Links and Opinions

Reading aloud

2009-05-16T11:49:00.000-07:00

In the following article, the author discusses the lost art of reading aloud.
Well, not 'lost' but 'diminishing'. I decided to read aloud the Lord of the Rings trilogy in order to increase my reading aloud skill. It worked. Not only is it easier now to read aloud, comprehension seems to be equal to that of reading silently. However, listening to books on tape or CD is a different thing altogether. Much more difficult. One has to be ready to rewind to re-listen because the mind sometimes wonders. It seems the very act of reading the words off a page helps the mind to focus, while pure listening sparks other avenues of thought. For an extra special treat, try listening to "The Code of the Woosters" as read by Jonathon Cecil. Cecil is the only reader of P.G. Wodehouse that I would recommend.
The above link is this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/16sat4.html?hpw

From Fahrenheit to Centigrade and back Again

2008-07-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

My memory is so bad. It sputters, coughs & wheezes up surprising stuff, appearing
out of a fog, or like..uh....washed up on the beach like they were messages in a bottle.
It occured to me that my dad told me, probably 40 years ago, an easy formula for
converting between Fahrenheit and Centigrade.

I got depressed because I knew wouldn't ever remember it, but then it came to me
within a minute or two, after I stopped straining my brain.

Here it is: Whatever temp you have, in either Centigrade
or Fahrenheit, add 40 to the number. (I recalled the number 32 at first, incorrectly,
and found that value generated had an error of a few degrees.)

After adding 40, multiply by either 5/9 or 9/5. If you want to convert Fahrenheit
into Centigrade, multiply by 5/9. Then subtract that same 40.
That will be your converted temperature.

[(F + 40) 5/9] - 40 = C is the formula for converting F into C.

[(C + 40) 9/5] - 40 = F is the formula for converting C into F.

For easy remembering, just add 40 and multiply by either 5/9 or 9/5,
then subtract 40.

Switching from Nylon Strings to Steel

2008-05-08T08:38:00.000-07:00

For the folks who learned guitar on a classical or flamenco guitar, here is
a tip on how to obtain a wide necked guitar strung with steel strings.
Classical guitars are strung with nylon strings. But what if this kind of guitarist
decides to branch out and use steel strings? If they shop for a steel stringed
guitar, they run into the problem that necks on steel stringed guitars are narrow
compared to the classical guitar neck. That's a problem. The guitarist is faced
with either switching entirely to the narrow neck from the wide neck classical
guitars, or learning both necks, which is difficult to impossible and ill advised.

So the classical guitarist wants steel strings with a wide neck. The best way
to go with that is the Takamine F-312s, which is out of production. It's not
cheap either, but well worth the price. Actually, once a person owns this
guitar, it's unlikely that they would ever sell it. You can't go wrong with that
guitar and well worth the effort to shop around for it, including using eBay.
It's essentially a classical guitar made for steel strings. But what if you want
a big bodied guitar or even an electric guitar with a wide neck?
They don't make 'em.

Or do they? I experimented by stringing only 6 strings on an old, cheap
Guild 12 string guitar. It panned out to be a successful procedure yielding
a wide neck guitar with steel strings, and 2 frets above the body more than
a classical guitar. On this particular guitar, the tuning keys were rather
cheap, so I removed them and installed 6 Martin tuning keys. This slight
modification can also be done on electric guitars.

