The Day After Black Friday

I usually don't do anything on Black Friday. My family takes advantage of the sales but I hunker down with my odd and ends projects. This year, it was organizing the music I'd be playing with my friend Ken and next week's Toys for Tots event at the Portuguese Club in Chicopee. We compared song lists and then songs to make sure we were in sync on keys and whatnot. I think we're in good shape. FWIW - we'll be opening for the Brass Attack Of Springfield band. Opening is a bit strong in that we'll be playing during the events less busy times (just before dinner, for example). Anyway, that was my Black Friday activity for this year.

I did manage to actually buy a couple things. I needed a hand vac and opted for a corded Dirt Devil. I'd used a Dyson in our staircase but, apparently, it's only good for 15 minutes per charge. That wasn't enough and I had to use our large corded vacuum cleaner, which is awkward on stairs. So, the smaller one should do the job.

No Photographs For Thanksgiving

It's Black Friday as I write this. I have no need to go shopping so I'm just sitting around doing the normal stuff I do. I realized that, this year, I did not make a single photograph for Thanksgiving. Usually I'll at least shoot some food that's laid out in front of me. Nope. This year, I just ate it. Or I photograph the people who've come to visit. Nope. I just enjoyed myself and them. Maybe that's that Thanksgiving is about in the first place.

I'm thinking today may be more photographic. I hope so.

My Favorite Fall Leaves

I have been posting foliage photos in various places online and I notice that many have been taken in my own yard. I guess I'm lucky to have this. I suppose, though, that many can say the same and all it takes is to be aware as you go out and about. This time, as I was walking across the front of the house to retrieve an Amazon package, I looked down and saw the interesting patterns that the dead leaves created. The light was diffuse so I didn't have harsh shadows to worry about. It won't be long before these will be snow covered and yield even more photo ops.

TIK Intros

During the 2000's and early 2010's, Lee and I had a couple TV shows that we produced for Spencer Cable Access. This is back when we actually lived in Spencer. One was Bloomin' with the Bemis', a gardening show hosted by Bemis Farms Nursery featuring Ed and Tina Bemis. This was very successful and even got us an award from a New England wide cable TV conference.  The other was a cooking show, Time In The Kitchen (TIK) featuring Lee Danek, Pam Leck, and Sylvia Gruner.

After our move to Feeding Hills, we continued TIK but by then, Sylvia had moved away - too far to commute to continue with the show. Our own commute wasn't as bad and we spit doing shows between Pam's home in Spencer and our new home in Feeding Hills. But the number of shows dwindled and finally ended after a couple years.

One of the things that was quite pleasing, for me, was the opportunity to create some fun skits to be used as intros to the shows. We'd do them for Bloomin' as well as TIK. Lee mentioned recently that I should put the shows up on YouTube, which I interpreted as put the intros together into a new show and put that on YouTube. So, I did.

Later she said that was not what she'd requested. But, too late, I'd already done the intros show by then.

So, here's TIK Intros for your consideration...

Free Speech!!!

Actually, by "free speech" I mean I just learned that AWS (Amazon Web Services) has a free text-to-speech generation program called Polly. As I already have an AWS account for my cloud storage, I thought I'd give it a try. It actually worked nicely. The program starts off as free but I think you end up paying after 12 months. After that, I think there'll be a pay-as-you go kind of subscription. I don't have a lot of need for this so I don't think it would be prohibitively expensive. Also, there are many other similar programs so this could get interesting.

For now, I'm thinking of taking some of my older TIK ( Thyme In The Kitchen) videos, clipping out some of the funny intros that Lee, Pam, and Sylvia made, and putting a video together with just those. Lee's already asked me to put the TIK shows up into YouTube and I'll probably do that project next. There are a lot of these shows and it'll take some time to get them all loaded.

I think it's a good winter project.

I'm Getting Lazy As A Photographer

I find that, lately, I've been relying more and more on my iPhone for photography. Sometimes it's just an opportunity that comes along and I only have the smartphone to take advantage...

My New Protest - Too Much Lettuce

 Why is it that we always get too much lettuce in store bought sandwiches when we don't even ask for it? It doesn't have a strong flavor and, especially the shredded kind, falls out of the sandwich at every bite.

