cowsills, extrovert, introvert, music, very important teacher

Indian Lake

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A clue to just how old I am – I remember The Cowsills doing that song in my formative years on {*gasp*} AM radio around the time of my first love crush. For some reason today just felt like that late summer/fall when the song was big in my teenage life.
I remember my sophomore speech class mime presentation using their version of the song Hair as the backdrop. That particular ordeal sticks in my mind even now close to forty years later. It was at the beginning of my metamorphosis from an absolutely shy introvert terrified of being in front of the class to the devil may care extrovert I am today. I had a “very important teacher” in my life for that class (Hi Ms. Dolan). The combo of Mr. Blandin from Jr. HS and Ms. Dolan from Sr. HS greatly impacted who and what I am today. Thank you to both of them. I hope that everyone has the good fortune to have had at least one “very important teacher” in their life. In honor of mine, I give you a couple of verses of Hair:
She asks me why

I’m just a hairy guy
I’m hairy noon and night

Hair that’s a fright

I’m hairy high and low
Don’t ask me why
Don’t know
It’s not for lack of bread
Like the Grateful Dead
Darling
Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair
Shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama
Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair
Let it fly in the breeze
And get caught in the trees
Give a home to the fleas in my hair
A home for fleas
A hive for bees
A nest for birds
There ain’t no words
For the beauty, the splendor, the wonder
Of my…

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair

Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair

Now all you have to do is picture a 6’5″ 300lbs.+ teenage football player with short hair miming to this while embarrassed to with in an inch of his life in front of a class of {*gasp*}, {*choke*} girls. Still with me? Hope you are as embarrassed as I was that day!
If you feel a sudden wave of nostalgic and need to listen to The Cowsills now, scurry on over to here and listen away. That’s what I’m doing even as I write. Strange how an acid rock aficionado like me has these lapses of good taste to listen to some bubble-gum rock. Oh well.
campy, newspaper

Town in the News

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As I have noted, I am the mayor of a small town in the rural plains of Colorado. This weekend there was a nice story in the New York Times about one of our denizens and a bit about the town. On page 19 of the New York Times Sunday edition was the story Sterling Journal. Note that I am not sure if the link will work if you don’t have an account with the Times. Some do and some don’t.
The story was nice because it concentrated on one of the long term residents of the area and his history. Campy has been a well known icon in the community since the days of my youth. He was originally a WWII prisoner of war who was captured and interned here. He eventually married and settled in the region after the war. Now at 87 he still works regularly doing what he loves best (repairing engines).
It’s nice to see the normally overlooked people get their moment of fame in the big time papers! There was a strong element of chance in the whole story happening, as you would expect. The reporter, Kirk Johnson, was on a journey this summer and had engine trouble near here. His problem was fixed and along the way he met Campy and some of the other people mentioned in the story. So when he got back from his journey, he pitched it as a story to his editors and then returned to the area for follow up last week. You can’t make up that sort of coincidence!
dog, fall, Molly, park

Glorious Fall

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Today was beautiful as Molly the dog and I took our walk. The sky was just starting to get that dark and stormy look that precedes winter weather and the trees were still green gold. Probably the very last time this year that this will be the case!
Not only that, but for much of our time walking we had the entire park all to ourselves.  Seems that there just weren’t many people out walking just after 5pm.
As you can see, the path in front of us had no one in sight. It was just us and the grass and the trees.
After a bit (I’m guessing about 5:45 or so) there started to be a few more people and dogs out and about. The next door neighbors and their daughter came and did a mile with their two little dogs. Several other people were walking around as well. Just a nice evening in the community.
The net result was an appropriately pleased Molly.
misc

Miscellany

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  • Got my dentist appointment scheduled.
  • Spend an hour talking to an irate senior citizen about forthcoming rate increases for the mandated project mentioned here. Not the first and certainly not the last.
  • The weather is turning cooler. Might even get snow and a hard freeze by Wednesday.
  • The Broncos play tonight. Go Broncos.
  • Mom’s birthday is today. Happy Birthday Mom!
censorship, microsoft, patent

Big Brother

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It had to happen. Given the Chinese demands on companies doing business in mainland China, someone was going to come up with automatic censorship.  And now it appears that the great unwashed god of computers is heading in with all guns blazing:

On Tuesday, the USPTO awarded Microsoft a patent for the Automatic Censorship of Audio Data for Broadcast, an invention that addresses ‘producing censored speech that has been altered so that undesired words or phrases are either unintelligible or inaudible.’ (From slashdot )

The patent discusses several options, from replacing the offensive words with less offensive ones to replacing the undesired word with a tone or blocking it completely. You always heard the rumors that that Microsoft was “Big Brother”, but now you have the automated “Big Brother” direct from the the computer.

It will be interesting to see what impact this development will have on talk radio, etc. Will it eliminate the delay loop in favor of a rather lengthy dictionary of offensive terms? Will the FCC have to get involved to allow its use?  Am I just insane?

Things Done Right