Fête de la Musique

Get the tunes going... Today is the first day of summer which means today is the 21st of June which means today is Fête de la Musique day! HURRAY!!!

This is one of our favorite French events of the year. I usually don't like crowds but this is great. Everyone is walking about in a good mood, enjoying snacks from street vendors, and loving the music.

There are musicians everywhere. They are by themselves or in small (or large) groups on the streets, or performing on a stage at a more organized event set up by the various arrondissements. There are usually some big names too, at venues such as Place de la Concorde.

Launched in France in 1982, the Fête de la Musique is now celebrated throughout Europe and worldwide, with events in 700 towns and more than 120 countries on five continents.

Here is a website that has been automatically translated into English. If you touch your cursor to a paragraph you can see the original French. There is also the language option at the top right corner of the page for French, English, Spanish, and Italian.

Oh, to be in Paris right now...

So, as KC & the Sunshine Band says, get up and "Shake your booty!"



So it goes...

Happy Birthday to Paul McCartney

Sending out birthday greetings to Sir Paul...

Video from concert at Red Square, Moscow, 24 May 2003

Birthdate: June 18, 1942 (73-years old today)

Maybe next year he can revamp the song "When I'm 64".

All the best!

UPDATE: Group Policy Client Services Error Windows 8.1 [FIXED]

UPDATED: July 9, 2015

I had this error again. I did the "netsh" procedure as described below and then shutdown and powered on computer. Very slow loading Windows Desktop then received the Group Policy Client error message again.  Darn... Did a restart and all is well. Sometimes you just have to restart more than once to fix things.

-- Original post of June 17, 2015 --

Back in April this year, I experienced a recurring problem with my computer and it is still fixed (unless this sentence has just jinxed me). This has to do with the "Failed to connect to a Windows service. Windows couldn't connect to the Group Policy Client service" error.

Well, last Monday afternoon Bob's computer (same make and model as mine, both running Windows 8.1) had this error pop up.

I went and followed the procedure which fixed my problem (see here Video #1) but it did not fix his computer. All of his registry parameters were perfect. I tried restarting his computer several times but still no change.

The next morning, I decided to use the Video #2 option as mentioned in the previous post which is to run netsh.

VIDEO #2) This video by Straker 32 might have a slightly different problem. I was going to try it if the above solution did not solve my problem. Titled: "How to Fix "Failed To Connect To A Windows Service" Windows 8". Warning, it sounds like it was made by a 12-year old but it is short. CLICK HERE

It worked and so easy!

Go to your Windows Start screen (not Desktop) and click the down arrow at the lower left corner to get to your list of Apps. Then scroll to all the way to the right and under the heading Windows System you will see COMMAND PROMPT. Right click on this app and left click on "Run as Administrator". You will then have a window where you can run DOS commands (remember when it was always that way, back in the day?).

You will have the C prompt:

C:\windows\system32>

Type:

netsh
(and press your Enter/Return key)

The C prompt will look like:

netsh>

Then type:

winsock reset
(and press your Enter/Return key)
(note the space between winsock and reset)

After it runs successfully, it will tell you to restart your computer...

Restart you computer.

This worked. No error message on the desktop... HURRAY! Almost all of the comments on this YouTube video were to say that it fixed their problem. The one that didn't probably did not specify to "run as administrator".

Still doing the happy dance! If this error pops up again on either of our computers, I will try the netsh winsock reset solution first.

Many thanks to "Straker 32" for posting his short & informative fix on YouTube.

I hope this blog post will be helpful to someone else who is in despair.

So it goes...

Greater Good Website

Provide Life-Changing Help to the Animals of Puerto Rico!

"Despite being a US territory, animal adoption programs in Puerto Rico are decades behind their counterpart in America. Less than 45% percent of dogs and 30% of cats that make it to shelters are ever adopted, and there are hundreds of thousands of street dogs and stray cats in this small island chain that will never get a chance at adoption in the first place. You can help. Your click will fund the One Picture Saves a Life workshop in San Juan and the renovation of the Las Marias PAWS satellite shelter in rural West-Central Puerto Rico. Together we can make a significant impact on the welfare of animals in Puerto Rico."  Read more and click the button to help. It's FREE and for a good cause.

