Don-Guitar

Creating Playlists for a Sansa Clip Using Linux.

2011-11-18T04:39:00.002-06:00

Creating Sansa clip playlists in Linux is super easy IF you do it exactly right and make NO mistakes.

The playlist is just a text file with a .m3u file extension; that's all there is to it, but (and this is a BIG BUT) the playlist won't work if it doesn't have a commented out identifier at the top of the list. Here's one I've copy pasted from my Sansa Clip:

---

#EXTM3U

Away_In_A_Manger.mp3
Be_Home_for_Christmas.mp3
Carol_Of_The_Bells.mp3
Charlie_Brown_Medley.mp3
Christmas_At_Hogwarts.mp3
Holy_Night.mp3
I_Saw_Three_Ships.mp3
Let_it_Snow.mp3
Merry_Little_Christmas.mp3
Silent_Night.mp3
The_Christmas_Song.mp3
The_First_Noel.mp3
The_Holly_And_The_Ivy.mp3
What_Child_Is_This.mp3
Winter_Wonderland.mp3

---

If you've been a Linux user for a while you know as well as I do that the hashmark (pound sign) preceding the characters at the top of the file indicates that what follows is a comment which should be ignored by the player's software but if you leave that commented line out of the playlist it WON'T WORK. Why? I've no idea but that's how it is. The carriage return which followed the commented line seems to be optional but this particular playlist didn't work without it so I've gotten in the habit of using it with all of them.

---

As it powers up, the Sansa clip doesn't recognise folders in its file system and will list your music files as though you had dumped them all into one large folder even if you've carefully sorted them into labelled folders. If, on the other hand, you do carefully sort your music into folders, each folder must contain its own playlist because folders ARE recognised by the software that reads the playlists and will be unable to find an mp3 file which isn't in the
SAME folder as the playlist.

Note: In case you're wondering if you can specify the path to the mp3 file in the playlist, I have no idea, I've never had occasion to try that.

If you wish to use the same tunes on more than one playlist you must, then, avoid using sub-folders and put all your mp3 files and playlists into the MUSIC folder.

---

You CANNOT delete any music files or playlists using your file manager in normal user mode because Linux will then create a hidden, system trash folder inside the Sansa clip and move the files you've deleted into it. You will know that this has happened because when the Sansa clip re-initializes, after you've safely removed it from your computer's USB port, it will find, recognise and display the deleted playlist (or music files). You'll know this has happened because you'll have an extra playlist that comes up empty when you select it (or songs that you're certain you've delete will still appear to be there).

---

** If you find that you do, in fact, have an empty playlist (or songs that you know darn well you've deleted), you'll need dolphin, Konqueror or some other file manager that permits you to split the screen into two windows and you'll need to open an instance of that file manager with root privileges.

With *buntu systems (or systems based on Ubuntu) you can use...

sudo dolphin

or

sudo konqueror

On just about any other system you should probably use

gksu dolphin

or gksu konqueror

Note 1: If you get an error message, open up your file manager, search for and install gksu. Then try it again.

Note 2: In either instance, you may have to go to your package manager and install dolphin or konqueror.

Note 3: Yes, you may be able to type "su" followed by your root password and then type dolphin or konqueror but, in my experience, this sometimes returns an error and simply won't work whereas gksu, which is designed for the purpose, usually works fine.

Note 4: Insofar as I'm aware, there are no other Linux file managers with split screen capabilities but don't let my ignorance stop you if you have, or know of, another file manager which has the capability.

---

Once you've opened an instance of your file manager which has root privileges, split the screen, direct one window to the trash folder on your main hard drive and the other window to the Sansa clip.

With focus on the window showing the Sansa clip, set the file manager to Show hidden files. Drag and drop the hidden, system trash folder from the Sansa clip into the trash on your main hard drive. While you're at it, check the file folders, and every folder you've created on the Sansa clip for backup files created by your text editor and delete them. Why? because the Sansa clip doesn't recognise backup files and will find and display them as yet another playlist after it's initialised.

Speaking of which; before creating, editing or manipulating playlists, make sure you've set the preferences in your chosen text editor so that it will NOT create backup files.

If you forget to do this and notice that your editor has, for example, created a back up copy of your playlist on the Sansa clip remember that you cannot just delete it. Why? Because when you do Linux will create a hidden, system trash folder and move that backup playlist into it and because the Sansa clip operating system has no idea what a trash folder is it will find and display that deleted playlist (unless you also deleted the songs that were listed in that playlist, thereby putting them in the same folder, in which case it will remain a playable list). What should you do if that happens? back up the two asterisks on this page (** above) and start over.

---

So, if you started your playlist with the right information...

#EXTM3U

...listed the songs you want played, separated by carriage returns (the enter key for those of you too young to remember typewriters) with no typos in the file names or the file extensions, didn't list any songs that aren't in the same folder as the playlist, didn't delete any files or use an editor that creates automatic backups and remembered to save your playlists with .m3u file extensions, your playlists will be recognised when the Sansa clip initializes and will work beautifully. If you've forgotten even ONE of these carefully composed instructions you get to start all over again.

Do NOT ask my how I know so much about making playlists for Sansa clips on Linux systems. You may, however, assume that I've had a great deal of experience with creating playlists for the single Sansa clip I happen to own. My Sansa clip contains 200 songs sorted into 5 perfectly functional playlists. That's the truth and is as much as I'll admit to without coercion.

If you get stumped feel free to contact me. :)

Thank You World Wide Web

2010-12-15T15:39:00.002-06:00

Dear internet,

Thank you for helping me find my wonderful wife and introducing me to some of the best friends I've ever had in my life.

Thank you for paperbackswap.com because I'll never again be without a book to read.

Thank you for bobsredmill.com.

Thank you for sfherb.com.

Thank you for amazon.com, ebay.com, half.com, google.com, paypal.com, icanhascheezburger.com and all the other wonderful websites which teach me new things, make me laugh, help me find things I would otherwise never have found, help me buy things I could otherwise never have afforded and bringing the entire, great-big, wonderful world into my home, placing it at my fingertips.

I know I owe you big-time and I'll keep doing what I can to repay you.

Love,

Don Crowder

We Love Our Freezer!

2010-11-25T19:15:00.001-06:00

When Lisa and I began our new lives together we were both working as stockers in a supermarket in Llano (Texas). The store had a deli and most days there was cooked food left in the warmer at closing time which was distributed among employees. As often as not, we took home a few pieces of fried chicken but there was seldom enough for a meal and Lisa couldn't eat the breading anyway so I pealed off the breading, pulled the meat from the bone, put it in a ziplock bag and put it in the freezer. I added to the bag each evening until it looked like there was enough in the bag for a meal at which point I'd start another bag. Having little packages of cooked chicken in the freezer lead to one of our favorite recipes, "Apricot-Chipotle Chicken", and gave birth to an idea. These days we have thaw-heat-and-eat packages of cooked shrimp, sausage, chicken, turkey, beef and pork in the freezer along with a collection of really good recipes which are quick and easy to prepare. We can have a terrific home-cooked dinner on the table in a half hour or less. We have to cook our meals, due to Lisa's food sensitivities (hybridized wheat, corn and milk), but we've learned how to make that an asset instead of a liability.

Unanswered questions.

2010-07-23T23:53:00.001-05:00

Until today I'd never heard of Epicurus but I was intrigued by this quote which is attributed to him:

“The gods can either take away evil from the world and will not,
or, being willing to do so, cannot;
or they neither can nor will,
or lastly, they are both able and willing.

If they have the will to remove evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent.
If they can, but will not, than they are not benevolent.
If they are neither able nor willing, then they are neither omnipotent nor benevolent.
Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does it exist?”

---

I love questions which can't be answered. I'm amused by those who feel that such questions have been answered and disgusted by people who are frightened by the questions. I'm content to say "I don't know" but that doesn't mean I'll stop trying to reason out an answer.

Sometimes Serendipity Pinch Hits for Wisdom

2010-03-08T15:17:00.002-06:00

When mom died we'd been living with her and taking care of her for years. This was our home and, after the will was probated, I was half owner of the house with my sister owning the other half. She wants to sell it; we don't. This is still our home. We offered to buy her out, making what we believed was a fair offer. She wanted $15,000 more than we offered. She found a lawyer to take her case and threatened Judicial Partition. Rather than negotiate with her lawyer (as the letter we received strongly suggested) we spoke with the young lawyer who handled the probation of mom's estate/will. Our thought was to have the place inspected and appraised enabling us to approach my sister with an offer based on confirmed reality. He suggested we have the house inspected but hold off on the appraisal. The inspection results show a very large collection of problems with the house, not all of which can be repaired. The inspector suggests we tear the place down and start over and, based on his results, the house is worth substantially less than our previous 'best guess'. My sister is stubborn, willful and not too bright. Bless her heart. I'm so glad she didn't accept out offer. That would have been the beginning of a never-ending nightmare for us. We were saved by serendipitous dumb luck.

I don't think my sister and I will ever get past the enmity this has created between us but I'm betting that one of us will eventually attend the other's funeral. Sometimes that's enough. Life is change; change is good.

