Do I contradict myself?

Hi there! You've found my journal! There's a fair amount here that's for public consumption, and also a fair amount that's not. In order to read the stuff that's not "public" you'll need to be what DW/LJ call a "friend" -- it's something that I designated.


I'm not too strict about it, though, so if you'd like to read more than the public postings, then leave a comment here. I believe you'll need a DW or LJ account for me to allow you access, but they're easy to get. If I don't know you and you aren't sure if I'll recognize who you are, then you should let me know who you are. You're also welcome to email me at filkerdave @ [ dreamwidth.org / livejournal.com ] with more info.


Hope to see you!

ETA: I am no longer reading or commenting on the LJ side. I will still be crossposting for the foreseeable future but comments on those new posts on the LJ side are disabled. Please come join me on Dreamwidth!

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We're in Jackson Hole! DW comments

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The other day, I pulled out Shiny, my electric guitar, and got a little curious about it. So I looked up the serial number and discovered it was made in November 1998 in Epiphone's factory in South Korea. And then I went to Gibson guitars and asked them a few questions. So now I know that it's a Les Paul Standard, flamed maple top, solid mahogany body.

I need to play it more often. It's kind of gorgeous. DW comments

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I keep meaning to get back to journaling but the lack of any decent way to do it on my phone means that I either have to log on from work or want to turn on a computer at home.

So of course, I'll come back with a quick one-verse instafilk. Note that this song uses Fahrenheit temperatures, rather than Celsius, because nobody (at least nobody healthy) is really feeling like this at 17C.

TTTO: "At Seventeen" by Janis Ian

I learned to dress for seventeen
When fingertips and earlobes freeze
Wear gloves and hats and winter coats
And wrap a scarf around your throat

And if there's any hint of wind
You have to layer up again
While winter is delivering
Another day of shivering

And those who have uncovered faces
Run to get to indoor spaces
Desperately seek signs of heat
Or wear thick socks upon their feet

Who call for summer to return
And curse the wind and how it burns
The weather makes them scream
At seventeen

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Blue and Fyoosh

If you haven't been following Sinfest then there's a LOT of backstory, but see this and this. Tl;dr: Blue and Fyoosh came up through the ranks together. Blue is quite possibly the Devil's most trusted servant and Fyoosh left to be with Criminy.

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Probably the best weekend of radio that I've had this year. I don't get to operate much in the winter, since I have no home shack and the weather's been kind of crap and too cold to sit outside.

But this weekend, it's been good and even though there's family all around because of Passover, I wanted to spend some time on the air. All told, it was pretty good. Not a lot of QSOs -- only 11 -- but I was pretty pleased with the ones I got. I got my first contacts with Estonia and Greece (hoping they confirm on LOTW, because that'll give me 2 more towards DXCC). Also I also had contacts with Barbados, Bulgaria, Paraguay, Slovenia, and Switzerland. I've worked the all of those countries before (although the Slovenian station never uploads to LOTW).

Propagation was pretty good. I was able to hear stations in Japan and Australia as well. I couldn't make contact with them, though, because there was a huge pileup (when many stations try to make the same contact all at once), but even being able to hear either of those two is new for me.

Most of my contacts this weekend were morse code, with a few by voice.

It was fun. And I'm looking forward to getting out onto the trail with a radio soon!

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4 years to the day after I was able to get tickets to see Kate Bush in London, I scored tickets to seeSpringsteen on Broadway!

These are the most expensive concert tickets I've ever bought, mind. (Although taking inflation into account, probably the second-most expensive concert I'll have gone to. The Concert for New York City was just a little cheaper per ticket, but it took place in 2001.

Between this and seeing Dead & Company (and having already seen Bobby & Phil) it's gonna be a great year of music!

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I originally posted the first couple of lines of this as a reply to a Twitter thread and decided to finish it and post it on its own :)

The Force is my shepherd; I shall not want.

It maketh me jump to lightspeed; it leadeth me through the right jumpgates.

It restoreth my warp core; It leadeth me through the paths of hyperspace in Valen's name.

Yea, though I warp through the nebula near the Romulan Neutral Zone, I will fear no Klingons; The Force is with me; the light saber and blaster, they comfort me.

It plotteth a course before me through the 'Verse past mine enemies; It runneth my engines with antimatter; my White Star flyeth over.

Surely geekiness and fandom shall I follow all the days of my life; and I will party at the cons of the fans for ever.

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As mentioned previously, I'm here in Jackson, Wyoming with my girlfriend. Sadly, I don't have the time off and I have to work during the week (which kind of sucks because I'm working NY hours and our daily scrum is at 9am eastern, which is 7am here). On the other hand, in meant that on Sunday I got to go snowboarding for the first time in 2 years.

Because it's been so warm here, the snow has been iffy, honestly, at least at Snow King. (There's absolutely no terrain easy enough for me at the Mountain and it's far more expensive). It's all man-made, really, and even the groomers are kind of dodgy. My knees HURT from falling down (and I had one turn where my board slid out from under me and I went a good 50 years yards sliding on my butt until I could dig in enough to stop. I clearly need to put more time in. My toeside turns suck and my heelside turns don't exist.

Of course, on *Monday* it snowed all day and all night and yesterday was sunny and 25F and it would have been *perfect*

I'm hoping to get back on my board on Saturday, but it's not a sure thing. It's 36F here in Jackson today, which means that things will thaw and then freeze and it'll be the same mess it was last weekend.

Still...good to be back on my board!

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It's been very cold here in Baltimore and there's a skin of ice over portions of the harbor. Which led me to an interesting observation today. Here's a picture that I took out the window
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I've marked the areas where there's ice versus the areas where it's water (yes, yes, I know, it's all water, but some of it isn't liquid). The surface there is much more chaotic. However, notice what happens in the ice-covered section. It's only a thin layer, probably much less than an inch, so it still moves around. But instead of the chaos of the water, there's a regular, longer wave pattern as seen in the regular (and faint) parallel strips of dark and light in the bottom. There's also a change in direction in the liminal area, which is fascinating.

Now, I don't know how it works in this case specifically, but I'm guessing that the ice, being thin and flexible, comes to resonance as kinetic energy is constantly pumped in from the more chaotic water and from whatever breeze there is.

Science!

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