A crazy language

I don't think I've included a forwarded joke verbatim before, but this one is worth posting. I'm sure there are lots more content on this fascinating topic, thanks to Mr. Manitoba for forwarding this one.

Alrighttty now You Think English is Easy???

Can you read these right the first time?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"

________________

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this.

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ? At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?

We call UP our friends. And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car . At other times the little word has real special meaning. People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses. To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP . We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP ! To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost a quarter of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP , you may wind UP with a hundred or more. When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP. When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so......... Time to shut UP .!

Oh...one more thing:

What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night? U-P

A public apology on behalf of all loudmouths

Although I haven't specifically been called a loudmouth, I think I occasionally inhibit the charms of such. My specific style also seems to have a annoying element of selfishness to the point of being oblivious to the contributions and comments on others.

I apologize.

Unfortunately, alcohol appears to be a catalyst for this behaviour (like it is for many unpleasant characteristics). So the evening social is a perfect setting to view the loudmouth at his best.

To give you a Being-John-Malkovich-like perspective, from the mind of the loudmouth, it appears the conversation is just ripping along, everyone is laughing and enjoying themselves and you just happen to be the centre of attention. Well, there's the rub, you shouldn't be (at least not for more than your fair share). Everyone should enjoy being the centre of attention at some point in a social evening.

Unlike this blog, which seems to an acceptable forum for a loudmouth, being one amongst valued friends and family is unacceptable.

In the fine words of Del Griffith "The last thing I want to be remembered as is an annoying blabbermouth... You know, nothing grinds my gears worse than some chowderhead that doesn't know when to keep his big trap shut... If you catch me running off with my mouth, just give me a poke on the chubbs...".

Making the most of digital music

O recently asked me for advice regarding digital music. I provided some comments (actually in person) but since then there's been a few other occasions that suggest I should write some of this stuff down.

Finding music

Read this blog. Well that's an ok start if you like the same music I do, otherwise here are a few ideas:

• Hardcopy. Music mags, local entertainment weeklys, etc. My fave is Q Magazine.
• Your local record store. Most have sample stations these days and a great way to hear stuff on the way home from the subway. Most will let you listen to a CD if you're still unsure.
• Full content streaming audio. 2 flavours - online radio stations (my fave is Virgin Radio) and streaming music sites like Pandora. I just found (via a tip from the Post) a new one of this type called finetune that I've been spending too much time on today. Check out pjmixer on filetune to listen to an extended collection of my best of 2006. This may now be the best way for me to share music with friends and family.
  
• Radio and satellite radio. Make note of those tracks that you hear on local radio rotation every 60 minutes (if you can stomach the advertising) or tune you cable box or satellite radio receiver to one of hundreds of finely tuned stations.
• Online sample sites. This is your last stop before your online or full reality CD purchase. Most music download sites offer 30 seconds of high quality sample of any track you can buy (if 30 secs is enough of a sample for you) or some offer lower quality full samples. Some online music sites like Q also offer samples.
  

Format and quality

There are a plethora of formats to make your digital life confusing these days, incl. music. I prefer to keep it simple with mpeg (MP3). AAC and WMA are the others you bump into and are typically associated with specific vendors, AAC with Apple/iPod and WMA with Microsoft/Windows Media Player. MP3s will play on all personal players and on home/car systems when burned (copied from the computer) on CDs. More info for geeks. Once you pick a format, then choose the quality that fits your listening style. I choose to rip (copy music from CD to the computer) and download at 192 kbps. Some say 128 kbps is CD quality but I disagree. Test the quality differences out yourself wherever you listen to music. Note that the higher the quality the bigger the file, the slower the download, rip and burn. Interestingly ACC offers better quality at smaller file sizes (better compression I imagine) and some download sites vary the cost with the quality you choose.

Buying music

I've covered this topic on quite a few controversial blog posts already, so I don't think I need to say much more. Usual suspects are: iTunes (although there continue to be problems with the proprietary nature of their downloads); Napster and Puretracks (in Canada). However most put DRM in effect and limit your sharing and copying. As one cynical person said, it's like buying a CD and about a year later they come into your home and take the CD back. No big secret that I buy my music online from the controversial Russian site allofmp3.com (which has no such limits and is much cheaper that other big players, although it's tagging is a little weak), and honestly, I don't feel too guilty about it. I go and see a lot of concerts, I buy music DVDs blah blah blah...