Life, Love and the Imminence of Mortality

2010-03-04T11:25:00.001-06:00

Aa little over six years ago a close internet friend (close in the ways that are only possible on the internet where there are no pheromones to interfere with our words) was having problems with her significant other. I'd long since decided the man was an insensitive lout who didn't deserve or appreciate her and I was angry over the way he treated her. My anger overcame me a little and I commented that "Your relationship really sucks" to which she instantly responded "So does yours". I was stunned. I got through the rest of the day in a numb haze. By the next day I decided that she was right so I sat down and had a long talk with my wife. After a brief emotional storm she calmed down and admitted to agreeing with my assessment of our relationship. So we separated amicably and that was that.

Not too long thereafter, my internet friend decided that it was time for her to move on as well and Texas was as good a place as any (she was living in Florida at the time). She rented a truck, loaded up her 'stuff' and her dog and drove to Texas. Within nine days of arriving in Texas she had a place of her own, a car and a job.

The woman is Lisa Miller. The dog's name was CeeCee. She and her dog changed my life and rocked my world. Next month, on the 24th of April, Lisa and I will celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.

A few days ago CeeCee developed some sort of physiological problem which made it difficult for her to stand and walk. The problem came and went, getting a little worse every day, for several days. Yesterday it got bad enough to keep us up with her until about 4 AM this morning when we finally had to get some sleep. At about 8:30 this morning we loaded CeeCee into the van and headed for the Vet's office (Jim Jenson's Cedar Hills Veterinary Clinic in Llano, TX and we highly recommend him). CeeCee died before we got to the clinic. We turned around and drove back home, dug a hole in the back yard, wrapped her in the old quilt that was her bed and buried her.

All morning the orchestra in my head has been playing Ingrid Michaelson's song, Everybody. The lyric line I keep hearing is

Everybody, everybody wants to love
Everybody, everybody wants to be loved

Thank you Lisa, for moving to Texas and changing my life. Thank you for loving me and being someone I love. Thank you CeeCee for playing ball with me, begging me for snacks and being my dog too. I will remember you. I will miss you.

Universal Life Church

2010-02-06T19:40:00.002-06:00

I am an ordained minister in the ULC, which is free on the web though it seems to me it was ten or twenty dollars in the ads which were in the back of most comic books when I was a kid. I've been asked if I seriously consider myself to be a reverend/minister/preacher. This is my 'official' answer to that question.

---

If you understand that, to me, it means I hold all life in reverence
then I am a reverend.

If you accept that it means I will tend your wounds if I am able
and hold your hand if it helps you face your demons
then I am a minister.

If you believe me when I tell you that God does not
want you to be cold, hungry, alone or afraid
Then I am a preacher.

---

This isn't a quotation. These are my words and they come from my heart.

Cloud Computing for Gullible People (Not)

2010-01-31T15:33:00.004-06:00

In this issue of our electric co-op magazine there's a full page ad from a company that calls themselves firstSTREET about the GO COMPUTER. It purports to be a safe, secure, user-friendly operating system targeted at senior citizens. There's all sorts of info on the ad but nowhere do they mention what the OS is. The CPU is built into the keyboard housing so there's no tower. It's using an Intel Atom N270 (1.6 GHz) processor and the rest of the specs, from the website, are as follows.
# 1 GB Ram
# 160G Hard drive
# 4 USB Slots
# Built-in Wireless
# Speakers come built-in

It actually looks pretty good up-front but as you get into it there are some disturbing clues in the ad. I'll quote some passages I found interesting.

*in the unlikely event that your computer does develop a problem we'll send you a replacement absolutely free*

Sounds to me like there's a heck of a fat profit margin in this thing!

*since your data is remotely stored, you'll immediately have access to all of your original emails, files and photos ...instantly.*

Ok, so we're talking about cloud computing here and, at this point I tried to find a decent tutorial on cloud computing to link to but everything I found was overcomplicated so I'll just have to write my own.

Traditionally, the software applications (programs) you use on your computer are located on the computer's hard drive. This started way before the internet. You bought a computer and installed a word processor, maybe an image editor, possibly a spread sheet, some games, whatever. Then came the internet and full-time, always-connected high-speed connections. Now it's possible to use all sorts of fancy software which *isn't* located on your computer; it's located on the web. The industry first referred to this technology as *web 2.0* but, as it became more sophisticated and the possibilities began to expand, folks started calling it *Cloud Computing*. What's the advantage for you the user? First of all, you don't have to buy a Word Processor, secondly, if your computer crashes, you don't lose any of your important stuff because none of it is located on your computer, it's all right there on the web where you left it.

So what's the bottom line on the GO COMPUTER?

Price: $879.00

Holy Mackerel Sapphire, that's almost 900 bucks for a cloud computing system. They've gotta be kidding!

*Cloud Computing* is currently a major industry buzz word. The folks at gOS are soon to release what they're calling Cloud 1.0 which is targeted at low-priced netbooks, Canonical and Red Hat are venturing into the cloud computing market while Google's (cloud computing) Chromium OS is under rapid development and beginning to get lots of media attention. Cloud computing is going to be a big thing because it lowers the cost of a basic computer by an order of magnitude. Looks like firstSTREET is trying to get their licks in quick, before the competition shows up and knocks the stuffing out of their margin. For example, check google shopping for an HP 2010 mini (netbook). It's got a smaller screen but very similar specs to the Go Computer at about a third the price. If you go to eBay and search Computers & Networking/PC Laptops & Netbooks for 'mini netbook' you'll find plenty of seven inch machines running Windows CE in the $50 to $200 range. Of course Windows CE is something of a joke but I'm guessing there'll soon be plenty of them listed with Linux operating systems and larger screens too.

Senior citizens, with regards to firstSTREET's GO COMPUTER, all I can say is don't do it! Just don't. Take half of that $900.00 with you to an electronics discount or monster-variety store (Fry's or Walmart) and buy whatever sort of Linux or Windows 7 laptop they offer for that price (It's likely to be a superior machine) and have your grandkids show you how to use it. You can *Cloud Compute* on any machine that has a browser.

A couple of moderately helpful cloud computing resources:

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/what-is-cloud-computing.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RMWO9JxZjA

Oh, Will You Just Shutup About Illegals

2010-01-19T22:53:00.002-06:00

I get so tired of listening to pseudo-patriotic diatribes going on about illegals. I lived in Brackettville, seventeen miles from Mexico as the crow flies, for fourteen years and learned a few things about illegals. Without illegals you can't farm because you can't hire farm workers; American citizens won't do that kind of work for any sum of money. Without illegals you can't run any sort of construction business because you can't hire workers; American citizens won't do that kind of work for any sum of money. Without illegals you can't get rid of garbage, eat fast food, or do any cattle ranching because (by now I'm sure you've guessed) American citizens won't do that kind of work for any sum of money.

No matter how you feel about illegals, the fact is that businesses all over the United States would be severely crippled without them.

Most illegals have forged, bogus Social Security cards but the U.S. Government is pleased to accept their taxes and Social Security payments. For our government this is *free money* because they'll never have to pay a refund on the taxes collected on bogus Social Security accounts and they'll never have to provide any benefits to those workers.

Thousands of American citizens make out like bandits by renting substandard housing to illegals at premium rates. The illegals will never complain for fear of being deported. The landlords never have to fix anything or worry that their tenants are going to make trouble for them and those landlords are paid in cash so the chances are good they don't bother to report the income.

Medical facilities and mechanics routinely charge illegals about twice the going rates with complete impunity. They know that illegals will just pay the money, in cash, and never complain.

Once our government has pissed away millions of dollars on a giant fence, illegals will find other ways to get across the border. The fence isn't a solution. I don't like it but the only solution I can think of would be to annex Mexico as our 51st state.

Mexican nationals are, de facto, an integral part of the U.S. economy and, while I'm debunking mythology, the majority of those who abuse our nations welfare and social services systems are native born American citizens who grew up in this country and have learned from the inside how to properly exploit the system.

No, I don't have any brilliant ideas about how to solve the illegal problem but figuring out that the only solution our government has come up with so far is going to be a fiasco isn't rocket science. American politicians have always chosen to deal with the hard problems by throwing money at them. The problems don't ever go away but when the government starts throwing money people tend to stop bitching and start grabbing. We call that the Status Quo and it keeps folks complacent until they get distracted by the next big problem.

If you're up for some irony, who do you think is building that much vaunted fence?

Life in the Virtual Lane

2009-12-18T16:35:00.000-06:00

Lisa's up to her ears in Google Wave and all-things-Google. The dog has been out to tinkle and had her mid-day snack. UPS brought me one of the video cards I bought on eBay so, if I can find a machine to test it on, I'll send it to the friend who needs it but can't afford it. We diced up some leftover meatloaf, stir-fried it with leftover short-grain-brown and wild rice and had it with fried eggs and bacon for breakfast. I spent a half hour practicing jazz licks and sundry minor scales on the funky-but-cool little Kay guitar Clenton gave me. We got a picture of our grandsons and a card from my middle daughter in the mail, along with a card from Jerry Fox who's a good friend though we've never met. He's one of the folks we describe as web-siblings. I don't think that's for lack of a better term, I think that's about as accurate a term as we could find.

