Remaking a Card

 

The slow but systematic process of rebuilding a part of the missing in action music library is moving ahead  even if compared with the originals we may well elect to make this one a bit less comprehensive in terms of having a full set albums by every featured artist.

What we are going rather more for is having the best sounding versions of albums be they regular cd quality or better than cd so called High Definition 24 bit versions which was a trend when the main drive toward better portable audio sound started here.

But those albums need to be got to to a portable audio device as you don't want to have to carry a laptop around with you just to hear them so we've bought a card ready to put these albums on than then can put into a player.

Well at least one player needs replacing here as the battery fitted inside it just doesn't hold its charge apart from having massive overshooting issues with its all important jog wheel which gets beyond irritating soon enough.

At some point a bigger dedicate card for Classical, the big loser with both cards being missing and everything now being lossless will need to be assembled from the master file library where originally as befits something started in the twenty-tens one was just Mp3's (but the best mp3's I could make).

Being...you

In a week where the people behind Manchester Pride were in voluntary insolvency citing costs of putting on the events, meeting modern expectations I feel it is worth saying maybe it's best to support your local pride such as those we had in Stafford and Stoke here in Staffordshire and Sandbach and Congleton in nearby Cheshire and maybe get involved doing something for it like running a store or performing.

 There is life beyond your day at Pride though, for your own mental well being we need to find ways however difficult your own circumstances to be ourselves be they about our gender expression or how our sexuality presents itself.

Even if you do dress more in line with your gender, constraints around works dress policy or the increased trend to leggings, jeans and women's trousers may cut across what feels right for you.

You may be more dressy, like your heels so having spaces and being prepared where you can to stand out from the crowd rather than just fitting in is so much better,  

 

 

That might well be a personal manifesto.

Peace in our time?

 The big world events are still not settled to the point you can easily pick one topic and be fairly sure there will not be major reverse in this crazy modern world nothing is like that  - leaders don't appear to be in control of events.

It is good that hostages, prisoners and detainees have been released in Gaza and Israel  but the 20 point plan is woefully lacking detail and yet President Trump of the Disunited States of America believes he has secure the biggest peace  in that part of the world in over 3,000 years which is absolute moonshine.

For one thing most of these steps haven't even made the most rudimentary steps on the path to implementation and for another some things such as the role (if any) of Hamas in any future Gaza authority hasn't been decided and if not just what happens with them. Do turkeys vote for Christmas?

That's before we consider any question of a Palestinian state, what its borders should be given the territories that were occupied in 1967 and 1973 following Arab declarations of war  and substantial settlements that may well be illegal under International Law but nonetheless are there that will complicate any attempt to incorporate them. And then such a state would need to have an agreement NOT to wage war with Israel for them to even accept it given the bloody history since 1948 where any neighbouring Arab state has been used a springboard for attacks and invasions.

That would need a major political seachange in the Arab Worlds mindset to give up the notion of seeing Israel's creation as being the occupation of Arab lands to be fought back and major more on economic and political growth of the entire region to improve the lot of all including those Palestinians who needed to move.  And god knows they deserve a better feature.

Not feeling great edition

The groan up world is going though one of its "We'll have the latest updates every ten minutes "sessions so while as I sit here on Thursday typing away, everything's up in the air regarding what I'd be talking about and given the people involved you certainly don't count on anything until it's happened.

That's hard enough going even when I am well which to be blunt I haven't been all week being generally out of it mentally and Physically ill with covid which is no fun at all so it's all been playing Taylor's albums this week and trying to stay cheerful.

I've also been looking a bit at my camera stuff since I bought it around 2020, what my needs are and to what extent is it meeting them as for everyday point and shoot stuff the Sony compact with its one very wide ranging zoom lens meets most needs, just lacking some of creative control and a proper Macro facility for life size close ups.

Strangely enough my Macro lens for it seems to have gone missing in action and I really don't know why as every other lens and its charger are present and correct.

Might need replacing potentially at some point.

The future of Higher Quality sound and me

 

Sailor Moon was an early special interest of mine, righting wrongs having her own unique quirks which as I sit reflecting on events in the last few days playing some HD downloads back I did find of classical music mainly from 2014-17 considering the future of that.

