u/Asclepius_Secundus

It's time to get our cedar board fence stained. Know any good painting or fence companies that can do this smallish job? It's 150 feet of 6 foot fence. easy access. I already have the stain (Cabot New Cedar semi-transparent stain + sealer). I just need a company to apply it. A couple of fence companies said they don't do staining any more on small jobs. Who do you recommend?

It's time to get our cedar board fence stained. Know any good painting or fence folk that can do this smallish job?

It's 150 feet of 6 foot fence. easy access. I already have the stain (Cabot New Cedar semi-transparent stain + sealer). I just need someone to apply it.

A couple of fence companies said they don't do staining any more on small jobs. Who do you recommend? They got to be bonded and licensed.

It's time to get our cedar board fence stained. Know any good painting or fence companies that can do this smallish job? It's 150 feet of 6 foot fence. easy access. I already have the stain (Cabot New Cedar semi-transparent stain + sealer). I just need a company to apply it. A couple of fence companies said they don't do staining any more on small jobs. Who do you recommend?

Is there an actual "standard" tuba? Would that be the 4/4?

Since I've had the same horn since 1980 (Mirafone 186, CC, 4 valve) , it seems standard to me.

Follow up questions: do the larger phones give you a bigger sound? Are they less agile? What horn would make the archangel Gabriel piss his robe every time you play it?

I'm looking for a way to get my keyboard deployed in front of my pc. I want it to retract back under the desk when I'm not using it.

Can you buy, or have made a 5th valve for a full size tuba like the Mira phone 186 CC? I am wondering if you one could be added to the tuning slide or just after the valve section. Edit: I'm actually looking for a 5th valve, not a compensating system. My tuba is a 4 valve CC Mirafone 186 manufactured about 1970, only horn I've ever owned. On any key combination longer than low F, (1,2,4 + slide 1 pull), the intonation is sharp enough that I can't pull any one slide out far enough to play in tune without having to bend the pitch with my lips. A fifth valve would help with that.

I’m looking for a reliable Optical Music Recognition (OMR) app to convert scanned paper music into MusicXML files for editing in MuseScore. I work on a Win 11 PC with plenty of computing power, if that maters.

All of the music I work with is public domain. Mostly baroque and renaissance.

Free open-source tools like Audiveris v5.11.0 seem to struggle with measure timing, triplets, and dense system layouts, leaving behind a lot of corruption errors to fix manually.

I’m considering investing in one of the standard paid options, specifically PhotoScore Ultimate, SmartScore 64, or PlayScore 2. I don't mind paying for software, but I'd like to know if the main purpose works (turning a music image into MusinXML without a lot of errors)

If you have experience with any of these:

• How accurately do they handle multi instrument scores and midsystem key and /or time changes?
• What are the main pros and cons of their internal editing interfaces?
• Is there one you consider the gold standard for clean MusicXML exports?

I’m looking for a reliable Optical Music Recognition (OMR) workflow to convert scanned paper music into MusicXML files for editing in MuseScore.

Free open-source tools like Audiveris (v5.11.0) seem to struggle with measure timing, complex tuplets, and dense system layouts, leaving behind a lot of corruption errors to fix manually.

I’m considering investing in one of the standard paid options, specifically PhotoScore Ultimate, SmartScore 64, or PlayScore 2.

If you have experience with any of these:

• How accurately do they handle multi instrument scores and midsystem key and /or time changes?
• What are the main pros and cons of their internal editing interfaces?
• Is there one you consider the gold standard for clean MusicXML exports?

I’ve been working on converting physical sheet music scans and image files into MusicXML to edit and extract parts in MuseScore Studio.

MuseScore’s built-in import service often drops beats or misinterprets time signatures, and Audiveris ver 5.11.0 produces too many measure and duration errors on dense multi-staff scores to edit gracefully.

I’ve seen a few paid options recommended, including PhotoScore Ultimate, SmartScore 64, and PlayScore 2. I work on a Win 11 PC with plenty of memory and CUP power. I don't mind paying for a app, but I'd like it to work well enough to use.

For those of you who regularly scan ensemble scores or complex sheet music into MuseScore:

• Which of these programs do you have real-world experience with?
• What are their main strengths and weaknesses when exporting clean MusicXML?
• Are any of them reliable enough to save time over doing a manual transcription from scratch?

Where's a good shop in the Vancouver/Portland area to have an old violin refurbished? I have an old instrument that I want to make playable before I hand it off to younger relatives. It's not particularly valuable, it's just old.

I have a 1970 horn that has wear in the lower bushings (bearings). That's the round plate on the bottom of the valves. Looking at the valve stem (the journal), it doesn't look worn. I've measured the stems for wear, and they seem OK.