Web-sibling: noun (hyphen optional) Someone who is as close as family but whom one has never met in person.

We own a TV set; it's connected to the VCR and a DVD player in the living room. My daughter Lily gave us a digital converter box. One of these days I'll probably put up an antenna. We don't rent or buy movies but we borrow one from the kids every now and then. I snagged a copy of the BBC's Planet earth series on Listia.com. There are five DVDs in the set and we've watched the first one. It was three hours in length. Gosh knows how long it'll take us to watch the other four. Three hours is an awfully long time to be sitting in one place without a mouse or keyboard.

I've been upgrading from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny and I think I'm going to like it just fine. I set up a PCLinuxOS 2009.1 machine to use during the upgrade (as a sort of back-up w/learning-curve in case something broke). PCLinuxOS is awfully nice but some things don't seem to work well. For example, I can't get Konqueror to do a file search and I've no idea why. Very frustrating. In Firefox, when I click to bookmark a website the scrollbar won't work on the subsequent dialog box and in Thunderbird there's no scrollbar on the right side of the screen. All of which makes it highly likely I'll just settle back into my Debian machine and use the #2 machine to play with other distros. I've been wanting to try Puppy and Frugalware again anyway.

We're going to visit the Beierle's this evening. We're taking dinner with us. Venison sausage w/Bavarian Sauerkraut (hot buttered brown and wild rice on the side). Charlie (Beierle) is our favorite Linux Geek. He's got more computers, and more different operating systems, than anyone we know. For example, he's got an SGI computer which uses the IRIX operating system; I believe this is the type of machine used to create the original Pixar animations. He's also a geophysicist with a Ph.D. and one of the all-around nicest people we've ever known. He's our go-to-guy for problems with Windows, Mac or Linux and the buck usually stops with Charlie. I'm going to take the little Kay guitar and Lisa's taking her washboard so the Beierle's are in for a surprise. With luck, it'll be a pleasant one.

2009-12-16T04:30:00.003-06:00

Today we took our ezine's first tentative step into the ambiguous waters of Google Wave. We're not at all sure what we'll find there or how it will affect our little newsletter but Lisa's excited that we might be the first 'Wavezine'. As the technical director of our web expedition I'll have to figure out how to provide folks with a link to our wave....

*sigh*

I just hate performance anxiety.

Ahead for Business (knot)

2009-11-20T17:43:00.002-06:00

A few years back my friend J asked me to play a small cafe with her. She said 'It doesn't pay much but I'll be happy to split it with you'. So I played the gig. Afterward, as we were packing up to go she thanked me for being there but didn't pay me.

Call that strike one.

A couple of years ago she asked me to build a frame for a Mexican string art portrait that had belonged to her father. I was reluctant to try it but did some mental math and told her it'd cost fifty dollars. She told me to go for it. I spent $12 on cedar, $18 on a piece of non-glare glass and spent around four hours making the darn thing. When I delivered it she thanked me but didn't offer to pay me. She propped it against the wall of her living room, behind a rocking chair (and noticed a few weeks later that the glass had gotten chipped and bitched at me about it but I ignored her).

Call that strike two.

J has used me as her 'man about the house' for a number of years and there have been numerous occasions when her nit-picky ways have caused me a great deal of stress but she paid me well enough, most of the time, and I actually like her. I'll admit that the attraction was most sexual in the beginning but it didn't take long for that to fade to a sort of fraternal fuzziness. By now she's more a sister to me than the one biological sister I have left.

A few weeks ago she offered me a job helping to take care of an older couple who live about an hour away from here. She offered to pay me for my travel time as well so I happily accepted the offer. After a few days work I thought a great deal of the folks I was helping to care for and found it a joy to be there for them. Circumstances have arisen which made it necessary for the family to hire a 24/7 nursing firm but the contract isn't final and, because the nursing firm is neither licensed nor bonded, J and her crew (among whom I am numbered) are under consideration for taking over the job. I was on the phone with J this morning and wanted to discuss some thoughts I had about making our rates more competitive. Somewhat coldly, she insisted 'that's between me and them'. I believe that I correctly interpreted this to mean our rate structure was none of my business. Well, I'm content to be an indian and have no desire to be the chief but my trust for J is already an unsteady, provisional thing.

I decided to call that strike three.

I resigned, via email, a few minutes later. In a reply, J asked me if I didn't think I was being destructive. I didn't respond because I don't think she'd understand anything I said but, from my perspective, my behavior was preventative. Nobody will screw you over faster, or more thoroughly, than family.

Managers who believe that information is proprietary are, thank goodness, self-limiting. Keeping secrets from your employees is like taping their mouths shut, handing them a saw and crawling out on a limb.

Wasn't that a good analogy?

If you want people to respect, trust and work for you, begin by respecting, trusting and working with them.

Nobody Gets Out of Here Without Singing the Blues

2009-08-05T13:11:00.002-05:00

Ever watched a movie that was just awful? I think everyone has. It's probably an unwritten rule but, once in a while, even a really stupid movie can have a redeeming scene. For example, in Adventures in Babysitting, an undeniably stupid movie, there's a wonderful scene with Albert Collins. I won't give away any part of the movie but the music is great and the scene is hilarious. Another film that stand out in my mind is Kansas City. This isn't a stupid movie, it's a grusome movie. The story is morbid but the music is great and there's a magical scene where it's supposedly sometime in the wee hours of the morning and there's only a handful of people in a jazz club while two upright basses and a piano are jamming. The whole movie is worth that one scene.

No, I wanna hear about your problems

2009-07-29T11:10:00.001-05:00

It's reached the point where I'm annoyed when none of my 'regulars' has updated their blog. Never mind the fact that it's been ages since I updated mine, I've had it 'up to here' with my life, I want to read about somebody else's. I'm not saying it makes me happy to read about other peoples problems but it does make me feel less overwhelmed by the drama (and trauma) that's going on in my own life.

For example...

My sister insists we sell mom's house, where I've lived for over 15 years now (mom died in July of 2008), and my wife and I have no place to go thereafter. My job, in a convenience store, is demanding, stressful and frustrating. Oh I enjoy the work well enough but the management seems carefully designed to inflict as much damage as possible to my psyche and, as the only male on the staff, I'm subjected to rather a lot of sexual discrimination by which I mean to say that mistakes made by my female coworkers are shrugged off (if not outright ignored) while any mistake I make is placed under a microscope and dissected at length.

...and there's more but, as I said, I'm trying to get away from all that.

Walk Softly and Carry a Water Gun

2009-07-20T11:54:00.002-05:00

I'm a musician and normally a band leader but 'band leader' is an ambiguous title when you consider that ramrodding a weekend-warrior band isn't significantly different from herding cats. My band members normally describe me as 'the guy who's driving the bus' despite that fact that we're far from being the sort of band who could afford a bus. Most of us have some sort of frequently-changing day job and I suspect that musicians, in general, have a substantially higher level of drama in their lives than other folks but I admit this is only conjecture. Most hard-core weekend-warrior musicians play more than one instrument, thus improving their chances of getting a gig, and are members of more than one band. I played the guitar in a rock and roll band in high school and played bass in a jazz trio while I was in the Army (sure wish I knew whatever became of you Vic). In 1978 I 'went Country' and have been playing one instrument or another, in one Country/Western band or another since then. Fortunately for me, Texas audiences are open minded so we're no longer expected to play Country all night. Audiences seem to enjoy hearing a little blues and rock. The blues can be new or old but the rock should be at least 20 years old and older is better. Most of the time I play the guitar but I own and can play, bass or keyboards. My wife owns a set of Roland V-Drums and I've been privileged to play them a time or two. I'd never have imagined that a completely electronic set could sound, or play, so nice. They're a real treat.

I've been living in the same town since 1990 and, by now, I've become a fairly well known and respected veteran musician. It's wonderful to be able to call on the most talented musicians in the region and know that they'll be as pleased and honored to work with me as I am to work with them. I've never been motivated by money, which I suppose is just as well since I've never really had any, but I find the respect of my peers to be a pearl beyond price. Of course there are musician in the region whom I dislike or who dislike me, I don't think there's any way around that, but I'm old enough to know that nothing is forever so I try to keep my mind open and my mouth shut. Rock on.

