Discovering MuseScore

Another dull day, brightened by a pancake breakfast followed by a lie-in. Then a trip to Canton Cobblers to collect my repaired shoes and sandals. The shoes were finished, but my sandals had been in a queue of other sandal repairs, and hadn't been done, so I'll have to wait until next week.

Clare received an email with an unreadable zip file attachment on it from the music transcription service of the Royal National Institute for the Blind. They have a specialist volunteer team  helping those losing their sight to continue normal activity by making large print copies of music whose notes or text layout is too cramped or too small for easy reading. It's not as straightforward as enlargement, as the layout of text in relation to music contributes to legibility issues, a digital re-write is needed using a special app called MuseScore. Clare's file attachment was not only zipped but in a special .mscz MuseScore file format.

Clare's laptop runs under Linux Mint, and initially the .mscz file was unreadable. I emailed it to myself and tried without success to read it on my Chromebook, so tried again on my Windows workstation. This told me to look in the Windows App store, where I found and downloaded MuseScore3 for free. This was able to display and print the file as intended. Then Google told me there's a Linux version, so I installed it on Clare's laptop for future use. It's a nice piece of work. You can create your own music files using it as well as files others have created.

Clare cooked a delicious salmon soup for lunch. Afterwards, I finished and printed tomorrow's sermon. Then we drove to Porthkerry Country park for a walk tea and cake. The sky remained overcast threatening rain but it didn't arrive. For supper I cooked myself a pasta sauce with red pepper and tomato - things Clare's diet forbids. Then I recorded next Thursday's Morning Prayer and Reflection.

Now we're covid passport holders

After downloading my digital covid passport last night, I heard the news that the Welsh Government has now made showing this pass a requirement of attending theatres and convert venues, as well as clubs. It came as a complete surprise, though it's understandable as the infection statistics in Wales aren't reducing as hoped for.  Clare set to work on registering to obtain hers after I returned from celebrating Mass at Saint German's this morning. Interestingly enough, confirmation of her verification by face recognition email  took six hours to arrive, whereas mine, yesterday evening took a matter of minutes.

I had a most disconcerting experience during Mass. When I began to read the collect and scriptures from the daily lectionary book, admittedly small print, my eyes wouldn't focus well enough to be able to read the text. It's the first time this has happened. I know I need bright light to read by, and generally speaking with the correct reading glassed can tackle small print. St German's is blessed with much natural light and with electric lights are more than enough for ordinary purposes. I haven't had this problem there before but this morning the sky was dark grey and the light levels low enough for my eyes not to work properly. 

It was a most distressing experience, which fortunately everyone took in their stride. It was something to do with the cataracts I am waiting to have dealt with I think. Anyway, Clare has come up with a small clip on LED light that can attach to the edge of a book cover and shine directly on the page. That should make a difference in future.

When I was trying to help Clare with her covid pass application, a realised there was a problem with her computer which she had noticed but put up with uncomplainingly hitherto. The window minimisation sequence seemed not to work. It seemed just to close a window instead. I searched the Linux Mint forum and discovered that the toolbar at the bottom of the page has lots more ways to configure than I have ever realised, and one of these is the facility to display minimised windows or not. It was switched off! As soon as a switched it on, a dozen minimised windows became visible and needed closing because redundant. It seems odd that something like that would be switched off by default.

We had a lovely salmon soup for lunch as Clare had bought a month's worth of fish at Ashton's to freeze. Then for supper we had some laver bread, with a slice of organic sourdough rye bread which I bought in Beanfreaks when I went to collect Clare's weekly order.

In the evening we watched 'The Repair Shop' and Scottish crimme 'Shetland' before bringing the day to an end. I'm wondering how it is going to be possible to curb the covid infection rate if vaccinations don't turn out to be the hoped for magic bullet. Social distancing is becoming a thing of the past and mask wearing even where obligatory seems more like optional. Breaking news tonight from COP26, where the USA and China, the world's top industrial polluters, have agreed to work in partnership on carbon reduction, though it is far to soon to understand how this will work out.

Celebrating a remarkable extended family

I finished the antibiotics yesterday morning, and slept a peaceful five hours before needing to relieve myself. Just what I needed. The aftermath of strong medication affects both the digestion and irritates the bladder. Heaven help anyone what has infection or inflammation. The cure seems as bad as the ailment.  Just like giving you a Cocodamol painkiller that constipates the victim, plus a laxative to manage the impact. Is modern medicine unable to do better than this. What happened to the 'patient experience' factor?

