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THIS BLOG IS RATED WWW-MA.

Update 2020-12-16: (True sticky posts banned; click to read.) So, owing to the evolution of the internet, or at least my own approach to it,...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Dreams from Chicago

The lecture hall had been terminally conquered by severly disturbed, numerous, and narcissistic vandals. All over every wall, every step, every table side, there were repulsive, creepy photographs of strange people.....alien life forms, as far as I was concerned. How about the floor? Could there be a safe escape route down there somewhere? I was about halfway down when I was suddenly greeted by a bright, black, shiny diamond in a cave of coal. She was beautiful—an adorable little nose and the most perfect pair of eyes, eyes that screamed sanity and reason. We greeted each other with open paws, and she raised a paw and cast aside the scary apparitions.

Crowded tables. What the hell were all those kids doing at a meeting like this? I bid a not unkind farewell to my mother's coworker, hopped in the old red car that died two years ago, and plopped onto my bed, which was resplendent in its big blue blanket and adjacent to the old bookshelf which featured books with curiously colored spines.....books that, oddly enough, I don't remember either buying or inheriting.

Wait a minute.....I thought I was in Chicago. What am I doing back in my bed already? Is Spring Break over? I haven't even seen Lily, gone to Margie's Candies, or gotten the new Pretty Things "Phillipe Debarge" CD. Okay, I know time flies, but not at the speed of Zeppelin. I'm bloody well in Chicago, and I'm going to get that CD.

I could feel myself slipping on something. It felt like my bed.........well, it felt like a bed. Maybe I was slipping through a wormhole back to my hometown. Any moment now, I should see the morning light shining through the little window with the brown curtains around it.

Ah, much better. Morning light......the sound of someone showering.....that's more like it. Come to think of it, it sounds and looks like both of the showers are running. I thought there were only two of us. Is someone downstairs? I hear noises that suggest it. Is something happening here? Am I missing something?

No. Nothing is happening. I know this because the morning light is once again shining through the little window with the brown curtains around it. Only this time, it is real. Or at least as close to real as anything else I could perceive. The sounds of water had subsided, and now the only sound that remained was a faint thing that sounded like a cross between a child learning to speak and......and......someone.......singing. You know who that is......


Monday, March 23, 2009

I guess they're called "soap operas" because they make me want to take a shower.....

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Feeling Better When I'm Feeling No Pain

Okay, so there is still some decent ice cream in town. What I think it is is a series of stores masquerading as independent entities but still obviously (by looking at the flavors) one company. Nevertheless, that "Birthday Cake" flavor really hit the spot for me yesterday afternoon. And the chocolate with brownie bits in it, whatever that one was called, was pretty good too. Not exactly my beloved Chocolate Fudge, but I doubt there will ever again be anything quite like that one.........

.......Anyway, I saw Gordon Lightfoot in concert last night. He had four guys accompany him on lead guitar, bass, percussion and keyboard. He seemed to be fairly comfortable, tossing in just a little bit of casual talk with the audience between songs. And, of course, the songs themselves were nice and varied, a mixture of old and new, soft and relatively upbeat, and a couple "back-to-nature" songs. On the whole, a fine show, with some quite beautiful sounds on some of the songs, and a few songs I hadn't heard in a looooooong time.......you know that feeling you get when you hear a song you haven't heard in years? Such a great feeling, isn't it?

Yeah, I gotta listen to those records that are on my shelf........

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Progress! (Part One)

(Yeah, I retitled this one.......)

Simple billboards are being replaced by expensive electronic things that change the displayed image every few seconds so that, I'm guessing, the average American doesn't have enough time to process any given image.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Just Some Ordinary Blog Stuff

Some time ago, for about four years, I worked at a stand-alone Baskin & Robbins. They always had the widest variety of distinct, quality flavors, and making an ice cream cake without the cake (called a "fudge nut," even if the nuts were replaced by sprinkles) was NOT a big deal; we had it done the next day, usually without fail. In fact, some of them were ready-made and proudly displayed in the cake freezer.

Of course, that stand-alone Baskin & Robbins is now as ancient history as Caesar or Napoleon. As is the other stand-alone Baskin & Robbins that once graced the east side of town.

The two B&Rs left in this town are both sort of halves of Siamese twins, the other halves of which are Dunkin' Donuts stores. Having worked at a B&R for four years, I know full well how things are supposed to work there.

