An extraordinary life

The Hartford Courant runs a column every month where they pick an extraordinary person who lived in the area. Of course, they picked Bobb.

R.G.B. R.I.P.

Robert Gordon Brooks died of cancer May 14th, 2008 at 6:10 PM in West Haven, Connecticut. His son Gordon was at his side. He died following a week of care and music and story telling with his four siblings Meredith, Leah, Scott and John, his nephew Jesse and of course, his loving wife Martha. He was a good man and will be missed by all whose path he crossed. May he rest in peace.

posted by leahbrooks

Cars

I invite all to email me pictures or remembrances of our cars of youth. This I think is the model, or a year or two off, Grandma had in blue that I drove a few times as a teenager in LeRoy.
It did have an early automatic "Hydramatic" transmission. Comments?

Edison National Historic Site

I ran across some Edison Early Recordings made into Mp3s from old cylinders on the Edison National Historic Site, a real treat. Some early Sousa Marches played by Sousa's Band, and some minstrel stuff, and readings from as early as 1880s to the 1930s.

Of course one of my folk favorites involve whistling and yodeling and banjos.
For instance:
Jere Sanford's yodeling and whistling specialty

Performed by: Jere Sanford
Record format: Edison Amberol cylinder
Release date: 1910

My favorite story about an Edison Cylinder is in this Video I might have shown before, from Tech TV with techie Chris Perillo as stuttering host.

Surprise! Good software: Copernic

I usually don’t get on the bandwagon for software, or tout hardware, as some MAC addicted people do, but occasionally I find something that is a little different.

I just discovered Copernic, so far proving to be a wonderful desktop search thing. I’ll explain below.

The last program that got me that way was the graphics viewer ACDSee, which I actually bought, and still use it today. It is really a great program. However they have, in newer versions, added junky new features to “improve” it that are not necessary, and actually hurt it; but I am so familiar with it that I can’t use anything else comfortably.

I use Dreamweaver for website building, Corel Draw (and suite) instead of the industry Photoshop lockstep, Have to use Word and Office, not only because Gates has a monopoly, but because Microsoft gave me copies of it for going to a seminar for techies and being a beta tester. I use Firefox instead of IE because it is better, and have not gone to Vista, although it probably won’t be too long.

Anyway, back to Copernic Desktop Search.

As we all save letters, emails, photos, spreadsheets, and whatever for years, trying to organize and back up things, and remember where we save files, things just have gotten too massive after the years. The search in windows with the stupid little dog, which is not effective, is slow, often locks up, and many times is the reason people complain of “slow computers” a few months after they get them. The indexing of the data is going on and slowing things down as a bigger database is made. This is mediocrity at Microsoft at work. It has to be disabled to keep things acceptable. The search inside of Outlook also doesn’t work, it somehow misses things and is sloooww. I have also tried the king, Google’s desktop search, which is terrible and obtrusive, and several other things hoping that technology would give me a hand with finding all the things I have lost.

Copernic really works! And quickly! It has to index the hard disk initially, then monitor things that are added ad you go, much like others. But when you do a search, BAM! if finds everything, and instantly! As you type “Frog” for instance, as you type in “F” it already knows that there are 876,543 things with “F”, when your make it “Fr” it keeps up with you, and by the time you have gotten to “Frog” it is displaying all the items that contain "frog" on your computer. So if you are writing a letter to Aunty May, and want to show her all the things you have collected about quilts, a search will collect the spreadsheets, the PDF’s the emails, the documents you wrote three years ago for the newsletter, etc. at your fingertips. I try to save as many of my photos with key words in the file names, or at least the folders so that I can find them later. This Copernic takes advantage of that too.

It finds at once emails, files, music, pictures, videos, contacts, favorites and web history, and you can select each category separately.

