File under thumb

Is it me or did Thanksgiving day jump up a week??  I could swear we still had another week before turkey day.. Wow.. ummm  anyway here we are just about knocking on the "real" holiday season (although I count Halloween as well) and just floored that it is almost here.. Anyway, the search continues for the streaming player, not sure which one I want as the confusion begins to become overwhelming.. I tend to research things until there can be no question THIS is the "IT"  device in all things, as mentioned in an earlier entry no doubt.. So what is the confusion?  I liken this search to the one I did for the right satellite service and I remember going to a Sears store and talking to their "expert" techie guy and asked him some question about the receiver and he told me they are alike from top to bottom, they get the same programming (wrong)  they install the same exact way pointing to the exact same location (wrong). And so now I kinda have the same reservations searching for the right streaming player, I feel like I have to know just about as much as the sales person.. I guess the one thing I am looking for is the player that will give the moneys worth (bang for the buck as they say) and through a reamped up effort I have emailed several sites hoping for that answer that will give me the green light for the player I am after..  Earlier in the summer (yadda  yadda  Sony  yadda  yadda)  (from an earlier entry or two, I won't bore you AGAIN)  but the Sony did look like the clear winner but everywhere I have looked nobody has this player, and then I find out it is discontinued, which could mean a few things of which being grateful that I didn't get one is one of them...  So what am I looking for??  Three separate players that get YouTube as a third draw although it is a main draw since I have an account there and have subscriptions to many   many sites.. The one question I can't get answered is how do these players get YouTube, is it a preset site that these go to, or can I go to my site.. That right now is the stumbling block to getting one of these "not a Roku" streaming players.. But a couple weeks ago I look at Roku just as a lark and damn but these are very attractive because of the immense amount that these can get to.. I'm not even sure my little brother knows about everything that Roku has right now  (600 sites)..  But is more better or even that important.. The Magnavox player that I am nearly set on, I contacted the QVC site and asked what all this gets and I think the person read the box or the page it was on and told me the seven that the page has.. seven.. SEVEN??  Netflix is the greatest draw, Youtube (if I can watch any videos that are on that site, no restrictions) is the second draw and HULU eventually if cable becomes too pricey..  But only seven was a slap in the face with Roku having  world in comparison.. So when I got that response it floored me.. While it does have those two that I want, how much more would I need and then I decided to check the RCA player, the NETGEAR players and see how they compare.. Netgear might be a close second with the Magnavox in first on name alone.. the Netgear players say they have hundreds of sites available but without talking to someone in the know, I won't make my mind up until I have all the information I need to know to make my mind up..  Welcome to my insanity..

Video project almost completed??  Can this be??  Last night I got two more videos completed and am now at the magic 16 level.. Sixteen videos of which ten will be on the blogger site (PNOP) but I was thinking maybe I will try to have the first entry be the weekend of Thanksgiving rather than wait until January for the first one.. I don't want to say this project is done even when it is because I had two ideas hit me yesterday (last night) that saw me want to complete them even though it saw me get to bed by midnight..  One of the ideas was so involved I figured it might take until now to get it completed.. It will take a few hours to complete, and I'm not sure how good it will be..   So why didn't the pink floyd project ever get off the ground??  When I started to acquire video material for this idea it became clear that all the floydian music ideas were taken, and that these videos I couldn't find a feeling that matched the music to the videos that I got in those sessions.. 

That secede situation:  Yeah I found that it has become sort of a movement.. They keep saying "but look at all the red on the map"  and I have said all along that the election comes down to a handful of states, the two guys focused on just a few states and not at all on the others and I have said all along that I wished I felt as charged as they must feel in these other states about the election.. Geez to have my vote courted the way they did for those three or four states, I'd wonder how it would feel to have someone want my vote that bad.. Well the people who want to form their own government should focus on the one that is already there.. try to reform the election somehow.. Or better yet pay more attention to the way things are going in Washington for the next four years and get out the vote, get someone who will work to make this country great again.. But what will happen is the bru ha ha will die down after Thanksgiving and everyone will assume everything is alright in Washington.. I say pay more attention, watch the real news channels (not FAUX NEWS CHANNEL) get on your elected official and make things work.. You want a better country, make it here..

