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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.

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.


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.

It’s All Happening at the River

Since the weather was so nice today, I took a walk in the Effie Yeaw Nature Center’s land by the American River. I was surprised to see that much of the action in Sacramento these days is happening by the river.

First, I ran into our esteemed legislature, wandering around aimlessly for a change.



Who did I find wandering around in his own world? You guessed it, I ran into the Governator himself.



Ignoring the political happenings, I ran into this aw shucks darling display of deer just being deer.



As a special bonus for readers in colder climates, I stumbled across an early sign of spring. These wild daffodils smelled as good as they looked.



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

Geography Can Be Fun, Really

Alright, people, no snickering.

Yes,

The New York Times provided this great map.

Thanks to the British and their remarkable skills at coming up with ridiculous names for small villages,geography has become fun again.

Back in the olden days, when I was working in Britain, our local rambling club had its annual Christmas hike and lunch at an inn in standing just behind this quaint village sign, I kid you not.



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

Words to Live By

The Guardian has provided today's words to live by in its article covering today's general strike in France. The strike is protesting of the Government's failure to do anything about rising unemployment.

Today's words to live by. . .

'The latest unemployment figures could not be released today because statisticians are on strike.'

I don't know why, but that made me smile deep, deep inside.

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

Traveling for work

The Onion featured a story that,from my previous experience,captures the essence of business travel.

'DES MOINES, IA—While en route to visit her cousin in South Bend, local divorcee Janet Linden, 37, told reporters Monday that her initial self-consciousness at drinking a beer by herself at Dugan's Sports Bar in the Des Moines International Airport was somewhat mitigated after she saw a woman approximately her age doing the same. "I guess it's not that bad," Linden said as she straightened herself up in her bar stool and brushed some cat hair off her skirt. "What's wrong with a single, independent woman having a cold beer while she's waiting for her flight? It's perfectly normal. Just ask that lady over there." Linden considered approaching the other woman to chat before realizing she had been looking at a mirror at the other end of the darkened bar.'

I remember once running into I guy from college at the Minneapolis airport,both of us in suits from client meetings and exhausted at the end of our traveling weeks. We had a drink together and entertained ourselves by pointing out other folks in the airport who looked as washed out as we did. There was no shortage.

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

A Musical Personality Disorder

In my amateur music career, I have encountered some repeated instances of an annoying personality disorder that I have defined as NAMBES, Novelty Amateur Musician Blowhard Expressive Disorder. The severity of this order varies among individuals, with the more mild cases being only annoying, and the severe cases approaching comprehensive dysfunction.

The most remarkable observable symptom of NAMBES is the compulsion to share one’s belief that one possesses unique and excellent knowledge of music and musicianship through talking about music, while demonstrating mediocre musical abilities at best.

NAMBES is most commonly found in practitioners the more obscure musical genres and instruments (novel musical applications). The afflicted individual needs to specialize in a field of music that is rarely performed or taught in schools, such as renaissance music. The self delusion of excellence necessary to fuel this disorder is difficult to maintain if one plays a more common instrument, such as piano, guitar or any of the normal band and orchestra instruments. In the case of a more common instrument, the presence several of truly superior musicians in the community (possibly in the house next door) makes maintaining the delusion of one’s superior skills very difficult. Therefore, you can observe this syndrome readily in early music organizations.

The most remarkable observable symptoms are seen in communications. The typical case will not be able to resist vocally enumerating the irrational basis of his excellent musicianship, such as fabricated personal relationship with noted musicians (sorry, no pun intended). The individual will normally exhibit musical skills at a level near or below the average skill levels reference group in which he participates, or claims to have participated in. The individual will be unable to critically evaluate his playing, while freely providing unsolicited advice and criticism of other’s playing. The individual will normally exhibit a level of listening skills insufficient for successful social interaction. The individual is normally shunned by other members of community music groups.

In the most severe cases, the individual will describe to others a personal history that can not be verified, and appears to be fabricated at best. As other members of musical groups react negatively to the individual, he may fabricate even more fantastic fabrications, which reveal inconsistencies that are obvious to the listener.

If you want to meet several of these individuals, I suggest you become president of a local early music society.

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

Saint Vincent Lombardi Performs another Miracle!

