"Every time I worry that I'm loving life too much, I just watch the blossom opening. It makes me hate life instantly"
Iowa? I hardly know 'er!
I got my ears vacuumed the other day at the ENT clinic. Unfortunately I'm one of those people that gets a lot of wax build up. Copying the grown ups using cotton buds to clear the wax just meant I was constantly getting ear infections as a kid. As an adult, I'd get wax build up, I'd try olive oil as my GPs would always recommend, only that would make it clog up more and muffle my hearing. Then the only way to get that big plug of soggy wax out was either to fish it out with a bit of screwed up tissue or a cotton bud, or to blast it with the power shower to dislodge it.
I finally perforated my ear drum in September from an infection that went to the middle ear. Anyway, I got my ears vacuum cleaned on Thursday and was told by the ENT doctor to use a pharmaceutical grade olive oil spray (not drops) every day forever to stop the wax clogging. So let's hope that works.
I think I was given peroxide based ear drops once when I was 12 or so, but it made my jaw swell so much I couldn't even eat.
Yes! I was in Walthamstow last week and the difference between their cycle lanes and my area is like night and day. A proper delineated cycle lane, separate from both the road and the pavement. Compare that to my area where the cycle lanes abruptly cut off and are just a line of paint separating them from the pavement, therefore pedestrians walk all over it and I have to use the bus lane to cycle. Walthamstow is like cyclist heaven.
It depends on where you are, of course. Here in the UK, the Murdoch press is a massive influence.
Where Rupert Murdoch? I'd put him as even worse than Bezos.
I have chronic ear problems, and I'll usually get someone telling me I should try ear candling. Luckily they stop when I tell them to look up the videos of people using the candle with a jar and getting the same "wax" extracted.
Man, that sounds rough. I hope you're okay now. I suppose the rider got away?
Those delivery riders with their often illegal e-bikes are a scourge. They're like that in London too. I've seen them on pavements with their throttle modded bikes, even though we have both a bus lane and a cycle lane.
I've had a black screen of death on Mint. All I was trying to do was crop a video on kdenlive. It black screened on me and somehow even messed up the boot menu so that my Mint was showing up as just Ubuntu. I went straight back to Shotcut after that. I really wanted to switch from Windows to Linux, but so far, Linux, or at least Mint, really hates me. Up till recently, I was still using Mint for my music storage, but it has trouble even moving files onto my phone now. I've pretty much given up.
The throw to plate to get Stanton out was a thing of beauty! Edman is still impressive. Freeman continues to shine. The bullpen has stepped up. I thought the Dodgers would be the underdogs this series, given how we choked in post the last two years. I really hope this is our year! One more win! I hope they don't get complacent in game 4. Sweeping the Yankees would be sweet.
In London about 95% of the ones I see running reds are the uber eats etc riders, pretty much all the modded e-bikes don't stop at reds. My colleague saw a woman knocked down by one ignoring a red light at a crossing, the woman had kids with her.
I've also had a cyclist effing and blinding at me because I stopped at a red.
And there's still this much battery left. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. I wasn't expecting it to still have any power left at all. I suppose with the sim out, all it was doing was powering the clock, but still! Unfortunately, I've had to retire it as my network won't connect on it anymore.
Come and say hi!
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In Series 1, the show centred around the Garrisons, but featured enough of the other characters too. Matt Garrison was the natural leader of the band. He was basically the everyman character. He was the one who didn't get involved in the silliness of the other boys (Wooing Woo was incredibly OOC, Series 1 Matt would have stayed out of it), and he was the one who kept the band together.
Then they brought in Jake Somers.
I don't think Jake was a terrible character, but his addition to the show changed the dynamics too much. Sure, the band might have needed a second guitarist at times, but other than that, he wasn't needed as a permanent member. He came in and suddenly it wasn't about the Garrison family anymore, but about Jake. Matt goes from being the nice-but-assertive one to becoming Richie Cunningham to Jake's Fonz. Even though he was still the lead singer and nominal frontman of the band, Matt was constantly in Jake's shadow. Rather than being the natural leader of his own band, he was now intimidated by Jake.
