Thoughts at rest

I'm not feeling too good presently, indeed haven't since Tuesday with one of my periodic migraines so I'm in bed, curtains drawn resting with a bit of music at a low volume on to mask background noises from next door and the road.

There are a few things on order for late next week such as couple of cd sets one of which directly links to boyhood favourites in the era very much of Junior Choice with funny songs and audio stories very much for children and another the start in another decade of Now Yearbooks, this time the nineteen nineties.

It was an odd decade where much of the landscape of the Modern World was forged both politically and also when it comes to technology and culture as computing move from the industrial and academic to the home with the first internet connected personal computers even if most were still tower pc's unlike today with everything around portability such as laptops, chromebooks, tablets and "smart"phones.

Sports and Media personalities got everywhere almost like brands and like Mr Blobby could have a part on shows, a record and in his case a theme park.

Some media were predicted to go such as records with the closure of EMI's Hayes, Middlesex plant in the early nineties but not only survived it but have seen a major resurgence this decade.

Boston and past record collections

There has been a record collection here as long back as first started buying and receiving them as presents which I can fairly confidently say goes back to around 1971 where in the main it was seven inch singles and the odd album I was bought todays large multi-format collection that takes in compact discs, the odd pre-recorded cassette and records of all sizes.

It's always been subject to change as interests expanded and the means of buying them improved and as other formats came and went such as MiniDisc and Cassette Singles.

I've always liked the melodic highly skilled played rock of Boston ever since they broke out in 1976 but it wasn't until the early 80's that at I got a copy of this their first album which lasted until I caught up with the compact disc revolution by the late 80's and that left.

This was the home of the classic More Than A Feeling single.

As my interest in vinyl returned this century I did get an original American edition that sounds really good outdoing my cd.

The second Boston album was originally released in September 1978 and my original copy was bought around the same time as the first, then replaced a few months later with a Dutch edition that sounded fuller and then removed back in 1988 for a cd.

This album was the home of Don't Look Back and A Man I'll Never Be and really was meant to had been longer as the group felt they wanted more time to complete the songs and record compnay wanted a new album.

This returned to the vinyl collection this century in an American first pressing with gatefold form

There was a nine year wait and a change of record label to Don't Look Back's follow up so it was hardly surprising many of the songs go back musically to the early 1980's although this was a August 1986 release and it's probably some may even had ended up on group leader Tom's idea of what Don't Look Back should of been.

This album was the home of the smash hit Amanda and for all those years it was a big success commercially.

I bought my copy back in 1986 on UK MCA but like much else by two years time it had gone as a thriving market in lightly used cds at a third or less plus more lower priced reissues so much of the lp collection including it went.

After over thirty years an original Japanese pressed edition has returned to the collection finishing off the Boston on vinyl section.

It's OBI.

On Friendships and Relationships

Sometimes I think we can get on the wrong foot when it comes to how we form and maintain relationships and as males we tend not to be so good at it, perhaps because few cared to show us how.

Focus is a main thing.

Are we wishing to be someones friend or lead others in activities or play for how that may make us appear in the eyes of the wider world, a favourable comment or an attempt to be seen as a leader as if it is about us?

I feel when it comes to motivation being less concerned around that but looking more what we can offer others and from that what we may gain from that - seeing others happy, having fun can be enough

There are things we need to be mindful of,

This speaks volumes to me.

We can get so fixated on solving problems, righting wrongs that we feel we are not making a difference to someone we care about but just being there, walking along side them is really what we need to be doing more.

When you care for some one you just do.

We love them for what they have to offer rather than what wemay feel our needs are.

When was it we last told them we love them?

Do it.

Feel it.

Show it.

Above all, Say it.

Content making and Forum business

 

There are a number of things I do wish to talk about here this week.

Probably the first is that the Chromebook I bought was better specified than expected having a glossy screen more like a tv's and that it was the dear version that supports the use of a stylus for or other writing directly the screen applications.

The other thing really concerns our forum and that is handling different views is really one of the ways you can tell a good forum than one that's not because avoiding politics there are things we as individuals have our own strong views over.

They can include the differences around role playing and age regression/dysphoria which may show in terms of the kinds of activity people may seek out from others be it play or over any kind of sanctions for transgressing  boundaries while doing it.

Some may be looking for those sanctions in a preordained storyline, while others prefer them in the background coming in when they've crossed a line.

Another is given we are talking about adult boys mainly body hair especially on the legs where some people prefer to remove that thing we noticed sprouting in our mid teens feeling perhaps it makes feel unconfortable in our skins as in may ways still little boys - I have strong dysphoric reactions to it personally - while others feel little or no need to remove it.

To me a bad forum pushes a "group thought", making those who may feel different unable to take part and not having their personal feelings respected with little or no honest debate.

We don't. 

There may be as in a good many things in life a common view, a consensus, among most of us but difference is respected and ideas explored because through that everybody learns about the variety of views and why they feel the way the do themselves.

Personally I feel it is important to know why you feel the way you do (and why someone else may not).

Anybody who may take a minority view is always welcome and ought not to feel they need to leave over what is at the end of the day, a personal opinion of little consequence to others.

And before I go I would strongly prefer people to use avatars as there are a few of you out there who haven't uploaded one. 

It obviously needs to be Safe for work, but please do so.

A Boys Chromebook II

We looked at this around 2019 more or less four years ago which does look seem like ages ago as anything pre-pandemic does today but things move on in a number of ways such any sort of computer has a operating system to convert human instructions to requests and actions computer systems can use and they are only guaranteed updates for limited period that add features and improve security to known potential threats.

Given the amount our lives involving using computers such as using various sites to pay bills, buy things and deal with government, staying on top of such things makes sense.

That older machine had passed its last update for some six months and had a tendency to "lock up" inexplicably after a few hours of usage so looking for a replacement made sense.

 This is it.

It has a touch sensitive screen so you can touch, move and shink thing by finger power and not just the keyboard.

It's a bit thinner, it uses a newer power connector and sticks the manual turn on button on the right hand side like some bigger smartphones do but it still dos that open up and it turns itself on trick.

It'll take a little bit of setting up but once we're connected and loaded with my google account it'll be all there.