bacK iN thE daY

This seems really strange to say.. "I like a show on.... NBC"...  NBC, REALLY?? Yep no doubt that it really seems strange to say that there is a good show on a network that I forget is a tv network, because their shows suck so bad.. They have more one and dones that any other network, in fact they have more non compete, which is to say they have more shows that don't even get aired.. But this one really has caught my eye this summer, called The Night Shift.. Really a good show so far and I'm on the forth or fifth episode ... I think.. I'm torrenting it, so I am guessing here... The first clip is what I called Meatball surgery, and it is basically the night shift emergency staff is doctors from the army that performed and figured out new ways to do things in the field in the war(s) zones in the middle East.. 

In this scene ... Geriatric STD's ...   Makes me shudder...

Hazing the new interns.. Or in this case this guy seems to get nailed the most.. Poor guy..

This was one of those scenes where you know the guy is just sure he is impressing the girl.. Juggling, yeah that will do it..

Another hazing the interns scene.. In this case it was one of the interns hazing the guy who got nailed by the "dead" guy in the ambulance..

Badge Henry

northerN citY statE ziP codE

It turned out to be a good series.. The show Fargo on FX or FXx or wherever it was at.. I torented it..  so I have no idea where it came from and Sunday I watched the last three episodes.. I've been wanting to watch it for the past month but lost track of time.. now this past week I dedicated the time to get it watched..  From episode 4 through the ending.. I wasn't sure I was going to like it.. It had that make me feel uneasy feeling like Breaking Bad did, not that the two shows were similar but rather the feeling I got while watching the show was similar..  I thought Breaking Bad was far superior but that was the feeling of the series over five years (seasons)... Fargo has the potential to be like Breaking Bad that way too... In the scene above is kind of a recap.. Lester turns into a real pain in the ass, and kills his wife and things begin to unravel from there.. Here he gets a remnant pellet from the shotgun blast that kills the Sheriff , lodging in his hand, and for the previous episode he was dicking with his hand and I had no idea what was there.. I thought it was a piece of glass or something..

The shooting spree that Melvo goes on, after learning who was after him.. What I like about this scene is how it was done..  an outside the building and seeing the glass break in shots as well as someone getting tossed out the window.. It made the scene stronger to be done this way I felt.. Instead of the shooting spree in true visual, as to be seen.. This was fairly clever in my book..

 Played by Billy Bob Thornton Melvo is a sleaze ball.. A hitman by trade it's interesting to watch how his character evolved and also how for a while he was gone, like he disappeared, only for him and Lester crossed paths again in of all places Las Vegas when Lester was getting an award for outstanding insurance salesman ...  When Melvo asks Lester "Is this what you want?" and Lester nodded yes, I think Lester was thinking he had Melvo cornered.. That turned out to not be the case..

One of the best scenes has  the Sheriff deputy father setting up in pretection mode and the grand daughter in law talking to him..

Lesters demise.. He did it his way.. idiot..

Finally this scene.. Les needed the house cleaned and so he called a service to do that.. From earlier in the show..


Overall a really interesting show...



