SuperDuper Story

 SuperDuper story

Yesterday, as we were setting up for the morning Zoom streaming session, I told Jim about my problems trying to fix a failed restore on my daughter’s computer. I had spent most of two days downloading various Mac OS operating systems, trying to get it to boot back up. All the downloads failed, citing missing or corrupted essential files.

I tried to download a new OS on my own computer to a flash drive, which I could then transfer over to her computer, but the download site immediately found my computer with an M1 processor would be incompatible with Darlene’s computer with a Pentium processor and greyed out the download button, preventing my download.

I tried several “safe” starts on her computer to type in Terminal commands, with no success. I think her hard drive is now a “brick.”

My next move will be to buy myself a new Mac mini with an M2 chip and give her my present computer. I have most of the photos and some of the documents she will want on her next computer. She lost those in the restore attempts she made before I tried to save it.

Anyway, during the discussion, Jim highly recommended a backup program call SuperDuper, which is simple, easy, and free, unless you choose to upgrade for a small fee. It creates a bootable disk on a flash drive, external disc, etc. with all your data, documents, and photos safely stored.

When I got home, I tried to go to SuperDuper.com with no luck. I also tried SuperDooper.com and SooperDooper.com. I gave up and Googled SuperDuper backup program and found it by a company named ShirtPocket. So I immediately went to the download site to start the program download.

I have never seen an attack like I met on the download site. Had to navigate through other popup pages from other backup programs trying to get me to click on their programs instead. When I finally got to the actual SuperDuper download page, it was plastered with ads, and fake download buttons for other programs. The worst was some program called Avast. You had to look and read carefully to avoid hitting the wrong download button.

I finally got the right program downloaded and installed, and printed out the instructions. I tried a flash drive I had first, but it was too small. I needed about 350 Mb for a full backup, and the flash drive wasn’t even close to that.

Then I remembered an SSD I installed in my OWC Dock under my Mac Mini. I have been using it to store some of my photos to make space for more photos on my iPhone. I checked it and found it was 500 Mb, but only had about 45 Mb used. So I partitioned that drive to a 400Mb drive with a 100 Mb drive with my photos, and had lots of room for a backup.

It all went well, and for the first time in a couple of months my machine is fully backed up. My Apple Time Machine locked up some time ago. I have forgotten how many years it worked, but you only get so many years, and then it quits!

I upgraded to the full version of SuperDuper, which has provision to set up regular backups. It only cost $28.00. Worth every penny!

My next move is a trip to the Apple Store down in Dallas at the Galleria for a new Mac Mini.

Audio/Video for Dummies

 Audio/Video for Dummies

Last week we (Jim and I) decided to hook up the Stage Box to our X32 Mixer, since we have one and the wireless mics were a lot of trouble. We arranged to meet at the church at 1:00 PM today to try to get the system going.

I prepared by reading all I could in the Manual, which is so esoteric I didn’t even have a clue about what they were trying to teach me. I watched training videos on YouTube, most of which assumed you already knew something about what you were doing. The longer I studied the more confused I was.

Instead of a simple demonstration of how to configure just one channel to get the sound to come through, they spent long minutes explaining how to string multiple stage boxes together in series, which would be fine for an orchestra, but we are just a small church in a small town in Texas.

When we first started to set up to stream the services when the pandemic started, we had one microphone which we couldn’t get any sound out of, even though it was brand new. We asked for help from a local business which gave lessons to church members for a price, but either they thought we were too dumb to teach, or they had some Baptist scruples about teaching those UU heretics down at the Red River Unitarian Universalist place. In any case they never called back.

After much searching, I found an article online about the difference between dynamic and condenser microphones. How were we supposed to know that condenser mics need 49 volts of “Phantom Power” to make them operate? Sure, everybody knows that! Except us. We bought some phantom power adapters with batteries inside that allowed us to stream the radio signal across the room to the receiver, which connects to the mixer board.

As Jim and I continued this afternoon to try to get sound out of the stage box, we listened to YouTube videos and tried to make sense of it.On one of the videos the teacher changed the clock setting from external to the stage box. I did that and then we had no sound at all from anywhere, including the Power Point computer. Jim suggested I change that setting back like it was before. Good idea!

 We figured it had something to do with “Routing”, but the page with the routing choices was long and complicated. Where are we routing from? Where are we routing to? Is the routing inside the box or the mixer? 