Badge Henry

Bum fart

So, I did mention that I every now and then listen to this Alex Jones guy on the radio right??  Well I also have his Facebook page on my timeline thing and I watch to see what the next great conspiracy thing that he unleashes on the followers.. His true followers believe in EVERY thing he says.. Last year he was talking about how the black ops were mobilizing in different parts of the country and he would have people calling to tell of seeing these dark trucks and vans and semi-trucks and everything, WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?? they are getting ready to do some sort of crowd control.. Well out here in the sticks what it means is the air force is doing missile maintenance, or something in that realm and that is what it sounds like what they are doing there in other parts of the country..

Then this past Monday, he had a link on his Facebook  with this as the headline :

Obama Reelection Spurs Wave of States’ Petitions to Secede

I read the story, seems there are a few states that have signed petitions to leave the United States.. There are so many things wrong with that idea.. First, these are states that don't have much control over the election.. I would much rather see them petition to change the election process some how..  But here was a response to the letter from Justice Scalia:

  "I am afraid I cannot be of much help with your problem, principally because I cannot imagine that such a question could ever reach the Supreme Court. To begin with, the answer is clear. If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, “one Nation, indivisible.”) Secondly, I find it difficult to envision who the parties to this lawsuit might be. Is the State suing the United States for a declaratory judgment? But the United States cannot be sued without its consent, and it has not consented to this sort of suit."

 

 At which point there were many suggestions of what this justice really stands for.. Truth is seceding comes up regularly after some elections I'm sure.. What makes them think it would be as easy as just signing a piece of paper??  They think of the declaration that was signed by the forefathers way back when that act could get them killed and guess what, that could happen now.. Are they willing to back up signing this petition with a war???  Yea, well good luck with that.. 

 

Anyway the amount that this has generated as in news coverage is a gigantic goose egg.. Absolutely nothing that I have seen on any news and that includes (just to give an indicator here) FOX  news (or as I call them FAUX news as in fake or slanted news)  So if the most corrupt news channel hasn't jumped on this story yet, it can't be real beyond the internet/Alex Jones BS show.. That's my opinion such as it is.. 

 

On a lighter note, I found a couple of shows after looking for the past few months.. Prime Evil is back on after something like two years being off.. I looked for it or news about the series but never heard anything.. Now it is back.. That and Young Apprentice is back.. Last years was pretty cool to watch and that Cira  won and I really thought she might.. This years will hopefully be as good.. I think it was filmed either just before the Olympics or right after and yest it was in London.. The Young Apprentice as well as Apprentice BBC are both by the company that does Trumps show but they are way more better.. I think I've written about this somewhere else..   Both Prime Evil and Young Apprentice are on BBC proper which is to say they neither one are available here in America which is a bummer.. They are available through  other means, we'll just say that and hopefully I will still be able to see them through their conclusion.. I never want to get hooked on these shows like this because at any time i might not be able to get the shows anymore..

 

Badge Henry 

 

(P.S. shortly after I set the entry the story about the secession broke via Huffington post.. Something I never thought of was if these people sign the petition to secede then they will be asked to renounce their citizenship and will be exiled.. That sounds good to me, because like I said in four years if a republican gets elected will these states want to be brought back?  You gotta live with the fact that the way we elect leadership has it's flaws.. I didn't particularly like when GWB got anointed  to his first term as president... )

The frozen tundra

It's a dilemma only in my own mind or maybe not.. It has turned off cold these past two days, enough so that I have thought about increasing the temperature settings on the automatic thermostat by maybe two degrees.. Right now I have the daytime temp set at 74 degrees from about eight in the morning until ten at night when it is set to 60 degrees.. Mom has her complaint about it being too cold and I don't want her walking around the house bundled up as if she were going outside, but I think it might be fine.. She sees the thermometer by the kitchen window showing the temperature outside and inside and where the thermometer is at and it does show what the temperature is right by the window there, it really isn't that cold away from the window.. So yesterday she says she would normally take a shower, but it is so cold she will wait until today to shower with the hopes it warms up.. It is slightly warmer today and I agree it feels kinda chilly in the house but .. of course I'm comfortable in this climate, I was running around outside barefooted  even after he first snow.. I am so tempted to tell her to touch the up arrow on the thermostat and it will set the temp to what it shows but I want to wait until the first gas bill comes in to see if this thing has given her  a better controlled gas bill.. There is a setting on the thermostat that will increase the temperature manually and hold for four hours.. Would that be a good idea or should I reset the temperature two degrees warmer through the next two or three months..  Guess we'll see...