HD (High definition) is about getting great quality to that of regular cds to reveal more of the music making and venue but in an age that is more focused upon convenience, in the 2000's the iPod with its hundreds of poor quality lossy 128kb files or today with streaming, eating your data allowance on your smartphone when you have no right to expect anything to be there, it didn't become a everyday thing beyond musicians and hifi fans.

Part was and today remains it takes over £800 to get a super audio cd player and then only a few handfuls of discs are issued per year which was why I spent money improving on the regular cd reproduction even though I have a Super audio cd player in  the hifi.

HD Downloads were easier in that you selected them from the store and most digital audio players of the portable sort would just play them - the players could be had for around £100 upwards but much of that marked has moved from playing downloads to streaming music.

It's a pity as while as with anything based upon digital files you need to keep them backed up, they leave your mobiles data allowance untouched and as you own them, there's no question of a performance becoming unavailable in the way sometimes labels and artists pull things on the likes of Spotify.

As the number of  super audio discs Chandos puts out has dropped in the last two years not helped by there being only a handful of plants world wide that can make them, I can see a return to more HD downloads not least where I may have "classic" performances on cd or even record

Summer Wars

Summer is over with, last week's bitter wet weather proved that with getting drenched the Wednesday and having put the fire on in the mornings as the downstairs is cold but there's nothing wrong with looking back.

I bought this awhile but but between the showers found time to rewatch it.

Available on blu ray and dvd as well as a double pack with The Girl Who Leaped Thru Time which is by by the same director Mamuro Hosoda, this is about romance, family life and a cautionary note on putting technologically speaking all your eggs in one basket.

 
We begin with timid eleventh-grader and math genius Kenji Koiso who is asked by older student and secret crush Natsuki to come with her to her family's Nagano home for a summer job.
Kenji agrees without hesitation. Natsuki's family, the Jinnouchi clan, dates back to the Muromachi era, and they've all come together to celebrate the 90th birthday of the driven matriarch of the family, Sakae. Kenji upon arriving discovers his summer job is to pretend to be Natsuki's fiancé and dance with her at the birthday celebration. 

As Kenji attempts to keep up with Natsuki's act around her family, he receives a strange math problem on his cell phone which, being a math genius, he can't resist solving.

 Little did he realize it turned out to be the solution to the mysterious equation that causes a hijacking of the social networking site through which most of the world's social and business traffic flows. 

 
Kenji and family have the difficult task of putting right this AI created situation.
This is one anime that never lets up to the last minute keeping you on the edge of your seat and is strongly recommended.

The second state visit of the President

After all the mess of last week in politics we have the Baby's visit to the U.K.

This should of been the crowing moment in Keir Starmer, the U.K. Prime Minister attempt to walk the diplomatic tightrope to the point of his appointing Peter Mandelson as our Ambassador to the United States in a decision that looks shadier and shadier by the day.

This isn't helped by being linked to the Epstein pedophilia scandal to Donald "Baby" Trump who is facing questions about what he knew and why he was at the same parties so we're trying in the engagements to keep well clear of such things.

Fortunately the Baby although cranky is easily entertained by playing at acting like a King, following a real grown up reviewing the armed services, watching parades and fly pasts, perhaps he can have a model to take home?

He also likes dinners that put the centre of attention on him and that was arranged with expert catering with opportunities to say just how he's enjoying this and yes some good *MAY* come out of this when getting investment in and improving relations that have taken a battering over lack of support for Nato, being pro Russian and the disgrace that was the handling of a meeting with the Ukrainian president before we mention tariffs (although we did get some reductions). 

As I write this he should be having political talks today with the Prime Minister although his grasp of the realities is questionable - perhaps a colour the world map book and  a childs primer of facts and figures of world is what the baby needs to be gifted in order to make sense of what the grown ups are talking about - but he's so sure he knows everything and anyway only the U.S.A matters.

So long as he's happy and doesn't have to go on the naughty step I'm happy and maybe one day we'll have  a adult running America.