In my most recent Examiner temporal anomalies article, posted Monday, The Lake House part 1:  a romantic fantasy, I referred to the female canine by the proper designation for a female canine as recognized by the American Kennel Club (“dog” means a male, technically).  The use of the word offended someone, and I sort of apologized and sort of explained, and am sort of in a bind now.

The bind is that I was going to use the word in the title of the third article in the series, saying magic is a….well, there’s no point in offending more people with the blog.  Technically it’s a pun, a double-entendre, and also technically incorrect.  What I mean is actually the reverse, that the animal in question is magic, and so maybe I should reverse the phrasing and say the bit…of a problem…is magic.  But even though that’s more correct, it’s not likely to relieve my critic of his concern.  I’m d–let’s say condemned, either way.  I should excise the offending word entirely.  But then, I have this impression that either phrase as written would get good search engine results–phrases that have a familiar sound often do, and puns are pretty good for catching surfers who were looking for something else but not unhappy to have found you by mistake.  So the word has value in terms of attracting readers, but also danger in terms of offending readers, and as Paul somewhere says, I don’t know which to choose.

Whichever I do, I have the weekend to decide.  The article posts Monday, and then the title will have been determined.  Meanwhile, today I have posted The Lake House part 2:  how it begins, which finds the trigger that launches the magic of the fantasy film.  That’s important for understanding the time travel elements within it, because this is what starts everything.

In other news, I heard from Lift-FM concerning their recording of that concert.  They report having had equipment trouble with the recording; the early part of the concert does not exist.  The sincerity of regret of the general manager is evident:  one of the other bands missed was that of his daughter’s boyfriend, and she reportedly expresses her displeasure over that frequently.  They were very happy with Collision’s contribution to the concert, and look forward to having us again at another appearance, not yet planned.

–M. J. Young

I do not yet have an explanation, and do not know whether I shall receive one.  I invited at least hundreds of people to listen to our show on the web, to tune into Lift-FM’s webcast of the concert.  They had sent an announcement to the effect that they would be airing the portion of the concert in which the opening acts all performed.  Last night, they aired part of it–beginning about three quarters of an hour into the show, somewhere in the middle of the fourth act.  We were the third.

It might be that they had technical difficulties with the recorder and did not have any of the concert prior to that.  It might be that those technical difficulties were nothing more severe than that the sound tech neglected to start the recorder.  I plan to drop a note to the station and ask, but the last note I dropped to the station has not yet been answered.

So to anyone who tuned in to hear us and was disappointed, I apologize.  I will seek to determine whether they actually do have a copy of our performance or not, and what can be done to provide it to interested fans.

–M. J. Young

I was somewhat sick yesterday.  It was probably something I ate the day before, that is, Tuesday, but whether I ought to blame the chips, coffee, Easter candy, chili, pizza, onion rings, Coke™, spaghetti with hot sausage, or ice cream that comprised the day’s sustenance is anyone’s guess.  I also had a small glass of milk in the midst of all that, but I have never exhibited lactose intolerance.  I might also blame the fact that I was up late Tuesday night, did not sleep well, and was rousted twice in the morning by different people for different reasons–my body does not do so well on change of sleep schedule.  Yesterday I ate much more conservatively (a bowl of graham crackers in milk with a glass of milk, later some mashed potatoes with gravy and more milk) and also got an evening nap.  I think I am mostly recovered.

That’s good, because I might yet get a message inviting Collision to sing tonight in Delaware, and I don’t want to miss that opportunity if it comes.

My excuse for the pizza and onion rings is that we had sent a message to the possible new vocalist that we wanted to meet at a local pizza place and had not gotten a reply, and I did not want it to be our fault that we were not there.  I took a table and a snack; she did not arrive, but I don’t know yet whether she replied to the message.

I have set my Twitter account (I think the link is MarkJosephYoung) to receive cell phone tweets, so if I make it to the show tonight I’ll try it.  I only follow one person, and he never tweets anything, so I don’t expect it will be too much of a burden on my cell phone texting time.

I also uploaded the next of the Examiner temporal anomalies articles, The Last Mimzy part 4:  the mandala Mimzy, which considers the impact on world history that might come from a toy rabbit teaching meditative techniques to thirteenth century Tibetan Buddhists.  Sometimes writers don’t seem to consider these problems; but it is a children’s story, ultimately, so they probably didn’t expect the audience to do so either.

I also, Tuesday, took another look at The Lake House, because there was a continuity discrepancy in my notes; but I found the problem, and should be able to return to that analysis soon, perhaps tonight if I don’t have a concert.

–M. J. Young

Today’s Examiner temporal anomalies article recognizes that The Last Mimzy speaks of there having been “many” Mimzys, but gives us the details of one, the core facts of a second, and a hint of a third.  Where are the others, and what impact did they or will they have on history?  The answers are considered in The Last Mimzy part 2:  the lost Mimzys.

