I haven’t posted much lately, partly because not much has been going on that would be interesting to write about, and partly because I’m probably going to shut the blog down and rethink it. I may not, also; I may work on something in the background and the “flip the switch” when the new project is ready. But it’ll probably change before long up in here. Read the rest of this entry »

I continue to notice little changes that I attribute to my meditation practice. Good ones. My current practice revolves around mindfulness, the attempt to just be aware of and notice thoughts as they happen. When you get into semantics, this is usually considered at least a notch or two down from concentration, where you intend to more absolutely control what goes on in your head. Mindfulness doesn’t attempt to do anything other than return the focus of the mind back to what’s going on in the present, right here, right now, and for a chronic overthinker for myself it’s a really liberating process. It’s a little weird - Zen masters like Nishijima and even Brad Warner have written anti-mindfulness rants, so there’s something about the notion that’s anti-Buddhist to some Buddhists. But my favorite guides to mindfulness are from different sects and it would be difficult to describe zazen without introducing some element of mindfulness, so your karma-mileage may vary. In any event, the word “mindful” has become loaded in a Zen context, and I’m just a guy trying some things out to see what works. Read the rest of this entry »

I decided to stop playing music round about Thanksgiving. Haven’t done a gig, rehearsal, jam session, or hardly touched an instrument since then. Regrets? Second thoughts? Refinements? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m lucky in so many ways to live in New Mexico. I mean, it’s not blind, dumb luck, it’s the kind of luck I sought out and it actually turned out to have been worth looking for. One very cool thing about New Mexico that not everyone knows about is Michael Reynolds, the innovative architect who creates Earthship communities up in Taos. If you don’t know about Earthships, he’s got a pretty comprehensive website on them. They’re handmade, self sustaining homes made out of recycled materials. They create their own electricity, cache their own water, and maintain an internal temperature in the 70s all year without any heating or cooling systems other than windows and walls. They’re wonderfully eccentric, with spires and walls with wine bottles in them that let in blue and green light and hand-molded bathtubs, and the south-facing windows are always lined with plants because they cleanse the air, the filter out UV rays, they and provide food, and their roots help cleanse the greywater. It’s a cool setup. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey - aren’t you That One Guy?

Anyway, hi. I have a few questions about stereo equipment and I realized you would be a good guy to ask. 

Here is my situation and my questions: 

I have a stereo system whose components I bought in 1998 for around $1000 total. The speakers are connected to the amplifier using standard speaker wire. My problem is that the wire is very finicky. Even if the wire moves a little bit, the speakers stop working. It’s hard to get behind the stereo to fiddle with the wire because my place is small and the stereo is wedged in a corner of the room. Read the rest of this entry »

I just read an article on ABC News’s website that described the great efforts the inaugural committee was putting into emulating what the 16th president served at his own, right down to the china patterns. It’s not the kind of article I usually come across, much less read, I’m all hung up on “real issues” and “substance” and stuff, but this one caught my eye for some reason. I won’t recap it, it’s concise and well written if anyone’s interested. 

What I thought was cool was that the inaugural staff has not only posted the menu itself, probably as expected, but also the recipes! I’m probably not going to make me any pheasant any time soon - you really ought to hunt your own if you’re going to eat pheasant, and I’m not going to hunt my own -  but I’m pretty tempted to scale down that seafood stew/puff pastry recipe my damn self. (The recipe calls for 6 Maine Lobster tails. I’m thinking of a quantity that is more in the zero-to-one lobster tail range.) My kid will probably make “that face” at me if I offer her some, she’s not big on seafood or creamy soups, but if it’s good enough for the leader of the free world (am I supposed to capitalize some of that?), it’s durned well good enough for my family. No matter. More for the grownups. Read the rest of this entry »

Niche-y content warning: if you don’t instantly recognize these software titles, you probably won’t be interested in this. If you don’t know, Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion allow people who use Macs to run Windows. That’s it. This is not meant to be a comprehensive review, real reviews are already out there, written by people who are far more thorough and qualified (and interested) than I am. It’s meant to be the visceral impressions of someone who has used one program intensively and has switched to using the other program intensively. Just one guy’s reaction. With a little unsolicited editorial opinion thrown in. Whee. Read the rest of this entry »

I know there are some friends and family who have been dragging their feet to get into video conferencing, not knowing what to get or how much to spend.

If you’ve been on the fence and want to test the water without gambling a lot of green, you should check out Sony Eyetoy for Playstation 2. Best Buy has them for $4.99 plus applicable local tax. (Order it online and choose “pick up at local store” if it’s available, you save shipping.) Read the rest of this entry »

Over Christmas, we watched 4 dogs for a friend. (And her parakeet.) I have 4 dogs already. That makes 8 dogs. That’s a whole lot of dogs. The Danish person and the little girl are sort of givens in this house, and they weren’t unusually difficult over the holidays. Probably. I had 4 extra dogs and a bird around here, so I might not have noticed anyway.

I was a little scared of it, but my house is big enough and we’ve got decent, walled-off space outside for them to play, and the neighbors on both sides have dogs that bark at least as much as ours, so as long as things were reasonably under control - which they were - it wasn’t going to generate any controversy. The 4 extra dogs were in pairs, 2 little mini-dogs (Bijou and Marley), sort of Wiener-dog mixes, and 2 maxi-dogs (Shush and Tiger) that were bigger than any that live with us, hovering around 100 pounds. Read the rest of this entry »

In no specific order.

If you’re going to have 8 dogs in your house, the more of them that are housebroken the better.

Batting .500 really isn’t good enough, and in this case, two out of three IS bad. Don’t ask. 

Read the rest of this entry »