Music Monday - Mayer Hawthorne

This appearance was last Friday night. Very good video with great audio. Nice treatment musically. The horn section is part of Letterman's band conducted by Paul Shaffer. Nice easy uptempo tune!



"Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music."
~Ronald Reagan

Strokes Can Be Different

I've tried facebook twice now. Just not my thing. Everyone encouraged me to try it again. I did. Once again it was simply unsocial. Whether you admit it or not it seems we are all egocentric to some degree. Also, how would you feel if the only way you could communicate with me is coming here and interacting? Pause, pause, think, think, pause, pause. Just doesn't work does it? I wouldn't do it and certainly don't expect anyone else to adhere to such a silly policy either. Facebook made me feel that way. (EDIT: After further reflection, some folks may want to communicate with me this way!)

No doubt Cybersouth FTSBH can resemble a barnyard. Manure of male cattle has been slung here quite often. It's all in fun and for some goofy reason my fingers find time to put a post here occasionally. Some folks don't even read the posts. They scan to make sure there is not an obit involved then leave. That's fine. Some come here, skim every other word, then whine and complain. Even tell lies. That's fine too. If a comment really pisses me off I delete it. Actually, it has crossed my mind to do away with comments completely. Few rarely say anything and there's not any fear that bandwidth will be a problem because of massive hit counts.

Anyway, I am glad to be gone from facebook. It was very depressing to see people posting there on a regular basis that are supposed to be friends yet I haven't had phone calls from a lot of them in months. Well, I am adjusting. There's comfort in solitude. Permits more time for local fauna entertainment. Time to take meds, lol. Later.

"If I cannot understand my friend's silence, I will never get to understand his words."
~Powell

Music Monday - Take Time to Laugh

This video may hold the record for guest appearances by celebrities. See how many you can name and enjoy a good laugh. BTW, Toby is one of my favorite conservative Democrats. If he'd run against Nobama...



Okay, I tried but couldn't resist. This video could also be titled, "Brang me anuther beer, Momma." Toby makes me laugh.



"In order to be a true music lover, you have to appreciate all kinds of music."
~Leigh Bursey (apparently, and fortunately, Leigh never heard rap)

Enter Sid, the Vicious

Last night I heard noises. There was stuff being moved on the veranda. Then I heard the most blood chilling howl and got up. Being startled awake and in a drug induced stupor, legal pain meds for back, it all seemed surreal and then I became more concerned with deciding if I had awoken or was in dream state. The next scream proved I was awake.

As I peeped out the window to my surprise there was an overgrown marsupial flailing the devil out of Hateful, the neighborhood cat. Now Hateful is a pretty good cat, he's just constantly mad as hell. Can't blame the cat, he's been hit twice by cars. Not very smart either. Still, poor thing has to eat. So people around here feed him. There's even been an occasional visit to Pet Smart to buy him food.

When I opened the door it startled all fauna and Hateful made a blurry retreat up the huge Magnolia. The huge possum looked around somewhat bewildered. Then he did something that made me realize he was definitely a descendant of Arnold's. He made a middle finger gesture at me with his possum paw and then waddled off and scurried up the Oak tree. I saw his ancestor do this many times.

Knowing Arnold all those years and watching his antics was great fun. Hopefully, Sid will be the same. Yes, that's his name, Sid. Since he made a lewd gesture I decided to name him after Craig Ferguson's cussing rabbit on late night TV. Now we've got to see if he despises all the other neighborhood animals and loves bar-b-que grill tipping. If I hear of any old Ford Escort station wagons being turned over then it's for sure the genes of Arnold strongly survived.

You have to be cautious around Possums. They'll bite and scratch like crazy if provoked. They have been known to be rabies carriers. So don't mess with them in the wild. Occasionally people do raise them and they can be docile. Needless to say Sid won't ever be qualified to enter the ranks of a petting zoo.

Now I have to put the broom back on the veranda and reattach the water hose. Hey, simple tools of the trade when doing late night possum watching. Well...you need these things if you want the other animals to survive. Now it'll be fun to see if he has a "mom" tattoo on his arm like Arnold. Ahhhh nature, always full of surprises.

