melannen | (no subject)

Today was a brilliantly beautiful day; I love Maryland's climate, and I especially love Maryland's climate around the turning of the seasons, where I can go outside without wearing forty-leven layers of clothing, because it's nice enough to enjoy but the mosquitos haven't realized that yet. It's supposed to get up to 80°F by mid-week and then snow on Friday. Oh Maryland, my maryland.

So I spent half the morning crawling around on the roof, cleaning out the gutters. I want an excuse to go up on the roof more often. Actually, I want to put a trapdoor in the ceiling of the attic, but when I suggested it, Mom wanted to know what the *point* would be. It's a *trapdoor* in the *attic*. How can you even ask that question?

Then I spent half the afternoon digging in the dirt. Mom took an offhand comment I made about the daffodils, which have made a bid for freedom from the bounds of the flowerbeds, and ended up expanding the flowerbed by the mailbox to about four times its previous area. Then she wanted *me* to suggest what to put in it.

Ever since I read the Secret Garden at about the age of six, I've wanted a bit o' earth of my own, and she offers it to me *now*? I used to spend hours poring over seed catalogs and daydreaming. I haven't the first clue what to suggest. All I could think of was 'tomatoes', because I've been craving fresh homegrown tomatoes ever since last summer. Anybody have any nice suggestions for a sunny spot by the road that won't get much care, and already has some rosebushes, daffodils, gladiolus, some tulips that never bloom, and possibly other random perennials?

Then I spent half the evening cataloging books. The LibraryThing list is now at well over a thousand, and the halfway point is beginning to be visible. (Mind you, that's the halfway point of books that I consider in some way mine; if I was doing books-in-house, or even books-in-house that I *wish* were mine, it would be much longer.) I've taken a break from the SF and I'm working on my nonfiction collection now, and I keep running across all these books I want to read! But I don't have time! I need to spend a summer in a cottage by the water, and do nothing all season but cook and wander and read and think. (One of those books that I want to finally sit down and read is Walden, by the way.)

Oh! And speaking of tomatoes, I listened to SGA's Grace Under Pressure while I was cataloging: somebody had put several episodes up on the ep-sharing community as sound-only mp3 files, and I love that idea. In fact, back before we had cable, I had figured out a way to get the TV/VCR setup to give me only sound and no picture, and I used to do that all the time. Even before that, Mom had an elderly radio in her sewing room which would pick up VHF and UHF audio; that's how I was exposed to several ST:TOS episodes for the first time. I wish I knew an easy way to turn the picture off with our current cable setup, because I am in love with radio dramas.

And it's amazing how well Grace Under Pressure worked as a radio drama. Granted, it probably helped that I'd seen the episode before, and it was probably one of their lowest budget episodes for the season, with no new sets and no new characters and no new special effects, and that probably helped too. And I probably didn't get as much out of the episode as I did when I watched it with picture, but I followed it perfectly well, and I think I *enjoyed* it more; because I could close my eyes and let go, and let it be.

A couple weeks ago at Sunday School one of the other teachers was asking if we thought that his student would be able to listen to a radio drama, and when I said "of course, why wouldn't he," he said, "Well, you're different, you *read*."

Any kids I raise are going to know radio dramas.

ETA: Is it too much

sga_flashfic? I'm having trouble as seeing this card as made by anyone but Major Sheppard.

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I want to put a trapdoor in the ceiling of the attic, but when I suggested it, Mom wanted to know what the *point* would be. It's a *trapdoor* in the *attic*. How can you even ask that question?

Parents don't understand cool stuff like that. ;)

I had figured out a way to get the TV/VCR setup to give me only sound and no picture, and I used to do that all the time

I recorded a couple of shows to a sound-only tape recorder once in a while as a kid (VCRs weren't that common until a few years later). Even in the mid-80s, a friend of mine would do that with animated Star Trek episodes.

Easy way to get audio only recordings, assuming you have a tv with audio/video out. Put the cable line into that tv, and use the audio out to a vcr. then record

I know how to record. What I'd like is to listen to live TV without the picture. Preferably, to be able to switch the picture on and off with the remote, without having to unplug any cords. When we had the old set-up, the antenna feed came in through the VCR to channel 3 on the TV, and I had figured out that if I left the TV on the VCR setting but changed the TV channel to 2 or 4, for some reason, the picture would disappear but the sound would still be perfect.

It doesn't work with the cable box. I am sad. ;_;

Hey, back when I was a kid, there were a few times we recorded TV shows to a reel-to-reel tape. Beat that! q-:

And bah, parents.

My dad would give us blank tapes he got from work. He was a progammer, so any part of the tape that didn't get recorded over was all screeching noise. Almost exactly like someone connecting to dialup would sound years later.

Never did reel-to-reel, however. You win.

Well, if you want that here's an idea. Put the output from your cable box to your vcr, and have a normal cable out going to the tv set (or use splitters for alternate input). The vcr should also have an audio/video out that you plug into the tv set (just don't hook up the video). With the press of a button you can go from channel 3 (or 4 depending on setup) that has cable with audio/video to the input from the vcr that has audio only. This assumes you have a vcr with both normal cable out and audio/video out and a tv that supports both types of input. Also assumes you don't mind having to add the video cable back in when you want to watch videos.

How about some nice spider flowers? They are very cool-looking and can stand hot sunny roadside conditions. Also, Catharanthus type vinca is great for that situation. (Can you tell I sell annuals for a living?)

Ooh, the spider flowers do sound very cool, and sound like they would work very well there.

We actually already have vinca growing in most of the areas of our yard where grass won't take hold - vinca of the blue 'had taken over my great-aunt's and grandfather's entire back gardens' strain, and Mom's planning to spread it to a couple of other areas this spring.

Hmm. I hadn't known what you did *before*, but I think I figured it out now. Do you do retail? I could talk Mom into stopping by sometime for free advice. *g*

Ah. I've never done anything with tape cassettes for computers, I have to admit. My dad taught computers at the local high school, and they went right from time-share on a mainframe that used punchcards to Apple ][s with disc drives, around the time I was born.

The reel-to-reel player hasn't worked for a while, sadly. The coolest thing ever when I was about four was stringing it up so that the sound played backwards. I need to spend a good Saturday afternoon sometime fiddling with it to see if I can get it to work.

Yeah, I don't know. The current set-up we're using downstairs is *deeply* wonky: as one example, for some reason, even though the cable is currently feeding directly through the TV, whenever the VCR is powered on, the picture goes all snowy. It needs to be fiddled with mightily.

The upstairs is currently just my cute little portable twelve-inch set with built-in VCR, so there's no switching back and forth available, woe.

Alas, no retail. But advice is always available!