A program that actually does what I want it to do, and instantly. Amazing! And did I mention it seems to be FREE? www.copernic.com/

50 inch monitor-video glasses

Finally, technology for sale now that has been hovering out there for years, virtual wide screen monitor or screen, optically out in front of you, but worn like glasses, for watching movies from any iPod, Mp4 player, DVD, or I guess even your Internet browser, though this article doesn't mention that. They call them video sunglasses, so I am assuming you could see through them for normal activity, looking at or through the movie image as needed.
$250 ezVision G1 Video Glasses! Order now!
more: $250 - $450 - iVue

I saw this concept in a virtual game helmet probably 15 years ago at a PC show in D.C. I also remember reading an article two years ago about a guy who had made a prototype of a computer with battery pack he wore in a fanny pack. He had one eye covered with a virtual monitor that gave him large screen view of the computer screen. With wi-fi, - what a memory aid that would be! Look up information any time.

Well, then there is the next logical step, not quite available for sale yet, the mini screen, seen at the left on the doctor. It is so small and versatile that it can be mounted on glasses or clipped on!
The first ones they are making (Germany) are tiny, bright and clear, with ultra-low power use, and the wearer sees a 30" screen. This page goes into some detail.
Since everything is rushing to go portable these days, this will take some weight off the devices, and improve the view for sure.

VOIP Telephony

I like the word; telephony. It might actually apply literally in this story, a combination of telephone and phony.

Again, I have gone through an almost hilarious string of bungles on the part of a company in the "service" business" who really deserves to fail if they treat customers like they treated me. But because they are in the driver's seat, they get away with it. In times like these, I also wish I had Dad to tell the story to, because he could re-tell it with emphasis, like he did his Honda buying expedition to Virgina, for example, in a way that would have us all chuckling. He told me that story, so entertaining that I found myself thinking, "Gee,I wish I had been there", and then realized I had been there!

We have had telephone service through ATT, Beebes never changed since "Ma Bell". And for a couple of years DSL for internet because it was the only broadband available, and the combo was cheaper than what we were paying for phone and dial-up. Now it seemed to me to be at another point logical to change, because COMCAST started bombarding us with mailers, TV ads, etc. offering Cable TV, broadband cable internet, and VOIP phone at a combo rate.

My plan was to get Comcast's cheapest cable and broadband service, and use Vonage for phone, which I helped a friend of mine set up his , and he loves it for $24 a month for unlimited phone service. All the best feature of voice mail, records, and you keep your same number.

Before I got going, I called Comcast twice to make sure it was available at our house, since it had not been there previously, and they said yes, which turned out not to be true. Of course they told me after I had ordered and received my Vonage package, and called to set them up. Nice.

So I sent my Vonage pack back, and mused about what I could do to still have VOIP. I persisted and called Comcast to ask them when they thought the internet would reach my house and they looked it up again and found they made a mistake, and it WAS available to me after all.

So to get going, I ordered Digital Cable, Internet and "Comcast Voice", their version of VOIP, for what seemed to be a good bundle. During this process I quizzed them on what programming I would get on the TV, and they basically used mumbo-jumbo and jargon, to avoid telling you anything specific. Needless to say, things we might like are not there, and many useless things are "part of the package."

Installation: The guy tromped in with loose combat boots with the laces trailing farther back than his dreadlocks. He started yanking out old cables, splicing in new ones, and asked me where my computer was for the "modem". I told him what I wanted, and how I wanted it to be behind my own router and firewall, and share the internet with my wireless network, like I have it now. His eyes glazed over, said he cold not do that , just for one computer, and left that for me to do later, which I did. I guess that's fair.

But, he put the cable TV box that is supposed to be beside a TV . . . in the basement! Meaning I would have had to run down there to change the channel - convenient huh? He also left the splitters and cables all hanging down in festoons (that's another great word) from the ceiling, not even fastened up. I didn't realize this at the time, I had to take a little time to figure out what he had done, and had to call service after he left. They did send someone back out to re-do it.

On top of this, and this seems to be SOP, there is no Comcast owners book, no channel listing, no descriptive information for the complex remote, the phone system, or anything. Just a service bill, and wham bam! It turns out that all of your phone mail and call tracking and options are handled on the internet, but nothing tells you that, nor the URL to go to, and when I figured that out, I found out that you can't access your account until 72 hours after installation. How so I know? I tried to go in, got error message 2#&6%43, called Comcast and after another half hour wait, they told me that.