Organizing your collection

This is easy for some people, but very difficult for me. A few things I do in keeping my music organized:

• When ripping your favourite older albums to your computer, I only pick the tracks I've come to loved over repeat listening - say 5 or 6 tracks. If you always skip track 11 on that Flock of Seagulls classic, then why rip it and have it pop again when you're least expecting it.
• Make sure track, album and artist are correctly tagged.
  
• Choose a limited set of genres that make sense to you. For instance, I am way too heavily weighted on Rock/Pop. Note that genre tagging on the file does carry between players.
• Rate your music so you can create best ofs easily and remember which tracks you like more than others when tackling more obscure named album tracks.
• Add one more categorization - upbeat and mellow. You may need to dig a little deeper into the player to find out where to do this, e.g. I use Grouping within iTunes.
• Start creating playlists, then begin to combine them for more intelligent mixing - this could itself turn into a whole other subject in efficient and effective playlist management.
  

A few years ago I was using Musicmatch but I moved to iTunes when I got an iPod. Both are very good players with their own pros and cons. If you're a iPod user, then iTunes it is.

[finishing this up on day 2 - taking a little longer than planned to get thru this one, and I'm still probaly going to miss some crucial element - drat !]

Playing digital music

There are many possibilities these days on how, where and when to play and listen to digital music from iPod equipped family cars to mobile phones to the comfort of your very own living room couch.

One simple, and key piece of connectivity gear that is a must-have is a micro-RCA cable. On the micro jack end it plugs into the headphone thingie on all digital music players (incl. a computer itself) and on the other it has stereo white/red RCA jacks to plug into your your existing home hi-fi system. Note that you don't necessarily need all those special cradles and base stations to have digital music playing through your hi-fi.

The variables of home design, budget, equipment, technical savvy will come into play when trying to optimize your own digital music listening system. My solution at home is quite simple and reasonably effective:

My home computer with about 3,000 tracks of digital music is located at the back of the house on the main floor. The living room with my hi-fi system is in the front of the house on the main floor. I have a second pair of hi-fi speakers mounted high on the back wall of the kitchen connected to my hi-fi with speaker cables partially hidden under the floor when the basement was renovated. I have a long (20' perhaps) micro-RCA cable connected to the sound card jack on the back of the computer to my hi-fi. One trick here is I have a "y" connector between the cable and the computer so you can simultaneously hear the computer speakers and the hi-fi. Note that this isn't usually possible if you just use the front headphone jack on the computer. I use iTunes to manage the music and Suze uses Musicmatch to create playlists against the same source music.

Problems: Windows alarms, email notifications etc will be heard on your hi-fi. And if the kids want to play a computer game, you're out of luck. This is where you may also need a more portable back-up plan. Burn come MP3 CDs from your computer on a regular basis and play them directly on your newer model DVD or CD player (most newer model portable CD even play MP3 CDs) connected to your hi-fi. Or synch your portable music player and connect that using the same cable or a handy second one directly to the hi-fi.

Next move for me is adding a third pair of speakers for the deck at the back of the house this spring. The neighbours will love it ! However, complexity comes when adding a third pair of speakers to a standard hi-fi receiver. Extra box probably involved to handle the connections and potential circuit overload.

My home theatre is a completely separate system in the basement that has no connectivity to the computer but does include a DVD player that can play MP3 CDs. It's currently pining for a sexy HD TV.

Making the most of digital music

O recently asked me for advice regarding digital music. I provided some comments (actually in person) but since then there's been a few other occasions that suggest I should write some of this stuff down.

Finding music

Read this blog. Well that's an ok start if you like the same music I do, otherwise here are a few ideas:

• Hardcopy. Music mags, local entertainment weeklys, etc. My fave is Q Magazine.
• Your local record store. Most have sample stations these days and a great way to hear stuff on the way home from the subway. Most will let you listen to a CD if you're still unsure.
• Full content streaming audio. 2 flavours - online radio stations (my fave is Virgin Radio) and streaming music sites like Pandora. I just found (via a tip from the Post) a new one of this type called finetune that I've been spending too much time on today. Check out pjmixer on filetune to listen to an extended collection of my best of 2006. This may now be the best way for me to share music with friends and family.
  
• Radio and satellite radio. Make note of those tracks that you hear on local radio rotation every 60 minutes (if you can stomach the advertising) or tune you cable box or satellite radio receiver to one of hundreds of finely tuned stations.
• Online sample sites. This is your last stop before your online or full reality CD purchase. Most music download sites offer 30 seconds of high quality sample of any track you can buy (if 30 secs is enough of a sample for you) or some offer lower quality full samples. Some online music sites like Q also offer samples.
  

