Last night, me and my family went to see Finding Nemo. Another great movie from Pixar. If you liked all the other Pixar films, Toy Story I & II, Bug's Life, and Monsters Inc., then you'll like this one.

But, just like the last time I went to the theater, the people behind me were rude. I didn't really expect complete silence at this movie, since it's a kids film, so I didn't get too upset. Well, that and Aaron was as bad as the people behind me. But this was different. You see the guy behind me had a cell phone and he made no effort to turn it off... oh and before I finish, note to the cinemas out there: I will pay extra to see a film in a room equiped with cell phone jamming. Why not jam some rooms and leave others unjammed and let the market decide which is better? It works with smoking. Well, there the illegality of it, but I think Hollywood is familiar with the lobbying process... but I digress.

So this guy behind me gets two phone calls during the movie. I'm pretty sure he selected the William Tell Overture for his ringer. I'm convinced the William Tell Overture is the anthem of obnoxious cell phone abusers everywhere. Anyway, he makes no attempt to even lower his voice during these calls. But here's the good bit: After he hangs up from his second call, his child begins talking to him and before the boy can finish what he's saying, the Dad turns to him and, I'm not making this up I promise, he turns to him and says, "Shhh! People are trying to watch the movie".

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Posted by Casey at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple days back, I blogged about a recording that my uncle made in Detroit, Michigan in 1956. Since then I've found out a couple more things that are interesting (at least to me).

First: I found some images of the actual 45 at Terry Gordon's Rocking Country Style. Terry graciously let me use this pictures in the story.

Second: I asked Terry where I might find an original 45 for my uncle. Remember, he no longer has a copy. Terry informed me that a copy of Kenny Layne's Froggy Went A Courting / Columbus Stockade Blues is worth roughly $500! Here's what Terry had to say exactly when I asked him further about the $500 value:

Casey -

The price guide to which I referred is "Rockabilly Record Guide" by Horst
Zimmermann, Bernd Wolf, and Heinz-Otto Zimmermann. It was
published last fall in Germany. I don't know much about values, so I
cannot attest to the accuracy of the price, but another guide from three
years ago also put the record in the $500-600 range. This kind of music is
highly collectible, especially in Europe.

I would be willing to bet that someone in my family or extended family has a $500 record in their attic right now.

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Posted by Casey at 9:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a follow up to an entry from the other day regarding some trouble I had with Amazon.com. A couple days back I refused the package from Amazon and yesterday I received a message from then stating that they had processed my refund and were returning the full amount! I didn't expect to get the shipping costs refunded, but they did. Sweet. I still think having 2 accounts under one email address is broken, but on the other hand, they made everything good with my duplicate order, so I'm happy.

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Posted by Casey at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometime around the beginning of the year I had a talk with my Aunt Norma in which she mentioned that my Uncle Kenny had at some point been inducted into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame for some recordings he did in Detroit a long time ago. They no longer had these recordings as they burned in a fire a long time ago. I made a mental note to look into that next time I was on the internet and thought no more of it for several weeks.

Some time later something finally jogged my memory and I found Kenny Layne listed at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame on this page. Listed are two songs from 1956. Froggy Went A-Courtin' and Columbus Stockade Blues. I looked all over for a copy of this record, but couldn't find one anywhere. All I could find was that these tracks were released on a single from the Strate-8 label and and in 1997 re-released in a compilation CD produced in the Netherlands containing many songs from the Fortune, Hi-Q, and Strate-8 labels. Most of this information was found here. Eventually I gave up hope of finding these tracks anywhere especially when I discovered that even the compilation CD was out of print.

Sometime in late April, I stumbled across this page which tells the story of Fortune records which also owned the Hi-Q and Strate-8 labels. And on another page I notice that the cover of the compilation CD I've been looking for! I quickly wrote the webmaster, Lex Jansen, and explained the situation to him. Lex was very nice and though he did not know where I might get my own CD, he offered to make a copy on cassette and mail it to me! The was especially nice because Lex lives in the Netherlands. I gave him my address and waited patiently (not!) for the cassette he mailed on April 28th.

