Month: December 2021

Please provide the text you need translated.

I have a reason to rejoice – my first major purchase (well, besides a house) in six years. The family decided to support my dream of a new electronic piano to replace the old Yamaha P-120 — a Kawai CN39, and now, I’ve set it up and am playing. I haven’t connected it to the computer yet to properly record the sound, so this time the sound is from the microphone. Behind me, the gas heater turns on periodically, but that shouldn’t spoil Bach (only I am skilled enough to do that). Thanks to everyone who gave advice and helped choose Ivan Shapovalov Piano Studio Tatiana Loisha Nadezhda Shulga

There’s a Mac Mini 2012 in the background. It’s so slow that it’s only good for the metronome and music sheets. Yes, everyone asks about the numbers on the screen – it’s a visual metronome. I invented it to avoid turning on the tick-tick-tick, although it can do the tick-tick-tick too. I usually use it during “practice” sessions at a slow pace, so by the second half of the recording, I already stopped hitting it (regrettably, of course, I need to practice more)

The Omicron variant has skyrocketed from 3% to 78% of all infection cases in less than two weeks in our area. Three-quarters of all tests here now show Omicron. In our county, there have been just about three COVID deaths since April 1st, but the case number is climbing. Today it’s 200, a month ago it was 70. In our community, dozens have tested positive, but thankfully, most would not even have known they were infected if they hadn’t taken the tests. No specific measures are being implemented – vaccinated people are still allowed to go without masks, just on an honor system. Nadya, Liza, and I have already received our third shots, which I recommend you do as well.

Why am I not a cat? #sunbathing

In my childhood, such devices were installed in buses. On the right side, a ticket would twist out of the blue gadget, and a coin could be thrown into the top slot (or not – it depended on your conscience; tickets could be twisted out without a nickel). Alternatively, there was an open window at the driver’s where you could toss a nickel after your ride. There were no conductors at all. Back then, it was believed that the Soviet person had reached a sufficient level of consciousness, and his conscience could be the best controller. In the second photo – a puncher for ticket validation. It appeared later. Here, a ticket purchased with the help of a live seller was punched, the conscience-driven system was somewhat softer, but theoretically, the same ticket could be used ten times (though holes were punched differently, who really looked at that?)

We were told that Shiba Inus don’t bark. Yuki barks only at himself and the vacuum cleaner (out of three, only at the Dyson). The mirror bothered him at two months old, then didn’t bother him for four months, and now occasionally he seems to see something there, probably ghosts.

Discovery of the day. There are practically no steam generators/steam stations for home use on the US market. We want to buy one and can’t find anything. Essentially, there are two models – a Rowenta for $300, which almost all reviews describe as “cheap crap, do not buy” and “Laurastar Lift” for $700, described as “better than Rowenta, but still that’s all there is”. But, damn, $700 and a choice of just one model. In Russia, the M-Video site alone has 130 models from Philips, Tefal, Brown, Lelit, Bosch. On the Philips site for the US, there is one (PerfectCare 9000), but it costs $1200. There are commercial ones for $500-600, but they are not portable at all. If I had a laundry room, I would buy them there. But for now, there is no laundry room.

An article on tomguide from August 2021 titled “Why there are no steam generators in the US” states that the steam generator market in the US is smaller than, say, the UK’s. In the US, ironing has almost disappeared from households with the advent of non-iron fabrics. You know, those flannel check shirts, jeans, and wrinkle-resistant T-shirts. And since almost everyone has a dryer next to their washing machine, often gas-powered…

On Reddit, a guy is yelling how he came from England, and now does not know how to properly iron here. He was told that the only steam generator here has pipes, and you usually need to drive to it, and asked what ironing has to do with it. Basically, they didn’t offer him any useful advice.

Bringing one from Europe isn’t an option either. Needs a 110v to 220v converter, which is quite expensive for 2500W. That’s how it is.

In my sixth year living in the USA, I finally understood why the police canine unit is called K-9.

Is there a genre such as expanding existing musical works in the same style? Something like covers, but more serious. For example, we take Gershwin’s “An American in Paris,” and compose something in which you can sense a kinship, exploiting the same theme, but still a standalone piece that wouldn’t be a shame to include in a playlist or concert alongside Gershwin’s original. Covers are still the same piece, just translated into a slightly different language. Listening to the same piece in various covers consecutively — that’s not the same as experiencing reinterpretations, continuations, or sequels.

Here is an example from literature. There is “The Tale of Fedot the Daring Fellow” by Filatov, written in 1985. There is “The Tale of Yegor, the Tsar’s Support, Son of Fedot the Daring Fellow,” written by Andrey Averyanov in the same style, and it’s a standalone piece, very good, by the way. Although opinions vary. But that’s actually a good thing. The second piece is not a cover of the first.

I wonder why this is not a frequent occurrence in instrumental music? For instance, there is Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” and Brahms’s “Variations on a Theme by Paganini,” where the basis is Nicolò Paganini’s 24th Caprice (you’ve all heard it). That right there is a very good example. But for some reason, there is little of this sort.

I wonder why there are no bitter anti-chew products for dogs in the form of a glue stick, only sprays. The sprays give me an unpleasant cough because the aerosol hangs in the air, and the dog doesn’t care – true, he doesn’t touch the sprayed areas, but he sleeps perfectly fine nearby. And I start coughing walking many meters away. A glue stick form factor would be much more convenient. But there’s nothing like that at all.

I want to treat all the wires to make it clear to the dog that they shouldn’t be chewed. He does it very rarely and when no one is around 😦 thank God, I unplugged it before he started to chew on the plug.