Badge Henry

bananaS

Here's what happens when confidence and doubt collide... I was just sure .. Yesterday I mow the patch of weeds in the front yard also known as the lawn, but there's a patch of weeds that have been growing in size since this season started and they are just annoying and smell like unwanted guests that look good, they're green, but in the end aren't what I want.. So I scalp mow them.. Scalping is what you do when you set the mower to the lowest level, sort of putting green height if you will, and mow an area that does look a bit like a putting green.. I did the bottom third to half of the area I did two years ago (or three, who knows, I can't remember) and that bottom bit had weeds growing and that entered into my mind with this thought "If this area still has weeds in it then that idea, the idea I'm trying yet again, must not have worked"... A seed of doubt creaked into my mind as I'm wrapping up the second lap of what would be a few more before completion.. And I was sure this was a good idea.. To scalp it, then spray it with grass killer, then till it.. Last time I didn't spray it.. Well I sprayed it this time.. We'll see tomorrow how it looks.. Then as I'm chilling on the deck with a recovery Dew I start to think, but the last idea didn't work, it simply hasn't proven yet to work. That idea was the backyard the week before the forth of July I scalped a small section of not so much weeds but rather spotty grass growth area.. The area was about ten feet by five (give or take) and I set it up and seeded it for a try to do this idea.. With the old drip irrigation idea set I watered pretty much daily for two weeks and while the grass that was there came back bold and strong, the new seeded seemed to flounder.. Even after the incentive plant starter was sprinkled on like the little circle where I burned the tumble weeds earlier this spring came back like crazy but that was in May.. This was late June Early July where the heat is quite ominous and overwhelming.. So with what I deemed a failure in the back yard weighing on me while drinking the recovery Dew, I had a change of heart, a complete overwrite of the idea.. Should the weed/grass killer take on that section, I will try to till it today and then buy some grass and get it on there and get it growing over the next two weeks.. But if it didn't take I will try to get some weed killer crap.. The only trouble with the weeds killer is there doesn't seem to be that much grass out there growing amongst the weeds.. So this is why I did that section a few years back and it's why I did it this way again.. The doubt of course coming in the form of the weeds growing in that section and looking strong and unwilling to yield to a better idea, that of course is to NOT GROW ..  Weeds are so stubborn that way..  Why do I think the weed killer won't work, that shit is killer... Well I've had this jug for three to five years, and at that age it might be fertilizer... Who knows.. And secondly, and more important, I didn't shake well before use.. I forgot to shake it.. I was surprised it worked, the sprayer I mean.. It was in the shed for however long we had it, meaning it has been in the shed through the freeze thaw cycle, and the thaw is the shed at dead heat of summer, think a hundred degrees outside and the heat in that metal building being maybe twenty to thirty degrees warmer.. It's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.. Step in there, get hot and sweaty and then come out and feel cooler no matter if it is a hundred degrees out..

Derailed again, but not really.. In the end the idea is to get more grass seed and hope to not have to use it.. I like patch work seeding but this area is fairly large for my liking.. Controlling weeds has never been a problem before but in the past few years it seems the weeds are taking over.. Is that a concern??  It is but I have two things I'm thinking about in this fight.. Why?? And in that short question the questions come up.. Why fight the fight when drought conditions are prominent?? Well we have this underground water thing (?) and it shows at the west end of town with a creek that is dry now, but when the water dries in that water pool thing it shows the water table.. When it dries out we are still a year or maybe two away from being in trouble.. They don't put water restrictions in place yet, but I try to restrict my water usage with a timer.. To me this makes sense on several levels mostly it gets rid of the water the living hell out of one section and not another.. So it all gets the same if that is ten minutes, or twelve or fifteen.. I never water more than fifteen minutes on any section of the grass..  So why, why water parts of the lawn that are struggling to get going this late in the season??  Well, we have company coming in just a few weeks (actually 8 weeks almost to the day and it feels like five days) and it's another reason I want the grass to look good.. I had said I'd rather drink the water than the lawn and will do that if it comes to that any time very soon.. Priorities..

So now it will get hot, and I look today and the "putting green" section from yesterday is short but green looking, shaking the grass killer and it's age has proven the reason the grass still looks alive and fine.. We'll do the "water therapy" (I call it water therapy, where I put the drip irrigation sprinklers in a section and water longer periods, a softer, lighter watering application) and see what happens.. I might still till it but for the next few days we'll try to recover the section and apply weed killer to it.. And watch it flourish.. Or die, either way I'm ready..

Badge Henry

resourcE

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SKUNK WE HAD??  Ian gets a bath.. He's clean now.. Watch out girls.. 

