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Note 2021-07-03: For those who just tuned in... This blog was originally made at the start of the COVID-19 lockdown. After over a year of daily posts, I've slowed down on how often I post - the lockdown is effectively over after all. But I still like the blog, and I still use it all the time. So it remains.

I have removed the Data Visualizations that were there, mostly because they don't mean much anymore. But also because the data source (Wikipedia) has changed stuff around, and I don't much feel like re-wiring all that data since, as I said, it doesn't mean anything.

New links are posted above for newer projects that I'm working on. And the blog will continue. Enjoy!

 

Running thoughts (the shut in is over) (main)

2022-09-24 - Year 2 Day #

What the hell is this thing?

Shot this video on Saturday, Sept 24th.

I know now that it was a SpaceX launch.  Still...  I am pretty well up to speed on when rocket launches occur.  As such, I often run outside and look to the south to see if there is any chance of seeing anything of it at all.  I have never seen anything.  I always assumed that all of those launches were just too far away.

So when watching this one, "typical rocket launch" was pretty far down the list of possibilities for what I was seeing.  I'm still a little baffled at how this thing was fired from over 1000 miles away, and we were able to see it THIS well.

So if you're wondering why the running commentary in my video was one of astonishment, there you have the explanation.  Yeah, maybe I should have known better.  Maybe I should have figured it out.  But all previous evidence has shown me that there is never any way to see a rocket launch from over 1000 miles away.  Evidently, if they aim it just right, you can.

And for the record, I'm not alone.  The news was loaded with "Seen as far away as Boston!!", and similar.  So this really was a freak event.  Regardless...  I'm happy to have seen it.

Also - yes,I know the video is sideways.  I filmed it Landscape.  YouTube decided to keep it that way, for some reason.  And since they removed the ability to rotate the clip, like i was expecting...  Well, I'm afraid you are just going to have to rotate your phone.

2022-09-12 - Serious question

What am I doing wrong?

Not sure I really want to know the answer to that.  But it's a good place to start.

I have spent the past 25 some-odd years creating stuff.  Over the course of the past 9 years or so, I really ramped it up.  I have a long long list of miscellaneous demos that I've written in order to learn how to do new things, as well as just making useful utilities for myself to use.  I do this partly because it amuses me to do so, plus I like to learn new things, reverse engineer ideas, and make my own versions...  All of those reasons.  But I also release all of this stuff to the public in hopes that it will generate some interest from people who could utilize my services.

That point right there is where I am headed with this post.

Over the past couple of days, I've been thinking about how to write this all down in such a way that it's not too long, and doesn't sound like me just crying and feeling sorry for myself.  And perhaps it's worth mentioning right now that I'm not feeling sorry for myself.  But I am really frustrated.  And I'm also finding myself being angry.  And I don't like feeling that way.  So let me just concentrate on one thing, and explain why it is that I'm feeling the way I am.

Web Development
I have been doing website design and coding for as long as it's been a thing.  I've always had web sites.  Some 12 years ago or so, I got a couple of clients that were paying me to build and take care of their sites.  And from that, I saw a good business opportunity.  I thought that because I knew so much about it, and was so good at that sort of work that people would be coming to me left and right to get their site done.  But no.  That didn't happen.

A bunch of years ago now, I decided that since I had a few clients, it was probably a good idea to make my company a legit LLC.  So I did.  And with that, I really started to produce new sites, new examples of my work, new demos, new Android apps, new ideas that branched into other areas like Twitter bots, and a long list of other things.  But more than anything, I wanted to promote my web development.  And as such I developed a slew of new software, and examples of how that software could be utilized.

I developed an entire site dedicated to web development services.  That goes back some years now, and STILL has no traffic.  I get NO response from it.

I developed new blogging software, completely custom built, and used it to create a News Satire site.

I used that same software, in an effort to show that it's portable, to create a new blog dedicated to cryptocurrency.

When the pandemic hit, I created an other version of that blog software to make it more of a personal blog.  The one you are reading now.  I created a stand-alone version of this to make it available for anyone who wanted to create a blog of their own.  And I made that version even more customizable.

I created a new method for parsing RSS feeds so that I could make a news aggregator.  That was actually done in an effort to learn how to use a completely virtual server using Amazon Web Services.  Once the year trial was up, I kept the domain and moved the site to my own server.  I like the site...

Some many years ago, I started writing Android Apps.  I did some iPhone too.  But I've since backed out of that because that's just too much of a pain in the ass.

When NFTs became a thing, I put together a couple of NFT collections, created a new sub-site for that, and even wrote a tutorial to help others get started.

When the New York Times released Wordle a bunch of months ago, I created my own version of the game, just to prove to myself that I could.

If you look at the main portfolio page for my main site, you can find links to all of that stuff, as well as other smaller projects like a QRCode generator, countdown pages, photoshop work, other articles I've written, other demos and JavaScript gadgets, and a long list of other fun and interesting things.

So here is the point that I'm trying to make here...
No one knows about ANY of this stuff.  It is all pretty well completely ignored.  And that is what is leading me to ask, "What am I doing wrong?"

Either my work sucks completely, or it is universally ignored.  Either people see it and view it as being worthy of zero attention, or they are not seeing it at all.

I assure you, I promote the hell out of this stuff.  I cross link all of my sites.  I'm active in places like Quora and Fark.com that get a LOT of traffic.  I post links to my work there all the time.  I used to be active on Facebook, but I rather disagree with the politics there, so I generally avoid it.  If you are reading this now from a link on Facebook, that is a surprise.

Anyway...  All of my sites are SEO friendly and score really high.  They are without errors, they are fast, lightweight, secure, custom coded, all using current standards.  You'd think they'd be easier to find with organic searches.  But, really as near as I can tell from tracking where traffic comes from, a clean 90% of traffic on the internet in general is bots.  The most clear and obvious indication of this, outside of my own tracking is that, as I've pointed out, NONE of my work is ever seen by anyone.  Or, more to the point, no one is calling me to get work done.

That is my final point to all of this
I am not asking for a handout.  I'm not feeling sorry for myself.  I am asking for help.  And by that I mean, I am looking for work.  I have tried promotion.  I have paid for advertising.  I have put up sites with information, links, and examples.  And I am getting ZERO response.  I feel like that guy from A Christmas Carol, standing under the bridge with his family saying, "These hands want to work."

Do I need a different promotion stream?  Should I be using different social media?  Should I start making TikTok videos so I can be like the cool kids?  Are the cool kids actually the demographic I'm aiming for?  Hell, I don't know...  I really don't.

This post serves as a request to anyone reading it...  Please have a look at this site.  That is a single page information sheet explaining the service I am offering.  But to detail, in even shorter fashion, what is says is this:

If you are a small business or an individual that needs help with your web presence, I can build you a site.  I can host the site.  I can migrate your existing site.  My server is a shared environment on A2Hosting.  It is fast, secure, 100% uptime, or close to is, and SSL included.  I can also provide email for your domain.  It's literally the same sort of service you would get if you purchased your own hosting account, except that you don't need to worry about managing it.  I do that.  And I provide this service for less than half of what companies like GoDaddy charge.  And my service provides more.

If you would like to have some control over the content of your site, all of my sites are built on my own custom content management system.  The very same one that runs this blog.  I can give you access to that so you can make changes yourself and never have to look at code.

What are my costs?  Here is a convenient price guide:

Service Cost
Site setup or migration $200 - includes first year of hosting
Hosting $4.99/mo ($59.88/yr)
Maintenance $50/mo

There we have it.  That is my entire pitch.

How do you contact me?  You click RIGHT HERE.

2022-05-28 - Uvalde, Texas

It's time to say some things

Only in America do we respond to one of the single worst and most horrific violent events in history by holding a convention to celebrate the weapons used in that event, and glorify the "law abiding citizens" that love them so much.  Only in America do we have gun laws that are SO lax that an 18 year kid can walk into a gun store, purchase a semi-automatic, military assault rifle, and a whole shitload of ammunition, and this doesn't raise any flags. 

No background check.  No one noticed that this kid tried TWICE in previous weeks to purchase these weapons and was only denied because he was 17.  Then he can do it again a couple of days later. 

When we talk about sensible gun legislation, this is the sort of thing we are talking about.  Why?  Because only in America does that person then use those weapons to gun down 19 children in a school to such an effect that many of them could only be identified using their DNA.

This happened while the "good guys with guns" stood around outside, waiting for the right time to move in.  Bunch of useless cowards these people are.  But that is another matter.

Only in America do we then have an entire subset of the population go wild on social media, conventions, talk shows, and anyone else that will listen, exclaiming that mental health, and the murderer are to blame!!!  They will not even acknowledge that the lax gun laws is what allowed this mentally ill murderer to obtain these weapons used to slaughter children.  How in the blue hell do you NOT SEE that the lack of reasonable regulations is what put the weapons into that person's hands?!

Sure, this guy could have still murdered children with smaller weapons.  He could have used a butcher knife.  But he didn't.  He used a semi-automatic military assault rifle.  One that he legally purchased.  That cannot be ignored.

At what point are you people going to realize that the second amendment has been interpreted, and laws set to the effect, that they benefit the mentally ill murderers too?  And then you tell us that you need your guns for protection; for self defense...  And you say this without accepting the irony that you are justifying the 2nd amendment to protect yourselves from the very people that it benefits the most!

When us insane liberals talk about sensible firearms regulations, THIS is what we are talking about.  You want to blame the mentally ill?  The murderer?  Fine.  We agree.  They ARE to blame.  But since no one is doing anything to help them or take responsibility for them, it seems reasonable to restrict access to incredibly powerful and dangerous murder weapons!  

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I really don't give a shit about your hobby.  I don't give a shit how much you like hunting or target practice.  You don't NEED these weapons.  You certainly don't need to obtain them with such lax regulations that the worst people in society can get them too!  Your right to your hobby, and to protect yourself from the weapons that YOU advocate for, does not override OUR right to basic protections from those same people.  Basic protections from those weapons.

Every single gun used to murder someone was once legally purchased by a law abiding citizen.  That is also something that cannot be ignored.

To the 2nd amendment people:
If it were up to me, ALL firearms sales would be halted.  You can keep the weapons that you've got.  But no more should be sold into this society until people are willing to start doing something about the mentally ill.  If you aren't willing to take responsibility for the people that use these weapon for murder and other less severe crimes, then you shouldn't have access to them either.

This is on you.  The blood of these children is on YOUR hands.  It is YOUR constant pushing for lax regulations so that you can obtain these murder weapons that allows the worst people in society to get their hands on them with alarming frequency.  Until you are willing to take responsibility for that, you can just shut the fuck up about how sorry you are for the harm they cause.

I am well aware that my saying this is going to piss people off.  Members of my family are going to be furious that I have said this.  But I still feel that it must be said.  If I am the only one in my family that sees this from this point of view, I really have no explanation for that. It really is an amazement to me that we can all look at the same set of facts and draw such completely different conclusions about what is right and what is absolutely and objectively wrong.

Perhaps you should look a little harder at the faces of those 19 children that got slaughtered the other day.  It was not the murderer that destroyed their lives and the lives of their families.  It was a semi-automatic military assault rifle that that kid should NEVER have had access to.  THAT is what killed those children.

All I can say is that, if THIS writing has not opened your eyes just a little bit, then this pretty well shows why some things are just never discussed out loud, and presumably never will be.

2021-10-30 - Year 2

The Hash Slinging Slasher

If you were paying attention around this time last year, you probably know how much I love the pumpkin carving time.  And that time for this year was last night.

Behold this years crown jewel.  The Hash Slinging Slasher!!

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Click on image for larger size.

For all of you who are not in the know because you have never watched Spongebob, shame on you.  But more importantly, it must now be stated that this is not my idea exactly.  I wish I was brilliant enough to have thought of this.

Last year sometime I saw a picture where someone had done this, and I said to myself, "Self, that's farking brilliant.  I must do that."

And so I did.  I did the work.  It took me some 4 hours all told.  But it was worth it just for the giggles.

2021-10-07 - Year 2

Thoughts from the lounge

Of course by "lounge" I mean the lounge at the dealership while they do an oil change.  This will either be fast or unbearably slow.  I guess we'll see.  In any case, it affords me the time to write some stuff that I've been thinking about.

For a long while there, I kept this blog going with an entry every day.  The I slowed it down.  Now it's down to once a month or so.  Whenever I feel like I have something to say.  This got me thinking...  It's like that with all my projects.  And I have a lot of projects.  I always have some idea.  Many times I start up a project thinking, this won't be difficult to maintain...  Then I move on to other things and forget about it.

I even have a few projects that are more or less self-sustaining, and require no maintenance at all unless something breaks.

In the case of this blog, the only thing that really needs to be done is writing stuff.  And evidently I've been too busy with other projects to even do that much.

This got me thinking about my professional life too.  And how no matter what else is going on, nothing really maintains for very long in the world of business.  Perhaps it's the industry that I work in that makes it seem that way.  But things are always changing.  Always.  And for my part, being a cog in the machine, things only maintain sameness for about a year or two, and roughly every 5 years, something major changes.  There are major changes going on in my company right now.  I kid you not when I say that all of the management around me is in transition.  And this is affording me an opportunity to move up as well - which I am working on.  But the point is, it is amazing to me how this always happens.

This got me thinking about the opposite situation.  Who are these people that work in the same factory, or the same mail room, or the same supermarket or whatever, for like 30 years?  That is something that still does happen.  And that, to me, is really something.  It's an amazement to me that someone can maintain that consistency for SO long.  I'm not sure if it's luck, stick-to-itiveness...  I dunno.

Mind you, I am not passing a judgement on which way is better.  I'm just pointing out as something I notice.  I also mention this because, when I was younger, that is the way I always thought things were supposed to be.  You find a good job with good solid company, and you stay there until you get a gold watch and a pension.  I started out my career still thinking that was the way it was going to be.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that business doesn't work like that at all anymore, and hasn't for many decades.  Which is why I found myself laid off from jobs that I thought were going to last forever.  I felt blindsided. 

Don't walk away from this story thinking that I am naive, or disillusioned, or think that I am worried about how things are today.  I am completely and fully aware of how things work.  So there is no reading between the lines here.  I'm just jotting down my thoughts and nothing more.

Hope you're all having a great Autumn so far, and I hope your career is going well!!

2021-09-20 - Year 2

Everyone is back at school

Prior to last March, which as many of you will recall, was the start of the pandemic.  Maybe you've heard of it...  The one that is still going on - that one...  We had finally more or less gotten used to the house being pretty empty while the kids were both off at school.

Then last March came around, and we were all living in the same house again.  And that's the way it'd been for all this time - until Saturday.  On that day, we moved our son back to Philly so he could do his senior year on campus, rather than here at home, where he did his entire junior year.

With our daughter having gone back to her school a couple of weeks ago, this means that the house is once again empty.  For the first time in over a year and a half, the house is remarkably quiet and empty again.

It's a strange feeling to be happy and excited for them, and sad because I miss them, all at the same time.

That is all I have to say about that right now.

2021-09-01 - Year 2

The New Music Section

Today I have a short entry.  But that is only because I have already written a LOT this morning.

I created a new section of this blog to focus on my experience as a musician.  This is something that had been almost completely lacking from this site for all this time.

Rather than read about it here, you can read all about it in the NEW section of this blog.  The music section.

If you don't feel like reading a whole lot, you can just watch this video, which is also spotlighted on that section.  The ending solo for Comfortably Numb.  It's not perfect.  But I LOVE this solo, and did my best with it.  In the end, I'm thrilled to be able to play it this well.  Which isn't perfect, as I said.

That is all for today.

2021-08-28 - Year 2

The Cosmic Alloy, Album Released

Over the course of many months last year, I posted that I was going out to record guitar tracks for my buddy's project.  I also said that, "someday I will point you all to the finished project."  And that day is today!  

The project is called The Cosmic Alloy.  

CD cover

Here is where the music can be found.

If you want to just skip ahead to listening,  Bandcamp has some available via streaming: 
The Cosic Alloy on Bandcamp
There are a few songs there.  That one happens to be my personal favorite.

Also, videos on YouTube: The Cosmic Alloy on YouTube


For the sake of respect and privacy, I have never mentioned anyone by name in the course of this blog.  But this is different.  This time, names will be said. 

Art Dorety is the owner of the project.  He wrote all the music.  He played keyborads and did the vocals.  He also was the recording engineer, did the mixing, the final releases, the CD artwork, the CDs, the videos, and everything else that made the project happen.  This project has been years in the making.  And my part of it was only a few months.

Art is also a digital artist, focusing on fantasy, and scifi.
If you would like to throw some additional support his way, check out his NFT collection too!!

2021-08-20 - Year 2

Another day. Another word on the pandemic

This is literally what is happening right now:
The experts are saying, and the evidence and data back this up, that vaccines, masks, and social distancing will save lives.  Both yours and others.

But the Conservatives are hell bent on screaming to anyone that will listen that they will NOT be controlled.  They will NOT be told what to do.

"Do this, please.  It will save your lives."

FU man!!View Full Size

"DON'T YOU F**KING TRY TO CONTROL ME!"

Seriously, people...  The biggest problems we have in this country right now stem from this ridiculous misinformation campaign that is STILL raging on after all this time.  If you are wondering why people are still dying and hospitals are filling up with patients again, you need to look no further than what I just said in this post.  That is the reason.  And it's not going to stop until the misinformation stops, or enough people die that it won't be a problem any more.

2021-08-18 - Year 2

Afghanistan has fallen

Man, am I ever sick of seeing all of our armchair/internet military experts screaming and yelling about how Biden messed this all up.  Just like I was sick to the teeth of seeing it when Drumpf was planning on doing this very thing.

You know what we really don't need?  For everyone making this whole thing political.

This is what is happening.  When Drumpf wanted to do it, the Reps were happy, and the Dems were pissed.  Now that Biden is doing it, the Reps are pissed and, well, actually, the Dems are pissed too.  And that's what the real issue is here.  We are hearing the Reps saying how big of a mistake this was, and how badly it was handled, and I for one, am had pressed to find an argument against that.  

Except for one thing:
This is NOT Biden's fault.  This is also not Drumpf's fault.  The fault for this starts with Bush, and immediately continues with both sides of our government bullshitting us about the whole thing in the ENTIRE time since.  This is 20 years of both sides in our government totally f'n this up, and lying to us about just how f'd up it's been.

So for either side to be pointing fingers right now; that is just WRONG, in every way.  The entire government needs to be called out for this.  Enough trying to make this political.  In this case, BOTH sides are bad.  And if you are going to be outraged, don't make it about the current President.

2021-08-10 - Year 2

Here we go again

It's been all the rage on the news these past couple of weeks.  We are in the middle of a pandemic.  Not the one that we had last year...  Nope.  This is a new one.  It even has a spiffy new name.  It's called the "Delta" variant.  And just like the last pandemic there is a clean 1/3 of the country that doesn't believe that it's real, and feels there is no need for precautions.

In fact, if you were to listen to the governor of Florida, the real problem we have is that immigrants are bringing it into the country.  Let us please put a stop to that bullshit right here and now!  We have COVID worse than our neighboring countries.  Both of them.  So let's stop pretending that our problem is because if immigrants.

Also, if you're so worried about COVID, maybe you should get vaccinated and wear a mask.

The problem is that there are still too many people in this country that refuse to accept reality.  The problem is the number of governors like that f'n moron in Florida that are actively making it impossible to control the pandemic in any way.  The reason we have these variants is because of the number of people that refuse to cooperate.

If you need to see some sort of evidence to show how serious this is - with the bonus of seeing how wrong and stupid Florida's governor is...  Here is a heat map of the country, showing the current number of active cases.  

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Source:  The New York times

It makes me furious the number of people that will complain about how this affects their freedom, while ignoring that they are putting OTHERS in danger, which is far worse than inconveniencing your freedom, you selfish pile of infectious crap.  We are still in this mess because of you people!  And it is getting worse.  Again.

2021-07-26 - Year 2

About the Pandemic. Again.

I'm writing right now to relate this story while it is still fresh in my head, as it just happened this morning.  Before I tell the story, I will preface it by saying, it's no wonder this pandemic is still such a problem.  People are just as stupid as ever.  And that is not ever going to change.

I was standing on line to pay for my coffee.  The dude standing behind me starts loudly telling a story to the dude in front of me.  And it goes like this (paraphrased from memory)

"My brother's brother in-law, his wife's brother, lives down in Florida.  He tested positive for COVID-19 with 102 fever and all that.  He was ready to go to the hospital.  But then he heard about this drug that you can get over the counter at any CVS.  It's called [names the drug], or something. [He pronounced it at least 4 different ways].  Within like 2 days, he had no more symptoms!  It worked great!

I heard a couple of podcasts talking about this, and they are saying that it absolutely works, but they don't want you to know about it, because it costs WAY less than the fucking shot.  And when they started talking about it, the podcasts got immediately shut down!  They don't want you to know about it!

I did some Googling on it, and it's for real.  The drug is used for parasites or some shit.  And it totally cures COVID-19.  Plus it can be used as a preventative."

I kid you not.  This just happened.  This morning.  More than a year and a half into this thing while dealing with a new variant that could cause real problems again.  I am not even going to bother to pick apart the absolute outrageous stupidity of this whole story.  I only point it out because it illustrates exactly WHY we still have this problem after all this time.  In short, people would still rather believe their brother's brother in-law, and some random podcasters, over every medical expert in the country.  And that is only one tiny portion of why that story is so stupid.

It should be noted, btw, that I was standing there wearing a mask at the time all of this was going on.  You see, I still voluntarily wear a mask from time to time, and certainly in places that are crowded.  So I can't help but feel that it was no coincidence that this jerk decided to loudly tell this story with me standing right there, in order to make a point.  Make of that what you will.

2021-07-21 - Year 2

The Pandemic itself

I haven't had a good solid rant in a while.  But something I saw the other day REALLY set me off.  Mostly because I'm sick of being called a "stupid liberal" by people who lack even the most basic critical thinking skills.  Perhaps those people don't know who they are talking about.  Perhaps they don't realize who they are so carelessly insulting.

Someone on Facebook the other day asked how exactly is Mr Drumpf responsible for the pandemic?  The implication in the question was that Obama and Dr Fauci were aware that it was coming, and we all must be idiots for thinking that Drumpf is to blame.

The basis of the question itself is flawed because no one KNEW a pandemic was coming.  It was a prediction.  A pretty accurate one as it turned out.  And what did they do when they saw how alarming the data was?  They put together a task force that was supposed to swing into action and prevent a pandemic from spreading out of control.

Why is this important?  I'm glad you asked.  Because right to the heart of the matter, this is the very first thing that we can squarely blame on the former President.  He disbanded that task force.  Completely.

Then, when the pandemic started up, there were a series of mistakes made by Mr Drumpf.  For instance:

  1. He lied about the severity of the situation (in his words, to avoid a panic)
  2. He disregarded, buried, or outright changed information from the CDC.
  3. He insisted, even after things were going very badly, that there was no cause for alarm, or even basic precautions.
  4. He insisted that wearing masks and social distancing were a waste of time.  He did this right up until the end where he was holding rallies and telling people not to wear masks.
  5. At those same rallies, he made people sign a waiver saying, "if you get sick, that's on you."
  6. He stopped travel from China.  But only for the Chinese.  He allowed 1000s of infected Americans to fly with no problem.
  7. He didn't even realize that by that point the majority of the cases in the world were in Europe and NOT China.  But didn't do anything to prevent travel from there.  Indeed he allowed people to travel home, without even checking to see if they were infected.
  8. He had press conferences every day where medical experts like Fauci would step up and give good information about how to control things, and then he would step up and contradict them.

To this day the misinformation campaign that he started up and spread all throughout our social media, is having serious ramifications.  People are dying from a virus which is preventable, and for which there is a vaccine, because they have been convinced by people like Drumpf that it is all a hoax, or it's got microchips in it, or it's untested, etc...  The new Delta Variant is spreading out of control in places with low vaccination rates, and people STILL insist on not getting the vaccine.  And, make no mistake, Drumpf is to blame for that completely!!

That is just 8 things right off the top of my head that point the finger squarely at Drumpf.  He may not be responsible for starting the pandemic.  But goddammit he made it WAY worse than it ever needed to be.  And his stupidity killed well over 550,000 people, destroyed businesses, and wrecked an economy that was already in shambles due to his stupidity for different reasons.

This is not some leftist, liberal spin.  This is reality.  This is what Conservative media will not ever tell you because...  Well, I don't know why.  Perhaps they get massive ratings and ad revenue by spreading shit around that makes people angry and makes them feel superior.  Whatever the case, if you still don't think that Drumpf is 100% responsible for this, I really don't know what to tell you.  You will simply NEVER change your mind.  You will never accept that you have supported a monstrous scumbag and a liar for all this time.

And you will continue to make it sound like people like myself are stupid.  At least in your conservatives echo chambers where you are never challenged.

2021-07-20 - Year 2

Amazon - in space!!

For all of you folks disparaging this as a huge waste of money...  All I can say is that you must not realize how important this is.  It's not just about billionaires going to space.  It's about private industry having the ability to do something that was previously reserved for only governments.  And because there are 2 companies that can do it, it makes for a fair market competition.

And it means that this technology can and WILL be used for more research.  It's not just a tourism play.  It's not just about making money.

In a very real way, this is exactly what happened when they created the first commercial airplane flights.

The idea that Branson or Bezos could have better used their money to help the poor or something is just laughable.  Because, as we've seen, throwing money at that problem is NOT the solution, anyway.  But even if it was, people would find reasons to complain about that too.

As of right now, we are 15 seconds to launch.  Check back for an update.

They made it.  No one died.  They are unloading the capsule now.  We should have sent people dressed like Planet of the Apes to greet them.  That would have been the greatest practical joke in history!

 

2021-07-15 - Year 2

8 years sober

This day marks 8 years since I've had a drop of alcohol.  I am not saying this hoping for people to congratulate me, or pat me on the back.  I appreciate that, but it's not why I'm writing this right now.  In fact I actually don't like when people do that because it's not like I won a marathon or something.  It was more like "I choose life".  And that should be all that needs to be said.

I'm writing this to tell of the good side of why it was the single best and most important move I have ever made.  It was an easy decision.  Because if I hadn't stopped drinking, I likely would have gone into organ failure, and you wouldn't be reading this blog.

It was 8 years ago today, that I had finally had enough of being sick and tired all the time.  Had enough of not having an appetite.  Had enough of saying things like, "2:00 in the afternoon?  Pfft...  I'll be too drunk by then!"  And that is all I'll say about that.

What I did was, packed a bag, and went to the hospital.  They hooked me up to an IV and I sat there for 4 days until all the alcohol was completely out of my system.  Now, obviously, there is WAY more to this story than that.  But I'm not telling that story here.  Because, again...  This is intended to be a good story.

So what happened after that?
I'm glad you asked...  The first thing I learned about not being drunk all the time was that there is a LOT of time in the day.  Time that could be used to produce things!  Time that could be used to learn things.  In short, my productivity skyrocketed!  I made my business a legit LLC, I expanded the business to handle a number of new projects including hosting and server management.  I learned how to produce Android apps, then soon after iPhone apps.  I learned all manner of new things and expanded my portfolio in all directions.  This blog and 1000 other projects are among the things that exist as a direct result of the single biggest life change I've ever made.  I learned how to play new music, and started picking off some stuff that I should have learned how to do 30 years ago.

I'm not here to judge.  I'm not here to preach.  If you still like to drink, that is entirely up to you.  All I can say is, please be responsible.  And what I can also say is that, if you are among those that are struggling with quitting, it IS possible.  There is a light at the end of that tunnel.  Sorry for the stupid cliche, but it's true.  I can also say that it's possible to do this without AA or other similar groups.  Not that I disparage them exactly.  I think that may work for some people.  Just not me.  The fear of dying if I ever drink again is pretty much enough for me.  And also, I do not want to lose what I have built in my life today.  And that is really the most encouraging thing here.  At first it was fear.  But today I have no fear.  Today I'm loving life!

And I'm not just saying that to hear myself say it, or boast with some false sense of confidence.  I really DO believe that this life change was the most important thing I've ever done.  For me, for my wife, and for my kids.  And I'm never going back!

That's all I have to say about that.

2021-07-12 - Year 2

I got a new phone

After 4 years, it was finally time to get a new phone as my trusty old LG was starting to fade.  It's something of a testament to how well the phone is made that it lasted this long - and still works.  I got a Google Pixel, if you're interested in knowing.  It's about as Android as it's possible to be.

In playing with the new phone, it got me thinking about the current state of technology in the age in which we live.  Too long, didn't read version:  It's awesome!

The longer version...
My favorite catchphrase about my dealings and experience with technology, specifically in how it relates to computers is, "I've been doing this since long before it was cool."  And holy crap, is that ever true.
When I was a kid, I loved video games, for a start.  I was fascinated with what it took to make those games function.  But it wasn't until the mid-80's that I actually got my hands on a computer so I could start to learn more about all that stuff, and actually create my own stuff.  And boy, I did.  I spent an extraordinary amount of time writing little programs in BASIC.  And every time I learned how to do something new, it opened up hundreds of new doors for other things I could do.  Wash, rinse, and repeat...  It's not just games of course.  I was interested in all manner of applications for the technology.  And over the course of all this time, I have used computers for video, special effects, presentations, programming, system administration, networking, app development, and of course, a few games here and there.

Setting that aside, and more to my point here, the one thing that I was always wishing for back then, was to have that technology be portable.  Back then, it was a huge thrill to be able to carry a little LED Football game with me!  Zoom forward a couple of decades, and some bunch of nerds invented the first PDAs.  Once they started getting popular, those devices fell into two camps; Blackberry and Palm Pilot.  These Personal Digital Assistants were tiny computers that allowed you to install and run software, and were loaded with such things as games, utilities, helpers, ToDo lists, calendars, contacts, etc...  I was a Palm Pilot guy.  Mostly because that was a pretty open system that had a lot of software available, plus some development tools.  For the first time, we had truly portable computer systems that were small enough to put in our pockets and make use of them whenever we wanted...  On the train, on the bus, in the park, on the can, etc...

The only thing those things really needed was internet connection.  The first real attempts at that were to use Bluetooth to connect to the internet, download what you wanted to bring with you, and then you could browse through that stuff at a later time.  Though this technology was available, it was still not really that widely adopted by people outside of nerds like myself.  Most other people still couldn't care less that tech existed at all.  They saw no point to it.

You can see where I'm going with this now
All of that began to change as cell phones became more popular.  What started out as a device that was purely for making phone calls at $2.50 per minute, quickly began to serve other purposes.  And people who were using those phones wanted more an more of those services.  In the course of just a few short years, we went from phones that had simple monochrome LCD screens to devices that were full color, supported images, had cameras, could send and receive text messages, had calendars, planners, and some of them even had a rudimentary browser for surfing the web.  That last part was funny because in those days, no web pages were written to support mobile devices.  Developers like myself would create really small web pages with barely any navigation on them, just so they could be used on that tiny, tiny screen.

In short time the devices got faster, had more space to install custom software, could play videos, and connect live to the internet!  To put it another way, the PDA technology slowly merged with the cellphone to make one device that could do everything, and more.

It was then that I started noticing that more and more people that once couldn't give a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys about technology, were suddenly enthusiastically using these little computer thingies.  And they wanted more and more.  It was only a couple of years later that all those simple phones were replaced completely by what we lovingly call the "Smartphone".  And now, every single person you meet, no matter where you go, no matter who they are, has one of those devices.  It doesn't make any difference if you are an Android person or an iPhone person.  For all practical purposes, they are the same thing, no matter what the fanboys tell you.  You've all got one.  And you are absolutely tied to it.  You are almost certainly reading this on your phone right now.

All of those people that I've known for all this time that had zero interest in computers, now carry a very powerful one with them everywhere they go.  Indeed, for the most part, they can't live without it.  To an absurd degree, damned near most of society couldn't function without them if they all suddenly disappeared.  I'll save that horrifying thought for another day.

With today's phones, you not only have the means to bring your entertainment with you, the entertainment is more complete than ever before in history.  You can find, access, and make use of almost any song, movie, book, TV show, scientific paper, recipe, movie review, or a million-million other things, pretty much instantly.  If it's not free, it's not expensive.  And, actually, a lot of it IS free.  I almost forgot the GPS.  We no longer need to ask for directions or know how to read maps.  Yeah, you might drive into a lake once in a while, but still...

The thing that I find most amusing about all of this is that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, uses their device in different ways for different things.  Sure, many people use them as just phones and maybe Facebook.  But other use them almost exclusively for web browsing, YouTube, social media (any or all), watching movies, playing games, trading stocks, taking pictures, reading the news, playing music, or 1000 other things.  Mind you, in the grand scheme of things, these are the same people that I mentioned previously couldn't be bothered with this stuff, and they absolutely LOVE the technology now.  And they are all experts with the interface on their device.

Such a thing was unimaginable at one time.  And that time was not very long ago.  If you need to get some understanding of how unexpected and how unlikely this course of events is, just take a look at some science fiction from anywhere in say, the 90's.  Many things in SciFi have been predicted, and were pretty well right on.  But there was never ever a prediction of the mobile device in the capacity that we have them today.  Even Star Trek, arguably the most sciency and predictive of all SciFi, didn't see it coming.

To all of those people that didn't know what nerds like me were searching for 35 years ago, you probably have a better understanding of it now than you ever expected to.  Welcome to the club!

I would like to conclude this by pointing out that even after reading this many of you probably still don't understand the value of the device that you hold in your hands.  It is quite literally instant access to the knowledge of all mankind.  Everything that can be accessed can be accessed from there.  It's not just for watching YouTube and cat memes.  Hopefully reading this will help you regard that device with a bit more of the wonder that it deserves.  Because decades of work went into building it, and centuries of entertainment and knowledge are available to you because of it.

And, if you still feel like it, you can call people with it.

2021-07-05 - Year 2

Happy 5th of July!

Check this out...  A few weeks ago, my son's girlfriend found him a desk.  A present for their upcoming anniversary.  The desk is very large - much larger than his old desk.  The main deck is 7' long!  The only thing about this desk is that it was originally made to be mounted on a wall.  So there was literally no back to the thing at all.  The only legs were the side walls.  What this means is that we needed to build some extra stuff to make it a free standing desk - and one that was solid and completely functional as a workstation.

The first thing that needed to be done was to put new vinyl across the top to give it a sort of dark gray woodgrain look.  The next step was to paint all the rest of the parts that same sort of dark gray color.  But before THAT could take place, we needed to do some design work.

I had 2 4x4s left over from when I built the gardens.  Those would be the new legs.  We also needed to add some support between the side-wall legs and the 4x4s to make the thing rock solid.

Rather than trying to draw this on paper or something, I mocked up a quick model and said, "This is what we need to do."

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What a 3D model might look like

I am well aware that that is not anything like perfect model.  But it IS a reasonable markup of what I had in mind.

It literally took weeks for him to finish the vinyl on the deck and all the painting.  Once that was done, it was time to assemble.  Which could not be done in the garage, because it would be too big to move.  So he did much of the preliminary building, like drilling, brackets, and adding adjustable feet, in the garage.  Then we brought it upstairs for final assembly.

I need to find a picture of the thing upside down, so you can see the bracketing that actually holds it all together.  All the stuff is completely hidden unless you crawl under the desk to look.  Which is the way it should be.  You don't want to see any of that stuff.

Oh, I found one...

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What the underside might look like

We finally finished it yesterday!

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What the actual desk looks like.

In the end, it was great to see this project complete.  And on a more personal note, I am thrilled to see how happy he is with the final product!

2021-07-03 - Year 2

Update to the blog itself

If you've been following along, you will notice that I have changed a few things around at the top of the page. I left a note about it, so you can see why.  As such there is no need to repeat the note.

But I would like to draw attention to the Discord Server again.  One of the sections that I added to that thing is for discussion concerning THIS blog.  I've been posting for all this time with no feedback other than the occasional comment on Facebook.  So I'm opening that channel to give people an opportunity to discuss what is being said here.

I honestly do not know what is going to happen.  This blog gets a lot of traffic.  But I get very little response to anything that is linked up on it.  It's a crazy thing about the internet.  There are millions of people bouncing around and reading stuff.  But less than 0.05% of those people actually interact with any sort of content.

Which means that for all my efforts here, there may be zero discussion after all.

On the other side of the coin is that the internet is also loaded with trolls.  If you read this, and hop on over to the discussion server simply for the purposes of crapping all over it, that won't be very well tolerated.  Remember, I still own and control all this stuff.  nyah

Happy Independance Day everyone!

2021-06-29 - Year 2

Discord server

Over the past few months I have become more and more active with NFTs.  It's necessary to point this out again, because it's been a while since I said anything here.

One of the things I've got more active with also is Discord.  If you're not familiar with that, it's basically a chat server.  Think Microsoft Teams...  Except that it's free for most things.  There are a LOT of servers, all of varying degrees of traffic, members, usefulness, and 100 other variables.  The point is, it occurs to me that I could probably use something like that.

So I made my own Discord Server.

It really is an amazing piece of software.  It only took me a few minutes to set the server up.  It already knows that I am the admin.  So, that part was easy.  After that, it's just been a matter of setting up some content to make it useful.

So if you happen to be a Discord user, and you'd like to check out my server, go for it.  It would be helpful to me, in any case, to have some members.

2021-06-24 - Year 2

Happy birthday to me!

I feel like it's been like a full year since I used that title.  And, oh man is that a stupid joke.

Anyway, I will be working today, because it's Thursday.  So far that is my plan.  But I do have at least one other fun update to mention...

Last year, I revamped my web app that counts the percentage of the year expired to include bugs flying around.  This involved an awful lot of sitting at Photoshop and creating little animated graphics of bugs.  This year, I added a new bug, to honor the 17 year Brood X Cicada!

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Not only that, but since I already had a NFT collection for animated GIFs, I created a new template, just to release those bugs as NFTs!

Yes, I am aware of how silly that whole thing is.  But I'm doing it anyway, because I'm an adult, and I should be allowed to do what I want.  N'ya. nyah

Well, on with my day!

 

2021-06-19 - Year 2

Juneteenth

Yeah.  Let's talk about that.  It is now a Federal holiday, thanks to the President signing the bill instantly.  A bill that some 14 Republicans in the House voted "no" on.  Because racist assholes will be racist assholes, I guess.

Many people probably still don't understand the significance of this.  And by "many people", I mean everyone in the country who got the whitewashed version of history while they were in school.  Which is almost everyone.

Please allow me to explain, if you are still confused.  What actually happened on June 19th was that the last of the slaves were finally released from slavery some 4 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed.  What this means is that the slave owners in Texas didn't feel the need to inform their slaves that they were free, and kept them enslaved for all that time.  So the day celebrates the day when slavery finally ended.

What I mean by "whitewashed" is what I've been saying about our education system all along.  That they only teach the kids about the good parts of US history.  They leave out all the really bad stuff.  And they do this on purpose.  Because we can't have our children knowing that this country ever behaved badly.  Meanwhile, most of this country was unaware of Juneteenth or the significance of it, or even that it actually happened.  Because it was never taught.

As near as I can tell, it only REALLY came out when the former President decided to hold a rally on Juneteenth.  And he was planning on doing it, completely unaware of how offensive it was until people started telling him that it was offensive as hell.  And it doesn't even stop there!  He was planning on holding the rally in Tulsa, OK!

If you are unaware of what happened there, well, that stands as one of the most horrific things that has every happened in US history.  An entire town, very prosperous and hard working, very successful, burned to the ground by white people that couldn't stand seeing them being so successful.

I'll bet you didn't learn about that in school either.  Again, our history classes whitewashed that one.  And that is really the point here.  The former President was going to hold a rally, at the site of the worst massacre of black folks in US history, and he was going to do it on Juneteenth!!

If you don't think that was intentional, then you have your head very far up your ass.  And if you aren't appalled and furious because of it, then you are really messed up in the head.

Well, smarter people have prevailed.  Drumpf didn't get his rally.  And now we have a Federal holiday to draw attention to this day, what it means, and why it's important.  So this is an absolute win.

Happy Juneteenth, everyone.  And be happy that our history is finally being told for the truth that it is, instead of the whitewashed version.

2021-06-18 - Year 2

So much to say

I think I need to go back to making posts every day.  Because I have so much to say this morning, that if I were to blurt it all out at once, it would take have the day.

So I will just throw a few thoughts out there.

- The pandemic really appears to be pretty much over.  For now.  So we finally get to see what everyone looks like without masks on.  Which really makes me long for the time when we were all wearing masks.  Because you people are ugly.

- I went away for a few days, and I come back to find that they have changed the entire coffee situation at my favorite morning coffee spot.  I'm getting used to it.  But I still rather prefer the old way.

- I made a new NFT.  It looks like this:

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Yes, I made the picture of the Brood X cicada into a NFT.  You're welcome.

 

2021-06-13 - Year 2

The gardens

Update on the gardens.  It's been a few weeks since I posted about these things.  We have reached that point when everything suddenly gets really big really fast, and the fruits start coming!

This box is 3 different kinds of peppers, beans, peas, 1 big eggplant, and 3 kinds of tomatoes.

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This box is cucumbers, zucchini, yellow squash, and those tall things in the middle are sunflowers.  Because why not?

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If you've never planted a garden before, this is what to expect...  The first few weeks the plants don't appear to change much at all.  They are working on getting established.  Then, one day you will notice that they all grow remarkably fast.  Like the garden fills in in just a few days.  That is the moment that you know the garden will be productive.

So, yeah, this is looking good.

2021-06-12 - Year 2

Cicadas

I mentioned the other day about how the cicadas were out in Ohio.

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What a Brood X Cicada in Princeton might look like

I finally went out to Princeton to hear it for myself here in NJ.  And yeah, it's even louder and more alien sounding than I heard before. 

That sound...  I'm not sure it's possible to artificially duplicate it in any real way.  This is going to sound really nerdy...  But the reason is that what you are hearing is an echo that is coming from miles away and from all directions.  By the time the sound waves have bounced all about, you get that weird alien din.  You still hear one up close from time to time and it's a completely different sound.  So different that it doesn't even blend in.

I'm not sure I've ever experienced anything else quite like that. I think the best comparison is the din in a baseball stadium during calm times.  It's something like that.

2021-06-10 - Year 2

It's been a helluva week

I said I was gonna back off from posting every day.  Here it's been a solid week.  And, here's the thing...  I really have been VERY busy.  I actually took a vacation.  Of course I didn't say anything about it until now.  Because only an idiot tells the internet when they are leaving town for a few days.

We drove 11 hours to Cincinnati, OH to visit my father.  Man, there is a lot to say about that trip.  But rather than boring you all with every detail, I'll just sum it up like this...  We drove.  We hung out.  We ate.  We played games.  We went to the aquarium in Newport, KY (that was awesome!), then we drove home 11 hours.

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What a frog might look like

Yeah, that's not a fish.  But it is one of the best pictures I took.

In other animal related news, if you live in the eastern US, and you happen to live in one of those areas that is plagued by cicadas right now, you'll be happy to know that they stretch all the way out to western Ohio.  It's a strange thing about that.  We don't have ANY where I live in Hamilton.  But there are billions of them in Princeton.  Meanwhile, I had to drive all the way out west before I got the full experience.  And by that I mean, that strange alien din that fills the air all day every day.

Anyway...  The other reason I didn't make any sort of a blog entry was that I really wanted to just switch off for a while.  I didn't really do any work at all.  And it might be the first time in some 8 years or something that I did that.  And the reason was that I was there to decompress.  And that's what I did.  I did more crossword puzzles than any sort of work.  And it's been too long since I've done that sort of thing.

2021-06-03 - Year 2

Making a change

Here is it June 3rd, and I'm noticing more and more that my enthusiasm for making a post every day is starting to wane.  And it occurred to me today what the reason is for that.

This blog was intended to be my daily blog while the pandemic is was raging on.  Well, by all accounts things are opening back up.  The pandemic may not be over.  But we really haven't been in a lockdown for quite some time.

So I've decided that I accomplished what I set out to accomplish this blog.  I detailed daily life more or less, I said happy things, I said stupid things, I told stories, I ranted about things that made me angry, and 1000 other things.  Hell, I wrote the software for this thing.  Which is why I get a kick out of people asking questions like, "What is your favorite blog software?"  I can just answer that I wrote one myself.  That is my favorite.

Does this post mean that I am shutting down the blog?  Oh, hell no.  Because it has come to be the single greatest outlet for all of those things that I mentioned.  Does this mean that I'm going to change the name of the blog?  Well, no.  It's creation was a direct result of the COVID pandemic, so the name of its origin will persist.

What is going to change that that I won't be posting every day.  And I won't be counting the days anymore.  I will also come up with a different tag line than one using the words "shut in".

That's what I have to say about that.

2021-06-01 - Year 2 Day 79

Happy June

Almost half way through the year already!

2021-05-31 - Year 2 Day 78

Autumn in Spring is ending

Finally it seems that the rain has stopped.  It was nice to actually see the sun for a change.  It was nice to be able to be outside.

It was nice to not have the heat running.

Speaking of that LGame that I wrote about the other day.  I've had a chance to play it, and also to have some others play it.  What we've determined is that yeah, it's easy to play, but it is very difficult to find a winning move.  Not impossible.  But very hard.

I had really expected the first game to be over in like 3 moves or so.  But it went on for 15 minutes and ended up in a frustrating draw.  Both players were basically saying, "Are you sure the rules are correct?  Because there is no way to win."

In the time since, all games have ended with a win.  Whether it was me playing, or others entirely.  So, it's not impossible.  Just very difficult.  Which is, I suppose, the whole point of the game.  Easy to play.  Easy to learn.  Hard to win.

2021-05-30 - Year 2 Day 77

Saturday 2.0

Feeling just as crappy as yesterday.  I'm gonna get some stuff done today.  But not a whole helluva lot.  I feel like I'm sick without actually being sick.

This is why the past couple of day's posts hav been pretty much useless.

2021-05-29 - Year 2 Day 76

It's Saturday

Yeah, it's Saturday, sure.  But it doesn't feel like it.  Something about this weather has got me feeling like a gigantic pile of aching garbage.  That's all I have to say about today.

Show the other 437 records -->

2021-05-28 - Year 2 Day 75

Building a Game

I know what you're thinking...  "Hey, where's the link?"  Because yeah, every other time I've said something like this it was because I was plugging some new online project.  But not this time.  In this case, what I mean is an actual physical game.

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I was watching a video the other day that was talking about this strategy game that is super simple to learn and play, but very difficult to actually be good at.  It was fascinating to me that I had never heard of, or seen the game before.  Meanwhile, there are studies and simulations and papers written about this thing and how/why it is so complex in terms of gameplay.  If two players are good enough, they can literally play forever with no winner.  But that's unlikely unless both players have studied and memorized every single move in the game.

In the end, the only thing that matters to me is that, I want to play the game!  But I didn't have one.  So I made one!

I could have just cut out some pieces of paper or something.  But, that's just cheesy.  Especially since I have access to a 3D printer thanks to my son.  So I built the models, and passed it down to him for final output.  That was an amusing conversation...  "Hey, what software is most compatible with your printer?  I need you to print some stuff for me."

He had to do some tweaking to the models before final output, of course.  The end result is really excellent!
Shown here is a game in progress:

game

The game is called The L-Game, and was invented by Edward de Bono.
The way the game works is like this:

  • The object is to be able to move your L shaped Tetris piece.
  • Each turn, you move your piece, and you have the option to move either neutral piece (one of the pennies).
  • Then your opponent takes their turn.
  • The game ends when one person cannot move their L to an unoccupied area

That's really it.  Like I said...  Easy to learn, easy to play.  Not so easy to win.

2021-05-27 - Year 2 Day 74

Mask Mandate Pt2

Evidently I had left some ambiguity in my wording that implied that anyone not wearing a mask for any reason was a selfish prick an a moron.  The implication may also be that those that choose to not be vaccinated are bad people.  So let me clear this up...

Masks - If you wear a mask where required and/or requested, even if you choose to bend the rules slightly at other times while you are taking other precautions, you are not who I am talking about.  I am talking about people that insist on not wearing a mask even when required - even when requested - simply because they think it's their right.  These are the people that are standing there at 7-11 coughing and wearing their mask with their nose sticking out.  That is a selfish prick and a moron.  That is the person that has been continuing the spread of this thing for all this time.

Vaccines - The key words here are "choose to not be vaccinated".  And here is one place I definitely did leave some ambiguity.  Because I did not use those words specifically, and I should have. Because if you have some sort of a condition that precludes you being able to get the vaccine, then you are not "choosing" to not get it.  You simply are not able to.  And that is not the same thing at all.  In fact, that actually places you in a terrible position, because all those people that choose to refuse the vaccine are an outright danger to you!  And you should be loudly telling them that they are selfish pricks!

One of the things about writing in a steam of thought like I tend to do, is that sometimes the words convey a meaning without being exactly specific enough.  And when that happens, the words can be interpreted in ways that I had not intended.  I am not above going back to re-read what I wrote and clarifying what I meant if I left something too wide open, or just flat out said it the wrong way.  I'm not writing college level essays here.  I'm just writing out things that I think about.

So if you are among the group that read that post and said, "Hey!  He's talking about me!", well, I might have been.  If you are that guy at 7-11, I definitely am.  If you are someone who is taking as many precautions as possible, then, no, I am absolutely not talking about you.

2021-05-26 - Year 2 Day 73

Got nothing today

Since I'm entirely too busy to write a lengthy post today, I will just use this space to once again draw attention to NFTs.  In this case, it will be to point out that for the first time in many years, I changed the landing page for my main site.

The same 4 icons have been at the top of that page for years and years.  But it became pretty clear to me the other day that I haven't made a film in almost 20 years, it was probably time to replace that icon with something more, you know, current.  So I've replaced it with a link to my NFT collection page.

If you are interested in learning more about this silly new fad that seems to have taken over some corners of the internet, there is plenty of information to read there.

2021-05-25 - Year 2 Day 72

End of the mask mandate

Well, it seems that the mask mandate may finally be coming to an end here in NJ.  If you're vaccinated, that is.  If you're not vaccinated, it seems the mask mandate ends for you too, because all you have to do is lie about being vaccinated.  And really, who would know?  It is a rule that simply cannot be enforced.

After all this time, I still find it fascinating how many people consider the idea of wearing a mask to be some sort of infringement of their rights.  I am not at all sorry when I say this; you are a selfish prick and a moron if you still think that.  And on top of that, it is YOUR FAULT that this shit has persisted for this long.  Your insistence that it's your right to continue being a spreader of the disease is what allowed this thing to continue on despite the best efforts of everyone else.  And one of your favorite people in Congress just compared the mandate to wear masks to the Holocaust.  Because she also is a selfish prick and a moron.  Only she's in f'n Congress!!  Yes...  You anti-maskers, you anti-vaxers...  This is on you.  It started with your worshipping of that know-nothing orange dickbag, and continued on after he left, yet continued to tell everyone that it was a hoax.

But I digress...  I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the mandate ending.  I think it's great for businesses of all kinds, especially restaurants.  Those businesses can finally get back to normal.  Their employees can start working again!  These are all good things.  But the downside would be if we let our guard down too much, this thing could ramp up again.  There may be variants out there that the vaccine doesn't cover.  And then we might find ourselves in trouble again.  Especially since going back into a lockdown and mask mandates would be almost impossible.

And make no mistake, this thing goes right down party lines.  Look no further than our government.  Vaccinations among Democrats: 100%.  Among Republicans: 47%.  What a bunch of idiots.

Having said all that, this is what we know now...  If you have been vaccinated, by all accounts, you are safe.  Both from catching the virus, and from spreading it.  If you are not vaccinated, well, good luck to you.  And have fun walking around continuing to be a danger to yourself and everyone else in the world because you are a stupid, selfish prick.

And to Marjorie Taylor Green, you pathetic pile of moronic garbage.  The world would be a better place if you fell into an open manhole and never came back out.  Please go F yourself, you ridiculous piece of shit.  It's high time you were expelled from Congress.  We are just waiting for some sanity to prevail.

2021-05-24 - Year 2 Day 71

Back to the grind

It's that time of the month again, where I complain about it being the beginning of the new month in business terms.  Which means I will be backed up pulling and cleansing data for a couple of days.

Fortunately my workload seems to be rather light other than that.  So I should be able to plow right through it.

In other news...  It seems that we may finally be seeing the end stages of the pandemic.  It's only been, what, 15 months?  

Well, let's just hope so...  More on this tomorrow.

2021-05-23 - Year 2 Day 70

Nice quiet day

Make no mistake, it's good to have a nice quiet day from time to time. And that is what today is...  I will just putter around the yard, cleaning up this and that, make sure the gardens are all doing well, all that...

Yep...  That seems like a good plan

2021-05-22 - Year 2 Day 69

Road trip

Posting later today because I spent the whole day driving to get the birthday girl from school.  I made it there and back in record time.  I left the house at 8:00AM, and was standing back in my kitchen at 5:30PM.  Which means I made it there, packed the car, and drove home in about 9.5 hours!  That is new record.

Two things contributed to this.  Only one stop each way, and very light traffic.  Also, she had all her stuff packed and ready to go.  So it was just a matter of moving everything to the car and driving home.

So for the first time in a while, we have a full house again.  And it will be that way until late August.  Then both the kids leave again.  :(

2021-05-21 - Year 2 Day 68

Happy Birthday!

Happy 20th birthday to my daughter!  I wish we could actually see her on her birthday, but alas, she is still at school.  A situation that will change tomorrow, actually, when I drive up there to pick her up for the summer.  And hopefully all her stuff will fit in the car.

2021-05-20 - Year 2 Day 67

Good times

Projects finishing up.  Week finishing up.  Still hasn't rained for 2 weeks now.  The weather is great, but everything is getting dry and crispy.  That's not good.

2021-05-19 - Year 2 Day 66

Moving right along

Got a couple of new projects at work.  That's always nice.  

One of the things I like about my job is that it's always something new.  During the entire course of time I've been working for this company, there has not been a lot of mundane task work. There is always something new to figure out.  Some system to make better.  Something that can automated rather than static.

I'm also glad that I have the freedom to come up with and implement these sorts of things on my own.  It's a very rare situation when the boss says, "Nah, don't do that." 

2021-05-18 - Year 2 Day 65

Still tough

This week hasn't gotten any easier.  The weather is still too nice for this.

2021-05-17 - Year 2 Day 64

This week is gonna be tough

I'd hate for the blog to devolve into talking about the weather, but It's kind of unavoidable today.  Have you looked outside?  Have you been outside?!  It's absolutely beautiful out!

Which is why I say, on Monday, that this is going to be a tough week.  Because I'm sitting here with the window open next to me, and half of my mind is outside enjoying the weather.

If my boss is reading this blog, I'm gonna get in trouble...  So, Boss, I'm really working!  Despite what I just said.  Working hard over here!!

2021-05-16 - Year 2 Day 63

NFT collection whitelisted

The new #NFTcollection has been whitelisted.  I need to update this preview page to be more awesome than it currently is.  If you want to just cut right to the chase, you can see all the ones for sale in this collection.

Here is a preview of one of them:

saberbirds

It's taken weeks for that thing to finally get whitelisted. Now that it's done, I need to get to work creating new assets.  I don't have a whole lot ready to go yet.