"The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality."
~Arthur Schopenhauer

One Ringy Dingy Two Ringy Dingy

Recently my phone battery discharged. It was inactive for an unknown period of time. After recharging I turned it on to find two garbled messages. One was something about an Apple Macbook possibly and the other did not come through at all unless it happened to be about Teamspeak. There was an entry of "TS" at one point, but this may have been coincidence. Anyway, folks I've asked everyone time and time again to pick up the phone and call me. If you are concerned about an involved conversation, yes I can be longwinded, then tell me that you are making a 'text' phone call. You won't even have to say goodbye. I will be brief as possible. It takes longer to type the text than say the words. Depresses me that people apparently don't like my voice and avoid verbal conversation. I am sorry about missing the messages. This has been a recurrent issue since we had a block put on my phone not to receive photos. The block may in some weird way be the source of the problem. Who knows? Probably not. First guess is the strange cell tower network in Saltillo. Phone phreaky!

If you receive a bill increase of say 30 or 40 bucks per month because people constantly send you pictures (that you've nicely requested not be sent) then what else can you do but block them? I don't have a digital plan. Can't afford it. I don't receive pictures. Can't afford it. I look at that 30 or 40 dollars a month as gasoline or cheap unhealthy food, both in short supply. So please don't blatantly attempt to muck up this situation because you have more income or just don't care. Hmmm, okay those that have forgotten the spoken language keep texting. Better than nothing. Back to the subject at hand: I loathe not having money. Thanks to Nobama and this rotten economy many of us are living well below our normal comfort level. Still, at least I am not in some God forsaken place like North Korea or Iran. Oh yeah, if you don't like my negative take on the current administration or gathering places of foreign idiots and fools please get the hell off my page.

Recently the beach house was blessed with a gift. "What," you ask? New cell phone, a sorely needed device. It's a Samsung Strive which is super nice. Thanks MJR for coming to my aid once again. I like it in spite of the fact the keypad was designed for a person of sub-Hobbit stature. The keys are about .25" square. The tips of my fingers are barely small enough to manipulate most elevator buttons and certainly can't use these keys. This reduction in size is pretty much the norm in all cell phones. Aside from the small keypad input device, this little non data plan phone is awesome. Looks good, feels good, easy to read, stores a ton of music, has pleasant tones and an extremely long battery life. It suits me after 7-8 years of using Motorola Razr phones. And another bit of info: If possible ALL texting n such on this phone would be shut down. If I can ever afford a nice data plan and phone to match where the touch screen actually can be used by my clumsy fingers then it's almost a sure thing my opinion will change. So please please call me or send an email to cybersouth@gmail.com.

This, sadly, is a necessary post. Somehow this will mean to some folks that they need to stop communication with me. Here's the proverbial nutshell - Look, I'm no spring chicken. Death has its eye on me and I've managed to skirt around it a few times in this life. Time and "luck" are running out. Feel guilty here? Then good. You should. I am looking out for others and myself. Here's the deal: You'll kick yourself in the ass once they've mixed my ashes with mule manure and sprinkled it out of an airplane over the left wing liberal section of the Democratic Party National Headquarters. Certainly no offense meant to my intelligent, conservative Democratic friends. Yes, the ones that didn't vote for Nobama. Anyway, you might want to talk to me just so you won't have to say stupid stuff like "I wish I'd told him so n so' or 'damn, he's gone and I can't bitch at him about that' or 'sorry devil died to keep from paying me.' The voice of experience is speaking. BTW, the mule manure thangy came from some creative thinking to avoid being dug up and bitched at some more or having to do some work after death. Let's face it, there's a chance of a bad lingering odor but once I am dead, hopefully there will be peace smelly as it may be...

In closing, just remember those famous words of Elvis the Pelvis aka Hound Dawgy, "We can all use a helping hand once in a while...so could you pass me another helpin' of those mashed potatoes n gravy? Thank you. Thank you vuurry much!"

Music Monday - Father and Daughter

For fans of Celtic Woman: Hulu now offers several full length concerts by CW including the Christmas Special. Presently the videos are listed under 'Clips', but click on one of the windows and you can watch the complete concert. Go to HULU - Celtic Woman. BTW Hulu Rocks!!!!

