I’m listening to the Audiobook of Temple Gardin’s “Animals in Translation : Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior“, and am currently on the ninth CD of 10. It just gets better and BETTER. *Please* read/listen to this book !
She’s just revealed that Mozart had a Starling who helped him refine a tune by adjusting sharps to flats, that whales use RHYME in their poetry and that *music* and *melody* couple at the crux of cross-species communication.
YAHESS !!!!
As an otherwise troubled and troublesome tot, Temple could hum back Bach (bettererer than them there hump-backed bards) and singing gets THROUGH to other Autistic children…… presumably in the same incisive way that a modulated, melodious enthused intonation can help you get the best out of any beast.
Both of my wolflings have been HIGHLY vocal and I expect nothing less.
I admit I haven’t tried Vista but knowing that I won’t be able to run Premiere, my modem or my printer on any computer it’s installed on has caused me to steer well clear of it - and actually become quite confused about where I CAN go next as I don’t imagine the subsequent iteration of Microsoft’s OS will “revert” to including support for “old stuff”. I don’t want to switch to Mac or Linux because the software I favour comes from Gates’ gates with the unjustifiably mothballed (Love it ! Love it Love it ! LOVE it !!) Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 V2 top of the heap…..
is such a head-turner for me that it could also be a tide-turner. Stacks of memory, a smokin’ graphics card plus audio promise that sounds beyond belief. I really need to find some reviews (”relistens”?) that address the aural capabilities it boasts as it’s solely the truly puny output on my current “best” Toshiba laptop that lets it down. It’s “adequate” but - even on headphones - the maximum level is really where I would, on occasion, want to be able to crank up a further 20%……I’ve been spoiled by the lush audio and 5.1 speakers that my five year old Desktop’s Creative Audigy pumps out.
I think Vista is a necessity for DX10 graphics and I’m expecting those to become increasingly relevant in the next few months. I’m very curious about how they will revolutionise water effects in Reallusion’s iClone 3 and the much anticipated Empire : Total War.
Staying on the theme of games, Codemasters’ new racer will be on the “Grid” very soon - it was reading about that again this morning that had me pondering a PS3….. To participate I would need to buy an HDTV, speakers and a router and I’d then be forced to stay in one location…. all factors that significantly increase the desirability of a gaming laptop over the allure of a console.
(”)(Happily Ever) After(”) YEARS of (not “having heron” about) not having her ; on my bookshelf but rather reallymerely on the periphery (tales) of my cur-racked and cur-ranky consciousness,
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<< HELP ! Peri = Faerie = Phery >>
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marked as a : [SURPRISINGLY SENSE-SYBIL SOUNDBITE-SUPPLIER] (there’s a particular “Hero” friend of mine who she DOESN’T damn), I’ve managed to (Ronald) (”P-p-p-(pick up)) a Penguin…”) (actually there are TWO tomes (of totems ?) and they’re in Vintage not Penguin) Marina Warner titles.
The first volume I’m absorbin’ (’n’ absorbed in) is : “Signs & Wonders - Essays on Literature & Culture“ ; it’s taking a long time to traverse (a week to the half-way (Way-HEY !) way-point) largely because of P-p-p-piqued curiosities and the Gulf of Google. Her review of Gail Bell’s “Poison - A History and a Family Memoir” mentions the use of Parsley as an “abortifacient”.
<<Lorks A’mighty !>> I thought said ‘erb was just for <<(h)in-place-(h)on-plaice Jiggery “Sprig”gery>> ‘n’ ‘alitosis ‘ypnosis…….
Periodically, I visit the Dell configurator to do the “Create Your Own” (Pizza) bit on customising a dream machine. Today I was prompted by a headline in the PC Advisor e.mail newsletter resolving at:
NOT to get a quote for the highest possible spec’ but just to make something similar to the VERY DEL(l)iberat(ing)ely Windows Vista-dodging <<Toshiba Satellite Pro P100 Core 2 Duo T7400/2.16Ghz>> (I didn’t ask it to be orange either (it’s NO lemon, rather the apple of my eye ; not that I’ve “Eve”r (iPod) Touched a Mac) that I purchased for a welcome penny under a grand at the start of February 2007.
