Streams of Consciousness & Thoughts~~~

[Lynx]

which kind do you drink Lynx? JW

That's what I'm wondering... Purity was good, as was Valu Checkd (which sounds like a store brand, and it was, but it was surprisingly good for a store brand.) But in the last few months every supermarket around here has gone to Prarie Farms brand, which is NASTY! Everything they make is nasty, and their buttermilk separates into layers. So I don't know. The best thing currently available is Southern Comfort (no, not THAT Southern Comfort... this is non-alcoholic) but it's not very good.

Perhaps I can get my grandmother to make up a batch of homemade boiled custard.

 

[Oncefallen]

I really can't stand the gamey flavor in elk or deer, but if you don't hang it and age it, it's not as strong tasting.

Hmmm, I haven't had a lot of wild game, but I thought the aging process was supposed to help reduce the gaminess....

Oh, wow! I'm no longer seeing through a glass darkly. Cheers, OnceFallen.

I have the makings in the fridge and should be whipping up a batch sometime in the next couple of days (along with a few loaves of pumpkin bread). I'll gladly ship you a glass, but I'm not so sure how good it'll be by the time it makes the trip.

 

[PopClick]

There's the problem....raw whole eggs are going to be slimey in texture and milk by itself will thin it out some but still leave it slimey.

Most eggnog recipes that I've used use only the egg yolks (if the whites are used they are beaten separately to stiffen them up), and most use either a blend of cream and milk, or just cream by itself. A lot of eggnog recipes call for making an egg custard (cooking the egg/milk mixture) then chilling and adding the cream.

It's thin, but it isn't slimy... probably because it isn't a very high egg to milk ratio. Although the blender breaks the egg's structure up pretty well I think. It would probably be marvelous if I used cream like you said and cooked it and took longer than three minutes to make it.

 

[Lynx]

So does anyone here know anything about music making? I've been using Reaper as my DAW (digital audio workstation) for some time, but I'm thinking about shifting to a program with a radically different workflow. Either Bitwig or Ableton Live.

[video=youtube;SaaHQBMZGE8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaaHQBMZGE8[/video]

 

[Lynx]

Seems the number of videos you can put in a post is one. So here's Ableton Live. I'm kinda leaning toward Ableton, as it is the more polished one, but Bitwig has a lot more layout flexibility. I already downloaded demos of both. January, when everyone is doing a lot of nothing anyway, will be a great time to do some test driving.

[video=youtube;mKqkHoOaeLc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKqkHoOaeLc[/video]

 

[lil_christian]

Seems the number of videos you can put in a post is one. So here's Ableton Live. I'm kinda leaning toward Ableton, as it is the more polished one, but Bitwig has a lot more layout flexibility. I already downloaded demos of both. January, when everyone is doing a lot of nothing anyway, will be a great time to do some test driving.

[video=youtube;mKqkHoOaeLc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKqkHoOaeLc[/video]

Let me know which one you choose and the cost of 'em. The app I was using on my tablet didn't work. The tracks were all saved as PCMs and I tried but there was no way to open them or convert them.

 

[Susanna]

Also, eggnog's not a big thing at all, in Australia.

Shouldn't have been in US either...(backing slowly away taking cover from the eggnog people).

 

[JesusMyOnly]

Did everyone realize, 2015 is just around the corner? o.o

 

[Theygaveutheirworst]

2014, we hardly knew thee!

 

[Susanna]

I still recall all the fuzz over the year of 2000.

 

[Lynx]

Let me know which one you choose and the cost of 'em. The app I was using on my tablet didn't work. The tracks were all saved as PCMs and I tried but there was no way to open them or convert them.

When you "Save" a file it saves as the program's own file type. What you want to do is open the file with the program that made it, then choose "export" or "render." It will render a .wav or .mp3 file that you can play in any audio player. "Export" trips a lot of people up because they're used to just using "Save" and it's good to go.

Think of "Export" as the "Print" option. When you save a word processor file it saves your progress, but to have a copy you can hand to someone you really need to print. Or in this case, export.

 

[MissCris]

Hmmm, I haven't had a lot of wild game, but I thought the aging process was supposed to help reduce the gaminess....

Well dang, now I'm not sure...I know that I like the flavor of it better if it isn't aged.
I gotta figure this out...it could change my whole world....!!

 

[lil_christian]

When you "Save" a file it saves as the program's own file type. What you want to do is open the file with the program that made it, then choose "export" or "render." It will render a .wav or .mp3 file that you can play in any audio player. "Export" trips a lot of people up because they're used to just using "Save" and it's good to go.

Think of "Export" as the "Print" option. When you save a word processor file it saves your progress, but to have a copy you can hand to someone you really need to print. Or in this case, export.

It didn't have aaanny of that. I looked for it, because that's how I thought I'd be able to save it, was like a picture or a word doc, you choose what kind of file it is. But nooo.

Yeah, that app, while it was kinda neat, was also kinda stupid. And it'd crash a lot. Ooooh well.

 

[Lynx]

Oooooh, PCM! Duh! I should have recognized that before, but it's been so long since I've seen pulse-code modulation. Everyone uses FLAC or WAV or MP3 these days...

dBpowerAMP can convert PCM to something more usable. You have to pay for higher-level file routing, but simple conversion jobs you can get free. Get the dBpowerAMP installer, then get the PCM plugin. And also get the plugin for whatever you want to convert it to, like wma or mp4 or something.

Audacity can also convert. Open the PCM file in Audacity, then save as whatever you want.

The crashing though, that we can't fix with a converter. Unfortunately not many full scale DAWs are made for tablets. Tablets will have to become a lot more powerful before they can run a real DAW.

