Friday, May 10, 2013
On technology
Earlier today, I posted in this space about some difficulties I'm running into with what are known as essential familial tremors. While I'm done speaking upon that particular topic, I want to take a minute or two to discuss some the things that technology is made available to us to help make life a little more normal for folks with troubles like mine.
Voice to text technology is not new; it has, however, been rife with difficulties. Central among those has been the ability of the technology to understand regional dialects, accents, and the general differences in the way each of us individually speaks. While I am reluctant to turn this space into an infomercial, I have been absolutely delighted with some software that I recently picked up from the folks at Dragon. With just a little bit of time taken for the software to adjust to my voice, I am able to write things like this post in a matter of minutes, rather than the hours it would take if I had to type this by hand.
This makes me more productive, more responsive, and allows me to reengage the world socially better than I had possibly expected. I had really feared that these tremors were going to keep me from wasting your time in this space forever. Happily, it appears that I'm wrong.
I've always been a bit of a geek, so I guess I don't really understand why I am so surprised at the effectiveness of this. Which leads me to the wonders of technology in general. It's been said many times before; change is ongoing, change is inevitable, and change is good. Resisting change, whether in politics, in technology, or in life in general, will get you nowhere. Embrace it, roll with it, or get out of the way.For example, I recently purchased a new laptop running Windows 8. As a long time Windows user, I find the new operating system to be a monumental pain in the ass. Windows open and close, seemingly on their own, and I find myself redoing things over and over. In the spirit of embracing change, however, I am getting better at it. In other words, get over it, scribe.
With all of that said, this makes it three rants in one day in this space. That's enough.
Until next time,
Excelsior!
On Music
"Flesh fades, and mortal trash falls to the residuary worm; you and I might as well rock and roll. - Lin Brehmer
***********
The Reverend of Rock 'n Roll guided my life in a very odd way from 1977 to 1983 or so. At that time, WQBK-FM dominated the airwaves for young listeners of hip rock 'n roll. I considered my ownself one of those folks.
Every Wednesday at Five O'clock in those days. Lin Brehmer of Q-104 FM would conduct the "Hump Day Unusual Moment". He would present some mishmash of audio nonsense designed to ease the angst of his listeners; most of the time it worked. This became a serious highlight of my week, no joke; at 22 or so, I was focusing the entire day around this. The killer was, the guy delivering it at the time was maybe 26. The difference? He was GOOD.
In June of 1982, I was 22 years old, and just starting a now 29-year-long career with Mother Bell. I had just completed a truly lousy day, one which made me really wonder whether or not I would follow my Dad's footsteps in the phone company. I get into the car, leave the parking lot just in time to have JUST missed the unusual moment. I am irked, and not much is helping. The Rev then comes through, with Side 2 of "Terrapin Station" in its entirety, as a salve to my anxiety. Nineteen minutes of the Dead, just what I needed, at just the right time.
********
Nowadays, Lin Brehmer is one of the foremost DJs in the country, with gazillions of listeners on WXRT-FM in Chicago. He is an honest-to-God media fixture there, and that is truly wonderful. I get the chance to listen to his work every now and again on the Internet, and I am delighted he has enjoyed the success he has. Like I said, he's GOOD.
*********
Music is, to someone of my lifetime, a considerable influence. Those who can truly play are to be admired; I hack about on a guitar badly enough for any two people. For those of us of a certain age, the music of our times is just "noise", according to our parents; for those of us who are parents ourselves, I hope to God we have progressed to the point where we appreciate that we have before us.
Music in an influence on the lives of those who have been born after 1950; it just is. It is for those born before that as well, but for those of us born in the rock 'n roll era, music holds a special significance. Personally, I listen to all kinds of music, from rock to soul, to everything in between.
***********
The Reverend of Rock 'n Roll guided my life in a very odd way from 1977 to 1983 or so. At that time, WQBK-FM dominated the airwaves for young listeners of hip rock 'n roll. I considered my ownself one of those folks.
Every Wednesday at Five O'clock in those days. Lin Brehmer of Q-104 FM would conduct the "Hump Day Unusual Moment". He would present some mishmash of audio nonsense designed to ease the angst of his listeners; most of the time it worked. This became a serious highlight of my week, no joke; at 22 or so, I was focusing the entire day around this. The killer was, the guy delivering it at the time was maybe 26. The difference? He was GOOD.
