Posts made by SSmith1226

@barliman2001 said in A little humour:

@SSmith1226 Steve, you're incorrigible. What about the time when you went into a hospital and posed as a surgeon?

@Dr-Mark said in Elmer Churampi:

Hi SSmith1226,
You stated;
" no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence."

That has been my experience throughout my life. However, there will be times if we work hard toward a goal, there will be brief but delicious moments when we're as good as it gets. We own the moment and that's (for me) how it works. We get glimpses of greatness only when it's surrounded by buckets of tedious dedicated work. Damned that reminds me. Instead of Internetting, I need to be working on a Bach piece (my current dragon) that's been giving me fits.

Which brings me back to where I ended that post:

This may be very timely. My wife insists that I accompany her on her trips to WalMart. Unfortunately, like most men; I find shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter, from the local WalMart:

Dear Mrs. Smith:

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion, in our store.
We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to, ban both of you from the store.

Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Smith, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras:

1. June 15: He took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: Censored

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money. We don't have a Code 3.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a, 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' EMTs were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while, loudly humming the, 'Mission Impossible' theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his, 'Madonna Look' using different sizes of funnels.

13. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

14. October 22: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed;
    'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

15. Censored

And last, but not least:

16. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile; then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.' One of the clerks passed out.

If anyone else is offended please pm me or email me and I will remove what offends you.
Thanks.
Steve Smith
SSmith1226@aol.com

@Dr-Mark
Elmar Churampi is considered to be among the best in his age group at what he does. For a moment let us assume that he is in the 99.9 percentile of his age group and level of experience as a classical trumpet player. That means for every 1000 trumpet players at his age and experience level there are 999 who are inferior than him as a classical trumpet player. In a group of 10,000 he will be in the top 10, in a group of 100,000 he will be in the top 100, and in a group of 1,000,000 he will be in the top 1,000. Each sub group can also be stratified into its own bell shaped curve where percentiles can be ranked 0 - 99.9 percentiles. The point of all this being, no matter how hard we try, there will always be someone, somewhere, that is better, even if we are the best within our circle of influence. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive to be the best that we can be, but on any given day, even if we are in the 99.9 percentile, there may be many others out there who can do what we strive to do better.
A prime example of this would be olympic sporting competition. An athlete may be the best at a sport in his country which has a population of 300,000,000, but only one competitor in the world wins the gold medal, or for that matter the silver or bronze. The competitor from the country above may come in last in the competition, but still be in the 99.99999 percentile of the world talent pool. So, other then getting depressed over this situation, what can we do to become the next “Elmer Churampi”? Do what it is likely he and many other outliers in the far right of the bell shaped curve have done: As Dr. Mark said, “Take Practice Seriously”.

A spectacular 2016 performance by a 17 or 18 year old trumpet player, Elmer Churampi originally from Lima, Peru.

@Jolter
I got the same “Video Unavailable” message when I tried to open your video. I’m located in the. USA specifically in Florida. Where are you?

@Jolter said in Mahler’s 5th:

In my opinion this is actually pretty good.

The Tofanelli version is cool, but I wouldn't listen to it several times. I think Uri Caine genuinely captures the spirit of the original even though the style is completely different. Mahler wasn't going for "cool".

Jolter,

I wasn’t able to make your link work. Here is a different link to Uri Caine’s interpretation. It is not my cup of tea but nevertheless interesting.

The next version is “the lost version of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony” as “discovered” by Charlie Geyer. The entire interview is interesting but the pertinent discussion about, and following performance of, the lost version, begins about 14:45. It’s an interesting “historical discovery”. I hope thst you enjoy it.

How does the Baritone Sax player do that?

Mahler’s Fifth version 2:

Mahler’s 5th

@Tobylou8 said in A little humour:

A gas station owner was trying to increase his sales; So he put up a sign that read, "Free Sex with Fill-Up." Soon a local pulled in, filled his tank and asked for his free sex. The owner told him to pick a number from 1 to 10. If he guessed correctly he would get his free sex. The guy guessed 8, and the proprietor said, "You were close. The number was 7. Sorry. No sex this time." A week later, the same guy, along with his brother, Bubba, pulled in for another fill-up. Again he asked for his free sex. The proprietor again gave him the same story, and asked him to guess the correct number. The redneck guessed 2 this time. The proprietor said, "Sorry, it was 3. You were close, but no free sex this time." As they were driving away, the guy said to his brother, "I think that game is rigged, and he doesn't really give away free sex." Bubba replied, "No it ain't, Billy Ray. It ain't rigged. My wife won twice last week."

A Scotsman, an Englishman, and an Irishman are sitting in a pub in America and the Scott says, "As good as this pub is, I still prefer the pubs back home. In Glasgow, there's a wee place. The landlord goes out of his way for the locals. When you buy four drinks, he'll buy the fifth drink." "Well," said the Englishman, "At my local in London, the barman will buy you your third drink after you buy the first two." "Ahhh, dat's nothin'," said the Irishman, "back home in my favorite pub, the moment you set foot in the place, they'll buy you a drink, then another, all the drinks you like, actually. Then, when you've had enough drinks, they'll take you upstairs to a private room and see that you gets some real fun, all on the house!" The Englishman and Scotsman were suspicious of the claims. The Irishman swore every word was true. Then the Englishman asked, "Did this actually happen to you?" "Not to me, personally, no," admitted the Irishman, "but it did happen to me sister quite a few times."

@Niner

@Dr-Mark said in How about a "Random Meaningless Image...let's see them string"?:

@SSmith1226
Are those American Crocodiles?

Australian Crocodiles in a Port Douglas Wildlife Habitat.
Below are Crocodiles and Kangaroos in Cairns.