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Showing posts from March, 2024

EASTER: Flashmob Hannover Hauptbahnhof - Weihnachtsoratorium Bach

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Yeah, it's a CHRISTMAS oratorio excerpt and this is EASTER.  Tough. It's Bach and a flashmob I have actually been to the Hanover central Rail Station. Hanover is less interesting than other German cities, but I liked the railway station well enough. 4.6 hours of sleep plus whatever I stole between Zoom segments. Memo to self: trip plan for EVERY route. I need to look up hthe Prentice loop after this week Easter at Mom's church was rich with music and invitation from the pastor to pray the Lord's prayer in people's heart languages with several versions listed in the bulletin. I got to ride home on ACCESS with mom. No lavish but no unplanned tourism. Lovely brunch feast and one of my blind friends now lives at same place as Mom and Compline is sung from the whole cathedral and the audio is GOOD..

Black Saturday and # ShowMustGoOn - Flashmob pour la culture à l'Odéon (Paris)

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It's SPRING and we  are sort of kind of out of the #pandemic--except my sister and whole household have COVID though apparently no one but my sister who was at the hospital could find tests. Anyway, these younger performers performing in the cold and many still wearing masks from 2 years ago ar somehow steadying. 4 ish hours of sleep. I offered to go visit elerly friend for a second day but her regular visitor felt enough better after a colonoscopy yesterday that she wanted to make the visit. SO instead, weekly shave off facial hair and shampoo and the #Angertainment of the weekend: Oh mah GAWD it's a war on Christianity because this year, Transgender day of visibility falls on Easter Sunday and Oh my GAWD: some fool is running around with signs on his truck about kidnapping the current President and the former President decided the interwebs need to hear about it.

I want Bach in my airports too: Bach in the subways: Flashmob at Kjevik Airport

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#GoodFriday2024 #Ramadan2024 2016 330rd anniversary of Bach's birth. Worldwide Bach in the subways celebration. Visuals even less satisfactory than average for flash mobs but early in the video there is this adorable toddler just transfixed by the music. Get 'em hooked early I say. 4+ hours of sleep. NO INCENSE overnight THANK HEAVEN. Instead neighbor brought over LOVELY leftovers from their feast. At least 3 meals. I feel very blessed. Other than that, if I want to sleep during the day, just eayt, say, chocolate peanut butter easter egg. I THINK I got enough done on taxes for now. I need a JOB so I don'thave to do all the pieces myself. And I am a terrible boss and a terrible employee which is another reasons to handle self employment with care. My sister is at a rehab with COVID. Easter will be at Mom's church and then brunch at her place. Rest of family suspects they have COVID too.

SLEEP + Vladimir Horowitz plays Chopin Polonaise in A flat major op.53

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Yes, it is possible to sound bangy on a grand piano. Nevertheless I usually find Chopin exhilarating and Horowitz is just miraculous Almost 8 hours of sleep. We will not discuss from when to when or why breakfast / lunch was somewhere around 3 pm. I actually woke up earlier, but when body said it absolutely was going nowhere I gave up and went back to bed. Now I feel well-rested AND somehow and assortment of tedious paperwork related to taxes and other challenges seem almost doable. Takeaway: I have more resources than I am appropriately paying attention to and I need to do better about that this year. A good problem to have mostly except for the part about the shoulds and some big gaps for medical stuff. My sister went to rehab and it turned out she has COVID. Also rehab is in shoreline so another kink in the non-driving world. Maybe I will order pizza to celebrate progress on tax stuff..

A dollop of modern vernacular with today's flashmob W.A. Mozart. Ave verum corpus

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The vernacular in question from X / twitter. "My favorite ...troll is in Twitmo for 7 days for cruelly assaulting someeone with facts, logic and a side of vitriol. We hope she emerges the same as ever in Elmo's sandbox." The sleep? 5 ish hours.  half an hour of exercise bicycle at 9 pm and no snacks after dinner sounds good until... Too much ramadan incense in the middle of the night gets in the way of breathing and sleeping. I finally just got up, sat in the dark and listened to the radio for awhile, ate breakfast and then went back to bed. A little hair raising since I missed my morning techno zoom and will have to Youtube it and I was a little crunched to do lunch and make a 1 pm IN PERSON meeting.  No making split pea soup. No cleaning out Refrigerator. No paperwork.  No morning Twitter because I am being too sight dependent and hate talking to my phone and did not want screen light. Such First world problems.

