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Happenings in the music room. Everything is in slings because a new electrical circuit is being ran through to the next room. In the chaos though, I figured out a better arrangement for the music room for once everything is finished and back in place again.

Managed to fk my left shoulder yesterday shoveling. To anyone who lives south and want to see snow, its a total nuisance. Its nice to look at but a headache to deal with. Within the last week, 5 separate snowplows have went off the road here in my small area alone because the snow we got was too much to deal with. Apparently, the word is that the whole government department right down to the plow drivers are holding meetings to figure out what happened because the plow going off the road in these parts is unheard of here, let alone 5. The snow was very wet, heavy, dense, and wind packed. Sticking the shovel in it was like trying to shovel through sugar that got damp and stuck together.

I propose to remove the metaphysical doom and vulgar taste of Nazism from the concept of “national mentality” - and decipher it precisely as a norm: a norm that is constantly reproduced. For most of its political history, Russia was either a Horde vassal, or, in fact, a Horde (which successfully adopted management experience from its Tatar-Mongol comrades). Peter the Great brought from Europe many valuable ideas on fortification and ballistics, but he was not interested in parliament.
State pressure on a person and dominance over his rights, a kind of mystical “great” Russia that exists separately from a person and his dignity - all this, alas, is a norm that has been constantly reproduced over the centuries. That is why Putin succeeded so easily in his dirty deeds after several years of Gorbachev’s freedom and the transition to dictatorship of the “Yeltsin period” (and the transition began at least with the first Chechen war).
“Dominant”, but by no means the only gene of Russian history, in which there were the Decembrists, and the Zemstvo reform, and the Thaw of Khrushchev, and Academician Sakharov. A story that today includes Vladimir Kara-Murza.
The European path for Russian civilization certainly exists as a possibility: Children born in Russia today are not imperialists or liberals, they are just children. They are an equal opportunity for any path for the country. If they little by little begin to set Academician Sakharov as the desired political norm, they will turn out to be one Russia; if they start laying them out from the maternity hospital with the letter Z, they will turn out to be another.
Yes, after Putin’s military adventure, which triggered the bloody pre-collapse of the empire, Russian civilization most likely has very little chance of surviving within its current borders. Now I am talking about the preservation of this civilization. About whether it will survive its imperial period, as dozens of other civilizations survived it - or whether the cadaveric poison of the two-headed bird will bring it to its final grave.
Tens of millions of Russians, in Russia and abroad, are certainly ready for the country to return to the European path of development and perceive this as a desirable development of events.
And there is still be a chance. I hope so....

Just got through watching Quantum Leap. It's a sequel from the original Series from 1989 to 1993. Scott Bakula isn't in this one, and neither is Dean Stockwell. However, it does have the actress that played Al's (Stockwell) wife in the final Quantum Leap show in 1993.

It's actually pretty good. I would hope that Scott Bakula (Sam) would change his mind about appearing in this new one sometime down the road.

If you were a fan and haven't checked it out yet, please do so. Next Monday night looks to be a very interesting one.

Inner Mind Development Institute founder Jaime T. Licauco my former teacher in Basic Esp & Development. Talks about ghosts in photos.

I don’t think the press conference was a PR win for China. I think the outcome of the mission is a win for the international scientific community.

Peter Ben Embarek, World Health Organization.

Love heals, love free you from hate.
Hate is which make you sick and suffer all things.
You need love God with all heart.., and love your neighbours as yourself (neighbours are all people).
Keep love in your heart. God is Love and is Good.

God bless.

Google released a phone app back in 2010 called Gesture Search. The program reads your contact list and allows you to finger write names to quickly call up people in your list.
To me, it was the most effective dialing app to date. While most hunt for a name, I would swipe the letters of a name and the list would populate.
Need to find someone named Fred? As you begin to swipe F R E any matches would appear. Tap the selection and it would make the call.
I was able to clone that application from phone to phone long after Google stopped supporting it, which was odd that something so useful could be dropped with nothing in the app store to replace it.

A few years ago, I purchased a factory refurbished Samsung phone said to have a new battery. Model Note 10+ it was under heavy use and the battery would get 2 days between charges. Eventually, the performance decreased and it wouldn't get me past noon needing a recharge.
The memory was full (with over 6,000 photos and movies) so I installed a 512mb SD memory and removed lots of photos I didn't need. My phone is used in business and it's amazing when a client describes some design, I can pull up a photo of something previously done. Wall units... got 'em. Aquariums... got 'em.

I was doing random backups in the event the phone was lost or stolen. Seeing how Samsung is now up to S24 in their series, I figured it was time for an upgrade. They weren't offering much for a trade on my old phone, but I didn't think waiting would be more incentive to upgrade.

All photos and movies combined is more than 300 gigabyte so I ordered one with 1 terabyte of memory, enough for many years.

All the Samsung phones come with Smart Switch application to backup, save and clone phones. It can be done wireless over Wi-Fi or with a direct phone-to-phone cable. The cable being a quicker means of transfer.

