Unexpected places to hear good music from the Greatest Blog

I read somewhere that my favorite band is the second best selling artist of the decade, which is odd because I was blamed for the breakup of this band. I am talking about the band that Paul McCartney was in prior to Wings! called the Beatles.
Anyway I needed to set out for cold medication as I have a bit of a cold. (If I turn out to have swine flu, and I meet my maker, it will be very ironic.) Between my knee and my cold I am in the whole should I run or not. I do not want to be getting anyone else sick so I am lying low.
Went to the Dollar Store in Pacifica and my expectations were second tier items for a dollar and not my favorite Beatles song ever. I have pretty much had the same favorite Beatles song since my oldest Brother gave me his 8 track collection when he went off to college. That song is I am the Walrus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yNcE8c3j2M
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_the_Walrus
When a song is played in a store, they are many difference experiences going on as the various people make a judgement or ignore the music all together. I am sure if they would have given us all surveys about the music at that time, my score would be the highest.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Greatest Blog?

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/29_Knees_and_Poodles.html

So if you do a Google search on Greatest Blog my blog shows up at the top search result. On Yahoo I am the second result and no one uses Microsoft anyway.

But to be honest I think this has been a week of sub par blogging mostly related to Sandwiches I left in my car last week.

Quite a bit happened including a phantom knee injury and getting a knee brace and sneezing quite a bit followed by an odd kickball game in Golden Gate Park.

If you went to the BBQ on either Sunday or Monday, the Wedding Road Trip at the Red Devil Lounge or the kickball game on Wednesday then your pictures are here in one of the four boxes.

Hopefully I will be more inspired to write proper entries that are read by well I am not sure who reads the Greatest Blog.

Like when I got a couple of good news and then I said, I am going to see some standard poodles and then I did. Maybe I should aim a little higher.

--
Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Sandwich

So the origin of me going to this deli starts in the late 1970's when I was a contestant on a kid's game show.
To make a long story short, I screwed up (did not identify a Robin) and ever since then I wanted to go on a game show and redeem myself.
Its 2009 and I am planning on going to New York city. I check the Who Wants to be a millionaire website and see they are having auditions so I change my flight.
A couple of days before my flight my cat (Sasha) is not doing well. Would go into the details but it is not relevant. Just remember, Sasha not feeling well. So I take her to the vet and they give me loads of medication that I need to give twice a day. It would be hard to get someone else to give her the medication and I would be a stress ball so I decided to postpone my trip.
Now besides seeing friends and family and redeeming myself on Millionaire, my main motivation for going to New York was 1) slices of Pizza 2) Deli Sandwiches. So I turned to my Facebook friends for ideas on Sandwiches. They recommended Miller's East Coast Deli.
I order a Ruben with Swiss on rye. On accident they build a second sandwich which they give to me for free. O happy day!
In addition I deliver quite a bit of food to a friend of mine with a jacked up ankle and a cute dog.
I eat the first sandwich outside of the Marcusmobile, in fact I ate the first half and I was full. I ate the second half of the first sandwich later that day.
Now, I normally do not recommend using your car as a storage device but I left the second sandwich in my car overnight. I am sure it is a recipe for food poisoning but it was fairly cool.
Saturday morning I ran eight miles as part of a training group, was rather hungry on the way back and remembered, hey you have a sandwich in the car from yesterday, your bonus sandwich!!
So upon my return I got the day old sandwich from my car and ate it on the couch in the Sports Basement (kudos to sports basement)
It was really good.
(On a side note, Sasha my cat is doing better, will see when I can try out for who wants to be a Millionaire.)
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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Bonus Sandwich

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/24_A_bonus_sandwich.html


At this point, you know that my trip to New York city has been postponed. Outside of seeing family and friends, my primary motivation was deli sandwiches and slices of pizza. So I asked Facebook where should I go for a New York style  sandwich and they pointed me to the East West Deli.
For the second consecutive Deli trip, I got a bonus sandwich.
Delivered a bunch of food to a banged up Lucy's Mom and took the little muffin for a w

Prior to the bonfire went to the Park Chalet.
Went to the Urban Diversion bonfire at Marshmallow Heights but did not bring my camera as sand and cameras do not mix.

When I ran eight miles on Saturday morning I thought about the bonus Sandwich which I ate inside the Sports Basement. It's amazing how much of a difference a few degrees colder makes my ability to run. Will probably skip badwater.

Went to a BBQ in a very foggy San Francisco with my Wednesday kickball team. A friend of one of the teammates brought up that no one brought mainstream beers like Bud Light.
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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Star Trek

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/24_The_Menagerie_and_the_new_Star_Trek_movie_plus_bonfire_8_miles_and_BBQ.html

YouTube has an awesome feature where you can watch old TV shows and with the X Box 360 you can stream to your TV.

Anyway when I went to see the new Star Trek movie I thought it was going to (btw if you are going to see the movie do not read on) be more focused on The Menagerie as that was the Enterprise pre-Kirk with Captain Pike.