One thing you can do with worn bushings is to swage them: squish them in a press so the hole gets smaller, then machine the proper size hole. But I know from my industrial maintenance experience that the swage process can go badly and ruin the bushing. So I'd like to be able to replace them if I can. Or maybe just replace them is the price and specs are good (they'll fit my horn).

Anybody know where to buy replacement valves/bushings for Mirafone horns? I'm in the USA, but overseas purchases might be the only solution.

Update: This may be too much for the local shops (I asked them already). The shop in Seattle, Washington is 250 miles away. I am more than familiar with precision machining, so I might be able to get a precision machine shop to do the machine work. What I'm looking for is an email or website for a supplier

Update (and Mea Culpa): My fat thump posted this without my consent. But to all of your comments, I give my consent.

And by elegant, I mean to put in the recipe ingredients, how many servings it is, and then how many servings I ate. You do the arithmetic, Fatsecret.

I see there is a lot of recipes listed already, but none that I use. I tried entering a recipe for listing in fat secret, but it never gets posted. And I don't see any recipes from outside sources, like alrecipies.

I know you can enter it as a saved meal, but there's a limited number you can save.

How can I create and use my custom recipies on a per serving basis?

I know I can run this recipe through an excel spreadsheet to get the ingredients in grams, but surely for the $70 annual fee, Fat secret can come up with a way to do this automatically.

Example :

Asclepius's Yogurt Treat

1 qt nonfat yogurt

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/4 c almond butter

1/2 c chopped walnuts, raw

1/2 c raw pumpkin seed

3 tbls chia seed

1/2 c cranberry relish

1/2 c tart cherry syrup (King Orchards is great)

Combine all ingredients with a beater.

Keeps 10 days in the fridge (except around me).

Makes 6 cups.

6 servings, 1 c each.

.

I might eat half or 2/3 of a serving, but if I use the saved meal technique, I will need to recalculate each item.

Not good, fat secret, badly done.

We paying customers want it elegant. Make it so.

I was diagnosed with inattentive ADHD at 61. It explained a lot. I have been trying to use tools, structure, and meds to improve my life. Years later, I wonder if I'm also on the spectrum for autism (reluctant eye contact. excessive alone time. difficulty seeing emotional cues. reluctance to express my emotions).

For those diagnosed with ADHD AND autism, which got diagnosed first?

What strategies and tactics work best for you?

Has anyone used a script to filter email?

I get a lot of emails from various domains. They can be anything, including long random strings. Lately, the rate of spam has increased and they have a SPF (Sender Policy Framework) that includes a .jp (I never get a legitimate email from \*.jp). My goal is to send every such email to my trash. Either that or forward to James Veitch.

Is there any way to filter out emails send using a SPF? Since Gemini and Gmail are siblings, I asked Gemini how to solve it. It suggested using a Google Apps Script to make a custom filter. Never used Google Apps Script before, But I'll give it a go on one of my off beat email accounts (Don't want it to inadvertently shred 19 years of email).

Has anyone used a script to filter email?

Can I post the script here (it has no personally identifiable info in it)? I don't see in the rules that I can't post a script.

Has anyone used a script to filter email?

I get a lot of emails from various domains. They can be anything, including long random strings. Lately, the rate of spam has increased and they have a SPF (Sender Policy Framework) that includes a .jp (I never get a legitimate email from *.jp). My goal is to send every such email to my trash. Either that or forward to James Veitch.

Is there any way to filter out emails send using a SPF? Since Gemini and Gmail are siblings, I asked Gemini how to solve it. It suggested using a Google Apps Script to make a custom filter. Never used Google Apps Script before, But I'll give it a go on one of my off beat email accounts (Don't want it to inadvertently shred 19 years of email).

Has anyone used a script to filter email?

Can I post the script here (it has no personally identifiable info in it)? I don't see in the rules that I can't post a script.

Is anyone else apprehensive to contact angels on purpose?

I see a lot of witches (christian and not) talking about contacting or drawing on angels or the angelic plane. Whenever asked, I advise against it. Because angels are like the fae and other elementals in as much as they are NOT human at all and don't seem to understand our limitations or our power (or lack thereof).

And because they scare me shitless.

Angels are of immensely powerful; they have divine instructions, and they will carry them out regardless of the consequences to our frail plane. And so, poking around with them to get something is like starting a volcano to light a cigarette: It'll do the job, but, Oh, My!

Angles are the touchstones for huge change. Given divine instructions (or sincere mortal requests), they can move the world. And I don't want to be the fulcrum.

