Category Archives: Rancho Roly Poly

Public school politics

Posted on May 7, 2014 | 1 comment

I was amazed when Mr. B.’s first grade Austin teacher back in 2006 launched into a week-long lesson on the dangers of global warming. He was already so frightened of cigarettes, thanks to the school system, that he wouldn’t get in the car until I hid my pack of Salems in the glove box.

So this report of a California (where else) public school requiring eighth graders to write essays questioning whether the Holocaust (the systematic, in fact industrialized, Nazi murder of six million Jews and millions of others) was an “actual event” is not a surprise.

Nor is the name of the school superintendent: Mohammed Z. Islam. Fortunately some adult complained and the essays are no longer required. We can thank Gen., later President, Eisenhower for what we know of the Holocaust. He saw the future clearly.

Pity the public schools everywhere couldn’t be cleansed of these political creatures who call themselves educators.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Israel, Mr. Boy, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, The Culture

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Butterfly Rose

Posted on April 20, 2014 | 1 comment

Butterfly4

Springtime in the back forty at Rancho Roly Poly.

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Posted in Antique Roses, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, Weather/Climate

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Windows 8.1 is a pain

Posted on April 14, 2014 | 3 comments

It’s early to tell, and I’m still not quite finished transferring files from my old ‘puter via flash drive. But, so far, I think Windows 8.1 is a pain in the rear. Pity I had to leave XP. But it was necessary and I figured I might as well go all the way.

Like all big OS products, including “virtuous” Apple, 8.1 has all these arcane little programs running that it dares you to figure out how to alter or get rid of.

Such as the “tiles” on the “start” page, before the start, actually, and/or desktop pages. It’s cute, but it’s wired to stuff I don’t want, like Bing search and Bing news, i.e. Al Reuters, et al.

Still working on switching the tiles to Google and FoxNews. If I can’t, it’s bye-bye tiles. Finally got the email working. Thunderbird. 8.1 has an aversion to POP servers, though. Wants you to go on the cloud. Security, I suppose.

UPDATE: A week in and it’s still hassling me. Even Dell dropped the ball. I had to Google the new computer to figure out how to open the DVD drive. Geez Louise.

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Posted in Evolution, Rancho Roly Poly, Science/Engineering, The Culture

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Guarding the matzoh

Posted on April 13, 2014 | 2 comments

My condolences to the families of the slain. The mood at the local grocery this afternoon, as two score or more of us shopped for Passover, was uncharacteristically somber. And, for the first time in my memory, there was an armed Austin police officer seemingly guarding the matzoh. He smiled. Said he just happened to be standing near the shelves the boxes were on.

Either the store hired him off-duty or the city sent him, after what happened in the parking lot of the JCC in Kansas City. It would be more difficult for that to go down here. Our JCC is fenced and its entrance is guarded, unlike the one in KC, at least according to the pictures I saw. Perhaps this will help them remedy that. It’s always wise to expect the best but to prepare for the worst.

But the grocery is neither fenced nor normally guarded. So it was nice to see the armed officer guarding the matzoh. “Take care,” he said, as I left. “You, too,” I replied.

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Posted in Israel, Rancho Roly Poly, The Culture, War Without End

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Mandolin shopping

Posted on March 26, 2014 | 2 comments

I’m still playing the fiddle and, according to my teacher, and by my own estimation, getting better all the time. Also still playing backup for the LOCO pickup dance band on Wednesdays. Which has helped. Nothing like ensemble work and performance to push things along.

But my teacher says I need to learn chord progressions concretely for a full transition to understanding chords for improvisation—which he contends fiddlers of the future who hope to make a career of music need to know. I’m a little old for a career of any kind but it would be fun to move up to a solo performance now and then.

The mandolin—which he also plays—could be the key, since, unlike the guitar, its notes (and therefore its chords) are fingered the same way they are on the violin. Playing them vertically instead of horizontally could be easier, or something like that.

I’m looking at this mandolin and this method book, thought I may only get the latter. One of the good melody fiddlers in the band, Stewart Rose, has a mandolin for sale which he will bring to the performance tonight for me to take home and try out before I buy.

UPDATE:  Stewart loaned me his A-model Kentucky KM 200S, similar to this one but a dark brown top. Despite the name, Kentuckys are made in China, though I think the 200S is old enough to have been made in Japan. Sounds good and has no cracks or other visible defects. And the $200 price is right.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Adolescent time

Posted on March 23, 2014 | 6 comments

Mr. Boy grudgingly served his detention at his middle school yesterday. He had to meet the teacher at the flagpole at 8:55 a.m.,

Three hours seems pretty cheap to me for more than 30 tardies since last August. But, as our favorite prince, Sennacherib, says, it probably seemed like an eternity to Mr. B. and the rest of the miscreants.

Time passes so slowly for adolescents. I remember. Sort of. Harder and harder for me to imagine, actually, much less remember. Time hasn’t passed slowly for me in ages.

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Posted in Evolution, Mr. Boy, Obsessions, Rancho Roly Poly

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You need a Vietnamese pedicure

Posted on March 8, 2014 | 3 comments

I never thought I’d get a pedicure, until old age and overweight made it difficult to cut my own toenails without risking injury. Not to mention my really rough heels that were destroying scores of pairs of socks.

So, at the urging of Mrs. Charm, I visited the Passion Nail Spa on Far West Boulevard, near the Rancho. I was one of the few males, but no matter. It was very relaxing, warm water, hot towels, foot and ankle massage and all.

I was surprised to discover the management and pedicurists were all recent Vietnamese immigrants. Apparently recent as none of them spoke much English. Turns out they are part of a trend these days in Vietnamese-owned nail salons. For instance, in South Florida:

“The nail industry will help stabilize the lives of so many Vietnamese from Vietnam to America,” Truong said. “But with the second generation — for example, my children and my staff’s children — they are not going to choose a career in a nail salon, because they will have a diploma and will be good in English, so they can find another good job.”

The Austin pedicurists smiled politely at my use of what Vietnamese language I could remember after 45 years—mostly hello and thank you—but they would, wouldn’t they, even if I was unintelligible. I got the $26 classic but next time (oh, yes, there will be a next time) I might get the $40 deluxe.

Now with toenails all nice and short and rough heels smooth, I’m more than satisfied. You will be, too, if you try it. And you should. Really.

UPDATE:  Or, perhaps, predate would be more accurate. Miriam was way ahead of me, way up there in Delaware back in 2011.

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Posted in Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, The Culture, Viet Nam

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