The Coffee House

[nerwin]

Strange no one else has even mentioned it?

Quite a sudden change.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

With skating going on lately, I was reminded of this clip I recorded back around 2018. If you compare this to modern figure skating, things have changed a lot. Today's skaters spend time with hands and knees on the ice. I'm not sure how I think about that.

​

The first thing I should point out is that the first song in the clip was a substitution. I am certain that the original song was approved for the ice show, and royalties were paid for its use. This has been done for years. Moreover, Youtube already had their own royalty agreement with the major rights holders and the original song would have been paid for such use. However, the original copyright owner had died, and the rights were in the hands of his "successors", who probably didn't fully understand that they were going to get paid. Still, I see that after 8 years, the count is only 101 views, so it was probably around the cost of a slice of pizza (if even that much). Even with a glitched payment system, it wasn't much. Anyway, YouTube erased the music leaving it silent for the length of the song. That kind of impaired the show, so I substituted another song (2NE1's "Can't Nobody Hold Us Down"). The beat matched and the lyrics were good in this use. The royalty situation would have been the same, but having exposure probably helped them more. They were a South Korean group and few people in the west would have known them.

I think that today's figure skaters and ice dancers were influenced by Canadian Ice Dancers Bourne and Kratz who were skating back around the time I recorded this video. They called their style "Hydroblading" and it was very flowing and dramatic. For them, only their skate blades touched the ice, but leaned over fairly extremely (called a "deep edge" style). It created structures where the lower skater was bearing a lot of the weight of the upper skater, almost like a lift. But generally, the more common style of skating was generally upright, like the skating in this ice show.

[2025-03-04 18:38]

I checked around for a contemporary skate clip for comparison and found this one. It's about 7 min long, posted on Feb 20, 2025:

"Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier lead after rhythm dance at Four Continents #figureskating", "CBC Sports"
""​

 

[snowbear]

Been away. New banner and notification boxes are more “floating” when viewed on phone. I’ll reserve judgement until I see it on laptop.

I arrived at PWM (Portland ME airport) about 10:30. Flight was scheduled to leave at 12:55 but delayed to 5-something, then ultimately canceled. BWI (Baltimore) has no power so they closed. I guess they forgot to pay the bill,

Got a flight to DC (Reagan National) on another carrier. Cost more but I upgraded to Business, and got what seat, #A1. Smaller jet but should still be relaxing with this class.

 

[nerwin]

Made another tractor video just for fun. No real serious work. It was just nice to get outside and clean up the driveway, the sun was nice even though it was cold.

 

[VidThreeNorth]

I'm thinking about the Sherlock Holmes readings I've posted. One of the earliest was "The Blue Carbuncle". That was unfortunate. It is one of my favorite stories, but I tried recording it "out doors". I thought the background sounds might prove interesting. The result was bad because of traffic noise. I have to remember to re-do that reading some day. . . .

 

[smoke665]

Mother Nature put on a show last night, she huffed and puffed, she howled, schreeched and rattled the windows with powerful wind gust, but fortunately despite all her hissy fit, we had no damage, and never even lost power.

The rain that followed the cold front was a welcome relief. Our guys were fighting a wildfire just a mile from us, started by an idiot burning trash, the gusty wind was spreading it rapidly.

 

[snowbear]

Went from upper teens at home, to 40s at MLSIL's.

When I canceled the PWM to BWI flight, I had to cancel the whole trip, not just one leg. Now that I don't have a reservation back, I'm going to rent a truck and take up what we don't trust the movers to do; a couple pieces of furniture and the accumulated art works.

MLW has asked HR for an appointment to prep her retirement.

 

[SquarePeg]

Howdy Folks! Ugh! What a flop of a birthday weekend. My son's girlfriend's daughter gifted everyone their own personal stomach bug. That was not pleasant at all. Yesterday was supposed to be an extended weekend day, and I spent the entire day in bed covered in dogs and blankets. Today is a recovery day, and tomorrow is back to work. Between this and the layoffs and all the other garbage, I vote we load our last save and redo February... what do you mean the save is corrupted?

Happy belated birthday! Sorry it wasn’t the celebration you had planned. Same thing for mine but it was weather that canceled the bday plan.

How is morale at the job after the layoffs? It’s hard for the “survivors” to be expected to just carry on. Job Insecurity, mistrust and resentment can make for a very toxic environment at work.

Went from upper teens at home, to 40s at MLSIL's.

When I canceled the PWM to BWI flight, I had to cancel the whole trip, not just one leg. Now that I don't have a reservation back, I'm going to rent a truck and take up what we don't trust the movers to do; a couple pieces of furniture and the accumulated art works.

MLW has asked HR for an appointment to prep her retirement.

The finish line is in sight! You’ve been burning up the roads and airspace btw MD and ME this year. I’m sure you’re looking forward to being permanently settled in.

 

[snowbear]

The finish line is in sight! You’ve been burning up the roads and airspace btw MD and ME this year. I’m sure you’re looking forward to being permanently settled in.

