January 15, 2019 · 22:44

Headphone Quest – Jan 15th Update

A while back I asked the group mind for suggestions about headphones and/or earbuds for when I’m running or just rambling around the office.

I got a number of good suggestions, most of which I haven’t had an opportunity to implement yet. I’m working on it.

One thing I have done was to buy a few pairs of wired earbuds to try, figuring that if I found something great I could follow up by buying a couple of pairs so that I would have spares for when I lose or destroy them.

My search criteria was simple – look at the pictures on Amazon and try to find some that had similar over-the-ear form factors to the ones I really, really, really liked but can’t get any more.

These guys – remember? GREAT running earbuds – no longer made.

So I went out and got these:

These green things are from a company called “Mucro” – never heard of them, but the shape was right. The fit is better than on the generic “NOT-over-the-ear” designs, but not real comfortable. This set has volume and next/back controls on the cord where the others don’t. But that’s not a benefit that offsets the fact that the sound is very tinny and marginal. In fact, the sound sucks.

The orange set is from Philips – it might be made by the “Philips” that’s the huge electronic conglomerate that has a lot of high end stuff, but for something I impulse bought on Amazon I wouldn’t bet my life on it. These are more simple than the green Musco set, lacking the in-line controls that I never use to begin with. But they fit pretty well (although not as über fantastic as the blue Sony set that is my gold standard) and the sound is much better than the Musco (although not as über fantastic as the blue Sony set that is my gold standard).

I suspect the orange set will be fine if I’m out running or exercising and sound quality isn’t critical. If I’m at mile eight of a twelve-mile run, I need distraction and entertainment, not concert-hall quality sound.

I would still love to find a few pair of those old Sonys…

The other thing I would note about both the Mucro and the Phillips – both were $19.90 including tax and shipping from Amazon, so it’s not like I was spending top dollar for premium sound. You buy something cheap, you get something cheap. On the other hand, for some applications, good enough is good enough.

Next step (sometime before the end of 2019 due to my copious free time being even more not-so-copious at the moment) is to go into a store and look at actual headphones (like Beats), wired and wireless, for that really good sound that I would like if I’m just listening at home or in the office. I might have to (and be willing to) spend a few more dollars there.

Leave a comment

Filed under Music, Photography

January 14, 2019 · 23:47

Pillow Fort Day

Cold, rainy. Hard rain. At least three more days of it to follow.

T’would have been an excellent day to stay home, build a pillow fort, get a good book and some hot chocolate, and just hide for the whole day.

Maybe with some of those peanut butter filled pretzel things for snacks.

And M&Ms.

Leave a comment

Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Weather

January 13, 2019 · 23:43

The Big One

We’re coming up this week on the 25th anniversary of the Northridge earthquake. For those who don’t know, it’s the biggest earthquake to hit the Los Angeles area in Southern California in about 165 years. It’s easily the biggest since we had a decent sized city here instead of a mission or pueblo. And historically on average we have them about every 100 year or so, so we’re overdue.

In part related to that, one of the local NPR stations has started a new podcast series.

I rarely listen to podcasts simply because I don’t have the time, but this intrigued me. I listened to the first episode tonight and it scared the shit out of me, as much as any horror story.

It’s very well done. I think what triggered me was not where they talk about Northridge (although that didn’t help) but the segment with a woman who survived being buried in a building collapse in a New Zealand earthquake.

If you’re interested, I recommend subscribing to the podcast. This first episode was about the actual quake and what happens in the first few minutes afterward. Subsequent episodes will follow up how we all try to survive the aftermath in the chaos of the weeks and months that follow.

One of the biggest problems that emergency planners have with getting the public ready to survive a major earthquake is that people don’t focus on a danger that’s neither imminent nor predictable. We know statistically that it’s going to happen, but we don’t know if it will happen tonight or forty years from now. When it does happen, we don’t know if it will be in the middle of the night (like Northridge) when most people are at home asleep in relative safety, or if it will happen in the middle of a work day or rush hour when tens of thousands of people could be killed on the freeways and in collapsing office buildings.