On one hand it's pretty cool to get it on the ground floor of this new fad.  On the other hand, I wonder if it is only a fad, and I wonder if it will begin to fade at some point.  I certainly hope not.  Because I actually really enjoy it.  The whole thing has given rise to a new subculture. And people all seem to be playing the game a little differently from each other.  Some are creators (like me).  Some are collectors, some are flippers, some are a little of all of those things.  Not to mention the larger companies that have invested considerable resources into creating some real top-shelf stuff.

2021-05-15 - Year 2 Day 62

House projects

Today was a good day...  Got some projects taken off the checklist.  One of the big ones was the furnace chimney.  Like all houses that have a furnace, there is a chimney too.  The uppermost part of the chimney usually has some sort of a cover on it to prevent rain getting in.  The one on ours got destroyed during the winds a few weeks back.  In fact, most of it ended up in the back yard.  My wife was like, "What the hell is that thing?"  "Hmmm...  Looks like the top of the chimney.  Well, I'll have to fix that."

I wasn't able to find a reasonable replacement for the thing.  So what I did instead was to bring the whole thing into the garage and rebuild it.  The entire thing was held together with rivets, that after 20 years or so, have started to give out.  So I popped all the rivets out, bent the thing back into shape, then replaced the rivets with nuts and bolts.  That thing is not coming apart again.

2021-05-14 - Year 2 Day 61

Vacation plans made

One of the worse things about this whole pandemic thing has been the lack of being able to travel.  That seems to be lightening up finally.  What with the vaccinations and the CDC relaxing mask rules, we may feel free to move about the country now.  More or less.  Let's not go crazy.

So we've made our plans.  We are gonna go visit my father in Ohio in a couple of weeks.  Driving.  10 hours or so each way.  So, basically 2 days of the trip will be taken up with traveling.  But that's okay though.  That is part of the fun.

It will be nice to get out for a while.  And it will be nice to visit with my father.  And the kids get to see their grandfather.  Again...  It's been a while.

2021-05-13 - Year 2 Day 60

Finally seeing crypto going down

I don't know if any of you follow this stuff with cryptocurrency, but some interesting things have happened this year.  I wrote about part of this the other day, and unfortunately, that article hasn't aged well.

The simple version of the story is that Elon Musk decided one day that he would say the word DOGE on Twitter, and everyone in the cryptoverse took that to mean that he is now promoting it.  This caused the coin to go up in value from $0.002 to about $0.75 in less than six months!  That is something like a 25,000% increase in value.  Did a lot of people make a bunch of money from this?  Oh yes.  Yes they did.

And, as is the way with crypto currency, all other cryptos had price spikes as well. All the big ones like BTC, LTC, and ETH, all are at record levels.

Last Saturday, Elon Musk went on SNL.  Most people, myself included, thought that he would say some more nice things, and cause the trend to continue upward.  But, no, that is not what happened.  At the prompting of one of the actors on the show, he effectively called DOGE a "hustle".  This immediately caused DOGE to crash.  And, as I just pointed out happens, all other cryptos followed.

So Elon Musk was single handedly responsible for the greatest jump in crypto history, and then 6 months later was responsible for crashing it.  And there doesn't seem to be any logic to it at all.  The are only 2 explanations.  He is either a jerk or an idiot.  Or both.  But no matter the reason, it happened.

2021-05-12 - Year 2 Day 59

Wednesday

Liz Cheney got ousted from her leadership positions.  In case you are wondering what this means, I think that Reuters put it best when they said, "The Republicans are telling the world that they would rather be united by a lie than divided by the truth."

On one hand, I think that is messed up.  On the other hand, I really don't much care.  Because this is a woman that was 90% in favor of the former guy's agenda.  It was only when he sent a mob to lynch the Vice President, that she thought it was time to take a stand.  And in doing so, the entire party turned against her.

Pffft...  Whatever.  Let them fight.  At least it's obvious to the entire world now that the GOP is still completely up 45**'s ass, and that is not going to change as long as his supporters vote for them.

2021-05-11 - Year 2 Day 58

Tuesday

Just another day, am I right?

2021-05-10 - Year 2 Day 57

Post Mother's Day

We did the train yesterday, and that was indeed really cool.  Especially if you happen to like trains.  But more so because I haven't seen my brother, sister, mother an all their families in a long time.  Prior to the pandemic, we would get together at least 4-5 times a year, and Mother's Day was always one of them.

We skipped mother's day last year, more or less.  Just like every other gathering.  Let us all just hope we really are on the down slope of this thing.

I'll just leave it at that, because I'm sure that just about everyone already thinks the same thing, and there is no reason for me to labor the point.

2021-05-09 - Year 2 Day 56

Happy Mother's day!

Today we will be going to New Hope to take a ride on the train.  It's like a Mother's Day thing, where they serve breakfast.  The whole family is going.  Which is great, because we haven't actually gotten together as a family in a whole helluva long time.

Should be a fun morning.  Even if we all have to be up and out of the house much earlier than usual.

2021-05-08 - Year 2 Day 55

Saturday rant

I haven't said anything about good old President 45** in quite a while.  Mostly because he hasn't been very active in the news, other than social media standing their ground in keeping him banned.  But his followers are still pretty active.  And I find this REALLY distressing and frankly infuriating.  Because really, what the actual hell is wrong with these people?  We had hoped that "Trumpism" would come to an end once his Presidency ended, and once he finally had all his social media channels shut down.  But no...  It's still alive.  And it's horrifying.  An old friend of mine said on Facebook a few weeks ago that, "We need to get even MORE people back to the Capitol, and ARMED!!"
Seriously, WTF is wrong with you?!

I know this has been said a gazillion times, but I really don't understand why these people are still fawning over him like he's some sort of genius and great leader.  That is literally the exact opposite of reality.  And the evidence to that fact is on full display all the time,

All you have to do is listen to him speak.  He is a moron.  A complete idiot.  That is not some leftist spin.  You can hear it for yourself.  And among other flaws are that; he lies constantly, he stabs people in the back, he breaks deals, he is mean to his wife and kid, he's a cheater, he is a racist, he has brazenly broken the law right in front of the whole world.  And when HE wasn't breaking the law, he had his minions do it for him.  He is a failed businessman.  He has been cheating on his taxes for decades, if not longer.  He lied about the severity of the pandemic, then doubled down on those lies by continuing to tell people it wasn't a problem.  And if you haven't noticed, we are STILL in this shit right now as a direct result.  And the economy is still in shambles because of it.  I could go on and on...  There is a long list of other shit that I don't feel like typing again.

Again...  Not a leftist spin.  This is all right out in the open for all to see.  But ask his supporters - including those in our very government, and they will tell you he is just the best of the best.  They would have been lynched by his supporters on Jan 6th if smarter people had not intervened.  And they STILL see him as the head of their party.

Let me again be clear...  I. Do. Not. Understand.

2021-05-07 - Year 2 Day 54

TGISE

Thank Goodness it's Saturday Eve.  For serious.  It's been a long week.  But I intend to cut out early today to get the grass cut.  It may rain or it may not.  But I don't want to get stuck with not having the chance until Monday, which seems likely.  So I will do it today.

2021-05-06 - Year 2 Day 53

Ending the week

The only thing I have to report today is that I've made some updates to my #NFT subdomain.  If you haven't seen it, here is your chance.

2021-05-05 - Year 2 Day 52

COVID Test results

Got my test results back.  Negative!

I can't really say that I'm surprised.  Not only am I fully vaccinated, I have been exercising all the proper precautions.  Of course I don't know what caused the fever yesterday morning.  But it was kind of nice to go back to the old days when I could just get sick, and not have to worry that I contracted the most fatal disease in over 100 years.

Wheew!!

So, it looks like I can back to normal life.

2021-05-04 - Year 2 Day 51

The 4th will be with you. Always.

Happy Star Wars day, everyone!

I feel like it's been a year since I've said that.  Probably because the f'n pandemic has been going on for over a year now.  But I'm not going to let that get me down.  I'm going to wear one of my Star Wars shirts, and get stuff done.  Still working today because this is not really recognized as a "real" holiday.  Well, it's real to me, man!!

Wait... Actually, I'm going to let it get me down a little.  Because I woke up at like 4:00AM with a fever.  Mind you this is 3 days after the point when my 2nd Pfizer shot should have made me full vaccinated.  So I don't think I have the COVID.  In fact, I haven't had a fever all day after that.  And other than feeling a little achy, I feel the same as always.

But since my wife works with children, the fact that I had a fever at all sent everyone straight into panic mode.  So I had to run to CVS and get a rapid test done.  And she can't work the rest of the week now.  And what really pisses me off is that I scheduled my rapid test, got to CVS, and they said, "Oh, we don't do those.  This is the 1-3 day test."

Pffft....  Okay.  Whatever. Gimme the big Qtip.

At the risk of stating the obvious, this has gone on for WAY too long.  I long for the days when I would get a fever and just think, "well, that sucks, looks like I gotta take it easy for a day or so."  Now, I have to go get tested for the plague to ensure that my wife is allowed to go back to work.

The point is, having a mild fever at 4:00AM, after I have been fully vaccinated does not at all mean that I have COVID.  But everyone immediately responds as if I'm a plague rat and I need to quarantine until I test negative.  So, what can I do, other than doing the right thing?

So...  The test is done.  Hopefully by tomorrow sometime I'll know for sure if I'm clean. But look, man, I'm going to be pissed either way.  If I don't have the COVID I will be pissed that my wife lost a week of work due to paranoia and being overly cautious.  If I do have COVID, well, I'll feel better about the rest of it, because the caution would be warranted.  But then I'll be pissed off that I got the COVID!!

Check this blog in the next day or two for the results.

And again, May the 4th be with you.

 

2021-05-03 - Year 2 Day 50

Oscar winner

Actually, I'm not a fan of award shows, so a film winning an Oscar isn't really a big deal for me.  But it does give me an indication that at least the movie is worth watching.  And let's face it, it's good to know that ahead of time.  Because so many movies today just SUCK.  And I'm not too thrilled about wasting 2 hours on a film that was not worth that 2 hours.

But I digress...  The point of this post is my short review for the movie Soul

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The short, short version:  Wow, Pixar knocked it out of the park.  Again.

The longer version:  It was really great.  Totally worth the 2 hours.  I loved the characters, the music, and especially the visual representation of what are normally considered to be pretty abstract ideas.  Of course, you'll have to see the film yourself to get a better understanding of what I mean about that.  Many of the scenes were just so well done, well acted, and well thought out.

But I think the thing that I liked most about the film is that it was an original idea!  Most of the stuff that Hollywood churns out anymore are just the same thing over and over with slightly different characters.  This was a totally new idea.  Something Pixar seems particularly good at doing.  And it was refreshing to see it.

Great movie.  Well done, people at Pixar!

 

2021-05-02 - Year 2 Day 49

Time is flying

Is it really May 2nd already?!  The 5th month of the year?!  The 122nd day of the year?!

Mother's Day is next week, my daughter will be coming home from college in 3 weeks, and summer time is just around the corner.

At least the pandemic is over.  Unless you live on planet Earth, then it is not over, despite how people are acting.

2021-05-01 - Year 2 Day 48

Yard day

There is something excellent about what the yard looks like right after it's mowed.  It's one of those projects that gives you immediate satisfaction, because the end result looks so good.  And then next week it looks like hell again.

At least we are still in that part of the year where it's not too hot, and it's possible to work outside for a few hours without even breaking a sweat.

2021-04-30 - Year 2 Day 47

Ooooh, check this out

If you've been following along about my interest in the NFTs that seem to be all the rage right now, you will know that I've been actively pursuing some efforts to create my own set.  That is, collections that will sell.  My newest idea comes from some things that I have seen before, and I think are worth going through with.  Stuff like this:

In fact, exactly like that.  That is the one that I intend to give out for free as a promo.  I have a few other things that are on deck, but that's the only one I'm even saying anything about until the collection is whitelisted.  Still waiting on that.

If you want to see the collection, even though nothing is for sale yet, check it out here.

I'm sorry if you guys aren't understanding this...  But there is like an entire new subculture rising up along with this stuff.  And people are spending mad money.  Creators are making made money.  I've seen a whole lot of sales that were over $1000 for something like a hand drawn sketch.  It is truly astonishing.

Don't get me wrong.  It's not all about the money.  People are really enthusiastic about what they collect.  And many people are not selling anything at all.  They are purely there for collecting.

It is fascinating to me hoq quickly this whole thing sprung up, and how quickly it has been embraced by SO many people.

2021-04-29 - Year 2 Day 46

Thursday

No post for today either.  Seriously, I've just been so busy, and I haven't been thinking much about what to write.

2021-04-28 - Year 2 Day 44

Wednesday

No entry today

2021-04-27 - Year 2 Day 43

Spring is upon us

It sometimes seems cheesy to post about the weather.  Especially since I'm well aware of how often I have mentioned it over the past year and 43 days.  But, damn if it isn't like a perfect day out today!  Trees are all in bloom.  Everything is in full color!  It's awesome.  It's unfortunate that within a couple of short weeks, all the flowers will be gone and all the trees will be only 2 colors, green or red (in various shades).

If only I could count on the weather holding out, I would be planting mass amounts of stuff in the gardens.  As it is, that will wait for another week.

2021-04-26 - Year 2 Day 42

Back to work!

I put up another site.  Well, a subdomain.  You may remember what I was saying about my first NFT collection.  That's what it's all about.

https://nft.dpoisn.com/

I'm hoping that I will be able to wire that directly to the site that I'm selling from.  They have an API where I can pull my items for sale.  But I haven't coded the page to use it.  That would be cool though.

Anyway...  There is an entire new subculture that has risen out of the whole NFT thing.  It is astonishing.  I see people trading $1000s worth of stuff.  I cannot believe how quickly it all took off.  Let's hope it lasts!

2021-04-25 - Year 2 Day 41

Sunday

I got nuthin

2021-04-24 - Year 2 Day 40

Looking like a good day out there

As I said yesterday, I'm looking forward to spending as much time outside today as I am able.

Update, later in the day:  I succeeded in my mission to work outside, clean and weed gardens, cut the grass, and generally spiffy up the place.  It was awesome, and the property looks great.

That is all.

2021-04-23 - Year 2 Day 39

Friday, finally

Man, it's been a long week.  But whenever I say that it's usually because I got a lot done.  And this week is no exception.  Both personal work and work work were have been very busy.

Looking forward to tomorrow where I will step away from computers for the most part and get stuff done outside.

2021-04-22 - Year 2 Day 38

Earth Day

In a sane universe, we wouldn't need a special national day of observance to celebrate the Earth.  You've probably heard of it. 

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You know that planet in the solar system that supports all life as we know it.  In fact, as far as we know as of right now, it's the only place in the entire universe that supports life.  Or, more to the point, human life.

Which is why it has always seemed so absurd to me how reckless we humans treat this place.  A majority of people now realize that our behavior and activity is having adverse effects on the planet.  And those people are doing what they can.  But they must do so against an onslaught of objections from people that don't know anything about anything, only get their information from people who know even less, and scream loudly that none of our damage to the planet is real.

It must be said that the people that yell the loudest about how business and industry are not affecting the environment, are the very people that are making the most money from that activity.  And any amount of sensible regulations to reign in that behavior, for the good of the entire world, is met with screeching opposition.

I suppose my point here is that there are an awful lot of people that are doing an awful lot of work to make sure that the environment that keeps us alive continues to keep us alive. And those people are being fought tooth and nail, and vilified by a bunch of people that insist they know better simply because they saw a chart on Facebook that confirms what they thought they knew.  Or because "It was cold this winter.  That means the Earth isn't getting warmer."  OMG, shut up, you f'n moron.

On this Earth day, I would like all those people; the ones that insist that "The Earth is always changing", and "It's not human activity", and "Fossil fuels have nothing to do with the long term carbon cycle", to pull their heads out of their asses and take a breath of fresh air.  If your side wins, it might be one of the last times you will be able to.

2021-04-21 - Year 2 Day 37

Gardens are done

Finally.  It took days and days, and many trips to the Ecological Center*, but they are full and ready to go.

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What you see here is the two new boxes.  The one on the right is one of the old ones.  I only kept that one because that's where I grow the herbs.  And a lot of them came back.  So rather than disturbing them, I just cleaned it up and kept that one.

There are a couple of tomato plants in there now.  But that's about all I'm putting in for now.  It's really still too early.  There is still a good chance of frost.  Or worse...  It snowed in Ohio yesterday!

*The Ecological Center.  For those that don't have one of those.  They take all the recyclable material, as well as organic material like brush, branches, grass, and whatever else...  They then clean it, filter it, chop it up, etc...  Basically whatever it takes to make it useable again.  Then they make it available in the form of compost and mulch.  It's free for residents of the township.  As long as you can take it out of there, you can take as much as you want.

2021-04-20 - Year 2 Day 36

Maintaining hope

I am maintaining some hope in our justice system right about now.  But only a little.  Here we have situation where a cop murdered a guy, and it's all caught on video from multiple angles.  There is no doubt whatsoever who is responsible for that man's death.  But all it takes is one juror to vote against conviction, and the cop walks free.

I've seen what the cop's supporters have to say.  About how Floyd was a bad man, a criminal, and a druggie.  Yeah, maybe.  But I don't care if he was snorting fentanyl at the moment the cops pulled up.  He didn't deserve to be killed.  I've also seen the argument that his lifestyle contributed to his death.  Bullshit.  No matter his underlying conditions, if a cop hadn't put his entire weight on his neck for over 9 minutes, he would not have died.  This is not my opinion.  This is the fact as reported by the man the did the autopsy.

This is a cut and dry case.  Especially since the defense has made some truly idiotic claims up to and including bringing in an "expert witness" to testify that there may have been other things that caused him to die.  Again - if the cop hadn't kneeled on his neck for over 9 minutes, none of those other conditions would have mattered - they would not have caused Floyd to die that day.  

Anyway, look...  I remember last year when this happened.  I remember the country exploded into protests that quickly became riots.  And if this murderer is not convicted and made to account for what he's done, it's going to happen again.  And I am absolutely terrified of that.

UPDATE 5:15PM:  Guilty, guilty, and guilty.  Excellent!  That is all.

2021-04-19 - Year 2 Day 35

Mars copter

If you haven't been following the news, we humans just performed the first flight of an aircraft on another planet.

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It might not look much different than many similar copters here on Earth.  But that thing is an absolute marvel of engineering.  It is made to withstand extreme temperature and temperatures swings, deal with winds and debris, fly in an atmosphere that is much thinner than ours, and deal with completely different gravity.  And the whole thing only weighs about 4 pounds.

You have to consider that this thing was designed and built in an environment that is mostly unlike where it flew for the first time.  So other than math and simulations, they had no actual tests to see if it would work until today.  And remember also that this thing had to be packed onto a rocket, launched from Earth, survived the landing, and was deployed and got itself ready to fly - all of which was either programmed or controlled remotely.

I have to use an irresistibly apt reference and quote Matt Damon from the Martian, "They scienced the shit out of it."

2021-04-18 - Year 2 Day 34

2nd shot Saturday

My son and I went for our second Pfizer shot yesterday.  So far no side effects, other than feeling like I got knuckled in the arm by a grade school bully.

I have only seen a couple of instances with people having side effects from this shot.  The worse I've heard was a decent fever and aching.  But it only lasted for a day.  Everyone else had nothing else to speak of.  So I'm feeling optimistic that I won't be laid up all day today.

A word on this vaccine stuff... 
I've seen people say, "The government can't force me to get an experimental vaccine."  I feel I need to address this.  First, when I say "people", I mean, some old friend on Facebook.  Now, to address the statement itself:

Firstly, it is NOT experimental.  It has been tried, double blind tested and verified, and FDA approved.  It is a false and misleading narrative that it is "experimental".  So f'n stop it with that nonsense.

Second, the government is NOT forcing you to do anything.  However, private businesses like stores, restaurants, schools, concerts, airlines, etc...  They will almost certainly mandate that you be vaccinated or you will not be allowed in.  That is not against the law.  That is not unconstitutional.  In fact, it is well within the law for them to refuse service for any reason they see fit.  That includes you stubborn jerks that refuse to get vaccinated because you think it's experimental.

So, please stop it with that stupid f'n narrative too.

2021-04-17 - Year 2 Day 33

Music

If you weren't aware that I've been playing guitar for most of my life, now seems like a pretty good time to make you aware of that.  Although considering most of you reading this likely know me already, I find it impossible for you to not have known.  Anyway...

For almost all of the time I've been playing, I have considered myself to be a rhythm player.  And not just a little bit.  When I was learning how to play, I would learn to play entire albums beginning to end, and not bother to learn a single solo.  Because, as much as I thought that sounded cool, my primary interest was grooving the entire song, and not just one small part of it.  I loved (still love, in fact) playing along with the band.

It always baffled me how so many other players around town were doing nothing but playing solos and shredding like mad.  That just wasn't me.

A few years ago, I started to go back to my roots to learn some of that stuff.  Because I really do love the solos.  And, maybe after all these years it's time to learn more about it and how to do it better.  In doing so, I've picked off a few solos pretty well.  But here's the thing...  It is WAY more difficult than most people realize to play solos and get them right.  And I'm not talking about the notes.  I'm talking about how to play those notes.  I cite as an example, me playing Time by Pink Floyd.

Before you go too harsh about that not being perfect...  Well, of course it's not.  I'm just not that good.  And this serves as an excellent example of how someone like myself, with decades of experience, and really practicing like mad to get this as close as possible, STILL can't duplicate it perfectly.

Note that I am not going hard on myself.  I'm just acknowledging my limitations.  And one more final note about this...  To hold the instrument and play this solo feels awesome!  I mean that literally.  Part of why this solo is fun to play is that the whole instrument plays it.  So even if it's not perfect, it's really awesome to play it!

2021-04-16 - Year 2 Day 32

More garden filling

Since it's Friday, not raining, and still kinda slow at work, I took like 4 more trips to the EC for compost.  Well, that's what they call it.  It looks like dirt to me.  And it doesn't smell.  And thank goodness for that, because I am using my car to move it around.

One garden is full and complete.  I will take care of the other one tomorrow.  That's enough for one day.

2021-04-15 - Year 2 Day 31

Garden work

I still haven't posted pictures of the gardens.  They are still being built.  By that I mean, I need to fill them with dirt.

Here in this township, we have a spiffy ecological center that allows you to come and grab things like compost, dirt, and mulch, for free.  As long as you can figure out a way to get it out of there, you can take as much as you want.

What that means for me is, loading up the SUV with recycling buckets and take many many trips there, fill them, bring them back, and dump them in the boxes.

I have so far taken 2 trips.  I think I will need at least 6 per garden.

2021-04-14 - Year 2 Day 30

Middle of the week

Kinda slow at work still.  But I just got my quarterly review, an that went smashingly well!!  That is always important in the best of times.  During these pandemic times, it's even more important!  So of course I'm very happy with how all that went.

2021-04-13 - Year 2 Day 29

Strange week so far

I know it's still early in the week.  It's just that it's been remarkably quiet at work.  Which means that either everyone is so busy that they aren't talking to each other, or no one is actually working.

This is the time of year when things slow down just a bit.  You know, weather improving, flowers, need to get the property ready, gardens, etc...  My plan for tomorrow is to cut the grass for the first time this year!  Which is good.  I need the exercise.

In other news, you are going to start seeing a new ad running here.  It looks like this

This is because I am still trying to promote this project.  I'm dropping hints about it everywhere I can.

As I may have mentioned before, I am trying to do away with running external ads on all my sites.  I'm hoping to do everything internally so that people will only contribute if they want to.

 

2021-04-12 - Year 2 Day 28

Tried a new recipe

I'm sure I'm not alone in this...  Try out a new recipe, and it comes out as a triumph.  That's always great.

The other day my wife came home with a recipe for ground beef and rice with a Korean sauce.  So I made that tonight.  It came out awesome!  Would make again!

I'm not an expert in the kitchen by any means.  But I definitely know how to make some stuff.

Just thought you'd all like to know that.

2021-04-11 - Year 2 Day 27

Political rant (for real)

I wrote this up a few days ago.  Today seems like a good day to post it because I don't have anything else interesting to say...

Someone on the internet the other day, made a joke about how we miss the comic stylings of the previous administration.  Yeah...  It was most unbelievable, wasn't it?  Those were some crazy times...

There are still SO many things that I cannot believe happened.  Off the top of my head:

  • He made it through all 4 years
  • He was never once held responsible for ALL the f'd up shiat he did. (too much to list)
  • He hired his unqualified family, he hired inept bozos, he dismantled age-old institutions
  • He cozied up with tyrants, and drove a wedge in between our allies
  • He lied about the pandemic
  • He didn't do ANYTHING while it was raging on and killing people.
  • He held events with no precautions.  Multiple times.
  • He violated the Hatch Act and the Emoluments clause over and over
  • Half of his staff was investigated, indicted, and some sent to jail.  Then he pardoned them.
  • He scammed his supporters.
  • He scammed his supporters AGAIN.
  • He left many cabinet positions unfilled, or filled with "temporary" people that were never approved by the Senate.
  • He raised or made new tariffs that cost this country BILLIONS, didn't hurt who they were intended to hurt, and effectively lost future import business for decades to come.
  • He tried to effectively dismantle the postal service in an effort to subvert the election.
  • He sent out his lawyers to overturn the election.  One of them held a press conference at The Four Seasons.
  • Seriously...  That's all I feel like typing right now...

And his supporters still supported him.  The entire GOP in our government continued to support him.  Many still do.

I just can't believe that all of that was allowed to happen in this country.  I mean, I really just don't understand how it was all allowed to happen.  And we were able to do nothing at all to stop it.

AND - We haven't done shiat about it since.

2021-04-10 - Year 2 Day 26

Happy Saturday

I spent all day today doing inside work, outside work, and just general work.  Anything I could do to keep busy.  Because I was in a really terrible mood.  I still am, which is why this post is so short.

And no, I'm not trying to garner attention of the, "what's on your mind?" type.  I know what I'm pissed about.  And no, I don't want to talk about it.

2021-04-09 - Year 2 Day 25

Not done talking about NFTs yet

Oh, no...  I'm really not.  I just wrote up a whole thing to explain my next move with NFTs.  Yes, I have created my own collection.  And I wrote a whole story about it.  Because of course I did.

The collection is The Web Safe Colors cards. Each card representing one of the 216 Web Safe Colors.
With today's newer monitors that are able to show the full spectrum of colors, the need for Web Safe colors has pretty well gone away. So those poor little guys are just sitting there, forgotten and unloved. My thought is to once again give them life - give them a purpose! You TOO can own your very own characterization of one of the old Web Safe Colors.

I'm well aware of how silly this idea is.  But it might prove to be worth something.  Or like most of my projects like this, it will go unnoticed, and I will have to find the next silly idea, and hope that works better.

2021-04-08 - Year 2 Day 24

Let's talk about NFTs

I'm sure you've been hearing a lot of NFTs lately.  It's been all the rage on the news and social media.  It's something that's been going on for a while, but people are really latching on to the idea now.

I wrote a full article about this on my cryptocurrency blog, which is really where it belongs.  That, boys and girls, is called "cross promotion".

Anyway...  If you go and read that article, you'll see why this link to my NFT collection of Animated GIFs makes sense.

But if you don't feel like reading that link, the short,simplified explanation about NFTs is that they are digital versions of things like collectible trading cards.  And like everything else that takes place on the blockchain, it is only ownership that gives these things any value at all.

But there are an awful lot of artists and other content creators that are set to make some pretty good money by making these assets available.

2021-04-07 - Year 2 Day 23

Political rant

I had a really great political rant written up.  But I decided to park it in an alternate section of the blog for now.  Perhaps I will post it tomorrow, or the next day.  Because it's a really good one, and I don't want it to go to waste.

2021-04-06 - Year 2 Day 22

Let us talk politics

Haha...  No.  I'm kidding.  I'm not doing that today.  Well, that is, I'm not going to go on a rant about anything.  These are happier times.  Things are looking up...

It's been refreshing to see the government functioning again, and not pretending to be a reality TV show.  And it's great fun watching the Biden haters stumble all over themselves to find something, anything to be outraged about.  We have finally gotten back to a place where the great majority of people agree with, and approve of what is going on right now.  Anyone who is still complaining and outraged are people who just HAVE to blame someone for their problems.

This year is going better so far.  Let us hope my optimism is warranted!  Let's hope we continue this upward trend!

2021-04-05 - Year 2 Day 21

Another new week

I wish I had more interesting things to say on Monday mornings.  But I kinda don't.  I am generally concerned with getting my work week started up, more than anything.  And really, nothing has happened yet.

My daughter got her second shot today.  That's 2 people that are 100% now.

And thank goodness for all that.  Thank goodness we finally have vaccines.  Because all the people that have refused to believe that this is real, even after a full year and some, are still a danger.  Because those stubborn morons still exist, we are still in this mess.  And vaccines are the only way out of it.

2021-04-04 - Year 2 Day 20

Second Pandemic Easter

Happy Easter, everyone!

thumbnail

May the Easter Bunny bring you nice things and not scare the life out of you.

This is now the second Easter, and I don't know how many holidays, where we would normally get together as a family, and now that's not an option.  Again...  Hey there's always next year, right?  Which is what we said last year.

Well, despite my misgivings about how we are still in a pandemic after all this time...  Have a great day today! Whether it's Passover, Easter, or "let's eat ham on Sunday", in your house, have a great day!

2021-04-03 - Year 2 Day 19

Oh, please...

Man, if there is one term that has got to be shut down and NEVER f'n used again it's "cancel culture".  Holy crap, am I sick of hearing people say that all the time.  Well, not all people.  It's just the select few the can't understand why things in this world keep changing.  Why sensibilities get updated with the times.

Every time a conservative type says that I want to hit them in the head with a cinder block and explain to them loudly that when people stop doing things in order to send a message, they are SENDING YOU A MESSAGE.  And clearly, they are not getting that message.  Well, either that, or they are getting the message and don't like being told how wrong they are.  All day long every day.  Which is why they came up with that term.  It's a way of blaming everyone else.  It's a way of deflecting responsibility.

What I am specifically referring to here is Georgia.  When a state enacts new voting laws specifically to prevent entire groups of people from being able to vote, sometimes, businesses will respond by saying, "Well then, we will not be doing business here."  When MLB moves the All Star game out of the state, they are saying loud and clear that what Georgia is doing is wrong.  They have TOLD Georgia that, in no uncertain terms.  GA's response is to say they won't be bullied by cancel culture.

Oh, screw you, you self righteous assholes.  You are not being bullied!  You are being told that what you have done is WRONG.  Don't try to blame MLB or anyone else.

There are at least 10 other states that are planning on enacting similar voter restrictions.  I hope the see what happened in GA and rethink that idea.

2021-04-02 - Year 2 Day 18

April fools is over

Mother Nature must not have gotten the word about it.  Because she is still making us think that spring has not really arrived.  That is why it's so friggin cold out right now.

C'mon, lady...  I've got stuff to do.  I can't do that stuff when it's this cold out.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to get some outside stuff done.  Hopefully...

2021-04-01 - Year 2 Day 17

Happy National Kazoo Day!

Probably the biggest thing in the news today is that we discovered life in the atmosphere on Jupiter.  Large squid-like animals swimming around, trying to avoid the storms.

Today also marks the anniversary of the Burger King left handed Whopper.  That and we've determined that math would be much easier if we just rounded Pi down to 3. 

But hey at least we didn't have to delay April Fool's Day this year due to the pandemic.

2021-03-31 - Year 2 Day 16

New program

In my never ending quest to produce things that have already been produced a few billion times, I've made a slot machine program.  Yes, I know there are many like it.  But this one is mine.

This is one of those things that I've had in my head for a while but never actually produced.  Well, unless you count a simple BASIC program that I wrote when I was like 15 or something.  All that did was randomly threw some text up on the screen.

There is actually a reason for this program, though.  You see...  Every slot machine you've ever played, be it in a casino or on your computer or phone, is not really random.  The spins are predetermined.  There is a list of spins already calculated to make sure that there are just enough wins and losses of all kinds, across all players, so that some people win, but the house ALWAYS wins.  This list is spread out over every single active machine on the network at any given time.

I suppose it's still random from the point of view of the player.  But it's not really.  And that is the whole point.

So my thought was to build a machine that works like an actual mechanical machine.  It is truly random.  The wheels just roll and stop ran random points.  Everything about it is local to the program and nothing is predetermined.

 

2021-03-30 - Year 2 Day 15

Almost April

I can't believe how fast this year is going.  We are pretty well at the 25% mark already.  Well, according to this program, almost.

Before you know it, we will be complaining about it getting cold again and getting ready for Halloween!

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here...  It's the beginning of Spring!  And we'll have plenty of things to complain about before the end of the Summer!

2021-03-29 - Year 2 Day 14

And so begins another week

I can't really joke around about working from home anymore.  At this point, that is the normal.  And it will be for some time to come.  I've said many times that I miss my office, and I still do.  But at the same time, I've gotten so used to this that going back to the office now would be a strange adjustment!

2021-03-28 - Year 2 Day 13

Flowers are blooming

It must be said that of all the seasons, Spring is my favorite.  I like the flowers, I like the trees, I like the green, I like that things are coming back to life, I like that Walter the box turtle climbs out of her hibernation hole to say "hello".

I even like the weather.  I'm not going to go back over the past year worth of posts to see if I've said this before...  But I like the weather in general.  Spring tends to be the most unpredictable. So it's not just the same every day.  Like 95 degrees and humid for 4 weeks straight, or 20 below zero for 2 weeks...  It actually doesn't matter much if I've said it before.  It is still how I really feel.

Happy Spring, everyone!

2021-03-27 - Year 2 Day 12

Spring yard cleaning

Well, not so much.  It was really more like, finish building the garden boxes and clean out the garage day.

The boxes did come out really good.  And they weigh substantially more than I expected.  I had to wait until my son got home before I could move them out back.  If I had tried to do that myself I probably would have pulled my spleen or some other vital organ.  I'll update this post later with a pic.

I also got shot #1 of the Pfizer variety.  That seemed to go well enough.  Hoping for no side effects. Fingers crossed.

It is now my mission to watch Falcon and Winter Soldier.  Assuming it is p to par with Wandavision, then I'm sure I'll dig it.  By the way, Wandavision was f'n awesome!!

Disney+ is doing very well with this sort of stuff.  I can't really complain about that service.

2021-03-26 - Year 2 Day 11

Friday, windy Friday

Sure sign that spring is in the air.  That is, the air that is moving roughly 40mph and full of debris.  It's awesome!

Holy crap, I just got back to this and realized that it's still Friday.  Today has been an active day.  Yes I worked.  But then I also went and got new gardens.  Some assembly required.

Garden Wood
What a garden box might look like, partially assembled

It should be stated that I am not a carpenter.  Oh, no.  Not at all.  In fact, this is about as complex.a project as I should be allowed to do.  But I'm gonna build the hell out of these things anyway.  They are bigger and stronger than the last ones.  By far.

 

2021-03-25 - Year 2 Day 10

Short day today

Gotta take off early to take my wife up to Patterson (of all places) to get her 2nd COVID shot.  On one hand, we are thrilled to have the first person in the house be completely vaccinated.  On the other hand, Patterson?!  Really?!

But that was the appointment that was made available.  So be it.

It's fun driving up in that area.  Fun in the same way as riding a wooden roller coaster after forgetting to put on your seatbelt is fun.  For the record, I did that once.  Once was enough.

2021-03-24 - Year 2 Day 9

Hump day

Well, at the time I'm typing this, I'm actually so far over the hump that I'm winding down for the day.  I've done enough work.  It's time to take off for the day and figure out dinner.

Sorry if it seems like my posts have been rather dull lately.  There are many things I'd like to talk about, but at the same time, I'm trying to avoid discussing some subjects altogether.

Yeah, that's all for today...

2021-03-23 - Year 2 Day 8

Tuesday in the spring

Holy crap it's nice out.  In less than a few days we went from super cold, to just awesome.

It's almost time to switch to no coat and cargo shorts.  Almost.  As long as there is still frost on the windshield in the morning, that can't exactly happen.

2021-03-22 - Year 2 Day 7

Back to work

And, oh what a busy day it will be.

2021-03-21 - Year 2 Day 6

Vacation day 4

Yep...  Last day of vacation.

Since I'm on my way home today, I can tell everyone now that I have, in fact, been out of town for a couple of days.  See I don't like to tell the internet when I leave the house unattended.  Seems like a stupid thing to broadcast in this day and age.  

We went to visit the girl child at school.  Well, partially for that.  It was also so we could tour around upstate NY for a little while.

I am absolutely shocked at the amount of ice and snow that is still left up here.  Many of the smaller lakes are still mostly frozen.  We didn't get any ice back home that lasted more than a few days.

In any case, the weather has been awesome.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Freezing in the morning, 50 degrees by 10:00AM.  So on the way home today, we will make a couple of hiking stops.  Breaks up the drive a little.  It's nice to actually get out and get some exercise and fresh air.

2021-03-20 - Year 2 Day 5

Donation site

I'm working on a new site.  My initial thought is that ad revenue is just not working any more for web sites.  Like to such a degree that I am considering dropping ads off my sites altogether.  It just makes people angry anyway.  So it's not doing anyone any good.

So my idea is to create a site where people can send donations if they feel like contributing.

My thinking is that if this sort of thing works well enough, I will open up the project for others to request donations the same way.

Make no mistake, this is not a matter of begging for money.  It's more like an alternative method of monetizing the sites I work on without having to inconvenience anyone.

2021-03-19 - Year 2 Day 4

Vacation day 2

Vacation is going well so far.  More to come later.  I have such little time right now, this post will be very short.

But, hey, spring is here!

Also, both of the kid's colleges are in the March Madness tournament!  We'll see how that goes!

2021-03-18 - Year 2 Day 3

First day of vacation

My vacation will last all of 4 days, when you include the weekend.  Today will be spent catching up on personal work, cleaning the house up a bit, and a little bit of general laziness.

I'm working on a new site.  I will have more information on that soon.  For now I'll just say that it will either be a great idea, or an unmitigated disaster.  Or perhaps something in between.  I suspect that like many of my projects it will probably receive almost no attention at all.  I'm quite sure that I do this stuff for myself more than anyone else.

Speaking of projects, the seasons are about to change!  Which means that the graphics on this page will be updating soon!  All that gray and white will soon be replaced by spring colors!

2021-03-17 - Year 2 Day 2

It's Friday!

Not for you, of course.  Unless you also happen to be taking vacation tomorrow.  Well, I am.  So today is the end of the week.

Of course when I get back to work on Monday, my workload will be such that I will certainly be paying the price for my taking off at all.  But as I've said a whole bunch of times over the years, and certainly during the last year, I ain't complaining!

2021-03-16 - Year 2 Day 1

One year and one day

New numbering convention that I will decide to keep, or not, depending on how I feel about it.  (after posting this I already updated to to reflect that we are in year 2)

The other day I put out a single question poll asking:

Will you get the COVID-19 vaccine when eligible?

localIconWell, will you? 

Not surprising, but the overall numbers are overwhelmingly positive.  Very few people said "no".  But one comical thing to point out about this... I posted it on Facebook.  The people that answered "yes" all clicked through to the site and answered the question.  The ones that said "no", just left a comment to let us know why they will not be doing it.  Like, "I don't get the flu shot either", or "I'm not your experiment."  But they didn't bother to click through to answer the question on the site.:

Another interesting thing is that without fail, every single person that said "no", is a supporter of 45**.  Why is this important?  I dunno...  Why is it that every single time something like this goes on, and a minority of people stubbornly refuse to cooperate, or do the right thing, it's always those people?  I cite as an examples, anti-maskers...  A note to those people.  Did you know that your dear leader and his wife got the shot back in January, but did it in secret?

Why do you suppose he would do that?  I don't know either.  Maybe he didn't want to ruin his narrative.

The point is, if you are refusing the vaccine because you think it's dangerous, or it was rushed, or that it's unnecessary, or that the virus is a hoax, or that dear leader convinced you of those thing long ago, or that it's the same thing as the flu shot, or that Bill Gates will implant a tracking chip inside you, you are WRONG on every single one of those points.

And your refusal to get the vaccine will not only be dangerous for every other living person, it may end up becoming a problem for you when you aren't allowed to fly, or enter some venues, without proving that you've been vaccinated.  Consider doing the research to understand why it's important to get the shot, at least. 

2021-03-15 - Day 365

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today, I started working from home.  And this is the biggest thing I learned:

Working from home was always considered a privilege.  You could do it if you had to.  If there was a bad weather event, or if you needed to wait for a furniture delivery, etc...  But generally speaking you NEED to be in the office.

That changed overnight.  Now it is the exact opposite.  We've already been told that when we DO go "back to the office", we are still expected to work from home.  "If you need to attend a meeting in person, then go in.  Otherwise, stay home."

In short, what I learned is that it's not exactly necessary to maintain an office after all.

Having said that, I really REALLY miss going into the office.  Sure there are conveniences to working from home.  I can't deny that.  But I miss my commute with a podcast or audio book.  I miss the shitty coffee machine.  I miss my 16oz Kylo Ren coffee mug.  I miss my cubicle.  I miss my plants.  I miss walking through the hallways and chatting it up with other people that are walking the hallways.  I miss the canned music in the bathrooms.  I miss meetings with free lunch.  I miss putting on headphones to drown out the office din.  I miss joking around with my coworkers.

All things considered, this is really just a minor bit of complaining.  And it screams of "first world problems".  So I must also take a moment to acknowledge how lucky I am.  Lucky to have a job that CAN be done remotely.  Lucky that I am able to do so.  Lucky that I actually really LIKE my job.

And I fully acknowledge that there are a LOT of people that are far worse off that would be thrilled to have the complaints that I do.  So I'll shut up now.

Happy one year anniversary, everyone!

2021-03-14 - Day 364

Almost there

Almost one year.  I think I will talk more about that tomorrow...

I'm on my way out to do some recording today.  I've only got one solo left to do.  And I did some work on it last night and think I'm pretty well prepared.  But I'm still gonna be winging it for the most part.

On a personal note...  Even after 35 years of playing, I still find myself frustrated when it comes to writing stuff.  It's still very difficult for me to take what I hear in my head and play it the way it sounds up there.  Very difficult to explain.  Imagine coming up with the greatest joke in the world, but when you say it out loud half the words are in another language, and since no one speaks that language, it sounds like gibberish.  Sound anything like what you thought it would.  It's kinda like that.

2021-03-13 - Day 363

Looking like a good weekend!

Well, except for that whole Daylight Savings Time thing.  I have really gotten used to waking up at 5:30 every day.  Now I'm going back to 6:30.  Screw you, DST.

I may have written something similar to this 6 months ago.  I'm sure I must have since this blog was certainly here, and it would have pissed me off back then too.

2021-03-12 - Day 362

One year working from home

Today marks the one year anniversary of the last day I was in my office.  It was March 13th last year.  It was a Friday.  So this is the same Friday, even if the date is off by one.

We all worked our normal day...  The boss called us into his office as we were wrapping up for the day.  He basically said, "We may not be able to come back on Monday.  So be prepared to work from home."

At that particular moment, none of us knew just how long it would go on for.  On the following Monday the word was, "Probably 2 weeks.  So get comfortable."

It was on that Monday that I started this blog.  So this is the first anniversary of the last day in the office.  Monday will be the first anniversary of this blog.  Even if it's off by a day.

It is at this point that i would like to draw attention once again to the links up top for the data visualizations.  I made it a point to update them all this morning.  Enjoy.  And while you're at it, be horrified.

2021-03-11 - Day 361

Stimulus bill passes

The newest stimulus package, the Senate amended version, passed the House yesterday.  This bill includes the following items that will absolutely help the people of this country:

  • $1400 to most Americans
  • New child tax credit, that will help working families with younger children
  • Aid to state and local governments
  • Funding for pandemic response including acceleration of vaccinations
  • Housing assistance
  • Support for schools
  • Lots of other fun stuff

I watched the debates on this yesterday.  This is how it went:

Democrats:  This bill is going to help the people in this country that are suffering.  It's far more sensible to allocate this money this way than more tax cuts to the rich.

Republicans:  This will do nothing but make people more reliant of the government.  There will be no incentive for them to go back to work.

That's your government at work, people.  One side is trying to help you.  The other side is actively NOT helping you because you are lazy and just looking for a hand out.  This is not some sort of liberal spin.  I WATCHED these people say this stuff.  And in the end, not a single Republican voted yes on this bill.  Not one.  Even though the country has provided overwhelming support for it.  Over 75%, last I checked.

I love how the Republicans keep telling everyone that they want this government to be bi-partisan.  But at every turn they vote in lockstep together, against whatever the other side puts forward.  On top of that, while all of this was going on, there was a lot of news and information about what this bill contained, what it will do, and why it's so important.  But what was Fox, Newsmax, OAN, and other conservative news talking about?  Dr Seuss, Pepé LePew, Mr Potato Head, and The Muppets.  Private companies making decisions about characters they own.  That's what Conservative news is outraged about right now.

Because as I've said before...  When they can't find something to make their readers outraged, they'll just make shit up.

2021-03-10 - Day 360

Spring is here!

No it's not!  But man, it feels like it.  I know we could get a freak storm at any moment.  But it certainly doesn't look like that's going to happen.  We may finally be on the down slope of this winter.

Of course this means it's a little more difficult to look out the window while I'm working.  Because in my mind I'm working outside to build new gardens, and getting the property set up for the growing season.

This time last year, I was still working in my office.  I was watching the news and saying, "Yeah, this might get bad."  Of course, at that exact time, President Orange Marmalade Crybaby was telling the entire country that there was nothing to worry about, and that the virus was not all that dangerous.

That was a whole new level of bullshit, right there.  And we've been paying the price for it every since.

2021-03-09 - Day 359

Cryptocurrency blog plug

I've been sitting on this post for a couple of days.  I kept finding other things to talk about, so this didn't come up.  

Once in a while I actually write articles on my other blogs.  Like, my cryptocurrency blog, for instance.  Check out this New Faucet Site article.  

If you have no interest in such things, then you can just move on without clicking...  But if you have interest in learning more about this cryptocurrency stuff that is all the rage right now, there is no shortage of good articles there to explain all about it.

Enjoy...

2021-03-08 - Day 358

New week begins

It appears that I will be taking a ride to north Jersey this afternoon.  My wife has an appointment to get a COVID vaccine.  The first one in the family to secure one of those!  So that's one of us that will be safer.

For the record, I'd like to get a vaccine myself, but there are two reasons I can't:

  1. There are lots of people ahead of me that need the shot more than me.  For instance, people who see other people all day long for a living.
  2. Even if I didn't already agree with point #1, that is the rule.  I just don't qualify.

In short, it's not that I object to the vaccine.  It's just that I won't be getting it any time soon.

On a totally different note...  I've mentioned about Conservative media - that when they have nothing to be outraged about, they just make shit up.  And right now the hot topic is Dr Seuss books.

So everyone knows...  It was not some Democrats, or political action committee, or left-wing group, or some other mysterious "cancel culture", that is trying to ban the books.  The owners of the publishing rights - the people that print the books...  THEY took it upon themselves to notice that some of the stereotypes in those books might be offensive to people in today's world with today's sensibilities.  So THEY decided to stop printing them.  It was them.  Not the f'n boogeymen on the left wing of politics.

So please stop it with all the outrage about it.  It's their right to stop printing those books for any reason that they see fit.  In short, STFU with your outrage.  Because you don't even know what you're angry about.  You've been lied to.  Again.

2021-03-07 - Day 357

Monday eve

On this Sunday, I have lots of fun stuff going on.  The main thing is that I'm headed out to do some recording today.  For all the recording I have done so far on this project, I have pretty well shown up and said, "ok, what do you want me to play?"  But for the song I'm doing today, I'm taking a different approach.  As I was listening to the demo track, I couldn't help but feel that it needed to be more lively from the guitar standpoint.  So I wrote a rhythm track for the whole thing that is WAY more metal than what is there now.  WAY heavier.

I'm excited to see how it all works out.  More than anything, I'm hoping the owner of the project agrees that my approach is the right one.  Because that's what I have in my head now.  And if you don't know, that's how you can tell you've found the groove for a new song.  When it's stuck in your head on constant repeat.  And that's when you know it's ready to record.

 

2021-03-06 - Day 356

Busy, busy day

Seeing as how it's been a busy week at work, not a whole lot got done around the house.  Well, other than preparing for the couches.  As such, I think today will be spent doing all the other maintenance things that need to be done...  This means, new filter in the furnace, new little buckets to collect the moisture from the basement (thanks to all the snow and rain), and replacing some of the vents in the house.

That last bit is something that most people don't think about much.  But after 20 years, your vents get absolutely disgusting, especially in places where there is a lot of moisture.  Seriously, just washing them is not going to do the trick.  Sometimes it's best to just go to Lowes, get some new vents and replace them all.

2021-03-05 - Day 355

The couches are here

Here you go:

couches
What couches might look like

It's so nice to have couches that are firm and new, and not falling apart with the decay of 15 years of constant use.  By the way, if you are looking for furniture, go to the outlet store.  You will literally save half the cost.  Our original couch set from the non-outlet, was just the 2 couches.  Then we went to the outlet, and got better couches, plus the chair and ottoman, and it cost about $100 less.

As a side note...  I made it a point to say, "Hey, the guy at the other store put in a lot of time with us.  I don't want to cut him out."  Since they are all one big happy store, he cut that guy in on the commission for the sale.  So everyone wins.  And it was very important to me that that happened.

2021-03-04 - Day 354

Couches are coming in

Yes...  After almost 15 years, we finally got new couches.  We were WAY overdue.  We waited until after the holidays for sales, and new inventory.  No to mention we needed to save up for them.  But they are coming tomorrow!

So I will be spending the day today clearing out the living room and shampooing the carpet.  Fun!

2021-03-03 - Day 353

Wednesday, cold and sunny

Yeah, winter seems to have calmed down a little.  But it's not over yet.  Even though we are seeing signs that things are changing, the weather could turn at any moment.  We have had more than a couple of freak snowstorms as late as April.  So don't get too comfortable.

Speaking of being too comfortable...  What the hell is wrong with you, Texas?!  Like, seriously, are you really THAT f'n stupid?  Are you really going to release ALL restrictions, mask mandates, and allow all businesses to open 100%?  Are you really that clueless about how careless and stupid that is?  Are you not aware that such a ridiculously stupid decision is not only going to kill a huge number of people in your own state, but also put all surrounding areas in jeopardy too?  Just because we have vaccines, and just because new cases seem to be on the decline, that is not the time to assume everything is just fine.  Cases are on the decline for those reasons, yes.  But if you relax restrictions, cases will rise, new variants will arise, more people will get sick.  And we already aren't vaccinating people quickly enough to keep up.

Funny thing about viruses...  They don't go away because you deny their existence or ignore them.  In fact, that's what makes them spread.  Do you need proof of this?  Here, have a look at the data for yourself.  The light green line is Texas.  Your state has been second worse, only losing to California, for all this time.  This is due directly to your refusal to take even the most basic precautions to protect your people.  And you are about to drop the restrictions you do have completely, putting them all at risk again!  And this, just after most of your state was without water and power for days on end, because you refuse to have your infrastructure regulated.

Seriously, Texas...  You are a bunch of colossal morons.  And you are about to make another gigantic mistake.  I feel sorry for the suffering you are about to bring to your people.  Again,  And I actually fear that your decision is going to have ramifications far outside of your state.  I'm all for states rights.  Except when stupid decisions might affect the whole world.  It's really a shame that this is being allowed to happen.

2021-03-02 - Day 352

Tuesday and all is well

It's a fairly typical day in the house today.  I got a lot done at work.  I also got a new personal project done.  I modified an existing API that I had to give me current cryptocurrency prices.  I would share the link and show it off, but there is a small issue with that.  The API that my API is calling is a "free tier" sort of thing.  This means that I am only allowed to hit the API 300 times in a day.  So if I share that on this blog, my allotted usage would likely get used up in an afternoon.

In fact, it was partly that issue that got me thinking it was a good idea to write a new version of my own intermediate API.  Because the way I was using it originally (a bunch of Google Sheets), it was hitting the API 12 times or so every time the sheet refreshed.  Which was often if I had it open on multuple machines.

My solution was to write a new program that holds the last value for coins in a database.  It only goes and gets the current price when I tell it to.  This dramatically reduces the number of times the API is called.

And that right there is the nerdiest thing you are bound to read today.

2021-03-01 - Day 351

Is winter over?

No.  But it feels like it.  Days of rain on end, and now it's windy as hell.  Temperature swinging 30 degrees in a day...

Speaking of working from home, I just got another email from corporate to advise us when we are going back to the office.  Last time they said it would be June.  Now they are saying, the end of the summer at the earliest.  Which of course means that we won't be going back to the office this year.

On the other hand, maybe the newest vaccine coming out will help speed things along a little.  But no one really knows.

2021-02-28 - Day 350

Almost there

Coming up on a year!  Joy!

Bah...  I've got nothing funny or amusing this morning...  So I'm going to spend my time today working on a new version of the API I use to pull cryptocurrency prices.  I know most of you don't really even care what that means.  But that's what I'm doing...

2021-02-27 - Day 349

Site updates

Most of you folks reading this thing have probably never ventured very far from this page to even notice that there is a much larger site behind this whole thing.  I'm mentioning this now because I'm doing some housecleaning, updating links, making sure my SEO is in good order, that sort of thing.  This site has been ongoing in a few different iterations for over 25 years!  So there really is a whole helluva lot of stuff here.

The other day, I got a call from a potential new client.  They were looking for examples of my website design.  They found my site alright, and went straight to the portfolio section.  I was like, "Oh, wow...  That is not what you were looking for..."  And it raised a flag for me to update my front page so that people looking for things like that would find what they expected.  Rather than 25 years worth of demos and silliness.

Also...  They called my personal cell number rather than the one I use for business.  And I am at a loss for how they found that number, rather than the gazillion mentions of my business number all over this site.  So I made an update to my main landing page that should solve both of those issues.

While we're on the subject, I am actively looking for new work right now.  If you happen to know anyone in need of website design, hosting, or both, please send them my way.

2021-02-26 - Day 348

Friday! Again!

Unless I'm mistaken this is pretty close to the 50th Friday of the pandemic.  Almost at a year!  Congratulation all you anti-maskers and conspiracy theorists!  We couldn't have done it without you.

I'll have more to say about this soon.  But yeah, we're moving up on a year.

2021-02-25 - Day 347

Baking morning

On her way out the door this morning, my wife made it a point to pile up the uneaten bananas on the counter.  This was to make a point that those bananas should really be used for something.

So I made bread.

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Because of course I did.  Actually, there are two breads here.  The one in the back is a beer bread mix that we got from Trader Joe's.  Let's just get this out of the way right now...  The beer bread sucked.  Either the powder was bad, the beer was skunked, or the recipe is crap...  Whatever...  That's all I have to say about that.  

But the banana bread came out f'n awesome!! Like, I make a mean banana bread.  But this one is a cut above.  Don't know why.  Maybe the loaf pan (I usually use a Corningware), maybe the chocolate chips, I dunno.  All I can say is it came out fantastic!

2021-02-24 - Day 346

It is feeling like spring

Just last week we were have a blizzard about this time.  Looking outside today, you would think it was April.  All that snow from the last storm is almost gone already.