The video project currently being worked on; What is it I am striving for?? Well the videos I have acquired are quite the thing to see, almost all of them are computer generated, and some are just quite odd but... They are very interesting and as I am looking at the videos yesterday I'm having music added in my mind.. The original idea was to try for about twenty videos but there is a little (more than a little) fear of redundancy creeping into the production.. I don't want twenty of the same identical videos with twenty separate songs.. I tried that with a video this past summer, I put a video together and then placed three or four songs over the video and saw which felt more right. and in this case the original idea seems to be working almost every time, only once has the video been changed with the music.. Outreach was the first song in the video project and the video was changed to try to make a second video but the program crashed and I decided it wasn't worth trying to make a second video.. Then last night I added the whole of the last album to the music because I thought I needed it seeing that it is the album that got me started in this guys music..

Trying not to edit the music tracks at all if I can.. Todays first video was a different digital tunnel idea but none of the Jonn Serrie music fit the feeling of the video so I dipped into a TD song that I have used before.. With that in mind I figured this would be one for the "box set" and if the truth be told it isn't  favorite video, but rather just an idea that needed to be done..  How many "new" ideas are left?? well as I said there are at least a dozen videos that were acquired via youtube/bing on video searches (three sessions)  and there were screen savers, hypnosis videos and some other experimental videos as well..  Last night before I turned in I saw a video that was screaming for this idea but when I first started today I couldn't find the video.. Turns out it was just above where i was looking, and to the right a bit.. And so now  "And The Stars Go With You" will be done..  

Tabitha has placed more pictures of her girls on Facebook and I have added them to the future project that will have their pictures in it, not sure what the music will be right now , the song that popped  into my mind while looking at the pictures wasn't the song I had in mind at all but I might try the run through and see if the feeling matches the way I think it should..  She has a series of things she is thankful for and one was being thankful for me running the video camera a lot while her grand dad was alive and I wished I had gotten a lot more than I did, there was ample opportunity to get more video of him but I just didn't, I guess I thought he would live forever, and I would have more opportunities to get video of him..  We (me and mom) went out to the cemetery to place a flag in his flag holder thing, replace the one that was  out there and as we were leaving she said she thinks she misses him more now than ever and I told her I know, SO DO I..  Trust me there are things that I think he would have just gushed about.. Ian, and then the latest two additions to the family.. He would have just been in awe..  He was at his best when there were kids around because that was what dad was about..  And Bob is almost identical to what dad was like..

Badge Henry

T.W.L.

Didn't we just take the Christmas tree down like last week??   Is the clock out of control??   And now we will bring the tree back up from it's storage spot.. Trying to remember did we need another string of lights this year??   The one we had on there was so sparse, so many bulbs burned out.. I looked at the walmart and seriously thought about getting a string or two of the old C-9 (the big ones) bulb type and they have them as LED type which when you touch them at the base of the bulb they are cool to the touch, not that regular C-9 bulbs are really hot but they are fairly warm to the touch..  Are these LED type the way to go in the future??  Truth is I have several strings that are still working that we have had for the past three or four years so, I think they are the way to go.. I almost picked up a string of those this past week but then thought I'd wait and see.. Turns out four or five years ago I got a new string of the old C-9 bulb lights and they are still in the box.  As well I have replacement bulbs for the string that was outside on the short pine tree out there and I had it as a holiday tree throughout the year, full red for Valentines day, red white and blue for the summer holidays and orange for Halloween and brown for Thanksgiving..  Ok they don't have brown bulbs for Thanksgiving so they are switched from all orange to the holiday lot for Christmas..  (all green for St. Patty's day)...  So I have enough replacement bulbs for the three strings plus the new, in the box, never been used set.. That answered weather I needed a new string for myself.. However I am still not sure about the actual Christmas tree or not.. I like the old looking lights, the bigger lights although I like them from the old days from when I was little, I remember wishing we could have all the strings be the little twinkly lights when I was little..  Strange how I try to want to turn the clock back to then in that way..