In the wake of yesterdays airplane crash in New York, I couldn’t believe everyone survived. Turns out a higher power, none other than Saint Vincent Lombardi, soon to become the patron saint of cheese and whining nasal accents, intervened in a Time of Great Need.

I quote from the New York Times:

The lead officials in Thursday’s rescue spoke about the coordinated efforts amid the brisk current and freezing temperatures that enabled every passenger and crew member to reach the shore safely.

‘I was worried if we didn’t get them out right away,’ said New York Waterway captain Vincent Lombardi, first on the scene, ‘there would have been casualties.’

What more evidence of miracles do we need for sainthood? That’s right Pope Benny, I am talking to you. If you can make Pope Pius the Nazi Collaborator a saint for his miracle of silence and collaboration during the genocide of millions (while you were parading around in your brown shirt, I might add), canonizing Vince Lombardi is the least you could do.

Ave Saint Vincent Lombardi of the Green Bay!




Seven weeks indulgence is granted for reading this post while standing on your head, because I say so.

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

On A Mission, Mission San Francisco Sonoma, That Is

We visited Mission San Francisco Solano on Monday, on K’s furlough day. K now has one mandatory furlough day per month, along with all management employees at the City. We decided to use each furlough day to do something fun and different. K chose her day well, the weather was unseasonably beautiful. We had sunny skies and high temperatures in the 70’s.

The Mission is located adjacent to the town square in Sonoma, which is a beautiful small city surrounded by vineyards and gentle green hills. The mission looked exactly how I would expect a mission to look.




This mission’s history is tied to General Vallejo, who was a pretty interesting guy. He managed to prosper under Spanish, Mexican, and American rule. No small task. This is the only mission built by the Mexico, and it is the last mission built in California. Mexico wanted a mission further inland than San Francisco, whose damp weather had caused health problems, and they wanted a military presence closer to the Russian outpost at Fort Ross. In 1834, the mission was secularized and General Vallejo was given command. The original Franciscans had more or less given up on the mission after a revolt of the much abused neophytes (Christianized natives) in 1826. It’s amazing they didn’t revolt in all the missions, given the inhumane treatment they received. However, it is interesting that the clay roofs we associate with mission architecture were developed in response to the need for roofs that could withstand flaming arrows.

One of the barracks rooms was been restored. What seemed strange to me was the short length of the sabers. Perhaps the troops didn’t anticipate using them on horseback. I liked seeing the classic Zorro felt hat on the shelf.



These barracks have their own historical relevance. Their soldiers ignited the Bear Flag Rebellion , and revolted in the mission’s plaza. Supposedly, the flag was crafted in the room you see here.

The original flag was lost in a fire following the San Francisco Earthquake, but some folks made a detailed copy in 1905. That flag is displayed at the mission.



The mission’s church was decorated in the early 20th century, and it is a good example awesomely strange interiors you can see in Mexican churches all over California.





This mission is run as the State Park, and it has a great museum. It’s worth a visit.

General Vallejo’s house is a ten minute walk from the mission, across beautiful trails. Central Sonoma is gorgeous. The house itself is a Victorian, filled with knickknacks built by a man who was above all a modern man of his age.




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

Prince Harry - Racist Sloganeer or Military Banterer?

Britain has its collective knickers once more in a twist about the off-color remarks of their young Prince Harry.

This time, he was caught calling a fellow soldier a Paki, which in British slang is an uncomplementary ethnic slur used against British of Pakistani origin. The Guardian's take on this provides good reading,including interviews with some British military personel about the usage of offensive banter.

This short excerpt from an interview with a senior NCO was too much fun to keep to myself.

'I might call somebody a bent bastard and the guy might be a homosexual but I don't mean it like that. It depends how it is said. If I went up to him and jabbed him in the chest and said "you are a fucking bent bastard" then it would be using the term badly, but if I want to go up to someone and say "come on you bent bastard, get a move on" then that's quite a different thing. . . The guy that Harry called a Paki wasn't crying or moaning about it. You don't know if he gave him much stick back and called him a posh ginger twat.'

I can't help love an enilisted man who speaks to defend the Prince by calling him a 'posh ginger twat'. A satirical genius is at work in the British Army!

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

Oh, Those Wild and Crazy British

A friend just emailed me a link to an unbelievable British farce. This is definitely worth reading.

Obsession, deception,comic relief,it's all there, in real life,

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