After an hour and a half of no luck, I took a break and went to the bathroom. When I came back, Jim was back by the stage box and said, “Listen to this!” He blew on the mike and the sound burst from the mixer. 

I asked what he did, and he showed me how he moved the routing from the stage box to the row of faders we wanted to use for those channels. He said we were overthinking it. He was right. It didn’t take us long to plug in the electric piano and several microphones and adjust the gains on each channel to unity on the faders. 

I know this is kind of technical for most people. Me most of all. But I’m beginning to think there is hope for me at last.

I went looking on Amazon for a book titled X32 Mixer for Dummies, but they don’t have it. They should.

This Was the Week that Was...

 This Was the Week that Was…

I really wanted to go for a bicycle ride today, but I’m just too tired and the weather is cold. I also needed a day off. It’s been a crazy week.

Sunday went surprisingly well, considering this is our first time with multiple musical instruments, lots of live songs and several PowerPoint recordings of music, all combined. We had a practice session the week before, gathering up all the microphones we could find and trying to find a good arrangement to pick up all the sounds and mix them for live streaming, recording and the real time program in the chapel.

Since the audience was expected to participate in the songs, I got to coordinate the text verses on the screens as the music played. Due to my monotropic mind, I was afraid I might have trouble working the sound mixer and the PowerPoint computer at the same time, but it worked out once we had the sound board set up the way we liked it.

I learned during the program what I needed to study and practice to make it easier next time. I printed myself another manual for the Behringer X32 Compact mixer board, and by reading that and watching videos on YouTube, I now know how to mute groups of channels with one button and how to control several channels together with one DCA fader.

Muting certain groups of channels was required, because during one song playing on PowerPoint by Dan on the piano, the dulcimers were retuning to a different key for their next number. I had to mute them on their individual channels, which I got done, but it would have been easier to have had them grouped on a single mute button.

The bass dulcimer player had her own amplifier, so we put a microphone in front of that speaker to pick up that sound. Unfortunately, after the program was over, we found that the recorded sound lost her bass part. It sounded good in the room at the time, but we will have to use headphones next time to isolate the sound being picked up on that microphone, since we don’t have a soundproof recording booth.

Monday I went on a follow up visit to my electrophysiologist down in Sherman, TX. Have you ever got a fist bump from your doctor? I did! I told him that in the month since he raised my prescription of Verapamil, I haven’t had even one instance of heart arrhythmia. He said we need to do an EKG to make sure, and I told him I have several with me. Did he want to see them? He laughed and said, “Sure, show me!” So I dug my iPhone out of my coat pocket and showed him the KardiaMobile chart on Oct. 19, when I had my last Premature Ventricular Contraction, and then about four more since then that were all boring Normal Sinus Rhythm recordings. 

He held up one fist and we did a fist bump. I told him I had never had that sudden an improvement after a change in medication, and it seemed a miracle to me. He got a little more sober and reminded me the my heart had already beat thousands of times already that day, and had done that millions of times since I was born. That was the real miracle of God’s creation, he said. I didn’t argue, and I didn’t ask him which God he was referring to. His name is Mohammed, and with the situation in the Middle East right now, I don’t want to have that discussion today.

Tuesday I went back to the church in Denison to retrieve my coat and keys, which I had forgotten Sunday. Marla had called to tell me they found it when they were locking up. I stayed for the Chair Yoga exercise, which I needed. My shoulders are still sore.

Wednesday I took Darlene down to Carrus Hospital in Sherman for an all night sleep study and titration to look for sleep apnea. It was raining, and there seemed to be a lot of trucks on the highway kicking up spray and reducing visibility to nearly zero. The worst part is they were all taking turns passing each other. If they would just stay in the right lane I could get out in front of them, but no chance of that.

Thursday I went back to Carrus hospital to pick up Darlene after the all night sleep study. We drove back home in Oklahoma 40 miles away, and Darlene made me an omelet for breakfast. Then we had to drive back to Sherman, Tx, for a visit with Darlene’s gastroenterologist. They want to examine her for the neuroendocrine carcinoid tumors they are treating her for at Texoma Medical Center. The chemo treatments have helped her pain considerably.

Today I’m tired and it’s cold outside. Maybe I’ll go bike riding tomorrow.

