white piano anyone?

I recently spent a few days at a Windows 7 training course last week.

Not the best of places to be, stuck in a computer room all day with this summer heat, but I survived!

I won't mention any more on the course, usual Microsoft sales pitch though I'll admit that 7 isn't as bad as Vista was. The course was near Old Street, run by QA training. Nearby was one of Londons little gems, Bunhill Fields burial ground. As well as a few graves of notable folks ....William Blake, Daniel DeFoe etc...it is one of the sites chosen for the "Play Me, I’m Yours: London 2010" project.

21 street pianos have been placed throughout the ‘square mile’ and beyond from 22 June – 10 July 2010 to celebrate the City of London Festival. Located in public gardens, streets and squares the pianos are available for anyone to play.

I spent some lunchtimes there, as well as taking a breather after the tube journey in the mornings. These are some of the pictures I took.



Blake woz ere! ..or near here, somewhere abouts....

...danny boy....

...johnny boy....

one of the local piano enthusiasts entertains the crowds....

...and a few of the gravestones and views of the burial ground....

this tree had a box for local wildlife....

and this picture....blurry, I'm afraid, shows the hive for Bunhill bees....

...and this strange construction called 'InnVertebrate' which is a sort of multi levelled hotel for insects....one of five created for a competition this summer.

more info on the competition and the other entrants at this British Land website

a coloured guide that shows you where to find them all can be seen at this web page

there are many little corners of history hidden away in London, which I find fascinating and enjoy seeking out. As a respite from windows 7 coursework, Bunhill Fields certainly does the job.

a brief respite

since my last offering....a few things have occurred....some good some bad.....interesting times in the chinese way ? ...till I get some words together, a pictorial of our recent trip - first holiday in 5 years, really - and a few others that got came out in the wash...


Newton's Cove

Newton Cove, where we scattered the ashes of Denise's parents.





...and in Weymouth, here we see a train being mobbed by the trainspotters paparazzi

....which it dealt with by releasing a torrent of CS gas....or could be steam, I guess....




....dangerous place Weymouth!



A visit to Porthleven and Porthpean



...the rocks at Porthleven



...the sky at Porthleven



....and the harbour wall..held together with the biggest staples I've ever seen!

....the rocks on the coast of Porthpean

...the ramp down to the beach

...a mysterious cave on the beach which is just begging for investigation by some pesky kids, as it is bound to have ghosts, smugglers or some such ne'er do wells involved in some dastardly scheme....ahem

...a simple view of the beach, with shower facilities laid on




....a view of the surf tiding its way up the beach....




Pendennis castle

...visited Pendennis castle....and all I got was a picture of this rock!

..well, no not really, I did take other pictures...the castle, guns etc but I prefer this picture...maybe I'll post up the others in a Pendennis castle special! ...or not

Lands End

We visited Lands End....and it was shut

and the sign had been removed!





...still, the view was stunning, we imagined what it would have looked like when Denise's parents visited it so very long ago

...and the sunset was gorgeous to watch...

The Monkey Sanctuary

...a real highlight of our trip



...at the entrance to the sanctuary itself, this oddly trimmed tree. The triangular notches in the top are for bats to roost in....one of the animals that also have sanctuary there

a view of some of the enclosures the monkeys live in...




...one of the inhabitants taking a stroll



...lots of info, and the volunteers who work there know all there is to know and were happy to talk ...lovely people

...and there are some simply beautiful gardens to wander around in



Fowey

just a couple of pictures of Fowey. The Daphne du Maurier festival was on, so you needed a cheque book just to buy a cuppa....



...the harbour...

...yep, the harbour...the sky looks nice though

I recommend the park and ride bus trip from the outer limit to the town centre....it rivals many fair ground attraction rides for heart stopping moments....

The Minack Theatre

The visit to the Minack was in memory of my very recently departed work colleague and friend, Dorothy Wright who loved the place and visited it often. It was my sad task to inform her friends there of her passing.