Man, this has been a weird year.

Hey, at least the pandemic is almost over, right?  Well, they say that we will have everyone in the country vaccinated and herd immunity by April.  But they also say that won't happen until December.  And they also say we will be wearing masks right up to 2022.

I'll be you almost forgot that this blog was primarily started because of the pandemic.  And it's easy to understand why.  No one ever expected it to go on this long.

CaptainObvious

Yeah, I know...  Preaching to the choir.  A choir of some 328.2 million people.

2021-02-23 - Day 345

New project

I'm sure you've seen these things all over the place.

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Yes.  The QR Code.  I created a QR Code generator page.  Yeah I know there a million of those things.  But I wanted one of my own.  So there...

2021-02-22 - Day 344

Fiscal month

I know that the fiscal month doesn't mean anything to many of you.  But in my work world, today is the first of the month.  Welcome to March.  And that means that today is my busiest day because all of my data needs to be refreshed.  It's an all day thing.  So I know how my day will be spent.

Except for a brief break around 11:00 so I can get a haircut.  I'm sorely overdue for that.

So that's what my day looks like.  Have a good week everyone!  We might actually get through this one without a snowstorm!  Maybe.

2021-02-21 - Day 343

Sunday funday

Went shopping at Lord and Taylor today.  We are looking for a new rug for our living room.  Since they are going out of business, we figured there'd be some good prices.

I knew their rugs were expensive.  All they sell are handmade Persian rugs.  So, I expected they'd be a little high.  I turned over a price tag on the on at my feet.  I had to squint to see if that was a comma or a decimal.  It was a comma.  "Is this rug really $20,000?!"

Let's do some quick math here.  Even at 80% off, that is still $4000.  If you totaled up all the cars I owned before I was 25, they wouldn't total $4000.  But more to the point, if I walk into a room and see two carpets there, I don't care which one cost $20,000, and I literally couldn't tell the difference.  Most people couldn't.  Which makes you wonder why on Earth anyone would spend that kind of money.

Well, the answer to that is simple.  Some people have got more money than they know what to do with.  But those people are not me.  I will find a more a carpet with a more practical price tag.

2021-02-20 - Day 342

Nice day today

For a change...  Considering how lousy the weather has been, that is really saying something.  And for a change, when the plow came today to finally fix up our street, I happened to be standing there.  So instead of just making an ice wall in front of my driveway, he was cool enough to actually plow it all away!

In unrelated news:  The Muppet Show

Yes.  That thing.  If you are anything close to my age, you remember when that was a primetime show.  Just now, we were looking for something to watch and brought up Disney+ to see what was new.  We saw the Muppet Show and decided to watch.  We were laughing hysterically!!  That show was outrageously funny!

I had quite literally forgotten just how funny it was.  I think that part of the reason for that is that most of my recent experience with those characters has been attempts to remake that show.  And they have failed miserably.  There is something about the original that is just, I dunno, different.  So different in fact that watching it for the first time in over 30 years (or more), I was laughing like an idiot.

This is one of those examples of where people making new content for TV and movies, need to stop this nonsense with trying to reinvent something that already happened.  It never works.

2021-02-19 - Day 341

Texas is in real trouble

I have used this blog before to call attention to situations where people need help.  And I am doing so again today. I am not exactly sure which charity is the best.  So I am simply linking to Google's Donation page as a means of drawing attention to the matter.  UPDATE:  Adding this NYT link also, as it has some good links.  If you have the means to help at all, please do so.

In related news:  Don't make this a political issue.  About the only thing I can say on that is that the people that are currently in power in Texas royally screwed the pooch, and THEY are the ones that are making it political by blaming people who are not in charge, and haven't enacted any legislation for which they are being blamed.  In fact, people like AOC and Beto O'Rourke have raised millions of dollars in just a couple of days in an effort to help.

They did this while this asshole flew his family to paradise.

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Seriously...  The apologists are saying that there was "nothing he could do anyway".  Really?  See above.  Also, even if he is unable to do anything (which is not true at all), the appearance of whisking the family off to paradise while millions of people are freezing, starving, and boiling snow for fresh water, is some pretty bad optics.

Any idiot should have f'n known better.  But this idiot didn't.  He actually thought this was an okay plan.  He thought no one would care.  Perhaps he thought that since they had no power, no one would notice.

One more thing...  They are also lying about the reasons the system broke down.  They are trying to blame renewable energy, which is a future issue.  They are doing this while ignoring the current infrastructure of oil and natural gas that froze up because they refused to update their systems to prevent that happening.  They blocked the legislation to do so.

This is not political.  This is a human crisis.  Work on holding people accountable and throw blame around later.  For now, let's get these people some help!!

2021-02-18 - Day 340

Snowstorm 7.0

Oh, c'mon, Mother Nature.  What the actual hell?

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I got up at like 4:30AM and looked out the window. No snow at all.  So I went back to bed thinking that there wasn't going to be a storm after all.

Then I woke up at 6:00AM, and there was like 7 inches!!  Since I need my damn morning coffee, I went out to 7-11 anyway.  The snow was light and fluffy.  The car didn't even seem to notice that I was driving in snow.  So that was a good thing.

I don't think I'll be doing that again today though.  Man, it's really coming down out there!  They are saying that some 70% of the country is currently under some sort of snow emergency.  And some places, like Texas, have got it WAY worse than others.

Stay safe if you're on the roads!  Of course, if you are not a plow driver, what on Earth are you doing on the roads?!

2021-02-17 - Day 339

The sun still exists!

I was really starting to worry there.  I haven't seen actual sunlight in days.  But it appears to be a thing today.  It is amusing to me that some 8" of snow completely melted away in one day.  It will stop being amusing as soon as it becomes a problem in my basement.

For the record, I have gone to great lengths over the years to channel water off of the property and to the storm drains, rather than letting it pile up, go into the groundwater, and eventually come up through the floor in the basement.

It's been years since we have had to pump the water out.  And so far we appear to be okay still.  But I worry that this amount of water may overwhelm my efforts.

It's okay though.  I have pumps.  And I'm working from home.  So I'm not really all that worried.

Having said all that, I must make mention of the poor folks in Texas.  My heart goes out to those families that are suffering in the cold with no power.  Talk about a place that was completely ill equipped to deal with a winter like this.  Hopefully they will get their stuff in order so people don't freeze to death.

Before someone thinks that was a political statement.  No.  It's not.  They need to get their stuff in order.  I don't care who is responsible or who they want to blame.

2021-02-16 - Day 338

Day 1 of skipping Facebook

Today marks day one of my Facebook silence starting back up again.  I can already feel much less stress and anger.  So clearly it is doing me some good.

Just looking forward to a nice chilly day with the sun shining...  Well, that might not happen.  But at least it's really warm and all the snow melted.

2021-02-15 - Day 337

Getting back to the basics

I broke my Facebook silence yesterday.  For the first time in I don't even remember how long, I spoke up.  In case you missed it, the story is that I got quite upset seeing how many people were cheering on 45** being acquitted in the Senate.  Again.  I broke my silence because I found it very upsetting.  I still find it very upsetting.

And what did I learn from this breaking of silence?  Mostly that people that agree with me still agree with me.  And people that don't will find any reason to get pissed off, make unrelated arguments, and deflect blame without ever actually addressing the issue that I had raised.

It's like this:  "It is wrong for you people to be cheering on this acquittal.  People died.  Lives are ruined."

"Well what about the violence that the Democrats cause?!"  (Whataboutism.  Immediately discarded.)
"Biden is the biggest POS we've ever had in the White House!"  (Really?!)
"They fabricated evidence in the first trial!  They admitted it."  (That never happened.)
"You called me a racist once!  After all F you!!"  (a note on that - if you defend Confederate statues because you love your country, you ARE a racist.  You also need to read up on actual history.)

It is for this reason that I requested people not respond with arguments.  And here we show what I mean.  Those aren't arguments.  Those are not even issues that have anything to do with what I said.  They are deflections.  They are attempts to shift blame, or show that both sides are bad.

That is also the reason that I deleted all of those comments from the thread.

In the end, it is an amazement to me how far people will reach to find a way to vilify Democrats, or really anyone who is not a Conservative Republican, but they NEVER take ownership of the purely evil and horrible things that people like Donald J Trump have done.  They completely ignore every single thing - and the list is astonishingly long.  Either that or they deflect the issues, blame the media for reporting it, or just deny the reality of what he has done (see above).

This is why I avoid posting on Facebook.  This is why I don't have a comments section on this blog.

So when I say I'm getting back to basics, the first thing is, I am not making any new threads on Facebook other than to post that I've updated this blog.  The culture there is an angry conservative echo chamber where people enthusiastically bounce bullshit ideas and conspiracy theories, all in an effort to confirm their own biases.  And I am sick to the teeth of it.

And I still stand by what I said yesterday.  If you cheer on Trump and those 43 cowards for acquitting, you should be ashamed of yourself.

2021-02-14 - Day 336

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nothing but kindness today.  No anger.  I'm done with that.  It's not healthy to keep dwelling on things that are out of our control.  So, I'm setting all that aside.  I plan to have a nice quiet day with my wife, and avoid driving on the icy roads.

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Hope you all have a nice day too!  Now go hug your significant other and eat some chocolate!

2021-02-13 - Day 335

Of Course Drumpf was acquitted. Again.

Our useless, spineless Senate once again failed to convict a person who literally put all their lives at risk, and also put our democracy at risk.  This, of course opens the door for all future politicians of all kinds to break the law however the want, and they will never be held accountable.  Not as long as there are enough people in their own party that act as the jury in the trial.

It is my opinion that it is time to do away with the impeachment process once and for all.  It has proven through history, especially the last two times, that the impeachment process DOES NOT WORK.  In fact, all it really does is show that political parties will protect their own people no matter what they have done.

Congratulations, Senate of the US.  You have screwed all of us.  And you can all smoke turds in hell, you pathetic, useless scumbags.

What 45** did was still criminal, even if the Senate failed to convict for it.  All we can hope for now is that the actual law steps up and starts doing its job.  But I'm honestly not very hopeful about that.  Drumpf has proved over and over again that he is above the law.  So him, his family, all the people that broke the law and then were pardoned...  They will all get away with all of it.  And a clean 70 someodd people in this country are just fine with that.  No wonder this country is so f'd up.

2021-02-12 - Day 334

I hope you all enjoyed my rant yesterday

Because sit back and enjoy part 2!

I'm quite sure that there are exactly 3 types of people that read this blog - or, in particular, that rant:

  1. Those that agree and already thought all those same things, and are happy to see someone finally say it out loud.
  2. Those that completely disagree, think I'm full of shit, and probably were red in the face with fury as they read it.
  3. No one else.

Of course, the people in the second category don't actually exist.  At least in the sense that they are a person that would read this blog.  Or, in particular, a post like yesterday.  Because we already know that anything that challenges their world view is not something they would care to read.  So they probably completely missed the part where I called those people a bunch of cowards.

I didn't really mean "cowards" as much as I meant, if they had any real conviction, they would OWN what happened on the 6th, rather than trying to deflect the blame.

Why am I still complaining about this?  Because it makes me furious that Republicans made up their mind before the trial even started, that they would acquit.  Because their lips are firmly stuck to Drumpf's ass, or they are afraid of his supporters.  Whichever...  Probably both.

Everyone in the world saw what happened that day.  We all know what happened.  But the Republicans will not only refuse to take responsibility for it, they are going to acquit 45**.  Again.  Even though their lives were put at risk.  Even though at least 5 people are dead, hundreds injured, and hundreds of lives absolutely ruined - the lives of their supporters!!  Even though our very democracy is at stake.  Even though acquitting this criminal again, is just going to leave the door open for it to happen again.

They are cowards.  They are spineless jellyfish with no conviction other than to their own position.  And they are putting this entire country at risk.

I got angry again earlier today watching Drumpf's legal team standing there saying that "The first amendment protects him."  No it doesn't, you idiot.  And that, "The House has failed to make their case showing that 45** was responsible."  Seriously.  The case is obvious to anyone looking at it, you f'n idiot!  I suppose it's easy enough to say that if you were looking at the ceiling or playing Candy Crush the whole time.  But everyone else saw clearly what happened.  And, let me say again, 5 people are DEAD because it happened!!!

If it were up to me I would say, "ok, if you vote to acquit, then please have your shit packed in a box and ready to leave immediately afterward.  Because you have no business serving in this government."

And, oh yes, I am well aware that I promised not to bitch about politics so much.  And I'm not.  This is criminal.  This has nothing to do with politics.  But I will refrain from saying more about this.  That I can promise.  Because once this is over, the next step will be actual criminal proceedings.  And the Senate won't be able to shield anyone once that starts up.

2021-02-11 - Day 333

All threes. This means something

Yeah, it means we are still stuck in this pandemic.  But I don't want to talk about that today.  What I want to say today, is to again point out how badly conservative media is just totally wrecking and dividing this country.

I wrote about this before, and basically illustrated that conservative media spends their time trying to find whatever story they can in order to let their listeners know who to be angry at, who to hate, and why.  And they have also successfully poisoned their audience into thinking that anything that challenges their world view is to be ignored.  Like, for instance, when it is shown conclusively that there was absolutely zero chance that there was election fraud, they tell their viewers to ignore that information.  And then provide a bunch of nonsense that is supposed to support their case.

For the record, the fact is that this was the most tightly scrutinized election in history.  Simply because 45** had been telling everyone for months that the election would be rigged, a LOT of measures were taken to ensure that the election would be secure and verified.  That is why every single one of the 60someodd cases that were brought to court failed for lack of evidence or for being laughably stupid.

There was no fraud.  At all.  Unless you count all the shit the Republicans tried to do like, fake ballot boxes, mucking with the postal service, gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, and all the rest.  Oh, I'm sorry.  I guess there really was fraud, wasn't there?

During this impeachment trial that is currently going on, one side is showing videos of how horrific that event was, and most of the other side is not even listening to the presentation.  They are willfully ignoring the evidence that is being displayed because if they acknowledge it, they may have to actually answer for it.  Yes, I'm looking at you Senator Hawley.  Once again, I will say this, the person responsible for what happened that day was Donald J Trump.  He spent months building up to it.  He kept on persisting lies and propaganda claiming that the election was somehow stolen.  Even when everyone around him was trying to tell him it was time to back off, he doubled down, and insisted that there was evidence that he really won.  And when pressed to show it, provided none at all.  And then STILL continued to insist with no evidence at all that the election was stolen.  He riled everyone up.  He purposely held back security.  He sent the people into a whirlwind, and then watched it all on TV.

And you f'n conservatives!!  You were cheering it on!  I saw the posts on Twitter and Facebook!  You were absolutely on board with the whole thing!  Until it got really bad.  Until it went too far.  Then suddenly all the people that you were once rooting for were actually Antifa or BLM infiltrators, just there to make you look bad.

Seriously...  What a bunch of cowards you all are.  Those people went there to fight for YOUR cause.  They ruined their lives for YOUR cause.  5 people dead, hundreds injured, and hundreds of lives ruined.  And you take no responsibility for it at all.

Something else I have said before is that there is a reason that I avoid Facebook.  Just yesterday I decided to poke my head in and see if anything has changed.  Right there on the front of my newsfeed is someone saying everything about how the Democrats are lawless and violent, and all that shit that happened on January 6th was "actors", all in an effort to violently grasp control of the government.

Goddammit!  For the love of all that is great and small, I do NOT f'n CARE if that is what you believe.  You are entitled to your opinion.  But you cannot ignore the facts and evidence in order to maintain your opinion.  You cannot keep spouting off about how messed up things are when your entire wealth of knowledge only consists of what conservative media and echo chambers like Facebook tell you.

In other words, you have a right to your beliefs and your opinions.  But don't tell everyone else that those are the facts. If you want to have a firm foundation for your belief system, then f'n READ more.  And by that I mean, read something else other than Conservative media.  Because that massive misinformation campaign is what has divided this country.  It is the reason that I can't talk to some people at all about many things.  Because I cannot have a conversation where one side of it is based on a huge pile of bullshit that was only put there to piss people off.

To make an analogy, I don't much give a shit if you believe the world is flat.  The fact is that it is an oblate spheroid, and that fact does not change because of your belief.

2021-02-10 - Day 332

Looks like more snow coming

This winter...  Sheesh...  Hey at least I'm getting a lot of exercise, which during this time of year is always important.  Also, thank goodness that I'm all healed up after my operation so that I am actually able to do all the work.  So maybe I'm not really complaining all that much after all.

In any case, I'll worry about that tomorrow.  Today I have work to do.  And it's been a good busy week there too.

2021-02-09 - Day 331

Impeachment Trial 2.0

And they're off...  Let's be serious though.  45**'s lawyers could walk in there and say, "Yeah, he did it.  Of course he incited a riot that got 5 people killed and hundreds injured, and threatened the actual Democracy in this country."  And the Republicans will still vote NO on convicting him.

Winnie the Pooh

Seriously...  What a bunch of spineless jellyfish scumbags.  This trial is going to prove once and for all that there is no crime that Drumpf could commit that is egregious enough to warrant impeachment.

Because if they were to allow that they might lose their next election. *gasp* I hope that the next step is to start expelling these people, starting with Cruz and Howley.  Because they were absolutely complicit, and really have no business sitting as jurors in the trial.

Dear Republican Senators, please F right off, you pathetic cowards. 

2021-02-08 - Day 330

Superb Owl, the Day After

Well...  The Chiefs lost last night.  That was disappointing.  What really sucks is that it wasn't even that the Bucks played all that well.  It was more like the Chiefs just kept stomping on their own faces.  They got an offsides penalty during a field goal kick that resulted in the Bucks scoring a TD on the next play.

It was an upsetting game.  More so if you are like me and dislike Tom Brady and really don't want to see any more winning from him.  He might be a great player, and he obviously is.  But he's an asshole.

Speaking of people who share that trait...

I would like you to see this video footage of the cell phone data on January 6th, showing a huge group of people go directly from 45**'s speech to the inside of the Capitol building.

Here is the final still frame:
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I point this out because Drumpf is about to have his Senate trial for this event.  It is clearly obvious that this event, that resulted in lot of damage, at least 5 dead, and 100's of lives utterly ruined, was caused by Donald J. Trump.  There is no denying it.  There is no defense for it.  And let me clarify that the "lives ruined" I speak of, are Trump's supporters, that followed his directions, and are now facing decades of jail time.  And none of the people that they were fighting for give a single crap.  They threw their lives away for this.  For nothing.

But because the Republicans have their heads lodged firmly up Trump's ass, because they are terrified of his supporters, they will not vote to convict.  And he will once again prove that he is above the law.

What a bunch of cowards.  What a bunch of shameful bullshit.

2021-02-07 - Day 329

Snowstorm, v2.0

Or, perhaps we can call it Snowstorm, The Sequel.  And much like sequels in the movies, it's the same material, but this one looks to be somewhat diminished in awesomeness.  Not to say that it isn't a huge pain in the ass, because it is.  But at least it's Sunday, and it should be stopping soon, so they should have the roads pretty well cleared by tomorrow.  Hopefully.  Not that it matters for my commute.  But my wife is hoping for a delayed opening.

I finally got everything pretty well cleared up out there.  As of this moment, you can't even tell.  At least the igloo is getting some extra support!

In other news, DOGE is still on the rise.  I have a separate article written to explain all about that.  But in short, I just cashed in again.  I keep expecting that it has reached it's peak, so I keep selling chunks off.  I'm glad I haven't sold everything yet.  Because it's still going up.

2021-02-06 - Day 328

Finally time for service

if you've ever had a lease, and surely you must have, you know that the deal will always set you up with at least 2 free oil changes.  And they usually schedule the first one somewhere in the first 4 months or so.  This is because in normal times, you would drive enough miles in 4 months, that it's time for an oil change.  So the dealer has been hounding me for a couple of months no to bring the car in.  I just keep telling them, "Well, I haven't driven as much as normal."

What with the fact that my commute consists of spinning my chair around, I have put FAR less miles on my car than ever before.  Yesterday, while I'm 270 miles from home, I finally got the warning, "Hey, your oil is ready to be changed."

Finally...

2021-02-05 - Day 327

10 hour road trip

I made it there and back.  And made surprisingly good time.  I was able to drive all the way there, help my daughter move in, and drive back in under 10 hours.  Which is about an hour short of what I expected.

And there were delays too.  Between traffic (one accident), waiting around for the student COVID test, and stopping to eat a Subway sammich, I was really expecting to be running much later.

Well, I'm home now and posting this late. I'm going to bed now.

2021-02-04 - Day 326

Friday Eve

It's actually more correct to say "Friday light".  Because today is, in fact, Friday for me. Tomorrow I am taking a ride up north.  It's time to bring the girl child back to school.  I am just hoping the weather holds out for that trip!  You never really know up there.

On a serious note...  We really expected, though didn't express it out loud, that the school would remain closed, and she wouldn't be going back.  As it turns out, things are under control.  The school feels good about the level of safety.  And so be it.  She's going back!

2021-02-03 - Day 325

Storm is finally over

And now cleanup.  Well, not really.  I already did that hard stuff.  Like 5 times!  I just need to move a few of the piles to better places.

Had my review for work today.  We do that every year.  Everything went well.  This whole new way of working thing seems to have not been that much of a detriment.  I was still very effective in my job performance.  The only other thing I can say is that I feel tremendously fortunate that this work situation was a good option for me.

Speaking which...  Back to work...

2021-02-02 - Day 324

They Built an Igloo!

This is just amazing.  My daughter and 2 of her friends built an actaul igloo.  Like, holy crap!

It started with, "We are going to build a fort."  But as they got further and further along, they decided to persist and continue.  After some 4 hours or so, behold, and actual igloo!

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I can honestly say that in my 51 years, I have never actually seen a complete, actual structure like this, except on TV.

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This is for real.  And you can fit inside it.

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You can fit 3 people inside it.  Which is where they spent the next couple of hours after it was done.

I was joking with her earlier in the day that it'd been so long since we've had a decent snowstorm, that should would have been a young teenager last time.  So the need to build something like this has evidently been building up.

2021-02-01 - Day 323

Oh yes, there is snow

This storm is pretty well shaping up to be the worst thing we've seen come through here in a long while.  So long, in fact, that I really don't remember the last storm like this.

It slowed down for a while, so I went outside to clean up a bit.  3 times, actually.  As soon as I finished, the snow kicked back in proper.  And now it's snowing worse than it was yesterday.

I suspect that when I wake up tomorrow it's going to look like I did nothing.

Seriously, I'm looking out the office window while I'm typing this, and I can see snow falling in at least 35 different directions, including straight up.

2021-01-31 - Day 322

The Data Vizualizations

It's been a while since I updated those things.  Well it's done now.  There were a couple that had fallen behind and I didn't notice.  The project has been running on autopilot for so long that I hadn't thought to check on them.  I'll need to remember to do that more often.

In other news...  It seems that snowmageddon is upon us.  And this time there really doesn't seem to be much of a chance it's gonna miss or that it was under-reported.  In fact, it seems that their predictions for accumulation have increased over the past couple of days.

We watched the flakes go from small and dainty, just floating through the air, to great big gobs of snow, and everything in between.

We are prepared.  We have our meals planned.  I went and got a couple of days worth of coffee because I doubt I will be leaving the house at all again until Tuesday.  At least my commute to work is really easy.

This is the first time in many many years that we've had a snow that went on for longer than 24 hours.  By all accounts it seems that this one may go on for a full 48!

Be safe everyone!

2021-01-30 - Day 321

New Vaccine

You'd almost think this was much easier than they told us. I'm not actually serious about that, because I know it's not that easy.  But looking at some of this makes it seem strange.

The first vaccine was REALLY hard to make and get approved, required 2 doses, and was very difficult to ship and store.  Then the second one came out, and that one was similar, but much easier to store and transport.  Now this third one is one dose, and super easy to store and transport.  I expect that the next vaccine will be available at Wawa in the impulse section by the register next to the 5-hour energy drinks.

Again.  Not serious.

This is really great news, of course, assuming that all 3 of these vaccines are readily available, don't have a lot of side effects, and are actually effective, we may finally be seeing the turning point in the war against these microscopic bastards.  We can't rely on people being smart enough to take precautions, no matter how many times you tell them.  Almost a full year of this has shown us that almost half the people in this country will enthusiastically avoid precautions to the detriment of everyone, simply because of what they perceive their "Constitutional rights" to be.  They are wrong about that, of course.  And they are idiots.  But there are too many of them to get a handle on it.  So the vaccine is really our last and best hope.  3 times the vaccines = 3 times the hope.  You can't argue with math.

2021-01-29 - Day 320

Yeah, I skipped a couple days

There has just been a lot going on here, mostly due to the fact that there is a lot to do.  Work has been busy as hell.  Home has also been really busy.  For the first time in all the time I've been writing this blog, it didn't seem like a priority to get to writing anything.  For the first time in 310 days, I neglected to write.

I will do better to keep up, now that things have calmed down some.  Or, that is, I've caught up a bit.

In unrelated news, I hope you were holding a ton of DOGE coin when it suddenly went berzerk.  Because those of us that had some made some money.  I will be writing more about that on my cryptocurrency blog

See?  I'm catching up enough to write 2 blog entries today.

2021-01-26 - Day 317

Well, this week has sucked so far

I really don't know what else to say.  So here is the default photo that I use for all my blog entries.

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The original was just a woman walking her camel.  Photoshop helped me make it funnier.

If you would like to see more, have a look at my collection of Photoshops.  That'll keep you busy for a good 15 minutes.

2021-01-25 - Day 316

Another week begins

Ugh...  I'm in a crappy mood today.  Just so much going on.  Overwhelmed with work.  But at least the news has been better.  That's something.  But I don't want to talk about that.

I was 50% correct with my picks for the Superb Owl.  I'm super happy that Kansas City made it again.  Not so thrilled about Brady.

If you're wondering why I think the way i do about that guy, it's mostly because he is a terrible sport.  He's just so entitled.  And it's for the exact opposite reason that I like Mahomes so much.  That dude is a great sport.  And unlike so many athletes, he is just thrilled to be there!

So our game this year will be against one of the oldest, against one of the youngest.  A good sport against a sore loser.  Should be most interesting.

2021-01-24 - Day 315

Divisional playoffs today

Who am I rooting for?  This is an easy one, for both games.  I'm rooting for Green Bay in game 1, and Kansas City in game 2.  Much of this is based on the quarterbacks for the teams.

I like Aaron Rodgers.  I don't like Tom Brady.  I like Patrick Mahomes.  I don't even know who is the quarterback for Buffalo.  In any case, after today, we will know the teams for the Superb Owl.

In other news...  I went out to do more recording today.  But it was not about recording music this time.  The guy I'm doing this project with made a music video for one of the songs.  So I recorded some of the guitar parts for use in the video.  That should be pretty cool.

 

2021-01-23 - Day 314

What shall we talk about today?

I dunno, I can talk about the weather, or work, or politics.  Or how about not...  Especially that last one.  I'm more than happy to avoid that subject for a little while.

I saw a perigrin falcon in my front yard yesterday.  That was interesting.  You don't see many of those.

In completely unrelated news, you know I like to play around with cryptocurrency, right?  Well, now you know...  I'm not any kind of a big trader, or anything like it.  I'm like a tiny little fish in that pond.  Most of the "coin" that I have collected has come from faucets, offers, rewards, etc...  A little bit of trading.  One of the hardest things about using that method for collecting is finding good, reputable sites that actually do what they say, don't rip you off, and actually pay out when requested.  Well, my favorite one is closing down.  And that gives me a sad.

Fortunately I have another blog dedicated to this sort of thing where you can read all about it.  So I don't need to tell the whole story here. 

2021-01-22 - Day 313

The end of a short week

I am pretty sure that I crammed in a 50 hour week in just 4 days.  I'm super glad that tomorrow is Saturday.

It's been a rough past couple of weeks in general.  There has just been so much to do.  And every time I think I'm getting caught up, there are more things to do.

Mind you I'm not complaining.  I would rather have it this way times 10 than to be bored.  And I haven't been bored for a long, long time.

2021-01-21 - Day 312

And so a new era begins

For the first time in a long long time.  What's it been, 400 years?  I can finally breath easy knowing that I don't have anything to be upset about with our government.  So i will move back to making fun of things again at my alter-ego fake news site.  And, oh, i did...

Anyway, this has been a really great week so far.  Which is really saying something since it was a short one.  I've got new projects done, and all kinds of new things to do.

The kitten brothers have grown up a bit, so they've stopped digging in my plants and peeing on the couches.  My followup appoinment after my operation said that I'm pretty well healed up, but to just be careful for a few more weeks.

So yeah, for the first time in a long while, things are good.  Of course, now that I said that, all hell is going to break loose.  I should really know better by this point.

But, c'mon, man...  Can't I express some happiness for a change?!  Is that a crime?

2021-01-20 - Day 311

Inauguration Day

We've been waiting for this day for some 350 years at this point.  I already expressed my happiness about this event in yesterday's post.  So all I can say today is that, yes, I will be at work, but one of my machines here will be running the live stream of the event.  Modern technology is great that way!

This is a historic occasion for so many reasons that I won't even try to get into it here.  All I can say is that 81M people in this country see this as Day One of "Let's get shit back in order around here."

Congratulations to President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

We're all counting on you

Oh, yes...  Yes we are.

Also, I just grabbed this shot, because it made me smile:

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Let us rejoice... Dancing Banana

2021-01-19 - Day 310

Finally

We are finally in the last hours before this government finally changes hands back to adults.  And it is a glorious time.  Unless you're one of those people that still thinks the election was stolen.  But, seriously...  If that's you, just shut up already.  Because it's been shown over and over and time and time again that the election was legitimate.  The most secure in history.  The only evidence that the election was rigged was completely sold to you by Drumpf. There is no other evidence at all.

And let's be clear, enough lives have been ruined in trying to make the whole fraud thing a reality.  

As of my typing this, we are at about 19 hours until the changeover is complete.  And all I can say is, let's hope that good old Donnie boy doesn't start a f'n war before then.

The time is finally here for this country to start to heal.  The time is finally here when we will see actual REAL action in getting this pandemic under control.  The time is finally here that the House will pass a bill, and it won't die in the Senate because the GOP leader refuses to even look at it.  The time is finally here for when we can start holding people accountable for the real damage that they have caused.

Yes...  It's awesome.  And I'm not even going to pretend that I'm not absolutely thrilled by it.

2021-01-18 - Day 309

Different sort of post

I am hijacking my own blog today to share a post from one of my closest friends who is badly in need of a kidney.

His name is Timmy Douglas.  He is located around the central shore area in New Jersey.  This image is the letter from Barnabas Health showing that he is on the donar list, with information for how to contact them in order to help.

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If you see this, and have any means to help, please do.  The best I can do to help is to spread the word.  And this blog actually gets more eyes than most of my other social media

Click here for the original Facebook post.

2021-01-17 - Day 308

PardonPalooza

It's time for everyone's favorite time when a politician with unlimited pardon power is about to leave office.  It's time to pardon people.  In sticking with my avoiding politics line, I'm going to avoid politics.  Because this isn't political.  This is just colossally messed up.

You could say that both sides are bad, because Clinton pardoned that one guy that he shouldn't have.  And Obama pardoned at least 2 or 3 people that maybe didn't deserve it.  But nothing comes to the level of what President crybaby has done, and what he is about to do.  The people that he is pardoning are war criminals, people that murdered civilians, women and children.  And that is really bad.  But what is arguably worse is the list of people that he will pardon for crimes like treason, lying to the FBI, fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations.  ALL of which were done in efforts to support this President.  The President that is about to pardon them.

This is a clear abuse of power that should not be tolerated by anyone with a brain.  But our government, and by that I mean the ones currently in power in the Senate, and by that I mean the man-turtle Mitch McConnell seem just fine with allowing him to do this unchecked.  "Party of law and order", my ass.  

And it really makes me wonder why.  And it makes me wonder why so many people in this country think it's okay.

And now for part II of what's on my mind today

Please look at this picture:

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And this one

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And this one

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What f'n bananas republic is this that the armed military needs to be called in by the 10,000s in order to make sure that the transition of power goes smoothly, with no violence?

This is what this President is leaving us with.  A country that is so divided that a portion of it is literally threatening deadly violence in order to prevent their leader from rightfully and legally being removed from power because he lost the election and his term is ending.

This is embarrassing.  This is unAmerican.  This makes me sick to my stomach.

All of you that have supported this would-be tinpot dictator for all this time - this is where it has led.  This is on you.  You own this.  And you should all be completely ashamed of yourselves.

It's going to take years to undo the damage that this dude has done.  But the damage that has been done to this very society and culture will take generations to fix. 

So you are aware, and to be clear, the progressive side of this country WANTS that process to start.  We want unity.  We want things to go back to normal.  We cannot start that process until the current administration is wiped out of this government, and that racist, nationalist, criminal mindset is shut down.

And we certainly can't start that process if we require the military to protect the very people that can start the process, from the people that are willing to use force to prevent it.

If you are upset by what I've said here.  If you think I'm just being a prick. If you think that President Drumpf is still just the greatest guy, despite all of the things that show he is a criminal, con-man piece of shit, then I really don't know what to tell you other than, wow, you really need to get your head out of social media, and the Conservative press that continues to support this guy.  Because make no mistake...  This is wrong.  It is wrong that is was ever allowed to go this far.  And if you haven't figured that out by now, I really don't know what the hell it will take.

2021-01-16 - Day 307

Football Saturday!

Take it in while you can.  There isn't a whole lot of season left.  Rams/Packers is on now.  I'm rooting for the Packers.  Why?  Because I like Aaron Rogers.  He's almost my age!  And he seems like the kind of guy that would help you move if you asked him.

And of course there is one more game tonight.  I will be watching that too.

I have some other things to say about some other things.  But I'm deciding to delay those thoughts until tomorrow.

2021-01-15 - Day 306

A word about last week

Yeah, I'm gonna talk about this again.  But not to deliver another political rant.  Quite the opposite.  I want to talk about the people involved in that thing.  Because those people - I actually feel a little sorry for them.

Those people went there because they were encouraged by their leader to do so.  Then things got out of control.  And even I must admit that most of those people there never intended for it to go that far.  Even the ones that did, are literally saying, "Well, that's what he told us to do!  We were standing up for him!"  It must be said that that will be the justification for literally every single one of these people's actions.

And here's the thing.  The really shitty thing. Drumpf will deny it.  He already has.  Those people put their very lives on the line for him, and he is basically going to heel them down the drain to protect himself.  He is going to drive the bus right over all of them.  The ones that were the loudest in support of Cheetolini, are the ones that he will completely stomp on.
How's your Golden God look now?  Have fun going to jail for a guy who is literally going to crap all over you, and blame YOU for all his problems.

I actually feel sorry for them, just a little bit.  Because clearly they are not smart people.  They got taken advantage of.  And they are going to get screwed for it.  All their complaining about how Drumpf told them to do it, might lighten their sentences.  But they still committed actual felonies that will require some jail time.

My final word to those people...  You guys ruined your lives for this maniac.  And I'm sorry for you.

And part 2 of this is that, there seems to be a lot of grumbling about violence across the country in continued support of January 6th.  Guys...  Don't be stupid.  Look at the fallout.  Look at what your leader has done in that fallout.  Don't be stupid.  Again.  Don't throw your lives away for this.

2021-01-14 - Day 305

Lottery fever

Since there's nothing else going on in the world tonight, I thought I would tell you of one of my older projects, that still consistently gets traffic on my site.

The lotteries, both of the big ones, are running huge jackpots right now.  A few years ago when this happened, I wrote up a JavaScript Lottery Simulator, because I was curious as to how close those odds were against actually playing that many times.

It turns out they aren't lying about the odds. It's REALLY difficult to win.  It difficult just to break even.

I bring this up now because the program was originally only written for PowerBall.  But, it could really work for anything.  So I'm modifying the program to run MegaMillions too!  You can choose which one you want to play!

So you know, at the time of my writing this, I've got about 95% of it done.  I just need to change the odds so the cash winnings are correct.  I'll get to that tomorrow.  It's late.  I'm gonna go watch YouTube.

2021-01-13 - Day 304

Impeachment 2.0

This happened:

impeachment 2.0

Long overdue.  But it finally happened.  And 10 of those votes came from Republicans.  That's 10 more than last time if you're keeping count. 

Mr Drumpf has been impeached a second time.  That has never happened in all of history.  I'm not even going to try to hold back my delight about this.  Enough of this F'n guy already.  I can't wait until we can finally stop talking about him.

It would be great if the Senate were to follow through on it.  But I'm not holding my breath.  After all, this statement needed to be made.  This President NEEDS to be held accountable for what he has done.  And, as has been said repeatedly over the years, this is just the last (and worst) stroke in a long line of illegal activity by this guy.  It took a goddamn insurrection to finally get the government to act.  And, yes, you may notice that only 10 of them saw the need.  The other 197 are perfectly fine with what he did.  And every last one of those assholes needs to be expelled from Congress.

Bah...  I REALLY don't want to talk about this any more.  I want to go back to talking about the new cats, or the tent that got destroyed in a storm.  Maybe complain about how busy work is.  I cannot wait until I can get back to that.

2021-01-12 - Day 303

Time for another mild rant

I'm mostly kidding about that.  I'm really not planning on ranting.  In fact, what I would like to talk about today is media personalities that rant and rave and anger their listeners, and that is their primary goal.  I'm talking of course about Conservative media.

I've spoken over the past few months, the past couple of days especially, about it.  But I thought I might expand on this a little bit. 

Too long, didn't read version:  The mission of Conservative media is to make their audience angry, every day.  Never do they come on the air to speak about unity, or making things better, or what good is happening in the world.  It is all about, "[these people] [did this], and you should be as outraged as I am!!"  Or, to say it another way, they center their story around who you should be angry at, and why.

I am specifically speaking of people like Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, that drunken Judge lady, Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Dan Bongino, Newsmax, OANN, Fox News, a countless other outlets that are rather less known, but still get plenty of traffic.

These people prepare their show every day by going through the news to find the things that they know will piss off their base, and then speak directly AT their audience about why THEY should also be furious about such outrageous things!!  And if they can't find something that day, they will recycle something from last week, or sometimes, they just make something up.

There is an outrageous bias in this sort of reporting.  It is not intended to be fair.  It never was.  It is intended to vilify.  It is intended to keep their fans as angry as possible so they come back tomorrow for that fix of more anger.

Even if you don't listen to them or seek out their shows, you still get a constant stream of it via social media, because your friends share it, and social media funnels such things to your newsfeed because they know you will respond.  And by "respond" I mean, you will view ads and make them money.

This was a problem prior to the Drumpf era.  But that dude gave it credibility.  That dude brought it right to the front of the mainstream. He would latch onto and repeat these stories!  He would go on their shows and encourage the same anger that the host is conveying.  It compounded what was already a really bad situation.

Who is it today?  I'm sure it's someone, some organization, some demographic.  Someone who is not a Conservative white person, that's for damned sure.  Make no mistake about this...  It is precisely this sort of thing going on that culminated in an attempted insurrection of our government.  Those people were a furious lot.  Riled up because they were told that the election was fraudulent.  Their end game was to simply ignore the election and install their leader.  It didn't matter to them that the majority of the country voted for someone else.  Those people aren't real Americans in their eyes.  So their votes don't count.

Go ahead and take a look for yourself at the demographic of that entire coup coup crowd.  Go ahead, I'll wait.  Done?  Good.  How many of those people were not angry white people?

Don't even try to tell me I'm wrong about any of this.


What do I hope to accomplish by writing all of this?  I hope that if you are reading this, and you have been a fan of Conservative media for all this time, that this article gives you pause for a brief moment to think about what you have been told.  Think about how much of the anger you currently have toward every other person in this world that is not like you. Is that anger justified?

I hope that just for a moment you think, "Wow, yeah, I do get awfully riled up listening to that stuff."

2021-01-11 - Day 302

Monday Night Footb...Oh, wait

Yeah, that's not gonna happen again until like next season.

Well, it's still Monday, and work is back to normal more or less.  Normal as it is right now.

Trying to refrain from writing about the troubles in DC right now.  All I can add to all the stuff I've said over the past couple of days is that, I'm glad people are getting rounded up.

In other news:  Ken Jennings is the first on the lists of guest hosts that will be running Jeopardy.  We all know that Alex can never be replaced.  But Jennings did a fine job on his first day.  My only mild criticism is that I think he tried too hard to make the show exactly as it was.  I'm sure that people will be split on how they feel about that.  Should they try to keep the show the same, or should the new host make their own version?  Will this be something that will evolve over time (don't change too much at once)?  I dunno. I guess we will have to wait and see.

Curious to see how all the others match up, and who will finally win the job.

2021-01-10 - Day 301

Sunday football

Two games in so far.  Both really good games.  Watching the end of the Saints game right now.  Short of the Saints deciding to just give up, it looks like they've got this game.  Which is good if you're a fan of that team and/or Drew Brees.

I'm gonna miss football season.  Just add that to the list of things I miss once the new year starts and the real winter starts.

Made a really good dinner tonight.  Some salmon with yellow squash.  A word on that thing.  For many years I didn't like squash of any kind.  Especially if it's overcooked.  I've lightened up over the years where I've gotten to rather like Zucchini.  But that's about as far as I would go.  I would once in a while eat some yellow squash if it was on the plate, but still not my favorite.

Tonight was the first time I ever actually made it for myself.  And as it turns out, if it's not cooked a whole lot, it's delicious.  I just sautéed it with some olive oil and salt.  It's also really good raw, for that matter.

Just thought you'd like to know that.

2021-01-09 - Day 300

The big three oh oh

That's a lot of days, alright. Yep. 

No ranting today on the state of this country.  I got that out of my system over on this fake news site that I also like to write stuff in.

Today I have something else sad to report.  Christmas is over.  It's been packed away and sealed up until mid November.  Only 10 months to go!!

I won't apologize when I report that it really does make me sad to pack up Christmas.  I love that time of year.  And now it's over.  Now begins the cold dark winter in full force.  The coldest months.  The months with no lights.  The cold makes time go slower.

But hey, at least everything else is going great so far this year, amIRite?!

I wonder if it might be time to consider changing the tagline on this blog.  Because this really has been any sort of a shut in for a while.  It's more like, we can go out, but there's nothing to do.  Nothing is open.  That's a liitle too long for a tagline.  I'll have to think on that.

2021-01-08 - Day 299

Just sad

You know, right about now, we should be talking about how this new year is starting off, and how encouraging things are.  But, no.  We can't do that yet.

Look, I'm not going to go into another rant about this.  Well, I might.  Sometimes I can't help myself.  But here are some of my favorite photos from the other day, with a couple of comments.

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Man, I remember back in 2016 when Cheetolini won the election.  We all said, "Eh, how bad can it get?"

How about, crashed economy, worldwide pandemic, and Drumpf's supporters stormed the Capitol building to interfere with the government?  All based on 4 years of bullshit and right-wing conspiracy theories perpetuated by Drumpf and others IN our actual government.  These people are acting on fabricated hate and rage that's been fed to them by a propaganda machine.  It's stupid.  It's shameful.  And it's gone on too long.

People keep trying to compare this to the BLM protests.  Allow me to please put that false equivalence to bed once and for all:  The BLM protests were about civil rights, and were directly related to REAL events, REAL police brutality, REAL people being killed for no reason.  To which the government responded with even MORE brutal force!

This movement is based on a bunch of fear tactics that have been jammed into the faces of these people for 4 years.  4 years worth of distrusting the actual news in favor of lies that confirm their existing bias.  Lies that confirm their existing fears and xenophobia.

There IS no comparison.  At all.  And the way the government handled both of them makes it that much more clear that the BLM protestors were right all along.  Stick that in your pipe and choke on it.

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Haha...  See, walls don't actually do much to hold people out, do they?

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This f'n jerk off.

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These guys.  If you support this group, these are the people that represent you.  The guy on the right is wearing his work badge.  As I said the other day.  You should be ashamed.

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And THIS!!  This is fucking completely unacceptable!  The Confederate flag.  That flag of the traitors that went to war against this country.  America's equivalent of the Swastika with all its intended racism.  Marched through the Capitol building!  I am without words to describe how furious I am about that.  If you support all this - THIS guy also represents you.  And you should be ashamed for that too.

But one more thing
There needs to be accountability for this.  4 years of propaganda, lies, and misinformation.  Right-wing media and social media spreading it all around.  It riled up these people to think it was acceptable to storm the actual government.  And there needs to be consequences for this.  Trump needs to be removed.  Senators Cruz and Hawley - who AFTER the insurrection, came back to the floor and spewed the same lies that fueled the event!  They need to be expelled.  This, in fact should have already happened.  Clearly, they do NOT represent or approve of this government.  So we should set them free of it.

I do not wish to post about this again.  I want to go back to living my life without this fucking right wing bullshit screwing up our country any more.  Enough is enough.

2021-01-07 - Day 298

I spoke too soon

Evidently things weren't looking so good for the new year as I stated yesterday.

Because we witnessed an actual insurrection on the Capitol Complex yesterday, all in an effort to prevent Biden from being declared the winner by Congress.

Ok, look, I get it.  Drumpf supporters are pissed off that he lost the election.  Boy, do we all know what that feels like.  Remember when Hillary won the popular vote, and the country got stuck with Cheetolini anyway?  Pepridge Farm remembers.  You know what we didn't do?  We didn't storm the Capitol in an effort to overturn the election, even though, and I'm not making this up, HE LOST by over 3 million votes!  Further proof that the Electoral College is a pile of shit that should have been swept away years ago.

Let me be absolutely clear about something here.  This election was the single most secure election in American history - in ALL of history.  And the reason that we know this is that for months before the election, it was clear that this was going to be the single most tightly watched and scrutinized election in history.  Election officials, Dem and Rep alike, knew this was going to be the case.  So they tightened all the screws.

That way when Drumpf and his team of inept lawyers started filing lawsuits, every single one of them was shot down for lack of evidence, or in some cases being laughably preposterous.  And even after it was conclusively shown that between failed lawsuits, audits, and multiple recounts, the election was deemed to be secure, correct, and, again, let me be clear, WITHOUT FRAUD, Drumpf continued to insist that the election was rigged and he really won.

The idea persisted.  Republican Congresspeople are going to the press and saying things like, "70 million people think this election was fraudulent."  Goddammit!  They only think that because YOU KEEP telling them that!!  And that much is clear, because there is zero evidence that any of it is true.  At all.  In any universe!  So no human being could have reached that conclusion without it being told to them over and over again.

Again...  Let me be clear.  There was no fraud in this election.  This has been proven over and over again.  If you still believe there was fraud, it is because you refuse to even acknowledge the self evident facts of the matter.  The biggest of those facts is that you are being lied to.

And the final play was for the POTUS himself to incite an insurrection to prevent the election being finalized by Congress.  All based on a pile of lies.

The silver lining to all of this is that Drumpf has now lost all support.  The GOP has turned their back on him.  Because he crossed the line.  And when given the opportunity to fix the problem that HE started, he actually incited it one more time.  As of the time I'm writing this, Congress is already discussing impeaching him again - for real this time.  Or invoking the 25th amendment.  Possibly as early as tonight.

Let me be clear about one more thing.  It's about damn time, you complicit assholes.  You were the ones that allowed it to get this far to begin with.  And any in Congress that still raised objections to certifying the votes yesterday, actively participated in that insurrection.  And they too need to be expelled from Congress.

2021-01-06 - Day 297

Joy!

Seriously...  Just the first 6 days of this year have already proven to be better than the entirety of last year.  I spoke yesterday about the importance of the GA run off elections.  And I'm thrilled to say that everything came out as well as we'd hoped.  For more on this matter, please see my other site where I spoke at length about it

I promised I'd stop it with the politics here, and I'm really trying to stick to that.

So, on to other matters...  It's been a busy week at work, and it's only half way though hump day.  Today I found out that our move back to the office is somewhere between July and not going back at all, unless there is a meeting to attend in person.

I can't even say that I'm upset about that, really.  I've gotten really used to this whole working from home thing.  At this point, I am every bit as functional here as I would be otherwise.  So, why not, right?

It's just weird.

2021-01-05 - Day 296

Important day

Warning:  Mild political post today.

You know what I want more than anything from our government right now?  I want the government to be run by adults, and doing adult things.  I don't want to have to wake up every day and find out that the minority government is once again doing bad things to the majority of the country.  The distinction between minority and majority is not my opinion.  The Senate has two reps from every state.  So Wyoming gets the same representation that California gets even though there are more people in just the smallest city in CA compared to the entire state of WY.  The Senate is disproportionate in its representation.  And it means that the Conservative square states where no one lives, have control over every other state in the country.

GA is today voting to fill 2 seats in the Senate.  If the Democrats win both seats, it means that the GOP will no longer hold the majority in the Senate.  This means that actual legislation will start to move through the Senate for the first time in over 12 years!

The House has been passing bills like mad.  Every last one of them is sitting in a pile on McConnell's desk, and he has refused to let the Senate even consider them, let alone vote.

In short, if the GOP maintains control of the Senate, you can expect at least another 4 years of the Senate obstructing EVERYTHING that the other half of Congress is trying to do - for the good of the country.

So I am on pins and needles today.  The outcome of this election means that we will have a functional government, and we can all get back to life, or we will have more of this stagnant bullshit for the foreseeable future.  Maybe for the rest of our lives.

2 seats in the Senate.  That's how important they are.

2021-01-04 - Day 295

Another birthday

Not for me.  For my son.  He turns 22 today.  So happy birthday, boy!

This makes the final birthday for the family for this birthday cycle.  And what's wild is that, we are still in the same pandemic!  My daughter was thinking that prior to May, we would be done with the pandemic by her birthday.  Well, that didn't happen.  By the time my birthday was coming around in June, we were hoping, but no...  Still pandemic.  By the time my wife's birthday came in November, we were just resigned to knowing that this thing is here to stay.  And now here we are at the 4th birthday, and can't even be a little bit surprised any more.

Well, time to go make some crab legs!

2021-01-03 - Day 294

Cheap wrapping paper

In today's example of expressing the obvious, cheap wrapping paper is cheap.

Look, we expect that, okay.  When you buy wrapping paper at the dollar store, you don't expect the best quality.  Still...  You get some really nice silver paper like this:

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The least you can expect is that it be opaque!

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Evidently that was too much to expect.  The level of confusion on my wife's face was priceless.

For the record, we used it anyway.  Because at that point it was too funny not to.

2021-01-02 - Day 293

So far so good

How's your year going?  Mine's good so far.

A fun story for today...  You may know that I've got a few small piles of virtual coins laying about across the internet.  The technical term is cryptocurrency.  I'm sure I must have mentioned somewhere in the past 292 days that I have another blog that is dedicated to all that.  The crypto market has been skyrocketing lately.  On one hand this is good, especially if you are holding cryptocurrency.  On the other hand, it doesn't mean much if you don't have any way to actually sell when the prices go up.

It would take a while to explain how all this stuff works.  Just click the link above and spend a week or two reading that.  Which reminds me, after I type this, I will have to go write a new entry there too!

DOGE went through the roof this morning.  DOGE is a coin where I basically dump coins into cold storage to get them off exchanges and keep it totally safe.  No one can access it except for me.  So I took one of the wallets where I had been collecting, and swept it off to my favorite exchange to sell it off.

In a few days when DOGE goes back down again, I will sell off all the stuff I bought, convert it back to DOGE, and pull it back to cold storage.  My goal is to have a whole bunch more DOGE when all is said and done.

Again, if this post goes right over your head, read some stuff in the link above.  It tells all of the stories that lead to my understanding anything at all about this.  And it also tells of how you can get in the game, and you can play too.

2021-01-01 - Day 292

Happy New Year!

And we're off!  We have a clean slate with a new digit on the end of our year.  I'm already looking forward to the first time I write a check and get the date wrong.  For you young people out there, checks are like money but different.  We use them to pay bills because you can't send cash in the mail.

It was super difficult to stay awake last night.  I was drifting in and out until the clock finally clicked over.  Then I kissed my wife, turned off the lights outside, and fell asleep to the soothing sounds of fireworks all around.

I didn't even watch any of the Dick Clark's Rocking New Years show.  It was just too weird.  Times Square was emtpy.

Let us all just hope that this year goes better than the last one.  That statement has been said a lot, of course.  We are starting off the right way so far.  There is room for optimism.

2020-12-31 - Day 291

Happy closing to this year

Language warning...

I think John Oliver put it best when he said, "2020. Get fucked." 

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Because, man, this has been the worst year for just about everyone in the world.  Except for billionaires and large businesses. They did really well all year. And of course, mask manufacturers.  If you were one of those companies, you had a better year than you could have ever imagined!

In case you are wondering about yesterday's rant...  That was directly related to yet another person around my daughter who tested positive for COVID-19.  So just because she was exposed, she got sent home from work for the next 2 weeks.  For the record, she went and got tested, and she tested negative.  Again.

But, damn if that isn't the most frustrating thing that that keeps happening!  This is like the 3rd time!  And in my view, there is just no excuse for it anymore.  And it ain't over yet.

Hopefully 2021 will be a better year than this one.  It's hard to imagine it not being better.  But it was also hard to imagine how bad a single year could get, and it just kept getting worse.

So let us say goodbye to this year once and for all.  Be safe, take care.  Take care of each other.  Wishing you all the best of new years!  And I mean that for everyone.  Except you idiots that refuse to wear a mask. You are a danger to everyone. No, I'm only kidding.  I hope you have a good year too, and maybe get a little smarter.

2020-12-30 - Day 290

Next day

Yeah, I'm still in some pain so I called out of work.  It's not that I couldn't really do anything.  It's more like the amount of discomfort is too distracting for me to be as functional as I need to be.  So I'm trying to take it easy.

On another note...  People are still getting infected with this COVID-19 thing.  Seriously. How in the world is this still happening?!  Everyone knows by now that all you need to do is wear a mask, avoid people who refuse to wear a mask, stay away from people, and wash your hands.  This has been going on for over 9 months now!  And we are still seeing new cases popping up in the 1000s!!  How are so many people in this society STILL this stupid and careless?!  I am really baffled by that!

For my part, I wear a mask everywhere.  And if I see someone not wearing a mask, or worse, wearing it with their f'n nose sticking out, I avoid them.  And I make it obvious that I'm avoiding them, just to make a point.  I won't even use a check out register if the person ahead of me wasn't wearing a mask.

Why do I do this?  Because I know that if they are that careless, they are that careless everywhere.  Which means they are absolutely infected.  No question.  So yeah.  Avoid them like the plague.  Because they have the plague.

Yeah, I blame President crybaby for trying to downplay this, and lying to the whole country.  I also blame him for continuing to lie and tell people to resist mask mandates even after this was known.  But how stupid can this country be?  What in the world do you need as proof that this thing spreads like crazy and kills people?!  Even if you listened to that bullshit before, you must realize how wrong that was by now.  Or maybe we need another 9 months and 350,000 dead.  Maybe that will make the point finally.

The stupidity in this country is astounding.

2020-12-29 - Day 289

Operation day

I'm posting this now, at about 7:00AM.  I will follow up later, unless I am not able to.  Wish me luck, and send positive energy.

I swear, if I wake up and 10 years have gone by and I have to start fighting in a zombie apocalypse, I'm going to be really pissed off.

