mattypenny

I didn’t realise you could pile up cimsessions like this

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_NetworkConnection  -cimsession   $(new-cimsession -computername myserver,yourserver,hisserver,herserver)   

The automated loading of my twitter archive into micro.blog didn’t quite work, so I’m loading it in with powershell and manually adding pics and editing

That guy that wrote all those tweets is a lot like me….but I don’t know if we’d get on

mattypenny-tweets.micro.blog

Blue is the Colour AFTER the Liquidator…..what are they playing at?

#CheCry

Back in the ’90s, before kids, and moving back to the Shire etc, we used to go to a thing called Club Montepulciano. They used to play groovy but ancient music by the likes of Andy Williams, Perez Prado, and Herb Alpert

Went to an ’80s thing yesterday and realized that that music is now older than the sounds at Club M were at the time

Feeling really old now….. nostalgia is indeed not what it used to be.

A lively nightclub scene with colorful lighting, disco balls, and a crowd of people dancing.

I had a fantasy that Mr Trump had orchestrated an uprising in Moscow and the arrest of Putin in Alaska.

I don’t think it’s happening.

My Crucial Tracks over the last week or so - Kraftwerk, Jaz Elise, Suggs, The Beatles, Elvis, Bethany Eve, and Dickie Goodman

I really enjoy Crucial Tracks. Something about it chimes with the way my brain works, or something

These are the Crucial Tracks for the last few days…..it’s a fairly mainstream set of songs, but none the worse for that !

Cover of the song -

What's your favorite song about moving forward?

"Autobahn (Live)" by Kraftwerk

Hopefully you only move forwards on an Autobahn...and the song has a feeling of moving along, I think.

I prefer the live version because I like to hear the cheering

"Autobahn (Live)" by Kraftwerk on Apple music

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Share a song that captures the feeling of being completely content.

"Rock & Groove" by Jaz Elise

There a great BBC1 Xtra video of different songs to this backing track on YouTube

"Rock & Groove" by Jaz Elise on Apple music

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What song makes you feel like you're exactly where you're supposed to be?

"Blue Day (feat. The Chelsea Team) [Stamford Bridge Mix]" by Suggs And Co

Another Chelsea song

The only place to be, every other Saturday

Is strolling down the Fulham Road

<p style="margin-top: 5px;"><a href="https://music.apple.com/us/album/blue-day-feat-the-chelsea-team-stamford-bridge-mix/1245746787?i=1245746956">"Blue Day (feat. The Chelsea Team) [Stamford Bridge Mix]" by Suggs And Co on Apple music</a></p>
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Share a song that feels like it's giving you permission to feel everything.

"Now And Then" by The Beatles

I didn't listen to this song properly when it came out, but I heard Switched on Pop - The Beatles: "Now and Then" and Forever recently and it made me appreciate the song much more. I found the podcast quite moving in itself.

One of the bits they pointed out was that there is a count of 1-2 at the start, rather than the usual 1-2-3-4….and they suggested that was a reference to the number of remaining Beatles

"Now And Then" by The Beatles on Apple music

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What's your favorite song about patience?

"Trying to Get to You" by Elvis Presley

I'm not sure if this song constitutes patience, or persistence. Maybe it's a patient persistence?

It’s from Elvis' time at Sun

"Trying to Get to You" by Elvis Presley on Apple music

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Share a song that captures the feeling of being proud.

"Silver" by Bethany Eve

Child #1 was always musical, but I didn't know she could sing until I heard this

"Silver" by Bethany Eve on Apple music

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What's a song you'd want to hear while stargazing?

"The Flying Saucer, Pt. 1 (1956)" by Dickie Goodman

I'm not sure how I'd really feel about aliens showing up, but hopefully it would be as much fun as this record

"The Flying Saucer, Pt. 1 (1956)" by Dickie Goodman on Apple music

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides.”

I like this quote. It’s from Tony Schwartz, who ghost wrote The Art of the Deal. He regrets that now.