I like to think we’re above the curve on preparation. We have bugout bags prepared with water, flashlights, food, and so on. We have made a habit of having a flashlight at our bedsides, with shoes and clothes next to the bed if we should need them in the middle of the night.

But I have no illusions about how quickly those preparations will be proven to be woefully inadequate when the 8.0 quake hits, tens of thousands die, multiple tens of thousands are injured, hundreds of thousands are homeless, and there’s no water, electricity, gas, internet, cell phone service, or any other utilities for weeks or even months.

This week’s reminders in general, and this podcast series in particular, will help to remind all of us who live on shaky ground that no matter what we think we’ve done, we need to do much better. With luck, we’ll pay attention and do better.

First resolution to remember, courtesy of this episode’s simple tips at the end of the show – try to never let your gas tank get less than half full. Don’t go until you’re on fumes and then fill up as most of us (myself included) do. When the big one hits, there might not be any gasoline available for weeks. If you have to evacuate and it happens to hit on a day when you’re on fumes, you’re screwed.

Just what I needed, one more thing to worry about.

 

Leave a comment

Filed under Disasters, Los Angeles

January 12, 2019 · 22:41

A Brief Respite From The Rain

Los Angeles is hardly turning into a tropical rain forest, but we are in our “rainy season.” There’s quite a bit of variation in what that term means from year to year as well, but this one seems to be tending toward the more rainy, wet, “El Nino-ish” end of the spectrum.

My sense of that could also be skewed by the fact that it rained almost every day in Seattle and Kansas City a couple of weeks ago.

Regardless, we’re looking at a weather forecast that has it raining almost every day for the next six days or so, and we got rain last night and this morning. So it was a pleasure when I came out of the hangar this afternoon to find that the sun was breaking through.

(Click to enlarge)

As I was hoping, this in turn led to a nice sunset.

It’s important to appreciate the little things every day if you can. Everything out there doesn’t suck, even if a lot of things do. Find the non-sucky items and embrace them.

For instance, the way the different layers of clouds are illuminated and glowing at different intensities and  all different shades of pastel colors.

That’s non-sucky.

Leave a comment

Filed under Panorama, Photography, Weather

January 11, 2019 · 23:52

Tonight’s Tunes

I’ve got nothing tonight, too much going on and too little time to do it and I’m feeling like Tia Lioni at the end of “Deep Impact” as she’s on the beach looking at that mile-high tidal wave coming at her at 500 mph…

But music, as it often does, has made a big difference tonight and last night. That’s a good thing, so let’s not be a buzzkill and talk about that for half a second.

Tonight it’s Dave Kendall’s “Party 360” on SiriuxXM Channel 33 First Wave. Lots of dance mixes and 80’s songs and some of the weird stuff along with the dancing stuff. It’s great to really crank it up (sorry in the next room!) when it’s time to Wang Chung, and I had completely forgotten about “Warm Leatherette.”

Yesterday was Jimmy Page’s 75th birthday, so it was “Led Zeppelin II” and “Led Zeppelin IV” for me. Tasty, tasty stuff.

What are you listening to in order to keep your head from exploding in the current shitstorm?

Leave a comment

Filed under Music

January 10, 2019 · 21:57

Dummies

So, at risk of going off on a rant about a particular thing that really triggers me, let me just say that there’s this program that I think really, REALLY ***SUCKS*** but I’m being forced to use it. For reasons.

Among the many reasons I think this particular online, cloud-based product is so terrible is how limited it is, especially compared to the full, desktop version, which I use every day and think is spectacular. But this online version is the genetically mutated, stunted, warped, weird-looking, keep-it-locked-away-in-the-woodshed version. It’s buggy.

And it it slower than hell. I keep being told by those who are forcing me to use it that it must be my system or my connection – bullshit, I have new Dell top of the line systems with a high-speed connection that runs just fine on 99.99999999% of other uses. Perhaps if 999,999 programs work perfectly well and this one doesn’t, then perhaps it’s the mutant that’s the problem.

Okay, I’m stuck with it.

