Wow, it took 70 days to do the entire length of the Mississippi--on a paddle board! Of course the map is down, but the website is staying up (www.alexlinnell.com) and if you haven't already, you should go back and read some of the blogs of all the little adventures within the big adventure.
Congratulations, Alex Linnell! It is truly an amazing achievement!
~~~
(No paddle boards, Alex or the Mississippi were harmed during the production of this blog.)
~~~I do believe there's no such thing as bad writing—it's all a work in progress waiting for the write expression.~~~
Showing posts with label commentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commentary. Show all posts
Monday, August 15, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
History in the making!!!
This is huge!!! Alex Linnell is going to be the first person to paddle board the entire Mississippi!! And how am I connected to this awesome event? His mother, Jean, is my friend at work, so I'm living it all through her. Are you kidding, it's a huge undertaking!!! The Red Cross is involved as major supporter because they are using it a fund raiser for the flood victims.
But what I think is really cajun is the GPS tracking system they're using on his website. It's from findmespot.com and he's got this little gizmo with 2 buttons. When he presses the green button, this dot appears on the map of his exact location from the satellite relay, so you can track his progress all the way down. I guess it's called a "check in". The other one is the red "panic button". Pressing that one will immediately dispatch the nearest search & rescue team to his aid--much to the relief of his family and friends.
This is the link to the map: Where is Alex now?
And this is the main website: www.alexlinnell.com
He left June 1st and they estimate it will take 2-3 months. It's huge! Ah yes, to be young and adventurous...
~~~
(No panic buttons, GPS trackers, or the Red Cross were harmed during the production of the post. Alex referenced with permission, of course.)
But what I think is really cajun is the GPS tracking system they're using on his website. It's from findmespot.com and he's got this little gizmo with 2 buttons. When he presses the green button, this dot appears on the map of his exact location from the satellite relay, so you can track his progress all the way down. I guess it's called a "check in". The other one is the red "panic button". Pressing that one will immediately dispatch the nearest search & rescue team to his aid--much to the relief of his family and friends.
This is the link to the map: Where is Alex now?
And this is the main website: www.alexlinnell.com
He left June 1st and they estimate it will take 2-3 months. It's huge! Ah yes, to be young and adventurous...
~~~
(No panic buttons, GPS trackers, or the Red Cross were harmed during the production of the post. Alex referenced with permission, of course.)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Product Features that Actually Don't Exist
I’m not a big on ranting, but the purpose of having a blog is to put thoughts/opinions & experiences, etc., out there so that someone may find it and agree—maybe even find some solace in the fact that someone else experienced the same thing.
And this is really, really nuts and is causing a mini melt down, so I need to rant. I am talking products that list features on the box and even in the manual but it’s no esta aqui on the actual product. It’s never happened to me before, so I figure it must be a new trend for 2011 and Lord have Mercy if it is.
I am reporting on 2 totally different products that I just happen to open on the same day: the Coby cxcd400blk mini hi-fi dual cassette deck stereo system and H&R Block’s (formerly TaxCut, but it will always be taxcut to me) Deluxe home edition for 2010, including DeductionPro.
Exhibit A
The stereo system feature reported online, on the box and even in the manual is a dual cassette deck for recording tape to tape, but there is only one cassette deck. Granted, the picture of the product does show only the one tape deck, but I figured the 2nd one was maybe on the side or something. But noooo. I finally did find one customer report that fact on amazon, so silly me for not doing an advance search for potential problems.
(Side note: I actually got it through Walmart, which was a little cheaper and had free ship to store shipping. Plus, it can be returned to the store—something I find appealing since making an amazon return has turned into a hassle, but that’s another rant...)
Exhibit B
I have been using taxcut for years and every year you get the cd, pop it in and it had installing DeductionPro as a separate option. This year, nada. Okay, I thought, maybe it’s accessed directly in the program as opposed to being installed as a separate software program like before. But noooo! Even though it’s listed on the box as a feature for the deluxe and premium editions, it is no where to be found on the cd or in the program. Oh, wait, it does list importing your deductionpro file as an option.
