Thanks That Girl

Remember that one girl that was friends with Carrie? She would sit over by the drama-room with her sack lunch and laugh a lot. She posted this video on her blog and it reminded Camille and me of one of our favorite bands, The Go! Team.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

It makes me feel good--not the good that you feel behind your belly button when you drive over a small hill, but the good that comes after you have just restored a 1970 Corvette. I hope it does the same for you.

Beaking up is hard to do

I found this mostly funny, but totally creepy how the one dude is like a big, fat Josh Bingham. If that doesn't peak you interest, you're dead.

Breakup in a Noisy Diner from Aubrey Plaza

Corvette for Sale

My brother Michael has been restoring a 1970 Corvette for the last year or so and just posted it for sale on Ebay yesterday. So if you're up for a sweet new ride CHECK IT OUT!

No BRCA Mutation!

Taliatha just got her genetic testing results from Myriad Genetics and she tested negative for BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations. Her Mom died of breast cancer at 41 and her maternal grandmother died of breast cancer at 45, so we knew she had a 50% chance of inheriting a BRCA mutation from her Mom. I had always just assumed Taliatha carried the mutation and figured we would have to deal with breast cancer. Hallelujah! Now I don't have to worry about my wife dying prematurely or any of our children carrying the mutation. What a great relief. I just wanted to share this great news with all of you.

Book Recommendation

Now some of you have probably read these already but I had to share because I really enjoyed the Hunger Series books. In terms of just a fun and engaging reading experiences the first two books in this series were great (the third comes out in August). Good post-apocalyptic society read. Running Man meets Island of the Blue Dolphins, well maybe that's a weird pairing but you'll get my point if you give them a read.

Motivational Vader

Just in case you hadn't already seen these, here are the best Vader motivational posters out there posted in order of awesomeness. Don't go searching for more because the rest are lame or inappropriate. Only the best for you, gentle reader.









And a little gem for the true Provonian insiders:

John Stossel on Atlas Shrugged

Since Kirk is reading Atlas Shrugged, I thought he, and others, would appreciate this John Stossel program on the book and its recent surge in popularity. I read the book in high school and found it doctrinaire with flat, unrealistic characters--but I imagine time and experience would help me appreciate it more if I were to reread it. However, given its length (1000+) a reread is unlikely. But there's always The Fountainhead.

Here's the first of the six segments. I really like the BB&T president and his explanation of true self-interest. I also found his revelations about how his bank had TARP forced down its throat distrubing.


If that piqued your interest here's the rest.
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

Happy Martin Luther King Day

This speech was given the day before his martyrdom.

But not auto-tuned.

John Adams Quotations (Part 2)

In 1772 John Adams observed in his journal:

Ambition is one of the more ungovernable passions of the human heart. The love of power is insatiable and uncontrollable . . .

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust to no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

To any proponent of smaller government, the Bush years were a disappointment and the
prospects for the Obama years are downright terrifying. This realization has made me appreciate Adams' observation that "There is danger from all men." With the wrong incentives and no check on legislative scope (e.g. enumerated powers) both parties have demonstrated that they will grow government faster than the economy. Insatiable and uncontrollable indeed.

We all know our areas of disagreement with the "other side" so let's save that discussion for another time--or at least not focus on it here. Can you think of any area where both parties have messed up and prove the maxim that "there is danger from all men"?

Tysman Rap

Bless you Cougarboard for providing this link.

Other Blogs by Provonians?

Hey esteemed readers, are there any other public blogs by Provonians that we should be linking to? Please give your suggestions in the comments section.

19th Century Mind in the 21st Century

I want my life to become simpler and more agrarian--but this video shows me that although I may succeed in the latter endeavor, I will not in the former. And I have to prepare my kids to succeed in a world that I can't properly envision. Will technology improve personal liberty by holding governments accountable and allowing a blossoming of free enterprise through voluntary cooperation or will technology allow governments to become increasingly intrusive and monitor ever more aspects of our lives?

Team Conan

Whether you can handle his energy or not, he's getting a raw deal and he's taking it with class.

I pledge my allegiance...

Vampire Surprise

Yeah, I do have a hundred photos and a short film of our trip to Eden that I'm supposed to post here, but since I haven't had any time to do that yet, I'll make do with this little gem I found while snooping around the internet tonight.

Having read that Vampire Weekend's sophomore album was dropping next week and also having read that it's bloody (get it?) brilliant, I googled said band a couple hours ago and this is what I found. (the embedded player isn't working for me tonight)

Pretty rad, I'd say. Until tonight, I'd never found anything that made Horchata sound good as it tastes.

John Adams Quotations (Part 1)

John Adams was the workhorse of the revolution and was an unsung hero, to me at least, until I read David McCullough's masterful biography. Adams worked incessantly for the success of the American democratic experiment and his efforts required great personal, financial and physical sacrifice.This was the first book by McCullough I've read and I am excited to read 1776 next.

Because several of you have already read or are familiar with this famous biography, my objective here is to share and discuss some favorite quotations rather than to review the entire biography.

In the midst of the first continental congress and just prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence Adams wrote to a friend:

Objects of the most stupendous magnitude, measures in which the lives and liberties of millions, born and unborn are most essentially interested, are now before us. We are in the very midst of revolution, the most complete, unexpected, and remarkable of any in the history of the world.

The prescience to understand that the choices he and his fellow congressmen made would affect millions is astounding. (In fact, his comment is an understatement considering the wide sweep of democracy. The repercussions are on the order of billions rather than millions.) I believe it was this foresight and his incredible sense of duty that propelled Adams to such dedication and sacrifice for the cause. To achieve something of true greatness we need to have a sense of the long term consequences of our efforts.