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Maybe all the talkative people went to WorldCon.

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AHHH there it is again.

I was supposed to go this year, and I had to cancel at the last minute. I am so bummed and it seems like everyone everywhere is talking about it.

I couldn't help but notice that all the musicians were looking at their music and playing perfectly well. The music was fine, none of them looked at the conductor, aside from the odd glance.

So, what is he for? What does the conductor do?

A lot of people are over at google+. I spend about ten to twenty minutes a day there but others seem to be there a lot.

And I think Kathleen has a point about conductors. Some of what a orchestra does is for show, including turning their instruments. And they have already practiced a lot with the conductor so beyond him-or her- explaining the music and saying it's time to start the song, they may not pay attention to him so much. They already know what they are to do and when. I have heard of orchestras playing without a conductor for one reason or another.

As I recall, the gestures the conductor makes are for balance---which group of instruments he wants loud or soft, dominating or background---non-musical terms, but it's been, like, forty years since I last watched a conductor from the viewpoint of a musician being conducted.

Went on a weekend wedding anniversary trip to Yosemite- two night stay at B&B- at the beginning of August-- told you it took me long enough to think of placing this here.

The weekend was great except for two- three clitches. That third one was how long the line was to get in. Yikes, it was the longest we have ever seen by far. And inside the park they closed one lane on some of the two lane one way roads. With no warning.

Second we got lost momentarily while parking. Had to drive around so much we got turned around and turned around. Took a loong moment to figure out where the stores and bathrooms were.

Third, was the biggest. Five minutes after taking off to leave we couldn't find my wife's camera. Since mine malfunctioned, it was the only one with pictures of this year and she needs it. We pulled over and she ended up tearing up the area behind the seats in my pickup and wrecking the Styrofoam cooler we had just bought before I finally remembered where I saw her put it. And as we waited in the line to get in, my camera decided it was time to quit, not even new batteries helped.

I've indulged in a massive clean-up of my office, about two-thirds complete (and that took a whole week).

But if your keyboard squeaks, you probably need a new one.

Even then, she stood just outside the door. It was right after that, that I decided to bite the bullet and start cleaning in here.

Where I work I ain't got no desk. In fact I have to lay out my laptop on a work table, every now and then getting in someone's way who wants to work through break.

At home we have just a computer desk with a wee bit of space for any writing. Of course I do most writing on the computer so it usually doesn't matter.

The computer is one piece with a flat but slanted top-down toward the back, it's a bit of sticky wicket to write on top of it. My pen always rolls off when I put it down, then I have to spend a while looking for it instead of writing. Got to find a better place for it.

I thought I would get that out of the way before anyone else asks.

Actually I have written in that wee space. I need an address or sometimes after I turn off the computer and am brushing my teeth etc. to get ready for bed when an idea about the story I was just writing on comes to mind. So instead of firing everything back up, I just pen a few lines to jog my memory the next evening.

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You spend years brewing your own beer, making meticulous notes, marking every change in temperature, measuring hops like a fanatic, even growing your own, and, finally, after years, and years and bloody years, you find the perfect pint (and even a run on sentence to go with it), and realise that you never noted the recipe, at all.

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I remember looking at the spaceship cover as I stood by the revolving book rack in the Eckerd's Drugstore in Concord, North Carolina. I had ridden my bike up to there to buy a book.

A little early but I know what Santa Claus drives when he's giving the sleigh and/or reindeer a rest. An older small pickup. I wasn't able to see what make.

I was stopped for a red light and turned to see if there was anything to see. There he was pudgy, about the right height, with a full, long, white beard. He wore a red baseball cap. And you probably can guess what color pick up.

Yesterday, I flipped through channels and happened on it. They were running "The Scarlet Pumpernickel"---which, if you know it, is one of their classic best cartoons. I watched it through---they're only eight minutes long, most of the time---and damned if they didn't edit out, first, one funny sight-gag, and then the ending! (If you know the cartoon, you probably know the nature of the cut gags.)

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I think anybody watching, child or adult, isn't going to be influenced to do anything or believe anything from something they see Bugs or Daffy do or say.

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As a child, and even through my teenaged years, I heard the hyper-protective bubble-wrap-advocate parents rage out against one of my all-time favorite cartoons: The Road Runner. And, it's a good thing I took their warnings to heart...one Saturday morning, after watching that cartoon, I asked my mom to drive me to the tallest building in town; "I want to jump off and land head-first on the concrete sidewalk so I can turn into a walking accordian, just like Wile E. Coyote did. That would be so cool!!!"

This post brought to you by the phrase: "Dripping with sarcasm."

EDITED TO ADD:

Well, I just talked to my wife and she told me that we have it on DVD and nothing is edited out of the DVD version but that TV has almost always cut out the last scene. She sent me this link

*****

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Question: Is it possible to make people do what you want them to? Without the use of threats or promises...

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The Wiki article refers to Daffy "sneezing," but what he does is, er, partake of some snuff, and his reaction thereafter---and I suppose they don't want the impressionable kiddies thinking Daffy was partaking of something else...

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I don't get it either. I have three very young boys and they love the classic Looney Tunes. The problem is parents who have a problem with certain shows don't restrict their kids from them. Any cartoon my kids watch, I watch first. This way if I don't like it, they don't watch it.

Lots of blackface gags get routinely cut. There was one in a Tweety-and-Sylvester movie where Sylvester, disguised as a Swedish maid, complete with Swedish accent, comes in to clean Tweety's cage, grabs Tweety, but actually grabs a firecracker (?) which explodes, [the following being cut] and Sylvester, now in blackface, does an Eddie "Rochester" Anderson imitation and leaves, collapsing at the end.

There's some cartoons that have been dropped altogether. There's one called "Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs," which is one of those things you have to see to believe. I'd post a link but it's a touchy matter---I just watched the whole thing on YouTube, so you can find it there. (Some consider this Bob Clampett's masterpiece, too.)

Speaking about blogging

http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/now/is-nicolas-cage-a-vampire/216

But if he was Lincoln would have got him.

Hey. What, you didn't you know Abraham Lincoln was a vampire hunter???

Yesterday, the lightbulb in my office lamp blew out. It was annoying, 'cause I'd just changed it about ten days ago. I changed it again, and was sitting here at my computer, when, damned if the new lightbulb blew out, too!

I finally transitioned out of a job that drained all my energy. For two years I tried to write an operations and maintenance manual about a system of systems to which I did not have access. I like tech writing when its part of what I'm creating, but not when its about stuff I'm not knowledgeable about.

Now I'm back to writing code (programming), and absolutely loving it. I'm close to finishing a milestone. I'll have to write test procedures and test it (more tech writing), but I don't mind since the purpose is to validate my own creative work (the software). Life is good!

Also I've been diagnosed with sleep apnea, and feel very hopeful about the cure. I'm tired of being tired all the time. With renewed energy from good sleep and a job I love, I am very optimistic about getting back to Ida (my WIP).