Meanwhile, Baxter and I are preparing for our appearance as Collision at the Lift-FM Feed a Friend Free Concert tomorrow night, 7:00 PM at the Abundant Life Assembly, 44 Route 50, Ocean View (Seaville), New Jersey.  I have directions; I have spare guitar strings and picks and stuff.  We have practiced and agreed on our repertoire for the event.  I’ve even tweeted about it, although I will hopefully do so again tomorrow before we leave for it.  (I should set up my cell phone to tweet, but I’ll probably forget and anyway I probably would forget to use it when I got there.  I’ve been meaning to do it before Ubercon, but that’s not until November, and I’m not sure what events will happen before that which will take me anywhere.)

If you don’t see me here tomorrow, you’ll know where I am.

–M. J. Young

Having finished the temporal analysis of Terminator, I’ve turned my examiner focus to another film, a family film with a lot of complications that are not evident in the first glance, The Last Mimzy.  The first installment, The Last Mimzy part 1:  time travel for kids, is posted.

I’m sure there’s other news, but I’m rather tired and having done a lot already still have a lot to do, so I’m going to let it slide until my next post.  I’ll be sure to post more details on the upcoming Collision concert then, too.

–M. J. Young

Today’s title comes from the fact that earlier I encountered a supergeek line and I got it.  I don’t know whether that’s sad or not.

Although the Examiner’s temporal anomalies series on Terminator formally ended on Monday, a question had been raised about the relationship of Kate Brewster to John Conner in the repeating timelines, and it seemed to me that the best way to answer it would be to recap those histories in brief, noting in particular just when Kate mattered, and incidentally also when Kyle Reese mattered.  Thus today saw the posting of Terminator question 1:  when does Kate matter?, placing the basement tryst in context with the motorcycle accident of later years.

Terminator has not done terribly well as it has wound toward a close.  For a while it was popular, but more recently interest has flagged.  I expect to start posting an analysis of The Last Mimzy on Monday, with some hope that a new film will attract a new audience.

I am waiting to hear whether Collision has a gig tonight or not.  I announced yesterday through various channels that we are on the bill for next Friday night, as one of the “other up & coming groups” appearing with Tal & Acacia at LIFT-FM’s Feed a Friend free concert (7:00 PM April 16 at the Abundant Life Assembly in Ocean View, New Jersey).  (Donate one nonperishable food item at the door for admission.)  Meanwhile, if we’re singing tonight, I’d like to have time to announce that, not to mention to make the trip to Delaware most of an hour from here in time to do this.  If we’re not, I should plan to make supper and rehearse for next week, so I’m sort of in limbo here.

The line I read was, Never go to the elves for advice, for they will answer Abort, Retry, Fail?  The book in which I read it, The Empty Crown by Rosemary Edgehill (with thanks to Eric Ashley for the copy), attributed the quote to a button, which might or might not have been the origin, so I cannot credit it with certainty.  I do think, though, that if the line strikes you, you are rather well rooted in two primary areas of geekdom, and obviously I am.

–M. J. Young

I was going to post this yesterday, but a certainly elderly patient who went into the hospital over the weekend was discharged, creating a huge amount of work for us which consumed most of my day.  Still, I did manage to upload the fourth post in the Primer series, entitled Primer part 4:  the wrong Aaron.

I also got a fair amount of e-mail about temporal anomalies today, but only one was specifically about Primer and it was not clear whether the writer had come from the Temporal Anomalies web site or from The Examiner articles (although the address he used suggests the former).  But one thing he said has me curious as to whether I missed something, so I’m hoping he will reply.

–M. J. Young

I was talking with drummer John last night.  Actually, we were very nearly arguing about equipment for Collision, as I was trying to explain to him that if I could not find an eight inch four ohm fifty watt speaker to replace the one that burned out in the nice compact PA columns I wanted to use, this did not mean that I had to replace the entire sound system.  John is a drummer, and although Animal does not capture his personality, he is mildly technophobic and quite justly uninformed about amplifiers.  However, it proved to be a rather productive argu–er, discussion–as in making my point I was reminded that maybe a year ago my sound wizard Grey Vanaman of Audio-clear dropped off a pair of tall columns he had ripped out of a church where he was doing an install.  They had these weird mounting brackets on them and were painted white, and although I checked them briefly at the time to see if they worked I stuffed them in the attic pretty quickly.  But I figured with the compact boxes I really wanted to use out of commission, these four foot narrow columns would have to do.  Turns out they’re pretty decent speakers–Electrovoice Radiators–and so my PA system is now up and running.

I’ve also been loaned a solder iron, so assuming I also can find some solder I hope to repair the Hartke speaker tomorrow and get my instrument amplifier up and running.  Maybe if things go well I’ll put together the effects boxes I’ve intended to construct.

