Strings And Things

I woke up for the final time at 4:28 PM, with 4 and a half hours of sleep in me.
I had eaten a pasta and chicken dish that Rose had called me about the night before.

It was about 9:30 PM then, and I was debating upon whether to go out and busk or not. She said that she was still cooking but would bring me down a plate if I answered the phone in another hour.
I ate the chicken and pasta with parmesan, and it was good enough to make me boil up my own bag of whole wheat pasta and eat it, along with a jar of Ragu spaghetti sauce that had been on sale for $1 a jar (all varieties; I got mushroom flavored).
I, of course, am pushing my luck, as far as food allergies and intolerance of certain things, and the face that stared back at me from my mirror (above) shows the tell-tale lines around the eyes that go away whenever I juice fast for a few days...but Rose's pasta was good.

An Assurance Comes By Mail

Yesterday, I mentioned that "I need to get a smart phone," and in my mailbox this afternoon, along with the set of guitar strings that I had ordered was a letter from the Assurance phone people.

I had sent them an application about 6 months ago after being strongly encouraged by Travis Blain, "Dude, I strongly encourage you to send them an application; they'll send you a free Android phone; and then you'll have a smart phone!' It was as if he is such a cheapskate that he enjoys watching others get things for free, vicariously.

Assurance sent back a "sorry" letter, then, saying that their records indicated that I already had the Safelink phone that I have had for like 5 years, which doesn't even have a camera.

Today's letter bore the "great news" that, due to changes in laws, they can now send me a free Android phone with 350 of the same minutes, I can keep the same number of 504-333-4123 and things are going to start looking brighter on this blog as soon as I get into the habit of photographing things of interest and turning this into a more visually oriented site.

The 16 gigabyte USB flash drive is not ready yet to be picked up at Wal-Mart, but it is paid for, as evidenced by the $4.39 having been drawn off of my green American Express card.

I was afraid that the drive would not be available at every location. I know I have never seen such a thing on the shelves of the store, so drastically reduced in price. They will probably take one that bears a price tag of maybe $9.99 and give it to me at the online-discount rate. If they ever get off their asses.

I'm hoping that the fact that they took the money off my card means that they have it in stock and just have to get it ready for me to cycle over there to pick it up.

It is a hell-ride on a bike to get to that store, it is protected on all sides for blocks around by giant potholes in the roads and sidewalks that the cyclist needs to leave in certain spots and ride alongside heavy traffic.

It is Tuesday night, March 20th. The temperature is probably about 62 degrees now -OK for sitting outside the Uxi Duxi and blogging, now that the wind has died down -the wind that blew my hat off my head on the way here.

I realize that I have so far only blogged about what I've eaten, how much money I've spent, and I guess the only way I could make this post more boring is to start talking about my cat.

Whenever I get the USB drive and load a Ubuntu Linux system on this laptop and have the thing back to "normal," I am thinking of doing a video of my cat song.
The cat song is in the sidebar as one of the videos that I shot using Howard Westra's tablet type thing that he had gotten for Christmas last year, that he wanted me to put through its paces, figure out what it was good for, and then give him a tutorial on it.
It turned out to be good for shooting videos of me singing the cat song.

With Dom slated to take a whole 2 months off to travel Europe, it is likely that the Uxi Duxi will hire another employee. I'm focusing upon staying clean and fresh smelling whenever I go there, never wearing the same clothes 2 days in a row, etc.
I still might not be gay enough to qualify, though...

I guess the procedure would be to record the whole song with at least a guitar and vocal, set to a click track.

Then I could sing (lip sync) along with that recording while shooting video from different locations.  I would just have to make sure my lips were moving along with the music when I'm being shown. In between, I can insert clips, such as Harold the cat raking non existent dirt on the floor in the direction of the litter box, perhaps timing them to the lyric: "What's the point in having a cat, anyway?" while he pointlessly polishes the floor around the box...

I don't feel like going out to busk. I do have new strings and a new harmonica in the key of D, though, and am down to less than 10 bucks cash...

And, I am on my second shot of kratom, which usually turns me into a work-aholic. The half hour bike ride to get there is the biggest deterrent.

I could stay home and install Linux onto one of the computers in the computer room, making it operable for the first time in months.

There are residents who would really appreciate that, it would be a labor of love on my part. There used to be 6 computers in there, but now there are only 3.

I think about taking one to my room to use.

It would give me the additional storage of however big the hard drive in the thing is. It would be really easy to sneak one out of there and back to my room; they are the kind that are not much larger than a flat screen, with all the hardware built into it, no "tower" to deal with.

I'm sure the 3 that are missing have been similarly appropriated by residents, or maybe even some of the staff.

It would give me something to play with. It would make typing a bit easier on its full sized keyboard. I will soon have 16 gigabytes of storage to save anything onto before I return the thing, healthy and up and running.

If I got caught I could say that I was taking it to my room to work on, saying that it was easier to do there, where I have all my "test equipment".
Plus, what if I install a lot of Linux software, like games and maybe the Stellarium planetarium application, which is educational.

(note to self: invent own constellations by connecting stars in patterns other than dippers, crabs and hunters..."the retrograde moon is in Leroy The Crackhead now...Rose and Ed will be visible after sundown, just above the western horizon"...type of thing)

I think it would be a fair trade off, to get the remaining 2 in the computer room up and running, for the benefit of the residents, in exchange for borrowing the 3rd one, and returning it in working condition.

It's almost 9 PM, time to busk, or not to busk. Tomorrow morning I will have the opportunity to go to the food bank at the St. Jude Community Center. 16 days remain before my food card will be loaded. I don't know how people who can't busk manage, I really don't...

I might try to do some daytime busking, after taking an evening like tonight off..