Update 4:45PM:  I'm home.  No zombie apocalypse.  Whew...  I'm in pain and a little nauseous.  But, the hard part is done.  It's just a matter of healing now.  I would like to thank the makers of Advil for helping me through this trying time.

2020-12-28 - Day 288

Operation Eve

I mentioned yesterday that I would tell everyone about Tuesday.  So I'm here to tell you all about Tuesday.

I have to go and get a hernia fixed.  Which means operation of the general anesthesia type.  No one likes being put under.  That includes me.  I did it once before when I had my gall bladder taken out.  And now we're doing it again.

I'm picking a good time of year for it.  Work is pretty slow, in that pretty much everyone in the office is goofing off for the next week or so anyway.  And the whole family is home from school and work, so they can take care of whatever I need taken care of.

By all accounts, this is supposed to be a simple and quick operation, and I will be home by early afternoon.  That's all I have to say about that for now.

2020-12-27 - Day 287

The year is winding down

Last I checked we are at 98.66% of this year being gone.  This time of year, right between Xmas and New Year's Eve is walkaways a weird time.  People aren't really celebrating, but they aren't not celebrating either.  In the business world, most people have pretty much just signed off for the year.  Not me.  I will be working next week.  Except for Tuesday.  I'll talk more about that later.

Speaking of earning money...  I posted last week about the lack of movement in my personal business.  And I came up with an idea that might help drive some sales.  I have created an Affiliate section.  It's not 100% complete yet.  But it's looking pretty good.  Nothing is ever as easy as it first seems.  Which is the only reason it's not really ready for wider release yet.  Consider this a Beta release, or a soft release.  This blog is the first place I am making mention of it.

The idea is that I have a really good product in my hosting services, but i suck at being a salesman.  So I created the affiliate program as a way for other people who are actually good at selling, to make themselves some extra money by selling MY service.  I'm paying a 10% commission for any new sales to NEW customers.

If you would like to sign up, go for it.  If you have any questions about what the hosting service is, read all about it on the site.  The entire story is all right there.  In short, it's a hosting service.  I design and deploy web sites.  Or, I can take existing sites and move them to my service.  I manage everything so the client doesn't have to.  Which is really convenient if you don't have any idea how to host a website.  Which is most people.

2020-12-26 - Day 286

Happy Boxing Day

What is that exactly? Some will tell you that the holiday is all about boxing up all the stuff you didn't want and bringing it back to the store.  Others will tell you that it's a day to deliver stuff to the poor.

Honestly, I don't know.  I always thought it was the first one.  But I'm being told that that is wrong.  I don't know.  All I can say for certain is that it's the day after Christmas.

And all that means to me is that there is a lot of stuff to clean up!  I also means that there is one less day left in this ridiculous year.

2020-12-25 - Day 285

Happy Saturnalia!

Yep - the day is finally here!  Happy Saturnalia, everyone!  Oh, and Merry Christmas too! 

As much as I love Halloween, I love Christmas even more.  I really do feel that for this time of year, people are better to each other and more kind.  There is more of a feeling of community everywhere.  This is not some magic attributed to the date.  This is an actual concerted effort throughout society.  

I don't care if you are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Druid, Pagan, Atheist, Flat Earther, Agnostic, whatever...  You are all invited to join in the celebration of the holiday!  Because you were all doing it long before it was called "Christmas" anyway.  Make no mistake, I do not mean to offend the religious.  Quite the opposite, really.  I intend to include everyone.  I hope you have a great day no matter who you are or how you celebrate.

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Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store.
Maybe, perhaps, it means just a little bit more.

2020-12-24 - Day 284

Merry Xmas Eve!

On one hand, yeah, it's Christmas Eve!  And I've got the day off today.  But on the other hand I'm a little bummed to find out that all the wonderful things I said about how out government finally came through with a stimulus package is now in danger of being torpedoed by President Crybaby.

The same President is also pardoning all his criminal friends and an astounding rate.  These are people that did some REALLY bad shit and hurt 1000's of people.  And Drumpf is giving them a pardon.  F you, Drumpf.

And of course the half of our government that still supports him won't do a damn thing about it.  The will just look the other way and whistle. And don't give me any shit about how other Presidents have given out controversial pardons.  Yeah?  Were they war criminals and civil rights offenders?

Don't worry, the No Politics rule is still in effect

no politics

I just can't help but point out how messed up things still are.  So don't consider this political as much as a personal statement of disbelief.  January 20th can't come fast enough.  Hopefully we'll still have a country by then.

2020-12-23 - Day 283

Friday on Wednesday!

Such is this time of year.  I pretty much have like 3 working days left for the rest of the year.  Which sounds great when you look at it from the "time off" perspective.  But not so much when you consider how much work needs to be done in that time.  And it's really difficult not to procrastinate.

Speaking of work...  My 9-5 is a great job, and if you've been reading this blog, you know how much I love my job.  But in today's world, especially in this economy, it's still difficult to make ends meet.  Which is why I have a small company too.  Seriously, if you've been reading this blog and didn't already know that, I have a serious problem with my branding.  I bring this up because business has been REALLY slow.  To the tune of 75% drop in revenue for this year.  And that sucks.

Note:  The rest of this post is a plug

Normally throughout the course of the year, people call because they need to have some work done.  But right now, no one has any money.  My business serves other businesses.  Because all of those other businesses are hurting, they aren't looking for services like mine.  As such, I haven't been really pressuring for any new work.  Much of the response I'm getting is, "Yeah, there ain't no money for that!"

I bring this up because right about now, I would really like to take on some new work.  If you know of anyone that needs to have a website built, especially if they need hosting, especially if they want that hosting for really cheap, and managed completely, then please send them my way.

affordable shared host

You can read more about my entire set of services here, as well as see examples of client work (look in the footer).

2020-12-22 - Day 282

Middle of the week

Because this is a short week, today is hump day for me.  I still have plenty of work to do.  So it's not like I'll be bored.  Yeah,short entry today.  I really do have a lot to do.

2020-12-21 - Day 281

Happy Winter Solstice, everyone!

Not only is this the shortest day of the year, it's also the longest night.  And it's also the day that my Countdown the Entire Year page changes for the season.  As of my writing this, 97.074% of this year has expired.

It's also Christmas week.  It's going to be a strange one.  The office (the virtual office) is going to be empty.  But it's also the end of the fiscal month.  So no matter who comes in today, it doesn't change the fact that I have a stack of stuff to do.  Even though most people won't even see what I'm doing for 2 weeks, I'm gonna work on it.

This is one thing that I miss about going in to the office.  During this time of year, it's usually really quiet.  Like, there are some days when I would be the only person in that entire section of the building.  Now I will only be able to experience that in the virtual sense.  I will only see the lack of people by the grey dots on the instant messenger.  It will still be quiet.  Just not the same kind of quiet.

2020-12-20 - Day 280

Stimulus check 2.0

Finally, it seems that the government was able to pull together a much needed relief package.  It's only taken 8 months, where some 7.5 of those months were spent not even talking about it.  But let us all congratulate the government for coming together to get some financial relief to a country that sorely needs it.  For most people, the amount of money being given out won't even cover a single rent payment.  But it's better than nothing, right?

And don't start with the whole, "Well, if we give people money, they won't look for work."  News flash:  Jobs went away when the pandemic hit.  There are not enough jobs for the number of people that need them.  There are entire industries that had to close their doors - some never to reopen. This is not about laziness.  It's about there not being any work.  And, man it pisses me off when some f'n millionaire in a suit sits there and insults the entire country by suggesting that we are lazy, and that's why we aren't working.  Yeah, that's what happened.  30 million people just couldn't WAIT for this opportunity to leach off the government.

But let us not be distracted by these points, and please warmly congratulate the government for finally doing something.  Even if it won't actually solve the problem, it will move the country at least 2" closer to being in better shape.

And if you don't need or want your check when it arrives, there are plenty of places which will be happy to take the check as a donation.  And I am dead serious about that.  If you don't need it, then give it to someone that does.  There are millions of them.

2020-12-19 - Day 279

The cold

Oh yes.  It's cold.  You'd almost think it's getting close to Christmas!  Today seems like a good day to catch up on all the indoor work that needs to be done.

The Mandalorian had its season finale last night.  I am honestly not sure how I feel about it.  I think they rushed the entire 2-season story to a conclusion in like 15 minutes.  And it looks like the show is about to make a left turn and abandon all of the things that made the show so successful.

But I have faith in Jon Favreau.  He has done a fantastic job so far, even if he has tried a little too hard with the fan service.  If you don't know what that means, I recommend you go and watch the show, then come back and read that again.  In the end, the show has given some much needed life to a franchise that definitely fell face first in the mud since Disney took it over.

2020-12-18 - Day 278

Another vaccine

Well, that's what they are saying.  And they are also saying that this one is at least as reliable, easier to store and transport, and apparently more readily available.

Is this all true?  I don't know.  But I am holding stock in both companies, just in case.*

This really could be the turning point in the war against this virus.  And it only took 278 days of writing this blog before I was able to say that.  Unfortunately, if this is truly the "turning point", then that means we are only 50% of the way though.  Meaning that we have another 278 days of this before we can feel safe enough to stop wearing masks and cough all over each other again.

Still...  Finally, at the end of 2020, the single worst year since the 14th century, we may actually be seeing an end game.  We might be able to affect an actual herd immunity.

All I can say is, I hope so.  I hope the vaccines are effective.  I hope that there are no side effects.  I hope that lots of people volunteer to receive the vaccine, even if it means having a tracking microchip implanted.  I hope that it doesn't spin around wildly after 6 months and millions of people having gotten the vaccine, only to find out that it turns you green, or into a newt, or makes you blind, or worse, stupid.  More stupid.

That is only a mild fear.  I think we can actually maintain some optimism on this one.  Because even though they rushed this thing through, they still did some thorough work on testing before even trying to say that it was going to work.

*Why yes, I did just make a referal link to an app that allows you to buy and sell stocks with no fees.  You can make us both money if you use that link to create an account.  That is all.

2020-12-17 - Day 277

Well, it did snow

Just not as much as some wanted.  I think the grand total was like 6, maybe 8 inches.  It was enough for me to feel pretty damned fatigued after all the shoveling.

By the time I was done, this was roughly my attitude.

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Then the plow came, and I got to shovel up about 2.5 tons of frozen boulders.  That's my favorite part.  

If this is an indication as to what kind of winter we are going to have, I'm going to be in awesome shape!

Tune in tomorrow when we will talk about the 2nd vaccine and what that means for the universe!

2020-12-16 - Day 276

Snowstorm

Snowstorms are one of the funniest weather events in all of human history.  I'm not talking about the storms themselves - they are not funny.  I'm talking about the predictions and how people react.

News sources make it a point to make the best predictions possible, but hedge their bets at the same time, just in case they are wrong.  Something I wrote about a couple of years ago.

It also reminds me of a Photoshop I did a while ago, illustrating how people in gerneral react to a coming snowstorm.  If there is any chance at all that flakes will fall, people will treat it like the worst blizzard in centuries, just so they can have a snow day.

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That is what we are seeing right now.  We haven't had an actual snow day in years.  So whether we've been locked down in a pandemic or not, by golly we're gonna have one now!

On a more serious note, the snow in this part of the country will start sometime this afternoon.  It won't amount to much, but it will make the roads very dangerous.  So be careful out there.

And enjoy your snow day tomorrow!!

2020-12-15 - Day 275

President Elect Biden

It's official now.  Finally.  This actually happened yesterday, of course, but I had already made my blog post by that point.  Trying to stick to my avoiding politics, but I can't help but say that I hope it's time to move forward.

It's curious, the number of people that are congratulating him on the win.  As if the electoral college did anything other than vote the way the people told them to vote.

Eh, whatever, man, there is a snowstorm coming!  The first one in years!

2020-12-14 - Day 274

Printable Calendars

You know what always happens right around this time of year?  People start scrambling to find a new calendar for the new year.  Many times, people will just do a Google search for printable calendars.

Like many things that are free on the internet, I always found this to be a royal pain in the arse simply because every one of those sites were loaded with ads, or you have to sign up for the service, or the calendars don't print right, etc...  So I made my own program.

And it looks like this:  DPoisn Printable Calendars

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The program allows you to choose any year, let's you change the colors and the fonts, and allows you to print full page calendars, or print an entire year on one page.

I've been using this program for some 4 or 5 years, or whatever (I don't remember).  I screengrab the months and plop into a PowerPoint so I can add some other things to them and print them out.  Makes for a nice wall hanging in the office.  Of course, the one in my office is currently showing March 2020.  Because I haven't been to my office since then.

2020-12-13 - Day 273

Vaccine day #1

Today marks the first day that an actual, bona fide, for real vaccine is being made available in the US.  How will this go?  We don't know.  But it's certainly a step in the right direction.

It's going to be a fun couple of weeks as we see the vaccine distributed among those that need it the most.  And all we can do is hope that it really IS effective, and that it really DOES start to make a difference - to have an impact on this pandemic.

You know what doesn't help?  The fact that this fucking moron is still doing stupid shit like this.

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Every single person in that stadium, being careful and wearing mask.  And President crybaby still refuses to do so.

I promised I would not make any more political posts.  And this is not a political statement.  The man is an imbecile.  He's standing there thinking he looks like a tough guy, defying the mask rules that everyone else has to follow.  News flash Mr Drumpf.  You look like a tool.

The point of this is that, yeah, it's great that we finally have a vaccine.  But what's not great is that Dumpf's influence on this whole thing has convinced a large portion of the population that there is nothing to worry about, and that same group refuses to get the vaccine.

If the moron in charge had taken this thing seriously 9 months ago, we'd have had a handle on this thing.  We wouldn't even be in this mess right now.  The urgency for the vaccine, that so many people will refuse, wouldn't even be an issue.  And he's sitting there giving speeches about how it's a miracle of medical technology, as if he had anything to do with it.  And, by the way, he refused to buy a good portion of the vaccine, and now we won't have enough until after June.  So, he even screwed that up.

Again - not a political statement.  This is personal.  Drumpf needs to go.  His influence needs to be washed away.  The blood of over 300,000 Americans is on his hands.  Go ahead, Drumpf, brag about the vaccine.  It wouldn't even be so necessary if not for your stupidity.

2020-12-12 - Day 272

Today was a busy one

Spent most of the day running errands.  It's always good to make sure we have enough food on hand when there is an impending snow storm on the horizon.  Experts say it could be anywhere from 3" to 11.5".  Or nothing at all.  The only thing that is certain is that as of right now, there is a 50/50 chance that we will get a really bad storm.  We either will or we won't.  It will absolutely be one of those two things.

Anyway, we got our wrapping done.  Which means we finally got to do a count to make sure the number is even.

It's not, but at least we know that now.

2020-12-11 - Day 271

App progress

The new Temperature Converter app is coming along nicely.  It's actually almost ready for release.

In today's installment of "what did we learn today", the airport codes for Hawaii and Alaska are different than all the mainland airport codes.  Those codes start with a "P" rather than a "K".  There doesn't appear to be any reason for this exactly.  It's just a designation.  Although I suspect it has much to do with them becoming states WAY later than all the rest.

Why am I telling you this?  The feeds that I use for the weather app come from weather stations in airports.  There are hundreds of them across the country.  It's not a simply thing to weed through all of those entries to figure out which ones are even active.  In any case, I couldn't get Hawaii or Alaska to work at all.  So I had to see what was different about those feeds.

And now you know.

2020-12-10 - Day 270

Long day ahead

I have one project for work that I have been procrastinating because I know it will take like 4 hours, and it's very frustrating work.

update:  It took 3.5 hours.  But it's done.  And I made some corrections to the project to make it easier to update next time.  Like WAY easier.

At least this is Friday for me.  I could use a 3 day weekend.

2020-12-09 - Day 269

First snow!

First snow of the year is upon is.  I'm sitting here at work and look out the window expecting to see rain.  But this rain is of the floating, frozen kind.

It's not going to stick.  But it still counts.

For the record, this is actually the 2nd snow for me.  You see, I went and gathered up my daughter from school before Thanksgiving.  It snowed up there.  Because of course it did.  The weather in upstate NY never disappoints.

Anyway, happy snow everyone!

Speaking of weather...  The new app I was talking about the other day is going well.  I've got it pulling the live feed from the National Weather Service.  I've got the sliders in place.  There are only a few things to figure out, and a whole bunch of artwork, then it's ready to release!

2020-12-08 - Day 268

A different anniversary

Another tragic anniversary.  Today marks 40 years since the murder of John Lennon.

When I was a kid, I was a huge Beatles fan.  I don't even know why, really.  No one in my family was.  I just kind of latched on to their music for no other reason than that I liked it.  To this day I think a whole helluva lot of their music holds up.  I would have been 11 at the time Lennon was killed, and yeah, I was pretty freaked out.

Even though I was really young, I totally remember all the stories about what had happened when the Beatles split up, and all the personal troubles.  And I just remember thinking, "well, that really does put an end to that story."

Very sad indeed.  There are many people that are not fans, or thought he was a jerk.  Eh...  Maybe.  Who cares?  From an entertainment standpoint, he gave the whole world an awful lot!

2020-12-07 - Day 267

December 7th

In case you didn't know, today is the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

A word on that.  Because one day I actually found myself there.  This was some 22 years ago or something now.  We were in Hawaii and had a bunch of hours to kill until our flight was to leave.  So, since we were on Oahu anyway, we rented a car and drove to Pearl Harbor.

This next part is going to sound silly, because I really shouldn't have been surprised.  But I was.  The monument to the Arizona...  I didn't know that they built it on top of the ship!  When I saw it, I was like, "Wait...  The ship is still there?!"

Yeah, that was eerie...  The point of the story is that whenever this day rolls around, I remember that day.  I remember visiting that place.  And it really was something to see.

I just thought I'd tell that story.

2020-12-06 - Day 266

Working on a new app

I've been looking around for a new Android app to work on.  I've decided I'm going to build something like this Temperature Converter that I built a few months ago.

That web-based version of the app makes use of an RSS feed from the National Weather Service.  The little widget that is there was a module that I built for wider use (it's all over my sites).  And the same sort of method can be used to create many other types of things.  Here is an example of another way to parse and use the feed, with the addition of being able to choose a different feed.

What is really amazing, to me anyway, is that I had found that RSS service many, many years ago, when I built the very first version of that module.  We are talking like 15 years ago.  Which means that the National Weather Service has kept that project going, and open for nerds like me to utilize, for all that time.

The app that I am making will work more like the web-app linked above.  The intention being that it will load the current temperature from any city (airport, really) in the country as a default.  From there, you will easily see the current temp in F and C.  And once loaded, you can use sliders to move the temperatures around and see how they relate to each other.  This is a really convenient tool for us silly Americans that don't understand temperatures when they are given in Celcius.

Of course the main reason that I'm doing it is because I think it's cool.  And because I can.

2020-12-05 - Day 265

Finished Xmas shopping

Well, for the most part.  I think we've said that 6 times already.

Today was really mostly spent decorating the tree.  Finally.  Normally by this time, we have 2 trees, fully loaded.  But this year, due to the addition of los gatito hermanos, we have had to scale some things back.  Also...  No glass.

But we did some extra work outside, which makes up for some of the lack of inside stuff.

2020-12-04 - Day 264

Day off

Got a lot done today.  For instance... I cleaned out my side of the closet.  I had some stuff in there that has been sitting in drawers from an old dresser, and the dresser itself has been gone for some 13 years or something.  And before that it was just sitting in the basement.

I really try my best not to accumulate junk.  But it does inevitably happen.  The standard timeline for such things looks like this:

  1. I don't want to toss this because reasons (important, sentiment, might be useful, still worth something, etc.)
  2. Sits in a box, and not looked at for some time.
  3. Found in a box some years later and evaluated based on point #1
  4. Keep or toss
  5. Repeat

Everyone does this.  Some people are worse at it than others.  We call those people "hoarders".  Because they simply lack the capacity to objectively run steps 3 and 4.  And I am definitely careful to avoid being that guy.

Also, there are times - more often than you know - that I come across a situation where I go, "Wait, I've got one of those", and point #1 comes into play with, "might be useful".  And if you hold on to techy stuff in a box in the office, that's why that box exists.  But that box is important to evaluate even more often.  Because once every couple of years, a good percentage of what's in that box is literally useless from any standpoint, and can just be tossed.  If you are still holding on to a 1.44MB floppy drive, it's time to let it go, man.

2020-12-03 - Day 263

Political rant

Just kidding.  I seriously don't intend to do that.

Today was Friday for me, which means that tomorrow is first Saturday.  And that's a good thing.  I put at least 6 days worth of work into the past 4 days.  So I feel good about taking off...

For a change, I don't have much of a plan.  I'm sure I'll find a ton of things to do.  There's always something.  Just haven't decided what.  I'm thinking more Xmas decorations.  Haven't don't anything to make the Kitten Brothers freak out for a few days.  Perhaps it's time.

One thing about masks that I found...  When the cold wind is whipping across the parking lot, the mask does a good bit to keep my face warm.  See...  Not everything about this pandemic sucks!

2020-12-02 - Day 262

No more political rants

I think we have finally reached the point here where I no longer need to use this blog to complain about stupid shit the President is doing.  This is because since the day of the election he has been remarkably silent except to complain that the election was rigged.  But I'm not going to go on about that here.  Because the intention of this blog was to talk about the daily stuff that goes on, as it applies to living through this pandemic.  I do not wish to get political here.  For the record - I have written about it here, if you are interested.  And from now on I intend to use THAT site for such writings, rather than this one.

I am well aware that my thoughts on many days here have strayed directly into the territory of being exceedingly pissed off at what I was watching our government doing.  And I'm still pissed about it.  But at the same time, I am looking forward to there being adults running the show again, so I won't need to feel that way any more.

So yeah, I'm looking forward to talking about the animals in the neighborhood, or recording sessions, or finishing a puzzle, or my beard.  I would rather stay on those fun topics.  I will now try to treat this blog more like holidays with the family.  The captain has turned on the No Politics sign.

And, really, I will do my best with that.  Because by and large, I am not a political person.  The only reason I've spouted off as much as I have was because it seemed unavoidable.  I will try to make it avoidable now.

2020-12-01 - Day 261

December 1st

You know what that means.  I have to shave again.  I was participating in No Shave November, you see...  In truth, I wanted to explore the beard potential anyway, and November was a convenient excuse for that.  And man, I grew a good one.  It was about as close to a full Grizzly Adams as it is possible for me to achieve.  And make no mistake, it was really annoying my wife.

But, it's shaved down now and it made a horrible mess in the sink. I'm back to a typical goatee for now.  Although, I will be letting that grow in a bit bigger. 

Anyway, for all of you people that don't like beards, always remember this one simple thing...  People with beards are just people without beards, with beards.

2020-11-30 - Day 260

Is it Monday?

Because last week was spent mostly not working, I've lost track of the days.  Even when writing the blog every day, I lose track.  I wake up in the morning and have to really put effort into figuring out what day it is just so I know what to do once I get out of bed.

I remember once, a couple of years ago, where I got up, showered, got ready, and headed out to get my morning coffee, and I was surprised that Preston and Steve was not on.  It was only then that it occurred to me that the reason for that was that it was Saturday!!  Granted...   That hasn't happened for a while.  But it feels like that sometimes.  Especially since, you know, pandemic...

And this coming month is going to be even weirder than it has been because I'm taking off days here and there.

But, hey, at least it's raining sideways today!  That always makes the day more fun!

2020-11-29 - Day 259

More decorating

The season is upon us.

You may remember a few months ago that I stated how much I like Halloween.  Well if there is one season that I like at least as much, if not more, it's Christmas.  There is something about the childlike feeling of the season that never goes away, no matter how old you get.  

This is not some realization that I am having right now.  I'm well aware of it.  It is the reason that when I was taking Christmas down and packing it away at the beginning of the year, I felt inescapably sad.  What's strange about this, is that I should be feeling the exact opposite right now.  But the feeling seems rather dulled.  Mostly because this entire year has been the single shittiest year that anyone can remember since the 14th century.

2020 mask up

It seems that even though the holiday season us upon is, it is dampened by that pesky virus thing that won't go away.

Since I do not wish to be gloomy during this time, I will from here on endeavor to have only positive thoughts about the rest of this year.  Because despite what the last year has been like, there are signs that things are going to get better!  So please join me in putting positive energy toward the rest of this year!!

2020-11-28 - Day 258

The tree is up

The tree is up.  The lights are on.  So far only one of the Kitten Brothers has jumped into it.  The adult cats are sitting under it as I am typing this.

Maybe the tree won't be an outragous disaster after all.  I guess we'll see after we get some ornaments on it.  Nothing says "entice the cats" like dangling Christmas tree ornaments.

Since it is the Christmas season, we watched a couple of movies last night.  Elf for one.  Stupid movie, but still fun...  Then The Grinch.  The original, of course.  I have seen the live action and the computer animated ones...  Meh...  I still like the original better.  In fact, I don't even consider those other stories to be for real.  They don't even come close to capturing the original story, regardless of length or production values.

Call me a purist...  But I could watch the original Chuck Jones, Boris Karlof, Thurl Ravenscroft version over and over again.  A note about that last guy...  If you don't know that he did the vocals on the song, now you know.  I do not know why he wasn't credited.  But at this point, I think everyone knows that.

2020-11-27 - Day 257

Black Friday

Is it really Black Friday?  Because I didn't see lines outside the stores.  I didn't really see any reason to repost my story about that from a few years ago.

in fact, I went out to the store for some essentials, and there was no one out on the roads.  There was no one at the store.  In the middle of the afternoon.  It was weird.  It's like everyone suddenly decided to take this pandemic seriously.  Or they were all still in a turkey coma.

Now I'm off to drag the tree into the house so the Kitten Brothers can see it for the first time, while still in a box.  We're not setting it up right away.  We don't want to completely freak them out.  So we are moving slowly.

We expect one of both of them to be inside the tree 100 times before we even get decorations on it.

2020-11-26 - Day 256

Happy Thanksgiving, all

Hope you all had a great day today.  Hope you were all safe.  Mostly.

Of course, due to the pandemic, we stayed home today.  We more or less got to see the family.  My brother stopped by for a bit.  After that it was Zoom to see the rest of the family.  That was pretty funny.  My sister had a 3 camera setup around the dinner table.

We had our food from a local place.  We ordered it a couple of weeks ago.  See...  Our original plan was to go down to my Mom's.  But even so, we wanted to have a meal of our own either way.  So we had the order made already.  When it was determined that we would not be going out, it worked out okay because we still had a meal!  And it was awesome!!

2020-11-25 - Day 255

Oh deer

Yeah, I know I made that joke once before.  But that was weeks ago, and was real deer.  These are not real deer.

oh deer

We added to our deer family on the front yard.  That is, we added a new family.  We went to the store to get 1 large deer.  But it was more expensive that we wanted.  Then we saw these guys and said, "Wait, a whole family?  And it's more in our budget?  Sold!"

I'm very happy with them...  They are a nice addition.  I think they work better than the one large deer.  Because this tells a story.  Unless you have no imagination, of course.

I've been writing this blog for so long that I'm writing about Christmas decorations.  Oh dear, oh dear...

2020-11-24 - Day 254

Successful pickup

The girl child is safe at home.  I left the house about about 8:15 this morning, and got home about 6:30.  If not for traffic on the way home, I would have made it in less than 10 hours.

So we're home now, and everyone is thrilled.

In completely different news:  I released a new Android app.  Behold the Fuzzy Clock.  I actually finished it a couple of days ago.  But it didn't pass review until today.  In fact I didn't even know that it went live until I got home.  I was too busy driving to check before that.

Anyway, I wrote that app like 3 years ago.  But I never really finished it.  The original intention was for people to use it on their Android Watch.  For whatever reason I more or less abandoned it.  But recently I have been going through all my apps one by one to update them and stuff.  And I ran across this one and figured, there really is no reason not to see it through.  So I did.

2020-11-23 - Day 253

Long day today

Even longer day tomorrow.  Taking a ride to pick up the girl child.  Doing the whole trip in one shot.  5 hours each way.

It's not like I've never done it before.  It's a haul, but it's not that bad of a trip.

That's all I have to say about today.

2020-11-22 - Day 252

Monday eve

Tomorrow will be a fun day.  I'm working.  But then I'm off until Friday.  Yes, it's laughable that I'm going in on Friday.  But at least it will be an easy day.  Because literally no one else in the entire office will be there.  Of course, by "the office", I still mean that in the virtual sense.

And tomorrow I have to revamp a project that I was ready to deliver the other day.  But the scope changed.  And now I have to make this thing do something that, as far as I know, is impossible.  I need to figure out how to make it not impossible.  Which pretty well sums up what my job is like most of the time.

Today I was out doing some recording.  I finished one solo.  That went really well.  Then I banged out the rhythm tracks for 1 other song.  By the time we were done, both me and the recording engineer were pretty well burned out.  It was a most fun and productive session.  Just tiring.

One other thing to mention...  Today was the first day in I don't even know how long that my news feed from my RSS news site didn't have any stories about Trump doing something f'd up.  In fact, the closest thing was Chris Christie calling Trump's legal team a "national embarrassment."  

So maybe things are finally starting to get better.

2020-11-21 - Day 251

Saturday, and all is well

It looks like the weather is going to be remarkable today.  I'm not trying to make small talk here.  It's actually important.  Because there is at least a reasonable chance that the weather will hold out for a few days.  Which is good because I'm taking a ride on Tuesday to collect the girl child.  And I really don't much want to have to deal with some of the crazy weather I dealt with last year.

It certainly does seem that, like everything else this year, winter is on pause too.

In any case, our original plan was to go up on Tuesday, spend the night and come back Wednesday.  The plan now seems to be drive up early on Tuesday, pack the car, and drive straight back home.  I've done that trip a few times.  All told, it takes about 10 hours.  Add another hour or two for packing the car.  It's doable anyway.  And in this case, it's necessary.  Because we want minimal exposure to other humans for this trip.  It's just better for everyone.

2020-11-20 - Day 250

Big 250!

Like I've said 100 times before, I really wish I didn't have to keep pointing out milestones.

I had a whole thing written up here before and decided to just wipe it out and start fresh.  Because there is nothing to be gained by reminding everyone that the President is acting like a crybaby, and his inaction and stubbornness is going to get people killed.  By the 1000's.  By January 20th, at 1000 people a day, that is some 63,000 people that will be dead before we can even start managing this.

This is happening because Trump refuses to accept loss.  And the entire Senate is actually to blame for this, because they are actively supporting him.  Still.

The last time I posted about this, someone responded back that "there is no law against it."  Yes.  That's true.  But that doesn't make it right.  In fact, the GOP seem to be masters at determining that since there is no law to prevent it, it must be legal.

Yeah, that's right.  There IS no law to prevent what Trump is doing.  So here's an idea...  What say we FIX that oversight.  I'm not sure what the actual solution is.  But what Trump is doing is causing real harm.  Real death.  And no one is stopping him.  He is actively trying right now to threaten states into ignoring the popular vote, and/or delay their certiification so that the House has to be the one to determine the winner.  And Trump's supporters think this is a fine idea because, I dunno...  Screw democracy?  There's no law against it, right?

One of the things that has to happen once this administration ends is to start putting some NEW rules in place.  Too many rules in our government were put in place with the expectation that people would act with dignity and respect.  No one ever expected that people like Trump and McConnell would come into play, and just bend the rules as far as possible, and then simply say, "Well there is no law against it."

If we can't rely on the government acting with respect, then it's time for some new laws.  That's what laws are for.  To prevent people from acting badly simply because there is no existing law.

And yes, I am aware that I wiped out a bunch of text to avoid a rant, and simply posted a NEW rant.  Whatever.  Sue me.

2020-11-19 - Day 249

My Cryptocurrency blog

What, you didn't know I had one of those.  Man, I really have to learn how to promote my stuff better.  Of course, the lack of attention is probably one of the reasons it's not more popular.

The site is called "MetalArt Cryptocurrency Blog".  It's been around for a couple of years now.  It exists as a dedicated spot to tell all the stories I have about Cryptocurrency.  And there are a bunch of them.  I point this out today because I am dropping the domain name and moving the site to a subdomain under one of my other top level domains.

For all of you non-techy people, a "top level domain" is a domain name.  You know, like dpoisn.com.  The top level for this blog.  Top level domains cost money.  It's not a lot.  But that $18 a year or so adds up when the site itself is not generating any income to help pay for it.  Actually...  This is about more than just the cost.  It's one more thing to maintain.  And I'm trying to lighten up the things I need to maintain.  Moving this thing to a subdomain means I no longer need to worry about it.

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A "subdomain" is a domain that exists under a Top Level domain.  It functions completely on its own, independant of the top level site.  It effectively IS another site within a site.  A sub site.  A subdomain.

Because of the way the site was designed, it was actually really easy to move it.  Because the site couldn't care less what server it runs from.

Anyway...  The site tells a lot of good stories, and provides a helluva lot of useful information for people who don't know about Cryptocurrency.  So if you are one of those people, check it out.  You might learn something.

If nothing else, you will notice that I seem to have a helluva lot to write about.  Such to the extent that I need more than one blog.

2020-11-18 - Day 248

Thanksgiving is coming!

Yeah.  And I really don't know what to say about that.  Everyone wants to travel.  Everyone wants to get together with family and friends.  But, as predicted, the pandemic is making its second wave.  Or, more accurately, a worst first wave.  Because this thing never really went away in any meaningful sense.

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See the full interactive graph here

Look, I don't make this data up...  It is what it is.  I'm just showing it to you.  What this says, in case you cannot read a graph, is that the number of cases is climbing.  It is climbing higher AND faster than it did back in March when all of this started.  In short, it's worse than it ever was.  I don't exactly wish to put blame on anyone, because that isn't going to help.  But if this government, and its orange-colored, man-baby, asshole leader had taken this seriously in the beginning, none of this would be happening.  And if the government couldn't get HIM to take it seriously, they should have shut him the F up.

Instead, they inserted their heads firmly up his ass, and just let him continue to tell his followers that there was no problem, and nothing to be worried about.  And they are STILL doing it.  We can't even get the President-elect to begin work fixing this because the crybaby in power refuses to allow it.

Ugh...  For now, I do not wish to make any predictions about how next weeks is going to go.

First thing's first...  We have to go collect our daughter from school.  Then we will all be home.  That is my biggest concern right this very second.

2020-11-17 - Day 247

Hump day

Actually, since I'm off on Friday, hump day more or less exists between after lunch today, and before lunch tomorrow.  So I'm in the middle of hump day as I type this.

Speaking of things that go up, SpaceX achieved a monumental feat on Monday.  They launched 4 astronauts into space to go live on the ISS for 6 months.  This is huge for a few reasons.  For a start, it's the first time a private commercial company launched humans into space.  But also, it must be pointed out that the crew of 4 consisted of probably the most diverse group you could get out of 4 people.  They represented women, Japanese, blacks, and whites all in one Dragon Capsule.

In this day and age, you bet your ass that is important.  It shouldn't have to be, of course.  But it is.  Hopefully there will come a time when the race and/or gender of the astronauts doesn't matter, and isn't even reported.  But thanks to the stupid racists and sexist division in this world, it's necessary to point that out, if nothing else, just to shut those idiots up.

Anyway...  I watched the launch live as it happened. And it was awesome.  These are great times we live in when you can watch a historic event like that from your couch, and get multiple views, including inside the cockpit!!

dragon interior

C'mon, that's just really REALLY cool!!

As of yesterday, their little space ship caught up and docked with the space station.  Best of luck to the crew.  May your missions be wildly successful!

2020-11-16 - Day 246

Really, enough already

This isn't funny anymore

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Actually, that Tweet and Twitter's flag are pretty funny.  But the rest of it certainly isn't.

What this guy is doing is outrageously damaging to this country.  Not only is he denying the self evident, he is actively preventing the transition from taking place, which is already having dire consequences for this country.  Fine, he doesn't believe that COVID-19 is real.  But whether he believes it or not, it is very real.  And his stonewalling is making it impossible to get this country on track to getting it taken care of once and for all.  And people are dying because of it.

It is mind mangingly confusing to me how SO many people in this country still believe this election was rigged somehow.  This goes beyond some simple conspiracy theory saying that the Democrats somehow stole it.  For one obvious point...  Let's just say the Democrats rigged the election and some of those ballots are fake.  Ok, then why didn't they rig the Senate and the House too?!  Those votes are all on the same ballots.  This would mean that only the part of the ballot where there was a vote for Biden was faked.  Right...  What you are suggesting is that 1000's of ballots cast across multiple states with different types of systems, all colluded to count only Biden votes, and somehow managed to do this while under the tight scrutiny of BOTH parties, watching the counting as it happened.

Here we have a situation where a guy known to be a liar and a cheater, who has been saying for months that the election would be rigged, then took steps himself to rig the election.  Between the electoral college, the voter disenfranchisement, the mucking with the USPS, and purposely making it more difficult for people to vote - this election was rigged in the GOP's favor all along.  And Trump still lost.

And please stop it with Al Gore and 2000.  That was some 500 votes in one state.  This is more like 5 states, where Biden is ahead by 10,000's of votes, in each state.  And every single legal challenge has failed for complete lack of evidence.  In most cases, the courts pretty well laughed at the lawyer.

He is asking for donations to pay for the legal battles.  Haha...  Yeah, if you donated to that, and your donation was less than $8k, then your money went to pay his debts, and line his pockets.  He is ripping you off!  And you are STILL supporting him!

It is time for the GOP leaders to get to Trump's followers and explain to them that the election is over, and Trump lost.  All of the shit that Trump is telling the country right now is dangerous.  Deadly, in fact.

I said a while ago that the thing I wanted most after this election was for this country to once again be united.  But that cannot happen as long as Trump is still standing there dividing us.

Enough already, Trump.  Concede the election.

2020-11-15 - Day 245

Android Apps

I haven't spoken much about Android Development for a while.  This is mostly because I've been busy with other projects, and haven't looked back at my older projects for a while.  

One of the things that needs to be done when maintaining software is to make sure that the apps are always compiled with the newest SDK (software development kit).  This is to ensure that they will always work on the newest devices.  Once every couple of months (or years), it is necessary to open each project, update that stuff, recompile, test, and release a new production version.

This, of course, is also a good time to fix any little bugs, or other issues while I'm it.  This also was a good excuse to fix up the primary landing pages for all the apps.  For the longest time, I'd been hard-coding all these entries into a single file.  It was a crap design and I knew it was a crap design.  I know better than that.  So I should never have allowed the crap design to persist.  I have finally fixed that situation.

Both the landing pages for the live apps, and the development page have been updated to read those entries from the database.  It may not look different on the outside.  But behind the scenes, it is a much better way for me to maintain these projects, including being able to re-order where they show up on the list.  Which is why you see the two Christmas apps up in the front now,

2020-11-14 - Day 244

Saturday the 14th

Doesn't really have the same ring to it, does it?

I finally got the chance to watch Elysium.  Even though the critics (Rotten Tomatoes) didn't much like it, I did.  I thought it was really good.  Could have been better, yes.  But it was a good story with some great effects.  Nice to see Jodi Foster back in action again.

Very tired...  Not much else to say right now.  I will be headed of to do some recording tomorrow.  That's always fun.

2020-11-13 - Day 243

Friday the 13th

Yeah, like that means anything anymore.  This year has already given us far more weird than a single, supposed, bad luck day can provide.

Gonna have some people over.  Gonna make a fire.  I am determined to make the wood burn no matter how wet it is.

On an unrelated note, and one that I hope to stop writing about soon...  The former President decided to have a speech in the Rose Garden today.  I went downstairs and put on the news, expecting they would be showing it - expecting he was going to say something important.  Something like, I dunno, "I concede".

Instead, what I saw was, "The President is speaking live in the Rose Garden right now."  There was no audio, just video of him talking.  Then they moved on to other matters.  The press had absolutely NO interest in whatever bullshit he was having a press conference for.  I do believe that is the first time I've ever seen something like that happen.

2020-11-12 - Day 242

Friday lite

One of the upshots of working for a large company is that they give you a bunch of time off.  The oddity of that is that if you don't use that time, you lose it.  Or, more correctly, they pay you for it.  But it gets taxed so heavily, you may as well not be getting paid.  So I really have to use that time before the end of the year.  I had so many days left that I'm pretty much not working Fridays for the rest of the year.

So today was the Friday of my week.  And that's a good thing.  Because it was a long week.  Got a lot done, but I'm f'n burned out.

2020-11-11 - Day 241

Spring in November is ended

Sadness.  I was really enjoying that.  We might not get weather that nice again until March.

On an even more somber note, because of all the bullshit with President Crybaby, and my need to write about unrelated things, I skipped right over the loss of Alex Trebek.

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I have been a fan of Jeopardy! for as long as I can remember.  There was a time when I was driving for a living, and I would listen to the show on the radio. Back in those days, you could pick up channel 7 on the FM radio.

The day the news broke that he had passed, I heard from no less than 5 people calling to express their condolences.  And I really appreciate that.  Clearly they are all aware how big a fan I am.  For 30 years, it's the only show I really care to watch every day.  The tributes to Alex on Monday were really nice.  I think I got a bit of a lump in my throat when the Executive Producer came on to speak.

He lived a great life, and he was able to keep doing what he loved right up to the end.  Never felt the need to retire, even though he knew he was dying.  Just a great guy, and a class act, right up to the end.

RIP, Alex Trebek.  There are a lot of people in this world that are way smarter because of you.

2020-11-10 - Day 240

Planets

Today I will talk about the planets.  Not this one.  You know about this one.  And it's super easy to find.  I'm talking about 3 others that have been pretty well present in the night sky for, well, forever.  Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are all in one field of view.  Saturn and Jupiter are right on top of each other.

Since I've always been a nerd for this sort of thing, I like to get out the medium sized telescope that I have here, and take a closer look.  Man, I'm diggin' springtime in November.

I tried this a few weeks ago, but there was just too much haze in the atmosphere.  Even when it looked pretty clear, it wasn't clear.  But this time of year, the atmosphere is always WAY cleaner.  And you can get a really excellent view.  Jupiter is cool, because you can see 4 of its moons.  And, unless I'm mistaken, you can see some striping on the planet.

But Saturn is the one that's a real treat to see.

Want to see Saturn's rings? Read me 1st | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky
What Saturn might look like

I didn't take that shot. I really have no idea how to do that. So I just searched the internet for an image that closely resembled what I could see.  This is pretty much exactly it.

It's wild because, when you look at the planet with the naked eye, it just looks like a bright dot.  And not really all that bright when Jupiter is next to it.  But as soon as you focus in with the telescope, even with the lowest magnification, it looks remarkably like the image above.

I remember a bunch of years ago when I showed it to my wife the first time, she jumped back from the telescope and said, "That's gotta be some kind of trick!"

No, it's really not.  That's really what it looks like.  My son took a look last night and just said, "Man, that is the clearest I've ever been able to see that.  That is just amazing."

Yeah.  I agree.  Even at my age, I am still fascinated with that stuff.  It's one thing to look at pictures in books or on the intertubes.  But, nothing quite matches seeing it in real life.

2020-11-09 - Day 239

It's Monday. Again.

Ah, it's never going to get old feeling that way.  Apparently.

Went to work.  Went shopping.  Worked more.  Solved a couple of pretty good problems at work too, including troubleshooting some database issues.  That's always fun.  And, actually, I mean that.  Because there is something satisfying about solving a problem like that.  It's like figuring out a Rubik's Cube without Googling the solution.

Also...  I saw the movie District 9.  That thing is 11 years old, and I never saw it until last night.  I like watching movies without knowing what the movie is about.  Other than, "It's good."  I'd rather not have even seen a trailer, or know who is in it.  I so much prefer that way because it allows me to see the story unfold as the author intended, rather than having all sorts of predetermined ideas in there ahead of time.  District 9 was like that for me.

All I knew was that it was good.  And, yeah, it was.  It followed one of my favorite SciFi tropes where there are aliens - that the humans are the pricks.  And it also seemed to bite a little bit off of Alien Nation.  Regardless of that, it was a good story, with some really intense action.  In the end i was left with some questions, but determined it was better to just switch my brain off and enjoy the show.  Because sometimes there is no need to answer everything.  I actually felt sorry for the alien creatures.  And that's saying something considering that they were entirely CGI.

I have Elysium (film) - Wikipedia cued up for tonight.  Oddly enough, it's the same writer/director.  In fact, I rented that one first, and saw that people like District 9 better.  So I watched that one first.  But this one has Matt Damon!  That raises up a jot or so.  

I'll give my review of that one tomorrow.

2020-11-08 - Day 238

Looking forward

One last thing about the election:  Do you know how we can tell once and for all that the election was not rigged?  When Biden came out to do his victory speech last night, the entire country was dancing in the streets.  And I mean that literally.  That is something that never happened for Trump.  Not once.

In fact, this brings up another striking point.  I remember distinctly what happened when Trump won last time.  The nation was in absolute shock!  "How the F did that happen?!", was the most common thing I heard.  I had always found that to be really strange.  Because if he really won that election fair and square, then you would expect the majority of the people to be very happy about it.  But they weren't.

You know what the mood of the country is when the candidate who they wanted to win, actually wins?  Look no further than last night.

On another note entirely...  I think that very soon I will be changing the theme of this blog to move away from the "shut in".  Because we really haven't been shut in exactly, for a while now.  But we are still in the pandemic, make no mistake.

And on a final note for today, get out and enjoy the weather!  Spring in November isn't going to last forever.  And when it's over, you're going to miss it!

2020-11-07 - Day 237

Biden is President Elect!

After all this time, the long nightmare is finally ending!

At about 11:30AM EST, I refreshed my browser and saw that PA had finally been called.  Which I knew meant the rest of the news outlets would be reporting it soon.

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The official mascot of the 2020 Election says, "Hell yeah!!"

I would like to thank all of the people of the United States who came out to vote in large enough numbers to turn this around!

2020-11-06 - Day 236

A little bit of politics today

I really want to not have to say anything about all this, but I feel compelled to point out one really obvious point.  And then I will say some other things that really need to be said.

The people that have told us progressives and liberals to "stop crying, stop being sore losers", for 4 years...  They are the very same ones that are right now screaming that this election is unfair and are refusing to accept the results.

Really, I don't want to call anyone out individually.  But you are all outrageous hypocrites.  What's that you say, "this time it's different!!"?  Yeah, that's what makes it hypocritical.  It's different when it happens to you.  Also yes, you would be right.  This time it is different.  This time there REALLY is massive fraud, disenfranchisement, dropping of votes, and all manner of complaining that somehow mail-in and absentee ballots are bad.  All of which is being done by Trump and his supporters.  This, while they are saying that the Democrats are trying to steal the election.

They are doing this while loudly screaming that what the Democrats are doing is illegal, unfair, and other completely ridiculous and unfounded claims.  The President came on TV last night and flat out lied to the entire country in saying things like, "the votes that came in are late, and shouldn't be counted."  That is some bullshit right there.  The reality of this situation is that with all of the crap the GOP pulled to keep the Democrats from voting, the only reason we have done this well is that SO MANY people voted that we were able to overcome all the fraud.

My favorite bit is how the Republicans in some states passed rules saying that mail-in ballots couldn't be counted until election day.  Thus why it is Friday and we still don't have a result.  They did this in hopes that they would just be able to toss them out.  Well, that's not how this works.  They are legal, valid votes.  Of course they have to be counted.  And now they are yelling that these all must be fake votes, and we must stop counting them, and "why is it taking so long?!"  The reason it's taking so long is because of the rules that YOU PUT in place!

What is happening right this very second is that Trump is filling the media (that is, Twitter and Facebook), with all these dangerous lies that are riling up his supporters.  Because they believe the things that he's saying.  They think that counting the votes is wrong.  They think that Trump should simply be declared the winner.

And make no mistake - this IS dangerous!!  Because Trump is STILL dividing this country!  He is still making this an "us vs. them" situation.  If you wonder why so many of us progressives want this Presidency to end - above all, it is that we want this country to come back together.  We do not want the division.  We do not want the President constantly telling his followers that we are the enemy!  We do not want the media questioned in favor of whatever bullshit comes across Twitter!

Do you have any idea what it's like to see your family members post how much they hate the "libtards" because we are such a bunch of stupid fuck ups?!  Well, I do.  And I'm fucking sick to death of it.  I'm sorry that we progressive types want to join this country, give people equal rights, and possibly fix some really bad shit in this country.  Sorry that we want science to rule over religion.  Sorry we think that the climate and the environment we live in needs to be cared for better.  Sorry that makes us such monstrous assholes.

It is time for this country to start to heal.  And that cannot happen as long as the person at the head of the country is constantly keeping us divided!

And I'm going to leave it at that.

2020-11-05 - Day 235

No politics today

Really, there is enough that all over the news right now.  And it all falls into 2 categories:

1. We don't know yet.
2. We won't know until tomorrow at the earliest.
2a. We will continue to repeat these two points until we know something.  Check back in an hour for more of the same.

So enough of that for now.  If you came here to read this, you'd probably rather read about something else.  For instance...  The wind blew one of the aluminum shields off the A-Frame on the side of the garage.  Fortunately, it wasn't' bent out of shape, or worse, lost completely.  That actually happened once a bunch of years ago.

Plus it was low enough that all I needed was a tall ladder and a hammer to put it all back together.  Good as new.  Probably better.  Maybe it will last through the next wind storm.

2020-11-04 - Day 234

Post election day

The day after.  We knew it would not be decided 100% on election day, despite what some people think.

As of this moment, I'm not saying anything about this.  Not until we are damned sure of the facts of the matter.  As of right now, we only have some strong speculation.

With any luck, and the Flying Spaghetti Monster willing, you may be spared any more political rants from me.  Until next time anyway.

So anyway...  In completely unrelated news.  I replaced some of the screens in the front of the house.  That's a fun project.  The upshot is that now I can see out the office window.  For a long time there, the crappy screens didn't bother me.  But since I've been working from home for all this time, it really started getting to me.

2020-11-03 - Day 233

Election Day!

Get out and vote as if your entire country and its place in the world depended on it.  Because it does.

As of my writing here, you have a little over 13 hours until polls close on the east coast.  By all accounts more people already voted in this election than the entire last election - and that happened before election day.  That has never happened in the history of this country.

Since I have already said about all I can say about this stuff, I will only say one more thing...  Notice please the message about voting from the opposing camps:

One side is telling everyone to get out and vote.  They have ads, in Spanish and English, telling people how to vote, where to vote, and when to vote.  They have ads explaining to people exactly how absentee (mail in) ballots work, and how you can deliver them without burdening the USPS.

The other side is complaining that the election is rigged and rife with fraud, they are blocking or disallowing votes by the 1000s, and that they intend to challenge the election right up to the Supreme Court.  They made this intention clear long before voting even started. They are simply screaming "We will win, whether you like it or not!!"

Seriously, vote as if your democracy is at stake.  Because it is.  It has never come this close to being completely destroyed.  And it still might happen.

2020-11-02 - Day 232

Election Day eve

Today's blog post will be very short.  I'm honestly too bothered to say anything else about what I see happening right now.  And I really don't want to upset my conservative friends and family.

As I type this, Trump is building a non-scalable wall around the White House.  He's building a wall the day before the election.  If anyone thinks that is normal in any way...  Like I said, I don't want to upset anyone.

Trump's Presidency started with building a wall to protect Americans from foreigners.  His Presidency will end with building a wall to protect himself from Americans.

EDIT:  You know what...  I AM going to speak up.  Because I believe this needs to be said.

The anxiety over this election is unprecedented.  Never before have SO many people been SO afraid of a shitty outcome to the election.  And there is a very good reason for this.  And the sides of the fence are pretty easy to identify:

One one side, you have Trump supporters, loudly yelling that their boy is going to win again, and REALLY stick it to the liberals this time!!!  No matter how much of this country wants him to lose, he's going to win, and "F you if you don't like it!!" 

On the other side, you have the vast majority of the country saying, "Oh, for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE NO!!!"

We don't want this country divided anymore.  We don't want our civil rights and freedoms destroyed.  We don't want our environment destroyed.  We want sensible leadership to pull us out of the pandemic, and fix the economy.  We want legislation to move smoothly through the system rather than being stonewalled by the minority Senate.

In short one side wants things to go back to normal.  The other side wants to just keep driving this country further into the ground.  They are actively encouraging all manner of voter interference in order to circumvent actual democracy.  Something we have NEVER been so afraid of before.

And our greatest fear is that the Senate and the court might allow that side to win.  Again.  And then what?  Sit on our hands for 4 more years?

No wonder Trump built a wall around the White House.  If he steals this election, the country is going to drag him out by his ankles and burn it to the ground.

2020-11-01 - Day 231

GSP shut down

Speaking as someone from NJ, I really don't know what their statement is here.  Actually, speaking as a human, I don't understand...

Note to you f'n morons - NJ is blue, and it will remain blue, despite your little stunt.  Inconveniencing innocent people and pissing them off is not going to make a statement.  It reminds me of my favorite Trump flag, the one that says, "Trump 2020 - Make liberals cry".  Hahaha...  F you.  That's a fine political position right there, hahah.  I'm not crying except for the level of petty stupidity much of this country has sunk to.  You look like a bunch of spoiled, petulent children.

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By the way, it might amuse you to know that blocking traffic on a federal highway is NOT a peaceful protest.  It is disruptive and dangerous.  If the tables were turned you'd all be yelling about, "what if there was a pregnant woman in an ambulance?!"

Look at what MLK Jr and followers did when they did their marches.  They stayed to one side and let traffic through.  THAT is how you do a peaceful protest, you bunch of entitled douche nozzles.

I SO cannot wait until this is over so we can get back to some level of sanity in this country.

2020-10-31 - Day 230

Halloween in the Time of COVID

Yes, that is what I am calling this photo:

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My solution for Trick or Treaters this year was prepacked bags with 5 pieces in each.  We weren't sure anyone was going to come to the house at all.  But, believe it or not, this picture is from the second batch.  The first lasted all of about 10 minutes.

On one hand, I'm glad that kids are still going out.  On the other hand, it sucks that it has to be this way.

In unrelated news:  I watched The Mandalorian last night.  It seems that this is one of those series that is going to be more anthology than serial.  That is, each story will stand on its own, with very little advancement in the overall story.  And actually, I'm okay with that.  Because too often do we see these series' just totally being made up as they go along, because they don't know if they will be renewed.  Also, because serial shows are tough because if you miss an episode, you're lost.

Anyway...  The main character teamed up with sand people and killed a giant worm.  That was pretty wild.

 

2020-10-30 - Day 229

The Mandalorian

It's October 30th.  And that means that the long awaited season of The Mandalorian has been released!

For those of you that only have a passing interest in Star Wars, allow me to answer one question for you.  No.  This is not a story about Boba Fett.  This is an unrelated story that takes place many years after that guy got eaten by a giant desert monster.

For those of you that have more than a passing interest in Star Wars, then I'm sure you are already familiar with this series.  I wrote about this last year when the show first came out.

In short, this series gave us Star Wars fans something we had needed for a very long time.  A good Star Wars story.  Especially after the last 2 disastrous theater releases.  But more than that, it gave us something else that was sorely needed - a new character.    Of course, I am not referring to the title character.  I'm referring to Baby Yoda. 

Baby Yoda

He doesn't even speak.  But he doesn't have to.  From the moment that dude first appeared, at the end of the first episode, all of us fans were absolutely thrilled!  Mostly because it was so unexpected.  But also because, no matter how much you like or dislike Star Wars, everyone loves Yoda.  So to see a baby of one of his species suddenly appear was just awesome.

