barton_fender

moiracoon made me very happy today. Thank you, dear one. *hugs*

wingywoof, can you tell me more about Midwest Computer Recyclers? I might have a crapload of stuff to get rid of, including a lot that's still at my parents' house from years back. Like 486 and Pentium classic era stuff.

Finally, sabrinageek, if you get a chance and have any contacts, might you be able to point me toward a resource to sell (or donate) my Commodore hardware? I wouldn't be looking for a lot of money for it. Something more than nothing would be nice though, if I can manage such a feat. I have 3 C-128s, a C-64 (which I really hate to part with because I literally grew up with the damn thing, but I just can't justify having it around when I never ever ever use it, much like my videodisc player) and a few modems and printers and things.

Looks like No-LJ-James' long-term girlfriend and her brother may be buying my drums! Yay! Also, as well as family dinner on Wednesday as usual, we are going to sit around and watch the Twilight Rifftrax, then play Master of Orion 2 while they're still in town from Lansing, Michigan. Good times! 'Specially since I'm off work on Thursday!

Is anyone interested in a vintage Marantz stereo reciever? It needs a new power button, and the speaker jacks need to be attached; the attachments on the block of jacks broke at some point and it's loose in the cabinet. Other than that, it worked great last time I used it. About ten years ago.... To date its period of use, I used to unscrew the metal face plate (because things were built decently back then) and put a Magic: The Gathering card packet wrapper behind the power button hole to hold the button down, then screw it back on. That probably would have been the wrapper from an Antiquities booster pack. Wow; I guess that makes it about fifteen years. Yikes. (It's funny; I just looked up Marantz on Wikipedia. The picture of the '70s model receiver looks almost exactly like mine. Minus the fire damage, of course....)

And tonight, I'll be over at serinthia's place to continue our anime marathon. This week is rapidly getting better, even with my missing laptop bag and ten-ride train pass.

I have the house all to myself tonight. What am I gonna do?? I'm going to...eat some spinach pierogies! And go to bed early! Yeah!! Party! Party!

But first, feeding my obsession with piano music, translating chords and music between instruments, and the Moonlight Sonata, give these a listen:

Wilhelm Kempff playing the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata. The man looks as though he's meditating in front of the piano, which I suppose he is in a way. (And if you think that's impressive, watch him play the third movement. Watch his fingers!)

A Youtube account holder going by Makerandthebreaker playing the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata on a harp. I'm impressed with they way she seems to reach out and flip the sharping levers without even looking as she plays. Impressive.

And a guitarist plays the same piece on a classical guitar.

Good stuff! Just thought I'd share them.

Now there needs to be a video of all of them together, accompanied by a thereminist. Who wants to contribute?

I'm just starting to work on getting the hang of figuring out what notes are under what fingers as I move my hands up the keyboard, so I'm a long way off yet.... And I have a feeling I'll never be that good on a guitar.

---

And not really related, but full-to-bursting with win and awesome is this rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody on a classical guitar, complete with vocal parts. Amazing!

It's been a pretty happy and enjoyable holiday break for me.

It started out with a lovely evening spent with Moira on Wednesday night, just the two of us. I'm so lucky to have her in my life, and in my house! She made fantastic food, as she always does when she has a chance, and we enjoyed very nice alone time in preparation for a very busy weekend.

---

Thursday, Moira and I had the traditional Christmas Eve Chinese buffet dinner with my parents, brothers, and pseudo-sister and her family. Her dad called me chief, as he has every time he's seen me since I played Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest years ago, and it made me smile, as it always does. Perhaps one part of getting a little bit older is an enhanced appreciation for ties to ones's own past as it gets a little further away each swing around the sun.

---

She and I woke up early on Christmas day to make the long, arduous four block drive to my parents' house for the equally traditional family breakfast. My dad made biscuits, pancakes, muffins, casserole, bacon, sausage, and more things I can't remember. There was a big chunk of fresh bleu cheese, as well as some gouda and others. It was a happy, wonderful morning. Just like my dad, that's really the best part of Christmas for me. Time spent with my family.

