Music Administrivia (or how to get lost in music land)

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Gandalfe

ColtraneDolphy Many of my blog posse know I use this blog to keep notes of things I’ve done and want to do. So this is fair warning, this will probably be more interesting to me than to my readers unless you are seriously into performance and educational music.

If you are working away from your computer (like at your sisters or Dad’s house) you can get music by listening to Pandora.com where you define your stations for free. But additionally you can go to MySpace and listen to hours of music in almost any genre. People see my now over 1600 friends on Gandalfe at MySpace and probably think, what the heck? All I can say in my defense is that most of these folks are musicians and I often end up listening to them in the background while I surf the Web. A couple of examples:

I challenge you to visit these and other sites on MySpace and not be mesmerized.

BellevueJazzFestival

The Bellevue Jazz Festival is going on right now. Nuff said.

Egans There’s so much jazz going on in Seattle that I just point out one session that I just became aware of. Gordon blogs about Inexpensive Free Jazz (luv the title) at the ever popular Egan’s Jam House in Ballard (in Seattle’s extended village). A lot of my friends play here regularly but I just don’t get there enough. Luv the big sax sign too.  ;o)

Okay one last note. Many of you know I moved from the chief admin at the world-famous Sax on the Web forum to a new science project called the Woodwind Forum. Smaller than SOTW, the Woodwind Forum is a more intimate gathering of musicians, repair techs, and late bloomers such as myself. In the short three months that WF has been going full bore, we’ve over 100 readers and contributors.

So my friends, I’d luv to see you sign up for that forum and join in some of the music discussions and community interactions. I’m just sayin… 

Posted in Music | 4 Comments

Laptop Optimization

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Gandalfe

One of the key aspects to consider when purchasing a laptop is customer satisfaction. Consumer Reports is a great place to gather that information. Fortunately I can get these reports from the library, but more often I just get the recommendations from my friend Peter at work. Having just purchased a laptop last week (my selection and considerations blogged here), I was bragging at work and discovered I’d made a critical mistake in my selection.

I had accepted the default hard drive which has a spin time of 5400 RPMs! This is slow and cheap. But for $31 more I could have had a bigger drive with a spin time of 7200 RPMs. This would make all the difference in the world and for so little is a steal. So I grudgingly called Lenovo back and changed my order which means I’ve pushed the delivery time back another week. But I still should have the box before I go visit my new granddaughter Addie.

As explained to me by my dad, a retired test geek from Microsoft, the hard drive speed is the most commonly overlooked aspect by consumers purchasing new computers. And it make a big difference in performance.

LenovoLT

Posted in Computers and Internet | 8 Comments

WebMD: 10 Surprising Health Benefits of Sex

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Gandalfe

Togetherness Most of these are intuitive, but with so many uptight types in the US I thought I’d post what most doctors will tell you about the subject:

"When you’re in the mood, it’s a sure bet that the last thing on your mind is boosting your immune system or maintaining a healthy weight. Yet good sex offers those health benefits and more.

That’s a surprise to many people, says Joy Davidson, PhD, a New York psychologist and sex therapist. "Of course, sex is everywhere in the media," she says. "But the idea that we are vital, sexual creatures is still looked at in some cases with disgust or in other cases a bit of embarrassment. So to really take a look at how our sexuality adds to our life and enhances our life and our health, both physical and psychological, is eye-opening for many people."

Sex does a body good in a number of ways, according to Davidson and other experts. The benefits aren’t just anecdotal or hearsay — each of these 10 health benefits of sex is backed by scientific scrutiny." Read more…

I just sayin’…  :o)

Posted in Too Spicy for some | 9 Comments

MacBook Air, how sweet it is…

Posted on April 5, 2008 by Gandalfe

MacBook_Air

How sexy is this laptop computer? As a dyed-in-the-wool PC man, I still find myself very impressed with the form factor. Sometimes it really could be form over function for me. The price was a bit high compared to comparable thin-line computers. Still, it is very cool. :o)

So what does the kid get. Ever heard of Lenovo?

Lenovo

Saved about a grand, and that ain’t chump change. As I use this as a portal to the Internet and movie watching platform on airplanes, this does the job for me. Since I have a network at home, I didn’t buy the DVD burner and got the extra long-life battery pushing the battery life to something over nine hours. Sweet. Oh, and did I mention Lenovo has the highest customer sat rating for laptops? Double sweet. Sorry Elaine, I didn’t find out about this until after you asked me.