Linux Lead Me On, Broke My Heart and Left Me Hanging

2009-06-19T17:57:00.001-05:00

My first Linux distro was Debian Sarge. Learning how to get 1024 X 768 video resolution and the sound running was a really geeky challenge but I figured it out and was really proud of myself. Then came Debian Etch and I no longer had to bother with the sound and video, they just worked, the first time, exactly as I wanted them to. Wow, what amazing progress. Now, Etch has become obsolete and Lenny has become the stable version of Linux only now my 16 Meg nVidia TNT cards come up with 800 X 600 video resolution and there's not a darn thing I can do about it. Nor is this 'interesting' phenomena confined to Debian, it's also true of the Ubuntu family (in all its many incarnations, or at least the ones I know about). Yes, I've tried to find a solution but, so far, nothing I've tried has had any affect on the problem (and yes, I'm grateful that the sound, at least, is still working as it should, for whatever that's worth). I'm not hard to please, I don't use Compiz or dual monitors, I don't need super high resolution and I'm not a gaming geek. I just want 1024 X 768 video resolution and I don't care if I'm required to go through some geeky stuff to get it (like I learned to do with Debian Sarge) but I don't like being made to feel like I can't get there from here even though my hardware worked great with an older distro. This makes me very unhappy.

As if this weren't enough to sour me attitude, KDE has, in their incredible wisdom, elected to castrate the finest file manager I've ever used. That's right, the 'new, spiffy' version of Konqueror is a total wimp compared to it's predecessor. Yeah, I know, Konqueror is supposed to be a browser, not a file manager, right? Bull, there are too many browsers out there already and I like all of them better than Konqueror but I've never used a file manager with as much power as Konqueror 3.5.5 (on my Debian Etch system). By comparison, Konqueror 4.2.4 is far prettier (as if all I cared about were cosmetics) while being substantially less user friendly. You want specifics? The home page on my Konqueror 3.5.5 (about:konqueror) offers me instant access to my home folder, storage media, network folders, trash, applications and desktop settings. The same page in Konqueror 4.2.4 offers instant access to the home folder, trash, network folders and bookmarks. Disregarding the bookmarks, since I'd never use Konqueror as a browser, what's left is exactly half the functionality of version 3.5.5. Now that's progress isn't it?

I've been using Debian stable with KDE for about four years now. No way am I ever going back to 'that other OS' (which doesn't deserve the publicity of a negative comment which mentions it by name). Now, suddenly, I'm left hanging. I can continue to use Etch, which currently meets all my expectations but will become steadily more obsolete or upgrade to Lenny which doesn't meet my expectations. Isn't it great to have options?

Yeah, right.

Friends, good pennies and yo-yo's often return

2009-06-17T13:33:00.002-05:00

Dad was career Army. That meant we never lived in one place more than three years. From late 1964 to late 1967 dad was assigned to Fort Ord, California. I have many fond memories of those years but the best and worst of them revolve around a girl named Randi. She was my first love and she was the most wonderful girl in the world. She was smart, she had a quick wit, she was pretty and she loved to laugh. I was madly in love with her and her fabulous family. Her mom encouraged me to be more outgoing and less worried about peer pressure. Her dad was a strong, quiet, intelligent man who wasn't at all intimidating to talk to. Her younger brother got me started playing the guitar. Her youngest brother was an impressive pianist and smart as a whip. I even loved their dog. Of course I was a teenager, knew everything and my world mostly revolved around my newly discovered libido so it was only natural for Randi to, finally, break up with me. In retrospect I can describe the two following years as my 'Gothic Emo' period but those words, in that context, didn't exist at the time. Suffice to say that I wore a lot of black and was extremely depressed most of the time. I refer to those as the 'hard years', by which I mean, it was always hard and I never got to use it. I poured all my passion into my guitar (excepting only the occasional bit that went into a kleenex).
Fast forward forty-some-odd years and I was able to track Randi down on the web. She has fond memories of me because she went on to meet lots of guys who were way bigger jerks than me. So now we're old friends, meaning sometimes we bicker, other times we ignore one another but beneath it all is a secure, comfortable bond, built on love. Sort of like family would be in a perfect world, but that's another story.

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

2009-05-11T01:29:00.001-05:00

Back before we got married, while Lisa and I were still dating, we worked as stockers in a Super S market in Llano. The assistant manager caught me kissing her in the stockroom and primly advised us that we should avoid overt displays of affection while on duty. Later that day I had occasion to pass Lisa as she was stocking on one of the isles. Rather than stop and speak to her, because the assistant manager was a few feet away stocking on the same isle, I leered at her and said 'Hey lady' as I passed. She instantly leered back at me and responded 'Hey sailor'. The assistant manager frowned but didn't say anything. To this day, that exchange serves is as well as a kiss and a hug when we're in public or in a hurry.

The store PA system played classic rock music. I guess that's a big thing with lots of supermarkets. We mostly ignored it but Lisa doesn't care for old Bob Dylan tunes and one Dylan tune, I Want You, came up often in the music. Of course Lisa hated it and I knew it but, if no other employees were in a position to see me do it, I'd loudly sing along on the last two words of the chorus, 'so bad' in a really terrible Dylan-impression voice. I thought it was a pretty cool double entendre, acknowledging that my significant other didn't care for Dylan while reminding her that I really did want her, 'so bad'. Sure enough, if she was anywhere near me I could hear her laugh when I sang out with Dylan and I assume that some of my coworkers figured out the joke because, even though nobody ever said anything about it, I sometimes heard them laugh too.

Life is good, love is wonderful.

Can someone loan me a (reg)fly swatter?

2009-03-12T21:14:00.001-05:00

I've been getting emails from regfly.com, formerly registerfly.com, complimenting me on having been a good customer since 2002. I finally tracked down an online feedback form to tell them what I thought of their ads. Here's what I told them:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Registerfly.com treated me horribly. They took my money but wouldn't apply it to my account (or show me how to apply it to my account). Consequently, both of my domains, one being very important to me, were lost forever. I elected to write off the money I gave to Registerfly as the price of learning a lesson and that should have been the end of the story but it wasn't.

Now you're sending me email, talking to me as if I were a valuable customer who you'd like to bring back into the fold; as if Registerfly.com had never ignored or abused me. Nor is there any sort of link in the email where I can click to opt-out of your charming advertisements.

So, some seven years have gone by and not much has changed with registerfly except your name (which is now regfly); you're still abusing me and I'm still putting up with it.

All that's really changed is that I got myself a new domain, from another provider, and haven't had any trouble with it at all.

So, if you were in my place, how would you feel about these ads you've been sending me?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Was I too harsh? Do you think they'll understand? Is there any chance I'll stop getting email from them? Guesses anyone? :)

Did it have to be Friday the 13th?

2009-02-23T10:15:00.000-06:00

Lisa awakened me at 6:30 on a Tuesday morning complaining that she couldn't breath and had already been up for two hours fretting about it so she didn't want to wait until 8:30 when the clinic opened. I took her to the ER (at the hospital in Llano, 20 minutes from here). The doctor took a chest x-ray and sent her home with an antibiotic, cough suppressant and an anti-inflammatory. Thursday afternoon I came down with whatever-the-heck-it was so Friday (the 13th) she drove me to the ER (at the VA hospital in Temple, a little over 2 hours from here but substantially more affordable). The VA doctor had my chest x-rayed and sent me home with an antibiotic, cough suppressant and an anti-inflammatory. Neither doctor gave the condition a name but both appeared to have seen it before.

On the way home from Temple an idiot hauling a front end loader on a monstrous trailer pulled across the road in front of us, completely blocking the highway. Lisa, who was driving, managed to come to a full stop without hitting the trailer. The guy behind us was less fortunate. He rear-ended our car. The car is history, that's what the wrecker driver figured anyway. After calling 911 to report the accident we called our daughter Lily and, in relatively short order, our son-in-law, Kirk, arrived and drove us home (Thanks Kirk!).

As of tonight (Sunday) we've both got sore muscles in our necks but are otherwise alive, well and slowly recovering from our respiratory conditions. Tomorrow we'll go to the clinic and have our necks looked at.

It's all well and good to live in interesting times but, honestly, we'd much prefer having the words 'drama' and 'trauma' remain a little more abstract than they've been of late.

Sheesh.

The Army is still changing my life (thanks uncle Sam).

2009-02-06T12:07:00.003-06:00

About eighteen months ago I started having asthma-like symptoms. I thought my childhood asthma has decided to revisit me in my golden years. At first the symptoms were mild and non-threatening but they gradually became more intense. After a kilo-dollar trip to the ER where they gave me a fifty cent Albuterol treatment with a nebulizer (lets talk about the rising costs of medical care) I went to the clinic in Llano. She gave me a prescription for Albuterol (we already had a nebulizer machine at home) which is very inexpensive and a rescue inhaler (Albuterol in a very small aerosol can for $40 ostensibly due to an exotic but necessary propellant) and that worked just fine for a few months. I scrounged an extra nebulizer machine to wag around in the van in case I had an "attack" while I was playing a gig and wound up using it on several occasions but my symptoms continued to become more frequent and more intense. I made another visit to the clinic and asked my PA if I was going to wind up needing a nebulizer treatment every four hours for the rest of my life. She gave me some samples of Advair and made it clear that she couldn't treat me for long with samples. Advair worked great and I only had to use it twice a day but a quick trip to drugstore.com showed me that it was going to cost around $400 a month. That was going to be a serious monetary obstacle for us. A few years ago I needed a complete physical and when the local clinic explained that it would cost several hundred dollars, reasoning that it was bound to be at least somewhat less expensive, I drove to the VA hospital in Kerville and got the most thorough physical I've ever had in my life for a grand total of $25. So, I said to myself. "Self, it's time to go see the VA again". I was able to get the forms online and fill them out. We had to drive to Temple (a little over two hours from here) but I'm getting superlative treatment and, so far, it hasn't cost me anything at all. My asthma-like symptoms have been diagnosed as COPD, I've had some minor skin cancers removed and I'm soon to be fitted for a CPAP machine to treat my mild sleep apnea.

