Beautiful Music

How about Bach ?

Yo-Yo Ma plays Cello Symphony No. 1 by the Great One


Prokofiev Symphony No. 1

Swimming Drills

I am posting up these YouTube videos because it's got some good and fun drills : Mallorca Swim Drills and Kicking Drills

Ubuntu : 64-bit Adobe Flashplayer

I finally found a good installation package to get Adobe to install without any checksum error :

http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10804892/flashplugin-nonfree_9.0.115.0ubuntu2_amd64.deb

vets

I just kissed away $180 at the vet. Why ? Because vets are crooks. Here I was at the vet, verifying that my cat had either a bladder infection or stones , when I discovered that he was setting me on my way to a $600 vet bill. I thankfully stepped away from $400 of it, but unfortunately, I paid $80-$100 too much!! After finding out that the big plan was for me to do first a urine analysis, then some x-rays and additionally some bloodwork, I would then be prescribed either medication, surgery or a simple diet change. From what he had said so far, it sounded like the diet change would be the place to start, so I proposed that we start with the new diet and if that didn't work, I'd come back for the next step. If he had agreed, I would have felt that he was trustworthy, but he refused to give me the "prescription" diet unless I had at the very least a urinanalysis. He then confessed that he could find out everything he needed to know from the simply urinanalysis. Well, I am kicking myself now for giving in to that crap. He didn't even need the flipping urinanalysis after all! But I agreed to it, so after sitting in the waiting for half an hour, he called me back in to the office to recommend the prescription diet. By then, my brain started to wake up and I started to ask questions about the diet formula. Apparently, it would cost $30/month to feed her and it had special ingredients in it that would encourage her to drink more water (ie, salt) and to do other things which he couldn't explain to me because in his words, he is not a nutritionist. He might not be nutritionist and he might be a vet, but one things certain : he's a crook.

Post Script : If I had read this link, I might be even more than $100 the richer :
http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-treat-common-cat-diseases5.htm

A snowy morning in February

I wake up anxious that I will be late for my morning swim with the Nepean Masters Swim Club. Since I'm practically blind without my contacts on, I press the light switch on my HRM and read 3h39. Phewph, I relax and let myself go back to sleep knowing that from now on I will sleep lightly and wake up frequently to check the time. 4h41 and then 5h11 marks the time to turn off the alarm clock. It goes off a minute later anyway, but Greg doesn't wake up. I lay in bed thinking that it's best not to get to the pool too early, because that means sitting around the pool, shivering and grumpy until the lifeguards are ready. At 5h21, I get up, sinking the mattress beneath me, causing Greg to stir, and then I promptly stumble into everything on the way to the bathroom : corner of bed, laundry hamper, bathroom door. Greg sighs. In the bathroom, the pep talk starts : As soon as you have your swimsuit on, you'll start to wake up! Just a few sips of Gatorade and you'll be in great shape! I strip and look at the scale for good news : yes, I haven't gained anything since yesterday. The rest of the morning's activities : warming up the car, getting water bottles, mixing in gatorade, finding clothes and sweatshirts somehow seems to involve many noisy trips into the dark bedroom, when Greg finally gives up and turns on the light to help me find my things. I tell him the pretty news : Snowstorm ! So we need to trade cars! He stares ahead for a few seconds, squints at me, pale and heavy with sleep. Then he agrees with a slight nod of his head as he stiffly gets out of bed. I leap down the stairs, stuff everything in my big black Adidas bag, wrap my pretty scarf on tight to keep the chilly flakes from tickling my neck, pick up my soft knit hat from the wet entryway , doubtfully push it over my hair, don my ski mitts, and slip my feet into the my big warm Kamiks. By now, the car is toasty warm and buried beneath several inches of airy light snow. The neighbourhood is so pretty in thick layers of white at this pitch black hour of the morning. I feel like a kid as I clear the car with the big red snowbrush. The snow flies into the air with every stroke, lingers for a second and then reluctantly floats down to the ground. This is a good omen : I am never grumpy at swim practice when I start my morning playing in the snow. The drive to the pool is not unlike riding a toboggan down a long shallow slope through mounds of fluffy snow. At every stop , I hold my breath in anticipation : will the tires slide or will they stick ? The snowplowers rush down Greenbank ,but it hardly shows since the snow is piling up so fast behind them. Finally, I slide my way into the parking lot. Snowflakes kiss my cheeks as I walk to the building. Today's swim is bound to be fantastic!

Ubuntu : Getting the keyboard to work!

The keyboard solution was far from obvious and I had to dig around the ubuntu forums to find a solution.

Here it is (uses System->Preferences->Keyboard)
1) Set the keyboard model to Macintosh(not Macintosh old, just Macintosh)
2) Set the layout to US English

ubuntu on acer aspire 5920

I just bought a new laptop less than 2 weeks ago and I installed Ubuntu right away.. well, as soon as I could anyway (I´ll share the story about all my adventures some other time!)

My latest problem was: How do I get the sound to work??


After much ubuntu forum searching, I found the solution...

Open volume control (double click on the speaker icon in the upper right corner of the screen)
In volume control make sure that in File -> Change device the "HDA Intel (alsa mixer)" is selected.
Go to Edit -> Preferences and select all tracks in the list.
Unmute and increase volume on "PCM", "Surround", "Center", "Side" and "LFE". Sound should work nicely now. Optionally mute the micophone sliders.

Thanks ¨DrunkDelirium¨... now if only I could get the keyboard fixed...