There weren't a lot of gifts this year, and that's just fine. My family gave me a copy of Cutthroat Caverns, a fun little game I was introduced to be Alan, the owner of Rockhead's, at their Thanksgiving board-game night. My brother received a copy of Tsuro, which is really engaging to me too. I've always loved watching water flow through channels, or seeing a ball roll along a marble roller coaster. Tsuro triggers that same weird bit of my brain. I need to find myself a copy.

Later in the day we drove out to Johnsburg for Christmas with the extended family at my aunt and uncle's house. There was lots more food (I have been stuffed all weekend!) and games. My uncle is handy with electronics and has a significant collection of arcade games in his basement. He's up to five pinball tables now, which makes me happy. I love pinball so much. One of his latest acquisitions is the Playboy pinball game, which my dad, Moira, and I all spent a little while playing with. I got to watch my dad play the bartop touch-screen TV-thingy strip-poker game that my uncle has on his bar too, which was highly cheesy and amusing. (Well, it actually has a bunch of bar games on it, but the strip poker one was hilarious.) Better than that, I got to sit and talk to my grandfather some more. I was out to see him a little while ago too, and I plan to go visit again after the new year. I love he and grandma both and want to see more of them. I talked about being into music lately and he told me about the guitars that my great uncle, his brother, used to make. I remember years ago when he was getting out of the hobby that he was looking for someone interested in his luthier's forms, but woodworking has never been for me. Still, it's a craft that I'm in awe of and appreciate. I wish I could have seen him working. Classical hand-crafts are deeply appealing to me. I wish I had the time and inclination to learn all of them.

---

On Saturday, I drove down to Chicago to visit cranberrynomiko while Moira had her partner visiting up in Kenosha. We spent several hours in front of Mister Mosquito and very nearly finished it! The next to last level is nigh-impossible though, and we gave up after a while. Though Mr. Mosquito was named one of the ten weirdest games of all time (and was a perfect going away present from my brothers when I moved to Michigan), the next one we played, Chulip, is at least as weird. You (the main character) are in love with the girl of your dreams. But before you can kiss her and declare your love, you must strengthen your heart...by kissing just about everyone and everything else in the village. It's a series of puzzles wherein you have to figure out the correct circumstances and actions that will let you kiss people. I have strange taste in games; I loved it! And finally, before I crashed for the night, she showed me a little bit of Animal Crossing, which I'd heard of but never seen. It was a lot of fun too. I have a soft spot for odd Japanese games. I'd be remiss not to mention the excellent homemade chicken and stuffing we ate too. Thank you!

----

Sunday, after getting a late start (my phone lost power over night and I got up about three or four hours later than I'd intended and didn't find out until I turned the radio on on the way up I-94 and said 'WHAT time is it???), I joined serinthia for the new Sherlock Holmes movie. She was very kind and forgave my lateness and waited for me so we could get to a later show. Thank you Serin.

The movie was pretty good. I'm not too sure about Holmes as a brawler and bare-handed fighter (and a nasty one too), but I did like the movie. It was worth seeing if you like period action-adventure. It's a departure from the books, certainly, but fun. I kept actively comparing him to Dr. House while watching the movie, which I suppose only makes sense considering House was based on Holmes in the first place.

I was kind of intrigued by the theatre design too. We were at what's called an ultra-screen; a size between the typical movie-screen and an Imax. It reminded me very much of the interior of some of the movie palaces I know, though without an overhanging balcony. It was about the right size. Prior to the start of the movie, I imagined what a place like that might look like, done up in the '20s or '30s, and considered the evolution of the movie theatre from the advent of the talkies up through the modern day. It's quite a change, but the new and old are still unified in purpose, if not in execution.

But anyway, it was a fun time and I'm glad I went. Thanks for inviting me Serin!

