Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!   Here's James Taylor with trumpet player Chris Botti doing a jazz version of "Winter Wonderland."  Enjoy.

Happy Valentine's Day

How about Redbone performing "Come and Get Your Love." Happy Valentine's Day sweetheart wherever you are.

Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone.

Wolfenstein: The New Order Perks tips

Here are a couple of tips for completing Perks in the video game Wolfenstein: The New Order. First, you don't have to complete the perks through one play through of the game. You can reload the last checkpoints at will and get the Perks. For example, say you want to complete the AR (assault rifle) Magazine Perk. It requires eighty assault rifle kills from cover in primary fire mode. Okay, find a place where you can get a supply of soldiers to kill. I did this in Chapter One where a commander was next to a turret gun. I didn't kill him and let him call for support. Took cover against some sandbags and got about fifty that I needed to complete it.

Second, you might have to complete one Perk to get credit for another Perk. If you go to the Perk menu, you'll see where they require you to complete the prior Perk first. I had trouble with the Sentinel Perk. I then completed the Vaporize Perk then went back to grind the Sentinel one. I started to get credit for my efforts.

As for the Sentinel Perk, here's an easy way of getting it. This comes from Legend Coombsy.

Don't confuse i Yogi with Norton Customer Support

I bought Norton 360 Internet antivirus software and had trouble installing it. I Google this term "Norton 360 can't install." And this is the website that came up. Now note. The url has Norton 360 in it. So, I thought it was Norton. Big mistake.

The company is called iYogi not Norton. When I called the number, a person with an Indian accent immediately answered. It's an Indian company. I told him my problem. He asked for the product key number from my Norton 360. I gave it to him. I let him take over my computer. He ran a "diagnostic" and said I had major problems. He insisted I regularly needed to maintain my computer. He showed me prices of Best Buy and Staples computer maintenance prices and said theirs would cost $169.00. I hesitated. Something smelled bad. I asked if they were Norton. He said they did tech support for Norton and Apple products. Note he never said we are not Norton. I asked him if I could just pull up the old Norton app and type in the key product number. He said it wouldn't work due to my registry problems. So I said to him, "I'm not going to send you or anybody else money through the Internet." He insisted it was safe. I said, "The price is almost the value of my computer. I should consider buying a new computer at that price. Let me think about it or buy another antivirus." At that moment, he said, "Talk to my supervisor." Same hard sell. I said the same thing. I demanded they release my computer. I then started the disconnection process. Get this. I get a call from another supervisor at iYogi arguing with me about the same issues.

Afterwards, I did some online research for iYogi. And I found similar complaints. Here's a similar story. Here's Dan Tynan of IT World with another similar story. According to Wikipedia, the antivirus company Avast terminated its contract with iYogi over similar issues.

The Happy Ending. I found Norton Customer service. I just doubled check with the URL on the product box. They took over my computer and installed Norton 360 instantly.

Have a good life, Danielle

When I play the jukebox at a local bar, I'm asked by a friend to play certain jazz songs. Some of my selections are from Eliane Elias, a Brazilian jazz pianist and singer. I usually play "So Nice" a bossa nova classic. This always gets the angry white guys mad. "Play something American", they say. Took that for a whole Friday afternoon.

But then came Saturday. About three days before, I ran into an old friend, Danielle. She's charming, smart and beautiful. She lives in California so it's rare to see her. I haven't seen her in years. So, it was great to see her on Saturday at an Irish Pub. She returned to California on Sunday. So, Danielle, for you here's the song I play that pisses off the angry white guys. I think it's lovely like you. Have a good life, Danielle.

New favorite link; The Huffington Post UFO News

I'm interested in UFOs and so is The Huffington Post. The Internet news website has its own page for UFO news. I guess we both believe the truth is out there. Anyway, I've posted a favorite link to the site.

Big Brother exposes hidden racism

I'm not a fan of reality television. I feel it's cheap and lacks imagination. That being said, the reality show Big Brother (CBS) has exposed something that has been driven underground in these modern times. I'm talking about racism.

In Big Brother, the cameras are on the contestants twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The camera caught contestant Aaryn Gries saying this of Asian American Helen, "Dude,shut up, go make some rice." Later, contestant Gina Marie said this, "Andy was like, 'I'm gonna punch her in the face,' and I was like, 'Maybe that'll make her eyes straight.'"

I'm an Asian American. And I agree with host Julie Chen. Yes, she's right it takes us back to when we were children as Asian Americans. It's a time we were told we were different. Yes, Asians eat rice. But we know why these comments are made. They're designed to make the Asian, a lesser human being. They're not made as compliments. And of course, the making an Asian's eyes straight is blatant insult by trying to show Asians are not as good as white people. It's clearly racist.

So what did Big Brother teach us about society? The two contestants are young. They're not old with old ideas. It means something that every minority has known when living in America today. Racism still exists.

Seek the Bright Moments

A reader once asked me for my philosophy on life. I declined to give it because I don't want this blog to be about me. Sure, I give my opinions but frankly I believe that my life is boring and giving my views on life is somewhat egotistic.