So we went out to see a harvest thing going on.. Saw a combine pretty darn closeup yesterday as we were watching him clean an area that was a small area but he was  almost done because his hopper was almost full..  He pulls up next to us and we get a closeup look at that machine.. up til yesterday combines were mean and nasty.. Then afterwards they were friendly.. We pull around to the area where the trucks are parked in the field and wait for the guy to get there.. As he pulls up to the truck the auger unfolds from the machine and starts to unload to his amazement.  There was another combine heading towards us but turned around and went the other way..  The guy unloading took a few minutes to unload his hopper and all I could think was I bet the trucks my dad drove in the day would get filled with just that one combine full.. My dad drove for harvest for a numb dipshit farmer who's main trucks were held together with bailing wire and duct tape, and were pre world war two era trucks.. You don't see too many of those type of trucks in this day in age of the super sized combines.. I drove an old.. OLD combine, the kind in which there was no cab.. And it was alright.. I mean I was more afraid of making a mistake of any kind so I drove with the old butt pucker situation.. Farmers become total shitfucks during harvest because they have only a set amount of time to get the wheat in before the grain loses protein and whatever else happens.. Anyway I got to drive a combine for a day or two one year.. Big deal..   The little guy could have stayed and watched that combine all afternoon and had the driver asked if he would have liked to ride he more than likely would have.. The cab space is huge.. He had some girl in there with him...  we then headed for town and the elevator where the wheat trucks dump their precious cargo..   But we told him of his grandpas work in harvest time, driving trucks.. How his uncle drove a combine, and as well my driving a combine.. Not sure he quite comprehended that everyone except his dad worked a harvest at one point in their lives...   "Can we watch the corn harvest?"  And I said it will be October - December sometime when they will be doing corn.. The latest I've seen corn harvest is January a few years back.. That was an odd site, to see these machines associated with hot weather working when it was rather cold outside..

After the harvest watch we went to the library.. Why not.. This was the first time in I don't know how long that I had been in that library.. My mom used to work there way back when.. She liked it there.. It  is really a nice place, was then and still is today but a lot has changed.. Thinking back to way back then. how they had records but now they have computers, and digital media.. They still have tapes though.. the old audio tapes.. i looked through them and as I was looking I realized I don't think I have a working tape player of any kind.. Here I have all the tapes I have and no way to listen to them.. I think I might need one.. Or not.. Maybe just a simple tape player, stereo thing..  also a record player.. Something to play the old discs on.. I love compact discs but rarely listen to them as well.. Why??    The nephew isn't impressed by books, they seem to bore him, but then he is still a while away from reading for real, maybe that will change.. I told him his cousin could read fairly well by the time she went to kindergarten.. He just looked like "SO WHAT"...  Yep, the times they are  a changing..

Badge Henry

a momentary thought to plastiC

I follow Ultimate Classic Rock on Facebook and recently they had a rate the Pink Floyd albums from worst to first.. I guess in honor of the soon to be released new album in October, their first album of new original material in twenty years..   And here is a list someone replied with.. :
14. Ummagumma
13. More
12. Obscured by Clouds (notice that the next few are in the same sequence; I've just moved "Momentary Lapse" up...)
11. The Final Cut
10. Saucerful of Secrets
9. Atom Heart Mother (same note as above, moving "Division Bell" up)
8. Piper at the Gates of Dawn
7. Meddle
6. Animals
5. A Momentary Lapse of Reason
4. The Division Bell
3. Wish You Were Here
2. The Wall
1. The Dark Side of the Moon