I got home and thanked my sweet raccoon for being nice and soothing to me after I got back from Chicago and was all stressy about time and car worries. She was very good to me and I love her and appreciate her very much. She and I got to eat together again and spend some happy time reconnecting in the evening. I also got to work a bit at the piano lesson book I borrowed from my mom on Christmas. I'm working at getting muscle-memory trained for a few chords and am making some progress. I'm eager to get to the part of the book where incidentals or music in other keys start showing up. Somehow I'll just feel that much cooler when I start playing notes on those little black keys....

---------

Oh, and to continue on with my picture postings...



The Galleon


One of the rides at Kiddieland, the Galleon. Keeping in mind something my mother told me (if the picture didn't come out, you didn't get close enough), I took a few shots of this ride and got closer and closer until I was down on my knees looking up at the boarding queue.

Still not the greatest picture, but definitely the best of the ones of this ride. Thanks mom!

Great, transmission on my car just died, it's stuck in limp mode. I either need to find the money to get it rebuilt or for a new car.

Caramel corn puffs with Ghirardelli bittersweet drizzle...done!
Sourdough pretzels with the same Ghirardelli bittersweet used as a coating...done!
Peppermint cookies and cream fudge...done!

Packaging of combos of the preceding for various extended family gifts...done!

One of the things I'm really going to miss about this house is the walk-in fridge screen porch. Making homemade candy en bulk is a lot easier when I don't have to try to figure out how to fit it all in my real fridge to cool. Tonight, I just set all of the trays out on the porch as I finished them. Spiffy!

I think I mentioned that I'm getting into music lately.

Last night, I tuned up my guitar again and played the three songs I have the chords printed out for. Then I fired up the theremin and played the whole Dark Side of the Moon while accompanying attempting to accompany it. (Boy were my arms sore after that!)

Then, this morning, I went back out to Goodwill to pick up something I saw yesterday and wanted to do more research on. I have a Casio LK-100 complete with stand, and I got it cheap. The power supply was missing so I was concerned that it might not work, but I found a Belkin 2 port KVM power supply that fits it perfectly and it fires right up.

I decided a little while ago, after reading about music theory and chord formation, that I wanted a keyboard. Chords can be really tricky to learn on a guitar, especially if you're working outside the key of C. On a keyboard though, you basically just learn the layout and apply math to form chords. A root, a third a fifth. Boom.

There are some things I've always wanted to be able to play on a piano. Well, that goes for a guitar too, but I'm not sure how realistic some of those things are on a guitar. But on a piano...maybe I'll finally be able to teach myself to play my single all time favorite piece of music; Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. You know, I might even teach myself to read music.

I know what you're thinking...the dog is getting ahead of himself again. Maybe. For me, having a new interest is like having Paul Erdős as a house guest. He shows up, collaborates on some project until he feels like he's done, then leaves. But I was talking to Moira about that last night. If I don't keep investigating the things that interest me, however briefly, just because it may not last forever, then I'm missing out on a great deal of joy and wonder and possibility in my life. So if music is what my brain is pushing me toward right now, music it will be!

Though actually, I'd be in Gary photographing today if it wasn't for the fact that my car really shouldn't go that far right now....

============

Just for fun, here's Clementine the Cow, the mascot of the departed Kiddieland amusement park. (I almost wrote Harmilda the Cow, but that's a whole other friendly bovine.)



Clementine the Cow at Kiddieland


It's funny what pictures get views and which don't. One of my favorites from the whole trip, a shot of the little steam locomotive coming around the bend with whistle screaming and blasts of steam rising overhead has one view. Clementine here is up to fifteen already. Not that I begrudge her the popularity; it's just a little inexplicable to me sometimes.

Mechanic Juan looked at Igor the Neon after replacing a ball joint on Posi's car yesterday. Looks like I bent a tie rod pretty badly. The front end is a little lower than it ought to be too, so there may be more issues. The extra play on the wheel is causing something to dig into my tire and there's a gouge all around the outside in one place. He said first I should replace the tie rod, then see if we can figure out what else is up. In the meantime, there's enough play in the wheel facing (maybe an inch) that, as soon as there's any slickness in the road, my steering gets sloppy. The passenger front wheel doesn't always want to swing across that divide from right to left and back right away, and when it does, it does that inch all at once. So, I need another tire before any kind of distance (I guess I'm doing pretty well to have made it all the way back from St. Louis plus in and out of Chicago a few times), and I need a new tie rod pretty soon too.