Today things did not go so well.  Fortunately, last week I made a decision to put an end to my participation in the Lutheran forum.  I kept inviting Lutheran friends of mine to participate there, and they never do; and some of the new members of that board weren’t really keen on having input from some weird multi-denominational Baptist when they were really hoping to have their own opinions confirmed by others who shared them.  More to the point, I needed to free up some time, and even though I was visiting them only once a week, it was tending to be a long visit that needed shortening.  I’ve now cleared some time on Tuesdays for other projects.

Today, though, did not go particularly well.  Most of the problems lay in the personal problems areas, and outside the purview of this blog; however, one thing that was a bit vexing is that I attempted to e-mail eight files (attached to separate letters) to the radio station to be four episodes of the Quick Word radio show on Faith and Gaming.  Since I still can’t convert to mp3, these are rather large files, and it seems that once seven were moving I was unable to connect to anything else on the Internet for several hours.  This definitely put me behind schedule, and I really ought in future to send fewer at a time and make sure to do so when I go to bed.

It’s getting late, but I’m not tired, so I’m going to attempt to get through a few forum posts at least.

–M. J. Young

I’m sure I’ve done a number of things since I last posted; I’ve not posted primarily because none of them really are completions, just landmarks along the way.

I’ve written, recorded, and sent a number of episodes in the Quick Word radio show’s Faith and Gaming series.  I still have not found a way to convert them to mp3 format, but I’ll manage.

I’ve made some progress on the equipment for Collision.  I’ve got two obstacles at the moment, one easily remedied and the other not so.  The easy one is that my solder iron seems to have wandered off–as my tools often do.  I will pick up another at my first opportunity.  I need it for a number of projects, but most specifically because a couple wires are loose on one of the speakers I’ll be using for my instruments amplifier, and I need to reconnect these.

The more difficult and frustrating problem is that I’ve burned out a speaker and need to replace it.  This is difficult and frustrating because I can’t find anyone who sells a speaker that will do the job. It must be 8 inches in diameter, and round, and it must be 4 ohms, and it must be rated at at least 50 watts.  I’ve found a few speakers promoted as being able to handle more power than that, but they’re generally rated 15 to 25 watts and then stated to handle more in peak power.  My best hope at the moment is to find something designed for car stereo use–not ideal, but seriously it’s gotten impossible to find anything in the nature of an electronics hobbyist’s store.  I will probably hit Best Buy sometime for that.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all that comes to mind.

–M. J. Young

As I was headed for the last leg before bed last night, around two in the morning, the phone rang.  It was our drummer John, wanting an update.  I am not complaining about the lateness of the call, as I did tell him that between midnight and three in the morning was the most reliable time to reach me, and he does work until eleven when he’s working, so it makes sense for him to call me then.  However, just because that’s the best time to get me doesn’t mean it’s a good time.  He always says, “I caught you at a bad time.”  I always answer, There are no good times.  I try to pressure people into using e-mail to contact me.  I can get to it when I actually have time, and can interrupt my response sometimes for hours at a stretch while I put everything else in place.  He’s older than I, and was technophobic before that was a word, so he likes talking to someone as close to in person as he can get–which for us is the telephone most of the time.

In any case, when I cut the call short at forty minutes (I believe two and a half hours is closer to his typical conversation, and on one of the first calls we went nearly twice that) I promised that I would somehow let him know the outcome of today’s tech work.  Gray Vanaman of Audio-clear, to whom we already owe so much, took a couple hours out of his afternoon to help me fix a few problems.  I was right about the problem with the P.A.:  it was something simple and stupid that I just did not know about the mixer, which was that all channels have to be assigned to a secondary or they don’t get to the mains.  In other words, we have a functional P.A. now.  Since that took him all of five minutes and he was there anyway, he also tackled the problem with the Ampeg V4s–beautiful classic bass guitar speaker cabinets, four twelve-inch woofers in each, but they have the old four-pin amphenols Ampeg used on all its speakers back in the day.  He replaced these with these newfangled connectors–NL4s, I think he calls them–and made me a pair of patch cords that will connect from the standard phone outputs of my amplifiers to the NL4 inputs.

Already several people have been impressed by Adam’s bass guitar set-up, as he has the classic Ampeg B-15, one of the best portable bass amps ever made, fifteen inch woofer in the cabinet, paired with the external Ampeg V4 bass speaker column, and it sounds wonderful.  I’ll be using the other V4 with my amp; I’ve a few things to set up to get that working, but it should be good to go maybe even by tomorrow evening.  I expect to have more trouble fixing the vacuum cleaner than I will setting up my equipment, although I’ve lost a needed switchbox and am going to have to buy the components to build another (something of my own invention that no one else has).  But I can work without it for the moment.  I’m just hoping I have enough patch cords to connect everything.

Rehearsal tomorrow; hopefully it will go well.

–M. J. Young