Nobody... Better

 Have you ever been listening to a song on the radio, humming the tune, maybe tapping your foot, because it is an old melody from 45 years ago, and then the lyrics jump out at you like you’ve never heard them before?

This song played on the car radio as I drove back home from the store yesterday. I tried to remember who the singer was - Carole King maybe, or Carly Simon? I always mix them up. I love them both! But this was Carly Simon.

Maybe the radio in my newer Mazda was more HiFi (do they even use that term anymore?) than the radio in that old red Toyota. But the words jumped out in front of the music this time.

“Nobody Does it Better

Makes me feel Sad for the Rest 

Nobody Does it Half as Good as You

Baby, you’re the Best…”

Instantly my memories returned to my wife Carolyn. She and I were lovers for nearly fifty years. She died five years ago with Alzheimer’s disease, and my heart still aches for her. My arms still long to hold her tight.

“The Way that You Hold Me

Whenever You Hold Me

There’s Some Kind of Magic inside You”

This was the theme for a James Bond movie, “The Spy who Loved Me.”

We were living in the backwoods of Western Colorado and never got to see the movie when it came out. Didn’t get a lot of current music on the radio out there in the wilds, either. 

“That Keeps Me from Runnin’

But just Keep it Comin’

How’d You Learn to Do the Things You Do?”

In the spring of 1968 Carolyn had separated from her husband and was staying with her Aunt Laverna on DeanAnn St. in Garden Grove, California, and I was living in an apartment alone a couple of miles north on Chapman Ave. 

Laverna’s husband Don and I had gone to school together at Walla Walla College and we had been long time friends. Laverna made it a point to invite me over for dinner regularly and bragged on how good Carolyn cooked. 

Laverna had met my steady girlfriend Cathy on a visit to Merced once before, but I think she thought I could be enticed away. I missed all the signals then, but I figured it out later. Turned out she was right.

After the dinners Carolyn and I talked and teased each other, and got to know each other better. One June evening as I was leaving to go home for the night, she came outside and asked for a hug. I picked up the hint and invited her to my apartment. She agreed and followed me in her green Oldsmobile as I rode home on my motorcycle.

“And Nobody Does it Better,

Though Sometimes I wish Someone Could…”

We both had a fantastic time that night. We took our time and went slow and easy, making sure that no erogenous zone was overlooked. She swore that it was the first time she had ever felt an orgasm in her life. One wasn’t enough - we did it again before she left. 

“Nobody Does it

Quite the Way You Do

Why’d you Have to Be So Good?”

The next morning, Sunday, I got a call from Laverna inviting me over for breakfast. I rode over and found out that her husband was at work and Carolyn was at K-Mart, learning a new job. We sat around the dining room table and Laverna had made me scrambled eggs, toast, and a glass of Dr. Pepper on ice for each of us. 

She casually asked, " How are you feeling this morning?", and I said I was feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed, or something like that. She followed up with, "Why would you feel that way?" When I told her it must be due to “clean living” she snorted Dr. Pepper through her nose. I knew immediately Carolyn had filled her in on the details of last night and it wasn’t our secret anymore.

In a couple of weeks Laverna informed me that Carolyn was going back to her husband to try to work things out for the benefit of their seven year old daughter, Darlene.

I wasn’t surprised. I had told Carolyn not to get serious, as I already had a steady girlfriend up north in Merced.

For the next several months we lived our separate lives and didn’t see much of each other. I continued to visit my girlfriend up north, and Carolyn tried to revive her marriage with J.T.

Late one evening, it must have been October, I heard a knock on my apartment door. I had been reading a magazine on the sofa, so I laid it down and went to see who was there. Carolyn stood there with a smile on her face and a bottle of Dr. Pepper in each hand. 

I invited her in and she immediately told me that J.T. and she had gotten into a big argument, and he had threatened to leave her and go back to Oklahoma. She said she called his bluff, loaded all his clothes in the green Oldsmobile, and told him to go then. So he was on his way out of the state and out of the marriage for real.

She was ready and I was willing, and we were soon having another hot time in the bedroom. After we were both satisfied, we just lay there and talked for another hour or so. She was amazed that I stayed up to talk afterward instead of just rolling over to sleep. She wasn’t used to that.

Several days later, she called and told me that J.T. had arrived in Oklahoma at his mother’s house, and had called her wanting to come back. She told him no, she had had enough, and just send her the divorce papers.

