I’ve fallen behind again this year at almost exactly the same point that it all came crashing down last year.  Then, as I recall, it was all of us getting sick.  This time, it’s this pesky limitation –totally imposed on us by our conventional society that boils everything down to measurability– of 24 arbitrary hours per day.  I worked seven days straight, and I’ve still got a zillion things that are in danger of incompletion.

(Incompletion is not a word, Firefox reminds me.  Yes, yes.  I knew that and went ahead with it.  I’m just that kind of convention-flouting guy.)

So.  Speaking of time, and of the shortness of our days these days, and of convention, this post seems a good place to reorient myself before I pick up where I left off.

This series is supposed to be an exploration of the not-quite-lost season of Advent:  what are its hallmarks in the society I currently inhabit (which is the one that works harder than any other at imposing its sense of Advent on the rest of the world’s), what sets it apart it from being merely “December” or “the holidays” or winter in general, what are the imprints still left upon it by its original…what do we do that implies something is “coming” (and what is that ’something’…and what do we do that is either indifferent or hostile to that coming.  Is it simply an extended “holiday” that gets us through what would otherwise be the the most distractingly depressing time of the year?

December 8:  The Darkness

The days are getting shorter.  They don’t get any shorter than they do in Advent, of course.  After the solstice, conveniently juxtaposed beside the conventional Western observation of the birthday in question, they’re just a long, slow slog towards spring.  But Advent is when Night is gaining ground.  It expands into our afternoons and spreads its blanket over our dinner hours.  It keeps this blanket over our heads in the mornings and warns us away from getting up and facing the cold.  I have a friend who has a HappyLight; if I had one, I’d want to hook it up to my alarm clock.

As I said about the snow:  I like the silence.  I like the enforcement of being at home, safe & sound, & snug as a bug in a rug.  It’s cold, everyone’s tired of the crowds, and everyone’s spending time getting ready for something at home, more or less.  Either you’re planning to host someone or you’re planning to travel.

And either way, it’s not a big leap to be thinking about what matters most, what you have when you have no control over your time, when you’re shut off from the rest of the world, when there’s no room at the inn, when your in-laws are coming in from out of town, when the baby’s coming tonight whether you’re ready or not.

(There’s more to say here, but I’ve already spent too much time thinking and not enough time writing.  It’s time for me to be still, lie down, and let night do its job.)

WSA disqualified the USA’s doctors in intelligence and their scientists.

There had been evidence that Netherlands and USA are collaborating on a level of “ministration” which is false and the falsification upon it, is proven as Hypothesis: TSWM, where they are the failure of ministration of primary, secondary, trigonometrically, and in USA they have been disqualified upon that purpose also, since their only goal is to “abuse authority of those who are in charge” and to “abuse the ministration services” for those who are in charge of their medical health.

It has been proven that the so-called quick rapid forces of militaries are the ones part of these strategies behind illegal ministration services, who are forbidden, since they are obviously military-affiliated.

It has been proven that the so-called quick rapid forces of militaries are also with scientists the ones who been contradicting and contemplating corruptions with injustice, connected to sadists of the year’s factors since and before 2005.

The scientists of the USA’s movement in intelligence have been disqualified for any goal in hypothesis: TSWM, primary, secondary, trigonometrically.

They are the upper-most dangerous people to cause instabilility, infiltration, security violation, misuse, ill-judged ongoing, wrongdoing and sadism with false media.

OK, one thing really quick:

WordPress has this widget you can turn on to make it snow on the little header image of your blog.  They probably had this last year, but I don’t pay much attention to WordPress announcements.  The flakes will follow your mouse, sorta.

Also, please note that the morning after I turned this on, we got REAL snow!

That is all.

December 6: The Office Party

I’m pretty sure I mentioned this last year, but I’m going to avoid looking it up.  End-of-year office parties, no matter how Santafied they may be, are almost universally now called “Holiday” Parties, and not without good reason.  But they are pretty well guaranteed to take place in Advent.

We tend to have ours the first Saturday in December.  Last night we got home pretty late and pretty tired, so I didn’t get anything posted until now.  Despite the typical pop-culture motifs about company-run Christmas parties, I haven’t been to any that involved photocopied body parts or drunken passes at the boss.  However, every one I have been to has involved multiple rounds of “so what are you doing for [Christmas/the holidays]?”

