Oh, so glad to hear it’s working better for some people… i thought it was still struggling. All I did was update everything – and hope it didn’t break. and, miraculously it didn’t! (this is a first for me – usually when I update, it all falls apart)

Let me know if you find more problems or anything… I’m curious how it’s performing for different people

I thought you were going to say, influenced by the acoustics of those English cathedrals, you had your choir assemble in one of the restrooms, and sang Tudor anthems together accapella…
That episode does sound funny. There would never be an American murder mystery where an organ figures in at all!

Mesmerized by the William Shatner advertisements.

I definitely think you’re right about technology always being designed for the newest upgrade, often rendering your merely 6-month-old device more useful as a paperweight. It’s very frustrating.

I’m glad you all were able to sell the home in Fenton!

That online library of liberty is a good link.
=^)

Thinking of your choir member who says you never complain about the challenges of ever changing numbers in the choir, I am reminded of a staff meeting I had two weeks ago with my Christian Ed staffer. In it, she told me that I am the most positive person she knows. Leigh and I decided afterward that, if that’s really the case, this person needs to get some new friends… Seriously.

I’m still very grateful that you agreed to play the organ at our wedding. You are amazing and I appreciate that you took the time to do so. At least I didn’t make you go through a wedding planner – oh wait, that was me. And totally half arsed at that! I appreciate you also being within our budget. Many thanks!

How much work would the harpsichord project be? I’m intrigued, though I’m not positive how much help I could be, with my total lack of technical and crafty skills, and the fact that I’m often carting around my personal destruction crew in the summer…

FYI, I still have trouble loading your blog sometimes, especially in the mornings here – a certain amount of ‘dwindling’ may still be down to technical problems. And I really appreciate your blogs………. so I hope you don’t stop them. X love you! X

Happy Anniversary you two… Good to talk with you the other day.

INCONCEIVABLE!

Happy Anniversary! 39 years is pretty amazing, and you guys still appear to like each other, which is even better. Yeah Steve and Eileen! Inspiration for us all.

First off, let me preface this post by assuring that the following is of my opinion only so most likely there will be more “I’s” than “you’s”. Second, I have not played this game in a while (other than the other day briefly) so I thought I would bite the carrot, play adversary and continue to procrastinate on working on my dissertation.
The first area I would take issue with is the term “brain-wash” and how it is used here. I am of the opinion that this statement is a strong and misleading sentiment in and of itself. Although I do see much following of like-mindedness and subscribing to points of views that are pleasing to one, I do not perceive others as being brainwashed in masses as would be suggested.
When I think of the term brainwashing, I associate it with cult-like behaviors, overall irrational connotations or negatively reinforcing systems. It has been many years since the likes of cult leaders such as Jim Johns or David Korish have gained notoriety with their brain-washing dispositions and I do not believe that “the system” is brainwashing millions of people worldwide, for this would be very narcissistic of me. This would indicate that I have a better grasp of the world than millions of others, which I simply do not believe. I believe that there are some who have a better grasp of the world, but they are far and few between and who I would categorize or “frame” as those who access parts of their brains that many of us currently are unable to do. I do not claim this as fact but rather as my opinion based on the limited amount of knowledge I have, coupled with the information I have accessed and processed both empirically and theoretical in nature.
Next, I am of the persuasion that it is most often not my place nor my goal to continually correct others’ perceptions, beliefs or notions about anything including others’ way of living/thinking, use of societal laws/norms or social media interaction. If I felt an injustice had been done in my immediate daily interactions and life, I would most definitely be involved. But I was not put on this earth to judge others, solve the world’s problems nor challenge all of the philosophical anomalies that we as a society have developed. I am here to simply be in existence, be productive and love others. If I were to attempt to continually correct or challenge others, not only would this be constantly exhausting, but would play into my prior notions of being self or ego centric and narcissistic.
For the first part of my life, the norm for me was inconsistent with varying rules or corrective manipulations playing into my daily affairs. I was either staunchly corrected or left to my own devise. There was no teaching or learning in the traditional sense. Others would constantly correct my way of thinking and it drove me bonkers. For example, I was originally a left-handed person and through the education system, it was “corrected” so that I would write in a right-handed manner. This constant correction, along with other issues was why I would resist a lot more so in my adolescent years. Like every teenager, I also had my share of rebelliousness, confusion, anger, etc. So throw in some continuous correcting and it would seem that it is no wonder that I am where I am today.
However, It took a long time for my “corrected” way of thinking to be unlearned (adolescence, military, etc). This leads me to my third point. I firmly believe that “that what can be learned, can be unlearned!” This is a Classical Conditioning ideology that I subscribe to since I “learned” it in undergraduate school. This idea has not only helped me help myself, but other people as well.
With regard to the media and deception, I would agree that there is a fair amount of this practice roaming around. However, I also believe that not every little piece of information needs to be obsessively subject to the most rigorous empirical challenges. There are many things in the media that can be taken at face value to be accurate. For example, a report could indicate that someone has died as the result of a car accident in the city of Pasadena. I would take this report to be true or factual unless retracted later that the person was still alive or that the person had actually drown as opposed to getting into a car accident. I have not found it to be true that stories significantly change and are retracted are the norm but rather the exception. They can be located in small sections of newspapers or magazines when they happen. Nonetheless, I would not know the finite details on a report unless I did some more digging into the story. Eventually I would come across everything including who, what, why, when and where. The problem I have with this process is that I sometimes (not all the time) want to know everything about a specific story, but do not have enough time in the day to sift through everything to find the intimate details that would satisfy my criteria. This is my own experience and because of this experience, it leads me to believe that due to the massive amounts of information available, it would be improbable that any person living a traditional life of working and loving (Freudian) would literally have the time to find the demographics of any large set of reports of information.
These thoughts of mine are simply that…my thoughts. I agree they are subject to correction, challenges or disagreement, but I am very much content with my thoughts and I believe my purpose in posting this has been met. That being said, I have no need of response or acknowledgment that I have posted a “reply” on this post.
David =^)

Actually, £6.50 for a cocktail anywhere in London (especially kew gardens) sounds very reasonably priced to me…. I think if I went to my nearest city and ordered a cocktail it would be more like £7 or £8

YEAH that you are playing that Holland Symphony gig! Is that one I passed your way? See, once you became friends with the famous Rhonda Edgington, and she was happy to pass on to you all her extra gigs, suddenly you got a lot more popular in Holland, Michigan. heh. I’m sure you’ll be playing their electronic keyboard, for whatever you do outside for them. I have been distracted with my life lately, and haven’t read your blog in awhile, so just saw that you aren’t playing the funeral today. I don’t think I’d want to play a music prof funeral either! Too much stress… Have a good week. R

The porch looks great! Also, I’m going to check out that Atwood trilogy. Love you!

You’re so funny! I love your photos, of course.

Your porch looks great. It would be neat if you could use it as a “three-season room” and only have to vacate for the winter months. I really love my screened porch and spend lots of time out there most days. I doubt we’ll be so fortunate as to have such a nice arrangement in our next home so I’m enjoying it while I can.

[…] group have been with us for over 30 days, I really have to watch my frustration when I read them a freaking beautiful poem (requiring not even 3 minutes of attention) and afterward it’s clear that only two of them […]

I know I always go on about this american life, but this week’s episode mentions dealing with dementia with the same ‘rules’ that govern improv acting. Pretty cool, you should look it up.. I’m running a bit late this morning, or I’d find the link for you. I think maybe the woman wrote a book about it. (This comment is in response to your link about memory)