Simple and easy weight management

2008-01-21T13:26:00.000-08:00

If you can minimize sugar in the diet, maintaining your weight is relatively easy. 1st step is to eliminate all sugar drinks: No sodas, little milk, little fruit juice. Drink bottled spring water, green tea (green and white tea is delightful), and coffee (black)in moderation. Did your parents not teach you how to drink coffee black? It's not too late to develop a taste for it. It's the only way to drink coffee. The sugar and cream crowd, including the "latte" dunces standing in line, are misguided. Sensitize yourself to sugar. Avoid the sugar snacks & corn syrup foods and let the most sugary thing you eat to be fruit. If you want to gain weight, starve yourself. The body naturally overcompensates with a vengeance, craftily defying the mind, and you end up eating too much. Starving is the formula for weight gain. Basically, don't worry too much about oils, except make the choices for higher quality oils. Eat your largest meal in the morning to start the day, and then eat 4 healthful snacks dispersed throughout the day to maintain blood sugar. Traditional big meals are spaced too far apart and put us on a blood sugar roller coaster. Try not to eat after sundown. Social situations often make that impractical, and flexibility is recommended. Always provide fiber at every meal, which can be done by having a fruit or vegetable. Fiber minimizes the loss of energy because it passes with ease through the intestines, and slows down the sugar absorbion which is critical in avoiding fat storage. When you feel low in energy, you naturally eat more. So fiber is a major player in weight management. Fun exercise and physical activity is a must for healthful living.

Calibrate your finger

2007-05-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

Do you know how long your index finger is? Have you ever measured it?

When you don't have a ruler or measuring tape, you can
measure lengths, widths, diameters, and thicknesses by using
your index finger as a ruler. It's amazingly quick and handy.

Look at your index finger with the palm of your hand open
and facing towards you. It turns out that from your index
fingertip to the first joint is about one inch.

Measure between the first and second joint, from one crease
in the skin, or line, to the next. Again, it's almost exactly
one inch. It turns out that the finger is about 3 inches long.
But you'll have to measure your own fingers to find out the
precise measurement between each line on your finger. Discover
where the lines on your finger are exactly at inch intervals.

Why do this? It's extremley 'handy' to know these dimensions
to be able to measure objects when you're in a hurry and you
don't have a tape measure or ruler, for example, while shopping.

You'll find that it's quite easy to estimate to an 1/8th of an inch.
How long would it take for you to find a measuring tape right now?
Before you start looking, using your finger, measure the width of
the ALT key on your keyboard.
I'm looking at it right now and it seems like it would be 3/4".
(Greater than half the distance between the lines, plus half again
as much.) Checking with a tape measure, I was off by a 1/16".
Accuracy to within an 1/16th" is pretty good in most instances,
and more reliable than 'guess'-timating.

It measures 3 1/4" from the tip of my finger to the line at my
knuckle. But since that line isn't perpendicular to the centerline
of the finger, the measurement on the opposite side of the finger
will be shorter. In my case, 2 7/8" long.

Another measurement is from the tip of your index finger to the
next line on your hand between the knuckle and the thumb. I
think palm readers call that your life line.

Now, stretch your pinky and thumb as far apart as possible and
measure that. Mine is 9" give or take an 1/8" depending on how
hard I stretch them. You can put both hands stretched out
like this, thumb tip to thumb tip, and get a measurement
close to 18", hands vary of course. You can hold your index
finger end-to-end with your other hand stretched out and get
something close to 1 foot.

Getting change back in a wad.

2007-03-14T14:07:00.000-07:00

I was surprised when a checker at a Target store in my
neighborhood gave me change back consisting of about
8 or 9 coins sandwiched between a disorderly pile
of bills and the receipt. As I was watching him
place the menage in my outstretched hand he said,
"Here's your change."

As I tried to get control of the mess, the coins
slipped off the rat nest of 6 or 7 bills and landed
tinkling and rolling on the floor. I looked at the coins
all over the place, and looked back at the checker to
see a mild sort of "whoops" expression, nothing more.
The customer behind me helped to pick up the change.
After having collected my money, finally, the
parting statement by the cashier was, "Have a nice day."
I look at him without commenting. Slow burn.

Was he insulting me, or lacking training or what?
I had to work for that money, and in the process
endure pressure from some unpleasant bosses, too.
I'll think twice before I shop there again, but this
is not an extraordinary event anymore. Cashiers
don't, as a rule, count out the change. You get
it in your mitt and are forced to count it, or not,
in the hast created by the fact that you're now
holding up progress for the next hurried customer
in line. You're in the way.