The office party is unquestionably part of the anticipation…so what about you?  Have you been to your office party yet?  What are you anticipating?

December 5: The Tree

I have no idea what differentiates a Douglas Fir from a Fraser Fir.  Those were the only two options at the hardware store yesterday (besides the Scotch Pine, which is too sharp and hurty for small fingers who like to hang ornaments), and I thought about examining the differences, for curiosity more than for quality control.  But we were wrangling a couple of chilly and/or cranky littl’uns, and we went with a Fraser that didn’t seem to short or too fat for the space we were aiming to fill.

The bay window, natch.

I don’t think we’ve put the tree in there non-centered before.  A couple of years, we’ve had it in the back in the sunroom–more room to spread out the gifts and such.  But I like it back up front.

I think this is also about the soonest we’ve had a tree up.  Part of me has typically resisted overinvesting in the decoration rigamarole, which is really just a euphemism for ‘blowing it off until most of the good trees are taken at the non-expensive places and ending up frustrated with all remaining options’.  This is also often accompanied by not getting the decorations out of storage until about the 12th or 15th.

The first step is admitting you have a problem.  Saturday we had our tree up, and it got mostly decorated today (without much help from me, it must be said — another Advent topic should probably be ‘winterizing’).

I am surprised by how nice it feels to think about having time to actually enjoy the decorations before Christmas is actually here.  What are Advent for if not for an atmosphere of anticipation?  And what are the decorations for if not for the cultivation of said atmosphere?  Sure, there are people who use their decorations as a flag, announcing their affiliation with Santa, snowmen, reindeer, Bethlehem, ComEd, or all of the above.  And there are people who use their decorations as peer pressure; in fact, last night I met someone who grew up in a subdivision with mandatory Christmas lights — if yours weren’t in place and turned on by dark on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, as I understand it, you were out of compliance with whoever adjudicates these things in such places.

I don’t know about you, but I hope your Christmas decorations are nothing more or less than an announcement of a celebration, like balloons on the porch of a house having a regular birthday.  People of the neighborhood who walk or drive by our bay window, I don’t mind telling you: we’re celebrating something.

December 3:  Snow’s a-comin!

Today was the first noticeable snow of the winter.  As long as you’re above a certain latitude of the northern half of the world, Christmas usually comes after your first snow.  So it is for people like Clement Moore, Irving Berlin and me.  Snow is often used as an obviously non-threatening euphemism for Advent, especially in places like mainstream advertising campaigns.  But let’s not hold that against it.  When Christmas is coming, snow is usually coming.  (For the aforementioned slice of the global population, that is.)

Anyway, there’s plenty more that could be said on this point, and I’m sure we’ll be back here before long — in any case, since my tag cloud seems to suggest I have a minor obsession with the weather, it seemed fitting to give today’s Advent nod to Earth’s most picturesque and malleable form of precipitation.  If you’re having snow wherever you live, enjoy it.  It has nothing in particular to do with Bethlehem in the first decade BC, but it sure is beautiful.

* I’m not really sure if this is exactly right, so please feel free to comment with a correction.

Do you remember where you were the first time you heard “Blue Moon”? The first time for Rique (and possibly Margo) was in Starbucks on Sunday morning. I was amazed at how much of the “baum-ba-bom-bom” stuff I remembered.

More importantly, it was another article of proof that that son of ours really, really loves to sing and dance.  He’ll start grooving it to muzak in an elevator sometimes.  He often points at the ceiling in public places and says “Music, Daddy.  Who dat, Daddy?”

Well, apparently it’s The Marcels.

I may not have mentioned that a month or two ago, I caved into Em’s legitimate, persistent suggestion that our cell phones were old and cracked and unreliable and so on…and that my work/home balance would be greatly served by an iPhone.

Yesterday it occurred to me that there’s probably a free WordPress app (I refuse to pay for any additional capability on this thing, since I’m not even close to utilizing the zillion features that you get for ‘free’).

And so, here I sit on the El with no excuse for not posting something. Consider this a test.

Next up, I’ll try some pix and video of today’s main event.

Today I met a three-day-old twin boy who belongs to two joyous and grateful parents.

Unlike me, he will not know much solitude in his childhood.