Format and quality

There are a plethora of formats to make your digital life confusing these days, incl. music. I prefer to keep it simple with mpeg (MP3). AAC and WMA are the others you bump into and are typically associated with specific vendors, AAC with Apple/iPod and WMA with Microsoft/Windows Media Player. MP3s will play on all personal players and on home/car systems when burned (copied from the computer) on CDs. More info for geeks. Once you pick a format, then choose the quality that fits your listening style. I choose to rip (copy music from CD to the computer) and download at 192 kbps. Some say 128 kbps is CD quality but I disagree. Test the quality differences out yourself wherever you listen to music. Note that the higher the quality the bigger the file, the slower the download, rip and burn. Interestingly ACC offers better quality at smaller file sizes (better compression I imagine) and some download sites vary the cost with the quality you choose.

Buying music

I've covered this topic on quite a few controversial blog posts already, so I don't think I need to say much more. Usual suspects are: iTunes (although there continue to be problems with the proprietary nature of their downloads); Napster and Puretracks (in Canada). However most put DRM in effect and limit your sharing and copying. As one cynical person said, it's like buying a CD and about a year later they come into your home and take the CD back. No big secret that I buy my music online from the controversial Russian site allofmp3.com (which has no such limits and is much cheaper that other big players, although it's tagging is a little weak), and honestly, I don't feel too guilty about it. I go and see a lot of concerts, I buy music DVDs blah blah blah...

Organizing your collection

This is easy for some people, but very difficult for me. A few things I do in keeping my music organized:

• When ripping your favourite older albums to your computer, I only pick the tracks I've come to loved over repeat listening - say 5 or 6 tracks. If you always skip track 11 on that Flock of Seagulls classic, then why rip it and have it pop again when you're least expecting it.
• Make sure track, album and artist are correctly tagged.
  
• Choose a limited set of genres that make sense to you. For instance, I am way too heavily weighted on Rock/Pop. Note that genre tagging on the file does carry between players.
• Rate your music so you can create best ofs easily and remember which tracks you like more than others when tackling more obscure named album tracks.
• Add one more categorization - upbeat and mellow. You may need to dig a little deeper into the player to find out where to do this, e.g. I use Grouping within iTunes.
• Start creating playlists, then begin to combine them for more intelligent mixing - this could itself turn into a whole other subject in efficient and effective playlist management.
  

A few years ago I was using Musicmatch but I moved to iTunes when I got an iPod. Both are very good players with their own pros and cons. If you're a iPod user, then iTunes it is.

[finishing this up on day 2 - taking a little longer than planned to get thru this one, and I'm still probaly going to miss some crucial element - drat !]

Playing digital music

There are many possibilities these days on how, where and when to play and listen to digital music from iPod equipped family cars to mobile phones to the comfort of your very own living room couch.

One simple, and key piece of connectivity gear that is a must-have is a micro-RCA cable. On the micro jack end it plugs into the headphone thingie on all digital music players (incl. a computer itself) and on the other it has stereo white/red RCA jacks to plug into your your existing home hi-fi system. Note that you don't necessarily need all those special cradles and base stations to have digital music playing through your hi-fi.

The variables of home design, budget, equipment, technical savvy will come into play when trying to optimize your own digital music listening system. My solution at home is quite simple and reasonably effective:

My home computer with about 3,000 tracks of digital music is located at the back of the house on the main floor. The living room with my hi-fi system is in the front of the house on the main floor. I have a second pair of hi-fi speakers mounted high on the back wall of the kitchen connected to my hi-fi with speaker cables partially hidden under the floor when the basement was renovated. I have a long (20' perhaps) micro-RCA cable connected to the sound card jack on the back of the computer to my hi-fi. One trick here is I have a "y" connector between the cable and the computer so you can simultaneously hear the computer speakers and the hi-fi. Note that this isn't usually possible if you just use the front headphone jack on the computer. I use iTunes to manage the music and Suze uses Musicmatch to create playlists against the same source music.

Problems: Windows alarms, email notifications etc will be heard on your hi-fi. And if the kids want to play a computer game, you're out of luck. This is where you may also need a more portable back-up plan. Burn come MP3 CDs from your computer on a regular basis and play them directly on your newer model DVD or CD player (most newer model portable CD even play MP3 CDs) connected to your hi-fi. Or synch your portable music player and connect that using the same cable or a handy second one directly to the hi-fi.