BACH with SHOPPING? FLASHMOB Bach Collegium Asunción

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Part of the reason to love flash mobs is just this nonviolent seizing of public space and imposing the complex order of large group musical works. 4.0 hours of sleep. Awake at a reasonable time and going back to bed did not seem feasible. Now if I can just get to bed earlier. The other problem, as I took first glorious breaths of outdoor air and sunshine walking across the breezeway to the computer lab: body thrives with more hours in the day of exercise and travel. But this week, I have to, HAVE TO do taxes and other paperwork. Topic is just scary and getting to it is the hurdle. Once things are moving....

Bach Flash Mob from St. JJohn Passion Chorus 'Herr, unser Herrscher'

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Not bad for a flash mob, once they got going. For Holy week we will be seeing what YouTube has in the way of Flashmobs performing Bach. 5.3 hours in bad plust a couple naps. Frustration because i am spoiled about using computer at STAR Center and today I could not. But then I went out for a walk and discovered some areas more or less in walkshed of new light rail station in serious need of HELP. Speaking of the EX president's legal soap operas, I actually see the reasonableness of one event. Happy Monday.

More icelandic volcano from awhile ago because it's nice when hot spots are just natural disasters

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I saved this video just to have more volcano shots when I need them. Happ Palm Sunday world. 4.9 hours of sleep Achieved in time to get breakfast AND a shower before Quaker Meetings. Body craves chocolate buzz but not sugar. That is enough. 

Footwear for a Zoom call with more than 200 bagpipes

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I still want heavy metal Amazing Grace but 200 bagpipes is also pretty formidable. 4.9 hours of sleep. Started on left side until a couple pings of pain and then I switched. Not sure which side I woke up on because sometimes I have pain when I get out of bed. black tea with dried cherries from yesterday that I didn't get drunk  but heated to start the day. small yellow potatoes  Cookies and cream granola with yogurt and blueberries. What to wear: finally settle on old SUGI long sleeve under Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 90 seconds to midnight T-shirt. Clothing not to do chores in, but I may tackle some laundry later. Black pants aqua sweater Chaco sandals. It's raining but I don't have to walk anywhere except through the breezeway because I decided to do the call in my office instead of at home I LOVE Zoom for travel time saved, but I miss the car rides home to debrief. So play it out with some bagpipes

Guys in big fluffy hats with bagpipes, a furry red muppet and more Scotland the Brave by the Massed Bands on the march

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This video selection dedicated to important existential questions: --Massed bands of the March? What does that mean? --Why do some of these guys need such enormous hats and what is the history of the enormous hats? --Are those staves or swords? --How many people are really playing and how many are just marching around in kilts carrying their bagpipes. 2.3 hours with CPAP. HOPEFULLY a couple more hours in chair after breakfast. As in I should have gone back to bed because I had exactly ZERO desire to move and DO STUFF.  Also I had a spell of really weird spasm pain on LEFT side, where scans there is something, but not something big. I think the not something big is like a grain of sand in my shoe, small but it feels enormous. and the spasmy think i have had before which is why it gets tracked here. Sleep kinks because of anxiety and looking at paperwork and strategy over weekend. BUt every time I sit down to do it, I get stuck and want to run away screaming. Hence the YouTube addiction