So for now, I do have cable broadband, actually a couple of times faster than the DSL, Digital Cable, which "came with the deal" but has so many things we will never use, and - what I wanted in the first place, VOIP phone service, which is so far working fine. I'm not exactly an early adopter, but at least not a late adopter. In the future I might drop back to Vonage if Comcast raises its fee on me or doesn't work out, or just go to cell only like so many people are doing these days.

Your car might use salt water as fuel?

Tell ‘em you heard it first here! When I was in college at Allegheny, we called Erie, PA, 100 mi north, “Dreary Erie, the mistake by the lake.” but this news item from Erie is nothing but amazing!

Watch this video about John Kanzius, inventor, who was inventing a radio wave gun to bombard cancer, hoping to make a breakthrough in fighting the disease. He discovered his device facilitated burning that “rare” fuel . . Salt Water!

Video Here!

Safari Browser from Apple

I heard through the RSS world that Apple had released a windows version of Safari, so even though FireFox is so well established with me, I never have left a browser untried since Mosaic, so I downloaded the thing.

I was dismayed that it wanted to force me to reinstall iTunes, the aggressive store they want to establish on my desktop. I had un-installed iTunes just recently after trying to revive a dead iPod somebody gave me. I resisted, but then did install it to see if it would help make Safari run right.

Well, Safari di not run right at all. It installed OK, but came up with NO TEXT in the pull down menus, just little dashes where the working but secretive pull down choices were.
I re-installed, tried some things on the windows side, fiddled around, but could not seem to get it running. It even locked up the computer twice, so I re-booted to see if that was a requirement.

Then I got the inspiration! The last mac I owned needed these bit-mapped fonts to operate. Maybe Steve Jobs, Andy Hertzfield, Bill Atkinson, and those guys who signed the inside of my original MAC 128 in 1984 had left a requirement for those to be present!

Well, That didn't help either. The next thing I realized is I no longer know where to turn for help on Apple stuff. There is no better help, of course from Microsoft on their products, but at least I know where all the Technet searches are, and the forums, and all that. Surely in this release of Safari, I can not be the only one with this problem. But a few google searches seemed to indicate that I was the only one.

So the choice for now was to un-install with some regret, and wait for a few versions to shake out before trying again.

John Philip Sousa

I played in one of the bands that took part in this year's Sousa festival. It was interesting on several levels, including that I met the great grandson, John Philip Sousa IV, and the governor proclaimed it to be John Philip Sousa Day in Connecticut.
Here was my email to the community band mailing list:

I don't have vertigo, just out on the walkway.

I have seen this in the news, both in the planning stages and since it was open, and it does bring out the shivers in me. The Grand canyon glass walkway, skywalk, or glass bridge or whatever you call it. I wonder if I would have the strength to overcome the vertigo and go out on it. On first thought, I love it when you see that view - once I saw it in one of those dome projected i-movies or whatever they are called, where you are in a small plane as it glides over and through the canyon, swooping and looking straight down as it goes over the edge, looking down to the river so far away. I would love to see that view, but I might be petrified by the experience, who knows.

Just an interesting creature department:

You know those little grey or brown rolly bugs that Mom used to call "Potato Bugs" but really were something else? They rolled up into a little ball when they were hassled?
They apparently are in the "isopod" family biologically, (word origin: equal foot?) and low and behold some of their scary 2000 leagues (ft?) under the sea cousins have been found.
" Here is the giant isopod, known scientifically as Bathynomus giganteus,
















is the largest known member of the isopod family. It is very closely related to the small pillbugs that you can find in the garden. It is a carnivorous crustacean that spends its time scavenging the deep ocean floor. Food is extremely scarce at these great depths, so the isopod has adapted to eat what ever happens to fall to the ocean floor from above. It will also feed on some of the small invertebrates that live at these depths. Giant isopods are known to reach a size of over 16 inches in length and are one of the largest members of the crustacean family. These animals are very prehistoric in appearance. When threatened, they can roll themselves into a tight ball where they are protected by their strong, armor-plated shells. They have complex mouths that contain many components that work together to pierce, shred, and disembowel live or dead prey. Giant isopods are all over the world at depths of over 2000 feet".

