Yesterday I just had the feeling that I was not in tune with the music of the spheres, so to speak. Nothing was going horribly wrong, but it was all a struggle. Finally, when I got home from work and tried to play some music on my computer, nothing. No sound.

I tried various things, wasting away my night, and finally arranged to have Apple Support ( Read more... )

20090513

Well, here it is, 4:34 a.m. I’ve been awake for an hour.

I went to Olive Garden for my grand-nephew’s 4th birthday party, and when I got back home, I fell asleep almost immediately, having run around all over town most of the day, starting with a dentist appointment.

The birthday party went well. My grand-nephew is a Spiderman freak, and I ( Read more... )

I've been trying to force myself back to cataloging, working my way slowly through a stack of children's books. Turns out the one below is essentially worthless, at least as far as selling on the Internet goes, because of a scotch tape repair on the first page.

Anyway, it's kind of funny. Mr. Green Jeans arrives with a panda. A hunter had left it ( Read more... )

When I was in high school, my brother gave me some good advice on writing papers: make a statement, an argument, and spend the rest of the paper proving it. When it comes to writing commercially, especially, reading Malcolm Gladwell’s first book, The Tipping Point,  leads me to a second piece of advice: make sure everything you say is always ( Read more... )

Did a lot of yard work today and then made some charcoal grilled salmon that was fairly  decent, although the fire was a bit too hot. Anyway, after that, I got into a sort of relaxed mode and spent most of the night listening to a CD called The Definitive Rod Stewart.



Rod Stewart was / is / let’s say, has been a pretty impressive composer, changing ( Read more... )

 
One sweet CD:



http://www.amazon.com/Very-Best-Burt-Bacharach/dp/B000059T9M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1241721598&sr=8-1

A graphic artist who is a friend of a friend has recently created a website that he puts a whole lot of work into. Or at least it looks that way. Not surprisingly, he does a lot with graphics based humor. It’s called B.L.O.G.: Boring Lot of Garbage.

So far, I think his best effort is probably his simplest, a visual play on the two Specters in the ( Read more... )

The fact that it was Cinco de Mayo meant that I did consider, off and on, the notion that I should probably have some tequila, but when empuje came to empujón, I opted for a martini. Hey, speaking of martinis, check this out, the Lemon Drop Martini:



[from More magazine, 5/2009)

I don’t generally keep vodka around the house--and never quite saw the ( Read more... )

20090502 ( Read more... )

I finally finished watching The Last King of Scotland, a thoroughly stupid and unpleasant movie about thoroughly stupid and unpleasant characters. I say “characters” because, while Idi Amin existed and some of the brutal horrors he actually inflicted on his nation are shown, mostly in a brief montage, most of this story is pure fiction. Even the ( Read more... )