cellio | random bits

The good news is that our DVD player now works. The bad news is that the repair guy says he didn't do anything to it. All I did was to disconnect it, drive it to the repair place, wait several days, and pick it up. (Prior to that, of course, I had disconnected the cable, tested it, cleaned it, reconnected it, and still gotten no sound.) I had forgotten that repair folks have an uncanny knack of looking at a device and causing it to work. I wonder how long the effect lasts.

He also pointed out a test to eliminate the TV: run the signal through a VCR. Yeah, it degrades the signal and that's not a permanent solution, but it's good enough for a test. Running a DVD signal to a VCR never occurred to me -- but then, bootlegging DVDs onto tape never occurred to me, either.

At Shabbat services we had both rabbis, for the first time in at least a month. We also had a large turnout, including some prospective new members. I guess that's one way to tell that summer is ending. :-)

This week, my rabbi said, pretty much all of the congregations in town (not just Jewish, everyone) started organizing efforts to relocate storm refugees to Pittsburgh. (Those that want to come here, that is. No one's insisting, but we do have space.) Apparently we've got hundreds of spots already and buses ready to go, just as soon as FEMA will let us talk to the refugees and drive those buses in to get the ones who want to come.

This map shows some of the bigger disaster risks in the US (funny). I forget who provided the link.

There have been lots of posts on some SCA lists trying to organize replacement SCA stuff for the folks hit by the hurricane -- new garb, scrolls, etc. Their hearts are in the right places, but most of this seems months premature to me. Let those people get housing before you start saddling them with stuff!

Why do so many people on mailing lists believe that a major event trumps the topic of the list? These people seem to think that somehow you won't find out about national news if you don't read it on the SCA kingdom list -- as if that was each subscriber's only source of information. Sheesh. The people on the lists I frequent are being better about this than they were for 9/11, but still... I've been deleting a lot of stuff from the moderation queue for one list.

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There's some funny scenes in one of the Bagthorpe books (a kids series) when all the labels have been taken off cans (in a quest for entering competitions), and no one knows what anything is.

I suspect it's a lot funnier in fiction, though.

"Ok kids, tonight's dinner will be... (apply can opener)... chili! That's much better than last night's pumpkin, now isn't it?"

Yeah, that's got to be a lot funnier when it's not happening to you.

(Laughing!) For some reason, that reminds me of Miles Vorkosigan's mother and father, surviving on Oatmeal and Blue Cheese Dressing ;-)

The good news is that most of them were veggies or fruit.

Actually, they had a point system set up, for getting closer or less close to what was actually wanted.

Of course, compared to other things the Bagthorpes lived through, this was peanuts. (They're really funny books, but I'd be appalled to deal with a little kid who likes fires, floods, and writing on walls; many strong personalities; and a complete lack of concern for others.)

I'll ask my son if he's read them; if not, I'll drop by the library and see what they're like. Thanks!

random bits

unlabeled cans

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