarter. Nadal’s awesome greatness is challenging him physically and definitely mentally. And I think Roger has an additional level that we have not seen yet.

I am confident in saying that Federer tweaked his game enough to not only come back to his old, dominant self, but even surpass his previous abilities. Now, I know there are a lot of ways to disagree with that, but at least it’s debatable. For one thing, he finally won the French Open. Sure, Nadal was knocked out, but a win is a win [I'll get to Nadal in a second]. And he won it rather easily; typical Federer style. He crushed a surging Soderling, who was riding a huge wave of confidence after taking out Nadal. By the way, I love this mini-story: apparently, Soderling doesn’t have a lot of friends because he’s an asshole to everyone and is ungracious in both defeat and victory. However, he was humbled and quite respectful to Federer. The truly great ones can do that to even the most stubborn competitors. One thing I always try to point out to people who haven’t played competitive sports a lot is the nature of the fierce competitor. There’s a lot of emotion and it’s not always pretty, but it’s real. It’s actually probably my favorite part about my fascination with professional sports. I care a little bit about the technical skills, the inhuman talents and all, but the best part is seeing the raw competitive spirit displayed amongst the top 0.0001% of the world’s athletes.

Back to my original point. I think Roger has found that extra level that I talked about before. The story is still incomplete. Everyone is dying to see him play Nadal again so we can really analyze this further. I also thought it was interesting to discover that a doctor mentioned that Roger’s bout with mononucleosis last year had lingering effects on him months afterward, and could possibly explain why his game was slightly off. Now, I don’t want to discredit Nadal’s accomplishments at all, but it is a valid point to consider. Federer was a little off last year and that was unusual. The two extreme explanations are that Nadal had gotten into his head, or that he was physically injured. The truth is likely to be somewhere in between. In any case, I am eagerly waiting to see how Federer’s rejuvenation plays out, and I hope there is at least one more significant battle with Nadal or Murray, or whoever the media is thinking is his current biggest threat.

So you still think that Federer merely came back to form and didn’t actually add to his game? Well then, let’s consider Wimbledon. There was a lot of talk this year about Roddick drastically tweaking and improving his game so he would stop falling embarrassingly short in the tournaments. Poor Roddick, I really like that guy. He’s one of my favorite personalities in sports. Anyway, Roddick really improved his game and it was paying off. People will say that Federer has lost a step because the Wimbledon Final went five sets plus the extraordinary extra sets when he used to beat Roddick effortlessly. I disagree and think the match was a testament to Roddick’s improvements. Federer had to bust out 50 aces to barely win the match. How’s that for showing another level? How about fending off the greatest showing of Roddick’s life? That’s showing another level to me, you can dispute it if you want.

Now, my second “I told you so” point:

On the other hand, what can you say about Nadal? He is amazing. When it’s over, he may be the greatest and most dominant player ever. So many question marks with him because he’s very young, and his physical style that doesn’t lend itself to longevity. But he keeps proving us wrong. Maybe he’s more unique than we can imagine. However, I still stand by Federer and a future comeback.

Nadal’s game is so freaking physical, it makes you wonder if it can possibly have the longevity of Federer’s career. Nadal is unbelievable at running down impossible shots. What made him unstoppable last year was not only running the shots down, but returning them back in ways where anyone not named Nadal would not be able to reach it, including Federer. But all the experts constantly comment how the way Nadal hits the ball exerts such torques and forces on his joints. It’s not natural. And all that running and chasing is very rough on the knees. His whole game is physically taxing. The catch here is that this is probably the only way to beat Federer. Knowing this, let’s ask the million dollar question: Is Nadal better than Federer? From this context, the answer is yes and no. If you consider one match, or a handful of matches in one year (say GS Finals of 2008), yes, you can say that Nadal is better than Federer. Does that mean Federer is not the GOAT because someone was better than him at some point? Not at all. No player was better than everyone all the time throughout his career, so that’s bogus. In the long run, I strongly believe that Nadal won’t even come close to Federer’s accomplishments.

You see, Federer is so much more efficient than Nadal, physically speaking. So while Nadal looks very powerful and impressive when he’s winning, it’s taking a toll on his body. Meanwhile, Federer is loading up on his precision skills and efficient technique to make sure his dominance lasts a long time. Yes, he does it on purpose, it’s no accident. It’s not just because he’s not as naturally strong as Nadal or anything like that. It is a conscious strategy, which is very intelligent on his part. The catch-22 in this is that the only way for someone to beat him is to overpower him physically like Nadal does. Unfortunately, that success will be short lived because of the nature of the physical effort required. Is that irony? I think it is. Actually, the other way to beat Federer is to actually be better than him in the actual skills of shot-making, precision, strategy, etc. But I am operating on the assumption that nobody is even close to him on that level. That is why Federer will probably go down as the GOAT and Nadal will not. Of course, I always qualify that statement by saying the story is still unfinished.