After several weeks had passed, I had assumed the tape was lost and that I might have to ask Lex if he could send another copy. After talking to him, we decided to give it a little longer.

Today my wife called me at work and informed me that I had a package from the Netherlands at the house! It only took a month, but it's finally here. I'm going to take a chance that the copyright holders won't be too upset with me making my Uncle's Hall of Fame tracks available here for my friends and family to download. So here they are:

	Columbus Stockade Blues	2:35	2.96MB
	Froggy Went A Courtin'	2:35	3.42MB

Thanks again Lex!

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Posted by Casey at 12:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Anyone who knows me at all realizes that it's only a matter of time before anything that is capable of holding a person's interest, begins to hold mine. So now I'm interested in a pistol. Why? Oh several reasons. Here's a good one. This was only a mile or two from our house. So, I set out this week to educate myself and maybe even buy one.

Sunday: I've went to Bill Goodman's Gun & Knife Show in Nashville last weekend with my cousin and we looked around. Not really worth the $6 in my mind, but that's another thing. The people were nice enough, but it seemed that every time I informed someone that I was (am) pretty ignorant about guns and was just trying to get an idea of what's out there and what's good for what, that people would just nod. No one really tried to educate me, they just wanted me to buy their product. Which is fine I guess had they told me what made model X any better than model Y. Ok, there was one guy who was very helpful and answered a lot of questions. He has a training school and gun range called The Range. By far the most helpful "gun person" I've met... apart from my step-father-in-law. So, I had gone to the gun show specifically to see a Springfield Armory XD-9. I saw it and handled it. I didn't like it. Didn't feel right. I decided I want something a little smaller. One woman had several Colt Mark IV 380's. These guns had a nice feel to them, but seem a bit smallish. I made a mental note to look into them after the show.

Tuesday. So I crossed the XD-9 off my list and made a new one. Now I was looking at a Sig P239, a Beretta 9000S, and a Kahr K9. On the basis of price and aesthetics, the Beretta rose to the top of the list. And I decided I wanted to see and handle one personally.

There is a little gun shop in La Vergne called Specialty Arms II and I decided to stop by after work and see if they had one. They did. $499 though! Eventually, a "salesman" came over and asked if he could show me anything. I asked about the Beretta and he removed it from the case without saying anything. Holding this weapon wasn't anything like the XD-9. This felt really comfortable, and solid. I tried to engage the salesman in some conversation by again explaining that I'm a newbie, etc. No dice. Still, I like the gun, and went home and brought back Susie to show her. Sue really liked it too, and though the salesman seemed more interested, she didn't much like him either. For example, I asked the guy for the pros and cons of a 9mm versus .40 S&W. His verbose explanation. "If you're using this for defense, go with .40S&W. More stopping power". Well, there you go. The whole 9mm vesrsus .40 calibre debate in a dozen words.

OK, so later that night, I went to Gallery of Guns on the net. This is an interesting site. You put in your zip code, select a gun and local dealers will respond with their offer on that model. I selected the Beretta 9000S .40S&W model and within an hour or so I had a response from The Saddle Shop in Triune. This was actually the second time I had used this service and both times, Triune Saddle Shop had an offer right away. So I was encouraged.

Wednesday:I thought that I would respond to The Saddle Shop's offer by emailing them with some questions and explaining that I'm new at all this an would appreciate some answers to some questions and so forth.

Thursday: I haven't heard a peep out of them. What is the deal? Am I forgetting the secret handshake or something? Are there any local gun dealerships that are actually interested in promoting gun ownership? Perhaps I'll just have to keep my pointed stick for self defense.

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Posted by Casey at 1:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Yesterday me and my son Aaron went for a walk after dinner. We walked
through the neighborhood and talked about all manner of things. Well,
not quite all manner of things. You see Aaron is just shy of three
years old. So we talked about all manner of things that might interest
a 3 year old. When we came home, we sat on the couch a bit and watched
TV. Aaron turned to me at some point and said something I didn't quite
understand... "What Aaron?" I asked. "You the hero Daddy.", said Aaron,
"You my friend."

