cyrano | Recent Entries

This one is for those of you using a newer version of iTunes. I told it to update recently, and now if any of my playlists are over seven tracks long (all of them are), I can't scroll down the screen. I tried looking for a poorly placed scroll bar, and when I click inside the playlist window and highlight a song, I can use the arrow keys to highlight different songs, but it doesn't scroll when I try to go past the seventh track. The mouse scroll wheel does not scroll, and I cannot click and drag.
Has anybody encountered this, or have any further hints?

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1213936.html

A deftly woven retelling of Pinocchio, RoboCop, and Short Circuit, with a hint of the mortality of Blade Runner, and all of the Phillip K Dick uneasy 'what is humanity' that would entail. They surprised me in a few places, but there were one or two others that I wish they had. I would have liked subtitles, because combining Chappie's accent with voice distortion occasionally rendered him unintelligible.
Four Electric Wags.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1213662.html

Quick MI:AGAIN review.
Holds together pretty well. The supporting cast gets something to do. They don't try to hook anybody up, and the token female is competent and has agency. The set piece in the opera house is pretty impressive. I'm rating it the second best MI:Movie.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1212953.html

I've been messing around with Google's Deep Dream. If anybody's interested, I'll post my results that I thought were interesting enough to keep.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1212855.html

So there was the trip to Chattanooga. Ended up being shorter than expected because we didn't want to drive any more. So far as I know, Reno and Asheville are still on the possible destination list. The days in between have been more or less (struggle) (strive) (fail) (fall). I'm not losing any ground, really, just not gaining any. John got me the CompTIA text for computer security, I've been reading up on networking (also getting the CompTIA text for that), and I have java and python texts ready for me when I get bored of that. At least today I had a bunch of friends over and even though I didn't get to play Fiasco, we did put together an Alpha playset for penny dreadfuls. I think I need to work on making it dreadfuller.
J&A are out of town until Thursday, maybe I can quit distracting myself long enough to make some headway. and just maybe prep for my lesson on Tuesday.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1212649.html

Avery worked on my shoulder for, like, twenty minutes last night.
Today, I can raise my hand up over my head without pain.
That's a good thing.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1212310.html

How could I have forgotten this part?
While we were downtown and at the aquarium, a storm front rolled in.

And I didn't get a headache.

How the hell does that even happen? Admittedly, the almost theatrical drama of the skull splitting headache melting away to the accompaniment of spears of lightning darting across the sky was very satisfying, but you understand why I might prefer another method.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1211881.html

Second full day in Chattanooga. Gotta say, I think it has a lot going for it.
Downtown is busy without being logjammed. The CSO looks a little Boston Poppy, but they have one. The aquarium is really nice (It's no Monterey, but nothing is). Restaurants appear to be challenging for my diet, but I think I can make it work. Even the suburbs appear to be 15-30 minutes out of town, so there's not the exurbia set up where I had to drive an hour to get to town. There are two shuttle lines which go a lot of places--I'd probably still have to have a car to get to the end of the line station, but from there it'd take me around town. It's nice to see water that's moving--the Tennessee River loops through town twice on its way to the Ohio. People apologize when they bump into you, although they may have been tourists. That's the big dark spot right now--what are the people like? Do you have to be a Baptist or they shun you? Can you have political differences and still hold civil discourse? Do they shut down for NASCAR the way other places shut down for the World Cup? Will I have to become a Hurricanes fan?

There was *one* indicator of what the locals are like. At the Tupelo Honey Cafe I had a gentleman ask to take a photo of my Notorious RBG t-shirt because it was 'the best thing he'd ever seen'.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1211559.html

One of my DW-friends posted this morning about her thirty-mile self punishment. I'm going to write about a silly online game. I consider this Variety. Vive le difference.
My friend mimerki and I play Trivia Crack. Kind of a lot. I'm level 75, which I understand on World of Warcraft is a big deal. Grammar on some of the questions make me reach instinctively for the editor's pen, but all in all it's fun. Instead of 'good' and 'bad' questions, we vote on 'fun' and 'boring'. Which creates a different dynamic. But I didn't come here to tell you that story. I told you that story to tell you this story. Every time my phone blorps to tell me it's my turn, it's like she's saying "Hello. I'm here." And for some reason I find it comforting.

Unless the blorp is telling me that she won the game. (I lose.) Then I tear my hair and curse her name.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1211225.html

I've been having a string of educational encounters--I find a text that I think is going to be helpful, and it turns out to be either wildly not what I need or way over my head. The good news is that I'm learning, and sinking less time into the mistakes.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1210961.html

Okay, now I'm actually kind of serious about a Mad Max: Thunder Road game, and I come to you in search of ideas and themes. It has to be based in New Jersey, of course, and 'Born to Run' gets used as theme music. But what else would you expect to find if you signed up for such a game?

