And then I spent the rest of the day in deep recovery and have spent a fair amount of time in Hogwarts Legacy starting back from the beginning, in Story Mode. Right now “the story” is more compelling and the tasks and challenges feel like they are leading somewhere. It has been fun!

Today was a day. The people came out a second time. The basement is drained and drying. It’s all over but the crying end cleaning. That was a grand I was hoping I was saving but I paid people who did a bunch of crappy work on our behalf. I’m grateful that issue is resolved for now.

The guy is here trying to drain my basement. I don’t spend time in mine, generally. It’s partially finished and mostly storage. Tonight I made the discovery of the water. Not fully flooded, but standing water in part, water had been higher at some point. Floor drain isn’t draining, etc.

The thing where I was expecting a delivery today, but actually the order I placed is scheduled to deliver in just 6 short days.

Once again, I have learned to never ever trust a tutorial for doing anything in Linux. The chances that you will be able to do what you intend to do right out of the gate are low, and inevitably you’ll need to refer to second, third and fourth sources. And maybe it works, maybe you start over.

I re-watched Madonna: Truth or Dare this week. It came out at what I feel was most likely the zenith of her career, with her Immaculate Collection and her book Sex all in popular media at once.

It was fun to see. I had forgotten there might have been any controversy around any of her performances since she has been eclipsed on a few fronts.

I was a huge fan of hers for a long time and my collection of music reflects that.

But it was a time and a place and others have filled that same place in my heart since those days.

I rewatched Rattle and Hum a few weeks ago and think about the lyrics, still. It was interesting to see even then how America and her culture were both influential, yet not living to her ideals.

I’m looking for a copy of the Depeche Mode 101 DVD.

Not sure if I have an AppleTV issue or a playlist-too-big issue. When I pick a few of my larger dynamic lists, the AppleTV becomes unresponsive for several minutes. Not an issue on my iPhone 15 streaming the same lists, but my AppleTV model is circa 2017. Only seems to be an issue since tvOS 18.

Coffee. Coffee and Tylenol. Coffee, Tylenol and Nintendo.

I need more coffee.

I opened my web browser on my work computer, and once more I have no idea what I was going to do next.

First time I’ve seen an Instax photo. About the size of a credit card. From a company event this morning.

Apologies to Tim who has no idea he is on my timeline.

What You Should Do

“The only resistance worth a damn is the one where you stop calculating the odds and start living your truth without reservation.”

Mike Brock /via TechDirt

I experimented today. At the soda machine I picked Lime Coke Zero. Then I saw that also I could do Cherry Coke Zero. And I thought maybe they might be two great tastes that taste great together, like cherry lime-aid from Sonic. Short answer: No. Much too sweet and bland rather than tangy.

Apple Notes has good keyboard shortcuts. However, searching for notes to link isn’t consistent. I can’t use a space character in my search, and search results do not show everything that matches search terms. So that’s a challenge I’m having setting up the cross-linking needed for Forever✱Notes.

Recently, I learned that John Philip Sousa is the composer of The Liberty Bell. Many of us know this as the theme music for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

He has a tie to my Mid-Western region of the USA, having composed a Foshay Tower March for the self-same Foshay Tower in Minneapolis. According to legend, his orchestra played it the one time at the grand opening celebration. The check from Mr. Foshay bounced, and he never played nor published the march for the rest of his life.

But the reason I researched Sousa reveals a part of my psyche I have tried to keep hidden. You see, I have John Philip Sousa ear worms. Seriously. And frequently. And Stars and Stripes Forever figures largely here, as there are many distinct sections that all come together at the end. I listened to the whole piece just a few days ago. I forgot about the Piccolo. I smiled.

You see, I needed to be able to name the terror. Then, perhaps, I can come to terms with the ear worm.

So I found the Wikipedia page. The one with all 137 of his known Marches. One by one, where there are linked audio files, I listened to the intros. Nope. Nope. Nope. Not that one either. I’m far less familiar with John Philip Sousa’s œuvre than I would have guessed. With the exception of just the two marches that my grey matter seems to adore, and the one pop culture gave to me, I thought perhaps two or three more had more familiar themes than the rest.