The http://greatergood.com campaign changes every few days so do it now. If you are too late to help with this campaign then click on the current one.

Also, click on the other tabs (Hunger, Breast Cancer, Animals, Veterans, Autism, Alzheimers, Diabetes, Literacy, Rain Forest) and then click on their buttons to give help.

I do this every morning after turning on my computer. Make it your habit, too.

So it goes...

June 4th - Hug Your Cat Day

Today is national Hug Your Cat day...

These guys gets lots of cuddles every day.

Great excuse to take the day off as a holiday!

So it goes...

Sgt Peppers - June 1, 1967

Sixty-eight years ago today, Sgt Pepper taught the band to play...

(Click here for a map of who's who on the cover art)

Wow, the Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles was released 48 years ago today on June 1st 1967.  Where were you on that day?

On Sunday, I listened to Little Steven's Underground Garage which had a fantastic radio program featuring this momentous album. My guess is that it will be Show #686 which is not up on Little Steven's web site yet (http://undergroundgarage.com/shows-680-689/).

This album has many "firsts", including first rock LP that included lyrics to all the songs and first rock LP that won the Grammy Award for "Album of the Year".

Speaking of "firsts".... Today is June 1st which is the first day of what I like to call "summer season" as I try not to use the "H" word and hopefully that word will not pop up this summer :)

So it goes...

May 21st

Today is "Talk Like Yoda Day", but inspired not am I...

http://icanhas.cheezburger.com

Toshiba Satellite and BSOD error: System Thread Exception Not Handled (atikmdag.sys)

I've been using a Toshiba Satellite C75D-A laptop that we bought a year +1 day ago from Office Max. I have occasionally had problems over the past year while watching videos (especially Vimeo) with the computer locking up and receiving this error message.

Blue Screen Of Death or affectionately referred to as BSOD

Well, a few days ago it happened again and again and again and again and again... At least FIVE times.  Once in the morning with a Vimeo and four times in the evening with two different embedded YouTube videos on two different websites (my Firefox browser is up to date). This was too much and made me do a bit of investigating.

I did a search on the error message System Thread Exception Not Handled (atikmdag.sys) and received lots of suggestions. Fortunately one of the first few that I looked at was this thread on a Toshiba Forum from people with similar Toshiba laptops and using Firefox.

Here's the link: CLICK HERE
TOSHIBA FORUMS | Troubleshooting | Win 8 & 8.1 | System Thread Exception Not Handled (atikmdag.sys)

There were several suggestions as to updating your drivers, and doing stuff using the command line interface which I didn't want to do so I kept reading...

On page 2 of this forum thread, Jerry_Lippey suggested:

• For Firefox: Turn off hardware acceleration
• For Internet Explorer: Disable software rendering in Internet Explorer 

So, that sounded easy and definitely worth a try.  I went up to my menu bar at the top of Firefox and clicked on TOOLS, then OPTIONS. Got the popup box for Options and at the top right clicked on ADVANCED. Under the GENERAL tab in the lower BROWSING section I unchecked the box for USE HARDWARE ACCELERATION WHEN AVAILABLE. Clicked OK and that was it. Easy!

I retested the two sites and watched the videos that made my computer crash just an hour before. They played perfectly as did the Vimeo.

This was always a random problem and usually it would occur weeks apart but I now (knock on wood and cross fingers) feel like this is an issue of the past.

Just wanted to pass this along in case you are having similar happenings.

So it goes...

The Month of May

One of my favorite months when working in France is May.

There are four holidays of note and, if the 1st and 8th happen to fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, one gets to "faire le pont" or make the bridge between the weekend and the holiday thus getting a 4-day weekend... Youpi

• May 1st : Labour Day
• May 8th : Victory in Europe Day
• May 14 : Ascension
• May 25 : Whit Monday

So it goes...

