Well, it seems I have either a) lost interest, b) lost time, c) found other things to do or d) all of the above with respect to this blog. My first post was way back on Feb. 25, 2002. Our dog, now almost one year old, accounts for b) and c) as well as becoming choir manager, and a) arises because, after walking the dog in the evening, I don’t feel much like spending another half an hour posting something.
Perhaps I should try posting just a sentence or fragment instead of paragraphs.
Anyway, my software find this week is Audacity. I decided to start digitizing choir concert tapes from years ago. I can record one side of a tape and then slice out the selections, creating mp3 files out of them. So far I have done one Bell’Arte Singers set of two tapes from Nov. 1998 and one Toronto Chamber Society concert from Nov. 1981. The TCS turned out all right. The BAS tapes have either been played too much or they weren’t recorded at a high enough level. Their sound is kind of rumbly and muddy. I tried the FFT filter from the Audacity library to cut out the low frequencies: less rumbly now but the vocal sounds still aren’t very clear.
As for the 1981 tape, I don’t have the program just the titles I wrote on the cover. Through the “miracle” of the Internet though, I can search for midis based on the titles and, from listening to those, I can determine the correct title and composer.
Is walking the dog good or bad procrastination? At least I’m getting some exercise and Finnegan seems to enjoy sniffing around and walking with me. And how about updating this blog once in a while?
Yesterday, I realized that dogs lean on things just like people. I never noticed this behaviour in cats; however, they sleep so much anyway.
Last night it finally felt like Christmas after spending a quiet evening and this morning with my aunt and uncle (the U.C. minister). Considering he has been in the hospital for a couple of months and that December 2005 might have been his last time in the land of the living: quiet is good. I had the pleasure of walking their dog (a 10 year old golden retriever and former seeing-eye dog) and my own last night. I had the displeasure this morning of picking out a dozen or so kind of burr I hadn’t seen before. It was pine cone shaped, about 2 to 3 cm long with sharp points. My dog got them in bushes next to the sand at the beach in Port Hope.
This might be the first Christmas Eve in 30 years I may be in bed before Christmas. We aren’t going to a Christmas Eve service, we aren’t participating in one, I don’t have to assemble a bike, sled or hockey net. Quiet is good.
I have an hourly scheduled set of commands that take between 15 and 20 minutes to complete on my work PC. I found out how to automatically start the cmd with the console minimized. Just recently I discovered how to get rid of the window entirely using Win32::GUI:
@perl -MWin32::GUI -e "$dos = Win32::GUI::GetPerlWindow() ; Win32::GUI::Hide($dos)"
Now I would like to find a or write a small NotifyIcon application to which other processes can talk and change either the icon or the tooltip in order to report the status of those processes running in the hidden console window.
Our union held its first annual Christmas party with just short of 1000 people in one of those wedding / convention places north of Toronto. Only four us represented our small local, actually make that two as the other two are on the union executive. The majority of the others were from the Hydro One local. They were ready for a party after the 105 day strike they suffered from June through September until the Ontario Government told the CEO to get back to the negotiating table. My wife and I had a good time and the price was reasonable for a few drinks, supper and dancing with a live band. I’m looking forward to next year. Though, I should request that the president have someone edit his speech: it went on for over half an hour and got very union rah-rah and political. No jokes either.
We wondered why dog “boots” are sold. Now we know! At around the freezing point the little snowballs accumulate. They are as difficult and tedious to remove as burrs; however, unlike burrs, we can just let the snow melt. After this picture I put him in the kitchen and closed it off until the snow melted and I could dry him off and mop up the floor. He gets snowballs on his face, too, as Finnegan likes to poke his head into every snowy footprint or just sniff in the snow as he walks along.- Thanks to Christmas family letters I have learned that one of my cousins has separated from his wife, another had a baby girl on the same birthday as my brother, Aug. 28, 2005, and yet another has bought her first house next door to her Mom’s. That way she doesn’t need to buy any tools, lawnmower, rake, BBQ, shovel, etc.
- Last night our choir, The Bell’Arte Singers joined with the children of the York Region Children’s Choir to present a Christmas concert. Grace Church on the Hill was packed.
- My wife turned the half-century yesterday. She got a beautiful ring (pink sapphire amidst some smaller diamonds) “sort of” from me. She actually bought it several weeks ago for half price from a jewellery store going out of business. I’m going to return the favour by having her give me a replacement “CD/tape/FM playing” system that I’ll be looking for Christmas and my birthday.
Last night we had the last “regular” rehearsal for our concert next Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005 at Grace Church on the Hill.- As that rehearsal was moved to late afternoon I took my wife and her girlfriend out the pub for supper and libation. Singing is such thirsty work!
- Today was relaxing: walking the dog a few times, putting up some Christmas lights, reading the paper, etc. This evening I took my wife, my two sons and my older son’s gf out for supper at Canyon Creek. Four of us chose, quite independently, the chipotle and roast garlic steak. It was delicious. I had a pint with my meal. Wine is too expensive. One bottle of a “brew at the store” variety is cheaper than one glass at the restaurant and better tasting IMHO unless I go for something really expensive.