After trying to find out what the deal is on the H&R Block site and finding nothing, I finally broke down and called the 1800 number. After about 15 minutes of being put on hold while George tries to find the answer to my query, I am told that I can go to deductionpro.com and download it from there. Why is it still listed on the box as being part of the program and doesn’t say anything anywhere about deductionpro.com? That required another 5 minutes on hold before George informed me that they decided not to include it this year, but the boxes had already been printed and released before that decision was made.
(Side note: there is no download option at deductionpro.com. You can run it and use it online (yeah right, like I want all charitable giving on the net on an unsecured site.)
So having gone through all that, I decided to take some of my precious weekend time to rant rather then starting my taxes because, well, I do have this blog and I actually do feel a little—but just a little—better. I got it off my chest and there is some small satisfaction that someday, someone will do an extensive google search for the Coby stereo system and/or taxcut 2010 and know they’re not alone...
~~~
(No product boxes, manuals or purchase receipts were harmed during the production of this post because I might still want to return them.)
And this is really, really nuts and is causing a mini melt down, so I need to rant. I am talking products that list features on the box and even in the manual but it’s no esta aqui on the actual product. It’s never happened to me before, so I figure it must be a new trend for 2011 and Lord have Mercy if it is.
I am reporting on 2 totally different products that I just happen to open on the same day: the Coby cxcd400blk mini hi-fi dual cassette deck stereo system and H&R Block’s (formerly TaxCut, but it will always be taxcut to me) Deluxe home edition for 2010, including DeductionPro.
Exhibit A
The stereo system feature reported online, on the box and even in the manual is a dual cassette deck for recording tape to tape, but there is only one cassette deck. Granted, the picture of the product does show only the one tape deck, but I figured the 2nd one was maybe on the side or something. But noooo. I finally did find one customer report that fact on amazon, so silly me for not doing an advance search for potential problems.
(Side note: I actually got it through Walmart, which was a little cheaper and had free ship to store shipping. Plus, it can be returned to the store—something I find appealing since making an amazon return has turned into a hassle, but that’s another rant...)
Exhibit B
I have been using taxcut for years and every year you get the cd, pop it in and it had installing DeductionPro as a separate option. This year, nada. Okay, I thought, maybe it’s accessed directly in the program as opposed to being installed as a separate software program like before. But noooo! Even though it’s listed on the box as a feature for the deluxe and premium editions, it is no where to be found on the cd or in the program. Oh, wait, it does list importing your deductionpro file as an option.
After trying to find out what the deal is on the H&R Block site and finding nothing, I finally broke down and called the 1800 number. After about 15 minutes of being put on hold while George tries to find the answer to my query, I am told that I can go to deductionpro.com and download it from there. Why is it still listed on the box as being part of the program and doesn’t say anything anywhere about deductionpro.com? That required another 5 minutes on hold before George informed me that they decided not to include it this year, but the boxes had already been printed and released before that decision was made.
(Side note: there is no download option at deductionpro.com. You can run it and use it online (yeah right, like I want all charitable giving on the net on an unsecured site.)
So having gone through all that, I decided to take some of my precious weekend time to rant rather then starting my taxes because, well, I do have this blog and I actually do feel a little—but just a little—better. I got it off my chest and there is some small satisfaction that someday, someone will do an extensive google search for the Coby stereo system and/or taxcut 2010 and know they’re not alone...
~~~
(No product boxes, manuals or purchase receipts were harmed during the production of this post because I might still want to return them.)
Friday, December 31, 2010
The Who Greatest Hits and Dave March...
I hadn’t even mentioned that I was thinking of maybe possibly getting one, but when I saw Roger and the guys staring up at me through the cellophane after I tore off the green wrapping paper and I saw that it had my 2 fav songs (Love Reign and Eminence Front), I was like yessss—cool! It was from my sister Kaz who bought it on a hunch I might like it.
(Side note: The hesitation in such a purchase came from the fact that there are actually several different releases/collections of “greatest hits” and while it's tempting to buy them all—the redundancy is kind of nuts. And I’ve acquired “Live at Leeds” and “Kids Are Alright”, which is a respectable start for a newbie Who-be. Speaking of LAL, you must check out Mr. Toikkis 40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Collectors' Edition. He’s got pics of what was in the package as he opened it, which is fun to see.)