Oh Goody, Another Presidential Election

2008-10-08T17:08:00.001-05:00

Maybe it's age related but having seen a few presidential races, they no longer seem significant to me. As always, both candidates are idiots because that's how our political system works. Nobody who's qualified to be a good politician wants any part of the job and, conversely, anybody who wants political power is manifestly unqualified to be in possession of same.

So, one or the other idiot will win the election and then he'll proceed to make countless mistakes which may or may not contribute to the mess our nation has become. He may or may not get caught with his hands, feet, or other anatomical protuberances in a socially or morally inappropriate place and four years from now we'll all get together to decide whether or not we want to elect yet another idiot or stick with the same idiot for the next four years. Et cetera, ad nauseam.

The simple truth is that the President of the United States, who is generally considered to be the single most powerful man in the world, is powerless to change anything or, for that matter, do any lasting damage.

We may or may not have a worldwide depression, things will get better, worse, or stay about the same.

I plan on hanging around for as long as I can, to keep an eye on things, but I've long since outgrown the naive belief than my opinion, or my vote, is going to make the slightest difference in the way things are; any more than a single iron molecule could alter the course of a battleship.

Will I vote? Yes, probably. Have I picked a candidate? Yes, but my wife likes the other guy so we may simply agree to abstain together.

Maybe Having Kids Is A Bad Idea After All

2008-07-27T15:18:00.003-05:00

When my daughter was five years old her mother Karen (her maiden name was Knight) and I divorced. We only had one car and I left it with her when she asked me to leave. I took only my musical equipment and clothing. I didn't hire myself a lawyer for the divorce, I hired a lawyer for Karen and paid him in advance. She got the house, everything in, on or around it, the car and custody of our daughter Catrina. I think Karen managed to break even on the car but she sold the house for enough to clear several thousand dollars in profit and liquidated everything in/on/around the house in a garage sale.

When Catrina was about 13 she decided she wanted to live with me. After a protracted battle, Karen capitulated and allowed her to come live with me on condition that I not ask her to pay child support. I couldn't have cared less about the money but I did insist that Karen sign a waver on the child support I was paying her. Karen did, in fact, sign a temporary child support waiver. A few short years later, my second wife, Kathy, and Catrina declared open war on one another. They refused to compromise, or even discuss their differences. At my wits end, I finally decided that my only option was to send Catrina back to her mother.

Catrina moved out, Karen rescinded the temporary waiver, and the state promptly came after me for back child support for the entire time Catrina lived with me. Of course there was no way I could pay it and I was self employed so they couldn't garnish my wages. I asked Karen to please do something about this. She agreed it was unfair but insisted there was nothing she could do.

After the shop closed I worked at one or another entry level job for the next few years and the state always took a little out of my meager check to apply to my back child support which, by this time, with penalties and interest, had grown to around $26,000.00. Karen agreed it was unfair but continued to insist there was nothing she could do about it. I finally started taking odd and part-time jobs that paid cash and that's how things stood until a few months ago when I decided to see if a lawyer could do anything to help me. I'd tried to hire a lawyer on several occasions over the years but they'd all refused me the minute I said the words "child support". This time I got lucky.

Linda Bayless, a brilliant lawyer from Kingsland Texas, acquired the records from the state of Texas, did some research and advised me that, in fairness, I owed Karen about $3,000 if you subtracted the child support she was morally (if not legally) obligated to pay me from the child support I owed her. She then made one phone call and the $26,000.00 the state was demanding suddenly dropped to $10,000.00. Karen, of course, declined to concede that she owed me any child support for the time Catrina lived with me so $10,000.00 it remains today. She'll get it eventually, but I'm in no hurry to accelerate the process. Am I wrong to feel this way?

Thus begins a chapter of our life.

2008-07-16T21:01:00.000-05:00

On Tuesday the fifteenth of July at around 2 PM, quietly, in her sleep, my mother died.

Thus ends a chapter of our life.

The Perfect One-Night Stand

2008-07-11T13:21:00.000-05:00

Years ago, over a dozen years into a marriage that remained stubbornly dysfunctional despite our best efforts, I met a nice lady while I was playing a gig in a beer joint. All evening, during my breaks, we talked, flirted and laughed together. After the show was over and my equipment was all packed away I sat with her until closing time. Just before the bar closed she told me she'd been separated from her husband for six months and wasn't interested in an emotional attachment but would be delighted to have sex with me. I was utterly stunned. Here was a confident, mature, uninhibited, attractive woman who wasn't looking for a serious relationship, didn't have a hidden agenda, was totally free of any emotional tax who wanted to have sex with me. The legendary, perfect one-night stand had suddenly happened to me, of all people. She had her own place right down the street from the bar so I followed her home and... well, it was about as good as two willing and experienced people who don't really know one another could make it. In other words, it wasn't very good. Live and learn.

I Now Pronounce You Man and Wife

2008-06-15T09:57:00.001-05:00

When I was a child comic books were one of the profound joys in my life. I well recall how pleased I was with the first issue of Spiderman, but that's another story. One of the ads which appeared in the back of almost every comic book I bought in the late fifties and early sixties offered to make anyone an ordained minister for the princely sum of ten dollars. Fast forward to around 2006 when I came across the Universal Life Church on the internet. They looked mysteriously familiar. I can't swear they're the same folks who were in the back of the comic books but, thinking they probably were, feeling nostalgic about it and because it's free these days (instead of being $10), I applied and received my certificate of ordination. I printed it out on card stock, then I carefully reduced the image and printed out another copy for my wallet. A few weeks back, just joking around, I showed the wallet card to some friends and, to my surprise, was asked to perform the wedding ceremony by a young couple I know. I then checked with the courthouse to find out that, yes, I can legally marry people.

Today I performed that ceremony and was profoundly moved by the experience. While freely admitting that my track record with marriage isn't all it could be, I remain a strong believer in the sanctity and power of marriage. I believe that marriage marks the beginning of life's most precious journey. I won't reprint the entire service here, though I may eventually post it to my website, but here are the words which were so powerful that saying them moved me almost to tears.

"By the power of your love for one another, before God and in accordance with the laws of the state of Texas I now pronounce you man and wife. You may now seal your union with a kiss"

I've played the guitar in front of thousands of people without feeling the least bit nervous but officiating over the marriage of two young people with perhaps a hundred onlookers was terrifying and yet exhilarating beyond description. My authenticity as a Reverend may be ethically questionable but this wedding was as real as it gets (and 100% legal in the state of Texas). Life is good, love is wonderful.

The Great Castell Kayak Race

2008-06-09T11:00:00.002-05:00

I had a very interesting gig last Saturday. My friend Jerialice hired me to run sound for The Great Castell Kayak Race. Entertainment was provided by David Lewis Morgan, David Byboth, Ross Vick of Trueheart and Joe King Carrasco.

David Morgan, David Byboth and Ross Vick all appeared sans-band, with acoustic electric guitars and I was fortunate enough to be permitted to accompany each of them during their performances. I've known David Morgan for a while and have become familiar with most of his songs but I'd never met, or heard, David Byboth or Ross Vick. They each risked having their performance degraded by permitting me to accompany them. Both are powerful and experienced performers with fully developed and complex styles so it was relatively easy for me to 'feel the groove' and blend into the mix though Ross has a love of subtle key changes which add wonderful depth to his songs but were a serious challenge for a cold follower. His chord structures are coherent and exciting so I got a little carried away on a couple of his tunes (sorry Ross).

Joe King Carrasco brought his band and they did a fabulous job. As a genuine Texan-By-Choice I love all the flavors of Texas music which include, though aren't limited to, Country, Rock, Rockabilly, Blues, Bluegrass, Tejano and Conjunto. Joe and his band are a wonderful blend of all these and more. They're accomplished musicians with no protruding egos and in combination their performance manages to be smooth, polished and professional while achieving the seemingly contradictory feat of being high-energy with the sort of slightly jagged edges that make live music so incredibly much more fun than recorded music.

I bought CD's from everyone on stage (except David Morgan who doesn't yet have a CD) and brought them home.

My Mind's Eye by David Byboth

The Road by Trueheart (Ross Vick)

Hot Sun by Joe King Carrasco

Y'all rock on and thanks a million.

Clueless is do-less

2008-06-06T11:51:00.001-05:00

Trying to fix a computer for Missy's boyfriend, giving my grandson guitar lessons, trying to learn about blogging software, trying to learn about file servers, playing two-piece gigs with Ely, four piece gigs with Jerry or Fermin, helping Jerialice with sound at her Songwriters in the Round meetings, mowing the Benson's place every week, getting the ezine completed and published, taking care of mom...

