stuff #13.6

20 01 2012

This makes me happy (click).  I’ve been waiting for something of a facebook backlash for a while now.  Here’s hoping for an early Christmas present this year.

This makes me sad …”We’ve been blessed with natural resources…“  It’s a comment I overheard by a member of my parliament while on Rutherford’s 630 CHED radio program.  It seems he was upset with Obama’s recent decision to delay the XL pipeline.  From what I can gather, the boundaries that define Canada have been bestowed by some deity with abundant materials that we Canadians can exploit as we see fit.  Sweet, I love deities that play favorites …especially when they’re on my side.

This makes me relieved (click).  I don’t like pirates.  Water-logged or digital.  What I hate worse than pirates though are ‘artistic thieves’ – ones who steal creativity by limiting its growth.  Clay Shirky summed it up well in this recent Ted Talk: “The 20th Century was a great time to be a media company […] If you were making a TV show, it didn’t have to be better than the other TV shows of the day …it only had to be better than the two other shows that were on at the same time.“

This makes me laugh (click).  It seems someone’s been playing the old iPad switch-a-roo, and a few consumers have gotten a bag of clay instead of the real McCoy.  It’s not all that funny if you got one I suppose, but what I’m excited about is for those with time on their hands to throw together some videos/skits with Apple ‘fanboys‘ actually trying to use the product.  Clay iPhones will be the next big seller if I know my trends.

Finally, this makes me wonder… “To admit that our ancestors are bacteria is humbling.  It has disturbing implications.  Besides impugning human sovereignty over the rest of nature, it challenges our assumptions of individuality, uniqueness, and independence.  It even violates our view of ourselves as discrete physical beings separate from the rest of nature and – still more unsettling – questions the alleged uniqueness of human intelligent consciousness.” pg 32.  Dazzle Gradually by Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan.

...just one of our many blessings.


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Categories : articles, books, movies etc., computers, internet, tech etc., religion, spirituality, philosophy

housekeeping

14 01 2012

The nice thing about moving stuff between backups and backups of backups is that you get to see exactly what you have.  Usually I’m pretty organized with things, but over the last few months I’ve been neglectful.  Poor motivation I suppose.  I’ve decided to opt out of the wireless backup arrangement I had though, which means were going old school.  I’ve even plugged that strange looking cable into my computer again …you know, the one that physically connects you to your router.  Strange, I know.  I’m calling it ‘cloudless’.

Here’s a few pictures I had strewn about some folders that I’ve taken with my little LX3.  Most of them were processed in-camera with the ‘sharp’ black and white setting, and a few others I worked up in Photoshop.  We’re finally getting some snow too it seems, so hopefully when the sun eventually peeks out I’ll be able to get some real Winter type shots.  It is the middle of January after all.

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Friday the 13th

13 01 2012

Ohh, that’s scary.  Kinda.  If you’re into the scary that is.

The week has been the week, for lack of anything more productive to say about it.  Work was back to work and routine back to routine.  Kinda.  The routine was interrupted briefly with some computer shenanigans, but it’s all my fault and although I’m not as bad as someone like this guy perhaps, I do have an issue with keeping pace in the computing world.  The obvious of course is that I don’t need to …keep pace that is, not for what I do.  Sure it’s nice to have audio and video and large image files open, save and convert faster – but in the bigger picture I’m not in any real hurry and I could wait.  I could.  But for some similar reasons (and on a smaller scale) I can sympathize with the lure of the new.  Anyway, I am new again.  And mobility is overrated.

Last weekend had me doing a mariachi thing with Marco.  It was a good gig, simple at least, but the hardest part was enduring the pain -lol.  The pain is from playing his Mexican bass (or guitarron) that is, as it’s something I don’t do that often.  To get that authentic sound you have to pull the strings up (outward from the face) and have them slap/sound back down.  The tone and pitch come across along with a small percussive ‘click’ from the strings hitting the face on the return, and as far as I know that’s what they’re supposed to sound like.  My problem was with my fingers …and more to the point with the blisters afterwards.  Not good.  I didn’t have any other bass stuff to do during the week so things are all back to normal, finally.  It’s a fun instrument, but like most fun things …in moderation.