Like me, he will be doted on by parents who waited and hoped for some time before having children.

Unlike me, he will grow up amid the smells of dogs and espresso beans.

Like me, he is named Lucas.

I don’t really have any words to explain or describe this, other than these:

J. and D., I am honored to be a part of this boy’s life.  May God bless him and his brother with friends like you.

Have I mentioned that I’m tutoring a college student in Spanish? Oddly enough, I’m unabashedly teaching to the test. It’s an entirely mercenary venture. He pays me to teach the thing I most love to teach, with the goal of not learning any more than absolutely necessary.

And yet, if I don’t teach him enough, he won’t pass his placement test, so he’ll have to take a class or two of Spanish that he’d rather not have to take (instead of something more in line with his primary areas of study)…and he’ll have wasted the money he’s using to buy my time.

It’s a grand exercise in capitalism, really. I hope it works.

So, what about you? What do you love to teach or explain? Would you do it for a little extra money if you had the chance? What about if you *knew* that the person you were teaching had no desire to retain anything you were teaching? Who is the true purist — the tutor who teaches a subject passionately, regardless of his audience or its motivation, or the tutor who will only teach in an atmosphere of proper respect for the subject?

Chicagoans, if you’re reading this, I hope you’re near a window or outside on a fancy phone.  This is what Fall is supposed to be.  This is the kind of day that pays us back for enduring the winters up here.  The sun and the leaves won’t actually wash away the bad economy or H1N1 or anything else that’s stressing you out, and it won’t conclusively prove the existence of God or otherwise clarify the meaning of life, but if you’re not basking in the glory of the gift of this day, I hope you have a good reason.  (For my money, football on TV, or any TV at all, is not a sufficiently good reason.  Take your own ball, or your favorite book, or your dearly beloved and go outside.)

That is all.

Palomitas y maíz

Car shopping. Sarah. New Job. Kosher. San Marcos. Sing. Val. Catlin. Bossy bar. Cigarette drink. IHOP.

If you’re like me, you recently took a long break from posting and used Twitter to scratch the itch in the mean time, and you discovered that every so often you had something really great to say that turned out to be just a bit longer than 140 characters, and you caught yourself getting a little frustrated that there wasn’t a better place to write those things…

Except there is, of course. When that something is more than a passing thought or a quick shout-out, it belongs on a microblog. So now that I’m back on here at the anysized blog, I’ve created a new category for posts that are ‘not quite micro enough’ for microblogging. I call it “141+”.

Here’s one:

Took a somewhat long walk with the dogs & the boy tonight and noticed some things:   Beagle may never reach a state of contentment; leans hard into every step as if she can’t feel the leash holding her back.  Boy is about to reach full intelligibility and works hard to repeat at full volume anything I don’t quite understand.  Chicago weather is apparently reaching around October and tapping November on the shoulder.  Papa is reaching the end of his daily allotment of wakefulness.

The two-year-old comes down the stairs at 7:20 am, just moments after you’ve saved your last edit and are ready to shut down the computer, and he’s still a little groggy and slightly frustrated at being ignored by his older sisters. He’s mumbling something as he comes over to the couch, and when you lift him up onto your lap, crowding the still-open laptop, you realize he’s saying “Nuggo, Daddy, nuggo?”

Snuggle, Daddy? Anytime.

Denis Bates

The General Motors 141 Class diesel of CIE was introduced in 1962, and for over 40 years has been among the most successful of the Irish diesels.  So it was not by accident that Murphy Models chose it for their first foray into a completely designed Irish model (the previous Woolwich Mogul and the NCC Jinty were of course repainted versions of the English models).  So, although my main interests are in steam days, and particularly the BCDR, I couldn’t resist purchasing one, with a view to re-wheeling it to 21mm gauge and P4 standards.  The prototype is described and drawn in two of the model magazines: by Tim Cramer in Model Railways for March 1977, and by Shane McQuillan in Practical Model Railways for June 1986. The latter article describes also the building of one, from a kit by the Model Irish Railways group. Comparing the Murphy model with the drawings, I could find nothing amiss – except for the buffer spacing. The buffer centres should be at a spacing of 6’3”; on the model they are at 23mm (5’9”). I presume that is to match the spacing of other Murphy-Bachmann models, at English spacing.

