As a recent post mentioned, I was traveling to visit family in San Diego, and having foolishly chosen to drive, I had to twice navigate the LA Basin. Always entertaining, and somewhat frightening, the drivers in LA are somewhat insane. Modern Jaguar – As I was entering into the valley on I15, this jackass was in a huge hurry. He came up on me at about 100 mph, and quickly changed lanes to...
Having relocated back to the SF Bay Area a little over a year ago, I have commented on how the civility and the sanity of drivers on the freeways and highways had taken a turn for the worse. Really bad, selfish behaviors had become more prevalent and ingrained, with the trend to trying to get a little bit ahead. I sorrowed for the past where there was some decorum, and grace to be found, if not...
Yep, since there is a little revenue problem at work, we have been “encouraged” to take 4 days of FTO in this fiscal quarter. With not so subtle hints that the week before the 4th of July holiday would be grand for this. So, I am taking the week off. Woo hoo. Not a great time at work to take off, but alas, I have learnt when they recommend you take time off, there is someone counting...
I am probably going to piss off a lot of people with this, but I am wondering why the 1960’s version of Star Trek is a cult classic. Really painful to watch. Far more than the awful acting of the Shatner, the stories just suck. I just began watching it again via Netflix streaming, and the first three episodes are just plain awful. Huge plot holes, bad acting, awful story lines, it really is...
My Lunchbox from Hell This weekend, I picked up the electric guitar, and fired up the Gallien Krueger to do some jamming. I almost forgot how epic the tone of this kick ass little amp was. I bought it way back in 1985 or so. I remember doing the Guitar Center/Guitar Showcase puch-pull to get it for something less than $500, probably a 20% discount from the list price. It is a small-ish practice...
I remember my early years of listening to music. When I was gifted a modest hifi system, and began buying records (no tapes in that era), I listened to my LP’s sparingly, as I didn’t want to wear them out. As I learnt with my Sargent Pepper soundtrack (the movie, featuring Peter Frampton) you can wear out a record. So, as soon as I could afford it on my paper route money, I bought a...
Part two in the online music services reviews. Today, it is Google Play and its All Access “Subscription” service. In 2011 when Google announced Play and their music service, my hopes were high. I was an early adopter (from when you needed an invite to join Gmail), and I assumed Google would rock this. You could store your music in their services, and play it anywhere. Up to a...
When this goes live, I will have been a full week of not being on Facebook. Last Tuesday, I decided to do a drastic thing, to deactivate my Facebook account. It isn’t the first time I had done this. Back in 2009, not long after I joined Facebook, I deactivated my profile. That time, I held out 8 months before peer pressure caused me to turn it on. In the intervening time, it is astounding...
I have a kindle, and I enjoy it. I haven’t always had a Kindle, I started as a Sony reader fan, and then an iPad user, but I succumbed to inevitability, and bought a Kindle. I like it. I do prefer a eInk reader to a tablet, and today, you have to work really hard to live in this space and not use a Kindle. I buy lots of books. Most are just throw-away pulpy fiction that I enjoy reading...
Part one of a series on music services, I will start with Amazon Prime. Back when iTunes music store was top of the list, and sold DRM encumbered tracks, Amazon opened their music store, selling un-protected MP3 files. Turns out that this was more than a sharp stick in Apple’s eye, but the lever by which the music publishers lost the ability to demand DRM on music sold. But, it did begin...