Not Overly Frustrating
September 19, 2011 in Blogs
I probably should not begin with the Collision concert at Silver Lake Community church, but in some ways it is in the forefront of my mind. I have managed to listen to the five recordings each of which represents one “set” from the Saturday evening show–the first and fifth our band repertoire, the second my own acoustic set, the fourth members of the band leading a few choruses (which I called “sing-alongs” and Baxter corrected to “worship”), and the middle set a single song sung by a member of the congregation who suddenly decided (as she often does on Sunday mornings) that she wanted to sing one of the hymns for the rest of us to hear. She is an excellent example of why I tell people that it is better to be asked to sing than to be asked not to sing. As far as that goes, we–the band–have been asked to sing again for another outdoor church event, the Harvest Festival on October 22, so I’ve got some work to do in preparation for this considerably longer event. That at least suggests that we were successful, whatever the tapes suggest.
I am reluctant to mention that there is video of part of the concert. My reluctance arises in part because I have seen none of it, and as I said when I hear it was going to be video recorded that it was a wonderful way to make fools of ourselves internationally. If anyone wants a link, drop me a note, and I’ll get it–which is the other reason I’m reluctant, as I don’t actually have the link to the video at this point.
So the music is good, generally.
The Examiner temporal anomalies articles are also good, or as good as can be expected for a film not available in the United States. Today’s installment, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel part 7: frustrated, wrestles with a somewhat confusing problem. Millie has to make her trip to kill everyone before (metaphysically) the boys travel to the future, or Pete won’t find a room full of dead people to scare him back to the past; but once the boys make their leap forward, her attack won’t kill any of them, so she must then seek them and send them home; but once she succeeds in sending them home she won’t know they weren’t there and won’t search for them. The article manages to resolve this in a way that lets time, and the movie, continue.
I took my car in late this morning; a replacement muffler that had been installed a couple weeks ago was defective, so they had to replace it. I asked if they could also do a desperately needed tune-up at the same time, but by the time they had the parts it was too late to do the work, and by the time I am able to know I have enough time to give them the car for a couple hours to do the job it’s going to be a couple of weeks wait. So I’m continuing to guzzle gas and worry about the engine, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
Eric Ashley continues to write, but this time he’s writing reports of his own adventures at Constellation, a game convention within driving distance of his own home. He gives a preview of his plans in Off to Constellation Convention, then produces a first look post with Day Friday of Constellation. It appears that his rather lengthy wrap-up, An Interesting Constellation, got posted again here; I have not yet read either, but the similarities were so jarring that I copy-pasted them side-by-side in a table in a document and skimmed all the paragraph alignments to confirm my suspicion that they were as similar as one could tell without a very detailed inspection. I intend to read it, but only once.
I’m also making slow progress on Source Code, but I do not expect it to be difficult so much as time-consuming, as long as I can find time when I’m awake enough to think.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on September 19, 2011
So I’m continuing to guzzle gas and worry about the engine, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
You don’t know how to do a tune up yourself? Pathetic……
Tadeusz said on September 19, 2011
They are double posted.
JohnA1nut said on September 19, 2011
Yeah, that was kinda harsh. It’s one of those things that’s so simple that if you did it yourself once, or even paid attention whilst someone else did it, you could probably do it yourself.
M. J. Young said on September 20, 2011
John, I knew how to do a tune-up myself when cars had distributors and carburetors. Now they have fuel injectors and I-don’t-know-what. When I learned to do it, you cleaned and gapped the spark plugs and put them back in the sockets, reconnecting the wires as you went, and you used feeler gauges to set the gap there and to set the gap on the points (the switch inside the distributor) so the timing would be right. Now you throw away the plugs and, I’m given to understand, the wires, and you have to hook up the system to an external computer to get the timing right, and an onboard computer controls the spark distribution.
So yes, I know how to tune up a car if it was made before fuel injectors and computer timing became the norm. I haven’t seen one of those for a while, though.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on September 20, 2011
Reminds me of a Jeff Foxworthy skit. (Paraphrased) “If a man’s car breaks down in his driveway, he will pop the hood and stare at the engine while drinking a beer. If another man comes over to check on him, the first man will offer him a beer and they will both stare at the engine together. Eventually, one of them will say ‘I used to be able to fix these before they put the damn computers in them.’”
M. J. Young said on September 21, 2011
Yeah, well, I like Seinfeld’s bit.
“When my car breaks down, I open the hood and look at the engine. What am I looking for? I have no idea what it all does. I’m hoping to see a big switch that says ‘On’ and ‘Off’, that’s in the ‘off’ position. They I can switch it and get in the car and say, ‘I found the problem; it was off.’”
People who know how to do something generally think that people who don’t know how to do that aren’t very bright. I have no trouble tuning pianos; I have no trouble tuning most musical instruments. Why can’t you do that? It’s easy. I’ve managed to so some real troubleshooting on audio electronics over the years. It’s easy; anyone can do it. I’ve also done some simple computer programming, but it’s not something I would bother to mention because really, what I can do anyone should be able to do. The norm is to think that what we can do easily is therefore easy. That’s not the reality.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on September 21, 2011
Some people (and I’m not one of them) would say doing basic maintenance like that on a car is a requirement of manhood. In some ways, I agree with them.
M. J. Young said on September 22, 2011
Some would say that going to war and killing an enemy soldier is a requirement of manhood. Some would say that utilizing the services of a prostitute is such a requirement. Some would say that getting so intoxicated you vomit and fall into unconsciousness is necessary. Some would say that getting in a barroom brawl is one of those steps.
Elsewhere, you are not a man until you have stood before the community and read from the scripture in the original language. Or you are not a man until you are married, at which time you can grow your beard. For some, you must spend a year preaching your faith door-to-door in strange communities, traveling by bicycle or afoot on on horseback.
I’m fifty-six years old. I have the luxury of ignoring anything and everything that anyone else thinks is necessary for being a man. I get to decide for myself whether I am a man or not, and since my wife is persuaded that I am, I’m on pretty safe ground saying that none of those requirements mean anything other than that some people would like to be able to say that they are more manly than others.
Frankly, if you haven’t put in over a thousand miles of wilderness travel by foot and canoe, camping in the wilderness, carrying your supplies and cooking your meals on open fires, washing in the same lakes and rivers from which you draw your drinking water, you’re not really a man. I did that by the time I was twenty, and then I got married, and if people are going to make arbitrary rules about what’s required to qualify for manhood I’ll put that one forward and challenge anyone to meet it.
–M. J. Young
JohnA1nut said on September 22, 2011
In some cultures, you’re not a man until you make a great contribution to the world. I discovered the cure for psychosis.