I do kinda feel bad for the actor that plays The Mandalorian.  I'm sure that he did NOT expect to be playing second fiddle to a puppet.  Plus...  Since his face is never seen on screen, it's not even the same guy in the costume all the time.  Sometimes it's just stuntmen.  There was at least one episode where he was not there at all.  Just the costume was.  He did the voiceover later.

But I digress.  If you really want to know more about this stuff, I encourage you to read the links, then go and watch the show.  Don't have Disney+?  Well, get the free trial...

I know what I'm watching tonight.  Really looking forward to it.

Let us hope that my blog entry tomorrow won't say, "Well, that was disapointing."

2020-10-29 - Day 228

Pumpkin Carving

Ah, yes...  One of my favorite parts of Halloween.  The pumpkin carving!

I actually got 4 pumpkins a few weeks ago, and had some good plans for them.  Until the squirrels ate them all.  The nerve...  So these pumpkins, I got today.  Hopefully they will last at least two days.

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The one on the right there, you can't really see what makes its face interesting.  So here is a closeup.

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I've been carving these things for years, and it never once occurred to me to do one sideways.

2020-10-28 - Day 227

New page to see

A couple of years ago I had this idea for a project of holding quotes of all kinds...  Funny, interesting, smart, etc...  I hear all these one-liners all the time.  And it occurred to me that it would be great to have a way to easily submit these things to a database. So I wrote a little program where I could easily do that.

From there, I wrote a whole app around it, where I could have one quote come up per day...  The Quote of the Day...  There are over 4 years worth in the database now.  And I'm adding to it all the time.  And I also take submissions from random people on the internets.

I finished up the web app.  Then I wrote and Android version, and then an iPhone version.  Since I had the API written for all those to use, I made a Twitter bot too,.  

I bring all of this up for 2 reasons...  First, I am actually a little surprised that there hasn't been more of a reaction for this project.  It's got a bunch of users.  Just not as many as I'd thought would really like it.  Which brings me to my second point... I created one more version of this thing.

Quote of the Day web app.

It's just a simple page that does nothing but show the quote, and give you the ability to share it.  Today's quote is actually fitting to.  "Nothing worth doing is easy."  I took credit for that, because I did actually say it.  But there's no way I'm the first.  Anyway...  It's true.  This project for instance...  Not easy.  It's been an ongoing project for a few years now.  And even though I wish it got more attention, I absolutely believe it's been worth it.

2020-10-27 - Day 226

Getting closer to the big day

It is the single most important day of this month!  Of course I mean Halloween!

I love Halloween.  And over the years, even though I've gotten older, it's gotten better.  People seem to decorate more.  And people tend to go WAY further overboard that they did years ago.  Driving around town nowadays is hysterical.

And what's great is that, what with it getting darker right now, the lights help keep things bright.  And it will be that way straight through January.  Of course after that, it gets all dark again.  Once the holidays are over, it gets cold, dark, and there are no more lights.  In short, it is one of the reasons that people consider it the most depressing time of year.

I need to find out who I need lobby so that we can create another holiday during that time, and give people another reason to decorate!  Clearly people don't consider Valentines day important enough.

2020-10-26 - Day 225

New meme

I actually made this joke the other day in real life.  So I made the meme.

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You're welcome.

I always like seeing the memes like this.  I wish I was creative enough to come up with more myself.  I try...

2020-10-25 - Day 224

Baby box turtles

It's been about a month since I found these little guys.  They have been living in this little box in the office since then.  In all that time, I have not been able to get them to eat.  I've been putting pellets in their water every couple of days, which dissolve.  And I'm assuming they are getting nutrients that way.

Baby reptiles, turtles in particular, are strange animals.  They hatch from their eggs with a little yolk still attached to the underside of their shell.  So they may not really need to eat for weeks.  Just the same, I don't really know.  So I've been putting food in there every couple of days.  Fruit, chicken, salmon...  Nothing really seemed to work.  But yesterday I found an earthworm.

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Box turtles love earthworms.

This makes me happy even though only one of them ate.  The other one didn't seem to care.  He just went and hid again.  But at least I know the one ate.  And that gives me some hope that they are doing well.

In other news...  Today is music day.  I'm on my way out to Hopewell for more recording.  Wish me luck.  Because I'm completely unprepared.  As a result I think I will mostly be working on rhythm tracks.

2020-10-24 - Day 223

Remember COVID-19?

Yeah, that thing.  The thing that everyone has been dealing with for all this time.  For the love of all that walks and crawls, what the hell is wrong with this country?!  It seems that the uptick in cases is actually worse than it's been for months.  Don't believe me?  Look at this chart. For that matter, in case you have gone blind to them (which happens), those icons above all link to live data that shows exactly how things really are right now.

And as I've said bookoo times over the course of this blog, don't expect it to change at all, or get better, or anything like it, as long as the current administration ignores the severity of it.  It will only get worse.  I think it's pretty clear at this point that the position of The Orange One on the virus is in two parts:

1.  It's not real or dangerous.
2.  We've learned to live with it.  Let's just move on.

Now of course, those positions are completely contradictory.  But that is where he's at with it.

In his superspreader rally speech the other night (and I assume every night), he said, "Covid, covid, covid...  People are sick of it."  Yes, dumbass, we ARE sick of it.  But it's not going to go away because it's inconvenient.  It's not going to go away because you choose to ignore it.

Get out and vote.  It's the only remaining thing we can do.

2020-10-23 - Day 222

The Eagles Win!

They barely won.  It was an uncomfortable win.  But they did win after all.  And that's what matters.

Anyway, speaking of uncomfortable things.  The results for the debate are in.  And it looks like Trump WON - but only if you are a die-hard Trump supporter.  Literally everyone else says Biden won.  I think that the funniest thing I've heard about it is that people are praising Trump because he didn't act like a petulant child.  Everyone seems to agree that the one area that Trump won was that he was not an asshole.  That's how low the bar is for this guy.  People praise him simply for acting more like an adult than usual.

10 days and 16 hours.  That's how long until election day.  Here's to hoping it goes smoothly.

How mess up is that?  This is the first time in my life that I am actually worried about all hell breaking loose if this election goes badly.

2020-10-22 - Day 221

Debate 2.0

Now with more distance and muted mic goodness.

I'll have some things to say about this tomorrow, I'm sure.  But I am not going to watch it.  I'm going to watch the Eagles game instead.  I mean, that too will be a shitshow.  But at lease that one won't make me angry.

And I'm dead serious about that.  Watching that orange buffoon constantly bullshit his way through these things actually makes me furious.  I cannot even stand to listen to him speak.  I cannot wait until the day until I don't have to worry about hearing his voice all the damn time.

What is the point of this debate really?  We already know what their positions are on everything.  Having them get up there to once again say the same thing is just a waste of time.  I can only imagine that the only thing Trump's people are hoping for is that Biden makes a mistake.  Which...  I dunno...  Could happen I suppose.  But since 40 some-odd million people have already voted, I don't know how much of a difference that would make.

It's pretty clear at this point that Biden is going to win the election.  What is not clear is whether or not Trump will fight it to the absurd level of having the SCOTUS hand it to him regardless.

2020-10-21 - Day 220

Nothing special today

I've been so damn busy over the past couple of days that I haven't really thought about what to write.  Tomorrow will be better, I promise.

2020-10-20 - Day 219

1917 - The Film

I rented 1917 last night.  Other than seeing the trailers for it, and knowing that it got a lot of Oscar nods (it won 3), I didn't know anything about it.  And here is my quick, non-spoiler review:  Wow, that was really something.  Gripping, tense, dramatic, and VERY realistic.  Any time a movie makes me go, "Man that was f'd up", I know it was good.

The greatest part of the film was actually not that stuff.  It was the cinematography.  Imagine some of those movies you've seen where there is an extended, unbreaking opening shot that goes on for a long while.  Now imagine that happening for the full 2 hours of the film!  In fairness about half way through, it does go black for a few seconds.  But that is the only break in the entire shot.

There are scenes where they do a full 360 degrees around the characters, and you can see the entire landscape.  And never once is there a hint of production crew.  Not even a reflection on water or an errant footprint.  It was just done so well done that it's astonishing!  So much to a point that for a nerd like me, the awesomeness of the filming actually pulled me out of the story.  The only way to pull this off would have been in 2 ways...  Clever cuts where they could stop filming when passing a rock formation or something.  And the rest would have to be absurdly complicated choreography between the actors, the camera, and the entire crew.

The set they filmed on must have been truly enormous.  Because there wasn't a lot of it that was green screened.  That was real as near as I can tell.

So if you like that sort of thing, be it movies about WWI, or awesome cinematography, then I highly recommend this one.

 

2020-10-19 - Day 218

Monday is here again

This particular Monday happens to be the second to last one in October.  You know what that means...
There are 14 days, 13 hours, 22 minutes, and 26 seconds left until #ElectionDay https://dpoisn.com/countdown/vote.php

I'll tell you one thing I'm looking forward to, regardless of what else happens.  An end to the political ads.  Every gotdamn commercial break on radio and TV is a litany of candidates bashing each other.

And the thing is, it's easy to tell them apart.  Because it's actually only ONE side that is bashing the other.  Candidates that support one side talk about how they want to rebuild the country, unite us once again, get the pandemic under control, and other sensible things.  The other side is literally saying, "He will raise your taxes, fire all the cops, open the borders, and take away your healthcare."

One side is saying things that are sensible.  The other side is telling you that the bogeyman is going to eat your face.  And it's not just the Presidential candidates.  Is all the people that are running for Congress too.

I have never seen a race that is so completely divided.  And it's shocking how one side is just so completely full of shit.

This isn't even just a matter of opinion.  Just watch the commercials for yourself if you don't believe me.  But I implore you - do the research on both sides before you make your decision.  Learn what is true.  Stop believing the social media echo chamber.  Do your OWN research.

That is all I'm saying about that.  For now.

2020-10-18 - Day 217

Productive day today

I mentioned the bathroom yesterday.  Got back to that thing first thing this morning.  The painting is done except for some touch-up.  Got all the stuff mounted back on the walls.  The TP roll got moved to the other wall.  And we also installed a new cabinet.  I also put in a new cabinet in the upstairs bathroom, and added a new towel hook.

All told these two rooms don't look much like they did before.  It's a good feeling getting some stuff done.

It's also a good feeling when your team does well.  The Eagles did very poorly in the beginning.  Then they started running all sorts of crazy plays that included using the 2nd string QB, and letting Wentz block!  They came from a ridiculous deficit that was like 14-30 at the 3rd.  They got it up to 28-30.  Had they made the 2-point conversion, they'd have tied. Had the pulled off the onside kick, they would have had another chance.

Alas, they did neither one of those things.  So they lost.  However, if you are a fan of the game, you like to see a team rally back like that.  It's always cool to see that even if your team doesn't end up winning.

2020-10-17 - Day 216

Halloween is getting closer

Today mostly consisted of painting the downstairs bathroom.  Since the upstairs one went so well, we decide to just keep going.  It's never as simple a project as it seems.  But it's going well.

We also made some clam chowder.  That was fun new one, and it came out great!  Next time we will use larger chunks of clam.  Pieces in this one were too small.

So I mentioned Halloween.  In looking for something Halloweeny to watch, we found Frankenwenie.  That thing came out like 8 years ago, and for some reason I'd never seen it.  It's just as weird as you expect a Tim Burton movie to be.  I actually think that that is the way he really sees the world.  Like, he's not making it up.  That's just the way it looks for him.

Anyway, it is a really good, impressive, stop motion pic.  Done in black and white to really drive home the point that it is a parody of classic monster movies.  It's also a little touching and sad.  Especially if you like a good "boy and his dog" story.

I'd recommend it for families that don't have frightened, squeamish kids.  They won't do well with it.  Everyone else will love it.

2020-10-16 - Day 215

Rainy Friday

Got one of our cars inpected today.  The line was remarkably non-existent.  Probably the first time in many many years that i just drove right into the building, and drove out with a new sticker.

At long last NJ MVC seems to be running efficiently.  Well, either that or it's raining in the middle of the month, and everyone is either working or at school.  Whatever...  All I know is, I was in and out of there in less than 15 minutes!

2020-10-15 - Day 214

Happy Thursday

Guess what I just heard.  My boss called to let me know that the company has decided that all of us office people that have been working from home will now be doing so until at least June 30th!

At that point, it would be 15 months since I've seen my office.  As of right now we are at about month 7.  Which means, we are halfway there.  But of course, when the company says they would like us to come back on June 30th, they are assuming that we will have been rid of this pandemic for a good couple of months.  Meaning that they are optimistically hoping that we are done with it by, say, March or April.

I would love to assume that that was going to be the case.  But I seriously doubt it.

We cannot even look forward to a time when this is even starting to be controlled until after January 20th.  And that is assuming the Biden wins the election.  Because as I've said many times before...  We cannot even start to get this under control as long as the person in power doesn't even believe it's real.

2020-10-14 - Day 213

Lesson learned

In all my years of brushing my teeth 2 or 3 times a day, I have never once had the toothpaste go down the wrong pipe - until today!

And holy crap, did that hurt!!  There is a reason we don't breath toothpaste.  That reason is that it's super painful.  I had to hold my eyes tightly, so as to not shoot them out of my head as I was having a coughing fit.

If you haven't learned anything from reading this blog, then let today be the day that you can say that you did.  Be careful when brushing your teeth, assuming you do, to not inhale with a mouthful of toothpaste.  Because you will regret it.

2020-10-13 - Day 212

Pumpkins

Today I will tell you of our pumpkins out front.  Like most people, we get a bunch of pumpkins, and keep them on the porch until a day or so before Halloween, when we carve them up and put candles in them.  This year, I think we may have gotten them too early.  Because the squirrels have been having a feast of them.  It seems they couldn't wait for ME to carve the pumpkins and took it upon themselves to get a head start.

Two of them have already been dug completely into.  The smaller one was absolutely decimated.  And the squirrel was bodily inside the thing chowing down on the seeds.

My son and his friends carved a few pumpkins the other day.  His girlfriend's was a cute little ghost.  It is now half a ghost, and barely discernable.

The wildlife has gotten really brazen around here lately.  I mean, I love the wildlife, I really do.  But damn, guys, c'mon!  

2020-10-12 - Day 211

Rain, rain. Then rain.

Not that I'm complaining.  As long as the rain stays outside, I'm good with it.

Today's post will be short...  I'm sitting upstairs typing this right now because the news is on downstairs.  I'm trying to avoid things that make me angry.  And this shit about the Senate ramming through a conservative judge against the wishes of the majority of the country, has me furious.

If they succeed, it will mean the end of progressive legislation for the rest of our lives.  If it doesn't make you furious, then you probably don't care about women's reproductive rights, racial injustice, civil rights like the ability for gays to marry and not be discriminated against, and you probably don't think that climate change is real.  Those are just the first that come to mind.  In short, it will be a disaster.  A disaster that RBG's dying wish was to prevent.

The whole thing is a shameful disgrace.  And it is truly sickening and infuriating that so much of this country thinks it's just a-okay.

2020-10-11 - Day 210

Wedding day

My blog entry for today was delayed because I was out at a wedding all day.  My niece got married in a lovely ceremony down in South Jersey.  

It is unfortunate that it was somewhat diminished in capacity due to travel restrictions.  But on the upshot, modern technology allowed us to bring in a couple of people from as far away as upstate NY and western OH to watch the ceremony live via video chat.  Something like that would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago.  The masks and the social distancing were all evident.  That is the way of things right now.  

But setting that aside, my sister's family did a wonderful job.  I really don't think that I could say much in my daily blog about all of this.  Trying to write it all out for the benefit of readers just wouldn't do it justice.  So I'll just say, we had a great time.  My niece and her new husband (my nephew in-law), were really happy and excited!  It seems to be a great start to their new lives together.

 

2020-10-10 - Day 209

Another Rock Icon

I had been meaning to get to this for about a week.  But I had other things to say and just never got to it.

I will tell you of Lee Kerslake.  He passed away a few weeks ago.  Most people hadn't heard of it because they really aren't even aware of who he is.  He is no Eddie Van Halen after all.  However, his contributions to music, in my view, are on a level that is pretty damn high just the same.  It's just that someone else stole the spotlight.

The short, short version of who he was is that he was the drummer for Uriah Heep, but is best known for his work with Ozzy Osbourne.  More of the story goes like this...

When Ozzy left Black Sabbath, he was looking to put a band together.  The members of the band were Lee Kerslake, Bob Daisley, and the late great Randy Rhoads.  They were known as Blizzard of Ozz.  Which soon after was changed to simply Ozzy Osbourne, and the first album took that title.  They called that a "Manager decision".  I call it Ozzy taking credit for everything.

And it got worse.  They finished their second album, Diary of a Madman, recorded the whole thing, and were getting ready to go out on tour, when the band's manager Sharon fired Kerslake and Daisley.  She kept Rhoads, of course.  To add insult to this injury, their names are not on that album.  The new guys were listed as the drummer and bass player.  Daisley and Kerslake were left out of it.

Mind you, those two guys wrote ALL that music.  Not just a little bit either.  Ozzy had nothing to do with any of it except doing the vocals.  But, see, Ozzy had the name and the fame.  So he effectively took credit for all of it, and sent the others packing.

To this day I have never heard a reasonable explanation for that.  It was just such a shitty thing to do.  And for someone like me, who grew up loving those two albums, I always thought it was f'd up that credit was never given to those guys who contributed so much.  Even Tommy Aldgridge, who replaced Kerslake has forever maintained that though his name is on it, he did NOT play on that album, and credit lies with Kerslake.

Kerslake went to his grave never actually getting the credit he deserved for bringing so much awesome music to the world.  So I thought I would tell the story here.

Here is another really amusing story that ties in with this, because the exact same thing happened with a different band years later.  Whitesnake.  They finished an album, got ready to go on tour...  David Coverdale fired the entire band, including Jack Blades who wrote all the music.  He hired, get this, Tommy Aldridge and Rudy Sarzo on drums and bass.  The very same two that were hired into Ozzy's band many years before.

 

2020-10-09 - Day 208

Internet down

Sometime around midnight on Wed. a truck came rolling down the street and ripped the FiOS wire clean off the house.  So we had no internet or TV.  The silver lining to this story is that somehow, the main power lines were untouched.  So we still had power.

Anyway...  I woke up Thursday morning and talked to Verizon.  The couldn't get a truck here until Sunday!  "Really?  Are you f'n kidding me?  You're going to leave the wires in the street until Sunday?!"

But as it turns out, I had already scheduled a tech to come to our house to upgrade our internet.  That 75mb connection just was not cutting it with the whole "working from home" thing.  So I told them that.  I said, "You know, you already have a tech coming here tomorrow.  They not will be able to do their job if this isn't fixed."

"Oh.  Hang on a second...  Okay, the tech will fix both issues."

Of course when the tech got here this morning, he was completely unaware that he had to fix the street problems too.  He had to call in a bucket truck to help with that.  Which, somehow he magically made happen in less than an hour.

This story indeed has a happy ending.  Because everything is up and running again.  And we have a new router that runs at 1gb.  In layman's terms it means we went from 75mph to 1000mph.  And yeah, it obviously shows.  Even the internet speeds in the office aren't this fast.  Of course, my son, who is doing all his college classes from home, plus likes his games, is also super thrilled about this.

And he called it on Wednesday night.  He said, "Well thank goodness we have a tech coming here on Friday."  It turns out he was 100% correct about that.

Also...  Since I couldn't go to work for a couple of days, I jumped in to help my wife with her project.  We finished painting the bathroom, and it looks awesome.  Still needs some touchup work.  But the big part of the project is finished.

2020-10-08 - Day 207

Debate last night

We have a clear winner in last night's debate.

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Yes.  The fly on Pence's head is declared the winner.  Because it is the only thing that seems to be getting equal and fair attention.

Everyone on the GOP's side says Pence killed it.  Everyone on the Democrat side says Harris killed it.  In short, the debate meant nothing at all.  The same people would have said the exact same thing if both people just sat there drooling all night.  It was a total waste of time, energy, new cycles, and brain cells.

But everyone can agree the fly was super entertaining.  The fly wins.

2020-10-07 - Day 206

Started work on 1 bathroom

My wife has been trying to keep busy.  She has made a list of all the things that need to be done.  And to be sure, the list is extensive.  Once you've lived in the same place for some number of years, things get to a point where it is time for an overhaul.

Painting the bathrooms is what came up on the list now.  So we got the supplies, and prepped the room.  I'm helping a little bit here and there.  But she is really excited about this project, and really wants to do it.  So I'm just sorta staying in the office and only helping when needed.  Tomorrow will be actual painting day.  I'll have to post an update about that.

2020-10-06 - Day 205

No Van Halen Reunion

Screw you 2020, screw you.  Now you've taken Eddie?!

I don't care where you happen to stand on "Eddie was the greatest" spectrum.  From my point of view, being a guitar player, I can absolutely say without reservation that he was indeed once of the best there ever was.  Innovative, distinctive, and original.  Lot's of people have learned how to duplicate what he did.  But he was the one who pioneered that style of playing.  That dude could make sounds on the guitar than no one even imagined wer possible.  And it just sounded so cool!

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And he wasn't just making that stuff up.  He knew exaclty what he was doing.  He duplicated those sounds live.  And he did so while putting on a great show!

His heyday may be in the past.  But I hardly think that matters.  To many of us it still sounded fresh 40 someodd years later.  Nothing will erase the legacy he left.

RIP, Mr Guitar God.  You will not be forgotten.

2020-10-05 - Day 204

So much to say...

I really seriously have too many things on my mind right now, to the extent that I'm not sure about the best thing to write about today.  So, I'm going to try the bulleted list approach.  That's something new...

  • The Eagles finally won!  It only took 4 games.  But they showed progressive improvement.  First they got destroyed.  Then in the next game, they got beaten kinda bad.  Then the next game they tied - it wasn't a loss!! And last night they finally won!
  • This also of course means that we are 25% through the NFL season already!  Haa.  Wow.
  • My main workstation decided it was time to update itself.  Windows is great that way.  "Everything is working great.  Time for an update!"
  • Baby turtles are doing well.  I still haven't gotten them to eat.  But I see them every day come out and jump in the water bowl for a minute.  So clearly they are healthy.
  • There is nothing else interesting going on in the world.

Okay, that last one was a lie.  Speaking of things that are lies...  I will refrain from mocking the President just this once.  Because we do have what Douglas Adams once referred to as a "real joojooflop situation" here.  The President is clearly ill.  And the news is really trying to do its best to keep us all informed.  While at the same time, the WH is actively downplaying his illness.  In short, they are lying about it.

On one hand, that is maddening and frustrating.  On the other hand, there is actually a VERY good reason for them to do that.  And we really should give them a pass, just this once.

Whether you like the President or hate his stinking f'n guts, he is still the President, and the single most powerful person in the world.  And it creates a gigantic national security nightmare for the President to be in any sort of medical distress.  So they MUST make it look like he is just fine.  Just this once, there is actually a really good reason for it.  So I'm actually willing to let the WH slide on this one.  I actually understand why they are doing what they are doing.

It was still a stupid mistake to let him go on a joyride for a photo op.  That just makes him look like a careless, irresponsible moron.  If you've got a problem with me saying that...  Well, if he feels good enough to do stupid shit that puts others at obvious risk, then he feels good enough to be told he's an asshole for it.

2020-10-04 - Day 203

Halloween month!

I tend to promote projects that recur every year.  This year is no different except that I'm using this blog to talk about things I've built.  And as I've said repeatedly of the months of this, I can't believe I'm still using this blog to promote something THIS late in the year.  But here we are.  It's October.  And other than being one month from election day we are also counting down to Halloween!

This, of course, is arguably my favorite holiday of the year.  Mostly because it is a celebration of the macabre.  Well, actually, that's the reason.  Don't get me wrong.  I love Christmas too.  It is possible to love both.  In this case, we are celebrating all the things that people in this world are normally terrified of.  We are embracing them and having a good time, rather than being terrified.  In some cases, it's a good excuse for people do be who they want to be without being afraid to do so.

I am going to miss trick or treating this year.  That was on the downslope since before the pandemic anyway.  Which is a shame for a different reason.  But I started missing it when the kids got too old for me to go out with them.  So it's been years since I could really enjoy that part.

I feel like I'm going down a rabbit hole here talking about stuff I miss with Halloween.  So let's switch gears to the happier part...  The next thing I am truly looking forward to is the entertainment.  It's usually about this time that I like to read everything I can find from Edgar Allen Poe.  Sorry if you think that's cliche'.  My favorite poem of all time is The Raven.  And I like to read it 4 or 5 times around this time of year.  Because it's still an superb piece of writing that actually gives me chills.

I seem to have forgotten that this post was also a plug.  The link above there is to a web app that I built some 7 years ago.  I add little things to it from time to time.  So it's got all kinds of fun stuff going on.  I think that the newest addition is that the image of the Moon actually shows the correct phase.  Because I thought that was cool.

2020-10-03 - Day 202

Rocket launch

This actually happened the other day.  But I had other things to complain about and simply forgot to mention it.

One of the coolest things about the times in which we live is that between NASA, private enterprises, and a few other countries, we are launching stuff into space all the time.  It seems like once every few days we are shooting something into the sky.  And the greatest thing is that due to the internet we can watch the launches live.  Which if you are a nerd for such things is awesome!!

What's even better is if you live in NJ, the launch is happening in Virginia, and it's a clear night, you can see the rocket in real life.  Such a fortunate set of events occurred on Friday.  It's actually the very first time I was able to see a launch.  Well, unless you count that one that they purposely exploded in the atmosphere a few years ago...

It was cool.  Even though I could barely see it through the trees, I DID get to see it.  And this time, it didn't explode.

2020-10-02 - Day 201

Turning point?

Yesterday seemed to be one of the actual best days I've seen in months.  In fact, I consider it a turning point.  I don't want to go into everything.  But things personal and in the wider world seem to be going much better between yesterday and today.

One of the craziest things that happened was waking up to find out that the one person who has caused the most damage to this country since, well, ever really, has been bitten by the creature named Karma.

I will try to hold back my comments about that, and instead point out what Joe Biden said.  Essentially that he and his wife are hoping for the affected person to have a swift and complete recovery.  No matter what you might think of that dude politically, you gotta admit, you can always count on him to take the high road.

It makes him better than me.  I said I'd try...  But see...  I'm not running for office.  So I don't need to be that kind.  What I think is that anyone who says we need to have respect for the monster that split this country in half and then let 200,000 people die because he was worried about his reelection, is wrong.  I think he deserves to eat a little of the pie he's been serving everyone else. 

I do not think that he deserves respect as an old man or even as President.  Especially after he shit all over Ruth Bader Ginsberg before her body was even cold.

As of the moment that I'm typing this, we don't know what will happen.  All I can say right now is that whatever happens to him, I hope his followers take this as a YUGE wakeup call!  He has been wrong about this from the start.  He has lied to the entire country about it from the start.  And now he is paying the price for his own stupidly.  And I hope his followers see that obvious, glaring point.

Probably not.  They'll probably blame it all on China, the Deep State, and the librals, and never once acknowledge that this was entirely preventable.

2020-10-01 - Day 200

The long awaited day 200!!

Whooh Hoo!!  200 days of a pandemic that is still nowhere near being contained or even with any sort of end in sight!  And of course by that I mean  Holy crap am I sick of this!

There are some good things that have come out of this.  We've all gotten to show off our styles in mask wearing.  People saved a ton of money by not going to concerts and sporting events.  On the other hand, there are some 30 million people out of work and 209,000 less people in the country.  So they probably wouldn't have been going to concerts or sporting events anyway.

How much has changed in the past 200 days?  Well, not much has changed in terms of getting the pandemic under control.  We've just more like learned to live with it.

The reality of wearing a mask and social distancing will be with us for the foreseeable future.  The upshot though is that our new normal behavior will also protect us from the flu.  Wouldn't that really be a wonder if we literally skipped the flu season this year because of our precautions to avoid another virus altogether?  Well, in some places.  Many places in this country still don't believe there is a problem, and therefore, no need for precaution.

I've said this before, many times on this blog in fact, that all we can do is take care of ourselves, and each other.  We cannot rely on the people currently in power to do anything at all to help.  Some of those in power, at the state level, did their best.  But entirely too many people are still looking further up the chain to get their advice.  And because they are following that advice, they are perpetually putting the rest of us at risk.

So, again...  Take care of yourself.  Take precautions.  Don't expect anyone else to have enough respect for you or your safety.  In their eyes, it is a violation of their rights to tell them not to put you in danger.  So it is up to you to be as responsible as you can.

If you think that sounds pretty grim, well, that's probably because it is.  We have an entire faction of deplorable assholes in this country that have simply refused to believe that there is a problem.  Their stupidity is what has allowed this to go on for so long.  And until the idiot at the top, who continually feeds them that bad advice is gone, it will continue.

So yeah.  It's grim.  Happy 200 days, everyone.

In related news.  Our ballots just got here!!!  I'm filling that thing out and hand delivering it tomorrow!!

2020-09-30 - Day 199

Day 200 eve!

Yay, we are approaching another milestone!  We'll talk about that tomorrow.

Today I would rather concentrate on something that is far more important.  The Good Place, season 4 is finally available on Netflix.  And, whew, Wheew!!thank goodness for that.

I binge watched the first 3 seasons so long ago I don't even remember.  It was sometime in the past 199 days, I know that...  But when I expected the next season, it wasn't there!  I was like, "What is this??  1995?!  I have to wait for months to see the next season!!!  AAAhhhhhh!!" Knife

Well, the long nightmare is finally over.  I'm on episode 8 of 14 now.  So within the next day or so, it'll be done.

See?  Very important!

2020-09-29 - Day 198

Debate is tonight

I don't want to make a long political post today.  I will just say that the first of the debates is tonight.  And I am astonished that it is going to happen at all.

We have one candidate who is smart, well spoken, and prepared.  And the other candidate who is a brainless, abusive asshole, who doesn't feel the need to prepare because he's too busy running the country.  Yes.  He really said that.  LaughALot

I really don't want to harp on that.  What I wish right now was that I had something else to think about.  But I kinda don't.  Every place we look or listen, there is something else to remind us of how messed up things are right now. So really, it's probably best for me to just get to work now, and stop thinking about this stuff.

One other thing.  Someone on Quora asked about why people are upset about the Senate ramming through another Conservative judge right before the election.  I started writing a simple answer, but ended up writing quite a lot.  And I think what I wrote is good enough to share.  So if you want to know why people are pissed off about the minority representation of this country is ramming another Conservative judge down our throats, you can read all about it here.

2020-09-28 - Day 197

Monday. You know what that means

For me it means that I have to rotate my chair to the other side of the office and do 9-5 work.  At the time of my writing (about 1:15pm), I have already done a boatload of work.  I even made a new backdrop graphic for use in video calls.  The VP requested it.  When you get a request like that from the VP, you drop everything and make a graphic.

Which, truth be known, is one of my favorite parts of my job.  I have managed to work myself into being the local creative person for anything that is video/graphic/design related.

And that is always a nice departure from crunching tons of data in spreadsheets.  It's good to step sideways for a few minutes and do something creative.

Now, it's time to get back to crunching tons of data in spreadsheets.

2020-09-27 - Day 196

The Eagles

Well, it's official.  The Eagles are the worst team in the league.  The Bengals used to be the worst.  But now that the best the Eagles could do against them was a tie, they cannot claim to be any better.

In other news...  I missed the game because I was recording yesterday.  Redid one solo, and worked out the rhythm tracks for another song.  That project is going well, even if it is taking seemingly forever.  See...  it's not really possible to just plow through all these songs in one day.  It's going to take multiple sessions of a few hours at a shot.  At that point it's time to take a break until next time.

News on the baby box turtles...  My brother popped by yesterday to take 3 of them.  They are now living in his shop.  Let us all cross our fingers that all 5 of these little dudes live long and prosper!

2020-09-26 - Day 195

It is Saturday

It is Saturday.  The baby turtles are all doing well.  I still haven't seen them eat.  But they do show up in the water bowl from time to time, so I know they are healthy.

About the only other thing I have to report is that I'm on my way to do more recording tomorrow.  So I'm working on my parts for that.  Looking forward to that!

2020-09-25 - Day 194

Baby turtles, part 2

This is day two in our expanding coverage of how a box turtle who hasn't seen a male turtle in 3 years, just hatched another clutch of eggs.

I walked out to check on Walter yesterday, and was surprised to find that there were 2 more babies walking around in the enclosure.  Now we are up to 5.  This, to me, seems like the strangest thing I've seen all year.  Or, would be if I hadn't seen so many other really strange things.  And this is a good thing!  New life!

How is it possible for this turtle to have laid that many fertile eggs without any interaction with a male?  That really is a wonder.  So I'm discussing this out loud in the kitchen.  And my thought was, "I wonder if it's possible for her to 'store' the stuff, and use it to fertilize new clutches of eggs later."

My son's girlfriend was sitting at the table, and she looked it up.  And what she found was this...  A box turtle can hold on to a single "fertilization event" for up to 3 clutches of eggs.  And it can last for up to 3 years.  Holy crap, I was right. Still...  Here I am 51 years old and never heard of anything like that before.

It's certainly more plausible than my other idea, that there is a flying male box turtle in town, who occasionally visits our turtle for some lovin'.  Although, really, that's only marginally more ridiculous.

One other point to make here, is that there is a somewhat sad takeaway from this information.  That is, the mortality of baby box turtles must be extremely high.  If evolution has worked it out that a turtle needs to lay 3 clutches of eggs spanning 3 years, in order to ensure that 1 makes it to adulthood, that is truly sad.

As such, for my part in this, I have moved all 5 babies indoors, and they are living in a little terrarium in the office.  Hopefully I'll get them all to survive and find them forever homes.  My brother is already planning on taking a couple of them.

2020-09-24 - Day 193

Baby box turtles

Over the past 193 days, I have had some days where it was easy to find something to write about, and others, not so much.  It's always amusing when I get that spark and say, "Ferb, I know what I'm going to write about today."  Today was one of those days.

Way back on day #23, I wrote about Walter the box turtle coming out from hibernation.  This signals the beginning of spring.

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What Walter the box turtle might look like

Evidently, what signals the beginning of Autumn, is Walter having babies.

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What baby box turtles in a terracotta water bowl might look like

Like many stories that involve baby turtles, this one is longer than just this event.  See...  We've had Walter for some 3 years now.  He lives in an enclosure in the garden out back.  Last year, while prepping his pen for winter, I dug up a clutch of eggs!!  This was amazing for 2 reasons.  First, Walter is not a dude.  And second, Walter laid eggs.  There were 5 of them.  And they all died.  Because they should never have been dug up.  Had I known it was even possible for there to be eggs, I'd have not done that.  And yes, I have felt terrible about that ever since.

Zoom forward a couple of weeks.  2 fully formed baby box turtles appeared in the enclosure.  Evidently there were more eggs.  Both of these appeared to be alive for a while.  But they ended up dying too.

That was last year.  By all accounts, that should be the end of the story.  But it's not.  Because today I went out to feed Waler and refill the water, and found 2 babies walking around in the enclosure!

They are both fine and healthy.  They do not have little yolk sacs on their belly as new hatchlings would.  Which means that they hatched some time over the summer, and no one noticed them until now!

And that makes no sense at all.  Because I gave that enclosure the same full digging, new mulch treatment that I did last year, and never saw ANY evidence of these little guys.

My brother has wanted a baby box turtle forever.  So he will be taking one.  My son has already laid claim to the other one.  Because, well...  He wants to keep it.

UPDATE:  I just went to check on them again.  There are 3 now.

 

2020-09-23 - Day 192

It seems I was right

Alert - today's post will be a political one.

I said a couple of days ago that this would happen.  And now The Orange One has actually said it out loud.  He wants to make sure that a new conservative judge is confirmed on the court, because he expects to dispute the election.

Look...  Here are the facts of the matter.  The SCOTUS us supposed to remain fair and unbiased.  And here we have the f'n president telling us that he is intentionally stacking the court in his favor.  How this is even legal, I do not know.  Maybe it's not.  But who is going to do anything about it?  Clearly this administration is above the law and completely without restraint.  And it really kills me how much of this country thinks that is just fine.

Our founding fathers set up a whole lot of rules that were supposed to keep things fair and balanced.  The GOP has been taking advantage of every opportunity to circumvent those rules and then say things like, "We are legally allowed."

Just because something is legal doesn't make it right.  And speaking of things that aren't right...  Back in 2016 Obama nominated Merrick Garland to the SCOTUS.  The GOP led Senate was told repeatedly that they had a Constitutional obligation to follow through on that nomination.  It was unconstitutional to leave the court with a vacant seat.  But they let it sit for 10 months and then nominated their own conservative judge.  They STOLE that seat to stack the court.  They broke the law to do it.  And no one has ever been held accountable for that.

Look - I don't' give a shit if you believe this or agree with it, or what you actually think about it.  The fact is that was McConnell and the Senate did was against the law...  AND it was wrong.

Now we are faced with a situation where there is a vacant seat.  And even though, it's only a few weeks before the election, they are insisting that it's their obligation to seat a new judge.  Which, by their own argument can't be done.  Again...  This is just wrong.  Especially since they intend to purposely stack the court with another Conservative judge.  They are also doing this against the wishes of the majority of the American people.  Even the Republicans are saying it's wrong.  They are doing this against the dying wish of the woman who left the seat vacant.

It's just wrong...  Wrong all over the place.  It makes them outrageous hypocrites.  And the really shitty thing is that if this goes really sideways, we could see this stacked court side with Trump as he fraudulently steals the election.  And if that happens, our democracy will have finally ended.  There will be nothing to salvage at that point.

It make me absolutely sick and angry as hell that so much of this country supports this pile of bullshit.  I am SO goddamn sick of seeing these evil bastards keep winning and keep doing victory dances.  And right now they are doing it on RBG's grave.  They started the motions before her body was even cold.  It's just f'd up.

We need to VOTE.  We need to vote in HUGE numbers so that there can be NO CHANCE of a challenge.  This entire country is at stake.  And if you don't believe that, YOU are part of the problem.  

2020-09-22 - Day 191

No title comes to mind

Perhaps it's just too early in the day to have anything to say.  I've gotten lot done today.  And perhaps it's because I've been working that I haven't put much thought into anything else.  So what should I talk about this morning?

Would you like to hear about how I had to figure out a different way to import data from SQL Server Management Studio into Excel, because someone didn't refresh the SSL certificate, and I can't refresh the data as normal, so I had to run it the hard way, export it to a CSV then import into Excel, and transforming the data on the way in so it maintains the proper values?

I didn't think so.  But that's what my morning mostly consisted of so far.  For what it's worth, the newest version of Excel is WAY better at that sort of thing than it used to be.  It actually works now.

Anyway...  Get outside and enjoy the weather.  It isn't going to last much longer.  Because, you know...

It's going to happen.  Pumpkin spice is soon to be replaced.

2020-09-21 - Day 190

What did we learn today?

Well, yesterday, really...  I learned two things.  First, more people read my blog than I was previously aware.  Thank you for that, by the way.  Second, I need to be aware of posting information, where I'm purposely leaving out details.  I did this yesterday because I was in a rush, and didn't feel like trying to explain that we were delivering a cat to upstate NY.  Because I left out the details of why I was going, both my wife and I received messages asking if our daughter was okay.  For the record, yes, she is okay. 

This was a mistake, obviously...  This is on me.  In this day and age of #COVID-19, and certainly as it applies to college students, there can be no ambiguity when discussing unplanned visits.  Because that ambiguity may be interpreted as "uh oh, what is the matter?!"

So I will be more careful about that going forward.  

In other news, the Eagles game was a huge disappointment yesterday.  Unless you are a Rams fan, then it was great!  But on the other hand, the Cowboys game was truly entertaining.  They were losing all game long.  Never took the lead.  Somehow in the 4th quarter they rallied to be withing 2 points.  Then they successfully pulled of an onside kick.  That is something that almost never works.  But it did.  Then they kicked a field goal and stole the game.  I could hear the cries of horror from the Falcon's sideline.  It was brutal.  But for us spectators, that was truly entertaining.

2020-09-20 - Day 189

Road trip! (cancelled)

UPDATE:  Trip is a no go.  The original intention was to bring one of the cats up to our daughter.  She (the cat) has been very upset since her human went off to school.  And it has been worse since the kittens joined the house.  So we were going to give her a new home with her human.  As it turns out, getting her in to a cage just wasn't going to happen.

Have you ever tried stuffing an octopus into a cat carrier?  How about one with claws and teeth?  So it looks like that's not gonna happen.

So now we don't know what to do with ourselves today...

--Original text

Taking a ride to upstate NY today.  I will explain later, as I will update this post when I get back.  I will be driving for some 10 hours total today.

This has the upshot of keeping me away from news outlets and the internet in general, which is a good thing.  Because the news makes me angry nowadays.

Never before in my life have I ever woken up every day to see the country SO divided.  And a little less than half the country is hell bent on keeping it that way, no matter what it costs everyone else.  In fact they are actively trying to MAKE it that way. Which is why the news makes me so angry.

You people that are seeing enemies everywhere you look, and are terrified of them all day, every day...  You really need to take a closer look at the people that are perpetuating that nonsense.  You are being fed lies to keep you terrified.

2020-09-19 - Day 188

Saturday! October in September

RIP Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  That is sad for 2 very important reasons.  First, she was a great person who accomplished a lot in her 87 years.  It is sad that she passed.  She was an ally.  One of the good ones.  An equal rights and gender equality advocate, she was the perfect person to have served on the Supreme Court for the past 27 years.  Which leads to my second point.  And it's not a good one.

This is an opportunity for the GOP run Senate to complete ignore her wishes that her position not be filled until after the election.  We already know what's going to come next.  They are going to ram through another conservative judge ala Judge Kegstand, and this will set the SCOTUS on a conservative majority that will effectively make the courts useless.  This will in turn make it so that the criminal currently running the country will pretty much be able to get away with anything, no matter how unconstitutional.

The court was the only thing left that wasn't controlled by the GOP.  This now gives them the ability to change that.  And that spells real trouble for this country.  Because when the white supremacist, mysogonist, criminal asshole running the country wants to claim fraud in the election, and throw out all votes that are not for him, the courts will back him.  And he will win the fucking election!!!

We were all hoping that RBG would last beyond election day if only to avoid this disaster.  And that hope may well have died with her.  We are in REAL trouble now.

I don't like being wrong.  But I hope to hell I am wrong about this one!!

please

Please, for the love of all that is great and small, may I be wrong about this one.

2020-09-18 - Day 187

One more thing about hockey

I watched that last game with the Islanders and Tampa Bay...  Those dudes played six games.  The last 3 of which were tied 1 to 1 for most of the game, and then went into overtime.

That is a long time to play to simply determine who can get the luckiest shot off.  Because seriously, both of those teams are so equally matched that it was like watching dudes skate around for 4 hours and occasionally get into a fight.  The point being, neither of the teams deserved to win.  Neither team is better than the other.  One just got one more lucky shot.

I was at a Sixers game a couple of years ago where it was the exact same thing.  It went to 2 seconds left at the end of game 7.  And the game was decided by a single shot at the buzzer.  They played 7 full games to have it all decided with one shot because they ran out of time.

It the teams are really THAT equal, then we need to come up with a better way to decide who is really the better team.

Eh...  I still like watching.  So this is a minor gripe.  More like an observation.

2020-09-17 - Day 186

More about sports

I seem to be saying a lot about sports lately.  There was a long dry spell for a few months there.  So I'm glad it's all back, even if it is a little weird.

Tonight is both hockey and football!!  I guess which I watch will depend on which one is better, or which one sucks less.

Jeopardy! is also back.  I forgot to mention that the other day.  They have a new set, complete with social distancing goodness.  Other than sports it's really the only thing on TV I like watching.  And I have been watching since Trebek starting hosting some 430 years ago.  Back in the days when you could pick up Channel 7 on the FM radio, I listened to it while I was driving.  See, back in those days I was driving, delivering tropical fish.  So I was driving a lot!

2020-09-16 - Day 185

Day 185? Really?

I probably should just give up on being surprised that this is still going on.  I seriously never intended to have a blog that lasted this long.  But, since the pandemic is still on, so is this blog.

I hope you all have been entertained to some degree.  I've stuck to my words that I said at the beginning.  I've posted every day.  Some days have been happy.  Some days have been angry rants about the pathetic stupidity of our government that allowed a reality TV show host and con man, to totally run this country into the ground, and blame everyone else in the meantime.

I cannot wait until the day comes when I can wake up in the morning and not have to think about what stupid shit the President did over the past day or so.  That has been every day for almost 4 years.

Just think about that for a second...  This country has NEVER been so polarized.  We have never had an incompetent whackjob in the driver's seat.  Still upset about this pandemic, being unemployed, losing your house, not being able to attend sporting events and concerts, and all the rest?  Trump has now admitted in his own words, on tape, that he downplayed it.  There can be no doubt at all, whatsoever, that this is his fault.  And our only recourse is to vote him and everyone that supports him out.

Do whatever you have to, but get out and vote!

There are 47 days, 18 hours, 46 minutes, and 8 seconds left until #Election2020 Day

2020-09-15 - Day 184

Hockey is still on

Just finished watching the Islanders game.  Looks like there will be a game 6.  It was tied from the first period at 1 to 1.  No one scored again for 2 more periods of regulation.  Then no one scored in overtime.  The Islanders finally scored in second overtime.  Sheesh.

The only reason I'm rooting for the Islanders in this series is because they beat the Flyers and took them out of the series.  So much like some old SciFi story, they now absorb the fans of the Flyers going forward.  That's my view on it.

And just think, right after the Stanley Cup finals, the hockey season will be ready to kick off again!!  Haha!!

2020-09-14 - Day 183

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 24th wedding anniversary!  Happy anniversary to my lovely wife!

Short entry today.  That is all.

2020-09-13 - Day 182

More football!

Well, okay, the Eagles lost in spectacular fashion.  But I still enjoyed watching.  I am now watching the Saints/Buccaneers.  The funniest part of this game is that the two QBs are almost my age!  They are both in their 40's!

Speaking of the Eagles game...  The played against the Washington Re...Football Team, Est 1932.

Look, I'm as liberal as they come, and even I think it has gone entirely too far that they forced Washington to drop their name.  What makes it even sillier is that they knew for years that people had a problem with the name.  They were well aware they were going to have to do something about it.  Still, they waited until push came to shove.  And since they didn't do an ounce of work to find a new name, they just went with, "Fine.  We won't have a name then."  nyah

Which is just SO childish.  What are you, 5?  And the NFL let them do it.  They are literally telling everyone to shove it up their asses, and the NFL is letting them.

Pfft...  Whatever.  Let them act like children.  Not the team.  This is all about the management.  Bunch of children.

Oh - one more thing.  My son and his girlfriend refurbished a huge cat condo.  They love it.  Here is Zeus being evil.

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I need to get a higher resolution version of that.  It's hysterical.

2020-09-12 - Day 181

It is officially fall

There are 3 reasons that I know this.

  • Pumpkin spice has arrived at 7-11
  • I watched a football game the other day
  • I'm wearing a flannel right now

That last point is a big one.  Because I haven't worn a shirt with sleeves since June or something.  But I woke up this morning to a distinct crisp chill in the air.  

It is at this point that I will stop talking about the weather out here on the east coast to acknowledge that the west coast is currently in the middle of the worst wildfires that this country, or any country, has ever seen.  Entire towns have not just burned down, but been completely incinerated.

This is a departure from what I normally write in this blog.  And I did not plan it.  It is coming to me as I type it.

NASA images from space show devastation and spread of West Coast fires -  Insider

If you have the means to help, please use this handy Google search to find a charity for which to donate.  It's not like you are going to become a firefighter and go to the west coast.  But there are things you can do to help.

Now back to my regularly schedule blog post, already in progress...

...Because the summer is over, I will be spending today tearing down the gardens and trimming the bushes to get the property ready for winter.  I will also change the flag out front to something more autumn appropriate.

2020-09-11 - Day 180

Today is 9/11

19 years.  I don't think I need to remind everyone what happened on that day.  And I'm not going to drop another one of those "Never forget!" messages, because of course, if you were alive that day, there is no way you're going to forget it.

But I will point out 2 things that are extremely important that we ALSO should not forget.

  1. Our government facilitated the escape of the family of the terrorist that organized the attack as well as members of the Saudi Royal family.  Got them private planes.  Spirited them out of the country.  This was done before the FBI could even talk to them.  That happened.  We still do business with Saudi Arabia.  The President recently sold them $billions in weapons and equipment. 
  2. As of right now, the death toll from a preventable pandemic is about 191,911.  That is a shocking coincidence in numbers.  But what is even more shocking is that it is 64 times the number of people that died on 9/11.  But go on pretending that it's not real.  Go on saying that it's okay for the leader of the country to downplay it and lie about the severity of it.

If don't care which side of the aisle you stand on.  If you are not outraged by this, or if you are blaming fictitious groups like Antifa for all our problems, you really need to pay better attention to this world.

2020-09-10 - Day 179

Football!!

Or as it is known elsewhere in the world, American Rules Football!

At the moment that I'm typing this, we are about 20 minutes from kickoff.  And this will be the single strangest NFL game we have ever seen.  I will post my thoughts on it tomorrow.  I just thought I would mention it now because, I am very excited to watch the game.

I don't care what anyone says, I love football.  And since I don't have a Fantasy team or any other pool this year, I can actually enjoy watching the games without the pressure of giving a crap who wins.

Which is a much better way to enjoy the show.  And tonight's game will be cool because it's the Chiefs.  And they won the Superb Owl last year!!

2020-09-09 - Day 178

It`s Wednesday, right?

It is.  I had a dentist appointment today.  That's always a good way to remember.  So, work in the morning, go to the dentist, deal with that, get caught in traffic on the way home.  Now I'm back at work waiting for a 4:00 meeting to start, and typing this blog entry while I wait.

I had to drive out to where my office is for my appointment.  I moved my dentist out there back in January.  Because it didn't make sense to drive all the way home to go to the dentist.  I figured I'd move my dentist out to where my office is.  It was a brilliant plan until a pandemic made it so that I am now working from home, and now I have to drive a 1/2 hour to go to the dentist.  Brilliant!

After all, though, there is an upside.  I like this dentist WAY better than my old one.  Like, a whole heap better.  I would drive an hour to see them over the last one.  So even though i am poking fun at how it ended up like this, I'm so happy with their service, that I am not at all complaining.

 

2020-09-08 - Day 177

Back to work

Ah the joys of getting back to work after a long weekend.  Always especially fun when it's also the first day of knowing that things get really busy once the summer officially ends.  The time of everyone being off for weeks at a time is over.  So everyone is revving up their engines.

This sort of thing is always more evident when I'm in the office.  It wasn't so evident here in my home office.  All I saw was a good bit more email than usual.

Whatever...  It's just as well.  Because I was super busy anyway.  Since most of you don't know or care what I do, I'll just sum today up with a pretty simple explanation.  Big Excel files.  Lots of data.  Big project that needs to be ready for demo tomorrow.  It's ready.  But, man, it's been a lot of doing.

In completely unrelated news, one of my neighbors is going hardcore with a leaf blower right now.  Which is odd for 2 reasons:  1, It's a bit early in the year for that.  And 2, it's pitch black dark outside.  

I can't even tell who it is.  Because as I said, it's pitch black dark outside.

2020-09-07 - Day 176

Happy Labor Day

Today is Monday-Sunday, Labor Day.  It was a good day.  We went for a walk around Washington Crossing.  Nature was out in full force.  They've got to get it in before the weather changes too...

I dragged a huge tree limb from across the street and sawed it up for firewood.  I'm that guy who doesn't see the need to pay for firewood.  There is wood all over the place.  I'd rather do the work any.  I could use the exercise.

Tomorrow it's back to work.  Which means I will be spinning my office chair around at 8:00AM.  That's the single shortest commute I've ever had.  It's even shorter than my old commute, which was to go downstairs to the dining room.

 

2020-09-06 - Day 175

Second Saturday

One more day of the weekend to go.  This of course also means the last day of the summer. booooo

But in all reality the summer as a "break", hasn't meant much to me since I left high school.  I don't get a break for the summer. The only thing that changes for us working people is that the weather changes.  And since Labor Day doesn't mean that the weather automatically changes, I've still got some time to worry about that.

On another note altogether, I was out recording today.  This has been an interesting project.  The music is all written for the most part.  So much of what I'm doing is learning the parts and playing them as a guitarist would.  And the solos.  Which in itself is a challenge.  I've always considered myself more of a rhythm player than a soloist.  So this has been an opportunity for me to do some different stuff.  I finished the solo for one song, and did the rhythms for another.  When it came time to work on the solo for that song, I was intending to just improv a couple of things so there was something there as a guide to use for later.  But it actually sounded good enough that we just said, "Yeah, that's a keeper right there."

At some point this music will be released.  But we are still a ways off from that.  There are other musicians that need to record their parts, and mixing to be done.  And all of this is being done by one dude.  

Anyway...  More information on this will come along as more becomes available.

2020-09-05 - Day 174

Labor Day weekend

Here we are at the official end of summer.  You know what that means.  Back to school!  Or, in 2020, back to your laptops and iPads for Zoom meetings!

All I can say is, I hope all goes well.  It sucks.  It all sucks.  174 days and about 187,000 dead.  The entire summer gone.  We are only now just allowing eating inside restaurants in NJ.  Who knows how well that will go.

You know, at this point, I can't even just blame the orange one who shall not be named, because he needs no more mentions...  Our entire government has failed us.  Because we all know that our government is set up with checks and balances to prevent one person from totally screwing things up.  But those checks and balances only work when the people in control actually make USE of those systems.  This government has had more than just a few opportunities to fix this mess.  And they have done exactly nothing.  People are starving and can't pay for housing.  But the government won't provide relief because that would discourage you lazy people from finding new work.

This situation is not going to change as long as this administration is still in power.  And since the rest of our completely useless government is content to just let that be the case, all we can do is wait until after the election.  Hopefully it won't be a ridiculous disaster like last time.  But we are powerless to do anything but wait.

Have fun with this.  You really have no other choice.

If you are one of the 40someodd% of people that are planning on voting for this administration again, I really just have NO idea what you are thinking.  Because you are voting for more of this horror.  It's like setting your own face on fire to show everyone how dedicated you are.

2020-09-04 - Day 173

New vaccine

So let me get this straight...  A few weeks ago, it was very well known, and very clear that there was no chance of any sort of vaccine anywhere in the world for at least another year.  And now, like a miracle, we are going to have one by November first.  An amazing coincidence that it happens to be right before election day, even though the current administration swears it's not politically motivated.

Could it be more obvious that the current administration is simply strong-arming the CDC to simply SAY that there is vaccine coming?  It's not true.  It couldn't be.  But that doesn't matter.  The people that want it to be true will believe it to be true.

And when we watch the news now, the president will no longer even entertain that there is anything to be done in controlling this virus.  Because he is providing a cure.  And that should be the end of it.

I would shake my head in disbelief, but my capacity for no longer believing things has run dry.