What can I do to maybe lessen the pain? There’s no online help with this thing. Every time I run into a brick wall trying to get it to do something trivial I go looking for help or a FAQ or something, only to be referred to a “user’s group.” The UG apparently is populated by those who somehow believe this program to be the greatest thing since sliced yogurt.

Wait… There’s an “Absolute Worst Program Ever Created for Dummies?” Overnight that sucker to me, Amazon!

I spent a big chunk of tonight looking for the secrets, the magic, the special codes that would let me be at the very least semi-functional using this useless piece of shit excuse for a program.

Q: How do I do task “A” which should be trivial?

A: You don’t. It can’t do that.

Q: WHAT? Wait, so then how do I do task “B” that’s absolutely critical?

A: You don’t. It can’t do that.

Q: YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING! Well surely it can do task “C”, right? Even someone like SCROTUS would figure that out!

A: What part of “you don’t” are you not understanding. It can’t do that. Ha! Fooled you! You’re totally screwed!

As has been noted, “Who’s the more foolish, the fool, or the fool that follows him?”

Maybe I can just fake it in Excel and plug in the totals.

Leave a comment

Filed under Computers

January 9, 2019 · 23:53

Favorite Pictures – January 09th

Have I mentioned that I take a **LOT** of pictures? (Hint — I have)

As proof that if you do that, eventually you’ll take one that just pops, where you look at it and say, “Damn! I took that picture and it’s just about perfect!”

Here’s one of those that I took.

January, 2016, front yard of the old house in West Hills

No processing. Los Angeles doesn’t often have one of those truly spectacular sunsets, but when it does… Wow! (Of course, it’s often caused by smoke, which means there are a few thousand acres burning nearby and probably some homes in there as well, but you take what you can get, right?)

Leave a comment

Filed under Los Angeles, Photography, Weather

January 8, 2019 · 23:44

The Squirrelpocalypse

Signs and portents, folks. Signs. AND portents.

Heading down the hill yesterday morning after a night when the power had been off for a couple of hours and it had been raining and cold, I came upon the most bizarre scene.

The street is windy, so I was blind as I came around a curve. In the street before me were probably a dozen squirrels, all intent on something they were eating. I braked (of course) and expected them to scatter but they did nothing of the sort. A couple of them looked up, but most of them ignored the two tons of steel Mom-mobile death about to plow them over. And NONE of them moved.

I started to inch closer figuring they would get the hint.

They didn’t.

The nearest one just sat there, even as my wheel got to within a couple of feet. I was pulled way off to the right, practically scraping the curb on that side, and couldn’t go left because there were more squirrels over on that side.

This first little bastard finally moved about six inches so that I could get by and slowly the others on that side of the road did as well as I approached, although I could swear that one or two just ducked down enough to pass under the van as it rolled over them.

After the initial dismay over what I was seeing I was too far into the group to back out. It did occur to me that this is the way Hitchcock movies and King novels start. There was no freakin’ way I was getting out of that car to try to shoo away any of the little rodents.

I kept waiting for one to leap onto the hood and press its frenzied, rabid, furry face against the windshield, like the mynocks that Han & Leia and Chewie ran into.

I don’t know if it was related to the heavy rains. Or to the power outage. Or if someone just spilled a bag of pot out on the street and the squirrels were high as a kite on some epic wacky tabaccky.

But I do know that in the new house (unlike the old place a mile away where they littered the trees and yard) I’ve rarely seen any squirrels at all, and never more than two at a time.

So where did a dozen-plus of the little monsters come from all at once?

Leave a comment

Filed under Castle Willett, Critters

January 7, 2019 · 23:35

2018 – The Year Without Christmas

In what I will almost certainly always remember as one of the most bizarre and chaotic years of my life, above all 2018 for me will be The Year Without Christmas.

I understand that there are whole cultures on the planet which include billions of people to whom “Christmas” is only an abstract idea and commercial construct from a distant Western culture, something that gets rammed down their throats as they make their living in June making cheap toys for under our trees in December.

But I’m not a member of any of those cultures. And while I may have rejected the religious basis for the holiday when I rejected the religion, and while I may be incredibly cynical about the commercial aspects of the holiday, there’s still plenty left to “Christmas” that is warm and comforting and familiar. (And, no, I’m not talking about the damn Hallmark Christmas movies.)

