Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

I may have talked about this topic already in my LJ, but I can't find the original post.

I think my first exposure to keyboard-played bass lines was in 1974. The tune was Gino Vannelli's "People Gotta Move". It just had this incredibly groovy funky sound to it. Soon I was hearing synth bass in other songs -- Stevie Wonder's "Living For The City", Gary Wright's "Dream Weaver", and so on.

I think I have the right-hand chops to play synth bass lines on the Minimoog or any other keyboard. I just need an opportunity to do so.

(I need a better computer icon. This one is supposed to denote complexity.)

Some time ago, a few of you were discussing the technique of putting a dead hard drive in the freezer in order to revive it temporarily -- long enough to get all the data off it. How's it done? I remember double-bagging the drive so that it doesn't get any water inside it.

A few months ago, a good friend gave me an external Iomega hard drive unit that failed. Inside was a Seagate 1.5 Tb disk. I plugged it in and I couldn't read anything from the drive. Not even my GetDataBack program could do anything with it. So now I'm considering the freezer trick.

In the last couple months, two hamburger places -- Five Guys and Smashburger -- opened near me. I've since visited both. I would have to say that Smashburger has the edge for me. I like their Smashfries, seasoned with rosemary and olive oil. And I can select my cheese (I prefer Pepper Jack).

Some folks I know aren't crazy about the name. It comes from how they cook their burgers -- they smash 'em on the grill.

I don't think I'll go back to McDonald's, unless I'm with my daughter.

What are your favorite burger places?

This past month, I've used Ubuntu Linux almost exclusively. There have only been a few times where I've needed to use Windows or Windows-based apps. One was to download some videos from YouTube.* Another was to rip a CD.

One major disadvantage of Ubuntu Linux is that I've found is that many laptop modems don't work with it. That's because many PCMCIA modems are really winmodems, using the OS to perform some of the functions that a normal modem would use. This would impair my ability to use a Linux laptop or PC in places where I don't have a network available, such as my mother's house.

Other than that, I intend to keep using Ubuntu Linux whenever and wherever I can.

*I know I can download videos using youtube-dl. But it doesn't give the .flv file a nice name. I've been looking for PyTube but the website that it's supposedly on is no longer available. [Updated 22:15] I found a copy of PyTube at http://www.marcosrodriguez.me/pytube/.

Last night, I went to a friend's New Year's Eve party. I left at around 1:30am and got home soon after that.

Woke up at 11am. I pretty much stayed in my sweats and wool socks all day as I watched the Tournament of Roses Parade, the NHL Winter Classic, the Rose Bowl (OSU Bucks won), and the Gator Bowl (UC Bearcats lost). In the meantime, I made some bread in the bread maker and cooked a batch of chili for dinner. And I cuddled with the cats.

Is this how I intend to spend all of 2010? Probably not. But it was nice to have been a lazy slug for a day.

We got about 2 inches (5 cm) of snow in Dayton yesterday and this morning. Yet I'm acting as if we got two feet (60 cm) of snow. I'm staying inside, not going out very much, and getting stuff done at home. Last night, I made a trip to Kroger to get some groceries after dropping off my daughter with her mom. Today I made another trip to Kroger to get a few more groceries -- items that weren't on my list last night.

There's really not a lot of shopping I want to do now. Money's a bit tight right now, and I need to concentrate on getting what I *need* and not what I *want*. I have food at home, and I should work on eating that instead of going out for lunches and dinners.

Somewhere I have it in my head that I'm snowed in, like I was during the Blizzards of '77 and '85. I don't know why. Maybe I just feel like staying at home and tackling the things that need to get done, instead of avoiding them by going out. Believe me, there's plenty of things that can be done. Having things to do at home is my hedge against getting cabin fever.

In the meantime, I brought out the bread maker and made two loaves of bread. I also made chicken pot pie casserole, varying a recipe I obtained from a cookbook. And I cleaned up -- and cleaned out -- the kitchen.

While perusing music and videos for the Alan Parsons Project on YouTube, I found out that former Project collaborator Eric Woolfson passed away from cancer on December 2 of this year. I don't think it's been mentioned here on mine or anyone else's LJ.

Now is a good time for me to add his musical works to my wish list -- Freudiana (oh please re-release this!), Gaudi (the musical), Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination, The Alan Parsons Project That Never Was, and so on. I should be able to get most of these via the ericwoolfsonmusic.com website.

Rest in peace, Eric. You and your musical talent will be missed.

Yesterday (Monday) was the Winter Solstice. For me, this holiday has more meaning than the crass commercialism that Christmas has become. It's the return of the Light. For someone like me who has Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), this is important.

So how did I spend it? Sleeping in until 11. Going food shopping. Had Skyline Chili for lunch. Made a chicken pot pie-like casserole for dinner. Thought about lighting a candle, but thought the cats would knock it over. Watched a little Monday Night Football. Then went to bed early.

Hapiness is when one of my cats -- usually Marcus -- wants to snuggle with me. My cats give me joy. (Unless, of course, it's Mercury licking my face at 3:30am and waking me up.)

.....get along like oil and water.

Spent the evening trying to configure modems on 2 laptops running Ubuntu. One is a Dell Latitude CPxJ running Hardy (8.04) and a PCMCIA modem. The other is a Compaq Presario M2000 running Karmic (9.10) and a built-in modem. I think both of these are actually winmodems, which means the modem builders cheated and used part of the Windows OS to get these modems working.

I have an external modem that will work on the Dell. Haven't tried it on the Compaq yet. If it doesn't have a serial port, it's a moot point.

Bottom line: Drat. Was hoping to get the modems working. This would be one less reason for me to keep Windows. All mom has at home is plain old telephone service (aka dial-up).

I started getting into music when I was young. When I was 5, my parents got me a three-octave, 12-button-chord Organaire organ for Christmas. They thought it was a good way for me to develop my eye-hand coordination, which at the time was pretty horrible. They soon upgraded the organ to a Thomas Californian 261 organ. I guess they liked the young man who played organ at the mall so much that they wanted me to be like him. Ugh.

In 4th grade, at the urging of my parents, I started clarinet lessons. In junior high, I transitioned from clarinet to alto clarinet to bass clarinet. I played bass clarinet in my high school marching band, wind ensemble, and pit orchestra for the school musicals. When I started college, I put the clarinet in the closet. (The bass clarinet belonged to the school district, so it stayed behind.) I didn't even play in the pep band. After I graduated from college, I met some filkers -- science fiction fans who were musicians. And so I started hanging with that crowd. I also dug out the clarinet I had stashed away years before.

( I liked playing again. )