Study aids

Today's entry will be my my last one for this week as I shall be away for a period with no computer and in any event a somewhat shaky internet connection.
The last two days were study weekends with a bit of a difference as they were all English language looking at spelling and writing styles  for different audiences such as using informal and formal language to alter the tone.
I got 90% and 92% on both units which was pretty good as my spelling as a bit touch and go and while I'm not bad at writing formally, something I had to in the workplace, the more informal, personal sort is harder going.

As you know I do study and that studying involves Math so I need a basic Geometry set and this the one I currently have that comes in a slip case.

 On the reverse of the slipcase there is a an illustration of what is included  in the set.

 When you get to pull it out of the slip case  you have an aluminum  tin that keeps it all together in a simple, traditional way that also is very elegant.

 When you pull it open, in the lid you have a school timetable you can personalize while on the reverse it has information on weights and measures and this is wrapped around a stencilling kit.
As you can see we have the time honoured, rule set square and protractor couples with a compass, pencil, erasure and pencil sharpener that all fits neatly.
Personally I think this is a great basic set you can add too later on.

 

Because I do quite a bit of colouring too I did pick up this Staedtler heavy duty two slot pencil sharpener as I find myself needing to resharpen them to help keep my colouring neat.

Games kit 2016

Phew! What a scorcher of a week, eh? The sort of week  you sleep on the top of your bed with windows open hoping nothing buzzing comes in overnight but my mind is elsewhere right now getting ready for being away next weekend
A  part of that is going to involve some physical activity in form of games, no not board games but the sort of games you had as part of your education at school although this will be more for fun than winning for your house team.

Games definitely involves physical exertion which takes us into the area of one's PE Kit, the failure to bring in did get me in trouble a few times in my school life but I shall bring mine with me including this yellow cotton top.

Proper green gym knickers

This is my tradition box pleated green wrap around PE skirt although I do have a navy blue one too.

White cotton socks cos something has to absorb sweat between your feet and my black plimsolls as sensible footwear was indicated as desirable by the event organizer and it is hardly the place for heels!

Industriously studying...

Do you know, just as we get toward the end of the weekend where to be honest it probably was for the best I was indoors with the rain, the sun starts shining incandescently, illuminating everything.

This weekend I was studying as the impact from the electrical storms in my head I get with migraines has gone away looking at all the regular Polygons and how you work out internal and external angles which turned out to be as easy as pie!
In English I did some set work around vocabulary , looking how to use adjectives, nouns, verbs and adverbs to add flavour to your writing so it is more interesting to read and the use of formal and informal words and phrases.
This was pretty difficult because with my disabilities I have a limited vocabulary both for speech and written English, there are ten year olds with wider ones than I, and quite often I can't 'see' other more colourful word choices when I think about what I'm going to say that may help make what I say more interesting and memorable.
I don't like sounding as if my words have just been just superglued together than a few fragments to make a sentence and it may be this exercise can help with that.
I'll have a go at writing another short story before we go away as I won't be getting far this week as the coach company that runs some of our locals buses has stopped trading so something like 40% of local services aren't running including nearly all Saturdays!
The local Council are trying to sort this out but it takes time because you need vehicles and drivers of which there's a shortage so I may use that time typing out a story.

On a changed nation

There is a general rule when it comes to this blog that when it comes to groan up divisive topics  such as politics they are not covered for a number of reasons such as we do need to get on playing without them altering how we see each other, it's not part of being in 'little space' and personally, the impact of politics is very painful for where it left me psychologically.
I can recall though being asked at high school as we all were in our form to write what we felt about the then incoming President  of the United States, Ronald Reagan in a  reflective more current affairs way by our Head Mistress.
This last three weeks in the United Kingdom was been a period of very intense discussion and  change that the preceding weeks of campaigning in a non-legally biding vote called a Referendum on leaving or remaining in the European Union could not of been anticipated.
Last year it had seemed the previous Prime Minister and his Conservative party  had returned to power, this time on their own with a small majority assured of  four more years of continued rule.
Today we cannot even be sure if a fresh General Election may not happen simply because those arguments that came up tore apart the opposition Labour Party also caused a huge split within the Conservative party  too with such bitterness you might of thought they were attacking anyone other than themselves.
The thing that both have in common is very very controversial and divides people across politics and not just  individual parties but in the parties too and that is the membership of what became the European Union and tied in with it is the idea of where the United Kingdom place in the World is.
I'm purposely going to skip the for and against arguments as they aren't necessary for this entry but the then Prime Minister thought having got some changes he would be able to call for a Referendum and win a vote to remain in the European Union.
As it happened it did not work out that way at all. He lost it on June 23rd.
What seemed to had  been unleashed  was long standing disagreements during the campaign that upon its outcome resulted in  bitter recriminations about individuals roles and past decisions and a even more intense form of this happened in the Labour Party where its Member of Parliament are very much at odds with its leader (and shadow Prime Minister) and the wider party membership, wanting to challenge Jeremy Corbyn's  leadership because they feel he failed to provide it during the referendum.
It happened that the Prime Minister's leadership was questioned as was his Chancellors and several people stood to oppose him with very different views and after a series of ballots and withdraws, Theresa May was elected party leader.
This was expected to happen by September 9th but was finished by Monday afternoon!
That under our constitution makes her as the leader of the biggest political party in the House of Commons the person who goes to the Head of State, the Queen, to be asked if they are able to form a Government as Prime Minister as we don't elect Prime Ministers separately. That happened Wednesday.

