It's Not Easy. . .

. . . being a creative artist on a budget.

Like this weekend, I have discovered that my Canon ELPH can be easily used to take videos (I knew it could but never thought it through for music promotion).  But the problem herewith is the audio.  You know how the old recordings on 78rpm records always sounded like they were recorded in a rainshower?  Well that's what the audio sounds like on my Canon videos.  So I got the brilliant (my word) idea that I could record the audio portion in glorious, high-quality digital format with my Zoom H2 portable digital recorder, then sync everything together in Garageband for a fine video.  Well, necessity is the mother of invention you know.  What I didn't take into account was the file trail (and file naming etc.) task that would be required to keep it all straight.  For example, if I flubbed a take and chose to plow forward without stopping either machine, I had to remember how many false starts were on each take.  Attempting to record more that one song only complicated matters.  Then I also learned that since Garageband is specifically designed for audio, I could not edit the beginning of a video the way I could stop it at the end anywhere I wanted.  At least I haven't figured out how to do it.  So I re-recorded several pieces and edited the beginning on the Canon before uploading it to my laptop.

It's a lot of boring information granted.  But it's how I spent most of my weekend.  I did learn a lot about the process and now know how to avoid some of the earlier pitfalls.  I'm not too ashamed of the outcome though. . .

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When. . .

. . . I'm president. . . 

(from http://www.voterocky.org/meet_rocky)
". . . On August 11, 2011, Rocky (Ross C. Anderson) denounced the Democratic Party and resigned his affiliation with it. He wrote in a letter to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that "The Constitution has been eviscerated while Democrats have stood by with nary a whimper. It is a bottom and gutless, unprincipled party, bought and paid for by the same interests that buy and pay for the Republican Party." On January 13, 2012, Anderson accepted the presidential nomination of the Justice Party, a new national political party. The Party’s primary principles are integrity, justice, and liberty for all. 

Rocky advocates:

    The promotion of the public interest through the defeat of the systemic corruption that has caused massive failures in public policy.
    An immediate end to the on-going wars
    Essential health care coverage for all citizens
    Urgent international leadership by the U.S. to prevent against the most catastrophic consequences of climate disruption
    Adequate revenues to balance the budget through fair taxation
    Treatment of substance abuse as a public health rather than a criminal justice issue
    Control of the Federal Reserve by the Treasury Department and Congress
    A balanced budget (or a surplus) except in times of war or major recession
    An end to the legal concept of corporate “personhood”
    A constitutional amendment to overrule Citizens United and to allow limits or prohibitions on the corrosive impact of money in our electoral system
    An end to the stranglehold on our government by the military-industrial complex. . . "

Maybe one day soon. . .



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Yeah, so what!!. . .

. . .$600 million to be cut from the military. I’m no expert on this, but I do know two things. I know my gut and I know how to budget.

My gut tells me that war is wrong. It’s just plain wrong. Now to this, the military consultants, the conservative think tanks, the republican party (and almost half the people I know) will say,“but we must be prepared to defend ourselves.” And maybe surprisingly to them, I actually agree. But invading Iraq, sending troops to Libya and threatening military action against Iran cannot even loosely be described as defending ourselves. Oh there may be all kinds of bad things happening in these places and yes, they may even reach us eventually. But until they reach us, and ONLY WHEN they do reach us, will defending ourselves actually become one of our options. And at that point, it will most certainly be a good choice.

But NOT before!

Fatalistic though it may sound, any world in which we must interpret (or define) the military actions we have taken many times in the past as DEFENSIVE, is not a world in which I (for one?) choose to survive. Any imperialistic entity that believes (in this year of 2011) that they can truly and indefinitely subdue ALL countries, territories or federations with whom they do not agree, or who chose NOT to do the kind of business asked of them, by sheer brute force has not learned ANYTHING from written history.

That’s the GUT part.

The budget part is quite short, simple and to the aesthetically-inclined, sweet. In order to balance a budget some spending must be reduced. Logically, the areas in which the MOST is spent would be the places to begin. Cut, stop, end, fine.




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Do we really deserve. . .

. . . all those years of retirement? Speaking for myself and only myself. . .
HELL YES!!!!

Now that I am fast approaching retirement age, and considering my particular circumstances, I believe I, and I would never criticize anyone else who believes they, deserve retirement. However, I (unlike most of my right-bent co-earthlings) believe that paying my fair share of taxes (ahhh, the "T" word!) in order to finance certain things required by a civilized (that may be the key word) society.

But anyway, this article was particularly thought-provoking.

By Allison Linn
http://lifeinc.today.com/
"We know the Great Recession has prompted some people to delay retirement because they can no longer afford it, even as it has forced others into an early retirement.

The nation’s budget crunch also has raised the question of whether we need to increase the age at which people can start collecting full Social Security benefits. The idea is that would make up for the fact that people are living longer and Social Security is becoming harder to pay for.

Unless you’re Warren Buffett, it’s probably not thrilling to consider the possibility of spending your golden years at the office instead of the beach. But a commentary this week from the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute is raising an interesting question: Do we really deserve all those years of retirement?

The article's author, Christopher Conover, notes Americans are now spending a far bigger chunk of their lives in retirement than ever before, and questions whether that’s an entitlement we can still afford.

In 1900, he notes, a 20-year-old man could expect to work for 90 percent of his remaining life. In 2004, he could expect to work 65 percent of his remaining life.

Conover has no clear answer. Working longer may be better for financing things like Social Security, but it also could come at a cost to quality of life. . . "




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Some strange things. . .

. . . have I experienced this week. . .

The bumper sticker: "I love my Granddogs" (Sorry, this is taking 'doggie-dom' to new heights)

A girl I know always says 'You can do anything if you have your glasses and a bright light on.' (Which is probably true, now that I think about it.)

Trump is thinking about another run for President. (Does ANYONE really have to comment on THAT?!)

"Business is business and business must grow" [. . . Dr. Seuss] (Came to my mind after hearing some bad news about a local office of a very successful business)

And last but not least, the budget battle in DC. . . looked up some facts. . . (Thanks to FactCheck.org)
Obama claimed that by the middle of this decade his budget “will not be adding more to the national debt.” But that’s not true. The debt will continue to grow by more than $600 billion even in 2015, the year with the least red ink projected.
The president also claims that the “discretionary” budget is only 12 percent of the total. It’s actually 36 percent. Obama, like President Bush before him, is referring to “non-security” spending that excludes not only the Pentagon but the Department of Homeland Security and veterans’ benefits.
Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the Budget Committee, repeated a false claim that Obama has increased domestic discretionary spending by 84 percent over the last two years. He hasn’t. That spending went up 27 percent, even counting stimulus spending, according to the official tally from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Ryan’s committee also claims that Obama’s budget contains $1.6 trillion in “new taxes.” Actually, 44 percent of that total is made up of increases scheduled under current law, not proposed in the budget. And one big proposed increase is offset by Obama holding down a scheduled rise in the Alternative Minimum Tax.
Speaker Boehner claimed Obama has added 200,000 federal workers, when official figures put the total at 58,000, and Sarah Palin claimed in a bogus Twitter message that Obama’s cuts are only 0.1 percent of the deficit, when the true figure is 20 times higher.

So. . . THERE!


ANOTHER SHOT by Ray Jozwiak (that's me!)