Next move for me is adding a third pair of speakers for the deck at the back of the house this spring. The neighbours will love it ! However, complexity comes when adding a third pair of speakers to a standard hi-fi receiver. Extra box probably involved to handle the connections and potential circuit overload.

My home theatre is a completely separate system in the basement that has no connectivity to the computer but does include a DVD player that can play MP3 CDs. It's currently pining for a sexy HD TV.

What's real anymore ?

That's probably too big a title topic to cover thoroughly right now, but as before maybe this is just post #1 of something I'll keep coming back to !

A recent article whose bi-line was Ads posing as blogs creating generation of skeptics caught my attention on the weekend. It talks about companies posting content to sites like YouTube in a stealth marketing move. This is just one of the latest examples that threatens to erode the integrity of the entire internet (if there every was any in the first place). How long will it be before people just don't believe anything they read on the internet ? Could it be possible that a marketing villain could even bias even well known facts by bombarding sites like Wikipedia with marketed infused falsehoods ?

My Dad's spidey sense kicked in when he first began to surf the net - "how do I know that the information I'm reading is true ?". I don't think I ever gave a thorough answer, but relied on "you learn to trust certain sites, e.g. The New York Times". However, with the amount of reader and viewer created collaborative content these days, even traditional respected sources must fear some degradation of their online integrity.

YouTube combined with powerful photo, audio and movie editing tools of today can easily create this same problem with images and sound.

There is talk about technology playing a role in fighting this problem and I think it may be possible. I work for Entrust who happens to be the first company selling Extended Validation Certificates for internet sites. In layman's terms, how you learn to trust e-commerce web sites will change over the next 12 months as smart online users will look beyond the simple lock and look for indicators of higher levels of trust validation, e.g. your address bar turning green in IE7. It mention this because I don't think it's much of a stretch to think of root anchors of trust (the BBC perhaps in combination with Entrust) providing some validation on the integrity of online content. Make sure I can credit for this idea if one of your geeks runs with this ! See our company web site for more info on EV Certs.

Do you trust my content ?

Check point - 100 posts

I just saw that my last post was number 100. Got at least one new post in the hopper for tonight while watching the Grammys. Currently watching the pre-red-carpet show and liking a few snippets from recent PJMixer faves Ok-Go, Gnarls Barkley and yes, Christina Aguilera. Interesting segment on big TV shows fueling the music scene, incl. K.T from Grey's Anatomy.

More posts on (now blogger categorized*) music, movies, society, controversial corner pockets and more.

*Should I go back and index the older posts ?

One thing that bugs me...

...people who are in the way, more precisely, people who are in my way.


It's like some people are still little kids, completely oblivious to their surroundings. You know, when you son is goofing around, walking backward showing off to his little sister, and is alerted at the last minute to the fact that he's about to plow into into a bunch of old ladies coming the other way !

The blockers typically fall within the following demographic categories:

• Teenagers. Caught up in their own mini ecosystems of he said / she said.
  
• College students. Nothing is more important that solving world peace and having a cigarette directly in front of the main entrance to your office.
  
• Visitors. See that map over there on the wall ? Give it a try.
• Shoppers. Don't these people know that there are people actually trying to get somewhere not just exercising their ICollectMoreMilesThanYou Visa card?
• Old people. God bless 'em, they're just slow.

And then there's the blocking technique or positioning:

• You're on your way to a meeting cutting through the department store and you come up behind the 5 person wide trolling shoppers. Hit the breaks before you step on their trailing scarves.
• You excuse me / excuse me past chatty teenagers on the escalator only to me met at the top by a gaggle of visitors who haven't got a clue which way they are going. Watch out the bodies are starting to pile up !
• You're rushing out of the subway station, spinning through the exit turnstiles and immediately blocked by the after-school-stand-in-circle-crowd discussing how unfair Jenny Petriedish's biology test was.

Here are the rules:

• In North America, like driving, walkways follow the stay-on-the-right rule.
• When on the escalator, stand on the right, walk on the left.
• When traveling along a walkway, do not just stop. Perhaps take a glance around and slowly make your way to the side of the walkway to evaluate your next move, check your map or to kiss cute Johnny Pencilcase from Math class.
• Heads up please when you're walking and talking on your mobile phone or texting on your Blackberry (I must admit I'm a little guilty here - see funny from Rick Mercer).
• Please put the tunnel-vision parka hoods down when you're inside. Maintaining a good amount of peripheral vision is key.
• If you walking your pet or perhaps even have you children on a tether, don't let that tether out more than 12 inches in crowded places.
  