2020-09-03 - Day 172

Sports

I'm sitting here watching the Flyers game, and it occurs to me...  We went to a Flyers game a few months ago.  It seems like that was forever ago.  And here's the thing.  That game was THIS season!

That is just ridiculous.

UPDATE:  They won in double overtime!  Holy crap!

 

2020-09-02 - Day 171

Election 2020, the Android App

Over the course of the past 171 days, I must have made mention of the Android App that counts down to election day, right?  Well, if I hadn't, I have now.

And here is the story I spoke of yesterday...  About a week ago, I made an update to the app, and while I was at it, I made an update to the description that shows up in the Play Store. I included a line about how important it is to find alternative ways to vote (mail in, absentee ballots, or voting early) because the existence of #COVID-19 is making it difficult for some people to vote in person as normal.  

What didn't occur to me was that Google is extremely sensitive to people making ANY sort of mention to the pandemic.  Evidently a lot of developers had tried to capitalize on it in order to drive traffic.  People making false claims, or offering bad information, things like that.  So in order to protect everyone on Earth from the horrors of bad information, they will suspend any app that even mentions the name of the virus.  That means that even if you aren't making any claims of any kind, and just say the word, your app is suspended.

This is not something to be taken lightly.  If you get 2 or 3 apps suspended, they will ban your developer account for life!!  That may seem like a really harsh penalty.  And that's because it's a REALLY harsh penalty.  But if you want to play, you've got to play by their rules.  So as a developer, you have to be really REALLY careful to not do things that get your app suspended.

What really annoys me about this is that if they are trying to be that careful with people making references to the virus in app descriptions, then why don't they flag it and WARN the developer at the time the edit is being made?  It's not like it's difficult to do that.  Instead, they let it through, and at the time of manual review they catch the phrase, don't bother to check for context, and just suspend the app.  And here it is 6 days later, and I only just now got word that my appeal was successful and the app has been reinstated.

Yeah, I get it.  I broke the rules because I didn't know the rules.  That's my fault.  I take responsibility.  But Google could have saved a shitload of time and hassle for me and their approval team, if they had just warned me when I made the change rather than suspending the app.

This is actually typical of Google.  If you've ever worked with their Developer Tools, you will find all sorts of crazy automated processes that shoot first and ask questions later.  They do this because they are just too big.  There aren't enough people in the world to monitor and moderate ALL the stuff that comes through theirs systems.  So they have processes to do it automatically.  Like dragging a huge fishing net across the internet.  If you get caught in the net, it could take anywhere from 1 day to 30 days to never to get your issue resolved.

Like I said before...  If you want to play, you have to play by their rules.  Because there is NO alternative.

2020-09-01 - Day 170

Happy September

Yay!  It's a new month.  And the only really good thing I can say about it is that we are one day closer to election day.  Speaking of election day, I have a story to tell.  I just don't feel like telling it right this very second, because I am still a little miffed about it.  That will be in tomorrow's update.

For today...  Had to take my daughter's car out to visit her uncle because the brakes need to be done.  It happens.  It is a 2011 after all.  And I can't remember the last time I got the brakes done.  So clearly it was WAY due.  Hopefully that will go smoothly.

2020-08-31 - Day 169

Ah, Monday... Here again

It is also September eve.  And you know what that means...  Pumpkin spice everything.  Which if you're like me, is great.  I love it.  If you are not like me then, well, sorry about that.

Today's biggest accomplishment seems to be that I got my video working on MS Teams?  Why is that important?  Well, for all of you that don't work in an office usually, us people that work in offices usually, really only see our co-workers anymore via video conference.  In my case, MS Teams.

It is somewhat ironic that I am the resident tech guru in my group, and I'm the only one that's having trouble with video.  Mind you, I know what the problem is, compared to everyone else.  In short, my internet connection is too slow to deal with all the overhead that MS Teams already has.  So the camera just gives up.  For what it's worth, if you use MS teams, and are having the same problem, use the web based version rather than the client.  Less overhead.  It actually works WAY better.

Being the resident tech guru, I can tell you that that is really odd.  In most cases, you want to use the client because it removes the overhead of having to use a browser.  How is it that the client itself has MORE overhead than the browser?  That's anyone's guess...  Well, anyone who doesn't work for Microsoft coding MS Teams.  I'm sure they know.

Anyway, this story serves as my technology tip for the day.  You're welcome.

2020-08-30 - Day 168

Sunday, the Sunday of weekends

Even in these times of not being able to go into the office I find myself on Sunday thinking, "Well...  Back to work tomorrow."  I'm still having a hard time believing that this is the routine that we are in.  This has actually become so normal now that I'm tired of hearing people call it "the new normal".  This isn't new any more.  This is old, like furry green bread old.  Like an apple turning brown and looking like a shrunken head, old.

This is now just "normal".  And get used to it.  Get used to the masks.  Get used to takeout or eating outside.  Get used to sporting events with no fans.  Because it's not going to change until after the election.  And if shit goes sideways, and the Orange Buffoon remains in office, this will literally continue along until everyone dies or becomes immune.  And that will likely take years.

2020-08-29 - Day 167

RIP Black Panther

I was walking out of 7-11 with my coffee this morning and see the headline that Chadwick Boseman, the actor who had played real-life and historical figures such as Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and James Brown, not to mention the much beloved and critically acclaimed Black Panther, has died. 

He was 43 years old and died from colon cancer.  Something that he somehow managed to keep completely secret.  He was going through therapies and surgeries while filming Black Panther!!

This really does make me angry at the universe.  Because it proves that there is no level of fairness or justice at all.  Here we have a guy who is loved and respected pretty much universally, for all the good he had brought to this world.  Even if you're not a fan of his films, the characters that he chose to portray were ALSO much beloved and respected, and great people that brought good to this world.  By all accounts, he was considered a really good dude in his personal life too.

There is no way someone like this deserves to be dead for no reason at all.

Not when there are truly evil, horrible people, causing real harm, and real damage, and real death to this world.  And they are living just fine into their 70's, and nothing is keeping them in check.  They are going to just keep going, inflicting pain on this world, while good people die.  It's not fair.  I know I'm talking into the breeze here.  But it's not f'n fair.

WTF, universe?!?  Seriously, WTF?

2020-08-28 - Day 166

Hahaha....Hahaha

This is truly laughable in so many ways.  Somehow, the Biden campaign managed to snatch up the domain for KeepAmericaGreat.com.  And, oh yes, I am posting about it.  And yes.  I would like you to actually look at the link.  I would like you to read the page.  Understand that everything written there is 100% factual, and not skewed by any sort of bias.  It is telling you the fact-checked reality of this situation.

2020-08-27 - Day 165

Cat and mouse

Last night, I was standing out on the front porch...  Precious (the cat) runs up onto the porch and wants to get in the house.  My son was walking out at the same time. I was like, "Wait!  Don't open the door!!  She's got a mouse!"

A few minutes later, she dropped the mouse.  It was still alive! So we held on to the cat until the mouse leaped off the porch to safety.  Of course Precious immediately bolted after it.

A few minutes after that, the mouse climbed back up on to the porch and ran right in front of us.  That was funny on its own.  But the next thing was even more funny.  It run UP the bricks on the front part of the house.  It ran full speed right up the window and all the way to the roof of the porch.  I've never actually seen a mouse do that before.  That was hysterical.  Then I turn around to see Precious on the top of the bush, still looking for the mouse.  Never seen her do that before.  That was also hysterical!

For the next 15 minutes or so Precious was searching all over the porch area.  I had to laugh as I quoted the line from Avatar, "Her entire life, she has never thought to look up.  Why would she?"  So she never figured out that the mouse was above my head on the wall.

2020-08-26 - Day 164

Mild political rant

Let us break down how the TV adverts are going...  And look, I've made no bones about my unwavering contempt for the buffoon that is currently running this country.  But the difference in how these campaigns are being run is clear and present regardless of my bias against the Orange Menace.  I can actually break down, in an unbiased way, the difference between the Presidential campaigns. 

And if you need validation of any of this, just turn on your TV for 10 minutes.  You will see both of these ads in some form.

Trump:  "Biden will raise your taxes by 40 trillion dollars, fire all the police, and force us into socialism.  Your children will be shot dead in the streets.  The economy will go completely to shit, and the stock market will drop 25%  He is a liar, corrupt, slow, tired, and unfit."

Biden:  "We need to unify this country.  There is hope for a better time.  I will be President for everyone, not just those that vote for us.  Here is my plan for how to get a handle on the pandemic, and how we can get this economy back on track. I will take responsibility for what happens, and not blame others.  We need actual leadership.  We currently have none."

I am not in any way exaggerating any of that.  

The bottom line is, you have one campaign that is running on "let's get shit done."  And the other is just trying as hard as they can to trash the other candidate.  One campaign has plans, and intends to put them in action.  The other campaign literally has no platform other than unwavering support for a cult figure.

I know it is an uphill battle trying to convince supporters of "he who will not be named because he doesn't need more mentions", but please, people.  Open your eyes.  Pay closer attention than the nonsense you are being fed by right-biased "news" sources.  I am not suggesting left-bias either.  There are plenty of neutral sources. 

What I'm saying is that one candidate clearly a better message.  He ain't perfect.  But he is running a clean campaign.  And any functional adult is FAR better than the monster we've got right now.

2020-08-25 - Day 163

Glad to be back at work

There is still no explanation for why the internet was out for a full day.  But it happened.  About the only thing that can be said is that I got an extra day off for it.  And because it wasn't my fault, I didn't have to take a day from the system.  It counted as a snow day.  This, by the way, is one of the greatest perks of all when working for a very large company.  They trust you with your time management.  They know you aren't going to take advantage and screw them.  They know that you will make up the time when things like this happen.  It's called, "being professional."

And as such, I will be ramping up my efforts over the next few days to make up for that lost time on Monday.

2020-08-24 - Day 162

Work, but then not so much

I got back to work this morning, because vacation was over.  But it turns out, I am not able to work after all.  Last night the internet went out.  This happens from time to time, so I wasn't concerned.

But this morning, it was still out.  It's 3:45pm as I am typing this and it's STILL out.  I am using the hotspot on my phone for my internet connection right now.  I tried using it to do my regular work.  That just didn't work at all!  So even though I intended to go back to work today, there is no way for me to go back to work because I have no internet.

What's really strange that Verizon is not saying anything about why the internet connection has been down for some 20 hours now.

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What an outage map might look like

This isn't just some minor little issue either.  This is all over the place.  And certainly REALLY bad in the Northeast, where I live.

I really do wonder if we will ever find out what's going on, or if Verizon will just never speak of it.

 

2020-08-23 - Day 161

Last day of vacation

And this time it really WAS a vacation.  We actually went somewhere!  Today has been spent shopping and getting some things done around the house.  I was going to cut the grass, but it started raining, and that was that.

Got to watch the Sixers game.  The final in the series.  And they are out of the playoffs. booooo  Eh, that's the way it goes.  But in all seriousness, I'm not really a huge fan, other than my association with all Philly teams.  If I had to choose who "my team is", it would be them, because Philly...  The actual fact is that I'm a sports fan no matter who is playing.  I just like watching a good game.  Point being, I can't get all worked up about the Sixers losing.  It was just fun to watch them play.  Right now I'm watching The Mavericks.  Because that's what's on.

A word on the way that sports are being played right now.  A few months ago, I suggested that since they can't have fans in the arenas, they should put a video device in the seat and sell tickets to people who can then stream the game from that seat, and their face will appear on the device in the seat in the stands.  So all the fans can go to the game from their couch at home.

And they are doing precisely what I was thinking!  Only larger screens.  I suppose in terms of cool ideas, it was low hanging fruit.  It was clearly an idea that someone was bound to implement pretty much as soon as they could.  So it's not like anyone owes me for that idea.  I just find it amusing as hell.

 

2020-08-22 - Day 160

Driving home

We had a couple of days in upstate NY.  Now it's time to drive home.  And we did.  The drive was fine and uneventful.  The cats were happy to see us.

About the only other thing I can say is that we really like going up there.  So it was great to take a road trip.  Well that, and it's kinda weird, the daughter not being around.

You see...  We had finally gotten used to the kids being out of the house, and at school.  Then 160 days ago, we all got locked in.  We got really used to having all of us here...

So now that she's back out of the house again, there is a very strange emptiness that I didn't expect to feel.  And in fact, I said as much on the way home yesterday.  Because I started to feel it less than 20 minutes into the ride home.

2020-08-21 - Day 159

Lake Ontario

In case you didn't know, the Wisconsin ice sheet receded from North America some 75,000 years ago.  And thank goodness it happened back then.  Because if had happened last Wednesday, we wouldn't be nearly so pleased.  The other upshot of this, is that the ice left behind these gigantic lakes.  What's another word for like, 'really, really, big'?  Whatever...

If you've never actually stood on the shore of one of the great lakes, I encourage you to do so.  It really is amazing.  It's looks like you're looking out over the ocean.

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I've flown over the Great Lakes before, and that's always cool.  But I'd never actually gone to stand on the shore.  The opportunity just never presented itself.  Until today.  We drove north until we saw water.  It only took about 45 minutes.

When I finally found an actual beach I got out and said, "Well, I didn't know exactly what I was looking for.  But THIS is what I was looking for."  It really is like being at the ocean, except there are no seagulls, it's not that windy, there's no sand, no salt, no sharks, no jellyfish, no horseflies, and it doesn't smell like 30 million things just died nearby.  It's like being at the shore but only the good parts.

That picture there is the southern side of Lake Ontario in Oswego, NY.  It's just west of the SUNY campus.  I never knew that there was a college with dorms overlooking the lake.  That was cool.

That's the story for the day...  On our way home tomorrow.  

2020-08-20 - Day 158

Road trip day!

Today has been a LONG day.  It feels strange to say that this is day 158 of the shut in.  Because I am not shut in.  I'm in a hotel in upstate NY.

The day started bright and early.  Had the car loaded to the hilt and on the road at 9:00am.  Which is actually pretty good time-wise.  We made it here about 2:00pm.  Then daughter and I went to do the move in.

It took longer to sit on line for the check in than to do the actual move.  She had to be tested for COVID-19 again, of course.  Then we finished moving her in.  Then went to WalMart to grab some necessities.

Here it is 10:00pm...  I'm finally sitting in bed and typing this.  And that's all I have to say for now.  I'm f'n tired.  Did I mention it was a LONG day?

2020-08-19 - Day 157

Tomorrow is road trip day

As of right now, no news about my daughter's school closing.  So, we are on our way.  More to follow tomorrow.

2020-08-18 - Day 156

The nerd is strong with this one

One of the things I like to do, simply because it interests me to do so, is coding.  You know, like writing programs and stuff.  It should not surprise you to learn this if you didn't know it already.  If you've read anything in the blog you've read about various projects.  Today I would like to tell a story related to that...

Check out this page.

All the stuff on that page are little JavaScript applets.  Small programs to do something interesting or useful.  They are built in such a way that anyone can copy a line of code from the page and use that little applet on any site.  Anyway...  The second one on the page is an analog clock.  Some person on Quora today asked, "How do you build a digital clock in JavaScript?"  And, so I answered.  But even as I was writing the answer about how I already made an analog clock, I was thinking that it didn't really answer the question properly.  Because it's not a digital clock.

And I thought, well, actually, why haven't I built one of those?  That would look pretty cool, and it wouldn't take long to build it at all.  Like, an hour or so.  So I did.  Now there is a digital clock available for use.  And as a bonus the dude that asked about it, can download the code and learn something from it.

The point of this story...
I've been doing this stuff since long before it was cool.  I started when I was like 15 or something.  I'd always been fascinated with computers and how to build software.  And I immediately started learning how to do it.  And this story is one of the reasons I've always been glad to have learned that.  Because today, I can solve spiffy little problems like that.  And it just feels cool to do that.  It's so very nerdy.

Anyway, I thought you'd like to know that.

2020-08-17 - Day 155

Monday #22

We have kittens that are younger than this pandemic.  That just occurred to me actually.

Every other civilized country in the world has got this thing under control.  We can't even say that we are on the down slope.  Much of the country is still finding new cases.

This whole thing is like the perfect storm of stupidity.  There are 3 clear things that have been wrong from the beginning:

  1. "This thing is no worse than the flu"
  2. "Since it's no big deal, we don't need to take precautions."
  3. The gotdamned President is STILL downplaying the severity and telling people that points #1 and #2 are totally true.

What the hell is it going to take for people to realize what needs to be done to fix this?  That's a rhetorical question.  Because everyone knows the answer already.  We are just not planning on actually doing that.

In the end, there are enough people out there that are following president numbnuts' lead that no amount of effort by the rest of us is going to make any difference.  Those people are just waiting until everyone who is weak dies off.  Then we can get back to bars, restaurants, sports, haircuts, concerts, and school.  And in their view, all the precautions are doing is delaying that outcome.  If it were up to them, we would drop the precautions right now, and get it over with.

Since I'm taking a short vacation over the next few days, I promise that my posts will be more light-hearted again.

2020-08-16 - Day 154

Another day...

There isn't a whole lot happening today.  The only thing to report is that we are expecting to take our daughter back up to school in a few days.  And our fingers are crossed that that is actually going to happen.  Most of her friends, and her brother, have already been told to stay home.  All college is remote now.  So far her school has not said that.  And we are hoping it stays this way.

We support her decision to go back to school.  Mostly because her school is in the middle of nowhere.  That and they really have taken to extreme measures to assure all student's safety.

What you anonymous people out on the internets don't know is how important this is to her.  She already got screwed out of the end of her freshman year.  And she really wants to get back there.  And we are going to feel terrible if she is not able to.

Yeah, yeah, I know that many people have got much bigger problems.  Shut up.  It doesn't mean we aren't allowed to be concerned.

2020-08-15 - Day 153

Cat fixing day

Today was the day to take the kittens down to the vet to get neutered.  Long story short, they are home now and doing just fine.  They don't hate our guts for the horror they had to go through this morning.  Other than being a little uncomfortable, they are both acting pretty normal.

In unrelated news, except that it is medical in nature...  Our daughter needed to take a COVID-19 test in order to be able to move back up to school.  So she had the school send her a test.  We did that test. Plus she went to the local urgent care, and got a test done there too.  She got the results back today.  Both tests are negative!  

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So it seems she is clear to go!  

And as a bonus, since she spends all her time here, hanging out with us, I'm taking it that everyone in the house has tested negative!  We're clear!

2020-08-14 - Day 152

Finally got the grass cut

And that was a long time coming.  I'm glad it was only 90 degrees out...  Better than it has been.  But still, that was the worst cutting of the season.  Many bags of grass.

On another note entirely...  The President said out loud yesterday, that he refuses to fund the USPS because it will affect his chances in the election.  The man is saying out loud that he intends to obstruct the fair election process.  He claims that it's because of fraud.  But that has been discussed, debunked, and put to bed a LONG time ago.  And besides...  This time he actually said the quiet part out loud.  That he knows he cannot win in a fair election.

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I do not care what side of the aisle you are standing...  We cannot allow our election to get borked.  If you support this action, then you are completely part of the problem.  And you are also most seriously unAmerican.

We need to get out an vote!!  The President is laying the groundwork for there to be legal challenges if there is any chance that this election is even close.  We need to vote in such colossal numbers that no amount of fraud, gerrymandering, voter suppression, or other forms of cheating can allow this race to be close.  It must be a landslide.  And it must be for Biden.  If you love this country and you are the patriot that you claim to be then stop supporting the monster currently occupying the big seat.

Many states are planning on allowing, or in NJ's case, mandating voting by mail.  When you get your ballot, fill it in right away.  Waste no time.  And take it directly to the post office and hand it to them.

That is what I have to say about that.

2020-08-13 - Day 151

Looking for a cat?

If you've been following along for the past few weeks, you may recall that we got a couple of new kittens.  Part of that story included the fact that I was redoing the website for the people that facilitated the adoption.

I am happy to announce that the site is finished and running.

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Feel free to visit Lynn's Animal Rescue:  https://lynnsanimalrescue.org/

The final step was to get their adoption application running live on the site, rather than a PDF, which is all they had before.  That took some time.  It's a lot of fields.  But it's up and running, and they are actively taking new applications.

The cat in the picture there is Zeus.  That is the photo we saw on Facebook that started this whole thing up!  He and his brother, Apollo, are here and doing great!

 

2020-08-12 - Day 150

Finally got word about going back to the office

The word was that we would hear something by September 30th.  Well, we got word today.  And the word is, "Everyone who is working remotely will continue to do so until the beginning of next year.  Then we will be formulating plans for bringing people back to the office early next year."

what?

Haha... What?

When I started up this blog, I thought I would be doing this for a few weeks, tops.  This is now the second time that I am making a statement of disbelief that there is no end in sight.  Curiously, my quick math tells me that the beginning of next year is about 150 days from today.  So, as of right now, if that is correct, we are halfway through.

My optimism is not high that I won't have to make this statement a 3rd time in a few months.

2020-08-11 - Day 149

It is Tuesday

Which of course doesn't mean much.  But I must have made that joke at least 20 times over the past 149 days.  So I'll skip it.  The good news is that we are almost through with this, the economy is improving, people are going back to work and school, and pretty soon things will be normal again.

The bad news is, that is completely the opposite of what is actually happening.

I think I will stop typing now before I go on another rant about how screwed up this whole thing is, and how President Sniveling Asshole could have prevented all of it, but completely failed.  And I might also go as far as to point out that the government HAD the opportunity to remove this moron from power but determined that the extent of his lawbreaking wasn't enough to warrant that.  So this is really on them.

But at least we will have a fair election in a few months.  Oh, wait, no we won't.  The President is actively undermining the election process, and purposely interfering with the mail service, which is really the only way most people have to vote.

The downside of being able to type at like 150 words a minute is that sometimes I'll just keep typing even though I said I wouldn't.  Sorry about that.

2020-08-10 - Day 148

Grounds for Sculpture

We finally made it there.  If you are not familiar with it, Grounds for Sculpture is quite literally what it sounds like.  Grounds that are set aside to act almost like an outside museum of artwork.  There is also really nice and impressive landscaping, cool trees, a couple of ponds, and just generally really cool looking stuff.

To my untrained eye, the sculptures appear to fall into 2 broad categories:

  1. Representations of real world objects
  2. Piles of random garbage, welded together, painted, and given a name

I will say though, that some of those piles of garbage are really impressive from an engineering standpoint.  How does one take 700 feet of bridge cable and seamlessly coil it into a shape?

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Also, when you see people anywhere in the park, you have to look for just a few seconds longer to see if they are real people.  Because a whole lot of them are not.

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This is actually true of the entire surrounding area.  These sorts of sculptures have spilled out all for many blocks outside the actual park.

About the only downside to our outing was that it was like 95 degrees out, and that made for a pretty uncomfortable time.

In the end, it was worth it, though.  Saw some really cool stuff!

2020-08-09 - Day 147

Sunday... Lazy Sunday

It wasn't that lazy, really.  I got a lot done.  I talked to my entire family on the phone.  That's the first time I can say I've done that in a really, REALLY long time.

Tried to go check out Grounds for Sculpture.  They were sold out.  I wonder if it has something to do with not being able to do any manner of indoor activities.

Got tickets for tomorrow...  Going then instead.

2020-08-08 - Day 146

The Bird in the Begonia, PII

A nice light-hearted post today...  Do you remember way back on 7-16, Day 123, when I spoke of the bird who had made a nest in a hanging plant?  She is still there.  And so are her kids.

The other day, during the hurricane, I took down 2 of the plants because it was, you know, really windy.  I wasn't sure what to do with the other one.  Wasn't sure if mommy bird was still there.

At one point I was looking outside, and saw that the mommy bird was chattering about.  I was wondering what it was all about.  I thought maybe there was trouble.  So I carefully pulled down the plant and looked inside.  I was greeted with 3 tiny open mouths.  Awwwe.....

Evidently the noise from mommy bird was to alert the kids that it was feeding time.

Just last night I was sitting on the front porch, and saw mommy bird deliver food to the kids like 3 times.  She is apparently comfortable enough with me sitting right there.

Thought you'd all like that story.

2020-08-07 - Day 145

Fun times

Speaking of Quora (as I did yesterday)...  I find myself there answering questions a lot.  Mostly because I like to write and there are usually some good questions that could benefit from a good answer.  It occurs to me that I write a lot.  Even with all the other stuff I do all the time, I still find time for that.

Today, I found myself writing up an explanation concerning the election.  Read my full post on Quora.com.  I don't feel like typing all that again... I am mentioning it here because I think it is a good read. 

In other news:  It's Friday!  Joy!  Looking forward to the weekend even though I have nothing planned.  In fact, that is probably why I am looking forward to it.

2020-08-06 - Day 144

New tutorial

This is not so much a blog post today as it is a plug for a new project.  A couple of days ago, I found myself answering a question to someone on the internet for how to run ads on your website without using an ad service like Google AdSense.  This may not mean a lot to most of you reading this.  You probably all hate ads anyway.  But if you're interested in knowing a little more about how that sort of thing works, and how you can build your own version of an ad service, I wrote a tutorial to explain how to do it.

Now before you accuse me of making that tutorial for the purposes of blatant self-promotion, and another idea for how to get people to respond to ads that I have on my own sites, you should probably know that I made that tutorial for the purposes of blatant self-promotion, and another idea for how to get people to respond to ads that I have on my own sites.

At least I'm honest about it.

But at the same time...  I do a LOT of stuff.  I'm always thinking of new ideas.  I generally like to discuss what I'm working on.  And in many cases, I like to actually share how it was done too, in hopes that someone else could learn something from it.  So it is somewhat altruistic too.

2020-08-05 - Day 143

Post hurricane day

Yesterday indeed sucked.  But we made it through without any real serious damage.  Despite my complaining, I am cognizant of how others have/had it FAR worse than us.

We lost power from noon until about 5AM.  That's bad, sure.  Others still don't have power.  Others didn't have access to a generator.  Others had trees fall on their houses or cars.  Not to mention flooding issues.

Our total damage equals one grill tent (gazebo) that can't be salvaged.  And that thing only had one season left in it anyway.  As it was, I literally sewed it back together just to get one more season out of it.  So that thing is going on the curb.  The local scrap metal guys will be happy about that.

All the other stuff can be fixed and/or rebuilt.

So yeah, yesterday DID suck, even by 2020 standards.  Which is saying something.  But my heart goes out to those that are still having even worse troubles.  My positive energy goes out to you.

2020-08-04 - Day 142

Hurricane day!

Holy crap!  Hurricane Isaias.

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It seems I may have underestimated this thing.  For the longest time this morning, it was just raining a bit, and I thought that was it.  But now (at 11:04AM) the wind is whipping, debris is flying, and the rain is super heavy!

Looking at that radar, it seems that the worst will be passing by fairly soon.  All I can say is that I hope it does before there is any damage.

Well, gotta get back to work now.  Stay safe everyone!!

UPDATE:  It's 10:00PM now, and I finally have a decent enough internet connection to make a post.  More on that in a minute...

Wow, what a messed up day.  The storm indeed was REALLY bad here.  Remember the gazebo I built a few weeks ago?  It got tore up end flew into the neighbors yard.  Had to retrieve it, and drag it back to our side.  Tomorrow, when there is no hurricane, I'll assess the damage and hopefully rebuild it.

We lost power around noon time.  In 16 years we've live here, the longest we ever lost power was Hurricane Sandy.  That was for like 4 hours or something.  This has already been 10 hours.  And I do not know when power will be back.

So I called my brother and asked if he had a spare generator on hand.  He did.  So now it's in my driveway powering my refrigerator.  There started to be a real concern that we would start melting stuff...  So I took the extra measure to at least get that appliance running.

For internet, which I mentioned before...  I usually take comfort when the power goes out because, I can always use my phone as a hotspot.  And it's actually a really fast connection.  Usually...  Today, that was not an option because our cellular data was out too!  I mean it worked.  But at spotty 25% capacity or so.  That seems to be fixed now because I'm sitting here typing on my laptop and it's working great!  So at least we have internets again!

2020-08-03 - Day 141

Everything is awesome!

Cue the Lego Movie opening song.

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Yeah, that should make you feel better.  Sometimes it's better to just pretend everything is okay.  Because angrily obsessing about how bad things really are isn't healthy.

At least the weather will be great this week.  Great, if you like rain and wind.  If that's the case, you are in luck!  This thing doesn't appear to be another Hurricane Sandy.  And thank goodness for that.  That was messed up!  That was one of the only times I can ever remember thinking, "Wow...  This storm is actually scary has hell!"

In totally unrelated news, I've been watching The Umbrella Academy season 2, for the past few days.  I've only got one episode left!  If you're a fan of somewhat campy superhero shows, then this will be right up your alley.  I loved the first season.  I'm liking this second season just as much.  I am a little worried that the last episode will end too abruptly to really finish the story so far.  Still, I'm being optimistic.  Tomorrow's blog entry will include my final review.

2020-08-02 - Day 140

Last day of vacation

Yeah, I've been on vacation since Wednesday.  All that means is that I didn't turn on my work computer.

Today, the bulk of my day was spent recording.  I had mentioned this before.  Today I redid the solo for one song - because I actually arranged and planned something rather than improvising and hoping for the best.  I also set down the rhythm tracks for one other song.

At some point this material will be heard.  But that point won't be for a while.  More will be spoken of this...

2020-08-01 - Day 139

Happy August!

Yep...  So begins yet another month in the never ending pandemic.  I have it on good authority that Dr. Fauci has come out with new recommendations.  I'll save you the trouble of the additional reading.  It's a joke about using giant hamster balls for COVID-19 protection.  Because sometimes news satire is better than actual news.

There was a time that I kept my ownership of that website a mystery.  For a few years that it's been up and running, I have remained anonymous.  Mostly because it gave me the freedom to say some things without annoying my more conservative friends.  But at this point, I think that my utter and complete disdain for our current president and everyone who works for him is pretty clear.  So, yeah, if you found that site and wondered...  Yeah.  It's mine.

I've said it before, and I will continue to say it until it no longer needs to be said...  Donald J Trump is responsible for this mess.  Completely.  Every opportunity he had to fix it was squandered.  And he is still not doing anything that resembles actually fixing anything.  Except maybe his golf swing.

He is a criminal, a liar, a racist, a xenophobe, a denier of science. He has 5 kids from 3 wives, all of which he cheated on.  He has had to pay the women the keep them quiet.  Once with campaign funds.  That's illegal.  As if anyone is going to do anything.  He refuses to release his taxes. He refuses to confront Russia for paying bounties on our soldiers.  He is using our tax dollars to play golf at his own resorts, something else that is against the law, and no one seems inclined to stop it.  He is actively promoting a miracle cure for the pandemic, even though every medical professional in the universe has said that it is actually dangerous.  Except for one doctor.  But that doctor also thinks that harsh periods are caused by sex with demons.

If not for his constantly downplaying the severity of this pandemic, we could have beaten this thing MONTHS ago.  But instead, here we are in f'n August, and STILL no end in sight!  And STILL f'n Trump is saying that we are through the worst of it, and it's time to get back to normal.  154,261 dead.  4,579,351 cases. as of yesterday when that data refreshed.

Also, at least 30 million unemployed, and the economy shrank over 32% in the 2nd quarter.  Which is the biggest hit the economy has taken since WWII.  And it's getting worse.

So, yeah, there is no point in being shy about it anymore.  This scumbag needs to be taken out of power NOW.  We cannot wait until November.  And make no mistake about this - if you still support him, you are part of the problem.  Stop blaming everyone else.  Stop making excuses for what this madman has done to this country.  You are paying the price for it right along with the rest of us. And I find it just astonishing how many people are going to be red-in-the-face pissed off that I said that. 

Sorry.  Except that I'm not.  I'm pretty angry myself. 

2020-07-31 - Day 138

Last day of vacation

It feels silly saying I've been on vacation.  But I have been.  All it really means is that I'm not sitting at my work computer for most of the day.  I've actually done a lot that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer at all.  Which, I suppose, is the point.

On that note...  I learned how to play Hallowed Be Thy Name (Iron Maiden) again.  I say "again", because I learned it once like 35 years ago when I was just learning to play.  I saw the video for it the other day, and it reminded me how much fun that song is to play.  So I learned it again.  I also learned that I wasn't playing it exactly right the first time around.  I've learned a few things since then.  And yes, it's still fun to play.

2020-07-30 - Day 137

I ate inside a restaurant

We don't go out to eat all that often as it is.  Maybe once a week or so.  But clearly these times are different.  So we haven't sat in a restaurant since March.  This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who lives in NJ.  Because none of us have.

We happened to be in New Hope, PA yesterday because we went for a drive, and that's where we ended up.  When we walked up to the restaurant, we expected to be sat under and umbrella outside.  So I was surprised when the chick at the podium asked "inside or outside?"  I didn't even know that was an option.  Must be a PA thing.

That was nice.  If not a little weird.  I asked for ketchup and they brought me packets.  It was then that it occurred to me that there was nothing on the table.  No salt and pepper, no sugar packets, no desert menu, etc...  Evidently, everything has to be disposable.

I had the blackened fish tacos.  It was great.

2020-07-29 - Day 136

Time is relative

It was Einstein that pointed that out.  That is your science lesson for the day.  You're welcome.

The point is, they say that time flies when you're having fun.  And as every school child knows, time stands still when you are doing something you don't want to be doing.

So what does it say about Pandemic Time when that starts flying?  Because I assure you, and most would agree, this pandemic thing has not been fun.  There are a lot of words to describe it, but "fun" has only been on the list a few times.  Whatever you want to call it, I've been noticing as this goes on that time is flying by!

I can't even tell you how many times it's happened lately where I look up from what I'm working on and go, "It's f'n 2:00 already?!  What the actual hell?!"

I dunno.  Perhaps time flies when you're busy too.  And I really have been keeping super busy.  If you're wondering why, it's because I really feel that if I stop working, I might read or watch more news.  Which at this point is just pissing me off.

Today, for instance...  I'm on vacation from my 9-5.  I spent the morning working on the application form for the animal rescue site (see a few days ago).  Then I cut the grass.  I probably lost a few pounds doing that!  Then I worked on some music.  Now I'm typing this blog entry.  And it occurs to me as I type this, that it's 3:35PM!!!  How did it get to be this late already?!  It's going to be dinner time soon!

2020-07-28 - Day 135

Heat wave

It's been a while since I said anything about the weather.  Today it is on my mind because, WOW it is hot out there.  And if you live in NJ, you know that when it's hot, it's not just a little uncomfortable.  It is oppressive, hard to breath, stifling, relentless, and a few other adjectives that illustrate suffering in a non-stop, sun-baked inferno.

If you tried to fry an egg on the driveway, it would burst into flames.  Either way, don't do that.  It's not like you could eat it after that.  It's a waste of a perfectly good egg.

Through my life, this heat filled part of the summer usually starts in late July and goes through August.  This year it started in June.  And it will likely go through September.

I don't know what that means other than our AC bill being more expensive.  And all the plant life turning brown.

I know what you're thinking...  "Stop complaining.  It could be worse.  There could be a worldwide pandemic to deal with too!"  Oh.  Wait.  Damn.

2020-07-27 - Day 134

Week 19 begins

I was one my weekly conference video call with my work team today...  "We still don't know when we're going back to the office.  Likely not for a few more months."

I'm sharing this link again, Summary for any country, for those that missed it last time.  It's a really quick glance at where things stand data-wise, without confusing charts.  It's just a few numbers.

The most important one is the one that says "150,000 dead."  Well, it might not say that right this second.  It updates once a day.  And it might still be at 148,000.  Which means that some 2000 people a day are still dying.

We are the only country in the entire world that has this problem THIS bad still.  We are no closer to the end.  We have no plans other than to wait it out.

As a matter of point on this...  The other day I was out and about and drove by a parking lot with a car show in it.  There were some 300 people or so all hanging around, and not a single mask in sight.  

What I find most callosally disturbing about this is that here in NJ, we have actually gotten things under control, simply because people had been behaving themselves.  Do you want want a second wave?  Because careless stupidity like a public gathering is how you get a second wave.

And, no, it is NOT your right to do this.  Because your stupidity affects EVERYONE!!

2020-07-26 - Day 133

New site to show

Speaking of the new kittens...  I think I mentioned before that I was going to help out the rescue.  That is, the rescue from where we got the kittens.  Their website needed some work.  

It seemed pretty clear to me that updates had not been made for a while, and it was likely because no one knew how, and hiring a developer is expensive.  

So I offered to take the project over on a courtesy basis.  A donation as it were.  I moved the site to my server, and made good use of one of my favorite templates.  I spent the past week or so making a new version of their site.  All the content was there.  I just needed to put it into a new format.  Anyway, the site went live last night.

Preview
https://www.lynnsanimalrescue.org/

I still have a lot of work to do on it.  But I decided to put it live anyway because it was done enough.  Whatever else needs to be done can be done directly in production.

"I don't always test my code.  But when I do, I do it in production."
- Abraham Lincoln

2020-07-25 - Day 132

Kitten update

Today is day 7 of new kittens in the house.  Things are going about as expected.  Mostly.  The adult cat's reactions are the opposite of what we expected.  The one we thought would try to eat them is being cool.  The one we thought would be a mother is being a territorial biatch.

The closest thing we've seen to an altercation was when the oldest cat confronted Apollo the Tiny.  Apollo stood up for himself, and the old cat put up his paws and said, "Relax, man.  We're cool."

We did change the name of one.  Zeus is now the name of Apollo's brother.  Yes, we are well aware that Zeus was Apollo's father in real life.  But we determined that we would side step this confusion by maintaining that Apollo was named after the pilot, or the Moon landing program.  Take your pick.

For how they are adjusting, there are two distinct stories.

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Apollo: Loves to sit on the couch.  He has taken up residence with my wife.  Which of course is perfect for her, because that's what she wanted.  He's still a little skinny.  But he's getting better, and has more energy.  He has also learned how to meow.  And he does that at every opportunity.

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Zeus:  Is still very timid.  He seems to be living most of his life initially terrified of every noise, shadow, and movement anywhere in the general vicinity.  So every time someone goes to pet him, he either cowers or he runs away.  The times that he cowers, it is possible to finally get to him, and pet him, and then he instantly relaxes and starts purring.  He has taken up residence on the futon in the front room.  If you bring him anywhere outside their seclusion bathroom, the first thing he does is runs at top speed for the futon.

They are both eating hard and soft food.  They both like human food.  Ground turkey and fish have both gone over really well.

Another report will follow when I feel like writing one.  Enjoy your Saturday, everyone!!

2020-07-24 - Day 131

Friday! Again!

Here we are at the end of week (let me count) 18.  Yes, it's been a while since I was counting in weeks.  So I lost count.

I got a whole lot of work done this week.  That goes for my 9-5, my personal projects, and some client work too.  As such, I think I'm taking the rest of the week off.  Of course, by that I mean, until tomorrow morning.

I have a new site launching in the morning.  That's always exciting.  More on that later.

So have yourselves a good evening, and try to avoid getting in trouble.  This time.

2020-07-23 - Day 130

Another day in pandemicland

Yeah, yeah, pandemic...  Well, hey, on some good news, if you live in NJ.  We are the only state that has had fewer cases every day, for two weeks running.  If nothing else, this proves that it can be done.

On another topic.  A couple of years ago I created a Quote of the Day database.  It was written as a web app, then I made an Android version, an iPhone version, and a TwitterBot.  All of which use the same database.

The other day I decided to make a single-page, full screen version of it.  My actual thought was to see if I could get my Google Home to read it allowed.  If I can figure out how to do that, that would be cool.  Not because it's super useful.  But because it amuses me to do so.  Most of my projects are like that.  This blog, for instance. 

By the way, the API that makes the program work is open and available to use.  If you want to write something yourself, you can use it.  There's even instructions on that page.

Anyway, bookmark that page.  Hit the little Twitter button and share today's quote.  It would be super helpful to me, because it helps promote my stuff.

2020-07-22 - Day 129

Wednesday, right?

Work has been busy.  The short way to explain what my work has been like lately is that I've had one major project going on, with a ton of different moving parts.  Today was the final step.  Pull the trigger, as it were.  The past two days have been all the tedious and complicated work to get that part ready.

All is well.  But it's been a really stressed past couple of days.

Now that that is done, I get to get on getting stressed because I have a bunch of catch-up work to do.

I ain't complaining.  I love my job.  But sometimes things can be taxing.

2020-07-21 - Day 128

At last!

Today marks the first full day that the president actually realized that wearing a mask is a good idea.  On one hand, I'm glad that he is finally doing the absolute bare minimum.  But on the other hand, if he had done this 3 months ago, maybe shit wouldn't still be this bad.  And all it took was all his aids and advisors literally begging him to start taking this thing seriously.  For that, we know how sincere the sentiment is.

So thank you, Mr "This thing will go away like a miracle", thank you for finally getting the 1/3 of this country that is listening to your advice to actually start doing to right thing.  Hopefully.

Anyway...  The new kitties are adjusting to life in a new house.  Little by little they are settling in.  

And on a totally different note, I was watching The Good Place on Netflix.  Great show, btw.  4 seasons.  Yeah, except that the 4th season is not on Netflix yet.  So I have to wait until August or September to see the rest.  Seriously guys, what is this, 2019?  Am I going to have to wait for a show like it's an old-school TV series?  Sheesh.  I am very angry about my first world problem.

2020-07-20 - Day 127

Raccoons v2.0

In fairness, this is not really a 2.0 version.  It's at least 4.0.  The other day I got home at like 10:00pm.  I was only in the driveway for a second.  But when I got out of the car, a raccoon came out from under the car.  I had briefly suspected that maybe the thing had stowed away all the way from Hopewell.  Because I'd never seen that one before.  And I was only in the driveway for a second.  Also, he was much smaller than the one I saw before eating an everything bagel in the yard.  I also thought it was amusing how many times I saw the little dude running all over the porch and stuff.

I thought that until this morning, when I went out for coffee and saw all my plants on the front porch knocked over.  And I thought that was strange.  So I went to look at the video footage.

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You can view the clip here: click for clip.

So, yeah, that's 5 raccoons.  This also explains why I saw that one so many times last week.  It wasn't just one.  I was only seeing one at a time.

As much as I like wildlife, that might be a problem.  So far they haven't caused any damage.  But a whole family of them could potentially be a real mess.  I may need to get better garbage cans for a start.


On a completely unrelated note:  I finally got a haircut yesterday.  That is the longest I have gone without a good cut in like, 9 years or something.  No I remember why I cut my hair short to begin with!

2020-07-19 - Day 126

The new kittens

Meet Neo (lighter one) and Apollo.

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I do not know why Neo has his eye half shut like that.  Probably afraid I was going to use a flash.  He usually has a pretty wide 1000 yard stare.  They are 14 weeks old, and large for 14 weeks.  They are brothers.  And by all accounts they are purebred Siamese.

If it were me giving them their initial names, I would have paired them up.  Neo with Morpheus, or Apollo with Starbuck.  In any case, we haven't decided yet to keep their names or change them.  More on that later.

The situation is this...  Just prior to this whole COVID-19 thing we lost one of our cats.  His name was Moe.  The only male calico cat any of us have ever seen.  He was 14 and basically died of old age.  A few weeks into COVID-19, we lost Moe's best buddy, and a purebred Tonkinese, AND my wife's personal cat, Frisky.  He was about the same age as Moe.

So we've been light a couple of cats for a whole bunch of weeks, and my wife had been on the lookout for someone new.  These two came from a rescue in south jersey - more on that in a minute.  At the time she made contact, we thought it was just the one.  Once my wife got to talking with the rescue people, it turned out that one had a brother.  So we took them both.

How two purebred Siamese brothers managed to end up stranded outside and rescued will forever be a mystery.  But for us, especially my wife, it worked out as just about the luckiest thing that could have happened.  Because my wife had a decent checklist for criteria in getting new kitties.  These two checked off all of the boxes in one shot.  A pair, of Siamese, and not expensive.  These would normally be upwards of $900 each from a breeder.

About the rescue itself...  I will have a more detailed post about them in a few days.  But for now, here is my story about that...  Their site is in need of an overhaul.  It has some serious issues that they don't know how to fix, and have no resources to pay for that.  They are a non-profit organization.  I will be taking on their site design and hosting as a courtesy, and simply offering the service as a donation.  I will be telling more of this once I get the site moved over and redesigned.

2020-07-18 - Day 125

Good use of a Saturday

Got a lot done today, including getting some new lights in front of the garage, and some new lights inside the new tent a built a few weeks ago.  One of the greatest inventions in our modern age is LED solar powered lights.  I've got them all over the place.  They don't last for more than a few years, usually.  But they are great for lighting pretty much anything without having to run wires, or even worry about turning them on and off.

Safe and easy.

Oh...  We also got new kittens.  More on that tomorrow.

2020-07-17 - Day 124

Friday!

It didn't feel much like a Friday.  I actually thought it was Saturday at one point.  I already wrote a blog post today and it ended up in the stats area.  So you should probably click that link and read there.  There is a spiffy new Tableau Viz!

Can you tell I've been working with that a lot this week?

2020-07-16 - Day 123

The Bird in the Begonia

Since I like animal stories, here is a new animal story.  A few weeks ago we got some hanging plants.  The one in the middle is a pink begonia.

When I went to water them the other day, I noticed a strange blockage in the middle of the plant.  A closer inspection told me it was a bird's nest.  Never seen that before.  Which, in itself is a great thing, because let's face it, we don't have a lot of good stuff happening this year.  I'll take it.

I hadn't seen anyone actually IN the nest.  So I assumed it was abandoned.  Today, however, I went to water the plant, and a very frightened little bird flew out.  Not sure exactly what kind of bird. I cannot claim to be an expert on birds, or anything of the sort.  All I can say is, judging from how it landed sideways on the side of a tree, the way a woodpecker does, I'm gonna with "some sort of woodpecker."

So I will give the plant, nest, and bird a wide berth for a little while.  There could be eggs there.  It might be late in the year, but it does happen...    Either that or she just really likes the nest and calls it home.  Either way.  I'd like her to stay.  So I'll be real careful to not scare her off.

2020-07-15 - Day 122

Cool new Tableau Viz

I mentioned yesterday that I had discovered a spiffy way to keep all my COVID19 data updated automatically.  Today, I built a new viz...  I already had the data.  I just needed to organize it a new way.

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New Cases in Last 7 Days, by State

I never imagined that I would be doing this for this long.  And it is really wild seeing how the data has evolved over time.  This new viz gives a more current snapshot of the way things are going.

Two days in a row I'm talking about data.  But, hey, at least I'm not complaining about the sheer ineptitude of our government and how miserably they have failed us all.  If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have learned all this new stuff.  So that's something good that's come from it.

2020-07-14 - Day 121

I learned something new

Get set for one of the nerdiest posts you're likely to read here.  nerd

If you've been following along here, you'll know that I have a bunch of spreadsheets and Tableau viz's tracking the data for the virus.  Not because there isn't enough of that out there.  But because I like to organize things my own way, and I've added a few data points that others have missed.

I've been doing this by going to sources like Wikipedia, and copy/pasting the tables of data into my spreadsheets.  This is not that big of a deal.  Because it only takes a few minutes.  But wouldn't it be better if that entire process was automatic?  Why, yes, it would be better.  Thanks for asking.

Yesterday, while I was in the middle of making some updates to something unrelated, I discovered that it is possible to have Google Sheets scrape web pages.  So I can tell Sheets to go to a Wikipedia page, and pull the data from any table on the page.

So I updated all of my spreadsheets to pull the tables from the live Wikipedia pages!  I then set all of my references in the existing sheets to get their data from the new scraped data.  This means that I no longer have to manually copy/paste anymore.  I don't need to manually update any of that stuff now.  It's all automatic!

No matter how long I work with this stuff, there is always something new to learn.  That's all I have to say about that.

2020-07-13 - Day 120

A new week begins

I'm pretty sure it's Monday.  So, it's off to the races!

We went out to my sister's yesterday so as we could see our mother for her birthday.  She reads this blog.  Hi, Mom.  Happy birthday, a day early.  It's the first time in months that we've gotten together for any period of time.  Stupid virus...  But that was fun.  It was good to see everyone!

Today, I'm headed up to Hopewell to do some recording.  I'll have to provide more about this later.  But the short-short version is that my buddy Art wrote some stuff and contacted me to add in the guitar parts.  Hopefully I get one song completed tonight.  For this one song, I wrote 3 different rhythm tracks, and can't really say that I dislike any of them.  So, I'm just going to record them all, and let Art do whatever he thinks is best...

2020-07-12 - Day 119

What are you talking about?

One thing I learned the other day is that it is probably best to not even bother with social situations for the time being.  Because it's just too easy for people to say the dumbest shit.  And I do believe that the problem is that we've got nothing to talk about except for the constant barrage of news and purposeful misinformation.  Every time you try to talk about what is going on in life, someone says something callosally screwed up.  Usually along the lines of a ridiculously stupid and uninformed opinion about the state of things, and how it's SO obvious who is to blame.

We are all sitting in our houses instead of going out and doing things.  And we are in a constant news cycle where things get piled on top of things so quickly, that no one can really get to finish the discussion on thing 1 before thing 2 suddenly happens.  In previous times, crazy shit would hit the news cycle once every few weeks.  But this year, it's more like, every other day.

By example...  tRumpelstiltskin decided to commute the sentence of Roger Stone.  A guy who lied to the FBI and intimidated witnesses in an effort to protect his friend, the President.  He was found guilty in a completely fair trial, by a real jury and a real judge.  And he lost all his appeals.  He is guilty.  He is a criminal.  Trump still pardoned him.  We should be having riots about that.  Because it just screams of corruption, and it should make you furious.  But we didn't get the chance to get angry.  Because the CEO of Goya did a speech in front of a bunch of people at the White House praising Trump, in what was immediately considered the ultimate betrayal to Latinos.  This, I'm sure you know, led to a huge news story concerning the boycott, and the argument between the people who feel betrayed, and the Trump supporters saying that they are overreacting and STFU.

I have never seen a more obvious distraction, except that I have.  EVERY goddamned day!!  And expect that before we are done arguing about this, something f'd up is going to happen. Probably tomorrow.  I don't know what that will be yet.  But it will be something.  And it will further divide this country so we have something ELSE to argue about.

The point is...  In normal times, we would have a lot to talk about.  We would have conversations about the latest events we attended, or places we've been, people that we've talked to, etc...  But, no...  Instead we are discussing Goya foods and whether or not we should feel bad that we like their yellow rice.  And we completely forgot to talk about that fact that Trump just made yet another pardon of a man who clearly did NOT deserve it, while 100,000 people are awaiting petitions to be answered. And they will never be seen by this numbnuts that is currently only concerned with pardoning people who could either reveal even worse stuff about him, or because it helps him politically.  Or more usually both.

2020-07-11 - Day 118

Wanna buy some source code?

Today's post will be an advertisement of sorts...  I have decided to drop support for my iPhone apps.  If you've ever read any parts of the mobile development section of my main site, you will know that I have a handful of iPhone apps in development.  And you also know that I grudgingly started producing them to begin with.  I do not like iPhones.  I do not Apple's systems for developing for them.  Such is my opinion.  Developing for iPhones is WAY more complicated and expensive than it should be.  I've sand fly into my eye that was more pleasurable.

So when the last round of forced updates came through, and I found myself once again having to slog through their development hell, I finally said, "Oh, F this.  It's just not worth the trouble anymore."  To put this in perspective...  It costs me $100 a year to keep that store open.  All the apps combined make about $200 a year.  This in comparison to my Android apps that cost me a grand total of $0 to keep live, and make about $100 a month!!  

What would you do?

Having said all of that...  I am sure that there are iPhone developers out there who don't feel the way I do.  And I'm sure that they could take these apps and make them into something profitable for themselves.  So I am selling the source code for ALL of them.

You can read more about it on the iPhone Apps in Production page.

 

2020-07-10 - Day 117

If you love rain then today was your day

That's all that happened today.  Unless you count the trip to the dentist to get a couple more teeth fixed.

On one hand, glad it's done.  On the other hand, I don't like talking about it.  If you've ever had teeth trouble then you probably understand why it's embarrassing.  Suffice to say I'm super happy that things are finally getting fixed.

So that's all I have to say about that.

Hey, here's a good one...  Remember that picture of the giraffe from the other day?  I submitted to Fark.com for a Photoshop contest.

Also, while you're there looking at the comical entries, take a look around the site.  Good place to get actual news, and plenty of discussion.

2020-07-09 - Day 116

New demo

For today's post I will continue the trend of not reminding everyone how screwed the entire country is, and concentrate on something more light-hearted.  I wrote a new demo!

If you've ever found yourself looking at the temperature thinking, "Man, it would be nice to know what that temperature is in Celsius, or better yet, Kelvins!", then today is your lucky day.  If you are an American, and not a scientist, you likely never use anything except Fahrenheit for all your temperature needs.  But believe it or not, there are 2 other popular scales.

I already have a few projects out there that will do some quick temperature conversions between formats.  But I was thinking it would be kind of cool to be able to see how one affects the other, but in real time.  Like, it would be helpful, if I could see them all at once, and have sliders where I could modify the temperatures and see a live update for the conversions.

So I sat down and wrote a demo to do exactly that.  As a bonus, it includes a little widget that shows the current conditions (from another project), and uses that value as the default at page load.  That widget gets the conditions from the live feed from the National Weather service.

Why did I do this?  For no other reason than that it interests me to do so.  Which is a pretty good way to explain why I do most of this stuff.  This blog included.

2020-07-08 - Day 115

Safari day

I feel like I'm posting a day behind.  Probably because every day lately, I've been posting about what happened yesterday.  This is what happens when I write my entry in the morning.  Like I am today.

So, yesterday we went to the Great Adventure Safari.  I'm just going to assume you all know what that is.  Here is one of the residents.

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It really is nice to see that all those animals are still there an doing well after all these years.  I'm not exactly sure what the ethical implications of the thing are.  My understanding is that these animals are all happy enough.  Most of them were born there.  It's not like they have to go out into the wild and catch more.  Many of those animals are breeding like crazy.

It was nice to be able to drive through it again.  A few years ago, they stopped doing that, and were packing people onto busses.  I never did that.  And I just assumed I'd never be able to go through there again.  But since they can't pack busses with a pandemic going on, and they really would like to earn some tourist money by getting people in the park, they reverted back to the old way.

See?  Something good came of the COVID-19 thing!

Now all they have to do is open up the baboon area again and let them run around on your car.  That was some good times right there!!

2020-07-07 - Day 114

Hailstorm!!

I've seen some strange weather around here, for sure.  But yesterday was a true whopper!  I'm not even sure that this picture really does it justice.  Because it was actually WAY worse than this

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When all was said and done, the whole neighborhood was littered with little balls of ice.

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What a hailstone might look like

For serious...  I have seen some nasty storms.  I've seen hail.  But not like this.  It went on for a lot longer than usual.  And the hail was bigger.  Not quite golf ball size, but it was getting close to that. And it caused a whole lot of damage.  My gardens had plants broken, and leaves with puncture holes like they had been shot.

All I can say is, at least the cars didn't get damaged.

2020-07-06 - Day 113

It's finally over!

Things are back to normal.  We can start going about our lives now.

See?

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This chart clearly shows that there are no new cases, and there is nothing to worry about.  Especially if you live in Florida, Texas, Arizona, or California.  In those places, you can just safely ignore any and all advice from medical professionals.  There is no more need for social distancing, masks, or any other preventative precautions.

