Posts filed under ‘THOUGHTS’
THOUGHTS ON RETIREMENT
THOUGHTS ON RETIREMENT
I’m going to step away from the subjects usually contained in my posts and focus on the subject of retirement.
It has recently been reported that many folks are not saving enough for their retirement. The fact that 47% of working people cannot put aside $1000 for an unexpected bill. How can people save for retirement when they have so little cash available?
There are numerous ads for various schemes guaranteeing you a percentage of profit from your investments no matter what happens to the stock market. They guarantee you a safe and secure retirement.
I’ve been retired for fifteen years, and, in my opinion, all these guarantees are BS. The only individuals who are assured of having a safe and secure retirement are those who have enough money so that no matter what happens to the economy and the stock market their future is safe.
In my mind there is one important question, the most important question, which must be answered before you discuss the quality of your retirement. How long are you going to live after you retire? For the longer you live, the less the money you have saved is worth.
I look at the cost of living now and compare it to fifteen years ago. I look at current salaries and compare them to my salary fifteen years ago. Fifteen years ago, my family’s income provided a comfortable life. That same salary today might pose a struggle.
Some of the retirement plans offered guarantee that you can maintain your lifestyle you had before retirement into your retirement. That guarantee, I feel, depends upon two factors. What is the lifestyle you plan to maintain and how long you live once retire?
In reality, as all things in life, there are no guarantees.
YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING OLD
When you remember doctors making house calls.
YOU KNOW YOU’RE GETTING OLD . . .
Now that I am retired, and consider myself a well-seasoned individual, I have time to reflect on my past and the present. This series of short posts will look at the way things once were many years ago. And let those of younger generations compare what once was and what is.
You know you are getting old when you can recall when a postage stamp cost 3 cents.
OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS
This a suggestion is suggestion for a writing project, either a short story or novel. There is something terribly wrong this country and there seems no way to fix it. Perhaps if readers experience, through fiction, the hurt, the sorrow being caused in this country something may happen. This is not the same country I remember as a child. Life has somehow lost its value. The slightest disagreement could end in death. Not long ago there were two mass shootings, one right after the other. Congress was not in session. Mitch McConnell said any action to be taken could wait. I wonder how many people died while Congress waited. But let’s be honest. Any action taken by congress would have little or no effect in solving the problem of guns. Our president said he would strengthen the gun laws of this country. A visit from the NRA changed his mind. The events experienced in Philadelphia during the past few days highlight the gun problem. Recently there were three events which indicate what a vicious society we have become. A mother was holding her two-year-old daughter IN HER HOUSE. Shots were fired and the child died, hit in the head. Can you imagine in that instant the anger, the fear and the hopelessness that mother experienced? I cannot imagine the sorrow that mother will experience for the rest of her life. Her innocent child denied a future by a senseless act committed by someone with no care for life or property. But this event is in no way unique. Every day, in this country, there are people gripped by the same emotions. Close to the same time, an eleven-month- old child was shot four times while sitting in a car seat. That poor child is now fighting to remain alive. The next day there was an argument between a man and his girlfriend. Two men intervened and asked the man arguing to go to his car and cool-down. Fifteen minutes later the man existed the car and shot these two men, trying to help, dead. These days trying to be of help could cost you your life. Life has become so cheap with the increased availability of guns. The NRA strives to defeat any law which would create a safer society. Who supplies the NRA with the money to accomplish their purpose? Could it be the gun industry putting profit over? How can we change this loss of life in our country? We can change it with our vote. We must elect people who will represent their constituents and not the organizations throwing money their way. We must elect those who have never accepted a dollar from the NRA. I know this is an impossible dream but something must be done. So, I say to writers write your hearts out and maybe you will reach the heart of this country.
OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS
FUTURE WRITERS AND AI
Just finished the latest book by Ian McEwan, Machines Like Me. I highly recommend it for it is a great read. If you wonder what the future is, you will enjoy this book.
That book is the inspiration for this article.
I recently posted a piece about the elderly writer coping with today’s technological advances and all the social platforms with which to communicate with the public. To summarize, I don’t know how most of today’s electronics work or what they can accomplish. I don’t have a clue how to use the ever-growing number of social platforms. I realize change will never cease, but the rapidity of the changes today is without equal. The purpose of this piece is to address the potential future of writing. The future of not tomorrow’s elderly writers but all writers.
The news today is addressing more and more the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). My local supermarket has the tall rectangular device roaming around the store. I asked the cashier what the thing does and he said it spots spills. That’s it. Then the human has to come to clean the mess. A meaningless purpose but this is only one step on the road to singularity. Singularity is the time when human and AI intelligence is equal. After that the machines leave us in the dust. What will the machines be then called, robo sapiens?
What I speculate in this piece would make a great premise for a short story. Use it if you want.