There you go. Finally, some interesting, opinionated thoughts about the Federer tale, right?

I’ll end this article with some cool pictures I found on the web:

Just like Michael Jordan was Julius 2.0 even before the championships and the accolades.

There are 2 things that people can’t seemed to admit. The real reason Kobe’s FG% is lower then Michael Jordan’s. It’s not because Kobe can shoot better so he chooses to shoot so much more. It’s because the defensive rules have changed. Sure they have changed offensively. But not in Kobe’s favor as an individual player. He is still clutched and grabbed like its 1996. Not ‘86. But ‘96. On top of that he has to face a LEGAL zone. On top of that the players he plays against are much more athletic and longer at the positions that may guard him. PG, SG, and SF. Everyone who’s short has super long arms and super quickness/hops nowadays. Everyone who is of normal SG height is just as tall as KB or taller, or just as long and just as (if not more) athletic in certain categories. And less in others. But not nearly the difference of athleticism from Michael Jordan to Joe Dumars. And Dumars was supposedly his toughest defender. How about a 6′9″ Marion, or a 6′9″ AK47 chasing you down? You want Dumars? Fine , I go with Bowen in his prime with Timmy D sitting back in a zone. Bowen is about as athletic as Dumars. But Bowen is 6′7″ with long arms. There’s a reason they had him on Dirk Nowitski. Dumars would have never been able to guard a PF; even a jumpshooting PF.

So its much tougher for Kobe to get to the basket.

And let’s be honest. Michael Jordan has never scored 70. He’s never scored 62 in 3 quarters and had more points then an entire top tier scoring team in the NBA. NEVER.

It means this. You may throw a lot at Michael Jordan. But you have to throw even more at Kobe. ‘Cause one thing is for sure. Kobe CAN beat you…ALL…BY…HIMSELF. You’ve seen it. I’ve never seen Michael Jordan SINGLE handedly DEFEAT a team like I’ve seen Kobe do it 2 or 3 times. I’ve seen Michael Jordan GO NUTZ, and still lose. I’ve seen Michael Jordan go nutz but Scottie have 20 and change and they barely win. I’ve seen Kobe go BALLISTIC while his 2nd fiddle is barely scratching double digits. And he took his team from 20 down to up darn near 20 . HE scored 81 points. That’s called beating a full roster ALL…BY…YOUR…>SELF. NO MAN except for Wilt was able to pull that off. NO ONE.

So all this Michael Jordan has this, Michael Jordan has that. There is nothing softer about how defenders are allowed to play Kobe(not others but Kobe). And the kind of athletes that play Kobe vs the guys that played in Michael Jordan’s era with legal handchecking but no zones. And illegal D violations.

They had to bring out defensive gurus and the DPOY to slow Kobe down. Have they ever done that to Mike? NO. They did hack the living daylights out of Mike which was terrible in my opinion. But after that, Mike was granted Whistles that Kobe has never been granted in his career on a consistent basis. If they ever give Kobe his due calls, like say next year, Kobe would average 40. Or his team would cruise to 80 games worth of 20 pt blowouts. One or the other. We know this because we’ve seen it happen. The guy sits on 30 with 2 fts. That kind of crap.

Now talk about defense. Well, Michael Jordan had great defense. But let’s be realistic. There’s a reason Kobe can only shut people down for stints and not whole games like Michael Jordan could back in the day. The rules changed. You can’t touch people above the ft line. And they dont want Kobe shutting anyone down cause thats not the push from the NBA of today. The push is scoring or so they hope it is. The push is manufactured perimeter stars by giving them insane calls to keep the defense off of them so they can shine at an early age. So it looks like the league is full of super ball players VS back in the day where you had to be a man and get by another man without all the ticky-tack crap. Proof that Kobe would shut you down all game if the rules were old school. What did he do to Barbosa in the NBA? Not much. What did he do to Barbosa in fiba? LOCKED HIM DOWNNNN. That was all the proof you needed.

Kobe=Michael Jordan 2.0

One day we may see a Kobe 2.0 and when you do. DON’T HATE HIM.

As stated, I’m looking for a drummer to play mostly brushes and a bassist (acoustic upright only, please). Assume that we will do this for free initially, and if lucky enough, for pay later.

