Fugue (arranged for string quartet) (mp3):

There are 5 days remaining in my trial period and I'm still debating whether it is worth the money. Would it kick off a surge of musical inspiration? It might. That would be worth something.

With careful tweaking of MIDI data, Synful Orchestra is capable of landing pretty much in the uncanny valley of emulated instruments. It's good - but it is not going to fool anyone and they might back away from the sound, saying "something doesn't quite sound right here but I'm not sure what".

Anyway, enjoy.

I took this picture (one of 12, the only one that had him in focus) through the slats of our window blinds.

Normally he faces towards the house and we can see his glorious red-orange waist-coat.

He's about 4 inches tall.

Sailing behind East Marin Island, looking South.

East Richmond hills - possibly Wildcat Canyon Regional Park - poke their heads above a cloud bank looking East across the San Pablo bay.

A duck flies West.

The trail starts at the end of a cul-de-sac in a quiet neighborhood, and is initially quite steep, but soon levels out and is a much easier walk. It took me about 45 minutes to get fairly close to the top

I expected to get to one of the highest peaks and take in some panoramic vistas, but actually the radio relay stations or suchlike are surrounded by security fences and dense bush on either side of the trails, and the best views are to be found about 3/4 of the way up:

click to make bigger

This is a true 360 view, with San Pablo Bay in the North East, Mt Diablo far away in the East, the Richmond Bridge in the South-East, and the San Rafael valley in the South-West, and the glorious Mt Tamalpais. The Sun is thinking about setting in a couple of hours, behind the hill to the West.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/246

I was reminded of William Horwood's book Scallagrigg, which also blends the themes of Cerebral Palsy and Computer Software, and enablement.

Prodigal Clips 8.clr (save to disk and remove .txt extension)

Preview (click to enlarge):

With J and A living in Napa we occasionally hear about food-related things that interest us. This time it was that COPIA, the American Center for Wine, Food, and The Arts was holding their annual Wine and Chocolate Tasting, billed as "Death By Chocolate: The Ultimate Chocolate Festival". Naturally, we were interested.

We drove up to Napa with a couple of co-worker/friends from China, thinking they would enjoy the drive (and the chocolate) and possibly get to meet up with J and A who were also planning on being there.

Alas, the weather was grey with odd spots of rain but it was still fun and the chocolate was delicious.

The wine-tasting part was frustrating for a couple of reasons. One was that the various chocolates on offer were overpowering for the most part, that I never felt I was appreciating the full flavor of the wine.

Another was than I'm not used to wine tasting - I know you are supposed to taste and spit and to be honest, there wasn't a lot of spit-receptacles available and this place was crowded. I don't think they were really set up for the formal taste-and-spit process. Best you could do was sip, taste, then spit discreetly back into your glass at which point you had to make your way through the crowd to the nearest "wet trash" bin. So I stopped sampling the wine and focused on the chocolate.

One thing I really wish: 1) that I had discovered the Port Wine vendors upstairs sooner, and 2) that I didn't have to drive us home.

The variety of chocolate goods on display was quite astounding, including icecream and also some gluten-free chocolate souffles which were very delicious and reminded me of my numerous gluten-intolerant relatives (as well as my own history). I meant to take down the details of the vendor but I seem to have misplaced my notes. Darn.

The other product that sticks in my mind are Jade Chocolates. These were quite special.

[Ferraro] ignited a flap by telling a California newspaper that "if Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position."

"And if he was a woman he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept," Ferraro said.

Source: Clinton supporter defends Obama race remarks

What a load of bollocks. I think there might be reasons other than being Black in Obama's case. However I think the only reason Clinton is still in the nomination race is because she's a woman.