Anyway, my brain also loves to fire snippets of The Washington Post my way from time to time, as well.

So, which comes first? The John Philip Sousa or the dissociation?

There is one more ear worm. One in a similar vein. I know its name.

It’s not Sousa. But it is The Star Spangled Banner.

I noticed earlier today that some of my Apple Music library changes weren’t showing on my Apple TV. After attempting to initiate a cloud sync, Apple Music told me there was an error and it didn’t recognize my library. What? So the fix allegedly is to turn sync off and back on. No big deal, only 42,927 items.

I was going to continue the re-rip project but instead I’m waiting to see if the re-sync to the cloud actually works. No idea how long it will take. No progress bar nor item count.

UPDATE:

I was on pins and needles for about two hours. Nothing on screen that indicates “Success,” but everything I was hoping to see synchronized appears to have done so.

I made the “iCloud Sync Status” column visible in the Songs view. Eventually I will need to look into the large number marked “Duplicate” and a not as large number marked “Ineligible” or “Removed”

One of the issues I have already mentioned is track duplication. Many albums that I have replaced with a re-rip had included one or more duplicate tracks. It feels good to clean those out. I will have gone one by one for each CD, but that does not account for items purchased from Apple or from other sources that were imported.

As an incorrigible collector, I have music from many, many sources. There is some work that will continue once the CDs are all back in. In the case of cassettes or vinyl, should I try to find this music digitally? Or, should I find a way to record these in real time?

Not going to decide today, but I know it would involve “recording” a side at a time, taking those files and separating them into tracks, possibly compressing to a lossless format, and adding meta data and cover art. Maybe after I retire? Or maybe not at all. I really do enjoy having everything easily available and potentially much more portable. No idea what the future may hold.

I am avoiding articles that include the phrase “Here’s what to expect…” because I expect a company to announce everything it is prepared to announce as soon as it is ready to do so. That is enough for me. I understand that they have advertisers to service, but I’m not participating.

I met the challenge.

Even with a lid on the cup, I managed to pour coffee onto my face and my clothing.

The good news is that the guitar I have is rated well for beginners—Some of the information I was looking for lead to several different discussions with similar statements by different folks.

That feeling when you excitedly disassemble your guitar only to find that you bought the wrong pick guard. SO. Monday night after the new guard arrives, I can get back to work putting everything together and re-stringing. I’m so upset with myself.

Really surprised to find the Adobe Acrobat installer on my M3 MacBook Pro at work required Rosetta.

Katie Kadan: All Better

This track is a great case in point. Came up in rotation and fairly demands attention. Soulful/Bluesy vocal.

It might just be me, but I miss being able to purchase tracks from The Voice on iTunes. It used to be a big part of the show but it must have cost too much money or the licensing liability somehow too great. Nevertheless, it was something I enjoyed.

There’s a lot to be said for learning the hard way. I am deeply impatient with myself. I was attempting to restring a guitar I was gifted with many years ago—because I want to really dig in and learn. I broke the first new string in my eagerness. So now I wait for replacements to arrive.

I’ve spent a majority of my time today plotting out my genetic ancestry. Remains discovered in various parts of the world have had DNA survive and have been subsequently sequenced. None of the finds are clearly direct lineage, but do match between one and three segments of my DNA and therefore we share ancestry. Of hundreds or more shared with the worlwide scientific community, there are 31 so far that connect with me. In this list, only one, two or three DNA segments match any of mine.

These are some of the places people with shared ancestry have ended their journeys. Dates are best effort estimates, not lifespans. Locations are where remains were discovered, though this doesn’t tell the story of their origins.

My Great Grandfather, my mothers’s mother’s father (mormors far?) was from Sweden and swore that he was of Viking blood. I am living testament.

I learned of my genetic ties to a part of the UK where only as recently as this year did we learn was the strongest evidence in Europe of matrilineal society.

I think I may finally understand what the erasure actually is, how deep it goes, and what we have been pretending it was about.