My rating would be this:
14 The Final Cut, and the reason this is only 14 is because that's all the albums they have out.. If there were a way to rate it lower I would.. I have to say when I heard the album for the first time I was expecting a grand statement that this was the end of either the band as it was, moving to another state of being or that this was the end, no more albums or tours after this.. But I listened to this and thought "this is their grand final statement?"... thankfully it wouldn't be.. Not everyone would survive.. Roger wanted Nick to be out of the band and David let it happen.. Roger already booted Rick out after the Wall tours.. Personally I call the Final Cut the breakup album, it was the end of the band completely by the time they released the album.. A sad album it was another concept that was some continuation from the Wall concept.. some of the songs were from the Wall exed out of that album to make it a strange two record album.. A third record would have been interesting but also overkill on the pitty party..
13 A Momentary Lapse of Reason, I can only say the first album without Roger was a slight breath of fresh air seeings how the Final Cut was such a humpfest..
12 I suppose Ummagumma mostly for the solo sides, where after Rick left the band for good after the Wall sessions he recorded some of his finest music, the session he had for his solo material on Ummagumma was bizzare sadly, and didn't show his true range.. Dave's Narrow Way was interesting mostly because his vocals were smudged to where you couldn't tell what he was singing.. Nick was odd and Roger showed why he was the lead writer and would be until he left the band..
11 More was a (is a) soundtrack from a movie of the same name that was about the drug culture in Europe in the late sixties or early seventies.. Some really good songs on there.. The Nile Song and Green Is The Colour..
10 Atom  Heart Mother, for the Suite alone this was a great album.. the songs on side two were a bit like Ummagumma but featured only two short songs and then the third long secondary AHM long naught..
9 Obscured By Clouds, soundtrack to the movie Le Vallee..  Interesting album with a couple of favorites of mine in Childhoods End and Uh...Wot's the Deal ... Really a good album from start to finish for me..
8 Saucerful of Secrets, their first album with their new lead guitarist in tow.. Syd was represented by Jugband Blues.. Possibly the strangest song the floyd would ever do..
7 Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.. As if their first album would be strage enough to call Pink Floyd or the Pink Floyd Sound as they called themselves for a time.. To have this long of a name for their debut album... Strange and the material was mostly writen by Syd Barrett.. 
6 The Division Bell.. Although a definitive improvement over Momentary Lapse, it was absolutely the best way to end the band, although I didn't think it was over but after the ten year mark of inactivity I thought they would likely never play together again, even though Dave would tour with Rick, and Roger would allow Nick to play with him on a tour here and there, the band only played together for Live 8..
5 Meddle.. Actually a top three album even the top album, this is my favorite album that was released before Dark Side Of The Moon.. Containing One Of These Days and the mammoth Echoes that took all of side two..
4 Animals, again top three or even the top album depending on my mood.. Three long songs sandwiched between Pigs on The Wing..  Social political statement.. There was a day I came home from work and played this album.. I was pissed before listening to it, and then relaxed after.. A great album..
3 The Wall..  Too many great songs to list here but just to know Run Like Hell and Comfortably Numb on the same disc.. The demo versions was interesting.. I was able to get three versions of the demo of the album and heard the re re re issue of the album..
2 The Dark Side Of The Moon .. Why rank at number 2??  Because I really liked the album but have my reasons why it isn't my favorite number one album..
1 Wish You Were Here  the reason this gets the number one nod.. It was the album that proved you can go at it again even after having that album that you aim for your entire career.. And it is just one of those albums I can listen to from start to finish..

Badge Henry

that looks like fuN

You guessed it.. This was from last weeks paper.. For the 4th.. 

 

You read that right ... 3,829 shells..  in thirty minutes??   Talk about sensory overload.. Starting time of 9:30.. My nephew wouldn't last that late, he was wanting to shoot off his fireworks last week and his grandma says after supper.. Could we eat at three.. Why??  Because then it will be after supper .. But it won't be dark.. Oh that dreaded darkness rule thing.. He waited til seven.. Still lotsa sunlight.. Oh well what ya gonna do... 

 

Schedule of events.. A day of fun and then that fireworks show.. 

One of the grandest endurance races there are.. 100 miles would be daunting on level ground.. This is in the mountains and can include dealing with all sorts of weather including snow storms..

That is the Grand Imperial hotel to the left.. 1891 picture.  Wow..

