My Barking Dogs

I am so tired tonight after spending a late night not sleeping following the night of the barking dog. Tonight, as it was last night, there is silence over there. How long this will last, I don't know.

One of the smartest people I know, Nancy, a high school girl who volunteers at the library on Saturdays, told me about the concept of writing a novel a month. I think it was some sort of group project. As usual, my mind wandered, so I am not at all sure what Nancy was explaining... and I wondered if it was finally time to begin a novel that I would see through from start to finish. The goal would be to finish, not in a month, just to finish. It seems like a simple enough idea to have escaped me entirely. Simple ideas always escape me.  I have started so many first chapters. One of my daydreaming skills is thinking about how one would go about plotting fiction. I finally put two of my most cherished ideas together and decided to just write it. If I never come up with another idea or this turns out awful, at least the daydreaming will become a bit less fruitless.

I started a blog with the book on it. I am debating keeping the blog to my eyes only, but...  open blogs have been so important to my efforts.... I am debating. My writing process is unstable at best but when I am making stuff up, well, anything could be edited out or changed.
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What I have learned in the last two months: no matter how random or even asinine the motivation, things get done when there is that motivation.

G'nite....

Vinyl gardening...

My gosh I have felt so much better since the doctor gave me a shot and some antibiotics for a sinus infection. This is kind of startling. I must have been suffering for months and months, just under the threshold.

I did not play with vinyl this weekend, but I did set up an adequate pair of speakers for my turntable. I have the preamp going to the computer via usb and to the receiver via RCA cable. The final step is to feed the computer into the receiver, line out to RCA, so that I use the same set of speakers to monitor and playback.

What has been fun about this project is the slow and methodical way I have gone about it, and the success at each step. I am in no hurry and the fun is in the doing. I have finally outgrown the desire to have it perfect and "done."

Vinyl gardening...

Chrome...

A new report shows Chrome making up 31.8% of all browser usage on the web, while Internet Explorer holds 30.9% — a small but significant margin. This is the first time ever that Google surpassed Microsoft in terms of browser popularity for overall mobile and desktop software.

Hello, hello, hello. What's all this then? Are and is.... together at last?

Why this blog does well is a testament to it's name, and certainly not my interesting life. :) Today I am sick in bed. Every time I get this sick I cannot think of worse more uncomfortable symptoms than I have at the time. I have only to remember my bout with broken ribs, though. -Sigh- that was a monster. Yet, here I am with the sorest throat I must have ever had. Ouch. This worsening effect is actually a function of my age. How bad things are is equal to how bad things actually are multiplied by your age.

Well, obviously blogspot has no grammar police.

This morning I was sleeping late... it being the day I had to work at night. So... I am in my bed playing a little at my computer until my wife came in to wake me up. Yes, I was sick yesterday... yes I felt bad this morning but when I answered my wife's "Good Morning" (and you really have not experienced a good "good morning" until you have experienced my wife's, which is a mixture of sweetness to not scare me awake and loudness to wake me) I answered with the squeakiest voice imaginable. I started with no sound, then a little more sound to test out the waters of my laryngitis then a lowering of tone necessary to bring my voice down to a frequency that would not startle the dogs in the neighborhood. Ouch.  This is obviously a just punishment for someone who talks too much. Exchanging pleasantries with the nurse was fairly painful after telling the doc my symptoms. She arrived late to the festivities. I showed her my bared bottom and she sank a needle in. Ouch, again. Is there no end? (see, that was a pun. Ouch.) Is there no end?

My First Transfer from Vinyl

...using my new turntable. You don't want to know how long it has been since I had a turntable. :)

"Frozen Love" -Buckingham Nicks

Ok... I admit it. I have been putting off buying a new turntable for way too long. I picked an album from my collection at random... then I searched for a YouTube video to compare to the song I had ripped.  I think I have never heard it before because I used to take an album guide with me to yard sales when I was a young man and buy whatever was valued over 10 bucks in the guide. Oddly, I found out that a CD has never been released. And even with all the pops and crackle, I think my version here is better than the one with all the views on YouTube. And the mp3 is better than this transfer to avi file format needed to post here. Further, the title is symbolic... my loved record collection has been frozen in time. I lost a fair amount of it recently when I made the mistake of storing some of it elsewhere. But... alas... we only have what we can afford to carry with us and we don't have that forever.

Frozen Love 

You may not be as strong as me

And I may not care to teach you
It may be hard to keep up with me
But I'll always be able to reach you

And if you go forward, I'll meet you there
(If you go forward)
And if you climb up through the cold, freezing air
Look down below you, search out above
And cry out to life for a frozen love
Cry, love

You may not be as strong as me
(You may not be as strong as me)
And I may not care to teach you
(I may not care to teach you)
It may be hard to keep up with me
(It may be hard to keep up with me)
But I'll always, yes, I'm always going to be able to reach you

And if you go forward, I'll meet you there
(If you go forward)
And if you climb up through the cold, freezing air
Look down below you, search out above
And cry out to life for a frozen love
Cry, love


My turntable is a simple little fellow... but the sound is fairly awesome to me:

Technics SL D20

Update:  my vinyl blog is now located here: http://vinylabyss.blogspot.com/

TS!

You say tomato sandwich, I say tomato sandwich?