On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:44:45 -0400, the opaque Silvan
clearly wrote:
99% of you don't have a clue what this is about, but here's a link anyway.
http://tinyurl.com/9a6hz
My Rosegarden (music application for Linux) book is published, and available
from Amazon.co.uk. (Supposed to be available from Amazon.com too, but it's
not there yet.)
Quick, before the US version is up, too, GIVE THEM A REVIEW AND MORE
INFO. You're going to have a lot of angry little old Mums breaking
down your door with "Where are the roses?" questions, son.
The book and Rosegarden itself are what I've been doing since I wandered off
a bit back. I haven't really done anything creative or interesting in my
shop since the Pinewood Derby. It was dismal, dank and rainy for a long
time, and then it got -- HOT --. I'm more or less just biding my time
until fall. I don't even have the energy to get out there and try to
improve the ventilation or something to get it less hot. (HOT means 100 is
a typical day, and I've seen 120. Urf. It's impossible to work when
you're pouring corrosive sweat all over every cast iron surface in a room
full of cast iron surfaces. Not to mention swelling up the wood fibers.)
I touched a brake drum in a junk yard Phoenix one summer afternoon and
learned my lesson but good. Steel and heat get along too well for even
a calloused hand to be comfy.
Probably the most noteworthy thing that a majority of you Wreckers will
appreciate is that I've had a falling out with the BSA. My son bridged
over from Webelos II, and everything was all go go yeeha whoop-t-dee, let's
be Boy Scouts, for about six weeks. He hated every second of it, starting
after about the third meeting.
I stopped after the Cub scouts but did buy some of the BS projects and
build them. My favorite was the self-propelled rocket ship (rubber
band/propeller/balsa wood model on a 100' wire between trees.)
The older Scouts were constantly picking on him, shoving him around,
delighting in his girlish squeals when they would do something he felt
might cause an injury to his recently-healed dislocated elbow, and the
other adult leaders and older boy leaders were just looking the other way,
and/or the aggressors were just really good at doing their thing when no
one was looking. I can buy either story, or a combination. It happens.
Jock dad tells his son not to beat up wuss kid in public, but secretly
delights in being able to live vicariously through his wee lad and sock the
hell out of that little wuss kid. Bullies are also extremely adept at
presenting one face to authority figures, and a completely different face
to bully-ees.
BTDT, finally stood up to the bully, Rex, on the football/track field.
He was 8" taller and had a good 50 lbs on me. I was a couple inches
shorter than most of the guys in my PE class and yelled, in my loudest
voice, "OK, if you want to hit me, hit me." and then put my arms down
to my side and left them there. The entire school watched as he backed
down and he never pushed me around again. Rex Ashlock is a name I
won't soon forget. It sure felt good to stand up to him and NOT get
hammered. g
--snip--
It seems like an OK deal to me. I'd trade hanging out with a bunch of boys
for a good woman any day of the week. 
Works for me, too!
Well, that's about it in a nutshell, unless I find time to cry about how
close to the brink my poor termite-infested shop is. I went digging
underneath, and there ain't no underneath there anymore. The sub-structure
stuff everything else sits on it nothing but paint and knots. Sigh.
Ah, sounds like my old homestead in LoCal. Don't miss it a bit. (Well,
I do miss the bevy of beauties in bikinis and the SD Wild Animal Park,
but that's about it.)
I'm going to try to hold out for a couple three more years, and I think it
will probably make it. If it's still standing now, it will keep levitating
awhile longer. When I get some bills paid down and gain some breathing
room, I think I'm going to suck it up, spend the difference, and put up a
decent steel building. Eat THAT you *******s.
You shall surely suck when you do that, but I hear no howling winds at
your door just yet, Silvie. Welcome back, BTW.
Feel free to go buy a copy of my book, even though you have no idea what
it's about. I don't mind a bit.
Twenty some odd Samoleans? Pass.
Oh, and BTW, Dave, I haven't heard from you in a good while now.
What? Dave's not here, man. --Cheech
- Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag? -
http://diversify.com Full Service Web Application Programming