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Posted by Casey at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

At the risk of losing the $0.25 I've made in the Amazon Associate program, I'm going to inform the public of what I consider a flaw in the Amazon.com ordering system.

Late Friday night, I decided to order a book from Amazon, and after locating it, I began to order using Amazon's One-Click. Just as I clicked the order button, I decided I needed to change the shipping address, as this was a gift for my sister, and I hit the stop button on my browser. Then I selected Add a New Address from the Ship To popup and tried the One Click button again. This time it prompted me for a password, and I typed in what I thought was my password and then it asked me for a shipping address, but it didn't seem to have any of my current information in the system. Now I was confused, so I canceled this order and went through the process again, except I used the Shopping Cart instead of One-Click. The system still didn't have my old account info, but I was getting a bit frustrated so I filled out all the information a finished up my order. I double checked to make the original One Click order had not be added. Seeing no sign of it, I left Amazon and went to bed.

Saturday morning I checked my email and I found two order confirmations for the book I ordered. One was going to be shipped to me, and the other to my sister. Now I was really confused, and not a little aggravated. So, I logged on and check my pending orders. Only one copy was listed, the one to my sister, and I could not cancel it. But I could not find the other and so I wrote to Amazon's customer service. Now for some reason after I finished writing the message, I decided to sign out and login again. This time, with the same email address, but with a different password that I also use regularly. Sure enough, it let me log in and I found that Amazon had in fact created two accounts using the same email address but with different passwords! There was the other order, but I could not cancel it either. And so I wrote again to Amazon's customer service department explaining my dilemma.

Later, Saturday I read the responses from Amazon. What it boiled down to was that I shouldn't have created another account (even though I was never informed that that was what I had done!) and that it was too late to cancel either order even though neither had yet shipped. Actually, as I write this, the first order still, hasn't shipped, and I still can't cancel it. Amazon also suggested that I simply refuse and return one of the orders, and they will refund my money... minus the shipping of course. So I'll be out $3.99. This isn't horrible, but it seems to me a flaw that they should be responsible for. Well, they aren't going to take responsibility, and so I'm letting everyone know about the situation so they can take steps to avoid it.

PS: Since then, I've tried to repeat the problem with a third password, but have not been able to yet.

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Posted by Casey at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

First, yesterday I'm skimming my Tennessee Libertarian Party newsletter as part of my usual morning routine and I see that a California man that brought a lawsuit against Kraft Foods, seeking to ban the sale of Oreo cookies because they contain trans fat Oreos! Oh no! Killer Oreo's everyone, look out! Even if Oreo cookies have "bad things" in them, I really don't want the government to decide what I can and can't eat. Thanks. Note to California psycho, if you don't like the cookies, don't buy them.

Secondly, this morning I'm skimming my Tennessee Libertarian Party newsletter as part of my usual morning routine and I see that an elementary school teacher is being criticized for sending a memo to her teachers suggesting that on National Prayer Day they "pray for the country, the world, the school district and every student and family it serves". The operative work is suggesting. So, the ACLU is considering legal action. Now I'm not the most religious guy in the world, and I don't think the government should sanction a particular religion. But this this is just silly. But the thing that bothers me most, is the hypocrisy of the ACLU and like organizations. They are willing to make a big stink over this, but did they bring a suit against the President of the United States when he invoked the name of God and asked us to pray for the troops in Iraq? Of course not, that would've been anti-American. But it's easy to attack a tiny school district in Sylvia Kansas and force them to spend dollars that could be used to educate their children on the defense of their principal.

Both these items go to show that people just aren't happy unless they are telling everyone else how to live. Me included. Hey everyone, this is how you should live: Get out of my face! I won't bother you and you don't bother me. Deal?