Group Policy Client Services Error Windows 8.1 [FIXED]

Monday night when I turned on my computer I had this error message on my Desktop

Failed to connect to a Windows service
Windows couldn't connect to the Group Policy Client service. This problem prevents standard users from signing in...

I use a Toshiba Satellite laptop running Windows 8.1 that I purchased in May last year. I am up to date with Window's updates. I've had this issue four times before and I don't know what triggers it and I really don't know what fixed it previously. I had watched Eugene's video (see below) and followed all of his steps. I even deleted parameters/variables and re-entered them but the process still didn't appear to be running but it would after a time.

I did a search on the internet to try to find new mentions and solutions to this error. Not much out there for Windows 8.1 but I thought I'd write about it to point you towards Eugene's video and let you know that you are not alone :) There are differences for this issue between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. After reading lots of forum entries, it seems like lots of people had this problem after upgrading from 7 to 8. My computer has always been Win 8.1.

I ignored this error message and found that my email (Thunderbird) worked just fine. I could not watch anything on NetFlix, Vimeo, etc. When I looked at File Explorer I could not right click on any file. The images in the preview pane did not change (well they might have but it took several minutes). File Explorer would lock up and then I had issues of some applications not opening so I would shut down and start again.

I found 3 possible solutions to look at on YouTube video

1. fix the registry - easy step by step instructions.
2. run netsh
3. turn bluetooth on (HP laptop no right click)

VIDEO #1. Here is an excellent video on YouTube.com from Eugene Robertus titled "Windows could not connect to Group Policy Client services fix for Windows 8.1". (It says "Part 2" but you are not missing anything as Part One pertained to Windows 7) CLICK HERE to watch.

Eugene speaks clearly, calmly, and precisely. He shows screen shots of every step. The video is in focus and has no music... Hurray!

I had this video running on my tablet while working on my laptop.

Everything Eugene says to check for was correctly set up on my computer except that the Group Policy Client Service was not running for some reason.

After watching the video a few times and following his trip through the registry with my computer, I did something different. When in the svchost folder (video time=7:13) and checking the contents of the netsvcs variable (he's checking to see that gpsvc is included in this list, mine was OK).

Then he shows that if you enter a blank line you will get a warning message to tell you that you cannot have a blank line but that the program removed the blank line and saved the file for you. I went to the bottom of the list and noticed the cursor was on a new line after the last entry. I backspaced so my cursor was now after the last character of the last entry.

I got the "blank line" warning. It "fixed" it and saved. After I went through all of the other steps again, all appeared OK so I restarted my computer. No error message, the process was running, email was still fine, File Explorer was working normally. Knock on wood... Everything was working at the first startup (and still is!)

Many people in his comments had all of the correct parameters, too. After they rebooted a couple of times the error message was gone. This also happened to me other times I had this problem. Maybe it takes a few times to correctly get the correct parameters/variables loaded and get the process running again??? Who knows (I'd love to!) but the most important thing is that it worked.

VIDEO #2) This video by Straker 32 might have a slightly different problem. I was going to try it if the above solution did not solve my problem. Titled: "How to Fix "Failed To Connect To A Windows Service" Windows 8". Warning, it sounds like it was made by a 12-year old but it is short. CLICK HERE

VIDEO #3) This person, Pratap Tirua, has the problem of his right click being too slow. I was having right click issues so I watched it. He has an HP laptop and it seems like it helped other users with similar HP laptops by turning on Bluetooth. Weird, but not my problem. Just wanted to mention it.

Hope this blog post will be helpful to someone else who is in despair. Don't Panic!

So it goes...

What's in your Easter basket?

The cats have gotten their specially-modified duck blind out of storage, are in position, and patiently waiting.

April 1st - Poisson d'Avril

Happy Birthday to WW... 33 years

So it goes!

Local Holiday: USVI Transfer Day

Today marks the 98th anniversary of the transfer of the Danish West Indies to the USA.

US Virgin Islands

The USA purchased the 133-square-mile Caribbean island chain for $25,000.000.

Read more about it here: http://www.dkconsulateusvi.com/TRANSFER/transfer.html

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY 2015

It's that day again... This year is already flying by.