Badge Henry

total flighT

The sky is no longer falling, although it seems to be low with it's ozone thing.. The computer seems to be working better since last Monday's fix.. After a few days everything seems better but.. There has to be a but.. The old BSOD seems to keep showing.. It scares me because I have videos that need to be set for upload to the 'Tube sometime.. Most of what that is is video I have shot since the nephews T ball season started and ended this past Monday, even though I didn't shoot an overly huge amount I need to put a video comp of the season.. I think I do have the very first game up there but I have the entire season to put a video together with.. Also the adventure of the summer so far, the trip to the caboose the day or two before the forth of July.. A first for him, he had been wanting to go in that thing for years.. I thought he might squeal with delight.. He didn't but he was very happy.. Then there's the girls.. Em and Ellye, the Sunday before the forth and then the forth of July.. All of this has been on the smart card and needs to be edited to upload form for either upload to youtube or burn to disc..  Either way..


So this morning after searching the web and Google and everything the diagnosis of what the nephew has was staring me in the face this whole time..  I just never put it together until now.. It's ODD.. Now that might read like A.D.D.  but it isn't.. ODD is just that.. the letters don't correspond to anything other than the letter of the alphabet.  Or in other words he has odd.. Or rather he is odd, but not stranger than any other little boy his age, he is just a little goofy boy...  Just like everyone else his age.. Pass the ice cream, and the crackers.. Let's eat now..


Badge Henry

close to the livinG

A clip of In The Flesh  the hit (?) show from BBC 3 in Britain and a show that gets neutered on BBC America (you can't have rough language in America, children might be watching)..  To me this is a relatively good show, although it did take it's time about getting any really good story line going.  But then the last two episodes aired and things moved along quite quickly..

This was a fluke series for me to come across.. Found it by way of..  you know... and just got the entire series through season two.. Season one was three shows and season two was six.. The idea of getting the partially dead (zombies from Romero's era, walkers or biters from The Walking Dead shows era.. And interesting because if you were one of the lucky few to see the show through the end of this seasons sixth show, you got to see what looked to be Amy turning from partially dead to full on reanimated life.. Full on return to one of the living..  And then as she was nearly full back with colour and the whole lot that crazy bitch case worker stabbed her to death.  So they have a funeral for her and that was pretty much how that ended (although not the way the story was going, to see that watch the series)..  With the hunters looking for the first rising digging up her grave as the credits start to roll.. What could possibly be about to unfold??  Stay tuned as the cliffhanger grabs you and holds you and hopefully this show got enough cult followers to warrant a return with season three.. Hopefully.. 

I finished the short twelve show run of Survivors again on the Netflix streaming channel.. The reason I rewatched it again was because the first time I watched it, I was watching the Walking Dead and I got some of the plot lines intertwined so there was a little confusion.. Earlier I had watched The Walking Dead again from the very start, and it ended at the end of the season where the Govenor shot most of his followers.. What a doosh.. Then the show between Walking Dead and Survivors was the Bible.. That was worth the watch..  Very sad in that I could see the same thing happening again now if that was anything more than a well told fable.. To each his own, believe it, or don't..  Whatever you want, it's a semifree country..

Badge Henry

there's thaT

"THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS SANCTUARY"...  So goes the line in the old Logan's Run movie.. And so goes the feeling we have with the nephew.. Only the difference is instead of there is no sanctuary it seems to be "there is no such thing as tomorrow"...  He geuinely seems afraid to go to sleep and only really does so under extreme protest.. Mom says he wrastles through the night, restless sleep taking on the world, and the sleep monkey with equal vigor..  He never used to be this way before he was forced o go with his mom to Poland during their immigration situation.. Getting that straitened out and with his insecurity towards many things he also came back with a stammer that rivals Mel Tillis..

So after the forth of July we assessed the damages and there it was.. One of the firsts ever that I know of.. A scud missle, or the remnants of said same.. The cone was just a few feet from the rocket itself.. I gotta tell you, it isn't that the rocket was in the yard in two pieces that made me wonder, it was the way it was built.. Or more to the point the materials used.. The most any rocket we had from back in the day were built with cheap materials in paper and balsa wood fins.. This was built with plastic cone and as well very sturdy plastic .. heavy plastic not just slight..  And that means this firework had to have a pretty good engine thing..   No parachute though.. I remember the old firework parachute, I always wanted to retrieve it to play with later.. But it usually burned from being shot it the air or from the explosive that deployed it..  Friday night was cool though as after we got done eating we turned on the deck lights and sat and watched the "rockets red glare" all around us as the bugs ate a nice hearty meal...  But it was fun.  One of those family get togethers that seems to rarely happen but is the reason why it is great to have..  Coming soon.... FOOTBALL SEASON...

