Lovely Daughter’s wedding is two weeks from today. She has made a mix CD of songs for the wedding reception afterwards, and one–“The Best Is Yet To Come” as sung by Michael Buble (nice, just, I dunno, a certain je ne sais quoi)–begged me to post a clip of this version of the song as performed by Frank Sinatra with Count Basie And His Orchestra on the album, Nothing But the Best. It’s barely more than 30 seconds–about what Amazon lets folks sample–so go pick up a 99 cent download for yourself.
[audio:The Best Is Yet To Come-Frank Sinatra-clip.mp3]Stolen Wisdom
From Neanderpundit, after Arthur C. Clarke’s famous aphorism*,
“Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is virtually indistinguishable from Malice”
Amen. I shall forever after associate these words of wisdom with congresscritters, Mass MEdia Podpeople, Academia Nut Fruitcakes, remote educrats and pubschool administrators, the inhabitants of the “Half-Caff/Decaf Café au Lait (with a twist) House” and “feddle gummint bureaucraps and persecutors”.
Watching My Figures
Yeh, I am losing weight to get into a decent suit for Lovely Daughter’s wedding (in 2 weeks), but that’s not what this post’s about. It’s about figuring things closer so the IRS has less of our $$ to screw around with over the course of the year.
Better with the IRS this year. Owed ’em about $100. Notsogood with the state. Refund about twice what we owed the feds. Have to work on that. Want it to come out at the end of the year at zero-zero. Getting closer, but still not there yet.
Better yet would be the FairTax. Then I’d not have to pull my hair out by the roots once a year when it came time to sit down with tax software… And that’s just one of many, many benefits the system would bring. (See my left sidebar.)
Stuck In the Middle With You?
*heh*
“[pointing to a venn diagram] On this side are the people who are breaking my heart, and the other people who are shaking my confidence daily. In the middle? Cecelia.”
h.t. Lovely Daughter
“LOL Much”
*heh*
From Kat, on FB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFicqklGuB0&feature=player_embedded
Truer scenes were never filmed…
CDBurnerXP: A Nice Addition for Windows Users
While Linux users are usually offered a wealth of options for burning CDs and DVDs using software that’s “automagically” installed with almost all modern distros, Windows users have usually felt compelled to go out and buy Nero or Roxio software to have more than the very basic burning included with recent versions of Windows. Now, Windows 7 does have more capable burning options than previous versions built into its default installation, and the Roxio and Nero softwares are certainly very capable, but… I want free and very capable.
DeepBurner is pretty good, and certainly surpasses the abilities of Windows’ built in functionality, but it’s just not good enough to have me use it in preference to the nearly good enough burning capabilities Windows has on its own.
Enter CDBurnerXP. All it’s missing as compared to Roxio or Nero are some audiophile-oriented recording and leveling tricks (and the free Audacity does a superior job with those things). This is one seriously good piece of free software. Using it to burn copies of a mix CD for Lovely Daughter’s wedding (2 weeks and three days away :-)) is an exercise in simplicity. Very nice. Handles creation of DVDs, audio and data CDs/DVDs, burns ISOs and creates bootable disks very easily, among its many capabilities.
Now, most of that is fairly easily done with Win7’s built in capabilities, but not all. Most can be done with DeepBurner–just not all, or as easily. Roxio’s and Nero’s solutions can do everything CDBurnerXP can do and a little bit more, of course, but why pay $50-$100 for capabilities that are available for free? Seriously, if Roxio or Nero want me to buy their product, they’d need to add some serious capabilities, like making my coffee or doing my laundry or some such. *heh*
Comparable capabilities via free software in Linux are almost too many to list (OK, I’m just too lazy to do so), but something this capable in free software for Windows is a nice find. I’d used earlier versions of CDBurnerXP some years ago and dropped using it because its capabilities just weren’t extensive enough at the time. Now? In Windows sessions, it’s my go-to app for burning optical media.
A Headline I NEVER Wanted to See
I’m going to have nightmares tonight. Newsmax (emailout) headline:
“The Naked Truth About Nancy Pelosi”
Oh, thanks for the image, Newsmax. *shudder* Now, I just want to put my (mental) eyes out… Give anyone else the heebie-jeebies?
*heh*
Nothing New Under the Sun
Yesterday, Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated offered a piece of historical humor. On this day in…
“1876 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you,” and is billed $109.43 in taxes above the phone charge.”
Plus ça change… *heh*
What a Maroon!
Useless oxygen sink. Worthless even as chum (as chum, she’d poison the waters). Pass the healthscare bill in order to find out what’s in it?!?
[audio:What-a-maroon.mp3]A Very Good Thing
I don’t often plug things here at twc, but in the last few years (since escaping Fatcow), I have found Bluehost to be an excellent service. Some minor bobbles once upon a time, but, fortunately, customer service speaks AMERICAN ENGLISH and has always been available and helpful. If you’re looking for a hosting solution, click the graphic below.