Avoid TidySongs like the plague.

That is all.

I would buy a Kindle tomorrow if...

I would buy a Kindle tomorrow if I could get electronic copies for free of all the hardback and paperback books in my collection.

A note to all Canon PowerShot SX120 IS users out there

After removing the memory card from a Canon PowerShot SX120 IS, turn on the camera and then turn off the camera again before re-inserting the memory card; otherwise, the camera will not recognize the memory card—and since, unlike some other digital cameras, it has no internal memory it will not take pictures at all.

My IMWNO List

I don’t have a bucket list—but I do have a “If Money Were No Object” list. Things I’d buy IMWNO:

Apple iPod nano 16 GB Graphite (6th Generation)
OK, I know it’s only $165, but I already have a 120 GB Apple iPod classic; $165 seems like a lot to pay for a tiny FM radio.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP Full Frame CMOS Digital SLR Camera
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM Standard Zoom Lens
Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L II IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens
Canon EF 50mm f/2.5 Compact Macro Lens
As I young man, I spent a lot of time walking around with a 35mm film camera and some lenses, eventually acquiring a Canon A-1, a Vivitar 28-80mm zoom lens, and a Vivitar 70-210mm zoom lens with a macro ring for taking close-up shots. Somehow, a point-and-shoot digital camera just isn’t the same. $6481 is a lot of money, though. (Why not just use the old lenses on a new body, you ask? They won’t fit—different mount types. Everything’s built for auto-focus nowadays.)

2011 Jaguar XKR Convertible in Spectrum Blue Metallic.
’Nuff said. $111,250.

If such a thing were available: a Red Lobster franchise so I could eat there anytime I wanted (sadly, they’re all company-owned).

Lemonade

A long time ago on a continent far, far away I had learned that the German word for a lemon-lime soft drink was “limonade”.

Many years later, when I had the occasion to go to England, I asked the waitress for “something like a 7-Up”; she said she could give me a lemonade and put some lime cordial in it. It turned out to be a green-colored lemon-lime soft drink; the next day I just asked for a lemonade. I don’t know why it took me so long to make the connection; I don’t know why the waitress didn’t just bring me a lemonade in the first place.

Why Public Sector Unions Suck

I’m willing to concede that unions may have their place in the private sector when they work to balance the power of management. All too often, though, even private-sector unions can work to force companies into agreements that are detrimental to both sides in the long term.

Unions do not belong in the public sector at all, though, and here’s why: While private-sector companies have to consider the impact of union agreements on profitability, public-sector entities do not have to worry about making a profit and can agree to anything the union demands. If union demands result in increased costs, all that a public-sector body has to do is to raise taxes; private-sector companies, on the other hand, cannot necessarily just raise prices.

O Fortuna, from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana

Having a classical tune in my head, and being able to tap out a tune by ear on the piano, I did a Google search for something that would allow me to search for a song by doing just that.

Having then found Musipedia, I tapped out what turned out to be O Fortuna, from Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. It took just a bit more poking around on Wikipedia, though, because what Musipedia was able to find for me, while consisting of the right notes, was not the right tempo and was definitely not the right orchestration—at least Musipedia found something from the larger Carmina Burana, anyway, which was enough.

Seriously, what did people do before ubiquitous access to the World Wide Web?

Serendipity

So I’m watching the Nascar Nationwide Series race since Danica Patrick’s in it (I usually only watch the Sprint Cup races) and I get the idea to wonder whether anyone has written anything linking her with Sarah Palin, which caused me to do a Google search and find this on a blog I hadn’t read before; then I went to the top of the blog and found that the author has recently started suffering symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, which had struck me about nine months ago, so I posted a comment with a recommendation for alleviating the symptoms.

Cue the music to It’s a Small World….

The