Stonehenge, the naturist symbol, and the Druid Awen sign

Atheist, technopagan and vegan.

But that's not all you can find here.

Paul

Sound. Not vision. Part 2.

Last week I got the Bluetooth antenna in. Connecting it to the NAD amplifier was very simple, and setting up the Bluetooth connection to the tablet was simple as well, after installing the NAD Remote App. Then it was showtime. The audio quality is impeccable. I switched between BT and the SONOS a few times, but there is no difference for my ears. Check. 1 for each. Switching on the tablet and connecting Samba Network…

Continue reading...
Paul

Sound. Not vision.

I own Sonos equipment. A Sonos port is on the stereo and that is a good thing. I also have a Sonos Play:1 and, when it works, it is a good thing. Lately, I have to update that Play:1 nearly each time I want to use it, so that's putting up with the download/update/restart, and some 5 minutes later it's operational. That's not what I want when I switch it on. Sure, it boots, like…

Continue reading...
Paul

You are Earth

“You're comprised of 84 minerals, 23 Elements & 8 gallons of water spread over 38 trillion cells. You're built from nothing by the spare parts of the Earth you've consumed according to a set of instructions hidden in a double helix, small enough to be carried by a sperm. You're recycled butterflies, plants, rocks, streams, firewood, wolf fur & shark teeth, broken down to their smallest parts & rebuilt into our planets most complex living…

Continue reading...
Paul

Memento Mori

I'm a stoic. At least I think I am. I want to be one. I follow one of America's most productive and clear Stoics, his name is Ryan Holiday. Today, in the mailing list I subscribe to, I found this (again): “When you realize that as you are killing time, time is killing you—it changes your relationship with your life itself. That’s what Memento Mori is supposed to do. It’s not supposed to be morbid…

Continue reading...
Paul

Publii. Content management.

I've created this post with Publii. Actually, the last set of posts here are made with it. My site used to run on Wordpress. Wordpress started out a great system to do things, but lately - at least for me - it turned into a slow, cumbersome hassle to maintain, log into and keep safe. Even an insignificant site like this one needed the Wordfence plugin, because of over 300 attacks and hacking / injection…

Continue reading...
Paul

Mastodon and other difficulties

Twitter The Twitter exodus is a fact. At the same time, Mastodon is a puzzle. Many people are scared. So many servers, waiting lists, shit stuff, don't-knows and more. "Mastodon" is a collection of computers that are interconnected. So if you join e.g. Mastodon.world, you can still talk to everyone on all other servers, like Mastodon.ai, writing.exchange or toot.community. Yes, these are actual names on actual servers. You find subjects by looking for them through…

Continue reading...
Paul

Big space, little planet

I've been thinking. Again. If the Christian god created the earth (Genesis 1), as did Allah of the Islam (Koran verse 7:54), and probably a host of other gods (all of them fake except 'the real one' of course), then there are a few weird things happening "around us". Science has shown us that the universe is pretty big. In the words of Douglas Adams, from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Space is big.

Continue reading...
Paul

The 3 sieves of Socrates

In Ancient Greece, Socrates had a great reputation of wisdom. One day, someone came to find the great philosopher and said to him: "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?" A moment, replied Socrates. "Before you tell me, I would like to test you the three sieves." "The three sieves?" "Yes," continued Socrates. "Before telling anything about the others, it's good to take the time to filter what you mean. I call…

Continue reading...
Paul

A new toy for the theremin

What? A new toy for the theremin? Why is that? When I made the “Bridge over troubled water” recording, I noticed that there were a few sounds and effects I wanted to add that weren’t there. The synth-box by E-Harmonix wasn’t up to the task so I asked around and I found this. The Zoom A1 Four. It’s nifty! Someone suggested an alternative, the Korg Pandora Stomp box, but that wasn’t available anywhere. Okay, except…

Continue reading...
Mastodon - Diaspora