I also stopped in at the King Muskafa show last weekend.  KM (in case you’re new to my world) was a group that I played with since 98′ up till about a year ago when I used my ‘lingering drummer issues’ (Freddy is, as Bob Kemmis might say, an acquired taste) to part ways.  There were other reasons too of course, and I think the crux of it was my need to get out of the spiral.  Yeah, spiral is a good word.  But I thought they sounded great!  Amber was Amber and the rest of the gang worked well together.  Well enough that is.  As much as I like Audrey’s playing though, one horn in a ska/reggae band is (as a wiser albeit less-tactful man once said) kinda useless.  Not the player mind you (lol) …just the function when considered with the other instrumentation.  Heck, even keys playing the second horn lines would help the cause.  But they were fine though, and the audience was as receptive as always.  Even me!


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whew

13 12 2011

“Iran reject US request to return captured drone” …”The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has admitted it is likely that the drone will not be returned. She said on Monday that despite numerous “provocations” from Iran, the US would pursue a “diplomatic approach”.

I had to double check the definition of the word ‘diplomacy’, but it seems that you indeed can be spying on the country you’re interested in being diplomatic with.  That is, it’s OK to be untrusting and be diplomatic.  Whew!  It’s interesting too how the word ‘provocations’ is used to contrast the US attempt at relations with Iran.  That is, if one party is provocating then the other is obviously not.  Whew!  And finally, it’s great to see that Hillary didn’t get her hopes up for getting her malfunctioning spy-plane back.  I mean, could you imagine the disappointment so close to Christmas and all.  Double whew!

Honestly, I think we’re getting closer and closer to that Orwellian dream.

In other exciting non-news, I donated to Wikipedia the other day.  $10.  I try to donate once a year.  Just like I do at my local library.  I understand too that Wikipedia is edited by people like me.  Not people like me per se, but people like me who have a desire to contribute to the information on a Wikipedia page.  Yes, that means there will be drunken idiots (I said people like me, right -lol) offering information to the world in their own drunken ways, but at the other end of the scale there will be people who are concise, articulate and knowledgable about the information they enter.  As far as I can tell though, Wikipedia has enough non-drunken people perusing the site to catch those who are up to no good …drunken or knowledgeable!  My point is, Wikipedia is us.  And us is smart …er, smarter. At least I hope we are.

Which is why I approach Wikipedia as a general source on the information I require ….and not the source.  I understand how it’s constructed.  I appreciate its probability of error.  I know that it’s only as reliable as those who edit it, and I take that into consideration when I skim its pages.  I realize that I don’t contribute information to Wikipedia articles just as I realize I don’t contribute suggestions to the books my Library purchases with the money I give them.  I use Wikipedia to get information that sends me to my Libraries, and I use my Libraries to get information that sends me again to Wikipedia.  I use Wikipedia as a source to find other online information, and use other online information to find yet other similar information, and use this similar information to find yet more detailed information and so on and so on until I’m at least somewhat knowledgable on the subject I’m hoping to become knowledgeable on.  Whew!

Wikipedia is only a start in that knowledge-seeking process, and I happen to find it’s a wonderful start.  But it’s by no means the ends …and nor should it be.  And for less than $1 a month I appreciate the ability to read something online without being inundated by advertising at every click.  Did I ever mention I hate advertising?

I think so.


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frisbees

12 11 2011

It seems the best way for me to sleep is to just simply stay in bed longer.  I guess it makes sense -ha.  I’m not a great sleeper when it comes to large chunks of the stuff (does that sound right?) and am up typically after 4 or 5 hours into things, but it appears I can cat-nap the heck out of what’s left of my mornings when I don’t have to get up …and now I actually feel rested.  So there’s a revelation for ya.

The sleep was needed though.  I did the ‘out late and drinking’ thing with some friends when I probably shouldn’t have, but this morning (in between the aforementioned cat-naps) finally got some iDVD stuff figured out and will happily have something to show tonight when AR celebrates its 20 years in existence.  That should be a fun time :)  I also traded my Nikon D40 for a slightly older (but better …like all old things) D200.  I was put on the spot with it the other day but was able to fumble my way through some half decent shots, and I also took a trip out to the Legislature grounds as yesterday was Remembering Day.  I remembered, and was able to grab a few shots of the ear-concussing salutes they typically preform.

