When Dreams Come True...

i have a noisy neighbor. ( Ted Means Upstairs! )

as a side note to this;
i came out of my room the other day,
and when i passed my next door neighbor's room on this floor,
i noticed that they ( manny & his girlfriend ) had their stereo up like full blast...!
So i went back to my room,
closed the door and stood there for a moment...
i could Not hear a peep from their room...!!!

So anyways...
The noise that comes from Ted's room is exactly that weird kind of noise that bothers me the most.
Which is not just noise.
i don't really mind noise, as noise.

When i was a street person on The Big Island, in Hilo,
i slept next to this aquaduct that had like a million frogs in it,
And that noise didn't bother me at all.
i slept like the kind of baby that sleeps very peacefully,
Without fussing all night.

The kind of noise that really bothers me;
Is noise that i can barely hear.

Especially when it's voices, like from a TV.
So that my brain will try to figure out what they're saying,
But i can't quite make it out.

Another kind of noise,
Which is basically the same kind of 'almost' noise,
Is when a stereo is blasting through a wall or floor/ceiling and only some of the frequencies are coming through!

Or when they are playing a stereo so loud that the speakers stop generating the music from the radio or record player,
But just vibrate.
And this is what many people think IS Rock & Roll.
Not the Music, Just the vibrations.

So there are those two kinds of noise that really annoy me—

And also;
Just Really Loud Music or Aimless Guitar Strumming.
Or Sports...

So that's Five kind of sounds...

And Ted uses them all against me,
All Day & All Night long.
Most Every Day,
Especially on The Weekends.

And i hate to complain...
Because the noise coming through,
In most cases,
Is just on the edge of being too loud.

It's VERY Annoying,
But it's not REALLY too loud.
i would come off as crazy person complaining about it...

And also;
i'm thinking,
Is this just one of the things that reasonable people have to put up with,
Living in technological community...

Plus:
Most people have to suffer through a huge amount of nonsense every day,
And here i am living in Paradise.
Maybe this is a very inconsequential burden that i am fated to carry ( ??? )

i am really of two minds concerning this.

Another Argument i have for situations like this—

Is when you Allow someone to misbehave,
You are giving them permission to continue misbehaving.
So that when they are condemned to hell for all eternity,
Are you partly or entirely responsible...!!!

??? !

Do i ever make too much noise for my neighbors.
i don't think so.
i don't even have stereo, and i hate watching TV.
And i listen to everything throught headphones.
i like the superiour sound quality from headphones,
And it's much easier to hear movie conversational speech with headphones.

So for seveal months ( 3 years ) i've been looking for some really nice headphones that will block out external sounds,
So i can just listen to what i want to,
Without the layering of sounds that come from the outer world...!

Also;
i wear earplugs almost all the time,
And i've really gotten used to living in complete silence.
Although;
This imposed state of sensory deprivation has increased the amount of schizophrenic voices that i hear.

So today:
Friday August 1st 2008
With my last rather expensive purchase from Sears of some Big Earmuff Headphones that didn't block out external sounds very well ( actually; not at all )—
i was thinking that because my earplugs are actually pretty good at this,
Wouldn't be be nice if there was a set of headphones that were essentially earplugs,
With headphones on one end,
And would feed the sound through a pipette to my head...!

So after thinking about this at the end of July for awhile,
i went out August 1st to return some books
& Run over to Staples to get some ink cartridges,
Paper suitable for making my own tarot cards & Postcards,
A corner trimer
And found, By chance, Some headphones of exactly the kind i was looking for the last 3 years, For about $12...!
They are called SkullCandy™ by Ink'D.

When the sound it off,
they work exactly like perfectly effective earplugs!

So when i got home,
i tried them out while Ted was blasting his TV and i could not hear it at all...!!!

- - - -
Another Wondrous thing i found recently was Google Earth.

It is a little different than Google Maps,
Which allow you to view the entire Earth Surface with images from Space Satellites...

Google Earth is Essentially the Same Thing...
Except that the interface comes from an application that you load into your comptuer,
And somehow stores vast swatches of Earth Topography at a time,
So that you can fly over it!

So instead of just looking at a Snap Shot of the Earth,
As in Google Maps,
Google Earth has an Airplane Simulator with it,
That allows you to go to anywhere on The Earth and just fly over it!

The Interface to control The Airplane isn't quite as easy to use as the one that came with my old F/A 18 Hornet Game Demo
( i never did buy the whole game, the demo alone satisfied me completely...!!! )
But i think that i'll get the hang of it eventually.

Also; With The F/A 18 Demo,
The ground that i flew over was just simple polygons,
But with Google Earth... IT'S THE REAL EARTH...!

How detailed is it?
i was thinking that with the 'Good' Pictures, it's about 2 feet.
That is;
i can see the front and back windshields of automobiles in parking lots.

In many cases;
In the Cities; Google Sketchup provides models of Buildings.
So that many cities look 'Kind of' like real cities.
Only some of the buildings are provided,
As these buildings are provided by ordinary people that make them
With the Free Application Sketchup that Google provides them with.

This Sketchup is An Amazingly Easy tool to use for making 3D objects.
It takes a little practice to learn how to use, But it's VERY powerful.
The models are not exactly Ray-Tracing Quality,
But they have real shadows, and lots of details.

- - - -
Another Amazing Application that i got with my MacBook,
That i've really wanted to get for the longest time,
Is Garage Band.
The Primary Function of it is to allow Garage Bands to Mix their own Sound Recordings.

This mixing means that you can record each instrumental track, digitally, & then edit it, note for note, and then mix all the instruments together, with vocals and other sound tracks into a final product!!!

But also:
You can use Garage Band to Write your own music,
And get the computer to play it for you,
With a wide range of electronic instruments,
Sound effects,
Sound tracks & Tracks that you record yourself or find on the internet...!!!

It allows you to add many instrumental tracks that you've written,
So that you can build up an entire symphony piece...!!!

- - - -
Curiously; While i've been Dreaming of having access to many of these programs for a very long time, now that i have them,
they intimidate me...!!!
i have tried them out, but i haven't really thrown myself on them yet.

Some other Fabulous programs that i like are:

Chipmunk Basic
An easy to use Programming Language, but i'm having some trouble figuring out how to use some of the most elemental features...
The Documentation that comes with it, is very poor!

Pages '08 & Graphic Converter
These are image processing programs that should be allowing me to make some really nice collages and process my watercolors...
If only i would get going with them...!

Grapher
Is kind of a simple Math Thingy that allows you to plot 2 & 3D graphs.
These can be very pretty, But i haven't yet sat down to read all the instructions to learn how to use it...!

iTunes
i've been snubbing my nose at iPods for the last few years,
But iTunes has shown me how useful digital music can be...!
Instead of lugging around a huge case of CD's, Tape Cartridges or LP Records;
You can put every song that you've ever listened to in your entire life, into a tiny device, smaller than a match box.
It is convenient.

Flickr & Blogger
Self Publishing made easy.

Pages & TextEdit for Text Processing
TextEdit, While smaller, with fewer special functions, is easier to use for just typing.
i really have all the tools available now to write all my books.
All i have to do, is get started.