Money isn't worth much anymore, and it's not worth
the time. And perhaps for some even insulting, if the
cashier counted the money, I suppose. But, I've watched
this, "Here's your money", one too many times. What to do?

I'll update this blog entry with what I do. My plan now
is to pay careful attention and withdraw my hand if the
cashier makes their move to place the wad of change and
receipt in my outstretched hand. Maybe I'll request
politely that they count out the change, maybe I'll tell
'em that I think they're a dollar short. I'm sure it'll
be an impromtu sort of give 'n' take. It's almost a
sporting-like event, where one wants to get come out
victorious.

Update (3/30/07):
I'm a failure at confronting the cashiers.
I gotta admit that I feel intimidated. I fear that these
people don't know how to count change. I have to do
this thing without insulting their intelligence...not in
my skill set. I'm thinking about it.

Felicity in Life - Music Criticism

2007-01-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

Ben Franklin wrote of felicity, as in the enjoyment of life.
With that same goal in mind, let me address one little dimension in
the felicity of relationships. That would be music criticism among
friends and relatives. This goes for all kinds of arts. Experiencing
art is one of the graces in life. It involves active esthetic and intellectual,
as well as cultural elements in the individual. That's quite a complex
formula for anyone, in any locale or age. So, because all folks are different,
they will appreciate art and music differently.

If we're to live a life with the aim of promoting felicity, then we must
tolerate other people's tastes and preferences. One of the qualities
of being an acquaintance, or friend, or relative, is that the things we
say to each other are stored in our memories. There's no controlling
that. We remember. And because of this, we should try to limit our
criticisms of art and music to positive statements.

Negativity resides in people's memories to such an insidious extent,
that these remarks will be drawn from memory by that person when
they next experience their piece of music or art. That's a spoiler.
They don't want to think about that while they're enjoying art.
There's no cause to load negativity on the people we have in our lives.
If you don't like a piece of music (for example, in the film, Big Lebowski,
The Dude hated the Eagles music ). He should've just endured and not
try to bring down his taxi driver. (see pic...the Dude gets ejected by
taxi driver because of The Dude's negative music criticism)

Unthinkingly, I've made the mistake of blurting out my honest reaction
to friends and relative's music, when I should have held my tongue.
Looking back, I recognize this as a lack of wisdom. What to do, then,
when someone wants you to listen to an Eagles tune (again, just an example).

Nod your head as if you appreciate the tune, and try not to say anything.
If cornered, and they want you to verbalize about it, say little and act
distracted with something else, but avoid loading your friend's mind
with things they don't want to hear. This is about art, not life.

This doesn't apply to professional or even blog o' sphere criticisms, since
these sources are disconnected from people's relationships. There must
be artistic criticism, but in relationships in real life, our input is best kept
positive.

James Brown - Man of Renown

2006-12-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

James Brown saved music.
Music in the first half of the Sixties was
hanging by a thread, and that thread
was James Brown. Pop music had
been processed into a violin background,
acceptable, corporate product.
Gone was the vibrance of Chuck Berry,
Little Richard, and a young Elvis,
all three of whom had, by then, lost
their youthful creativity, as we all are
biologically doomed to lose our youth.

In the early 60's, the blues masters were under employed,
not on the airwaves, and practically the best that the radio stations
fed us were the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. Motown was the only
source of listenable pop music, and thank God for them, but where
was the cutting edge that Chuck Berry and Little Richard gave us?
With Berry and Richard out of the scene, and Elvis tamed, music
was pablum. Pop music was suited for cows to digest their cud.

And then, by stark contrast, came James Brown.
He was dressed in quite unacceptable shiny duds, super slicked-back hair,
and stylistic dance. His lyrics were sparce, and his band was the definition
of tight. It was hot brass and a hard bass guitar. No violins there. His vocals
howled at us, of something essentially individual, if somewhat Baptist.
He was an explosion of talent and ego, whippin' it out, hard work and sweat.
He brought us a new definition of raw and tight. He was the lifeline
(we didn't know it then), until the blues based music came back.
We need him again. This man is sorely missed.