Finally, in case anyone is wondering why their Macbook Air is dropping wifi sporadically, the solution may be in switching your Airport settings from detecting networks ‘Automatically’ to assigning a specific channel ….either 6 or 11.  It seems to be working for me lately, and if you’re coming a bit too close to turning your lappy into a frisbee, give it a shot.

Frisbees shouldn’t be that expensive.

Photoshop was here.


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post #1001

3 11 2011

It seems, thanks to the little synopsis WordPress started providing whenever you make a post, that this one is my 1001st.  Yea for me, I think.  So as I rack my brain to come up with something exciting to say, it dawns on me that this blog isn’t necessarily about excitement.  It’s not about cutting edge, or shock and awe (thanks GW) or anger or bitterness or glamor or controversy…  if anything, anti-exciting is a suiting descriptor.  Certainly some of the other things creep in from time to time, but the mainstay is a diet of the mundane and trivial – in a somewhat personal style of course.  At a stretch there’s some opinionated observation when I’m bored, but nothing too over the top.  And so it is what it is I guess …and I am what I am, whether I at times desire to be something that I am not.  Or not, if that makes any sense.  What I’m trying to say is I’m Troy, and I’m here.  Mostly ;)

And I’ve too thought about being on the web and if, after five and a half years, that might imply a certain command of technology when it comes to content creation.  But again, oddly, that’s not really the case, especially when you consider that this post is presently being jotted down in pencil onto one of my favorite scribblers while I lay in bed, more than happy at not having to open my laptop that sits a few feet away.  In fact, just looking at it – grey and steely-cold and impersonal, I’m reminded that the majority of my entries have been conceived in absence of this impersonal (albeit wonderful) tool.  It’s more work of course, having to translate my often cryptic handwriting into keystrokes and all, but I feel it’s a necessary step in the process of bringing personal prose across that digital divide.  Computers drive me crazy, truth be told, and as easy as they can be to use, intuitive to the point of liberating they are not.  Not this decade at least.

And I also thought about my content; stuff like poetry, lyrics, photography, music …all almost ‘traditional’ in a sense, and often borne to my kitchen, my living room, my time in the wonderful outdoors, in the river valley, among the city, the drives across the countryside for work, at work, at play, with friends, with colleagues, with neighbors or with the trees and the skies and the land and the wee beasties and if not in direct contact then just at reach outside my window when the sunlight seems to know I’m keeping my eye on her….

No, it seems this blog is simply a way to transfer me over to you, and not some secret agenda or affair with technology or grab for attention.  It’s just a life, of sorts, and I’m happy to be able to share some of it with strangers and in a way that is somewhat personal …and entertaining(!?)  More importantly though, I’m happy to archive a few of the creative pursuits that help to keep me sane.  I really need them, and desperately at times.  So yeah, maybe consider it a progress report in a way, just without the progress ;)  Me and the world as I happen to see it.  Although, the world I think I’m fine with, it’s just me that I don’t understand.

And to that end perhaps, this ‘thing’ may offer a few insights.  No guarantees though.


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Categories : computers, internet, tech etc., personal and family, the other stuff

stick-poking

23 10 2011

One of the reasons I picked up an Airport Extreme was so I could use it to hook up an external drive and then use that as a Time Machine backup.  My Airport Extreme (wireless router) is ‘hidden’ in my basement and unless you’re a SWAT team specialist you’re not going to easily find it.  The drive connected to it backs up the computer (via Time Machine) …therefore the drive is hidden too.  Why?  So when that inevitable day occurs and my house is pillaged by near-do-wells, they will most likely run off with my computer and accessories BUT I’ll still have all my data in the form of a hidden backup.  Sneaky, or so I thought.  Until my last computer switch-0-roo decided to not find my hidden drive.  Literally.

It seems the Apple powers that be decided to no longer allow Time Machine to backup to Airport Extreme connected drives.  Instead, you have to buy Time Capsule …which is one of their hard-drive/airport combos that essentially do the same thing.  And why you ask?  They won’t tell you.  It’s just policy now, that’s all.  I mean, why would they tell you?  Do you have to be told?  It’d be nice, I think.  It would also prevent someone from going through all the labors of re-backing up, erasing, repartitioning, and even going out and buying another drive because they suddenly think their long time companion has finally packed it in.

That still-slightly-warm iJobs needs a good stick-poking if you know what I mean.



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