Live CD For The Birds

Running a laptop off the Linux live CD without a functional hard drive in the machine is for the birds.

Not quite back to normal yet...

I have had no luck in installing any of the extra software that I had added to my other systems.

This includes simple "codec's" like the one required to play mp3 music files.

Since mp3 is a licensed format, the music player that comes with Ubuntu (Rhythmbox) needs to be linked to a third-party mp3 converter, which is something that I easily added when I was running a "full installation" of Linux.

A box basically popped up, then, saying that because of copy write issues, the mp3 converter doesn't ship with the system, but you can "download it here," and after a couple of clicks I was listening to mp3's.

And, my thumb or something hit the button to eject the live CD as I was moving the laptop around, and, guess what?

I had to reboot the live CD, wasting 15 minutes and losing the bookmarks and remembered passwords and anything that I hadn't transferred to the USB flash drive during the 2 days that I had it running. For the birds...

So, on this chilly Thursday morning, I am off to check the responses to the questions that I asked on the Ubuntu "forum," about the problem I am having.
I got a couple responses, within a day, to the first question I asked, about the possibility of running Linux off of the live CD long-term, at least until I get another hard drive or find a way to fix the one that I deleted the kernel off of.

The Ubuntu system at is running off the CD is telling me that that particular drive is "encrypted."

But, it is also telling me that Windows is "hibernating" on the other drive, and that it is a 1.4 T (terrabyte) capacity drive.

I'm trying to be patient, but have half a mind to wipe the drive clean and install Ubuntu 16, or whatever the latest release is. But, haste is what got me into this situation.

My latest mantra is "everything is repeatable" and there is really only a story (the 14,400 word one that I wrote the first time I tried kratom) that I can think of on that disc as anything I am really reluctant to lose.

All the music, I keep improving upon as I redo it, and so older versions become cringing-ly embarrassing to listen to in most cases once they are a year old. "That was before I learned how to set the monitored level of the drums to where it became a lot easier to stay in time," type of thing...

Written Last (Wednesday) Night

It is Wednesday night and I am not going out to busk. I used to play almost every night. I just have a feeling of sadness about it.

I can feel a: "How come you never play anymore?" text coming from Lilly soon.

I used to have to pay for a moderate alcohol addiction, along with cigarettes, and a 5 dollar sack of weed every day and a half….

But, still, minus the onus of having to come up with that almost 20 bucks every living day, I'm in a position to get ahead by that amount, yet have backed off on the hours that I have been playing.

If this is the effect of what I'm learning by reading "The Power of Now," then so be it. I may be subconsciously not wanting to busk; or to do it in a different way...

I went through a couple days of juice fasting, having decided to juice up the carrots and lettuce and apples that were laying around before they became mushy.

Having only eaten lightly the day before, I woke up and took the juicer down from atop the kitchen cabinet. It was in 4 pieces.

It crossed my mind: “Do I really want to take all this down, snap it together, plug it in, and then, after wiping the counter clean with cleanser with bleach, rinse all the vegetables in warm water and apple cider vinegar; then cut them into pieces small enough to go into the juicer's slot?”

If I was to go by the book, I would scrape the “skin” off of all the carrots, this being where residual pesticides from the soil may have lodged.

Peeling the skin off of cucumbers, without wasting a lot of cucumber, is a chore

I don't have one of those paring tools that are made for scraping carrots, that might be effective on cucumbers.

“Wow, how many people have fallen out of the habit of having fresh juice, just because of all that work?” I thought.

I wondered if it was from having whatever work ethic instilled in me when I was growing up in the 1970's that I was going to spend 20 minutes preparing a breakfast of a 20 ounce glass of freshly juiced fruits and vegetables; while this millenial generation of teens that I see would reach for the oven knob with one hand and the Pillsbury dough boy with the other, and would go out to face the world fortified by enriched and bleached wheat, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, corn syrup solids, and then maybe a bit of cinnamon, honey, walnut, or some flavor that makes it worth tweeting a “so good” emoji somewhere.

I cut the apples up in wedges small enough to go down into the juicer, but didn't peel them. I didn't scrape the carrots, either. Haste has been the word of the week, I guess, with me having screwed up the drive on my computer in my haste to try to put Linux on it, alongside Windows as a prime example.

I soon had a 20 ounce cup full of the juices of carrots, apples, cucumber and lettuce, (in order of volume) which I garnished with “2% or less of” of salt.

I tried to be in the present moment and not want anything else.

Juice for breakfast like that doesn't satisfy at the Pillsbury dough boy level, but it doesn't seem to sap any energy.

Still, I felt very little reason, in the present moment, to go out for anything; not even to make money.

It's been tough, renouncing material pursuits, and keeping food on the table.

Perhaps when the new harmonica in the key of D comes (today, Thursday?) I'll be ready to make some money; else look for a job.

It has occurred to me that, when I go to sites that I use, like MusiciansFriend, there is very often a link somewhere on their site labeled “Job Opportunities,” or something.

Then, it dawned upon me that the guy I talked to on the phone when I was having trouble ordering online, and who was sitting in Utah, might be doing a job that I could also do, sitting here in New Orleans.

There is a “talk to one of our gear-heads” link, which brings up a chat box with a live human being.

So, I might try to pursue some kind of job like that.

And, how nice it would be to be able to work that job from anywhere there is wireless.

I could pursue my dream of hiking way up into the Yukon, living on salmon and panning for gold, as long as I can get a satellite signal.

Then, hell. I wouldn't have to start making ridiculous money before I could move out of Sacred Heart Apartments and rent a place, something like Howard Westra is doing...just a thought...

Bobby was nice enough to bless me with a little bit of weed, as I was on my way out of his apartment after having checked out his new guitar amplifier.

This one is a Blackstar; the one he traded in was a Carvin; and before the Carvin, he had had an Acoustic brand amplifier, which he said he hadn't liked at all. All these in the course of a year.

To me, it is very hard to tell most amplifiers apart at the volumes that apartment dwellers are limited to.

It's like having a really cool looking Harley Davidson that you just sit on in the garage, and start up and maybe putt around the driveway a bit. Maybe because it isn't registered or insured.

But hey, maybe Bobby actually has a better ear for timbre than most people.

I would say that timbre has always been a challenge to myself and probably the weakest link in the chain of pitch, rhythm, tempo, dynamics, ...timbre...etc.

I can remember having a hard time telling which of the Beatles was singing what, when they were harmonizing.

McCartney is more like a flute, Lennon more like a cello, but often George Harrison's wobbly sitar voice is mixed in.

I'm just getting to where I can identify the precise horns in, say, a Glen Miller arrangement...

It's Thursday morning. I have less than a dollar to my name.

It will be 3 days without a shot of kratom, and I am still monitoring myself upon the non effects of kratom.

I haven't been waking up depressed lately, but that stopped after I started reading The Power Of Now book, and was still doing double shots of kratom.

This morning's slightly downward spiral was due to my having gone hogwild after smoking the bud that Bobby gave me and then making a huge oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips, which I spread all-fruit spread over, as well as honey, before devouring, and then having seconds.

It was a lot of sugar and a lesson in how hard it is to stay in the meditative state that Eckhart Tolle talks about, when stoned.

I'm starting to think I should quit everything except kratom. And then get a job, being able to leap-frog over all the stoners, who need not apply….