[source for pic]

Film - Nacho Libre

2006-12-07T04:08:00.000-08:00

pic source

"Nacho Libre" is a fine comedy.
There's some laughs in this movie.
Roger Ebert, who pans this film w/o mercy,
was once a fair judge of film (long ago),
has since declined, and should have retired
in the last millenium.
"Nacho Libre" succeeds on several levels.

Numero uno, Jack Black puts in a superlative
comedic performance with intensity, reminiscent
of John Belushi.

Numero dos, the subject matter of comedy is individuals
and cultures. No culture is resistant to comedy, and that includes the culture
of Mexican wrestling, which is further explored in the bonus material on the
dvd. This is a fun exploration of the cultural phenominum called Lucha Libre.

Numero tres, the cinematography is top notch. It's a feast of color and texture
not seen since "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Numero tres y media, each
charactor was a visual treat. Lastly, numero quatro, the music was good.

Guitar - Gold Wound Strings

2006-12-05T20:13:00.000-08:00

Normal guitar strings (Low E, A, D, G) are wound with bronze. However,
there are occasionally on the market, gold wound strings. Not pure gold,
but gold alloy. Pure gold is too soft, and way too expensive. Gold alloy
does the trick.

Gold wound strings offer benefits over bronze. First is that they bring a fuller,
richer sound to the lower strings. You'll notice it immediately. It's pronounced
and beautiful. It improves the sound of an acoustic guitar, and any guitarist would
want that. Second, they're impervious to the corrosive action of the oils, dirt,
and acids present on the guitarist's fingertips, which react with the bronze,
causing them to corrode. By avoiding this corrosion, gold strings stay fresher
and continue to deliver a rich sound for a much longer time. The fingers don't
have that disgusting bronze stench after a session. And your fingertips won't
turn black.

As I glance over at my Takamine F312S, I'm reminded that the golds continue
to look brighter than the corroded bronze strings. Golds cost more, but since
you have to re-string less frequently, they aren't that much more expensive.
It's a superior string, but the public doesn't seem to know about them.
Neither do most retailers. Try mentioning gold wound strings at your music store
and see them look off into the distance. Does not compute for them.
As cutting edge, in the know and hyper-modern as they consider themselves,
the music community has an annoying conservative streak to it.

Silver wound string sound a little better than bronze wound strings and are a
worthwhile purchase. Gold wound strings sound better than silver wound strings.
The only thing to remember is that the lightest guage gold wounds don't deliver
the difference in sound quality as the medium or medium/lights do.

How to Light a Cigar

2006-12-03T15:13:00.000-08:00

The technique for lighting cigars is different cigarettes due to the difference
from in diameter between the two distinctly different types of smokes, and the burning properties of their wrappers. The wrapper for a cigarette is bone dry paper. It burns immediately. The wrapper for a cigar is a tobacco leaf, that hopefully, isn't too dry.

The diameter of cigars are larger than cigarettes, and although some cigars are very thin, the genuine cigars aren't. The diameter of a cigar, or ring size, is larger that the flame of your match.

Cigars can be improperly lit, meaning usually, that some portion of the end of the cigar lights, and burns, while other portions are yet to be lit. This leads to a malformed coal, affecting the flavor, and could lead to runs or tunneling. You don't want that on a smoke that cost you from 3 to 15 dollars.

God knows how poor a showing it is to light a perfectly good cigar in front of your friends, or at the smoke shop, and mess it all up. The objective is to start a cigar coal burning the full area of the cigar end.

So, here is what you should do to prep the end of the cigar before you start toking away at it. Even before you put the cigar to your lips, light the match and uniformly char the cigar end. It shouldn't take but 3 or 4 seconds to get that done. Then, with that same match, you can proceed to toke on the cigar, holding the flame of the match in front of the charred end It can be done with one match.