I was looking at some pictures from a Christmas from way back when and we had the old cardboard fireplace up.. The thought of trying to build that after so many years of it not being up.. I can't even remember the last time it was up.. I don't think I was in high school, so it was a LONG ASS time ago..  We (I) did try the old train that mom had gotten for dad way back one year, I brought it up but I just wanted to look at it.. Then there was the old santa ski slope thing.. I tried to put in on the tree and had all sorts of trouble building it and having it work and I think the last time we tried it on the tree was the only time it was on the tree and then we put it on the floor because it needs to be on a fairly level surface.. And last year I did put it on the floor next to the tree but after a little while I took it down knowing there was a little boy that would want to play with it, and might be too rough with it.. It was the same reason we didn't put the train together, it really isn't a toy, and I would have hated to see him tear it up.. Maybe someday when he gets a little older he will understand how to take care of things..  I wouldn't want to see him tear it up not knowing that it was in fact his grandpas train.. I'd like him to understand who his grand dad was and what he was like and about. Without him being around it will be hard to do.. I knew both of my parents parents ( well their dads anyway), both my dad and moms mothers had passed away long before I was born and they both had remarried so my grandma on both sides were step, but I never knew until I got older that that was the case  (highschool or there abouts)... 

So here we are going kicking and screaming into the holiday season again.. Seems like it was just yesterday we had gotten through the bowl games of the new year and bitching about the BCS championship farce.. But to each his own.. Went through the Tebow IS GOD   to Manning will take us to the super bowl feeling this year, if he stays healthy..  And then crapsketball will soon be all there is, YUCK.. can you say yuck!!  No hockey which I never really started to watch again from the first strike that engulfed a whole season and this year could see no hockey... Gee that's just too bad.. Guess we'll have to watch the tiddly wink league.. I could get into that..


Badge Henry

HAVE A SPOT O TEA

I love to play Monopoly on the computer.. I remember playing one time on our way to Richfield Utah and being near to losing and  selling everything I had to try to get the properties that I knew would win the game, and sure enough I turned the corner and a while later I did win, but it was a struggle.. Why do I say this about playing this game?  I was thinking how similar the game of Monopoly is to real life.. When I play the game on the computer I have two "people" and let the computer have two or three, with two I have a true ally, MYSELF,  to help get things and play more fairly.. When I play the hand held version I figured out how to win.. The desk top computer version was a different story although very similar I found it hard to get things to go my way.. There is a specific formula to win Monopoly and I try to stick as close to it as possible.. The game follows the same path on the computer version but I always find that the one mistake that I make can haunt my later game stages.. The best thing to do is stay within your budget, where the computer player blows every dollar it has on houses/property..  I like to look at the board and if there is a particular menacing stretch of area to get through then I try to stay at least in the solvent area, enough money to pay the rents, at least until I get to payday or in this case GO..  What is the most interesting is knowing the very few things that help make playing in your favor.. one of the most important things is this.. The number of houses, and the fact that once the last of the houses are bought, there are no more.. And so I play the house shortage game, if you can't evenly build your property to hotels (one house at a time) then as many houses are available is as far as you can go.. Getting to the coveted hotel rent mark can't be reached without all the houses being built first, so even if you have the money to build, you can't just buy the hotels, bypassing the houses.. 

When I have myself in a game recently I tried to control every aspect of the game and could to a certain extent.. The trouble was trying to be fair was a hard thing to be. I had all the railroads, and the right properties to win the game easily, but what I was trying to do was play the game longer, extending it... It now reminds me of the financial situation the country is in.. The one thing about winning in Monopoly is once it is over and you force everyone out, YOU WIN   ..  But in the case of the real world you win by shitting on everyone.. Can our government fix things??   Good question.. Actually I think they could bet it will take the country failing a little first.. And a shitload of threats against he idiot republican/tea party...

Badge Henry

...on second thought

A change of philosophy as it pertains to the lawn care this winter.. Last Tuesday was the last time I will mow this year... maybe.. And I say maybe because the weather will totally determine if I mow again, likely I am done mowing.. The mower is folded up (as I do every year since getting the new mower and the shed to store it in), however it takes little effort to unfold it an go a mowing again.. What would make me mow again??  The grass would need to grow enough to need mowing, seems like an easy one there but there are reasons to NOT mow anymore.. The grass would need to be uniform in it's growth, not just here and there tall which I would expect it to grow that way, with some of it in more direct sun now more than anytime during the true growing season.. I have an uncle who might mow his lawn until just before Christmas and then not have to start mowing again until late January, or course he lives in a bit warmer climate..

