Voder-Vocoder

A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Alicia Ashman Branch of the Madison Public Library (733 N High Point Rd). Man, it was rich. Expensive wooden shelves. Wood trim everywhere. Lots of space.

Compare to my local branch. Small, dingy. In the summertime, full of kids, waiting in lines for a computer.

The Hawthorn Branch on East Wash was almost as nice as the High Point branch. My local library is the South Madison branch on Park St.

Famous people I have seen face to face:

1) Paul Erdős - White Station HS cira 1996. Small crowd.
2) Dan Aykroyd - PDS cira 1986.
3) Leo Gallagher - UW Physics Departement, wandering around, looking for Prof. Sprott. cira 2000.
4) Potus Bush I - Thousand points of light era. Call it 1989. Boring speech.
5) Potus Clinton - A couple of speeches. cira 1993, 1996.

Not included: Politicos under the rank of president. Musicians.

NEXT weekend, we here in Central US switch from UTC-6 to UTC-5. This is know as “springing forward”. It still seems like a bit of an abomination to me. Why can’t we all just agree to go to work an hour earlier?

I was on the radio tonight. Probably sounded like a dork.

Got the jeep back from the shop today. The oil pressure switch had a leak, and the dripping oil had damaged the starter. Both had to be replaced.

I’ve decided that westside Madison was designed to make bus transport inefficient and time-consuming. I’m glad to have my car back.

J&C, I owe you each a beer for driving me around.

The car is in the shop. I’m not sure what’s wrong with it. I’m still waiting for a diagnosment. I needed to visit the bank today, so I hopped onto the bus and came downtown. Now I’m hiding out in a coffee shop, killing the time.

* * *

I don’t need much from a laptop. A wireless card and a working battery. I am content with my ancient Compaq, even if it is the uncoolest laptop in the room.

Some years ago I read about warchalking. That fad never became entrenched, and never made it to Madison. If nothing else, the )( open hotspot symbol should be used.

* * *

I’ve got a window seat in this coffee shop. It affords me great opportunity for people-watching. Most people are not worth looking at.

* * *

Mmmmm. Coffee.

“That was in the contract you agreed to when you bought the DVD.” I agreed to nothing!

Think about this: I can go to the store and buy a five inch reflective disc that holds digital media. If that disc is a music CD, I can pop it in my computer, encode it, put it on my iPod, and listen to it whenever I like. But if that disc is a movie DVD, I cannot, even though the same iPod is perfectly capable of playing the same digital content that I own just the same.

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Ramdom facts:

Austria == Österreich == Eastern Realm (German)
Australia == Terra Australis == Land of the South (Latin)

Well, I fixed my clutch. it was as easy as adding manual clutch fluid. I would have tried that before, but the manual is pretty vague about it.

Aquired and watched the complete Sealab 2021 this week. <<Vs nalbar jnagf n pbcl yrg zr xabj.>> Not sure why I bother, the show’s humor is not laugh-out-loud quality. But it puts a smile on my face; is better than 90% of what’s on TV.

Is better than 99% of what’s on broadcast TV, anyways.

Tryin’ to get things together,
and you couldn’t make up your mind
Kinda half-way knew what you wanted to do
but you didn’t have it all together.

But you did know you wanted to travel.

Sometimes I wonder,
Will a matchbox hold my clothes?

Hmm. If I let my car warm up for five minutes, the clutch works perfectly. Wierd. At least it means that I have a few weeks to figure out the most cost effective way to fix it.

Image below the fold
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