The Guardian is asking the really big question today

I’m #TeamLampsOn, obviously

The Guardian - You be the judge: should my girlfriend stop leaving so many lamps on and use the big light instead?

Vimrc lines to get my ongoing-notes-type file to autosave

autocmd BufWriteCmd HighlightsNow.md setlocal autowrite
autocmd InsertLeave,TextChanged * if expand('%:t') ==# 'HighlightsNow.md' | silent! write | endif

I’m too lazy to go to the Edinburgh Festival, but I always enjoy the collection of one-liners. It’s almost like being there.

Edinburgh festival 2025 - Bad dates and bath bombs: 10 of the funniest jokes from the Edinburgh fringe 2025

“These people have no ear, either for rhythm or music, and their unnatural passion for piano playing and singing is thus all the more repulsive,’ wrote the German poet Heinrich Heine after touring Britain in 1840. ‘Nothing on Earth is more terrible than English music, save English painting.’ At least he had the courtesy not to mention English cooking”

Currently reading: The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook 📚

Worked out how list my favourite Crucial Tracks artists

get-content C:\Users\matty\Downloads\crucial-tracks-export-2025-08-11.json | convertfrom-json | select -expand items | select -expand _song_details | group-object artist | sort-object -property count -descending | select count,name

Count Name
----- ----
    6 Elvis Presley
    4 The Pogues
    4 Bethany Eve
    3 Johnny Cash
    3 Toots & The Maytals
    2 The Cramps
    2 Joey Ramone
    2 Bob Marley & The Wailers
    2 Christy Moore
    2 The Wolfe Tones
    2 ABBA
    1 Ritchie Valens
    1 The BeerMats
    1 The Beatles
    1 Television Personalities
    1 Ramones

I’ve been working with the Bourn shell, the Korn Shell, the Born Again Shell, or Powershell since the early 1990s….and I just found this mistake in a script I wrote last week (you have to use ‘-eq’ for equality comparisons).

       if ($ScriptDebugPreference = 'Continue') {
            write-host $Message
        }

Will I ever learn? I fear the answer is ‘no’

“Black Sabbath’s drummer, Bill Ward, told an interviewer that he used to lie awake at night listening to the rhythmical pounding of the machines in a nearby factory and drumming with his fingers on the headboard.”

Currently reading: The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook 📚

Although rock and pop have been dominated by people born during and after the Second World War, many of the writers who inhabit our collective imagination were much older. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859, Beatrix Potter in 1866, Agatha Christie in 1890, J. R. R. Tolkien in 1892, Enid Blyton in 1897, Ian Fleming in 1908 and Roald Dahl in 1916. As a result, much of our imaginative life is still rooted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

Currently reading: The Great British Dream Factory by Dominic Sandbrook 📚

I’ve got The Hundred on the telly, and I can’t help thinking of Barney Ronay’s bit in the paper, and Bop-It

Stokes made a good point about the selflessness of the remaining England seamers, putting their bodies on the line to fill the breach left by Woakes. He talked about Siraj with genuine admiration, which will, you feel, mean a lot to the man himself. He said he would now be “knocking about” the Hundred, which is a bit like Odin announcing at the end of the Asgard‑Jotunheim War that he fancies a game of Bop-It now.

The Guardian - Are you not wowed? Bazball, India and a one-armed man deliver drama and beauty Barney Ronay at the Kia Oval

My last week's Crucial Tracks - Paul McCartney, the Ramones, Ike and Tina, the Wolfe Tones, the Blockheads, the Commodores and Oki with Umeko Ando

These were my Crucial Tracks for the last few days.

Cover of the song - iuta upopo song umeko ando by oki

What song makes you feel like your in another country?

"Iuta Upopo (Pestle Song) [feat. Umeko Ando]" by Oki

If you did a family tree of the musics I listen to, maybe this one would be on the furthest limb.

