"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
Nah. Too musical. Which is why these cows, even though they’re French cows, appreciate it. They have better taste than the American public that supports manufactured crap passing as music.
(What? Am I saying that these cows seem to be smarter than the typical American “music consumer”? Yes.)
(Yeh, well, you’ll have to just take the fractured English, cos I say so. So there. *heh*)
A couple of months ago, a very generous Lovely Daughter and Husband gave this to me:
OK, so it’s an eight-year-old semi-mini-system they had already scheduled to be donated somewhere. I’m not belittling their generosity, though. Quite the contrary. It’s still more than enough sound for the 18.5’X12′ room I put it in, and produces a little better sound than the 17-year-old Pioneer tuner and KLH speakers I had been using there. And it even plays DVDs very nicely. No remote (at the time), but there was a solution for that. A couple of weeks ago, Lovely Daughter even brought up the remote they’d found.
Bonus: while I’ve been getting some work done here, I’ve been playing this:
Also free, sent to me for listening/commenting on an Internet “radio” site six or seven years ago. The set I have isn’t exactly like the one linked. It has just disk one and disk two (both in the Samsung CD/DVD changer now) but also includes a booklet with the text of Bush’s September 20, 2001 address to Congress. While that’s nice to have on hand I would probably prefer to have disk 3, and will have to locate and purchase that. Amazon, I suppose.
See the list of pieces performed for the recordings below the break. Some aren’t actually American in origin (the “Colonel Bogey March” stands out there) but have been adopted into the American experience so thoroughly as to be “American” for the typically expansive values that characterize the melting pot America*. 🙂
Enjoying (and enjoying this break as well :-)) the music and the sound system. Thanks, generous folks, all!
Just saw the end of an episode of a show that I sometimes watch with my Wonder Woman. It tends to give me a rash *heh* but it’s not as bad as some. The greatness of this scene was the fruity lawyer going around a room telling folks that if a case ever came to trial, no matter what, “I win.” *heh*
I kept expecting him to say, “Even if I have to hit [the other lawyer] with my purse, I win.”
Great scene, even if the best part was in my imagination. *heh*
OK, you may have to CLICK the link, since the video may not play in some browsers using the embded code provided, and I have other things to do rather than tinker with it.
Good ones, this time. 🙂
Yesterday, two days before its estimated time of delivery, my knife bar arrived. Sweet. I’ve been storing my most used kitchen knives in a knife block for years, but it’s always been a wee problem to place conveniently. This, I think, addresses the main issue: get ’em off the counter:
Of course, my most used knives are the two on the left, closest to hand when I’m using the peninsula for food prep. The one farthest left is a Chicago Cutlery 8″ chef’s knife (~OK) that once belonged to my father-in-law. Next to it–most used of them all–is my Sabatier Aîné & Perrier “K” 10″ chef’s knife (OK, so SA&P says it’s a “slicing knife”. I still use it as a chef’s knife), an anniversary present from my Wonder Woman 18 years ago. No, it’ almost nothing like the WallyWorld, Tarjay, et al “Sabatier” knives.
The rest are a mix of “heirloom knives” and a couple I picked up that are not bad/not great but serve their purposes (the larger “butcher knife” and the slicer with the handle that matches it. Oh, the bread knife on the right, next to the steel, really should go in the island’s drawer, since it’ll be used there more often than not, but I wanted to see if it’d fit on the bar with the others).
The knife bar holds the knives (and even the knife steel–one of three I use) very firmly yet releases them easily enough when needed. Seven knives and the steel are now stored in convenient reach, off the prep surface (right under my pot rack).
Handy.
Now, it’s time for some attention to those blades’ edges…
Next up in the kitchen: new backsplash for the stove, complete with new storage bars for some cooking implements. I can only hope I come up with some meals that justify this stuff. *heh*
Edited for my inexcusable lapse in labeling the Sabatier as an 8″-er. What was I thinking? Oh, right. I was thinking the other edit: 8″ for the Chicago Cutlery “OK” knife. *heh*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KZi-aV0VTk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQzlJRjXSGY
So, if you see falling snow on the screen here at twc, well, just let it snow.
Nicole asked a bit back for a pic of my “Xmas tree” made from Grolsch swingtop beer bottles. It’s a tiny thing (about 2′ tall), but had enough room for presents around it–mostly–when we had our early gift exchange during our Thanksgiving family time.
Sadly, I neglected to take measures to insure the flash wouldn’t override the lil solar-powered LED lights that I have in and in back of the bottles, so that lil feature doesn’t show. But hey, I’m not the photographer in the family, so this is what you get.
I mentioned my upgrade of passwords on my own computers and online accounts here at twc central a while back. Essentially, it involved using the first letters of words in lyrics of songs I know, modified a bit to obscure even those letters. Well, as I began doing this, I reflected on the many, many songs (once) in my performance repertoire that are in various languages other than English, and then I thought to meself, “Self, why not take a mix of those lyrics in both the original language and English and select the first letters of the words in those lyrics, then mix upper/lowercase letters, numbers and symbols in for those letters (in my own idiosyncratic manner)?”
And so it is. First letters of words to lyrics of songs I know in French/Russian/German/Italian/English (mixmastered at will), with liberal substitutions for those letters using symbols or numerals (some Roman numerals, even, subbing in for letters) resulting in passwords 60-80 characters long in many cases that are nevertheless memorable enough for me that a password storage and encryption app isn’t really necessary. Of course, I am assembling a hard copy of the key to relate each song to its site/use. And, also of course, the master key doesn’t name the songs. *heh*
Oh! There’s an idea! Melodies used as passwords! Encode them using both letters and numerals an use that as passwords. Good one. I know far more tunes than I know lyrics, and I could even transpose one tune (and add harmonies via a figured bass or “Nashville” notation) and use it for many different sites/uses.
Now, if I could just use audio passwords and whistle different tunes as passwords… If sensitivity were set high enough, I imagine fine differentials in tuning could be included. I’d like that, as I can still hear and reproduce pitches well. Heck, I could just use the two pitches that are always present via tinitus and reproduce them together (hum one, whistle the other) to produce the combined waveform. Now, that’d be a nice password. *heh*
Of course, I suppose I could use some sort of encrypted storage of passwords combined with a biometric master device, lie my Wonder Woman has on her lil notebook, but I’d have to add ’em all over the place, so no.
Upgrading my passwords is proving to be a bit more fun than I had thought it might be.
“Almost” because there are some useful lil tips and tricks at Kipkay.com. For example:
Hackers, or just plain old everyday “shade tree mechanics” and jackleg handymen, will enjoy the viewpoint expressed at Kipkay.com that darned near everything is hackable.
