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Our doorbell camera caught a meteor last night that tracked off the coast of New Jersey:

https://video.nest.com/clip/e01cab736c4 ... 761b2c.mp4

alietr wrote: ↑Wed Apr 17, 2019 2:12 pm Our doorbell camera caught a meteor last night that tracked off the coast of New Jersey:

https://video.nest.com/clip/e01cab736c4 ... 761b2c.mp4

That's awesome! Now I want one of those cameras - but for astronomy, not the doorbell.

Hooray! Desktop died...I knew it was coming yet kept putting it off...
Honestly, I'm considering getting an OEM box this time around...

If the writers do the NYT crossword puzzle then the 4/26 one has a cheese with only hit in the Archive that may be overdue for another:

Spoiler

#3075, aired 1998-01-02 WHAT'S TO EAT? $500: We salute you if you know port-salut is a type of this

I ran a quick analysis of the numbers from my user profile.

We are nearing (or perhaps just passed) 300,000 postings to the board. Rounding errors, you know.

I was more surprised to find that I still have posted about 1 in 150 posts to the board despite being much less active over the last 3 years.

Dang, almost on page three...

Got a new watch band for my Casio CA53W. Fancy NATO style in nylon, goes under the spring bars rather than have the bars go through the ends of the strap. I got sick of having the regular resin style break every two years so wanted to try something different.

This was Friday. The battery died this Monday morning (after ~10 years).

Had the battery died three days earlier, I would -not- have had to remove the newly installed strap on top of removing the back panel to replace it.
Really, kismet?

Volante wrote: ↑Mon May 20, 2019 6:09 pm Dang, almost on page three...

Got a new watch band for my Casio CA53W. Fancy NATO style in nylon, goes under the spring bars rather than have the bars go through the ends of the strap. I got sick of having the regular resin style break every two years so wanted to try something different.

This was Friday. The battery died this Monday morning (after ~10 years).

Had the battery died three days earlier, I would -not- have had to remove the newly installed strap on top of removing the back panel to replace it.
Really, kismet?

Reminds me of how there are folks out there who buy $500 GPS watches, then immediately install a NATO band which covers up the optical heart rate monitor.

Figuring the follow-up is better here than Current Events.

floridagator wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 10:55 pm [image]

With the recent passing of Doris Day, only four persons mentioned by name in the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" are still living. Do you know who?

I'm not good enough on song lyrics to know so had to Google it since I was curious. Great question and fun to ponder.

With the expectation that the three with acting/musical talent could die before the infamous man that will be quite the trivia nugget in 10-20 years.

MarkBarrett wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 11:06 pm Figuring the follow-up is better here than Current Events.

floridagator wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 10:55 pm [image]

With the recent passing of Doris Day, only four persons mentioned by name in the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" are still living. Do you know who?

I'm not good enough on song lyrics to know so had to Google it since I was curious. Great question and fun to ponder.

With the expectation that the three with acting/musical talent could die before the infamous man that will be quite the trivia nugget in 10-20 years.

The page I got when I googled (after posting the 2 I knew, of course) mentioned that all 16 people namechecked in Vogue by Madonna have passed. Also, I believe there are still four (Edit: nope. 5) people from the Sgt. Pepper album cover who are still alive.

MarkBarrett wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 11:06 pm Figuring the follow-up is better here than Current Events.

floridagator wrote: ↑Sun May 26, 2019 10:55 pm [image]

With the recent passing of Doris Day, only four persons mentioned by name in the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" are still living. Do you know who?

I'm not good enough on song lyrics to know so had to Google it since I was curious. Great question and fun to ponder.

With the expectation that the three with acting/musical talent could die before the infamous man that will be quite the trivia nugget in 10-20 years.

Dylan turned 78 Friday and Checker will be 78 in October. Goetz will be 72 in November. So it is not certain he will be the last survivor.

Bardot is 85 in September and the queen turned 93 last month.

Ladies and gentlemen: The New York Mets

Spoiler

Based loaded & one out with a fly ball hit to right field. Bellinger the fielder for the Dodgers caught the ball and the runners for NY at 2nd and 3rd tagged up. Bellinger launched a long throw to third and the runner was tagged out before making it to third. The runner from third somehow managed not to make it home before the third out so the run did not count.