Also there is the watering situation.. Last year (and every year prior to that) I stopped water completely shortly after my last mowing (end of October) and don't start watering until May (the old April showers bring May flowers saying being the reason not to water).. However last year, this past winter season in early March, I witnessed someone watering their lawn and all I could think was what a waste of water no matter how little or lot they did water.. But there again I have changed my thinking since we never really did get any rain enough this early spring, late spring, early summer or for that matter EVER.. So as long as the weather stays fairly mild I will water the lawn.. The biggest problem is watering the whole lawn takes six hours (12 minutes times each move every other day).. I water different since the last mowing going to a ten minute every move once a week..  As long as the weather stays relatively warm I will water this way once a week, but there is a problem, six hours a day to water the whole lawn is the majority of the daylight and of those hours it is the later three or four that are warm enough to water.. So I can water the front taking slightly more than an hour to water.. The back takes two days to water.. Two days of that nice of weather may not happen in the next three months.. Or maybe they will.. The weather has really changed in the past five years..


Yesterday I found something out, well found out a few weeks ago but tried it yesterday.. One of the video downloading programs I use to get videos from YouTube updated recently, and sometimes updates are for the better, and sometimes they aren't.. This update was for the.. better by a lot.. Here's why.. While I found out it will download from a few more sites, it was one that got my attention that made me think of things completely different.. I had been getting a few shows via torrent and that is good but also dangerous as hell.. Yesterday after getting more videos for the next music video project I thought I'd give it a try and see if it would download from a site it said  it would.. Went to HULU to see if it would get a show.. Turns out IT WILL..   How might this make me watch shows I want to but can't get around to it??   Not sure.. The idea of having a dvr or that service from dish network, where you can download a full night of shows from all four networks.. Sounds like a toy to have except for one thing, I can't find anything to watch.. There really isn't anything that interests me enough to even set my old vcr..

This Sundays music entry will be a tribute to my dad.. Trying to remember what he used to listen to, should be interesting to do..

The new music video project started yesterday and having so many video material to choose from is somewhat overwhelming.. The three sessions to acquire the video were interesting, with the third  being the most productive..  I'm learning more and more of how to do the videos and trying to time the change from one feeling in a song to another, and trying to have the visuals match the music ideas.. As I watch the videos and try to fit this with that I will more than likely end up with more videos than I will use on the entry and will either have two or more or just pull the best of the project and save the rest for the "box set"....

Badge Henry

Back to normal

Is it better to have a president be reelected or to try something new midstream??   During a recovery from one of the worst recessions we have ever had since the great depression  I can't say that we should be even better off now than we are, it would be nice if things were better.. Maybe they will get better over time.. All I know is that the amount of money that was spent on this election was astounding..  Way over the top, and it will be worse next time..  What I think made me disillusioned in the voting process enough back when I stopped voting was .. well several things I think.. One was the money they spent trying to court your vote (I wonder how much each vote that was cast cost)  and also the electoral college, it just seems hardly fair that a small hand full of states determines who our next president is.. It really makes you feel like your vote doesn't count..

Anyway I did vote.. Or I should say I think I did.. I haven't voted in a general election in ..  A while.. not this century anyway, and maybe not since Clinton was in.. Not sure how long it had been.. Anyway my name wasn't on the roll sheet there so I had to do a provisional ballot..  but as I was voting I had the recall of why I stopped voting..  I wish things were different for voting, but they aren't and won't ever be.. I'm not sure what would be better, the electoral college is so out dated but might be what keeps our elections from being completely corrupted..


Ten or more videos acquired via YouTube yesterday and I gotta tell you...  They are good and should make the project I'm starting on look better than I thought.. They are hypno videos.. But I am trying to look closely at the video portion for subliminal messages and can't see any.. Usually if there is messages you can sort of see them.. So it is the video that I want for these songs, and they will be clipped to use that way rather than run them to continue from start to finish.. I used one of the videos on a song already and while I watched it on dvd, and couldn't stop watching, I don't think it hypnotized me.. Hold on just a second...  

Sorry .. I'm back.. I had to go cluck like a chicken...  Just joking there.. But seriously, I listened to the music for the video project last night  got a good idea what songs I will be using.. Start to put the project together in the next few days/weeks for an entry in early January or   well in the first part of the new year..

Badge Henry

(P.S.  Just a little while ago mom asks to go to the cemetery to place a flag and I say yes.  She then says it would appear neither of the other two guys will be down today at all to which I said why would they be down.. And she said because of the eighth anniversary of dads death.. I told her that was yesterday.. She seemed poised for an argument but gave in.. I think she might have realized I was right but will find out when we go out.. I don't have to go out to the cemetery, I have a picture (several in fact) of the headstone.. I wasn't sure the year, but it was eight years ago because I remember it was a few days after GWB getting reelected so do the math and it would beeee  uummm     duhh  ...  Well I give up on that one but you know.. )