And, for some strange inexplicable reason, January always seems to stretch on forever.....and forever.....and forever...I always feel as though the month is five or six weeks long.
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- Thread starter Gutwrench
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November and December seem longer to my mind. But I'm really looking forward to spring. Warmth and longer days would be great around now.
Agreed: Actually, all three months seem to last far longer than they should, in my opinion.
Well, I vividly recall my mother, (who loathed winter, as I do), remarking that some houses had so many brightly lit Christmas decorations on their roofs that the reindeers (along with the steering, white bearded, pilot, attired in dashing and shocking shades of red) pulling any sleigh would be in serious danger of badly crashing as they would run the risk of being blinded - by the searing brightness of these rooftop decorations - on their legendary annual journey traversing the globe.
I hear you mate. Not to bring up my surgery in mid november, but following that, I am unable to return to work, for a period of 12 weeks, as my employer is quite strict about occupational health and safety, and manual handling. As someone that lives alone, and whose pastime is running, with friends and colleagues, who live the other side of the city from me (20 miles or so), these weeks have been boring, and monotonous, and mentally a challenge. It's hard over the holiday season, when work and life get's crazy for others, to have them 'pop' over for an hour. Some have though.
So many tv show episodes, LOTR, the Hobbit and Harry Potter, that I have no idea the time or day, without looking it up. My MacBook Pro had to go off for a 10 day holiday, to have the screen replaced (has to travel from Perth to Sydney ~ 3500kms), so bough a AUD$800 Lenovo SlimPad, with Windows 11. 5 days with this, makes me never complain about Apple. Takes so long to customise it.
Always amusing that January is termed 'dry january', as, probably like you, feel the need to drink to make the days of this month pass (I live in Perth, Australia, and January Temps often reach 40c)
As the saying goes (and well recited by me, at the moment) 'It too shall pass'.
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To my mind, the very concept of a "dry" January - even if in erroneous compensation for the ludicrous excesses of the Christmas season (itself entirely unnecessary; now, there is nothing wrong with some self-indulgence in the depths of a dreary, depressing and endless winter, but the insanity of the frenzy of Christmas consumption far exceeds what the winter solstice season calls for)- has always struck me as nothing other than an outburst of self-flagellation of a nauseatingly narcissistic, masochistic and penitential kind.
Like all those people who join a gym in January.
These days I have more dry months than wet ones. I’ve had one pint in January, none in December that I recall.
One of the blessings of not celebrating Christmas is unlike my colleagues and fellow countrymen, I have no waistline or credit card debt regrets in January (or any other time for that matter).
I’m a well reformed fatty for more than a decade now and I’ve never owned a credit card (and never will).
Dark and dismal, dreary and wet, not to mention freezing and frigidly cold and miserable, and all by 16.00, or 16.20 this Saturday afternoon in January.
Yesterday, - as three weeks have now elapsed since the winter solstice - I entertained the brief thought (alas, in vain), that the evenings might be getting just a tiny little bit brighter, and the days increasing in length by a few fleeting minutes........perhaps, such thoughts were but brief bursts of of mindless optimism.
Yesterday, - as three weeks have now elapsed since the winter solstice - I entertained the brief thought (alas, in vain), that the evenings might be getting just a tiny little bit brighter, and the days increasing in length by a few fleeting minutes........perhaps, such thoughts were but brief bursts of of mindless optimism.
We’ve had good sunshine here most of the day. However on our walk this afternoon it was incredibly slippery.
I am noticing the very slight lengthening of days in WI, but they are still significantly shorter than the days back home, much farther south. Snowing today. I haven't been out yet (really don't want to all that much, since it's also very cold).
Same. It’s not fully dark at 5 this evening, but not far from.
Excellent.
Ugh.
Exactly.
I cling to such glimmers of hope.....
As my second last iPod classic is currently undergoing a diagnostic - preferably preparatory to receiving the necessary repairs/replacement pieces - and I have been informed by the charming Polish proprietor not to expect to hear from him "for at least a week" - over this past week-end, I sought out my very last (brand new, still in its sealed box), iPod Classic (160GB), (purchased - as was its partner, - the device currently undergoing a detailed diagnostic - when Apple announced that they planned to discontinue this marvellous device), reverently unsealed it, and spent more time that is possibly healthy enjoying the whole process of setting it up and introducing it to - and subsequently having it synch with - my (rather extensive) iTunes collection on my computer.
It is now all of 20 years since I bought my very first iPod classic (a 30GB device, if memory serves), a device that then accompanied me when I was asked to travel to a country for a couple of months in order to observe an election there.