Still 8-5 Dodgers going to the bottom of the 8th. The hope for the Mets is the closer Jansen for the Dodgers had to come in early to get those two outs and will need three more in top of the 9th.

Spoiler to the spoiler:

Spoiler

The Dodgers scored another run in the bottom of the 8th, and although Pete Alonso managed a triple in the top of the 9th, there were also three strikeouts by Kenley Jansen. Jansen gets the 5-out save; the Dodgers get the Dolly Parton win, 9-5.

I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep so that I wouldn't have to worry about preempted J! air times for recording while I'm away. Now my ideal situation is 2-2 after Game 4, so that it's guaranteed to get to at least Game 6 and I don't have to make any unnecessary recordings in anticipation of a preemption that might not happen.

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep so that I wouldn't have to worry about preempted J! air times for recording while I'm away. Now my ideal situation is 2-2 after Game 4, so that it's guaranteed to get to at least Game 6 and I don't have to make any unnecessary recordings in anticipation of a preemption that might not happen.

what mainstream destination will you be hitting up?

CasketRomance wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 1:28 am

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep so that I wouldn't have to worry about preempted J! air times for recording while I'm away. Now my ideal situation is 2-2 after Game 4, so that it's guaranteed to get to at least Game 6 and I don't have to make any unnecessary recordings in anticipation of a preemption that might not happen.

what mainstream destination will you be hitting up?

It's a choir trip, meticulously organized, so I'll be herded around, which I don't mind. It saves me most of the worry of being responsible for myself. Anyway, we're mainly in London and Paris, and we'll be doing typical London sightseeing, and also going off to see Stonehenge. In Paris we'll be at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre among other less "mainstream" places. We're also performing in several churches in both countries, capping off the trip with the Requiem of Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), and I believe an organist who studied under the composer and/or his wife will be accompanying us (along with an orchestra).

seaborgium wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 2:23 am

CasketRomance wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 1:28 am

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep so that I wouldn't have to worry about preempted J! air times for recording while I'm away. Now my ideal situation is 2-2 after Game 4, so that it's guaranteed to get to at least Game 6 and I don't have to make any unnecessary recordings in anticipation of a preemption that might not happen.

what mainstream destination will you be hitting up?

It's a choir trip, meticulously organized, so I'll be herded around, which I don't mind. It saves me most of the worry of being responsible for myself. Anyway, we're mainly in London and Paris, and we'll be doing typical London sightseeing, and also going off to see Stonehenge. In Paris we'll be at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre among other less "mainstream" places. We're also performing in several churches in both countries, capping off the trip with the Requiem of Maurice Duruflé (1902-1986), and I believe an organist who studied under the composer and/or his wife will be accompanying us (along with an orchestra).

been to paris 1 time...never saw the eiffel tower...though i wish had checked out the aviator's club before it closed down...check out what used to be the dingo bar...i believe it is a spaghetti restaurant these days....was in uk 1 time...was there for 12 hrs on a layover to hong kong....only hung out in the village crawley which is near gatwick airport....nice quaint village with lots of good pubs to get your drink on after an 8 hr flight and another 12 hrs of flight time to come...not much of a touristy type person....only saw the colosseum from the shuttle bus to the hotel when i was in rome...didn't even eat italian food...i did not adhere to the overused cliche of "when in rome...."

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep....

I was hoping for that as well, but not counting on it. I heard somewhere that the Warriors are pretty good.

John Boy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 12:13 pm

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep....

I was hoping for that as well, but not counting on it. I heard somewhere that the Warriors are pretty good.

Drake is cursed, so I’d just let fate run its course.

John Boy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2019 12:13 pm

seaborgium wrote: ↑Sun Jun 02, 2019 10:56 pm I'm going to be out of the country from the 10th to the 20th. I was hoping for a Raptors sweep....

I was hoping for that as well, but not counting on it. I heard somewhere that the Warriors are pretty good.

I was hoping for anyone to sweep, and then Game 1 limited the possibilities.

I know we have a few church people here. Any of you ever walked out on a sermon? I have. And that's bad when you're the organist.

This is a bit long and complicated, so strap in.