I am quoting here from this page: OddWeek - 10 Horrible Deep See Creatures

Back on line with 3D rotating graphics!

I originally posted this on my Catchall blog while Google was playing error games with my right good blog. It finally is fixed now, but I got a strange message from Google implying that it fixed itself, which is impossible. Anyway, I thought I would post this very very cool slide show gimmick I found on a blog and traced to "picture trail" a flicker-type photo web site. Here are some of our pictures:
====

Cool Slideshows

Neat the way it has the transparency and the 3D glass effect, proving that computers somehow got beyond the number crunching machines they were designed to be.

Henry Filmore Arrangements

I think we all are interested in people with a sense of humor - usually these people are obscure and ordinary, but in this case it's someone who was famous, at least in the field of band composers. Henry Fillmore wrote sometimes humorous, but always difficult rags, marches and jazzy things in the early 1900's. They often featured trombones. According to Herb Brock, staff writer for gabbf.com, Filmore was born in 1881 and lived to the age of 75. He wrote under many funny pseudonyms such as Gus Beans, Will Huff and Henrietta Moore. Two of his wonderful marches by his real name that I have played in several bands are "Men of Ohio" and "Klaxon", the latter featuring an "ooOO-ga" horn also known as a klaxon horn in the middle and was a fast moving march, almost to circus speed. Early in his life, Fillmore had run away and joined the circus to play in the band, so he was surely influenced by that. You can tell from his music and from reading his bio that he was always joking and doing unconventional things, and kidding his more serious colleagues. I often play in the Babcock Cornet Band, which existed all the way back to civil war times. We have some old-time musical gems in our library, one of them is a lyre sized booklet of Filmore Trombone marches that feature the trombones smearing with their slides. This book is: "TROMBONE FAMILY ~ A collection of 15 Original and Humorous Trombone Novelties for Band." It has no copyright or date on it, but probably this was published between 1908 and 1920. The titles to these pieces, and the whole book is not "PC" or Politically Correct by today's standards, since it uses black pigeon English and minstrel type images. The marches themselves are real crowd pleasers, with the trombones smearing and sliding all through them in a sort of raucous manner. Here are some title clips

Here are all 15 titles: Miss Trombone - A Slippery Rag Teddy Trombone - A Brother to Miss Trombone. Lassus Trombone - De Cullud Valet to Miss Trombone Pahson Trombone - Lassus Trombone's "Ole Man" Sally Trombone - Pahson Trombone's Eldest Gal. Some Crow Slim Trombone - Sally Trombone's City Cousin - The Jazzin' One Step Kid Mose Trombone - He's Slim Trombone's Buddy Shoutin' Liza Trombone - One Step - Mose Trombone's Ah-finity "Hot" Trombone - He's Jes a fren'ob Shoutin' Liza Trombone Bones Trombone - He's jus' as warm as Hot Trombone Dusty Trombone - March or One Step - He's de next door Neighbor to Bones Trombone Bull Trombone - A Cullud Toreador - March and One Step Lucky Trombone - He's de thirteenth member ov de fambly - March Ham Trombone - A Cullud Bahbaque - Novelty March Boss Trombone - He's De Head Man - Novelty March Here is a simple arrangement of Lassus in Real Audio© from a publisher.

Fillmore had a lot of fun with his music, but he was also well known fora series of instruction books he published, and many many other works. However, as I said above, he never settled for the ordinary. He reportedly married an exotic dancer.

Clip Art Flipping Show

I have this collection of great clip art that used to come with Corel, that I actually own, and I think they even said I had the rights to use them. The clip art that comes with the newer versions is crap of lesser quality.