Sleep plus a little physical inertia sees a welcome improvement at this early healing stage. I spent much of the morning writing with my Chromebook lying on the bed comfortably, completing tomorrow's eulogy and order of service, ready to print. 

I went to the shops for a few items after lunch, then for a circuit of Llandaff Fields, nothing too strenuous. Coming out if Tesco's as I was entering, I bumped into Wendy one the team of District Nurses who brought ne back from the brink after my first couple of operations. It gave me an opportunity to update her on my medical news and asked her to relay my greetings to her colleagues.

An email arrived from Martin with a request to look at an article he's drafted about his amazing household and family life and comment. At pensionable age they live with two special needs lads, and an Afghan family with two babies and two teenagers, plus other regular visitors. And they love it! Later, after doing what he asked, another request to edit the article. Martin tells a great story, so it was mostly an exercise in punctuation and occasional clarification, as if I was preparing it to be read aloud. I do this routinely and it's an exercise in thinking I enjoy. I don't know if he knows where it will be published, but in due course I will learn.

Last job of the day, to print off tomorrow's scripts. At the moment only Clare has printer ink, so I have to use her computer. A Linus Mint update was due, but the package manager wouldn't accept the passwords I set, much to my annoyance. After messing about a bit, I found the network plug was off and it was linked by wifi only to the router below downstairs. Once switched on the updates processed without incident and on reboot, reverted to wifi on. It's set to update only via a standard wired network, which I prefer anyway, and won't work over wifi. It reboots to wifi as a check, in case the latest update affects software wifi uses. Lesson learned, even if a bit obscure. 

A day of qualified release

A strange 'four seasons' weather day with sunshine, clouds, gusts of wind, rain and bouts of hail catching us out across much of the country. A day too when more of the covid restrictions are being lifted around the nations of the U.K. Wales is now at Level Two in the hierarchy of restrictions. This permits pubs and restaurants to serve people indoors, small groups of people, not just those in your family bubble to meet, hug each other. Weddings and funerals can take place with thirty people as well as the infection rate is now as low as it was last summer. 

Having said that there are still infection hot-spots where the Indian covid variants are multiplying fast, and being tackled with a fast response in terms of test track, trace and isolate, plus mass vaccination in critical places. The news media talks about it being done with military precision and accuracy. Perhaps that's because the military's logistic resource and management is the basis upon which medics, both civilian and military can deliver this vital intervention and head off another wave of infection. The government has promised easing of restrictions on this date, but warned it isn't risk free. If there was any sign this tactical intervention to curb the Indian variant wasn't working, it might be necessary to halt progress. It's still a time to 'be sober be vigilant, because your adversary ... is about ...'  But, so far so good.

While the British Army is focused on helping to save lives, the Israeli army is taking lives and destroying homes and community structures in the Gaza Strip. 212 Palestinians killed among them about 40 children, and 12 Israelis killed, among them 2 children. There is no justification on either side for the loss of these lives, whether or not the adults regarded themselves as civilian or military. A dialogue of the deaf has gone on for the past eighty odd years between essentially tribal cultures that have been opposed to each other on record in the Bible for the past two and a half to three thousand years. Distrust and resentment seems to be embedded in their collective DNA. Will reconciliation between the historic tribes ever be possible? Or are they destined to play out this pathogenic script until the end of time? It's unfathomable.

Here at home, emails have been exchanged over the past 24 hours between volunteers in the Parish willing to join a rota to maintain on-line Morning Prayer, once Emma and Benedict have gone to their new duties. It's a good initiative to support Mthr Frances when she returns to duty. She won't need to 'hit the ground running', as the saying goes. I'd like to see us switch to on-line audio, and keep video for presentations in which the visual is a key element. Just doing audio is much simpler and less resource hungry, when WhatsApp on a phone so quickly eats up available memory, and requires frequent maintenance. Unfortunately, the habits formed in the past year aren't easily given up. At least it's clear the Parish on-line offer needs reviewing and revising now restrictions are being lifted.

Thanks to the antibiotics prescribed yesterday, the inflammation of Clare's eyelid has started to subside, and she has an appointment tomorrow morning at the School of Optometry to check this out, and to pick up a new pair of bi-focal specs.

I spent time this evening getting my Windows PC up to date and trying to get it to run faster, after reading an article with a series of suggestions about tweaks to achieve this. It needs such a lot of maintenance to optimise performance. According to articles I've read lately my machine is under-powered to meet the demands of current users for slick on-line conferencing and learning, not to mention video editing. The more we expect these devices to do for us, the higher the specifications needed. Linux would make better use of the system resources. I'm thinking that I may be better off making it a dual boot system, with a data partition in common, so that I can continue to use the Windows video editing apps I've learned how to use. Better than finding a Linux open source equivalent and spending hours mastering it. But do I have enough confidence and know-how to go the dual-boot route? That is the question.