Oh, yes. The truck passed inspection with no issues and the Honda only needed windshield wipers. I have appointment in two weeks to get ME Driver's (and Fishing) License, then I am done except a few address change notifications. MLW has already changer her adress with County HR. Mainly a paperwork shuffle but we have to remember to set aside money for ME state taxes - the County won't withold for ME. Once she's able to go up more often, she'll get her DL changed over. I think MLSIL will wait until she's actually going up.

MLSIL still has to have her second surgery (colo-bag removal) and then she may head up to ME for a few weeks to recoop. We'll restart renovations in ME soon, which will be my basket, and MLW will run with the house sale. Once ours (technically mine) is sold, MLW will move in with MLSIL and help get her place ready for sale.

 

[terri]

Mother Nature put on a show last night, she huffed and puffed, she howled, schreeched and rattled the windows with powerful wind gust, but fortunately despite all her hissy fit, we had no damage, and never even lost power.

The rain that followed the cold front was a welcome relief. Our guys were fighting a wildfire just a mile from us, started by an idiot burning trash, the gusty wind was spreading it rapidly.

We got pounded by the same storm system - this thing is massive, from north of here all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. There's no escaping something that encompassing! We were lucky, too - no power outages or even a hint of a trickle of water in its usual lone area of the basement.

I'm going to rent a truck and take up what we don't trust the movers to do; a couple pieces of furniture and the accumulated art works.

MLW has asked HR for an appointment to prep her retirement.

This is how we've always moved across country - in stages. The last stage is generally just us in a rented cargo van (gotta look around to find one and pounce when you do), with the cats, plants, wine, photo/darkroom gear, computer stuff - basically super personal/valuable-to-us items that would never see the inside of a moving van.

I don't see how people manage doing stuff in one fell swoop without a lot of help - and extra drivers. Ugh. Over the last 15 years, for family reasons and/or whatnot, we dragged our crap from Georgia to Texas, then from Texas back to Georgia (hello, Louisiana Bayou!), then - and finally - from Georgia up to the great frozen tundra. In each case, it involved at least a couple long hauls, starting with our mini-Ryder style truck rentals while also someone following behind driving one of the cars. The last leg is always waiting on the movers to clear out a place, sign off, leave a key in a realtor dropbox, and head out with yowling cats in a bouncy cargo van. Amazing that they've never run away from home.

 

[smoke665]

Most of our short moves have been via small trucks. Our longest move was with a large moving company, paid for by the company I went to work for. I have to say that was by far the least stressful. They came in, they packed it up, loaded it, delivered it, unpacked and hauled off the trash.

 

[PhotoHobbyist]

I'm thinking about the Sherlock Holmes readings I've posted. One of the earliest was "The Blue Carbuncle". That was unfortunate. It is one of my favorite stories, but I tried recording it "out doors". I thought the background sounds might prove interesting. The result was bad because of traffic noise. I have to remember to re-do that reading some day. . . .

Coincidentally, I was watching "Mr. Holmes" and saw your post. This one is very different.

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[VidThreeNorth]

I don't watch Pluto TV. The only version I have seen was the Jeremy Brett version. I felt the overall story was close enough. The gist was that it was a Christmas story and mystery with a Christmas ending.

 

[jeffashman]

Howdy Folks! We survived those winds, but boy howdy were they hellacious! Our house was popping and creaking almost as much as I do...

@SquarePeg We are doing ok and recovering from the shock. We are a special crew and try to keep our focus on what we do in spite of what happened. That said, it's going to take a long time for Leadership to build up trust again. I was going to add a comment relating to the current situ in government, buuuuuut don't want to get bounced... Maybe in the off-topic political forum at some point I'll vent about that.

I think I'll update this and leave it on a lighter note...
My dear spousal unit wanted to know what eggs are going for at the store, since I do the shopping. I told her, $3.99 for normal factory eggs to $8.79 from the organic free-range pasture raised meditative chickens. Those chickens do breathing exercises and meditate on their oneness with the Universal Consciousness before laying an egg. Those ones are the best for making an om-elette…

 

[cgw]

Howdy Folks! We survived those winds, but boy howdy were they hellacious! Our house was popping and creaking almost as much as I do...

@SquarePeg We are doing ok and recovering from the shock. We are a special crew and try to keep our focus on what we do in spite of what happened. That said, it's going to take a long time for Leadership to build up trust again. I was going to add a comment relating to the current situ in government, buuuuuut don't want to get bounced... Maybe in the off-topic political forum at some point I'll vent about that.

I think I'll update this and leave it on a lighter note...
My dear spousal unit wanted to know what eggs are going for at the store, since I do the shopping. I told her, $3.99 for normal factory eggs to $8.79 from the organic free-range pasture raised meditative chickens. Those chickens do breathing exercises and meditate on their oneness with the Universal Consciousness before laying an egg. Those ones are the best for making an om-elette…

Bad pun. Shameful actually. Embarrassing. On a lighter note: Ontario provincial liquor stores pulled ALL US booze and vino off their shelves Tuesday morning. Tough break for the drinking classes. Not sure I like being in the trenches of this trade war!