Tralfaz

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  • More messed up dreams

    I am beginning to think that someone is slipping psychotropic drugs into my beverages.

    Last night’s dream was wild. I had changed jobs, and was doing something at the beach on a tropical island in the south pacific. I am not sure what I was supposed to do, but it entailed chasing “something” around while riding a minibike.

    The problem was that I had expenses from my last job that I needed to submit, but I was struggling with logging into the website to get it all handled.

    Then, to freak me completely out, just before I gave up the ghost and woke up, I was feeding orange segments to a crab that was able to fly like a dragonfly.

    Wild.

  • Goodbye Spotify

    Today I turned off my Spotify premium account. It was not a step taken lightly, as it had thoroughly trounced Google Play All Access when I was comparing them. Spotify was/is a solid player, with a large library, and great radio option.

    But the one downside was what they didn’t have in their library. Led Zeppelin? Not there. Paul Gilbert and Racer-X? Nope. The Beatles? Nein. Yep, I could add them locally, and they would be there.

    Then Apple launched iTunes 11.1 and their iradio service. One of the featured stations on install was a “Beatles” radio. Worth the price of admission.

    With iTunes Match, all my library is available anywhere I have a network connection (some 17K tracks). While the first week had a few glitches in the radio, it has been pretty solid. And the mix that Apple has on the stations is very good. On Spotify, my “Velvet Revolver” station would begin to repeat songs after about 4 hours. With a similar artist station on iTunes radio, I have gone three days without consciously hearing a repeat.

    So, I am cutting the Spotify cord, and will save that $10 a month. iRadio is ad free if you are an iTunes Match subscriber, so I am good there.

    (and the British Metal station is awesome. Listening to some deep cuts of Judas Priest right now.)

  • The hand update

    I have been battling with what I originally thought was an injured thumb. A couple weeks ago, I went to my GP, and alas, the tendons seem fine, but the x-rays show that there is a bone spur, and what is likely the beginning of arthritis. Groan. Heavy anti inflammatories and a brace to immobilize the thumb.

    A week later, the brace was not helping (if anything, it was beginning to damage the nerves, numbing my thumb). So I call a hand specialist.

    FFS, what is it with these specialists? They are all booked through November. I can get in on Oct 28th to see a PA.  Sigh. I guess I will take it.

    It still hurts (even with 800mg ibuprofen twice a day), cycling is not good for it (but it isn’t going to stop me), and it hurts to play guitar. Sigh, getting old sucks.

  • WTF – Dream edition

    Last night, I had vivid dreams. This is not unusual in itself, but the subject of the dreams were “odd” to say the least.

    I dreamt that I was in France, riding (for fun) stages of the Tour de France. On an old, unreliable 3-speed bicycle. So unreliable that I was breaking cranks, pulling spokes, and snapping chains. Yeah, that is pretty bad.

    But add to that we were using these same bikes to hunt out the best BBQ in France.

    Whoa.  I need better drugs me thinks.

  • I thought I was done… The Baroque Cycle

    I am a huge SciFi fan, been reading it since I was in high school. I have lately become a fan of Neal Stephenson (ok, not so recently, I read Snow Crash shortly after it was published), but it has taken me forever to read the the books in the Baroque Cycle. Today, I finished the second novel, The Confusion, thinking that I was finished with the set.

    WRONG.

    It seemed like a funny place to leave off, and alas, it was. There is a third book, another 900 pages. The System of the World.  Groan.  I guess I will have to work my way through this tome as well.

    One of the reasons it has taken me so long to get through the first two tomes is that it became clear that my lack of knowledge of European history of the 1600 – 1800 was pretty weak, so I have been bolstering that as well (and it greatly enhances the enjoyment of the novels).

    It is back to see what Jack Shaftoe has in store.

  • Wild Sighting: Microsoft Surface

    I spied it gingerly. It was a couple seat away from me in the waiting area at the Southwest gate in the SanJose Airport. I wasn’t sure what it was at first, but I finally figured it out.

    It was the first Microsoft “Surface” tablet that I had ever seen that wasn’t part of a store display. Someone was actually using it.  Not sure if it was the RT version, or the PRO version, but that seems of little import. He was using it for what almost all ipad or android tabled owners use it for, watching videos, and browsing the web.