Timely words about bogus Messiahs

Before uploading today's Morning Prayer video I listened to John Bell's 'Thought for the Day' on Radio 4 reflecting with some perspective on last week's events in Washington. It was a superb concise analysis of how and why certain strands of religious people have rallied behind Donald Trump, despite his appalling behaviour before and during his years of office. Part of the problem he said, is the false separation of the political and spiritual dimensions of life, as if political ethics and values were nothing to do with God - a totally un-biblical and heretical notion. 

It's a tribal way of avoiding having to think deeply about what religious faith and practice mean for the entire way in which we live and serve God. In a changing world, having to understand and be concerned about events is avoided by hiding behind a tribal banner. Trump gives the illusion of caring about what they believe and promising to defend them, in exchange for their unquestioning loyalty. He becomes regarded as a divinely appointed champion of their religion and liberty so that challenging Trump is perceived as an assault on God, so believers are prepared to fight and die for him.

"For many other Christians" says John Bell, "Trump has been a bogus Messiah, his photo shoot holding a bible outside a church during a Black Lives Matter protest was not, in my view, an endorsement of faith, but an attempt to convince the faithful that he was on their side. His ability to stand on a podium, manipulate emotions, pontificate and defy contradiction is in complete distinction to the great religious leaders. They, like Jesus, sat at ground level, even among those who disagreed with him, to discuss thorny issues, make themselves vulnerable and affirm the humanity of all."

I felt that I should quote him verbatim as it's the first time I have heard any Christian leader or teacher openly say what I have been thinking since Trump was elected. He sees himself uniquely as one who can save America from all its misfortunes - a bogus Messiah indeed. If any American religious leaders have said this openly I've not heard it, likewise as for European religious leaders. Is it considered unseemly to engage in openly criticising a head of state for dangerous messianic behaviour? Is this the price of unity? 

Unless, of course, news reports have been suppressed or not syndicated so that they don't become part of the public debate. It seems that only comedians and satirists have stood up and dared to mock Trump. On Wednesday, the retiring Archbishop of Wales came out openly in criticism. Sorry, too little too late. And what abut the rest of the establishment of church hierarchies? Simply to have stated, time and time again in public that the true Messiah Jesus didn't behave like Trump would surely have been a start in witnessing to the truth, rather than being so reticent for so long. 

Every Advent the church reads prophetic words about the Messiah from Old and New Testaments. early Christians in a turbulent changing were very conscious that life as they knew it could come to end both violently and abruptly. In this context the Messiah would appear, but nobody knew when or how. It was a mystery. Jesus and the Apostles urged people not to second guess how things would work out according to God's will and warned against preacher and leaders promising to rescue them and claiming to be sent on this mission by God. No matter how good or well meaning they seemed to be any claims to be godlike or superheroes shouldn't be trusted, they were manifestations of the anti-Christ - fake Messiahs. Nobody these 'enlightened' days dares to go against the flow and call a populist leader, religious or secular an anti-Christ. The use of such words has lost its force by being part of the rhetoric of sectarian protestant preachers, usually with the Pope as their target. So it was good to hear John Bell coming at the current American political crisis from a mainstream biblical perspective today.

When I stepped out of the house to walk after lunch I thought it was drizzling and about to stop. I didn't realise it had only just started and over two hours the fine mist turned into rain and soaked my ski jacket. Curiously, the temperature went back up to nine degrees at night, after hovering around zero yesterday. Apart from the grass today, gaunt dark trees against a uniform grey sky, with hundreds of crows wheeling above the trees on both sides of the Taff, made for an ominous and dramatic landscape to walk through rather than photograph, simply too wet to get a camera out.

The Welsh government has banned indoor mixing and outdoor socialising while walking now. You wouldn't think so, to judge by groups of teenagers and adults standing or walking along in groups of four if not more. I know it takes time for new instructions to sink in, but I see no sign of police officers out on patrol. The city centre has CCTV. Apart from traffic crossings there's no surveillance in the park, so patrolling is all the more needed to remind people of what's expected of them to stay safe.

No telly this evening. I spent my time trying to resurrect an old Acer laptop with a new linux install. It used to work except that the trackpad didn't function. I got the hardware to work perfectly and reinstalled Mint 19, but after the first successful reboot, the existence of the hard-disk was not recognised. There's something amiss in the set up of the UEFI secure boot firmware that I cannot figure out how to change. It's so frustrating!