In June of 1982, I was 22 years old, and just starting a now 29-year-long career with Mother Bell. I had just completed a truly lousy day, one which made me really wonder whether or not I would follow my Dad's footsteps in the phone company. I get into the car, leave the parking lot just in time to have JUST missed the unusual moment. I am irked, and not much is helping. The Rev then comes through, with Side 2 of "Terrapin Station" in its entirety, as a salve to my anxiety. Nineteen minutes of the Dead, just what I needed, at just the right time.
********
Nowadays, Lin Brehmer is one of the foremost DJs in the country, with gazillions of listeners on WXRT-FM in Chicago. He is an honest-to-God media fixture there, and that is truly wonderful. I get the chance to listen to his work every now and again on the Internet, and I am delighted he has enjoyed the success he has. Like I said, he's GOOD.
*********
Music is, to someone of my lifetime, a considerable influence. Those who can truly play are to be admired; I hack about on a guitar badly enough for any two people. For those of us of a certain age, the music of our times is just "noise", according to our parents; for those of us who are parents ourselves, I hope to God we have progressed to the point where we appreciate that we have before us.
Music in an influence on the lives of those who have been born after 1950; it just is. It is for those born before that as well, but for those of us born in the rock 'n roll era, music holds a special significance. Personally, I listen to all kinds of music, from rock to soul, to everything in between.
My boys seem predisposed toward hip-hop, which I don't particularly care for, but not for parent-child reasons. Talented artists, to be certain, but I think they limit their own talents with sheer repetition. My own tastes have always run toward rhythm and melody, and I have always held a very special place for those who could tell a great story in song. Whether it's Bruce Springsteen describing the difficulties of the working man, or James Taylor going from Stockbridge to Boston, the great songwriter and lyricist has always struck me as one of the most important individuals in our society.
To me, what makes music great is its constant evolution. The cyclical nature of that evolution isn't lost upon me either. What once was old becomes new again and does so almost every day.
So what's the point of all of this? Not much of one, really. Simply one man's exhortation to, as the Doobie Brothers said, "listen to the music".
Until next time,
Excelsior!
To me, what makes music great is its constant evolution. The cyclical nature of that evolution isn't lost upon me either. What once was old becomes new again and does so almost every day.
So what's the point of all of this? Not much of one, really. Simply one man's exhortation to, as the Doobie Brothers said, "listen to the music".
Until next time,
Excelsior!
On perseverance
First off, apologies for being away so long. We'll explain just why in a moment.
It appears that your intrepid scribe has inherited something called essential familial tremors from some of his forebears. Essentially, what happens is, if I were to try and touch the tip of your nose, I would end up poking you when one of your eyes, and wouldn't know which eye beforehand. This makes things like writing& handling anything with your hands, to be candid, rather difficult. I have been told by many doctors that I don't have Parkinson's syndrome, and that while this is annoying, proper medication and other compensatory strategies will help me greatly. I fear my career as a juggler is over. However, if you ever need a martini shaken, I'm your man.
When you're accustomed to doing things on your own, there is an obvious adjustment phase that one goes through in accepting the help of friends and family to do things that you normally would do yourself. If you asked the members of my family, they might testify that yours truly has had some difficult moments with this adjustment. They would be correct in that assessment.
So what is the sum and substance of all of this? Your intrepid scribe has to compensate, move on, and quit whining about it. After all, it's baseball season.
Next time, I promise a post more topical and less self absorbed.
Until then,
Excelsior!
It appears that your intrepid scribe has inherited something called essential familial tremors from some of his forebears. Essentially, what happens is, if I were to try and touch the tip of your nose, I would end up poking you when one of your eyes, and wouldn't know which eye beforehand. This makes things like writing& handling anything with your hands, to be candid, rather difficult. I have been told by many doctors that I don't have Parkinson's syndrome, and that while this is annoying, proper medication and other compensatory strategies will help me greatly. I fear my career as a juggler is over. However, if you ever need a martini shaken, I'm your man.
When you're accustomed to doing things on your own, there is an obvious adjustment phase that one goes through in accepting the help of friends and family to do things that you normally would do yourself. If you asked the members of my family, they might testify that yours truly has had some difficult moments with this adjustment. They would be correct in that assessment.
So what is the sum and substance of all of this? Your intrepid scribe has to compensate, move on, and quit whining about it. After all, it's baseball season.
Next time, I promise a post more topical and less self absorbed.
Until then,
Excelsior!
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