With the other accumulating issues on the Neon that I won't bore you by listing, I'm thinking it's time to look for a replacement vehicle. I should be able to get the money I lent to my brother for law school books back soon, at which point I'll probably be in a good position.

So, what I'm looking for after talking to Juan is a late nineties VW Golf TDI hatchback. A manual transmission would be nice. Juan is a huge proponent of diesel and I'm beginning to agree with him. He's currently driving a pretty little VW that he got for free (not working of course) and fixed up with a new injection pump. It gets about 50MPG, and this is not atypical for TDI diesels. I want one. (And even if I can't have a Beetle right now, I have a soft spot for VWs.)

I don't need one right away, so I'm going to start watching Craig's List again. I'd also be willing to consider another Aveo, though the mileage isn't as good. But I really want something with a hatchback. If you happen to be aware of anything suitable, please let me know? I think I might consider anything small with good gas mileage and a good price.

===================

The bumps on my hip are nothing terribly serious. This is good.

I only have another hour or so of being tied to work and plans for the weekend are coming together. Things are pretty ok. I'm excited about seeing all of my extended family again for Christmas Day, and about spending another beautiful Christmas morning with my parents and brothers and near-sister and partner, eating my dad's typical sumptuous breakfast and being a family.

I'm thinking of going to China Town for my Birthday (Sunday the 27th) for Dim Sum at the Pheonix. I need to call in reservations, so I thought I'd see aproximately how many folks would be interested in going. I have evening plans, so I'm going to shoot for Noon for reservations, so I can get home in time for other stuff. Please RSVP by replying.

Aww, you poor little electrics can't handle it? Don't worry; let me help out. We were doing this sort of thing when your grand-dad was in diapers.

The UK's first mainline steam locomotive in 50 years saves stranded passengers when cold weather disables the electric rail service.

"If any of the train operators want to modernise their services by using steam trains, I would be happy to give them a quote."
--Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust

Best. Story. Ever.

--------

Looking more into this, I learned that the engine in question, the Tornado, is actually a brand new, scratch-built engine based on vintage LNER plans, but with modern equipment and electronics. How about that! I'd give a hell of a lot to see a full size, shiny-new vintage steam locomotive in person.

These BestBuy adds are annoying the HELL out of me. Twelpforce? WFT kind of name is that. Redhead's cute though. If I didn't already avoid BestBuy I'd avoid it now just in spite.

Awesome. I've been here less than half an hour and already been told that I'm useless by another employee. Merry Christmas.

This week has been kind of stressful. I'm glad it's a short one. And I wish all these people would just take some PTO and GO HOME! Why are they all here logging tickets??

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to determine the nature of these little bumps above my left hip that have been getting bigger over the past month and are now getting kind of physically uncomfortable. I'm kind of scared about that.

For purposes of illustration, here's how I feel this morning.



Giant Scary Clown Head

There is an interview right now on NPR with Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, a retired Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, about the commercialization of Christmas and the supposed 'war on Christmas'.

I adore this man. Just adore him. He reminds me a lot of Real Live Preacher, who is a liberal Baptist minister who also rocks hardcore.

But this Canadian monk from a monastery in British Columbia has been expounding on how Christmas has always had a secular element dating back to Charles Dickens' time and that that's ok. He's also said that fundamentalism is a birth defect and has talked about it tying in to an overdeveloped instinctive fear response. He described it as Taliban Christianity. He was a particle and quantum physicist before he became a monk. I love him.