I imagine a corollary to this post is how to handle crowds in unavoidable situations such as airports, the Santa Claus parade, Walt Disney World (no, I haven't forgotten about writing about our trip), Christmas shopping, rock concerts, the loo during intermission of a hockey game, the subway at rush hour (my next stop)...

Heads up !

Music and movie tips

A few for your entertainment dollar...

Death Cab for Cutie. Raved on my close buddy Eek (sp). Immediately appealing, gentler tunes, deeper lyrics lying undertone.

Muse. Passed this band up for a while, but this latest album has something ! #2 of the year as ranked by Q.

The Automatic. Catchy and corny, esp. Monster.

Arctic Monkeys. But you've heard me rave before.

Ok, it's getting too late now, getting pissed off with finding the right links, incl. The Editors - All Sparks (Cicado remix) - absolutely love this track, sorry allofmp3 not cooperating tonight.

Starting to warm up to Hot Chip (big in the UK last year).

Trying to get my head into new Nora Jones and Carli Bruni.

Looking forward to new Kaiser Chiefs album as we have tics for the show here in April.

Re: movies. Odd mix these days. A soccer lady friend had recommended It's all gone Pete Tong and I just saw it this week - loved it, Ibiza tracks, Brit edge and deeper thoughts.

Also caught most of Green Street Hooligans about football hooliganism on the UK. Interesting perspective.

Just picked up a version of The Professional on the way home. Great buy, $8 for the remastered DTS version on Superbit. If you've never seen it, great movie, Reno just phenomenal.

And the Katrina movie. Already referenced.

Why music is better than the movies (and maybe TV)

With music, it can be all around you. Especially if you're an iPod or you're home wired. You groove, you dance and you sing (badly) while doing important stuff like doing the dishes or tidying or filing a mound of financial receipts.

With movies, to get the most out of the experience you really need to "buy in" to the movie. That means focus, that means few distractions. Hence the problem, you need to set time aside for a movie.

Well, some TV can be enjoyed "in the background" (especially repeats of Seinfeld or Friend) or "a glance every 3 minutes" for the less intense shows.

And if you've been reading the blog who'll appreciate how important music is (in my life). But then again, don't most of my grand visions come from movie inspirations ?

Q.E.D music is better than the movies.

Why music is better than the movies (and maybe TV)

With music, it can be all around you. Especially if you're an iPod or you're home wired. You groove, you dance and you sing (badly) while doing important stuff like doing the dishes or tidying or filing a mound of financial receipts.

With movies, to get the most out of the experience you really need to "buy in" to the movie. That means focus, that means few distractions. Hence the problem, you need to set time aside for a movie.

Well, some TV can be enjoyed "in the background" (especially repeats of Seinfeld or Friend) or "a glance every 3 minutes" for the less intense shows.

And if you've been reading the blog who'll appreciate how important music is (in my life). But then again, don't most of my grand visions come from movie inspirations ?

Q.E.D music is better than the movies.

#5 Who cares ?

Starting backwards. And it's a little easier because I can transcribe from my personal, neglected handwritten journal.

Once again, inspired by a movie, in this case When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.

'Zan and I watched this recently and coming out of it I wondered "could this happen in Canada" (or for that matter any apparent caring country) ?

This HBO movie is about the aftermath of the Katrina hurricane.

I am lucky enough to have enjoyed the sheer pleasure of N'awlins on 3 occasions (maybe 4, but the intoxicating effect of the Big Easy is taking a toll) and I must say I'm a big fan.

But getting back to the plot...well just see the movie and I can save a lot of typing...

I'm sure that smaller scale stories of injustice [insurance companies] and examples of governments not caring occur all over the world.

The difference with Katrina is not economics (US-oil-Iraq), but when things go wrong the people who really care help out. And with smaller events, these people are not political leaders and very rarely biz execs. They are your family, your friends and your neighbours.

Can you really count on your government to help ?

But help out where you can when family, friends and neighbours need help and there will be someone there to help you one day.

It's sad to say, that in Nola there were no family, friends nor neighbours to help out because everyone was in it together.

I'm back, sorry I've been gone for a while

Friday night. A little bit of a buzz. Too late to watch a movie. Dishes are done. Wife has gone to bed. 10:58pm. iTunes playing scrambled best tunes. A beer (Tiger) and a little blogging perfect !

I'll post the following separately (if the beer lasts and I'm awake):

1. Walt Disney World Vacation summation.

2. Making the most of digital music.

3. Why music is better than the movies (and maybe TV).

4. Music and movie tips

5. Who cares ?