She invited me over to her house for dinner that night and said I could stay every night if I wished. I didn’t need a second invitation. My brother John got to take over my apartment, as he had found work at the same place I was working, and we were sharing the apartment then. 

After a couple of weeks I told her, “I think I’m falling in love”. She was overjoyed and said she was hoping so. Then she realized I had said, “I think,” and quickly backed up. I let her know that my girlfriend up north had told me she wouldn’t marry me unless I went back to college and got a degree. I was falling out of love with Cathy fast.

Just a few days later I called Cathy and told her our relationship was over, and that I was in love with someone else and I was not coming back to Merced. Of course, she was not happy about it, but I made it clear that we were over as a couple.

On November 18, I gave my solemn vow to Carolyn to love her and her alone for the rest of my life, and she gave me the same promise. On March 15 the next year we got the official license and a small marriage ceremony at a retired judge's house in Orange, California, to make sure there would be no trouble keeping custody of Darlene. Some people are still confused about why we celebrated two different anniversaries.

I know this sounds like I’m bragging, but we both felt the same way about each other. She was the best lover I ever had. God, how I miss her!

“Nobody Does it Better

Makes Me feel Sad for the Rest

Nobody Does it Half as Good as You

Baby, You’re the Best.”

October 27, 2023

Don Rogers

©

The Song, “Nobody Does It Better” was the theme for the James Bond 

movie “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

Lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager

Music by Marvin Hamlisch who also played the piano for the recording by Carly Simon in 1977.

Vichy in America

 

Vichy in America

This is going to be a hard one to write. Many, if not most of my close friends are people with college degrees. Many are teachers, from elementary, high school and university level. Most don’t realize how they are seen by much of the rest of the country. 

I just finished reading an essay in Medium by Andrew Tanner that rang some bells and resonated with me. He is convinced that Trump will win the next election, even if he rules from his home in “house arrest.” 

“Why,” you ask. “How could that happen?” 

The answer lies in the questions you ask.

Here is a quote from the article:

“All Trump or any right wing voice needs to do to win… is present themselves as the defender of the common American. Associate Biden and the Democrats with smug college elitism and he wins. In America very few people like the teacher’s pet, but this is now the default identity for most leading voices on the fading left.”

Last night I went to a Democratic meeting and fundraiser at a local Italian restaurant here in Durant, Oklahoma. For two days I had been following the news that President Biden was going to join the strikers from the United Auto Workers on the picket line. I was wondering if he actually would, or just make promises, as Democrats tend to. 

Sure enough, just before the meeting, I found video of him on YouTube surrounded by strikers, and defending the workers demands for much higher wages and benefits on a bullhorn!

I’m eighty now and tend to get overly emotional. I got tears in my eyes listening to him talk. I have been a union member for nearly fifty years, both with the Teamsters Union, and then the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers for the last forty or so.

As I went into the room and sat down to listen to the State level Democratic speakers, I waited to hear of the historic event that transpired just this day in Detroit.

I ate, and I waited. It was like nobody cared. Nobody even mentioned it in passing. 

After the speaker finished the Bryan County Federation of  Democratic Women started their own version of fundraising, called “Cheers!” Each person can pledge a dollar amount cheering some event that they feel needs recognized.

I could not let this go by. I raised my hand and loudly announced that this day the President of the United States, for the very first time in history, had stood with striking workers in solidarity on a picket line. That was worth a twenty dollar cheer to me!

I got loud cheers and a handshake from a State Representative on my left. The meeting continued onward. There may have been a couple of us who understand why this is so critical to Biden’s re-election.

Here is another quote from that article:

“Trump’s main power is rooted in the fact that a majority of Americans now feel systematically looked down on by those with a college education.”

If you believe you are going to convince a voter to change to a Democrat because of logic and reason, you just made another MAGA voter.

They are so disgusted with “college elites with degrees” they no longer believe in doctors, vaccines, or climate change. It has nothing to do with facts - it is purely despair and fury by the forgotten ones.

The article is a long one, with what I thought were many questionable assertions and assumptions, but he does make some great points. I believe Trump has a better chance than most people give him.

I also believe he will never see the inside of a jail cell. The powers in the present government don’t have the guts to do anything but rattle the keys. They know it would just get him more die hard followers.

Here is a link to the article:

https://medium.com/@andrewmtanner/when-vichy-comes-to-america-2e5a9699bc2a