Wow, and there's way more on my 'pending projects' list.

If there were three of me I'd be no better off because those other two bastages would be 'cherry picking' all the easy jobs and I'd just get stuck with the scut work.

I wash dishes, do laundry, run errands, shop for groceries, sharpen things (mower blades, axes, hoes, chisels, knives and/or scissors), do much of the cooking, change mom's diapers and try to do the occasional odd job while I'm at it.

Lisa's been after me to hang some grow lights for her African Violets. I think I've got all the hardware bought but I'm still pondering the details of getting it done. Once I feel certain I know what I'm doing, and how I intend to get it done, I get right on it but I do sometimes spend rather a long time thinking it over. Like an artist waiting for the muse, I'm a slightly challenged handyman waiting for a clue.

Time, life and distributions.

2008-05-14T23:00:00.001-05:00

The days cascade into one another and I look up once in a while to discover that another week, few weeks, month, few months have passed. It seems impossible, I was only distracted for a few seconds. Where does the time go? Does it swirl away, in a counter-clockwise spiral, into some mysterious rabbit hole? Am I really so terribly late?

Mom's just gotten re-certified for Hospice care. It's somehow very significant to medical people (I don't waste time trying to fathom that); what it means to us is that a nurses aid comes in three days a week and bathes mom (we love our "bath lady"!), a nurse comes in once a week and takes mom's vital signs and. best of all, a social worker drops by about once a month and listens to our troubles. I don't suppose there's much of anything she could do to help us but she listens, she's sympathetic, she commiserates with us and I always feel better afterwards. Lisa was born Catholic so it's probably not a big deal to her but I think maybe I understand how it feels to have gone to confession and "unloaded". I expect Catholic priests and social workers are far more cognizant than I of just how similar their jobs can be. Carol (the social worker) doesn't cross me or mutter words of absolution but the net effect is probably about the same.

One of the fellows on the SATLUG email list insists that we Linux users should all give thanks to saint iGNUcious. My response is "Ok, but first, what distro is he using?".

A friend was complaining about the fact that there are hundreds of different Linux distros making it very difficult to figure out which one is best suited to your needs. My only comment was "Have you bought a car lately?". Too many choices can be awfully confusing but it's vastly superior to the alternative.

Hillary Who?

2008-03-04T10:40:00.000-06:00

This is a significant day in Texas. Why? Because it's election day and why, you ask, is that significant? Because it means no more canned telephone calls from Hillary on behalf of herself, Bill on behalf of Hillary, Sally Fields on behalf of Hillary, legions of nameless campaign workers on behalf of Hillary and no more glitzy junk mail from the Clinton campaign.

I don't know squat about politics but I'm certain that nothing presented to me by the time honored tradition of media blitz can be trusted. I'll admit that I don't watch television or read newspapers so I don't know whether or not the Clinton campaign has gone the entire distance with their campaign but I do know that I've been awakened at least four times in the last couple of weeks by automated telephone calls in support of Hillary and I foresee many more such calls if she wins the nomination. I'll do whatever I can to prevent that.

Heck, I don't even know (or care) which party I'm registered with but I do have a voter registration card in my wallet and I'm darn well going to use it this evening to vote for whomever is opposite Hillary Clinton (if she's on my ballot) simply because whomever that is hasn't awakened me from a sound sleep in the attempt to promote their campaign and I fully support anyone who runs a peaceful, quiet campaign. I'm not hard to get along with as long as you don't disturb my sleep.

Ok, there are other reasons, like, how can I support a woman who "just lays there" when her spouse in unfaithful? She kept totally quiet in order to distance herself from his indiscretions but she should have thrown his arse out of the White House. Some women keep quiet because they're afraid but I'm pretty sure Hillary isn't afraid.

My wife says "Hillary already had her chance in the White House and she blew it".

I say "If she doesn't lose I'll have to become a campaign worker for the opposition".

Nuff said.

Born again eh?

2007-11-05T03:08:00.000-06:00

It's really hard for me to relate to religious extremists. The only thing I'm extreme about is being tolerant. A person's religious beliefs, or lack of religious beliefs, is no more or less important to me than the pigmentation of their hair, eyes or epidermis. A couple of times I've had this mental flash of standing in line as a bodiless soul, with a large group of bodiless souls, in front of the fabled pearly gates while a fellow who looks like a cross between an Army drill sergeant and an angel is saying "You have the right to remain apostate. Nothing you say will make a difference. You have the right to a messiah. If you cannot select a messiah one will be appointed by the Deity." I suppose some folks might find this to be a frightening thought but I'm a veteran. I can stand in one more line as many times as it takes. No big deal.

Let's see, where was I? Oh yeah, I was talking about religious extremists. This morning one of our neighbors made a comment about a mutual acquaintance being a "Born Again Christian" and before I could stop myself I commented "Ooh, that's gotta hurt!".

Don't get me wrong here, I don't mean to imply that everyone who considers themselves to have been "Born Again" is an extremist but it's certainly true that a fair number of them are and it's equally true that, for the rest of my life, any time someone tells me they're a "Born Again Christian" I'm going to have to bite my tongue.

When I hear a funny one-liner or short commentary it's really hard for me to avoid using it at inappropriate moments and it's even more difficult when it came from my own dubious gray matter.

Here's an example from someone else "Jesus loves me but he can't stand you". I don't know who wrote it, but I love it. I can't think of another sentence I've worked so hard to resist repeating. If you repeat it, remember, you've got to use a whiny, facetious voice, ok?

Lisa says I'll probably get death threats for posting this but I figure most people are smart enough to see the difference between a little ribbing and being hateful. I'm not hateful, I don't have it in me. Am I religious? Yes, sorta. Can we discuss it? No.

Nuff said.

Good morning poopy diaper.

2007-10-20T10:16:00.000-05:00

Thus dawns the much awaited day of Llano's Heritage Festival. I'll be playing on the courthouse square with my favorite drummer (my daughter Lily) and my favorite bass player (the inimitable Mr. Pat Gibbons) beginning at 1:00 PM and my custom-made, left-handed guitar returned from Ohio (Jay Pawar is my hero, thank you Jay, the refret is superlative) yesterday so I am going to bring the house down.

Nevertheless, I still had to clean mom up and change her diaper this morning. Nothing brings you back to earth any quicker than a poopy diaper. *sigh*

Anyway, I made a nice quiche for breakfast, which is in the oven as I type this, and the momma-sitter will be here in an hour or so. Barring unforeseen catastrophes Lisa and I will have a pleasant day of love, laughter and lots of photographs.

Otherwise, we will cope with whatever comes along. Bring it on.

Still muddling along

2007-09-18T20:37:00.000-05:00

Mom broke her right hip about eight weeks ago and, following a brief stay in the hospital (in Fredericksburg, TX), she spent the next seven weeks mostly in a wheelchair. A few days ago she started physical therapy and is moving all over the house just fine with her walker, as long as she's supervised. I don't think she's quite ready to solo yet but things are pretty much back to what passes for normal around here.

My granddaughter Amanda posted something about a test at OkCupid so I went and took the one I could find only I'm not sure I got the right test because my results didn't look like hers (and she didn't give a link). They sent me an email to a link where they listed hundreds of potential mates. That's a little like winning the lottery after you joined a church that forbids gambling. I also noticed that one or two of those "potential mates" were men. I wonder what they're trying to imply?

Meanwhile, Lisa found the list of categories that men and women are sorted into by this test (at the bottom of the results page) and has been reading them aloud to me while I'm typing. Some of them are hilarious.

I'm so grateful to be happily married. Being single is the scariest thing I can imagine.

Sometimes Love is a Boadacious Breakfast

2007-07-04T20:33:00.000-05:00

I slept late this morning and when I did get out of bed, brush my teeth, comb my hair and get dressed I sat and checked my email even before I went looking for a cup of coffee. Sometimes I'm a slow starter. Anyway it occurred to me that Lisa had been up for a while and was busy getting mom up rather than working on breakfast, even though she always wakes up starving so I decided she should have some banana nut pancakes (a particular favorite). She saw what I was doing and suggested I add a couple of the fresh peaches our friend Pam brought us and, just for grins, I microwaved a handfull of dehyrated apricots in a half cup of water and threw them in too.

We got several batches of plums from our neighbor's tree this year and after I worked up the last batch I had seven cups of juice. It takes six cups to make plum jelly and I already had several batches put up but I hated the thought of having an entire cup of juice left over so I divided what I had into two 3½ cup batches, put one of them in the fridge in a covered container, added 2½ cups of unsweetened apple juice to what I had left and simply followed the directions for plum jelly. It didn't set so I wound up with four pints of plum syrup.

A few days later I made a wheat-free chocolate cake. Powdered sugar contains corn syrup and corn products are highly toxic to Lisa so a traditional butter cream frosting, consisting of powdered sugar and butter, is out of the question. We've tried to produce a decent frosting using regular sugar but we've had no luck so far with that. Then I remembered the "plum sauce" I got from my last attempt at jelly so I opened a jar and poured that over the cake. Wow! Serendipity is sometimes good stuff you know? So, yesterday I remembered the 3½ cups of plum juice which was in the fridge, even though I'd intended to throw it away when my last batch of jelly didn't set but, having discovered "plum syrup", I got everything together and made myself another batch and that's what we had on our peach-apricot-banana-pecan pancakes this morning. Life is good y'all.