Badge  Henry

(P.S.  had to add one last thing.. Hell didn't freeze over today: While it is a little cooler it isn't cold.. And do you know why??  Yesterday was Ian's (the nephew) final T-ball  game of the 2014 season.. They finished 7-7-7 in seven games played.. in other words they won seven, or lost seven, or tied seven depending on who you talk to..   And the little sluggers mom made a no show for the season.. That's right 0-fer... Now technically she did bring him to the park for one game but she made it quite clear she wasn't there to watch the game.. And it isn't because she doesn't understand the game, she doesn't.. And it isn't because she had troubles with her little toddler (the other nephew)..  It was because she had something better to do.. And what is that you might ask that is more important than watching your first born play a game for what is about an hour??  She had candy crush to play.. That's right she has an addiction but it isn't drugs.. It's a stupid game.. The game before this was Farmville.. She would spend every waking and even most of the night playing that bit of idiocy before changing and going off the deep end with candy crush.. Wildly stupid in it's design, it seems to be like the early version of games like mean bean machine.. Only this seems to have a heroin quality to it.. Same was with Farmville... What is that about??  I tried the college football version but got bored out of my nut.. Same with that rock trivia game.. I would play the era I knew but no one wanted to play me in rock trivia, they would rather play me in the shit they call rock from now, but since rock and roll died in the late 80's no one wants to fathom a guess as to what to call it.. I call it shit music that barely qualifies as music.. And the shit from now ... Id rather hear a burp and fart contest.. It's unreal.. There is absolutely nothing in America worth ...    No wait.. What was I talking about??  Rant?? Me rant??  No.. Nah.. what??  rant???  )

(P.P.S.  Hell didn't freeze over because she didn't show for the final game of Ian's T-Ball career.. Highly likely he won't play T-ball ever again mostly because from here on out I think it's a different form of baseball.. The T is gone and replaced with a pitching thingy.. Not sure but I saw a spring loaded do-hicky..  But even at that I have doubts he will play. I'd love to see him give it a try..   It left us with this quizzical look on our faces of   "but why not show up and support him"?????     That qualifies as just plain weird... Sorry but ...  it just does... ) 

and then it updateD

When a program updates it usually means a security threat has been fixed.. In the case of some programs they get better.. Around the 24th of June PantDotNet got updated.. They had been talking of the update for this program for the better part of the past three years.. To me I was hoping it would be a great update to the version everyone was waiting for.. I was hoping for the update to be like the reason to ditch Photoshop.. It isn't, but it is better than Photoshop in that the program has always been easier to use than Photoshop ever was.. There are things (effects) that photoshop has that PDN still doesn't have and so that's the only reason to keep it.. Yesterday I got PDN 4.0 and tried it.. Checked the forum first and found out that a lot of the plugins that I have more than likely won't work on the new version..  PDN 4.0 has been updated to where you have to have a dual core and works on any new modern computer with 2,4,8,and 16 core computers.. 16 cores, really???   So I initially let the program update with all of my plugins  intact just because I have every time on every update before now.. However after reading the forum I thought I should start from scratch on the program so I deleted it with all the plugins as well..  And then got the core of the program, or what I should say is the program only without the plugins.. I deleted all the plugins from the folder they were in and also the zip files that were contained in the download folder.. I have the program and all of it's plugins on a flashdrive just in case the new 4.0 is crap.. First off, the new version is not crap.. That being said it is new, developed in beta mode for however long.. The plugin I missed the most would be the curves+ (plus)..  However the strangest part of saying this is I use and have been using FastStone image viewer to edit my pictures and rarely use PDN..  But it's good to have when I want to do more involved editing of pictures and picture projects..  So is it better to have fewer choices for the process??  I was always wanting to delete the majority of the plugins, not that it was more confusing to have that much choice but more to have what the program base is.. Then add only what I know I have used.. I got all those plugins and thought I'd see what I used and delete what I didn't.. That never happened before yesterday.. I will now use the more basic version and only add the plugins as they are set for the new version if they become available or if I dislike the new version of PDN to delete and reinstall the old version from filehippo..  It's nice to know you can do that if a program doesn't agree with the way I use it.. Over the next few weeks I will try it..   Get back to you with the answer to is this version of PDN better later..

