TubeNet

schlepporello wrote:

TubaTinker wrote:

schlepporello wrote:We're getting hammered with a real live dyed-in-the-wool blizzard. Ain't gonna be no truck drivin' for me today.

I just saw on the news that it's so bad where you are that The State even pulled the snowplows off the road!

That's true, and they did this before the sun ever came up!
I got out a little while ago and busted through the drift in my driveway with my Dodge. The snow has stopped, the sun's out and 33 degrees F doesn't feel that bad at all compared to what it was like this morning.

It's part of a covert Canadian plot to take over all those formerly warm southern states. Soften you up a bit, get you used to the cold, then Poof! you're Canadian... we even got it snowing in Hawaii...

ps. Dan, the Martin Mammoth says Hi...

Cheers,

Winston

On my way home from that rarest of rehearsal during competition preparation.
The one were after some enjoyable playing we look up at the band room clock and can't believe it's time to go some days its great to play the tuba

TubaTinker wrote:

Ken Herrick wrote:What you REALLY need is some of Terri's great soup and corn bread. I still haven't matched those.

Terri is also a pharmacist. She's got me 'fixed up' pretty well today!

(Edit).... Ken... I just polished off a big bowl of potato & sausage soup and a couple of slices of freshly-baked beer bread. I think I'm 'on the mend' now!

I bet the soup and bread did more good than pills,etc.

Beer bread just substitute beer for water????
Bake most of my bread - using a machine and sometimes "breead mix" which I often modify. Do you have Terri's recipe?

Ken Herrick wrote:.... Beer bread just substitute beer for water????
Bake most of my bread - using a machine and sometimes "breead mix" which I often modify. Do you have Terri's recipe?

It was a box mix.... a brand called 'Tastefully Simple' (I think). But yes, it used beer instead of water. At first, I thought it was just a way to get the yeast into the bread but reading further... the box mention that you could use carbonated soda instead of beer. It is a very moist, heavy bread with a quite different flavor.

Glad you enjoyed our Atlanta specialty. I've been enjoying it for 30 years. Good steaks at reasonable prices. It was almost history but for the infamous snowstorm in '82. It was just one store and about to go broke when the storm trapped everybody downtown. The owner sold drinks to all the strandees for a buck apiece, got a lot of publicity for doing so and it took off from there.

Going to a local steak house tonight with my community band vice-president and the current director... plus our wives. Haub Steak House (http://www.haubhouse.com/) in Haubstadt, Indiana is very well-known as having the best aged beef around. It's EXPENSIVE but always a real treat when you only go once a year or so.

Hey, Dan

From here, the Haubhaus prices don't look bad though I guess tax and " gratuity" could put them up a bit. Here prices include all taxes and generally any tipping is for very good service only and totally optional.

Have done a couple loaves of beer bread, a white and a whole meal. NICE.

Ken Herrick wrote:Hey, Dan

From here, the Haubhaus prices don't look bad though I guess tax and " gratuity" could put them up a bit....

All the entrees (unless noted) are a La carte and include only soup or house salad and bread. Most everything is 'extra'.

Four of us had wine. I had TWO glasses of merlot. We ordered an appetizer platter and each had a desert. The final 'tab' ... including a generous tip came to $294 for the six of us.

You've been updated!

Just realized that to be faithful to the composers I'm going to have to cart a bass trombone, euphonium and tuba to Easter services........................... Screw the composers, the euph stays home.

U-verse went out Monday. Been using cell phone for internet and phone, no TV. ATT is trying but no fix in sight. Life is hard!

tbn.al wrote:U-verse went out Monday. Been using cell phone for internet and phone, no TV. ATT is trying but no fix in sight. Life is hard!

It seems like the cable/Internet companies are really in the middle of some 'trying' times. ... for them AND us!

True story...

Last Friday at 9:47am I called WOW to find out why my cable/Internet/phone bill has gone up about $6 a month since last November. I was told that there had been some increases and that my 'discount' expired in February. This 'discount' was applied LAST year when I complained that new customers were getting a better rate than us old customers.

After about a half-hour of 'wrangling'... my bill was reduced about $21 a month to a point where it is only $4 more than what I was paying last November.

All is good you ask??? Not quite...

I spent the day in the shop and didn't check my email until around 4:30pm. I discovered that my Internet was 'dead'. I reset the modem... which usually fixes the problem and went off to a gig. When I returned home around 10:15pm... I attempted to check my email. No Internet. I also discovered that my land-line wasn't working. I called support and they tried to reset my modem remotely but after several tries could not get it to 'sync'. A repair tech was scheduled to come on Saturday between 4 and 6pm.

At 3:50pm on Saturday, the tech rolls up (yeah... early. Imagine that!) and goes straight to the modem. He is about to declare the modem 'dead' and decided to log onto my account with his handheld gizmo. He sees that the 'switches' for the phone and Internet are turned 'off' while the cable switch is still 'on'. He said that this is the normal procedure when someone doesn't pay the bill. Of course, the bill was current so he simply turned the services back on via his handheld.

Apparently, the customer service person I spoke to Friday morning turned the things off while she was 'fiddling' with the account to reset the discounts. The repair tech said "it's no surprise.... WOW has A LOT of new help that don't know what they are doing". Boy... isn't THAT the truth! I would think the status of the services would be checked at the beginning of any 'trouble' call! Duh.

