The Awesome Doug Blog
Vintage Batman Product Sites
Leave a Comment
I am a big fan of Batman, especially the comic book side, and all things related. I may not have the money, but I do have the time to “Windows” shop. LOL!
Here’s a few shops that cater to good ol’ Bruce Wayne:
DC Batman Store: I-Phone Case
Batman Shirts: 
http://www.zazzle.com/batman_comic_vintage_full_view_tshirt-235147511158899510?gl=batman&group=mens&lifestyle=fashion&rf=238393079552803195
I apologize for all of the HTML, but these shops are worth checking out if you are a fan!
Laters, Doug
Great Zazzle shops+Cool Gifts Part 1
Leave a Comment
Hey! I love the Zazzle.com website: you can find just about anything you want, minus that new car you’ve been eyeing! Some of my favorites include old school horror movie posters, rock band merch, and dorky movie T’s.
Here are a few of my favorite products in a few of these categories:
You can find this yummy zombie necktie with blood at-<a href=”http://www.zazzle.com/zerotees?rf=238393079552803195″>zerotees’s Store at Zazzle</a>
The Awesome zombie necktie-http://rlv.zcache.com/zombie_assassin_society_tie-p1516738666214250248gnz_325.jpg?rf=238393079552803195
Here is a cool site for this type of Office Space shirt and a whole lot more-<a href=”http://www.zazzle.com/405media?rf=238393079552803195″>405media’s Store at Zazzle</a>
“Office Space” movie shirt!
Ken Follett’s great non-fiction account, “On Wings of Eagles.”
Leave a Comment
For most people when they hear the name Ross Perot, they are reminded of his failed presidential bid and lots of charts that were eventually ridiculed on SNL. At least that has been my experience and actual thoughts about the billionaire. When I picked up this book from a local resale shop, I was a little let down since Ken Follett is one of my “go-to” guys for great fiction. This book didn’t disappoint at all!
I was highly impressed with Perot’s all-out drive to rescue the imprisoned Americans in a very unlikely raid. Using some of the most decorated veterans of World War II and Vietnam, Perot never gave up on getting his friends (employees) out of Teheran.
Gotta experience this one!
“I’m not here to judge…just to criticize.”-dOuG
Bass Guitar Lesson: Basic hand posture, strap positioning
Leave a Comment
Hello, bassists. I have a few quick tips to get you on your way to better basslines and overall improved physical shape. Nope, this is not like the P90X exercise extreme thing; this is just what you need to help you improve your playing.
Playing Hand Positioning:
First, for most occasions, the thumb on your playing hand, not the fretting hand, should rest on/on top of the pickup. Either one is good, depending on your sound pref and taste. This allows the fingers to naturally “fall” down onto the strings. Plus, it gives you an anchor to prevent your hand from slipping or banging out any unwanted notes. Been there! I have seen many females, and males, place their thumbs on the middle of the TOP of their basses, with their fingers doing some crabwalk on the strings. What a waste! Plus, that may lead to eventual hand cramps and cruddy tone for that matter. My heart aches when I see such talented bass players cramping their own style.
Of course, we all end up learning the rules just to break them. I have played songs with my hand drifting up and down the strings without any support, but with my muscle memory and years of devotion to practice, I have made it work for me. With that said, I have made mistakes doing that and I tend to find myself going back to the basics.
Another way to play the bass is to have a “floating” thumb-on-string technique where the thumb moves down or up on the next string, acting as a mute for any of the strings not in use at the time. My old bass teacher taught me this and I have used it in much of my playing. It works!
Strap Positioning for Better Playability:
Good old Billy Sheehan preaches this: Sit down, set your bass into your lap in the way that you would naturally practice, adjust the strap high or low, then stand up with the bass strapped on ya. Voila! That is the best way to have your bass on. If you want to be cool and look like Fieldy for Korn, do that. That appears to be working for him. If you want to look like a jazz bass geek with the bass right under your nose (like me!), do it! I just want to advise you to place the bass in the most natural, physically relaxed place possible. I like the bass up high so I can reach all of the notes on my six string from head to tail. I definitely can’t play Rush with the bass tickling my toes.