Like most everything else, it benefits from a little practice before you do it in front of a critical audience, lookin' sauve & debonaire, as if it was effortless.

Sharpening Stone Care

2006-12-03T14:00:00.000-08:00

Clean your sharpening stone.
Sharpening stone clogged up, black with grinding dust and grime?
Melt the blackness away with ordinary waterless hand sanitizer,
sold in almost any supermarket, and a paper towel to de-clog your
stone. This revives your stone with little effort, and is also effective
for your ceramic rods.

How to Drink from a Can

2006-09-14T22:29:00.000-07:00

For my first blog 'entree' (is that's how it's called?), I'd like to offer
up simple directions on how to drink from a can. Yes, you read that
correctly: How to drink from a can. You say, that's insane, anyone
knows that without being told. It's a skill learned practically in the
highchair. But, if we go back a few decades, back to a time when
anything ~new~ went unquestioned, folks drank from the can
differently.

I know by experience right out of the starting gate, that there are high
brows out there who scoff at the very idea of considering such a thing,
having evolved beyond the can to the bottle for their alcoholic or
sweetened beverage requirements. You wouldn't catch them in the
lower class activity of drinking from a common can. But there are still
some of us who occasionally buy a 12 or 18 pac of beer or sodas on sale
at the drug store, if it's a tolerable brand. Mexican, Euro, Canadian,
even Aussie beer come in cans, and are usually overpriced, and so if
they go on sale, they'll be purchased. You can stuff more cans in the
ice chest than bottles.

Beverage cans, today, all have pop tops. And why shouldn't they? It's a
convenience that makes good, practical sense. It's an evolved device.
Before the pop top there was the pull tab. The pull tab was superior
for the only reason that it made a different hole ontop the can allowing for
better flow of the liquid from the container, compared to the present day
pop top. The pull tab hole was closer to the edge of the can, and was
longer, too, where the top of the hole provided a vent, plus allowed
a large target for the upper lip to plant itself to the hole.
But the shape of the pull tab hole was inferior to the hole made by the archaic,
and just never seen anymore, church key. The church key punched a
triangular hole, with the base of the triangle up next to the rim of the can.
That triangular hole allowed for a more laminar flow of the liquid as it
exited the can. 'Laminar' means flow without turbulence. If you have a
carbinated drink, you want to minimize the fizz loss before it hits the inside
of your mouth cavity. Back in the day, the bigger the church key, the
greater the flow of liquid, and therefore, much more satisfying and refreshing.
Like the comparison between stepping into an inflatable pool on the lawn, or
diving into a proper swimming pool. Bigger is better, or was.

In these post-ultra-modern times we live in today,
if one were to keep an eye peeled to score a church key
to improve their drinking experience (And why not
improve it?), keep it in mind that the larger church key
is no longer the desireable unit. Since all cans now have
the pop top, and the pop top's rivet and tab prohibits the
utilization of the large sized church keys. Nowadays one
has to use the smaller church key, but even so, it is an
improvement over the inferior hole that the pop top
provides.

Resist going to eBay and buying one of their rusted old church keys.

You want a brand new church key that you can clean once in a while
to prevent microbial growth, and no matter how much you scrub rust,
there is just too much surface area to keep down the microbes.

I've seen this new design for a church key marketed for making chugging
beer safer and more convenient, but for the for mild mannered drinkers
from a can, this doesn't do the trick because they are designed to open a
beer can on the side, at the wrong end, and should be avoided unless one
finds chugging a plus. (Get the girls stinking drunk? Worth a try.)But even now, if you look, you might spot in a plastic tumbler on a crowded
liquor store counter, by that special cleared area where we all put down our
cash, church keys for sale cheap. When you do spot them, scarf up extras
to keep on hand, and in the drawer, or in the tackle box, because they're so
darned easy to lose. No one knows where they go.