£869 sez Dell, showing no clear way to REMOVE the current Microsoft OS and REPLACE it with the XP I need to run my legacy software and hardware.
It has been a week for Poetry. “Visualized Poetry“, a new(ish) site, currently “in Alpha”, cyberspace and on a BIG recruitment drive, is running adverts suggesting it is a MONTH for Poetry. They state that they want to be a “YouTube” for the art form, somewhat overlooking the fact that “YouTube” could, would and, no doubt, WILL be just that as soon as it decides to respond positively to campaigns such as the soon-to-close : ”Do you support the Arts on YouTube ?” Contest.
As of this morning, after two months (of Poetry (plus Painting)), AND with a ca$h incentive, the competition appears to have “drawn” less than 100 entries. Indeed, the “Spoken Word and Poetry” category present, in the past, at the initial inpixelation of mp3.com - a site founded and $old by the same team now emerging as “VP”’s V.I.P.s - generated minimal interest.
I wonder if it is “Visualized Poetry“’s determined marketing that has stirred the true original pre-YouTube ~ YouTube for Poetry ~ site : http://www.poemranker.com/ to drive itself back into the collective creative consciousness.
As yet, <<as dumb as they come>> with “After Effects 6.5“, I was surprised to find that you have to sweet-talk the program to get it to isolate the graphic element of a transparent gif from the white background that, uninvited, it will forcibly fix to anything imported in that formerly formally formatted format.
I’m not the only noob to have been foxed by this but am glad not to have been given a thick ear and left t’ (Uncool (Uncle)) fester for six years like this poor sod –>
Via my hap(pily)hazard(ous) <Press Everything> methodology, *a* solution I found, to strip away the unwanted b(l)a(n)(c)kground, was to employ the “Extract Key“, choosing “Luminance” and setting a “White Point” value of “254“. I presume this is a time-saver for those importing images that they haven’t already pains-takingly manually painted the backgrounds out from (although I don’t think “Normal People” perform that sort of <Squint ‘n’ Tint>. I don’t think “Normal People” are still in love with MS PhotoDraw 2002 V2. Perhaps they never were. I think “Normal People” probably have a [Button] in Photoshop…. to take all the nibs-on, feelingful fun out of hands-on, real-time removal.).
Over BLACK, where the first Key was WonKey (and clearly the WrongKey), I used “Luma Key” –> “Key Out Dissimilar” — (254).
The “”Keys” to the Kingdom” were not Alpha or Omega but Extract and Luma !
…..As shortly I shall tell
…. as shortly as I can.
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Shortly after midnight I posted my entry to the triangular snackfood’s competition website. Shortly after midday it had gone live (….and “west (Young Man)”) in their “Gallery” ; the (ink-coding) encoding (fooling (know buddy)) falling somewhat short(ly) of my (late) expectations. More fool me for eggs-pecked-tin a 9MB wmv to withstand the lofty rigour-vigours of a knocked urn awl conversion.
I have since uploaded BOTH the tidgey-tadgey 9MB streamliner and its 209MBer weighty-matey pudgey parent to Daily Motion so that I might (sigh ‘n’) <<side by side>> ’em ……by forcibly bottom to topping them ; ….and not myself.
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE/THE PEPSI CHALLENGE/’ERE RACE YA !
Hmmm…. not much in it (innit ?)
DA WORDS :
The Tortilla Flotilla’s a Larder Amarda
Where Corn Chips have borne ships
There’s no plain sailing
‘f it’s flavour you favour, a saucer of Salsa
Will “float your boat” better than balsa wood could
It’s Doritos
The Fleet knows
Can keep them on their toes
In our dream the Sour Cream jives with the Chives
Watch the Dorsal endorse all and force ev’ry morsel
To slip and skip into the Dip