Don Crowder

On the vagaries of domestic tranquility.

2007-07-04T15:30:00.000-05:00

Lisa's been working on a website for her Llano Master Gardeners group and, naturally, she wanted to use all sorts of CSS tricks that I don't know anything about so I had to show her how to quickly and easily find CSS data by googling for information on specific features, anywhere you can find it, rather than a frustrating search of a single site when you can't find the keyword that leads to the data you want or a long and frustrating round of reading tutorials that never mention whatever it is you're looking for. Then, if she found information and couldn't understand it I had to read it and explain it to her and then when she got it to do whatever she wanted it to do I had to admire it and compliment her on it. I'm not allowed to be busy when she wants me to help her with something; I can help her with whatever it is she wants help with or I can pay, and pay, and pay for the next week or longer. Nor am I allowed to distract her when she's busy; I can quietly leave her alone or I can pay, and pay, and.... *sigh* anyway, I've learned all sorts of new CSS tricks that I truly didn't want to know and getting the most recent issue of our ezine and personal news page finished was fun and challenging.

She insists that I mention how distracting I was while she was working, constantly bothering her with questions or wanting her to watch some video on YouTube. I don't remember any of that but she did say that so I'm mentioning it.

I'm sweating bullets over the next post to my lockergnome blog. It's entitled "How You Can Try Linux" and it's supposed to be a simple, clear, understandable explanation of all available ways and means by which an average citizen can get a first hand look at Linux. There are lots of choices, enough to be really confusing, and I can't change that so I've got to explain each of them simply enough that an average person who knows nothing about Linux will have no trouble selecting an option that suits him or her. Nothing to it, but it may take me a few more days.

I made another trip (my third) to the clinic in Llano the other day and our favorite PA, Joanna Schork, loaded me up with advair, singulair, levaquin and nasonex. For the first time in months I'm starting to feel better. On both of my previous visits to the clinic I called in and took whomever I could get because I felt so bad and Joanna wasn't available on either of those occasions. She's certainly made a believer of me now; if she isn't available the next time I'm miserable I'll make an appointment for whenever she will be available and simply continue being miserable for as long as necessary. Nuff said.

Don Crowder

Am I Reigning or Raining and Where's the Parade?

2007-06-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

Because of changes in my mother's medical condition, Social Services has requalified us for respite care on Monday and Thursday afternoons. It's a real luxury for us to be able to go somewhere together for a change even if it's just running errands and grocery shopping. Lisa wants a rose trellis and the flimsy, crummy prefabbed trellis they sell at the lumber company is really overpriced so we decided to build our own. On our last respite care day we took my old pickup truck to town, because it's the only thing we've got with room to haul building materials. After we got to town the lower radiator hose developed a leak but we were only a few blocks from the shop which maintains our vehicles and we drove straight there. The mechanic wasn't interested in working on it until it had cooled off a little so we made a half-hour hike to the nearest fast food place and soaked up the air conditioning for an hour before walking back and picking up the truck. Because of the lost time we weren't able to finish all of our shopping but that just gives us something to do on our next respite care day. That night I slow cooked a medium sized brisket in the oven overnight in a covered roaster. The next day I let the cooked brisket cool for a couple of hours before removing it from the roaster and placing it in an aluminum foil basket in order to reheat it on the grill (allowing it to stay nice and tender while picking up some smoke flavor) but I found I didn't have any Mesquite wood left. Mesquite wood makes the worlds best BBQ, no true Texan would dream of using anything else in the grill but there are affluent Texans who simply purchase Mesquite charcoal. I'm not so affluent but every vacant lot in the neighborhood has Mesquite trees on it and most of those trees have dead limbs on them which is where I get firewood for the grill, by breaking off the dead limbs. Mesquite is a particularly tough hardwood and a dead limb that's around 2 inches in diameter which hasn't aged enough to be suitable for BBQ cannot be broken, by me at least, and that's how I determine whether or not a dead limb is suitable for firewood. I look for dead limbs that are around 2 inches in diameter and, when I find one, I give it a good yank; if it breaks cleanly it's firewood; if it doesn't I move on. When I gather firewood I always get more than I need and the extra gets saved for next time. Anyway, my firewood pile was empty, I was in a hurry and all the Mesquite trees in our immediate neighborhood are pretty well picked over but there was one 5 inch dead limb, about three feet long (I broke off the rest of it a couple of years ago) in a tree right across the street which I figured ought to be aged enough I could break it off. I found a piece of rope, tied myself a lariet, walked across the street and was able to rope the limb right out on the end, where I'd have maximum leverage, on the first throw. I thought "Hot dog, I'm on a roll!", pulled the lariet tight and yanked down as hard as I could; it barely even moved. It wasn't going to break off, nosir. I left the rope hanging while I walked back across the street to get my bow saw and a lightweight six-foot aluminum step ladder. I set up the ladder, climbed up and as I placed my saw for the first cut something shifted under one of the back legs and the other back leg totally caved in, bringing down the ladder, and me with it. As I fell, I tossed the bow saw aside, knowing I didn't want to land on those wicked sharp teeth, and tried to squirm into a position that would miss the ladder but I didn't have much success. I was able to roll as I hit the ground but my left leg and foot both hit the ladder hard enough to be well bruised. Nothing was broken but it hurt like the dickens. I limped back across the street, grumbling and cursing, and got my much sturdier 8 foot alluminum step ladder. This time there were no surprises, I sawed a little over half-way through the limb, climbed down, moved the ladder, gave the rope a strong yank and down it came. About an hour later we had Mesquite smoked beef brisket with brown and wild rice, Portabella mushroom gravy and green beans for supper and all was well with the world.

That was several days ago; by now, my foot's ok but my leg is still awfully tender.

Got Guitar?

2007-04-08T01:57:00.001-05:00

My left-handed guitar was built for me, to my own specifications, by Jay Pawar back in 1994. That was the year before he helped found Pawar Guitars and it was a sweet sounding monster-axe from day one. I never owned a guitar that played so nicely or sounded so good and it'll do country twang, hard rock, heavy metal or smooth jazz with a combination of technique and electronics so I like to think that my guitar may have played a part, however modest, in the creation of the guitars he's building today. This year, my Pawar is thirteen years old and its frets are all but worn out. With a Strat or Tele style instrument it would be relatively simple to replace the bolt-on neck but my Pawer has a bonded neck so its frets must be replaced and while that's not a great deal more expensive, a skilled luthier is required to do a proper job of it, this is my baby we're talking about, this is the only electric guitar I own (why would I need anything else?) and I have gigs every week. Fortunately I've had most of the parts needed to assemble a left-handed strat-copy buried in a box out in the shed since 1997 when someone gave me one that was in pretty sad shape and, because the parts needed to fix it weren't expensive, I ordered them. In the back of my mind I was thinking about becoming one of those fellows who has two guitars on stage and swaps between them every so often but somehow it was just never the right time to put that guitar together until now. I gotta have something to play while my baby's in the hospital so the strat copy is finally all assembled and only needs a little bit more fine tuning of it's action and intonation to be ready to boogie. I should finish it up tomorrow but honestly, I don't have my heart in it. I'm going to miss my Pawar and therein lies another interesting story.

Dan Erlewine is perhaps the most well known luthier in the world and, because I'm not about to let just anybody touch my baby I began my research on a refretting job with two emails; one to Dan and one to Jay Pawar c/o the website's dealer service email address (the only address I could find on the site). Dan was real nice about it but the plain truth is that I can't afford his work so I contacted Dan's cousin Mark at Erlewine Guitars in Austin (TX) who's rates were pretty much the same as Dan's. A little more research turned up Jeff Rice of Intown Guitar Repair in Greenville, South Carolina. Jeff used to live in Austin, Texas where he still has a reputation as an excellent luthier. In fact, there are still musicians in Austin who're willing to send their instruments to South Carolina to have Jeff work on them. Jeff's rates, which are posted on his website, are substantially more affordable than those I was quoted by Dan or Mark so I was all set to send him my Pawar when I finally got a reply from Jay. My email lost some time in being forwarded and Jay, who's a busy fellow, didn't get back to me right away. Jay's a successful businessman these days and to tell the truth I didn't really expect him to respond to my email so I was surprised by his response. Because he built my awesome axe in the first place, all thoughts of having anyone else work on it faded from my mind as soon as I got his email. Jay explained that he doesn't really do much of this sort of work any more but he'd be happy to refret my Pawar. That's just about the best news I've had in weeks and tomorrow I'm going to finish tweaking the strat copy and start building a packing crate for my Pawar so I can ship it to Ohio.

There are perhaps tens of thousands of guitarists in the world who are better musicians than I am, this is a given, but I'll wager there are no more than a handful who're happier than I am. Life is good stuff you betcha, lemme told you.