And then when I discovered it had pics I had never seen before and read Dave March’s commentary, well then it was like cajun—best present of the year! I don't know who he his, but I liked his perception of the music and his writing style.
I will not bore you with a complete copy of the entire text, but would like to share some of the highlights of his insight into the whole Who journey. It’s not complete because I snipped out a lot the asides* and super long clauses* to get to heart of the matter:
*...the Who’s music now encompasses the sounds of deathless youth and of a wiser old age that looks back upon that early anger and wild energy, not with a sigh or a frown but with a gaze of affection and a knowing laugh. That they did not (all) die before they got old, that in fact their two most important members continue on well into their sixties, is the most ironic triumph—“not enough,” indeed.
*The creation of the semi-preposterous “rock opera” concept makes this persistence less unlikely, as it attempts to shove the whole idea of the Who into a box marked art, with its high end up. That men who might have already been pensioned off in many other kinds of work have sustained past middle age contains enough marvel and mystery to match even the teenage overloads.
*Their earliest records... insist on being art... ...which is a way of describing how the surly sweetness of roger Daltrey’s vocals and the pep-pill mania of Keith Moon’s unique drumming equaled, sometimes surpassed, Pete Townshend’s slicing guitar and John Entwistle’s fluent earthquake bass.
*By the time they got to “Substitute” “Happy Jack” and “Pictures of Lily”, Townshend had become an already great rock n roll songwriter—and by that I do not mean just a lyricist since every one of his songs created credible people... You could take anyone of those songs as a joke, but the way Roger sang the words Pete put in his mouth rubbed your face in it, delivering a sting of authenticity.
*Then came “I Can See for Miles”, which heralded a new world of rock n roll. It was a smash in the guts with Moon’s most audacious and controlled drumming (those perfectly timed cymbal splashes that accented Daltrey’s opening threats!) matched by guitar lines that still define emotional tension. If you didn’t fear what it told you as much as you loved it, you didn’t understand it at all. Even 42 years on, it’s still true that if you think you understand it all, you haven’t been listening close enough.
*...Townshend’s quest for the perfect long-form expression of rock’s creative possibilities—“rock opera” is one way to put it, concept album is another—seems less important then these individual gems. That because, he created a definitive series using the short form, hit singles—whether they all were or not—that summarized a deliriously compacted, impressionistic world view. It helped immensely that Daltrey applied complete commitment and his own peculiar angle on how that post-teenage world operated with vocal power that remains unsurpassed.
*In another mouth, “Magic Bus”, with its Bo Diddley beat driven by acoustic guitar and hand percussion, might have been a merely a novelty. That’s a formula for an Eddie Cochran record, but Daltrey takes it somewhere else, into a place where the eruption of Moon’s drums for the final minute feels both shocking and inevitable...
*On this collection, “Pinball Wizard” feels like a sequel, with the acoustic guitar strums leading into the explosive electric chord and then Daltrey entering, rattling off the words quick as fingers on the flippers.
*I suppose that “Behind Blue Eyes” can be said to open the door to the “mature” Who, if a band sporting Keith Moon could become mature. ... and when the hit the bridge, Daltrey cracks it open with all the thunder at his command: “when my fist clenches, crack it open” sounds not just a prayer for peace, but an acknowledgment that to just keep punching isn’t a valid option anymore.
*...”Love, Reign O’er Me”, the climactic song from Townshend’s elegy for adolescence, “Quadrophenia”, is another prayer to let things cool down long enough to get a breath and figure out how Jimmy, the protagonist, wound up stranded on that rock.
*”Squeeze Box”, believe it or not, ushers in Townshend’s mature or at least married period. Meantime, “Eminence Front” takes the teenage poses perfected in the early days and renders them in adult language with adult insight into pretensions and deceits.