 

[AnnaBou]

Wonder what it would be like to do amazing things like Joan of arc? Even bad people can do good things by the Grace of God. Bernini's Ecstacy of st Theresa must be an inspired work it is so beautiful. I did try to draw it but I could not get the face quite right.

 

[MissCris]

The down side to deciding not to go anywhere for Christmas and having people come out to us...
I gotta clean.
I mean, I clean anyway, but I have to clean for company, which is different. So that's what today will be about, and then tomorrow I guess I'll bake or something, and clean some more, so that way stuff will be ready by evening when my brother and his wife come out. Here's hoping their gift arrives in time...

And then Christmas Eve, my mother-in-law will probably be here all day, so maybe she can help me figure out how best to cook the elk roast we're having for dinner (my roasts always end up really bland). Christmas Day, my father-in-law and his wife will be here for brunch, which I have no idea if I'm supposed to cook or not.

The plan was to stay at home in order to do less dragging two small children all over town when they're all sugared up and staying up late...but I'm kind of thinking that would be easier than how we're doing it. Or maybe it's just a case of the proverbial grass being metaphorically greener on the other side of the mythical fence. Because when we DO go to everyone else's houses, I spend half the time wishing we had just stayed home. Hmm.

I think my best bet is to be a gracious hostess and freak everyone out by oozing charm and grace. YES.

 

[ArtsieSteph]

I have that stupid glitch going on where all the rooms are empty, but I can still somehow type in them. :/ So weird. It's sad because you guys are most of my social interaction except for my friends (who live far away) and my family

 

[CatHerder]

OK, figured I'd share about my weekend since I asked another CC member to pray about some health issues (which she did due to PM responses) but it's best to get info from the horse's mouth.

Yes, I turned into a horse this weekend...no. But I did experience some sort of attack. Could have been a panic/anxiety attack, stress related something-or-other. Could have been anything. Had a minor argument with my middle kid, who was to go to Napa with me that day along with her sister, spending the day there before my last Nutcracker performance (no, I do not appear in a tutu - I play french horn in the orchestra).

The family trip is off since one kid is not with us and the youngest has a mild head cold. She wants the companionship of the car ride and is content to hang out backstage with her books and video games if we can't get a comp ticket for her. I car pool with a friend instead of driving the 90 min trip myself. Though we leave earlier than necessary, the unpredictable holiday traffic still makes us nearly late and we are rushing. At the theater, the mismanagement of the musician's parking lot adds about 15 minutes since they allowed the theater goers to park there and there was no place for us to park in that lot. I direct my kid one way, hoping she can figure things out. From the orchestra pit, I can't see her in the house, which is filling in. Maybe she is there, maybe not.

As the show is starting, my friend gets a text from her (I had left my phone in her car) that she is not allowed in. Apparently she had gone outside the theater instead of the green room or the house. I play in the overture. My friend does not, so I ask her to text my daughter. Eventually, I find out that she is in the lobby. OK, at least she's not out in the cold. During intermission, I find her and get her to the green room.

After the show, I find my phone and see a text from the ex. My daughter had texted her sister out of boredom, and she intercepted the message, I guess. The text blasted me for not leaving her home with her instead if I was going to leave her out in the cold, calling me selfish, etc. Since she was not there when I went to pick up the kids and the other kid had thrown me a curveball, I felt I did not deserve this, so I texted back that what happened was not the plan at all, that we had run into a snafu, that as soon as I as able, I got her to a more supervised location. Then I thanked her for judging me.

So maybe the stress of the day didn't hit until on the way home.

After a pleasant conversation in which my friend was telling a funny story about her family, I felt disoriented, as if I had just woken up. In my mind, it was the next day, and I was confused as to why I was still in my friend's car. I actually felt as if I was experiencing being in two different times, which was actually kind of fun and trippy. I had trouble breathing, so I opened the window a few times. While chatting, I was trying to wiggle fingers and toes, checking my extremities. Aside from the temporal confusion, I felt very coherent.

My breathing is more labored. I feel as if all the blood is being drained from my body. My friend, now realizing that something is amiss, pulls over, telling me I am very pale. Since this isn't just a dizzy spell, or anything that passes quickly, but gets worse, I agree with her that she should call 911. Things are still going downhill once the EMTs get there. So I get an ambulance ride to the hospital, where I am experiencing a lot of pressure in my chest. I confirm that my friend is taking my daughter to my place for her mother to pick her up as they are putting me in. They give me aspirin and nitro. When I confirm that the nitroglycerin was supposed to be administered sublengually, I realize that I am still rather coherent, since that's a big word. Good. If I am to recover from somthing, I would rather recover from a heart attack than a stroke.

At the ER, they take all sorts of test for blood oxygen (very low), BP and pulse (both very high, duh), sugar levels (normal), etc. and do chest X-rays (normal). After three hours, they test again. During this time, the pressure in my chest had subsided and disappeared. All the vitals were back to normal. No heart attack. They told me to get a heart stress test though, so I have to schedule that. My friend who is back now tells me. "You know, instead of going through all of this, you could have just said 'I need attention.'"

Probably against commons sense. I play two cantatas in the morning on 90 minutes of sleep. Then I am home and in an out of napping. I try chatting on CC at one time, but leave abruptly due to a nap attack (sorry Misty77, you weren't boring. It's not you, it's me!).

And now, here I am!

 

[lil_christian]

Wow. What a crazy night, CatHerder. =\

 

[lil_christian]

For some dumb reason, I keep on wanting to criticize myself over stupid stuff, like how I look in this picture, or this and that, why my job pretty much fired me without actually firing me, or if they did they didn't have the decency to tell me...

Enough of that noise. I've done that to myself too much, for too long.