However, certain events recently has made me think about life. I don't want to get into the particulars. I want to keep many parts of my life private, at least from the Internet. But this is what I have observed. Life is fragile. Treasure every good moment. Bad things exist but look upon them as part of the mosaic of one's life. But hold in your hearts the moments that brought you happiness. These bright moments will make life worth living. Here's jazz great Rahsaan Roland Kirk with his song "Bright Moments."

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day. How about the Corrs and the Chieftains performing "I Know My Love."

New favorite links

When I first started this blog, I thought, "What would I write about?" Well, it had to be of interest to me. So, as you can see on the title of this blog, you'll get an idea of what this blog is about. And I mean to entertain you. So if you want more stuff to look at, I've included a favorite link section. Click on those websites and you won't be bored. There's a lot of great content over there.

Recently, I've added new links. As you can tell, I love movies. So there are three new film sites. They are Film.com, Collider.com, and Slash Film. Looking for great jazz in Cincinnati? Check out the Blue Wisp Jazz Club. I like to laugh too. Check out Funny or Die. Not funny all of the time, but sometimes it's hilarious. At least, they try to hit it out of the ballpark. Finally, check out the talented graphics artist Ben Wong at Ben Wong Design.

Get Well Patrick

I started hanging out at Hap's Irish Pub, Cincinnati, Ohio around 1994. It was your classic Irish pub. But one thing I noticed that caught my eye or should I say ear. The jukebox had an eclectic mixture of CDs. There was rock, country, RB and jazz. I was surprised to see jazz. And one of the jazz CDs was Shirley Horn with strings, Here's to Life. (1992) I consider it wone of the most beautiful CDs ever made.

I asked who put that album on the jukebox. It was jazz lover, and regular customer of Hap's, Patrick Loney. Yesterday I found out that Patrick is ill. I wish him all the best and hopes he gets well soon. Here's a cut from that beautiful Shirley Horn album, "How Am I to Know."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey, it's Valentine's Day. Here's Tony Bennett singing "It Had To Be You." Happy Valentine's Day Blue Eyes.

Here's comes the sun

Boy, it's been really dreary here in Cincinnati. And I know we wish for a white Christmas but with my mood and the grey skies, I was really down. So Rachel Maddow reminded us the other day that we've past the winter solstice. That means the days get longer. Yay. Here comes the sun.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Remembering 9/11

It's been ten years since a group of terrorists destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center, crashed a plane in the Pentagon, and attempted to fly a plane into the Capitol. If it weren't for the heroes aboard the plane who stormed the cockpit of the plane headed to the Capitol, they might have succeeded. They gave their lives to save many others.

At the end of September 11, 2001, almost 3000 people were dead. I remember seeing the paper notes posted on walls of people searching for the loved ones. You knew those notes would not be answered. They were gone. I cried when I saw others ask reporters for news about their missing. I knew the answer was not going to be a happy ending. And to this day, those events burn in my memory.

I was going to write that because of the Iraq War, maybe the terrorists won. After all we spent billions of dollars and lost thousands of brave American soldiers. For what? There were no weapons of mass destruction. Maybe the terrorists would bankrupt the United States.

But there was one thing that the terrorists forgot. The resiliency of the United States. We are who we are because of freedom. In this country, we have the right to speak, to move freely and to choose our government. As long as we honor and protect those freedoms, the terrorists will never win.

Bernie's Basement Blog Is Two Years Old!

I forgot. This Blog is two years old. Thank you to the four people who read this blog! And if Google ever figures out why my followers have disappeared, I will write about the solution. But Google should appreciate that I run ads and am getting more visitors. Yeah, I would love to be Perez Hilton and have his money for blogging but that's life. How about some music for the second anniversary?

Missing Followers

Sometime in March, the followers of this blog have disappeared. That's the section down on this blog where you can see the various people who want to follow. I have not changed anything with the blog. Unfortunately, Blogger's only help is to direct the user to a forum where so far no solution has been offered. The interesting thing is that sometimes followers will occasionally appear for a very short period of time then they disappear. Now the followers are present on the Dashboard for users. Also, I've checked my blog on other computers and the followers are not present. It's frustrating.

If you're a follower or want to be a follower, I thank you. I ask all of you for patience. This problem is probably in the hands of Google and Blogger's engineers.

Update: 7-5-11. Today I lost YouTube. In my effort to get it back, I looked at YouTube by using Google Chrome, web browser. I could see YouTube again. I then checked this Blog and saw the followers back on the page. So, for right now it seems that Google Chrome will allow the followers and people who want to follow this Blog. I'm sorry for inconvenience.

New Milestone for the Basement Blog

I've been sick for the last week or so. Yeah, some of you say I've been sick for the last thirty years. Ha. So, you're going to get an inane blog post, because I'm bored. Well, this is for the two of you who read this blog. We've reached a new milestone. Along with this blog being launched one year ago, this month we've averaged one post per day. First time in the history of this blog. What? You're not entertained? Well, just go to the Star Trek Post Categories and check out the links to top ten Star Trek Original Series shows. That's ten hours of great science fiction.