Life Is A Lemon And I Want My Money Back

Here is a theme song for this Friday.



Life is a lemon and I want my money back... that's a good title, I like it.

Urban Night Views

 Urban night scenes here in Moscow yesterday.

Thanks to the miracle of photography, what I saw you can see.

Taxi!

Soapbox photos: Urban Night:  Urban night scenes here in Moscow yesterday.

Music: Ksky @ RTS.FM Spb Studio - 28.10.2009: DJ Set

Another reasonably nice set by Ksky.

Pleasant repetitive sounds appear to soothe and dull the mind, sometimes encouraging pleasant day-dreaming sequences - something to be much enjoyed and cultivated: after all what is life but a waking dream?

And who's to say what is more real, the reality or dreams, both sleeping and waking? 

 All is in the mind anyway, is it not?

My Bags: Filson Rugged Twill Original Briefcase

Here is my current main bag which is this tan Filson Rugged Twill Original Briefcase.

It is brand new and not yet fully broken in but is already in heavy, like everyday, use.

It is more spacious than my briefcase but not too big to be inconvenient.

Mid-Day Music: Ksky - RTS.FM.221111

This is a nice set too, sufficiently lazy for a near mid-day watershed (whatever). When it's time to turn in again.



Random picture

 

Morning Music: Funkyjaws RTS FM Sochi x TCHA•TCHA Lab

Just started this up, nice so far, on a rainy and messy February morning.



Random picture 

 

Tie of the Day

Here is my tie of the day on February 18, I think it was, on this occasion, though not a very good photo.

Not a new tie and not new to blog either, just getting more mileage out of this thing.

More ties of the day.

Style Forum Down

 The Style Forum is down and inaccessible, it seems.

 

The reason given for this sorry state of affairs is that the "site is currently being upgraded".

Upgrading is probably a good thing if true and if it doesn't make it even more cumbersome or infested with Google Adsense ads.

But it has been this way for over 24 hours already.

Oops!

 

I am very concerned for the well-being of certain esteemed members of the Style Forum who practically live on it.

They must be suffering from StyFo withdrawal symptoms already!

However they can always visit this blog - there is some discourse on style and menswear to be had here too.

The sartorial saga continues.

Still down "a tad longer than anticipated".

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Styleforum.net (@styleforum)

Watch of the Day: Zaria Moonphase

 Watch of the Day: Zaria Moonphase

 

 

See? the watch doesn't lie! 

And while I am at it, here is some moon photography - it's the very full moon of the past few days which is known as the Snow Moon.

 

 

Definitive Books on Classic Menswear: The Suit

Definitive Books on Classic Menswear: The Suit by someone calling himself (for purposes of this book only) Nicholas Antongiavanni.

 

This is my copy of the seminal book.

First and last (ever?) edition.

My Gagdets: Sony ICD-PX440 Digital Dictation Machine

As I seem to remember, in the early years of this blog, this blogger (aka "me") was fond of writing to catalog various stuff, such gadgets or radios.

So to continue with the tradition, here is another entry - this time in My Gadgets series and the subject is my Sony ICD-PX440 Digital Dictation Machine, aka a Dictaphone that I bought a number of years ago, like 5 or even 6 already.

I wanna describe it briefly and then I wanna give you an overview of some uses that it can be put to. 

Well, "machine" may be too big a word for it - it is just a little digital device to records sounds, such as music or even the wonder of human speech, in a digital format aka mp3 files.

 

It may not be immediately obvious in this day and age, but it is a very useful thing, however not for its original stated purpose which is using it in a dictation mode.

Though I did that too when the circumstances called - I used it to record telephone conversations when the need arose for me to have some proof of what was being said and by whom.

You just put your cell phone on speaker phone and record the deluge of abuse, threats, blackmail and extortion attempts haha, I hope not. 

Yet this original purpose of the device is not how I have used it most often.

I also have other uses in mind for it.

First, for a radio hobbyist as myself, the proof of which can be found on my radio blog (from where this post is actually reposted), it would be useful to record radio reception which in theory can be done both using an audio in and a dictophone function via inbuilt microphone.

Again I have not yet used it for that particular purpose to date as it appears more expedient now to use your mobile phone in a video recording mode and you can also record the radio display indication.

Where it comes very useful indeed and has been used by myself exclusively and extensively, is to digitize past radio reception recordings that I have on a number of cassette tapes dating back to the 1990s.

It works great for this purpose but you have to purchase separately a double ended audio-in jack cable (or something) and I have a Belkin, shown on some of the pictures.

All my past radio reception recordings mentioned on my radio blog have been digitized using this little Sony device, and I generally have been happy with it when using it for this purpose. 

Similarly, it solves the problem of digitizing your cassette tapes archives, including music, of course, and/or other programs.

Last but not least, you could in theory use this machine to borrower music off the internet that you happen to take a fancy too. 

But remember to do it strictly for personal use, of course.

For example, if you hear something nice, something that captures your imagination and have the composition's name and title you can typically find it on Youtube for example, or on other sites that play the composition.

Then you or whoever just plug this thing in an Audio out on the laptop and the record the culprit. 

The quality is usually pretty good, it records at 192 kbps (or something) which is CD quality I believe; and it's a lot safer than using various illegal downloaders.

 

Then you would use the USB connection on the device to transfer the sound file to the computer and then on to your mp3 player device.

Bingo! Job well done!

And still another application I can think of, and have actually used it for, is to record my occasional living-room Karaoke attempts, it's a bit cumbersome when used for that purpose but still works.

 

llya's Radio Shack: My Radio Related Equipment: Sony ICD-PX440 Digital...: In my radio related equipment series, here is my Sony ICD-PX440 Digital Dictation Machine, aka a Dictophone.   It may not be immediately obv...

Ducks on Ice

Ducks in February can feel the coming of the Spring, especially when February is rather warmer than the average.

Using a bird watching mode, the one on my P900.

I like water with ice too...but usually something much stronger that water and lots of ice too.

Soapbox photos: Ducks on Ice:  Ducks in February can feel the coming of the Spring. Using a bird watching mode, the one on my P900.

Yesterday's Moon

Yesterday's moon... is today's sun? 

Well, I don't know but here is a moon zoom from yesterday (February 15, 2022).

Strictly hand held.

Utilizing my P900 and its Moon zoom feature.