I spoke to tech support for the best way to switch the SIM card and enter the IMEI identification. He agreed to call Saturday at 7am giving me time Friday night to do the backup. Watching a few YouTube videos detailing the steps, most transfers were between 1 and 2 hours. I started along and within a few minutes it estimated the backup to be more than 4 hours!
I left the phones doing the transfer and went to bed, getting up at 6am to confirm the transfer was successful and all the apps would start to update. The tech called and we changed the SIM. There were some issues with passwords that had to be entered manually, but I got around it. All the visuals transferred so look like my old phone and folders with the same name that were in the phone memory and SD card were merged. Not a bid deal, I need to do some housekeeping in photo storage.

My favorite app was greyed out as it didn't make the transfer. I did some research and it's not able to run on the latest version of Android. I searched the name and found another app said to be similar, but it's function wasn't to my liking.
I'll keep on searching for a suitable replacement.

I'm still going through the phone turning on (and off) settings to suit my needs. Email notification is only a beep. I'm looking for the visual, so I can see without having to 'light up' the screen constantly.

I shot a few movies and more than 50 photos today. I'll download them to see how good the high resolution camera is. I sent one photo to a friend and it was so high-res it sent it as a link. I'm sure there is a way to reduce the size for text messages.

As they (whoever they is) say, when all else fails... read the owner's manual.

Being almost 40, with no partner for my entire adult life, I feel it's time to once again throw caution to the wind and go on a blind date, to see who I can meet.

I am not very demanding of my future blind date: Be a decent person and be employed full time. I don't want to end up with a raging racist/homophobic person who is broke. Someone who loves to laugh, would also be nice. It doesn't have to be in a restaurant or in a cafe. A walk and talk is much better. Just for an hour, to see if there's chemistry. I am always suggesting meeting in a public place, with lots of people. If there's a second date, it could be in a restaurant or in cafe. Third date could be in the cinema, and the fourth date could be in a theme park.

The time to visit each other in their private homes is only when we both feel like it's the right time to do that. No point in pressuring to meet privately for the first time. You'd want to see if the person you're on a blind date with is sane and not a creepy serial killer like person.

The thing I have heard most from women, going on blind dates - or any date - is that the guy they're meeting won't take no for an answer or are way too creepy. I saw a tiktok about a woman from England who met a guy on a dating app. They agreed to meet, but the guy kept trying to arrange to meet where the woman lived. Naturally, it was a hard no from her side, but the guy didn't catch on.

As you could imagine, meeting up in a public place wasn't his ideal location, because he packed an overnight bag because apparently, he thought he's get lucky with her.

Men like that are the reason why the men, who aren't creeps, get a harder and harder time finding a date. Once, I met someone online, and after a few weeks it was time to meet in person. She said to me "Now you're probably demanding to meet at my place, right?", to which I said "No. I prefer to meet at a public place with lots of people, and if you decide not to pursue this further, that's fine". It only resulted in that first date, which I respected.

I am blabbing on. The point is, that I want to meet someone new. Hopefully that will happen soon.

In other topics: A new movie to my collection. This time, it's a fairly new horror movie, called The Last Voyage of the Demeter. It's a supernatural horror movie based on a chapter in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula, from 1897. The film is, naturally, about Dracula and the terror and horror he inflicted on the Demeter.

It's a fun and very gory time. It's not very creepy, but the creature design can be a bit frightening to younger viewers.

It's also a bit sad at times, and downright depressing at other times, but most of all: It's very good! If you are a fan of supernatural horror movies with lots of blood, give The Last Voyage of the Demeter a view!

I have an issue with aggressive drivers using a merge lane. Yesterday, must have been aggressive driver Tuesday. In the morning on the way to an appointment, driving in a construction zone I was approaching a merge lane where two lanes merge into one.
There were lots of warning signs, traffic cones and plastic guard rails in a 30mph zone. Having passed this road several times before, I was already in the main lane and not the merge lane. Traffic was slow, but 2 drivers in Tesla's had to force their way into the merge pushing out other cars that 'gave-way' or be involved in an accident.
Usually, it's someone in a BMW doing a stunt like that.
I worked for a guy who had a truck with oversized bumpers and jacked-up tires. He always pushed into a traffic situation that forced the other drivers to stop, letting him in, especially when he tooted a horn as loud a train.
Last night was a close call. I'm on the interstate highway in the left lane that opens to the express lane. It's after 9pm and traffic is moving smoothy. There is a merge lane for people exiting the express lane that feeds back into my lane. Unexpectedly, someone shot out of the express lane and attempting to eclipse me. It happened quickly as I didn't see him accelerating. The warning light came on my mirror but there wasn't enough room for 2 cars. I shifted to the right as a white BMW passed me within inches of side swiping my car!
I like my car and though I'm shopping for a new one, I'd like the purchase to be by choice and not because my car was trashed by an aggressive driver in the merge lane.