What it means is for the second time in our history we have a female Prime Minister who has seen fit in appointing ministers to include a good number of able female Members of Parliament so the key people in the Government, the Cabinet, better resembles how our country is made up something her predecessors was much criticized for.
I remember the first one well having spent time with her personally.
She is concerned about keeping our United Kingdom united  not just because of the fall out from the referendum but also that it has the potential to pull the devolved Nations within it apart because they voted differently.
It's also true the referendum campaign caused deep divisions across generations, communities and sadly even races, pitting people against each other with a bitterness never seen before. She wants to heal that and I think, seeing its impact not least on social media, that's right.
Although personally she backed remaining in the European Union, she has made it clear we will be leaving, appointing people and a separate department to oversee this because she respects that referendum vote. This will be a major change for us.
Working through this process is far from clear as there isn't a blueprint, angry words have been said by key people both in the UK and also in the organization itself and a part of what will need to be talked about, how to have full access to its markets and be able to set limits to migration looks to be a sticking point.
New trading agreements with other nations will need to be made, something with forty years of being in the European Union we have not needed to do although it may be that if that means we look outward, trading across the World with emerging economies, we could be able to make leaving work. And Theresa May feels we can make leaving work for us.
The world has many tensions in it, migration, political instability, arguments about territorial limits and 'spheres of influence' requiring careful handling and underlines why we value organizations such as Nato in defending Europe and our relationship with the United States whatever may happen in that countries Presidential elections this year.
I feel the new Government values this greatly not wishing to jump into conflicts that may need resolving but who do need long term, properly thought out plans something the new Prime Minister in general is more given to rather than just looking at the immediate problem.
This is a very much the start of a new era in the United Kingdom's  relationship with the World not least with many European nations with much less than certain but I feel regardless of my own party political feelings the country has now a leader who will do everything in her power to provide the leadership we so badly need at this time.

Exploring together

I wasn't too good over the last two days although I got up okay, messaging PB and getting the last mammoth blog entry published with links at all the usual spots to make it easier to people to follow it. Shortly afterward I felt a migraine coming rather quickly so I quickly got my tablets out a jug full of water with glass, closed the curtains and went bed.

 It wouldn't be me in the midst of all that to be thinking of other things, I mean it's so funny but sometimes I'm more together when it comes to thinking ideas up when I'm  like that than any other time.
One is how many times we hear of people who do something a little outside of the mainstream such as follow a dress style and wear it, have aspects of our lives that others may not be so keen on such as your gender identity, sexuality and being a little and so on who struggle to have people they feel they can be open with as friends. And this in age of forums, emails and social media.
Sometimes it may be that the individual has difficulties forming and holding down personal relationships which may not be helped if others are way too quick to judge elementary mistakes but life if you appear not to be able to learn from them can be hard.
Sometimes groups have very much a "My way is the only highway" approach, setting very exacting positions people are at least to go along with if not openly endorse which at times is so ironical being in mind the reason for  existence of some groups is the very excludedness those people felt from others they project themselves.
To  me it seems in order to progress we need to be open to difference, able to tolerate difference and understand  the expression of differing views often leads to more informed thoughts and decisions.
If we find understanding something hard - and it genuinely can be -  we need to be prepared to  work with someone who will explain it and engage with them changing what we are doing if it isn't helping us.
We also need to learn to hold hands more with the people who can helps us explore and grow as people which may include learning more about some of things that unite us but may not be part of other peoples lives.
If you're a little/middle you need to find those spaces you can let this side of you out openly without the distractions of regular adult stuff going on.

Teenbeat XXI - The Cars on cd edition

It's 2016 and so a series of high quality reissues continues to trundle its way out in drips and drabs of the output of the influential Boston New Wave group The Cars whose music I've had on most formats since the late 1970's.
The Cars - 2016 sacd

 

This originally came out in 1978 being recorded in England where the singles My Best Friends Girl and Just What I Needed were quite popular even coming in picture discs.

This album has had two known remasterings on cd, the okay 1999 HDCD US only and the 1993 limited gold remaster by Steve Hoffman for the now defunct DCC Records which was pretty decent owning both.