As far as what kind of strap to get, I prefer one with lots of padding and room to “add” another hole if the bass is too low. No matter what kind of strap I get, when I sit down, the bass is in the same place as it is when I stand. My hand never has to adjust or compensate for the change.
****Please read: Make sure your bass is actually attached to the strap when you are about to stand up and do a mind-blowing solo. Don’t ask. The scene is still too painful for me. 
****
Once I have figured out how to attach videos, I will demonstrate these crucial basics for any guitarist or bassist.
PLAY ON! Doug
Tags: bass guitar strap lesson hand position posture strap
Review of Leon Uris’s novel,”Topaz.” “Read it. Read it again!”
Leave a Comment
Hello, I’m switching gears a bit to gush about my all-time favorite pasttime: reading books! Recently, I started to wonder exactly how many I have read and what made many of them good or bad for me. I dug deep and I think I may have found a few key elements to my criteria of good/bad/OK books.
1). Does it have a good plot and strong character archetypes?
2). Does it aid in my great escape from reality?
3). Can I guess the outcome or will I be completely surprised?
4). Can the writer write? Can the writer also take me somewhere in my mental utopia and reveal new landscapes?
5). Did it even try to change my perspective?
OK, that’s enough logistics. Leon Uris is a writer that is completely unfamiliar to me, so this was a journey into the unknown. I was very impressed with his fictional novel, “Topaz.” It has a depth and feel to it that I sometimes have to foster on my own to grasp and envision. Uris has done all of the research and work, you just have to find a good place to sit and EXPERIENCE the novel. The characters are as flawed, complex, intelligent, unforgiving and as real as any nonfiction work could offer.
Based on real events and real persons during the Cuban Missile Crisis era of the world, Topaz has several plot lines going at full speed: a Russian defector with a terrible secret that will rock the world; a French intelligence officer caught up in a triangle of marital love, love of country, and the love of his Cuban mistress; and an American NATO intelligence chief who must decide if the Russian defector is good to his word and whether or not the French officer is going to leak the Russian’s big secret to his own country.
Most fictional books leave me feeling pretty secure in the knowledge that I have just went on a magical ride and will come home the same, if not a little changed, when I return. Topaz did not. By the time I was midway through, the real and the unreal were having quite a field day with my head: meaning that the rich details of the story, setting, politics, and just dead-on writing were so compelling and temporal that I ended the book much more affected than I normally am by most books.
How great is that? The book was good enough to write about on my blog. What a writer Leon Uris is! I found myself wondering what exactly did he find during his research on escaped Nazi war criminals? I could see myself in post-revolution Cuba, in the squalor. I could feel the tension from the Oval Office upon the discovery of nuclear missile launch sites on the little island not too far away.
Don’t worry, this book doesn’t detail the day-by-day American president actions and such-the story keeps with the main characters and tastefully (artfully) stays away from Castro, JFK, and other key players to keep the plot moving forward, barely mentioning the “big names.”
I had a hard time finding any real fault with the story. I only wished it had lasted for a few hundred more pages, but the pace is steady, sometimes too fast! If you enjoy real hard looks at the world, then this book had a lot of that and more for you. There are several great quotes in there,as well as enough spy thriller action to keep most James Bond fans happy. This book rang the bells on all of my forementioned critiria with much aplomb. I was completely wrapped into this story.
Read it. Read it again! A sophisticated, emotional and spiritual tome on the lengths a man or woman would go to for someone they love. Yep, there is also plenty of romance in there. Enjoy!
“I’m not here to judge, just to criticize.”-Doug
Leon Uris’s “Topaz” Reviewed and Given An “A” Rating! “Read it. Read it again!”
Leave a Comment
Hello, I’m switching gears a bit to gush about my all-time favorite pasttime: reading books! Recently, I started to wonder exactly how many I have read and what made many of them good or bad for me. I dug deep and I think I may have found a few key elements to my criteria of good/bad/OK books.
1). Does it have a good plot and strong character archetypes?
2). Does it aid in my great escape from reality?
3). Can I guess the outcome or will I be completely surprised?
4). Can the writer write? Can the writer also take me somewhere in my mental utopia and reveal new landscapes?