Three of my favorite musicians favored us with a wonderful ballad, Melissa, at the 2007 Farm Aid Concert. Warren Haynes is the lead guitarist. Surprise - he only plays and does not sing. Warren was front man for Gov't Mule and had great influence on Grace Potter's early career. What's to be said about Dave Matthews? Dude is extraordinarily talented. Of course that's Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Gregg Allman taking center stage. Folks, this is worth a few minutes of time. Really a super performance by all:



Thought I would give everyone a chance to listen to Gregg's daughter, Layla, sing an extremely tough song to cover. She does a good job. Too bad there's not a good live video. She sings really great in most YouTube offerings of live performances, but the video in all of them sucks...so far:



"We can all make music individually. But we are smart enough to know that the music we make together is far better."
~Peter Buck

Microsoft and Me? It's All Good and Loveydovey!

Friends can sometimes be awesome. In a recent discussion it was pointed out that my past few comments about Microsoft were rather harsh. Yes, they were. At the time I was frustrated and angry because of all the research that was poured into two problems concerning Windows and their update procedures. One problem is prevalent (487 million hits on Google) the other not so much (maybe 500,000 Google hits). The point of contention was that I was thrashing a company that actually brought us out of the dark ages of computers and saved us from the $3,000.00 to $5000.00 machines Apple had in mind and tried to market during the beginning. Can we say Apple Lisa? Remember those? Lisa was short for "Local Integrated Software Architecture" and also the name of Steve Jobs daughter. Yes yes, I remember the Apple I, II and IIe. I actually sold and repaired them. Another story another time in a galaxy far far away in the distant past

A decent PC will run well under a thousand bucks today. Don't expect a powerful gaming machine or one that handles heavy duty autocad. But, even such specialty machines can be purchased for under $2,000.00. Yes, I can take constructive criticism. I cannot abide BS which is usually someone talking just to hear their jaws flap. So, even though I won't edit out my thoughts from this past few weeks, I will acknowledge gratitude towards Microsoft for making Windows and Office available. An observation: If they want to sell Windows 7 it might behoove them to NOT make XP harder to network. Leave it alone. To move people to purchase Windows 7 cut the prices by 1/3. Just has to be a profit there! Everyone will upgrade as is desired in Redmond. Stop putting Home Premium on new linear architecture builds (Dell, HP, etc.) and start using Windows 7 Pro. It's the one in the blue box not the green one - that's Home Premium. Shucks, most of us have some type of network so why not show folks how this wonderful operating system really Rocks! Pro is outstanding. Actually Home Premium is too if you have only one computer and don't plan on expanding. I know very few ppl that have only one PC on a high speed internet connection.

Buy the blue one!

So smooches and kisses to Microsoft for making strides in the right direction down through the years. Thanks for making computers more affordable. Thank you Linux (the flavors that are still free) and FreeBSD for giving us open source possibilities. Heck, thank you Apple for finally crawling out of that cave and using Intel processors. Oh yeah, all the iStuff too. And thank you Google for the awesome Android platform with the ga-zillion free apps. K, enough. This list could go on and on and I am well aware that I have left out many others. I do endorse Microsoft and encourage everyone to update to Windows 7, especially the 64 bit Pro version.

BTW, during my recent extensive search several Microsoft techs informed me that if your machine can run Windows 7 upgrading to Windows 8 will be easy. Your present hardware configuration running Windows 7 will be fine for Windows 8. Sorta like Windows 2000 to XP.

"There's nothing wrong with anger provided you use it constructively."
~Wayne Dyer

Nice Video - Short Too!

This is absolutely enlightening, profound, poignant, refreshing...oh heck take a minute to watch, listen and come away a little better!



"If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part."
~Richard Feynman

Two Problems Resolved

Last week I had two problems plaguing me. One was a problem networking a Windows XP Pro machine with two Windows 7 Home Premium PCs. The other was a constantly returning glyph or sign language possibly written by the wizard Saruman in the 3rd age of Middle Earth during his Uruk-Hai period. Well folks, Windows Updates were to blame for BOTH problems. "It's sad that the ppl at Microsoft won't admit their mistakes," said an MCSE tech while answering a question in a forum.

Apparently one of the Updates wipes out a critical IRPstack entry in the registry. Why? Windows wants you to ditch XP and go Windows 7 (not a bad idea) and sneaks around like a damned terrorist and sabotages XP. Well, they didn't get away with it. Several techs volunteered the 'fix' in the MSDN developers group forum. Yes, I am patiently waiting for this info to disappear when the snakes in Redmond find it. Sheesh! Misery heaped on other folks because the greedy bastards want to make a buck. That downright stinks. Shame on you Microsoft. If you are having trouble networking XP and 7 please send me an email. The address is in the last paragraph.