The new one by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs of Chicago,Ill., on super audio cd playable on regular players too, has brought out more fine detail hidden in the original recordings without sounding overly bright.

This like most recent Mfsl cds is packaged in mini lp form replicating the feel of a vinyl album with the disc in a soft cloth inner.

Candy-O - Gold regular cd 2011

 




















It had been a long time in the making near enough 22 months since I ordered this cd when it's release was announced in 2009 but on September 13th it finally came out on gold mini lp style cd and 180 gram vinyl.  
 I first remember buying this in 1979 being mightily impressed with the debut album released June 1978 and it's clutch of singles that charted well in the UK. 
The lead off single on this album was Let's Go a perky little 'new wave' number with It's all I Can Do being the second going from memory. 
 In case any doesn't know the model in the body stocking is Candy Moore. 
This new issue to me has judged the sound of the percussion about right as one of the signature sounds of producer Roy Thomas Baker's work is the forward highly miked drum sound that is hard to pull off without sounding harsh .
The original cd, a red coloured top one from the early 80's was generally a very pleasant sounding one easily one the best Cars cds of the time but suffered from quite a lot of his and also has a haze over the upper treble suggesting to me this was a few generations removed from the original master tape.
I'd say this new version marries the better tapes and attack  with the better rendering of the drums as well as that general listenable nature and certainly is the best cd version I've ever heard.
Strongly recommended.

 Heartbeat City - Audio Fidelity March 2009 HDCD



In March 2009 as part of the relaunch of Audio Fidelity, the 1984 Cars album Heartbeat City got re-issued and re-mastered from the original 30IPS master tapes by Steve Hoffman. This event created an awful lot of interest in hifi circles as you'd expect for the resumption of the 24karat audiophile cd format. From what Mr Hoffman said this is the first time since the original lp was cut in 1984 that these tapes had been used as all the CD versions used copytapes with equalization applied to aid vinyl cutting and the best of these is the WG "Target" which was one of the first CD's issued around the time of the lp issue (cd pressing capacity was a real problem back then).


Above is my copy showing the 'Target' design.
This was in many respects the last good Cars album and a staple of FM radio featuring the smash 45's Drive, You Might Think and Magic. It sure wasn't off my tape player having back the original on chromedioxide tape - that happened to sound rather good back then but both it and the target cd always sounded a bit bright which took away the edge from Ric Ocasek's vocals.
How the audio spectrum has been equalized to bring forward some of the bass  and smooth out the higher notes has made it more enjoyable to listen to.
I would conclude by saying I did not regret buying this Cd - it sounds great - and will be main listening copy for now on although there's a MFSL sacd coming out soon I'd like to hear. 
July 2016 MFSL 2016 SACD (Playable on regular cd players too)

 This one arrived August 19th.
The main difference I would say is it doesn't have the softened high notes of the AF so the slight rasp in the vocals is present without the very bright splashy symbols of the original but has a really warm midband projecting the vocals clearly as if you were in the studio booth hearing the session. In that way it's more truthful to the original lp but really builds what was captured on tape. The infamous gaps between songs appear to be correct on this issue although I did and remain convinced too much was made of that issue.
I prefer this sacd for the sound and love the mini lp presentation.

The Cars Greatest Hits - DCC CD GZS 1123 1996

Shortly afterwards I was able to get this CD also re-mastered by Steve Hoffman with a 19.99% reduction at a price I could just about afford as it's been out of print for just over a decade

This also uses the "original mastertapes" and is quite useful having all the top 40 45's from the first five albums on as Steve only tackled Heartbeat City for AF and The Cars S/T for DCC which is well out of print commanding three figure prices.
It does sound really good although I should note Steve used the album versions of I'm Not The Only One - a 1986 '45 and Heartbeat City rather than the remixes done by Elektra - the bands label - for the original Greatest Hits lp/cd.

Panorama - US Elektra 1999 HDCD

A real step up from my regular German cd and the home of the single Touch and Go, Misfit Kid and You Wear These Eyes.
 I also got the Joe Gastwirt HDCD U.S. only re-master of the bands 1980 Panorama album which in Europe remains in a murky sounding version with very little top response. This had to be imported.
While in every respect the finest version of this album remains the US original lp, the re-master is a considerable improvement obviously sourced from a good quality tape for anyone needing a cd.
The only negative is it is slightly bright on my system - with tone controls you need to turn the treble back to about 11 o'clock.



Shake It Up - Gold regular cd 2009

In November of 2009 Mofi issued this remastered version of the bands fifth album Shake It Up in goldplated UDII form with a mini lp style package which is the home of Victim Of Love, I'm Not The One, Since You're Gone and the title track
Remastered by Rob LoVerde this is the best CD I've ever heard of this title and although it's a limited edition it is highly recommended.
CD catalogue number UDCD788

I have the first five studio albums on lps mainly bought from new between  1979 through 85 too which have their own sound and gain from their bigger size when it comes to looking at the artwork..

