Haiku Writing - Moon Viewing 2021

 (from the Splish, Splish! department)

Hi everyone,

Dana, Rose & I attended the Seattle Japanese Garden Moon Viewing on Friday, Sept. 10th, 2021 at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.  This is the first time they've held the event since the pandemic started.

As stated in my previous blog entry, this is a "nice evening event where you can stroll around the Japanese Garden, see traditional Japanese music and dance being performed live, enjoy a Bento Box dinner, and see the moon in all of its glory."

(More info here: https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/events-calendar/2021/9/10/moon-viewing-01 )

This year, they scaled back a little - no Bento Box dinner sadly - but it was still wonderful.  The only slight disappointment was the lack of actual moon to view, due to clouds - similar to the last time.

As is our tradition, Dana, Rose & I took part in the Haiku writing contest.  This year, we were limited to one haiku each - so we made it count!

Here's the haiku we wrote:

Paul: 

The air is still -

Suddenly three birds launch

Searching for the moon

Dana:

We gather to see

Lady Luna hides her face

The clouds make her shy

Rose:

Oh, my muse and moon

Will thee return my friend?

I'll wait below stars

You might notice that the haikus don't necessarily follow the traditional 5-7-5 syllable pattern.  Modern haiku are less formal. 

As it turns out - we did even better this year than last year!  Dana got an honorable mention, and I came in 2nd place!!

We had a lot of fun Friday night - and writing haiku is always a highlight of our evening!

Cheers,
Paul

Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 14)

(from the How Are There 14 Of These Since Rose Is Only 13? department)

Hi everyone,

Wow - what a year!  Even though we're still in lockdown, we did manage to visit with Santa this year.  However - it was a little different....

Yes - we're smiling happily!!  Can't you tell??

It's been a heck of year, putting it mildly.  There was something comforting about seeing Santa - this year more than ever.  

Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings from the Pietromonaco family (Dana, Rose & I).

Cheers,

Paul

Xquartz, XDMCP & Xfce tips (aka restoring my sanity)

 (from the X11 is fun!! department)

Hi everyone,

This is a quick posting.  For various reasons too long to go into here, I've been trying to connect to a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux box via XDMCP from a MacBook Pro using XQuartz (MacOS Catalina) or from a Microsoft Surface Pro using VcXsrv (Windows 10).

The key points for all operating systems - you must set up your Ubuntu Linux box to run XDMCP.  All of these commands need to be done from a terminal window on the Linux box you're connecting to:

• You have to install and select Xfce - it won't work with any of the other modern desktops, since Remote X11 is 2D only.  Try this to install it:

sudo apt-get install xfce4

• You have to use Lightdm - this doesn't seem to work right with GDM.  To install:

sudo apt-get install lightdm

• Make sure it's selected with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3

• You have to turn on XDMCP in Lightdm by adding the following to /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf:

[XDMCPServer]
enabled=true

• You have to install an additional Greeter with Lightdm.  I used lightdm-gtk-greeter which I installed with:

sudo apt install lightdm-gtk-greeter lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings

• Check firewalls, etc.

Okay, most likely, your Windows box will work at this point.  Set up a VcXsrv profile using XDMCP and point it at your Ubuntu Linux box.  The Mac - using XQuartz - needs additional steps:

• You have to manually start the session via command line - replacing the 192.168.0.71 with your Ubuntu XDMCP IP address:

X -query 192.168.0.71 -terminate

• It turns out the Mac doesn't define the "Super" key, so Xfce reacts unpredictably.  For me, it was a broken spacebar.  There was no way to enter a space - the cursor would just blink at you frustratingly. 
• To fix this, in Xfce, go to Applications --> Settings --> iBus Preferences and remove the "<super>Space" mapping from the Next input method field on the General tab.  Since I don't need iBus, I just deleted the mapping entirely.
• Additionally, starting Chrome would prevent any text from being entered.  This turned out to be a old Chrome App I had loaded by default.
• To fix this temporarily, I went into Chrome extensions (chrome://extensions/) and unchecked "Google Play Music".  You don't have to uninstall it - just disable it.

Good luck!!

Cheers,

Paul

National Pancake Day - February 25th, 2020

(from the Everything is better with Pancakes department)

Well - it's been a while since we went to IHOP's National Pancake Day celebration and got a stack of free pancakes.

And - unfortunately - it's going to be a while longer.  We got there after 7:00 PM, so no free platter of golden discs for us.

Still - Rose and I decided to go for it!  We placed our orders and started thinking about pancakes...

Are you taking photos Dad?

Mmmm - pancakes...

Rose makes a good point!

Rose ordered French Toast -

with Strawberries and Bananas

I ordered a Burger and Fries -

and a stack of Pancakes for the table!

We ate our meals first - then went for some Pancakes!!

We had a terrific meal - and even donated a little bit to their charity - Children's Miracle Network - as well!