5). Did it even try to change my perspective?
OK, that’s enough logistics. Leon Uris is a writer that is completely unfamiliar to me, so this was a journey into the unknown. I was very impressed with his fictional novel, “Topaz.” It has a depth and feel to it that I sometimes have to foster on my own to grasp and envision. Uris has done all of the research and work, you just have to find a good place to sit and EXPERIENCE the novel. The characters are as flawed, complex, intelligent, unforgiving and as real as any nonfiction work could offer.
Based on real events and real persons during the Cuban Missile Crisis era of the world, Topaz has several plot lines going at full speed: a Russian defector with a terrible secret that will rock the world; a French intelligence officer caught up in a triangle of marital love, love of country, and the love of his Cuban mistress; and an American NATO intelligence chief who must decide if the Russian defector is good to his word and whether or not the French officer is going to leak the Russian’s big secret to his own country.
Most fictional books leave me feeling pretty secure in the knowledge that I have just went on a magical ride and will come home the same, if not a little changed, when I return. Topaz did not. By the time I was midway through, the real and the unreal were having quite a field day with my head: meaning that the rich details of the story, setting, politics, and just dead-on writing were so compelling and temporal that I ended the book much more affected than I normally am by most books.
How great is that? The book was good enough to write about on my blog. What a writer Leon Uris is! I found myself wondering what exactly did he find during his research on escaped Nazi war criminals? I could see myself in post-revolution Cuba, in the squalor. I could feel the tension from the Oval Office upon the discovery of nuclear missile launch sites on the little island not too far away.
Don’t worry, this book doesn’t detail the day-by-day American president actions and such-the story keeps with the main characters and tastefully (artfully) stays away from Castro, JFK, and other key players to keep the plot moving forward, barely mentioning the “big names.”
I had a hard time finding any real fault with the story. I only wished it had lasted for a few hundred more pages, but the pace is steady, sometimes too fast! If you enjoy real hard looks at the world, then this book had a lot of that and more for you. There are several great quotes in there,as well as enough spy thriller action to keep most James Bond fans happy. This book rang the bells on all of my forementioned critiria with much aplomb. I was completely wrapped into this story.
Read it. Read it again! A sophisticated, emotional and spiritual tome on the lengths a man or woman would go to for someone they love. Yep, there is also plenty of romance in there. Enjoy!
“I’m not here to judge, just to criticize.”-Doug
Ode to Al Gore’s Global Warming Jihad
Leave a Comment
It is funny, ever since Al Gore’s global warming documentary was debunked based on faulty science, I have not heard one word about “carbon footprints.” If I could afford it, I would buy a fleet of hummers and leave them running all day. For now, I still buy old school, harmful to Mother Nature, lightbulbs and request plastic just to be saucy. 
Tags: Al Gore, carbon footprint, Earth, global warming, green
Review of Chuck Klosterman’s “Eating The Dinosaur.” “Good Fun!”
Leave a Comment
Hey-O! This will be a quick one. I want to review Chuck Klosterman’s awesomely funny book, “Eating The Dinosaur.” Part-commentary, part-self analysis, this book is a must read recommend for an entire generation of people who were growing up in the 90′s.
Chuck leads you, willingly or not, down into the dark caverns of his mind. It is not an unpleasant journey, but all the same, you will never be the same. I had some serious laughs and strange moments of pause when I began to see Nirvana and David Koresh in a different light. I was educated on the finer points of basketball. My brain became comfortable with the idea of spying on someone’s coworker and viewing their completely mundane life on a Friday night. With your best friend in the car with you.
Chuck doesn’t get any funnier, or more Seinfeld, than when he discusses his own self and failings.
Eating The Dinosaur is good fun. Read it with confidence and be sure to read the back of the book for an honest review of it from the author himself. The format of the book takes a little getting used to, but soon you will be putty in the hands of Mr. Klosterman. Oh, and you may have to relinquish all prior fantasies of time travel. You’ve been warned.
“I’m not here to judge…just to criticize.”-Doug
Tags: Chuck Klosterman Eating Dinosaur funny humor satire commentary social critique fiction novel