Watched New Englanders digging out of record snow again on TV. Since much of national news is East Coast based, it seems to be big news everywhere you look. And in fact it looks rough out there. Are you growing tired of dirty snow? Consider Redding. It’s raining today, but that’s just lovely. Fills up our many lakes and rivers. You can see the rain on the CalTrans Traffic Cameras in our area. Nice.
Here’s a view not far from my house. Anyway, if you want to relocate here from your eskimo igloo on the east coast, just click to my Real Estate Services website. I can help with that. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the rain immensely…
Listen and play new music free, courtesy of the Earth Mantra netlabel
You can listen to ambient and space music free at the Earth Mantra website. Here’s a link to the latest collaborative release of a few friends of ours, and longtime fellow travellers, Jim Combs, Jez Creek, and Kevin Haller. It’s interesting and evocative music. Good for late evening reading and such, where the music finds focus in some other region of the brain. There is much other free music to be found at Earth Mantra. All worth exploring.
The Earth Mantra label was started by our friend Darrell Burghan a few years back, mainly to offer an outlet for space-ambient works that would probably not find a home elsewhere. We remember Darrell as the artist Palancar, from the old MP3.com days. A thoroughly decent chap, whom we hold in high regard. We applaud his work to keep this small but interesting genre of music vigorous and growing. The music is free, and can be used non-commercially under the Creative Commons license, which on a website looks like this:
So you can listen to this music, and share it, but not, oh say, use it for background music for your cool online photo slideshow, which you then post on a commercial, revenue generating website. Well, maybe you could use it that way, but you really should ask the artist for permission first. It’s just common courtesy, even if they work cheap, or even free. If you are interested in licensing the work of local starving ambient artists, or any of these unpaid Earth Mantra artists I’ve mentioned here for your local new media project, I can help put you in touch with them. It’s Really Redding.
PS Don’t miss listening to Silvercord – Symphony of Sighs. Perfect for writing.
A new window on the Earth and more.
Actually 7 new windows, courtesy of STS-130, the 130th Shuttle mission ending (hopefully) today. If you’ve been keeping track over the last 13 days, you know our brave astronauts have finished installing an observation module on the International Space Station with 7 new windows, called the Cuppola. The view should be amazing and useful. Why even have a Space Station if you can’t look out the window?
Of all the things we do as US citizens, this is one of the coolest. We fly people into space, and look at stuff. The Space Shuttle program is winding down. This is one of the few remaining flights. It’s been an epic period in human history, of which we as citizens can all be proud.
We wish the citizen astronauts of STS-130 well on their safe return to the planet. In terms of media attention, we sometimes focus on the idiotic and trivial, while wonderous and heroic things happening all around us seemingly go unnoticed. Not unnoticed here. It’s Really Redding.
February Voter published
Erin worked hard on getting out the February issue of The Voter, the newsletter of the League of Women Voters. Events around Women’s History Month are coming up so there is lots associated with that celebration. Be sure and join their LWV group on Facebook, and help us grow the number of local people who appreciate non-partisan voter education.
SOBs at the Ale House
The Shasta Society of Brewers had a social gathering to hoist a few pints at the Ale House in Redding last night.
Despite the photo, the place was pretty packed. So was Bleachers next door, and Bert and Ernie’s, down a half block. The parking lots were full. Redding has developed quite a bar scene there, and this was a Wednesday night, no less.
It’s Really Redding
Golden fish
I repair my camera flash
I was heartbroken when my flash unit failed a few weeks ago. Especially because the repair center wanted nearly as much money to fix it as it originally cost. Repair or replace? It’s a tough call. It’s the same with iphones isn’t it. or any electronic for that matter! I count myself lucky constantly for having a great mobile iphone repair shop not too far away. Shame it couldn’t be the same for my camera flash.
I spent 10 years or so of my career as an electronics tech, so I decided to try to fix it myself. The trouble is that everything electronic is so tiny now that it probably does make more sense to dispose of it than to attempt a repair.
Getting it apart was like a Chinese puzzle. Which makes sense, since most of this gadgetry is made in China. All this stuff is designed on computers, and mostly built by robots. They manage to design it with very few screws or fasteners, which makes the assembly very integrated. Everything has to go in precise order. It’s very meticulous.
So, an inductor has failed. You can’t really replace the semiconductor, unless you were a nano-robot soldering machine. I ordered whole new logic board for $64, and crossed my fingers. And eyes.
Then the trick is getting it back together in the right order. No small feat.
Success! That was a good feeling. I was really hoping not to just throw it away and buy another. Waste not, want not.
I guess it’s because I’m 55 years old and have accumulated a few skills over the years; that plus I’m stubborn and frugal. My gamble paid off for this item, but I’m probably a relic from bygone days of Heathkit television “sets” and computer kits. I can’t imagine younger people looking at a broken cell phone, or failed flat panel TV, and saying to themselves. “hey, maybe I can fix that myself.” Which is kind of a shame, since it likely means more disposal of e-waste. End of an era really. DIY, it’s Really Redding.
Our music is nominated for an award!
Our CD Beyond the Portal was nominated for Best Ambient Album of 2009 by ZoneMusicReporter.com, a music industry website.
It would be nice to win, but it’s very gratifying just to be nominated. And I’m a big fan of Deborah Martin and Erik Wollo’s wonderful work, Between Worlds, as profiled at this blog earlier, so it would be great if they won. It’s very moving music. Congratulations to all the nominees!