    Rumors had it that Microsoft had almost $1B in unsold inventory. Not surprising since they were late to the market, and they priced it closer to the iPad price point than the Android price point. Now they have announced the Surface 2. I wonder how long after launch of that it will be before I see on in the wild…

    It is somewhat of a shame, as I played with one at a store, and I liked the metro interface. But it is most assuredly doomed.

  • Some instinctual items – motorized version

    The other day, walking my dogs in the morning, someone was taking their early 1970’s Monte Carlo out for a drive. Ah, the sound, the rumble, the rough idle of a carbureted 454CID engine in a sedan was enough to make me wax poetically.

    The Chevy Monte CarloThere is something about late 60’s and early 70’s heavy metal (American muscle cars) that just goes to the core of my being. The mechanical advance and points/condenser ignitions that were hard to time and tune, requiring frequent adjustment. Having to jet the carburetor to run clean (if you made it right at cursing speed, it would be rich off idle). Putting it an aggressive cam to improve the horsepower at the upper range made it a struggle to get it to idle right. It just brings a tear to my eye to remember those days.

    I spent a reasonable part of my youth working on cars and motorcycles. I still have (most) of my tools. I have rebuilt engines (my Honda Civic CVCC 1975 vintage, and several motorcycles), repaired transmissions, converted to electronic ignition, and at every step was a great deal of satisfaction knowing that I accomplished something.

    Cars today are much less open to the home mechanic, and the speedshops of yesteryear (Speed Merchants in Santa Clara is where I used to hang out) have much less to offer the current cars. It takes a lot more effort to “tune” todays high reving 4 and 6 cylinder engines (there isn’t much more performance you can wring out of the 2.2l engine in my Honda S2000 without going to forced induction.)

    But every time I see, and more importantly hear a muscle car of yesteryear, I must pause to look on with reverence. Some day they will all be gone, hidden in collections or not driven at all. A sad passing of an era.

    (For the record, the Monte Carlo barely qualifies as a muscle car. It was far more refined than the firebird, camaro, or even the malibu of that era. But it did have a great big motor, and all that goes with it.)

  • Travel bullshit

    (well, poopies.  This is post # 300)

    I travel a lot for work. (well, usually, when we don’t have restrictions).

    This morning, I was taking the early flight, PHX to SJC, easy 1:40 hop, but I had a day chocked full of meetings, so I took the 6:25 flight. Ugh.

    That means I needed to wake up about 3:30 and get my butt out the door.  Ok.

    I get my pastry and starbucks coffee, and sit in the gate for SW flight 277. About 6:05 they announce that the flight is canceled. “Mechanical” is the proffered reason.

    The real reason was that there were only about 20 people on the flight, and they decided to not send the plane to save money, so I had to rebook, and hoof it to a different terminal, catch a flight to San Diego (that connected to SJC) and get in an hour later. My first meeting of the day was canceled.

    Airlines: I understand that you are all trying to remain profitable. That means that sometimes you have to cancel flights that cost too much to run for too few people. Just don’t fucking tell us “mechanical” issues. Like Michael Corleone said to his brother in law Rizzo at the end of Godfather one, “Don’t insult my intelligence”. Man up and tell the truth.

    As someone who often got caught in PHX after UAL canceled their last flights to Tucson, I am well aware of the process. It still sucks.

  • Long term, low level injury

    One of the joys of getting older is that I no longer bounce back from even minor injuries. Case in point:

    About a month or a month and a half ago, I jammed my left thumb. I don’t remember what I did, just that it hurt like hell and was tender for a few days. Usually, these things pass, and in a week or so, you forget that you ever did it.

    However this time, it didn’t quite go that way. It still hurts when I grip with my left hand. Like holding a beer bottle is a struggle (oh noes!!!!!). I can’t use my left thumb to dispense soft soap at the washbasin. I can’t open jars (can’t grib the jar with my left hand).

    Cycling is hard, as you need to grip to be somewhat safe and efficient.

    So, off to the doctor. Probably a referral to a orthopedist, and X-Rays to ensure that I didn’t break anything.

    But really, I just want my left hand to work right again.

  • IT upgrade or is it really a downgrade…

    Last friday night we had one of those upgrade events. Supposedly to improve our broadband connection, and improve the experience of using both the internet and the internal network.

    I have to say it is a resounding failure. Sending 750 MB of data to a server in Colorado Springs (intranetwork), has taken 45 minutes, and is still only 75% complete. It used to be faster.

    Guess I will have to submit a helpdesk ticket. (FWIW, it would be faster to drive home, VPN in, and transfer this data from my home network connection).