What's up with that?

I've made it a practice at, for example, Subway, to never ask for lettuce. I prefer spinach. Why? ...well, it's large and leafy and doesn't easily escape the bread boundaries. If they had leafy lettuce, I might give that a try. (Well, at Subway, I'd probably ask for both."

But otherwise, I make this a nation-wide appeal. Either only serve leafy lettuce, or don't default to lettuce at all. If someone wants this all over their shirt and laps while they eat, give it to them in a cup and they can just throw it into the air as they eat. It accomplishes the same thing. 

Remembering

I do videos for my cit/town, Agawam. For the past few years, I've done Memorial Days, 911 Remembrance Days, and Veterens Days. They each go through the same kind of program - flag ceremony, speech, bell ringing, and payers - and I try to get creative in how I record the events despite the seriousness of the day. I don't mean creative in a funny way. I mean creative in a respectfully different way.

This year, I was able to position myself almost perfectly for the key moments of the Veterans Day Ceremonies and that's only because I had to learn the hard way during the previous two times. Each one of these has been special and I often have come close to tears despite never having served. The way the vets go through the solemn moments, remembering and reflecting, is heartfelt.

Thank you, each and every one of you, for your sacrifice and service. 

Is The World Laughing At Us?

Unless there was a truly rigged election, the results from last week indicate a highly split voter population. In reading about or listening to the poll analyses, I have to wonder what's become of commons sense. On one side we have the conservatives who say they want things to go back to where they were. No one bothers to say what/where/when that is, but back to something. Then there are the progressives who say we can do better and somehow that's a bad thing? Better is bad? Hmm...maybe?

We have elected a man who I personally would never say was a good man. He has too many character flaw marks chalked up against him. So, does that mean that my side - the side that dislikes him - has marks, too? Are we just as bad when the other side complains about us? What do they see about us that we don't see? ...how will history view us?

NOTE: The image here was created by Haiper AI with the text input "vitriolic behavior of a world leader"...that's all it took to bring DJT into the frame.

And what about the rest of the world? What do other countries think? Are they just waiting for us to fall apart from the crush of our vitriolic nature. Are they laughing at the once, great, powerful nation that thinks it can dictate its rule everywhere...and now we will crumble?

We live in interesting times.

It's Been A Few Days

It's been a few days since my last post. We've had a presidential election in the meantime and I'm heartbroken that my side lost. I recall, being a New England Patriots fan during the first 20 years of the millennium, that I had many opportunities to feel the happiness of victory and the sadness of defeat. For us, during this time, the cycle between these extremes was short. The expression, "just wait until next year", seemed to match our reality. Pain would always lead to certain exuberance and we counted on it.

Not so much with elections. (And not so much with football now.)

I could certainly be lead to believe that some sort of cheating was occurring. As Bill Maher would often quip, "I know I can't prove it but I know it must be true." Or something like that.

Going back to the Reagan victory many years ago, if you lived through that, didn't you wonder how it was that the Iran Hostage Crisis was resolved right after Ronnie won? WTF? How did that happen. Was there a highly illegal, quid pro quo in there somewhere? I can't prove it, but...

Fast forward to Hanging Chads. WTF? How can the Supreme Court get involved in this? I've read an explanation recently justifying their actions, providing a rationale, but there's that feeling again...

There's Trump's ongoing "it's a rigged election" mantra; he brought it up all the time. I suspect it's his personal rationalization - something he desperately needs so as not to feel like a loser - it's a tool right out of the narcissists mental health toolbox. Did he and his team actually figure out rigging and...

...now, we have 2024. WTF?

Well, I can't say "wait until next year". I'm afraid for this country and how Trump will play the game, fully emboldened by his excessive _______. (Whatever you feel fits there: narcissism, stupidity, ego, lying, rigging.)

Some pundits are saying that the Democratic Party needs to re-evaluate itself...but would that really help? I think we need to accept it - and I know I can't prove it but I just know it's true - that the election really was rigged. Rigged by a convoluted system of billionaire's money, social network manipulations, religious interference, and a woefully under-informed voting public. That's the game the Democrats need to learn to play. Forget education the voters with facts. That's for losers. Overwhelm them with bullshit...and then wait until next year.