Bosco-d-gama

I wanted to be a Gregorian monk but I never got the chants..........

Great - I just did an ablation a year ago. Getting old ain’t 4 sissies.

Several weeks ago we got a call from the stepdaughter tearfully begging the wife (an RN) to come and care for 3 of her 5 kids. The 2 younger ones were in the hospital with the flu and she needed help. Needless to say the wife made that journey. In due time they all got better and the wife returned home - along with the influenza bug. Within 24 hours we were both steeped in the virus. Though older we are both in really good shape but this bug has hammered us worse than any we’ve ever experienced. In our area (northwest) this flu bug is wrecking havoc. Whether you got this years flu vaccination or not you should take this ailment very seriously. For us elders the flu vaccine success rate is around 50% and I’m not sure the strain we got was the same bug covered by this years vaccine. We personally know of many cases which progressed into pneumonia. It has been 2 weeks now, the worst is behind us and still the road to full recovery is a roller coaster of good and not-so-good days. For us this bug was extremely virulent. Stay away from sickly souls and be vigilant about public exposure. With something this infectious you won’t need a heavy exposure to get infected. Between the 2 of us we have 80 years of health care experience and this flu is scary nasty.

I was born with an extrinsic fixation in my left eye. Basically that means it is not using the main focal point of the eye but the part of the eye that is used for peripheral vision making it very light sensitive. My brain essentially ignores the input from that eye leaving me with a host of visual troubles. But at night or whenever I transition from a lighted to a darkened room the input from this eye intermittently takes over resulting in some very disorienting circumstances. Driving at night is among the hardest things for me. Oddly it presents me with certain advantages. My night vision is actually too good and I typically do most things at night in the dark. The greatest gain was that it kept me out of military service and what would’ve been a stint in Nam. I can certainly sympathize with the troubles others describe here. There’s nothing you can do to improve your lot. Just be careful and prudent.

As I recall it was Peter Tork who demanded that the group be allowed to actually play their own instruments and perform music.

I knew a genuine transgender male in the process of medical ‘alterations’. He/she was hilarious and I feel more honestly in touch with his sexuality than gay males not inclined to become transgender (which I have also known - some were scary).

The character of the various sports in existence evolved along strict male/female participation. So our ‘hybrid’ contestants are in fact being allowed advantages due to the known and accepted fact that male/female physicality is decidedly different. Competition is way more than simple gender appearances. So - why not define some NEW types of sports to level this situation out? And, in this same vein - is this issue more about being politically correct than truly competitive? Are the transgender males more interested in encroaching upon traditional female sports to prove their gay acceptance agenda(s) or do they honestly believe it is even competition? Would they eschew a new sport devised just for them because it wasn’t female enough for their peculiar psyche?

Guess sports will need to become like ‘bathrooms’, we’re gonna require transgender leagues so that boy-girls and girl-boys can compete fairly against themselves. Then at the end of the season we could have the ‘Stupid Bowl’ 🤪. ’

The Mrs does stained glass and has taken command of our garage. Currently we’re running a Bose wave radio (from her prior marriage) and she’s not real happy with that sound having been introduced my audio gear. She wants better sound. Like most of us I do own extra amps, etc but I do not have any speakers that’ll go where these must be placed. There are size limits and everything must be on remote control as she is ‘smallish’ and the rig will be ‘tall-ish’. I am intrigued by the Klipsch ‘sixes’. We have a 50 cd carousel player with an optical output that should direct connect to the speakers, plus we own several Bluetooth enabled sources. This would allow me to not lug ‘tons’ of amp gear to elevation and should be adequate for its purposes. But - I have read that the built-in amp on the ‘sixes’ is considered so-so. Looking for some feedback on this issue. Wondering also if Klipsch is planning updated products in this arena. Any help would be much appreciated.