I first determined that a P4 wheelset would fit between the bogie frames, and it does, just. My main mistake was to dismantle the loco as far as possible – this is not necessary, as the bogie frames can be levered off. They are similar to those of the Bachmann Class 20 diesel (described by Keith Norgrove at http://www.norgrove.me.uk/index.htm). A screwdriver is used to prise out the frames, which appear to be identical on the two bogies. The wheelsets can then be prised out of the bogies. Each wheelset has an offset plastic gear wheel, two brass bearings which are a push fit in the sideframes, and brass wheels with insulating sleeves. Measure the distance of the gear from the ends of the axles, before tapping out the wheels and sleeves using a small drift and hammer. The gear wheel can similarly be tapped off the axle.

If the model is to be converted to EM gauge, all that is necessary is to cut 2mm steel rod to the appropriate length, and put the gear and wheels on. Although there is a spline on the original axle for the gear, it seems tight enough on a plain rod (a smear of loctite could be used to anchor it firmly). To keep the axle laterally in place, two brass sleeves, or an appropriate number of washers, should be added between the gear and the bearings (or between the bearings and the insulating sleeves (see figure). For conversion to P4 and 21mm, the original brass wheels can be used, but have to be turned down to receive P4 rims (these are obtainable from Alan Gibson on special order). It is also possible to turn down the existing rims to P4 standards. For those without a lathe, it may be possible to purchase P4 wheels to suit. Before finally inserting the wheel sets, the pickups need to be adjusted so that they bear on the backs of the wheels. On the Bachmann wheelsets, the hub projects further out than the rim, and does not fit easily between the sideframes. However, the insides of the frames can be filed out (about 0.5mm or more) to give clearance. I used a cylindrical dental burr to do this, held in a drill press, and hand held the frames. Once finished, the loco ran just as well as it had done on 00 track. Now to try it on Adavoyle Junction, out of period though it be!

David Malone

Several modellers have had a go at fitting sound chips into the Bachmann-Murphy 141 although some seem to be using slightly larger speakers than I did. To replace the unusable round one supplied. I did no filing, just snipped the corners off the oblong speaker’s plastic frame, and soldered the wires from the cut off speaker to the new one. I did not know that there were speaker terminals on the lights board. I have fitted my two, black 141 and 181, with Ultrascale wheels, to 21mm gauge. The wheels are intended for the BR “Western” class, and feature protruding hubs. I removed these using a chisel shaped hobby blade, wider than the tyre diameter. They can then be shaved off, using the outer tyre face as a limit stop, a few minutes work per wheel. I had to reduce the supplied axles length by 0.75mm.  The little gear wheel sits on a splined bit of the axle, and slides on the 2mm axle, but a touch of Locktite is all that is needed to secure it. I made the mistake of mounting the gear central on the axle, it should be slightly off set to fully engage the gear in the bogie, I will tweak mine over.  The pick up phosphor-bronze strips need bending out to touch the back of the wheels, and act as a side control spring. Now came the big test, would it run? It worked fine on my 3’ length of straight track, but what about my 5’ length, with a reverse curve 4’ 6” into 4’radius, with rail depression in excess of 1mm staggered in the curve: how would the rigid axles cope? Well, much to my pleasant surprise, they stayed on the track, no problem. Since then I decided to file about 0.5mm off the inside of the side-frames, just to provide a little extra clearance, and reduce the chance of the paint on the wheel disc wearing away.  Looking at the removed wheels, I think the protruding rim of the tyre could be turned off until the tyre is scale width, and then the flange could be turned down to P4 or EM profile, thus avoiding a twelve week wait and the expense of Ultrascale wheels.

Treated and untreated bogies. The untreated one is my CIE Supertrain liveried 181

Two versions of the 141 on 2mm gauge track

I am now doing a bit of weathering on my 141/181s. I overdid the exhaust staining on the roof of the orange one, fortunately using acrylic so it washes off. On the sound chipped ones, I removed the grey bridging plate, and turned the speakers over, so they are face down into the
flywheel void, thus creating a sound box. It does seem louder, even with the hearing aids turned off. A dab of black acrylic on the silver speaker back makes them all but invisible through the grill. The next job is to fit all the plumbing to the “Pilot”, and try to combine the very neat etched coupling links with Exactoscale bits to form a strong coupling. The supplied ones are extremely neat, but I don’t think the little plastic pins would last long in service.