People like these two folks remind me of what I've always felt like a priest ought to be. He's tearing down the idea that the nuclear family is the classic family (it arose during the industrial revolution) and even the idea of marriage being limited to one man and one woman, which comes down to secular law that arose much later than Christianity. He's talking about prostitution, and that our first responsibility should be to the health and well being of the women involved, and that they shouldn't be criminalized. That the Western idea of hell is completely off base. Anyway, in short, he's wonderfully informed, articulate, and refreshing. He almost makes me feel good about organized religion, and that's quite a feat. If you get a chance, you might enjoy listening to tonight's program. It should be available for download. Here, here; go check it out.

We really need more people in the world like this.

I need to get to bed. I'm going to take the train from Waukegan tomorrow morning, and then go from there to Posicat's place after work for car fixin'. Whee!

Does anyone want:

An old Terrayon cable modem?

A Timex Sinclair 1000?

A Rollermouse Pro? (On second thought, I may keep this. I dunno. I kind of forgot I had it, and I think I might have a use for it.)

About 100 or 150 foot run of phone line?

Some sets of KVM cables?

Some (about four or five?) old flat panel touchscreens (max res 800x600 with a serial interface touchscreen)?

Four or five small-footprint keyboards that were scavanged from wall mount computers?

A very old desktop calculator (an APF Mark 1) with a neon tube display? Probably from the mid 1970s. (Needs some cleaning of contacts to work well I think.)

Another, smaller, desktop calculator from around 1975, a Calfax 895M. I don't know if it works.

1 110GB/220GB SDLT tape drive?

A ginormous AAC-9000MD hardware RAID quad-channel SCSI controller? (I think this works, but I remember having issues with one so I don't know.)

An Adaptec 29160 SCSI controller?

-----

Let me know soon!! Most of this will go away with a Freecycler on Wednesday. Maybe not the flat panels quite yet.

Would anybody local like a visit from a dog tomorrow evening after work? I can't get to my car in Kenosha until about 6:30, but after that, I'm looking for something to do for three or four hours. Or maybe I'll get some pictures of Kenosha at Christmas if I bring my camera with me. That could be fun.

I would like either this bed or this bed. I think more the 2nd one with the headboard. Considering the price, neither of these will happen. But I love them so much. And I can't decide on what to do as far as bedding in my room.

See, Moira and I have decided that, in our 2 bedroom apartment, we're each going to get our own room. We'll likely be sleeping in the same one ninety-five percent of the time anyway (Most likely hers since she'll have the bigger room with the walk in closet. I don't have a need for closet space, though the big room would be nice.), but each of us having our own space is really appealing to me. Plus, if we have someone over who stays the night, we have minimal disruption to routine. I'm really very excited about this move. I'm happily giving away and trashing lots of crap that's been sitting around forever. Simplifying is lightening to the heart and mind.

I'm looking forward to decorating and designing. I'm leaning toward tapestries on the walls and fairly minimalist furniture, but I don't know. Part of me very much likes the idea of a traditional Japanese futon that I can fold up and put in the closet during the day. Even those are a bit pricy, but doable. And I'd have the whole room to work in when I'm not sleeping. I wish I really had a good sense of how comfortable those are and how workable they are for people with any back problems. I don't want to be inhospitable now....

-----

I was sleeping so deeply on the train this morning on the way in that the conductor had to wake me up and tell me to get off the train! Oops! At least I missed the rush. The little shops in the concourse are all alive and well these days and the bustle is invigorating and exciting. The weather has been fairly mild most of the time I've had to be down here (with a few exceptions) and I'm grateful.

-----

jimcyl and I drove out to the portion of Bensenville that's been bought out and shuttered by the city of Chicago to make room for an O'Hare airport expansion. We only got about twenty minutes to walk around and photograph before a police officer drove up and told us we had to leave. I wish I knew whether the area was still public property. I suppose not anymore, but I don't really know.

