Ironman

[image: 1787940512507-10228.jpg] [image: 1787940522056-10229-resized.jpg] A few roses are blooming again after some rain this week. This one is small but what colour! I feel summer is nearly over.

Awful.

ShiroKuro said: the degree of difficulty I feel from CdL is inversely proportional to how tired I am. Or just proportional, depending on how you read that… The less tired I am, the easier it feels. The more tired I am, the harder it feels. Whatever. That’s why I only do qualitative research.

@wtg that’s great!! ️️

Never heard of him though the character looks familiar. I only saw RHPS once.

@Daniel said: I haven't learned to use my fire extinguishers (I know - super dumb) yet or my very unusual trap door. Unusual trap door? Fire extinguishers have become extremely easy to use. Latest ones I was trained on, you: Pulled a locking ring to release a pin Pointed nozzle at fire Squeezed lever The powder type spray dealt with all types of fire. (No more turning a big heavy cylinder upside down for water spray No thoughts about not holding the funnel for icy pressurised gas)

@DougG Oh I have one... schmucks.

So I made the mistake of thinking that closing my Spectrum account would be quicker if I did it over the phone. Oh boy. They put me through to their account retention dept. Bastards. It all started out fine and I thought I was just speaking with someone who would take my directive, tell me what I owed, and close my account. What a spiel she went through. It was insulting. She seemed to forget that I had already switched providers and was only interesting in ending my relation with them. After 3 or 4 times of telling her I was in no way interested in what she had to offer I said, in a well-raised voice (I was fed up) that I'd go to my local office and hung up. The clerk at the local office actually sympathized with me. Apparently Spectrum has been hemorrhaging customers. I looked it up when I got home... Spectrum lost 172,000 internet subscribers in the second quarter of 2026. This follows a loss of 120,000 internet subscribers in the first quarter of 2026. Can't say I'm all that surprised.

We were surprised to see the Costco in Lancaster has shaded stalls for the Amish buggies. Know your customers!

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Yikes - pricey... I'm sure knock-offs won't be far behind. I've seen a number of printed t-shirts but would prefer a fabric with a design - button shirt...

Not a good choice of thread title on my part…I thought adding the tag would help but it probably didn’t… What got my attention in the article was the idea that websites may be specifically tailored to get picked up by AI. Sort of the next generation of SEO. And that people either won’t take the time or maybe don’t even think to investigate what sources the chatbot used. The possibility for mischief explodes with AI. This post was linked in the Guardian story and flushes it out more: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/israel-influence-chatgpt/

Some people are beyond stupid and ignorant. Big Al

As an adult I was in the office of a high school principal long ago. Cracking down on the kids was what he was talking about. Punishment was obviously was motivated him. Education was not on his mind. I think Burnside is an exceptional principal.

@Bernard I hope everything works out! Private (one-on-one) lessons can be quite expensive, so I can get why you might prefer the group lessons. Also, the group lessons sound like they have an interesting and compelling dynamic, I would be interested in that if we had something like that here. At the uni music program, the only group lessons they offer for non-majors are for very beginning level pianists. I think there's something called a studio class which is a group class and students play for each other (and the teacher of course). It kind of sounds like a semester-long masterclass. But you have to be a music major (or music grad student) to enroll.

So I also officially started working on Don’t Know Why yesterday. It’s a little tricky just because I don’t usually play jazz (or jazz adjacent). But it’s also almost comical how much easier it feels compared to Claire de Lune! DKW is also only 23 measures (not counting the repeats of course), so it’s a third of the length of CdL and that makes it feel easier as well. Having said that, this doesn’t mean I’ll be able to play DKW with the proper jazz inflection. We’ll see. But it’s super fun to play and I really like the arrangement I picked.

Also, Italian plums/prunes are ripe here, and they’re perfect in plum torte. [image: 1787703006044-05f54ea9-19cf-46a5-953a-b4e23e669309-resized.jpeg] Recipe here It’s a mashup of recipes, and benefits from cornmeal being subbed for part of the flour.