*”Real Good Looking Boy” brings the story full circle. What we get here... is a boy who likes what he sees until his mother tells him he’s ugly. Roger sings it with the conviction he brought to deaf, dumb and blindness (anyone who doubts that Roger is a good actor ought to see him perform this live.) It’s a different band—John and Keith both gone and never coming back—but it’s the same heart, the same soul and the music surges with the same degree of passion, though not at all the same kind. The anger isn’t gone—those guitar licks will never loose that edge, and Rogers sings the quotation from “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in a tone of vengeance, but is had been dissipated into acceptance and reconciled into a forlorn wisdom that we can never see ourselves truly... but if we’re very luck, we find someone who can. This is the greatest love song Pete ever wrote and the best that Roger ever sang. That they pulled this off in their 60s isn’t a miracle, anymore than it is really a surprise that people so smart and talented did not die before they got old.
* “It’s Not Enough” sounds just like the Who, only different and it means what it says. In the end, the Who do what the really great ones do: rage against the dying of the light, and that, for true, is the spirit of rock n roll.
Dave March, “The Who Greatest Hits” c 2009 Geffen Records. The emphasis is mine.
PS: I suppose this post could also be considered a long thank you note to my sister for acting on that hunch. Thank you, darlin!
*Yes, yes, I know—who am I to talk? Well someday someone can snip out all my asides and super long clauses (see first paragraph) if they want...
~~~
(No cellophane, green wrapping paper or the link to the 40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Collectors' Edition were harmed during the production of this post.)
(Side note: The hesitation in such a purchase came from the fact that there are actually several different releases/collections of “greatest hits” and while it's tempting to buy them all—the redundancy is kind of nuts. And I’ve acquired “Live at Leeds” and “Kids Are Alright”, which is a respectable start for a newbie Who-be. Speaking of LAL, you must check out Mr. Toikkis 40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Collectors' Edition. He’s got pics of what was in the package as he opened it, which is fun to see.
And then when I discovered it had pics I had never seen before and read Dave March’s commentary, well then it was like cajun—best present of the year! I don't know who he his, but I liked his perception of the music and his writing style.
I will not bore you with a complete copy of the entire text, but would like to share some of the highlights of his insight into the whole Who journey. It’s not complete because I snipped out a lot the asides* and super long clauses* to get to heart of the matter:
*...the Who’s music now encompasses the sounds of deathless youth and of a wiser old age that looks back upon that early anger and wild energy, not with a sigh or a frown but with a gaze of affection and a knowing laugh. That they did not (all) die before they got old, that in fact their two most important members continue on well into their sixties, is the most ironic triumph—“not enough,” indeed.
*The creation of the semi-preposterous “rock opera” concept makes this persistence less unlikely, as it attempts to shove the whole idea of the Who into a box marked art, with its high end up.
*Their earliest records... insist on being art...
*By the time they got to “Substitute” “Happy Jack” and “Pictures of Lily”, Townshend had become an already great rock n roll songwriter—and by that I do not mean just a lyricist since every one of his songs created credible people...
*Then came “I Can See for Miles”, which heralded a new world of rock n roll. It was a smash in the guts with Moon’s most audacious and controlled drumming (those perfectly timed cymbal splashes that accented Daltrey’s opening threats!) matched by guitar lines that still define emotional tension.
*...Townshend’s quest for the perfect long-form expression of rock’s creative possibilities—“rock opera” is one way to put it, concept album is another—seems less important then these individual gems. That because,
*In another mouth, “Magic Bus”, with its Bo Diddley beat driven by acoustic guitar and hand percussion, might have been a merely a novelty. That’s a formula for an Eddie Cochran record, but Daltrey takes it somewhere else, into a place where the eruption of Moon’s drums for the final minute feels both shocking and inevitable...
*On this collection, “Pinball Wizard” feels like a sequel, with the acoustic guitar strums leading into the explosive electric chord and then Daltrey entering, rattling off the words quick as fingers on the flippers.
*I suppose that “Behind Blue Eyes” can be said to open the door to the “mature” Who, if a band sporting Keith Moon could become mature.
*...”Love, Reign O’er Me”, the climactic song from Townshend’s elegy for adolescence, “Quadrophenia”, is another prayer to let things cool down long enough to get a breath and figure out how Jimmy, the protagonist, wound up stranded on that rock.
*”Squeeze Box”, believe it or not, ushers in Townshend’s mature or at least married period.