Not sure if that’s a great way to put it….but I can’t think of a better one atm

Love the song, anyway

"Iuta Upopo (Pestle Song) [feat. Umeko Ando]" by Oki on Apple music

Cover of the song -  come out ye black tans by the wolfe tones

Share a song that captures the feeling of being brave.

"Come Out Ye Black & Tans" by The Wolfe Tones

The 'bravery' in this song is a bit undercut by these lines in the first verse

“And each and every night when me father’d come home tight

He’d invite the neighbors outside with this chorus”

‘Tight’ in this context meaning ‘drunk’

"Come Out Ye Black & Tans" by The Wolfe Tones on Apple music

Cover of the song - reasons to be cheerful pt.3 by ian dury the blockheads

What song makes you want to write poetry?

"Reasons to Be Cheerful, Pt.3" by Ian Dury & The Blockheads

Coincidentally, I put this on my micro.blog on Saturday

Retirement projects #1

Rewrite the words of Ian Dury’s Reasons to be Cheerful Part Three with my own favourite sources of cheer

<p style="margin-top: 5px;"><a href="https://music.apple.com/us/album/reasons-to-be-cheerful-pt-3/1795096238?i=1795097622">"Reasons to Be Cheerful, Pt.3" by Ian Dury & The Blockheads on Apple music</a></p>
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Cover of the song - too tough to die by ramones

What's a song you associate with your biggest mistake?

"Too Tough to Die" by Ramones

Nowhere near being my biggest mistake, but I do wish I'd seen the Ramones when I had the chance

"Too Tough to Die" by Ramones on Apple music

Cover of the song -  river deep mountain high by ike tina turner

Share a song that perfectly captures longing.

"River Deep - Mountain High" by Ike & Tina Turner

This would maybe be one of my favourite ever records.

"River Deep - Mountain High" by Ike & Tina Turner on Apple music

Cover of the song -  hope of deliverance by paul mccartney

What's your favorite song about hope?

"Hope of Deliverance" by Paul McCartney

For many years I was weirdly ambivalent about the Beatles. I had John Lennon's Christmas single, but that was all. I don't know what was wrong with me.

Consequently, I think this was the second Beatles record I ever bought

"Hope of Deliverance" by Paul McCartney on Apple music

Cover of the song - nightshift by the commodores

Songs about songs #2, or possibly #3

"Nightshift" by The Commodores

Going off piste again. Dave Marsh called this "rock's greatest tribute to dead heroes".

"Nightshift" by The Commodores on Apple music

I’d like to end on a fun note: the Beatles or the Stones?

The Beatles, without a question. If they were two different restaurants, the Beatles are serving a huge eclectic variety of dishes, many things you’ve never eaten before. The Stones are really serving one thing they do very, very well, but they’re not the first ones to do it. The Beatles’s cultural imprint is so much deeper.

Dominic Sandbrook, being interviewed by Lauren Prastien

On “The Great British Dream Factory”: An Interview With Dominic Sandbrook

I’m wondering what it is that owls need to be more aware of

Arise, Sir Chris Woakes.

Surely?

🏏

CHRIS WOAKES WALKS OUT WITH HIS BAT IN ONE ARM AND HIS OTHER ARM IN A SLING.

The crowd stands to applaud this bravery.

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cri…

Test cricket, bloody hell.

As Sir Alex almost said 🏏

Re-booting my laptop has got my HD webcam working again. Sadly this has coincided with me growing a horrible zit on the side of my nose

Retirement project #2 - add a ‘Copy as Markdown Link’ option to the Android ‘Share page’ menu

One of the things that I love about England, and the English climate, is that, just as you realise you’re past the height of summer, football starts up again ⚽

Retirement projects #1

Rewrite the words of Ian Dury’s Reasons to be Cheerful Part Three with my favourite sources of cheer

youtu.be/1injh4-n1…

I’ve never been able to imagine Ian Dury singing along with Smokey. His voice seems too deep