I wonder about the challenge to writers in the age of singularity and beyond. When machines are more intelligent than writers. When machines are able to produce more compelling plots and better character development. They may have access to a multitude of languages knowing the meaning of every word in those languages. There also go the translators of novels, and the thesaurus will be relegated to the category of ancient works.
This is just speculation, as it was not long ago, that the personal computer and cell phone were the property of dreams.
A CLOSE FRIEND
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but I run two writers groups.
One meets every Thursday (strange for a group) at the Paoli Library in
Pennsylvania from 12:30-2:30. The group has been in existence for about
three years.
One of the writers is Emmet Robinson. He is a very talented writer and
entertainer in coffee houses with his guitar and vocals.
Here is a newsletter he produces which I fee is worth a read.
He also runs a studio for voice overs and recording books.
AUDIBILITIES
By Emmet Robinson King Street Recording Company
Professional Audio Services for Any Purpose You Can Think Of
Video and Photo Too!
610-647-4341
http://www.kingstreetrecording.com kingstreetrecord@aol.com
Blog: http://www.emmetrobinson.com/wp/
Celebrating Fifty-one Years in Business!
Volume 72, Summer, 2019
Small Body, Big Voice
The tiny mandolin is yet one more descendant of the lute family, with ancestors dating back to Mesopotamia three thousand years ago. Although roughly the size as a ukulele, the modern mandolin has a few interesting differences:
• For each single string on the ukulele, the mandolin has two, tuned in unison.
• Instead of gut or nylon, the mandolin is strung with steel.
• The abrasive nature of the steel strings requires the use of a pick rather than the fingers.
• The tuning is very different from that of the uke – more like that of the violin and viola. As a result, different chord formations are used.
Like most other stringed instruments, the mandolin is found in a variety of shapes and sizes.
• The body of the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin is quite deep, and shaped something like a gourd. Difficult to play while standing, it’s generally held on the lap of a seated musician.
• The carved-top or arch-top version is much shallower, with a gently curved top and back. A simple shoulder strap allows this version to be played while standing.
• Also playable standing, the flat-backed mandolin is made from thin sheets of wood, with internal bracing added for strength. Its construction is similar to that of the guitar.
Mandolin soundboards – the fronts or tops of the instruments – may vary widely. As there must be an opening to allow the music to escape, some sound holes may be round or oval in shape. Others take their design from the violin which has two sound holes, each shaped like a stylized letter S.
While the development of this instrument can be traced over much of the world, the modern design appears to have been developed by the Viniccia family of Naples. The raised, extended fingerboard and geared tuning pegs were accredited to Pasquale Vinaccia in the late 1800s.
The versatile mandolin, and its relatives, has been used over an extraordinary range of music. There have been mandolin orchestras dedicated to the performance of classical music. Chris Thile plays superb mandolin solos of complex Bach compositions. Much of the music I’m personally familiar with is in the related fields of country and bluegrass. Bill Monroe, known as the father of bluegrass music, played a Gibson.
A highly versatile instrument, the high, crisp tone of the mandolin allows it to project well, even without the aid of a microphone.
IN THE STUDIO
VOICES
In producing musical recordings since 1967, I’ve heard a lot of singers. Many were quite good. Just recently, however, I was delighted to work with a young professional new to the area who is quite extraordinary and needs to present herself to agents with a current demo.
Professionally trained, with Broadway experience, Kelly Briscoe has every quality I admire in a singer. With accurate intonation and perfect vibrato, she presents wonderful warmth of tone – even at the top of her extensive range. As a self-described “Belter,” when emphasis is
needed, she has power to spare. Best of all, she lends genuine emotion to the lyrics – she means every word she sings!
As she was able to provide her own pre-recorded music tracks in a useful format, we began by importing them to the recording system in the control room.
Then, in the studio, she put on headphones while we adjusted recording levels and the volume in her headphones.
With the experience of many hundreds of live performances behind her, she was easily able to begin with minimal warm-up.
Her first song had an interesting history. Written in 1920 for a French musical revue, “Mon Homme” was eventually translated into English under the title, “My Man,” and performed by Fanny Brice in the 1938 Ziegfield Follies. Ms. Brice’s recording eventually earned a Grammy. Many major vocalists have produced their own interpretations of this classic ballad since then, but my absolute favorite is Kelly’s version recorded here.
Two more tunes were recorded in quick succession with revisions recorded on parallel tracks and carefully blended in. The result was an audio CD and three mp3 files that should attract the attention of any intelligent talent representative. Watch out world, here she comes!
It’s a Wrap!
After several months of extensive recording and editing, the audio version of Pax Tandon’s new book,Mindfulness Matters, now appears to be complete. In listening to her warm voice, you’ll have the sensation that she’s speaking directly to you.