I appreciate the power and purity of angels. But I'd just as soon play cards with a dragon; they have a sense of humor.

Alas, I don't have a picture of it anymore, but my favorite toy when I was a child was a pipe. Specifically, a 3/4" x 36" schedule 80 galvanized pipe, capped at one end.

You see, my father was a plant engineer. We lived in Tennessee. There are lots of paper wasps there and they built nests around our windows. We used to burn them out with a stick with kerosene-wetted newspaper tied to it. But that seemed dangerous and left soot smudges on our house.

Daddy thought it would be much better (safer? fun?) if we drilled a small hole in a pipe cap, put a couple of firecrackers in it, screwed it onto a 3-foot steel pipe, pushed wadding and a bit of sand down the muzzle pipe.

Light fuse, point at nest, a loud BANG, and the nest and wasps were gone. No flying remnants. No stings. No smudges.

Of course, as boys (my father, brother and myself), we found this hilarious! And justificationally useful.

Now, Daddy wasn’t a fool. He knew he had to teach us to play with this toy safely. So he showed us how to put the cap on securely, keep the fuse hole pointed away from you, not to do anything with it if you had a dud, and absolutely not to overload it with excess firecrackers or shot. And so we had permission to play with this new toy whenever we liked.

One thing led to another, and my brother and I found that if you replaced the sand for a round stone*, you could launch it across the yard: 200 feet or so. That was even more hilarious.

* Ball mill waste: Aluminum oxide 0.690” balls, which he got as scrap from work by the ton. We graveled our drive with them. We called it white shot.

And we liked playing with it a lot! And, as children, we also knew a loophole when we heard one. He said "Don't overload it with firecrackers or shot." He said nothing about using the smokeless powder he used for reloading deer rifle rounds. We found that a bit of this to supplement the firecrackers would turn the loud BANG into a thunderous report that could be heard a mile away (we timed the echo).

One recipe lead to another, and we found ourselves following this pursuit to its ridiculous conclusion by putting two tablespoons of powder into the breach of this. With wadding and a single white shot round, we knew this would be powerful. We also knew the thing might turn into a bomb (we weren’t fools, were we?). So after a couple rounds of “you hold it.” “No, YOU hold it.” we decided to lash it to a tree, pointing it directly at a pine tree next to it. We wanted to see how far it would go into an 8 inch pine tree.

We propped up a piece of plywood for a blast shield, just in case, spliced an extra fuse on to give us some more time, and got a couple mirrors where we could watch from safety. I was allowed to light the fuse because I was youngest. Or maybe I was not that bright. I lit it, ran to the blast board, and picked up my mirror to look in wonder at our new howitzer.

Let me take a moment to explain what 2 tablespoons of smokeless powder can do: It can replenish 6 rounds of hotly loaded 30.06 rounds. Or one 20mm antiaircraft round. We didn’t know this then, but we could have downed a jet with it if we could have aimed the tree.

So we waited for the boom. I saw a brief flash of orange flame; the board hit my head and my ears were struck by a report so loud that by ears felt an anvil had hit them. In fact, the ringing in my ears sounded EXACTLY like the ringing of an anvil for several seconds. My brother was curled up on the ground laughing maniacally, so he was OK. And I joined him in laughter. When he could speak, he said, “I jumped so hard when it went off, I knocked the board back and hit you in the head. You OK?” I was. We scampered around to look at the damage.

The pipe had pivoted half way round the tree, but seemed undamaged. The rope lashings held fast, but the tree bark had been stripped round like the devil’s strap wrench had turned it. The target tree had a hole in the front of it and a hole in the back of it. Not much mushroming because out projectile was an aluminum oxide ball harder than tool steel. Just a hole punched clean through it.

So, we had out answer: more than 8 inches. We saw where it had hit another tree and ricocheted off in the direction of our neighbor’s house. We noticed a tile shingle missing off the side of his house. They didn’t ask and we didn’t tell.

My brother and I were going to reload this again Of course we were. But when we unscrewed the cap, we could see the pipe/breech had swelled out quite a bit. We knew we were very close to blowing that thing up. And possible ourselves.

We decided to chuck it in the lake. We bought another piece of pipe and cap from the hardware store. We fired it a few times with the regulation load to dirty it up some, then put it back in the shop. Did it fool our dad?

He didn’t ask, and we didn’t tell.

By half-life, I mean the number of generational cohorts it takes to reduce by half the willful ignorance of established and scientifically proven facts. Like "Driving faster saves gasoline." Or "Beating people for bad behavior prevents such behavior in the future." Or, "All asprins are alike."