We really should be following their lead and open up the rest of the country.  It's going to be great to get back to being normal again!

Wait...  I'm sorry.  Did I just say the exact opposite of what that chart clearly shows?  My bad. 

On the other hand, it seems that there is some 35-40% of the population that is totally fine with that.

 

2020-07-05 - Day 112

Fireworks are illegal. Are they though?

I hope you all had a fun day yesterday.  I also hope that you still have all your fingers.

I made the comment yesterday about how this neighborhood loves the fireworks.  And, man, they did not disappoint!  I woke up this morning to this video on Twitter, and it cracked me up.

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Original video on Twitter

Because I am quite sure that if you were to fly a copter over my neighborhood, that is precisely what it looked like!

Also, the quality and the size of the consumer fireworks is astonishing!  Since they explode comparatively close to the ground, they look a lot like professional fireworks.  I seriously cannot believe what they are selling to people, knowing full well that they will be used by drunk people.

Well, it's time to get on with Sunday, which literally means exactly nothing, as I have no plans today.

2020-07-04 - Day Eleventy One

Happy Independence Day!

Since I'm sure you are aware, there will be no fireworks today.  So, here...  I threw up a page real quick so you don't have to feel like you totally missed out.  You're welcome.

It's not exactly true there will be no fireworks at all.  There will be plenty all over the neighborhood.  How many will fail launch and prove once and for all that eyebrows and fingers are not necessarily permanent?  I guess we'll have to check the stats on the ERs tomorrow.

Funny story...  Last night, the storms rolled through.  And the fireworks stopped for a little while.  But as the storm moved to the east, I could hear fireworks in the distance from the west.  As the storm moved further, the fireworks got closer.  It was like a strange phenomenon where the fireworks literally followed behind the storm!

One thing about NJ.  People love their fireworks.  Even during the off season.  But during times when they are expected, this whole area is a constant din of explosions from dusk until like 2AM.  Presumably that's when everyone runs out of fireworks, or beer, or both.

2020-07-03 - Day 110

iPhone Development

At long last, a blog entry that isn't all about the pandemic or complaining about Facebook, the government, or all the other stuff that's been annoying me lately.  I have something NEW to complain about!

logosFor any of you that did not know, I have been developing mobile apps for some 7 years or something.  I started with Android, and at some point a few years ago, I expanded to iPhone.  I've written all about this over the years.  In short, iPhone development is about as much fun as a root canal without all the drilling sounds.  It's expensive, it's time consuming, their development tools suck, and slogging through their systems is SO aggravating, it has likely contributed to the grayness of my beard.

So this time, with the latest round of aggravation, I have decided to let my subscription expire, and the apps will come down from the Apple Store.

However!  If you are interested in buying up some apps so that you can release them yourself, the whole lot of them are up for sale.  Source code complete.  Not just a license deal.  I'm selling the source code.

Read the full statement here.

That is all.

2020-07-02 - Day 109

We have hit the 50% of the year mark

I have this cool web app that counts down how much of the year has expired.  As of yesterday, it clicked over to exactly 50% of the year gone.  And, man, what a year this has been so far.  But you already know that.

I came to the realization yesterday that this whole lockdown thing is really starting to get to me.  I'm finding myself getting angry, and really pushing back on things I see that bother me.  It's made me do things like post on Facebook again - responding to things. In short, what I was able to ignore for a long time has not been so easy to ignore anymore.  Because I have been sharing this blog as a means of promotion, I cannot help but notice posts others are making...  I have broken my silence.   And I'm not really sure it was a good thing.

I stopped posting there a couple of years ago - stopped even looking at it.  Because every time I saw someone that I knew in a previous part of my life post something, it was making me angry.  If you've been reading along this blog, then you already know what I'm talking about.  So I'm not going to say it all again.

Anyway...  Just know that I am aware that it is time to back off again.  Because I am also aware that there is not a damn thing I can do to change people's minds.  I've said what i can say.  And if people still insist on latching on to their ignorance and misinformation, then I am clearly wasting my time.

I will finish up today by saying - again - that we are now months into this thing, and there is no end in sight.  And there will not be an end to it until the leadership in this country takes the necessary steps to get things back on track.  That starts with getting rid of the guy at the top.  His insistence that this thing is not for real is what is causing it to get out of control.  Again.

2020-07-01 - Day 108

Happy July!

So here we are at the middle of week 16, day 108, and the start of a new month.  And at the risk of repeating myself, nothing is getting better.  In fact, it's getting worse.  In some parts of the country, and by some parts, I mean, everyone outside of the NE, it's getting WAY worse.

Look, people, there is no mystery to this.  There is no conspiracy.  There is no plan to take your freedom, declare martial law, turn you Communist, or any of the other ridiculous things people are saying.

The rest of the world is shutting the US out.  Even Europe, our closest allies collectively, have voted to not allow Americans to travel there.  They are doing this because our response in controlling this pandemic has been laughably inadequate, bad, stupid, erratic, inept, pathetic, ineffective, and a few other choice adjectives.

Thank goodness the current administration is taking this seriously and really taking some solid steps to do what the rest of the world has done.  So we are going to have testing, and contact tracing.  We are going to do our best to social distance, and keep wearing masks until such a time that we can relax a bit.

Oh, wait.  No we're not.  We are going to complain that we don't want to wear masks.  We are going to congregate in large numbers at bars, beaches, and other similar gatherings.  We are going to cry that being forced to wear a mask is tyranny!  And the President of the US himself, is going to encourage you to do this.  Because in his view, this thing is over and in the rearview mirror.

I am absolutely baffled at how people can be in such denial.  It is pretty clear to me now that no amount of evidence, and no amount of saying out loud or writing it will make a difference.  Because there are still too many people in this country that refuse to admit to the mistake.

But I will say it again anyway...  This situation will not improve until we have real leadership.  The current administration is the problem, not the solution.  They are making it worse.  This President needs to be removed NOW. 

I really do not know what it's going to take for our government, with their checks and balances and stuff, to finally realize that it is time to take action.  I'm thinking that when their friends, wives, husbands, and children start dying, THAT is the moment they will realize that they have backed the wrong horses ass.  And from the looks of things, it's getting closer to that.

Also, for those of you that still insist Trump is a swell guy, he was well aware that Russia was paying bounties for US soldiers.  He is certainly VERY well aware now.  And not only is nothing being done about it, the White House is placing the blame squarely on the person that told the media about it.  Because, clearly, THEY are the ones putting national security at risk. 

That is who you are supporting, folks.  You are supporting a racist, scumbag traitor, who is putting his relationship with Russia above our own soldiers.  Enough with the whole, "But that information hasn't been verified."  Oh, c'mon!  Do you really think the Intelligence community is going to just make that up?!  Because if you don't believe what you are currently hearing, then it means you believe the Trump administration over a few 100 competent professionals, whose entire existence is to ensure national security.  And that is some weapons grade denial, right there.  Especially since, even if you still support him, you know that he is a lying sack of shit.

And your continued support is having the extra effect of getting people killed, right here, and right now.  This is just the latest in a long string of absolutely horrific and abhorrent behavior.

Seriously... I am fucking sick of being polite about how angry that makes me!

2020-06-30 - Day 107

Happy Tuesday

I'm pretty sure it's Tuesday.  Sometimes it's hard to remember.  I took the day off from work today, so it felt like a Sunday.  Or something.

I'm sure I could say some other things about how things are going in the world...  I was gonna go and see Primus in a few weeks.  It got postponed to July 5th.  Which seemed encouraging, except that it's 2021.

This is, of course sensible, all things considered.  That's all I have to say about that.

Stay tuned for July!

2020-06-29 - Day 106

Still not out of ideas yet

I really am glad that I've kept up with this thing every single day for the last gazillion days.  I know I already said something to this effect the other day.  But I feel it's worth mentioning again because I have noticed that through all of this, I have not had a shortage of things to write about.  In fact, it's more often a choice of "which is the best thing to concentrate on".  Believe it or not, I've left a lot out.

Not that I'm going to change that.  I'm just saying...  This has been a mighty interesting time.

Today, the thing that strikes me is that this is really the first day I've been working from home in the newly renovated office space.  It IS very comfortable, and there are a lot less distractions.  It's warmer up here.  And I need to consider getting a wireless mouse.  But if those are my only complaints, I think that means I'm good.

2020-06-28 - Day 105

It's time to talk about masks again

I seriously cannot believe I have to write about this again.  I'll keep it short for those of you who just want the bottom line:

Where a mask when you go out.  Keep your distance.  Stop complaining about it.  You want businesses to reopen?  You want to get back to a world where this virus isn't dominating the headlines and killing 1000's every day?  Then wear a mask and STFU.

There...  Now, for the longer version.  I originally followed that up with "you ridiculous, selfish pricks", but thought better of it.  But seriously, what we are seeing right now are two groups of people:

  1. Those that accept the mask and deal with it, even though it's an inconvenience.
  2. Those that think that wearing a mask infringes on their freedom, and consider it some sort of government overreach.

Let's talk about that second group, shall we?  There is only one reason that group 2 exists.  And it's pretty simple.  Those people just DO NOT believe that there is anything to worry about.

"The virus isn't that deadly."
"It only kills old people."
"It hasn't killed anyone I know."
"I haven't seen a lot of sick people."
"The government is just overreacting and scaring everyone."
"This is the first step to the government taking all of our freedoms!"
"This is a violation of my Constitutional rights to MY freedom no matter how it affects every other human."
"I have the right to do whatever I want!  It's not my problem if people get sick.  They should just stay home!"

This is all another way of saying that they are aware that wearing a mask would help slow the spread of the disease.  They know that it helps protect other people.  What they don't accept is that the virus is that dangerous to begin with.  They just don't believe it.  And THAT is the reason they consider the wearing of masks to infringe on their freedom.

Or, perhaps it's because they want to be able to go to the beach this summer and don't want to deal with the mask.  But you don't have to look at it that way.  They can be stylish!

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And to prove that I always intend to keep things fair.

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On a comical note...  I had to do some Google searching to find those images.  The "trikini" was super easy to find.  The picture of the dude, not so much.  That's the only one I found.  And yes, I am aware that the pattern makes it even funnier.

Getting back to the point here...  Whether you choose to believe that this virus is dangerous is completely irrelevant to this conversation.  Because you don't get to have an opinion on self evident facts.  And these are the facts:

  • The virus is here
  • The virus is dangerous
  • The virus is not a hoax
  • President Trump and Mike Pence are idiots for telling people that the first three bullets are not true
  • The virus will not just go away if you ignore it
  • Exercising some safety measures will prevent the spread of the disease
  • Wearing a mask is the simplest way to do that.

If you still don't believe this, then read the stats page.  There is actual, real data there.  And it shows that this is not a joke and not to be taken lightly. 

As a concluding note, if I haven't made this clear enough.  All of you people that insist on not wearing a mask because you don't believe this - YOU ARE the ones causing the very problem you choose to ignore.  And WE ALL are the ones paying for it!

And I cannot believe that on Day 105 I have to talk about this again!!

2020-06-27 - Day 104

Moving up to week 16

It's amazing how much has changed in the past 16 weeks.  But what's really amazing is that those changes have come in the form of adapting our society to accommodate a virus that just won't go away.  People are praying really hard!  Why is it not leaving, like a miracle?!  Speaking of people who have been praying for this to end and not doing much of anything else, take a look at the stats page where I show charts for how there is a new, stronger first wave everywhere, and Mike Pence is a complete idiot.

2020-06-26 - Day 103

Moving my office

For the first 100 days or so, it was fine working in the dining room.  And by "fine" I mean, it's been workable.  But it's also been very distracting.  If you've ever worked as a data analyst (and at some point you must have), you know that you are usually working on 6 to 10 things simultaneously, meaning lots of balls in the air all the time...  And losing that track means starting over again.  But that's my problem, not everypone else's.  I can't tell everyone in the house to stop going about their business.  And I also can't blast music through headphones all day to try to drown it out.

Right before Father's Day, my son came to me and suggested getting me a new desk for the upstairs office.  It should be noted that he was not prompted on this other than a quest for a Father's Day/Birthday present.  So when he suggested it, it got me thinking that it indeed was a really good idea.

See...  The reason I'd been working in the dining room all this time was that the office was already filled to the top with all the stuff I use for my personal business.  There just wasn't enough room to add a 2nd workstation.  For those of you who don't work with computers...  They are not all the same.  My work workstation is completely different than all my other stuff.  And also, I don't own that equipment.  Point being, I cannot and do not use my personal equipment for my 9-5 work.

The desk arrived on the front porch a couple of days ago.  Yesterday I finally went through to process of cleaning out the office and rearranging.  This room hasn't really been emptied and cleaned in like 15 years or something.  So it was really due for an overhaul.  So I cleared everything out, dusted and vacuumed everything, and set everything back up.  Then I built the new desk.  For the record, I listened to The Wall (Pink Floyd) from start to finish.  That is exactly how long it took to build the desk.

Today will be spent finishing the move, and getting everything organized in the best way possible.  And if I have time, I might actually get some work done.

2020-06-25 - Day 102

Second wave goodness

To say that we are getting a second wave of COVID-19 is probably not the most accurate thing to say.  Because it implies that at some point, we must have gotten it under control, and then somehow lost control.  It does not seem that we will be getting a real "second wave".  Reason being that most of the country never finished the first one.

I'm still tracking the data...

And what it shows is that here in NJ and NY, we have taken some drastic steps to slow things down.  To "flatten the curve", as they say.  And look at that.  It seems to be working.  That is why so many people around here think that this whole virus thing was never anything to be concerned about.  What those people fail to realize is that things are going so well here BECAUSE of those steps, not in spite of them.  Having pointed that out, people are here, for the most part, ARE taking it seriously.  And for that, if we do get a second wave here (which is typical and expected), it likely won't be all that bad.

Notice what's happening in the rest of the country?  They are just starting up their real first wave.  They have not taken it seriously.  They have not taken precautions.  They are still screaming at each other in government meetings that "wearing a mask is tyranny!"

Here we are at day 102 with no end in sight.  And much of the country still doesn't think there is anything to worry about.  Even while the evidence is right there in front of them, that there is indeed a lot to worry about.

I've said enough about Impeached President 45.  So I won't bother to point out, yet again, that he is enthusiastically ignoring this thing across the board because it's interfering with his re-election campaign.  So sorry for the inconvenience.

2020-06-24 - Day 101

Happy birthday to me!

Yep.  51 today.  On one hand, holy crap.  On the other hand, well, there is no other hand.

*incomplete blog entry is incomplete*

Okay, back to it.  This is not a milestone birthday.  So there really isn't much to say about it other than, I'm glad to be here.  And I think often of the poor souls that didn't make it this far.

Since I am now in my 50's I will need to get used to telling kids to get off my lawn. Geezer

What did I do today?  I started my day with a root canal.  That was fun.  Seriously, I cannot complain.  Because I feel way better.

Then I ate lunch with half my face numb.  Then a few hours later, I had dinner, and my face was not numb at all.  Given the experience of both, I will continue to opt for "face not numb" as my preferred method.

Tomorrow will be back to work from the dining room.

2020-06-23 - Day 100

Yes, you read that right

Today is day 100.  When I started this blog up, I never imagined that it would be going on this long.  The idea was that I wanted to mark the days with whatever was on my mind.  And to that extent this thing has surely served its purpose.  I was expecting that it would be a long while before I would look back and go, "Oh, yeah, I remember that."

As it turns out, I'm doing that.  I'm doing that even though it's still going on!  Like, at Day 16, I was talking about how I was working on new graphics for my Countdown to the new year web app.  Day 39 was the day that I listed all the stuff I'd been working on, and complaining that no one seemed to have noticed or cared.  Hell, you're probably still not reading this.  Then it was Day 40 when President 45* told everyone that injecting disinfectant would be a possible cure for the virus.  You know, the one that's still going on today.  The one that he is now saying will go away simply because they intend to stop testing for it.

That may have been the first time I said out loud (wrote) my utter and complete disdain for this moron that somehow got himself elected president.  It was on day 59 that I posted new updated stats, and again expressed my concern for the fact that the sheer ineptitude of our government is getting people killed by the 1000s.

On Day 77 the protests started and the riots broke out.  You know the ones.  The ones where people were protesting police brutality, and then we got to watch in living color while the police brutalized the protesters!  Then the President ordered tear gassing of peaceful protestors so that he could go and take a photo in front of a church.  And for some reason not a single fucking person has been held accountable for that.  At all.  And the protests are still going on.  And the President still refuses to acknowledge anything about it, other than "LAW AND ORDER!" 

I think I will make a bit of an effort to tone down my absolute red-hot, seething hatred for Trump, and what he has done to this country.  But maybe not.  It's not a political statement.  There are things in this world that are objectively wrong.  And there is a LONG list of wrong where Trump is concerned.  It's not a matter of ideology either.  I can have a discussion with someone where we disagree on religion or on how our taxes are spent.  But I can't have a discussion where someone is defending Trump, and refusing to acknowledge all of the things he's done over the years.  Start with the blatant racism (please don't even try to deny that - see Day 97), continue on with flagrantly breaking the law time and time again.  Throw in a bit about how he claims to be a great business man, but refuses to talk about that multiple bankruptcies, failure to pay contractors, hush money payments to mistresses, running a fraudulent charity where he stole from Veterans, refusal to release taxes, and starting a trade war thinking that China was the one paying for the tariffs.  Oh, and lets not forget that we have pissed away $millions$ so he could play golf at his own resorts, which is absolutely forbidden by law because he is personally profiting from it.  It's in the Constitution.  It's called the emoluments clause.

I think I stayed too quiet for too long.  So maybe I will continue saying exactly what I think.  Because one thing is for sure.  There are still WAY too many people in this country that just ignore or deny the evidence of what this madman has done.  They are willing to dismiss ANY and ALL of his behavior no matter how abhorrent, because they still think he's better than the evil Democrats that want to open the borders, take your guns, and install Venezuelan style socialism.  What bunch of bullshit.  People are supporting a criminal, and the "facts" they use to justify it are propaganda perpetuated by that criminal.

Make no mistake.  I'm glad I have documented all of this.  Because when people ask me how messed up this whole thing has been, I will just point out this link and tell them to read it.

And, btw, expect that this is going to continue on for at least another 100 days.  Why do you suppose that is?  It might be because this government has done exactly nothing but make this situation worse all along.  And they STILL have no plan for putting an end to it, other than ignoring it, claiming victory, and pretending there is nothing wrong.

It is FAR past time for this President to be removed.  He is deadly dangerous.  And if you support him still, I hope you understand that you too will suffer for what he has done right along with the rest of us.  In fact, you are currently suffering for the past 100 days as a direct result of his failure to take action when he had the opportunity. He was worried about his re-election, and wanted to keep this thing quiet.  That is what you're supporting.

2020-06-22 - Day 99

Time for a haircut

If you live in NJ, you can finally go to the barber.  I know my hair hasn't been this long since I cut it short like 10 years ago.  Anyway, barbers and salons are open...  That's what I noticed while out and about today.  Although, truth be known.  I haven't really noticed anyone around here with their hair longer.  Maybe they just buzz their own hair with a shaver anyway.  I dunno.  But people around here don't look any different to me.

On another note, I see a lot of tents for outside dining suddenly popping up.   These must be places that didn't get their permits in order a few weeks ago.  A few weeks ago, there were a handful of restaurants were already doing that.  But today, a whole bunch of new ones are setting up.

This is making me think that this is great.  But what happens if this goes on through November?  Or, what happens when a freak storm kicks up, pulls the tent out if the ground, and throws it into the highway causing a multi-car pileup?  That would suck.

But things like that don't happen very often.  A friend of mine got hit in the face with a lawn umbrella while we were tailgating for a Pink Floyd show.  But that was like 30 years ago.  Such things apparently happen very infrequently.

 

2020-06-21 - Day 98

Happy Father's Day!

Even if you are not a father, or if you are a mother, uncle, grandparent, designated guardian, or any other person that plays the role of a father, Happy Father's Day to you!

Also, happy summertime!!  Joy!

 


Now...  On to other things.  Because I can't help myself.  Let us talk about the embarrassing charade led by Impeached President 45.

The rally that wasn't

As a followup to yesterday's rant concerning Trump's, "Spreading the Disease" rally (sorry, Anthrax).  It was a flop.

And for that, I laugh, because any time we see Trump embarrass himself in a spectacular fashion, it's hysterical.  And I also feel that humanity has somewhat redeemed itself.  Because when I jotted up that post yesterday, I believed completely that 1,000,000 people got tickets to ensure that the arena would be filled to the top, and events on the outside would be held for those that didn't make it in.  As it turned out, less than 6,500 people were in the arena, and nobody outside at all.

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What a mostly empty arena might look like

Here is a shot from the outside, where those events were canceled because no one was there.

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Out here in the real world, we call that "a snub".  Trump's most ardent supporters showed up at less than 50%.  At the exact moment that I am typing this, I am not able to verify an actual number.  I've seen "less than 1/3rd filled seats", and "thousands less than expected."  Suffice to say, it was not a success.

I'm quite sure that other news sources, ones that support Cheetolini, will show more favorable angles with tighter shots, so you don't see the emptiness.  They will also report that the arena was filled to capacity.  And people that don't watch the actual news, for fear of their narrative being disrupted, will never know about this.  They will hear that the whole thing was a rousing success.  

These same people will listen to things like, "We need to slow down the testing.  That's how we slow down the number of cases."  Which was met with rousing applause.  And they will think that is a reasonable response to a worldwide pandemic.  Ladies and Gentleman, The President of the United States.  Stable genius indeed.

This entire event actually gives me a glimmer of hope that this nightmare might finally be coming to an end.  Not COVID-19.  That's apparently never going to end.  I'm referring to this government being a completely dysfunctional mess, led by a completely inept and corrupt administration that quite literally has nothing planned for getting this country on track.  In fact, all they have planned is getting their impeached president re-elected.  And that isn't going too well for them.

I've said it before, and I will say it over and over again until it finally happens.  It's time to tell this President to step down.  Do it now.  We might not make it to the election.

2020-06-20 - Day 97

Please send thoughts a prayers to Tulsa, OK

Here, I've got you covered...

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What does this mean?  This is one of those cases where i am jotting this down, in this blog, to mark this date as one that should be remembered.

The POTUS is still insisting that the whole virus thing is nothing to be concerned about.  And he SO badly wants to get out and hold one of his propaganda rallies, that he is going to do it, no matter what.  It matters not that every medical expert in the world is warning him (and the attendees), that what they are doing is colossally stupid and dangerous.  It doesn't matter that OK is currently showing a spike in new cases.  It doesn't matter to the Orange Menace.  It doesn't matter to the people going there.

You are going to have 19,000 people crowded into an arena, with no matter of precaution at all.  Because they don't think there is any danger.  I cannot even find the words to express how frustratingly stupid this is.  They all consider it to be worth the risk - in fact, they don't think there is a risk.

At the risk of stating the obvious, there is a very good chance that a clear 18,000 of those people will end up sick after this.  And then they will infect everyone they come in contact with after that.  They are going to start up their own COVID epidemic hotspot.  And everyone in Tulsa will pay the price for it, whether they agree with this propaganda rally or not!

That is why I mockingly say to pray for them.  Because I really don't mean that.  Screw them.  What a bunch of stupid, selfish, pathetic morons.  They deserve what they get.  Especially since they are doing this in the name is the single worst human being to walk this Earth since WWII.  I remember the good old days when the worst human being in the world and the POTUS were 2 different people.  Good times...

Which brings me to my next point...  Here the country is currently in the middle of the largest race protests since the 60's.  So trump chooses Tulsa.  A place that was a hotspot for one of the worst white supremacist attacks in history.  And he was going to do it on Juneteenth.  Right up until he got a backlash for it.  It was then that he said, "ok, I won't do that last part.  And by the way, no one knew what Juneteenth was until I made it famous."

Could it be more obvious that Trump is a racist scumbag, who is willing to use his rallies to make that point loud and clear?!  This was no coincidence.  This was not accidental.  This was deliberate and purposeful.  It was meant to send a message.

And here is my response to that message:  I think I speak for many people in this country, when I say "Fuck you, Donald 'hoax virus' Trump.  Fuck you."

2020-06-19 - Day 96

TGIF

I really mean that too.  I had a very long week.  Very busy. I didn't have time to goof off at all.

Short post today.  Like I said...  Long week.

Happy Juneteenth!!

2020-06-18 - Day 95

Halfway through the year

I could have mentioned this at the beginning of June, but I really more feel like June 21st is the actual halfway point.  And that's just around the corner.  In any event, we are halfway through the year, but there is no measurement for how far into the virus we are.  At this point the equation looks something like, end = 1/∞.

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What a comically large book might look like

Some 14 weeks ago now, right around the time that this whole virus thing was getting underway, my favorite thing to say to people was, "This is the most f'd up thing that has ever happened."  I may have even said that somewhere in this blog.  But that was a long time ago, and I barely remember.  But I'm saying it again now...  Because now, THIS is the most f'd up thing that has ever happened!

Every other country that had trouble with this (which is all of them), has pretty well beaten it.  Even if they got a second wave, they are pretty well done with it.  But, no...  Not the US.  We are just about ready to get our second wave in the Northeast.  And much of the rest of the country is still working on their first wave!  And many of them are still on the uptick with new cases!

And our leaders are telling us that it's over, we can reopen everything, and go back to normal.

At this stage of the game, there are 3 types of people in this world

  1. Those that think this is a hoax, or government oppression, or not dangerous, or nothing to be worried about
  2. Everyone else
  3. People that have already died

I think it's pretty clear right now also, that this country will not accept another shutdown.  The number of people who simply don't give a shit are FAR too many.  Expect massive civil disobedience if that happens again.  And expect everything to get way worse.  As if that is even possible.  Unless all the medical experts are completely wrong about this, and the virus really will just fade away like a campfire at dawn.  But all evidence says that that is the least likely scenario.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that there are protests all over the country (and much of the world), drawing attention to racial injustice, police brutality, and ultimately, the sheer ineptitude of our country's leadership.  To which the current orange buffoon occupying the White House responds by cheering on the stock market, bragging that jobs are coming back, and getting ready to hold a propaganda rally in Tulsa, OK.  I cannot wait to see the stats of the number of people that end up sick after that.  You morons deserve whatever you get.  Or, as President Farquad would put it, "Some of you may die.  But that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

And the year, as I said, is only half over.

2020-06-17 - Day 94

Outdoor dining is open

Well, we'll see how that goes.  Hopefully, for everyone's sake, it will cause no troubles, no one will get sick or spread some mysterious virus around.  With any luck there won't be any freak gusts of wind that send tents flying.  Imagine walking out of Walmart and getting impaled by a flying tent pole from the Red Robin on the other side of the complex.

Everything is just so weird nowadays.  Finishing up week 14 with no actual end in sight.  Such are the times that we consider outdoor dining to be a gigantic win!

2020-06-16 - Day 93

Went to the dentist today

I moved my dentist from the one here in my local town, to one out closer to my office.  Because at the time, I thought it would be convenient to just go there during lunch and stuff.  What I didn't count on was a worldwide pandemic keeping my at home for most of the year!

Whatever...  I can't really even complain.  It was nice to go on a ride this morning.  That's the furthest I've been from home for a few weeks.

On a completely unrelated note...  And I'm only saying this here to preserve what my thoughts are at the moment concerning the Confederate statues.

What I find an absolute amazement is that the people that yell the loudest about patriotism and nationalism, are also the ones yelling the loudest about protecting statues glorifying traitors.

2020-06-15 - Day 92

Vegemite

You read that right.

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My daughter called from work.  She texted and asked if we wanted to try it.  I said, "haha...  Okay.  A small one."  Because none of us have ever tried it before.  The Australians seem quite fond of it.  So I was curious to see what is all the rage.

So now I've tried it.  My first impression was that it is very salty.  But a better, and more accurate description is, "It's sort of like coffee flavored anchovies."  That was my review.  Everyone that tried it (except the cat), absolutely hated it!  Like, along the lines of, "That is the worst thing I've ever tasted!".  The cat, for the record, liked it well enough.

Reminds me of the raccoons in that commercial, "You gotta try this.  It's awful.  It's like mango chutney and burnt hair."

2020-06-14 - Day 91

Oh yes, politics on Sunday

Welcome to Sunday's edition of "time to say some shit".

Since it's Trump's birthday today, I would like to draw attention to what a real leader and actual #President looks like.

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Assuming Trump reads this blog, and let's face it, of course he does...  I hope he looks long and hard. I hope it makes him furious. Because it's true.

Dear President #Obama; We miss you.

That is all.  Now back to your regularly scheduled internet already in progress.  Which, actually is quite a lot of the same as I just wrote here.

2020-06-13 - Day 90 v2.0

This is my second attempt at a blog entry today

I wrote up this whole thing earlier today and said, "You know what?  This doesn't pass the Craig Furgeson test."*

So I bailed on it until such a time as I write something more, i dunno...  Better?

So today...  I worked on the stand-alone version of this blog software.  I tried to quickly install it on my server here in the house.


What a server might look like (it's a Raspberry Pi)

That went pretty well.  It was a good practice for how to tell others how to install it.

Then I cut the grass.  Then I played guitar.  Then I ate some food.  Then I went out in the back yard with the acoustic and played for a while.  Then my hand cramped up.  There are some songs that really weren't meant for an acoustic. "And Justice For All", for instance.  Sounds cool.  Hurts the hand.

Then I cam back inside and started typing this.  Now I'm going to hit the Submit button, share on Twitter and Facebook, and go back outside.

*The Craig Furgeson test
Does this need to be said?
Does this need to be said right now?
Does this need to be said right now by me?

2020-06-12 - Day 89

Is this the new normal?

Well, if it's not, there isn't a whole lot we can do about it.  (edit:  Sorry this is a long one.  Strap in.  Because I'm not really sorry.  I think this all needs to be said.)

Looking back to a couple of months ago, when this first started, we were doing anything we could to keep busy.  Building puzzles, playing games, streaming mad content on Netflix, CBS, Yahoo, and whatever else you've got.  It was strange to go to the store and see everyone with masks on and keeping away from each other.  At the time we had hoped that we could just do that for 2 weeks, and then everything would be normal again.

Here it is the end of week 13, and we are not anywhere near any manner or "normal" at all.  Unless you consider that we have had to redefine what that means.  And to be sure, that is precisely what we have had to do.

What seemed like something utterly absurd and impossible just a couple of months ago has now become our daily normal lives.  And it's not changing anytime soon.  As restaurants open back up, they will only be able to seat at 50% capacity, if they even can.  And many of those places will not be able to survive only serving half the number of customers as before.

Bars, concerts, and sporting events are probably not going to be able to happen again for this entire summer season.  Because that level of close contact is going to cause the virus thing to come back again.

At this stage of the game, we have been careful enough to limit contact, and wear masks.  That has slowed the spread down to a point that the medical people aren't overwhelmed.  And they also have better means of treating.  So, all in all, the virus isn't as dangerous as it was.  And we are going to have to maintain this level of caution for many more months until the virus is no longer an issue.

The most frustrating thing of all is that the medical professionals out there have been telling us that contact tracing (to track the spread), and testing (so you know where it is), are the keys to ending this nightmare.  Once you can track it and test for it, you can control it.  And here we are at WEEK 13!!!  And we STILL don't have that system in place to any meaningful degree.

We are reopening the country with reckless abandon while showing spikes in new cases and deaths.  I guess we are just going to ignore that...

It cannot be overstated how much our government has completely failed us across the board.  I'm looking at you Mr, Donald "this virus just go away, it will be a miracle" Trump.  Great job! And of course by that I mean, your lack of action, purposeful misinformation, and continued denial of the severity of this situation, has directly resulted in over 100,000 dead, and 40 million unemployed.  And on top of that, we are now in the middle of worldwide protests condemning police brutality, to which you respond, literally, with more forceful police (and military) brutality.  And you've fenced off the White House to protect yourself from the very people you are supposed to be leading!  And when they got in the way of your photo op, you directly interfered with their first amendment right to peaceful assembly by tear gassing them!!

The other thing that cannot be overstated is how necessary it is to get this idiot OUT of the driver's seat.  It cannot wait until November.  #TrumpResignNow

One more thing, since I'm on a rant anyway...  Concerning the Confederate statues, flags, and other symbols of the civil war.  This is not about erasing history.  It's not American history.  It's Confederate history.  If you are so worried about "history repeating itself", then maybe don't glorify the antagonists and traitors that started a war so they could maintain their ownership of other human beings.

2020-06-11 - Day 88

Man, it has been a busy week

By that I mean, I've been very busy with work.  I'm not complaining exactly.  It's just that it's exhausting.  I've gotten a lot done.  Looking forward to the weekend just the same.

In news of what I was talking about yesterday, I am making a "release version" of this blog software.  Not for sale.  More like, "if you want it, take it."  It's not big enough to be a sellable project.  But it will certainly serve as an excellent learning tool for people that want to learn about this stuff.  More to come on that later.

That's all I've got for now.

2020-06-10 - Day 87

Happy June 10th!

A word about this blog software...  I just made a spiffy upgrade to the software.  I had originally created a separate page to hold the stats and data.  Since the layout is essentially same as the main blog, I determined that it made far more sense to redo the entries on that page as blog entries rather than hard coded.  Do that, and put them in a separate category.

So I modified the program to handle multiple blogs.  There is now the main blog (which you are reading now), and the stats blog.  It's the same page as this one but switches to the other data set.

Why am I telling you this nerdy crap?  I dunno.  I thought you might be interested in knowing.  I often like to jot down my thoughts on my projects.  And this one is pretty big, and still ongoing project. It's also something I intend to release to the world.  So I'm writing it, working with it, and field testing it all at once.  My next move is to create a tutorial to show someone how to build this sort of thing for themselves.

I see a lot of questions come out about how to build your own blog.  I am well aware of how many other blog type things there are out there.  There must be 1000s.  But in a case where I can write something myself, and have complete control over the entire thing, I much prefer doing it that way.  It makes WAY more sense to me than having to install someone else's software, learn how to use it, deal with its shortcomings, bugs, and security flaws, etc.... Bah...  That's why I do it myself.

And since I figure there are others out there like myself, I'd like to just provide something like this a base where any developer can pick it and and build their own version.  Free of anyone else's restrictions.  So yeah...  Tutorial will be next.

2020-06-09 - Day 86

The wildlife has accepted us humans

A couple of weeks ago, my daughter and her friends were startled by some unidentified animal that got too close to them in the dark.  At the time, I thought it must have been our local opossum.  Partly because she said it was the size of a small dog, and that it ran up a tree (so, not a fox).  Yesterday I look outside and see this dude eating the old bagels we threw outside.

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We've got ourselves a lawn burglar.  And he is the newest on the list of animals that we have not seen around here previously, but are showing up more frequently.

Being the lover of wildlife that I am, I am fascinated by this.  For the decade and a half that we've lived here, there wasn't a whole lot of new animals.  But in the past year or so, we have living here in the neighborhood, a fox, an opossum, 4 groundhogs (kids), deer, turkeys, tree frogs, turtles, and now a raccoon.

This means one of two things... 
1) The property and surrounding area have matured to a point that it can support a much more diverse ecosystem.
2) The animals have always been here.  But since we have been home for like 3 months straight, they have come to accept us, and are no longer so afraid.

Whatever the case... It's getting to be like owning a zoo, but far less smelly and expensive.

2020-06-08 - Day 85

Welcome to week 13

It's Monday.  It's early on Monday.  In fact so early, it's actually late afternoon on Sunday.  I'm getting a head start.

It seems that on Saturday there were more people protesting the White House than the number that attended Trump's inauguration.

Do I absolutely know that's true?  No.  Because I didn't check any sources.  It just sounded like it could be true.  It was a LOT of people!

If you are a Trump supporter reading this, you're probably pretty pissed off that I just made something up, broadcast it, and now refuse to admit that it might be incorrect, or even easily refuted with a simple Google search.*

Now you know how I feel every time I open Facebook.

Also...

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*For the record, sources do report that more people protested than attended Trump's inauguration.  But that number was all over the world, and totaled up.  Not just in DC.  So there was some truth to my statement.

2020-06-07 - Day 84

Sunday! Are you ready for some football?

Yeah, well, good luck with that.  There is no football unless you own a Playstation or XBox.  There is no nothing, unless you count reruns.

I mean, this is normally a weak time of the year for sports except for baseball anyway.  And we don't even have that this year.

Why am I saying this today?  I dunno.  I said some 13 weeks ago that this blog would be whatever is on my mind.  That's what on my mind today.  I miss sports.  And I'm saying that as a true sports fan.  Now you may be thinking that if I'm a sports fan, it must be a gambling thing, or that I used to play, or something along those lines.

But no...  Not really.  I'm just a fan of all sports because I like watching the competition.  I don't even care who is playing most of the time.  I just want to see a good game.  And I don't even care what it is.  I like hockey, basketball, baseball, football, tennis...  Anything really.  I don't really even have a favorite team except the Flyers and the Eagles.  And that's more of a home team thing than anything else.

It is concerning to me that we might be able to attend live sporting events for a long time.  That sucks.  It sucks for the fans.  It sucks for the players.  Playing inside of an empty stadium with no crowd reaction, no crowd energy...  What we are going to see is an awful lot of truly subpar playing.  Because that lack of energy is going to affect their playing.

I think it's also worth mentioning that I really feel for all of the people who's income relies on those games being played.  Everyone from the people in the parking lot to the person selling peanuts in the crowd.  Ugh...  It just sucks.

2020-06-06 - Day 83

The blog has been shortened

The page is shorter now.  It will only show 30 days at a time now unless you tap the link at the bottom to unhide the rest.  It's not even that it takes a long time to download the page.  The entire database is less than 1mb, if you can believe that.  But the page had gotten absurdly long.

Anyway...  It's summertime, and that means that it's brutally hot and humid out.  That is going to make cutting the grass SO much fun today.  That's what Gatorade is for, right?

Speaking of things with this blog...  I have altered the ads running on it to use a rotator that shows some Google ads, but also a couple of things I am trying to promote myself.  I swear, I sometimes think that ads have become invisible on websites.  Because they don't generate as much income as they used to.  That's why I'm swapping out to promote some of my own projects.  What I call "in-house ads".

That is all...  Stay safe and healthy.  Wear sunblock and drink lots of water.

2020-06-05 - Day 82

Will I ever see my cube again?

I got an email from corporate yesterday...  In short they said, "if you are working from home, continue to do so.  We will give you 30 days notice when we are ready to re-open.  Don't expect to see that notice before September 30th."

So, yeah, it seems I'm going to be working from home until November, at the earliest.  On one hand this makes me sad because I like going to the office.  On the other hand, I'm saving a ton on gas and mileage!  On one hand it's difficult to work from home, compared to the relative calm of the office.  On the other hand, I'm not complaining, because I am feeling tremendously lucky to still BE working.

I'm going to have to make an update to the software that controls this blog to only pull 30 or so days by default.  Pulling over 80 days worth of posts at once is making the page REALLY long.

I totally did not expect to still be doing this at this point.  And it seems I'm only half way through.  Whaaaat???

2020-06-04 - Day 81

Looking forward to stormy weather

I mentioned before that I like it when it rains.  It like changes in the weather in general.  Yesterday didn't disappoint!  We saw the storm coming.  It got so dark I had to turn on the lights in the office (dining room).  When the storm hit, it was ferocious!  Then 4 minutes later, it was done.  Trees and limbs all over the place.  Water running down the street.  Sun back out.

And by some accounts something similar will be happening today.

On an unrelated note, it is really REALLY time to tell the President to step down.  We cannot wait until November.  Because he is already an inch away from doing something insanely stupid like telling the military to fire on US citizens.  He is an authoritarian madman.  And he is putting our entire country at risk.

That is all.  I promise to keep politics to a minimum.  But seriously, this is not about politics.  I would have said this about ANY President, had this ever happened before in our history.

2020-06-03 - Day 80

Happy Wednesday, everyone

So what have I been up to?  Work, mostly.  And not just for my 9-5, although I am very busy there.  I also run my own company, and things have been a little weird for a bit.  I haven't really been invoicing anyone (did I mention this before?), whatever...  I haven't been invoicing because if those businesses aren't open, they don't have money to pay their bills.  It doesn't cost me anything to keep the lights on.  So I've been letting my clients slide.

It looks like things are opening back up again, despite the troubles.  So, I will be able to get back to business as usual pretty soon.  In the meantime though, I'm looking for more work.

So...

Plug!

If you are a small business owner and you want to get a web site up and running, today is the day to act.  I'm running a special.  

$25 gets you started.  1 simple site.  1 year of hosting.

That is all I have to say for today.  Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

2020-06-02 - Day 79

Enough about the state of the country

I have something else interesting to discuss today.  I find it utterly fascinating how quickly a few things in this world changed.  A couple of good examples...

My son lost his co-op because the company he was going to work for had to shut down.  They are a firm that works to set up large events indoor and out.  So no wonder they can't work.  But in the true fashion of "one door closing, opens a new one", he got another co-op.  And this is a company that is designing and building Personal Protection Equipment.  This is a gig that literally only happened because of the current state of things.  It didn't even exist a few months ago.

A more comical example is video calling.  Sure, a few people were doing that.  Facetime was pretty popular.  Skype was too.  Zoom was out there for those that wanted a more universal app.  But it was still just a tiny fraction of people that felt comfortable with it, and even less willing to do it.  Now, it's all the rage!  Everyone from little kids, to grandparents in their 70's.  Everyone who works (or worked) in offices, are now doing their meetings via video conference.

And you've really got to hand it to the technology nerds of the world.  Because they embraced the need for this system remarkably fast!

And all it took was a worldwide pandemic.

 

2020-06-01 - Day 78

And so begins week 12 as the country burns

Nope.  Not going there today.  I have had too many angry rants as of late.  I really think my heart needs a break.  But since I know I can't help myself when I've got something to say, I will likely get back to it in a day or so.

//Thinking for very long time.

Or maybe I will say something...  It's sad.  Very sad.  We were just about to a point where this country could start getting back to some sort of normal.  And now things are even more messed up than they were already.  And it's set everything back again.  All progress is lost.  Here we are at week 12, possibly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, only to see that light snuffed out by violence breaking out in the streets all over the country.

This morning in 7-11, I heard a guy saying, "We just need to shoot them" (looters).  Great idea.  This all started because of police brutality.  And you think the solution is more severe police brutality?!

I do not have a solution for this problem.  I do not place blame on "the left" or "the right" for allowing this to go so far.  But I will say one thing for sure.  This needs to deescalate.  And that action needs to come from the top.  And right now, at the top, we have an orange man-child that is promoting the violence, placing blame on fictitious groups, and actively making things worse.

This is not a political statement.  We need leadership.  We do not have leadership right now.

2020-05-31 - Day 77

What is gonna be today?

Just when we think things can't get any worse...  Wow were we wrong about that.  Pardon my French, but you have got to be fucking kidding me!

We were finally starting to get to a point that we could start to re-open the economy and get back to some sort of normal.  And now we have nationwide riots and looting.  If you thought we were going to get back to normal again, you can forget about that.  Because once we get the riots under control, assuming they ever do, all of the people who forgot about the whole social distancing thing, are going to start spreading the virus again!  The same poor people that were most vulnerable to start with are the ones that are going to suffer the worst once we get back to remembering there is a pandemic to deal with!!

This all started because one scumbag cop killed one helpless black man.  But of course, it's not just one.  That was just the most recent in a string of similar incidents that have been going on for decades.  And Minneapolis totally screwed the pooch with how they handled it.  They STILL are not handling properly.  When they finally decided to arrest only 1 of 4 cops involved - and then charge him with "3rd degree murder" (which is a totally made up charge), it sets the stage for him to be set free.  And the other 3 haven't even been arrested - STILL.

No wonder people are SO pissed off!!  Do not for a second assume that people were just looking for an excuse to destroy their cities.  This happened because of an incident that could have been prevented, and should have been handled better.  And is STILL not being handled correctly.  They are fighting violence with more violence, and STILL not solving the original problem.

For the record, I do not condone violent protests that lead to looting and destruction of property. But I understand why it's happening.  The people that don't understand it, are the people that could do something about it.  And once gain, they have failed us miserably.  I am not siding with the protestors.  Of course violent protests are not the answer.  But dammit man, it's time to listen to why they are so angry.

There is a solution to this, assuming it's not too late.  That solution starts with making an example of those scumbags that killed and unarmed man for no reason at all.  Arrest them all.  Charge them with murder.  And next, disavow the words of the coroner who literally told us that Floyd should have been in better health, and then would have survived the ordeal.  The coroner blames the victim.  Seriously, people, WTF?!

Again, I understand why people are pissed off.  And our government needs to get this back under control right now.  They need to take action.  And that action is not shooting at the protestors!  The solution starts with understanding why those people are pissed off.  It is time for meaningful change.

To the protesters I say - If you want to be heard, you are doing it wrong.  Violence throws all credibility out the window, and turns everyone against your cause.  If you want to be heard, stop screaming and start talking.

2020-05-30 - Day 76

Nothing happened today

Boy, do I wish I could say that.  As if things weren't bad enough, now there are nationwide protests that have turned into riots.  I have more to say about this.  But for now, I have other work on, so it's gonna have to wait.

2020-05-29 - Day 75

Not impressed with today's storms

It's been a while since I complained about the weather. We were promised storms all day today. Got nuthin. I actually like it when it rains. One of the things I like about living here is that the weather is not the same every day. You never know what you're gonna get. I think it was Mark Twain that said, "If you don't like the weather around here, wait 15 minutes."

Yeah...  It's kinda like that.  Anyway...  We were supposed to have rain.  Didn't get any.

Oh well...  Day's not over yet.

2020-05-28 - Day 74

Picked up my new car

It is almost comically identical to the one I had to turn in.  It's just silver instead of white.  And the radio interface is different.  And the rear windows are tinted.

Other than that, it feels exactly like the last one.  There was a time that I wouldn't go near a Chevy.  This is now the 4th Chevy I've had.  And these last 3 (Equinoxes) have been the best cars I have ever owned.  I am a very practical car owner.  I don't need to have the most expensive thing.  Don't need anything bigger or more prestigious.  And the point is that these cars have restored my faith in Chevy.  They are awesome cars.

The funniest part of this story was that my daughter, who couldn't give a crap about this a couple of days ago when I told her about it, met me at the door when I got home this morning, "Can I drive it around the block?  I promise to be careful."

This is to be expected when the kids are both of driving age, actually.  So a bit ago, I collected the family and threw them all into the car, and let them drive it.  Got it all out of their systems at once.  And it was fun.

2020-05-27 - Day 73

Welcome, Hump Day. Spread your cheer.

Hump day doesn't mean quite as much when there are only 4 days in the week.  I guess technically, then, it started at noon today, and ends at noon tomorrow.

Yeah...  That makes good sense.

I worked.  I cut the grass.  I worked more.  That's about it...  Oh, SpaceX had to cancel their launch right at the last minute.  I turned it on and got the audio going just in time for them to scrub it.  booooo

I guess that's better then have the rocket explode in a weather accident.

Maybe Saturday...

2020-05-26 - Day 72

Today was a fun day

I got a new car.  Now before you start in with, "oh, that must be nice.  Jerk."  If you've ever had a lease, you know that two things are always an issue. 

1: You will go over mileage if you're not careful
2: The lease is going to end in short time.

In my case, I'm 6 months out from when the lease runs out.  But I'm 400 miles from going over!!  That basically means that I cannot drive my car at all for the next 6 months.  Which is stupid.  I had been meaning to contact the dealer to find out what my options are.  As it turns out, they called me.  They basically said, "You know, you're gonna gave to do something soon."

So I went down there.  In about an hour, I argued and haggled a deal that got me pretty much the exact same car, but 2 years newer, and my payments only went up $30/m.

I'm picking it up on Thursday.  So I will be driving my current car all over the place until then.  I've got to put 400 miles on it in 2 days.  I'm getting my damn money's worth out of it!!

 

2020-05-25 - Day 71

Happy Memorial Day, everyone

Let's talk some more about reopening things...

I am astonished by the number of people that see wearing a mask as some sort of "tyranny" or that "you are all sheep".  It seems to be the thing people are now latching on to, while telling everyone that they don't think that this is for real.  For some reason.

Or may favorite from yesterday, that I saw posted in succession by a few different people:
"If 6 feet works then why the masks?
if the masks work then why the 6 feet?
And if they both work, then why the lockdown?"

I will answer here, because to do it there would simply be ignored anyway.  The answer is that ALL 3 ARE NEEDED in order to work.  

There is a good chance that only 1 may be needed.  If 2 are used, that increases the percentage of protection for everyone by a huge margin.  The percentage of using all 3 is WAY higher and therefore WAY more effective.  

That's why.

To put it another way...  Perhaps all 3 have their drawbacks and disadvantages.  Flaws, if you prefer...  But they have been shown to slow the spread of the virus to such a point that we are able to start opening the economy again.  

Do you want the economy to open again?  Do you want people to start doing business again without being afraid?  Then wear a mask, keep your distance, and STFU! 

 

2020-05-24 - Day 70

WhooHoo! Another block of 10!

Man, do I ever long for the time like 9 weeks ago when we thought this would only go on for 2 weeks or so.  Those were the good old days.

It's been a good week or so since I ranted about this.  So it's about time again.

How have we been doing so far as a country?  We have over 30% of the cases in the world.  Our death toll is just shy of 100,000.  Much of the country still thinks this is a hoax, or that it's at least blown out of proportion.  We still don't have adequate testing or contact tracing.  We have managed to slow the spread on the virus in many places, especially those places that were hit the hardest, like the northeast.  But much of the rest of the country, where they thought they were completely safe, there is a rise of cases.

The president is hell bent on reopening the economy no matter who has to die in order to do it.  He was playing golf all day yesterday.  Many people were really pissed off about this.  But I really don't care.  Because he can't do any damage out there.  He can spend all of his time right up until next January playing golf.  I hope he does.  It would make us all safer.

About reopening the economy.  Let's really look at this from an objective point of view, shall we?  Something that most people in this country are simply unwilling to accept is that reopening the economy is NOT going to solve this problem.  People are genuinely afraid.  Such to a point that even if every bar and movie theater opened tomorrow, people would not patronize those businesses in the numbers they did a few months ago.  And they won't for a VERY long time.  Until this virus thing is no longer a threat, people are not going to feel safe.  At this stage it doesn't matter if you agree with them, if you think they are stupid, or if you think the virus is not that dangerous, or that we are overreacting...  None of that matters.  Because it doesn't change what is already clear and obvious.

It also doesn't matter who you blame for this; the media, the president, the virus itself, etc...  People right now are afraid of it.  Period.  The damage is done.  People were already afraid before things started closing down.  So you really can't blame anyone for that.

But if you really need to blame someone, we know who it is.  It is the president.  Mr "I refuse to wear a mask", and "I have been drinking snake oil for a couple of weeks now".  Mr "People are amazed at how much I know about this stuff", downplayed this thing from the start.  He missed all of the opportunities to get this under control.  He refuses to believe the science.  He refuses the help of experts. He fires and/or removes anyone that disagrees with his narrative. He stands there and offers suggestions to the experts about possible cures, and makes the whole country think it's a good idea to drink bleach and shove a UV light up your ass. 

Right up to this very day, he is telling the country that there is no problem, we are testing everyone, the nightmare is almost over, and we are very close to a cure.  And not a single fucking one of those statements is true.  And just a couple of days ago, he made it a point to tell us that no matter how bad things get, he will not shut down the economy again.  No matter what.

Well, guess what, you orange madman, the people will still be afraid no matter what.  Your economy is going to be in the crapper for years.  And the harder you try to fight this fire by pouring gasoline on it, the more people are going to die. And wether you intend to ever take responsibility for it, we all know that you are, in fact, responsible.

Well, if more people die, that's less people to support.  And that would be good for the economy, I suppose.

 

2020-05-23 - Day 69

Huh, huh... He said 69. Huh huh...

That was cool.

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It's a 3-day weekend.  Unofficial start of summer.  But of course summer has effectively been canceled.  So it's not like there is a whole lot more to do than before.

I was joking with my wife yesterday that we should invite 20 people over because now we are allowed to gather in those numbers.  If course I wasn't serious.  You're not going to find 20 people that feel safe enough to leave their house yet.

This will be the weirdest Memorial Day weekend that we've seen since the holiday was invented.  But it's not like it's any more weird than things have been anyway.

 

2020-05-22 - Day 68

Friday before the long weekend

Apparently we still get holidays during the whole work from home thing.  So I will be getting out early today.  Of course, all that really means is that I will leave the dining room at 2:00 instead of 5:00.  But I'll take it!

I do have some stuff to get out the door, off my plate, and some other analogies first...  So off to it...

2020-05-21 - Day 67

My daughter's birthday!

Yep.  19 years old.  It's rather not correct to say that we have kids.  We have adults.

Happy birthday to my not-so-little-anymore girl!

A few weeks ago she was saying, "I hope this whole lockdown thing is relaxed by the time by birthday gets here."  Yeah, sorry about that.  Not a whole lot we can do.  But at least the Cheesecake Factory will still make you a phat dinner!!  And this time we will actually be getting a cheesecake.  Which, if you can believe this, will be a first for me.

It's true...  it's right there in the name and I've not ever had their cheesecake.

2020-05-20 - Day 66

Nothing really interesting happened

Seriously...  I had a good productive workday.  I'm gonna go play some guitar now.  

2020-05-19 - Day 65

Nice day. But very windy.

The wind actually picked up to a point that all of the ashes cleared out of my fire pit.  Don't have to worry about cleaning that up now.

One thing I haven't really done so much with this blog is advertise my services.  What with the economy being shut down, it's been difficult for my business to do much, because businesses I would normally support are closed, and are not looking to spend any money.  Far that matter, I haven't even been invoicing some of my current clients.  Because, like I said...  They don't have any income.  So I've been letting everyone slide for a while.

That's not to say that I don't want to bring on some new work myself.  So in an effort to do that, I am offering a super-cheap package on my hosting service.  For $25, I will purchase your domain and deploy a simple site for you, and cover your hosting for 1 year.

You can read more about the service at, Affordable Shared Host.

To take advantage of this offer, go to the site, make the purchase for the special Starter Package.  Once I receive notice, I will contact you to get information about your company and discuss your domain name.  Once we're done there, I can roll out the site and have it up in a few hours.

This is a promotion, of course.  Regular fees apply after one year.  But there is no obligation.

My only incentive here is to show you what we can do for your company.  So, if you want to have a site built, and want to do it for really, really cheap, this is the right promotion for you!

2020-05-18 - Day 64

Week 10 begins

One curious thing about this mess...  Just a few months ago I was saying, "You know, we really don't use half of the downstairs in this house.  We use the kitchen and the living room and that's it."  Seriously...  The dining room and the front room have been used for nothing but plants and cats for over a decade.

Well, that all changed 10 weeks ago.  My office is now in the dining room.  This room is getting 40 hours a week now.  And my son got tired of booting us out of the living room when he wanted the TV.  He moved out of his apartment when school closed, so he brought his stuff with him.  He has now completely rebuilt the front room with TV, futon, and game systems.

So we are now using the entire downstairs.  And all it took was a worldwide pandemic!

2020-05-17 - Day 63

Are you ready for week 10?

I hope so.  Because it's going to happen whether you like it or not.

