Tralfaz

Month: December 2015

  • A “new” streaming contender – Pandora

    Early on when I began to listen to streaming music, I got a Pandora account. Probably 2011 or 2012. At first, it was the only solution, and I listened, but I found that the depth of their catalog “felt” weak. Radio stations would repeat songs often, and it just fell off the radar.

    Spotify, and then the Google / Apple offerings came along, and I was satisfied. So I seriously hadn’t even fired up Pandora in a long time. Like in two iPhone refreshes (that is 4 years).

    But, a few days ago, I was cleaning up my iPhone’s apps, and I saw that the Pandora app had just refreshed. I figured “what the f*ck” and fired it up. (more…)

  • Saying goodbye to an old friend

    Today is a sad day, but also a hopeful day. It is time to say goodbye to an old friend, my Fender Telecaster guitar. It is going to a good place, it will be under the tree for a friend’s high school aged son, who wants to learn to play guitar.

    Still, it is not without some reflection of my past, that is now going away.

    It isn’t particularly rare, or exciting. It started life as a new guitar to augment my, at the time, well aged, and slightly abused Charvel that I bought in 1986. I bought it in 2002, and it came from The Musicians Friend. A “Made in Mexico” Tele, it was a true Fender, not a Squire. At one time the “Made in Mexico” meant an inferior product, but those days are long gone. It was nearly the same quality as the “Made in the USA” version, but about 1/2 the price.

    (more…)

  • Let the Holidays Commence – What to do

    Let the Holidays Commence – What to do

    Today, at noon, we started our holiday shutdown, so I am off work for a whole week. I am going to do plenty of reading, maybe some bicycling, fawn over my boys, and in general relax.

    However, I have the itch to do a project. Since our little Oregon Scientific weather station is getting a little tired, and the replacements all seem to suck, I am going to make a little weather station.

    Plenty of instructions and guidance on the web for this, but I have some learning to do first. I never really had an electronics bug. Sure, I know the mathematics, and what the components do, but wiring shit up? Not really. (more…)

  • Sick Again – A December tradition

    Last Sunday, I cold feel the start of a cold or flu in its infancy. Felt out of sorts, and funky. Got some meds and Monday, I felt good enough to go to work, assuming that I had dodged the bullet.

    Ha.

    Tuesday, I had a trip to Boston for a tradeshow, and apart from the usual dehydration of airplane travel, it was normal., almost uneventful. But at dinner, I knew something was coming.

    Not to be disappointed, about 1:00AM I was awakened with that distinctive, back of the throat pain indicative of a cold. Would it go up into the head, or down into the chest? Curious minds need to know, man. Needless to say, the 6 hours I spent on the floor on Wednesday weren’t pleasant. Since I didn’t leave home with good cold medicine, I got raped for $16 for Tylenol severe cold tablets in the hotel shop. Ouch. (more…)