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Life and Times of an itinerant slacker in Sacramento. Thrills, Spills Galore coming soon. Not to mention lots of opinions.

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Something Worked on My Windows Machine!

I was able to complete the download of the McAfee Security software,including disabling and uninstalling the prior software in about one hour. I only had two false starts! (Note to Mac users - gettings something done right the third time in windows is almost a miracle). If I had prayed to Mother Theresa before I started the download, this miracle would surely have satisfied the requirments for sainthood. During the process, I spent I did some praying out loud to Saint O'Fucket, the beloved patron saint of Windows users and stumbling Irishmen.

While I was watching the download process, I was able to get in some good woodshedding time with this piece of old music. It still amazes me what you can get for free on the internet. It really isn't that hard to figure out why publishing is not profitable. I also took a couple of runs through an old arrangement of Greensleeves,probably from early Elizabethan times,give or take a few generations. Funny to find 'Greensleeves' on a French websight, hmmmmmmmmm. Perhaps there's more to this Unites States of Europe business than I had expected. I smell a conspiracy,ripe with the odor of a Stilton smeared fromagerie. I knew the Chunnel would result in nothing but trouble.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Truth About Home Electronics

All is revealed.

Thanks to The Onion,and Wil Wheaton for pointing this out.

Note - this is full of foul language and is therefore rated NSFW.


Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

This is helping me prepare to install new security suite software (AT&T is switching applications) tomorrow,when I just might sound just like those interviews.

Thats my #*&%ing story and I'm #$*^ing sticking to it. You got a problem with that?

Monday, February 23, 2009

Letter to the Recorder Tooting Membership

See it here first! My soon to be published letter to the Recorder Society membership.

Here we go! (Note, the punchline is at the end)

I have had a couple of musical experiences in our broader community over the last few weeks.

Kathleen and I heard the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra at the Community Center Theater last night. We enjoyed a varied program along with a nearly full house. Both the orchestra and the featured violin and oboe soloists were great. I recommend the cheap seats for the Philharmonic, since the acoustics are better in the top tier. Bring your binoculars. It’s always good to see over 1,000 of our neighbors, including a lot of young adults, come out for a classical music event.

On the lighter side, I had the opportunity to play Guitar Hero a few weeks ago. I didn’t get much of a kick out of playing, since the actual game play is not very musical. However, I did email Activision, to suggest they produce a 'Recorder Consort Hero' game. I haven’t heard back yet. Perhaps they’re on vacation.

The SRS is providing great opportunities over the next few months for you to be the Recorder Consort Hero you know you’ve always wanted to be. Now is the time to 'Unleash your inner renaissance legend'!

Your Humble CoPresident

I really could get into Recorder Consort Hero. I really could.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

An Early Music Pioneer was a Dork!

Arnold Dolmetsch really was a pioneer of the revival of early music that took place in the 20th Century. As this video proves, he was also kind of a dork,in an early 20th century free love sort of way.

If for no other reason,watch this video for the dancing. It made me laugh until I almost peed.



As long as we're on the subject,this next video is from a Dutch guy who mostly plays baroque and renaissance string instruments. Here he's playing one of my favorite songs to play. I can do this too, almost as well as him. This is 'Under the Linden Tree (Onder Der Linded Groene)', as written by Jacob Van Eyck,and published in 1651 as part of 'Der Fluten Lust Hof'. This is an good example of the music that was popular in Northern Europe at the time.



Why care about this, you might ask? I'll tell you why. Van Eyck lived in the times of The Three Musketeers and Captain Alatriste (OK, if they weren't fictional characters,this would have been the time in which they lived). If they perchance ever met, It would have been near Utrecht,where both parties went to fight the heretic protestants. This is the music they would have heard. Although Van Eyck was a Dutch Protestant, these heroes may have spared him,given that he was a blind older man by this time. So There.

BTW,you might notice more than a passing resemblence between Captain Alatriste and the King of All Free Peoples of Middle Earth.


That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Finally, Someone Shows Courage

Bwaaahaaaahaaaaa,

Against the president's objections,Congress tells bank executives to go bite themselves!

First,check out this diatribe from CSPAN.



In addition to a lot of noisy scolding, congress has actually done something about our president's demands that we must support these scumbags through the TARP.

Finally,someone has apparently stood up and written a law that will actually limit the rape of our tax dollars by overly gorged bank executives.

As a still loyal adherent to the cult of Obama,it's interesting that the Prez stood against this. the old Who lyric, 'Meet the new boss,same as the old boss' is every day playing louder in my head. I am starting to struggle with some cognitive dissonance here.

My favorite comments from those who fear the poor executives will be underpaid is the 'There will be a brain drain in the banking industry' whinge. If what we've seen is the product of the industry's best and brightest, perhaps these brains need to be sent down the drain (what kind of financial genius gives mortgages to families with no income,anyway?). The last time I checked, there was no shortage of smart people willing to work for the grossly inadequate sum of $500,000 per year.

This brings up an interesting question; What good are banks if they are nearly insolvent and no one trusts them? I wish someone would answer that question before pouring even more billions into these dysfunctional organizations.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Friday, February 13, 2009

‘Bladerunner’, A Typical 'Dickless' Sci Fi Film



After over 25 years, I guess I had waited long enough to see this film.I got a disk including both the studio cut (super happy ending included) and the director’s cut without voiceover or happy ending. I liked the voiceovers, but I might call the added happy ending moronic, however I do not wish to insult morons. Perhaps Ridley Scott was locked out of the studio when the suits added the mega happy ending. I am too lazy to watch the extras on the DVD to find out for sure.