Summer day out

Saturday was a little different for me in that rather than studying, I went out for the day not least to get away from all that political stuff that has been all over the news for the last ten days or so which I think has had something to do  me feeling generally flat.
We started out from our local pub parking lot at Nine o clock quickly travelling through Sandbach to join the M6, then the M53  Wirral motorway, travelling around the outskirts of Chester before  getting on the A55 which is the main road for coastal North Wales arriving for just past Eleven o clock.
We were not sure what to make of the weather as it had started to rain near Knutsford and again over the Halkyn Mountains near Ruthin but as we got toward St Asaph, the sun came out really bright. It's kinda funny how much the weather can differ within a few miles.
We arrived by Eleven o clock so I went for a cup of tea as I was feeling a bit thirsty even though having felt a migraine coming on I had gotten through a carton of apple juice  with my tablets I take to control it.
I wandered around a few shops afterward before meeting up with Grumpy to go to Tribelles for a Haddock and chips lunch which was very tasty. I opted for the 8oz fish as that was plenty big enough for me.
I've know this place for years and while a few years back it went through a period of stocking so-so fish, its current owners really have brought it back as a premier fish and chip restaurant getting fresh fish in and cooking to order.

In the afternoon I wandered around taking pictures, watching Codmore's traditional non pc  Punch and Judy show, shouting with the mainly young audience at naughty Mr Punch and playing on the beach. Grumpy went to groan up places and read a book.
I went into the HMV record store and bought a couple of cd's, had they of had a lp I'd wanted I would of bought it from them and actually they had a reasonable lp selection in stock which is testimony to it's increased popularity. They had no blank tapes or micro sd cards in though.
We did have one brief heavy shower around a quarter past Three so I went into a small shopping arcade and looked at some paintings and prints for sale while  sheltering from the rain but it didn't last long so I was able to outside and have a mint chocolate chip home made ice cream avoiding the "flying rats" aka seagulls.
I like ice cream heaps.
We all assembled at Five PM to get back on our coach greeted in by the driver with a very strong North Staffordshire accent while next to us was a Hill's coach from Wolverhampton whose driver it has to be said would be better understood by me!
We went back a slightly different way via Tarvin, Barr Bridge and Crewe before being dropped off by our pub just a few hundred yards from home tired but very happy from being away from stuff that takes me out littlespace.

Renewing the sound

I guess it had to happen at some point.
The last time I changed the major component in my stereo was January 2nd 2001 according to my notes when I changed from big power guzzling super hot Tube power amplifier and control unit to a slimmer more powerful solid state model that did it all apart from impersonate Manhattan by night in the dark with its rich red glow!
That unit, a Rotel RA971 MkII,  had performed very well but was starting to develop numerous issues with three switches to select sources such as cd and the tone control in/out causing the sound to go quiet on one side or cut out completely.
That not only affected my ability to enjoy the music having to try to bring it back but also effected recordings too often when you least expected it.
Looking around it appeared I'd need to spend around £400 pre-brexit to get something of similar quality and then I'd to watch out as some have no record outputs for analogue or even digital recorders.
I looked at used but being aware of how equipment can age was put off by high prices for equipment that had been left unused for ages maybe even in lofts or garages getting hot or damp too.
There was one item I saw that interested me in all that.

 It was the circa 1986 Rotel RA820B which physically looked to be in great shape but had had something done to it that appealed hugely.
It had been fully restored by the seller, replacing anything tired, cleaned up and had the big electrolytic capacitors in the bit that handles the mains and signal bits changed to all new very high quality ones too, better than those it was fitted with originally.

Picture of part of the Power Supply showing new Black Electrolytics fitted.
(Photo credit Gareth Williams of Porthmadoc, Wales)
That meant what would of been essential to replace given they lose value after a couple of decades effecting performance if not leaking gunge all over everything,  would be already done ready for a few more decades of work. It also had been tested over a month extensively.
Given the modest price for it with the restoration and even free shipping, I decided to get it as although it isn't quite as powerful, it is more than powerful enough for my speakers.
It was installed completely by me with just crossing one cable between two pairs of sockets (my hand to eye co-ordination is something else!) and needing to trace a couple to be sure what they were. While I was at it, I removed a few no longer used from the back of the shelf it sits on just tidy things up.
When it comes to getting sound from records I decided to keep my separate Rotel RQ 970 pre-amplifier designed for just that rather than relying on this units built in one which while good wouldn't be quite as good.
It is working out really well in the system sounding very smooth with vocals but enough bass when it really is there to sound realistic.