One of the churches I play for is an American Baptist church in town. I've been there since 2010. At the time, they had a pastor named Rob who was honestly one of the nicest men I've ever met in my life. Friendly, funny, loving, able to deliver a meaningful sermon, and overall probably the best pastor I've ever witnessed in all my years of organ playing. However, he had a couple of health issues, including neuropathy and low blood pressure, and announced that he would be retiring in June 2019. However, some internal church drama that I was not privy to ended up turning that into "now". So throughout the fall and winter, we rotated among a few different supply pastors. By Christmas, we'd narrowed it down to two: a Romanian immigrant named Clau, and another guy named Mike who had just moved from downstate. Mike was decent, but he seemed a bit fawning at times and had a voice like Kermit the Frog. I really liked Clau, though: interesting backstory, witty, well-educated, friendly, and contemporary. Mike even got baptized and officially joined the church. For a while, we were going back and forth between the two, and I thought all was well.

However, around March, the "pulpit committee" announced that they felt that they had been turning the new-pastor search into too much of a competition by pitting the "final two" against each other. They also said that they would reassess the qualities they were looking for in a replacement pastor. The monthly church newsletter had a letter from Mike, who said that he was declined because his educational background was not in the ministry, but that he would stick with his decision to attend. I don't know if this means that Clau is out of the running too or not. However, right after this, I noticed that a few members had left, including one of the two music leaders and his wife, who would lead the prayers. The remaining music leader said that she didn't want to go into any details as to why they had left, but that arrangements were being made to try and get them back. Their granddaughter works with me at McDonald's, and she told me that apparently, he left because he had shown support for Mike in a church meeting and the other people in the meeting weren't taking him seriously.

After a couple more guests, the pulpit committee decided that Ron, who had been a guest pastor a few times before, would be the interim pastor until the next permanent pastor was found. And truth be told... I don't like Ron. At least not as a pastor, temporary or otherwise. He's a decent person, but his sermons are incredibly bad. He is constantly repeating himself; going off on odd irrelevant tangents that have no bearing on the sermon; misreading his notes; reciting old marriage jokes that even Reader's Digest would've called hackneyed in the 1960s; et cetera. He just spent the last 3 weeks preaching on the book of Ruth, and thanks to his slipshod preaching style, I STILL don't know what the book of Ruth is about. However, I do know that he has apparently never heard of the book of Esther, he really wants a fishing boat, he once almost made an exchange student lick dog poop off her hand, and he once had a senior moment that almost led to him pouring milk in the washing machine instead of fabric softener.

But worst of all is when he gets political. I don't think that politics should stay entirely out of the pulpit entirely, mainly because in the modern zeitgeist, it's pretty hard not to get political now and then. But back in March, he was preaching on the story of Moses, and he brought up an abortion bill in Virginia that would apparently change the terms of late-term abortion. He claimed that this meant that they were trying to legalize infanticide, and compared it to how the Pharaoh had ordered all of the newborn Hebrew boys to be killed. I actually walked out -- first time I've ever done that -- and spent the rest of the sermon downstairs. I found this to be in very poor taste, to insinuate that abortion in any form is infanticide, or to think that "late term abortion" = "kill the baby for literally any reason at any time". Or hell, to bring up a bill that was a.) in an entirely different state and therefore irrelevant in Michigan, and b.) not passed anyway. He's mentioned abortion a few more times since then, and usually in a tone similar to this shockingly tasteless and very likely factually inaccurate radio ad I heard last fall on a road trip. Since then, he's brought up his abortion views no fewer than three times (once during congregational prayer instead of during the sermon), and while none of the other times was bad enough to make me walk out again, it was still off-putting.

I'm not bothered by the fact that he's pro-life and I'm pro-choice. I'm not bothered that the American Baptist Church, from what I can tell, also upholds pro-life beliefs. I am bothered by how misinformed he appears to be, and how often he keeps bringing up his misinformed viewpoints. My mom did her own research and came to the conclusion that she, too, is pro-choice. On Saturday, during music rehearsal, she brought it up to the music leader, who suggested that she put it in writing to both the church elders and Pastor Ron himself. If he gets the message, then I hope he doesn't end up finding another political drum to beat instead. I would hate to leave a congregation that genuinely enjoys my music, just because of the pastor.