Childhood memories of Christmas are happy ones. (Not all other childhood memories can say the same.) Even as a young, single, college student, going home to my parents’ house at Christmas was something to look forward to. When I got married and had kids, making Christmas special for the kids made it special for me. And for decades as my kids grew up, a significant family tradition of putting up enough Christmas lights to become a hazard to local air traffic.

In 2018…

After everything else that went on in that God-forsaken year, we had the opportunity to go away for almost two weeks, to Seattle and Kansas City, to see some football and a whole slew of museums and other sights. The kids are grown. The pets are gone. The office is closed. Why not? Wasn’t this exactly the sort of opportunity we’ve been waiting for all these years?

The trip was a lot of fun and I don’t regret a moment of it. But there was a tiny side effect, which wasn’t completely unexpected, but I misjudged the magnitude of it.

There was no “Christmas.”

We were flying from Seattle to Kansas City on Christmas Day. As expected we found KC to be pretty much shut down on Christmas Day, not a fast-food joint to be found open and most of the regular restaurants shut down as well. We ended up scrambling just to find a place to have dinner.

The hotel was festive and decorated to the nines with a huge Christmas tree in the lobby – but it wasn’t home. We had put up our tree before we left, but in all of the chaos and being gone, this is the first year in several decades that I don’t have a picture of it.

There was never a single gift put under the tree – the trip was our gift to ourselves. And since we were gone, the gifts for the kids and others were just gift cards delivered by email and FedEx and UPS.

Mostly as a result of the new, smaller house, but also as the result of 2018’s time pressure on me and the chaos that seemed to fill the year, the number of lights put up was less than 20% of what we normally put up.

New Year’s didn’t do much better than Christmas. We were flying back home on New Year’s Eve and our big “celebration” for the evening was finding an open grocery store and getting enough staples to make it through New Year’s Eve and Day without needing to go find an open McDonalds. With the jet lag and the early wake up call to make our return flight, staying up to midnight wasn’t quite the thrill that you see on TV.

Overlaying it all was the “trip mentality” where I was completely unanchored from my usual routine, leaving me constantly trying to remember what day of the week it was and what the date was. On Christmas Day I literally forgot a dozen times that it was Christmas Day, leaving me wondering where everyone was on the freeways in KC and why there weren’t any stores open. If you want to feel stupid, have that dazed and confused “what planet are you from?” look on your face when you say to some Hertz rental car clerk, “Wait, you mean TODAY is Christmas??!”

Now we’re already a week into 2019 and the routine is being re-established. But there’s a hole in the end of 2018. Where normally there would be memories of presents and family celebrations and college football bowl games and a big turkey dinner, we now have memories of museums, BBQ, and freezing our butts off at Arrowhead.

The new memories aren’t bad in any way. For the most part they’re all wonderful. But they’re not “Christmas.”

So where do we go next year for “Christmas?” London? Hawaii? Rome?

Leave a comment

Filed under Castle Willett, Family, Travel

January 6, 2019 · 23:51

No Context For You – January 06th

In case it hasn’t been obvious for the last three-plus years, the “No Context For You” posts often are the result of days where I’ve been running around for about fourteen hours straight without time to catch my breath, let alone sit down and let my brain generate something creative, at which point I suddenly notice that it’s well after 23:30.

You know, days like today. Well, that added to being anal and neurotic about trying to post something every day.

It’s a hell of a combination.

Be careful out there this week, campers! The first full work week after the holidays can be grim to begin with. With the extraordinary chaos in the US at the moment, plus the gathering storm clouds in many of our personal lives, we could be in for a bumpy ride.

Take care of each other – when the shit hits the fan (and it’s going to) we’re all we’ve got. There might not be any cavalry coming of the hill to rescue us.

We’re not alone, no matter how much it might appear that way to any of us at any given moment. Ask for help. Give help to others. We’ll get through this.

We have no idea how strong we can be until we have to be that strong. We might be having a lesson on that particular subject coming over the horizon.

Ready or not…

Leave a comment

Filed under Deep Thoughts, Photography