But the movie was a whole other reality based on an alternate reality. Both times Captain Pike got captured.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Update on Sasha

For an update on Sasha go to
http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/21_Update_on_Sasha.html

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
http://www.marcusronaldi.com

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Bay to Breakers 2009

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/17_A_tough_Bay_to_Breakers.html

This is one of those days that I am taught a lesson.  Bay to Breakers was hot, not hot like back in the day (which is a relative term) when I used to mow lawns.
One of my main motivations for moving (and staying) in the Bay Area is the weather.
The first couple of miles I felt fine but going up the hill in the heat with no real breeze I was wiped out. Got a second wind in the park and finished well but I was chasing shade.
This means that for the time, I will limit my races to the city limits of San Francisco.
Ran into after the race a host of characters as I turned around and so I ended up run/walking almost a half marathon. I am walking funny.
Saw this guy drop $32 dollars and I picked it up, then ran after them and gave it back to them as that was the right thing to do. Turns out some friends of mine saw me in the act of not acting the fool.
Acted as a sherpa for various characters on public transit and the location of clean bathrooms.

btw I finished the race in 86 minutes which was 14 minutes slower than last year. I am still in tomorrow's Examiner.

But like last year, It took me longer to get from the city to Daly City than it took me to run the race.


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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Happiness is a Kong with a little bit of Peanut Butter or bits of hot dog...

This week, I have a dog guest. Her name is Lucy.
Anyway among her items she has is an item called a Kong. You put stuff in the kong and it makes the dog happy.
Here is the equation, Kong + (Peanut Butter or Bits of Hot Dog or food) = Happiness. If I just gave her the Kong, then it would not mean that much. A bit of peanut butter brief happiness. But the challenge of getting the peanut butter makes it that much better.
The struggle makes the Kong filled with peanut butter that much better than just the Peanut Butter.

I have found the path to happiness, if I was a dog : )

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Star Trek

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/11_Star_Trek_Do_not_read_if_you_are_planning_on_seeing_the_movie.html

I just got back from seeing the new Star Trek movie. They did a great job. It was the second movie I saw with the Golden Gate Bridge.

I have always liked Star Trek but was never super into it beyond the original series and the first six movies.

Do not read any further if you are planning on going to see the movie.

OK so here is my question, in the original series, I remember them hanging out at Vulcan a few times.  In this version of the movie the planet is destroyed and Spock's Mom is obviously killed.  Is'nt this a bit different from the original series?

On the way out I heard some people discussing the movie. I then asked them and they informed me that Vulcan had not been destroyed.

Found the movie to be fun, exceeded expectations, kept my attention.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Monk

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/9_Marcus_and_the_Monk.html

When I woke up, I did not think that "Why did the monk cross the road?" would be anything besides a hilarious joke but was part of a short misadventure where your humble narrator sees a monk on the wrong side of the ride as he goes to 24 Hour Fitness. When I was done working out she was still there looking lost so I motioned to safely cross the road. I asked her if she was lost and told me that she needed to go to El Dorado.

I asked if she was a Monk and she said she was. Part of me expected to be attacked by bandits

We then went to the Marcusmobile and I had the Monk hold my phone that provided directions. The monk was a bit frazzled because they were lost and late. I was very centered and calm. A study of our brain waves would have been interesting.

When we got to the destination they invited me inside and gave me some bananas.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Thoughts on teaching science

The teaching of science has always been an important issue for me because it provides the foundation of logic & reason (the scientific method).
When you teach something that is utter nonsense (Intelligent Design, New Earth Creationism) that has the same backing as Santa Claus then you undermine the students thinking ability.
In the context that the Bible was written, Creationism was the best explanation available to tribes wandering around the desert. Many cultures have a creation myth which is fine but it must be told in the context and has no place in the science classroom.

Schools all over the country have tremendous challenges like the % of kids that cannot read, do not graduate or FAR more disturbing those that graduate but cannot read.

I do not think that teaching folk tales in science is the answer. As Obama said, "I would applaud the restoration of Science to its proper, rightful and prominent place in the USA - it is overdue. "

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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How not to twitter

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/4_How_not_to_twitter.html

I am hydra1970 on twitter.

For the most part I am pretty adapt at using social media. I was on LinkedIn since the beginning and been using Facebook since early 2007 but I was late to Twitter.

I did not see the appeal of Twitter as you can see the same updates of your network from Facebook.

Then I went to a recruiter training and they explained how it could be used for sourcing and getting the word out about jobs beyond your network. So I signed up.

Did not have a whole lot of followers so I signed up for this free service where you add followers and they follow you.

Big mistake. Having a large network on LinkedIn makes sense as it makes it easier to search the entire database but I was soon following 2000 people that was mostly twittering about a bunch of nonsense. At first I was manually removing each one but I did not have a week so I reached out to Adam Jackson who is one of the most learned on the use of social media. He recommend that I use one of these bulk unfollow tools, but in the end I had to shutdown the account and then re-open it.

If you are following/followed by people for the number and not out of interest, Twitter is a tremendous waste of bandwidth so avoid those services to add followers. I would rather be followed by twenty who want to read my updates than 2000 that are doing it to increase their number.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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Rain

http://web.me.com/hydra9/Site_5/Blog/Entries/2009/5/4_Photos_from_a_Soggy_Weekend_part_one_of_three.html

One of the most common questions I get is "Why did you move from Maryland" and my first response is the weather. For the most part it rains a bit from November to March and is nice the rest of the year. Somehow the schedule got confused and it was rainy.

Gwen and Brian, who currently reside in New Jersey with their Frank Chu sign and Ms Pac Man Mac Hine came to eat at House of Nanking and have a couple of drinks at Pier 23

This was followed by using San Francisco's fine public transit system which I ended up running the last mile on cobblestones.

Went to the Giants game and I had passes to the club level.

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Marcus Zack Ronaldi
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