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Posted by Casey at 9:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

OK, this took way longer than it should have, but I've finally knuckled down (side note: where does the phrase knuckle down come from?) and finished transcribing the interview with my maternal grandparents. It's available here.

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Posted by Casey at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A lot of people had plenty of things to say about my post regarding Alexandria's new teacher Mrs. Rogers. And I appreciate the concern. Truly. I just wanted to update everyone on the situation. As I mentioned before, at least one other parent besides my wife has had talks with Mrs. Rogers and all indications are that she is doing much better. She's even giving out hugs now. I forgot to mention that in the first post, but there is one child in particular in Alex's class who needs extra attention every now and again. And in one case (Sue witnessed this) he held out his arms to her and asked for a hug to which she responded "arms to your sides!". Susie gave the little boy a hug instead. Anyway I met her today and she seems very nice... though I didn't ask for a hug. And she is very young. This is, I think, her first teaching assignment, so some rookie mistakes are understandable I guess.

Mr. Gill was promoted to the position of superintendent. I guess the rumors were unfounded or covered up really well. I'd like to think they were unfounded, but I'm becoming more cynical these days.

And finally, Mrs. Anthony wrote Alex (actually wrote a letter to each of her kids!) the other day and tell her how much she missed her and appreciated the party they had for her on her last day. I didn't read the letter myself, but it made Alex cry. Alex wrote her a letter in reply, suggesting that she find time to "take a field trip" to come see her. And then yesterday Sue informed me that Mrs. Anthony may be doing just that. She may be visiting her old kindergarten class at Cedar Grove before school lets out in a couple weeks.

So there's an update on the Cedar Grove Elementary situation. Thanks again everyone for your concern.

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Posted by Casey at 8:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jennifer, my niece, is all famous now! She's a manager for a Speedway gas station back in Michigan and they have decided to use her picture for this month's promotional material on their web page and in the stores too I think. There's a whole story about how this came to pass, but I can't remember the details, so maybe my Dad will chime in. Check out Speedway's main page or in the event it is replaced with a picture of some lesser Speedway employee, I've archived it here, Can commercials, a TV series and finally a movie deal be far off? I think not. We're all so proud Jenny!

Oh and one other thing, look at that picture again. Do you see how full they get these drinks!? I'm not certain if this is a good or a bad thing, but you certainly get your money's worth I guess. :P

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Posted by Casey at 9:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April's results are in and I'm still not in the Top 10.

Based on the number of requests for a person's main page (getperson.php) the top ten ancestors for April 2003 follow:

10. [-] Maria Magdalena Schneider - My gggg-grandmother. Maria's 5 Fleser grandchildren emmigrated to Michigan in the early to mid 1800s.
9. [-] Arthur Berens - Second cousins, once removed. The Berens clan recently stumbled across my site.
8. [-] Daniel Lee Layne - My maternal grandfather. Known as Leander, he was born in Daus, TN in 1907.
7. [+3] Carrie Lee Hamilton - My first cousin Carrie moving up 3 spots from last month.
6. [-] Robert Tate, Jr - Back in the top 10, my ggggg-grandfather. Robert's sons moved to the Warren County area of Tennessee, from Virginia, in the early 19th century.
5. [+1] James Tate - gggg-grandfather. "The Major", James, moved to the Warren County area of TN around 1800 from VA and was very influential in the area.
4. [-] Chad Douglas VanHill - Chad is my second cousin on the Fleser side. Not sure why he's suddenly so popular.
3. [-2] Lorenzo Tate - Last month's number one, my 2nd cousin 4 times removed. Still a mystery why he's so popular.
2. [-] Christina Miller - Again at number 2, my ggg-gradmother. Christina was born in Germany and moved to Allegan County, MI sometime around 1850.

And the new number one most requested ancestor for the month of April is...

1. [-] Rachel Hale - My ggg-Aunt. Rachel married Commodore Nunley, the brother of my ggg-grandmother Rachel Nunley.

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Posted by Casey at 10:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)