*”Real Good Looking Boy” brings the story full circle. What we get here... is a boy who likes what he sees until his mother tells him he’s ugly. Roger sings it with the conviction he brought to deaf, dumb and blindness (anyone who doubts that Roger is a good actor ought to see him perform this live.) It’s a different band—John and Keith both gone and never coming back—but it’s the same heart, the same soul and the music surges with the same degree of passion, though not at all the same kind. The anger isn’t gone—those guitar licks will never loose that edge, and Rogers sings the quotation from “Can’t Help Falling in Love” in a tone of vengeance, but is had been dissipated into acceptance and reconciled into a forlorn wisdom that we can never see ourselves truly... but if we’re very luck, we find someone who can. This is the greatest love song Pete ever wrote and the best that Roger ever sang. That they pulled this off in their 60s isn’t a miracle, anymore than it is really a surprise that people so smart and talented did not die before they got old.
*
Dave March, “The Who Greatest Hits” c 2009 Geffen Records. The emphasis is mine.
PS: I suppose this post could also be considered a long thank you note to my sister for acting on that hunch. Thank you, darlin!
*Yes, yes, I know—who am I to talk? Well someday someone can snip out all my asides and super long clauses (see first paragraph) if they want...
~~~
(No cellophane, green wrapping paper or the link to the 40th Anniversary Super-Deluxe Collectors' Edition were harmed during the production of this post.)
Friday, October 29, 2010
Amendment to the "Myspace vs Facebook" post...
...Of course Myspace had to appear in the headlines soon after I posted the post. And so to be fair, here it is: MySpace, apps share user IDs with advertisers.
Now if blogspot ends up with a headline on security or advertisers or some other adverse issue, you might want to back away a few steps... a mini meltdown might occur and it may not be pretty.
~~~
(No newslinks, myspace or facebook were harmed during the production of this post)
Now if blogspot ends up with a headline on security or advertisers or some other adverse issue, you might want to back away a few steps... a mini meltdown might occur and it may not be pretty.
~~~
(No newslinks, myspace or facebook were harmed during the production of this post)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Myspace vs Facebook: and the winner is...Blogspot!
I really, really liked myspace, that’s all there is to it. It was easy to use and I loved the theme I was able to design for it. It had everything: your status/mood, your pics, vids, interests, heroes and everything else in between in these nice, neat boxes which were easy to update. Basically you could post your whole life story on it if you wanted to. I didn’t quite go nuts with all that; at least I thought I was showing some restraint. Anyway, I also had such illustrious friends as Wes Studi, Robert Picardo and Seal. And best of all, no security issues and no ads!
See, I just don’t get why everyone is flocking to facebook. They’re always announcing some sort of security issue like this: Facebook finds apps giving user ID data to advertisers. And yet people are willing to put up with all that because everyone else they know is using it? Huh... the strangeness of this world can’t be measured...
I’ve got myspace hooked up to life support (just not ready to pull the plug yet) and I can’t stand facebook, so here I am. I’ve designed a theme to match my website and it has these nice, neat boxes—s’cuse me, “gadgets”—to put my life story in and are easy to update. I guess I can have “followers” instead of “friends”, but it’s not going to give me their life story with streaming status/mood updates. Pics and vids aren’t as accessible either, but I realized when it came right down to it, the blog was what I really wanted in the first place and be able to tie it to my website.
Alrighty then, we’ll give this spot a shot and see what happens...
~~~
(No design themes, gadgets or potential followers were harmed during the production of this blog.)
See, I just don’t get why everyone is flocking to facebook. They’re always announcing some sort of security issue like this: Facebook finds apps giving user ID data to advertisers. And yet people are willing to put up with all that because everyone else they know is using it? Huh... the strangeness of this world can’t be measured...
I’ve got myspace hooked up to life support (just not ready to pull the plug yet) and I can’t stand facebook, so here I am. I’ve designed a theme to match my website and it has these nice, neat boxes—s’cuse me, “gadgets”—to put my life story in and are easy to update. I guess I can have “followers” instead of “friends”, but it’s not going to give me their life story with streaming status/mood updates. Pics and vids aren’t as accessible either, but I realized when it came right down to it, the blog was what I really wanted in the first place and be able to tie it to my website.
Alrighty then, we’ll give this spot a shot and see what happens...
~~~
(No design themes, gadgets or potential followers were harmed during the production of this blog.)
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