It's March 17th already. In a few days it will be Spring.

YouTube video: St. Patrick's Day | Bet You Didn't Know ...

Enjoy!

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Don't leave port on Fridays...

I'm sure you know that you're never to leave port on a Friday, but I just want to point out that tomorrow is also the 13th... Friday 13 March 2015.

You've been warned. Stay safe :)

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Missing France... Galette des Rois (recipe)

We miss living in France. Especially around the holidays at the patisseries :)

Here is an easy recipe for next New Years. I might have to test it a few times beforehand because I really love these.

LA GALETTE DES ROIS

Ingredients (Serves 6-8)

• 2 circles of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), refrigerated

• 1/4 cup almond paste
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3 tbs unsalted butter, softened
• 2 eggs (1 is for the pastry's egg wash)
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 2 tbs all-purpose flour
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 bean or small porcelain figurine (fèves), optional
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar for dusting 

Method:

1. Combine the almond paste and about half of the sugar, and mix until well blended. Add the butter and remaining sugar using and mix until smooth. Blend in 1 egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, flour and salt. Perhaps add a tablespoon of rum. Set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
3. Butter a baking sheet or line with parchment paper. Place a circle of pastry onto the prepared baking sheet.
4. Mound the almond filling onto the center of the pastry that is on the baking sheet, leaving about 1 1/2 inch margin at the edges. Press the optional bean or fève down into the filling. 
5. Place the second sheet of pastry on top, and press down the edges to seal. Beat the remaining egg with a fork, and lightly brush onto the top of the galette. Use a knife to make a crisscross pattern in the egg wash (or a spoon to make crescent pattern). Prick several small slits in the top to vent steam while baking.
6. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Do not open the oven until the time is up, as the pastry will not fully puff. Remove from the oven and dust with confectioners' sugar. Return to the oven, and cook for an additional 12 to 15 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown. 
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Serve at room temperature.

Bonne année & Bon appétit

.

Happy New Year from the Space Station (ISS)

Here is a short video from the International Space Station wishing us all a happy new year.



Did you notice the person video bombing back and forth behind them starting about 18 seconds into the video? Cool...

NASA has a very interesting YouTube channel at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA_DiR1FfKNvjuUpBHmylQ

Best wishes for a happy, healthy, fun, and prosperous new year!

Merry Christmas with Darlene Love

This week we watched "20 Feet From Stardom" on Netflix. Loved it and will watch it again soon. It is a documentary about backup singers and features such greats as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Sheryl Crow, Táta Vega, and many more...

Darlene Love has been singing "Christmas Baby Please Come Home" annually on the David Letterman show since 1986. This year, 2014, is the last time Darlene will be performing it on "The Late Show" because David will be retiring in May 2015.

Enjoy...


Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays ... Make It So

This compilation from Star Trek The Next Generation brought a smile to my face.

Enjoy...



So it goes!

It's finally here

This is it. The day we've been looking forward to all summer. The last day of H-season.

It looks like it may become a gloomy day. It's a bit overcast and we've had a few sprinkles but nothing to complain about.

Thankful for a relatively calm summer :)

So it goes!

Donate to Donna Romasco's Medical Fund

Many of you may know Donna Romasco who lives aboard in Tortola BVI with her husband Dave, and dog Trixie. She works at Regency Charter Services. Donna is a super person to work with and we love her efficiency and attention to detail.

 

Donna is seriously ill right now due to contracting dengue hemorrhagic fever (the worst form of dengue) shortly after returning home from hospital for a total hip replacement which has since become acutely infected. To top it off, Dave came down with Chikungunya virus.

Our good friend Kerry of the charter yacht Promenade has set up a fund raiser page to help with Donna's unexpected medical costs.

The GoFundMe site is: http://www.gofundme.com/donna-regency. You can find more details about her condition there.

Donations of any amount will be appreciated but it will also be a great morale booster for Donna to know that so many people care.

