Paul Merrill
Unfortunately I have this flaw whereby I can only listen to any recording a limited number of times. Some songs – or even albums – are spent and can never be enjoyed again. The pain comes when my kids start liking those tunes. Then I am forced to listen again.
Certain songs, of course, lend themselves to more listens than others. And I can enjoy some songs again after a really long break.
Sad.
This post is only for Mac users. Sorry, rest of the world.
If you have a Mac with a Firewire 800 port (see pic), you can save some of that frustrating “spin-up” time when your external hard drive awakens.
This applies if you are using Time Machine. (If you are not, please start right away! It may save your day – as it has for me, many times.)
Anyhow, do not use a USB 2.0 external drive for your Time Machine disk. Instead, buy a Firewire 800 drive, like the Iomega* I recently bought. It will save you maybe 2 minutes a day of waiting on your hard drive. That’s 8 hours a year.
If your Time Machine backup drive is not plugged in all the time, this post won’t apply to you. But the benefits of having access to lost data makes always-on Time Machine worth it for me. Particularly with a FW 800 drive.
* Not an affiliate link.
Copyright laws are a bit looser in other parts of the world than America.
Lexus Crackers? I didn’t try them, but I’m guessing they had a smooth, relaxed flavor.
If the “munchy’s” company tried selling them in the States, the product would be quickly taken off the market.
(I saw them on the shelf of a supermarket in Malaysia.)
We have the most amazing cat. He doesn’t mind if we do things like cover up his face (as long as he is asleep). He will lie asleep while we have all manner of fun with him.
When he is awake? He’s wild.
Floof’s the name, and entertaining us is his game.
Yes, I actually found something that is useful from Skymall. (As faithful readers will know, I enjoy glancing through Skymall catalogs when I fly somewhere: post one and post two.)
I was amazed to find a good idea during the most recent trip. How cool would it be to just pop down a little hatch to reveal your Christmas lights! (Alas, the setup cost a fair amount of money – but for those who hire someone to put up and take down their lights each year, it might be worth the investment.)
On Monday, I guest posted over at Letters from a Small State. If you’d like to read what I wrote, head over there. It’s a post that deals with a little more of my personal journey with Heather than I normally write about.
Thank you Elizabeth!
This is a guest post by Elizabeth Howard. Read more about her at the end.
Everyone always says: “think outside the box.”
Yet…
When small hands slowly pull the cardboard lid over themselves, inside the box is where I’d like to be.
Inside the box, arms and legs tangle– and what belongs to whom doesn’t matter anymore.
Inside the box, a torrent of laughter twists with begging for turns. This is where Negotiation and Joy make love.
Inside the box, we draw shades of darkness willingly, forgetting our unhappy freckles, our crooked teeth, our tortured skin tones. Darkness makes us same.
Inside the box, we push against boundaries together, exploring the limits of strain nearest breaking point.
Inside the box, physical closeness becomes intimacy: familiarity unmentioned but worn like skin.
Inside the box, the roaring dragon flees across an unchained mind.
So that…
Even when seams break, sides collapse, and bodies explode out, the inside prevails.
The spirit of the box keeps itself on call, for the next bottomless adventure.
At Letters from a Small State and The Least Weird Person I Know, writer Elizabeth Howard examines how we survive and occasionally thrive in America, through the lens of our smallest details. A writer and poet living in Connecticut with her new family, she works daily in her own slivers of creative space and time.
“It’s a point of pride for the staff of the Sojourn to always be in uniform, no matter what the request.”
I was amused to see this picture in an airline magazine – part of publicity for a luxury cruise.
My first thought was, could you swim laps with us? They would have to stay in uniform…
A Trabant.
I’ve written about them before.
This one was at my neighborhood Walgreen’s, and I couldn’t resist.
Though the car was originally introduced in 1957, I found a brand new one at Walgreen’s.
It was the King’s birthday – the last morning we were in Malaysia. More than half the ads in the newspaper were honoring his rule and the occasion.
Why is it that in the “west” we don’t honor our head leader like that? In the USA, I can hear shouts back about how he didn’t deliver what we asked. Or how he may not represent what some believe.
I lived in England for three years. They have a queen. The real head of the country is the Prime Minister. He gets scathing reviews in newspapers. The figurehead Queen? Not a bad word is heard (in comparison, anyhow.)
African countries? Sometimes a really terrible person can be the president, but somehow the people let him remain in power. Why?
I don’t really know the answers to these questions. I just thought it was interesting how different parts of the world treat their leaders. If you have any ideas on why these things happen, I’d love to hear your comments.
