Molly Tuttle and Tommy Emmanuel

 

There’s not much to say … turn it up!

Steiner Destroys the Field

Abby Steiner in the NCAA Outdoor Championships 4x400 … watch from 1:45 to see her take the handoff for the 3rd leg at least 20-25m behind the leader — and then just destroy the field. 

It’s almost impossible to believe a runner could be so much faster then the entire field, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a lap like this at any level. 

 

The U.S. Championships are this weekend, June 24-26. 

Better Call Saul: A List of Reasons Why It’s Brilliant

 

This show for me is one of the best of all time, without question.

And it’s for many of the same reasons in the video below, that I noticed right away, on my own:  excellent visuals, dialogue, and characters, for starters. 

But I’ll let this video go into the details, he does a better job explaining than I would, and goes deeper too.

And he doesn’t even list “Bob Odenkirk” as one of the reasons.

Why ‘Better Call Saul’ is Brilliant

Tricking Your Brain into Falling Asleep

Jim  Donovan explains

Rhythm as a way to calm yourself to sleep works — I discovered something similar many years ago.

He gives instruction on how he does it, and anyone who fights with sleep should try it.

But the key learning here is anything that helps you get out of your head and fall into any kind of peaceful, focused, rhytmic state will probably work.

That's what it's all about, turning off your brain and feeling the natural rhythm of your physical body and especially your breathing. 

I will explain my method in a future post.

Just One Victory

Todd Rundgren and Utopia, “Just One Victory” (live)

Somehow, someday,
We need just one victory and we're on our way
Prayin' for it all day and fightin' for it all night
Give us just one victory, it will be all right

We may feel about to fall
But we go down fighting
You will hear the call
If you only listen
Underneath it all
We are here together
Shining still
To give us the will
Bright as the day
To show us the way

Slowly over the years this became one of my favorite Todd Rundgren songs, because it's got a great chorus and the lyrics are fun and inspiring and it makes me feel good inside.

“Just one victory” … just one victory … we can all relate to that feeling at various points in our lives, many times over.

The studio version, with lyrics.

They caught lightning in a bottle with the arrangement on this one. 

D Day, June 6, 1944

 

151 Years Ago Today, John Wesley Hardin Arrives in Abilene

 

John Wesley Hardin was one of the most violent Wild West outlaws in the violent and notorious 1870s and 1880s.

He claimed to have killed over 40 men by age 25, when he went to prison (in 1878) — that’s a lot of killin’ in just ten years, especially for the son of a preacher who was named after John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church  — but news accounts and law enforcement could only confirm about half of those.

Either way — a lot of killin’.

He arrived in Abilene on the first of June 1871 and somehow became friendly with lawman Wild Bill Hickock. One classic story from his short stay there:

During his stay in Abilene, Hardin rented a room at the American House Hotel. One night, a stranger in the next room began to snore loudly. Hardin became so annoyed that he began firing bullets through the wall to quiet him. The first bullet was high, and it merely woke the man. The second bullet silenced the unsuspecting stranger permanently.

Hardin realized that his friendship with Hickok would not save him. “I believed,” Hardin later said, “that if Wild Bill found me in a defenseless condition, he would take no explanation, but would kill me to add to his reputation.” Wearing only his undershirt, Hardin escaped through the hotel window and jumped down to the street. He spent the night hiding in a haystack, stole a horse at dawn, and returned to the cow camp. The next day he left for Texas, never to set foot in Abilene again.

About that he allegedly said this:

“They tell lots of lies about me,” he complained. “They say I killed six or seven men for snoring. Well, it ain’t true, I only killed one man for snoring.”

While serving a 25 year term in prison he studied law and wrote an autobiography.