There’s genres of music I don’t like and choose to avoid. At the same time there’s so much music I do enjoy that I refuse to get ‘boiled’ about the stuff I dislike. The worst are those sound systems that punish the ears whilst destroying whatever music is being played. That is nails on a chalkboard to moi.

Not familiar with this group and will check them out. Agree, as well about much of the instrumentation - but - I believe that the music is highly digitally mixed which accounts for hearing it as synthesized. Very bouncy stuff and rife with ‘ear worms’........ those songs that hijack your mind practically 24/7.

Recently I discovered ‘electro-swing’ and actually purchased new music for the 1st time in many years. Electro-swing is a reblending and revival of 20-30’s swing jazz using digital devices. I find it very uplifting. The popular group ‘Pink Martini’ plays in this realm.

Just adding perspectives. I did consider starting a new thread on AI but it was your thread that lead me there so I shared it here. Sorry if that upset you😔😔.

Music evolution now sets at a more interesting threshold. Technology has been encroaching on music for decades. Our own electromechanical stereo rigs are freqeuntly compared to live music. Then we started seeing digitalized instrumentation initially played by human hands then subsequently performed by computers, with and without human interaction. Now we have artificial intelligence (AI) that will surely be able to understand and dissect human music cognition. AI will know the human preference for the 5/4 meter of Brubecks ‘Take Five’ , etc. AI will be able to write, produce and perform music to individual human tastes and will actually evolve new types of music based upon listener feedback loops. Computers will be able to wholly take over music production for the sole purpose of pleasing humanity. Like bringing calculators to math class digitalized music has become integrated into music class. Newer computers are precise and limitless in their applications. Perhaps in time computers will evolve the ability to enjoy music on their own. Then we will have ‘singularity’ with computers producing music for computers to appreciate. We will become dinosaurs mere vestiges of days long past. Hmmmm...... days of future passed. Prophetic huh?

If one steps above the debate there’s evidence of the classic artists lament. My own brother suffers from this misery. He’s an artist with a profoundly innate talent coupled with formal education that allows him a skill set capable of doing anything extraordinarily well. I’ve seen him take a napkin and a pencil and produce portraits with insane realism in short order. But he likes graphic art and ONLY graphic art. If you do not like his tastes - you - are a sad pitiful dolt. And after a lifetime of this attitude he is dirt poor and despises his own talent. He thought he alone knew best and other artists and art genres were just unacceptable - period. So how narrow do we focus our own musical tastes? Do we agree with the notion that the musician drives listening trends or that listeners should define musical trends? Yeah from a purely academic definition we can parse out musical categories to organize the subject for whatever purposes - but - nobody ‘killed’ anything, as in premeditated malice. People enjoy what they like. That’s all. Music flows and evolves. Fortunately we never lose music and those of us with good equipment can enjoy anything WE like, anytime. I can’t remember the city but here’s how this can be utilized. The city had too many young adults gathering in one of the main public venues and was suffering from associated crimes, etc. Their solution was to play classical music and only classical music in the area. The younger crowds thinned, leaving the arena to those not offended by Bach.

This unfortunate account can somewhat be laid at the doorstep of Klipsch. Klipsch has never done much in the way of marketing/promotion, etc. They did not educate the buying public allowing for salesmonkey charlatans to undermine their speakers and handed companies like Bose billion dollar markets. To this day I doubt if many movie theater attendees know that they’re hearing Klipsch products. If ever a company survived based upon consistent performance of a product line it is Klipsch. Still, imagine going to any bank with a business plan for commercial sound products and having zero marketing schemes in play. Never experienced the ‘cupped hand’ horn spiel. My parents owned custom made jbl speakers driven by Fisher tubes. That was my listening baseline that was not surpassed until the early 70’s. At a Federated store I was introduced to Klipsch. They carried the full Klipsch line and the khorns stood head and shoulders above everything else..... and still do as far as I am concerned. Was not able to buy khorns for 20 more years. On my 3rd set now.🥳

Got a set, 36 inches tuned to ‘c’. Put them out front and weighted the clapper to tame typically erratic winds. Very pleased, very calming - zen like.

