Bernad, that resonant experience is why I prefer an acoustic piano. It sure would have been easier and cheaper to switch to a digital piano when we moved (or one of the other times I moved), but I can feel the music in my hands and through my feet, and to a lesser extent in the rest of my body. The acoustics in this house are really bright, so I put down a rug, hung window treatments, had the piano voiced, and keep the lid down. With all that dampening, it sounds good now, although I think people driving down the street can hear me. Acoustic music is its own experience. And you're right, so is singing. I haven't sung much for more than a decade, and I felt like age was starting to affect my voice, but now I think it was more a case of chronic allergies. I had sinus surgery about a year ago, followed by another minor surgery, followed by more allergies and bronchitis. It dragged on for months and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do the choir concert in May, but I started getting better about that time. Now, I think I'm finally getting the benefit of the sinus surgery. The hoarseness is almost gone. And it's a good thing, because the ensemble director is sure that I'm a first soprano. I've sung second soprano and alto all my life, so singing first in this ensemble is going to be an interesting experience!

nemo

These four paintings are all by the same artist, a Youtuber named Siloe Oliveira (Suburban Homestead) whom I'm subscribed to. I have bought these from him over the years because I really enjoy his channel but I use an adblocker, so this is my way of showing support. [image: 9266.JPG]

Went to high school at PHS. Its proximity to Arkansas drew teachers from Arkansas State, which is widely known as an accredited day care center. This became evident when I go to Jesus Tech, aka Central Methodist College, which I attended for one year. For my sophomore year I transferred to the University of Missouri. I walked into a second level economics class and sat near my economic professor from Jesus Tech, who was a student in the class. He was know for saying equilibrum, with emphasis on the second syllable. Someone shouted "equilibrium"in class, which cleared a common question in several minds. I never let an education get in the way of a good time, but I did get a BA in four years. Then came Law School at the University of Missouri. A best friend there became editor of the Law Review, which is a very high academic honor. I was the social director of the largest fraternity at the school. I was rightfully in charge of the parties. I got my degree in 1972 and wondered WTF did I do that for?

I reduced costs by cancelling my Spectrum Internet account. No landline. That would be equivalent giving back 25% if what I just saved. Hard no. My mobile phone is Verizon via (Walmart) Straight Talk. $50 My phone was locked to Straight Talk but I think there was a limited period Straight Talk could keep it lock. I don't think it's locked no. I have to double check. So my next step is to lower my mobile bill. I don't know. Tello looks like a possibility. I have to read more. I paid my phone bill today and my goal is to change the carrier before this billing cycle ends.

@Bernard Corporations avoid a lot. Trying to place accountability will draw the opposition of corporations. That is a lot of money. Makes forcing universal healthcare against the health insurance companies look easy.

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Switzerland is one of the countries I have been to but not really. One of our river cruises ended in Basel and there was bad weather so our flight was cancelled. We ended up taking the train to Frankfurt to get a better flight out. So my entire Swiss experience was about four hours in and around the train station. I had caught a cold on the trip so popped into a pharmacy for something for a sore throat. The pharmacist gave me anti bacterial lozenges and they were the best lozenges I have ever had. They actually worked. They tasted decent. I hoarded them and only used them for the worst of sore throats until I finally ran out.

He asked for $5,000. I laughed in his face.

Clusterfuck

One more. I promise. Link to video This generation gap (specifically) is a cultural phenomenon at this. What made some of the younger ones so clueless, ignorant, self-righteous, arrogant and entitled? I don't know.

Bump Edited. BTW- This is a great example of the destruction of US education. New College was a public school by the time I went there. It's defacto privatized by now. The money generating potential of New College made it stand out like a lighthouse. The US public education system is generally wing starved of resources. There are charter schools (de facto private) being aggressively supported by policy makers. Then there is home schooling. I only know about home schooling in Florida. The toddler stage of home schooled kids in Florida seems to end between 5 and 6. "Is our children learning?"- George W Bush

As well you should.

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@jon-nyc I've started taking Jane Friedman's newsletter, because I trust her reporting. Today's newsletter spoke to your question about whether other big AI companies trained on pirated work: OpenAI’s piracy looks to be worse than Anthropic’s piracy One of the key AI lawsuits I’ve been following is this one in the Southern District of New York—a different district from the one where the Anthropic case was settled, and the home of New York publishers and landmark copyright cases. It involves both the Authors Guild and the New York Times, since the court consolidated the cases. Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of information has come to light from unsealed documents. The New York Times is probably taking great pleasure in publishing articles about what’s in these documents, revealing things like: A Microsoft director calling AI scraping the “largest theft of labor in human history” OpenAI’s head of ChatGPT writing that AI posed an “existential threat” to publishers OpenAI developing a hack to get around the New York Times paywall The disclosures related to books are equally bad. OpenAI, like Anthropic, created an internal library of books from the pirate website LibGen and even shared those works with outsiders. One of OpenAI’s employees testified, “The better we do on GPT-X, the more worried genre fiction authors will become about us substituting for them on Amazon.” And an OpenAI researcher described his mission as creating a machine to supplant human authors."

Is it a 'safe space'? (Sort of kidding) I don't think so myself unless you're traveling in a pack. @jodi I remember your posts about Costco. Yikes. Btw, speaking of warehouse stores, I have an acquaintance who got crushed and mangled by a loading door at Publix. He couldn't work after this. I just want a 'human scale'. My house is a huge, heavy, structure with a cathedral ceiling. This means my bedroom ceiling is 12'. This is 4' higher than my bedroom in my old place. I feel very comfortable with it, but it's talking to get used to... My favorite Martha Stewart quote (during one of her K Mart adds)- "Think of your back your backyard as a living room with a very high ceiling".