EDIT: For those who didn't suss it, this would be a cross between Mad Max 1-4 and the musical catalog of Bruce Springsteen.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1210501.html

Today was the last Softer World.
I just threw out two beloved t-shirts because they're raggedy and full of holes.
I slept eight hours and cannot keep my eyes open.
I just watched Mad Max. I should be full of energy.
I call do-over.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1210186.html

Today was my first counseling appointment in quite some time. Years. Largely because I hadn't felt I had accomplished much with previous counselors. You've probably heard my discourse on this. About twenty minutes in, she leaned forward slightly and said "You know yourself very well." Not a question. I nodded, relieved that I wouldn't have to spend several weeks convincing her that I had some idea what was going on inside me.

Just to confound matters, tonight I was reading about mindfulness since, apparently next to yoga, coffee, and six hours of sleep a night, mindfulness is the most beneficial thing I can do for myself. Perusing Mindfulnet.org I came across the statement that mindfulness was the direct knowing of what is going on inside and outside ourselves moment by moment. And I realised that I didn't often tell myself what was going on inside. So, good on me for knowing that.

All said, mindfulness meditation--isolating the brain and concentrating or at least trying to concentrate on a single focus--still sounds like a punishment.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1209943.html

At this point it is safe to declare that Mad Max: Fury Road is my new Matrix.

For those of you just joining this circus, here's the way things work. Every so often something sweeps like wildfire through the world, setting everyone aflame with rhapsodic appreciation, ardor uncooled by time and a single exposure, and my online world is awash with praise and memes. I think to myself, this sounds pretty cool, and so I toddle out to expose myself to The Next Big Thing. And it's not bad. That scene where they're running through the building to save Morpheus is, in fact, kind of cool. It was worth the matinee ticket price I paid, or at least it would have been if I could let it go at that.

Why didn't *I* get swept up in the rapture like everybody else? I poke at it, frown curiously, poke at it some more, and perhaps I resent the something for leaving me behind and taking away all my friends to Valhalla for some quality time, a film nearly as over the top as Thunderdome, (Where Tina Turner does her very best Grace Slick imitation) while leaving me with a two hour car chase and a made-for-3D moment.

It is more manifestation of my fascination with What Normal People Do, and I try not to fixate on it too much because I'm pretty certain there are no answers. And as Nux always says, nobody likes not getting answers.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1209828.html

Posit:
It is essentially a given that special interest groups and the small top percentage of wealth create laws at least at the federal level, possibly further.
We can then assume that the citizens have no part in the legislative process for any reasonable definition of 'citizens'.
This leads us to the conclusion that when we are taxed we have no representation in the government.
If the Tea Party wasn't so full of idiots I'd tell 'em to find a boat in Boston.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1209408.html

At first it was just failing to get stuff done--scheduled stuff, guitar practice, writing, exercise, that felt manageable especially with no job to get in the way, and it just ended up taking longer than I thought it would need to. And so every day felt... like I was focused on what wasn't done instead of what was. And I'm working on that. Now, having changed rooms for redecorating purposes a couple of times, I'm losing things. All of my worldly possessions basically are in boxes, but I can't find my Kindle, I can't find Brian's art to hang with the rest of it, I can't find Abbie's photos... It feels like I'm unraveling a little. Like whatever I'm standing on is inevitably being washed away. I almost took up smoking again last week. I thought I'd pared down to the important things and let go of the rest. Apparently there's more paring to do.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1209232.html

Miss Rose's travel post has inspired me, although mine is far less complicated than hers. Most of my travel is 'drive to Detroit for an evening event'.
But on 22 Aug I'll be in Chicago for the Evil Dead musical--it's apparently finally leaving Las Vegas for a tour. More nebulously, we're taking a trip when it's hot and miserable to investigate how hot and miserable it is in places that we might be moving too. And sometime in the next few months I want to go see Washington or, if that doesn't work out, bring Washington to me for a visit. That's the whole travel plans until November, which I'm hoping will be a full out mad visiting time centered around AmberCon.

In other news, Spring was lovely, and I'll miss it.

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1208952.html

Crossposts: http://cyranocyrano.livejournal.com/1208416.html

It surprised me when I held her at first--after my experiences in the past, I didn't expect her to be so light, so delicate. It made me feel very protective, knowing that with a gentle touch I could make her sing, but handling her roughly would make her scream. I cradled her carefully, just stroking her curves, her smooth planes. I ran my finger up her neck, letting my fingernail catch. She purred softly, and a soft warm sense of satisfaction washed over me. All I had to do was tell her, let her know what I wanted. And if I performed well enough, she'd do anything I wanted. She wasn't a classic, but she was classical, and from a good family. Drawing her into my lap, I whispered that it was time to work on that C chord.

EDIT: She does not like being choked, and reacts badly to the capo.