All that remains now is duplication and packaging of the eight-disk series. For details, contact Schiffer Publishing at 610-593-9292.
Note: The printed version is currently available on Amazon, and is well worth the small investment. Pax simply makes the point that a positive view leads to more positive experiences and a fuller, richer life.
The Artist’s Voice
A Philadelphia artist brought in a PowerPoint presentation needing narration to accompany her powerful original images. Rather than use a professional narrator, she chose to lend her own voice to the production and did very well. Working from her original script, she spoke softly, quietly, but with sincerity and heartfelt emotion. In a world of so many pleasantly glib voices, she was a refreshing change of pace.
Interesting…
All of the voices I’ve recorded this year have been those of women. Where are the guys?
FROM THE ATTIC
Grit and Determination
In processing a recorded biography, I heard the inspiring story of a woman who managed to rise to success from very humble beginnings.
Born in Pittsburgh in the 1920s, the African-American daughter of a steel worker and a domestic, she lived with her family in a two-room third floor apartment where the beds were shared and the building’s single bathroom was shared with other tenants.
Developing a love for reading at an early age, and inspired by a sister, she did well in school and decided to attend Tuskegee College in Alabama.
Although both her neighborhood and her schools had been ethnically mixed, her bus trip to the South was a very different experience. The long trip required many transfers from one bus to another and, beginning in Wheeling, West Virginia, the buses were rigidly segregated with black passengers often ushered off to make room for whites.
On arrival at Tuskegee, she found herself without sufficient funds for enrollment and had to call on a brother for help.
At last, with grit and determination, she completed her courses and graduated in 1948 with a degree in commercial dietetics.
Considering the challenges she faced, earning her degree was an astounding achievement. Every time I think my life is too difficult, I’ll think of her and her triumph over adversity!
A New Record
Some restoration projects are more complex than others and require the creation of many individual sound files. The previous record of sixty-four, set by a local university, has just been broken by an overseas client with an order for more than 120! Can you beat that?
Family Reunion
The tape I received wasn’t playable due to a missing pressure pad in the cassette shell. So, I carefully opened the shell and transferred the tape to a new one. With that out of the way, I could then digitize an entertaining recording of a family reunion held in New York in 1960.
The client provided text, so the CD labels were easy to produce.
More interesting was the photo for the CD covers. At first glance, it seemed fine. On closer inspection, it was clear that the upper left hand portion of the photo had somehow been tapered off. Well, now, we can’t have that!
Using appropriate software, it was possible to re-create what was missing. As there are no single buttons to push for this kind of photo restoration, it was done with hundreds of tiny strokes with the equivalent of tiny digital paintbrushes. As all of this could be done within 30 minutes, it fell under the standard rate for custom CD covers of $24.95 for processing, plus $2.75 for each cover printed. The restoration allowed including the entire photo, not just most of it.
A Lucky Save
Although I normally retain digital audio files for only a year, some instinct borne of decades of experience leads me to save some of them even longer. A recent request for a single copy of a piano recording proved that to be a useful practice. With the file still in the system, no processing was required and the extra copy was ready in just minutes!
Word Gets Around
Because the menu of services available here is diversified far beyond the norm, happy clients tell their friends and word gets around. This results in inquiries and orders from beyond the immediate neighborhood. For example…
• A call from Oklahoma City developed into an interesting restoration project. An old tape of a musical family get-together had gotten mangled in the recorder and needed repair. In the absence of a suitable local provider, a search of the Internet led to the tape arriving here.
Opening the cassette shell, I found the damaged portion of tape to be quite short – only two or three seconds of music would be lost.
Using a precision splicing block and special adhesive tabs, the damaged portion was carefully removed and the remaining ends joined.
The repaired tape was then reinstalled in the cassette shell, tested, digitized and transferred to disk. Once all was processing was completed, two CDs and the original tape were sent to the client by certified mail.
HINT: After playing a cassette tape, wind it completely to one end or the other. This will prevent a loop of loose tape being caught in the machine and damaged.
• A caller in North Carolina provided a challenge in the form of a poor quality video file of what appeared to be a talent show. The file was made from an original source, which had then been discarded. Somewhere in the middle of the video was a five-minute segment needing improvement.
Since the file I received would not import directly to any useful application, I resorted to trickery and deceit to fool the computer into accepting the file anyway. The requested improvement proved to be possible and, along the way, I had an interesting learning experience.
• From a client in Colorado I received a VHS tape of an original school performance of The Sound of Music for transfer to disk.
•A client who makes his home on the island of Maui keeps rummaging through his garage and finding more tapes of his original concerts. The two newest were recorded in Grand Rapids, Michigan and Panama City, Panama respectively. I wonder what he’ll find next?
NOTE: For safe delivery in sending original recordings here, please send by Certified Mail with a return receipt request.
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