Another Update destroys the font structure in Windows 7 under the right circumstances. Word is a 'fix' is being put in place covertly to resolve this problem. Nothing is more frustrating than to do a restore and then a few days later all English language looks like gobbledegook. This becomes most prevalent when trying to install Microsoft Office 2010. Immediate fix is to restore and turn off Automatic Updates (really a bad idea but necessary in this case). Please get in touch with me if you want a step by step work around. Email address is below. This thing is a major pain. Of course you can format C: and load the OS only. Then do ALL Windows updates first. Next? Install everything else. Using this approach somehow avoids the Frodo Glyph problem.

Email? Addy is cybersouth@gmail.com. Spammers beware. My filters are awesome. I never see your garbage. It is forwarded directly to Google for their use. Heck, wasted words. The creeps will send it anyway, lol! Hope the above remedies will cure ailing PCs.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
~Mark Twain

Deo adjuvante non timendum

Ann Barnhardt. <-- Take a look at an awesome perspective of today's world. Kudos Ann, kudos!

Big TYVM out to Rob for a super link!

"The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind. Where, say some, is the king of America? I'll tell you, friend, He reigns above." ~Thomas Paine

Music Monday - Song Got the Dude Fired!

RIP Steve

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life," he said. "Because almost everything -- all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure -- these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important."

Steve Jobs spoke these eloquent words while delivering the commencement address at Stanford University in 2005. He will be missed. As you look at your iPhone, Ipod, iPad or Mac today please say a prayer for his family.

Though not always supportive of many of Steve's decisions, during the past few years I've gained respect for this man and his many innovative gifts to the world of technology. I even have a Mac on my network. It's been with me for almost 5 years. Today the machine's name will be changed to JOBS.

"If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a 'wandering to find home,'' why should we not look forward to the arrival?" ~C.S. Lewis

Music Monday - Hotty Toddy!

In 1962 the Billingsley, Litkenhous and Sagarin Polls were famous and football fans anticipated their results. All three declared Ole Miss the National Champions after they defeated Arkansas, the only non-Texan member of the SW conference at the time. The deciding final score was 17-13 in the Sugar Bowl. At that time there was no National Championship procedures. Oh yeah, Arkansas later rejoined the mighty SEC. The Rebels had a young quarterback name Jim Weatherly. Now you may ask yourself, why is college football being discussed on Music Monday? Well, that young quarterback from nearby Pontotoc Mississippi graduated from the Colonel's Campus and embarked on a career in the music industry. His songwriting career has produced many hits. Gladys Knight and the Pips had two mega hits with Jim's tunes. One is Midnight Train to Georgia. The other is this great hit beautifully covered by the talented folks that hang out at Daryl's House. Take a few minutes to listen please:

BTW, great music can be heard at Beagle's site. She inspired several to start posting 'Music Mondays'.

"To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable." ~Aaron Copeland

Another Day Wasted, Thanks Quick Books

Techs are a different breed of cat. The world changed somewhere and the bullied, misaligned dweebs, nerds, dorks, and geeks became the popular crowd. This actually happened quite some time ago. My recent debacle with the weird problem about a Microsoft update FUBARing the standard fonts brought out some of the best! Thanks out to everyone for all the help. Yes, it has been somewhat resolved, but Microsoft needs to 'man up" and issue an admission of their mistake. They also need to correct the problem. Actually this has probably happened covertly so as to avoid the guilt, lol!

Still desperately trying to make Windows 7 machines recognize XP Pro as a data server for Quick Books Pro. In a business scenario QB Pro is a necessary evil in my considered opinion. They are a horrible nasty company with little bitty support people. Their suppport techs are rude, crude and all in need of lessons in manners. QB experts spend mega bucks participating in annual seminars to help people use this software. They are certified independent contractors and all I've met are nice people. They don't even like the QB support techs. Anyway, anyone that has any advice, know-how, voodoo, or general knowledge about this problem please contact me.

"Software is usually accompanied by documentation in the form of big fat scary manuals that nobody ever reads. In fact, for the past five years most of the manuals shipped with software products have actually been copies of Stephen King's The Stand with new covers pasted on." ~Dave Barry