I went to one of the B&Rs today; it was like entering the Twilight Zone. I asked for a fudge nut cake, and they asked me what it was. I explained, quite clearly, I thought, what it was and how to make it. Just use the cutter, shear off two notches' worth of a Mint Chocolate Chip tub (that's my father's preferred flavor; it's his birthday on Thursday), put it on a round white cardboard thing, remove the bit of tub that surrounds the ice cream, smooth some fudge on top with a thick swirl near the edges, sprinkle some sprinkles (or nuts) on the sides and the thick swirl, write a message on top in your favorite color (red always looks nice) with the proper frosting, and put the whole thing in a 9" box. That's all there is to it.

They refused to make it.

I didn't bother to count the small number of flavors that they had there; it would have hurt too much. It's a lovely day today, and I can really do without such pain. Back at the one where and when I worked, we had a maximum of forty-seven flavors, and, with the possible exception of the occasional "sugar free" flavor (and that "chocolate ribbon" thing, which, thankfully, didn't last), they were real, intense flavors that you could taste and savor. Most of the flavors that remain now are the most boring things imaginable, and I can't help but wonder if any of the seasonal flavors still exist. Love Potion #31, Egg Nog, Pumpkin Pie......those were frickin' awesome flavors. And, of course, my beloved Chocolate Fudge.......rich, dark, gooey.......the way chocolate should be. It's not really any of the "seasons" right now, so I can't tell right away, but my beloved Chocolate Fudge, a year-round flavor where I worked, seems to be totally extinct in my town now. Last time I saw Chocolate Fudge was when I took a drive out to Springfield....was it, two years ago now? I don't remember.......but somewhere on MacArthur Boulevard in Springfield, a little ways north of Penny Lane (the main, and perhaps only, reason anyone would want to go to Springfield*), a stand-alone Baskin & Robbins remains. Hopefully.

I don't know just how interesting this is to anyone, but I could go on and on and on about ice cream........

Anyway, I have a ticket to see Gordon Lightfoot in concert tomorrow.

Peace...........


*The Lincoln Museum is okay, but that and Penny Lane aside, Springfield seems very much a wasteland, with empty parking lots and chain stores, and very few signs of life. And since I just discovered while creating this post that Penny Lane does indeed do business online, you can just take advantage of that and not waste time driving through an endless lack of scenery to a largely empty ghost town.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Poem (not a very imaginative title, I know; I'll come up with something)

Beautiful flower
So smooth and red
It holds my eye hostage
And plays with my head
Yet were I to touch it
I'd probably crush it
Beautiful flower........

Friday, March 6, 2009

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Me Dealing With People

I was hungry.......

.....Yeah, classic humor right there, right?.......

.....so, for the first time ever, I decided to try ordering delivery over the internet. Luckily, the particular place I was ordering from gave me the option to pay with cash, since I don't have a credit card......but that's beside the point. I was at work, and, apparently, I needed something else to have enough of a charge to have it delivered, so I offered, and one co-worker went ahead and added her order of choice to the bill.

Again, I don't have much experience with this sort of thing.

When the guy arrived, the two of us discussed our respective parts of the payment. She mentioned tip.......an ancient custom about which I had totally forgotten. I said something along the lines of "Oh.....yeah. Sorry.....I'm still getting used to this modern world." The guy's response to this was "What, were you born yesterday?"

"Basically, yes," I instinctively responded. I have my own ideas of spirituality and who-knows-what, into which I won't go here. Anyway, before he left, I told him, "It's all right; you don't know me."

I think, perhaps, it is much to his pleasure that I'm not ordering from them again anytime soon.

Monday, March 2, 2009

IGNORE THIS POST (This isn't the answer either...)

A while ago, I posted this question on here, and, naturally, got no response....well, no matter....I have a theory.....

When I leave the house, I leave the computer logged on under someone else's name. When I get to work, I log on as me and just kick off the other "user". The audio has worked every time so far since I started doing that.

Of course, I usually fail to do consecutive Remote Desktop sessions; I just do one at work and then come back home. But I may try, perhaps the next time I head into the city, to enable a remote connection for another user on this computer and then just keep kicking the other user or myself off as necessary.

Again, this is just a theory. I still fail to understand the logic of audio not always working the way it ought to via Remote Desktop. But I feel it's worth a shot.

Best of luck to anyone who has had this problem and might somehow stumble upon this obscure blog.....
Are there any text books that have original thoughts these days? I see all these footnotes, references, etc.......I get the feeling that, over time, the whole thing becomes like a game of "Telephone," where each person slightly changes the thoughts of their sources, until the most modern sources have totally garbled and unreliable information.

I work as a "text converter" (i.e. converting textbooks to electronic formats that people with certain disabilities can read/listen to), so I see quite a lot of textbooks........and who knows how many footnotes and references........