Author: Steve

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Recently, I’ve been trying to pretend that we know nothing about the universe, similar to people in the far distant past, and duplicating the way that they ‘found things out’.  All this came about because of a Feynman lecture I was watching, where he showed how fast the moon was ‘falling’ to earth due to gravity.  He used certain known values, like the diameter of the earth.  I’m currently using the Internet to consolidate a bunch of deductions and how they were reached, leading up to a calculation of the moon’s velocity due to gravity.  I’ll release it on baselines.com when I am done, but for now, all this led to looking at the tilt angle of the Earth.  I was interested in how all the planets tilt, and it was incredible how fast the information is found with a simple search.

I thought I would paste the info in here if anyone else was interested.

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Been reading up on Feynman. I read one book years ago, but found one free with my Amazon Prime. So then I watched his Cornell video, then his personality shines through on the bongos.

Truly someone I’d like to have a beer or two with, if he could put up with me.

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I knew it had its roots in Gospel Music, but believe it or not I never took heed of most of the lyrics.

Oh, when the saints Go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
Oh, when the drums begin to bang
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the stars fall from the sky
Oh, when the stars fall from the sky
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
Oh, when the moon turns red with blood
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
Oh, when the trumpet sounds its call
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the horsemen begin to ride
Oh, when the horsemen begin to ride
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the fire begins to blaze
Oh, when the fire begins to blaze
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in.

Often the first two words of the common third verse line (“Lord, how I want…”) are sung as either “Oh how”, “Oh, Lord” or even “Lord, Lord” as cue notes to the simple melody at each 3rd line.

Arrangements vary considerably. The simplest is just an endless repetition of the chorus. Verses may be alternated with choruses, or put in the third of 4 repetitions to create an AABA form with the verse as the bridge.

One common verse in “hot” New Orleans versions runs (with considerable variation) like thus[citation needed]:

I used to have a playmate
Who would walk and talk with me
But since she got religion
She has turned her back on me.

Some traditional arrangements often have ensemble rather than individual vocals. It is also common as an audience sing-along number. Versions using call and response are often heard, e.g.:

Call: Oh when the Saints
Response: Oh when the Saints!

The response verses can echo the same melody or form a counterpoint melody, often syncopated opposite the rhythm of the main verses, and a solo singer might sing another counterpoint melody (solo soprano or tenor) as a 3rd part in more complex arrangements.

The song is apocalyptic, taking much of its imagery from the Book of Revelation, but excluding its more horrific depictions of the Last Judgment. The verses about the Sun and Moon refer to Solar and Lunar eclipses; the trumpet (of the Archangel Gabriel) is the way in which the Last Judgment is announced. As the hymn expresses the wish to go to Heaven, picturing the saints going in (through the Pearly Gates), it is entirely appropriate for funerals.

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The first one is an oldie, yet awesome. Paul is definitely on Mary Jee Wanna

This is a well done eye-opening look at what happens to us all. Some less fabulously than others 😀

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Just another tip I found on the web.

Remoting into desktop for UBUNTU. I did something and the menus no longer showed up when I would try remote connection.

This helped me to have my top bar of applications show up again.

cd /home/”youruser”
echo “gnome-session –session=ubuntu-2d” > .xsession
sudo /etc/init.d/xrdp restart

The tip was here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/91657/blank-desktop-when-logging-in-via-xrdp

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It’s a good garden year, but it brings on the issue of what to do after the neighbors get sick of taking more zucchini. I did some research and found this zucchini spaghetti maker. Awesome. It works great, and with the right seasonings, some rice and a few steak tips you are all set for dinner.

Plus you get the added bonus of snickering at the slightly pornographic leftovers.

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Here’s a new song I am working on. I stole the title. I was going through a bunch of old cassettes and I found one from one of the many many drunken nights spent at my friend Rod’s house…exploring his piano, guitars, recording gear, food and other sundries. It had a song he was writing called ‘Like a Moth to a Flame’. I didn’t steal any of the music, but that phrase captured me. I might steal some of his lyrics though 😀

7/30 Update – I added a funky swirling Vibraphone thingy in the middle with a little Real ADT on it. Also a Battery kick and tambourine, and a piano.

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Well I finally dug out this old box of over 200 cassettes from the basement.

I dusted off (and I do mean DUSTED OFF) my old Denon cassette deck and found this tape with a PL practice session. After a little processing, I was able to get it to the computer, and here it is.

[Download]

And here’s a pretty picture to look at while you listen.

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Just got back from a great week in Mexico – stayed in Cozumel and ferried over to see Chichen Itza one day — one VERY HOT long day. We had to take a taxi, then a ferry, then two busses there and then the same thing back. We left about 5:30AM and got back after 10PM!

Here of course is the centerpiece picture from Chichen Itza:

Wiki Chichen Itza

This was a grotto that we stopped at on the way back. The Yucatan was under water at one time, and the walls had shells embedded.

Here’s a picture from our room. It was quiet and faced a mini jungle area.

Across for our room was the ocean:

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Just upgraded to the latest version of Windows. Internet was connected but could not browse.

Searched a bunch of pages – tried a bunch of things.

What worked is this: A Clean Restart

– Hold down Shift
– Click Start
– Click the power button and select Shut down
– Keep Shift held down till the computer completely powers down
– Reboot

et Voila – the internet browsing works.

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Love the way the acoustic builds up for the chorus. I was 19!

“Rocky Mountain High” is a folk rock song written by John Denver and Mike Taylor about Colorado, and is one of the two official state songs of Colorado.[1] Recorded by Denver in 1972, it went to #9 on the US Hot 100 in 1973. (The song also made #3 on the Easy Listening chart, and was played by some country music stations.) Denver told concert audiences in the mid-1970s that the song took him an unusually long nine months to write.