Posted in Computers and Internet | 9 Comments

My Excesses, No Excuses

Posted on April 4, 2008 by Gandalfe

survivor11 I was just thinking the other day about things that I love to do that most people would consider a waste of time. And it hit me that I have accumulated a lot of extra stuff to do that doesn’t put food on the table or make me a better person. So I thought I’d list some of them here. Then maybe in five or ten years I’d come back and see what had changed.

1. Survivor, the TV reality show.

2. MySpace, the place I connect with musicians.

3. The Dissonance, my jazz xTet. (Plus four other bands!)

4. Facebook, connection central.

5. Starbucks coffee, 3 – 4 times a week.

6. The Woodwind Forum, just ‘cuz it’s fun to talk music.

7. Classmates, still looking for friends I’ve lost track of.

8. Linked In, trying to catch up with all my work-based friends and acquaintances.

I try not to think how much time I spend on these sites. I didn’t even list Windows.Live.Spaces as we all know that isn’t a waste of time. ;o)  Maybe tomorrow I’ll blog about all the helpful places on the Internet that I frequent.

Posted in Hobbies | 6 Comments

Hey, the Job Market is Looking Up

Posted on April 2, 2008 by Gandalfe

For those of you who didn’t know, the U.S. is enjoying another recession. This was both funny and sobering. Enjoy.

"But you must speak Java." tickled me. And I noticed he didn’t ask for a writer!

Posted in News and politics | 7 Comments

The First April Fool’s Find

Posted on April 1, 2008 by Gandalfe

Sigh, it’s just after 7 AM and I run into this:

http://mail.google.com/mail/help/customtime/index.html

I luv the testimonials, but the "convincing" equation is fun too:

How come I only get ten?

Our researchers have concluded that allowing each person more than ten pre-dated emails per year would cause people to lose faith in the accuracy of time, thus rendering the feature useless.

Their findings:
clip_image001

N = Total emails sent
P = Probability that user believes the time stamp
φ = The Golden Ratio
L = Average life expectancy

7 to 9 more hours of work to navigate carefully! :o)

Posted in Humor | 4 Comments

Our new Granddaughter

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Gandalfe

Addie_Web

In my son’s own words:

On Tuesday evening, the 25th of March, Wendy and I received a call from our adoption agency, stating that they had a mother who was carrying a little boy who was due the previous Sunday but had not been born yet. We were asked if we would be willing to travel to Mississippi and brave two weeks’ worth of paperwork and waiting to adopt the baby. Now, this was two whole months earlier than we originally planned to adopt and never expected to leave the state at all but we analyzed the situation and finally said, “yes!”Come Thursday, and to our amazement and pleasure, the mother decided to travel here to Utah to have the baby, saving us tons of hassle and wait time in Mississippi so on Saturday, March 29th 2008 at 3:33am the child was born, and it was not a boy. Addelynn Marie Glass was born, 7 lbs and 13 oz; she was 20.5 inches and wide eyed with a full head of hair. After a first few hours on oxygen, Addie was brought to our private waiting room and spent the better part of the rest of the day with us.On Sunday, the 30th (the required 24 hour waiting period) the birth mother will sign the baby over to us and we should be all same at home by 2:00 PM.Addie is a beautiful child who enjoys sleeping, swaddling and the occasional drooling. Fortunately we had our baby room prepared a few months earlier than we originally felt necessary. Wendy will finish off the remainder of the school year with a substitute in her classroom, aided by the not so recent addition of a student teacher who has worked with Wendy over the past month and with whom the Kindergartners are already familiar and comfortable with. Meanwhile I will continue work and college and spent my time wishing I was home with my two girls. Wendy and I are so very grateful with the recent chain of events and thank our Father in Heaven daily for such a wonderful blessing to fall upon our doorstep.With love,Aaron, Wendy & Addie

Posted in My World | 18 Comments

I Luv This Sign…

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Gandalfe

TormentBand

Posted in Humor | 5 Comments

A Night in Tunisia

Posted on March 30, 2008 by Gandalfe

Dizzy Gillespie ; with Pepper Adams, Candido, George Davis, George Duvivier, Jon Faddis, Frank Foster, Curtis Fuller, Roland Hanna, Jimmy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Melba Liston, Victor Paz, Benny Powell, Paquito D’Rivera, Janice Robinson,Marvin Stamm, Grady Tate, Frank Wess, Paul West, Joe Wilder ; with special guests, Gerry Mulligan and Max Roach. Need I say more?  :o)

Posted in Jazz | Leave a comment