The songs will be played EXACTLY as arranged in the recordings below, pretty much note for note, unless there is a compelling reason to play differently. This just makes it easier to practice and learn in the beginning. Basically, the songs will be learned like a classical musician learns his pieces. I have a full time job, so practices will be limited and done efficiently, meaning it’s best to learn the song on your own, and when you’re ready, we can rehearse it together to work out all the rest of it.

Listen to the songs below, and by all means, contact me if you are capable and interested in playing. I am personally very excited to perform these wonderful songs sometime in the near future.

Hymn to Freedom
As performed by the Oscar Peterson Trio on the “Night Train” album.
Download audio file (ophtf.mp3)

This Masquerade
As performed by the Gene Harris Quartet on the “Listen Here!” album (our version will obviously omit the guitar).
Download audio file (ghtm.mp3)

I think people have several misconceptions regarding my decision to build a computer.  I’d like to address them.

Building a computer yourself is cheaper.

• Not at all.  Maybe in the days before the Dells and Gateways, but not anymore.  You can find a decent computer for dirt cheap now.  Just go to Dell and buy their budget rig for $500.  The price of this computer was pushing $3,000.  That ain’t cheap.  To be fair, of course, those cheap Dells don’t have anywhere near the specs of my computer, but I’m just pointing something out here.  A Dell built to the specs (or near) those of my computer would be pretty expensive, and almost assuredly more that $3k.  But that’s besides the point.  Even if it were cheaper, I still wouldn’t buy it.  There’s no way to get the exact brand and model of every single part you want if you get it pre-packaged.

I like to build things because I’m a gadget geek.

• Not true.  This is probably the most common misconception among my family and friends.  Building a computer is a pain in the ass.  You’re house gets all messy, you run into annoying issues here and there.  Not to mention transferring all your data over and installing everything all over again.  It’s quite stressful, and I don’t enjoy it.  But that’s the tradeoff.  You’re miserable for a couple of weeks, but in the end you have a really sweet rig.  Sure, it’s slightly rewarding, but not enough to make me do it just for the fun of it.  I have plenty of other things I’d rather do for fun. I’ll write later about all the headaches I ran into because of this project.

I bought a lot of luxury items that I don’t really need.

• Nope.  This was actually brought up in the DC forums by a concerned member, but it’s completely false.  Yes, I got some pretty sweet parts, but I feel they were all chosen responsibly.  I know that this computer is going to last me several years, so I have to make sure that my parts have enough room to age well.  What may seem luxurious now will be old in 3 years.  But if I choose wisely, all of this equipment should run satisfactorily and smoothly 7 years from now.  Remember, I’m not a gamer.  I don’t do things that require the most bleeding edge stuff.  All of my hardware choices were made from the standpoint of a “best bang for the buck” value. Of course, I didn’t spend so much as to hurt me financially in any way. The point is that the choices were made wisely.

I hope this makes my intentions pretty clear. I just want the thing done exactly the way I want. Unfortunately, the only way to do that is to build it myself. Other than that, there aren’t many good, fun reasons to build a computer. Sure there are certain “moral victories” gained by going through the process like learning a lot about the guts of a computer and discovering solutions to problems. But none of these other reasons would motivate me enough to actually build the thing. I have enough trouble finding time to do the things that I consider fun and enjoyable. This is definitely not fun. If I were really rich, I’d just make a list of parts I want and pay someone to build it for me.

The last time I built my computer, I did the usual thing.  I researched a little bit on the web and went to Fry’s an bought my parts.  This time, the online shopping options have progressed to the point where I wouldn’t even consider going to a real store to get my parts.  It’s cheaper online, there are more choices, shipping is pretty fast, and on and on. That was a no-brainer.  So I decided that I was not going to compromise on anything.  I was going to get the perfect hardware for each part of the computer, down to the screw. Another thing that wasn’t available in 2001 was the fantastic DonationCoder Forums.  I enlisted the help of this fantastic community to help me find all the right parts.  Even though I’m a major computer geek, I don’t keep up with the hardware, so I don’t really know what to get.  Hardware is more of a gamer thing.  Gamers keep up with all that stuff and I’m definitely not one of them.  Many, many thanks to all the DC members who advised me on this project.

Thanks to 40hz for the sketch above!

Find&Run Robot is what’s called a “launcher” application. It is basically a window that pops up and you can start typing the name of the program you want to run and it will appear in the window. The programs appear in the list as-you-type, meaning, as each letter is entered, the list adjusts accordingly. This is very cool. In fact, this is a particular feature that I am obsessed with:
Click here to read my article about search-as-you-type features in various programs.