Bagpipes make everything better: Scotland the Brave

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This video dedicated to a certain son lf Scotland and EX President who deserves the terrible horrible no good very bad week he is having while trying to panhandle ordinary tax paying patriots to help him deal responsibly with the consequences of decades of business fraud and cheating on taxes. Surely everything goes better with bagpipes? 5.3 hours of sleep. We will not discuss from when to when except that it is enough to feel refreshed and also enough to think of going back to bed. But no. Grab the energy and focus. Not quite motivated enough to do some serious moving around tassk but WILL cope with strong encouragement to GET MY DANG TAXES DONE. Also too many sartorial. It's just a ZOOM Call but should I wear my favorit WCB convention T shirt that says WCB above clasped hands of different colors with "We are Community" even though that shirt is a little too tight? NO. Choose the other cool blindness themed T shirt that fits better. And socks: I LOVE MY compression socks

Frozen reserves and a frightening amount of KALE

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  4.3 hours of sleep Moderately vigorous late night exercise turning ingredients into food after a trip to PCC for a supper burrito and veggies, leeks, a fennel bulb, zucchini, parsley, mushrooms and one bunch of kale. A bunch of kale turns out to be a frightening quantity for a single person who just does not DO raw kale. The kale went into a batch of white bean stew. The frozen reserves were cooked chicken thighs that went with the veggies into a chicken veggie stew.

Music to flee by?

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Not actually fleeing anywhere but these two versions of fleeing wandered into my mind this morning Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs at the Grammys: Fast Cars John Denver and Cass Elliot: leaving on a jet plane 4.3 hours of sleep. Not enough but better than yesterday and supplemented by a couple cat naps. Tjerapy is weird sometimes. Hard to find words during appointment and don't even want to go near the anxiety which comes roaring in right after. Happy Tuesday and not even any "don't mess with people's comfort food" aromas. I think the Korean lunch people got disgusted with SHA staff sloppiness and moved somewhere else. I think I have written about this before but it's still true. Now, will I or won't I write the email on my mind???? And speaking of TaTu, will I or won't I repurpose a T shirt with a still topical anti-war but vulgar comment??? STAY TUNED. TaTU T-shirt famous because censors did not bleep it on a TV performance just before the start of Gulf

Sleep? What's that?

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  Too many bus shelters to close together Somewhere betwee2 and 3 hours of sleep, punctuated by vexing spells of anxiety. Still smiling from visit with Mom yesterday Meeting this afternoon that i had in my calendar but not in my brain. Sun is GLORIOUS. Now about an actual walk.

More hot lava action in Iceland: Fourth and strongest volcanic eruption in three months | DW News

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This video is interesting not only for the steamy tourist attraction points but also for who the announcer is and which media channel it comes from. I WILL go find some footage of the mexican volcano that erupted 3 times in one day but this has to do for now. 4.9 hours of sleep After weekly shave and clean hair. I just got tired of feeling self-conscious. If only all vexations where that easy to fix. GORGEOUS day. So I took my electronic toys up to talk tech with mom. Tech was behaving badly, but Mom was INTRIGUED ENOUGH TO WANT TO TAKE A CLASS. Zoom Quaker meeting is such a mixed bag. No time spent travelling but SO easy to get distracted. New name for the #J6 choir: #DonTheCon and the Felons for T****p Music for compline was gorgeous. In keeping with other technological hiccups, the sound on the stream was barely audible. The monthly organ recital was a tiny bit better 

Three Dog day

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  Random stranger with three waggy but clueless hounds 5.9 hours of sleep. I am glad I went to bed instead of staying up and going to mcD's for breakfast and then getting mail and going to my UBS meeting. But I think I need to offer a list of people we could invite as speakers. GORGEOUS day. Lots of good exercise. Floor still needs mopping. And multiple blog posts brewing.

Pussy Riot & Dave Sitek - Bad Apples (Official Music Video)

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Linguistically squeamish readers will please pretend that the title is about cats 4.8 hours of sleep. Last minute cook it or compost it spree. fine visit with new provider. He laughed when I said there is a kind of Dr. Boring presentation style. Recent webinar was VERY useful. but all the doctors need their own spirit animal or avatar on their slides so people can follow wwithout having to keep track of names Denny Way is always a nightmare on Friday afternoons. and I5 Freeway noise is an impediment to the pedestrian environment for dozens of yards on either side. I am settling into daylight savings time.