The J15 is finished, at last. I started it in 2006, having had the kit since 1985!!!  I found that the tender spring hangers that I mentioned were on the fret all the time. I thought they were the loops that some tenders had around the springs. A case of read the instructions.  In the RAF and civil aviation, the instructors always gave advice before you went into any written exam: “Read the d*** questions!”  Translated into model building this becomes: “Read the d*** instructions!”

J15 on 21mm gauge track

It’s amazing how one song can be transformed so much. Before, it was a mess of bad screaming, clichéd guitars and the subtlety of a rhino on speed. And what Tek-One has done is astonishing. I now like this song. And that’s saying something because I hate BMTH. Oli Sykes, the undeserved amount of teenage girls stalking their every move, everything about them is just deeply depressing. In a culture of hardcore metal fans, they are like the act that no one wants to like. They’re a shame to the genre and just generally pretty terrible. Bring Me The Hairspray would’ve been more apt I think.

So from horrible disorganised mess, comes this amazing and ridiculously over the top piece of genius, with bass so heavy it puts most original dubstep tracks to shame, let alone remixes. The sombre piano at the beginning catches you off guard. The samples of the failed screeching plays over this but just helps to add the huge build up to when the bass drops. And when it does, it’s insane. It’s as distorted as any synthetic sound you may ever hear and it is as jumpy as a young child on hot coals.
This probably will not change your opinion on BMTH. It didn’t change mine. But at least appreciate the ingenuity. Good one.

Listen: http://www.myspace.com/bmth
Follow: http://www.twitter.com/joegbs

avastasin just, et mulle meeldib see lugu.

141 – In Out

see on muide selle tasuta Sunless Compilation EP pealt.

Vuelo 141

Todo comenzó aquella calurosa noche de enero. Richard se despidió de su esposa, Rebecca, y de su hijo, Kevin, de ocho años. Aquellos interminables abrazos, que parecían predecir que algo sucedería; terminaron repentinamente cuando la bocina del taxi irrumpió. Richard se termino de despedir, salió de su casa y entró en el taxi, el cual lo llevaría directo al aeropuerto.

Allí lo esperaban dos amigos más, George y Carl, que también tenían que asistir a la reunión, en New York, ya que los tres eran operadores de la bolsa de Wall Street.

Aunque el viaje no sería muy largo, Richard, a quien no le gustaba viajar, le pidió a la azafata se le podría traer un vaso con agua para tomar un tranquilizante, para ver si podría tratar de dormir un poco y así pasar lo mejor posible el viaje. Luego de un rato se quedo dormido.

Después de acostar a Kevin, Rebecca, decidió irse a dormir también, debido a que ya era tarde y a la mañana siguiente tenía que ir a trabajar. Ya que no podría dormir, Rebecca encendió el televisor de su habitación; cuando se estaba quedando dormida el ruido de la puerta que se abría la sobresalto. Cuando se incorporó, miró y como se veía nada, prendió la luz y vio que era su marido que estaba entrando a la habitación. Cuando lo vio, todo el mido que sentía se evaporo.

Le preguntó que había pasado y sólo le dijo que se había cancelado el vuelo 141. Luego se acostó y no dijo nada más.

A la mañana temprano, cuando Rebecca movió el brazo para sentir la presencia de su esposo, él no estaba. Pensó que se había ido al trabajo. Preparó el desayuno, despertó a Kevin. Luego de desayunar llevo a Kevin a la escuela, después se dirigió a su trabajo.

En el transcurso del viaje, como todos los días, paró en un semáforo y compró el periódico, el cual decía que el vuelo 141 con destino a New York había caído al mar por causas desconocidas y que hasta el momento no habían encontrado a ningún sobreviviente del vuelo.

Luego de haber leído eso, Rebecca, quedo shokeada, lo cual provocó que pasara el semáforo en rojo y un camión que trasportaba árboles para una fábrica de celulosa envistiera su automóvil.