These lines were spontaneous and not part of the script - at least this is what I’ve heard.

Yup...... the safe is toast. At Diebold when one of our security enclosures got locked up it got destroyed and they knew how best to open them. Torches, burning bars, carbide drill bits.... whatever it took. The idea was to cause the least damage/mess to gain access....... the enclosures were considered expendable.

Beethoven composed much of his works being totally deaf. Those of us suffering from hearing impairments no-doubt can still appreciate ‘good’ from ‘bad’ sound reproduction and obviously prefer the former over the latter. And it is a true pleasure to introduce the uninitiated to excellent sound. You can see the wonder in their expressions and sit back and wait for the inevitable inquiries about the music, the systems and the acoustics. This is a marvelous hobby in many ways. Getting old sucks. By all means protect your sense of hearing. Methinx I can trace my troubles to jackhammers and concrete.

I too suffer from hearing loss/tinnitus, worse on the right. I have a hearing aid for the right ear. For myself using the hearing aid is disorienting as the receiver picks up sounds more posterior than lateral/anterior. So the sound enhancement provided seems to offer environmental artifact noises my mind is unable to reconcile. I can not spatially locate noises easily. If I hear something of interest I must search it out if I intend to investigate it. I tried hearing aids in both ears and was so disoriented I would get a little dizzy. The only time I use the hearing aid now is amongst crowds to try and hear conversation. The rest of the time I go without. It simply sounds better. Oh how I miss listening to the sounds associated with dawn. Can’t hear birds unless they’re real close. Bummer.

Had California franchise tax board chase me down for a capital gains tax. The guy was a real jackass asking only those questions leading to a worst case scenario for little old me. Once he’d made his point he became righteously indignant accusing me of intentionally lying, etc. Then I asked him the ‘rest’ of the questions that pertained to the case whence he learned quickly that he was not only 100% wrong (no taxes owed) but was an insulting jerk as well. Rather than connect me to his supervisor he neatly closed the file and let it go. He must have been a new-b thinking he could bully his way, that or he just got his jollies making honest folks squirm. The best advice is to know your case and remain calm. Do not let them rattle you. As I understand it nearly all such irs inquiries are simple errors or misunderstandings and easily corrected w/o additional taxes. Did have the irs disallow deductions altering my liability. Turned out my accountant transposed one of my boys ssn numbers which triggered a cascade of yuck. Easily fixed but no fun whatsoever.

Accuracy in films/tv rarely exists. For me what ruins most productions are character trait failures. Notably all modern actors/actresses have blinding white and perfect dentition which seriously conflicts with historical context and usually is shown w/o any consideration for context authenticity. Characters that are supposed to be heavy laborers with manicured fingernails destroys the presentation. Having grown up in west Los Angeles I have little respect for that industry. The recent relevations of sexual abuse is absurd. Doors to opportunity in hollywierd never open because of an actors talent/skills and they haven’t since films became big business.

Once he gets the replacement lock mechanism he may be able to determine where that solenoid is located or where to drill that bugger. Also if you can locate another safe like this one you could examine that mechanism insitu, template the stuff and use that as your reference.

So how many here are attempting to drop some weight now that the holiday pig-out festivals have passed? Ever wonder what you actually lose when you lose (or conversely gain) weight. Keeping in mind that we are ‘carbon’ based critters when we gain or lose weight we are gaining or shedding carbon as we vary our body mass. When weight is lost we lose most of it exhaling carbon dioxide which is a pretty heavy gas. The next greatest loss comes through losing water which we urinate, exhale and sweat away. Carbon dioxide and water comprise over 90% of weight retained or lost. Humans are carbon sinks, repositories of that bad stuff also called ‘greenhouse gases’. So, if you want an excuse not to diet just tell yourself and others that you do not want to contribute to global warming.🤓