Doug Wyatt's Musings

Black Mountain

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:53:04 -0800

My son Tim (and my daughter and mom) are visiting from New York this week. This morning I asked Tim what he’d like to do today and he said “climb a mountain.” (We’d climbed Mt. Diablo together on one of his previous visits.) ...

(194 words)

Last modified: 01 December 2008, 07:53

DVD packaging

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 22:16:40 -0800

5 DVDs for $15; not a bad deal (better than renting). But these were even more annoying than CDs to unwrap: “security device enclosed” stickers on three spines?! ...

(28 words)

Last modified: 23 November 2008, 06:28

noise.io

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 07:58:13 -0700

My fingers are aimed toward the app store to buy noise.io... ...

(12 words)

Last modified: 31 October 2008, 14:58

Live albums

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:47:47 -0700

Keith Jarrett’s The Carnegie Hall Concert is an absolutely stunning document of what this guy does live (as when I saw him in San Francisco this past March). But, after listening to the album once, complete with many minutes of applause much louder than the unamplified piano (as it was in the concert hall), I relinquish any notion that such recordings should be faithful reproductions of the concert. Note to self: pull the audio files off the CD, fade the applause out quickly, and listen to the music. (One could probably even add 6 dB of gain with no compression!) ...

(100 words)

Last modified: 23 October 2008, 06:47

Appaloosa

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:33:59 -0700

Tonight for boys’ night out, we saw Appaloosa. I really liked the details of the characters and the acting, and the story had some good twists. I found myself fascinated by the costumes and sets, and most especially the railroad. The train and tracks looked an awful lot like the one I ran from San Francisco to Salt Lake City in the game Railroad Tycoon. ...

(118 words)

Last modified: 23 October 2008, 06:48

Those Treasury printing presses

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:17:22 -0700

Sometimes, the TV news oversimplifies events without venturing anywhere past the surface. The truth remains obscured. ...

(107 words)

Last modified: 16 October 2008, 05:21

What's in your junk mail?

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 05:41:04 -0700

It occurred to me yesterday that the stream of credit solicitations in the mail has ended. No more offers for home equity lines, credit cards, debt consolidation. The only exception in the last month or two has been the couple of banks from whom I do have credit cards: they try to get me to use cash advance checks. ...

(413 words)

Last modified: 18 October 2008, 18:24