Poor Richard's Anorak

Time for a Holiday

My last official tasks finished for the week, I can now relax for my favorite holiday. I like thanksgiving because it brings families and friends together without the incessant commercials and retailing overload.

Mind you, the Black Friday nonsense has impinged on Thanksgiving, but that can be ignored. Who wants to spend an hour in a mall parking lot looking for your car?

Thanksgiving is always a breather for me to assess what has to be done in the rush up to the end of the term, and to think about the music I'll be conducting with my bands and orchestra. It is usually when I know how many subs I will need for concerts.

I'm currently in the midst of reading six different books. Perhaps I'll finish them.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful holiday, and safe travel.

Getting Things Done

Today was a productive day, and I managed to accomplish much more than I expected to. I got the banking card problem straightened out, and that was the key to most of the other things. 

Two good rehearsals and a good class contributed to a feeling of getting things done. I can't really begin the holiday yet, as I have a three-hour rehearsal tomorrow night, and more things to take care of at the office, but I accepted an invitation to dinner in Tampa for Thursday, and I'm looking forward to that.

 

I never expected to become part of a tradition of eating Thanksgiving dinner with a large group of neurosurgeons and their families, but that is what I have done for the last several years, taking my Mom with me on one occasion. She loved it.

 

 

Our Most Loved Resource: Water (British Columbians)

It is no surprise that British Columbians regard water as their most loved resource. Would that Floridians were as wise. 

Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks!

If you are a Star Trek fan you may find this interesting: Mahler Owes Me Ten Bucks! This isn't the first instance of a debt owed to one of the great composers by a Hollywood composer. In fact, it is a great tradition.

Cyber Frustration

I'm having one of those weeks when one problem related to the internet causes lots of them. What a web of complication we weave with our modern technology. Earlier this evening I was listening to an interview with Kevin Kelley, author of What Technology Wants, and it occurs to me that I am stuck in something that could be considered a little brain hemmorhage of my neighborhood of the world internet brain.

On the same program they interviewed Paul Davies, author of The Eerie Silence which is about the search for alien life in the universe. He thinks that if we detect other life it may have already evolved into computer-like life forms, which might be tended by human-like life forms. 

The interviews were on the program To the Best of Our Knowledge from Wisconsin Public Radio. I have become addicted to listening to my digital radio on weekends. Intelligent people abound, and there are no annoying ads.

I'm hoping that tomorrow I'll be able to get things back on an even keel, and spend time and energy on more important matters, such as preparing for our fall concerts on December 9th and 12th.

 

 

Beautiful Afternoon

Walking back to the office at the college this afternoon I was struck by how beautiful this campus is. On the banks of the lake next to our building there is a huge Silk Blossom Tree which was being visited by busy crows, as below, egrets and ducks crowded the shore of the lake, grazing and probing. Peaceful and calming. Just the thing one likes to see on the way back to the office.

Putin as Stalin?

From the outside looking in the latest show trial in Russia of former oil magnate Khordokovsky looks a lot like the Stalinist era:

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