You can read more about it here: IHOP National Pancake Day

Cheers,
Paul

Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 13)

(from the Omg - Rose Is So Big Now!!! department)

Hi everyone,

Well once again - completely at the last minute - we have our Annual Santa Photo!®

I guess Rose really is too big to sit on Santa's lap anymore - but she sure looks happy!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone - from the Pietromonaco family!!!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S.  Yes - same red shirt - I only wear it once a year, basically :)

Haiku Writing - Moon Viewing 2019

(from the Splish! department)

Hi everyone,

Dana, Rose & I attended the Seattle Japanese Garden Moon Viewing on Friday, Sept. 13th, 2019 at the Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle.

If you aren't familiar, it's a nice evening event where you can stroll around the Japanese Garden, see traditional Japanese music and dance being performed live, enjoy a Bento Box dinner, and see the moon in all of its glory.

(More info here: https://www.seattlejapanesegarden.org/events-calendar/2019/9/13/moon-viewing-2019 )

We were really looking forward to this, since a full moon was expected!  Unfortunately - Washington weather conspired against us - the night of the moon viewing, the moon was completely obscured by clouds.

Still - we did have a good time - and even participated in the Haiku writing contest.  You could submit a maximum of two.

Here's the haiku we wrote that evening:

Paul:

Friday the thirteenth

Full moon hidden by clouds - splish

Now I swim with koi

Grey skies -

The promise of the Moon

Waiting to be uncovered

Dana: 

Moonbeams remind me

Of sharing summer secrets 

Whispered by sisters

Moon milk 

Cool the leaves' fire -

Warms my path

Rose:

Dear moon my friend

I shall see you again

When the flowers open and day ends 

Note - modern English haiku do not necessarily have to follow the 5 - 7 - 5 syllable rule, according to the rules of the contest.

As it turns out - Rose and I did pretty well this year!  We each got one of our haikus read out loud as an honorable mention!  Rose in the youth haiku category - and my "Grey skies" haiku as an adult!  

Sadly - my "Friday the thirteenth" did not make the humor category. 

Cheers,

Paul

I Found An New (Old) Track!

(from the Was I Really This Young? department)

Hi everyone!

I was going through some very old backups tonight - and I found a file from 2003 called "Personal Demos.wav".  

Hmm - that sounds intriguing...

Playing back the file, it appears that it contained some early attempts at doing twin-track recording in my apartment - possibly on my computer or on my DAT machine - or some combination of both.

There are about 4 song fragments in there - so I zeroed in on one that was mostly complete:  a cover of Mannequin by Wire.

Two basic parts:  acoustic guitar left channel - vocal right channel.  Talk about early Beatles! Super Wide Stereo!!

Although it was very raw - it was also recorded very cleanly.  It might take a little work - but there was definitely something there I could work with.

I started by importing the stereo file into Audacity and snipping out the song from the rest of the fragments.  

Next - I split the stereo file into two mono tracks so that I could work on the vocal and guitar parts separately.

First the vocal.  I decided not to compress it or tamper too much with it - I liked the live feel.  Instead - I just boosted the gain by 3 dB using Audacity's Amplify to balance it against the guitar volume.

Now - we need to make to sound like I'm actually in a room somewhere - instead of singing directly into the microphone.  I used Audacity's GVerb to add some ambiance - but kept the room small.

Roomsize: 10m

Reverb Time: 4s

Damping: 0.9

Input bandwidth: 0.75

Dry signal level: 0 db

Early Reflection Level: -22 dB

Tail level: -28 dB

(Adapted from The Quick Fix settings here: https://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/GVerb#Instant_GVerb_settings)

That did the trick - vocals sound great.

Next guitar.  After adding the identical GVerb to it, and doing a quick mix panning the vocals slightly right and the guitar slightly left - I realized the guitar needed more work.

Reading thru the GVerb documentation - they mentioned that it was a "mono" reverb.  They also mentioned that by inverting the original signal and summing it with the GVerbed signal - you could isolate just the reverb.  

Viola!!!

So - here's what I did:

• I duplicated the guitar track 4 times, giving me 5 identical guitar tracks.  
• I added the 10m GVerb setting listed above to track 1.  
• I added the same GVerb setting - but with the room set to 20m - to track 2.  
• I inverted tracks 3 & 4.  
• I mixed track 1 (10m GVerb) and track 3 (inverted) and panned it 100% left.
• I mixed track 2 (20m GVerb) and track 4 (inverted) and panned it 100% right.
• I panned the original guitar track - track 5 (dry) - 50% left.

This left me with 4 tracks:

• 10m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% left, 
• guitar (dry) - 50% left
• voice (amplified 3dB) + 10m room reverb (vocal only) - center
• 20m room reverb (guitar only) - 100% right.

All that was left to do was mix it to stereo and make an MP4 out of it!  Here it is!

Pretty neat!  

Cheers,

Paul