I really don't blame Brentley Gore for bowing out after Series 2. If you look at the character of Mark Winkle, that's what would have happened to Matt and the actor saw that, and I'm glad he got to go before his character was completely wrecked.
The makeup of the band was just ridiculous once the Garrisons were written out. Jenny and Tiffani both had very different voices. I don't think Jenny could ever truly have been replaced, and while I liked the character of Sam, her voice was too similar to Tiffani's. She lacked the strength and depth of Jenny's vocals and it all became quite samey. Try to imagine her singing Castles on Quicksand or This Time... Do you see what I mean?
Replacing Matt with Mark was the single most pointless addition to the show (yes, even more pointless than Lorena). Matt was lead male vocalist and lead guitarist. So to replace Matt, they would need another lead male vocalist/guitarist. Except we now have Sam on keys and Jake on guitar and lead male vocals... and Mark on keys and backing vocals... except they didn't need another keyboard player, nor another male vocalist. He was redundant in the band. There was no point to him at all.
Also, I don't like the way Tony was sidelined in favour of Mark. There was the episode where he wrote a song for Sam, and it was still "Jake" singing it, even though we know Tony is a competent singer. They could have put Mark to use and put him on drums while Tony took the mic, as there was at least one episode where we see Mark on drums.
The problem with writing out the Garrisons is that the show then became nothing more than another high school sitcom. To me, Jake would have worked better as a solo act. There could have been a friendly rivalry between him and the Dreams, and sometimes they could even have roped him in when they needed a second guitarist.
The thing I disliked about Jake becoming the leader of the band is how he ruled by dominance, unlike Matt, who led because he was well liked and respected by the other band members. Jake was an outright bully to Sly, and while you might argue that Sly could be a jerk, he honestly wasn't that bad and he did have a conscience, even if he was fond of fighting it! Most of the time, he did mean well. You had characters walking on eggshells around Jake and that's not the sign of a good leader. I think Jake would have worked much better if Jenny had stuck around. She would have given as good as she got and kept him in check. They also made a much better couple than Jake and Tiffani.
Yeah, that relationship. At first, it seemed sweet: the tough guy and the ditzy surfer girl, but as the series went on, I didn't like the coupling at all. Tiffani seemed to lose her perky and fun personality, and while you would expect her to mellow out and mature a bit as she got older, I think a lot of it was down to Jake. It was too intense and for me, it just seemed a bit too OTT, and it made Tiffani fade.
At the end of Series 1, I actually thought Matt and Tiffani would be end-game (he did seem to like blondes!). There were several hints througout Series 1, but that's for another post!
If you could pick up to 13 tracks for a greatest hits album, which would you pick? Here's my selection, in no particular order:
- California Dreams
- She's Not You (Matt)
- If You Only Knew
- Into the Tube
- Rain
- Must be Love (Matt)
- Next Big Thing
- This Time
- Too Much to Dream
- Castles on Quicksand
- Love is Not Like This
- Everybody's Got Someone
- So Glad I Was There (and I would totally get Matt to re-record the lead vocals)
Sadly no Tiffani songs made it in, though I do like her ones (even Let me be the one! It's cheesy as heck, but fun).
Some of their songs are inspired by popular songs. Here are the ones I know of:
California Dreams - Seems to have a Beach Boys influence
This Time - Johnny Hates Jazz - Shattered Dreams
So Glad I Was There - The Beatles - In My Life
I'm sure there are more! What others can you think of?
4
Uh oh!
Jimmy Fallon Show reunion (all except Mark)
Saved by the Max LA gig April 2019 (Mark, Sam, Tiffani, Tony, Sly)
DVD reunion interview (Matt, Tiffani, Sly, Sam)
Hey, guys. I paid $30 for some tabs, but they're way too hard for me to work out. It's mostly the timing I'm struggling with (I'm used to yousician and songsterr telling me when to play a note) and my ear isn't good enough to work it out just from listening to the original song. Is there any software that can either output the audio or even just add a timing guide like songsterr? Thanks.
I can tolerate Mariah, the one I can't stand is the band aid one, patronising crap. Every damn year I gotta put up with those muppets telling me how nothing ever grows in Africa. Dammit, now I have it in my head!