I have been on a nostalgic twist in music lately, reliving my early days of prog rock fandom, and reminiscing about all the vinyl I used to have and got rid of in my flurry of moves in the 1990's. Ah good times indeed. There is one classic prog rock staple that I am embarrassed to admit that I have never owned any of their albums, but have followed many of the band members' later careers...
For those new to this channel, I relocated back to California after a 11 year detour through Arizona. Having been back now for almost 6 months, I have some observations as a new outsider. California in general, and Silicon Valley in particular is like no where else in the world. Great climate, diversity of cultures, high tech and ghetto all blended together. Some thoughts: Apartment dwellers with...
Since I renewed my Performance club membership (hey, 10% back is totally worth it), I get a “free” subscription to Bicycling Magazine. As with the last time I got this for free, I am seriously questioning their priorities. I understand that it is tough to publish a relevant print magazine these days. Attention spans are infinitesimal, and the value of advertising is low enough that...
I live a schizophrenic life. For work I am coerced into a PC world. Windows, AD Domains, MS Exchange, and all that lot. But for my home and personal work, I am a devotee of the cult of the Mac. My wife and I both are Mac users, and here are some observations from a long time use perspective. Work – HP Elitebook 2560P My work laptop was issued to me when I joined in 2012. It is an HP small...
In this episode, expanding upon the use of Swisher Sweets as wrappers for cannabis, we examine a couple of other items of detritus, and abuse of the provided facilities Item 1 – used hypodermic syringe While walking our dogs the other day, my wife stumbled across a discarded hypodermic syringe in the bushes at the edge of the apartment compound. Of course it could have been a...
A continuation of a series on our (hopefully) temporary apartment living experience. This episode is around the increasing number of people who are living in their vehicles. Not quite the overt homeless living rough, these are people with enough resources for a camper, or a van large enough to sleep in. Walking the neighborhood with our dogs, we see cars that are being lived in. A couple of...
Today, since I didn’t want to deal with the muck on the trails, I dragged the road bike out of the closet, dusted it off, and headed out for a ride. It has been only a month or so since I last rode it, in the interim focusing on the mountain bike and offroad riding. Slinging a leg over the ol’ Lemond was a bit of a rude awakening. First the good. 700C tyres and 120psi means that you...
Life with Netflix Streaming is never dull. As they increase their library, and more importantly, improve their algorithms for matching what I would like, I get some great recommendations. One such recommendations is a show on the National Geographic Channel called Drugs Inc. Netflix is missing the first season, but I practically binged on the two seasons that are available. In a nutshell, it is a...
When two progressive rock (prog rock) fans get together, there is really only one question that matters. Wakeman or Emerson. If neither of these names rings a bell with you, then you might as well navigate away now. The question is who do you prefer, Rick Wakemen (keyboard player from Yes, and who has had a prolific solo career with probably 100 albums), and Keith Emerson, master of the modular...
Having lived for 11 years in the civilized enclave that is Arizona, my first cycle back to barbarism is today. I speak of the biennial changing of the clocks. Today is supposed to be the “good” switch, where you gain an hour. At 2:00AM the time is magically 1:00 and you get this extra hour of sleep. And you get to hear all the people at work say how they “gained an hour”...