The blog is dedicated to the memory of Paige Breen. A wonderful woman who sadly decided to leave us. Memories of your love, strength and spirit will always live on...

Life enrichment opportunity for all!

Who likes advertising? Check YouTube and there are heaps of post of videos of old 'classic' and new ads from telly past and current.




















Remember the Martians and their amazement at mashed potato? The 'secret lemonade drinker' ? Did you ever P-P-Pick up a Penguin?" "






















Having your mind and memory colonised by barkers pitches to buy this that and the other is all too common. One of my favourite bands of there and then - Snuff - even used them in their set. Their version of the 'Bran flakes' advert probably reinforced the product awareness, but almost certainly only encouraged people to buy their records and see them play. I think there's some irony going on there, subverting the media message or some such thing. All I know is I just have memories of yelling out the words, whilst bouncing around the music.

I came across a site with some old radio clips , from the late 50's and 60's. American radio, where the ad's are almost comical in their unique ham it up fashion. If you've listened to the 'The Firesign Theatre' group's records you'll see its already been cheesed up and used as comedy material for quite some time.

What prompted this blog?

I was just searching for something or other and came across this....

Informative Advertising with Differentiated Products, by Gene M. Grossman and Carl Shapiro © 1984 The Review of Economic Studies Ltd.

Abstract

In this paper we study the role of promotional expenditures by sellers in a model of product differentiation. Advertising conveys full and accurate information about the characteristics of products. Heterogeneous consumers, who have no source of information other than advertisements, seek to purchase the products that best fit their needs. Despite the roles played by advertising in improving the matching of products and consumers, and in increasing the elasticity of demand faced by each firm, we find that the market-determined levels of advertising are excessive, given the extent of diversity in the market. We derive a promotional equilibrium based on a specific information transmission technology, paying explicit attention to the structure of consumer information and its impact on firms' demand curves. This allows us to study the effects of changes in the advertising technology, including an increased ability to target messages to specific groups of consumers, on the equilibrium in the product market. We find that decreased advertising costs may reduce profits by increasing the severity of price competition.

I think they are serious....they certainly mean business!




....after reading that, I need some Firesign to bring me out of the maze...the adventures of Nick Danger!

..simple...

ch-ch-ch-changes....

"I need my sleep, man. You know what I mean? I need about 8 hours a day... And about 10 at night and I'm good, I am, I'm good..." Bill Hicks

so, along with a moral outrage at the world and a love of the truth in humour I have something else in common with Mr Hicks.....

sleep is something that you may take for granted, except for the insomniacs amongst you of course...

apparently when I sleep, I wake up approximately 47 times an hour, thats wake up, fall asleep, wake up, fall asleep....you get the idea...that's tiring!

now I get to look like a 1950's alien experiment

though sometimes it feels more like....

come the morning.....

its something called

sleep apnoea

overweight? heavy drinker? smoke too much? yeah and no, cos you can be like this and be none of these. So I snore a lot...poor Denise.....and when I'm awake, I'm not really cos I'll be nodding off, my head on the keyboard whilst in a dream state thinking I'm perfectly fine. Some people pay good money for drugs to do that, but it's a nuisance when you're standing up fine and then - like a switch is pulled - you drop to the floor. No warning, no time to go 'oh goodness me, I'm falling down' and such like...


I now use a CPAP machine...lovely name, that.

continuous positive airway pressure it means....

A continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine was initially used mainly by patients for the treatment of sleep apnea at home, but now is in widespread use across intensive care units as a form of ventilation. Obstructive sleep apnea occurs when the upper airway becomes narrow as the muscles relax naturally during sleep. This reduces oxygen in the blood and causes arousal from sleep. The CPAP machine stops this phenomenon by delivering a stream of compressed air via a hose to a nasal pillow, nose mask or full-face mask, splinting the airway (keeping it open under air pressure) so that unobstructed breathing becomes possible, reducing and/or preventing apneas and hypopneas. It is important to understand, however, that it is the air pressure, and not the movement of the air, that prevents the apneas. When the machine is turned on, but prior to the mask being placed on the head, a flow of air comes through the mask. After the mask is placed on the head, it is sealed to the face and the air stops flowing. At this point, it is only the air pressure that accomplishes the desired result. This has the additional benefit of reducing or eliminating the extremely loud snoring that sometimes accompanies sleep apnea.

at last, Denise gets some peace :D

the last few months have been ...different. I collapsed at work back in November and was sent home till I 'had got it sorted'....back at work now these last two weeks and things are very different....I love the novelty of being awake in the daytime :D

pining for the Fnord's? or should that be Albert Pine whoever he is?

yeah well.....

"this" time of year, memories...you know the thing.

If you had any kind of childhood, you may have special memories of this time, be it presents parties or snowy pavements.

Your first bike! That chemistry set you always wanted! David Cassidy's greatest hits! Another chance to see the Two Ronnies Christmas Special!

Today a memory popped into my head.....randomly generated after reading a friends FB status and having an image of a snowy pine tree in my head. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine, no less...

"Trail of the Lonesome Pine" was a song performed by Laurel & Hardy in the 1937 film 'Way Out West".

A sample of the chorus

In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine—
In the pale moonshine our hearts entwine,
Where she carved her name and I carved mine;
Oh, June, like the mountains I'm blue—
Like the pine I am lonesome for you,
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,
On the trail of the lonesome pine.

If you have never seen any Laurel & Hardy before, at least check this out. As a grown up (?) adult person now, it makes me smile but way back when it would have me rolling in stitches (likewise the piano mover sketch in 'The Magic Box'...but I digress....)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Fc681ZiNc will take you to the clip on youtube....which helped it to get to number 2 in the charts back in 1975.

The song is older than even Laurel & Hardy's film, however. Written in 1913, you can hear the original via the link below at the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project website....



http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/mp3s/0000/0717/cusb-cyl0717d.mp3

...also covered by the musical originator Link Wray as you can see in this youtube clip 'Link Wray On "The Jack Spector Show", Channel 12 WPRO-TV, Providence, RI, March 1960 '.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsEOz3gfOTU

amazing what you can find on the interweb, eh? :D

(oh, and Albert Pine? Who is he? No information I can find except he is the source of the quotation :

"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal."

which has a simple positive message that tickles me.

and what provoked the urge to document this in a blog today? Just that the last year for Denise and I has been one of so many mixed memories, good, bad, sad, painful, and uplifting too. Life, Death and all the flavours inbetween. If I were a poet, I'd probably be on my fifth volume of "eulogies of a bad day", by now.

so today I decided to take a memory that made me smile, and thought I'll do a web search and dig out some links and whatnot.

Listen to the song, play the clip and I hope it makes you smile too!

(...oh and the Fnords? I'll leave you to check that out for yourself....)

Transgender Day of Remembrance

**
The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgendered — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgendered people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgendered people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgendered people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

** from the Facebook group: Transgender Day of Remembrance



International Transgender of Remembrance website



An article in todays Pink News on the Transgender day of Remembrance



A statement from Gordon Brown on TDOR



An article by a London trans activist in the Pink Paper from the 16th of November


The London event...

*From 2.15pm on Saturday 21st November at the 52 Club, Gower Street, London, trans people, their friends and allies will be remembering those who have died during the last year through violence or suicide because they were trans. If you can’t make it on the day, it would be lovely if you can take time out from whatever you are doing at the time and spare a minute or two thinking about those trans people who have died. If you encounter a transphobic incident, please take time to address it, whether it be reporting it to the police, writing in to a paper and making a complaint, signing a petition or just taking time out to learn more about the issues which trans people face. All challenges against transphobia will help, in the long run, towards reducing the harassment, discrimination and deaths of trans people.

Streetmap link for the 52 Club

* borrowed from the Pink News article above