Badge Henry

take a second looK

An oops apology to those in the know.. A picture got posted on the PNOP site that shouldn't have gotten on there.. Where did that come from??  and more importantly why did I not pay attention to it??  Well while the computer was in fritz mode last week I can only say I got into  a big hurry and didn't pay attention to what got uploaded although truth be told the entries were set in folders via faststone photo viewer and so I should have seen it at that point.. I didn't, either because I was in a hurry or because I was pissed at the computer or fearful that the computer might lock up.. A combination of all of the above could be there.. Anyway all of July was put together with the computer in safe mode... Only the first two were in regular mode.. So most of July was done in safe mode..

The addiction to Crazy Machines continues.. When the computer was going through it's situation last week I kept thinking I might never get through the main set of puzzles.. I don't think I got this far a couple years ago when it was first on here... Figuring some of the puzzles out and now knowing that some of the parts they give to put it together are false parts.. Pieces that aren't used at all and in fact can't be used..  I wasn't sure I would ever got to play it again and so when I got the computer back in shape I swore I would play it to completion on all three versions.. I had never done that on the Crazy Machines part.. most of these are new to me.. But the best part is trying so many ideas, plugging this in ... Trying this idea or that for what needs to be done.. My nephew watched me do some of them and said that won't work and then was amazed when they did work.. Some is logic while others are pure crazy ass luck.. Some of them are done by my mind of how it might work but might not.. They work and then don't.. I have the solutions so I go back and look and see that some of the ways I do it isn't the right way but.. It works.. So there I guess..

Badge Henry

FIREWORKS EXPOSE (film at eleven)

You can never have enough!!  It's a scam.. Thirty seconds of pleasure followed by scrounging for more in the duds pile..    Man I remember those days and last night there was my nephew starting the same thing.. Fireworks are a scam, they get you excited and then when all is said and done the fireworks are an actual letdown.. You want more and more only to be disappointed when all is said and done.. When the last punk is extinguished and the final scent of gunpowder is gone, what are you left with??  The fifth of July and the thought of well just wait until next year..   But here it is this year.. I've written about the friend I had when I was little, buying a brick (or two) of firecrackers only to have them go off in his coat pocket...  That's a classic and there are likely others who have stories similar to this from their childhood.. But there are others.. Another friend would get that order form that we used to get in the mail to get fireworks.. He got a good lot.. I would look amazed at what he got but never thought I'd like that.. Or maybe I did, I don't remember going nuts..  He got his fireworks and never shot them all off on one night but rather took a few to do that.. Then there was the (idiot) guy that put a smoke bomb in the mailbox that year.. There was this dare going on that kept coming up every year and then one year the dare was fulfilled by someone.. more than likely the same kid who had the firecrackers go off in his coat pocket.. You know the one??  He was a stooge no doubt about it but he was also the postmasters son..  There as this feeling that this act was done by three boys at the same time, so none of them could be blamed for doing it.. That's how I think they did it.. Truth is the mornings are when things like this happened.. But this was an afternoon job.. By this time we were off shooting our loot for the day..

Remember the firecracker wars we had..  some of the things we did I hope my nephew hears about only after he has grown out of his current fireworks craze.. The firecracker wars were epic.. Most of the time they involved a toy, in this case an old greyhound bus that was made of steel.. So good was this toy for this effort that there was no destroying it.. It took firecracker wars from the time I was little until I stopped buying them around my fifteenth year.. I think that's how old I was.. Anyway we would light the firecracker and slip it into the bus, then wait until we thought it was time then roll it towards the other person.. If it blew up before they could turn it around or roll it back at you in anyway that was a hit.. Then it was their turn.. It was the safest way to throw firecrackers at each other that we knew of.. Safe, that's a  relative term..   Then there was roman candle wars..  You name it, and the directions on the firework "Light fuse and get away.."  yep, they might as well have said light fuse and do what you feel..  Fun??  Well it was...

