The local public radio station, MPBN was playing classical music by artists that died in 2010 this morning. I so enjoy creative programming ideas and take a break from playing tracks for those rare stations/programs that feature such a true love for recorded music. Amongst them is Highway 61, all Dylan hour on WERU (streams live Fridays) and KCSM jazz station from the Bay Area and of course WOZ, New Orleans.

It got me to thinking that in the dawn of time of humankind's journey of expression, paintings and sculpture and writings were so precious because they could survive the originator and allow subsequent generations to reach back in time and experience the perceptions of their progenitors. How the nature of inspiration must have changed. But it was not until the last century, of which I inhabited more than half, that audio recording could provide the same benefit for music. And so, even in that mere speck of preserved history, we have such an amazing body of music to experience. I wonder if that is why I, for as long as I can remember, have cherished my radio, recordings, and the extraordinary humans who have given this gift to us.

Happy New Year! I say a heartfelt so long to 2010 and don't let the door hit you on the ass as you go out. And to you who've endured it, don't forget to cherish what we have in such enduring abundance.

Don't pay good money for flavored coffee. It's just second-rate coffee disguised with flavorings. If you like your good coffee flavored, add some cinnamon or cocoa or vanilla (or all of the above) yourself.

Labels: Horse Sense Economics

Washed all the snow away! Phooey! But it's so warm, I can wear my leggings by themselves.

The birds are (bottom) chickadee (common, the state bird of Maine) and the one above is, I think, a kind of finch known as a siskin, an olive morph, which is not very common.

There has never been a better time to buy a laptop than now. Prices are plummeting as the laptop/netbook market exhibits apprehension that the tablets, novelty of the year, are going to eat their lunch. This is a very active season for all consumer tech. Maybe you're giving or getting one or more new tech toys yourself. I hope so. What a fantastic array of gadgets there is to choose from!

As we approach the giftiness and big consumer technology discounts of late December a word of (very) hard won caution: Do not, if you can help it, acquire more than one new piece of technology at a time. Stabilize one before adding another. There is a reasonable expectation of downtime installing/activating/configuring any new piece of technology. If you put more than one piece of hardware or software into your constellation of personal technology at a time, and something goes glitchooie, it's a much harder job to figure out who the culprit is without uninstalling everything and starting all over. Not a fun proposition when your patience needle hits the red zone. (I love Laura Nyro's line "I've got a lot of patience, baby; that's a lot of patience to lose")

Hardware comes with software and software occasionally comes with hardware conflicts. You can usually work it all out with enough fiddling. But if you need more than one tech support call every other day, it's just too much.

I've known a lot of tech support people in my time. Treat them well, it's hard on them too.

Labels: Horse Sense Economics

Free Therapy:

If you walk with a spring in your step, it works every muscle in your body, gives your heart beats a boost and gives your mind a lift after a while too. And you look instantly younger.

Jauntily go.

Labels: Horse Sense Economics

My late mom made this Menorah. If you look carefully, you can see her name, Faye. She is my candle in the dark.