Musical Maladies

My iPhone hasn't been working right in my car again. All of a sudden, the touch screen won't work and I have to use the actual phone to do anything. That's not convenient when I'm trying to drive! I'm so frustrated with the Volkswagen radio system right now. I'm tempted to put the car back in the shop, but I'm afraid it will cost me big bucks this time. When I had the radio fixed a few months ago, I didn't

have to pay because the car was still under warranty. I don't know if that warranty still applies now though.

In other disappointing music news, how come iTunes Radio sucks so bad? Every time I tune in, I find myself quickly tuning back out because their sing selections are so lousy. Every iRadio station I have set seems to play songs I don't want to hear. Mindy Abair on the smooth jazz station? No thanks. Elton John in the 70s station? I don't need to hear "Dont Let the Sun Go Down on Me" again, thank you. This is why I prefer Pandora. At least they know what I like.

Whiplash

I saw the movie Whiplash today and thought it was great. The movie focused on a drummer at a Juilliard-like school in New York and his demanding teacher. (Demanding is too nice of word, but it's all I can come up with now.) As the movie progresses, you see the student just become more and more unhinged in his determination to be the best. When I walked out of the movie, my initial thought was that you can't let someone else control your mind. The teacher in the film just played so many head games with the kid and the kid wasn't able to handle it, mainly because he just didn't understand what the teacher was doing to him. He was being manipulated and moved like a puppet by the teacher. Sad.

Last Day

Today is my last full day at the beach. Wah! It's been great though so I can complain. The weather had been spectacular and I keep thinking, I could live like this! But life as I know it will be back before I know it, so I'd better enjoy my remaining hours of freedom while I have them.

Another Day at the Beach

It's another relaxing day at the beach for me. I'm getting some work done on my book and getting some reading done too. Speaking of reading, I finished a great book called Guys on Top by Darien Cox. I highly recommend it if you like m/m romances and you don't have hang ups about men in open relationships. 

Vacation

I'm taking a little vacation this week to try and relax and finish the novel I've been working on. So far, so good!

Trickle Down

Another day, another Ebola victim. I hate to be fixated on this health crisis, but I am. No, I'm not glued to CNN for 24-hour Ebola updates, but I am concerned about the nurses in Texas and the spread of disease. I keep wondering how many people will be affected by this trickle down epidemic before it's under control. I don't know what the hell went on at that hospital in Texas, but I certainly hope that the place has some serious changes instituted as a result of this mess. What I can't understand is how hospital staff contracted Ebola when Duncan's family members seem to be Ebola-free. Duncan's family members were stuck in a two-bedroom apartment with him during the start of his illness, yet I haven't heard that any of them have come become ill. Was he not at the most contagious period in his illness when he was still at home and that's why the family members didn't contract Ebola? I find it hard to believe that the sanitary standards at Duncan's family's apartment were better than those at the hospital.

From Hello to Hola!

With all of the bad news out there lately (Ebola anyone??), I was happy to see an actual bit of good news on the Internet today. A British man living in California who lost his African parrot four years ago was reunited with the bird recently. Apparently, he'd fitted the bird with a microchip and someone discovered that chip and returned the bird to its proper owner. The British owner had trained the bird to speak English that the parrot spoke with a British accent. However, when the bird came back after his four-year absence, he spoke Spanish rather than the British-accented English he used to speak. Clearly, this bird had been taken care of by someone who spoke Spanish and picked that language up during his disappearance. (The parrot also, unfortunately, bit his former owner when returned to his care.) I'm glad the owner was reunited with his parrot, but I wonder if the bird will eventually switch back to English and drop the Spanish he picked up.