It is now all of 20 years since I bought my very first iPod classic (a 30GB device, if memory serves), a device that then accompanied me when I was asked to travel to a country for a couple of months in order to observe an election there.
I remember my first iPod. Recently I tried to update it and killed it. Not sure if it’s worth the time or effort to try and fix it.
But yes it was such a better medium than CD’s or ghastly tapes that came before it.
I'd have a hard time opening that box and using that iPod. That would feel too much of a collector's item that I'd hate to unbox and use...
I never had an iPod. I doubt I'd have felt it was better than CD, let alone LPs, when it was released. But I was more of an audio purist then. Although it certainly proved to be an important product that many were happy with. It seems like a better idea for portable use than the fragile CD.
I have wonder about the iPod today. Most would view a phone as more convenient. For those wanting sound qualiry, a phone can be partnered with an external DAC (digital to analog convertor). (This said, I can imagine some desiring an iPod. For example, I can see someone feeling his or her iPod provides better performance than a phone without external DAC and less hassle than dealing with an external DAC.)
As for tapes, cassette was very limited. Small tape, run at slow speed. It was supposedly originally intended for dictation, and then someone came up with the idea of using it for music. It is a miracle it could work as well as it could.
My main issue with tape was in cars with their hot and cold extremes it was really bad. If one broke inside your car stereo, good luck! They were the ultimate repair challenge as a teenager.
For portability iPods (and today iPhones) just couldn't be matched.
In the 80s I always had Walkmans (had a Sony Walkman 4 that basically lasted a decade). Cassettes were cheap, plentiful and "good enough".
In the 90s I got a Sony discman for playing CDs, but they were very prone to skipping if you moved... even walking really slowly. So I kind of lost interest in portable music.
Then when the MP3 players starting showing up ±2000 I first got a cheap Panasonic (!) one that got me back onto protable music, and later iPods (than iPhones).
Fun fact: I didn't like the original iPod, and never bought that, but _really_ liked the first iPod mini, and ordered that (by a sketchy 3rd party firm) from the US 6 months before they were released in Norway. I loved that sturdy little brick of an iPod.
Now, growing up on cassettes, meant that even mp3@128 was more than good enough for my (initial) use, and I don't - to this day - really hear any difference between aac@256 and Apple Lossless.
In the 80s I always had Walkmans (had a Sony Walkman 4 that basically lasted a decade). Cassettes were cheap, plentiful and "good enough".
In the 90s I got a Sony discman for playing CDs, but they were very prone to skipping if you moved... even walking really slowly. So I kind of lost interest in portable music.
Then when the MP3 players starting showing up ±2000 I first got a cheap Panasonic (!) one that got me back onto protable music, and later iPods (than iPhones).
Fun fact: I didn't like the original iPod, and never bought that, but _really_ liked the first iPod mini, and ordered that (by a sketchy 3rd party firm) from the US 6 months before they were released in Norway. I loved that sturdy little brick of an iPod.
Now, growing up on cassettes, meant that even mp3@128 was more than good enough for my (initial) use, and I don't - to this day - really hear any difference between aac@256 and Apple Lossless.
-7 degree wind chill this morning. The wind is almost always blowing so that’s pretty much how cold it is, despite the official temperature being 15. Not fun. Though this is only the beginning, I fear. Supposed to get down below -20 in a few days.
After beginning the process in August, and installation completed on Dec. 24, I got the final permission to operate and turn on our new solar panels this morning.
Needs must.
At the end of the proverbial day, this is a device designed to be used to listen to music, (rather than admired in its lovely little box, I'll admit that the packaging is gorgeous) and - as it is - I very much doubt that I will receive my other remaining iPod back this Friday, as I had been assured that I could not expect to hear from the Polish gentleman "for at least a week".
In any case, I have learned - yes, a learned lesson from life, or, from experience, - that the key section in such a sentence is "not for at least", - and that one should pay close attention to that "not for", and the "at least", rather than "a week", which is what one would like to hear, or, to be told, and what one is listening out for in the hope of hearing.
To my mind, the development of the iPod Classic ranks with modern plumbing, the invention of the printing press (along with that of paper) as one of those inventions I deem "awesome".
Not I.
I loathe smart phones, and use mine simply to communicate with others.
For those of who who travel extensively (and not just for work), - and who can be away for months at a time - the iPod was (and is) invaluable.
Well, I am not - and was not - ever blind to the shortcomings of tapes.
However, - and quite apart from the sheer portability - receiving a tape cassette of interesting music that had been carefully curated by a good friend (often from pieces selected from his father's extensive music collection of LP records) always ranked - to my way of thinking - as one of the nicest and most thoughtful of gifts that it was possible to receive when I was a student in school and university.