Happy Pi Day

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Yup,. COmposition leaves something to be desired and auto advice from camera was not much help, especially since I partly wanted to know where the #$#*@ the chain saw noise was coming from Photo out my bedroom window 5.9 hours of sleep and more importantly somewhere in the range of reasonable business hours schedule. Until one gets to the part about morning TWitter habit anda an hour visiting with a friend about dogs. Friend is still VERY traumatized from a car vs dog and ped event 3 years ago. Friend's wife would really like another dog. MAYBE the conversation planted seeds. Enough good reasons to have a dog if only to protect chickens and deter rats / racoons from taking up residence Mom is a little bummed. Both chief nurse and social worker at retirement community are moving on to other things. Mom does not realize how much work with social worker helped and now feels alone about coping with need further to downsize, figure out where to move. All of us are dreading and feeling s

Thank you chickens

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A week's worth of hard boiling eggs 2 ish hours trying to sleep and some naps unintentially snatched during the day. Once again sensible kitchen options diverted me from a walk to McDonalds. I wish there were some other place close to go for breakfast--even though life is nutritionally better at home.' Now, will I put myself to sleep twitching about everything on my mind. Oh. Clean up desk and floor and get a cat. Oh, clean out fridge because it DESPERATELY needs it. Breathe. Eat blueberries. Nuke a potato to go with the hard boiled egg. Make tea. Helps if I remember the tea bag and maybe even before the boiling water. I am glad it should be light enough to go walking in the evening even if I only go to Lowe's  AND NOT to the grocery store. Um. Mom needs new devices. So do Iactually and I have more old devices to move along and or audit for electronic garage tinkering. Oh yes a good question I was not thinking well enough to ask last night at the meeting. Oh. World is entit

Bulk orders, boxes, and God knows what else

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Phone camera says "One food item."  2ish hours of sleep.  MAYBE I will get back on schedule. Tonight I think I will miss Kyiv worship. Europe does daylight savings time later than we do and I need to try to follow the clock as far as sleep. I am vexed by delivery boxes. If I did my own shopping, I would bring my own bags / grocery cart. But that is infeasible mostly so LOTS of things come in boxes.My father used to take great delight in making boxes of various sizes and configurations all fit together. This habit was so ingrained that there were some decades-old boxes in boxes to wrangle when my mother moved to Seattle. So now, I cut the tape and flatten the delivery boxes and feed them into recycling and then I feel better about not piling up boxes. I was going to offer piquant words about something else, but if I try too hard right now I will just be a sleep deprived zombie.

Heartwarming clips on the way to BYU basketball player by performing Haka

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The congratulatory Haka of the title is the last item in the clip. I am glad for happy moments somewhere. 5.6 hours of sleep. A BIG improvement over yesterday when I made the grownup decision not to go to bed and then nodded off in the middle of more than one Zoom meeting. ONE good thing about Day light savings time is that now the world is light late enough in the evening that i can go for a walk, even if I only go to Lowe's and wander among the plants. Plant therapy sounds MUCH better than going to grocery stores. Even if I like wandering among the vegetables, I only need so much food. But tonight it's raining and probably 20-30 minutes of the under the desk exerciser is going to have to do it..  I NEED more shoes and I would like not to do mail order. But now shopping is not going to happen until at least Thursday.

Sleep total negligible

 Title line says it all. Now that I did 6+ hours of zoom I will go TAKE A NAP and if I sleep through Compline, oh well     

Mysteries of Technology

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The tehcnological myster alluded to above: below is a picture uploaded from RantWoman's phone to Blogger. Currently every time RantWoman does this, Blogger somehow needs reassurance about something to do with the HTML created in the upload process. RantWoman THINKS this should be something the developers can solve. RantWoman has not taken time to point this out to, say, technical support. RantWoman just clicks the appropriate reassurance button and goes on with her day!   Outgoing ballot envelope on top of incoming one RantWoman is on a tear to deal with PAPERWORK, taxes and other things. Taxes this year are in the realm of "Good problem to have,"  6.1 hours of sleep. We will not discuss from when to when except that RantWoman woke up with a reminder that focussing on TAXES and other paperwork is a really good idea and a better idea than procrastinating with YouTube, worrying about the kitchen floor or the plants needing to be repotted or...a DESPERATE desire to clean up