Badge Henry

Twofer two fer

I cam across this review for the Who Live at Leeds double deluxe or 40th anniversary release and it hit on every aspect on the nut so check it out..

The Feb 14, 1970 Leeds show which provided The Who with their
first official live album is widely regarded by collectors
as not only one of the group's finest-ever shows, but one of the
greatest live shows in rock history. The original album included
only 35 minutes of the 120 minute show, and was still one of the greatest live albums ever; in 1995 that length was
more than doubled for the CD remaster, but the "Tommy" portion remained in the vaults. Fans had to be content with the bootleg "Leeds Complete" in order to hear the whole thing, until now. Whether or not the piecemeal way the concert has been
released over the years is a cynical MCA ploy or not, now that
we finally have the whole thing, the show can finally be heard
in all of its awesome power and glory.
One of the reasons "Leeds" is prized among Who collectors is
that it is one of the best-recorded; the mix is superbly
equalized among all three instruments and Daltrey's vocals, and Townshend's guitar sounds especially full-bodied and wet. The performance is one of the tightest and note-perfect of that
period--without losing any of its heat or raw power--and the
audience is amazingly quiet and respectful, which almost gives
the show a "live in the studio" quality. A comparison with
"Live At The Isle Of Wight", the only other complete Moon-era
performance of "Tommy", is in order: although both shows are extraordinary, "Leeds" is superior for the above
reasons (although "Wight" offers arguably better versions of "Young Man Blues" and "We're Not Gonna Take It/See Me Feel Me").
For all of its dozens of incarnations, there is no doubt that
the best version of "Tommy" was when the band originally performed it live in '69-'70; the volcanic fire which erupts
from the group during "Sparks", "Pinball Wizard" and "See Me Feel Me" approaches levels of nirvana not known on the comparatively tame studio record, campy '75 film or horrifyingly
conservative Broadway version. And "Tommy" isn't even the highlight of the show--when the group pull all their muscle
together for "Shakin' All Over", "My Generation" and "Magic Bus"
at the end, the energy released is beyond cathartic. Oh yes,
this new 'deluxe' reissue also contains an expanded booklet
with more photos, liners, etc. So, it took 31 years, but one of the greatest live shows ever is now available in its entirety.
Now that we have "Wight" and "Leeds", how about Woodstock?
(NOTE: although the CD says that "crackling noises have been corrected", one can still hear a little bit of crackle from the worn tapes during "Tommy", esp towards the end--otherwise, the remix is superb).
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Now I got the original compact disc version which included Amazing Journey/Sparks as the only song(s) from the Tommy set.. And truth is this was the best of the releases.. A few years later they re-released Live At Leeds as the deluxe version where disc one has the show without Tommy and disc two has the Tommy portion of the show.. I like Tommy. the live version being better than the studio album but ...  Here's the thing.. The deluxe version has the portions of the show split up.. and what that means is disc one as stated has the start of the show and runs through to the end of the show.. How the concert actually went was they played until A Quick One While He's Away, and then the Tommy opus was played in it's entirety and then the final bits from Summertime Blues.. In the case of the Isle of Wight it was a different set list but they left it as is and then split the Tommy part to preserve the running order.. Which is better??  Well to me the first disc that was released with the two songs from Tommy was the better continuous concert.. The deluxe version is a good one to have to have the entire show.. And the 40th anniversary release is good to have because it contains the Hull show which was considered to have been the better of the two.. I listened to the Hull concert and can't tell the difference..   But as the reviewer states the Tommy part of the show isn't the highlight, but the concert set is the best live album ever to be released.. 

Badge Henry