-Daniel J. Csich-

Spizella pusilla  Bruant des champs  /  Field Sparrow  

The Field Sparrow nests mainly in the southern part of Québec and in the Maritimes. Absent during the winter, it goes to join up with its own kind in the eastern United States, or down to the southern part of the country, where it will again find the tranquility of bushes hedging fields, clumps of young pines, and clear and bushy fields and woods. An insect-eater during the nesting period, it feeds on seeds during the other seasons. Its length is 13 to 15 cm.

Le bruant des champs niche surtout dans le sud du Québec et dans les Maritimes. Absent en hiver, il va rejoindre ses comparses dans l’est des États-Unis ou il descend dans le sud du pays, là où il peut retrouver la quiétude des arbustes en bordure des champs, les jeunes plantations de pins ainsi que les champs et les bois clairs et broussailleux. Insectivore durant la période de nidification, il se nourrit de graines en d’autres saisons. Il mesure entre 13 et 15 cm de longueur.

La paruline des pins, tel que son nom l’indique, niche exclusivement dans les pinèdes et dans les forêts qui contiennent de grands pins. Bien qu’on la retrouve dans l’est des États-Unis, on peut la rencontrer au sud du Québec et au sud-ouest du Nouveau-Brunswick. Insectivore en saison estivale, elle s’alimente de graines variées et de petits fruits en hiver. Gourmande, elle s’arrête parfois aux mangeoires que lui offre l’humain. La paruline des pins a une longueur de 13 à 15 cm.

Musée de la civilisation,
collection du Séminaire de Québec,
The Birds of America,
John James Audubon,
140/1993.34741

__________

Accipiter gentilis   Autour des palombes /  Northern Goshawk

 

Accipiter cooperii Épervier de Cooper  /  Cooper’s Hawk

 

Nothern Goshawk

The Northern Goshawk is a raptor who lives all year round in all Canadian regions and can be seen in Alaska as well as the northern United States. It mainly attacks birds, including ducks, and mammals. Preferring large mixed and conifer forests, in Québec it nests mainly in mature leafy forests and in plantings of birch and poplar trees. Its length is 51 to 66 cm and its wingspan reaches 102 to 117 cm.

Autour des palombes

L’autour des palombes est un rapace qui habite en permanence dans toutes les régions du Canada et s’observe autant en Alaska que dans le nord des États-Unis. Il s’attaque principalement aux oiseaux, y compris les canards, et aux mammifères. Amateur de grandes forêts mixtes et de conifères, il niche, au Québec, principalement dans les forêts de feuillus âgés et dans les peuplements de bouleaux et de peupliers. Il mesure entre 51 et 66 cm de longueur et a une envergure de 102 à 117 cm.

Musée de la civilisation,
collection du Séminaire de Québec,
The Birds of America,
John James Audubon,
141.1/1993.34742

Cooper’s Hawk

A vulnerable species in Quebec, Cooper’s Hawk builds its nests from the Outaouais to the Beauce region and will sometimes spend the winter in the southernmost part of Quebec where it settles in mixed forest areas. It is a bird of prey and its diet is made up essentially of sparrows and occasionally some larger species, up to the size of chickens. It also feeds on small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects. Its length ranges from 35 to 51 cm and its wingspan is 74 to 94 cm.

Épervier de Cooper

Espèce vulnérable au Québec, l’épervier de Cooper niche de l’Outaouais à la Beauce et passe parfois l’hiver dans l’extrême sud du Québec, où il fait des forêts mixtes son repaire. Oiseau rapace, son régime alimentaire se compose essentiellement d’oiseaux passereaux et, occasionnellement, d’espèces plus grosses, allant jusqu’à la taille d’un poulet. Il se nourrit aussi de petits mammifères, de reptiles, d’amphibiens et d’insectes. La longueur est de 35 à 51 cm tandis que son envergure varie de 74 à 94 cm.

Musée de la civilisation,
collection du Séminaire de Québec,
The Birds of America,
John James Audubon,
141.2/1993.34742

__________

Full article and photos: http://www.mcq.org/audubon/catalogue/audubon_001.html

Sunless Records have a free compilation for you to download over on their website. It features their artists Bnjmin, 141, Singing Statues, Rewolf and Jackhigh. I say all this but Sunless Records is one guy, and he’s also all of those artists too. So there’s alot of variety on this compilation and it’s all coming from one person? Amazing.

SUNLESS RECORDS