Category: Technology

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Gardening

Anyone else looking forward to Spring? The longer days, the temperature, the gardening adventures? Right now, I already started a small group of tomatoes that have just sprouted. Probably way too early. They are going to need to be transplanted several times.

The big question is always: how many seeds are going to be planted this year? How many plants and vegetables are adequate to maintain? Given the cooking I’ve been recently doing, I think some peppers would be a great addition. Several blackberry plants already populate the garden, and they are an excellent addition to yogurt and cereal. Nothing beats dark berries for flavor and nutrition.

The recent winter storm proved that the battery powered snow blower was perfectly capable of handling nature’s challenges. The battery powered mower has impressed me over and over again with it’s abilities. What I have yet to test is the rototiller. I’m looking forward to testing it out this year.

It’s very early, but I’m already looking forward to that time change. Moving the inside plants out, and getting a little help from what seasonal nature provides…

Oops. Forgot to mention. Since I’m not currently on any social med (3 yrs. at least) . I’ve updated the “About” page. (It was recommended)

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Emergency.

It’s around 9:30 pm on a Saturday. I’m sipping a Sam Adam’s Cold Snap (probably my favorite beer). Like a good swath of the country, our area is on the verge of a snow emergency. At this point, I filled the car with gas, boiled eggs, made some cold pasta meals, some rice, beans, and checked the stock of milk and cereal. All good.

The batteries are charged for the flash light, as well as the batteries for the snow blower. Will it make it through several inches of snow on the driveway? Time will tell… and all this gets my mind going. How much profit is created off emergencies? The threat of catastrophe? For products? For behavior? For behaviors that create more profit, from products and services that remove worry and resolve conflict?

Shovels. Food. Seasonal Machinery. Spirituality. Assistance. Products? What is necessary?

After Covid, it seems that several services absolutely took off. Especially the “stay at home” kind. Online medical appointments, grocery pickup and delivery, pharmaceutical deliveries, even car buying on line. Was any of this a direct result of covid? When did the influx of all these damn prescription pill advertisements start on TV? For anxiety. Depression. Cancer. Psychological Disorders. Diabetes?

A marketplace?

The main argument against academia, and the pursuit of higher education is that it creates, then instills, too many questions in students. Are it’s pupils intelligently questioning the status quo and those that rely simply on “faith and confidence” in an existing system? Where does consumerism, marketing and advertisering fit in?

The culture definitely changes with every major event that occurs. Are we, as a society, recognizing this?

Edit: Off the album: This Type of Thinking Could Do Us In!

-SK

If you like this song, this is another great tune by the band. Love music always.

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Accessing Online Music/DLing

So I’ve been reading about a few people having trouble accessing and/or downloading music for multiple songs off YT for listening (later) on various devices. Many browsers (Firefox, Chrome, etc) have extensions or addons which can be used to accomplish this feat. If you are a fan of live music or mashups, these are excellent tools to use to transfer to USB or device.

Firefox offers downloadhelper (and other extensions), which allow you to download in audio format. Of course, you can use this tool to download full podcasts, or any sort of audio also.

Recently, I downloaded this old school mashup.

ROCK ON MY FRIENDS!

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Lately (I’ve Been Rationalizing)

I’ve been using refurbished or recertified computers for many years. Look on any auction site and you can find plenty. An old computer “genius” friend of mine started swapping and buying components years ago and rebuilding pcs, servers, and gaming systems. He always had luck with it.

From my perspective, the older machines and components seem to be built better. They are more manageable with easily accessible components from their cases and shells. Of course, I’m speaking in generalities here, your mileage may vary. Obviously, another big advantage is you typically get more bang for your buck in storage space, processor, and RAM.

Where does this “thinking” apply elsewhere, outside of the nerdosphere?

I’m getting old. And find many items from clothes to phones, cars to music (mostly), better in the past. The design of cars, a dress shirt, the rhythm and focus of a song, movies, shows, etc. Yes, I’m getting old… did I mention that?

So what is acceptable in an age where “new” is advertised and encouraged? Consumerism is a very powerful collective practice in America, but I think I’m starting to really change my viewpoint when it comes to materialism and products. Entertainment and even travel.

Anyone feel the same? Leave a comment below… wait a second.

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Music/Life

So what’s been going on with this site, me, and where is this leading to? This site…probably nowhere. It’s a place to be humorous and occasionally discuss tech and music (mostly). The past year I took a long break from technology (although not completely absent). Also had the chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a very long time. Which to me, is more valuable than anything else I have to talk about here or elsewhere. Often times I think tech interferes with our vision of the world, perhaps persuades and manipulates our viewpoints. Sometimes things are black and white, but often times things that should be pretty straightforward get translated in the wrong language (I am talking about foreign languages to you and me, due to mindset, agendas, values, and understandings of the world).

I mentioned Sirius/XM radio in another post somewhere, and I’ve been introduced to a lot of good music. Do you ever come across that one song you hear only one time and know you have to purchase it? It plays in your head for hours, perhaps days, and finally you either buy the digital download or the whole album. This has been that song for me (the recent one).

Crazy thing is, these guys were almost certainly playing at some festivals/shows I’ve been to in the past. Perhaps I didn’t make it over to their stage. But it’s great to see them still going strong. Definitely recognize the name, had a couple songs on some comps/mixed lists back in the day. Excellent tune. Beware of the internal disc jockey spinning this constantly in your head.

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“White Chocolate Was Special”

Recently heard some good news regarding ratings of the top political podcasts and growing audiences. Rumor is, Gavin Newsome is going to start his own podcast soon. One thing I’ve had difficulty doing is prying myself away from the latest news. And I say this as someone who periodically watches C-SPAN (votes, debates, etc). Yes, there are a few of us out there in the world.

It’s amazing to see my favorite childhood NBA player announcing college basketball games now. And when it comes to a break from the news, there’s nothing better than Chuck, Shaq, Kenny, and Ernie covering the NBA (although rumors are, that may end soon too).
In addition to the commentary/humorous side of the NBA, there are some excellent “legends” videos out there. (Is that word getting overused now?)

This is one I just came across, but I’ve seen quite a few.

And, hate to admit it, but I’ve been ***WATCHING MrBallen for quite a while. Great storytelling. If you are new, I would probably start here:

MrBallen

***Edited for clarification

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Radio/TV

It was about 15 yrs ago when antennaweb and other similar sites were starting to get popular. Lots of folks were cutting the cable, checking their tv specs for “built-in” tuners…AND beginning to use tv boxes OR PCs to stream everything from local news, radio, YouTube, etc. Of course, this wasn’t the beginning of “cut the cable” culture, just the time when a larger group of consumers started noticing the trend (and switching).

Is it time to VPN everything? Good question. YouTube is much different than when it started (especially after being purchased by Google). With the popularity of tv boxes and streaming comes forced advertising and data mining. VPN’s can help resolve many issues, but they are not a full scale solution. As always, the devil is in the details. So be sure to check logging policies and also where the vpn company is located. You may be defeating the purpose of purchasing vpn service, by simply handing your data over to another data miner.

As of right now, I am getting personalized ads from Seattle and San Francisco. It’s kind of nice seeing what’s going on on the west coast. I’ve seen a couple of advertisements for school teachers and programs at local schools. Another for animal rescues. And another for state funded prescription coverage. YEAH!!!

It’s not as easy these days, but sometimes you just have to change the dial.

I think I’ll kill the radio, don’t want to hear this song..