We drove from there out to Gary, Indiana for more abandoned buildings. It turns out that a number of things we used to go to have been locked up tight since last we were there. But no biggie; eventually, they will be open again. These things are cyclical, and as I wrote about my photography in Washington, if you are patient and calm, the world will arrange itself around you. We visited the Palace Theatre and got a few shots of the sad, crumbling interior, then went back to his place for a little snack before I drove on to Kenosha and home.

-----

I'll be posting a bunch of Kiddieland pictures to Flickr. All the descriptions have been written, and all the pictures cropped and touched up since my trip home on Amtrak; I just haven't posted them yet. Now that I am, they'll go quickly. This is one of my favorites; that little steam locomotive in action, whistle a-blowin', coming around a bend.

\
The Kiddieland Limited Rounds a Curve

I finally made it over to the interior of the John Eberson-designed Palace Theatre in Gary Indiana with my wide-angle lens today. This shot could be a lot better; the sides and bottom are too plain and uninteresting I think. I didn't have a great deal of time to stay and experiment; jimcyl and I went here as a second choice after the police chased us out of Bensenville. Next time!

It was fantastic even to just be there and get a taste of the results I can get with my new equipment.



Palace Theatre Auditorium, Gary Indiana


This theatre makes me so sad.

On a Goodwill trip today, I picked up a few Playstation games: among them, a couple of Gran Turismos, and Twisted Metal 3. GT is a little more in depth than I really care to be, though for a couple bucks a piece I figured why not. But the Twisted Metal series is one I spent hours and hours playing with my brothers. I had to grab that one!

Tonight, after hauling a few things out of the basement for a freecycle guy who'll pick them up on Monday (The Intellistation server, my Athlon XP with hand-cut windowed and modded case *sigh*, and a couple of wall mount touch screen systems running Windows NT that I scored from work) and taking a shower, I gave it a try.

It took a few plays to resemble decent at it, but it came back to me and it's a fun mindless distraction. But what really has me is the music. This version actually had some mainstream music in it. The first level's background sound is Rob Zombie's Superbeast. The second though, makes me chuckle every time I get to it. I have no idea what song it is, but there's a repeated part that I can only interpret as "Because we're gay! Gay! Microwave!!!" So of course, I'd loudly join in every time the music got to that part. Unfortunately a Google search for 'we're gay gay microwave' did not turn up anything related, though are are some interesting results.

(And of course, now that I've written this, I had to look the music up. It is microwave! The track is Microwave by Pitchshifter. The lyrics in question are "because we're cut, dried, microwaved".)

So, who wants to play some Twisted Metal with me?

Check this out: Nightcrawler and Wolverine are fans of This American Life. I've always thought that Nightcrawler had good taste!

-----

I'm listening to a piece on NPR right now, as I work on uploading pictures and catching up on money and doing a little Christmas shopping, about sewer systems nation wide, and in New York City in particular. This is fascinating stuff. I love sewer systems and storm drains.

-----

And speaking of uploading pictures, I'm finally working on the set from the last day of Kiddieland, a small independent amusement park in Melrose Park, Illinois, that Moira and I visited just before it shut down forever.



The Kiddieland Limited Engineer


One of the locomotives that pulled the small gauge passenger train around the grounds of Kiddieland was an honest-to-goodness steam engine. I'm so glad I visited and got to see this beautiful piece of machinery in action. Look at the beautiful enameled metal! Look at the shiny chrome! Look at the streamlined, Art Deco-esque styling! I have so much love for this locomotive. I hope she found a good home.

-----

We went and visited a couple apartment complexes in Kenosha today that we've been eyeing. Our preference for one over the other was reinforced. I like Westchester a lot.

Title: Avatar in Digital 3D Review: I spent two and a half hours on another world.

Posted using ShareThis

Saw Avatar again yesterday, even better the second time, and I realized the 3D does NOTHING to make the movie special, the story stands on it's own in an old movie theater without 3D, and those film jitters and lines. Still want to see it in Imax once just to see how it looks on that kind of screen.

I think the 3D may have been wasted on Avatar, it wasn't needed, and didn't make the movie any more special. 3D might better have been used on 2012, it might have made that movie more fun.