Before we go on today, help me with something...  Is anyone actually reading this blog, or am I just inconveniencing trillions of electrons for no reason?

Answer this one question, if you don't mind.  Thank you...  In the end, it doesn't much matter.  I'm actually keeping this log more for myself, than anything.  And perhaps so I can show my grandchildred.  "Hey, guys...  Want to hear about the plague of 2020?"

"Not again, grandpa.  I was gonna gover hoverboarding with my friends on the Moon.  Sheesh!"

"Kids, humor your grandpa.  He's old and likes to tell stories."

So anyway...  Today I actually have a small job to do.  I haven't been doing a lot of DPoisn LLC work because most of my clients are closed and not making money.  But today, I'm going to move a security camera for one client that is open.  

 

2020-05-16 - Day 62

It was awesome outside today!

It was so nice I forgot to make a blog entry.  So I'm writing this on Sunday morning.

See the next entry for an actual blog entry.

In a few minutes.  I am going to update the stats pages first.

2020-05-15 - Day 61

At least the weather is improving

And it really is too.  Pretty soon we might be able to go outside.  We won't be able to go anywhere or do anything.  But at least we can do it outside.

What I am seeing more than anything these days is that people are absolutely terrified.  Something I have NEVER seen in the American public before.  Especially in NJ.  NJ has a reputation for being one of the toughest, no-nonsense places in the country.  And we'll kick your ass if you think otherwise.  Now go and get your f'n shinebox! 

Even here, when I see another human in public, what I usually see is them move as far away as possible, remarkably fast.  I saw a woman in Walgreen's yesterday nearly fall over an endcap trying to escape from my general area.  And all I did was walk through the front door.  Luckily I was wearing a mask, or she probably would have simply crashed through the wall trying to escape.

The first image in a slideshow

It's a dream come true for introverts.  If you want everyone to stay away and never even make eye contact with you, you are better suited for this world than any time in history.

What makes this most awful is that there is a percentage of the population that is absolutely screaming to end the lockdown and get people outside again.  I get it.  They want to see the economy re-open.  They want to get back to work.  And to some extent, I agree.  Enough time has gone by that we need to start relaxing some restrictions - as long as we are smart about it.

Unfortunately, it seems pretty clear to me that most people don't want that.  They don't feel safe.  The thought is that as damaging as this is to the economy, it would be far MORE damaging to just ignore this virus thing and hope it goes away.  That could cause a runaway pandemic that we might not get back under control.

My point is that if the ones that want to re-open everything were to win their argument tomorrow, nothing would change.  Because even if bars and restaurants open, people will not go to those places in the numbers they did before.  I suspect that it's going to be many, many more months before anything like that ever happens again.  We have reached a point now that this isn't even the government telling us to stay locked down and stay away from each other.  People are actively doing it because they are afraid to do otherwise.

2020-05-14 - Day 60

Today was a good day

So far anyway.  It's late afternoon as of the time I'm typing this.  There is still time for a meteor to crash into Yellowstone National Park starting a chain reaction that results in a supervolcano explosion the likes of which humans have never before seen.

Not that I'm intending to be morbid, but this year has been pretty wild so far.  So you never know...

On a happier note...  At least it looks like restrictions on many small business are going to be lifted here in NJ in a few days.  That's good for everyone.  But it's mostly good for the small businesses that were forced to close while all the big-box stores were allowed to stay open.  On that note - go to those small stores on Monday!  Give THEM your business rather than the big guys.  It's the best thing you can do for your local businesses, and the people that work for them.

2020-05-13 - Day 59

Stats update

The frustration is really starting to set in now.  Even for me.  And I've been one of the ones that has handled all of this pretty well.  But here we are in week 9, and we are hearing that we will have to continue this for at least another 4-6 weeks.  At least.  At the minimum.

It's sad and not just a little bit annoying.  Because there has not really been any new news about how we are doing at all.  You can look at the stats, which I updated again this morning,  And the number of new cases is way down across the entire world  Unless you're in Illinois, for some reason.

Is that an indication that we have things under control?  Of course not.  Because we still don't have testing or contact tracing.  Without those two things - a way to test everyone, and a way to track the source of infection - we cannot get this under control in any meaningful sense.

83,082 people dead so far.  That is just in this country.  We have 32.87% of all the cases in the entire world.  You know who is in second place next to the US?  Russia.  Do you know what they have in common with the US?  Their leaders tried to downplay the severity, and ignore all of the warning signs, until it got so far out of control that they couldn't hide it any longer.

 

  Cases Deaths Died % % of world
Worldwide 4,262,051 291,961 6.85% 100.00%
United States 1,400,741 83,082 5.93% 32.87%

This was entirely preventable in the early stages.  But everything our government did in the very beginning - at the most important time - was wrong.  They delayed.  They downplayed the severity.  They lied.  And now they are doing nothing but complaining about how bad the economy is.  And they are STILL not taking the right steps to get things back on track.  

It is time to demand the resignation of this President.  This experiment of having a reality TV show host and failed businessman attempt to lead this country has directly led to the deaths of almost 100,000 people.  And we will reach that number soon enough.

This cannot wait until November.  People are dying as a direct result of this completely inept and corrupt administration.  This needs to stop now.  

It's time to start getting the media outlets on board.  It's time to talk to your Senators and Congresscritters.  It's time to demand a change and demand it now.  Whether or not this country even has a future depends on it.

This is not some left-wing lying media bullshit.  Do the research yourself if you don't agree with what I've said here.

 

2020-05-12 - Day 58

Nothing new to report

It's true...  This is just another Tuesday.  The 9th one.  And nothing is any different than it was 9 weeks ago.  Except that we have no illusion that this will only last for 2 weeks.

We are well aware that we are still at least 2 months from even going back to anything like normal.

2020-05-11 - Day 57

What is this, week 9?

A couple of weeks ago, I was going on about how surprised I was that no one in the White House was coming up positive.  Now they are more or less playing out The Masque of the Red Death in real life.  Linked there is the full text of the story.  If you are unfamiliar with it, take 15 minutes and read it now.  You're welcome.

Some good might come of this.  There is a slight chance that the WH might finally see what they are doing wrong and actually take this seriously.

Or not.  Which is more likely the case.  They will continue to bury this and downplay the severity.  This isn't even a political statement I am making.  There are some things in this world that are objectively WRONG.  What we are seeing all around our government's response is full of wrong.

The people controlling this thing - the people that actually could make a difference and get our country back on track - have screwed this up since day 1 (and earlier), and haven't done anything right in the time since.  They continue to lie about how things are and where they are going.  They are trying to force the country to re-open while we still haven't even got adequate testing in place.  And lying to us about how close we ARE to getting that testing.  They refuse to take proper precautions that the entire rest of the country are required to endure.

Our f'n Vice President is still insisting on not wearing a mask, and insisting those that meet with him do the same - this after his closest aide just tested positive.  There are no words for how careless, dangerous, and just stupid that is.  Well, those are words, but they aren't strong enough.  The leader of the Pandemic Task Force can't be bothered to take any precautions, and actively puts those around him in harm's way.

Again...  Objectively wrong.  Not a political statement.  Pence is a dangerous moron.  I would say than no matter who he worked for.
 

2020-05-10 - Day 56

Happy Mother's Day

Hope all mothers out there have a great day.  At least you don't have to worry about going anywhere, amirite?

Here is something interesting from this morning.

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Out here in the suburbs, we don't get a lot of deer.  If I were to count how many times I've seen a deer in our back yard, I would not need more than one hand.  If I were to count the number of times I've seen a couple, I would only need one finger.  Because until today, it's never happened.  We live about 2 miles from a park where there is a fair sized deer population.  But they rarely venture this far away.

And it's cute that it's mother's day.  Because the female there will be a mother before long.  The dude with the antlers will see to that.

2020-05-09 - Day 55

Winter is back

This year just cannot stop being more and more sucky, can it?  Every time we think we are out of the weeds, there are more and impressive weeds to deal with.  Fortunately, it doesn't appear that the cold killed all the stuff I had planted.  That's fortunate.  But it's too cold outside to enjoy the day, despite how sunny it is.

I took the past couple of days off from work, so I'm on Saturday 3 right now.  I didn't make any excuses to the boss...  I just said, "Man, I've been working too hard, and I'm feeling pretty stressed.  Just need a couple of days."  And I really did too.  And it doesn't feel even the slightest bit weird to take a couple of vacation days, and all it meant was not going to the dining room.

2020-05-08 - Day 54

New project to show

One of my clients is The Lion's Den II Tattoo Studio in New Hope, PA.  In speaking with the owner, and hearing his frustration about having to be closed down, I came up with an idea that could help...  I implemented Gift Certificates for purchase on their web site.

gift certificate

I mention this for 2 reasons.  If you happen to be someone who would like to have a tattoo done, or would like to purchase one for your friend, this serves as an advertisement for the Lion's Den and their services.

And, second, this serves as an advertisement for my company and services. 

Plug!

Because if you are a business owner that could benefit from a module like this on your own site, please contact me.  The development work is done.  It's just a matter of working the modules into your site.

2020-05-07 - Day 53

New data update

It's been a while since I spoke about the data for this thing.  I have been diligently keeping my stats page up to date.  Today I added something new.  Because I had seen something about this on the news, I wanted to pull the data and graph it myself, to see how true it was.  TL;DR version:  It's true.

Here is a preview. Click the image for the full thing.

NY and NJ

The top graph shows all the cases over time for all the states, individually. You will notice that NY and NJ have come down so far that they are now, in some cases, lower than other states. Which is great for NY and NJ. But what does that say about all those other states?

The bottom graph shows NY and NJ broken out on their own. And ALL the other states combined. A few weeks ago, NY alone had more new cases per day than all the other states combined. Now NY and NJ both are going way down, and the rest of the entire country is going UP!!

I hope everyone understands what this means. But in case you don't, I will tell you. It means that all of the practical efforts to get the pandemic under control in NY and NJ are working. And the entire rest of the country doesn't seem to think such measures matter. So they are NOT doing those things. And the virus is spreading in those places now!

What more evidence does the entire rest of the country need to see?! If they don't start taking measures now, the hotspots in this country will no longer be the east coast. They will be the entire middle of the country.

2020-05-06 - Day 52

Happy 6th of May!

Meh...  Doesn't have the same ring to it.

Speaking of masks.  Again.  Because, let's face it, they are all the rage right now.  We got our shipment of "random fabric masks" from some Etsy person in OK, of all places.  So now we have something more stylish then the cheap, disposable masks we've been wearing.  And these are washable!

We probably should have done that earlier on.  But, c'mon, man, no one thought this would still be going on at this point.

2020-05-05 - Dia 51

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

Much like Saint Patrick's day, the bars of the world are REALLY f'n bummed right now.  This is one of the biggest drinking days of the year, and none of it will be done in bars.  And it's a real shame, because Corona would be selling like crazy right now.  But you really can't drink beer through a mask, can you?

Speaking of masks...

Yesterday, I pulled into the parking lot at the super market.  I went to put my mask on, like a good citizen.  The strap broke.  "Sumbitch!  What am I gonna do now?!"

So I looked around the car.  It was my daughter's car.  What I found was one of her nametags from work.  So I pinned the mask back together with her nametag and went into the store.  No one seemed to notice that I had a nametag holding my mask together.  But that's probably because people rarely look at each other in public nowadays.

 

2020-05-04 - Day 50

May the Fourth Be with you.

Or, I generally prefer, "The fourth will be with you.  Always."

That joke is never going to get old.  Speaking of old, this blog is as many days old as I am years old!!  We have crossed into a new important block of 10!

Anyway...  You know who never had trouble with viruses and pandemics?  The Empire.  I so want to get me one of these masks.

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On a related note...  I was tasked yesterday with quickly making a "pandemic themed" limerick.  Here it is.  Enjoy...

I farted, you don't need to ask
A pleasantly futile task
I sit on this bench
with this horrible stench
But I filter the smell with my mask

 

2020-05-03 - Day 49

Moving up to week 8

It's getting harder and harder to keep track of the time.  That much is for sure.  Whatever...  It's Sunday.

I got a helluva lot of work done over the past couple of days.  My property looks way better.

2020-05-02 - Day 48

Today was a nice day

Got to Lowes.  Got some stuff.  Planted a new tree to replace 3 that I took out.  That is all.

2020-05-01 - Day 47

Happy Friday - again!!

Happy May, also.  Yes...  A new month has started.  Again.

In case you have been living under a rock, stuck in a submarine, or perhaps just returned from outer space, you may be wondering what's been going on these past few months.  I found this lovely comic this morning, that will bring you completely up to speed.

Here are 20 panels of comic to help explain how this has been going so far, and how we got here.

Some of those panels had me laughing like an idiot.  Which paradoxically makes me feel bad, because this situation is not funny.

2020-04-30 - Day 46

The day the winds came

One thing I always like to say about the weather around here.  If you don't like it, wait 15 minutes.  That was actually Mark Twain, but it applies to any place with insane, unpredictable weather.  Today is the day of 40MPH winds, apparently.  

The new gazebo we just built?  (look a couple of posts down)  I took the roof off and put it in the garage.  Because if I had not done that, it would almost certainly be flying 20,000 feet over some other state by now.

Stay safe today.  And if you're outside, hug a tree.  It might save your life.

2020-04-29 - Day 45

Beautiful day today

Not like it matters much.  I was working so hard, I totally missed it.  I did get a lot done though.

And I really can't complain that much because I took the day off yesterday.  So I spent a good bit of it outside. Had to go to Philly to unload my son's apartment.  Since his co-op got cancelled, he can't use the apartment in the city.  We took everything out, assuming it was useful.  Meaning, all the cleaning products.  They are hard to come by nowadays.  We even took the stuff his roommate left behind.  On the walls we left nothing book hooks and some wire.

Anyway... He will be looking for work from home for the rest of the shut-in.

It's so funny how we went from, "Gee, it's so quiet around here with both the kids at school", to "all 4 of us locked in the house for over 6 weeks now".

Hah...  It ain't so quiet any more!

2020-04-27 - Day 44

The gazebo built

Finally.  That was fun.  The frame from our old tent is still there.  Haven't decided what we are doing with that yet.  But the new one is done.  And it has bug nets!!

Gazebo

Also...  We were right in the flight path for the Blue Angels / Thunderbirds flyover.  It was the first time I've seen everyone in the neighborhood outside in weeks.  It's strange though.  Social media has a lot of crappy things to say about it... I don't give crap what people say about this.  Those planes are gonna fly, and some of us like to see them fly.

Like this old Star Wars Fan Film I did...

Yes, we did watch the formations fly overhead just now, and it was awesome.

You know why I don't give a crap about the reason, or how much money it costs?  Because no one cares about any of that either.  And it's hardly the worst thing our gubmint spends money on.  It does not make me love the military more, or give me a swell of pride.  I just like seeing big powerful jets.  Hell, if we are sinking a ton of money into those sorts of planes anyway, I would much rather see them used like THAT, than blowing people to hell!

So sue me.

2020-04-27 - Day 43

I hope you like cherry blossoms

Because they are all over the place.  When I drive down the road now it looks like I escaped from a parade.  It's so beautiful! 

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The best part is that they get stuck all over your shoes.  So for the next week or so, they are going to be everywhere in your car and right at the front door...  Not to mention being stuck under your windshield wipers, etc...

It's a strange downside to springtime.  The flower season looks so very nice.  And then it makes a colossal mess for a longer time than the flowering period itself.

2020-04-26 - Day 42

The day we can't believe we are starting week 7

Here it is 8:00PM and I'm only just now getting to typing here today.  It's been a ridiculously busy day.  

All I feel like typing right now is that the data sheets and visualizations have all been updated.  I can't really say that it's all that encouraging.  But you already knew that.

Take care.  Stay safe.

2020-04-25 - Day 41

Saturday #6, and the weather is awesome

It's been a while since I started out a daily post with something upbeat and encouraging.  The sun shining does have an effect on the mood, to be sure.  Since I don't have to go to the office (the dining room) today, there will be work outside including putting some stuff in the garden.  Much of the stuff I have rooted in the house here is growing long and gangly from lack of sun and wind.  I need to get those things in the ground.  Now that we seem to be at least beyond the fear of frost, the heartier stuff like peas and beans can be planted.

There is your gardening lesson for the day.

So yesterday I decided to get into an argument on Facebook.  That was fun.  If you are wondering what a true example of "sarcasm" is; when I said, "That was fun", that was sarcasm.  To summarize what happened...  There seems to be a lot of people dismissing or excusing Trump's comments about using disinfectant as a cure.  I'm sure you've heard them all.  So, let me just put up the one single point that must be understood about this:

It doesn't matter if he wasn't being serious, or was being sarcastic, or was trying to see what people's reaction would be, or it was a question or a statement, or if people misunderstood, or if he "word fumbled", or if he just used the wrong term, or if people are morons for taking it literally.  None of that matters.  It happened.  Real people got hurt.  Real people called poison control.  Lysol had to release a statement to prevent further damage.  What he said was stupid and dangerous, no matter how you spin it.  That is all that we should be taking from this.

Enjoy your day out there today.  Stay happy and healthy, and whatever you do, don't drink bleach, or use it as an enema.  You're welcome.

2020-04-24 - Day 40

Ah, I remember when I turned 40. Good times.

Before I say anything else today, I would like to remind everyone that under no circumstance should you inject yourself with disinfectant as a treatment for the virus.   Look, I don't care what your political leanings are, only a complete moron would come close to suggesting that we inject ourselves with Lysol as a treatment for COVID-19.  Only an absolute fool would actually say it out loud.  

And, look, this is not some left-wing media spin.  The man said it.  Out loud.  He backpedaled afterward.  But he said it.

“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning."
- Donald Trump

What it's like to work for Trump

On the other hand, he's got a point.  Once you are dead, you don't need to worry about catching any diseases, or really anything at all.

Anyway...  Today is shaping up to be a good day.  I've got a lot of work on, which is always good.  Hope you are still happy and healthy, and above all, taking your medical advice from actual medical professionals.

2020-04-23 - Day 39

It must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays
- Arthur Dent

Here we are on Day 39 of the thing that is happening to everyone.

Today I am feeling somewhere in between proud of what I have accomplished in the past 39 days both with 9-5 work and personal projects, and being disappointed because in this day of the internet being so saturated with stuff, most of what I do goes unnoticed.  Let me recap what I've been doing:

That's just the stuff I can think of offhand.  I've also done a lot of back-end work fixing and tweaking older projects.

Pffft...  In the end, I do this stuff because it interests me to do so.  And because I can.  So despite lack of response I will keep doing it.

But once in a while I like to express my frustration that so much of it is just never seen.  bang head And that sucks.  

Thus concludes my whining for the day.  Now we return to your regularly scheduled COVID-19 isolation.

2020-04-22 - Day 38

Shopping day

We hadn't been to the store in over a week.  And as such, we really needed to get some stuff.  Here we are on week 6 of this thing and people are STILL hoarding important items.  Toilet paper and paper towels are easier to find.  I guess people got tired of stacking up their thier paper products to the cieling in every room.

But forget about finding anything with bleach in it.  And I find that to be completely baffling.  I see sites where they say things like "limit 35".  Who the hell is buying 35 bottles of Clorox Cleanup?!  But more to the point, if they have already done that, why can not we find any now, 6 weeks later?!  It's not even that the stores run out of them right away.  There just are none left.  I was doing checks across some stores that tell me, "There is none of that product within 100 miles."  

Seriously?!  alien  What is that about?  Did Clorox stop making the product?  Are they saving it for hospitals?  Well, okay, if that's the case, then fine, I more or less understand.  But it still doesn't explain how they can't get some of that stuff here from elsewhere in the country.  

2020-04-21 - Day 37

And it is a busy one

I really can't complain about being bored this whole way through.  When someone just asked me "How's it going for everyone?", it occurred to me that I really hadn't thought about that for a little while.  And the reason for that is that we seem to have crossed the line from being all bugged out and stressed, and arrived at acceptance.

This is what it is, and it is going to be that for at least the next 4 weeks.  It would have been unthinkable to say that 5 weeks ago.  Because 5 weeks ago, we were only supposed to be locked up for 2 weeks.  That is a major cause of the anxiety that hung around for a while.  Now that we are resigned to knowing that the end still isn't in sight, it makes it oddly easier to deal with.  We're more used to it now.

Having said all that, I am still well aware that businesses are suffering.  So I am mentioning again that this site is available as a resource to help.

2020-04-20 - Social Distancing - Day 36

Monday of week 6

I have a lot to say today.  But I'm not going to say it all here.  I just have too much to do.  So I will keep today's blog entry short and simply point out one important thing.

The Donate to Local Businesses website is about 95% finished.  As such, I can actually show what it looks like.

Click here to check it out

I say that it is 95% finished.  But that is probably a generous assessment.  Because I am so familiar with the thing, I probably think that it is more complete than it really is.

Consider this an "alpha release".  It might be buggy.  There are parts that still need work.  There may be parts that came over from the site from which it was cloned that I didn't strip out yet.  There is also no data in the thing at all except for the test data used while I was building it.

But go ahead and tell people about it.  I will be actively working and cleaning things up.  If you are a business owner that wants to submit your information, do it.  Whatever it amounts to I will clean it up.

If it seems like I am rushing this, it is because I am, in fact, rushing it.  I feel that it is of the utmost importance to get this thing out there, even if it is still being built.

Yeah, that wasn't such a short posting after all...

2020-04-19 - Social Distancing - Day 35

Why is it still so cold?

Seriously...  I got my gardens all ready to go, I have a bunch of stuff growing that is currently still in the front room because between the storms and the cold, I couldn't plant them outside yet.  I have pea plants that are like a foot tall!  I planted a couple of tomatoes outside.  They died in the 2nd frost.

C'mon, springtime...  You're better than this.

In other news, I mentioned yesterday that I was going to start building a site to help businesses with donations.  I have, in fact, started the process.  I basically cloned one of my existing projects, and am now re-purposing it for this project.  Considering so much of it is already written, it's really just a matter of changing some things around and tightening a few screws.  If I apply myself over the next couple of days, it should be ready to go live.  And, yes, I am aware that this needs to be done sooner than later.  So I am working fast.

If it turns out that the project doesn't really take off, and/or doesn't get used all that much...  Well, I tried.  And that's the best I can do.  Plus if it amounts to only helping a few people, that is still WAY better than if they got no help at all.  If it helps ONE business survive this, then it's worth my effort. So I'm f'n doing it!

2020-04-18 - Social Distancing - Day 34

Welcome to Saturday #5

As I pointed out yesterday, people are getting restless.  And, oh yeah, it's getting bad out there.

We are seeing a point right now where businesses cannot sustain staying open at all without some help.  And of course the gubmint has completely dropped the ball with helping them.  It seems that the big boys got paid.  Bailouts are in the works for the large companies and the Wall Street ones.  But the smaller businesses are starting to run out of money.

It's very sad.  And hopefully thing will change soon.  Since we know we can't reopen, can we find some way to get these businesses money to keep them afloat?

This is giving me an idea...  And I am thinking about this as I type this...  I wonder if there is a way to put up a single page with a listing of local businesses that are needing donations.  It wouldn't cost me any money to do this.  I could just develop a quick subsection on one of my existing sites, as a central place for local businesses to link up their GoFundMe pages and stuff.

Now that I've typed this out loud, I think I will begin the process of doing some research to see if something like that would be helpful.

If anyone reading this likes this idea and has some input, please send me a note.  In fact, if YOU are a small business owner local to this area, hit that link and send me your information.  I will start gathering stuff and get to work.

2020-04-17 - Social Distancing - Day 33

People are getting restless

I would love to make another light hearted blog post about the joys of working from home and how all my projects are going.  But, as I said in the early days of this thing, there my be times when I will have to rant about something because it makes me angry.

The first thing that comes to mind this morning is that I'm hearing a LOT of news about people saying that this whole social distancing thing is a waste of time and money.  And that there is no point to it.  And that it's some sort of Democrat conspiracy to wreck the economy and make the president look bad.

The common thought in all of these statements is that since it looks like this thing is finally calming down, it must mean that we totally over reacted.  We should never have shut the economy down.

Look, people, I get it...  The economy being shut down sucks.  People being out of work sucks.  But you know what sucks worse?  A large portion of the population being sick and dying from a disease that we know almost nothing about.

The reason that things are calming down, and that the number of dead is lower than expected, is because of the efforts we took to limit exposure between one another.  Had we not done that, the numbers would have been FAR worse.  So don't assume that this was all some huge miscalculation or overreaction.  Don't assume this is over, and we can get back to normal, and there is no danger in that.

And whatever you do, don't listen to people like Dr. Oz who thinks that 2 out of 100 people dying is a perfectly acceptable ratio.  Or people like Dr. Phil who make false equivalences like, "We don't shut down the country because of car accidents."  Yeah, Phil.  Those aren't contagious.

In fact, it's probably not a good idea to take advice from doctors who you only know of because they happen to be celebrities.  Especially when their advice and opinions are not just stupid, but actually deadly stupid.

//End rant for today.

 

2020-04-16 - Social Distancing - Day 32

It's Friday eve!

If I hadn't used that line before, today seems like a good day for it.

My newest project is done.  Witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational Yahtzee Game written entirely in JavaScript.  A few days ago I was talking about the upgrade that I made to my Android Dice Roller app.  It got me thinking about what the next upgrade for that app should be.  I was thinking that perhaps a Yahtzee mode would be a good idea.  So I took a few hours and fleshed out a complete proof of concept in JavaScript.

A note from a very nerdy point of view...  JavaScript has come a long way in terms of how it can be used.  It's not just for modifying forms anymore.  It is far more functional than people give it credit for.  This project is done entirely in raw vanilla JavaScript.  No libraries.  No plugins. If you have any interest in seeing exactly how this is done, right click on the page and view the source.  Or, if you want to start a little slower, take a look at the first run of the Dice Roller.  That has a full tutorial with it.

Thus concludes the nerdiest post in this blog yet.

2020-04-15 - Social Distancing - Day 31

Still here. Every day, like I said I would be

Some days it's easier to come up with stuff to say than other days.  And today is one of those days where I am looking at the blank box where I type this text and thinking to myself, "Self...  Do I really want to say what I really want to say?"

Craig Furgeson once said, "Before you post on in the internet, you need to ask yourself 3 things:  Does this need to be said?  Does this need to be said right now?  Does this need to be said right now - by me?"

In this case, since I can answer "yes" to all 3 of those questions, I will say what I think needs to be said.

President Trump demanded that his name be printed on the IRS stimulus checks.  Though they say this will not cause any delay, of course we know that's not true.  And besides...  How much extra is that going to cost us?  17M people are waiting for those checks to buy food and pay rent, you moron.  Why does your name need to be on it?!  It's not like YOU had anything to do with getting people that money.  At all.  In any way.  Whatsoever.  This makes my blood boil that people actually think that is acceptable in any manner!

Oh, and he also decided to defund the WHO in the middle of the worst pandemic in 100 years.  Because of how they mishandled it.

Pot calling Kettle black

What a hypocrite.

I am not going to get all political here, because that is not the point of this blog.  But, damn, man, all of that is seriously f'd up.  There are some things in this world that are just objectively wrong.  And both of those things are clearly, very very wrong.

2020-04-14 - Social Distancing - Day 30

WhooHoo! Day 30!!

This has officially gone on for longer than a February in a leap year.  Joy!

In the interest of keeping busy, I made some upgrades to one of my apps.  The Dice Roller app for Android now has new types of dice!  This should make you D&D players happy.

If you're wondering why such a thing could be useful, you have to consider that game time is probably a great idea while this lockdown is going on.  And a spiffy little app like this is a nice alternative to bouncing the dice all of the house and having the cat run away with them.

So, yeah, for today's blog post, you get a plug for one of my apps.

Plug!

Sorry about that.  Except that I'm not.  I really hope a bunch of you download it and make good use of it.

2020-04-13 - Social Distancing - Day 29

So begins week 5. I think...

I can only make one-liners about that so many times.  But it can't be overstated how strange it is that so much time has passed by so quickly.

If we haven't learned anything else from this, we've all gotten a lot better at video chatting!  And thank goodness for that.  Because it's ever so nice to see a friendly face from time to time, that is not covered in a mask.  Either way, if you stand too close to someone...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 film) - Wikipedia

Yeah, I know... 6 feet.  Sheesh.

It might sound like I'm exaggerating, but if you've been out in public lately, it really feels like that.  At least you don't have to worry about getting into a fight over it.  That would involve being even closer!

I hope your day goes well.  If you're in the northeast, or, most of the east, actually, watch out for flying debris like trees and cars.  Today is a good day to not complain about having to stay inside.

 

2020-04-12 - Social Distancing - Day 28

Easter is closed. Rabbit out front should have told you.

Well, it's not really, depending on how you look at it.

Either way, have a happy Easter.  Spend some time with your family.  Because, you know, there hasn't been enough of that for the past 27 days.

I've got some stuff to do today, but I'll be back with a proper blog entry later.

[This space resevered for later this afternoon.]

Okay.  It's afternoon now.  See, I couldn't say anything before, because my Mom reads this.  We went down to suprise her for Easter.  Now that that has happened, I won't be spoiling the surprise.  We still practiced the whole social dinstancing thing.  So we got out of the car (my son and I), and stood in the driveway with my sister and her family.  

You might think that this is equal parts of sad, silly, and a nice, heartwarming thing to do.  Because that's exactly what it was.  I know it meant a lot to my mum.  

And now back to your regularly schedule Easter, already in progress.

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Stay safe.  Those things are not to be messed with.

2020-04-11 - Social Distancing - Day 27

It's Easter Eve!

And, oh yeah, it's on!  Of course in my world, I celebrate the rabbit and the eggs and the candy and the fun.  So the churches being closed doesn't change anything for me.  Except that we can't go visit the family like we usually do.  But I'm not dwelling on that.  I'm gonna show the Easter Bunny coming in with a Fury.  Literally.

Fark user image
 (click image for full size in Fark.com Photoshop contest.)

In other news, the weather seems to be better today, and less apt to try to kill us like it has the past couple of days.  As such, it will be time to do the first cutting of the lawn.  This is accompanied by the ritual of filling the gas can, and hoping that the mower starts.  And today, while I am wearing my mask it will be for the practical reason of not wanting to breath in a bunch of dust and lawn trimmings.  That will be refreshing.

2020-04-10 - Social Distancing - Day 26

Get out your mask and wear it proudly

If you don't have one, make one.  You've gotta have something on hand.  A bandana, a T-shirt, a bra...  Make your mask out of toilet paper, if you have any left!

I wanna make one like this:

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In NJ, if nowhere else, the new mandate is that if you absolutely, positively, have to go out, you need to wear a mask.  I was out at the store the other day.  I had mine on.  I'd say about 60% of other people I saw were also wearing some manner of face covering.  The ones that were not were looking at me kind of strangely.  Like, was I wearing mine upside down or something?

I dunno.  Maybe they weren't.  Maybe this is just further evidence of the weirdest time in history.  Nothing is normal anymore.

Thank goodness it's Friday.  We can all look forward to Saturday, which is exactly the same as every other day!  I was joking yesterday that when this is all over, we aren't going to be able to tell our stories to people.  This isn't like some isolated incident like a snowstorm, where once it's over, we can tell people what it was like.  Everyone is doing the exact same thing right now.  All we can discuss is, "So, did you have a good pandemic?"

I'm gonna have to wait until I have grandkids so that I can tell them, of "The Plague of 2020".

2020-04-09 - Social Distancing - Day 25

So, how are things?

That really does seem to be the question.  And I suppose it depends on who you ask.  I mean, more so that usual.  All I can say is, I hope you and yours are doing well.  Only another 6 months to go!!  (Right?)

-----

Today I will tell of the MacBook Pro I've had sitting on my office floor for a bunch of months.   My sister inherited the machine in a crippled state and sent it for a repair.  It came back in apparently worse shape than it started in.  So she passed it to me to see if there was anything I could do.

Seriously, this was months ago.  The thing had become invisible on my office floor.  I tried a few weeks ago to get the thing charged and powered up, and pretty much gave up.  I couldn't even get the thing to pretend it wanted to live.

Last night my sister reached out and said, "Hey, if you could give it another shot, that would be spiffy."  So I did.  I found a charger that worked with the thing.  And it actually responded.  LIFE!!  Not enough to actually power up, but enough to know that there was a chance.  So I left it on the charger overnight.

The part where this story starts to make sense is that I am typing this story on that machine right now.  I hacked the password and got into the system and now have control of the whole thing.  And by all accounts it seems to be working fine.  Evidently, all it really needed was to be charged with a proper charger.

In a way this confirms what I have suspected for some time.  That I have magical powers where computers are concerned.

2020-04-08 - Social Distancing - Day 24

Continuing on the freakiest of times

It is on this day that I would like to thank the panicking idiots of this country that determined we would have a toilet paper shortage, and proceeded to buy up all the toilet paper.

There was never any indication at all, whatsoever, that there would be a shortage.  But they panicked and bought as much as they could, and in doing so, literally created a toilet paper shortage.  Thank you, you bloody morons.  Thank you.  Because without you, I would never have had the opportunity to order new toilet paper from Amazon because there is literally no other way to find it.

We had plenty here.  3 weeks ago.  Now we notice the supplies are running low.  And there is STILL no toilet paper in the stores!

It is true what Agent K once said.  "People are stupid.  A person can be smart.  But people are stupid, panicky animals".  Or something like that.  

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I can't believe that people are taking advice from this guy...

So let us take a moment to reflect on the stupidity of people that created a new problem as if we didn't already have enough problems.  You guys are the best!

//End sarcastic rant

2020-04-07 - Social Distancing - Day 23

It's spring time!

You know what that means.  Pollen and allergies!  Joy!  That's exactly what we need at a time when every sneeze makes you think you've got the plague.

But, it's also time for box turtles to wake up from their winter sleep.  Walter, for that is her name, woke up yesterday.

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She didn't even know about this whole virus thing.  I'm surprised she didn't just throw her claws up in frustration and go back to sleep.

Speaking of things outside...  I finally got my gardens going.  I have tons of plants in pots sprouting up.  Beds are ready to go, raked and fertilized.  Considering I'll be home for most of the growing season for the first time ever, I will hopefully be able to really grow some awesome stuff!

I added a new data visualization to the top line.  That is the number of new cases by date by state.  It looks like a mess when it first loads.  Because NY has the largest share, as everyone knows, the rest of the states look like a jumble of spaghetti underneath.  There are filters included so you can filter down to your state.

2020-04-06 - Social Distancing - Day 22

Monday, Monday

And boy what a week it's been so far...  Mondays are generally pretty busy at work anyway.  But today just seemed to be even heavier than usual.

Make no mistake, I'm not complaining...  Got a lot of good stuff done today.  And I'm not only talking about normal work.  Before I started my workday, I got word that my new Android app is finally live!  Also, I added a new data visualization to this blog.  If you didn't notice the icons at the top of the page, then you should probably take another look at the top of the page.

The newest viz is one that shows the timeline for this, the most f'd up thing that has ever happened to the world.  And on that, the one thing I have to point out is that at long last, the line is starting to point down!  For now.  Of course, the charts are only as good as the data that I can find.  So it might prove to be completely different tomorrow.  

2020-04-05 - Social Distancing - Day 21

On the bright side. At least it's not just YOU that's locked down

Could you imagine that?  People are already totally weirded out by the whole not being able to go out thing.  But in the back of your mind you know that everyone is in the same boat.  Which makes it better.  And not just a little bit.

I'm not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV, but imagine the toll it would take on your mind if you were sitting in your house, trapped, while the rest of the world went on about their happy business.  In a strange way, that might be the reason that most of us haven't gone completely bonkers yet. 

For my part, I'm keeping busy...  I think that this World Stats Tableua is finally ready to show.  Use a laptop or turn your phone sideways.  It's too much for a small screen.

I released a new Android app yesterday.  Haven't done that in a while.  And since ad revenue is down, I really need to do more of that.  I'm also working on updating all of my iPhone apps, which is just one of the biggest pains in the ass imaginable.  For all the things Apple does to make their devices user friendly, they sure as hell don't do that for their developers.  "Excuse me, but you haven't jumped through enough hoops yet.  You need to jump through these.  But, wait, you need to jump through THESE first.  Oh, I'm sorry, those were not the right hoops.  Please try again."

I'm being kind, believe me.  

2020-04-04 - Social Distancing - Day 20

It's Saturday again!

Since it is the weekend, I thought I would work on something not 9-5 work related.  I was doing some research on online countdowns to the upcoming election.  You know, the one where we get the opportunity to undo the greatest mistake in US history. I had my own version of the Countdown to the Election web app, and it get's a little traffic.  But what I noticed while I was looking around was there are a bunch of Android apps too.

I really should have jumped on that bandwagon months ago.  Because I've got the base code for that sort of app already.  The ones I have count down to holidays like Xmas and Halloween, and the next Star Wars movie.  Yes.  That is also a holiday.  So last night when I had some time, I re-purposed one of my existing apps, and now I have this New Android version of the app!

As of the time I am typing this, 10:30AM, it is showing as published on Google Play.  But there still might be a delay.  If you try to grab the app, and it tells you it's not there, just try again later.

They say that it usually takes some 7 days to get apps approved, what with everyone working from home.  So it would be astonishing to get this one approved so quickly. I will post in the coming days when it is available for real-like.  Then, please download it and tell all your friends.

2020-04-03 - Social Distancing - Day 19

It's Thursday. I mention that because I know you were wondering.

Actually, it's Friday.  And don't lie.  You just looked at a calendar to double check. laughing You're welcome. 

Anyway, I haven't done a whole lot of posting about the same thing twice in a row, but I'm doing it right now.  Yesterday... Hang on...  A freak windstorm just blew my garbage cans completely across the neighborhood.

Okay...  I'm back.  Where was I?  Oh, right...  Yesterday I told a short story about discovering that Tableau Public is a thing, and I can tie it to my existing data set to make cool visualizations of the data that I've been tracking.

datavis icon

I am working on a second one for the entire world.  I would post a link to it, but it's just not ready to show.  I'll link that up once it's ready.  It's pretty similar to many things already out there but my version includes a couple of extra things.  Formulas that were left out of other sets.

On a personal note about the state of technology...  Even at 50 years old, I am astonished at the amount of technology that is out there and free to use, as long as you can figure out how.  The kinds of things I can do from home today were unheard of 30 years ago (or even 10 years ago).  It's just an amazement to me.  I feel like a little kid sometimes.  And that's probably the reason that I am still so into this kinda stuff.  There is no end to the amount of things we can do.  These are awesome times we live in, current pandemic situation not withstanding.

Well, off for another day working from a room with a view.  Whatever you're doing today, try to get some exercise.  Jog around the block, or bench press the couch or something.

2020-04-02 - Social Distancing - Day 18

Happy to be working. It's keeping me sane.

Speaking of which...  I was working on the stats page, updating the totals, and it occurred to me that many sources have interactive maps.  And I thought to myself, "Self, it would be really convenient if there were a way to tie this data I am working on to an interactive map."  So I searched around for a free version of the data visualization software I use for my real job.  And to my surprise, there is one.  As a result, the stats page now has a link to THIS PAGE, which is an interactive visualization of the State level data.

I was vaguely aware that a public version of Tableau existed, mostly from searching around for help.  It's a pretty complicated bit of software.  But I never had a need for it until now.  Of course, now that I have a need, I'm going to use the hell out of it.  Like I mentioned before, I use it for work all the time.  It helps people that don't like looking at numbers, understand what the numbers actually mean.

2020-04-01 - Social Togetherness - Day 17

yaD slooF lirpA yppaH

Don't worry.  By all accounts April Fool's Day will be moved to tomorrow.

Wouldn't it be great if we all woke up today and found out that this has just been one gigantic prank, culminating on April 1st?!  "We got you!!" LaughALot clap

Bah...  Worst April Fool's prank ever.  

Well, however you plan on spending your day today, make sure that you keep your pranks to the sort that won't send someone to the emergency room.  That would probably be really funny any other time.  But this is 2020, the year of the most f'd up thing that has ever happened that was, in fact, not a hoax.

In addition...  What a difference 1 month can make, am I right?

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More can be found on Twitter - that was my contribution.

2020-03-31 - Social Distancing - Day 16

At least I've been busy

As long as we are counting days, I would like to draw attention to this spiffy program I've had running for the past couple of years.

Countdown to the new year.  According to that program, we are on day #91 of the most screwed up year any of us have ever seen.  Or, to put it another way, we are 24.694% of the way through.  It would be great if I could repurpose that program to countdown to the end of this pandemic.  But since we don't know when that is, that will be quite impossible.  On a more comical note, one of the additions I made to that thing was stuff flying through the air that changes based on the season.  We are currently in the Spring, so we get flower petals.  But in a few weeks, we will be in summer.  So the program will have a special update to include dudes like this:

ladybug

I know this all serves no purpose other than to be entertaining.  But if you are denying the importance of entertainment right now, you are really doing this whole lockdown the wrong way.

On that note, I finished watching Picard the other day.  It took a weird turn in the very last 2-part episode.  Which is strange because the first 8 episodes were among the best in history.  Then they suddenly realized that had to wrap it up.  Still, if you are a Star Trek fan, or even just a Patrick Stewart fan, I highly recommend getting out the popcorn and binge watching that one. Popcorn

Hope everyone is still healthy.  And as I said yesterday...  Take some time to help someone that needs it.  As the days drag on, those people are going to become more numerous.

 

2020-03-30 - Social Distancing - Day 15 (right?)

The new normal

Welcome to day 1 of 30 more days of Social Distancing!  Or to put it another way, 2/3rds of the way through something we had hoped would end by now.  Alas, 30 more days is looking like the new normal optimism.

If you're curious to know what my view has been for the past couple of weeks, here you go.

My workstation:

workstation

The Chromebook is my Spotify player - Special thanks to Maynard for finally allowing all Tool, APC, and Puscifer on that system.  The Centaur machine is because there must always be something from the mid 80's around...

I really wish I had more fun stuff to say this morning.  But I am genuinely worried and concerned.  So I will now say something directly.  An additional 30 days of shutdown is going to hurt people.  And not just a little bit.  I worry for all the people that cannot work.  I worry for the businesses that must remain closed.  I worry that this is going to cause irreparable harm to this country. And the sucky thing is that it is unavoidable.  The train has already come off the tracks.  And we don't even know when it will stop bouncing across the landscape, smashing everything in sight, before finally grinding to a halt.

So take moment today to consider what you can do to help someone that is going to be impacted by this set of events.  Look out for each other.  In the very short term at least, stop wasting breath by trying to assign blame.  There will be plenty of time for that later.

2020-03-29 - Social Distancing - Day 14

We made it through the two weeks!

I remember those carefree days two weeks ago when we were told that we just needed to hunker down and stay locked in for 2 weeks.  At the risk of stating the obvious, we all knew that was just optimism wrapped in a big bundle of hope.  At least it looks like things are getting better, right?  No?  Ah, crap.

Today I would like to send a big thank you to Al Gore, I mean, Tim Berners Lee for inventing the internet.  The single most important form of communication and entertainment to ever grace the human race.  Not to mention that you can use it to get work done too.  I should mention that, yes, I am well aware of the irony of how badly Tim's own page is in need of a makeover.  I honestly intended to link to his Wikipedia page.  But that one came up first, so there you have it.

We use the internet for everything nowadays.  A huge chunk of the workforce was already working from home before this happened.  And now a much larger chunk is.  Just about everyone who was working at a computer or on the phone 2 weeks ago, is still doing that, but doing it from home. 

Our movies, TV, video games, even phone calls, are all dependent on the internet.  When the movie theaters closed, many films suddenly became avialable on streaming services.  Something that has literally never happened before.

In short, if this crisis had happened in 1992, we would be in FAR worse shape than we are today.  In fact, I know this.  Because I remember a particularly bad snowstorm that year that had us locked down for 4 days.  And absolutely nothing got done.  And we were bored.  Although, I was also in my early 20's and more concerned about running out of beer than anything else.  But still...

The point is, we are actually able to function today.  Many businesses simply changed their working model to allow most things to be done remotely.  And they did it remarkably fast! 

It would not be possible, in any practical sense, to maintain anything close to this level of stability without this communication backbone.  We would have no choice but to be out there coughing and sneezing on each other.  So let us take a moment to thank the nerds of the world that have provided us with this technology that allows us to get through this situation without this becoming another scene from The Walking Dead.

 

2020-03-28 - Social Distancing - Day 13

We are on our second Saturday

It's getting difficult to tell what day it is.  I remember back in the good old days when we used to watch broadcast TV and you always knew what day it was by what happened to be on that night.  We don't do that any more, unless you watch Better Call Saul.  Which is on Monday's, by the way.

Speaking of TV shows that are not on broadcast TV, CBS decided it was a good time to enact a 30-day trial for their streaming service.  And, look, I have no problem giving them a plug for it right here.  Because once the 30 days is over, I will not be staying on board.  We have to pick and choose which streaming services we will actually keep.  And I've got enough.  But I will be consuming all the new Star Trek I can in those 30 days.

Which brings me to the point...  I've been watching Picard.  Short review:  It's truly awesome!  To say any more would spoil it.  But I will add on that there is a reason that Patrick Stewart is regarded as one of the best actors in human history.  Even though Picard is in serial form (unusual for Star Trek), it is an incredibly well done show.

In this time of sitting around waiting for the world to get back to normal, we have to find whatever silver linings we can.  New video entertainment is clearly pretty high on everyone's list.

2020-03-27 - Social Distancing - Day 12

Is there light at the end of the tunnel?

The ongoing joke is that, "Yes, there is a light.  It's a train coming at you."  So I'm not going to make that joke.  I actually have something else to say about that.  But first, an update that cannot wait...  Because I'm sure that all of your are just chomping at the bit for the status of the puzzle.  It's finished!

puzzle done

Some 7 days and countless hours of staring at pieces that all look remarkably alike.  In fact many of the pieces WERE alike and even fit in places where they shouldn't.  But we persevered and finished it.  Now, you may notice looking at the picture that there are 2 pieces missing.  That'll drive your OCD right up the wall.  After this picture was taken, my son's girlfriend, unwilling to accept the incomplete image, got out the flashlight and started searching.  She found them both.  Here, we were willing to settle for 998/1000.  She was not.

Now...  What I was saying about the light at the end of the tunnel.  I updated the Stats Page here and added some new things.  Notably a new State list.  But more importantly, there was a spike in the number of cases in the US.  That is something we've been waiting for.  Because that is the first step in finally setting up an end game to this mess.  Hopefully.  Please read more on that stats page.  I don't want to type it all again.

2020-03-26 - Social Distancing - Day 11

The weirdness continues

To say that this is the weirdest time in history is a ridiculous understatement.  If you go out on the town, and at some point you must, you will see that there is still a lot of activity out there.  But everyone is staying away from each other.  In many cases they won't even make eye contact with you.  This may be because people are afraid that looking at someone will get them sick.  But it might also be because people don't want to be shamed for being outside the house.

It might sound like I'm mocking this, but let's be clear - I am not doing that at all.  I firmly believe that staying home and staying away from people is the only way this thing is ever going to get under control.  But it is sometimes unavoidable - you will need to go out for food and stuff.  And let's face it, it's a good idea to patronize your favorite restaurants because we want them to be there when this is over.

We went to pick up a pizza yesterday.  You have to call ahead, and bring exact change.  Then they bring it out to your car.  The most encouraging thing about this is that the place seemed to be doing some pretty good business!  

On to other things...  Last night we initiated game night.  Settlers of Catan was the game of choice.  Back in the days before Fortnite and stuff like that, humans used to play these very elaborate board games.  We got turned on to that one so long ago that I don't even remember.  Settlers is very like Monopoly except that it's fun to play, has definitive rules, the board is different every time, only takes an hour or so to play, and doesn't cause the losers to upend the table in a screaming fit.  Actually, other than dice and cards, it's not like Monopoly at all.

2020-03-25 - Social Distancing - Day 10

We have reached double digits!

No big surprise there.  Will today be the day that we can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel?  That's highly unlikely.  So today's biggest decision will be what sweat pants to wear.

My puzzle is almost finished.  It is at some 2/3rds of the way right now!  Of course this means that my biggest fear is that the cats will get into a huge fight and scatter the whole thing across the house.

Well, it's time to start my workday.  I'm headed to the office.  Not that one.  The one in the dining room.

Update:  I happened to be doing some research on the stats for this whole thing.  I'm a data nerd after all.  I decided that I would create a new page as part of this blog to show updated statistics for how things are going.  Notice the new link at the top for Current Statistics.  It is basically Google's data that refreshes once an hour, but simplified, and most importantly, a column showing precentages.  I really don't know why they left that out.  Because numbers are good.  But they don't mean as much without context.  Percentages provide that context.

To illustrate what I mean, miscounting by 1 isn't so bad when you're counting to 1000.  But it's really bad when you only have to count to 2.

2020-03-24 - Social Distancing - Day 9

This blog will be going for longer than 2 weeks

That was an amusing talking point in yesterday's team meeting.  "It looks like this is the norm for the next month or so."  

What do ya say we look at the bright side of things a bit...  Think of all the money we are saving on gas.  Think of much pollution has gone down in the world.

Here is a crazy theory that I just came up with:
What if the Earth is a gigantic super organism, and that organism is threatened by one of its species becoming too many and causing too much damage to its vital systems.  It could create something like antibodies as a means of controlling that species.  Pollution levels and population decrease allowing for more stability across the entire system.

I would compare this to how the human body produces white blood cells to hunt down pathogens in the system.

I'm not saying we are basically victims of the Earth's immune system, but what if we are basically victims of the Earth's immune system?

Whereas I really did just come up with that, I am quite sure I'm not the first to think of it.

2020-03-23 - Social Distancing - Day 8

Happy Monday

Today is the beginning of the fiscal month for me.  Because I actually AM working from home, rather than pretending to.  So I've got a lot to do and it's keeping me busy.  Which is a good thing.  Because if the alternative was to watch TV or read the news, I would probably get very angry very quickly.

I just keep telling myself, "it could be worse."  Because you bet your ass it could.  At least the weather is nice, right?

radar

Oh, c'mon!

Well, back to work for me!  I hope you are all having a good, healthy and safe day.  And I hope you are staying home.

2020-03-22 - Social Distancing - Day 7

IT ain't over yet

In the immortal words of Frank Zappa, "great googily moogily."  So begins Day 7 of "stay in the house".  And now, here in NJ it's been ramped up to, "Stay in the house, or else!!"

If you've been following this blog, you'll be happy to see that I added some helpful links to the top of the page.  If you want to keep up with current news and stats, those are the best places to go.  Whatever you do, don't get your news from Facebook.  And whatever else you do, don't take your advice from the current administration.  Their advice is so bad that it is causing people to overdose on unapproved, do-it-yourself remedies.

Anyway...  I woke up this morning with a really cool idea for a project.  So I created a new demo for my site showing how to have multiple languages on one page.  It's not done yet.  I still need to finish the translations and the tutorial section.  But I thought I'd show that as a work in progress, and to show I'm using my time in a productive manner.

I think that today will be, "clean the hell out of the house" day.  What with having both the kids home for the foreseeable future, things a piling up faster.  But the real point is that we always complain about not having enough time to do stuff around here.  Now we've got nothing but time.

2020-03-21 - Social Distancing - Day 6

Saturday

Funny thing about Saturdays when you're working from home.  They don't mean quite so much. (Thank you Les Claypool)

I have something to say today about how this situation is being handled.  There seems to be lot of people saying, "If you think Trump is doing a bad job, what do you think he should be doing?"  I have a very simple answer to that question.  And for the record, I would say this about anyone.  This isn't about Trump.  That answer is:

"He should step back and let people who know what they are doing handle it."

"But, blah blah..."

"No...  He has lied to us enough about this.  His dismissive statements and straight up lies at the onset made the situation worse.  No one trusts him.  He cannot fix this because no one trusts him.  He needs to step aside."

Care to weigh in?

Happy Saturday, everyone.  Be safe.

2020-03-20 - Social Distancing - Day 5

Taking a ride

This is the first time this week that I am not posting about working from home, building a puzzle, and listening to the daily reports of what percentage of the world is suffering more than yesterday.  Since all colleges have decided to close for the rest of the school year, I need to take a ride to upstate New York to move my daughter out.

When we grabbed her for spring break, we had hoped and expected to bring her back at the end of the month to continue the rest of the year.  Yeah, not so much.  So we have to drive up one more time just to get her stuff.

At least there are plenty of places to stop if I need to go to the bathroom.  Oh, wait...  No there's not.  They closed all the rest areas. The Hulk

2020-03-19 - Social Distancing - Day 4

Still working from home, of course

Once again, we wake up to, "We still don't have this under control or know how long it will last."  Thanks for that.  I really have to stop myself from writing up how frustrating this is because it seems to me that if you are reading this right now, you are probably looking for a distraction.

I've actually gotten a lot done in the past few days.  Not only with actual work - because I really AM working from home, but work for my personal sites as well.  There is also a 1000 piece puzzle that my son and his girlfriend effectively abandoned a few months ago.  It's taken about a day and a half to get it to where he said, "Yeah, that's about how far we made it."

Puzzle undone

My hope is that we can finish the puzzle before this is done.  My fear is that we will have to buy a few more puzzles.

Hey - here's a fun thing to do.  Let's run a poll to see what your thoughts are on our president's response to this whole mess:
How do you rate Trump's response to the pandemic?

I'll post results once we get some responses...

2020-03-18 - Social Distancing - Day 3

So begins another day

Morning:  I went out to pick up food last night.  It was sad as hell walking into the restaurant, and all the chairs are on the table, the bar is empty.  The only other person there was the bartender.  Understandably upset because it was St Patrick's day, and the place should have been jumpin.

For what it's worth, we intend to continue to order food out.  Partly because it's a good way to hold on to our food in case this gets worse.  But also to continue to patronize the local businesses who are in real danger of losing everything.

That is all for now.

2020-03-17 - Social Distancing - Day 2

Still Working from Home

It's about 9:30AM as I make this post for today - and I'll likely get back to it later.  I keep hoping that we are going to wake up and get some spectacular news that we can finally see the end to this nightmare.  But obviously that hasn't happened yet.  In fact, it seems to be the opposite.

I'm back...  Now that I just told Fark.com about this, hello to all my Fark friends.

Off in the background I'm hearing all the news conferences, one after another telling us all the same stuff we already know.  One thing I didn't know was that George Lucas can do sign language.

sign language

Let's be honest here...  I can't read sign language.  But I'm pretty sure that's the sign for "Use the Force".  That is good advice anytime.

 

2020-03-16 - Social Distancing - Day 1

Working from Home

Yeah, great fun so far.  It appears I will indeed be working from home for the next 2 weeks at the very least.  This is upsetting to me because I actually like going into the office.

Whether upsetting or not, I will be setting up camp here in the house.

In the meantime, as of 8:00PM all businesses like bars, movies, and gyms are closing until further notice.  And Idris Elba has tested positive!  C'mon Covid-19.  That's just wrong.

Anyway...  I actually did get a lot of work done today.  I went and got one of my monitors from my desk in the office because the little laptop screen might be fine for 1 day, but 2 weeks?!  Nooooo... 

I also got this blog working.  Much of the code for this was already written.  I just repurposed it for this thing.  It's good to be a nerd. Nerd

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