Photography with AI help

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Sortt of helpful that the phone will take the photo automatically once it's in focus. Phone says "food in frame. Hold for photo" FOOD?  4.7 hours of sleep. News junkie here. I hope the energy devoted to digesting the State of the Union does SOMETHING good. Now MUST scrub floor. and MUST deal with paperwork. Maybe just as well that I don't have energy to blog everything that comes to mind.  

It took SIX tries and Kitty finally found a home.

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Heartwarming story of getting a handle on hellcat behaviors, offered as refreshing brain cleanse after the rest of the day's news and I have not even paid attention to the State of the Union 4.5 hours of sleep. Much attention to prepping for a legislative appointment and some but not all the paperwork pending. Gee. In-person and Zoom meetings require equal amounts of followup.  Also sister chat. Happy Thursday.

More Ronnie Cheng interviews please: Yuval Noah Harari - “Unstoppable Us, Vol. 2: Why the World Isn't Fair” |...

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Momentsof BADD TASTE? WHO CARES? I laughed very hard and should have gone to bed except for instead there was this fascinating video by a Russian economist who, perhaps understandably because he says the Forbes list matters more than the suffering of his countryment, has been branded a foreign influence. Fascinating but too long for appropriate bedtime viewing 4.5 hours of sleep which on most Wednesdays would put me on target for more Zoom than sleep.  Today I slept through one regular Zoom and watched it on Youtube. Another one was cancelled because the usual host is on bereavement leave until next week. Still another got skipped while I ventured out to Lake City for a VERY mediocre calzone and an in-person meeting  Truly living large. It was SUNNY but got cold fast when the sun went down.          

It's already Tuesday

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  Sign about last week's solar energy event 6.0 hours of BADLY needed sleep. No morning obligations I could still sleep longer AND I have chores I need to get to done.

Monday in need of CONTRAST Five Red Hot Duets for Two Contrabassoons: V

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5.6 hours of glorious SLEEP. Clean sheets are THE BEST I had personal things to tend and I could live without two people being extremely anxious about a drama that does not seem like an emergency TO ME. cue meditations about different perceptions of urgency. DO NOT look at reports about Supreme Court ruling. DO look at more videos of Navalny funeral. WHO KNOWS what is going to come after the mountains of flowers at the gravesite, but there are mountains of flowers, probably MUCH bigger mountains than ever graced the mausoleum of a certain other famous STIFF Monday morning EDGE NICELY buffed by meeting with space just to say what I needed to say, well not all of it but more than enough for now.

Grab some SNL Flaco the Owl Dies, plus, with or without good taste

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6.0 hours of sleep. Once again from when to when. A TON of turning ingredients into food. Also kitchen chores and changing sheets and EVENTUALLY a shower and hair washing  and some friends I owe phone calls to.

Memorial!

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The bus shelter is in great shape today 3.9 hours of sleep. Cup of cocoa at bedtime maybe not such a great idea. I woke up early enough to be tempted to get on bus, start meetup, make someone else host and ...  Starbucks was a drag and I never did go back to the call. Nice memorial. More to say but not here.  

Future tense: God sent you a cat |AS SOON AS THE APARTMENT IS READY

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Yes, there definitely are more informative cat seduction / cat mysticism vids out there. This happens to be the one that swam out of YouTube streams in English and Russian about politicians near and far. 4.9 hours of sleep. THis sounds okay until one acknowledges watching the Navalny funeral untill... And if I had manners I would have texted about rescheduling but that happened at 1 pm.  Lots of messaround with ChatGPT, the latest shiny thing infesting our lives. Weather is supposed to be shitty tomorrow. So WILL I GO TO MEMORIAL in person or on Zoom? God help us.