There isn’t much else for me to say about this program. Use it to launch your programs. It’s very simple:
You press a hotkey, the window pops up, you start typing the name of the program, when you see it, you choose it and off you go. See the main window below (shown in two different setups with big icons or small icons):

Now, behind the scenes, there are a ton of options to fiddle with, but most people don’t have to. It works great right out of the box. Believe me, though, the options are there. Just look at a screenshot of the options screen:

At this point I can’t live without FARR. The program has allowed me to get rid of all shortcuts on my desktop. Between this and Launchbar Commander (by the same author), I barely touch the Start Menu anymore. (Between you and me, I think the author has an unhealthy obsession with robots and commanders, and oddly descriptive program titles. But we’ll let that go as long as the superb quality of the programs continues.)

Click here to see a very complete set of screenshots of the program and its options, as provided by the author himself.

As you can see, FARR is highly customizable. It was made for powerusers by a poweruser who, fortunately, is also extremely sensitive to the needs of normal users.

Note:
Those of you who have Windows Vista know that Microsoft has built in a similar find-as-you-type feature into the revamped Start Menu. I still recommend using FARR because, well, it’s just better in a lot of ways. FARR can be configured to display results exactly according to your preferences, and overall, it works better. Also, there are dozens of other similar applications out there (both freeware and shareware) but none of them work as well as FARR. So even if you are currently using one of these programs, I highly recommend you test drive FARR and see if it makes your life any easier.

I’ve thought about this for a long time, and the simplest way I can explain the hate towards Kobe is really because of Michael Jordan. That’s really the essence of the whole thing as far as I’m concerned. Kobe is the only person who has a serious chance of threatening Michael Jordan’s legacy, and that pisses people off in an unprecedented way. Nobody will ever admit this, but it’s the rock-solid, foundational truth to this entire Kobe saga. Just think about it; I hate Jordan like no other player. But why? Because Jordan legitimately challenged Magic Johnson’s legacy. Well, the same goes for Kobe and Jordan because people love Jordan way more than the Laker fans who like Magic. The world is in love with Michael Jordan. People who don’t know squat about basketball love him and will defend him to the death. It’s quite sickening. Even after all these years, a lot of people have forgotton seeing him play (many people aren’t even old enough) and his legend and myth has grown to ridiculous levels. He’s become like the Paul Bunyan of basketball. You ask anyone about Jordan and it’s like he never missed a clutch jumper, he was never a loser, he was a perfect teammate, he never had a bad shooting game, he was an unstoppable defensive force, etc. The man did no wrong, and his legend will only grow from here on out.

To see how this relates to Kobe, we must first get rid of certain ideas that routinely mislead people. The first thing people like to say is “You can’t compare the two. Kobe is his own man, and Jordan was his own man. You can’t compare them.” Bullshit. Kobe and Jordan are so similar in their basketball skills that you would have to be blind not to see the resemblence. Magic and Jordan would be a relatively difficult comparison because they played so differently and had such different strengths. But Jordan and Kobe is a very easy and natural comparison. The other thing to disregard is the idea that “It’s all about the rings.” I’m sorry, but you don’t get to reduce something this complicated to simply how many championships a player has. In fact, before you bring any number or statistic into the equation, you must deeply consider all the factors involved with those numbers (like era, rules, teammates, role, style of play). Let me make it easy for you and just say, forget about stats altogether because they don’t explain anything at all. All stats do is manipulate people and mislead.

That being said, any objective observer of basketball who saw Jordan and Kobe play has all the right to claim that Kobe could possibly be a better player than Jordan was. At the very least, even if you claim that Jordan was better, you can’t say it’s by a lot, or else you are delusional. Consider their respective offensive abilities; what is there that Jordan could do that Kobe can’t do? How about vice versa? I think it’s pretty obvious that Kobe’s has way more range offensively than Jordan did. I don’t think Jordan was ever a 3-point threat. I don’t even think his jumper was quite as deadly as Kobe’s (you have to be able to see beyond the different defenses being played in their respective eras).

But that’s where all the hate comes from. Like the commercial says, “There can only be one.” Yes, and to everyone in this world, that One is Michael Jordan, and don’t you dare try to invade his turf. Well, what about LeBron, you ask? It seems as though people would love for LeBron to be the next Jordan. The problem there is that LeBron is not nearly as skilled as Kobe, so he’s not really a threat to Jordan’s legacy. Only Kobe is, and people will do whatever it takes to prevent him from taking what they think belongs to their beloved, do-no-wrong hero.

…part 4 coming up
(I could go on for pages about Kobe vs Jordan)