Work provides me with a cellphone (nice benefit to being on call 24/7)
I don't have cable, but bought a "leaf" antenna that gets all stations anywhere near Nashville with full HD resolution.
I have the cheapest Internet connection I can get through Comcast for 29.99 a month.
Only other thing is Netflix at 7.99 a month, so the kids can watch cartoons and I can watch gritty 70's movies, and my wife gets to watch Walking Dead one season behind.
I probably wouldn't have Internet at all if I could get away with it, but I frequently use it for work at night - saves another trip in.

I wasn't going to supply the details but since Dan did...........................

Monday noon - U-verse suddenly goes off line, No phone, internet or TV. I began to reset stuff.

Monday 1PM - Called ATT after an hour of fiddling myself. Got a person in another country. Could hardly communicate. He asked me if I had a "wool shock". After about 10 minutes of back and forth I finaly realized he meant "wall jack". Hung up and called again. This time got an English speaker who took me through a set of diagnostics and pronounced my modem dead. Scheduled a modem to be shipped from Memphis.

Tuesday 12PM - Modem showed up. I followed the instructions to install it and when done it had the same fault as the old one. Called ATT back and got another tech in India. When I explained that the modem obviously wasn't the problem he finally got frustrated and decided to call out an "in-home" repair guy.

Tuesday 5 PM - Repair guy came and found the the original installers had not wired the system properly. He changed all the wiring but explained that since it still would not work the issue must be ourside. He called in a request for an "outside" repair guy.

Wednesday 9AM - "Outside" repair guy shows up and goes back and forth between my house and the ATT box a couple of blocks away at a half dozen times. He finally knocks on my door and announces that he has found and corrected the problem in the ATT box. However my u-verse still won't work becuase there is an issue with the snyc of the lines. He also suspects the "inside " guy messed it up worse yesterday. HE should have left well enough alone since the problem was outside anyway.

Wednesday 11AM - A line truck showed up and stopped at ever little box between my house and the main box. Correcting the sync I was told.

Wednesday 2PM - Still no u-verse. Still no inside repair guy. Is this a great company or what?

bloke wrote:Lately, I've been clicking around youtube and listening to professional orchestras' low brass sections' performances of various excerpts.

I have found a few that, truly, are inspiring (not to mention remarkably educational).

It's a bit odd, though, how many of the professional orchestra low brass sections' excerpt performances sound just as "blah", uninspired, and lacking in intuition as those performing them would quickly point out how students' performances at masterclasses (over which they would preside) would be. I can understand this sort of thing on a "first run-through"...but to record, preserve, and upload on to youtube...??

Is something "lost" in the "translation" ?

Unless professionals recorded and mastered the videos I'm wondering how much audio compression and low-pass/high-pass filtering was involved in making those recordings. Their internet playback may also have introduced such artifacts in order to 'conserve bandwidth' so they can favor us with more ads. These factors can make a huge difference in our perception of the quality of a recorded performance when there actually may have been a far greater dynamic and audio range during the concert. These recordings may be best suited for the elderly (like me) who're also suffering from presbycusis (also guilty).

I'm struggling with the insensitivity of some of our members' choices of titles for their newly minted threads. 'Show me your main tuning stick' is on the surface a bit unsavory, isn't it? And how about 'Dating a tuba'? Aren't we already considered on the fringes of acceptable company without having to push ourselves across that border willy-nilly?

(I considered prefixing this with [Tongue in Cheek] and closing with [/Tongue in Cheek] because of some members' inability to distinguish lame attempts at humor from criticism, but thought the better of it. Let them stew if they so desire. )

I got my taxes done. Whew!

Rick F wrote:I got my taxes done. Whew!

Did mine 2 weeks ago. Yet again, Uncle Sam did not get an interest-free loan from me.

gwwilk wrote:I'm struggling with the insensitivity of some of our members' choices of titles for their newly minted threads. 'Show me your main tuning stick' is on the surface a bit unsavory, isn't it? And how about 'Dating a tuba'? Aren't we already considered on the fringes of acceptable company without having to push ourselves across that border willy-nilly?

Do you find "Sellmansberger Underparts For Sale" morally offensive?

MartyNeilan wrote:

gwwilk wrote:I'm struggling with the insensitivity of some of our members' choices of titles for their newly minted threads. 'Show me your main tuning stick' is on the surface a bit unsavory, isn't it? And how about 'Dating a tuba'? Aren't we already considered on the fringes of acceptable company without having to push ourselves across that border willy-nilly?

Do you find "Sellmansberger Underparts For Sale" morally offensive?

How about the eBay thread: "I need to start pulling my junk parts out & auctioning them"

Uncle Buck wrote:

MartyNeilan wrote:

gwwilk wrote:I'm struggling with the insensitivity of some of our members' choices of titles for their newly minted threads. 'Show me your main tuning stick' is on the surface a bit unsavory, isn't it? And how about 'Dating a tuba'? Aren't we already considered on the fringes of acceptable company without having to push ourselves across that border willy-nilly?

Do you find "Sellmansberger Underparts For Sale" morally offensive?

How about the eBay thread: "I need to start pulling my junk parts out & auctioning them"