Don Crowder

Hang on, I'll be there in a minute...

2007-03-31T23:24:00.000-05:00

I don't post here as often as I should but I am trying to improve. Right now, for example, I'm here trying to edit a typo I spotted in an earlier post when I should be working on my ezine which I'll have to post in about a half hour. I think this site is important because it doesn't come with the kind of peer pressure I feel about writing anything for Lockergnome but I'm just babbling aren't I? I need to fix that typo and get back to work on my ezine. I suppose I should name this one "The Someday Show" and make a little banner image that says "More To Come". Yeah, I like the sound of that.

Call me Jones...

2007-02-05T22:18:00.000-06:00

I'm having trouble keeping up with myself. I created this blog because myspace was getting so darn much negative publicity but I lost interest in blogging somewhere along the way and then Chris Pirillo invited me to create another blog at Lockergnome but it's real intimidating for me to post anything at Lockergnome for crying out loud, pick any three average Lockergnome readers and add their ages together; they're still younger than me. So, ok, I don't wanna be a wuss you know? Um, Lockergnome blog, that'd be here:

Donspatch at Lockergnome

I've made one post and have the second one almost finished but damn it's intimidating. I have to write it, proofread it, edit it, proofread it, and then finally, waffle for a couple of days before I can post it.

The only good thing I've found as a result of this blog is a new granddaughter. She's hell-on-wheels, Do Not give her any trouble or she'll hand you your head. Her name is Amanda. Check her out.

Let's see what else? Oh yeah, check out my website and the ezine my wife and I write twice a month then snag some freeware from my favorite programmer's website.

I'll be making my second post to the lockergnome blog in.. um... well, sooner or later and I'll make an honest effort to post here (*sigh* and at myspace) a little more often.

What it's all about.

2006-09-06T21:07:00.000-05:00

Age and wisdom finally teach us what should have been totally obvious to our young selves. Places and things are of no importance in life. People are the only things that really matter. People are, unfortunately, transient, they move on or die, but the love we share with them endures and sustains us. When you get down to it, life is meaningless. It doesn't matter to the universe, but love alone gives life meaning for us mortals. To lose sight of that, is to lose everything.

The Great Linux Adventure or I Love Debian

2006-06-23T01:30:00.000-05:00

I've wanted to learn about Linux for years but I was afraid I'd wind up out on a limb unable to do the things I needed to do. Then, shortly after switching from slow dial-up service to relatively fast DSL, I lucked into a 1.7 GHz, HP, Pavilion (less monitor, mouse and keyboard) that had a completely trashed operating system. At a meeting of the local computer club I'd heard mention of a gadget called a KVM switch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch
that lets two computers share a keyboard, monitor and mouse. I bought a KVM switch in a local computer shop, brought it home, hooked it up and set the Pavilion next to my unbranded (white box) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_box_(computer_hardware)
Windows machine. Then I started downloading ISO files http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iso_file
for Linux distros, burning CDs and having a wonderful time. Because there are so many choices and they're easy to use, I started with live CDs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiveCD
of Beatrix http://www.watsky.net/
DSL http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
Kubuntu http://www.kubuntu.org/
Puppy http://www.puppylinux.org/
Slax http://www.slax.org/ and
Ubuntu http://www.ubuntu.com/
My enthusiasm may have been infectious because my wife got interested once she saw me using them and spent a lot of time sampling live CDs. I liked the KDE desktop http://www.kde.org/
so I finally installed Kubuntu on the Pavilion but in support of my wife's growing interest I continued downloading ISO files and burning CDs. She tried PCLinuxOS
http://www.pclinuxos.com/news.php
and liked it a great deal. I tried it and agreed with her so we replaced Kubuntu with PCLinuxOS in the Pavilion.

Soon after I acquired the Pavilion I found an affordable 266MHz IBM Aptiva tower (without monitor, mouse or keyboard) in a small computer shop . This venerable old Pentium workhorse ran like a young colt on DSL and, after a few false starts, it was relatively easy to install.
A few days later I found a 333 MHz Dell OptiPlex G1, with monitor, mouse and keyboard, for $10 in a flea market. By this time I'd discovered DSL-N
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/
and that looked like the best choice until someone in my Linux Users Group mentioned Xubuntu
http://www.xubuntu.org/
Man oh man, Xubuntu is fast on old computers and loaded with software. I figured this was one more old box with a new life ahead of it.

I was on a roll.

I was feeling my oats enough to bid ninety nine cents on a 500 MHz Pentium white box at eBay. I wasn't even shook up when I got the bid and discovered that the freight was $31. I felt it was still a bargain but after it was delivered and I found out the hard drive was shot and the darn thing wouldn't boot from the CD-ROM drive under any circumstances I lost a little of my enthusiasm.

I spent a few weeks tinkering with the computers and making cautious bids on eBay until I'd acquired a 4.3 GB hard drive, some extra RAM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM
and I used pricewatch.com http://www.pricewatch.com/ to buy another KVM switch, mouse and keyboard.

During the same few weeks I tried installing STX http://stibs.cc/stx/ on my Aptiva and downloaded a few more Linux distros but I kept thinking about Debian http://www.debian.org/
My reading told me that Debian was difficult to install and at two hours apiece I couldn't bring myself to start downloading fourteen CDs but I kept reading about Debian and hanging out on the website until I read about the net install CD. This is a single CD that's about 112 MB in size which installs a basic Linux system and the Debian installer which will then build an operating system from the online repositories in real time, over the internet. This was just too much for me to resist. I downloaded the Debian, 3.1, i386, stable, net install ISO file and burned a CD. Then I had to decide which computer to use for the trial run. DSL-N was wonderfully fast on the Aptiva but limited in software while STX had ample software but had an erratic sort of "beta" feel to the way it ran. I decided that if Debian didn't suit me on the Aptiva I'd reinstall DSL-N and be done with it. I am so glad I made that decision.

Two hours later I was completely knocked out by the most incredible Linux distro I'd seen to date. The install wasn't particularly easy and it's way too easy to wind up with a less than perfect install if you make a wrong choice along the way. In my personal experience this means you'll have to do a lot of reading and be prepared to start over once or twice before you're happy with it but the payoff is an awesome Linux distribution and Debian ran beautifully on my Aptiva. The completed Debian install has the Gnome desktop environment http://www.gnome.org/about/ which, based on my previous experience I expected would run poorly on the Aptiva because it has only 128 MB of RAM. So much for my previous experience. The Aptiva ran very nicely and I had no idea that so incredibly much software would fit in less than two GB of hard drive space. No, I'm not kidding, the 4.3 GB hard drive is less than half full and this thing is loaded up ya'll. If that's not cool enough for you how about this?

The basic install comes with several nice browsers but Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/ isn't one of them so I turned on the package manager (Synaptic http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Synaptic ); a few mouse clicks and several minutes later I had Firefox. Installing any of an enormous number of additional software packages can be done just as easily. Don't take my word for the software either. Check out this list: http://packages.debian.org/stable/

The more I used Debian the better it looked so I bid a fond farewell to Xubuntu and installed Debian on the Dell Optiplex. I've asked several people about this and nobody's been able to explain it but when the net install was completed, the OptiPlex booted into the KDE desktop. Not that I'm complaining mind you, I love KDE, but the desktop environment isn't one of the user choices in the Debian net install. Maybe the Shadow knows *shrug*. As might be expected, because the Optiplex is a newer, better computer than the Aptiva, Debian runs very nicely on this computer and, once again, because the computer has only 192 MB of RAM, I would have predicted otherwise.

On and off, for several weeks, I spent time with google looking for a clue as to why my 500 MHz white box wouldn't boot from a CD and why it could no longer see the hard drive when I swapped out the defective 8 GB drive for a 4.3 GB drive. I never did get it to boot from the CD but I did finally get the bios http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS to see the hard drive so I took the drive out, temporarily connected it to the OptiPlex, ran the net install CD and when the system shut down, ejecting the CD and expecting to reboot into the net installer, I shut it down, unplugged the hard drive and reinstalled it in the white box. I hooked up the monitor, mouse, keyboard and DSL internet connection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSL (which goes to the ethernet jack) and booted it up. It came up just fine and about two hours later it rebooted into Debian with a Gnome desktop environment and that was fine with me because the white box may be technically faster than the OptiPlex but I'm guessing it's motherboard is the economy model because the OptiPlex clearly outperforms it.

My wife has cabbaged onto the Pavilion and while she likes Debian almost as well as I do she's still very happy with PCLinuxOS and wants to stay with it for a while. I don't mind giving up the Pavilion and have become quite fond of the OptiPlex so that will hold me for now and I noticed that Xfce http://www.xfce.org/index.php is in the Debian stable repository. I'll bet the Aptiva would zip right along if I can just figure out how to turn on Xfce once it's installed. After that, well who know? This is one of those stories that ends with the words "to be continued".

Here we go.

2006-05-29T17:54:00.000-05:00

I'm not at all sure how I feel about having set up an entire new blog just so I can comment on someone else's blog but hey, why not.

Moving right along.