I give the movie 2 ½ stars. It’s worth watching if you like detective films set in a dystopic near future. The chase and kill the bad guys story arc is fun, and the visuals are cool. Vangeles’s score is a winner. The IMDB reviews are steller, perhaps that’s because Science Fiction film fans haven’t read enough of the best written Science Fiction to tell doodoo from shinola.

Phillip K Dick’s Brilliant novel, ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ created a very strange and disturbing near future dystopia, where most of the earth’s population of humans and animals have been destroyed, and only humans deemed unfit for colonization on other planets are left behind, living in nearly empty cities. Earth's inahbitants are slowly being poisoned. The folks left on earth are faced with some interesting dilemmas, overlaid with a pervasive sense of sadness and loneliness.

Earth residents’ most prized possessions are the few animals left surviving, however, all but the wealthiest keep replicant animals.The protagonist in the novel yearns to own an electric sheep. Replicant animals are a major industry. There are very few living animals to see.

Worshippers of the popular religion attach themselves to devices that allow them to share the pain and injuries of their profit, as he eternally climbs a hill only to be stoned and thrown down.

The novel dealt with some serious existential questions, as it becomes apparent that an individual cannot be sure whether he is a human being or a replicant.

'Bladerunner' however, didn’t deal with any of these questions, except in a few short moments of sophomoric dialogue. It was all about chasing the bad guys.

Even with these shortcomings, I can’t fairly expect a movie to be as good as one of the best Science Fiction novels ever written. I was not transported to 'Milton Lumky Territory' or anywhere, for that matter.

I give this film 2 ½ stars, although it didn’t do dick for me.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

First Depressant Drug Released

Despondex!

Finally, there is relief for the annoyingly cheerful!

No longer will we have to put up with excessive hugging or squealing when friend calls on the phone.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Mr Coffee in the 21st Century

After well over 10 years, I decided it was finally time to replace our old Mr Coffee.

While I was setting up the new and redesigned Mr Coffee, I had both designs right next to each other. The comparison was surprising, and it somehow reinvigorated my faith in the future of humankind.

First have a look at the old Mr Coffee:








Nothing exciting going on here, until I let my eyes go out of focus.




















Here's what I saw when I focused through the heart.







Next,I took a long look at Mr Coffee, The Second Generation:
































Somehow, the parallel was blatantly apparent.

Star Trek has become a dominant a paradigm in industrial design.




Perhaps the Revenge of the Nerds is finally complete. Well at least in the most important arena of counter top appliance design.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, just as soon as I'm done washing my pocket protector.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

Double Vision's gotta hold of me.

Just like Foreigner, that 70's rock nightmare has found me again.

'Ooh, double vision, I need my double vision
It takes me out of my head, takin me out of my head
I get my double vision, oh, seeing double double
Oh, I have double vision, yeah, Im getting double vision...'

I started seeing double on Friday. I went to an optometrist first, who kindly adjusted my glasses, and then told me the glasses weren't the problem, and that I absolutely had to see a doctor right away. Nice.

The doctor sent me to the ER, fortunately I got in and out by about 8:00 PM, so I missed the ER weekend night pandemonium. That's a quick $4,000 or $5,000 down the drain. Had a CAT scan, seemed to prove for once and for all that I do have a brain,and no visible damage from stroke,no deadly brain tumors,no old guys gathering wool in there. Blood tests ruled out all the scary causes of this embarrassing and inconvenient business.

This deal (sixth cranial nerve palsy)normally sorts itself out within a couple or three months. Right now,I am trying to figure out how to function. I see pretty well most of the time, but I can't read with both eyes open. When I drive, I just close the affected eye when things get weird. I'm using a rather jaunty Long John Silver style eye patch for reading, which I can't do with both eyes open. My students should get a real kick out of that next week. This is really stupid.

I was actually relieved, since a couple of years ago, my band's alto sax player showed up at Kaiser's Ophthalmologist with similar symptoms, was sent to the ER for tests that showed a brain tumor,and he died a couple of months later. For once, I am not the complicated patient.

I'll see an ophthalmologist as soon as I can,following the ER doctor's directions. Then it'll be wait for the weak eye to get back to work.

This is like having the worst part of being drunk (OK,maybe the worst besides puking) with none of the fun.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Cats at the Gates

We are thinking about getting two cats. I have been working on names,and one of my favorites (of course, only if the names fit) is Dante and Virgil.

It looks like someone else had a similar idea, I think it works pretty well.

funny pictures of cats with captions
more animals

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The Truth About Zombies!

Finally, thanks to hackers in Illinois and Texas, the truth about the zombie invasion has been revealed.







The Evile Corporate Guardians of the Dominant Cultural Paradigm is doing its best to lull the sheeple back into their dream by telling the gullible that this prophetic warning is simply a prank.

Don't drink the coolaid!

Oil your chainsaws!

Hold your brain-pulverizing shovel at the ready!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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I must enjoy shouting into a vacuum, but I think about getting my act together one of these days. My mom says I am very handsome and intelligent.

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