Get well soon, Donna

Amazon Kindle Stuff

Over a month ago, our Kindle (keyboard model) started having issues. I must contact Amazon as perhaps it is an easy fix but I still haven't done so.

Kindle Paperwhite

A couple of days later we decided to buy the Kindle Paperwhite. We have been wanting one for awhile and now we had the perfect excuse to actually purchase one. We prefer the e-ink Kindles as opposed to the Kindle Fires because we only want to use them to read books. We have other tablets to surf the internet, use as chart plotters, mp3 players, etc.

The e-ink Kindles display perfectly when reading outdoors in sunlight. Nice for when you have a few minutes and want to carry on a bit further in your current book. The Paperwhite has an integral light so you can read in the dark. Perfect!

New Kindle Touch

I have a discontinued 6" Kindle with the buttons on the bottom and the page turning buttons on both sides. It has been replaced by the new improved Kindle Touch which has a faster processor, more storage space, and some new features.

To protect our new Paperwhite we bought a sleeve that we are very happy with. It fits snug and is easy to find (it is purple) and use.

Our Kindle Touch doesn't have its own light but I found an inexpensive case with a built-in light which works well.

Lighted e-ink Kindles are great for night reading because you don't need to disturb anyone else with the cabin light.

Are you a Dortmunder fan? The Hot Rock was (and still is) one of my favorite movies. Dortmunder was played by Robert Redford. This book, Thieves Dozen by Donald E. Westlake, has 11 Dortmunder short stories. Great for light bedtime reading.

In the plus column, Kindles are excellent as they can hold lots of books, thus reducing weight aboard and recovering some shelf space. Yes, I worry about something happening and losing access to our books but we have several Kindles so they shouldn't all go down at once. We do have paper books that we must keep such as guitar music, boatbuilding books with plans, other reference books, plus some paperback favorites. Can't be too careful :)

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The terns were right

We were worried about TS/Hurricane Gonzalo even though the royal terns were back in town. We prepared our boat and put out two more anchors.

The first few projected tracks had the little TS symbol right on top of us but fortunately, Hurricane Gonzalo stayed about 100 miles away to the northeast.

The terns were right.

90L is TS Gonzolo

GONZOLO, great name for a storm. Makes me think of a Marx Brother movie.  But as cool as his name might be (we experienced Omar a few years ago), we really don't want him passing through here.

The Hurricane Hunters flew through Invest 90L earlier today and found out that it was a Tropical Storm... didn't even mess with the Tropical Depression phase.

They predict it will be an H-thing when it gets to Puerto Rico.

So, guess you know what we'll be busy with... best to be prepared.

Hope the GFS model (red line in above image) is accurate and it will pass quite aways from us.

Here's a bit from Advisory #1 - 130 PM AST SUN OCT 12 2014

DISCUSSION AND 48-HOUR OUTLOOK
------------------------------
AT 130 PM AST...1730 UTC...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL STORM GONZALO WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 16.4 NORTH...LONGITUDE 58.4 WEST. GONZALO IS
MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 10 MPH...17 KM/H...AND THIS GENERAL
MOTION IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY...FOLLOWED BY A TURN
TOWARD THE WEST-NORTHWEST TUESDAY NIGHT. ON THE FORECAST TRACK...
GONZALO IS EXPECTED TO MOVE THROUGH THE LEEWARD ISLANDS BY EARLY
MONDAY MORNING.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 40 MPH...65 KM/H...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS.  STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

TROPICAL-STORM-FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 45 MILES...75 KM
FROM THE CENTER.

THE ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1009 MB...29.80 INCHES.

So it goes

What the heck? Invest 90L !!!

I've been meaning to put the ground tackle away that has been sitting on deck since the last storm threat. In fact, today seemed like a good day to do so until I went to look at weatherunderground.com

Invest 90L - Saturday, October 11 2014, 08:00am

I'm hoping the return of the Royal Terns and the increased population of Pelicans was not premature.

I was going to check out Amazon's Halloween costumes for pets but I'm sort of put off of frivolity right now... except, this is one I haven't seen before...

Animal Planet Peacock Dog Costume

So it goes...