Got another banjo last night: an old Harmony Reso-Tone. These were the volksbanjos of the sixties, and though cheap, have a pleasant mellow tone.
The one thing I will have to get used to is its very narrow neck. But hey, if a “Steel Reinforced Neck” Reso-Tone was good enough for Lee Hammons …
I’m planning to put nylon strings on it for that backwoods tone.
If you’ve ever forgotten to cc someone on an e-mail and you’re forced to use Outlook, this could be useful.
Real example: R is an external contractor. T manages R’s company’s account for us, but isn’t involved in all communications with R. By setting up an outgoing mail filter, I can ensure that all mail I send to R is copied to T.
The Rules wizard lives in the Tools menu, and the option called (I think) “Rules & Filters”:
This particular example is made more complex by R’s having two e-mail addresses. Multiple addresses in the distribution list become a logical-or, so it works out. I’m not sure if I strictly needed the exclusion clause to only cc T if T is not explicitly in the To: or Cc: fields, but it works.
Outgoing filters only work if Outlook is running, so won’t work if you are not logged in.
Under no circumstances should you consider consuming gum that’s sat in its packet in the pocket
of a leather jacket for several months. It tastes of old death.
Whoa, the Camp Combo rocked Mitzi’s Sister – in fact, they are still rocking it, as I had to head back home.
Nichol brought his enormous Leslie speaker which added to the ‘jazzeh’ sound of the evening. It was worth lugging it down.
Update: Fred Spek was kind enough to let me post the recording online:
Fred Spek’s Camp Combo – Mitzi’s Sister, Toronto – 2007-10-16 (early set).
“It looks like Lite Brite”, said Catherine.
I’m liking In Rainbows. But sick of folks kvetching about the perfectly adequate bit rate.
Thinking of torrenting flacs made from the mp3s under the guise of a perfect bootleg. Would look forward to the musos banging on about the much improved fidelity. Losers.
But that would be too much work. Mustn’t betray the expectations of society on my generation.
… I know I have.
I saw my first anti-MMP flyer today (a postcard from nommp.ca, which appears to be run by a trainspotter from Guelph) and it surprised me that there could be such virulent opposition to what is basically a good idea. MMP, or its local variant, has worked very well in Scotland. So I’m going to vote for MMP.
When the Scottish Parliament got going late last century, it had a proportional representation system from the start. It did allow some minority parties in – like the Scottish Greens and the Socialists – but in doing so more fairly represented the wishes of the Scottish people.
True, there were some unusual antics in the house at first from some of the Socialist members, but I notice that they are no longer represented. Act like a jerk, nobody votes for you again – that’s democracy.
I’m not sure about the rise of the Nats, and the Greens are hanging on by one member, but it seems to work, and ends the “3 years of doing the opposite + 1 year of campaigning” to which majority rule seems to devolve.
New age singer Deva Premal’s name is an anagram of “Dave Palmer”.
I picked up these crayons at the GE Wind stand at CanWEA:
Yes, those really are the colour names – Purification Purple, Evolution Orange, Mother Earth Brown, Cleaner Coal Black, Solar Yellow, Revitalized Red, Hybrid Green, Clear Water Blue.
Is there a connection between wind power and crayons? Wait until I don my polyester leisure jacket, James Burke-style, until I tell you: Edwin Binney, inventor of Crayola, had a daughter (Dorothy) who married George P. Putnam. Putnam went on (with only a short detour into promoting then marrying the person for whom the word “aviatrix” is most often used, Amelia Earhart) to help create the Smith-Putnam wind turbine (itself perhaps the most heroically unsuccessful story in the history of wind energy).Wind turbines; crayons: it’s all connected, see?
Maybe I should’ve picked up a bunch of these at the show, as even a ratty package of them is going for over $30 on eBay. I’m glad that mine are already on their way to a 4 year old in Ohio, where they will be appreciated more than by any collector.
Last night at the banquet and annual awards ceremony, I was elected onto the board of directors of The Canadian Wind Energy Association (L’Association canadienne de l’énergie éolienne). The other new directors are:
I’d like to thank everyone who helped me, and look forward to a busy three years on the board.
On the way to Canwea in Quebec, I stop for food – and find the place oddly familiar. Seems that Catherine and I stopped in this same A&W in St Nicolas on the way to PEI.
It’s not as if we sought out A&W; it’s just what was there.
There’s a banjo-uke on craigslist described as: “… it has that banjo twang that just makes people smile! … Add a new demention to your music.” Ah yes, banjo-uke players are a bit demented.
My printer required a software update to change a reference to an HP web page that had moved:
Stupid HP! Don’t you know that cool URIs don’t change?
Around Toronto today, I saw three Lamborghinis and five Ferraris. I think I saw fewer SmartCars, so as usual, smarts are in shorter supply than muscle.
I’m a big fan of Thomas Dolby, and I don’t even mind admitting that it was one of his songs that initially got me thinking about what to do with my life (“… etch out a future of your own design”, and all that) . I got Thomas’s Live in Chicago DVD, and was a bit shocked by the visuals he used for wind power:
Those are some old wind turbines. This would be a bit like going for some modern computer imagery, and plunking for a picture of a VIC-20.
I mean, eww – those blades are filthy!
I just heard some music by Ken Reaume – and I need to hear a lot more.
I finally got to see Thomas Dolby play live last night. A real brass section (the Jazz Mafia Horns) really added to Thomas’s all-electronic sound. Good show!
Ever since I discovered them, I have been fascinated by the Foxfire books. Not that I’m planning to go back to the land or anything, just they they often display flashes of ingenuity and craftsmanship.
Take this, for example:
It’s clearly a turbine runner, but it’s made from a slab of solid pine, pinned together then held in compression by steel bands around the rim.
It was made by Georgia craftsman Sam Burton, and is documented in Foxfire 2 (Wigginton et al, 1973, pub. Anchor Books, ISBN 0-385-02267-0, pp. 142-163).
We saw The Aliens at Lee’s Palace last night. Shame the place was only half full (have people really forgotten about The Beta Band?), but it was a great show. They’re really high-energy live. Gordon has big hair!