But for instance there were 787 artistic images of people in various occupations and garb. What are the chances that I would use these things after maybe 10 years. I think I used maybe two.

So a while back I got clever and sequenced them in a flipping movie that I just put up on YouTube to see how it looked. It came out better than I thought it would. Here it is below for your flipping pleasure.

Fred's Magic

Another benefit of my volunteer work at the shelter is finding some nice people, and even some talented ones, like this guy Fred, a really clever and likable guy who plays the guitar and does magic as a hobby. He said he has been doing magic since high school.

Personally, Fred got laid off five years ago from a good job at one of the biggest employers in CT, "Electric Boat" that builds subs and stuff on contract for the government like the other big shipbuilder in Norfolk Virginia. After that layoff, his marriage fell apart, he drank too much and yadda yadda now is trying to get back on track, but it is hard, as you know, once you are down there. Anyhow, Fred and I had some good conversations, and I took this video of me trusting him to give me my ten dollar bill back.

Homeless Shelter

I guess I have to admit it is partly because of my cancer thing that I was motivated to volunteer at the homeless shelter, but I'm glad I did. It has been interesting so far. Betty, the geriatric nurse who was a friend and a help to Martha's mother before we came up here, and has become our friend too, talked me into this, and we volunteer together on Wednesday evenings. I also signed up alone for every other Saturday. I have already mastered the intake paperwork and the handing out of towels.

There are only 15 beds, and the shelter is an emergency overnight place where guests can stay only 14 days max and then wait 30 days till eligible again. It's open from 6PM to 7AM. If they are under any influence, they are turned away, which is hard to tell them now that the nights are so cold. We do have lists of other shelters, rehabs, resources to help them find another place if we can, but some are beyond that. The director, a wonderful aging hippie guy, often counsels the guests during the day when the shelter is closed.

Contact with the guests, interacting with them and trying to let them know we are all in this world together, is part of the job, it seems, and has been a satisfying thing for me, although sometimes I feel they should be, or actually are, comforting me as well.

God Bless America

Feeling Patriotic? God Bless America!
Just found this clip of the band I used to play in, The Farmington Valley Band. They recorded this track a couple of years back for a CD. I consider myself still a member, though I haven't been able to drive over there this past year to participate. It's on the other side of Hartford in Collinsville, about 45 minutes' drive from here. The pretty little Collinsville historically was an industrial town back in the time of the Talcottville Mill heyday, from the 1830's - 1890's but it produced Axes and implements instead of woolens and fabrics. We practiced in a building that went back to those days.

The musical arrangement includes some nice euphonium work by a friend named Chester, who is over eighty years old. You can hear it lofting above the rest. Also a strong vocal by Mark, who plays many instruments well, and sings operatic style.

Chinese Translation - a Parable

This song is so haunting and cozy, I can't help myself
listening to it many times. Ward's voice reminds me
of other singers, maybe Hoagy Carmichael or something.
These lyrics have extra meaning for me as well, somehow
searching for answers that might not exist.

Sing along with me:

I sailed the wild wild sea
climbed up a tall tall mountain
I met an old old man
beneath the weeping willow tree
he said now if you've got some questions
go and lay them at my feet,
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three.

and I said,

what do you with the pieces of a broken heart?
and how can a man like me remain in the light?
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long?

and then the sun went down
and he sang for me this song

see I once was a young fool like you
afraid to do the things that I knew I had to do
so I played an escapade just like you
I played an escapade just like you

I sailed the wild wild sea
climbed up a tall tall mountain
I met an old old man
he sat beneath the sapling tree
he said now if you've got some questions
go and lay them at my feet,
but my time here is brief
so you'll have to pick just three.

and I said,

what do you with the pieces of a broken heart?
and how can a man like me remain in the light?
and if life is really as short as they say
then why is the night so long?

and then the sun went down
and he played for me this song
. . . .

Christmas Lighting 1955

As the Advent month progresses,
I again wax nostalgic to a simpler time . . .
December 22, 1955, LeRoy, NY











































To see the entire page click here.