Wednesday, May 18, 2016

No Particular Axe To Grind

The Pen...Mightier Than The Grindstone?

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Fortnight Lily at the Library

Oh Boy - Apple Updates

iOS 9.3.2 for my iPhone and iPad. I haven’t tried all the stuff I do with those 2 devices, but so far, I don’t notice the difference. Of course when there is an OS update it means all my Apps will be needing updates, too. Guess I am used to it. It doesn’t bother me anymore.

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Single Please

The rose by itself reminded me of when I used to eat in restaurants, (a lot), and sometimes I would be alone and when the maitre‘d asked, “How many?” I could say, “Single please”. This did not thrill the staff because a table for 4 would be wasted on one customer.

If all went well I would overtip to show some sort of solidarity.

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Tuesday afternoon moon

The other P in the music duo P&P is out with an injury for as much as a few weeks and won’t be playing piano with me on Mondays at the Treehouse while she rehabilitates.

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Cactus blooms at Golden Umbrella

I have asked John if he would like to do our P&J act on Mondays until Peggy returns. That is yet to be determined.

Peggy and I have been doing our Monday music thing for about 5 or 6 years. It is different without her. However, I am accustomed to playing as a single for Golden Umbrella, so the P show can go on at the Treehouse 4pm to 5pm Mondays.

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Captive rose

The MacBook Pro OS X El Capitan had an upgrade, too. Partly to add 70 Chinese instruments to GarageBand and combining a couple of menus into one for iTunes. The menu consolidation is actually a return to a previous iteration of iTunes.

I wonder if there is a way to get rid of the stuff in Garage band that I will never use? Maybe that will help it return to the smooth reliable recorder/mixer/music studio that it once was. Just a thought.

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The blues

I don’t update the other Macbook or the iPod Touch. They remain at the versions of software from when Steve Jobs was still making sure that the Apple experience was magical and fun.

I like the newer apps for photo editing, (like Intensify and Noiseless), so I keep one MacBook updated with the latest and unnecessarily bothersome updates. For music, some artwork and video production, the older Apple software and operating system is easier to create with. I can always upconvert after I am done creating projects so they are compatible with the latest software platforms.

So there you have it...A day in the life and not a single rant about the snowballing fall of the republican empire. (I did that on my Wordpress blog last night).

Today’s Video;


Just Sing

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Lettuce By A Head

Thundering Hooves?

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View from my window May 6

Listening to the sound of numerous lightning strikes along with traffic, excited voices and now the beginnings of rain.

I have unplugged this MacBook as an homage to the safety in a storm guidelines.

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Rain and roses

A few hailstones bouncing on the balcony. Something tells me that somewhere it’s storming in Earnest. I am not sure exactly where earnest can be found on the map. Most likely it moves along with the level of earnestness. “Wither thou goest earnestness?”

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Can’t resist photographing raindrops on roses

Here I am wondering where the storm is earnestly storming and the answers are right here with my laptop and Wunderground weather radar (backwards it’s spelled r-a-d-a-r).
Storm at 5:01...It looked more severe about 15min earlier. That was the time when there was a lot of thunder claps, rattles and lightning strikes.

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Screen shot of WunderMap 5 6 16

I turned off the recorder and packed up the M67 large diaphragm condenser mic that seems to record well with nature’s harmonic spectrum. The storm has abated and people have resumed driving up and down Lake Boulevard in today’s loudest exhaust pipes competition.

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Treehouse patio garden view

Today’s Video;


Our Wonderful World